Vol. I: Issue 032                                                                                             July 31st, 2026

Breaking news out of Whiskview, where the annual Airshow is getting a little more runway.

Organizers have announced that this year’s event will be extended beyond the weekend and into Monday and Tuesday, giving visitors extra chances to catch the show if tomorrow’s weather brings the rain many are watching for.

Here at NowTime News headquarters, we have heard the jets practicing all week, and let me tell you, those booming fly-bys can shake the coffee right out of your mug. So if the rehearsals are any sign, Whiskview is in for a serious show overhead.

Among this year’s featured guests is hometown hero Daniela, who will be appearing with her C.H.O.M.P. team to sign autographs and pull some serious Gs through the skies of Whiskview. It is always a crowd-pleaser when one of our own comes home, especially when she arrives at that kind of speed.

Legendary daredevil Boomer will also be making an appearance with her iconic Boomerball Cannon Blast. This year, she is expected to attempt a full landing-strip launch across Uppercrust Airport, firing herself from one end of the strip toward the other in classic Boomer fashion. Is it bold? Absolutely. Is it something I would recommend trying yourself? Not even for a second.

And for the kiddos, the infamous bouncy house village will be making its return. Now, after past concerns, crews have assured organizers that every inflatable will be properly anchored to the ground this year. That is good news for parents, children, and anyone who remembers the phrase “inflatable uprising” with a little too much clarity.

From rain delays to runway launches, I’ll be tracking every update from Uppercrust Airport, because Duke’s Gotcha covered!

 

Hiya friends!

That’s right, Duke. As of now, Saturday here in Whiskview is looking to have about a 65 percent chance of storms rolling in around 11 o’clock. I am not expecting much in the way of lightning, but we are definitely going to need a pretty good northerly push if we want to keep those rainclouds from crashing tomorrow’s fun.

Now, over at Zoo Pepperton, opening weekend for the brand-new Snackimal exhibit is looking awfully nice on Saturday, with warm, clear weather that should make for a pretty lovely day to wander around and meet all those adorable little critters.

As for the rest of the week in New Pepperton, it is looking hot, humid, and definitely a little sticky, with plenty of warm sunshine mixed in with a few pop-up shower and thunderstorm chances here and there. Nothing looks like a total washout, but it is one of those weeks where the air feels heavy and you’ll want to keep one eye on the sky just in case.

So pack the water bottle, dress light, and enjoy a very summery stretch over in New Pepperton.

 

The Mumph here, and we’ve got some sports news out of Portallini today. With the success of Papa Louie’s sponsored beach soccer teams, the Pastaria Calciatori and the Freezeria Swizzlers, word is he may be looking to expand teams across his whole portfolio of wildly popular restaurants.

And folks, I am pumped. You give The Mumph more teams, more uniforms, more rivalries, and more chances for somebody to argue about standings at lunch, I am all in.

Now, on to baseball, where Starlight City and Sakura Bay gave us an extra-inning opener with some serious late drama.

For a while, Starlight had this thing under control. The Buffaloes put up two in the third, Sakura Bay finally answered with one in the sixth, and then Starlight added two more in the seventh to make it 4 to 1. That looked like breathing room. It was not.

Bottom of the ninth, Sakura Bay comes storming back with three runs to tie it, and suddenly this ballgame goes from tidy road win to everybody gripping the armrests. But in the tenth, Starlight City scratches across the go-ahead run, and Averton helps make it stand. That is why he gets MVP, because even after the Samurais forced extra innings, he had to keep his head clear and give the Buffaloes a chance to finish the job.

Final score, Starlight City Buffaloes 5, Sakura Bay Samurais 4, in ten innings. Winner, Starlight City. MVP, Averton on the mound.

My two cents, an opening game can get weird fast, and this one nearly slipped away. But if you can take a ninth-inning gut punch, answer in extras, and still walk out 1 and 0, that is a win with some backbone.

 

Hello out there…

Re-reading the latest Expedition Munchmore transmission, I found myself chilled all over again by the arrangement struck between the Scoopians of Neapolitown and that green-stalked sociopath, Radley Madish.

It has been thirteen years since I first crossed paths with him, and I do not use that phrase lightly. I still remember the scene with uncomfortable clarity. I was tucked away in an alley, half-hidden among wooden crates and rusted trash cans, when I saw him warp onto the street with that frantic, unblinking energy of his. Within moments, he was hauling away crates with the help of several menacing Kaiser Onions. I nearly got caught watching. The only reason I didn’t is because I threw myself into a pile of garbage bags before anyone could spot me.

And all of this was happening while he held twenty-eight of our own hostage somewhere in the distant Land of Munchmore.

That was the first time I was ever in Radley Madish’s presence, and I sincerely hope it is the last. Because even then, even from partial cover and through the stink of alleyway trash, there was something unmistakable in those glass-rimmed eyes. Not just cunning. Not just instability. The sort of look that tells you a person is capable of anything and likely to justify all of it to himself by morning.

So yes, I am deeply unsettled by any deal that leaves him with room to maneuver, even under something as neat-sounding as “house arrest.” Words like that may look tidy on paper. They do not make a man like Radley “safe”.

I can only hope Sprout and the Scoopians understand exactly who they are dealing with.

Because if history has taught us anything, it is this: Radley Madish does not need much space to become a very large problem.

And that’s The Scoop.

 

Vol. I: Issue 031                                                                                             July 24th, 2026

Breaking news out of Calypso Island, where Duke Gotcha and his family are officially off the clock and enjoying a well-earned vacation.

That means no deep investigations, no courthouse steps, no surprise press conferences, and absolutely no chasing suspicious characters down back alleys this week.

I’ll be back next week with the latest stories, updates, and developments from across the Gurth. Until then, stay sharp, stay safe, and maybe take a little time off yourself, because Duke’s Gotcha covered!

 

Hiya friends!

Okay, so the strangest thing happened to me this week. I accidentally cooked something good. I know, I was just as shocked as you are.

The Mumph gave me a whole list of things Hambone likes for treats, and you were not kidding, it read like a little kid’s candy wishlist. But I thought, alright, maybe this is finally my moment. I had a handful of those ingredients around the house, so I whipped something up with the goal of letting Hambone be the official taste tester.

Well, that plan fell apart fast. I left the treats out to cool and went for a jog around the neighborhood, and when I got back, Finley had stopped by to say goodbye before heading off to Calypso Island. While he was waiting for me, he ate half a dozen of them. Half a dozen! Before I could even explain, he was asking me for the recipe and telling me this might be his new favorite cookie. That is when I had to break it to him that they were supposed to be dog treats. He just laughed and told me to try one and tell him it was not the best cookie I had ever had. So I did, very reluctantly, and… he was right. They were actually good. Which, for me, is honestly a pretty historic little moment.

But onto the weather. This week we’re heading over to Oniontown, and let’s just say they are getting all the rain Scrapple Hill has been wishing for.

It is looking hot, humid, and pretty unsettled for a good chunk of the week, with scattered showers and storms drifting in and out and plenty of sticky summer air hanging around. There is a tiny little break in the humidity here and there, but overall this one feels muggy, stormy, and very mid-summer.

So keep the umbrella handy, don’t let the sunshine fool you, and maybe plan around those pop-up storms if you’ve got anything going on in Oniontown.

 

The Mumph here, and first off, big thanks to Zepha Ray for the plate of cookies on my desk. Or dog treats. Honestly, I am still not totally sure, but I know this, they were amazing.

It was not easy, folks, but I did manage to hold back and save a few for Hambone. And Zepha, I am serious here, you might want to enter those things into Tastyville’s Taste of the Future cooking competition. That is not just me being nice. That is The Mumph giving a scouting report.

And I’ll tell you who else was cooking this week, the Powder Point Woollies.

Powder Point and Frostfield stayed quiet through the first two innings, but in the third, the Woollies cracked the whole thing open. Pinch Hitwell steps in and launches a grand slam, four runs on one swing, and suddenly Powder Point has the game by the collar. They added one in the fourth and one more in the sixth, building a 6 to 0 lead before Frostfield finally found its bats late.

Give the Batters credit, they did not roll over. Frostfield put up two in the seventh and two more in the eighth, turning a runaway into something with a pulse. But Powder Point had done enough early, and Levain and the defense kept the ninth clean to finish it off.

Final score, Powder Point Woollies 6, Frostfield Batters 4. Winner, Powder Point. MVP, Pinch Hitwell, and yes, when you come off the bench and hit a grand slam, that is how you get your name in bold.

My two cents, one swing can change a game, and Hitwell’s third-inning blast gave Powder Point all the room they needed.

 

Hello out there…

It is good to see Duke taking a well-earned vacation, especially after the three-part story he spent months building, chasing, and polishing long after most sensible people would have gone home for the night. He would never say this himself, and he would probably object to me saying it here, but NowTime News would not run nearly as smoothly without the constant work of Mr. Gotcha. Frankly, I do not think this operation would be where it is today without his guidance.

Back in 2014, when Duke was first hired, NowTime News was still just a local Whiskview station. He came in at the entry level, working as an MMJ, one of those newsroom catch-all positions where you are expected to fill the gaps, chase the scraps, and make something watchable out of a slow news day. But people noticed him. Even in those smaller segments, there was something there. A voice. A point of view. A way of pulling viewers in and making them care.

Before long, the station gave him his own program, The Gotcha Journal.

That show changed things.

It was not long after that Duke brought me onto Team Gotcha and started showing me what real investigative reporting looked like, not the glamorous version, but the actual work. The patience. The note-taking. The persistence. The refusal to stop at the first official answer just because it arrived in a neat sentence. The popularity of The Gotcha Journal quickly outgrew the limits of local Whiskview reporting, and it became the driving force behind the board’s decision to launch a full cable news channel of its own. They built a twenty-four-hour cycle around that momentum, with Duke’s show at the center of it.

Eventually, that show evolved into Team Gotcha Tonight, the daily fixture many of you know now, and one I still pop into every few weeks.

Over time, Duke became more than a host. He became the person the network turns to when it needs a read on where things are going, what matters, and what people actually want to see. That is not something you fake, and it is not something you stumble into. It comes from years of showing up, paying attention, and doing the work.

So yes, I am glad he is finally taking a break. It may be the first real one he has had in five years.

While Duke is presumably somewhere on Calypso Island getting sand in his shoes and sunlight on his face, I will be right here doing what I do best, keeping my notebook open and digging into whatever comes next.

And that’s The Scoop.

 

Vol. I: Issue 030                                                                                             July 17th, 2026

Morning comes early in Burgerburgh. Before the grills fire up, before the sidewalks fill, before the city finds its voice, Lisa is already out on the pavement. Her running shoes strike the old Route 06 path with the steady rhythm of someone who knows every crack, corner, and crossing by heart.

To most folks, it is just part of the Burgerburgh Marathon course. To Lisa, it is something more. Lisa is an aerobics instructor at the local Fit Frenzy Gym and a three-time Burgerburgh Marathon winner. She has spent years training along the same stretches of road that once carried families, truckers, tourists, dreamers, drifters, and anyone else trying to get from one side of the continent to the other. But Lisa did not learn to love Route 06 from a history book. She grew up on it.

Her childhood home in Burgerburgh was built on the former site of the Oh-Sixer, a once-famous diner that served hungry travelers along the old highway. By the time Lisa was born, the diner was gone, replaced by walls, windows, and a front yard. But the story never left.

Her father, Franco, made sure of that. When Franco and Fernanda moved to Toastwood, he passed along a collection of old Oh-Sixer keepsakes he had saved over the years. Lisa keeps them displayed proudly on what she calls her Oh-Sixer shelf. There is an old menu, softened at the folds. A signed photo of the actor Mumphrey enjoying a burger at the diner. A wooden spatula with the name Oh-Sixer branded into the handle.

And right in the center of it all sits Sizzlin’ Sammy, the old burger mascot plushie, still smiling like the grill never cooled down. Lisa told me she used to think of those things as family clutter. Cute stuff. Old stuff. The sort of things people save because throwing them away feels wrong. Then one day, she realized something. If her father had not saved them, who would have?

That question became the start of the Route 06 Revival Team. At first, Lisa’s dream was big. Maybe too big. Reconnect the old highway. Piece it back together. Make it possible for travelers to drive Route 06 from coast to coast the way families once did. But dreams have to share the road with reality. Many sections of Route 06 are gone. Some have been swallowed by newer routes. Some were demolished. Some disappeared under parking lots, tunnels, corridors, and buildings that never knew what they were standing on. In some places, the old route is still visible. In others, it is only a faded line on a map. So Lisa changed the goal. If Route 06 cannot be fully restored, then what remains should be protected. That is where the fight begins.

The Continental Roads Funding Board, better known as the CRFB, has been reviewing the future of several remaining Route 06 segments. Their concern is not romance. It is cost. Upkeep. Liability. Safety. Money in, money out. Representative Callouster, speaking for the board, put it plainly.

“A road exists to move people from Point A to Point B. When it stops doing that, it becomes a burden, not a byway.”

It is a hard sentence to argue with because, on paper, it makes sense. But Lisa is not arguing with paper. She is arguing with everything paper leaves out. “A road can move bodies,” Lisa said, resting one hand near the old Oh-Sixer menu. “Or it can move a town. It can move stories. Route 06 did not just get people to where they were going. It made them stop. It made them meet. It made them spend a little money in Oilseed Springs because a rusted chicken told them to. It made them pull off in Chokecherry because Big Stu promised a Brain Freezer button.”

She looked down for a moment, as if she could see the old map under the new one. “You can call it a burden because it’s quiet now. But it’s quiet because everything loud got built somewhere else.” And that right there is the heart of it. Route 06 is not silent because it has nothing left to say. It is silent because the world learned how to pass it by.

Oakie Deloke understands that better than most. He does not speak about the lost road with anger. He is tender about it. He knows time moves on for towns, for roads, and for all of us. Powder Point changed. Oilseed Springs changed. Chokecherry nearly disappeared. Still, Oakie hopes that one day, someone opens a museum celebrating the journey. The roadside attractions. The old shops. The strange statues. The places that made travelers point out the window and say, “Wait, pull over.”

Florentina Romano understands it too. She went back to the empty lot where Big Stu’s Igloo once stood and found the rusty Brain Freezer button she never won as a child. Then she pinned it to her shirt and said, “Better late than never.”

That is what Route 06 Revival Team is really asking. Not to bring back every snowcone stand. Not to rebuild every diner. Not to pretend the world has not changed. Just to admit that something important happened here, and that what remains should not be quietly hauled away because it no longer fits neatly into a budget sheet.

Lisa’s request is simple. Write to your CRFB representatives. Tell them your stories. Tell them your memories. Tell them about the stops you still remember, the photos you still have, the souvenirs in your attic, the places your family always meant to revisit but never did. Because if the board wants evidence that Route 06 still matters, maybe the evidence has been sitting in shoeboxes, scrapbooks, drawers, shelves, and hearts all along.

Evening falls back in Oilseed Springs. The sun lowers behind the rocky hills, and Cluck-a-Luck catches the last light of the day. For a moment, that rusted frame almost glows. Not like it used to, maybe. But enough.

No one can say what the future holds for Historic Route 06. The last buildings may crumble, the last signs may fall, the last mile marker may finally vanish into weeds. But the stories, once told, do not vanish so easily.

This is Duke Gotcha with a special report, signing off.

 

Hiya friends!

What a wonderful story, Duke, from start to finish. I have to admit, I even got a little teary-eyed. But now let’s check in with our friends over in Scrapple Hill, where they’ve been dealing with a pretty stubborn drought these last few weeks.

And unfortunately, it does look like that dry stretch is sticking around a while longer. Scrapple Hill is looking at a warm, sunny, very quiet week weather-wise, with lots of dry skies and only a few passing clouds here and there. It is the kind of forecast that feels lovely if you are making outdoor plans, but not nearly as lovely for thirsty gardens, fields, and anyone hoping for a good soaking rain.

So keep the sunscreen handy, enjoy the sunshine if you can, and let’s all hope Scrapple Hill gets a proper rain before too much longer.

 

The Mumph here, and I have to go off on a bit of a tangent before we settle into our usual baseball talk.

Last night, in front of a sold out crowd at Toastwood’s Grand Pumpernickel Hall, we watched wrestling gold. The Notorious O’Noes won the W8W Trios Championship in what can only be described as a slobberknocker of a match, taking down the reigning champs, SallyJo, BettyJo, and QuazyJo of the DoJo of Domination.

Folks, I was on the edge of the couch for the full 36 minutes. Big congrats to Kasey O, No-Way Kanei, and Biggie Bright on their first title win as a team. That is timing, toughness, and three people moving like one unit. Can you tell this whole squared circle thing is growing on me?

Whew. Alright. Baseball.

Portallini and Tacodale gave us a tight one, and for a while it looked like the Hardshells might grind this thing out. Tacodale got on the board in the first, then both teams went quiet for four straight innings. Pitchers were working, defenses were clean, and nobody was giving away free runs.

Then the sixth inning hit, and Portallini finally broke through. The Gondoliers put up three in the top of the sixth, and that was the swing that changed the whole afternoon. Tacodale answered with one in the bottom half to make it close, but from there, Portallini held the line and finished the job.

MVP goes to Mascaro behind the plate. Catchers do not always get the spotlight, but Mascaro earned it here, guiding Fusaro through the tough innings, keeping the game steady when Tacodale grabbed the early lead, and helping Portallini manage the late pressure after that sixth-inning surge.

Final score, Portallini Gondoliers 3, Tacodale Hardshells 2. Winner, Portallini. MVP, Mascaro.

My two cents, this was not flashy baseball, but it was winning baseball. Stay close, wait for your inning, then protect the lead like it owes you rent.

 

Hello out there…

Monday night in Sakura Bay, authorities were called to Ishigumi Terrace after a radio tower at the top of the rise was found damaged. Witnesses reported seeing someone matching Ninjoy’s description near the top of the structure, and from there, local authorities seemed more than ready to let the rest of the story write itself.

I was not.

For one thing, I have grown tired of how quickly certain departments rush to turn a sighting into a conclusion. The damaged tower left broadcasts scrambled through the rest of Tuesday until repairs were finally completed, which is certainly serious. But serious damage is not the same thing as clear blame, no matter how eager officials may be to blur the difference.

While looking over the scene, one piece of debris caught my attention. Among the mess below the tower sat a damaged red metal box stenciled in yellow with the words Piper 2.7. I took a picture immediately.

The following day, I spoke with members of the repair crew and asked about the box. None of them knew what I was referring to. When I showed them the photo, they told me they had never seen it during cleanup that morning. They did not know what it was, where it came from, or where it had gone.

That, to me, is not a small detail.

I am not interested in sprinting toward conclusions just because the official version has already picked a convenient suspect. But I am having a very hard time believing Ninjoy climbed that tower simply to tear it apart. And if that red box was part of something else, something technical, something removed before daylight, then the story being told to the public may be missing a rather important piece.

So no, I am not ready to accept the easy version of events.

Something here does not fit. And until it does, I will keep digging.

And that’s The Scoop.