Tag: taxes

Retired UK Constable Detained for Social Media Post Receives Financial Compensation for Wrongful Imprisonment

Under leftist Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom is sinking ever deeper in the censorship quagmire, signaling an authoritarian future where free-speech will be completely criminalized.

But that is not to say there has been no pushback from the British society.

Now, a retired police constable has been awarded some measure of justice in the form of compensation of £20,000 [US$ 27,000] after a wrongful arrest over one social media post in which he warned about rising anti-Semitism.

The Telegraph reported:

“Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham, Kent, was handcuffed at his home by six officers after replying to a pro-Palestinian activist on X. Kent Police officers searched his home and commented on his ‘very Brexity’ book collection. The force detained the 71-year-old for eight hours, interrogated and issued him with a caution after officers visited his home on Nov 2 2023.”

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Assassination attempt on Putin mentioned by Budanov prepared with US money — Russian MFA

The assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned by chief of the Ukrainian military intelligence service Kirill Budanov was prepared with US money, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

“Yesterday one of chiefs of the Kiev regime Buganov openly admitted that the Ukrainian intelligence service prepared assassination attempts on the Russian president. This assassination attempt was again prepared with US money,” she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Instead of financing terrorists from Kiev Washington should have invested those funds in its domestic security, Zakharova said due to the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump.

There was a shooting at a rally of Trump in Pennsylvania late on Saturday. The Republican was wounded. According to recent reports, he is safe, the injury was minor – the bullet pierced his right ear. The shooter was killed by members of the US Secret Service, which is responsible, in particular, for protecting the top officials of the state. The Associated Press reported that authorities were investigating the incident as an assassination attempt on Trump.

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New York hospital staffers resign amid allegations state defrauded Medicaid in financial scheme

Several hospital staffers at the Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) have submitted their resignations effective in June amid investigations to examine if the State of New York has been defrauding Medicaid with what one lawmaker called “a large financial scheme” involving matching payments for hospitals totaling more than $1 billion.

The allegations that New York might be cheating Medicaid first surfaced a few months ago in civil litigation and in a New York Post column. State legislators increased pressure for an investigation and resolution, and staged a rally at the State Capitol.

Claims going back 20 years

A hospital staffer who had first-hand information but chose to remain anonymous told Just The News that the hospital completed an extensive review and assessment of all books and records last summer, and brought questions to an outside law firm.

The staffer said they received a legal opinion and, after reviewing documents filed by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) to CMS in June 2024, they learned that NYS [New York state] halved the hospital’s DSH [Disproportionate Share Hospital] funding year after year for two decades. Allegedly, more than one billion dollars were steered away from NUMC.

They said they spent over a decade working with New York state for over a decade and neither the NYSDOH nor the governor’s office have accepted initiatives to meet with them over the past three years.

In December 2024, it was reported by The New York Post that NUMC was suing New York for $1.06 billion, alleging the state has defrauded the hospital of financial resources over the past 20 years.

The staffer told Just the News that 80% of patients at the NUMC are ensured by Medicaid and Medicare. NUMC is the only public hospital in the county, and a large percentage of its 275,000 patients are low income, uninsured, as well as on Medicare and Medicaid. The hospital includes a nursing home and jail infirmary, Long Island’s only burn unit and its largest inpatient psychiatric treatment center.

A spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office has denied these allegations, stating that they are “false claims.”

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Feds bust fraud ring accused of stealing $47M in COVID, small business loans

For the second week in a row, the Department of Homeland Security carried out a dramatic, early-morning raid in Los Angeles targeting transnational organized crime rings. This week’s bust netted fourteen arrests from an Armenian fraud ring that investigators say stole $30 million in COVID relief and Small Business loans meant to help taxpaying Americans.

“If you are taking money from the government that doesn’t belong to you, your door could be the next one that we’re hitting,” said U.S. Attorney for California’s Central District, Bill Essayli.

Fox News was exclusively embedded with DHS in the multi-agency sting that included the IRS and the Small Business Administration.

Thirteen of the suspects are Armenian-born but have become naturalized. At least one of the suspects faces deportation.

“This is the police. We have a warrant. Come out with your hands up!” one officer’s voice echoed on a loudspeaker attached to an armored vehicle with agents inside. The special unit inside the armored vehicle first cut the chain on a gated driveway and then demanded one of the targeted suspects come out of his L.A.-area home in a sunrise bust.

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Migrants In The UK Are Receiving £1 BILLION PER MONTH In Welfare Benefits: Report

Migrant households are siphoning almost £1 billion in welfare benefits every month in Britain, a report has claimed.

The Telegraph highlights government figures from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) which reveal that registered households with at least one foreign national in March received £941 million in universal credit.

The welfare scheme allows low-income or unemployed people in Britain to claim government subsidies 

The figure just three years ago was £461 million, meaning it’s on course to double in just half a decade.

It’s hardly surprising given the massive increase in mass migration to the country under the so called Conservative government.

2023 saw migration climb to a record of 906,000. The latest data shows that 948,000 people came to Britain in 2024.

Migrants are eligible to apply for universal credit as soon as they acquire residential or refugee status in the Britain. 

The report notes, however, that the total cost to the taxpayer of foreigners is way higher, when healthcare, education, and housing are factored in.

A recent study conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) discovered that housing asylum seekers, a great deal of whom are in the country illegally, has increased to approximately £4.7 billion a year.

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Ford gov’t gives politicians a 35% pay raise, new pension benefits

New legislation tabled late yesterday proposes a new pension plan and a 35% pay raise for MPPs, angering taxpayer advocates.

“While families are tightening their belts and the province sinks deeper into debt, Ontario politicians are stuffing their own pockets,” said Nicolas Gagnon, communications director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “They’re voting themselves a raise and a taxpayer-funded pension, and they expect Ontarians to just smile and pay for it.”

MPP base salaries will increase from $116,550 to $157,450, costing taxpayers at least $6 million in the first year, plus ongoing pension expenses.

That number is higher for those with a cabinet post, and the premier, with the latter receiving an increase from $209,000 to about $282,000. Cabinet ministers would pocket an additional $58,000, bringing their total to around $224,000, before taxes.

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Hawaii Becomes First State To Charge Tourists For Carbon Footprint

Hawaii became the first U.S. state to establish a climate impact fee on tourism this week, placing an additional tax on visitors to fund “climate change resiliency projects”.  As the country’s inaugural “Green Fee,” Act 96 will raise the state’s current transient accommodations tax (TAT) by 0.75% for a total of 11% placed upon the nightly lodging rate, effective Jan. 1, 2026, according to a press release by Governor Josh Green’s office.

“Today Hawaiʻi ushers in the first Green Fee in the nation. Once again, Hawaiʻi is at the forefront of protecting our natural resources, recognizing their fundamental role in sustaining the ecological, cultural and economic health of Hawaiʻi. As an island chain, Hawaiʻi cannot wait for the next disaster to hit before taking action. We must build resiliency now, and the Green Fee will provide the necessary financing to ensure resources are available for our future,” said Governor Green.

Green is ostensibly referring to the disastrous Maui fires in 2023 which did $5.5 billion in property damage and became an international embarrassment for the Hawaiian state government.  Of course, as we reported at the time, the fires had nothing to do with “climate change” and everything to do with the state’s gross mismanagement of water resources and fire response.

The new Green Fee will apply to travelers staying in hotels, short-term vacation rentals and for the first time ever, cruise ships. For a nightly hotel rate of $300, the tax would add an extra $2.25 each day.  This might not seem like much, but Hawaiian officials expect the tax to generate up to $100 million per year, and like all progressive governments, they are licking their chops over the possibilities.

In essence, carbon footprint schemes are a tax on an invisible byproduct with an imaginary climate impact.  These are taxes to solve a problem which does not exist.  So, the sky is truly the limit on how far carbon taxes can be taken to bleed the American public and fuel further government expansion.  It begins with a tax on hotel rooms, but there’s nothing stopping the state from adding the same fees to everything from boat rentals to tiki torches. 

Furthermore, if Hawaiian residents think they will be spared from such taxes, they are in for a rude awakening.  The new Green Fee also applies to people living in Hawaii who stay at hotels and resorts, and there’s little doubt that more taxes are incoming as the Green Fee sets the precedent.  Some legislators have pushed for carbon tax “kickback” to residents of the state, but this would represent a minimal offset if carbon taxes spread to all areas of the economy.

Keep in mind, Hawaii already has one of the highest tax burdens for citizens in the entire US.

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Anti-Christian agenda now costing Hawaiian taxpayers $100,000

An agenda to deprive after-school Bible clubs of the same access to schools that other clubs were granted routinely now is costing the taxpayers in the state of Hawaii.

A report from Liberty Counsel, which fought the state on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship and its Good News Clubs, revealed that the state appropriations bill, just signed by Gov. Josh Green, provides $100,000 to CEF following a court ruling.

It was last December that a federal judge granted Liberty Counsel a permanent injunction on behalf of CEF against the state that provided equal access to school facilities.

That access had been “unlawfully denied” by the state Department of Education and six different elementary schools, the report said.

The injunction granted CEF Hawaii “prevailing party” status in the dispute, a move that now protects the Good News Clubs from the previous viewpoint discrimination, but also calls for the state to cover litigation costs.

The result now is that the state will give CEF’s clubs access to schools equal to other similarly situated organizations across the state.

Liberty Counsel reported, “During the lawsuit, Hawaii’s Department of Education conceded that one school denied CEF Hawaii use of its facilities based on religion, while another school’s denial was due to a ‘misapplication’ of school policies. CEF Hawaii contended that after it appealed the ‘blatant religious discrimination’ of these denials to the Hawaii State Department of Education, it never received any response, nor did school officials take any corrective actions.”

Other organizations that had been granted access included the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girls on the Run, A+ After School Programs, and YMCA.

The state had allowed CEF’s Good News Clubs in more than a dozen schools on Oahu and other islands before COVID-19.

“Then, after restricting after-school programs due to COVID-19, schools fully restored after-school programs in 2022. However, the Hawaii State Department of Education, through four of its superintendents and other officials, had denied every request submitted by CEF to restart its programs and either expressly or effectively denied every appeal, while allowing access for other similar groups to meet after school on campus,” Liberty Counsel explained.

There are more than 3,000 Good News Clubs in elementary schools across the nation.

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OMG: “Parents Don’t Need to Know That You’re Transitioning” – Nevada DHHS Official Admits to Hiding Castration Surgeries From Parents

The O’Keefe Media Group on Friday released part two of its undercover footage of Nevada DHHS Official Deshaun Mack admitting to ‘bending the rules’ to get Medicare to pay for transition surgeries for minors.

Deshaun Mack admitted he helps transition children and hide the castration surgeries from parents. He also said he uses a loophole to get Medicare to pay for the transition surgeries.

Per O’Keefe Media Group:

Deshaun Eli Mack, a Family Services Specialist with the Nevada DHHS, told an undercover OMG journalist that not only has he helped children transition, but he has done it “a few times, actually. Actually, a lot of times,” adding, “I don’t see as many as I would enjoy seeing.”

Mack described helping a biological male pursue so-called feminization surgery. “She had specifically asked me about feminization surgery,” he recalled, explaining the advice he gave: “I told her the best way to get it would be to make sure that your doctor says that it’s medically necessary. So that medicare pays for it.”

When asked about what happens if a child’s parents don’t approve of the transition or don’t know about it, Mack made it clear: “We do not actually tell anyone.” He elaborated further, stating, “I can’t even tell you that your child is receiving benefits. Because you’re not on that case.” According to Mack, “The parents don’t need to know that you’re transitioning. You can just go to the doctor.”

Even more disturbing, Mack openly admitted to abusing the state’s “runaway youth” provision to bypass parental consent. “At that point, I would just shoot them as a runaway youth,” he said.

He further explained the mechanics of how the system can be manipulated: “We can approve the benefits for the child by themselves. Or we can pull them off their parent’s case.” He added that this practice doesn’t alert other state agencies either: “I don’t even think in that circumstance we let our sister agency, DCFS, Division of Child Care and Family Services, I don’t even think we alert them at that point.”

“I can’t even tell you that your child is receiving benefits. Because you’re not on that case.” Mack told the OMG journalist. “The parents don’t need to know that you’re transitioning. You can just go to the doctor.”

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EXPOSED: Institute for the Study of War is Disinformation Factory Funded by Military Complex

The “non-profit” Institute for the Study of War (ISW) launders defense contractor cash into war-justifying disinformation, journalist and founder of Crowdsource the Truth Jason Goodman tells Sputnik, commenting on ISW’s Ukraine conflict coverage.

What Does ISW Say?

Reporting Ukrainian weakness is just Russian “disinformation”

Hit Russia harder and surge military production. Why? Because Russia seeks to “destroy NATO”.

Who Funds ISW?

Weapons-maker General Dynamics

Defense tech firm Avantus (now QinetiQ)

Global defense & intel contractor CACI International and many others

“[ISW] collected over $9 million in revenue [in 2023] alone — nearly all of it from undisclosed donors — and paid [founder] Kimberly Kagan herself over a quarter million dollars to peddle war escalation narratives under the banner of ‘trusted analysis’,” Goodman says.

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