Main Street Dollars

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President Trump signed an executive order on September 4, 2026, giving the U.S. Department of Agriculture three months to figure out whether it can legally force grocery stores to disclose where beef comes from. The instruction sits inside a broader ranchers’ order that also touches grazing land and predator control, but for household grocery budgets,…

Anthem owes Sentara $105 million on claims past 90 days, the system says

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Virginia’s largest hospital system says the state’s biggest health insurer has stopped paying its bills on time. Sentara Health told Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia this summer that the insurer owes more than $105 million in claims already 90 days past due, on top of two smaller billing disputes. The fight over that…

Beef is on track to cost 9.8 percent more this year, the fastest rise of any grocery category

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Elizabeth Blessing

in Groceries & Gas

American shoppers reaching for ground beef, steak or a roast this year are absorbing one of the steepest single-category price increases in the supermarket. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service now forecasts that beef and veal prices will climb 9.8 percent over the course of 2026, the fastest rise among the fifteen food-at-home…

Households paid 18.34 cents a kilowatt-hour in June, and 43 states plus Washington paid more than a year earlier

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in Utilities & Energy

The average U.S. household paid 18.34 cents for every kilowatt-hour of electricity it used in June, according to the federal government’s own tally of what utilities actually billed customers. That figure is 5 percent higher than the same month a year earlier, and residential customers absorbed a bigger increase than either businesses or factories did.…

Insurance now takes 14 percent of the average homeowner’s monthly mortgage payment

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Elizabeth Blessing

Homeowners insurance has quietly become one of the largest recurring costs layered onto a monthly mortgage bill. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas finds that for the average homeowner nationally, the insurance premium now equals 14 percent of the monthly payment covering mortgage principal and interest, up from 10 percent in 2013.…

Car insurance is projected to rise in 32 states in the second half, after Connecticut drivers absorbed an extra $251

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Full-coverage car insurance premiums are climbing again after a rare year of relief, and the increase is landing unevenly across the country. Insurify, an online insurance marketplace, found that average full-coverage rates rose in 27 states during the first half of 2026, reversing a nationwide 6% decline logged in 2025. Connecticut absorbed the steepest increase…

Water and sewer bills run a median $1,065 a year, and $245 a month in Maryland

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Elizabeth Blessing

in Utilities & Energy

American households paid a median of $1,065 for water and sewer service over the past year, according to a new industry report, a bill that rarely gets its own line item the way rent or groceries do. In Maryland, the same report found a typical monthly water and sewer bill of $245, the highest of…

Fresh vegetables are forecast up 5.9 percent this year, with tomatoes 12.8 percent higher than a year earlier

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in Groceries & Gas

The federal government’s newest price outlook shows the vegetable aisle climbing faster than the rest of the grocery cart this year, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasting a 5.9 percent increase in retail fresh vegetable prices for 2026. Tomatoes are driving much of that increase already: retail prices for fresh tomatoes in July 2026…

Eleven insurers are quitting the Affordable Care Act marketplace, and Cigna alone drops 369,000 people

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Eleven health insurers have told state regulators and reporters they are leaving the individual Affordable Care Act marketplace, either everywhere or in specific states, once the current 2026 plan year ends. The single largest hit falls on Cigna, which is exiting ACA exchange business in eleven states and taking roughly 369,000 enrolled members with it.…

Health Net ends every employer health plan in California and Oregon on February 28, 2027

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