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The bookstore retail sector has been in recovery, led by the expansion of the leading chain Barnes & Noble over the last four years. Despite the recovery, companies are still forced to close bookstores for various reasons.The nation’s largest bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble Inc., will close a popular store location in Redwood City, Calif., which operated for 33 years, as its landlord will not renew its lease.The bookstore chain revealed in an Instagram post that its last day of operation will be Sept. 16.

Barnes & Noble was forced to close a 33-year-old location after the landlord wouldn’t renew the lease.Yellow Dog Productions / Getty Images

Barnes & Noble closes longtime location”It is with great sadness that we let you know of the closure of this store, forced by the end to our lease and the landlord offering no option to continue,” Barnes & Noble Redwood City said in the Instagram post.The bookstore chain said that it is seeking a new location in the Redwood City area as soon as possible, but will open a new store in fall 2026 in The Crossroads shopping center, about 20 miles away in Cupertino, Calif.Barnes & Noble invited customers to visit its nearby stores in San Mateo and Burlingame, Calif.Company closed five other storesThe bookstore chain has closed five other stores in 2026 in Nanuet, N.Y; Pembroke Pines, Fla.; Waterbury, Conn.; San Bruno, Calif.; and Portland, Ore.Barnes & Noble previously closed its store in the Almaden Plaza shopping center in San Jose in January 2025, according to KRON-TV in San Francisco. Management was offered positions at other location, but associates were not.Barnes & Noble opening 60 storesDespite closing about six stores so far in 2026, Barnes & Noble said it plans to open about 60 new stores this year, according to a company statement. The chain opened about 67 locations in 2025 and 57 in 2024.Founded in 1971, Barnes & Noble had declined to fewer than 600 locations by 2023 but now operates over 700 bookstores in the U.S. after its recovery and expansion, according to the company. The chain also operates its e-commerce website BN.com.Barnes & Noble’s expansion comes after the chain downsized beginning in 2010 until 2022, closing about 150 stores. While Barnes & Noble, has been recovering from its company downturn, it has also pulled another bookstore chain out of the bankruptcy doldrums.Chain bought bankrupt companyBarnes & Noble acquired 175-year-old bookstore chain Books Inc. out of bankruptcy in 2025, which allowed the iconic nine-shop chain to continue operating.Books Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 20, 2025, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California seeking a sale of its assets. The bookstore chain won approval on Sept. 23, 2025, to sell its assets to Barnes & Noble for $3.5 million.“This agreement will ensure that Books Inc.’s legacy will continue for the foreseeable future,” Chief Executive Officer Andy Perham said in a statement. “With Barnes & Noble’s deep resources and world-class support, Books Inc. will be able to quickly modernize its operations so we can focus on what we do best: connecting people with books, ideas and each other.”Barnes & Noble’s acquisition of Books Inc. follows a previous purchase of distressed bookstore Tattered Cover in 2024, reflecting its strategy to support independent bookstores facing financial difficulties.Tattered Cover operates two locations in Denver and one in Littleton, Colo.Books Inc., which was established in 1851, claims to be the oldest bookseller in the West.Related: Major bath products retail brand files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Whether it’s regulators or industry experts, the consensus about Lidar seems to be that Level 4 autonomous driving platforms are incomplete without it. Tesla is not part of that consensus, as CEO Elon Musk has called light detection and ranging driver-assistance an “expensive and unnecessary” fool’s errand, just “expensive hardware that’s worthless on the car.”But Waymo, which has the most extensive autonomous driving network as well as the most miles driven autonomously, says that any robotaxi system that isn’t using Lidar isn’t operating at its full potential. “There has been a long-standing debate about what kind of sensors you actually need for autonomous driving. Naturally, more sensors means higher performance, but it also means higher complexity,” Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said this week during his Y Combinator keynote. “So humans, of course, can drive with just eyes,” Dolgov continued. “And if the goal was to just approximately match human performance or to build an assist product, then that is a very reasonable way to go. However, if you are targeting full autonomy and you’re targeting strongly superhuman performance, you find that weak sensing just leads to a safety curve that flattens out way too early.”Waymo vehicles use three different sensing modalities in their robotaxis: radar, Lidar and cameras. Meanwhile, Tesla uses just one: cameras. And though Dolgov never mentioned his top rival, it was clear who he was referring to during his speech.Why are camera-only robotaxis insufficient?SAE International (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers) considers advanced driver assistance systems, such as GM Super Cruise and Tesla Full Self-Driving, to be Level 2 automation, which requires the driver to remain engaged.Anything Level 3 and above is considered truly “autonomous.” This means no human intervention is required when the system activates features such as lane assist and automatic braking. However, the system must be enabled by a present driver who must take over when asked. J.D. Power lists Mercedes’ Drive Pilot as a Level 3 system.Waymo and Tesla Robotaxi operate on Level 4, but according to Dolgov, Robotaxi’s camera-only approach leaves some big holes in its safety profile.Related: Waymo vs. human drivers: Experts reveal which is safer”Cameras give you high resolution in color. But they are passive, and they degrade in darkness and glare,” Dolgov said. “Lidar and radar are active sensors, so that means they see just as well in pitch darkness or, for example, when driving into a blinding sunset.”Waymo’s three-pronged sensor stack includes radar, Lidar and cameras, and Dolgov says those three systems working in tandem help make Waymo safer than some competitors. “Lidar gives you a direct measurement of the 3-D structure of the world around you. Radar is good at punching through environmental conditions,” Dolgov said. “In our stack, each modality has an encoder, and the information from each of those sensors gets fused into a single view of the world around you that is much more precise and generally vastly superior to what you get with any one sensor.” He went on to show a video of a Waymo travelling down a foggy street with side-by-side images of the HD camera and Lidar systems working in tandem. The camera misses a pedestrian standing on the side of the road that the Lidar sees clearly.

Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov argues that cameras, radar, and Lidar are necessary.gremlin / Getty Images

NHTSA opens ‘engineering analysis’ into Tesla FSD camerasEarlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects and Investigations announced that it was escalating its investigation into Tesla FSD by opening an “engineering analysis” to evaluate Tesla Vision’s “degradation detection system.”In layman’s terms, the NHTSA is investigating how much camera visibility is degraded by roadway conditions such as glare and airborne obstructions, and whether Tesla FSD (Supervised) can detect and adjust to the resulting degradation and still work safely. “Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions,” the NHTSA said.More Tesla:Tesla sales rebound hides costly problem for investorsTesla record revenue masks cash burn, $1B SpaceX swingElon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX face serious questions from investorsThe agency has identified nine crashes in which it says Tesla FSD’s degradation systems may not have been functioning properly. It says FSD “did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired its visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred.And there could be many more instances that the agency does not know about because their review of Tesla’s responses to its request for more information revealed: “additional crashes that occurred in similar environments and where the system either did not detect a degraded state, and/or it did not present the driver with an alert with adequate time for the driver to react.”While Tesla FSD isn’t the same as Tesla Robotaxi in terms of its capabilities, both systems rely solely on cameras to function. Tesla explains why it does not need LidarWhile the NHTSA directly lists the lack of radar as a possible component in these crashes, Tesla says the system is unnecessary.Most experts consider a light detection and ranging driver-assistance system to be the state-of-the-art technology. Tesla competitors like Toyota offer Lidar, in addition to the camera-based system that Tesla FSD uses.Tesla Vision refers to the system and software that power the eight cameras on every Tesla vehicle, providing a 360-degree view of its surroundings. Tesla says the system relies on a neural network that allows it to bypass the need for radar assistance.Lidar uses lasers to measure distances and create highly detailed 3D models of its surroundings. Autonomous driving company Zoox uses this tech, along with cameras, long-wave infrared sensors, and microphones, to map the traffic around it. Related: Trump FCC gives Tesla a leg up in critical technology race

Most people book engagement pictures thinking about one thing: a nice photo for the save-the-date. That’s fair. But the session often becomes much more than that.
Many couples later realize that their engagement photos hold a different kind of significance than their wedding images. Without the formality and fast pace of the wedding day, the session often captures them at their most natural, preserving the connection and excitement they shared before life became busier with wedding planning and married life.
There’s a mindset shift hiding in that session, and that’s what makes engagement pictures so meaningful.
Why the Proposal Is Really a Milestone
Think about what a proposal actually represents. Years of showing up. Awkward first dates, a few near-misses, moving cities, learning to argue without blowing things up. By the time someone kneels down, a whole quiet history sits behind that moment.
Researchers who study what’s called “narrative identity” argue that people build a sense of self by turning their experiences into a story—the wins, the setbacks, the turning points. Research Gate has covered this idea at length, and it maps neatly onto an engagement. You’re not just marking a decision. You’re closing one chapter and naming the next one out loud.
That reframe matters for anyone chasing goals of any kind. Progress feels invisible while you’re inside it but a milestone forces you to stop and look back.
Engagement Pictures as a Record of Growth
Here’s where the camera earns its keep. A good session captures the two of you as you are right now—before the wedding stress, before the mortgage, before the kids. Ten years on, those frames won’t just show younger faces. They’ll show the version of you that decided to bet on each other.
Many couples describe flipping through their old engagement pictures the way a founder rereads early journal entries. Not for nostalgia exactly. More like checking the receipts on how much they’ve grown since. If you want ideas for capturing that feeling honestly, this guide to engagement pictures breaks down poses that read as natural rather than stiff.
The trick is treating the shoot as documentation, not performance.
Make the Session Mean Something
A few things that separate the photos you’ll frame from the ones you’ll forget:

Pick a location with a backstory – the coffee shop where you met beats a generic park every time.
Bring one object that carries weight – a ticket stub, a beat-up book, the dog.
Plan for movement – walking, laughing, whispering. Static poses age badly.
Leave room for the unplanned shot – the best frame is usually between the ones you asked for.

None of this requires a big budget, just a little intention, which is the same currency that moves your commitment forward.
The Discipline Nobody Talks About
Booking the shoot is easy. Following through is where people stall, and it looks a lot like every other goal that dies in the planning stage. You schedule it, then you talk yourself out of the outfit, the timing, and the awkwardness of standing in front of a lens.
Push past that anyway. The couples who commit tend to be the same ones who treat their relationship like something worth investing in deliberately. Showing up for a photo session is a small rep, but small reps compound. In many ways, it’s the same principle behind why small habits build strong families.
Strong relationships, according to the Gottman Institute, are built less on grand gestures than on repeated small moments of connection. An engagement shoot is simply an hour of those moments, on purpose
Strong relationships, according to the Gottman Institute, are built less on grand gestures than on repeated small moments of connection. An engagement shoot is basically an hour of those, on purpose.
Turning the Engagement Pictures Into a Story You Keep
Digital files disappear into cloud folders nobody opens. That’s the real risk. The engagement pictures that shape how you remember this season are the ones you can hold.
Printing them changes the relationship you have with the memory. A book on the shelf gets picked up. A framed shot on the wall becomes part of the room. If you’re deciding how to preserve the set, you can learn more about turning a gallery into something physical and lasting here.
Some couples build a simple timeline: first date, the proposal, the engagement pictures, the wedding and hang it where they’ll see it daily. It becomes a quiet reminder of momentum, which is exactly the kind of fuel that keeps big goals moving forward, especially now that you’ll share and build a life together.
Start With One Frame
You don’t need the whole plan figured out. Book the session, choose a spot that means something, and let the rest happen. Engagement pictures aren’t only about looking good on a wedding invite—they’re a checkpoint, a way of pausing long enough to see how much ground two people can cover when they decide to build something together.
Look back at them a decade from now. The poses will fade from memory, but the feeling won’t. That’s the part you’ll carry with you.
The post Engagement Pictures: Turning Your Proposal Journey Into a Story of Growth and Success appeared first on Addicted 2 Success.

Looking for help with today’s NYT Strands puzzle? Here’s an extra hint to help you uncover the right words, as well as all of today’s answers and Spangram.

JPMorganChase has pledged to pour $750 billion into housing through 2035.The firm’s overall goals are to increase housing inventory and to make homeownership more attainable in the U.S., according to an Aug. 3 JPMorganChase press release.This plan represents an expansion on the company’s existing American Dream Initiative, originally launched in March 2026. The initiative aims to help make the American Dream attainable for more people and has six focus areas, one being housing access and affordability.The $750 billion pledge marks a 40% increase in the company’s housing fund deployment over the last decade. The plan is for the money to finance 1 million affordable housing units and help 500,000 Americans buy homes.”We’re focused on helping more people access quality housing they can afford — and we’re working across the real estate community, local governments, and nonprofits to scale housing solutions throughout the U.S.,” Michelle Herrick, head of commercial real estate for JPMorgan, said in the press release.JPMorganChase plans to help solve the U.S. housing affordability crisis in three key areas.1. The firm will finance 1 million affordable housing unitsJPMorganChase wants to finance 1 million affordable units. The firm defines “affordable units” as ones targeted for households earnings under 120% of the area median income (AMI).AMI is based on where you live and how many people live in your household. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates AMI yearly for specific counties and metro areas.Related: Fewer foreign homebuyers won’t fix U.S. affordabilityThe firm plans to partner with developers, government entities, nonprofits, and owners to build or preserve local housing supplies. It will use tools such as debt, equity, and grants through these partnerships.As an example of how this plays out locally, the firm explained current efforts in San Francisco.To increase housing supply in San Francisco, JPMorganChase worked to provide $6 million in new grants to the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, Community Vision Capital & Consulting, The Housing Action Coalition, and Housing California.

Building more affordable housing units helps both inventory and pricing problems in the U.S.The Good Brigade / Getty Images

2. JPMorgan will help 500,000 people buy homesJPMorgan’s second focus area is to help 500,000 customers, including 200,000 first-time homebuyers, buy homes.Many first-time homebuyers face disadvantages because they have lower down payments, lower income, and higher debt-to-income ratios (DTIs) than repeat buyers.The average down payment for first-time buyers was 10% in 2025, according to the National Association of Realtors. Repeat buyers put down an average of 23%.More Housing Market:How the South became America’s biggest buyer’s marketFewer foreign homebuyers won’t fix U.S. affordabilityNew Redfin data shows housing market is changing fastJPMorgan wants to help more people buy homes by upping its mortgage lending by over 40% and hiring 850 new Home Lending Advisors.Chase Home Lending is already the country’s largest residential bank mortgage lender and multifamily lender, so this increase could help move the needle.Currently, Chase does not provide mortgage loans for modular or manufactured housing — but the company plans to change its offerings.After reporting on the housing market for years, I can confidently say that access to manufactured and modular housing is crucial in solving the housing affordability crisis. This translates to more inventory and more lenders offering loans for these types of properties.Manufactured and modular homes are built in factories. The assembly lines and year-round construction cuts labor costs, so the housing is more affordable for buyers, explains the National Conferences of State Legislatures.”The firm will also work with organizations to help lower mortgage costs and improve long-term affordability, including through down payment assistance,” JPMorganChase said in the press release.3. The company is getting involved in housing policyThe first two initiatives will help people who get a mortgage through Chase specifically. The third focuses on helping the housing industry as a whole.JPMorganChase plans to get involved with U.S. policy advocacy and research.”Beyond financing, JPMorganChase can support pro-growth housing policies by bringing data, expertise, and convening power to the table,” Olivia Barrow Strauss, vice president of housing at JPMorganChase PolicyCenter, told TheStreet.”That includes working with policymakers, industry groups, community partners, and coalitions like the U.S. Chamber’s Housing Advisory Council to advance evidence-based policy and local solutions that streamline development, unlock underused land, modernize building codes, improve permitting, and expand pathways to homeownership,” Barrow continued.JPMorganChase will also join as chair of the Housing Advisory Council, a new council formed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The council will work to influence local, state, and federal housing policies.How Chase provides more affordable mortgages nowJPMorganChase has grand plans for improving home affordability through 2035. But plenty of Americans want to buy a home in the next year or two — not in 2035.I reached out to JPMorganChase to ask about more immediate ways it is helping homebuyers. Sam Sheets, housing affordability lead at Chase Home Lending, responded with a list of programs Chase is already offering.”These include offering low down payment mortgages, and the Chase Homebuyer Grant up to $5,000 in eligible areas, which homebuyers can use to help with down payment, closing costs, or to buy mortgage points to reduce the interest rate,” Sheets told TheStreet.You can also receive a mortgage rate discount by joining Chase as a new customer. Through the bank’s relationship pricing program, your mortgage interest rate will be 0.05% to 1% lower, depending on how much new money or investments you deposit.Chase is a good mortgage lender for first-time homebuyers and financial assistance. However, it’s always a good idea to shop around with a few lenders to find the lowest mortgage rate and lender fees.Related: Rocket Mortgage just lost its No. 1 spot with J.D. Power

Sam Altman is probably the tech honcho you’ve heard the most about over the past three years. The OpenAI CEO has helped revolutionize artificial intelligence by putting ChatGPT into the hands of millions. Yet surprisingly, his personal fortune wasn’t built through an ownership stake in the company that now defines the AI boom.Instead, Altman says, arguably one of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors helped shape the way he hunts for opportunities.That investor is Peter Thiel, the venture-capital mogul who cofounded PayPal (PYPL) and Palantir (PLTR), among a laundry list of other popular tech bets.Then there is Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, whose market wisdom has effectively guided generations of investors through booms and crashes.Though their styles might seem contrasting, Altman’s latest comments underscore a common thread connecting all three.What investing rule unites Sam Altman, Buffett, and Thiel? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s core investing principle isn’t rocket science:“The biggest opportunities rarely look popular when the best returns are still available.”Altman said on the Invest Like the Best podcast that venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Paul Graham taught him that the biggest companies and investment opportunities are “almost never” the ones attracting the most attention. Investors can earn healthy returns by spotting trends slightly earlier than others, but achieving exceptional outcomes usually requires something the crowd hasn’t embraced. That investing idea strongly resembles Palantir co-founder Thiel’s philosophy.Case in point was Thiel’s early investment in Facebook, now Meta Platforms (META).  According to The Guardian, in 2004, when Facebook was still a small college network, Thiel was one of its first outside backers, putting $500,000 for a 10.2% stake. Social networking was still in its infancy, and Facebook wasn’t nearly as close to being the multi-billion-dollar business it is today.Related: Sam Altman makes stunning admission about AIIt’s important, though, to understand contrarianism through Thiel’s lens.According to him, genuine contrarianism involved thinking independently, not simply opposing the crowd merely to appear different. The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, has an investing strategy that echoes much of what Thiel is looking at. However, his emphasis is less on unconventional startups and more on controlling emotions that sweep through markets. Investors who become frightened just because everyone else is are unlikely to build substantial long-term wealth, Buffett has warned.His 2008 Goldman Sachs investment puts that principle into practice.With the financial market still panicking after the Lehman Brothers’ collapse, Berkshire invested $5 billion in Goldman preferred shares, securing a 10% annual dividend along with valuable stock warrants. That investment eventually generated billions in gains, showing how Buffett used independent analysis to buy even though fear overwhelmed the market. So even though the approaches may appear different, the shared rule is pretty clear: important investment decisions should come from independent judgment rather than popularity, fear, or momentum. How did Altman build billions without OpenAI equity? Interestingly, despite leading a business valued at an eye-popping $852 billion, Altman reportedly owns no OpenAI equity and receives a salary of nearly $76,000.However, Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.3 billion, largely generated over two decades in Silicon Valley.His tremendous portfolio started taking shape before OpenAI. After selling his location-sharing startup Loopt in 2012, Altman used the proceeds to launch Hydrazine Capital, with Peter Thiel becoming its largest outside investor. His subsequent role as Y Combinator president gave him early access to startups, including Airbnb, Stripe, and Reddit, before they became globally recognized companies.The early results were unusually strong.According to The Wall Street Journal, Altman said in 2014 that he had invested in 40 companies, five of which had already increased in value by at least 100-fold. His portfolio has reportedly since expanded to stakes in more than 400 companies.More Warren Buffett:Warren Buffett reveals he broke his own investing patternWarren Buffett has a blunt take on today’s marketWarren Buffett pulls no punches on stock market for 2026Moreover, Altman’s wealth hasn’t spread evenly across these investments.According to a US News Money report, detailing his holdings as of Dec. 31, 2025, he held a $1.7 billion stake in fusion-energy company Helion, a $633 million position in Stripe, and $258 million invested in longevity startup Retro Biosciences, according to Reuters. Moreover, his Reddit holdings were worth over $600 million when the social media giant went public in 2024, though he exited the position by the end of 2025.We can see that only a handful of extraordinary winners account for most of his wealth.Helion is perhaps the clearest example of that concentrated conviction. Altman first invested in the business around 2015, following with $375 million in 2021, the largest startup check he had ever written. The company was a nuclear fusion startup with a tremendously massive capital-intensive technology with no proven business model or operating sales.That said, that risky bet has gained immensely in paper value.Reuters reports that Helion raised $465 million in June 2026 at a $15.5 billion valuation, nearly triple its valuation from early 2025. Altman’s approach is different from conventional diversification. It resembles more of a venture-capital barbell approach, where he invests across hundreds of companies, then places much larger sums behind the few ideas with the potential to reshape entire sectors.

Sam Altman credits Peter Thiel with shaping his contrarian approach to investing.Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times

Why contrarian investing is harder than it sounds It’s important to understand that Altman, Thiel, and Buffett aren’t advocating contrarianism for the sake of it.Unpopular investments are often unpopular for legitimate reasons.A company might have weak finances, poor management, or technology that never becomes commercially viable. In this situation, it’s wise to go against the grain when the crowd has misunderstood the underlying business or underestimated its long-term outlook.Moreover, Altman also benefited from advantages ordinary investors might not possess. He spent decades inside Silicon Valley, led Y Combinator, and developed direct access to founders, technologies, and private companies long before they reached public markets. Paul Graham offered hands-on guidance, while Peter Thiel was the largest outside investor in Altman’s first venture fund, Hydrazine.Hence, the practical takeaway for investors is not just to seek obscure investments. It is imperative to develop sufficient knowledge to recognize when the market consensus is wrong, and then have the patience and resilience to wait for that thesis to play out.Altman’s track record shows that tremendous wealth can come from identifying major shifts before they become obvious. However, Buffet and Thiel add an essential safeguard.According to them, independent thinking needs to be backed by discipline, evidence, and temperament, or contrarian investing becomes little more than expensive guesswork.Related: Warren Buffett keeps pointing at the same ETF for a reason

Trump previously said the plane would be on display at his presidential library once he left office.