Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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The IRS raised the business mileage deduction to 76 cents in the middle of the year
IRS Announcement 2026-11 raised the business standard mileage rate to 76 cents and the medical and moving rate to 23.5 cents for travel on or after July 1, 2026.
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Forty-three states must start enforcing Medicaid’s 80-hour work rule by January 1, and $580 in monthly pay satisfies it
CMS’s interim final rule requires 43 states and DC to implement Medicaid’s 80-hour community engagement requirement by January 1, 2027. Earning $580 a month satisfies it.
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Conair is refunding 1.7 million Cuisinart grill brushes after three people swallowed bristles
Conair recalled about 1,719,995 Cuisinart grill brushes after three people swallowed detached metal bristles. The refund can be taken as cash or as store credit worth 20 percent more.
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A $475 million settlement is taking claims from anyone who paid out of pocket for generic drugs between 2009 and 2019
Two generic drug price-fixing settlements totaling $475 million are accepting consumer claims through November 9, 2026. Here is who qualifies and what proof is required.
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Fanatics shoppers charged a handling fee can claim two $5 store vouchers, not cash, before the August 27 deadline
A class action settlement can pay in several different currencies, and the currency is the first thing worth checking. This one pays in store credit. Shoppers who were charged a handling fee on a Fanatics website and file a valid claim receive two vouchers worth $5 each, usable only at Fanatics.com, expiring twelve months after…
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A proposed FTC order would send $35 million back to Hopper travelers charged pre-selected tip and VIP fees
The charge did not appear as a surprise line on a credit card statement. It appeared on the final booking screen of a travel app, already selected, in a spot a customer would only find by scrolling down. By the time the traveler swiped to book, the total had grown by a “Tip” and a…
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Galanz recalled 121,680 retro refrigerators tied to 34 fires and one death, but the remedy is a free repair, not a refund
Nothing about the refrigerator itself changed on July 30. The unit humming in a kitchen or a garage is the same appliance it was the day before, running on the same wiring. What changed is the public record attached to it: federal regulators and the importer announced that a specific run of retro-styled Galanz refrigerators…
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OCTROT is refunding 178,000 heated blankets after cords detached and started 27 fires
The recalled product is the kind of thing that lives folded over the arm of a couch from October through March: a sherpa-lined electric throw, plugged into a wall outlet, with a small white controller and five heat settings. Households that keep the thermostat down and warm the person instead of the room buy them…
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Lettuce ran 32% above last June, and USDA sees vegetables up 6.8% this year
Lettuce costs about a third more than it did last June. Tomatoes cost roughly a fifth more. Fresh vegetables as a group ran close to 10 percent above where they sat a year earlier, and for a household that buys more or less the same list every week, the produce section is where the grocery…
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Electricity is on pace to average 18.3 cents a kilowatt-hour this year
Eighteen point three cents per kilowatthour means nothing until it is multiplied by a month of ordinary use. The Energy Information Administration’s most recent published figure puts the average U.S. residential customer at roughly 899 kilowatthours a month, which turns that rate into about $165 of electricity before taxes, fees and the fixed monthly charge…
