Life expectancy in the United States declined again last year amid the twin scourges of opioid addiction and an unrelenting rise in suicides. Three reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday paint an increasingly grim picture of mortality in the United States, with life expectancy dropping, overall death rates increasing, and mortality from drug addiction and suicide rising fast among young adults. It was the third year in a row that life expectancy had either fallen or stayed flat — the first three-year stretch since the flu pandemic a century ago. (Brianna Ehley, Politico)