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WATCH LIVE: Senate starts voting on legislation to fund immigration enforcement after 'weaponization' fund abandoned
ECU psychologists lead, serve and protect military members
Alumni of ECU’s clinical health psychology doctoral program are using their skills to lead, serve and protect the health of our military.
Cruz, Cantwell bill to overhaul college sports gets Nick Saban backing
Senators in both parties say they are close to passing landmark legislation that would pave the way for a major overhaul of the rules governing college athletics. The “Protect College Sports” Act, …
Grep this: Microsoft grafts (most) Linux commands onto Windows
Coreutils serves over 75 Unix commands in Windows and PowerShell command lines
Senate Republicans drop Trump ballroom funding from immigration bill
Senate Republicans have formally removed funding for President Donald Trump’s ballroom security as part of their sprawling immigration funding package, according to revised legislative text released Wednesday.
Scientists lose critical climate record as ocean observatory will go dark under Trump funding cuts
An expert said it’s a crippling loss of information.
NEWS RELEASE - WNMU Expands Telemental Health Training for Rural New Mexico
For rural and underserved communities in New Mexico, accessing professional counseling services has historically meant long travel and logistical challenges. To address this, Western New Mexico University (WNMU) is working to eliminate these barriers by expanding its telemental health training and services and positioning itself as a leader in modern counseling education. Central to this… Continue reading NEWS RELEASE – WNMU Expands Telemental Health Training for Rural New Mexico
Wu, a Collins foe, endorses his Senate challenger Latoya Gayle
Michelle Wu and Nick Collins have bitterly clashed the past two years over his vocal opposition to her property tax legislation.
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
How does Idaho’s trans bathroom ban affect businesses? Attorneys break it down.
In about a month, Idaho’s new law banning transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity will take effect.
KBR Awarded $8 Billion Antarctic Science and Engineering Support Contract by U.S. National Science Foundation
KBR secures an $8 billion Antarctic contract to support U.S. scientific operations over 20 years.Quiver AI SummaryKBR has been awarded an $8 billion ceiling Antarctic Science and Engineering Support Contract by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which will span 20 years starting in June 2026. This contract involves providing operations, maintenance, logistics, and science support for the U.S. Antarctic Program, which manages three year-r
A Psychedelics Revival Is Overdue
R. Gordon Wasson was a Manhattan banker who fancied himself a mycologist. In 1955, after decades studying the mushrooms of ancient cultures, he traveled to the remote mountains of southern Mexico to partake of what locals called the “flesh of the gods.” Wasson chronicled the experience in Life magazine — the first widely published account of psychedelic mushrooms since Spanish friars condemned their use in the early 17th century.
Top Georgia politicians rake in cash as lawsuits that could stop them drag
A handful of Georgia politicians raked in millions of dollars during the recent legislative session while most elected officials were prohibited from raising money.
‘Getting things done’: John Taylor swaps mayoral re-election bid for run at HD 109
His candidacy comes amid a broader political reshuffling in Miami-Dade, with multiple legislative seats opening due to term limits, higher-office bids and shifting congressional borders.
‘Cancer crisis’: Experts warn of impending global shortage of radiology professionals
Researchers project that the global healthcare workforce will need approximately 750,000 more radiologists by 2050.
International medical graduates represent nearly 25% of diagnostic radiologists in US
Recently policy changes under the Trump administration "highlight potential vulnerability in relying on this as a supply of radiologists," experts write in Academic Radiology.
Orange County scores and player stats for Tuesday, June 2
Scores and stats from Orange County games on Tuesday, June 2
Breaking down New York's proposed redistricting amendment
A constitutional amendment poised for first passage in the New York state Legislature this week could help Democrats gain up to four congressional seats in 2028 if ultimately approved by voters, experts say.
California’s sluggish vote counting ripped across the political spectrum: 'Extremely embarrassing'
California primary results may take weeks due to mail voting laws, sparking criticism from analysts like Nate Silver who call it embarrassing.
Pokémon Champions Comes to Android and iOS on June 17
Preregister now and get ready to battle on your mobile device. A new Mega Stone distribution awaits too.
Maryland sheriffs should not be handcuffed by reckless sanctuary politics
Seventeen Maryland sheriffs challenge the state's Community Trust Act in a federal lawsuit filed by FAIR, calling the sanctuary law unconstitutional.
SEC, Big Ten release joint statement on Protect College Sports Act, cite ‘critical issues’ with bill
Ahead of a Wednesday hearing on the Protect College Sports Act, the Big Ten and SEC released a joint statement against the bill in its current state. The two leagues cited “critical issues” with the bipartisan legislation, introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) last week. After the bill’s introduction last week, […]
WTAS: Advocates Commend Introduction of Chairman Cruz’s Protect College Sports Act - U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Intercollegiate conferences and universities across the country are praising the introduction of the Protect College Sports Act, bipartisan legislation aimed at ending the uncertainty and disorder facing college athletics. The legislation was formally introduced today in the U.S. Senate by Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Senators Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.). Chairman Cruz will convene a full committee hearing tomorrow, June 3, at 9:00 a.m. ET on the legislation. Witnesses are Nick Saban, Pete Bevacqua, Gordon Gee, Teresa Gould, and […]
Santa Cruz County business filings: Week of June 2
Businesses operating in Santa Cruz County must register with the county clerk. Lookout Santa Cruz reviews the public filings from local businesses to report on new businesses starting in the area.
Disneyland construction forces Oogie Boogie Bash to replace Frightfully Fun parade
The new Madame Leota’s Swinging Wake street party joins the 2026 Halloween after-hours event at Disney California Adventure.
'Giving the public a voice': Legislature approves putting homestead property tax amendment on ballot
The Senate passed the House product.
Louisiana lawmakers pass two bills designed to assist small business owners
The organization that advocates for small businesses in Louisiana is generally pleased with how the legislativ...
Health minister apologises for 12,000 missing referral letters
The letters went missing from the new electronic system which holds healthcare records.
Encompass: Health minister apologises for 12,000 missing referral letters
The letters went missing from the new electronic system which holds healthcare records.
The work you can't always see: Beer is political, part 2
Recently I published a piece about beer, politics, and the question of who speaks up and who doesn’t. I meant every word of it. I still do. And then my inbox opened up. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe I’ve been writing about beer since 2014. For most of that time, I kept things deliberately light — taproom profiles, new releases, the people behind the pints. Gradually, over years of building this thing, you gave me something I didn’t expect: permission. Permission to go deeper. To say what I actually saw in this industry and what I actually believed about it. That trust isn’t something I take lightly. It’s why that piece existed at all, and it’s why this one does too. I’m not walking anything back. But I want to go further. In that piece, I wrote that beer has never existed outside the system. That immigration policy affects who staffs breweries and harvests ingredients. That labor policy affects taproom workers. That civil rights policy affects who feels safe walking into a taproom. That “beer does not exist in a vacuum. The idea that it does is comforting. It is also false.” I believe that as much now as I did when I wrote it. But one idea came back at me, in different forms, over and over (from reader emails, comments, and conversations): that beer itself isn’t political — that it only becomes political when someone decides to make it that way. That what we’re really seeing is a choice by individuals to inject division into something that doesn’t inherently require it. It’s a comforting idea. It’s also wrong — and I think it’s worth being precise about why. That framing assumes that breweries operate outside the conditions shaping everything else. That politics is something you choose to bring into a room that was, until then, clean and neutral. That if you stay quiet, you stay clear of it. But the room was never neutral. It was never clean. Politics is already in the room. It’s in who walks through the door comfortably and who hesitates. It’s in whether a space can be used for organizing without fear. It’s in whether helping someone quietly might carry consequences you have to think carefully about in advance. It’s in who staffed the brewery, who harvested the grain, who can afford to be a regular. The idea that you opt out of all that by staying quiet is an illusion. You only change how visible your response to it is. This is, I realize, a hard thing to hear if you came to a beer newsletter for something lighter. I wrote recently that “beer, for me, has always felt like a refuge — a third place in an increasingly fractured world.” I meant that. I still do. But a refuge is not an escape from reality. It’s a place to gather strength to face it. Here’s what I actually missed — and what I want to correct. Multiple people in the industry reached out to me. I’m not naming them and I’m not identifying their businesses, because that’s not my call. If and when they want to be loud about what they’re doing, that agency belongs to them. What I can share is the substance of what they said, because it complicated something I presented too cleanly. The overall message: *You don’t know what we all are doing.* And they’re right. I don’t. One example involved a collaboration brewed quietly to support another business facing serious challenges in a whole different region, with proceeds directed toward solidarity, community, and keeping operations afloat. No announcement. It could have been broadcast widely. The point was never publicity. Another example involved logistical support for community efforts: organizing safe transportation, providing space for meetings on otherwise closed days, facilitating gatherings under difficult conditions. All of it happening while balancing real financial pressure and genuine concern for personal safety. None of what they described is a brewer “deciding to make beer political.” It’s people responding to the conditions around them — conditions that are already shaping who feels safe, who has access, who can gather, who needs help, and who has the capacity to offer it. Politics, again, already in the room. Already shaping choices. Whether anyone announced it or not. I’ve spent decades in taprooms, at barrel releases, at festivals, in back offices and brewing floors, talking to the people who built this industry from nothing. I know how much happens that never makes it onto social media. I know the owner who quietly comp’d a tab for someone having a crisis. The brewer who drove an hour to pick up a stranger who needed a safe ride. The taproom that stayed dark on a Tuesday so a community group could use the space without it becoming A Whole Thing. None of that gets a post. Most of it never will. So when I wrote recently about silence — when I said that “silence right now doesn’t feel neutral, it feels like complicity” — I was writing about what I could see. And I was right about what I saw. The public silence of breweries that have the platform, the stability, and frankly the safety to say something and choose not to? That still troubles me. I’m not softening that. But some of what I read as silence is actually something else entirely. It’s people doing the work with their hands instead of their phones. It’s people who are genuinely afraid — not of being canceled, but of real consequences for their families, their employees, their ability to keep the doors open at all. That deserves more than a footnote. It deserves to be named clearly. Here’s the tension I want to sit with honestly: public statements matter. They matter because people can’t rally around something they can’t see. Visibility creates awareness and solidarity. It helps people find each other. It tells someone standing outside your taproom door, uncertain whether they’ll be welcomed inside, something they need to know — or whether it’s even safe for them to be in public at all. That’s not performative. I wrote recently that the craft beer movement “was built on collective defiance. It was built on rejecting consolidation. On pushing back against homogeneity.” I believe that too. And I’ll extend it: breweries should be at least as loud about their values as they are when they drop a new seasonal. Your hazy IPA gets a full rollout — the label art, the tap handle photo, the countdown post. Human dignity deserves the same energy. Be as loud about human rights as you are about your beer. There is no reason those two things should require different levels of courage from you. But visibility isn’t the only form of courage. And not everyone can be visible right now without real consequences — financial, personal, sometimes physical. There are people in this industry doing hard, unglamorous, sometimes risky work in the background, and announcing it would compromise it or paint a target on someone who’s already stretched thin. That’s not silence as complicity. That’s operational discipline under pressure. What I want to push back on — clearly, not gently — is the idea that behind-the-scenes action and public visibility are in competition with each other. The person organizing quietly in the back room and the person posting a statement of solidarity on a Tuesday morning are both doing something real. We need both. We need the quiet infrastructure and we need the visible signal. We need people to know that this industry — at its best, at its most independent, and human — gives a fuck. I closed that piece with a question: “Reactive and fearful? Or clear and values-driven?” That question still stands. But having heard from you, I’d add a corollary: the values-driven path isn’t always the loudest one. Sometimes it’s a phone call and a recipe. Sometimes it’s a room made available on a closed Tuesday. Sometimes it’s a drive across town for someone who needed a safe ride home. All of it is political. All of it was always political. You don’t get to opt out of that — you only get to decide what you do with it. I’ve spent more than a decade writing about this industry because I believe it can be exactly that. I’ve been lucky enough to build an audience that lets me say so plainly. That’s a privilege I intend to use. The work is happening. Some of it you’ll see. Some of it you won’t. Support it either way. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication covering beer and brewing across New York state. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
Will Trump's waning popularity pull down California Republicans? Today's election offers a clue
Democrats seek to oust even more Republicans in California legislative races. Many will move on to November
Online care is caught in the crossfire as states crack down on corporate medicine
Growing legislative scrutiny across multiple states targets the corporate structure underlying most direct-to-consumer telehealth businesses.
Online care is caught in the crossfire as states crack down on corporate medicine
Growing legislative scrutiny across multiple states targets the corporate structure underlying most direct-to-consumer telehealth businesses.
Political leaders feel differing emotions after Bears' stadium plan fails
After the Illinois General Assembly failed to pass legislation aimed at keeping the Chicago Bears in the state, reaction is bitterly divided.
New York Democrats push redistricting amendment, joining national battle
The proposed amendment won’t change the Empire State’s House lines in 2026 as local Democrats take a longer-term approach.
Trump's $1.8-billion fund unravels amid court setbacks, bipartisan pushback
Democrats say the concession is not enough, and are pushing legislation to ensure no president can ever attempt the creation of such a fund again.
Lawmakers Deliver Big Wins for Small Business
This year's regular session of the state legislature ended on Monday.
The Wyoming Department of Health Reminds People to Prevent Mosquito Bites This Summer. - Wyoming Department of Health
The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is reminding residents to protect themselves from mosquito bites as we move into warmer months to prevent West Nile Virus (WNV) infection. “Even if you don’t get bitten by mosquitoes often, one bite can still put you at risk of WNV infection,” said Courtney Tillman, Epidemiologist at the […]
Unnecessary care? OIG questions vascular procedures billed by surgeons, cardiologists and radiologists
The Trump administration believes Medicare paid up to $105 million for questionable vascular procedures in 2023 alone. No accusations have been made at this time, but the government believes 139 different physicians deserve "further scrutiny."
Tips for kids’ mental health as summer break begins
Boston Children’s psychologist Dr. Erica Lee shares simple ways parents can help kids handle the shift from school to summer.
Treasury preps Trump $250 bill while Tubman $20 bill takes more than a decade
Legislation would allow Trump’s portrait on a $250 bill, amending a law that bans living people from appearing on currency
The Virginia Supreme Court Chose Principle Over Politics: Katherine T. Bennett in RealClearPolicy - American Legislative Exchange Council
RealClearPolicy op-ed by Katherine T. Bennett examines Va. Supreme Court ruling striking a redistricting amendment over constitutional law.
Hector Mujica adds another federal endorsement as questions about CD 28 campaign’s viability persist
The new nod comes days after Florida Politics reported that Mujica has not been a registered Democrat long enough to qualify for the race.
Racial Equity Impact Assessments as Tools for Advancing Population Health and Equity in Local Policy
Racial equity impact assessments (REIAs) are used by local governments to integrate equity considerations into policymaking and decision-making processes by evaluating potential impacts of proposed legislation before enactment.
Double Hoo Patrick Higgins Appointed to Lead UVA Darden’s LaCross Institute for Ethical AI in Business
Darden has appointed technology strategist and alumnus Patrick Higgins (MBA ’16) as managing director of the LaCross Institute for Ethical AI in Business, effective 1 June 2026.
What every cardiologist should consider before signing a contract
Cathie Biga, MSN, MACC, explains why salary is just one thing a cardiologist should ask about before signing any contract.
50 million pounds of invasive fish removed from Illinois River
Carp can grow over four feet-long and gobble up resources.
Doctoral students engage in advocacy
Nearly a dozen doctoral students practiced their research communication skills this spring through legislative opportunities in Washington, D.C.
Grade 1 Winner Connect Sold To Stand In Turkey
Connect, a Grade 1 winner and veteran sire, has been sold to Şeyda Ercan Stable, and he will relocate to Turkey for the 2027 breeding season, the Turkish publication Yaris Dergisi reports. The 13-year-old son of Curlin has resided at Lane's End in Kentucky since entering stud in 2018. The deal was ...
Apply Now for the Coastal Health District Hurricane Registry - Georgia Coastal Health District
Preparing for a hurricane evacuation can be difficult for anyone, but for coastal residents with medical needs, physical disabilities,... Continue Reading This Post
National Lab Makes Science and AI-Enabled Cybersecurity Move Faster
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s commercially available artificial intelligence tool breaks down cybersecurity data silos.
Clemson biologist leads global study on how flowers beat the heat
The research funded by a grant from the Human Frontier Science Program focuses on the flowering stage, one of the most vulnerable stages in a plant's life cycle.
Why a surge of election-related websites could spell rising cyber threats for the midterms
A new report, first reported by PBS News, warns that November’s midterm elections in the United States will drive “elevated” cyber threats to political organizations, fundraising and media platforms, and that some of the groundwork for election misinformation and disinformation likely is already being laid. Check Point, a cyber security company, found that in January of this year, approximately 1,300 newly registered domains contained the keyword “election,” and approximately 2,957 contained “vote.” Registering website domains
Mississippi rural health program least transparent in U.S.
Mississippi will get over $1 billion from the federal government for rural health care. State lawmakers say they don't know where that money is going.
Wiley Registry of Mass Spectral Data - 2026 Edition
New edition of the Wiley Registry of Mass Spectral Data expands compound coverage to over 915,500 reference spectra.
UCLA softball’s record-setting season ends in extra-inning loss to Texas Tech
Jordan Woolery homers twice and helps force extras for the Bruins. Former UCLA pitcher Kaitlyn Terry drives in the go-ahead run in the ninth as Texas Tech advances with an 8-7 win.
Opinion: Untying the hands of Alaska’s most accessible healthcare providers
Legislation giving pharmacists new prescribing and patient-care authority is now in the hands of the governor.
Transactional politics or far-left planning? Either way, California’s next governor will be terrible.
Whoever wins, we can only hope they clean up the mess left by Gov. Gavin Newsom and can at least not make things worse.
Napa sculptor Mario Chiodo supports halting installation of Cesar Chavez statue
Two months after nationwide backlash against Cesar Chavez following sexual abuse and assault allegations, sculptor Mario Chiodo supports the decision to halt installation of a statue dedicated in part to the late labor leader in Napa.
GOP strategist: ‘There are 8 Senators in the Republican Conference… who are pretty put out with the White House’
NC lawmakers return from break with budget pending. Catch up on what they’re doing
The NC legislature is about to return from a break. Here’s what you need to know about their activity so far.
Pay raises for incompetence at the Colorado Capitol
By Jon Caldara I am personally responsible for helping overpay socialists to make Colorado unaffordable, overregulated and one windstorm away from a power blackout. I failed you. Colorado legislators already get automatic inflation raises. You know, just like your job (I’m assuming the sarcasm bled through that one). No private-sector worker has that kind of […]
Sweeping roofs top bright red logistics hub in Ukraine by Aranchii Architects
Metal panels with a bright red finish cloak the warehouse-like forms at Prostir Business Hub in Ukraine, completed by Aranchii Architects.
Colorado Springs-area business events starting May 31
FRIDAY Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce First Friday — 7:30-9 a.m., Space Foundation, Area 51, 4425 Arrowswest Drive, $20-$30 in advance, $35 at door, if available. Registration: scwcc.com. COMING UP June 8 Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Coffee Meetup — 10-11:30 a.m., COS City Hub, 4304 Austin Bluffs Parkway. Registration: scwcc.com. […]
Watch: Sturgeon tells BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: 'I will not apologise for crimes of my former husband'
The former first minister of Scotland says she feels she is "serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit".
New coin business opens in W’bago
Winnebago Coins celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, May 28, and owner Ryan Hatlen has already had a few eager customers come through his doors. “The neat thing about being in the coin business is that almost everybody knows somebody who collects,” Hatlen notes. “Either they have a family member who […]
WPBF First Warning meteorologists host event at Cox Science Center and Aquarium
Meet the Mets, Junior Weather Watchers took place in West Palm Beach.
MSU Benefitted From Recent Legislative Session
The recently-completed 2026 regular session of the Mississippi Legislature saw encouraging gains for Mississippi State University, the state’s leading research university, as lawmakers invested in the land-grant institution’s core missions and in the university’s world-class faculty and staff. “While the bulk of our operations saw level funding, I’m extremely pleased that the Mississippi Legislature and […]
Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (May 21-28)
There were eight restaurants and food establishments ordered closed by Orange County inspectors from May 21 to May 28.
'Stop Doing Stupid Things': Steve Hilton on His Surprisingly Strong Bid for California Governor
In a TIME interview, Hilton says California voters are ready for a Republican reset. But can he work with a Democratic state legislature?
Illinois cannabis businesses push for regulatory changes as legislative session winds down
Illinois cannabis dispensary owners are urging lawmakers to ease security and surveillance requirements, arguing the costly regulations are outdated and should be modernized as the state's legal cannabis industry matures.
Dan Sullivan vs. Dan Sullivan: GOP blasts clone candidate as lookalike enters Alaska Senate race
A Democratic strategist allegedly deployed a candidate named Dan Sullivan to challenge the incumbent Republican senator in Alaska's ranked choice system.
Judge says New Hampshire must loosen proof-of-citizenship rules for voter registration
A federal judge has said that New Hampshire must make voter registration easier by allowing applicants to attest to their U.S. citizenship if they don’t have the documents to prove it.
Ask the expert: What does good mental health care look like?
MSU psychologist Dr. Crystal Cederna shares expert strategies for managing stress, identifying mental health warning signs, and finding local support.
Approved budget includes $29M for Florida Poly growth and student success
'This investment is a powerful vote of confidence in the role Florida Poly plays in advancing Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medical education.'
NFIB Thanks LA Legislature for Passing Landmark Small Business Workforce Bill
The bill gives employers a new tool to train workers.
Legislation would extend funding for rural Maine hospitals
The current test program is set to expire at the end of this year: “We have a very high reliance on public payers. And oftentimes, those payers don’t reimburse the hospitals that provide care even at the level that it costs hospitals to provide that care."
Hochul signs measures to limit ICE cooperation, restrict mask use by ICE agents
The package represents one of the primary actions taken by Hochul and the state Legislature to push back against the Trump administration.
Ashley Gantt launches campaign to succeed Shevrin Jones in SD 34
The two-term lawmaker will leave her HD 109 seat at the end of this legislative term.
Here's the No. 1 breakfast mistake Americans make every morning, says oncologist and longevity expert
Ezekiel J. Emanuel has spent 35 years as an oncologist and expert on health policy. He shares his breakfast tips for better metabolic health, energy and longevity.
Exploring the Science Behind Pressure
The feature film Pressure, starring Andrew Scott as James Stagg and Brendan Fraser as General Dwight D. Eisenhower, opens today. It tells the story of Stagg, the UK Met Office meteorologist who served…
What does the primary’s biggest legislative upset say about the state of Oregon politics?
Some see signs of a leftward shift in state Sen. Janeen Sollman’s defeat. Others see political retribution.
A Neurologist’s Non-Negotiable 7 Daily Habits to Prevent Stroke
In TODAY.com’s Expert Tip of the Day, Dr. Carolyn D. Brockington shares the “small steps” she takes every day to protect her brain.
Science with Stevie: Indoor Rainbow
Meteorologist Stevie Daniels walks us through how to create an indoor rainbow in this Science with Stevie segment!
I’m an IVF Doctor. Business Is Booming Because Ob-Gyns Aren’t Doing Their Jobs.
Just last Monday, a woman sat across from me in my office and asked a question I have come to dread. Why had no one told her? She is 33, a therapist, married three years, and she has been to her gynecologist every year since high school. She was also on the brink of perimenopause. She had assumed that when she was ready, her body would be too. No one in two decades of annual visits had ever explained that the most consequential decisions about her capacity to bear children were being made by her ovaries on a calendar she could not see, while her doctor took her blood pressure and refilled her birth control. She is the patient I see several times a month. She is the most preventable tragedy in American medicine. I am board certified in both obstetrics and gynecology, and reproductive endocrinology. There’s a fertility crisis happening right now in America—and a furious debate about who is to blame. The alleged culprits include housing, smartphones, and capitalism. One group is getting off lightly: ob-gyns. Read [ How Perimenopause Became America’s New Health Scare ](https://www.thefp.com/p/how-perimenopause-became-americas) In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the U.S. fertility rate had fallen to fewer than 1.6 children per woman—the lowest figure in our history—despite a 2025 survey of American Gen-Z women that found that nearly three-quarters intended to become mothers. American women are not opting out of building a family. They are running out of time.
Houston-area nail salon owner has a warning for other businesses
He believes the same person broke into his shop, leaving behind costly damage, while cleaning out the cash register.
'SAVE' America Act raises confusion as Republicans continue push
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility – or “SAVE” America Act – was passed by the House earlier this year along a mostly party-line vote. It would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and impose new ID requirements to cast a ballot.
'SAVE' America Act raises confusion as Republicans continue push
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility – or “SAVE” America Act – was passed by the House earlier this year along a mostly party-line vote. It would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and impose new ID requirements to cast a ballot.
Bessent: Nothing 'untoward' about Trump appearing on $250 bill
The treasury secretary said his department has been preparing in case Congress approves legislation creating the $250 bills
Microsoft 0-day feud escalates as researcher threatens another Windows exploit dump
Six 0-days, three under active exploitation, more to come on July 14?
Legislature overrides Erie County executive's veto of youth hunting law
The local law will take effect as soon as it is filed with the secretary of state.
Fireweed pitch: Unwinnable Democrats should back GOP, independents
If Democrats cannot win the 1st U.S. Congressional District race in Montana, the party is better positioned backing select moderate Republicans or independent candidates who can advance at least some of the agenda. That’s what Fireweed Campaigns, a self-described politically independent Helena-based firm with only Republican clients pitched to a room of approximately a dozen ‘Democrat-adjacent’ strategists mixed with representatives during a quiet strategy meeting in Anaconda in the summer of 2025.
Marvin Forland, MD, founding faculty member of the UT Health San Antonio medical school, passes away at 93 - UT Health San Antonio
Internist, nephrologist, educator, leader helped shape the school in its early years Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, lees22@uthscsa.edu SAN ANTONIO, May 28, 2026 – Marvin Forland, MD, MACP, a founding faculty member of the School of Medicine at what was then The University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio – now the Joe R. […]
Florida Clerks of Courts relieved by measure allowing them to retain more funding
The legislation allows Clerks of Courts to keep more funding from fines and fees.
Early primary voting numbers show sluggish start
Early voting numbers are a little lower than the 2022 primary
IAM Activists Build Political Power at Weeklong Training Seminar
IAM Union political activists from across North America gathered this week at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center for the IAM Political Education Seminar, a weeklong training focused on strengthening political action, legislative advocacy, member mobilization and worker power. Throughout the week, participants received hands-on training on lobbying elected officials, organizing political campaigns,
Inside the fight against ‘zombie deer disease,’ scientists confront changing politics
Many states, including Louisiana, have adopted policies aimed at stopping healthy deer from coming into contact with infected deer and environments. But those efforts could soon be dialed back at the will of state legislators, worrying scientists who study the disease and its expansion.
Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) and Three Other Science and Technology Institutes Launch Korea’s Largest Student Startup League, “GRAVITY 2026” to Foster Global Startups
-Offering a total prize pool of KRW 200 million and overseas acceleration opportunities, the program provides full-scale support for student startup teams preparing to debut on the global stage.
3 Foods a Cardiologist Always Avoids Giving His Kids
In TODAY.com’s Expert Tip of the Day, a cardiologist and dad reveals which foods are off the menu in his household. “I want them to live a long, healthy life,” he says of his three children.