News Room

In 1997, the bestselling author of a nonfiction page-turner that included the tale of an Ebola outbreak at a Virginia research center, had a new book out. This time he’d written a novel—a story about a madman who engineers a virus called “brainpox” before unleashing it on New York City.

For many buying decisions — whether for hotel rooms, restaurant meals or an online purchase — the first step is checking the ratings given by previous customers. The reviews might not always be reliable (and sometimes are even fake), but on the whole, they can provide useful information about the quality of a product.

My wife was scheduled to attend a professional meeting in Savannah, Ga., this week, and we spent time analyzing her options last weekend. As a data scientist with expertise in risk management and decision-making under uncertainty, tracking hurricanes is a hobby. My assessment over the weekend: cancel the meeting and move it online.

The province of Ontario made more than a half a billion dollars from the cannabis industry in the last fiscal year, according to public accounts released by the government on Friday.

We are fast approaching the midterm elections on Nov. 8. Both parties are working diligently to gain control of Congress. The economy, gun policy, and violent crime rank as the three top issues of concern to voters, as reported by a Pew Research Center poll. A bit further down the list is abortion rights, largely of interest to Democrat voters.