Max McNown’s Grand Ole Opry debut nearly didn’t happen. His car broke down in the wrong parking lot, and he was sweating through his pearl snap shirt waiting for a tow. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Day: September 9, 2026
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced a civil lawsuit against TikTok on Aug. 11, 2026, filed in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and accusing the social media platform of violating state consumer protection laws in ways that harm youth.
There are two central charges.
One is deceit: for example, making false statements about how much of TikTok’s content contains mature themes, and about the ability of its guardrails to protect youth from that content.
The second alleges that “TikTok knowingly created platform features intended to cause excessive, compulsive, and addictive use, despite knowing that young people are more susceptible to – and acutely harmed by – those features.” Those features include infinite scrolling, autoplay and push notifications designed to trigger the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that drives the brain’s reward system.
The company rejects the charges. In a statement to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a spokesperson for TikTok said, “This lawsuit relies on misleading and inaccurate claims and deliberately ignores the concrete safety measures TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the well-being of our community.”
I’m a public policy professor, not a lawyer, so I won’t predict who’ll win in court. But after nearly 40 years studying how addictive products are marketed, I agree that goods and services that lead to compulsive behaviors – whether scrolling or smoking – deserve special scrutiny. However, they do not fall neatly into binaries such as being addictive or not, or dangerous for youth but safe for adults. Lawsuits that find defendants liable or not liable risk imposing black-and-white distinctions on trade-offs that require nuanced thinking.
Binary thinking doesn’t work
There is a long history of binary thinking about addictive goods.
Drugs such as heroin were seen as dangerous and bad, so they were banned.
Most everything else was good, or at least neutral. The government might tax and regulate, but traditionally it does not focus on protecting consumers from the consequences of overindulgence. The health department may regulate what goes into a doughnut, but not how many doughnuts go into you.
John Greim/Lightrocket Collection via Getty Images
Reality is closer to a continuum. Alcohol, nicotine and caffeine are psychoactive chemicals that can cause varying degrees of problems, but they were never lumped together with heroin. And even when cannabis was prohibited, neither sentencing guidelines nor the public equated its dangers with crack. The public was sophisticated enough to know that some drugs cause more harm.
Gambling also challenges black-and-white thinking. It triggers neural pathways similar to those activated by drug addiction, and the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual recognizes that it can produce compulsive, self-destructive behavior even without a drug involved. Yet no compulsion-inducing product – not even the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl – always induces addictive or self-destructive behavior. After all, many patients have “used” fentanyl during surgery.
Countries regulate gambling with that variation in mind. Until recent decades, the U.S. banned commercial sports betting. Japan limits casino visits to a set number per week or month. Norway permits gambling only via state monopolies aimed at preventing gambling problems and at funneling profits to nonprofits.
I’m not arguing that Japan’s or Norway’s gambling policies are right, or that the U.S. should follow Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia in blocking youth social media accounts. I’m only suggesting such actions merit real debate, not automatic dismissal.
Binary distinctions between bad and good don’t work because products and their features vary widely in how likely they are to cause regrettable, repetitive engagement. Free societies rightly presume that adults can manage their own affairs without government interference – but children are a different matter, and even adult freedom has exceptions.
Is TikTok engineered to addict?
Pennsylvania’s lawsuit charges that TikTok is engineered to trap users and thereby maximize the time they spend generating revenue for the company. That is reminiscent of cigarette manufacturers intentionally modifying chemical formulations, such as adding ammonia compounds, to enhance the speed and efficiency of nicotine absorption to maintain user addiction.
Anna Barclay/Getty Images News via Getty Images
On the other hand, keeping users continuously engaged – through casino floor design, gym membership contracts or automated billing for subscriptions – is a mainstream strategy across industries. Plenty of legal, respected organizations use it to maximize profit.
Likewise, reputable studies also find some degree of dopamine response to video games, milkshakes and even music. The intensity of that response is far lower than what drugs such as cocaine or heroin produce, but it illustrates that one should not leap from the mere existence of a dopamine response to a reflexive ban.
Ideally, legislatures would strike a balance between freedom and protecting the minority who’d misuse it. But lately, state and national legislatures have been stalled by partisan division, swayed by commercial interests and reluctant to pass new restrictions.
When courts do the regulating
Given this legislative lethargy, state attorneys general sometimes step in to protect the public from companies that exploit compulsion-inducing products. Pittsburgh Public Schools made a similar case years before Sunday’s lawsuit: The district sued TikTok and other social media platforms in federal court, arguing the companies induced students to “compulsively use their services” and left the district to absorb the resulting mental health costs. That case, consolidated with similar suits from districts nationwide, ended when TikTok settled rather than go to trial this spring – a resolution that came just months before Pennsylvania filed its own case making a similar addictive-by-design argument.
Important elements of modern tobacco control came not from Congress but from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. This agreement resolved lawsuits brought by state attorneys general against major cigarette manufacturers. It also eliminated cigarette billboard ads, cartoon mascots like Joe Camel, most free samples and tobacco-brand sponsorships, and it banned cigarette marketing aimed at youth. Congress didn’t give the FDA broad authority over tobacco until a decade later, in 2009.
The opioid crisis provides a more recent example. Settlements of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy chains imposed not only billion-dollar fines but also rules governing future conduct. Johnson & Johnson agreed to stop selling and promoting opioids for 10 years. Major drug distributors agreed to stronger systems for identifying suspicious wholesale opioid orders and sharing distribution data, while CVS, Walgreens and Walmart agreed to systems for flagging suspicious opioid prescriptions. Litigation accomplished some of the work ordinarily associated with regulation.
Regulation by litigation has drawbacks. Courts and attorneys general are no substitute for legislatures and expert regulatory agencies. But when conventional regulation fails to keep pace with powerful new products capable of inducing self-destructive, compulsive consumption, courts offer another route.
The path Attorney General Sunday has now opened may prove long and contentious, but the TikTok suit could come to be seen as the beginning of an important new layer of public protection against compulsion-inducing product design.
Jonathan Caulkins receives funding from The National Science Foundation and is an adjunct researcher with the RAND Corporation. The opinions expressed here are those of Caulkins alone, and do not reflect the views of either Carnegie Mellon University or RAND.
Politics + Society – The Conversation
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Washed up ex-reality star and failed mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is taking shots at Jimmy Kimmel.
This week, a report surfaced alleging that Kimmel’s late night talk show is set to end in a matter of months amidst Disney and ABC’s fight with the Trump regime’s retaliatory FCC campaign.
(We will delve into this claim momentarily.)
Well, Pratt is laughing up a storm and taking a victory lap. But is he right?
Spencer Pratt is toasting to the (alleged) end of Jimmy Kimmel
We’re rounding out the first third of September. The Daily Show is back from its summer hiatus. So, too, is Jimmy Kimmel Live! after weeks and weeks of guest hosts.
(Seth Meyers and John Oliver will return in a little over a week, though the former has been releasing “Proof of Life” episodes on YouTube and Last Week Tonight‘s break only spans a few weeks.)
On September 8, Page Six reported a claim that Season 25 will be Kimmel’s last.
This season has only just begun this week following Labor Day weekend. It will end next year before the show’s usual summer hiatus.
The report alleged that this will mean the end of Kimmel at ABC — even adding that he has been shopping around for other gigs.
In a nasty tweet, Pratt celebrated the rumor of Kimmel’s departure from ABC.
“Newsom AND Kimmel gone next year??” the crystal connoiseur asked.
“Be still, my laughing heart!” Pratt celebrated.
He then declared: “Things are looking UP fam.”
We’re not saying that a man in his mid-40s cannot use popular slang, but perhaps someone with Pratt’s specific politics could pick something other than AAVE for his tweets.
Is this celebration premature?
Anyone who may have once thought that the late Robert Mueller’s investigation would lead to Donald Trump’s downfall or that either Impeachment or is attempt to murder members of his own government in a violent coup on January 6, 2021 would mean anything could tell you this:
Don’t count your schadenfreude before it hatches. Or something like that.
It’s true that Page Six reported that Jimmy Kimmel’s contract will run out in May 2027 and will not be renewed, to Spencer Pratt’s delight.
But ABC almost immediately denied the report, calling it “inaccurate” and calling any such claims “purely speculative.”
It is pretty unusual for Page Six to report something like this, only for it to be immediately denounced. We know that they’re not People or TMZ, but we’d still expect that Page Six would only report something this confidently if they truly believed their sources.
As both fans and detractors (and, let’s be real, most people are in the latter camp) of Spencer Pratt may recall, he and Jimmy Kimmel squared off during Pratt’s widely lampooned mayoral primary earlier this year.
Pratt running for Los Angeles was a threat to all of the people of America’s second-largest city. Kimmel being one of those people, he took it pretty personally.
He even decorated a U-Haul, mocking Pratt’s failed bid — and as a nod to his claim that he would leave LA if he lost. Even folks who aren’t really in Kimmel’s target audience (ourselves included) got a chuckle out of that, because bad men deserve ridicule.
Look, there’s a chance that the report was true, but that ABC hasn’t actually made the decision or is weighing their options.
If Kimmel does get the axe after half a century, it’s unlikely to go over well with viewers — or stockholders. Disney took a serious financial hit when they temporarily suspended his show at Trump’s urging just last year. Is capitulating to the Trump regime so important that they’d neglect their fiduciary responsibilities (not their sense of justice; they are a corporation) yet again?
Spencer Pratt Gleefully Celebrates Jimmy Kimmel Cancellation (But Is It True?) was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
Based on experts’ estimates, heterochromia is a rare condition among people in the United States. A few Hollywood stars have this unique, eye-catching mutation.
Health Digest – Health News, Wellness, Expert Insights
Open Channels FM launched version 5.0, featuring new shows, enhanced navigation, and updated content focus, shifting toward open source philosophy and community engagement.
(The Center Square) – Alienation of affection litigation in North Carolina against a former U.S. senator from Arizona can proceed, says a federal judge.
Post Content
Categories
FNF – NC – Lawsuit H Ammel v Sinema
Post Content
Jenelle Evans is living with extreme discomfort.
The Teen Mom alum gave an update on her overall health after a recent hospital stay, sharing insight into her complex regional pain syndrome…
E! Online (US) – Top Stories
The 2026 NFL season is here, and I cannot wait to see how some of the trends that emerged in the spring and summer manifest on the field this fall and winter. Each week, I’ll be diving into the All-22 coaches’ film before offering five insights to watch. My first set of takeaways covers potential Super Bowl-shifting developments from the offseason. In 2025, the Los Angeles Rams’ success with their 13 personnel package (1 RB, 3 TE, and 1 WR) captivated offensive coordinators looking for a creative way to combat two-high shells and light boxes that limit explosive plays in the passing game. By using heavy personnel typically associated with the running game, offensive playcallers are forcing defensive coordinators to run their base package or short-yardage/goal-line personnel in normal down-and-distance situations from anywhere on the field. The clever package features three “bigs” on the perimeter with the versatility to block effectively at the point, while also flashing the route-running ability to run vertical routes down the seam or crossers at intermediate range. The individual and collective talent of the Rams’ tight ends (Tyler Higbee, Colby Parkinson, Terrance Ferguson and Davis Allen) enabled head coach Sean McVay to dictate the terms to the defense, while creating more big-play chances for Matthew Stafford by using max protection and play-action passes to attack down the field. As a result, the league MVP completed almost 70% of his passes and produced 20 touchdowns out of the grouping last year, per ESPN. With the Rams also using an assortment of bunch and clustered formations to create an unbalanced offensive line with extra gaps to defend in the running game, and “snug” alignments to test the discipline and communication skills of linebackers and safeties who are not accustomed to dealing with the switch calls needed to handle pick and rub routes, McVay discovered a cheat code that helped his offense light up scoreboards around the league. Given the Rams’ success as the league’s trendsetter in 13 personnel deployment, teams spent the offseason studying the package and made roster decisions with run-heavy packages in mind. A whopping 22 tight ends were taken in the 2026 NFL Draft, including nine in the top 100 overall. Five teams (the Broncos, Browns, Dolphins, Jaguars, Ravens) picked multiple tight ends to give them the flexibility to dabble with “13” personnel this season. Jacksonville, which took Nate Boerkircher in the second round and Tanner Koziol in the fifth, is coached by McVay disciple Liam Coen. As more teams tap into multiple tight-end sets to create and exploit mismatches on the ground and through the air, the increased use of 13 personnel across the league is the No. 1 trend to watch early this season. The reunion between former Titans A.J. Brown and Mike Vrabel should produce fireworks in New England. The acquisition of an All-Pro with six 1,000-yard seasons, including a pair of seasons with 1,400-plus yards, gives the Patriots a legitimate No. 1 receiver to build the passing game around. Brown’s size, strength, and physicality make him a natural fit at “X,” where he can overpower defenders bold enough to press him at the line of scrimmage. As one of only four players in NFL history to average 75-plus receiving yards per game and 15-plus yards per reception, per Next Gen Stats, Brown consistently whips bump-and-run coverage on the perimeter. Last season, he earned a 34.7% target rate against press coverage and a 2.6 yards-per-route average, which was fifth-highest in the league. During his Eagles career (2022-2025), he led the league with a 3.4 yards-per-route average against press, the most of any receiver with 100 such routes during that span. Interestingly, Patriots’ offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels likened the veteran Brown to vaunted tight end Rob Gronkowski over the summer because of his superior physical dimensions and dominant playmaking ability on the perimeter. If that is any indication of how he will use Brown, we will likely see the big-bodied wideout on the backside of various 3×1 and empty formations, in turn forcing opponents to declare their coverage and telegraph possible double teams on his side. With the isolation alignment also allowing the Patriots to create and exploit potential mismatches, the presence of the three-time Pro Bowler should help third-year QB Drake Maye take his game up a notch with easier throws available on the perimeter. Considering he led the league in completion percentage and passer rating without a true WR1 at his disposal in 2025, the addition of Brown should add a dimension to an offense that sputtered in the NFL’s championship rounds (AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LX). McDaniels will enhance big-play potential by moving the veteran around within the formation to prevent teams from using simplistic schemes to minimize his impact. By putting Brown inside at slot receiver, the Pats can take advantage of his speed and quickness against nickel backs and linebackers in the passing game, while also utilizing his blocking skills to create room for runners on the edges. Given that New England’s passing game also features various hot routes and sight adjustments that instruct the receiver to alter his route based on coverage, Brown becomes a valuable chess piece who can counter the aggressive pressure tactics some opponents use to disrupt the quarterback’s rhythm. His route-running skills and scheme mastery will be tested, though, in Wednesday’s season opener against a Seattle Seahawks defense that will challenge the outside receivers with aggressive bump-and-run tactics. A defensive player has not won the NFL’s MVP award since Lawrence Taylor took home the hardware in 1986 after a spectacular campaign in which he totaled 20.5 sacks while leading the New York Giants to a 14-2 record and eventual Super Bowl XXI win. This year, all-world edge defender Myles Garrett is well-positioned to make a run at the illustrious honor as the Rams’ new “face of the franchise” on defense. Despite the return of fellow future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald, the football world is paying closer attention to how the two-time Defensive Player of the Year makes his mark on a team with “Super Bowl-or-bust” aspirations. Over the past three years with the Cleveland Browns, former defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz moved Garrett around to prevent opponents from honing in on his whereabouts before the snap. The five-time All-Pro can win with basic maneuvers out of a three-point stance or get into his bag with a collection of NBA-like moves that showcase his athleticism and agility. While most teams send a second and sometimes third blocker in his direction, Garrett is playing with a group of blue-chip pass-rushers who will punish opponents for overcommitting to the NFL’s all-time single-season sack holder. Kobie Turner, Byron Young and Donald are all capable of registering double-digit sacks with their respective array of one-on-one moves that will expose a blocker who lacks the talent and/or technique to win at the point of attack without help. The trio’s individual and collective dominance will force opponents to make tough decisions about when and how to double Garrett. Moreover, the group’s diverse talent will require defensive coordinator Chris Shula to create a playbook and call sheet that functions like organized chaos, with Garrett allowed to freelance without compromising the defense’s overall structure. Given that Los Angeles has played a 3-4 scheme with various iterations of nickel and dime sub-packages as complements, Shula must delicately balance the desire to play to his superstar’s strengths while keeping the scheme simple and consistent for the rest of the lineup. It’s a nice problem to have if you’re the Rams, and a potential nightmare if you’re the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1. Kevin O’Connell is regarded as one of the NFL’s quarterback whisperers due to his track record of coaxing Pro Bowl-caliber performance from the likes of Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold. And remember, the Vikings even got passable production when Nick Mullens and Josh Dobbs were rotating in and out as emergency subs under center. Although the offense sputtered under J.J. McCarthy in 2025, the acquisition of Kyler Murray gives Minnesota an electric QB1 with the potential to light up the scoreboard as a runner and thrower from the pocket. The veteran is the most talented player KOC has worked with in Minnesota and his dynamic skill set will enable the creative play designer to utilize the back pages of the playbook. Before the Vikings get to the sexy stuff with their new starter, they might initially simplify their offensive approach to allow the two-time Pro Bowler to play “pitch-and-catch” to a talented collection of receivers, including All-Pro Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. By encouraging Murray to string together completions on high-percentage passes, the Vikings are hoping to build out a quick-rhythm offense that overwhelms opponents with execution and efficiency. While skeptics question whether Murray can play within a highly structured offense after spending most of his time in Arizona freelancing and big-play hunting, a basic approach better suits his skills as a pinpoint passer with outstanding accuracy and range. With Murray expected to target the entire field with an assortment of rhythm throws that would stretch the defense from sideline-to-sideline and end line to end line, defensive coordinators must decide whether to play soft, umbrella coverage with defenders paying close attention to Jefferson and Addison while leaving cracks and creases available to Murray and the running backs on scrambles and designed runs. If defensive coordinators opt to load the box or ratchet up the pressure to attack Murray, the veteran’s explosiveness as a runner and range as a passer could make it a big-play bonanza for the Vikings. In a league where explosive plays routinely decide games, Murray’s big-play potential in a carefully crafted offense could be the storyline to watch this weekend as Minnesota hosts Green Bay. If you have not been paying attention to “America’s Team” this summer, the Cowboys are quietly emerging as title contenders behind an explosive offense and retooled defense that could surprise opponents this fall. Under the direction of first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker, a Vic Fangio disciple who spent the past two seasons with the Eagles, the Cowboys have assembled a unit that is perfectly suited to throttle opponents forced to chase points against a high-powered offense. The 34-year-old defensive playcaller not only has a talented collection of pass-rushers with Pro Bowl experience (see: Von Miller, Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark and Rashan Gary), he has ball-hawking, high-IQ defenders in the secondary. That combination of rush and coverage should challenge the patience and discipline of passers lacking the patience to “dink-and-dunk” against a defensive backfield that will be committed to taking away deep throws and explosive plays. Additionally, the Cowboys want to stuff the run from two-high structures and light boxes that make it difficult for opponents to know where the extra defenders are coming from to plug their designated run gaps. By showing an umbrella structure before moving into airtight zones with single-high, weak-side rotations, the Cowboys want to frustrate opponents with a disciplined approach that condenses the field with a group of players who are playing fast and free in the back end. If the ultra-talented pass rush plays to its talent and potential with a mix of newcomers and veterans making key contributions, the Cowboys’ defense could grow into a suffocating unit that wins with simplicity and structure from a young coach who understands how to build a system that allows players to thrive as “see ball, get ball” defenders.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports