Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped the state's attorney general, Ashley Moody, to replace Sen. Marco Rubio when he leaves his office to become the next U.S. Secretary of State. Axios first reported his intentions to make the Moody appointment.

Why it matters: Moody is a DeSantis and Donald Trump loyalist. Her appointment will set off a chain-reaction of office-seeking and Florida political drama heading into 2026.

• The announcement is scheduled for a press conference Thursday morning in Orlando.

Breaking it down: Picking Moody for Senate clears the way for DeSantis to name his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, to replace her as AG, according to the source who said that "it was always Ashley. And James is the obvious pick to replace her."

• Rep. Byron Donalds is already filling out a political team to run for governor in 2026.
• If Moody decides to run for reelection for her newly appointed Senate seat, she is on a crash course with Rep. Cory Mills, who announced recently that he would run for Rubio's seat.
• The office of attorney general also comes open in 2026.

Go deeper: Florida dominates Trump's West Wing

• Pete Davidson said that he wanted to quit "Saturday Night Live" after his first year.
• Davidson felt like he didn't "belong" with his cast mates.
• He asked "SNL" boss Lorne Michaels to fire him and was told it would get better after three or four years.

Pete Davidson broke into Hollywood and pop culture through his work on "Saturday Night Live," but he wanted to quit the sketch comedy series early on.

"After my first year, I actually called for a meeting with Lorne," Davidson said in the new Peacock docuseries "SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night," referring to the show's creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels. "I was like, 'Please fire me.'"

Davidson made his "SNL" debut as a featured player during season 40, which aired between 2014 and 2015. At 20, he was one of the youngest-ever hires and the show's first cast member born in the 1990s. The comedian said that because of his age difference with the cast, he felt out of place.

"I was like 'I don't belong here. Everybody here is so talented and they don't want to be my friend,'" Davidson recalled telling Michaels. "I was a child. I was like, 'Nobody wants to be my friend.' And he said, 'You don't figure it out until your third or fourth year.'"

The comedian added that Michaels explained to him, "It's just gonna suck for like, three or four years."

"And he was right," Davidson said.

Despite early reservations, Davidson stayed on "SNL" for eight seasons. During his time on the show, and since leaving in 2022, the comedian has kept busy with TV and film roles and comedy specials. He even returned to "SNL" as a host for the season 49 premiere in 2023.

Davidson is one of many "SNL" alums who appear in "SNL50," a four-part docuseries celebrating the show's 50th anniversary.

The docuseries includes never-before-seen audition footage, interviews with former "SNL" cast and crew members, a deep dive into one iconic sketch, and a breakdown of the messy but pivotal 11th season.

Reps for Michaels didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

All episodes of "SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night" are streaming on Peacock.

• Americans ages 18 to 29 were more likely to report feeling lonely than older adults, per a survey.
• Older Americans were also more optimistic about their lives than the younger cohort.
• Gen Z's loneliness may stem from fewer social connections and later marriages.

As social life rebounds uneasily from pandemic-era shocks, Gen Z is still feeling lonely.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center of 6,204 American adults, conducted from September 3 through 15, looks at how optimistic and lonely different age groups feel. Broadly, 16% of all American adults say that they feel lonely or isolated from those around them all or most of the time.

But loneliness starkly varies by age. Nearly a quarter of Americans ages 18 to 29 said that they felt lonely, compared to just 6% of those 65 and older. At the same time, adults 65 and older were the most likely to say that they felt optimistic about their lives all or most of the time, while just under half of 18 to 29-year-olds said they felt the same.

"Older people are almost always the happiest age group," in research on happiness, Kim Parker, Pew's director of social trends research, told Business Insider. However, she was surprised by the more negative opinions of the younger cohort.

"It's interesting to see that two-thirds of adults 65 and older say they feel optimistic about their life all or most of the time when only 48% of 18- to 29-year-olds do when they have so much time ahead of them," Parker said. "But it may be that there's just so much more unknown at that stage of life that it's harder to feel optimistic."

Gen Z's loneliness woes could have something to do with weakening social connections. As BI previously reported, Gen Zers are coming up against a fringe friend crisis: They're lacking wider connections and social networks that were more easily accessible to prior generations. At the same time, community-building groups like unions and religious institutions are fading away, as are third spaces — places that aren't work or home, but instead centered on congregating and socializing.

Part of the loneliness and optimism chasm might also have to do with how much Gen Z is socializing: Younger Americans have been spending more time alone. In 2010, Americans ages 20 to 24 spent about four hours alone per day; that's a number that's since gone up, peaking at 6.7 average hours spent alone in 2021 — a likely result of time spent solo during the thick of the pandemic. Notably, time-use data isn't available for 2020 itself, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics ran into issues running its survey at the height of Covid's early spread.

Of course, not every boomer and older American is optimistic or avoiding loneliness. Older Americans who almost entirely rely on Social Security, for instance, have told BI that they feel isolated and can't afford social activities that might otherwise help keep loneliness at bay.

Another factor contributing to Gen Z's loneliness might be chalked up to larger societal and demographic trends. Eight percent of married Americans said that they felt lonely or isolated all of the time, compared to 24% of those who are unpartnered.

With 86% of 18- to 24-year-olds unpartnered as of 2023, Gen Z's relationship status might also be weighing them down, especially as dating only gets more costly and Americans get married increasingly later in life.

"We always see that married adults are happier than unpartnered adults are. It doesn't bode well for a population that's increasingly likely to not be married about how they might feel about optimism, about their life, and what we'd be looking at in the future in terms of a trend," Parker said. "But we won't know until we get there."

Are you dealing with loneliness, or found a solution? Contact these reporters at [email protected].

• After booking a trip to Ireland on a whim, I fell in love with the country and also met my husband.
• Years later, we're still together, and we've made a new life for ourselves in Cork.
• I still live in Atlanta part-time, but I love going home to my husband in Ireland.

Several years ago, I dreamed I was walking down the main street of a small town, where I met a nice bookseller and a local witch. In the dream, I kept getting the message to "go to Skibbereen."

When I woke up, my first thought was, "Where the heck is Skibbereen?" I looked it up, and to my delight, it's a real town in West Cork, Ireland.

This isn't the first time I've gleaned information from my dreams, but they rarely provide such literal instructions. Figuring I should listen to the message, I booked a trip for a few months down the line.

Little did I know that my Irish adventure would lead me to my future husband and a new home.

I trusted my gut and eventually got to Skibbereen

My travels first brought me to the city of Cork, where I made friends who helped secure me a ride out to the smaller town of Skibbereen.

As I rode through West Cork, I promised myself that I'd follow my intuition wherever it led without asking questions. I came here because of a dream, so why not follow the path as far as it would go?

Luckily, it led me right to Skibbereen's main street — like my dream, it does, in fact, have a wonderful bookseller and a pagan shop.

I felt welcome, and I kept noticing phoenix symbols throughout the town. It felt like a sign since I'm from Atlanta, and the fictional bird is on our city seal.

As I continued my trip, wandering and exploring more of County Cork, a gut feeling began to grow that this was exactly where I needed to be.

Then, I met the man who would be my future husband

At the time, I had the dating app Bumble on my phone. I happened to open it during my travels and match with a local Irish chef.

We met up for a date, and he was instantly warm, welcoming, and honest. Since we both work with food in some capacity (him as an executive chef, me as a writer, educator, and consultant), we had lots to talk about.

We continued talking online, and after I returned to the US, we officially started dating. With things going well, we arranged to meet back in Ireland three months later.

After a whirlwind romance, we got married last year.

I'm still in awe of my new life

In the years since my trip, I bought a house in Cork, and my husband and I are slowly settling in and making it feel like home.

I still live in Atlanta part time, but I feel like all the different parts of my life have fallen into place.

Whether I'm in Ireland or the US, I pinch myself every day that I get to live this magical life and share it with all the incredible people I've met along the way.

I don't live in Skibbereen (yet), but I still visit. In the future, I hope to move out that way and have a few acres of space to host culinary and writing residencies.

In the meantime, I'm settling into my two-continent lifestyle nicely.

There are still questions to navigate (like the best way to move my cats abroad), and it isn't always smooth sailing. However, so far, it's worth all the challenges, long travel days, and time-zone juggling.

• I'm a chef. I turned Costco's $5 rotisserie chicken into five easy meals for two people. 
• The chicken can be used to make tasty quesadillas, burrito bowls, and pasta dishes.
• I also like adding the chicken to baked potatoes and using the bones to make a flavorful broth. 

Grocery prices have been feeling high, but one deal I can still count on is the big and juicy $5 rotisserie chicken at Costco.

Although I'm a chef, I still appreciate a shortcut — and I know I can put together dozens of easy meals with cooked chicken.

Here's how I turned a Costco five-buck-cluck into easy meals to feed two throughout the week.

The chicken can dress up a creamy, cheesy pasta dish.

I'm still on the baked-feta-pasta trend from a few years ago.

I prefer using a block of Lifeway Farmer soft cheese instead of feta because it's got a milder flavor and softer texture. Plus, it gets even meltier and creamier in the oven.

After preheating my oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, I cook my cheese and fresh cherry tomatoes or whole canned tomatoes in a small baking dish.

I leave them in the oven until the tomatoes burst and become sweet and saucy and the cheese is just turning golden on top. Then, I toss in cooked pasta and my diced or shredded rotisserie chicken.

Chilled chicken-salad sandwiches are an easy lunch.

The white meat from the Costco rotisserie chicken is easy to chop into cubes for a classic creamy chicken salad.

I toss the meat with mayonnaise or plain Greek yogurt and add any salty or crunchy bits I have in the fridge, such as diced pickles or pepperoncini, celery, or bell peppers. I also like to add something sweet, like sliced grapes or chopped dried fruit.

Then, I serve the salad on toasted sandwich bread, crackers, or sturdy romaine-lettuce cups.

I toss the chicken in salsa, then add it to burrito bowls.

There's nothing like a build-you-own-bowl dinner for a low-lift meal that makes everyone happy.

First, I'll make a batch of rice or another grain. If I'm short on time, I'll heat a packet of Somos Mexican street-corn rice in the microwave.

Then, I toss diced rotisserie chicken in salsa to dress it up and lay out assorted toppings. Everyone can add their own beans, guacamole, cheese, veggies, and cilantro to their bowls for a Chipotle-style experience right at home.

I stuff baked potatoes with chicken, too.

A loaded baked potato is super easy and cheap to make.

I stick a potato (or sweet potato) in a 400-degree oven for 40 minutes to an hour until it's easy to pierce with a fork.

If you're in a pinch, you can skip the oven and put the potato in the microwave for a few minutes — just be sure to pierce it all over with a fork beforehand.

Then I slice the potato down the center, fluff up its insides, and season it with softened butter, salt, and pepper.

From there, I add my favorite toppings — usually diced rotisserie chicken, sour cream, hot sauce, and any herbs I have on hand.

Chicken quesadillas are another great meal.

A quesadilla is one of my favorite three-ingredient lunches: tortilla, cheese, and hot sauce. Sometimes, I use bread instead of tortillas and make a grilled cheese.

If I have a rotisserie chicken on hand, I'll dice it up and add it as a filling for extra protein.

I also used the chicken's bones and skin.

At the end of the week, don't toss the chicken bones and skin. Instead, use it to make a homemade broth.

Place the chicken carcass in a large pot with a halved onion, a few carrots, and celery stalks.

Cover everything with water and simmer for about four hours. Strain the bits out, and you have delicious broth to sip or turn into soup.

This story was originally published on July 23, 2024, and most recently updated on January 16, 2025.