The post Community Members Clash with ICE Agents in Downtown Santa Barbara appeared first on edhat.

Margaret.Wiktor // Shutterstock

While poor health can strain personal finances through escalating medical bills, lost wages, and diminished earning potential, strong health often correlates with greater productivity, higher incomes, and lower overall healthcare costs. On a broader scale, healthier populations benefit from reduced societal burdens — like lower insurance premiums and fewer productivity losses — while enjoying enhanced quality of life through better energy, longevity, and community vitality.

With this in mind, SmartAsset analyzed all 50 U.S. states using 10 key health metrics, including self-reported physical and mental well-being, obesity rates, smoking prevalence, excessive drinking, air quality, sleep adequacy, and more.

Key Findings

• Utah and Colorado are the healthiest states. Utah ranks the healthiest state overall, thanks in part to having the lowest smoking rate (6.9%), cleanest outdoor air, and 97.2% of adults getting some sort of regular exercise. Colorado ranks second healthiest with the lowest obesity rate (25.0%) and the highest rate of adults who exercise (83.3%).
• Hawaiians enjoy the most physically and mentally healthy days. When compared to the rest of the nation, Hawaiians spend the fewest days feeling physically or mentally unwell, at 10.2% and 13.2%, respectively. Overall, Hawai‘i claims the title of third healthiest state.
• These states are the least healthy. West Virginia had the lowest health metrics, ranking worst in five out of ten categories, including poor mental health days (22.4%), smoking (22.3%), obesity (41.5%), diabetes (14.4%), and drug overdose deaths (78 per 100,000 residents). Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Ohio also ranked among the five least healthy states.
• Montana has the most heavy drinkers. 25.6% of legal-aged adults in Montana report binge or heavy drinking. North Dakota tails that at 25.1%, followed by Iowa (24.5%), Wisconsin (23.5%), and Vermont (23.0%). On the other side of the rankings, Utah (13.7%), Alabama (15.2%), and Kentucky (15.3%) have the fewest heavy drinkers.
• More than 40% of adults are obese in four states. West Virginia has the highest adult obesity rate at 41.5%. Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi also clock in with 40% obesity rates. Meanwhile, Colorado’s obesity rate is lowest nationwide at 25.0%.

SmartAsset

America’s Healthiest States

States are ranked across 10 health metrics.

1. Utah

• Physically unhealthy days: 13.08%
• Mentally unhealthy days: 17.29%
• Adults who smoke: 6.9%
• A

IM_VISUALS // Shutterstock

From impulse DoorDash orders to forgotten streaming subscriptions, wasteful spending is a habit for many Americans, and younger generations are leading the charge.

Nearly one in 10 millennials (8%) waste money every day, while 32% of Gen Z say boredom drives unnecessary purchases, according to a Motley Fool Money survey.

To reduce the impact of impulse buys on your budget, small behavioral changes, like tracking spending through budgeting tools, setting spending limits, and pausing before purchase, can make a difference. Automating transfers from a checking account to a high-yield savings account (HYSA) also helps by putting money that would otherwise be spent impulsively into a separate account.

A high-yield savings account is a type of savings account that pays a higher interest rate than a traditional bank savings account, while still offering easy access to funds. These accounts are typically offered by online banks, are FDIC-insured, and are designed for money you want to keep safe but not locked away. High-yield savings accounts are commonly used for emergency funds, short-term goals, and cash people want to protect from impulse spending while still keeping it accessible.

The most common wasteful spending habits, ranked

Most Americans (83%) say they engage in wasteful spending at least occasionally, with frequent dining out topping the list at 31%. Buying food and beverages from the convenience store is the second-most common source of wasteful spending (26%), while online impulse buys, like those on Amazon, account for another 26%.

Motley Fool Money

Wasteful food spending dominates the top five behaviors. One in five respondents reports unnecessary orders from delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats. Usage skews young: 28% of Gen Z and 24% of millennials report regular food delivery spending, versus 8% of baby boomers. 21% regularly discard leftovers or let food go to waste, with baby boomers slightly more likely to do so.

Paying for unused streaming subscriptions is another common form of wasteful spending: 26% of millennials, 22% of Gen X, and 9% of baby boomers admit to paying for streaming services they don’t use.

Budgeting tools can provide instant clarity into what categories and retailers are responsible for more spending than individuals might think. Uncovering invisible spending and understanding how much is going towards unnecessary purchases is an important first step in tackling wasteful spending.

Millennials and

PeopleImages // Shutterstock

AI is like the Wild West, but for autonomous robots. Improper AI use can break things: your reputation, your budget, or even the law.

Here, Zapier will show how to learn the risks of AI and how to innovate while controlling your tech stack.

What is AI governance?

AI governance is what lets you operate (and develop) AI ethically, securely, and responsibly. It’s the rulebook your company follows that includes policies and best practices for:

• Choosing reputable AI vendors and tools
• Training on how employees should use AI responsibly
• Gating access to specific AI systems via access controls
• Complying with regulations and privacy laws for AI
• Roles and responsibilities (and accountability) for AI use
• Auditing AI models and data
• Documenting how AI decisions are made

Consider traditional governance, like HR policies, financial controls, codes of ethics, and operations or project management frameworks, just to name a few. AI governance is an extension of that. Because AI comes with unique risks and opportunities you can’t ignore, you need a security framework specifically designed to manage them.

Why is AI governance important?

The usual motivation behind AI governance is risk management. Nobody wants to watch their brand’s reputation tumble or pay legal penalties because the company’s customer service chatbot started giving discount codes in exchange for Social Security numbers.

But the benefits go way beyond just covering your bases. Here’s how a strong AI governance framework can help you:

• Avoid costly, high-profile mistakes: One biased algorithm, data leak, or bad prompt can lead to a PR nightmare. But governance acts as a quality control checkpoint, making sure outputs are accurate and ethical through testing before they reach the public.
• Reduce data security and privacy risks: Every time employees feed an AI tool data, they assume it’s protected with solid security and privacy features. But you can’t really know for sure without established accountability or auditing practices. Governance sets strict protocols for managing input data by setting rules for which tools you can and can’t use, and which controls they need in place.
• Build trust with customers and stakeholders: Customers are more likely to engage with brands that enforce sound policies for AI use and set strict security standards. A governance framework is what sets these standards and proves you’re handling their information with care.
• Improve AI fluency with compliance training: Formal governance rules and training around AI create a culture of responsible use. It lets everyone understand their role in using AI safely, and treats it as more than a corporate form

Roman Zaiets // Shutterstock

Laundromats can be lucrative business ventures that allow you to collect passive income while offering a crucial service to the community. Depending on the customer demographic, location and business size, laundromats can offer several popular payment options.

If you’re trying to figure out the best option for your business, you’ve come to the right place. This guide from Setomatic Systems highlights the top features owners should look for when choosing a laundry payment system.

What Are the Best Features to Look for in a Laundry Payment System?

Setomatic Systems

More laundromats are adopting cashless transactions because of their unmatched convenience. When choosing a laundry payment system, some things to consider are who the manufacturer is, how long they have been offering laundry payment systems and whether their system offers the flexibility and features your laundry needs to be successful. Here are some of the top features to look for:

Payment Flexibility

Laundry payment systems that offer a wide range of cashless options have a larger capacity to cater to customer preferences and improve user experience. These options are also especially beneficial for certain demographics, like younger customers who may be more likely to rely on their smartphones. One survey on 2,500 Americans found that 80% of Gen Z participants use mobile wallets. The vast majority of all payment transactions in North America are Tap-and-Go contactless credit cards. As such, it’s important to make sure your system has this capability.

Payment flexibility is especially important at a laundromat, where customers want to pay the same way they pay at the grocery store or any big box retailer.

• Tap-and-Go contactless credit/debit cards
• Mobile payment options like Apple, Google and Samsung Pay
• Contact credit/debit cards
• Accept loyalty cards

Remote Management Capabilities

One of the key benefits of getting into the laundry business is the capacity for passive income. Payment systems with remote management features give you and your customers maximum convenience. For example, some card payment systems allow you to monitor laundromat usage and revenue in real time while operating from a remote location. You can adjust pricing and introduce discounts without leaving your couch. Here are some ex