Over on the Athletic this week, I had a new minor-league scouting notebook, covering some Mets, Orioles, Nats, and Phillies prospects, including two guys the Mets just acquired at the deadline. I’ll have another one early next week. I’m not bylined but I did contribute to this newser on Walker Jenkins’ first callup.

You should sign up for my free email newsletter, which I’m hoping to get back to on Monday. For socials, I’m still mostly on Bluesky, Instagram, and TikTok.

And now, the links…

• Longreads first: This New York cover story on the proliferation of travel teams for young athletes, and the harm it’s doing to our kids (at great cost to the parents), is a must-read for anyone interested in sports, even professional ones, because this is how we fumble our future and create leagues full of the privileged at the expense of anyone unable to access this narrow pipeline. I have long had a personal policy to avoid pay-to-play events, but it’s a little easier for me because the amateur players I’m seeing are the best of the best.

• German actress/journalist Collien Fernandes was being stalked and impersonated online by someone sending men explicit images and videos purporting to be of her. It turned out her assailant was her husband.

• A Christian cult in Idaho called Followers of Christ keeps killing its babies by ‘praying’ instead of seeking medical care, and Idaho law lets them do it.

• Music journalist Natalie Weiner writes about Dolly Parton’s lifelong commitment to her values, whether in the arts, literacy programs, or general human kindness.

• Houston Chef Adrian Torres won a James Beard Award this year, but almost missed the ceremony because Trump tried to deport him. He’s here under the DACA program, which Republicans have been trying to kill for no reason I can find beyond pure racism.

• The Guardian and the Associated Press obtained documents that show that RFK Jr. lied to the Senate during his confirmation hearings when he claimed his visit to Samoa – which prompted a measles outbreak that killed 83 people – had nothing to do with discouraging vaccinations.

• Epidemiologist Dr. Tara Smith writes for MS NOW how RFK Jr. has caused this measles epidemic and is making it harder for us to stop it, which is going to mean more deaths, more health problems, and a growing dent in our economy.

• There’s been a lot of attention over the two reported deaths from measles in Pennsylvania, but that’s the tip of a giant iceberg. There’s an outbreak in Wisconsin now, almost entirely among unvaccinated people, with 41 reported cases.

• A federal judge ruled that Florida International University violated the First Amendment rights of students when it required those protesting the school’s collaboration with ICE to record two-minute videos ‘reflecting’ on their conduct.

• Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), who is running for Iowa’s open Senate seat, has failed to disclose that her husband is a lobbyist who arranged meetings between his clients and four Iowa representatives, including Hinson.

• Victor Marx, the Republican candidate for Governor in Colorado who has made fantastical claims of killing people and performing exorcisms, appears to be selling campaign merch and taking the profits for himself.

• Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who is up for re-election, threatened schools that won’t remove books the state’s theocrats deem objectionable, saying “we’re coming for the books.” These book bans are much more about targeting anything LGBTQ+ or otherwise un-Christian, despite the schools being publicly funded.

• Meanwhile, Texas Tech leadership is using AI as a pretext to cut so-called “leftist” content from its curriculum. I do not understand anyone from out of state sending their kid to college there.

• The Israeli commander who ordered the airstrike that killed an Australian volunteer working for World Central Kitchen stands by his decision and said he’s not sorry, claiming WCK had a “connection with Hamas.”

• Finland had set a goal to end homelessness by 2027, and was well on its way there until a right-wing government took power in 2024 and started cutting social welfare programs, reversing a long-standing decline in the country’s homelessness rate.

• A civilian engineer who alleges she was raped in her own bed on a Navy transport ship sued the federal government, and this week a federal judge threw out her lawsuit by arguing it’s a worker’s compensation issue.

• Rep. Max Miller made a writer delete a tweet that said he had broken his toddler daughter’s collarbone. She did so, because this remains an allegation, and in response she wrote about a bunch of violent things he’s done to women that are not mere allegations.

• What remains of The Washington Post fired Karen Attiah last September for her social media posts in the wake of the death of Charlie Kirk. An arbitrator ruled that the firing violated the paper’s CBA with its union and that the Post must re-hire her. Heh.