Author: Elizabeth Blessing
-
The IRS will not penalize dyed diesel sold for highway use through December 31 under an executive order signed October 5
The Internal Revenue Service says it will not charge a penalty when dyed diesel fuel is sold for highway use, or used on the highway, from October 1 through December 31, 2026. The announcement on October 14 follows an executive order President Donald Trump signed on October 5. It is relief for fuel sellers and…
-
The FDA lets salt substitutes into about 139 standardized foods from December 14, with objections to the dairy standards due November 12
The Food and Drug Administration has finalized a rule that lets food makers swap part of the salt in many everyday products for a salt substitute. The change covers 139 foods that have a federal “standard of identity,” and it starts December 14, 2026. For shoppers, it could mean more bread, cheese, canned vegetables and…
-
New Hampshire restricts electric shutoffs from November 15 to March 31 and requires regulator approval to disconnect a customer 65 or older in winter
New Hampshire’s winter shutoff protections start again on November 15, 2026 and run through March 31, 2027. During that stretch an electric utility is limited in when it can cut off a household, and the state’s Public Utilities Commission has to approve any shutoff of a customer who is 65 or older. The protections are…
-
Detroit homeowners have until 4:30 p.m. on November 6 to file for the poverty property-tax exemption, and households living only on fixed benefits such as SSI do not have to reapply every year
Detroit homeowners who want to be excused from this year’s property taxes have until 4:30 p.m. on November 6, 2026, to file for the city’s poverty exemption, known as HOPE. Households that live only on fixed benefits such as Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, do not have to reapply every year. Everyone else has to…
-
Health plans must give pricing information by telephone for plan years starting January 1, 2027, and may cut a caller off at no fewer than 20 providers a day
Health plans will have to answer price questions by telephone, not just on a website, once a new federal rule takes hold. The rule applies to plan years that begin on or after January 1, 2027. A plan may also stop quoting a caller after no fewer than 20 providers in a day. The Departments…
-
More than twenty VA authorities expire on December 11, including the agency’s power to collect hospital and nursing home copayments
Congress extended more than twenty Department of Veterans Affairs programs and powers only until December 11, 2026. The list includes the agency’s authority to collect copayments for hospital and nursing home care. Unless lawmakers pass another extension, those authorities lapse on that date. The extension is part of Public Law 119-103, the Continuing Appropriations and…
-
SNAP retailers other than specialty food stores must stock at least 28 staple food varieties by November 4 or be dropped from the program and barred from reapplying for six months
Stores that accept SNAP have until November 4, 2026 to meet a tougher stocking rule, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture will take them out of the program. The rule calls for at least seven varieties in each of four staple food categories, which adds up to 28. A store that falls short can no…
-
Social Security’s rewritten heart-disease rules take effect October 30 and apply to every disability claim filed or still pending that day
Social Security has rewritten the medical rules it uses to judge heart and circulation problems in disability cases, and the new version starts on October 30, 2026. The change covers adults and children, and it applies to claims already sitting in the system as well as brand-new ones. That timing matters for anyone who applied…
-
The IRS is mailing CP321J notices telling savers they can get up to $1,000 a year paid straight into a retirement account from 2027
Letters from the Internal Revenue Service labeled CP321J are going out to people who may be able to collect a new federal match on their retirement savings. The notice says savers could get up to $1,000 a year added directly to a retirement account, starting in 2027. The money is not a check and does…
-
Food stamp soda bans in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia still carry no start date almost four months after a federal judge vacated them
Four states that asked to bar SNAP shoppers from buying soda with their benefits still have no start date for those limits. A federal court vacated the approvals on June 22, 2026, and almost four months later USDA’s waiver table shows nothing to replace them. The states are Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia. SNAP…