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...

  With AI igniting an investor frenzy, more startups are achieving unicorn status every month.  Using data from Crunchbase and PitchBook, TechCrunch tracked down the VC-backed startups that became unicorns in 2026. While most are AI-related, a surprising number are focused on other industries like healthcare and even a few crypto companies. This list will be updated throughout...

  In Brief Posted: 10:53 AM PDT · March 11, 2026 Following news last month that New York’s hottest venture firm, Thrive, just raised $10 billion for a new fund — its largest ever, double the previous one — another big-name VC firm is attempting to equal that raise. General Catalyst is in talks to...