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DOJ is Reviewing 5.2 Million More Pages of Epstein Files

The Department of Justice is currently reviewing an additional 5.2 million pages of the Epstein files to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by President Trump in November.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a post on X, wrote, “DOJ lawyers from Main Justice, FBI, SDFL, and SDNY are working around the clock through the holidays, including Christmas and New Year’s, to review documents in compliance with federal law.”

He added, “It truly is an all-hands-on-deck approach, and we’re asking as many lawyers as possible to commit their time to review the documents that remain.”

Blanche further noted that the delay in releasing the additional pages of the Epstein Files is due to the lengthy process required to redact victims’ names.

Per NBC News:

The Justice Department is scrambling to review about 5.2 million pages related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to comply with a law passed by Congress, a source familiar with the operation told NBC News on Tuesday night.

That number is much higher than previously known.

The Justice Department was seeking to enlist roughly 400 employees in the effort to sift through the records, which is expected to run from Friday to Jan. 20, two sources familiar with the plan told NBC News.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that lawyers from department’s headquarters, the FBI, the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York “are working around the clock through the holidays, including Christmas and New Years, to review documents in compliance with federal law.”

On Christmas Eve, the Department of Justice announced that it had received the additional batches of the Epstein Files from SDNY and the FBI.

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Misspelled Minnesota day care closed last week, state claims — on same day owners told The Post it’s up and running

The misspelled day care at the center of viral outrage over the Somali community’s multibillion-dollar fraud scandal shut down last week, the head of Minnesota’s child services department claimed Monday — at the same time that the owners of the facility put on a dog and pony show for The Post to demonstrate that it was really a working day care and not a front.

Tikki Brown, commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, told reporters that her staff found no evidence of fraud at any of the day cares highlighted by YouTuber Nick Shirley.

She stated that the Quality “Learing” Center had closed. 

Apparently the owners of the site — which has gotten up to $4 million in taxpayer funds and racked up dozens of inspection violations — didn’t get the memo.

At least 20 kids were seen entering the Quality “Learing” Center Monday afternoon after being bused in. One employee shouted down The Post’s attempt to ask questions: “Don’t f–king come to this area. Get the f–k out of here,” he said.

The day care says it is open Monday through Thursday from 2 to 10 p.m., and the owner’s son Ibrahim Ali showed up Monday to claim all the allegations were a big misunderstanding.

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Defund the Police Group Bailed Out Domestic Abuser Who Immediately Murdered Mother of His Children

A defund-the-police organization bailed out a repeat domestic abuser who went on to strangle and slash his ex-girlfriend to death in front of their children.

Mohamed Adan, 36, had a documented history of violent assaults against Racheal Abraham, 36, the mother of two of his kids.

Adan was sentenced last week for the murder, and the prosecutor did not hold back in placing blame for Abraham’s death on the leftist activists who helped free him.

Despite clear warnings and multiple arrests, the Portland Freedom Fund, a now-defunct group dedicated to abolishing police and highlighting racial disparities in the bail system, paid $2,000 to secure his release.

Within days, Adan violated a no-contact order, attacked Abraham in her Portland apartment, and killed her by strangling her and slashing her face and arms.

In May 2022, Adan, high on methamphetamine and cocaine, strangled and punched Abraham in the head.

He was arrested again in June of that year, for another strangulation incident where he threatened, “I should kill you!”

Judge Benjamin Bushong released him on GPS monitoring, which Adan promptly removed.

On August 11, he was rearrested for beating Abraham with prayer beads.

Nine days later, on August 20, the Portland Freedom Fund stepped in, posting bail despite Abraham’s pleas to the court that “statistics show that strangulation cases lead to homicide. I don’t want to be a victim.”

Adan disabled another GPS tracker, hunted her down, and committed the murder while three of her children were home.

On Tuesday, Adan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years.

Senior prosecutor Melissa Marrero didn’t mince words at the sentencing, saying, “The Portland Freedom Fund, thinking it knew better than law enforcement professionals, decided to bail him out. It cost her her life.”

The New York Post reports, “The Portland Freedom Fund, which aimed to ‘bring attention to the racial disparity in the cash bail system,’ shut down in September 2022.”

This Portland tragedy is far from an isolated incident.

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RINO Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s Office Dismisses Daycare Fraud Allegations as ‘Cost of Doing Business’

RINO Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office has brushed off growing concerns about potential massive fraud in taxpayer-funded daycare centers, particularly in Columbus, which boasts the second-largest Somali population in the United States, as simply “the cost of doing business.”

The governor’s office said that attempts to use daycare centers for fraud in Ohio have been “known to the state for decades,” and implied that those who did not think it was an issue are naive.

Speaking to the Columbus Dispatch, Dan Tierney, DeWine’s spokesperson, denied any recent “surge” in fraud but acknowledged that the governor’s office is aware of public interest in the matter.

“If people are out there who could not contemplate that people were trying to defraud the public through day care centers, I understand it’s new to them … but it’s been known to the state for decades,” Tierney said. “So therefore, we have robust anti-fraud measures to try and stop this, this is something that is unfortunately the cost of doing business.”

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Lawyer’s daughter who proudly identified as con artist gets sentenced for bank fraud after using taxpayer cash to rent Miami mega-mansion

A former social media influencer who once proudly called herself a ‘con artist’ after scamming the federal government out of $1.5 million in COVID-related disaster loans will now be locked up for even longer.

Danielle Miller, the daughter of lawyer and former New York State Bar Association president Michael Miller, was sentenced Monday to 16 years in Florida state prison, after pleading guilty to 38 counts of fraudulently using personal identification information.

Prosecutors have said Miller came to Florida during the COVID pandemic, traveling to Sarasota with her was Ciera Blas, whom she met while locked up at New York City‘s infamous Rikers Island for using stolen credit card information to book appointments at a luxurious spa in the Upper West Side.

Miller then used others’ identification information to defraud banks throughout the Sunshine State.

The scam finally unraveled when an alert manager notified the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, who arrested her.

But this was not the first time Miller faced jail for bank fraud in the state, even going as far as proudly characterizing herself as a ‘con artist’ in a 2022 New York Magazine article.

That year, she was sentenced to five years in a Florida prison, after she attempted to use a California woman’s passport to obtain more than $8,000 at a Chase bank drive-through window in 2020, according to the Bradenton Herald.

By 2023, federal authorities accused Miller of stealing the identities of more than 10 people to set up bank accounts and obtain loans – which she then used for travel and for lavish purchases, including $27,000-a-month rent at a waterside villa in Miami.

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Taliban to jail barbers who shave men’s beards for up to 15 months under radical Islamic law

Barbers who cut off men’s beards in Afghanistan are set to be jailed under the Taliban‘s increasingly radical regime.

Some young men are also reportedly being beaten up and ‘humiliated’ for defying strict cultural laws by daring to pick a Western-style haircut.

Offending hairdressers will be referred to the Taliban’s feared judicial authorities and could face up for 15 months in prison.

The totalitarian regime claims it is merely laying down Islamic law.

Beard removal was already illegal under its dystopian-sounding Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, but did not carry a prison sentence.

Some accused of crafting non-traditional styles have already faced temporary detention, however, meaning their businesses have ground to a halt for days.

Esmatullah, from the Balkh province, told the Telegraph: ‘We are branded as agents of the former government if we trim our beards or keep what they call a Western hairstyle. 

‘The Taliban interrogate and beat people simply for how they look.’

He said a local college student was beaten up by Taliban members who also lopped off his hair with scissors, because he had decided to shave the sides of this head.

Another barber in Balkh said that many of his customers now ask him to visit them at their homes for haircut or grooming sessions, because it is too risky to do in public.

Many have also seen a steep decline in business since the Taliban reestablished in August 2021.

Last week, Taliban morality enforcers detained eight barbers in Afghanistan’s Parwan province for shaving or styling beards.

Their shops were shuttered, and their have been families told they will be detained for a month.

Taliban officials summoned male barbers in the Balkh province on Friday to the drum home the message that the crackdown is on.

Another Balkh barber told the newspaper: ‘If people are not allowed to shave their beards or cut their hair as per their choice, who will come to our shops?

‘We live hand to mouth, and these edicts will leave us without enough food on our plates.’

Since sweeping back to power in the wake of the Western withdrawal, the Taliban has steadily tightened its grip on the people of Afghanistan and stripped away their freedoms.

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An Antifa-Linked Portland Bail Fund Freed This Somali — Five Days Later, He Killed a Mother of Three

A judge on Dec. 30 handed down a life sentence to a Somali-American man who brutally murdered a woman who had a protective order against him after an Antifa-linked bail fund paid for his release.

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jenna Plank sentenced Mohamed Osman Adan, 36, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for the 2022 strangulation and stabbing murder of Racheal Angel Abraham. She was the mother of three children, including two who Adan fathered. The murder occurred when the children were in her home.

The Portland Freedom Fund, infamous for bailing out violent BLM-Antifa rioters in 2020, posted bail for Adan shortly before the fatal attack. The group advocates for the abolishment of law enforcement and prisons.

Adan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and also to several other felony counts, including felony strangulation constituting domestic violence, contempt of court, felon in possession of a firearm, driving under the influence and attempting to elude police.

Despite being repeatedly arrested on domestic violence accusations, Adan was granted bail and released from custody days before the 2022 murder. After Judge Jerry Hodson set bail at $20,000, the Portland Freedom Fund covered Adan’s bond.

Five days after his release, Adan cut off his GPS monitor on Aug. 27, 2022 and returned to Abraham’s apartment, where he stabbed and strangled her to death.

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Finnish police seize vessel suspected of damaging undersea telecoms cable in Baltic Sea

Finnish police have seized and searched a vessel suspected of damaging undersea telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea.

The cable was damaged in the Gulf of Finland between the capital cities of Helsinki and Tallin in Estonia early this morning.

The ship had been dragging its anchor for hours along the sea bed when it was discovered by police in Finland’s exclusive economic zone.

Its crew of 14 – hailing from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan – was detained by Finnish police, local media said.

The ship, named the Fitburg, was flagged in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It had been travelling from Russia to Israel.

Experts and political leaders have viewed the incidents as part of a ‘hybrid war’ carried out by Russia against the West – sabotaging vital infrastructure.

It has been flagged as an issue increasingly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Helsinki police have opened an investigation into ‘aggravated disruption of telecommunications’ and ‘aggravated sabotage and attempted aggravated sabotage’.

The damage happened in Estonia’s exclusive economic zone, police said. 

The cable, owned by Finnish telecommunications company Elisa, is critical to Finland’s underwater infrastructure, providing power and communication for thousands of Europeans.

Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki told local media that investigators are not speculating on whether a state-level actor was behind the damage.

‘Finland is prepared for security challenges of various kinds, and we respond to them as necessary,’ Finnish President Alexander Stubb wrote on social platform X.

Earlier this year, a captain and and two senior officers of a Russia-linked vessel were charged after their vessel damaged undersea cables between Finland and Estonia on Christmas Day 2024.

Charges of aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications were filed against the captain and first and second officers of the Eagle S oil tanker, the Finnish deputy prosecutor general said in August.

Their names were not made public. The statement said they denied the allegations.

The Kremlin also previously denied allegations that they were involved in the damaging of the cables.

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State Cannabis Legalization and Psychosis-Related Health Care Utilization

Key Points

Question  Is state cannabis legalization or commercialization associated with increased rates of psychosis-related health care claims?

Findings  In this cohort study of claims data from 63 680 589 beneficiaries from 2003 to 2017, there was no statistically significant difference in the rates of psychosis-related diagnoses or prescribed antipsychotics in states with medical or recreational cannabis policies compared with states with no such policy.

Meaning  The findings of this study do not support an association between state policies legalizing cannabis and psychosis-related outcomes; further research into this topic may be informative.

Abstract

Importance  Psychosis is a hypothesized consequence of cannabis use. Legalization of cannabis could therefore be associated with an increase in rates of health care utilization for psychosis.

Objective  To evaluate the association of state medical and recreational cannabis laws and commercialization with rates of psychosis-related health care utilization.

Design, Setting, and Participants  Retrospective cohort design using state-level panel fixed effects to model within-state changes in monthly rates of psychosis-related health care claims as a function of state cannabis policy level, adjusting for time-varying state-level characteristics and state, year, and month fixed effects. Commercial and Medicare Advantage claims data for beneficiaries aged 16 years and older in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, 2003 to 2017 were used. Data were analyzed from April 2021 to October 2022.

Exposure  State cannabis legalization policies were measured for each state and month based on law type (medical or recreational) and degree of commercialization (presence or absence of retail outlets).

Main Outcomes and Measures  Outcomes were rates of psychosis-related diagnoses and prescribed antipsychotics.

Results  This study included 63 680 589 beneficiaries followed for 2 015 189 706 person-months. Women accounted for 51.8% of follow-up time with the majority of person-months recorded for those aged 65 years and older (77.3%) and among White beneficiaries (64.6%). Results from fully-adjusted models showed that, compared with no legalization policy, states with legalization policies experienced no statistically significant increase in rates of psychosis-related diagnoses (medical, no retail outlets: rate ratio [RR], 1.13; 95% CI, 0.97-1.36; medical, retail outlets: RR, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.96-1.61; recreational, no retail outlets: RR, 1.38; 95% CI, 0.93-2.04; recreational, retail outlets: RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 0.98-1.97) or prescribed antipsychotics (medical, no retail outlets RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.88-1.13; medical, retail outlets: RR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.87-1.19; recreational, no retail outlets: RR, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.84-1.51; recreational, retail outlets: RR, 1.14; 95% CI, 0.89-1.45). In exploratory secondary analyses, rates of psychosis-related diagnoses increased significantly among men, people aged 55 to 64 years, and Asian beneficiaries in states with recreational policies compared with no policy.

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Investors Scoop Up 40% Of Vacant Lots Sold After Los Angeles Fires: Report

Almost a year after January’s devastating California wildfires, real estate investors have been buying up nearly 40 percent of the land sold in the areas impacted by the fires.

A Dec. 30 report from Redfin stated that many of these now-empty lots once retained some of the nation’s most expensive homes, before they were reduced to rubble when the fire ripped through over 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 11,000 single-family homes in the Los Angeles suburbs.

A Zillow analysis—also released on Dec. 30—indicates the total residential housing value of the 19,605 homes in the affected regions was $46 billion prior to the fires.

More than 11,000 of those homes were destroyed.

The median home value in Los Angeles suburbs was listed at $1.95 million as of December 2024, prior to the fires.

Zillow’s report shows that for-sale housing supply near the fire zones escalated soon after the fires ended. In addition, new listings within five miles of the fire regions continued to grow from December 2024 to January 2025.

“While home values nearby have dipped a bit, in line with broader Los Angeles trends, the most evident impact was on supply,” Orphe Divounguy, a Zillow senior economist, said in the report.

“The sharp increase in listings just outside the burn zones likely reflects a mix of homeowners accelerating planned sales or owners of second homes deciding to list in response to the sudden shift in local demand.”

According to Redfin, investors were responsible for buying 48 of the 119 lots for sale in the Pacific Palisades area during the third quarter. In nearby Altadena, investors purchased 27 of the 61 lots available, and in Malibu, 19 of the 43 lots for sale were bought by investors.

Redfin’s analysis indicates that many investors made lowball offers for lots in Altadena, where some of the destroyed homes had been built in the 1940s and 1950s. These lots have been selling in the $500,000 to $600,000 range. The report noted that while some owners rejected these offers, others were forced to sell as they lacked the money to rebuild.

By comparison, a typical empty lot sold for $1.6 million in Pacific Palisades, and for $1.3 million in Malibu.

“It’s not uncommon for investors to buy and develop land after natural disasters,” the report stated.

However, while investors have been making inroads in getting vacant land off the market, Redfin agents say there is so much vacant land for sale that much of it remains unsold.

Meanwhile, those homes left standing in the fire zones are attracting offers if they’re reasonably priced, with owners usually handling the ash and smoke damage remediation.

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