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Texas Floods Illustrate Limitations of Disaster Forecasting in Climate Crisis Era (Maria)

The author writes, “The ongoing challenges of forecasting extreme weather during the era of the climate crisis have been brought to the fore again amid [deadly] catastrophic flash flooding in the ‘hill country’ region of Texas. … July is peak flash flood season in the US, and central Texas is known as ‘flash flood alley’ because the necessary ingredients of tropical moisture and slow-moving storms come together often over hilly terrain there. National Weather Service forecasters caution that more floods could come this weekend.”

Texas Officials Slam Trump’s National Weather Service for Botched Forecast (Reader Jim) 

The author writes, “Officials in Texas are casting blame on the National Weather Service (NWS) for failing to forecast catastrophic flooding that has killed at least 27 people. NWS was among the government agencies targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency in its effort to gut the federal bureaucracy, losing approximately 600 staffers. After the cuts, the agency — which was already understaffed — began to prepare to offer “degraded” forecasting services, facing ‘severe shortages’ of meteorologists, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times in April.”

ICE Lets Slip It’s Making Up Assault Claims While Trashing Tracker App (Sean) 

From The New Republic: “Donald Trump’s administration is claiming that the number of assaults against immigration enforcement officers has skyrocketed, but when pressed, even they can’t keep their phony numbers straight. In response to CNN’s report about ICEBlock, an app that allows users to anonymously log sightings of ICE agents in their communities, ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons claimed that officers and agents were ‘already facing a 500 percent increase in assaults.’ This number isn’t new, but it is getting a little ridiculous. Gizmodo’s Matt Novak wrote Wednesday that when he requested evidence about Lyons’s statement, ICE boosted its claim from a 500 percent increase to 700 percent. No evidence was provided for either figure.”

Democrats See Trump’s Big Bill as Key to Their Comeback. It May Not Be So Easy. (Reader Steve) 

From AP News: “Even with early public opinion on their side, however, it’s far from certain that the legislation will be the political winner Democrats hope. The Democratic brand remains deeply unpopular, the party has no clear leader, its message is muddled and core elements of the Democratic base are frustrated and drifting. Some of the bill’s provisions will not take effect until after the 2026 election, so voters may not have felt the full impact by the time they vote. At the same time, it’s unclear how many voters are paying attention to the Washington-based debate. The Democratic super political action committee Priorities USA warned this week that Democrats must work harder if they want their message to break through.”

New Research Confirms That Neurons Form in the Adult Brain (Mili) 

The author writes, “Researchers from Sweden have discovered that the human brain continues to grow new cells in the memory region — called the hippocampus — even into old age. Using advanced tools to examine brain samples from people of all ages, the team identified the early-stage cells that eventually become neurons. These findings confirm that our brains remain more adaptable than previously believed, opening the door to potential treatments for memory loss and brain-related disorders.”

Is Cheese Giving You Nightmares? (Dana) 

From Time: “A modest body of contemporary research has sought to explore the link between food and nightmares more empirically. The latest is a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology — finding that if you want to get your z’s, you’d best limit the cheese. To conduct the current study, Tore Nielsen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, and his colleagues surveyed 1,082 students at MacEwan University in Alberta. All of them completed a questionnaire about their diet, food sensitivities, sleep habits, dream recall, and more.”