Kinda sorta blue
Taylor Farms’ cyclospora was a false positive, but the FDA still links the company to the outbreak. “Absence of evidence is never evidence of absence.” / The Washington Post [$]
A new lawsuit alleges the Dept. of Homeland Security has been holding immigrant children in Texas for hundreds of days, well over the 20-day legal limit. / The American Prospect
An investigation finds Chicago police are violating Illinois law by conducting “hundreds of thousands” of secret traffic stops in Black and Latino neighborhoods. / Bolts
Reversing its policy allowing trans women to compete if they maintain lower testosterone, the WTA will require a genetic test to determine players’ biological sex. / Al Jazeera
“A sovereign stack in Europe fully separate from the United States is neither achievable nor desirable for either Europe or the United States.” Trump’s misguided Anthropic ban. / Foreign Policy
Related: “American AI is locked down and proprietary. It’s losing.” / Ben Werdmuller
At a talk with around 200 OpenAI staffers last year, Dave Eggers told them ChatGPT threatens students’ writing abilities, “silencing an entire generation or two.” / The Verge [$]
If you enjoy these headlines, please join us as a Sustaining Member to support what we do and unlock access to paywalled links.
Half of all pastors are using AI to brainstorm—and a quarter are using it to help write—their sermons. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
See also: An interfaith group is spamming Maryland residents with texts promoting data centers. / Religion News Service
AI slop has reached the jazz vinyl reissues market via disposable liner notes and cover art that fuses Miles Davis and John Coltrane. / Reddit
A visit to a mermaid show at Weeki Wachee, “a living relic of the sunburnt madness of Old Florida.” / Huck
“As the genre’s name suggests, country music tends to be preoccupied with place.” Kelefa Sanneh on how the beach vacation became a country-music trope. / The New Yorker
Contrasting life in America to that in Japan, where society seems geared to caring. / Nobody Wants This
Backrooms owes much of its success to the support of fans, who are wary of A24’s attempts to impose copyright strikes on the community artwork that inspired the movie. / Polygon
Unrelated: “Where to find me in the afterlife” is a “digsite” of 603 entries that you very well could get lost in. / Jordan Tierney