Free Republic

California's expected decision to restore contested licenses sets stage for constitutional showdown over CDL authority California is expected to begin reissuing approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses that the state had planned to revoke following federal enforcement pressure. The decision comes despite ongoing corrective action requirements from FMCSA [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration] and raises fundamental questions about federal enforcement authority when a state openly defies compliance directives. State transportation officials confirmed to sources that the Department of Motor Vehicles will begin restoring the contested licenses to immigrant drivers who received 60-day cancellation notices on November 6. The state has...

“Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy – our supply chains don’t move and our communities don’t stay connected without them,” a spokesperson for the California agency said. “DMV stands ready to resume issuing commercial driver’s licenses, including corrected licenses to eligible drivers. Given, we are in compliance with federal regulations and state law, this delay by the federal government not only hurts our trucking industry, but it also leaves eligible drivers in the cold without any resolution during this holiday season. We are hopeful the federal government will do the right thing and allow California to reissue...

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Friday to yank $73 million in federal highway funding meant for New York after an audit found more than half of the Empire State’s commercial trucking licenses were issued to foreign-born drivers in the US illegally. “What New York does is if an applicant comes in and they have a work authorization — for 30 days, 60 days, one year — New York automatically issues them an eight-year commercial driver’s license,” Duffy said during a press conference at DOT headquarters in DC Friday. “That’s contrary to the law.” “But we also found that...

Minnesota’s embattled Democrat Governor Tim Walz earned a standing ovation at a party fundraiser in Seattle Tuesday when he promised to bring even more fraud-prone Somali migrants into his state. The failed Democrat nominee for vice president appeared at a fundraiser luncheon sponsored by Gov. Bob Ferguson (D-WA), where Walz told the audience that Somalis were being “demonized” by critics of the Minnesota Somali community’s billions in fraud and wholesale theft of state welfare funding. “These folks better not ever mistake our kindness for our weakness because we are going to defend our neighbors. These guys bring out the worst...

Minnesota is still reeling from the biggest fraud scandal in its history. A sprawling, stunning, almost unbelievable heist of federal money intended to feed hungry children during the pandemic. And at the center of the storm sits Aimee Bock – former schoolteacher, mom-of-two, and the woman federal prosecutors branded the mastermind of a $300million meals-for-kids scam. Bock is already convicted. She's already behind bars. And she's facing a sentence that could lock her away for most of the rest of her life. But her lawyer, Kenneth Udoibok, says she is nothing more than a scapegoat – the fall-girl for a...

Minnesota Democratic lawmakers, including the Attorney General, were handed over $53,000 in campaign contributions by fraudsters who ripped off taxpayer cash meant to feed children. AG Keith Ellison, his councilman son, mayor Jacob Frey, Representative Ilhan Omar and others received cash from the scammers who siphoned off some $250 million, largely through nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Many did so after meeting the crooks, raising questions about how much they knew. “I’m not here because I think it’s going to help my re-election,” Ellison said during an encounter with Somali business leaders, two of whom later became criminal defendants linked to...

Gov. Tim Walz is promoting a new government assistance program open to illegal immigrants in Minnesota, as he faces scrutiny for allegedly allowing statewide welfare fraud, reportedly committed primarily by Somali immigrants. The Minnesota Paid Family and Medical Leave Program (PMFL), which Walz signed into law and is publicly praising ahead of its start date on Jan. 1, will cover “undocumented workers,” according to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Employers are required to display a PFML poster at their respective workplaces to notify employees about the paid leave program. The poster must be displayed in any foreign language that is...

A group of over 400 Minnesota Department of Human Services employees has turned the spotlight on Governor Tim Walz, charging that his administration turned a blind eye to rampant fraud draining the state’s coffers. In a blunt statement on X, the workers declared, “We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports.” Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) claimed the Trump administration’s first military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean was a “war crime.” Host Dana Bash said, “I want to turn to new questions around the first U.S. military strike in September on a ship that the administration says was carrying drugs. Now, sources tell CNN, after the missile struck the boat, there were survivors and that a second strike was launched to kill anyone who was left. Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending the move, saying it is lawful under both U.S. and...

The unprecedented crackdown that is underway right now to root out fraud in Minnesota’s growing autism program started around the time of a federal raid of two autism centers last year in Minneapolis and St. Cloud. However, there are growing concerns that the state may have missed warning signs. “It makes me sad for the families,” said Dr. Eric Larsson with the Lovaas Institute Midwest. He’s dedicated his life to helping families with autism and even helped the state stand up its autism program a decade ago. “The only reason we’re delivering services is because families worked so hard over...

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Federal prosecutors say Minnesota is facing one of the largest welfare-fraud waves in U.S. history—schemes so widespread and lucrative that some of the stolen money may have ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization operating in Somalia. According to a recent report in City Journal, former federal counterterrorism officials believe portions of the money stolen from Minnesota’s Medicaid and social-service programs were routed overseas through informal cash-transfer networks known as hawalas. Once the funds reached Somalia, investigators say, Al-Shabaab routinely took a share—regardless of the sender’s intentions. The allegation, described by one former...

At least three times a week — and sometimes more — a big story will come out of New York about an awful crime that was committed against an innocent by a criminal who, too often, shouldn't have been walking the streets anyway due to a rap sheet as long as a CVS receipt. Even just scrolling down the front page of RedState, you can see this story published on Monday that reported that someone stabbed someone else on the New York subway because a person asked them not to talk on their cell phone so loudly. Charming city. And...

Jurors tell KARE 11 News their decision wasn't difficult after seeing evidence of "obvious fraud" committed by Abdifatah Yusuf. MINNEAPOLIS — At the August trial for Abdifatah Yusuf, the jury heard evidence that he ran his home healthcare company, Promise Health, out of a mailbox at a Central Avenue address where multiple other home healthcare companies were supposedly located. Yusuf and his wife Lul Ahmed were charged with stealing $7.2 million of taxpayer money through Medicaid overbilling in a personal care assistant (PCA) scam. The couple allegedly spent tens of thousands of the fraud money on luxury items for themselves....

A pair of hasty, snarky opinions by Judge Cameron Currie once again illustrate an out-of-control judiciary increasingly seizing executive authority to sabotage the will of the people. Judge Cameron McGowan Currie in what is probably an old photoDescribing acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan as “a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience,” Judge Cameron McGowan Currie today dropped the criminal cases against New York Attorney General Leticia James and former FBI Director James Comey pending in the Eastern District of Virginia. “I agree with Ms. James that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S....

A temporary glitch on X led to a credibility bloodbath for a variety of foreign propaganda accounts that were either posing as Americans or lying about their locations in other ways. Days prior, Head of Product Nikita Brier had announced a new feature revealing the origin and current location of users. When it rolled out, though, only account owners could view it. That all changed on Friday night, though. In what is assumed to have been a mistake, everyone's origins and current locations were made public for about an hour before disappearing. In one instance, it was revealed that one...

'Come and get me,' Illinois Governor JB Pritzker taunted Donald Trump last month. And it now appears Trump's Justice Department is doing just as he asked – launching a new criminal investigation that threatens to embroil the billionaire governor, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal. Pritzker is a potential 2028 presidential contender. He is worth an estimated $3.9 billion, according to Forbes, with much of his wealth coming from his inherited stake in the Hyatt Hotels fortune. The case revolves around Pritzker's alleged links to his wife's friend, Jenny Thornley, who volunteered on his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018 and...

The calls started quietly — a cousin, an uncle, a longtime friend on the road — and then turned into a flood. Across California, Sikh and immigrant truckers, the very workers who keep our farms productive, our ports moving and our shelves stocked, all began telling me the same thing: I might lose my job in 60 days. I don’t know how to tell my kids. Then the messages really hit home when my husband, who has driven for years with a spotless record, told me he was worried about how our friends and family members would be allowed to...

Far-left Democratic Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick might soon be expelled from Congress if House Republicans get their way. The reason: A federal grand jury has indicted her and other defendants, including her brother, for purloining $5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and using it for contributions to her 2021 congressional campaign. The indictment isn’t Cherfilus-McCormick’s first brush with federal law. In April, she was the target of a complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for myriad shenanigans with campaign funds and contributions. The indictment and the FEC complaint are cited in the expulsion resolution from GOP Representative...

Michael English, a Democratic candidate running for mayor of Providence, is addressing renewed attention on a criminal record that includes child molestation convictions from the late 1990s. English has referred to the actions that led to his convictions as “immature decisions” that resulted in a “period of incarceration.” According to the Providence Journal, English was 26 when he engaged in a relationship with a 13-year-old. The outlet reported that after serving a little over a year in prison, English attempted to contact the victim again in 2009. The Providence Journal reviewed court documents related to the case, as English’s file...

Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL) was indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing $5 million in FEMA funds. According to the Justice Department, Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother Edwin Cherfilus allegedly stole $5 million in FEMA funds and funneled it through different accounts to pay for the defendant’s 2021 congressional campaign. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is facing up to 53 years in prison if convicted. “Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will...