Independent newsroom

Sunday, September 13, 2026

The File

Every claim traces to a primary source. Uncertainty is labeled. Corrections are public.

Edition

Sunday, September 13, 2026

Sunday edition

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in August

Confirmed
Prices shoppers pay moved up again. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 0.4 percent in August after rising 0.1 percent in July, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Over the 12 months ended in August, the all-items index was up 3.4 percent before seasonal adjustment. Gasoline jumped 3.9 percent in the month and accounted for over one third of the overall rise. The broader energy index rose 2.1 percent. Shelter rose 0.3 percent. Food rose 0.1 percent. Food away from home rose 0.3 percent. Prices excluding food and energy rose 0.3 percent in August and 2.4 percent over the year. In July those prices had risen 0.2 percent in the month and 2.5 percent over the year. Energy was up 16.3 percent over 12 months. Gasoline was up 27.4 percent over 12 months. Food was up 2.7 percent over the year. Shelter was up 3.0 percent over 12 months. The unadjusted all-items index stood at 334.980 (1982–84=100). The next Consumer Price Index release is Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Full story and sources · 2 primary sources

Federal Reserve / OCC

Bank regulators propose new guidance on outside vendors

Confirmed
Federal bank regulators want banks to size their oversight to the real risk of each outside vendor. On Sept. 11 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency asked for public comment on . The agencies say the draft is principles-based. The Federal Reserve said that, as with all supervisory guidance, it is non-binding. It is meant to help banks and credit unions tailor checks to each relationship instead of treating every vendor the same. When finalized, the bank agencies plan to replace older third-party guidance with the new text. Comments are due 60 days after the proposal appears in the Federal Register. The same day, the bank agencies also issued a . The Federal Reserve also sought comment on a companion guide aimed at Fed-supervised community banks.

Sources · 2 listed

OpenAI

OpenAI says Habitat now serves more than a billion ChatGPT users

Confirmed
OpenAI opened the hood on the storage system behind ChatGPT. In a Sept. 11 engineering post, staff members Jon Lee, Chaomin Yu, and Ben Ries describe Habitat, the company’s online storage platform. They say Habitat now handles more than 70 million requests per second, supports products used by more than 1 billion people each week across almost 40 regions, and stores more than 500 petabytes of data. Habitat started as a Python client library tied to one database for GPTs at DevDay 2023. It is now a distributed system sitting in front of stores including Azure Cosmos DB. The post is part one of two on how OpenAI scaled the stack while growing more than tenfold year over year for three years. It is an infrastructure write-up, not a new frontier model launch. Anthropic’s newsroom still led with its Sept. 10 threat report. Live xAI news returned 403; a Sept. 9 archive of that page listed nothing newer than Sept. 4.

Sources · 4 listed

State Department

U.S. adds $1 million for Nepal flood victim identification

Confirmed
Washington sent more help after deadly flooding in Nepal. A Sept. 12 State Department media note says the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs approved $1 million in forensic support for Nepal Police, including DNA analysis kits. With that money, the department says U.S. assistance after the floods now tops $5 million. The note lists $3 million in food and logistics through the World Food Program for up to three months of emergency food for 10,000 flood-affected households; $685,000 through Catholic Relief Services for shelter, food, water, and related aid; and $365,000 in health, nutrition, and water aid through Jhpiego, FHI-360, and UNICEF. FBI forensic specialists are working with Nepal Police on disaster victim identification. The U.S. military delivered 5,000 specialized recovery supplies, 500 first aid kits, stretchers, and front-end loaders.

Sources · 1 listed

White House

President signs four House bills into law

Confirmed
Four House bills became law on Friday. A White House statement dated Sept. 11 says the President signed , , , and . clears a deed restriction on about 3.62 acres the Interior Department once conveyed to Paducah, Kentucky. , the , widens federal spending transparency rules to cover other transaction agreements. , the , extends authority for a National Emergency Medical Services memorial on federal land in the District of Columbia. , the , extends and writes into law a federal tax deduction for certain disaster-related personal casualty losses and an exclusion for qualified wildfire relief payments.

Sources · 1 listed

Justice Department

Brooklyn daycare owner gets 76 months in $64 million Medicaid fraud

Confirmed
A Brooklyn woman is going to federal prison for a huge Medicaid kickback scheme. On Sept. 11 the Justice Department said Zakia Khan, 55, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to 76 months. Prosecutors say she led a fraud at two social adult daycare centers and a home health company. Between about 2017 and 2024 the centers billed Medicaid roughly $64 million for services that were not provided as claimed. Medicaid paid about $56 million. Marketers and recipients got cash kickbacks to sign people up. Khan also must pay more than $56 million in restitution and forfeit $5 million in proceeds, including two properties, cash, and gold jewelry seized at her home. She pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay health care kickbacks.

Sources · 1 listed

NASA

Parker Solar Probe checks in after its 29th close pass by the Sun

Confirmed
NASA’s Sun diver phoned home after another close approach. A Sept. 10 Parker Solar Probe blog post says the spacecraft completed its 29th close approach to the Sun on Sept. 4. It again matched its record speed and distance from the solar surface. This time the craft pointed its camera at structures and activity near the Sun’s north pole. A beacon tone said systems were operating normally. Separately, this desk still has no NASA post confirming that Progress 96 docked on Friday as scheduled; the station coverage page still uses schedule language and was last updated Sept. 8.

Sources · 3 listed

Week 1

Week 1 wraps today; Cowboys visit Giants on Sunday night

Confirmed
The NFL’s opening week ends tonight. NFL.com’s 2026 Week 1 schedule still shows Seattle 13, New England 10 as final from Wednesday’s kickoff, and San Francisco 27, Los Angeles Rams 7 as final from Thursday in Melbourne. Sunday’s national window is Dallas at the New York Giants at 8:20 p.m. Eastern on NBC. Monday Night Football is Denver at Kansas City at 8:15 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. A full afternoon slate is also listed for Sunday, Sept. 13, including early Fox and CBS windows and late windows such as the Cardinals at the Chargers, the Dolphins at the Raiders, Green Bay at Minnesota, and Washington at Philadelphia. No odds. No picks. Scores for Sunday’s games were not final at this morning lock.

Sources · 1 listed