Industries

Salem, Oregon – September 29, 2026 -- Reser's Fine Foods has completed two energy efficiency upgrades at its new Don Pancho West facility that are expected to cut overall electricity use by more than 20%, saving nearly 1.9 million kilowatt-hours annually and reducing facility emissions by 8%.

New CO2 refrigeration system replaces six units and cuts power use 41%

The 300,000-square-foot facility, which Don Pancho moved into in September 2025, now runs a centralized refrigeration system using carbon dioxide as its primary refrigerant, replacing six systems that relied on a higher-global-warming-potential refrigerant. The new system is expected to consume 41% less electricity than the modeled baseline while delivering 114% greater refrigeration capacity and more consistent temperature control, positioning Reser's as an early food-manufacturing adopter of CO2 refrigeration technology.

Hartland, Wis. – September 29, 2026 -- Batteries Plus has signed a four-store development agreement with franchise owners Clint and Jolene Coates to expand into Lake County, Florida, with the first location opening in The Villages within the next year.

Franchisees plan four stores across Central Florida within six years

The agreement calls for four Batteries Plus locations to open across The Villages and surrounding communities north of Orlando over the next six years, according to the company. The Coates family is structuring the venture as a multi-generational business, with son Cayden Coates and son-in-law Paul Clement taking on day-to-day retail and commercial management while Clint and Jolene Coates focus on sales and development as additional stores launch.

Beijing – September 29, 2026 -- ReTo Eco-Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: RETO) will cut its outstanding Class A share count from 145,814,975 to approximately 7,290,749 through a 20-to-1 reverse share consolidation, with post-combination trading starting October 2, 2026.

Board approves reverse split to lift share price above Nasdaq minimum

ReTo's board approved the combination to raise the market price per Class A share, a move the company states is intended to help it maintain its Nasdaq Capital Market listing. The shares will keep trading under the ticker "RETO" but will carry a new CUSIP number, G75271158.

No par value changes, no shareholder vote required

The par value of the Class A Shares remains unaffected by the consolidation. Because ReTo is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, the transaction does not require shareholder approval and will proceed automatically without any action from holders.

San Francisco – September 29, 2026 -- America's small businesses added 28,000 net new jobs in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, marking the eighth consecutive month of positive hiring, according to Gusto's Small Business Jobs and Pay Report.

September hiring accelerated from a downwardly revised August figure

The September gain improved on August's total, which was revised down to 18,500 net new jobs from an initial estimate of 29,500. July's figure was also revised lower, to 39,700 from 42,400. Despite the September uptick, hiring remained below the 12-month average of 34,000, with recent monthly totals of 38,000 in May, 36,000 in June and 39,700 in July.

Dallas – – September 29, 2026 -- MassChallenge, ranked the No. 2 accelerator in the U.S. by TIME and Statista, has named Dallas its second U.S. headquarters, backed by a renewed two-year grant from Lyda Hill Philanthropies. The investment extends a five-year partnership at Pegasus Park and will fund two ten-week accelerator tracks in Health & Life Sciences and Security & Resiliency, plus Founder Access Clinics connecting early-stage founders with academic, clinical and corporate stakeholders.

Texas applications to MassChallenge grew more than fivefold since 2022

Texas-based applications to MassChallenge's national programs have risen over five times since 2022, while annual innovation-event attendance approaches 1,000. The grant will also support INNOVATE '26, MassChallenge's flagship Dallas convening scheduled for November 17 at Pegasus Park.

Denver – September 29, 2026 -- Adswerve has secured an Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform (Real-Time CDP) specialization, a formal recognition from Adobe requiring a verified number of successful client implementations and certified team members before approval.

Three years of Adobe Customer Journey Analytics work earns formal specialization status

The designation caps three years of hands-on deployment work and follows Adswerve's history as a three-time Adobe Solutions Partner of the Year. The firm has already deployed Real-Time CDP for several enterprise clients, unifying data from web, app, CRM, and offline sources into single customer profiles activated in real time.

Milwaukee – September 29, 2026 -- PBS Biotech has embedded Rockwell Automation technology into its MiniPRO multi-parallel bioreactor platform, a system with up to 24 independently controlled bioreactors designed to speed cell therapy process development and reduce risk during scale-up to commercial manufacturing.

Platform integrates FactoryTalk software with PlantPAx distributed control

The MiniPRO uses Rockwell's FactoryTalk software and Process Library to deliver real-time process control within an automation environment that can integrate directly into a larger PlantPAx distributed control system used to run an entire cell-therapy facility. Rockwell Automation, headquartered in Milwaukee and employing roughly 26,000 people across more than 100 countries as of fiscal year 2025, positions the collaboration as a way to standardize automation across development and GMP manufacturing stages.

Nashville, Tenn. – – September 29, 2026 -- Thyme Companies has appointed Carolyn Starrett as executive vice president of new ventures, tasking her with identifying and scaling new businesses beyond its existing Thyme Care platform. Starrett reports directly to Executive Chairman Robin Shah, marking her second collaboration with him after their tenure together at Flatiron Health.

Starrett brings a decade of oncology data leadership from Flatiron Health

Starrett joined Flatiron Health in 2016 alongside Thyme's founders and served as its Chief Executive Officer from 2021 to 2025. Under her leadership, Flatiron's real-world evidence platform expanded from roughly 400,000 to more than 5.5 million patient records. Its OncoEMR platform grew to serve more than 4,500 oncology providers nationwide, while the company extended research operations into the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

Las Vegas – September 29, 2026 -- Arity, a mobility data and analytics company founded by The Allstate Corporation, has introduced Arity Lead Platform, an insurance-native operating layer designed to give carriers direct control over customer acquisition spend and decisions across publishers, marketplaces, agents, and call centers.

Platform unifies fragmented acquisition systems into a single carrier-controlled layer

Insurance carriers currently invest across publishers, marketplaces, lead and call providers, agency networks, and CRM platforms that often operate independently, limiting visibility from acquisition spend through to customer outcomes. Arity Lead Platform builds on more than a decade of Arity's experience connecting insurers with publishers and marketplaces, extending that connectivity into a full operating layer with reusable connectors intended to reduce integration effort and speed partner activation.

Atlanta – September 29, 2026 -- The Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation (JAJF) has completed 20 years of funding fully-paid family trips for parents with terminal cancer diagnoses, a model now formally prescribed by oncologists across the United States as part of patient treatment protocols.

Foundation traces origin to a 2006 family diagnosis

Jon Albert founded JAJF in 2006 after his wife, Jill, was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. Jill died two weeks after the foundation's launch, but the organization she inspired has since delivered what it calls WOW! Experiences to thousands of children and parents nationwide.

Shreveport, La. – September 29, 2026 -- Praeses has secured a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract with Air Force Global Strike Command carrying an initial ceiling value of $79 million over a five-year term.

Single-award vehicle opens federal-wide access to Praeses technology

The contract, issued by the General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service Assisted Acquisition Services Innovation Office, is structured as a single-award vehicle. It gives AFGSC and eligible customers across the U.S. government a direct procurement path to Praeses' data fusion, management and AI-powered analytics products and services.

Greenlawn, N.Y. – September 29, 2026 -- BAE Systems has secured AIMS certification from the Department of War for its new AN/APX-127(V)1 Combined Interrogator Transponder (CIT), clearing the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system for use on the U.S. Air Force's F-16 Fighting Falcon fleet.

Certification confirms interoperability across U.S. and NATO forces

The AIMS standard verifies the system meets joint U.S. and NATO requirements, allowing pilots to distinguish allied aircraft from potential threats in contested airspace. The AN/APX-127(V)1 is AIMS Mark XIIB IFF certified with Mode S and Mode 5 capability for encrypted data exchange, and adds receive channels for passive acquisition of Mode 5 Level 2 and Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast In signals.

Dallas – – September 29, 2026 -- Integrity, LLC has partnered with Sumner Insurance Services, a fourth-generation, family-owned independent marketing organization based in Sedalia, Missouri, though financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sumner brings a 1958 legacy and nationwide client base to Integrity's network

Founded in 1958, Sumner Insurance Services originally served central Missouri clients but has since expanded to serve customers across the United States. The agency, led by CEO Caleb Sumner, has broadened its offerings beyond life and health insurance into a wealth division covering retirement planning and investments.

New York City – – September 29, 2026 -- Demy-Colton has released the agenda for BioFuture 2026, a two-day conference set for October 27–28 at Cure, 345 Park Avenue South, drawing more than 100 speakers and over 50 presenting companies from biopharma, investment, technology and policy sectors.

Conference agenda spans AI, oncology, biotech financing and global drug development

Speakers include representatives from Johnson & Johnson, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Schrödinger, Piper Sandler and Mizuho Securities. Sponsors backing the event include Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Russo Partners, WuXi AppTec, Blue Matter, Cure, Evotec, Ipsen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Big4Bio, HMA Consulting, Withum and Hogan Lovells Cadwalader.

New York – September 29, 2026 -- DoubleZero Foundation has integrated Phoenix, Solana's native perpetuals exchange, into its Edge market-data platform, cutting data delivery latency by more than 750 milliseconds for traders accessing the Solana perps order book.

Phoenix becomes the third perpetuals venue on DoubleZero Edge

Built by Ellipsis Labs, Phoenix joins Kalshi crypto perpetual futures, added in August 2026, and Hyperliquid perps, added earlier this month, on the Edge network. Trading firms can now pull market data from all three venues through a single connection rather than building separate infrastructure for each.

DoubleZero launched two new Phoenix feeds: top-of-book and trades, and market-by-price data, covering all Phoenix perps markets.

Chicago – September 29, 2026 -- Controllers Council projects that AI and automation adoption among corporate financial controllers will reach 98% by 2030, up from 86% today, according to its new Controllership 2030 Predictions Study.

Survey of controllers and CFOs maps a five-year shift in job duties

The study draws on a national survey of controllers, CFOs and related finance executives conducted between July and September 2026 across multiple industries and company sizes. It tracks how AI, automation, talent shortages and shifting business conditions will reshape the controllership function through 2030.

Philadelphia – September 29, 2026 -- ConnectDER, a manufacturer of meter socket adapters (MSAs) for solar, battery, and EV charging installations, has named Chad Conway as VP of Product to lead development of its flagship IslandDER product line launched in 2025.

Conway brings 15 years of clean-energy hardware experience from SPAN and Tesla

Conway was a founding team member and Head of Products at SPAN, the smart electric panel maker, where he led the SPAN Panel from concept to installations in thousands of U.S. homes. Before SPAN, he spent six years on Tesla's Energy team helping scale the Powerwall to more than 50,000 annual deployments, including post-Hurricane Irma and Maria recovery work with local communities in Puerto Rico.

New York – – September 29, 2026 -- Big Idea Ventures and Mars Petcare have selected three startups for the third edition of the Next Generation Pet Food Program, drawing 83 applications from 33 countries to advance alternative proteins, fats and oils aimed at cutting the environmental footprint of pet food ingredients.

Program partners with AAK, Bühler, Givaudan and Ingredion select three ingredient startups

EcoBean, a Polish company that valorizes spent coffee grounds from industrial production into high-value ingredients for cosmetics, food and pet applications, joins the 2026 cohort. Loopworm, an Indian insect biotech firm, manufactures protein and fat ingredients from silkworms using proprietary technology. Space Ark Biomedical, based in Taiwan, upcycles okara and brewer's spent grain into functional protein ingredients through enzyme technology and precision fermentation.

Petaluma, Calif. – – September 29, 2026 -- Equity Methods secured the highest client loyalty and satisfaction ratings in the equity compensation financial reporting industry for the 13th consecutive year, posting a Net Promoter Score of 97 and 100 percent favorable overall satisfaction, according to Group 5's 2026 Equity Compensation Financial Reporting Benchmarking Study.

Group 5 surveyed 452 U.S. public companies for its 27th annual industry benchmark

The study, now in its 27th year, remains the only independent forum allowing corporate plan sponsors to confidentially rate their equity compensation service providers. This year's edition drew responses from 452 U.S. public companies evaluating providers on accounting, HR, stock administration, and legal reporting functions.

Calgary, AB – – September 29, 2026 -- Canadian oil sands production is projected to average a record 3.5 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2026, a 100,000 b/d increase of 3% over the prior year, according to S&P Global Energy's latest 10-year production outlook. Output is forecast to climb further to 3.9 million b/d by the early 2030s.

Production has grown almost every year since 2001, when output stood at just 300,000 b/d

The only exception was 2020, when COVID-19 disrupted demand. Most of the 2026 gains stem from optimization of existing facilities rather than new construction, S&P Global Energy said.