Colorado's attorney general race contrasts Republican DA Michael Allen, a 20-year prosecutor, with Democrat Jena Griswold, the secretary of state with limited legal experience who campaigns against Trump's policies. They also split on climate litigation, federal immigration enforcement and lawsuits against the administration.
— via Colorado Sun, Allison Sherry, Colorado Public Radio
A Palo Alto junior quit hockey after repeated concussions, while Bay Area coaches rethink football risks amid CTE research. A BMJ study found CTE in 315 of 338 donated NFL brains, and California football participation fell 4% statewide.
— via Hoodline, Eileen Vargas
Texas shut down its automated STEERS permit portal and suspended 17 data center construction permits after reporting and watchdog findings that approvals continued despite Governor Abbott's September call for a pause. TCEQ says all applications will now get staff review to check for data center links.
— via 404 Media, Matthew Gault
Fuse Theatre Ensemble's Trans Femme, by Portland playwright Mikki Gillette and director Asae Dean, puts a 2011 trans women's support group on stage. The reviewer praises the naturalistic cast, especially Naomi Mcusic, and the group's messy romantic entanglements. It runs at the Back Door Theatre through Oct 25.
— via Portland Mercury, Holly Hazelwood
The Trail Blazers opened their season with a 124-83 rout of the Phoenix Suns, powered by Damian Lillard's return after 18 months out; he scored 25. Fans were energized, though new owner Tom Dundon's stance on Portland and the Moda Center renovation looms over the team.
— via Portland Mercury, Taylor Griggs
Mary Jane Jung went into cardiac arrest during the July 2025 New York bar exam at Hofstra and alleges lasting injuries. Hofstra is seeking dismissal, arguing it owed her no duty, while the state invokes governmental immunity for the exam board.
— via Above the Law, Joe Patrice
Denver drummer Rob Burleson of SPELLS formed the punk supergroup Pressure Set with members of The Bollweevils, Bear Away, Methadones, Sludgeworth and Violets. Their self-titled 10-song debut came out Oct. 3 on Dr Strange Records, and they first play together at The Fest 24.
— via Westword, Dave Herrera
A roundup of Sunset district news: Inle Burmese Cuisine closed and its Irving Street space will become Vincenzo Capuano's first US pizzeria, Loving Hut was shut by health inspectors, and Black Jet Luncheonette and the Great Hauntway are arriving.
— via Mission Local, Junyao Yang
At an Oaklandside debate, District 2 school board candidates Arielle Fleisher and incumbent Jennifer Brouhard clashed over closing schools to address OUSD's budget deficit and over how the previous superintendent's exit was handled. They agreed on sanctuary policies and keeping experienced teachers.
— via The Oaklandside, Esther Kaplan
Immigration attorneys report more frequent and more violent ICE arrests across the Bay Area, including a masked-agent arrest in SoMa. Arrests in major Bay Area cities rose 81% from July 2025 to July 2026, and DHS says officers use minimal necessary force.
— via Berkeleyside, Clara-Sophia Daly and Sarah Hopkins | Mission Local
A Travis County jury found Daniel Perry not guilty of misdemeanor deadly conduct over his driving into a July 2020 Austin march, where he later fatally shot Garrett Foster. Jurors deliberated a little over two hours after a four-day trial.
— via KUT, Andrew Weber
UT Austin will create a University College led by government professor Devin Stauffer to run its new core curriculum, which cuts required credit hours from 42 to 36 and becomes mandatory by 2028. Some faculty and students criticized the lack of transparency, the course cuts and the duplication of a previously dissolved college.
— via KUT, Greta Díaz González Vázquez
San Francisco's Cesar Chavez Street is set to become "Las Campesinas," a name honoring female farmworkers that led the other finalist by what the mayor's office called a significant margin among 668 online comments. The change is still weeks of review away: four supervisors introduced the ordinance Tuesday, and it must pass the full board and then go through Public Works.
— via Mission Local, Oscar Palma
With Oct. 31 landing on a Saturday this year, Montreal's Halloween events will be competing hard for crowds and cover charges. The list runs from a $6.66 queer bar party and a roller-skating dance floor at SAT to a $69 all-night cult-film bash with RuPaul's Drag Race alumni.
— via CultMTL, Dave MacIntyre
The author argues that China's ruling party, with 100 million members and a goal of running the strongest state on earth by 2049, could one day write the definitions and the history books of communism. That, he says, is reason enough to stop treating communism's history as a closed chapter.
— via Literary Hub, Paul Mason
When strangers' skin conductance moved in step during a face-to-face trust game, it did not reliably predict that they would repay each other's trust. The Dutch study of 122 participants found that matching bodily responses are not always linked to greater reciprocity and cooperation, a challenge to earlier work tying synchrony to trust.
— via Phys.org
Black Austin Matters, a podcast about Central Texas' Black community, won a Silver Award in the Talk Show category at the 2026 Signal Awards. The show, hosted by UT Austin professors Richard Reddick and Lisa B. Thompson, launched in January 2022 and is now in its fourth season.
— via KUT, Erin Geisler
Jalen Hurts played 60 minutes in London on Oct. 11 with a calf clot an ultrasound had found the day before, throwing for 220 yards in a 19-17 loss. Eight days later the Eagles said the clot had traveled to his lungs, and he is expected to miss the rest of the season while on blood thinners.
— via WHYY, Associated Press
The Betsy on Ocean Drive has been running live music since 2010, making it Miami Beach's longest-running series, and this season adds a monthly Sofar Sounds residency plus an Overtown jazz legacy series. Thanksgiving weekend brings nightly jazz, including a Grammy-winning pianist hosting University of Miami's emerging players.
— via Miami New Times, Shawn Macomber
A Portland woman is suing PDX Nails and the Oregon Health Authority for $2.5 million, saying an acrylic nail appointment left her with herpes. The suit claims a state investigation four years earlier found the salon wasn't properly sanitizing its tools, and that another customer caught the same strain there in 2023, yet the state renewed its license anyway.
— via Portland Mercury, Courtney Vaughn
Walmart is opening its site to AI shopping agents just as Amazon blocks them from buying. Its new Agent Gateway lets approved agents search inventory and purchase, with per-agent profiles, spending caps and a returns policy that covers agents that misfire.
— via TechCrunch, Sarah Perez
Prosecutors have charged both parents of a 13-year-old who died in a May e-motorcycle crash, accusing them of letting him ride unlicensed after repeated warnings and injuries. The father faces up to six years in state prison on a felony child endangerment count; arraignment is set for Nov. 12.
— via LAist
An AI system called BootLoops produced 36 manuscripts in three months, on topics from ecology and linguistics to health insurance and sunspots. Harvard physicist Matthew Schwartz built the toolkit with Claude, then used it with 19 coauthors to carry math techniques across fields.
— via 3 Quarks Daily, Azra Raza
Bono says a Dan Savage line about AIDS activists burying friends by morning, protesting by afternoon and dancing by night helped inspire U2's new album, Carnaval De Luz. Also this week: Joni Mitchell became a US citizen after 62 years, and Billy Joel says his neurologist compares performing to getting a concussion.
— via The Stranger, Audrey Vann
The Valkyries beat Atlanta in Game 1 of the WNBA finals, then took a crushing home loss in Game 2, and Xingones is hosting a free outdoor watch party for Game 4 on a big LED screen with DJ Eleda. It kicks off at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, one of several Oakland events that weekend, along with a Filipino American History Month festival and a salsa block party.
— via The Oaklandside, Azucena Rasilla
