Free Republic

(The Center Square) - More than $225 million in fraud was reported by state education departments and school districts from 2019 to 2026, according to a new report. Open the Books, a federal spending watchdog, and the State Financial Officers Foundation, analyzed six years’ worth of reports from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General. The report found multi-million dollar fraud schemes in school districts across the country and in American territories. OJ Oleka, CEO of the SFOF, said the fraud schemes happened due to a lack of oversight in education departments and the ability of bad...

Downstate Illinois Democratic state representative Carol Ammons is facing allegations she steered state grants to a family member and lied to the FBI, among other misdeeds. Paris Schutz reports.

The many donors out there to the Graham Platner Senate campaign who might be upset about the incredibly poor vetting that was performed on their candidate might be interested to know about evidence of malfeasance and corruption by one of the primary vetters that has just been revealed by an interesting source.And that source is someone familiar to longtime readers of NewsBusters. None other than Mike Elk (pictured) who earned the reputation as perhaps the most lethargic labor reporter in the world but definitely at Politico where he briefly worked about ten years ago.However, despite his reputation for lethargy, on...

Priest attends brother’s homosexual ‘wedding,’ calls it ‘amazing,’ ‘special’Fr. Rico Passero, the pastor of a Catholic church in Ontario, said that he ‘MC’d the reception’ and praised what he called ‘an EPIC wedding weekend.’A Canadian Catholic priest from Ontario posted on social media that he attended his brother’s homosexual “wedding,” which he described as “amazing” and “EPIC.”Fr. Rico Passero, who is listed as the pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Grimsby, Ontario, made the Facebook post.“What an EPIC wedding weekend last week. It took me some time to finally receive some amazing photos from the Midnight in Eden wedding...

Some of the UK’s top judges are hearing arguments over whether a Trinidad and Tobago court had the legal right to overturn a 2018 ruling to remove colonial-era homophobic laws that criminalise anal sex between consenting men. The country’s “buggery law”, often referred to as its “sodomy” law, was created in 1925 and was written into Trinidad and Tobago’s 1986 Sexual Offences Act. In 2017 a Trinidadian LGBTQ+ rights activist, Jason Jones, challenged the law, and in 2018 a high court ruled that it infringed upon his constitutional right to privacy and equality. Last year a court of appeal quashed...

Teen killer Karmelo Anthony is seeking a new trial and wants a different judge to oversee any future legal proceedings in his conviction for the murder of Austin Metcalf, his defense team has revealed. Just last month, a jury in Collin County, in the suburbs of Dallas, took less than three hours to convict the 19-year-old of murder over the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in April 2025. The same jury sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison, rejecting his claim that Anthony acted in self-defense.

House Republicans are investigating reports that American Federation of Teachers union dues were used to help produce, promote, and publish union President Randi Weingarten's book, which publisher Penguin Random House called "a manifesto for our time." Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., chair of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, wrote a letter Tuesday to Weingarten. They cited reports that the "AFT expended substantial funds on consultants, legal services, publication-related expenses, fact-checking services, photography, and other activities connected" to her book Why Fascists Fear Teachers:...

The Arizona Supreme Court has weighed in on the conflict between the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and County Recorder Justin Heap. The Supreme Court ended the stay previously put in place by the Arizona Court of Appeals. Heap’s election plan can now be put back into place, the high court ruled. The lower court previously ruled that it was too close to an election to make changes. The board of supervisors said it was disappointed in the ruling. “The Board is disappointed with today’s decision by the Arizona Supreme Court because it reverses the stay order in Heap v....

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) is putting sanctuary priorities ahead of public safety, this time by dangling technology upgrade grants in front of local police agencies—but only if they agree to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Hochul, speaking in Long Island earlier in the week, explained that $75 million of a total $100 million in grants would be tied directly to compliance with the state’s “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act." The act, passed by the state legislature in May, effectively pressures sheriffs and departments to keep their hands off helping ICE with raids and detentions by ending 287(g)...

... During discussions with the worker, organizers learned that Tesla was performing large-scale ductwork installations using more than 60 workers from across the country — workers who were not SMART members. The worker also identified the project location and explained that Tesla was staffing the operation through a temporary labor provider, Superior Skilled Trades (SST), based out of Florida. Further investigation revealed that SST was recruiting heavily from Southern states and other regions with lower wage rates, making Tesla’s compensation package highly attractive to workers willing to travel. SST’s focus was on providing labor quantity rather than skilled sheet metal...

Many Washington state daycare providers receive large taxpayer subsidies, but an investigation by The Center Square found several that had few, if any, children and at least one establishment that received hundreds of thousands of dollars despite residents at the listed address indicating it was not a daycare. Yet politicians charged with overseeing the spending continue to publicly say there is no problem with improper payments to the daycares and, instead, have been criticizing journalists for investigating the potential fraud. No state official has announced an investigation or crackdown though the legislature instituted some reforms last session. The Center Square...

The Mamdani administration is scrambling to ease concerns about its plans to open government-owned supermarkets — but recent talks have instead raised even greater alarms among local business owners, The Post has learned. New York City bodega owners came to City Hall last week for a “roundtable discussion” at the invitation of Julie Su, deputy mayor for economic justice — only to get barraged with “intrusive” questions about their businesses, a source close to the situation said. Ahead of the meeting last Monday — attended by reps from city agencies and trade groups for the city’s 13,000 bodegas — Su...

Nick Sortor@nicksortor BREAKING: The House has PASSED @RepThomasMassie’s resolution to FORCE the release of names of Congressmen who used the Congressional slush fund to pay out for sexuaI misconduct settlements, 420-0These are TAXPAYER DOLLARS being used to PAY OFF accusers.And it’s all about to be public.The Committee on Ethics must now preserve and public release all relevant records.June 30, 2026

Tina Peters Whistleblower of fallen Navy SEAL @realtinapeters Colorado put me in prison to cover up their corruption. I can verify many felonies Jena Griswold has committed and AG WEISER and other officials have covered up. Read the Mesa County Reports at http://TinaPeters.usTRANSCRIPT BEGINS~~~Man #1: If I'm remembering correctly. There were several states involved.Questioner: And which time period are you referring to?Man #1: This was 2020.Questioner: Before or after the election?Man #1: During the election.Questioner: In your examination of any of these Dominion systems, have you seen any indication of non-election personnel remotely accessing a Dominion system?Man #2: Yes.Questioner: Can...

A Fort Lauderdale woman is behind bars, accused of taking statewide teacher exams for several educators, Florida's attorney general announced Thursday. Kashaundra Knowles, 37, who runs a tutoring business, had been taking the exams in person for other people for $1,000 per test over the last two years, according to the Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution. Three of those teachers who hired her are from the Broward County Public Schools district. “She fraudulently took tests for other people, and now there are teachers here in Broward County that have no business being in the classroom," Attorney General James Uthmeier said....

The City of Los Angeles, California spent over $5.5 million to construct a new tiny home village for the homeless in Van Nuys. The project was only able to produce 100 beds for those who would use them. The tiny home village is the fourth site of its type in Council District 2 and was made in an effort to help with the huge homeless population in LA. The city had allocated $5,578,379 to spend on construction for the project, according to city documents. [snip] The tiny home village, equipped with 100 beds, mean that each spot cost approximately $55,000...

Although Donald Trump’s defenders describe the Russia hoax and other efforts to frame the president as a "grand conspiracy," RealClearInvestigations has learned that the man now leading the probe of that scandal is pursuing multiple conspiracy prosecutions that are smaller and more manageable, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the probe. Since taking over the Justice Department’s far-flung investigation in April, veteran prosecutor Joseph diGenova and his team quickly concluded that combining all of the alleged wrongdoing, which ranges from falsifying evidence and committing perjury to leaking classified information and obstructing justice, into one unified plot and trying...

Ex-Mayor Eric Adams’ former top adviser and political power broker was arrested Wednesday, and authorities raided the homes of several ex-NYPD officials as part of multiple corruption probes. Frank Carone, 56, had his home searched by the feds in the early morning operation and was arrested in an alleged bribery scheme that also involved his brother Anthony Carone, 54, according to police sources. Separately, the FBI seized former chief of department Jeff Maddrey’s phone seized today, sources said. And the NYPD and the FBI conducted search warrants to seize phones from Assistant Chief James McCarthy, and the NYPD’s former top...

The right to vote is among our most cherished liberties, but equally important is the public’s confidence that every lawful vote -- and only lawful votes -- determines the outcome. Election integrity is not simply about preventing fraud; it is about preserving trust. An election that half the country believes was unfairly manipulated is an election that erodes trust in the republic and confidence in the system, regardless of who wins. Such elections have become standard practice in California -- not by accident, but by intent. The state has embraced a philosophy that treats virtually every security measure as an...

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that 455 people have been indicted for alleged health care fraud, believed to cost taxpayers over $6.5 billion. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the defendants spanned 45 states and territories. “These individuals participated in health care fraud schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims submitted to Medicare, Medicaid and other health care programs,” Blanche said during a press conference. The acting attorney general highlighted a corporate executive in Arizona accused of fraud involving over $1 billing “involving unnecessary wound grafts.” He added that the alleged “scheme” cost...