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Media blitz begins in Louisiana 5th Congressional District race. Shreveport Times Aug. 18, 2026, 8:34 a.m. CT * Nine candidates are competing for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District seat in the Nov. 3 election. * The seat became open after Republican Congresswoman Julia Letlow decided to run for the Senate. * Republican state Sen. Stewart Cathey of Monroe has launched a new digital ad campaign for the race. * The newly drawn 5th District includes most of northeastern and central Louisiana. Republican state Sen. Stewart Cathey of Monroe kicked off what promises to be an all-out media blitz from a packed field of candidates competing for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District seat in the Nov. 3 election. Cathey launched a new digital ad campaign Aug. 18 that highlights his service as a combat veteran and a platform to address kitchen table issues like affordability. Cathey said he will provide 5th District constituents their "seat at the table." "I've been fortunate to serve my country in the army and my community here at home in Louisiana," he said. "I've always believed that leadership means listening, working hard, and standing up for what's right. I'm running for Congress because I believe there's more work to do - protecting our freedoms, making life more affordable and creating more opportunity for Louisiana families." Two other Monroe Republicans - Louisiana higher education board Chair Misti Cordell and state Rep. Michael Echols - launched TV ads during the previous campaign cycle last spring before that election was canceled so the Legislature and Gov. Jeff Landry could draw a new congressional map. This time nine candidates qualified for the 5th District race, which became open after incumbent Republican Congresswoman Julia Letlow gave up the seat to run for Senate. Letlow faces Democrat Jamie Davis in the Nov. 3 Senate election. The new 5th District boundaries encompass most of northeastern and central Louisiana with Monroe, Alexandria and Ruston as the population hubs. Other candidates in the race include: Oscar "Omar" Dantzler, R-Hammond, retired police officer and owner of a bail bond company; State Rep. "Gabe" Firment, R-Monroe, chairman of the House Insurance Committee who has a diverse career in the insurance industry; Austin Magee, R-Franklinton, a dairy farmer; Dan McKay, D-Bunkie, an attorney; State Rep. Pat Moore, D-Monroe, who is retired from State Farm Insurance Co.; and Antonio Wilson, D-Tallulah, a licensed contractor and business owner.

Skan AI raises $63 million to give enterprise AI the context it's missing: how work actually gets done. Aug 12, 2026, 08:00 ET Trusted by a quarter of the Fortune 50, Skan AI delivers sustainable, reliable, and measurable AI outcomes across the most complex, regulated workflows in banking, insurance, and healthcare MENLO PARK, Calif., Aug. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Skan AI, the context graph of work for enterprise AI, today announced $63 million in funding co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, State Farm Ventures(R), and Wipro Ventures. The funding comes alongside the launch of Skan AI's enterprise AI platform including the general availability of Skan AI Blueprint and Skan AI Agents. Together with Skan AI Intelligence, these products provide enterprises with a complete platform for deploying AI grounded in true context from how a business actually runs. "Everyone is obsessed with building a better car. We think the bigger opportunity is building a better navigation system," said Avinash Misra, Co-founder and CEO, Skan AI. Enterprises have adopted agentic AI fast, but few are turning it into scalable value: Gartner finds only eight percent have agents in production, and 95 percent of early implementations will require a complete redesign. Both stats point to the same gap, and it isn't simply that agents lack context. Every company filling agents with documentation and logs is discovering the same thing: the source data was never the whole truth. Skan AI fixes the source data problem at the source: delivering more than $500 million in measured uplift by grounding agents in how work actually gets done. "Enterprise work context is becoming the foundational infrastructure layer for enterprise AI, the same way CRM became the system of record for customer relationships. Skan AI is the only company we have seen that builds that context from direct observation of work itself and carries it all the way through to agents running in production. With a fourth of the Fortune 50 already running on Skan AI, we believe this is one of the defining platform companies of the next decade," said Simon Wu, Partner, Cathay Innovation. The funding follows a breakout year, with Skan AI growing more than 300 percent year over year and average net dollar retention of 150 percent as customers expand across the enterprise. The company recently surpassed 25 billion work signals processed, now works with seven of the ten largest US banks, and partnered with the University of Missouri to establish a new research frontier at the intersection of AI, enterprise systems, and human work. Skan AI, powered by NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA NIM microservices, delivers sustainable, reliable, and measurable AI outcomes through a platform built for the complexity of real enterprise work. Its three products work as a continuous cycle, each one feeding the next: * Skan AI Blueprint: Discovers and prioritizes AI opportunities across every system people use, including the legacy environments and regulated workflows most tools can't reach. * Skan AI Intelligence: Gives leaders everything they need to manage workflows at scale: process benchmarking, workforce management, and identification of technology and automation opportunities. * Skan AI Agents: Executes autonomously against the customer's work context, built from thousands of observed real cases, tested against reality before deployment, continuously updated as the business evolves, with human oversight and full auditability at every step. These products are already in production at some of the world's largest enterprises. At a top U.S. bank, Skan AI observed 11.2 million context switches and multiple variations across 1,500 finance professionals, uncovered $37 million in operational friction. The company turned those observations into context that agents could execute against, reducing cost per transaction by 32 percent, increasing throughput by 41 percent, and delivering $18 million in annualized savings. What began as 11.2 million observations of human work became the context for AI to perform that work. "A financial institution's real differentiation isn't its products - it's the decades of experience and operational know-how that shape how things get done internally. With NVIDIA platform, Skan AI observes thousands of real cases to capture how the enterprise's best performers operate, then turns that into agents that run the work their way, all while running on infrastructure the financial institution owns and controls to be governed and auditable at every step," said Aser Blanco, Global Head of Banking, NVIDIA. "Skan AI has been an important partner helping us better understand how work actually happens across our operations," said Cijo Joseph, Mitie Chief Technology & Digital Officer. "Their technology gives us unprecedented operational visibility that has dramatically accelerated our AI transformation. We're excited to continue working together as we scale what's possible with AI across the business." "The mandate for enterprise leaders right now is to identify where AI can create measurable operational advantage. That question cannot be answered unless the organization has a clear understanding of how work really gets done, said Raman Khanna, Managing Director, Dell Technologies Capital. "Skan AI has built the observation and context layer that provides that understanding, helping enterprises deploy AI more effectively and move from experimentation to measurable impact. We're proud to support them as they continue to define this category." "We invest in durable advantages, and SkanAI is building an important layer of enterprise business technology by helping organizations connect the information and context behind how work gets done," said Kate Strubhar, a State Farm Ventures(R) executive. "That foundation can help businesses improve collaboration, increase productivity and helps maximize the value of technologies used every day." Read more from Avinash Misra, Co-founder and CEO: skan.ai/blog About Skan AI Skan AI is the context graph of work for enterprise AI: a continuously evolving record of how work actually happens across every system, application, and exception. Skan observes billions of real work signals and distills them into the execution logic AI needs: the sequence, the judgment calls, and the reality logs and documents will never show. Skan AI has cleared information security review at leading Fortune 50 banks, insurance carriers, and healthcare organizations, environments where most AI tools can't operate. Trusted by 1/4th of the Fortune 50 and 7 of the top 10 banks, Skan AI delivers average operational savings of 30 to 40 percent and more than $500 million in cumulative customer value to date. SOURCE Skan AI

State Farm and Habitat for Humanity International continue long-standing national partnership. Aug 11, 2026, 08:00 ET ATLANTA, Aug. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - State Farm announced today that it is continuing its national partnership with Habitat for Humanity International. This year, State Farm will grant funding to engage and mobilize youth, support the building of resilient housing in communities across the U.S. and help expand the nonprofit's impact during its 50th anniversary. Through the continued partnership, State Farm will support Habitat's "50 for 50" initiative that reflects a shared commitment to expand the organization's impact during its 50th anniversary this year through funding and employee volunteerism nationwide. State Farm is also continuing their support of Habitat's youth engagement programs, which enable local Habitat affiliates to partner with young leaders on community projects that support local affordable housing efforts. The funding from State Farm this year will also support the global housing nonprofit's disaster resilience program, Habitat Strong, helping local Habitat affiliates build and repair more durable, resilient homes that can better withstand severe weather in disaster-prone areas while focusing on homeowner preparedness training and increased access to proven climate-resilient building methods and materials. "For over three decades, Habitat for Humanity and State Farm have worked toward the shared goal of creating and preserving affordable housing," said Rasheed Merritt, HR&D Executive at State Farm. "We're proud to continue our partnership with Habitat for Humanity during its 50th anniversary, as together we support safe, affordable housing with the aim to help more families find a place to call home - strengthening communities across the country for years to come." Since 1994, State Farm has contributed more than $22 million to support Habitat's vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live, including additional investments in local affiliate support. "Through our longstanding partnership with State Farm, we've been able to help more individuals and families access the strength, stability and opportunity that home makes possible," said Charlita Stephens-Walker, vice president of corporate partnerships and cause marketing at Habitat for Humanity International. "As Habitat for Humanity celebrates its 50th anniversary, we are grateful to continue working alongside State Farm to expand access to safe, affordable housing and create lasting impact in communities. Together, we look forward to opening the door to brighter futures and the possibilities that begin with a place to call home." About Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity is a movement of people in your local area and around the world, working together to build more prosperous and vibrant communities by making sure everyone has a safe, affordable place to call home. Since our founding in 1976 as a Christian organization, together we have helped more than 65 million people globally build their futures on their own terms through access to decent housing. We've done that by working alongside people of all walks of life to build, repair and finance their homes, by innovating new ways of building and financing, and by advocating for policies that make constructing and accessing housing easier for everyone. Together, we build homes, communities and hope. To learn more, visit habitat.org About State Farm For over 100 years, the mission of State Farm has been to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected and realize their dreams. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and its affiliates are the largest providers of auto and home insurance combined in the United States. Its more than 19,200 agent offices and over 62,000 employees serve over 96 million policies and accounts - including auto, fire, life, health, commercial policies and financial services accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is also available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 32 on the 2025 Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com. SOURCE Habitat for Humanity International