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Happy lunch break. Four stories today ranging from infuriating to fascinating, and one that manages to be both.
A Florida girl reported sexual assault at 12. Police charged her with lying. So she gathered her own evidence and called 911 herself.
UK universities are financially dependent on international students — and the recruitment machine built to feed them is leaving thousands in debt with no path forward.
Justin Pearson was expelled from the Tennessee House for disrupting business-as-usual after a school shooting. He's now running for Congress, and his story is worth knowing.
Sophie Rain has made $100 million on OnlyFans without posting explicit content. GQ spent a day with her in Miami.
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Mother Jones
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Rachel de Leon and Julia Lurie
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At 12, Taylor Cadle told a Polk County sheriff's detective she'd been sexually assaulted by her adoptive father for years. The detective didn't believe her. Instead of investigating Henry Cadle, she pressured Taylor to recant, warned her about foster care and financial ruin, then charged her with filing a false report. Taylor pleaded guilty. A year later, Henry assaulted her again. This time, Taylor recorded everything herself, the clock, his face, the condoms, and called 911. Henry was sentenced to 17 years. The detective who failed her is on track to become a sergeant.
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The Guardian
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Samira Shackle
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British universities, structurally dependent on international tuition to survive, have built a recruitment machine that regularly fails the students it imports. Unregulated education agents routinely oversell the UK dream to applicants from India, Nigeria, and beyond, many of whom borrow against family land to fund degrees from lower-ranked institutions. What awaits them: a brutal job market, a hostile visa regime, warehouse night shifts, and loans that outlast any career boost. The system wasn't designed to work for them, and largely doesn't.
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How One Wellness Brand Is Helping America Sleep Better
You know the importance of sleep, but actually getting enough is easier said than done. One wellness brand decided to study the problem and whether CBD could help.
CBD users have long reported feeling calmer and sleeping better, whether taking the compound by itself or with related hemp-derived compounds like CBN and THC. But rumor isn’t research, so CBDistillery conducted two sleep studies: a 2021 study into CBD and CBN, and a 2023 study with technology app Releaf into CBD, CBN and THC.
Study participants who took CBD and CBN reported falling asleep easier and sleeping an hour longer per night, on average. Study participants who took THC as well as CBD and CBN reported improved quality of sleep and waking up more refreshed the next morning.
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The Bitter Southerner
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Meredith McCarroll
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Justin J. Pearson grew up in working-class Memphis, showed up to kindergarten with a briefcase, and by high school was demanding textbooks at school board meetings. He was expelled from the Tennessee House in 2023 for leading protesters through the capitol after the Covenant School shooting, then reinstated, reelected, and now running for Congress against a 20-year incumbent. His politics are rooted in environmental fights, proximity to constituents, and his family's story of building stability from almost nothing. He lost his brother to gun suicide last December and returned to the floor anyway.
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Sophie Rain claims $100 million earned on OnlyFans in three years, mostly through bikini photos, suggestive videos, and the deliberate performance of innocence; she describes herself as a virgin and a Christian. The GQ profile trails her through a Miami hotel day: lunch, a beach shoot, financial planning conversations. She grew up poor, got fired from a restaurant job when her boss found her account, and now owns a farm in Tampa and has retired her parents. Her strategy hinges on unavailability. AI-generated women may eventually undercut it.
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