Authorities in Mono County are looking for 16-year-old Maizie Dobson, last seen Monday afternoon in Crowley Lake, and say she may be driving a black 2019 Audi A3 with Colorado plate FXQV18. Anyone who spots her or the car should call 9-1-1 rather than the sheriff's office.
— via Hoodline, Sarah Kim
With 2,309 of 5,587 polls counted, about 76 per cent of Albertans had voted to stay in Canada rather than start the process toward a second, binding separation referendum. Roughly 56 per cent were backing the immigration-limiting questions, in a vote the UCP drove at an estimated cost of $130 million.
— via The Tyee, Leah Hennig
People are pointing AI coding tools at smart TVs, baby monitors and bricked Lululemon mirrors to strip out ads and bloatware or revive dead devices. One user says Claude Code found his parents' TV on wifi, removed 25 Xiaomi packages and wrote a new launcher, while a GitHub project called Reverse Engineer Anything has passed 342,000 stars.
— via 404 Media, Jason Koebler
In states that spent more on gambling ads, people searched more for help with problem gambling, while legalizing sports betting showed no such link. Among 419 tracked users, gambling ads served after at least 24 hours of no observed gambling were followed within a day by gambling activity in 8.3% of cases, though the study is correlational and can't show the ads caused it.
— via Phys.org
Luigi Mangione's lawyers weighed an "extreme emotional disturbance" defense that could have shortened his state sentence, but it would have meant effectively admitting the killing before his federal trial, where no such defense exists. Newly unsealed transcripts show his attorney asking a judge to keep the idea quiet while testing was still under way.
— via Gothamist, Samantha Max
Phoebe Bridgers is making a full arena lock up its phones: every fan at her two Chase Center shows, Oct. 27-28, must seal their device in a Yondr pouch before the music starts. The pouches don't block signal, and designated Phone Use Areas let people check messages, but anyone caught recording in the performance bowl gets escorted out.
— via Hoodline, Nina Singh-Hudson
A Banff Avenue Greek spot with belly dancers and plate smashing placed fourth on Tripadvisor's list of the world's best vegan and vegetarian restaurants. The Balkan Mediterranean Restaurant, open since 1984, also ranked 14th among casual restaurants and was the only Canadian restaurant on either global ranking.
— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Allison Stephen
Barnes & Noble's Best Books of 2026 spans 17 categories, and a Book Riot editor found queer titles in Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy and Young Adult. They include Douglas Stuart's John of John, Marlon James's The Disappearers and Jane Schoenbrun's 600-page horror novel Public Access Afterworld.
— via Book Riot, Danika Ellis
Peter James picked Brighton Rock because it made him a crime writer at 14, when his father gave it to him in 1950s Brighton. His other two choices are a Highsmith con-man novel set in Greece and a Chester Himes detective story set in 1959 Harlem.
— via Book Riot, Guest
The Yankees are bringing Aaron Boone back for a 10th season, and Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman say other candidates would have been better, with the lockout possibly shaping the decision. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio then joins them to talk about the club's "secret sauce," Pat Murphy's managing and a city buzzing over its first World Series trip since 1982.
— via NY Post, Tom Hogan
Bay Area groups paying rent and groceries for families whose breadwinner was detained or deported are running out of money and turning people away. Centro Legal de la Raza says it has a backlog of applications, while ICE arrests in Northern California rose more than 60% between February and July, per a KQED analysis.
— via The Oaklandside, Vanessa G. Sánchez, El Tímpano
Satiar Shah, the Canucks analyst left without a home when Rogers shut down Sportsnet 650 in July, returns Oct. 26 with a YouTube show at his old 4 p.m. weekday slot. Sick Media says its network of over seven million followers has been courting him since the day the station went dark.
— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Rob Williams
A federal magistrate ordered OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan held without bail, calling him a significant flight risk and questioning the Saudi Consulate's offer to back his bond. Prosecutors say he was days from leaving for Saudi Arabia when arrested, and his lawyer says he is weeks from U.S. citizenship.
— via KQED, Steph Rodriguez
Oura's ring can now estimate VO₂ max from GPS-tracked workouts, no lab test or six-minute walk required, and the first estimate arrives after five qualifying activities. A new Cardio Effort score also rates how hard each workout taxes your heart relative to your own baseline, so a short, intense session can count about the same as a longer, easier one.
— via TechCrunch, Aisha Malik
Two advocacy groups are suing for records on "mega master" immigration hearings that can pack upward of 100 cases into one session, though the government's own 2017 standards recommended no more than 25 people per group hearing. Since a July 15 records request, the government has not released a single record, attorneys say.
— via Mission Local, Clara-Sophia Daly
Sienna Spiro, whose debut album Visitor opened at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, is adding a North American leg to her My House Tour that runs from Dallas on August 3 to Mexico City on September 14. Austin gets the Moody Amphitheater on August 5, with presales starting today and general on-sale Friday at 10 am.
— via CultureMap Austin, Brianna Caleri
The Salt Shed's owners have filed a zoning application for an outdoor amphitheater on 10.5 acres next door, a project they put at $60 million to $70 million. They haven't bought the land yet, and the managing partner says filing is only the first step in testing whether the idea is feasible.
— via Block Club Chicago, Ariel Parrella-Aureli
Two people arrested by ICE in Oakland and Emeryville on Oct. 16 ended up in the hospital, and a county legal-aid program says agents used excessive force in both cases. DHS denies it, saying the Emeryville man's injuries predated his arrest, and made no comment on the Oakland one.
— via The Oaklandside, Azucena Rasilla
A plan to allow bigger housing on College, Solano and northern Shattuck avenues is the central issue in Berkeley's District 8 council race. Incumbent Mark Humbert backs a narrowed version, while challengers Michael Wallman and Mari Mendonca want it scrapped and Flock Safety's license plate readers gone.
— via Berkeleyside, Nico Savidge
A paranormal tour operator says Staten Island is "wall-to-wall ghosts," and she names the whole island the most haunted place in the city. She points to centuries as a quarantine colony, a burned-down plague hospital, and a former state school site so grim she won't bring tour groups there.
— via NY Post, Reda Wigle
Berkeley got a Mexican and Thai restaurant in the former Taqueria La Familia, where carne asada fries share a menu with pad see ew. Elsewhere in the East Bay, a Cajun seafood boil spot opened in Richmond and a long-awaited diner soft opened in Rick & Ann's old Berkeley space.
— via The Oaklandside, Momo Chang
Early voting runs through Friday, Oct. 30, and Election Day is Nov. 3, with five Austin City Council seats, a $295 million parks and libraries bond and a contested city audit measure on the local ballot. Polls close at 7 p.m., and anyone in line by then still gets to vote.
— via KUT, Chelsey Zhu, Andy Jechow, Leigh Walden
An 18-year-old from Abbotsford was clocked at 175 km/h in a 90 zone by a police helicopter, in his dad's 2026 Cadillac that had already been impounded for excessive speeding the month before. BC Highway Patrol says he'll likely lose his licence, and the Air 1 footage captured the chase from Highway 1 near Coquitlam to the stop in Surrey.
— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Amir Ali
Inspired Capital closed a $450 million fourth fund, taking assets under management to nearly $1.4 billion while Bay Area firms captured 55% of new U.S. venture commitments last year. Co-founder Alexa von Tobel says 12 companies from the first two funds are now unicorns, though she declined to share cash-on-cash returns.
— via TechCrunch, Connie Loizos
Montserrat Garibay is all but assured of winning Texas House District 49 on Nov. 3: her only opponent, a 22-year-old UT Austin student running as a Green, has raised under 1% of her roughly $525,000, and Republicans fielded no one. Her first priority is writing bills to tighten requirements on private school vouchers.
— via KUT, Gabriel Velasquez Neira
