Truck Driver Salaries Rising On Surging Freight Demand

Churreria de Madrid has fried its last churro. The shop, at 2501 Dallas St. in Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace, which was centered around the fried-dough and sugar-dusted treat, posted online this week that it had permanently closed. Churreria de Madrid first opened in 2021 as an offshoot of the nearby Maria Empanada, a popular fixture at the Stanley whose chef, Jose Manuel Marquez, split off to form Churreria de Madrid with the support of Maria Empanada owners Lorena and Daniel Cantarovici. “We regret to inform you that Churreria de Madrid  has closed,” owners wrote online.

Enlarge (credit: Amazon) In September of 2023, Amazon announced the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition. It looked just like the regular Echo Show 8 smart display/speaker but cost $10 more. Why? Because of its ability to show photos on the home screen for as long as you want—if you signed up for a $2 monthly subscription to Amazon's PhotosPlus.

Enlarge / Artist's conception of Randy Pitchford surveying the Epic Games Store landscape years after Borderlands 3's exclusive launch there. (credit: Gearbox) It's been five years now since the PC version of Borderlands 3 launched as a high-profile timed exclusive on the Epic Games Store. At the time, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford memorably mused that Steam "may look like a dying store" in "five or ten years" thanks to increased competition from Epic and others. Fast-forward to this week's announcement of Borderlands 4, and despite Pitchford's old comments, the sequel will not follow its predecessor's example of EGS exclusivity. The new game plans to launch on Steam and EGS simultaneously sometime in 2025 (alongside PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions). When one social media user noticed that change this week, Pitchford responded with another lengthy message explaining why his early hopes for the Epic Games Store's rise to dominance were "misplaced or overly optimistic."Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Enlarge / A VW worker on the assembly line at Emden in Germany. (credit: Volkswagen) Volkswagen will wait to see what electric car demand is like before building out all six of its previously planned battery factories. Thomas Schmall, VW's board member in charge of technology, told a German newspaper that "building battery cell factories is not an end to itself" and that a goal of 200 GWh of lithium-ion cells by 2030 was not set in stone. It's a bit too simplistic to say that all new technologies conform to the now-infamous Gartner hype cycle, but it's hard not to think of that squiggly line when discussing EVs.

Enlarge (credit: Olga Pankova/Moment via Getty Images) In 2019, an agency within the US Department of Defense released a call for research projects to help the military deal with the copious amount of plastic waste generated when troops are sent to work in remote locations or disaster zones. The agency wanted a system that could convert food wrappers and water bottles, among other things, into usable products, such as fuel and rations.

Enlarge / NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, seen in their Boeing flight suits. (credit: NASA/Francisco Martin) After months of consideration, NASA said Thursday that it will finally decide the fate of two astronauts on board the International Space Station, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, by this weekend. As soon as Saturday, the two crew members will learn whether they'll return on a Starliner spacecraft in early September or a Crew Dragon vehicle next February. On the eve of this fateful decision, the most consequential human spaceflight safety determination NASA has had to make in more than two decades, Ars has put together a summary of what we know, what we believe to be true, and what remains yet unknown. Why has NASA taken so long? Wilmore and Williams arrived at the International Space Station 11 weeks ago.