Science and science-adjacent news today spans policy, wildlife and the business of space. In Washington, the U.S. Education Department has opened a Title IX investigation into Smith College’s admissions policy for transgender women, a case that could test how federal law treats sex-based protections at single-sex institutions. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney has tapped former Supreme Court justice and international jurist Louise Arbour to serve as the next governor general, underscoring the growing weight of legal expertise in public life. In Texas, a jury sentenced Tanner Horner to death for the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand, closing one phase of a case that shocked the country. On a lighter note, biologists are marveling at a coyote’s unexpected two-mile swim to Alcatraz, while in the space sector former NASA chief Jim Bridenstine takes over Quantum Space as defense-focused orbital ambitions accelerate.