👶 The Top Five Answers Are on the Board…

Image: WalletHub

*Drumroll please*... Massachusetts, Minnesota, Washington D.C., New Hampshire, and Vermont are the best places to have a baby this year...

• ... and Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi are the worst states. See the full results.

📉 But people just aren’t having babies like they used to… The U.S. fertility rate reached a record low in 2020.

• "This is the sixth consecutive year that the number of births has declined after an increase in 2014, down an average of 2% per year, and the lowest number of births since 1979," the National Center for Health Statistics said.

🔭 Zoom out: For the first time in modern history, the world’s population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century, due in large part to falling global fertility rates, according to a Pew Research analysis of UN data.

• Birth rates are falling in many European countries, the U.S., and China.
• From 2000 to 2018, the number of people living outside their country of origin increased from 2.8% to 3.5% of the global population.
• More than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa – and by 2100, the continent is projected to host five of the world's 10 largest countries.

📝 The bottom line: America’s total fertility rate since 2007 has been "below replacement," meaning there won't be enough babies born for a generation to exactly replace itself – and it’s not alone.

🎁 DONUT Headline: NY Gov. Cuomo will resign effective August 24 and be replaced by the state's first female governor, current Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

Doggone Allergies

The dog days of summer are officially here, and there’s three dreaded words we hate: HIGH pollen count.

Your pet is likely spending way more time outside, just like you. Maybe you think it’s fun to sneeze in unison. 🤧 But have they started to itch like crazy? Lick their paws in double time?

It makes sense that any creature laying in the grass without clothing protection might feel a little itchy, but your pet might also have allergies.

If your dog is showing allergy symptoms this season, try KING KANINE’s KING KALM TOPICAL CBD. It soothes your pet’s skin and stops itching to prevent infections.

KING KALM SOOTHE is made with just five simple and natural ingredients that you could use on your own skin. Spray as needed on your pet’s hot spots and watch the irritation disappear. Howl did you ever live without it?!

And even better – enter the code “DONUT15” at checkout for 15% off anything in-store.

Buy your pet some allergy relief today.

Image: Reuters

The Senate voted 69-30 in favor of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan yesterday, with 19 Republicans - including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell - joining all 50 Democrats. It now heads to the House.

🤿 A deeper dive... The 2,700-page bill would allocate tens or hundreds of billions of dollars towards roads, bridges, water projects, broadband internet, the electrical grid, and more. (Full details.)

• New spending accounts for $550 billion of the package.
• To pay for the legislation, bipartisan negotiators relied on repurposing existing COVID-19 funds, delaying a rule on Medicare rebates, and applying reporting requirements to cryptocurrency transactions, among other things (drawing pushback from the crypto community).

The Congressional Budget Office determined the bill would add $256 billion in projected deficits over the next eight years, though lawmakers on both sides disagreed with its analysis.

📅 Up next... The Senate will now move to consider Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which faces its own series of amendments and procedural hurdles but only requires a majority to pass instead of the usual 60 votes.

• Breaking: Just before 4 AM, the Senate voted 50-49 to pass the budget reconciliation package. The Senate will now begin negotiating each individual section of the bill.

House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) previously said the chamber will wait to take up the $1 trillion infrastructure package until the budget resolution clears the Senate, though some moderate Democrats are arguing the House should consider the infrastructure package immediately.

🧠 Dynamic Diagnosis

Image: BBC News/Cambridge University

Currently, patients must undergo several scans and tests before being diagnosed with dementia – a general term for memory loss symptoms that interfere with daily functioning (rather than a specific disease).

• The new AI diagnosis system developed by Professor Zoe Kourtzi of Cambridge University compares brain scans of people worried they may have the condition with the brain scans and medical records of thousands of dementia patients.

In pre-clinical trials, the system was able to diagnose dementia in patients even before they experienced symptoms.

• It also has the potential to predict whether a patient will remain in stable condition or need immediate treatment, allowing patients with dementia to plan their lives moving forward.

Keep reading.

Image: UCHealth

In 2003, Connie Parke began seeing odd spots and orbs in her vision. After having her eyes checked, her optometrist gave her devastating news: she was going irreversibly blind.

• Spending 15 years as a blind person, Connie was able to eventually adapt to her new reality. She always made an effort to enjoy life to the fullest with her husband and large family.

It wasn't until last year when she discovered her condition was misdiagnosed and completely curable.

• Connie underwent cataract surgery last year and awoke to 20/20 vision – overnight, she was able to see her husband again and most of her grandchildren for the very first time.

Keep reading.

A person is pushing their car along the road when they come to a hotel. The person shouts, "I'm bankrupt!" Why?

• In video form, courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings.

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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Answer: The person is playing 'Monopoly'