SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY

Search headlines

Find the stories shaping the conversation.

Search mode
Refine results
Active filters Keyword All time

Results for " sk " 22,234 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

Tennis Legend Chris Evert Sends Strong 6-Word Message to WNBA in Support of Caitlin Clark

Caitlin Clark’s influence on women’s basketball has drawn praise from another sporting legend after a fan revisited her place on a Forbes ranking. Tennis great Chris Evert joined the conversation with a brief message about how the WNBA should treat the Indiana Fever star.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 15 • 4:55 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Chinese travel agents advertising North Korea business trips on social media

Chinese travel agents are openly promoting North Korea trips for business delegations on social media, NK News has found, highlighting what appear to be growing opportunities to enter the country despite the ongoing ban on Chinese tourism. The trips to the border city of Rason and Pyongyang include factory and company visits, with dedicated North […]

nknews.org logo
Oct 15 • 4:48 AM EDT • Business • nknews.org
Hasan Piker isn't worried about being a political boogeyman this midterms season

NPR's Leila Fadel asks Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker about his incendiary style and whether he's become a liability for Democrats ahead of the midterms.

npr.org logo
Oct 15 • 4:45 AM EDT • Politics • npr.org
High-Signal Publisher
Duke Health, CaroMont join forces in bid for two Charlotte hospitals

Duke Health and CaroMont Health aim to build two new hospitals in Mecklenburg County. It's the latest move in a wave of hospital expansion.

northcarolinahealthnews.org logo
Oct 15 • 4:30 AM EDT • Health • northcarolinahealthnews.org
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (9%)
wow
100%
SKC builds new generation of Indigenous leaders with national business chapter

It's the first week of classes at Salish Kootenai College for the fall semester. As class lets out, students, new and returning, are making their way into the John Peter Paul building for the first meeting of an important club on campus. This club gives students hands-on experience by inspiring Indigenous students with leadership, networking, scholarships and business experience.

leaderadvertiser.com logo
Oct 15 • 3:00 AM EDT • Business • leaderadvertiser.com
Where to watch Kansas basketball exhibition games: Schedule, channels, live streams for 2026 KU preseason

The Jayhawks have three home games to tune up for the regular season. Here's when and where to watch them all.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 15 • 2:30 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Las Vegas Arts District businesses form coalition to help at-risk youth

Following a deadly shooting, downtown Arts District businesses formed a coalition to connect at-risk youth with jobs and mentorship.

fox5vegas.com logo
Oct 15 • 2:02 AM EDT • Business • fox5vegas.com
North Phoenix sports bar, 2 Mesa restaurants cited for health violations

Did your favorite restaurant make this week's Dirty Dining report?

azfamily.com logo
Oct 15 • 1:38 AM EDT • Health • azfamily.com
North Phoenix sports bar, 2 Mesa restaurants cited for health violations

Did your favorite restaurant make this week's Dirty Dining report?

1011now.com logo
Oct 15 • 1:38 AM EDT • Health • 1011now.com
North Phoenix sports bar, 2 Mesa restaurants cited for health violations

Did your favorite restaurant make this week's Dirty Dining report?

foxcarolina.com logo
Oct 15 • 1:38 AM EDT • Health • foxcarolina.com
North Phoenix sports bar, 2 Mesa restaurants cited for health violations

Did your favorite restaurant make this week's Dirty Dining report?

wbtv.com logo
Oct 15 • 1:38 AM EDT • Health • wbtv.com
Nebraska women’s golf continues to build depth

Nebraska women’s golf returned to the links for its final outing of the fall season on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Golf Iconic Classic hosted by New Mexico State University at the university’s golf course in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

dailynebraskan.com logo
Oct 15 • 1:17 AM EDT • Sports • dailynebraskan.com
Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin On Fire, Makes Canucks Trade Look Baffling

Two years ago in August 2024, the Vancouver Canucks traded Vasily Podkolzin to the Edmonton Oilers for a 2025 fourth-round pick, one that was used on David Lewandowski. The Canucks would surely take that back now. Podkolzin is off to an incredible start to the 2026-27 season, looking like a guy who might finally be […] The post Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin On Fire, Makes Canucks Trade Look Baffling appeared first on HEAVY.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 15 • 12:41 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Cincinnati business leaders asked CPS to 'pause' levy this year

Letters to Cincinnati Public Schools officials from business leaders illuminate why the chamber did not endorse the district's levy.

cincinnati.com logo
Oct 15 • 12:30 AM EDT • Business • cincinnati.com
Sports/Rec calendar: Oct. 16–25, 2026

Upcoming recreation opportunities and college and prep sports

cascadiadaily.com logo
Oct 15 • 12:00 AM EDT • Sports • cascadiadaily.com
Cover to Cover: ‘Hollywood, Ending’ offers a witty, compassionate critique of the entertainment industry

In his long-awaited return to fiction, John Green tackles art, love and celebrity culture with his signature empathy and humor in his new novel, “Hollywood, Ending.” Published Sept. 22, “Hollywood, Ending” is Green’s first adult novel after a career of primarily writing teen classics like “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Looking for Alaska.” The...

dailynorthwestern.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:57 PM EDT • Entertainment • dailynorthwestern.com
Lincoln City Council chair calls AG's move seeking legal fees 'political intimidation'

Lincoln City Council Chair Brodey Weber on Wednesday called Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers' recent move seeking legal fees from the city “political intimidation.”

nebraskapublicmedia.org logo
Oct 14 • 11:54 PM EDT • Politics • nebraskapublicmedia.org
Physical media is here to stay

As society delves deeper into the digital age, physical media separates itself as its own niche. On July 1, PlayStation announced that production of physical video game discs would be discontinued from January 2028. From that point forward, all future releases would be available only digitally in the PlayStation store or retailers. PlayStation claims the...

theskylineview.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:37 PM EDT • Entertainment • theskylineview.com
The Herald's weekly entertainment picks

Looking to be entertained from Thursday, Oct. 15, through Wednesday, Oct. 21? Check out the Skagit Valley Herald’s weekly recommendations.

goskagit.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • goskagit.com
😐 Neutral (14%)
sad
40%
ahah
30%
love
30%
Cook review: You’re better off finding horror entertainment other than ‘Other Mommy’

A skilled cast is wasted on “Other Mommy,” a silly horror movie that stars Jessica Chastain in the story of a little girl haunted by an entity that looks like her mother. I expected bet…

ourquadcities.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:06 PM EDT • Entertainment • ourquadcities.com
Recap: Sporting KC falls at league leaders Nashville SC

Sporting Kansas City (6-19-4, 22 pts.) fell to a 4-0 defeat against Supporters’ Shield leaders Nashville SC (19-3-6, 63 pts.) at GEODIS Park on Wednesday night. Nashville took a three-goal lead into the halftime interval before adding a fourth in second-half stoppage time to seal the points. Balancing three games

sportingkc.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:50 PM EDT • Sports • sportingkc.com
CEOs AND BUSINESS LEADERS CHAMPION COURAGE, RESILIENCE AND INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP AT 2026 WORLD EDITION OF BREAK THE CEILING TOUCH THE SKY® IN SINGAPORE

CEOs, C-suite executives, business leaders and changemakers from around the world convened in Singapore on October 12 for the 2026 World Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky® – the success and leadership summit for women (and all allies), identifying the critical leadership capabilities required to build stronger businesses and a better world in an increasingly disrupted global environment.

finance.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:00 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Michigan State football's injury report vs Northwestern is dire

Michigan State football will be without linebackers Jordan Hall and Brady Pretzlaff again, along with left tackle Ben Murawski, against Northwestern.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:31 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
🙂 Positive (40%)
sad
100%
Alaska Science Forum time capsule: Hardwood, softwood, fuelwood

Note: After finally cleaning my stovepipe last weekend, it feels like woodstove season at my cabin can officially (and safely) begin. Carla Helfferich wrote this wood power-focused Alaska Science Forum column on Oct. 3, 1990. — Sara Wilbur

peninsulaclarion.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:30 PM EDT • Science • peninsulaclarion.com
Alaska Science Forum time capsule: Hardwood, softwood, fuelwood

Note: After finally cleaning my stovepipe last weekend, it feels like woodstove season at my cabin can officially (and safely) begin. Carla Helfferich wrote this wood power-focused Alaska Science Forum column on Oct. 3, 1990. — Sara Wilbur

homernews.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:30 PM EDT • Science • homernews.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (10%)
wow
38%
ahah
37%
love
25%
Ozempic and Wegovy linked to rare risk of sudden vision loss

Popular diabetes and weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy have been linked to a slightly increased risk of a rare condition that can cause sudden, potentially permanent vision loss. Although the risk remains very low, Rutgers researchers say the findings warrant attention as millions of people turn to GLP-1 medications.

sciencedaily.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Your Business Probably Has More Data Than Insight by Nathan Tayloe

Most businesses know more about themselves than they ever have. Leaders have access to financial reports, sales pipelines, customer data, employee metrics, website analytics, and dashboards for almost every part of the organization. CRMs track every stage of the sales process. Marketing platforms report results in real time. AI can analyze and summarize enormous amounts of information in seconds. Yet I've sat in plenty of meetings where all of that information is available, and some of the most important questions are still surprisingly difficult to answer. What's actually working? Why are customers choosing us? Where are we losing opportunities? What should we do differently? Having the data and understanding what it means are two very different things. More Information Doesn't Always Create More Clarity Over the past decade, businesses have invested heavily in visibility, and that's a good thing. We can understand performance with a level of detail that would have been unimaginable not long ago. But there's an unintended consequence. The easier something becomes to measure, the easier it is to assume it must be important. Website traffic goes up, so that looks positive. Leads increase, so marketing appears to be working. Sales activity climbs, so the pipeline looks healthy. Maybe. The numbers tell us what happened. Understanding why it happened, whether it matters, and what we should do next still requires judgment. Not Everything That Matters Fits on a Dashboard Consider a customer who ultimately contacts your company through Google. The data may attribute that lead to search. What it may not show is that the customer heard about you from a colleague six months earlier, saw your company mentioned in an industry publication, followed one of your employees on LinkedIn, and read several reviews before finally searching for your company. Google may have produced the click. It didn't necessarily create the decision. This happens throughout a business. Some of the things that matter most are difficult to reduce to a single metric: Why your best customers stay Why talented employees choose your company Why a prospect trusts one provider over another Why one service is gaining momentum while another isn't Why the market perceives your business the way it does Data can help answer those questions, but it needs context. Better Decisions Start With Better Questions One of the easiest traps for leaders is starting with the information in front of them rather than the decision they're trying to make. Instead of opening a dashboard and asking, "What does the data show?" it can be more useful to start with a different set of questions: What are we trying to understand? What decision are we trying to make? What would we need to know to make that decision confidently? That changes the role of data. Instead of looking at every number available and searching for meaning, you're using information to understand something specific about the business. Information Still Requires Judgment More sophisticated analytics and AI will continue to give leaders access to better information, faster. That's valuable, but I don't think it reduces the importance of experience and judgment. If anything, it increases it. Someone still has to decide which numbers deserve attention, which patterns matter, what context might be missing, and when the data isn't telling the whole story. The goal isn't to know more about your business simply because you can. It's to understand your business well enough to make better decisions. Good data can tell you what happened. Good leadership has to decide what it means. — Learn more about how we help organizations turn business, customer, and marketing insights into smarter strategies at tayloegray.com, or reach out directly at nathan@tayloegray.com.

wilmingtonbiz.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com
Talarico refutes skeptics at CNN Town Hall

Jeff Zeleny breaks down Texas Democrat James Talarico’s performance at a CNN Town Hall, where voters questioned him on religion, abortion and more.

cnn.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
WNC SCIENCE EXPERIMENT ON SPACE X

THE SPACE-X ROCKET THAT WE SAW STREAK ACROSS THE UPSTATE SKY YESTERDAY MORNING HAD A LOCAL SCIENCE EXPERIMENT ON BOARD.

foxcarolina.com logo
Oct 14 • 7:21 PM EDT • Science • foxcarolina.com
LMPD introduces new task force to enhance safety in entertainment areas

The initiative is focused on "hot spot" policing.

wlky.com logo
Oct 14 • 7:17 PM EDT • Entertainment • wlky.com
WATCH LIVE: Rep. Begich faces challenger Hill in a debate for Alaska’s at-large House seat
pbs.org logo
Oct 14 • 7:13 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Layoffs and business closures loom as tens of thousands of skill games become illegal

Joe Rocca’s business effectively ended Wednesday as the enforcement of Pennsylvania’s skill games ban began. Rocca, owner of Rite Touch Distribution...

post-gazette.com logo
Oct 14 • 7:03 PM EDT • Business • post-gazette.com
ENTERTAINMENT: Hillcrest hosts HarvestFest; Tiny Desk concert showcases state talent; library offers renaissance faire

The 32nd Hillcrest HarvestFest kicks off Saturday with live music, food trucks, and a dog show. Proceeds support The Allen School.

arkansasonline.com logo
Oct 14 • 7:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • arkansasonline.com
TikTok star Bryce Hall arrested on domestic violence charges in Nevada

TikTok influencer Bryce Hall was arrested on a domestic violence charge in Nevada. The alleged victim is listed in court records as his ex Maria Lafuente Palafox, better known online as Mika Lafuente.

ew.com logo
Oct 14 • 6:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Surry training business helps ‘salty’ pups build skills for 10 years

With a decade under its belt, Thurston and her four other trainers have worked with more than 7,000 dogs.

wabi.tv logo
Oct 14 • 6:40 PM EDT • Business • wabi.tv
Nebraska holds first public hearings on ballot initiatives, including school sports measure

The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office held the first of several public hearings Wednesday on proposed ballot measures that voters will decide on in the Nov. 3 general election.

1011now.com logo
Oct 14 • 6:35 PM EDT • Sports • 1011now.com
How the House landscape is evolving: From the Politics Desk

Plus, Trump’s latest moves leave Ukraine on the defensive.

nbcnews.com logo
Oct 14 • 6:28 PM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
Mayoral candidate Jim Schmitt hosts roundtable with Green Bay business owners

Jim Schmitt, former Green Bay mayor and current mayoral candidate, hosted a roundtable with downtown Green Bay business owners on Wednesday morning.

wbay.com logo
Oct 14 • 6:15 PM EDT • Business • wbay.com
As White House shifts focus toward AI and tech, U.S. science leaders defend role of the American university

White House planned shift of research funding from universities to industry risks creating a drought in basic research, science leaders say

statnews.com logo
Oct 14 • 6:13 PM EDT • Science • statnews.com
RiverFire returns to Berlin with fires, pumpkins and family ...

RiverFire returns to Berlin Oct. 17 with family activities, a pumpkin-lit bridge and fires on the Androscoggin River at dusk.

unionleader.com logo
Oct 14 • 6:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • unionleader.com
After Guilfoyle dismissal, Rubio reminds diplomats to ‘avoid conflicts of interest’

The former U.S. ambassador to Greece was accused of a variety of ethical violations, including asking a political donor for $100,000 to pay her personal American Express bill.

washingtonpost.com logo
Oct 14 • 6:00 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Jimmy Carter, entertainment personality dies

Former Nashville Entertainment reporter and Montgomery native Jimmy Carter has died.

wsfa.com logo
Oct 14 • 5:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • wsfa.com
Compete in Creative Living at Southwest Florida Ag Expo

Registration for the Southwest Florida Ag Expo’s popular Creative Living Competition opened Thursday, Oct. 1. This free competition celebrates the creativity and skills of Southwest Florida residents, offering an opportunity

floridaweekly.com logo
Oct 14 • 5:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • floridaweekly.com
Supreme Court Again Sides With Republicans in Political TV Ad Fight

The Trump administration had filed an emergency application asking the justices to intervene in a long-running dispute over political ad rates.

nytimes.com logo
Oct 14 • 5:17 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
At WSU in Pullman, Murray Launches Public Health for America Working Group, Delivers Address to Chart What Comes Next After Trump & RFK Jr., and Discusses Key Public Health Challenges with Local Leaders and Experts

READ MORE: Senator Murray announces members of new public health initiative NYT: A Public Health-Minded Senator Asks: What Comes After Trump and Kennedy? ***LIVESTREAM OF DISCUSSION FROM KHQ HERE*** Pullman, WA — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate […]

murray.senate.gov logo
Oct 14 • 5:07 PM EDT • Health • murray.senate.gov
WATCH: Nebraska voters hear from Harding, Powell in midterm House debate
pbs.org logo
Oct 14 • 5:06 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Hilary Swank, 52, pregnant with third baby

“A lot of people have been asking what project I’m doing next,” the actress captioned her Instagram announcement.

yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 4:57 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Ubisoft plans cuts at German studios, adding to wave of workforce reductions

Ubisoft is planning to reduce its workforce in Germany, where it operates a trio of studios, by about 100 workers, Game File has learned. The company wants to offer employees buyouts to, should enough people accept, avoid having to lay anyone off. “In Germany, we initiated discussions with the Works Council last week regarding a proposed voluntary departure plan across Ubisoft Dusseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin & Ubisoft Mainz,” a company rep told Game File. A “works council” is a union-like group representing employees. “The voluntary plan is the primary measure being proposed to support the intended organizational changes,” the Ubisoft rep added. The company declined to confirm the scale of the potential headcount cut. Of the impacted studios, Mainz might be the best known to the public. It leads development of the Anno series and shipped the well-reviewed strategy game Anno 117: Pax Romana in November 2025. Berlin and Dusseldorf operate as support studios within Ubisoft’s creative network. Berlin recently supported the development of Rainbow Six Siege and the Rayman Legends Retold remake. Dusseldorf also contributed to those projects, as well as The Settlers and Ubisoft-branded escape rooms. Dusseldorf is the biggest of the three studios, with some 400+ workers, compared to just over 100 at the other two, a source familiar with the reductions and the teams told Game File. More than half of these new reductions of about 100 people are expected to happen at Dusseldorf. The planned cuts were announced at a town hall for the German studios on Tuesday of last week. In an email follow-up, the studio group’s managing director, Benedikt Grindel, said the cuts were intended to “best position our German studios for the future... with a clearer focus on their role, capabilities and organizational setup needed for the work ahead.” The email was an echo of the past. In January 2025, Grindel had emailed the Ubisoft developers in his region (or studio “zone”) to explain that a round of 185 cuts at the time, including about 65 at Dusseldorf, were “essential to improve our operational efficiency and ensure the long-term sustainability of our studios, the zone and the company.” A half-decade of continued job cuts Ubisoft has been aggressively cutting its headcount for years. At the end of September 2022, it had 20,729 workers. By the end of March 2026, that total was down to 16,590. Studio management is trying to trim costs as it grapples with a changing industry and a drought of releases, let alone hits. The company announced earlier this year that it had reduced its costs since 2022 by “nearly €325 million” ($362m) and planned to lower them through 2028 by another €180 million ($200m). In June the company said it was closing down its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cutting roles in its Barcelona team. Even commercial and creative success hasn’t spared studios from this ongoing company-wide contraction. As Game File was nailing down details around the proposed cuts in Germany, Ubisoft management was informing workers of cuts in its Singapore studio, which shipped a hit remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag this past July. Some 70 positions in Singapore are being eliminated “to align the studio with upcoming production needs,” per a company rep’s statement to Game File. In early 2024, a large team in the Singapore studio launched the multiplayer pirate game Skull & Bones. It performed poorly but has been supported with regular content updates since. Many of Ubisoft’s studios around the world are heavily subsidized via regional grants and tax breaks. Singapore had been among them for years, but received no such local assistance in the 12 months ending this past March. News of the Singapore cuts broke today alongside word that Ubisoft is also proposing the closure of RedLynx, pending negotiations with officials. The Finnish studio behind the motorbike series Trials was founded in 2000 and sold to Ubisoft in 2011. As reported by VGC (and corroborated by Game File), Ubisoft management told employees it could not come up with a new, sustainable assignment for RedLynx. The 2025 workforce at Ubisoft Dusseldorf were straight-up cuts. This time, Ubisoft is hoping the reductions at its trio of German studios will largely come from workers taking a payout to leave. The company offered such voluntary dismissals at its Massive Entertainment studio (The Division) a year ago. For the German studios’ buyouts this time around, Ubisoft and the Works Council had discussed a formula that’d pay a worker’s monthly salary multiplied by 1.5 and by the number of years they’ve worked at the company, according to Game File sources. The formula is still subject to negotiations with the Works Council and has not yet been part of an official offer to workers. It could be adjusted up or down, and it could be supplemented with additional bonuses. Asked about the floated payout formula, a Ubisoft rep told Game File, “The terms of a potential voluntary departure program remain subject to negotiation with employee representatives. No final agreement has been reached, and we won’t comment on specific proposals while discussions are ongoing.” Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Epic’s AI adventures Epic Games (Fortnite, the Unreal engine) is all-in on using AI to try to transform the way it makes video games and game-making tools. It’s leaders appear to be undeterred by any resistance among gamers and some game developers around generative AI—and instead emboldened by advances, particularly in AI-assisted programming. A recap of the last three days: On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Epic management told workers last week that development of an upcoming game combining Star Wars and Marvel characters would be “AI first.” Employees would be expected to use AI models such as Claude to code the game. A manager told Epic’s developers there would be “[n]o more hand-written code” and that art for the game would be “generated with full AI workflows,” per the outlet. Just ahead of that story running, Epic founder Tim Sweeney tweeted: “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.” In a follow-up, Sweeney predicted that most game development processes would be at least three times faster a year from now than they were in January 2026, thanks to AI. To a person on X who told him he was failing to read the room, Sweeney said: “Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not. Our job, as the provider of tools and technology to much of the industry, is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be.” On Wednesday, Epic announced it was releasing a faster launcher for its Epic Games Store marketplace. It did so by stating in a blog post as clear as could be that the launcher is an AI-enabled, vibe-coded project: Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look. Programming is hard? That was unexpected phrasing from a company founded by a legendarily great programmer. Back in 2011, Sweeney told me that he’d picked up programming quickly as a kid and rejoiced at the power it gave him. “I could look at any program that anybody else had written and, with enough effort, build something cooler.” Item 3: The Xbox Labs experiment (and one of the people behind it) Microsoft’s Xbox division, which is flooding the zone with announcements lately, yesterday revealed a new internal tech-tinkering team called Xbox Labs. In the words of Xbox boss Asha Sharma Labs is “a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.” Conventional wisdom coming out of the announcement is that Labs is a team that’ll focus on ideas driven by generative AI. In her announcement, Sharma cited some of the dizzying achievements in tech and gaming over the past month as AI agents and other AI tools have been deployed to swiftly figure out how popular games work, then rebuild them and mix them up. She mentioned seeing ”games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support” and said “[p]erhaps more surprisingly, we’ve seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another.” (Minecraft plus Elden Ring, for example, or Fortnite + Super Monkey Ball + Overwatch + Diablo + others.) Sharma also cited the work of Windows PC games being ported to run in browsers, a seeming reference to a recent AI-assisted fan port of Halo. Or perhaps Call of Duty or GTA. Sharma didn’t use the specific term “AI” in her memo, but she came close, citing AI “agents” and their potential for game-making tools that Labs could help craft: I think XBOX has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We’ve spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have. When I asked an Xbox rep if Labs was an AI-centric team, they said genAI was not the focus, describing it as having a broader mandate for using new tech in new ways in gaming. As an example, they pointed to Xbox’s recently launched disc-to-digital gaming usage rights program. Microsoft didn’t specifically name anyone involved full-time in Xbox Labs yesterday, but on social media and LinkedIn, I spotted Adrian Mato IDing himself as leading the creatio of tools at Labs and talking up the launch. Mato first caught my attention in late September, when he said on X that he was “starting to build a new team at Xbox focused on products and tools for how games get built and distributed as agentic tools become more capable.” At the time, he framed AI-based tools as a supplement to traditional game dev tools. “I don’t think we need to replace them,” he said. Since then, he’s publicly shown interest in AI and in games. He’s recently spent some of his X feed marveling at the power of AI agents and praising the lighting in the latest Gears of War. Following the Labs announcement yesterday, he enthused about the Xbox Labs’ stylish landing page. He wrote: “We built some fun tools to art-direct shaders in real time, experimented with interactive ASCII art, and sprinkled in lots of tiny details. “Move your mouse to leave a colorful trail that reveals the original footage, or interact with the video to trigger bursts of particles. “A lot of love went into making it all feel just right. “More to come”

gamefile.news logo
Oct 14 • 4:31 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
What can AI do for me? The Wilson Science & Technology Forum has some ideas

AI IN THE GARDEN…AND OTHER PLACES On Sept. 11, Walter Hubbard, president , PCQuickhelp, spoke at the Jenks Center in a hybrid meeting of The Wilson Forum. He asked “Have you ever wondered: What can AI do for me?” Or maybe “I sure would like some ideas for my garden?

winchesternews.org logo
Oct 14 • 4:00 PM EDT • Science • winchesternews.org
DNA from centuries-old skeletons buried in Montreal reveals no genetic mixing between Indigenous people and French colonists

A study of DNA from early colonial-era skeletons in a Montreal cemetery has revealed that none of them had any Indigenous ancestry.

livescience.com logo
Oct 14 • 3:46 PM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Chick-fil-A CEO slammed over evasive answer about LGBTQ rights during “Today” interview

Katie Couric, Valerie Bertinelli, “Drag Race” star Willam, and more reacted to Craig Melvin asking Andrew Cathy about the company’s controversial LGBTQ stance.

yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 3:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Karen Gaski & Drew Malter

Residential real estate firm Cross Street has hired Karen Gaski as vice president of people and culture.

chicagobusiness.com logo
Oct 14 • 3:20 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Microsoft is considering making Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and even Minecraft Xbox console exclusive

Microsoft is actively asking Xbox users with multiple consoles how they'd react if big franchises went fully console exclusive. Is this a hint at things to come?

windowscentral.com logo
Oct 14 • 2:38 PM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com
TENNESSEE VOLS BASKETBALL: Exhibition with Xavier opens season

The Tennessee men's basketball team is set to take the floor at Food City Center for the first time in the 2026-27 season Thursday as it hosts the Xavier Musketeers in a preseason exhibition contest. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 1:34 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Direct Relief Commits to Supporting Mental Health Care for Children and Hospital-Based Schools in Ukraine

Direct Relief has announced $750,000 in funding to the Olena Zelenska Foundation to support children in Ukraine who are receiving long-term medical treatment and those affected by the war. The comm…

directrelief.org logo
Oct 14 • 1:32 PM EDT • Health • directrelief.org
Alison Gladowsky

Rivkin Radler Managing Partner Barry Levy announced that Alison Gladowsky, an accomplished attorney with more than 20 years of experience, has joined the

libn.com logo
Oct 14 • 1:26 PM EDT • Business • libn.com
The risk of a track meet at Dodger Stadium

Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow need to limit the walks for the Dodgers to have any hope of coming back in the NLCS.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 1:03 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
You Bought AI to Save Time. So Why Are You Busier Than Ever?

AI improves productivity only when leaders fix the underlying business system, delegate outcomes effectively, and stop managing every task.

inc.com logo
Oct 14 • 1:00 PM EDT • Business • inc.com
MLS’s political speech policy is untenable – just ask Austin FC fans

The protests around an anti-ICE T-shirt show that politics can never be separated from sports, especially now

theguardian.com logo
Oct 14 • 12:58 PM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
Health workers tackle taboos over drinking with new AI tool

A new AI-powered hub for health professionals aims to help identify alcohol-related risks and launch discussions with patients, including the link between drinking and cancer, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday.

news.un.org logo
Oct 14 • 12:51 PM EDT • Health • news.un.org
Iowa Football Midseason Grades: Skill Position Leaders

Our midseason grades begin with the leaders at every skill position group, including quarterbacks Jeremy Hecklinski and Hank Brown.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 12:45 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Building a More Equitable Maternal Health System, a Conversation with Ta’Sheena Williams of the Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health

Michigan has taken a comprehensive approach to maternal and child health policy, with a focus on strengthening Medicaid coverage and reimbursement, expanding community-based care, addressing racial disparities, and investing in prevention and maternal health systems. We asked Ta’Sheena Williams, Policy Director of the Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health (MCMCH), to reflect on Michigan’s […]

ccf.georgetown.edu logo
Oct 14 • 12:14 PM EDT • Health • ccf.georgetown.edu
Amwins unveils battery, EV coverage

Amwins Global Risks said Tuesday it has expanded its specialist commercial and industrial insurance facility to cover battery energy storage systems and electric vehicle infrastructure.

businessinsurance.com logo
Oct 14 • 12:10 PM EDT • Business • businessinsurance.com
iPhone Duo Compromises: Everything You Have to Give Up

Apple's $1,999 iPhone Duo asks buyers to pay more for a folding screen while accepting almost 40 compromises compared with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, spanning camera capabilities, everyday usability, and ownership costs. At equivalent storage capacities, the iPhone Duo costs $800 more than the iPhone 18 Pro and $700 more than the Pro Max.

macrumors.com logo
Oct 14 • 12:08 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Federal watchdog says 9 large US banks denied service to customers over political or religious views

A federal banking watchdog determined that nine banks' sweeping internal guidelines lacked objective, risk-based criteria, effectively shutting out legitimate customers.

finance.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 12:06 PM EDT • Politics • finance.yahoo.com
Entertainment Stocks To Add to Your Watchlist

Verizon Communications, Spotify Technology, Walt Disney, Skydance, Take-Two Interactive Software, GameStop, and SEA are the seven Entertainment stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeat's stock screener tool. Entertainment stocks are shares of publicly traded companies involved in producing, d

marketbeat.com logo
Oct 14 • 12:02 PM EDT • Entertainment • marketbeat.com
Characteristics of Leadership: Micromanaging

Knowledgeable Alaskans share methods of effective leadership. This month: when micromanagers carry too much of the load.

akbizmag.com logo
Oct 14 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • akbizmag.com
Downtown Gloversville businesses to be highlighted on Small Business Saturday

Organizations are asking Gloversville businesses to participate in an upcoming campaign to highlight local merchants.

adirondackexplorer.org logo
Oct 14 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • adirondackexplorer.org
Michigan State Basketball Ranked Among College Basketball’s Elite

Advanced analytics place the Spartans on the doorstep of championship contention, fueling high expectations as Tom Izzo’s squad prepares to navigate a grueling schedule and chase national glory.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:57 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
SK Life Science Supports SUDEP Awareness Efforts Through Partnership with CURE Epilepsy and The Cameron Boyce Foundation

/PRNewswire/ -- SK Life Science, Inc., a U.S. pharmaceutical company and part of SK Biopharmaceuticals, today announced its support of SUDEP awareness...

prnewswire.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:48 AM EDT • Science • prnewswire.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (20%)
love
73%
wow
27%
WDM Chamber opens nominations for High School Leadership Academy

The West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with West Des Moines Community Schools, is accepting nominations for its 2027 High School Leadership Academy. The free program offers up to 30 students in grades 9-12 an opportunity to develop leadership skills, explore career pathways and connect with local businesses through hands-on experiences and professional…

businessrecord.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:43 AM EDT • Business • businessrecord.com
🚨 Iraola makes four changes to Liverpool's XI against LASK

Liverpool return to the demands of European football away at LASK after losing to Manchester City in the Premier League. A guaranteed win?Today's match takes place at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz, wit...

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:34 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Nebraska Football: B1G Fun Out West

What kind of video from Jon will we get at 3 in the morning?

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:30 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
iPhone Duo: Skipping AppleCare+ Could Be $1,499 Mistake

Apple today listed its estimated repair fees for the iPhone Duo without AppleCare+ coverage, with the maximum fee in the U.S. for "other damage" set at $1,499. If you only damage certain parts of the iPhone Duo, the fees are more manageable. For example, the repair fee for damaged back glass is set at $199. If you eventually want to replace the battery in your iPhone Duo, that will cost you $229.

macrumors.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:13 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Nebraska vs Indiana: The Numbers Behind a 20-17 Loss

Nebraska vs Indiana ended 20-17, and Nebraska had a two-score lead in the fourth quarter before it got away. That one hurt. I’ll say this up front: I think this team is playing better football than Nebraska has played in a very long time. For those of you who see the world in black and […]

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:12 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
‘Categorical Exclusion’ Simplifies NPRA Winter Exploration Permits

BLM says previous environmental assessments found that exploration activities in NPRA resulted in no significant impacts.

akbizmag.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:07 AM EDT • Business • akbizmag.com
Widening the path to behavioral health services in California is urgently needed

We have to ask a fundamental question: Where does a person go when they need help today?

capitolweekly.net logo
Oct 14 • 11:00 AM EDT • Health • capitolweekly.net
Neighborhood conditions linked to childhood cancer survivors’ long-term health

Discover how the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study uncovered community-level factors influencing chronic health condition risks, and how that can improve care.

newswise.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:00 AM EDT • Health • newswise.com
Herpes ‘Remedies’ Sold On Amazon And Walmart Pose Public Health Risk, FDA Warns

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Creams, sprays and washes that promise relief from genital herpes are easy to order online, but none of them has been approved to treat the infection. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent warning letters to Amazon and Walmart over herpes

usnews.com logo
Oct 14 • 11:00 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com
Niecey Shaw has the latest in entertainment headlines

Druski makes history as he's gearing up to host SNL, and there's a Michael Jackson Super Bowl documentary in the works.

fox5atlanta.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:57 AM EDT • Entertainment • fox5atlanta.com
How to cover vaping's promise without losing sight of its risks

Headlines suggesting vaping is "healthy" or implying that e-cigarettes are risk-free go well beyond what the evidence supports.

healthjournalism.org logo
Oct 14 • 10:44 AM EDT • Health • healthjournalism.org
😐 Neutral (13%)
ahah
40%
love
31%
wow
29%
Newman Regional Health begins community survey, prepares for Wave of Light remembrance ceremony

Newman Regional Health is asking residents to take part in a community survey designed to help "shape the futu...

kvoe.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:42 AM EDT • Health • kvoe.com
Baskets for Ben Fundraiser to feature auctions, raffles, entertainment and buffet

The 15th Annual Baskets for Ben fundraiser will be held on Friday, Oct. 23 at VFW Post 6196, 32 Luzerne Road, Queensbury, N.Y.

lakegeorgeexaminer.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • lakegeorgeexaminer.com
Lincoln Science Focus students study rare saline wetlands with local agency partners

KHGI Nebraska TV is the ABC affiliate station for Central and South-western Nebraska, providing news, weather, sports and local event coverage to residents throughout the area including: Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings, North Platte, Lexington, Holdrege, McCook, York, Alda, Aurora and Broken Bow.

nebraska.tv logo
Oct 14 • 10:15 AM EDT • Science • nebraska.tv
Kaddurah-Daouk secures $12M grant to advance brain health research

Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, PhD, professor and chair in the Department of Precision Behavioral Health at UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences, has secured a five-year, $12?million grant from the National Institute on Aging to investigate how changes in the brain’s energy supply affect memory, mood, and Alzheimer’s disease risk, and explore treatments and lifestyle strategies that could help people maintain brain health as they age.

newswise.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:15 AM EDT • Health • newswise.com
Skill games become illegal in PA, small business workers lose their jobs: ‘It’s awful’

The last day of legality arrived Tuesday for an estimated 70,000 so-called “skill games” that were pulling in money at clubs and small businesses across Pennsylvania.

centredaily.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:09 AM EDT • Business • centredaily.com
Mariners News: Joe Espada, José Ramírez, and Don Mattingly

We’ve got our first official name in the Mariners’ managerial search. Plus, the Phillies lock in their 2027 skipper.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 10:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
TLC’s Chilli Makes Emotional Plea as T-Boz Battles Health Crisis

TLC singer Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas has shared an update on bandmate Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins after her recent health crisis. Thomas asked fans to support Watkins as she takes time to recover from sickle...

yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 9:54 AM EDT • Health • yahoo.com
Beyond the Hospital: Old Dominion University Nursing Students Take Community Health Into Practice

It’s 9 a.m. on a scorching summer day in Williamsburg. Audrey Wallin has arrived at Grove Christian Outreach Center from Virginia Beach expecting to put her nursing skills to work. What she finds is a lesson in healthcare that extends well beyond a blood pressure cuff.

odu.edu logo
Oct 14 • 9:44 AM EDT • Health • odu.edu
‘Those babies should be remembered.’ Sanford Health to hold infant remembrance service

This week, families are asked to remember, not hide, that pain. October is Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month, a month to recognize the unique grief families face.

kfyrtv.com logo
Oct 14 • 9:41 AM EDT • Health • kfyrtv.com
Mets Rookie Wants Tarik Skubal Despite Uncertain Rotation Future

Zac Thornton would welcome Tarik Skubal to the Mets, even though the rookie hasn't been guaranteed a starting job next season.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 9:30 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Michigan State basketball forward starting to get NBA draft buzz

One Michigan State player is starting to get his name mentioned more often in NBA draft circles

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 9:24 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
HOMETOWN HEALTH: Doctor explains lung nodules and who should get screened, after Pope Leo XIV’s cancer diagnosis

about 1.6 million patients in the U.S. are diagnosed with pulmonary nodules every year.

wdbj7.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:53 AM EDT • Health • wdbj7.com
Finnish study finds poor oral health increases jawbone necrosis risks in breast cancer patients

Antiresorptive drugs, which reduce bone breakdown, are an important part of treatment for breast cancer that has spread to the bones. However, their use can be associated with osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ), a condition in which bone tissue in the jaw dies.

news-medical.net logo
Oct 14 • 8:45 AM EDT • Health • news-medical.net
😐 Neutral (0%)
UConn Men's Basketball: What Stood Out From Win Over Syracuse

The Huskies toppled the Orange by 20 without Braylon Mullins on the floor.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:41 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Iowa Football: Tim Lester's Thoughts On The Quarterback Room

Lester wouldn't say if Iowa would go back to a rotation between Jeremy Hecklinski and Hank Brown, but he's confident the Hawkeyes can win games with either of them.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:30 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Nav Now Covers All Four Major Business Credit Bureaus with New Creditsafe Partnership

Nav, a leading platform helping businesses build better financial health and access funding, today announced a partnership with Creditsafe, a global leader in business credit and data risk intelligence focused on net payment terms. The integration brings Creditsafe Risk Scores and reports directly into the Nav platform, giving business owners a more complete view of their standing across major business credit bureaus including Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), Experian, and Equifax, before they ever apply

finance.yahoo.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:30 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
HOW I GOT STARTED: Jim Brooker

Owner of Starlight MFG Solutions in Fulton was vice president at Otis Technology in Phoenix — until the company closed locally. He then decided to open his own shop. “We are pretty much doubling in size each year so far,” he says By Stefan Yablonski Q: When did you start this business” A: I started Starlight MFG Solutions LLC while I was working at another government contractor. I was vice president of engineering at Otis Technology at their Phoenix location until they closed that facility due to a shift in business at the end of 2023. While at Otis, I was also working on Starlight on a part-time basis. I gained a lot of exposure to a lot of different equipment. That is the kind of service we provided to Otis when we were a part of them. Now we have spun that whole concept off here. Q: How would you describe it? A: It’s a manufacturing engineering firm specializing in custom automation to serve as an outsourced engineering support for companies that need additional resources. I want to make it a sustainable business that can partner with local manufacturers to help them. Q: What is your background; did you go to college with this in mind? A: I am a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree. My B.S. from RIT was in manufacturing engineering technology and my MS from RIT was in manufacturing and mechanical systems integration with a minor in business. Q: Why this type of business? A: I identified a large gap in the market for companies that needed small to medium help with manufacturing projects. Q: What services do you offer? A: We are focusing more on manufacturing. We do a lot of robotics, we do laser marking, we do filling — pretty much anything that the customer needs. Q: Have you seen any growth since you started? A: Yes. We have been growing ever since the company started. Our specialties include robotics, vision inspection and guidance, rotary-indexing workcells, dispense systems, laser marking, machine tending and more. We provide support to companies that need additional resources. We moved to a facility in Fulton about a year and a half ago. We are leasing our space in Fulton — the former NET & Die facility. We bought our own equipment, we are leasing the space. We have been operating here since early 2024. Q: You’re ready to take on bigger jobs? A: We want to stay in the small to medium size market where the large players don’t want to play. That is kind of where we found our niche. We are expanding regionally to take on more of those projects. My customers are relatively small business. They don’t have in-house automation; engineering and development teams are not feasible. Q: Business has been doing well? A: I am pretty satisfied about where we are at. We are definitely growing year to year. We are pretty much doubling in size each year so far. We are self-sustaining. Q: How busy are you on any given day? A: How busy? That’s kind of relative. We average between three and five projects going on in the shop at any time. We have a backlog that is manageable. We have seen a great demand for laser marking. The work is very relationship-driven. Much of it is based on referrals from other customers. Q: So, you must have a pretty big staff? A: No. I have just one other full-time person, a colleague from Otis. I bring in other people as the projects dictate. I handle sales and the overall operation of the manufacturing processes. We use outside sources for some work. We aren’t afraid to take on the other jobs — but we are filling our niche pretty well. Q: Do you get tired? A: I don’t get tired, no not really. Before this I ran a facility in Phoenix for 12 years. I enjoy solving problems and that part of the job is still my favorite. I have a supportive family life at home that definitely helps a lot. I just love the challenge of it. Q: Do you still live in the area? A: Yes. I live in Phoenix, town of Lysander. Q: What is the biggest job you’ve done? A: We have done some that were pretty good size. I don’t want to get into dollar amounts, don’t want to share gross revenue. We try to use locally sourced components. It is just amazing the components you can find that are locally produced.

oswegocountybusiness.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com
PROFILE: Ben Sio

New President of CenterState CEO Brings Nearly Two Decades of Experience to Drive CNY Growth By Stefan Yablonski Ben Sio serves as president of the CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity — or CenterState CEO. The independent Syracuse-based nonprofit is committed to creating inclusive, equitable and sustainable economic growth in Central New York. “I started in this position in March, so it has been six months. I’m in my 19th year with CenterState,” he said in August. As president, he is responsible for overseeing the organization’s administration and governance, while leading and executing its vision to be an effective advocate, exceptional employer and a force for positive outcomes for the community. He previously served as chief of staff and senior vice president of strategy, policy and planning, overseeing the organization’s long-term strategic planning, consulting, corporate governance, fundraising and development, land-use planning and government relations. In his years with the organization, Sio has led or supported many high-profile strategic initiatives including the creation of the CNY Rising Plan, the launch of the NUAIR Alliance and the region’s UAS strategy, the creation of the Micron-enabled Community Priorities Document and the recently awarded NY Smart I Corridor Tech Hub. “When we decided to split Rob’s [Simpson] role into two positions, he has the CEO title and I got the president title. Rob remains focused on forward looking vision strategy for the organization and I’m more focused on the day-to-day operations,” he explained. “I’m also responsible for building consensus around strategic needs and priorities and managing the change necessary to drive execution. It’s an eventful job. “The experiment that we call CenterState is always evolving and shifting and addressing where we see market demand and market failure. “If we see something in our economy that isn’t going the way we think it should go, then whether it is housing development or workforce development or something else, we are always figuring out how to step into these situations and address those challenges.” “We are the largest ever in terms of staff that we have ever been. We are no longer the 20-person organization we were when we started out many, many years ago,” he said. “There are more day-to-day things to take care of. But also there is just so much happening in the community right now that is pulling CenterState and our expertise in so many directions. I tell people if we were bored and not busy, then I’d be really concerned about what we are doing. But we are not bored. We’ve certainly got our hands full — and that is a good thing.” CenterState has now approximately 63 employees on its staff, according to recent nonprofit database records. It’s involved in myriad programs, ranging from Genius NY, a business accelerator competition for uncrewed systems, IoT and robotics startups, to CenterState Up Start, a collaborative business development program that connects local, service-based businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs to the tools and networks that help them thrive. CNY Guy Through and Through A Central New York guy through and through, Sio was born and raised in Skaneateles. “My mom was a teacher, an art teacher. My father worked for many, many years with National Grid. He was there through the transition from Niagara Mohawk to National Grid,” he said. “Neither of my parents were touched by cutbacks and job loss. But I grew up going through that transition and being concerned that there were rounds of layoffs. My childhood connection to the economy here in Central New York … years ago it was on the decline. There were people that lived here that were concerned about losing their job. They were thinking they lived in a place that didn’t show much promise.” That narrative translated to his generation, he added. “The kids that grew up in the ‘90s in Central New York were very much told, directly or indirectly, by their parents, that they had to go somewhere else to find economic opportunity. That is what I grew up thinking,” he said. “I only went a few miles down Route 20 for college — in Geneva, New York; I graduated from Hobart and William Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in public policy and political science. “I got real interested in regional economies; because what makes regional economy is what makes the economy successful. And when I graduated, I had an opportunity to move to Washington, DC and work down there at a nonprofit doing this work.” However, he decided to stay in Central New York. “I got hired two weeks after I graduated. I got hired by the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. At the time it was one of two entities doing economic development in Central New York — [the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce and the Metropolitan Development Association] — and it eventually became CenterState CEO,” he said, referring to 2010 merger between the two organizations. During his time at CenterState, Sio has also split time at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where he supported communities developing export and foreign direct investment (FDI), a long-term cross-border investment where an individual or company from one country buys a lasting stake or control in a business located in another country. The program — known as Global Cities Initiative — was designed to help leaders in major U.S. and international metropolitan areas reorient their local economies toward global markets. “Early on in my tenure at CenterState, we had done a lot of work with the Brookings Institution, just regional planning stuff. We worked with them on developing a regional export plan, to export more products out of Central New York and a larger business plan for the region. They hired me on to help replicate those plans in different parts of the country,”Sio explained. “So, I worked there for three or four years. I worked for CenterState, but I was technically loaned to Brookings for a period of time to help them do this work elsewhere.” Family ties “My wife is Carly. We have been married 14 years. We have two kids, a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. “With a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old, fun is a relative term these days. We do a lot of hiking. The kids this summer got very interested in waterfalls. We’ve hit every waterfall we could in a short hike — we’ve done Skaneateles and some others.” “I do woodworking and wood turning — it’s a branch of woodworking; you use a wood lathe. My big thing there is making wood bowls. I do that in most of my free time, which is not much,” he quipped. “I like to get into my woodshop and make a bowl and decompress and turn off the rest of the world for a little bit. I usually do it late at night when the house is quiet. It is definitely my escape from the day to day. I make a lot of bowls; all different sizes, all different species of wood. It’s a fun thing to do for me.” He gives away many of his creations. “They are mostly gifts — I don’t really sell them. I really don’t have time to go set up a booth at a fair or craft show. I usually give them away. I donate them to different things. If you are in my periphery, you’ve likely received a salad bowl from me as a gift. I just need to find something to do with all the stuff that I create,” he said. Lifelines Name: Benjamin Sio Position: President, CenterState CEO Birth Date: Not provided Birth place: Syracuse Residence: Westvale Education: Hobart and William Smith Colleges in the Finger Lakes Affiliations: Member of the boards of Skaneateles Festival, Greccio Foundation, Interfaith Works, CNY Community Foundation Personal/family: Married with two kids Hobbies: Woodworking and woodturning

oswegocountybusiness.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com
ON THE JOB: ‘Where Do You See Your Career or Business in 3 to 5 Years?’

“For the next three to five years, I am looking to grow Oswego County Opportunities’ support for the county’s economic development to fight poverty and take advantage of the major investments that are coming to the area.” — Kevin Dean, Executive director, Oswego County Opportunities, Fulton “I love what I’m doing. I’m trying to do this as long as they let me. It’s so exciting to walk the floors at the various factories, talk with community leaders and be part of the solutions to their business problems. As we do this work with manufacturers and community members, we are helping the next generation have these great jobs in skilled manufacturing. I’d like to have the same job title for years to come. I’ve watched the last five years with awe and it makes me proud and excited to be from Upstate New York. I want to keep being part of the conversation that, yes, we can do it in Upstate New York.” — Randy Wolken, President and CEO, Manufacturing Association of Central New York (MACNY) “I oversee the Rochester and Syracuse offices. We’re seeing continual growth as there are more and more job seekers and companies that are looking to fill positions as the economy grows. I’d like to have another Upstate New York office in our region to help promote people under me. I want to see that happen. With an increase in the job market, that is what the end goal is here for sure. We currently have offices in Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany, among more than 300 worldwide.” — Briana Calabrese, Marketing director and vice president of finance & accounting and administrative & customer support, Robert Half Recruiters & Employment Agency, Syracuse “Hopefully, we’ll continue to grow by word of mouth. I just took over a couple of years ago. I was an employee for 27 years. Business is great and we’re up on sales from where we were last year and I’m hoping that continues to happen. I get an overwhelming response from people who say they want to support local businesses. It’s my objective when people walk out the door that they want to come back. In a small town like this, it’s crucial. I see myself in five years doing exactly what I’m doing now: sticking with it and trying to grow Fulton Screen Printing.” — Tim Stone, Owner, Fulton Screen Printing, Fulton “I am 85 years old and teach four fitness classes a week and swim four times a week. I hope to live to be 90 — if I can do that, I won’t complain. The older I get, the less afraid I am of dying. What I don’t want to do is get some sickness where I’m lingering and I’m in pain and it just goes on and on. I expect to be exercising as much as I can and I hope I will know when I need to back off to accommodate different problems I may have when I’m older. For a short time, I got up at 6 a.m. to jog for a half hour every morning. But I had to avoid dogs, so I quit jogging. I hope to be able to swim for life. When I swim for half an hour, whatever problems I have wash away. I will still be working in exercise in five years. I also write research articles. It challenges my mind. You have to challenge your mind and body and have some kind of goals and reasons to go on living. My wife died three and a half years ago, so I try to go out and do things, even though she’s no longer here.” — Fred Wilson. Certified personal trainer at Fitness After 50 and leader of senior fitness classes, Syracuse “I expect to continue working as a local financial adviser professional for the next several years. I really enjoy working with my clients and consider it a privilege to come to work every day, helping my clients reach their financial goals.” — Randy L. Zeigler, Certified financial planner practitioner, chartered financial consultant and private wealth adviser, Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, Oswego “I see myself doing something with young people. I want to open an after-school program as a safe space for high schoolers where they can get tutored, behavioral health, get something to eat. I want to do something with policy. I have thought of doing something with neurodivergent kids where kids can run some kind of business. I want to do anything with community like therapy and psychotherapy. I want to still be able to offer those services to people. At 55, I’m not sure how much I will do. I will see what happens after graduation from Keuka College.” — Della Joyce Smith, Master’s student, Syracuse “I think the core of the gym is in personal training. I don’t see that changing. People will still need a gym and personal training will stay. There may be some loss to AI as there is in just about every industry, but there’s always been the ability to go online and get a workout. I don’t think AI will cut into business any more than the internet has. I think the class structure is shifting. Large group classes might be fading away for a while. I see more people going to specialized classes like Pilates. I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe the traditional classes like boot camps started to fade away. It’s important to adapt. Maybe someday I’ll need to get some new kinds of classes. Everything tends to go in cycles.” — Ryan Vollmer, Certified personal trainer and owner Edge Strength and Conditioning, Syracuse “I have been growing my firm at 24% a year. In five years, we may be purchasing or building a new office building to accommodate the new growth. Right now, our focus is on growth and adding team members, mostly financial advisers and administrative staff.” — Terri Krueger, Chartered financial consultant and senior financial adviser with Orla Wealth Management in Syracuse “Over the next three to five years, I see TDO continuing to experience steady, sustainable growth as new industries establish and expand their presence across Central New York. These investments will create new opportunities throughout the regional manufacturing supply chain, and TDO will continue evolving our capabilities to help both existing manufacturers and emerging industries grow, compete, and succeed.” — Jim D’Agostino, CEO and executive director Central New York TDO (Train, Develop, Optimize), Liverpool

oswegocountybusiness.com logo
Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com