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Banner Health; LifeStance Health Group Settle Tracking Technology Lawsuits
Two healthcare providers have agreed to settle lawsuits over their use of pixels and other website tracking technologies. The tools allegedly resulted in Banner Health and LifeStance Health Group were sued over their use of pixels and other website tracking technologies, which were alleged to have resulted in impermissible disclosures of patient data to third parties. Settlements have been agreed to resolve the litigation.
Doctor Reveals No. 1 Sign Your Stress Is Becoming a Chronic Condition
In TODAY.com’s Expert Tip of the Day, NBC News medical journalist Dr. Akshay Syal explains the main trait he looks for when diagnosing chronic stress in patients.
Vote for the Pensacola area's best running back
Voting is now open for the top high school running back in the Pensacola area. Polls close at 11 a.m. CT on August 4.
Dortmund prodigy Diallo destined for Parma switch
Ousmane Diallo is reportedly leaving Borussia Dortmund a year before his contract expires at the Westphalian club. Reliable transfer journalist Gianluca Di Marzio has stated that the winger's transfe...
Radiology fires back at report claiming providers ‘gaming’ No Surprises Act
According to the Wall Street Journal, providers scored $15B in payments last year through IDR, triple the figure for 2024, with CMS “actively working to clean it up."
Researchers north of the border find Canadian emergency departments in crisis—still
Burnout levels among Canada’s emergency physicians are as high now as they were at the height of the COVID pandemic, according to a study published July 27 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Ex-Trump health official shocked by Fauci’s ‘unabashed narcissism’ from diaries
A former Trump health official on Tuesday slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci over his recently-released journal entries. “I’d like to see honesty and transparency and I’d like Tony to come clean…
Council proposes licensing every Fresno tobacco seller
Fresno city leaders proposed a tobacco retailer licensing program to strengthen enforcement against illegal sales. The ordinance heads to the City Council Thursday.
NC Business Court gets new top judge
North Carolina Business Court Judge Adam Conrad takes over as the court’s chief judge effective Saturday. He takes over from current Chief Judge Michael Robinson, who is retiring.
Roundtable: How Science Journalism Residencies Can Shape Careers at All Stages
Science journalism residencies give writers the chance to embed at a research institution for several months or longer.[/lead] Akin to a sabbatical, these residencies are a chance to step off the treadmill of one’s career to learn something new, immerse in the day-to-day of science, launch a project, or make a big move. Here, several writers discuss their recent experiences with residences—including how these programs can be accessible to writers at many stages of their careers.
The Key Points of Tension Between Trump and RFK Jr. Over Vaccines
Takeaways from The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of Trump’s push on vaccines and autism.
Bill Brophy was born into baseball. He's still in the game.
The former Wisconsin State Journal sports editor is enjoying his gig as a freelancer for Waunakee-based Rush Media.
Data centers have become a political issue. Here's where the Ohio governor candidates stand.
The frontrunners for Ohio governor both want to regulate data centers but have different plans for how to address growing concerns.
Here’s how the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative got politicians from both parties on board
In a time of political polarization, it’s easy to forget that the vast majority of Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs — 80% or more, depending on the poll — value environmental conservation. One success story is the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Can we stop AI from flooding scientific journals?
AI detectors may never beat fraud. Changing how science rewards its researchers might be the only fix that does
New luxury brands open at Strip shopping mall
Several new storefronts have opened at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, spanning jewelry, women’s fashion and menswear and accessories, the shopping mall announced.
Turning AI Plant Science Into a Commercial Tool: Heritable Agriculture’s Next Chapter
Heritable says its platform can match plant genetics to geography with 10-meter field-level accuracy, helping users predict how varieties of nearly any crop could perform in specific locations around the world.
Investigation of Mark Walter’s empire began with Guggenheim whistleblower: report
Federal prosecutors are examining roughly $16 billion in loans that were made to companies connected to Walter or his TWG Global, according to the Wall Street Journal.
NASA’s Swift Sees ‘Wandering’ Mega Black Hole Shredding Star
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory captured an “orphan” black hole lighting up as it devoured a star on the outskirts of a faraway galaxy. These phenomena
Portland’s passion for women’s sports drew this journalist across the country: Letter from the Editor
From tearful conversations with young athletes to heartwarming community moments, Liana Handler is ready to write about what matters to Portland fans.
Browns 53-man roster projection: 2026 pre-training camp prediction
The Browns are about to get training camp up and running. That allows for a guess on their initial 53-man roster.
Business Starts for July 27
In April, 1,513 new businesses filed incorporation paperwork with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, in order to do business in the state.
Amid the social and political panic about falling birthrates, why not ask new mothers what they think?
New research reveals deep anxieties. Medals and cash bonuses have been mooted as incentives, but the real need is for women to have their feelings valued, says author and journalist Lucy Jones
Giardi: Byard about business; plus, Campbell's offseason plan and a thought on PFF
Byard is fully invested, be it in individual drills, team periods, or even times when he’s on the sidelines, away from the action.
United quietly pursued a merger with Delta last year: report
The Wall Street Journal reports Chicago-based United Airlines approached Delta last year about a merger, but talks ended before advancing.
Peace Center in Greenville announces entertainment schedule for 2026-27
The Peace Center announces its entertainment lineup for the 2026-27 season.
‘Absentee’ board stirs recall question
Under NRS 116.31036, associations can recall or remove board members with or without cause.
Cecilia Vega of 60 Minutes says she felt pressure from CBS to add ‘political bias’
Vega made remarks to ABC’s John Quiñones at National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference
Liverpool reject chance to sign Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior
Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior has been offered to Liverpool, according to journalist Ben Jacobs.Vinicius could leave Madrid this summer as he is in the final months of his contract and the Spani...
What are we overlooking in kids' mental health? Playing outside!
Most young people spend less time in nature than previous generations. They need it for their health and development.
Fort Wayne Kroger store manager recognized among top women in grocery business
A Fort Wayne Kroger leader is one of about 100 female store managers to be recognized by an industry publication among Top Women in Grocery.
Trump returns to correspondents’ dinner after shooting disrupted April event
The president will address a smaller, heavily secured gathering Friday as his administration intensifies its legal and rhetorical attacks on journalists.
ResearchGate partners with Science China Press
Participating journals will span subjects including medicine, physical sciences, mathematics, technology and computing
Radiology sees ‘substantially lower' relative growth in training capacity compared to rest of medicine
“These findings collectively suggest that the bottleneck in radiology training capacity may be financial rather than structural," researchers write in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
Partisan school board candidates must check their politics at the school door
Indiana school board candidates may affiliate with a political party in November. The winners, however, must check their politics at the school door.
Small Wars Journal–El Centro Senior Fellow Designs Software with Computer Science Student to Fight Terrorism and Crime Networks
Small Wars Journal–El Centro Senior Fellow co-authored a software plugin with Sam Houston State University computer science student Braell Dotson that will help law enforcement fight criminal networks. The software is a program for the well-known social network analysis (SNA) software Gephi. Gephi is a free open-source software that law enforcement analysts are trained on to better target criminal … Read more
Salem Health-Santiam Hospital merger needs public input, Oregon DOJ says
The Oregon Department of Justice is hosting a virtual forum for public input on the proposed merger between Salem Health and Santiam Hospital.
Suncoast construction, softer tourism weigh on Boyd’s Las Vegas properties
Boyd Gaming generated $1.03 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2026, in line year over year, but revenue was down for its Las Vegas locals and downtown Las Vegas properties.
Government withdraws subpoenas of 3 NYT reporters after admitting legal errors
The government had sought testimony from the journalists about their sources for articles about Trump's Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet
Georgia: Journalist jailed and comedian attacked for political satire
Reacting to the 14-day jailing of journalist Vakho Sanaia over his satirical Facebook posts and a reported assault on comedian Onise Okriashvili following a smear campaign in pro-government media prompted by a joke he had made, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Deputy Regional Director, said: “Beating up and imprisoning government critics […]
Weekend Entertainment | Get in the Smooth Jazz Groove
Smooth jazz will be in the air Saturday evening during the Youngstown Wine and Jazz Festival at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre.
NASA’s MAVEN Illuminates New Understanding of Auroras at Mars
NASA MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission scientists have uncovered a key puzzle piece in understanding certain types of auroras on Mars,
Florida-Based Science and Technology Company Crescel Announces Landmark Peer-Reviewed Medical Publication
Crescel LLC, a Florida-based innovative science and technology company, today announced publication of its landmark PubMed-indexed, peer-reviewed clinical study showing that its biobotanical technology produced statistically significant improvements over the leading prescription standard of care for rosacea in a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial. Published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, the study represents a major scientific milestone for the company's pioneering prop
Las Vegas bets big on the booming wellness economy
From boutique wellness clubs to Strip resorts, businesses are investing in preventive health as consumer spending shifts beyond traditional entertainment.
Could Las Vegas become the Wall Street of the West?
Investment management firm boss Ken Winans has the bold idea of turning the Las Vegas Valley into a financial hub and center for finance companies who would relocate from other states.
Majority of Small Business Are Underinsured as Other Expenses Prioritized
New small business owners are more likely to have proper business insurance than those that have been operating longer. Even so, a majority of small
Jacqueline Travisano named as one of Triad Business Journal’s 2026 C-Suite Award winners
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jackie Travisano was recently named to the Triad Business Journal’s 2026 C-Suite Award winners. Presented annually, the Triad Business Journal’s C-Suite Awards recognize outstanding chief executives and C-level leaders in the Greater Greensboro and Winston-Salem regions who [...]
Biotech experts want FDA drug reviews based on science, not politics
Biotech experts call for the FDA to prioritize scientific expertise over political influence in drug reviews amid recent leadership changes and staffing challenges.
Choctaw Casinos launches free-to-play sports prediction app
Choctaw Casinos & Resorts launched Choctaw Sports, a free-to-play app for sports predictions without real-money wagering, expanding digital gaming in Oklahoma.
UA researcher leads global effort to promote reliable health information
UA's Rebecca Ivic anchors a global commission on health communication sponsored by Nature Medicine, a leading academic journal.
Jen Palmieri Has a New Politics Show
Jennifer Palmieri has also brought on former NOLA mayor Mitch Landrieu and journalist Errin Haines for 'Long Play,' a six-part docuseries about the region’s complexities.
AMD to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, WSJ Reports
Advanced Micro Devices will invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic as part of a deal under which the AI startup will purchase up to 2 gigawatts of AMD's next-generation AI chips, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Sunlight Boosts Fertility? What Scientists Have Discovered Will Surprise You - Futura-Sciences
Vitamin D, Sunlight, and Sperm: Digging Into the Science A meta-analysis published in the journal Biomedicines reviewed several observational studies that all pointed to a significant link between vitamin D levels—which are mainly produced in humans through sunlight exposure—and sperm characteristics. These studies also suggested a connection between higher blood...
Vote yes on Ingham tourism and entertainment ballot proposal
Ingham County has had a hotel fee for over 50 years, and it should be increased, two county commissioners from opposing parties argue.
Eclipse Business Capital Provides $55MM ABL Credit Facility to Food & Beverage Industry
Eclipse Business Capital (EBC) provided a $55 million asset-based lending credit facility to a premier frozen food supplier.
When do Section 1 Fall 2026 sports practices and competition begin?
High school sports kick off in Section 1 with practices starting in about a month. See when practice starts and the first competition of the season
Kaylee Hottle, deaf 'Godzilla' actor, killed in car crash at 18
Kaylee Hottle, a deaf actor known for her roles in two “Godzilla” films, has died in a car crash in Maryland. She was 18. The Frederick County Sheriff's Office reports
Science thought the human lifespan was 122 years. A new model says we could live decades longer.
A July 2026 paper published in the journal "npj Aging" suggests that humans may have the potential to live up to 156 years.
Revel Entertainment plans to build new outdoor amphitheater
Revel’s owner wants to bring free community events, food trucks and live music to a new outdoor venue currently planned to fit 800 people.
Maine’s medical, journalistic and political silence on Gaza is shameful
While dedicated organizations continue to do their part on Palestinian rights, a lot more help is needed.
Why have political double standards gotten worse?
Are double standards becoming the norm in American politics? In this episode of “Make It Make Sense,” Carine Hajjar and Brad Palumbo, an independent journalist and YouTube creator, break down the growing fractures on both the left and the right. They discuss recent Senate races involving Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed; the controversy surrounding Ken Paxton in Texas; and how media echo chambers, viral clips and conspiracy theories are pushing the country further apart.
Implementing non-linear periodization in sport rehabilitation
Authors: Parker Joens1,2, Matt Dewald1 1Department of Physical Therapy, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA 2Sanford Fieldhouse, Sanford Health, Sioux Falls, SD, USA Correspondin…
Behind the Science: Can IL-6 Improve Cardiovascular Risk Assessment? Findings From the CCC Study
Discover the socio-demographic impacts on cardiovascular mortality in our JACC webinar. Join experts as they share insights and strategies for better heart health.
Inhospitable climate: GOP's disdain of science helps foul air again
It requires a specific combination of stupidity, ignoring expertise and thinking that the voting public will fall for silly grandstanding.
Why Hybrid Healthcare Is a Business Imperative for Employers in Nevada
The Nevada Independent is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news and opinion website founded in 2017 by veteran political journalist and commentator Jon Ralston. The site and its supporting channels are focused on ethical, unbiased and transparent journalism. In general, we aim to gather and disseminate important public information and increase civic engagement.
Why Hybrid Healthcare Is a Business Imperative for Employers in Nevada
The Nevada Independent is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news and opinion website founded in 2017 by veteran political journalist and commentator Jon Ralston. The site and its supporting channels are focused on ethical, unbiased and transparent journalism. In general, we aim to gather and disseminate important public information and increase civic engagement.
Emergency nurses know what it’s like to suffer pangs of moral distress
Like the emergency physicians they work alongside, ER nurses experience moral distress in substantial numbers and multifaceted ways, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
The One Thing I Hate About Almost Every Jeep Since 1941
I’m so obsessed with Jeeps that I studied engineering to become a Jeep engineer, then I became a car journalist who has basically been writing about his Jeep projects for over a decade; recently, I assembled a WWII Jeep from scratch. It’s a deep, deep obsession, but it’s not a blind one; I know Jeeps […]
Officials sought phone records of NYT journalists and their relatives
The reporters wrote about Trump's Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet
Rethinking the campus mental health “crisis”
A developmental psychologist who studies college student mental health explains why it's time to retire the "kids these days" narrative.
CT Business Blend: July 20, 2026
Hartford Business Journal’s Greg Bordonaro and WTIC’s Brian Shactman explore the people, companies and trends shaping Connecticut’s business scene every Monday at 8:30 a.m. on WTIC 1080 AM.
Small Town Event. Big Time Entertainment.
If you are looking for a small town to visit, look no further than Houston and Whalan, Minnesota. Both communities are hosting signature events this coming weekend: Music in the Bluffs and Houston Hoedown Days. Small Town Vibes in Whalan Whalan, population 67, hosts three outdoor concerts throughout the summer, one each month. The community’s
Shaky political "science": breakdown of the peer review process
[This article is the latest in our “Shaky Political Science” series. In our 38 page report, “Shaky political ‘science’ misses mark on ranked choice voting,” released in December 2025, we examined over 40 studies focused on ranked choice voting (RCV). Many of these studies suffered from puzzling research methodologies, poorly constructed surveys, unrealistic simulated elections, cherry picked data and faulty analyses that often were contradicted by results from real-world elections (a link to our full paper is here). Here are links to the first four articles in our series: the first one summarizing the overall results of our report; the second one analyzed a study co-authored by University of Minnesota academic Larry Jacobs, which was one of the most error-prone of all the research we reviewed in our report; a third article showing an admirable example of two political scientists holding two other political scientists accountable for their flawed, sloppy research; and a fourth article that analyzed seven studies sponsored by New America’s political reform program that deployed flawed methodology based on “simulated” elections instead of real-world elections, which when combined with some basic misunderstandings of RCV, produced odd and misleading results]. In this fifth article in our “Shaky Political Science” series, we examine two flawed studies on the impact of RCV on voter turnout authored by San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel. McDaniel’s research in these two papers stands out for its puzzling methodology, inadequate and cherry-picked data, and faulty analyses that not only misunderstands ranked choice voting but reflects a basic misunderstanding of politics in general. The first of the McDaniel studies actually passed through a peer review process and then was subsequently published by the Journal of Urban Affairs, despite its obvious errors. It is perplexing that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the errors and send it back to McDaniel for a rewrite or outright rejection. This calls into question the credibility of the peer review process itself. The peer review process is supposed to represent the intellectual pinnacle of the profession – a way for academics to certify the quality of each other’s work, and to act as a check against sloppy research. In the case of the McDaniel study, the peer review process failed. Yet his flawed study has been cited dozens of times by other political scientists in their own flawed works — an unvirtuous circle of academic research. Here is the first Jason McDaniel study that we analyzed: “Writing the Rules to Rank the Candidates: Examining the Impact of Instant-Runoff Voting on Racial Group Turnout in San Francisco Mayoral Elections,” by Jason McDaniel, 2016, Journal of Urban Affairs. This study covered San Francisco’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in mayoral elections, purporting to show that RCV reduces voter turnout overall, increases voter errors, and has a negative impact on “marginal populations,” i.e. racial minorities, mainly as the result of the alleged complexity of RCV asking voters to rank candidates and having to be familiar with multiple candidates and related dynamics. McDaniel reached these conclusions by examining five San Francisco mayoral elections taking place in odd years (i.e. where there are no federal or state races on the ballot) from 1995 to 2011, comparing three earlier non-RCV races (in 1995, 1999 and 2003) with the later two RCV races (in 2007 and 2011). Only two RCV races were studied, and as McDaniel acknowledged, only the contest in 2011 was “competitive” (that contest in 2007 was the first mayoral election using RCV, and incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom won easily in the first round of counting, earning 74% of first choices and far ahead of the second place candidate who had just 6.3% of first choices). Yet even the allegedly competitive contest in 2011was won by an incumbent with a landslide margin of nearly 20 points. No other elections were studied by McDaniel, even though San Francisco elects 17 other offices besides mayor with RCV, including the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors (the name for the city council) in even years, and six other citywide offices in odd years. Previous academic research has found that competitive elections can stimulate greater voter involvement and higher turnout. For unexplained reasons, this study ignored at least 34 other RCV races between the years 2004 to 2011, many of which were very competitive and had high voter turnout. Instead, McDaniel’s analysis based its conclusions on data from only a single, marginally-competitive mayor’s race using RCV. These 2007 and 2011 mayoral elections were the only two RCV elections that McDaniel used as the sole basis for his small data set to determine the impact of RCV on voter turnout. Despite having no meaningful data to inform his study, McDaniel nonetheless concluded that RCV lowered turnout when compared to the previous three mayoral non-RCV elections using two-round runoffs. Then, using the same inadequate database of San Francisco elections, McDaniel also found that “Instant-runoff voting is associated with a significant decline in Black voter turnout and White voter turnout…On average, Black voter turnout decreases by 18 points and White voter turnout decreases by 16 points …” But how could he credibly arrive at that conclusion when his study was based on voter turnout in two RCV contests that were not even remotely competitive? Beyond that, McDaniel tacitly admits that the key determining factor driving Black voter turnout was not RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable Black candidate. McDaniel wrote, “Black voter turnout was about 17 percentage points higher for the two elections that featured an African American candidate compared to the three elections that did not” — but one of those three elections did not use RCV. The same dynamic was present for White voter turnout, in which higher turnout was not correlated with RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable White candidate. Beyond that, McDaniel’s voter turnout results, whether correlated with the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections, showed no clear patterns. In his Figure 1, he shows low Asian voter turnout in the non-RCV elections in 1999 and 2003 when there was no viable Asian candidate running, but in the 2007 mayoral election using RCV, there is still no viable Asian candidate, yet Asian turnout increases dramatically. For Latinos, voter turnout is virtually the same in 1999 (no viable Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2003 (leading Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2007 (no viable Latino candidate, RCV elections) and 2011 (leading Latino candidate, RCV elections). Meanwhile White voter turnout increased dramatically from a low in the 2007 mayoral election, in which the leading candidate was a white incumbent, to the 2011 election in which there were no leading white candidates that finished any higher than sixth place with 5.6% of the vote. Clearly other factors were determining voter turnout than either the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections. Despite these inconsistent findings, McDaniel boldly marches forth to render conclusions about the impact of RCV on different groups of racial voters, even though his conclusions are not remotely supported by his data. This looks like the worst kind of “data cherry picking” to cover up a puzzling conclusion based on a poor data set involving only two RCV elections, neither of which were remotely competitive. McDaniel’s cherry picking didn’t stop there. In calculating voter turnout for the three non-RCV mayoral elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, he failed to mention that in each of these years there was a two-round runoff election, with a first round election in November in which no candidate garnered a winning majority of the vote, followed by the decisive runoff in December. So there were two non-RCV elections in each election year. But McDaniel only decided to include one of the two elections in his data set, apparently the December runoff in each year (which had higher turnout in two out of the three mayor’s races, and lower turnout in the third). So he ignored the November 1995 election, the November 1999 election when turnout was only 45 percent, and the November 2003 election when turnout was only 45.7 percent. This is flawed methodology based on blatant cherry picking, since McDaniel simply omitted three elections worth of data that did not fit within his frame. His study should never have made it through a peer review process, and it is an embarrassment to political science that not only was it approved for publication, but it has been uncritically cited by dozens of other political scientists. Share A “study” without wider context or credible data Lacking a data set that included even a single competitive RCV mayoral race, McDaniel declared that RCV lowered voter turnout in 2011, when turnout was 42.5 percent. But he also ignored -- or did not realize -- that voter turnout in mayoral elections during 2011 had sharply declined in all big cities, including far more steeply in nearby Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s election in 2011 had the second highest turnout of any mayoral election in the nation’s 22 largest cities from 2008-2011. Was 2011 just a particularly low turnout year all across the country, perhaps because the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the housing market collapse in 2008-2010? McDaniel ignored this factor and did not search for alternative explanations beyond his flawed thesis. Furthermore, while McDaniel suggested that RCV leads to more “overvotes” – which is an invalidated ballot in which a voter, in either a non-RCV or RCV race, makes a mistake and selects two candidates for a single choice – he failed to address that in the June 2012 US Senate primary contest, which used the typical “one-choice” plurality method and did not use RCV, there was more than five times as many overvotes in San Francisco and Oakland than in the RCV mayoral elections in those cities. Additionally, turnout had been significantly higher and more representative in RCV elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors races -- that McDaniel didn’t even bother to study -- as compared to previous “delayed two-round runoffs” for those offices, often higher by as much as 40% in the RCV races. Perhaps the most surprising irony was that an earlier study co-authored by McDaniel (Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco by Francis Neely and Jason McDaniel, 2015, California Journal of Politics and Policy) found that overvotes are often more common in lower-income precincts, but that the pattern of overvoting is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. Wrote Neely and McDaniel: “[Overvote] errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se…. the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests…Even among votes cast in a top-of-the-ticket race like U.S. Senate, overvoting occurs in an uneven fashion” (IRV, or ‘instant runoff voting,’ is another name for ranked choice voting in single-winner contests). So McDaniel not only contradicted his own conclusion in his earlier study with Neely, but the earlier study had been an important corrective for one of the most frequently made mistakes made by anti-RCV political scientists – a continual failure to provide crucial context by pairing a comparative analysis of real world RCV elections with an analysis of real world plurality or other electoral methods. Unfortunately McDaniel’s earlier study does not get cited much by other researchers, and McDaniel did not even cite it in his own flawed study analyzed above. Incredibly, McDaniel cherrypicked McDaniel, even as his flawed study has been cited dozens of times. Despite being a textbook example of poor political “science,” featuring both inadequate as well as cherrypicked data, the shelf life of McDaniel’s study has been extended endlessly by other political scientists and media outlets who have cited it uncritically. Equally troubling, the Journal of Urban Affairs put this paper through its peer review process and published it despite its numerous flaws. McDaniel gets it wrong, Part II Not content with producing one shoddy, confused paper, McDaniel produced another one a few years later, here is the link: Electoral Rules and Voter Turnout in Mayoral Elections: An Analysis of Ranked-Choice Voting by Jason McDaniel. San Francisco State Univ. (McDaniel, 2019). In this paper, McDaniel extended his previous flawed research focused on San Francisco, about voter turnout and voter impact, to multiple RCV cities through the 2018 elections. In his data set he included San Francisco, Minneapolis, St Paul, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Fe. He then compared their turnout in mayoral elections to non-RCV cities, and to mayoral elections in those cities held before first RCV usage, and concluded “a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV.” But he replicated many of the same mistakes as his first study presented above. While in this study McDaniel attempted to distinguish between various factors, such as odd year vs. even year elections, competitive races vs. noncompetitive, contests with open seats and other factors, the analysis is superficial and inadequate. He attempts to incorporate so many often-conflicting variables that his conclusions are once again unsupported by the actual data, and ultimately unconvincing (this second study never underwent a peer review process). For example, McDaniel declared that for RCV cities “in elections that are more competitive than average (margin of victory less than 20%), there is no significant RCV effect on voter turnout.” Yet McDaniel is a professor in a city, San Francisco, in which the 2018 special election using RCV to fill a mayoral vacancy was exceedingly close, decided by a margin of only one percentage point, and resulted in the second highest turnout in San Francisco history for a mayoral election. Illustrating the complexity involved in assessing the critical factors in turnout, that special election was held on the same election day as federal and state offices, which tends to boost turnout. Yet more voters participated in that RCV mayoral election than voted on the same day in the non-RCV primary for governor in which former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was running. Even more puzzling, in this study McDaniel inaccurately cited his own previous study from 2015 with Neely. McDaniel wrote, “Neely and McDaniel (2015) examine individual ballot image files within a natural experiment, and find higher rates of ballot errors in RCV elections compared to non-RCV elections” (emphasis added). However, we quoted from that 2015 study several paragraphs above, and in actual fact Neely and McDaniel actually concluded the opposite -- that the pattern of overvoting – which is the most common form of ballot error – is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. McDaniel also ignored the fact that in Bay Area RCV elections held in even years – at the same time as federal and state elections, when turnout is highest -- the “undervote” (that is, the dropoff in ballots cast for governor or mayor) has declined, which contradicts his thesis that the act of ranking ballots in RCV elections is too complex and presents a barrier for certain demographics of voters. To his credit, McDaniel actually acknowledged another contradiction in his own paper, which found a negative RCV turnout effect in some odd-year elections but not others, admitting that “may present a challenge to the theory that increased complexity [from RCV] will have a marginal negative effect on voter turnout.” But he tried to wallpaper over that contradiction by blaming it on an unlikely source -- bad election administration. McDaniels wrote, “This would suggest that the negative impact of RCV on voter participation may be alleviated by high quality election administration,” without presenting any data or even anecdotes to support such an unfounded theory. While competent election administration of any election, whether RCV or non-RCV, is crucially important, there is no credible research that supports the far-fetched notion that the quality of election administration has much of an impact on voter turnout in US elections, whether using RCV or otherwise. Upgrade to a $5 subscription The unvirtuous circle of academic research It is puzzling how McDaniel’s first study could have survived the peer review process for the Journal of Urban Affairs. The mistakes in McDaniel’s first study above should have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of ranked choice voting as well as elections in general, and elections in San Francisco specifically. It undermines faith in the credibility of the peer review process to think that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the egregious errors and reject McDaniel’s sloppy research and paper. And it remains a black mark on political science that this thoroughly discredited study has been cited dozens of times by other researchers. Indeed, in our research paper it became apparent that many political scientists cite each other’s flawed research to pad their list of citations and to legitimize their own flawed research, creating an unvirtuous circle of political science. More broadly, McDaniel’s voter turnout studies, like other studies evaluating RCV’s impact on turnout, lacked a recognition that no credible opinion or research can claim that RCV increases voter turnout merely because so many voters are excited to vote for their favorite candidates instead of “lesser evil” candidates without worrying about spoilers. Instead, with respect to turnout, the advantage of RCV has always been that, in most places where it has been used, it has eliminated a pre-November primary or post-November runoff, which usually saw about half the turnout of the November general election. This is especially true during even years when there are state and federal elections on the ballot which substantially drive turnout more than local contests. Any study that does not adequately account for this non-November primary/runoff vs November general election dynamic, or odd year vs even year election factors, is simply not credible. Both of McDaniel’s studies largely failed on those grounds. Steven Hill and Paul Haughey Share Upgrade to a $5 subscription Thanks for reading DemocracySOS…your digital portal for the pro-democracy movement. Subscribe for only $5 per month to receive full benefits and to support our work. Subscribe
What 110,000 Rejected Papers Reveal About Science's Biggest Journals
A 110,303-paper study finds prestige, and team size sway acceptance at top science journals more than gender.
Cleveland Browns 2026 training camp position preview: Offensive line
The Browns open training camp with a completely new offensive line. Here's a look at the position group.
Cleveland Fed: Business activity up, but high fuel costs are increasing prices, hurting consumers
Cleveland Fed: Business activity is up, driven by data center construction. But high energy costs are driving prices up and consumption down.
Butterfli Fills Transportation Needs
Delilah Lanoix fell into the business of helping people get from point A to point B by chance. At the turn of the millennium, Lanoix and her husband, John
Sweetening the Deal
At 22, Loren Castle found herself at a crossroads in life. She was a fresh communication graduate from the University of Southern California, a certified
Delivering Access
There was once a time when you healthcare without mentioning Honeybee Health Inc. In 2019, CNBC listed it as one of the 100 most promising startups. In
Keeping On the Move
Karen Lord set her eyes on the horizon from day one as the founder of her eponymous Pilates studio. Having started out in New York’s Meatpacking District
Do You Have to Be Fancy to Get Published in “Science”?
No, not necessarily. But scientists who work for a prestigious university are three times more likely than their peers who don’t to get published in the top-tier journal, according to a new independent analysis of Science’s manuscript data.
Brewers' social media flips out after William Contreras' bat flip
WIlliam Contreras got good distance with his bat too after hitting a walk-off home run to beat the Marlins. Brewers fans took notice.
Music Review: Gracie Abrams confronts crises on 'Daughter From Hell'
Crises loom across singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams’ third album, “Daughter from Hell.”
An update from Harley, data center woes, and more Milwaukee business news
Rich Kirchen from the Milwaukee Business Journal talks Harley, Southwest Airlines, data centers, and more!
1994 Classic, Originally a Box Office Flop, Ranked the 'Best Movie of All Time'
Among film fans, no topic is more hotly debated than the subject of what the greatest movie ever made is. While there will never be an official answer to such a subjective topic, a massive fan vote ha...
Jodi's Journal: The Sanford Sioux Falls story
"Dream with me." In one of Denny Sanford's final messages, Jodi captures what he meant to the story of Sioux Falls.
Opinion: Cancer doesn't care about politics — federal research funding must stay science-driven
A New Mexico family fighting a rare pediatric cancer warns that proposed federal grant changes could delay lifesaving research for children.
Valve Reportedly Sells 12-15K Steam Machine Units Per Week
When Valve listed its Steam Machine gaming console/PC back in late June, many doubted whether the console would sell due to its high price tag. However, it turns out that Valve's sales data have reportedly been good. Some investigative journalism led to an estimate that Valve is selling anywhere...
Brandon Woodruff announces he needs season-ending shoulder surgery
Brandon Woodruff announced July 18 he needs season-ending shoulder surgery but that he's not retiring and intends to try to come back again.
Wagner's New Business Model
Wagner's leftover fighters run a tramadol empire in Central African Republic, fueling gold profits, militia violence, and ties to Sudan's war.
China warns of reciprocal countermeasures after U.S. shortens foreign journalist visas
The Trump administration announced Thursday it will drastically shorten visas for foreign journalists in the U.S. to 240 days, down from years, and cut those for Chinese journalists to only 90 days, raising concerns over press freedom in the United States and prompting China to warn of possible reciprocal countermeasures.
NASA’s Psyche Mission Delivers Mars Flyby Data, Time-lapse Video
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars on May 15, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed and slightly tilt its trajectory. The flyby also gave the team an
China warns of reciprocal countermeasures after US shortens foreign journalist visas
The Trump administration is drastically shortening visas for foreign journalists in the U.S. The new rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security limits visas to 240 days, down from
Patriots secondary faces big questions before camp
The Patriots' secondary was a key part of their playoff run but faces new challenges as training camp approaches.
Veteran bilingual journalist joins North Bay Business Journal staff
Veteran bilingual journalist Raquel Issenberg is joining the staff of the North Bay Business Journal, where she will cover entrepreneurship, employment, job training and health care.
‘Old folks’ and ‘rookies’ in politics
After what we have experienced recently I assure you America will never again hire anyone who would serve as president into their 80s. No blame can go to the founders of our nation who did not feel that it was necessary to put an age limit on the presidency. And then we had the “Joe […]
American Ceramic Tile & Supply celebrates nearly 50 years as family business
American Ceramic Tile & Supply earns a 2026 Family Owned Business Award after nearly 50 years of family ownership and growth.
Mark Shapiro on Why Live Entertainment Has No Ceiling
TKO Group Holdings president and COO Mark Shapiro discusses the thriving economy of live sports, the cultural necessity of shared physical experiences, and the strategic vision driving major entertainment properties like the UFC, WWE, and the WNBA.
CORE Business Interiors honored for building a family legacy
CORE Business Interiors is recognized for family leadership, business growth and community service in the Central Valley.
Turner Security Systems earns Family Owned Business Award
Turner Security Systems is recognized for more than 50 years of family leadership and security services across the Central Valley.