Remote Surveillance Trailer in Albany, OR

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — New York has removed the Regents exams as a graduation requirement starting in the 2027-2028 school year, meaning that students will be able to fulfill competency requirements in nontraditional ways.

Albany City School District Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter said in an interview with NEWS10’s Bianca Caputo that he’s seen the exams fail students who are stronger outside the classroom. Students right now have to pass five exams to graduate, but now school districts will work with their community to decide what meets the benchmark for graduation.

“While those exams were a good measure of what students know, those exams are not a good measure of what students can do,” said Hochreiter.

When the change goes through there will no longer be a three diploma system, instead districts will have a single kind of diploma that will be issued according to local standards.

Rensselaer City School District Director for Curriculum and Instruction Christy Radez commented on the current process for students and it’s challenges, saying some students need to take exams 3-4 times and were unable to receive a diploma purely because of the exam.

Radez said the change could level the playing field for students of all backgrounds, and students will still be able to demonstrate knowledge through the traditional exams. She said she’s heard from students who are excited about the change, but some are still nervous about what new guidelines will look like.

The Board of Regents will vote on whether to permenently adopt the changes in June, making new rules officially effective by July. Schools will also need to outline and share their initial plans with the public during the next school year.

Hochreiter said parents can expect focus groups and round tables that will shape their students education by the end of this school year.

ALBANY, N.Y., Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstLight Fiber, a leading provider of high-capacity fiber optic network solutions across the Northeast, today announced a new agreement to deliver high-capacity, diverse connectivity to a major hyperscaler along one of the most strategically important corridors in the Northeast. The agreement provides a high-fiber-count route spanning 240 route miles between the Albany, New York and Boston, Massachusetts metro areas, supporting the customer's mission-critical data transport needs across the region.

The route gives the customer the scale, diversity, and reliability required to support demanding, latency-sensitive workloads between two of the Northeast's key metro markets. Albany serves as a primary regeneration and colocation point along the route, reinforcing the city's role as a key interconnection hub and giving the customer additional flexibility as its infrastructure needs continue to grow.

" This agreement reflects the growing demand we're seeing from hyperscale organizations for high-capacity, diverse, low-latency connectivity between major Northeast markets. We're proud to be the provider hyperscalers trust to deliver mission-critical capacity at this scale."

— Lorenzo Leuzzi, Chief Revenue Officer, FirstLight Fiber

The agreement builds on FirstLight's established route between Albany and Boston, a key corridor in the company's network strategy, and reflects the broader momentum FirstLight is seeing from hyperscale organizations seeking high-capacity, diverse connectivity across the Northeast.

FirstLight's Northeast network spans 20,000 route miles across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, providing carrier-grade transport, dark fiber, unified communications, security and colocation services to hyperscalers, enterprises, carriers, and public sector customers throughout the region.

About FirstLight

FirstLight is a regional digital infrastructure provider that owns and operates a high-performance fiber network across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Headquartered in Albany, New York, the company delivers business-grade connectivity, data center, cloud, security, and unified communications services for organizations with mission-critical IT needs.

FirstLight's owned fiber network spans more than 20,000 route miles and reaches over 125,000 serviceable locations, enabling low-latency, reliable connectivity for enterprise and carrier customers. By controlling its network infrastructure, FirstLight is able to deliver consistent performance, faster issue resolution, and tightly integrated services across fiber connectivity, SD-WAN, SASE, cloud, data center, and unified communication solutions.

FirstLight serves a broad range of customers, including national wireless and wireline carriers, healthcare systems, financial institutions, manufacturers, research organizations, educational institutions, and local and state governments throughout the region.

For more information about FirstLight, visit www.firstlight.net or follow the company on X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

CONTACT: John Romagnolijromagnoli@firstlight.net

SOURCE FirstLight

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ITACONIX REPORTS RECORD FIRST-HALF REVENUE

Itaconix plc (AIM: ITX) (OTCQB: ITXXF) reported record first-half revenue of $8.3 million for the six months ended June 30, a 72% increase from the same period in 2025 and a 46% gain over the second half of last year.

The specialty polymer company said growth was driven across all major product segments, with gross profit margin expected to remain in line with full-year 2025 at 36%.

Performance Ingredients, which primarily serves the dish detergent market, posted strong growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and North America. The company attributed the increase to higher reorder volumes from existing customers and new unit-dose detergent customers in both regions.

Revenue also increased for SPARX Formulated Solutions as demand grew for its formulations used in solid unit-dose dish and laundry detergents in North America.

Itaconix said it continues to develop longer-term growth opportunities through its BIO*Asterix specialty monomers and binders for paints and its BioVail plant nutrition ingredient for crop production.

Based on its first-half performance, the company raised its full-year outlook and now expects 2026 revenue to be at least $14.8 million, ahead of current market expectations. The board also reaffirmed its expectation of delivering a small positive EBITDA for the year while continuing to invest in staffing and product development.

The company plans to release its full interim results around September 8.

ALBANY ENGINEERED COMPOSITES, A&P TECHNOLOGY PARTNER ON AEROSPACE COMPOSITES

Albany Engineered Composites, a business segment of Albany International Corp. (NYSE: AIN), and A&P Technology have formed a partnership to develop advanced braided composite manufacturing technologies for current and next-generation aerospace and defense applications.

The collaboration combines A&P Technology’s braided composite reinforcement expertise with Albany Engineered Composites’ resin transfer molding (RTM) manufacturing capabilities to accelerate production of lightweight composite structures for commercial and defense aircraft.

The companies said they will collaborate on research, technology development, manufacturing processes and commercialization for applications including aircraft engines, commercial aircraft, advanced air mobility vehicles, collaborative combat aircraft and solid rocket motor nozzles.

The partnership is intended to address growing demand for larger, more integrated composite structures that can reduce assembly complexity while supporting higher production rates.

Company officials said combining braided composite preforms with automated RTM processing could improve manufacturing efficiency, lower production costs and enable scalable production for future aerospace platforms.

UNITIL SOLAR ARRAY EXCEEDS FIRST-YEAR EXPECTATIONS

Unitil’s 4.9-megawatt solar array in Kingston generated more than 9 million kilowatt-hours of electricity during its first year of operation, surpassing expectations and producing enough energy to power more than 1,000 homes.

The facility, which was fully commissioned on May 21, 2025, is the first solar array owned and operated by a regulated electric distribution utility in New Hampshire. Built on 36 acres off Towle Road, the project includes 11,232 solar panels and is among the largest solar installations in the state.

The array outperformed projections by approximately 100,000 kilowatt-hours during the winter months of December through February, according to Unitil.

The project is expected to generate an average of 8.6 million kilowatt-hours annually over its projected 40-year life span, with estimated customer savings of about $2 million.

The solar array supports the regional power grid by helping offset peak electricity demand. It uses single-axis tracking technology that allows the panels to follow the sun throughout the day to maximize energy production.

In 2025, the project received an Energy Champion Award for “Project of the Year” during NH Energy Week, recognizing its contribution as a utility-scale renewable energy project.