Pennsylvania Episcopalians, church to celebrate life and legacy of Absalom Jones; Episcopal News Service (ENS), February 12, 2026

Shireen Korkzan, Episcopal News Service (ENS); Pennsylvania Episcopalians, church to celebrate life and legacy of Absalom Jones

"Church leaders and Episcopalians in the Diocese of Pennsylvania will celebrate the Feast of the Rev. Absalom Jones, The Episcopal Church’s first Black ordained priest, on Feb. 15 during a livestreamed service at the historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, where Jones’ remains are interred in a side altar...

Absalom Jones was born into slavery in 1746 and released from bondage in 1784 following the American Revolution. Three years later, he and Allen, who also was the first bishop of the AME Church, co-founded the Free African Society, an organization that provided aid to Black people newly freed from enslavement.

Jones founded St. Thomas in 1792 and served as the church’s first rector. In 1802, he was ordained a priest. Jones’ feast day is on The Episcopal Church’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts calendar on Feb. 13, the date commemorating his death in 1818 at 71...

“In these difficult times, when even Christian communities can be strained by the forces of division and despair, our church urgently needs more leaders like Absalom Jones – leaders who act on behalf of the oppressed and distressed of our times, and at the same time embody the command Jesus gives us in the Gospel appointed for his feast day: ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said in a Feb. 12 letter promoting the fund. Rowe preached at St. Thomas’ for Jones’ feast day in 2025.

This year’s celebration comes two weeks after the National Park Service removed an open-air exhibit featuring Jones and Allen from Independence National Historical Park.

The now removed exhibit, “The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” opened in 2010 on the site where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived in the 1790s. It was removed in response to President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order prohibitingnational sites from showcasing negative aspects of U.S. history, including slavery.

The removal “strategically” occurring days before the start of Black History Month, February, was “absolutely deliberate and calculated,” Shaw said, noting that 2026 also marks the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding."

Pitt climbed in the National Academy of Inventors’ global patent ranking; PittWire, February 12, 2026

 PittWire ; Pitt climbed in the National Academy of Inventors’ global patent ranking

"The University of Pittsburgh climbed two spots on the list of the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents, according to the most recent list issued by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Pitt innovators were issued 107 U.S. patents in 2025 for a No. 26 ranking, up from No. 28 in 2024, when they were issued 102 patents.

Released annually by the NAI since 2013, the Top 100 Worldwide Universities List spotlights the universities holding U.S. utility patents to showcase the important research and innovation taking place within academic institutions.

Nine institutions outside the U.S. and several multicampus statewide university systems were among those ranked ahead of Pitt.

“Pitt’s climb in the NAI patent ranking underscores the determination of our faculty and student innovators to turn research into real-world impact,” said Evan Facher, vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship and associate dean for commercial translation at the School of Medicine. “Our innovators are submitting discoveries to the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at a record pace, and securing intellectual property is a crucial step in translating those breakthroughs into technologies that improve lives.”

In the last fiscal year, Pitt innovators had their intellectual property licensed or optioned 137 times, including the formation of 15 startup companies, with technologies ranging from AI platforms for diagnosing macular degeneration, aortic aneurysms and ear infections, to a gene therapy to treat hearing loss, and more."

Figure Skaters Try to Master a New Routine: Copyright Compliance; The New York Times, February 12, 2026

 Tariq Panja , The New York Times; Figure Skaters Try to Master a New Routine: Copyright Compliance

"The intricacies of intellectual property law have been the talk of the figure skating competition in Milan unlike at any previous Games. Several athletes have found themselves caught up in copyright controversies before and during one of the biggest competitions of their careers, illustrating the complex and error-prone process skaters must navigate to gain permission to use others’ music in their routines."

Why are copyright problems plaguing figure skating at the Milan Cortina Olympics?; AP, February 11, 2026

 DAVE SKRETTA , AP; Why are copyright problems plaguing figure skating at the Milan Cortina Olympics?

"One of the recurring issues during the opening week of the figure skating program at the Milan Cortina Olympics has been copyright problems, which have forced some athletes to scramble for approval and others to ditch their planned programs entirely...

Why are copyright problems happening?

The International Skating Union long forbade the use of lyrics in any discipline besides ice dance, forcing athletes to perform to older pieces of music — often classical tunes, such as piano concertos. Those pieces were considered part of the public domain, which meant that they could be used or modified freely and without permission.

That changed in 2014, when the ISU lifted its ban on lyrics in the hope of appealing to younger audiences. Suddenly, skaters had the choice of just about any musical genre, from pop to hip-hop to hard rock and even heavy metal.

The problem is that modern music is not part of the public domain, which means athletes must obtain permission to use it. During the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, the first Olympics in which lyrics were allowed, American skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier used a cover of “House of the Rising Sun,” and the indie rock band ultimately sued them for using it without its permission."

I drove hours to see the monks walking for peace. Five minutes with them was the gift of a lifetime; The Guardian, February 10, 2026

Mallory McDuff , The Guardian; I drove hours to see the monks walking for peace. Five minutes with them was the gift of a lifetime

"“I’m obsessed with the monks,” my friend Sam told me. “It’s the only thing getting me through the violence of this second Trump administration. The monks, and my meds.”

I nodded. I’d first heard about the monks walking for peace after my brother and sister-in-law traveled to hear them in Alabama, returning with stories of stillness and a grounded sense of hope.

The monks are part of a 2,300-mile pilgrimage for peace from a Buddhist temple in Fort Worth, Texas, across nine states to Washington DC. Dressed in vibrant orange robes, they have walked about 20 miles daily, eating one meal a day and practicing loving-kindness – a form of mindfulness that can be thought of as a non-violent resistance.

Their journey is a slow-moving meditation meant to embody peace, rather than argue for it."

Don’t turn the military’s newspaper into a message platform; Stars and Stripes, February 10, 2026

RUFUS FRIDAY | CENTER FOR INTEGRITY IN NEWS REPORTING, Stars and Stripes; Don’t turn the military’s newspaper into a message platform

"There are places where a news organization’s values aren’t just written down, they’re literally inscribed on the walls.

Recently, staff at the Stars and Stripes press facility at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, the largest United States overseas military facility, unveiled a large mural titled “Stars and Stripes’ Core Values.” The words aren’t subtle: Credibility. Impartiality. Truth-telling. Balanced. Accountable.

Those aren’t marketing slogans. They are the compact between a newsroom and its readers, and especially important when the readership is the U.S. military community, often far from home, often in harm’s way.

That is why the Department of Defense’s recent posture toward Stars and Stripes is so alarming.

According to reporting by The Associated Press and other news organizations, the Pentagon said in a public statement by a spokesperson for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that it would “refocus” Stars and Stripes away from certain subject areas and toward content “custom tailored to our warfighters,” including weapons systems, fitness, lethality and related themes. The same reporting describes proposed steps such as removing content from wire services like the AP and Reuters and having a significant portion of content produced by the Pentagon itself.

Stars and Stripes is unusual and intentionally structured as-so on purpose. The paper’s own “About” page states plainly that it is “editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command,” and “unique among Department of Defense authorized news outlets” in being “governed by the principles of the First Amendment.” 

In August 2025, Stars and Stripes took a step that I believe should be studied by every news organization trying to rebuild trust: it adopted and published a statement of core values emphasizing credibility and impartiality, and drawing a bright line between news and opinion. 

When a government authority suddenly declares that a news outlet must abandon certain viewpoints and then signals it will take a more hands-on role in shaping editorial operations, it sends a clear message to readers: the outlet is being pressured to produce coverage that satisfies those in power, rather than reporting grounded in facts.

No serious newsroom can sustain trust under that condition, which is already in dangerously short supply. Gallup reports that Americans’ confidence in mass media has fallen to historic lows, with just 28% expressing a great deal or fair amount of trust. When Gallup began measuring media trust in the 1970s, that figure routinely exceeded two-thirds of the public.

If our nation is struggling to persuade people that journalism is independent, accurate, objective, impartial and not an instrument of power, why would we take one of the country’s most symbolically important newsrooms, an outlet serving people in uniform, and wrap it more tightly inside the very institution it is entrusted to cover?

Last fall, I was in Japan for the 80th anniversary celebration of the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes. In a detailed first-person account, the gala’s keynote speaker, journalist Steve Herman, described the paper’s long history of resisting becoming a “propaganda rag,” including General Eisenhower’s defense of the paper’s independence. 

That history matters because it explains why generations of commanders tolerated uncomfortable stories: a paper that service members trust does more for cohesion and legitimacy than one that reads like a propaganda platform for approved narratives.

The Stars and Stripes values statement puts it plainly: “Credibility is the greatest asset of any news medium,” and impartiality is its “greatest source of credibility.” It describes truth-telling as the core mission, accountability as a discipline, and it emphasizes the strict separation between news and opinion. 

Those principles are neither ideological nor hostile to the military. They are the foundational principles of a free press, and they are especially important when the audience is made up of people who swear an oath to uphold the Constitution.

The Americans who serve in our Armed Forces deserve more than information that flatters authority.

They deserve journalism that respects them enough to tell the truth.

That mural in South Korea has it right. Credibility. Impartiality. Truth-telling. Balanced. Accountable.

We should treat those words as a promise kept and a commitment upheld.

Rufus Friday serves as chairman of the Stars and Stripes publisher advisory board of directors and is the former publisher of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky. Currently he is the executive director of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting."

Adam Schiff And John Curtis Introduce Bill To Require Tech To Disclose Copyrighted Works Used In AI Training Models; Deadline, February 10, 2026

 Ted Johnson, Deadline; Adam Schiff And John Curtis Introduce Bill To Require Tech To Disclose Copyrighted Works Used In AI Training Models

"Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) are introducing a bill that touches on one of the hottest Hollywood-tech debates in the development of AI: The use of copyrighted works in training models.

The Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting Act would require companies file a notice with the Register of Copyrights that detail the copyrighted works used to train datasets for an AI model. The notice would have to be filed before a new model is publicly released, and would apply retroactively to models already available to consumers.

The Copyright Office also would be required to establish a public database of the notices filed. There also would be civil penalties for failure to disclose the works used."

OpenAI Is Making the Mistakes Facebook Made. I Quit.; The New York Times, February 11, 2026

Zoë Hitzig , The New York Times; OpenAI Is Making the Mistakes Facebook Made. I Quit.

"This week, OpenAI started testing ads on ChatGPT. I also resigned from the company after spending two years as a researcher helping to shape how A.I. models were built and priced, and guiding early safety policies before standards were set in stone.

I once believed I could help the people building A.I. get ahead of the problems it would create. This week confirmed my slow realization that OpenAI seems to have stopped asking the questions I’d joined to help answer.

I don’t believe ads are immoral or unethical. A.I. is expensive to run, and ads can be a critical source of revenue. But I have deep reservations about OpenAI’s strategy."

Meta and YouTube Created ‘Digital Casinos,’ Lawyers Argue in Landmark Trial; The New York Times, February 9, 2026

Eli Tan and Cecilia Kang, The New York Times ; Meta and YouTube Created ‘Digital Casinos,’ Lawyers Argue in Landmark Trial

"The trial in the California Superior Court of Los Angeles is the first in a series of landmark cases against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube that test a novel legal theory arguing that tech can be as harmful as casinos and cigarettes.

Teenagers, school districts and states have filed thousands of lawsuits accusing the social media titans of designing platforms that encourage excessive use. Drawing inspiration from a legal playbook used against Big Tobacco last century, lawyers argue that features like infinite scroll, auto video play and algorithmic recommendations have led to compulsive social media use.

The cases pose some of the most significant legal threats to Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, potentially opening them up to new liabilities for users’ well-being. A win for the plaintiffs could prompt more lawsuits and lead to monetary damages, as well as change how social media is designed."

Pride Flag Is Removed From Stonewall Monument After Trump Directive; The New York Times, February 10, 2026

 Liam Stack, Jonathan Wolfe and Yan Zhuang, The New York Times; Pride Flag Is Removed From Stonewall Monument After Trump Directive

The removal of the flag from the Manhattan monument, the symbolic heart of the gay rights movement, came after a Trump administration memo about flags at national park sites.

"A large Pride flag was quietly removed from the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan after a directive from the federal government, the latest step in the Trump administration’s nationwide assault on diversity initiatives and the second time in less than a year it has targeted the Greenwich Village site, which commemorates the birth of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement.

The flag’s removal came weeks after the Department of the Interior issued federal guidance on displaying “non-agency” flags in the National Park System, which includes a small park in front of the Stonewall Inn, the bar for which the federal monument is named.

Elected officials and bar employees said they realized the rainbow flag was gone on Monday morning. On Tuesday, a bare flagpole stood on the monument’s grounds as steely clouds hung overhead...

“To think you can go to Stonewall and just take down the Pride flag — that is telling of the time we are living in,” Ms. Lentz said. “It is unbelievable. The flag is not just an abstract symbol; it tells L.G.B.T.Q. people, especially younger ones, that their history will not be sidelined again.”

The Trump administration directive that led to the removal of the flag was issued on Jan. 21. A copy of the memo was provided to The New York Times by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president. The flag’s removal was first reported by Gay City News.

In response to questions about the flag’s removal, the National Park Service on Tuesday pointed to that memo, saying in a statement that “only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on N.P.S.-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions.”"

No, the human-robot singularity isn’t here. But we must take action to govern AI; The Guardian, February 10, 2026

Samuel Woolley , The Guardian; No, the human-robot singularity isn’t here. But we must take action to govern AI

"Based upon my years of research on bots, AI and computational propaganda, I can tell you two things with near certainty. First, Moltbook is nothing new. Humans have built bots that can talk to one another – and to humans – for decades. They’ve been designed to make outlandish, even frightening, claims throughout this time. Second, the singularity is not here. Nor is AGI. According to most researchers, neither is remotely close. AI’s advancement is limited by a number of very tangible factors: mathematics, data access and business costs among them. Claims that AGI or the singularity have arrived are not grounded in empirical research or science.

But as tech companies breathlessly promote their AI capabilities another thing is also clear: big tech is now far from being the countervailing force it was during the first Trump administration. The overblown claims emanating from Silicon Valley about AI have become intertwined with the nationalism of the US government as the two work together in a bid to “win” the AI race. Meanwhile, ICE is paying Palantir $30m to provide AI-enabled software that may be used for government surveillance. Musk and other tech executives continue to champion far-right causes. Google and Apple also removed apps people were using to track ICE from their digital storefronts after political pressure.

Even if we don’t yet have to worry about the singularity, we do need to fight back against this marriage of convenience caused by big tech’s quest for higher valuations and Washington’s desire for control. When tech and politicians are in lockstep, constituents will need to use their power to decide what will happen with AI."

Climate Change Is Erased From a Manual for Federal Judges; The New York Times, February 10, 2026

 Karen Zraick, The New York Times ; Climate Change Is Erased From a Manual for Federal Judges

After Republican criticism, a group that offers professional resources to judges withdrew a climate science chapter from its Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence.

"In a new attack on the science of climate change, a federal agency has stripped a chapter on global warming from a manual written to help judges understand important scientific questions they may face in their courtrooms.

The chapter was deleted after a group of Republican state attorneys general complained about it to the Federal Judicial Center, a government agency that provides resources to judges. In recent years, judges in the United States have had to contend with a widening array of cases related to climate change, putting jurists in the position of having to understand the complexities of the science and research behind its causes and effects.

Late last week, the director of the Federal Judicial Center, Judge Robin L. Rosenberg, wrote a letter to one of the attorneys generalto say that the chapter on climate change had been removed from its digital version of the manual."

Don’t deny military community unbiased coverage issues that matter to them; Stars and Stripes, February 5, 2026

BERN ZOVISTOSKI, Stars and Stripes; Don’t deny military community unbiased coverage issues that matter to them

[Kip Currier: Powerful testimonial of the importance of free and independent presses]

"Bern Zovistoski was editor of European Stars and Stripes from 1991 to 1996.

When Congress intervened several decades ago (1990) to change the way Stars and Stripes operated on behalf of the U.S. military worldwide, there was evidence of “undue influence” by the uniformed leadership.

The new directives adopted by the Department of Defense were aimed at eliminating military control over what to publish (or not publish) and to provide service members a newspaper that emulated the best aspects of American journalism, without censorship of any kind.

As the first editor of European Stars and Stripes under the revised policies, I was hired as a “colonel equivalent” with responsibility for ensuring fair and accurate news coverage, arriving at Stripes in Darmstadt, Germany, just 10 days before the massive air attack that launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq.

I saw what the situation had been.

For nearly the next six years, I saw a remarkable team of civilian journalists and military members transform the newspaper into one with strong editorial integrity that offered service members unvarnished news and information — which, of course, they deserved.

During my tenure, I benefited from an excellent relationship from the two publishers with whom I worked: Air Force Col. Gene Townsend, who hired me, and Air Force Col. Steven Hoffman. Both supported my efforts to the hilt.

In fact, I learned during my tenure that a good number of officers supported our efforts.

When the Gulf War ensued, we deployed reporters just as many U.S. newspapers did, and in short order our daily circulation surged from about 80,000 to 250,000 — and many of those readers were engaged in battle.

Who would deny these men and women an unbiased view of the monumental events in which they were involved?

Based on all the signals from the Trump administration’s people, they would.

I had held virtually every position in the newsroom in my career up to this point, including 25 years at The Times-Union in Albany, N.Y. — 18 in a managerial role.

I learned that the purpose of a newspaper is to provide truthful news to its readers.

There were many instances during my nearly six-year tenure that demonstrated some military leaders wanted to — and tried to — alter what we were doing to serve our readers.

But believe me, none succeeded.

In closing, I believe this anecdote sums up our success:

When I arrived at Stripes, there were no letters to the editor.

Oh, an occasional question was printed, with a “company policy” answer by the military. In essence, our readers were not given an opportunity to receive answers to their questions or even to ask questions.

We implemented a policy that enabled any and every reader to write a letter to the editor — expressing whatever they wished — and required the writer sign his or her name!

We were deluged with letters.

That was a biggie (although common in U.S. newspapers that we were emulating).

This action confirmed that the newspaper truly belonged to the readers and served them.

It’s doubtful President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or anyone else in the current federal administration understands — or, perhaps, it’s because they do, and that’s their problem.""

Paul Thomas Anderson & Composer Jonny Greenwood Call For Removal Of ‘Phantom Thread’ Music From ‘Melania’ Documentary; Deadline, February 9, 2026

 Matt Grover, Deadline ; Paul Thomas Anderson & Composer Jonny Greenwood Call For Removal Of ‘Phantom Thread’ Music From ‘Melania’ Documentary

"After taking notice of the use of a piece of music from their 2017 film Phantom Thread in Amazon MGM Studios‘ Melania Trump documentary Melania, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson and composer Jonny Greenwood are requesting its removal.

“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” said the duo in a statement issued by Greenwood’s camp.

They noted that while “Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.”"

Trump Administration to Cut $600 Million in Health Funding From Four States; The New York Times, February 9, 2026

Apoorva Mandavilli , The New York Times; Trump Administration to Cut $600 Million in Health Funding From Four States

The states, all led by Democrats, used the grants to support a wide variety of functions, including H.I.V. prevention and surveillance.

"The Trump administration plans to rescind $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats because it finds the grants “inconsistent with agency priorities,” according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The programs slated to be cut are in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. They include grants to state and local public health departments as well as to some nongovernmental organizations. A list of the cuts was shared with relevant congressional committees on Monday.

The funds are administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include grants given to states for a variety of purposes, including hiring staffs, modernizing data systems and managing disease outbreaks. Some programs are aimed at the needs of specific communities.

Some of the cuts will be finalized this week and others over the coming weeks, totaling roughly $600 million. The figure was first reported by The New York Post."

The Children of Dilley; ProPublica, February 9, 2026

Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica; The Children of Dilley: 

ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of what comes next.

"Dilley, run by private prison firm CoreCivic, is located some 72 miles south of San Antonio and nearly 2,000 miles away from Ariana’s home. It is a sprawling collection of trailers and dormitories, almost the same color as the dusty landscape, surrounded by a tall fence. It first opened during the Obama administration to hold an influx of families crossing the border. Former President Joe Biden stopped holding families there in 2021, arguing America shouldn’t be in the business of detaining children.

But quickly after returning to office, President Donald Trump resumed family detentions as part of his mass deportation campaign. Federal courts and overwhelming public outrage had put an end to Trump’s first-term policy of separating children from parents when immigrant families were detained crossing the border. Trump officials said Dilley was a place where immigrant families would be detained together.

As the second Trump administration’s crackdown both slowed border crossings to record lows and ramped up a blitz of immigration arrests all across the country, the population inside Dilley shifted. The administration began sending parents and children who had been living in the country long enough to lay down roots and to build networks of relatives, friends and supporters willing to speak up against their detention.

If the administration believed that putting children in Dilley wouldn’t stir the same outcry as separating them from their parents, it was mistaken. The photo of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos from Ecuador, who was detained with his father in Minneapolis while wearing a Spider-Man backpack and a blue bunny hat, went viral on social media and triggered widespread condemnation and a protest by the detainees.

Weeks before that, I had begun speaking to parents and children at Dilley, along with their relatives on the outside. I also spoke to people who worked inside the center or visited it regularly to give religious or legal services. I had asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for permission to visit but got a range of responses. One spokesperson denied my request, another said he doubted I could get formal approval and suggested I could try showing up there as a visitor. So I did.

Since early December, I’ve spoken, in person and via phone and video calls, to more than two dozen detainees, half of them kids detained at Dilley — all of whose parents gave me their’ consent. I asked parents whether their children would be open to writing to me about their experiences. More than three dozen kids responded; some just drew pictures, others wrote in perfect cursive. Some letters were full of age-appropriate misspellings."

What you can get for free in and around Pittsburgh - all with a library card; WPXI.com News Staff, February 6, 2026

WPXI.com News Staff; What you can get for free in and around Pittsburgh - all with a library card

"There’s a card in your wallet that is so powerful, it can get you plenty of things for free—everything from free tickets to shows to a ladder for home repairs. All available if you have a library card.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh offers a “Library of Things” to help residents save on household expenses and entertainment. These programs allow patrons to check out physical objects and experience passes with the same ease as borrowing a book.

Andrew Medlar, president of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, discussed the financial impact of utilizing library resources. “There are so many things that the library provides. How could anyone know all of them except your friendly librarian?” Medlar said. He estimated that a person utilizing a library card could save “hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.”"

Health Advice From A.I. Chatbots Is Frequently Wrong, Study Shows; The New York Times, February 9, 2026

Teddy Rosenbluth, The New York Times; Health Advice From A.I. Chatbots Is Frequently Wrong, Study Shows

"A new study published Monday provided a sobering look at whether A.I. chatbots, which have fast become a major source of health information, are, in fact, good at providing medical advice to the general public.

The experiment found that the chatbots were no better than Google — already a flawed source of health information — at guiding users toward the correct diagnoses or helping them determine what they should do next. And the technology posed unique risks, sometimes presenting false information or dramatically changing its advice depending on slight changes in the wording of the questions.

None of the models evaluated in experiment were “ready for deployment in direct patient care,” the researchers concluded in the paper, which is the first randomized study of its kind."

At the Oregon Ethics Bowl, students make room for gray areas in a world of hot takes; The Oregonian, Oregon Live, February 9, 2026

Julia Silverman | The Oregonian/OregonLive; At the Oregon Ethics Bowl, students make room for gray areas in a world of hot takes

"We live in a world of snap judgments, rage-baiting and fleeting internet memes designed to hold our attention for 10 seconds or less.

But on a rainy Saturday inside classrooms at Lincoln High School in Southwest Portland, all of that was at bay — at least for a few hours.

Instead, several dozen middle and high school teams from the Portland metro area who have been studying the same set of ethical quandaries for months gathered to unpack them in Oregon’s annual Ethics Bowl competition."

Essential Knowledge for Journalists Reporting on AI, Creativity and Copyright; Webinar, National Press Foundation: Thursday, February 19, 2026 12 PM - 1 PM EST

 Webinar, National Press Foundation: Essential Knowledge for Journalists Reporting on AI, Creativity and Copyright 

"Generative AI is one of the biggest technological and cultural stories of our time – and one of the hardest to explain. As AI companies train models on news articles, books, images and music, reporters face tough questions about permission, transparency and fair use. Should AI companies pay when creative works are used to train their AI models? Where’s the line between innovation and theft?

The National Press Foundation will host a webinar to help journalists make sense of the evolving AI licensing landscape and report on it with clarity and confidence. We’ll unpack what “AI licensing” really means, how early one-off deals are turning into structured revenue-sharing systems, and why recent agreements in media and entertainment could shift the conversation from conflict to cooperation.

Join NPF and a panel of experts for a free online briefing from 12-1 p.m. ET, Feb. 19, 2026. The practical, forward-looking discussion examines how trust, creativity, and innovation can coexist as this new era unfolds and will equip journalists with plain-language explanations, real-world examples, and story angles that help readers understand why AI licensing matters to culture, innovation and the creative ecosystem they rely on every day."

Russian figure skater changes Olympic music over copyright; Associated Press via ESPN, February 8, 2026

 Associated Press via ESPN; Russian figure skater changes Olympic music over copyright

"Russian figure skater Petr Gumennik has been forced to change his short program music two days before the men's program at the Milan Cortina Olympics after joining a growing list of figure skaters dealing with copyright issues.

Gumennik, who is participating as a neutral athlete at the Winter Games, had been working all season to music from "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer," a psychological thriller film. But the 23-year-old Russian national champion learned in the past few days that he did not have proper permission to perform to the music, leaving him in limbo as the Winter Games began.

Given such a tight timeframe, Gumennik was unable to get clearance for his music from last season, which came from the space opera film "Dune." So he pivoted to "Waltz 1805" by Edgar Hakobyan, for which Gumennik was able to get permission."

MLK III accuses National Park Service of ‘sanitizing’ history; The Hill, February 6, 2026

SOPHIE BRAMS , The Hill; MLK III accuses National Park Service of ‘sanitizing’ history

 "Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights advocate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., accused the National Park Service on Thursday of “sanitizing history” amid reported changes at a Mississippi house museum commemorating civil rights activist Medgar Evers.

Evers, the Magnolia State’s first NAACP field secretary, was assassinated at the age of 37 in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Miss., by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith on June 12, 1963.

Beckwith was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens’ Council, the latter of which was referenced as a “racist and segregationist” group in original visitors’ brochures at the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument.

Mississippi Today reported Thursday that the National Park Service (NPS) removed those brochures from the museum and planned to edit them to no longer call Evers’s killer “a racist,” citing NPS officials who did not want to be named. Edits also reportedly included eliminating a reference to the late activist lying in a pool of blood after he was shot.

The brochures were returned hours later, with officials citing “outdated” information as the reason for their removal, according to the outlet. But news of the changes still caught the attention of civil rights advocates and congressional lawmakers."