SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " 8 million " 384 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Mideast oil exports rebound in September as Saudi Arabia boosts shipments
Crude oil exports from key Middle East producers rebounded in September to 12.8 million barrels per day, the highest since the US-Israeli war with Iran started in February, data from Kpler showed on Monday, as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates boosted exports.
Report: Conference executives crafting ‘Plan B’ ahead of Protect College Sports Act vote
Monday evening, the U.S. Senate is expected to hold a full vote on the Protect College Sports Act. In the meantime, executives at the conference level are crafting “Plan B,” Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported. The plan would include parts of the bipartisan Senate bill, including a $48.8 million revenue-share cap, which would be a […]
Naples industrial building sells for $8 million
Rail Head Industrial Park recently changed hands in Collier County.
Austin expands small business support with $2.18M for new programs
The Austin City Council advanced $2.18 million in funding for PeopleFund, Kiva and UT Austin to support local entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Spurs' Dylan Harper Rookie Card Sells for Record $2.88 Million
Dylan Harper's one-of-one Rookie Debut Patch Autograph sold for $2.88 million, smashing the previous public record for a card featuring the Spurs guard.
St. Bernards Foundation receives two grants for rural healthcare
St. Bernards Foundation announced Thursday it received two grants through the state of Arkansas’ Rural Health Transformation Program totaling $4.8 million.
Quality Behavioral Health Facing Federal Medicaid Fraud, Forced Labor Investigation
Quality Behavioral Health and its leader have petitioned the courts to have federal law enforcement give back $18.8 million in assets investigators seized
Businesses shocked in Kiryat Shmona: State demands $68 million return
Blow to northern businesses: Out of nearly $1.7 billion transferred to the city, the Tax Authority is demanding hundreds of millions back.
Wilton medical office changes hands for $1.8M
Riverside Common, a 8,642-square-foot medical office in Wilton, has sold for $1.8 million, according to town land and property records.
South Carolina Research Authority Receives Grant From SBA
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that it awarded more than $8 million in grants to 50 organizations, including the South Carolina Research Authority, through the Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership...
Republican coordinated campaign spending surges after US Supreme Court ruling
The Republican committees supporting the party's candidates have exceeded the former national caps by more than $48 million
Sarasota Memorial Invests in Future Healthcare Access for One of Southwest Florida’s Fastest-Growing Communities
Sept. 22, 2026 – With the four-county region expected to grow from approximately 1.2 million residents today to nearly 1.8 million over the next 25 years, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System (SMH) is moving forward with plans to acquire approximately 120 acres in Manatee County’s fast-growing State Road 64 corridor. Located within Sarasota Memorial’s four-county […]
Nuclear power startup founded by SpaceX alums is building its headquarters in Bywater
The year-old private company, which plans to build and operate small modular reactor powerplants, will spend more than $8 million transforming an existing 18,500-square-foot industrial facility at 3333 Chartres Street into office space, a light fabrication shop and training center.
Quanome Advances AI Cloud Business with $18.8 Million GPU Infrastructure Purchase Agreement
Quanome Technologies (NASDAQ:QNME) has entered into an approximately $18. 8 million GPU infrastructure purchase agreement for its XDT AI cloud business, with its first U.
Quanome Advances Its AI Cloud Business XDT with US$18.8 Million Infrastructure Purchase Agreement
Company Advances Development of First U.S. AI Infrastructure Hub, Executes Its Quantum & AI Systems Strategy ITASCA, Ill., Sept. 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quanome Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: QNME) (“Quanome” or the “Company”) is advancing its Quantum and AI Systems business through an approximately US$18.8 million purchase agreement for computing infrastructure powered by NVIDIA GPU technology to build its AI cloud business through its subsidiary, XDT Infrastructure I, LLC (“XDT”). The Compan
Redevelopment of Sleepy Hollow to begin as fundraising campaign nears goal
Construction is expected to begin next month on the redevelopment of Sleepy Hollow Sports Park into a year-round recreation destination with a new lodge, ski lift and snowthrowing equipment. The $18 million project received a funding boost last week when the Iowa Economic Development Authority approved a $4.5 million grant from the Destination Iowa program…
Quality Behavioral Health named in $18.8M federal case alleging Medicaid fraud, forced labor
The federal government is seeking to seize nearly $18.8 million in cash, bank funds, and precious metals as part of a civil forfeiture case alleging a Detroit-area behavioral health provider defrauded Medicaid and used forced labor involving people receiving treatment.
SLR Business Credit Provides $8MM Asset-Based Credit Facility to Beverage Mixer Company
SLR Business Credit (SLRBC), a provider of asset-based lending solutions, provided an $8 million asset-based revolving line of credit to a premium carbonated
Packers’ $13.8 Million Decision Looks Better After Jets Win
The Packers made a significant offseason commitment to a former first-round pick. His performance against the Jets made that decision look much better. The post Packers’ $13.8 Million Decision Looks Better After Jets Win appeared first on HEAVY.
The Big Holes in Wearable Heart Rate Variability And Readiness Scores
On September 9th, Apple announced it was revamping its Apple Watch Health Sensing System, rolling out a Readiness score (0 to 10), and increasing the frequency of heart rate variability (HRV) outputs 24-fold. This can be viewed as upping its competition with various other consumer wearable sensors. These “readiness scores” as a composite of multiple metrics, with heart rate variability (HRV) being front and center for most. The majority of Americans are now using wearable sensors, which equates to well over 100 million adults. HRV and Readiness scores are increasingly being marketed as a measurement of autonomic nervous system health, a digital marker for future disease, a clock for biological age, and a holistic metric to promote healthspan and even longevity. (Apple also introduced a new longevity tab and “Health Age”.) None of this has been proven. In this edition of Ground Truths I am going to review what we know about heart rate variability and readiness scores. Heart Rate Variability HRV is the variation in normal heart cycle timing. The variability of the heart rate, the barely perceptible millisecond changes in time between consecutive heart beats (see R-R intervals in the Figure below, left panel), is due to interplay between the sympathetic and parasympathetic (vagal nerve) inputs. Distinct from heart rate, individuals with the same heart rate can have very different HRVs. It is a rough reflection of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, inadequate to say whether a person’s ANS function is abnormal. For more than three decades, heart rate variability (HRV) has been measured and several studies have found an association of low HRV and clinical outcomes, particularly a link with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. There have also been less well established links of low HRV to risk of early cognitive impairment, dementia, mental illness, Type 2 diabetes and substance abuse. An important reminder is that HRV is a surrogate marker without any established cause-and-effect relationship. If you increase your HRV, that doesn’t mean it will improve health outcomes. In fact, there is no hard evidence for that. All that work linking to health outcomes was done with electrocardiogram (ECG) derived HRV. Now, in the era of consumer wearables, this is getting assessed differently, by optical pulse (yes, the lights you see) plethysmography (PPG) or what is called pulse rate variability (PRV). They are not the same, as shown below (right panel) and only concordant when the delay between the ECG and pulse is kept constant, which basically means at rest. I should mention there’s also what I will call MPV, a mattress mechanical movement sensor, a derived heart rate variability, that companies like Eight Sleep use, even further away from directly measuring HRV. HRV has not one uniform measurement but many different types of quantification, such as RMSSD, the magnitude of difference between successive R-R intervals of normal sinus beats (N-N) or SDNN, the standard deviation of NN intervals, both in milliseconds. SDNN is one of the so-called frequency domain HRVs (others are LF, HF, LF/HF). Different wearable sensors use different metics; Apple has relied on SDNN and nearly all of the others use RMSSD, which is generally considered the more accurate metric. There’s also the different length of time measured, such as for a matter of minutes, all day, or an overnight’s sleep. Short measurements are especially problematic since they don’t capture enough of respiratory modulation and other factors that influence HRV. Share Ground Truths How well does HRV correlate with PRV? There are very limited studies, especially independently done. One that is commonly cited was conducted by Air Force researchers in only 13 healthy adults assessing Oura ring 3 and 4, Whoop 4.0, and Garmin Fenix 6 and showed a correlation coefficient of 0.88 to 0.97 and a mean absolute percentage error from 6 to 10%. The correlation is not a perfect 1.0, but there’s at least a fairly high level of correlation. HRV is supposed to increase during the night due to takeover of the parasympathetic nervous system, and higher during deep sleep. A recent example of my 1 week, all day “HRV,” and one during sleep is shown below. As you can see, the N of 1 data are inconsistent for the same days from different sensors (Oura, AppleWatch, Fitbit Air, and Eight Sleep) by patterns, absolute numbers, and comparison with prior days and weeks. The largest study in over 8 million Fitbit users (the old version, not Google Fitbit Air, introduced in May 2026) gives you a sense of the effect of age, sex, and the 2 different main HRV (here PRV) metrics, with RMSSD on the left and SDRR (=SDNN) on the right below. That study, from data collected in 2018, is a major outlier, since all the more recent ones are tiny with respect to sample size. Many of the companies have not had independent evaluation of their HRV, such as Eight Sleep, but have published a low standard error on their website. There are some other published studies on the correlation between HRV and PRV, but they are all small and only in healthy adults. A scoping review emphasized the lack of study in underrepresented individuals, including the aged, people of color (which affects the PPG signal), and individuals who are underweight or obese. Add the typical adult age 60 plus with one or more chronic diseases. For example, one study in over 900 adults found poor correlation of HRV and PRV, non-uniformly underestimated across many chronic diseases (cardiovascular, endocrine, neurological, respiratory, and others), concluding PRV is “an invalid surrogate for HRV.” A recent systematic review of 43 studies comparing HRV and PRV found reasonable pooled absolute standardized error (HRV as gold standard) but only 10 of the studies provided quantitative synthesis in ideal conditions. Their main conclusion was similarly cautious: “PPG-derived HRV [PRV] should not be regarded as universally interchangeable with ECG-derived HRV across all devices, populations, and recording contexts.” Factors Affecting HRV and PRV That gets me to the long list of factors that affect HRV (and PRV) besides the device, the type of measurement (RMSSD, SDNN or others), the person’s signal, the sensor site, the duration of data capture, if weighting by sleep stage is used, how artifact is processed and corrected. And this list is not complete!: Oura puts out data from their community of users (who input data) on what affects their overnight HRV. The factors currently provided are: no alcohol (increase 8%), melatonin (increase 2%, float tank (increase 2%), wine (decrease 4%), and party (decrease 14%) in overnight HRV. Must be some big parties! Subscribe What is a PRV measurement good for? It has been falsely characterized as an index of “autonomic balance” and a specific indicator of stress. A 2018 review of the studies available for HRV and its relationship to stress, not using any of the current wearables, found that stress can lower HRV. But so can many other factors. The non-specificity of the signal, indexed to the table above, is striking. Evidence from a UK Biobank study of over 46,000 participants with actual HRV looked at genetically predicted HRV, a genetic risk score, that failed to show the expected HRV-mortality link, indicating that _HRV is likely not causa_l, but rather a reflection of person’s physiologic state. A review of consumer wearable HRV data from 5 longitudinal studies showed that nighttime PRV was not associated with perceived stress, and surprisingly higher HRV, in the largest cohort (N=717 participants), was correlated with higher stress. An Oura ring cohort of 525 first-year college students found a link between overnight PRV and perceived stress, but that was also seen with resting heart rate, sleep, and respiratory rate. Several very small studies have examined the relationship of HRV and athletic injuries or guiding training with mixed, and predominantly negative results. HRV biofeedback training with paced breathing had no significant effect on reducing stress or raising HRV, as demonstrated with sham controlled trials. When HRV for multiple days showed a decline in conjunction with body temperature, the Oura ring published data for prediction of Covid. The WHOOP company sponsored an observational study, published in 2026, of 30,000 users for 72 weeks, without a control group, that reported reduced alcohol intake (5.8 % points) by self-report. That doesn’t tell us much, and particularly about the merits of HRV for behavioral change. If you use the same device and conditions as longitudinal trends for multiple (at least 2-3) weeks that may be the one way to get something useful from the measurements. Data for overnight sleep with minimal motion and using RMSSD is the best proxy for real HRV. The reason to look at trends rather than any given night is that it more likely represents something, even though you won’t know with certainty what the “it” is. Keep in mind there are no data, no peer-reviewed evidence, to show that HRV fluctuation in-person has any correlation with health outcomes. Share Readiness Scores These are proprietary scores that integrate different metrics for each of the wearables: no algorithms have been disclosed. They are unvalidated against health outcomes. In a review of 14 composite health scores of readiness and recovery, HRV contributed 86% to the scores, followed by reading heart rate (79%), physical activity and sleep duration (both at 71%). That review noted the substantial variability in measurement protools and lack of standardization. Sleep staging is notoriously inconsistent and inaccurate by these sensors, which adds further to the HRV uncertainties for what the scores, which use sleep stage data, mean. Only resting heart rate has been shown consistently across devices to be extremely accurate. I’ve made a Table to summarize what we know about which metrics are included, the scores, any peer-reviewed studies that compared the readiness score with health outcomes, and the corresponding (if any, NA-not available) citation. You will note that some companies do not use the term “readiness," such as WHOOP for recovery, and Garmin, which has 2 different scores, one of which is Body Battery. Eight Sleep uses the term “Fitness Score.” They all include HRV; Apple includes a new metric they call “Recovery HRV” which among other components uses 7-days of sleep, but it is unclear what this means or how it is differentiated from other scores (there are clearly no data for outcomes). We have no knowledge of how the different components are weighted or whether any of these scores are better than resting heart rate, HRV alone, physical activity, or any other single metric. Since none of these are standardized, they are not interchangeable, so if you get a 90 for Oura that has no relationship to a 90 on a Google Fitbit Air. Notably, the company can update its algorithm for readiness score at any point without notification to device users. Without any useful evidence of actionability for these scores or established relationship with health outcomes, it is hard to make a case for their value. At the Apple recent announcement they showed their Readiness score (0-10) on the watch (Figure below) but there are no published data on this score, not even on their website. It’s available only on their new Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4 [of course, ;-)]. That exemplifies the problems with these scores, lack of data and evidence for being meaningful to promote health. Perhaps the best study (which isn’t saying much) is the WHOOP Recovery for golfer performance, because it did correlate with an objective outcome, even though there was no control group and the authors were all from the company. Among the 389 pro golfers, an absolute 10-per cent point increase in Recovery score was associated with about 0.5 fewer strokes per round. But that’s hardly a health outcome! WHOOP is also conducting a study in over 2,700 runners to see if their recovery score will be linked to less injuries and improved performance, but that is not yet published and has no control group or randomization. Putting This in Context For two decades I’ve been enthusiastic about the potential for digital health and particularly wearable biosensors. Over the years, we’ve seen some great progress for their ability to promote physical activity and accurately detect atrial fibrillation (the first FDA cleared deep learning AI for consumers). That work was the subject of rigorous research. But there are holes in the data and evidence for other metrics. One notable one is the “VO2 max” story that I wrote about earlier this year. At that time many subscribers asked me to cover heart rate variability, which I finally got to here. When I dived into the research and publication for HRV and readiness scores, I expected to find at least some that were of high quality and demonstrated their utility by linkage to health outcomes. To my surprise, I found none. The wearable sensor measurements for HRV (PRV) are, for the most part, accurate, but that validation work has only been done in small studies of healthy adults and does not take into account the long list of factors, from the device, software side, and the user side, that affect HRV measurements. Moreover, this metric chiefly relies on optical sensing and, as we have learned for heart rate PPG sensing, may be less accurate in people of color. Keep in mind that all of the health outcome association evidence comes from ECG-derived HRV; none are from wearable sensor data. I will repeat the key point: there's no peer-reviewed evidence to show that in-person HRV fluctuation—or efforts to raise your HRV— has any correlation with health outcomes. For those of you who look at your HRV on awakening, or even 2+ week trends of it being low, I hope this context helps to relieve any anxiety. Yes, low HRV (not PRV) has been shown to increase risk of some diseases as summarized above. But efforts to raise your HRV—a surrogate metric— has not been established for improving any health outcomes. HRV does not have any evidence of causality (the genetic evidence actually goes against this possibility). In this summary, I have not included data for other wearable sensors such as Polar, Samsung, Withings, Suunto, Amazfit, Coros, Ultrahuman, or additional mattress sensors. These are beyond my first-hand experience, and as far as I know from my in-depth review none have any peer-reviewed published data that differ from the 6 sensors I’ve reviewed here. From the points I’ve gone over above, we’re not ready for readiness scores. Besides being proprietary, they are predominantly based on metrics that have their own issues. It’s compounding the problem, like building a house without a solid foundation that has never undergone a rigorous inspection, and then selling it. Like I mentioned for PRV, you can look at trends over weeks rather than any single day, to get a handle, but even that may not be helpful. There’s simply no evidence that these scores meaningfully relate to health outcomes. I’d emphasize they might, but that requires doing prospective or randomized studies to prove it. None exist. There’s great promise for HRV/PRV utility_. For example**,**_ Prof Maiken Nedergaard, who discovered the brain glymphatics that are essential in eliminating metabolic waste products from the brain during sleep, has posited that HRV could be a non-invasive marker for neuromodulator oscillations, brain-body regulatory circuits, and brain clearance. That would be extremely useful, but like everything else on HRV and readiness scores it requires solid research and validation. The lay media isn’t helping much to get the story straight. Earlier this year The Economist published a piece entitled “The most useful indicator of your overall health” which ordained HRV as an “accumulated stress score.” That’s akin to the false assertion about VO2max: “V02 max is the singular most powerful marker for longevity.” As I’ve summarized here, that is not established. The fact is that so many things can lower HRV, including physical exercise (especially an intense workout), reduced sleep quality, stress, the list above, no less the device, signal, and software. Whatever fluctuations observed have not been correlated with any health outcome. Sadly, “datamaxxers” are widely using HRV and readiness scores that have never been validated to mean anything. We already know that for some people using the sensors for sleep metrics, it can induce “orthosomnia,” an obsession to get high sleep quality, with associated high levels of anxiety. In an experiment done by a company to promote sleep quality for its employees, “For those employees who did use the trackers, many reported feeling perfectly rested until their tracker told them they had had a terrible night. Others were told that they had slept like a baby when they had actually been lying awake worrying about the quality of their sleep. “ The same problem can result from preoccupation with HRV or readiness scores, with anxiety that would lead to further reduction in both. It you are using a wearable like >100 million American adults, it’s OK to look at these data, but contextualized with the major caveats reviewed here. If you are one to require evidence that HRV or readiness scores are linked to health outcomes, you may not even want to look. The companies make it hard to turn them off! Let me end with the companies that make and sell wearables. Apple’s doubling down on HRV (24-fold more reporting and heart rate very 5 seconds) and introduction of a Readiness score tells us that consumers have bought into these metrics and they are joining the club. However, all of this is occurring with a backdrop of tens millions of users, claims about the data that are not backed up by adequate evidence, marketing way out in front of whatever limited data exists, and not being transparent about their readiness score algorithms. The companies can well afford to do the research that is needed to connect these metrics with health outcomes show, once and for all, that increasing HRV or using readiness scores promotes our health. If they believed and invested in the products they are selling, we’d not be in this position of not knowing. That’s essentially where we are with HRV and readiness scores. Perhaps someday this will change and we’ll have good reason to embrace them. NB: I wrote this post. No AI. I have no conflicts of interest with any of its content. Loading... Ground Truths has 215,000 subscribers from every US state and 214 countries. There are over 300,000 followers of Ground Truths so more than 90,000 folks who can easily convert to be free subscribers. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. If you’re not a subscriber, please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths The proceeds from all voluntary paid subscriptions go to support our summer internship program. It enabled us to accept and support a record number of 62 summer interns that joined us in 2026! These are high school, college and medical students selected from thousands of applicants. We couldn’t do this expanded program without the funds coming in through Ground Truths. Thank you!
Novant Health drives $4.33B in regional economic impact, study says
Novant Health Coastal Region generates an annual overall economic impact of $4.33 billion in the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), according to a new report. Commissioned by Novant Health and conducted by Mouhcine Guettabi, associate professor of economics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the area’s regional economist, the report evaluates population growth in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties and whether the area’s healthcare infrastructure is positioned to meet the region’s demand. According to the study, while healthcare employment has kept pace with population growth in New Hanover and Pender counties, it has not kept up with the rapid population growth in Brunswick County, which is skewed toward an older population. “It points very clearly to Brunswick County being the bottleneck, or being the place where investment is most needed,” Guettabi said to the Business Journal Friday, “because the growth is the fastest, the composition of the growth is older (adults) and demand for healthcare is much higher for the subpopulation.” The Novant Health Coastal Region employs 8,295 full-time equivalent workers, according to the report, and is the region’s largest employer. Overall, through direct, indirect and induced impacts, the Novant Health Coastal Region supports 19,573 jobs, the report said. Using data collected from internal payroll, financial and capital reports, the report estimates that Novant Health Coastal Region pays approximately $1.15 billion in total compensation to its employees. According to the study, the provider’s annual operating expenditures, or direct economic impact, total $2.36 billion. That direct impact ripples through the regional economy through spending at its suppliers, or indirect impact, and household spending by staff and its suppliers’ workers, or induced impact. The report estimates the Novant Health Coastal Region’s indirect economic impact is $786 million, reflecting the multiplying effect of the provider’s operating expenses on expenditures like medical supplies, facilities, food, IT and professional services. Because 86.9% of Novant Health Coastal Region employees live within the tri-county region, the report estimates that wages paid by Novant circulate into the regional economy, creating an induced economic impact of $1.17 billion. “That money just doesn’t go into thin air,” Guettabi said of the wages paid to Novant Health Coastal Region employees. “Some of that money is being re-spent, and therefore it’s supporting grocery stores, hiring, restaurants and bars, and there are a lot of other companies or organizations whose employment, whose activity partially depends on that.” The combination of direct ($2.36 billion), indirect ($786 million), and induced ($1.17 billion) impacts totals an estimated $4.33 billion, according to the report. A study commissioned by Novant Health in 2024 and conducted by FTI Consulting’s Center for Healthcare Economics and Policy found that Novant Health generated nearly $2 billion of direct impact, with $628 million in indirect impact and $857 million in induced impact. Healthcare investments in the pipeline for Brunswick County Additionally, the study found that while healthcare employment has kept pace with population growth in New Hanover and Pender counties, it lags in Brunswick County. “Once you go below the metro level and you decompose the three counties that make up the Wilmington Metro,” Guettabi said, “it becomes fairly clear that Brunswick is the standout. And not only that, but clearly the growth there is fully domestic migration and largely retiree-driven migrants.” Using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on per-capita healthcare spending among age groups, Guettabi estimates that adults aged 65 and older demand 2.44 times the healthcare of working-age adults. “The share of the population in Brunswick County that’s over the age of 65 is 33%,” Guettabi said, “which is so much higher than the average share of people over the age of 65 within the state or within the country.” The report emphasizes that Brunswick County is the “strongest candidate” for new healthcare investment, adding that patient discharge records show Brunswick residents rely heavily on facilities in New Hanover County for inpatient care. “Investments in Brunswick County would not only meet the demand for those residents, but it would also relieve pressure for New Hanover County residents,” Guettabi said. Laurie Whalin, president of the Novant Health Coastal Region, told the Business Journal Friday that the provider plans to expand services at Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center, in addition to other investments in the area. In April, the state granted conditional approval to both Novant Health and Columbus Regional Healthcare System to build new hospitals, just miles apart, on either side of the Columbus County and Brunswick County borders. Columbus Regional’s $214 million 30-bed hospital would be located at the former Acme-Delco Middle School in Delco, according to the application. The project’s approved timetable has construction slated to finish in May 2029, with the hospital open for service by October 2029. The Whiteville-based provider, which Atrium Health manages, broke ground on an Advanced Care facility in December 2025 and operates four specialty clinics in Leland. Meanwhile, Novant Health’s proposed $251 million 20-bed hospital would be built just miles from Columbus Regional’s proposed hospital, near the Compass Pointe community in Leland. The provider estimates the hospital will open by 2030. State officials also approved Novant Health in March to build a freestanding emergency department in Carolina Shores, near U.S. 17. The project is estimated to cost $24 million, according to the application, and will operate under the Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center license. Additionally, Novant Health’s 16,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center is slated to open in Leland by year’s end, officials said.
Another new TOD project takes shape in Hicksville
Developers and construction crews mark topping off of $58 million Fieldstone at North Broadway, a transit-oriented mixed-use project in Hicksville.
ACA health coverage enrollment in NH declined by 4.8k after credits expired
The KFF analysis found that New Hampshire enrollment in ACA healthcare plans fell by 8 percent from 2025 to 2026. Across the country, enrollment fell from roughly 21.8 million in 2025 to 19.2 million in 2026, per KFF.
UVM Health Union protests layoffs
BURLINGTON, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) – Tuesday, UVM Health announced they will lay off 199 employees, which is expected to reduce expenses by about $16.8 million. Today, the Vermont Federation of Nurses and ...
865 Neyland to bring 100K square feet of entertainment to the University of Tennessee
A $288 million investment is transforming University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium area with 865 Neyland, a 100,000-square-foot mixed-use entertainment district featuring dining, retail, and a 24-story hotel and residential tower, set to be completed by 2029.
HOMETOWN HEALTH: It’s brain aneurysm awareness month, doctor outlines warning signs and risk factors
An estimated 6.8 million people in the United States are living with an unruptured brain aneurysm
EU membership bid gives boost to Moldova’s fledgling R&D landscape
Moldova’s push to join the EU is having the spillover effect of helping to improve the country’s R&D landscape, which in recent years has suffered from fragmentation, decreasing personnel and a lack of research infrastructure.The country became an EU candidate country in 2022, alongside Ukraine, and officially began accession negotiations in 2024. With a pro-EU government, Moldova has been actively carrying out reforms to align with EU standards. This has helped accelerate the development of R&D, said Igor Chiosa, acting head of the Research and Innovation Policy Directorate at Moldova’s Ministry of Education and Research. “Our R&D landscape is moving up, and we are more and more involved in the European Research Area,” he said. “The support we receive from the EU is very important, not only financially, but also because of incentives, consultation and capacity building.”The R&D landscape in the former Soviet republic is still relatively underdeveloped, despite attempts at improvement going back to a 2004 law on science and innovation and later reforms in 2017 and 2018. But the system remains in a “precarious situation” and “in the process of contraction,” according to an assessment carried out by the government for the current National Programme for Research and Innovation, which runs from 2024 to 2027. The analysis highlights in particular the declining number of researchers and PhDs, which has been continuously falling, as well as limited research funding. This is around 10 times lower than the EU average and “insufficient to maintain a level of research activity that supports higher education and meets the needs of the economy.” The mechanisms for allocating research funds are also described as inefficient, as well as the general fragmentation of the landscape, with research and innovation activities being carried out in 67 different places. The lack of strategic vision for research infrastructure is also noted. The strategy sets out to address these issues and is being fuelled by reforms linked to EU accession. Moldova now has a regulation on open science and gender equality. There is also a new support mechanism for technology transfer offices and a business-academia roadmap. In 2025, the country also became the first Eastern Partnership country to approve a Smart Specialisation strategy, which will coordinate its R&D efforts to focus on strengths, within a European context. “We’ve done a lot in terms of normative acts,” Chiosa said. Horizon Europe successMoldova is also seeing more success in the EU’s flagship R&D programme, Horizon Europe. The country has now won nearly €15 million in funding, already double the amount won under the previous programme, Horizon 2020, and more than the €10 million target set by the government. Chiosa said the priority has shifted now to winning more research-centred projects, rather than those related to support and capacity. Moldova is also targeting further involvement in large European projects. Last year, it joined the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking giving Moldovans access to Europe's supercomputing network. The country is also a member of Danubius-RI, a European research infrastructure focused on river and sea research. Despite these efforts, Moldova’s research capacity is still shackled by its limited R&D budget, which equates to 0.23% of its GDP. This is around half of what its neighbour Romania spends, which is the lowest in the EU. According to Chiosa, the research budget is increasing year-on-year, jumping by €6.34 million between 2024 and 2025. But this doesn’t show up when looking at it as a proportion of GDP. “Of course, it’s difficult,” he said. “That is why we are putting more emphasis on collaboration between business and academia, as well as participation in Horizon Europe, to try to diversify our sources of funding.”A World Bank loan of €30 million, plus a grant of €7.8 million, was agreed in 2025 to support the modernisation of Moldova’s universities. As part of this, a call was launched this year to provide universities grants of up to €900,000 to develop their research infrastructure. Moldova is also collaborating closely with Romania, with which it shares a common language, funding 100 joint projects in 2023 and 2024. This support has been instrumental. “They are helping with sharing their expertise, inviting us into consortia, and lots more,” Chiosa said. Looking forward, Moldova is eagerly anticipating joining the EU. “We are looking closely at what the EU is doing and will shape our future national programme in research innovation accordingly.”EU accession “blocked at a technical level”Moldova is aiming to join the EU by 2028, but despite its swift and eager efforts to meet the accession criteria, there remain obstacles outside of the country’s control. For a country to join the EU, it must have certain legislation in place and meet specific standards in various areas. This is categorised into six thematic clusters containing 33 chapters. Moldova and the EU have so far opened two of the clusters, numbers one and six. The first covers fundamental laws, such as the judiciary, security and financial legislation. The sixth covers external relations. The remaining four clusters are still unopened. This includes the third cluster, on competitiveness and growth, which contains the chapter on science and research.Related articlesQ&A: Albania’s ambition to become a ‘moderate innovator’Data corner: Horizon success rates are droppingThe European Commission has confirmed that these clusters are ready to be opened, with an official saying that the Commission is encouraging EU governments, who have the final say, to move forward on the matter. However, both clusters two and three remain blocked by the EU Council’s working party on enlargement and countries negotiating accession to the EU, a different official, representing the Council, confirmed.This working party is set to meet several times in the coming weeks, with a Council meeting scheduled for mid-October in which enlargement, and Moldova’s bid, will be discussed. But there is no certainty that these talks will lead to progress. According to the Council source, it is “completely impossible to foresee if and when the file will be unblocked,” citing the sensitivity of the matter. Moldova’s situation is particularly complicated. One factor is that it borders Ukraine and is increasingly embroiled in Russia’s war, with drone incursions occurring more often on its territory. Another is Transnistria, a Russian-backed breakaway state that lies within the territory of Moldova. It is unclear how the EU would be able to accept Moldova into the bloc while this situation remains unchanged. While there is no direct reason to delay opening cluster three with Moldova, as it covers matters unrelated to security, it could be that the EU is reluctant to speed through accession negotiations without first resolving broader, geopolitical issues.Chiosa is confident that, if and when the chapter on science and research is opened, Moldova will be able to finalise it quickly. It doesn’t require any legislative changes and is only a matter of proving certain standards, which Chiosa believes Moldova is well prepared to do. “We hope that chapter 25 on science and research will be one of the first chapters opened and closed,” he said.
Capitals Sign Breakout Star Justin Sourdif to Huge Extension
The Washington Capitals have signed breakout star Justin Sourdif to a huge contract extension that will keep him in town for the long term.The Capitals gave Sourdif an eight-year extension for $50.8 million, paying him $6.35 million per season over the life of the deal.Capitals Announce Justin Sourdif ExtensionCapitals general manager Chris Patrick shared the […] The post Capitals Sign Breakout Star Justin Sourdif to Huge Extension appeared first on HEAVY.
Thatch Reaches $1B Valuation as Employers Hand Workers Health Benefits Budgets
Thatch raised $108 million at a $1 billion valuation to continue growing its health benefits platform, the company said in a Tuesday (Sept. 15) press
Interim Report: Joint Committee on Finance
The Joint Finance Committee met this morning. First, the committee heard from the Department of Revenue. The general revenue fund is $34.8 million over the estimate. The personal income tax revenue and sales tax revenue are both up. Severance is under the estimate. The state road fund is $27.2 million…
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health Receives $4.8 Million in Capital Funding to Enhance Patient Care at Gun Hill
Bronx, NY – NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health today announced $4.8 million in Fiscal Year 2027 City Council capital funding, sponsored by New York City
Health benefits platform Thatch reaches $1B valuation as healthcare costs surge
The five-year-old startup raised $108 million from The General Partnership, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz.
NIH awards multi-university team over $4M to improve women’s health
Backed by a new $4.6 million award from the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, Michigan State University researchers are launching a novel project to transform how medications are developed and prescribed for women. This is the first installment of an award worth up to $12.8 million over three years. Researchers from Rutgers, Emory, Tulane, University of Colorado Anschutz, University of Michigan and University of Utah are collaborating with the MSU team to accomplish this goal, which the lea
State prepares to send energy rebate checks up to $200 to eligible New Yorkers
Starting next week, checks will start arriving in the mail for 8 million New Yorkers.
State prepares to send energy rebate checks up to $200 to eligible New Yorkers
Starting next week, checks will start arriving in the mail for 8 million New Yorkers.
Evanston apartments under contract in what would be one of the suburbs’ largest-ever deals
If the deal closes at the expected price, it would be the largest apartment sale in Evanston since the E2 complex sold for $148 million in late 2024.
First Known Trail Of Adult T Rex Footprints Found, Reveals How Fast The Dinosaur Moved
T. rex lived around 66 to 68 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period and was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to roam Earth before the mass extinction that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
How Much Money Does the 2026 US Open Winner Get?
This year’s US Open purse is $18 million larger than 2025’s payout, breaking another record in tennis history
The Food Connection report: UK Dining invested record $8 million in Kentucky farms, businesses
Over the life of the initiative, UK Dining’s Kentucky Farm and Food Business Impact purchases produced more than $48 million in direct investment in Kentucky farms and food businesses. The work also earned national recognition and helped inform nationally harmonized measures for institutional farm purchasing.
Alliance Entertainment Holding Corp. (AENT) Releases Q4 2026 Earnings: Revenue Tops Estimates אך EPS Misses
Alliance Entertainment Holding Corp. (AENT) reported fourth-quarter revenue of $268.1 million, up 17.7% from a year earlier and above the analyst estimate of $244.8 million. The company said gross profit came in at $35.0 million, while cost of sales rose to $233.1 million.Despite the stronger top line, profitability weakened. Operating profit was a loss of $3.9 million, and net income attributable to common shareholders was a loss of $3.5 million
Alliance Entertainment Ups Fiscal-Year Movie Disc Revenue 22% to $339 Million
Alliance Entertainment Sept. 10 reported fiscal-year (ended June 30) packaged-media revenue of $339 million, up 22% from $278 million during the previous-year period. The Florida-based physical-media and collectibles distributor reported an 8% increase in full-year revenue to $1.15 billion, compared with $1.06 billion in fiscal 2025. Net income dropped 13% to $13 million from $15 … Continue reading "Alliance Entertainment Ups Fiscal-Year Movie Disc Revenue 22% to $339 Million"
Alliance Entertainment Ups Fiscal-Year Movie Disc Revenue 22% to $339 Million
Alliance Entertainment Sept. 10 reported fiscal year (ended June 30) packaged media revenue of $339 million, up 22% from $278 million from the previous-year period. The Florida-based physical media and collectibles distributor reported an 8% increase in full-year revenue to $1.15 billion, compared with $1.06 billion in fiscal 2025. Net income dropped 13% to $13 … Continue reading "Alliance Entertainment Ups Fiscal-Year Movie Disc Revenue 22% to $339 Million"
Redding receives nearly $8 million grant for Stillwater Business Park improvements
The grant will go toward extending a portion of the park to allow for the opening of additional parcels for future development.
Blue Jays Get Concerning News on $68 Million Starter
The Toronto Blue Jays are waiting on more clarity regarding Jameson Taillon‘s elbow. Manager John Schneider confirmed before Tuesday’s 4-2 win over the Athletics that Taillon is expected to visit a specialist soon to determine the severity of the issue. Toronto has since dropped the next game of the series to the Athletics 2-0, unable […] The post Blue Jays Get Concerning News on $68 Million Starter appeared first on HEAVY.
Marquette gets $8 million planned gift for scholarships, business and athletics
Marquette University has received an $8 million planned gift from alumnus and longtime university volunteer Jim Meier, with the money earmarked for
Alaska continues rollout of Rural Health Transformation Program awards
Alaska Department of Health officials announced a fifth round of federal Rural Health Transformation Program funding awards on Friday. The latest awards for $25.8 million bring the total to more than $207 million to date.
Maven Securities LTD Makes New $2.28 Million Investment in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. $LYV
Maven Securities LTD acquired a new stake in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 12,470 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,283,000. Other
‘Pitiful’ no more: Why business leaders say Madison County needs new $48M conference center
The Board of Supervisors approved issuing $48 million in bonds to fund the project at a meeting Tuesday morning.
49ers Predicted to Bring Back $88 Million Super Bowl Champion
The Athletic's Matt Barrows predicts the San Francisco 49ers will bring back an $88 million edge rusher. The post 49ers Predicted to Bring Back $88 Million Super Bowl Champion appeared first on HEAVY.
Former employees accuse Family Health Centers of San Diego of understaffing, retaliation
Former employees take issue with how much cash the health system is sitting on while they say clinics are understaffed. The network has netted $58 million to $80 million each year since 2020, its tax filings show.
Alabama mental health centers receive more than $8 million in rural health grants
Funding backed a telehealth crisis network for rural schools and helped clinics expand around-the-clock behavioral health access.
The Fierce Battle For Kids’ Eyeballs...Plus Two “Devils” Face Off
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) During the week of this report, Spider-Man: Brand New Day hit theaters and went on to become one of the biggest films of all time. So, you know what that means! It’s time for a poll! Recently, Project Hail Mary came to Prime Video and became a top five film for them, but didn’t smash streaming records, a feat I cautiously thought it could accomplish. Can Spider-Man 4 do better? To set the stakes, some of the biggest films of all time do just okay on streaming. Wicked, Top Gun: Maverick, and Barbie come to mind... But unlike those films, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a Sony film which means it’s headed to Netflix, the world’s largest streamer. Now, per friend of the newsletter and my go-to Netflix expert, Kasey Moore of What’s on Netflix, Sony films usually appear on Netflix 120 days after they premiere, which means Spidey 4 would land on Netflix on, checks notes, 28-November, one of the two biggest streaming weekends of the year! But Sony occasionally delays its biggest hits for a bit longer, to give them more time to make money on PVOD, so Spider-Man: Brand New Day might not swing onto Netflix until late December or even February 2027. Loading... Okay, on to this week’s issue. Since The Super Mario Galaxy Movie made its way to Peacock, I’m looking at the true workhorse of streaming viewership: kids films. And the surprising film that bested most Netflix animated movies. All that, plus Hulu has a new show that might be a hit (for them…?), two “Devils” square off on streaming, Zendaya tries to find some streaming magic, Netflix’s I Will Find You continues to do well, House of the Dragon tries to break into the season three top ten, some big NBC sports and summer programs, what friendly neighborhood Spider-Man character actually generates the most viewership on streaming, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of July 27th to August 2nd, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Film - As The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Hits Peacock, How Have Kids Films Fared in 2026? Like Mario hopping on a Koopa, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie landed on Peacock on 30-July. (Yeah, I kinda forced that Mario reference.) How did it do? Great, just like the first film. It got 13.0 million hours on its opening, and that’s good enough to take second place among Peacock films on the Nielsen charts all time: As I mention all the time, Peacock just isn’t the world’s biggest streamer—in fact, nowhere close—so its films struggle to put up numbers like Netflix (or even Prime Video and Disney+). So this is a solid debut for that streamer. And as we saw last time, The Super Mario Bros. Movie had a HUGE second life on Netflix when it moved streamers. This chart doesn’t even show how long the first Mario lasted on Netflix: a whopping, KPop-esque 31 weeks. For NBCUniversal, though, the big win was the second Mario movie grossing $429 million in America and over $1 billion globally. But yeah, to add a very strong streaming performance only makes its success even greater. Illumination pretty clearly has another hit franchise on their hands. This is a good time, though, to check in on kids films so far in 2026. We’ve had a few big, big titles, a rare Netflix success, and some disappointments. Let’s start with the top animated films since November of 2025, over their first four weeks on the charts, along with a few of the “best all time” animated films: (As a reminder, if a film doesn’t make the Nielsen top ten lists, I don’t have data for it, so it gets a “zero” in terms of viewership. Now, it had some viewership, but I don’t know what it is, so it gets a zero.) I added a few titles to get an idea of what the best of the best looks like in terms of animation. And you can see, through four weeks, Zootopia 2 can now claim “one of the biggest streaming films of all time” titles. GOAT too did surprisingly well, besting Netflix’s biggest films (Swapped and In Your Dreams) through four weeks. When I’ve talked about how films can have varying performances on streaming compared to their box office, this is what I mean. Goat just managed to gross even $103 million at the box office—so it’s popular, but just barely—but did very well on streaming. Of course, what set Encanto and KPop Demon Hunters apart from the rest was their absolutely insane longevity. Here are the kids film charts through eight weeks to show that: And really KPop Demon Hunters just kept going, and no 2025 or 2026 kids films have had that sort of longevity. I can’t wait to see the sequel in theaters. Film - Two Devils and a Drama As I wrote last week, in the past, theatrical-first film flops weren’t eligible for “Miss of the Week” or “Miss of the Year” honors/dishonors, but since so many more films go to theaters first these days, I’ve made them eligible now! But it’s complicated. You see, this is a Streaming Ratings Report, emphasis on streaming, which makes analyzing this week’s two biggest streaming misses—The Drama on HBO Max (A24’s dramedy starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson) and Prime Video’s The Devil Mouth (a killer shark movie starring young attractive people)—somewhat tricky. The Drama isn’t eligible for Luminate, but The Devil’s Mouth only had 1.5 million hours in its first week: The Devil’s Mouth notched 5.2 million hours according to Nielsen. Meanwhile, The Drama missed the charts entirely. Not great! But Prime Video is a much bigger streamer than HBO Max. That said, HBO Max titles are on Prime Video, but I think Prime Video prioritizes their original/exclusive titles, which helps boost their viewership. Complicating this further, The Drama made $48 million in the US—while A24 sells foreign distribution; the $57 million of overseas grosses helps A24 sell overseas rights for money in the future—off of a $28 million budget (which seems low for Zendaya and Pattinson, so they might have backend). The Devil’s Mouth, though, had zero dollars at the box office. The other stats for The Devil’s Mouth are bleak, and by “bleak”, I mean horrendous: a 4.7 on 15K reviews on IMDb (yikes) and a 46 on Metacritic (double yikes). The Drama, though buzzy online, only has a solid (but far from elite) 7.1 IMDb score on 121K reviews and a 59 on Metacritic (which is far, far lower than I’d have guessed). So which film is the “Miss of the Week”? I’m giving it to The Devil’s Mouth for one simple reason: it’s a horror film. And almost all horror films, even poorly reviewed horror films, should get a shot in theaters to at least try to recoup some of their budgets. The Drama made money at the box office and The Devil’s Mouth didn’t. It’s just like the situation last issue with Obsession and Masters of the Universe. Sure, Obsession didn’t pop on the streaming charts, but at least it already made it money at the box office. And as we’ve been seeing for years now and we’ll see all fall, theatrical films just do better on streaming. After all, the big “devil” winner this week was actually The Devil Wears Prada 2 with 14.8 million hours according to Nielsen. That’s right, The Devil Wears Prada 2—one of the box office success stories of May—came to streaming and parlayed its $220 million box office into 14.8 million Nielsen hours. Disney also put out a datecdote that it had 15.2 million “views” globally in five days, but again we don’t have a lot of great context for what that means. Here’s how it stacks up to other Hulu films, since I’m categorizing this mainly as a Hulu title (though it was also on Disney+): Share Quick Notes on Film We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… Whether Hulu has a new hit show on its hands... The top first and third seasons of all time and which shows are climbing those charts… What version of Spidey is the most popular... What sport and TV show are performing better on NBC than the NBA... All the flops, bombs and misses... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Coming Soon! Next week, wow, things stay so busy. One of streaming’s biggest shows of all time, Ted Lasso, returns along with new YA-ish shows from Hulu (The Shards, from Ryan Murphy) and Prime Video (Sterling Point). The Challenge moves to Paramount+, plus My Life with the Walter Boys returns to Netflix and Futurama returns to Hulu. And Netflix has a new horror film, The Last House. Lots to talk about! All month, things stay busy. We’re talking Reacher on Prime Video! Outer Banks and Tires on Netflix! Lanterns on HBO Max! UFC 330 on Paramount+ and the MLB Field of Dreams game on Netflix. And a ton of smaller films come to streaming. Long term, the VMAs are back on 27-Sep! I feel like I haven’t heard much about this show in past years, but I’m seeing more news coverage and buzz for this show than in past years. I’m curious to see how it does.
MLB thrilled with NBC’s first season of ‘Sunday Night Baseball’
NBC closed out its first season of Sunday Night Baseball on Sunday with Reds-Cubs, which drew 2.8 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. Across the full season, NBC and Peacock averaged 2.7 million viewers over 14 primetime broadcasts, the most-watched Sunday Night Baseball season since 2007, and that average holds even when factoring in NBC’s…
Baptist Health scoops up Coconut Creek Kohl’s store for $54M
Baptist Health South Florida dropped $53.5 million on a Kohl’s department store in Coconut Creek. The retailer, led by CEO Michael Bender, sold the 92,700-square-foot stand-alone store at 6950 North State Road 7 for $577 per square foot. Kohl’s acquired the 8.2-acre property for $14.8 million in 2008, soon after the store was built. Last year, the company announced plans to shutter 27 stores in underperforming locations, though no additional closure announcements have been made since then. The store is still open, and plans for the site are being evaluated, a Baptist Health spokesperson told the South Florida Business Journal. […]
Sony and Microsoft say they’re not obligated to pass U.S. tariff refunds to consumers, echoing Nintendo
Back in July, Sony executives told investors that the company expected to receive $508 million in refunds from the U.S. government, after tariffs that the PlayStation-maker paid were ruled mostly in 2025 were found to be illegal. “Most” of the refund would by recouped by Sony’s gaming division, its chief financial officer said. This week, Sony’s lawyers are arguing that the company is not legally obligated to pass those proceeds on to consumers who paid for recently price-hiked PlayStation consoles. That’s in the face of a lawsuit from gamers calling on them to do exactly that. “Paying fair market price for voluntarily purchased consumer goods is not a legally cognizable injury in fact,” the lawyers wrote in a legal motion filed on Monday, as they asked a judge in California’s Northern District to dismiss a potential class action lawsuit over the tariff refunds. Microsoft made a similar argument two weeks ahead of Sony’s lawyers, in a similar lawsuit brought by a gamer in federal court in Washington State. As Microsoft’s legal team put it on August 21, in their request for a dismissal of that lawsuit: “There is nothing unjust about Plaintiff purchasing an Xbox at an advertised price and getting exactly what he paid for—regardless of whatever theory he devised months later about Microsoft’s cost structure.” Both legal fights are set to go on for some time. How things got to this point U.S. tariffs impacting a wide range of imported goods, including game consoles, had kicked off in early 2025. In May 2025, Microsoft raised the price of its Xbox consoles, citing “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” They raised them again that September. In August of that year, Sony raised the price of PlayStation 5 consoles, citing “a challenging economic environment.” Sony later told investors that its tariff fees for the fall quarter were nearly $200 million. in February of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the 2025 tariffs illegal, prompting impacted companies to begin to request refunds. In turn, consumers began suing the likes of Sony and Microsoft to get what they said was their share. The gamers in the Microsoft and Sony lawsuits argue that the 2025 price hikes of PlayStation and Xbox consoles, which added $50 or more to their sticker price, were due to illegal tariffs and should now be returned to consumers. The Sony suit started in May, when a group of gamers sued in federal court in California, saying Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) would be unjustly enriching itself if it did not pass tariff refunds to its PS5 buyers. “Sony is poised to be paid twice for the same unlawful tariff burden: once by its customers (through elevated prices) and once by the U.S. government (through tariff refunds),” the gamers’ lawyers wrote at the time. They called for Sony to partially reimburse anyone who bought a PlayStation in the U.S. since August 1, 2025. The Microsoft suit, filed by gamer Trevor Hastings against the Xbox giant in July, made similar claims. The console makers push back In late July, Nintendo’s lawyers, facing a similar suit accusing them of double-dipping on tariffs and refunds, replied with arguments that previewed Microsoft’s and Sony’s: “Nintendo or one of its retailers set a price for each product, and consumers decided whether that price was worth paying,” they wrote. Sony has buttressed that Nintendo-style argument this week by saying that the gamers have failed to prove that tariffs were the reason for its August 2025 PS5 price hike. They call thatclaim “speculative and illogical.” Other factors, including “inflation, currency fluctuations, component costs, logistics, competitive dynamics, or demand,” could have played a role. (No, the Sony lawyers do not break down the costs and factors that officially triggered the price increases). Microsoft has also argued that there’s no proof in these lawsuits that tariffs drove all or some of the price increase, as it seeks to dismiss the tariff refund suit it’s facing: “Plaintiff provides no specific allegations that would establish any pricing differential attributable to tariffs or suggest any possibility that Microsoft applied then or could recreate now any dollar-for-dollar calculation of tariff-related pricing—any more than it could any other market factor that affects pricing.” To further skewer the gamer side’s argument in its case, Sony’s lawyers have pointed to what might be a surprising defense: yet another PlayStation 5 price hike from this past spring, after the tariffs were ruled illegal. “If the original price increase were attributable to tariffs, SIE [Sony Interactive Entertainment, aka PlayStation] would have had no reason to raise prices again after the Supreme Court invalidated the IEEPA tariffs.” … “If tariffs were the cause of the price increases, one would expect SIE to lower prices once the tariffs were eliminated—not raise them again. Instead, the timeline confirms that the pricing of PlayStation consoles includes a diverse and dynamic set of input costs.” Judges have not yet ruled on the arguments made by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. Last week, Panic, the company behind the small, yellow Playdate handheld said it would be passing its tariff refunds on to consumers. It is the only gaming hardware maker to have made such a pledge. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my reporting, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: A reporter’s second Second Life Wagner James Au, who from 2003-2006 was paid by San Francisco-based tech company Linden Lab to be a full-time journalist embedded in their virtual world Second Life, is returning to the company. This time, he’ll be an editorial advisor and business development specialist, he tells Game File. The new role will involve trying to share the stories of people inhabiting Second Life’s ongoing online world with reporters and by extension the public. Au plans to continue to also chronicle some of that through his long-running blog New World Notes. I’ve known Au since the mid-2000s and featured him in a 2007 article for the Columbia Journalism Review about reporters like him opening up virtual news outlets within Second Life. As I wrote at the time: On April 22, 2003, writing as Hamlet Linden for the New World Notes blog on Second Life’s Web site, Au introduced himself. “For the next few months, Linden Lab has invited me to set aside my journalist cap, and instead, don the digital beanie of their in-house virtual correspondent.” He wasn’t paid to keep it positive. He wrote about builders and eccentrics, but then in August of that year, he reported on a tax revolt against Linden Lab (a complaint about the fees it charges users who build stuff) led by a resident whose avatar was a big cat. Second Life has always been less of a video game and more of a virtual world where people can live, hang out, make art, sell virtual items and flirt. Back in 2007, Au described touring it as “sort of like underwater lucid dreaming.” For the past two decades, Au has maintained New World Notes as an independent publication. But he said he’s been drawn back to Second Life and Linden Lab as a place to directly work. The virtual world has around 650,000 monthly active users, he said, “which is actually about what it was during the hype wave.” Au says he’s still finding rich stories in Second Life, the kind that keep him interested 20 years into the beat: “Over the last few months for instance, I wrote about an SL creator in Venezuela whose apartment was destroyed by the earthquakes, so the global SL community rallied to get him back on his feet,” he told me. “Then there’s the woman from a Middle Eastern country who explored her lesbian sexuality in SL, then earned enough from her virtual jewelry to escape her abusive family situation and country.” Au wants to beckon more reporters to give Second Life another look. He argues that it is often ahead of internet trends, noting, for example, an early backlash in the community against AI-made art. Now the platform is drawing curiosity from more of the user-generated content community who’ve grown up with the likes of Roblox, according to Au. “Second Life was too early during its hype wave in 2005-2010, but it now feels right for a new wave of interest,” he told me.
US military fended off Iranian drones as it escorted a record amount of oil through Strait of Hormuz, sources say
The US military escorted 40 commercial vessels carrying 18 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, marking a wartime high as Iran and the US exchanged a new round strikes on Tuesday, two US officials familiar with the operations told CNN.
Rockstar’s GTA VI Preview Dwarfed Netflix’s Own Films by 8 Million Views, After Briefly Taking the Platform Offline
Rockstar's GTA VI: An Extended Look topped weekly views on Netflix with 31.1 million views registered in just four days.
Corpay (CPAY) Simplifies Its Business As Profits Take A Hit
On August 5, Corpay (NYSE:CPAY) delivered two headlines in one breath. The corporate payments company reported second-quarter results that beat its own targets, and it agreed to sell a UK fleet software business it no longer sees as core. Revenue climbed 21% to $1,338.8 million and adjusted earnings per share jumped 36% to $7.00, yet […]
Transcat expands biomedical business with $12.8M acquisition
Transcat expands its biomedical calibration business with a $12.8 million acquisition of Southeastern Biomedical Associates in North Carolina, extending its reach in the Southeast.
Trump administration cuts health care coverage for some transgender youth in California
Newsom’s 2026-27 budget already includes $10 million for “capacity grants to gender-affirming care services providers,” plus $8 million each in the next two budget years.
I dropped out of college and built a $7 million Pokémon cards business
Andres Fernandez dropped out of his business degree in college and built a Pokémon cards had $7.8 million in sales in 2025, mainly from Whatnot.
URI cybersecurity program secures $4.8 million in NSF funding
KINGSTON, R.I. – Aug. 26, 2026 – The University of Rhode Island’s Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity Center has landed two major National Science Foundation awards, totaling $4.8 million, that will fund scholarships for students enrolled in the University’s Professional Science Master’s in Cybersecurity program, including its new Securing Artificial Intelligence track. This new funding will […]
Eagles Get Brutal Reality Check On $98 Million Star
The Philadelphia Eagles made a significant investment in the veteran edge rusher Jonathan Greenard this offseason. So far, the veteran’s stock is down as he struggles to get on the field. Heading into the start of training camp, Greenard was ruled out for several weeks due to a pectoral injury. At first, the coaching staff […] The post Eagles Get Brutal Reality Check On $98 Million Star appeared first on HEAVY.
Steelers news: Ramsey gets 'intense' endorsement from $68 million defender
Jalen Ramsey has been out of practice for the Pittsburgh Steelers so far in training camp. Recently, Ramsey was back at practice, coming off the PUP list on Monday . Ramsey’s return to practice brought plenty of high praise , including some from Alex Highsmith, per Blitzburgh. “The way he plays the game. He is someone who plays with such intensity, […] The post Steelers news: Ramsey gets 'intense' endorsement from $68 million defender appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Highmark Health Plans appoints new president
Highmark Health Plans — the Pittsburgh based nonprofit that insures nearly 8 million people — has a new president. Gustavo “Gus” Giraldo will begin effective immediately, parent company Highmark Health announced Monday. Giraldo comes most recently from CVS Health-owned Aetna, where he served as senior vice president of individual and
Chesapeake Regional may avoid criminal trial, but former OB-GYN Perwaiz's patients are still suing
By Yiqing Wang/WHRO Federal prosecutors said this week they have reached a tentative deferred prosecution agreement with Chesapeake Regional Medical Center for charges related to disgraced former OB-GYN Javaid Perwaiz. The deal would require the hospital to admit certain facts, accept an independent monitor, repay health care programs and create a $12.8 million fund for Perwaiz’s former […]
Helcim Raises $38 Million to Fill Small Business Banking Void
Helcim, a payments company focused on Canadian small and medium-sized businesses, has raised $38 million in new funding. The Calgary startup’s Series C
Kirkwood bond would pay for needed equipment and technology upgrades for health care students
Voters across 18 Iowa counties will decide this fall whether to approve an $88 million bond to upgrade Kirkwood Community College, including new equipment for nursing and EMT students.
Swiss forward Embolo joins Atlanta United
Swiss striker Breel Embolo has signed for Atlanta United, the Major League Soccer club announced Sunday, in a deal reportedly worth $18 million.Last year the club splashed $22 million on Ivory Coast striker Emmanuel Latte Lath from English Championship side Middlesbrough.
Findlay Park Partners LLP Takes $195.78 Million Position in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. $LYV
Findlay Park Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,069,200 shares of the compa
Meet the sisters who got dumped by their landlords and were down to their last £15,000 before they built an £8 million business
Annabel and Emily Lui left careers in finance and law to build Cutter & Squidge. Their next target is £10 million.
How Angine de Poitrine, KEXP BBQ performer, went viral this year
The masked art rockers went from obscurity to indie stardom when their must-see KEXP performance hit 18 million views.
JD Sports Trips Over the Sneaker Cycle
The sportswear retailer cut its profit outlook by £50 million (about $68 million) as young shoppers pulled back, North America weakened and sneaker demand lost its heat.
Scientists discovered four snakes curled together in a burrow for 38 million years as the volcanic ash preserved their remarkable fossils
A snake fossil discovery in Wyoming has given palaeontologists an unusually close look at the lives of these ancient reptiles. Four complete skeletons belonging to a newly recognised species, have helped researchers understand an early member of the ‘boa family’ and the history of small, burrowing snakes in North America.
Pay to play: NJ public contractors poured record $18 million into politics in 2025
The record came after New Jersey relaxed pay-to-play restrictions. Contractor giving tied to the governor’s race soared.
Three Binghamton University professors win prestigious NSF CAREER Awards
More than $1.8 million in grant funding will be used to pursue groundbreaking research in robotics, materials science, and urban planning.
Are You One of 3.8 Million Affected? A Major Health Data Breach Expands
The massive health data breach from CareCloud is 10 times worse than thought. It included social security numbers and other private info.
Pennsylvania’s Sports Betting Handle, Revenue Increase Significantly in July
The Keystone State’s sportsbooks generated $64.8 million in profits on a $509.5 million handle.
Vic Fangio reveals that Jonathan Greenard may miss start of regular season
Edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, the Eagles’ $98 million free agent signing, is in danger of missing the start of the season with a pectoral injury.
Maker of ice cream sold at grocery stores nationwide files for bankruptcy as it appeals $23.8M judgment
Rebel Creamery reported $13.78 million in assets and $23.85 million in liabilities as it appeals a $23.785 million Van Leeuwen judgment.
MSSU opens new health science building
A new $48 million building officially opens at Missouri Southern.
Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MLCO) Stock Rises on Q2 2026 Earnings
Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (MLCO) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.3 billion, down 40.0% from a year earlier, as gross profit fell sharply to $429.4 million. Despite the weaker top line, operating profit improved to $127.8 million, while net income attributable to common shareholders rose to $22.7 million, or $0.057 per diluted share.Cash generation strengthened meaningfully during the quarter. Cash from operating activit
Protalix BioTherapeutics Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial and Business Results
Company to host conference call and webcast today at 8:00 a.m. EDT Revenues from selling goods increased to $19.8 million in the second quarter of 2026, up...
Trump Media posts massive $238M loss, plans major business pivot
Trump Media & Technology, the company owned by President Donald Trump, posted a $238 million loss over the past three months, prompting the business to pivot to a new focus on users' social media use.
Trump Media posts massive $238M loss, plans major business pivot
Trump Media & Technology, the company owned by President Donald Trump, posted a $238 million loss over the past three months, prompting the business to pivot to a new focus on users' social media use.
Rossford business owners cheer roundabout project's completion
After two months of work, a new roundabout in downtown Rossford has officially opened. The $2.8 million roundabout at the State Rt. 65 (Dixie Highway), ...
Doral bets $738 million on its U.S. renewable energy business
The Israeli company will more than double its stake in Doral LLC to 53.2%, valuing the American subsidiary at about $4.1 billion in the latest transaction and potentially postponing plans for a separate IPO.
MidCap Business Credit Completes $8MM Asset-Based Credit Facility for Hardwood Manufacturer
MidCap Business Credit completed an $8 million asset-based credit facility for a manufacturer of premium custom plank hardwood flooring located in central
Arkansas State University System trustees approve $18 million for Newport health science center
The Arkansas State University System Board of Trustees on Friday unanimously approved an $18 million budget for the construction of a new health science center at its Newport campus.
Mark Cruz to lead Indian Health Service amid staffing and infrastructure challenges
Senior Health and Human Services advisor Mark Cruz will now lead the U.S. agency that provides healthcare to some 2.8 million Native Americans.
US Senate confirms Mark Cruz to lead Indian Health Service
Senior Health and Human Services advisor Mark Cruz will now lead the U.S. agency that provides healthcare to some 2.8 million Native Americans.
Retail traders are still copying Leopold Aschenbrenner's portfolio
A website that allows investors to copy Aschenbrenner's trades has $28 million mimicking him, and up 30% from last week's lows.
Blackhawks Trade Pitch Lands Flames $30M Skilled Winger
The Chicago Blackhawks have undoubtedly had an eventful offseason. They have added new players to their roster, including Bowen Byram, Jordan Greenway, Cole Smith, and Ian Cole. They also brought back franchise legend Patrick Kane on a two-year, $8 million AAV contract.Overall, with these moves, it is clear that the Blackhawks want to be more […] The post Blackhawks Trade Pitch Lands Flames $30M Skilled Winger appeared first on HEAVY.
Elanco Animal Health Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results
Raising Full Year Outlook and Innovation Target, Improving Year-End Net Leverage Ratio Target Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results: Revenue of $1,368 million,...
College football leaders seek an act of Congress to bring parity
The Texas Longhorns reportedly invested nearly $48 million in their roster as the Wisconsin Badgers spent $25 million.
Las Vegas Sphere drove Sphere Entertainment’s Q2 revenues up 11% to $314M; operating loss ballooned 22%
The Sphere segment, which runs the Las Vegas venue, generated revenues of $226.4 million, up $50.8 million, or 29%, year-over-year.
Former Saban assistant gets ‘long-term’ contract extension at current school
Already under contract through 2031 at $8 million per year
Ocular Therapeutix Reports Second Quarter Revenue, Provides Business Highlights
BEDFORD, Mass.—Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCUL), an integrated biopharmaceutical company in the retina space, has reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, and provided recent business highlights. Total net revenue was $13.5 million for the second quarter of 2026, flat as compared with the same period in 2025. The company also reported a net loss of $78.8 million for the quarter, compared with a net loss of $67.8 million for the comparable quarter of 2025.
ON Semiconductor Earnings Beat Estimates Driven by AI Data Center Growth
The chipmaker reported net income of $226.8 million in the second quarter, up from $170.3 million a year earlier.