What Mountain Dew does to start things off now is almost theatrical. This is not a quiet press release. Not a grocery store rack at the end. Instead, there was a drop in the TikTok Shop at noon, a 13-can bundle, and a clock in someone’s browser tab that showed the time. Mountain Dew Zero Sugar Baja Leo, the first-ever spicy Baja Blast flavor, will only be available thru TikTok Shop on August 12, 2026. This is how the brand is celebrating Baja Blast’s 22nd birthday. The flavor itself is a real surprise. Lime, chili, and black pepper that have…
Author: Sierra Foster
Sierra Foster
Born in Kansas City, Sierra Foster writes about politics and serves as Senior Editor at kbsd6.com. She was raised paying attention to this city, not just living in it. Sierra has a strong, deep connection to Kansas City, from the neighborhoods east of Troost to the discussions that take place in the city hall halls. Sierra, who is presently enrolled at the University of Kansas to pursue a degree in Political Science, applies the rigor of academic study to her journalism. She writes about politics in Missouri and Kansas as someone who genuinely cares about what happens to the people in these communities—the policies that impact them, the leaders who represent them, and the civic forces influencing their futures—rather than as an outsider watching from a distance. Her editorial coverage encompasses state-level policy, local government, and the national political currents that permeate bi-state regional life. Whether it's a city council vote or a Senate race, she has a special gift for turning complex policy language into writing that feels urgent, relatable, and worthwhile. Sierra seldom sits still off the page. She claims that playing soccer on a regular basis has sharpened her instincts for political reporting because of the sport's teamwork, strategy, and requirement to read a changing game in real time. She's probably somewhere in Kansas City with her friends when she's not writing or on the pitch, discovering new reasons to adore a city she already knows so well.
An interesting part of Dan Caine’s life story seems almost too good to be true. It’s the kind of detail that a screenwriter would leave out because it’s too obvious. In Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Caine went to every bank in town right after college to try to get a job as a teller. He was turned down by everyone. As he walked down High Street, feeling down, he saw a sign for help at Fast Eddie’s Billiard Parlor & Saloon. He came in. They hired him right away. After that, he ran the Gingerbread Man, a bar in downtown Carlisle that…
Will Ferrell has consistently placed bets on himself. His new Netflix series, The Hawk, feels a lot like the character he plays because of this tendency, which is a combination of confidence and stubbornness. A past-his-prime golfer, Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins believes he is just one strong round away from being relevant. Ferrell appears to be wagering on something similar as he returns to his first comedy TV show. On July 16, 2026, all ten episodes of the series were released simultaneously in the traditional streaming format on Netflix. Ferrell, Harper Steele, and Chris Henchy collaborated on its creation, and…
Cinema grandeur and Italy have a complex relationship. For the majority of the last ten years, the nation that gave the world Fellini, Visconti, and the expansive visual language of neorealism has watched the rest of Europe covertly develop one of the most technically ambitious screening formats ever created, while making very little contribution to the infrastructure itself. Image Maximum, or IMAX for short, is more than just a larger screen. Instead of the typical five perforations per image, the full 70mm film format uses 15 to move massive frames horizontally thru a projector. Bright, dense, and nearly three-dimensional in…
Kristen Behne picked up a chicken burrito bowl at a Chipotle in Roseville, Minnesota, on June 24. From the outside, it looked like a normal lunch. After three days, she passed out, her fever rose to 102 degrees, and she was taken to the hospital with sepsis. She was let go on June 30, but she says she is still not fully better. That burrito bowl is now the subject of a federal lawsuit that wants more than $75,000 in damages. This is turning into a much more serious public health story. As of Tuesday, Behne’s case was filed in…
The origin story of Moonshot AI is truly unique. Yang Zhilin, Zhou Xinyu, and Wu Yuxin, three friends from Tsinghua University, founded the company in March 2023. Its name, which roughly translates to “Dark Side of the Moon,” was chosen to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yang Zhilin’s favorite album. For a company that is currently creating models with 2.8 trillion parameters, that detail seems almost too human. Nevertheless, it fits in some way. Yang’s declared objective has never been very modest. His goal is to develop foundation models that can produce artificial general intelligence. His three milestones—long context windows,…
Getting a letter in late July telling you that your Social Security number was stolen in November of the previous year is a little unsettling. The Biddeford woman Erica Cote was in that situation when Maine Course Hospitality Group sent out breach notification letters dated July 31, which was almost nine months after the event, which took place on November 1, 2025. The damage had already been done, and the ransomware group behind it was well known on the dark web. Now, Cote has sued in U.S. District Court in Portland as part of a class action, and it’s easy…
Like many significant legal disputes, it began with individuals who believed they had nowhere else to go. Former for-profit college students who had done everything correctly—enrolled, borrowed money, and attempted to build a future—discovered that the institutions had misled them about earning potential, graduation rates, and job placement rates. They submitted applications to the Department of Education thru the Borrower Defense program, which is designed specifically for circumstances such as these. They then bided their time. Months turned into years. There were no decisions made. Eventually, that annoyance turned into a federal lawsuit. Seven plaintiffs filed a complaint in the…
It’s almost like watching the same thing happen over and over again. If you were born in the United States, you automatically have citizenship. Five weeks after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that this was true, President Trump signed two new executive orders that try to take away the same rights. The setting felt like home. The fight back did the same. People are really interested in knowing if executive orders can do things that the Constitution clearly doesn’t allow. This is a question that keeps coming up in politics. Most lawyers don’t seem to believe it. The ACLU has…
Stephanie Duluc wasn’t trying to cause trouble at Yankee Stadium. She was seated in one of the most sought-after locations in the ballpark, the fourth row behind home plate, where businesses pay a lot of money for season tickets. Those seats are owned by her employer, SOMOS Community Care, a Bronx-based healthcare organization. The Yankees were playing the Cleveland Guardians on Monday nite, June 2. The nite had completely changed by the fifth inning. José Ramírez, an infielder for the Guardians, lost control in the middle of a swing. The bat reportedly cleared the protective netting and struck Duluc in…