Merge pull request #10502 from tvegas1/news-1.18.1-rc1

NEWS: Update to 1.18.1-rc1 release

Merge pull request #10428 from tvegas1/news_1.18.0_release

NEWS: Update to 1.18.0 for release

Merge pull request #10313 from tvegas1/news_1.18.0-rc1

RELEASE: Updated NEWS for v1.18.0-rc1

Merge pull request #10365 from tvegas1/news_v1.18.0-rc2

RELEASE: Mark NEWS for 1.18.0-rc2 as TBD for now

Merge pull request #10330 from tvegas1/news_1.18.rc1_tbd

RELEASE: Mark NEWS for 1.18.0-rc1 as TBD for now

Merge pull request #9956 from shasson5/news

RELEASE: Update NEWS 1.17 GA

Merge pull request #9939 from shasson5/news

RELEASE: Updated NEWS 1.17 RC3

Merge pull request #9923 from shasson5/news

RELEASE: Update NEWS 1.17 RC2

Merge pull request #9879 from shasson5/authors

RELEASE: Updated AUTHORS list for v1.17

Merge pull request #9822 from shasson5/topic/news-1.16.0

RELEASE: Update NEWS for 1.16 GA version