The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for more than 250 days, and the reports coming off it are ugly. We’re talking about shortages of basic supplies, contaminated water, failing plumbing, deck safety problems, deteriorating mental health and mail that never arrives. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao on Wednesday demanding an accounting. He gave them until Aug. 27 to answer.

Roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines are aboard. The carrier left San Diego in November on what was billed as a six-month Pacific deployment, then got redirected to the war with Iran. Blumenthal said the ship has gone more than 200 days without a port call, though The Guardian puts the figure north of 240. Nobody is publicly disputing that it’s been a very long time.

The most alarming detail: Military Times, Navy Times and Stars and Stripes have all reported that multiple crew members had attempted or considered going overboard. The Navy confirmed one sailor did go overboard and was recovered, and says it has identified no increase in suicidal ideation among the crew.

Hegseth, speaking in Panama on Thursday, called the reports “completely misrepresented.” That’s really been the whole defense so far. It doesn’t address the real concerns or the 250 days, and it doesn’t help that the Navy has already confirmed the overboard recovery.

The Lincoln is expected to be relieved by the USS George Washington. But when, exactly, nobody will say. There’s no confirmed return date and no public timeline for the relief. Which means the clock on Blumenthal’s Aug. 27 deadline may run out before the ship’s does.

The U.S. stock market rose to an all-time high Thursday following the latest sign that inflation is getting less bad. S&P 500 closed Thursday at a record 7,798.99, up 0.65%, after topping 7,800 intraday for the first time at 7,816.70. The Nasdaq rose 0.81% to 26,803.03. The Dow tacked on 0.13%. Cooler inflation did the heavy lifting.

July producer prices came in unchanged against the 0.2% rise economists expected, following an in-line 0.1% CPI reading that had traders paring bets on a September rate hike. Oil helped too: Brent fell more than 2% to $87.07 even with the U.S.-Iran war grinding on. And with over 90% of the S&P 500 reported, second-quarter earnings growth is tracking near 50%, per FactSet. Cisco was the notable dud, off more than 8%.

What's unresolved is how the Fed under new Chair Kevin Warsh reads any of this. But the Wall Street Journal says it’s resetting expectations about what the Fed will do next month—and in a positive way. And July retail sales are due this morning, with consensus at a 0.1% gain. Records are fun until the next data point says otherwise.

Would you call this one of those “frivolous American lawsuits”? Last year, Hershey prevailed in a highly-publicized court case that claimed Reese’s faceless Halloween pumpkins were a consumer letdown. But starting this month, the spooky treats will return to store shelves, though without any changes to their smooth, slightly gourd-shaped design.

I’m a huge fan of these because they have a much higher peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio. Of course, any PB-lover might say it’s hard to go wrong with this combo, regardless of a candy’s shape or features. The legal dispute over the pumpkins kicked off in 2024, when a lawsuit alleged that Hershey’s ads for the candies were deceptive because the smiling pumpkin designs on the wrappers were absent from the actual candies.

On Thursday, almost a year after that court victory, Hershey said it is introducing 20 Halloween-themed products that will hit stores this week, marking the company's largest Halloween rollout.