Free Republic

For three years, Tovia O'Neal simultaneously received food stamps, cash welfare, and Medicaid benefits in both Texas and New Mexico. Using a relative’s address, she raked in nearly $50,000 in benefits from New Mexico alone, on top of the welfare benefits she received in Texas. An investigation prompted by the Office of Inspector General led to a 2012 indictment and eventual plea agreement. Sadly, stories like O’Neal’s are far too common. Thousands of individuals across the country receive welfare benefits in states they no longer live in, in states they’ve never lived in, or even in multiple states at once....

How about Mitt Romney letting Russ Westbrook have it last night?

At the very end of his presidency, Barack Obama instructed the nation to pay no attention to allegations of vote fraud, that such allegations were “fake news.” “This whole notion of voting fraud — this is something that has constantly been disproved. This is fake news,” Obama said emphatically. “The notion that there are a whole bunch of people out there who are going out there and are not eligible to vote and want to vote. We have the opposite problem. We have a whole bunch of people who are eligible to vote who don't vote, and so the...

**SNIP** The Daily Caller notes that the Privileged Account Access Form (pdf) used by the House, to garner access to IT services, allows the “authorizing official” to provide their assessment of trustworthiness via a background check in accordance with the guidance or via an attestation of trustworthiness. The Daily Caller called 44 members of Congress and found that none disputed that they had used the attestation option, but none would identify which of their colleagues provided the original attestation of trustworthiness.

On Saturday, actor James Woods reached out to alumni of Columibia University, asking for photo evidence that former President Barack Obama actually attended the school. As of this writing, the tweet received over 35,000 likes and was shared over 14,000 times. “Hey, if any of you went to Columbia University and recall Barack Obama as a student there, would you please respond with a tweet and a pic of him at Columbia? Thanks,” he tweeted.

The Obama Foundation saw its largest donations so far this year come from repeat contributors who pledged to give even more money toward the organization’s vision, records show. The Crown Family, which owns a stake of the Chicago Bulls, real estate mogul and gay rights activist Mel Heifetz, and the Ford Foundation have made large million-dollar contributions before but agreed to repeat donations of more than $1 million each. The Obama Foundation reported one new donor of more than $1 million: Iger Bay Foundation, which is affiliated with the Disney family. The Obama Foundation was also given more than $250,000...

Pac-Man and Donkey Kong master Billy Mitchell has built up quite the reputation for himself over the last few decades, both for his undeniable gaming skills and his abrasive and competitive personality. Unfortunately, it appears he’ll now be remembered for something else, as well: Cheating. Twin Galaxies, a retro-gaming record organization that tracks scores in many classic arcade games, announced on April 12 that it was removing Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong scores from its leaderboards, as well as all scores he had achieved in other games.The decision comes after the validity of several of his Donkey Kong scores were called...

Three former New York City cops were busted Wednesday and charged with ripping off the federal government with $1.4 million in false disability claims. One of the ex-cops, Gerard Scparta, 53, stands accused of stealing $638,000 from the Social Security Administration over two decades with fake claims that he suffered from depression and anxiety. In reality, he was earning big bucks — as much as $1.6 million between 2004 and last year — as a security guard and host at an unnamed strip club, the feds said. Scparta, of Campbell Hall, NY, was allegedly helped by a co-worker, who is...

This thread is a friendly collaborative place for FReepers to analyze information and share opinons. FReepers have a wide variety of reasons for investigating Q Anon content; this is not the appropriate place to criticize or badger those who choose to use some of their time in this manner. I plan to post one thread at a time and ping new drops posted to it. When I post each (new) thread, the prior thread is retired and all new posts occur on the newest thread. If you are new to Q Anon, the three links below provide overviews to...

Chicago taxpayers, prepare for another kick in the teeth. In fact, it might be a good time to grow fond of the toothless grin. Another recent court decision will put taxpayers on the hook for additional city pension debts. Yes, even more than before. A circuit court judge in March struck down a 2014 state law that eased pressure on the pension fund of Chicago Park District retirees. The law had increased Park District employees’ own contributions to the fund, increased their retirement-eligible age, reduced their annual cost-of-living increases and reduced duty disability benefits. But those changes will be rolled...

She went to prison for fraud and bad checks. Then courts around Philly let her manage the finances for elderly residents. ( Full title ). ... Relatives of Edmund and Margareta Berg were shocked to learn, a little more than a year ago, that the court-appointed guardian handling the Fox Chase couple’s finances had a record of fraud, bad checks, and forgery. Around that time, Marie Frisby began questioning the guardian appointed to help her husband, Hank. They contend that his bills weren’t being paid and, as a result, they had to sell their home in Wyncote, Montgomery County. Meanwhile,...

One of former President George W. Bush’s spiritual advisers was indicted for fraud and money laundering, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, 64, was accused of luring in vulnerable and elderly investors to buy over $1 million in Chinese bonds with zero value, promising the victims a large return, but instead Caldwell allegedly used the funds he received to pay off loans, credit cards, cars, and mortgages, instead of investing the money, as he promised, Fox News reported. Also accused was Gregory Alan Smith, 55, a financial adviser from Texas who allegedly helped Caldwell sell the worthless bonds to...

<p>A new documentary by CBS News reveals that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg, who has become the face of the student body’s push for gun control, was not at the school at the time of the shooting.</p>

The House Committee on Ethics released a series of reports on Friday and ordered Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D., Ill.) to repay the government after allegations he misused federal funds. Gutiérrez has been told to repay $9,700 to the Treasury as a result of what was called "inadvertent" use of funds provided to his office for its operation, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The Illinois Democrat had hired former chief of staff Doug Scofield to advise his office, resulting in questions as to whether Scofield was acting as official staff. "The OCE Board recommends that the Committee on Ethics further review the...

PITTSBURGH, Pa. –A former resident of Ozone Park, New York, has been sentenced in federal court to 87 months in prison and three years of supervised release on his conviction of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today. United States District Judge David S. Cercone imposed the sentence on Abiodun Bakre, who was in the United States illegally during the period in which he committed the offenses. In imposing sentence, Judge Cercone noted that the wire fraud conspiracy in which Bakre participated was the largest financial fraud case the Court...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich testified Wednesday. Fugitives from justice are barred from buying a firearm under federal law. But what is a fugitive from justice? That definition has been under debate by the FBI and the ATF. According to The Washington Post, the FBI considered any person with an outstanding arrest warrant to be a fugitive. On the other hand, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and...

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s 18th district held a special election in which Democrat Conor Lamb is widely believed to have edged out his Republican rival Rick Saccone. While absentee votes are still being counted, Republicans are raising concerns that some voting machines were “miscalibrated,” which led to votes being switched from Saccone to Lamb.

PITTSBURGH — Republicans will not be conceding anytime soon in a tightly contested special election in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Conor Lamb holds a slim lead over Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone in Tuesday's election. Lamb's campaign and Democratic groups have declared him the winner, as he sits with less than a 700-vote lead. NBC News also projected him the "apparent winner" early Wednesday morning as more absentee ballots trickled in. There are still about 203 absentee ballots and then additional provisional and military ballots left to be counted, but Saccone would have to capture an overwhelming majority of those outstanding...

It could come down to a recount. Democrat Conor Lamb has already declared victory over Republican Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania’s special House election, but Republicans say they aren’t giving up until every vote is counted. The contest has still not been called, but Lamb leads Saccone by a few hundred votes. There’s no mandatory recount for a federal race in Pennsylvania, but Republicans have the option of petitioning for one. "This race is too close to call and we’re ready to ensure that every legal vote is counted,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Matt Gorman said late Tuesday. “Once they...

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Irving ISD, the city of Irving and several others filed by the father of a teen who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school that was mistaken for a bomb. The federal lawsuit alleged Ahmed Mohamed's civil rights were violated in September 2015 when Irving police officers took him into custody at MacArthur High School and charged him with making a "hoax bomb." The then 14-year-old was also suspended from school for three days.