The BMO Real Financial Progress Index finds the all-in average cost of a date in the US hit $189 in 2026 — up 12.5% in a year, with Millennials averaging $252 — and 47% of singles say dating is no longer financially worth it. Also: a new Global Burden of Disease study published in The Lancet finds the US has the largest \"morbidity gap\" in the world — 14 years of life spent in poor health — and the bad news is it's not just happening at the end of life. And a new West Health-Gallup survey finds 24% of US employees — roughly 23 million people — are staying in unwanted jobs specifically to keep their health insurance, up from 16% in 2021. Plus the easyJet mid-air brawl, Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, the Pan Am plane found after 74 years, and a Florida man with a flamethrower at a Walmart.
","author_name":"Keith Conrad"}