Nevada
Welfare fraud sees 650% increase in Nevada
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Scammers are targeting Electronic Benefit Transfer cards by using fake devices at grocery stores to steal from low income families trying to put food on the table, and are doing so at an alarmingly increasing rate.
It’s something California officials have been catching criminals doing on camera recently, and the Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services says the same tactics are impacting families in Nevada.
Last week, FOX5 talked with Anthony, a father of three who had the entire balance on his EBT card for the month of April drained, save for six dollars. His card was refilled early Wednesday morning, but for nine days, he had to worry about how he was going to feed his kids.
“Thankfully, family pulled through, so it wasn’t as horrible as I was expecting it to be,” Anthony said about the last week and a half. “But it was still a struggle. It was still bare minimum, and me and the wife were skipping meals.”
Anthony is one of an exponentially increasing number of victims of this kind of crime in Nevada as of late. In July 2023, the state gained approval from the federal government to start replacing stolen benefits, and since then, the state has averaged about 200 claims per month. In just the first ten days of April, though, there have been about 1,500 claims, with more still coming in.
“These thieves are actually placing a skimming device on the credit card machine at a retailer,” Marni Whalen, Deputy Administrator of the Nevada Division of Welfare & Supportive Services, told FOX5 Wednesday. “When somebody uses their EBT card there, their information is skimmed and then replicated somehow and made into another cloned card.”
Once that information is replicated, Whalen says the thieves can then use it to take the services meant for families in need, for themselves.
“They could produce an actual physical card or they could just be storing the information and processing it that way online,” she explained.
Whalen says the state has not identified the specific retailers where this is happening, but it’s part of an ongoing investigation. She added that most of the time, it takes 10 to 30 days for the state to replenish the cards that have been drained by criminals.
Anthony hopes everyone gets their card refilled in less time than that, like he did.
“It was like we just won something,” Anthony said of the moment he saw his card had been replenished. “Everybody jumped up and we ran to 7-11 and got some snacks and drinks.”
He hopes no other family has to suffer like his at the hands of welfare thieves.
“It was just really nice to be able to go shopping and not have to worry about what I’m feeding them for dinner tonight instead,” he said, fresh off a trip to the grocery store Wednesday evening. “My fridge is full, and even if I wanted to fit more in my freezer, I couldn’t at this point.”
Whalen says the team in charge of investigating these crimes needs more resources to address the issue and restore the lost benefits in a timely way. She adds these crimes tend to happen at the beginning of the month when people are expecting their benefits to come in.
Anyone who is impacted can find resources here.
Copyright 2024 KVVU. All rights reserved.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — A deadly crash has closed all lanes at I-15 and Charleston Boulevard, police say.
Nevada State Police posted on social media after 7 p.m. about the crash. Police say drivers in the area should use other routes.
Police have not immediately shared details about the victim or if other people are involved. It’s not yet confirmed if impairment is suspected.
This is a developing story. Check back later for details.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
This story was co-published with Public Domain.
Karen Budd-Falen, a top official at the Department of Interior, has financial ties to the controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada — a project that the Trump administration worked to fast-track during its first term. In recent months, the administration took an equity stake in the mine and the mine’s parent company.
After an unexplained delay, Public Domain and High Country News obtained Budd-Falen’s financial disclosure earlier this month, which details her family’s extensive land holdings. Among them is Home Ranch LLC, a Nevada ranching operation valued at over $1 million. Nevada’s business search database shows a Home Ranch LLC that listed Frank Falen as the manager in February 2022. Frank Falen is also the name of Karen Budd Falen’s husband.
In November 2018, not long after Karen Budd-Falen joined the first Trump administration as a top legal official at the Interior Department, Home Ranch LLC agreed to sell water rights to Lithium Nevada Corporation, the company developing the Thacker Pass mine, for an undisclosed amount of money, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Frank Falen is listed on the document.
A Home Ranch also appears in planning documents that Lithium Nevada submitted to federal regulators during Trump’s first term. A monitoring plan for Thacker Pass, dated July 2021, notes that the company intended to use existing stock water wells owned by Home Ranch LLC to “monitor potential drawdown impacts” from its mining operations.
The water purchase agreement and other records raise questions about potential conflicts of interest. Budd-Falen was appointed in March as associate deputy secretary to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — a position that does not require Senate confirmation. She also served as a high-ranking legal official at the Interior Department during President Trump’s first term.
It was during that earlier government stint that her official calendar lists a November 6, 2019 meeting in which Budd-Falen was scheduled to have “lunch with Lithium Nevada.”
In 2019, Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining firm Lithium Americas, was seeking speedy approval for its Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada. In the waning days of the first Trump administration it received just that. In January 2021, the Bureau of Land Management approved the mine project, which includes some 5,700 acres of public land.
The $2.2 billion, open-pit mine project has drawn fierce opposition from area tribes and environmentalists, who argue it threatens water resources, endangered species and sacred cultural sites. Thacker Pass, known as Peehee Mu’huh to the Paiute Shoshone people, was the site of an 1865 massacre of at least 31 Paiute people.
Budd-Falen was being considered to lead the BLM during Trump’s first term, but turned down the director job when she learned that she and her husband would have to sell their interests in their family ranches to avoid conflicts of interest, she told The Fence Post in 2018.
Since returning to power, Trump and his team have again worked to move the project forward, as part of a broader push to boost critical mineral mining in the U.S. In September, the Trump administration struck a deal with Lithium Americas to take a 5% equity stake in both the Thacker Pass mine and the company, in exchange for the release of loan money from the Department of Energy.
Budd-Falen has largely worked behind the scenes at the Interior Department. Little is known about what issues she has focused on since returning to the sprawling agency. Notably, Interior officials have yet to release her ethics agreement, which would detail any companies or projects that are off limits.
“Did she have any oversight of the environmental review process regarding Thacker Pass? It is a big question,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, a water conservation group in Nevada. “If she didn’t recuse herself, it would fly in the face of the impartial decisionmaking that Americans expect from government officials.”
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SPARKS, Nev. (BRAIN) — Bicycle Technologies International relocated its warehouse and service operations to a new distribution center with a footprint 50% larger than its previous location about a half mile away.
The facility increases BTI’s inventory capacity, and accelerates order fulfillment for its dealer network. It also expands BTI’s suspension service workspace. All the daily cutoff times will remain unchanged for shops, and the facility is fully operational and shipping packages.
“Our new Sparks distribution center represents a major investment in the future of our company and in the success of our retailer partners,” said Preston Martin, BTI co-founder. “The expanded footprint is timely given that BTI will be introducing more top brands in 2026.”
The company is headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and continues to ship from there as well.
BTI said more stock at the new facility means fewer split shipments from multiple locations, reducing the average carbon footprint per order.
Supplementing the building’s skylights and office windows, BTI upgraded all lighting to LEDs with occupancy sensors that save energy by turning off lights in vacant areas. The Sparks’ staff can utilize BTI’s Green Machine benefit that pays employees cash to ride, walk, or take public transit to work.
BTI’s new address is 740 E Glendale Ave., Sparks, Nevada, 89431.
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