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San Francisco is turning into Detroit! Hyperbole or accurate portent?  I took this question - and many more - to Charlie LeDuff, a Pulitzer prize winning reporter,Detroit News columnist and author ofDetroit: An American Autopsy. LeDuff also went to UC Berkeley for graduate school, where he studied journalism and documentary filmmaking, so there are a few better people to jump in and help understand why the comparison between the two cities are becoming more frequent - and ominous.

It happened to Vodka. It happened to Gin. It happened to Tequila. And now, it’s happening to Whiskey. The influx of celebrity names now attaching themselves to Whiskey seems to increase in multitudes every year. What’s caught my attention more than anything is the number of former athletes with a whiskey or bourbon they’re pushing. NFL Hall of Famer Charles Woodson has Woodson Bourbon. American tennis legend Andy Roddick has Sweetens Cove.

Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: a pop star canoodles with a chiropractor, another pop star abruptly ends her engagement, and Mark Wahlberg observes Ash Wednesday.  Got questions? I’ll be doing another Q&A post next week, just for paid subscribers! Please submit your gossip inquiries by replying directly to this email or commenting below. And make sure to sign up for a paid subscription so you don’t miss it.

Hi. That is actress, Dot-Marie-Jones, (of Glee and many other things, fame). She is most definitely a Valley Native. She grew up in Turlock/Hilmar, went to Modesto JC, and then went to Fresno State where she was a track and field star. So, she is partially from Fresno. And I love her in these commercials: Leave a comment In the New York Times Sunday was an article Democracy Relies on Local Newspapers where it showed this graphic:

Note: any and all opinions are entirely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cleveland Fed, the FOMC, or any other person or entity within the Federal Reserve System. I am speaking exclusively for myself in this post (as well as in all other posts, comments, and other related materials). No content whatsoever should be seen to represent the views of the Federal Reserve System. Perhaps more than during prior bouts of quantitative easing, there has been a lot of concern that the Federal Reserve has been monetizing the debt.

Our technologies change who we are individually and collectively as surely and as profoundly as climate change reshapes the Earth and everything on it. When the spoken word changed humans; how we interact, and the quality and depth of interaction, forever, the medium was the message. When the word in song or rhyme allowed cultures to transmit knowledge and values across space and time, the medium was the message. When the written word allowed humans to communicate further than their voices could carry, the medium was the message.

Even when the NBA tries to keep load management and player rest from being a major talking point of the season, it backfires. Usually, the league has done little to address the phenomenon of star players sitting out regular season games in recent years. But commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s brain trust went into 2023-24 with a full-court press against the issue, releasing research showing that load management wasn’t correlated with reduced injuries and instituting a new rule that players must play at least 65 games to be eligible for the MVP, All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defense or Most Improved Player honors.

The NIBRS transition is an issue I’ve written about before, but I’ve started getting more questions about whether the 2021 switch is potentially contributing to the declining crime trend so it seemed worth a longer look. I can appreciate why it might make sense - if fewer agencies are reporting data then there would be less crime reported. But a deep dive into the issue shows why the NIBRS transition was only really a big deal for our understanding of crime in 2021.

The "New Era" of Survivor has been polarizing amongst fans, myself included. The long-running series completed its 40th season, Winners at War, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, production on seasons 41 and 42 were halted until 2021. Because all players and crew had to quarantine for 14 days before filming, the game was shortened from its traditional 39 days to 26. Other changes included new twists like A Shot in the Dark (you can give up your vote for a chance at immunity), the Beware Advantage (you lose your vote for the potential to win an idol), and several other twists that usually revolve around someone losing their vote.