Free Republic

Gas prices have skyrocketed across the U.S., jumping above $4 a gallon in most states. Now, local leaders are trying to find ways to help their residents cope with the price hikes, with Chicago announcing it had established a $12.5 million program to provide transportation relief for low-income residents. On Thursday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that in order to combat increasing gas prices she would be launching the Chicago Moves program, which will provide 50,000 prepaid gas gift cards worth $150 each along with 100,000 prepaid cards for public transit worth $50 each.

People have complained about gridlock in Washington for years. What is coming is complete paralysis. Just look at the hysterical reaction to President Trump’s long anticipated executive order to limit the admission of refugees from seven countries. How do leaders in Muslim countries see it? According to United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, “The vast majority of Muslims and Muslim countries have not been affected by this ban. This is a temporary ban that will be reviewed within three months. It’s important to take these points into account.”

Those who prefer their mobile phone to remain anonymous are in for a shock in Germany, as ministers agreed on Wednesday to require anyone buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card to present ID. “You could buy a prepaid phone today in the name of Donald Duck,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said after the weekly cabinet meeting. “Knowledge is power. And we want to oppose terrorist organizations powerfully,” he went on in a press conference defending the new anti-terror law that the rule falls under. […] “The new anti-terror package mixes up widely varying enlargements of powers for the security services...

Will FDIC Regulations Shut Down the Prepaid Card Industry? We have written about prepaid debit cards several times in recent months, but this week we saw the latest news that could throw a monkey wrench in the burgeoning prepaid card industry. As reported by PaymentsSource, Bancorp Inc., one of the biggest issuers of prepaid cards with $4.7 billion in assets, saw its shares drop 30 percent when the company agreed to curtail its prepaid card activity as part of a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). A 22-page consent order mandates that Bancorp institute a number of changes...

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Alabama's prepaid college tuition plan appears unable to pay tuition beyond the fall semester of 2011 and still have enough money to provide refunds to the 44,000 participants, administrators said. For leaders of the Save Alabama PACT parents group, that creates the need for the Legislature to find a solution in the current legislative session. Patti Lambert of Decatur, the group's co-founder, said she would prefer a solution in the Statehouse rather than the courthouse, but members may have no choice but to join a handful of parents who have already sued the state to demand the...

Lawmakers ask: Can we tap college fund? By Amy Hollyfield, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Published Sunday, March 8, 2009 TALLAHASSEE — They are desperate for money. Hurting for ideas. And it has come to this: What about the money the Florida Prepaid College Board is sitting on? The popular family program benefits one out of every 10 children in the state. Parents invest tens of thousands of dollars — sometimes in small monthly installments over 18 years — to lock in present-day tuition rates for their future college students. More than 1.3 million contracts have been sold since it started in...

Wal-Mart plans to launch a payments card aimed at the estimated 80 million U.S. residents who do not have access to a bank account. Called the Wal-Mart MoneyCard, the prepaid product would be launched with GE Money, the retailer's financial partner, and branded a Visa card, Wal-Mart officials said. An official announcement of the pilot programme could come as soon as this month. The venture represents a significant expansion of Wal-Mart's financial services offered to mostly low-income customers, which include low-cost check-cashing and money-transfer services. It also follows the decision this year to abandon a bid to win a state...

Foreigner Found With Prepaids, Cash In Murrysville Is Held By Feds GREENSBURG, Pa. -- A man from the Republic of Georgia is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison after he and another man from that country were found with 15 prepaid cell phones and $4,200 in cash, police said. The Tribune-Review reported that Malkhaz Zakutashvili, 53, was held through the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Murrysville police said the federal agency told police not to hold the second man, Zurabi Maisuradze, 25. Police said the men were questioned just before 8 p.m. Saturday because their van, which...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2005 – At Camp Fallujah, Iraq, today, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld passed a box to the camp's sergeant major. The sergeant major then distributed the contents - handfuls of pre-paid calling cards -- to Marines serving there. Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Lutz, Cpl. Byron Smith and Cpl.Justin Glass hold up phone cards they had just received following a town hall meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, Dec. 23. The Wal-Mart Corporation sent more than $125,000 worth of pre-paid telephone calling cards along with the secretary. Senior noncommissioned officers have distributed them...

A combination of rising costs and plummeting investments has forced several states to suspend enrollment in prepaid tuition plans designed to protect families against spiraling expenses at public colleges. Ohio announced last week it was suspending its program for a year because the state was losing money. West Virginia, Kentucky and Texas also have temporarily cut off new enrollment, and earlier this year Colorado halted enrollments in its plan completely. Prepaid tuition plans allow families to purchase tuition credits -- based on the current rates -- in lump sums or monthly payments. A state then pools the money in long-term...