A security expert says Congress should reduce food stamp fraud as it faces a Saturday deadline to renew the Farm Bill.
Haywood Talcove is the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ Government Group, which provides fraud prevention tools to 26 state unemployment programs and 50 U.S. banks.
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The United Auto Worker’s Union has reached a “tentative agreement” on a new five-year agreement with the Volvo-Group-owned Mack Trucks in three states. The union posted on social media that nearly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida (UAW Region 8 & Region 9) have a tentative agreement.
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Fourteen U.S. energy groups have called on the Biden administration to prioritize U.S. energy production and American’s energy needs by developing fair and consistent federal leasing regulations.
They submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over a newly proposed Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule. The rule implements changes related to royalty rates, rentals, and minimum bids for BLM-issued oil and gas leases and updates bonding requirements for leasing, development and production.
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Food brands owned by tobacco companies produce foods that are more hyperpalatable than those produced by non-tobacco companies, new research from the University of Kansas shows.
The research found that they are more likely to feature “purposely tempting combinations of salts, fats, and sugars,” according to a press release from the University of Kansas.
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A nonprofit organization’s analysis of government data estimates drug overdose deaths increased 1.7% in 2023 to reach a new record high.
The CDC estimates that more than 111,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period that ended in April. More than 77,000 of those deaths involved fentanyl and other synthetic opioids other than methadone. Both are record highs and increases over the prior year, according to Families Against Fentanyl.
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Minnesota State Auditor General Julie Blaha released the 2022 asset forfeiture report showing a 35% drop in completed forfeitures over the past five years.
“The decrease over the past five years is dramatic,” Blaha said in a statement.
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Total encounters reported at both the northern and southwest land borders in August was 304,162, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. It is the greatest total number of illegal entries of any month in recorded U.S. history, according to CBP data.
Total encounter data excludes nearly 30,000 gotaways at the southwest border reported by Border Patrol agents last month. It excludes gotaways reported by Office of Field Operations agents at the southwest border and all gotaway data from the northern border.
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A group of 20 attorneys general want the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a lower court’s restrictions on local governments enforcing homeless camping bans.
In their petition regarding Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, the attorneys general wrote that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong to prohibit state and local governments from enforcing laws that bar public spaces from being used as homeless encampments.
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To combat what is referred to as “environmental injustice,” the Biden Administration is giving out $1 billion in grants to put up trees in areas of cities that serve mostly minorities that have been robbed of the environmental benefits of shade due to alleged racism.
The funding is part of a $1.5 billion investment from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act focusing on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program.
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The 2023 fiscal year is on track to average the highest number of individuals on food stamps in the U.S. since 2016.
There were 42,329,101 on food assistance on average each month on through the first nine months of the fiscal year, as of June 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The fiscal year is completed at the end of September.
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The U.S. exported more natural gas in the first six months of 2023 than in any other previous six-month period, the U.S. Energy Information Agency reported.
U.S. companies averaged 12.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in the first six months of this year, an 11% increase from their average over the same period last year. This is after in May of this year, the U.S.’s “net natural gas exports as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and by pipeline averaged a monthly record high of 13.6 Bcf/d.”
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Diesel fuel prices continue to rise, hiking the cost of transporting goods to market as American consumers pay the price.
According to the latest data from AAA, the current national average price for a gallon of diesel is $4.56, up from $4.53 a week ago and $4.35 a month ago. As those prices rise, the costs are passed on to consumers.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a supplemented legal opinion regarding school discipline laws after dozens of police departments pulled school resource officers.
Ellison said the new opinion addresses “good-faith” concerns about the law.
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House lawmakers held a hearing to investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged efforts to influence American classrooms.
The Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee held the hearing, led by Chair Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla. The lawmakers brought scrutiny against Confucius Classrooms, a program with ties to the CCP, which promote teaching things like the Chinese language and culture, among other things, in hundreds of classrooms around the country.
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The U.S. government estimated unemployment fraud during the pandemic cost taxpayers up to $135 billion or about 11% to 15% of the total amount of unemployment insurance benefits paid during the pandemic.
That’s according to the latest report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which the U.S. Department of Labor disputes.
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A Kings Mountain lithium mine shuttered since 1988, estimated capable of supporting the production of 1.2 million electric vehicles annually for 30 years, will reopen.
Charlotte-based Albemarle, the world’s largest producer of lithium, received a $90 million grant from the Department of Defense this week to expand domestic production of the raw mineral used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries. The grant follows a $149.7 million grant Albemarle received from the Biden administration last year for a North Carolina processing facility.
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After the Senate voted to acquit Attorney General Ken Paxton of all charges levied against him by the House General Investigating Committee on Saturday, several members of the House who voted against impeaching Paxton called on House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, to resign.
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Americans are bringing home less money as inflation squeezes family budgets, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday that real median household income fell in 2022 compared with 2021. Real median household income fell by 2.3% from $76,330 in 2021 to $74,580 in 2022.
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Newly released federal inflation data shows that producer prices spiked in August, undoing a steady downward inflationary trend.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Producer Price Index Thursday, a key marker of inflation, which showed producer prices rose 0.7% in August alone. Much of that increase came because of an rise in the cost of gasoline.
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A recent analysis determined the United States sits on a century’s worth of gas supply, but industry experts warn there aren’t enough pipelines to access it.
The report from the Potential Gas Committee, part of the Colorado School of Mines, found that the country had technically recoverable gas resources of 3,353 trillion cubic feet, a 0.5% decrease from its 2020 estimate.
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A federal judge blocked parts of a controversial gun measure from New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham Wednesday, but she is not backing down.
U.S. District Judge David Urias temporarily blocked the law, arguing that the executive order runs contrary to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings on gun rights and violates people’s abilities to defend themselves.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Tuesday published an internal Border Patrol email her office obtained that provides guidelines to release foreign nationals being held at Customs and Border Patrol processing centers because they are at near full capacity, at full capacity or are already over capacity.
President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “have become so brazen that they are now implementing mass-release quotas for immigrants surging into our country,” Moody said. “As a federal judge already recognized, these releases are unlawful, yet the Biden administration is ordering Border Patrol to release even more immigrants into the interior.” Moody is referring to a lawsuit Florida brought against the administration and won.
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The federal archive agency that helped spark former President Donald Trump’s first federal indictment has come under fire from Republicans after reporting showed the agency has embraced far-left diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Republicans blasted the National Archives and Records Administration after The Center Square reported that the agency’s latest 2022 DEI plan pledges to double down on equity training for employees.
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Up to 146,000 United Auto Workers could strike starting this week if the Big Three auto companies don’t reach a new union contract agreement by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday.
UAW Union President Shawn Fain has repeated his mantra “record profits mean record contracts.” He says Big Three executives at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have received hefty pay raises while inflation has eaten away at UAW workers’ paychecks.
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Fewer parents sent children to preschool in 2021 in a decline that corresponded with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The percentage of 3-to-6-year-olds enrolled in preschool in the United States dropped by 9.3 percentage points from 2019 to 2021, from 51.1% to 41.8%, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence in a speech before the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College and in an article in The Wall Street Journal warned Republicans and conservatives about the danger of populism. The former Vice President argues, in echoing Ronald Reagan’s 1964 address, that it is “a time for choosing” for Republicans whether to continue to follow the “siren song” of populism or return to true conservatism. It is clear that Pence is not only drawing a line in the sand and forcing a debate over conservatism, but also distancing himself from former President Donald Trump and those who support his policies. Nevertheless, Pence fails to understand that the conservative populism he is denouncing is actually rooted within the American conservative tradition.
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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced new enforcement initiatives Friday to crack down on 1,600 millionaires and 75 large companies it said owe hundreds of millions in unpaid taxes.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said the agency will use Inflation Reduction Act funding to focus on high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations and promoters. He said the IRS won’t increase audit rates for those earning less than $400,000 a year.
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At least 215,908 foreign nationals were apprehended or reported evading capture after illegally entering the southwest border in August, according to preliminary Border Patrol data obtained by The Center Square.
This includes at least 187,553 apprehensions and 28,355 gotaways. “Gotaways” is the official U.S. Customs and Border Protection term that refers to the number of people known and reported to illegally enter the U.S. between ports of entry who intentionally try to evade capture and don’t return to Mexico. In August, the most gotaways were reported in the Tucson and Rio Grande Valle sectors. Notably, with most Yuma agents pulled out of the field to deal with an influx of people arriving at open areas of the border wall, gotaway numbers reported by agents last month were extremely low, which is out of the ordinary.
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A federal judge ruled Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott installing marine barriers in the Rio Grande River is illegal. After the ruling, Abbott said Texas was appealing.
Two lawsuits were filed over the marine barriers: one by the federal government and one by a Texas-based kayaking company seeking to end Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star. The ruling issued on Wednesday relates to the federal case only.
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A national operation led to 366 criminal illegal foreign nationals being arrested and targeted for removal by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents. The operation targeted criminals who were determined “to be a threat to national security, public safety or border security.”
The operation took place from August 4 to August 25 during which agents prioritized finding and arresting fugitive criminal aliens, including those who’d been previously removed from the U.S. and illegally reentered. Arrests occurred nationwide.
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Michigan is trailing Illinois and Minnesota in the Midwest race to register the most electric vehicles.
Illinois leads with nearly 80,000 EVs, while Minnesota has 41,417 and Michigan has 34,380.
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Few voters think children should undergo transgender interventions even with parental permission.
That’s according to The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll of 2,500 registered voters across the U.S., conducted by Noble Predictive Insights. The poll found that 58% of those surveyed are against medical interventions such as gender-changing surgery or puberty blockers for children younger than 18 years old.
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A new report found that states with less restrictive marijuana policies have higher incidents of residents driving while high.
The Drug Free America Foundation released a new report showing that states that have legalized or weakened restrictions around high-THC marijuana, either for medical or recreational use, saw 32% more marijuana-impaired driving than states that have not adopted the same policies.
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The U.S. Department of Labor issued notice Wednesday of a proposal to increase the threshold for required overtime payments to salaried workers whose weekly or annual wages are considered low income.
If enacted, the proposed rule would guarantee overtime pay for most salaried employees earning less than $1,059 per week, or about $55,000 per year. It also calls for an “escalator” that automatically updates the salary threshold every three years to reflect current earnings data. The Labor Department estimates the rule could apply to about 3.6 million workers nationwide.
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The moderators for the second Republican presidential primary debate have been set, but the candidate leading in the polls has yet to show any interest in attending.
Fox News announced Wednesday that Stuart Varney, Dana Perino and UNIVISION’s Ilia Calderón will co-moderate the debate from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on Sept. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Varney, one of Fox Business News’s original anchors, is the host of “Varney & Co.” Perino co-anchors “America’s Newsroom” and serves as co-host of “The Five.” She is also a former White House press secretary under George W. Bush. Calderón is co-anchor of UNIVISION’s weekday evening newscast “NOTICIERO UNIVISION” and its newsmagazine “AQUÍ Y AHORA.” She co-moderated the final debate between Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in March 2020.
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In states like California, Colorado, Washington and Arizona, cities this summer are spending millions buying hotels and converting them to shelters for the homeless.
In Los Angeles, there is a ballot initiative in 2024 to require hotels to use vacant rooms to house homeless people besides paying customers. The American Hotel & Lodging Association has objected to the proposal.
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Synthetic opioids estimated to be 10 times more potent than fentanyl are creeping into the illicit drug market in the U.S., according to new research.
“Synthetic opioids, such as the fentanyl analog and nitazene drug class, are among the fastest growing types of opioids being detected in patients in the emergency department with illicit opioid overdose,” researchers warned in a paper published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open.
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Recently released federal pricing analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that food prices will continue to rise through 2024.
The USDA pointed to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index released earlier this month, which showed consumer prices overall rose 3.2 percent in the previous twelve months. Food prices, though rose more quickly at 4.9 percent during the same time.
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The Internal Revenue Service lost millions of taxpayer records and federal employees don’t know where they have gone.
Lawmakers want answers and accountability for the IRS over those documents, which could be used by nefarious actors to steal Americans’ identity.
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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with cancer.
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According to a new analysis from the Los Angeles Times, California’s ban on thin plastic bags is a failure, as thicker, “recyclable” replacement bags are largely unable to be recycled in California, and the majority of consumers still opt not to bring their own bags to reuse for shopping.
Additional analyses have also found increases in purchases of plastic trash bags chip away at the plastics savings from single-use plastic bag bans, the pounds of plastic bags per-capita placed in landfills has increased since the ban, and many of the alternatives to single-use plastic bags typically end up being worse for the environment. Nonetheless, a major decrease in grocery bag litter suggests at least a partial success.
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U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Florida, made good on his promise earlier this year to file articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. On Friday, he filed one article of impeachment against Austin alleging high crimes and misdemeanors.
Mills appears to be the first to file an article of impeachment against a Defense secretary in U.S. history.
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Nearly 90% of U.S. voters are concerned about fentanyl trafficking as drug overdose deaths continue to mount in the U.S. ahead of the 2024 election, according to a new poll.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, found that 57% of those surveyed are very concerned about fentanyl overdose deaths. An additional 32% are somewhat worried, or 89% overall indicating some level of concern.
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Small business owners are feeling the pain of inflation-driven interest rate hikes, another difficulty for those owners to overcome as they continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic-era shutdowns.
A rash of federal spending and an increase in the money supply in recent years have fueled inflationary pressures. Prices soared during the beginning of the Biden administration, making it hard for Americans to make ends meet.
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The U.S. federal program formerly known as food stamps had peak spending levels in 2023 that were more than double pre-pandemic times.
Now, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is set to be reauthorized as it reaches the end of its five-year budgeting cycle.
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Among the more than 8.6 million people who’ve illegally entered the U.S., at least nearly 1.6 million are “gotaways.”
Gotaways is the official term used by Border Patrol agents to describe foreign nationals who illegally enter the U.S. between ports of entry and don’t return to Mexico or Canada.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed an ordinance passed by the city council to enact a minimum compensation of $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute while transporting a rider, subject to annual adjustment.
Instead, Frey struck a deal to boost Uber driver pay to the city minimum wage and guarantee at least $5 per ride.
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The vast majority of Americans are concerned about the situation at the U.S. border, according to new polling.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights, asked 2,500 registered voters, including 1,000 registered Democrats, 1,000 registered Republicans, and 500 independents: “How concerned are you about the situation at the border?”
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Public transit ridership has fallen since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic leading one expert to question if rates will ever return to pre-pandemic levels.
A recent report by the American Public Transportation Association shows that total transit ridership in the United States stalled for the second time since the first quarter of 2021. Ridership grew for six of the seven quarters from the first quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2022. But there was a slight dip in the first quarter of 2023.
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Facing labor shortages and challenges to find new revenue streams, small businesses appear to be hiring mostly temporary workers.
Alignable, a small business networking website, shows temporary hiring hit a new high this summer while full time hires have plummeted.
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