Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Trump moved to cancel $56 million in HUD housing counseling support for nonprofit groups in his pocket rescission
Housing counseling agencies that help renters and homeowners navigate evictions, foreclosures and disaster recovery are set to lose $56 million in federal grant money. The White House listed the cut as part of roughly $810 million in spending it is canceling through a maneuver known as a pocket rescission. Lawmakers and government watchdogs are already…
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Gasoline costs 27.4% more than a year ago and accounted for over a third of August’s price increase, BLS says
A single fuel line explains more than a third of last month’s rise in the overall cost of living. Gasoline prices climbed 27.4% over the past year and rose 3.9% in August alone, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported, enough on their own to account for over one third of that month’s total…
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Regular gas averages at least $4.35 a gallon in every state, AAA says
Regular gasoline is now averaging at least $4.35 a gallon in every state in the country, according to AAA’s daily fuel price survey. Delaware has the lowest state average at $4.3519 a gallon, and Hawaii has the highest at $5.5703. The national average has climbed to $4.4798, more than a dollar higher than a year…
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More than 300,000 taxpayers got permission to keep receiving paper IRS refund checks, a watchdog found
Not every taxpayer went along with the IRS’s move away from paper refund checks. More than 300,000 of them, 300,537 to be exact, got permission to keep receiving a check in the mail instead of a direct deposit, according to a new watchdog report. The number, current as of March 30, 2026, shows how large…
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The IRS fielded nearly 352,000 calls about ending paper refund checks by late March, a watchdog says
The IRS’s toll-free line for paper-check questions rang nearly 352,000 times in the months after a new round of notices went out, according to a watchdog report. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration tracked the calls through March 28, 2026, as the agency moved to end most paper tax refund checks under a federal…
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The IRS keeps charging 7% interest on unpaid taxes through December
The IRS says the interest rate on individual tax underpayments and overpayments will hold at 7% a year, compounded daily, for the fourth quarter of 2026, October through December, unchanged from the rate that has applied all year. The rate, announced Aug. 21 in IR-2026-98, means a tax bill left unpaid past its due date…
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Nearly half of August homebuyers, 44.7%, got concessions from sellers, the highest August share since at least 2020, Redfin says
Nearly half of the people who bought a home in August, 44.7%, walked away with some kind of concession from the seller, according to Redfin. That is the highest share for any August since the brokerage began tracking the number in 2020, and it is up from 42.6% a year earlier. The trend points to…
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Credit Acceptance’s multistate settlement covers auto loans made from November 2015 through November 2025
A decade of Credit Acceptance auto loans, not just the ones being made now, is covered by the multistate settlement the company reached with state attorneys general on September 17, 2026. Maryland’s attorney general says the case reaches loans originated from November 1, 2015, through November 30, 2025, a window that determines who is eligible…
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Money in a Trump Account generally can’t be withdrawn before January 1 of the year the child turns 18
A child’s Trump Account can grow for years before any of it becomes accessible, because Treasury and IRS guidance issued Dec. 2, 2025 states that money generally cannot be withdrawn before January 1 of the calendar year in which the child turns 18. The rule applies no matter how the account was funded, whether through…
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Medicaid enrollees dropped under the 80-hour work rule can reapply at any time, CMS says
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says a Medicaid enrollee dropped for missing the new 80-hour-a-month work-and-service requirement is not shut out for a set stretch. The agency’s interim final rule states that anyone denied or disenrolled for falling short on hours may reapply immediately, with no waiting period attached to the lapse. That…