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The BBC's Tom Gerken plays the much-anticipated pirate game which has been remade from the ground up.

California’s governing class, and the state’s public unions, should take a page from the comic book that introduced Spider-Man in 1962:

There's some trouble in WNBA town. 

Vientos was sidelined after being drilled by a pitch on Thursday against the Royals. 

The Islanders never fail to deliver some risqué content.

What is happening with Dutton Ranch Season 2?

American Priorities, a new super PAC is “behind the surge of radical leftist candidates” in New York, reports Tablet’s Liel Leibovitz.

UAB softball coach Taylor Smartt has been fired after a third-party investigation, nearly two months after allegations of physical and mental abuse surfaced.  

The reality is “culture” cannot be spoken into existence. It requires two important components, both currently achieved by the Knicks.

Hadid and Cooper were first linked in 2023, when they were spotted stepping out for a dinner date in New York City.

Hadid and Cooper were first linked in 2023, when they were spotted stepping out for a dinner date in New York City.

When Billion-Dollar Non-Profits Stop Looking Like Charities

Authored by Jeff Patch via RealClearMarkets,

AltaMed Health Services reported $1.72 billion in revenue in 2024, which is more than many publicly traded healthcare companies. Yet unlike a public corporation, the nonprofit entity answers to no shareholders, enjoys broad tax exemptions, and derives much of its revenue from taxpayer-supported healthcare programs.

AltaMed also reported $1.66 billion in assets and its revenues exceeded expenses by $68.4 million. It operates more than 70 clinics, employs roughly 5,000 people, and serves more than 700,000 patients throughout Southern California, making it one of the nation's largest federally qualified health center (FQHC) systems.

But AltaMed's extraordinary growth raises another question that extends far beyond Southern California: What happens when a nonprofit grows into a multibillion-dollar enterprise while retaining the governance structure of a traditional charity?

That question has become increasingly relevant as individual nonprofit hospital systems, universities, and other charitable organizations now control hundreds of billions of dollars in assets while benefiting from tax exemptions, government reimbursements, tax-deductible donations, and public financing. Their primary accountability mechanism is a board of directors charged with ensuring that charitable resources remain devoted to public benefit rather than private profits.

Since 2001, AltaMed has paid more than $32 million in compensation to its CEO, Castulo de la Rocha, his wife Zoila Escobar, and one of their sons - which is significantly higher than most of its peer FQHCs. For instance, the chief executives of Family Health Centers of San Diego, Family HealthCare Network, and Comprehensive Community Health Centers each earned substantially less than de la Rocha in 2024 despite overseeing similarly large healthcare organizations.

Following scrutiny of excessive executive pay more than a decade ago, AltaMed adopted a split-dollar life insurance loan program designed to help retain selected executives. The program has provided substantial loans to a small group of senior leaders to finance life insurance policies. Split-dollar arrangements are technically legal, although federal officials have cautioned that similar structures have been used improperly in certain tax-avoidance schemes.

Executive compensation is only one measure of nonprofit governance. Equally important is how charitable organizations deploy their resources and whether those expenditures advance the mission for which they receive tax-exempt status.

Over the past two decades, AltaMed has built one of the country's most prominent collections of Chicano and Latino art. It says the collection supports its "Art as a Holistic Approach to Healthcare" initiative, and that artwork displayed throughout its clinics creates a more welcoming and therapeutic environment for patients.

However, AltaMed's involvement in the arts extends far beyond decorating clinic walls - it owns a collection of approximately 4,000 works of Chicano, Mexican, and Latin American art, the value of which exceeds $6 million. It has spent as much as $2 million on art-related activities outside the United States in places like Mexico City, Rome, Berlin, and Madrid. More recently, it has supported plans for a Museum of Chicano and Mexican Art in downtown Los Angeles, spending at least $150,000 on lobbying related to the proposal.

The organization has unquestionably expanded access to healthcare for hundreds of thousands of Californians. But AltaMed's growing role as an arts patron raises legitimate questions about how closely those activities are connected to its charitable healthcare mission.

That is a challenge that extends well beyond AltaMed. Nonprofit executives regularly oversee budgets larger than many cities, yet they remain governed by rules and oversight mechanisms developed for a much smaller nonprofit sector.

Congress created the tax-exempt status because charitable organizations provide public benefits that markets alone may not deliver. That public trust depends on confidence that charitable assets are being used primarily to advance charitable purposes, and not the financial interests of insiders. As nonprofits continue to grow in both size and complexity, policymakers should ask whether the accountability standards governing billion-dollar charities have kept pace with the institutions they now oversee.

Jeff Patch is an Iowa-based writer focused on legal, regulatory and political challenges that impact businesses and markets. Patch is a former Des Moines Register correspondent and Politico staff writer.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 19:45

LeBron James’ free agency may come down to something much simpler than cap math, roster gymnastics or the loudest recruiting pitch.

Turkey Seeks Moscow Permission To Offload S-400s, Paving Way For US F-35 Deal

In a move that could break a years-long defense procurement deadlock with Washington, Turkey is finalizing the sale of its Russian S-400 air defense systems to Gulf states, potentially clearing the way for Ankara to buy US F-35 fighter jets, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports Friday.

For Ankara, offloading the Russian hardware resolves a years-long costly diplomatic and military bottleneck and controversy - a situation which dramatically improved after President Trump gave a clear greenlight during the annual NATO summit in Ankara this week.

But apparently it needs Moscow's formal permission before doing this, as Bloomberg reports, "Turkey is seeking Russia's consent to transfer air defense systems it bought from Moscow to a third country, an effort aimed at clearing the way for the purchase of US-made F-35 fighter jets."

via Reuters

"Ankara made the approach in recent weeks, just months after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed returning the S-400 missile systems to Russia — an idea that gained little traction, said Turkish officials, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private," the report continues.

When asked by reporters whether he would lift legal restrictions on the transfer of the stealth fighter jet to Turkey, Trump responded, "We have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal. And certainly something we will consider - yeah."

By disposing of the Russian equipment, Ankara is resuming talks on F-35 fighter jets and securing supplies of critical engine components for its own KAAN combat aircraft program, Hurriyet wrote further.

"Hopefully, when the F-35s are delivered to Turkey, the whole world will say America kept its promise," Erdogan said at a Wednesday closing news conference for the NATO summit.

Dumping its Russian S-400s could allow Turkey's government to be released from US sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA.

However, this would have to get past Congress first. The law, adopted in 2017, requires the US government to impose strict economic and political restrictions primarily on Russia, Iran and North Korea. But Turkey was subsequently hit by these sanctions after purchasing S-400 air defense systems from Russia in a deal signed in September 2017, with deliveries having begun in July 2019.

The big fear over NATO-member Turkey having the S-400 systems and F-35s at the same time was that secret technology critical to the American fighter jet would be compromised. Possessing the S-400s requires Russian advisory guidance and know-how. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 19:20

Selfies taken by two Hayward men during a $100,000 commercial burglary led to their arrests, cops say.

Former Steelers first-round draft choice Greg Hawthorne has died at the age of 69.

Victor Wembanyama is getting paid — but helping out his team in a big way.

This bust follows other recent SNAP fraud crackdowns across California.

A firefighter in Alabama is counting his lucky stars after he was struck by lightning exactly one year after a firework exploded in his face.

The pop star is currently on her "Eternal Sunshine" tour.