The U.S. population center is on track this decade to take a southern swerve for the first time in history. Last year, the South outgrew other U.S. regions by well over 1 million people. If the trend continues through this decade, by 2030 the mean center of the U.S. population will head due south from a rural county in the Missouri Ozarks. It will be the first time in U.S. history without a westward extension. Since the population center was first calculated in 1790, it has moved continuously westward. Experts say the southern allure has to do with housing affordability, lower taxes and remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW YORK (AP) — Across the country, there’s a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping.

Italian designer Sabato De Sarno has been named the new creative director of Gucci, and will unveil his first collection during Milan Fashion Week next September, Gucci and parent company Kering announced Saturday. De Sarno has previously worked for Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino, where he was most recently fashion director overseeing both men’s and women’s collections.  Speculation has been rife in the fashion world over who would succeed Alessandro Michele after he stepped down from the role unexpectedly last fall, after nearly eight years in which he redefined the brand’s codes with gender fluid, romantic and eclectic looks. Like Michele when he was named in 2015 to the post, De Sarno is relatively unknown in the wider fashion world.

Between financially helping his parents and losing income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeremy Mazza landed into serious credit card debt. Relief came from a source he wasn’t expecting: his partner, Ginna Lambert, who had come into a small inheritance. She suggested “investing” part …

For as long as LGBTQ folks have gathered in bars and nightclubs, such spaces have hosted weddings, birthed churches and been called “heavenly.” But November’s Club Q shooting was a grim reminder even today, communing in queer clubs isn’t without risk. Amid a barrage of anti-LGTBQ legislation and violence, many LGBTQ people of faith say it’s essential to protect the places they view as sacred. “I experienced that genuine, authentic love in gay bars more than I’d ever experienced it growing up in the four walls of the church,” musician Trey Pearson told Religion News Service.

The experimentalism and audacity of 1980s club kids inspired Valentino in one of the last high-octane shows of this Paris Fashion Week couture season. Thousands of fans lined the Pont Alexandre III bridge on a chilly Wednesday night to scream as their idols arrived and departed. There were from K-pop stars, Anne Hathaway and Kylie Minogue. Some of them danced into early Thursday. But screams also echoed inside the aptly named Bridge Club venue when model Kristen McMenamy took a tumble as she walked the runway.

For decades, Monterey Park has been a haven for Asian immigrants seeking to maintain a strong cultural identity — and a culinary heaven for anybody near Los Angeles craving authentic Asian cuisine. Signs across the vibrant suburb are written in English and Chinese. Families raise bilingual children. And residents in their golden years enjoy karaoke and — as the outside world learned last week after a horrific mass shooting — ballroom dancing. That sense of peace was shattered after a gunman killed 11 people and wounded nine others last Saturday during a Lunar New Year celebration at the Star Dance Ballroom. But while residents work through the trauma, the tragedy has only sharpened their feelings about what makes Monterey Park so special, and worth protecting.

For some people who believe in sustainable living, it's not enough to recycle and compost. They’ve reduced their annual waste to zero, or close to it. They’ve ditched the clothes dryer, maybe, or given up flying. In the case of Manhattanite Josh Spodek, his efforts to go packaging-free changed his mindset so drastically that it led him to reduce his electrical consumption to near zero. He even ditched his fridge, which he said was the biggest source of electrical use in his apartment. Spodek is experimenting in living nearly grid-free in a city that in many ways is the epitome of grids. He says he’s not against refrigeration in general. But he views it as unnecessary for everyone to have one.

PARIS (AP) — The pioneering Black performer Josephine Baker — who left the United States to find global fame in Paris in the 1920s — was Dior’s muse for an old school spring couture collection of archetypal classicism.