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Over 80 farms in the US and Canada have created "Peanuts"-themed attractions to honor Charles M. Schulz, the creator of beloved characters like Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The first "Peanuts" strip was released 75 years ago by Schulz when he was just 27 years old, eventually becoming syndicated in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide. Jill Schulz, his daughter, expressed gratitude for farmers dedicating their land to her father's legacy while joking about her own lack of a green thumb.

Why Are Farmers Across US and Canada Carving ‘peanuts’ Comic Characters in Corn Mazes?

Science Daily

Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a natural brain process that may help remove harmful amyloid plaques — a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease — while preserving memory and thinking skills, at least in mice. The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, highlights the role of astrocytes, star-shaped brain cells, and a protein called Sox9 that may hold promise for future therapies.

“Most current treatments focus on neurons or try to prevent the formation of amyloid plaques,” said Dr. Benjamin Deneen, the study’s senior author. “This study suggests that enhancing astrocytes’ natural ability to clean up could be just as important.”

Astrocytes are support cells in the brain that help with everything from neural communication to memory storage. As we age, their function can change dramatically — but scientists still don’t fully understand how those changes contribute to diseases like Alzheimer’s.

To investigate, researchers focused on Sox9, a protein that regulates many of the genes involved in astrocyte aging. “We manipulated the expression of the Sox9 gene to assess its role in maintaining astrocyte function in the aging brain and in Alzheimer’s disease models,” said Deneen, who is a professor and chair at Baylor’s Department of Neurosurgery.

Rather than testing in mice before the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms — as many studies do — the team worked with mice that already showed signs of cognitive decline and had amyloid plaques in their brains. “We believe these models are more relevant to what we see in many patients with Alzheimer’s disease symptoms,” said Dr. Dong-Joo Choi, first author of the study.

The researchers increased or reduced Sox9 levels in the mice and tracked their behavior and memory performance over six months. The results were clear: boosting Sox9 helped astrocytes clear out amyloid plaques more effectively, while also preserving memory. Lowering Sox9, on the other hand, led to faster plaque buildup and worsened cognitive function.

“We found that increasing Sox9 expression triggered astrocytes to ingest more amyloid plaques, clearing them from the brain like a vacuum cleaner,” Deneen said.

Choi added that the potential for astrocyte-targeted therapies is just beginning to be explored. “Astrocytes perform diverse tasks that are essential for normal brain function,” she said. “The role these alterations play in aging and neurodegeneration is not yet understood.”

Though the results are limited to animal models, the team is hopeful that future studies will shed light on how Sox9 functions in the human brain and whether it could be used to develop treatments that slow the progression of Alzheimer’s or other neurodegenerative conditions.

The research team included contributions from several scientists at Baylor, with support from the National Institutes of Health and other foundations. For now, the findings offer a fresh approach: rather than trying to stop Alzheimer’s at the source, perhaps we can help the brain clean up after it.

New Alzheimer’s Study Shows Brain’s Own Support Cells Can Help Clear Plaques and Preserve Memory

Lea Michele is back on Broadway, back at the Imperial Theatre, and back to doing what she loves most — singing her heart out under the lights.

Now starring in a revival of Chess, Michele plays a cunning strategist caught between two world-class chess champions, played by Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher. It’s a role full of emotional complexity and powerhouse vocals, something Michele is more than comfortable with. After all, this is the same stage where she made her Broadway debut nearly 30 years ago — at age eight — in Les Misérables.

“I think that [eight-year-old] would be so proud,” Michele said, reflecting on her return. “And she would just say, ‘Thank you,’ ‘cause that’s all she wanted. And it’s still what I want.”

A lot has happened between then and now. Michele shot to fame with Spring Awakening, became a household name as Rachel Berry on Glee, and navigated both career highs and personal challenges — including a difficult pregnancy and public criticism about her past behavior.

But it was her turn as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl in 2023 that reignited her love for the stage. Taking over a struggling revival of the classic musical, Michele delivered a standout performance that turned the show into a bona fide hit. She did it all while privately enduring a miscarriage during the run.

“It was the first time that I was really sort of in the spotlight after everything that had happened to me personally,” she said. “I wanted to finally show everyone that I could play this part, and play her really well.”

Then came the opportunity to star in Chess. Michele made it clear to producers that her family came first. “My husband and I ended up doing IVF, which was in its own right very intense and challenging,” she said. “But you know, we got pregnant and had our daughter, who is wonderful and wild.”

Only after that did she say yes to Chess. Now 39 and a mother of two, Michele says she’s found a renewed sense of joy in performing. “My love for what I do was definitely reignited during Funny Girl,” she said. “And I’m very grateful for that. But I’m so happy to be here, and to be home.”

Home, in this case, includes a beloved Broadway haunt just a few blocks away — Joe Allen’s. The longtime theatre-world hangout has been serving stars and fans since 1965, the same year Funny Girl opened just down the road. Michele has been going there since her earliest days onstage.

“I just love this place so much,” she said, though she skipped the cheeseburger this time around. “I had a show to do.”

It’s a full-circle moment for a performer who grew up in front of an audience, faced the scrutiny of fame, and came out the other side still hungry — not just for burgers, but for the stage.

As for what’s next, Michele is focused on the present — raising her kids, doing the work, and living out a dream that began in that very same theatre decades ago.

Lea Michele Returns To Broadway Stage, Reigniting Her Musical Roots

At the Villager Cafe in Camden, Maine, the blueberry pancakes come with a side of headlines. And not just metaphorically.

Customers at the newly opened diner are helping fund a rare thing in American media: a growing local newspaper. Upstairs from the kitchen, the Midcoast Villager newsroom hums along, producing stories about food pantries, local sports, and town politics — all bankrolled, in part, by sales of coffee, eggs, and hash.

“If comfort food were an Olympic sport, I’d be a contender,” says café co-founder Suzanne Tomlinson. But the real gold medal may belong to Reade Brower, the former newspaper magnate behind the café-newspaper hybrid model. “From the business standpoint, it achieves a sustainability,” he said.

Brower once owned nearly every newspaper in Maine before selling most of them off. In 2024, he merged four struggling weeklies into the Midcoast Villager and launched the café next door in April. Throw in rental income from the rest of the building and a nearby inn — also under the same ownership — and you have an unusual but functional business model to support local journalism.

"The accountability issues and local sports and all that stuff is important to a lot of people,” Brower said. “But I don't think that's enough to sell and keep newspapers alive right now. I think it has to revolve around community. And what better way to serve community than to invite people here for food and to mix all this stuff together?"

At a time when two local papers vanish each week across the U.S., the Villager is bucking the trend — and doing so with a fresh stack of blueberry pancakes.

Deputy editor Alex Seitz-Wald, who left a decade-long career as a national politics reporter at NBC News, now parks himself at the café every Friday morning, chatting with readers over breakfast. “Having a place where people can vent, or can say something, and have it be heard, I think is really valuable,” he said.

The paper’s revenue already outpaces the combined circulation income of the four weeklies it replaced. Its mascot, Vern — a bearded sailor in a rain hat holding a telescope — is literally “looking at the future of newspapers,” said columnist and ad rep Glenn Billington, who’s been in local news for decades.

The Villager model is intentionally low-tech, high-touch. It relies on trust, face-to-face conversations, and the kind of community engagement that doesn’t require a login or a paywall.

"We're present, we're visible, we're real," said managing editor Kathleen Capetta. “We're not behind a screen.”

Of course, none of it would work if the food didn’t deliver. “Absolutely not,” Capetta laughed. “It’s good, classic diner food — but a little bit elevated, which is, I think, kind of like our paper.”

Dishes like haddock hash, grilled cheese with tomato soup, and those towering Maine blueberry pancakes aren’t just comforting. They’re quietly financing a new vision of local journalism — one booth at a time.

“People are sitting down at tables, eating and talking and looking at each other eye-to-eye,” said Brower. “You’re picking up what we’re putting down.”

And what they’re putting down, for now at least, is working.

Blueberry Pancakes And Lattes Fuel Revival Of Local Journalism In Camden, Maine

People

Before he was a box office star, Michael B. Jordan was learning his lines fast and hustling hard on daytime TV. And as he told PEOPLE at the 39th American Cinematheque Awards this week, that early start “opened so many doors.”

Jordan, 38, spent three years playing Reggie Montgomery on All My Children from 2003 to 2006, taking over the role from the late Chadwick Boseman. At the time, he was just a teenager trying to build a career. What he didn’t realize was how many casting directors and studio executives were quietly watching.

“I never knew how many casting directors and executives in Hollywood would tell me, 'Oh man, my wife really loves you.' Or like, 'Oh, she watches you all the time on the stories. … Come in for this and read for that,’” he said. “It opened up so many doors in the most unexpected places for me.”

Looking back, Jordan said All My Children and The Wire were the two projects that helped launch his career. “That was something that definitely caught me off guard. I didn’t expect that one,” he said of his soap opera days.

But it wasn’t just the visibility that helped him—it was the grind.

“I think soap operas, we’re doing a hundred-plus pages a day,” he explained. “The work ethic, the grind of that definitely gave me a built-in work ethic and helped me refine that discipline at an early age.”

“You had to show up every day knowing your lines or get embarrassed one way or another because it’s going to be airing the next day,” he added.

Now one of Hollywood’s most respected actors, Jordan was honored Thursday night in Beverly Hills with the American Cinematheque Award, an annual recognition for artists making significant contributions to the art of motion pictures.

During his acceptance speech, Jordan got candid about the doubts he faced early on, especially in the years between The Wire and his breakout movie roles. “I was hungry for more, curious about my limits,” he told the crowd. “Who could I be? Was I a leading man? Did I have what it takes?”

“I didn’t have those answers yet,” he continued. “When you don’t have those answers, you keep your head down and you do the work. That’s it. That’s the only thing you can really control.”

Jordan said he approached every audition with intensity, treating even the smallest parts like a starring role. “I already booked it,” he said of his mindset. “I trained. I showed up ready, not just hoping something would happen, but making sure when it did, I was ready to receive it.”

That readiness paid off. Today, Jordan’s résumé includes roles in Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and his directorial debut Creed III—not to mention becoming one of the industry’s most bankable leading men.

As for what’s next, Jordan says he just wants to keep telling stories that resonate. “I just want to do honest work, man, and be true to myself and inspire as many people as I can and just tell stories that people can connect with,” he said. “I love movies and I love storytelling, I love acting.”

He ended his speech with a quote from Toni Morrison: “If there’s a book you really want to read that hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

“To the artists, plant your seeds, find your people, build with them,” Jordan said. “And to the people making decisions about what stories do get told, be bold, take the risk. These stories matter.”

Michael B. Jordan says his soap opera past gave him the discipline he needed to break into Hollywood

The witches of Oz are back — and they’re making box office history.

Wicked: For Good, the highly anticipated sequel to last year’s Broadway-to-screen hit, soared to a record-breaking $150 million opening in North America and $226 million worldwide, setting a new high for any Broadway musical film adaptation, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The follow-up bested its predecessor (Wicked, 2024), which earned $112.5 million in its debut. It also outshined other major family-friendly films this year, including A Minecraft Movie ($163M) and Lilo & Stitch ($183M).

Only Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2 had bigger domestic openings in 2024.

The film, starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, picks up where the first movie left off, reimagining The Wizard of Oz with fresh twists, emotional depth, and two original new songs that critics say are showstoppers.

Reviewers have praised the film’s bold storytelling and powerhouse performances. Vanity Fair’s Chris Murphy called it “jaw-dropping” and “innovative,” while Buzzfeed’s Ada Enechi wrote that the original songs were “life-changing” and the film “delivers in every way possible.”

Wicked: For Good is now playing in theaters.

‘wicked: For Good’ Breaks Records with Spellbinding $226M Global Debut

Even in the animal kingdom, forming new friendships can be nerve-wracking. A new study from the University of Cincinnati reveals that monk parakeets, known for their intelligence and chatter, don't dive headfirst into new relationships — they "test the waters" first.

Researchers placed unfamiliar birds together in a shared aviary and watched how their social connections developed. Instead of immediate contact, the parakeets gradually approached each other, gauging safety and compatibility before engaging in friendly behaviors like grooming or perching side by side.

“There are a lot of benefits to being social, but these friendships have to start somewhere,” said lead author Claire O’Connell. The team tracked 179 new relationships and found the birds were noticeably more cautious with strangers than with familiar companions.

Over time, many pairs warmed up, even sharing food or forming mating bonds — but only after a period of slow, deliberate testing.

The findings echo previous studies on vampire bats and suggest that the "slow build" to trust might be more common across social species than scientists once thought.

And for O’Connell, who was just starting grad school at the time, it was personally relatable: “I was excited but nervous about making new friends. Watching the parakeets, I started realizing there may be something I could learn from them.”

Adorable Study Finds Parakeets Make New Friends In A Surprisingly Human Way

Jaida Lee has done it again — and this time, it’s a professional milestone.

The 19-year-old pitcher from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, was selected 14th overall in the inaugural draft of the newly formed Women’s Professional Baseball League, becoming one of the first players in history to join the league. She’ll head to New York, the team that called her name during Thursday night’s broadcast.

“It was a dream come true,” Lee told CBC News from Whistler, B.C., where she watched the draft with friends. “I thought I was going a decent bit later, so I was kind of shocked… it was a lot of emotion.”

Already a Trailblazer

Lee is no stranger to breaking barriers. In 2022, she became the first female player to compete in men’s baseball at the Canada Games since its inception in 1967. Her debut pitch from that historic moment now lives in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Women’s Pro Baseball League calls her “one of the most promising teenage arms in North America.”

She’s currently playing collegiate ball at the University of British Columbia and will balance school with travel to the U.S. to prepare for the season.

Roster Spot Not Guaranteed — But She’s Ready

Each team selected 30 players in the draft, but only 15 will receive contracts. Lee knows she still has to earn her spot on the final roster.

“I had dreams to play professionally — but in my head, it was always with men,” she said. “There was never a thought that there was going to be a women’s pro league in my lifetime.”

“Seeing this league, it means a lot.”

Celebrations Back Home

Back in St. John’s, her family and friends gathered at a local bar to watch the draft live. The moment her name was called, “everyone went crazy,” said her dad, Dave Lee.

Jaida started playing ball at age six, often on boys’ teams because girls’ teams didn’t exist. She was even encouraged to switch to softball — but she refused.

“She just worked harder than everybody,” her father said.

Now, Jaida is not just breaking barriers — she’s building a path for others.

“She’s paving the way for younger players,” Dave Lee said. “It should open up opportunities that were never available to women before.”

Canadian Teen Makes History as One of the First Picks in Women’s Pro Baseball Draft

For nearly a century, the old bridge in Saint Louis, Saskatchewan, carried trains, cars, and generations of families across the South Saskatchewan River. Then in 2014, it was shut down—deemed structurally unsound—and left to rust behind barricades.

Now, it’s been given a second life. Thanks to years of local effort, the historic bridge has been transformed into a walking path and cultural landmark, celebrating the town’s Métis roots, its deep history, and its future.

“We realized our town was kind of slowing down economically,” said Michel Dubé, a volunteer with the Saint Louis Historic Society. “So we thought—why not turn this into something positive?”

A Bridge With New Purpose

Saint Louis sits about 100 km northeast of Saskatoon. Its old bridge, opened in 1914, once served as the main northbound route to Prince Albert, with a central railway track and side extensions for cars. After its closure in 2014, traffic moved to a newer bridge just east of town.

That new bridge brought with it a surprise: an ancient bison fossil, discovered during construction. An archeological dig followed, revealing remains of an Indigenous settlement and a bison believed to be 100,000 years old and 25% larger than modern bison.

The fossil became a symbol of the community’s project to reclaim the old bridge.

“We thought, let’s at least get rid of those ugly steel barriers,” Dubé recalled. “Then somebody said—why not turn it into a walking path?”

Community-Led Transformation

Over the next seven years, residents held bingo nights, fall suppers, and local fundraisers, eventually raising $180,000. The towns of Saint Louis and Prince Albert, along with provincial francophone associations, chipped in with grants.

With the funds, the community added safety features, educational signage, and public art, including a striking image of a bison’s head by Constant Pollievre, a Fransaskois artist known for designing NHL logos.

Flags representing the Métis, Fransaskois, Saskatchewan, and Canada now fly proudly at the bridge’s entrance.

“There was a very communal approach to the whole thing,” Dubé said. “It reflects the first people here—settlers, First Nations, entrepreneurs. It’s a coming together of cultures.”

A Platform for History and Heritage

The bridge now serves as an outdoor museum, with placards detailing the town’s past as a major transportation and trade hub. Farmers once used the bridge to ship grain, and the railway connected Saint Louis with the rest of the province.

“It’s a step in the right direction to maintain the community and to create a sense of interconnectedness between the French, the Métis and the First Nations people,” Dubé said.

David Siebert of Heritage Saskatchewan said projects like this do more than preserve structures—they strengthen community identity. “Heritage places are an important social, economic, and environmental part of communities. They’re often treated like a member of the community.”

A recent Heritage Saskatchewan survey found that 80% of people support investing in cultural heritage to promote economic growth and local employment.

Looking Ahead

Dubé hopes the revitalized bridge is just the beginning. He sees it as a way to keep Saint Louis vibrant and attractive to younger generations. “There are younger families moving in, the school is still going strong. So I think we just have a kind of positive outlook.”

While the walking path is already open to the public, the community is planning an official launch party this summer, complete with live music and a celebration on the bridge.

Once just a decaying piece of infrastructure, the Saint Louis bridge is now a gathering place—connecting past, present, and future one step at a time.

Small Sask. Town Rallies To Preserve Historic Bridge A Decade After Closure

The Guardian

Danylo Yavhusishyn, a 21-year-old who fled war-torn Ukraine just three years ago, has become the first Ukrainian ever to win a professional sumo tournament in Japan. His victory at the Kyushu Grand Tournament in Fukuoka marks a historic moment not just for him, but for the sport itself.

Competing under the ring name Aonishiki Arata, Yavhusishyn clinched the win in a dramatic tie-breaker against grand champion Hoshoryu of Mongolia. After his triumph, he addressed the crowd at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center in fluent Japanese.

“I am happy that I am able to achieve a goal of mine,” he told the audience, thanking them for their support and saying he was glad to have competed to the best of his ability.

Born in Vinnytsia, central Ukraine, Yavhusishyn began practicing sumo at just seven years old. By 17, he had become a national junior champion and competed internationally. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he narrowly missed the draft for men aged 18 and over. He left the country, initially taking refuge in Germany, before relocating to Japan two months later with no knowledge of the language.

There, he reunited with Arata Yamanaka, a Japanese sumo wrestler he had briefly met at the world junior championships. Despite the language barrier, Yamanaka welcomed him into his home and training stable.

“I only met him once in person and he welcomed me, even though I couldn’t speak a word of Japanese,” Yavhusishyn recalled. “If it were the other way around, I would have refused.”

Since arriving in Japan, his rise through the sumo ranks has been nothing short of meteoric. He made his professional debut in July 2023, becoming the second Ukraine-born sumo wrestler after Serhii Sokolovskyi, known in the ring as Shishi. In just over a year, Yavhusishyn reached sumo’s upper divisions, earning promotion at one of the fastest rates in modern sumo history—the fifth-fastest since the six-tournament-per-year format was introduced in 1958.

Following his Kyushu win, the Japan Sumo Association is now set to hold a special meeting to consider promoting him to ozeki, the second-highest rank in sumo, just below yokozuna, or grand champion.

Listed at 6 feet tall and 310 pounds, Yavhusishyn is known for both his power and agility. His determination to succeed has been fueled by the hardship of leaving his home behind, and the challenge of adapting to a new culture and sport at the highest level.

His parents, who remained in Germany, have since visited him in Japan. Yavhusishyn said he remains focused on the future.

“I am happy [now], but there is one higher status,” he said. “I want to work toward that.”

From refugee to sumo star, Yavhusishyn’s journey is already extraordinary. And by the looks of it, he’s just getting started.

Ukrainian Refugee Danylo Yavhusishyn Wows Japan, Wins First Elite Sumo Title

In a discovery that could reshape how scientists understand pain, learning, and memory, researchers at Tulane University have identified a previously unknown way that nerve cells communicate—by releasing an enzyme into the space between cells to activate pain pathways.

The breakthrough, published in Science, was co-led by Matthew Dalva, director of the Tulane Brain Institute, and Ted Price, director of the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. Their work highlights an enzyme called vertebrate lonesome kinase (VLK), which appears to play a key role in amplifying pain without affecting movement or general sensation.

“This finding changes our fundamental understanding of how neurons communicate,” Dalva said. “We’ve discovered that an enzyme released by neurons can modify proteins on the outside of other cells to turn on pain signaling.”

How It Works

Traditionally, scientists have focused on what happens inside neurons—how neurotransmitters, receptors, and ion channels pass signals across synapses. But this study shows that neurons also communicate by releasing VLK externally, where it modifies surrounding proteins, including those involved in pain response.

This kind of protein modification, called phosphorylation, is commonly studied inside cells. But the researchers found that VLK acts outside the cell, marking one of the first known examples of phosphorylation influencing cell behavior in the extracellular space.

“It opens up an entirely new way of thinking about how to influence cell behavior,” Dalva said. “And potentially a simpler way to design drugs that act from the outside rather than having to penetrate the cell.”

What They Found

The researchers showed that:

Active neurons release VLK into the space between cells.

VLK increases the activity of a receptor involved in pain signaling, as well as learning and memory.

Removing VLK from pain-sensing neurons in mice eliminated post-surgical pain, without affecting movement or basic sensory functions.

Increasing VLK levels led to stronger pain responses.

Why It Matters

The discovery could lead to safer and more effective pain treatments. Many current pain drugs target NMDA receptors, which regulate communication between neurons but can cause serious side effects. By focusing instead on external enzymes like VLK, scientists may be able to avoid those risks.

“This study gets to the core of how synaptic plasticity works—how connections between neurons evolve,” said Price. “It has very broad implications for neuroscience, especially in understanding how pain and learning share similar molecular mechanisms.”

Dalva added that the ability to influence proteins from outside the cell could simplify drug design, making it easier to target specific behaviors while minimizing unintended effects.

What’s Next

Researchers now want to know whether VLK’s behavior is unique to pain pathways or part of a larger, overlooked biological process. If it's widespread, it could unlock new strategies for treating a range of neurological and psychiatric conditions.

The study was a collaborative effort involving nine institutions, including Princeton University, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health, with support from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“Our findings were only possible through this kind of collaboration,” Dalva said. “By combining Tulane’s expertise in synaptic biology with the strengths of our partners, we were able to reveal a mechanism that has implications not just for pain, but for learning and memory across species.”

Co-first authors include Dr. Sravya Kolluru, Dr. Praveen Chander, and Dr. Kristina Washburn, all members of the Dalva Lab at Tulane.

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