On Your Side: Thieves targeting Californians on food stamps
The state has paid out millions a month to reimburse victims as EBT fraud increased by 6000%.
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Kristine Lazar is an Emmy award-winning consumer investigative reporter for CBS LA. Kristine graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley (Go Bears!), after growing up in Del Mar, in San Diego County. Kristine loves her home state of California so much that she has worked up and down the state, from Palm Springs and Fresno to San Diego, before landing here in Los Angeles in 2007.
In 2017, she helped launch our consumer franchise, which is now part of the largest investigative team in the state, CBS News California Investigates. You can catch her reports during our weekday morning show from 7am to 10am. Kristine prides herself on saving you money and keeping viewers informed about important consumer news and the latest scams to watch out for. Kristine's investigative reporting has changed legislation. Her reporting on the fatal 2008 Metrolink accident in Chatsworth led to the passage of federal legislation limiting cell phone use by conductors and engineers on trains. She also broke what would become a multibillion-dollar pandemic scam, as California became ground zero for unemployment benefits fraud. During that time, she helped hundreds of viewers recover the money stolen from them.
Though she loves what she does, having decided at the ripe old age of 4 that she wanted to become a journalist, Kristine's favorite job is that of being a mother. She is the proud mom to a boy, Griffin, and twin girls, Lola and Mary. She's also married to a twin, so you could say she's become a bit of an expert at living with multiples. When Kristine isn't at work, she enjoys spending all day in the backyard with her kids, running with her husband, or visiting the beaches in her hometown. She also loves to bake- but only foods with lots of sugar and butter!
If you have a story tip, you can email Kristine at klazar@cbs.com.
The state has paid out millions a month to reimburse victims as EBT fraud increased by 6000%.
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