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AI is already in school. Some lawmakers say Delaware needs to keep up

Published

18 hours ago

September 15, 2025

The Editors

Delaware Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester co-introduced a bill to help states develop K-12 academic standards for artificial intelligence.
Indian River High School is accepting nominations for its alumni hall of fame to honor graduates for their achievements and service.
A tuition-free summer program, Horizons Tower Hill, aims to close academic and social gaps for Wilmington students.

The school year is humming right along, and some Delaware leaders are hoping it can stay ahead.

Down in Washington, D.C., Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester has joined other lawmakers to support strengthening state standards in bringing artificial intelligence and digital literacy to the classroom.

Meanwhile, Indian River High School is looking far and wide for alumni talent to fill its hall of fame.

In this weekly roundup, we’ll catch you up on some education updates you may have missed.

(Did we miss another good education story? Let me know: kepowers@gannett.com.)

Sen. Blunt Rochester helps introduce bill to bring AI to classroom

It isn’t news that AI has reached the classroom.

But Delaware’s U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, alongside Republican Sen. Jon Husted from Ohio, introduced a bill on Sept. 9 looking to support states in “developing academic standards for artificial intelligence for K-12 students.” Recommending Artificial Intelligence Standards in Education, or the RAISE Act, looks to gives states the authority to develop their own AI curriculum and build competency, according to a press release.

The act comes in response to a growing need for AI and technology literacy in schools, so American – and Delawarean – students can compete. The next generation needs a growing academic foundation to “leave the classroom with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in our changing economy,” Blunt Rochester’s press release reads.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is the federal law that already requires states to set learning standards for core subjects, like math, reading and science. This legislation would encourage the creation of similar standards for artificial intelligence, according to lawmakers.

Indian River High School needs you to fill its hall of fame

As the school district put it: “Every community has its quiet heroes.”

And Indian River High School is hoping to find them. The “Indian River High School Hall of Fame” looks to honor alumni who embody the values of citizenship, leadership and service, with “not only a recognition of personal achievement but also a reminder to current students that greatness can begin right here in Frankford.”

Previous inductees have included legislators and educators, as well as artists, athletes and civic leaders who helpped build communities, now spread out across the country.

Nominations for the 2025-26 hall of fame are now being accepted.

To be eligible, nominees must have graduated from Indian River High School at least 10 years prior to nomination. The selection committee looks at professional accomplishments, recognition in the nominee’s chosen field, as well as a demonstrated commitment to service and to the IRHS community.

The deadline to submit is Oct. 17, and more information can be found online.

ICYMI: Growing Horizons Tower Hill looks to fill gaps school can’t reach

Gemelle John became the executive director of “Horizons Tower Hill,” Delaware’s first affiliate of a national nonprofit, in 2023.

That’s not summer school, and it’s not camp. But a budding program fit with core classes, reading specialists and field trips alike, Horizons looks to offer a tuition-free, six-week program to support Wilmington students in the summer.

“I think about it pragmatically, so literally doing things to close the gap,” John said in a recent Q&A with Delaware Online/The News Journal.

“Sending their kids to all sorts of experiences, traveling, all that ‘social capital’ is gained by families with a lot of resources – we’re closing the gap by providing field trips and enrichment.”

It all started with about 15 rising first graders. Now, this summer, nearly 40 rising first-to-third graders were learning with educators, reading specialists and dozens of Tower Hill student volunteers. The program looks to build relationships with teachers and families alike.

John has just one school partnership, so far, in EastSide Charter – but she hopes to see much more on the horizon.

“If there are schools in and around the city who are interested, they can reach out to me,” she said. “We are currently vetting for a second school. We’re actively looking for that sometime this fall. That school should understand we are looking to create a long-term relationship.”

Got a tip? Contact Kelly Powers at kepowers@gannett.com.

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Dulce Maria Alavez missing: Police using AI in search for girl who vanished from Bridgeton, NJ park

Published

29 minutes ago

September 16, 2025

The Editors

BRIDGETON, N.J. (WPVI) — Tuesday marks six years since Dulce Maria Alavez vanished from Bridgeton City Park, and investigators say they remain committed to solving the case.

Dulce was 5 years old when she was last seen playing with her younger brother on the afternoon of Sept. 16, 2019. Her mother, Noema Alavez Perez, stayed in her car nearby with her younger sister. Moments later, Dulce was gone.

Surveillance video shows the last known images of Dulce Alavez before she went missing.

While marking the anniversary, Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said the New Jersey State Police have begun using artificial intelligence in hopes of uncovering new clues.

TIMELINE: The search for 5-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez

“Our commitment to uncovering the truth has never wavered-we will never forget, and we remain steadfast in our mission to bring closure to the family,” said Colonel Patrick Callahan, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

The FBI believes Dulce’s abduction may have been a random crime of opportunity.

“We believe there are witnesses out there who saw the abductor, who saw the vehicle in the area of the park,” said FBI Special Agent Daniel Garrabrant in a 2020 interview with Action News. “They either haven’t come forward because they’re afraid or don’t realize how important the information is.”

Authorities have released several age-progression images of Dulce, the most recent in 2023.

Age-progression photos released Thursday (left) and Wednesday (right) show what Dulce Maria Alavez could look like today.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

No arrests have been made in the case. About a month after her disappearance, police released a sketch of a man who remains a person of interest. He was described as a Hispanic male, approximately 5-foot-7, slender build, age 30 to 35, wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a white baseball-style hat.

On October 15, 2019, nearly a month into the case, police released a composite sketch of a person who may have information on Dulce Maria Alavez's disappearance. — On October 15, 2019, nearly a month into the case, police released a composite sketch of a person who may have information on Dulce Maria Alavez’s disappearance.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office at www.ccpo.tips, the New Jersey State Police Special Investigations Section at 1-833-465-2653, or the FBI’s tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). If you speak Spanish, you can call 856-207-2732.

“This investigation is like a large puzzle,” Webb-McRae said. “There are missing puzzle pieces. We don’t know their significance or where they fit until the pieces are collected.”

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This Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF Has Outperformed the Market By 2.4X Since Inception and Only Holds Profitable Companies

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2025

The Editors

For well under $100, you can buy one share of this under-the-radar AI exchange-traded fund (ETF) that looks poised to continue to outperform the market.

For this article, I asked myself: Where would I start investing if I had less than $100 to invest?

Image source: Getty Images.

An AI ETF that’s concentrated and full of leading and profitable companies

This answer to my question popped into my head: I’d want a concentrated exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on leading and profitable companies heavily involved in artificial intelligence (AI), but with enough differences among themselves.

Why an ETF? Because I’d not want to put all my (investing) eggs in one basket.

Why AI? Because it’s poised to be the biggest secular trend in many decades or even generations.

Why concentrated? Because I believe if investors are going to buy a very diversified ETF, they might as well buy the entire market, so to speak, and buy an S&P 500 index ETF. Indeed, buying an S&P 500 index fund is a good idea for many investors, and recommended by investing legend Warren Buffett. That said, over the long run, I think an AI ETF full of only leading and profitable companies will beat the S&P 500 index.

Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS): Overview

And bingo! There is such an ETF — the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS 1.92%). It has seven holdings — the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks: Alphabet (GOOG 4.38%) (GOOGL 4.53%), Amazon (AMZN 1.42%), Apple (AAPL 1.06%), Meta Platforms (META 1.18%), Microsoft (MSFT 1.01%), Nvidia (NVDA -0.10%), and Tesla (TSLA 3.54%). This ETF closed at $62.93 per share on Friday, Sept. 12.

These megacap stocks (stocks with market caps over $200 billion) were given the Magnificent Seven name a couple of years ago by a Wall Street analyst due to their strong growth and large influence on the overall market. The name comes from the title of a 1960 Western film.

Two other main traits I like about this ETF:

Its expense ratio is reasonable at 0.29%.
It provides equal-weight exposure to the seven stocks. At each quarterly rebalancing, the stocks will be reset to an equal weighting of about 14.28% (100% divided by 7).

Since its inception in April 2023 (almost 2.5 years), the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF has returned 160% — 2.4 times the S&P 500’s 65.9% return.

Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS): All stock holdings

Stocks are listed in order of current weight in portfolio. Keep in mind the ETF is rebalanced quarterly to make stocks equally weighted.

Holding No.	Company	Market Cap	Wall Street’s Projected Annualized EPS Growth Over Next 5 Years	Weight (% of Portfolio)	1 Year/ 10-Year Returns
1	Alphabet	$2.9 trillion	14.7%	17.72%	55.9% / 677%
2	Nvidia	$4.3 trillion	34.9%	15.00%	49.3% / 32,210%
3	Apple	$3.5 trillion	8.8%	14.13%	5.6% / 812%
4	Tesla	$1.3 trillion	13.4%	13.81%	72.3% / 2,270%
5	Amazon	$2.4 trillion	18.6%	13.30%	22% / 762%
6	Meta Platforms	$1.9 trillion	12.9%	13.16%	44.3% / 725%
7	Microsoft	$3.8 trillion	16.6%	12.76%	20.3% / 1,250%
Overall ETF	N/A	Total net assets of $2.86 billion	N/A	100%	40.5% / N/A
N/A	S&P 500	N/A	N/A	N/A	19.2% / 300%

Data sources: Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF, finviz.com, and YCharts. EPS = earnings per share. Data as of Sept. 12, 2025.

All these companies are profitable leaders in their core markets, and heavily involved in AI. Nvidia produces AI tech that enables others to use AI, while the other companies mainly use AI to improve their existing products and develop new ones.

Alphabet’s Google is the world leader in internet search. Its cloud computing business is No. 3 in the world, behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. The company also has other businesses, notably its driverless vehicle subsidiary, Waymo. (You can read here why I believe Nvidia is the best driverless vehicle stock.)

Nvidia is often described as the world’s leading maker of AI chips — and that it is. But it’s much more. It’s the world leader in supplying technology infrastructure for enabling AI. It’s also the global leader in graphics processing units (GPUs) for computer gaming.

Apple’s iPhone holds the No. 2 spot in the global smartphone market, behind Samsung. However, it dominates the U.S. market. The company’s services business is attractive, as it consists of recurring revenue and has been steadily growing.

Amazon operates the world’s No. 1 e-commerce business and the world’s No. 1 cloud computing business. It also has many other businesses, notably its Fresh and Amazon Prime Now (Whole Foods) grocery delivery operations.

Meta Platforms operates the world’s leading social media site, Facebook, as well as Instagram, Threads, and messaging app WhatsApp.

Microsoft’s Word has long been the world’s leading word processing software. Word is part of Microsoft Office, a suite of popular software for personal computers (PCs). Its Azure is the world’s second-largest cloud computing business.

Tesla remains the No. 1 electric vehicle (EV) maker, by far, in the U.S. despite struggling recently. In the first half of 2025, China’s BYD surpassed Tesla as the world’s leader in all-electric vehicles by number of units sold. CEO Elon Musk touts that the company’s robotaxi and Optimus humanoid robot businesses will eventually be larger than its EV sales business.

In short, the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF is poised to continue to benefit from the growth of artificial intelligence. Technically, it doesn’t have a long-term history. But if it had existed many years ago, it’s easy to tell that its long-term performance would be very strong because the long-term performances of all its holdings have been anywhere from great to spectacular.

Beth McKenna has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends BYD Company and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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OpenAI’s new GPT-5 Codex model takes on Claude Code

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2025

The Editors

OpenAI is rolling out the GPT-5 Codex model to all Codex instances, including Terminal, IDE extension, and Codex Web (chatgpt.com/codex).

Codex is an AI agent that allows you to automate coding-related tasks. You can delegate your complex tasks to Codex and watch it execute code for you.

Even if you don’t know programming languages, you can use Codex to “vibe code” your apps and web apps.

But so far, it has fallen a bit short of Claude Code, which is the market leader in the AI coding space.

Today, OpenAI confirmed it’s rolling out the Codex-special GPT-5 model.

In a blog post, OpenAI stated the GPT-5 Codex model excels in real-world coding tasks, achieving a 74.5% success rate on the SWE-bench Verified benchmark.

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