Tag: sports

ANOTHER state is embroiled in fraud scandal with ‘$77MILLION of taxpayers’ money going missing’… and WWE stars are at the center

Mississippi has joined the list of states embroiled in major fraud scandals, as a welfare scheme trial centered around WWE stars is set to kick off this week. 

The embezzlement scheme saw at least $77 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money go toward frivolous things instead of helping those in need in America’s poorest state, according to authorities.

Instead of helping the less fortunate, cash was splurged on a lavish home in Jackson, cars, paying off a non-profit leader’s speeding ticket, and funding a new $5 million volleyball stadium at Mississippi University, among other items, authorities said. 

A total of seven people have pleaded guilty to state or federal charges related to the fraud case, but one person, former pro wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr., has decided to plead not guilty and stand trial. 

His brother, Brett DiBiase, 37, was also charged in the welfare-fraud scandal. Brett, who also wrestled professionally, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges. 

Meanwhile, his older brother, who received the Million Dollar Championship title in 2010 from their wrestler father, Ted DiBiase Sr., is the only person indicted after he chose to fight money laundering, wire fraud, theft, and conspiracy charges. 

The trial, which is set to begin Tuesday, will detail how DiBiase, 43, allegedly pocketed around $4 million in welfare dollars that he used for himself. 

The fraud in Mississippi comes as similar allegations continue to sweep across Minnesota that suggest alleged scammers, most of Somali descent, are said to have spent millions meant to feed hungry children on flashy cars and swanky travels, according to court evidence obtained by CBS. 

According to prosecutors, DiBiase allegedly concealed money through phony contracts with non-profit organizations, including the Mississippi Community Education Center, in a conspiracy to steal funds from welfare programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

Prosecutors said DiBiase embezzled around $1.1 million and used the cash to buy luxurious items, including a boat and a vehicle. 

Per the contracts, two companies owned by DiBiase were allegedly supposed to look into the need for emergency food aid, provide leadership outreach to the community, and help inner-city children.

But, according to the indictment reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the married father-of-two ‘did not provide and did not intend to provide’ those assistance programs to Mississippians. 

Meanwhile, DiBiase said he has brought forward ‘significant evidence that he did perform work under the relevant contracts,’ according to a November court filing obtained by the outlet. 

The only person involved in the scandal who has been sentenced for his crimes is former Department of Human Services Head John Davis. 

A judge decided Davis, the highest-ranking official embroiled in the conspiracy, will spend 32 years in prison for state charges. He has not yet been sentenced for his federal crimes, WLBT reported. 

He was found guilty of having tens of millions of dollars go toward specific non-profits before he took the money for his own personal use.

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FEMA Grants $250 Million to Track Drones During World Cup

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is awarding $250 million for anti-drone efforts in 11 states that will host the FIFA World Cup 2026 soccer matches, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a Dec. 30 statement.

“Recipients can use this money to strengthen their ability to detect, identify, track, or mitigate unmanned aircraft systems,” DHS said. “In recent years, criminals, terrorists, and hostile foreign actors have intensified their use of this technology.”

The money is being awarded under the Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) Grant Program set up under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in July.

“With today’s C-UAS Grant Program award—along with the new authorities granted in the SAFER SKIES Act—state and local law enforcement agencies now have the tools they need to keep their communities safe,” DHS said.

“This is especially critical as officials across the country prepare for the United States to host the FIFA World Cup, which is expected to be the largest sporting event in world history.”

The C-UAS Grant Program allows DHS to provide $500 million in federal funding over two years to boost local and state capabilities to combat drone threats, according to DHS.

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EU state denies entry to Russian athletes

Latvia has denied entry to Russian athletes ahead of a crucial Luge World Cup stage hosted by the EU country, its foreign minister, Baiba Braze, has announced.

Like its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia has been one of the staunchest opponents of Moscow since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, calling for more military aid to Kiev and increasingly harsh sanctions on Russia. Riga has provided almost $1 billion in assistance to the government of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky since February 2022.

On January 3 and 4, the Latvian town of Sigulda hosts the fourth stage of the Luge World Cup. The points scored in the event are essential for athletes to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Italy’s Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in February 2026.

Braze wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that Russian lugers “are not welcome in Latvia.”

“I have decided to include 14 Russian Federation citizens on the persona non grata list,” she said.

According to the foreign minister, the entry ban, introduced in line with the country’s immigration legislation, is indefinite.

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FBI Issues Warning as Sports Gambling Surges Around the US

The FBI sounded the alarm on Dec. 17 regarding the risks associated with sports gambling as its popularity continues to gain steam across the United States.

The law enforcement bureau noted that 39 states and the District of Columbia have legalized some variant of sports betting, but it said that “illegal sportsbooks and illegal online gaming sites” are still widespread.

Some $673.6 billion is wagered each year by Americans via illegal or unregulated gambling markets, the FBI said, citing data from the American Gambling Association.

“Individuals engaged in illegal gambling risk funding organized crime activity and becoming vulnerable to violence, extortion, and fraud,” the FBI said in its bulletin released on Wednesday, adding that it is working to target “organized crime and illegal gambling operations.”

Some gambling sites operated in other countries have advertisements that target Americans and seek to obscure their respective countries of origin, the agency said. These offshore sites do not follow the same legal regulations as licensed sports books in the United States, it added.

Furthermore, the bureau said that the gambling profits gained by these organized crime groups can fund human trafficking, drug smuggling, and weapon smuggling activities.

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CBD Provides Pain Relief, Improves Sleep And Aids Relaxation, Study Involving Olympic Athletes Shows

Elite athletes find cannabidiol, or CBD, useful for soreness and recovery, a new study shows.

Researchers found that top competitors use CBD to manage pain, improve sleep and ease the stress of training at the highest level. But the results suggest that even as many athletes believe the cannabis compound helps them recover, they also worry that using it could jeopardize their careers under international anti-doping rules.

The study, conducted between late 2021 and mid-2023 and published this month in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, surveyed 80 elite Canadian athletes across 27 national sport organizations. To be included, athletes needed to have experience as part of the country’s Olympic or Paralympic team program.

About 38 percent reported using CBD at some point, and nearly a third of those said they were still using it at the time of the survey.

The participants’ motivations reflect a broader societal trend of relying on CBD for therapeutic benefit. The study found that 96 percent of CBD users said they believed the substance was safe, 93 percent said it improved their sleep, 90 percent said it helped them relax and 77 percent credited it with reducing pain from training.

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School Board In Maine Upholds Trans Team Ban As Well As Bathroom Ban

According to Campus Reform, “In a bold move aligning with federal directives, the Regional School Unit 24 school board in Sullivan, Maine, voted to reaffirm a policy that limits bathroom access and athletic participation to students’ biological sex.”

This demonstrates that utilizing the power of the federal government to ensure normalcy and basic rights is effective.

“The decision, originally made in October, echoes President Trump’s executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” and places RSU 24 among a growing number of districts nationwide reinforcing sex-based distinctions in public education.”

WABI is reporting that around 100 community members filled a meeting on Tuesday night with people both for and against this common-sense policy.

“Despite ongoing legal threats from the Maine Human Rights Commission, the board stood firm and secured legal representation to defend its stance.”

“Superintendent Michael Eastman acknowledged the intensity of the debate but said the board remains committed to careful consideration and communication as it moves forward.”

This is a critical move in the fight for normality and common sense in America.

“At RSU 73, a similar legal fight is playing out over transgender students’ ability to access spaces and activities restricted to members of the opposite biological sex. The school board there is paying defense attorneys upwards of $275 an hour, according to documents reviewed by WGME.”

Sadly, this is an issue that has to be debated, as until recently, it was common sense that there are two genders and they should have separate spaces.

The federal government should continue to ensure basic rights for Men and Women are not violated by the  Trans community.

This is a civil rights issue of our time, and it’s something the Trump administration is right to enforce.

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Biden Goes Viral for All the Wrong Reasons at Eagles Game

Joe Biden had another embarrassing public appearance Sunday when he showed up to the Philadelphia Eagles-Las Vegas Raiders game at Lincoln Financial Field, bundled against the cold and looking about as lost as you’d expect.

Biden arrived on the sidelines before the 1 p.m. kickoff, standing in the snow with his wife, former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, as they greeted Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. “Go Birds, man, all the way,” Biden said in a clip posted to NBC10’s John Clark’s X account “Gotta win the Super Bowl again.”

From there, it all pretty much went downhill. But, hey, at least he knew he was at a football game…. maybe.

FOX’s NFL account on X posted video of Biden watching the game from the sidelines, and social media quickly erupted in mockery as clips of him staring blankly spread across the platform.

Social media users quickly flooded comment sections with posts targeting Biden’s age and cognitive fitness.

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British Soccer Star Joey Barton Given Six Months Suspended Prison Sentence For ‘Grossly Offensive’ Posts on X

Former British soccer star Joey Barton has been given a six-month suspended sentence for making “grossly offensive” posts on the X platform.

In the latest escalation in the British state’s war on freedom of expression, 43-year-old Barton was found guilty last month at Liverpool Crown Court of six counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

The conviction related to posts he made targeting the football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko, as well as the BBC broadcaster Jeremy Vine.

Sentencing Barton on Monday, Judge Andrew Menary KC said that “robust debate, satire, mockery and even crude language may fall within permissible free speech.”

”But when posts deliberately target individuals with vilifying comparisons to serial killers or false insinuations of paedophilia, designed to humiliate and distress, they forfeit their protection.”

Menary went on to describe Barton as “not a man of previous good character” and said he had carried out “a sustained campaign of online abuse that was not mere commentary but targeted, extreme and deliberately harmful.”

While Barton’s comments could definitely be condemned as extremely unkind, most were intended as jokes or crass humor.

During an FA Cup tie in which Ward and Aluko were commentating, Barton described them as the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary,” a reference to the notorious British serial killers.

In another post, he mocked Jeremy Vine as a “bike nonce” and asked if he had visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

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Washington swim league finds workaround to keep boys competing in girls’ events

A Washington swim league says it has found a procedural workaround it believes will let meets continue under USA Swimming rules while still complying with Washington’s gender-identity laws, effectively allowing athletes to compete based on self-identification, which means boys can keep entering girls’ events despite President Trump’s executive order aimed at keeping men out of women’s sports.

In a November email obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, Chad Winkle, general chair of Pacific Northwest Swimming (PNS), warned parents, athletes, coaches, and officials about “issues” affecting PNS’s ability to host meets in Washington, including in King County and at the King County Aquatic Center. Winkle explained that after Executive Order 14201 was signed in February 2025, requiring federal definitions of sex to be based on male and female, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee adopted corresponding policies. Under the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, he said, USA Swimming was required to align with those standards, and as a local swimming committee, PNS is bound by USA Swimming rules.

But Winkle said those federal standards conflict with Washington State law and King County ordinances that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. He told members PNS had been working with USA Swimming, King County, and legal counsel to find a path forward that would allow meets to continue at the local level, though it might not apply to higher-level competitions. PNS also urged families not to contact outside organizations, warning that public pressure could disrupt negotiations.

On Dec. 2, Winkle announced in a follow-up email that PNS had reached “common ground” with King County and USA Swimming. The solution, he wrote, was to shift all PNS competitions to “Approved” meet status. That would keep USA Swimming technical rules intact, so times for athletes in good standing could still be entered into the SWIMS database and meets could remain properly insured, while changing the administrative side to satisfy Washington law.

The new approach “allows athletes to compete as they self-identify,” which continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Winkle said the PNS board voted to run meets this way through the end of January, when the policy will be reviewed again. He emphasized that PNS “is not the decider on this topic,” describing the organization as a facilitator operating within the demands of state law, county law, and USA Swimming regulations.

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Sportswear Company Challenges Flat Earthers to Photograph Planet’s Edge

A clever new marketing campaign from sportswear company Columbia offers Flat Earthers a sizeable prize if they can produce a photograph of the edge of the planet. The amusing challenge was reportedly put forward by CEO Tim Boyle in an open letter published in the New York Times and a video released on Monday. “This is a message to Flat Earthers,” he wrote in the missive, “I’ve seen your manifestos, admired your diagrams, watched you stand proudly on your, well, flat ground. So here’s the deal: it’s time to put your map where your mouth is.”

Boyle subsequently announced the launch of what the company has dubbed ‘Expedition Impossible,’ a challenge to the controversial conspiracy theorists to “do what no one in history has ever done: find the edge of the Earth.” Should someone manage to pull off the unfathomable feat, the CEO said, they would receive “everything owned by the company.” To those who might attempt to win the prize, Boyle smartly advised that they make the journey to the frosty ‘forbidden zone’ in Columbia gear because it’s “tough enough for pretty much anything, except maybe falling into the abyss.”

While Boyle’s amusing video shows him promising all manner of materials found at the Columbia headquarters, a disclaimer attached to the contest notes that “the company refers to ‘The Company, LLC’ with assets which are valued at $100,000.” Additionally, to prevent any shenanigans from possible participants, Columbia stressed that “the Edge of the Earth” is a visible, physical end to the planet Earth. We’re talking infinite sheer drop, abyssal void, clouds cascading into infinity.”

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