Author

Casey Quinlan

Casey Quinlan

Casey Quinlan is an economy reporter for States Newsroom, based in Washington D.C. For the past decade, they have reported on national politics and state politics, LGBTQ rights, abortion access, labor issues, education, Supreme Court news and more for publications including The American Independent, ThinkProgress, New Republic, Rewire News, SCOTUSblog, In These Times and Vox.

Fed’s fault-finding on bank failures could lead to stronger regulations

By: - May 8, 2023

New banking regulations proposed by federal watchdogs don’t go far enough in countering potential problems, but could help lower bank fees and calm financial markets and nerves, leading to a more stable financial system, according to some economists. The Federal Reserve, FDIC and Government Accountability Office released reports recently blaming mismanagement of risk, including overreliance […]

Credit bureau CEOs face tough questions at Senate hearing; Democrats push to remove medical debt

By: - April 27, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators grilled the executives of three major credit reporting bureaus Thursday on whether their practices are transparent and fair to consumers, with Democrats frequently pressing the CEOs to remove medical debt from the reports.   Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, said all […]

Here’s where gas prices are headed (for now) and why

By: - April 26, 2023

Drivers across the country have seen a seasonal given play out in recent weeks. The national average for a gallon of regular gas is $3.64 on April 26, up 21 cents over the previous month, according to AAA.  The good news is that gas is 49 cents below where it was on April 26 of […]

Long COVID is hurting business; workplace accommodations could help

By: - April 16, 2023

Three years after the start of the pandemic, millions of working age people still suffer from long COVID-19 and some lawmakers and advocates, including people with long COVID, say not enough is being done to protect their well-being and ensure they can continue to be employed. Proposed federal legislation, better workplace accommodations, and more federal […]

Mortgage rates are stabilizing but that may not be enough to help house hunters

By: - April 6, 2023

Home prices are cooling off and mortgage rates fell last week, but the fallout from recent bank closures could continue to make it hard for some Americans to buy houses, economists say.  Mortgage rates fell to 6.32% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, Freddie Mac data released on Thursday shows. Last fall, the 30-year fixed […]

Help wanted: Women needed for U.S. chips manufacturing plan to succeed

By: - March 28, 2023

Natalie Bell was thinking about a career in art after college when a welding class and a delivery of four pizzas changed her career trajectory.  “I was taking a delivery out to a construction site and I met an ironworker who I was taking the delivery to,” said Bell, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. “I […]

Food sanitation company fined $1.5 million for illegal child labor

By: - February 20, 2023

A company responsible for cleaning meatpacking plants across the country has paid $1.5 million in civil penalties for making children as young as 13 work in dangerous conditions. The fine, announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor, followed an investigation by the agency into Packers Sanitation Services Inc., at 13 plants in eight states, […]

Rural hospitals gird for unwinding of pandemic Medicaid coverage

By: - February 19, 2023

Donald Lloyd, CEO and president of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, Kentucky, has spent more than a year dealing with higher costs for food and medical supplies for his regional hospital. Now he’s trying to prepare for another financial hit — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for treating people in rural Appalachia. “We are all […]

Advocacy groups ask FTC to expand Biden administration efforts to rein in junk fees

By: - February 10, 2023

President Joe Biden devoted 19 sentences of his State of the Union speech to “junk fees,” which includes credit card late fees, service fees for concert tickets and airplane seating preferences that he said strain families’ budgets. Biden did not mention the numerous and opaque fees faced by prisoners and their families every day. But […]

Proposed federal rule would lower credit card late fees

By: - February 6, 2023

As Americans continue to struggle with high credit card rates, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a rule to help lessen some of their financial burden — in the form of lower late fees.  The new rule would limit late fees to $8. Currently credit card companies can charge as high as $41 — […]

States criticized for spending federal relief funds on tax cuts, prisons

By: - February 4, 2023

As states plan how they’ll spend the $25 billion remaining in federal COVID relief funds, some also are facing criticism and renewed scrutiny over how they allocated money already received from the American Rescue Plan Act. Of the $198 billion authorized by Congress in 2021, $173 billion already has been appropriated by states, the District […]

States that limit business with banks that ‘boycott’ fossil fuels could pay high cost, study says

By: - January 16, 2023

Republican state policymakers’ efforts to boost fossil fuels by prohibiting their governments from doing business with companies that take sustainability into consideration has the potential to cost states millions, according to a just released study. Researchers looked specifically at the possible effects on Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia if they passed Texas-like […]