Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Every two years, Cook County voters are faced with a hefty list of judges on their ballot whom they will choose to either keep for another term or remove from the bench in what’s known as a judicial retention election. Here’s what to know about how judicial retention elections work. What is a retention election? Circuit court judges are elected to six-year terms. When their term ends, they have to run to keep their seat for another six years. Appellate court judges and state Supreme Court justices run for retention every 10 years. Unlike other elected officials, judges seeking retention…

Reading Time: 8 minutes Click here to read highlights from the story Federal funding cuts forced Literacy Green Bay leaders to reduce the number of classes they offer from 15 to eight and to stop offering child care. But the need for services has only increased: The organization has a 300-person waitlist.  To offer students more casual ways to practice English, Literacy Green Bay hosts a monthly informal gathering at a downtown Green Bay coffee shop.  Community members and students speak for an hour in English about their families, their work and more. Halfway through her English language class on…

The fire at the state-owned Polish satellite station broke out on Wednesday night in Wola Krobowska. It remains operational.The deputy prime minister said it transmits internet traffic through Poland to countries including Ukraine, and uses SpaceX systems that provide connectivity via Starlink terminals.Asked about the incident at a news conference with Bulgaria’s leader on Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he disliked “labelling something as sabotage versus an accident without 100% certainty, but it looks bad”.On Wednesday Poland also said a Russian military helicopter briefly violated its airspace, forcing it to scramble fighter jets.Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly…

Gill declined to share details on the content of the diplomatic talks but said “there are strong voices — also there — that believe any proposed ban of this nature would be a very bad idea indeed.” The EU’s imports of U.S. diesel have increased in recent months to make up for imports lost due to the conflict in the Middle East, and the bloc currently imports more than half of its diesel from America. Prices and supply have been further affected by strikes on Russian oil refineries. The United States is now the world’s largest exporter of diesel and has been…

Available for over a yearItaly has long been associated with political instability, with governments on average lasting just over a year. Current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has broken that pattern. Her government has become the longest continuously serving administration in post-war Italian history, surpassing the previous record for a single uninterrupted period in office. Meloni has presented the stability of her own right-wing coalition as one of her government’s major achievements. A general election must take place next year. As that approaches, she faces fresh challenges, including the emergence of new opposition on the right. Meanwhile, the current government’s longevity…

I would argue that Bose helped popularize clip-on open earbuds—the kind of bud that wraps around the outside of your ear like a statement earring. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds launched in 2024 and were a big swing on the form factor, especially for a major brand. Other companies like Shokz had been making bone-conduction and open-ear headphones for years before, but this small, fashionable form factor really took off.Bose is expanding its clip-on open earbud offerings with the new Bose Sport Open Earbuds and Bose Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen), both of which launch October 1. Hence, the original…

​The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned federal agencies on Wednesday that ransomware gangs are now also exploiting a critical JetBrains TeamCity vulnerability patched in July. JetBrains patched the security flaw (tracked as CVE-2026-63077) on July 25 in TeamCity On-Premises versions 2025.11.7 and 2026.1.3, saying it is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability that lets attackers with HTTP(S) access execute arbitrary operating system commands. “An unauthenticated attacker could exploit the vulnerability via the TeamCity agent polling protocol to bypass authentication checks and execute arbitrary operating system commands with the privileges of the TeamCity server process,” it said. “Depending on…

Cosmos Hub restarted after a nearly day-long halt, moving 1.23 million ATOM linked to a governance exploit on Neutron.Validators resumed block production on Sept. 23 after stopping the network a day earlier, with the first block after the restart moving 1,227,121.37 ATOM, worth about $2.2 million, from an attacker-linked address.The intervention followed the movement of funds stolen from Neutron onto Cosmos Hub, extending the fallout from an attack that began on a separate blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem. Cosmos Hub said its network was not exploited and that the halt was intended to secure assets bridged from Neutron before they…

The scientists collaborated with the conservation charity the Mount Elgon Foundation, external. They interviewed local people, including wildlife scouts and community elders. Accounts described elephants selecting particular plants when they seemed unwell, and mothers reportedly giving medicinal plant material to their calves.From this, the researchers concluded that the elephants use 35 different plant species, and that 25 of those are known locally to have medicinal uses. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, external, did not name the interviewees – keeping participants anonymous so they felt free to share their stories.Their accounts reveal some intriguing details. In one testimony,…

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — After a summer spent packing away sockeye salmon, Alaska’s heftiest brown bears are ready to throw their weight around. Online voting began Tuesday for Fat Bear Week, the annual contest that pits the rotund residents of Katmai National Park and Preserve against each other for the title of most oversized ursine. Last year’s winner, Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — is hungry for a repeat. Chunk’s weight in 2025 was estimated at 1,200 pounds, which gave him a narrow victory. This year he’s back and facing corpulent competition like Gully — aka…