Here are the headlines from Cheddar News that are Good 2 Know.
NOSTALGIA SELLS
Nostalgia is a top seller among Gen Z shoppers, according to a report from the Washington Post. The outlet cited research from buy now, pay later firm Klarna showing that "vintage tech" sales are rising, with sales of wired headphones up 300 percent in February 2022 compared with the year before, and flip phone sales were up more than 80 percent in August. Other products to cash in on the nostalgia craze included McDonald's, which started offering adult Happy Meals, and candy maker Just Born Quality Confections, which doubled down on its Easter favorite Peeps. Movie studios also continue to capitalize on the trend with a line-up of TV and movie reboots.
DOLLAR STORE GROCERIES
Research from Coresight found that more than 20 percent of consumers are now purchasing groceries at dollar stores such as Dollar Tree and Dollar General. This follows another report from the American Journal of Public Health finding that dollar stores are the fastest-growing food retailers in the U.S. As a result, major chains are in the middle of a massive expansion. Dollar General, for instance, is building 1,050 new stores and remodeling 2,000 others in 2023.
The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year's Day, it was estimated to stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.
UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow. Wisconsin-La Crosse fired Gow on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023, after learning Gow and his wife have been producing and appearing in pornographic videos. Gow maintains the firing violated his free speech rights.
The U.S. military is now putting independent lawyers in charge of its investigations of sexual assault and other major crimes, what Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has called the "most important reform" to the military justice system in recent history.
A decades-old law bans Medicare from paying for weight loss drugs. Now, drugmakers and a wide-ranging bipartisan coalition of lawmakers are gearing up to push for that to change next year.
Barring a court order, in March Texas police will start being able to arrest people they suspect have entered the U.S. illegally, but increases in border crossings since a 2021 law authorizing some arrests shows the limits of that approach in the face of desperation that causes people to risk everything and travel thousands of miles to the U.S.
Mexico began clearing tents, both occupied and unoccupied, from the encampment in the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, starting Tuesday.
