Run Your Entire Data & AI Program From a Prompt or Agent, in BigID Claude, Copilot, GPT and Gemini

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- BigID today launched AgentIQ, a fully agentic automation interface to BigID that that allows customers to operate their data security and compliance program autonomously, operationalized from a prompt or agent interface anywhere they work: inside BigID or directly from Claude, Copilot, GPT or Gemini. Customers can now write custom prompts or leverage pre-built BigID agents to retrieve, report, respond or remediate data and AI security and compliance violations.

One Request, Start to Finish

BigID AgentIQ brings full agentic controls to customers to simplify BigID operation for data and AI security / compliance.

- Ask anything about the data or AI landscape, across cloud, SaaS, on-prem, databases, files and get customer reporting back.

- Investigate data and access violations and quickly determine who and what was impacted

- Consult and Reason with your model of choice regarding industry best practices, regulatory compliance and security frameworks

- Assess Risk ranked by sensitivity, exposure, activity, and business context

- Act on it: revoke access, remediate exposure, apply retention, quarantine, enforce policy, fulfill requests

- Automate Remediation: leverage BigID agents or bring your own to fully operationalize and automate remediation actions. AgentIQ will run autonomously and continuously.

"Every data & AI program is capped by how many people you can put on it. AgentIQ removes the cap," said Dimitri Sirota, CEO and Co-founder of BigID. "You describe the outcome you want and the program delivers it: find the risk, decide what matters, act on it, prove it happened. The reason it works on BigID is context. An agent without deep data context will give you confident, wrong answers about your most sensitive data."

No Console Required

While AgentIQ is available from inside BigID, AgentIQ can also deliver BigID wherever teams already work, with no new interface to adopt and no security analyst required to run a query:

- Claude, GPT, Gemini and Copilot

- Custom enterprise agents and internal AI platforms

- BigID itself

What It Looks Like in Practice

Examples of the work AgentIQ carries end to end today, each triggered by a single request:

- "Find sensitive data exposed to the internet, rank it by business risk, and revoke public access on the top ten." The agent identifies exposure across systems, prioritizes it, fixes it on approval, and logs every action.

- "Which AI systems are touching regulated data, and which violate our policy?" The agent finds both shadow and sanctioned AI, maps the data each system consumes, and flags violations before an auditor finds them.

- "Who has access to customer PII they no longer need? Remove it." The agent investigates permissions across systems, identifies excessive and stale access, and revokes it.

- "Fulfill this data subject request everywhere this person exists." The agent carries out a privacy request across all the systems that hold a person's data and orchestrates fulfillment.

Buy. Build. Bring.

- Buy BigID's agents and deploy in minutes with no agent engineering

- Build your own on BigID's AgentIQ platform and action surface, wired to your workflows and policies

- Bring the agents from popular Ai platforms and have them work directly with BigID via BigID's secure MCP.

"Customers were clear on two points: nobody wants another console, and nobody wants to bet their security program on a single model," said Nimrod Vax, Head of Product and Co-founder of BigID. "So we built the layer, not the destination. Whatever agent, model, or surface a customer standardizes on, BigID is the intelligence and action layer underneath it."

Guardrails, Enforced in the Stack

- Agents inherit the requesting user's permissions , enforced at the API and MCP layer rather than in a system prompt

- Every agent action is logged and attributable to a person

- Enterprise controls including password vaulting, BYOK, telemetry, and air-gap support

- No lock-in to one vendor's agent, one model, or one interface

AgentIQ spans BigID's 200+ integrations across on-prem, cloud, SaaS, and API data sources, covering data at rest, in motion, and in use. Learn more at bigid.com/agentiq.

About BigID

BigID helps organizations connect the dots in data & AI: for security, governance, privacy, compliance, and AI data management. BigID enables customers to find, understand, manage, protect, and take action on high-risk & high-value data, wherever it lives. Customers use BigID to reduce their AI & data risk, automate security and privacy controls, achieve compliance, and understand their data throughout their entire data landscape: from the cloud, on-prem, and everywhere in between. BigID has been recognized for innovation as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer; named to the Forbes Cloud 100; the Inc 5000 for 4 consecutive years; the Deloitte 500 for 4 consecutive years; Market Leader in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM); and an RSA Innovation Sandbox winner.

SOURCE BigID

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SLIPNOT® Introduces SLIPNOT® Sweep - A Sweepable, Durable Non-Slip Flooring Product for Dry Processing Facilities

NFSI high-traction certified product provides superior safety, durability and cleanability

DETROIT, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SLIPNOT®, the leading provider of specialized safety flooring products and surface technologies, announces the introduction of the patent-pending SLIPNOT® Sweep – a sweepable, durable, non-slip flooring product engineered specifically to end the compromise between safety and sanitation in medium- to low-hazard zones in dry processing facilities. The new flooring solution transforms processing areas, staircases and walkways into safe, hygienic non-slip surfaces in facilities for dry food, baking, dairy powder and pharmaceutical manufacturing, as well as plastics and wood processing.

"The introduction of SLIPNOT Sweep provides facility managers, quality assurance leaders and plant operations with a long-awaited solution that meets safety and sanitation standards, audits and workflows in dry processing facilities," said Scott Sargent, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at SLIPNOT. "It transforms potential slip, trip and fall hazard areas into high-performance, sanitary environments allowing people to move faster and more safely."

Addressing the Industry Challenge of Safety and Sanitation

For years, dry processing facilities have had to choose between employee safety and plant sanitation. Traditional non-slip floors feature microscopic grooves and crevices that easily trap fine powders, organic dust and debris. While many plants have turned to dotted metal, assuming it would sweep clean easily, the raised beads still trap debris. Since these facilities limit or restrict wet washdowns or power washing to prevent microbial risks like Listeria and Salmonella, their hard-to-clean surfaces create harborage points that turn into sanitation hazards.

SLIPNOT Sweep eliminates the compromise between safety and sanitation.

"We've taken our leading SLIPNOT surface and filled in the microscopic valleys while leaving the millions of high-traction, tool-steel hard peaks exposed," said Quinn Poor, Manager of Engineering and Product Development. "That means our customers have a product that is easy to clean and provides the grip needed to work safely."

Superior Durability, Cleanability and High Traction

SLIPNOT Sweep combines high-traction safety with strict hygienic design and offers three distinct advantages:

- Extreme Durability: The high-friction safety flooring, currently available in stainless on stainless steel substrate, has unmatched bond strength. This means the surface will not peel, flake or delaminate. Because the surface is grit-free, it eliminates particle shedding that can contaminate product lines or wear down under heavy foot or rolling-cart traffic.

- Hygienic Cleanability: In food processing areas, the surface must be fully seam-welded to avoid underlying bacterial harborage gaps. SLIPNOT pre-masks the perimeter edges of each surface prior to the SLIPNOT installation process. This allows field installers to perform full-seam welds without burning or delaminating the surrounding finish.

- High Traction: The surface, which is NFSI high-traction certified, maintains a high coefficient of friction (COF). In-house testing proves that SLIPNOT Sweep exceeds 0.88 wet DCOF and a dry DCOF of 0.71, which are well above industrial safety standards.

Unmatched Long-Term Value

SLIPNOT Sweep eliminates the hidden costs of legacy anti-slip options. While tapes, paints and grit coatings need constant reapplication and increase ongoing downtime, this new product is a safe, high-durability solution that provides long-term value.

- Maximizes Uptime: In high volume production facilities, saving 15 to 30 minutes of sanitation time per line and can save hundreds of hours of production availability annually.

- Eliminates Maintenance: Replaces recurring expenses for temporary tapes, paints and grit coatings as well as labor touch-ups.

- Protects Profitability: Continuous slip resistance safeguards against expensive injury claims, compliance fines and liability.

American-made in Detroit and backed by a one-year warranty, the new SLIPNOT Sweep complements the core product portfolio of fully customizable flooring solutions.

For more information about SLIPNOT Sweep, visit slipnot.com/products/sweep/.

About SLIPNOT

SLIPNOT is the pioneer and leading provider of high-durability, slip-resistant metal flooring products and surface technologies for walkways, entryways, stairs, rails, ladders and other critical access areas. Proudly made in Detroit, USA, SLIPNOT transforms potentially hazardous spaces in food and beverage manufacturing, industrial facilities, infrastructure, commercial buildings and retail environments into safer, more efficient spaces. SLIPNOT products help safety managers and building owners reduce slip-and-fall risk in demanding environments. For more information on how to create a SLIPNOT environment, visit www.SLIPNOT.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE SLIPNOT

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A decade of real-world autonomy and enterprise growth positions Simbe to power the physical intelligence layer for retail

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Simbe, the physical intelligence platform for retail, today announced that it has surpassed 3,000 autonomous units under contract: the largest commercially committed fleet of shelf intelligence technology identified in company research. In the decade since introducing Tally, the world's first inventory robot, Simbe is building on that sustained leadership to evolve from leading in autonomous shelf digitization to building a broader platform for the physical store.

Today, Simbe combines autonomous robots, computer vision, RFID, handheld and fixed sensing to continuously capture what is happening inside retail locations: from inventory availability and product location to prices, promotions, and merchandising conditions. Together, these capabilities make Simbe the only multimodal platform purpose-built for the physical store, turning live retail environments into machine-readable infrastructure.

Every deployment expands Simbe's understanding of what is true inside stores: capturing individual inventory conditions, how they change over time, and the patterns that emerge across entire store chains. Simbe brings this ground truth together, powering an expanding set of applications, workflows, AI agents and connected devices.

"Retailers are increasingly deploying physical intelligence across the enterprise," said Deborah Weinswig, Founder & CEO of Coresight Research. "Simbe's 3,000 unit milestone reflects that shift: trusted shelf-level data is becoming foundational to store operations, digital commerce, merchandising and supply chain decisions."

Simbe's deployment scale also places the company among a small group of physical AI companies operating fleets at thousands-unit scale. While many physical AI companies remain in pilots or early production, Simbe has spent a decade operating autonomously in dynamic public environments and scaling across leading retail enterprises:

- More than 75 retail banners globally across nearly a dozen countries.

- The first and only company to earn UL 3300 certification for a robot designed to operate in public.

- More than 90% of store managers working alongside Tally say the technology makes their jobs better.

"What works once in a lab doesn't often work in the real world, and it's brutally hard to build robotics that operate reliably across thousands of stores for the world's largest retailers," said Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner of Eclipse. "Simbe is the real deal. In a category full of promise, they're one of the rare companies delivering at global scale—showing how physical AI is becoming essential infrastructure for retail."

At scale, Simbe has advanced from robots that digitize shelves to shelf intelligence that informs the retail enterprise. Today, Simbe is focused on creating the physical intelligence layer for orchestrating increasingly autonomous store operations.

"Retail is one of the clearest proving grounds for physical AI at commercial scale, and this is just the beginning" said Brad Bogolea, co-founder and CEO of Simbe. "A decade of operating autonomously in stores has given us the foundation to think far beyond the robot. We're building the physical intelligence layer that enables retailers to understand and operate stores with greater autonomy."

About Simbe

Simbe is the physical intelligence and orchestration layer for retail. Its vertically-integrated platform combines autonomous robotics, computer vision, RFID, fixed sensing, and edge AI to continuously understand what is happening inside physical stores, orchestrate action, and verify intended outcomes. Every deployment expands Simbe's understanding of how conditions change, revealing patterns across entire store chains—from inventory availability and product location to prices, promotions, and merchandising conditions.

That intelligence powers a growing set of applications, workflows, AI agents, and connected devices, turning live retail environments into machine-readable infrastructure for increasingly autonomous store operations. Deployed across thousands of locations, Simbe empowers store teams and elevates the shopper experience in nearly a dozen countries.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Simbe Robotics

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New in-store software solutions will give grocers and CPG brands a live view of every store, so shelves stay stocked and customers can find what they need

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart (NASDAQ: CART), a leading grocery technology company, today announced new in-store software that will enable grocers and CPG brands to access a real-time digital view of grocery shelves. The new solutions will map the entire store down to individual products on shelves, allowing grocers and CPG brands to virtually explore aisles, understand what is happening on shelves, and take action in real time. By turning the physical store into a live, actionable map, Instacart will help the entire grocery ecosystem keep products in stock and make it easier for customers to find what they need.

Instacart's network of approximately 600,000 shoppers visits stores across North America more than 15 times per store per day on average, generating over 10 million unique data points daily. Instacart is leveraging the data Instacart shoppers collect from shelf scans to create a real-time view of what is happening on store shelves. Combined with insights from more than 1.6 billion lifetime orders and shelf imagery capturable by both Instacart shoppers and Caper Carts – powered by Arpalus computer vision technology – Instacart gives retailers and CPG brands unprecedented, real-time visibility into what is available, where there are spikes or drop-offs in demand affecting inventory, and how in-store merchandising impacts sales.

"Grocery stores are the most complex physical environments in retail. A single store carries tens of thousands of items and the floor changes by the minute as customers shop, brands restock, and associates move displays," said Ryan Hamburger, Chief Commercial Officer at Instacart. "Traditional inventory systems weren't built for today's reality – they rely on estimates and periodic counts, leaving grocers and brands with an incomplete picture of what's actually happening on shelves. By turning the insights Instacart generates every day into real-time intelligence for the physical store, we'll give retailers and CPG brands a level of visibility that drives better business outcomes and experiences for every customer."

Building a real-time view of every store, aisle by aisle

What sets Instacart's in-store software solutions apart from other shelf-monitoring tools is the depth of grocery-specific data behind it. Most solutions solely track items received and sold; Instacart shows grocers and CPG brands exactly what is on the shelf, where customers are shopping, which displays are driving sales, and where gaps are costing revenue.

For store managers, that intelligence will come to life in a virtual view of the store through Inventory Intelligence, where they can walk any aisle, view shelf performance, and explore stocking, merchandising, and planogram changes before making them in-store. Instacart's in-store software solutions will offer:

- Real-time shelf visibility: See what is on the shelf, continuously updated as Instacart shoppers scan throughout the day – enabling in-store teams to replenish high-margin, high-velocity items faster, merchandisers to optimize shelf layouts and displays, and supply chain teams to improve demand forecasting and replenishment.

- Merchandising optimization: Identify high-velocity products that may need more shelf space and where a simple change, like adding another facing, could help recover lost sales.

- Demand forecasting: Anticipate which products are likely to run out before they do, helping teams prioritize restocking ahead of holidays and other periods of peak demand.

For CPG brands, Instacart is bringing new visibility into what happens with their products in stores with the Store Excellence Portal. Brands will receive a daily, store-level view of what is on the shelf, helping them identify where gaps are costing sales, where customers are switching to competitors, and which stores and SKUs need attention. Instacart's new solution helps brands understand:

- Lost sales estimation: See how much revenue is being lost down to the store and UPC – refreshed daily – giving teams an estimated dollar figure to act on.

- Substitution and competitive benchmarking: Track whether consumers who could not find your product switched to a different pack size or competitor, and see how your availability stacks up against the category - turning an empty shelf into an actionable sales signal.

- Seasonal and forward-looking monitoring: Stay ahead of peak periods by tracking depletion patterns in the weeks before demand spikes and comparing against years of historical availability data. Built-in forecasting will flag which stores and SKUs are likely to go out of stock before it happens.

These new in-store software solutions are rolling out with select grocers and CPG brands, with more launching in the coming months.

"Identifying out-of-stock issues has typically meant piecing together information from multiple systems and our store managers spending a lot of time on the floor," said Dylan Queen at Queen's Price Chopper. "Having visibility to on-shelf realities and inventory trends over time will help us better orchestrate replenishment across the store and respond to gaps quicker."

"One of the greatest challenges we see in retail is prioritizing where to send resources to create the greatest impact for brands," said Andy Keenan, Executive Vice President & GM, Branded Retail Services at Advantage Solutions. "We partner closely with Instacart, and one of our biggest unlocks has been accessing their Store Excellence Portal data. We can identify where products are missing, prioritize by sales opportunity, and direct resources to the shelves that need it most. That's helped us recover lost sales and improve on-shelf availability for the brands we serve."

These AI solutions are part of the Instacart Enterprise platform. Learn more at company.instacart.com/enterprise-platform.

About Instacart

Instacart is a leading grocery technology company that partners with more than 2,200 retail banners – representing nearly 100,000 stores – to transform how people shop for the groceries they need from the retailers they trust, while creating flexible earning opportunities for shoppers. Through the Instacart Marketplace, Instacart Enterprise platform, and Instacart Ads ecosystem, the company powers ecommerce, fulfillment, in-store technology, AI offerings, and advertising for partners. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.

SOURCE Maplebear Inc. dba Instacart

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Niagara ASR and Nith TTS streaming models reach production release in a single SDK

WATERLOO, ON, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Applied Brain Research (ABR) today announced general availability of the ABR SDK and the Niagara ASR and Nith TTS model families, a production toolkit for building real-time voice interfaces that run entirely on edge processor hardware.

The SDK provides streaming automatic speech recognition and streaming text-to-speech through a single API, so a developer can enable a responsive voice interface on the device itself. Because the latency-critical speech input and output processing runs locally, there is no speech AI dependency on a network, voice data does not leave the device, and the interface continues to operate when connectivity is unreliable.

"A voice interface is only usable if it answers immediately, which makes real-time performance the binding constraint for edge applications," said Kevin Conley, CEO of Applied Brain Research. "ABR's models and SDK are designed to deliver leading accuracy with the lowest latency on constrained edge hardware. Customers and hardware partners evaluating the SDK are consistently surprised by the response times and accuracy they measure."

Features

The current release provides a Python library over a stable C ABI, with C and Java bindings to follow in the coming weeks. A single SDK covers ABR's Niagara speech recognition and Nith speech synthesis families running simultaneously, starting with English, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean.

Each model is distributed as a self-contained package holding the compiled library, the model weights and the configuration in one directory. Changing language or upgrading to newly trained weights requires only a change of the path. There is no inference backend to select and no cross-compilation step.

Two add-on capabilities are available to address brand- and domain-specific applications. For TTS, voice cloning generates a new synthesis voice from a short reference recording using consent-based training. For ASR and TTS, custom vocabulary allows a product's domain terms, proper nouns and product names to be recognized and pronounced correctly by both the recognition and synthesis models, without retraining.

Performance

ABR's Niagara streaming ASR models produce first text from the initial audio in as little as 115 milliseconds. The Nith streaming TTS models produce first audio from initial text in as little as 147 milliseconds, measured on embedded application-class CPUs.

All models operate faster than real time on every supported platform.

Supported platforms

Linux x86-64, Linux ARM64 and Android ARM64 are currently supported. Acceleration on integrated NPUs and DSPs is also available on certain partner platforms. Additional silicon targets and support for RTOS running on Cortex-M class microcontrollers with NPUs are targeted for release before year end.

Evaluation and availability

Documentation is available on ABR's documentation portal. The SDK and application packages are available from the ABR developer portal. Self-managed registration enables access to free evaluation of the full SDK and available models. Pilot and production deployment are available under commercial license from ABR.

ABR's open non-streaming (batch) speech recognition models appear on the Hugging Face Open ASR Leaderboard, where niagara-38m-batch.en is the most accurate model under 100 million parameters, at a mean word error rate of 9.69 percent as of the date of this release. niagara-19m-batch.en, one of the smallest on the leaderboard, outperforms models several times its size. Both can be tried in ABR's demo Space. The streaming models in the SDK use the same state space model architecture as these batch models and are trained on a superset of the same data.

About Applied Brain Research

Applied Brain Research develops efficient real-time speech and language AI that runs entirely on edge devices. Its Niagara ASR and Nith TTS model families deliver leading performance at a fraction of the size of comparable models. ABR derives significant efficiency and low latency from its state space model architectures, which originate from ABR's patented Legendre Memory Unit. ABR is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. More at appliedbrainresearch.com.

SOURCE Applied Brain Research Inc.

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NYSE issues a pre-market daily advisory direct from the trading floor.

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) provides a daily pre-market update directly from the NYSE Trading Floor. Access today's NYSE Pre-market update for market insights before trading begins.

Kristen Scholer delivers the pre-market update on September 21st

- Officials and guests of the United States Department of State will be at the NYSE as the High-level week of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly commences.

- In a statement, the U.S. Department of States says it will pursue one clear goal: delivering prosperity through peace, by bringing the UN 'back to basics.'

- The UN event convenes world leaders to New York each year.

- This year's UNGA theme is 'Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All.'

- Forus CEO Sahir Jaggi will join NYSE Live to discuss the AI healthcare startup's latest funding round.

- The company announced $150 million in Series C funding earlier this month.

- Forus' latest funding round boosts its valuation to $3 billion.

- Forus is on a mission to connect doctors, pharmacies, payers, and the biopharma industry to bring new science to the patients who need it.

- Investors begin the week tracking the latest geopolitical and economic developments.

- ICE Brent Crude is trading at about $101 a barrel as the U.S. and Iran exchanged threats to continue attacks in the Middle East.

- The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield remains close to 5% after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates last week.

Opening Bell

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and officials of the United States Department of State recognize the 81st Session of the United States General Assembly

Closing Bell

Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) and the Water Resilience Coalition celebrate Climate Week NYC

For market insights, IPO activity, and today's opening bell, download the NYSE TV App and check out the NYSE YouTube: TV.NYSE.com and YouTube.com/@NYSEofficial

SOURCE New York Stock Exchange

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Human Nature spotlights solutions protecting water and strengthening local economies, from Arkansas Delta wetlands to Iowa farm fields and Mexican fishing communities

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Walton Family Foundation is expanding its work to advance nature-based solutions, practical approaches that work with natural systems to protect water while strengthening communities and local economies. The focus is part of the foundation's evolving Environment Program strategy, pairing on-the-ground work with efforts to address the policies, financing and market conditions that can help effective solutions grow and endure.

Today, the foundation launched Human Nature, a new storytelling series featuring multimedia case studies showing what that approach looks like in practice. Through stories from Arkansas Delta wetlands, Iowa farm fields and fishing communities in Mexico, the series spotlights how communities are already working with nature to reduce flood risk, improve water quality, strengthen livelihoods and build resilience.

"When we take care of nature and work with natural systems, we are also taking care of people," said Moira Mcdonald, director of the Walton Family Foundation's Environment Program. "These nature-based solutions are already helping farmers keep more topsoil and profit on their land, helping fishing communities rebuild the stocks their livelihoods depend on, and helping people hold on to land that's been in their families for generations. We know these approaches can work. Now the challenge is helping more communities put them to work by bringing together local leadership, investment and policies that make proven solutions easier to adopt and sustain."

Natural approaches also have broad public support and a growing body of research behind them. A 2025 Morning Consult poll found that 80% of Americans say restoring and protecting wetlands to absorb floodwaters should be a priority for state and local governments. A June 2026 study from the University of Georgia's Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems found that when the full range of benefits natural infrastructure provides — including flood reduction, clean water, habitat and recreation — is accounted for, these approaches can deliver returns of up to $8 for every $1 invested.

Restoring Wetlands and Preserving Family Land in the Mississippi Delta

In the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, the foundation-supported Tri-State Conservation Partnership has helped place more than 1 million acres into USDA Wetland Reserve Easements, paying landowners to return frequently flooded farmland to wetlands. The approach lets farmers keep their most productive acres in production while retiring the acres most prone to flooding, restoring habitat and reducing flood risk while keeping land in local hands.

Local partners like The KKAC Organization, an Arkansas Delta land-retention and agricultural organization, help connect landowners, including historically underserved rural communities who have long faced barriers to holding on to their land, with these federal conservation programs.

Financing Conservation on Iowa Farms

In Iowa, the Environmental Defense Fund partnered with CoBank on a sustainability-linked loan with Heartland Co-op. The loan lowers interest rates as farmers adopt cover crops and saturated buffers: financing that has already helped fund 160,000 acres of cover crops and roughly 90 saturated buffers that keep nutrient-rich water out of the water supply.

Elsewhere in Iowa, the foundation is working with the American Flood Coalition to help farmers like Loran Steinlage of FLOLO Farms adopt relay cropping, overlapping crops to keep roots in the ground year-round. The practice cuts erosion, boosts water retention and is estimated to add $51 per acre in farm profit, with the potential to cut downstream flooding by as much as 30%.

Rebuilding Fisheries in Coastal Mexico

On Mexico's Baja Peninsula, NGOs, Niparajá and Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI), have helped fishing communities establish networks of community-run fish refuges, marine zones temporarily closed to fishing to let depleted species recover. Now in continuous operation for 15 years, the refuges have helped rebuild fish populations while training local fishers as scientific monitors. The model has proven durable enough that the Mexican government plans to more than triple the number of fish refuge zones in 2026.

Learn more at: waltonfamilyfoundation.org/human-nature

About the Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X.

SOURCE Walton Family Foundation

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Two Vice Presidents Join Castillo Engineering to Scale Utility Solar & Storage Offerings

Aaron Carrillo and Devin Radovich bring shared experience in scaling engineering teams, lowering project costs & lead times

MAITLAND, Fla., Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Castillo Engineering, a leading national solar and energy storage engineering firm, announces the appointment of two executives to lead its next phase of growth: Aaron Carrillo as Vice President of Operations, and Devin Radovich as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. The two previously worked together at Renewable Energy Systems Americas (RES), a partnership that will accelerate Castillo's scaling of its utility-scale engineering capacity.

After spending six years in the Arizona Army National Guard and obtaining his Engineering degree from ASU, Aaron Carrillo built over a decade of experience in scaling engineering organizations at Tesla and EVS. At Tesla, he scaled his own PV and BESS team from 25 to 70 designers, and as part of the leadership team, grew the 100-designer residential team to 300.

As a leader in EVS' PV and BESS services, Carrillo helped grow the engineering team from 20 to 60 employees, increasing the firm's utility-scale project throughput from 3-5 projects per year to 20-30 per year. Carrillo built that growth, while maintaining EVS' standing as a Top 20 Renewables Engineering Firm, by developing standardized processes and quality systems designed to hold up as headcount and project volume increase.

"I've spent my career scaling engineering teams by building systems that let them grow without losing what made them good in the first place," says Carrillo. "The Castillo team already has that instinct, with strong technical work, long-lasting client relationships, and a culture that's centered around passion, process, and people. Together with Devin, I'm excited to help this team grow into one of the country's top solar engineering firms."

Carrillo's arrival pairs operational scaling with Devin Radovich's 30 years of experience in construction and energy, including nearly 15 years in renewables. Radovich brings a deep understanding of the utility-scale project lifecycle, having developed and delivered nearly 3 GW of solar, wind, battery storage, and transmission projects. As Vice President of Sales & Marketing, he is focused on strengthening relationships with EPCs, developers, and owners while supporting Castillo's continued growth.

Carrillo and Radovich often collaborated at RES, with good results; on one utility-scale project, their championing of black steel piles in place of galvanized steel saved more than $7 million and cut lead times in half.

"Having worked together before, I'm thrilled that Aaron and I are bringing our shared approach and complementary skillsets to Castillo," says Devin. "He builds the operational systems that let an engineering team grow without losing quality, while I tell that story to the market. I'm looking forward to building lasting partnerships through trust, communication, and a shared commitment to success."

About Castillo Engineering

Castillo Engineering is a leading utility-scale design and engineering firm specializing in full-service solar, energy storage, and high-voltage solutions. The firm's services provide comprehensive support from initial feasibility studies through construction close-out. As Engineer of Record, Castillo Engineering ensures projects are completed on time and within budget, consistently delivering high-quality, innovative solutions to developers, EPC contractors, and utilities nationwide. With over 25 years of experience and more than 10GW of successful projects, the firm navigates national, state, and local codes with precision. Castillo Engineering is based in Maitland, Florida and is licensed in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Learn more at castillope.com.

Castillo Engineering Media Contact

Allison Ruedig

[email protected]

872-870-1302

SOURCE Castillo Engineering

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Two Southern Belize resorts offer travelers the privacy and personalized service of a small retreat, with easy access to jungle, Caribbean Sea and local culture that make the destination distinctive.

HOPKINS, Belize, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Belizean Dreams Resort in Hopkins and Laru Beya Resort on the Placencia Peninsula offer travelers an intimate alternative to larger beachfront resorts, pairing all inclusive convenience with direct access to the communities, culture, inland adventures and marine experiences beyond the beach in Southern Belize.

Both locally owned and managed resorts provide beachfront accommodations, meals, beverages, personalized service, and access to selected transfers and excursions, giving travelers a welcoming home base from which to enjoy the Caribbean Sea while exploring more of Southern Belize. Their local ownership keeps both resorts closely connected to the communities and destinations that surround them.

Travelers can explore the All Inclusive Packages at Belizean Dreams Resort and Laru Beya Resort to begin planning a Southern Belize getaway.

Belize Beyond the Beach

Set within two of Southern Belize's distinctive coastal communities, Belizean Dreams and Laru Beya give guests the opportunity to experience the country beyond the resort while maintaining the ease of an all inclusive stay.

Their smaller scale creates a more personal experience for couples, families, celebrations and groups looking for a more private setting. With a limited number of accommodations, both properties can also accommodate full-property buyouts for travelers seeking to bring their own group together in one beachfront setting.

A typical day can begin with breakfast overlooking the Caribbean Sea, followed by a jungle excursion, Maya site visit, cultural experience or marine adventure. Guests can return in the afternoon for time on the beach, a swim or a slower afternoon before sitting down to a chef-prepared dinner.

"Guests often tell us they come to Belize because they want to experience the country," said Taryn Gongora, Marketing Manager for Belizean Dreams Resort and Laru Beya Resort. "They want to meet people, explore the jungle, get out on the water, try local food and experience the culture. During their stay, they may take part in Garifuna drumming and traditions within the community, or head out for a day of exploring Belize's natural attractions. At the same time, they want privacy and time to relax. Having a smaller resort as their home base gives them the opportunity to experience more of Belize while still having a comfortable place to return to at the end of the day."

Bigger Is Not Always Better

For travelers accustomed to larger properties, a smaller resort can offer a different kind of luxury: space to slow down, a more intimate setting, fewer rooms, and service that feels personal from arrival to departure.

At Laru Beya and Belizean Dreams, the experience extends beyond the resort. Guests have a welcoming home base from which to explore Belize's jungle, marine and cultural adventures, then return to the beach to relax and recharge.

For travelers planning a Christmas and New Year's vacation, both resorts will also host complimentary Festive Holiday Events throughout the holiday season. Guests can contact each resort for event details and availability.

Belizean Dreams Resort at a Glance

Belizean Dreams Resort, situated in Hopkins Village, was named #1 Small & Boutique Hotel in Central America and #8 Small & Boutique Hotel in the World in the 2026 Travelers' Choice Best of the Best awards. Tripadvisor's Best of the Best distinction recognizes properties ranked among the top 1% of hotels worldwide.

Accommodations:Nine villas and seven boutique rooms

Experience: Intimate all inclusive beachfront resort

Packages: Meals, drinks, transfers, and excursions

On-property: Infinity pool, restaurant and bar, Bliss Spa, Wi-Fi and beach loungers

Activities: Kayaks, complimentary bicycles, golf cart rentals, cultural experiences, marine adventures and inland excursions

Location advantage: Approximately one mile from Hopkins Village

Located approximately one mile from the heart of Hopkins Village, Belizean Dreams provides access to both the Caribbean coastline and the inland experiences of Southern Belize. Guests can enjoy the resort's beachfront setting while remaining close enough to explore the village and surrounding region, recognized as the Friendliest Village in Belize by Belize First Magazine.

Throughout their stay, guests can also enjoy a variety of weekly events and services designed to make each visit comfortable, relaxing and memorable.

Laru Beya Resort at a Glance

Located further south on the Placencia Peninsula, Laru Beya Resort is a 2026 Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice Award winner, placing it among the top 10% of hotels worldwide.

The beachfront resort features:

Accommodations: Thirteen suites and six standard rooms

Experience: Intimate all inclusive beachfront resort

Activities: Complimentary kayaks, Hobie Cat sailboats, and bicycles, plus golf cart rentals

Nearby: Placencia Village, local businesses, cultural experiences and outdoor adventures

Laru Beya's location along the Placencia Peninsula places guests close to Placencia Village and the restaurants, shops and local businesses that give the area its character. Placencia Village is also known for its narrow pedestrian walkway, the Placencia Sidewalk, a distinctive feature of the village and a popular stop for visitors exploring the peninsula.

Belizean Dreams Resort and Laru Beya Resort are part of a locally owned and managed family of all inclusive resorts in Belize, alongside Coco Plum Island Resort and Manta Island Resort. Together, the four properties offer distinct mainland beachfront and private-island experiences across Belize's coastal destinations, united by personalized service and warm Belizean hospitality.

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AI-powered shopping app, already used by more than 6 million shoppers in Europe, now available to U.S. consumers, helping them find what they need, compare prices, and get cash back.

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Joko USA, Inc., today announced the U.S. launch of Joko App, an AI-powered shopping assistant that helps consumers compare prices, track spending, and earn cash back, all in one app.

Already used by more than 6 million European consumers (generating more than $50 million in revenue), Joko works across more than 10,000 partner merchants, including Amazon, Nike, Sephora, T-Mobile, DoorDash, Walgreens, Apple and Expedia, with users viewing more than 2 million products per day.

Joko is now available across the U.S. through the App Store and Google Play.

Joko offers the only AI shopping assistant that combines product discovery, price comparison, cash back, automatic coupons and price tracking in one shopping-centric experience.

Joko helps:

- Find the Right Product Faster - With Juno, Joko supports shoppers earlier in their buying journey, helping them figure out what to buy, compare options, find better prices, and move to checkout – without the scavenger hunt.

- Save Time and Money – Without the Work - Joko's savings tools feel effortless. For consumers, there are no spreadsheets, no coupon hunting – just smarter ways to save.

- Shop With Confidence – Thanks to Juno's AI personalization, consumers get useful recommendations and clear savings – without any mystery or "checkout anxiety" - if there's a better product/price, Joko shows it.

- Drive Sales for Merchants – Joko brings in high-intent shoppers in ways that drive real purchases with a 7.8% average click-to-purchase conversion and a 14x ROI on ad spend.

Supporting How America Shops Today

According to McKinsey's ConsumerWise research, 68% of U.S. consumers used at least one AI tool in the past three months. An Adobe study found that 39% of U.S. shoppers have already used generative AI for online shopping, most often for product research, recommendations, or finding deals, yet few of these tools reward the purchase itself. Joko closes that gap.

"For too long, online shopping hasn't lived up to what people actually need," said Xavier Starkloff, cofounder and CEO of Joko. "The broad adoption of AI has shown that the future of shopping must look radically different. With Joko and its Juno feature, we're tapping the power of AI to create a smarter and more efficient shopping experience. Consumers can now get the right product at the best price in the fastest timeframe. "

To build Juno, Joko's teams assembled a catalog of more than 50 million products from over 40,000 merchants, using AI to collect, standardize, and keep that data current at scale. Combining user insights, more than $50 billion in transaction data, and 2 million product views processed every day, Juno provides a foundation few AI shopping tools can match: Joko doesn't just recommend; it knows how people actually shop and spend.

"ChatGPT and Gemini are already moving into AI shopping, but they're general-purpose AI first," said Xavier Starkloff, cofounder and CEO of Joko. "We believe both shoppers and merchants need and want a true leader with a laser focus on the shopping-centric needs and preferences of consumers. With Juno, we are staking our claim on that leadership position and bringing it to the world's largest market."

Learn More:

- Try Joko: Download the app on the App Store and Google Play

- Request an interview with Xavier Starkloff, co-founder and CEO of Joko: available on request through the press contact below.

About Joko

Joko is the shopping app that helps consumers save time and money every time they shop, online or in-store. Founded in 2018 by Xavier Starkloff, Alexandre Hollocou, and Nicolas Salat-Baroux, Joko began with automatic cash back and has grown into a smarter shopping companion with price tracking, automatic coupons, online and in-store cash back. With Juno, its AI shopping assistant feature, Joko helps shoppers discover products, compare options, find better prices, and move from search to purchase with less work. Joko serves more than 6 million users across France and the U.S. and works with more than 10,000 partner merchants.

Media Contact - Kalamari for Joko - Isabella Kun - [email protected]

SOURCE Joko

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