Does the Barnum Rule Still Apply?

From the LA Times: 

Thousands of low-income patients, some seriously ill, are scrambling to find new doctors as they lose access to UCLA Health physicians after a longtime Medi-Cal contract was not renewed. Under the contract that expired June 30, UCLA had been providing specialty care to 9,000 medically frail patients from Health Care LA, an association of nonprofit clinics that serve patients covered by Medi-Cal, the state program for the poor. “Many of these patients have been waiting for months to be seen by UCLA specialty medicine providers and are now being told they cannot receive the care they desperately need,” Health Care LA said...

University officials... pointed to “capacity issues” at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, including in the emergency room and dozens of specialty clinics... [University spokesperson Phil] Hampton said UCLA had offered to extend the contract, but Health Care LA rejected the offer... 

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-09-05/low-income-patients-at-ucla-health-scramble-to-find-new-doctors-as-contract-ends.

NOTE: Keep in mind that negotiating tactics in these kinds of contracts can include PR. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 462

From the Daily Pennsylvanian: Several administrative and other staff members at Penn’s School of Nursing were recently laid off as part of cuts to the school’s operating budget, multiple employees told The Daily Pennsylvanian. Five Nursing affiliates — who requested anonymity for fear of retribution — attributed the job losses to University-wide spending reductions driven by federal funding uncertainty. One employee estimated that seven or eight individuals were terminated from their positions. Penn’s fiscal year 2027 budget states that the school “continues to monitor the challenging federal funding environment and is modeling and budgeting the projected impact.”

Multiple requests for comment were left with Penn Nursing. The budget comes after Penn directed all schools and centers to reduce certain expenditures by 4% in January, citing “uncertainty about how evolving federal policy changes might impact” the University... 

Full story at https://www.thedp.com/article/2026/09/penn-nursing-layoffs-staff-federal-funding-cuts-budget.

Another Scam for Authors: Delete & Don't Respond

Here is what AI has to say about this email message:

The email you received from the "Readary Book Club" in Bangalore is a coordinated, AI-driven phishing and fee-charging scam. Independent, self-published, and traditionally published authors are being heavily targeted worldwide by scammers using fake or impersonated book clubs to exploit their need for book promotion.

How this Scam Works

Target Scraping: Scammers use AI tools to scrape data from Amazon, Goodreads, and publisher websites to gather author contact info, book titles, and descriptions. 

Flattering Opener: You receive an unsolicited, warm email from a generic address (usually Gmail or Yahoo) praising your work. The text reads like they genuinely loved your story, but the text is actually generated by AI to appeal to your emotions. 

Fake Credentials: They claim to be an exclusive, highly active book club in a specific location (like Bangalore, London, or New York) consisting of "hundreds" or "thousands" of eager readers.

Financial Bait (The Catch): If you reply, they will shift to a proposal. They will offer to make your book their "monthly feature" or "spotlight selection," but they will demand a "spotlight fee," "participation fee," or "shipping fee" (typically between $55 and $350 USD). 

Red Flags to Look For: Free Email Domain: The sender uses a generic email address (@gmail.com) rather than a professional domain linked to an official website. 

No Online Footprint: Searching for the specific book club yields no active local website, distinct Meetup group, or verified social media presence. 

Upfront Demands: They ask for money via untraceable or non-reversible channels like PayPal "Friends and Family" or third-party contracts. 

A Real Book Club Never Charges Authors: Legitimate reader communities select books because they want to read them; they never invoice the author for the privilege of being discussed.

What You Should Do Next: Do not reply to the email. Engaging with them confirms your email address is active, which will trigger even more spam. Do not send files or free digital manuscript copies (PDFs/EPUBs).

Mark as Spam and block the sender immediately.

Disclosure in the Context of Closure

Closed Cases - Closed Childcare

From the Daily Bruin: A 4-year-old student at a UCLA childcare center was reported to child protective services for exhibiting symptoms of sexual abuse in May 2018. UCPD and LAPD both received notice of the incident, but both law enforcement agencies closed their cases without arresting anyone or interviewing the child or their parents. Nearly six years later, the student’s teacher was arrested for a separate case of child sexual abuse...

Christopher Rodriguez, the child’s teacher who worked at University Village from 2001-20, was convicted of nine misdemeanor charges – including willful cruelty to a child and sexual battery against a minor – in April 2025. He had been a teacher at UCLA’s Early Care and Education centers, which mostly serve UCLA employees’ and students’ children, for nearly 25 years before he was arrested in February 2024...

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt announced Aug. 13 that UCLA’s ECE centers – including Krieger and University Village – would shut down in June 2027 because of enrollment and financial issues. Hunt did not mention the sexual abuse case in his email announcement to parents.

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/09/ucpd-received-notice-of-suspected-child-sex-abuse-years-before-childcare-teachers-arrest.

25th Anniversary: September 11, 2001

 UCLA students watch TV newscast of attack on World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001.

Straws in the Wind - Part 461

From the Cornell Daily Sun: The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted Cornell and four other elite universities permission to appeal a federal judge’s decision to certify a class of approximately 200,000 current and former students in a long-running antitrust lawsuit on Aug. 24. In a class action lawsuit, one or more plaintiffs file the suit on behalf of a larger group, known as the class, whose members may receive compensation based on the harm done to them. Certifying a class means allowing the contended group to proceed with litigation.

...The lawsuit, Henry et al. v. Brown University et al., alleges that 17 highly-selective universities including Cornell created an unlawful price-fixing scheme that reduced competition for financial aid and favored wealthy students under a group known as the 568 Presidents Group, which would violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Act federally prohibits monopolistic competition in interstate trade and commerce. Between 2023 and 2025, 12 of the accused universities settled for nearly $320 million in total, with some payments reaching Cornell students and alumni over the summer. 

Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame are the five remaining defendants in the suit, which was filed in 2022. The appeals court based its decision to allow the universities to appeal on whether or not the study, a regression analysis done by the plaintiff’s expert, was “adequately analyzed” by Judge Matthew F. Kennelly, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois...

Full story at https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2026/09/7tcslsfcnv3n.

The 405 This Weekend

From Patch: Traffic will once again be impacted on the 405 Freeway and nearby roads beginning Friday when construction will shut down several lanes and ramps of the interstate in the Sepulveda Pass and San Fernando Valley for the entire weekend.

Here's a look at the closures, planned for 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 through 5 a.m. Monday, Sept. 14:

• The southbound 405 will be reduced to three lanes between Ventura Boulevard and Mulholland Drive
• The Ventura Boulevard on-ramp to the southbound 405 will be closed
• The southbound 405 off-ramp to Valley Vista Boulevard/Sepulveda Boulevard will be closed
• The Valley Vista Boulevard/Sepulveda Boulevard on-ramp to the southbound 405 will be closed
• The northbound 405 off-ramp to Getty Center Drive will be closed

Source: https://patch.com/california/santamonica/s/kq755/major-405-freeway-closures-return-friday-last-through-monday.