Tag: corruption

Supreme Court rejects Michigan family’s claim that county committed ‘home equity theft’ over $2,200 tax debt

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously sided with Isabella County, Michigan, rejecting a family’s claim that local governments must pay homeowners the full fair market value of property seized and sold in tax foreclosures rather than the lower price obtained at public auction.

In the 9-0 decision, the court ruled that under the Fifth Amendment, “the proper baseline under the Takings Clause is the price obtained in a tax sale, at least when the sale is fairly conducted in light of our country’s history of tax sales.”

Writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito explained that “neither the Fifth nor the Eighth Amendment requires the government to compensate former owners based on the hypothetical fair market value of their property.”

The high court noted that creating a fair-market-value baseline would impose “unprecedented burdens” on local governments seeking to collect unpaid taxes, making these sales “impractical.”

“Under Pung’s rule, a tax sale to collect $20,000 in delinquent taxes would net the government a $20,000 loss—a loss paid out to the delinquent taxpayer himself,” Alito continued. “The possibility of such a perverse result would render tax sales infeasible as a debt-collection mechanism.”

The ruling comes amid a decade-long legal battle between Isabella County and the Pung family over what they called “home equity theft.” Isabella County foreclosed on the family’s 3,000-square-foot home over a disputed $2,241.93 tax bill stemming from a revoked Principal Residence Exemption, subsequently selling the $194,400 property at auction for just $76,008. Michael Pung, acting as the personal representative of the estate, disputed the bill and brought the legal challenge on behalf of the family.

While the county eventually returned the surplus auction proceeds, the family argued the Constitution required “just compensation” based on the home’s actual worth, rather than a low-ball auction price that destroyed more than $118,000 in equity.

However, the court said on Tuesday it would not “resolve any of Pung’s newfound contentions that the procedure the County followed in seizing and selling his property was unfair.”

The court ultimately vacated and remanded the case, sending it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to reconsider those procedural claims.

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Corrupt Illinois Democrat State Rep and County Clerk Husband INDICTED In Mass NGO Kickback and Fraud Scheme — Just Weeks After Daughter Busted For COVID Fraud

Another corrupt Illinois Democrat family caught with their hands in the till.

Urbana Democrat State Representative Carol Ammons and her husband, Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on multiple felony counts including wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The indictment lays out a brazen scheme where Ammons allegedly used her campaign committee, Friends of Carol Ammons, to issue overpayments and then took cash kickbacks disguised as “gifts.”

At the same time, she used her position as a state lawmaker to steer massive state grants to friendly nonprofits that then put her daughter Titianna Ammons on the payroll, WCIA reported.

According to the federal indictment:

  • Carol Ammons allegedly caused campaign funds to be paid to herself and family members through excess checks and then received cash kickbacks to hide the scheme. She also falsely reported expenditures to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
  • She helped secure over $1.6 million in state grants for nonprofits including:
    • Bridgewater Sullivan Community Life Center ($612,000 grant) — where daughter Titianna was paid more than $60,000 as Program Director (Ammons even helped draft her employment contract).
    • Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (over $1 million in grants) — where Titianna was paid nearly $10,000 as a digital marketing coordinator.
    • Another grant to Hood Vote that also funneled money to the daughter.

Prosecutors say Ammons and her daughter received financial benefits in excess of $100,000 through this web of campaign misuse and grant steering between 2017 and roughly 2023.

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LICENSE TO KILL? French MPs Approve Law That Gives Police Officers The ‘Benefit of the Doubt’ in Case of Shootings

The new law is making waves in a country in constant turmoil.

French deputies in the National Assembly passed ‌a law giving police officers who become involved in shootings the ‘benefit of the doubt’.

Critics of the legislation are calling it a ‘license to kill’.

Reported to be a longstanding demand of the French right, (that MSM will always call the ‘far-right’), the law means that cops who kill someone during a shooting are presumed ​to have acted within the limits of the law – unless there is proof to the contrary.

Reuters reported:

“The ​law was approved by 313 votes to 199 in the lower house of parliament, the ⁠National Assembly, on Tuesday evening. The government has lent its support to the law, which still needs to ​be voted on by the upper house.

The number of fatal shootings by police in France is among the ​highest in Europe and rising. The agencies that carry out investigations of police in France, the IGPN and IGGN, recorded 69 people killed by police or gendarmerie officers in 2024, compared with 49 in 2023 and 50 in 2022.”

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Florida mayor’s arrogant answer when asked why he was illegally driving around in a POLICE CAR with flashing blue lights

A Florida mayor was caught illegally driving a police car and using its flashing blue lights for a VIP traffic experience.  

Newly released body camera footage shows Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo, 28, being pulled over by a Miami police officer, after Calvo allegedly made an improper left turn in Coconut Grove, Miami at 11.30am on June 14.

But what began as a routine traffic stop quickly escalated when officer Yasmani Gonzalez noticed the black Chevrolet SUV Calvo was driving was fitted with flashing red and blue police lights.

‘Is this a police car? Is this your personal?’ the officer interrogates in the footage.

‘I’m an elected official,’ retorted Calvo, whose mayorship is non-partisan.

The response did little to impress the officer.

‘You turned on your police lights,’ the officer told him. ‘That’s a criminal offense, and I can easily take you to jail.’

The tense roadside exchange continued as the officer delivered a reminder that holding an elected office position does not entitle him to lawless behavior.

‘I don’t care if you’re the mayor,’ Gonzalez slammed. ‘If you’re not a police officer, don’t activate police lights.’

The officer then warned Calvo that he was driving a police vehicle despite not being a sworn law enforcement officer. 

Gonzalez proceeded to threaten jail time, saying, ‘that right there could be a third-degree felony.’

However rather than making an arrest, the officer issued Calvo two citations – one for the improper left turn and another for having prohibited emergency lights on the vehicle. 

Court records show the mayor has pleaded not guilty to both violations. It also remains unclear whether Calvo is still driving the SUV.

The footage has also launched fresh questions over why the city’s mayor was driving a police-issued SUV equipped with functioning emergency lights.

Florida law generally limits the use of blue lights to authorized emergency vehicles and does not provide a specific exemption for mayors. Although municipalities may authorize rare vehicle assignments or equipment for operational purposes, local policies do not supersede state law.

Driving a city vehicle equipped with police-style equipment could be interpreted as the impersonation of a police officer, even if emergency lights were not activated and is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

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“I Told You So: The Manafort Black Ledger Was A Fabrication — And I Proved It In 2016”

Ten years ago, I was one of the only journalists in America willing to ask a simple question: was the black ledger fabricated?

On August 18, 2016, I published a piece in the Washington Times — “New York Times Evidence Against Trump Advisor Paul Manafort May Not Stand Up In Court“ — examining the “black ledger” that had supposedly surfaced in Ukraine, showing off-the-books cash payments to Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The story hit like a bomb. Manafort resigned two days later. The Russia collusion narrative was off and running.

I wasn’t buying it.

What I reported then — and what the mainstream media spent years ridiculing — is now confirmed. Special prosecutor Joe diGenova’s team has obtained bombshell new evidence, confirmed this week by Paul Sperry, that the 2016 election was interfered with not by Russia, but by Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The evidence:

• Ukrainian officials leaked false Manafort financial records to influence the election

• A Ukrainian MP has testified on tape: “I have a tape of these law-enforcement officials saying they did it — they attempted to overthrow the United States government on behalf of Hillary Clinton in 2016”

• Ukraine’s own General Prosecutor stated there was enough evidence to open a criminal investigation

• DiGenova has onboarded a dedicated federal investigator focused solely on Ukraine

The black ledger wasn’t a discovery. It was a fabrication — an intelligence operation, laundered through the New York Times.

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Texas Hospital Caught Red-Handed Advertising BIRTH PACKAGES in Mexico to Convince Foreigners to Have Babies In America – Governor Greg Abbott Orders Investigation

A hospital in South Texas is under fire for trying to profit from America’s ridiculous birthright citizenship policy, which was upheld by the Supreme Court last week.

As Fox News reported on Tuesday, Mission Regional Medical Center has been caught red-handed advertising a birth packages campaign in billboards in Mexico. The purpose was to convince foreign nationals to give birth across the border so their babies could obtain U.S. citizenship.

The hospital promoted deliveries starting at $3,950 for a natural birth and $5,525 for a C-section, and directed viewers to a website, havemybabyinTEXAS.com. The website has since been taken down.

Moreover, the billboards also displayed a telephone number beginning with “001.” This is the country code used to place calls to the United States from Mexico.

Mission Regional Medical Center later claimed this was all a “misunderstanding” and claimed they had backed off.

“The marketing materials regarding maternity services are no longer in use due to any unintended misunderstanding,” a hospital spokesperson told Fox News. “We do not support or facilitate any unlawful activity and work to comply with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations.”

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Elite Judge Sets Tiny Fine for Elite Judge Who Helped Illegal Immigrant Escape ICE

The Democrat-nominated judge who helped an illegal migrant escape from her Wisconsin courtroom has been given a wet-kiss penalty by a judge who used to be a top Democratic politician in the state.

District Judge Lynn Adelman fined Judge Hannah Dugan just $5,000 as he excused her April 2025 crime: “An otherwise good person, upset by immigration enforcement in this country — a view widely shared — made a bad decision in the moment.”

The slap-on-the-wrist penalty comes amid a wave of murder by illegal migrants, and amid the massive economic dislocation to American families caused by migrants’ willingness to work for very low wages.

The “punishment should fit the offender and not merely the crime,” Adelman, the former Democratic Speaker in the state legislature, told the courtroom.

The judge’s statement also rejects the electoral mandate for immigration enforcement earned by populist President Donald Trump from the citizens of the United States in the 2024 general election.

Dugan — a former advocate for more migration — was unapologetic about the crime, saying: “I have been cast as both a scofflaw and as a hero… I am a public servant who was just trying to do my job,” according to the UrbanMilwaukee.com report. The report added:

Dugan told the court that she intends to return to serving the public and her community. She explained her motivation to serve by quoting President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, calling for citizens to take action to preserve and further democracy: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work.”

“For someone who has dedicated her life to the law, this [trial] amounts to significant punishment regardless of what I do today,” Adelman told Dugan and the court.

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Footage Shows Cop Stalking Woman He Met on a TV Set After Surveilling Her With a License Plate Reader

A police officer speeds 70 MPH down a two-lane highway running over a bridge in the Florida Keys. He passes a dump truck in a no-passing zone, then immediately does it again, crossing over a double-yellow line to pass another truck. He passes a third vehicle, nearly causing a head-on collision with a white pickup truck that veers away from him in the oncoming traffic. The cop keeps driving, and sees the SUV he’s been in pursuit of. He flicks his sirens and lights on and pulls it over.

The cop, Lamar Roman, wasn’t trying to pull over a suspected criminal. He was tracking and chasing a woman that he met and harassed on the set of the AppleTV+ show Bad Monkey, which he had worked a security detail shift on a few weeks prior to pulling her over. After meeting the woman, catcalling her and harassing her for her full name and Instagram details, the cop illegally looked up her vehicle information on DAVID, a Florida Department of Motor Vehicles database for law enforcement. He then put her license plate details on a surveillance “hotlist,” meaning he would get a notification in real time anytime she drove by an AI-powered license plate surveillance camera.

Roman told investigators that he saw the woman as a “shiny thing” and knew that using surveillance tools to track her was illegal, according to police records. He told investigators that “I knew that when I put [her into DAVID], I’m like ‘fuck’ and that’s why I stopped right after and nothing else.” But that wasn’t the end of it; he investigated the woman then used a powerful license plate tracking database to find her location and chase her down. In doing so, he also “almost cause[d] a head on collision while passing as a white truck traveling northbound had to veer off the roadway to avoid a collision.”

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Southern Poverty Law Center Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Fraud Charges

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on July 7 entered not guilty pleas again to 11 criminal counts alleging it defrauded donors by sending millions of dollars to informants who infiltrated white supremacist and so-called hate groups that it publicly opposed.

The fresh arraignment of the nonprofit organization under a new superseding indictment took place via videoconference before Montgomery, Alabama-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly F. Pate.

The charges, announced on April 21 by FBI Director Kash Patel and acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, sparked political backlash amid growing questions about the group, which the federal government had previously used to track extremist groups with its “Hate Map” and other online resources.

The original indictment by a federal grand jury charged the SPLC with wire fraud, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The group was alleged to have surreptitiously transferred more than $3 million in donated funds to leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance, between 2014 and 2023.

The government said the SPLC sent donations to bank accounts of fake entities that had names such as “Rare Books Warehouse” and “Tech Writers Group.” The accounts were then used to funnel money to alleged informants in the racist groups that it claimed to strongly oppose.

One of the informants allegedly helped to organize the “Unite the Right” protest in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned deadly.

SPLC interim president and CEO Bryan Fair appeared in person on May 7 to plead not guilty to the same charges on behalf of the group.

On July 7, an attorney for the organization appeared by videoconference to enter 11 not guilty pleas to the superseding indictment issued last month that added more details and specifics. The new charging document did not add new charges.

The original indictment alleged $3 million in donor funds was funneled to individuals associated with extremist groups, but the new indictment increases the figure to $4.1 million.

The new indictment provides additional details such as a claim that funds were used by recipients for buying materials for cross burnings and Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods.

The SPLC has filed a motion to dismiss the indictment for vindictive prosecution. The group claims it is being targeted by the Trump administration for political reasons. It is unclear when the court will rule on the motion.

The SPLC is known for its successful fundraising campaigns. According to its most recent publicly available IRS filing, it had gross receipts in tax year 2023 of $339.3 million and assets of $822.2 million.

The FBI severed its relationship with the SPLC in October 2025 after conservatives criticized the group for including slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s organization on its list of hate groups. The FBI had previously used SPLC intelligence on domestic extremist groups.

Patel said the organization has turned into a “partisan smear machine” instead of a civil rights advocate.

“Their so-called ‘hate map’ has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence,” he said at the time, without elaborating.

The SPLC’s Hate Map lists almost 1,400 groups, including Kirk’s Turning Point USA, categorizing it as an “antigovernment” group.

Critics have long said the Montgomery-based SPLC unfairly labels conservatives as racist as a matter of policy, treats opposition to illegal or legal immigration, open borders, and multiculturalism as hate, and political expression of those views as hate speech.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization that defends religious freedom and free speech, says the SPLC “did good work decades ago fighting segregation in the South,” but has since it has become a “far-left activist organization that attacks anyone who disagrees with its narrow political agenda.” Targets have included conservative, libertarian, anti-tax, immigration reductionist, and other groups.

In a statement issued in May, the SPLC called the charges against them “provably wrong” and “based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law.” The nonprofit said its informant program has been successful at preventing threats and attacks, stopping criminal activity, and gathering information used to dismantle hate groups.

“There is no question that the information the SPLC shared with law enforcement saved lives,” the statement reads.

It also stated that it was no stranger to legal threats and would continue its mission “no matter what.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the SPLC for comment. No reply was received by publication time.

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President Trump Seeks Immediate REHEARING of Birthright Citizenship Case at Supreme Court After Scam Billboards Pop Up Along the Border Advertising “Deliveries Starting at $4000”

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is immediately demanding a rehearing of the birthright citizenship case at the United States Supreme Court after discovering that scam billboards and signs have exploded along the Southern Border, in Mexico, and across the country, openly advertising “BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP” with “Deliveries starting at $4000.”

The president blasted the growing scheme that exploits America’s birthright citizenship laws, arguing that the Court’s recent decision has created an incentive for criminal enterprises to profit by marketing U.S. citizenship to foreign nationals.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote:

“Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with “Deliveries starting at $4000.”

Likewise, similar signs going up all over our Country. Billions of Dollars will be illegally made by this SCAM, with Citizenship going to anyone willing to pay.

It will be, by far, the number one way of becoming a citizen, and then the entire family will be allowed to follow. Not sustainable.

NOBODY SAW THIS COMING!!! AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS NOT FOR SALE! In fact, that is a crime, and therefore, the Supreme Court’s ruling is wrong.

I will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY. This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision.”

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