National News Desk

SEATTLE, Wash. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Friday Harbor has been named to HousingWire's 2026 Tech100 Mortgage list, an award that recognizes the most innovative technology companies shaping the future of mortgage lending. Friday Harbor was selected for advancing the use of artificial intelligence to bring underwriting insight earlier in the loan lifecycle, helping lenders surface and resolve potential issues before files reach final underwriting. Friday Harbor's approach has been adopted by approximately 25 lenders, including two of the top 10 independent mortgage banks.

AUSTIN, Texas /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- FirstClose™, a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, has been named a 2026 HousingWire TECH100 winner. HousingWire selected FirstClose for its end-to-end lending platform that combines real-time property intelligence with automated workflows to help lenders accelerate decisioning, reduce operational friction and close loans faster.

BOULDER, Colo. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Floify, the mortgage industry's leading point-of-sale (POS) solution, has been named to HousingWire's 2026 Mortgage Tech100 list, which recognizes the most innovative and impactful technology organizations serving the mortgage and housing finance ecosystem.

NEW YORK, N.Y. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Vertyx, a provider of intelligent mortgage servicing technology built for enhanced portfolio performance, today announced the completion of a milestone year marked by significant market expansion, increased platform adoption and continued innovation across compliance, security and community engagement.

LAKE ZURICH, Ill. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. (DMI), a leading mortgage subservicing company, announced today that it maintained a Tier 1 Rating from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) throughout 2025. This quarterly rating was awarded for Dovenmuehle's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) servicing performance under HUD's Tier Ranking System II (TRS II).

NEW YORK, N.Y. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- HitPaw Edimakor officially releases version 4.6.0 - bringing powerful new AI-driven upgrades to video and image editing. This major update focuses on smarter automation, smoother workflows, and higher-quality results - helping content creators, businesses, and everyday users produce professional visuals with far less effort.

TORRINGTON, Conn. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Keystone Place at Newbury Brook recently welcomed Chief Bill Baldwin and members of the Torrington Police Department for a special breakfast honoring local police officers and recognizing their continued service to the community.

OWENSBORO, Ky. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn has been recognized as one of America's five most iconic buffets in a recent Fox News feature highlighting the nation's premier all-you-can-eat dining destinations. The family-owned restaurant joins an elite group that includes renowned establishments from Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Rhode Island.

ATLANTA, Ga. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- "Living Story from East Africa," an AI-generated cinematic short created by storyteller and entrepreneur Chris Williams, has surpassed 28 million views on Instagram since its Jan. 23 release, based on the platform's publicly displayed view count on the post. Created using ChatGPT for story development and Sora 2 for video generation.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- "Love, Life and Mother Nature: Picture Book of Poems" (ISBN: 978-1834182124 released September, 2025 by Tellwell Publishing) by James C. Glassford is a poetry collection that explores the natural world as a source of reflection, learning, and emotional grounding. Paired with original photography, the book presents nature as both a physical environment and a place for personal contemplation.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Professor Scott B. Fulton distills five decades of functional aging research into a new practical self‑assessment framework that helps midlife adults see, and improve, their true healthspan trajectory. Fulton's latest book, 'FUNCTION' is a hands‑on guide organizing 44 simple self‑assessments into a five‑part functional portfolio

ARGYLE, Texas, /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Scott's K9 has reached a significant milestone with over 4,000 dogs trained and placed globally. These protection dogs for sale range from police and government contract placements to private protection dogs. This is an achievement founder, Steve Scott, attributes to a differentiator most protection dog companies lack: authentic police K9 experience applied to family protection.

DENVER, Colo. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- ACES Quality Management® (ACES), the leading provider of enterprise quality management and control software for the financial services industry, today announced its acquisition of Basecap Analytics, an established enterprise data quality platform trusted by leading financial institutions. The acquisition enhances ACES' ability to deliver end-to-end quality management by expanding its platform to include enterprise-wide data quality automation.

NEW YORK, N.Y. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Vertyx, a provider of intelligent mortgage servicing technology built for enhanced portfolio performance, today announced the release of Borrower Relationship Management, a new capability within its end-to-end mortgage servicing platform designed to help servicers and investors identify retention and recapture opportunities earlier, deliver timely outreach through borrower channels and measure engagement.

SEATTLE, Wash. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Elite Remodeling Seattle, formerly Elite Remodeling LLC, a design-build construction and renovation company serving the Greater Seattle area for nearly two decades, today announced a strategic rebrand and the release of a new consumer protection resource. This measure aims to prevent identity confusion between the independent, locally owned business and unrelated companies operating under similar names in other states.

ATLANTA, Ga. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Down Payment Resource (DPR), the housing industry authority on homeownership program data and solutions, today released its Q4 2025 Homeownership Program Index (HPI) report, identifying 2,619 programs. While the total count is five programs fewer than the prior quarter, it marked a 6% increase from a year earlier, rising from 2,466 programs in Q4 2024. The year-over-year (YoY) growth reflects continued expansion and refinement of program options amid persistent housing affordability challenges across much of the country.

NEW YORK, N.Y. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- The World Fertility Awards (WFAs), produced by pregnantish, the first global, consumer-facing media event dedicated to celebrating the changemakers shaping the future of fertility, took place on December 1, 2025 at the Times Center in New York City. Unlike traditional industry conferences, the event was designed to reach beyond clinical and professional audiences, uniting advocates, clinicians, innovators, industry leaders, and media to spotlight progress, purpose, and possibility in reproductive health.

LAKE ZURICH, Ill. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. (Dovenmuehle), a leading residential mortgage subservicer, announced today that Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has affirmed its servicer quality (SQ) assessment as a servicer of prime residential mortgage loans at SQ2-. Moody's assessment highlights Dovenmuehle's strong performance and disciplined execution across key areas of mortgage servicing.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Franklin Madison is thrilled to announce the addition of Farah Rehman as Group Vice President, Revenue Execution. With 24 years of experience spanning product development, sales, marketing, and strategy, Farah brings a distinguished track record of helping build and scale insurance businesses to the executive leadership team.

AUSTIN, Texas /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- FirstClose™, a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, today announced 2025 results showing faster closings and measurable efficiency gains as lenders used its technology to meet rising home equity demand in a high-interest-rate environment. The company reduced closing timelines, expanded key integrations and strengthened its operating foundation to support scalable growth in 2026.