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Shokz Returns to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon with Co-Branded Limited Edition OpenRun Pro 2 and Expanded Race Week Experiences

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New Bank of America Chicago Marathon limited edition launches alongside Race Week experiences celebrating the runners, communities and energy of Chicago

CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Shokz, a pioneer in open-ear audio technology, today announced the launch of the OpenRun Pro 2 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Co-Branded Edition, available in limited quantities, and an expanded slate of experiences bringing its “Let the Windy City In” platform to runners and communities across Chicago.

Returning as the Official Headphone Partner of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon for the third consecutive year, Shokz is celebrating the people, neighborhoods and sounds that make Chicago an integral part of the marathon experience. From athlete and community programming throughout Race Week to the marathon-exclusive OpenRun Pro 2, Shokz is creating more ways for runners to stay connected to the city and the goals they are chasing.

The OpenRun Pro 2 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Co-Branded Edition features a distinctive deep blue and gold colorway, with the Bank of America Chicago Marathon route illustrated on the gift box and case. Designed as both a performance companion and meaningful keepsake, the marathon-exclusive OpenRun Pro 2 celebrates the miles, memories and personal milestones that come with taking on 26.2 miles in Chicago.

Built on the same performance technology as OpenRun Pro 2, Shokz’s flagship bone conduction headphones for running, the Co-Branded Edition features DualPitch™ Technology for premium sound quality, up to 12 hours of listening time and an open-ear design that helps runners stay aware of their surroundings throughout training and race day. A secure, comfortable fit designed for runs and workouts rounds out the experience for runners seeking wireless headphones that balance audio performance with environmental awareness. 

The OpenRun Pro 2 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Co-Branded Edition is available beginning September 23 exclusively at Shokz.com for $199.95 USD / $249.95 CAD, with additional units available at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Expo at Shokz Booth #339 from October 8–10. Both Standard and Mini sizes will be available in limited quantities. 

“Chicago has an incredible way of making the entire city feel like part of the race, and that’s what we wanted to celebrate this year,” said Vincent Xiong, CEO of Shokz North America. “From a limited-edition design created specifically for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon to experiences that bring runners closer to the city’s communities and energy, we’re creating more ways for people to take in everything that makes Chicago special while they chase their own goals.”

Let the Windy City In
Shokz’s “Let the Windy City In” platform builds on a simple idea: the Bank of America Chicago Marathon experience is about more than the miles. The crowds, neighborhoods, music and encouragement along the course are part of what makes Race Day memorable, and Shokz’s open-ear design allows runners to stay connected to those moments while listening to their audio.

That idea will extend across Shokz’s Chicago programming. Throughout the training season, Shokz has worked alongside local running partners including 3RUN2 and Fleet Feet Chicago to connect with runners as they prepare for 26.2 miles. During Race Week, Shokz will take that connection into neighborhoods across the city through Shokz Sound Tour, capturing the voices, sounds and stories that help define Chicago’s running community.

Shokz will also welcome runners and fans at the Abbott Health & Fitness Expo race weekend, Shokz Booth #339, where visitors can experience Shokz open-ear headphones, purchase the marathon-exclusive co-branded edition and personalize eligible headphones with custom engraving. Shokz will continue to celebrate the race and the energy of Chicago at the 27th Mile Post-Race Party, followed by a Post-Race Party for runners and the Chicago running community. 

“The Bank of America Chicago Marathon is shaped by the communities that runners experience across 26.2 miles and the people who support them along the way. We’re excited to have Shokz return as a partner and create new ways for participants to connect with that energy throughout their marathon experience,” said Carey Pinkowski, Bank of America Chicago Marathon Executive Race Director. 

This year’s Chicago program builds on Shokz’s global Chasing Stars initiative, which supports runners as they pursue personal goals and share their journeys with the broader running community. Shokz is the Official Headphone Partner of six of the most prestigious marathons in the world and works with elite athletes and everyday runners across the global running community.

Dakotah Popehn Takes on Chicago
Shokz athlete and elite marathoner Dakotah Popehn will compete in the 2026 Bank of America Chicago Marathon and participate in Shokz programming throughout Race Week.

On October 9, Popehn is scheduled to appear on the Abbott Health & Fitness Expo Main Stage for a conversation with Laura Green about chasing the breakthrough star with Shokz, including her preparation for Chicago, the role community plays in the marathon experience and what she is chasing this season. 

“There’s so much that goes into preparing for a marathon, but when you get to Race Day, the people around you become a huge part of the experience,” said Popehn. “Chicago has incredible energy and being able to take in the crowds and the city while staying focused on your own race is part of what makes the day so special. I’m excited to be back with Shokz and see what we can chase together in Chicago.” 

Runners and fans can learn more about Shokz’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon programming and purchase the OpenRun Pro 2 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Co-Branded Edition at Shokz.com.

About Shokz
Shokz, recognized as the World’s No. 1 Open-Ear Headphones Brand by Omdia, is dedicated to advancing open-ear audio technology and inspiring users to #beopen. With a focus on innovation, quality, and user experience, Shokz continues to lead the market by providing cutting-edge solutions for everyday audio. Learn more about the brand at www.Shokz.com.

About the Bank of America Chicago Marathon
In its 48th year, on Sunday, October 11, 2026, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon will welcome thousands of participants from more than 100 countries and all 50 states, including a world-class professional athlete field, top regional and Masters runners, race veterans, debut marathoners and charity participants. The race’s iconic course takes participants through 29 vibrant neighborhoods on an architectural and cultural tour of Chicago. Annually, more than a million spectators line the streets cheering on tens of thousands of participants from the start line to the final stretch down Columbus Drive. As a result of the race’s national and international draw, the Chicago Marathon assists in raising millions of dollars for a variety of charitable causes while generating over $755.9 million in annual economic impact to its host city. The 2026 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, a member of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, will start and finish in Grant Park beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 11. In advance of the race, a three-day Abbott Health & Fitness Expo will be held at McCormick Place Convention Center on Thursday, October 8, Friday, October 9, and Saturday, October 10. For more information about the event and how to get involved, go to chicagomarathon.com.

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People don’t trust AI, but 70% still don’t regularly check its answers before using them

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New F-Secure survey of US and UK consumers finds many AI users rarely verify answers, even when using it to make high-stakes decisions

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Nearly 90% of AI users say it’s their responsibility to verify the answers AI gives them, but 70% still only check sometimes, rarely, or never do. As people move from asking AI casual questions to trusting it with personal decisions about health, finances, and relationships, F-Secure’s new consumer survey reveals a growing gap between people’s awareness of the risks and how they actually use these tools.

The risks aren’t theoretical; they’re already showing up in how people use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Ironically, the people most exposed to AI’s mistakes are often the ones doing the least to catch them. F-Secure’s survey of 1,500 AI users in the US and UK digs into why (and what it’s costing them). Among the findings:

Nearly half (47.3%) of AI users say they stop questioning an answer if it sounds right. That’s more than twice as common as any other reason given for not verifying a response.One in four (25.2%) have followed AI advice on a major real-life decision. Proof that users aren’t just casually using chatbots for casual questions or hypothetical scenarios.More than one-third (35.3%) have used AI to fact-check AI. Asking another AI chatbot to verify an answer can give people a false sense that they’ve independently checked it, when they’re really just asking AI to check its own work.Frequent AI use is associated with a lower bar for accepting answers. Among people who use AI for many different types of tasks, 59.7% accepted answers without further verification, compared with 28.6% among those who only use AI for low-stakes questions. Non-users want protection from AI-related risks before considering using them. Among people who don’t currently use AI chatbots, 46.1% said detecting AI-generated scams or manipulation would be the feature most likely to change their mind into using it, and 45% say their priority is AI preventing their data from being stored or shared.

The findings are clear: Users don’t really trust AI, but they still regularly use its answers without checking them first – despite saying they’re concerned about inaccuracy. And 83.9% of respondents have multiple concerns about AI, but still use it at least weekly.

“I don’t think the fix is asking people to be more careful. Users already believe checking the accuracy of the content is somewhat their responsibility,” said Amel Bourdocen, Senior User Researcher at F-Secure. “That responsibility sits with the people building these tools, not the people using them. A system that can sound confident regardless of whether it’s right should be the one required to show its uncertainty, not the user.”

Full survey results and methodology are available on the Illuminate Research Hub.

To learn how F-Secure is helping close the AI trust gap, read the announcement on F-Secure Trust.

About F-Secure

F-Secure is a human-first, AI-powered consumer cyber security experience company with 38 years of expertise in tackling digital threats. We help digital service providers turn trust into a high-value growth engine — protecting their customers while enabling them to live their best digital lives in a world of relentless, AI-driven scams. With billions of digital interactions secured each year, tens of millions of consumers protected globally, and over $10bn in partner value created, we deliver proven impact at scale.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Meghan Sawyer
Senior Public Relations Manager
Meghan.Sawyer@f-secure.com

Joel Latto
Public Relations Manager, EMEA
Joel.Latto@f-secure.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

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EmployLaw Group LLP Marks One Year of Educating and Protecting California Employers

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Exclusively Employer-Side Employment Law Firm Celebrates One Year Advising California-based Businesses With Legal Workplace Issues

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EmployLaw Group LLP, a law firm educating California employers and protecting them before, during and after employment disputes, recently celebrated its one-year anniversary of serving clients from Sacramento to San Diego and beyond in a wide range of industries.

One year after launching the exclusively employer-side employment law firm, co-founders Jamie N. Stein and Ryan Haws have built their practice around a simple idea: the lawyer helping an employer prevent tomorrow’s lawsuit should understand what plaintiffs’ lawyers are arguing in today’s courtrooms.

It is a distinction that has become central to the way EmployLaw Group advises its clients.

Stein handles the firm’s litigation practice, defending California employers in individual, class and representative actions. Haws leads the firm’s advice-and-counsel practice, working with businesses on the employment decisions they make every day. The two practices are intentionally connected.

EmployLaw Group educates and counsels employers on employment-related matters and handles a significant number of litigation cases in industries including manufacturing, home health, agricultural, professional services, construction, nonprofits, hospitality, and aerospace. A unique attribute of the firm is its ability to draw on both real-time legal developments and real-world litigation experience when advising employers on day-to-day workplace issues, helping them adopt practices that reduce litigation risk while effectively addressing disputes that have already arisen.

This past year saw the firm add several senior and support staff positions and grow its client base to several hundred companies. Top management is looking forward to further team and client growth, expanding the business into new territories, and finding innovative ways to educate and prepare California employers on current and emerging laws that will affect them. The firm has also opened an office in Thousand Oaks, and is now looking to add associate attorneys as it continues to expand.

Stein, Partner and Co-Founder of EmployLaw Group, said, “Employment advice traditionally begins with what the law says and how courts have interpreted it. That remains essential. But there is another layer of information available to us because we are actively litigating these cases. We are seeing, in real time, the new theories, interpretations and arguments plaintiffs’ attorneys are making before those issues ever become published appellate decisions.”

Those arguments routinely become part of the conversation between Stein and Haws. When a novel theory surfaces in litigation, they consider not only how to defend against it in the pending case, but whether it exposes a potential vulnerability that other employers can address proactively.

That exchange between litigation and counseling reflects the firm’s broader mission: educating and protecting employers before, during and after workplace disputes.

“We don’t have to wait for a court to publish an opinion before asking whether there is a practical lesson our clients can take from an argument being made today,” Stein said. “Not every argument will ultimately succeed. But if we can identify an emerging theory and there is a reasonable way for a client to eliminate or reduce that risk, we want our clients to have that information now.”

For Haws and Stein, education is itself a form of risk management.

EmployLaw Group specializes in wage and hour (W&H) compliance reviews, which evaluate an organization’s adherence to labor laws such as the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) and state regulations covering proper pay calculations (minimum wage, overtime, and break issues); day-to-day employment counseling, workplace investigations, employee classification, harassment and discrimination prevention, supervisor training, employment agreements and policies, and the defense of wrongful termination, retaliation and discrimination claims, as well as wage-and-hour, class and PAGA litigation.

Haws, Co-Founder of EmployLaw Group, said, “California employers want to comply with the law. The difficulty is that knowing the rule is not always enough. Employers also need to understand how that rule is being interpreted, challenged and used in actual claims. Our job is to give clients that context so they can make informed decisions rather than simply react after something has gone wrong.”

That approach appears to be resonating.

For a law firm celebrating only its first anniversary, the growth is meaningful. But Stein and Haws say the numbers are not the part they find most important.

“We built this firm because we wanted to practice law differently,” Stein said. “Ryan and I have very different day-to-day practices, but we approach them with exactly the same objective: to be extraordinarily useful to our clients. That means caring about the outcome, being accessible, understanding the client’s business, and looking beyond the immediate legal question to what will actually protect them.”

Haws agreed.

“Being of service is fundamental to how we practice,” he said. “Our clients know us, they work with us directly, and they know they can call us before a problem becomes a crisis. We want them to understand not only what they should do, but why.”

That philosophy also explains the firm’s emphasis on employer education outside of individual client matters. Stein and Haws regularly speak to business and human resources audiences, including programs for the Employers Advisory Council, Professionals in Human Resources Association and National Human Resources Association, and hold leadership positions in human resources organizations.

As EmployLaw Group enters its second year, its founders expect the team and geographic reach to continue growing. They are actively seeking additional associate attorneys who share the firm’s approach to client service and employer education.

But the underlying strategy is not changing.

“The best litigation lesson is the one we can use to keep another client from having the same litigation,” Stein said. “Every case teaches us something. The value is making sure our clients benefit from it before they ever find themselves in a courtroom.”

 About EmployLaw Group LLP

EmployLaw Group LLP is an exclusively employer-side California employment law firm dedicated to educating and protecting businesses before, during and after employment disputes. The firm advises employers on day-to-day workplace matters, compliance, policies, investigations and training and defends employers in individual, class and representative litigation. EmployLaw Group serves businesses throughout California across a wide range of industries.

For more information, visit https://employlawgroup.com/.

Media Contact:

Frank Tortorici

frank@marketingmaven.com

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MYRECIPES LAUNCHES THE ULTIMATE APP FOR HOME COOKS

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More than 100,000 Tested and Trusted Recipes from America’s Favorite Food Media Brands at Your Fingertips

Save Recipes from Anywhere So You Never Lose a Recipe Again

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — MyRecipes, a People Inc. brand, announces the launch of its namesake app to make cooking at home better and easier than ever. Available to download now on App Store and Google Play, the app features 100,000+ best-in-class recipes from People Inc.’s popular food brands–Allrecipes, Better Homes & Gardens, EatingWell, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Serious Eats, and Southern Living, among others–and makes it simple to save recipes from Instagram, TikTok, and beyond all in one place. The ability to save recipes from anywhere coupled with its vast collection of trusted recipes makes it a one-of-a-kind cooking app.

Created for home cooks of every skill level, the MyRecipes app helps users search, save, organize, and make delicious recipes with ease; get personalized recommendations for what to cook this week; find ideas and inspiration for holiday meals and entertaining; and more. Features of the MyRecipes app:

More than 100K tested and vetted recipes from People Inc. brandsRecipes for every skill level and occasion including: breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers, snacks, desserts, cocktails, mocktails, smoothies, holiday meals, and more.Recipes from celebrated chefs such as Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, Giada De Laurentiis, and Julia Child, among others.New test-kitchen approved recipes added dailyEditor-curated recipe collections, such as Great Game Day Snacks, Top-Rated High Protein Dinners, Our 30 Best Birthday Cake Recipes, and over 100 moreSave Recipes from Instagram, TikTok and thousands of other food sites with easeClutter-free “cook mode”: the screen stays awake while you cook and you can easily switch between ingredients and instructions with a tap

MyRecipes offers two ways to access the app–a free option that includes 100,000+ trusted recipes at your fingertips, among other features, and a MyRecipes+ paid membership with extra benefits, such as the ability to save and organize recipes from TikTok and Instagram, and get special discounts and offers from culinary and lifestyle brands and retailers such as Glasvin, Misen, and Thermoworks. More about the MyRecipes+ membership offerings here.

In addition to the app, consumers can join the millions of registered MyRecipes users online at MyRecipes.com and check out its social channels on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

Kroger is the launch sponsor of the MyRecipes app.

Press contact: Liz Marsh / elizabeth.marsh@people.inc

People Inc. is the largest digital and print publisher in America. More than 175 million people trust us each month to help them find inspiration, make decisions, and take action. People Inc.’s more than 40 iconic brands include PEOPLE, Food & Wine, Better Homes & Gardens, Verywell Health, Allrecipes, REAL SIMPLE, Investopedia, and Southern Living. People Inc. is based in New York City and is an operating business of People Incorporated (NASDAQ: PPLI).

 

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