Cal Poly Enters New Era With Semester Shift, Maritime Integration and Major Campus Expansion

Cal Poly’s 2026-27 academic year brings one of the university’s most consequential transformations in decades, including an August semester start, full integration of the Solano campus, expanded degree pathways, new facilities, housing and a growing Pac-12 presence.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. | When Cal Poly students return to campus this fall, they will encounter more than the usual signs of a new academic year.

They are returning to a university undergoing a significant institutional transformation.

For the first time, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, will operate on a semester calendar, ending its longstanding quarter system and aligning its academic schedule with other California State University campuses.

But the calendar change is only part of a much broader transition.

The 2026-27 academic year also brings deeper integration of Cal Poly Maritime Academy and the Solano Campus, expanded bachelor's degree pathways at California community colleges, new academic and commercial facilities, additional student housing and changes across Cal Poly athletics — including men's soccer joining the Pac-12 Conference as an associate member.

Taken together, the changes represent a pivotal moment for one of California's most recognizable public universities.

SDSU President Adela de la Torre Charts Ambitious Five-Year Future as University Builds on Historic Growth

At San Diego State’s 2026 All-University Convocation, de la Torre outlined a five-part strategy centered on research, expansion, reputation, and long-term sustainability as universities confront enrollment pressures, artificial intelligence, and economic uncertainty.

SAN DIEGO | San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre opened the 2026-27 academic year with a message that combined celebration with urgency: SDSU's recent transformation has created opportunities, but maintaining that momentum will require the university to think bigger about what comes next.

Speaking before nearly 1,000 faculty and staff members at the annual All-University Convocation, de la Torre outlined a vision for the next five years that seeks to capitalize on SDSU's emergence as an R1 research institution, its expanding Mission Valley campus, new investments at Imperial Valley and its entry into the Pac-12 Conference.

The objective, she said, is not simply to preserve what SDSU has accomplished but to use those achievements as a foundation for "an even more ambitious future."

"If we do not ask big questions, we will never arrive at big answers," de la Torre said Thursday at the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union.

It was a fitting theme for a university whose trajectory increasingly reflects the broader transformation — and challenges — reshaping American higher education.

SDSU Women’s Soccer Looks to Rebound Against Portland State as Aztecs Return to Sports Deck

San Diego State enters Sunday’s matchup at 1-1 after pushing No. 10 Washington in a defensive battle, while Portland State searches for its first victory of the 2026 season.

SAN DIEGO | San Diego State women’s soccer has already shown through its first two matches of 2026 that it can win with offense, defend under pressure, and compete with nationally ranked opposition.

Now, the Aztecs have an opportunity to turn those early flashes into momentum.

San Diego State (1-1) hosts Portland State (0-3) Sunday at 3 p.m. at the SDSU Sports Deck, as the Aztecs look to bounce back from a narrow loss to No. 10 Washington and secure their second victory of the young season.

The matchup will be streamed on the Pac-12 YouTube page, while early-arriving fans will receive a complimentary SDSU license plate frame. Admission to the Sports Deck is free.

For San Diego State, Sunday's match offers an opportunity to build on an encouraging opening stretch in which the Aztecs have demonstrated an ability to create scoring chances while limiting opponents defensively.

Bearing Witness: Michigan Student-Athletes Carry Lessons of Holocaust Remembrance Beyond Athletics

Wolverines join USC Shoah Foundation leadership program, visiting Washington and Auschwitz-Birkenau on a journey that challenged them to use the platform of college athletics to confront hate, antisemitism, and injustice.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. | For Michigan gymnast Sophie Parenti, the enormity of Auschwitz-Birkenau was difficult to comprehend in statistics alone.

So she started counting her steps.

Over roughly five hours at the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp in Poland, Parenti estimated she took approximately 10,000. In her mind, she began imagining each step as representing one person whose life had been taken.

"And that's just 10,000 people," Parenti said.

The exercise could not capture the full scale of the Holocaust, but it gave the University of Michigan student-athlete a deeply personal way to confront a history that suddenly was no longer confined to textbooks, documentaries or museum exhibits.

"You get there, and you feel the weight," Parenti said. "We step off the bus, and you feel the weight of that place immediately."

For Parenti and fellow Wolverines Jahzara Ranger and Penelopea Gordon, that weight became part of a larger lesson about leadership, responsibility, and what it means to have a platform in college athletics.

Michigan participated for the first time in the USC Shoah Foundation Student-Athlete Global Leadership Program, joining student-athletes from USC and UCLA for an immersive experience in Washington, D.C., and Krakow, Poland.

The journey centered on Holocaust education and confronting antisemitism and hate. But for the Michigan contingent, it also raised a distinctly modern question for college athletes:

What responsibility comes with having a voice?

Army to Disband Experimental Drone Battalion in Europe After Less Than a Year

The unit will return to its airborne infantry mission after Saber Junction, but Army leaders say the experiment’s lessons will inform a broader push to embed drones across combat formations.

WASHINGTON | The U.S. Army is ending its experiment with a dedicated drone battalion in Europe less than a year after assigning an infantry unit to test how a specialized unmanned formation could operate on a modern battlefield.

The battalion will return to its airborne infantry mission following the conclusion of Exercise Saber Junction 2026, an Army official said Thursday. The multinational training event is scheduled across August and September at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Germany.

The official, who spoke on background, did not identify the battalion or disclose how many soldiers participated in the experiment. The decision was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Army’s move does not signal an end to its drone modernization campaign. Instead, it could indicate that service leaders increasingly favor distributing unmanned aircraft, electronic warfare systems and counter-drone capabilities across existing combat formations rather than maintaining a stand-alone drone battalion.

That distinction will be closely watched across the Pentagon as the U.S. military races to absorb lessons from Ukraine, where small unmanned aircraft have transformed reconnaissance, targeting, logistics and direct attack operations.

Iran War Exposes U.S. Navy’s Operational-Tempo Crisis

Extended carrier deployments, strained logistics, maintenance backlogs and exhausted crews reveal the mounting cost of asking an undersized fleet to sustain worldwide commitments.

WASHINGTON | The U.S. Navy entered the war with Iran carrying years of accumulated operational debt. Months of combat operations, blockade enforcement and crisis deployments have now brought that debt into sharper focus.

The strain can be seen aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, whose deployment was extended as the Navy sustained operations in the Middle East. It can also be measured in delayed maintenance, overworked crews, disrupted supply networks and increasingly difficult decisions about where the service can maintain a credible carrier presence.

U.S. Central Command says more than 200 aircraft and warships supported the maritime blockade against Iran in the spring, including the Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush carrier strike groups. The operation redirected more than 100 commercial vessels by late May, according to an official CENTCOM release.

That operational achievement came at a significant cost.

The Navy has spent decades trying to meet expanding global missions with a fleet whose ships, shipyards and crews have repeatedly struggled to keep pace. The Iran conflict did not create those problems. It exposed how little margin remains when a regional crisis becomes a sustained military campaign.

Pentagon Says 757 U.S. Troops Wounded in Iran War as Casualty Toll and Costs Rise

Updated Defense Department figures put U.S. losses at 18 service members killed and 757 wounded as the nearly six-month conflict strains personnel, readiness and Pentagon resources.

WASHINGTON | More than 750 American service members have been wounded in the war with Iran, according to newly reported Pentagon casualty data, providing a clearer picture of the human cost of a conflict that has also consumed tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military resources.

The latest figures show 757 U.S. service members wounded and 18 killed since the conflict began on Feb. 28. Associated Press reporting based on Pentagon data says more than 580 of those wounded are Army soldiers, while the Defense Department and U.S. Central Command have released relatively few details about how individual troops were injured. Some of the reported injuries have involved traumatic brain injuries.

The casualty update represents a significant increase from earlier stages of the campaign and comes as U.S. forces remain engaged across a volatile Middle East security environment.

The growing personnel toll is unfolding alongside an increasingly expensive military campaign. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee in July that the direct costs associated with the war in Iran had reached approximately $37.5 billion. At that hearing, Pentagon leaders sought another $67.1 billion in supplemental defense funding, including money for the conflict, munitions, drones, and other military requirements.

Kayla Briggs Delivers Late Winner as No. 5/6 Michigan State Escapes Loyola, 1-0

Briggs breaks through in the 83rd minute, while Noelle Henning records her second straight shutout ahead of a top-10 showdown at North Carolina

EAST LANSING, Mich. | Michigan State controlled the pressure, dominated the shot count and spent much of Wednesday night searching for one decisive finish.

Senior Kayla Briggs finally delivered it.

Briggs scored in the 83rd minute to lift the No. 5/6 Spartans to a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Loyola at DeMartin Stadium, breaking through a compact defensive scheme that frustrated Michigan State for most of the match.

The goal was Briggs’ second of the season—and her second game-winner—as Michigan State remained patient despite generating 21 shots and 14 corner kicks. Loyola consistently crowded the penalty area, blocked shooting lanes and forced the Spartans to work for every opportunity.

Michigan State’s persistence eventually proved decisive.

Kennedy Bell started the winning sequence with a pass to Ava Lutke on the left side. Lutke moved the ball to Bella Najera, whose attempt near the left post was blocked by a Loyola defender. Briggs collected the rebound, faked a shot to evade the defender, shifted the ball to her right and then fired across her body into the bottom-left corner.

After more than 82 minutes of resistance, Loyola’s defensive wall had finally cracked.

UC San Diego Women’s Soccer Hits the Road for Tests Against UNLV, Northern Arizona

Tritons look to build on four-goal breakout as they visit Las Vegas and Flagstaff for their first road matches of the season

LA JOLLA, Calif. | UC San Diego women’s soccer will take its early-season momentum on the road this week when the Tritons face UNLV in Las Vegas before traveling to Flagstaff for a matchup against Northern Arizona.

UC San Diego enters the two-game road swing with a 1-1-0 record after producing an impressive four-goal performance against Utah Tech last Saturday. The offensive breakthrough gave the Tritons their first victory of the season and provided a confidence boost ahead of their first matches away from home.

The road trip begins Thursday against UNLV, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in Las Vegas. UC San Diego will then head to Arizona to face Northern Arizona at 1 p.m. Sunday in Flagstaff.

The back-to-back contests should provide an early measure of the Tritons’ ability to translate their home-field success into road results. Playing in two different environments within a matter of days will test UC San Diego’s depth, defensive organization and ability to maintain its attacking rhythm.

National Aviation Day 2026: America Celebrates the Legacy—and Future—of Flight

From the Wright Brothers to a New Generation of Aviation Technology, National Aviation Day Highlights an Industry That Connects Communities, Drives Commerce and Keeps America Moving

WASHINGTON | More than a century after two bicycle mechanics helped usher in the age of powered flight, aviation remains one of the most consequential forces shaping American commerce, transportation, national security and technological innovation.

On Wednesday, August 19, the United States marks National Aviation Day, an annual observance honoring the achievements of American aviation and highlighting the pilots, air traffic controllers, airport professionals, mechanics, engineers, airline employees, manufacturers, and countless others responsible for keeping the nation's aviation system moving.

The observance is held each year on the birthday of Orville Wright, who was born Aug. 19, 1871. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Aug. 19 as National Aviation Day in 1939, establishing a national commemoration of the country's rapidly developing aviation industry.

The symbolism remains powerful in 2026.

What began with the Wright brothers' historic 12-second powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 1903, has evolved into an aviation network connecting communities and economies on a scale almost unimaginable to the pioneers of flight.

Congressman Shomari Figures Announces $8.5 Million for Montgomery Regional Airport Runway Rehabilitation

Federal investment targets critical runway infrastructure at MGM as Montgomery positions its airport for safer operations, passenger growth and expanded regional economic development

MONTGOMERY, Ala. | Montgomery Regional Airport is set to receive more than $8.5 million in federal funding for runway rehabilitation, a major infrastructure investment aimed at strengthening the airport's operational safety and reliability while positioning MGM for continued passenger and economic growth.

U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures joined Montgomery Regional Airport officials and community leaders at MGM at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, to announce the funding for rehabilitation of the airport's existing runway. Contemporary reporting on the event confirms the $8.5 million announcement and its purpose: runway rehabilitation.

The investment comes as airports across the country compete for federal dollars to modernize aging aviation infrastructure and improve the safety and efficiency of the national transportation network.

For Montgomery, however, the announcement carries implications that extend well beyond the pavement.

The runway is a critical piece of infrastructure supporting commercial passenger service, business and general aviation, military operations, and the broader economic development strategy of Alabama's capital region.