Oops!

High Noon is recalling some of its vodka seltzer drinks because they were mislabeled as nonalcoholic Celsius energy drinks, according to a recall notice posted Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

High Noon is recalling two production lots of High Noon Beach Variety packs. Some of these 12-can packs have cans that are filled with High Noon vodka seltzer alcohol and are mislabeled as “CELSIUS® ASTRO VIBE™ Energy Drink, Sparkling Blue Razz Edition” with a silver top.

Setting aside that High Noon should clearly be a THC seltzer, this is the most plausible excuse for a DWI I've heard of. "But officer, I only had two energy drinks."

Cool. So voting will continue being useless in Texas, but we're doing this to save the House majority in D.C.?

Texas GOP lawmakers released their first draft of the state’s new congressional map Wednesday, proposing revamped district lines that attempt to flip five Democratic seats in next year’s midterm elections.

The new map targets Democratic members of Congress in the Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas. The draft, unveiled by Corpus Christi Republican Rep. Todd Hunter, will likely change before the final map is approved by both chambers and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Democrats have said they might try to thwart the process by fleeing the state.

This unusual mid-decade redistricting comes after a pressure campaign waged by President Donald Trump’s political team in the hopes of padding Republicans’ narrow majority in the U.S. House.

Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House seats. Trump carried 27 of those districts in 2024, including those won by Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen.

Under the proposed new lines, 30 districts would have gone to Trump last year, each by at least 10 percentage points.

It's going to pass. As sure as Paxton was going to be acquitted.

On Monday, Mayor Patrick Collins of Cheyenne, Wyoming, announced plans for an AI data center that would consume more electricity than all homes in the state combined, according to The Associated Press. The facility, a joint venture between energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and AI data center developer Crusoe, would start at 1.8 gigawatts and scale up to 10 gigawatts of power use.

The project's energy demands are difficult to overstate for Wyoming, the least populous US state. The initial 1.8-gigawatt phase, consuming 15.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually, is more than five times the electricity used by every household in the state combined. That figure represents 91 percent of the 17.3 TWh currently consumed by all of Wyoming's residential, commercial, and industrial sectors combined. At its full 10-gigawatt capacity, the proposed data center would consume 87.6 TWh of electricity annually—double the 43.2 TWh the entire state currently generates.

Because drawing this much power from the public grid is untenable, the project will rely on its own dedicated gas generation and renewable energy sources, according to Collins and company officials. However, this massive local demand for electricity—even if self-generated—represents a fundamental shift for a state that currently sends nearly 60 percent of its generated power to other states.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon praised the project's potential benefits for the state's natural gas industry in a company statement. "This is exciting news for Wyoming and for Wyoming natural gas producers," Gordon said.

The proposed site for the new data center sits several miles south of Cheyenne near the Colorado border off US Route 85. While state and local regulators still need to approve the project, Collins expressed optimism about a quick start. "I believe their plans are to go sooner rather than later," he said.

Two more men have come forward to accuse Christian rock superstar and Maga firebrand Michael Tait of drugging and sexually assaulting them – including Jason Jones, the founding manager of the American hard-rock band Evanescence.

Jones said he was fired from the band – which had ties to Tait – for speaking out about his alleged assault. Jones said the firing, which he claimed happened in 1999, cut him out of Evanescence’s massive success beginning in 2003.

“It destroyed me,” said Jones. “I was achieving my dreams at an early age, and Tait changed all that.”

Evanescence co-founder Ben Moody denied Jones was fired from the band for speaking out against Tait.

Moody said he does recall Jones telling him about a sexual encounter with Tait, but at the time Moody interpreted it as consensual.

“I was a kid, only 18, and clearly didn’t realize what he was going through,” Moody said. “I’m sure I missed a lot of things I’d recognize today. I didn’t realize he was traumatized.”

US immigration officers made false and misleading statements in their reports about several Los Angeles protesters they arrested during the massive demonstrations that rocked the city in June, according to federal law enforcement files obtained by the Guardian.

The officers’ testimony was cited in at least five cases filed by the US Department of Justice amid the unrest. The justice department has charged at least 26 people with “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers and other crimes during the protests over immigration raids. Prosecutors, however, have since been forced to dismiss at least eight of those felonies, many of them which relied on officers’ inaccurate reports, court records show.

The justice department has also dismissed at least three felony assault cases it brought against Angelenos accused of interfering with arrests during recent immigration raids, the documents show.

From today's "wait, he was still alive?" files.

Fucking brilliant musician. Many videos in the link.

This is an interesting traipse without stumbling into tinfoil land. Boyle is one of my subscriptions.

President Trump's new executive order to combat homelessness encourages local governments to revive civil commitment, a process to place people with mental health issues in treatment facilities without their consent.

Why it matters: Involuntary civil commitment has historically been used as a preventative method to confine people before they harm themselves or others, and most frequently affects vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ+, people of color and people with disabilities, according to several studies.

Context: The order Trump signed Thursday calls for shifting homeless individuals into "long-term" institutions for "humane treatment" which the administration says will "restore public order."

Cool. Just one more thing to be worried about from a failed system. I'm guessing "humane treatment" doesn't include access to the outside world.

For nearly two years, Los Angeles County Superior Court, which has jurisdiction over the city of Los Angeles, has been operating under a zero-bail policy. Despite Trump's claims, releasing people without cash bail has not flooded LA’s streets with violent criminals. Instead, the policy has coincided with declining violent and nonviolent crime rates in the county.

The court announced its zero-bail policy in October 2023. Under the bail guidelines, most people arrested for nonviolent minor offenses are either released after arrest or booked at a jail and then released with $0 bail. Those who commit nonviolent crimes that pose a greater threat to the community are released with $0 bail and some nonmonetary conditions, such as requirements to show up to all court dates or avoid substance use. Monetary bail remains in use for people charged with domestic violence or other violent crimes.

Although the county’s zero-bail policy is not the only factor in LA’s crime rate, its implementation has coincided with a period of historic declines in crime. In 2024, homicides in LA were down 14% compared to 2023, with the number of shooting victims down 19%. Other violent and property crimes also saw significant decreases. This trend continued in the first half of 2025, with homicides decreasing by 20%. In June, LA had the fewest number of homicides since 1966.

According to the Real-Time Crime Index, crime rates in LA County as a whole are also falling, with violent crime down nearly 7% and nonviolent crime down almost 12%.

Why do people keep paying for increasingly expensive houses in obviously risky coastal areas? A recent piece in the Tampa Bay Times ("Investors snapped up Tampa Bay homes damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton") by Rebecca Liebson and Teghan Simonton sticks with me. It's a cycle: Despairing owners of damaged houses, overwhelmed and underinsured, sell out; speculators buy, then quickly transfer to house-flippers; flippers quickly renovate (or don't), then rent or sell at higher prices to the next set of people who can't wait to get into the market.

The whole thing is driven by buyers' desires to live in precarious coastal locations. That desire appears unconstrained, and it seems that nothing will diminish it other than perhaps a series of disasters in short order that make life acutely uncomfortable. And even that might not be enough. Until there is no land left under a house for it to stand on, someone will buy it—and someone else stands ready to make money from the sale. Laws and policies systematically planning for decommissioning of public infrastructure (sewer, water, roads) over several years, together with well-resourced buyout offers accompanied by wraparound relocation services, could change this picture. Until then, the cycle will grind on.

Distressed properties all over Florida and up and down the East Coast can be a goldmine for investors. Along the Jersey Shore, essentially unconstrained speculation and development since 2012's Hurricane Sandy has led to explosive growth in very expensive homes.

Look, making money is what developers and speculators do. It makes sense that, left to their own devices, they buy cheap and sell for much more. But why do buyers keep showing up? There's a telling quote from Florida economist Brad O'Connor in the Tampa Bay article:

"We always worry that there's going to be a stigma put on Florida every time we have a bad hurricane, and it just doesn't seem to materialize. People still want to move here. People still want to live in paradise."

The road to four struggling rural hospitals now hosts a political message: “If this hospital closes, blame Trump.”

In a series of black-and-yellow billboards erected near the facilities, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) seeks to tell voters in deep red states “who is responsible for gutting rural healthcare”.

“UNDER TRUMP’S WATCH, STILWELL GENERAL HOSPITAL IS CLOSING ITS DOORS,” one sign screams. The billboards are outside hospitals in Silex, Missouri; Columbus, Indiana; Stilwell, Oklahoma; and Missoula, Montana.

The fate of rural hospitals has become a politically contentious issue for Republicans, as historic cuts pushed through by the GOP are expected to come into effect over the next decade. Trump’s enormous One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) cut more than $1tn from Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, insuring more than 71 million adults.