Bank of America is fined $225 million for botching pandemic benefits
CBSN
Regulators are fining Bank of America $225 million for bungling the distribution of unemployment benefits amid the pandemic, and are ordering the bank to compensate more than 100,000 people in a dozen states as a result.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Thursday ordered the nation's second-largest bank to pay $125 million and compensate those hurt by unfair and deceptive practices related to a prepaid card program. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also fined Bank of America an additional $100 million, accusing it of "botching the disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic."
At issue: programs administered by Bank of America that largely used prepaid cards akin to a debit card on behalf of 12 states: Arizona, California, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the OCC.
Billions of cicadas are emerging across about 16 states in the Southeast and Midwest. Periodical cicadas used to reliably emerge every 13 or 17 years, depending on their brood. But in a warming world where spring conditions arrive sooner, climate change is messing with the bugs' internal alarm clocks.
Senate Democrats to unveil package to protect IVF as party makes reproductive rights push this month
Washington — A group of Senate Democrats is set to unveil a new package to protect access to IVF on Monday, as the party makes a push around reproductive rights this month — two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.