Free Republic

A nonprofit run by state lawmakers to raise scholarship money for needy minority students spends most of the cash on its lavish annual soiree — including $6,000 on limos — and gave out no grants the last two years, The Post has learned. The New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators organizes a “Caucus Weekend” — a series of workshops, concerts and parties — in Albany every February for minority members of the Assembly and the Senate. The group charges sponsors up to $50,000 for a chance to party with lawmakers at events that have ­included Grammy...

These are the guns and knives Mayor de Blasio doesn’t want you to see. A surging tide of weapons — including loaded revolvers, 9mm handguns, meat cleavers and daggers — has been confiscated this year from students in city schools, most of which do not have metal detectors.

Doug Band's exit...marks the end of a complicated relationship w/ Band’s controversial company, Teneo. The Clinton Foundation is under fire for pocketing $$millions in donations for access, but Teneo’s role is less well-known.....described as a vast money-making machine. “...not just emblematic of how "Clinton Inc." works, it's the political and financial mess that's been created,” author Halper said. The New Republic noted the suspicious nature of Band’s work in 2013. “...an undertow of transactionalism in the glittering annual dinners, the fixation on celebrity and a contingent of donors whose charitable contributions and business interests occupy an uncomfortable proximity. Even more...

Food stamps are paying for trans-Atlantic takeout — with New Yorkers using taxpayer-funded benefits to ship food to relatives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Welfare recipients are buying groceries with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and packing them in giant barrels for the trip overseas, The Post found.

<p>EXCLUSIVE Food stamps are paying to buy and ship food to Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A spokeswoman for the US Dept of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service said the $86 BILLION welfare program is reserved for poor US households that buy and prepare food.</p>