Tipping the scales: America continues to grow fatter. According to a new report by Gallup-Healthways, the national obesity rate continued to rise in 2014 to 27.7%, up from 27.1% in 2013 and significantly higher than the 25.5% recorded in 2008. In Louisiana, the obesity rate was 33.2% last year, the third-highest in the U.S. Since 2013, four states—Nevada, New Mexico, Alabama and Minnesota—have had statistically significant increases in obesity, while only one state, Tennessee, has had a statistically significant decline in obesity. Mississippi and West Virginia have had the two highest obesity rates in the nation since 2012. Five states on the list have had consistently high obesity rates: Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky. These states have been among the 10 states with the highest obesity rates every year since Gallup-Healthways began tracking obesity in 2008. Gallup-Healthways has more details.
Higher expectations: Americans are significantly more optimistic about their income prospects while their perceptions of their financial well-being have improved modestly, according to Federal Reserve survey results released today. As USA Today reports, 29% of those surveyed expect their income to be higher in 2015, up from 21% the previous year. The annual survey of 5,800 Americans was conducted last fall as part of the Fed’s Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2014. The respondents’ bullish outlook on their income is consistent with other reports showing that wage gains finally are picking up after years of stagnation since the Great Recession. But their views varied by income level, with 22% of those with less than $40,000 in annual income expecting it to be higher this year versus 36% of those with incomes above $100,000. Read the full story.
At the core: A newly discovered glitch in Apple’s software can cause iPhones to shut down mysteriously when they receive a certain text message. Apple says it’s aware of the problem and is working on a fix. But The Associated Press reports some pranksters are sharing information about the glitch on social media to spread the problem, which only occurs when the iPhone receives a message with a specific string of characters, including some Arabic characters, according to several tech blogs. When an iPhone isn’t in use, it typically shows a shortened version of the message on the phone’s lock screen. That shortened combination of characters apparently triggers the crash. Affected phones will restart automatically. Owners can prevent the problem by using phone settings to turn off message “previews.”
