Author: Brian Lund
-
Trump opened a 300,000-ton duty-free quota on imported beef starting September 1 to bring down ground beef prices
Ground beef has been one of the more visible price increases at U.S. grocery stores this year, and the federal government just made a second attempt this year to address it through trade policy rather than direct payments. A presidential proclamation signed August 26 temporarily expands how much beef can enter the country without paying…
-
The $700 million Google Play settlement is now paying out, mostly without a claim form
Google’s Play Store customers who spent money on apps and in-app purchases between August 2016 and September 2023 are starting to see money move back into their accounts. A federal judge signed off on the $700 million antitrust settlement earlier this month, clearing the final legal hurdle in a five-year fight over how Google ran…
-
South Carolina blocks soda and candy on SNAP cards August 31, and North Dakota does the same September 1
Grocery shoppers using SNAP benefits in South Carolina and North Dakota are about to see fewer items ring up as eligible purchases. Both states received federal waivers letting them remove certain products from the program’s approved food list, and the clock has nearly run out on the old rules. The changes take effect one day…
-
A Georgia man drew the maximum 20 years for a $380 million Ponzi that emptied college funds
A federal judge in Atlanta handed down the maximum prison term the law allows to the man behind what prosecutors call likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history. Todd Burkhalter is now serving 20 years for a fraud that took in roughly $380 million from more than 2,000 investors, many of whom, prosecutors say,…
-
The FTC shut down a credit-repair operation that took nearly $200 million by posing as debt collectors
A federal court in Arizona has temporarily shut down a sprawling credit-repair network the Federal Trade Commission accuses of taking in nearly $200 million by posing as debt collectors and creditors. The FTC alleges the operation, doing business as Credit Glory since at least 2016, bought paid search ads that intercepted people already looking up…
-
The SEC says 38 firms used phony filings and fake auditors to pass as registered advisers
An investor searching for a financial adviser online has no easy way to spot a name built purely on paper. That gap is what the Securities and Exchange Commission says 38 entities exploited, filing paperwork with the agency designed to look like proof of legitimacy without a licensed adviser, a real office, or a working…
-
American Airlines will pay $200,000 after firing an employee who lost her sight
American Airlines will pay $200,000 to settle a federal lawsuit accusing the carrier of refusing to help a Fort Worth reservations employee keep working after she lost her sight. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the airline kept the worker on unpaid, involuntary leave for almost four years after she developed cortical blindness…
-
The salary line for guaranteed overtime pay is back down to $35,568
A federal salary line that determines whether a company can legally treat an executive, administrative, or professional employee as exempt from overtime pay is back at $684 a week, or $35,568 a year, after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division restored that figure on May 15, 2026. The move ends an 18-month…
-
The IRS proposed letting employers put $2,500 a year into a worker’s Trump Account tax-free
An employer that wants to help a worker save for a child’s future could soon have a straightforward, tax-free way to do it — at least on paper. The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service floated proposed regulations on Aug. 11, 2026, spelling out how a company could contribute up to $2,500 a year…
-
The IRS is warning about fake calculators built around the new tax law
Millions of taxpayers spent this year’s filing season trying to figure out exactly what the Working Families Tax Cuts law was worth to their own return, and the Internal Revenue Service says some of the online calculators built to answer that question are not run by anyone the agency trusts. The fake versions promise a…
