Self-reported drinking fell over the previous three years, from 62% in 2023 to 58% in 2024 and 54% in 2025, before holding steady this year. Gallup based the latest results on interviews with U.S. adults aged 18 and older in its July 1-19 Consumption Habits survey. (Saad, Gallup)
Read MoreThe highest court in Massachusetts has unanimously affirmed a lower court ruling prohibiting Quincy Mayor Tom Koch from erecting 10-foot-tall bronze statues of two Catholic saints on the facade of the city's new public safety building. (Blandino, USA Today)
Read MoreToday, 52% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life – up from 37% in 2021. Another 9% are more excited than concerned and 37% say they’re equally excited and concerned, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 22-28, 2026. (McClain & Park, Pew Research Center)
Read MoreChatGPT and other artificial intelligence assistants have billions of users — but data on how people are really using the tools is sparse and fragmented. It’s one reason why researchers launched the AI Observatory, a public resource to measure how people use AI by analyzing anonymized chats from seven different sources. (TIku, The Washington Post)
Read MoreBefore Billboard charts, before radio, before recorded sound itself, America still had “hit songs.” Whatever way its success was measured, a hit song touched something among the masses. (Mitchell, The Wall Street Journal)
Read MoreThe Freethought Caucus, which Huffman launched in 2018 to promote church-state separation, has grown to 37 members — more House lawmakers than the uber-conservative Freedom Caucus (32) or the Congressional Prayer Caucus (34), according to the platform LegiStorm. (Boorstein, The Washington Post)
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