Summit City Scoop

Summit City Scoop Local events, eats, and stories...all in one weekly roundup. Fort Wayne, front and center.

05/20/2026

People keep acting like platforms like GoodRx, Cost Plus Drugs and the new TrumpRX-style discount programs are some kind of revolution against Big Pharma.

Reality check: most of these “discount” systems are still operating inside the exact same PBM-controlled ecosystem that created the pricing mess in the first place.

The average person thinks:
“Wow, I beat the system. My prescription went from $200 to $28!”

But what they don’t realize is the ORIGINAL inflated price was often artificially manipulated to begin with. The discount card looks like a hero because the system made the price absurd first.

PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) sit in the middle of roughly 80% of the prescription market. They negotiate prices, rebates, formularies, pharmacy networks, and reimbursement rates. Many are owned by massive insurance companies whose legal responsibility is maximizing shareholder value, not lowering your healthcare costs.

So what happens?

A drug gets marked up.
A “discount” gets applied.
Consumers feel like they won.
Insurance companies and PBMs still collect their cut.

That’s why you’ll sometimes see a cash price cheaper than insurance…which should make absolutely no sense in a functioning market.

And before someone says “but Mark Cuban or President Trump lowered prices” ... yes, some transparency and cost-plus pricing pressure is a GOOD thing. It exposes how ridiculous the pricing structure has become. But even those systems still rely heavily on the same wholesalers, pharmacy infrastructure, and PBM-driven pricing environment dominating the market.

This isn’t a free market success story.
It’s a middleman empire.

The illusion is that Americans are getting discounts.
The reality is many are simply being charged less than the artificially inflated number they were never supposed to pay in the first place.

03/06/2026

Fort Wayne appreciation post 👇

Sometimes we forget how lucky we are to live here.

A city where you can:
• Grab coffee from a local shop
• Walk along the riverfront
• Catch a TinCaps game
• Support dozens of small businesses
• And still run into someone you know at the grocery store.

Fort Wayne may not always make the national headlines, but the people, neighborhoods, and local businesses here are what make it special.

What’s one thing you love about living in Fort Wayne?

Drop it in the comments 👇

02/23/2026

🚩 Radical Individualism Comes at the Cost of the Common Good: Why "The 99 for the 1" Has Been Weaponized

We’ve all heard the story: The shepherd leaves the 99 to save the one lost sheep. It’s a beautiful image of divine love. But lately, I’ve watched this "1 for 99" logic be twisted into a dangerous form of Radical Individualism that is dismantling our community’s safety.

In the world of public health, we call the 99% "Herd Immunity." It’s the shield that protects the most vulnerable: the infants too young for shots, the kids fighting cancer, and our elderly.

The Great Reversal:

Today, the "lost sheep" isn’t the vulnerable person at risk of dying. Instead, the movement has rebranded the individual who refuses to participate in community health as the "one."

They’ve turned a story about self-sacrifice into a manifesto for self-interest.

The "Pro-Life" Paradox:

It’s a strange irony. We claim to be "Pro-Life," yet we are watching states like Florida move to eliminate life-saving vaccine mandates. We’ve forgotten that before vaccines, losing 1/3 of our children under age five to "natural" diseases was a standard medical fact of life.

If we truly believe in the "99 for the 1," then:

The 99 are the healthy who get vaccinated.

The 1 is the immunocompromised neighbor whose life depends on us.

The Reality Check:

Radical individualism says, "My autonomy matters more than your survival." But true faith and true patriotism say, "I am my brother’s keeper."

When we weaponize the "one" to justify abandoning the "many," we aren't being brave or "anti-establishment." We are just inviting the wolves back into the fold and calling it "freedom."

History is a brutal teacher. Let’s not wait for our hospitals to fill up with preventable tragedies before we remember that the Common Good is the only thing that keeps us all alive.

02/18/2026

We’re being told energy is expensive because of “green policies.”
The data says otherwise.

Since 2009:

• U.S. crude oil production has increased roughly 150% and is at record highs.
• U.S. natural gas production has more than doubled.
• The U.S. is now one of the largest oil and LNG exporters in the world.

So if we’re producing more energy than ever… why are our bills higher than inflation?

Because in 2015, Congress lifted the 40-year ban on crude oil exports.

That decision tied U.S. oil prices directly to the global market. From that point forward, American energy companies could sell to whoever pays the most...overseas or at home.

Exports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas have surged since then. When global prices spike (wars, OPEC cuts, international demand), U.S. consumers pay those global prices too, even though the oil and gas were produced here.

That’s not renewable energy.
That’s global market pricing.

Meanwhile:

• Oil companies have posted record profits in recent years.
• The U.S. produces more energy than it consumes.
• Consumers still face higher gasoline and heating bills.

This isn’t about “shortages.”
It’s about market structure.

Many Republicans pushed to lift the export ban and expand fossil fuel exports.
Many Democrats pushed to accelerate renewable energy investment.

But the political messaging flipped the blame: pointing at wind and solar while fossil fuel exports exploded and corporate profits surged.

Energy independence isn’t just about production numbers.

If companies can export freely to maximize global profits, domestic consumers will always compete with the world for their own energy.

That’s not a supply problem.
That’s a policy choice.

And consumers are the ones paying for it.

02/04/2026

Why your bills are going up and why blaming “utility companies” is only half the story.

A lot of people are angry about rising electric bills, and that anger usually lands on companies like NIPSCO.

But here’s the part that rarely gets talked about:
👉 This isn’t just about utilities.
👉 It’s about how the state chooses to collect money (quietly) while taking public credit elsewhere.

The quiet tradeoff: lower taxes, higher “fees”

Indiana politicians love to talk about tax cuts and “business-friendly policy.” And yes, some taxes have gone down.
But government still has to be funded.
So instead of raising taxes (which voters notice), costs get shifted into places people don’t immediately connect to government:

Utility bills

-“Approved” rate increases
-Infrastructure surcharges
-Cost recovery riders

When your electric bill goes up, it feels like a corporate decision, not a policy decision.

That’s convenient.

Then lawmakers get to:
-Take credit for tax cuts
-Blame utilities for price hikes
-Hold hearings and “investigate” the problem they helped create

Regulated monopolies = guaranteed profits

Indiana uses a regulated monopoly utility model. That means:
-You don’t get to choose your electric company
-Utilities are guaranteed the opportunity to earn a set profit
-When large capital projects are approved, customers pay for them
So when the state green-lights massive grid upgrades, utilities don’t just eat the cost...you do!

That’s not corruption.
That’s how the system is designed.

Where AI data centers come in
Indiana is aggressively courting AI and hyperscale data centers.

They need:
-Enormous amounts of electricity
-Massive grid upgrades
-Huge volumes of water

Politicians sell this as “economic development.”

Here’s the reality:
Construction phase
✔ Lots of short-term construction jobs
✔ Temporary boost in local spending
✔ Headlines about billions “invested”
After construction
✖ Very few permanent jobs
✖ Jobs are high-skill, high-pay, low-count
✖ Payroll taxes from a handful of employees don’t come close to covering:
-Power infrastructure
-Water system strain
-Environmental oversight
-Tax abatements granted up front

In plain English:
The big money shows up once.
The costs stick around forever.

Who actually pays?
Even when states claim data centers will “pay their share,” reality is messier:
-Infrastructure costs get spread across the grid
-Utilities recover approved investments from all customers
-Residents and small businesses absorb higher base rates

So while the data center gets cheap power and tax breaks, the surrounding community gets:
-Higher electric bills
-Strained water systems
-Louder, hotter, more industrial neighborhoods
-Environmental impact is local, not abstract

This isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet.
Communities near these developments deal with:
-Heavy water withdrawal affecting local aquifers
-Increased risk to water quality
-Loss of green space and wildlife corridors
-Heat and noise pollution
-Long-term land use changes that can’t be undone

All of it framed as “progress.”
The political sleight of hand

This is the part people are starting to notice:
-Lower visible taxes
-Shift costs into utilities and infrastructure
-Let monopolies raise rates (as designed)

Public gets angry at utilities
Politicians step in and “investigate”
Everyone forgets who set the rules

It’s not that utility companies are innocent.
It’s that they’re operating exactly as the state allows and benefits from.

Bottom line
If your bill went up:
-It’s not just inflation
-It’s not just corporate greed
-It’s not just AI

It’s policy choices, intentionally structured so you feel the cost, but don’t connect it to the people who approved it.

Progress always has a price.

The question is who pays and who gets the credit.

11/17/2025

Just saying…some meetings could’ve been a mercy email.

🥛 Milk down, eggs down Fort Wayne families are finally catching a break at the grocery store.This week’s Summit Staples ...
11/12/2025

🥛 Milk down, eggs down

Fort Wayne families are finally catching a break at the grocery store.

This week’s Summit Staples Snapshot tracks five dairy staples across Walmart, Kroger, Meijer, and Aldi and our prices beat Indiana’s average again.

See who’s cheaper this week, link in the comments 👇

11/11/2025

Just saying… pajamas before 8 p.m. should count as self-care.

11/10/2025

Just saying…silence is an underrated luxury.

11/08/2025

Just saying… laundry is never “done,” it’s just waiting for round two.

Address

Fort Wayne, IN
46818

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Summit City Scoop posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Summit City Scoop:

Shortcuts

Share

Category