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

Friday, August 14th, 2026
	Hundreds participate in Freedom Run in East Moline Hundreds participated in the Freedom Run in East Moline. The Freedom Run is present by UnityPoint Health and is a military-themed event. Runners and walkers could choose from 5k and one-mile formats, and there were two races for kids. Races started and finished on 15th Ave. Each runner got a dog tag at the finish [...]
	Man sentenced to federal prison after threatening to shoot woman, shots fired incident outside Davenport bar A Davenport man was sentenced to nine years and seven months in federal prison for a shots fired incident outside of Happy Hollow bar.
	Illinois has 1,260 cases of Cyclospora, Iowa hits 300 This week, a report found that the origin farm tied to the national outbreak hadn’t been inspected in seven years.
	Mangione pleads guilty in federal court, leaving fate of state trial uncertain Mangione has pleaded guilty to stalking charges in connection with the death of Brian Thompson, a health care executive. A separate judge will decide the future of Mangione's state trial.
	Man killed in e-bike crash in Cedar Rapids The Cedar Rapids Police are investigating a crash that killed an e-bike rider Thursday evening.
	Rock Island schools open with increased caution, former student in custody Officials said schools were never under a direct threat.
	Person in custody after suspicious internet search by former Rock Island-Milan student The Rock Island-Milan School District partnered with the Rock Island Police Department following suspicious online activity by a former student. According to a release: The district thanked the Rock Island Police Department for its quick response and communication to ensure the safety of students and staff without interrupting instruction.
	Former Rock Island student in custody following ‘suspicious internet search’ Former Rock Island-Milan student is in custody after a suspicious internet search, but police say there is no direct threat to local schools Friday.
	List of resources for Tyson workers impacted by Joslin closure Over 2,500 people were laid-off on Thursday after Tyson Foods announced the closure of their Joslin plant.
	Borrowers weigh trade-offs and opportunities when considering student loan refinancing Borrowers weigh trade-offs and opportunities when considering student loan refinancingRefinancing is a common strategy for managing student loan debt, but the decision to refinance isn’t always straightforward. SoFi surveyed 750 borrowers to learn more about their attitudes toward refinancing, student loan types, and monthly payments. The results reveal what proportion of borrowers consider refinancing, what’s holding them back, and how being overwhelmed about the refinancing process creates a roadblock for many.Key FindingsMany borrowers (40%) hold a mix of federal and private student loans and carry a wide range of balances.Nearly half of borrowers have considered refinancing their student loans but haven’t applied.Some obstacles to refinancing student loans include feeling uncertain about savings, lacking clarity around the process, and feeling generally overwhelmed.For most borrowers, lowering their student loan interest rates and speeding up repayment are top priorities.More than half of respondents say their student loans are a significant source of daily stress.MethodologySoFi commissioned Qualtrics to conduct an online survey of more than 750 U.S. consumers with outstanding student loan debt. Respondents were required to have either refinanced their student loans within the past five years, considered refinancing but chose not to, or be actively researching refinancing options. The survey included borrowers with bachelor’s degrees, in graduate programs, or with Parent PLUS loans, as well as federal-only, private-only, and mixed-loan holders.Quotas were applied across age groups, census regions, household income levels, refinancing status, loan type, and borrower type to ensure broad representation of the target population.Introduction to Student Loan Refinance InsightsAccording to the College Board, 47% of students graduate college with student loans, a burden that can have a long-term impact on their finances. Refinancing is one way to manage repayment and potentially save money on loans, though it’s not always a straightforward decision.The survey of 750 borrowers about their student loan situation and stance toward refinancing asked questions like:What type of student loans do you currently have?What is your current total student loan balance and monthly payment?Have you considered refinancing your student loans?If so, what’s holding you back from refinancing?Here’s a deep dive into the results of the survey, along with the reasons that many borrowers consider but don’t move forward with refinancing their student loans.Many Borrowers Hold a Mix of Federal and Private Student LoansOne reason why managing your student loans may feel complicated is that you’re probably not dealing with a single lender or rule book. Many borrowers (40%, according to the survey) hold both federal and private student loans, which can have different structures and repayment options. An additional 1 in 10 borrowers say they aren’t sure what types of loans they have.Here’s how the results broke down: SoFi If you’re one of the borrowers managing both federal and private student loans, you’ll be dealing with two different sets of rules. Federal student loans have fixed interest rates and are eligible for various borrower protections, which may include income-driven repayment (IDR), deferment, and forgiveness programs.Private student loans, on the other hand, may have fixed rates or variable rates that move up and down with the market. They don’t qualify for IDR or forgiveness, and hardship-based deferment and forbearance options aren’t always available.Along with different rules, you’ll also have to deal with different payment deadlines, online accounts, and student loan servicers. Keeping track of your various accounts and payments can be a lot to juggle, especially on top of your other financial priorities.Borrowers Carry a Wide Range of Total Student Loan BalancesThe average student loan amount among undergraduate borrowers is $29,560 upon graduation, according to the College Board, but many borrowers take out different amounts. Some are chipping away at lower balances, while others have debt that goes into six-figure territory.Here’s how the range of balances breaks down: SoFi A combined 44% of borrowers owe $50,000 or more, while 19% carry $100,000 or more in student loans. Due to interest charges, borrowers can end up paying significantly more than they borrowed.Monthly Payments Vary Significantly Across BorrowersWhile your total student loan debt balance certainly can weigh you down, your monthly payments are what impact your day-to-day life the most. High monthly payments can limit your cash flow, making it harder to budget for other expenses, build an emergency fund, and save for the future.The student loan debt survey found that monthly payments range significantly among borrowers, with 21% paying less than $150 per month and another 20% paying $750 each month or more. SoFi Many Borrowers Have Considered Refinancing but Have Not Taken ActionStudent loan refinancing is a common strategy for adjusting the interest rate and monthly payments on student loans. If you have a higher credit score and income, you may get a better interest rate than you have now, which could reduce your monthly bills.You also get the chance to choose new repayment terms that align with your budget and financial goals. There is a downside, though, which is that refinancing federal student loans means losing access to federal benefits, like income-driven repayment and forgiveness programs.According to the student loan debt survey, many borrowers have considered refinancing student loans, but not everyone has made an effort to do so by applying for a refi. In fact, 46% said they have considered refinancing their student loans but haven’t done it. Recent changes in federal student loan repayment plans have likely only added to confusion. SoFi Top Reasons Borrowers Have Not RefinancedTo get to the root of why many borrowers consider student loan refinancing but don’t move forward with it, the survey asked about their primary barrier. Here are the results: SoFi Other borrowers wrote in their own responses regarding student loan refinance, with some saying they were relying on income-driven repayment and others sharing their credit scores weren’t strong enough to get approved to refinance student loans.Unlike student loan consolidation, which is a federal process, refinancing goes through private lenders and generally requires good credit to get approved.Confidence in Understanding Refinancing Varies WidelyA lack of confidence in understanding refinancing is one obstacle for borrowers. When asked how secure they would feel explaining student loan refinancing to a friend, the results were mixed.Over half of respondents felt very or extremely confident (52% combined), but another 48% ran from moderately confident down to not confident at all. This knowledge gap could be causing some borrowers to leave potential savings on the table. SoFi Comparing Rates and Understanding Savings Are the Most Overwhelming ChallengesThe most challenging parts of the refinancing process for borrowers were understanding their costs and savings, and comparing interest rates.More than 1 in 5 borrowers cited confusion around total savings or total cost as the main reason they feel overwhelmed, while another 16% said comparing interest rates was most difficult. In write-in responses, some borrowers also said “all of the above” was hard or “all of the process is foreign to me.” SoFi Lower Interest Rates and Faster Payoff Are Top PrioritiesWhile some borrowers find the refinancing process highly emotional, they have a clearer sense of what they’re hoping to achieve by restructuring their student debt.Most borrowers aim to reduce their interest rate or pay off their student loans faster, both of which could significantly lower interest charges over the life of the loans. Another 17% said lowering their overall stress about their debt sat at the top of their priority list. That same number (17%) said lowering their monthly payment was their primary goal.These two variables, rates and timeline, are interrelated. “When shopping for refinancing rates, pay close attention to repayment terms, which can vary greatly depending on the lender. The longer the term, the lower the monthly payments will be, but that means more interest will be paid over the life of the loan. Conversely, a shorter loan term may mean higher monthly payments, but less is paid in interest over the life of the loan,” explained Brian Walsh, certified financial planner and head of advice & planning at SoFi. SoFi Many Borrowers Would Refinance if Savings Were GuaranteedMany borrowers want a guarantee that they’ll save money with refinancing before they act. When asked how likely they would be to refinance in the next six months if refinancing guaranteed they would save money over the life of the loan, respondents said: SoFi That’s a total of 87% of borrowers who said they’d be somewhat or very likely to refinance if they knew it would save them money. Many lenders offer easy-to-use calculators to help prospective borrowers compare potential new loans with old loans. Student loan holders can also check their preliminary interest rates and terms online with no commitment or impact to their credit score.Student Loan Debt Is a Significant Source of Financial StressStudent loan debt is a heavy burden for many borrowers. The majority of respondents in the student debt survey (63%) ranked their student loan stress as moderately, very, or extremely stressful. Some write-in responses said they were “barely making ends meet” and “stressing out” over the state of the economy and their student debt obligations. SoFi The TakeawayAccording to the student debt survey, many student loan borrowers consider refinancing but are held back by confusion and feeling overwhelmed. Checking interest rates online and using simple calculator tools can help you compare options and estimate potential savings before you apply. Just make sure you understand the trade-offs of refinancing along with the benefits. Refinancing federal student loans means you’ll no longer have eligibility for federal repayment plans, forgiveness programs, or other benefits.This story was produced by SoFi and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Erie Police Department to handle service calls in Albany starting Monday Beginning Monday, Whiteside County deputies will no longer be the primary responders to calls from Albany, and those duties will move to the Erie Police Department.
	East Moline hosting meeting on Empire Park improvements The City of East Moline is hosting a public informational meeting and hearing to discuss proposed improvements to Empire Park, including possible upgrades and replacement of playground and park equipment and other related park improvements. The meeting will be held on August 17 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall Council Chambers, 915 16th Avenue. The [...]
	Could ‘cellular fragility’ be the missing link in chronic disease? Could ‘cellular fragility’ be the missing link in chronic disease?Chronic disease has become one of the hardest health problems to ignore. The CDC reports that 3 in 4 American adults have at least one chronic condition, while heart disease and diabetes remain among the country’s leading causes of death and disability.Many of these conditions build slowly, often years before a clear diagnosis gives them a name. And that slow buildup is part of what makes them so difficult to understand.But while researchers have spent decades looking at organs and body systems, some are now asking whether chronic diseases begin with cells that have become less able to protect themselves.Here, Discover C15, which has researched odd-chain fatty acids and cellular resilience, examines the concept known as cellular fragility. It starts with the body’s smallest working parts.Why Health Starts at the Cellular LevelEvery human body runs on roughly 30 trillion cells, with about 200 distinct types built for specific jobs. Some carry oxygen, while others form tissue or help the nervous system send signals.Together, they create the base beneath every organ and system a person depends on. Grouped into tissue, those cells become the working material of the heart, liver, brain, and everything those organs make possible. Research has found that a healthy body also continually replaces what wears down, turning out 2 to 3 million new red blood cells every second.Each cell draws nutrients inward and clears waste outward, keeping its own small environment ready for work. And inside those cells, food and oxygen become the fuel behind a heartbeat or a single thought. But if the base begins to falter, the larger systems built from it have less room to function well.What Researchers Mean by “Cellular Fragility”The simplest way to describe cellular fragility starts with the outer boundary of a cell losing its strength. Every cell sits behind a thin membrane, a border that decides what gets in and what stays out while shielding the machinery inside. Sturdy fats keep that border firm enough to bend under daily pressure and spring back without tearing.Strip those fats away, and the membrane turns brittle, prone to tiny leaks and breaks that it can no longer patch. And researchers measure that tipping point precisely. Cells holding C15:0 at or below 0.2% of their fatty acids grow fragile and open to a form of self-destruction called ferroptosis.Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson, who led the study naming the syndrome, told Longevity. Technology that replenishing those levels halts every core piece of what she called a new cell killer.The Connection Between Cellular Health and Chronic ConditionsFragile cells become more concerning when their damage starts moving beyond one cell at a time. Research published in Metabolites links low C15:0 levels to a greater risk of ferroptosis, a form of cell death tied to damaged fats and rising cellular stress. And that stress can strain mitochondria, leaving cells with less energy to handle repair and daily work.Over time, repeated damage forces the body to spend more energy cleaning up injured cells and less energy keeping tissues working well. The same research connects C15:0 deficiency with risks tied to metabolic health and liver health, while other studies have linked mitochondrial dysfunction with insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes.Small failures at the cellular level can begin with a damaged membrane or a struggling mitochondrion. And when left unaddressed, those failures can place more pressure on the organs built from those cells.Why Chronic Disease Remains Difficult to Fully ExplainChronic disease rarely begins with one clear cause, and decades of research have shown that no single answer explains every case. Genetics may raise a person’s risk, but daily habits decide how often the body has to manage stress. Environment adds another pressure, especially when exposure builds over years without being easy to see.Nutrition sits in that same conversation, since the body has to work with the materials it receives day after day. The National Institutes of Health’s Precision Medicine Initiative reflects that reality by recognizing how individual biology, environment, and lifestyle all contribute to disease.Even with those pieces on the table, some outcomes remain hard to explain. But now cellular resilience may help researchers understand why one body holds up longer than another under similar pressure.The Growing Focus on Preventive and Cellular HealthHealthcare has spent generations getting better at treating disease after it appears, but chronic illness has pushed more attention toward what happens earlier. And preventive care begins in that earlier window, using screenings and routine visits to catch risk before symptoms become harder to manage.Healthy People 2030 notes that preventive care reduces the risk of diseases, disabilities, and death, yet many people still miss recommended services.Every missed screening can leave a preventable risk hidden longer than it should be. And the same concern is now moving closer to cellular health, where researchers and health-conscious adults are looking for earlier signs that the body may be losing strength from within.Longevity and healthy aging have helped bring those earlier signs into everyday conversation, making cellular health part of a wider move toward prevention.What Future Research May RevealResearch is only beginning to reveal how much a single cell can predict about long-term health. And the Human Cell Atlas mirrors that question at a global scale, with researchers building an open reference map of human cells to better understand health and disease.To build that map, new single-cell tools let scientists study DNA, RNA, and proteins inside individual cells, rather than relying only on larger tissue samples.By studying cells one by one, researchers are able to spot early signs of cellular decline before damage appears in a larger tissue or organ. And those signs may become future biomarkers, giving doctors better ways to estimate risk before chronic disease takes firmer hold.The work is still unfinished, but its value is already clear. A better map of cell behavior could give medicine an earlier place to look.Looking Beyond Symptoms to the Cellular FoundationHealth will always be a complex subject, and ongoing attention and research keeps moving it forward. Much of that complexity shows in chronic disease, which builds over years while the body gives few hints of what lies ahead.The hope now is to spot more of those warnings earlier, before the strain spreads into tissues and organs. And cellular health is becoming part of that search, with researchers looking at how well cells hold up across a person’s life. Learning how that strength lasts could move care closer to the first signs of trouble and change how medicine helps people age well.This story was produced by Discover C15 and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	The 15 newsletters startups are paying for in 2026 The 15 newsletters startups are paying for in 2026Michael Burry launched a paid newsletter, Cassandra Unchained, in late 2025. Within months, it was the No. 8 most-subscribed publication across all Brex customers, racing ahead of writers who spent a decade building their base.Burry’s two-decade-old reputation for contrarian calls made his newsletter a line item on startup corporate cards within months. That's what this benchmark from Brex measures: newsletter reading that survives an expense review.A decade ago, a founder's market intelligence was free: TechCrunch for funding news, Hacker News for technical arguments, Twitter for everything else. However, you could read all of it and still not know what to do on Monday. Free media is very good at telling you what happened, but much less useful at telling you what to do.Today, the operating knowledge lives behind paywalls, attached to specific newsletter names. Product-market fit questions go to Lenny's Newsletter. Engineering org problems go to The Pragmatic Engineer. A platform shift sends you to Stratechery.The newsletter stack has become part of company formation, as standard as the SaaS stack. While a personal subscription means you like something, a company subscription that gets expensed, approved, and renewed means it helps run your business. Based on Brex card data that identifies the publication behind each renewal charge, not just the billing platform, these rankings follow the writer, whether they publish on Substack, Ghost, beehiiv, or their own site. Those renewals add up to the startup economy's required reading list. Brex Brex Trend 1: The winners stopped selling newsletters and started selling memberships.The complaint about the newsletter boom is fatigue: too many sends, a few names absorbing everyone else's growth. But fatigue is an inbox problem, and the winners left the inbox. Lenny's comes with a 30,000-person Slack and software credits. Stratechery is a daily column, plus four podcasts. Unsubscribing from an email costs nothing; leaving a room with 30,000 people in it costs something.The same three names have led this list for a year, and they cover the three functions every company staffs first. Lenny Rachitsky covers product, Gergely Orosz covers engineering, and Ben Thompson covers strategy. Among Brex customers, these are the subscriptions a company expenses without a second thought, the way an earlier generation expensed trade magazines.Thompson predicted why value would flow to individual writers back in 2014, in his post, Publishers and the Smiling Curve: value in internet media flows to the two ends of the chain, aggregators on one side and ”focused, responsive, and differentiated” writers on the other. The middle is missing from this newsletter list. Nearly every entry is an individual writer or a small team that owns a subject. The leaders are still growing. Lenny's has more paid subscribers on Brex than No. 2 and No. 3 combined, and all three grew double digits, led by The Pragmatic Engineer at 36% growth. Engineering was where the money went in 2025; the reading budget followed.The Free Press is the one entry that isn't a business based on a single writer’s judgment. It climbed to No. 4, up 93%, and it scaled by selling. Paramount bought it for $150 million and put Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News. One writer's judgment scales on a laptop; a newsroom needs a payroll. That may be why the only newsroom on this list is also the only entry that got acquired. One rung below, Emily Sundberg's Feed Me newsletter is up 38%. Feed Me is a read about taste and consumer culture, and it sits four spots below Stratechery on the same corporate cards.Trend 2: Startups will pay to be told they might be wrong.Burry made his name being right about the 2008 crash after years of being told he was wrong, then spent two decades communicating in fragments. The newsletter reverses that: For the first time, his research is available to anyone with a subscription.Startups buy it for the same reason anyone buys research. Every company needs a view on AI, rates, and capital right now, and Burry offers a track record of being early and a habit of not caring who disagrees. Most subscribers probably don't think he's right, but they want to know early if he is. Two decades of credibility, and the market found it within months of launch. Startups pay for writers who can make them re-examine the default story.Trend 3: A healthcare-interoperability newsletter cracked the top 15.Brendan Keeler's Health API Guy, a newsletter about healthcare interoperability, debuted at No. 13 — and Christina Farr's Second Opinion jumped to No. 10, up 56%. An interoperability newsletter cracking a top-15 business reading list means a vertical is producing real companies. Once enough startups build in a category, general tech media is too broad, and industry trade news is too shallow, and the person who knows the information becomes valuable. A niche audience that needs the information pays more reliably than a broad one that merely enjoys it: Thesis Driven for real estate, Bankless for crypto, This Week in Fintech for financial services.A vertical newsletter climbing this list is an early signal that companies in that vertical are forming and spending. Just below the top 15, Fintech Business Weekly gives financial services a second dedicated read, and Chipstrat sits right behind it. Founders are now budgeting to understand semiconductor supply. Brex Why startups pay to readA business prices a purchase against the money it makes or saves, and newsletter subscriptions behave accordingly. In the Brex data, they get bought the way software gets bought: approved, renewed, carried from one budget cycle to the next. A few hundred dollars a year competes with the cost of a bad hire, a mispriced round, or a product bet made blind. If information from a newsletter improves a single decision, hire, pricing call, or product bet, it has covered a decade of renewals.Fifteen newsletters, most of them produced by writers working alone, are now a standing line item at tens of thousands of companies. What startups buy tells you what they think they don't know.Methodology and privacyBrex pulled paid newsletter subscriptions across all Brex customers, anonymized and aggregated, and compared October 2025 through June 2026 against the same nine months a year earlier. Brex's level 2 and level 3 card data identifies the publication behind a charge rather than just the billing platform, so the data reveals the individual writers getting paid. Brex never shares customer-identifiable information.This story was produced by Brex and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Cook review: 'Brink of War' is better-than-average Cold War history It's interesting. But it's not always entertaining. "The Brink of War" is based on the 1986 Reykjavik Summit between Mikhail Gorbachev (Jared Harris) and President Ronald Reagan (Jeff Daniels,) when the two had a discussion that eventually led to the 1986 nuclear arms control treaty. Reagan's focus is on both nuclear disarmament and human rights, [...]
	Man sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to traffic drugs throughout Quad-Cities Last man to be sentenced in four-man conspiracy to distribute illicit drugs throughout Quad-Cities receives 10-year federal prison term.
	We learned 5 important things about the economy this week From inflation, to credit card debt, to who's actually doing the spending: These are key takeaways from this week in economic news.
	The back-to-school health checklist families shouldn't skip (BPT) - The transition from summer days to the back-to-school season is notoriously hectic. Between new routines, extracurriculars and supply shopping, schedules are packed. But there's one thing that shouldn't get lost in the shuffle: a back-to-school health checklist.From updating health forms to stocking up on medicine cabinet essentials, early preparation is key to keeping the household running smoothly. Samantha Picking, PharmD, senior director of immunizations at Walgreens, breaks down the health to-dos to knock out before the school year starts:1. Get ahead of seasonal and routine vaccinesThe start of a new school year is a good time to ensure the whole family is up to date on routine and seasonal vaccinations, such as those protecting against flu, COVID-19, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.Pro tip: "Keep in mind that many vaccines take about two weeks to provide protection," Picking said. "That's why it's worth scheduling appointments before kids and teens are back in close contact with classmates and respiratory virus season ramps up."At Walgreens, patients can schedule vaccination appointments for up to four people in a single visit and book well in advance, giving families more flexibility to plan ahead and save time. myWalgreens® members can also earn $15 in Walgreens Cash rewards when they spend $5+ on their next eligible in-store purchase, plus 10% back in Walgreens Cash on eligible in-store purchases for 30 days when they get vaccinated.2. Coordinate school medications and medical formsFor students with conditions like asthma or severe allergies, early coordination with school staff is essential. Make sure to check the expiration dates on emergency inhalers or epinephrine auto-injectors and verify that the school has updated health forms on file.Pro tip: "Don't wait until the first day of school to get those required medical forms filled out," Picking said. "Local pharmacy teams can also help refill essential emergency medications, so families are prepared before the first bell rings."3. Restock the medicine cabinetHaving sick-day supplies on hand is a key part of back-to-school readiness. Take stock of overall household health and wellness needs, including items like daily vitamins, cough drops, antacids, cough medicine, combination flu & COVID-19 tests and other essentials like a first aid kit.Pro tip: "As a mom of three, I always do a quick check of the medicine cabinet and replace anything that's expired or running low before the school year starts," Picking said. "It only takes a few minutes, but it means you're not caught off guard when someone actually gets sick."For families short on time, Walgreens has options to grab what you need with 1-hour Delivery and 30-minute Pickup.4. Reset daily wellness habitsTransitioning from relaxed summer schedules to structured school routines can be physically taxing for kids and parents alike. Establish a consistent sleep schedule, prioritize nutritious meals and reinforce healthy habits, like proper handwashing and using hand sanitizer, to form a strong foundation for the year ahead.Pro tip: "Getting enough sleep and practicing good hygiene are two of the simplest ways to start the school year on the right foot," Picking said. "It's easy to let healthy routines slip during the summer, so ease back into them a week or two before school starts."Walgreens: A partner in health and back-to-school prepWalgreens is a one-stop destination for vaccinations, over-the-counter essentials and last-minute school supplies. Vaccination appointments can be scheduled online, through the Walgreens app or by calling 1-800-WALGREENS. For any questions, expert pharmacists are ready to provide trusted guidance and personalized support.Must be a myWalgreens® member. Offer available for a limited time and valid for 14 days from vaccination date. Must scan coupon at checkout to earn rewards/activate. Coupon offer not valid in AR, NJ or NY. Limit three coupons per person. See coupon for terms and restrictions. Vaccines subject to availability. Walgreens administers applicable vaccinations for children ages three and older. State-, age- and health-related restrictions may apply. Additional terms and exclusions apply. Complete details, including Walgreens Cash rewards expiration dates, at Walgreens.com/offerdetails. $15 OfferEarn rewards on qualifying in-store purchases of $5+. Limit one storewide coupon redeemed per transaction, up to three redemptions per offer period. Maximum $45 Walgreens Cash rewards per member. 10% OfferEarn rewards on qualifying in-store purchases of $1+. Scan once to activate offer. Limit one offer per myWalgreens® member. Maximum $100 Walgreens Cash rewards. Offer valid for 30 days following activation. **Delivery in as little as 1 hour and Pickup in as little as 30 minutes based on national averages, actual times may vary. Pickup is available for eligible items when your order is $10 or more (after promo codes and paperless coupons are applied and before taxes). Exclusions, restrictions, and fees may apply. For details, visit Walgreens.com/same-day-delivery and Walgreens.com/Pickup.
	The Taliban has taken a terrible toll on the education of girls -- and boys as well Saturday marks the 5th anniversary of the current Taliban rule in Aghanistan. They've had a devastating impact on girls' education. A lesser told story is their impact on the education of boys.
	4 Your Money \| Wall Street vs. Main Street Although the stock market continues to reach record highs, many would argue that current economic conditions are burdensome for many households and businesses. David Nelson, CEO of NelsonCorp Wealth Management, is here to explain the disparity between the booming S&P 500 Index and the falling Consumer Sentiment Index.
	Home improvement scams are heating up this summer Home improvement scams are heating up this summerThe Congletons of North Texas had finally secured the financing needed to build their next house. Jeremy, his wife, and their two daughters couldn’t wait to move in. After spending $250,000 of their hard-earned money, the family of four was bankrupt, living in a camper, and no closer to living in their dream home.The culprit? A married couple with a polished social media presence who falsely claimed to be architects and remodelers. Once they took the Congletons’ money, they didn’t start work immediately and became increasingly hard to contact.As shocking as it is, this story of home improvement fraud isn’t uncommon, PeopleFinders reports.Summertime Is Prime Time for Contractor FraudDuring winter, when most people are stuck at home, they start to notice projects around the house that need to be completed sooner rather than later. When the weather starts to improve, many homeowners begin calling contractors.With this increase in remodeling activity comes more chances for home improvement or home repair scams.Recent statistics show how devastating these schemes can be for ordinary homeowners:U.S. consumers reported 81,925 home improvement scams in 2024 (the most recent data).Nearly 1 in 10 Americans has experienced a home improvement scam.The median monetary loss for home improvement scams in 2024 was $1,800, according to the Better Business Bureau. Out of 27 scam categories, home improvement’s median loss was the fourth-costliest.6 Signs of Contractor ScamsThe first line of defense against home improvement scams is recognizing the signs of a dishonest contractor. Below are five signs you should watch out for this remodeling season.The contractor claims to have a limited-time deal for work that is heavily discounted due to having leftover materials from a previous job.They want you to compensate them in cash, prepaid debit cards, or other hard-to-trace payment methods.The contractor wants more than a third of the project’s overall payment up front.The remodeler insists that you finance the project through a “friend” of theirs or some other mysterious lender.The contractor or remodeler intentionally performs low-quality work, which then requires homeowners to pay more money to fix the issues.The contractor refuses to provide proof of a license and insurance.How to Verify a Contractor’s License and InsuranceVerifying a home contractor’s license and insurance coverage is perhaps the most important action you can take to prevent home improvement fraud.Except for small home improvement projects, contractors must hold current homebuilding licenses and certifications. Some states require a license for every home improvement project, regardless of cost.To confirm whether a contractor has a license, locate the database for your state’s general contractors. Alabama, for instance, offers an online roster search through the licensing board. Most states have these online resources, which let users search by license number or contractor name.The contractor should also supply you with a certificate of insurance (COI). The COI verifies coverage of general liability and, usually, workers’ compensation.Note that insurance coverage is not the same as a surety bond. Bonds, which can be general or project-specific, cover different kinds of losses. They’re more likely to compensate homeowners for home improvement fraud, although contractors who can obtain bonds in the first place are usually trustworthy.Other Ways to Protect Yourself from Home Improvement ScamsVerify Basic Identifying InformationBefore sending money, signing a contract, or sharing personal information, confirm that the contact details you received match official public records. A reverse phone or email lookup can help flag obvious inconsistencies.Call the Better Business Bureau and Other AgenciesMore often than not, trustworthy contractors are accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). It’s worth checking out the BBB’s database before signing a home improvement contract. The National Association of Home Builders is another good resource for finding honest workers.Ask About Past ProjectsTo ensure a contractor has experience doing the type of work you want done on your home, ask them about projects they’ve completed. Contractors with actual experience are typically forthcoming about their past work. Many of them can rattle off statistics about the number of jobs they’ve completed or the combined value of past projects.Get a Second (or Third, or Fourth) OpinionLegitimate contractors should have no issue with your getting multiple estimates on a home improvement project. If you find that a particular contractor’s quote is much lower than the competition’s or if they’re pushy for immediate payment, for instance, you may be dealing with a scammer.Don’t Pay for Everything UpfrontContractors who demand a bunch of money up front may be thinking of leaving town. The standard upfront fees for many contractors range from 10% to 30% of the total project cost. Smaller jobs or those that require custom materials may require a 50% deposit, though that is rare.Always ask for itemized contracts to help you determine whether the upfront fee is reasonable.Protect Your Most Valuable Asset this SummerIf you believe a home improvement scam has already happened to you, get in touch with your state attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission. A simple people finder can also save you a lot of headaches and financial trouble. However, people search tools are not consumer reporting agencies and should not be used to determine eligibility for employment, contractor work, housing, credit, insurance, or any other purpose covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.This story was produced by PeopleFinders and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Yellow means creepy: The color-coded anti-harassment system used by restaurant workers Yellow means creepy: The color-coded anti-harassment system used by restaurant workersWhen Chef Erin Wade learned that most of her staff had experienced sexual harassment at her restaurant Homeroom in Oakland, California, she was stunned. The inciting incident back in 2015 involved a father of four who reached under a server’s blouse in front of his children. “We’re a family restaurant, our specialty is mac and cheese!” Wade recalls with lingering disbelief.Yet the more she spoke with employees, the clearer it became that Homeroom was not a particular hotbed for harassers. The problem, in fact, was everywhere. “My staff said they’ve experienced harassment in every restaurant they worked at, but they never before dared to bring the issue to their management,” she told Reasons to Be Cheerful.The restaurant industry remains rife with harassment: Nearly 80 percent of female staff and 49 percent of male staff report having experienced sexual harassment at work from clients, chefs and co-workers, according to a 2014 study by Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United. Two-thirds of adults in the U.S. have worked in restaurants at some point in their lives, according to one survey, so the magnitude of the issue is enormous. And existing training programs, such as bystander training, have been shown to have short-term effects, but limited lasting impact without broader organizational changes.At Homeroom, Wade and a group of female staffers decided to create a three-step system, simple enough to function for the nearly 100 employees even during a chaotic dinner rush. Customer behavior was color-coded: yellow, orange or red. “Yellow refers to a creepy vibe or unsavory look,” Wade explains. “Orange means comments with sexual undertones, such as certain compliments on a worker’s appearance. Red signals explicit sexual comments, touching, or repeated incidents in the orange category after being told the comments were unwelcome.” Courtesy of Erin Wade When a staff member experiences harassment, they report the color — “I have a yellow at table three” — and management is required to respond immediately, no questions asked. With a yellow, the employee could choose to switch tables. Orange means the manager or another server immediately takes over the table. If red is reported, the manager ejects the customer from the restaurant.The surprising result: Since Homeroom implemented the system over ten years ago, the most egregious harassment has ceased to be a problem. Yellows and oranges still occur, but Wade has to reflect for a while before she remembers the last time a server saw red. She believes that the system is “so effective because it changes the power dynamics at a very basic level. It doesn’t require staff to question their feelings and cuts off bad behavior before it can even start. Maybe a customer is checking out a server and thinking about making a move, and then a totally different person takes over and they never see the first server again.”She has since expanded the three-step system for use with racist incidents or even when clients are just plain rude. “If someone wears a really offensive t-shirt, like a white guy wearing a shirt with the N-word, he shouldn’t eat here,” Wade says. “I’d rather lose a customer.”Most importantly, since Wade first wrote publicly about the system in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed, the anti-harassment recipe has spread far beyond the now three Bay Area Homeroom restaurants. The government agency tasked with enforcing harassment legislation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, adopted the method as a national best practice after consulting with Wade. “I walk into places all the time and discover they’re using it,” Wade says. “I was at [the cocktail bar] True Laurel in San Francisco recently and saw our poster hanging on the wall.”The model has spread beyond California, often through former Homeroom employees who opened their own establishments elsewhere –– for instance, at Good Times Bagels in Boise, Idaho, founded by a former Homeroom manager. Since selling her majority stake in Homeroom in 2020, Wade has been investing in other restaurants and coaching other restaurant founders across the U.S. and in countries as far away as Copenhagen. “A lot of the hospitality leaders there already knew about the system or were using it in their restaurants and bars,” she says.What surprised Wade most was how organically the model spread. “It’s taken on a life of its own,” she says. One reason the system works, Wade believes, is precisely because customers often do not realize it is being used. “We never announced it,” she says. “To me, that’s part of the elegance of it.” If a server experiences discomfort, another staff member could simply take over the table without publicly confronting the customer unless the situation escalated to a red. “From a hospitality perspective, that’s actually better,” Wade explains. “Most of the time it just means a different person takes over your table. I didn’t see the benefit of announcing why.”Some restaurants display the policy publicly as both a point of pride and a deterrent. Wade understands that approach as well. “Some want guests to know: we’re aware of these issues, so don’t try something.” But at Homeroom, discretion has remained central, except for when a customer is asked to leave, at which point he is told the reason (and in Wade’s experience, it was always a he). Remarkably, the original framework is virtually unchanged. “Like many systems that work, it’s effective the way it’s written,” Wade says.Recently, a fellow restaurateur suggested customers committing a “red” offense should receive a warning before being thrown out. Wade refused to dilute the policy. She said her friend could interpret it as she liked, but, “I said, if you want me to train your staff, it has to be the system as written,” she recalls. “I don’t think people should get warnings for behavior that’s clearly across the line.” The clarity, she argues, is precisely what makes employees feel safe.Wade, a lawyer by training and a feminist at heart, is not your typical restaurant owner. She has a degree from Princeton and worked in the restaurant industry before studying law, but found the experience in the kitchen so stressful and degrading that she didn’t see a future there. But after long days in her law office, when she craved mac and cheese, she couldn’t find a cozy restaurant open late at night to order her comfort food from. And so she founded Homeroom in 2011, with the slogan: “Homeroom is the best part of your day.”“That’s my mission, for my clients as well as for my staff,” Wade says. “Therefore, we have a zero-tolerance policy.”But she also realized that diversity was essential to the solution. When she started Homeroom, all shift managers on the floor were men. “That was part of the problem. You should never have any layer of management just composed of one group, whether female or male,” Wade argues. “Men and women often think differently about what they find inappropriate or threatening.” She now takes pride in the fact that she diversified every layer of management. “[A] restaurant is about so much more than food, it’s about community building and also creating social change through different means.”For her, the deeper lesson is not simply demographic diversity but organizational trust. “This system only works if you already have a culture of communication and transparency,” Wade says. She implemented an open-book policy for the company, sharing financial information with employees and inviting staff to management meetings. “If you already have a lot of ways for staff to communicate with leadership, then saying, ‘I’ve got an orange at table five’ doesn’t feel scary,” Wade explains. “It’s not the first difficult conversation you’ve ever had.”For instance, she invited employees to fill out feedback forms after every shift describing what had gone well, what had gone wrong and what could be improved. “We made hundreds of incremental improvements that way,” Wade says. “Not just around culture — around efficiency, staffing, workflow. It made the business stronger.”The approach requires significant investment of time and labor. But Wade argues the payoff extends far beyond employee morale. She says it increased productivity and retention, too, noting that employees stay an average of two-and-a-half years, compared to the industry average of fewer than 90 days, and that Homeroom’s financial metrics put it in the top one percent of restaurants in terms of revenue per square foot. “I think people stayed because they felt protected and connected,” she says. “This is just good business. Any customer-service business could use it.”This story was produced by Reasons to be Cheerful and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Davenport man sentenced to federal prison for possessing firearm as felon A Davenport man was sentenced on August 12 to 115 months (just over 9 ½ years) in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a felon. According to public court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, Deveil Oliver Jean Westerfield, 28, possessed several firearms, including a rifle with an extended magazine. Officers responded to a [...]
	Milan mayor urges RI Co. board to refuse permit for battery storage facility Milan Mayor Bruce Stickell is urging Rock Island County leaders to reject a proposed 200-megawatt battery storage plant over fire safety concerns.
	Curfews, drones, and criminal charges: Cities differ on approaches to ‘teen takeovers’ Curfews, drones, and criminal charges: Cities differ on approaches to ‘teen takeovers’In Raleigh, North Carolina, local officials are weighing an emergency youth curfew. In St. Augustine Beach, Florida, police say real-time social media monitoring helped them stop a planned youth gathering before it began. And in Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has threatened to criminally charge parents whose children repeatedly participate in disorderly crowds.Communities across the country are trying to figure out how to respond to what have been dubbed “teen takeovers,” The Marshall Project reports. A somewhat imprecise term, it has generally been used (often by organizers themselves) to describe large groups of teenagers and young adults who follow social media cues to gather quickly in public spaces like commercial districts, malls, parks or beaches.Crowds at reported events have ranged from a few dozen to several thousand people. While they are generally promoted as social gatherings, some have devolved into disorder, fights, robberies, property damage and, less frequently, shootings. Private security guards, local businesses, and police have all described feeling overwhelmed by some of these gatherings.Explanations for their apparent popularity vary. Some researchers have pointed out that the young people participating are the same ones who had their most formative social years interrupted by the pandemic. “They just want to be out in public, outside, socializing — not online," Lily Robin, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute, told The Washington Post. Others point to the dwindling supply and rising costs of so-called “third spaces,” areas other than home and school, where young people used to congregate, like bowling alleys and skating rinks.There are also competing theories about why these events have sometimes led to destruction and disorder. Some argue that social media incentivizes a kind of “performance crime,” pushing the boundaries of the risky behaviors teenagers are willing to engage in. Others point to the psychological phenomenon of deindividuation, where people in group settings feel a sense of anonymity and “morph into this big giant identity where I can do anything and nobody can identify me,” adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Khalid Afzal told the Chicago Tribune.Race and class also loom heavily over the media and civic response to “teen takeovers,” many of which have involved Black and Latino youth. “Because it’s Black youth gathering, because it’s Brown youth gathering, we see it as being a threat,” sociologist Almethia Franklin told The Washington Post.Georgetown law professor Kristin Henning told NPR that these takeovers often feature young people from underresourced parts of town “taking over, if you will, or visiting” nearby public areas that have been gentrified or commercialized, where they may feel unwelcome. “That contrast can give takeovers the appearance of a spontaneous revolt, one that illuminates the extreme economic disparities of our era,” wrote Robert F. Worth for The Atlantic.More conservative critics argue that the gatherings reflect failures of parental supervision and personal responsibility, compounded by juvenile justice reforms they say have weakened consequences.Across these competing explanations, one point of broad agreement is that social media has transformed the scale and speed of these youth gatherings. Anonymous organizers can reach hundreds of thousands of people with a single post, and withhold the planned location to stay ahead of authorities, dropping a GPS “pin” at the last moment.Many cities are turning to familiar tools to attempt to rein in the gatherings. In Newport Beach, California, police made over 400 arrests of 15-to-25-year-olds over the July 4th weekend after reports of young people blocking roadways and directing fireworks and projectiles at crowds. Authorities cited “teen takeovers” as factors in mass arrest incidents at Memorial Day gatherings in Tampa, Florida; Hampton Beach, New Hampshire; and Chicago this spring. Some of the arrests in all three incidents involved deadly weapons and violent crimes, but most were for more minor offenses.In Naperville, Illinois, police Chief Jason Arres was blunt about his approach in June: “If you break the law, there will be no warnings; there will be no second chances.”Juvenile curfews have also been a popular approach, and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, were considering such efforts in mid-July. In Washington, D.C., a curfew took effect earlier in July. It bans youth under 18 from being out between midnight and 6 a.m., and allows the police chief to establish “target zones” where the curfew could begin as early as 8 p.m., for groups of nine or more young people.Research has generally shown that youth curfews are ineffective in curbing violent crime, and they can lead to unnecessary interactions between police and young people who are not otherwise committing any crimes.Another approach that has gained some traction is threatening charges against parents over their child’s involvement in disorderly behavior, which has been floated in Washington, D.C., as well as Raleigh and Chicago, where a proposed ordinance was ultimately rejected in June.An analysis by R Street, a think tank that promotes free-market and conservative policies, noted that these kinds of prosecution schemes are rarely used in practice, and that “child welfare advocates contend that destabilizing families who are already struggling ultimately aggravates delinquency rather than preventing it.”Other agencies are trying technology-based approaches. On Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, police are using drones with thermal imaging to monitor beach crowds and intervene before they grow. In St. Augustine Beach, Florida, authorities monitoring social media with the county’s Real Time Intelligence Center said they spotted the flier for a planned “takeover” and circulated on their own channels that the event was “cancelled,” before tracking down the person who posted it and issuing a cease and desist order. The department also deployed extra officers to the advertised location ahead of the scheduled time.Bronx, New York District Attorney Darcel Clark sent a letter to major social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube this spring, requesting that they "take proactive measures to prevent the spread of content that encourages riots and other unsafe mass gatherings." Clark later said a meeting with some top platform executives was “insightful and productive,” but it’s unclear whether any platforms have made concrete efforts to limit gatherings.Many jurisdictions are also trying to prevent the gatherings with alternative programming alongside, or instead of, law enforcement responses. Tampa has paired enforcement with midnight basketball and other summer programs. City leaders in Detroit funded a teen “kickback” with food trucks and entertainment, but reported poor attendance. In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed for free passes for teens to YMCA facilities across the city, and organizers of a “peace takeover” featuring Chance the Rapper drew impressive crowds in June.“Kids are just trying to find community within themselves, trying to coexist with each other,” Da’Mon Dantzler, 20, told Block Club Chicago of the event. “It’s peaceful and organized instead of being reckless.”This story was produced by The Marshall Project and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Where job scams happen most: 2026 study Where job scams happen most: 2026 studyFor job seekers, the search for a new role now comes with an added source of stress: determining whether an opportunity is real or an attempt to exploit their need for work. Employment scams rank among the most common types of consumer fraud, and they’re on the rise, according to the Better Business Bureau. Scammers use career boards, social media and generative AI to impersonate recruiters and promote fake openings that may appear legitimate. These scams frequently promise flexible hours and unusually high pay to lure victims into providing personal information, making up-front payments or granting access to financial accounts.SmartAsset analyzed the two most recent years of Federal Trade Commission data categorized as job scams to identify where reports increased the most. The study also measured how common these reports were in each state.Key FindingsThe frequency of reported job scams increased in every state. South Dakota saw the largest year-over-year increase, with reports rising by nearly 85%.Job scammers may target people facing a difficult labor market. Nevada had the highest annual unemployment rate in 2025. It also had the highest rate of reported job scams that year, at approximately 502 reports per 1 million residents.Low unemployment may have a modest correlation with fewer reported job scams. The six states with the fewest reported employment scams per 1 million residents all had unemployment rates well below the national average.Young adults report job scams more often than other types of fraud. While many scams target senior citizens, job scams are the most commonly reported fraud category among 18- to 34-year-olds.Expert Insight“Job seekers should always be cautious,” said Gilbert Michaud, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental policy at the School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago. “Common warning signs are poorly written advertisements, recruiters who avoid video conversations, being asked to pay fees or share sensitive information, or offers that come fast and with high salaries. These types of scams have become more prevalent with hybrid and remote work.”Michaud studies clean energy workforce development at Loyola and is a faculty affiliate at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. SmartAsset spoke with this expert to add outside perspective; he did not participate in the study’s analysis, methodology or findings. SmartAsset SmartAsset States With the Biggest Increases in Job Scams1. South DakotaReports of job scams per million residents: 215.7Reports in 2025: 194Reports in 2024: 105Year-over-year increase: 84.8%2. MaineReports of job scams per million residents: 257Reports in 2025: 354Reports in 2024: 207Year-over-year increase: 71.0%3. AlaskaReports of job scams per million residents: 263Reports in 2025: 193Reports in 2024: 117Year-over-year increase: 65.0%4. North DakotaReports of job scams per million residents: 197.6Reports in 2025: 154Reports in 2024: 99Year-over-year increase: 55.6%5. New HampshireReports of job scams per million residents: 278.9Reports in 2025: 387Reports in 2024: 253Year-over-year increase: 53.0%6. AlabamaReports of job scams per million residents: 299Reports in 2025: 1,511Reports in 2024: 1,042Year-over-year increase: 45.0%7. New MexicoReports of job scams per million residents: 279.9Reports in 2025: 592Reports in 2024: 411Year-over-year increase: 44.0%8. OklahomaReports of job scams per million residents: 277.8Reports in 2025: 1,110Reports in 2024: 778Year-over-year increase: 42.7%9. KentuckyReports of job scams per million residents: 262.3Reports in 2025: 1,183Reports in 2024: 835Year-over-year increase: 41.7%10. ArkansasReports of job scams per million residents: 276Reports in 2025: 837Reports in 2024: 592Year-over-year increase: 41.4%MethodologyThis analysis examined fraud reports submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2024 and 2025, the most recent years available. Reports categorized as “Job Scams and Employment Agencies” by the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network were aggregated by state and used for the analysis. States were ranked by reports per 1 million residents in 2025 and by the percentage increase in reports from 2024 to 2025. Because FTC data reflects reported incidents rather than all fraud, actual fraud levels may be higher, and differences in reporting behavior may affect comparisons. Source data providers are not affiliated with, and do not endorse or sponsor, this study or its findings.This story was produced by SmartAsset and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Stephen King responds to his books being banned in Utah public schools Stephen King responds to his books being banned in Utah public schoolsIn early July, bestselling horror author Stephen King had his second title, “Different Seasons,” added to an ever-growing list of books banned in all Utah public schools.And while King said he doesn’t usually “respond to queries about book banning,” he believes “this case is a little different.”In a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, King wrote:“The thing is this: I get letters from teenagers all the time that say things like, ‘I wasn’t a reader until I picked this book up.’ It’s true of ‘The Stand’ and ‘Pet Sematary,’ but even more true of ‘Different Seasons.’”“Different Seasons” is a collection of four short novellas tied together through various seasons. Three of the four — “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” “Apt Pupil” and “The Body” —inspired film adaptations.“Most of them have seen ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ and teens like a story about an innocent man escaping jail. ‘The Body,’ made into the movie ‘Stand By Me,’ is even more relatable to teens,” King wrote. “All I’m saying is that if the book is in high school libraries, some bored teenager might pick it up and find out how good stories can be.”Under a 2024 Utah law, if three school districts, or two districts and five charters, remove the same book for containing “objective sensitive material,” all public schools in the state must remove the book.This law doesn’t apply to private schools or businesses.“First and foremost, the book wasn’t banned. I assume it’s still in bookstores and many public libraries, because free expression is part of the American ethic,” King wrote.Some local independent bookstores are giving out free copies of books on Utah’s banned list.“I hope this will be instrumental in the various Utah school boards changing their minds about ‘Different Seasons,’” King wrote in his statement.King is the most banned author in U.S. schools, according to a report from PEN America, with 87 of his works being censored 206 times during the last school year.Another of King’s books, “Bag of Bones,” was the 23rd book banned in Utah public schools. On the Utah list, his work is accompanied by titles from Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, John Green, Toni Morrison and Ellen Hopkins, among others.On the social media platform X, following the ban of “Different Seasons,” King wrote: “What’s wrong with these people?”At the end of his written statement shared with The Tribune, King said, “Ordinarily I say ‘Go to a library or bookstore and find out what the suits don’t want you to read,’ but this case is a little different.”This story was produced by The Salt Lake Tribune and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	The hidden dangers of buy now, pay later The hidden dangers of buy now, pay laterYou may have seen jokes about splitting a burrito into four payments. The punchline may sound harmless, but the trend signals a serious shift in consumer borrowing. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) products have become a routine checkout option for clothing, electronics, groceries, food delivery, and other everyday purchases.BNPL can be useful when payments are planned and affordable. But it is still credit. When several small payment plans overlap, a convenient checkout feature can turn into a difficult-to-track web of due dates, fees, overdrafts, and financial stress.Below, CreditNinja explores the proliferation of BNPL, potential pitfalls for consumers and providers, and ways to protect overall financial health for BNPL users and prospective users.The Buy Now, Pay Later ExplosionInstallment credit is not new, but digital BNPL products have made borrowing faster and more deeply integrated into online shopping. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 household survey, 16% of U.S. adults said they had used BNPL during the prior 12 months, up from 10% when the survey first asked about it in 2021. CreditNinja The products are no longer limited to expensive purchases. Consumers may encounter pay-over-time options for restaurant delivery, groceries, apparel, electronics, furniture, appliances, and relatively inexpensive household products. These repeated small loans can be harder to notice in a budget than one large balance.Retailers have a strong incentive to offer BNPL. Affirm has promoted merchant case studies and platform data showing that pay-over-time options can lift conversion, average order value, and revenue. One published Affirm example reported up to a 14% revenue lift, while another cited a 21% conversion increase for purchases above $250. Those are merchant-performance claims, not guarantees for every retailer, but they help explain why BNPL buttons appear so often at checkout.Who's Using Buy Now, Pay Later?BNPL use is especially common among younger and lower-income consumers. Federal Reserve data show higher usage among adults under 60 and among households earning less than $100,000.It also showed that 23% of adults with family income between $25,000 and $49,999 reported using BNPL, compared with 12% of adults earning $100,000 or more.The same data show that financial necessity is a major reason people use these products. Fifty-nine percent of BNPL users said the service was the only way they could afford the purchase, while 87% said they wanted to spread out payments.Common BNPL purchase categories include:Clothing, shoes, and accessoriesElectronics and technologyFurniture and home goodsAppliancesGroceries and other household essentialsA 2026 LendingTree survey found that 29% of BNPL users had used the loans for groceries, up from 14% two years earlier. Clothing and technology remained more common categories, but the growth in grocery financing suggests that BNPL is increasingly being used to manage basic expenses, not just discretionary shopping.The Reality Behind the ConvenienceIt is easy to frame BNPL as a problem caused only by impulsive shopping. The evidence is more complicated. Many users are trying to smooth irregular cash flow or cover purchases they otherwise could not afford. That does not make the debt safer; it means the underlying financial pressure may already be severe.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that more than three-fifths of BNPL borrowers in its matched 2022 data held multiple simultaneous BNPL loans at some point during the year. One-third borrowed from multiple providers. BNPL borrowers were also more likely to carry higher balances on other unsecured credit accounts.When loans are spread among several apps, no single account screen necessarily shows the borrower's full obligation. A $15 installment here and a $30 installment there can feel manageable until several payments hit the same checking account within a few days.The Debt Trap Begins to CloseRepayment problems are significant, although estimates vary depending on the survey and the population studied. The Federal Reserve's nationally representative 2025 household survey found that 26% of BNPL users had paid late during the prior year. Among users with income below $25,000, the late-payment rate was 40%.A separate 2026 LendingTree survey reported a higher figure: 47% of BNPL users said they had paid late in the past year. LendingTree also found that 68% believed BNPL caused them to overspend, and 54% had regretted a BNPL purchase. Because the studies use different samples and methods, the figures should not be treated as directly interchangeable. Together, however, they show that missed payments and financial strain are not rare.Late payments may create more than one cost. In the Federal Reserve survey, 64% of users who paid late said they were charged extra. Eleven percent of all BNPL users reported that a BNPL payment triggered an overdraft or nonsufficient funds fee from their bank.The True Cost of “Zero Interest”Many pay-in-four plans charge no interest when payments are made on schedule. Other BNPL products are longer-term installment loans that may carry annual percentage rates over 30%, depending on the provider, borrower, purchase, and state law. Consumers should read the specific loan disclosure instead of assuming every BNPL option is free.Even an interest-free plan can become expensive when a missed payment causes a late fee or when an automatic withdrawal triggers a bank fee. Some providers cap or restrict late fees, and policies can change, so examples should always be checked against the current terms shown at checkout. CreditNinja The main risk is not one isolated fee. It is the cumulative effect of multiple obligations competing for the same paycheck. A consumer may be current on each account today but still be vulnerable if work hours are reduced, an emergency occurs, or several automatic payments arrive together.Could BNPL Affect Your Credit?Credit-reporting practices are evolving. The CFPB has noted that BNPL loans historically were not reported to nationwide consumer reporting companies in sufficient volume for outside observers to measure the market fully. Some providers and credit bureaus have since introduced reporting arrangements for certain products, but treatment can vary.A missed payment may still harm a consumer even when the original loan is not routinely reported. An account that is charged off or sent to collections can potentially appear on a credit report, and an overdraft can create separate banking problems. Consumers should check the provider's current reporting and collections policies before borrowing.Even the Companies Face Credit RiskBNPL providers also absorb losses when customers do not repay. Klarna reported a $99 million net loss for the first quarter of 2025, compared with a $47 million loss a year earlier. Customer credit losses rose 17% year over year to $136 million. It would be inaccurate to say that defaults alone caused the entire net loss, because company earnings also reflect operating expenses, funding costs, restructuring, and other factors. Still, the increase in credit losses demonstrates that repayment risk is meaningful for the providers and consumers.The Broader Economic ImplicationsBNPL debt is difficult to measure because much of it has historically remained outside traditional credit reports. That creates a visibility problem for borrowers, lenders, regulators, and economists. A consumer may appear to have a manageable credit profile while owing several short-term installments that are scheduled to be drawn from a bank account.It would be too strong to claim that BNPL defaults alone are likely to cause a recession. The better-supported concern is that rapid growth, loan stacking, and limited reporting can obscure household financial stress. If many consumers must divert future income to earlier purchases, they have less room for emergencies and new spending.Regulation Is Catching UpGovernments are bringing BNPL closer to the regulatory frameworks used for other forms of consumer credit.In Australia, BNPL contracts became subject to the National Credit Code on June 10, 2025. Providers engaging in covered credit activities generally must hold an Australian credit license, and the reforms introduced responsible-lending obligations for the sector.In the United Kingdom, Financial Conduct Authority regulation of qualifying deferred-payment credit began on July 15, 2026. The new protections include clearer precontract information, proportionate affordability checks, support for customers in financial difficulty, and access to the Financial Ombudsman Service.In the United States, oversight remains more fragmented and continues to evolve. Consumers should not assume that every pay-in-four transaction carries the same protections as a conventional credit card, particularly for disputes, refunds, disclosures, and credit reporting.Can You Still Use Buy Now, Pay Later Safely?BNPL can be manageable when the purchase is planned, the repayment money is already available, and the user tracks every due date. The safest approach is to treat it as a real loan rather than a harmless checkout feature.Do:Treat every BNPL plan as debt with real consequences.Confirm that the full purchase fits your current budget.Review the APR, fee, autopay, refund, and credit reporting terms.Keep a written list of every active plan and due date.Leave enough money in the linked account to avoid bank fees.Limit the number of simultaneous plans.Don't:Assume every BNPL product is interest-free.Use several providers without tracking the total combined payment.Rely on future income that is uncertain.Ignore payments while a return or refund is being processed.Let a small installment amount disguise the full purchase price.If You're Already in TroubleIf BNPL payments are becoming difficult to manage, acting early can reduce the damage:List every balance. Record the provider, remaining balance, next payment, linked account, fees, and APR.Protect essentials. Make sure housing, utilities, food, transportation, insurance, and other necessities are covered first.Stop opening new plans. Adding another installment loan may temporarily free cash, but it usually increases future pressure.Contact the provider. Ask about due-date changes, hardship options, fee waivers, or a modified payment arrangement before the account defaults.Watch automatic withdrawals. Avoid accidental overdrafts, but understand that canceling autopay does not cancel the debt.Consider nonprofit credit counseling. A reputable counselor can help review the full budget and prioritize debts.The Bottom LineBuy now, pay later services are not free money. They are credit products designed to make a purchase feel smaller by separating the overall price from the immediate payment. For disciplined users, that structure may be convenient. For consumers already living on the edge, it can conceal how much future income has already been committed.The rise of BNPL for groceries and other necessities is a sign that many households are using short-term debt to bridge ordinary expenses. The most important question at checkout is not whether the first installment is affordable. It is whether the entire purchase, together with every other obligation, fits safely within the budget.Before selecting a BNPL option, pause and calculate the total amount owed, the dates the money will leave your account, and the consequences if your income changes. Your future financial health depends less on how small the payment looks today and more on whether tomorrow's payments are truly affordable.This story was produced by CreditNinja and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Tyson plant closure leaves 2,700 workers without jobs with no warning Tyson Foods is permanently closing its Joslin, Illinois beef plant, leaving more than 2,700 workers without jobs. The facility is expected to shut down by Monday.
	How climate anxiety is fueling ‘90s nostalgia How climate anxiety is fueling ‘90s nostalgiaVinyl record and CD sales are through the roof, telecom companies are recreating dumbphones, and lo-fi digital and disposable cameras are making a comeback, along with Pokémon, Furbys, and Bratz—the latter thanks to Kylie Jenner’s new line a couple of years ago.As many are finding joy and entertainment in the rebooted toys of their childhood, the climate crisis rages on. That’s no coincidence. In 2022, The Atlantic proclaimed nostalgia as the dominant emotion in the era of climate change, and just a couple of years earlier, The New York Times assured readers that nostalgia is a natural response to polycrisis.“We are in need of comfort and ways to engage in self-care because we know that the cards are stacked up against us right now,” says Britt Wray, author of the climate-mental health newsletter Gen Dread and director of the CIRCLE initiative at Stanford Psychiatry, which stands for Community-minded Interventions for Resilience, Climate Leadership and Emotional Wellbeing. “Nostalgia, as an increasingly popular phenomenon amongst youth, makes sense once you start thinking about the chronic insecurity many people are feeling in this age of climate crisis, political turmoil and polarization, increasing inequality, an affordability crisis and so on. It’s a very human reaction to want to crawl under the covers and ignore it all.”Enter nostalgiacore, a trend that’s taken the internet by storm by tapping into the emotional allure of the past, characterized by the revival of clothing styles, toys, and tech from the 1990s and early 2000s. But some experts say nostalgiacore is much more than just an aesthetic: It’s a cultural coping mechanism for climate anxiety and doomism. After all, nostalgia is comforting; it soothes by evoking memories of supposedly simpler, more stable times—an advantage that’s been leveraged by politicians, who have turned nostalgic language into a cornerstone of populist political rhetoric.But can harking back to a time of mindless overconsumption offer meaningful ways of coping in an age defined by climate collapse? The answer is not so straightforward. As Professor Lawrence Quill, author of “Nostalgia and Political Theory,” cautions: “Thinking carefully about nostalgia shows us just how easily we can be tripped up by views or ideas about the past that aren’t really terribly accurate.”The Rise of NostalgiacoreGeneration Z is the most climate-anxious demographic. It’s also very nostalgic.Eighty-five percent of Gen Z-ers say they are feeling worried about the impacts of the climate crisis, according to a 2023 survey by Cint, while another survey from GWI conducted the same year found that 15% say they would rather think about the past than the future. Gen Z, alongside Millennials, are also by far the biggest consumers of nostalgiacore, which is driven in large part by social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram; #nostalgia has more than 20 million posts on TikTok, many harking back to gadgets and games from the 1990s and 2000s, and #Y2kAesthetic and #Y2kFashion have accumulated over 500 million views. There are also dedicated accounts like 90s.talgic and nostalg1ac0re on Instagram with hundreds of thousands of followers.It’s no surprise that people who feel overwhelmed by climate anxiety may turn to objects evoking stability, longevity, and familiarity. “Interacting with nostalgic items offers comforting, tactile sensory experiences where things appear to be not so complicated—and that provides associated feelings of safety and belonging,” Wray says. “Whether people are doing it consciously or unconsciously, [nostalgiacore] is partly a form of yearning for temporary relief from the affective experience of living in dangerous and complicated times where we are struggling with things like the climate crisis.”There is some historical evidence to back this up: The rise of collective nostalgia has time and again emerged during periods of social upheaval. Historians note that in the years after the French Revolution, for example, people reported feeling a collective longing for the “good old days” of the pre-revolutionary Ancien Régime. More recently, streaming companies during the COVID-19 pandemic reported a spike in classic sitcoms like “Friends” and “The Office” as people took refuge in familiar TV shows to help cope with global uncertainty.Quill describes nostalgia during disorienting times as a “lifeline”—a way for people to anchor themselves during collective distress. But when nostalgia is on the rise, he says, it’s also important to ask: “What is it about the modern world that is so deeply unsatisfying or alarming that many young people look for solace in their past or the past of others—or displaced nostalgia? It is clearly a yearning for a better time, especially when faith in the future has been shaken.”Buying and Selling an EmotionThat faith in the future has been shaken is no understatement. In the past year alone, the world failed to meet critical climate targets, endured wildfires that devastated ecosystems across continents, and grappled with escalating geopolitical tensions that deepened global inequality.Nostalgia is hardly a new emotional response to crisis, but the pace and scale of its commodification today are unprecedented. Nostalgia has very quickly become a marketable product—and brands have jumped on the bandwagon. From Y2K-inspired fast fashion to old toy reboots to retro-inspired gadgets, products that evoke times past have become a hot commodity.Social media plays a pivotal role in amplifying and monetizing nostalgia by turning personal memories into marketable moments. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok thrive on curated nostalgia that’s also a fertile ground for targeted advertising. “Facebook introduced its timeline a little while ago along with Throwback Thursdays,” says Quill. “What is being consumed here, of course, are images, not products. But, what is being gathered during the nostalgic process is user data, which is then shared with advertisers. So, commodities will be sold to users as a kind of nostalgic totem.”It’s a serious issue that raises questions about the ethics of repackaging and selling our intimate emotions as commodities to maximize corporate profits. While nostalgiacore might seem like a harmless manifestation of our collective yearning, it paradoxically also risks perpetuating the very systems of environmental harm that have driven us to the brink in the first place.So, where do we go from here? Justin Lawson, a lecturer in health ecology and planetary health at Deakin University, says it’s key that we reclaim the future by critically evaluating and amending—rather than pining for—the past. To Lawson, the first step is practicing environmental kinship. “My view is that to be aware of [nature], we need to immerse ourselves in it,” he says. “But granted, not everyone can and not everyone has the capability or capacity to immerse themselves, so we need to find ways that can bring nature to those who aren’t able to access nature, or have certain trepidations about it.”The reality is that there’s a lot to learn about the power of movement-building by looking backward. “We [can use the rise of nostalgiacore as an opportunity] to return to those old values of reduce-reuse-recycle,” Lawson says. “Remember, the 3Rs [reduce, reuse, and recycle] was first promoted back in the 1970s, which gained traction in the 1980s and ’90s so it’s only fitting that we look to those eras for inspiration and develop the themes further to make a better impact and carry the flame.”While Lawson urges an analytical reflection on history, Wray frames nostalgia used this way as a form of self-soothing, but stresses the importance of pairing it with tangible action. That’s the only way, she says, of effectively working with the anxiety and discomfort nostalgiacore is trying to alleviate.“I don’t want to write it off as being only some kind of retreat from reality or escapism because there’s certainly a place and a time for this kind of comfort-seeking,” Wray says. “It’s just that we cannot hang out under the covers forever. We need to find ways of breeding up more hardcore existential resilience so that we can actually engage in transformative actions with others to build a better world rather than just hide away from the scary system in which we’re living.”This story was produced by Atmos and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Play is essential for young children, including when it comes to their learning Play is essential for young children, including when it comes to their learningPrioritizing play offers a variety of benefits for children, from helping them grow their vocabulary to managing their big feelings with fewer behavioral problems.Play also benefits children’s cognitive and social and emotional development.But play isn’t always a focus in classrooms, even when it comes to very young children.Kelley Mayer White, professor of early childhood development at the College of Charleston, examined how play in educational settings can benefit children for The Conversation.White and her colleagues conducted a study in 2019 and 2020 to understand how children from their own play-based lab preschool in Charleston, South Carolina, transitioned to formal schooling for kindergarten or first grade.Some families at the school, which serves kids ages 2 through 6, choose to keep their child enrolled there for kindergarten. Others leave to have their children complete kindergarten in a more traditional school setting.The researchers found that attending a play-based early childhood program helped children develop emotional regulation, social awareness and problem-solving skills later on in elementary school.Preparing children for school and lifeResearch conducted in 2015 found that children who attended a play-based preschool program scored higher on measures of vocabulary and use of grammar, compared to peers who attended a more traditional preschool program.Another group of researchers conducted in-depth interviews in 2021 with the parents and kindergarten teachers of four children who had attended a play-based preschool. The three kindergarten teachers described the children as self-directed and eager to learn. One teacher spoke of the children’s open-mindedness. The children were also described as adept at navigating social situations, compassionate and empathetic.For the College of Charleston research, which was published in 2023, researchers surveyed 17 parents of children who had completed the play-based preschool program within the past few years. Additionally, five parents and two alumni from the school who had reached college age were interviewed. Although the sample size was small, the findings supported a play-based approach to preschool and kindergarten.Parents said the play-based program had a significant impact on their children’s empathy and social development. They noted that their children were likely to take the lead in social interactions and frequently stood up for the underdog. Other parents said that the program fostered their children’s imaginative thinking and creativity.Several parents credited their children’s advanced social skills to the extended time allotted for play. They described their children as being more creative, independent and resourceful than classmates.Why play mattersWhile there is no single, agreed-upon definition of play, many agree that it is any activity that is intrinsically motivated, freely chosen and enjoyable. It is also flexible, creative and is not always linear or straightforward.In part because play is challenging to define, it is also difficult to research or measure, especially in school settings.Some play is unstructured and often referred to as free play. Think of a child alone in their backyard making a fort out of twigs and branches, or a group of children playing school.Other play may be facilitated or guided by an adult. This could look like a child building a Lego structure while following step-by-step instructions, or a child playing school alongside his dad, who pretends to be a student.Play-based learning involves a more structured activity or game with a particular outcome or goal. For example, a child could be playing with buttons and then be asked to sort them by size, shape or color.There are also different types of play, including dramatic, or pretend, play.Dramatic play can improve children’s emotion regulation, fuels their language development, and can help children work through anxiety, aggression and fear.In her own experience teaching kindergarten, White was fascinated to observe children process traumatic experiences, such as 9/11, through reenacting events at the sand table.Dramatic play also facilitates children’s understanding of narrative, as children create stories that place them in different roles, such as parent, teacher or doctor. Understanding narratives is key to becoming a fluent reader in the later grades.Research has found that dramatic play can improve children’s social and emotional skills and help them process or understand the world around them, as they take on the role of veterinarian or first responder.Constructive play, meanwhile, generally describes children building or creating things, such as blocks or art.Block play can support children’s cognitive development and mathematical understanding. As children plan, test and revise their block structures, they learn critical thinking and develop an understanding of spatial relationships.Longitudinal research shows that playing with blocks during the early childhood years predicts higher achievement in math in middle school and high school.Parents of young children may understand play is important but have a harder time hanging on to that notion as their children age. However, play-based learning remains beneficial beyond the elementary school years.Even middle and high schoolers gain important skills through play.Sixth graders taught to solve problems through playing bank and supermarket performed better on later assessments of their math knowledge.High school students given the opportunity to learn about kinetic energy and velocity by building a roller coaster described increased motivation and found it led to deeper understanding of the material.Supporting playResearch shows that adults can be helpful during play when children experience conflict. Coaching from an adult can keep the play going after a disagreement and help children learn to compromise.Adults can also help children come up with more complex characters and directions for play.Guided play, meaning an adult asking open-ended questions to help fuel a child’s play, for example, has even been found to be more beneficial for children’s math understanding than direct instruction.When children are given the freedom to navigate challenges during play, they build their executive functioning, problem-solving, creativity and social skills – all things that are essential for success in school and later in life.While children’s play is most powerful when it is child-directed, adults can serve an important role in children’s exploration by joining in occasionally to ask thoughtful questions, introducing new vocabulary or characters, sparking ideas, or helping children work through conflicts. But adults should try not to overthink it — it’s play, and it should be fun.This story was produced by The Conversation and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	U.S. missionary who was kidnapped in Niger is released Kevin Rideout "is in good health in the care of US officials," SIM International said in a statement, adding he would soon be reunited with his family.
	Western Illinois University Quad-City campus awarded workforce grant A total of $510,754 has been invested in the program, which will start next month and end in August 2029.
	Cook review: 'The Easy Kind' docu-drama is one of the best movies of the year Where on earth did this movie come from? In a year of sequels, horror and action, here's "The Easy Kind," an indie docu-drama about a talented musician who - through no fault of her own - can't seem to fit into the Nashville music scene. The movie is based - how loosely I don't know [...]
	Bourbons Bar & Grill now open seven days a week The business said it is thrilled to be able to hang out with customers every day of the week.
	Flash flooding likely across parts of the Quad Cities Several inches of rain fell overnight into Friday morning. Several more inches are likely this morning. Here's your full 7-day forecast.
	Some Davenport aldermen urge constraint until impacts of tax law understood Aldermen will discuss a motion that would instruct staff to remain within the fiscal year 2027 budget until property tax changes are assessed.
	How colleges can create flexible pathways for today’s students (BPT) - Key takeawaysModern academic pathways can be confusing and riddled with barriers.Learners desire an education. However, they're often hindered by affordability issues, confusion around applications and enrollment, and a disconnect with career relevance.Institutions that integrate AI platforms into their processes can boost student enrollment and educational outcomes.For decades, the college journey followed a similar script: graduate high school, enroll full-time, earn a degree in four years and begin a career. That well-worn path still works for some. However, for millions of students, the path through higher education is no longer linear, and institutions are being challenged to adapt.Today's learners are balancing jobs, caregiving responsibilities, rising costs and rapidly changing workforce demands. Some start college and pause. Others transfer schools, return later in life or pursue shorter-term credentials to build new skills. Students now expect education to fit into their lives — not the other way around.This shift in expectations is forcing colleges and universities to rethink how they support student success. Their focus is no longer on enrollment or graduation rates. It has evolved to prioritize helping learners navigate complex journeys with greater clarity, flexibility and confidence.The good news is that leading institutions are beginning to embrace new technologies, including AI-powered tools, to create more connected and personalized student experiences. When integrated into application, enrollment and academic planning processes, AI can help simplify complex systems, effectively guide students and provide support throughout the student journey. In short, it allows learners to focus more fully on achieving their educational and career goals.Obstacles that hinder academic achievementThe path to education presented by conventional institutional processes is filled with many hurdles linked to affordability, clarity and relevance.Affordability: Cost remains the leading barrier to pursuing higher education. According to the 2025 Student Voice Report from Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, 53% of high school students who do not plan to enroll cited cost as the top deterrent.Similarly, 56% of opt-outs (individuals who never attended college) said financial uncertainty was the top reason for not attending, and almost a quarter of stop-outs (students who started but didn't complete a degree) said they could not afford the up-front costs to return to school.While colleges can't always lower tuition costs, they can make it easier for students to understand expenses, compare aid options and avoid unexpected financial barriers.Clarity: Administrative tasks students must complete before and after admission can be confusing and unclear, discouraging students from enrolling or returning to college.In fact, Ellucian's report found that many high school students are unsure of how to begin the college application process. Instead of seeking information from universities, students are turning to social media for guidance or entering the workforce directly.Students considering returning to complete their education were discouraged by unclear academic pathways.According to Ellucian's report, only 22% of stop-outs understood their remaining credit requirements, and even fewer (15%) felt confident in the credit transfer process. Also, the majority of students interested in transferring credits expressed uncertainty about how their previously earned credits would be recognized.That said, many former students are interested in returning to their education. Of the students surveyed, 60% of stop-outs said they would return to college with a clear path to completion.Relevance: Higher education's benefits and its connection to future careers aren't always apparent. When surveyed, many individuals opted out because they believed college was not essential for their career goals. Many also didn't believe the cost and time investment outweighed the benefits of obtaining a college degree/certificate.Nondegree options that offer upskilling and reskilling opportunities could be a draw for learners seeking a clearer connection to workforce-relevant pathways — if they were aware of them.The survey report revealed that more than a quarter of enrolled students had never heard of these alternative offerings. Even among those who had heard of nondegree programs, many couldn't articulate their purpose or value. However, when informed, many graduates, current college students and opt-outs saw the value in nondegree programs.How can institutions re-engage learners?So, the question becomes: How can institutions re-engage learners? It begins with unifying academic, financial and operational processes to simplify the student experience from the first application through graduation day, using an AI-powered system such as Ellucian Student.When integrated into an institution's application, enrollment and academic planning processes, AI becomes an ongoing resource for students throughout their educational journey.AI platforms can automate the educational planning process, helping students better understand which classes meet their degree or certificate requirements and enroll in them each semester. And, as they learn, the platform can provide a transparent map of their educational path, leading to better outcomes.By offering easy-to-understand financial aid offer letters, automated aid processes and optimized fund utilization, an integrated AI platform can help students better understand the total cost of their education, allowing them to plan how to afford higher education, ultimately reducing the top barrier to student enrollment and persistence.Students aren't the only ones who benefit from AI integration. Institutions can improve their efficiency by using AI to automate routine operations, freeing up more time for the human element. When faculty and staff spend less time on operational tasks, they can focus more on students to help learners get on track, stay on track and get ahead.Just as important, institutions need direct input from students to ensure the technologies and processes they implement truly meet learners' needs. By sharing their experiences and perspectives, students can help shape more accessible, transparent and effective educational journeys for future generations. Students interested in helping shape the future of higher education technology can join EnlightenED, Ellucian's student ambassador program. Participants gain opportunities to build career-ready skills, expand their professional networks, contribute their perspectives to conversations about higher education innovation and help influence solutions designed to improve the student experience.
	'The End of Oak Street' is a good time at the movies, plain and simple Writer-director David Robert Mitchell knows what he's doing: this movie is silly, scary, and over-the-top all at once.
	Hot and humid weather returns Saturday After highs Thursday and Friday in the upper-70s and low-80s, heat headlines may be needed Saturday as it turns hot and humid again. Severe weather is expected Friday and Saturday, especially in the overnight hours Friday into Saturday morning. Here's your full 7-day forecast.
	From Europe to Asia, floods to heatwaves, world experiences weather shocks At least eight people died in Japan as heavy rains flooded roads and disrupted traffic while firefighters from Britain to France and Croatia struggled to contain blazes in Europe's fifth heatwave this summer
	Keelboats This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The Greek strongman, Hercules, performed his twelve labors satisfactorily, but had the gods really wanted to test his…
	Fill in the blank on this week's quiz: Rep. AOC is documenting ____ on Instagram Plus, which beloved animal crossed the rainbow bridge, and what bit of papal paraphernalia did Chicago baseball fans get this week?
	ICE uses controversial program to boost deportations. Here's how it works in 1 county Details on how ICE cooperation agreements work in practice have been hard to come by. NPR took a close look at how sheriff's deputies in Walton County, Fla., approach immigration-related arrests.
	Davenport Police Department earns 8th national law enforcement accreditation The Davenport Police Department has maintained its law enforcement accreditation. According to a release, the department earned its eighth award for Advanced Law Enforcement Accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The Davenport Police Department has continuously maintained its accredited status since 2003, which also distinguishes it as a meritoriously accredited agency. [...]
	New aircraft carrier heads toward Mideast after reports of issues on long-deployed USS Lincoln The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.
	Judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit alleging antisemitism at Harvard University The decision from U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns said that President Donald Trump's administration failed to prove an ongoing violation of federal civil rights laws.
	Magnetic 'Goody King' toys recalled over risk of blood poisoning, death after ingestion Building cube sets sold on Amazon are being recalled after at least two children had to undergo surgery after ingesting the magnets inside them, per the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
	Judge drops Nevada case against electors accused of forging certificate in 2020 election The dismissal marks the latest setback in swing states' efforts to prosecute fake electors who tried to keep Trump in the White House after he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
Thursday, August 13th, 2026
	Phillies beat Twins 7-1 at Field of Dreams Major League Baseball came back to the Field of Dreams carrying a big piece of Cooperstown.
	Jibaro de Puerto Rico to reopen in downtown Muscatine After nearly two months of closure, Jibaro de Puerto Rico will reopen Friday, August 14. The family-owned restaurant, located at 211 W. 2nd St. in downtown Muscatine, had to close June 19 due to structural issues with their building. The restaurant has changed locations, made renovations and are ready to get back to business with [...]
	Fire leaves Burlington home uninhabitable Fire officials said no one was injured in the fire.
	Jibaro Puerto Rican Kitchen reopens in new home The restaurant was forced to leave its home when buildings on 2nd Street were evacuated due to structural concerns.
	Tyson Foods plant in Joslin, Illinois to close The company cited cattle shortages as the reason for the closure.
	Rain forces postponement of Davenport Speedway season championship races A week’s worth of rain has forced SR Promotions to postpone the Davenport Speedway 2026 Season Championship races scheduled for Friday, a news release says. SR Promotions is working with the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds and IMCA to reschedule the event. To get the latest information, visit here.
	OSF St. Joseph patients, employees safe, ISU cancels move-in for rest of Thursday after wind, rain tears through area Tens of thousands in the Heart of Illinois are without power after wind and rain blow through the area.
	Feds probe 'mention markets' amid White House Kalshi controversy Betting on what people say is becoming an increasingly popular category of prediction market sites. Now, federal officials have opened a probe examining whether those markets are a magnet for manipulators.
	QC Corporate Games will celebrate winners in friendly competition Winners of the Quad Cities Corporate Games presented by Wellmark will be celebrated at the Awards Celebration at noon Friday, Aug. 14, at the Quad Cities Tennis Club in Moline, a news release says. A QCCG record 42 companies brought athletes together to engage in friendly competition and team building. Corporate champions (listed in order of first, second and [...]
	Clinton man sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for trafficking meth, possessing firearm A man who lost his duffel bag containing meth, cash and a handgun was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on Wednesday.
	Getting to Know Josh Sallows and Barry Long Chief Meteorologist Andy McCray talks with familiar faces around the Quad Cities in the Getting to Know Podcast. Learn more about important people around our area and have a good time doing it. Each week will feature a new guest from restaurant owners, to area leaders, to Our Quad Cities News Staff. In this episode [...]
	Red Cross prepares for possible flooding as more rain moves into QC With more rain on the way and much of the area under a flood watch, the American Red Cross is preparing to respond if flooding impacts communities across the Quad Cities.
	5 pediatrician-backed tips to beat back-to-school anxiety Along with the excitement of new teachers and classmates, back-to-school season often brings a wave of anxiety—not just for kids, but for parents too.
	Coal Valley man arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a child A Coal Valley man was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a child by Illinois State Police on Thursday.
	U.S. ambassador to NATO visits Davenport Matt Whitaker spoke at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.
	Davenport man arrested for allegedly driving getaway car in July 4 shooting A Davenport man is charged in Scott County District Court after allegedly driving the getaway vehicle in the July 4 shooting.
	The Heart of the Story: Birds of a feather Our Quad Cities News is partnering with award-winning journalist Gary Metivier for The Heart of the Story. Each week, Gary showcases inspiring stories of everyday people doing cool stuff, enjoying their hobbies, and living life to the fullest. Stories that feature the best of the human condition. Fly along as Gary Metevier takes us to [...]
	Storms greet fairgoers on opening day of Iowa State Fair Severe thunderstorms, flash flooding and lightning met fairgoers on the first day of the Iowa State Fair, but hundreds still showed up.
	Read the new contract for Rock Island-Milan Superintendent Sharon Williams The Rock Island-Milan School Board approved the new contract on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
	Rock Island, East Moline secure grants to propel economic opportunity Rock island and East Moline have each received grants from the state to help with economic growth in their respective cities.
	[Executive Corner] The Daylight Test: Why the True Value of Perfect Black Is Revealed in Bright Rooms (BPT) - By Lee Myong Young, Research Fellow at Display Picture Quality Development Team, LG Media Entertainment Solution Company at LG ElectronicsEvery premium TV looks spectacular in a pitch-black, cave-like room. But that isn't how most of us watch. More often than not, when we actually have a moment to sit down and catch up on our must-see shows, there's either sunlight pouring in through the windows, or all the lights are on inside the house. And it is in these bright environments that the true value of a display's black levels becomes more apparent.At LG, we recognized that mastering this daylight viewing experience required a two-fold solution: maximizing screen brilliance and shielding that brilliance from ambient light. This realization led us to pair Brightness Booster Ultra, which dramatically elevates luminance, with Reflection Free Premium technology, a picture quality solution designed to help preserve OLED evo's Perfect Black1 and Perfect Color,2 even in the most brightly lit rooms.The Hidden Trade-Off of Reducing ReflectionCoatings or technologies that reduce screen glare are nothing new. The conventional approach is to scatter incoming light across the screen's surface, breaking up the sharp, mirror-like reflections that make a TV hard to watch in light-soaked spaces. It works up to a point. But it causes a side effect that we weren't willing to accept.True reflection-reduction technology must do more than simply lower the reflectance rate. It must be able to minimize reflections without compromising the original picture quality. Diffusion-based anti-reflection treatments successfully cut down on mirror-like reflections, but they frequently make the screen look hazy, blurring fine details and degrading color vibrancy.Picture a canvas painted with vivid, richly saturated colors, and then imagine someone spreading a layer of dust across the entire surface. The images on the canvas are still visible, but the colors have become muted, flat and lifeless. The same thing happens when a TV employs a conventional light-scattering coating to combat reflections: the picture is still there, but the vitality is gone.The real question, then, is not "Does your TV have anti-reflection technology?" It's "Does that technology preserve the picture quality you paid for in the first place?"Why Perfect Black Isn't Just About Dark ScenesThe impact of conventional reflection-reduction technology on picture quality goes deeper than you might realize. Take "black level" for instance. This isn't a standalone specification of interest only to tech reviewers. It's the foundation everything else in the picture is built on, including color accuracy and fine detail.Consider a tightly zoomed-in scene: a woman with blonde hair fills the screen. Around her hairline, subtle shadows help distinguish individual strands from the skin beneath. If black levels become washed out, those shadow gradations begin to disappear. You can no longer tell exactly where the hairline ends and the skin begins.The effect compounds at higher resolutions. A 4K image can only reveal the full extent of its razor-sharp detail, such as a single bead of sweat or the weave of a silk scarf, if there is enough contrast between neighboring pixels. When black levels wash out, that contrast margin shrinks and the finest details become indistinct. As a result, the benefits of 4K resolution can become harder to perceive. Not because the number of pixels has somehow shrunk, but because weakened contrast makes it difficult to perceive visual nuance and subtlety. However, when Perfect Black remains intact, all those minuscule details stay clearly defined and the overall image retains its depth and vibrancy.LG's Answer: Absorb, Don't ScatterOur answer to dealing with reflections came from an obsession with detail. Rather than scattering incoming light, LG's Reflection Free Premium technology is engineered to absorb it, taking in the vast majority while dispersing the rest in multiple directions. What little reflection remains is not enough to distract the eye. Relying on light-absorbing materials alone cannot drop a screen's reflectance below the 1 percent mark, as residual light inevitably bounces back. Through earlier advances in reflection reduction, our previous generation of OLED had already overcome this barrier, achieving an impressive reflectance rate of 0.6 percent.Pushing reflectance down by a further 0.1 percentage point required an additional technological breakthrough. To achieve this, we developed a three-layer coating designed to make incoming light waves collide and cancel each other out, much like two ocean waves meeting and flattening into calm water. Any minuscule amount of light that survives this process is then finely dispersed to minimize visible, mirror-like reflections.The road to Reflection Free Premium technology wasn't straightforward. Although the difference between 0.6 and 0.5 percent may sound marginal, developing and optimizing the three-layer coating took a year and a half of relentless engineering.The real challenge wasn't just dropping the reflectance rate but doing so without introducing secondary issues like color shifts, screen haze or loss of sharpness.Matching reflectance, color accuracy, surface quality and sharpness all at once proved to be a monumental engineering hurdle. Even the slightest mismatch in the formulation ruined the entire result. We built and tested hundreds of display samples, repeatedly refining the formulation to find the perfect balance. But in the end, as a growing number of customers can now attest, these exhaustive efforts yielded significant and measurable returns.The latest LG OLED evo displays have been independently certified by Intertek as Reflection Free Premium,3 achieving an exceptionally low reflection rate of around 0.5 percent. However, this certification goes far beyond just measuring how much light bounces off the screen. It is a comprehensive evaluation of uncompromised picture quality. Achieving the "Premium" tier signifies that the display can deliver outstanding picture quality in bright environments, reducing reflections without sacrificing resolution, low-tone detail visibility or color accuracy.This rigorous standard unlocks a new level of freedom in how we design our days around entertainment. Historically, enjoying a truly cinematic experience at home meant choosing between living in a dimly lit cave or accepting a compromise on what we saw. LG OLED evo removes this barrier entirely. By satisfying Intertek's dual demands for reflection reduction and absolute image fidelity, the technology protects from the daylight so it doesn't dilute the deep, velvety shadows and rich textures of your favorite content. You no longer have to wait for sundown or manually adjust your environment to appreciate every subtle detail on screen.Ultimately, this breakthrough actively and effectively safeguards everything that makes the OLED experience so incredible: pure blacks, vibrant colors, high contrast, smooth gradations and sharp details.Premium Picture Quality, Designed for Real LivingReflection Free Premium technology is applied to the LG OLED evo W6 and G6 AI TVs, bringing the technology described above to LG's latest flagship OLED lineup.These flagship models are powered by Brightness Booster Ultra, which achieves luminance levels up to 3.9 times brighter than conventional OLEDs.4 By pairing this intense brilliance with the glare-absorbing defense of Reflection Free Premium, LG OLED evo's signature depth and vividness remain uncompromised, even when daylight floods the room. 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Reflection Free Premium applies to W6 and G6 series (except 97, 48-inch models).4 Brightness may vary based on model, screen size, and market region. Peak brightness is 3.9 times brighter than conventional OLED @3 percent window by internal measurements.
	Death Notice: Elmer Mess A funeral service for Elmer Laverne Mess, 86, of rural Davenport, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at Our Savior Presbyterian Church, Argo. Burial will follow in Summit Cemetery, rural Davenport. Visitation will be Friday, Aug. 14, from 4-7 p.m. at the church. McGinnis-Chambers Funeral Home, Bettendorf, is assisting the family with arrangements. Mr. Mess died Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, at Harmony Utica Ridge, Davenport. Memorials may be made t the Scott County Historical Society at Summit Church. Online condolences may be made at www.McGinnis-Chambers.com. A full obituary will appear in the Aug. 19 edition of The NSP.
	Bartlett Grain holds grand opening for grain export facility in Sheffield Bartlett Grain Company on Thursday held a grand opening for a new state-of-the-art grain export facility in Bureau County, a news release says. Because of high winds and inclement weather, the Bartlett open house was moved from the facility to the McCormick Event Center at 205 E. 3rd, Rock Falls, for safety reasons. Bartlett’s Sheffield [...]
	Tyson Foods closing its plant in Joslin, Illinois The company cited cattle shortages as the reason for the closure.
	Comedian Leslie Mitchell previews Alternating Currents performance Mitchell, a winner of the "funniest person in Iowa" award, joined The Current to talk about her work and what makes Alternating Currents so special.
	Local leaders respond to closure of Tyson plant in Joslin Politicians and local business leaders are reacting after Tyson announced it is closing its beef plant in Joslin, Illinois.
	Crime Stoppers: Rock Island County authorities search for man wanted on forgery warrant Jacob L. Frank is wanted by Rock Island County law enforcement for failing to appear in court on a forgery charge.
	Crime Stoppers: Iowa Corrections searches for man wanted on probation violations and theft charges Reggion L. Anderson is wanted by Iowa authorities for probation violations stemming from assault and first-degree theft.
	Tyson Foods closing Joslin facility Employees received a letter on Thursday informing them most job responsibilities are ending today and tomorrow.
	Rock Falls holding annual 'Art in the Park' event Shop local art, check out new sculptures and more at the annual event!
	River Bandits game to air free on COZI 6.3 and KWQC+ Stream the Quad Cities River Bandits Saturday game for free live on COZI 6.3 or the KWQC+ app starting at 4:30 p.m. from Modern Woodmen Ballpark.
	$1 billion Powerball jackpot ticket sold in Illinois One of the largest Powerball jackpots ever has finally been won.
	Burlington firefighters respond to structure fire A structure fire in Burlington last night left a residence uninhabitable. A news release from the Burlington Fire Department said crews responded to a report of a structure fire in the 1000 block of Iowa Street on August 13th at about 10:30 a.m. They arrived within four minutes and saw flames and smoke from the [...]
	Shop local art, check out new sculptures at Visit Rock Falls' annual 'Art in the Park' event Visit Rock Falls said the annual Sculpture Walk started in 2018 as a way of bringing art, culture and color to the RB&W District.
	Burlington home uninhabitable after Thursday morning fire Fire officials said no one was injured in the fire.
	Tyson ends operations at its Joslin plant Tyson Foods is making strategic changes to its beef operations to "position the company for long-term success," according to its website. The company will end operations at its Joslin, Illinois, beef facility and its Eagle Mountain, Utah, case-ready facility, the website. Capacity from these locations will be moved to more strategically located facilities with ample [...]
	Tyson announces Joslin plant closure Tyson Foods announced they are closing their Joslin, Illinois, plant on Thursday.
	Tyson closing Joslin plant, no date given Tyson confirmed the closure, but did not give a date or say how many employees would be affected.
	Eldridge City Council votes 3-2 to advance second fire department ordinance readings Eldridge City Council member Adrian Blackwell joined Brian Dockery in opposing the second reading of two ordinances designed to establish a municipal fire department during a special city council meeting held Wednesday, Aug. 12. Blackwell voted for the first reading on Aug. 3, but changed his vote Wednesday, saying it had been his understanding that the Eldridge Volunteer Fire Company would be more involved with the process going forward. Meanwhile, Dockery asked if he and council member Ryan Iossi could sit down with members of the EVFC to discuss outstanding issues with the transition, and specifically if the Oct. 1 deadline imposed by the EVFC could be softened. Assistant fire chief Dave Engler, who was in the audience, indicated he might be amenable to a meeting. The Oct. 1 deadline was cited as a sticking point by the other three members of the council, Jeff Ashcraft, Scott LaPlante and Iossi, who voted in favor of advancing the second reading. They said, with the deadline looming, they did not support slowing down the process. The vote followed more than a half hour of public comment, during which residents almost exclusively urged the council to slow the process down. Several residents expressed fear for themselves, their neighbors and their property, as the full membership of the EVFC has said they will decline to serve on a municipal fire department. Others accused the council of not listening to resident concerns. Marilyn Leonard urged the council to consider response times and also expressed concern that the city was opening itself up to liability “because of senseless loss of life due to a plan that is not well thought out. “Public safety cannot be an afterthought,” she continued. “I certainly am not feeling safe with the decisions you have made. I certainly am not feeling safe with your lack of a complete and transparent plan.” She asked the council to pause, hold open work sessions, and present a clear operational plan the residents. James Fitzgerald acknowledged, “The City of Eldridge and the Eldridge Volunteer Fire Company have both made mistakes and both have genuine concerns. The volunteers have served this community well for decades, and the city has a legitimate duty to oversee taxpayer funds. Neither of those truths cancels out the other. But I believe we are heading towards a cliff.” Fitzgerald said no one has signed up to volunteer after Oct. 1, the fire chief application deadline isn’t until Aug. 23, and no transition team yet exists for the municipal fire department. “That is not a plan, that is hope,” he said. He also expressed concern that the transition itself may cost more than the budget request the EVFC put forth and residents “may spend more to end up with less.” Fitzgerald also said there was a risk to homeowners if fire protection weakened, and many residents could see their homeowner’s insurance increase. He specifically asked for the Oct. 1 deadline to be paused until a replacement plan was in place; a weekly transition update with transparent information on hiring and ordinance status, applicant counts and other information; and for the city to return to the table with the volunteers, saying he believed compromise was still possible. “None of us want to win an argument,” Fitzgerald concluded. “We want to count on someone to answer that call when we dial 911. Please don’t let Oct. 1 arrive before we’re ready.” Amy Meskimen said she saw a lot of red flags going forward and that many people in Eldridge did not feel like they were being properly represented on this issue. “With so many uncertainties and rushing to make decisions, it feels reckless and irresponsible on behalf of the city.” She encouraged an open forum with a mediator and asked the crowd to raise their hands if they felt the same. Nearly everyone in the standing room only audience put their hand up. Judith Gilbert criticized the council for a lack of transparency in holding the special meeting, saying the notice of the meeting had not been posted on social media or on the homepage of the city website. She reiterated a concern she expressed at the Aug. 3 meeting that there was no language in the ordinance providing for EMS service and brought up an issue several other residents pointed to, saying that the city may be allowed to bill for services that are free now. Michelle Crawford said she felt “this council is currently making it unnecessarily harder on yourselves. This is not what the collective community wants.” She said not only does the EVFC feel disrespected, many residents do, too. “No budgets have been presented, no guarantee of continuity of service, no answers as to the impact on our future taxes and insurance. It’s hard to admit when you’ve overplayed your hand … but sometimes we have to find the humility within us to say, OK, maybe this wasn’t our best move. You were elected to serve we, the people of Eldridge. I implore you to soak that in, take a deep breath and pull back on this. There is common ground to find in this matter, and I have the utmost confidence that there are solid people on both sides that love our community and the people here to bring a much better and much more agreeable outcome.” Tim Reimers read a quote from mayor, then-council member Scott Campbell, from March of 2024, when the city was embroiled in a dispute with the utility. At the time, Campbell said he ran for council because he was tired of reading and hearing about the drama within the city. Reimers asked if the city was any better off now than it was then with regard to drama. Dockery, Blackwell stand in opposition As the meeting moved away from official public comment, Blackwell said it had been his understanding that there would be more input from the EVFC going forward, and he was no longer in favor of moving forward “until we have our department here and it looks cohesive and we get input from them and we’re totally transparent with the community members.” Iossi countered by saying the city was in its current position because of the deadline imposed by the EVFC. He said the fire department had asked to be taken over by the city a year ago. “What we didn’t expect, what nobody wants, was a deadline,” he said. “We didn’t create that July 15 deadline. We didn’t create that Oct. 1 deadline. But we did get put in a position to make the decision, A or B. It was clear, there was no negotiation. It was, give what the fire department wanted, or the city had to make a decision to take it over. Fair, right? Well, not really. Somebody said there’s no winners here. Somebody’s going to be a winner here. It’s going to be the citizens. It has to be. Do I like the fact that we had to decide at that meeting? No. Do I like the Oct. 1 deadline? No. Is it enough time? No. But that’s a decision we made because we did not have a choice.” Iossi said the city has already received several qualified applicants for the fire chief’s position, and that the candidates could bring something to the table that members of the EVFC could be excited about. He then asked the EVFC members if they were committed to the Oct. 1 deadline or if they were willing to be flexible. “We keep getting asked to pause. We have a deadline. We can’t pause on a deadline.” Iossi said that members of the council had heard from residents who were “very happy with the direction we’re going,” a claim that was met with skepticism from the audience. Iossi went on to say that many of these residents were scared to speak in public. Dockery asked if he and Iossi could sit down with members of the EVFC to see if there was a compromise to be had. He said that while he felt the city needed to have financial oversight, he wondered if the Oct. 1 deadline could be softened, “so it’s not forcing the council to keep moving forward.” “I think if we can sit down and have a meaningful discussion, absolutely, we’re willing to sit down and talk,” said assistant chief Dave Engler from the audience. This was met with applause. Iossi said he was also comfortable with being involved with further discussion going forward. He also asked Engler if he would be willing to be on the transition team. Engler said he thought he already was. Campbell said Engler’s name was one of several submitted by the fire department, although he said the transition team was about moving forward and he would like Engler and the others to consider being members of the municipal fire department if they were to take part in the transition. It's unclear when that became a stipulation of serving on the transition team, as at the Aug. 3 meeting, Campbell merely asked for the names of four members of the EVFC, of whom two would be selected. Still, Engler said, speaking for himself and not the entire department, perhaps the Oct. 1 deadline could be changed if there was a meaningful start to discussions. Iossi said he wanted Engler to be on the transition team regardless of whether he was willing to be part of the municipal department. Ashcraft spoke next, saying he had also heard from residents who were supportive of the city’s position, but who did not want to speak out for fear of retaliation. He then read from communications the EVFC sent to the city on June 12, explaining that the department had told the city, “in the event the city does not support the independent model or the required budget, we ask the city expedite the necessary resources to absorb the Eldridge Volunteer Fire Company as a city department no later than Oct. 1. “That’s the date we’re working against,” said Ashcraft. “None of us want to fight that date. None of us want to be pinned with two options – either support that budget or absorb the department. None of us wanted to choose from that, but we were told on July 20, make a decision.” Ashcraft said he understood that decision was unpopular with many people, “but we were literally told, you have a binary choice; choose something.” He said that he had offered mediation, and the city offered mediation in the winter, and those requests had been rebuffed. “If there’s some room on the date, if there’s some room with a mediator, then yeah, maybe we should pause,” said Ashcraft. “If there’s not, we have to continue marching towards Oct. 1. Because here’s what I’m concerned about … when somebody calls 911 on Oct. 1, Oct. 2, who’s going to answer the phone and who’s coming? And if we pause without knowing that we’ve got some sort of negotiation plan in place and that doesn’t happen, doesn’t come to fruition, we just set ourselves back even further. So, I support the ordinance. However, if the fire department is willing to make some concessions, to change that date and maybe do exactly what Ryan was talking about, then we have a different conversation, potentially.” LaPlante said he wanted to see the council be proactive, not reactive, and that city staff was working on a plan behind the scenes. However, he described the deadline as a “tough row to hoe. So, if there’s room, let’s talk about it.” Dockery said he was disappointed by the division and the animosity that was playing out on social media. “If anybody’s putting some of that hatred out there or making threats, I’m going to talk to our chief and have them arrested. I don’t care what side of the issue it’s on, but nothing will ever get resolved by this constant battle in the public arena.” Campbell addressed Reimers’ question, saying he was saddened and disheartened things had devolved to this point. “Where I struggle is, we’re giving the fire department exactly what they wanted. They came to us and said this is what they want. And so, we did that.” Campbell said city officials had spoken to other communities during this process and cited LeClaire as an example. He said LeClaire’s transition in 2022 had taken a full year, but they now have a paid chief and captain, and at least 30 volunteers. “LeClaire’s budget, with two paid firefighters, is $561,000 per year. And our city staff has done their due diligence over the course of the last 14 months and done comparables with other cities. We believe we can do it for that,” said Campbell. “In our budget, we have budgeted $364,000 and another $120,000 in capital improvements. That’s $482,000. We believe we can make this work. But the key is the volunteers. If the volunteers would just come on board, we would all be happy. They would have input on the chief. They’re part of the transition plan.” Someone in the audience asked what was wrong with the current chief, Keith Schneckloth. Campbell said during the transition, it had been stated Schneckloth would not be eligible to be hired as chief because he was dismissed from his previous job as city mechanic. He turned the floor over to city attorney Allison Wright for further clarification. Wright said, “There’s a lot of public information about Mr. Schneckloth’s termination that’s either been just disregarded or it’s been misstated quite publicly from what I’ve seen.” She said there had been an internal investigation, and Schneckloth reportedly admitted to using the city’s NAPA account to avoid paying sales tax, as well as in unemployment hearings. “The records are there; they’re public. You’re welcome to look at them,” said Wright. She also said that there were questions regarding whether Schneckloth misrepresented his status with the fire department when applying for the FEMA SAFER grant. Dockery said many people were becoming highly sensitive on the fire department issue and again asked for the opportunity to sit down with the EVFC to attempt to find common ground. “I think there is a very reasonable path to coming up with a hybrid situation that involves the city and the Eldridge Volunteer Fire Company Inc. to move this town forward. “I think there is a solution, but we need to calm this down a little bit and let calm heads figure out a path.” Who owns the assets? Wright asked about the claim that there was no budget for the department. “It’s my understanding that a budget has been approved for the fire department. It’s been approved by the state. I’m a little confused by the commentary back and forth about that.” “We don’t own the assets,” said Dockery. “We don’t own a fire station.” “What does ‘absorb the fire department’ mean?” asked Iossi. “What was the first discussion when this came up a couple of years ago – we would take over the assets, the equipment. Let’s be clear – what are you going to do with a firehouse and equipment and apparatus if you’re not a fire department anymore?” Campbell said Scott Haycraft and John Schnekloth, trustees of Benefitted Fire District No. 3, had met with the fire department. “The message (Haycraft) came back with was, if we can agree to some type of hybrid model – the city would have the assets, meaning building and equipment – and the fire department may maintain control of the day-to-day operations, including the fire chief. He thought that the fire department would agree to that, and we could move on. In that model, Haycraft said the city would control the purse strings and give us oversight. I told him that I would share that tonight, and so I have. But we’ve heard from Allison in the past that that model probably isn’t correct. I mean, it isn’t really legal for us.” Wright said she believed that model would be inconsistent with the council’s prior vote, because “the department is people, not assets. A hybrid model in a traditional sense means partially paid and partially volunteer. That’s a hybrid model. I think that has evolved here into a conversation of creative options, but ones that I don’t legally recommend. “If the fire company’s concern is that they want unfettered control and supervision over their own personnel, we would essentially be taking on all of the liability and costs for the assets, and we’d have no ability to subject the personnel that are using it to comply with city policies or procedures or oversight. So, if they’re in control of those personnel, that disconnect creates significant liability concerns from my perspective.” Campbell said he had also spoken with John Maxwell, chair of the Scott County Board of Supervisors. Maxwell reportedly said that, while the county is not taking sides in this matter, if the city were to create a municipal fire department, the county would sign a 28E agreement with that agency to provide fire service for Benefitted Fire District No. 3. “It’s also his understanding of the law, and we have documentation on this as well, that if we did that, and we had that 28E agreement, the city would take over the fire station and the apparatus in order to provide fire protection to the residents of Eldridge and Benefitted Fire District No. 3,” said Campbell. “So, we’ve heard a lot of comments about the apparatus and what we’re going to do without a fire station or whatever. That is the path forward if this happens,” continued Campbell. “That’s the path forward that the fire department wanted a year ago. They wanted us to take over. They were going to give us everything. This is the vehicle to do that.” Someone in the audience asked why the council couldn’t table the issue until after there was additional conversation with the fire department. Campbell said passing the second reading was strictly procedural and wouldn’t make the ordinance law yet. He said with the Oct. 1 deadline, “every day is precious.” Blackwell asked for the fire department to continue to be involved in the public facing conversation. Ashcraft countered by saying he believed more meaningful progress could happen in smaller, focused groups, and that group could come back with progress updates, rather than having everything play out in front of an audience. An audience member continued to lobby for tabling. “We just sat here and listened to a whole lot of stuff, but you say this train keeps moving down the track.” “This train has to keep moving down this track because we’re staring down the barrel of an Oct. 1 deadline,” said Ashcraft. “And that’s unfortunate, but that’s the pressure this council feels right now. I think to Councilman Dockery’s point earlier in the discussion, if there is some potential for softening there, then maybe there’s something that we can do different. But if there’s not, as the mayor said, every moment is precious.” “Your Honor, that’s why I requested an opportunity to find middle ground, and we can do it at a fairly quick pace and find out if the fire department is willing to soften that Oct. 1 day, move it to some other date for the timeline, to see if there is a middle ground,” said Dockery. “There may not be a middle ground. But I personally owe it to the taxpayers to find that middle ground, so we know what the costs are going to be long term.” That included the assets, he said. The council voted 3-2 for the second readings, and prior to the vote, Campbell said, “Approving this would not commit us to anything at this point in time. It’s just a second reading of three, and so we can still pass this and then we revisit it again, if necessary. And that will give us time to figure out a plan.” Dockery also said he had some proposed language changes to the ordinance establishing the city department. He was asked to submit the changes in writing so the rest of the council could review them prior to Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting.
	Wildfires can leave surviving homes and their water unsafe – safety tips for residents as they return When fire evacuation orders are lifted and residents start returning to burned neighborhoods, many people assume “cleared to return” means “safe.” It rarely does. As an environmental engineer who has worked with communities recovering from some of the most destructive wildfires in U.S. history, I have seen the same pattern repeatedly: Families return to still-standing homes, turn on taps without knowing whether plumbing has been contaminated, and view debris removal as the end of recovery when it is often only the midpoint. While there are many safety concerns after a wildfire like the destructive blazes Spokane, Washington, experienced in August 2026, three deserve particular attention: chemicals in surviving buildings, the safety of drinking water and whether burned lots are ready for rebuilding. A standing home is not automatically a safe home Buildings that appear unscathed after a nearby fire may still be unsafe. Smoke, toxic ash and chemicals from burning buildings and vehicles can enter through windows, vents, HVAC systems and other openings. These contaminants settle in ductwork, walls, carpets and furniture, as well as on clothing, blankets and toys. They can include lead, which can harm human lungs and children’s brain development; arsenic and asbestos, which can cause cancer and damage the respiratory system; and volatile or semi-volatile organic compounds, known as VOCs, which can damage the organs; among other risks. Exposure to each through the air, food or drinking water can harm human health. The home might seem fine, but contamination like this cannot be reliably identified by sight or smell. That’s why, before moving back into a home near where a wildfire burned, owners should consider professional inspections, especially if part of the home or a nearby structure burned. Inspections should test living spaces, attics, crawlspaces, garages, HVAC systems, ductwork and indoor surfaces for harmful metals, chemicals and other substances. Dust is often tested for lead and other metals, as well as asbestos, while indoor air is often analyzed for volatile organic compounds. Following a fire, asbestos contamination can affect both old and new homes. Wind and debris can transport asbestos to locations where it was not previously present. Andrew Whelton/Purdue University The quality of the testing is critical. Reviews of wildfire recovery efforts have found instances of inappropriate laboratory methods, incorrect comparison standards and results that could not be properly interpreted. Property owners should ask what contaminants will be tested, where samples will be collected, which analytical methods will be used, how results will be reported and when the report will be delivered. If tests reveal contamination, remediation work comes next, followed by confirmation testing conducted by an independent firm. Visitors and workers restoring the site must use protective equipment and safe practices to protect their health. Do not assume the building’s water system is safe Drinking water contamination is one of the least visible wildfire hazards. A functioning faucet can create a false sense of security. Fires may damage water systems when firefighting demands and broken pipes cause the system to lose pressure. This can allow smoke, contaminated air or debris to enter pipe networks. Heat from a fire can also damage plastic pipes and plumbing equipment, releasing chemicals into the water supply. Contaminants such as benzene, which can cause cancer, have been detected in plumbing and water systems after fires at concentrations capable of causing illness through drinking, bathing or showering. Boiling water does not remove these chemicals and may actually increase the chance people will be exposed to them by releasing them into indoor air. A loss of water pressure, discolored water, melted plastic components or nearby fire damage can signal problems, but the contamination is often invisible, so testing is essential. Three ways water systems can become chemically unsafe when fires burn nearby. Andrew Whelton/Purdue University Utilities are generally responsible for testing and repairing infrastructure up to the property line and should provide public guidance on water safety. Property owners are responsible for water safety once it enters the property. That includes pipes, water heaters, irrigation systems and private wells. Even when utility water has been declared safe, contamination can persist inside a building’s plumbing. Tests can look for volatile organic compounds, bacteria and, in some cases, semi-volatile compounds and metals. The samples for testing are commonly collected after water has been stagnant in plumbing for about 72 hours, allowing contaminants to accumulate. Depending on how the home was affected, residents may need to use alternative water sources such as bottled water for drinking, cooking and bathing. Rural and agricultural water systems require similar attention. Heat-damaged water tanks, troughs and irrigation lines may release chemicals, while smoke or ash can enter through vents. Repairs should be completed by licensed contractors and followed by disinfection and certified testing before the system returns to use. Local health departments have lists of approved water-testing laboratories. Debris removal is a first step, not a finish line Removing debris after wildfires burn through a property is only one phase of recovery, and it carries its own risks. Effective restoration generally involves three steps: Removing major hazards, such as propane tanks, gas cylinders, batteries and damaged vehicles. Removing debris, ash and contaminated surface soils. Testing the soil for contamination after cleanup. This final step is often overlooked. A woman searches through the remains of her parents’ home after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., in August 2026. While a face mask can help avoid breathing in large particles, it can’t stop gases that can harm humans. AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson via The Conversation A property is not necessarily safe to rebuild on simply because debris trucks are gone. Research after previous wildfires found that up to 34% of properties still contained hazardous contamination, such as heavy metals, even after the debris had been removed and the topsoil scraped away. To be safe, testing should be overseen by a board-licensed professional engineer or geologist, independent of the debris-removal contractor. A notice that debris removal is complete indicates only that initial cleanup has ended. In many cases, local health departments or environmental agencies must review testing results before rebuilding can proceed. The bottom line While many hazards in the days and weeks after a wildfire are invisible, lessons from past events provide a clear path to restoring safety: Do not rely on appearance or odor to judge safety. Use qualified professionals to evaluate homes, water systems and soils before reoccupying or rebuilding. Consult local health departments for guidance and approved testing resources. Restoring properties to safe use is possible. Following evidence-based guidance can help homeowners manage the process safely and with more certainty of a full recovery. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Andrew J. Whelton, Purdue University Read more: Why the Spokane wildfires became so catastrophic Wildfires can contaminate drinking water systems with harmful chemicals − here’s what Los Angeles needs to know How heat waves increase wildfire risk Andrew J. Whelton receives funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, City of Louisville, Paradise Irrigation District, Paradise Rotary Foundation, R&S Kayne Foundation, the Spanicciati Family, the Water Research Foundation, and crowdfunding.
	Controlling wild pigs can work if it’s a group effort The federal government is injecting millions of dollars into efforts to combat feral hogs – and it’s considering spending even more in the coming years. The problem has grown for decades, but our research has found that a recently revived federal effort offers the potential for bringing the hogs under control. Feral swine roam in 35 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The most recent population figures, from 2016, estimated that 7 million feral pigs were loose in the nation then. That number may be much higher today: Feral hogs breed year-round and each year can produce up to two litters of four to 12 piglets per litter. Feral hog populations have been estimated to be able to double in just four months. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that wild pigs do between US$2.5 billion and $3.4 billion in property damage each year. At least $800 million of that is destruction of crops. Beyond crops, feral hogs spread disease to livestock, damage farm infrastructure such as fences and roads needed for agricultural production, destroy recreational parks and cause extensive environmental damage to wildlife habitats, water quality and plant ecosystems. They’re hard to control because feral hogs roam across large areas of privately owned land. If neighboring landowners don’t work together, the hogs just move rather than being killed or contained. Basic economic theory says landowners would wait for others to spend the time, money and energy to control hogs – which means nobody does, and the problems grow. Feral hogs can tear up vegetation, disturb the soil and otherwise damage land and property. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert via The Conversation An initial test In the 2018 Farm Bill, a major piece of legislation covering wide areas of agricultural policy, Congress agreed to spend $75 million to encourage private landowners to step up together to kill feral hogs. That program was active in selected counties in 10 hog-plagued states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. Starting in 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded private landowners’ purchases of trapping equipment, on-farm trapping efforts and restoration of land the hogs had damaged. Originally slated to end in 2023, the program was given $105 million more to spend through 2029 in the major budget and immigration package Congress passed in July 2025. Through Sept. 21, 2026, the government is accepting grant applications for the first $35 million allocation from that money. The Farm Bill that has passed the House and is awaiting debate in the Senate would increase that funding by $150 million and extend the effort through 2031. A useful question, before spending all that money, is how effective the first test of the program was. Hunting feral hogs from helicopters is just one way people have sought to control their spread and damage. AP Photo/Eric Gay via The Conversation Reducing hogs’ damage to cornfields Our research team of agricultural economists at the University of Tennessee and the University of Arkansas set out to examine the program’s performance. We used federal data on crop insurance claims to compare crop damage in counties where the program was active against counties where it was not, both before and after the federal trial began. Not all the counties reported crop damage from wildlife. Among those that did, counties where the program wasn’t operating had crop insurance claims for wildlife damage to corn that averaged 70 acres (17.5 hectares) per policy. In counties where hog eradication efforts were coordinated, however, the average claim for cornfield acres damaged from wildlife declined to 10 acres per policy. That is a statistically significant result – and given the scale of corn production across the study region, it represents a meaningful reduction in losses. When comparing crop insurance claims for soybeans, wheat, cotton and peanuts, however, we found no difference between counties with active hog control efforts and those without. A way forward Corn is reportedly the crop most commonly damaged by feral swine. That could help explain why we found cornfields to have the only statistically significant reduction in damage. More generally, the program’s effectiveness may have been more limited because it launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted the community meetings and public outreach that could have boosted landowner participation. Also, the fact that it was a pilot effort may have made people reluctant to commit, fearing the program might disappear in a few years. It is likely our study underestimates the benefits of the program. Some farmers have crop damage that is not severe enough to warrant an insurance claim, so those numbers are excluded from our analysis. And our study did not evaluate any potential changes in noncrop damage from feral hogs, such as to property, livestock, recreational parks and the environment in general. Our research indicates the hog control program can be effective and offers several ideas for improving it, both over time and with more funding. For instance, if the efforts focused specifically on corn-producing counties, it might yield more success per dollar invested. And expanding participation through additional outreach efforts could mean more hogs are caught or killed across a wider area, amplifying the return further. Feral hogs will be nearly impossible to eradicate completely, and the damage they cause isn’t going away either. The data suggests that with the right design and sustained investment, the federal government has a program that can make a real difference for America’s farmers. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Chris Boyer, University of Tennessee; Aaron Smith, University of Tennessee, and Eunchun Park, University of Arkansas Read more: Rotting feral pig carcasses teach scientists what happens when tons of animals die all at once, as in Australia’s bushfires Wild ‘super pigs’ from Canada could become a new front in the war on feral hogs Feral pigs harm wildlife and biodiversity as well as crops Aaron Smith receives funding from USDA. Chris Boyer and Eunchun Park do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
	Teens are turning to AI chatbots for emotional support – here’s how to keep kids safe It’s 2 a.m., and a teenage girl, worrying about a friend issue, lies awake. Rather than wake her parents, she picks up her phone, opens an AI app and types, “I’m so stressed out, I can’t sleep.” A reply arrives swiftly: “I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. Want to tell me a bit about what is stressing you?” The conversation unfolds, and 20 minutes later she is calmer and able to sleep. The supportive voice that calmed her? A large language model, or LLM, chatbot. While this is a hypothetical scenario, it represents a very common pattern of artificial intelligence use by teens. Many teens are turning to AI chatbots, which are designed to simulate empathy and maintain human engagement, for companionship, emotional support and mental health advice. Research shows that this is increasingly common, with 72% of teens having interacted with AI companion chatbots, and 13% to 20% having sought support through AI for emotional concerns in a two-month period in 2025. In another recent study, 63% of the teens and young adults who used an AI chatbot for mental health advice had not disclosed it to anyone. As clinical psychologists and a child psychiatrist who work with adolescents, we’ve seen this shift firsthand. In 2025 we published guidelines for clinicians on how to address teen chatbot use safety, and we’re now working to help parents and other trusted adults do the same. Why teens are vulnerable Unlike social media platforms, which connect teens with peers, AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini function as simulated conversation partners and companions, offering on-demand responses that can feel supportive and engaging. While a small number of purpose-built therapeutic chatbots have been studied in controlled settings, most teens are using general-purpose tools that were never designed or validated for mental health support. This includes stand-alone platforms such as ChatGPT and chatbots built into apps that teens already use, such as Snapchat’s My AI. These chatbots are everywhere, highly accessible and difficult for teens to avoid. Teens often describe chatbot interactions as emotionally meaningful or supportive, sometimes even preferring chatbot conversations to talking with friends. Teens, still forming their sense of self and often craving social validation, may be especially prone to experiencing these simulated relationships as real. This trend is happening in real time, and a pressing question is how to guide teens to use chatbots safely. Mental health-focused chatbots vs. general ones There is evidence that some therapeutic AI chatbots can help adults with mild symptoms when used alongside professional mental health support. Woebot, for example, a fully automated cognitive behavioral therapy-based chatbot, reduced depressive symptoms in college students after two weeks of use. Some early evidence shows potential for helpfulness for younger teens as well. But these are specialized tools tested in research studies — not the general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT that most teens actually use. These systems typically lack effective crisis protocols or pathways to escalate care when someone is in danger. A November 2025 Common Sense Media report rated general-purpose chatbots as unacceptably risky for teen mental health support. Chatbots may not recognize signs of self-harm or suicidal thoughts as a person would. Navigating the benefits and risks General-purpose chatbots can generate inaccurate or misleading advice that is presented with high confidence. For some users, this can create confusion or reinforce unhealthy beliefs. Adolescents, especially those experiencing loneliness, anxiety or social-communication challenges, may form strong attachments and turn to chatbots in place of human connection. This can, in turn, distort their expectations of real relationships. Most concerning is how these systems handle thoughts that pose real risk to teens, including thoughts of risky social behaviors, self-harm or even suicide. Studies of chatbot performance in detecting and responding to thoughts of suicide, by both therapeutic and general-purpose chatbots, show inadequate response. Even when the chatbots offer resources like the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a national crisis line, conversations with concerning content are often permitted to continue without a hard stop. The safety of the interactions tends to degrade over the course of long conversations. So 2 a.m. ruminations can become even riskier interactions at 3 a.m. as chatbot responses become more chaotic and less subject to safety guardrails. Lawsuits filed and settled in 2025-26 have alleged that interactions with language models such as ChatGPT led to teen suicidal behavior and tragic losses, highlighting that commercial chatbots lack effective guardrails and crisis protocols. Given these concerns, some chatbot programs have instituted restrictions. Character.ai, for instance, recently banned open-ended chat for users under 18. The app now requires age verification and allows parents to opt in to receive notifications. However, many options exist for teens to still experience open-ended chats with AI, and teens often bypass safety-oriented restrictions online. Chatbot safeguards tend to go down as teens converse with them longer. Fabio Principe/iStock via Getty Images via The Conversation Red flags to watch for Parents and other trusted adults can be on the lookout for teens’ problematic behaviors, such as: Spending increasing amounts of time chatting with AI companions. Reducing time and effort in relationships with family, friends, teachers and others. Showing distress or irritability when chatbot access is limited. Reaching for chatbot interactions rather than human supports in moments of emotional distress or crisis. These patterns mirror problematic social media use by teens – a trajectory that offers a cautionary lesson. Broad acknowledgment of social media’s risk came only after harms became entrenched; in 2023 the U.S. surgeon general warned that social media poses a “profound risk of harm” to youth mental health. In our assessment, chatbots pose a comparable risk, and early awareness is crucial. How parents and trusted adults can help The most powerful step is straightforward: Talk with teens about their chatbot use. Approaching teens with curiosity and nonjudgment is helpful. It makes sense to assume a teen is using a chatbot, because this is most likely the case. Rather than a closed-ended question like “Do you talk to chatbots?” which some teens may perceive as judgmental, adults can begin with open-ended questions like “When you use chatbots like ChatGPT, what do you talk about?” Additional detail can be gathered from questions like “Has anything ever felt uncomfortable, confusing or surprising?” or “How do you use chatbots or AI companions when you are feeling upset or overwhelmed?” Many teens can feel relieved that parents are willing to discuss this openly, rather than dismissing or banning it outright. Parents can use what they learn in these conversations to provide guidance. Setting boundaries for safe use As families set boundaries around screen time and social media, they can include chatbot use as well. Time limits, particularly late at night when teens may be more emotionally vulnerable, can be helpful. Parents and teens should come to clear agreements about when chatbots should not be used, particularly during moments of crisis or high distress. It can be useful to review how to access human supports, such as a trusted friend, a parent, a school counselor or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also research alternative emotional-regulation techniques, such as journaling, distraction, grounding and breathing techniques. Regular check-ins about how chatbot use is going and whether concerns are coming up can keep information flowing and improve safety. The goal isn’t necessarily to eliminate chatbot use but to set thoughtful boundaries that protect connection with real people and reduce the probability of unsafe interactions. Parents talking with their kids about chatbot use can help ensure safer interactions. Lock Stock/DigitalVision via Getty Images via The Conversation Key points for AI literacy Our clinical guidelines emphasize helping teens understand what chatbots are and aren’t. Parents can reinforce this as well. Important topics to discuss with teens include: Chatbots don’t “know” people; in interactions, they are predicting responses based on patterns in the chat. Therefore, any sense of understanding, connection or empathy – however convincing – is simulated, not real. Chatbots can make mistakes or entirely make things up – called “hallucinations” in the AI field – while showing great confidence in these inaccuracies. Chatbots are “tuned” by their creators to be agreeable and they tend to tell people what they want to hear, which can make their outputs less trustworthy or less useful in real-life contexts. Chats with chatbots are not private or privileged, and conversations may be stored, used to train future models, reviewed by humans or surfaced in a data breach. Talking openly about these limitations helps teens engage more critically and safely. Open lines of communication Research is only beginning to emerge around how AI chatbot interactions specifically affect adolescent mental health, but the emerging concerns are real and important. While chatbot interactions are increasingly difficult for teens to avoid, supporting teens toward safer use is possible. The time to talk with teens is now, and these conversations can protect their safety and deepen their human connections. If you or someone you know is in crisis and are based in the U.S., call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to speak with a trained listener, or text HELLO to 741741. Both services are free, available 24/7 and confidential. If you are a reader from outside the U.S., please use a helpline like the one above or speak to a healthcare professional. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Phoebe S. Moore, UMass Chan Medical School; Megan Kelly, UMass Chan Medical School, and Yael Dvir, UMass Chan Medical School Read more: The AI therapist will see you now: Can chatbots really improve mental health? AI chatbots are intruding into online communities where people are trying to connect with other humans Too many em dashes? Weird words like ‘delves’? Spotting text written by ChatGPT is still more art than science Phoebe S. Moore has, in the past, received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center at UMASS Chan Medical School, the SHINE Initiative, and Stanford University. She has served as a consultant to Human Systems, Inc., d/b/a Matter and Space, a startup that uses AI chatbots as tutors and wellness facilitators for adult learners. Megan Kelly receives royalties from New Harbinger Publications for a book on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She has received research grants from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any institution or funder. Yael Dvir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
	Finding healthier alternatives for school lunches Dr. Aubrey Riefe with UnityPoint Health joined us in studio to talk about nutritious food choices parents and students can make as schools open for the year.
	NATO Ambassador: Europe's military spending 'biggest foreign policy victory' of Trump's second term Iowan and Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker praised the Trump administration's pressure on European countries to increase military defense spending.
	AI gives millions of answers every day. Here's where they come from. AI gives millions of answers every day. Here's where they come from.Searching for information has become the most common way Americans use AI. According to an AP-NORC survey, 60% of U.S. adults—and nearly three-quarters of adults under 30—say they use AI to find answers to their questions.Whether they're asking "Should I lock in my mortgage rate?" "Is this rash something I should worry about?" or "What's the best laptop under $1,000?," millions of people are increasingly turning to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude instead of a Google search. In fact, earlier this year, Federal Reserve researchers reported that 41% of U.S. workers now use generative AI for work and 50% of Americans use generative AI outside of work, up 26% and up 31% year-over-year, respectively.Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michael Barr said in February that generative AI is being adopted at an unprecedented pace. "The speed of AI adoption may be much faster than previous general-purpose technologies, boosting productivity growth, but also allowing less time for workers, businesses, and the economy to adapt," he told the New York Association for Business Economics.As more people rely on AI to make everyday decisions, one question has become increasingly important: Where do those answers actually come from?The answer isn't as simple as "the internet." Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude the same question and you're likely to get different responses because each model draws from a different mix of sources. When all three were asked, "Who makes the best pickup truck?" ChatGPT recommended the Ram 1500 and cited Cars.com. Claude chose the Ford F-150 without citing a source. Gemini declined to name a winner, responding that the best truck "depends entirely on what you prioritize: maximum towing capacity, daily luxury, or long-term reliability."25 Million AI Citations AnalyzedWhile the answers are often instant and remarkably confident, the differences aren't necessarily a sign that one AI is right and another is wrong. They reflect the information each model chooses to retrieve, prioritize and synthesize.To better understand those differences, Muck Rack’s Generative Pulse analyzed more than 25 million citations generated by ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude across thousands of real-world prompts. The analysis found that AI models rely on different sources to build their responses, and the type of question someone asks can dramatically change the information an AI model chooses to surface.ChatPGT, Claude, and Gemini Don’t Use the Same SourcesOne of the clearest findings was that there is no single information ecosystem powering generative AI. ChatGPT cites sources in nearly every response and frequently draws from Wikipedia, news outlets and reference sites. Claude cites less often but relies heavily on scientific research and academic literature. Gemini turns to Reddit far more often, giving community discussions a larger role in many of its answers.The Type of Question Changes What AI CitesThe research also found that AI changes its sourcing strategy depending on what people ask. If someone asks, "Why are egg prices rising?" or "What's happening with the housing market?" AI is much more likely to rely on recent news coverage. If they ask, "Which robot vacuum should I buy?" or "How do I remove a wine stain?" it's more likely to draw from product reviews, reference sources and corporate sites.One of the clearest examples comes from "best of" questions. When people ask ChatGPT for recommendations such as the best restaurants, hotels or attractions, it frequently cites Google Maps. In Muck Rack's analysis, ChatGPT cited Google Maps search results at a rate of 188 Maps citations per 1,000 queries. It included an average of seven Google Maps pins each time Maps appeared in a response. Claude cited Google Maps only once across the entire study.Does AI Search Still Rely on Journalism?Despite some concern that AI is replacing journalism, the study found that news reporting continues to play a significant role in shaping AI answers. More than one quarter of all citations came from journalistic sources. More than half of those articles had been published within the previous year. Rather than concentrating on a handful of prominent national publications, AI models cited more than 20,000 outlets including local newspapers, trade publications and specialized expert sites reporting on issues like healthcare, travel, personal finance and technology.The next time AI recommends a financial product, summarizes a breaking news story or explains a medical condition, remember that the answer is shaped by the information it chose to retrieve. Asking another AI assistant, checking the cited sources or reading the original reporting can help provide a fuller picture. As AI becomes a more common way to discover information, understanding where an answer came from may become just as important as the answer itself. Muck Rack MethodologyWhat Is AI Reading? is published by Muck Rack's Generative Pulse team and examines how generative AI systems cite sources when responding to realistic consumer prompts. The May edition analyzed more than 25 million links from responses generated by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini across 17 industries and multiple query types. Because generative AI systems evolve quickly, citation behavior may shift as models are updated or retrained.This story was produced by Muck Rack and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Rock Island-Milan Superintendent’s contract extended through 2030 School officials announced Thursday that the district approved a four-year extension for Sharon Williams’ contract, according to a media release.
	What are cornea ulcers? They strike the cornea, the eye’s clear protective “window,” and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites.
	Kennedy Center Board votes again to shut main building down — and add Trump's name back The board voted to close the Washington, D.C., arts complex's main campus for a $250 million renovation — three months after a federal judge temporarily blocked a similar closure.
	Illinois experiences home-building slump Illinois is in the middle of a home-building slump. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows Illinois issued 157 new housing permits for every 100.000 people between June 2025 and May 2026. That figure is less than half the national homebuilding rate and the second-lowest rate in the U.S. Demand isn't the issue in Illinois; [...]
	Chicago Bears say Hammond is ‘sole focus’ for new stadium Team president says no final decision has been made, but the organization’s attention is fixed on a development in Hammond.
	In-channel rain guards vs. stick-on: 3 key differences drivers should know In-channel rain guards vs. stick-on: 3 key differences drivers should knowRain guards are slim, aerodynamic accessories that mount above your vehicle's side windows. Their main job is to redirect rain, wind, and road debris away from partially open windows, allowing you to let in fresh air—even in bad weather—without soaking your interior or dealing with loud wind noise.They also help reduce window fogging, minimize sun glare, and can even enhance the overall look of your vehicle. Whether you're commuting, road-tripping, or just running errands, Husky Liners explains the differences between in-channel and stick-on rain guards and breaks down how they can add comfort and functionality to your daily drive.In-Channel Rain Guards vs. Stick-On Rain Guards: The 3 Key DifferencesNow that you know what rain guards do, let's take a closer look at how in-channel and stick-on styles differ—starting with how each one is designed. While both serve the same purpose, their construction and fitment offer distinct pros and cons. Husky Liners DesignIn-channel rain guards are engineered to fit directly into the window channel, or the narrow track where the window slides up and down. This design creates a sleek, flush-mounted look that blends smoothly with the window frame. Since they tuck into the channel, no adhesive is applied to your vehicle's painted surfaces.On the other hand, stick-on rain guards (also called tape-on deflectors) adhere to the exterior of the doorframe using automotive-grade adhesive tape. This design gives them a slightly more pronounced appearance but also allows for a wider fit range across different vehicle models.While both offer reliable protection and airflow control, the choice primarily depends on whether you prefer a more integrated appearance or a straightforward, utility-focused solution.Installation ProcedureWhile both types of rain guards are DIY-friendly, their installation processes vary.In-channel rain guards slide into the upper window channel and often include adhesive strips along the inside edge for extra security. Installation typically involves cleaning the channel, doing a dry fit, peeling the adhesive backing, and pressing the guard into place. After installation, you'll need to keep the windows rolled up for 24 to 48 hours to help the guards seat properly and avoid interference with window operation.Alternatively, stick-on rain guards are even simpler to install. These use automotive-grade adhesive to attach directly to the outside of the doorframe. After cleaning the surface, you peel off the backing and press the visor into place, with no tools, no waiting period, and no fuss.In short, in-channel deflectors require more finesse but offer a cleaner look, while stick-on options are quicker to install and more forgiving for first-time DIYers.AestheticsWhen it comes to appearance, both styles offer a sleek upgrade, but the finish and fit are where the differences stand out.In-channel rain guards have a more seamless, factory-style appearance. Because they sit inside the window channel, they follow the natural lines of the vehicle and appear more integrated. This low-profile look is popular with drivers who want subtle styling that doesn't distract from their vehicle's design.Stick-on rain guards are slightly more visually prominent, since they mount directly onto the doorframe. While they still offer a clean, contoured look, they're generally more noticeable than in-channel versions—something many drivers prefer for the added contrast and aggressive styling.Ultimately, the aesthetic difference comes down to personal taste. Whether you're going for a refined original equipment manufacturer (OEM) feel or a bold, functional accent, there's a rain guard style to match your vision.This story was produced by Husky Liners and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Friday, August 14th, 2026

Thursday, August 13th, 2026