Author: Brian Lund
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$105,000 went to a male surgical technician after a jury found two doctors barred him from most of his duties
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced on July 28 that it had won a jury verdict in the kind of case most people never picture the agency bringing. A federal jury in Fayetteville, Arkansas found that a hospital allowed two of its doctors to strip a male surgical technician of most of the work…
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Your savings account probably pays 0.38%, the FDIC’s latest national average shows
Thirty-eight hundredths of one percent. On a $10,000 balance left alone for a full year, that comes to $38 in interest, or a little over three dollars a month. That is not a figure from a rate-comparison site or a single unlucky bank. It is the national average paid on savings accounts by every insured…
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Pump prices are forecast to reach about $3.40 a gallon by the fourth quarter
Forty gallons a month is an ordinary amount of fuel for one household with one commuting driver. At the second quarter’s pump prices, that tank-and-a-half habit cost roughly $168 a month. At the price the federal government now projects for the last three months of the year, the same 40 gallons runs about $136. The…
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The VA’s claims backlog fell below 70,000 and a decision now averages 77.7 days
In 2013, seven out of every ten disability compensation and pension claims sitting at the Department of Veterans Affairs had been waiting more than 125 days. That share is now 11.6 percent. The count of claims stuck past that line dropped under 70,000 in early July, the first time it has been that low since…
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Identity theft victims wait nearly two years for refunds; the IRS answers 19% of calls on the line that releases them
One IRS telephone line exists for a single job. When a return is frozen because the agency suspects someone else filed it, the Taxpayer Protection Program line is where the real taxpayer calls to prove identity and get the held refund released. It is not a general help line. For the households routed to it,…
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The Fed’s hold Wednesday keeps savings yields and card APRs flat, and three officials dissented for a hike
A quarter of the officials voting at the Federal Open Market Committee’s July meeting declined to sign the statement their colleagues released Wednesday afternoon, and all three of them wanted rates moved in the same direction. Not down. Up. The Committee’s decision to leave its benchmark alone carried by a 9 to 3 vote, and…
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Federal credit unions can now charge fees your state law used to cap
For decades, two layers of law sat on top of what a credit union charged for an account. A federal layer set the outer boundaries, and a state legislature could tighten certain charges further. As of the end of June, for federally chartered credit unions, only one of those layers still operates. A National Credit…
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DC Water will pay nearly $217,000 to settle claims it fired a worker over his age
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority had written policies covering performance notification, progressive discipline and internal appeals. When it fired a member of its own human resources department in September 2023, federal regulators say it followed none of them. That gap between the rulebook and the firing became part of an age discrimination…
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The FTC is mailing more than $2.7 million to 62,893 Handy workers over fees taken from their pay
Envelopes from a refund administrator are landing in 62,893 mailboxes this month, and the checks inside them come with an instruction printed on the paper. The Federal Trade Commission says recipients should cash them within 90 days. Together the checks total more than $2.7 million, and every dollar traces back to fees and fines that…
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Callers posing as grandchildren stole over $5 million from 400-plus victims averaging age 84
The call arrived in two parts, by design. An employee the operation called an “Opener” phoned an older American and claimed to be a grandchild who had just been in an accident. Minutes later a “Closer” called back, this time posing as that grandchild’s attorney, and named a sum for legal fees. Federal prosecutors in…