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President Trump told Kevin Warsh to be “totally independent” as he swore him in as chairman of the Federal Reserve in front of a who’s who of Washington conservatives at the White House.

Mr. Trump’s insistence on independence was notable after he repeatedly cajoled the most recent Fed chair, Jerome Powell, to cut interest rates.

“I want him to be independent and just do a great job,” Mr. Trump said Friday in the East Room. “Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody. Just do your own thing and do a great job.”

At the same time, Mr. Trump said he doesn’t want the Fed to impede growth, a not-so-subtle reference to his desire to cut interest rates even as some central bankers fret over rising inflation.

“We don’t want to see it stifled,” Mr. Trump said as Mr. Warsh stood a few feet away. “We want to stop inflation, but we don’t want to stop greatness.”

Mr. Warsh, 56, is taking over the central bank at a complex time.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department said the consumer price index — a key measure of inflation — rose 3.8%, year over year, in April. It was the biggest increase in three years.

The reading was well above the Fed target rate of 2%.

The war with Iran sent energy prices soaring, and central bankers were already skittish about inflation due to Mr. Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods.

The Fed has a dual mandate to maintain maximum employment and keep prices stable. It kept interest rates steady this year after implementing three small cuts in late 2025 to help a sluggish labor market.

With Mr. Trump pushing for cuts, Mr. Warsh and the Fed could face thorny decisions, given persistently high prices.

Mr. Warsh did not signal any promises on rates, though he signaled he shared Mr. Trump’s optimism about growth.

“While I’m not naive about the challenges we face, I believe, Mr. President, these years can bring unmatched prosperity that will raise living standards for Americans from all walks of life, and the Fed has something to do with it,” Mr. Warsh said. “Inflation can be lower, growth stronger, real take-home pay higher and America can be more prosperous.”

Mr. Warsh is a former Fed governor who served from 2006 to 2011. He was a key liaison between the Fed and Wall Street during the financial crisis of 2008-09.

“He’s got abilities that very few people have,” Mr. Trump said in front of a White House crowd of conservative VIPs, including congressional leaders, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett M. Kavanaugh, and returnees such as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former Vice President Dan Quayle.

Justice Thomas delivered the oath of office to Mr. Warsh, who called the role a “great honor” and thanked congressional leaders who guided him to confirmation.

“With this oath, I have accepted a high and solemn responsibility,” Mr. Warsh said.

He’s assuming the chair after Mr. Powell’s term ended in mid-May.

Mr. Powell faced frequent personal attacks from the president and a criminal inquiry over cost overruns with the Fed building renovation. Prosecutors transferred the investigation to an inspector general after courts and some Republican lawmakers said the inquiry appeared to be a pretext to harass the chairman.

The Senate confirmed Mr. Warsh on May 13 in a 54-45 vote.

Only one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, crossed the aisle to support the nominee, with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren warning that Mr. Warsh would be a “sock puppet” who did Mr. Trump’s bidding.

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Nearly five years after a controversial state civil rights law took effect, local government leaders say their initial fears about the potential costs of the legislation have been borne out.

The New Mexico Civil Rights Act, enacted in July 2021, created a right to sue state and local government entities under the New Mexico Constitution for civil rights violations. It also removed a doctrine known as qualified immunity, which shielded public officials, including law enforcement officers, from liability.

New Mexico was only the second state to pass such a law, following Colorado in 2020. Under New Mexico’s law, only a public body can be sued — not an individual employee.

Designed to provide an avenue for New Mexicans to hold government entities accountable for civil rights violations, the law faced early concern that higher payout caps — now $2.4 million — would drive up liability insurance costs for local governments and state agencies.

New Mexico Counties, an organization that runs the self-insurance pool the majority of counties pay into, says that’s what has happened since the Civil Rights Act took effect — in some cases doubling premiums. The group plans to push for changes to the law next year. Advocates for the law, meanwhile, argue there is no data showing it directly led to insurance cost hikes. They also say counties should be doing more to prevent civil rights lawsuits instead of seeking to roll back the law.

Laura Ives, a civil rights attorney who advocated for the law, said the state should be “enhancing” civil rights protections rather than paring them down, particularly, she said, because certain protections at the federal level are being diminished under the Trump administration.

“I want to be clear. We’re talking about instances where law enforcement has purposefully killed somebody unjustifiably or raped somebody, and the thing to do is to prevent law enforcement officers from doing that in the first instance, and direct efforts at training them, holding them accountable, having good policies,” Ives said. “Not misleading the public as to what has supposedly been paid out under this act, because they don’t have any evidence of that.”

‘The escalating cost’

While the overall number of civil rights claims against counties has stayed roughly the same since the law was enacted, settlement amounts have increased dramatically, said Grace Philips, risk management director at New Mexico Counties. Many of the civil rights claims against counties are related to law enforcement, she said.

Counties’ contributions to the insurance pool covering law enforcement claims more than doubled between 2020 and 2026, rising from $16.6 million to $34.4 million, she said.

Philips provided data showing the cost of law enforcement claims against counties participating in the New Mexico County Insurance Authority pool increased from $10.9 million in 2020 to $20.7 million in 2021 and $32.6 million in 2022.

Lawsuits involving cases in more recent years are still being developed, but Philips said the trend has continued.

There isn’t data on how many claims under the Civil Rights Act have been settled since the law went into effect, or for how much money. Philips said a list of claims is confidential.

Records requested from counties under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act were not immediately provided.

“People who are hurt deserve fair compensation, and we recognize that,” Philips said. “The challenge, I think, for the policymakers in the Legislature is how to balance that very important need with the equally important expectation that government serves all citizens, and that, in my case, the counties who are on the ground providing the essential safety services are sufficiently solvent to continue to do that.”

Prior to the Civil Rights Act, plaintiffs could sue under a federal civil rights law called Section 1983, which provides uncapped damages but offers qualified immunity as a defense.

For cases involving government negligence, New Mexicans could — and still can — sue under the state Tort Claims Act, which is capped, depending on the type of claim, at up to $750,000.

Claims under the Civil Rights Act are capped at $2.4 million and will go up to $2.5 million in July; the cap is adjusted annually for inflation. Attorney’s fees can be covered, too. The maximum the county self-insurance pool can cover is $2 million, Philips said, meaning a county would have to come up with the difference for a settlement above $2 million, although that hasn’t happened before.

The costs could eat into local governments’ budgets, she said: “The concern is that the escalating cap and the escalating cost of getting even the coverage that they have is going to prevent counties from providing essential services.”

She added, “We don’t think the sponsors intended to compromise essential public services, but the reality is, the escalation in cost is unsustainable.”

Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson said the diversion of public funds to insurance costs could ultimately make it harder for his county to provide basic services and adequate staffing.

“The number of cases have not gone up, but the awards have significantly skyrocketed because they’re suing under a much more lucrative law,” Johnson said.

‘Investments in training’

Advocates doubt the law is driving the rise in insurance costs.

When a task force examined legislation proposing the law in 2020, its members said in a report public entities hadn’t provided a clear projection of insurance costs and called the predictions “speculative doomsday scenarios that never will come to pass.” Advocates still say that’s the case.

“This conversation about only looking at insurance premiums is ignoring the whole reason that the Civil Rights Act was passed in the first place,” attorney Brian Egolf said, “which is we wanted to give everyday New Mexicans the ability to vindicate their rights under the New Mexico Bill of Rights, and to do it in state court closer to home.”

Egolf, a former state House speaker who co-sponsored the bill in 2021 and represents plaintiffs in civil rights lawsuits, noted the law “has been used across the board. It’s not just police cases; it’s been used to vindicate the rights of individuals to speak freely.”

He added, “The bigger overarching principle here is that counties and municipalities in the state would do much better if they would make appropriate investments in training, appropriate investments in oversight of their employees.”

Curry County Manager Lance Pyle, who is on the board of the counties’ insurance pool, said his county is doing “everything we can” to reduce civil rights lawsuits.

“The reality is that we have to ask ourselves whether we can afford to continue to invest in sometimes costly loss prevention services while simultaneously asking our members to pay more,” he said.

State agencies also have said their increasing insurance rates are a result of the Civil Rights Act, though the law’s proponents say there, too, the data on payouts and causation isn’t yet available.

‘Fiscal responsibility’

Some see revisiting the Civil Rights Act as a hot-button issue for upcoming legislative sessions.

State Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, earlier this year proposed legislation that would have amended the Civil Rights Act to reduce the cap on damages, introduce qualified immunity when the public body had a good faith belief the conduct didn’t violate the law, and clarify state claims arising from the same event can only be recovered under one state law.

The county organization supported the legislation.

Local governments have said claims arising from the same event are often brought under both the Civil Rights Act and Tort Claims Act, exposing them to greater liability.

Muñoz said his bill “had some issues last year,” but he’ll consider proposing legislation to amend the Civil Rights Act in the coming session.

“It really takes a couple years to get big stuff through,” he said.

The issue is “part of fiscal responsibility for the state,” he said. “We have to figure out what things are working.”

Philips said bringing claims under both the Tort Claims Act and the Civil Rights Act increases the amount counties can be required to pay out in a civil case. Several recent cases include claims under both laws:

* A complaint

* filed against the state earlier this month by the family of a Taos boy who died by suicide at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge; the family alleges the state failed to address known safety hazards.

* A complaint

* filed against the city of Santa Fe in March by members of a family caught up in a 2024 police chase and fatal shooting.

* A complaint

* filed in February against the city of Deming and state Department of Public Safety over allegations a former police officer assaulted a girl.

‘Remarkable stability’

A law review article published earlier this year by leading scholars nationally, studying the impact of qualified immunity changes in Colorado and New Mexico against two states with no similar laws, found “remarkable stability” in law enforcement payouts and insurance premiums in Colorado and New Mexico.

The authors surveyed law enforcement agencies in the state regarding data between 2017 and 2023, and had a 55% response rate for information from New Mexico agencies on insurance premiums and judgments paid.

Philips disputed the study, calling the county-provided data more comprehensive, including more of the counties over a longer period of time.

Alex Reinert, a law professor at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, who co-authored the article, wrote in an email any study of the effects of the law should compare New Mexico to other states.

Both Reinert and co-author Joanna Schwartz, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said more rigorous data is needed than the county-level data provided to The New Mexican to prove counties’ concerns.

The challenge, Reinert said, is “discerning whether changes in exposure to litigation risk and cost are driven by changes to the underlying legal regime or other changes that might also affect litigation risk and cost. Just looking at one state in isolation probably is not enough to help evaluate the impact of legislation like the NMCRA.”

He added, “One should not lose sight of another perspective — which is that if the data suggest that the NMCRA is making it easier for people to vindicate their constitutional rights, law enforcement agencies should be responding by trying to minimize rights violations.”

© 2026 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.). Visit www.santafenewmexican.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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(The Hill) — Kevin Warsh will face a political and economic obstacle course upon taking the helm of the Federal Reserve later this week.

President Donald Trump held a swearing-in ceremony on Friday for Warsh, who became chair of the Fed board, taking over the central bank at a pivotal time for the U.S. economy.

After years of raging against outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Trump made clear before Warsh’s nomination that he would only consider candidates he could trust to cut interest rates.

Spiking inflation and divides among Fed officials, however, could make it impossible for Warsh to appease the president while fulfilling his duties as Fed chair.

“Kevin Warsh is about to begin his tenure as Federal Reserve chair with what some believe is a mandate from the president to cut rates,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM.

“But the recent rise in market-based breakeven inflation rates strongly implies that Warsh and the [Federal Open Market Committee] will have to prepare for the chance that inflation will continue to rise and that the Fed will have to shift its policy.”

Here are the major obstacles Warsh faces upon taking office.

Trump’s political pressure

Looming over any shift in the economic or financial sector facing the Fed is Trump’s clear insistence that U.S. interest rates should already be lower.

The Fed’s refusal to zero out interest rates during most of Trump’s first term was the president’s primary gripe with Powell, a Republican whom Trump nominated to chair the Fed in 2017.

Despite Trump’s previous comments, Warsh insisted that the president did not ask him to commit to cutting rates and pledged to make decisions based on the state of the economy.

Trump also waved off concerns about his potential pressure earlier this week, telling reporters that Warsh would be allowed to “do what he wants to do.”

“He’s a very talented guy,” Trump said. “He’s going to be fine. He’s going to do a good job.”

Trump’s latest remarks, however, are out of line with his previous commitments to picking a Fed chief who would slash rates.

When teasing his upcoming Fed chair nomination in December, Trump said his pick would be “someone who believes in lower interest rates, by a lot.”

Trump also said in April that he would be disappointed in Warsh if the Fed did not cut interest rates immediately upon his taking office.

“We should have the lowest interest rate in the world,” Trump said in an April interview with CNBC.

Iran inflation spike

Trump’s desire for lower interest rates is unlikely to be satisfied as the war in Iran pushes prices even higher.

The annual inflation rate surged to 3.8 percent in April, as measured by the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI), hitting the highest level in three years. Producer prices also rose in April at the fastest rate in nearly three years, deepening concerns about inflation.

Warsh has suggested that much of the Iran-driven inflation surge is from temporary increases in fuel and food costs that would reverse whenever the conflict eases. Top administration officials have also insisted that prices would begin to fall once the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.

But with no end to the conflict in sight, the Fed will likely be forced to hold steady with rates, if not raise them, for the foreseeable future.

“These hotter-than-expected inflation reports leave the incoming chair facing renewed questions around price stability and the timing of any policy easing,” wrote Christian Floro, market strategist at Principal Asset Management.

“For investors, the risk is rising that it will be 2027 before they see any further policy easing from the Fed.”

Smaller workforce, higher tariffs

Before the Iran war broke out in February, the Fed was attempting to understand how to manage an economy with a much smaller workforce and higher import taxes.

Trump’s steep cuts to immigration and increases in deportations helped take more than 600,000 people out of the U.S. labor force over the past year, according to Labor Department data.

Job gains have also fallen sharply since Trump took office in January 2025, with little net increase during his second administration.

The simultaneous declines in job seekers and open jobs helped keep unemployment from surging during the second Trump administration, with just a 0.3 percentage point increase since the start of Trump’s latest term.

“The job market, to my eye, has been pretty stable. It might not be good, but it has been stable. And the inflation has not been stable,” said Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in a Monday interview on Fox Business Network.

Goolsbee added that inflation appeared to be rising in areas not necessarily connected to the Iran war, complicating the picture even further for Warsh.

“Namely, services inflation is high and rising, and that’s probably not coming from oil. It’s probably not coming from tariffs,” Goolsbee said. “There are going to be a lot of things on the radar screen, and we could use some guidance here from the chair.”

Divides among Fed officials

The economy is not the only unprecedentedly complicated challenge Warsh will face Friday.

Warsh is inheriting control of a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) that has been unusually polarized over the past two years.

As chair of the FOMC, Warsh is the leader of the Fed’s key interest rate-setting panel and wields significant influence over its discussions about the economy. But Warsh is but one of 12 votes on monetary policy, meaning he must be able to drive consensus among other members to achieve his preferred outcomes.

Doing so has been even harder in recent months. The FOMC voted to keep rates steady in May by an 8-4 vote, the first time since 1992 that more than three officials opposed a rate move.

“We doubt that Fed Chair Warsh can deliver President Trump’s desired rate cuts if incoming data are not supportive,” wrote Steve Englander and John Davies, strategists at Standard Chartered Bank, in a research note.

“He can limit or delay FOMC hikes, though not indefinitely if the data point to rising inflation.”

Legal battles

Warsh will also lead the Fed as it faces several legal challenges brought by the Trump administration, including the apparent winding-down of the criminal probe into Powell.

The Fed is also bracing for the Supreme Court’s ruling on whether the White House was allowed to fire Fed board member Lisa Cook, a decision with serious implications for Fed independence.

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Question: We have a flood insurance policy underwritten by FEMA coming up for renewal and we suspect with a large increase in premium. We have been fortunate in having no flood damage. It provides only about half the value of our home and the amount cannot be increased. The deductibles are large. It appears that FEMA pays whether there is insurance or not and those without insurance have no deductible. Is there any reason to continue buying flood insurance?

Answer: Yes, and you are mistaken about Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster grants, which are only for uninsured losses; FEMA can’t duplicate benefits. When losses exceed a claimant’s flood insurance coverage, FEMA can help cover the gap, and it also may pay costs that insurance won’t.

In fiscal year 2025, FEMA’s maximum grant amounts were $43,600 for Housing Assistance and $43,600 for Other Needs Assistance, or a total of $87,200 for a claimant eligible for each maximum, according to its website. This funding is available to eligible Hawaii residents affected by the Kona-low flooding that occurred March 10-24. The deadline to apply is June 14. For details, go to and click on “Kona Low Storms Disaster Recovery.”

By contrast, a standard residential flood policy issued through the National Flood Insurance Program, which is managed by FEMA, provides greater coverage for customers who purchase the maximum amount, which it sounds like you have. A NFIP policy can cover up to $250,000 in flood damage to your home (structure) and up to $100,000 for your belongings (possessions inside the home). Read more at .

FEMA grants are meant to help make a damaged home safe and livable, not restore it to its former glory, while insurance coverage is meant to repair, rebuild or replace a damaged home and its contents. In either case, damage must be verified; maximum payments are not automatic.

As for why to consider buying flood insurance, most standard homeowners insurance policies don’t cover flood damage and plenty of damaging events don’t generate a presidential declaration, which is required for FEMA to issue disaster aid. An individual flood insurance policy can be in force regardless of whether damage rises to the level of a major regional disaster.

As hurricane season looms, with the possibility of five to 13 named storms and tropical depressions making the forecast worse than usual, state officials are urging Hawaii residents to review their insurance and supplement as needed; read policies carefully to understand what is and is not covered.

“Many consumers may not realize that most standard homeowners and renters insurance policies do not cover hurricane and flood damage. Hurricane insurance must be purchased separately or added as an endorsement onto the existing policy to ensure protection against hurricane-related damage. Damage caused by floods is also usually covered under a separate policy. Since flooding can occur anytime and anywhere, even outside high-risk areas, it is important for property owners to consider adding flood insurance coverage. Those planning to purchase a National Flood Insurance Program policy should plan ahead, as there is typically a 30-day waiting period before coverage takes effect,” according to a news release from Hawaii’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Q: Will there be free buses to the Memorial Day ceremony at Punchbowl? If yes, how do we access?

A: There will be free shuttles from two nearby schools, but if you are asking about TheBus, no, it won’t be free. Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation described the following transportation options for Monday’s ceremony, which is free, open to the public and will start at 8:30 a.m. at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific:

>> For people who intend to drive themselves, know that parking at Punchbowl will be extremely limited. Additional public parking will be available at Lincoln Elementary School and Stevenson Middle School. Parking at all three locations will open at 7 a.m. Courtesy shuttles will run from the two schools to Punchbowl, and back after the ceremony ends.

>> Public parking also will be available at the Civic Center Parking Structure, with special TheBus Route 123 service from nearby Alapa‘i Transit Center to Punchbowl. Parking will be free but regular bus fares will apply. The first bus from Alapa‘i Transit Center will depart at 7 a.m., with three more trips to Punchbowl leaving every 20 minutes. The final bus will depart at 8 a.m. Return trips to the transit center will begin as soon as the ceremony ends.

>> TheHandi-Van passengers with reservations will be dropped off at Punchbowl and picked up after the ceremony.

>> Private vehicles, taxis and ride-share companies can drop off and pick up passengers at Punchbowl.

>> Carpooling, public transportation and use of the school park-and-rides is encouraged to reduce traffic congestion at Punchbowl.

>> No tour buses will be allowed within the cemetery grounds before noon on Memorial Day.

>> People who plan to visit Punchbowl on Memorial Day but who are not planning to attend the public ceremony are encouraged to arrive after noon Monday to avoid ceremony traffic.

Mahalo

Mahalo to the bus driver driving to Kahala Mall about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday who passed my stop just far enough so I could avoid a yelling, pacing man when I got off. The driver was thoughtful! — From a very senior kupuna

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email .

© 2026 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Visit www.staradvertiser.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.

That’s the secret sauce for California home prices.

Far too often, housing analysis ignores job creation. Yet the importance of employment to homebuying math is fairly simple to me: If you don’t have a paycheck, or you’re just worried that your household’s current income stream is in jeopardy, you’re not buying a house.

To prove my point, the trusty spreadsheet looked at California job growth dating to 1990, using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and compared that with Golden State home values, as measured by a Federal Housing Finance Agency price index. These years were ranked by the pace of job creation and sliced into three groups.

First, think about the slice covering the boom years. The 12 years with the fastest employment growth saw bosses statewide increase staffing at an average rate of 3% per year. In those same years, California home prices averaged 8% annual gains.

Now, contrast those upswings with the weakest job markets.

Over those 12 slump years, bosses were shrinking their workforces at an average rate of 1% per year. Meanwhile, home prices also fell by an average 1%.

That’s a fairly stark lesson that paychecks matter to home prices.

Face the nation

Let me assure you, these jobs versus home prices patterns are not just a California quirk.

Let’s ponder similar results on a nationwide scale.

Peek at the 12 best years for U.S. job growth, years when employment expanded at an average 3% annual clip. In the same period, home prices rose by 6% yearly.

Yet in the worst years for employment creation since 1990 – periods averaging 1% job losses – home prices increased by just an average 2%.

Look, job creation is a decent yardstick for housing demand. Not all jobs lead to buying a home, but a steady salary is a start.

One caveat is the oddly painful relationship between jobs and home prices for anyone seeking a housing bargain. Home values have a habit of falling just when your job security may be dipping, too.

Listing losses

The recent steep drop in home appreciation – in California and across the nation – came as the number of homes on the market jumped in most states.

Many real estate gurus see swings in listings as a key predictor of price moves. By that logic, last year’s added supply meant buyers didn’t have to be very aggressive in their bidding.

To see if that thesis adds up, my trusty spreadsheet compared those federal price indexes with listings data from Realtor.com, tracking 2025’s changes relative to the previous six years across the 50 states and the nation.

First, contemplate the stiff appreciation chill.

California’s gains in home prices shrank 73% – that’s a 1.9% increase last year versus averaging 7.2% increases throughout 2019 to 2024. That was the sixth-biggest decrease among the states.

U.S. price gains ran 3.9% in 2025 versus an average 9.3% annually during 2019-24. That’s a 58% slowdown.

This cooling was widespread as only North Dakota had a 2025 price increase exceeding its 2019-24 average appreciation pace.

For sale surge

Next, ponder a widespread surge in listings.

Nationally, there were 33% more homes for sale last year than what was typically on the market in 2019-24.

California house hunters were among 39 states with more listings to choose from – up 36% versus 2019-24 – the 18th-largest increase.

Think about the linkage between prices and listings when the states are ranked by their appreciation chill.

The 17 states with the steepest shrinkage in gains saw declines average 70% to 2.8% in 2025, down from 9.3% annually in 2019-24. In those states, the combined number of homes for sale grew by 58%.

Contrast those patterns with the 17 states with the smallest dip in appreciation: an average 27% drop with 5.6% increases last year, down from 7.7% in 2019-24. Listings collectively fell by only 7%.

More options, weaker pricing.

A housing however

To my eyes, there’s a “but” in here.

Consider the state results when they’re reranked by the change in listings, 2025 versus the previous six years.

Intriguing questions arise when job creation enters the equation. You need a reliable paycheck to have the nerve to buy.

In the 17 states with the biggest rush to sell – a combined 61% more listings – job growth ran 63% below average last year.

Then peek at the 17 states at the opposite end of the listing-change spectrum. They had only 12% more homes on the market while job creation slowed by just 16%.

Did wobbly job markets nudge some homeowners to put their homes on the market, and/or were increased job security fears making house hunters thriftier with what they’d pay?

Mortgage matters

Why is everyone from the White House to Main Street rooting for lower mortgage rates?

Sure, individually speaking, cheaper financing improves a person’s ability to buy goods – including a home. That’s why people like President Donald Trump and numerous house hunters want the Federal Reserve to do what it can to nudge rates lower.

But history reveals a dark side to sliding rates: They typically come when the overall economy is suffering.

My trusty spreadsheet looked back to 1990 to see how annual swings in the 30-year mortgage rate, as tracked by Freddie Mac, meshed with federal home-price indexes and job counts.

When you rank the years by the change in mortgage rates and slice them into three groups, you see how mediocre the economy runs when rates are declining.

During the 12 years when mortgage rates had their biggest dips since 1990, these years had an average rate slide of 0.8 percentage point.

The big rate drops came as home-price gains averaged only 3% in California and nationwide.

Why so modest? Well, jobs — key to a house hunter’s willingness to buy — were falling at a 0.6% annual rate across California and 0.2% nationwide as rates tumbled.

Now compare those sour days with surging mortgage rates.

The 12 years when mortgages saw their biggest jumps saw rates average a 0.7 percentage point increase.

In those years, California home prices jumped an average 10%. The nation saw 7% gains.

Again, eyeball employment.

Large rate hikes came as California bosses were boosting staffing at a 2.4% annual rate. Nationally, these same years saw 2.1% job growth.

When times are good and hiring is plentiful, folks are willing to pay up for many things — including housing and financing.

But when times are bad, and job cuts are frequent, folks need financing discounts. Falling mortgage rates signal economic distress.

Hopefully, the Fed’s next chairman understands this history lesson.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com.

©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit ocregister.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Are you tired yet of hearing state after state across the country getting exposed for the massive Medicaid and Medicare fraud? When and where will it stop? By all accounts, it won’t be anytime soon.

Let’s start with Minnesota. According to reports thus far, the state government under the leadership of failed Gov. Tim Walz allowed at least $9 billion go out to unvetted agencies and individuals with no accountability at all. More may be coming once the federal investigators get through. Recent reporting indicated “three individuals in the largest Medicaid fraud case in state history totaling nearly $11 million, linked to fictitious claims in home health care and personal care assistance.” Yes, that’s only three people that were allowed to bilk taxpayers for that insane amount.

Staying in the Midwest in neighboring Illinois, they have been hit with massive billions as well. There were 13 individuals charged in July 2025 “for schemes billing more than $1.83 billion to government programs (including Medicaid and Medicare) and private insurers.” That’s just as bad as Kamala Harris and her presidential campaign. In just over three months as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after she did not get a single vote in any primary, she blew through $1 billion — in three months — and still wound up $20 million in debt. She couldn’t even manage a campaign, can you imagine the state of our economy and the additional burden on taxpayers had she been elected?

And we certainly cannot ignore the People’s Republic of California. The Democrat party control over the state and local government, with Gov. Gavin Newsom leading the pack, have destroyed the Golden State in practically every area other than weather. The numbers there are absolutely mind-blowing, and investigators are just beginning. Just as bad as Newsom is at the state level, L.A. mayor Karen Bass is running for re-election after she ran off to an African wedding while the city burned. The city has a huge homeless population that has cost taxpayers more billions. She said meth users currently living on the streets will get new teeth so they can apply for jobs and get work. Why not take the meth away? Oh yeah, that makes too much sense for obvious reasons.

Federal reports and news outlets have claimed that the Medi-Cal system could be as high as $146 billion per year. I don’t understand how California voters just keep the corruption in perpetual motion.

We’re not immune here in North Carolina. Just 3 months ago, “four individuals were sentenced for a $12.7 million Medicaid fraud scheme.” Let’s remember it was under the Gov. Roy Cooper tenure that Medicaid was expanded in 2023. Cooper is just as guilty in the fraud department as Waltz is in Minnesota. That begs the question why was there not a thorough review of our Medicaid department to identify fraud and waste before expanding? No doubt there is much abuse of taxpayer money going on in Raleigh, but no one is cleaning it up. It goes without saying our Democrat governor, Josh Stein, is having to “…grapple with a $300 million Medicaid shortfall…” See a tax hike in your future?

With all the noise going on around us, it seems more local and state officials would rather impose a tax here, a tax there just to keep feeding the cash cow. Stop everything and have internal and external investigations to eliminate all of the waste, fraud and abuse. The money saved would probably trigger some tax decreases, if the truth be known. Taxpayers are owed that at the very minimum.

Floyd Prophet lives in Kannapolis.

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Sandra Reed

Guest columnist

Life Care Planning

Betty, an 81-year-old widow, owns multiple properties worth $1 million, liquid assets, including stocks, bonds and cash worth $2 million, a a long-term care insurance policy for four years of care up to $126,000/year.

Her monthly income from social security and distributions from her IRA is $4,600. She recently had a stroke and daughter, Monica, wants to apply for Medicaid for her mother to protect her inheritance. Are there any planning strategies that could make this possible?

Can Planning Strategies Allow Betty to Qualify for Medicaid?

The simple answer to this question is “No,” according to some elder law lawyers responding to a posed similar scenario.

Betty could meet the income requirement even though her income is above the monthly allowable amount of $2.982 for a single person by establishment of a Qualified Income Trust, often called a Miller Trust. The applicant’s income is deposited into an account from which the nursing home is paid with the applicant allowed to retain $75 a month for incidentals.

However, Betty’s assets far exceed the countable assets limit allowed for a single person.

Can Persons with More than $2,000 in Assets Qualify for Medicaid?

Persons with more than $2,000 countable assets can qualify for Medicaid. The operative word here is “countable” as only countable resources are subject to the limitation.

Noncountable assets include a homestead worth up to $752,000 in 2026. The value of other properties are countable. Betty has multiple properties, so even if her homestead was exempt, these disqualify her.

An IRA of any amount in payout status (meaning Required Minimum Distributions are being made) is a noncountable assets in Texas. Since Betty is taking RMDs, her IRA isn’t a countable asset. Betty’s problem is that her $2 million non-IRA assets are countable.

Planning Strategies Available to Reduce Assets for Medicaid Qualification

Strategies for persons to preserve otherwise countable assets exist. One strategy is gifting, either outright or through an irrevocable trust.

The trick is that Medicaid looks back five years prior to an application and counts any gifts made during the period are countable subject to a formula that delays qualification. With large gifts, the delay becomes so long it essentially equals disqualification.

Thus, strategic gifting works when individuals are healthy enough not to need long-term care for at least five years after the gifts are made. In Betty’s case, she has had a stroke and needs care now.

Betty can rely on her insurance four years of care up to its limits, private paying for any overage. Following that, she must use her own assets to pay for all her care.

Sandra W. Reed practices Elder Law in Somervell County, which includes probating of estates, drafting of wills, trusts, powers of attorney and deeds as well as estate and Medicaid Planning. She lives on beautiful Chalk Mountain and can be reached at 817.946.2809 or at sreed1247@gmail.com.

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PacificSource Health Plans, one of Montana’s three primary health insurance providers, will cease its Montana operations and exit the marketplace by the end of the year.

“PacificSource is making difficult decisions to ensure we can continue fulfilling our mission and serving members for the long term amid growing pressures across the healthcare industry,” company spokesperson Amber Conger confirmed to the Daily Montanan on May 21. “This includes exiting the individual market, as well as the state of Montana.”

The health insurance company has operated in Montana since 2012, providing individual, small and large group, ASO and Medicare Advantage health plans, and is contracted with more than 90% of providers in the state, according to the company.

According to information provided to the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, PacificSource counts approximately 11,000 individual health members, 15,000 small group members, 4,500 large group members, and 1,100 Medicare Advantage members in Montana, and serves as a third-party administrator for thousands of others.

A spokesperson for the Commissioner’s office said the company informed the state of its decision earlier this week.

“Anytime a health insurance provider pulls out of the Montana market, consumers are impacted,” Spokesperson Ethan Holmes said in an email to the Daily Montanan. “They’re forced to shop for new plans, and with less options in the market, may have to choose one that doesn’t serve their needs as well.”

The Springfield, Oregon-based company cited headwinds across the healthcare industry as the reason for shrinking its footprint.

“These are not decisions made lightly. We know they will affect people’s coverage and livelihoods, and we recognize the real impact on the individuals and communities we serve,” Conger said. “The reality is the healthcare system is unsustainable: Costs continue to rise, access is inconsistent, and the experience often falls short of what people need and deserve. These are not abstract problems. They directly affect PacificSource’s ability to continue delivering reliable, high-quality coverage to the people who count on us.”

Rising healthcare costs have been a major talking point for years, especially last fall when federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans were set to expire.

Rally attendees hold signs at a rally in support of reauthorizing Medicaid expansion at the Montana State Capitol on Jan. 15, 2025. (Micah Drew/Daily Montanan)

Individual marketplace plans in Montana increased for 2026 through all providers, with PacificSource asking for a roughly 12% increase; though the state’s other insurers, Mountain Health Co-Op and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana, the largest, requested significantly higher increases for plans purchased through the federal marketplace.

PacificSource largely withdrew from the state of Washington in 2024, but will continue to operate in Idaho and Oregon, but the company has recently reduced operations in those markets as well.

In Oregon, the Willamette Week reported last October that PacificSource was planning to layoff 381 people — roughly one-fifth of its employees.

The company partially withdrew from that state’s Medicaid system, affecting around 20,000 members in the Portland area, and ended a Medicaid contract with the state covering around 90,000 members in Lane County.

PacificSource will continue its individual plans in Montana through Dec. 31, 2026.

“Unfortunately, this will affect valued employees as we will reduce positions to match our restructured business units,” Conger said in a statement. “We will help affected employees through this process as much as possible, including offering severance packages if they qualify per company policy … We are working to finalize those impact numbers and will share more information when it’s available and will communicate directly with impacted employees first.”

The company has offices in Helena and Billings, but has just a few dozen staff in Montana.

Holmes said Montanans who are concerned about the impact to their health insurance plans can reach out to the Commissioners office.

“Our office, specifically our Insurance Consumer Service (ICS) bureau, is dedicated to helping Montanans navigate the insurance market. We encourage Montana consumers to reach out if they have questions about their insurance coverage, especially if they are impacted by Pacific Source exiting the market,”Holmes said.

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CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids man is accused of theft and insurance fraud after investigators said he submitted life insurance claims for three children whose deaths could not be substantiated.

Thompson Nagbe Jr., 37, made two fraudulent life insurance claims on policies he enrolled in through his employer, according to a Linn County criminal complaint.

Nagbe initiated a claim May 6, 2024, for death benefits for his daughter, Comfort Nagbe, who he said died in a motorcycle accident in Liberia, according to the fraud bureau of the Iowa Department of Insurance and Financial Services. The $30,000 claim was approved and paid to Nagbe one month later.

Then, on June 10, 2025, Nagbe submitted claims for the deaths of his twin children, Gifty and Victor Nagbe, who — according to Nagbe — died in a motor vehicle accident.

An investigation determined those death claims were fraudulent, and death benefits were not paid, according to the criminal complaint.

A subsequent investigation concluded that Nagbe submitted fraudulent death certificates for all three children, and none of the deaths could be verified. Also, investigators said Nagbe made numerous inconsistent statements to a fraud investigator regarding the circumstances of the children’s deaths.

Nagbe faces charges of first-degree theft, a Class C felony, and two counts of insurance fraud-presenting false information, Class D felonies. A $20,000 surety bond was posted Thursday for Nagbe’s release from the Linn County Jail, according to court records.

© 2026 The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa). Visit thegazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The personal information of an estimated 132,000 Rhode Islanders was involved in a January cyberattack on Beacon Mutual Insurance, the Warwick-based workers’ comp company revealed this week.

Beacon is the third party vendor that administers the state’s workers compensation insurance policy. Karen Greco, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Administration, told Rhode Island Current in an email Friday that the affected individuals included a few thousand state employees, both past and present.

Beacon, Greco wrote, “informed the State of Rhode Island that they experienced a data breach in January that potentially exposed personal identifiable information that belonged to approximately 4,500 current and former state employees.”

Greco added that the compromised Beacon systems do not connect to state networks, “and at no time were the state’s systems at risk,” she said, adding that Beacon had alerted the state it would notify affected people directly.

Beacon Mutual hit by ransomware attack

“Beacon Mutual regrets any inconvenience this matter may cause and appreciates the patience and understanding of our policyholders, agent partners, and other stakeholders,” Michelle N. Pelletier, Beacon’s assistant vice president of marketing and communications, said in an email Friday.

Pelletier added that, as required by state law, Beacon disclosed the breach to the Office of the Rhode Island Attorney General. The AG’s spokesperson Tim Rondeau confirmed via email Friday that the office received notification on Wednesday.

A state employees union shared with Rhode Island Current a copy of a May 18 notice sent to a state employee. It is largely similar to the notice posted to Beacon Mutual’s website earlier this week, which gives a more precise number of approximately 131,027 Rhode Islanders affected.

Beacon is now a private entity but was originally created with help from the state legislature to help stabilize the workers’ compensation insurance market in 1990. It also provides workers’ comp coverage for private employers who cannot find insurance on the voluntary market. Certain employers may be declined coverage because the risk to insure them is too big. Firms which insure these otherwise uninsured firms are known as an “insurer or last resort,” and Beacon fulfills this role in Rhode Island.

There were about 162,000 people affected in all, Pelletier said, a number which includes people who live outside Rhode Island. Pelletier did not immediately respond with the full list of places affected, but Beacon Mutual’s online notice lists Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and West Virginia as possibly affected states.

The company does business primarily in Rhode Island, with additional, smaller operations in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

According to the Beacon Mutual website, the affected data was accessed between Jan. 7 and Jan. 14, 2026, and included files that “contained the first name or first initial and last name along with one or more of: Social Security number, driver’s license number, financial account number, health insurance information and/or medical treatment information.”

The letter further advises recipients to monitor account statements and credit reports, and shares tips on setting up fraud alerts and credit freezes, if needed.

Beacon has also set up a toll‑free call center at 833-918-8448 for individuals who believe they may have been affected but were not reached by mail.

Pelletier added that credit monitoring was offered to “everyone who has a Social Security number or driver’s license number involved.”

Threat actors alleged theft of 275GB

“This was a ransomware attack,” Pelletier reiterated on Friday. “We proactively isolated certain systems to contain the threat.”

The cybercriminal outfit INC Ransom took credit for the attack around Jan. 29 on its dark web leak site, boasting that it hauled off about 275 GB of “highly sensitive internal data.”

The criminal group, according to the Denver-based cybersecurity firm Blackpoint Cyber, first appeared sometime around 2023 and has concentrated most of its efforts in North America. INC has breached a number of high-profile targets in recent years, including the Pennsylvania AG’s office and Stark Aerospace, a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. A March 2026 report from Halcyon, a ransomware research outfit, noted that INC has been targeting law firms as of late.

INC Ransom has been observed to use the double extortion method, a two-part approach that begins with a traditional ransomware stratagem — encrypting files on a victim’s network, then demanding payment from victims to unlock the files and make them usable again — followed by data exfiltration, in which criminals rip or copy the data from a victim’s servers and threaten to post it online. That threat also comes attached to a ransom.

“I am not at liberty to discuss the ransom demand,” Pelletier said Friday. “We are not in communication with INC Ransom.”

One lawsuit among many

As is typical for data breaches, the breach has already spurred a class-action suit in Rhode Island Superior Court. The plaintiffs’ attorney is Peter Wasylyk, who’s no stranger to data breach litigation — Wasylyk represented plaintiffs in a class action suit over the RIBridges data breach in 2024.

“Beacon Mutual had the responsibility to safeguard the private, sensitive information entrusted to it. With that responsibility came a duty to protect it,” Wasylyk said in a statement Friday.

In a 2026 review, the Philadelphia-based multinational firm Duane Morris found there were an estimated 1,822 data privacy class action suits filed in 2025, for an average of about 150 filings a month — an increase of around 18% from the previous year, and up more than 200% since 2022.

But volume does not equal success, the Duane Morris report found, as “plaintiffs often have difficulty demonstrating that they suffered concrete harm.” Very few cases reached the ruling stage on class certification, which is when a judge decides if claims can be expanded to represent an entire class action.

In 2025, courts ruled on only three motions for class certification over data breaches, the report reads, and plaintiffs prevailed only in one case.

Still, even sans class certification, the cases can still prove pricey if settled: The top 10 settlements accounted for $515.79 million in 2025, according to Duane Morris, which it called “a slight decrease over 2024, when the top 10 data breach class actions totaled $593.2 million.”

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* 4:26 pmUpdated with additional info about credit monitoring offered by Beacon Mutual.

Courtesy of Rhode Island Current

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