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Sacramento news roundup: ICE incident, seized business and energy rank

From a congressman's call for ICE accountability to a State Bar raid that hauled off 14 boxes of files, here's what's driving Sacramento conversation.

Oct 20 • 7:07 PM EDT • Business • sacbee.com

40 Years of Superconductor Science Just Got Turned Upside Down by a Stunning Discovery

A material that carries electricity without resistance may be held back by its own structure, challenging 40 years of assumptions about copper-based superconductors.

Oct 20 • 6:14 PM EDT • Science • scitechdaily.com

Is Mold in Coffee a Real Problem? Here Is What the Science Says Before You Panic

Is mold in your morning coffee actually a problem? Food scientists say probably not and here is why.

Oct 20 • 6:00 PM EDT • Science • health.yahoo.com

Is Mold in Coffee a Real Problem? Here Is What the Science Says Before You Panic

Is mold in your morning coffee actually a problem? Food scientists say probably not and here is why.

Oct 20 • 6:00 PM EDT • Science • newsobserver.com

Rapid City area, business leaders break ground on Northline Business Park

City and business leaders broke ground on Northline Business Park in Rapid City, launching infrastructure work to create shovel-ready commercial sites for growth.

Oct 20 • 6:00 PM EDT • Business • kotatv.com

UC Davis may develop new Lake Tahoe science and community hub. Here’s where

The university has entered into a partnership with Placer County to explore a new project at three underutilized county properties.

Oct 20 • 5:55 PM EDT • Science • sacbee.com

Chandler family acquires specialty truck manufacturer

Springdale business owners Chris and Morgan Chandler recently acquired Stephenson Specialty Trucks LLC, a Parsons, Kan.-based manufacturer of vacuum, grapple, roll-off and hook lift trucks. Financial terms of the deal...

Oct 20 • 4:55 PM EDT • Business • talkbusiness.net

Chandler family acquires specialty truck manufacturer

Springdale business owners Chris and Morgan Chandler recently acquired Stephenson Specialty Trucks LLC, a Parsons, Kan.-based manufacturer of vacuum, grapple, roll-off and hook lift trucks. Financial terms of the deal...

Oct 20 • 4:55 PM EDT • Politics • talkbusiness.net

AFL Releases FY2025 Corporate Responsibility Report

AFL, the Duncan, South Carolina-headquartered manufacturer of fiber optic cable, equipment, accessories, and related services, released its FY2025 Corporate Responsibility Report. As a reflection of AFL’s continued commitment to creating long-term...

Oct 20 • 4:29 PM EDT • Business • greenvillebusinessmag.com

The truth of 'Dancing with the Stars' – What training with a pro is really like

Editor's note: Anna Kaufman is a former reporter at USA TODAY, who trained with a pro dancer from "Dancing with the Stars" to see what the process is really like. This story originally ran in November 2025.

Oct 20 • 4:23 PM EDT • Entertainment • centredaily.com

How ‘You Can See Everything’ can get an Oscar acting nomination for [SPOILER]

‘You Can See Everything’ is aiming for historic Oscar nominations, including in Best Picture and acting.

Oct 20 • 4:19 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

SpaceX quarterly revenue jumps, beats estimates as AI business surges

Oct 20 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX on Tuesday said its third-quarter revenue more than doubled, beating estimates as AI and Starlink grew, while capital spending nearly tripled as it invested in compute infrastructure, sending its shares up about 3%...

Oct 20 • 4:08 PM EDT • Business • wtvbam.com

BayMark Completes Out-of-Court Debt Restructuring

Lewisville, Texas-based BayMark Health Services announced Monday that it completed its new-money recapitalization and a debt-for-equity

Oct 20 • 4:01 PM EDT • Business • bhbusiness.com

Boeing 737 Max 10 lands long-awaited FAA certification

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday certified Boeing’s largest Max variant, the 737 Max 10, after years of manufacturing and regulatory hurdles. The FAA’s decision clears the way for Boeing

Oct 20 • 4:01 PM EDT • Entertainment • thederrick.com

Does anyone actually want to win the medium-lift race in the United States?

Ars Technica is here to help with a guide to the medium-lift space race.

Oct 20 • 3:13 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com

Meeting Big Challenges with Big Ideas, Health Centers Pitch ‘Y Combinator-Style’ Solutions for Local Healthcare

With challenges looming like Medicaid cuts, workforce shortages, and resource gaps, health centers across the United States are being asked to do more with less, and it would be easy to picture a g…

Oct 20 • 2:07 PM EDT • Health • directrelief.org

Sundar Pichai: Google’s Frontier Imperative, Compute Scarcity Dilemmas, Future AI Products and Businesses

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has little patience for doubts about Google’s willingness or capacity to compete at the frontier of AI. His company’s latest Gemini 4 Argon model — long-promised and recently delivered — beats OpenAI and Anthropic’s latest public models on coding, math, science, and knowledge-work benchmarks and has placed Google’s AI back among the world’s best. Amid chatter that Google was fine with good-enough lightweight ‘Flash’ models, Pichai pushed back hard against any suggestion that company is limiting its research ambitions. “We won’t do it any other way,” he told me in a Big Technology Podcast interview recorded this week at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. Pursuing cutting-edge research is costly for Google, requiring compute and chips that otherwise could be sold at a high markup by its cloud business. But Pichai said allocating resources to frontier AI development is “ground zero” for Google. “Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development,” Pichai told me. In our conversation, we discussed Argon (which Pichai says processed three times as many tokens as Gemini 3 in the 72 hours after launch), AI’s role in developing better models, the AI interface of the future, competition with OpenAI, Google’s partnerships with Anthropic and Apple, data centers in space, and the nature of his optimism. You can read the full conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, below, or listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice. Alex Kantrowitz: Google is back at the frontier with Gemini 4 Argon, which beats OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s public models on benchmarks spanning coding, math, science, and knowledge work. The conventional wisdom was that Google had given up on the frontier to focus on fast, good-enough models for its products. That was wrong? Sundar Pichai: Very wrong. Look, we are so committed to being at the frontier. It’s in our DNA. We won’t do it any other way. We’ve been thinking about the AI frontier for well over a decade now. The frontier is very dynamic. It’s very competitive. It’s very exciting. I couldn’t be more pleased with how Argon has come together. We took our time with it. We made sure we tested it safely and deployed it carefully. We took a bit longer than our other models, given its capabilities. Across the board, be it for agentic work, knowledge work, coding, creative tasks, Argon is one of the really good frontier models. The first 72 hours since we launched, it’s almost up to 25 trillion tokens used, which is about three times what Gemini 3.0 had in the first 72 hours. And we are capacity constrained as we are serving it. Excited, but there are always areas….. You know, the frontier is very dynamic, and you have to keep evolving the models. There are areas which we can see we need to improve as well. We’ll be at work on all of that as well. Which areas? On any given model, Argon would be across the board better at everything if you just look even two months back. But the space is so evolving. Even on coding, for example, there are pockets where we know we need to do better, and there’s clear feedback. We’ll make it better. The argument for standard models is that they’re already good enough to build great products, with the frontier valuable only for certain tasks. Meta built Muse with good models rather than the best, and Google could put standard models into Maps, Gmail, and Search. Why isn’t that sufficient? It’s definitely not how I have thought about it at all. We are deeply committed to driving the state of the art and actually pushing where this technology can go, all the way from transformers. That’s a journey we’ve been on. You will see us continue to do that. When you’re at the frontier, you get an earlier look into the emerging capabilities, earlier than others, which helps you better prepare for the future. We are fortunate to have a wide set of opportunities across consumer and enterprise. Some of our cloud customers, for sure, want the model at the frontier. The frontier models will be better at developing the next set of models in an era of recursive self-improvement. I would argue it matters there. Internally, we have definitely seen a steep point of inflection by deploying Argon to our developers. It definitely tackles problems which our previous models could not do. Being at the frontier puts you at the innovation frontier and helps you drive that as well. There is room for models of all sizes and capabilities. That’s why we did Flash, Flash-Lite, etc. I agree with you that you can develop very good product experiences with not necessarily the most frontier model, because they tend to be slower and more expensive too. But we care about the Pareto frontier, and we’re committed to doing all of that. You said developing frontier models gives you a look at what’s coming. What do you see on the horizon? What makes this moment so exciting is you build something which you think is a culmination of months of work, and you put it out. You already see clear headroom ahead. We’ve all been working on these agentic, long-horizon capabilities, but clearly the frontier is going to have multiple of these agents working together to do things. That’s an example of an exciting paradigm underway. It’s also clear to me that users, both in consumer and enterprise, will have access to some multi-agent framework for them, working all the time doing things. It feels like a moment of infinite possibilities. Sergey Brin said one of Argon’s core innovations was relying more on the model to help develop the model. Yet incidents involving OpenAI’s bots breaking containment and Google’s bots accessing a site they shouldn’t have suggest these systems still aren’t perfectly aligned. Isn’t there reasonable cause for concern about accelerating toward recursive self-improvement? There are three parts to your question. Let’s first talk about RSI itself. You’re right, Sergey mentioned RSI being a critical contributor as we are developing Argon. But to be very clear, today, in a continuum, we are pretty far from the end state of RSI or something like that. The right way to describe it is you have RSI loops along with AI researchers in various aspects of model development. You almost have agents helping AI researchers in some automated way work together to build these models. It’s good to at least understand where we are today, and it’s super exciting. I expect that continuum to keep making progress as we go into next year. The second question is around safety. Security comes from defense in depth. You’re talking about alignment, obviously. We all are doing a lot of work to make sure the models are as aligned as possible. But it’s an active area of research, and there are clear gaps. That’s not the only thing we rely on. You have the work you do on alignment, but beyond that, we put a lot of effort into real-time monitoring as these models are working. Making sure you have good telemetry into what’s happening so that you can intervene in real time if you see unexpected behaviors. How you do that, the architecture with which you do that, how you make sure it’s all sandboxed and isolated in a way that it can continue doing its job during real-time monitoring — these are all areas of investment. Obviously, when we deploy these models, giving customers, enterprises, control, both with real-time monitoring, but their ability to decide where they deploy, what type of data which models ever have access to, etc. All that work is very, very important, and we are doing a lot of that. As an industry, we need to constantly up our game and take the time to do all this stuff, including dedicating the compute required to make sure you can safely deploy these models. The third part is: Is it all enough? This is why there are a lot of conversations in the industry, and I think it’s reasonable to be worried. The right way to approach something you worry about is early on thinking about what more we can do. As an industry, you’re definitely seeing increased levels of work on alignment, testing for safety, etc., as we deploy these models. The next step would be developing better standards so there are cross-industry standards of how we do these things, including the ability to evaluate using independent evaluators. If you look at areas like financial controls, we have accounting standards, we have independent auditors. Those are all the next natural steps for us as an industry to work toward, and regulation will end up playing a role as we go through all of that as well. Google pursues both language models and world models, while some other AI companies like OpenAI have focused more heavily on LLMs as the path to AGI. Why is world-model research important to you? As humans, you obviously perceive the world around you, and you’re taking all those inputs. Making sure these models are able to understand the laws of physics, simulate the world in high fidelity. All that, I think, are key enabling blocks for intelligence. We are working across all possible applications of this. Take an area like robotics. It’s not an accident: If you look at embodied reasoning benchmarks, Argon is state of the art. That all comes from our experience building world models. Inherently, I would expect there will be architectures which will converge all of this in the future. But for us, we view this as, today, this jagged frontier that is intelligence. We want to be at the frontier of all the possible approaches, and that will help us both drive better research, better insights, and develop a much better AGI model, is how we think about it. Some people argue Google should focus on selling its computing resources rather than using them for AI research. Cloud wants to sell compute at a high markup, while researchers need a very big computer to build the best models. How do you balance those demands? Ground zero for us is making sure we are investing in the compute that’s needed to be at the AI frontier. In 2015, I set the company to be AI-first. AI is that key horizontal ingredient across everything we do, all the way from Search to Cloud to Waymo. That is ground zero for us, making sure both for research and developing the models that we have enough compute needed. Beyond that, we have these independent businesses which each have their own long-range plans. They’re using those long-range plans to project forward, and we plan for compute for all of them. The cloud team, they have a business and they have a projection and they have demand signals. They have committed contracts. With that help, we can plan on a long-term compute trajectory for them. We’re fortunate to have this wide set of opportunities. There’s no company in the world which isn’t making trade-offs at any given moment in time. But the first principles we operate on is making sure we have enough compute to invest in the frontier, and that’s non-negotiable, and everything else works on top. Remember, we are building our own compute, our own data centers. There are long lead times. The compute we have today is a function of decisions I made in 2024. Even if you think back to a year from today, last year the agentic coding takeoff hadn’t happened. Today, obviously, when you sit and look at anything, everyone is short—not just us, other companies—and everyone wishes you had two times what you had planned for. That comes with the territory. At any given moment in time, we are planning for what we would need two to three years out in the future. You’re going to find some decisions you make may look suboptimal two years out, depending on where the state of the art is. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. The way I think about compute allocation is making sure Google DeepMind, both for research and frontier model development, is cutting edge in terms of compute access. After that, we plan for all our businesses. It’s great we can provide our compute to other people too, like we have done. It allows us to scale that up, get real tests for it in the widest application set possible, test it in the real world, and make sure we are at the cutting edge of technology at every layer of our AI stack as well. Ben Horowitz relayed on a podcast that Andy Jassy had said compute was sold out until 2028. Are you seeing the same thing? If today a customer is coming out and asking us for compute in ’27, that is incredibly difficult to do. Even last year we went out and leased some short-term compute to accommodate some customers and help them out. But yes, we are all dealing with similar timelines. Every major technology shift seems to involve overbuilding, from railroads to fiber. Do you think that’s happening here? It depends on the time frames you’re looking at. This level of build, if I take a long enough time frame, it makes complete sense to me. We are at early stages of the most consequential technology ever, and this is not like fiber. It’s not dark. We are using it. We are capacity constrained on a daily basis. The applications, the underlying technology is improving rapidly. But running a company, the way I work through the moment is you look at your demand signals. You look at your committed revenue opportunities that you’re getting in the form of contracts. You balance that with the underlying technical capability, or internally you balance how we are using it internally, the model trajectories. Based on all that, you take a disciplined approach—a confident, aggressive, but disciplined approach—to plan out compute. But when you talk about the broader economy as a whole, you’re having people operate with various levels of risk. I focus on what I can control as a company and plan through it. If your question is, can there be an overbuild? Yes, because you can have some constrained components. Remember, what matters is a set of everything you need to build out that compute. Memory, electricity, electricians…. Land. Like 2,000 components or more. You could get constrained at some point. There could be things which cause bottlenecks, and then you could have overbuilds. There could be external shocks to the economy. There are macro risks. All that is possible at any given time. But am I confident that the compute we are planning for, we will have uses for it given enough time? Absolutely, yes. I was in the room when you said AI would be as profound as fire and electricity. If you believe that, shouldn’t you give researchers the biggest possible computer, even at the expense of today’s cloud profits? We’re all doing some form of that. Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development. What you’re seeing is true already. But you want to be thoughtful. Even our AI researchers have some constraints, which are also good. That’s what inspires creativity. That’s what helps you come up with a more efficient algorithmic breakthrough, maybe to use less memory. What we are committed to is to invest what’s needed to stay at the frontier. OpenAI President Greg Brockman told me a few months ago that the ideal AI product might have no interface at all—just as natural as conversation. What do you think the interface looks like in the age of AI? Computing historically has been humans adapting to computing. With AI, it’ll be the other way around. The technology will adapt seamlessly to how humans live and go about their day-to-day life. You want to be able to speak to that AI when you want to. It has context. It can be persistently running somewhere, give you continuity. You’re not dealing with a lot of complexity. It’s natural. All that makes sense to me. That doesn’t mean it won’t have any interface, however. Nowadays, even on my phone, Gemini voice models are so good. I can just press the microphone button. I can just ramble. That’s why we call it Rambler. I can ramble. It intelligently corrects with my personal context. Even my friends’ names, weird names, it gets it right, even if it first guesses it wrong. It’s amazing. I’m not going in, backspacing, editing once I finish saying it. It’s remarkable how good it’s gotten. But there are going to be moments you will need an interface. You may want to entertain yourself. You may want to watch a video. You may ask your AI to create something, and you want to watch it, consume it. The way I think about it is, you want it to be as seamless and as natural as possible, and that you are not doing the hard work adapting to whatever the interface is. The technology is adapting to how you’re working at any given moment in time. When I asked Sam Altman about competition from Google, he argued that OpenAI was building AI-native products and implied Google was bolting AI onto existing ones. Do you accept that framing, and can a “bolt-on” compete with an AI-native product? First of all, it’s a very dynamic moment. We are all pushing each other. OpenAI has pushed us as a company too. This is not just we are doing something to them. Far from it. Yes, Google went into its own version of a code red too. In the AI moment, all of us have to respond with varying levels of urgency at any given moment in time. We are constantly building new products as well. Gemini was built from the ground up as a product—the Gemini app I’m talking about. Or tomorrow, as all of us are adapting to agents, are you bolting agents onto ChatGPT, or are they building it natively? How would you think about that? You can always put these questions back. I don’t think of it that way. I think of it as you want to build world-class product experiences that are AI-native and they are winning. Some of it is adapting products, some of it is rethinking new experiences. They will all be part of how you approach this moment. How do you expect to make money from these AI interfaces? If an agent recommends a product and I buy it, should it take a cut of the sale, even if that’s disclosed? I’m going to put enterprise aside. Consumers are going to increasingly value this technology. Take software developers today. Developers are willing to pay for these coding models because it really helps make them more productive. Nobody would want to code the way they were coding three years ago, or even the same time last year. When you’re delivering value, there’s value to be had. I’ve never seen examples where consumer products really scale to billions of users, where people are using it intensely, and haven’t had monetization to go along with it. If you’re providing value to people, there is inherent value to be had. The nature of it may change. You’re asking a scenario in which agents are doing stuff for you. At the end of the day, you will have commercial needs. The agents need to fulfill those commercial needs. The providers on the other side are going to see value in that. There’s going to be some mechanism by which it gets fleshed out. That’s what an efficient system does. But what matters is that you’re building those world-class consumer experiences. I promised myself one product feature request: Can you make Gemini-powered search in Gmail as good as searching Gmail through ChatGPT? What’s going on here? One of the exciting things we announced recently is the unified Gemini agent for enterprise, and we’re bringing that to consumers. These are persistent agents which run 24/7 in the cloud. We’re spinning up a micro VM effectively for every query, and from the runtime, the harness, the model—it’s all a headless service. It’ll work everywhere, and it has your context with you. You can address this agent whether you’re in Workspace, in Search, in Gemini. Agents are going to drive this unification from a customer experience, which people are looking for. When you have a broad product portfolio and you’re moving forward fast, there are always areas where you’re moving forward faster than some other areas. That’s valid feedback. But we are putting a lot of time and effort into making sure, as we build out our agentic experience, that unification and that capability works well across all these services. People have asked where Google’s equivalent of Muse or Dots is. Do you anticipate creating a new product to compete with them? Our goal with Gemini is to be a personal, proactive, and powerful assistant. That’s what we are working toward. You saw us describe the early versions of it at Google I/O this year with Spark. Effectively, already, if you open the Gemini app as a Pro or an Ultra user, you see Chat and Task, and they start giving you that agentic experience. With Argon now, that capability is dramatically accelerated. What we announced recently in our enterprise event, we are bringing that to consumers as well. Soon in Gemini, you will be able to ask something, and it’s a continuum. You don’t need to think about whether you’re asking a chat or an agentic task. It’ll just automatically do the right thing, and it can work persistently in the background securely and get things done for you. Already, empirically, when I look at what’s coming into Gemini in our app, last year you would have tagged them and most of them would have been chats. But a steadily growing percentage is already agentic tasks in Gemini. Yes, we are going to bring personal agents to our consumers. It’ll work in the Gemini app. It’ll work in Google Search. It’ll work in Gmail. You can address it, call it, etc. We want to make sure we’re getting it right. It’ll be powered by Argon, and we are very excited to bring it to our users. Google has invested and committed tens of billions of dollars to Anthropic. What do you see in Dario Amodei that makes you want such a deep investment and partnership? Very early on, when we looked at the founding team of Anthropic, it was very clear to us this was a world-class team which was involved in some of the earliest GPT models. We were quickly able to assess that they would be at the frontier. We’ve always tried to identify and partner with companies which would be at the cutting edge of technology. We’ve done that with SpaceX. We’ve done that with Anthropic. That’s what we saw, and we had a chance to partner. Is your partnership with Apple to license Gemini for Siri expanding, contracting, or standing still? For both us and Apple, that partnership was about translating the capabilities of AI into better experiences for users. I thought Apple has done a phenomenal job of incorporating—they customize these models and build it into Siri—and it’s been great to see the reception. We are committed to doing more. You’re going to do more with them? There’s nothing specific to comment, but it’s a partnership. It’s working well. What have you learned so far about the feasibility of data centers in space? It’s a very exciting project. Projects like this remind me—I still recall that moment in the desert for the DARPA Grand Challenge, watching the Stanley car compete in it, which ended up being the basis for Waymo. With all these technologies, you’re at a moment in time where it looks a bit like sci-fi, but 10 to 20 years down the line, it’s actually working in a meaningful way. I feel the same in space. We’ve always believed in betting big on these technologies. Quantum has been a great example of it. We’re probably 10 years into the journey. Waymo, we are almost 20 years into the journey. Space, we are two to three years into the journey. It’s clear to me that it’s an approach which will make a lot of sense in the future. Being in sub-synchronous orbits with 24/7 access to the most abundant form of energy we have access to will make a lot of sense for this exponential increase in compute that we are going to need. Having said that, this is a challenging project. The team has disciplined milestones. It was a super exciting milestone to send the TPUs up to space. Sometime, as we are speaking, we are expecting a “hello world” moment from them. I look forward to seeing that happen, and we’ll continue investing here too. You previously said 25% of the code written within Google was written by AI. What’s the number today? That number in our world today is meaningless in the sense that every part of what we now touch is influenced by AI deeply. What we are tracking with Argon, for example, it’s been a point of inflection. People are using Argon to really go tackle complex projects, including projects which affect millions of lines of code. In the four weeks since we have launched Argon, we have seen a 30% increase in CLs, and more importantly, almost a similar increase—a one-third decrease in rollbacks. People are writing code more productively and better code with it. We are tracking it with newer metrics now. How are you dealing with opposition to data centers? If you can’t build in the U.S. the way you want to, where else do you go? We’re very committed to building our data centers very responsibly. When I look at our largest data centers in some of the communities where we have been the longest, I visit them, I talk to people. There are people who come and tell us their kids have gone to college because of our investments in these communities, and we’ve grown in those communities. To me, this is about doing it right. Engaging with the communities early, doing it transparently. We are committed to making sure we are bringing incremental power, and we cover 100% of the cost of our power needs for these projects. It’s understanding the impact on neighborhoods and making sure you’re working thoroughly to address them. Done rightly, you can continue making progress. But we are constantly taking feedback into account. I do worry not everyone operates the same way. People have been surprised by data centers showing up in their backyard. Those are all important. As an industry, we should continue to do better. But part of the reason, in a 20-year time frame, we are thinking about things like data centers in space is making sure we are able to put these data centers where maybe the trade-offs will be different. What unproven area of AI is Google working hardest to crack? Is it continual learning—getting models to keep updating after release—or something else? There are multiple parallel paths. You saw with Argon we have a million output tokens. With our Gemini models early on, we had a one-million context window on the input side. These are all examples of breakthroughs we are constantly working on. How do you think about synthetic data? How do you think about continual learning? How do you think about more efficient architectures? We do dedicate a meaningful percentage of our compute to these research bets too. It always goes hand in hand, including our world models. Those are all bets we are placing. Sometimes, as part of these bets, there are ideas that emerge which just make their way into the mainline models. Maybe we don’t fully talk about it, but we have multiple steps in these areas. Working in technology requires optimism that building something will improve the world, but those bets can leave real consequences when they fail. I recently returned to a town in El Salvador where enthusiasm for Bitcoin had given way to unfinished construction and something resembling a ghost town. How do you maintain the optimism you spoke about in your Stanford commencement address while accounting for those risks? I genuinely have a deep conviction that improving technology and improving access to technology makes people’s lives better. It’s been my personal experience in my life, out of which comes that deep conviction, optimism. But with that, I’ve always felt humanity’s journey is always about working hard to harness that technology to make it work well for society. The optimism is not an optimism that you just build whatever you want, whenever. You work hard to make sure you’re building technology in the service of humanity, to make the human condition better. That’s got to be the defining goal as we are approaching it. With that framework, I’m very, very optimistic. We are in very early stages of the kind of progress that we are going to see on many areas. We’re all talking about areas like healthcare. A lot of the progress is ahead. The ability to make things in a fundamentally cheaper way on many things where things have been getting expensive for a long, long time, discovering new materials, etc., which really bend the curve—it’s tough to step today and understand the impact of all that, but they’re going to be very profound. I’m very optimistic, but we have to be rightfully concerned about all the ways this technology can go wrong. Sundar, I know you don’t do many of these. Thank you. Thanks, Alex. Appreciate it.

Oct 20 • 1:47 PM EDT • Technology • bigtechnology.com

Christina Applegate, a leading MS advocate, says doctors found she doesn’t have the disease after all

In her podcast about living with multiple sclerosis, the actor announced she’s actually been living with some other, unknown condition.

Oct 20 • 12:14 PM EDT • Entertainment • cnn.com

Hemp business hoped to sell from home. What Lexington had to say

A resident applied to start a home business selling hemp products. Here’s what the Midlands town decided.

Oct 20 • 11:40 AM EDT • Business • thestate.com

Pulitzer Prize-winning science author to give lecture at SUNY Plattsburgh

PLATTSBURGH — New Yorker Magazine staff writer and science reporter Elizabeth Kolbert will be on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus for a discussion on how her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “The Sixth

Oct 20 • 11:39 AM EDT • Science • nny360.com

Johnson’s winning coalition fractures as two SEIU locals back Giannoulias

Mayor Brandon Johnson had all three SEIU locals in 2023, but they broke from his coalition after he took office

Oct 20 • 11:19 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com

Ghosting Someone Might Actually Be Bad for Your Mental Health, According to Science

New research suggests people who ghost others often feel guilty afterward, while those left behind underestimate how much they care.

Oct 20 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • vice.com

WKTV Boo-ti-ful Costume Contest 2026

WKTV's Boo-ti-ful Costume Contest 2026 is inviting the community to submit their best kids and pets pictures for a chance to win prizes.

Oct 20 • 11:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • wktv.com

York County Mexican restaurant fails state health inspection

The state Department of Agriculture conducts annual inspections of food-serving businesses to ensure public safety and safe food-handling practices. Schools are inspected twice per year, according to the Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratories.

Oct 20 • 10:35 AM EDT • Health • centredaily.com

Gravity Media Drives Lifted Entertainment’s <i>I’m A Celebrity… The Wild Frontier</i>, Through Rapid-Deployment IP Production

Gravity Media has rapidly deployed complete IP-based broadcast infrastructure for Lifted Entertainment (part of ITV Studios) on I'm A Celebrity... The Wild Frontier, supporting production in the remote mountain environment...

Oct 20 • 10:08 AM EDT • Entertainment • sportsvideo.org

Paxton campaign showing ‘desperation’ with manufactured story: Political commentator

In the final days until election, President Trump is set to hold another rally in Texas for Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton. MS NOW National Reporter Rosa Flores shares what she is hearing from voters there. MediasTouch Journalist Adam Mockler, Democratic Strategist Basil Smikle, Bloomberg Businessweek Journalist Max Chafkin, and Rolling Stone Magazine Politics Reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez join the Group Chat with Stephanie Ruhle to share their analysis.

Oct 20 • 10:02 AM EDT • Politics • ms.now

Perceptions of science and scientists shape partisan views on common vaccines

How Americans view science and scientists is strongly associated with whether they think vaccines are safe and effective - and helps explain partisan differences in perceptions of some vaccines, according to a new study led by a team from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.

Oct 20 • 9:30 AM EDT • Science • news-medical.net

Christin Applegate reveals doctors misdiagnosed her with multiple sclerosis 5 years ago

Christina Applegate revealed she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, breaking down in tears as she explained that “something else is going on” after doctors said she actually didn’t have MS.

Oct 20 • 8:59 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Hanan Al Kuwari: Executive, Minister, Diplomat - And A Middle-Power Mediator?

The State of Qatar has nominated former minister of public health Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari for Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Entering a competitive contest alongside six other candidates as the WHO faces financial instability, workforce restructuring, and geopolitical fragmentation, her campaign positions her as a pragmatic, delivery-focused nominee.

Oct 20 • 8:15 AM EDT • Health • healthpolicy-watch.news

COD Black Ops 1 and 2 dev says it’s ‘hard to watch’ the new ports selling well while ‘the actual creators don’t see a dime’

Activision and Microsoft are “printing money off of work completed over a decade ago”…

Oct 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • videogameschronicle.com

AI is Changing Science: Here’s What Journalists Need to Know

Researchers are rapidly adopting AI for everything from data analysis to planning and executing entire research studies. Journalists will need to keep up. That means learning the basic principles, strengths, and weaknesses of the diverse technologies labeled as “AI”—and how to tell when using AI in science is actually noteworthy. Luckily for science reporters, knowing your beat well can help you cut through the hype.

Oct 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • theopennotebook.com

Tacoma Dome eatery gets 60 red points. Here are Oct. 12 Pierce Co. food scores

Seven food establishments received 35 or more red points last week, which means they must be reinspected by the Health Department.

Oct 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • thenewstribune.com

CA immigration business seized over allegations of practicing law without a license

The State Bar of California raided the North American Immigration Center in Chino, calling it an unauthorized law firm

Oct 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • sacbee.com

How much longer will Sacramento’s progressive politics let Califia suffer?

“Cali is dying on the streets because there is no way...to help her.”

Oct 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • sacbee.com

Are UFOs evidence of alien technology? Here’s what science actually says

Oct 20 • 7:58 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

'DWTS' Dedication Night: What each couple will dance to Tuesday night

Dancing with the Stars returns Tuesday night, with the 10 remaining couples participating in the always emotional Dedication Night. The evening allows the celebrity dancers to perform for someone or something important to them, often featuring guest appearances.

Oct 20 • 7:51 AM EDT • Entertainment • bellinghamherald.com

Post-Shanghai ATP Power Rankings: Alexander Zverev Takes Charge

As you already know, this is not the ATP rankings list; rather, these are ATP power rankings that combine 2026 results, recent form, performance against elite opposition, current fitness, and the level each player is realistically capable of producing during the final stretch of the season. The picture has changed considerably since our pre-Wimbledon rankings. …

Oct 20 • 7:30 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ten Hag opens up on Ronaldo fallout at Man Utd

Erik Ten Hag has opened up about his fractured relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo during his time at Manchester United, claiming the Portuguese forward was not prepared to meet the physical demands o...

Oct 20 • 7:22 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

How Much Of Cisco Stock's Rise Did The Business Earn?

Cisco Systems (CSCO) supplies businesses and the hyperscalers building AI infrastructure with networking and security products, along with services. The company's stock climbed 92% between late July 2021 and mid-October 2026, before dividends. A rally of that magnitude makes it natural to credit a growing business. So take a guess: how much of that rise came from Cisco selling more.

Oct 20 • 7:02 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

'We used to go to the climate conferences together. We are not anymore': ESA official Simonetta Cheli tells us how the political landscape for Earth observation is changing

Live Science sat down with the European Space Agency's Simonetta Cheli to discuss the importance of Earth observation, how NASA budget cuts have changed the picture, and how the proliferation of private satellites could hinder our ability to view the planet.

Oct 20 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com

A note to readers: Science, accountability and elections

Dear readers, As early voting begins, I wanted to share some news — and why it connects to the decisions we make at the ballot box. I’ve been selected for the inaugural cohort of the South Atlantic Climate Journalism Hub mentorship program, hosted by Covering Climate Now. I’m excited to join this group, learn from scientists and fellow journalists, and expand my science reporting. Science directly ties to governance. Local officials make decisions about where development goes, how infrastructure is maintained, what emergency preparations receive funding, and how communities rebuild after disasters. Understanding the evidence behind those decisions helps us evaluate whether our government is serving us well. Here in western North Carolina, those connections are all around us, in Lake Lure and beyond. Flood maps inform decisions about property and development. Engineering assessments help identify risks at dams and bridges. Rainfall forecasts guide emergency preparations. Geological information helps explain landslide hazards. Water testing gives communities information they need to assess conditions. Meteorologists’ knowledge and public perception of weather events shape public safety. Each involves scientific or technical knowledge. Each also raises questions about public responsibility: What did officials know? How did they use that information? What did they tell the public? What did taxpayers receive for their money? A study can identify a problem. Elected officials still have to decide what to do about it, how to pay for it, and how to explain their choices. Reporting should examine both the evidence and the response. That is where I want to strengthen my work. My reporting on Helene recovery, infrastructure, flooding, public safety, and public spending has repeatedly brought me to questions that require scientific expertise alongside public records. This mentorship may help me better understand the research, ask more precise questions, and explain the answers clearly. I also bring the perspective of someone living with these concerns. I live downstream of Lake Lure Dam, and landslides affected my property during Helene. Those experiences bring urgency to my questions. Careful reporting helps establish the answers. Readers deserve to know what the evidence shows, where uncertainty remains, and whether officials accurately describe the information guiding their decisions. You also deserve scrutiny of proposed solutions: what they cost, what they are expected to accomplish, and what risks remain. Access to that information matters. As a mostly deaf journalist who relies on written communication, I will continue pressing for written public warnings, records, and explanations that people can read and use in real time. As you consider the candidates seeking your vote, consider how they approach evidence, preparedness, and transparency. Do they support local journalism, even when it’s not parroting a press release? Do they explain weather events clearly in plain English and explain their decisions after them? Make supporting records available? Acknowledge uncertainty? Follow through when a report identifies a risk? Those are practical questions about governing. Thank you for supporting Cops & Congress and the work that makes these questions part of the public conversation. I’m grateful to David Dickson and the CC Now team for this opportunity, and I look forward to bringing what I learn back to you. Annie DanceEditor & Publisher, Cops & Congress — Learn more about this newsletter, ethics policy, how you can help shape this work, and support it. Follow on X and Facebook. Send constructive criticism, fan mail, and tips with public documents for future stories: CopsandCongress@gmail.com ICYMI: View the Cops & Congress archive — Annie Dance is the publisher of Cops & Congress, a newsletter that analyzes what happens when crime, courts, disaster, democracy, and small-town policies collide. Views expressed here are covered by the First Amendment. Dance has a Bachelor of Arts from Manhattan University in Communication with a focus in Journalism and Government. She has been a journalist for over 20 years. Share Upgrade now or give a gift subscription

Oct 20 • 6:56 AM EDT • Science • anniedance.substack.com

Water shortages will threaten growth within five years, say over half of European industrial leaders

Water stress is already hitting operating costs, supply chains and infrastructure across European industryWater shortages now rank as high as cybe...

Oct 20 • 5:31 AM EDT • Business • markets.businessinsider.com

Former campaign worker says she fended off advance by future NC insurance chief

The woman told FBI agents she quit Mike Causey’s campaign after he kissed her without provocation.

Oct 20 • 5:30 AM EDT • Politics • newsobserver.com

Bigfoot to Bojangles: How a Charlotte family built a business on make-believe

Long before the store became a Charlotte fixture, it started with a phone call, a rack of costumes and a couple willing to take a chance.

Oct 20 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • charlotteobserver.com

Banijay Confirms Senior Leadership Structure

The newly-minted Banijay Entertainment has set out its senior leadership team following the merger with All3Media.

Oct 20 • 4:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • deadline.com

Advanced materials firm founded by LANL veteran moves into Nambé facility

Discovery 2 Scale is working with AI to develop new materials for national security applications and using robotics to test and manufacture them.

Oct 19 • 9:30 PM EDT • Business • santafenewmexican.com

Commentary: Who will carry Wisconsin businesses forward?

At the recent BizTimes Manufacturing Summit, Kyle Crum, president and owner of Infinity EDM in Jackson, discussed the competitiveness of Wisconsin’s

Oct 19 • 9:00 PM EDT • Business • biztimes.com

Daily news: The latest No Kings rallies in Utah focused on early voting

In other news, a northern Utah bird refuge overhauled its water infrastructure. And, Utah's postal inspector intercepted a suspicious envelope meant for Lt. Gov. Henderson's office.

Oct 19 • 8:16 PM EDT • Politics • upr.org

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory open house returns with record turnout as it navigates rocky funding future

Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory held its annual open house on Saturday, opening its doors in Palisades, New York, to more than 2,500 visitors for a day of lab tours, lectures, and hands-on science exhibits amid an uncertain time for science funding.

Oct 19 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • columbiaspectator.com

Pat Daley, a political freshman focused on affordability, Medicaid expansion and infrastructure

Pat Daley is running against longtime incumbent Jesse Petrea for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives representing Chatham and Bryan counties.

Oct 19 • 6:39 PM EDT • Politics • wtoc.com

Did Sports Resorts Expansion Just Shift Wyndham Hotels And Resorts (WH) Investment Narrative?

Travel + Leisure Co. and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts expanded their partnership, creating a framework to build and scale Sports Illustrated Resorts hotels as a sports focused hospitality and mixed use development platform that spans hotel only projects and larger destination concepts. The arrangement pairs Travel + Leisure’s brand and mixed use development capabilities with Wyndham’s global distribution, development engine and commercial infrastructure, which could influence how Wyndham grows...

Oct 19 • 6:16 PM EDT • Sports • finance.yahoo.com

What Does a Human Heart Need to Grow? Scientists Found the Answer in a Bioprinted Model

Heart problems that babies are born with, called congenital heart defects, often begin developing early in pregnancy. Approximately three weeks after fertilization, the human heart is still a simple, straight tube of cells and, over the course of about five weeks, this tiny structure must undergo a remarkable transformation to reshape itself into the complex organ that eventually pumps blood throughout the body.

Oct 19 • 3:46 PM EDT • Science • pcrm.org

Scientists Create “Super Ice” That’s 10 Times Stronger and Rivals Concrete in Strength

A new form of reinforced ice could offer an unconventional building material for extreme polar environments, although questions about its long-term durability remain. Scientists have developed a new form of ice that approaches the compressive strength of conventional concrete while resisting the sudden fractures that make ordinary ice so brittle. Known as BioPykrete, the material

Oct 19 • 3:06 PM EDT • Science • scitechdaily.com

Salazar Accused By City Of ­Manufactured Dispute To Tank Entertainment District

by Glen Richardson Cities in Colorado are finding that entering into a seemingly binding contract with a developer to construct a critical downtown project does not mean it will ever, in fact, be done. The City and County of Broomfield entered into a $300 million agreement in 2019 with developers to construct a Broomfield Town […]

Oct 19 • 1:51 PM EDT • Entertainment • glendalecherrycreek.com

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks Keeps Science Green at ECOS

Chief Executive Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks maintains a keen focus on sustainable manufacturing at ECOS, the company her father founded 60 years ago, building upon his initial idea to create non-toxic alternatives for cleaning. Van Vlahakis, a chemist, founded the manufacturer of green cleaning products at a time when no one was paying attention to ingredients. “He […]

Oct 19 • 11:39 AM EDT • Science • ocbj.com

Why Thinking About Divorce Is Actually Good for Your Marriage, According to Science

Researchers say imagining life without your spouse can sometimes serve as a wake-up call to address problems before they get worse.

Oct 19 • 11:15 AM EDT • Science • vice.com

Folk duo Buffalo Traffic Jam adds Madison show to sold-out 'Pictures of You Tour'

MADISON (WKOW) — Buffalo Traffic Jam is bringing their sold-out "Pictures of You Tour" to The Sylvee on Feb. 21, 2027.

Oct 19 • 11:12 AM EDT • Entertainment • wkow.com

Business Monday: Family-operated food truck boosts health with smoothies made from aloe they grow

“We wondered what we were going to do with all of (the aloe),” said Crystal Mukai, owner of Aloe Kine Smoothies. “My husband was actually the one who started making it into smoothies and we thought it was a wonderful way to use our local produce.”

Oct 19 • 11:00 AM EDT • Health • bigislandnow.com

Business Monday: Family-operated food truck boosts health with smoothies made from aloe they grow

“We wondered what we were going to do with all of (the aloe),” said Crystal Mukai, owner of Aloe Kine Smoothies. “My husband was actually the one who started making it into smoothies and we thought it was a wonderful way to use our local produce.”

Oct 19 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • bigislandnow.com

Katie Hensien Returns to Sölden With Unfinished Business

Katie Hensien, Sölden 2025, GEPA picturesAfter an injury interrupted another promising World Cup season, the Stifel U.S. Ski Team veteran returns to the Rettenbach Glacier healthy, confident, and hungry for more.In October 2024, Katie Hensien pushed out of the starting gate at

Oct 19 • 10:50 AM EDT • Business • skiracing.com

Republicans sue, claim it’s a crime for stations to air Democrats’ Hope Florida ad

The Florida GOP’s lawsuit leans on an appeals court ruling that a leaked grand jury report should be expunged from the record.

Oct 19 • 10:47 AM EDT • Politics • miamiherald.com

Wyze’s latest weight scale has a display you can actually see, Google Health sync

Wyze has released a new BodyScan Plus scale that syncs with Google Health and Android Health Connect while fixing a...

Oct 19 • 10:35 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com

Heat’s Ryan Conwell makes strong preseason case for rotation spot: ‘He’s not playing like a rookie’

Is rookie Ryan Conwell going to be in the Heat’s rotation sooner rather than later?

Oct 19 • 9:40 AM EDT • Sports • miamiherald.com

Carl Sagan Institute director to deliver URI Honors Colloquium lecture on Oct. 27

KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 19, 2026 – Over the past decade, Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the Cornell University Carl Sagan Institute, has worked with NASA, academic institutions and multiple countries to find new ways to spot life in the cosmos. Finding such life has significant implications when it comes to understanding outer space more […]

Oct 19 • 9:15 AM EDT • Science • uri.edu

Gairdner Science Week 2026 Brings World-Leading Scientists to Toronto for Free Public Lectures

/PRNewswire/ -- From October 19 to 23, the Gairdner Foundation presents Gairdner Science Week 2026, bringing together scientists, students, healthcare...

Oct 19 • 9:13 AM EDT • Science • prnewswire.com

Too many political texts and calls as election nears? Here’s how to opt out

Political campaigns are exempt from the federal Do Not Call list.

Oct 19 • 9:00 AM EDT • Politics • sacbee.com

Why police arrive at this Arizona behavioral health facility almost daily

Recent reports of medication theft and assaults at a behavioral health center in Chandler add to an ongoing list of problems involving young patients at the facility, including allegations of rape, theft, runaways, and criminal property damage.

Oct 19 • 8:01 AM EDT • Health • fresnobee.com

Building Business: Reveler, Avesta top off 201-unit affordable apartment complex in Portland

The ceremony marked the installation of the final structural component of the six-story, 166,000-square-foot building and the end of the first phase of construction.

Oct 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • mainebiz.biz

CBIH Announces Expanded Research Strategy at the Intersection of Endocannabinoid Science and Biological Medicine

Houston, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - October 19, 2026) - Cannabis Bioscience International Holdings, Inc. (OTC Pink: CBIH), a public company trading on the OTC Markets under the ticker symbol CBIH, announced an expansion of its scientific research strategy focused on the intersection of endocannabinoid biology, precision medicine, and the development of intellectual property with potential biomedical applications."We are witnessing a new era in the history of medicine: an era in which human biology

Oct 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • finance.yahoo.com

The first thing I did on my new Windows PC was run this PowerShell command

This PowerShell script does a few things your PC manufacturer or Microsoft doesn't want to be done!

Oct 19 • 6:30 AM EDT • Technology • makeuseof.com

Abigail Casey, Recognized By Influential Women, Bridges Science And Strategy To Move Innovation Into

Global Key Account Manager for Pharma and Life Sciences at Anton Paar Connects R&D, Manufacturing, and Commercial Teams Through Scientific Rigor and Clear

Oct 19 • 6:28 AM EDT • Science • einpresswire.com

'You Can See Everything' just become a major player in the Oscar race

Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's experimental portrait of Elizabeth Holmes is the kind of phenomenon that even the pickiest awards voters will need to pay heed to.

Oct 19 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com

Opinion: Ohio manufacturing needs permitting reform

Momentum on reform is building in Congress, with Ohio’s U.S. senators helping advance the conversation.

Oct 19 • 5:45 AM EDT • Business • crainscleveland.com

HMG Pop Up Paper Extends 3D Paper Engineering Into New Wholesale Stationery Lines

Hanoi manufacturer introduces pop-up business cards, affirmation cards and structural invitations while updating how it evaluates customer outco...

Oct 19 • 5:24 AM EDT • Business • markets.businessinsider.com

Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon show Florida business range

Eight months ago, billionaires Stephen Ross and Ken Griffin spoke to a group of business executives gathered at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. The February event was billed as a global finance and policy discussion, but at times speakers talked about South Florida's growing economy.

Oct 19 • 5:03 AM EDT • Business • miamiherald.com

Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon show Florida business range

Eight months ago, billionaires Stephen Ross and Ken Griffin spoke to a group of business executives gathered at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. The February event was billed as a global finance and policy discussion, but at times speakers talked about South Florida's growing economy.

Oct 19 • 5:03 AM EDT • Business • bradenton.com

Recent health inspections for Branch County eateries

Routine food service inspections are vital to protecting a community's overall health, and the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Health Agency inspects licensed food services every month.

Oct 19 • 4:46 AM EDT • Health • bnd.com

CT manufacturing suppliers face costly cybersecurity rules to keep defense business

Connecticut defense suppliers like Windsor’s NE-XT Technologies are still investing in cybersecurity despite the Pentagon’s pause on CMMC audits.

Oct 19 • 4:00 AM EDT • Business • hartfordbusiness.com

LIVE: Avenged Sevenfold at Brisbane Entertainment Centre -

18 October 2026 - Brisbane Entertainment Centre - words by Lucas Bell - pictures by Isis Totora It’s been 4621 days since the California rockers Avenged Sevenfold have graced a stage in Brisbane. Off the back of Soundwave 2014, no one anticipated the second billed band of the festival would take over 12 years to

Oct 19 • 3:57 AM EDT • Entertainment • thelivewire.com.au

Voter guide: What to know about candidates for Kansas insurance commissioner

House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes are running alongside Libertarian nominee Ric Koehn.

Oct 19 • 3:15 AM EDT • Politics • kansas.com

‘What Does This Actually Do For Students?’ Indiana Kelley’s Brian Williams Is P&Q’s 2026 Business Professor Of The Year

Brian Williams turned a fast-moving technology into practical, human-centered teaching now reaching thousands of students inside and outside of Kelley

Oct 19 • 3:12 AM EDT • Business • poetsandquants.com

Elevance Health: Why I Don't Believe In The Stock At This Price

Elevance Health faces structural headwinds, with rising medical costs outpacing reimbursement and government program pressures eroding margin stability. I rate ELV stock a Hold.

Oct 19 • 3:05 AM EDT • Health • seekingalpha.com

Novichok Nerve Agents: What Science Actually Knows About the Deadliest Weapons

A new review finds that while Novichok agents potently inhibit acetylcholinesterase and modern forensics can verify exposure, many claimed properties of these weapons remain unvalidated by experiments on authenticated compounds.

Oct 19 • 1:22 AM EDT • Science • bioengineer.org

Brown Health projects deficit of $64 million for FY2027

The organization has planned cost-cutting measures, including a buyout program and executive restructuring.

Oct 19 • 12:33 AM EDT • Health • browndailyherald.com

US SECTORS CALL: Tech Wrecked, Health Care & Staples Rally

The S&P 500 fell 2.0% this week, and Information Technology (MW) took the biggest hit. The sector fell 6.4%, the worst of the 11 sectors (chart). The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) fell 11.8%. Credit worries spread to AI infrastructure. CoreWeave fell 25% last week. Its worst

Oct 18 • 9:48 PM EDT • Health • yardeniquicktakes.com

Raiders are done with moral victories — now they need actual wins

Six measly points. That is the combined margin separating the Raiders from the Chiefs and Bills in two gut-wrenching home losses over the last three weeks. Two competitive, winnable games...

Oct 18 • 9:42 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Old Fidel Castro interview resurfaces in attack ad against Miami congresswoman

“She cozied up to a dictator and, now, she is cozying up to another wanna be dictator, Donald Trump,” Eliott Rodriguez said in the ad.

Oct 18 • 7:11 PM EDT • Politics • miamiherald.com

Trunk or Treat Held at Newport City Elementary School

Trunk or Treat was held at the Newport Elementary School on Saturday, and to see a full display of photos from the event, see The Express on 10-20-26. Pictured above,

Oct 18 • 5:23 PM EDT • Entertainment • newportvermontdailyexpress.com

Streaming’s Biggest Show Returns…and a Buzzy Genre Struggles

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Obviously, the big news of the week (if not month) is Netflix letting go of executive Bela Bajaria, their chief content officer. I’m going to cover this in my next “Most Important Story of the Week”, but I also have a data angle that I might publish before then. (Too much news this month, am I right?) But first, I have a bonus Streaming Ratings Report issue for you. Today’s article is a bit of a grab bag of topics I’ve wanted to write about, but couldn’t squeeze into the (already very long) Streaming Ratings Report issues. The NFL drives huge viewership numbers, so I’ve got a look at that. A whole bunch of TV shows returned to the traditional broadcast channels, and I have thoughts. And I have a quick look at adult animated shows, since a couple flopped earlier this month. Plus, the Emmys aired earlier this month, and we got some fun data bout how popular those nominated shows are and why I’m not optimistic about the show’s future. That’s a lot, so let’s dive right in. Subscribe Sports - Football Remains the King of Streaming Over the last two Streaming Ratings Reports, I sorta ignored the biggest “show” each week. (I was tempted to say “piece of content” but I know that word bugs folks.) In my database, I call these “specials”, and they sure are special. I speak of the king of American TV: football!!! Streaming football is back and, unlike some other sports, it routinely dominates all viewership. Probably the best way to show this is to update one of my favorite graphics, the “40 Million Hour Club”1 since football games have joined that club each week they’ve premiered: (Yep, that’s the data through 28-Sep, the first four weeks of the season. As a reminder, I take the average minute audience provided by Nielsen, factor out a percentage of linear TV viewers in home markets, and multiply the run time by the three-hour runtime.) Again, the numbers are huge. Let’s start with Netflix. They grabbed the rights to the bonus opening week NFL Kickoff game (which was on YouTube last year) and it put up 18.5 million viewers on average. That nets out to 47.4 million hours of estimated streaming hours. That’s good! Though, notably, it’s well below Christmas Day games from previous years. Compared to other streamers/broadcasters, that’s a bit of a mixed result. On one hand, Netflix’s 18.5 million average is about what YouTube claimed last year, though Nielsen used a bespoke methodology at that time, so I trust this viewership figure more. So that’s good. (The game also shifted from a Friday to a Thursday and that could have helped the viewership as well.) And Netflix continues to best Prime Video in total viewership—as you’ll see next—though Netflix has had much higher-profile (opening week and Christmas Day) games. NBC/Peacock’s opening game the night before averaged 25.1 million average viewers, which is just much bigger than Netflix (or Prime Video). That’s the big caveat to all streaming viewership records: even in success, they can’t compete with traditional linear TV. Previously, I called this my “hierarchy of viewership”, and the data keeps supporting that thesis. The downside for NBC is that this game’s viewership was down compared to previous years, though it may be a counting issue. Here’s a great chart from Sports Media Watch: Indeed, looking at all the opening week games across all windows, Netflix still lags the other primetime windows, but does well compared to the afternoon games: I saw a few folks make the case that streamers still lag traditional broadcasters in reach, and I’d add they really lag compared to “broadcast plus streaming” options like NBC/Peacock, ESPN/Disney+ and CBS/Paramount+. The best data I saw for this came from Samba TV, who charted reach through the 2025 season, and, wow. (Samba TV’s numbers are historically lower than Nielsen’s, so don’t compare their household figures to Nielsen’s hours, but use them as a proxy for the relative reach of the streamers.) The good news is Prime Video is NOT having a down year. Their opening Thursday Night Football game reached 18.6 million viewers (about what Netflix got), but that’s a high for Prime Video on Thursdays and the biggest Thursday night game since 2015. The TNF games the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep continued this streak, getting 43.1 (16.8 million average viewers) and 42.5 total hours (16.6 million average viewers), which were both up from last year. Still, that continues the (typical) season slide: (For those new-to-streaming-football-numbers folks, the viewership declines for Thursday Night Football as the year goes along.) Overall, it appears as if Prime Video is now part of the “football habit”, be it for customers at home or out at places like bars and restaurants. And its viewership is slowly catching up to broadcast. One last chart shows this. Last season, Nielsen started adding out-of-home viewership to the charts, so I try not to do season-to-season comparisons as I did for the first few years. And while Nielsen added Big Data viewing this year, I’m going to compare the last two seasons. Here’s that chart, which shows the season-over-season gains: When it comes to streaming football, we have to keep a few seemingly contradictory thoughts in our head… First, streaming doesn’t come close to matching broadcast’s reach and, thus, viewership. Second, even with that gap, football is still the biggest “thing” on streaming. It’s very, very popular. Third, while some methodology changes have likely helped Prime Video’s numbers, their viewership does appear to be growing. Lastly, yeah, the NFL started the season off poorly, with week one dragging down the numbers in year-over-year comparisons. However—and again, methodology changes may have helped this—the viewership grew compared to previous seasons over the next couple of weeks. So football is still king. On streaming and off. Television - Adult Animation Continues to NOT Make the Streaming Charts In the last two reports, two adult-animated shows whiffed: Netflix’s animated comedy, Dang! Paramount+’s Sega-video-game-inspired fantasy/comedy, Golden Axe. Neither made the charts, but that’s usually the case for animated shows. I mean, here’s literally every animated show that’s made the Nielsen Original charts since the start of 2025: And one of those shows is G_abby’s Dollhouse_! A kids show! The problem with charts like this is that they don’t give you a sense of how many shows miss the charts. Netflix had at least eleven animated flops, including comedies like Big Mouth (a show everyone assumed was popular in the pre-Streaming Ratings Era), Long Story Short, Haunted Hotel, Mating Season, Strip Law, and Alley Cats, and action shows like Blood of Zeus, Castlevania: Nocturne, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Prime Video had at least six animated misses, two in the same universe (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss), three more comedies (#1 Happy Family USA, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy and Kevin) and an action show (The Mighty Nein). Disney+ had MCU and Star Wars animated misses (Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, Star Wars: Visions, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, and Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld) but I can’t tell how many of those shows were geared towards adults. HBO Max had Harley Quinn and Hulu had Solar Opposites. None of these shows made the charts! That’s a lot of misses! If I remade the chart with all those misses, here’s how it would look: Listen, I know the counter arguments. First, it’s cheaper to produce animated shows than live action. Fair enough, but with viewership this low, even that cheaper price point starts to not matter. Second, just look at the acquired charts. Hit animated comedies can generate viewership for years! Shows like The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers do really, really well. Fair enough, but streaming has failed to recreate the dynamic that Fox has mastered so well. That’s a problem for streaming still. Television - Emmys! The annual Emmys broadcast was a few weeks ago, and I’ve got data on how the nominees performed on streaming, plus hot takes on this year’s viewership (and the big news about the broadcast’s, er, streamcast’s future). We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… The top Emmy-nominated shows… ...why I’m worried about the future of the Emmys telecast... ...the pros of broadcast television ...and the cons... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Coming Soon! Next week, we’ve got a double issue (since the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep were so light), but then I’ll be all caught up after a deluge of streaming ratings data from Nielsen in September. In the meantime, I’m going to try to take a look at Netflix’s stats to explain why Bela Bajaria is out. But even light weeks give me plenty to talk about. The Great British Baking Show returns to Netflix and Apple TV has a buzzy new star-studded comedy. And Netflix has a controversial-but-appears-to-be-popular new game show. Plus big films like Toy Story 5, Backrooms and The Breadwinner head to streaming. And is East of Eden a hit? After that, The Kardashians return to Hulu, Prime Video has a reboot of Carrie, and Netflix has a horror show, Below. Disclosure Day heads to Peacock, The Housemaid heads to HBO Max_,_ a new Ben Affleck film, Animals, lands on Netflix, and Apple TV has a new John Cena action film based on, checks notes, Hasbro’s Matchbox toys. Okay. Longterm, some interesting TV production news. HBO Max ordered How to Survive Without Me, starring Kaley Cuoco, Joshua Jackson, Ray Romano and Rita Wilson, for fifteen episodes! I love that some streamers (or, at least, HBO Max) are finally ordering TV shows with more than eight episodes. In less wise production news, Landman does not appear to be coming back this year, since it just started production. Frankly, I don’t love this (get your shows out on time) but Landman is so popular, I doubt it matters.

Oct 18 • 3:59 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Donaldson’s Finer Chocolates celebrates 60 years

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Oct 18 • 11:38 AM EDT • Business • insideindianabusiness.com

iOS 27's new CarPlay features are great, but only these iPhones can actually use them

With iOS 27, car owners with CarPlay support can enjoy lots of cool new features. The problem is, only the iPhone 15 Pro and newer can support them all.

Oct 18 • 10:45 AM EDT • Technology • engadget.com