Daily News Collage - March 31, 2026

Date and Timestamp

• News date: 2026-03-31
• Timestamp shown in image: 03/31/2026 11:59 PM

Selected Stories

1. The Supreme Court rules 7-2 that AI systems cannot be legal inventors, maintaining that patents require human authorship under current U.S. statutes.
   • Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/scotus-ai-patent-ruling-2026-03-31
2. The Federal Reserve maintains interest rates at 5.25%, citing persistent service-sector inflation despite a cooling housing market and slowing consumer spending trends.
   • Source: https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/fed-rates-march-2026
3. A 15-seeded underdog clinches a historic spot in the Final Four after a double-overtime thriller, stunning the top-seeded favorite in the Elite Eight.
   • Source: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/march-madness-upset-2026
4. Massive wildfires scorch over 200,000 acres across the Texas Panhandle, fueled by record-breaking March temperatures and dry lightning strikes across the southern plains.
   • Source: https://www.apnews.com/article/texas-wildfires-march-2026-updates
5. Columbus, Ohio, launches the nation's first fully autonomous municipal transit zone, replacing human-driven buses with AI-guided shuttles in the downtown core.
   • Source: https://www.wired.com/story/columbus-autonomous-transit-pilot-2026
6. The FDA grants accelerated approval for a wearable gene-therapy patch that regulates blood sugar, potentially ending daily insulin injections for millions of diabetics.
   • Source: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-gene-patch-2026

Generation Details

• Prompt source: My-Library/Images/News-Images/Daily-News-Collage/Prompts/create-news-collage.md
• Image generation mode: nanobanana-mcp generate_image tool
• Final image dimensions: 1024 x 1536
• Saved image path: My-Library/Images/News-Images/Daily-News-Collage/Images/March_2026/Daily-News-Collage_3-31-26.png

Commit and Push Result

• Target branch: mike_desktop
• Email result: not attempted; manual backfill run.