The Daily Rundown - July 7th, 2026
⚾ Catcher Shea Langeliers and first baseman Nick Kurtz will represent the Athletics on the American League team at this year’s All Star Game. Langeliers -- who has 20 home runs and 87 hits so far this season -- was elected during a fan vote. Major League Baseball players chose Kurtz, who ranks second in the majors in runs-batted-in and on-base percentage.
He was last year’s American League Rookie of the Year. The Athletics were represented by two players in 2025 -- Jacob Wilson and Brent Rooker, both currently on the injured list. This year’s All Star game is scheduled for next Tuesday, the 14th, in Philadelphia.
🏛️ Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Aaron Ford's campaign has responded to a “Democrats for Lombardo” cross-party endorsement that has emerged this week. According to the Nevada Current, the group was formed through invitation from the Lombardo campaign.
It is made of 130 individuals representing an array of political and business interests. In comment to the Current, a spokesperson for the Ford campaign connected the group to a “pay-to-play” allegation, saying “[some on the list are] transactional players … whose bottom line stands to gain from another Lombardo term.”
A prominent state mining lobbyist on the list, David Goldwater, responded by insisting his participation was not about opposition to Ford, but support for Lombardo; remarking that Ford was a great candidate as well.
🎆 The Clark County Fire Department responded to more than 200 fire-related calls overnight on the 4th of July. That’s according to Clark County officials, who say that, on a typical day, CCFD responds to about 20 fire-related calls – one-tenth the call volume seen on the 4th of July.
Illegal fireworks are believed to have sparked a fire that resulted in more than $250,000 in property damage to an indoor youth sports facility in the southwest valley. In all, Clark County police and fire agencies issued 30 citations for illegal fireworks. They’ve confiscated more than 27 thousand pounds of fireworks this year alone.
🔥 Prescribed fires can reduce wildfire risk while also improving wildlife habitat, according to a new study from the Nature Conservancy. Researchers say that’s especially important across the West, where decades of fire suppression have left many landscapes overgrown, increasing the risk of more explosive wildfires.
In eastern Nevada’s Great Basin, researchers found that carefully planned burns can clear out dense, aging vegetation and encourage the growth of native grasses, shrubs and wildflowers. That new growth provides forage for wildlife, including Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.
“Bighorn sheep like young forests that recover, so shrubs, grass and flowering plants and all that,” said Louis Provencher, a restoration ecologist with the Nature Conservancy and the study’s lead author. “Fire will just create that.”
While the study centered on bighorn sheep habitat, researchers say the benefits extend to other wildlife as well, including mule deer and elk, which rely on a mix of grasses, shrubs and open habitat. Hear the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau's Kaleb Roedel here.
🧠 Crossword puzzles and brain teasers have long been touted as ways to keep the mind sharp. But a new study points to another strategy that may matter just as much: staying fast on your feet, according to reporting by NPR's Allison Aubrey.
Researchers have found that people in their 80s who maintain an exceptionally quick walking pace, dubbed "super movers," are also far more likely to stay mentally sharp compared to their slower-moving peers of the same age.
"A super mover is someone who is older than age 80 and performing much better than their peers," says Dr. Sofiya Milman of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, one of the study's authors.
Milman and her collaborators analyzed data from nearly 4,000 older adults enrolled in a long-term aging study. Participants had taken a timed walking test, and the fastest 9% — who had a gait speed at least 1.5 standard deviations above the average of their same-age peers — qualified as super movers. Those individuals were also markedly less likely to experience cognitive decline.
"The biggest takeaway was that super movers are about 50% less likely to develop cognitive decline than their peers who are not super movers, which is very impressive," Milman says. The results are published in the medical journal Neurology.
Part of these stories are taken from KNPR's daily newscast segment. To hear more daily updates like these, tune in to 88.9 KNPR FM.
