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More License Plate Reader Mission Creep: School Residency Verification, Background Checks, and Noise Complaints

An EFF analysis of millions of searches of Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) data by police has uncovered a troubling pattern: in the absence of a warrant requirement to search ALPR databases, law enforcement agencies have moved beyond specific investigations to use these surveillance networks for virtually any whim.

Our findings suggest that the absence of a warrant requirement has fostered a culture of unrestricted access to sensitive location data, allowing agencies to leverage that data beyond the scope of specific criminal investigations.

As a refresher: Law enforcement agencies lease or purchase camera systems from Flock Safety and then mount them by the side of the road and at intersections to document every vehicle that passes, including the plate, make, model, color and distinguishing characteristics, along with the date, time and location of where it was seen.

Law enforcement’s talking points—often scripted by the company itself—trumpet their role in solving high-stakes crimes. But the data reveals a different story. What they’re not saying is that ALPRs are also frequently used for extremely low-level investigations, such as verifying whether a student lives within a particular school zone. In some cases, police have even used this tech to conduct employment background checks and investigations into loud music complaints. Recently, a motorcyclist was even targeted for simply holding a cell phone while riding.

The reach of this ALPR surveillance is amplified by the nature of the indiscriminate sharing these technologies encourage. Most agencies choose to share broadly, often as part of a nationwide pool, making it common for a single city’s system to be searched hundreds of thousands of times each month. By analyzing these “network audit logs,” privacy advocates and journalists have uncovered evidence of the technology being used to surveil protesters, abortion-seekers, immigrants, and even ethnic Roma populations.

While these high-profile abuses are shocking, the more mundane uses are also problematic, signaling a massive, unchecked mission creep that has turned an alleged “crime-fighting” tool into a universal tracker of everyone’s movements.

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German Police ARREST Right-Wing Activist Traveling to “Remigration Summit” at Airport Gate, Issue EXIT BAN

German Federal border police took right-wing “Generation Identity” activist Max Märkl into custody today at Munich Airport to prevent him from traveling to the “Remigration Summit” taking place Saturday in Porto, Portugal, and issued a travel ban to prevent the young man from traveling to Portugal. The Gateway Pundit spoke to Max exclusively.

“They were waiting at the gate for me when the plane started boarding, pulled me out of the line, took my documents and took me into custody at the airport police station, where I was issued a citation banning me from traveling to Portugal until midnight Saturday and threatening to fine me €500 every time I failed to report to my local police station twice daily until then,” Max said.

ing youth movement originally founded in France 2014, which seeks to preserve the cultural identity of Europe. He was scheduled to speak at the Remigration Summit, whose speaker list includes Stefano L. Forte of the New York Young Republicans, US influencer Joey Mannarino, Generation Identity Austria head Martin Sellner, Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, German state parliamentarian Lena Kotré, UK Grooming Gang survivor Sammy Woodhouse and Belgian activist Dries van Langenhove, who was found guilty of “hate speech” this week for drawing a connection between migration and crime, even though the court admits the connection exists.

Last year, eight Generation Identity activists were also prevented from traveling to the 2025 Remigration Summit in Milano, Italy, from Munich airport, but four went via car anyway and were never charged with a crime, presumably meaning prosecutors know the case would never stand up in court.

This time, the Federal police were better prepared, threatening to fine Max if he defies the ban and confiscating his mobile phone right away to prevent him from filming the arrest like last year (as The Gateway Pundit reported).

The Federal Police citation, which Gateway Pundit has read, justifies the travel ban on a free German citizen who has committed no crime by calling the concept of “Remigration” (deportation of illegal migrants) a violation of the German constitution.

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Florida Drops 800,000 Irradiated Mosquitoes from Drones Over Citizens 

A Florida government mosquito-control agency has confirmed that approximately 800,000 Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were raised in a laboratory, said to be sterilized with X-rays, and released from drones over part of Fort Myers, Florida, in what officials describe as a mosquito population-control experiment.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are known vectors of dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever.

The mosquitoes are irradiated at 12 Gy per minute (12,000 mGy/min), while a human chest X-ray delivers only 0.1 mSv total—so the mosquito dose rate is 120,000 times higher than the dose a person receives in a chest X-ray.

The Florida operation was conducted at the historic Edison and Ford Winter Estates tourist site, which includes gardens, museums, and public walkways visited by civilians and families throughout the year.

Local reporting stated the release was part of an ongoing partnership between the mosquito-control district and the estates property.

The Lee County Mosquito Control District was created by the Florida Legislature in 1958 as an independent special district funded primarily through local property taxes.

That means local Florida residents are effectively funding the development and expansion of drone-based mosquito release operations over populated areas.

The mosquitoes were released using drone technology as part of the so-called Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) program.

The program’s stated goal is to suppress mosquito populations by flooding an area with sterilized male mosquitoes that mate with wild females, producing eggs that allegedly do not hatch.

Officials claim only male mosquitoes were released because male mosquitoes do not bite humans.

However, studies show these techniques still end up producing both female mosquitoes (which do bite, potentially spreading disease) and eggs that do end up hatching.

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US Plans Sharp Cuts To Bombers, Warships And Other Assets Available To NATO In Crisis, Report Says

The United States intends to significantly reduce the military forces it would make available to European allies during a potential crisis, including strategic bombers, fighter jets, warships and refueling aircraft, according to a report by German news magazine Der Spiegel.

The planned reductions come as the NATO alliance faces growing strain amid transatlantic tensions. European officials have expressed concern that Washington could scale back its commitments or even withdraw support entirely.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized European NATO members for insufficient defense spending and has pledged to withdraw thousands of American troops from Germany. His interest in acquiring Greenland, a Danish territory, has further heightened tensions. Trump has also lambasted allies for limited support in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid conflict with Iran, while questioning the U.S. obligation to honor NATO’s mutual defense pact.

According to Spiegel, a senior U.S. envoy briefed NATO officials on the changes during a closed-door meeting at alliance headquarters in Brussels late last week. The envoy was identified as Alexander Velez-Green, representing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The U.S. would cut the number of strategic bombers available to NATO by half, the report said. The number of fighter jets would decrease by one-third, while the U.S. Navy would provide fewer destroyers and no longer contribute submarines to alliance operations.

Europe would also need to supply its own reconnaissance drones, as the U.S. plans to significantly reduce support for both reconnaissance and armed drone operations. Mid-air refueling aircraft would also see cuts, the report added.

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Chicago-Area Democrat Alderwoman Arrested For Casting Ballot on Behalf of Her Deceased Mother

A Chicago-area Alderwoman was arrested for casting a ballot for her deceased mother.

Waukegan Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton was arrested and charged with a felony after she voted on behalf of her deceased mother.

Prosecutors say Bolton, 67, filled out a mail-in ballot for her mother, Mary Sims, who passed away on January 12.

The clerk’s office issued Sims a mail-in ballot on February 5, three weeks after she passed away.

The mail-in ballot was filled out and returned on February 26.

“Our system of checks and balances worked as intended,” County Clerk Anthony Vega told the Chicago Tribune.

“Our staff followed established protocols. They identified the irregularities, and our office coordinated with our law enforcement partners. This is exceedingly rare, but if someone games the system, we will hold them accountable,” he added.

The Chicago Tribune reported:

Waukegan Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, is facing a felony charge after, authorities say, she falsified election material in the March primary contest by casting a ballot on behalf of her dead mother.

Bolton, 67, was charged with felony mutilation of election material and disregarding the election code, a misdemeanor, on May 19, and appeared Wednesday in Lake County Court in Waukegan.

Though the irregularity was discovered on Feb. 26 by the Lake County Clerk’s Office, the investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office did not start until March 27 — 10 days after the March 17 primary election — when the clerk’s office confirmed it.

After the clerk’s office issued a vote-by-mail ballot to Mary Sims on Feb. 5, the office cancelled Sims’ voter registration after learning of her death on Feb. 12 from the Illinois Department of Public Health through the Illinois State Board of Elections voter registration system, according to a joint news release from the offices of the county clerk, sheriff and state’s attorney.

Sims died on Jan. 12 and is Bolton’s mother, according to Richard Bradshaw, a licensed funeral director with Bradshaw and Range Funeral Home in Waukegan.

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Sen. Bob Duff Pushes 100% Tax on Trump’s $1.776 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) announced Thursday that he wants to explore ways for Connecticut to seize any payouts Connecticut residents receive from President Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.

Duff said he plans to introduce legislation in the 2027 legislative session — after a legal review — that would impose a 100% state tax on any such payments, effectively confiscating every dollar.

The fund, created by the Department of Justice earlier this month as part of a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS for illegally leaking his tax returns, aims to provide compensation and formal apologies to Americans who claim they were targeted by government weaponization and lawfare.

Claims are voluntary, with no explicit partisan restrictions. The $1.776 billion comes from the federal Judgment Fund.

While Democrats have blasted the fund as a “corrupt slush fund,” supporters view it as a long-overdue effort to hold the federal government accountable for years of political persecution.

It’s sparked lawsuits, GOP internal debate, and reactions like Connecticut’s proposed 100% state tax on any local payouts.

“The Trump regime just handed $1.8 billion in taxpayer money to the same people who beat police officers and stormed the United States Capitol,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk). “Connecticut is not going to let a single one of our residents profit from that corruption. If you filed a claim with Trump’s slush fund and collected a check, we are going to explore every legal option available to take every penny of it back. We will not allow this state to be a safe harbor for insurrectionist windfalls.”

“We are living in unprecedented times,” he continued. “This regime acts in ways that were previously unthinkable, and their lapdogs on the Supreme Court and in Congress hand them a stamp of approval every single time. Connecticut is going to fight back with every tool we have. We are doing the legal work now so that when the 2027 session begins, we are ready to act.”

Duff’s hysterical meltdown is nothing more than rank partisan hackery and deliberate misinformation.

Far from a “slush fund for insurrectionists,” Trump’s $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is open to any American who can demonstrate they were targeted by the federal government’s weaponized bureaucracy — including parents labeled “domestic terrorists” for speaking at school board meetings, pro-life activists raided by the FBI, and conservative organizations harassed by the IRS.

Instead of addressing Connecticut’s real problems, Duff is wasting time and political capital on a spiteful symbolic tax that will likely never survive legal scrutiny. His blind hatred for President Trump has once again exposed him as a petty, small-minded obstructionist more interested in grandstanding against Trump than serving the people of Connecticut.

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The Permanent War Government: Who’s Really Calling the Shots in Washington?

Who is actually running the government?

That is no longer a rhetorical question.

As America’s war with Iran lurches from escalation to ceasefire to renewed threats of military force, Americans are being asked to trust that someone, somewhere, knows what they are doing.

But who?

This is the constitutional crisis hiding in plain sight.

The question is not merely whether Donald Trump is fit to lead. The question is whether any president still leads in any meaningful constitutional sense once the permanent war government gets moving.

The Iran war is merely the latest test case.

If the war machine keeps moving even when the public cannot tell who is steering it, then what remains of constitutional government?

This is the nightmare Rod Serling warned about in Seven Days in May.

Released in 1964, Seven Days in May imagined a dramatic military coup: generals plotting in secret to overthrow an unpopular president because they believed they knew better than the American people what was best for the nation.

The coup is eventually foiled. The republic is saved. The Constitution survives.

At least on screen.

In the real world, the plot has thickened and spread out over decades.

The old fear was that the military might seize power from the civilian government.

The modern reality is that the permanent government does not need to seize power.

It already has it.

The coup no longer requires generals in smoke-filled rooms plotting to overthrow the president at midnight. It does not require tanks on Pennsylvania Avenue or soldiers storming the Capitol. It does not even require an official suspension of the Constitution.

All it requires is secrecy, fear, endless war, executive power, emergency declarations, classified intelligence, compliant courts, cowardly legislators, corporate profiteers, militarized police, and a public too distracted, exhausted or frightened to resist.

That coup has been underway for decades.

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TOTAL CORRUPTION: Two Minnesota Muslim Women Arrested In Massive $21 Million Autism Program Scam — Taxpayer Cash Sent Overseas!

The Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has arrested two Muslim women in Minnesota for defrauding American taxpayers of more than $21 million through a brazen scheme targeting the state’s autism services program.

Shamso Ahmed Hassan, 55, and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf, 25, both of Brooklyn Park, were taken into custody by HSI agents. Federal prosecutors say the pair submitted $46.6 million in fraudulent claims to Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) program — a Medicaid-funded service for children with autism — and pocketed approximately $21.1 million in taxpayer money for services that were never provided.

According to the DHS statement and indictment:

  • Hassan was a beneficial owner of Smart Therapy Center LLC and Star Autism Center LLC but hid her ownership interests from Minnesota regulators as required.
  • Yusuf worked as a provider and was heavily involved in operations and submitting claims.
  • They paid illegal kickbacks to parents to enroll children.
  • They billed for services that were never rendered, for children who didn’t qualify, and disguised the kickbacks by routing money through family members and employees — with some funds sent overseas.
  • The scheme ran from at least May 2020 through December 2024.

“These Minnesota residents have been accused of stealing more than $21 million from the American taxpayer,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.

“They now face charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, EIGHT counts of health care fraud, and TWO counts of money laundering. Their Medicaid fraud scheme started during the COVID pandemic and lasted for four years. ICE continues to zero in on the rampant fraud in Minnesota. Under Secretary Mullin, we will end the defrauding of the American people.”

Both women are U.S. citizens (Hassan naturalized). They have pleaded not guilty and remain in federal custody.

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‘Reckless’: Virginia Recommends MMR Vaccine for Infants as Young as 6 Months

Virginia’s Department of Health is recommending infants ages 6 to 11 months receive a MMR vaccine — earlier than the age recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Doctors and other vaccine experts told The Defender that Virginia’s guidance is “reckless” and “not grounded in science.”

The state’s recommendations also include an accelerated measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination schedule, advising that infants get the second dose in the two-dose MMR series 28 days after the first.

Virginia’s recommendation comes in response to a recent measles outbreak in Buckingham County, which as of Tuesday had reached 54 cases.

The state’s MMR vaccine guidance was included in a May 13 letter from Virginia State Health Commissioner Cameron Webb. The recommendations call for infants ages 6 to 11 months to “get an early dose of the MMR vaccine,” and two more doses at the AAP’s recommended ages, at least 28 days apart.

The CDC and AAP recommend a minimum age of 12 months for MMR vaccination, except in “special situations,” such as international travel.

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Pentagon puts building blocks in place for Cuba invasion

The Pentagon has spent months positioning the troops and weapons needed for the U.S. to launch a military attack on Cuba — all it needs is a final go-ahead from Donald Trump.

The president has floated an invasion of the island after economic and political pressure failed to topple the Communist government. But the Navy’s built-up presence in the region — the largest in the world outside the Middle East — would allow the U.S. to act immediately.

These strategically placed assets set the table for military action, from a capture of Havana’s leadership much like the seizure of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to a series of precision strikes. And they open the possibility that the U.S. throws itself into the third international conflict of the Trump administration.

Cuba is “in a lot of trouble,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday at a full Cabinet meeting. “Having a failed state 90 miles from our shores is a threat to the national security of the United States.”

The armada in the region is slightly smaller than it was in January when the U.S. captured Maduro. But the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group entered the Caribbean in May, along with several guided missile destroyers and cruisers that can launch precision missiles at targets onshore. An array of advanced American drones and surveillance aircraft have also circled Cuba for months, according to flight tracking sites. The USS Kearsarge amphibious ships and escorts, which carry 2,500 Marines, are off the coast of Virginia preparing for a new deployment, and could replace some ships heading home.

The surge provides a variety of military options, although the Pentagon would need additional troops for a massive ground invasion.

The Nimitz arrived in the region on the same day as the U.S. indicted former president Raul Castro, in what appeared a public show of force. “The Nimitz is likely there primarily for intimidation, though it could be used in a military operation if needed,” said Mark Cancian, a former Pentagon official and now a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The ship, along with fighter planes based in Florida and Puerto Rico, would probably play a role in any military action in Cuba, he said. “Air strikes are possible to take out their air defenses to allow broader air operations or, perhaps, destroy their leadership with the idea of establishing a relationship as we have with Venezuela. Raul Castro would be their first target.”

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