Aurora, Colorado – October 19, 2026 -- Four University of Colorado Anschutz faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the largest group the university has had elected in a single year.

The academy elects up to 100 new members annually: up to 90 regular members and 10 international members. Candidates go through a nomination and selection process that evaluates their professional achievements and contributions to health and medicine.

Four physician-researchers join the 2026 class

The 2026 inductees are Lilia Cervantes, Matthew Wynia, Vik Bebarta and Lauren S. Hughes. Their work spans kidney care, bioethics, combat medicine and rural health policy.

Cervantes is a physician-researcher whose work has documented inequities in kidney care for undocumented immigrants. She combines community-engaged research, clinical care and policy advocacy.

Beijing – October 19, 2026 -- The 2026 Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum opened in Beijing with more than 400 guests from around the world, running four days under the theme of building an open, collaborative and inclusive ecosystem for global financial development.

Organizers frame the agenda around openness, cooperation and inclusiveness

Zeng Linfeng, executive secretary-general of the organizing committee's secretariat and acting head of Beijing's Xicheng district, told a pre-forum news conference that the theme reflects accelerating global change and mounting challenges for the world economy and global financial operations.

Zeng said the conference calls for better coordination of financial development and security, wider development space through opening-up, stronger systemic resilience through cooperation, and mutual benefits through an inclusive approach.

Bel Air – October 19, 2026 -- Harford Mutual Insurance Group's policyholders' surplus has grown from $89 million in 2006 to $489 million as of September 30, 2026, over the 20-year tenure of President and CEO Steven D. Linkous.

Linkous becomes third-longest-serving president in 1842 insurer's history

Linkous took the top job on October 16, 2006, as only the 10th president since the company was founded in 1842. Only John Carroll Walsh, who served 29 years, and Richard Dallam, who served 45 years, have led the company longer. Linkous joined HMIG in 1985 as a Microcomputer Programmer and Agency Support Specialist and also sits on the Board of Directors.

Newbury Township, Ohio – October 19, 2026 -- Kinetico Incorporated has launched a partnership with national nonprofit Rebuilding Together, starting with a San Antonio home upgrade for a retired police officer and his wife that included a full year of paid water bills.

The project is the first of several planned under "Kinetico Connections Community Impact," the company's new corporate social responsibility initiative. The program combines employee volunteer service with water treatment products for residents and families across the country.

Kinetico installs softener, filtration and reverse osmosis system in San Antonio home

Kinetico employees worked on home improvements, landscaping and painting. Through Kinetico of San Antonio, the home also received upgrades to its water infrastructure and treatment systems:

Rochester Hills – October 19, 2026 -- FANUC America has opened an $18 million, 132,000-square-foot Training Academy in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It more than doubles classroom count from 13 to 28 and is billed as the largest corporate robotics and industrial automation training center in the United States.

Three-story Auburn Hills facility replaces Rochester Hills training site

The Academy sits on FANUC America's West Campus and includes 56,300 square feet of training space for technicians, engineers, educators, students and manufacturing professionals. It replaces the training facility inside the company's Rochester Hills headquarters.

Together with eight other regional facilities, the Academy gives FANUC's training network capacity for about 17,500 participants a year. The network runs more than 160 robots and over 40 CNC simulators.

Fortville – October 19, 2026 -- Thursday Poles has launched EnduraPOLETM, a line of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite utility poles for electric distribution systems, and is taking orders now.

EnduraPOLE targets utilities that now use wood, steel and concrete poles

The company positions the fiberglass composite poles as an alternative to wood, steel and concrete for applications where service life, grid resilience and installation efficiency are priorities. According to the company, the construction is designed to better withstand demanding environmental conditions without the rot, corrosion, moisture damage or biological deterioration that can affect other pole materials over time.

Poles meet or exceed NESC, ANSI, ASTM and RUS standards

EnduraPOLE is offered in a range of classes, colors and heights for distribution applications. The company states the poles meet or exceed NESC, ANSI, ASTM and RUS standards.

East Dubuque, Illinois – October 19, 2026 -- Crescent Electric Supply Company has appointed Cindi Evans as Chief Revenue Officer, effective October 16, 2026, putting a 25-year commercial executive in charge of enterprise revenue strategy at one of the largest independent U.S. distributors of electrical hardware and supplies.

Evans takes charge of enterprise revenue strategy at Crescent

Evans will lead Crescent's revenue strategy with a focus on accelerating profitable growth, deepening customer and supplier relationships, and strengthening commercial execution. CEO Penny Cotner said the company looks forward to continuing its growth journey with Evans at the helm of its revenue functions.

Chicago – October 19, 2026 -- Cboe Global Markets launched pre- and post-market trading in options on 24 single stocks and 5 ETFs on its Cboe Options Exchange (C1). Options on these names accounted for roughly 53% of average daily U.S.-listed options volume in 2026 through September.

Cboe opens two new sessions for equity and ETF options on C1

The pre-market session runs from 7:30 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. ET and the post-market session from 4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday. C1 is currently the only U.S. options exchange offering pre- and post-market index options sessions. It is now extending extended-hours access to select single-stock and ETF options.

The covered underlyings include AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, GOOGL, META, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA and PLTR. The ETFs are SPY, QQQ, IWM, GLD and XLF. Cboe describes the group as including the Magnificent 10 stocks.

Lakewood, Colo. – October 19, 2026 -- Versiti has become the 10th U.S. blood center to adopt Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies' Reveos Automated Blood Processing System, adding automated platelet recovery from whole blood donations across five states.

Reveos and Lumia software lift whole blood platelet capacity

Paired with the Lumia Software Platform, Reveos will let the Milwaukee-based nonprofit produce more platelets from whole blood. Versiti serves hospitals and patients in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Reveos in 2023. Terumo BCT says it is the only whole blood automation device available in the U.S. that separates whole blood into red blood cells, plasma and platelets in one fully automated centrifugation cycle.

Las Vegas – October 19, 2026 -- Finastra launched StandbyX at Money 20/20, a cloud-enabled product that lets U.S. banks digitize standby letter of credit (SBLC) processing without deploying a full trade finance platform.

StandbyX targets regional and mid-sized banks still running manual SBLC workflows

Larger institutions typically handle SBLCs alongside broader trade finance operations on platforms such as Finastra's Trade Innovation. Many regional and mid-sized U.S. banks still rely on manual or semi-manual processes, which Finastra says create operational inefficiencies, increase risk and limit scalability.