Renters use ‘rent now, pay later’ services to manage monthly payments, but fees raise concerns

The “Buy now, pay later” apps were a bad sign, but if people can’t afford to pay their rent, that seems like a massive red flag for the economy

Dating apps see February surge as singles re-enter the romance cycle

Love is in the air. Or at the very least an overwhelming desire to avoid being single on Valentine’s Day in a couple of weeks

More Stories Below, but first some new content in the News Sidequest Podcast Universe…

Auditory Anthology

SCI-FI SHORT STORIES - NARRATED BY DARREN MARLAR & PRODUCED BY KEITH CONRAD

The Night Signal – Critics From Beyond The Grave - When a small town launches a ghost tour to boost its budget, the actual residents of the past return not to haunt the living, but to fact-check the inaccuracies of their own legends.

The Night Signal by Auditory Anthology

Somewhere on the AM dial, long after most people have gone to sleep, late-night radio host Marianne Caldwell opens the phone lines. Callers bring stories. Encounters. Moments that don’t quite fit into daylight explanations.

The Night Signal - Critics From Beyond The Grave Keith Conrad / Darren Marlar Episode

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Also Worth A Look…

• Brain-Eating Amoebas May Pose a Growing Global Threat, Scientists Warn - There’s another thing I didn’t know I needed to be worried about

• Human skull donated to Michigan Goodwill store; police looking for woman responsible - Yorick was unavailable for comment

• McDonald's launches McNugget Caviar kits for free Valentine's Day - Wasn’t McDonald’s also going to cut prices since no one could afford their food anymore? Adding caviar to the menu should do the trick. Also, if you’re buying McDonald’s for Valentine’s Day, you should probably also have a divorce attorney on retainer.

• HR chief at center of Coldplay cheating scandal will discuss ‘taking back the narrative’ at $875 crisis conference - If the headline identifies her has the “HR chief at center of Coldplay cheating scandal” has she actually succeeded at taking back the narrative?

• NJ Driver Called Cops Bragging He Outran Them — Then They Arrested Him: Police - How much worse off would we be as a society if such a massive percentage of criminals didn’t turn out to be absolute morons?

• Car wash malfunction traps woman inside for almost an hour - For the boss who thinks they’ve heard everything, “I was trapped in the car wash for an hour.”

• Pizza Hut closing 250 ‘underperforming’ locations - Where will kids cash in the Book It awards? Are those still a thing? Clink your red plastic glasses while you can

• Man breaks into Little Caesars, starts making and selling pizzas, NC police say - I think that man was just auditioning for a job. Either that or he was frustrated because his neighborhood Pizza Hut closed

• Man tossed $4K of stolen meat after finding girlfriend cooking with another man - I don’t mean to be overly pessimistic, but I don’t know if that relationship is going to last