Intel leak

Yesterday, the Department of Justice arrested and indicted a counterterrorism analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency for leaking information regarding foreign weapons systems. The 30-year-old analyst, Henry Kyle Frese, allegedly shared the secret information with two journalists, one of which he was in a relationship with.

Power outage

In an attempt to reduce the risk of wildfire in the region during strong winds, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it plans to shut off power to around 800,000 homes in Northern and Central California. The first wave of outages went into effect just after midnight on Tuesday night.

Turkey begins Syrian military operation

Turkish forces launched an air and artillery attack against Kurdish militia in Northern Syria yesterday before moving across the border in a ground operation. The invasion comes just three days after the White House ordered U.S. troops, who have worked with Kurdish fighters in the region against ISIS, to withdraw from the area.

Up in smoke (pt. 2)

Alibaba is halting all sales of e-cigarettes and accessories to U.S. buyers, joining other companies like Walmart, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Kroger. The Chinese e-commerce giant cited concerns around underage e-cigarette use and public health issues surrounding the mysterious vaping related lung disease that has been tied to at least 23 deaths.

On Target

Bed Bath & Beyond announced Target exec Mark Tritton will become the company’s new President and CEO beginning November 4 - the home retailer’s shares increased ~20% in extended trading. In other Target executive news, 15-year company veteran Michael Fiddelke will be replacing the retiring Cathy Smith as CFO.

Seeing Red

Satellite launch service Virgin Orbit is attempting to be the first company to launch commercial satellites to Mars, announcing a consortium with a Polish satellite company and Polish academic institutions dedicated to achieving this goal. The group is working on as many as three separate satellite launches to the “Red Planet,” with the first expected to happen around 2023.

Libra-ry of Congress

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House Financial Services Committee later this month to address concerns around its planned global cryptocurrency Libra. This comes less than a week after PayPal withdrew from the project amid increasing global regulatory scrutiny.

Message in a… balloon?

When Michelle Boisseau decided to try out a modern take on a message in a bottle from her home in New Athens, Illinois, she wasn’t expecting much – she just wanted to see where it went. So Michelle placed a handwritten note in a small bag attached to a helium balloon and sent it off into the sky – with no idea how significant that message would turn out to be.

The balloon and its message traveled 175 miles in total, landing alongside the road in Clinton, Kentucky. Tommy Ingrum came across the balloon while he was doing road work for the state in the area. He texted the number on the note to tell Michelle where it had landed.

Michelle told Tommy that she’d spent the summers in Clinton as a child, visiting grandparents. She told him their names, and the two quickly realized what an incredible encounter the balloon had led to – as it turned out, they were cousins. Michelle traveled to Clinton to visit Tommy and share family pictures and stories. What started on a whim brought about an unexpected family reunion… all because of a balloon.

A car for Coach

Skip Babineaux’s 90s-era SUV had long been the butt of jokes among his middle school football players. The kids said they’d hear their coach’s clunker coming from blocks away – the sputtering, roaring, and squeaking were always a dead giveaway.

But putting their jokes aside, two of the players came up with an idea: maybe, if they worked for it, they could help Coach Skip get a new car. So Gunnar Wirtz and Trevor Jeffrey threw themselves into their new mission. They set up a GoFundMe and started cutting grass, pulling weeds, and doing odd jobs around town.

Because Skip had given so much of his time and energy to the community, people quickly stepped up to help out. Within a week, the boys had raised $12,000. When they presented Skip with his new wheels, he was astonished. In disbelief, he said that all he’d done was be a coach. But according to Gunnar, Trevor, and the whole community, Skip had been a whole lot more – and they were overjoyed to be able to pay him back.