Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Virginia food stamp households can no longer buy soda, including diet and zero-sugar soda, starting Nov. 1, while juice, milk and sports drinks stay eligible
Starting November 1, a grocery trip on Virginia SNAP will look different at the register. Soda, including diet soda and zero-sugar soda, can no longer be paid for with food stamp benefits, while juice, milk and sports drinks stay on the eligible list. The change comes from the Virginia Department of Social Services, which runs…
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The food stamp time limit now reaches adults up to age 64 instead of 54, and veterans and homeless adults no longer get an automatic exemption, USDA says
Adults on food stamps up to age 64 now fall under the program’s work time limit, ten years past the age 54 cutoff that applied before. Veterans and homeless adults no longer get an automatic exemption from it either, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says in an implementation memo to state SNAP agencies. Food stamps…
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Hawaii’s Supreme Court upheld caps on what lawyers can take from the $4.037 billion Maui wildfire settlement in a Sept. 30 ruling
Lawyers for Maui wildfire survivors cannot take more than a fixed slice of the $4.037 billion global settlement, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled on September 30, upholding fee caps that a Maui judge had set. The opinion, written by Justice Todd Eddins, affirmed the order “as modified,” and the opinion says the Maui circuit court…
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Treasury says reported U.S. ATM jackpotting losses total $40.73 million as of August 2025, as it sanctions Tren de Aragua-linked targets
Criminals who plant malware in a bank’s cash machine can make it pay out until it is empty, and the Treasury Department now puts reported losses from that kind of attack in the United States at $40.73 million across more than 1,500 attacks. The figure is as of August 2025, and Treasury describes the attacks…
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A Washington man got three years for using a forged power of attorney to accept an offer on a dead Seattle resident’s home and for trying to sell $235,000-plus in stocks
A niece’s alert ended an attempt to sell a dead relative’s Seattle home. A man with a forged power of attorney had accepted an offer on the house, and when the niece was alerted she intervened and reported it. Tyler Lee Berens, 36, of Carnation, Washington, was sentenced on October 5 to three years in…
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The FBI seeks Kishu Inu investors after an alleged $9 million rug pull indictment
At its peak, the Kishu Inu cryptocurrency was worth more than $1.6 billion on paper. A federal indictment now charges its creator with wire fraud and alleges that he made about $9 million through what prosecutors call a “rug pull,” and the FBI wants to hear from anyone who put money into the token. The…
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A banned futures trader who promised a church a 72 percent yearly return got 33 months and must repay $2,749,210.60 to at least 128 victims
A $150,000 investment, a promised 72 percent yearly return and $4,798,153 after five years: that was Brian Mitchell’s pitch to a local church while he was barred from commodity futures trading. On October 7, a federal court sentenced the 44-year-old Ann Arbor man to 33 months in prison for wire fraud and ordered him to…
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A courier got 27 months in a roughly $2.5 million scam on an Illinois man
In July 2025, a Chinese national was arrested as he arrived at a house in Belleville, Illinois, to pick up gold. The house belonged to a man who had lost an estimated $2.5 million to an online investment scam. The courier, Shenghan Jin, has now been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for his…
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About 300 victims in 37 states handed cash and gold bars to couriers after fake bank and Federal Reserve calls, and the man who hired the couriers pleaded guilty
The warning popped up on a computer screen, styled to look like it came from a well-known technology company: the machine had been hacked, a bank account was compromised, or the user was under investigation. Victims were told to call a “live agent.” That opening move drew about 300 victims in at least 37 states…
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Javed Ashiq got 14 years for collecting gold bars and cash from an elderly victim whom fake FTC agents talked into buying gold to protect their savings
Javed Ashiq will spend the next 14 years in federal prison for picking up gold bars and cash from an elderly victim on behalf of callers who posed as Federal Trade Commission agents. Judge Dudley H. Bowen sentenced the 52-year-old Decatur, Georgia, man to 168 months, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District…