The financial news that actually matters
Millions of married Americans who earned less than their spouse over a working lifetime can collect a Social Security payment equal to half of the higher earner’s Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA. That formula, set directly in federal statute, determines how much extra monthly income a lower-earning partner can secure without relying solely on their…
Families who transfer savings to adult children before entering a nursing home can face months or even years without Medicaid coverage for long-term care. Federal law requires every state to review asset transfers made within 60 months of a Medicaid application, and gifts made for less than fair market value trigger a penalty period during…
The Federal Trade Commission is now mailing paper refund checks to consumers who lost money to Restoro and Reimage, two Cyprus-based tech support firms that used fake Microsoft Windows virus pop-ups to sell unnecessary computer repair services. The checks target people who did not accept or redeem earlier PayPal payments, a group that likely skews…
More than 200,000 U.S. workers have lost their jobs so far in 2026, and a growing number of employers are pointing directly at artificial intelligence as the reason. Oracle, one of the largest enterprise technology companies in the world, told regulators in its latest annual filing that AI adoption across its operations has already cut…
Twenty-two buyers paid full price for Rolex watches they never received, losing a combined total of nearly $1.5 million to a Southern California jeweler who allegedly collected wire transfers for years without delivering the timepieces. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced felony charges against the jeweler, whose alleged fraud stretched across Orange and Los Angeles…
Tens of millions of American households are set to pay more for electricity as utilities across the country push through base rate increases tied to grid upgrades and surging demand from new large-load customers. Florida Power & Light alone secured a settlement adding $945 million in new revenue effective January 2026, with another $705 million…
Ruthia He, founder and former CEO of Done Global, was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison and fined $1 million for running a scheme that distributed more than 37 million pills of Adderall through a telemedicine subscription model. The case, docketed as 3:24-CR-329 in the Northern District of California, represents the Justice Department’s first…
Adrian Lawrence, a Jamaican national who went by the alias “Mastermind,” has been sentenced to 66 months in federal prison for orchestrating a sweepstakes fraud scheme that stole more than $5.6 million from at least 50 elderly victims whose average age was roughly 82. A federal judge also ordered Lawrence to pay $5.4 million in…
Henry Abdo, a Lebanese national living in Miami, was sentenced to 168 months in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme through his company, Titanium Capital LLC, that promised everyday investors guaranteed returns from a foreign-exchange trading platform. The platform did not operate as described. Instead, new investor deposits were cycled to pay earlier participants,…
Air travelers who get stuck with a canceled flight or a missing suitcase no longer have to chase their airline for a refund. A Department of Transportation final rule, codified at 49 U.S.C. Section 42305 and 14 CFR Part 260, now requires carriers to issue automatic cash refunds for cancellations, significant schedule changes that passengers…