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After the Census Bureau issued a report tied to a Trump-aligned think tank, the bureau's parent agency cut language banning political interference from its scientific integrity policy, NPR learned.
(Image credit: Michael Zamora)
Chicago, IL
For those wondering how beloved entertainer “Weird Al” Yankovic can continue to exist as the shining beacon of integrity, good vibes, and enduringly catchy parody songs about food, ponder no longer. Yankovic announced today that he’s finally cut through the no-doubt tangled red tape surrounding the release of Al’s Brain, an 11-minute educational short film he made in 2009.
Chicago, IL
Peter Cullen, the legendary voice actor known for his rumbling performance as Autobot leader Optimus Prime in The Transformers animated series and live-action franchise, died at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday, according to his manager.
The fatherly Montreal-born actor was known for his extensive vocal credits across television, film, and video games, becoming the face and rallying voice behind the Transformers franchise across its many incarnations, as well as an enduring presence as the gentle-and-drowsy Eeyore in various Winnie The Pooh series and films for Disney. The actor bridged the gap between pop culture fandom and STEM academia as the ambassador for the NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC), which awards young students who excel in math, science, technology, and space.
Space would be a recurring motif throughout his life. Cullen began his five-decade career in 1969 as Québécois astronaut Commander Bi Bi Latuque on The Buddies for CFCF (now CTV Montreal). That role led to a gig announcing The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the variety show that also launched the careers of Steve Martin, Rob Reiner, and fellow voice actor Lorenzo Music (The Real Ghostbusters, Garfield And Friends). From there, Cullen appeared in The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour alongside Buddies co-star Ted Zeigler beginning in 1971. “It ended up being a series and for four years I, you know, I could make the house payments and lived happily ever after,” he told NPR’s All Things Considered in 2014.
After the Sonny & Cher TV run ended in 1974, Cullen’s career consisted of supporting voice credits in animated series such as Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo, The Smurfs, and Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends (where he voiced characters such as Mysterio, Red Skull, and the Hulk). His willingness to lend his voice to vivid cartoon characters led to an audition for a role that would define his career. “I was living with my brother Larry at the time,” he told NPR. “He had returned from service as a Marine in Vietnam. And I told him one day I was going out to audition for a truck. And he says, ‘a truck?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but he’s a hero truck.'”
Beginning in 1984, Cullen became the leading voice behind The Transformers, the popular animated series based on the Hasbro toy line, voicing Optimus Prime until the hero’s untimely demise in 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie. That moment proved controversial, sparking public outcry that led to an almost immediate reversal in “The Return Of Optimus Prime,” a two-part epic in The Transformers‘ third season. After seemingly retiring the character, Cullen kept busy voicing Eeyore in various Disney Winnie The Pooh TV and film entries from the late 80s through 2002, reprising the role in 2017’s Disney Junior series, Doc McStuffins.
Chicago, IL
Tim Curry has died. A veteran stage, screen, and voice actor much beloved for his iconic baritone purr and finely-honed sense of sardonic glee, Curry lent his talents to everything from children’s fare like Home Alone 2 and The Worst Witch, to hallmarks of cinematic sexual subversion—as with his very first film role, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in 1975. TMZ confirmed that Curry died last night in his home in Los Angeles; he was 80.
Among the numerous images burnt into the public consciousness by 20th century film, few are as raucous, confident, or unrelenting as watching Curry’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter strut, prowl, and seduce his way through every other character in Rocky’s sci-fi-inspired menagerie of weirdos, inviting them to do the Time Warp (and other, lewder acts). Curry originated the role in its various stage productions, having previously met writer Richard O’Brien when they were both working on Hair. (The theater would remain one of the great loves of his long life; while Rocky’s Broadway debut was famously disastrous, Curry eventually took home three Tony nominations across his long career, for Amadeus, My Favorite Year, and Spamalot.) He brought that same high-camp energy to the screen for the cult movie adaptation of Rocky, vamping in garters and pearls, asking whatever happened to Fay Wray, and just generally giving the biggest performance imaginable and then some—a key hallmark of the Curry acting technique.
Chicago, IL
Dolly Parton, an entertainer and philanthropist with a nearly seven-decade career, has died. Her team confirmed the news in a statement. “A rhinestone life that shone bright enough for the world to see, Dolly will forever stand as an inspiration not only through her timeless music and prolific songwriting, but also her wit, warmth, and kindness that made us all feel like family,” it reads. “Dolly Parton’s legacy is one of love, compassion, and resilience.” A cause of death was not shared, but Parton said last week that she was experiencing “hard times with [her] health.” She was 80 years old.
Across music, film, television, and giving, Parton was an American icon. Parton got her start performing as a child before penning hits like “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 To 5,” and countless others. In the 1980s, she courted a new audience with roles in films like 9 To 5 and Steel Magnolias. As a personality, she was among the most recognizable figures in popular culture, serving as the face of the Dollywood theme park in Tennessee. Parton was also well-known and admired for her charitable giving, particularly her work with the Imagination Library, which provided free books to children every month up until their fifth birthdays.
Born in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Tennessee, Parton was one of 12 children. Her humble beginnings were frequently referenced in her music, and she was passionate about music from a young age. She recalled performing for “my brothers and sisters and chickens and the dogs with a tin can as a make-believe microphone” in a 2010 interview with Performing Songwriter. Of course, it wouldn’t take long before she began performing for bigger audiences. Her first singing job came on the Farm And Home Hour when she was ten years old. “It’s funny, I was on TV before we owned one,” she said.
By the time she was 20, Parton had established herself as a successful Nashville songwriter. She released her first full-length album, Hello, I’m Dolly, in 1967, the same year she reached a wider audience with a regular recurring spot on The Porter Wagoner Show. For years, her biggest successes were the duets she released with Wagoner. However, she eventually decided to strike out on her own, telling People last year, “I couldn’t be Porter’s girl singer forever because God had a bigger purpose for me, and I had bigger dreams of my own.”
Chicago, IL
A police department in Florida used “decoy” Flock cameras that an officer 3D-printed at home to “bait” would-be vandals. Police officers monitored the fake cameras for days, then charged a man with three felonies after he cut down and destroyed one of the plastic devices. The police department in question refuses to release any information about how the decoy operation was devised or carried out and claims there is zero paper trail whatsoever about the operation.
Oviedo, Florida mayor Megan Sladek said she “had NO idea” that this was happening and said she was “speechless” over the sting operation, which was first reported by News 6 Orlando. The arrest shows that police have escalated their attempts to catch potential Flock vandals, and that some departments have dedicated significant resources into doing so. Sladek told 404 Media that the 3D-printed camera in question was “free.”
Despite the decoy camera being worth, at most, several dollars worth of plastic filament, Evan Meyer was charged with three felonies: attempted larceny/grand theft, criminal mischief of property damage worth more than $1,000, and property crimes against computer equipment supplies, according to an arrest report obtained by 404 Media. The arrest report states that the operation was devised after several Flock cameras in Oviedo were stolen in late July and early August.
“Several of our Flock Safety cameras were stolen between 7/23/2026 -8/3/2026 out of the Lockwood Blvd. corridor and we replaced them with clone style Flock cameras. These Flock ‘bait’ cameras were made to closely resemble that of real Flock cameras but did not cost the same amount nor collect any data within the device,” the arrest report states. Meyer was arrested shortly after midnight Thursday after knocking the 3D-printed fake camera off a pole with a pair of garden shears and destroying it.
“When asked how much he believes the camera costs to replace, he stated approximately $1,000-$5,000 proving that Meyer knew it was an expensive real piece of equipment and not a fake replica,” the police report states. “The actual cost to replace our Flock camera is valued at $800.00 plus any installation fees. Meyer advised he has been hearing all the negative things online about the misuses of Flock cameras (specifically the CEO of Flock Safety) and decided to knock the one down which was closest to his house. Meyer grabbed his father's pruning shears from the garage, walked down the street (south from his house) and was tall enough to cut the mount off and then smashed the camera on the ground.”
The arrest report implies that because Meyer thought that Flock cameras were expensive and because he didn’t know it was a decoy that he could be charged with attempted grand theft and other charges that carry more consequences.
The operation is reminiscent of Amazon “package sting” operations that several police departments attempted several years ago, in which empty Amazon boxes were placed on people’s porches while police officers watched. Those sting operations resulted in zero known arrests.
The Oviedo Police Department has thus far refused to release almost any information about the operation outside of what was said in the police report, and has repeatedly claimed to 404 Media that public records about how the fake camera were made do not have to be released because they have to do with an ongoing criminal investigation. The department first claimed that it has zero public records whatsoever about the fake device from before the arrest, then claimed that any and all records are exempt from release.
A representative for the Oviedo Police Department told 404 Media that “The decoy FLOCK camera was produced by an officer at their home using their personally owned 3D printer and donated to the agency Our agency does not own a 3D printer therefore does not have design, planning and creation of the alleged decoy or replica cameras before the arrest, including the communications and presentations through which that work was discussed.” It said there are “no meeting minutes, no text messages, and no emails regarding the production of a decoy FLOCK camera prior to the arrest on 8/20/2026.”
Mayor Sladek posted on Facebook that she was “speechless” over the operation, and that “transparency is so important.”
"My 2 cents: there are 2 completely separate issues in play here, and they're tangled up in an unfortunate way. ISSUE 1: VANDALISM IS WRONG. I don't care if it's a Flock camera, a piece of art, or graffiti in a public space, it's not right. The police caught a person who engaged in destroying public property, and that's what we hired them to do. They did their job,” she wrote. “ISSUE 2: on Monday, just days before this incident, a majority of COUNCIL AGREED TO CONSIDER ENDING FLOCK. There is a timeline of events related to installing decoy cameras, and somewhere in that timeline, City Council instructed staff to prepare a resolution to end the use of Flock in Oviedo. While it is irrelevant to the issue of vandalism, when the fake cameras were fabricated and installed relative to a very public discussion about their potential discontinuation is something I would like to know.”
In an email to 404 Media, Sladek said that “the whole thing is very interesting from a legal perspective. Mayor is a part-time job here in Oviedo, and I'm an attorney by day, so I'm probably looking at this with a bit different lens than the average person. Even if the guy knew it was a fake camera, that would still make it art, and it would still be vandalism.”
“I became aware of the camera's existence when I heard about it from a resident who saw it on the news, and shortly after that, my first questions were about the cost and process,” she added. “Can't do much better than free, and the effort did result in someone hopping up a pole and attempting to take it down. What is not known is whether the person who removed the first camera at that location is the same as the person who removed the decoy. It would be interesting to know if the one arrested has any prior criminal history or if this was a first offense. How to charge is up to the state's attorney, but you'll see on the police report when it arrives that the person arrested believed that he was damaging property valued at a much greater price point than the actual value was. “
In a Facebook comment, Sladek posted several responses to questions that Oviedo police chief Dale Coleman gave her. Coleman said that he approved the plan, and that “supervisors have latitude how they go about solving a crime operations [sic] like this are done whenever there is a reasonable chance of success. This operation is similar to a drug operation or a theft ring at the mall. CID has done this many of these and know what is needed to do it lawfully.”
Coleman told Sladek that there were multiple cameras installed last Sunday, and said that police officers were watching the cameras all night between Sunday and Thursday, when Meyer was arrested.
It is not clear which 3D printed plastic Flock camera model the police officer used, but 404 Media found various Flock camera replicas on popular free 3D printer model sites.
Chicago, IL
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