News

San Francisco – September 15, 2026 -- The Globee® Awards has opened nominations for the 18th Annual Globee® Awards for Innovation, also known as the Golden Bridge Awards®, seeking organizations and professionals that have applied artificial intelligence to produce measurable business results.

Program targets AI achievements across enterprise functions

The awards accept submissions covering generative AI, AI agents, enterprise AI, machine learning, and intelligent automation, alongside sector-specific applications in healthcare, cybersecurity, financial services, manufacturing, and research. Categories also extend to customer experience, data and analytics, accessibility, employee enablement, decision support, and product and service innovation.

South San Francisco, Calif. – September 15, 2026 -- Apeximmune Therapeutics said a peer-reviewed study published in Nature independently validates PLA2G2D as a novel immune checkpoint capable of overcoming resistance to anti-PD-1 cancer therapies, with the company's lead antibody AI-306 targeting an IND filing in the second quarter of 2027.

Two independent research teams identified the same target through different methods

Apeximmune's computational screen of more than 9,000 primary tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas ranked PLA2G2D as its top novel checkpoint candidate, ahead of PD-1 and CTLA-4 in the same analysis. Working separately and without knowledge of Apeximmune's program, researchers at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam used spatial proteogenomic analysis of melanoma patient samples with divergent outcomes and arrived at PLA2G2D as a top hit in dendritic cell and macrophage populations linked to poorer prognosis.

Irvine, Calif. – September 15, 2026 -- Caylent has secured a spot on Fast Company's eighth annual Best Workplaces for Innovators list, winning in the Emerging Enterprise category for companies with 201-999 employees.

The company joins 100 honorees across entertainment, biotech, consumer packaged goods, marketing, education, and healthcare, alongside names such as Anthropic, Chipotle, and American Express. Fast Company editors scored applicants on innovation investment, internal programs, and culture before a judging panel selected final winners.

Pasadena, Calif. – September 15, 2026 -- The share of U.S. consumers using AI tools for local business recommendations jumped to 45% in the past 12 months, up from 6% in 2025, according to new research cited by digital marketing agency Cybertegic.

Consumer trust in AI recommendations coexists with heavy verification habits

Among the 455 consumers surveyed who reported using AI for local recommendations, 63% said they trust AI-generated suggestions, while 88% said they still check the source or legitimacy of AI-presented information. The data comes from BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, based on a representative SurveyMonkey panel of 1,002 U.S. adults, with AI-specific findings published March 10, 2026.

Chicago – September 15, 2026 -- CME Group has appointed Jack Tobin as its next Chief Financial Officer, effective March 2027, when current President & CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick becomes Chief Executive Officer.

Tobin moves to Deputy CFO in November 2026 ahead of formal handover

Tobin, CME Group's Chief Accounting Officer since 2015, will step into the Deputy Chief Financial Officer role in November 2026 to manage the transition before assuming the CFO title. He will continue reporting to Fitzpatrick and brings more than 35 years of financial experience, including accounting, corporate development and finance oversight at CME Group since joining in 2002. He previously worked as a principal consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and holds bachelor's and master's degrees from DePaul University.

Garland, Texas – September 15, 2026 -- Garrett Metal Detectors confirmed that its Paragon walk-through metal detector has completed testing under the UK National Protective Security Authority's Discriminative Metal Detection Systems Test Method, with results now publicly available on the NPSA website.

NPSA testing shows Paragon can screen non-divested individuals for mass casualty threats

The evaluation demonstrated the system's capability for screening individuals who have not removed items from pockets or bags, targeting weapons capable of causing mass casualties. NPSA stated it has confidence that Garrett followed its test method accurately, while clarifying the process is not pass/fail and does not constitute product endorsement.

Tukwila, Wash. – September 15, 2026 -- Nearly 500 public safety employees across King and Snohomish Counties have voted to affiliate with Teamsters Local 117, shifting representation away from the Public Safety Employees Union (PSEU) Local 519.

Workers approved the switch in an August 31 election

The vote, conducted by the union on Monday, August 31, 2026, resulted in an overwhelming majority favoring affiliation with Local 117. The workers span a range of classifications across numerous worksites in the two counties.

Certification from state labor board expected by year-end

The change in representation must first be certified by the Public Employment Relations Commission. Local 117 anticipates that certification will occur by the end of 2026, at which point the workers will formally become union members and Local 117 will be recognized as their exclusive bargaining representative.

Berlin – September 15, 2026 -- Saxony recorded temperatures as high as 41.5 degrees Celsius this summer, with an estimated 550 heat-related deaths registered in the state by mid-August, according to the Robert Koch Institute. The German Environmental Aid organization (Deutsche Umwelthilfe, DUH) has conducted a heat-vulnerability assessment across Saxon municipalities in response, examining how prepared local governments are for extreme temperature events.

Record heat hit Klitzschen bei Torgau at 40.3 degrees and Bad Muskau at 41.5 degrees

The 2026 summer set new local temperature records in Saxony, with Klitzschen bei Torgau reaching 40.3 degrees Celsius and Bad Muskau reaching 41.5 degrees Celsius. The Robert Koch Institute attributed roughly 550 deaths in the state to heat exposure through mid-August.

Berlin – September 15, 2026 -- Broken business processes are costing companies an average of $1.55 million each as artificial intelligence initiatives collapse under outdated workflows, according to a new report from Camunda.

Process failures drive 72% of AI project setbacks, study finds

The AI Process Gap report, commissioned by Camunda and conducted by Sapio Research, found that 72% of enterprises have seen AI projects fail due to process-related challenges. Another 72% warn of spiraling costs if they fail to overhaul their processes, while 82% believe AI investments will flop without deep process re-design.

The core issue: 79% of companies say bolting AI onto existing workflows meets less internal resistance than redesigning them from scratch. Yet 82% estimate it will take up to five years to make core processes truly AI-ready, and 61% admit their process re-design efforts cannot keep pace with AI adoption speed.

Osnabrück – – September 15, 2026 -- German regional publisher NOZ/mh:n-Gruppe has rolled out an AI-powered election assistant and a series of 17 live-streamed candidate debates to inform voters ahead of Lower Saxony's municipal elections on September 13.

AI bot draws exclusively on newsroom-verified candidate data

The noz-Wahl-Bot, built on the publisher's in-house AI system frag noz, is embedded directly into election coverage on noz.de and the noz News app. It answers voter queries using only NOZ's own editorial reporting and standardized questionnaires completed by the majority of local candidates. An automated LLM-as-a-Judge review process checks each response to prevent hallucinations or fabricated content, according to Senior AI Product Manager David Pinzauti.