Western National Parks announces tour that brings Diné weaving, artistry, storytelling and the living traditions of the historic trading post to communities across the West

TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The traditions of Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, operated and supported by nonprofit partner Western National Parks (WNP), are once again hitting the road. The 2026-27 Hubbell Trading Post tour will bring an immersive cultural experience to national park sites, public lands and community destinations across the West, connecting visitors with Diné (Navajo) artistry, knowledge and traditions passed down through generations.

The Hubbell Trading Post tour has been connecting communities with the trading post's living traditions for many years, with the program gaining significant momentum and reaching new audiences in recent seasons. The returning tour brings the history and heritage of Hubbell Trading Post, the oldest continuously operating trading post in the American Southwest, beyond its home in Ganado, Arizona. At each stop, visitors can explore an extensive collection of authentic Navajo weavings, handcrafted sterling silver jewelry featuring turquoise and other fine gemstones, and other works created by Indigenous artisans.

More than a shopping experience, each event creates opportunities to learn about the people, traditions and artistry behind the work. Hubbell Trading Post Diné Trader Wallace James Jr will give talks at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. each day, sharing knowledge and stories drawn from his experience as a trader and his deep connection to the community. No two talks are exactly alike, giving visitors a chance to hear different stories and perspectives throughout the tour.

For James, sharing these traditions is deeply personal. A Diné trader who grew up in the community, he comes from generations of weavers and artists and a family whose ties to Hubbell Trading Post extend across generations. James spent much of his childhood at Hubbell, watching his mother weave and learning about wool, dyes, designs and the stories behind the art.

"Hubbell's has always been part of my family's story," said James. "I grew up here watching my mother weave and learning from the people around me. When we take Hubbell's on the road, we share some of that knowledge and help people understand the time, skill and tradition behind each weaving. I want people to leave knowing more than they did when they arrived and feeling a connection to the artists and the stories behind their work."

Diné weaver Tonita Yazzie will demonstrate traditional weaving throughout each event, offering an up-close look at the skill, patience and knowledge involved in an artistic tradition carried forward across generations.

Together, the talks, demonstrations and works available for purchase invite visitors to look more closely and better understand the living artistic traditions they represent. Visitors can ask questions, observe weaving in progress, hear directly from people connected to Hubbell Trading Post, and purchase work by Indigenous artisans.

"These gatherings create opportunities for genuine connection," said Marie Buck, President and CEO of WNP. "Visitors aren't simply seeing beautiful works of art. They can learn about the knowledge, skill and traditions behind them from people who are carrying those traditions forward today. It is an experience that brings people together while supporting Indigenous artists and the places where these stories are shared."

Purchases during the tour support Indigenous artists while also supporting Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site and the 72 other national park sites that partner with WNP, a nonprofit education and philanthropic partner of the National Park Service. WNP operates the trading post at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, continuing a trading tradition that dates to 1878.

2026-27 Hubbell Trading Post Tour

The tour returns to destinations across the West this season, with stops at national park sites and other cultural and community venues. All events on public lands occur during Visitor Center hours:

Bandelier National Monument

October 10-11, 2026

The National Parks Store

January 16-17, 2027

Sabino Canyon Recreation Area

February 13-14, 2027

Tucson Festival of Books

March 13-14, 2027

White Sands National Park

April 17-18, 2027

Petroglyph National Monument

June 12-13, 2027

Additional tour stops may be announced throughout the season.

Wallace James Jr will speak at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. each day, with weaving demonstrations by Tonita Yazzie taking place throughout the events. Program details may vary by location.

About Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site

Established in 1878, Hubbell Trading Post is the oldest continuously operating trading post in the American Southwest. Located in Ganado, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, the site preserves the trading post, Hubbell family home, historic farm and other features associated with generations of trading and cultural exchange. Today, the trading post remains active, connecting visitors with authentic works by Navajo and other Indigenous artists while continuing relationships among traders, artists and the surrounding community.

About Western National Parks

Western National Parks (WNP) is a nonprofit education and philanthropic partner of the National Park Service, supporting more than 70 national park sites across the West. Since 1938, WNP has worked to connect people with parks through education, interpretation, research, philanthropy and visitor experiences. Purchases from WNP park stores and online help support national parks and the people, stories and landscapes they preserve. Learn more at wnp.org.

SOURCE Western National Parks

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MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Protiviti Golf Brand Ambassador and professional golfer Matt Fitzpatrick continued his strong performance with a victory at the FedEx Open de France at Le Golf National. Fitzpatrick completed rounds of 65-64-65-70 (-20). This marks Matt Fitzpatrick's fourth win of the season, the 15th professional win of his career, and 11th on the DP World Tour.

To commemorate Fitzpatrick's win, Protiviti donated 25,000 meals through its Birdies for Meals campaign, bringing the program's total to 1,010,000 meals donated since its launch in 2021. Fitzpatrick has earned 162,000 meals this season alone, helping the program surpass the one-million-meal milestone and provide meaningful support to people in need.

"We are incredibly proud of Matt. Winning the FedEx Open de France is a testament to the talent, preparation and resilience that define elite performance. As Matt's official performance data partner, we're proud to combine his world-class talent with data, human expertise, AI and technology to help him prepare and perform at his best," said Joseph Tarantino, Protiviti's president and CEO. "This win also marks an incredible milestone off the course: with 25,000 additional meals from Matt's victory, Birdies for Meals will reach 1 million meals delivered. We're proud to celebrate this achievement and the impact we've created together."

As Matt Fitzpatrick's Official Performance Data Partner, Protiviti collaborates closely with Matt and his coaching team to enhance performance through advanced analytics and technology. By leveraging Microsoft technologies, Protiviti has developed a custom analytics platform, tailored dashboards, and a mobile application that streamline data collection and deliver real-time, shot-level insights. These tools enable more informed, data-driven decision-making across practice and competition, helping identify trends, refine preparation, and improve consistency. Learn more at www.protiviti.com/golf-data.

"Seeing Matt achieve this level of success has been incredibly rewarding for our team. We've built a tailored performance solution that combines artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and emerging technologies to help Matt, his caddie and coaches prepare strategically for every tournament. It's the same philosophy we bring to our clients every day—using data-driven insights to solve complex challenges, improve performance and create lasting competitive advantage," said Nick Ciafardini, Associate Director, Innovation for Protiviti.

"This has been one of the most rewarding seasons of my career. Every tournament presents a new challenge, and my team and I are always looking for ways to prepare better. Having access to the insights Protiviti provides has become an important part of that process — another tool that helps us make informed decisions and gives us confidence going into each week. To have this win also help Birdies for Meals reach 1 million meals delivered makes it even more special. I'm proud to be part of something that turns moments on the golf course into meaningful impact off it," said Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick built a five-stroke lead heading into the final round and held off a late challenge to secure a three-stroke victory. After a grinding start, he showed impressive patience and scrambling, making 12 consecutive pars before birdieing the 13th to regain his cushion. He then played some of his best golf of the week down the stretch, closing with a 1-under 70 and finishing at 20-under.

Other notable Fitzpatrick wins include the 2015 British Masters, 2016 Nordea Masters, the 2016, 2020, and 2025 DP World Tour Championships. On the PGA Tour, Fitzpatrick also won the 2022 U.S. Open, RBC Heritage (2023 & 2026) and the 2026 Valspar Championship. He has been a Protiviti brand ambassador since 2020.

For more information about Protiviti's golf brand ambassador program, please visit www.protiviti.com/golf.

About Protiviti 

Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that helps clients transform and protect their businesses, and respond to planned and unexpected events. Through a network of more than 90 offices in over 25 countries, Protiviti and its independent and locally owned member firms deliver deep expertise and tailored capabilities across technology, artificial intelligence, data, operations, finance, legal, compliance, HR, marketing, digital, risk, and internal audit – enabling organizations to accelerate innovation, navigate risks and safeguard what matters most.

Named to the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list since 2015, Protiviti Inc. has served more than 80 percent of Fortune 100 and nearly 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies. The firm also works with government agencies and smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public. Protiviti Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI).

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- Abundant capital and increased defense company valuations mask real gaps that risk disruptors from succeeding and incumbents from replenishing depleted stockpiles

- Large public defense companies trade at valuation multiples similar to utility companies in a signal that investors still worry about capped returns and limited upside

- Defense venture capital has grown tenfold since 2019, but for every dollar the government has committed to new-entrant companies developing next-generation technology, private investors have put in seven — a gap that risks stalling promising technology before it can be deployed

- Private equity, a critical exit path for venture-backed defense start-ups, has largely stayed on the sidelines, putting further early-state investment growth at risk

BOSTON and ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The US has no shortage of capital for defense but confronts systemic risks to replenishing stockpiles and adopting disruptive technology because of a shortage of investable opportunities, Bain & Company and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) conclude in a major new analysis released today.

While private investor interest in defense has surged in recent years, the Bain/AIA study, The State of Investment in Defense: Unlocking Growth, finds that market conditions are inhibiting capital from flowing to critical bottlenecks in the industrial base. (See also: Full Report in PDF; Executive Summary.)

The Bain/AIA report identifies persistent barriers that constrain investment in US defense R&D, production capacity, critical inputs, component manufacturing from mid-tier suppliers, and emerging technologies, in findings that draw on 50 stakeholder interviews conducted between April and August 2026 with prime integrators, new defense market entrants, suppliers, investors, and industry thought leaders.

"Existing investment and business models aren't sufficient in this new environment," said Michael Sion, partner in Bain & Company's Aerospace and Defense practice. "Private defense investment growth of all kinds is required to address capacity and innovation constraints that are risks to national security. There is ample capital and pent-up investor interest, but needed funding will flow only when conditions make business cases easier to close."

Capital is flowing in aggregate — but investors still see capped upside

The Bain/AIA report finds that private capital is not scarce for the defense sector as a whole. Market capitalization of publicly traded US aerospace and defense companies reached around $1.6 trillion in 2025, nearly double its 2019 level, and defense-related venture capital has grown tenfold since 2019, from roughly $1 billion to around $10 billion.

Yet the characteristics of that capital tell a more cautious story. Large, publicly traded defense prime contractors now carry valuation multiples similar to those of utility companies – evidence that the report concludes shows investors continue to price the sector for low risk and stable, capped returns rather than growth. This profile makes it harder for investors to accept the upfront capital investment risk that will expand production capacity for munitions and other high-demand systems.

"This report demonstrates that America has the capital, technology, and industrial expertise required to meet the moment and deliver the capabilities that the warfighter needs," said Eric Fanning, President and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association. "However, continuing to build capacity in the defense industrial base requires long-term, stable public and private investment. What we need now is a more predictable environment that rewards performance, reduces unnecessary friction, and enables investment to flow to the areas most critical to national security."

"Investor interest in defense has clearly grown," added Michael Sion. "But interest has to bridge the gap between risk and return for investments in critical inputs, technology transition, and new production capacity. Closing that gap is what turns today's momentum into real capability."

The difficulties imposed by the dynamics of the defense investment market are compounded by a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, with nominal defense budget growth of roughly 3% to 5% a year alongside inflation of 3% to 4% and interest rates above 4% layered on profit margins that are already among the lowest of any large US capital-goods industry. The market available to sustain new private investment is far less certain than aggregate figures suggest, Bain and AIA caution.

Private equity has meanwhile stayed largely on the sidelines of defense-focused businesses, preferring businesses that serve both commercial and defense markets. Defense-focused PE buyout volume has held at roughly $1 billion to $3 billion a year, representing a small fraction of the sector's public-market value. The Bain/AIA analysis notes that well-established, traditional PE investor preference for predictable cash flows has historically been a poor match for the risk and return profile of the defense space. Yet PE is also a critical exit path for venture-backed companies, and without it, their paths to liquidity become more uncertain, the report concludes.

The report also identifies market constraints further upstream. The US remains fully reliant on imports for 16 critical minerals while most refining capacity sits outside the country, and sub-tier manufacturers of essential castings, forgings, semiconductors, and precision components report some of the most acute capital shortages in the industrial base, the analysis notes.

A venture capital boom is outrunning the industrial base it's meant to build

The clearest sign of a mismatched investment market for defense is in venture capital. VC investment in defense has grown roughly tenfold since 2019 as investors are drawn to software, AI, autonomy, and a handful of breakout successes. But the analysis notes that this capital is currently concentrated at the earliest stage of company formation, while the factories, materials, and manufacturing capacity needed to put equipment in the hands of US forces remain constrained by market conditions that venture funding alone cannot fix.

The scale of the mismatch shows up starkly in the numbers: for every dollar the US government has committed to date in production funding for new-entrant companies, private investors have put in seven, the report finds based on analysis by the Silicon Valley Defense Group. The report warns that this gap risks stalling promising technologies before they ever reach frontline forces: not because of technical technology failure but because there is no fit-for-purpose financing model to carry innovative platforms from prototype to scaled production. Conditions that will allow the next generation of disruptors to break through and that will enable capacity growth for current industry leaders are not yet sufficient, the report suggests.

The gap can be closed

The Bain/AIA report proposes addressing the challenges with coordinated action across six priorities, noting that the greatest impact comes when government, industry, and investors move together. Among the priorities, the report calls for direct linkage of risk and reward in contracting, arguing that until defense contracts allow companies to earn returns commensurate with the risk they take, the most important investments will never be proposed.

Closing the gaps in private defense investment depends on a healthy capital environment, predictable demand, and policies that give businesses the confidence to invest for the long term, the report concludes. It finds that this will take movement from every side of the defense space at once: government sharpening of demand signals, industry investing against those signals, and investors extending longer-horizon capital to companies with a credible path to expanded production. "The defense investment gap will not close through enthusiasm alone," the report states. "It will close when business case conditions make private investment rational — and that is a solvable problem."

Media contacts

Bain & Company:

Dan Pinkney (Boston) — [email protected]

Mike Simon (New York) — [email protected]

Gary Duncan (London) — [email protected]  

Aerospace Industries Association:

Marta Hernandez — [email protected]

Emily Hayes — [email protected]  Tel: 319 429 1533

About the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA)

Founded in 1919 and based in Arlington, Virginia, AIA is the premier trade association representing the nation's major aerospace and defense manufacturers, with more than 340 member companies advocating for policies that strengthen the country and spur innovation. AIA is led by Eric Fanning, President and CEO.

About Bain & Company

Bain & Company works with leaders worldwide to solve their toughest challenges and deliver enduring results. Since 1973, we've partnered with clients, including private equity and portfolio companies, to build the capabilities they need to stay ahead of change and help them redefine their industries. We measure our success by our clients' success, and we proudly hold the highest levels of client advocacy in our field.

Bain is consistently recognized globally as one of the best places to work. We operate as one global team, uniting strategists, industry and functional experts, technologists, and advisors with a vibrant ecosystem of technology partners.

Notes to Editors

Bain & Company was founded in 1973 and today has 19,000 employees across 67 cities in 40 countries. We have worked with more than two-thirds of the Global 500 and more than 9,000 companies worldwide. Bain has pledged to deliver $2 billion in pro bono consulting to nonprofit, public-sector and charitable organizations by 2035.

The Inner Circle acknowledges Patryk Kania, as a Inner Circle Lifetime

HOUSTON, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Patryk Kania Recognized for Leadership and Innovation in Healthcare.

Patryk Kania has established a distinguished career in healthcare leadership, earning recognition for his ability to drive growth, lead organizational transformation, and deliver meaningful results across both established enterprises and emerging healthcare ventures. With more than two decades of professional experience, he has built a reputation as a strategic executive committed to advancing innovation and improving outcomes for patients and healthcare organizations alike.

As Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kania provides leadership within the healthcare sector, focusing on orthopaedic services and the development of innovative strategies that support long-term organizational success. His expertise lies in identifying opportunities for growth, building high-performing teams, and implementing business strategies that enhance operational performance while maintaining a strong commitment to patient care.

Mr. Kania earned a master's degree from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. His educational background has provided a strong foundation in leadership, business strategy, and organizational development, supporting his success in navigating the evolving healthcare landscape.

Throughout a career spanning more than 21 years, Mr. Kania has demonstrated a unique ability to lead both established organizations and startup ventures. His strategic mindset and results-oriented approach have enabled him to guide businesses through periods of growth, transformation, and innovation while maintaining a focus on sustainable success.

Widely respected for his leadership capabilities, Mr. Kania specializes in developing strategies that drive organizational performance and create value for stakeholders. His work reflects a deep understanding of the intersection between healthcare delivery, business operations, and emerging technologies that are reshaping the industry.

Outside of his professional responsibilities, Mr. Kania maintains an active interest in golf and values the lessons of discipline, focus, and continuous improvement that the sport provides. He is also affiliated with Surf Lifesaving in Australia, reflecting his commitment to community service and public safety.

Mr. Kania credits much of his success to the support and encouragement of his wife, Holly, whose partnership has been an important source of inspiration throughout his career.

Looking toward the future, he remains focused on harnessing innovation in healthcare therapeutics and technology to improve both patient outcomes and business performance. He believes that the continued integration of advanced technologies, strategic leadership, and patient-centered solutions will play a critical role in shaping the future of healthcare.

Guided by a commitment to excellence, innovation, and continuous growth, Mr. Kania continues to lead with a vision centered on delivering meaningful results while advancing the quality and effectiveness of healthcare services worldwide.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE The Inner Circle

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Transition to Inox Solar Americas digital platforms will maintain continuity for Boviet Solar customers, technical support and warranty inquiries

GREENVILLE, N.C., Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Inox Solar Americas LLC, a U.S.-based solar technology and manufacturing company specializing in the production of advanced PV cells and high-performance PV modules for the U.S. solar market, today announced that the Boviet Solar website, social media platforms, and other external brand touchpoints will begin a gradual transition to the Inox Solar Americas brand as part of the ongoing integration of Boviet Solar's U.S. business and operations into Inox Solar Americas.

Earlier this year, Inox Solar Americas acquired Boviet Solar's U.S. PV module manufacturing and PV cell manufacturing assets in Greenville, North Carolina, as well as its U.S. commercial operations. The acquisition established the foundation for Inox Solar Americas' growing U.S. solar manufacturing and commercial platform.

GRADUAL BRAND TRANSITION

The brand transition will be implemented in phases across website content, social media channels, company and product information, marketing communications, trade shows, industry events, customer-facing materials, and other external brand touchpoints, progressively transitioning from Boviet Solar to the Inox Solar Americas brand.

During the transition period, customers, partners, and other industry stakeholders may continue to see both the Boviet Solar and Inox Solar Americas names across certain websites, social media platforms, product materials, technical documentation, trade shows, industry events, and other communications.

The transition will be managed progressively to maintain continuity and access to important product, technical, and customer information while establishing Inox Solar Americas as the company's U.S. solar manufacturing and commercial brand.

The transition represents another important step in the integration of Boviet Solar's U.S. business into Inox Solar Americas and the continued development and expansion of the company's U.S. solar manufacturing platform.

Additional updates regarding the Boviet Solar brand transition and related platforms, materials, and communications will be provided as the integration progresses.

CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR BOVIET SOLAR CUSTOMERS

Existing Boviet Solar customers and partners requiring customer service, PV module technical support, warranty assistance, product information or other product-related support can continue to submit inquiries through inoxsolar.us/company/contact-us. Inquiries submitted through the website will be directed to Boviet Solar's Global team for review and follow-up.

INOX SOLAR AMERICAS

Inox Solar Americas, founded in 2026 in the United States, is a leading solar technology and manufacturing company specializing in advanced monocrystalline PV cells and high-performance Gamma Series™ monofacial and Vega Series™ bifacial PV modules. Inox Solar Americas' photovoltaic solutions are engineered to meet the needs of residential, commercial, industrial, community solar, and utility-scale applications, delivering exceptional efficiency, reliability, and long-term value.

Inox Solar Americas acquired Boviet Solar's U.S. PV manufacturing assets in Greenville, North Carolina, USA, including 3.0 GW of annual PV module manufacturing capacity and 3.0 GW of planned annual PV cell manufacturing capacity, expected to come online in 2027. Through localized manufacturing, resilient supply chains, operational excellence, and efficient logistics, Inox Solar Americas is helping strengthen the U.S. solar supply chain and meet growing domestic demand.

Inox Solar Americas is part of the broader renewable energy platform of Inox Clean Energy and the INOXGFL Group, headquartered in India. Backed by the group's financial strength, business stability, manufacturing capabilities, technological innovation, and industry expertise, Inox Solar Americas is committed to delivering high-quality, reliable, and sustainable solar solutions to customers across the U.S. solar energy market.

For more information, visit: inoxsolar.us, inoxclean.com and inoxgfl.com.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Songül Atacan

Head of Global Brand and Marketing

Inox Solar Americas | Boviet Solar USA

[email protected] 

SOURCE Inox Solar Americas LLC

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Cincinnati-based MCSP adds specialized services and expands Vortex's Geotechnical capabilities

HOUSTON, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Vortex Companies (Vortex), a leading provider of trenchless water and sewer infrastructure rehabilitation solutions, today announced the acquisition of Municipal & Contractors Sealing Products, LLC (MCSP), a Cincinnati-based trenchless services provider, specializing in the rehabilitation of pipelines, manholes, culverts, tunnels and other critical water and wastewater infrastructure.

"MCSP has earned its reputation by safely and cost-effectively rehabilitating municipal storm water and sanitary sewer systems for more than two decades," said Mike Vellano, Chief Executive Officer of Vortex Companies. "The combination of technical capability, field experience and customer trust is difficult to replicate. Bringing MCSP into Vortex gives us a stronger foundation in the Midwest and more ways to solve complex problems for the customers we serve."

Founded in 2000 by Bob O'Connor, MCSP has spent more than 25 years refining specialized rehabilitation methods for municipalities and utilities across a variety of states within the U.S. Its teams have become highly skilled in geopolymer and cementitious spray lining, protective coatings, chemical grout injection and manhole rehabilitation, with a strong record of performance across a wide range of infrastructure applications.

"What we've built at MCSP comes from years of learning the work—understanding the materials, refining the methods and knowing what it takes to perform in the field," said Drew O'Connor, Chief Executive Officer of MCSP. "Joining Vortex allows us to build on that experience and bring more solutions to the infrastructure challenges our customers are facing."

"The opportunity isn't simply to make the organization larger; it's to make both teams better," said Ram Vela, Chief Strategy Officer of Vortex Companies. "MCSP brings experience and operating knowledge that can strengthen Vortex, just as our broader platform can help MCSP scale. The value comes from putting those strengths to work across the business."

About Vortex Companies

Vortex Companies is a global leader in trenchless water and sewer infrastructure solutions, delivering advanced technologies and turnkey services for the rehabilitation, replacement and protection of critical infrastructure. Vortex specializes in pipe, manhole and structure rehabilitation and manufactures CIPP liners, geopolymer and hybrid mortars, polymeric coatings, resins and grouts. Its technology portfolio also includes UV curing systems, sewer robotics and high-speed drain cleaning equipment. For more information, visit www.vortexcompanies.com.

About Municipal & Contractors Sealing Products, LLC

Founded in 2000, Municipal & Contractors Sealing Products, LLC (MCSP) is a Cincinnati-based infrastructure rehabilitation contractor serving municipalities and utilities throughout the Midwest and surrounding regions. MCSP specializes in geopolymer and cementitious spray lining, protective coatings, chemical grout injection, and the rehabilitation of pipelines, manholes, culverts, tunnels and other water and wastewater infrastructure.

SOURCE Vortex Companies

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INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) and Inari, the SEEDesign™ company, announced they have reached a confidential settlement agreement to resolve the lawsuit filed by Corteva in September 2023 that was pending in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. As part of the settlement, Inari has agreed to destroy Corteva material it accessed from seed depositories and material developed from the deposits and assign to Corteva the intellectual property related to its edited versions of Corteva events. In addition, Corteva and Inari have agreed to negotiate certain licensing arrangements. Other terms of the settlement are confidential.

Global patent and plant variety protection systems that protect agricultural innovation help promote continued investment, competition and collaboration in the development of improved seed products that benefit farmers. Patent depositories and their procedures on access to biological material serve an important function as part of these systems.

The rulings in this case reinforce applicable rights with respect to seed deposits. Corteva and Inari agree that it is important to abide by applicable patent and other laws and contracts relating to deposited materials.

The case is Corteva Agriscience LLC, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., and Agrigenetics, Inc. v. Inari Agriculture, Inc. and Inari Agriculture NV, C.A. No. 23-1059 (JFM).

About Corteva

Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) is a global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry-leading innovation, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world's most pressing agriculture challenges. Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and a technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to maximizing productivity for farmers, while working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.

About Inari

Inari is the SEEDesign™ company, revolutionizing plant performance with high-impact, high-value solutions for broadacre crops. At its core is the AI-enabled SEEDesign™ Platform, the industry's most sophisticated performance accelerator integrating breakthroughs in genomics, machine learning and gene editing technology to deliver ROI from the lab to the field. Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2016, Inari is based in Cambridge, Mass., with additional sites in West Lafayette, Ind., and Ghent, Belgium. Inari brings together a global team of more than 200 employees dedicated to solving the critical issues of food security and sustainability. To learn more, visit Inari.com.

SOURCE Corteva Agriscience

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AutoTrust AI Releases JEV-27B, an Open Decision Model for Self-Hosted AI Agents

Trained in about 9.2 hours on one NVIDIA B200, JEV-27B adds fast, calibrated System 1 decisions to a frozen Qwen3.8-27B backbone while preserving its System 2 generation path.

SINGAPORE, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoTrust AI today released JEV-27B, an Apache-2.0 open-weights model designed to handle frequent, structured decisions inside AI agent workflows while retaining the underlying model's full generation and reasoning path.

JEV-27B answers yes/no, multiple-choice and 0–5 rating questions in a single forward pass and returns a calibrated probability for every option. It runs on one NVIDIA B200 inside a customer's own infrastructure and serves both fast System 1 decisions and deliberate System 2 generation from a single set of weights.

The model trains a 108.9-million-parameter decision block—about 0.4% of the full model—on top of a frozen Qwen3.8-27B backbone. AutoTrust reports that training took approximately 9.2 B200-hours. With the decision block switched off, all 164 HumanEval completions were byte-identical to those produced by the base model.

"Jev proved there is real demand for models that decide rather than write," said Daniel Tang, AutoTrust AI's chief executive and co-founder. "JEV-27B shows that this capability can run on one GPU inside a customer's own infrastructure, next to a reasoning model. For companies that cannot send every decision to a third-party API, that changes both the cost and the risk."

Evaluation and evidence

AutoTrust AI evaluated JEV-27B across six public text-decision benchmark groups. It reported scores of 88.70% on JevBench, 83.75% on Kev, 73.89% on OpenJev text, 92.91% on Nimble, 77.46% on VitaminC and 87.71% on MASSIVE-en, for an equal-weight six-group mean of 84.07%.

For additional context, AutoTrust AI also ran the hosted TypeSafe Jev 1.13 API on the same benchmark groups and reported a six-group mean of 83.85%, with JEV-27B scoring higher on four groups and lower on two. Because AutoTrust conducted this comparison itself, the figures should be read as internal comparative evidence—not as an independent third-party validation or a claim of across-the-board superiority.

For public baseline context, AutoTrust reproduced the scores published by TokenRhythm for NeoHorse-Jev, Open-Jev, Kev and Laya English. AutoTrust did not rerun those four external baselines. The pinned source table is available at https://huggingface.co/TokenRhythm/NeoHorse-Jev-4B/blob/b50e043e22e0e41e7fc0c244e4daa707b8124930/README.md. These figures are included as published benchmark context rather than as a new same-environment comparison by AutoTrust.

JEV-27B was also evaluated for fidelity to its distillation target. On 25,376 held-out questions labeled with Jev 1.13 probability distributions, JEV-27B reported a mean KL divergence of 0.017, where zero means identical distributions. On decision-models-under-pressure, an independent benchmark scored against human labels, JEV-27B reached 96% of Jev 1.13's accuracy with 16 answer options. In that independent test, JEV-27B approached—but did not exceed—Jev 1.13.

AutoTrust AI measured a median decision latency of 137 milliseconds and sustained throughput of about 130 decisions per second on one B200. The model card also cites third-party measurements of 238 to 301 milliseconds and 23 decisions per second for Jev's hosted API. These are not controlled, like-for-like results: the hosted API measurements include network time, while AutoTrust AI's local measurements do not, and the hardware, serving and concurrency conditions differ.

How it works

AutoTrust AI uses the terms System 1 for fast, typed decisions and System 2 for deliberate generation and reasoning. JEV-27B serves both from one set of weights. It follows JEV-9B as the company's second integrated System 1 and System 2 open model.

The model is built with AutoTrust AI's Blocks of Experts recipe. A strong pretrained model, Alibaba's open-weights Qwen3.8-27B, stays frozen as one expert block. A small, detachable block is trained for a single skill, and a router sends each request either to the fast decision block or to the deliberate generation block.

The decision block holds 108.9 million trained parameters, 0.4% of the model, and took about 9.2 hours to train on one NVIDIA B200. The reasoning path was left untouched. With the decision block switched off, JEV-27B scores 78.0% on the HumanEval coding test, and all 164 of its completions are byte-identical to the base model's.

In a demonstration reel released with the model, a self-hosted JEV-27B served as the decision engine for 10 tasks. It played Doom, making 64 decisions in a target-practice scenario, and steered a simulated drone through a MuJoCo obstacle course. It ran a live Google Flights search from Zurich to London and verified 21 results, navigated Wikipedia to Gödel's incompleteness theorems, flagged four regression risks in a sample change to authorization code and routed a billing-refund ticket to support.

"Every AI agent is really a long chain of small decisions—which button to press, which file to open, which queue a ticket belongs in," said Josh Liu, AutoTrust AI's chairman and co-founder. "Make each one fast, private and cheap, and you change the economics of the whole chain."

AutoTrust AI said JEV-27B inherits Jev 1.13's blind spots, including multi-hop reasoning, arithmetic, dates and adversarial inputs, and that its training data is English-centric. The company says the model is not meant for high-stakes decisions and recommends gating its answers on confidence.

Benchmark context and source notes

Scores are in percent. JEV-27B and the hosted TypeSafe Jev 1.13 API were measured by AutoTrust AI; this is not third-party validation. NeoHorse-Jev, Open-Jev, Kev and Laya English are published baselines reproduced from TokenRhythm and were not rerun by AutoTrust. TokenRhythm source (pinned revision): https://huggingface.co/TokenRhythm/NeoHorse-Jev-4B/blob/b50e043e22e0e41e7fc0c244e4daa707b8124930/README.md. Full AutoTrust methodology and source notes: https://huggingface.co/autotrust/JEV-27B.

Availability

JEV-27B is available under the Apache-2.0 license at huggingface.co/autotrust/JEV-27B. The release includes the weights, decision adapter, training and serving code, vLLM support and full evaluation reports. A demonstration reel is available at https://huggingface.co/spaces/autotrust/JEV-27B-Demo.

AutoTrust AI plans to build the JEV decision block into future models in its Guru family, which powers the ScienceGuru research platform. ScienceGuru is available for Windows and macOS at https://scienceguru.ai/. AutoTrust AI also offers customized sovereign deployments for enterprises.

JEV-27B was trained on SargeDev/jev-distill-corpus-v3, a public, Apache-2.0-licensed corpus of Jev 1.13's outputs. It shares no weights or code with, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by, TypeSafe AI. Jev and TypeSafe are trademarks of their respective owners.

About AutoTrust AI

AutoTrust AI Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-incorporated AI research company building the Guru family of foundation models and ScienceGuru, an AI research platform for scientists and research teams. Its Blocks of Experts architecture combines pretrained expert blocks with small trained adapters to build frontier-capable and sovereign models efficiently. Learn more at autotrust.ai.

SOURCE AutoTrust AI

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NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- After its 2025-2026 program implementation, the Florida Tutoring Advantage program has selected Littera to support its data layer to enhance program implementation and monitoring. With the goal of improving K-5 student outcomes in literacy and mathematics, Florida Tutoring Advantage aims to understand which tutoring programs are working well. Littera was one of twenty-five tutoring service and support providers in the launch year of Florida Tutor Advantage, and the program has chosen Littera to support its data layer for the 2026-2027 school year.

"We appreciate Littera's commitment and investment in the success of program implementation for participating districts. We are grateful for the work of all our partners and Littera's ability to meet the challenge of collecting data across our more than 15 different tutoring providers. Littera has shown their expertise and technical infrastructure to collect and clean data, offering an opportunity to provide timely support for program implementation," said Nico Mora, Data and Reporting Manager, Florida Tutoring Advantage.

Littera's data and visualization platform, Lumen, provides the insight Florida Tutoring Advantage needs to administer a statewide tutoring program. Lumen's data and high-impact tutoring team works with Florida Tutoring Advantage leadership to identify data objectives and implementation strategy, managing the challenging integration across its providers. Lumen's centralized, live data layer systematically collects standardized data and aggregates the data while scrubbing multiple data types and normalizes tutoring data so it can be utilized across data sets. Through Lumen, Florida Tutoring Advantage has the ability to access real-time data to enhance their team's ability to monitor and visualize program execution, engagement, and effectiveness.

"With Lumen, we are applying years of in-the-trenches tutoring experience to solve the data problem that has prevented large-scale programs from regularly gathering consistent data that can drive improved implementation and outcomes," said Littera's founder and CEO Justin Serrano. "We are excited to partner with the program to improve Florida's K-5 student outcomes in literacy and mathematics and to ensure state funds support strong implementation practices, continuous improvement, and positive outcomes for students."

About Littera Education

Littera Education partners with K-12 educational organizations to lead full-service, High-Impact Tutoring and management systems in math, reading, and English language acquisition driving student progress and Academic-ROI. Littera's standards-aligned HIT programs are led by experienced, consistent tutors who connect with students while Littera's technology and knowledgeable team guide integration and data-driven continuous program improvement. Littera's Lumen data and visualization platform collects, cleans, and compares data across providers, schools, and programs. For information, visit www.litteraeducation.com.

About Florida Tutoring Advantage

The Florida Tutoring Advantage, established by House Bill 1361 (2024) and administered by the UF Lastinger Center, provides in-person and virtual tutoring options, automated learning support software, and AI-enhanced learning support for Florida students who need extra help in reading or mathematics. Florida Tutoring Advantage also assists school districts who are developing district-led high-impact tutoring programs. To learn more, visit floridatutoringadvantage.com.

Contact Person:

Susan Kaplan

[email protected]

SOURCE Littera Education

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NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- PSignite, the company behind CPGvision, AI-driven trade and revenue management software for the consumer goods industry, today announced that its platform has earned six Best-in-Class Category Distinctions in the Promotion Optimization Institute's (POI) 2026 Consumer Goods Enterprise Planning and Retail Execution Vendor Panorama.

The distinctions span the full commercial planning cycle, from setting the annual operating plan and headquarter strategy through account execution, deductions resolution, and post-event analysis. Together, they reflect CPGvision's role as a single platform where sales, finance, and supply teams plan and act on the same numbers.

"Trade is one of the biggest lines on a CPG P&L, and our clients need to plan it, fund it, and settle it without leaking margin along the way," said Jon Flaherty, CEO of PSignite. "Being recognized in six categories tells us our investment in CPGvision is showing up where clients feel it most: more efficient plans, faster deduction resolution, and one version of the truth that every function can work from."

PSignite earned Best-in-Class Distinctions in the following six categories for 2026:

- Annual Operating Plan (AOP)

- Headquarter Planning

- Internal Collaboration

- TPMx Analytics, Dashboarding & Reporting

- TPMx Deductions Management

- TPMx for Tier 2 & 3 / International

About PSignite

PSignite is a leading AI solutions provider for the consumer packaged goods industry. With a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning to help companies optimize their trade promotion funds and grow revenue profitably, and agentic AI for user productivity, PSignite offers an innovative platform designed to streamline processes and deliver actionable insights. For more information, visit cpgvision.com.

SOURCE PSignite

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