QCA.news - Quad Cities news and view from both sides of the river

Monday, July 20th, 2026
	Eldridge approves city absorption of volunteer fire department The Eldridge City Council decided to take over control of the fire department at a city council meeting Monday night. The fire department was all-volunteer until now. A 14-month stalemate between the city and the firefighters led to much debate. Lead firefighters say staying autonomous is essential to managing the fire department staff and budget. [...]
	Inmate found dead at Dixon Correctional Center Officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections said the facility is currently on a level one lockdown while an investigation into the death continues.
	Eldridge City Council votes to take over fire department The move comes after years of discussions about the future of the department, and after volunteers indicated they wanted to remain independent.
	MercyOne seeing a rise in respiratory patients amid air quality concerns The poor air can cause complications for anyone, but it's especially dangerous among adults with chronic COPD.
	Eldridge volunteer fire company to become a City department Negotiations soured last month amid disputes over proposed budgets and trust in the City, but all parties came back to the table for the final decision.
	Over 100 without power in Quad Cities, Galesburg More than 100 people are without power in the Quad Cities and Galesburg Monday night.
	Over 100 without power in Quad Cities More than 100 people are without power in the Quad Cities Monday night.
	Iowa agriculture experts release report on state ag economy amid downturn A new report suggests Iowa’s agricultural industry is in a multi-year downturn that might not let up for a few more years, and experts are advising farmers to look back to the practices that got them through tough financial times a decade ago to weather the current storm.
	Kids Crafting Day will help animals at QC Animal Welfare Center, Milan The Quad City Animal Welfare Center will present a Kids Crafting Day in honor of National Craft for Your Local Shelter Day from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, July 25, at the Quad City Animal Welfare Center Adoption & Education Center, 724 2nd Ave. West, Milan. This free, open-house style event is a fun way for children [...]
	FDA still focused on Taylor Farms lettuce as Cyclospora source despite retracted test The FDA says lettuce distributed by Taylor Fresh Foods and Taylor Farms de Mexico is still linked to the multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis. But the source may be difficult to definitively trace.
	Special Weather Statement until MON 9:00 PM CDT Strong Wind Gusts Expected Following Showers and Thunderstorms
	Muscatine City Council to rule on building appeals following partial collapse The Muscatine City Council will consider evidence and rule on nine appeals filed by owners of buildings on the north side of the 200 block of E. 2nd St. According to a release from the City of Muscatine, the council will review and vote on the appeals after receiving a June 19 notice from the [...]
	Severe weather passing SW of QC Monday evening A few strong storms are showing up on the radar but they're staying SW of the QC so far Monday evening. For now there is a Severe T'Storm Watch for the Quad Cities until 11 p.m. That will likely be canceled early for some of our counties.
	‘Predator Poachers’ snare Rock Island arts leader They don’t have badges. They’re not authorities. But a volunteer group says it’s doing what overworked police departments often can’t: pose as child decoys online and build evidence against predators.
	Burlington breaking ground on new fire station next Wednesday 2100 N. Roosevelt Avenue is the future home of Burlington's fire station 3.
	Quad Cities students mow lawns for free through YWCA program Quad Cities students are gaining job skills and community spirit by providing free lawn care to residents in need, as part of the YWCA's summer program.
	Illinois summer reading program teams with the Chicago Cubs A new summer reading challenge in Illinois gives students a chance to throw out the first pitch at a Cubs game. Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois Literacy Foundation and the Chicago Cubs launched Illinois Reads Together. One winner of the program will throw out the first pitch at Wrigley [...]
	Iowa farmer shares nitrate runoff reduction techniques as state water quality debate continues An Iowa farmer showed local and state officials his conservation techniques aimed at reducing nitrate runoff, as state leaders debate whether to pursue voluntary or mandatory measures to improve water quality.
	Prosecutors decline to charge Illinois State Police trooper in fatal shooting of mother of 3 Prosecutors determined the shooting was lawful.
	Davenport names two assistant fire chiefs Davenport promoted two long-time members of the fire department into assistant chief roles.
	Proposed transit expansion would bring on-demand rides across Knox County Residents across Knox County could soon have a new way to get to work, school, medical appointments and other destinations if a proposed partnership between the City of Galesburg and Knox County is approved.
	Davenport Fire Department names 2 assistant chiefs The Davenport Fire Department has promoted both Brian Mohr and Ryan Stremlow to assistant chief.
	Inmate found dead at Dixon Correctional Center, Illinois DOC confirms Officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections said the facility is currently on a level one lockdown while an investigation into the death continues.
	Bubba's 33 plans ribbon cutting, grand opening in Davenport The new Bubba’s 33 at 4741 E. 53rd St., Davenport, will open at 11 a.m. Monday, July 27, according to a news release. A ribbon-cutting with the Davenport Chamber of Commerce will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, July 24. On Monday, the first 100 guests will receive mystery pizza boxes containing random prizes, including: free pizza for a [...]
	How to protect yourself outside during air quality alerts Air quality concerns set in the across the Quad Cities this week, but health professionals say there are ways to protect yourself outside.
	Tornado Watch West of Quad Cities Monday night After some afternoon severe t'storms, there could be another round coming up this evening. The NWS has issued a Tornado Watch for areas West of the Quad Cities. All modes of severe weather will be possible in and near the Quad Cities by around 7 p.m.
	How a local man is working to memorialize the Rock Island Independents Rock Island native Jared Howe runs a popular Facebook page called "Forgotten Quad Cities." He has done extensive research on one of the NFL's original teams.
	What you need to know about the Quad- City Times Bix 7 Quad City Times begins with the Senior Bix on Tuesday.
	Woman pleads guilty to burglarizing Geneseo business She will be sentenced in October.
	Burlington to break ground on new fire station The city, firefighters and the Carl A. Nelson Company will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new station #3 on July 29, according to a media release.
	Man arrested following shooting in Rock Island Police said the 44-year-old victim was shot in the leg.
	Kenny G to perform at Davenport's Adler Theatre in November Kenny G will perform at the Adler Theatre in Davenport on Nov. 18. Tickets are starting at $69 and go on sale Friday, July 24 at 10 a.m.
	Learn about the Rock Island Independents, one of the original NFL teams One of the very first NFL games was played in Rock Island back in 1920 at Douglas Park. Meet the local man who is working to keep the Independents' story alive.
	Grammy Award-winning musician Kenny G coming to the Quad Cities The iconic saxophonist will play at the Adler Theatre on Wednesday, Nov. 18, with special guest ATLYS.
	Latest on cyclosporiasis outbreak: What to know At least 1,600 cases have been linked to the outbreak, but the true case count is likely much
	Water shut off to impact several homes, businesses in Maquoketa The city said the water will be shut off for around five hours on Tuesday in the 600-800 blocks of S. Niagara Street and the 200-400 blocks of W. Monroe Street.
	6 women charged in California-to-Quad Cities marijuana enterprise Six women face felony charges in Scott County after police uncover a to ship marijuana from California to the Quad Cities area.
	Man arrested after 1 person shot in Rock Island Officials say a man was arrested after one person was shot in Rock Island early Monday.
	Davenport Fire promotes two to Assistant Chief The Davenport Fire Department has two new Assistant Chiefs. The department announced that Brian Mohr and Ryan Stremlow have been promoted to Assistant Chief. The Assistant Chief is a senior executive leader within the Davenport Fire Department, responsible for overseeing major divisions of the organization and helping guide the department's operations, strategic initiatives, and emergency [...]
	FIRST ALERT DAY: Strong/Severe Monday Evening Storms Level 2 to Level 3 risk of severe weather Monday evening and overnight; Hazy, hot & humid as well
	Greece-ed Lightning: “The Odyssey” THE ODYSSEY
	Sand raises more than $9M in less than 2 months in Iowa governor race Rob Sand raises $9.38 million in the latest reporting period, bringing his campaign cash to $17.9 million four months ahead of the Iowa election.
	Inmate at Dixon Correctional Center dies An inmate at Dixon Correctional Center died Sunday.
	10 things that wowed us at the 2026 World Cup The United States, Mexico, and Canada co-hosted the nearly six-week tournament. NPR's team of journalists who covered the World Cup reflects on the experience.
	Man arrested after early morning shooting in Rock Island Police in Rock Island arrested a man after he allegedly shot a man during an argument. A news release from the Rock Island Police Department said officers responded to the 1500 block of 11th Street on Monday, July 20 at about 2:24 a.m. for reports of shots being fired. When they arrived, they found a [...]
	Silvis to host meeting on its comprehensive plan Silvis is looking for input on its comprehensive plan. The city invites the public to attend a public meeting on its comprehensive plan on Wednesday, July 29 from 6 – 8 p.m. at Divine Mercy (Our Lady of Guadalupe Church), 800 17th Street. Residents, business owners and community stakeholders are encouraged to attend to share [...]
	Tucked in the state budget, a win for pharmacies looking for PBM regulation In light of ongoing provider shortages, some pharmacists are taking on additional duties to close the gap. (Photo by Whitney Downard/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)Pennsylvania’s most recent state budget includes a number of policy provisions agreed to by negotiating lawmakers. One is aimed at helping pharmacies that say they have been arbitrarily prevented by a pharmacy benefit manager from accepting certain Medicaid plans. The new provision will require pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to allow pharmacies that they previously ended contracts with to reapply to their networks after 12 months, assuming they’re in good standing with state and federal laws. While the measure does not address many of the issues pharmacists have raised about PBMs, including low reimbursement rates for medications they dispense, it does address an issue facing a handful of struggling Pennsylvania pharmacies. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE “It’s a very good thing for probably several dozen pharmacies throughout the state who are having network problems with PBMs that don’t allow them to be in the MCO network,” said Rob Frankil, executive director of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists. Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain. They’re hired by insurance companies to handle the prescription drug sides of their healthcare plans. In that role, PBMs reimburse pharmacies when patients pick up drugs that are covered by their insurance. If a pharmacy wants to accept a patient’s insurance, they have to sign a contract with the PBM that represents them, agree to the reimbursement rates they set, and follow any other rules they outline. Pharmacists have long blamed PBMs for declining revenues and rising drug costs. The three largest PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum — are part of massive healthcare conglomerates and collectively process about 80% of all prescription drug claims in the United States. That means pharmacists must maintain good standing with them if they want to accept large numbers of their patients’ insurance plans. But a number of pharmacists have warned that PBMs can be capricious with their contracts, kicking pharmacies out of their networks for reasons that can appear arbitrary. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. A spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a trade group that represents the largest PBMs, declined to comment for this story. For the last several years, attempts to regulate PBMs have brought Democrats and Republicans together. Since 2020, more than 1,000 pharmacies have closed across the state. Pharmacists and the trade groups that represent them have been pushing the legislature to pass legislation reining in PBMs. The provision in the budget was championed by Republican Sen. Dave Langerholc (R-Clearfield) and Democratic Rep. Frank Burns (D-Cambria). Courtesy of Pennsylvania Capital-Star
	One man hospitalized, suspect arrested in Rock Island shooting Early Monday morning, a shooting in Rock Island sent a 44-year-old man to the hospital. Another man has been arrested in connection with the incident.
	Orion rated highly by state board of education Orion was in the top 10% of schools statewide.
	Burlington to break ground on new fire station Burlington is ready to break ground on a new fire station. The City of Burlington and the Burlington Fire Department invite the public to attend the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Burlington Fire Station #3 on Wednesday, July 29 at 10 a.m. The ceremony will be held at the future site of Fire Station #3, [...]
	Man arrested after Rock Island shooting A man was arrested after an overnight shooting in Rock Island Monday.
	John Deere named presenting sponsor of 2026 MLB Field of Dreams game The Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies will play at the iconic movie site in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13.
	Over 1,000 without power in Quad Cities More than 1,000 people are without Monday afternoon.
	Flash Flood Warning until MON 5:30 PM CDT Flash Flooding Expected in Southeastern Cedar, Eastern Muscatine, and Scott Counties This Afternoon
	IHSAA State Baseball: Watch live with Monday’s final scores, highlights KWQC will broadcast and have the game on its smart TV app.
	Court ruling freezes Paramount-Warner Bros. merger for now Paramount's owners were hoping they'd be firmly in control of rival Warner Bros. Discovery by the end of this week. Monday's temporary restraining order puts that plan on hold.
	Lettuce recall sends some shoppers to local farmers markets A Cyclospora outbreak and lettuce recall have Quad Cities shoppers turning to local farmers for safe, locally grown greens.
	Economists predict fewer people in temporary cash assistance program but higher grant amounts State economists attributed the decreasing caseload "primarily" to "persistently falling child poverty rates." (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)The number of Florida residents relying on temporary financial assistance to make ends meet is decreasing but the average amount of grants awarded is on the rise. July data released by the state Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) show the state expects 24,234 people to benefit from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, referred to as TANF, in state fiscal year 2026-27. That’s a 30% reduction from the 34,718 people previously estimated to benefit from the program between July 1 and June 30, 2027 and that legislators relied on when crafting the state budget. The 24,000-plus people represents 14,574 caseloads. The economists who serve on the EDR previously anticipated there would be 19,346 caseloads for FY 26-27. Overall, the program is expected to cost $47.6 million this fiscal year, which is less than the $63.1 million included in the current year budget to cover the costs. Sitting as the Social Services Estimating conference, the economists said in an executive summary the decreasing caseload is “primarily related to persistently falling child poverty rates.” SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. TANF is a federally funded program that provides cash assistance and support services to lower-income families with children. The TANF program in Florida is called Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) and is administered by the Department of Children and Families. TCA provides up to 48 months of financial support to low-income Florida families to help cover essential needs. To qualify, an applicant must be a U.S. citizen or qualified noncitizen, have a Social Security number, have an annual income of less than 185% of the federal poverty level or $61,050 or less a year, and have a child living with them. Families must cooperate with child support enforcement. Young children (those under age five) must be vaccinated while children aged 6-18 must regularly attend school to qualify. Additionally, the rules require most adults to participate in at least 35 hours per week of approved work activities, which include job searches, community service, or training. Caseloads and people served aren’t the only data points being revised downward by economists. The average family size went from just under 1.8 people per caseload to about 1.6 per caseload. Bucking the downward trend, however, is the average size of the grant per person. Data show economists predict a $143.24 TANF grant per person in FY 26-27, which is slightly higher than the previous estimated award of $134.34 per person. Courtesy of Florida Phoenix
	Will Moon remembered for generosity, leadership of Iowa 80 Group Will Moon moved to Walcott with his parents when he was 4 years old, when his parents took over the Iowa 80 Truckstop.
	For Avalon Emerson, starting a band changed everything Plus, Avalon Emerson & The Charm perform songs from the band's latest album, Written Into Changes.
	Oklahoma’s plan to comply with mental health consent decree is approved one year after deadline The Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita provides court-ordered mental health treatment to criminal defendants who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial. (Photo by Sierra Pfeifer/KOSU)More than a year after it was due, the state’s plan to provide court-ordered treatment for Oklahoma defendants found incompetent to stand trial has been approved by the consultants overseeing a high-profile consent decree. The state entered the consent decree to settle a 2023 lawsuit that accused the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services of violating the civil rightsof people in the criminal justice system with severe mental illness who sometimes wait months in jail for treatment before their cases can resume. Four versions of the plan previously submitted by the department were rejected by court consultants and class counsel for a lack of detail and a failure to collaborate with the settlement parties, according to court consultant Neil Gowensmith. He approved the latest draft in a letter filed in federal court in Tulsa on July 13. “While we approve the Plan, we consider this to be the first serious effort on the part of ODMHSAS to implement the Decree,” Gowensmith wrote on behalf of the three consultants in charge of monitoring the department. “More than a year has gone by since entry of the Decree, much of that time wasted by a lack of real focus on the Decree.” He said the plan is just one step toward meeting the standards of the consent decree and that the department has a short amount of time left to begin “the real work.” The department’s plan was originally due by June 9, 2025, but as of January, consultants said the plan didn’t exist, and the number of people waiting in county jails for mental health treatment had increased by 58%. Ultimately, the consent decree requires the state to provide criminal defendants with court-ordered treatment within 21 days. In May, 203 people were waiting an average of 104 days in county jails for treatment, according to the agency’s approved strategic plan. The Department of Mental Health has already been fined $3.5 million for failing to reduce treatment wait times and make other functional improvements for class members. The agency will face another round of fines beginning in October after the consent decree’s yearly cap resets, according to the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Paul DeMuro. He said the newly approved plan represents a substantial shift in the department’s handling of the consent decree. DeMuro credited agency leadership changes and a federal judge’s ruling that the state had failed to make “best efforts” to comply with the decree. “I’m confident, if the department maintains this level of focus and collaboration, we can get this done,” DeMuro said. “There may be some bumps in the road, or disagreements or things might not happen as quickly as people on the ground would like, but I am confident we can get it right.” Still, more than a year after the final consent decree was approved, DeMuro said he had hoped the state would be further along in making improvements. “If you talk to public defenders, district attorneys and judges, they are still not seeing the changes,” DeMuro said. “We’ve got a long way to go.” To be successful, the department must create a treatment system for criminal defendants that “serves courts, counties, treatment providers, and individuals more effectively,” the plan authors wrote. “We’re grateful for the Court Consultants’ approval of our Consent Decree Strategic Plan,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement. “While there is still important work ahead that will take time and collaboration with our partners across the state, this marks a meaningful step in the right direction.” This article was originally published by KOSU. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of Oklahoma Voice
	Severe Thunderstorm Warning from MON 11:52 AM CDT until MON 12:45 PM CDT Severe Thunderstorms with 60 mph Winds and Hail Threaten the Quad Cities Area
	India's Gen Z 'Cockroach People's Party' started as satire but is serious about change They call themselves the "cockroaches" and they're on the march — demanding action against corruption, amid a shortage of opportunities for young people in India.
	Kenny G playing Adler Theatre in November The Adler Theatre has announced that Kenny G Live with special guest Atlys is coming to the Adler Theatre, 136 E. Third Street in Davenport, on Wednesday, November 18. There will be a venue presale on July 22 at 10 a.m. and general ticket sales start on Friday, July 24th at 10 a.m. at the [...]
	John Deere named presenting sponsor of 2026 MLB at Field of Dreams game The game will be between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 13.
	Morrisey names Ayers as new Department of Human Services secretary The West Virginia Department of Human Services is located at One Davis Square in Charleston, West Virginia. (Photo by Leann Ray/West Virginia Watch)Carl Ayers — who previously oversaw the commonwealth of Virginia’s social services program — is West Virginia’s new secretary for the Department of Human Services, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Monday. “West Virginia’s most vulnerable citizens deserve a Department of Human Services that is effective, accountable, and focused on results,” Morrisey said in the news release. “Carl Ayers has spent his career improving services for children and families, strengthening accountability, and making government work better. “I am confident he will build on our efforts to modernize the department while ensuring critical services are delivered efficiently, effectively and with compassion,” Morrisey said. Ayers fills a vacancy left when South Dakota native Alex Mayer left earlier this year after more than a year in the role. DoHS deputy secretary Christina Mullins has served as acting secretary. Much of Mayer’s focus was on attempting to build process and consistency into the state’s overwhelmed foster care system. He oversaw a statewide listening tour to better understand West Virginia’s foster care issues; a report following the tour reiterated many well-known issues, like the need for expanded access to child mental healthcare and improved communication with families and foster parents. The state is being sued by foster children who sought to address pervasive issues, including a shortage of Child Protective Services workers and safe homes for children in and out of state. Ayers was most recently the principal deputy commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services, an agency with a more than $2.5 billion budget and more than 1,700 employees, Morrisey said. He also previously was Virginia’s Deputy Commissioner of Human Services, overseeing child welfare, Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, child care, and other major public assistance programs. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from Radford University and currently serves as chair of the Child Welfare League of America, the release said. According to the news release, the governor has charged Ayers with “continuing the administration’s efforts to improve efficiency, strengthen accountability, modernize department operations, and ensure critical human services are delivered effectively to the West Virginians who need them most.” Ayers starts in the DHS role Monday, the governor said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of West Virginia Watch
	UnityPoint Health – Trinity introduces new enlarged prostate treatment UnityPoint Health – Trinity recently introduced the Quad Cities’ first HYDROS Robotic System for Aquablation, a new option for men dealing with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or an enlarged prostate. BPH is one of the most common urological conditions in the U.S., and this minimally invasive procedure offers a modern approach to treatment. Aquablation combines [...]
	Traffic alert: 12th Ave near 41st St in Moline closed after water main break Driver are asked to take an alternate route.
	The school bus was built for a cooler America The school bus was built for a cooler AmericaThe American school bus has looked about the same for 80 years. Yellow paint, high vinyl seats, a heater up front, and windows you adjust by hand. Any air conditioning is what you get with the windows open while rolling down the street. Most likely, it’s been decades since you’ve ridden a school bus and can’t understand how it feels today.You do not have to imagine it. In August 2024, a district north of Austin started the school year in a heat spike with the outside air at 109 degrees and 16 of its 100 buses running with broken AC. The district handed out water, cooling towels, and packed ice chests. "On the older buses, the air might be working this morning, and by this afternoon it might not be," the interim superintendent, Cara Malone, told BusesForSale. A great-grandmother described what pickup looked like. "[My granddaughter] always jumps off the bus and says, ‘Oh, Granny, I'm hot. I'm so hot," she said of her kid. "So we immediately sponge her down to get her cool and give her some water."But, you might ask, “Isn’t there a law about AC being on buses?” No federal rule has ever required cooling on a school bus. The federal safety standards require heaters, which made sense when the buses were designed around cold morning runs in the Upper Midwest.But when it comes to air conditioning, federal standards treat AC as optional equipment, just as heated seats are on a car. The difference is that nobody's kid rides to school in the heated seats for a week straight in September in the South.The federal government doesn’t keep count of how many buses run without air conditioning. The numbers that do exist are state and local, and they point in one direction. For example, Alabama's education department found that fewer than half of the state's school buses have AC. A transportation specialist there, Chad Carpenter, said a bus "can get 20 degrees hotter than the air outside." Twenty degrees on top of a hot day adds up quickly.Ms.Izquierdo, a parent and PTA president at P176X in Co-op City, walked the bus yards with a thermometer during a July 2023 heat wave in New York. And she found one bus reading about 110 degrees inside. "If we've got thousands of buses on the road, that means we've got hundreds of hot ones," Panel for Educational Policy member Tom Sheppard said. "That's a lot of opportunity for our young people to have heat-related issues."Children are the wrong passengers to gamble with here. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that kids heat up faster than adults and are slower to shed that heat because of their size and how their bodies regulate temperature. A grown commuter can tough out a warm ride and complain about it later. An emergency physician's report says that a first-grader could last only minutes in a 110-degree car. So, a stalled bus on a route in August is a dangerous situation.So why not fix it? Like most things with the government, it has to do with money. Adding air conditioning to a bus costs around $10,000 to $14,000 per unit, based on figures districts put forward in 2023. Multiply that by a fleet of a few hundred buses, and you are into real money, on top of the price of the buses themselves, which has climbed hard in the last few years. When Colorado lawmakers tried to make cooling a requirement, that number did the talking. Colorado floated a bill in 2024 to require AC on new school buses, and its own education committee killed it on a 10-0 vote. Louisiana, a state that knows something about heat and humidity, ran a similar mandate the same year, and the House voted it down, largely over who would pay.Everyone agrees a 110-degree bus is bad. Nobody wants to be the one to fund the fix across an entire fleet at once, so it happens the slow way, a few new buses at a time as old ones age out. Some places have moved faster when the law forced their hand. New York City, after a change to its local law, is on the hook to put every student with a disability on an air-conditioned bus by 2035. Most of the country has no such deadline.The likely ending is the same one that played out in passenger cars. Air conditioning used to be a checkbox you paid extra for. Then it got cheaper, buyers stopped tolerating the alternative, and it quietly became standard. The Alabama official put the bus version plainly. "I wouldn't be real surprised if air conditioning on school buses doesn't become pretty standard in the next few years," he said.This story was produced by BusesForSale and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	With 3 states changing their privacy laws, more than half the US population is now covered With 3 states changing their privacy laws, more than half the US population is now coveredOn July 1, Connecticut lowered the number of residents’ data a business has to handle before the state’s privacy law applies. The threshold dropped from 100,000 consumers to 35,000, a 65% cut, according to Clym’s analysis of Connecticut’s updated privacy law.Connecticut also removed the threshold entirely for two kinds of businesses: any company that processes sensitive personal data or that sells personal data in exchange for money or anything of value is now covered, no matter how many Connecticut residents it reaches.Connecticut wasn’t the only state moving that day. Arkansas activated the first state law in the country to extend core children’s privacy protections to teenagers, and Utah added a consumer right that most other states already had: the right to correct inaccurate personal data.All three changes took effect July 1, joining a patchwork of 20 state privacy laws that now cover more than half the U.S. population.Connecticut: A lower bar and a longer list of what counts as sensitiveConnecticut’s amendment does more than lower the threshold. It also expands what counts as sensitive data, which requires explicit opt-in consent before a business can collect it. The updated list now includes neural data from wearable and neurotech devices, disability status and treatment information, nonbinary or transgender status, and financial account credentials.The state also raised its age threshold for children’s data protection from 16 to 18 and closed a consent loophole. Previously, a business could sell a minor’s data or use it for targeted advertising if it obtained consent. Under the new rules, that’s outright prohibited for anyone under 18, regardless of consent.None of this comes with a grace period. Connecticut’s attorney general has had the authority to enforce the Connecticut Data Privacy Act without offering businesses a chance to fix a violation first since the law’s 60-day cure period sunset on Dec. 31, 2024, according to the Connecticut Attorney General’s office.Violations can run up to $5,000 each under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, and the state counts violations per consumer affected, not per incident. The office brought its first CTDPA enforcement action in 2025, an $85,000 settlement with TicketNetwork.Arkansas: The first state to extend privacy protections to teensArkansas’s Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, signed in April 2025 and effective July 1, 2026, makes it the first state to expand core federal children’s privacy protections beyond kids under 13 to include teenagers, according to law firm Varnum LLP. The law splits consent into two tiers: parental consent is required to collect a child’s personal information, while either a parent or the teen can consent for users aged 13 to 16.Operators aren’t required to verify age, but they’re expected to comply once they have actual knowledge of a user’s age. The law bars targeted advertising to minors using their personal data and limits collection to what’s necessary for the service being provided.Enforcement rests exclusively with the Arkansas attorney general, who can pursue civil penalties of up to $10,000 per knowing and willful violation. Arkansas residents have no private right to sue.Utah: A smaller change with a longer runwayUtah’s update is narrower. Starting July 1, residents gained the right to ask a business to correct inaccurate personal data it holds about them. Before this change, Utah and Iowa were the only two comprehensive privacy law states without a correction right; Iowa is now the only one left. Utah businesses have 45 days to respond to a correction request, and violations can bring civil penalties of up to $7,500 each.Why the scale matters for small businessesConnecticut’s threshold change is the one most likely to catch small businesses off guard, because 35,000 residents is a low bar for any company with a website that draws Connecticut visitors.Small businesses make up 99.4% of all businesses in the state and employ 726,097 people, or 48.1% of Connecticut’s workforce, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2025 Connecticut state profile.Many of those businesses now have to check whether routine tools, like analytics platforms or ad pixels that share data with third parties, count as a “sale” of personal data under the law’s broad definition.Nationally, the SBA counts more than 36.2 million small businesses, employing 62.3 million people, or 45.9% of the private-sector workforce.Under most state privacy laws, including Connecticut’s, Arkansas’s, and Utah’s, it doesn’t matter where a business is headquartered. What matters is where its customers live.This story was produced by Clym and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Camanche Days will celebrate birthday of nation, city Camanche Days will be held July 23-July 26 in observance of the nation's 250th birthday and the 190th birthday of Camanche, a news release says, Admission will be free. Among the features will be a carnival, food booths, children's games, Bingo tent, live music, baking contest, dunk tank, car smash, beer tent, bench press competition, [...]
	12th Avenue at 41st Street, Moline, closed due to water main break Utility crews with the City of Moline Utilities are responding to a water main break on 12th Avenue, near 41st Street. Westbound 12th Avenue at 41st Street is closed while crews assess the situation. Drivers are asked to avoid the area and use an alternate route. More information will be released as it becomes available.
	Parents: Popular book series gets kids excited about summer reading (BPT) - If you want your kids to spend more time this summer away from screens and delving into books, start with the beloved Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. By engaging kids in this tried-and-true series you know they'll love, you're ensuring they'll have many hours of reading pleasure ahead of them, all summer long. The Percy Jackson series recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, demonstrating its long-running popularity with kids aged 8-12 years.To help inspire kids to enjoy more summer reading, Disney Hyperion's "Get Ready with Me for Camp Half-Blood" summer reading campaign will be providing exciting resources and new content about Percy Jackson for young readers on social media, and on the Disney Books and Read Riordan websites.Kids can explore the world of Percy Jackson, son of the Greek god Poseidon, in the five original books starting out with "The Lightning Thief," and going on to include two direct spinoffs, an extension series of fan favorite characters, as well as crossover books with other series by Rick Riordan.Here are tips from Disney Books to help inspire your kids to enjoy more reading over the summer months.1. Make regular trips to the libraryTo help your kids find books they love, make a weekly visit to your local library a regular part of your summer routine. Many libraries offer special reading programs, story time, movies and other events for varying ages over the summer, so make sure to check out what's happening at your nearest branch this year.Pro tip: Let your kids choose reading material that interests them, whether that means graphic novels, magazines or books. They'll be more likely to stick with them.2. Share the books you loved with your kidsDo you have fond memories of reading books like the Percy Jackson series, or other beloved children's classics? You can relive the stories you loved by reading them with your kids today.3. Reward chores with "book money"If your kids participate in household chores, consider offering a book reward instead of cash this summer. When they have completed a set number of chores, take them on a trip to the bookstore where they can select their next great read. It will be something they can look forward to!4. Read togetherWhether you read to your kids, they read to you, or you all read silently but in the same room together, "reading time" every day can reinforce how much you value reading, and is a great way to bond over your favorite books.Pro tip: Even just 10-15 minutes of reading time before bed can help kids wind down and relax before enjoying a good night's sleep!5. Get into a seriesThe beauty of getting your kids interested in a long-running series like Percy Jackson is that the fun doesn't end when one book is over. Kids will love knowing that they have a lot more to look forward to, and they'll be excited about seeing what happens to their favorite characters next.6. Make a game out of readingYour kids could join a reading challenge set up by their school or library, or you could create your own. Consider making a bingo game with squares like "Start a book series," "Read a book about animals" or "Read a story with a blue cover" — and use new books as prizes!7. Keep exploringIf one book doesn't get your child excited about reading, don't give up. Help them learn the layout of the library or bookstore to discover what interests them. You can find a wide variety of stories to suit any kind of reader. Not into fiction? Maybe they'd rather read age-appropriate nonfiction books about space, the natural world, dinosaurs or how machines work.Pro tip: Librarians and booksellers are a great resource to offer recommendations for your child based on their age and interests.Any one of these tips can help make summer reading more fun. You can also encourage kids to learn more about the authors and book series that they like. For example, all summer long, @readriordan on Instagram will feature new and exciting resources for Percy Jackson fans, like quizzes and other interactive materials. The Percy Jackson stories are now available in multiple formats, including audiobooks and graphic novels, and the series is now a hit TV show on Disney+, with season three coming out this fall.Find Percy Jackson books your kids can dive into this summer at ReadRiordan.com.
	8 ways to use a personal loan for a home makeover in 2026 8 ways to use a personal loan for a home makeover in 2026Making updates around the house can make your home more livable—and some renovations may add value. Whether you're savoring the thought of having a professional-grade kitchen or need to replace the roof, home improvement loans could make it happen.If you're wondering how to use a personal loan to fund a home makeover, Achieve shares a few ideas that might inspire you.Key takeaways:Home improvement loans let you borrow money to make repairs or renovations.You could use a personal loan to remodel your home, replace appliances, or make structural improvements.It’s good to shop around to find the best home improvement loan rates.1. Remodel and renovateRemodeling and renovation mean taking the home you have and turning it into something even better. For example, you could use a home improvement loan to:Replace your outdated kitchen cabinets with new modern ones, and swap Formica countertops for granite or marble ones.Upgrade your bathroom sinks, shower, toilet, and tub to create the ultimate spa experience at home.Finish your attic or basement space with flooring, walls, and electrical fixtures to convert it to a home office.Personal loans could give you the money you need to pay for these projects without having to tap into your home equity. Equity is the difference between what you owe on the home and what it's worth.2. Make repairsBeing a homeowner often means spending money fixing things.Some repairs, like a broken doorknob or loose weather stripping, are low-cost, easy fixes. But others might take a little more time and money to tackle.Home improvement loans can help you cover repairs if you need to:Repair faulty electrical wiring or an electrical panel boxFix a broken HVAC unitReplace a leaky roofInstall new guttersIf you have multiple repairs to make but your budget is limited, prioritize them in order of urgency.3. Increase energy efficiencyAre high utility bills making it hard to budget and save money each month? Energy-efficient improvements could help you reduce costs.Some of the improvements you might fund with a personal loan include:Install solar panelsReplace your current water heater with a tankless oneSwap out the old insulation in your attic for energy-efficient optionsReplace appliances with Energy Star modelsInstall an energy-qualified heat pumpTrade your windows for energy-friendly replacementsPro tip: Consider a free budgeting app to help you track utility bills and other monthly expenses.4. Expand your homeDo you feel like you just don't have enough room to maneuver? Home improvement loans could help you cover expansion projects to add square footage to your space.For example, you could use a personal loan to:Finish an attic or basement space and convert it to an extra bedroom or guest suite.Take out non-load-bearing walls to create an open floor plan between the kitchen and living room.Enclose a patio or porch, or build a full addition.Remember to check local building laws to find out if you'll need special permits or inspections to increase your home's livable space.5. Make structural improvementsAs homes age, they may require maintenance that goes beyond basic.For example, if your home has a crawl space and you've noticed your floors sag in certain spots, that's a sign you might need to reinforce the joists or install support piers. Or you may need to encapsulate the space and install a dehumidifier to fight off mold growth.One of the benefits of personal loans is that you can use them to cover these kinds of improvements so you don't have to drain your savings to pay for them.6. Upgrade appliances and fixturesIf your appliances are nearing the end of their lifespan or you're ready to change up your style, a personal loan could help you outfit your home with new ones.You could use a home improvement loan to:Purchase a new fridge, range, dishwasher, and microwave.Get a top-of-the-line washer-and-dryer unit.Replace a leaking water heater.Trade out old, wobbly ceiling fans for new ones.Replace lighting fixtures throughout the home.Using a personal loan for large purchases like appliances could be a better choice than store financing, which may carry higher interest rates.7. Accessibility updatesPersonal loans could help you make your home more accessible for people with disabilities or other conditions that affect mobility.For example, say your aging parent needs to move in with you and they require a wheelchair. You might use a home improvement loan to construct a ramp or add a chair lift so they're able to access the second floor.Other accessibility improvements include smoothing out floors to reduce trip hazards, and widening halls and doorways. A bathroom upgrade may be necessary if you need to install a chair-height toilet, handrails, or grab bars.8. Outside improvementsSo far, this list has focused on ways to make over your home from the inside. But you can use a personal loan for a lot of projects to improve the exterior as well.You might invest in:New patio paversShrubbery and sodA pool or hot tubFountains or fish pondsIrrigation systemsDriveway resurfacingFresh paint and new shuttersNew guttersA new porch or deckThese kinds of improvements can add curb appeal to your home, which could make it easier to sell if you're planning a move down the line.Home improvement loans offer plenty of flexibility, since you can decide how to use them to spruce up your space. If you're ready to flex your DIY skills (or start shopping for contractors), take the next step to compare personal loan rates and get pre-approved.This story was produced by Achieve and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Does your teen really need a car? The numbers may surprise you Does your teen really need a car? The numbers may surprise youFor generations, the customary practice in many families was to give their newly licensed teenager their own car, or at least the okay to borrow mom and dad’s ride. But in 2026, this is no longer a foregone conclusion. That’s because the costs associated with young driving are through the roof, and many households can no longer shoulder these rising collective bills.But instead of kicking that license down the curb indefinitely or forcing youngsters to fully pay for their own driving, families are getting creative and exploring different strategies to save money without necessarily keeping their sons and daughters off the road.Here, TheZebra.com takes a closer look at what you should consider carefully before handing those keys over to your child, options that work for your budget, and ways to lower the financial burden.The True Costs of Teen DrivingThe numbers don’t lie: It’s downright expensive to purchase, own, and operate a car today. For proof, ponder that:The average new car price currently exceeds $49,000 versus nearly $27,000 for a used vehicle, Kelly Blue Book reports.The total expense of owning and operating a new automobile is $11,577, or $964.78 monthly, per AAA.The average annual premium for teenage car insurance coverage is $5,340 for males and $4,738 for females, according to The Zebra, and 16-year-olds pay almost $8,000 annually for coverage.AAA indicates that gas prices continue to hover over or around $4 per gallon.Collectively, these expenses can tally thousands every year and, over the time your young driver lives under your roof, reach the five-figure range. Auto insurance often accounts for the highest of these costs.“Car insurance is all about risk, regardless of age. Statistically, teens are far more likely to be involved in an accident or file a claim than any other age group, and most of it comes down to inexperience,” says Beth Swanson, insurance analyst with The Zebra.At the same time, “the overall cost of vehicles, repairs, and fuel has increased, so families face a combination of higher total expenses. Many households underestimate the total cost because they focus on the car purchase but not the full cost of ownership,” Janet Ruiz, director of strategic communications for the Insurance Information Institute, notes.Driving in High School vs. CollegeThe related costs of giving your offspring the green light to drive can differ depending on their age and school status. But the fact is, the younger your driver is, the more expensive insurance premiums will be. Here’s a breakdown of what to consider if your child is still in high school or now attends college.High schoolAsk yourself, is it even worth it for my high schooler to drive?“Does your teenager need a vehicle, or would it just be convenient? These are two very different things,” explains Ashley NeSmith, founder of Ashley the Auto Advocate. “If the teenager is working, involved in activities, driving long distances to school, or lives in an area where there aren’t many transportation options, having access to a vehicle makes sense. But I don’t think every adolescent automatically needs their own vehicle the minute they get a driver’s license. As a parent, I’d be looking closely at maturity, responsibility, grades, driving habits, and whether they’ve shown they can handle the privilege that comes with driving.”Of course, necessity often dictates that a child must have driving privileges.“Families should evaluate whether driving is truly necessary based on transportation alternatives, schedules, and safety considerations. Key factors include access to public transportation, distance to school or activities, work obligations, and the teen’s driving readiness,” suggests Ruiz.CollegeBut what if your son or daughter is older and attending college?“From an insurance standpoint, keeping your college student on your existing policy is usually the most affordable route. If they maintain good grades, there’s often a good student discount available as well, along with an away-at-school discount you may qualify for,” says Swanson.Whether they should bring a vehicle to campus or not requires careful consideration. If the school is walkable or has solid public transportation, a car could create more hassle than it’s worth.“Campus parking lots are often a significant distance from dorms and academic buildings, which means the car is out of sight and more vulnerable to vandalism, theft, or hit-and-run incidents,” Swanson continues.If the auto will remain at home and unused while your student is away, ask your insurer about parked-car or storage options.“There are ways to reduce your premium without dropping coverage entirely—especially if the vehicle isn’t being driven regularly,” notes Swanson.Viable AlternativesStill not sure if allowing your teen to have their own car—or drive at all—is a good idea financially or otherwise? Maybe it’s time to explore other options, including:Share the family car. Doing so and adding an adolescent to your family’s auto insurance policy is a lot cheaper than buying a separate car and a standalone policy. Just be sure to set clear rules and scheduling parameters.Purchase a lower-cost vehicle. Buying a reliable and recommended used ride, such as a certified preowned vehicle, can cost much less than a new car and mitigate losses from depreciation.Enroll in usage-based insurance. Pay-as-you-go insurance coverage, which requires using a smartphone app or telematics device, calculates your rate based on your teen’s actual driving habits and could lower your premiums.Delay licensure. “Families can postpone getting a driver’s license and use interim options to lower near-term costs,” Ruiz suggests.Carpool. Sharing rides with other families reduces costs and driving exposure.Use public transportation. Riding buses and trains may be ideal options for students residing in densely populated environments.Use bikes or scooters. An e-bike that your child can securely lock up makes it quick and easy to get from A to B.Rideshare OptionsA newer alternative families can turn to is specialized ridesharing for high schoolers. Uber Teen and Lyft Teen enable adolescents ages 13 to 17 to request their own rides under strict parental oversight.Here’s how it works: Mom, dad, or a guardian must invite the child via their own app, linking the account to a family payment method. After the teen finishes the required in-app safety onboarding, they can hail rides on their own, sitting only in the back seat, and be driven by experienced, highly rated drivers who have passed rigorous background checks. The fees/fares are the same as those charged for a comparable ride by adults, so if your child isn’t likely to log a lot of regular miles driving, ridesharing could be the more economical alternative.Or, if you live in the greater Phoenix area, Waymo now offers "Teen Accounts," which permit 14- to 17-year-olds to ride alone in autonomous, driverless cars with parental permission. (So far, however, this service is not available in other markets.)Good Candidates for Teen Car OwnershipAsk Ruiz, and she’ll tell you that the worthiest prospects for giving a teen their own car are families in rural areas, those without access to public transportation, or situations where an adolescent relies on a vehicle for work or essential activities.“In these cases, the decision is driven by need rather than convenience, and families should weigh the benefits against the long-term costs,” she says.The Bottom LineAs much as your teen may plead with you, don’t feel pressured to say yes to driving privileges or their own vehicle. Crunch the numbers carefully, weigh their level of responsibility and maturity, shop around for more affordable insurance, and give thought to alternative means of transportation that could save you big bucks.This story was produced by TheZebra.com and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Quad-Cities gas prices rise 16 cents in the last week Prices in the Quad-Cities are 2.1 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and 91 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.
	When the ability to smell goes away When the ability to smell goes awayAbout 14 years ago, Chrissi Kelly lost her sense of smell. She had traveled to the Czech Republic to visit family and caught some virus. Months later, when she still couldn’t smell, she made the rounds to doctors, including her general practitioner and an ear, nose and throat specialist, trying to find answers.She was diagnosed with anosmia (complete smell loss), and, like many patients with her condition, was told she’d have to learn to live with it. But for her, the loss was catastrophic. “After about six months of complete loss, I was just climbing the walls, and I did not feel like myself anymore,” she tells Knowable Magazine.Researchers estimate that up to 22% of the population lives with smell impairments, like hyposmia (partial smell loss) or anosmia. And many others live with smell disorders like phantosmia, in which a person picks up phantom smells, or parosmia, where typically pleasant scents like coffee or shampoo begin to register as highly unpleasant (think feces or vomit). Yet the conditions have been poorly understood, underdiagnosed and often minimized by clinicians.The COVID-19 pandemic changed that. COVID brought unprecedented attention — and research interest — to the sense of smell. There have been 780 million reported cases of COVID-19 since December 2019 (and many more unreported), according to the World Health Organization, and smell loss is a well-known symptom. In one 2023 survey published in the journal Laryngoscope, 60% of individuals with COVID experienced smell loss, most temporarily, but some over the longer term.With COVID causing millions of noses worldwide to malfunction at roughly the same time, the virus spurred newfound appreciation for, and research into, this critical sense. As scientists learn more about the way that the sense of smell operates, evidence is mounting that smell is deeply tied not only to quality of life but also to brain healthThe undervalued senseIn the 19th century, French brain researcher Paul Broca argued that humans had traded a keen sense of smell for higher intellect, labeling olfaction “the bestial sense.” His ideas led to decades of scientific neglect. Modern research has proved him wrong. Smell enriches life and directs our behavior. It helps parents and children to bond, warns us of environmental dangers and anchors emotional memory. “Humans are actually quite good at smelling,” says Swedish psychologist Jonas Olofsson, author of “The Forgotten Sense: The New Science of Smell and the Extraordinary Power of the Nose.”People smell by detecting airborne molecules that bind to specialized receptors in the nasal cavity. Millions of olfactory neurons in the upper nose detect these odorants, then send electrical impulses via the olfactory bulbs, which create a sensory map in the brain — basically, a system to identify, distinguish and remember scents. Unlike vision or hearing, smell directly signals brain areas responsible for emotion (the amygdala) and memory (the hippocampus), which could be why smells can strongly trigger memories.Furthermore, the olfactory bulbs are now known to be among the few brain regions that create new neurons during adulthood. This is thought to help the brain deal with constantly changing environments. The olfactory bulbs are also the most vulnerable part of the brain — a potential entry site for viruses, bacteria, toxins and perhaps even microplastics. Axel_Kock // Shutterstock After losing her sense of smell, Kelly searched for insight and commiseration. Finding neither, she founded two nonprofit patient groups. Along the way, she also became a community scientist, copublishing more than 30 academic papers with researchers.Kelly describes our olfactory bulbs as “two little earthworms lying in their crypts,” located on the bottom surface of the brain’s frontal lobes, directly above the nasal cavity. “These crypts have got little holes underneath, through which the olfactory nerves grow, like roots coming through the bottom of a pot in the garden,” she says. Hairlike extensions from the olfactory nerves protrude into the inside of the nose’s mucous membrane. Olfactory support cells surround and nourish each nerve cell.Reasons for smell lossSome people lose their sense of smell for no known reason. Others lose it after a virus attacks the olfactory support cells. When the support cells regenerate (four to six weeks later, on average), smell returns. Smell loss can also be due to a head injury that damages the olfactory nerves or causes inflammation. Allergies and sinus infections can cause swelling and inflammation that lead to smell loss. Sometimes the problem clears when the inflammation does. Less fortunate folks, like Kelly, experience assaults to their olfactory nerves that cause lasting damage.And sometimes, smell loss can be a harbinger of deeper trouble. For example, smell loss can occur many years before a person first experiences the slowed gait and tremors that lead to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.There are a lot of unknowns about the earliest — or prodromal — stages of Parkinson’s, says Ethan G. Brown, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco’s Movement Disorders Clinic. “We don’t know when neurodegeneration actually starts,” he says.A defining feature of the disorder is a major loss of dopamine-producing cells in a brain region called the substantia nigra, and new imaging tools suggest the damage begins years before clear symptoms. Scientists suspect toxic proteins that damage the substantia nigra may first build up in the olfactory bulbs and create smell loss as one of the earliest signs of Parkinson’s.Loss of smell also can be an early sign of various other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia, says Zara M. Patel, director of the Stanford Initiative to Cure Smell and Taste Loss. And it shows up in other conditions, too. “So, for example, people with depression have altered olfactory ability, people with schizophrenia have altered olfactory ability, people with autism have altered olfactory ability,” she says. Changes in all kinds of central nervous system processes can show up as a kind of olfactory dysfunction, Patel says.In fact, researchers have associated smell disorders with an astounding 139 neurological, physical and congenital/hereditary conditions, from alcoholism to Zika/Guillain-Barré syndrome. The nature of these associations is not yet clear. Smell loss might be an early indicator of a condition that affects the olfactory bulbs as well as other parts of the brain, as appears to be the case for Parkinson’s. It’s also possible that smell loss contributes to some disorders. Researchers suspect that the olfactory system helps regulate higher brain functions involved in cognition, memory and emotion, which are involved in many psychiatric disorders, and smell loss could exacerbate those conditions.Scientists are also exploring whether inflammation in the olfactory system may contribute to brain changes in schizophrenia. In any case, a lack of smell puts people at risk of missing environmental warnings, like smoke or spoiled food, leading some researchers to call smell loss a public health issue.Cracking the codeScientists estimate that humans can perceive millions — perhaps even a trillion — distinct odors. “We’re surrounded by molecules floating around us,” says Dmitry Rinberg, a neuroscientist at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. “But we still haven’t cracked the code of how the brain turns them into perception.”In the early 1990s, Linda Buck and Richard Axel discovered a vast family of around 1,000 different genes in mammals (making up a significant percentage of the genome) that produce an equivalent number of specialized olfactory receptors. This work won a Nobel Prize in 2004 and kicked off the modern age of smell research.Olfaction initially bypasses the thalamus, the brain’s central relay station. While all other senses are filtered through the thalamus before reaching the cortex, olfactory signals travel directly into the limbic system (the amygdala and hippocampus). The brain interprets a unique code — or mosaic of activated receptors — to identify specific smells. Ongoing research is mapping how signals from these nasal receptors are systematically organized and sent to specific locations in the brain to evoke smells, memories and behaviors.Another interesting tidbit: In processing odor information, “what’s coming in from your two nostrils doesn’t just become one big blob of activity in the brain,” says Naz Dikecligil, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who cowrote an in-depth overview of the human olfactory system in the 2024 Annual Review of Psychology. “They’re maintained as separate channels of information.” That means the brain may track which nostril detected an odor, helping to determine where a smell originates in space.Can the sense come back?For smell loss patients, the most pressing question is whether smell can be restored.Kelly first learned about olfactory training when a doctor mentioned it in passing. The method works sort of like physical therapy, but for smell. Someone practices smelling a set of familiar scents — traditionally lemon, rose, clove and eucalyptus — twice daily, focusing on recognizing the labeled scents and remembering the smell. The goal is to use repetition and training to generate new receptor cells and harness neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to rewire neurons for new tasks.For every cause of smell loss her team has studied, about 30% of patients improve after months of training, says Patel, who ran the first randomized controlled trial of olfactory training in the United States. In that study, 35 patients with loss of smell as measured by the field’s standard metric, called the University of Pennsylvania Smell Test, were randomized to olfactory training or a control group for six months.Only patients with loss of smell for more than a year, and whose loss was associated with post‐infectious or unknown causes, were included. Their baseline score was compared to their six‐month score, and an improvement of 10% or better was rated as significant; of 19 patients in the experimental group, six showed significant improvement, while only two of 16 control patients improved. In other studies, Patel and her colleagues have found that as much as 50% of patients see changes if they pair their training with a steroid sinus rinse.A 2024 meta-analysis of 36 olfactory training studies cited a “notable and statistically significant positive impact of olfactory training on the enhancement of all domains of olfactory function.” Individual studies included in the meta-analysis found a range of improvements spanning 11% to 68% after 12 to 16 weeks, while one paper found that more people benefited with longer training (58% versus 71%).Patel acknowledges that olfactory training isn’t a sure bet, but it appears to be effective for some people — and it’s simple and inexpensive. She’s developed easy-to-follow instructions for people to use on their own. There’s also early evidence that olfactory training may improve depression and cognitive functioning. U.K. researchers recently looked at 23 studies of people age 55 and older who participated in olfactory training for smell loss, concluding that it was associated with “measurable changes in olfactory function, improved cognitive function, specifically semantic verbal fluency and working memory, reduced depressive symptoms, and protection from cognitive decline.” But they say more studies are needed to draw firmer conclusions.Kelly credits olfactory therapy with giving her back some capacity to smell. About two years into her recovery, she was in the Austrian Alps when something shifted. She caught the scent of pine trees and sawdust from a nearby logging site. “There was this flutter in my stomach, this sort of quickening of my insides,” she says. “It was like, ‘I’m alive.’”Each new discovery about olfaction brings scientists closer to understanding how smell connects to the brain — and how this crucial sense might help reveal or even prevent disease. Kelly counts herself among the lucky ones. Her sense of smell isn’t completely back, but it’s there. And for patients like her, regaining smell isn’t just about detecting odors. It’s about returning to the world.This story was produced by Knowable Magazine and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	This summer, the hottest apartment feature is an AC unit This summer, the hottest apartment feature is an AC unitAmenities are one way that apartment communities stand out from one another and appeal to different renters. While some communities offer popular amenities like fitness centers, walk-in closets, or smart home appliances, renters tend to be drawn to simpler things. An Apartments.com survey of 14,066 renters found that 65% of renters consider air conditioning (AC) a must-have when choosing their next rental.Many renters approach their apartment search with nonnegotiables, such as an in-unit washer and dryer or designated parking options. Summer temperatures are here and continue to rise, and renters want to ensure their next rental can keep them cool and comfortable all season long. Key Takeaways65% of renters consider air conditioning a must-have when choosing their next rental, nearly tied with an in-unit washing machine and dryer.42% of renters say off-street parking or garages are a must-have, 42% cite dishwashers, and 37% cite a balcony, patio, or other outdoor space.Meanwhile, only 18% say a fitness center or gym is a must-have, 17% want an elevator, and 12% want a pool. Renters Prioritize Practical Apartment AmenitiesDuring their apartment search, renters take into consideration several other factors besides location and price. Amenities are becoming increasingly important for renters to evaluate before they choose to sign a lease.The Apartments.com survey found that air conditioning and in-unit laundry are the most popular rental amenities by a large margin. The percentage of renters who said that these amenities are must-haves was higher than the percentage of renters who want a fitness center, elevator, pool, smart appliances, or a sports court combined.This data suggests that while these “fun” amenities can be a bonus, renters care more about the practicality of their next apartment. Apartments.com Some amenities, like pools and fitness centers, are common across different apartment communities, but unique amenities like pickleball courts, concierge services, and rooftop terraces are usually reserved for luxury apartment buildings. These stand-out amenities tend to draw renters who are looking for luxury living, but this isn’t the case for the general renter population.Which Markets Are Seeing the Most Demand for Air Conditioning?Not all renters think of air conditioning as a must-have amenity, and this can depend on where they live. In denser urban areas like New York and Chicago, high demand means prospective renters may be more willing to forgo basic amenities like AC if it means getting the perfect place in the city of their dreams. Meanwhile, renters in medium-sized cities like Cincinnati, Raleigh, and Madison may expect this amenity in their rental.Apartments.com data shows that the top cities with the highest percentage of apartment searches filtered by air conditioning were primarily located in the West and Midwest, with the exception of Arlington, Virginia. California accounted for most cities on the list. Below are the top 10 cities with the highest percentage of apartment searches that included the air conditioning filter on Apartments.com in 2026. Apartments.com Favorable amenities may also depend on local climates and weather concerns. For example, on Apartments.com in San Francisco, only 1,025 rentals list air conditioning as an added amenity, while in hotter cities like Austin, over 30,000 rentals advertise AC in their units.With temperatures rising across the country this summer, renters need a unit that can keep them cool. Earlier this year, New York City mandated that all landlords provide AC in at least one room in most covered apartments by 2030. As temperatures continue to increase and more renters look for a new rental during the busiest leasing season of the year, air conditioning may be at the top of their list of nonnegotiables.How to Decide Which Apartment Amenities Matter MostWhether you’re looking for an apartment that offers air conditioning or in-unit laundry, it’s important to know what matters most to you before starting your apartment search. Considering your lifestyle, budget, and lease terms are just a few ways to decide which apartment amenities should be priorities during your apartment search.Consider Financial SavingsWhen deciding which amenities you should prioritize during your apartment search, think about your budget and where you can potentially cut costs. If your new apartment has a fitness center, you can cancel your gym membership. If your new apartment has a dedicated coffee bar, it can save you money on coffee purchases.These extra amenities can be useful if you’re looking to budget, but make sure the apartment community doesn’t charge extra fees to cover the cost of an amenity. While searching for an apartment, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons and determine what fits within your rental budget.Consider Your LifestyleWhether it’s your first time moving or you’re an experienced renter, you have preferences when it comes to your living space. If you want a walk-in closet, hardwood floors, or a home with no stairs, it’s important to know these things before searching for an apartment.If you have rented previously, think about what you liked or disliked about your last place. Did you like the parking garage but think the walk to your apartment was too far? When searching for a new rental, think about what made your last rental a good or bad fit. This can help you search smarter and more efficiently. Read the Fine PrintWhile most amenities are included with the base rent, some premium amenities may come at an added cost. Package service, valet trash, internet, and other amenities are often an extra cost on top of the base rent. Before you sign a lease, understand what is included in the base rent amount and how many additional fees you’ll need to budget for, especially if you’re looking for an affordable apartment.MethodologyApartments.com surveyed 14,066 U.S. renters about how amenities affect their apartment search and leasing decisions. Survey responses were used to provide additional context around renter preferences and challenges related to pets, parking, and other amenities.This story was produced by Apartments.com and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Deere presenting sponsor of Field of Dreams game Deere will co-host event to contribute about 260,000 packed meals.
	Learn colored pencil techniques with Cancer Support Community Iowa and NW Illinois Cancer Support Community Iowa and NW Illinois is hosting a free creative art session workshop on Monday, August 3 from 1 – 3 p.m. at Gilda’s Club Moline, 600 John Deere Road, Suite 101. This session will include the basic techniques of using colored pencils and instructions on how to draw a basic flower image. [...]
	Michigan budget moves Rx Kids funding, but $18M remains in play Dr. Mona Hanna, the head of Rx Kids, spoke with mothers advocating for the program prior to the House Oversight Committee's hearing on the program. June 2, 2026. \| Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance. The Fiscal Year 2027 budget, approved by the Legislature on July 3, redistributed $20 million within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services budget for Temporary Aid for Needy Families, or TANF. Exactly how that money can and will be used remains an open question. The money had previously been appropriated to the Rx Kids program, a prenatal and infant cash support program that has come under fire from Republican leadership, including House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland) in the last year. A budget analysis from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency shows the split between chambers, and the negotiated agreement — the Republican-led House sought to strike that $20 million from the budget entirely, while the Democrat-led Senate would have left the money alone to be allocated to Rx Kids. The final version of the budget keeps the money in the budget, but reallocates it to five different line items under the TANF, or Temporary Aid for Needy Families, budget. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. That is $4.5 million apiece for “Coordinated children’s healthcare policy and supports,” “Family, maternal, and child health administration,” “Prenatal care outreach and services delivery supports,” and “Special projects,” as well as $2 million for child supplemental payments under the state’s Family Independence Program, or FIP. The FIP payments are more strictly conditional on what they will go towards. But for the remaining $18 million, Rx Kids could still be eligible to receive some or all of that money. It will be up to the Department of Health and Human Services to determine how exactly the funds are spent. Spokespeople for the department did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Program leaders believe that the money initially appropriated to them will continue to fund Rx Kids. Dr. Mona Hanna told Bridge Michigan in the days following the budget’s passage that she was “happy to share with confidence that Rx Kids will continue to be funded and operational.” The $20 million TANF authorization “is still in the omnibus budget,” she said. “The fact that our program survived this difficult budget process is indicative of its success and the faith Michigan communities have in our work.” Hall, however, believes that Rx Kids would not be eligible to receive any funding under the specific line items under TANF that the money was reallocated to, adding that he “hand selected” those funds. “My view is that they will not be eligible for those pots, and that’s why I picked them,” he said in a July 7 press conference. “I picked specific pots that they wouldn’t be able to get, because the other pots were the ones that I would describe as much easier for them to get. So I specifically put them into the pots that should be going to these other programs.” Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall address reporters at the State Capitol in Lansing. June 23, 2026 \| Photo by Ben Solis/Michigan Advance Those “other programs” that Hall describes include funding for programs like the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, program, as well as certain Child Protective Services programs. Hall and his fellow Republicans have long argued that Rx Kids, which does not have any income-based eligibility requirements and does not limit what the money can be spent on, differs from other welfare programs that only cover very specific expenses. Data collected from program participants show that the vast majority of money received by families is spent on baby supplies, food, rent or housing expenses, and utilities. The freedom to choose how to spend the money is key to the nature of the program, according to program leaders, which is based on trusting mothers and families to know the needs of their children. As of July 16, information published by Rx Kids showed that 14,240 families had been enrolled in the program, and nearly $50 million had been disbursed. The program, a public-private partnership, is funded through a mix of government dollars and private philanthropy. The source of the money each family receives depends on the applicant’s Medicaid eligibility and ability to verify citizenship or legal status. Any applicant who is not able to submit that kind of identification does not receive any state funding, just funds from private donors. And only applicants who can demonstrate their eligibility for Medicaid receive TANF-funded benefits. A breakdown of use of TANF funding for Rx Kids, as presented to the House Oversight Committee on June 2, 2026. Screenshot. As for the future of Rx Kids, program leaders have indicated that future expansions may be dependent on continued state funding. “We already have raised so much money from other sources, we’ve raised $86 million from other sources, we’ve kind of tapped out philanthropy and other sources, so we’ll see how take-up goes in the communities that we’re in,” Hanna told the Michigan Advance following a House Oversight Committee hearing on the program in June. “We’ll see how this next budget goes, and if take-up is a little less expected, because all of our numbers are projected on 100% take up, so if it’s a little less than that, maybe we’ll have some leftover funds, and we’ll be able to expand to places that really want this, that are just waiting for that opportunity.” An April press release announcing the expansion of Rx Kids into 20 additional Michigan communities similarly stated, “Future application cycles and expansions will depend on sustained state investment, including restoration of previously cancelled funds, continued annual TANF support, and strong enrollment across communities.” The program announced on July 7 that in the fall it will expand to its first community outside of Michigan, into certain ZIP codes in Cleveland, Ohio in partnership with First Year Cleveland. In that announcement, program leaders urged that “Additional public and philanthropic investment will help accelerate the program’s expansion to more Cleveland families.” Courtesy of Michigan Advance
	The exhaustion of autistic masking, and how to unmask safely The exhaustion of autistic masking, and how to unmask safelyFor autistic people, masking—presenting yourself in a way, either consciously or unconsciously, to fit in better in a neurotypical world—can be both necessary and exhausting. That’s where the concept of “unmasking” comes in.Unmasking is the process of making space for your autistic or neurodivergent traits to shine through in your day-to-day life. It's about working toward honoring your unique brain and what it needs, slowly letting go of the pressure to appear neurotypical.“Unmasking, in the simplest terms, is about letting your nervous system participate in your life instead of fighting it all day,” says Stephanie Steele-Wren, Psy.D., a licensed psychologist specializing in adult autism. “It isn’t about turning into a different person or suddenly being ‘your real self.’ Unmasking is the gradual decision to stop overriding your nervous system to appear ‘acceptable.’”‍But it’s important to note that autistic masking exists for a reason, and unmasking is not mandatory. Like most things related to autism, it’s not black and white. That’s why Prosper Health, the largest U.S. provider of mental health services for autistic adults, broke down what you need to know about unmasking, why it can be beneficial (when done safely), what it looks like in practice, and what supports can help.Key TakeawaysUnmasking is the process where someone begins to live more authentically by not covering up autistic traits or hiding that part of their identity.Chronic masking, especially when it’s unconscious, is one of the biggest contributors to burnout.Unmasking isn’t the loss of self-regulation or empathy.Unmasking has both benefits and risks.Unmasking should start with tiny, manageable shifts.What is unmasking?When autistic people mask, they’re attempting to hide, suppress, or camouflage their autistic traits. “Unmasking is the process in which someone begins to live more authentically by not covering up autistic traits or hiding that part of their identity,” says Jacqueline Shinall, Psy.D., head of reliability and quality assurance at Prosper Health.Unmasking doesn’t mean becoming rude or insensitive, nor is it the loss of self-regulation or empathy. It simply means you’re putting less effort into appearing neurotypical. “Instead of performing a polished version of yourself, you allow your natural pauses, reactions, and needs to exist,” Steele-Wren says.‍Chronic masking, especially when it’s unconscious, is one of the biggest contributors to burnout. “Masking requires someone to spend a significant amount of energy to do things that other people do automatically, such as using gestures, monitoring tone, making eye contact, etc,” Shinall explains. This level of effort is unsustainable as life demands increase.‍Burnout is one of the biggest reasons adults start questioning their lifelong behavior patterns—something that could eventually lead to a late autism diagnosis. “For many adults, the question of neurodivergence only becomes unavoidable when the strategies that once kept life functioning stop working,” Steele-Wren says. “Burnout pushes people to confront the sheer amount of energy they’ve spent keeping up their mask.” Prosper Health Why do autistic adults mask?Everyone masks to a certain extent—especially in the workplace where there’s pressure to always be seen as “professional.” But for autistic people, masking is more than that. ‍Masking is a survival strategy where autistic people hide or suppress their natural autistic responses, identity, and behavior to avoid judgment. It allows autistic people to stay safe, accepted, or employed in a world that rewards conformity.High-masking autism may also include camouflaging: copying behaviors and hiding certain traits to adapt to various social situations. Though masking may involve mimicking others' behavior, it often begins as an unconscious, learned behavior. “Most people don’t actively choose to mask,” Steele-Wren says. “They learn it early on through repeated feedback about what’s ‘too much’ or ‘unacceptable.’”In addition to social situations, autistic adults may mask in order to meet workplace expectations, deal with healthcare bias, or feel safer because of their gender, race, or LGBTQIA identity. “In adulthood, masking is often driven less by needing to fit in socially and more by consequences,” Steele-Wren says.People may mask to keep their jobs, or to receive good healthcare—especially to avoid being dismissed or misdiagnosed. “These pressures are amplified for people who are women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, or marginalized otherwise,” she explains. “Being visibly different can carry true emotional, professional, or even physical risks.”What does masking look like?Masking can take many forms and varies person-to-person. “In everyday life, masking might look like pushing through sensory overload in public spaces, making social scripts and practicing them, making yourself laugh at jokes you don’t really understand, or hiding exhaustion until you’re alone, or fully burnt out,” Steele-Wren says.Here are a few real-life examples of neurodivergent masking across different areas.CommunicationForcing eye contactRegulating your toneScripting conversations ahead of timeStaying silent in meetings to avoid social blundersSensory suppressionIgnoring and not reacting to loud noises or other stimuliForcing participation in loud or crowded settingsSuppressing fatigue‍Emotional regulation‍Making an effort to maintain a neutral or pleasant facial expressionActing calmer than you feel in the momentHiding distressIdentity maskingHiding special interests to avoid being perceived as odd or obsessiveNot disclosing diagnosis or self-identificationAvoiding accommodation requests because doing so would require disclosurePerforming social identities, like being collegial, easygoing, or flexible, that feel fundamentally incongruent‍But it’s important to keep in mind that many people don’t know that they’re masking—it happens unconsciously. Masking may also feel like “normal adulthood,” suppressing behaviors like stimming to fit in.What does unmasking look like?There are two types of unmasking: internal and external. “Internal unmasking is the cognitive and emotional work of reducing or letting go of internalized ableism or self-judgment, which allows someone to live authentically without shame or beliefs that they need to change or hide,” Shinall explains. Prosper Health Internal unmasking‍Internal unmasking is where the real transformation begins. “You start noticing the hidden labor you’ve been doing for so long: the constant self-monitoring, the creating scripts, the rehearsing,” Steele-Wren says. “And you realize none of that was ever ‘easy,’ you just got used to doing it.”Internal unmasking often happens before external unmasking and makes it possible. “Someone must believe internally that their autistic traits are acceptable before they feel comfortable showing them externally,” Shinall says.Examples of internal unmasking include:‍Reducing consciously thinking about the things you “should” be doing in a social setting, such as making eye contact, nodding along, or making sure your face is making the expression others expectRecognizing when and where you are masking and understanding the extent to which that can lead to significant fatigue and exhaustionAccepting and appreciating who you are, including your interests and passionsDisregarding beliefs that you are “too sensitive” or “dramatic,” especially when there are unexpected changes or sensory overloadRealizing you aren't actually “anti-social,” you’re just tired from trying to keep up with social rules that never felt naturalWondering why you feel unsafe speaking spontaneouslyAdmitting to yourself that certain places always leave you overwhelmed External unmaskingExternal unmasking is when autistic people stop covering up autistic traits or hiding that part of their identity. “These are the small, visible changes you make that other people might notice,” Steele-Wren says. “For example, you might allow yourself to stim gently instead of keeping every movement still and ‘acceptable.’”‍External unmasking isn’t about making bold statements: It’s about reducing the amount of acting you do in your day. “Instead of performing and acting out an emotion to make someone else comfortable, you let your real reactions be smaller, delayed, or different than what you think others expect,” Steele-Wren explains. “These external changes are usually subtle, but they create huge shifts in your ability to function around others without burning out.”Examples of external unmasking include:Repetitive motor behaviors, like rocking or hand-flapping, also known as “stimming.”Managing sensory stimulation by wearing headphones/earbuds, sunglasses indoors, changing lightbulbs to a certain brightness, covering ears in response to painful sounds, and only wearing certain types of clothing.Eating in ways that work for you—whether that means at specific times, in a certain order, using specific dishes, or avoiding certain textures.Asking someone to repeat something you didn’t understand.Admitting you’re tired instead of faking energy.Being authentic in your use of nonverbal communication.Taking more time to recover from social gatherings or busy/loud environments.Partial, situational, or reversible unmasking‍Partial, situational, or reversible unmasking is the context-dependent approach where autistic people adjust their level of masking based on factors like safety, acceptance, potential consequences, as well as level of energy or fatigue.‍“Most autistic adults do not unmask everywhere,” Steele-Wren says. “They unmask where the cost of being seen is lower than the cost of continued suppression. In real life, that might mean you unmask around your partner but still mask at work.”‍According to Shinall, partial unmasking can be considered a pragmatic survival strategy. It acknowledges the reality that, unfortunately, not all environments are equally safe for autistic people. “This kind of unmasking is flexible and completely valid,” Steele-Wren says. Partial unmasking allows someone to manage their energy, safety, and authenticity across different contexts in their life.Examples of partial, situational, or reversible unmasking include:Unmasking at home with a partner or with a best friend, but not with other friends or in group settings. This may look like: not intentionally making facial expressions, not modulating tone or eye contact, using gestures only as they come naturally.Allowing yourself to stim in environments where it feels safe, like in a private office at work or around people who are safe, and suppressing stims in meetings with people who do not feel as safe.Wearing noise-canceling headphones in the cafeteria at work or while working, but removing those during meetings or other interactions.Taking sensory breaks or leaving places early, which may not feel safe or possible in certain environments, such as work events.Being more relaxed online, but tightening up in person‍.Unmasking is not an all-or-nothing approach. Like most other things, masking occurs along a continuum and is impacted by many different factors. “You try something small, assess the impact, and adjust again,” Steele-Wren explains. “Sometimes you unmask more. Sometimes you pull back. Sometimes you mask intentionally because it’s the right choice for the moment.”‍These shifts happen constantly. For example, it may be harder for an autistic person to mask when they’re feeling tired or burned out. “One environment might feel safe one month and unsafe the next,” Steele-Wren says. “One relationship might allow deeper unmasking over time. Unmasking works best when it’s treated as flexible and fluid.”The potential benefits of unmaskingThe main benefit of unmasking isn’t about being “more authentic”—it’s about being able to live life without feeling like you're always on the verge of burnout. “When you stop fighting your own nervous system so intensely, you conserve energy instead of spending it all at once,” Steele-Wren explains. “You recover faster, burn out less, and feel more grounded in your own body.”In addition to reducing burnout, some of the other potential benefits of unmasking include:Allowing someone to be themselves. “For many adults who have masked their entire lives, this means learning who they really are—what feels good, what feels natural, what do they truly enjoy,” Shinall says.Helping someone set boundaries. Unmasking allows someone to decide whom they will open up to and what they’re comfortable sharing.Practicing self-care: It allows someone to recharge after social situations or take breaks in situations where masking seems necessary.Can make relationships easier. “When you communicate in ways that work for you, people who care about you get a clearer and often stronger connection,” Steele-Wren says.‍Of course, everyone is different, and the potential benefits of unmasking vary and are not guaranteed.‍The risks and limits of unmaskingWhile unmasking can be powerful and a positive experience, it’s not without risks and limits.For instance, not every environment is accepting. Some workplaces, families, or communities penalize differences. “Masking can be a shield in those situations,” Steele-Wren says. “Fear around unmasking is really to be expected because it is often an accurate risk assessment, shaped by experience.”Also, there are good reasons people mask: It can help keep you safe, navigate unpredictable environments, or even give you privacy. “The problem isn’t masking itself, but when it’s constant, unchosen, and draining,” Steele-Wren says. “The goal is to identify where masking protects you and where it harms you.” Sometimes it’s a matter of prioritizing safety over authenticity.‍Some risks and limits to consider when starting to unmask:‍Making you stand out at work (not in a good way). Employers may not appreciate certain stimming behaviors or emotional outbursts that can occur if someone is unmasking.Families and cultures may not understand. Some families and cultures may not be as accepting of autistic people and their behaviors as others.Making it harder to get quality healthcare. Medical professionals may not take autistic people with visible stims or other autistic traits seriously.‍Revealing needs and traumas that we haven’t noticed or considered. This can lead to a profound sense of internal and external isolation with no clear cause.Unmasking strategies: How to unmask safelyIt’s often safest to begin unmasking internally. “Start by allowing yourself to recognize discomfort, sensory overload, or social fatigue without immediately pushing yourself past those feelings,” Steele-Wren says. “From there, you can experiment gently. It might be speaking a little more plainly with a trusted friend, or giving yourself permission to stim in a private space.”‍The goal is to find environments where your nervous system doesn’t brace for impact. Safe unmasking is slow, steady, and guided by your body’s feedback. You can reverse course anytime and go back to masking, if necessary.‍There’s no need to jump into making major changes. Instead, start with tiny, manageable shifts. This could look like letting yourself pause before answering, instead of rushing to fill the silence, Steele-Wren says. It could also be saying no to someone without giving them a long explanation, letting yourself stim gently at home, or adjusting your environment to be more sensory-friendly.“Low-risk experimentation often starts with giving yourself permission,” she explains. “Permission to have needs, to rest, to speak differently, to move differently, to not outperform your own limits.” Prosper Health How to find support for unmaskingWhile unmasking is an individual choice, it helps to have support from people who already accept the way your brain works. You can find them from multiple sources, including:Autistic friendsNeurodivergent communities, including peer support groupsSupportive partnersNeurodivergent-affirming therapistsSelf-guided tools“Being in a space where you’re not performing all the time can be transformative,” Steele-Wren says. “With the right support, unmasking can feel less like stepping into danger and more like gradually reconnecting with yourself in a regulated, sustainable way.”The bottom lineWhile unmasking may be beneficial, it’s not without its risks. That’s why it’s important to remember that unmasking is optional, and masking is not failure. In our quest to live as authentically as possible, safety and self-trust matter. “It’s about giving yourself and your body the dignity of being listened to,” Steele-Wren says.Frequently Asked Questions‍What does unmasking look like?Unmasking can take many different forms. For example, it could include stimming openly, admitting you’re tired instead of faking energy, or asking someone to repeat something you didn’t understand. Managing sensory stimulation can also be a form of unmasking, like wearing headphones/earbuds or sunglasses indoors, changing lightbulbs to a certain brightness, covering ears in response to painful sounds, or only wearing certain types of clothing.How do you know if you're masking?People usually don’t notice they are masking in real time—they tend to notice afterward. “Many people recognize masking not through behavior, but through the aftermath that follows everyday interactions,” Steele-Wren explains. “You might think you’re ‘fine’ during social events and only realize hours later that you’re completely wiped out, mentally foggy, or physically tense. That delayed cost is one of the clearest signs of masking.”Is unmasking always healthy?No, unmasking is not universally the best option. Safety, support, and context can make it beneficial, but it can be risky or even harmful in places where difference is punished. “The idea that you should ‘be your true self everywhere’ simply isn’t realistic for many autistic adults,” Steele-Wren says. The healthiest approach is to match your level of unmasking to your level of safety. “Unmask where you can breathe,” she says. “Mask where you must. The flexibility is what makes it sustainable.”This story was produced by Prosper Health and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Where house hacking pays off across the US in 2026 Where house hacking pays off across the US in 2026Elevated home prices and mortgage rates have a growing number of buyers looking for a different strategy for unlocking homeownership: house hacking.The concept of house hacking is straightforward. Instead of buying a single-family home, a buyer purchases a small multifamily property, a duplex, triplex, or fourplex, lives in one unit, and rents out the others. The rental income from the additional units may help offset the buyers' monthly mortgage payment, making homeownership more financially manageable from day one.And because these types of multifamily properties (up to four units) qualify for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan financing when the buyer uses at least one unit as their primary residence, the barrier to entry can be surprisingly low. Under FHA guidelines, qualified buyers may be able to purchase with as little as 3.5% down, the same minimum required for a single-family home. Note that for three- and four-unit properties, FHA also applies a "self-sufficiency test" that can affect qualification. While rental income may help offset housing costs for some buyers, mortgage qualification and FHA loan requirements vary by borrower and lender.To find the cities where house hacking is most accessible, the digital mortgage and homeownership platform Lower analyzed active multifamily listings (two-to-four-unit properties) across cities with populations of 100,000 or more from its digital real estate portal Movoto, identifying markets with sufficient inventory and the lowest median list prices.The result is a ranking of the 10 most accessible cities for aspiring house hackers in 2026.Key FindingsShreveport, Louisiana, ranks #1 nationally for house hacking accessibility, with a median multifamily list price of $115,000 and an estimated FHA-style down payment of just $4,025, the lowest entry point in the study.The top cities have a median multifamily list price under $200,000, highlighting how smaller Midwest and Southern markets continue to offer some of the country's lowest barriers to entry for buyers exploring owner-occupied multifamily housing.Detroit ranks #4 nationally and stands out for inventory, with 339 active multifamily listings, significantly more than any other market analyzed in the study.By the Numbers$4,025 is the lowest estimated FHA-style down payment in the top 10 (Shreveport, Louisiana).$6,857 is the highest estimated down payment in the top 10 (Fort Wayne, Indiana).All 10 top cities have a median list price under $200,000.339 active multifamily listings in Detroit alone, more than any other market analyzed in the study.The Top 10 Cities for House Hacking in 2026The following cities ranked highest based on median list price for active two-to-four-unit properties, among cities with a population of 100,000 or more and at least 10 qualifying listings on Movoto. Lower What Is House Hacking, and Who Is It For?House hacking is the practice of purchasing a small multifamily property, occupying one unit as a primary residence, and renting out the remaining units. It's not a new concept, but it's gaining renewed attention as affordability pressures push first-time buyers to think creatively.The strategy works particularly well for buyers who:Are buying their first home and want to offset monthly housing costsAre comfortable with the responsibilities of being a landlordLive in a market where multifamily inventory is available at accessible price pointsWant to build equity while keeping their housing costs manageableImportantly, FHA financing for two-to-four-unit properties requires owner occupancy — meaning the buyer must live in one of the units as their primary residence. This distinguishes house hacking from traditional real estate investing, and it's what makes the low down payment option available.There are some additional caveats to keep in mind when it comes to house hacking with an FHA loan.First, the 3.5% FHA loan requirement isn't universal. Some lenders apply overlays, meaning they might require additional down payments beyond that 3.5%. And on top of that, you'll need a credit score of 580 or higher to qualify for 3.5% down with an FHA loan.Second, the down payment is only part of cash to close. Closing costs can total 2% to 6% of the purchase price, although FHA loans allow eligible closing costs to be covered through seller concessions. FHA loans also require both an upfront and ongoing mortgage insurance premium, or MIP. The upfront MIP is 1.75% of the loan amount, although that too can often be financed into an FHA loan.A Closer Look: Why the Midwest and South Dominate the RankingsNine of the top 10 cities are located in the Midwest or South, reflecting where multifamily housing stock remains both plentiful and affordable relative to the rest of the country.Cities like Detroit and Lansing in Michigan and Dayton, Ohio, have long had strong multifamily housing stock shaped by decades as manufacturing hubs. That legacy, combined with more modest home price appreciation compared to coastal markets, makes them natural fits for buyers looking to stretch their dollars.Southern cities like Shreveport, Louisiana; Montgomery, Alabama; and Jackson, Mississippi, round out the top of the list, offering even lower entry points, and in Shreveport's case, a median list price of just $115,000, which translates to an estimated down payment of roughly $4,000.Rochester, New York, is the notable exception in the top 10 and the only Northeastern city to crack the list with 66 active multifamily listings and a median price of $154,950, on par with Evansville, Indiana.MethodologyLower analyzed active residential listings from its digital real estate portal Movoto's proprietary database to identify cities where multifamily homeownership may be most accessible to first-time buyers in 2026.To qualify for inclusion, a city must have:A population of 100,000 or moreAt least 10 active multifamily listings at the time of analysisProperty types classified as duplex, triplex, fourplex, or small multifamily (two-to-four-unit property)Cities were ranked by median list price among qualifying properties, from lowest to highest. The estimated down payment is calculated as 3.5% of the median list price, reflecting the FHA minimum for qualified borrowers with a credit score of 580 or above. Actual FHA loan requirements vary by lender and the borrower's financial profile.This report is intended to highlight markets with lower upfront barriers to entry for owner-occupied multifamily homeownership. It does not estimate mortgage qualification, debt-to-income ratios, rental income, cash flow, return on investment, or any other measure of investment performance.This story was produced by Lower and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Simple Ways to Support Your Sleep Readiness (BPT) - Getting better sleep doesn't begin the moment your head hits the pillow — it actually starts hours earlier. The choices you make throughout the day and evening help determine your body's sleep readiness, or how prepared it is to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake feeling refreshed.What's getting in the way of a good night's sleepIf falling asleep is challenging, it could be your mind that's robbing you of precious zz's. In a recent Viactiv® survey* of 2,000 U.S. women, more than 4 in 10 (43%) said that feeling stressed, mentally wound up, or unable to stop thinking is what most often gets in the way of feeling ready for sleep at night. The survey also found that 28% report feeling physically tense and having trouble relaxing their bodies before bed.Unfortunately, many are unintentionally making it harder for themselves by sabotaging their sleep readiness with bedtime routines that run counter to gold-standard sleep hygiene practices. The survey found that 61.3% watch television before bed and 48.3% scroll on phones or tablets, even though habits like these have been shown to hinder sleep.Meanwhile, only 11.6% practice breathing exercises, meditation, or mindfulness, and just 8.8% stretch or do light exercise — despite the fact that health experts recommend these techniques for better sleep.Practical tactics for enhancing sleepTo help you feel better prepared for sleep, try a few of these simple habits. They may also help improve your overall sense of relaxation and well-being throughout the day.1. Build in more exercise. If your schedule is overbooked, try to add just a short walk during lunch or after dinner, and a 10-minute stretching session in the morning or evening. Any activity that gets you moving and uses your muscles can help relieve unwanted tension. Keep any exercise in the evening gentle, as vigorous exercise can have effects like raising your heart rate, which may make sleep more difficult.2. Reduce pre-bedtime eating that can make it harder to fall asleep. Try to avoid heavy meals later in the evening, and cut down on snacking. Both of these habits can disrupt natural circadian rhythms related to sleeping and waking.3. Put away gadgets like your phone, tablet, and TV at least 60 minutes before bedtime. Too much screen time at night makes it harder for your mind and body to unwind, and make the transition from stimulation to relaxation difficult.4. Boost your intake of magnesium, particularly magnesium glycinate, which plays a key role in muscle relaxation and supports the body's natural wind-down process. Magnesium also offers overall health benefits like aiding muscle and bone development, muscle and nerve function, blood glucose control, and blood pressure regulation. Many people don't get enough magnesium in their diet.To help you relax and improve your sleep, consider adding Viactiv® Magnesium Glycinate Powder to your routine — it provides magnesium in the glycinate form, which is a form known to be gentle on the stomach and easy to absorb. This supplement delivers 200 milligrams of magnesium glycinate per teaspoon in an easy-to-mix, delicious, sugar-free peach flavor. You can make it even easier to boost magnesium intake by replacing your usual post-dinner dessert or snacks with this tasty smoothie:Peach-Pineapple Wind Down Smoothie1 teaspoon Viactiv High Absorption Magnesium Glycinate Powder1/2 cup low-fat Greek yogurt1/4 cup natural pineapple juice1/2 cup iceCombine in a blender, adding a few frozen peach slices if desired.Blend until smooth and enjoy after dinner as part of your wind-down ritual.Incorporating some of these habits into your regular evening routine will help support a better sleep experience, which can contribute to your overall well-being.The Viactiv® Magnesium Glycinate Powder is available to purchase on Amazon and iHerb. Visit Viactiv.com to learn more about magnesium and other supplements to support your nutritional needs.*Survey Methodology: Viactiv commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 2,000 women age 18 and over throughout the United States. The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence level of 95%. Fieldwork took place between April 21 and April 23, 2026. Atomik Research, part of 4media group, is a creative market research agency.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
	Syphilis infections a rising threat for Alaska newborns, health officials report Brochures at the University of Alaska Anchorage Student Health and Counseling Center, seen on July 17, 2026, provide information on syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections. Cases of syphilis infections among newborns have been on the rise in Alaska and nationally. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)More Alaska babies were born infected with syphilis last year than in any recent year, state health officials reported. It is a trend that comes as the state continues to have high rates of the sexually transmitted disease. In 2025, 14 Alaska newborns had congenital syphilis, cases in which infections are transmitted to babies by their mothers, according to a bulletin issued on July 15 by the Alaska Division of Public Health’s epidemiology section. That compares to seven cases the previous year and 10 cases in 2023 for a condition that was once extremely rare in Alaska. In contrast to 2025, there were two cases from 2011 to 2013, and in some years prior to 2020 there were no reported cases, according to state health officials. Congenital syphilis can have grave consequences, including premature births; bone deformities; developmental delays; blindness, deafness or other brain or nerve problems; and sometimes death. Congenital syphilis is entirely preventable if pregnant women’s infections are detected and treated in a timely fashion, said Tamara Davis, manager of the Division of Public Health’s program for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. To avoid passing on the infection, pregnant women must be treated at least 30 days before giving birth, Davis said. “Unfortunately, a lot of these patients just show up way too late,” she said. For adults and adolescents, syphilis case numbers increased in 2025, continuing a recent pattern. There were 280 recorded cases of primary or secondary syphilis — defined as infections in the earlier stages, generally in weeks or months, when the infection is most contagious — and 223 recorded longer-term cases or cases of unknown duration. That represents a 14% increase in primary or secondary cases since 2023 and a 51% increase in longer-term cases since 2023, according to statistics reported in the bulletin. There are some common threads in recent years’ non-congenital syphilis statistics. Reported congenital syphilis cases in Alaska from 2015 ro 2025 are shown on this graph. (Graph provided by Alaska Division of Public Health epidemiology section bulletin issued on July 15, 2026) Most cases were in Anchorage and the nearby Matanuska-Susitna Borough, as was the situation in the prior two years. Three-quarters of the 2025 adult and adolescent cases were in that geographic area, according to the bulletin. The majority of the cases were among men, but not overwhelmingly so; in 2025, 53% of the cases were among male patients. Housing insecurity and substance abuse were factors among many patients. In 2025, 30% of the adult and adolescent patients reported that they lacked secure housing, and about fifth of the 2025 syphilis patients reported engaging in substance abuse. For the congenital syphilis cases, many of the mothers received little or no prenatal care, Davis said. State public health officials have teams with the Anchorage Department of Health and other partners to reach at-risk Alaskans, especially pregnant women at risk of passing infections to their babies, she said. Efforts include providing transportation to testing and treatment sites, she said. “We’re doing what we can,” she said. “Of course, one case is too many” Alaska has generally posted some of the nation’s highest rates of sexually transmitted disease, according to statistics kept by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, the most recent year for which state-by-state data is available, Alaska had the 11th highest rate of syphilis, 15th highest rate of congenital syphilis, third highest rate of chlamydia and highest rate of gonorrhea, according to the CDC. Nationally, congenital syphilis cases have increased dramatically over the past decade, the CDC reported. In 2024, the most recent year of available data, there were nearly 4,000 cases reported nationwide, compared to 495 cases reported in 2015, according to the CDC. Non-congenital syphilis cases have started to decline nationally after several years of increases, according to the CDC. Primary and secondary cases declined by 22% in 2024 from 2023 levels, and it was the second consecutive year of decreases, the CDC said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Alaska Beacon
	Health insurers hedge on Trump-backed pledge to improve denials process A year after Secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that dozens of health insurers had signed a six-part pledge promising to reduce barriers to doctor-recommended care, some insurers now say they won’t implement all the promised initiatives. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)This article first appeared on KFF Health News. One year after the Trump administration announced that dozens of health insurers had signed a six-part pledge promising to reduce barriers to doctor-recommended care, some insurers now say they won’t implement all the promised initiatives. Meanwhile, patients, their advocates, and clinicians say little has improved. “It has never been this bad for patients,” said U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), a physician who co-chairs the GOP Doctors Caucus. The overarching intent of the June 2025 pledge was to improve a controversial process called prior authorization, which regularly requires patients or someone on their medical team to seek approval from insurers before proceeding with treatment. According to AHIP, the health insurance industry trade group, health plans have eliminated 6.5 million prior authorizations for patients — equal to an 11% reduction — since the announcement. But critics remain skeptical. Sally Nix, a patient advocate who has a chronic disease, described the voluntary pledge as “performative.” And Murphy, who participated in the news conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing the pledge last year, said it has “no teeth.” Voluntary insurer pledges rarely make things better for patients, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. “In the absence of clear rules, policies, standards, and mandates,” she said, insurance companies are “going to do what makes sense for them to do financially.” The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions for this report. It isn’t clear how, or whether, the Trump administration is holding insurers accountable. ‘Zero faith’ Prior authorization — sometimes called preauthorization or precertification — has been around for decades. The insurance industry has long argued that the practice, which varies by company, helps control costs, reduces waste and fraud, and prevents potential harm to patients. It’s regularly invoked for a huge swath of services, ranging from low-cost urgent care to expensive cancer treatment. “Prior authorization is a vital patient safeguard,” said Chris Bond, a spokesperson for AHIP. The 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson sparked a national groundswell of anger about insurance denials, with patients and doctors becoming increasingly vocal about the tactics they say insurance companies use to boost profits at the expense of care. Prior authorization reform is one of the rare healthcare issues Democrats and Republicans tend to agree on. On July 15, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously advanced a bill that would force Medicare Advantage plans to provide to the federal government a list of all items and services that are subject to prior authorization, and to report data about denials and grievances, among other requirements. Last year’s industry pledge was organized as a direct response to public anger, Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said when it was announced. “There’s violence in the streets over these issues,” he said. “Americans are upset about it,” Oz said, later adding, “I’m looking forward to seeing the results.” Mike Gartner, founder of Health Access Innovation, an organization that helps patients overturn insurance denials, said he doubts that insurance companies are changing their policies in meaningful ways. The 11% reduction in prior authorization cited by AHIP “hides a lot of nuance,” Gartner said. Patients who need the costliest services, such as cancer treatment, are still being disproportionately denied access to doctor-recommended care, he said. AHIP said its data included reductions in prior authorization for medical services, not prescription medicines. The trade group didn’t provide details explaining which services have been dropped from prior authorization or how those reductions differ across individual insurers. Last year, Oz said the federal government would be “evaluating progress” toward the pledge and “driving accountability,” and he foreshadowed “public dashboards.” But no such dashboards exist, and federal officials did not respond to questions about how they’re holding companies accountable. Murphy, the North Carolina congressman, said he has “zero faith” in the industry policing itself. He didn’t believe insurance companies then, he said, “and I don’t believe them now.” ‘At war’ with an insurer In February, days after Betsy Adler and Justin Young’s daughter Coco was born with a serious heart defect, the Stillwater, Minnesota, family received paperwork showing they were racking up out-of-network costs. During Adler’s pregnancy, the family had switched insurers, moving to Medica, which is based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and one of many insurers that initially signed the industry pledge. Adler said she’d checked with her employer’s human resources department and on Medica’s website to make sure her maternal-fetal specialists and hospital were in-network before their new health plan went into effect earlier this year. But then, the insurance company started processing some claims as out-of-network. By mid-March, the family had accrued more than $4,000 in out-of-network charges, on top of more than $3,000 for in-network bills. And the bills kept coming. Shortly after Betsy Adler’s daughter Coco was born with a serious heart defect, she started receiving estimates showing her family could owe thousands of dollars in out–of-network costs. Adler had switched insurers to Medica during her pregnancy and said she was assured that her care would be covered at in-network rates. (Photo by Justin Young for KFF Health News) When Adler, a psychotherapist, called to figure out what was going on, she said, an insurance company representative said she hadn’t submitted a referral from her primary care provider beforehand. Attempts to fix the problem went nowhere. At one point, Adler said, Medica required her to visit a clinic she’d never been to before to obtain a referral. But she said a Medica representative told her the referral was never received, because the insurer’s fax machine was down. “I have a critically ill child,” Adler remembered thinking shortly after Coco was discharged from the cardiovascular intensive care unit. “I can either spend my emotional energy at war with Medica, or I can let it go and just enjoy my time with my daughter.” Medica spokesperson Greg Bury said he wouldn’t discuss the case, citing patient privacy rules. In an emailed statement, he wrote the company is “committed to working with her to ensure she understands what is covered under her benefits and our responsibilities.” One of six specific promises all insurers made when they signed the pledge was to honor a 90-day grace period when patients switch insurance plans, starting Jan. 1 of this year. Often called “continuity of care,” this grace period allows patients to temporarily continue receiving services and medications that were authorized under a previous insurer. But that applies only in some circumstances, Georgetown’s Corlette said. The wording of the pledge suggests that insurance companies aren’t obligated to honor another company’s network parameters. When Adler and Young switched insurers, for example, Medica was not obligated to cover the cost of out-of-network providers as if they were in-network, even though they were in-network under the family’s old plan. Adler and Young switched insurance companies again when Coco was a month old, to avoid accruing more out-of-network costs. Denial after approval The percentages cited by AHIP don’t tell the whole story, said Nix, the patient advocate. Insurers are “not including the data for the loopholes they create,” she said. For example, nothing in the pledge prevents insurance companies from retroactively denying payment, even when care is preapproved. “Patients are going to see a lot more retroactive denials,” said Nix, who recently had her insurer process, then later deny, a claim for injections to relieve her nerve pain. Something similar recently happened to Jocelyn Austin, 49, of Amherst, New York. Over the course of nearly 20 years, she developed an addiction to sleeping and anxiety pills prescribed to her by a doctor. Last year, she spent weeks at an inpatient treatment center for substance abuse. Her insurer, Independent Health, had approved the admission. Austin said she has been substance-free since her discharge. But the facility sent her a bill for more than $12,000 in December showing her insurer had not paid for the treatment she received, according to documents Austin shared with KFF Health News. This was in addition to the $10,000 she paid at the beginning of her treatment to satisfy her out-of-network deductible. The approval letters from Independent Health had specified that “authorization is not a guarantee of claim payment.” Frank Sava, a spokesperson for Independent Health, said a denial was issued and upheld in this case because the services provided “were inconsistent with the care that was authorized” and “the medical record did not sufficiently support what was billed.” He said those findings were reviewed and confirmed by an outside consultant. An explanation of benefits issued by the insurer last summer indicated the “provider,” not the patient, was responsible for the cost of her treatment. And yet the treatment facility has continued to pressure her for payment, she said. Austin, who has not paid her outstanding bill, said insurance companies “should be held accountable.” ‘Significant work ahead’ Another one of the six commitments insurers made last year was to adopt new technology that would standardize the electronic submission of prior authorization requests. During the news conference announcing the pledge last summer, Chris Klomp, the director of Medicare and a deputy CMS administrator, said more than 50% of prior authorizations are still paper-based and processed by phone or fax machine. In April, AHIP released an update related to that technology initiative, explaining that participating insurers would adopt the new standards on a rolling basis. Health insurers agreed to implement the pledge’s various commitments by predetermined deadlines, and this initiative is scheduled to be operational by Jan. 1, 2027. But eight insurers that initially signed the pledge last year didn’t sign the technology update when it was announced in April, AHIP told KFF Health News. Those insurers are Alignment Health Plan, EmblemHealth, HealthFirst, Independent Health, Medica, MVP Health Care, Point32Health, and SummaCare. Their beneficiaries span the country, from California to New York. None of those eight insurers agreed to interviews for this report, but most sent KFF Health News emailed statements indicating that they remain committed to prior authorization reform. AHIP’s approach to continuity of care “would have required the transfer of confidential member health information through a non-standardized process involving third-party participation,” wrote Jerry Slowey, a spokesperson for Alignment Health, which offers Medicare Advantage policies in Arizona, California, Nevada, North Carolina, and Texas. “We do not believe that level of data sharing was contemplated in the original commitment.” Bury, the spokesperson for Medica, which covers beneficiaries in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, said the company “supports the goal of these standardization efforts.” But the April update “raised a significant technical and operational hurdle that we are not able to commit to at this time,” he said. Alex Gomez, a spokesperson for EmblemHealth, said in late June the company “will sign onto the commitment” after KFF Health News posed questions about why it had not endorsed the April update. “We anticipate more plans will be added over the coming months,” said Bond, the AHIP spokesperson. Health plans are “working continuously to implement their commitments to simplify and improve the experience.” He acknowledged that “there is still significant work ahead.” The original pledge also included a promise that insurance companies would enhance transparency and use “clear, easy-to-understand explanations” when communicating to patients — something they were already supposed to be doing under the Affordable Care Act. Yet companies still regularly neglect to explain why care has been denied, and their communications often contain “inconsistent and contradictory information,” said Gartner, of Health Access Innovation. He and Murphy also said they suspect insurance companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence to generate denials. “They craft the pathways to basically deny things immediately with the hope that people will give up,” Murphy said. The congressman said he wishes President Donald Trump would sign executive orders addressing some of these issues. “The problem is the insurance industry is the strongest lobby in this town.” Do you have an experience with prior authorization you’d like to share? Click here to tell KFF Health News your story. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF. This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Courtesy of Minnesota Reformer
	How to stop ‘summer spending creep’ from wrecking your budget How to stop ‘summer spending creep’ from wrecking your budgetBetween outdoor happy hours, music festivals, sporting events, trips out of town, and even rising air conditioning bills, there’s a lot you may be spending your money on this summer. In the spring, PwC surveyed roughly 2,000 adults and found that Americans planned to spend more than $2,800 on travel. And a 2025 survey from Savings.com found that 35% of parents say summer is the most expensive season.Some of that splurging could be happening without you fully realizing its impact on your savings goals.“While many focus on budgeting during the holidays, summer can be just as dangerous to our wallets because spending arrives in smaller, less noticeable increments,” Jonathon Merickel, wealth advisor at Savvy Wealth, tells Current, a consumer fintech banking platform. “The goal isn't to eliminate enjoyment but to be intentional. By recognizing these patterns before they take hold, you can enjoy the season while making meaningful progress toward your financial priorities.”Here are five ways to avoid your spending creeping up in the summer.1. Put a name to your spendingBefore you can determine if you’re overspending on nonessentials such as expensive food and drinks at the beachside restaurant or movie tickets, it’s important to put a system in place so you know what you’re spending on.“It has always been programmed in our minds that summer is the season to live life to the fullest. That often means spending money on concerts, patios, and vacations,” says Sammie Guajardo, senior financial planner at Facet. “The more active you are, the easier it is to lose track of where your money is going.”Distinguishing between essential expenses — such as your housing costs, debt payments, utilities, and groceries — and discretionary expenses like dining out and travel can help you stay organized as you try to curb your spending.2. Avoid the ‘just one more’ effectEven small purchases can add up quickly. Merickel recommends avoiding what he calls the “just one more patio drink” effect.“Summer encourages spontaneous patio dinners and extra rounds of drinks,” Merickel says. “While each purchase feels small, they can collectively add thousands to your annual spending.”You can apply this rule to many other types of spending. Buying one more book at the bookstore, throwing one more sundress in your cart, or snagging just one more carton of pricey strawberries at the farmers market can mean you’re suddenly spending much more than you initially meant to over time.3. Think before you buySpontaneity can be a good thing — but typically not when it comes to spending. To combat overspending, think before you buy.“Give yourself two minutes to consider whether a purchase aligns with your goals before swiping your card, ordering another drink, or booking a trip you haven’t saved for,” Guajardo says. “This can help you determine whether you’re spending for instant gratification or making a purchase that truly matters. Understanding the tradeoff between today’s spending and future goals can help you make more confident decisions.”This can be especially important when it comes to pricier purchases, such as travel.“Weekend getaways often expand beyond the hotel cost to include meals, gas, and activities,” Merickel says. “The key isn't to stop these trips but to plan ahead and build them into your budget so they don't derail long-term goals like retirement.”4. Don’t underestimate your ‘normal’ expensesThe biggest budget leaks often come from “normal” expenses, Guajardo says. Air conditioning costs can spike in the summer, and grocery bills can rise if you’re hosting friends more often, for instance.Small increases are expenses you can often plan for and manage. One way to do this is by saving a “summer fund” via a higher-earnings savings account so that you have funds ready to cover any extra costs during the high-spending season.5. Be realistic and flexibleThe key is to find a flexible approach to budgeting and seasonal spending that will actually work for you.If you spend more time outdoors during the summer, consider pausing a gym membership or other subscriptions you’re not using, Guajardo says. Looking at expenses on an annual basis, rather than just monthly, can also help identify opportunities to cut back.“Most importantly, be realistic about yourself and your spending,” Guajardo says. “Don’t try to reinvent yourself during the summer. If you usually have dinner and two drinks with friends, have one instead. If you prefer one big summer vacation without a strict budget, enjoy the trip and keep the rest of the season more low-key.”She adds that summer spending should be a season, not a lifestyle: “The key is balancing the needs of your current and future self.”This story was produced by Current and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Why millions of small businesses are finally turning to AI, and where they're starting Why millions of small businesses are finally turning to AI, and where they're startingThe U.S. is home to more than 36 million small businesses, the Small Business Administration reported in 2025. And, of all employer firms in the U.S. in 2022, Census data shows 79% had fewer than 10 employees. Nearly half (42%) of small business owners say they have experienced burnout in the past month, according to a national survey by Capital One Insights Center.In this environment, the appeal of AI becomes clear; it can ease the drain of time, attention, and follow-through that happens when one person shoulders the work of five. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported, 87% of small businesses agree that AI has increased efficiency.For years, the discussions surrounding AI have been focused on venture-backed startups, big companies, or high-tech offices where “workflow optimization” happens in meetings, not between customer calls and a five-minute dinner. Small businesses aren’t late to the trend. One in 4 have already adopted AI and integrated it into daily business operations, according to a May 2025 Reimagine Main Street survey.The Reality of Owning and Operating a Small BusinessFor millions of owners, it’s more than wearing multiple hats; it means wearing them all at once. More than 8 in 10 small businesses have no employees, according to the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy in a July 2024 report; there’s no IT department, procurement process, or training manual. Calls are answered or routed to voicemail, spreadsheets are completed and reviewed after hours, and decisions such as whether to invest in a new tool or add a hire are often made outside standard working hours.What makes running a small business so draining is not just the volume of tasks, but the constant switching among them. According to Business.com research conducted in 2025, small business leaders spend an average of nine hours each week on excessive multitasking or context switching. That kind of distraction eats up productive time—a cost often referred to as the “toggle tax.”Quo, an AI-powered phone system used by small businesses to manage customer calls and messages, ran a survey in early 2026, in which 33% of small business owners reported that lack of time or bandwidth is the single biggest impediment to growth in the next 12 months. Owners have plenty of drive and capability, but every task switch carries a hidden cost that adds up over the week.This is where automation can play a role in reducing some of that fragmentation and freeing up time for higher-value work.Automation in PracticeIn small businesses, automation often begins with one question: “How much of my work is repetitive?” When identifying how much of each day, week, or month is taken up by repeatable tasks, a pattern emerges to help shift from treading water to real forward momentum.The first automations almost always fall into one of three areas: marketing and content creation, financial admin and bookkeeping, or client communication and follow-up. The entry point varies by business type, but the instinct is the same: find the task that repeats the most and costs the most time, and start there.For some, the pain point is marketing. A bakery owner might use Canva's AI tools to turn one pastry photo into an Instagram story, a menu board graphic, an email header, and a flyer, rather than redesigning the same promotion four times. Owners who make this shift often reclaim several hours a week and find that brand consistency alone starts driving more repeat visits.Thanks to the speed of AI implementation, owners don’t need to wait to improve their workflows.For others, the work piles up after the fact. A wedding florist ending a busy Saturday with wholesale orders, assistant payments, and a stack of receipts might use QuickBooks' AI to pull line items, suggest categories, and separate event costs from studio expenses, getting invoices out faster and tracking where every dollar went.Then there's the solopreneur, where every sale or meeting generates its own pile of follow-ups. Tools like Superhuman and Granola can organize an inbox, summarize conversations, and turn them into action items, draft responses, or scheduled meetings. For owners under pressure to respond faster, this is often where relief is felt first; 41% of small businesses Quo surveyed cited customer expectations for faster service as a key driver for experimenting with AI.According to Salesforce’s 2024 SMB research, offloading administrative tasks to AI is working. 91% of small businesses have reported increases in revenue after using AI. Further, of those experiencing growth, they are twice as likely to have an integrated tech stack (66%), dodging the problems of lost data and inefficiencies common to having many standalone applications. Others have found that by reducing busywork, they can hire more employees and power company growth, according to a Goldman Sachs 2025 survey. And, most businesses report reallocating time saved from automation toward hiring or expansion, giving owners breathing room, making more money, and ultimately, building a bigger team.With friction reduced, small business owners can focus on other priorities.From Busywork to Business Growth: What will happen when more than 36 million businesses regain time in their day?When automation removes repetitive tasks from an owner’s workload, the benefits go beyond a cleaner inbox or a shorter to-do list. It can lead to faster responses, better customer retention, fewer mistakes, and manageable business growth, according to a 2025 Customer Experience Study by Five9. Over time, this will make it easier to launch new products or services, take on more clients or serve more customers, and grow the team.Businesses that adopt AI tools often report increased efficiency and more time spent on core operations. They’re the ones who are smart with their AI adoption, giving themselves more time and energy to focus on what inspired them to start the business in the first place.If you’re not sure where to start, ask yourself a few questions: Where do I lose the most time each week? What’s making my customers wait? What would I do with five extra hours? And, maybe most importantly: What’s the cost of not changing anything? The answers tend to point to a first step. That’s usually all it takes to get started.Survey Methodology: In February 2026, Quo conducted a survey of 386 small businesses that are also Quo customers. All personal data is provided on an opt-in, completely voluntary basis while safeguarding data privacy.This story was produced by Quo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Putin meets North Korean foreign minister in diplomatic push The visit by North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui comes without an obvious occasion, such as a multilateral diplomatic event or state anniversary, and has raised speculation that she may be coordinating a possible visit to Russia by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
	Half of newly developed drugs are the result of this 1983 Law Half of newly developed drugs are the result of this 1983 Law"Orphan" drugs were once a market almost no company wanted. Four decades later, they make up more than half of the new drugs the Food and Drug Administration approves.In 2024, the FDA's drug center approved 50 new medicines. More than half of them (26 in all) were built to treat a rare disease.That would have stunned anyone working in medicine in the early 1980s. Back then, rare diseases were a part of the market that drug companies avoided. The patient groups were too small, the costs too high, and the payoff too uncertain.In the decade before 1983, fewer than 10 drugs for rare conditions reached the market. Only 38 such drugs had ever been approved in the United States at all.Then Congress passed the Orphan Drug Act, signed into law on Jan. 4, 1983. Forty-plus years later, treating the rare has become one of the most active and closely watched areas in all of drug development.This is the story of how that happened, developed by Kivo, a quality management system and RegOps platform for life sciences teams.What The Orphan Drug Act ChangedThe Orphan Drug Act did something really simple. It provided significant financial incentives to companies that could develop treatments for rare diseases.The law applies exclusively to drugs meant to treat a rare disease, which the FDA defines as a condition affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. If a drug qualifies, its maker can apply for an "orphan designation," a tag that comes with significant financial rewards, including:Seven years of exclusive rights to sell the drug once it is approvedTax credits to help cover the cost of clinical trialsEligibility for research grantsThese incentives leveled the financial playing field by significantly lowering the costs and raising the rewards for developing rare disease treatments. As a result, companies slowly began turning their attention toward this category of treatments.A 4-Decade Development ExplosionThe response built slowly at first, then took off.From 1983 through 2022, the FDA granted 6,340 orphan drug designations, covering drug development for 1,079 different rare diseases. Of those designations, 882 went on to earn at least one FDA approval, delivering treatments for 392 rare conditions.The pace picked up further in each progressive decade. Designations more than doubled from the 1980s to the 1990s. They nearly doubled again from the 1990s to the 2000s. And they nearly tripled from the 2000s to the 2010s.That number continues to climb each year.The share of all new drugs that are orphan drugs tells the same story from another angle. In the late 1980s, orphan drugs made up just 17% of all FDA approvals. By the late 2000s, that share had roughly doubled to around a third. In 2024, it crossed half. Rare disease drugs went from a small minority to the single largest category of new medicines the FDA clears.Where The Money GoesThe boom has not spread evenly across all rare diseases. It has concentrated heavily in one area: cancer.Seven of the 10 most-designated and most-approved rare diseases over the past four decades were rare cancers. Pancreatic cancer alone drew 185 orphan designations, the most of any single disease. Seven diseases topped 100 designations each. Beyond oncology, the biggest growth has come in rare neurological diseases and in conditions that begin in childhood.Recent approvals show the range. In 2024, the FDA cleared new treatments for rare conditions that had no approved therapy at all, including Niemann-Pick disease type C and a rare immune disorder called WHIM syndrome. It also approved a new option for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe muscle-wasting disease that mostly affects young boys.There is a clear logic to the clustering. Rare cancers often share biology with more common ones, so research can build on work already underway. Childhood genetic diseases have well-organized patient groups that push hard for treatments. And advances in genetics have made it far easier to understand what goes wrong in a rare disease and to design a drug that targets it.Many Gaps Still RemainThe focus on cancer and childhood genetic diseases means that despite this shift, thousands of gaps in rare disease treatments still remain.Scientists have identified somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 rare diseases, and only about 5% of them have an FDA-approved drug. Up to 15% have at least one drug that has shown promise in treatment, diagnosis, or prevention.That leaves the vast majority of rare diseases (~80%) with no approved treatment at all.Rare diseases affect more than 30 million Americans, or roughly 1 in 10. No single condition is common, but taken together, they touch families in every state. A disease that strikes only a few thousand people is still a life-altering event for each of those families, and for most of them, the pharmacy shelf is still empty.Who Is Developing These Drugs?The orphan drug pipeline runs in large part on smaller companies.Small and midsize firms have long made up a big share of the sponsors behind orphan drugs. Earlier reviews of the field found that small firms alone accounted for more than half of orphan drug sponsors, and that small and midsize firms together made up around three-quarters.Many of these companies are launched by parents seeking treatments for their kids, like Terry Pirovolakis, who founded Elpida Therapeutics to develop a gene therapy for his son Michael.Rare disease research has become a common path for emerging biotech companies, which can focus on a single condition, move quickly, and rely on the law's incentives to make a small market viable.Larger drugmakers have followed the trend as well, and some have built entire divisions around rare diseases. But the steady stream of designations, many for diseases most people have never heard of, reflects an ecosystem where smaller and newer companies do much of the early work.Debate Around Drug PricingThe orphan drug boom is widely seen as one of the most successful health laws in modern American history. One area of criticism and debate is over the drug prices that emerge from these development pipelines.Because orphan drugs serve small patient groups and enjoy years of protected sales, they are often extremely expensive, and some rank among the costliest medicines in the world.Supporters argue that high prices are the only way to fund research for tiny markets.Critics counter that the costs strain patients who are often already navigating difficult life circumstances, the government is already providing financial incentives to drugmakers, and in many cases, developed treatments are only partially effective while still being prohibitively expensive.A second concern is how incentives are used. Some companies have won orphan status for narrow slices of a drug that also treats common conditions, a practice critics say is designed to game the rules. The share of orphan approvals that were secondary uses of an existing drug has risen sharply over the decades, climbing from about 19% in the 1980s to roughly 47% in the 2010s.There are also questions about how much these drugs improve care. One analysis of orphan approvals found that the share rated as major therapeutic improvements fell from about half in the mid-2000s to well under a fifth by the early 2020s.That doesn't invalidate the benefits for patients who now have options where none existed. But it does suggest that a rising count of approvals is not the same thing as a rising count of breakthroughs.The Bottom LineFour decades in, the verdict on the Orphan Drug Act is mostly a success story. A law meant to coax a handful of treatments out of a market no one wanted has helped produce hundreds of them and turned rare disease into a central focus of drug development. Emerging biotech companies keep the pipeline full, and more than half of new drugs now carry an orphan tag.But the system isn't perfect. Thousands of rare diseases still have no treatments available. New treatments are often priced beyond the reach of those in need. And the law likely needs to be adjusted to prevent companies from gaming the system.The next 40 years of the law will be judged less by how many designations it produces and more by whether it can close that gap for the millions of Americans still waiting on treatment for rare diseases.This story was produced by Kivo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	How one change to a car payment can help Americans get ahead of their debt How one change to a car payment can help Americans get ahead of their debtCar payments are one of the largest monthly obligations for most people, but they don’t happen in a vacuum. The average American is carrying debt across multiple categories at once. But their car loan may be the one lever they can pull to create more breathing room and get ahead of their debt. According to Caribou’s survey of 2,000 car loan borrowers, if they could save $150 a month on their car payment, 60% of respondents would use the savings to pay down other debt.So how far can an extra $150 a month actually go? Saving on your car payment can create a positive ripple effect, freeing up money in your budget that can be sent toward the debt that’s costing you the most. This is becoming increasingly important as Americans currently carry $1.6 trillion in student loan debt and $1.2 trillion in credit card debt, according to the latest estimates from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.How to lower your monthly car payment by refinancingAuto refinancing means replacing your current car loan with a new one, usually with a different rate, term, or lender. If you qualify for better terms, refinancing could lower your monthly payment and free up money you can put toward credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, or other higher-interest-rate debt you are carrying.Refinancing may be worth considering if:Your current auto loan rate is higher than what you may qualify for now.Your credit has improved since you bought the car.Your monthly car payment is making it hard to pay other bills.You can lower your payment without adding too much extra interest.Some people hesitate to check their rates because they’re afraid it could hurt their credit score. In fact, 33% of auto loan borrowers in Caribou’s survey say a potential negative impact on their credit score would keep them from refinancing. But checking refinance rates on sites like Caribou only requires a soft credit pull, which does not affect your credit score. A hard credit pull only happens when you select an offer and submit your application.Compare the new loan against your current one side by side. A lower payment can help reduce monthly pressure, but a longer loan term may increase the total interest you pay. You can run the numbers using an auto refinance calculator.How to use car savings to pay down high-interest debtLowering your car payment is only half the strategy. The other half is deciding where the freed-up money should go.In many cases, it makes sense to focus on high-interest debt first, like credit cards. That’s because credit card interest can grow quickly and make it harder to get ahead. Even a small monthly amount can help if you apply it consistently. Over time, this can reduce the interest you pay and even improve your credit score.That’s what Omar Pena of California plans to do after refinancing his Chevy Camaro and lowering his car payment by $274 a month. “The savings will definitely help me pay off my other credit cards, which is going to help me reach my credit goals,” he said. Caribou How does a car lower payment impact your debt-to-income ratioThe debt-to-income (DTI) ratio is one of the most consequential numbers that provides a peek into an individual’s financial health, yet many people are unaware of this figure until they apply for a loan.Lenders want to see that your monthly debt payments are a manageable slice of your income, and that’s what your DTI ratio measures. Refinancing into a lower monthly car payment reduces your DTI ratio, and a lower DTI improves your access to credit. A lower DTI is also key to getting better rates for other loans like mortgages. So if you have a high DTI and a high credit score, and are considering buying a new home, refinancing your auto loan at least six months before you buy could help you qualify for a lower rate.What starts out as $150 in monthly savings from refinancing your car loan could lead to more borrowing power for years to come.Be intentional with your savingsRefinancing a car loan can not only save Americans thousands of dollars a year but also have a ripple effect, improving their overall financial health.Most Americans carry more than one form of debt. Each has its own interest rate, its own minimum payment, its own timeline. But your car loan may be one place to look if debt is stretching your budget. If you can lower your payment, you may be able to free up money and put it toward the high-interest debt that’s costing you the most.The key is to be intentional. Don’t just lower your car payment. Use the savings to make real progress.This story was produced by Caribou and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	In Terms of Campaign Funds Raised, the Illinois GOP is Heeding That Paramount Virtue, Fiscal Restraint The Illinois Republican Party filed its quarterly campaign finance report on the July 15 deadline. The party reported having just $223,000 in the bank. The next day, the party sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections saying they were “reconciling” their records after a leadership change, and then noted that their actual end balance was $101,000 higher than it had reported the day before. But that bit of found money was basically the end of the “good news” for the GOP last week.
	Smoky skies again today for the Quad Cities area Like Sunday, visibilities will be lower today from wildfire smoke blowing in from Canada and northern Minnesota. Here's your full 7-day forecast.
	Bubba's 33 sets Davenport grand opening, ribbon-cutting The restaurant and sports bar, featuring scratch-made food, will officially open on Monday, July 27, at 11 a.m.
	DuTrac Community Credit Union earns national recognition “Helping our members build confidence and stability through saving is at the heart of what we do,” Andrew Hawkinson, President/CEO of DuTrac shared.
	Harkey's restaurant and bar opens in Orion Its menu features a variety of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and Benny's Pizza.
	Ascentra Credit Union named to Forbes' America’s Best-In-State Credit Unions 2026 list To be eligible, credit unions must receive a minimum number of evaluations, with recognized institutions averaging more than 635 evaluations.
	New restaurant and bar, gift shop closing, Bubba's 33 grand opening, and more Quad-Cities business news Bubba's 33 grand opening, gift shop closing after 49 years, new restaurant and bar, more Quad-Cities business news.
	Rock Island and Henry County real estate transactions for July 19, 2026 Here are homes sales and property sales in Rock Island County and Henry County.
	What's coming up: Eldridge to discuss fire services, Bettendorf to get strategic plan update Eldridge could take action Monday on the future of fire services, and LeClaire is planning upgrades at a railroad intersection.

Monday, July 20th, 2026