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By Eliza Haverstock | NerdWallet

If you’ll be in college next year, don’t expect financial aid offers anytime soon. Colleges won’t begin receiving processed FAFSAs — Free Applications for Federal Student Aid — until mid-March, the U.S. Education Department said on Tuesday.

“We will email students when their information has been shared with their schools and when they can access official aid calculations on their StudentAid.gov account,” U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary James Kvaal said in a press call after the announcement.

Once colleges receive processed FAFSAs, they can start building financial aid packages, which may include loan eligibility, grants, scholarships and estimated cost of attendance. That process takes another few weeks. The earliest students could get financial aid offers is the first week of April. Colleges will likely rethink the typical May 1 decision date to allow students and families enough time to consider their aid packages, says Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. read more

By FATIMA HUSSEIN (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is poised to take in hundreds of billions of dollars more in overdue and unpaid taxes than previously anticipated, according to new analysis released Tuesday by the Treasury Department and the IRS.

Tax revenues are expected to rise by as much as $561 billion from 2024 to 2034, thanks to stepped-up enforcement made possible with money from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which became law in August 2022.

The Congressional Budget Office in 2022 estimated that the tens of billions of new IRS funding provided by the IRA would increase revenues by $180.4 billion from 2022 to 2031. The IRS now says that if IRA funding is restored, renewed and diversified, estimated revenues could reach as much as $851 billion from 2024 to 2034.

Administration officials are using the report to promote President Joe Biden’s economic agenda as he campaigns for reelection — and as the IRS continually faces threats to its funding.

“This analysis demonstrates that President Biden’s investment in rebuilding the IRS will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars by making the wealthy and big corporations pay the taxes they owe,” National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard said in a statement. read more

By Zach Wichter, Bankrate.com

Buying your first home can be an overwhelming experience: a high-stakes adventure that can leave you feeling elated and exhausted all at the same time. And, as a newbie, it’s easy to make (sometimes costly) mistakes if you don’t know how the homebuying process works.

Whether you are a brand-new house hunter or one returning to the market after many years, you can sidestep potential pitfalls by understanding the basics of homebuying and home financing, and knowing what questions to ask. Here’s a list of some easy first-time homebuyer mistakes to make — and how to avoid them.

If you’re buying your first home, the tips below can help you avoid some common first-time homebuyer mistakes while home-hunting, mortgage-shopping and moving in.

1. Looking for a home before applying for a mortgage

When you’re buying your first house, it’s common to start viewing homes before ever getting in front of a mortgage lender. In today’s market, you may find that housing inventory is tight because there’s far more buyer demand than affordable homes on the market. read more

By DAVID KOENIG (AP Airlines Writer)

Bolts that helped secure a panel to the frame of a Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing before the panel blew off the Alaska Airlines plane last month, according to accident investigators.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday a preliminary report on the Jan. 5 incident that the lack of certain damage on the plane indicates that all four bolts were missing before the plane took off from Portland, Oregon.

Without the bolts, nothing prevented the panel from sliding upward and detaching from “stop pads” that secured it to the airframe.

The Alaska Airlines pilots were forced to make a harrowing emergency landing with a hole in the side of the plane, but no serious injuries were reported.

The NTSB report included a photo from Boeing, which worked on the panel called a door plug, that showed that three of the four bolts that prevent the panel from moving upward are missing. The location of a fourth bolt is obscured by insulation.

The preliminary report said the plane arrived at Boeing’s factory near Seattle with five damaged rivets near the door plug, which had been installed by supplier Spirit AeroSystems. A Spirit crew replaced the rivets, which required removing the four bolts and opening the plug. read more

By JONEL ALECCIA (AP Health Writer)

A California cheese and dairy company is the source of a decadelong outbreak of listeria food poisoning that killed two people and sickened more than two dozen, federal health officials said Tuesday.

New lab and inspection evidence linked soft cheeses and other dairy products made by Rizo-Lopez Foods of Modesto, California, to the outbreak, which was first detected in June 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Since then, at least 26 people in 11 states have been sickened. They include a person who died in California in 2017 and one who died in Texas in 2020, CDC officials said.

On Monday, the company recalled more than 60 soft cheeses, yogurt and sour cream sold under the brands Tio Francisco, Don Francisco, Rizo Bros, Rio Grande, Food City, El Huache, La Ordena, San Carlos, Campesino, Santa Maria, Dos Ranchitos, Casa Cardenas, and 365 Whole Foods Market.

The CDC previously investigated cases of food poisoning tied to queso fresco and other similar types of cheese in 2017 and 2021, but there was not enough evidence to identify a source. read more