Author: Brian Lund
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The median asking rent hit $1,531 as the share of empty rentals reached its highest second quarter since 2020
The median asking rent for an empty apartment or rental home hit $1,531 in the second quarter of 2026, according to new Census Bureau data, and the share of rental units sitting vacant climbed to its highest second-quarter level since 2020. For the country’s renter households, that combination is unusual: asking rents are still climbing,…
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Candy and sweets are running 7.1 percent higher, the grocery store’s second-fastest riser
Chocolate bars, bagged candy, and gum are getting measurably more expensive this year, and the increase shows no sign of leveling off before Halloween. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest grocery price forecast puts sugar and sweets on track for one of the steepest increases of any food category tracked in 2026, trailing only beef…
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Two orders on ranchers were signed Friday, and neither one changes the price of beef
President Trump signed two executive orders on the cattle industry at the White House on Friday, September 4, both framed as wins for ranchers. Grocery shoppers scanning the price of ground beef might assume that kind of presidential attention to the beef supply chain comes with a number attached — a rebate, a cap, a…
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USDA has 90 days to decide whether beef gets a country-of-origin label again
President Trump signed an executive order on September 4, 2026, giving the U.S. Department of Agriculture three months to figure out whether it can legally force grocery stores to disclose where beef comes from. The instruction sits inside a broader ranchers’ order that also touches grazing land and predator control, but for household grocery budgets,…
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The IRS will charge 7 percent on unpaid tax and pay 7 percent on a late refund in the quarter starting October 1
The Internal Revenue Service says the interest meter on unpaid taxes is staying exactly where it has been: 7 percent a year, compounded daily, through the final three months of 2026. The agency confirmed the fourth-quarter rates on August 21, and for anyone carrying a tax balance into the fall, or still waiting on a…
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Twenty-nine health systems have dropped a Medicare Advantage contract this year, four of them in the last month
A running count kept by Becker’s Hospital Review now shows 29 health systems that have ended, or are actively ending, a contract with a Medicare Advantage insurer at some point in 2026, up from 25 just weeks earlier. For the roughly half of Medicare enrollees who have chosen an Advantage plan over Original Medicare, that…
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Anthem owes Sentara $105 million on claims past 90 days, the system says
Virginia’s largest hospital system says the state’s biggest health insurer has stopped paying its bills on time. Sentara Health told Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia this summer that the insurer owes more than $105 million in claims already 90 days past due, on top of two smaller billing disputes. The fight over that…
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A wartime veteran who needs daily care can draw $29,093 a year, but only under a $163,699 net worth limit
A wartime veteran who can no longer bathe, dress or eat without help can qualify for a VA pension add-on worth $29,093 a year on top of the base pension, money aimed squarely at the cost of long-term care. The same veteran can lose the entire benefit if countable net worth tops $163,699, a ceiling…
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A total disability rating exempts a veteran from Medicaid’s new work rule, and so does caring for a child under 14
A veteran who carries a total disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs will not have to prove they worked, trained, or volunteered to keep their Medicaid coverage once the program’s new work test takes hold. Neither will someone who spends their days caring for a child who hasn’t turned 14. Those are two…
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Social Security replaces a 15-year-old rule on young-adult disability claims October 1
Beginning October 1, the Social Security Administration will judge disability claims from 18-to-25-year-olds using evidence rules it has not rewritten since 2011. The update, formalized as Social Security Ruling 26-2p, changes how caseworkers weigh school records, job tryouts and medical evidence when a young adult files a first disability claim, ages out of a childhood…
