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July 9, 2026

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Colleagues,

Good Thursday morning on this July 9, 2026,

What’s your song of the summer? Click here to view what a handful of AP staffers had to say. (Shared by Hank Ackerman)

From the Connecting Inbox relating to Wednesday’s issue:

Hal Spencer - Just to say I found Adolphe Bernotas's saga wonderful and quite moving. I doubt I could find a story more American than that.

Joe Macenka - Thanks for sharing the (ER Dr.) Dave Dahl piece. It was quite a dose of perspective. We like to think our lives include noble deeds that affect others. Then you read that he saw more than 150,000 patients, many of whom were likely experiencing the worst time of their lives.

And this for my Keeper File from Abner Katzman - As I’ve said before, you do a wonderful job for all Associated Press veterans. (There’s a part of me, from back when I first joined Mother AP, that comes alive when I read your column.)

Finally, in the Stories of Interest piece on Katie Couric and her temporary memory loss, the very same thing happened to my wife Linda two weeks ago - with the diagnosis, transient global amnesia. Like Katie, Linda initially feared a stroke; Linda's dad died of a stroke at 69 years of age. For both Katie and Linda, strokes were ruled out. I am glad for both that their amnesia was temporary with a low chance of recurring. A very scary thing.

Have a great day – be safe, stay healthy, live it to your fullest.

Paul

A literal first draft of history

Malcolm Ritter - Every reporter knows the story: a writer produces a text he likes, it gets edited, and the angry writer makes noise about it. But 250 years ago, the writer was Thomas Jefferson, the editor was the Continental Congress, and the text was the Declaration of Independence. 

This week I got to see a four-page document handwritten by Jefferson that shows the text he had submitted to the Continental Congress for the Declaration, and what the Congress had done to it. He wrote several copies of this a few days after July 4 because he was upset by the deletion of a lengthy condemnation of slavery. He wanted a record of his opposition to that practice (although he owned slaves).

Only a few of these "fair copies" of the Declaration survive, and the New York Public Library put one on temporary display.

In his tiny and precise handwriting, Jefferson laid out the original text and underlined words and passages the Congress had deleted. Here's the wording on slavery:

Jefferson said the criticism was deleted to appease delegates from Georgia and South Carolina.

A more trivial edit (but still one we writers can relate to) comes in the listing of "self-evident truths." We know the Declaration said all men are endowed with "certain unalienable rights," but Jefferson had written "inherent & inalienable rights." 

It's said the journalism is "the first rough draft of history." It was thrilling to see a literal first draft of history.

In defense of the Smithsonian

Larry Margasak - As many of you know from your visit prior to our AP retirees dinner in May, I have volunteered since 2014 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American history, starting a year after I retired from 48 years at AP. I am horrified, but hardly surprised at the White House hit job on the museum.

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I am familiar with every inch of every exhibit. I will soon be leading a new tour focusing on the REAL American democratic history. If the museum adopted the warped White House view of our nation’s complicated history (yes, Washington, Jefferson and successors, and even Ben Franklin, owned slaves), you would have to shut the building down.

One of the most outrageous Trump report conclusions is the museum has done nothing to celebrate the nation’s birthday. In fact, on May 14, the day some of you visited, we opened the 250th museum-wide birthday exhibit with 250 historical objects, including dozens that had never been on display before. On opening day, we had tables featuring historians and history authors.

Over the past months, I often asked the curator who planned and prepared the exhibit if she heard anything from the White House. She had not, and the exhibit went ahead as planned. Don’t believe a word of the biased White House account of whitewashed American history.

Historians, of course, are pushing back. I hope Connecting readers will also do so in any forum, especially as comments to your favorite news outlet.

Mississippi Today welcomes new senior editor

by Mississippi Today

Mississippi Today is pleased to welcome Bobby Caina Calvan as its new senior editor. 

In this role, Calvan will lead the Jackson Team, coordinate with other editors on major projects and provide mentoring for early-career journalists. He began work Tuesday.

“Bobby and I were long-distance colleagues when we both worked for The Associated Press, and I have long admired his skills as a reporter and writer,” Mississippi Today Editor in Chief Emily Wagster Pettus said. “He is new to Mississippi, and is intensely interested in the state. He brings strong leadership skills and recognizes the importance of journalism that digs beneath the surface and holds public officials accountable.”

Calvan most recently served as deputy editor for government accountability at The Dallas Morning News. Before that, he was a global news manager at The Associated Press, helping coordinate coverage of major news events around the world. Earlier in his AP career, he covered state government and politics in Florida and Montana and worked as a general assignment reporter in New York.

Calvan grew up on a dairy farm in Hawaii, on the other side of the Koʻolau Mountains from Waikiki. He earned a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

He holds lifetime memberships in the Indigenous Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. He is also a member of the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Click here for link to this story. Connecting colleague Bobby Calvan’s email - bobby.subscriptions@calvan.net 

Bicentennial memories

Carol J Williams - I was a 20-year-old summer intern at The Bremerton Sun in Kitsap County WA in 1976, responsible for covering much of the hoopla over the 200th birthday of the USA. That was between my junior and senior years at the University of Washington and happened to be the local newspaper for my family’s home in Port Orchard WA.

Mostly I was responsible for calling the local funeral homes to write the obituaries each day and for covering the Kitsap County Fair and Rodeo in August. The fair that year had a horrible circus-like stunt featuring “Jumping Julie Kellum,” a young woman who drew national attention when she was arrested for trying to jump off the Tacoma Narrows Bridge into the water 200-feet below where her mother was waiting in a boat to pick her up. A few weeks later, the fair’s final-evening spectacle featured her attempt to jump from a high-dive platform of similar height into an above-ground swimming pool. She jumped to the taunting chants of the spectators and landed on the side of the pool and broke her leg. I was horrified and thought she’d died when they carried her limp body away to an ambulance. She recovered at the local hospital. I don’t think she was ever heard from again, at least not for making theatrical jumps.

I graduated from UW the following summer, 1977, which my contemporaries may recall was around the time of an Atlantic Monthly cover story about the “Woodward and Bernstein Effect,” the Watergate heroes of 1974 who inspired so many college kids to go into journalism that more than enough journalism students graduated in 1977 to replace every working journalist in the country. It was really hard to get a job then but my summer internship the previous year earned me a full-time reporting position when I graduated. It also earned me a husband, Ken Olsen, who has shared the adventures of Associated Press reporting from the USSR, Eastern Europe, divided and reunited Germany and the Balkan wars. We are now back to the circulation district of the newspaper where we met in that Bicentennial summer, now called The Kitsap Sun.

Remembering Jim Pringle

Photo by Neal Ulevich

Neal Ulevich - Sad to hear of Jim Pringle's descent into advanced dementia, doubtless an end many of us who survived an active and adventurous life in Asia will eventually face. Here is a picture of Jim in Beijing in February 1987. He is seen with Cambodia's Prince Norodom Sihanouk, whom Pringle knew well.

Connecting wishes Happy Birthday

sKeith Chrostowski

Bruce Richardson

Paul Simon

Stories of interest   

Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5.8M in Trump sex abuse and defamation case; Trump appeals

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER

The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The writer E. Jean Carroll can collect $5.8 million held in escrow since a jury found that President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed her, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed but were denied an emergency order to block the payment from being made.

Trump deposited the money in an account shortly after a jury ruled against him in 2023. The U.S. Supreme Court recently let the civil verdict stand, clearing the way for Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to release the money. The initial $5 million award has grown with interest.

The jury found Trump attacked Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store, and defamed her after she described it publicly in a 2019 memoir, during his first term as president. Trump called her allegations false and said “ she’s not my type ” in an interview.

Trump’s lawyers said Wednesday they would continue to appeal and accused his political opponents of using the legal system against him. They argued in appellate papers that Kaplan’s decision shouldn’t be allowed to take effect because Trump has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

Read more here.

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Katie Couric reveals amnesia caused 'black hole' in her memory

By KiMi Robinson

USA Today

On one day in June, Katie Couric couldn't recall who was president or the names of some of her newer family members.

In a July 6 Substack post, the 69-year-old journalist opened up about her recent overnight hospitalization and the diagnosis she received after experiencing a medical episode that caused her to "remember nothing" from her participation in the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

Her memories from "about noon" until "at least 7 p.m." on Saturday, June 27, "will stay in a big, black hole," Couric wrote. Though she took part in two panels that afternoon, Couric has "no idea what we talked about, or of what occurred when the panels ended."

Her husband of over a decade, John Molner, wrote in the newsletter that he'd noticed "nothing unusual" about her performance, but he thought she "appeared weak and dizzy" after the final panel. An EMT and a doctor in the audience evaluated Couric and found her "pulse was slightly elevated and her blood pressure was a bit high, but nothing deeply worrying."

Read more here. Shared by Dennis Conrad.

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Shut Out: For the First Time, Iranian Journalists Are Denied Entry to Cover a FIFA World Cup

By Megan Cattel and Kourosh Ziabari

Nieman Lab

At the age of 26, Iranian photojournalist Sajad Imanian has already covered several international sports events such as the Olympic Games and past World Cup soccer tournaments. He hardly expected his nationality would haunt him six years after leaving Iran to live in Australia, where he is working as a social media specialist with the Asian Football Confederation.

An independent journalist, Imanian applied for a U.S. visa to cover the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. When his appointment came up at the U.S. Consulate General in Sydney, he found himself being questioned over his Iranian military conscription status and possible trips to Lebanon and Gaza in an interview that took almost an hour.

“I said I hadn’t even set foot in those places,” Imanian said.

The Sydney-based photojournalist’s visa application to cover the games for the AFC was rejected because of his national origin, and his story is not an isolated case. Several Iranian reporters who were planning to travel to the United States to cover the World Cup and follow the Iranian national team’s journey hit the same barrier: Trump administration travel restrictions affecting the nationals of World Cup participating nations Iran, Haiti, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast. Exemptions exist for athletes, team staff, and immediate family members, but they do not extend to fans or media.

Read more here. Shared by Doug Pizac.

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James Murdoch’s $300 Million Vox and New York Magazine Deal Gets the Greenlight From FTC

By Lucas Manfredi

The Wrap

The Federal Trade Commission has greenlit James Murdoch’s over $300 million purchase of roughly half of Vox Media, per a new early termination notice on the regulator’s website. The move clears the regulatory hurdle of a required waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, which typically lasts 30 days for most transactions.

The deal, which was made through Murdoch’s investment company Lupa Systems, includes Vox’s sprawling podcast network, Vox.com and New York Magazine. The purchase will see the network’s roughly 40 podcasts, including Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway’s “Pivot” and its explainer series “Today, Explained,” sit alongside Lupa Systems’ holdings such as Art Basel and Tribeca Enterprises, which produces the Tribeca Film Festival. Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff will remain the portfolio’s leader once the acquisition closes.

Read more here. Shared by Doug Pizac.

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America’s Newspapers files Supreme Court amicus brief defending local news publishers

By America's Newspapers via E&P

America’s Newspapers has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Salazar v. Paramount Global, urging the Court to reject an interpretation of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) that could have significant consequences for local newspapers and other news publishers across the country.

America’s Newspapers represents more than 1,500 newspaper publishers and affiliated organizations nationwide. The association’s brief argues that Congress never intended the 1988 law to apply to modern news websites simply because they contain short video clips or use standard website analytics tools.

“The Video Privacy Protection Act was enacted nearly 40 years ago to protect the privacy of consumers renting videotapes — not to regulate today’s news websites,” said Dean Ridings, president and CEO of America’s Newspapers. “If expanded beyond its original purpose, the law could expose thousands of newspapers and other publishers to costly litigation while making it more difficult to provide readers with free access to local news.”

Read more here. Shared by Doug Pizac.

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Agentic AI will save local media: Generative AI was useful; agentic AI is game-changing

By Guy Tasaka

Editor and Publisher

I don’t want to bury the lede, so I’ll start by repeating the mantra I’ve been saying for the past three years: AI will save local media.

Generative AI was useful. It was interesting. It helped people write, summarize and create. But the real paradigm shift was always going to be agentic AI.

I’ve spoken at several dozen conferences in front of hundreds of media executives discussing the benefits of AI, but for a long time, agentic AI was still mostly conceptual. In the past three to six months, that has changed. Agentic AI has moved from difficult and fragile to mainstream and game changing.

Our industry suffers from a lack of resources and a lack of budget due to the implosion and erosion of revenue models over the past 20 years. We can no longer do more with less. We are often doing less with less, and the business models we employ and the communities we serve are paying the price.

So, ask yourself: What would you do with staff you never had, with skills you could never hire in your market?

Now add this: that staff works 24/7 for almost free. No HR issues. No training issues. It runs the way you want and need it to run.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s not. I’ve witnessed it firsthand and helped executives jump-start their journey. And once you start building the staff you always wanted, you start wanting to add more of these agentic workers.

Read more here. Shared by Doug Pizac.

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A new study looks at the skills journalists are losing (and gaining) because of AI tools

By Andrew Deck

Nieman Lab

Last year, MIT’s Media Lab came out with a buzzy study on a phenomenon that’s been coined “cognitive debt.” In short, the researchers found that when ChatGPT users offloaded essay writing tasks to their AI assistants, their own writing abilities declined. ChatGPT users consistently had the lowest “brain engagement” and task performance scores across the study.

The research sparked debates about whether AI assistants can contribute to the atrophy of other skills, too, not just essay writing. That’s where a new study in Journalism Practice picks up. Shangyuan Wu, a researcher at the National University of Singapore, dug into the question of whether journalists are “deskilling” as a result of AI adoption. She also asks what skills journalists may be learning or developing further — in other words, “upskilling.”

The report’s authors interviewed 14 working journalists in Singapore, a hub for AI development in Asia and home to a mix of local, regional, and international newsrooms. The participants were pulled from print, broadcast, online outlets, and wire services.

One of the main concerns in these interviews was that journalists may lose foundational research skills. Given that generative AI products can quickly produce basic background reports and conduct online searches, some interviewees speculated that these tools could contribute to journalists losing the skills needed to “track down information” and check primary sources. The study also suggested that easy access to background reports on a topic could mean reporters have less motivation to conduct expert interviews or otherwise speak to people to better understand a topic.

Read more here. Shared by Doug Pizac.

Today in History - July 9, 2026

By The Associated Press

Today is Thursday, July 9, the 190th day of 2026. There are 175 days left in the year.

Today in History:

On July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting citizenship and “equal protection under the laws” to anyone “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people.

Also on this date:

In 1850, President Zachary Taylor died of gastrointestinal illness after consuming a large amount of cherries and iced milk on a hot day five days earlier; Vice President Millard Fillmore was sworn in as president the following day.

In 1896, William Jennings Bryant delivered his famous “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

In 1918, 101 people were killed in a train collision in Nashville, Tennessee, in the deadliest US rail disaster in history.

In 1937, a fire at 20th Century Fox’s storage facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, destroyed most of the studio’s silent films.

In 1943, during World War II, the Allies launched Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.

In 1944, during World War II, American forces secured Saipan as the last Japanese defenses fell; the occupation allowed the U.S. to put B-29 bombers on the island, within range of Tokyo.

In 1947, the engagement of Britain’s Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.

In 1965, the Sonny & Cher single “I Got You Babe” was released by ATCO Records.

In 1982, Pan Am Flight 759, a Boeing 727, crashed in Kenner, Louisiana, shortly after takeoff from New Orleans International Airport, killing all 145 people aboard and eight people on the ground.

In 2004, a Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration had relied on to justify going to war.

In 2010, the largest U.S.-Russia spy swap since the Cold War took place on a remote stretch of Vienna's main airport tarmac as planes from New York and Moscow arrived within minutes of each other; 10 Russian sleeper agents were exchanged for four prisoners accused by Russia of spying for the West.

In 2011, South Sudan officially became an independent nation.

In 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat left vacant by the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Today’s Birthdays: Artist David Hockney is 89. Author Dean Koontz is 81. Actor Chris Cooper is 75. Musician and TV personality John Tesh is 74. Country singer David Ball is 73. Business executive/TV personality Kevin O’Leary (TV: “Shark Tank”) is 72. Singer Debbie Sledge (Sister Sledge) is 72. Actor Jimmy Smits is 71. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is 71. Actor Tom Hanks is 70. Singer Marc Almond is 69. Actor Kelly McGillis is 69. Rock singer Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) is 67. Actor-rock singer Courtney Love is 62. Actor Pamela Adlon is 60. Actor Scott Grimes is 55. Actor Enrique Murciano (TV: “Without a Trace”) is 53. Musician/producer Jack White is 51. Rock singer-musician Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) is 51. Actor-director Fred Savage is 50. Actor Linda Park (TV: “Star Trek: Enterprise”) is 48. Actor Megan Parlen is 46. Animator/writer/producer Rebecca Sugar is 39. Actor Mitchel Musso is 35. Actor Georgie Henley (Film: “The Chronicles of Narnia”) is 31.

Got a photo or story to share?

Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches more than 2,000 retired and former Associated Press employees, present-day employees, and news industry and journalism school colleagues. It began in 2013. Its author, Paul Stevens, retired from the AP in 2009 after a 36-year career as a newsman in Albany and St. Louis, correspondent in Wichita, chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Indianapolis and Kansas City, and Central Region vice president based in Kansas City.

Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!

Here are some suggestions:

- Connecting "selfies" - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.

- Second chapters - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.

- Spousal support - How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career. 

- My most unusual story - tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.

- "A silly mistake that you make"- a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.

- Multigenerational AP families - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.

- Volunteering - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.

- First job - How did you get your first job in journalism?

- Most unusual place a story assignment took you.

Paul Stevens

Editor, Connecting newsletter

paulstevens46@gmail.com