QCA.news - Quad Cities news and view from both sides of the river

Tuesday, August 25th, 2026
	Mostly rain-free week ahead Our week got off to a great start Monday and Tuesday looks equally as nice. While there are some rain chances this week, it won't be a wash out. Here's your full 7-day forecast.
	How the AIDS crisis helped create a multibillion-dollar death-speculation market Investors will buy your life insurance policy today — and collect the payout when you die.
	Epigrams This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Until 1961, Rock Islanders could get a free education in one of two ways: they could spend their half hour a day…
	Can Trump's economic war against Iran do what airstrikes and negotiations couldn't? What a new round of U.S. sanctions could mean after nearly six months of war with Iran — and years of economic pressure on the country.
	Reconstruction of 35th St. in Moline begins August 28 It's an Our Quad Cities News traffic alert. According to a release from the City of Moline, reconstruction of 35th St. between 37th and 38th avenues begins Friday, August 28. The roadway will be closed to through traffic during construction, with work anticipated to be completed in late October. The approximately $300,000 project includes:• Removal [...]
	At least 25% of former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE, study finds Playing football has long been linked to the brain disease known as CTE, but how prevalent it is is still unknown. A new study of former NFL players who died recently found that at least 25% had CTE.
	When is suspending students discrimination? Education Dept. renews an old fight President Trump's Education Department is telling schools to stop considering race when it comes to school discipline.
	Dog food recalled over potential contamination Fromm’s wet canned dog food and Oma’s Pride food were recalled last week, according to a notice from the FDA.
	FDA approves new blood test for Alzheimer’s disease The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for a new test for Alzheimer's disease, marking the fourth time such a blood test has been approved in less than two years.
	Indonesians brave choking smoke to pray for rain as country battles wildfires Huge blazes in central and western regions of Indonesia have scorched wide areas of forests and peatland, creating a choking haze that blanketed some cities.
	The UK will help Ukraine make long-range missiles by sharing classified tech information Burnham, who was in Kyiv for Ukraine's Independence Day, said defense firm MBDA will release details on U.K.-made parts for the SCALP missile to Ukraine to help the country assemble the weapons.
Monday, August 24th, 2026
	US set for largest mass visa revocation in history targeting up to 200,000 foreigners, officials say The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States.
	Zach Lahn proposed this change for data centers Zach Lahn, a Republican running for governor in Iowa, told a business group that he wants changes with future data centers.
	Tariffs and rising costs causing issues for Bent River Brewing Company The general manager says business costs have risen 15 to 20% in the last year, in part due to the Trump Administration's tariffs.
	Davenport man arrested after allegedly hitting a person with an axe 47-year-old Matthew Cheatheam was charged with willful injury causing bodily injury and going armed with intent.
	Bent River Brewing Company feeling impacts of tariffs and rising costs The general manager says business costs have risen 15 to 20% in the last year, in part due to the Trump Administration's tariffs.
	Rock Island City Council considers time limits for downtown liquor sales The Rock Island City Council moved forward Monday to expand restrictions on alcohol sales in more parts of the city. Council members approved the ordinance's first reading. Alderman Dylan Parker said he believes the ordinance would cut down public intoxication and litter in the downtown. Convenience and liquor stores in the green area on the [...]
	I-74 interchange at John Deere Road set for major transformation A major redesign is coming to the I-74 and John Deere Road interchange in Moline, with construction beginning and completion expected by 2028.
	Illinois to shield some hospitals from assisted suicide law Illinois has agreed to abide by a federal injunction to shield some Catholic hospitals from a new assisted suicide law. State lawmakers passed the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, also known as Deb's Law or Senate Bill 1950, passed last year. It lets adults who are terminally ill choose to end their lives. [...]
	School board member surprised when Sudlow's cafeteria is named after him A Davenport School Board member got a surprise during Monday night's meeting. The school board announced Sudlow Middle School's cafeteria will be named after Bruce Potts.Potts was the school's principal until he retired and was later elected to the school board. Potts said he had no idea about it before the announcement. Construction is underway [...]
	Davenport schools name Sudlow cafeteria after school board director The Davenport Community School District announced they were naming the cafeteria in honor of school board director Bruce Potts Monday evening.
	Sudlow Middle's cafeteria to be named after board member, former principal Bruce Potts was Sudlow's principal for 16 years before retiring and joining the board.
	How schools plan to offer more locally-grown food Schools have begun the new year, and students' lunches could soon look a little less processed and a lot more local as the Trump administration rolls out the Harvest to Hallways initiative to invest in child nutrition programs and put more American-grown food on lunch and breakfast trays. Our Quad Cities News NewsNation correspondent Reshad [...]
	Part of 35th Street to close for reconstruction The road will be closed to through traffic between 37th and 38th avenues, according to a media release.
	City of Muscatine celebrates Water & Wastewater Workers of Iowa Week The City of Muscatine is joining communities across the state to celebrate Water and Wastewater Workers of Iowa Week now-29, a news release says. This special week honors the dedicated professionals who work around the clock to provide clean drinking water and protect local natural resources. Gov. Kim Reynolds recently signed an official proclamation declaring this appreciation [...]
	Community Health Care receives $3 million to expand services in Rock Island Community Health Care Inc. opened its Rock Island building back in 2012. Now, the facility is starting to show its age, not just through general maintenance, but mainly because of the growing need in the community. They're ready for an upgrade, an upgrade that will be funded by Illinois through a $3 million grant. "Health [...]
	9th annual Clinton overdose vigil aims to break addiction stigma The Overdose and Addiction Awareness Vigil will return on Monday, Aug. 31 from 4-7:30 p.m. at the Riverview Bandshell. This year more than 30 vendors are expected.
	Sauk Valley farm tours return for second year with a locally sourced dinner On Thursday, Sept. 10, you can tour several local farms, get a behind-the-scenes look at the operations, meet the makers and then enjoy a locally-sourced dinner.
	Burlington woman charged with arson after house fire 36-year-old Crystal Armstrong with second degree arson following an Aug. 13 house fire.
	Davenport man arrested after allegedly hitting a person in the skull with an axe 47-year-old Matthew Cheatheam was charged with willful injury causing bodily injury and going armed with intent.
	Man to spend 18 years in prison for death of 2-month-old A man will spend 18 years in prison for his role in the death of his two-month-old.
	Rock Island considers expanding restrictions on packaged alcohol sales Rock Island officials are considering expanding restrictions on packaged alcohol sales beyond the city’s current downtown district, a proposal one local business owner says could significantly hurt his business.
	Davenport police urge drivers to slow down as students return to school Davenport officials urge drivers to slow down and stay alert as students return to school, highlighting new safety measures.
	Six months on, U.S. Navy families who evacuated Bahrain remain in limbo When the U.S.-Iran war began, more than 1,000 dependents of U.S. Navy personnel in Bahrain were ordered to evacuate. After six months in temporary conditions, they want to know what the plan is.
	Woman charged with arson after Burlington house destroyed by fire A woman was arrested on Saturday in connection to a house fire in Burlington.
	Davenport man charged after hitting person in the head with axe, police say Matthew T. Cheatheam, 47, is accused of hitting another person in the skull with an axe.
	25 animals recovered from pair of animal cruelty cases in Illinois 15 of the rescued dogs are puppies.
	Cooks and Crooks, Books and Hooks: “Insidious: Out of the Further,” “Tony,” “The Magic Faraway Tree,” “Mutiny,” and “Spa Weekend” Even if nothing entirely thrilled me, as least nothing this past weekend outright sucked – making this the perfect time for another quintet of 300-word reviews
	Quad-Cities hosting National Waterways Conference this week National waterway transportation officials are coming to the Quad-Cities to talk ports this week.
	Man stabbed in the chest in Rock Island The 47-year-old victim was hospitalized for his injuries but has since been released.
	Whiteside County farms to host tours and locally sourced dinner The public is invited to tour Whiteside County farms, meet local producers and enjoy a locally sourced dinner prepared by culinary students Sept. 10.
	Clinton holding 9th annual Overdose and Addiction Awareness Vigil next week The vigil will run from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at the Riverview Bandshell. It's a part of International Overdose Awareness Day.
	Niabi Zoo's 3 newest Pallas's cat residents now have names Born in June, Everest, Luka and Aslan are just one of two Pallas's cat litters born in the country over the last three years.
	Coralville man arrested after alleged armed robbery at Muscatine bank A Coralville man is facing an armed robbery charge after police say he robbed a Muscatine bank and was arrested near Wilton.
	You can now get pizza from a vending machine in the QCA SpeedyPie, which opened Thursday, serves hot, handmade pizzas in minutes, according to a Facebook post.
	Arconic Foundation gifts $30,000 to Girl Scouts Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois was recently gifted $30,000 from the Arconic Foundation. The grant will help Girl Scouts develop vital skills in engineering, problem-solving, leadership and innovation through hands-on STEM experiences to inspire the next generation of female leaders and professionals. “Thanks to the generosity of Arconic Foundation, we are able [...]
	Vandals are destroying Flock cameras across Quad-Cities Civil liberties groups, including the ACLU, argue mass, unwarranted tracking creates a permanent log of ordinary people’s routines.
	Supreme Court pauses lower court ruling on Trump's mail voting order as hurdles loom The Supreme Court paused a lower court's ruling that blocked key parts of Trump's order to limit voting by mail for the midterms. But U.S. Postal Service work on the order remains blocked nationwide.
	Supreme Court gives Trump an interim win on his mail voting order, but hurdles loom The Supreme Court paused a lower court's ruling that blocked key parts of Trump's order to limit voting by mail for the midterms. But U.S. Postal Service work on the order remains blocked nationwide.
	Survey: 69% of US adults with chronic conditions struggle to consistently get their meds Survey: 69% of US adults with chronic conditions struggle to consistently get their medsAmid rising health care costs, medication shortages, and insurance coverage delays today, it's difficult for many people with chronic health conditions to reliably access their medication. Two-thirds (69%) of people with chronic conditions say they have barriers to managing their medication, like high out-of-pocket costs or finding time to pick up their medicine.This data comes from a TelyRx survey conducted by Centiment of 866 U.S. adults living with chronic conditions. The results show how many people with chronic conditions, especially younger adults, struggle to manage essential, life-sustaining medication due to factors outside their control.Key TakeawaysTwo-thirds (69%) of people with chronic conditions have barriers to managing their prescriptions. Common barriers include high out-of-pocket costs (22%) and the need for in-person appointments that people feel are unnecessary (19%).Nearly half (47%) of people with chronic conditions have had adverse health effects while waiting to receive their medications. One in 4 (25%) experienced noticeable symptoms or a health setback.Three in 5 (60%) of people with a chronic condition and whose insurance is provided by their or their partner's employer have rationed or run out of medications and gone without, compared to 55% of people on Medicaid, Medicare, or other government insurance plans.Among people with chronic conditions who rationed their medications and went without, one third (32%) didn't tell their doctor.Nearly 2 in 3 Chronically Ill U.S. Adults Have Run Out of MedsNo matter their health status, it's more difficult today than it was a few years ago for many people to see their physician or order a medication refill. Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits expired at the end of last year, and the prices of many common prescriptions are skyrocketing. As a result, monthly health care premiums have doubled this year for millions of people.But even if they can afford their treatment, some people are experiencing medication delays and shortages. Drug shortages, physician shortages, and pharmacy deserts are impacting people across the country, especially in rural areas.These problems are especially common for people with a chronic illness. The majority of people with a chronic illness say they have barriers to managing their prescriptions, including:High out-of-pocket costs: 22%Needing in-person appointments that feel unnecessary: 19%Finding the time to pick up prescriptions: 17%Medication supply issues: 17%Of all obstacles faced, medication affordability is the biggest concern. 25% of people with chronic conditions have occasionally skipped buying groceries, paying a utility bill, or paying for another essential expense to afford their medication. One in 6 (15%) do this frequently.For patients juggling several prescriptions at once, those costs can compound quickly.But budget is only part of the overall accessibility problem. Beyond the cost of their medication refill, other issues like struggling to see a doctor, facing out-of-stock notifications at the pharmacy, and general inconvenience increase the risk of running out of medicine. Around 1 in 3 (35%) of people with chronic conditions went without their medication entirely while they waited on a refill, and 28% resorted to rationing their medications to avoid running out.Pharmacy distance, in particular, can be a notable barrier: 66% of people within five miles of their usual brick-and-mortar pharmacy face barriers to managing their prescriptions, rising to 76% for those living six miles or farther from a pharmacy.Generally, people who live farther from a pharmacy are more likely to have rationed or run out of their medications, and to have experienced health effects from waiting for them.Nearly Half of Those Who Waited for Medication Say It Impacted Their HealthMissing even one medication dose can have major health consequences for some people with chronic conditions. For example, patients who take beta blockers may experience serious withdrawal symptoms if the medication is stopped suddenly without a doctor's supervision.Nearly half (47%) of people with a chronic condition reported that delays in filling their prescription affected their health. One-quarter (25%) of people reported experiencing noticeable symptoms or a health setback. TelyRx Multiple factors can cause refill delays, such as affordability concerns, overall medication availability, and other accessibility issues. When access is a barrier, online pharmacy platforms, mobile clinics, home delivery, and other on-the-go options can help people refill their medication without having to drive for miles or rely on their local pharmacy's supply. But not everyone knows about or uses these resources, and affordability can still be a struggle, even for those with reliable employer-sponsored insurance.Having Employer-Provided Insurance Doesn't Guarantee Medication AccessIn theory, having health insurance through your employer means you have reliable access to the health care you need. In reality, it isn't always that simple. Based on the survey, people with employer-sponsored health insurance struggle more with accessing their medications than people with Medicaid or Medicare.Three in 5 (60%) of people who have a chronic condition and whose insurance is provided by their or their partner's employer have rationed or gone without their medications, compared to 47% of people on Medicaid, Medicare, or other government-sponsored insurance plans. But of the people who had accessibility issues to their medication, those with Medicaid/Medicare saw more health impact: Nearly two-thirds (62%) of people on Medicaid/Medicare have experienced negative health effects from waiting on medication, compared to 39% of people on employer-sponsored health insurance. TelyRx But no insurance type guarantees immunity from facing obstacles in managing chronic condition medication needs. Employer-sponsored health care plans vary widely, and they don't always guarantee affordable, convenient access to medication. Even with insurance, if someone's prescription isn't covered, they may need to pay out of pocket.Overall, people with health insurance provided by their employer are 30% more likely to experience barriers to managing their medication compared to people with Medicare or Medicaid. They're especially more likely to have difficulty getting a doctor to renew a prescription or sign off on time (23% compared to 15% of people on Medicare/Medicaid).On the other hand, Medicaid and Medicare coverage varies by state, so not all recipients have equal access to low- or no-cost medical treatment. And the most basic Medicare plan, Original Medicare, doesn't include prescription drug coverage. That means affordability can still be a concern for individuals on these plans, and it's also unclear to what extent recent Medicare cuts will affect recipients' ability to access their medication.Coverage itself may also become less stable. Under new federal rules, some Medicaid enrollees will need to document work or a qualifying activity to maintain eligibility.3 Tips To Confidently Manage Your MedsIf you're managing a chronic health condition, you know how important your meds are. Consider these resources if you're struggling to manage or afford your medications. Look for local or digital pharmacy platforms that allow automatic refills and shipping.If you struggle to access a local pharmacy or often forget to order medications, you may be able to have them automatically shipped to you either through your insurance provider or with a digital pharmacy platform.Tell your provider if you struggle to access your medication.Around 1 in 3 (32%) people with a chronic condition who skipped or rationed their medications didn't tell their doctor they were going without their full dose. But it's important to speak to a provider if you can't access your medication. If your provider is associated with a hospital system or community clinic, they might be able to offer financial assistance or discounts. Some also provide patient advocates, who can talk to you about your needs and help connect you with resources.Look up medication costs through your insurance provider in advance.If you have health insurance, determine in advance whether your treatment is covered and how. Most major insurance carriers offer web portals or apps with price estimators so you can research potential costs ahead of time. Price estimators can be especially helpful for looking into expected medication coverage and costs.MethodologyThe survey was conducted by Centiment on behalf of TelyRx. The survey was fielded June 18-23, 2026. The results are based on 866 completed surveys. To qualify, respondents had to be U.S. adults aged 18-plus who are currently managing at least one chronic health condition and regularly use prescription medication to manage it. Data is unweighted, and the margin of error is approximately ±3% for the overall sample with a 97% confidence level.This story was produced by TelyRx and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Police: Suspects threatened to kill children during reported abduction in Storm Lake Three people were arrested after police received reports of two young children being abducted in Storm Lake, Iowa.
	Guests can return to Burlington hotel after partial collapse Officials said the collapse was caused by water accumulating within the east part of the building over the ballrooms, according to a media release.
	Galesburg hosting ribbon cutting for Cooke Park Galesburg is ready to open the newly expanded Cooke Park. The city invites the public to a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, August 26 at 11:30 to celebrate the completion of Cooke Park, 652 W. Second Street. Click here for more information on parks in Galesburg. “We are pleased to be able to open Cooke Park [...]
	The compliance costs of starting a business are easy to miss but risky to overlook The compliance costs of starting a business are easy to miss but risky to overlookComing from multiple layers of government and diverse agencies, startup compliance costs vary so much with industry and location that it's hard to find comprehensive guidance, leaving entrepreneurs without legal counsel at risk of cash flow shortages before they even make their first sale.A business license ranges from $50 to $400, sometimes more depending on the state and type of business. But that's only one line on the budget. Estimating a total is impossible without specifics, so the key is knowing what to research and where to find it.Xero examined how compliance costs are easy to miss but not budgeting for them can prevent new businesses from opening their doors.Compliance costs, beyond the licenseA business license is often the first compliance fee entrepreneurs consider, but it's not the first they need to pay. Before getting a license at town hall or on a county website, businesses typically have to meet other local, state, and potentially even federal requirements.Entity registration: States charge anywhere from $25 to several hundred to register partnerships, LLCs, or corporations or to secure "doing business as" (DBA) names. The state's secretary of state website generally lays out the costs.Sales tax license: They're often free or available for a nominal fee from the state’s department of revenue, but some businesses face additional registration costs for collecting industry-specific taxes like lodging fees or motor vehicle rental taxes.Industry-specific permits: These vary drastically in cost and may come from county, state, or federal agencies. Take a small brewpub that also plans to sell food: They'll need a federal permit from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), a manufacturer license and on-premises liquor sales permit from the state liquor enforcement division, and a health inspection from the county all before applying for a local business license.These costs disproportionately hit small businesses, with 69% saying they face higher compliance costs per employee than larger competitors and 51% citing these costs as a barrier to growth, according to the MetLife and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index.But it's not just permits and licenses; compliance costs go beyond government fees.Insurance: The overlooked compliance costState laws and the contractual demands of lessors, lenders, and even certain vendors or clients require new businesses to get multiple insurance policies.Commercial property lenders require property insurance and potentially flood coverage. Triple net leases are the norm in business rental agreements, putting responsibility for property taxes, insurance, and maintenance on new owners. Even running a business out of a home can drive up homeowner policy rates.Then, there's vehicle insurance for delivery vans and company cars. Even partial business use can cost money – insurers often raise premiums when they learn that a vehicle is being split between personal and business use.Hiring employees means dealing with a host of taxes – federal payroll and unemployment, state withholding and unemployment, shared premium fees for state-required medical leave programs, and potentially even local taxes – and paying for insurance on top. Workersâ€™ compensation coverage is mandatory for businesses with even a single employee in every state, except for South Dakota and Texas, but even in those states, the financial risk of operating without a policy isn't worth the savings.Add general liability or professional errors and omissions to the stack, and the costs get even higher. Insureon reports an average general liability cost of $45 per month for small business owners with an annual range of $250 to $3,000.The time required for research and getting quotes compounds the costs — but knowing what to expect and when can help a lot.A first-year compliance calendarNot knowing exactly what's needed or how much it'll cost, while also being aware that mistakes can put a business's financial health at risk, is scary. A compliance calendar helps to get it right.Two months prelaunch: Business formation, DBAs, and sales tax certificates. Although instant approval is pretty common, build in a buffer for delays and mailing time when paper certificates are needed.Six weeks prelaunch: State, county, and local permits or licenses. Leave ample time for application processing and in-person reviews (for example, if applying for health, safety, or occupancy certificates).One month prelaunch: Local business license. Timing varies and most localities require a sales tax certificate plus any required county, state, or federal permits first.Two weeks prelaunch: Insurance. Start researching at any time, but to get quotes, owners usually need details about their industry, location and estimated sales which they might not have until a few weeks before opening.Once that's all in place, new business owners should set annual reminders to renew licenses and permits. To be on the safe side, start renewals four to six weeks before they're due. And put first-year tax deadlines in a calendar as well. Here's how the deadlines typically lay out:Monthly sales tax: Most businesses pay and file sales tax monthly, although small sellers can sometimes pay quarterly or annually while large companies may need to pay more frequently. State departments of revenue outline the schedule when sending permits to businesses.Monthly payroll deposits: The default due date for federal payroll taxes is the 15th for the previous month’s payroll, but the IRS alerts employers about annual or semiweekly schedules when they send out the employer identification number (EIN). Next-day deposits are required any time an employer hits $100,000 in withholding regardless of their regular schedule.Quarterly returns and payments: Federal excise and payroll returns, most state payroll tax payments, and federal estimated income taxes are all due quarterly.Annual deadlines: Partnership and S-corp annual returns are due March 15th, while corporate and individual returns are due April 15th. The IRS provides a six-month extension for both deadlines on request.The trick to compliance? Proactive research, a schedule, and setting aside time to make it happen. A few months before opening, new entrepreneurs should dig into state and federal requirements for their industry, reach out to local government officials to figure out what to expect on the county or city level, and start getting insurance quotes.Then, they should make a calendar of key dates and costs: registration deadlines, processing times, and so on. And schedule regular time for compliance — a National Small Business Association (NSBA) survey found that the majority of small businesses spend more than 20 hours per year on federal tax compliance alone. Adding state taxes, local permits, and insurance to the mix can bring the needed time up to a full day per month.Tools can help automate the process: a point-of-sale (POS) system that diverts sales tax to a savings account and pays it automatically, payroll software that files and pays taxes, or accounting software that helps track estimated quarterly tax payments.Compliance costs aren't just a startup concern. They're a recurring cost, and managing them effectively requires building them into the budget like any other operating expense. When they're predictable, tracked, and under control, compliance costs are a lot easier to manage.This story was produced by Xero and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Mentorship: A key ingredient in academic success Mentorship: A key ingredient in academic successMentorship is an often-overlooked factor in academic success for many students. Students without mentors face concrete disadvantages: Research reveals higher dropout rates, weaker academic performance, and diminished confidence in their ability to succeed. Institutions struggle with retention problems that drain resources and harm reputation.Yet mentorship remains one of the most underutilized tools for closing achievement gaps and supporting student persistence. The relationship between a student and mentor—whether faculty, peer, or professional—can fundamentally shape educational outcomes and long-term career prospects. As Exceptional Grad explains below, understanding how mentorship can help drive academic success is essential for anyone invested in student achievement.Why Mentorship Drives Retention, Performance, and ConfidenceAccording to the literature on higher education and postsecondary success, mentorship serves two primary functions:Instrumental: academic/career-focused guidancePsychosocial: emotional support and sense of belongingBoth functions contribute to academic success and help move the needle in three main areas: student retention, academic performance, and self-efficacy, a person’s belief in their ability to succeed. In each of these areas, mentoring drives results.Retention and PersistenceStudies consistently show that mentored students persist (stay enrolled) at higher rates than non-mentored peers. Institutional case studies and program evaluations typically report retention rate increases of 5% to 16% for mentored cohorts, with the highest impact observed during the first-to-second-year transition.According to Vincent Tinto's Institutional Departure Model (a foundational framework in higher education research), students don’t necessarily drop out because of grades. The main reason for academic departure is a lack of social and academic integration, which is where mentoring can step in.Academic PerformanceProactive, targeted mentoring (especially for "at-risk" students or first-generation college students) shows clear GPA improvements. While mentee motivation could be a contributing factor, many students attest that access to a mentor meant learning the so-called unwritten rules of academia.These are small, seemingly insignificant things, such as how to study effectively for specific disciplines, approach professors, navigate research labs, and manage time. For a well-integrated student, these come naturally, but if a student has missed that lesson, the struggle compounds.Self-EfficacyPeople are social beings who learn from observing their peers. The same is true about motivation, inspiration, and good old courage. This is why a mentor’s psychosocial support increases self-efficacy, a student’s belief in their ability to succeed academically.Research by Albert Bandura on social learning shows that watching someone similar succeed directly increases self-efficacy. This is particularly pronounced in STEM fields for underrepresented demographics, where having a demographic-matched or discipline-matched mentor directly correlates with long-term retention in the major.Faculty, Peers, and Professionals: Which Mentor Type Fits Students' NeedsHistory is full of legendary mentor-mentee relationships that made the world a better place. Pairs like Aristotle and Alexander the Great or Sir Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday show that learning in this format can be efficient and productive.Over time, the mentor-mentee relationship has evolved. Nowadays, to achieve academic success, students can get guidance from three main types of mentors, each playing a specific role in shaping one’s educational journey.1. Faculty/Advisor MentorsThese are usually senior scholars, tenured/tenure-track professors, or primary academic advisors, and their main role is to offer instrumental and career guidance. They control access to research opportunities, lab funding, co-authorships, and graduate school/postdoctoral recommendations.Faculty mentorship helps with long-term career positioning, graduate school placement, and academic publishing rates.2. PeersPeers, such as upperclassmen mentoring freshmen, or senior doctoral candidates mentoring first-year doctoral students, tend to feel more accessible to students, especially first-years. While they may not be experts in their field, they do offer psychosocial support and operational tacit knowledge.Students are more relaxed around peers, which helps them open up and ask vulnerable questions they may hesitate to bring to faculty.3. Staff and Professional MentorsBesides faculty and peers, students also interact with academic counselors, student affairs professionals, and administrative staff. Any of them can become a temporary mentor and help students navigate university bureaucracy, financial aid, and institutional resources.Why Mentorship Isn't a Substitute for Personal MotivationWhile mentorship can be important for academic success, it is not the sole factor that determines a student’s future performance. Student aptitude, baseline preparation, socioeconomic status, and personal motivation remain much stronger predictors of academic success than whether a student has a mentor.Then there's the human element. A successful mentor-mentee relationship is built on trust, shared values, and a common goal. That's why the most effective mentorships often develop naturally rather than through formal arrangements.When both people genuinely connect and are invested in each other's success, the relationship has a greater and more lasting impact.How Mentorship Complements Other Critical Success FactorsMentors can provide guidance, encouragement, and valuable insights at just the right moment. Their work can make a measurable difference in a student's academic journey. However, it's only one piece of the puzzle.Academic success also depends on factors such as motivation, effective study habits, access to resources, and a supportive learning environment. When these elements come together, mentorship becomes even more impactful.This story was produced by Exceptional Grad and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Consumer demand for customized services is reshaping the beauty market Consumer demand for customized services is reshaping the beauty marketThe global cosmetics market alone is expected to reach nearly $140 billion by 2030. Whether a business is able to capitalize on this growth depends on how they respond to changing client demands.Artificial intelligence diagnostic tools and on-demand custom services are changing the way that beauty brands approach their clients. Personalization in the beauty industry leads to sales growth and an increase in market share. Relying on the same stock-keeping unit (SKU)-based system of the past several decades leaves companies at risk of losing their customer base.While hyperpersonalized products formulated for individual customers are not yet mainstream, they can lead to greater brand loyalty.The beauty market is changing, and brands that want to stay relevant must pay attention. SJOLIE, a provider of professional-grade spray tanning solutions, examined how demand for customized services is reshaping the beauty industry. SJOLIE Customers’ Preference for Customized ServicesBefore the 20th-century mass-production boom tried to standardize and box up beauty, everyone had their own practices.Beauty was a highly bespoke, localized, and segmented market because raw ingredients and specialists were only available locally. Makeup (like cheek stains, lip pomades, and setting powders) was mixed at home to match individual complexions and regional climates.The modern market is returning to a similar level of customization but with more knowledge, better ingredients, and more efficient production methods. The service experience has also improved, mostly due to new technologies and procedures.Today’s customers expect certain types of customized services from brands and professionals operating in the beauty market.Diagnostic and Analytical ServicesCustomization works with accurate data. One of the fastest-growing trends is personalized diagnostic services that help specialists and brands make informed recommendations that truly fit the client’s needs.Roughly 61% of beauty brands now use digital tools (like AI diagnostic quizzes or skin analysis tools) to offer personalized recommendations. Large brands are buying or building customization tech (L’Oréal’s Perso device platform or Function of Beauty’s acquisition of Atolla).In-Salon Modular TreatmentsModular treatments are where the collected data impacts physical services; where traditional procedures can be refined based on the diagnostic results.An aesthetician can boost a standard hydrating facial to a highly personalized skin care session by mixing specific active serums into a base cream based on that day’s skin state. A hairstylist will be able to blend a bespoke ratio of protein (for strength) and lipid masks (for moisture) based on the client’s hair porosity and scalp condition.On-Demand Custom Manufacturing ServicesInstead of browsing through dozens of color options for lipstick and foundation until they find the ones that fit their skin tone, customers can ask a beauty advisor to create the perfect blend.According to consumer analytics from Business Research Insights, roughly 67% of consumers prefer customized formulations.Brands in the beauty market have taken notice in this change of customer demand. The most prominent example comes from Lip Lab, a beauty retailer where a specialist mixes pigments live in front of the client, adjusts texture (matte, glossy, satin), and adds custom scents.Other brands offer at-counter blending, where beauty advisors blend bespoke essential oil fragrances, custom hair tonics, or tinted moisturizers at a dedicated compounding counter based on a client's specific preferences.Are Customized Services Reshaping the Beauty Market?Brands that use AI diagnostic tools and personalization engines report revenue growth rates 2.3 times higher than brands relying strictly on standard SKU catalog models.Customers are even willing to pay more for personalized beauty formulations and tailored services. Yet, the global beauty market is still dominated by off-the-shelf mass and prestige products.The beauty market is changing with specific segments of customers. Given time and better integration, more buyers will be swayed by customized services and, eventually, products. Brands that refine their business models now will be in a better position to adapt to clients who want more of a bespoke experience.This story was produced by SJOLIE and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Could your drinking water cause earlier menopause? Could your drinking water cause earlier menopause?Women with higher blood levels of several common “forever chemicals” reached menopause about a year earlier than women with lower levels, according to a 2026 study of nearly 5,000 women.Forever chemicals, collectively called PFAS, are found in everything from tap water and nonstick cookware to some makeup, clothing, and cleaning products, and have already been linked to certain cancers and reproductive issues.The study didn’t prove that PFAS causes menopause to happen sooner. But because forever chemicals interfere with hormonal signaling, they may affect how ovarian follicles develop and produce estrogen and progesterone. The relationship between PFAS and earlier menopause may also run partly in reverse: Menstrual bleeding helps the body eliminate certain PFAS, so blood levels can rise after periods stop.Still, the link deserves a closer look because it raises important questions about women’s long-term health, Hone Health reports. Entering menopause earlier means spending more years in a lower-estrogen state that increases risk of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and osteoporosis.PFAS exposure is independently linked to cardiovascular, cognitive, and bone problems, potentially compounding the health impact of earlier menopause.“Entering menopause one year sooner may not sound like much, but menopause changes the hormonal environment of the entire body,” says Anastasia Jandes, M.D., a functional medicine physician and hormone management specialist. “If that shift begins sooner, changes affecting the heart, brain, and bones will begin sooner too.” Hone Health Earlier Menopause May Accelerate AgingThe drop in estrogen that occurs during menopause changes how women’s arteries function, how their bodies handle cholesterol, how quickly they lose bone, and how their brains use energy. If those changes occur a year earlier, the downstream effects could shape women’s health decades later, says Jandes.Most women in the U.S. reach menopause around age 51 or 52. The new PFAS study examined whether this natural transition happened sooner. That’s different from early menopause, which happens before age 45, and primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), which involves loss of normal ovarian function before age 40.But research on these younger groups helps explain why menopause timing matters. A 2026 position paper in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics is calling for POI and early menopause to be viewed not simply as reproductive conditions, but as forms of accelerated aging that can affect cardiovascular, bone, cognitive, metabolic, and sexual health.Much of the strongest research on the long-term health risks of earlier menopause comes from women in those younger groups, so the new study can’t tell us exactly what a one-year shift means, says Jandes. “But the broader pattern suggests that menopause timing impacts health in critical ways,” she says.Estrogen loss raises cardiovascular risk. Estrogen helps blood vessels stay flexible and influences how the body manages cholesterol. As it declines during menopause, LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) tends to rise, and blood vessels can stiffen. An analysis of 300,000 women found that those who reached menopause between 45 and 49 had a 12% higher risk of a cardiovascular event compared to those who reached it at 50 or 51. Human studies have separately found associations between PFAS and higher blood pressure, cholesterol, uric acid, and Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) (all of these are risk factors for heart disease or metabolic syndrome).Earlier menopause may affect cognitive health. Early menopause is associated with greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. That’s likely because estrogen helps regulate blood flow, energy use, and communication between brain cells, including in areas involved in memory and executive function. Animal and laboratory studies suggest certain PFAS can enter brain tissue, promote inflammation, and interfere with cell signaling, although the evidence in humans is limited.Estrogen loss affects bones. Estrogen helps maintain the balance between the breakdown of old bone and the formation of new bone. As it declines, the cells responsible for building new bone die off faster than they're replaced, gradually increasing the risk for osteoporosis and fractures. PFAS exposure has separately been associated with lower bone mineral density and osteoporosis in women.How to Reduce PFAS ExposureYou can’t completely avoid PFAS, but you can meaningfully reduce exposure by focusing on the sources most relevant to where you live and work.Find out what’s in your water. Contaminated drinking water can be the largest source in affected communities: At least 45% of U.S. tap water is believed to contain one or more PFAS. Check your local levels using the Environmental Working Group’s interactive map.If there are high levels of PFAS in your area, install a filter with NSF/ANSI 53 or 58 certification, which means it's certified to remove PFAS.Consider your environmental risk. Certain working or living conditions can affect your PFAS risk:Living near an industrial site, airport, landfill, firefighting facility, shipyard, medical finishing facility, or data centerBeing a firefighter, military personnel who work on jets, or certain other jobs“This is a difficult one because you may not be able to move or change jobs,” Jandes admits, “but if this affects you, pay extra attention to all the other steps you can take to avoid exposure.”Check local fish advisories. PFAS can accumulate in freshwater fish. The EPA recommends that states monitor for 12 PFAS compounds in locally caught fish and issue consumption advisories accordingly. If your state health environmental protection department suggests your area is contaminated, limit local freshwater fish and instead choose commercially purchased seafood from grocery stores, which generally has significantly lower PFAS levels.Replace toxic cookware. Some nonstick cookware still uses a coating containing PFAS, which can leach into food when the coating is scratched or gets overheated. Jandes says when it’s time to replace your pots and pans, choose stainless steel, cast iron, carbon steel, or PFAS-free ceramic-coated options.Scrutinize your cosmetics and personal care products. Some waterproof mascaras, long-wear foundations, and other cosmetics add PFAS for their water- and oil-resistant properties. Check ingredient lists for terms like "fluoro" or "perfluoro" to identify them. Also, choose dental floss with natural wax rather than chemical coating (check the label for PTFE or Teflon or skip products labeled “smooth glide”), Jandes says.If You’re Worried About PFAS ExposureIf you develop persistent cycle changes or symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, or vaginal dryness — particularly before age 40 — see a clinician.Perimenopause is diagnosed mainly based on symptoms, so come prepared to describe what you're experiencing, when those changes began, and how intense they are. Your clinician will review your menstrual history, family history, medications, and risk factors, and may also suggest blood work.Blood work in association with perimenopause symptoms can add objective context, identify hormone patterns, and help rule out other conditions with similar symptoms. “I’m never hesitant to check labs in a symptomatic woman in her 30s,” Jandes says. “More often than not, it’s low progesterone, changing estrogen patterns, thyroid dysfunction, or another issue rather than perimenopause. Perimenopause can begin in the late 30s, however, she adds, so if you have classic hormone-based symptoms, consider seeing a specialist to complete hormone blood work.Blood work can show whether you’re ovulating, reveal changing estrogen or progesterone patterns, identify thyroid dysfunction or other causes of your symptoms, and provide a baseline for monitoring. It can give your doctor better information to decide whether treatment is needed and which approach fits your hormonal profile.This story was produced by Hone Health and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	The DNA discovery boom: How at-home tests are rewriting American family trees The DNA discovery boom: How at-home tests are rewriting American family treesTen years ago, finding out you had a half-sibling two states over took something dramatic, like a deathbed confession or a box of letters someone forgot to burn. Now, it arrives as an email notification.Consumer DNA databases have gotten big enough that the relative-finder tool can hand you a first cousin you've never heard of. As of March 2026, AncestryDNA was closing in on 30 million kits, more than every other genealogy database combined, while 23andMe is a little under 14 million after falling from roughly 15 million in October 2024. MyHeritage follows at 9.6 million, then FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch, the last of which lets you compare results across companies.The surprises are not rare. In January 2025, YouGov reported that among Americans who had taken a test or had someone in their immediate family take one, 25% said the results turned up close relatives they hadn't known about. One-third said something in the results surprised them. Most of them weren't looking for any of it; they just wanted an ethnicity estimate.Spokeo shares this guide on the DNA discovery boom, examining sources including Pew Research Center, the American Journal of Human Genetics, Wiley Online Library, Birthlink, and more. Dive in to see how common DNA discoveries are, the types of relatives people are finding, how reunions unfold, and the various challenges faced along the way.The scale: How many Americans are affectedAs far back as 2019, one in seven American adults (about 15%) said they had used a mail-in DNA testing service like AncestryDNA or 23andMe, according to Pew Research Center data. Most had taken it for a simple reason. Here’s the breakdown:87% wanted to learn more about where their family came from36% wanted to connect with relatives they’ve never met36% wanted to identify potential health concernsResearchers from the Baylor College of Medicine published a paper in the American Journal of Human Genetics in 2022 reporting on 23,196 people recruited through FamilyTreeDNA. Eighty-two percent of those respondents said they had learned the identity of at least one genetic relative they hadn’t known about.Databases are still growing, and the number of people who could come across such a discovery will continue to climb. Genetic genealogist Leah Larkin, an independent tracker of such databases, counts more than 54 million kits available for genealogical matching across the major services, though that total counts kits rather than people, since many testers appear in more than one database. At this scale, finding a genetic match to someone previously unknown becomes far more likely for anyone who purchases a test.The types: What kinds of relatives are being discoveredDiscovering an unknown relative can be life-altering. However, not all discoveries have a profound impact. Among the 19,095 Baylor respondents who learned the identity of at least one genetic relative, 10% found a biological grandparent, 10% found a full or half-sibling, and 7% found a biological father. Looking at the full sample, 3% (646 people) learned that someone they believed was their biological parent was not, and 5% (1,171 people) learned about a full or half-sibling they hadn’t known existed.Discovering an unknown parent is relatively uncommon. A Swedish registry study covering nearly two million families put the misattributed paternity rate at 1.7%, and a review of 67 studies found about 1.9% among men with high confidence in their paternity. Estimates across the wider literature range considerably, and the rate among people who buy DNA tests likely runs higher, since testers are a self-selected group. The media often highlights emotional cases where children discover long-lost parents. In practice, most discoveries sit further out on the family tree: 89% of Baylor respondents who identified a new genetic relative identified someone outside the immediate categories of parent, child, sibling, or grandparent.The outcomes: What happens after contactFinding out you have a new relative and gaining a relationship with them are two very different things. Not all people bother with the latter.Among the 14,134 Baylor respondents who learned something new about themselves or their relatives, 74% described the consequences as net positive or neutral, and roughly a quarter of that group reported no consequences at all. Regret was low, averaging 10 on a 100-point scale.For those who are interested in reaching out to their long-lost relatives, the path forward isn’t always clear. Often, the first practical step is simply locating current contact information for that person — a people search can help confirm a name, address, or phone number before deciding how (or whether) to make that first approach. DNA-driven family reunions are still new, after all. Taking a look at decades of long-term data on adoption reunion searches can cast a little light on what the aftermath may yield.Birthlink, which runs Scotland’s Adoption Contact Register, conducted a 2018 survey of people whose reunions occurred at least 10 years prior. Of those, 37 out of 40 adopted people who had been put in contact with a birth mother had stayed in contact in some form since. Some people described the relationship as ongoing and close. Others had settled into sending Christmas cards or checking in on social media.Of the birth mothers surveyed who responded, 10 of 26 noted that the relationship was truly satisfying. Five had mixed feelings, and six mentioned it turned out negatively. Interestingly, across every account, including those that ended poorly, no children regretted making contact.A 2024 study out of Northern Ireland offered similar findings. In it, a number of historical case files were reviewed for post-adoption outcomes. Identity questions drove most people to search, professional support tapered off quickly after contact was made, and the timeline from first contact to a full relationship was messier and longer than most thought.Genetic-counseling researchers have found the same trends with DNA-test-driven discoveries. If your intention is to establish a relationship with a relative you've discovered, the process may yield mixed emotions and may take a long time.The challenges: Secrets, expectations, and rejectionFamily secrets being aired may be the biggest challenge from the fallout of DNA testing.In research published in 2022, people who learned that their parents weren't actually biologically related to them often described the feelings in great detail. They indicated it feels similar to experiencing a natural disaster. Shock, crisis, and a sense that the ground had dropped out abruptly from under them were all common. In certain cases, relationships with the parents who raised them were already strained, so the discovery worsened existing issues.Research on unexpected parentage discoveries has also flagged how little support arrives with the results. In a 2024 study in Genetics in Medicine, people who had made these discoveries asked testing companies to include links to support groups and family trauma counseling alongside results. The Baylor team raised the same point, noting that companies typically offer only short lists of mental health resources. This means finding a genetic counselor or family therapist is typically entirely up to you.Also, discovering a genetic match is not a promise of a relationship with that person. A match just means that another person’s DNA was in the database. It’s not an invitation to contact them or an announcement that their side of the family is aware of the situation.The Baylor researchers note that found relatives may have mixed feelings about being contacted, and that the person doing the searching can come away with a wide range of emotions. The contact data shows the split. Among respondents who reached out, 92% of newly identified siblings and 94% of newly identified children responded, compared with 61% of fathers and 68% of mothers. The survey also found that people who tested for specific reasons reported less regret than those who tested out of general curiosity, which suggests preparation shapes how the experience lands.A new kind of family tree in 2026The popularity of DNA testing is not slowing down. Database growth has been consistent, and every new kit that’s submitted grows the thread of potential matches.For an expanding number of people, this raises questions of what to do once a DNA test turns up a match.The data suggests that most of these connection stories have a positive or neutral outcome. But there’s no way to know how someone will react to being discovered.This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	The 30-day starting point that separates thriving beginner CRM users from those who struggle The 30-day starting point that separates thriving beginner CRM users from those who struggleMany sales and marketing teams sign up for customer relationship management (CRM) software with the intention of using it, but barely do. A CRM allows teams to unify contact information and view the status of each deal across their organization. Teams also have the power to automate repetitive tasks and boost selling time with a CRM.In a 2024 study, Nucleus Research found that for every dollar you spend on your CRM system, you can expect an average $3.10 return once the CRM is in use. The catch is that you actually have to use it.Nutshell put this 30-day CRM implementation road map together to help improve new user adoption and build momentum.Key takeawaysDiving in with a structured plan for those first four weeks can improve CRM adoption results in the long run.Three of the primary challenges impacting new user adoption are an empty database, excessive use of jargon, and notification fatigue, but they can all be avoided.Building a four-week adoption plan that’s easy to follow gives CRM beginners a clear and achievable route to confident daily usage.What trips up new CRM users, and how to sidestep itNew CRM users usually hit these same three roadblocks. Nutshell 1. Jargon overloadCRM systems have their own terminology, which can be confusing for new users. And terminology from one system to another can also differ, like terms describing leads, opportunities, deals, and life cycle stages.When beginners are hit with what feels like a whole new language before they’ve even opened a contact record, it can make CRMs seem complex and scare them off. Pick the top five terms you’re most likely to use in your first week, learn those, and ignore the rest for now.2. Empty databaseAn empty CRM is just software that’s not functional. Without a contact database, leads, or activities, the system (and your team) has nothing to work with. And beginners won’t be motivated to use the system if their first experience is an empty dashboard.That said, avoid importing all customer records at once. Populating your database with about 20 to 30 contacts first can make the system feel real and kick-start the adoption process.3. Notification fatigueMany CRM systems come with alerts ready to be activated. But if you set too many alerts at once, your team will eventually ignore them all. So, only include the ones that matter.Automation only adds value when users understand the process behind it. Start with zero automations, and when teams understand why a task is repetitive, automate it.Why the first 30 days can make or break CRM successA 2025 study published through ResearchGate determined that between 60% and 70% of CRM implementation projects fail to meet their objectives. Lack of adoption is often the culprit.Research conducted by CSO Insights shows that less than 40% of businesses implementing a CRM actually see an adoption rate of 90% or more.Prosci’s 2022 research on change management revealed that implementation projects with a structured change management plan are seven times more likely to meet their goals.Structured CRM onboarding phases should be about configuring the new CRM and integrating it into your day-to-day workflow. Your first month is critical to establishing a healthy adoption and usage routine.Your 30-day CRM road mapDevelop your 30-day CRM implementation and adoption plan with one key objective per week. Avoid skipping ahead, because each week builds on the last. Jumping to automations before you have clean data is likely to cause issues. Nutshell Week 1: Import and clean your dataKey objective: Import accurate and reliable data into your new CRM system.Your CRM system provides a visual map of each sales process stage via the sales pipeline. But it only provides an accurate picture if your data is clean and organized. Start by exporting only the contacts you need from where they’re currently stored, whether it’s a spreadsheet, email service, or another tool.Before you import, clean your data to eliminate duplicates, add missing information, and remove contacts you haven’t engaged with in several years. Import the 30 most important active contacts first, and ensure that these contacts populate correctly in your system before pulling in the rest.Week 2: Build on pipelineKey objective: Configure the system to support the way your team sells.A sales pipeline is made up of distinct stages, representing the core steps of your sales process. Aim for no more than five sales process stages in your first pipeline as a start. Focus on mapping your pipeline to the way your team sells versus how you wish they would.You could make your sales process stages simple, like “first call,” “sent proposal,” and “closing negotiation.” After you’ve set up your pipeline, assign some existing leads to it. Then, move a single deal through it from beginning to end before automating anything.Week 3: Add your first automationKey objective: Have the CRM system complete a repetitive task.As previously mentioned, you should start with zero automations until your team understands why a task is repetitive. However, you’ll need to set up an automation in Week 3 to ensure effective implementation and onboarding.Only set up one CRM automation during this week. Teams typically find follow-up reminders the most useful automation to set up first.Follow-up reminders help reps keep deals active, which can prevent lost sales. For example, you can set a reminder to assign a task to the deal owner after three days of inactivity. Once it’s set up, test the automation on an actual deal to make sure it works properly.Week 4: Review adoptionKey objective: Verify that your team is using the software and correct any issues.In Week 4, you’ll want to verify that your team members are actually using the software. Check that they’re processing deals correctly and that pipeline stage updates are happening automatically. And make sure that reps are adding new contacts to the system and not just storing them in their inbox.If you come across any hiccups, they will tell you what to fix. Before Week 5, make sure you resolve the biggest issue preventing adoption.Common CRM beginner mistakes to avoidTeams adopting CRM for the first time can make several mistakes that are easy to identify. But a few common ones sink adoption in the first month, including:Configuring too much: Setting up custom fields and complex workflows in your CRM can be useful, but not when you’re just starting out. For the first month, only add what you actually use to the system to minimize the risk of unnecessary friction.Failing to clean up data first: Messy data will still be messy after you’ve imported it into your CRM. Duplicate records, missing data, and stale information can quickly create mistrust in the system. So, clean your data first, then import.Skipping the review stage: The decisions you made in the first three weeks are evaluated and adjusted in Week 4. Passing on this step means bringing potential problems into your second month that will then be more difficult to fix.Generating reports too early: You need real data to generate reports that will be of any real value to your team. Focus on using the system as a working tool first, and gather the data you need over time. Then, generate your reports for deeper insights.When teams get the basics right in the first month, the system starts paying for itself.Your first 30 days set the tone for everything afterThe first month for beginners is all about creating the habit. This involves getting real data into the system, mapping your process, automating one task, and checking that it’s working.Even team members with zero CRM experience should be able to follow this sequence and enjoy a smooth adoption experience. Simply follow the road map, and your team won’t be starting over in their second month.This story was produced by Nutshell and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	What market activity tells us about where GTM is going What market activity tells us about where GTM is goingA surge of market activity, with heavy funding, acquisition, and partnership volume across both CRM and business intelligence software, according to ZoomInfo’s data. Driven heavily by mergers and acquisitions, both sectors are experiencing steady consolidation as major platforms continuously absorb smaller point solutions. In contrast, marketing automation reflects a completely different trend. ZoomInfo monitored low M&A numbers and partnership events within the category during the same timeframe. Rather than consolidation through strategic acquisitions, the vast majority of this limited activity consisted purely of partnerships.First-mover advantageThe true narrative lies within that gap: While two product categories are actively merging around their dominant incumbents, a third remains stagnant. This divergence highlights that long-term market leadership depends far less on who arrived first than conventional "first-mover advantage" theories tend to assume.The traditional "first-mover advantage" is largely a myth. Landmark research from marketing experts Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis reveals that market pioneers fail at a 47% rate, while "fast followers" capture nearly triple the market share.Market leadership is no longer about who arrived first, but who is actively consolidating their category.Why is this consolidation accelerating now?There is a fundamental shift from a tool-based strategy to an ecosystem-based defensibility. In an AI-first market, scale is less about revenue and more about workflow ownership. Incumbents are aggressively using M&A to ingest fragmented point solutions, building 'closed-loop' ecosystems that are difficult for challengers to disrupt.Conversely, strategic partnerships, serve as a lower-friction alternative, allowing vendors to stitch together disparate parts of the revenue stack without the integration risk of a full merger. The directive for every vendor is clear: Dominate the entire workflow, or become a critical component of a platform that does.In maturing industries, dominant players maintain their position not by coasting on a head start, but by systematically executing M&A strategies to absorb emerging capabilities. Conversely, categories lacking this level of transactional activity remain vulnerable to disruption, offering a genuine opening for newer, more agile challengers.The era of trusted ecosystemsAs AI commoditizes data access, competitive advantage is shifting from simply "having the data" to "owning the workflow." This new era is one where market dominance is defined by the ability to offer a closed-loop ecosystem. However, recent industry pivots serve as a critical reminder that this consolidation cannot come at the cost of customer trust.The winners in the next phase of market maturity will be those who build trusted and integrated ecosystems. Vendors must choose their path: Commit to the heavy integration of M&A to own the entire user journey, or leverage the flexibility of strategic partnerships to remain a vital, low-friction component of the broader tech stack.This story was produced by ZoomInfo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Mark Twain Elementary School starts school year with bubbles and red carpet "We're hoping that they make new friends and that they love their teachers and that they experience the best day possible," parent Tiffani Lee said.
	Workout vest mistaken for body armor triggers brief lockdown at Kewanee schools Kewanee schools were on lockdown Monday after the Kewanee Police Department received a report of a person wearing a bulletproof vest that ended up being a workout vest.
	What a decade of gig work actually pays What a decade of gig work actually paysCongress made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894 to honor the American worker. For the people who move Americans and their furniture, it is one of the busiest working weekends of the year.Data from more than 1.5 million completed jobs at Lugg, an on-demand moving and delivery service operating in more than 4,000 U.S. cities, shows Labor Day weekend running 13% to 26% above a typical late-summer weekend in each of the past three years. The holiday Monday itself runs busier than an ordinary Monday in August.The surge is not spread evenly. Boston runs at roughly twice its usual weekend volume, and has in each of the last three years — Los Angeles, the next highest, runs in double digits. The reason is a quirk of the calendar: Labor Day always falls between September 1 and 7, and Boston's residential leases turn over on September 1. The nation's day of rest collides with the city's largest moving day, every single year.Somebody carries all of it. What the work pays and whether anyone lasts a decade at it are harder questions than the volume.How long most people actually lastMost people who try this work are gone before they learn what it pays at the top. It is hard physical work. Furniture is heavy and awkward, and most of it has to be carried by hand — down stairwells, around tight corners, and out to the truck.Of more than 5,000 movers who took their first job at least five years ago, the median lasted 132 days. Fewer than one in ten were still working five years later. Two of the people who stayed are worth listening to, and they got there by different routes.What actually raises the payEdgar Teran has been moving furniture professionally in San Francisco for nearly a decade. He spent years in construction before that, decided he wanted something more fulfilling, found the listing online and signed up as a helper — the lowest barrier to entry in the business. No vehicle, no equipment beyond his own supplies, nothing required but a willingness to lift.His very first job was a brand-new white sofa from a CB2 store. He was standing on the loading dock in what he describes as a chaotic scene, looking at a piece of furniture that had to reach the customer in pristine condition. “I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know how I was going to handle it,” he said. “But I had a good partner and we managed it well.” Together they got it into the van, and the delivery went smoothly. That job got him hooked, and he has kept coming back ever since.He was paid as a helper that day, because the van belonged to someone else. Earnings on gig platforms get discussed as though there’s a single rate. In moving, there isn’t one. What someone earns depends almost entirely on their role — on what they drive, or whether they drive at all: Lugg Those are averages across 22 U.S. markets rather than starting rates, and the spread inside each class comes down to vehicle size — a standard cargo van at the bottom of its band, a sprinter at the top. Tips are uncapped and go entirely to the mover, and a handful clear $1,000 a month from them alone.Teran crossed to the driver’s side the way many people do before they can do it permanently: he rented. That got him earning at driver rates without the capital a purchase demands, and it let him find out what driving actually netted — what came in, and what went back out — before committing. He bought his own later.Having worked both roles, he knows what the difference actually feels like. “When performing a task, the work is the same for both,” he said, “except that the driver earns a little more due to the vehicle and the responsibility that entails.”The published figures put a helper at $18 an hour and a pickup driver at $28 — a gap of roughly 55%, and considerably wider further up the list. Ten years in, Teran describes it as a little more.That is because the hourly rate leaves things out. Drivers bring the truck, and mileage and most tolls are reimbursed. The truck is not. Depreciation, insurance, maintenance — or, for anyone still renting, the rental — all come out of the difference.Another path to successThe vehicle is the obvious route, and the numbers bear it out: Movers still working after five years are considerably more likely to own one than those who stopped in their first year — more than two-thirds of them do.Robert Wilson is one of the exceptions. He spent five years as a helper in Seattle, completed more than 4,500 moves, and never brought a truck to a single one. What he built instead was a reputation and a working knowledge of which jobs are worth taking. “The best jobs are XL deliveries, especially delivering sofas to long-distance destinations,” he said. “A pickup in Seattle and drop-off in Anacortes for an XL delivery. That’s more money.” That is the kind of thing nobody is told and everybody could use.He also has a rule about what not to take: “Don’t accept slots you’re unsure about working.” He starts early and finishes early, because that is the shape of day he wants.The pay table describes one route, and Teran took it — he acquired a vehicle. Wilson stayed on the bottom rung of that list and made the work pay through volume, job selection, and a record that keeps the work coming to him.What a decade teachesAsk either of them what they can do now that they couldn’t at the start, and the answers are unglamorous and specific.“When I started out, I didn’t have much experience with moving and delivery,” Teran said. “Now I’m an expert — whether it’s navigating staircases, figuring out if items will fit in the truck, or knowing how to work with customers.” What newcomers lack, he says, is exactly that. “The most common issue is the uncertainty about whether the job can be done.”Knowing whether it can be done is the skill. Teran's version of it starts with a tape measure.“The first step is to measure the piece,” he said, “then measure the door or staircase and the location where it will be installed. If necessary, we remove the door.” It’s the sort of thing that sounds obvious once someone says it and occurs to almost no one standing in a hallway at the wrong moment.Wilson describes something closer to a trained eye. “When moving items, whether it’s sofas, dressers, or anything long, I can see angles within stairwells and tight, shifty hallways that others can’t,” he said. “I know which way to carry the item through the areas.”The expertise turns out to live in the assessment rather than the lifting. Whether the sofa clears the landing. Whether the frame comes off. Which way the dresser turns at the top of the stairs. All of it worked out before anyone has taken hold of anything.Where the money wentWilson, who has never owned a truck, puts the outcome in plain terms. “I’ve been able to buy several vehicles, save a substantial amount in my savings account, and now I’m looking to buy property.”Teran describes something similar in a different register. A decade of work has paid for his family's standard of living and for goals of his own. He says the work itself has become easier to come by, too — after ten years, he has the experience and the record to get it. He describes the schedule as his own — work, family and friends, all of it synchronized. He spends his time off at home with books and music. When people ask whether they should try it, he tells them it pays, and that it asks for hard work and responsibility in return; he has brought several people into the work himself, and says they have done well. On the decision he made back in 2016, he is unequivocal. “I truly believe it was one of the best things that has happened to me in recent years.”Wilson’s version of that advice is shorter. “I’d tell them to join if they’re serious about working. Some jobs will be challenging and some will be easy.”Teran is an outlier by any measure — the longest-tenured and highest-earning mover on the platform. Since his first job in October 2016, Lugg's payment records show he has earned more than $1 million moving other people's furniture. Some of that is timing. On-demand moving barely existed a decade ago — Lugg was founded in 2014 — so the number of people who could have put ten years into it is small by arithmetic alone. Teran is close to the ceiling of what is even possible.That is one man’s decade of hard work, not a promise or a forecast. He started out, rented, bought a truck, and was still taking jobs the week this was written.The first Monday in SeptemberNearly ten years after the white sofa, Teran can look at a piece of furniture and a doorway and know how the job will go before he touches anything. Wilson can see the angle a dresser takes at the top of a staircase. Both of them will be working on the first Monday in September — one with a truck he bought, one who never needed one.This story was produced by Lugg and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	The new geography of work: What employers need to know about compliance The new geography of work: What employers need to know about complianceWhen long-distance work expanded during the pandemic, many assumed the geography of employment was changing because people were moving.ADP Research discovered a different story. The bigger shift wasn't employees moving. It was how workplace teams were built once people and employers discovered that daily co-location was no longer a prerequisite for effective collaboration. Organizations increasingly hired people outside their local markets and reorganized reporting structures that crossed metropolitan areas, creating long-distance working relationships even when employees stayed put.That shift shows no signs of slowing. By the end of 2025, nearly one-third (32.3%) of U.S. employees in ADP’s sample reported to a manager in a different metropolitan area. Just as notable, long-distance employment is no longer concentrated among large enterprises. Mid-sized employers have been among the fastest adopters, with geographically distributed teams enabling employers to compete for specialized talent and expand their reach. What was once an advantage reserved for the largest employers has become an option for businesses of every size.For employers, that's good news. Hiring beyond commuting distance broadens the talent pool and gives organizations the flexibility to find the best candidate, regardless of location.It also changes the rules. Hiring across state lines or across national borders doesn't simply expand where an organization recruits. It can expand the employment laws, payroll requirements and tax rules the business must navigate. For many small and mid-sized employers, those obligations are often unfamiliar, making compliance an increasingly important part of the hiring decision.Know where employees are actually workingThe most important compliance question may also be the simplest: Where is the employee performing their work?Employment laws generally follow the employee's work location, not the company's headquarters or the manager's office. One new hire in another state can change an employer's compliance obligations.Imagine a 150-person company in Ohio that hires a software engineer in Colorado because that's where it found the strongest candidate. The company's business hasn't changed, but its compliance landscape has. For instance, Colorado has state-specific rules regarding minimum wage, overtime, paid sick leave, paid family and medical leave, mandated meal and rest breaks, and payment of accrued vacation at termination of employment.The same issue can arise when an employee relocates without telling the company. Someone who moves from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, for example, may become covered by different state disability laws. If the employer isn’t aware of the move, it may need to correct payroll records or respond to questions from state agencies after the fact.That's why employers should make it easy for employees to report address changes or relocations. Self-service address updates, periodic reminders and clear communication about why location matters can prevent much larger issues later.Crossing state lines changes more than your talent poolEvery new hiring location introduces the possibility of different employment requirements. Employers need a process for determining which rules apply.Areas that commonly require attention include:Payroll tax withholding and unemployment insuranceWage and hour requirements, such as minimum wage, overtime and meal/rest break mandatesPaid leave and other employee protectionsPay transparency and reporting rulesWorkers' compensation requirementsEmployer registration and other state-specific obligationsNot every requirement will apply in every situation, but if employers assume the rules are the same from one jurisdiction to the next, that can create unnecessary risk.Pay close attention to tax obligationsTax considerations deserve particular attention. Depending on the circumstances, the presence of a single employee in another state can create new payroll tax withholding and reporting responsibilities for the business.Factor in international requirementsThe same principle applies internationally. An employee working temporarily from another country may trigger local payroll, tax or employment requirements sooner than many employers expect. In some jurisdictions, those obligations begin immediately or after only a short period of work.The takeaway isn't that employers should avoid long-distance employment. It's that every new hiring location deserves the same planning as any other business expansion.Build compliance into every hireMany employers don't set out to build a geographically distributed workforce. It happens gradually. A company hires a specialist in another state. An employee relocates closer to family. A hiring manager fills a difficult-to-hire role with the best fit, but that person lives hundreds of miles away. Over time, what began as a few exceptions becomes the norm.That's why compliance works best when it's built into the hiring process rather than addressed after an employee starts work.A few practical steps can make that easier:Establish a clear process for employees to report relocations.Define when approval is needed before working from another state or country.Ensure HR, payroll, finance and legal teams work from the same employee location data.Review policies and payroll practices regularly as employment laws evolve.Technology can also simplify the process. Integrated HR and payroll systems help employers maintain accurate location information, apply payroll rules more consistently and adapt as legal requirements change. Combined with knowledgeable guidance, they make it easier to expand into new jurisdictions with confidence.Opportunity comes with new responsibilitiesThe geography of work has changed. Today, organizations of every size can recruit talent well beyond commuting distance, giving them access to skills and experience that were once out of reach.That's a competitive advantage. It's also a reminder that hiring across jurisdictions is no longer an exception. For many employers, it's becoming business as usual.The organizations that adapt most effectively will treat compliance as part of that evolution, not a hurdle to it.This story was produced by ADP and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	What the strongest 401(k) plans get right: 3 strategies for employers What the strongest 401(k) plans get right: 3 strategies for employersMost business owners don’t spend their days thinking about their 401(k) plan, and that’s reasonable. Leaders are busy making time-sensitive decisions while trying to attract and retain talent, allocate capital, and manage competitive threats to their business. Against those demands, retirement benefits can feel secondary.But the environment surrounding workplace retirement plans has changed materially in the past few years. And for many employers, the implications are becoming harder to ignore.How Retirement Stakes Have Quietly RisenAs 401(k)s have become primary savings vehicles, responsibility for retirement readiness has shifted decisively to employees. But confidence hasn’t kept pace. Only 37% of workers today believe they’re on track for a comfortable retirement.This lack of preparedness influences real behavior. When employees feel uncertain, they are more likely to undercontribute, make poor allocation decisions, or retreat to overly conservative investments. Over time, those choices compound and materially impair long-term outcomes.Meanwhile, many plan sponsors have not adjusted their plans to reflect how their workforce, scale, or regulatory expectations have evolved. Plan expenses, investment structure, fiduciary oversight, and vendor relationships are often entrenched through inertia rather than deliberate evaluation.The good news is that these factors are controllable—and when optimized, enhancements show up directly in participant outcomes. Bernstein Private Wealth Management research shows the magnitude of the opportunity: A sustained one percentage point improvement in annualized returns translates to nearly 25% more retirement savings over a full career, or nearly an additional decade of retirement spending capacity. Bernstein Private Wealth Management Importantly, these gains don’t require higher employer contributions or increased investment risk. They are driven by disciplined cost management, access to professionally managed solutions like pooled employer plans (PEPs), and the use of lower-cost investment vehicles available exclusively under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).The most practical place for plan sponsors to begin is with the backbone of the plan itself: the record-keeper.Strategy #1: Test the Record-keeping MarketMost sponsors recognize their record-keeper’s brand. But what’s less visible is how dramatically the record-keeping market has evolved.By the end of 2024, just five firms administered roughly 70% of defined contribution assets in the U.S. That concentration followed years of consolidation and margin compression that rewarded scale. To remain among the largest providers, record-keepers have invested heavily in technology and pricing efficiency to win and retain business.Employers who are willing to go to market can turn this dynamic in their favor. Yet many small and midsize plan sponsors don’t. More than 60% of plans remain with the same record-keeper for eight years or longer, well beyond the industry’s best practice of conducting a comprehensive review every three to five years.Benchmarking often reveals the opportunity cost of that inertia. Industry studies consistently show that administrative fees can frequently be reduced through competitive repricing, often accompanied by improved participant tools and education capabilities rather than service degradation. Advisory relationships reflect similar dynamics.Put simply, sponsors willing to revisit legacy relationships often find that market evolution has shifted pricing power in their favor.For some organizations, efficiency gains alone don’t solve the broader challenge. As expectations around governance, documentation, and fiduciary oversight intensify, many small and midsize employers face a growing mismatch between what’s required of plan fiduciaries and the internal time and expertise available to meet the challenge.Keeping pace with regulatory complexity and litigation risk demands a level of specialization that does not always scale with the business. This reality has prompted some employers to think beyond how their plan operates, and revisit how it’s structured.Strategy #2: Consider a Pooled Employer PlanPooled employer plans, or PEPs, address that imbalance directly. PEPs build on the framework of long-standing multiple employer plans but remove historical restrictions that required participating employers to share a formal affiliation. Under a PEP, unrelated employers can adopt a single, professionally managed plan while retaining control over core design features like eligibility, matching formulas, vesting schedules, and benefit levels.The primary advantage is professionalization through scale. By joining a PEP, much of the fiduciary, compliance, and administrative burden shifts to a dedicated plan sponsor. Participating employers report reductions of 50% to 75% in internal time spent managing retirement plan responsibilities. Bernstein Private Wealth Management Scale also improves economics. PEPs have reduced per-participant fees by approximately 4% on average, driven by consolidated administration and access to institutional pricing. Just as importantly, the structure allows more focus on participant education and engagement without requiring additional effort from the employer.Assets in PEPs now exceed $17 billion and cover more than 1 million employees, with adoption accelerating across the small and midmarket, according to the Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives. While not appropriate for every organization, PEPs have become a practical alternative when governance demands outstrip internal capacity.Strategy #3: Modernize Investments Without Paying MoreInvestment structure is another area where scale and advice materially affect outcomes.Many institutional investment strategies are available exclusively within ERISA retirement plans. Yet, historically, smaller plans struggled to access them. That’s changing, driven in large part by the growth of collective investment trusts (CITs).CITs resemble mutual funds in portfolio construction but differ significantly in cost. As bank-maintained vehicles designed exclusively for retirement plans, they avoid many of the marketing, registration, and distribution expenses associated with mutual funds. The result is often meaningfully lower expense ratios, which could help explain why CITs surpassed mutual funds as the dominant vehicle for target date strategies by the end of 2025.Over time, those savings accrue directly to participants through improved net compounding. Many sponsors miss this opportunity not because it is unavailable, but because they are not receiving advice that keeps pace with industry evolution.Are You Receiving the Right Guidance?Retirement plans are no longer viewed solely as administrative necessities. Increasingly, they’re strategic assets. The sponsors who benefit most are those willing to challenge assumptions, reassess structure, and align their plans with how the market and their workforce have changed.A practical place to start would be a benchmarking analysis to examine how your plan’s fees, governance model, vendor relationships, and investment structure compare with similar plans in today’s market, and where modest adjustments could materially improve outcomes for employees without increasing complexity. There is no obligation to change what is already working. The objective is simply to determine whether the plan has remained aligned—or has quietly drifted as the market evolved.This story was produced by Bernstein Private Wealth Management and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Company data sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere just broke a national news story. Here's how. Company data sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere just broke a national news story. Here's how.Journalists find news everywhere: from conversations and interviews, research reports and press releases, and things they observe out in the real world.One way reporters are increasingly breaking news is by using data that is pulled from companies' internal records and shared with them by marketing and communications teams.As more of everyday life gets outsourced to and run through tech platforms, content distribution company Stacker examined how the companies running those platforms have become well-positioned to chronicle how human behavior is changing.Turning internal metrics into front-page newsCompanies have long had their executives serve as spokespeople to lend expertise to a topic in the news, but the practice of using internal data to create news stories is a growing trend.Take Ramp, for example. Ramp is a financial technology company that helps businesses manage corporate cards and expenses.Using the view that it has into how companies spend their money, Ramp began researching the number of U.S. companies that use artificial intelligence. It then used that information to break news, like when it wrote an article about how Anthropic had surpassed OpenAI in adoption by U.S. businesses for the first time. News outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Business Insider then wrote about the trend and cited Ramp as the source.Ramp's lead economist, Ara Kharazian, shared how he approaches this work during a panel discussion at Cited, an industry conference hosted by Stacker in June."There's a key principle of economics that says that people make better decisions when they have access to better data," Kharazian said. "What I really wanted to start with was showing answers to questions that business owners could not otherwise answer themselves, and try to illuminate those decisions with better data."Kelly Soderlund, head of insights at Samsara, said during the same panel discussion that her team has used proprietary data to track things like construction buildup around the World Cup stadiums in the two years before the tournament kicked off. Samsara is a tech company that helps businesses manage physical operations and logistics, so it has access to that kind of data.In a previous role at corporate travel platform Navan, Soderlund tracked business travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic to counter the popular narrative that the industry had been irreparably harmed by lockdowns and quarantine protocols.But she said one of her favorite stories was a piece she worked on at the beginning of her career, when she wrote data stories for the travel company Hipmunk. She used the company's data to show that bookings fell at Trump Hotels during President Trump’s first campaign in 2016. Her story got national attention and earned her phone calls from reporters at The Washington Post and The New York Times.Soderlund said during the panel discussion that companies with access to this kind of information have a lot to add to public conversation and understanding."What you're really revealing is human behavior. It is an insight into how humans are actually acting out in the real world," Soderlund said. "You’re able to take that and tell these amazing stories and hopefully get amplification."And it's not just these brands — plenty of recent examples show how companies can serve as the main source of information for a news story. The Wall Street Journal used Redfin data to report on the housing market shifting toward buyers, and Indeed’s jobs data regularly gets coverage in places like The New York Times and Bloomberg.A growing industryThis all plays into the growth of a field known as brand journalism. Similar to traditional journalism, this type of work involves researching and writing articles, but they are ultimately published by a corporation instead of an independent newsroom. Brand journalists might write news coverage of current events or explain scientific research, but they do so with the goal of promoting a company's expertise in a particular field.The brand journalism industry is increasingly improving its standards of disclosure and transparency — supporting all claims with evidence and fact-based research, for example, and avoiding publishing pieces that could be seen as purely self-serving. Still, critics of brand journalism sometimes question how a newsroom created and run by a corporation can truly be objective.As layoffs continue to plague traditional media — with an estimated 3,400 U.S. and U.K. journalists losing their jobs so far in 2026, according to the Press Gazette — there are fewer journalists working than ever. And moving into brand journalism is itself becoming more common as a career path.An analysis by Alex Hamilton of workforce insights company Live Data Technologies found that more than 2,800 journalists have taken roles in brand journalism in the last decade. Hamilton's analysis used Live Data Technologies' workforce intelligence data to track role changes from publications into brand journalism, content, or communications roles between January 2015 and May 2026. He found that between 230 and 340 journalists are making this type of job transition each year.As more companies invest in editorial operations that rely on their own data to tell stories about the world, it'll become more likely that everyday readers will come across this trend in their news consumption.This story was produced, reviewed, and distributed by Stacker.
	From sick care to self care: Why prevention is becoming the new health care model From sick care to self care: Why prevention is becoming the new health care modelAs health care costs rise and consumers take greater ownership of their well-being, prevention is emerging as a defining force in modern health.Shifting Attitudes Toward Health CareInterest in preventive health care is steadily increasing. Many Americans today find themselves without insurance or access to quality care, often due to rising health care costs, many people cannot afford to get sick. At the same time, chronic disease rates are growing.As a result, more people are focusing on disease prevention. There’s a greater understanding of the importance of developing daily habits at every life stage to increase the chances of healthy aging, according to Fatty15.People now view lifestyle changes as preventative health care. The booming wellness industry indicates that people are choosing to invest in their well-being instead of waiting until they get sick.Why the Traditional Health Care Model Is Being ReevaluatedHistorically, the U.S. health care system has focused on diagnosing a problem and treating it. This reactive approach doesn’t typically prioritize taking steps to prevent disease or helping people maintain their health if they aren’t sick yet.With chronic disease rates increasing, it’s evident that this model isn’t working for many Americans. In the U.S., 2018 data from the CDC shows that 129 million people have one or more chronic diseases, and rates grew from 1990 to 2016. Mortality rates have also risen for many chronic diseases, like liver disease, which impacts 4.5 million adults as of 2018.Chronic disease affects all ages today, including young adults. CDC data shows that as of 2023, 6 out of 10 young adults suffer from one or more chronic conditions, with prevalence rates rising since 2013.Many conditions increase the risk of developing more diseases. Metabolic syndrome, for example, impacts up to 31.4% of adults globally according to a 2022 meta-analysis. It correlates with a slew of health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, metabolic hyperferritinemia, and MASLD.Chronic disease treatment and management are costly, yet many Americans do not have access to insurance, or their condition may not qualify for coverage. In 2022, $4.5 trillion was spent on health care, and 90% of it was for chronic mental and physical diseases, particularly cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia, according to the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation.Early intervention can prevent chronic diseases from forming, dramatically improving health outcomes. Whether it’s to ensure a better quality of life or prevent the burden of medical debt, people are motivated to seek out preventative care.Consumers Are Taking Health Into Their Own HandsAging is inevitable, but many no longer believe getting sick is. People are steadily taking a proactive approach to their health.In our digital world, health care education is more accessible today. People who don’t typically have access to health care or information now get it for free online. Health and wellness content creators can make it easier to understand complex medical conditions or terms and help people adopt new daily habits. Online wellness trends largely center around longevity, with readily available content on popular preventative care topics like nutrition, sleep health, fitness, and stress management.The wellness industry reflects this preventative shift. Consumer interest in fitness and wellness products, preventative health care habits, and personalized treatment is shaping the health and wellness market today. Consumer demand is growing as interest grows. McKinsey’s 2024 Future of Wellness survey found that all age groups are spending more on wellness products, but younger generations are spending the most on different types of wellness products. This indicates that preventative wellness will continue to expand across all generations.Technology Is Making Prevention More AccessibleUnderstanding and receiving preventative care is often not accessible for those who need it most. In the United States, the areas with the highest rates of chronic illness also have greater economic, social, and environmental barriers. A 2024 study published in the Preventing Chronic Disease journal reported that stroke and hypertension rates are higher across U.S. cities for people getting government assistance, living in older, lower-value homes, and for Black residents.Technological advancements can make preventive health care more accessible for all. People no longer need a car to take time off work or insurance to get help early on. With telehealth, at-home diagnostic tools, and wearable devices, providers can now offer preventative care and remote patient monitoring. Wearable devices allow people to successfully and easily manage health changes and know when intervention is necessary, preventing complications.Social media, online education, and even AI can help people develop daily habits tailored to their wellness goals. Utilizing tracking tools gives insight into daily habits and needs. Measurable data allows people to monitor their progress at home and easily consult with providers.The New Focus on Everyday Health HabitsPreventative health care requires more than an annual checkup, and people today are willing to do the work.The importance of taking small steps to improve quality of life, such as reducing screen time or getting more steps in, has become mainstream in wellness today. A few positive daily habits can have a greater impact on long-term health than making intense or radical changes that aren’t sustainable.Why Businesses and Health Care Systems Are Paying AttentionPeople aren’t the only ones embracing preventative care. The health care industry is also paying attention. There are numerous incentives for health care systems to develop new prevention methods, focus on early intervention, and make preventive health care accessible.Preventing disease reduces death rates, improves health outcomes, and reduces costs. According to the CDC, the leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease and stroke. This costs $223.2 billion per year for the health care system. Cardiovascular disease costs are predicted to reach $2 trillion in 2050. It’s clear that neglecting preventative care will be costly for the health care system.Health insurers are increasingly covering a broader range of preventive and wellness services, from acupuncture and behavioral health care to screenings and other at-home or remote health services. It’s becoming rarer for plans to require a primary care provider referral, which creates unnecessary barriers to receiving care.Some employer-based health care plans often now include competitive wellness incentives. Gym membership reimbursements, stipends for wellness goods, and rewards for healthy habits, on top of company wellness retreats or rest weeks, are becoming expected.What the Future of Health Care May Look LikePersonalized, preventative care that takes a holistic approach used to be considered an alternative, but there’s a growing understanding that health care needs to be tailored to each individual's specific lifestyle, including social, environmental, and genetic factors.Providers can make personalized recommendations thanks to advancements in genetic testing, biomarkers, and monitoring tools. With accessible education and data to pull from, people are more empowered to develop sustainable, daily habits based on their needs and goals.Health care research is increasingly focused on finding new ways to prevent chronic disease and improve resilience and longevity.Emerging research and technological advancements will continue to support the understanding of healthy aging and preventive health care.People and providers are increasingly moving away from reactive care to preventative care. There’s a greater emphasis today on adopting daily habits to prevent disease and improve wellness long-term.This story was produced by Fatty15 and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Back-to-school costs don’t end in August: What families are paying in 2026 Back-to-school costs don’t end in August: What families are paying in 2026As the summer season comes to a close, families with school-aged children start to think about upcoming back-to-school expenses: laptops, notebooks, clothing and shoes, water bottles, backpacks, and all of the other classics.While most families consider initial purchases, many fail to include the various other costs that usually begin a few months into the school year and sometimes extend to the very end. Consider these the second, and sometimes even third, wave of back-to-school costs.What exactly are these costs? They can include additional required technology, sports, clubs and other extracurriculars, field trips, and other expenses that parents may not anticipate.In this article, CreditNinja will dive into the average expected costs for back-to-school expenses in 2026.What Do Essential Back-to-School Costs Look Like This Year?According to the National Retail Federation, here is what families could be facing, depending on the ages of their children:Elementary School Through High School Costs BudgetedFamilies with students in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $863.86 on back-to-school items this year, up slightly from $858.07 in 2025.These families plan to spend an average of:$293.11 on electronics$250.29 on clothing and accessories$174.01 on shoes$146.45 on school suppliesCollege Back-to-School Costs BudgetedFamilies with college-aged students plan to spend an average of $1,437.79.The breakdown averages as follows:$341.95 on electronics$194 on dorm or apartment furnishings$182.39 on clothing and accessories$153.91 on food$133.34 on personal care itemsWhat Do These Totals Look Like as a Whole?College students and their families are expected to spend a record $103.5 billion, while K-12 back-to-school spending will reach a record $43.3 billion in 2026, up from $39.4 billion last year and surpassing the previous high of $41.5 billion set in 2023.Does This Record Spending Mean More Room in People’s Budgets?At first glance, record spending might seem like a sign that families have more money to spend than in previous years. But Deloitte’s 2026 Back-to-School Survey paints a much different picture.Parents expect to spend $557 per child, essentially unchanged from last year. However, once inflation is factored in, that represents about a 6% decline in real spending.In other words, spending totals may be hitting records because prices are higher, not because families suddenly have more money to work with. That represents an important shift in the story these numbers tell.And those planned purchases are only part of the reality. Unexpected or overlooked back-to-school expenses can still pop up, putting even more pressure on already-stretched budgets. So what’s driving the increase in the cost of the same school supplies parents have to purchase?Looking at School Supply Cost Increases in 2026An analysis from the Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation found that the price of a typical school supply list rose 7.7% from last year. And that is just an average; some supplies saw significant increases, according to the data:Lunch boxes went up 27%.Notebooks went up 23%.Index cards went up 22%.Notebook paper went up 20%.Even though these percentages on their own may not seem like a huge deal, they add up quickly and can make a real difference in the total cost of a shopping list.A FinanceBuzz price study found that a 20-item supply list averaged $123.70 this year, up 20% from $102.87 in 2025, and the same list varied by more than $100 depending on the store.What’s driving these increases in school-supply prices? There isn’t one single cause. Inflation, higher production and transportation costs, and tariffs on imported goods can all contribute to higher retail prices.Tariffs may be particularly relevant for school supplies because many of these products, or the materials used to make them, are imported. When manufacturers and retailers face higher costs, some of those increases may ultimately be passed on to consumers.Additional Back-to-School Costs in 2026: ExtracurricularsThe costs that come a few months after back-to-school shopping is done and continue throughout the school year can sometimes be more expensive than the initial school supply list.The Aspen Institute's Project Play survey provides some numbers from past years to put these costs into perspective. The survey found the average U.S. family spent $1,016 on a child's primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase in just five years.And that may be just one sport: CivicScience polling conducted in 2025 shows 65% of kids in organized sports play at least two, and 30% play three or more.For students who are interested in the arts, costs can be high, too. According to Northwestern Mutual, private music lessons can run $280 to $400 or more per month. Families may also have to account for instruments, supplies, and travel expenses.Because many of these costs don’t show up until well into the school year, families may overlook them until they arise. And some families, especially lower-income households, may not be able to afford to have their children participate in certain activities at all.A 2014 Mott Poll on Children's Health found that only 30% of lower-income families had a child in school sports, compared with 51% of higher-income families, and 1 in 7 parents whose kids didn't play cited cost as the reason. While these figures provide useful context about how costs can affect participation, they should not be interpreted as 2026 participation rates.Households With Higher Incomes Are Also Struggling This YearIt isn’t just lower- or middle-income families that are struggling to pay for their school-aged children in 2026. Here is a quick breakdown from Deloitte’s back-to-school survey:Among households earning $200,000 or more, 63% say they simply have less money to spend.67% of parents earning $100,000 to $199,000 who plan to spend less on back-to-school this year cite concerns about the economy.Meanwhile, lower- and middle-income parents expect to spend more, not necessarily because they want to, but because higher prices are putting additional pressure on their budgets.Aside from the financial strain, parents are also feeling social pressure to spend.A July 2026 Beyond Finance survey of 2,000 parents found that 70% feel pressure to buy the same clothes, tech, and supplies as other families, while 61% admit they’ve bought something simply so their child wouldn’t feel left out.More than half also worry their child will be judged for reusing last year’s clothes or supplies. The peer and family dynamics may be nothing new, but the price tags attached to keeping up have increased significantly.With those pressures piling on top of rising costs, it’s perhaps no surprise that back-to-school shopping has become a significant source of financial stress for many parents.How Families Are Paying for These CostsCredit cards and buy now, pay later (BNPL) services have become one way some American households manage rising back-to-school costs they may otherwise have difficulty affording.A Qualtrics survey conducted on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma in 2026 found 45% of parents plan to take on debt for back-to-school costs, up from 34% just two years ago.With credit card usage, 48% of parents have opened or plan to open a new credit card, or have raised or plan to raise their credit limit specifically to cover school expenses.With BNPL services, an Omnisend survey found 45% of households plan to use BNPL for back-to-school purchases in 2026, up from 39% in 2025.The survey also found that nearly 1 in 3 expect BNPL to cover more than half of their total school spending.The debt numbers also highlight a larger problem: A third of parents say they can't afford back-to-school shopping at all, and nearly half expect to sacrifice essentials like groceries or bills to make room, according to FinanceBuzz.Credit cards and BNPL services can make it easier to spread purchases out over time, but relying on financing for routine or essential expenses can add another financial obligation to household budgets. This pattern also extends beyond the back-to-school season.Actions to Take to Make Back-to-School Costs More ManageableWhile financing can be an easy and fast way to pay for things, it may not always be the best option for your financial health. Instead, here are some approaches that can help.Budget for the Entire School Year, Not One Weekend or MonthTake last year's total school spending, supplies, fees, activities, and technology, and divide that total by 12 or by the number of months in the school year. Planning ahead can help families prepare for costs that may come up throughout the year.Ask the School for the Full Costs UpfrontSchools and districts may be able to provide information about upcoming lab fees, activity fees, field trip costs, and other expenses. Getting that information early can make it easier to plan instead of dealing with expenses one at a time.Price the Full Cost of an ActivityRegistration is rarely the only cost associated with a sport or other extracurricular activity. Ask about uniforms, equipment, travel, and tournament fees before committing so you have a better idea of the activity's total cost.Ask About Waivers and Consider Equipment RentalsSome schools and sports programs offer fee waivers or financial assistance for eligible families. Ask your school or program what options are available. Equipment swaps, gear libraries, rentals, and community sports organizations may also help families reduce seasonal costs.Compare RetailersWith a $100 or higher gap between retailers on the same supply list, price-checking two or three stores can potentially lead to significant savings. Look at rewards programs, sales, and student discounts as well.The Real Cost of Back-to-School Goes Beyond AugustIn 2026, higher prices, extracurricular costs, school fees, technology, and other expenses are stretching budgets well beyond the initial shopping trip.And for many parents, the pressure isn’t just financial. There’s also the desire to make sure their children have what they need, can participate in activities, and don’t feel left out by their peers. When those costs arrive throughout the year, it can be easy to turn to credit cards or BNPL services simply to keep up. However, planning ahead may help families better prepare for school-related costs as they arise.Preparing for back-to-school expenses should extend beyond buying notebooks, clothes, and a new backpack in August. Consider the entire school year and ask about upcoming fees for sports, the arts, field trips, technology needs, and other activities or equipment.Parents may not be able to avoid every surprise cost that comes with the school year. But the more expenses they can anticipate, the better chance they have of reducing the risk of school expenses contributing to longer-term debt.This story was produced by CreditNinja and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Gordon Flesch Company marks 70 years of innovation, service, and family leadership Seventy years later, GFC continues to build on the values established by its founder, with a focus on its employees, customers and long-term relationships.
	UnityPoint Health – Trinity launches Quad-Cities first rehab program for blood vessel condition This program gives people living with peripheral artery disease the tools and support they need to stay active and improve their overall health.
	Coralville man arrested after bank robbery in Muscatine on Monday morning A Coralville man was taken into custody without incident Monday morning after U.S. Bank in Muscatine was robbed.
	Man arrested after armed robbery at Muscatine bank The Muscatine Police Department responded to the U.S. Bank at 1800 Park Ave. Monday morning for a report of an armed robbery.
	Police: Iowa man arrested after report of Muscatine armed bank robbery Police in Muscatine arrested an Iowa man after a report of an armed robbery at a bank, according to a news release from the Muscatine Police Department. MUSCOM received a report of an armed robbery at U.S. Bank, 1800 Park Avenue in Muscatine, on August 24 at about 9:05 a.m. Officers responded to the area [...]
	Man arrested after allegedly robbing U.S. Bank in Muscatine A man was arrested on Monday after allegedly robbing U.S. Bank in Muscatine with a gun.
	How mindfulness can help you process your emotions How mindfulness can help you process your emotionsMindfulness and emotional regulation often go hand in hand. Emotional regulation is the ability to identify and manage your emotions in healthy ways. Research shows that regular mindfulness practice can help improve emotional regulation skills, perhaps even more than psychoeducation (classes designed to teach you how to regulate your emotions).With mindfulness, you can become more present and less reactive to your emotional experiences. It gives you the tools to pause, reflect, and respond in ways that feel more in line with your values.Rula explored how mindfulness can help you process your emotions and offered four ways to practice emotional mindfulness.Key TakeawaysResearch shows that mindfulness may help improve emotional regulation skills more than educational approaches alone.Mindfulness can help you recognize and sit with your emotions instead of trying to avoid or suppress them.Over time, mindfulness may change the way your brain responds to stress and help you become more emotionally resilient.How mindfulness promotes emotional healthUnlike what many people might think, mindfulness isn’t about achieving complete and total bliss and relaxation. Experiencing different emotions is a normal and healthy part of life. Mindfulness won’t make different emotions go away, but it can help you achieve higher emotional intelligence. In other words, it can help you become more skilled at identifying and regulating your emotions.Emotional dysregulation is a symptom associated with many different mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and anxiety. Living with emotional dysregulation means it’s harder for you to soothe yourself when you’re having painful or overwhelming emotions. This might lead to behaviors like lashing out or having meltdowns.Research has found that mindfulness-based interventions can significantly improve emotional regulation skills. For example, in one study, participants practiced seven days of brief mindfulness meditation and felt less extreme emotions (both pleasurable and unpleasurable) in reaction to certain stimuli. Participants who received the standard intervention — education around emotional regulation — didn’t experience the same effect.Establishing a regular mindfulness practice can help you learn how to be present with whatever is going on both externally and internally. In terms of emotional regulation, this often means you become able to sit with painful emotions without judging yourself for having them or trying to push them away. When you stop trying to push emotions away, you may find that they start to lose their power.The benefits of mindfulness for emotional regulation may also come from the way practicing mindfulness affects the brain. Mindfulness can help support emotional balance by changing how your brain processes emotions. Research shows that it can strengthen areas of the brain that help you focus, manage stress, and stay in control when emotions run high. It also helps your brain get better at noticing feelings without getting overwhelmed, which could explain why people who practice mindfulness often feel less reactive and more grounded over time.Four ways to practice emotional mindfulnessThere are many ways you can practice awareness of your emotions to experience the above benefits. Here are four exercises you can try on your own or with a therapist trained in mindfulness skills that may help you become more aware of your emotions.1. Mindfulness of the breathTo practice mindfulness of breath, find a quiet and comfortable spot to sit. Set a timer for one to five minutes, and bring your attention to your breath. You can focus on the feeling of the air moving in and out of your nose or the rise and fall of your chest.Don’t feel like you need to focus too much on your emotional experiences. Breath mindfulness is more about teaching you the basics of how to be mindful of each present moment. If you notice any emotions or thoughts coming up while you’re practicing mindful breathing, simply notice them without feeling like you have to react.2. Pleasurable emotions mindfulnessIt may be easiest to start practicing mindfulness of your emotions specifically by focusing on more pleasurable emotions that you aren’t as likely to want to push away.Start with a few minutes of mindful breathing meditation. Then, try to become more aware of any pleasurable emotions that arise. For example, you might feel a sense of calm. Focus on these pleasurable emotions, try to identify exactly how they feel, and put a name to the emotions. Where do you feel these emotions in your body? Simply notice them — don’t get too attached to them or push them away. You can think of them like clouds in the sky or logs in a river that are floating past you.3. Painful emotions mindfulnessOnce you’ve mastered being mindful of pleasurable emotions, you may try staying present with more painful or uncomfortable emotions. Begin the same way — with breath awareness. When a painful emotion arises, name it gently in your mind. For example, you might say to yourself, “This is anger,” or, “This is sadness.”Try to notice how it feels in your body. Is your chest tight, or are your shoulders tense? Allow yourself to observe these sensations without needing to fix them. Practicing this kind of acceptance can help take the edge off difficult emotions and prevent you from reacting in ways you might regret later.4. Mindfulness-based stress reduction techniquesUnderstanding how to manage your stress levels in healthy ways is an important part of emotional regulation. When you’re under high levels of stress, you may be more likely to have emotional meltdowns or simply have a harder time managing your emotions.Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a facilitator-led group intervention that teaches several different techniques to help people become better at managing stress. You can benefit from these exercises even without joining a group, although working with a trained facilitator may be more beneficial.For example, one common technique used in MBSR is body-scan meditation. In this mindfulness exercise, you lie down or sit comfortably and slowly bring your attention to different parts of your body — usually starting at the feet and working your way up. You’re not trying to change anything, just noticing each sensation as it comes.Clinician’s take“One common misconception is that mindfulness means clearing your mind or getting rid of thoughts,” said Ashley Ayala, licensed marriage and family therapist and clinical reviewer for Rula. “In reality, it’s about noticing what’s happening internally — through your thoughts, feelings, or sensations — without judgment and staying present with whatever shows up.”This story was produced by Rula and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	What your old social media accounts are still telling strangers about you What your old social media accounts are still telling strangers about youSocial media accounts from the past can be a thorn in your side for a host of reasons. Old photos, snapshots of old relationships, or representations of your past self can be embarrassing reminders of the permanence of your digital footprint.In addition to being embarrassing, these accounts can be a threat to your current-day privacy.Abandoned social media profiles remain searchable for years, which means that they’re accessible to people who may want to steal your information. Cybercriminals, data brokers, scammers, and impersonators can use these abandoned accounts to build a surprisingly detailed profile of you. PeopleFinders explains why awareness of what old accounts reveal and the threat they pose to your privacy is the first step toward protecting yourself.Why Old Social Media Accounts Can Still Be a Security RiskYou may have forgotten about your old social media accounts, but they likely haven’t forgotten about you; many social media platforms keep inactive accounts online until a user manually deletes them. Even if you do manually delete your account, archived versions of it may still appear in search results.In the words of the National Cybersecurity Alliance, posts are like ghosts. Your online presence is cumulative, and your digital footprint builds upon itself. Old profiles and information combine with newer ones to create a larger digital profile.This applies to everyone, even people who only post occasionally (and seemingly impersonally). Unfortunately, identity thieves don’t always need your most sensitive information. Sometimes, tidbits of information across multiple sources are more than enough.What Old Social Media Accounts Might Still Reveal About YouHave an old account that you can’t access? Unfortunately, even accounts that you haven’t accessed in years can provide curious strangers with useful information. But what exactly do your old social media accounts reveal about you?Personal DetailsThis one may seem somewhat obvious, but identity thieves can do quite a lot with personal details like your full name, nicknames, birthday, age, and hometown. If they’re accessible via old profiles, they’re at risk of being exploited.Contact InformationOld email addresses, phone numbers, and even links to your other personal accounts can give hackers easy ways to contact you.Photos and Location InformationIf any of your old posts have tagged locations, strangers have access to the places you’ve vacationed (or places that you frequent). Even if you don’t tag your location, viewers can gather information about you from less obvious signals like school logos, workplace uniforms, or neighborhood landmarks.Family and FriendsHave you used your children’s names, anniversaries, or family milestones as answers to your personal accounts’ security questions? If so, sharing them can give hackers a huge hint (and help them log into your accounts).How Can Criminals Use This Information?Criminals can use your personal information in many exploitative ways, including the following:Identity theftAccount takeoversSecurity question guessesPassword guessesImpersonation scamsFinancial fraudRomance scamsSocial engineering is another way that criminals can use your information to exploit the people close to you. In this tactic, attackers create convincing emails, phone calls, or text messages using publicly available information.For example, let’s say that an attacker gathers your graduation year, employer, hometown, and pet’s name from your social media profiles. They could use that information to craft an email that appears to come from your university, employer, or a close friend, making you more likely to click a malicious link.How to Audit and Clean Up Your Old AccountsWhat can you do to reduce what your old social media accounts are telling strangers about you? Here are a few actionable steps you can take to better secure your information.Search Yourself OnlineThe best way to defend yourself against online attacks is by knowing what information is readily available about you. Consider searching your name on a search engine or using a specialized people search tool to see what information comes up.Pro tip: Search old usernames that you’ve used, and be sure to check the image results.Delete or Deactivate Old AccountsIf you still have access to your old accounts, the best thing to do is delete them. If deletion isn’t immediate, consider removing your personal posts first.If you no longer have access, attempt to recover your password. If you’re still having trouble, contact the platform for specialized support.Pro tip: Before you delete your account, be sure to download any messages or photos that you may want to keep. After your account has been permanently deleted, it may be impossible to recover its data.Update Privacy SettingsTake privacy precautions on your current accounts. This means taking steps like limiting profile visibility, hiding your birthday, or removing old posts.Pro tip: Some social platforms allow you to limit the audience for past posts. If you don’t want to manually delete your old posts, consider reducing their visibility.Remove Sensitive InformationIt’s generally unsafe to post sensitive information on your social media profiles. Delete all mentions of phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, workplace details, or birthdates.Pro tip: Double-check your profile bio. These sections often contain personal details that are useful to scammers.Strengthen Account SecurityWhether you’re creating a new account or auditing an existing account, account security is extremely important. Use unique passwords, update your recovery email addresses, and enable multi-factor authentication, where possible.Pro tip: Review your account’s login history and check which devices are currently logged into your account. If you see something you don’t recognize, sign out of all sessions, then change your password.Good Digital Hygiene Can Make or Break Your Personal PrivacyYour online presence doesn’t disappear the moment you stop using an account. Unfortunately, your old profiles, photos, and posts can remain visible years after you log out for the last time.Identity thieves and scammers often rely on public information, and old social media accounts are full of it. Even seemingly harmless details can be valuable alongside the information that they may already have on you from other sources.Regularly reviewing your virtual presence can help you protect your privacy. Make it a habit to review your online accounts one to two times a year, especially after major life events.Protecting your accounts isn’t just about strong passwords. Taking steps to limit the information that strangers can easily find about you online can save you time, money, and a headache down the line.This story was produced by PeopleFinders and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	3 people face charges after one person shot in Davenport Three people have been arrested in connection to a shooting at Garfield Park in Davenport. One person faces a charge for attempted murder.
	Man stabbed in chest in Rock Island The Rock Island Police Department responded to the 4300 block of 11th Street Sunday evening where one person suffered a stab wound to the chest.
	North Scott superintendent begins final year with new curriculum, leadership transition North Scott Community School District Superintendent Joe Stutting is entering his 13th and final year leading the district as students returned to class Aug. 24.
	How compassionate specialty care helps Nick Stacken thrive beyond his diagnosis Sorry, but your browser does not support the video tag. var bptVideoPlayer = document.getElementById("bptVideoPlayer"); if (bptVideoPlayer) { var cssText = "width: 100%;"; cssText += " background: url('" + bptVideoPlayer.getAttribute("poster") + "');"; cssText += " -webkit-background-size: cover;"; cssText += " -moz-background-size: cover;"; cssText += " -o-background-size: cover;"; cssText += " background-size: cover;"; bptVideoPlayer.style.cssText = cssText; var bptVideoPlayerContainer = document.getElementById("bptVideoPlayerContainer"); if (bptVideoPlayerContainer) { setTimeout(function () { bptVideoPlayerContainer.style.cssText = "display: block; position: relative; margin-bottom: 10px;"; var isIE = navigator.userAgent.match(/ MSIE(([0 - 9] +)(\.[0 - 9] +) ?) /); var isEdge = navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Edge") > -1 \|\| navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Trident") > -1; if (isIE \|\| isEdge) { fixVideoPoster(); } }, 1000); } var bptVideoPlayButton = document.getElementById("bptVideoPlayButton"); if (bptVideoPlayButton) { bptVideoPlayButton.addEventListener("click", function () { bptVideoPlayer.play(); }, false); bptVideoPlayer.addEventListener("play", function () { bptVideoPlayButton.style.cssText = "display: none;"; }, false); } var mainImage = document.getElementById("mainImageImgContainer_sm"); if (mainImage) { mainImage.style.cssText = "display: none;"; } var mainImage = document.getElementById("photo-noresize"); if (mainImage) { mainImage.style.cssText = "display: none;"; } var assetGallery = document.getElementsByClassName("asset_gallery")[0]; if (assetGallery) { assetGallery.style.cssText = "display: none;"; } var assetGallery = document.getElementsByClassName("trb_article_leadart")[0]; if (assetGallery) { assetGallery.style.cssText = "display: none;"; } var assetGallery = document.querySelectorAll("[src='https://d372qxeqh8y72i.cloudfront.net/7f10c8cb-84e1-441e-b0a5-face9e759ef8_web.jpg']")[0]; if (assetGallery) { assetGallery.style.cssText = "display: none;"; } } function fixVideoPoster() { var videoPlayer = document.getElementById("bptVideoPlayer"); var videoPoster = document.getElementById("bptVideoPoster"); fixVideoPosterPosition(videoPlayer, videoPoster, true); window.onresize = function() { fixVideoPosterPosition(videoPlayer, videoPoster); }; videoPoster.onclick = function() { videoPlayer.play(); videoPoster.style.display = "none"; }; videoPlayer.onplay = function() { videoPoster.style.display = "none"; }; } function fixVideoPosterPosition(videoPlayer, videoPoster, display) { setTimeout(function () { var videoPosition = videoPlayer.getBoundingClientRect(); videoPoster.style.position = "absolute"; videoPoster.style.top = "0"; videoPoster.style.left = "0"; videoPoster.style.width = videoPlayer.offsetWidth + "px"; videoPoster.style.height = (videoPlayer.offsetHeight + 20) + "px"; if (display) { videoPoster.style.display = "inline"; } }, 1010); } (BPT) - When Wendy Stacken's son Nick was born, doctors warned her that he would face significant health challenges and an uncertain future. Because of his multiple health issues, including an underlying immunodeficiency, Nick was prone to infections, and his doctors didn't expect him to live long."When Nick was six months old, before his diagnosis, one of his infectious disease doctors looked at me and said, 'I don't think Nick's going to live to be one,'" Stacken said. "When he was officially diagnosed at 13 months, another doctor said, 'I've got to be honest with you, he's not going to make it to two.'"Despite the discouraging prognosis, Stacken believed that with the right care, her son could survive and — more importantly — thrive."A doctor asked me, 'Do you want him to live or do you want him to just survive?'" said Stacken. "I wanted him to live, of course. I wanted Nick to be happy, make friends and participate in activities, not just survive."Today, thanks to his mother and specialty care team, Nick is 31 and a lifelong Special Olympics competitor.The critical role of simplified specialty careFrom the very beginning, Nick required complex, ongoing specialty care, including round-the-clock antibiotic, antifungal and immunoglobulin (IG) infusions that needed to be administered by a healthcare professional.Luckily, Stacken connected with the CVS Specialty/Coram pharmacy and nursing care team."Specialty pharmacies support patients with complex and chronic conditions, such as cancer, hemophilia and immunodeficiencies, among others," said Lucille Accetta, Chief Pharmacy Officer and Head of CVS Specialty Operations, CVS Health. "They're not typically what you see in a neighborhood or community pharmacy. Many specialty therapies require specialized handling, clinical expertise and ongoing support to help patients stay on therapy and manage their care."For Stacken, having access to simplified specialty care for Nick was life-changing."Our in-home nurse came every day to administer his treatments," Stacken said. "I was terrified and overwhelmed, but his home care nurse gladly educated me on what his treatments were and what to expect. Even after she left, she would call us to make sure we were doing OK. That meant a lot to me."As an adult, Nick continues to receive compassionate care from CVS Specialty/Coram nurses, particularly for his weekly IG infusions, a critical part of his care. This therapy helps support Nick's immune system, making consistent therapy essential to his day-to-day stability."For many patients, therapies like immunoglobulin — IG therapies — are an essential part of managing their condition," Accetta said. "What makes specialty care different is the combination of pharmacy expertise and nursing support. Whether it's helping patients receive treatment at home, answering questions or providing ongoing education, the goal is to make care as simple as possible for patients and caregivers. That's why we wrap our therapies with CareTeams that include nursing and pharmacy care."Expertise, compassion and trustSpecialty care from nurses and pharmacists isn't a one-off experience. These health care professionals become invaluable members of a patient's care team and offer care beyond administering treatments. They help educate families so they can manage a patient's care with confidence and offer personalized continuity of care."The therapy is only one part of the patient experience," Accetta said. "Patients and caregivers often rely on a team of pharmacists, nurses and health care providers who work together to support them over time. It's about empowering caregivers and patients by building trust and confidence at every step."For Stacken, Nick's care team has also become an important part of the family's life."They're our family, they really are," Stacken said. "Nick's first long-term nurse was with him until he was 10 or 12. Now, Jackee helps him with his weekly IG infusions. They would go out of their way to find something in common to connect with Nick. It's beautiful."Nick's experience is just one story about how pharmacist- and nurse-driven specialty care can simplify complex health journeys, leading to resilience, determination and possibility. To learn more, visit CVSHealth.com.
	How real estate lead generation actually works, and what the data shows about where to focus How real estate lead generation actually works, and what the data shows about where to focusLead generation, along with cold-calling qualified leads, is not the most enjoyable part of any sales job. Real estate, an intensely competitive industry, is no different.However, there’s no way to eliminate the need for real estate lead generation. If you are new to the industry or don’t have many personal connections in your area, you might be wondering which data you can look at to gather leads.The good news is that data can tell you a lot about motivated and likely sellers. It’s important, though, to look at the right data. Keep reading this guide from PropertyReach to find out which data you should be focusing on as a real estate investor.Lead Generation Starts with Finding Motivated SellersThe most successful investors don’t dial numbers faster than anyone else or even pay for more phone numbers from lead generation services. They understand how to leverage available data to find motivated sellers—or at least identify sellers who have a reasonable possibility of being motivated.Public records in particular have a lot to do with proper real estate lead generation. The public availability of certain information, such as divorce decrees, varies by jurisdiction, but the following pieces of information should be accessible no matter the state.Tax delinquency notices. Homeowners who are behind on property taxes may also be underwater on their mortgage. Either way, a tax delinquency notice is often a strong indicator of a potential seller who needs a cash infusion in the near future.Probate records or estate settlements. In some cases, an heir or beneficiary does not wish to take control of property they just inherited. They might favor a quick or cash-only sale for an efficient transaction, especially if they live out of state.Absentee or remote ownership (the owner lists a homestead at another address). Absentee owners frequently find that managing a property for renters is more expensive and time-consuming than they originally thought. This situation could be your opportunity to talk to the owner about a quick, low-stress deal.Lis pendens notice, which indicates an active court case regarding property ownership. It usually means the lender has initiated foreclosure, but it sometimes means that the court has been asked to settle the question of ownership among multiple claimants. A divorce might also trigger a lis pendens notice.Zoning and other code violations. Not having the plumbing or electrical system up to code is another potential indication that a homeowner lacks the financial means to keep up their property. Even minor violations can be helpful for lead generators, as they can show that the current owner is not particularly engaged in the property’s upkeep.Motivated vs. Likely SellersReal estate investors should know the difference between motivated sellers and likely sellers, two distinct terms sometimes used interchangeably.Likely sellers and their properties have multiple traits that correspond to a potential sale in the near future, but they may not be in a hurry to close. Their mortgage might be close to the maturity date, for instance, or the homeowners might simply be elderly retirees.Motivated sellers are both likely and motivated because a quick transaction might seem like the best option. Financial stress is one of the most common precursors to motivated sellers, as is a pending divorce.Successful investors typically have a mix of motivated and likely sellers as a lead pool, but finding truly motivated sellers separates the most successful investors from the rest.Combining Multiple Data Points is More Likely to Produce Quality LeadsHoning real estate leads involves analyzing multiple pieces of data and scoring each one appropriately. While a lis pendens action is a strong indicator by itself, the property can become an even stronger lead if a tax delinquency notice is also attached to it.According to ATTOM, in 2024, more than 322,000 lis pendens notices were filed in the U.S. Most investors don’t have time to call (and re-call) every owner of every property in foreclosure. You can maximize your cold-calling windows by prioritizing the hottest properties and working your way down the list.Which types of leads become actual sales most often?So, how does a successful real estate investor score leads?While adapting to market conditions and conducting granular research on specific geographic areas (down to individual street levels) is important, the table below offers a good starting point. PropertyReach Why the Best Lead Sources Change with the MarketOperating from timely, accurate data is just one piece of the puzzle for real estate professionals looking to generate leads. It’s also important to look beyond raw data and consider the state of mind of sellers and buyers. People’s perceptions about the state of the current real estate market can influence their level of motivation.Seller’s MarketA seller’s market typically involves fewer homeowners in financial distress. Downstream, investors are locked in extreme competition to find off-market deals.In these circumstances, you might want to focus more on inherited properties. Emphasize the high amounts of equity in target properties when making your pitch to homeowners.Comprehensive and up-to-date property data search tools are even more important in a seller’s market.Buyer’s MarketConversely, investors typically have a larger pool of properties to score when buyers have the advantage. The number of financially distressed properties usually increases, and you’ll have better response rates during cold-calling. The challenge, of course, is securing funding for your next investment.How to Measure What Actually WorksGetting a few appointments after cold-calling hundreds of leads can feel most satisfying, but how do you know if you’re using your time as efficiently as possible?Experienced investors don’t stop collecting data after contacting leads. They take answer rates, appointments scheduled, offers, and purchases to determine how much time—and money—they’re spending on each transaction. The more data you have on lead generation and conversions, the better you’ll be able to alleviate bottlenecks in your process.Pair the Right Data with Hard Work for Sustained SuccessGathering important data only translates into conversions when you find the right prospecting method and stick to it. Without tailored scripts and a strong online presence, you may not have every critical piece of infrastructure to close the deal with motivated sellers. Still, identifying the right data points is the foundation of any successful real estate investment strategy.This story was produced by PropertyReach and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Quad-Cities gas prices rise 21 cents in one week, averaging $4.13 per gallon Americans could for the first time ever see a national average price of gasoline above $4 per gallon on Labor Day.
	Women are fueling creatine's biggest year in 3 decades, according to Amazon data Women are fueling creatine's biggest year in 3 decades, according to Amazon dataCreatine is not a new product. It's a commodity ingredient that every supplement brand on earth already sells, and it's been that way since the early 1990s. This makes what's happening on Amazon right now genuinely strange: The creatine subcategory is up 90% over the last 12 months.That's $57.5 million per month, $721 million over the trailing 12, across 773 brands and 2,191 products, according to a SmartScout analysis of U.S. Amazon marketplace data covering the 12 months leading up to August 2026. And unlike most of the supplement aisle, it's still growing month over month (+4%) through the summer dip.To put the scale in context: Creatine is now outpacing entire legacy supplement categories that have had decades longer to mature. A mature ingredient doesn't double like this on its own; three forces are driving it, and all three are visible in the data.The Search Term That Explains EverythingStart with the search bar, because that's where the story shows up first."Creatine" now pulls 620,729 searches per month on Amazon, up 118,544 over 12 months, and it's growing in every single window tracked in the data. SmartScout This isn't a spike but a demand curve still bending upward.But the term that explains the shape of the growth is narrower. "Creatine for women" is at 174,396 monthly searches, up 33,799 year over year, and then up 37,325 in the last month alone. The term added more searches in 30 days than it added in the entire previous year.Creatine spent three decades being marketed to men in gym parking lots, but the demographic wall just broke. The strength-training and longevity conversation that's been building across podcasts and social feeds, with particular traction among women, finally hit a tipping point. The search data caught the exact moment it converted into purchase intent.Advertisers already know:"Creatine for women" costs $4.55 per click."Creatine" costs $5.60 per click.Both rank among the most expensive search terms in supplements.A Clinical Brand Is Outselling The Gym Icon, And 521,000 Reviews Can't Stop ItFor most of creatine's commercial life, the category belonged to sports nutrition brands competing on price per serving, stacking reviews, and spending on ads. That hierarchy is falling apart.Look at the top of the leaderboard: SmartScout Thorne is a clinical, practitioner-channel brand. It's winning the creatine category while spending just 2.1% of total ad dollars. It gained share again in August on organic demand, not paid placement.Optimum Nutrition, the brand that defined creatine for a generation of lifters, is bleeding: down 2.35 points of share in a single month, shedding $1.39 million in monthly revenue and 52,778 units. Its 521,411 lifetime reviews, the deepest moat in the category, are not stopping the slide.The pattern holds across the price ladder: Share gainers cluster at the premium end, while share losers cluster at the value end. A commodity ingredient is premiumizing, which almost never happens in supplements. It happens only when new customers arrive who anchor on trust and brand rather than price per gram, which is exactly what the search data predicts.Momentous is the exception that proves the rule: premium priced at $61, culturally adjacent to the same podcast ecosystem driving the boom, and still down 0.56 points of share in August. Premium positioning gets you into the fight. It doesn't win it alone.The Format Everyone Wrote Off Is Now The Most Expensive Click In The Category"Creatine gummies" looked like a cautionary tale earlier this year: a viral format that spiked, then corrected hard. The correction is over.The term is back to 260,315 monthly searches, up 41,401 in the last three months and 39,568 in the last month alone. And at $6.66 estimated cost-per-click (CPC), it's now the single most expensive click in the creatine category—more expensive than the word "creatine" itself.Here's how the CPC stacks up across the category's biggest search terms: SmartScout And the format has a champion. Create, the gummies-first brand, holds the No. 4 spot with 8.2% share and $4.7 million per month, gaining 0.89 points of share in August while adding $488,000 in monthly revenue. It's doing this at a $52 average price with only 844 average reviews per listing, in a category where the incumbent averages 28,967 reviews.That's the single most striking David-and-Goliath stat in the dataset. Format innovation plus the new demographic is beating 30 years of review moat.Who Controls The EconomicsTwo structural details round out the picture, and both matter for understanding where this category goes next.Brands own this channel. Third-party sellers take 83.2% of subcategory revenue; Amazon retail holds just 16.8%, per SmartScout’s analysis. Unlike protein, where Amazon's retail arm plays a heavier hand, creatine brands keep their own pricing and margins.Search traffic is concentrating at the top, with one major exception. On "creatine monohydrate" (417,927 monthly searches), the top product captures 34% of clicks. On "creatine," the leader takes 24%. On "creatine for women," it is 23%.With validated demand, the highest CPC in the category, and no dominant player, the outlier is "creatine gummies," where the top three products combined hold just 17% of clicks.What The Data Adds Up ToThe signals in SmartScout's data point in a clear direction:The growth is demographic, not cyclical. A search term adding 37,000 queries in a month is a customer base expanding, not existing customers stocking up.Review moats are losing to trust signals. Thorne and Create are beating a brand with half a million reviews. Third-party testing, clinical positioning, and creator credibility are outconverting sheer review volume.Price is no longer the primary axis of competition. The share winners are $52 to $57 products in a category whose value tier starts at $27.The gummies format has real staying power. Highest CPC in the category, lowest click concentration among top search terms, and a proven $4.7 million/month brand validating the format.Hydration was the supplement industry's breakout story over the past two years. SmartScout's analysis of Amazon’s marketplace data says creatine is the story of this one, and it's being driven by customers the category spent 30 years ignoring.This story was produced by SmartScout and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Lighthouse Grill and Bar to close as longtime owners retire A riverfront business that started as a bar 44 years ago and grew into what is now Lighthouse Grill and Bar could be entering a new chapter as its longtime owners prepare to retire.
	Woman charged with attempted murder after Davenport park shooting; victim arrested for rioting A Davenport woman was charged with attempted murder after a shooting at Garfield Park on Sunday.
	47-year-old man stabbed Sunday near American Motor Inn in Rock Island Officials said the victim was released from the hospital this morning.
	Life insurance is on the to-do list. Right under cleaning out the garage. Life insurance is on the to-do list. Right under cleaning out the garage.Being an adult comes with a never-ending list of responsibilities: Cook dinner. Scrub the bathroom. File taxes. The tasks grow even longer when sharing a household with a partner, building a family, or taking care of others. No matter how you define “adulting,” getting life insurance tends to be one part of the to-do list that keeps getting set on a procrastination loop.New survey data backs that up: there are plenty of other tasks adults would rather focus on first.The Adulting Task Americans Keep AvoidingAccording to the 2026 Life Happens Life Insurance Survey, a financial literacy nonprofit organization, 39% of U.S. adults would rather clean out their email inbox than figure out their life insurance needs. Another 31% would rather clean out the garage or basement. One in five U.S. adults would be willing to sit on hold with customer service for three hours before life insurance planning. Even though many adults have it somewhere on their list, nearly half (46%) say they’ll either deal with it later or not at all. Life Happens They Know It MattersNearly a third of adults have already figured out a life insurance plan, and they feel good about their decision. Others are feeling more conflicted: 14% have a policy, but they’re not sure if they have enough. Another 12% say they either don’t know where to start or they think it’ll be too expensive.It’s no wonder people are putting it off: Navigating a new-to-them form of financial planning can come with a lot of complicated emotions. Four in 10 feel either overwhelmed, anxious, or some combination of both. Sixteen percent of U.S. adults feel guilty for putting it off, but when the outcome is more procrastination, that feeling lingers. Life Happens Why Later Keeps WinningIf you’ve ever faced an important decision without having enough information to make an informed choice, you know how stressful it can be. While the generations have different takes on making major decisions with a gut feeling or “pure vibes,” most of the time, people want to feel like they’re making an informed choice. Forty-five percent of U.S. adults say cost concerns, confusion or procrastination are the main reasons they have delayed or would delay looking into life insurance. For more than one in five, the plan is to seriously look at it when they feel more financially stable. For 12%, they say they’ll do it when they’re older. Life Happens Men tend to feel more confident about their life insurance decisions to date; 53% of men vs. 41% of women feel confident their family would be financially protected.The First Step Feels Bigger Than It IsLearning more about life insurance, how it’s priced and how it works could help get many consumers out of their procrastination loop. A quarter of people say they’d make a decision if they learned it was easier to get than they previously thought. Thirty percent would make the purchase if they learned it was more affordable than they believed it to be. Others need an experienced professional to talk to or an online calculator tool to give them guidance.Methodology: Life Happens commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 2,000 adults, including 700 Gen Z respondents, 700 millennials, and 600 Gen X respondents throughout the United States. The margin of error for the overall sample is +/- 2 percentage points and +/- 4 percentage points for each generational sample, with a confidence level of 95 percent. Fieldwork took place between July 14 and July 20, 2026.Atomik Research, part of 4media group, is a creative market research agency.This story was produced by Life Happens and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	People without debt report higher life satisfaction. Here's what to know about managing debt. People without debt report higher life satisfaction. Here's what every adult should know about how to manage debt.Debt is a way to cover an expense and pay for it over time. Sometimes it can be exciting to go into debt (think new car or a home). It’s not so fun to struggle with credit card bills that never seem to end. In a perfect world, debt is a tool that helps you reach your goals. The type of debt and reason for the debt matter. Learning the basics could tell you whether your debts are helping you live your best life or dragging you down.Here are nine basic facts to know about debt, according to Achieve.Key takeaways:Debt is borrowed money that must be repaid.Not all debt is bad.Debt to improve your earning potential or quality of life, or for things that gain value could be good debt.1. Debt definedDebt is money you borrow and are obligated to repay. You’re usually charged interest when borrowing money. You might also pay fees.2. Debt isn’t necessarily badDebt is good if it helps you reach a goal. That goal could be to improve your quality of life, improve your ability to earn a good living, or help you get something that is likely to be worth even more money in the future. This is why there are many types of debt, and people often borrow to buy a home or a car, or to get a college education.3. Debt can be badDebt can be bad. Here are some ways bad debt differs from good debt:It has no tangible benefit (like credit card debt for overspending)You can’t afford the debtThe cost of the debt is very highThe thing you borrowed for is worth less than the amount you owe4. Some debt is necessarySome types of debt are almost unavoidable. If you don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars in your bank account, buying a home usually requires a mortgage. That can be a good debt if it improves your quality of life. As a bonus, a mortgage could also help you build wealth in the form of real estate ownership.Emergencies such as home repairs may also require a loan, and the same goes for healthcare costs.5. Debt is either secured or unsecuredSome debt is secured. That means you pledge something valuable as a guarantee that you’ll repay the loan. That something valuable is called collateral. For instance, a car is the collateral for a car loan.Collateral lowers the risk to the lender because if you fail to repay the debt, they could take your collateral and sell it to recover what they are owed. Because of the lower risk, secured loans typically cost less than similar loans that aren’t secured by collateral.Some debt is unsecured. That means there is no collateral. Most credit card debt is unsecured. Since the lender doesn’t have a safety net in the form of collateral, unsecured debt usually costs more than secured debt.6. Debt is either revolving or installmentRevolving debt means you can borrow, repay, and borrow more repeatedly, up to your limit. This is how credit cards and home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, work.Installment debt means you pay off the debt in equal installments (payments). You’ll make the same payment every month for a set period of time. When you first get the debt you’ll know exactly when the loan will be paid off, as long as you make all of your scheduled payments. This is how personal loans and car loans work.7. The interest rate can change…or notInterest is the cost of owing money. It’s calculated as a percentage of what you owe.A fixed interest rate stays the same for the life of the loan.A variable interest rate (most credit cards) or an adjustable interest rate (some mortgages) can change. Economic factors cause interest rates to change from time to time. Lenders keep an eye on certain interest rates (called benchmark rates) and then charge their own customers accordingly. If market rates go up, lenders could raise your rate if it’s a variable or adjustable rate. If market rates go down, the lender could lower your rate.8. Getting rid of debt could improve your emotional well-beingGenerally speaking, people without debt express higher levels of life satisfaction. According to one study, people with medical debt had the lowest levels of life satisfaction out of any group.9. There’s a solution for every debt problemLots of people fall into deep debt, for many reasons. Even so, there is a way out of every debt situation. When you need to deal with your debt, you have choices. Here are some strategies you could consider.DIY payoff method. A DIY payoff method is a plan that you design and control. You could try the debt snowball or debt avalanche method and pay your debts off yourself, one at a time. In a snowball, you pay as much as possible toward the smallest debt. In an avalanche, you focus on the most expensive debt. All the while, you continue to make minimum payments on your other debts.Debt consolidation loan. If you have expensive debt but can qualify for a new loan at better terms, consider a loan to consolidate your debts. That means taking a new loan and using it to pay off multiple smaller debts. It could be a good idea if it helps you lower the cost of your debt or get a smaller monthly payment.Debt relief. If you have a financial hardship that prevents you from being able to fully repay your debts, you could ask your creditors to accept less than the full amount you owe. You can negotiate with creditors yourself or let a reputable debt relief company negotiate on your behalf. Debt relief could be a good option to consider if you’ve already fallen behind on your debts and you don’t think you can catch up.Debt management plan. If you can afford your debts but you need help straightening out your finances, consider working with a credit counselor. If you need one, the credit counseling agency could set up a debt management plan for you. This is a payment plan designed to fully pay off your debts in three to five years. Because of the short timeframe, the monthly payment may be high.Debt should be a tool you can use to get closer to where you want to be in life. Debt could, however, drag you down and hold you back. If you’re not sure about your own debts, it’s a good idea to talk to a debt expert who can help you decide what your best course of action may be.This story was produced by Achieve and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	UAW rejects Deere contract extension, bargaining to continue in 2027 The current agreement will remain in place through October 2027 after union members voted against a two-year extension.
	Man stabbed in the chest near American Motor Inn in Rock Island A man was stabbed in the chest on Sunday near the American Motor Inn in Rock Island.
	Davenport man arrested after allegedly striking person with axe A Davenport man is facing charges after allegedly using an axe to strike a person in the skull early Monday morning.
	Elementary students at Lincoln-Irving are kicking off the year at Western Illinois University The Moline-Coal Valley school district is expanding the current elementary school this year and has moved some kids to the nearby Quad Cities campus.
	Thinking about trying peptides? Here’s the hype vs. reality Thinking about trying peptides? Here’s the hype vs. realityIf you’ve spent any time on social media, you’ve probably seen people talking about peptides. Some claim they can help you lose weight, build muscle, and slow aging, among other alleged health benefits. And interest has only grown as discussions around compounded versions of certain experimental peptides have entered the mainstream. But with so much buzz, it can be hard to separate science from marketing.The reality is more nuanced than what you might have seen from online influencers. Some peptide medications have transformed weight loss and the treatment of health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes. Others remain experimental and are being promoted for uses with little, if any, evidence from clinical studies.Before trying a peptide, it’s worth understanding which ones have strong evidence behind them, where they come from, and what questions to ask before getting started. GoodRx, a platform for medication savings, examines the hype versus the reality and shares what you need to know when considering a peptide.Key takeaways:Peptides are a broad group of compounds, not a single treatment.Some peptide products are FDA-approved medications. But others are still being studied or sold as “research-use only” products.The evidence behind peptides varies widely depending on the specific product and what it's being used for. Not all health claims are backed by high-quality research, and these products aren’t risk-free.If you’re considering a peptide, it’s best to talk with a healthcare professional first. They can help you understand where it comes from, the evidence behind it, and whether the potential benefits outweigh the risks for your situation. What are peptides?Peptides are short chains of amino acids, which are the building blocks that make up proteins. Your body naturally produces thousands of peptides. Many act as chemical messengers to help regulate processes such as metabolism, growth, and immune function.Researchers have developed peptide medications that mimic or enhance these natural processes. The most popular examples are glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications, which act like gut hormones that the body releases after eating.In the wake of GLP-1 popularity, the term “peptide” has become a catch-all phrase online. Some products marketed as peptides are FDA-approved prescription medications. Others may be compounded formulations made by pharmacies, investigational drugs, or products labeled for research purposes.These products all fall under the umbrella of “peptides.” But they aren’t all held to the same safety standards or supported by the same level of evidence.Examples of peptides that are still being studied or promoted for experimental uses include:BPC-157: Often marketed for injury recovery, tendon healing, and gut healthTB-500: Commonly promoted for muscle recovery and wound healingMOTS-c: Marketed for metabolism, exercise performance, and healthy agingGHK-Cu: Promoted for skin rejuvenation, hair growth, and wound healingEpitalon: Marketed for longevity and anti-agingHype: Why everyone is talking about peptidesThere are several reasons why peptides are getting so much attention lately. Here are three key contributing factors.1. GLP-1 medications changed the conversationPeople are now more familiar with peptide-based treatments following the success of GLP-1 medications for weight loss. These medications show that some peptides can provide meaningful health benefits when backed by strong clinical evidence.2. Social media fueled broader interestAt the same time, social media, podcasts, and wellness clinics have promoted a much broader range of peptides. They claim these products can benefit muscle growth, athletic recovery, and healthy aging, among other uses. Some people even combine multiple peptides together, a practice known as “stacking.”But much of the enthusiasm surrounding these products is based on early laboratory and animal research or personal testimonials. These products often have yet to be tested in large clinical studies involving humans.3. Compounding has kept peptides in the newsMore recently, peptides have attracted more attention as the FDA reviews whether several experimental peptides may be eligible for compounding. But being considered for compounding isn’t the same as being an FDA-approved medication. These peptides remain experimental and have not gone through the typical regulatory process. Plus, there often isn’t enough high-quality clinical evidence to show they’re safe or effective for many of their promoted uses.Reality: Not every peptide has the same level of evidencePeptides are often discussed as if they’re all one and the same. But the research behind each product varies considerably.Some peptide medications have been studied in large clinical trials. These medications have established benefits, known side effects, and recommended dosage schedules based on years of research.Other peptides are still experimental. They may have shown promise in laboratory or animal studies. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they work or are safe for people. In fact, many treatments that appear promising in early research don’t prove to work well in human clinical trials. And in some cases, researchers learn through trials that the products cause more harm than good. Without these trials, it’s also likely that there isn’t enough data to determine the right dose or dosage form for these products.Before trying any peptide, look beyond the marketing. Ask if the specific product has clinical trial evidence for the condition you’re treating. Promising research and positive online testimonials are not enough to ensure a product is safe or even works.Reality: Where you get peptides mattersThe source of a peptide is just as important as the peptide itself.FDA-approved peptide medications are manufactured under strict quality standards and have been reviewed for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality.Compounded peptides are different. Compounded medications are made to fill a specific need for an individual. Because of this, they aren’t required to go through the FDA approval process to prove they’re safe and effective. Compounded products can also vary in quality and consistency depending on how they’re made and where their ingredients come from.Some peptides are also sold online as “research-use only” products. These products aren’t intended for human use and may not undergo the same quality testing as pharmaceutical-grade ingredients used in human medications. As a result, there may be uncertainty about the product’s contents, sterility, and possible contaminants or impurities.Reality: Safety can depend on several factorsThe safety of a peptide depends on several factors, including which peptide you’re using, how well it’s been studied, and where it comes from.‘Natural’ doesn’t always mean safeOne reason peptides have gained so much popularity is that they’re often described as “natural.” Since your body naturally produces many peptides, it’s easy to assume that peptide products are inherently safe. But natural doesn’t always mean risk-free.Many peptides act as signaling molecules, helping regulate many processes throughout the body. Because peptides affect multiple systems in the body, researchers don’t always know all of their potential effects. For many experimental peptides, more research is needed to understand both their intended effects and unintended effects in the body.How we learn whether peptides are safeFDA-approved peptide medications have undergone extensive safety testing before approval. Their safety is also monitored after they’re on the market. This ongoing monitoring helps identify rare or unexpected side effects that weren’t reported during clinical trials. It also helps build the understanding of a medication’s long-term safety.Many experimental peptides haven’t undergone this same level of study. So less is known about their safety.Manufacturing quality mattersThe way a peptide is made also matters. Synthetic peptides can vary in quality, especially if they’re produced outside of FDA manufacturing standards. Depending on the product, there may be a risk of contaminants (such as arsenic or lead), impurities, or differences in the peptide itself. These issues may affect how the peptide works or increase the chance of unwanted immune reactions.Ultimately, there’s no single answer to whether peptides are “safe.” That’s why it’s best to discuss any peptide you’re considering with a healthcare professional.How to spot misleading peptide claims and fake productsAs peptides become more popular, so do exaggerated marketing claims and questionable products. No single sign can tell you whether a peptide is legitimate. But there are several red flags to watch for.Claims that sound too good to be true: If a peptide is advertised as a cure-all or claims to work without side effects or risks, that’s a warning sign.Testimonials instead of research: Personal stories can be compelling, but they aren’t a substitute for well-designed clinical studies. In fact, some testimonials or medical expert endorsements aren’t even from real people. Look for evidence from research involving humans, not just before-and-after photos or influencer endorsements.“Research-use only” products marketed for people: Some peptides are labeled “for research use only.” These products aren’t intended to be medications for people, even if they’re promoted online for weight loss, recovery, or other health benefits.Claims that a compounded peptide product, its ingredients, or its manufacturer are “FDA approved”: This is a common marketing claim, but it can be misleading. Compounded peptides aren’t FDA-approved, even if they’re prepared by a licensed pharmacy. The companies that make the peptide ingredients may be regulated or inspected by the FDA, but that isn’t the same as FDA approval. And if a peptide becomes eligible for compounding, that doesn’t mean the FDA has determined it’s safe or effective for the particular condition.If you’re interested in trying a peptide, the safest approach is to talk with a healthcare professional first.Questions to ask before trying peptidesSpotting misleading claims is just one part of making an informed decision. Before starting a peptide, consider asking these questions:Is this an FDA-approved medication, a compounded product, or a research-use only product?What evidence supports using it for my health condition?What are the known side effects and long-term risks?Where does this product come from, and how is its quality verified?How will you know if it’s working?Are there FDA-approved alternatives with stronger evidence?A healthcare professional can help you weigh the potential benefits and risks based on your medical history and treatment goals.The bottom lineIt’s easy to get caught up in the excitement surrounding peptides. But before trying one, consider whether the peptide has undergone clinical trials, where it comes from, and whether there are FDA-approved options with stronger evidence for your needs.Peptides sold online are often promoted as quick fixes for weight loss, muscle growth, anti-aging, and other health goals. But many of these claims aren't backed by strong scientific evidence. Some online peptide products may also have quality or safety concerns, especially if they're sold by unregulated sources or marketed for research use only.If you're interested in peptide therapy, talk to a healthcare professional to determine whether there's an appropriate FDA-approved treatment.This story was produced by GoodRx and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	AI’s water use is in the spotlight. Meat deserves a look, too. AI’s water use is in the spotlight. Meat deserves a look, too.You’ve probably heard the statistic: Generating just one email with ChatGPT consumes an entire bottle’s worth of water. It’s not true. While AI does require water, the actual water footprint of a single chatbot query is usually small. For example, a simple ChatGPT request, like writing an email, is 6mL or around a teaspoon — roughly 1% of a standard water bottle.Still, it’s not surprising that the statistic took off. The way the technology actually works is a mystery to most people. AI companies have not exactly been transparent about how their models work or how much water or energy they consume, which is one reason among many that calculating AI’s water use is challenging. These factors, along with many other concerns about the technology, including its growth and the impact on communities where data centers are being built, has led to an understandable distrust of AI and its effects on the world.“I think for most people, it was the first time that they had ever seen any story about a computer process using water at all,” Andy Masley tells Sentient. Masley is an independent researcher and former head of Effective Altruism DC. “You’re kind of like, minding your own business, AI is starting to pop off, and suddenly there’s this story about how literally every time you send a chatbot prompt, one bottle of water is used. And I think for a lot of people, that was really shocking.”Masley, an outspoken skeptic of the “one water bottle per prompt” figure, has long been frustrated with the outsized attention AI’s water usage receives in comparison with other water-guzzling industries, such as meat and dairy production, Sentient reports.It takes around 1,078 liters of water to produce one kilogram of pork — just over two pounds. Producing a kilogram of beef consumes 925 liters of water from limited resources. When it comes to casual, everyday actions that many people take without much thought or consideration, getting those pork chops and hamburgers to a plate takes an alarming amount of water.That doesn’t mean AI’s water use isn’t a concern. While the water bottle statistic about a simple chatbot query is incorrect, AI use can consume quite a bit of water, especially when carried out at an industrialized scale by large corporations. But that doesn’t mean people should lose track of the other everyday decisions that also drain valuable water, such as the food on their plate.Why It’s Hard to Figure Out How Much Water Chatbots UseData centers house massive networks of heat-generating equipment, like servers, data storage, computers and power backups, and water can cool these systems faster than air. But the efficiency of cooling depends on a number of factors that also impact how much water is needed. This is partly why the amount of water a single AI chatbot prompt uses in a specific case is a very complex estimate that can vary wildly, depending on query details like length and environmental details like outdoor temperature, location and access to nearby water, among other factors.Lack of transparency is another reason these estimates are so uncertain. Most of the large tech conglomerates don’t publicly disclose the inner workings of their facilities’ cooling methods.It’s also worth noting that the water and energy consumption of a data center may not even occur on site. This means that the water used by a data center in one city could be impacting another region entirely.“Power plants that data centers draw from can actually be very, very physically far from the data centers themselves, because energy is moved all over the grid with high-energy transmission lines,” Masley says. “If you’re talking about like, what are the water impacts of a data center being built in Loudon County [in Virginia], you might assume that this is mainly going to matter for Loudon County. But on a given day, that data center might also cause water to be used in a coal plant somewhere in West Virginia.”The Water Bottle Statistic, ExplainedBack in 2024, the Washington Post published estimated water usage by AI from its collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Riverside, led by engineering professor Shaolei Ren. The goal was to figure out how much water was required to generate a single 100-word response from ChatGPT, and the results estimated that AI consumes over 500mL of water, or a little more than a standard water bottle.This claim took off like wildfire, with outlets like The Guardian and Forbes and organizations like the Environmental and Energy Study Institute running with it and establishing it as an accepted truth.But it’s not true. Put another way, there is now more information that suggests it’s not true.In an email to Sentient, Ren says that this was the best possible estimate of AI’s water usage at the time, given the information available. But a lot has changed since that initial estimate, including both the amount of information available about how AI models work and the technology data centers use to process chat prompts and cool their data centers.“The 2024 estimate for GPT-4 was time-specific, assumption-based, and should not be used to describe general AI/ChatGPT or today’s optimized systems,” Ren wrote in an email to Sentient. “The estimate was based on publicly available information at the time: the energy estimate provided by EcoLogits (as of mid 2024) and the water usage effectiveness information disclosed by technology companies.”EcoLogits is an organization that publicly tracks and discloses the energy use of AI services, and it now has a free, customizable calculator for estimating water usage from various types of AI prompts. As of this writing, EcoLogits estimates that generating one email via ChatGPT 5.5, the current free model of ChatGPT, uses 6.11 mL of water, or 1.2% of a water bottle.Ren says that this updated number is due to “methodological changes and newer data sources,” though he adds that it “is also broadly consistent with Google’s reported 33x energy-efficiency improvement for a ‘typical’ Gemini text request from May 2024 to May 2025.”The Water Usage of AI Versus MeatThere are choices people make every day with the potential to have a much higher water footprint than chatbots, yet these decisions receive only a fraction of the scrutiny people give to AI and data centers, according to Masley.What people eat is one of the best examples of this. Meat consumption has skyrocketed over the last 60 years, and as of 2023, the average person in the U.S. eats about 82 pounds of beef and 64 pounds of pork every year. In the developed world, grabbing a cheeseburger or a bacon breakfast sandwich has become such a natural part of most people’s day-to-day lives that its enormous water footprint typically goes unremarked upon.Producing meat requires water for several reasons. Animals have to drink, for one. They also have to eat, and the food they eat needs irrigation.When comparing the water usage of various food products, water originating from rainfall, also known as green water, is generally excluded, as rainfall would have occurred regardless of whether or not food was being produced.According to the Water Footprint Network, producing a kilogram of beef — or roughly two pounds — consumes around 925 liters of water. Pork is even more intensive, gobbling up 1,078 liters of water per kilogram, while chicken consumes 779 liters per kilogram.These figures only relate to water quantity issues, but water quality is affected by meat and dairy production too. Many types of livestock farming, especially dairy and pork, are major contributors to water pollution, with manure and fertilizer runoff from farms leaking into nearby waterways.AI Versus Food ProductionMeat still has a significantly higher water footprint than plant-based foods. For instance, soy, potatoes and bananas all require less than 20% of the limited water resources needed for producing the same weight in beef.The same is true of animal products in general. For instance, almond milk is notorious for gobbling up water during its production process. It takes 371 liters of water to make just one liter of almond milk, which is significantly more than other non-dairy milks need, such as soy milk or oat milk. And yet, despite this, almond milk still has a much smaller water footprint than dairy milk, which requires 628 liters of water.The Bottom LineThe point isn’t that AI is harmless, but rather that people are bad at estimating the environmental impacts of their own actions. This is one particularly glaring example of that, and it matters because many people sincerely do want to reduce their environmental footprints.But that can’t be done without accurate information. For the average person who wants to use less water, chatbots shouldn’t be the end of your inquiry, and eating less meat would be an excellent and highly effective place to start.This story was produced by Sentient and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	VNA Community Services receives America Heart Association grant for expanding cardiovascular health resources in Knox County A grant from the American Heart Association will help expand cardiovascular health resources in Knox County. VNA Community Services has received $5,000 in funding from the American Heart Association to expand cardiovascular health resources and strengthen emergency preparedness for seniors and the greater Knox County community. The funding will help VNA establish itself as a [...]
	Can brain fog actually be a sleep problem? Can brain fog actually be a sleep problem?Few things are more frustrating than sitting down to a familiar task and realizing the mind is no longer keeping up with what is going on. People call it brain fog, and growing concern about trouble thinking clearly has drawn closer attention from researchers.Researchers led by Yale School of Medicine examined more than 4.5 million American Academy of Neurology survey responses collected over 10 years and found that reports of serious trouble with memory or concentration rose from 5.3% to 7.4%.The sharpest increase came from adults under 40, whose rate nearly doubled during the same period. Stress and heavy workloads receive the blame first when thinking starts to slip, though part of the trouble actually begins hours earlier during sleep.Dr. Itzhak Fried and his team at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 12 patients with electrodes recording individual brain cells and found that those cells communicated more slowly as the patients grew sleepier, leaving them slower to identify what appeared on a screen.And similar concerns appear outside the lab, as Sleeping.com has observed how frequently people examine their sleep only after poor concentration continues through the day. Brain fog may sound broad, but the experiences behind it often appear during familiar tasks that suddenly require far more effort.What Brain Fog Actually Looks LikeNearly everyone has experienced brain fog at some point, even if the feeling passed before much attention was given to it. The University of Rochester Medical Center explains that brain fog refers to changes in concentration and memory, though it is not a diagnosis with one clear cause.Those changes often become noticeable during ordinary parts of the day, such as following a conversation or recalling information learned only minutes earlier. And as the effort required to stay focused rises, work that usually feels manageable begins taking longer to finish.Cleveland Clinic adds that people often struggle to find the words they want or respond as quickly as usual, leaving them aware that their thinking feels slower.Researchers Darren Haywood and Susan Rossell also note that people’s reports of brain fog do not always align closely with formal cognitive testing, leaving the experience difficult to measure through a single exam. Even so, the disruption remains real to the person living through it, especially when the same mental difficulties return the following day.Why Sleep Is Essential for Brain FunctionSurprisingly, many of the studies on total sleep deprivation were carried out decades ago, yet very few have followed. Researchers now avoid keeping people awake for extended periods, largely due to the serious effects prolonged sleep loss has on the brain and the rest of the body.Behavioral sleep medicine specialist Michelle Drerup of Cleveland Clinic says sleep plays "a vital role in our physical, cognitive and mental well-being," adding that important restorative work takes place throughout the night.One part of that work involves helping the brain organize information collected during the day, allowing new memories to become more stable before morning. So by the time someone wakes, that overnight work supports attention during ordinary tasks that require steady focus. Yet the same process begins to weaken after even one night of restricted sleep.The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke explains that without enough sleep, people have more difficulty learning, maintaining new memories, concentrating, and responding quickly.Similar findings from Harvard sleep researcher Robert Stickgold found that students who were kept awake after learning a new task continued performing worse for up to three days. With new information harder to hold, careful decisions also become more difficult.The brain needs uninterrupted sleep to complete this work, though repeated disturbances may prevent a full night from staying intact.When Sleep Apnea May Be ContributingMany people have no idea they are living with a sleep disorder, and obstructive sleep apnea is among the most common. The American Medical Association reports that interrupted breathing during sleep affects an estimated 30 million people across the country, though only 6 million have received a diagnosis, leaving roughly 80% unaware.Sleep medicine physician Dr. Ilene Rosen of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania explained in the AMA report that obstructive sleep apnea narrows or closes the airway, causing oxygen levels to fall until the brain briefly wakes the body and restores breathing.Mayo Clinic also adds that those awakenings usually pass too quickly for a person to remember them, even when they happen repeatedly throughout the night. But focus still suffers the following day, and researchers have measured the difference.A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine gave a 15-minute attention test to 27 people with untreated sleep apnea and 27 people of the same age and sex without the condition. The sleep apnea group responded more slowly from the beginning of the test through its end.So a person may wake believing the night passed without interruption, then spend the day struggling to concentrate or hold on to new information. Since the breathing problem happens during sleep, brain fog often appears before its nighttime source becomes clear.Why Stress Isn't Always the AnswerIt is easy to blame everything on stress, and often stress does play a real role when concentration begins to slip. But poor sleep may be adding to the problem, especially when mental fatigue continues after the pressure of a difficult week begins to ease. Researchers at the Stanford Medicine explain that stress and sleep affect each other in both directions.Daytime pressure, for example, may keep the mind active at night, leaving the brain with less rest before the next day begins. And after a poor night, shorter patience then makes ordinary demands feel harder to manage. With both problems working together, the same trouble with focus may come from stress, lost sleep, or a combination of the two.The American Brain Foundation also identifies poor sleep and stress among several possible causes of brain fog. And since daytime symptoms do not always reveal the source, persistent mental slowdown deserves attention to both daily pressure and sleep quality, especially when clearer thinking does not return after stress begins to ease.Improving Cognitive Performance Starts at NightIt turns out that a good night’s sleep gives the brain the time it needs to work properly the next day. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends keeping a consistent bedtime and wake time, since a regular schedule helps protect that nightly period of rest.Following the same routine also makes it easier to notice when enough time in bed is no longer restoring concentration or memory. When those problems continue despite a stable sleep schedule, pushing through another day may leave the underlying cause untouched.Mayo Clinic advises speaking with a healthcare professional when loud snoring or waking while gasping continues, since those symptoms may point to a sleep disorder that needs medical attention.Medical guidance can then help determine whether sleep apnea or another condition is preventing rest from restoring the brain as expected. Clear thinking depends on more than determination during the day, and persistent brain fog may be the first sign that the problem begins during sleep.This story was produced by Sleeping.com and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	You started a side hustle from home. Does your insurer know? You started a side hustle from home. Does your insurer know?Engaged in some gig work in the garage, merch-making from the basement, or another home-based enterprise? If you’ve recently started a side hustle, you’re not alone: Nearly 1 in 3 Americans have done so to supplement their earnings. And around 19 million U.S. businesses operate out of the owners’ homes. That’s little surprise, considering the higher cost of living and increasing job uncertainty in the corporate world nowadays.Being an entrepreneur from home can simplify matters and reduce costs, especially because you don’t necessarily have to drive or leave your property to earn money. But whether you’re selling on Etsy, tutoring kids after school, renting out a spare room, or freelancing full-time, you could be vulnerable to homeowners insurance gaps.TheZebra.com takes a closer look at why, and what you can do to financially shield yourself from insurance risks.Your Homeowners or Renters Policy Was Written for a Resident, Not a Business OwnerStandard homeowners and renters insurance policies cover personal use of your home, not business activity. Once you begin earning dollars from your gig work or small business being run from your property, the coverage question becomes more complicated.“Homeowners and renters policies are designed for personal property and personal liability,” says Dennis Shirshikov, a professor of finance and economics at City University of New York/Queens College. “They may provide limited coverage for business equipment, but may exclude business-related injuries, professional mistakes, lost income, inventory, and customer claims.”The biggest risk is a denied claim. If your policy is written particularly for you as a homeowner, it won’t necessarily safeguard you if your carrier learns you've been operating a business there without telling them. And that denial could result in serious financial consequences.“Some activities are inherently riskier than others, such as having clients or customers in your home, which is a different risk profile than simply selling items online,” notes Beth Swanson, insurance analyst with The Zebra.If you are running a business from your home or plan to start, inform your carrier immediately. Prepare to disclose details about any customer visits, any employees who work under your roof, and any equipment or inventory stored on your property.“The good news is that you can usually tailor your coverage to match your actual risk, and a skilled insurance agent can walk you through the options,” Swanson adds.Selling Goods from HomeFor those selling products from their home address, two major coverage gaps may leave you unprotected, according to Janet Ruiz, director of strategic communication for the Insurance Information Institute.“The first is business property, including inventory, equipment and supplies. The second is product liability, which may arise if a product causes injury or damage. Depending on your operation, getting a business endorsement on your current policy or a separate commercial coverage policy may help address these risks,” she says.A common starting point for liability coverage is $1 million per occurrence and $2 million in total annual coverage. Your property limits should reflect the full replacement cost of your equipment and peak inventory. Service-Based Side HustlesIf you regularly invite customers or clientele onto your property, you could face general liability exposure if someone is hurt during the visit, or professional liability exposure if that visitor alleges that your service, advice, or instruction caused them financial loss or harm.“Someone like a tutor, hairstylist, or music teacher may need both general liability and professional liability coverage,” Shirshikov continues.The former covers accidents or bodily injury claims; the latter covers less visible risks, such as errors and omissions. Shirshikov recommends at least $1 million of coverage per occurrence and $2 million in aggregate coverage for general liability, plus $1 million in professional liability coverage.“A business owners policy (BOP) combines property coverage, general liability, and business interruption coverage, and can be a good option. But there are specific requirements to qualify, so it may not be available for all home businesses,” says Swanson. “It’s best to talk with an independent agent or broker about your specific situation and find something that fits.”Remote and Digital WorkFreelancers, designers, virtual assistants, consultants, and other providers of digital work, as well as those working remotely from home, represent the lowest-risk category from an insurance perspective. Yet, there are gaps to be aware of here.“These professionals may face risks involving professional errors, client disputes, cyber incidents, equipment losses, and business interruption,” Ruiz points out.Thankfully, policies exist that fit almost any type of remote or digital work. Case in point: Media liability coverage is available if you’re a content creator, which is sometimes required if you have brand sponsors for videos or other content. This protection can help with issues like copyright infringement claims.“Also, cybersecurity may not be covered under a standard homeowners policy, so you might need a stand-alone option for that,” adds Swanson. “Professional liability coverage is important, too, but there can be real gaps in coverage for people creating content on social platforms, like freelance graphic designers or consultants.”To play it safe, discuss available options with your insurance agent, inquire about endorsements that could add additional protection, and ask about exclusions that may apply.Renting Out a Room (House Hacking)Leasing out a portion of your home to a paying tenant can create property and liability risks that are different from standard owner-occupied scenarios. Be sure to disclose this renting arrangement to your carrier before the renter moves in.“Your insurer may allow a homeowners endorsement, require you to get an owner-occupied landlord policy, or recommend a dwelling-fire policy with liability coverage. Have your home insured for replacement cost, not market value,” says Shirshikov, who recommends at least $500,000 in premises-liability coverage where available and a $1 million umbrella policy for extra protection.It’s also smart to have a solid lease in place and require your tenant to carry their own renters insurance.“Your tenant’s belongings need their own coverage, not yours,” says Swanson. “And if you’re doing more of a furnished or short-term rental setup, make sure you have replacement cost value on the furnishings and items in the space.”What To Actually Do Before You StartBefore launching any business or continuing your gig work, take the time to:Contact your insurance company and notify them about your plans and activities. “Tell them exactly what your business does, what equipment or inventory is stored there, and whether customers visit, products are sold, employees work there, and a vehicle is used for business,” Shirshikov suggests.Assess any liability exposures, review your existing policy, and add extra coverage as needed. “Determine whether endorsements or separate business policies are appropriate,” advises Ruiz.Create an inventory of your business property in case you ever need to file a related claim.If you plan to rent to a tenant, confirm that your mortgage lender, homeowners association, zoning rules, and local requirements allow this activity.Take basic precautions to keep your space safe, especially if you have clients come to your home. “Preventing an incident is always easier than dealing with a claim afterward,” Swanson continues.Install motion lights, handrails, clear signage, and other items that decrease your liability risks.This story was produced by TheZebra.com and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Post-war German films come to big screen at The Last Picture House, Davenport The German American Heritage Center and The Last Picture House, Davenport, will bring "The Lost Years of German Cinema," a series of post-war German films to the big screen this fall, a news release says. Discover the tension, humor, and human drama of a nation rebuilding in the film series on postwar German cinema. Spanning [...]
	Firefighters respond to Clinton senior care center fire Clinton firefighters responded to a report of a fire at a senior care center yesterday, according to a release from the Clinton Fire Department. Firefighters responded to a report of a fire in a laundry room at Alverno Senior Care, 849 13th Avenue North, on August 23 at about 3:15 p.m. Their response included a [...]
	When the paychecks stop: How to steady your finances after leaving a job When the paychecks stop: How to steady your finances after leaving a jobLeaving a job can result in a cascade of unanticipated outcomes. Whether you’re retiring after decades or facing an unexpected layoff, the shift can bring a mix of uncertainty, stress, and even grief. It can also affect nearly every aspect of your financial life, from your income and savings to your benefits and retirement plan.Navigating these realities requires a clear understanding of the steps you can take to help secure your financial well-being. Here, The Retirement Group reviews some of those action items.Review Your FinancesWhen exiting the workforce, either temporarily or permanently, it’s critical to have a current picture of your sources of income, savings, debts, and ongoing expenses. If you’re retiring, that means balancing income from sources like Social Security, a retirement plan, or a pension with your anticipated spending. If you lose your job, it means understanding how long your savings can cover your expenses and identifying where you may need to cut back in the short term.This review doesn’t need to be complicated, but it should be honest. Many people avoid looking closely at their finances during a stressful transition, despite the importance of doing so. By gaining a clear overview of your financial picture, however, you’ll be better placed to make more informed decisions.Plan for the Short TermWhatever your reason for leaving your job, the following few months may bring some financial uncertainty, so it helps to identify the resources available to you. If you’ve built an emergency fund, this may be the time to use it. Just be sure to shore up this financial cushion once your financial footing steadies.If your savings aren’t sufficient to meet your immediate needs, a line of credit may help fill the gap. Having access to credit before you need it is typically easier than securing it once you’re no longer employed. If you own a home, however, you may be able to open a line of credit secured by your home equity.While neither of these options is a long-term solution, they can give you breathing room to cover your short-term expenses without compromising your long-term savings or retirement accounts.Move Your 401(k) Account If NecessaryWhen you leave an employer, you generally have several options regarding what to do with your 401(k). You can sometimes keep it with your former employer’s plan, roll it into a new employer’s plan, roll it into an IRA, or cash it out. Each choice has different tax and financial implications, so it makes sense to speak with a financial advisor before deciding.Although there are no one-size-fits-all approaches, you may want to avoid cashing out your 401(k) as that can trigger both taxes and an early withdrawal penalty if you’re under 59 1/2. Rolling funds into an IRA or a new employer’s plan, by contrast, allows your money to keep growing on a tax-deferred basis. Take time to compare the fees and investment options across your choices before deciding where to move your retirement accounts.Revisit Your Retirement ContributionsWhile it can be tempting to pause your retirement contributions during a period of reduced or lost income, continuing to contribute—even at a lower amount—remains important. Consistently saving for retirement can make a measurable difference in the long run, and gaps can be difficult to make up later.If you’re between jobs, consider contributing to an IRA to maintain the habit. If you’re retiring, it’s a good time to shift your thinking from contributing to withdrawing, and to work out a sustainable rate that allows your savings to last. Either way, the aim is to keep your retirement plan intentional, both during and after your working years.Consider Potential Tax ImplicationsLeaving a job can affect your taxes in unanticipated ways. For instance, both unemployment benefits and severance pay are considered taxable income. Similarly, if you decide to cash out your retirement plan or take a lump sum pension payment on retirement, that income is also taxable. Depending on the amount and timing of your income, it could even push you into a higher tax bracket for the year.On the flip side, if you leave your job partway through the year, your employer may end up withholding more taxes than you actually owe.Given the potential complexities, it’s worth reviewing your situation with a tax advisor before deciding how to proceed.Understand Your Pension OptionsIf your employer offers a pension, you may have different options depending on how and when you leave your job. For instance:If you’re vested and retiring at or near the plan’s normal retirement age, you can generally choose to start receiving payments as either a lump sum or an annuity that pays out over time. While a lump sum allows you to decide how to invest the money, it also requires you to assume responsibility for making informed investment choices. Conversely, an annuity offers steady, predictable income for a predetermined amount of time (often for life), but may be less flexible and leaves you no lump sum to pass on.If you’re vested but leaving before retirement age, you can usually keep the benefit you’ve earned. However, you may not be able to collect it until you reach the plan’s eligible age. Additionally, the amount will generally be locked in based on your service and salary at the time you left, rather than continuing to grow. Taking payments earlier can also reduce the amount you receive, so be sure to review your plan’s specific rules in advance.Assess Your Health Care NeedsHealth coverage is often of immediate concern when leaving a job, as many people are insured through their employer. If you leave before you are eligible for Medicare coverage, you may want to consider COBRA continuation coverage, a marketplace plan, or coverage through your spouse’s employer. Compare costs carefully since premiums can be considerably higher than those you pay as an employee.If you’re retiring at or near age 65, review how Medicare fits into your plan. If you identify gaps in coverage, you may also want to explore a supplementary policy. Whenever possible, aim to plan for health care costs well before retirement, as these expenses tend to rise over time.This story was produced by The Retirement Group and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Tuesday, August 25th, 2026

Monday, August 24th, 2026