NEW YORK – October 31, 2026 -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is offering a $1,500 top prize to college students and $1,000 to high school students in its 2027 Student Paper Competition, with entries due June 11, 2027.

ANSI and its Committee on Education launched the sixteenth annual contest under the theme "Would You Trust It? Exploring How Standards Build Confidence in Products, Services, and Emerging Technologies." Students must examine what makes something trustworthy and how standards contribute.

Miami – October 31, 2026 -- ERMProtect, a Miami-based cybersecurity and digital forensics firm, briefed a delegation from 32 countries on how the United States combats cybercrime, in a session run under the U.S. State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program on Oct. 29, 2026.

Global Ties Miami nominated the firm, and the State Department selected it for the session.

Elton, Louisiana – October 31, 2026 -- Hunt Tech, LLC will put its HUNT Refined Repellent line into Academy Sports + Outdoors stores in Q1 2027. It is the company's first major retail chain placement, following a distribution build-out through roughly 650 independent retailers.

LOS ANGELES – October 31, 2026 -- Hozpitality.com has launched Hozpitality Stories, a content feature that stays visible for 48 hours, twice the typical 24-hour window on conventional social platforms. It is available to the platform's more than 1.3 million registered hospitality members.

Stories reach followers worldwide and non-followers within the same country

Members' Stories are visible to their followers worldwide, regardless of location. Other Hozpitality members in the same country can also discover a Story without following its author.

WINSTON-SALEM – October 31, 2026 -- Modoral Brands Inc., an operating company of Reynolds American Inc., received U.S. FDA Marketing Granted Orders for eight VELO nicotine pouch products, clearing a select set of SKUs for the U.S. market.

FDA authorizes eight VELO flavor and strength variants at 4 mg

The orders cover two product lines, each at 400 mg pouch size and 4 mg nicotine strength. VELO Mini Pouch is authorized in Crema, Lime, Orange Crema and Passion Fruit. VELO Mini Pouch 2 is authorized in Crema, Lime, Orange Crema and Cinnamon.

WASHINGTON – October 31, 2026 -- The Alliance for Chemical Distribution (ACD) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) raised $100,000 at the third annual Swings for STEM golf tournament, bringing their three-year fundraising total to nearly $300,000.

Proceeds fund two STEM education programs

The money supports the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative (FOSSI) and Creating Exciting Futures in STEM (CEFinSTEM). Both programs work to expand access to STEM education. The tournament drew participants from industry, government and academia.

BOHEMIA, N.Y. – October 31, 2026 -- Datascan, a pharmacy software vendor serving independent community pharmacies in the United States and the Bahamas, said it will stay independently owned and will not be sold to a private-equity group, corporate consolidator or industry roll-up.

Kingman – October 31, 2026 -- Assuming a company sale will fund retirement is the first and most critical planning mistake Arizona business owners make, according to Kingman financial expert Scott Preston, featured in a HelloNation article titled "Top 7 Retirement Planning Mistakes Business Owners Make in Arizona."

ATLANTA – October 31, 2026 -- Heritage Werks Group (HWG) has made NetX AuthorityAI commercially available, an "Authority Layer" for enterprise AI that grounds answers in an organization's proprietary knowledge and claims up to 4X greater inference energy efficiency.

Austin – October 31, 2026 -- Sabey Data Centers is piloting hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as the primary fuel in backup generators at its Sabey Data Center Austin (SDC Austin) campus, targeting one of the hardest-to-reduce sources of Scope 1 emissions in data center operations.