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The Governor, the CEO & the FBI: Scandal Threatens New York Hospital

After taking the helm at New York’s financially troubled Nassau University Medical Center late last year, Megan C. Ryan stumbled upon something baffling in the books: a two-decade-long series of transactions engineered by New York State that may have shortchanged the hospital by a staggering $1 billion in matching funds.

As a hospital primarily serving patients on Medicare, Medicaid, or who are uninsured, the medical center qualified for federal matching grants tied to state contributions. Ryan’s discovery indicated that the state was having the medical center itself post its share of the match – for around 20 years at $50 million per year – essentially cheating it out of the state’s matching dollars. “We just couldn’t wrap our heads around how a hospital that serves the poor would be forced to put up tens of millions of dollars” in place of state funds, Ryan told RealClearInvestigations.

Ryan says she called James Dering, previously general counsel of the New York Department of Health, for a legal opinion about the financial arrangement. That opinion indicated it was improper.

What seems like a local tussle over health care has all the trappings of a bigger partisan political fight in the run-up to one of the more important races for governor next year in New York. 

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A Senate-Approved Bill Would Ban the Hemp-Derived THC Products That Congress Legalized in 2018

Forty states now allow medical use of marijuana, while 24, accounting for most of the U.S. population, also allow recreational use. Yet the federal ban on marijuana, first enacted in 1937, remains in place, which means state-licensed cannabis suppliers still face legal risks and financial burdens stemming from a policy that a large majority of Americans reject. But instead of addressing that increasingly untenable situation by repealing federal marijuana prohibition, the U.S. Senate is bent on expanding the ban to cover psychoactive hemp products.

An appropriations bill that was part of the Senate deal to end the federal shutdown aims to close a loophole opened by the 2018 farm bill, which legalized hemp. That law defined hemp to include any part of the cannabis plant containing less than 0.3 percent delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The definition also includes “all [hemp] derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers,” as long as their delta-9 THC content is less than 0.3 percent.

The farm bill opened the door to a wide range of hemp-derived products, including edibles, beverages, flower, and vape cartridges containing delta-8 THC, an isomer that has effects similar to those of delta-9 THC, or tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), which converts to delta-9 THC when heated. That explains all those seemingly illegal THC products you may have seen online or in vape shops, pharmacies, or liquor stores, which offer alternatives for cannabis consumers who live in states that still prohibit recreational use of marijuana.

Pot prohibitionists unsurprisingly view that situation as intolerable. The Senate appropriations bill, which would fund agricultural programs, rural development, and the Food and Drug Administration through fiscal year 2026, addresses their concerns by redefining hemp to exclude psychoactive products derived from hemp. According to a summary from the Senate Appropriations Committee, the bill will prevent “intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products.”

The narrower hemp definition, which amounts to a broader definition of marijuana, excludes “any intermediate hemp-derived cannabinoid products” containing “cannabinoids that are not capable of being naturally produced” by the cannabis plant or that “were synthesized or manufactured outside the plant.” It also prohibits intermediate products containing more than a 0.3 percent “combined total” of “tetrahydrocannabinols (including tetrahydrocannabinolic acid)” or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals.” And it bans final hemp products that contain either synthesized cannabinoids or more than “0.4 milligrams combined total per container” of “tetrahydrocannabinols” (including THCA) or “any other cannabinoids” with “similar effects.”

Given those limits, Cannabis Business Times notes, “companies that manufacture and sell intoxicating hemp products in today’s market would have to overhaul or abandon their business plans.” The U.S. Hemp Roundtable (USHR), a trade group that represents those companies, is understandably alarmed, “arguing that [the bill] would recriminalize hemp products and threaten to eliminate a $28 billion industry that provides 300,000 American jobs.”

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Eric Swalwell Considering a Run for California Governor

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is reportedly considering a run for California governor — a possible foil to frontrunner Katie Porter.

Two anonymous sources close to the congressman told MSNBC that he has been considering a play for the Golden State governor’s mansion with a possible announcement as early as next week.

“Swalwell declined to comment when reached by MSNBC, but a source close to the congressman, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the private discussions, said Swalwell allies had asked him to run ‘to fill a “fighter/protector” role’ in the mold of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom,” reported MSNBC.

Should Swalwell throw his hat in the ring for governor, he will be up against former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and businessman Stephen Cloobeck. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) has already announced he would not be running for governor.

“Earlier on Thursday, a Trump administration official referred the congressman to the Department of Justice for a potential federal criminal investigation over allegations of mortgage and tax fraud,” added MSNBC

Swalwell said in response, “As the most vocal critic of Donald Trump over the last decade and as the only person who still has a surviving lawsuit against him, the only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me.”

A 2020 report in Axios noted that Swalwell had ties to an alleged Chinese spy, Christine Fang (a.k.a. “Fang Fang”), who had reportedly been cultivating relationships with California politicians on behalf of the Chinese government for years. Fang helped fundraise for Swalwell’s 2014 congressional election bid and helped place an intern in his office. Swalwell cut ties with her in 2015 upon advice from U.S. intelligence.

In 2021, Breitbart News reported that “the U.S. Intelligence Community currently has in its possession a classified report that includes intricate and intimate details of the nature of the relationship” between Swalwell and Fang.

In 2023, the House Ethics Committee concluded the investigation into his relationship with Fang with no further censuring.

Swalwell has denied having any inappropriate relationship with Fang, maintaining that he was a target of the Chinese government.

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Crockett: I’m Considering Senate Run — I Believe I Can ‘Expand the Electorate’

Thursday on CNN’s “The Arena,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said she was considering a Senate run because she believed she could “expand the electorate” in Texas.

Host Kasie Hunt said, “You’re thinking about running for Senate yourself.”

Crockett said, “I am absolutely thinking about running for Senate. I’m hoping to have an answer within my inner circle, probably within the next week and a half or so. But I will tell you this, I will tell you that I completely understand those that are disappointed. I will tell you that on November 4, we won in places that we weren’t supposed to win in whether we’re looking at Georgia or whether we’re looking at Mississippi, or whether we’re looking at different parts of Virginia, where now we’re going to end up having a supermajority.”

She continued, “I will also tell you that we have a poll that is currently in the field that went into the field on yesterday. I am waiting on those results. It’s the first and only poll that I’ve put out to be able to kind of understand where I really am. I don’t want to rely just solely on third party polls.”

Hunt said, “So basically you’re polling yourself to try to make a decision about what you should do.”

Crockett said, “I’m polling to determine whether or not I can expand the electorate, and I believe that I can, but if I can’t, I can tell you for sure 100% that I will not run.”

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Judge Denies Rep. McIver’s Motions to Dismiss Assault Charges

A federal judge denied a request by Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) on Thursday to toss out charges filed against her for allegedly assaulting federal agents outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center in New Jersey earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper found the congresswoman failed to show the prosecution was vindictive and that her actions were “wholly disconnected” from the oversight she claims she was conducting as a member of Congress.

McIver asked the judge to dismiss the case because her visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall immigration detention center on May 9 was protected by constitutional legislative immunity.

The New Jersey representative claims she was targeted by the Trump administration for “doing her job” by holding the administration accountable.

“We all know why this is happening,” McIver said outside the courtroom on Oct. 21. “I’m clear why this is happening: It’s because I was doing my job and I continue to do so.”

McIver did not return a request for comment about Thursday’s decision by the time of publication.

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DOJ Joins Lawsuit Challenging California’s Redistricting Maps

The Department of Justice has sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the State of California’s newly adopted redistricting plan enacted with the passage of Proposition 50. 

The suit alleges that the plan mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

Proposition 50 amends the California Constitution, allowing the legislature to draw a new congressional-district map. Substantial evidence, including that in the legislative record and public statements, indicates that the legislature created a new map in which Latino demographics and racial considerations predominated, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

“Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop 50,” said Jesus A. Osete, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “Californians were sold an illegal, racially gerrymandered map, but the U.S. Constitution prohibits its use in 2026 and beyond.”

The 20-page document was filed in California’s district court and claims that the proposition used race as a proxy to advance political interests. 

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Noem Awards TSA Staff $10,000 Bonuses for Working During Shutdown

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem handed out $10,000 bonus checks on Nov. 13 to thousands of frontline Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers who stayed on the job during the federal government shutdown.

About 47,000 agents who worked through the 43-day shutdown despite not getting paychecks will be awarded a bonus along with back pay, according to Noem.

“We are going to not only continue their paychecks like they should have received all along, but also they’re going to get a bonus check for stepping up, taking on extra shifts, for showing up each and every day, for serving the American people,” Noem said at a news conference at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

The officers were thanked for taking seriously every day the mission of the Department of Homeland Security, “and that’s keeping the American people safe while they go and commute across the country, and while they do their work and business and take care of their families,” Noem added.

A couple of the officers were singled out for their “exemplary” service and for taking on more hours and shifts during the shutdown.

“They were examples to the rest of the individuals that worked with them, and endured those hardships and continued to shine a light on what is special about America,” Noem said.

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‘Bloody hydra’ of Ukrainian corruption stretches worldwide – Moscow

A “many-headed bloody hydra” is draining Western taxpayers’ money through sprawling corruption schemes in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned, arguing that the latest scandal in Kiev exposes a network far larger than a simple case of graft.

In a social media post on Thursday, she described a global structure “wrapped around the planet,” channeling funds from Western taxpayers to the elites who profit from the conflict.

Her remarks followed the launch of a major probe by Ukraine’s Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) into alleged embezzlement at the state nuclear operator Energoatom.

According to Zakharova, officials in Kiev serve merely as instruments within a broader machinery involving institutions such as the European Commission and NATO, while the real beneficiaries sit in the inner circles of Western liberal democracies.

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Apple Launches TSA-ready Digital ID for Domestic Travel

Apple has launched Digital ID for the iPhone and Apple Watch. Drawing information from a user’s passport, the new feature is marketed as an “easy, secure, and private” way to verify identity during domestic travel, with additional use cases promised soon. With iPhones holding about 58 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, the update reaches a user base large enough to alter everyday identification practices.

Digital IDs sit at the center of a broader global system built through what officials refer to as “public-private partnerships.” These alliances shape policies, set technical standards, and define the rules of planet-wide “digital governance.”

Within that structure, Apple’s new update fits seamlessly. While offered to the public as a convenience feature, it will move society closer to a model in which identity, access, and compliance operate through a single device that people already carry without much thought.

Rollout

The company made its announcement on Wednesday:

Apple today announced the launch of Digital ID, a new way for users to create an ID in Apple Wallet using information from their U.S. passport, and present it with the security and privacy of iPhone or Apple Watch. At launch, Digital ID acceptance will roll out first in beta at TSA checkpoints at more than 250 airports in the U.S. for in-person identity verification during domestic travel, with additional Digital ID acceptance use cases to come in the future.

Apple stresses that Digital ID “is not a replacement for a physical passport” and will not work for international travel (at least not yet). The company also frames the feature as a help for people who lack a REAL ID-compliant document. That pitch reads two ways at once. It gives travelers a practical workaround, but also nudges the public toward a digital identity system that aligns with federal priorities.

Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, described the rollout as a natural step. “We’re excited to expand the ways users can store and present their identity,” she said. She noted that users “love having their ID right on their devices,” adding that the new feature brings that option to “even more users across the country.”

The message is simple. Your phone can now be your identification. And it can now place you inside a much larger shift in how identity works.

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Inside Eric Swalwell’s Bizarre 2010 Divorce: A Petty, Sketchy Preview of His Political Career Full of Red Flags

Eric Swalwell made a point of positioning himself as a high-profile Donald Trump critic and moral authority, appearing almost nightly on left-leaning TV shows for years.

However, scandal also followed him, from his alleged ties to the Chinese spy “Fang Fang” to his removal from the House Intelligence Committee over national security concerns, to his infamous on-air mishap during a 2019 interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Apparently, Eric Swalwell’s public scandals didn’t come out of thin air. They were foreshadowed in his comedic and confused 2010 “Summary Dissolution” public divorce agreement with his first wife, Melissa Jane Maranda.

It reads like two toddlers fighting over toys at a garage sale. It also shows stunning levels of pettiness, questionable financial decisions, a complicated relationship with a Toyota Camry, and a $10,000 benefactor.

Most of all, it tells the political origin story of Eric Swalwell, whose life was unsurprisingly in chaos.

A Summary Dissolution

A summary dissolution is California’s “easy” divorce path, meant only for short marriages with few assets and no children. Swalwell and his then-wife qualified.

They married in 2007, separated in 2009, and had no children. But what should have been a clean, simple form filing instead turned into a petty, strangely detailed, and unusually sloppy agreement that mirrors the chaotic vibe that came to characterize Swalwell’s later political stunts.

The Strange Division of Dollar Store Items

Most summary dissolutions sum up property division in one sentence: “Household goods divided as mutually agreed.” Not the Swalwell divorce. Not even close.

Instead, the filing itemizes nearly every single object the couple owned, down to napkin rings, towels, a can opener, and serving bowls.

This was a Black Friday brawl between two people fighting over kitchen appliances.

Even the Halloween décor was treated like a high-value marital asset requiring court-level documentation.

It likely indicates a high level of contentiousness and mistrust. Swalwell demanded the napkins, napkin rings ($2.50 retail), the toaster, a warming tray, and a salad spinner.

Melissa, apparently not trusting Eric, needed in writing that she would get the can opener, the blender, a cutting knife, and the TV stand.

Next, they split sets of bowls and glassware “one-half each,” which is not normal if you are “amicably separating”.

For a man who later styled himself as a national leader and foreign-policy expert, the divorce paints a picture of stunning emotional immaturity and a comically low conflict-resolution IQ.

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