(WASHINGTON) — The latest government data on inflation indicates consumer prices are continuing their rapid rise as pandemic-battered supply chains struggle to keep up with rebounding consumer demand.
The consumer price index — a measure of the prices Americans pay for a market basket of everyday goods and services — jumped 7% over the last 12 months, the Labor Department said Wednesday. This marks the largest one-year increase since the period ending in June 1982, the DOL noted.
The so-called core index, or measure for all items except the more volatile food and energy indices, climbed 5.5% over the last year — the largest 12-month change since February 1991. The core index spiked 0.6% in December, building on the 0.5% increase seen in November.
The energy index alone rose a whopping 29.3% over the last year (driven hikes in the gas index), and the food index increased 6.3%.
Steep climbs in the prices for shelter and used cars and trucks were the largest contributors driving up the all items index in December, the DOL said, but the indexes for household furnishings, apparel, new vehicles and medical care also increased in December. The indexes for motor vehicle insurance and recreation were among the few to decline last month.
The index climbed 0.5% in December, a slight reprieve from the 0.8% seen in November.
The fresh data comes as economists and policymakers decide how to respond to inflation as data indicates it isn’t going away. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday the Fed is prepared to raise interest rates faster than originally planned to respond to the climbing prices.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Tax season will begin early this year and is already forecast to be an especially “frustrating” one, the Internal Revenue Service has warned, as pandemic-era tax changes and staffing limitations squeeze the nation’s tax agency.
The IRS announced that it will begin accepting and processing 2021 tax year returns on Monday, Jan. 24. This date is more than two weeks earlier than the start of last year’s tax season, which the IRS said will allow more time to ensure everything runs smoothly amid the ongoing pandemic and programming changes introduced over the past year, including the Child Tax Credit.
Meanwhile, the deadline to file or request an extension this year is April 18.
“Planning for the nation’s filing season process is a massive undertaking, and IRS teams have been working non-stop these past several months to prepare,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement.
“The pandemic continues to create challenges, but the IRS reminds people there are important steps they can take to help ensure their tax return and refund don’t face processing delays,” Rettig added.
Some of the steps Americans can take include filing electronically and receiving their refund via direct deposit, Rettig said, and he also urged those who received an Economic Impact Payment or advance Child Tax Credit last year to pay extra attention when filing to ensure all forms are accurate in order to avoid delays. The IRS said that people who received these tax credits for children or stimulus payments in 2021 will need the amounts of these payments when preparing their tax returns. The IRS is mailing letters to recipients and they can also check amounts received on the IRS website.
People can still file 2021 returns even if they are awaiting the processing of previous tax returns, the IRS added.
Finally, Rettig urged that filers “should make sure they report the correct amount on their tax return to avoid delays.”
The tax agency encouraged people to seek out online resources (such as information available on IRS.gov) before calling the IRS, saying that as a result of pandemic-era tax changes and challenges, the IRS phone systems received more than 145 million calls between Jan. 1 and May 17 of last year — representing over four times more calls than in an average year.
The IRS commissioner warned Americans to expect some snags or delays this year, saying the understaffed and underfunded agency is doing the best it can given the challenges of processing over 160 million individual tax returns.
“In many areas, we are unable to deliver the amount of service and enforcement that our taxpayers and tax system deserves and needs. This is frustrating for taxpayers, for IRS employees and for me,” Rettig stated. “IRS employees want to do more, and we will continue in 2022 to do everything possible with the resources available to us. And we will continue to look for ways to improve. We want to deliver as much as possible while also protecting the health and safety of our employees and taxpayers. Additional resources are essential to helping our employees do more in 2022 — and beyond.”
Overall, the IRS said it anticipates most taxpayers will receive their refunds within 21 days of when they file electronically — if they choose the direct deposit option and there are no issues with their return. The agency recommends against filing paper returns whenever possible to avoid delays and to get refunds faster, adding that the average refund last year was some $2,800.
The Old Fourth Ward neighborhood in Atlanta, Ga. – Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — When Michelle Lockhart was a teenager in Atlanta, she had to work two jobs — as a camp counselor and fast-food worker — to take care of her family.
She said her mother became disabled at that time due to a brain tumor, but it took months of cutting through red tape to qualify for desperately needed federal assistance.
If they had gotten more help then, “I could have focused on going to college and doing what people my age were doing: going to prom and enjoying their teen years,” Lockhart, now 41, told ABC News.
In the early months of this year, 650 Black women across Georgia — a demographic hit particularly hard by poverty — will get some of that help. Payments of $850 per month will roll out over the next two years in one of the biggest guaranteed income experiments in the country. Some participants in the $13 million initiative may receive lump sum payments totaling the same amount they would have received over two years. For now, the process of inviting and selecting participants is ongoing.
The program will run alongside Atlanta’s own basic income program which plans to serve about 300 residents that live below 200% of the federal poverty line. The initiative is currently working on making its first round of payments to the starting cohort of 25 participants, according to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ office.
Guaranteed income programs like these have seen a resurgence in recent years amid attempts to address racial and economic equality and reduce poverty. The scope can be either targeted or universal. They have had successes, but some critics say these initiatives have to be multifaceted to work and address the nuances of poverty. Others claim it will stop people from working (though the claim has been debunked) or be too expensive to maintain.
As a community advocate and member of the Old Fourth Ward Economic Security Task Force, Lockhart said many of her neighbors continue to experience similar hardships, despite working day and night in an effort to escape poverty. many of her neighbors continue to experience similar hardships, despite working day and night in an effort to escape poverty.
“Everybody’s on this hamster wheel,” Lockhart said. “They’re working two or three jobs … they’re working low wage jobs, but they’re still in poverty.”
Burden on communities of color
Black residents in Atlanta are more four times as likely to be living under the federal poverty line than their white neighbors, with 46% of Black households earning below $25,000 a year, according to recent research by the Old Fourth Ward Economic Security Task Force.
Some 38% of Black women and 26% of Black men in the city are living in poverty, compared to 8% of white women and 5% of white men in the same city, the task force reports.
“We’re working, we’re tired, we’re stressed,” Lockhart said. “With an extra $850 a month, people will be able to enjoy the sunlight and will be able to spend more time with their babies.”
Hope Wollensack, the executive director of the Georgia Resilience & Opportunity Fund, said the program is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is needed to address inequality.
“It’ll take a multifaceted approach — and probably many different policies — to even begin to address the racial wealth gap,” she said. “But we do know that stabilizing one’s income can be a powerful tool not only to improve one’s material circumstances in the short term and to improve quality of life and opportunities but also to enable individuals across the board to plan for the long term.”
The program, called “In Her Hands,” was shaped by discussions and surveys from community members that examined the causes of economic insecurity and wealth disparities in the city.
The project, run by the Georgia Resilience & Opportunity Fund, is an initiative from the Atlanta City Council, as well as the nonprofit cash assistance service GiveDirectly. It will begin rolling out in the Old Fourth Ward, the childhood neighborhood of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was a fierce advocate for universal basic income as a way of addressing racial wealth inequities.
“We have economic insecurity that is pervasive and it’s the result of decades of policies, if not more, that have made it harder for the majority of Americans to get ahead,” Wollensack said.
The ability to access quality education, transportation and higher-paying jobs, the burden of childcare or predatory debt — factors like these, Wollensack said, are also more likely to burden communities of color.
Poverty and food insecurity can impact a community’s physical and mental health, and is considered one “of the most serious and costly health problems,” according to the Food Research & Action Center, a national nonprofit research organization working to eradicate poverty.
‘Hard to budget from zero’
Cash assistance and guaranteed income have been repeatedly proven to be a major force against poverty, according to researchers at the Columbia University, Center on Poverty & Social Policy.
Past studies and research has shown evidence that basic income experiments improved the happiness and health of its recipients and appeared to affect crime rates in the regions where it was implemented.
The program won’t offer any financial literacy courses and advise how participants will use the money. Wollensack says that, in surveying and researching the community and its financial needs, people can be trusted to make the right choices using their resources, but don’t have a lot of resources to start with.
“It’s hard to budget from zero,” Wollensack said. “In fact, we’ve seen oftentimes community members with some of the fewest resources are the most resilient and resourceful.”
She added, “Instead of viewing communities that may have experienced cash shortfalls as a deficit, we actually know and believe that these communities were huge assets.”
Lockhart said she expects to see the effects of the income boost almost instantaneously.
She says that when the COVID-19 stimulus reached the bank accounts of Old Fourth Ward residents, she saw a mood shift among her neighbors. She says people were out and chatting with neighbors, engaging with neighborhood businesses — the weight of financial stress lessened for just a while.
“They want to get out and work. They want to start their own businesses. They want to spend more time with their children,” Lockhart said “This will help slow people down a little bit so that they can focus and center themselves and center their energy right.”
(NEW YORK) — Bank of America announced Tuesday that it will slash overdraft fees — the fines consumers pay when they make a purchase with their debit card but don’t have enough money in their account — from $35 to $10 starting this May.
The changes come in the wake of pressure from consumer advocacy groups that say these fees disproportionately impact vulnerable and low-income Americans.
A report released last month by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau found that overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees remain lucrative for banks, reaching an estimated $15.5 billion in 2019. The CFPB also said fewer than 9% of consumer accounts pay 10 or more overdrafts per year, accounting for close to 80% of all overdraft revenue.
Moreover, despite a drop in fees collected, the CFPB said “many of the fee harvesting practices persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In addition to reducing overdraft fees, Bank of America also announced Tuesday that it was entirely eliminating “non-sufficient funds fees,” or the charges for a rejected transaction or bounced check.
The bank, which has 66 million consumer and small business clients, said it will have reduced overdraft fees by 97% from 2009 levels with these new changes.
Other major financial institutions including JP Morgan Chase and Capital One have cut or eliminated these fees that can seemingly catch customers by surprise at times, when something they think they are purchasing for only a few dollars can end up being closer to $40.
“Rather than competing on quality service and attractive interest rates, many banks have become hooked on overdraft fees to feed their profit model” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement last month. “We will be taking action to restore meaningful competition to this market.”
Bank of America’s president of retail banking, Holly O’Neill, said the company has made significant changes to overdraft services over the last decade and now provides resources to help clients manage accounts.
“Throughout the process we have engaged our National Community Advisory Council (NCAC) for their guidance and feedback on our changes,” O’Neill said. “These latest steps will further support our clients and empower them to create long-term financial wellness.”
“We remain committed to taking actions that will further bring down overdraft fees in the future and continue to empower clients to drive positive changes to behavior pertaining to overdraft,” she added.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal judge in New York to halt a civil investigation into his business practices by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accusing her in a new court filing of weaponizing her office to carry out a “targeted attack against a political adversary.”
Trump sued James last month in federal court to block her investigation into how the Trump Organization valued its real estate holdings. He is now asking for a preliminary injunction while the outcome of his lawsuit is decided and for James to recuse herself from the civil investigation.
“Letitia James has displayed a shocking irreverence for her prosecutorial ethics and has routinely exploited her position to malign the former president by turning an unfounded investigation into a public spectacle,” Trump’s motion said. “In doing so, she has exposed the vindictive and self-serving nature of her actions.”
In response, James said this was merely a delay tactic by the former president.
“The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings. To be clear, neither Donald Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions,” James said in a statement. “Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.”
James recently subpoenaed two of Trump’s children, eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, and indicated in a court filing neither would cooperate.
The Trump Organization sought to vacate the subpoenas, arguing they were improperly issued while the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, with assistance from James’ office, conducts a parallel criminal investigation.
“The all too familiar subject areas identified in the document subpoenas include requests for information about valuations and appraisals of properties and assets of Plaintiffs. These matters have long been the subject of Defendant’s joint criminal investigation with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Defendant’s civil investigation dating back to 2019,” Trump’s motion said.
A sample of the new quarter coming out in 2022 that on the tail side will show images of poet Maya Angelou. – (U.S. Mint)
(WASHINGTON) — Americans will soon be seeing the face of the late Maya Angelou on U.S. quarters.
On Monday, the United States Mint announced it has begun shipping quarters featuring Angelou, the first of five trailblazing American women to be featured on quarters in 2022.
The new quarter, available in local banks starting in late January, depicts Angelou, an award-winning author and civil rights activist, with her arms uplifted, in front of a bird in flight and a rising sun, images that are “inspired by [Angelou’s] poetry and symbolic of the way she lived,” according to the Mint.
Angelou is now the first Black woman to appear on a U.S. quarter.
The heads side of the quarter featuring Angelou also marks a first, according to the Mint. It depicts a portrait of George Washington originally composed by Laura Gardin Fraser, described by the Mint as “one of the most prolific female sculptors of the early 20th century.”
Gardin Fraser’s portrait was a recommended design for the quarter in 1932, but was not chosen by the then-treasury secretary.
“Laura Gardin Fraser was the first woman to design a U.S. commemorative coin, and her work is lauded in both numismatic and artistic circles,” Mint Deputy Director Ventris C. Gibson said in a statement. “Ninety years after she intended for it to do so, her obverse design will fittingly take its place on the quarter.”
The designs are part of the American Women Quarters Program, a four year program featuring coins with reverse (tails) designs of women who have made their mark in American history.
For each year until 2025, the Mint will issue five quarters honoring individuals with a wide range of accomplishments and fields, including suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space and the arts.
In addition to Angelou, the women being featured this year include Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood; Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman to soar into space; Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and an activist for Native American and women’s rights; and Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools.
“Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic coin program,” Gibson said. “Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the series, used words to inspire and uplift.”
Angelou was the author of more than 30 bestselling titles, including her autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A teacher, poet and performer, in addition to her work as a writer and social activist, Angelou became the first African-American woman to write and present a poem at a Presidential inauguration when she read “On the Pulse of Morning” at then-President Bill Clinton’s 1992 inauguration, according to the Mint.
In 2010, Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Barack Obama.
(WASHINGTON) — Employers added a lackluster 199,000 jobs last month — significantly lower than economists’ expectations — and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9%, the Department of Labor said Friday.
Hiring in December was even less than the revised figure for the previous month, when 249,000 jobs were added to the economy in November. The stalled job growth comes as new coronavirus variants continue to sow uncertainty and threaten the post-pandemic economic recovery — though the data for December was collected in the earlier half of the month, before the full extent of omicron’s severity unfolded.
The unemployment rate remains heightened compared to the pre-pandemic 3.5% seen in February 2020, indicating the labor market recovery still lags nearly two years into the health crisis. As of last month, employment is up by 18.8 million jobs since the April 2020 low but still down by 3.6 million compared to February 2020.
December’s hiring data is also significantly less than 2021’s average job growth of 573,000 jobs per month seen during the past year.
The DOL said employment continued to trend upwards in the pandemic-clobbered leisure and hospitality sector (which gained 53,000 jobs last month), but employment in the industry is still down by 1.2 million jobs (or 7.2%) compared to February 2020.
Employment in professional and business services gained 43,000 jobs last month and notable job gains were also seen in manufacturing (where hiring rose by 26,000 in December).
Average hourly earnings, meanwhile, rose by 19 cents last month to $31.31 an hour. Economists have linked the rising wages to struggles major firms have reported in hiring in recent months and the new wave of workplace activism brought on by that trend. Just this week, the Labor Department separately reported that a record 4.5 million workers quit their jobs in November.
(NEW YORK) — In May 2020, as protests over the death of George Floyd raged across the country, federal security officer Dave Patrick Underwood was shot and killed while protecting the federal courthouse in Oakland, California.
The alleged shooter, Steven Carrillo, an active-duty Air Force staff sergeant, carried a ballistic vest with a patch that featured an igloo and a Hawaiian-style print that are both associated with the far-right anti-government boogaloo movement, according to the federal criminal complaint.
The criminal complaint also said Carrillo — who was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty — used his own blood to scrawl “boog” on the hood of a vehicle and met an accomplice online through a Facebook group centered on the boogaloo movement.
Now, Underwood’s sister, Angela, is suing Facebook in California Superior Court, alleging the company used its algorithms and group function to actively recruit members for far-right extremist groups and promote dangerous content. Her lawsuit also alleges Facebook ignored the foreseeable risk of violence in order to maximize profits and united Carrillo and his alleged accomplice — two people it says would otherwise have not known each other.
Promoting extremist activity, the lawsuit said, contributed to Underwood’s death.
“The shooting was not a random act of violence. It was the culmination of an extremist plot hatched and planned on Facebook by two men who Meta [Facebook’s new company name] connected through Facebook’s groups infrastructure and its use of algorithms designed and intended to increase user engagement and, correspondingly, Meta’s profits,” the civil complaint, filed in Alameda County, said.
“Facebook bears responsibility for the murder of my brother,” Angela Underwood Jacobs said in a statement. “Facebook knowingly promoted inflammatory and violent content and connected extremists who plotted and carried out the killing of my brother. Facebook must be held responsible for the harm it has caused not just my family, but so many others through its promotion of extremist content and by promoting algorithms to actively recruit members to its web platform.”
Her attorney, Ted Leopold, cited whistleblower testimony before Congress that accused Facebook of knowingly encouraging and promoting extremist content.
“We believe and intend to show that Facebook’s conduct has led to a rise in extremism throughout the world and acts of real-world violence, including the murder of Officer Underwood,” Leopold said.
Earlier this year, Facebook said it has taken measures to counter hate and extremism online.
And in testimony before Congress in March, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said “the vast majority of what people see on Facebook is neither political nor hateful” and that “we work hard to prevent abuse of our platform.”
“Facebook’s mission is to bring people together, and we stand firmly against hate and the incitement of violence,” Zuckerberg testified. “We have industry-leading policies that prohibit such content on our platforms, and we invest billions of dollars and work tirelessly to improve and enforce these policies.”
In June 2020, Facebook said it removed more than 200 accounts associated with a “violent US-based anti-government network” that “uses the term boogaloo but is distinct from the broader and loosely-affiliated boogaloo movement.”
“For months, we have removed boogaloo content when there is a clear connection to violence or a credible threat to public safety, and today’s designation will mean we remove more content going forward, including Facebook Groups and Pages,” the statement said.
In Boogaloo Facebook groups, the suspect, Carrillo, mused about taking advantage of protests to stir up unrest and violence against police, according to the civil complaint which quoted his post: “Go to the riots and support our own cause. Show them the real targets. Use their anger to fuel our fire. Think outside the box. We have mobs of angry people to use to our advantage.”
Carrillo believed that the Boogaloo, or second civil war, was “kicking off now and if its not kicking off in your hood then start it,” according to the civil complaint.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Two tickets sold in California and Wisconsin were the lucky winners of the Powerball jackpot on Wednesday night.
Both tickets matched all six numbers in Powerball’s drawing and the winners will split the $632.6 million jackpot — the seventh largest in the American lottery game’s history. The grand prize had climbed beyond earlier estimates of $630 million due to “strong ticket sales,” according to a press release from Powerball.
Each of the winning tickets is worth an annuitized $316.3 million or $225.1 million cash. Both prize options are prior to taxes, according to Powerball.
The winning California ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Sacramento, according to the California State Lottery.
Wednesday night’s drawing was the 40th in the Powerball jackpot run, according to Powerball. The winning numbers were 6, 14, 25, 33, 46 and the Powerball was 17.
The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot was on Oct. 4, 2021, when a single ticket sold in California matched the winning numbers for the $699.8 million grand prize.
According to Powerball, the overall odds of winning a prize are one in 24.9, while the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million. To date, Powerball holds the world record for largest jackpot. The record $1.586 billion grand prize was shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in 2016.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Major retailers have increased the price of at-home COVID-19 tests now that an agreement with the White House to sell them at a fixed price has expired.
In September, Walmart, Kroger and Amazon agreed to sell the two-pack boxes of at-home rapid antigen tests for $14 for three months amid a surge in positive cases with the delta and omicron variants. The agreement has since expired, according to a White House official.
Walmart is now charging $19.88 per box, where available, and Kroger has raised the price to $23.99. The brand is currently unavailable on Amazon’s website.
Despite the price hike, the at-home tests remain sold out — both online and in stores across the country
When asked Wednesday whether the Biden administration is currently in talks with retailers to bring the price of the tests back down, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to say.
“I can’t give you an update on any conversations,” Psaki said.
Instead, she pointed to other steps the administration is taking to make tests more available, including purchasing 500 million tests to distribute to Americans for free and requiring insurance companies to reimburse Americans for the tests starting next week.
The government will begin to receive the tests later this month and will then distribute them free of charge, Psaki told reporters on Tuesday, adding that she does not “have an update” on how long it will take to send out all 500 million tests and whether the distribution will occur over a certain period of time.
ABC News’ Mike Hernandez and Elliot Rubin contributed to this report.
