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A ship remains anchored on May 16 in the Strait of Hormuz near Larak Island, Iran.

Oil prices drop to cheapest level since early days of Middle East conflict

Oil prices had already fallen quite dramatically on Thursday and Friday in anticipation of a deal. Trump has posted online that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen after the deal is signed this Friday.

Environmentalists renew call for action on data center regulations

Michigan environmentalists are using growing concerns about AI safety to call for a pause in new data center projects.

FILE - A Realbotix humanoid robot, center, speaks with attendees at a Realbotix booth during the CES tech show Jan. 8, 2025, in Las Vegas.

New York school pauses plan to deploy humanlike AI robot teacher after backlash

A school district in upstate New York is pausing plans to deploy an AI-powered, humanoid robot in the classroom after state education officials, teachers and local residents raised concerns.

Panel 1: A person in a striped shirt and bell-bottom pants is startled by a glowing time-travel effect. An older, balding version of themselves arrives and says, "I'm you! I've come from the past for a glimpse of the future." The startled person shouts, "Who… who are you?!"

Panel 2: The younger person grabs the older one by the collar and urgently asks, "Quick! Tell me the wonders of this new era — is energy cheap and clean as promised?" The older person responds sheepishly, "Well, not really…"

Panel 3: Against a dark, shadowy background, the older figure explains: "The federal government is forcing us to keep burning rocks at expensive coal plants, we're pouring money into rebooting derelict nuclear reactors, and we're still pumping oil sludge through our most precious fresh water resources."

Panel 4: The younger person, dejected, says, "Geez… this future sucks!" The older person replies, "Tell me about it!"

Auchter's Art: This future sucks

My younger self would be disappointed. It's not like I really expected flying cars by this point, but cleaner, cheaper energy did seem like an achievable goal.

A Taco Bell fast food restaurant is shown Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in Taylor, Mich.

Lettuce at Taco Bell in 5 states confirmed as a source of diarrhea-causing parasite

Federal health officials have identified lettuce from Mexico served by Taco Bell locations across five U.S. states as a source of the widespread outbreak of diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora.

TrumpRx promised a supermarket for cheaper drugs but delivered a boutique

President Trump said TrumpRx is the biggest thing to happen in healthcare in decades. But an NPR analysis finds drugmakers are only offering deals on a few of their medicines.

State House Committee hears testimony over concerns about ballot initiative process

Americans for Citizen Voting was denied from the ballot over invalid signatures

More Americans are going bankrupt. What does that mean?

The bankruptcy rate has risen about 48% between 2022 and 2025, although it's still below pre-pandemic levels.

An ice storm in northern Michigan in March 2025 brought down trees and power lines, causing widespread damage and outages. Research suggests that in a warming climate, the region will see more freezing rain instead of snow and possibly more destructive ice storms.

As severe weather tests the grid, utilities consider burying more power lines

Power outages are increasing as the grid ages and climate change drives more frequent severe weather. Burying power lines underground can be more reliable – but also much more expensive.

Resistance to data center projects has grown across the state, leading over 50 municipalities to implement moratoriums.

Michigan communities are putting moratoriums on data centers. The clock is ticking.

At least 52 Michigan communities have enacted data center moratoriums — temporary pauses that stop the acceptance or approval of permits for certain types of developments.

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