Fort Fairfield – October 12, 2026 -- Commercial property sellers in Aroostook County, Maine, face longer listing periods because the rural buyer pool is smaller, according to a new HelloNation feature featuring Fort Fairfield real estate expert Stephanie Fields Beaulieu of Fields Realty, LLC.

Newington, N.H. – October 12, 2026 -- SIG SAUER will begin fielding the XM8 carbine to the U.S. Army's Close Combat Force in December, after ramping up production to meet the Army's schedule, the company said as it prepares to exhibit at the AUSA trade show in Washington, D.C., October 12-14.

The company is also doubling the square footage and workforce at its North Carolina facility through a multi-million-dollar expansion covering R&D, engineering, manufacturing and training. The source does not disclose the investment figure or a completion date.

Chicago – – October 12, 2026 -- LEAD TECH (Zhuhai) Electronic Co., Ltd. will run its continuous inkjet (CIJ) printers and an integrated UV laser marking machine on a live conveyor at Pack Expo International 2026, Oct. 18–21 at McCormick Place. The company claims 70,000 coding machines installed across five continents.

Cary, N.C. – October 12, 2026 -- Subeca has raised approximately $3M in a Series A-2 round to expand its smart water metering hardware and software for utilities, adding to the $6M Series A it closed in 2024.

Burnt Island Ventures, described in the release as the most active venture investor in the global water industry, led the round. Cycle H2O, a water technology venture fund, joined as a new investor. SUEZ, which led the 2024 Series A, also participated, along with several additional investors.

Fort Lauderdale – October 12, 2026 -- A Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture team has won the £10,000 2026 GROHE Water Prize for terracotta facade tiles that capture fog up to 400% more efficiently than standard flat surfaces.

The award, presented by GROHE for the World Architecture Festival (WAF), went to the project "Bio-inspired Architectural Terracotta for Sustainable Water Harvesting." The team is led by Associate Professor and Lead Researcher Laura Garófalo. WAF is scheduled for November 18-20 in Fort Lauderdale.

Cleveland – October 12, 2026 -- Encore Funding, a family-owned funding partner for staffing entrepreneurs, has launched a refreshed brand and website as U.S. staffing industry revenue grew 3.3% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, according to the American Staffing Association.

The association also reported gains in staffing employment. Growth, however, sharpens a cash-flow squeeze for agencies: employees are paid weekly or biweekly, while customers may take 30, 60 or 90 days to settle invoices.

Atlanta – October 12, 2026 -- Scientific Games has won a 2026 Communitas Award for Excellence in Corporate Responsibility. The award, in the Ethical and Environmental Responsibility: Green Initiatives category, recognizes a project that recycles wooden shipping pallets in Germany with the v. Bodelschwingh Foundations Bethel, one of the country's largest social service organizations.

Rochester, N.Y. – October 12, 2026 -- Vuzix Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI) has demonstrated 19,200 parallel optical pathways across an approximately 30 mm optical path on its Vuzix Causeway waveguide evaluation platform, and is now offering evaluation units to qualified partners exploring optical interconnects for AI data centers.

Washington – October 12, 2026 -- Performance Drone Works (PDW) and Revenant Technologies have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to identify, evaluate and speed the U.S. production of selected battle-proven Ukrainian defense technologies, with manufacturing anchored at PDW's 90,000-square-foot Drone Factory 01 in Huntsville, Alabama.

Cary, N.C. – October 12, 2026 -- Chartis Research has named SAS a Category Leader for Operational Risk Analytics, rating the vendor best-in-class or leading in seven capability areas of its integrated governance, resilience and compliance (iGRC) assessment for financial services.