In Brief Posted: 11:06 AM PDT · March 11, 2026 Breakout Ventures has closed a $114 million Fund III to back AI-focused early-stage startups working in scientific fields such as biology and chemistry.  The firm has already written checks to three companies and plans to invest in at least 20 companies through this fund,...

Year to date, many of the market's most beloved technology stocks have pulled back as investors debate the staggering costs and uncertain payoffs of artificial intelligence (AI). Even as the S&P 500 has traded roughly flat year to date, software and internet stocks have faced intense scrutiny over their spending plans and have largely underperformed....

The county supervisors drew the line on a March 18 deadline by which 22 commercial cannabis cultivators had to get carbon-based odor scrubbers installed, rejecting a time extension requested by eight of them.  “The neighbors don’t get extensions,” said 1st District Supervisor Roy Lee, who represents Carpinteria, the area where most of the county’s greenhouse...