President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a senior defence official issued dire accounts of Russian forces shelling and advancing in Ukraine’s eastern province of Donetsk, the main focal point of the 11-month-long war.

Fierce fighting was unabated in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are trying to gain ground near the strategic logistics hub of Lyman, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Wednesday evening.

“A definite increase has been noted in the offensive operations of the occupiers on the front in the east of our country. The situation has become tougher,” Zelenskiy said in a Wednesday evening video address.

The Russian forces were trying to make gains that they could show on the anniversary of their Feb 24, 2022 invasion, Zelenskiy said.

At least two people were killed and seven wounded on Wednesday night after a Russian rocket strike destroyed a residential building in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, officials said.

“People are screaming under the rubble. Another terrorist act by Russia. The only way to stop it and save people’s lives is more weapons for Ukraine,” Ukrainian government minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Twitter.

At least 44 people were killed in January when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the city of Dnipro.

Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of war crimes and targeting civilians, charges Russia rejects.

After a failed advance on the capital Kyiv early in the campaign, Russia said it was reorienting its military drive to secure control of the industrial eastern region known as the Donbas.

It is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which were declared annexed by Moscow in September following sham referendums denounced by most countries. Moscow-aligned fighters seized large areas of both in 2014, and in recent months after a slow advance south and east, Russian forces control most of Luhansk region. Local proxies say Russian forces have captured about half of Donetsk region.

“Fierce fighting rages in the east. The enemy is trying to expand the area of its offensive in the Lyman sector,” the deputy minister Mylar said on the Telegram messaging app. “It is making powerful attempts to break through our defences.”

Ukrainian troops drove Russian forces out of Lyman in October, a significant setback for a military with more troops and weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what he called a “special military operation” to protect Russian security and Russian speakers nearly a year ago. The invasion has killed thousands of civilians, uprooted millions and reduced cities to rubble.

More recently Russia has characterized the conflict as confronting what it says is an aggressive and expansionist U.S.-led NATO military alliance. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to grab territory from its pro-Western neighbour.

Meanwhile, Zelenskiy is cracking down on corruption in his government, a campaign that appears to reflect determination to demonstrate that it can be a steward of billions of dollars in Western aid and shed a reputation for endemic graft.

Security services searched the home of one of Ukraine’s most influential businessmen on Wednesday, just days before senior European Union officials visit Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader said he is prepared to make more personnel changes to fight corruption.

“Unfortunately, in some areas, the only way to guarantee the rule of law is to change the leadership … there will be as many changes as is necessary,” he said in a video address.

As soon as next week, the Memphis City Council will consider a raft of reforms aimed at curtailing police violence after the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols by five officers following a traffic stop.

The measures call for more transparency around use-of-force data, increased access to body-camera video and greater power for a citizen review board, according to interviews with council members. City leaders also want to review police hiring.

This isn’t the first time the Tennessee city has grappled with bad policing practices and promised changes. But after Nichols’ beating and subsequent death made Memphis the latest emblem of police brutality against Black Americans, city leaders are facing more pressure than ever to shore up police accountability and hiring standards.

“We cannot allow this moment to pass us by when activism coupled with concern from the community is at its peak,” Memphis City Councilman J.B. Smiley Jr. said. “The time is now for Memphis and this nation.”

Videos released last week showed Nichols crying out for his mother as the five officers kicked, punched and beat him with a baton on Jan. 7, a use of force Police Chief Cerelyn Davis described as “inhumane.” Nichols, 29, died in a hospital three days later.

The beating occurred despite the use-of-force policies that Memphis and other U.S. cities pledged to strengthen after the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Those policies included using only necessary amounts of force and a duty to intervene to stop dangerous conduct by a fellow officer.

Some activists criticized the policies as not enough to overhaul a law enforcement system they viewed as racially biased. The Memphis Police Department did not respond to queries about how the policies were enforced.

Smiley, a Democrat, said he is confident Nichols’ death will embolden the 13-member council to support three ordinances, or local laws, that he plans to introduce at their meeting next Tuesday to bring about more accountability.

Smiley said his proposals would require police to disclose detailed data on traffic stops and excessive force complaints; mandate that body-camera video of incidents involving allegations of misconduct be shared with the council’s attorney and security officer; and ensure a civilian oversight board is informed about the implementation of their recommended reforms.

Community activists also want city leaders to end pretextual traffic stops, in which cops can pull over motorists for something minor in order to investigate more serious crimes. Police said they pulled Nichols over for reckless driving, but Davis has called the basis for the stop into question.

Memphis activist LJ Abraham said she hopes Nichols’ case will persuade the council to take demands for bolder reforms more seriously.

“I think this gives us a bit of an upper hand in what we are asking for,” she said.

Frank Colvett, a Republican council member, said an examination of police hiring standards and assessment of officers’ mental fitness is needed after the five officers were charged with Nichols’ murder.

“How do we make sure that people like that don’t get anywhere near a Memphis Police officer’s badge?” Colvett asked.

Smiley said they expected the police department and union to push back on some of the reforms. Lieutenant Essica Cage-Rosario, president of the Memphis Police Association, declined to comment, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

In recent years, city leaders have sought to boost the department’s officer ranks, which dwindled as violent crime spiked. An aggressive recruiting drive increased the number of officers by about 10% from 2017 to 2020. There were 1,941 officers on duty as of January, far short of the city’s goal of 2,300.

As part of the hiring spree, the city dropped a requirement that recruits have an associate’s degree or military experience.

Michael Williams, then president of the Memphis Police Association, said in 2018 that standards had been lowered so much that unqualified officers were patrolling the streets.

The police department did not respond to a request for comment on its hiring practices. The five officers charged in Nichols’ case were hired between 2017 and 2020, and assigned to the specialized “SCORPION” force formed in 2021 to patrol high-crime areas. Davis disbanded the unit last week.

This week on a local television show he hosts, Williams said the revised hiring practices could not be directly tied to the Nichols beating He said Memphis had one of the best training academies in the United States.

“A lot of the officers that we got, even with lowering the standards, have been good officers. You can have officers that have Ph.D.s, master’s and bachelor degrees and they can still be bad – it’s all according to the mentality of the officer,” he said.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a policing research organization, said cities should prioritize investment in recruiting and training over more oversight measures to prevent tragedies from occurring in the first place.

In a 2020 survey of some 280 U.S. police departments, PERF found that 71% spent less than 5% of their budget on training, and that the training duration for U.S. police officers was much shorter than in European countries.

“The issue isn’t that you have to watch the police more, the issue is you have to hire the better people, train them better and then supervise them better,” Wexler said.

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Peru’s Congress on Wednesday rejected a proposal to move elections forward to December 2023, despite nearly two months of protests that have left dozens dead following the ousting of former President Pedro Castillo.

Lawmakers will continue debating a different proposal to hold early elections, a key demand of the protesters. The first proposal – one of several motions – was rejected by 68 lawmakers, and voted for by 54, with two abstentions.

Within the deeply fragmented Congress, some lawmakers wish to finish their original term, while others want to go further and hold a referendum for a new constitution.

Protesters have over past weeks blocked roads, taken over airports and set some buildings on fire, with demands including early elections, Congress’ closure, the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and Castillo’s release from jail.

Congress had supported a proposal to move the scheduled 2026 elections to April 2024, but the move failed to quell the unrest.

Castillo had been propelled into power in 2021 thanks to support from Peru’s south and poorer rural Andean regions, the focus of the protests.

A leftist former teacher, Castillo was embroiled in multiple corruption investigations and went through five Cabinets and more than 80 ministers during his 17 months in power.

He was arrested on Dec. 7 and is being held in pre-trial detention after he tried to illegally dissolve Congress. His vice-president Boluarte, who was sworn in hours after he was removed from office, is Peru’s sixth president in five years.

After years of political infighting, a January survey by local pollster IEP found that Congress, seen as corrupt and self-serving, has an approval rating of just 7%. Boluarte fared little better at 17%, while 73% backed new elections this year.

California Democrats on Wednesday vowed to enact new legislation aimed at protecting state restrictions on carrying concealed weapons from conservative legal challenges, days after two mass shootings left 18 people dead in the most-populous U.S. state.

The proposed legislation would raise the age at which a gun owner can apply for a concealed-carry permit, increase the training requirement for obtaining a permit and ban the use of alcohol while carrying a concealed weapon. It also would carve out sensitive zones in airports and around schools where concealed weapons would not be allowed.

“There are far too many gun violence tragedies in America, leading us to the point of almost becoming numb,” said state Senator Anthony Portantino, a Democrat.

The bill was introduced in the Democratic-controlled state legislature in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year that overturned New York’s concealed-carry permitting process and widened gun rights.

To comply with that ruling, the California proposal would remove a state requirement that applicants for a concealed-carry permit show why they need one, and would give private property owners the ability to allow concealed weapons in some cases in which they might otherwise be banned.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said the bill was crafted to comply with the Supreme Court decision and survive legal challenges. Many gun regulations have been challenged at the state and federal level by firearms owners and gun-rights advocates.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, acknowledged that the proposal would not have prevented either of the two mass shootings last month in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, and said it was not introduced in response to those incidents.

But Newsom said that taken together with other gun control laws, the legislation would be part of a pattern of regulation that had led California to have one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the United States. A similar proposal failed in the legislature last year, but Newsom said he was confident the new version would be approved in the current session.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, left. Former president Donald Trump, right.

Getty Images

• Lawyers for Trump argued Wednesday against threatened sanctions in NY’s $250 million fraud lawsuit.
• Oral arguments focused on whether something called the “Trump Organization” legally exists.
• The judge, meanwhile, warned that “come hell or high water” an October trial will not be delayed.

New York’s $250 million fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump, his family, and his company will go to trial this October as scheduled, a judge warned at a court hearing on Wednesday, as lawyers for both sides continued warring over a seemingly basic definition: What is the Trump Organization?

“I am determined to start the case on time,” the judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, told 15 lawyers and legal support staff in a Manhattan courtroom.

“Come hell or high water, and pardon my French,” the judge added of his set-in-stone trial start time: 10 a.m. on Monday, October 2, 2023.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ massive September lawsuit seeks to permanently bar Trump and his three eldest children from doing business in New York.

The lawsuit alleges Trump and Trump Organization executives lied about the value of company properties by billions of dollars, and did so to cheat banks, insurers, and tax authorities.

Keeping the parties on track for trial required the judge on Wednesday to shoo them from the brink of an existential rabbit hole: an ongoing debate over whether the Trump Organization — the former president’s real-estate and golf resort company — is even a thing.

Lawyers for Trump insisted at the hearing, as they have repeatedly in 5,000 pages of recent court filings, that the name is just a branding shorthand for some 500 Trump-owned subsidiaries.

There actually is no such legal entity as the Trump Organization, so James can’t just throw the name around in her lawsuit, they argued.

“We’re careful lawyers,” Trump’s high-price attorney, Christopher Kise, a former solicitor general of Florida, explained of any seemingly time-frittering quibbling over whether the Trump Organization exists.

“Words matter,” agreed Kise’s co-counsel, Clifford Roberts. “I don’t want to use the phrase ‘sloppy pleading,’ that’s derogatory,” he added at another point, taking a swipe at the attorney general’s lawsuit.

Lawyers for James however, appeared unwilling on Wednesday to let go.

It’s shorthand for them, as well — James’ lawsuit references “the Trump Organization,” for convenience’s sake, some 300 times in its 222 pages.

The Trump defendants are trying to hide behind repetitive blocks of text denying the Trump Organization is a thing, Kevin Wallace, senior enforcement counsel for James, told the judge Wednesday.

Doing so obscures “what’s being acknowledged and what’s being denied,” he complained.

As an example, Trump wouldn’t even admit, in Thursday’s 300-page answer to James’ lawsuit, that he remained the de facto president of the Trump Organization during his White House years, something he’d conceded under oath in another lawsuit, Wallace complained to the judge.

Instead, Trump repeated that the name is just branding shorthand, Wallace said.

Wallace on Tuesday had sent the judge a letter calling for sanctions against the lawsuit’s 16 defendants and their legal teams, calling Thursday’s 5,000 pages of responses to the James lawsuit “meritless,” “repetitive,” and “improper,” among other descriptors.

Engoron agreed Wednesday that the defendants’ filings were too long.

James’ lawsuit sues Donald Trump, Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, former CFO Allen Weisselberg, controller Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization, Inc., and various related trusts, holding companies, and subsidiaries — 16 defendants in all.

Of the 16 defendant responses to James’ lawsuit, filed en masse on Thursday night, 15 were 300 pages or longer, in large part due to the repetitive blocks of text denying that the Trump Organization exists.

“I don’t know how many countless pages — if I was good at math I would have been an accountant — were wasted,” the judge quipped. 

The judge urged the attorney general’s office and the defendants’ lawyers to avoid a protracted argument over sanctions.

“They’re messy, they’re controversial,” added the judge. “I’m hoping we can just reach a resolution.” 

Engoron fined Donald Trump $110,000 in May for failing to fully comply with James’ subpoenas as part of a contempt-of-court finding currently under strenuous appeal.

James can’t seek sanctions as a first resort “every time the attorney general doesn’t like a position we take,” argued another Trump defense lawyer, Armen Morian. “It’s not a good look,” Morian said.

Wallace warned that the attorney general’s office may yet seek sanctions if the amended paperwork continues to include provably-false denials.

But he agreed to set that threat aside, and for now, send the defense teams letters detailing what he called their “problematic responses.”

The defense lawyers agreed to address those concerns — and tighten up what the judge called their “excessive verbiage” — in amended versions of their paperwork.

“Maybe, miraculously, one of the answers is OK,” and won’t need amending, Kise suggested with a smile, as the hearing wrapped.

Across a courtroom conference table, another lead assistant attorney general on the case, Andrew Amer, slowly shook his head back and forth, “No,” and smiled back.

Sheetz used to make a flawless smile a condition of employment. Now, the chain is dropping the requirement after Insider’s reporting.

Ted Shaffrey/AP

• Sheetz is dropping a rule against hiring workers with obvious dental issues.
• “Effective immediately, the policy is discontinued,” an executive told Insider.
• Insider previously reported on workers whose careers were set back as a result of the rule.

Sheetz is dropping its policy against hiring employees with dental issues after Insider’s coverage of the rule and its effect on workers.

“Recently through employee feedback, we have learned that the smile policy is not aligned with these values from their perspective,” Stephanie Doliveira, executive vice president of people & culture at Sheetz, told Insider.

“We agree. Effective immediately, this policy is discontinued,” Doliveira said. “We are committed to ensuring our policies moving forward are equitable and celebrate the diverse experiences, individual identities and unique perspectives of our employees.”

The convenience-store chain changed its policy after Insider reported on its inclusion in Sheetz’s employee handbook. The rule stated that “applicants with obvious missing, broken, or badly discolored teeth (unrelated to a disability) are not qualified for employment with Sheetz.” The handbook also gave workers already employed at Sheetz 90 days to comply with the policy.

Insider also spoke with former employees who were affected by the policy. One quit her job after a manager asked for details about her missing teeth and her plans for dental work. Another decided not to pursue a promotion after a manager told them that the employee’s discolored teeth would make it impossible. Both asked to remain anonymous because they feared damaging their job prospects. Insider verified their work histories.

“Our culture at Sheetz has always been centered on respect and putting our employees, customers and communities first,” Doliveira told Insider. “As a family owned and operated company, nothing is more important than creating an environment that is inclusive and supportive of all of our employees.”

Pennsylvania-based Sheetz has better benefits than many rival retailers, such as 12 weeks of maternity leave and reimbursement for college tuition, employees told Insider. That made the company’s policy “weirdly over the top for them,” one former employee told Insider.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the US economy at Steamfitters Local 602 on January 26, 2023 in Springfield, Virginia.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• Tyre Nichols’ death has reignited talk about bolstering police accountability. 
• Police reforms flamed out in the last Congress after Senate lawmakers failed to reach consensus.
• House Democrats hope that Biden making it a top priority helps break the current logjam.

Lawmakers horrified by the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols vow to keep working towards a legislative solution in the 118th Congress, but are counting on President Joe Biden to turn up the heat on comprehensive policing reform. 

The lethal beating Nichols received from five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee earlier this month has sparked plenty of outrage on Capitol Hill. It has not, however, broken the political stalemate that led to a House-passed police accountability deal languishing in the other chamber, while bipartisan talks on a Senate alternative sputtered out after failing to attract enough support to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold. 

Absent a sudden breakthrough on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 — a bipartisan bill named for the 46-year-old Black man murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 — Congressional Black Caucus chair Steven Horsford said hashing out a strategy with Biden for prioritizing policing reform is the best way to go.

“There are times when we come together, and that generally involves the president and all of us working to put partisanship aside,” Horsford told Insider at the US Capitol, adding that the CBC’s emergency meeting with Biden would focus on reaffirming his pro-policing reform stance in the upcoming State of the Union address. 

“We will be meeting on Thursday to talk about the details of what we would like that message to include,” Horsford said. 

Biden said he was “outraged and deeply pained” when the bodycam footage of the Nichols encounter was released. 

“We must do everything in our power to ensure our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all,” Biden said in an official statement. On Monday he said making the George Floyd Act the law of the land is long overdue. 

“I think we should do it right now. We should have done it before,” Biden told reporters at the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Memphis on Wednesday to attend Nichols funeral, where she called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Act. 

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the funeral service for Tyre Nichols at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean via AP, Pool

Biden and Harris both spoke with Nichols’ mother and stepfather to offer support and Biden pledged to continue pushing Congress pass the bill, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

Last year, Biden issued an executive order designed to bolster the accountability and transparency of law enforcement actions. 

Asked whether he’s considering additional executive action, White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre noted that Biden’s executive order resulted in “immediate change” at the federal level, mandating standards limiting the use of force, banning chokeholds, requiring body-worn cameras and restricting “no-knock” warrants. 

Now he wants to see Congress act in a bipartisan way to “make transformational change,” she said.

“We’re going to talk to the CBC members, and talk through what their ideas are and what they’re thinking,” she said. “But again, we think that legislation, federal legislation, is the way to move forward here.”

‘Our nation is reeling’

Having moved the ball forward last term with the House-passed bill and Biden’s executive orders, Horsford said lawmakers need to build on that momentum right now. 

“It shouldn’t be that hard for us to come together, to work together, and to find solutions to the issue of the culture of policing,” Horsford said off the House floor, adding that “all of us should agree that bad policing has no place in American communities and America’s cities.”

House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar was much less optimistic about policing reform opponents suddenly rallying around the Floyd Act or any other substantive proposals. 

“Senate Republicans wouldn’t go along with that level of accountability. And it’s too bad,” Aguilar said of the wasted opportunities in the 117th Congress during a Tuesday press conference at the US Capitol. 

Aguilar did not address questions about when or if the George Floyd Act would be reintroduced this session, stating only that he expects Horsford and former CBC chair Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio to continue spearheading those efforts. 

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who in 2021 tried cobbling together a policing reform package with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey until those negotiations fell apart, said Americans are rightly “reeling” from news of another senseless killing.

—Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) January 31, 2023

“I take the issue of policing in America seriously,” Scott, who is a likely 2024 presidential contender, said on the Senate floor. 

Scott urged his colleagues to quit pointing fingers and finally do whatever it takes to ward off future tragedies, arguing that fixes like the enhanced deescalation techniques and curbs against excessive force that he’s been pushing “could have made a difference in Memphis.” 

Horsford couldn’t agree more about seizing the moment. 

“The thing is, it may have been Tyre Nichols yesterday. But who will it be next?” he said Tuesday night.  

Flanked by the parents of Tyre Nichols and faith and community leaders, civil rights attorney Ben Crump speaks next to a photo of Nichols during a press conference on January 27, 2023 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg said in Meta’s fourth quarter earnings release that 2023 will be the “year of efficiency.’

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

• Mark Zuckerberg told investors on Wednesday that 2023 will be the “year of efficiency.”
• Meta laid off over 11,000 employees last year, and there are signs more layoffs could be coming.
• Meta’s latest earnings report beat expectations, sending the stock up more than 18% in extended trading.

Mark Zuckerberg had a slightly ominous message for employees in Meta’s latest earnings release on Wednesday.

“Our management theme for 2023 is the ‘year of efficiency,’ and we’re focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization,” the Meta CEO said in the company’s fourth quarter earnings release.

In November, the Big Tech company laid off more than 11,000 employees — the largest cull in the company’s history. Zuckerberg said in an internal memo at the time that the layoffs were a “last resort.”

But Meta’s recent earnings release signals there could be more layoffs on the horizon.

The company said it spent over $3.7 billion on restructuring efforts in 2022, including severance payouts for employees,  as well as the early termination of some of its office leases. In the coming year, Meta said it “may incur additional restructuring charges as we progress further in our efficiency efforts.”

During Meta’s earnings call, Zuckerberg commented further on the issue.

“We closed last year with some difficult layoffs and when we did this, I said clearly that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end,” Zuckerberg said, adding the company plans to take further steps to remove some layers of middle management and equip engineers with more AI tools.

Insider’s Kali Hays reported earlier this week that Meta employees have been bracing for another round of layoffs in recent weeks amid signs of more cost-cutting measures at the company. Last week, The Verge reported that Zuckerberg had said during a recent employee Q&A that he didn’t want a “management structure that’s just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work” – another sign that layoffs could be eminent for middle managers at Meta.

A Meta spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication.

Overall, Meta’s report beat Wall Street expectations, sending shares up more than 18% in extended trading. Meta had a lackluster year in 2022, losing over half of its value as investors began to express doubt in Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse.

Meta is one of many tech companies to initiate a series of layoffs and cost-cutting moves amid fears of a recession.

Close up of someone hands holding and counting American dollar banknotes in her hand

Boy_Anupong / Getty Images

• An estimated $70 billion in unclaimed property is being held by states, and belongs to about 33 million Americans.
• Treasury departments across nearly every state in the US collaborate to maintain a database of the property.
• Americans are encouraged to search for property that may belong to them in any state where they’ve lived. 

An estimated one in seven Americans, about 33 million people, has unclaimed property in at least one state, adding up to tens of billions nationwide.

State treasury departments encourage Americans to search for their name on MissingMoney.com, every February 1, or on National Unclaimed Property Day, The online database lists property turned over to treasury departments in nearly every state.

According to the site, which is run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, the average claim is just over $2,000, but they range from pennies to thousands, and there is an estimated $70 billion in unclaimed property on the website, according to CNBC.

The property can come in many forms, including inactive bank accounts, uncashed paychecks, contents of a safe deposit box, or insurance payments that were never issued. If an asset is not claimed or there’s been no activity on an account for a certain period, often a year or longer, the funds go to the state’s treasury department.

“States are required to return unclaimed property to its owner no matter how long it takes,” Nebraska’s treasurer and NAUPA President John Murante said. “It is your money and should be returned to you.”

The National Association of State Treasurers also advertises the program through its Twitter account with film references and memes:

—National Association of State Treasurers (@StateTreasurers) February 1, 2023

While companies and states try to contact rightful owners, it’s nearly impossible to proactively return money to everyone.

Just over $4 billion was returned to Americans across 48 states and Washington, D.C., last year, according to an NAUPA report. The NAUPA encourages Americans to search nationally or in any state where they have lived, using their current or former names, or any businesses or nonprofits connected to them. 

—National Association of State Treasurers (@StateTreasurers) January 30, 2023