Free Republic

This fundraiser is for the birds. Power-hungry “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) cooked up a new way to have her cake and eat it too this Thanksgiving – by tying her annual turkey giveaway to her massive reelection campaign enterprise. And critics are crying fowl. “Thanksgiving is two weeks away,” the self-described “Bronx girl” wrote in an email pitch last week. “Will you chip in $5 or anything you can today to help us bring the joy of the holiday season into homes around NYC this year?” But clicking on the contribution link sends people directly to a campaign...

There is no whitewashing this scandal: segments of the Somali community in Minneapolis have been engaged in systematic welfare fraud, and used some of the proceeds to fund the Al-Shabaab terror group in their homeland. The enraging City Journal exposé presents a case study in why the United States must drastically slash the number of immigrants it admits, and become significantly more rigorous in choosing whom to admit and how to assimilate them. “There is an issue here that is real,” a law-enforcement source said, “and if there is ever an event that is traceable back to these funds, or...

Disgraced ex-TV anchor Stephanie Hockridge will spend the next ten years behind bars for her role in a multi-million-dollar COVID fraud scheme – serving her time in the same cushy lockup as notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. The 42-year-old, a former Phoenix TV anchor turned entrepreneur, was sentenced in Texas federal court Friday and ordered to cough up nearly $64 million in restitution for the bogus Paycheck Protection Program loans she helped secure during the height of the pandemic, the Justice Department announced. Hockridge, found guilty in June of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, will report to prison on Dec....

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County staffing company owner and three other defendants were arrested today on an eight-count federal indictment alleging they cheated the IRS out of more than $90 million and defrauded numerous clients by failing to pay employment taxes withheld from the wages of temporary workers – many of them illegal immigrants – and used the unpaid taxes to fund their luxurious lifestyles. Some of the defendants documented their extravagant lifestyles on Instagram and other social media. Lorena Padilla, 49, of Villa Park, the case’s lead defendant, is charged with one count of wire fraud conspiracy,...

Minnesota, under Governor Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER! President DJT

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — United Nations climate talks in Brazil reached a subdued agreement Saturday to deliver more money to countries hit hardest by climate change to help them adapt to extreme weather’s wrath. But the agreement doesn’t include an explicit detailed map to phase out fossil fuels or strengthen inadequate emissions cutting plans.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) apparently used his DC home, which is at the center of a mortgage and tax fraud investigation, in a video announcing his California gubernatorial campaign. Swalwell, 45, kicked off his run for the Golden State governor’s office on Thursday night with a minute-long campaign video that pledged to “keep the worst president in our history out of our homes, out of our streets and out of our lives” and lower the cost of living. But X users quickly saw something was amiss and began comparing photos of the congressman’s $1.2 million Victorian-style bungalow in...

Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas introduced legislation on Friday to recover savings from former President Joe Biden’s rural broadband initiative. The $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program has not started a single project since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was signed in 2021 by Biden, drawing Ernst’s attention in a November 2024 letter to former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk outlining up to $2 trillion in savings. Ernst, who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus, introduced the Recovering Excess Communications Appropriations while Protecting Telecommunications Upgrades, Reinvestment, and...

Somalis in Minnesota swindled millions in state Medicaid autism-care programs and sent the cash back to their homeland and its terror groups, investigators say. Breitbart News reported in July that nearly 100 autism clinics in Minnesota were being investigated for fraudulently billing Medicaid for treatment of children supposedly diagnosed with autism, most of it in connection with the rampantly corrupt Somali community around Minneapolis. But the fraud is far more widespread with far more money involved than was previously reported — all of which has been presided over by former Democrat Party vice-presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz. The money paid...

Former Republican state legislator Austin Smith pleaded guilty Monday to what he previously called “ludicrous” charges that he personally forged more than 100 signatures on his petitions for reelection last year. The Republican from Surprise was a member of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, which has a history of spreading false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election and pushed for election law changes in the state legislature.

While Farghali noted that it is typical of the Muslim Brotherhood to “exploit Gaza and Palestine for money.” The Muslim Brotherhood allegedly stole half a billion dollars from donations for the Gaza Strip in a single campaign, Egyptian researcher Maher Farghali reported on Sunday. While Farghali noted that it is typical of the Muslim Brotherhood to “exploit Gaza and Palestine for money,” the difference with this incident is that Hamas condemned the theft. The association Waqf al-Ummah/Ummet Vakfı, founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, is said to have been responsible for taking half a billion, which it raised in a single...

For nearly two years the Office of Inspector General investigated travel spending at Chicago Public Schools. The report found 'questionable, excessive and even exorbitant' travel spending across the district. Inspectors say it's fueled in part by federal COVID relief money and a broken travel expense process with no official oversight, according to a new report. The report found eight schools used more than $142,000 of CPS funds to pay a vendor for 15 staff trips to Finland, Estonia, Egypt and South Africa. However 13 out of the 15 trips were not pre-approved as required. One trip was even rejected, but...

The OIG found that despite prior audits and corrective actions, some of the same issues persist, such as states continuing to make capitation payments to MCOs for enrollees who have passed away. A new report from the Office of Inspector General within the Department of Health and Human Services shows multiple states made improper Medicaid payments to managed care organizations after enrollees had died, which exposes persistent fiscal and oversight problems in the nation’s Medicaid managed-care system.In addition, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said late last week that SNAP benefit payments have been going to deceased people as well.The audit,...

Ashley Sharp reports.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said Sunday the Trump administration is holding “discussions” on extending subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). “There are discussions around extending the subsidies, if we deal with the fraud, waste and abuse that, right now, is paralyzing the system,” Oz told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

PULSE POINTS❓WHAT HAPPENED: Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins revealed that 186,000 dead people are receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamps, with half a million recipients receiving double benefits.👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, and state governments providing SNAP data.📍WHEN & WHERE: Rollins shared this information this week, following data collection from 29 states earlier this year.💬KEY QUOTE: “But here’s the most unbelievable news I have [learned] really just over the last few days: That 5,000 dead people, that was just one month; the number is closer to 186,000 deceased men and women and children in this...

Skepticism about climate change has resurfaced, as some experts claim the exact causes of global warming remain unclear and that the policies addressing it are motivated more by money than by science. Richard Lindzen, Professor Emeritus of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has spent decades studying atmospheric science. He told the Daily Mail that the public hysteria surrounding global warming isn't actually based on realistic data. Climate change is the term used to describe Earth's warming, mainly as a result of human activity, such as burning coal, oil and gas. Scientists and climate activists have warned that...

Countries are gathering in Brazil at the COP30 summit to take stock of climate change. As in past summits, the negotiations are starting on the back foot: countries already aren't meeting their goals to cut heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels. The world has barely budged in its efforts to combat climate change compared to one year ago, according to a new report from the United Nations. If countries stay on that track, the planet will warm by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, compared to the pre-industrial temperatures of the mid-1800s. That's slightly better than...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause new California laws expected to require thousands of companies to report emissions and climate-risk information. The laws are the most sweeping of their kind in the nation, and a collection of business groups argued in an emergency appeal that they violate free-speech rights. The measures were signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023, and reporting requirements are expected to start early next year. Lower courts have so far refused to block the laws, which the state says will increase transparency and encourage companies...

BREAKING: In a jaw-dropping revelation, Sec. Brooke Rollins found 5,000 DEAD PEOPLE getting SNAP, and 500,000 PEOPLE getting SNAP "2 times under the same name." And that's just what they've confirmed... "This light has now been shined one of the most CORRUPT, DISFUNCTIONAL programs in American history!" "80% of able-bodied Americans - they can work, don't have small children, taking care of an elderly parent. They can work, they choose not to work, because they're getting significant benefits from the taxpayer!" "VERY big announcements coming next week on this...we have a plan to fix it!" WTF? That is blatant, rampant...