The Salba Pool Cleaning van is stocked with all the essentials to drain, clean and maintain the kidney-shaped swimming pools tucked into backyards around San Bernardino County, Calif. Next to the electric water pumps are knee and elbow pads, a helmet, and the most critical piece of equipment: a skateboard.⁠ ⁠ For the past few decades, the van's owner, Steve Alba, has drained and cleaned out disused, rain-filled pools for a few hundred bucks. But if homeowners let him and his friends skate the pools once they’re empty, it’s free.⁠ ⁠ “On the one hand it’s a facade, to make us look official,” says Alba, who has skated professionally since 1978. “The ultimate goal is to skate the pool.”⁠ ⁠ Alba, 60, came of age in the 1970s, when skateboarders took to empty pools and asphalt embankments to simulate the carves and turns of surfing. Those were drought years in California, and water conservation efforts meant that skaters like Alba who were daring enough had their pick of backyard pools, if they didn’t get caught jumping the fences.⁠ ⁠ Skateboarders since then have adapted to U-shaped halfpipe ramps, downtown plazas and other terrain, but Alba and other skaters continue to seek out pools. He figures he has skated thousands in his career, many abandoned, some with the owners’ permission, and others not—which led to occasional arrests, and once, a shotgun pointed at his head.⁠ ⁠ Backyard pools hold a kind of primal allure for skateboarders. City-sanctioned skate parks are plentiful—the Skatepark Project, a California-based nonprofit, in 2019 estimated around 3,500 in the U.S. To dedicated pool skaters, though, purpose-made bowls and ramps can become repetitive and almost too easy, when they’re not overrun by scooter-pushing tweens.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Ray Zimmerman

More married people are booking travel for one. ⁠ ⁠ Spouses have long split up to travel on girls’ getaways or guys’ weekends. Now, travel companies, advisers and travelers say solo vacations have become a booming business for all kinds of trips. More people have even booked big bucket-list adventures like African safaris or cruises to Antarctica on their own, according to Wendy Marley, a travel adviser for AAA Northeast.⁠ ⁠ The trend is especially pronounced among retired couples. In 2023, people 55 and over traveled without their significant other 46% more than people in that age group did the year before, according to the U.S. Consumer Traveler Report from market-research group Phocuswright.⁠ ⁠ Most married solo travelers are women, travel companies say. These solo—not single—women say they are motivated to see the world, even if their spouse isn’t interested in the destination. They also enjoy making new friends and the sense of freedom that comes from independent travel.⁠ ⁠ Lisa Tsering, a 62-year-old Bay Area writer and editor, traveled alone to France for her 60th birthday and is planning a solo trip to Bali this spring. Her husband also likes traveling, but she says that because he works hard, his idea of a vacation is a relaxing getaway. “That’s just not my flavor,” she says.⁠ ⁠ Independent travels have strengthened her relationship, she says. Each partner gets to see the person they love fulfilled and happy.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Alyssa Bichunsky/Road Scholar

Argentine President Javier Milei’s moves to privatize state companies and slash government jobs are sparking inflation and protests. ⁠ ⁠ In an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal, he insists there’s “no plan B.” ⁠ ⁠ Watch the full interview at the link in our bio.

University of Florida officials went back and forth with documentary filmmaker Jo Franklin over details for a planned gala in her honor. Franklin had pledged $2 million to her alma mater.⁠ ⁠ A day before the gala, school officials learned her seven-figure check had bounced. The next day, they found out Franklin hadn’t arrived for the event. A person who identified as her assistant emailed to say she couldn’t make it. The university canceled.⁠ ⁠ The school’s esteemed graduate, once a journalist and documentary filmmaker specializing in the Middle East, emerged as a troubled and gifted fabulist. The $2 million gift was an illusion, one in a yearslong string of fantasies concocted by Franklin, who tumbled from a life of apparent success to homelessness. For years, she persuaded many around her that she was living the high life. Her family knew better.⁠ ⁠ In the years that followed, Franklin sometimes spent nights in a South Florida hotel parking garage. She was arrested a few times.⁠ ⁠ Franklin also befriended a group who were impressed with her professional background and insights. Over time, her image dissolved. Franklin’s friends noticed that she wore the same clothes. Her sandals had holes. She said she didn’t carry a cellphone because the Saudis were tracking her.⁠ ⁠ Franklin’s family worried for years about her mental stability and were frustrated because they saw no easy path to getting her help. They didn’t know if she had ever been diagnosed or treated.⁠ ⁠ Lost in a surge of mental illness cases and a record-high homeless population are a growing number of Americans who can’t fully care for themselves but aren’t easily diverted into treatment, either on their own or involuntarily.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.

The lifespan of your new sofa may be much shorter than you expect. ⁠ ⁠ Instead of once-a-decade purchases, furniture makers and restorers say, couches are becoming more like fast fashion—produced with cheaper materials, prone to trends and headed to the landfill after just a few years. High-quality sofas still exist, pros say, but they are harder to find. Mass-market options, even those that cost over $3,000, are increasingly made with less sturdy materials and construction methods.⁠ ⁠ Members of the furniture industry don’t agree on a single culprit but say the proliferation of makers, rising price of materials and our shopaholic tendencies all contribute. Expectations for a couch’s useful life now hover around seven years—and sometimes less—save for some of the most expensive models.⁠ ⁠ Consumers are complaining that their new couch’s cushions are lumpier, springs squeakier and frames flimsier than those of the well-loved models they replaced. ⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ 🎨: Daisy Korpics for WSJ; PixelSquid (2)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, like most Israelis, is aghast at the way protesters in the West—especially on American campuses—demonize Israel and, in some cases, laud Hamas. “This is a problem not just for Israel but also for America,” he says, in an interview with Tunku Varadarajan for @wsjopinion. “Many of these supporters of Hamas are woefully informed. But this goes beyond ignorance. Twenty percent of them support bin Laden,” he says, citing a recent poll of Americans under 30. “I’m obviously concerned by these demonstrations. America is the vanguard of freedom and the guarantor of liberty in this century.” That said, he believes that America’s founding values will prevail. In addition to the ugly, often antisemitic demonstrations, he cites “the beginnings of a movement in the opposite direction.” Netanyahu believes that the war in Gaza isn’t Israel’s alone. “Our fight is your fight.” The war against Hamas is “part of the larger struggle between the pro-American forces in the Middle East and the anti-American terror axis led by Iran.” “If we lose, you lose. If we win, you win.” Read more on the Israeli Prime Minister’s determination to crush Hamas, diplomacy towards the Biden administration and optimism about peace with Saudi Arabia, at the link in @wsjopinion’s bio. 🎨: Barbara Kelley

Alabama executed an inmate using nitrogen hypoxia, becoming the first U.S. state to carry out the procedure.⁠ ⁠ Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. on Thursday, according to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photos: Dan Anderson/Shutterstock, Alabama Department of Corrections via AP (inset)

Most people are pretty bad at picking stocks, research shows.⁠ ⁠ Our lead markets writer, Gunjan Banerji, explains why getting rich in the stock market is not an overnight scheme.

Everyone knows places such as Ohio and Minnesota are solidly in the Midwest. But a recent poll finds that the Midwest is more a state of mind than just a place you can point to on a map. ⁠ ⁠ People from Colorado (42%), Oklahoma (66%) and even Wyoming (54%) think they live in the Midwest, according to data from Emerson College Polling and the Middle West Review, a journal published by the University of Nebraska Press. Nearly a third of Kentuckians and a little over a quarter of Arkansans say the same. ⁠ ⁠ The term “Midwest” generally applies to 12 states the U.S. Census Bureau includes in the North Central region: North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio.⁠ ⁠ Derided by some as flyover country—with little more than cornfields and cow pastures—the Midwest is a diverse region with major cities, mighty rivers and thousands of miles of coastline around the Great Lakes. ⁠ ⁠ In contrast to chill Californians and high-strung New Yorkers, Midwesterners tend to be seen as friendlier and more traditional.⁠ ⁠ Tania Carmona moved to Idaho from Los Angeles in 2021. Asked what region she lives in, Carmona, 51, who owns a custom-flooring business, says, “I would say Midwest.” Idaho strikes her as more amiable, with more respect by young people for elders—qualities she associates with the Midwest.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.

A woman who received a payout from WWE boss Vince McMahon has accused him, the company and a former executive of sex trafficking in a new lawsuit.⁠ ⁠ The former WWE employee said in the suit that she was abused and sexually exploited by McMahon while he was CEO, alleging that he lured her with promises of career advancement and exploited and trafficked her to other men inside the company.⁠ ⁠ The woman signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2022 in which McMahon agreed to pay $3 million for her to not discuss their relationship or to disparage him. The settlement was among those that the WSJ first revealed McMahon had reached with multiple women.⁠ ⁠ The suit complicates the legal picture around McMahon. Federal prosecutors have been probing payouts he made to women, and in July 2023 agents executed a search warrant on McMahon and served him with a grand-jury subpoena. No charges have been brought.⁠ ⁠ McMahon and his attorney didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Representatives for the WWE also didn’t immediately respond.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Michelle Farsi/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Was air travel really that bad in 2023? ⁠ ⁠ Despite baggage handling issues, tarmac delays and high levels of customer complaints, major U.S. airlines canceled far fewer flights and were more punctual in 2023 than in years prior.⁠ ⁠ We ranked nine major U.S. airlines on seven equally weighted operations metrics: on-time arrivals, flight cancellations, extreme delays, baggage handling, tarmac delays, involuntary bumping and complaints.⁠ ⁠ Delta Air Lines led the pack in getting operations back on track, taking the crown again in our annual scorecard. Stuck in our rankings basement: JetBlue Airways, which notched its third consecutive last-place finish. ⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.

A Russian military transport plane crashed near the border with Ukraine, killing all 74 people on board, according to Russian officials and state media.⁠ ⁠ Russian officials said 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were among those on board.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.