Hyperallergic reported on the 9.4% cut to the Illinois Arts Council included in the state’s new budget signed by Governor Pat Quinn on June 30. While Illinois is cutting their arts spending, Michigan’s has increased by 366%.

An unimaginative feature about traveling alone to Chicago landed proudly on the cover of the Travel section in the latest Sunday New York Times. The story, packed tightly with clichés, spurred mostly rabid comments from readers.

The Guardian reported that 85-year-old writer and Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel García Marquéz has been struggling with dementia and is unable to continue writing. His brother has decided to speak publicly about the author’s struggle for the first time.

Just days after R&B artist Frank Ocean published a public coming out letter on his website that prompted music critics, friends and supportive listeners to rally behind him, news broke last night that he would be releasing his new album, Channel Orange, digitally, a week earlier than was scheduled. After it was made available on iTunes at midnight, it quickly jumped to number one.