Main Street Dollars

—

by

Walk into a check-cashing store in Laredo or Las Cruces this week with a $1,200 paycheck, and the clerk can no longer just hand you cash. As of September 3, 2026, a federal order requires that business to check your government ID, write down the specific number on it, and report the transaction to a…

Three Federal Reserve officials voted at the last meeting to raise rates

—

by

in CDs & Yields

The Federal Reserve’s rate-setting committee met on July 28 and 29, and when the vote was counted, nine officials chose to leave the federal funds rate alone. Three did not agree, and they didn’t want a cut — they wanted the Fed to raise rates. That split matters more than it sounds like it should,…

No American bank has failed in more than two weeks, and the year’s count is still five

—

by

in Checking & Savings

The last bank to close its doors in the United States was Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank, a single-branch lender in Philadelphia holding $68 million in deposits. Pennsylvania regulators shut it down on August 21, 2026, and every account moved overnight to a nearby institution with no interruption in service. That was more than two weeks ago.…

Fewer people filed for unemployment last week than a year ago, and 337 were federal workers

—

by

in Jobs & Wages

The U.S. Department of Labor released its weekly unemployment snapshot on September 3, and one comparison stands out: fewer people applied for a new unemployment check last week than during the same week a year ago. Buried in the same report is a narrower number that matters to a specific group of readers — 337…

The government is suing Family Dollar over a manager who demanded a doctor’s note the same night

—

by

On New Year’s Eve 2024, a pregnant customer service representative at a Family Dollar store in Greenville, North Carolina called her manager to say her doctor had referred her to a high-risk clinic and told her to stay off work until an appointment three days later. According to a federal lawsuit filed against the company,…

Federal agencies just told employers how little they owe back on a tobacco surcharge

—

by

If your paycheck has a line item docking you an extra $50 or $100 a month because you smoke, or used to, that deduction has a name: a tobacco surcharge. On August 26, 2026, the Department of Labor, the Treasury Department and the Department of Health and Human Services jointly told employers how they expect…

A Pennsylvania brick plant faces $496,000 in proposed fines over silica dust it already knew about

—

by

Inspectors who walked through Plant 3 at Watsontown Brick Company in central Pennsylvania on February 12 found workers breathing air loaded with crystalline silica dust — the same hazard behind an incurable lung disease called silicosis. Federal investigators say the company already knew about the exposure and did not fix it or require workers to…

A Captain D’s franchisee was fined $62,000 after a teenager was burned working a fryer

—

by

Two Beacons LLC runs eight restaurants in Tennessee and North Carolina, seven of them Captain D’s, and it just agreed to pay roughly $62,000 after federal investigators found teenage employees running kitchen equipment the law says they’re not allowed to touch. The trigger for the investigation: a minor was burned by hot grease while working…

A Georgia urgent care owes $113,199 for training it never paid for, and it suspended the worker who asked

—

by

A federal wage investigation into a Georgia urgent care operator found a pay problem that’s easy to overlook and expensive to ignore: workers were paid their regular rate, not time-and-a-half, for overtime hours spent in mandatory orientation, staff meetings and training. The U.S. Department of Labor says the total owed came to $113,199. And when…

Uber is cutting about 3,300 jobs and telling nearly all remote staff to move near an office

—

by