Free Republic

Things continue to spiral for the embattled UnitedHealth.UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the United States, is reportedly the subject of a federal criminal investigation for potential Medicare fraud, according to an exclusive report by the Wall Street Journal.The investigation, led by the U.S. Department of Justice’s health-care fraud unit in New York, has been underway since at least the summer of 2024 and centers on the company’s Medicare Advantage business practices, according to the report.Medicare Advantage, a program that provides private insurance alternatives to traditional Medicare, serves over 8.2 million members through UnitedHealth, making it a significant revenue...

Since he first started running for president in 2016, Donald Trump has sought a 15% corporate tax rate. Unleash Prosperity co-founders Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore were in the room with him nine years ago when he first started talking up that rate. In the 2017 bill we got the rate down from 35% to 21%. Corporate revenues increased. Trump ran on 15% in 2024 and won. Still the House GOP tax bill has no rate cut. Even the scaled back 15% rate for made-in-America companies is nowhere to be found. This could have easily been paid for with the...

In a chaotic scene, roughly two dozen protesters stormed the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s budget reconciliation markup, protesting rumored cuts to Medicare. Despite the shameful and potentially illegal actions of the protestors, Democrats capitalized on the event by thanking the protestors, prompting widespread condemnation. For context, since the January 6 debacle, Democrats have treated the date as if it were a national day of mourning. Despite the broad media support for the dangerous George Floyd riots, far-left pundits in the mainstream media have reduced themselves to hysterics while discussing the events of the Capitol riot. Breaking the news on...

The Supreme Court ruled that the totality of circumstances must be considered when determining whether a police shooting is justified, not just the seconds before an officer opens fire.The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the totality of circumstances must be considered when determining whether a police shooting is justified — not just the split seconds before an officer opens fire — in a case involving the fatal shooting of a Black man from Texas. The broader standard is likely to make it easier for victims to prove allegations of excessive force in court. The high court revived a lawsuit...

Louisiana’s attorney general is investigating a second case involving New York doctor Margaret Carpenter after she allegedly prescribed and mailed abortion medication to another woman in the state, this time located in the city of Shreveport. The Shreveport woman was 20 weeks pregnant when she took the abortion medication and subsequently went into labor, Attorney General Liz Murrill said during a testimony for an anti-abortion bill in the state’s House Civil Law and Procedure Committee on Monday. “She and her boyfriend, after she gave birth, took the baby, wrapped it in a towel, and threw it in a garbage can,”...

Former FBI Director James Comey deleted his Instagram post, which appeared to call for the assassination of President Trump. James Comey posted a cryptic message to his Instagram account on Thursday spelled out in seashells: “86 47” “Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey said in his caption. Comey Trump assassination social media post Comey deleted the post after major backlash, and he updated with an unbelievable comment. “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with...

The Secret Service is investigating after ex-FBI Director James Comey posted an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to make the numbers "86 47" — a message that White House officials swiftly condemned as an attempt to put out a "hit" against the 47th president. Comey later deleted the post after online backlash from government officials, lawmakers and President Donald Trump’s son. Trump has faced two assassination attempts — one of which resulted in him being shot and a bystander being killed — in the past year. The post including the alleged "hit" showed the numbers in question etched into the...

“It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it’s still pretty bad,” New York Republican Andrew Garbarino said of the climate law’s gutting.House Republicans who spent months defending renewable energy tax credits expressed disdain for a proposal that would all but eradicate such incentives in the GOP-led megabill.But that small subset of Republicans say they are running short on time and options in the lower chamber. The House Ways and Means Committee is poised to advance a measure that phases out or eliminates billions of dollars in Inflation Reduction Act renewable energy and other tax...

(CNN) — Former Director of the FBI James Comey on Thursday took down an Instagram post of seashells spelling out the numbers “86 47” after Republicans claimed that it was a threat against President Donald Trump.The number 86 can often refer to getting rid of or tossing something out, while 47 corresponds to Trump’s current term in office as the 47th president.“Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered. This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!” Donald Trump Jr. posted on social media.Comey – who emerged as a Trump critic after the president fired him early in...

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Arena,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship was “a loser.” Host Kasie Hunt said, “I want to start with what the Supreme Court discussed here today. They seemed open to limiting the ability of district court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. Do you think there’s potential validity to that?” Raskin said, “Not really. It would mean, for example in this case on birthright citizenship, that every family in America that might be affected or every person who might be affected would have to go themselves to court...

GOP senators have raised concerns about the deficit impact of the emerging package, as well as the cuts to Medicaid and clean energy funding. WASHINGTON — As House Republicans scramble to corral the votes to pass a massive bill for President Donald Trump's agenda, their Senate counterparts are making clear the emerging package won’t fly as written when it reaches them.Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., was categorical that the product coming out of various House committees cannot pass the Senate as it currently stands.“No. We’ll make changes,” Hoeven said. “We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things...

A meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is the “only way” to move forward with talks on ending the war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday. Rubio’s remarks come as a highly anticipated meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey was downgraded and moved to Friday, after Putin assigned low-level officials to conduct the talks.Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, said he does not have high expectations for the direct Russia-Ukraine talks and will meet separately with a senior Ukrainian delegation. Putin initially proposed the direct talks in Turkey, while...

The Secret Service is investigating former FBI Director James Comey after he was accused Thursday of calling for violence against President Trump in a since-deleted Instagram post. Comey, who was fired by Trump early in his first term, had posted an image of seashells arranged in the shape of the numerals “8647.” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem indicated that the Secret Service is now involved in the matter. “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” Noem wrote on X. “DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/femas-woke-disaster-2-billion-fraud-reverse-discrimination/For six years, FEMA has quietly buried one of the worst scandals in federal disaster response—a toxic mix of reverse discrimination, fraud, and whistleblower retaliation tied to the Hurricane Maria recovery in Puerto Rico. I led the contractor team that uncovered it firsthand. In 2018, I deployed as the technical lead of a Lean Six Sigma team made up of straight, older, white veterans and executives. Our mission was to bring order, transparency, and efficiency to a FEMA operation crippled by dysfunction. What we found was not just inefficiency—it was corruption: theft, favoritism, and rot embedded deep in FEMA’s culture....

DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. — Patrice Miller, 71, lived by herself in a small yellow house beneath towering mountain peaks on the edge of a burbling river in this Sierra County village. She doted on her cats and her exotic orchids, and was known to neighbors for her delicious homemade bread. One fall afternoon, after Miller had failed for several days to make her customary appearance at the town market, a store clerk asked authorities to check on her.A short time later, a sheriff’s deputy found Miller’s lifeless body in her kitchen. Her right leg and left arm had been partially gnawed...

At home, President Trump is ordering up investigations into his political opponents and finding creative ways to use his executive power to ruin the lives of even some of his milder critics.Abroad, Mr. Trump has sent a different message: Let bygones be bygones. Even if those bygones involved trying to assassinate him or working with Al Qaeda.In a series of speeches and off-the-cuff remarks during the first major foreign trip of his second term, Mr. Trump has told audiences in the Middle East that he is willing to set the past aside in the interests of peace and profit.“I have...

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to house more than 7,000 soldiers in government office buildings for a parade next month on the National Mall that will celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary. According to planning documents obtained by USA Today, tanks, warplanes, and other military equipment are set to feature in the June 14 parade, which is to take place on President Donald Trump's 79th birthday. The total cost of the cortege is projected to be about$30 million, but the report indicated that figure could rise to around $45 million. USA Today reported that the 7,500 soldiers and 120 military...

SummaryTrump order targeted children of certain immigrants Three judges issued orders blocking policy nationwide Administration challenges nationwide injunctions WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court wrestled on Thursday over Donald Trump's attempt to broadly enforce his executive order to restrict birthright citizenship, a move that would affect thousands of babies born each year as the Republican president seeks a major shift in how the U.S. Constitution has long been understood.The court's conservative justices, who hold a 6-3 majority, seemed willing to limit the ability of lower courts to issue nationwide, or "universal," injunctions, as federal judges in Maryland,...

A key committee vote for the Republican package full of President Trump’s legislative priorities scheduled for Friday could be punted to next week as hardliners on the panel threaten to block the legislation. The possible delay comes after a wave of hardliners on the panel — Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), and Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) — said they planned to vote against advancing the GOP’s megabill in its current form in a meeting scheduled for Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a radio failure at the Denver Air Traffic Control Center, which covers approximately 285,000 square miles of airspace covering parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The outage temporarily affected communications Monday. According to the FAA, both transmitters that cover a segment of airspace went down around 1:50 p.m., causing a loss of communications to part of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center for about 90 seconds. The FAA said the outage affected some flights approaching Denver International Airport. They said the controllers used another frequency...