AG joins multistate lawsuit over Trump administration fuel economy rollback

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has joined a coalition of states and cities suing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over its rollback of federal fuel economy standards for new cars and light trucks.

Campbell’s office announced the lawsuit Friday. The coalition filed its petition in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, arguing that NHTSA’s new rule violates federal law and will cost drivers money at the pump.

Attorneys general from California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia joined Massachusetts in the case. Chicago, Denver, New York City and San Francisco also signed on.

What the new rule does

NHTSA finalized the rule on Sept. 28, resetting corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards for model years 2022 through 2031. The agency projects the new standards will require a fleetwide average of 34.9 miles per gallon by model year 2031, down from 49.3 mpg under the standards it replaced.

The rule also ends the CAFE credit trading program beginning with model year 2028 and changes how the agency classifies vehicles starting in model year 2030. Electric vehicle makers have used the trading program to sell credits to other automakers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the administration had “finally ended the illegal mandate” that he said pushed automakers to build costlier electric vehicles that families did not want. NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said the rule balances vehicle affordability with energy conservation and will make roads safer.

The agency estimates the rule will cut the average price of a model year 2031 vehicle by $1,289, assuming manufacturers pass the savings to buyers. NHTSA also projects about 1,900 fewer traffic deaths through 2050, which its model attributes mostly to people driving less as fuel costs per mile rise.

The coalition’s case

The 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act requires NHTSA to set fuel economy standards at the “maximum feasible” level. Congress directed the agency to weigh technological feasibility, economic practicability, other federal vehicle standards and the nation’s need to conserve energy.

The coalition argues the new rule ignores that mandate. According to Campbell’s office, NHTSA’s standards for the next five years call for less efficiency than the U.S. fleet actually achieved in 2021.

The dispute centers on electric vehicles. NHTSA concluded in a June 2025 interpretive rule that federal law bars it from considering electric vehicles when it sets standards. The coalition says that reading forced the agency to ignore millions of EVs already on the road, which distorted its estimate of what automakers can achieve.

The states also challenge NHTSA’s analysis of vehicle affordability, fleet turnover, fuel savings and safety. They say the agency glossed over nearly $220 billion in fuel savings that drivers would have kept under the previous standards and assigned no value to future damages from climate change.

Campbell’s office said ending credit trading will hurt electric vehicle manufacturers and the workers they employ. The office also said the weaker standards leave consumers exposed to rising gas prices and what it described as a global oil shock tied to President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

The coalition alleges the rule is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act and violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

The rule takes effect 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

Worcester man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in 2021 killing of Erica Lara

Kyle Curley, 35, of Worcester, pleaded guilty Sept. 28 to second-degree murder in the 2021 killing of Erica Lara, 29, whose body authorities found inside a Worcester hotel, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said.

Curley received a life sentence with parole eligibility after 20 years. He also pleaded guilty to one count of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and received a sentence of two to three years in state prison, to run concurrently with the life term.

Lara and Curley had been dating, according to authorities. Lara left behind two daughters, who were 9 and 6 at the time of her death, Daily Voice reported.

Authorities found Lara’s body June 29, 2021, inside the Hotel Vernon at 16 Kelley Square after her family filed a missing persons report. An autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined she died of complications from blunt force injuries to the head.

Investigators obtained a warrant for Curley’s arrest. In July 2021, he contacted the Worcester Police Department Detective Bureau to turn himself in on unrelated warrants, and San Diego police arrested him in California, prosecutors said.

A Worcester County grand jury indicted Curley on March 24, 2023. He faced arraignment in Worcester Superior Court on April 10, 2023.

Curley also faced a 2027 trial on charges of witness intimidation and destroying Lara’s phone. The court canceled that trial after his murder sentencing, according to court documents reviewed by Boston.com.

“We never stop working towards justice for victims and their families, especially in cases that remain unresolved,” Early said.

Early thanked Assistant District Attorney Joseph Simmons and Victim Witness Advocate Margaret Rwaramba for their work on the case. He also thanked Lara’s family for their patience.

“We are proud of the work of our prosecution team in bringing some measure of justice to the family,” Early said.

Early credited the Worcester Police Department Detective Bureau and the San Diego Police Department for their roles in the investigation.

Leominster restaurant owner gets 2 years for stocking kitchen with stolen SNAP benefits

A Fitchburg man who used more than 100 stolen identities to collect food assistance and stock his Leominster restaurant will spend two years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Margaret R. Guzman sentenced Raul Fernandez Vicioso, 38, on Monday in federal court in Worcester, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Guzman also ordered three years of supervised release, $1.1 million in restitution and $1.1 million in forfeiture.

Fernandez Vicioso pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, SNAP benefit fraud, aiding and abetting and money laundering. The wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges each carried a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Fernandez Vicioso and his co-conspirators bought personal information belonging to more than 100 real people and used it to build 24 fictitious “households” on SNAP applications in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Every application listed one of two apartments in Providence, Rhode Island, as the home address.

The stolen identities belonged to people from Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico. Fernandez Vicioso also mixed his own personal information into the applications, prosecutors said.

To back up the applications, the group submitted photos of counterfeit passports and passport cards. Metadata on those images showed someone took them inside or near El Primo Restaurant, which Fernandez Vicioso operated in Leominster.

The group then used the benefit cards to buy multi-pound packages of meat and other bulk food at local wholesalers and markets to supply El Primo, according to prosecutors. A surveillance image in the court filings allegedly shows Fernandez Vicioso checking out at a BJ’s in Leominster with a fraudulently obtained SNAP card, WBUR reported.

Because the restaurant paid nothing for those supplies, it kept the full revenue from its menu sales, prosecutors said. The group wired proceeds to people in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, among other places.

The scheme reached into pandemic-era jobless aid as well. Between April 2020 and December 2021, prosecutors said, the group collected more than $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance by filing false applications in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and Nevada.

At least 29 identities appeared on those applications, and each one listed El Primo’s address as the applicant’s home. Bank records show about $276,021 in unemployment benefits landed in accounts held in the names of the restaurant, Fernandez Vicioso and others, according to prosecutors.

Investigators who searched Fernandez Vicioso’s home and the restaurant found Massachusetts and Rhode Island EBT cards, documents bearing the Providence address, printed ledgers, handwritten lists of over 100 identities and SNAP-related mail.

Federal prosecutors charged three others in February: Joel Vicioso Fernandez, 42, of Fitchburg, along with Roman Vequiz Fernandez, 32, and Coralba Albarracin Siniva, 24, both of Leominster.

Vequiz Fernandez and Albarracin Siniva pleaded guilty in June to unauthorized use, transfer, acquisition, and possession of SNAP benefits. Guzman scheduled their sentencings for Sept. 22. Monday’s announcement did not report an outcome for either defendant or an update on the case against Vicioso Fernandez.

• The charge of conspiracy to commit SNAP fraud provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
• The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
• The charge of illegal acquisition or use of SNAP benefits provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
• The charge of money laundering provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $500,000 or twice the amount involved in the transaction, whichever is greater.

Healey declares energy emergency, opens heating aid to middle-income oil customers

Massachusetts families who heat with oil and earn up to $171,749 a year for a household of four can collect as much as $680 this winter under a new benefit Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday.

Healey announced the benefit after declaring a state of energy emergency. Her executive order also boosts aid for low-income households and lifts some charges from electric bills. The administration values the package at nearly $150 million and says it will lower bills for about 85% of ratepayers.

“Families are seeing the impact of the war in Iran every time they fill up their gas tank, place an order for heating oil or open their electric bill,” Healey said in a statement.

Who qualifies for the new oil benefit

The one-time benefit covers heating oil customers with incomes between 60% and 100% of the state median income, a group that typically earns too much for existing aid. For a family of four, that means income above $103,049 and up to $171,749. The state lists income limits for each household size on its heating assistance page.

The administration expects about 50,000 households to qualify. Applications open in December, and the state will pay benefits through April 30, 2027, or until the money runs out. The local agencies that run the state’s existing heating aid program will handle applications.

Larger payments for low-income households

The state will add $15 million to the Home Energy Assistance Program, known as HEAP. The program helped more than 156,000 households, about 300,000 people, last heating season. Households that heat with oil will receive 20% more, and those that heat with gas or electricity will get a 15% increase.

State estimates put this winter’s HEAP benefits at $870 to $1,450 for oil or propane and $600 to $1,000 for gas or electric heat. A family of four earning up to $103,049 can qualify. Renters whose heat comes with their rent may also apply, and applicants do not need to receive public assistance or owe a heating bill.

The HEAP season runs Nov. 1 through April 30, 2027. Residents can apply for HEAP online or through a local agency.

Changes to electric bills

The administration will move $80 million in state money to cover the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, charge on residential electric bills from January through March 2027. That charge pays for incentives for solar projects.

Through emergency regulations, the state will also cut the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard requirement by 50% this winter. The administration estimates the cut will save ratepayers $20 million. The standard dates to 2009 and supports certain large heating and cooling systems through electricity supply rates.

Healey’s office said the state will pay for the expanded aid and bill credits with alternative compliance payments, which electricity suppliers owe the state when they miss clean energy quotas, according to the State House News Service.

Oil prices and price gouging

Heating oil averaged $6.08 a gallon statewide on Sept. 28, up 73% from $3.52 a year earlier, according to the state Department of Energy Resources’ weekly price survey. About one in five Massachusetts households heats with oil, mostly in older homes and rural communities.

The emergency declaration activates state protections against price gouging on petroleum products. Healey directed state agencies to monitor sellers and enforce those rules.

“No one should be afraid to turn on the heat when costs are high. This is a matter of public health,” said Rebecca Tepper, the state’s energy and environmental affairs secretary.

Charity fund and federal request

Citizens Energy Corp., the nonprofit led by former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, will start a new Emergency Winter Warmth Fund with $100,000. Local agencies will distribute donations to households in HEAP and in the new middle-income program. Details are on the Citizens Energy Winter Warmth Fund page.

“Every family deserves a warm and safe home, especially when winter arrives in Massachusetts,” Kennedy said.

Healey also asked congressional leaders for $3 billion more in emergency funding for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which would bring it to about $7 billion. Congress provided about $4.05 billion for the program in fiscal 2026.

Healey faces Republican Mike Minogue in her reelection bid, and energy costs have become a campaign theme. Last week, she filed legislation to suspend the state’s 24-cent-per-gallon gas tax for two months. The House’s top budget writer has responded coolly to that proposal.

Museum of Worcester opens online auction ahead of sold-out Harvey Ball

The Museum of Worcester’s online silent auction is open to all bidders until 8:45 p.m. Oct. 8, when bidding closes during the museum’s sold-out Harvey Ball at Mechanics Hall.

Bidders don’t need a ticket to the ball. Anyone can place a bid online, and winners can take home their packages whether or not they attend.

The lineup includes vacation packages to Costa Rica and the Adirondacks. Other lots offer a trip to Kennedy Space Center and Broadway tickets, and one package puts a personal pasta chef in the winner’s kitchen. The museum plans to add more packages before the bidding ends.

Proceeds support the museum’s exhibits and educational programming, as well as its collections and archives. Bidders can browse the auction packages online.

Sold-out ball honors Bill Wallace

The Harvey Ball begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St. The museum will present its Harvey Ball Smile Award to Bill Wallace, its executive director for nearly 50 years.

The museum called Wallace “a builder of cultural bridges” and credited him with spending half a century gathering and sharing Worcester’s history.

Wallace led the institution for most of the decades it operated as the Worcester Historical Museum. The museum traces its roots to the Worcester Society of Antiquity, founded in 1875, and today it also runs Salisbury Mansion and a library and archives.

Wallace has long defended the city’s claim to the smiley face. He told the New England Historical Society that newspaper coverage, photographs, and the insurer’s own records document Harvey Ball as its creator.

An award rooted in a Worcester icon

The museum began the award in 2001 to recognize Ball and the yellow smiley face he designed in 1963 for State Mutual Life Assurance Co. Ball, a Worcester native and commercial artist, died in 2001.

Each year the museum honors a person or group whose work has made a difference in the city, according to a Worcester Business Journal event listing. Former Senate President Harriette Chandler received the 2025 award.

The ball follows the Oct. 2 opening of an expanded Harvey Ball Smiley exhibit at the museum, which Spectrum News 1 reported features one of the museum’s largest collections.

Image Credit: John Phelan, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester MA, CC BY 3.0

Worcester leads Massachusetts in 2026 Schools of Recognition

WORCESTER – Worcester Public Schools earned more 2026 School of Recognition designations than any other Massachusetts district, with four elementary schools making the state list.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education named Columbus Park, Francis J. McGrath, Midland Street and Worcester Arts Magnet among the 56 Schools of Recognition statewide. DESE released the list with its annual accountability data Sept. 22.

The state’s Schools of Recognition program honors schools that make significant progress toward accountability targets in English language arts and math and rank above the 20th percentile of schools statewide.

“I’m happy for these four schools and I’m hoping we see even more schools earn this honor in the years to come,” Superintendent Brian E. Allen said.

How the schools performed

Columbus Park Elementary School in the South Quadrant posted the strongest results, meeting or exceeding 98% of its targets. Its overall accountability percentile climbed 12 points from last year and 21 points across two years.

Worcester Arts Magnet School in the Burncoat Quadrant met or exceeded 90% of its targets this year, and its percentile rose 11 points.

McGrath, also a Burncoat Quadrant school, came in at 89%. Its percentile grew 13 points from last year and 21 points over two years, matching the two-year gain at Columbus Park.

In the Doherty Quadrant, Midland Street Elementary School met or exceeded 70% of its targets and gained 10 percentile points from last year.

“Every school is unique,” Allen said. “Columbus Park, McGrath, Midland and Worcester Arts Magnet schools have done tremendous work tailoring their approaches to meet the needs of their students.”

Principals credit staff and families

Columbus Park Principal Lisa Carignan tied the school’s results to its expectations for students. “Our success at Columbus Park starts with a deep belief that all students are capable of achieving great things,” Carignan said. “This accomplishment belongs to all of us.”

Midland Street Principal Tara Dexter pointed to student growth. “We are extremely proud of the growth our students have demonstrated and of what our school community has accomplished together,” Dexter said.

Worcester Arts Magnet Principal Mary Ellen Scanlon credited teachers and families. “Our faculty brings a strong commitment to our students every day, and our families are such important partners in that work,” Scanlon said.

Emily Kokansky led McGrath as acting principal last year and now serves as principal of Belmont Street School. “I am incredibly proud of the students and staff at McGrath for earning this recognition,” Kokansky said.

Erin Derr now leads McGrath. “I am honored to join the McGrath team at such an exciting time, and I look forward to building on this incredible momentum as we continue to grow and achieve even higher goals together,” Derr said.

Tracking progress during the year

Along with MCAS, the district gives the STAR assessment throughout the year to measure student comprehension in reading and math. WPS students have shown steady progress on STAR since 2022, and Allen has set a goal of raising achievement by at least 3 percent by June.

Students at the four schools have celebrated with extra recess time and assemblies since the state released the data. Smiley, the Worcester Red Sox mascot, visited some of the celebrations.

Image Credit: “Midland”: Students and staff at Midland Street Elementary School gathered for a large photo while wearing school pride shirts and displaying banners celebrating their School of Recognition achievement. (Photos by Kyle Prudhomme/WPS)

Massachusetts launches free app for people affected by gambling harm

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Sept. 30 announced Evive, a free mobile app for people affected by gambling harm, adding a new support option alongside the state’s round-the-clock problem gambling helpline.

The department’s Office of Problem Gambling Services designed the app for people who may not feel ready for clinical treatment but want to start changing their gambling habits. Users can complete daily check-ins, track their progress, work through evidence-based lessons and connect with peers in recovery.

Evive is available at no cost on iOS and Android devices. The app launched in English.

“Meeting people where they are means meeting them on the devices they already carry,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the state’s public health commissioner.

Goldstein described gambling harm as a public health issue that reaches the families and friends of people who bet as well as the bettors themselves.

Victor Ortiz, director of the Office of Problem Gambling Services, said people with lived experience shaped the decision to add the app.

“For 10 years, we’ve listened closely to people living this experience,” Ortiz said. “They’ve told us, time and again, that support needs to be there around the clock.”

Ortiz said the app extends the reach of the helpline and gives people another way to find help whenever they need it.

Launch timed to football season

State officials timed the rollout to National Recovery Month, which the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration started in 1989 to recognize people in recovery from substance use and mental health conditions. DPH said gambling disorder carries the same stigma and isolation as those conditions.

The launch also lines up with the start of football season, which DPH said brings a significant increase in gambling activity.

Much of that activity now happens on phones. Massachusetts bettors wagered $914.7 million on sports in November 2025, a monthly record at the time, and placed 98.6% of those bets online, according to an RG.org analysis of Massachusetts Gaming Commission figures.

DPH said many people face their hardest moments late at night or after a loss, when they have no appointment scheduled and feel alone. The department said the app gives them a place to connect and begin recovery during those hours.

Helpline remains available

The Massachusetts Problem Gambling Helpline continues to take calls 24/7 at 800-327-5050. The free, confidential service assists callers in Spanish and other languages and offers online chat at MAProblemGamblingHelpline.org.

The helpline’s website now lists the app among its options for people seeking help.

The state created the Office of Problem Gambling Services within DPH to address gambling harm through prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery support. The office works with community organizations, clinicians and people with lived experience. More information is available at Mass.gov/OPGS.

Mass. student loan payments rank second-highest in US

Massachusetts borrowers pay a median of $250 a month on their student loans, the second-highest amount in the nation, according to a WalletHub analysis released Thursday, Oct. 1.

Only Vermont ranks higher, at $258. The Massachusetts figure rose from $241 in last year’s edition of the report, which also placed the state second.

The ranking lands as millions of federal borrowers face deadlines to pick new repayment plans. Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan, which a court ended in March, must switch to a new repayment plan within 90 days of receiving a notice from their loan servicer. Servicers mailed the first notices July 1, so the earliest deadlines passed Sept. 29.

New England leads the list

Northeastern states hold most of the top spots. Five of the six New England states rank in the top 10: Vermont ($258), Massachusetts ($250), New Hampshire ($249), Connecticut ($247) and Rhode Island ($236). Maine sits at No. 19 with a median payment of $214.

Payments drop sharply elsewhere. Wyoming has the lowest median at about $160 a month, nearly $99 less than Vermont ($258), with Arkansas and North Dakota just above it.

Nationally, about 42.6 million Americans owe $1.72 trillion in student loans, an average of roughly $40,500 each, according to WalletHub. Analyst Chip Lupo said a borrower carrying that average balance at the current 6.52% federal undergraduate rate would need to pay about $302 a month to clear the debt in 20 years. That amount exceeds the median payment in every state.

Source: WalletHub. No. 1 marks the highest median payment.

What the numbers measure

WalletHub built its ranking from credit data on its own users and calculated the median monthly student loan payment in each state. The company’s methodology lists no sample size, and the ranking makes no adjustment for local incomes. Washington, D.C., does not appear in the list.

Federal figures offer a broader view. About 900,600 Massachusetts residents hold federal student loans totaling $33.4 billion, according to an Education Data Initiative analysis of U.S. Education Department data. That group makes up 15.5% of the state’s adults.

Those borrowers owe an average federal balance of $37,086, about 6% below the national average, the analysis found. WalletHub’s payment figures and the federal balance data come from different sources and track different measures.

Repayment rules shift

Federal repayment options look different from a year ago. In March, a federal court approved a settlement between the Education Department and Missouri that ended the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education plan, known as SAVE. About 7.5 million borrowers had enrolled in the plan, the department said.

Each SAVE borrower receives a notice from a loan servicer that starts a 90-day clock to choose a new plan, and the notice lists that borrower’s specific deadline. Borrowers who let the window lapse move automatically into the Standard Repayment Plan or the new Tiered Standard Plan, both of which base payments on loan balance in place of income.

Servicers send the notices in waves, so many borrowers face deadlines later this fall, Newsweek reported. The 2025 federal tax and spending law created a new income-based option, the Repayment Assistance Plan, which launched July 1. RAP sets payments at 1% to 10% of adjusted gross income and trims the bill by $50 a month for each dependent. Payments can fall as low as $10.

Borrowers can compare their options with the federal Loan Simulator at StudentAid.gov.

Help for Massachusetts borrowers

The Massachusetts attorney general’s office runs a Student Loan Assistance Unit that helps residents resolve problems with servicers and review repayment options. Borrowers can reach the unit at 888-830-6277.

The office also houses the state’s student loan ombudsman, a position lawmakers created in the 2021 Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights. That law requires most companies servicing loans for Massachusetts borrowers to hold a license from the state Division of Banks.

Massachusetts joins 25 other governments in suing EPA over power plant rollback

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell joined a coalition of states and cities Thursday in suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its repeal of greenhouse gas limits on existing power plants.

The coalition filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, according to a news release from Campbell’s office. The same day, the group sent the EPA a notice of intent to sue over the agency’s failure to limit pollution from existing gas-fired plants.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin signed the repeal Sept. 14, and it takes effect Nov. 16. The rule strikes carbon-capture requirements for existing coal-fired plants and for new gas turbines that run around the clock, according to the agency’s power plant standards page and Federal Register notice.

Zeldin announced the repeal at a meeting of G20 energy ministers in Houston. He said the administration wants to make sure Americans can “afford to keep the lights on,” NBC News reported. The EPA estimated the repeal would save the power sector $160 billion in compliance costs from 2026 through 2047.

Alongside the repeal, the EPA issued a supplemental proposal asserting that the Clean Air Act gives the agency no authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. If the EPA finalizes it, the proposal would eliminate the remaining federal carbon standards for the sector.

Campbell’s office testified against that proposal Thursday, the same day the EPA held a virtual public hearing on it. Her office said the plan “flouts the law and the science.”

In the lawsuit, the coalition argues that the EPA unlawfully dropped carbon limits without properly weighing alternatives. The states also contend the agency ignored the health and climate costs of leaving existing plants unregulated.

The EPA set standards for new gas plants more than a decade ago but has never limited pollution from existing ones, the coalition said in its notice. Those plants include “peaker” plants that run during periods of high electricity demand. Campbell’s office said such plants often operate in low-income communities and communities of color.

Power plants produce roughly one-quarter of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the attorney general’s office. Her office said added pollution would bring hotter heat waves and heavier flooding, and would aggravate asthma and heart disease in communities already burdened by pollution.

Campbell also has a pending court challenge to the EPA’s February rescission of the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases from motor vehicles endanger public health and welfare. Environmental and public health groups have filed their own lawsuits over the power plant repeal.

The petitioners in the D.C. Circuit case are the states of New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin; Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; the District of Columbia; the cities of Chicago and New York; and the City and County of Denver. The suit names the EPA and Zeldin as respondents.

Massachusetts man’s $400,000 loss shows how AI powers romance scams

Victims nationwide reported losing $929 million to confidence and romance fraud in 2025, up 38% from $672 million in 2024, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report. Americans 60 and older accounted for $584 million of those losses.

In New England, more than 700 people in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island told the FBI they lost about $20 million to romance scams last year, the bureau’s Boston field office said in February.

Chris Colocousis thought he had checked out the woman who contacted him on Facebook. “Eliza” had a New York phone number and said she worked at a well-known financial firm in Atlanta. On a video call, she looked exactly like her photos.

Colocousis, a divorced Massachusetts man in his 60s, said he lost the $400,000 he “invested” under her guidance, The Associated Press reported in June. He still does not know whether he was talking with a real person or with ChatGPT.

“You just feel like your whole world fell apart,” Colocousis told the AP.

“Fraudsters are lurking online claiming to be looking for love when they’re really just looking to loot your bank account,” Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, said in the statement.

Massachusetts residents filed 22,936 internet crime complaints of all types with the FBI in 2025 and reported $410.9 million in losses, the 14th-highest total among states. Residents 60 and older reported $113.9 million of that amount.

AI lets one scammer work many victims

An investigation by the AP and the PBS series “Frontline” found that scam compounds in Myanmar use software built on American artificial intelligence models, chiefly ChatGPT and Gemini. The tools generate automated replies and translate messages into more than 100 languages.

Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, whom traffickers took to one of those compounds, told the AP that on a typical shift he chatted with more than 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time. His bosses gave him four days to make each victim fall in love. Records he smuggled out show he targeted some 50,000 people in a single month, the AP reported.

The FBI counted more than $19 million in 2025 confidence and romance fraud losses with a likely AI connection. In a December 2024 public service announcement, the bureau warned that criminals use AI to create realistic images for fake social media profiles in romance schemes and to generate video for real-time video chats.

In a University of Waterloo study released in 2024, 260 participants told real faces from AI-generated ones only 61% of the time, well below the 85% the researchers expected.

Personal data helps scammers pick targets

Data brokers collect and sell personal information that scammers can use to choose victims. In December 2024, then-Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra warned in prepared remarks that “identity thieves and scammers purchase detailed dossiers to target vulnerable consumers, particularly seniors and people in financial distress.”

Romance scammers often build a relationship over time before offering to help victims invest, the Federal Trade Commission said in May. The agency reported that romance scam losses rose 22% in 2025, with a median loss of $2,020 per person.

In January 2025, a man showed up at Colocousis’ home and collected $80,000 in cash that Colocousis believed would unlock his money on a cryptocurrency trading app, the AP reported.

An earlier FTC analysis found that reports of romance-related sextortion grew more than eightfold from 2019 to 2022, with people ages 18 to 29 reporting it most often.

How to protect yourself

The FBI advises people to make social media accounts private and accept followers only from people they know. Limiting the photos and voice recordings people post online also makes it harder for scammers to build fake identities with AI, the bureau said. It also suggests checking images and video for flaws such as distorted hands or lag.

The FBI’s Boston office urges people to move slowly in online relationships and to stay skeptical of anyone who quickly wants to take the conversation off a dating site. It also warns against lending money or sharing financial information with someone met online.

Massachusetts officials offer similar guidance. In a February advisory, the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation told residents to watch for suitors who ask for payment in cryptocurrency or gift cards. The office said the attorney general’s office has shut down more than 50 cryptocurrency fraud websites and returned $6 million to Massachusetts consumers.

Residents who suspect a romance scam can call the attorney general’s consumer advocacy hotline at 617-727-8400 or file a complaint with the FBI at ic3.gov. The FBI advises anyone who sent money to contact their bank immediately.