Author: Brian Lund
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Fresh vegetables are forecast up 5.9 percent this year, with tomatoes 12.8 percent higher than a year earlier
The federal government’s newest price outlook shows the vegetable aisle climbing faster than the rest of the grocery cart this year, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasting a 5.9 percent increase in retail fresh vegetable prices for 2026. Tomatoes are driving much of that increase already: retail prices for fresh tomatoes in July 2026…
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Dropping 11 quality measures from Medicare’s ratings is projected to add $18.6 billion in plan spending
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has finalized a rule that strips 11 measures out of the scoring system used to rate Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans on quality. The agency says the measures it dropped were focused on administrative processes and areas where nearly every plan already scores about…
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Nine more drugmakers agreed to give every state Medicaid program most-favored-nation prices
Nine more pharmaceutical companies have agreed to sell their products to state Medicaid programs at “most-favored-nation” prices, the discounted rates that other wealthy countries already pay. The White House announced the deals on August 31, bringing the total number of manufacturers in the program to 26. For a household that depends on Medicaid to cover…
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Medicare hospital coverage costs $311 or $565 a month for anyone short of 40 work credits
Most people never see a bill for Medicare’s hospital coverage. Decades of payroll taxes already paid for it by the time they turn 65. But for anyone who spent large stretches of a working life outside covered employment, Medicare Part A now comes with a real monthly charge, and the amount depends entirely on a…
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The food stamp shelter deduction cap rises to $769 and the standard deduction to $217 on October 1
Almost all the attention on the coming food-stamp update goes to the maximum amount a household can receive. Two deduction figures are rising alongside it: the cap on how much high housing costs can shrink a household’s countable income, and the flat standard deduction applied to every SNAP case. Those numbers rarely make headlines, but…
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Hawaii is the only place where the food stamp maximum falls on October 1, dropping to $1,655 for a family of four
Hawaii is about to become the only place in the country where the maximum food-stamp benefit gets smaller rather than larger. Starting October 1, 2026, the maximum SNAP allotment rises in the 48 contiguous states, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hawaii is the lone exception: the ceiling for a…
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The IRS laid out how to give another person legal authority over a parent’s federal tax matters
The IRS spent late August laying out, in plain terms, the different ways a taxpayer can hand someone else legal standing to deal with a federal tax matter. For a family helping an aging parent manage Social Security paperwork, income-linked Medicare premiums, or a stack of unopened IRS notices, the distinction between two commonly confused…
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Extension filers have until October 15, and the IRS says filing sooner cuts the interest and penalties that keep accruing
Millions of taxpayers who asked for extra time to file their 2025 federal return are working against a hard deadline: Oct. 15, 2026, a Thursday. The Internal Revenue Service says extension filers do not need to wait until that date arrives, encouraging early submission because interest and penalties on any unpaid tax keep accumulating the…
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Treasury would hold Trump Account money in index funds charging 0.1 percent at most
The federal government wants to put a hard ceiling on what Wall Street can charge to manage the retirement-style savings accounts it opened for millions of American children. Under a proposed regulation from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, money sitting in a child’s Trump Account could only go into a stock index…
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Two months of Social Security deposits stay protected when a garnishment order arrives
A federal rule that has been in force since 2011, and was tightened in 2013, requires banks and credit unions to automatically shield roughly two months of Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and several other federal benefit deposits the moment a garnishment order lands on an account. The shield is automatic: no court filing, no…
