>Compared to 2022, a test conducted by Vi Bilägare found that drivers now spend more time interacting with screens and controls to perform basic tasks in their cars. The test was also conducted in 2022, and the 2026 test repeated the methodology for consistency. 

>Testing included having drivers adjust climate settings, change radio stations, and alter the display brightness, all while moving at highway speeds on a closed airfield. Critically, the test looked to replicate an owner’s experience by allowing testers to learn the systems first. Results were measured in the time it took to complete a task and the distance a car traveled while it was performed.

>In the outlet’s 2022 testing, the average distance covered while completing tasks was 2,480 feet. In 2026, that figure has only grown. Now, the average distance is 2,667 feet. Drivers needed, on average, an extra two seconds to finish the same tasks they were given just two years earlier. All the while, screens have become an increasingly critical aspect of a car’s interior.

>The U.S. Postal Service will release a new commemorative stamp celebrating the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. This special issue continues the long-standing postal tradition of honoring the nation's premier military service institutions.

>The first-day-of-issue unveiling ceremony for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Forever stamp is free and open to the public. News of the stamp is being shared with the hashtag #USCoastGuardStamp.

>WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, at 10 a.m. Eastern

>WHERE: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival
Custom House Pier at Waterfront Park
1 Waterfront Park St.
New London, CT 06320

>RSVP: Attendees are encouraged to register at: https://www.usps.com/uscoastguardstamp/

>Background: The stamp art features photographs of the USCGC Eagle, the Coast Guard Academy’s primary training vessel since 1946, and USCGC Bertholf*,* a Legend-class national security cutter whose missions include maritime drug interdiction and securing the maritime border. Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed this stamp with photographs courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Video of News (CBS Boston)

>BOSTON — A retired United Airlines flight attendant is making one final journey to honor the crews and passengers of the four planes hijacked during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

>Paul Veneto began the latest leg of his tribute Saturday morning at Boston’s 9/11 Memorial in the Public Garden, pushing an airline beverage cart toward New York City.

>The journey symbolizes the flight path of American Airlines Flight 11, which departed from Boston’s Logan International Airport and was the first plane hijacked on 9/11.

>Veneto plans to push the cart more than 1,000 miles in total before arriving at Ground Zero on 9/11.

>As it would for the typical U.S. Census taker, the work of counting bears in the woods starts with a clipboard and a blank piece of paper.

>Armed with this equipment — along with bear spray and, perhaps more importantly, tick repellent — a team of researchers has been fanning out to hundreds of survey stations set up across western Connecticut this summer to collect data on the area’s resident population of black bears. Their goal is to conduct the first scientific survey of the state’s bear population in over a decade.

>The project is a collaboration between the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Carnivore and Population Ecology Lab at Mississippi State University, which has conducted similar population surveys of black bears for several other state wildlife agencies.

>Instead of trying to locate bears in the wild, the survey relies on hair samples collected in barbed wire traps, which can be used to identify individual bears based on their DNA. Researchers will later come up with a population estimate based on how many different bears they identified and how often those bears showed up in the samples across different geographic areas.

>HARTFORD, CT – The invasive spotted lanternfly has been detected in 153 of Connecticut’s 169 towns, according to state agricultural experts who say the bugs feed on over 70 different types of plants, have no natural predators, and pose a serious threat to crops and trees.

>U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was at Great River Park in East Hartford with entomologists from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) to advocate for the passage of federal legislation aimed at minimizing the spread of the spotted lanternfly (SLF).

>Blumenthal advised all Connecticut residents to take a photo of, report, and kill any spotted lanternflies they encounter. Reports can be sent to the CAES website and will be used to monitor the species as it spreads.

>Blumenthal said he is proposing the Spotted Lanternfly Research and Development Act, which would designate $15 million to $20 million in federal funds for researching and developing strategies to eliminate spotted lanternflies, primarily targeting the northeastern region of the country where their spread is most prevalent.