Air improvements help toddlers

The Guardian -  Improvements in air pollution are leading to brighter, smarter toddlers, according to a new study from Columbia University in New York….

Over the course of the study, air pollution in central New York improved massively. Clean-air legislation reduced some pollutants from the city’s yellow taxis by as much as 80%. Heavy fuel oils are being phased out for heating the city’s buildings and cleaner fuels are being used in the city’s buses. Fine particle pollution and levels of nitrogen dioxide halved between 1998 and 2016….

The good news is that the toddlers’ scores improved as the air pollution improved. This was especially clear when the children were two and three years old, and during times of sharper falls in air pollution. The researchers were also able to take into account the effects of other factors that may have affected the children’s development. These included rapid declines in the proportion of children who lived with a tobacco smoker, which fell from 34% to 18%, and increases in maternal education, with a nine percentage-point increase in the proportion of mothers who had successfully graduated from high school.

Singles stats

Study Finds

1. Nearly half of single Americans went on zero dates last year, yet most say they feel happier and less stressed than they did in past relationships.
2. About one in four singles said they would still choose to stay single even if their perfect match appeared tomorrow. 
3. About 47% of respondents say they’ve experienced love at first sight. 
4. Almost 1 in 3 respondents admit they’ve flown solo for at least 5 years

Meanwhile. . . .

Study Finds - 35 percent of U.S. adults can’t name all three branches of government, a figure statistically unchanged from 2024 and 2025.

Decline of word use

BBC - Two academics — Matthias Mehl and Valeria Pfeifer [found] there was a theory that women, on average, spoke more than men. So Matthias and his colleagues strapped listening devices to hundreds of people and found the theory was wrong: men and women both spoke about 16,000 words a day.

But recently, they went back and looked at a bigger pool of recordings over a longer timeframe and found something else: everyone is now speaking less. Between 2005 and 2019, the average person experienced a 28% drop in how many words they spoke in an average day. 

Youth struggle with mental health

New Republic -   Young people became more reliant on social media for connection, as they were prevented from interacting with friends and attending school in person; this was associated with a commensurate uptick in depressive episodes and thoughts of suicide. In December 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory warning of the “devastating” effects of declining youth mental health.

After lockdowns concluded, there was some improvement, evidenced by a decrease in suicidal ideation among adolescents and young adults since 2021. But the situation remains grim, as millions of young Americans struggle with their mental health and a pervasive sense of isolation.

Why rising food prices leave farmers uncertain

The Guardian --  Wheat prices are at their highest level in three years, which means farmer Merrill Nielsen should be getting more for his crops out of his 2,500-acre Kansas farm. Yet even as future prices for bread-type wheat are up 39%, Nielsen is unsure whether increased prices will raise his bottom line. The price of diesel fuel, which he needs to run his tractor, has hit record highs. Then there’s the erratic weather that made him lose his entire wheat crop in the spring, and drought has overtaken the southern Great Plains.

“We’re not looking to plant any more wheat than we probably normally would, or maybe we won’t even plant that much. I don’t know. Really, we’ll have to see what the weather does for us,” Nielsen said.

The combination of high costs, poor weather and geopolitics leave US farmers such as Nielsen with an uncertain growing season despite higher prices for their yields. It also leaves consumers, from millers and bakers to restaurants and grocery shoppers, at risk of feeling the pinch.

The legal status of mail-in voting

Newsworthy - The Supreme Court’s emergency order let parts of a federal mail-ballot screening plan move ahead, then lower courts pulled it back, leaving voters and states in limbo before the midterms.

On August 24, 2026, the Supreme Court issued an emergency order that let the administration proceed, for now, with parts of its mail-ballot policy while lawsuits continue. The order did not decide the final legality of the rule. It lifted one block but left other limits in place around the country. The mixed result created a patchwork. Some states faced new steps. Other states continued under injunctions from lower courts that viewed the policy as unlawful.

The administration’s legal theory frames the United States Postal Service as a gatekeeper for secure ballot mail. Supporters say postal rules on lists and barcodes help detect fraud and protect chain of custody. Two justices argued the Postal Service has broad mail security powers that can include ballot handling standards. They said there is a strong interest in enforcing the rule while cases move ahead. That view did not control the Court but signals a serious legal debate.

The Postal Service rule requires states to submit mail voter lists and use envelopes with unique barcodes tied to each ballot. It also sets up a portal to match ballot mail against those lists. Ballots that do not match could be rejected for delivery under the policy, according to court filings and reporting. These steps amount to a federal screen layered on top of state election systems. That is why lawsuits call the plan an unprecedented shift in ballot processing.  MORE

Polls

Washington Post - A poll conducted in June by the Pew Research Center found 71 percent predicting that AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years, up from 64 percent who said this in 2024. Separately, a poll conducted in August by Gallup found 27 percent of American workers worry that their job “will become obsolete because of technology.” That figure is up from 20 percent last year and from 13 percent in 2017. Fears have risen most sharply among college grads and younger workers in the past few years.

CAP polling, released this week, shows that 63 percent of men under age 35 support policies that make it easier to join a union. A new analysis from the Center for American Progress helps explain why. Unions help young men—especially working-class young men—reach financial stability and afford major life goals:

Student loan debt

WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 12 key metrics. The data set ranges from the average student loan balance to the unemployment rate among 25- to 34-year-olds to the share of students with past-due loan balances.
 

States With the Most Student Debt	States With the Least Student Debt
1. Mississippi	42. Oregon
2. Delaware	43. District of Columbia
3. Pennsylvania	44. Colorado
4. South Carolina	45. Wyoming
5. West Virginia	46. Alaska
6. South Dakota	47. New Mexico
7. Ohio	48. Washington
8. Louisiana	49. California
9. Kentucky	50. Hawaii
10. Georgia	51. Utah

 
Best vs. Worst

• Utah has the lowest average student debt, which is 2.2 times lower than in New Hampshire, the state with the highest.
   
• Utah has the lowest proportion of students with debt, which is 1.9 times lower than in South Dakota, the state with the highest.
   
• Wisconsin has the lowest share of student loans in past-due or default status, which is 3.1 times lower than in Mississippi, the state with the highest.

To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank

Canada

NPR - The European Union has proposed making Canada its first-ever "associate member." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the proposal for the new model of membership during her annual speech to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, France. In his own address to the EU Parliament this morning, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasized how much the EU and Canada have in common and said that “Europe and Canada are stronger together.”

History worth forgetting

American Facts - In 1959, American college students embraced a wonderfully pointless challenge: stuffing as many people as possible into a telephone booth. The fad had already appeared overseas, including a 25-student attempt in Durban, South Africa, before spreading rapidly across U.S. campuses. At Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California, 22 students squeezed into one upright booth, producing one of the craze’s most famous photos. Arguments soon broke out over rules: Did feet have to fit? Could the booth lie sideways? By the end of 1959, the fad was already giving way to the next campus novelty.

Health benefits of reading a book

Time - Over the past couple of decades, the share of Americans reading for pleasure has been steadily dropping, with one large study finding that only 16% of people read for pleasure. 

But a new review published in Psychological Medicine suggests that reading for pleasure—sitting down and focusing on a book you actually look forward to cracking open—can have significant impacts on your brain and wellbeing. 

Reading has an effect from a very young age, says Barbara Sahakian, an emeritus professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and an author of the new paper. In one study of about 10,000 children in the U.S., she and her colleagues found that kids who started to read for pleasure early in life were better adjusted later, regardless of their socioeconomic background. “They had better cognition, they had reduced symptoms of mental-health problems, they had better attention,” she says. They also spent less time on screens and slept longer.

Artificial intelligence

NBC News - Concerns about artificial intelligence and the pace of its development have exploded in recent days. Now, tech executives — including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis — are coalescing around the idea that their industry needs to come up with its own rules and standards.

Tech companies have shown some willingness to make changes — but without regulation, they’re also able to undo those changes whenever they want. Litigation has also moved companies to change, like Meta’s recent $18 billion settlement, which included an agreement to place limits on how teens use Instagram. 

The House yesterday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would shield consumers from higher energy costs from new data centers in their communities. But the bill doesn’t address recent safety concerns, and it’s uncertain what will happen to the bill in the Senate. 

Meanwhile, people across the political spectrum, from Steve Bannon to Sen. Bernie Sanders, have called for a “pro-human” future for AI (more on that in today’s Staff Pick, below). Where things stand with AI self-regulation.

Jared Perlo, NBC News - For years, I’ve chatted and met with people skeptical of the speed of AI development — some of them award-winning physicists who worry that a super intelligence could supplant human ingenuity, others activists who have railed against the growing concentration of wealth and power for a select few tech oligarchs.

 Those factions, and more, convened for the first Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, D.C., this week. Faith leaders, A(ish)- list actors, computer scientists, nonprofit activists and more advocated for a more human approach to AI development. The conference had an incredible buzz, especially coming off the heels of last week’s firestorm of headlines about how AI researchers think the technology is moving too fast. There was also a table of free merchandise — I don’t know the next time I’ll be able to nab a free baseball hat that proclaims the benefits of being “pro-human.”

 Despite the camaraderie, attendees seemed to disagree on what “pro-human” actually meant. Steve Bannon railed against China, while Sen. Bernie Sanders advocated for people to have a democratic say in the technology’s direction. The event’s organizers called for the tech to “amplify rather than diminish human potential.” What exactly that means, I have no idea — and I think the 500-plus attendees might have 500-plus different ideas.

NY Times’ favorite 50 restaurants

Are you cleaning your cat litter box correctly?

Soap recall

NOTE

Sam Smith - The end of November  will mark my 89th years on this planet, most of which had me involved as a journalist. A recent incident, that included temporary suspension of service, made me realize  that it was time for me to retire from controversial news coverage. So, for the indefinite future, Undernews will still be operating but covering non-controversial matters.

The end of it

Sam Smith – On Wednesday, Microsoft suspended our service because of an improper intrusion into our programming. It was something I had worried about increasingly as I realized that that technology was a process that, besides organizing our lives better, also made it easier for others to interfere. l

And so the notice that my computer had been intruded and was about to be out of service confirmed my fears yet also made it clear that I was in no way prepared for this, a condition further emphasized when my wife came home and found to whom I was talking and why.  

I am now 88 years old, 69 years after my first radio news broadcast as a college student in Boston. it was time to close down, after all.  

There will be no more issues dealing with political matters.  Instead I will, on no set schedule, send stories about our being as humans and  our daily lives.

Donald Trump

Washington Post -   President Donald Trump handed Republicans what he said was a surefire formula for winning the midterm elections this fall: Act as if Trump is on the ballot and promise $5,000 payouts to every citizen. A week after the Republican midterm convention where Trump delivered his advice, most GOP congressional candidates are ignoring it, a Washington Post analysis of more than a million social media posts by politicians found.

Republican candidates are sticking to their own messages, not Trump’s, as they navigate an increasingly difficult political landscape marked by high consumer prices, a protracted war in Iran and a president whose own approval rating has stayed stubbornly low, the analysis shows.

Stupid Trump stuff

New Republic - The Trump administration has a lot of things “visitors should know” before entering the National Museum of American History. According to reporting by The Atlantic, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is mobilizing the National Park Service to display at least a dozen signs around the National Museum of American History warning visitors of “ideologies that distract from a coherent and accurate presentation of America’s story” before they step foot on the premises. The signs are projected to cost at least $84,000. This is the Trump administration’s latest attack on the Smithsonian, a cultural institution that has stood witness to the American story for 180 years.

Diesel Fuel

Drop Site  - U.S. diesel prices hit record high above $6.30 a gallon: Average U.S. diesel prices rose to a record $6.31 per gallon on Wednesday, according to the American Automobile Association, surpassing Tuesday’s record of $6.27 and the previous historic high of about $5.82 set in 2022. Diesel averaged below $3.50 a gallon at the start of last year but has surged alongside global oil prices.

Kennedy Center closing

1440 - The Kennedy Center’s board, led by President Donald Trump, voted yesterday to close the landmark DC venue, citing urgent financial and structural issues. The board’s decision came soon after a federal judge ruled Trump’s name could not be readded to the building.

The board cited a partial ceiling collapse in the venue’s main lobby on Sept. 4 after an evening of heavy rain in its decision (scroll for video). However, the board said it will not begin a planned two-year, $257M renovation project funded by Congress until Trump’s name can be inscribed, an effort to honor his plan to raise an additional $100M in funding.

A federal judge has ruled such inscriptions illegal, citing federal law that no memorials or plaques be added to the Kennedy Center without congressional approval.

Inflation

NBC News - A Congressional Budget Office report says the war with Iran is responsible for more than 40% of inflation in the second quarter of 2026 and that inflation will likely continue into 2027.

Canada and Europe

Bloomberg - The European Union floated Canada becoming its first associate member. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered the invitation during her state of the union address with Canada’s Mark Carney in attendance, saying the group needs to “re-imagine” its partnerships. The Canadian prime minister warned earlier this year that the “rules-based international order” was effectively dead and has repeatedly pushed for so-called middle powers to band together.

Artificial intelligence

NY Times - President Trump posted on Truth Social this week that artificial intelligence and the data centers that power it “will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History ­­— Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet.”

….In hundreds of replies to Mr. Trump’s Truth Social posts this week, commenters criticized his enthusiasm, offering a social media snapshot that mirrors recent polling, which shows that Republicans are increasingly concerned about the technology. The New York Times analyzed thousands of comments on Mr. Trump’s posts to create a snapshot of what his most loyal supporters are thinking about his pro-A.I. stance.

…. Overall, the number of comments disparaging A.I. and data centers outnumbered those supporting the technology by nearly four to one, the analysis showed. Many of the comments criticizing the president came from users whose profiles suggested they were otherwise staunch Trump supporters and members of his MAGA movement. Hundreds of other comments included only images or memes, which were not analyzed, or did not directly address data centers or A.I.

More Americans are eating fruit—but fewer are eating vegetables

Time - In. a new federal report, researchers say most U.S. adults are eating at least some fruits and vegetables every day, but plenty aren't. During 2021 to 2023, the most recent available data, about 70% of adults age 20 and older said that they ate any fruit or drank 100% fruit juice on a given day—leaving roughly 30% of American adults who reported not eating a single piece of fruit or drinking any fruit juice. 93% said they ate a vegetable. The data are collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) as part of an annual health and nutrition survey that includes 5,000 adults and children.

.....In the latest survey, more women than men consumed fruit on a given day (74% vs. 66%). About the same proportion of women and men ate vegetables, but the type differed; while 42% of women reported eating a dark-green vegetable, only 34% of men did. —Alice Park

Physical violence in America

The Guardian  - In their lifetime, more than half of US adults have experienced physical violence – and nearly half have experienced sexual violence, according to a new national study. The study, led by researchers from Tulane University’s Newcomb Institute and the University of California, San Diego, examined experiences of physical, sexual and intimate partner violence.

The study found that 52% of US adults have experienced physical violence during their lifetime, including cases involving a gun or knife. The rate was the same among women and men: 52% for each.

Voting

Newsworthy - The Supreme Court’s emergency order let parts of a federal mail-ballot screening plan move ahead, then lower courts pulled it back, leaving voters and states in limbo before the midterms. Lower courts say the Postal Service likely lacks power to refuse lawful ballots.  Experts say fraud rates in mail voting are extremely low nationwide

Texas universities dropping courses gender, race and other issues

The Hill - Public universities in Texas have dropped hundreds of courses from their core curricula — or altogether — amid rising political pressure over the last two years. Texas A&M University has removed 350 core listings across its system, many dealing with gender, race and other popular GOP targets. The University of Houston has nixed 133 classes from its core curricula, and the University of Texas at Austin has dropped 113.

Professors say students are missing out on subjects relevant to their future careers, and some educators are moving on to private schools, where political winds are less fierce.

Students are required to take a select number of core classes in college in order to graduate. They typically choose from an array of courses to satisfy this requirement, but public universities are increasingly making optional selections that focus on women’s studies, LGBTQ issues, climate change and other left-leaning concepts, leading to the possibility of less student interest in the topics.

Texas A&M announced early this year it was eliminating its entire women’s and gender studies degree program. Texas State University completely removed a course called LGBTQ+ Communication Studies after backlash.

Cheese recalled

Health - A gourmet cheese from Whole Foods is being recalled in seven states over a potentially dangerous allergen risk, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday. The grocer’s Cabricharme cheese contains egg lysozyme, an egg white protein, that is not declared on the product label, posing a serious or life-threatening health risk for people with an egg allergy.

The recalled cheese was sold by the pound at the Specialty cheese department with the following information:

• Type of label: Whole Foods Market Scale Label
• Product description: Formagerie Coop de Mean Cabricharme Raw Milk – Aged 60 days
• PLU: 57953
• Affected states: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island
• Product description: Belgian Cabricharme