It’s fair to ask why tech still needs conferences at all. We can livestream anything now, replay talks at double speed, join global meetings without leaving a chair. Remote work proved that a lot of what once required travel actually doesn’t. And yet, conferences keep multiplying. New ones appear every year, niche, regional, oddly specific, sometimes overlapping in ways that make no sense on paper. That persistence isn’t nostalgia or inertia, it’s a quiet admission that some parts of how technology actually moves forward still resist being flattened into pixels.

Every autumn, the public relations world gathers for its biggest and most charged event of the year. This time, the stage is Washington, D.C., and the venue is the Washington Hilton, where PRSA ICON 2025 will unfold from October 28–30. The energy of the capital always infuses events with a certain urgency, but given how much communications itself is now wrapped in politics, data, culture wars, and AI-driven media, the choice of location feels especially fitting.

Congressman John Garamendi (CA-08), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Readiness Subcommittee, issued a scathing statement following President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unprecedented gathering of the military’s top commanders. Garamendi described the event as “wasteful, pointless, and blatantly partisan,” stressing that in all his years of public service, he had never witnessed such an unnecessary display. He underscored that meetings of this scale, bringing together the nation’s most senior military leaders from across the globe, are almost unheard of and typically only convened under extraordinary circumstances tied to national security.

The imposition of 25% tariffs by the US on Canadian aluminium is being met with disappointment but not surprise by the Aluminium Association of Canada, which considers the move highly disruptive and counterproductive. Jean Simard, the association’s President and CEO, acknowledged the industry’s preparedness for the situation but expressed concern over its immediate economic repercussions, particularly for American workers and consumers. With Canadian aluminium serving as a critical input for over 500,000 American manufacturing jobs and contributing over $200 billion to the US economy, the tariffs risk undermining the deeply integrated North American supply chain that has long been a cornerstone of economic and industrial cooperation.

Challenging the prevailing narrative requires a careful reexamination of the underlying principles of trade and national sovereignty that many have long overlooked. The decision to impose tariffs on Canadian goods can be seen not as an indiscriminate act that endangers jobs and undermines established partnerships, but rather as a bold corrective measure intended to address the imbalances and inequities that have developed over decades of what some consider to be overly liberal trade policies.

The recent surge in U.S. domestic softwood lumber production highlights a decisive shift in trade dynamics that has fundamentally reshaped the industry landscape. Trade measures implemented to counter unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports have spurred an impressive expansion in U.S. production capacity, ensuring that American workers are increasingly at the helm of supplying the nation’s housing market. Over the past several years, U.S. mills have ramped up their output by adding eight billion board feet of production capacity and generating an additional 30 billion board feet of softwood lumber.

The Defense Department’s recent decision to eliminate dedicated workspaces for select media organizations within the Pentagon marks a decisive and commendable stride toward modernizing national security protocols and leveling the field for all journalists. This measure is not an attempt to muzzle the press but a strategic reorganization designed to ensure that every credentialed reporter adheres to the same rigorous access standards, thereby eliminating outdated practices that once granted preferential treatment to a few.

Postal Service expects Election Mail service performance in 2024 to be equal to or better than 2020 Our recommendation remains for voters who choose to mail in their ballots to do so before Election Day and at least a week before their election office needs to receive them If your ballot is due on Election Day, it would a good idea to mail it by this Tuesday (October 29) We will continue to deploy our “extraordinary measures” to accelerate the delivery of Ballot Mail

From Election Officials to Media Companies, Nonprofits, and Celebrity Voices, Efforts to Register Voters Underway Across the Nation WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2024 - Today, September 17, Americans unite in a powerful celebration of democracy as part of National Voter Registration Day 2024 – the nonpartisan civic holiday dedicated to ensuring that every eligible American has the opportunity to register to vote ahead of the fast-approaching elections. The number of major national partners supporting the holiday has grown dramatically, by 42%, since the last presidential election.

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ – The National Police Association (NPA) has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Captain Manuel Adams, Jr., a law enforcement officer challenging his inclusion on a “Giglio” list—an unregulated registry of officers whose credibility has been called into question, effectively barring them from future employment in law enforcement. The case, Adams v. City of Harahan, Louisiana, seeks review of a Fifth Circuit ruling which determined that Captain Adams could not pursue a due process claim despite being terminated and added to a Giglio list based on false allegations.