Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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$200,000 goes to a nurse fired instead of reassigned to an open job
Sutter Roseville Medical Center had a decision in front of it. A staff nurse with a disability had asked her managers for an accommodation, and a lateral move into a position that was already open was one way to give her one. Federal investigators concluded the hospital would not consider any accommodation at all and…
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Nebraska has cut about 200 people off Medicaid, and every other expansion state must enforce the 80-hour rule by January 1
For more than a year, Medicaid work requirements have been an argument about projections, paperwork and what might eventually happen to somebody. In Nebraska, the argument ended. The state has started removing adults from Medicaid for failing to document enough qualifying hours in a month, and it is the first state in the country to…
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554,780 Kobalt yard tools sold at Lowe’s are recalled over batteries that can catch fire
Take a look at the Kobalt trimmer, blower or mower sitting on the garage shelf — especially if it came home from Lowe’s this year. More than half a million of those tools and their batteries have been recalled because charging the battery a certain way can end in smoke, sparks or an outright fire.…
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Pennsylvania American Water raises rates August 13, and must lift its debt-forgiveness credit to $40 by November
The same vote that raises Pennsylvania American Water bills on August 13 also orders the company to make life easier for customers buried in past-due balances. On July 16, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved a rate increase less than half the size the company asked for, and in the same decision required it to…
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NewYork-Presbyterian could leave UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network on September 1
As of this writing, NewYork-Presbyterian’s hospitals and medical groups are still in-network for UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members — under an extension that expires August 31, 2026. If the two sides do not sign a new contract by then, most of those members would find one of New York’s largest hospital systems out-of-network on September 1.…
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Maryland renters 60 and older can claim up to $1,000 by October 1
Maryland renters who are 60 or older, and renters of any age who are 100% disabled, can apply this year for a state payment worth as much as $1,000. It is not a discount buried in a tax bill: the Renters’ Tax Credit arrives as a direct check from the State of Maryland. The catch…
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Children born since 2025 can get a one-time $1,000 federal contribution in a Trump Account
If a child in your family was born in 2025, or arrives any time through the end of 2028, the federal government will make a one-time $1,000 deposit into a new kind of savings account carrying that child’s name, provided the child qualifies and someone opens the account. The money comes from the U.S. Treasury,…
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When two banks failed in July, depositors automatically became customers of the buying bank
On a Friday afternoon in July, regulators closed a tiny savings and loan in Kentland, Indiana. One week later, state officials in Kansas shut down a one-office bank in Lenexa. In both towns, the people who kept checking and savings accounts at those banks lost nothing, waited out a single weekend, and started the next…
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143 Michigan restaurant workers will receive $515,857 after investigators say overtime timecards were destroyed
Federal investigators say four Detroit-area coney island restaurants ran payroll off two sets of timecards for the same workers. One set counted the first 40 hours of the week; the other tracked everything past 40, the hours federal law prices at time and a half. That second set was regularly destroyed, investigators allege, but the…
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Eligible Medicare Part D enrollees now pay $50 a month for certain GLP-1 drugs
For eligible people with Medicare drug coverage, a monthly supply of certain GLP-1 weight-loss medications now costs $50 at the pharmacy — a flat, predictable copay for a class of drugs whose price has kept them out of reach for many older Americans. The discount is not a coupon and not a private insurer’s perk.…
