DETROIT – A Michigan couple says their February social security money wasn’t deposited on their Direct Express card. It’s not the first time it’s happened, they said.

In Dec. 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit against Comerica Bank, who once operated Direct Express, alleging the program left over 20,000 people without their payment issues properly resolved.

Although the lawsuit was terminated in 2025, the program was transferred to Fifth Third Bank due to similar issues.

Michigan users say there’s real world impact to the practices.

Roy Lee Jones is a double amputee in Sanford.

“$1,284,” Jones said on Sunday about how much money in social security he’s received since the nineties.

On Feb. 2, something changed.

“He just found out on the 2nd that he could not access his account,” Heather Swearingen, Jones’ girlfriend, said.

His Direct Express card was not loaded and the company told him they didn’t have a record of him. His money has been deposited by Direct Express since the early 2000s.

It’s a third party program serving over 3 million Americans who don’t have a bank account.

“So, we called, they said they have to verify him,” Swearingen said.

They sent in the verification again.

It was approved. On the fourth, they say Direct Express said they’d send the money and a new card in two to three business days.

Then Feb. 10 rolled around and there was still no sign of the money.

“I am panicking,” Swearingen said. “Our rent was due on the third. We had no gas to go anywhere to doctor’s appointments.”

They got in touch with someone from Social Security and were told to go open a bank account.

They opened the account and they hope the money is deposited this week.

After Local 4 reached out, Direct Express says they are following up with Jones.

Local 4 took a deeper look and found the issue may not be unique to the couple.

There are several recent complaints on the Better Business Bureau. One woman, who lives in Warren, says she experienced something similar.

Because the whistles had been so plentiful, Stevie Elam’s defense in the waning moments had to be perfect.

It was ‒ depending on who you ask.

As a foul-ridden contest between rivals came to a close at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Feb. 15, UW-Green Bay guard Preston Ruedinger wisely attacked the rim with his team trailing by a point and the clock under 10 seconds. Expecting at the very least to draw some contact and a whistle, all he instead encountered was Elam stripping the ball away.

The freshman stripped Ruedinger, then sank two free throws to ice a 75-72 win for the Panthers to avoid what would have been the first sweep to their in-state foes since 2018-19. 

“He had to get that ball pretty clean,” Milwaukee head coach Bart Lundy said. “They were driving with force. We had a couple plays before that where it looked like we stopped them and we did get whistled. But Stevie Elam’s strength as a true freshman, his hand strength is off the charts; it’s probably NFL-level.”

Lundy’s counterpart disagreed, to say the least.

“The last play of the game, just to get the ball they were grabbing us and holding us,” Phoenix head coach Doug Gottlieb said. “Again, I understand if you’re not calling that, that’s fine. You had the exact same play at both ends in the last play of the game.”

Gottlieb paused, ever so briefly, then aggressively slammed his fists into the table atop the dais.

“The exact same [expletive] play,” Gottlieb yelled. “The exact same play.”

Gottlieb was fed up with the officiating crew from the afternoon after receiving a technical foul and seeing his team shoot 18 free throws compared to Milwaukee’s 37. He specifically called out the technical he received in the second half with just under 7 minutes to play and his team up three, as well as a loose-ball foul on CJ O’Hara with 4:25 to go and his team up four.

Minneapolis is facing significant financial losses due to immigration enforcement operations, with a reported $200 million economic hit in January.

On Friday, Mayor Jacob Frey said that small businesses and restaurants in the city lost as much as $81 million in revenue. Minneapolis is home to over 1,200 restaurants and bars, not including other small businesses. To understand how these losses were calculated, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke with Erik Hansen, the city’s Director of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED).

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“There’s a little bit of a squishiness to the number,” said Hansen when asked about tracking the financial impact on Tuesday, as the city was finalizing its preliminary impact report, which estimated Minneapolis small businesses collectively lost up to $81 million in January.

He said those calculations are based on conversations and a survey sent out a couple of weeks ago. Hansen explained that the survey was anonymous, with about 150 respondents as of Tuesday.

“It’s an anonymous poll. We have about 150 respondents to that so far, and we asked them questions about, like, what kind of impacts have you had since the beginning of the year? Can you attribute that to the Operation Metro Surge? And then, what have been the financial consequences?” said Hansen.

According to the preliminary impact report released on Friday, based on that survey and existing business summary and licensing data, the city could assume more than half — or 750 — restaurants and bars “…are experiencing major losses of $20,000 per week.” And the entire industry “…is likely experiencing a minimum loss of $15 million per week.”

The report said the city used a similar framework to add up losses for grocery, retail, entertainment, and more, concluding that “January 2026 revenue losses for small, consumer-facing businesses in Minneapolis could be as high as $81 million.”

“We are getting the best data we can, because we’ll never really, truly be able to quantify the impacts of the operation,” Hansen said.

The financial impact may be difficult to quantify, but it’s evident, especially on historically busy days. Paul Wu, owner of Jade Dynasty on West Lake Street, said, “Friday, for example, we normally do $20-25,000 a night, and we did $8,000. And that’s lucky.”

“It’s a big loss. We don’t make any money,” Wu added.

Immigrant-owned businesses in Minnesota struggle with reduced hours 

Earlier this month, Gina Christ, owner of The Black Forest Inn, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, “It bottomed out after Christmas, right? It was, it was just like a trap door opened.”

Hansen said that current business financial aid proposals from state and city officials would make up for a drop in the bucket of need.

He also emphasized the broader impact on the community, stating, “What’s important for us at the city right now is to articulate what the true need is in the community. And it’s not just the businesses. It’s also household budgets [that] are being impacted. People have lost wages. They’re more insecure in their housing stability… And so as we’re looking at that, once we have a better scale of what the problem is, we can start to look at resources. And those resources won’t always be money.”

The city plans to continue tracking the impact and updating the numbers, according to the preliminary impact report.