By Carl Zimmer @NYTimes.com, Oct. 12

Scientists have successfully transplanted clusters of human neurons into the brains of newborn rats, a striking feat of biological engineering that may provide more realistic models for neurological conditions such as autism and serve as a way to restore injured brains.

In a study published on Wednesday, researchers from Stanford reported that the clumps of human cells, known as “organoids,” grew into millions of new neurons and wired themselves into their new nervous systems. Once the organoids had plugged into the brains of the rats, the animals could receive sensory signals from their whiskers and help generate command signals to guide their movements.

Dr. Sergiu Pasca, the neuroscientist who led the research, said that he and his colleagues were now using the transplanted neurons to learn about the biology underlying autism, schizophrenia and other developmental disorders [....]

By a team of 4 reporters @ POGO.org, Oct. 6

The Small Business Administration (SBA) flagged nearly 2.3 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans worth at least $189 billion — about a quarter of the roughly $800 billion lent out — for further review between August 2020 and September 2021, according to a massive dataset obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. There are 4.3 million flags signifying concerns that loans were potentially fraudulent, the recipient was possibly ineligible, or the loans in question merited closer examination for some other reason. There is an average of 1.9 flags for each of the loans identified for scrutiny.

The SBA has forgiven 95% of all PPP loan dollars as of this month. That means a substantial number of loans flagged as potentially going to fraudsters or ineligible recipients have now been forgiven.

The agency first began retrospectively applying these flags in 2020 to help identify loans that should be more closely assessed before being forgiven. Indeed, the SBA dubbed the flags “hold codes,” and the codes were supposed to be cleared before the agency forgave the loans. Yet previously unreported auditor findings state that the SBA failed to ensure that all flagged loans and forgiveness applications were properly reviewed, raising the possibility that the government wrongly waived the repayment of tens of billions of dollars in PPP loans.

The data obtained by POGO appears to show mass close-outs of 2.7 million flags on two separate days near the end of the Trump administration. On a third day shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the SBA cleared out 99.1% of “special review” flags, almost entirely assigned to the very largest PPP loans above $2 million [....]

Government estimates of PPP fraud run as high as $100 billion [....]

"No impact on operations reported"

By Katelyn Fosset @ Politico.com, 10/07/2022

There are 34 days to go until Election Day 2022, and the largest bloc of voters — and the largest bloc of swing voters — is undecided. Only 17 percent of women over 50 have decided whom they plan on voting for in this year’s midterm elections, according to a recent survey by AARP. This group can make or break elections: While women over 50 make up a quarter of the voting-age population, they made up 30 percent of those who showed up to vote in 2020. And 82 percent of these voters say they are very motivated to vote in November.

Why are women over 50 still making up their minds? These voters have a number of concerns, some of which feel more urgent than others, and some of which have become more urgent in recent months, such as abortion rights. Here are the top concerns driving this group, according to that poll, and what leading pollsters had to say about their concerns at a recent roundtable on these findings [....]