Kayla Briggs Delivers Late Winner as No. 5/6 Michigan State Escapes Loyola, 1-0

Briggs breaks through in the 83rd minute, while Noelle Henning records her second straight shutout ahead of a top-10 showdown at North Carolina

EAST LANSING, Mich. | Michigan State controlled the pressure, dominated the shot count and spent much of Wednesday night searching for one decisive finish.

Senior Kayla Briggs finally delivered it.

Briggs scored in the 83rd minute to lift the No. 5/6 Spartans to a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Loyola at DeMartin Stadium, breaking through a compact defensive scheme that frustrated Michigan State for most of the match.

The goal was Briggs’ second of the season—and her second game-winner—as Michigan State remained patient despite generating 21 shots and 14 corner kicks. Loyola consistently crowded the penalty area, blocked shooting lanes and forced the Spartans to work for every opportunity.

Michigan State’s persistence eventually proved decisive.

Kennedy Bell started the winning sequence with a pass to Ava Lutke on the left side. Lutke moved the ball to Bella Najera, whose attempt near the left post was blocked by a Loyola defender. Briggs collected the rebound, faked a shot to evade the defender, shifted the ball to her right and then fired across her body into the bottom-left corner.

After more than 82 minutes of resistance, Loyola’s defensive wall had finally cracked.

UC San Diego Women’s Soccer Hits the Road for Tests Against UNLV, Northern Arizona

Tritons look to build on four-goal breakout as they visit Las Vegas and Flagstaff for their first road matches of the season

LA JOLLA, Calif. | UC San Diego women’s soccer will take its early-season momentum on the road this week when the Tritons face UNLV in Las Vegas before traveling to Flagstaff for a matchup against Northern Arizona.

UC San Diego enters the two-game road swing with a 1-1-0 record after producing an impressive four-goal performance against Utah Tech last Saturday. The offensive breakthrough gave the Tritons their first victory of the season and provided a confidence boost ahead of their first matches away from home.

The road trip begins Thursday against UNLV, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in Las Vegas. UC San Diego will then head to Arizona to face Northern Arizona at 1 p.m. Sunday in Flagstaff.

The back-to-back contests should provide an early measure of the Tritons’ ability to translate their home-field success into road results. Playing in two different environments within a matter of days will test UC San Diego’s depth, defensive organization and ability to maintain its attacking rhythm.

National Aviation Day 2026: America Celebrates the Legacy—and Future—of Flight

From the Wright Brothers to a New Generation of Aviation Technology, National Aviation Day Highlights an Industry That Connects Communities, Drives Commerce and Keeps America Moving

WASHINGTON | More than a century after two bicycle mechanics helped usher in the age of powered flight, aviation remains one of the most consequential forces shaping American commerce, transportation, national security and technological innovation.

On Wednesday, August 19, the United States marks National Aviation Day, an annual observance honoring the achievements of American aviation and highlighting the pilots, air traffic controllers, airport professionals, mechanics, engineers, airline employees, manufacturers, and countless others responsible for keeping the nation's aviation system moving.

The observance is held each year on the birthday of Orville Wright, who was born Aug. 19, 1871. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Aug. 19 as National Aviation Day in 1939, establishing a national commemoration of the country's rapidly developing aviation industry.

The symbolism remains powerful in 2026.

What began with the Wright brothers' historic 12-second powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 1903, has evolved into an aviation network connecting communities and economies on a scale almost unimaginable to the pioneers of flight.

Congressman Shomari Figures Announces $8.5 Million for Montgomery Regional Airport Runway Rehabilitation

Federal investment targets critical runway infrastructure at MGM as Montgomery positions its airport for safer operations, passenger growth and expanded regional economic development

MONTGOMERY, Ala. | Montgomery Regional Airport is set to receive more than $8.5 million in federal funding for runway rehabilitation, a major infrastructure investment aimed at strengthening the airport's operational safety and reliability while positioning MGM for continued passenger and economic growth.

U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures joined Montgomery Regional Airport officials and community leaders at MGM at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, to announce the funding for rehabilitation of the airport's existing runway. Contemporary reporting on the event confirms the $8.5 million announcement and its purpose: runway rehabilitation.

The investment comes as airports across the country compete for federal dollars to modernize aging aviation infrastructure and improve the safety and efficiency of the national transportation network.

For Montgomery, however, the announcement carries implications that extend well beyond the pavement.

The runway is a critical piece of infrastructure supporting commercial passenger service, business and general aviation, military operations, and the broader economic development strategy of Alabama's capital region.

Louisiana Republicans Call for UCMJ Overhaul, Independent Review of Contested Military Convictions

State GOP resolution urges Congress to create a military conviction-integrity board, strengthen due-process protections and consider clemency for service members alleging wrongful convictions

BATON ROUGE, La. | The Republican Party of Louisiana is calling for sweeping changes to the U.S. military justice system, urging Congress to establish an independent body to review contested convictions of American service members and to strengthen due-process protections under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The Louisiana Republican State Central Committee approved the resolution on Aug. 15, 2026, framing the issue as both a defense of American war fighters and a broader challenge to how allegations of wrongful conviction are handled within the military justice system.

The resolution, titled “To Defend the Honor of America’s War Fighters and Secure Justice for the Wrongfully Accused Under the UCMJ,” argues that some veterans of conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other hostile theaters have returned home facing accusations and convictions they contend were unjust. The document alleges that political pressure and institutional incentives can distort military prosecutions, assertions that the resolution itself advances rather than independently establishes.

Louisiana GOP Targets Military Justice System

At the center of the resolution is a proposal for Congress to establish an independent Military Innocence and Conviction Integrity Review Board.

Alaska Senate Candidates Attempt to Link Each Other to Epstein

In Alaska’s toss-up Senate race, Democrat Mary Peltola has put out a new ad misleadingly accusing Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of casting “the deciding vote” to keep the Epstein files “hidden.” While Sullivan voted against considering an amendment to an otherwise unrelated bill that would have released the files earlier, he, like the rest of the Senate, supported a bill to make the records public. 

The Peltola ad also seeks to tie Sullivan to the late convicted sex offender through donations from “Epstein associates.” The Peltola campaign points to donations from two people to Sullivan’s campaign who were either listed in Epstein’s contact list or are referenced in Epstein emails that have been publicly released. Neither is alleged to have committed any crimes in connection with Epstein.

The ad also criticizes Sullivan for taking money from a man accused of sex trafficking. Sullivan did accept small campaign donations from a Republican political operative accused in February of sex trafficking. But the donations were made before the charges came to light. And soon after the man’s arrest, the Sullivan campaign donated the contributions to a local charity.

Wright’s Hairsplitting Statements About Canceled Energy Grants in Blue States

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has repeatedly denied that politics were involved in the termination of more than 280 grants last October. A court filing made public in July, however, shows that Energy Department lawyers admitted that the only reason those awards, and not others, were canceled was that the grant recipients were in states that vote for Democrats.

Wright and the department have maintained that political considerations did not factor into the original selection of grants for termination, which included awards in both blue and red states for clean energy or energy efficiency projects. But in terms of which grants were ultimately cut, whether they were located in a state that voted for President Donald Trump mattered.

Trump Uses Deceptive Chart in False Inflation Boast

In a recent interview, President Donald Trump falsely claimed to be the “lowest of the last 10 presidents on inflation,” seemingly based on a chart Trump posted to social media that misleadingly compares price growth over the first 18 months of his second term with total inflation at the end of his predecessors’ full four-year terms. 

For that comparison to hold, of course, you have to assume inflation will be 0% for the next two and a half years — a highly implausible scenario. 

A more telling comparison is to look at where inflation stood 18 months into each of the last 10 presidential terms. By that metric, Trump doesn’t have the lowest inflation at this point in his term, but rather the fourth highest. 

Trump posted the video infographic — which appears to come from an Instagram creator of “viral money charts” — on his Truth Social account Aug. 9. Titled “Inflation by Presidency” and scored to dramatic music, it purports to show cumulative inflation for each of the last 10 presidential terms (not presidents) at months one through 48. The rankings change each month as total inflation grows.

After 18 months, however, the “Trump II” inflation total stops growing — because the rest of his presidency hasn’t happened yet — while the others continue to climb. As a result, Trump’s second term drops in the rankings and is shown to have the lowest cumulative inflation after 48 months. 

Trump and RFK Jr. Repeat False and Misleading Vaccine Claims

During the signing of an executive order on vaccines, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a deluge of false and misleading claims about the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule.

The executive order establishes “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations” and directs federal agencies and states to advance them. The new recommendations attempt to repeat prior administration changes to the routine vaccine schedule through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reducing the number of diseases targeted from 17 to 11. At the time, we explained that HHS had justified this decision with a variety of incorrect or misleading assertions. A judge subsequently blocked these changes after the American Academy of Pediatrics sued HHS.

During the Aug. 10 signing, Trump repeated claims about the childhood vaccine schedule and autism that he has made in the past, often bolstered by comments from Kennedy.

• Trump misleadingly claimed that the changes to the vaccine schedule align the U.S. with peer nations. When counting diseases the schedule protects against, the changes would put the U.S. at the low end of peer nations in the size of its vaccine schedule, exceeding only Denmark.
• The president falsely claimed that the U.S. requires “72 jabs for our beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children.” States require certain vaccinations to attend school, but none come close to mandating 72 doses. And there are no federal vaccine mandates.
• Trump said children don’t need to be vaccinated against hepatitis B until adolescence. That ignores what medical experts say are good reasons to vaccinate every newborn at birth.
• He falsely claimed that children and infants are being injected with massive volumes of fluid during routine immunizations, referring at one point to “vats of vaccine.” Doses of childhood vaccines are generally about a tenth of a teaspoon, and there’s no evidence that the size or number of doses under the current vaccination schedule is harmful.
• Trump baselessly suggested rising rates of autism are connected to the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule over time. A number of studies have found no connection between vaccines and autism, and the contention that there has been a massive rise in autism is also faulty.

It’s unclear what the practical results of the executive order will be. “It should not be valid legally, and CDC should not be changing its immunization schedule table,” Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in a Substack post.

The new order additionally recommends splitting combination vaccines into separate doses administered at separate medical visits. In another article, we wrote about Trump’s false claims about the combination measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccine.

Collins Did Not ‘Support’ OBBBA’s Medicaid Cuts, as Democratic Ad Claims

Sen. Susan Collins was one of three Republican senators who voted against passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, and she cited the legislation’s many changes to Medicaid as the main reason. But an ad from a Democratic outside group falsely claims she “voted to support Donald Trump on the largest Medicaid cut in history.”

Democrats have criticized Collins, who is running for reelection in Maine, for her earlier procedural vote on a motion to advance the OBBBA to the Senate floor for consideration. But the ad ignores the fact that she ultimately voted against the bill instead of supporting it.

The nearly 30-second ad is sponsored by a group called Affordable Maine, which, as of Aug. 12, had spent more than $473,000 to air the TV and digital ad, according to AdImpact.

Collins is facing Democrat Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president, in the toss-up race.

Trump’s False MMR Vaccine Claims

In signing an executive order about childhood vaccines, President Donald Trump falsely suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccine was unsafe and that splitting up the combination shot would reduce the number of children with autism. There’s no evidence for those claims, and the vaccine has been well-studied for several decades.

Together with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he also repeated many other falsehoods we’ve fact-checked before about vaccines. We wrote about those in another article.

On Aug. 10, Trump signed the executive order aiming to overhaul childhood vaccination in the U.S. Couched in the language of “gold standard” science, but bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s typical process for recommending vaccines, the order attempts to reinstate earlier efforts by the administration to cut the number of universally recommended vaccines. The earlier changes to the vaccine schedule were blocked in court.

In addition to lowering the number of recommended vaccines and asking states to revise their immunization requirements for schools, the order also called for administering the MMR vaccine in separate shots, preferably giving all vaccines “at separate medical visits.”