How to Oppose a Change of Venue Motion
Using Survey Evidence to Show a Fair Jury Can Be Seated A community attitude survey works the same way regardless of which side commissions it. The methodology is identical: a random sample of jury-eligible residents in the venue, surveyed on their awareness of the...
September: consumer spending, AI automation risks and broken trust
Consumer Sentiment: Michigan Index Drops to 47.8 as Inflation Expectations Rise Sharp sentiment decline: The preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 47.8 in September, marking a 7.5% drop from August and sitting 13.2% lower year-over-year....
PR Minute for July: stunning resilience in Iowa?
Here is your monthly data digest on the context for public relations in Iowa and beyond, covering recent research headlines across consumer and business sentiment. Consumer Sentiment: A Mixed Bounce Back After sliding deeply into a pessimism trough earlier in the...
The Rift of May: why corporate AI budgets and consumer realities are moving in opposite directions
May 2026 data points to an uncomfortable truth: we are looking at two entirely different economies depending on where you stand. While enterprise tech spending remains highly resilient, the average consumer and Main Street business owner are hitting a visible wall....
Your employer is your most trusted institution. Now what?
Data keeps pointing the same direction: trust isn't disappearing, it's shrinking inward. That's both a warning and a window for organizations in 2026. The latest Trust Barometer from Edelman finds that seven in ten people are unwilling or hesitant to trust someone...
Platform shifts in the attention crisis
The PR landscape as of late 2025 is defined by a paradoxical shift: while AI tools have reached mass adoption to solve efficiency problems, they have simultaneously triggered a "trust recession" that only human-centric, transparent communication can solve. "Strategic...
“Trust recession” hits record skepticism, shift intensifies for peer influence
As AI saturates, what is the premium on humanity? And what does "nouveau nihlism" mean for community engagement? Data from Pew and Gallup highlights a deepening divide in how information is processed and where trust is placed. The Trust Recession Gallup reports that...
Proof of life? Threat Labs heralds “synthetic reality” crisis and Google makes a core move against AI slop
A security report warns we are entering the era of "emotional engineering," where AI scams are no longer distinguishable from human empathy. And Google has launched a December Core Update that prioritizes "verified" human content over AI-generated filler. Here is your...
Latest research: incidental news diets, experts trump emotional storytellers
Your 2026 communications strategy can't rely on "emotional storytelling" and traditional news making, especially if your stakeholders skew younger. Read on for the latest in incidental attention and post-truth fact blasting. 1. News is "incidental" for young Americans...
How your PR strategy is training AI right now
The online conversation about your organization -- every byline, public thread, news article, video -- is teaching AI how to talk about your brand. ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) are trained on billions of web pages, including news articles,...