Sheryl Crow sings the national anthem ahead of kickoff

(The Center Square) - Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of the final sprint toward the 2026 midterm elections, but one U.S. Senate primary matchup is yet to be determined that could influence the balance of power in the upper chamber.

New Hampshire voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to select partisan candidates for U.S. Senate in a seat without Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who is not running for reelection. Her open seat brought a slew of candidates from both parties into the New Hampshire race.

Here is a look at the candidates running in the race.

Among Democrats, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., has emerged as a favorite to succeed Shaheen. Pappas first assumed office in 2019 and has focused his campaign on lowering energy costs, and providing more affordable healthcare, housing affordability and grocery costs.

Pappas worked alongside U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., to push legislation that would suspend the federal gas tax as prices rose with the U.S. conflict in Iran. He also called for supporting clean energy tax credits, utility assistance for veterans, and protecting the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Pappas advocated for reducing healthcare costs by capping pharmaceutical drug prices and reversing cuts to Medicaid made through the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

“He’s pushing to strengthen the Affordable Care Act by making tax credits permanent, and he’s standing up to Republican efforts to cut funding for Medicare and Medicaid,” Pappas’ website reads.

Pappas also said he would push for expanding a child tax credit, and support first-time homebuyers throughout the state.

The congressman is facing a challenge from Karishma Manzur, a scientist, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Manzur has touted herself as a progressive Democratic candidate in comparison to Pappas.

She has focused on expanding Medicare for All, banning corporate political donations and rent controls for housing in the Granite State. Manzur also called for an immediate pause on the construction of new AI data centers in New Hampshire.

“We need an immediate pause of artificial intelligence technology and the building of hyperscale AI data centers,” Manzur said. “Powerful corporations are lobbying Congress for their benefit, not the benefit of the American people.”

Republicans are also vying to flip New Hampshire’s senate seat in November. Former U.S. Rep. John Sununu has a considerable lead in polling for the GOP ticket while former Sen. Scott Brown trails far behind.

Sununu and Brown lost against Shaheen in 2008 and 2014, respectively. Sununu, whose brother Chris is the former governor of New Hampshire, has focused his campaign on keeping distance from President Donald Trump, despite his February endorsement, and touting his record as a familiar face in the state’s politics.

He called for ending tariffs on building materials to increase affordable housing and investing in tax credits, supporting efforts to pursue fraud in federal benefit programs, and curbing the president’s executive authority.

“Congress needs to step up, review those powers that they've given to the executive and in a bipartisan way, take back the power that was granted to Congress in the first place,” Sununu said in an interview.

Brown has touted his connection to the president despite his lack of an endorsement. The former senator from Massachusetts also served as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during the first Trump administration.

He has focused on supporting the Trump administration’s border policies, lowering grocery costs and fighting against the rising national debt. Brown said he would introduce legislation for a 10% spending cut across all federal agencies to reduce the debt.

“You can’t tell me that every agency can’t find 10% to save,” Brown said. “Every federal department should be audited.”

Pappas holds an enormous lead in campaign fundraising with more than $15 million in contributions and $4.2 million in cash on hand, according to the Federal Election Commission. Sununu follows behind with $4.1 million in contributions and $3 million cash on hand.

Brown follows with $2.1 million in contributions and $416,000 cash on hand. He is followed by Manzur, with $415,000 in contributions and $103,000 cash on hand.

Pappas has received more than $1.4 million through ActBlue, an online campaign fundraising platform for Democratic candidates that has come under fire over fraud allegations. Sununu received $5,000 from the Boston Scientific Corporation PAC and $7,000 from Michael O’Reilly, a consultant and former commissioner of the Federal Communication Commission.

Brown received $6,200 from Lloyd Gainsboro, an executive at Dedham Health and Athletic. Manzur received more than $144,000 from ActBlue.

Polls availability varies by municipality in New Hampshire. However, polls are required to be open by 11 a.m. and cannot close before 7 p.m. on Sept. 8. For more information, visit the New Hampshire Secretary of State, at sos.nh.gov. For early results on Election Day, visit thecentersquare.com/newhampshire.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - A couple seasonal favorites in Great Falls are set to wind down, marking the start of fall this September.

Ryan Island is scheduled to close for the season after Labor Day. The island is reached by a short suspension bridge and will offer a close-up view of the Great Falls.

The island offers visitors historical information about the Corps of Discovery and the history of hydroelectric power. You will still be able to see the Great Falls year-round, but island access is limited to the period from Mother’s Day to Labor Day.

The Great Falls Farmer’s Market will also be entering its final month of the 2026 season. The market will continue through the last Saturday in September and will wrap up on September 26.

Vendors fill both sides of the Great Falls Civic Center and extend into the street. Shoppers will be able to find homemade goods, crafts, art and other items.

Market hours will be 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Another event on the calendar will be the 15th annual Arts on Fire at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. It will be scheduled for Saturday, September 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The free event will include food trucks, music and dance performances, artist demonstrations, an artist vendor market, museum exhibitions, pottery demonstrations and the woodcarver’s guild.

More information is available through the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art event page.

(The Center Square) – A majority of American voters agree that a student’s chosen major or field of study should be considered before approving federal student loans, according to a new poll. 

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that 54% of respondents agree that a student’s chosen major or field of study should be among the factors, while 31% disagree.

The view intersects political affiliations, with 61% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats agreeing with the proposal.

Support also extends across income groups. Among respondents earning $50,000 to $100,000 annually and those earning more than $100,000, 56% agreed that federal loan approval should consider a student’s major. 

Although most voters support considering a student’s major when approving federal loans, many students begin college without a declared major. Between 20% and 50% of students start college undecided, and about 75% change their major at least once before graduating, according to Best Colleges, an online planning tool to help prospective college students. 

Student loan debt remains significant nationwide, with the federal student loan portfolio reaching approximately $1.8 trillion.

Pollster Mike Noble, founder and CEO of Noble Predictive Insights, told The Center Square that the cost and value of a college degree can depend heavily on a student’s chosen major.

He noted that the growing number of highly specialized majors can leave graduates with relatively few job opportunities or low-paying positions, particularly in some nonprofit fields. Some graduates are entering the workforce with significant student debt and multiple degrees but little practical experience, Noble added. 

Noble said the student debt situation is partly the result of a generational push toward higher education.

“You had all these groups where they didn't go. It's like 'No, you got to go to college' because they wanted what they didn't have for their kids. So they all did it, and so you had this huge influx,” Noble said. “Now there are so many options … Anyone can start college today and sign off for those loans … But is that person serious? Are they going to go through the program?"

Economists have raised questions about whether federal lending should be tied to the economic value of particular degree programs.

Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the Pasadena, Calif.-based Pacific Research Institute, said taxpayers remain financially responsible for federally backed loans, including those used to finance degrees whose economic returns may not justify their costs.

Winegarden also cautioned against having the federal government make judgments about the value or viability of academic programs.

“I see it is not actually trying to be helpful as much as they're being punitive against things that they don't like, and that's not actually a helpful solution,” Winegarden told The Center Square. “It's not an outsider's perspective to judge the success or the viability of a program based on kind of that type of criteria. Perhaps the three journalism majors have a broader benefit to the university.” 

“It's no place for the federal government to come in and start, kind of getting involved in those decisions,” Winegarden added.  

Similar efforts have already been initiated by the Trump administration. Under the Student Tuition and Transparency System and Earnings Accountability rule announced June 29, undergraduate programs will be required to demonstrate that their graduates earn more than the typical high school diploma holder.

“If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement.

The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from Aug. 12-16, surveying 2,533 registered U.S. voters. The sample included 930 Republicans, 930 Democrats, and 673 Independents. Among independent voters, 330 respondents were classified as True Independents, or those who do not lean toward either major party when given the choice. The margin of error is +/- 2.0%.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. was no stranger to terror attacks before Sept. 11, 2001, both at home and abroad, but none shaped America and the world quite like the attacks on 9/11, which occurred 25 years ago Friday.

The Sept 11 attacks – in which 19 Islamic terrorists hiijacked four U.S. commercial planes, crashing them into both twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon and a Shanksville, Pennsylvania, field after passengers overtook the hijackers – caused the deaths of 2,996 people, including the terrorists.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, a leftist group, the Weather Underground, terrorized the U.S. government agencies, claiming credit for 25 bombings, including explosions at the U.S. State Department, U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, the California Attorney General’s office and a New York City police station. No innocent people were killed in the attacks, while three of their members were killed in an accidental explosion in a New York City townhouse in 1970.

The 1980s saw a major uptick in Islamic-inspired terror attacks targeting Americans overseas, setting their sights on air travel, especially.

During the Lebanese Civil War, Hezbollah, a terror proxy of Iran, was responsible for the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people and injuring 120.

The same year, the Marine Barracks in Beirut was attacked on Oct. 23, killing 242 and injuring 60 Americans. Up until the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Marine Barracks bombing stood as the deadliest terror attack against the U.S., and the deadliest single-death toll for the Marine Corps since Iwo Jima during World War II in 1945.

A TWA flight flying from Rome to Athens was hijacked by two Hezbollah terrorists on June 14, 1985. One American hostage, a U.S. Navy sailor, Second Class Petty Officer Robert Stethem, was murdered.

A few years later, on April 14, 1988, a car-bomb exploded outside a USO club in Naples, Italy, killing one U.S. sailor, Third Class Petty Officer Angela Simone Santos, and injuring four other American sailors. The group, Jihad Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the U.S. Department of State.

Later that year, on Dec. 21, a Pan American Airlines flight en route to New York City from London was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 190 Americans, with a total of 259 passengers on board and 11 on the ground. The Libyan government accepted responsibility for the bombing, according to the FBI.

On Feb. 26, 1993, a car bomb exploded in an underground garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring 1,000 – the attack was carried out by Islamic terrorists led by Ramzi Yousef.

On April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla., was destroyed when a moving truck, laced with explosives, blew up, killing 168 people, including 19 children, and injuring over 600. The attack carried out by American Timothy McVeigh, with the assistance of Terry Nichols, marked the worst act of homegrown terrorism in history.

The following year marked another deadly one for terrorism. On June 25, 1996, a truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. military’s Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The attack killed 19 U.S. service members, injuring 240 Americans. Investigators have pinned the attack on a Saudi branch of Hezbollah.

During the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta, Ga., on July 27, a bomb planted in Centennial Olympic Park exploded, killing one woman and injuring over 100 people. Over the next two years, bombs were planted outside two abortion clinics, one in Sandy Springs, Ga., and the other in Birmingham, Ala., in 1998, killing an off-duty Birmingham police officer, Robert Sanderson, and injuring one nurse. Eric Rudolph, an American, was ultimately found guilty of those attacks.

On Aug.7, 1998, a pair of explosions rocked two U.S. embassies in East Africa. The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, was targeted by a bomb, killing 12 American citizens and injuring six. The attack itself killed 32 foreign service nationals and 247 Kenyans, while injuring 13 FSNs and approximately 5,000 Kenyans.

At the same time, an explosion rocked the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing seven FSNs, three Tanzanians, injuring one American, and injuring 76 Tanzanians. The U.S. government found Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda responsible for the dual attacks.

Less than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, on Oct. 12, 2000, the USS Cole, a Navy destroyer, was attacked when two suicide bombers pulled alongside the ship as it was refueling at a port in Aden, Yemen. The terrorist detonated the explosives, killing 17 American sailors and injuring nearly 40 crew members. Al-Qaeda was found responsible for the attack.

While the U.S. was no stranger to terror attacks before Sept. 11, 2001, the tragic events of that day shaped the overall political, security and cultural landscape of the U.S. more than two decades after the attacks.

Mizzou soccer defended home turf once again, shutting out SEMO 5-0 in a Friday night matchup in Columbia.

Freshmen Lana Adams and Rylie Morse both recorded braces for the Tigers with two goals each. Landis Canada was the other MU goal scorer, capping off the scoring in the 72nd minute.

The Tigers allowed one shot in the contest. Goalkeeper Addison Colangelo came off the bench to make her collegiate debut, saving the lone Redhawk look.

This marks the highest scoring output for the Tigers since their 5-0 win over Youngstown State on Aug. 20, 2025.

Mizzou has now outscored opponents 9-0 in its last two games at Audrey J. Walton Stadium.

The Tigers will next be in action when they open their Southeastern Conference slate against Oklahoma at 7 p.m. next Friday in Norman, Oklahoma.

Stephens volleyball loses twice in Kansas

The Stars dropped two games while making a pit stop in McPherson, Kansas, on Friday. They lost the first match to Doane University 3-1, followed by a 3-0 sweep at the hands of McPherson College. 

Stephens opened the game against Doane with a 25-14 first-set win. It was all downhill from there, losing 25-21, 25-9 and 25-13. 

The Stars continued to struggle against McPherson, never scoring more than 13 points in a set. 

Stephens' next matchup is against Loyola University (LA) at 11 a.m. Saturday in McPherson. 

Members of the Missourian staff made contributions to this story.

(The Center Square) – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels launched a moratorium to combat artificial intelligence use in the classroom, along with a screen time policy for the 2026-27 school year. 

The policy will affect more than 600,000 public school students in the nation's largest school district. The AI restrictions will apply to students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. New York City currently has just over 900,000 students enrolled across its K-12 public school system.

“Just because technology is everywhere doesn’t mean that it belongs everywhere,” Mamdani said during a press conference. “Children need their teachers and human connection in order to learn and in order to grow.” 

The moratorium also introduces an AI literacy module for high school students twice a year. According to the Mayor’s Office, the modules will cover “AI-related bias, risks, ethical considerations and impacts on careers and future skills.” 

The Policy will also limit AI pilot programs for high schoolers. There will be five programs offered: Quill, Edia, Brisk Teaching, Playlab, and Intel AI Ready Schools, which will be available through pilot classrooms.

The programs are designed to support instruction across subjects such as math and English language arts, encouraging students to think critically about the subject and have objective guardrails enforced by the teachers.

Students below second grade will have restricted screen time, with a recommended cap of 30 minutes a day for students in third through fifth grade and 45 minutes for students in sixth through eighth grade.

Mamdani noted that he was thankful for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for implementing policies for restricting cell phone and social media use in classrooms. He emphasized that AI should not replace student-teacher interaction.

“Whether we like it or not, our teenagers are growing up in an AI-saturated world. We cannot pretend that world does not exist,” Mamdani said. “It would be irresponsible not to prepare our children for the fast-evolving technological world that lies ahead.” 

During the press conference, Mamdani and Samuels emphasized that teachers will still be permitted to use AI for planning and various tasks. 

The Center Square reached out to the New York City Public Schools for comment, but the district not respond.

Montana — Recent bear encounters near Manhattan and on a busy trail in Glacier National Park pushed Fish, Wildlife and Parks to remind people to stay ready this time of year.

FWP reported that bears were staying active longer during the day as they worked to gain weight before hibernation.

“That’s a time of year when bears are more active for longer periods of the day. They’re consuming as much as they can to really gain weight in preparation for hibernation,” said Morgan Jacobsen of FWP Region 3.

The agency explained that uneven food sources in some parts of Montana may have added to the bear activity people were seeing. It also said recent encounters showed bears can turn up in very different places, from homes near town to crowded trails in Glacier National Park.

In both recent encounters, the bears came close to people and no one was hurt. FWP said that was a reminder to be prepared even in places where people may not expect a bear.

One hiker described just how packed that Glacier trail felt.

“We just felt like, you know, it was like walking in the middle of town square. I mean, that’s how crowded it was. But again, it’s Glacier, so,” said Dulé Kriudich, a landscape photographer.

FWP said people should not focus on figuring out whether a bear is black or grizzly during a close encounter. Instead, the agency said people should watch the bear’s behavior.

“What we tell people is that the bear's behavior determines their response rather than the species of bear, because sometimes, especially in really close surprise, quick encounters, it can be tough to make that distinction right away,” said Morgan Jacobsen of FWP Region 3.

Jacobsen explained that a defensive bear may pin its ears back, lower its head or clack its jaw. A curious or predatory bear may keep closing the distance.

FWP urged people to travel in groups, make noise and keep bear spray easy to reach rather than buried in a backpack. Even on a crowded trail, the agency said people should still treat the area as bear country.

(The Center Square) - The Colorado River’s Upper Basin states are not required to make mandatory water cuts that the federal government imposed on the Lower Basin.

But that piece of good luck doesn't guarantee smooth sailing for Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The four Upper Basin states’ leaders celebrated the U.S. Department of Interior’s decision late August, but called for continued negotiations and longer-term solutions. The move was made amid a hot and dry wildfire season across much of the West, with areas in the Upper Basin cutting back on planned water projects.

“The water supply realities of the Basin cannot be ignored or papered over,” the four Upper Basin governors wrote in a statement after the Department of Interior’s Final Environmental Impact Statement in late July. “States in both the Upper and Lower divisions of the basin are feeling the pain of severe drought. This is a reality that all states, and the federal government, will need to address practically, which is why a seven-state agreement will provide the best outcome for all water users in the Colorado River Basin. We are committed to continued good-faith discussions with our counterparts.”

After an historically dry and warm winter across much of the West, the Colorado River has faced some major challenges this summer.

The country’s two largest reservoirs – Lake Powell, along the Arizona-Utah border, and Lake Mead, about 25 miles east of Las Vegas – have both fallen to their lowest ever water levels, triggering emergency water releases further up the Colorado River to maintain hydropower abilities.

The Upper Basin states - Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico - were all spared from federally imposed water cuts between 2027-2028 in the Department of Interior’s Record of Decision.

The Lower Basin states – California, Nevada and Arizona – were forced to accept up to 3 million acre-feet in annual water cuts for the next two years, nearly half their combined 7.5 million allocation.

The federal government plan proved to be too much for Nevada, which sued the Department of Interior in the days following its Record of Decision. In a statement on the lawsuit, Gov. Joe Lombardo criticized the Upper Basin states for not offering their own solutions.

“We’ve already shown that we’re willing to do our part, but the Colorado River is a shared resource, so the solution needs to involve everybody,” the Republican governor said. “Until that happens, we are prepared to fight for as long as it takes.”

While the Upper Basin states were not told to cut water use along the Colorado River, the states still face major questions over their water.

In Colorado, Denver Water announced Oct. 1 would be the end of lawn watering for its 1.5 million customers. The cutoff does not have an end date, but the company said it expected the change to last through spring. Customers had already been limited to two watering days per week, and will still be allowed to do some hand-watering for lawns.

“If you are the only one on your block with a lush green lawn, you might want to revisit your watering practices, as your overuse is compounding the impacts of this historic drought on our water storage supplies,” Greg Fisher, the Denver Water manager of demand planning, said late August.

Snowpacks, a crucial summer water source in Colorado, peaked low and early this year. Paired with the low Colorado River water flow, the state has experienced drought conditions for months on end. In Denver, reservoirs were at 71% full as of Aug. 31 compared to 93% at the same time on the average year, according to Denver Water.

The office of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, did not respond to questions from The Center Square about the Colorado River water cuts decision or Nevada’s lawsuit.

Elsewhere in the Upper Basin, Utah has faced a statewide drought that has brought its reservoirs down to 52% as of Aug. 27, 15% below average for this time of year, according to the state's Department of Natural Resources.

The Upper Basin states will look ahead to this winter for relief to dried out reservoirs as negotiations continue with the Lower Basin states to reach an elusive Colorado River agreement that works for all parties.

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday halted a challenge to political parties seeking access to cheaper TV ads as a sprint toward the midterm elections commences. 

Justices on the high court halted a ruling that limited cheaper TV broadcast ads to political candidates. The Federal Communications Commission allows candidates to have access to "lowest unit charge" broadcast rates in the weeks leading up to primary and general elections.

"Political candidates, joint fundraising committees with noncandidate members, and political parties engaged in coordinated political activity were all entitled to the LUC subject to certain conditions," justices on the court said of the FCC's rules. 

Four Democrats, including former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., sought to challenge the FCC's rule. 

The high court said lower court federal judges are not able to intervene on a dispute that is meant to be handled by the FCC. The justices also said political parties will be harmed if they do not get access to the same rates as a candidate. 

"Current and future recissions will require the party committees to pay more for advertising space, thereby hampering their efforts to reach the electorate in the critical weeks leading up to the midterms," the justices wrote. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the court's opinion. She argued that the federal judge had proper authority to prevent a political party from accessing cheapter ad rates. 

The high court ruling follows a June decision in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC, which allowed campaign committees to spend in coordination with national party coalitions across the country, citing First Amendment rights. 

“Because 'virtually every means of communicating ideas in today’s mass society requires the expenditure of money,' a 'restriction on the amount of money a person or group can spend on political communication during a campaign necessarily reduces the quantity of expression by restricting the number of issues discussed, the depth of their exploration, and the size of the audience reached,'” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said. 

The high court's ruling gives more time for the NRSC to appeal the federal judge's order and allows political paries to spend more freely ahead of the midterm elections.