Author: Elizabeth Blessing
-
A Chicago man who supplied nearly $1.5 million in stolen and altered Treasury checks was sentenced to 160 months
A Chicago man was sentenced to 160 months in federal prison for supplying nearly $1.5 million in stolen and altered U.S. Treasury checks to co-conspirators who cashed them at banks and credit unions across eastern Iowa. Tyrone Terrell Harris, 34, was sentenced in federal court in Cedar Rapids after a scheme that ran checks meant…
-
The Trump administration moved against 170 New York City food stamp stores, with penalties up to permanent removal
The Trump administration’s Department of Agriculture has moved against 170 food stamp retailers across New York City, spanning all five boroughs, with penalties that range from a temporary suspension to permanent removal from the program. The announcement frames New York City as one piece of a much larger nationwide sweep against retailer fraud in the…
-
Trump’s 15% tariff on imported polysilicon, a key solar-panel material, takes effect December 4
A new 15 percent tariff on imported polysilicon, the raw material at the base of nearly every solar panel sold in the United States, takes effect December 4, 2026. The tariff, and a minimum price floor issued alongside it, is aimed at rebuilding a domestic polysilicon industry that has nearly disappeared over the past two…
-
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days run October 6 and 7, with Prime at $14.99 a month
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days will run October 6 and 7, 2026, starting at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time, the company announced, with the sale open only to shoppers paying for a Prime membership. Prime itself continues to cost $14.99 a month or $139 a year for a standard membership, the same price Amazon charged for…
-
Le Sueur County, Minnesota, homeowners saw insurance jump 23.9%, or $715, in six months
Homeowners in Le Sueur County, a rural county in south-central Minnesota, absorbed the sharpest home-insurance increase Insurify tracked anywhere in the state this year. Premiums there rose 23.9 percent, or $715, in just six months, nearly double Minnesota’s own statewide increase over the same stretch and more than ten times the national pace, according to…
-
Home insurance now averages $3,012 a year, and Minnesota homeowners saw a 12.9% jump in six months
The average cost of homeowners insurance nationwide rose to $3,012 a year in the first half of 2026, a 2.2 percent increase, according to a new analysis from the insurance marketplace Insurify. Minnesota homeowners saw a far sharper move over the same stretch: premiums there climbed 12.9 percent, or $457, in just six months, one…
-
The 15-year mortgage rate climbed to 6.42%, up from 5.49% a year ago
Borrowers who choose the shorter, faster-payoff option saw their own weekly number move higher too. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.42 percent this week, up from 6.26 percent the week before and 5.49 percent a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Lenders typically use the 15-year loan for refinancing or for…
-
The 30-year mortgage rate averaged 7.03%, up from 6.30% a year ago
The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.03 percent this week, up from 6.95 percent the week before and 6.30 percent a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The move pushed the benchmark rate above the 7 percent line, a threshold that adds noticeably to the monthly…
-
A child of a worker who dies can collect 75% of the parent’s Social Security benefit
A flat percentage governs what a deceased worker’s child can collect from Social Security, unlike the sliding scale that applies to a surviving spouse. Social Security states that children generally get 75 percent of the parent’s benefit, a figure that does not shift based on the child’s age at the time a claim is filed…
-
Congress’s stopgap funds the government through December 11, averting an October 1 shutdown
A stopgap spending bill signed into law this month kept the federal government open past the October 1 deadline that would otherwise have triggered a shutdown. The measure, a continuing resolution rather than a full-year budget, extends current funding levels only through December 11, which means the same cliff households watched approach this fall is…