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Richmond, VA – Yesli Vega, an anti-abortion extremist, is continuing to try and deny the existence of the audio recording of her saying women who are raped cannot become pregnant.  


In a recent interview with Fox News, Vega flat-out lied about her controversial comments where she was asked if it would be harder for a woman who is a victim of rape to become pregnant. To which Vega responded with, “It wouldn’t surprise me, because it’s not something that’s happening organically. You’re forcing it….I can see why there is truth to that.”


WATCH FOX NEWS:



YESLI VEGA: “You know, people have asked me about it just because her allegations are so bizarre and not true and so I appreciate voters coming directly to me getting clarification, and once we talk about the issue and where I stand on it, they’re 100% on board and supporting me.”


In a separate interview with CBS19, Vega lied to a reporter when she said,  “Those were never my comments.”


Vega has been clear on her extreme anti-abortion stance. She’s indicated in a survey that she would cosponsor and support the Life at Conception Act — a bill that would institute a total ban on abortion with no exceptions and certain contraceptives. Vega also applauded the Supreme Court’s draft opinion to overturn Roe as an “amazing victory,” then doubted the likelihood that women who are raped could become pregnant. Vega has also said only God –should decide the life of the mother. 


“Yesli Vega can lie all she wants, but women across the Commonwealth and our country will never forget her disturbing comments about victims of rape,” said DPVA Spokesperson Gianni Snidle. “Yesli Vega’s terrifying determination to rip away women’s reproductive rights is a direct threat to all Virginia families — and Virginians will reject her at the ballot box tomorrow.” 


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» Academics
Program(s) Available: M.S.
One of the most notable benefits of having an M.S. in Nutrition is how a graduate degree improves your earning potential. According to a 2021 BLS study, a master’s can increase your earnings by 20 percent.
Interested in this profession? Some pretty significant changes are happening. Last year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics announced that beginning in 2024, anyone seeking to become a registered dietitian (RD) must have a minimum of a master’s degree to take the dietetic registration exam. 
Terry Long
660.562.1297
[email protected]
Northwest Missouri State University
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468 USA
660.562.1212
© 2022 Northwest Missouri State University. All rights reserved.
Northwest Missouri State University is an equal opportunity/access/affirmative action/pro-disability and veteran employer and does not discriminate on the basis of sex in our education programs or activities, pursuant to Title IX and 34 CFR Part 106. For more information, visit Northwest’s Non-Discrimination Policy.

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Taking notes manually is a thing of the past, especially if you have a Pixel device. Google’s Recorder app can record audio and transcribe whatever you say into text. It’s an impressively simple application that will save you time and stress. You’ve come to the right place if you’re trying to learn how to use the Recorder app on Google Pixel phones. Let’s walk you through the process.
Read more: The best Pixel-only features around
QUICK ANSWER
To use the Recorder app on Google Pixel phones, open the Recorder application and tap on the red Record button. The app will start recording audio. When done, press Pause. You can go into the Transcript section to read the speaker's transcription. When done, you can hit Save to store the audio and transcript.
JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS

The Recorder app is available on all Google smartphones since the Pixel 3. There are differences in supported languages depending on your model, though.
Pixel 3 to Pixel 5a:
Pixel 6 and newer:
Keep in mind that you can still record unsupported languages. The only downside is that transcriptions won’t work.
If your device is graced by the Recorder app, recording audio is a breeze.
The recording will be displayed on the Recorder app’s main page.
Once you save an audio recording, you can do some light editing to get rid of unwanted sections.
Now it’s time for the fun part. You don’t need to listen to the audio to see what you recorded! Recorder will save a transcript. Here’s how to access it.
Recordings can get long, so Google has added a way to search within a recording. Here’s how to do it.
Because the Recorder app comes from Google, it integrates perfectly into the company’s cloud services. You can easily sync recordings with your Google account. Here’s how to enable this feature.
You can get rid of audio recordings just as quickly as you created them.
Alternatives: These are our favorite voice recorder apps for Android
Yes! To store the recording’s location, simply tap on the Avatar icon and go to Recorder settings > Google Location settings. Toggle Use location on.
The Recorder app is available for Pixel 3 and newer phones.
It depends on your Pixel model. Pixel 3 to Pixel 5a phones support US English, British English, Singaporean English, Irish English, Australian English, Japanese, German, and French. Pixel 6 and newer devices support all those languages, as well as Italian and Spanish.
Sharing your audio recordings and transcripts from the Recorder app is simple. Simply open the recording, tap on the three-dot menu icon, and select Share. Follow the instructions to customize what you want to send.
You can back up Recorder clips and transcripts to the cloud using your Google account.

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Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 42F. Winds light and variable..
Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 42F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: January 7, 2023 @ 11:31 pm
River Bluff High School in Lexington County School District One.
State Rep. R.J. May, R-Lexington, serves as vice chairman of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, known for its hardline conservatism. File/Staff

K-12 Education Reporter
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River Bluff High School in Lexington County School District One.
State Rep. R.J. May, R-Lexington, serves as vice chairman of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, known for its hardline conservatism. File/Staff
COLUMBIA — A right-wing legislative group now admits it had a role in editing an audio recording that became the basis of a Fox News report attacking a South Carolina school district.
The admission from the South Carolina Freedom Caucus comes a day after a Post and Courier article that quoted claims the clip had been doctored from the CEO of a nonprofit education group that employs the person speaking on the recording.
State Rep. R.J. May, R-Lexington, previously said his group did not create the recording of an EL Education employee, purportedly instructional specialist Tarika Sullivan. But on Nov. 1 he acknowledged that members of his organization altered the raw footage they received. 
May said the S.C. Freedom Caucus removed the voice of the person who provided them with the audio in order to protect the identity of that person, described by May as a “whistleblower.” The caucus also edited background noise from the conversation, May said, but he denied altering the speaker’s words.
Scott Hartl, president and CEO of the New-York based nonprofit EL Education, said Oct. 31 that the speaker on the recording is an EL employee but did not confirm it was Sullivan. He said the speaker was recorded without consent under false pretenses by a hotel employee who pretended to be interested in her work. 
Remarks from different parts of their conversation appear on the clip without any context on what came in between. At one point, she references the Lexington One School District, one of several in the state that contracts with EL Education. Later she mentions critical race theory. 
But the fragments give no indication as to what she was responding to at any point, including whether she was discussing her own work or views or answering a pointed question about someone else. The clip created a “false and crudely edited narrative,” Hartl said on Oct. 31. Whether the audio had also been edited prior to the caucus receiving it remains unclear, as does the date of the recording.
May denies that the resulting audio misrepresents what the speaker said, which he said was to tout a critical race theory curriculum for Lexington County School District One.
“The far left will stop at nothing to destroy those who challenge their radical ideology,” May said. “Therefore, the video was edited to ensure the protection of the whistleblower. In doing so, we preserved the integrity and intent of Mrs. Sullivan’s words.”
Also on Nov. 1, Fox News updated its article from the week prior after the Post and Courier pointed out a misquotation of the audio.
Since 2013 EL Education has worked with six schools in the Columbia area, all of them in Lexington County School District One, which is the state’s sixth-largest district at more than 27,000 students, including from the towns of Lexington, Gilbert and Pelion.
Hartl said the nonprofit’s research is “based on the science of reading and learning.” The most prominent example of the role EL plays in Lexington One is likely the “Crew” program at River Bluff High School, which is a team-building program for teachers, and for students is a random grouping of them — regardless of background or grade level — to organically foster study groups and mentorships.
The S.C. Freedom Caucus said in a statement that EL Education is actively attempting to “circumvent state law” by teaching critical race theory to students. 
Lexington One spokeswoman Megan Moore said the comments heard on the recording “do not represent the views or educational practices” of the school district.
EL Education also works with schools in Charleston and Greenville counties. 
“Lexington District One will continue to look into this matter and is committed to ensuring all Lexington District One schools adhere to South Carolina standards and statutes,” Moore said in an Oct. 25 statement.
Click here for more news from Columbia, S.C.
K-12 Education Reporter
T. Michael covers education in the Columbia area. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina and communications at the University of Denver, and worked as a reporter covering Denver Public Schools.
South Carolina hosted No. 8 Tennessee on Saturday.  Read moreEighth-ranked Tennessee hands Gamecocks worst SEC loss in their history
In a tight labor market, Columbia and Richland County are looking to raise salaries for public safety employees, as well as evaluate pay across the board. The question of where the money will come from remains. Read moreHow Columbia and Richland County are looking to increase employee pay
Legislative leaders hoped pocketbook issues and public safety would be the guiding themes for the 2023 legislative session, but the state Supreme Court’s decision to toss out South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban likely blew up the priority list. Read moreStatehouse Preview: Abortion ruling puts debate back in center stage for 2023 SC session
It’s easy to… Read moreScoppe: Against backdrop of abortion debate, SC speaker’s early agenda focuses on adoption
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I interviewed Annalibera’s Anna Gebhardt in Greenwood Park in Des Moines during a hailstorm. Taking sanctuary in the open-air shelter by the pond, we read the graffiti scrawled all over its wooden posts.
“Don’t get good at sumthin u don’t like doing.”
Our conversation that day ranged from Terry Pratchett’s satirical fantasy series Discworld and Olaf Stapledon’s speculative history of the cosmos Star Maker to NBA teams, to silent film music (the subject of her college thesis).
Gebhardt is an adventurous and restless artist who emerged from a classical music background in 2015 with two debuts: the shoegazey Nevermind I Love You, where Annalibera is a simmering alt-rock trio, and the noise cassette loveil, where Annalibera is a screeching bionic animal made up of Gebhardt and her laptop.
Her follow-up, the self-produced Opia (2018), where Annalibera is a flamboyant studio operation, burst out in just about every direction—dream pop, chamber pop, jazz ballads, new wave, drone rock, impressionistic jams—all anchored by Gebhardt’s expressive voice.
Annalibera’s latest album Moon Bath was made in collaboration with producer Philip Rabalais, previously a member of Iowa bands Trouble Lights and Utopia Park.
Moon Bath again plunges Gebhardt into colorful new territory: the world of electronic pop, with detours into sound collage and electronica. Moon Bath was released on CD by vibrant independent label Nova Labs right before the 2020 lockdown. Swallowed by the pandemic and unsupported by a tour, the album didn’t receive digital release until now.
This September, Annalibera will play for their biggest crowds yet as the opener for Pavement’s reunion shows in Denver, Kansas City, and Saint Paul. Iowans who want to catch the new iteration of the project can see them at the Maximum Ames Music Festival earlier that week, on Saturday, Sept. 17. The band’s current lineup is Anna Gebhardt, Ryan Stier, Caleb Swank-Ferrara, and Trent Derby, and will feature Gebhardt on sax.
Our conversation follows below, condensed and edited for clarity.
NK: In a way Moon Bath continues the adventures in electronic music that Annalibera began with loveil. Did you know Moon Bath was going to be an electronic pop album when you were writing it? Is that why you started working with producer Philip Rabalais?
AG: I didn’t set out to write it that way specifically. Some ideas just needed that treatment or sort of come like that. […] With Phil, Trouble Lights was playing at Wooly’s, and I chased him down when he was heading to his car after the show. I told him that I had some songs I wanted to record and that, with his style, he would be the perfect person to work with. He said yes. And it was a really nice experience making Moon Bath with him. It’s my favorite [experience making a record] so far.
I actually saw Phil at the first concert I went to when I moved here in 2008. I drove over to Iowa City, to Gabe’s. I went to see Tilly and the Wall and this band opened for them called Porno Galactica which was Phil and his brother Dom. They were doing computer music and hanging from the rafters.
Hanging from the rafters?
Literally. They jumped up there and climbed around on them, hanging down and singing and stuff. It was awesome, I mean, it was really good.
Were you into electronic music at the time?
Yeah, yeah. I grew up listening to late 90s, early 2000s Madonna, for example. I was just listening to the Scissor Sisters driving here. You know the Scissor Sisters?
I don’t think so.
Well, I mean…[plays “Filthy/Gorgeous” from her phone] And I loved Eiffel 65 as a kid. I listened to that album so much, I could sing the whole thing exactly.
Moon Bath is more pop-inspired than your previous albums, with danceable beats and a few big choruses, but it also resists some pop tendencies with musical left turns and traces of Annalibera’s experimental side. What’s your relationship to pop music in general?
I like pop music, whenever people ask me what kind of music I play, I mention pop. But it’s hard to get the point across since “pop” means a lot of different styles. […] I really like making stuff that feels very balanced, like it already existed. Almost basic. That’s pop music I think.
“Kikyo II” is one of my favorite songs on the album. Is it a sequel to loveil’s “Kikyo”? It interpolates a vocal chant from the earlier song.
Yes, “Kikyo II” is about the same character that I wrote the first one about. We’re doing that one on the tour.
Is there a connection between loveil and your classical music background? You jumped right into the world of noise music with that album but everything in it is well structured and it has the kind of composition you might hear in a 20th-century classical work.
Oh cool. I was actually reading a book about [16th century Italian composer] Gesualdo at the time. He was a noble, a creepy Italian dude in his creepy castle. Killed his wife. He made this insane weird music, very emotional, very intense. I sent loveil to the guy who wrote [the Gesualdo book I was reading] and he was like, “I see no connection between Gesualdo and your music.” But he was nice, he said thanks for sharing.
Do you prefer making music by yourself or with other people? Moon Bath and Nevermind I Love You both had a collaborative process while Opia and loveil seem more self-driven.
I have a choral background, I grew up doing music in church…I don’t know what to call that feeling of community or transcendence when you’re making music with people. I feel good playing piano by myself too;I love doing that. But once I got out in the world, off the farm—as a kid I couldn’t really leave the farm unless my parents let me, so piano was really big for me at that time in my life—[I was more excited about making music with other people than] playing by myself. But I like both.
When I started making music on my own, I was trying to get out of the jail of classical music. Opera didn’t want me. I noticed people don’t seem inspired when I sing that, but they do seem inspired when I sing indie or Americana styles.
Was opera something you wanted to do?
Not really, it was just what the program focused on. I had a great time– I mean, I had an intense time but also a great time with the choral program at Drake. We were making music at a really high level. I had some amazing moments performing, transcendent I-know-everything-about-the-universe moments. Have you had those? It’s like, “why can’t I remember that?” when they’re over. “I knew all the answers! Where’d they go?” I’ve always tried to find that making my own music. Never found it so far really. I still sing with choirs, I’ve pretty consistently sung with choirs since college.
It seems like you’re interested in other arts too. You directed a film for loveil which references filmmaker Jean Luc Godard’s Two or Three Things I Know About Her early on. Your song “Sarah Lucas” is dedicated to the artist…
I’m going to make more films; I really like it. I like Kenneth Anger, Maya Deren, that’s the kind of thing I’d want to make more of. I’m always writing and planning films and scenes.
The “Renaissance man” isn’t really a thing these days. You have to be such a specialist. I think it’s easy to get in a tunnel vision with whatever your thing is and then be like, “Nothing else matters.” I love visual art, I love film, I try to see live theater as much as I can, I love going to operas, I love sports. I really like watching the NBA. I think sports are an art, I get a lot out of them. […] During the pandemic I decided I have a new big dream. I want to be a comic writer– as in funny, not graphic novels.
That makes sense. There’s a humor to some your songs, especially on Opia. Or “Love In A Recession” which, when I first heard it at one of your shows, I thought was a cover of an old John Prine country song or something. It has that kind of sensibility. It starts out kind of funny and then gets more emotional as it goes on and as the performance becomes more intense.
Thanks. That’s why with Nevermind I Love You…I have a lot of distance from it now and I’m proud of it when I listen to it, but at the time it didn’t turn own how I envisioned it. It’s not funny at all, all of the lightness isn’t there. It’s very serious. But there are a lot of people who like that about it and that’s important to me too, the conversation that happens after you share what you’ve made.
You mentioned going on tour in Europe around the time of Nevermind I Love You.
We had started playing with this woman Anne. She was going to go study in Stockholm and said we should go on a European tour. So we did. We played loveil material pretty much. I booked the tour myself and the routing was really, really bad. We’d be like, “Okay, today we’re driving across Germany and then we’re gonna drive back across Germany again for the next set.” You can’t do that. Whatever, we did it and it was insane. It’s a really long story, I could probably write a book about it. And that’s the only way I can really tell the story, unless we’re in, like, a fifty-hour car ride together. I don’t even like telling stories. There are stories and they could stand alone but it’s like, you don’t understand the effect of what I’m saying because for two weeks straight before this, the same amount of intensity of insane stuff was happening back to back the whole time. So me just telling this standalone part of it doesn’t really get the point across.
But anyway, I got to do this cool last hurrah with her. Her being in the band helped me a lot. Actually the European tour did too. People think the music industry is maybe [half women], and it does kind of seem like that because there are a lot of frontwomen. But the lead singer is just a small part of the music industry. There’s all the players, there’s the bartenders, the promoters—everyone involved is a dude, basically. That tour was the first time I realized that when we do soundchecks and there’s dudes in my band, no one talks to me. So when me and Anne would do soundchecks, the engineers would say, “Who am I supposed to talk to?” Like, one of us! There’s only two of us, and we’re both women so you’ve gotta take your pick, man, sorry!
How do you play loveil songs live?
When I play that material live, I’ll play solo usually or maybe with a guitarist. One time I played a show with Bob [Nastanovich of Pavement, at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn], and he was on drums. I use several pedals and a microphone. It doesn’t really sound like the album; I mess with the sounds and play improvisational versions of the songs. I’m kind of chopping up and mutating the material with a sampler.
What’s your personal history with Pavement?
When I was in high school my friend would put their songs on mix CDs for me. “We Dance” was a really big song for me then. I was listening to “Cut Your Hair” yesterday and was like, “perfect.” I never thought I’d get to see them live, let alone open for them.

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The future of tuning shops already looks bleak with the rise of EVs. OTA (over-the-air) updates give manufacturers the power to remotely lock or unlock features on your vehicle, including its performance, and of course they’re going to make you pay for it. Mercedes is already getting this ball rolling with a subscription-based performance package that will increase the power output of its EQ line of EVs. All for the low, low price of $1,200.00 (not including tax).
Called “Acceleration Increase,” the update increases both torque and maximum power output for your EQ EV. Mercedes says that power output will increase by 20-24 percent, while increasing the overall performance of the EV. Depending on the model, zero to 60 mph times drop 0.8 to 0.9 seconds which, if this were a normal ICE-engined vehicle being tuned, would be pretty impressive.

This performance increase isn’t limited to specific models either, it’s available across the EQ range:

Mercedes-EQ EQE 350 4MATIC: increase from 215 kW to 260 kW, with 0-60 time changing from 6.0 seconds to approx. 5.1 seconds.
It's a camera. For your car.
The Ring Car Cam's dual-facing HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail.
Mercedes-EQ EQE SUV 350 4MATIC: increase from 215 kW to 260 kW, with 0-60 time changing from 6.2 seconds to approx. 5.2 seconds.
Mercedes-EQ EQS 450 4MATIC: increase from 265 kW to 330 kW, with 0-60 time changing from . 5.3 seconds to approx. 4.5 seconds
Mercedes-EQ EQS SUV 450 4MATIC: increase from 265 kW to 330 kW, with 0-60 time changing from 5.8 seconds to approx. 4.9 seconds
While the power increase is welcome, the downside is that this is a subscription. To unlock this performance requires that owners drop $1,200 a year to keep this performance upgrade.
Perhaps Mercedes missed the writing on the wall, considering the backlash BMW received over its heated seats subscription, their subsequent assurance that the U.S. wouldn’t see something like that, or the data that shows some 75 percent of car buyers don’t want subscriptions. I’ve reached out to Mercedes for comment and will update if and when they respond.

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Production
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Production
Production
Production
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Seattle Electronic Music Producers Association (SEMPA) is a group that has been helping local producers enhance their production and provide a network for local production talent. Formed by Jason Melton in 2015, the group has had humble beginnings, where musically like minded friends held basement sessions, feeding production ideas, tips, and tricks off of each other.
Then word began to spread about what was being cultivated in these sessions, allowing the group to organically grow. Experiencing the woes of the pandemic, the group was held together by long time members, Dave Clayton, Mindy Christman, and Ben Meadow.
Credit: Mindy Christman
“I really loved the energy and how people came from all different corners (genres) of the electronic music scene. The vibes were very positive. It was all about community, education and growth. There was zero scene politics or ego involved – a breath of fresh air from the working DJ world for sure.” – Ben Meadow
SEMPA is now homed at Substation, where their sessions are held on the second Wednesday of each month to allow producers of any electronic genre to share their current creations. As they continue to grow, they are considering adding in-person classes on Tuesdays (stay tuned). It is a unique opportunity for producers to hear their work played out on a club system.
A full-blown, state of the art studio with top-of-the-line equipment isn’t necessary nowadays to make good electronic music. Big dance floor groovers and talent are curated from all places around the world and from a diverse range of individuals. Advances in music software and technology, coupled with social media, has helped expose the vast amount of electronic music being produced, while providing a connection between artists and fans.
However, the sounds produced in your bedroom might not transfer well to a club’s sound system. In fact, it can be a difficult task that takes extra technical finesse. There is room-correction software available to help remedy this, but there is something invaluable about in person, hands on learning. SEMPA has helped many local producers through production difficulties in a welcoming, learning conducive environment. Curious about production? We listed Washington programs to help get you started!
“Being able to test your tracks on the loud sounds has really drawn out producers I had no idea existed in Seattle. We also love to have local producers come through for showcases on their own knowledge and processes. I also have personally taken on some one on one classes with people to teach fundamentals. I love this group of people and what we have cultivated. I am exited to see how we grow this next year” – Mindy Christman
Credit: Mindy Christman
Sessions start with a Producer Showcase from a local producer who shares his or her current production process and style, sharing tips and advice you can’t always get from a Youtube video. Then the session will move into the Track Feedback portion where producers in attendance are given the opportunity to play a few minutes of a track they are currently working on and in return the room gives feedback and comments.
“I have gained so much from this group from listening to major artist showcase to the many friends, mentors, collaborators, and networking opportunities I’ve gained as I’m sure some in this group can also say the same.” – Marcus Kidder
Credit: Mindy Christman
The sessions are welcome to any Digital Audio Workstation experience and any genre of electronic music. They do focus their teaching on Ableton, but inherently a lot of the same skills learned crosses over into other programs.
Outside of the session, SEMPA members stay connected through remix contests and online discussions. SEMPA embodies the connection and camaraderie that is much needed in the local scene, especially in today’s climate. Check out more of our stuff covering production!
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Important things happen in Pacific Northwest nightlife, and DMNW will send you alerts!
Founded in 2013. © 2021 Dance Music Northwest, LLC.
Important things happen in Pacific Northwest nightlife, and DMNW will send you alerts!

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Players wondering how to find all of Bruce Wayne’s secret caches in Gotham Knights can refer to this handy guide.
In Gotham Knights, players will find themselves running all over Gotham City not only in pursuit of criminals but also on the hunt for several collectibles. During the beginning cutscenes of Gotham Knights, it is revealed that Bruce Wayne is dead, and it is up to the bat family to take his place in protecting Gotham.
RELATED: Gotham Knights: What's the Max Level?
Red Hood, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin all join forces to take out the criminal underworld who are starting to realize Batman is not around anymore. Taking on Batman's last case, the bat family discovers there is more to the ongoing threat to Gotham's future than meets the eye.
Bruce Wayne was by no means unprepared for his recent passing, as he was a cunning man who moved two steps ahead at all times. Before his death, Bruce had hidden audio recordings in secret caches all around Gotham City. These audio recordings are marked on the map and players must complete a time trial to unlock the location of the secret cache they are stored in.
Finishing off the very first main case mission – Main Case 01: Batman's Last Case, will make the first secret cache icon appear on the map in the bat computer. For the other caches to appear, players must return to the Belfry, ending the night and unlocking the locations of the next set of audio recordings.
Once an audio recording location is reached, there will be an activation plate on the roof of the building. Stepping on the plate and holding the button on the screen will activate the time trial. Players aiming for 100% completion will need to locate and beat every time trial. These time trials can be difficult if they are approached in the wrong way, and failure will mean heading back to the location of the activation plate and retrying.
All goals must be passed through for them to count off the total needed to pass the trial. Careful parkour and not rushing will see victory in the trials. Once all the goals have been reached before the timer runs out, the location of the secret cache containing the next audio recording will be revealed on screen and is usually close to the final goal of the time trial.
Use the grapple instead of heroic travel to reach the checkpoints.
If all secret cache icons are clear from the Gotham City map, it is time to head back to the Belfry to spawn the next set of audio recordings. Once the night is ended when the cache trials have been cleared, the next set will appear. This process must be repeated until all 12 of the time trials have been beaten and the secret caches at the end of them have been opened.
Luckily none of the secret caches are missable and all of them are marked handily on the map, saving players the need to hunt them down. The audio recordings can be listened to in the Database menu under the collections tab, then by selecting Bruce’s Audio Log. Upon completion of all 12, players will unlock the Gotham City Confidential trophy and achievement.
Gotham Knights are available now on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.
A gaming writer for GameRant, Ali loves the finer things in life, like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, gaming since the 80's on multiple platforms.While Ali isn't writing for GameRant he is a Podcast host and video editor.

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At two years old, Matt Dugan watched his parents dance around the living room as Carlos Santana’s “Smooth” blared from the speakers. His earliest memory is still one of his favorite stories to tell, though he’s added some great memories during his time working in Los Angeles recording studios with top artists in the music industry. 
Dugan graduated in 2020 with a major in music production and recording industry from the School of Media Arts and Studies (MDIA) in the Scripps College of Communication. Leading up to college, Dugan promoted himself as the all-around music guy. He produced and mixed songs for friends and local rap and R&B artists, continuing his passion for the genre that sparked in middle school. Dr. Dre and Mac Miller were the earlier artists Dugan drew inspiration from, as well as producer Jake One.  
As a MDIA student, Dugan was eager to get into other studios and inspired by Professor Josh Antonuccio’s courses. He applied for the MDIA Masterclass Series and was accepted into the competitive program, which took him to Austin, Texas and New York City.
Dugan spent a week in Austin with four Scripps peers, elevating his production skills in an Austin studio run by Jim Eno, most notably known from the band Spoon. In New York City, students worked with Michael Brauer, a mix engineer who received Grammy Awards for his work on John Mayer’s album “Continuum” and two Coldplay albums.
During both trips, Dugan recorded, produced and mixed, gaining hands-on experience with advanced audio gear and well-known engineers and artists in the music industry.
Dugan joined Brick City Records, the student-run record label and MDIA capstone experience his senior year. As a lead engineer, he worked closely with artists in studio sessions. He said the internship he landed in the OHIO-in-LA program the summer before his senior year also helped him apply for the master class programs and excel in the capstone.
OHIO-in-LA is a mixture of networking and industry experience, requiring students to get an internship while on the ground in Los Angeles. Dugan interned at Clear Lake Recording Studios, setting up and tearing down sessions, making trips for artists’ needs and being available anytime for the chaos that comes with working in the music industry.
Dugan kept in touch with everyone at Clear Lake and after graduation, he heard that the studio was in desperate need of engineers due to the pandemic. He started out as a runner there and in his extra time interned at LoveRenaissance (LVRN), an Atlanta-based studio that has worked with artists like 6LACK and Summer Walker.
He also kept in contact with engineer Denis Kosiak, whom he met at Clear Lake and who asked Dugan to help with personal projects. Kosiak has worked with artists like Justin Bieber, Khalid, Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish, David Guetta, and Benny Blanco, just to name a few.
Although being in the same studio as some of the greatest artists of our time, like Lil Wayne, Smino and Khalid was a thrill, Dugan really wanted to work with these artists and help them make their musical visions come to life. But the music industry can be hard to penetrate, and for a time, Dugan doubted whether music was the right career path for him.
“It’s very inconsistent, and I’ve been offered really awesome jobs elsewhere that fell through,” Dugan said. “So it’s been a crazy up and down battle trying to break in.” 
All this changed in one day during a single session. Dugan was told the band For King and Country would be coming in for promotional photoshoots in a studio next door to where he would be tracking vocals the same day. He didn’t have any details on who he would be working with and was surprised to see Jordin Sparks walk in to record her vocals on For King and Country’s latest single “Love Me Like I Am.”
Dugan finally got to work one-on-one with an artist he has looked up to since he was a kid.
“Once we started recording, it was like a fever dream,” Dugan added. “I didn’t’ really think about how far I’ve come but looking back it definitely puts everything into perspective.”
As fate would have it, Sparks invited Dugan to a session at her home studio, where they were able to talk about the uncertainty of the music industry, artist to artist.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t get into [music] to be a cog in the machine,” said Dugan, referring to his shared perspective with Sparks. “We want to get paid to have fun and be creative. We don’t want it to feel like work.”
Sparks also writes out every song she has ever worked on and asks anyone involved in its creation to sign the paper. Dugan is one of those signatures on “Love Me Like I Am.”
“It makes you feel a part of it,” Dugan said. “That was the validation of ‘I did it.’”
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The universe may be vast, but researchers have multiple points of evidence that reveal its shape.The universe may seem shapeless because it is so vast, but it does have a form that astronomers can observe. So, what is it shaped like?
Physicists think the universe is flat. Several lines of evidence point to this flat universe: light left over from the Big Bang, the rate of expansion of the universe at different locations, and the way the universe “looks” from different angles, experts told Live Science.
David Spergel (opens in new tab), a theoretical astrophysicist and emeritus professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, has probed the shape of the universe for decades. In a 2003 study published in The Astrophysical Journal (opens in new tab), Spergel measured irregularities in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), light left over from the Big Bang, that were observed by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and later by the European Space Agency’s Planck spacecraft. 
The amounts of positive and negative energy in a flat universe are exactly the same, and therefore cancel each other out. If the universe had a curvature, one would be higher than the other. “A flat universe corresponds to a universe with zero energy,” Spergel told Live Science.
Related: How many atoms are in the observable universe?
In this case, the WMAP measurements of CMB fluctuations suggested the universe was both infinite and flat. Spergel also compared these measurements with those made by the European Space Agency’s Planck spacecraft, which further constrained the possible shapes the universe could take.
“We can measure the curvature with some uncertainty, so we can say that the curvature is zero with some uncertainty,” Spergel said. “While we can lower the uncertainty, we only at best constrain the geometry.”
Another reason Spergel is positive the universe is flat is its rapid expansion, which is captured by the Hubble constant. Because the universe went from coming into existence as a compact ball of matter to expanding outward at remarkable speeds, all that stretching rendered it flat, or at least as close to flat as possible.
Evidence for the flatness of the universe also shows up in what’s known as the critical density. At the critical density, a hypothetical universe would be flat and would eventually stop expanding, but only after an infinite time, according to the Swinburne University of Technology (opens in new tab) in Australia. If a hypothetical universe were denser than this, it would be curved like a sphere and eventually collapse in on itself due to its gravity — a proposed phenomenon known as the “Big Crunch.”
—What’s the coldest place in the universe?
—What is the smallest particle in the universe? (What about the largest?)
—How do we know the age of the universe?
But all measurements of our real universe suggest it is just below the critical density, meaning the universe is both flat and will expand indefinitely. 
Yet another line of evidence suggests the universe is flat: It is isotropic, meaning it looks the same from every angle. Anton Chudaykin (opens in new tab), a physicist at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia, and colleagues looked at the data on oscillations in regular, or “baryonic,” matter, as well as models of how atomic nuclei heavier than hydrogen were created soon after the Big Bang, to estimate the curvature of the universe.
“In different geometries, matter and light evolve differently, which allows us to extract the three-dimensional shape of the universe from observation data,” Chudaykin told Live Science. 
The research, published in the journal Physical Review D (opens in new tab), found that to within a 0.2% margin of accuracy, the universe was flat.”The data we gathered indicate that the spatial curvature is consistent with zero,” the researchers wrote in the study. “It implies that our universe within statistical uncertainty is infinite.”
Elizabeth Rayne is a contributing writer for Live Science. Her work has appeared in SYFY WIRE, Forbidden Futures, Grunge and Den of Geek. She holds a bachelor of arts in English literature from Fairfield University in Connecticut and a master’s degree in English writing from Fordham University, and most enjoys writing about space, along with biology, chemistry, physics, archaeology and paleontology.
Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab).
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Amazon’s flagship Echo has more speakers than you can shake a stick at
Smart speakers can make a great addition to many homes, especially those with other smart devices like various, vibrant smart lights and plugs. While there are plenty of inexpensive, minimalist speakers that add lots of smarts to your home, they usually lack in the sound department. If you want a smart speaker that prioritizes sound quality, you’ve got to shell out more cash, so while the Amazon Echo Studio may seem like a big ask at $200, it’s in a different class than your average smart speaker.
So, while it may not be ideal for anyone who just wants things like reminders or the weather, anyone looking for a smart speaker that prioritizes sound quality as highly as voice assistant features will be drawn to the Echo Studio. The main focus may be music, but that doesn’t mean smart-home features are lacking. With inclusions like a Zigbee hub and Dolby Atmos, it’s clear the Echo Studio is designed to be the hub of your smart home just as much as it is your preferred method of streaming your music. The biggest weakness is Amazon’s Alexa, but it’s more of a minor annoyance than an Achilles heel.
The Echo Studio may not be a bang-for-the-buck device, like Amazon’s cheaper Echo offerings, but it’s clearly the one Amazon thinks of as its flagship. Between Dolby Atmos, a Zigbee hub, and the sheer number of speakers packed in here, the Echo Studio doesn’t have to be cheap to be worth the money.
There’s no way around this, the Echo Studio is big. If you’re coming from something more reasonably sized, like an Echo Dot or even a full-sized Echo, you’ll struggle to fit the Echo Studio into the same spaces you could comfortably tuck other smart speakers. There’s an excellent reason for that, though, and it’s because the Echo Studio is crammed to the gills with speakers. With a 5.25” woofer, a 1” front-firing tweeter, and 2” left, right, and top firing speakers, the studio has a lot of hardware to justify its size, as well as the heft that comes with it.
The exterior design is fairly minimal, with just 4 buttons. Left to right are the mute toggle, volume down, up, and the assistant wake button. That last one is handy if someone changed the wake word to Ziggy when you weren’t paying attention (yes, that’s actually an option), and your Quantum Leap knowledge is severely lacking. It’s easy to tell when the mic is disabled since both the light ring around the top of the Echo Studio and the button itself will be red.
Probably the most prominent physical features are the front and back woofer cutouts near the bottom. The other speaker grills are noticeable if you look closely, but are otherwise obscured by the fabric cover. Speaking of that fabric, your only color options for it are gray, and Billie Eilish. That’s not me being snarky and out of touch about a neon green or platinum blonde colorway, the only other option is literally a picture of Billie Eilish—see below. That difference will run you an extra $30, but there’s no other differences to speak of; it even has the same black plastic trim pieces.
If, for some reason, this appeals to you, Amazon will sell you one.
Around the back, just below the woofer cutout, you’ll find the only inputs. Left to right is a USB Micro B port that’s just for Amazon to use, the figure eight power inlet, and a combo optical/3.5mm jack. That’s a bit of a curveball, as far as audio inputs are concerned, but when your target demographic is stuffy audiophiles, supporting optical audio isn’t a terrible move. Don’t expect it to come with any of those input cables, though. The only things the Echo Studio comes packed with are a six-foot power cable, and the tote bag it’s packed in to make it easy to pull out of the box.
One of the big promises of the Echo Studio is room-filling sound, and that relies on understanding the acoustic properties of your room. Much like a professional setting up a surround system, the Echo Studio gets a profile of your room by producing a test sound and analyzing the reverberations. The Echo Studio has an array of seven mics for voice controls that pull double duty when you calibrate for a new room. This is also how it pulls off Dolby Atmos support, allowing it to project sound to make it seem like it’s coming from other locations. There aren’t a lot of Atmos tracks on Prime Music, but there’s enough to get a decent enough feel for it, and I was honestly surprised by how convincing it can be at times. Even sitting right in front of it at my desk, some tracks sounded like there was music coming from my left and right, and oddly enough some vocal parts sounded like they were coming from closer than the speaker.
On the whole, the Echo Studio has enjoyable sound quality, though it isn’t quite as good at lower volumes. While it’s impressive at higher volumes, with zero distortion or rattle from the woofer, it can sound very hollow at lower levels. I don’t believe this will be an issue if it’s in a living room, or anywhere else where it’ll have other noise to compete with, but in a quiet room where you’re likely to listen at low volumes, expect it to sound like a cheaper speaker. This is only an issue when it’s below about 20% volume, but it’s a very drastic change when you cross that threshold.
I already mentioned how impressed I was with the lack of distortion at higher volume levels, but I’m impressed just how loud it can be. I’ve seen the phrase “room-filling sound” thrown around a lot, but it’s very fitting in this case. While the Echo Studio is definitely large for a smart speaker, something this size should not be able to cover a room in sound as well as this does. If you absolutely have to squeeze more sound into a room, you can either add the Echo Sub into the mix, get a second Echo Studio to make it a stereo pair, or both.
The Echo Studio is marketed as a music-centric smart speaker, and the only way you’ll be able to take advantage of that is to play high-def and lossless tracks. The Studio supports plenty HD sources; in addition to Amazon’s own HD Music service, you get Deezer, Apple Music, and Tidal. It supports Spotify, too, but we’re still waiting for the launch of Spotify Hifi. While I’d like to see more services available, like Qobuz for example, the only big service that’s missing is YouTube Music. There are a few other options to choose from, but even with all the prominent (non-Google) players and a few extras thrown in for good measure, the selection still feels a bit limited. Unlike Google’s speakers, you can’t just “cast” whatever’s on your phone to the Echo Studio.
One of the weakest aspects of the Echo Studio is Alexa. Between Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant has been the weakest in my experience, but at least it’s still better than Bixby. The third-party skills marketplace gives it a bit of a leg up since it lets other developers give your Echo the ability to do things like call you an Uber or order you a pizza, but that doesn’t change Alexa itself. My main complaint is how specific and non-conversational your commands need to be. Commands as simple as “Turn off the lights” will prompt Alexa to ask you if you mean one specific light, meanwhile the Google Assistant knows I want to turn all the lights off. There are plenty of commands that will get you what you want in any given scenario, but it’s just not as intuitive as Assistant or Siri.
While Alexa itself is a bit wonky at times, setting up the Echo Studio through the Alexa App was a breeze. My phone connected to the Echo Studio right through the app, and then it only took a few seconds for it to hop over to my wifi. Setting up other smart devices is just as easy since the Echo Show doubles as a Zigbee hub. I happened to have an extra Zigbee-enabled Hue bulb in my closet, so I decided to add it through the Alexa app instead of the Philips Hue app. Unlike setting a new bulb up through my Hue hub, it immediately found it and let me add it to a room profile, cutting the process down from minutes to just seconds.
Maybe. It’s obviously not for everyone at $200, but it’s full of features that everyone wants in a smart speaker. If you want a good intersection of sound quality and price, this is a pretty appealing option, especially since it can easily be expanded piecemeal into a much more serious system by adding a second Echo Studio and an Echo Sub. If you care about having the absolute best audio, there are better options, though they cost significantly more.
Amazon has other Echo devices that work as a Zigbee hub, though all of them are a far cry from the Studio in terms of sound quality. If you aren’t a fan of Alexa, you might be better off checking out our other favorite smart speakers for one that has Google’s Assistant instead. But if you've been waiting for a Google Home Max 2, it might be time to switch to Alexa.
If you're caught up on Google's spat with Sonos, you'll be aware that even if you bought a stereo pair of Nest Audios, you can no longer cast to them as a group from the Google Home app. Amazon still has this functionality built in, so if you expand your smart speaker collection, you'll still easily manage simultaneous playback across however many Echos you want. As far as sound goes, while the Nest Audio is a fine device, the audio from the Echo Studio is in another class. While you can get a stereo pair of Nest Audio speakers for the same price, the Dolby Atmos built into the Studio helps to level the playing field, especially considering how limited the stereo functionality of the Nest speaker line is, thanks to the aforementioned legal trouble with Sonos.
The Sonos One has a very similar list of audio optimization features, and stereo pairing ease, but as far as speakers are concerned it only has a tweeter and woofer packed into its much smaller frame. In addition to this more compact size, it also clocks in at about half the weight, but that's not really a selling point for a device that you aren't supposed to move around after setup. Features the Sonos One has over the Echo Studio are an ethernet port, access to the Google Assistant, and touch controls that include track skipping. I wouldn't say that those are enough to justify a larger price tag, especially considering the massive difference in the size, number, and variety of speakers the Echo Studio has.
Connor is a writer living in Dallas, Texas, where he can usually be found taking photos, working out, or camping. He writes reviews, features, and guides for Android devices, power stations, earbuds, and audiophile devices like DACs and DAPs. Connor's first Android was a Samsung Intercept all the way back in 2010, and his favorite phone of all time is the Pixel 2 XL, which he insists on keeping up to date with third-party ROMs like LineageOS. At 6'5", Connor is quite literally a massive nerd, and he's so obsessed with coffee that he brought his espresso machine camping with him as part of a power station review. Connor often values cool factor over practicality, which is probably why he built an all-in-one VR gaming PC into a 2003 eMac case. Connor can be reached at c.nolan at androidpolice .com

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November 04, 2022
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The Federal Reserve Board on Friday invited public comment on a proposal to publish a periodic list of depository institutions that have access to Federal Reserve accounts—often referred to as “master accounts”—and payment services. The proposal would result in a transparent and accessible source of this information for the public.
In August, the Board adopted final guidelines that establish a transparent, risk-based, and consistent set of factors for Reserve Banks to use in reviewing requests to access these accounts and payment services.
“Today’s proposal will enhance transparency to the public by periodically publishing a comprehensive list of financial institutions that have access to Federal Reserve accounts and payment services,” said Vice Chair Lael Brainard. “I look forward to getting feedback on this proposal for enhanced transparency.”
The proposal issued today would build on the transparency of the guidelines by requiring Reserve Banks to periodically disclose which depository institutions have access to their accounts and payment services.
Comments will be accepted for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
For media inquiries, please email [email protected] or call 202-452-2955.
Federal Register notice: Guidelines for Evaluating Account and Services Requests
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington, DC 20551

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