As prices continue to rise across the country, Americans are tacking more and more money onto their consumer debt.

Americans have $1.3 trillion in credit card debt, $1.7 trillion in auto loan debt and billions of dollars in personal loans, collectively. Consumer debts also include mortgages, payday loans and student loans.

But, the residents of some states are increasing their debt faster than others.

A new report from WalletHub compared all 50 states for the change in average debt from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2025. Here’s what they found.

States with highest increase in consumer debt

“At a time when interest rates are very high, it’s especially important to minimize the accumulation of debt. Americans have added a staggering amount of new debt in the past decade, and it can be very easy for that debt to become unsustainable leading to future issues like default and major credit score damage,” John Kiernan, a WalletHub editor, said in the report.

Here are the states that increased their consumer debt the most in the second half of 2025.

1. Maine
2. Wyoming
3. Hawaii
4. Montana
5. Georgia
6. New Mexico
7. North Dakota
8. Florida
9. Texas
10. Vermont

“The average credit card balance in Maine increased by nearly 8% from Q3 2025 to Q4 2025, rising to nearly $8,000,” the report said. “For context, the vast majority of states saw increases of less than 5%”

Maine’s auto loans balances went up 2%, the third highest in the country, while personal loans increased 0.5%, one of only three states that had increases.

Wyoming was second with a 5.5% increase in credit card debt, and a 2.5% increase in auto loan debt, the largest in the country. The state’s personal loan debt, however, decreased by 2.4% during the time period.

States with lowest increase in consumer debt

Here are the states with the lowest increases, or even decreases in debt.

1. Michigan
2. Kentucky
3. Ohio
4. New Hampshire
5. Connecticut
6. Iowa
7. Missouri
8. Delaware
9. Oregon
10. West Virginia

How can you start to pay off your consumer debt?

WalletHub experts gave a few tips for paying down your debt — and then keeping it down.

You should start by creating a detailed repayment plan that lists all debts, their interest rates and minimum monthly payments to create a schedule to pay the debt down with extra funds. Experts also recommend cutting down unnecessary expenses so money can be redirected toward paying debt.

If possible, you can negotiate lower interest rates with creditors, or even find a temporary fix through a hardship plan. If needed, you can try and find additional income through a part-time job, freelancing or selling unwanted or unneeded items.

If you have debt but also good credit, you may be able to refinance your debt through a balance transfer or debt consolidation loan.

Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.

ATLANTA — The FBI obtained a search warrant to seize hundreds of boxes of ballots from election offices in Fulton County, Ga., as part of a criminal investigation into alleged “deficiencies or defects” in the vote count in the 2020 contest lost by President Trump, according to an affidavit unsealed Tuesday.

The affidavit provides the first public justification for an FBI search last month that targeted a county that Trump and allies have long seen as central to their false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. The investigation, based on a referral from a Trump administration official, rests on claims that have long been made by people who assert widespread fraud in the contest even though audits, state officials, courts and Trump’s own former attorney general have all rejected the idea of widespread problems that could have altered the outcome.

The investigation began with a referral from Kurt Olsen, who served as Trump’s 2020 campaign lawyer when it lost dozens of lawsuits challenging the election and now serves as an administration official overseeing the attempt to investigate Trump’s loss, according to the affidavit.

The search of the heavily Democratic county stirred immediate concerns among Democrats that Trump was marshaling the powers of the FBI and Justice Department to pursue retribution over his persistent claims of a stolen election and because of the unusual presence of Tulsi Gabbard, the country’s director of national intelligence. The affidavit makes no mention of any evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election even though the possibility of such meddling has been a long-standing conspiracy theory among Trump supporters who question the 2020 vote count.

Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia by about 11,800 votes in an election overseen by a Republican secretary of state and certified by a Republican governor.

Among the “deficiencies or defects” investigators are looking at is Fulton County’s admission that it does not have scanned images of all the ballots counted during the original count or the recount, according to the affidavit. Fulton County has also confirmed that some ballots were scanned multiple times during the recount, the affidavit says.

“If these deficiencies were the result of intentional action, it would be a violation of federal law regardless of whether the failure to retain records or the deprivation of a fair tabulation of a vote was outcome determinative for any particular election or race,” the document says.

The affidavit says seizures of the election records was necessary to determine whether election records were destroyed and or the tabulation of votes included materially false votes.” It cites potential violations of a law regarding the preservation and retention of election records, a misdemeanor. It also cites a law that makes it a crime to “knowingly and willfully” deprive residents of a “fair and impartially conducted election process,” which is a felony.

But the document also expresses uncertainty about whether the potential defects constitute a crime, noting that elections in Fulton County have already been the subject of multiple reviews.

After a particularly disastrous primary election in 2020, an independent monitor was hired to observe the general election that year as part of an agreement between the county and the State Election Board. He documented “sloppy processes” and “systemic disorganization” but found no evidence of illegality or fraud.

State lawmakers in 2021 used a provision of a new law to initiate a performance review of the county’s election practices. That review found that the county’s elections had been characterized by “disorganization and a lack of a sense of urgency in resolving issues.” But it also found the county had shown marked improvement.

An investigation by the secretary of state’s office and a performance review by the state elections board, which came at the urging of the Republican-controlled Legislature, came to similar conclusions.

According to the affidavit, the review board stated, “we do not see any evidence of fraud, intentional misconduct, or large systematic issues that would have affected the result of the November 2020 election.”

Agents armed with a warrant spent hours on Jan. 28 at the country elections hub, just sought of Atlanta, before driving off with trucks loaded with hundreds of cartons of election materials.

A week after the seizure, Fulton County officials filed a motion seeking the return of the materials that had been taken and the unsealing of the sworn statement presented to the judge who signed off on the search. The warrant sought the seizure of the following documents related to the 2020 election in the county: all ballots, tabulator tapes from the scanners that tally the votes, electronic ballot images created when the ballots were counted and then recounted, and all voter rolls.

“Claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent or otherwise invalid have been exhaustively reviewed and, without exception, refuted,” the county argued in a court filing, noting that numerous lawsuits, as well as state and federal investigations, had found no evidence of fraud.

Brumback, Tucker and Durkin Richer write for the Associated Press. AP writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

Georgia cuisine is all about comfort food from BBQ and fried chicken to pies and mashed potatoes. But what’s the best? Food Network claimed one as the best in the February/March issue of its magazine in a list of the top in each state.

What is the best comfort food in Georgia?

Representing Georgia as the ‘coziest dish’ is classic cornbread. Food Network highlighted that it was made the official state bread last year and that it’s a nod to the area’s Cherokee roots.

What are Georgia’s official state foods?

The same legislation that made cornbread an official food of Georgia did the same for Brunswick stew. Some similar symbols include grits as Georgia’s official prepared food, peaches as the official state fruit, and largemouth mass as the official state fish.

Cornbread recipe

Food Network’s recipe is to whisk 1 cup of yellow cornmeal and flour, one-fourth cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt, and half a teaspoon of baking soda in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk 2 eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk, one-fourth cup of whole mil, and 7 tablespoons of melted butter until smooth.

Whisk the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and pour the batter into a buttered 9-inch ovenproof skillet; smooth the top. Bake at 375 degrees until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; about 25-30 minutes.

Who plays Cornbread from Sinners?

There’s another reason cornbread is having a big year: It’s the name of one of 2025’s biggest and best movies of the year, “Sinners.” Cornbread is played by Omar Benson Miller and (SPOILER ALERT) is one of the first to be turned into a vampire.

Miller won a Gotham Award for his role in the film. If you didn’t see “Sinners,” you may know him as Charles Greene in HBO’s “Ballers” and Sol Georgie in “8 Mile.”

Miguel Legoas is a Deep South Connect Team Reporter for USA Today. Find him on Instagram @miguelegoas and email at mlegoas@gannett.com.