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Seedy K’s Ville Report: La Familia III

For reasons soon to be explained, this can’t be called a GameCap. I had every intention of covering it normally. Running box score on the MacBook. Notepad in hand. Then, at 4:52, I got a call from my ex-, with whom I’m better friends than ever. Even when we were together. It was granddaughter — […]

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Jul 22 • 8:53 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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The greenest goodbye: Human composting and the science of becoming soil

In 2020, Recompose was the first U.S. company to develop the technology needed for the commercial composting of human bodies, disrupting a funeral industry that had been largely unchanged for decades. Now 14 states have legalized the climate-friendly practice and more than a dozen others are considering it. Additional startups have launched to offer a greener goodbye and all are looking to scale.

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Jul 22 • 9:04 AM EDT • Science • geekwire.com
Mark Lamster: What a new Dallas Mavericks arena should look like

Mark Lamster on how the Dallas Mavericks can transform Valley View into a fan and environmentally friendly neighborhood.

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Jul 22 • 8:56 AM EDT • Entertainment • dallasnews.com
19 happy hours in Madison for sports, friends and first dates

From swanky downtown bars to tacos and tequila shots, find a variety of places to drink (and eat) more cheaply around Madison.

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Jul 22 • 6:00 AM EDT • Sports • captimes.com
By 39-22% NY’ers Say Online Sports Gambling is Bad for New York

1 in 4 NY’ers Placed a Bet on a Sporting Event in the Last Year Of Bettors: 84% Bet With Online Sportsbooks; 54% Bet With Friends or Family; 41% Bet…

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Jul 22 • 5:30 AM EDT • Sports • sri.siena.edu
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A touchscreen and light make the new X4 Pro the best version of Xteink’s tiny e-readers

The X4 Pro is Xteink’s best pocket-friendly e-reader yet.

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Jul 21 • 10:00 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Nintendo keeps making shooters more friendly and approachable

A fresh take on looter shooters.

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Jul 21 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Randi Weingarten launches into wild political rant at teachers union convention

Kayleigh McEnany and 'Fox & Friends Weekend' hosts criticize the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention for its political focus.

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Jul 21 • 8:50 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Briar Cliff University Expands Business Programs, Introduces New Degrees and Curriculum Enhancements

Briar Cliff University is introducing new undergraduate and graduate academic programs, expanding interdisciplinary learning opportunities, restructuring its business department, and pursuing specialized business accreditation to better prepare students for evolving workforce needs.

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Jul 21 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • briarcliff.edu
Margaritaville Ball Drop 2027 Gala Megawatt Entertainment

Welcome NYE 2027, view the ball drop at a tropical paradise gala at Margaritaville Times Square Hotel, a family-friendly event with VIP amenities

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Jul 20 • 7:08 PM EDT • Entertainment • joonbug.com
This Is Where A Year Of Health Care Costs Less Than A Month In The US

This American moved to Spain and now saves thousands in health care, enjoys a lower cost of living, made new friends, bought property, and lives a fulfilling life abroad

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Jul 20 • 12:03 PM EDT • Health • forbes.com
Rescued bald eagle may be internet-famous Jackie

Friends of Big Bear Valley is working with rescue organizations to monitor the situation.

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Jul 20 • 8:27 AM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Can South Side residents and business owners shake negative perceptions of the neighborhood?

Steve Miklas jumped at the chance to move his music store from Squirrel Hill to the South Side last spring. The opportunity came when an old friend came...

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Jul 20 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • post-gazette.com
Series Preview: Milwaukee Brewers vs. New York Mets

Brewers host Mets, Old Friends Freddy Peralta, Devin Williams

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Jul 19 • 9:57 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
How To use Claude's Reflect dashboard and learn when it's time to touch grass

Break reminders are your friend.

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Jul 19 • 2:30 PM EDT • Technology • engadget.com
When Friends Complained About The High Cost Of Wedding Videos, This Entrepreneur Saw Opportunity. She Created A Business That’s On Track For $3.8 Million In Revenue This Year.

Anne Marie Carroll, founder of Wedding Weekender, turned a layoff into a chance to start a business that turns wedding guests into photographers—and creates candid videos to capture the events.

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Jul 19 • 12:55 PM EDT • Business • forbes.com
As Democrats move left, Klobuchar makes a business-friendly pitch in governor’s race

Her pro-growth message comes as Democrats increasingly want corporations and the wealthy to pay more taxes.

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Jul 19 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • startribune.com
Public health improvements stall amid Trump’s DEI crackdown

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — As Earl Williams drove through a historic Black neighborhood known as Dewey City in his hometown, he hardly recognized what he saw. Homes that once belonged to friends, family, and neighbors had siding covered in mold. Some were boarded up. Others had holes in their roofs. Black churches once used Oquina Creek, […]

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Jul 19 • 4:00 AM EDT • Health • georgiarecorder.com
'Just living life again': Beechview resident part of a Pitt trial connecting cancer patients with mental health supports

Rebecca Skolnicki considers herself lucky to have a great support system in her family, friends and neighbors. But after undergoing extensive surgery to...

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Jul 19 • 4:00 AM EDT • Health • post-gazette.com
What the regionality of Marx’s Republican primary win reveals about Colorado conservatives

Running for governor of Colorado, controversial outsider Victor Marx, 61, a self-proclaimed exorcist and a friendly ally to the late Charlie Kirk, pulled out a 39.9% Republican primary victory. State Sen. and Republican establishment candidate Barbara Kirkmeyer came in a close second with around 39.4% of the vote. Meanwhile, Scott Bottoms, a state legislator and […]

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Jul 19 • 2:45 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
'A force for Utah politics': Family, friends remember Merrill Cook at state Capitol

Many gathered at the state Capitol in Salt Lake City on Saturday to celebrate the life of former congressman Merrill Cook.

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Jul 19 • 12:31 AM EDT • Politics • ksl.com
Larry David seemingly tells RFK Jr. to ‘drop dead’ in new episode of HBO series: ‘You’re not a doctor’

Did Larry David’s character just tell former friend RFK Jr. to ‘drop dead’ in his new show? Here’s what happened.

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Jul 18 • 6:36 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Phoebe Sumter to Host Free Children’s Health Fair in Americus - Americus Times-Recorder

Phoebe Sumter Medical Center will host an upcoming Children’s Health Fair, a community-focused event offering free health screenings and family-friendly activities, on Saturday, August 1, 2026, from 11 a.m. to […]

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Jul 18 • 3:15 PM EDT • Health • americustimesrecorder.com
The Influencer Whose Friendship With Trump Made Her a Sports Star

Emily Austin has leveraged her political connections for special access to cover World Cup games and UFC fights.

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Jul 18 • 11:00 AM EDT • Sports • wsj.com
Veteran-owned business supports Gold Star families through custom fishing rods

Hellbender Outfitters owner Matt Moore joins ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to discuss his Tennessee-based business and how he supports military families.

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Jul 18 • 8:04 AM EDT • Business • foxnews.com
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4 Disadvantages Of Using Microsoft Word Instead Of Google Docs

MS Word's Ribbon interface is not beginner-friendly, there's no free offline version, working in the cloud requires setup, and there are formatting issues.

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Jul 18 • 6:47 AM EDT • Technology • bgr.com
The Odyssey to Gracie Abrams: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

Matt Damon dons the sword and sandals in Christopher Nolan’s epic, while the LA singer-songwriter shares more arena-friendly scream-along anthems

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Jul 18 • 1:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • theguardian.com
Honda’s Affordable New Performance Moto Is Its Most Rider-Friendly Yet

Thanks to its compact size and innovative tech, the sporty bike looks super-approachable right out of the gate.

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Jul 17 • 1:55 PM EDT • Technology • gearpatrol.com
Two Religions, One Purpose: Business Leaders on Faith at Work

Sumreen Ahmad and Paul Lambert, two friends of different faiths, discuss their journeys towards championing pluralism and religious inclusion at work.

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Jul 17 • 11:05 AM EDT • Business • interfaithamerica.org
Sports without politics is a fantasy and the World Cup proves it

From ancient Greece to Nazi Germany, sport and politics have long been intertwined. Nevertheless, we still imagine that international sport can be kept above the fray and serve as a neutral arena where nations compete on merit alone. In this article, diplomacy scholar Geoffrey Allen Pigman argues the 2026 FIFA World Cup shows this is a dangerous illusion. When international sport is left entirely to revenue-maximizing private bodies like FIFA, it doesn't escape politics, but rather surrenders to its worst expressions. With the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics fast approaching, the IOC must decide whether to learn that lesson or repeat the same mistakes. The largest and most lucrative FIFA World Cup ever draws toward its climactic conclusion amidst a swirl of controversy. Team members, staff, fans, and spectators have been denied their right to enter the United States to participate, and US President Donald Trump intervened with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to overturn a referee’s call that Trump believed disadvantaged the US national team. It is a moment to step back and reflect on what the purposes of international sport mega-events like the World Cup, and international sport more broadly, are, and what they should be. Does international sport serve public purposes? Is there a public interest? Or is it primarily a private endeavor organized by commercial enterprises to entertain the global public (and generate profit in the process), which is occasionally used by governments and leaders for raisons d’etat? Central to the idea of sport is the principle of fair play, which in the international context demands that games be free from political interference. However, it is impossible to separate sport from politics, all claims to the contrary notwithstanding. The most positive political use of international sport through the millennia has been to facilitate diplomacy. The use of international sport for diplomatic objectives has existed since at least the time of the ancient Olympic Games, around which was instituted the custom of the Ekecheiria, or Olympic Truce, between participating states to facilitate fair competition and diplomatic achievements by ensuring that participants could travel safely to the Olympiad. In his seminal work On Diplomacy (1987), diplomacy scholar James Der Derian characterized the objectives of diplomacy as overcoming alienation and mediating estrangement between governments and between peoples. One increasingly important diplomatic tool in the technology-infused media environment over the past century has been public diplomacy, under which governments and non-state diplomatic actors (e.g. transnational corporations) communicate to global publics about their international policy objectives and to shape their global brand image. Political scientist Michał Kobierecki, in his important book Sports Diplomacy (2020), views sports diplomacy as falling broadly within the ambit of public diplomacy, as international sport intimately involves the participation of global publics as spectators and consumers of global media. Diplomacy scholar Stuart Murray and this author, in a 2013 article, distinguish between international sport used for diplomatic purposes and international sport-as-diplomacy, which encompasses the range of diplomacy that occurs as teams and competitors, spectators and fans, and government officials all converge for international sporting events like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup. Diplomacy scholar H.E. Chehabi, in a 2001 article on US-Iran sports diplomacy, describes the interaction between spectators and fans at international sporting events as “people-to-people diplomacy,” in which relationships develop independently of governments and their objectives. Diplomacy by the aforementioned definitions is often unsuccessful. Moreover, all too often the tools of diplomacy may be employed by governments and other actors to thwart or oppose the objectives of diplomacy as characterized by Der Derian. Governments routinely use the tools of public diplomacy to disseminate propaganda, spreading misinformation in the attempt to deceive global publics about their objectives and to create misleading impressions about their brand identity. Within sports diplomacy, the term “sportswashing” has been coined recently to describe how governments invest in and promote international sport to create positive global public impressions of their nations and, in doing so, to distract the global public from their deficient records in areas such as human rights and democratic governance. Murray, in his 2018 book Sports Diplomacy: Origins, Theory and Practice, introduces the concept of sports anti-diplomacy, wherein governments intentionally use international sport to advance aggressive and nationalistic objectives. Obvious historical examples include Hitler’s use of the 1936 Berlin Olympics to glorify his Third Reich and the 1969 El Salvador-Honduras football “war.” SUGGESTED READING The beautiful game made ugly By Emily Ryall FIFA argues that it is and seeks to be apolitical in its stewardship of international Association Football (soccer). FIFA policies governing bids to host the World Cup require uninhibited and non-discriminatory access for players, team staff, and spectators of all participating countries to host nations and venues. It became clear soon after Trump returned to power in the United States in January 2025 that Trump’s political intentions and objectives to limit non-US citizens from living and working in the United States and, in numerous cases, even visiting the country, would collide with FIFA’s host nation policies. Beginning soon after the start of the second Trump administration, US federal authorities imposed restrictions on entry to the United States of citizens of between 20 and 40 countries for any purpose, with only limited exceptions. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began arresting non-US citizens in the United States, including persons with and without legal status, holding them in jails, concentration camps, and other detention facilities until they were deported to their home or third countries, where they faced substantive risks to their personal safety. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, in an effort to ensure the most successful and lucrative World Cup in history, engaged diplomatically with President Trump in an attempt to facilitate entry to the US for World Cup participants. Infantino did all in his power to ingratiate himself with Trump, to the extent of creating a FIFA “Peace Prize,” which he awarded to Trump in December 2025 at a ceremony in the then Trump-controlled John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on the occasion of the World Cup draw. The prize was an ersatz consolation for someone who aspired in vain to win the rather more prestigious and well-known Nobel Peace Prize. And in the run-up to the World Cup, conditions became worse. In February 2026, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a war of aggression against Iran, illegal under international law, under the false pretence that Iran’s government was preparing to attack the United States and Israel. During the US aerial bombardment of Iran, US planes bombed Azadi Stadium, the facility where Iran’s national football team trained. As the 2026 FIFA World Cup began, it was clear that Infantino’s efforts had been for naught: the Trump administration would not adhere to FIFA policies governing access to World Cup host nations. World Cup referee Omar Artan, a citizen of Somalia, was denied a US visa to enter the United States to participate in the World Cup. Trump’s government only granted US visas to Iran’s football team ten days before they were scheduled to arrive for the tournament. Numerous members of the support staff for Iran’s team were denied US visas. Iran’s team, which had been scheduled to train in Arizona, was directed to shift its training site to Tijuana, Mexico, notwithstanding that all three of their group stage matches took place at US venues. The US Department of Homeland Security only permitted the Iranian team to enter the US on the day before each scheduled match and then to return to Mexico immediately after playing. Members of Iraq’s and Switzerland’s football teams were delayed for hours by US officials at the US border, and an Iraqi team photographer was refused entry. Spectators and fans from Haïti and Iran were denied entry to the United States altogether. A large number of fans from a range of countries had their applications for US visas rejected. There were multiple off-ramps through which participants could have avoided the negative consequences of Trump’s decisions for the 2026 World Cup. Once it was clear that the Trump government intended to violate the established expectations for World Cup hosts, FIFA could have shifted the matches scheduled to take place in the United States to Mexico and Canada. The three nations were already designated as co-hosts, and host cities and venues had been selected. Once it was clear that FIFA, governed by FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s dependent and dysfunctional relationship with Trump, would never consider this option on its own, it fell to the national football federations to act. The national federations, particularly some combination of federations of the leading contenders (France, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, England, Germany, etc.), could have refused to participate under the US-imposed conditions or, at the least, demanded an ironclad agreement with the Trump government that FIFA policies on access would be respected. ___ International sport is inextricably entangled with diplomacy of different sorts, for good or ill, it cannot be considered to be in the purely private realm and left to revenue-maximizing private actors. ___ Why did neither FIFA nor the national football federations act to protect the interests of players, team staff, referees, fans, and spectators? In essence, the relentless engines of capitalism prevailed over norm observance, ethics, and fair play. The revenue interests of FIFA, sponsors, global media, and host cities won out. FIFA’s managers viewed hosting another World Cup principally in the United States as a veritable pot of gold for FIFA and its collaborators. FIFA has estimated its own revenue over the 2023-26 budget cycle, which includes the 2026 World Cup, at $13 billion, revised up from an initial projection of $11 billion, and 72% higher than the previous revenue cycle. Of that total, FIFA is estimated to have generated $8.9 billion from the Cup itself in revenue from TV rights ($3.92 billion), sponsorships ($2.69 billion), ticket sales ($3.1 billion), licensing rights, and other sources. A joint study by FIFA and the World Trade Organization estimates that the World Cup will contribute over $40 billion to global GDP, including nearly $14 billion in direct visitor spending in the three host countries (but principally in the United States, which hosted the lion’s share of the matches). The FIFA World Cup is now reportedly “the single most lucrative recurring commercial property in global sport.” And yet, notwithstanding the Trump government’s uses of the World Cup for sports anti-diplomacy, and the climate of anxiety that this created for participants and spectators, diplomacy that did not depend upon governments was able to thrive at the World Cup. Examples of successful people-to-people diplomacy were legion, as citizens of towns and cities across the States, as well as in Mexico and Canada, welcomed team members, their families and supporters, to training sites across North America. Fans of different teams joined together in person in stadiums for matches, at watch parties and bars, and at welcome events sponsored by host cities. The joy and camaraderie shared between the citizenry of Boston and Scotland’s “Tartan Army” of fans is but one example of how the “Beautiful Game” brings people together. Friendships forged across continents are likely to endure well beyond the Cup final. Even those achievements cannot be seen as unalloyed, however. As South African football fan Byron Pillay commented to Al Jazeera, “Football is called the Beautiful Game for a reason, for its ability to unite people. But it’s hard to believe in that magic with the politics and war rhetoric off the field of play, especially when one of the tournament hosts is central to that.” Ultimately, the experience of the 2026 FIFA World Cup illustrates that, as international sport is inextricably entangled with diplomacy of different sorts, for good or ill, it cannot be considered to be in the purely private realm and left to revenue-maximizing private actors. As long as there is the possibility of diplomatic progress in mediating estrangement between governments or between peoples, there is a broad and overarching public interest in international sport. Likewise, as it would be difficult to put on an international sport mega-event without international sporting organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), global media firms, and companies purchasing sponsorships, public and private interests in international sport must coexist, most likely somewhere on a shifting spectrum between partnership and rivalry or cross purposes. As the World Cup wraps up, the IOC needs to consider its lessons before the scheduled 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if they want to avoid a media-hyped Trump version of the 1936 Berlin Olympiad. The IOC and the National Olympic Committees need to set conditions on and make demands of Trump’s government with clearly articulated consequences for non-compliance, up to and including cancellation of the Games. Time is running out for the IOC, as unlike with the FIFA World Cup, there is no at-the-ready alternate venue for Los Angeles.

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Jul 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • iai.tv
$3B Motown sports project near Detroit airport is a scam, feds say

Developer Kenneth Bardwell is charged with blowing investor money on strippers, vehicles and luxury goods for himself, his wife and girlfriend.

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Jul 16 • 1:30 PM EDT • Sports • detroitnews.com
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Best friends’ home interiors store starts new chapter with a move

Opening Clover last November fulfilled a longtime dream for best friends Kyle Donovan and Julie Pitt. Less than a year later, the Marblehead entrepreneurs are beginning a new chapter — relocating their home interiors store to a larger, more visible storefront at 9 Pleasant St. The Marblehead natives spent two years planning the business before

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Jul 16 • 12:16 PM EDT • Business • marbleheadcurrent.org
Jillian Michaels warns against social media health advice as ‘healthmaxxing’ trend goes viral

‘Keeping It Real’ podcast host Jillian Michaels discusses the viral ‘healthmaxxing’ trend and GLP-1 drugs on ‘Fox & Friends.’

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Jul 16 • 9:21 AM EDT • Health • foxnews.com
SLO County coffee trailer wants to make eco-friendly easy. Inside Tiny Café

The mobile coffee shop is the first cafe in SLO County to be green-business certified.

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Jul 16 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • sanluisobispo.com
Our friend Marvin has curated a rigorous entertainment program

Music for the People has become synonymous with Humboldt Folklife Society (HFS). The word “folk” comes from Germanic roots and simply means “of the people.” That certainly defines HFS and its mission as a showcase of local musicians in a community driven display of traditional and roots music for all of us to enjoy.

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Jul 16 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • madriverunion.com
As US AI costs soar, global firms pivot to China’s cheap, open-weight models

A sharp narrowing of the performance gap is prompting some developers to shift from costly American giants to budget-friendly Chinese alternatives.

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Jul 15 • 9:25 PM EDT • Business • scmp.com
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Brighton to host family-friendly 'Wacky Science Show' on July 22

The performance includes goofy sound effects and plenty of laughs.

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Jul 15 • 4:33 AM EDT • Science • livingstondaily.com
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New Kent supervisors strike down tech district plan; rezone 340 acres for potential business park

While a plan to create a data center-friendly technology zone in New Kent County appears to be dead for now, at least some of that same land could soon be home to a new business park.

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Jul 15 • 2:00 AM EDT • Business • richmondbizsense.com
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Lakers’ Austin Reaves gives insight into Luka Doncic friendship

Austin Reaves says Luka Doncic is one of his best friends and constantly sends golf swing videos as the Lakers enter a new era without LeBron James.

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Jul 14 • 5:43 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
47 revelatory hours with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

To review this month’s supposed remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, I must first correct the record. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced isn’t a game about pirates (and assassins) in the 18th century Caribbean. Sure, sure, that’s what the trailers would have you believe. They’ve go their clips of Edward Kenway swinging his swords and steering his pirate ship into cannon-blasting combat against British frigates. Is Resynced truly a pirate game? Of the 47 hours I spent playing Resynced over the past few weeks, I will admit I spent maybe 44 (?) of them collecting plunder with Blackbeard, drinking rum with Anne Bonny and debating the pros and cons of the lawless pirate-run settlement Nassau with Benjamin Hornigold. I may in fact have spent dozens of hours sailing to remote islands, reading treasure maps, opening messages left in bottles, sinking the odd Man o’ War with a well-timed broadside, collecting sea shanties for my crew, befriending a pet monkey, and hunting whales. I am nevertheless neither so Gullible nor so Narrow-Minded as to call the magnificent Resynced a “pirate remake.” Oh no. Forget any reviews of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced you may have read. Forget what you yourself may have played, if you’ve spent any time with the game since its launch. What Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is really about I’m here to give you the scoop (spoilers for Resynced’s Animus menu lore, which many players are probably not going to see): Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the new game whose development was led by Ubisoft Singapore, is set in the year 2096. It’s about a societal split, about revolution, about an old Assassin’s Creed adventure repurposed in the series’ distant future as propaganda or samizdat. It’s about the overheated future of 2096, essentially conquered by the series’ well-established nefarious Templar-run company Abstergo. (In this future, Abstergo is, among other things, remaking a 2013 pirate movie called Devils of the Caribbean, but this time in VR. The VR version will be backed by a marketing plan that involves AI influencers, a 10,000-avatar “metaverse premiere event” and that manufacturing of memes aimed at “50 million VR nodes.” See what I mean about Abstergo being evil?) Resynced is about a late 21st-century population mollified by the widespread use of Abstergo’s Animus devices which let people experience the lives of historical figures culled from “genetic memories.” It’s about an insurgent faction of Assassins. And it’s about a plan to wake the population into revolutionary fervor by showing them the memories of 18th century pirate Edward Kenway, who—as depicted in the original Black Flag and again in Resynced—gradually comes to an understanding about the Assassins of his day and their centuries old fight for freedom. Resynced is also about an AI developed within the late 21st-century Animus, called Ego. It has found a way to alter genetic memories, to create and show Animus users false ones. The game is about Ego’s efforts to tell the people experiencing Edward Kenway’s memories that Kenway was wrong, that fighting against order is folly, that we should crave a world where “compliance is rewarded with power.” Who are we in this game? We’re an unnamed Animus user in 2096 who experiences Kenway’s journey virtually. At four moments during Kenway’s exploits in the Caribbean our virtual jaunt can be interrupted for 10-15 minutes, as we explore Animus “rifts” where Ego explicitly tries to tell us how wrong Kenway was. None of this is what 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was about, of course. That was a different game, even if you also spent dozens of hours pirating as Kenway in that game, across missions and a map that’s been faithfully reintroduced and rebuilt for Resynced. The 2013 Black Flag was about you playing as an unnamed researcher newly hired in 2013 by Abstergo Entertainment, the video game development wing of the Templars’ evil-corp. In that game, you were assigned to use the Animus to dive into the genetic memories of Desmond Miles, a man who died in Assassin’s Creed III and who was descended from a long line of Assassins (and at least one Templar) whose adventures were featured across the prior AC games. In 2013’s Black Flag, your mission was to plumb the Edward Kenway experience for material that Abstergo could use in productions such as the motion picture Devils of the Caribbean, though the Templars had some ulterior motives for the assignment. Resynced is therefore not a remake of 2013’s Black Flag. It’s a sequel. It is a new game about a new exploration of Edward Kenway’s pirate/assassin journey, set 83 years after the framing sequences of the original game. Resynced provides a new narrative framework that, thanks to the concept of an AI that wants to alter historical memories, arrives with creative justification to tweak a now-classic 13-year old game. That makes Resynced, already a hot seller, a tantalizing hint of where Ubisoft could go with a line of Assassin’s Creed remakes. They could remake the first game, the Ezio games, even the recent ones set in ancient Egypt and Greece. And for each, they could not just modernize the graphics and controls but expand and alter their sequences of events to use them as reference points for a conflict set in the late 21st century, as rival factions try to weaponize historical memories. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, even when that work consists of ravings about Assassin’s Creed’s modern day plot, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe A story most players will probably miss If you didn’t know any of this, I’m not surprised. If you played the game and still didn’t catch it, I’m not a bit shocked. If Ubisoft has no plans to do more of this, I won’t fall down. Almost all of what I’ve described is optional and missable in Black Flag Resynced. I nearly missed it myself, as I planned for a breezy playthrough of an old Assassin’s Creed favorite. Instead, I found myself in a 40+ hour hunt for the “real” story, buried deeper in Resynced than any gold-filled chest. The story of 2096 is Resynced’s meta-story, told in two remote pockets of the game: 1) four optional playable “rifts” that players may find as they proceed through Resynced’s pirate fantasy , 2) in dozens of text files tucked three menus deep in the game’s barely-interactive Animus hub. Assassin’s Creed games have almost always had a meta-story about people in the 21st century (usually matching the game’s release year) and their connections to the main history portions you play. Those meta-stories have always been squeezed into the margins, though seldom as severely and as, uh, graphiaclly simple, as in recent games. Back in 2013, the modern-day exploits of you as an Abstergo Entertainment employee were prominent. They were portrayed via first-person portions that occasionally interrupted the third-person Kenway experience and could be explored for hours, complete with their own missions, side quests and puzzles. Resynced’s 2096 story—of Assassin “Watchers” vs. Abstergo/Tempar goons, of rogue AIs, of panicking scientists, of a woman wondering why her Animus-addicted husband is muttering about Mary Read (“What does he mean by Assassins?”), of a fight for the population’s hearts and minds via varying interpretations of Edward Kenway’s life choices—is mostly told through unlockable text files. The files are interesting. Offered via diary entries, intercepted chats and news reports, they present varied perspectives of a world in crisis. One set works as a narrative puzzle as it reveals the Rashomonic interpretations of a massacre, or was that a successful Assassin hit? Another favorite reveals the rising bitterness of a person who, through Edward Kenway’s journey, now shakes at the ignored evil around him. One surmises that Ubisoft is averse to putting the Assassin’s Creed’s meta-story in the way of more marketable pirate playgrounds and ninja/samurai epics. Instead, we get a better-than-nothing text-in-menus approach introduced in 2025’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In Shadows, players unlocked the meta-story text files largely via time-gated missions that called on the user to kill X number of enemy type Y, clear three enemy castles, re-win a three-phase fighting tournament, and other grinds. Time restrictions on accessing these missions and unlocking the files meant it could take players months to access the full story in-game. But even in the most hardcore Assassin’s Creed hangouts, the fanbase instead seemed to throw up their hands rather than grind to keep up. In Resynced, Ubisoft has shown some mercy, diminishing the amount of new text files that are tied to timed grinds. Now, most of the text-based 2096 lore are associated with “data file” collectibles that players can find in the world. That includes a batch of written entries that explain a historical link between the feudal Japan era in Shadows and the piracy adventures in Black Flag. Players who explore a lot will find dozens of data files, though the game does not appear to offer any in-game tracker for finding each one. You just need to keep looking for them. As of this writing, I have most of them, but not all. I can’t find any full guide for them online. And even Ubisoft’s optional $5 microtransaction that reveals lots of items in-game does not appear to reveal the locations of the text files (at least the official description omits them from its collectibles list). That’s not a huge bother, because tracking the data files down compelled me to re-explore the waves and islands of Black Flag. That was a thoroughly pleasant task to do for the first time in a dozen years. I expect many players, though, will be content to wait for the files to be reproduced in an online AC wiki somewhere, the easier to read on a web page. It may not seem enticing to play a video game in order to gradually unlock pages of text to read. Why not, you may ask, just read a book, where they put the pages in order? For one, they’ve not tucked this latest installment of Assassin’s Creed’s meta saga in a book. I also enjoy the unordered delivery, the dawning comprehension of a story about 2096’s desperate people and questionable tech, which I glimpsed first at its middle, then the end, then the front, then other moments in between1. I am also enamored with the idea of the Assassin’s Creed games I’ve previously played, including Black Flag, being repurposed for an information war. The ideas in Resynced’s meta-story, which builds off characters and ideas in Shadows’ chunks of text, are strong. The potential of where they could go with it is exciting. As for the pirate stuff? Looks great, controls pretty well, is fun to play and oh so speedy in terms of how much of a good time you can have with each sit-down. It never gets old to chase a new shanty page across a rooftop, bombard a fort with upgraded mortars or use a diving bell to explore sunken wrecks (hats off to the team at Ubisoft Barcelona that worked on the underwater portions in Resynced; that team is now facing layoffs, such is the misery of modern gaming and oft-troubled Ubisoft). New pirate missions in Resynced involving new ally characters are brief, dramatic and add more to Edward’s story, even if the gameplay perks they provide barely enhance the gameplay. A new denouement for high-class pirate Stede Bonnet is affecting; a new hunt for Blackbeard’s treasure is a welcome extra moment. A new epilogue to hunt down a pirate killer, on the other hand, over-complicates Kenway’s character. The ending credits remain my favorite of any game I’ve ever played. Black Flag provides great source material. The revisit is well-made and a great sign of what could be. It is offered in a different wrapper that hints at an opportunity for more interesting remakes to come, should Ubisoft choose to pursue such treasures—and as we brace to resist or comply with an Abstergo future. 1 The messages that Edward Kenway finds in bottles tell another out-of-order story, one about a man reckoning with the strange memories and voices he’s heard in his head since he was a boy. That tale was also in the 2013 game and develops into one of Black Flag’s most compelling character arcs. In Resynced, it has lost its climax, because the bottle story previously paid off in the halls of the first-person Abstergo Entertainment, which is exclusive to the older game. An altered resolution, written by the 2013 game’s lead writer is fine, doesn’t invalidate the 2013 version, but makes for an inferior final note.

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Jul 14 • 3:17 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
15 things science says about friendship and what it does to your health

From immune function and blood pressure to brain scans and life expectancy, here is what researchers have found about the ways friendship shapes the body

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Jul 14 • 3:09 PM EDT • Science • qz.com
15 things science says about friendship and what it does to your health

From immune function and blood pressure to brain scans and life expectancy, here is what researchers have found about the ways friendship shapes the body

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Jul 14 • 3:09 PM EDT • Health • qz.com
Fiesta Fun ushers in a new era of family entertainment with major expansion, grand reopening

(Sponsored) For more than three decades, Fiesta Fun Family Fun Center in St. George has been a place where families and friends of all ages come together to make lasting

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Jul 14 • 8:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • stgeorgeutah.com
Jefferson County Clerk picked friend, donor and business partner to oversee elections, IT

The Clerk’s office is prepping for an audit after LPM News uncovered election error.

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Jul 14 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • lpm.org
Stories and song celebrate Oscar Brown Jr.'s centennial

Friday afternoon felt like a homecoming of sorts as family, friends and admirers of Oscar Brown Jr. gathered under sunny skies at Harper Court to celebrate the artist during what

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Jul 13 • 6:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • hpherald.com
The Quintessential Trump-era Politician

In 2020, I wrote an article about collaboration and collaborators. The title was History Will Judge the Complicit, and it started with the story of two famous East Germans, Markus Wolf and Wolfgang Leonhard, who both landed in East Berlin just after the end of the war. Although they came from very similar backgrounds, the former stuck with the regime, eventually becoming its spy boss; the latter, horrified by the brutal reality of Soviet-style communism, escaped. By way of juxtaposition, I also wrote about Lyndsey Graham and Mitt Romney. These two men also made very different decisions when confronted by Donald Trump’s assault on the ideals that they had both grown up believing: A glance at their biographies would not have led many to predict what happened next. On paper, Graham would have seemed, in 2016, like the man with deeper ties to the military, to the rule of law, and to an old-fashioned idea of American patriotism and American responsibility in the world. Romney, by contrast, with his shifts between the center and the right, with his multiple careers in business and politics, would have seemed less deeply attached to those same old-fashioned patriotic ideals. Most of us register soldiers as loyal patriots, and management consultants as self-interested. We assume people from small towns in South Carolina are more likely to resist political pressure than people who have lived in many places. Intuitively, we think that loyalty to a particular place implies loyalty to a set of values. But in this case the clichés were wrong. It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life. By contrast, it was Romney who, in February, became the only Republican senator to break ranks with his colleagues, voting to impeach the president. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office,” he said, is “perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” In the wake of Graham’s unexpected death on Saturday, I wrote about him again. He was, in many ways, the quintessential politician of Trump’s Washington, a man who shifted 180 degrees. Graham had been a fervent American patriot, proud reserve officer and military lawyer; he became one of the most important defenders of a president who believes soldiers are “suckers and losers” and shows no respect for law of any kind. As his politics changed, his language grew coarser and his behavior grew worse: He urged Israel to “level the place” in Gaza, and insulted the Danish prime minister in Munich, prompting a colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin, to issue an apology. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in The Atlantic (gift link here) Like his close friend John McCain, Graham believed that America should stand at the center of a broad democratic alliance. The few times I met him were in that context, at the Munich Security Conference or at other European-American gatherings, which he once attended with great regularity. He also took seriously the practice of American democracy at home. In a 2014 conversation with The Atlantic, he described himself as a pragmatic politician who eschewed populist slogans. “I know Washington is broken, but what’s broken about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying to fix it,” he said. “I’m trying.” When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.” When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak. But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. As I wrote in 2020, it’s very hard to look in to anyone’s heart and to understand their motivations from the outside. But it does seem that Graham had a deep need to be relevant, to be in the game, to be a player, at any cost. And that, rather than any particular achievement, is what he will be remembered for. Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart) June 27 Trump diverted funds from more than 900 projects nationwide—including safety upgrades at national parks—to finance beautification projects around Washington, including $700,000 used to fix a White House walkway. June 28 After a years-long Department of Justice investigation into Abbott Laboratories over its management of a baby formula facility where potentially deadly bacteria turned up enough evidence to criminally charge the firm, top department officials instead opted for a financial penalty—illustrating the department’s move away from strict corporate enforcement under the Trump administration. June 29 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stacked the Defense Policy Board—which is charged with providing independent national security recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with Trump allies, including tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has invested in defense contractors like OpenAI and SpaceX, after purging the panel last year. Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Axon—which makes about 90% of US tasers—two weeks before ICE solicited bids for a $220 million taser contract. The White House unveiled limited-edition US passports for America’s 250th birthday, featuring a portrait of Trump overlaid on the Declaration of Independence. June 30 Trump made around $1.2 billion from his various crypto companies last year, including more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial and $600 million from sales of his meme coin. Trump is considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. These are expected to be largely doled out through the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s informal network of intermediaries. White-collar defense attorneys say they can typically win pardons for clients for $2 million. Last year, Trump administration officials awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million to Clark Construction for the White House ballroom—negotiations in which the president was directly involved. July 1 The Amazon MGM Studios documentary about Melania Trump earned the First Lady more than $10 million. Trump made hundreds of individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million the day before his announcement pausing “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days sent the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%—one of the largest single-day gains ever. Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral saw record surges in revenue during Trump’s first year in office, earning $77.5 million and $121.9 million respectively, compared to average annual revenues of $25 million and $75 million during Trump’s first term. Entities across the Persian Gulf paid more than $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, including $263 million from the sale of half his stake in World Liberty Financial to a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal and brother of the country’s president. Kash Patel failed to properly disclose his stock purchase of a Department of Justice contractor, MicroStrategy, worth up to $250,000 last year, despite laws requiring disclosure within 45 days of the trade. July 2 Trump has been directing administration officials to steer more government contracts—so far worth more than $2.4 billion—to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aerospace firm, after Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated to the White House ballroom project, and reached a $40 million deal to license a Melania Trump documentary. Alongside the billions he made from cryptocurrency last year, Trump earned millions of dollars from real estate licensing fees, including $21 million from organizations in the UAE and $9.2 million in Saudi Arabia, along with smaller sums from merchandise sales, including $4.7 million from Trump Watches and $35,920 from 45 Guitar, a guitar brand endorsed by the president. House Democrats accused consultants tied to the Trump administration of financial fraud, alleging they gave prospective donors to America250—the bipartisan committee created by Congress to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial—the banking and routing numbers for Freedom 250, the White House’s fund for events like the UFC cage fight. Democrats also allege that Freedom 250’s CEO traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to solicit donations from foreign government officials and business leaders. The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations would lift the prohibition on mailing handguns to individuals, a significant win for GrabAGun—the direct-to-consumer firearm retailer on whose board Donald Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds a 1.1% ownership stake. GrabAGun currently must rely on a middleman to transfer firearms to customers. Trump’s financial disclosure revealed that he made more than 21,000 securities trades during his first year back in office, growing his investment account to at least $858 million across stakes in around 1,600 companies, compared to the 13 total trades Joe Biden made during his entire presidency. July 4 Nearly 1 million people who bought the president’s meme coin—Trump Coin—collectively lost $3.8 billion on the token, while he walked away with $636 million. July 6 Shares of Dell closed up 4.4% after Trump recommended people buy the firm’s computers during a speech announcing the launch of Trump investment accounts for children, boosting the more than $1 million worth of shares the president owns in the company. July 9 Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh named crypto investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen to a task force aimed at modernizing the Federal Reserve, including rethinking its approach to inflation—a key factor keeping interest rates elevated. Palm Beach International Airport has officially changed its name to Trump International Airport—a move that will require Florida to pay royalties to the president’s family for licensing his name. I was there a few months ago, during a trip to Barcelona. The sculptures were a revelation, I’d never seen so many together before. Each one has its own personality. Enjoy the good weather, if you are lucky enough to have it. History Will Judge the Complicit The Quintessential Politician Autocracy Inc Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Jul 13 • 4:19 PM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com
The Friendly Wager: Expect Fireworks In ENG-ARG; Back France Plus Scheffler

Sammy P is back with his sixth Friendly Wager. Here's how he's betting on France-Spain and England-Argentina.

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Jul 13 • 4:16 PM EDT • Sports • foxsports.com
🚨Official: Spain and the United States, double friendly confirmed

The Spanish national team will face the Olympic champions on October 10 and 13 on American soil. As part of their preparations for the next Women’s World Cup, Spain will play two highly demanding fr...

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Jul 13 • 10:11 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
‘Take Me Home’: The science of why singing together brings us closer

The cameras panned across thousands of fans, arms draped over the shoulders of friends and strangers alike, singing at the top of their lungs. As John Denver’s “Take Me Home,

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Jul 13 • 1:00 AM EDT • Science • springfieldnewssun.com
Opening weekend at North Dakota Horse Park brings action, family-friendly entertainment

Park staff say they've moved more of the races to Friday evenings to beat extreme heat and to catch folks before they go on weekend summer getaways.

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Jul 12 • 8:42 PM EDT • Entertainment • kvrr.com
Sen. Lindsey Graham leaves political legacy in New Hampshire

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died Saturday night, leaves behind a political mark in New Hampshire through years of campaign visits, media appearances, and personal friendships.

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Jul 12 • 7:50 PM EDT • Politics • wmur.com
From staunch critic to fierce ally: Graham's long, strange and consequential friendship with Trump

After the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham said he had finally had enough of the man who was championed by the mob that stormed the pillar of American democracy: President Donald Trump.

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Jul 12 • 3:45 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
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Watch cockroaches race at the Academy of Natural Sciences during Bug Fest

The Aug. 8-9 event features Bug Walks, hands-on activities, live scientists and family-friendly fun, all included with museum admission.

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Jul 12 • 8:40 AM EDT • Science • phillyvoice.com
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At Family Science Night, Wonder Comes Before Answers.

BAR HARBOR—Family Science Night isn’t really about science. It’s about wonder. It’s about watching a five-year-old realize that the tiny creature under a microscope is a real living thing. It’s about a teenager discovering that the scientist explaining genetics or regeneration isn’t much older than they are. It’s about parents seeing curiosity spread across a child’s face the way excitement spreads across a crowd at a Fourth of July parade. For one evening, families realize that the laboratory isn’t some secretive place where knowledge is hidden behind white coats and closed doors. They learn that the lab is a place their neighbors work, their friends’ parents work, and it becomes a place where questions matter more than answers. It’s a place where wonder is the origin for knowledge. At the lab, children learn that it’s okay not to know. Adults remember that they once asked “Why?” about everything. Scientists are reminded why they fell in love with discovery in the first place. There are experiments, games, obstacle courses, and demonstrations, of course. But those are really just invitations—to touch, to explore, to laugh, to make mistakes, and to ask one more question. In a world that often rewards certainty, Family Science Night celebrates curiosity. And perhaps that’s its greatest gift. Long after the microscopes are packed away and the experiments are over, what families take home isn’t just a few new facts about biology. They take home the feeling that discovery belongs to everyone—that science isn’t something happening somewhere else by someone else. It’s simply what happens when people are given permission to wonder. A Family Science Night at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory is one of those rare community events where children and adults can experience science as something they do, not just something they read about. Hands on discovery allows hands-on learning and joy. Real scientists, some local, some scientist-interns (but still scientists) just in college make science real, approachable, and exciting. And there, complex ideas like forever chemical-filtration, DNA and so much more become not complex. Instead, they become fun. Summer fellows are challenged to explain cutting-edge biomedical research in ways a first-grader—and their grandparent—can understand. Past activities have explored gene expression, kidney function, axolotl regeneration, worms, microplastics, and phytoplankton through games and creative demonstrations. Though it’s called family night, you can also see adults going from station to station, exploring, learning together across ages. Family Science Night reflects the laboratory’s broader mission of breaking down barriers between researchers and the public, helping people understand how scientific discoveries relate to everyday life and the health of Maine’s environment. Family Science Night transforms a world-class research laboratory into a giant interactive classroom, where curiosity is encouraged, questions are celebrated, and families discover that science isn’t just something that happens in a lab—it’s an adventure anyone can join. About MDI Biological Laboratory For more than 125 years, MDI Bio Lab has been a center for training and research in comparative biology. In the last two decades its biomedical research has focused on aging, regeneration, and environmental toxins. The Laboratory houses 11 research groups staffed by an international team of world-class scientists and graduate students. It also leads a statewide network of colleges, universities and research institutions that collaborate to provide training, research experiences and financial support to help young Mainers play a bigger role in today’s biomedical revolution. Located on Maine’s rugged coast, the Laboratory’s 100+ acre campus houses research facilities, cottages and dorms that house visiting scientists and students. It is also home to MDI Bioscience, a subsidiary working to design innovative techniques to speed the drug discovery process. LINKS TO LEARN MORE NIH INBRE MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY Photos: Carrie Jones and Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story HELP SUPPORT THE BAR HARBOR STORY When we started The Bar Harbor Story, we didn’t know if anyone would read it. But you showed up. You shared. You sent tips. Now—over 400,000 views every month later—it’s clear: people here care about their community and each other. We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going. If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship. It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light. Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now. Thank you so much for being here. Founding member information can be found here. Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you. Subscribe Share Bar Harbor Story Share Leave a comment

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Jul 12 • 8:18 AM EDT • Science • barharborstory.substack.com
Meet the Floating Robot Companion Designed for Safe, Friendly Human Interaction

Robotics researchers are trying to prove that lighter-than-air robots could excel at emotional connection.

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Jul 12 • 8:01 AM EDT • Technology • cnet.com
Pols & Politics: Sen. Rodrigues sponsors pride event where drag queens twerked at elementary school

A late-June LGBTQ Pride Month celebration in Westport is catching heat after a video posted to social media shows adult men dressed in drag dancing provocatively at the “family friendly” event.

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Jul 12 • 4:17 AM EDT • Politics • bostonherald.com
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Woman Says Boyfriend Accidentally Revealed Dating Apps While Screen Sharing: “Tell Me Why Hinge Was There”

A Reddit user says she discovered dating apps on her boyfriend’s phone after he accidentally shared his screen during a FaceTime call. The woman shared on Reddit’s r/GirlDinnerDiaries that what began ...

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Jul 11 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • yahoo.com
GoFundMe raises over $400K for family of slain business owner Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

“He was the kind of man who showed up: for his family, for his friends, for his neighbors, and on every job he ever took.”

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Jul 11 • 10:28 AM EDT • Business • thehill.com
As gas plants rise to power AI, renewable energy allies are fighting for cleaner alternatives

Renewable energy allies are trying to ensure that massive data centers will be powered by climate-friendly sources.

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Jul 11 • 7:29 AM EDT • Business • news4jax.com
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GoFundMe raises over $400K for family of slain business owner Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

“He was the kind of man who showed up: for his family, for his friends, for his neighbors, and on every job he ever took.”

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Jul 11 • 7:23 AM EDT • Business • wane.com
Why a show about grief might be the ‘comfort watch’ of the summer

“The Five Star Weekend,” adapted from “queen of the beach read” Elin Hilderbrand’s popular novel, is about friends helping each other through tragedy.

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Jul 11 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • washingtonpost.com
Downtown shops making success of all businesses everyone's business

One of the things we love most about summer in downtown Bellingham is the way it brings people together. Whether it's gathering with friends on a patio ...

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Jul 11 • 12:00 AM EDT • Business • cascadiadaily.com
Mary Steenburgen says ‘Book Club’ cast are her closest friends, they miss Diane Keaton

‘Book Club’ stars Mary Steenburgen, Candice Bergen, and Jane Fonda are extremely close and will be ‘missing’ Diane Keaton when they soon reunite.

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Jul 10 • 5:48 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Fans protest decision to exclude O.J. Simpson from new stadium's Wall of Fame

His legacy is overshadowed by his arrest in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

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Jul 10 • 4:56 PM EDT • Sports • spectrumlocalnews.com
SC agency considers entering the carbon business to improve state forests

SC natural resources agency wants to get into the business of selling credits to environmentally friendly and carbon neutral companies.

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Jul 10 • 4:42 PM EDT • Business • scdailygazette.com
Joe Klein: At 80, Here’s What I’ve Learned About Politics—and Life

I am 80 years old, this year of our 250th anniversary, and I find myself a cliché. My life has been a common political journey, from left to center. I recently took the Pew Research Center’s “political typology” test and found that I was a “pragmatic and polite conservative,” which seemed a rather abstruse basket: A politically mixed (though Republican-tilting) group, they lean conservative on economics and the role of government, while tilting more liberal on issues related to race and foreign policy. They prize civility and cooperation in politics. Well, that sounds pretty mushy—and I find it hard to square with the strong opinions I have on many issues. I’ve voted for Democrats in federal elections, but I grow more Republican the closer I get to local politics. Democrats, I’ve found, simply aren’t very good at running things, especially school systems, where they are in the thrall of the teachers unions. My friends joke about my obsession with the unions. They know all my lines. If industrial unions are organized against the power of capital, who are the public employees organized against? But enough of that. I’ve ranted that rant too often, and my political journey has been more complicated than that one issue. It has been empirical, based on actual experience—on a lifetime of reporting and a lot of reading. An early example: I was a journalist with the underground press in Boston at the turn of the 1970s and considered myself a member of the antiwar and civil rights movements. The first big issue I covered was busing to achieve school integration. Yes, the white bigots were disgusting. But I couldn’t find any black parents who favored the plan to bus their children to schools outside their neighborhoods either. Black activists and politicians—and white liberals—were gung ho, but not actual parents of black kids in school. Busing was a form of social engineering imposed from on high, by a judge—W. Arthur Garrity—who lived in a wealthy liberal suburb. Wealthy liberal suburbs were not affected by his plan, of course. I began to see that there were limits to what government could do, especially when it came to changing a society’s culture.

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Jul 10 • 4:21 PM EDT • Politics • thefp.com
Honda’s New Small, Affordable Retro Moto Is Super Rider-Friendly Too

The brand revives a staple of its small-displacement portfolio, and it comes with the addition of approachable E-Clutch tech.

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Jul 10 • 2:39 PM EDT • Technology • gearpatrol.com
North Carolina among top 3 states for business in 2026, CNBC finds

North Carolina owed its placement in the CNBC list to high rankings for economy, workforce, business friendliness and more.

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Jul 10 • 1:40 PM EDT • Business • citizen-times.com
Cheap tips to make home look expensive, from interior designer

As an interior designer, I know some budget-friendly ways to make a home look more expensive, from incorporating crown molding to utilizing mirrors.

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Jul 10 • 10:20 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Taylor Frankie Paul reportedly filming again on ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’

Embattled reality star Taylor Frankie Paul reportedly back in front of the cameras for ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,’ four months after video surfaced of her throwing a chair at her boyfriend Dakota Mortensen.

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Jul 9 • 11:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
OUTDOOR ACCESS FOR DISABLED IN VERMONT

Mountain bike enthusiasts have been working for years on an ambitious 485-mile, multi-use trail called The Velomont that will span the length of the state. They're making sure it's friendly for people people with disabilities, particularly cyclists.

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Jul 9 • 2:00 PM EDT • Technology • npr.org
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RI falls to 48th in CNBC’s annual business friendliness rankings; Mass. is 15th

Rhode Island’s poor infrastructure was a key reason it dropped even lower on the TV network’s yearly list.

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Jul 9 • 12:52 PM EDT • Business • wpri.com
Christian Eriksen’s club gives health update after second on-pitch collapse

Christian Eriksen collapsed during Denmark’s friendly with Ukraine last month

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Jul 9 • 12:15 PM EDT • Health • sports.yahoo.com
NFIB Celebrates Ohio’s No. 1 CNBC Business Ranking

Ohio’s small businesses praise business-friendly climate.

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Jul 9 • 11:05 AM EDT • Business • nfib.com
NJ Falls to 31st in CNBC Top States for Business Rankings; 50th in Business Friendliness

New Jersey dropped to 31st overall in CNBC’s 2026 Top States for Business rankings, announced Thursday morning, while also be dinged with a 50th ranking

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Jul 9 • 9:51 AM EDT • Business • njbia.org
NJBIA Statement on NJ’s Ranking in CNBC’s Top States for Business for 2026, Lowest Ranking for Business Friendliness

NJBIA President & CEO Michele Siekerka issued the following statement regarding New Jersey’s placement of 31st overall in CNBC’s ranking of America’s

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Jul 9 • 9:42 AM EDT • Business • njbia.org
From MMA to music: Friends build entertainment hub

Sunny Days Arena is a 27,000-square-foot complex in the former Stadium 18 movie theater in North Versailles.

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Jul 9 • 3:07 AM EDT • Entertainment • monvalleyindependent.com
Los Angeles Air Force Base Kicks off Sports Day 2026

On July 1, 2026, Members of Los Angeles Air Force Base came together for the highly anticipated annual sports day. The event brought together Airmen, Guardians, and contractors, drawing them away from their daily operations to unite under a shared goal. This friendly competition not only promoted health and wellness but also fostered camaraderie outside the traditional workplace environment.

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Jul 8 • 4:24 PM EDT • Sports • dvidshub.net
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Longtime friends and business partners thrive as architecture grad students

Setareh Farashzadeh and Yasaman Ghaffarian came to Penn State as close friends and established architects in pursuit of the history and theory behind their chosen field. Originally from Iran, the duo started their own practice after earning their bachelor’s degrees and jointly decided to expand their understanding of the built environment. Their interests and underlying friendship led them to the dual master of architecture and master of science in architecture program in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School.

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Jul 8 • 2:36 PM EDT • Business • psu.edu
From dinosaur trips to Vegas attractions: How one father built a family entertainment business

The entertainment entrepreneur behind Dinosaur Outpost is expanding his family-friendly vision with the acquisition and rebranding of Velocity Vegas.

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Jul 8 • 8:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • reviewjournal.com
Littwin: Lynn Bartels was the greatest political reporter I ever knew. And that’s not even half the story.

Lynn Bartels was one of one, a legend, who dominated state politics like no reporter before or since. And I was her friend — one of a million.

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Jul 8 • 5:05 AM EDT • Politics • coloradosun.com
Dolly Parton musical to make Broadway debut

Some people celebrate their birthdays with a festive cake or dinner with friends. Dolly Parton is planning to mark hers with a Broadway opening.

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Jul 7 • 11:53 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
Former Graham Platner girlfriend describes alleged violence, which he denies
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Jul 7 • 8:52 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
‘Love and Other Words’ Adaptation a Go From Magic Hour Entertainment

Max Siemers and Tanner Anderson are behind the new company, which will adapt Christina Lauren’s best-selling novel of the same of the name centered on childhood friends turned first loves who reconnect as adults.

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Jul 7 • 2:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • hollywoodreporter.com
‘Love and Other Words’ Adaptation Set With the Newly Formed Magic Hour Entertainment (Exclusive)

Max Siemers and Tanner Anderson are behind the new company, which will adapt Christina Lauren’s best-selling novel of the same of the name centered on childhood friends turned first loves who reconnec...

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Jul 7 • 2:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
NYC health officials warn of Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Central Park area

New York City health officials report a surge of 23 Legionnaires' disease cases on the Upper East Side. Dr. Stephanie Widmer joins 'Fox & Friends' to detail critical outbreak warning signs and discuss biohacker Bryan Johnson's autoimmune diagnosis.

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Jul 7 • 7:33 AM EDT • Health • foxnews.com
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Nothing’s new earbuds can record calls and what you’re listening to

Nothing’s new budget-friendly earbuds can record whatever you’re playing.

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Jul 7 • 6:30 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
A Business Owner Paid Himself a Low Salary for Decades to Save on Taxes. The Trade-Off Shows Up Now, in a Smaller Social Security Check, and Selling the Company Won’t Fix It.

A 66-year-old business owner running an S-corporation for decades is planning his exit. A buyer is circling, and he expects the sale to fund retirement. When it came time for him to request his Social Security statement, the projected monthly benefit was lower than expected. Friends with W-2 careers and similar lifestyles were getting noticeably ... A Business Owner Paid Himself a Low Salary for Decades to Save on Taxes. The Trade-Off Shows Up Now, in a Smaller Social Security Check, and Selling

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Jul 7 • 6:02 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
‘Serious consequences’: Farage attacks Sky News after question about George Cottrell

Reform UK leader confronts journalist after question about gifts from friend and convicted fraudster

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Jul 7 • 5:50 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
Midjourney founder says AI coding leaves friends 'extremely drained'

Midjourney founder David Holz said the phenomenon "makes me feel like something is wrong, and also that there might be a big opportunity."

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Jul 7 • 5:40 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
5th Annual 'Party in the Park' Set for July 11 in New York Mills

The Village of New York Mills is inviting the community to the fifth annual Party in the Park, a celebration focused on family, friendship and local pride.

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Jul 6 • 10:09 AM EDT • Entertainment • wktv.com
Union County Announces Return of Sensory-Friendly Summer Camp at Trailside Nature & Science Center

The Union County Board of County Commissioners is pleased to open registration for the 2026 Sensory Friendly Summer Camp at Trailside Nature and Science Center – 452 New Providence Road in Mountain…

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Jul 6 • 9:30 AM EDT • Science • ucnj.org
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Aynor extends Independence Day celebration with the After the 4th event

The free, family-friendly event will begin at 5 p.m. at the park, 600 S. Main St., and will feature an evening of live music, food trucks, a free children's zone and activities for all ages. The celebration will conclude with a fireworks display after dark, scheduled to begin around 9 p.m.

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Jul 6 • 8:29 AM EDT • Entertainment • myhorrynews.com
He was Trump’s boyhood friend. Now he’s pushing Trump to declare a ‘national emergency’ and seize control of the midterms

In Peter Ticktin’s world, there always seems to be a conspiracy or cover-up lurking.

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Jul 6 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Fort Bend County Fair to Reveal 2026 Entertainment Lineup at Free Sugar Land Event

SUGAR LAND, Texas (Covering Katy News) — The Fort Bend County Fair and Rodeo will reveal its 2026 entertainment lineup during a free public event Wednesday as the organization prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary. Fort Bend County Fair 2026 Lineup Reveal Set for July 8 in Sugar Land The “Who’s Playing at the Fair?” gathering is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. at Talyard Brewing Company, 1033 Imperial Blvd. Attendees will be the first to learn which artists are set to perform, with giveaways, special guests and family-friendly activities planned. Food and beverages will be available for purchase.2026 Fort Bend County Fair Dates and Schedule The fair’s Championship BBQ Cook-Off is set for Sept. 18-19, with the main fair and rodeo running Sept. 25 through Oct. 4. The events will feature nightly concerts, livestock shows, youth competitions, rodeo performances and carnival attractions. What to Expect at the Fort Bend County Fair 90th Anniversary Celebration "We’re excited to kick off our 90th year by answering the question everyone is asking — who’s playing at the fair?” Fair President Brian Graeber said. “This event is a chance for residents to come together, become part of our fair family, and get an early look at what’s in store for our milestone celebration.” Fort Bend County Fair Scholarship and Youth Impact For 90 years, the Fort Bend County Fair and Rodeo has focused on benefiting youth, promoting agriculture and supporting education. This year, the organization awarded $250,000 in scholarships and generated more than $1.4 million through its junior livestock and other auctions. The lineup reveal is free and open to the public. For more information, visit fortbendcountyfair.com or follow the fair on social media. The fairgrounds are located at 4310 Hwy. 36 South in Rosenberg.

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Jul 6 • 2:37 AM EDT • Entertainment • coveringkaty.com
I'm the organizer in my friend group. Someone has to be.

I've learned that strong female friendships don't happen by accident. Usually, someone has to send the text first.

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Jul 5 • 3:44 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Every wild detail from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's MSG wedding — from arcade games and 'JUST&T MARRIED' to an Adam Sandler cameo

The couple kept photos and details tightly under wraps. But guests, staff and celebrity friends have started leaking small glimpses into the wedding of the year.

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Jul 4 • 2:26 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
SBA administrator says small businesses are the American Dream

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discusses how small businesses embody the American Dream. She also highlights the transformative power of enterprise while warning against radical socialist agendas.

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Jul 4 • 10:33 AM EDT • Business • foxnews.com
SBA administrator says small businesses are the American Dream

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discusses how small businesses embody the American Dream. She also highlights the transformative power of enterprise while warning against radical socialist agendas.

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Jul 4 • 10:11 AM EDT • Business • foxnews.com
Miss Manners: My friend can’t stop talking politics at our parties

A host is frustrated with a friend who constantly brings up politics at parties despite being asked to keep the mood light, and wonders whether they must continue inviting him since he lives nearby.

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Jul 4 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • al.com