Tag: taxes

REPORT: Trump Admin Threatens to Withhold DHS Grant Funding to States Opposing Election Integrity Measures

The White House is reportedly threatening to withhold federal funding from states that do not comply with proposed election and vote-counting rules.

The new rules that the Trump Administration seeks to implement nationwide include manual audits of election systems, requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voters, and phasing out voting systems that don’t use hand-marked paper ballots, CNN reports, citing unnamed sources and internal documents.

Per CNN:

Under new rules governing several homeland security grant programs, states must take a number of steps, including phasing out certain electronic voting systems and moving to hand-marked paper ballots. They must also run their voter rolls through a controversial Department of Homeland Security citizenship verification database.

If not, states would lose out on some funding from DHS. These grants, expected to total more than $1 billion in the current fiscal year, are one of Washington’s main vehicles for helping state and local governments prevent terrorism, protect infrastructure and prepare for major disasters.

For years, the DHS grants, which states apply for, have required that at least 3% of the funds be spent broadly on election security. But the new guidelines, which CNN obtained and are expected to go out to states later this month, impose a set of mandatory reforms and steep penalties for noncompliance. States that refuse would lose 20% of the grant money — potentially millions of dollars in security funds.

“No changes to grant requirements or funding distributions are official until they are formally announced and published through proper, authorized agency channels,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the administration considers election security to be a core national security priority.

“Any recipient of federal funding should expect accountability for how taxpayer dollars are spent,” the spokesperson said.

In March 2025, Trump signed the “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections” executive order, which directs the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to require proof of citizenship and voter ID on its national mail voter registration form.

The order directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “review each State’s publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities.”

Further, DHS and the EAC were directed to “review and report on the security of all electronic systems used in the voter registration and voting process,” and “assess the security of all such systems to the extent they are connected to, or integrated into, the Internet and report on the risk of such systems being compromised through malicious software and unauthorized intrusions into the system.”

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Corrupt Obama Judge Amy Berman Jackson Shuts Down Trump Administration’s SNAP Junk Food Restrictions

A federal judge on Monday shut down the Trump Administration’s pilot program restricting the purchase of soda and junk food with SNAP benefits.

US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins applied the wrong law in approving a pilot program for states that wanted to restrict junk food purchases.

23 states applied for the pilot program in an effort to limit the purchase of soda, candy and other junk food.

Plaintiffs in five states filed the lawsuit against Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

Judge Berman Jackson’s ruling applies to five states: West Virginia, Tennessee, Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska.

Politico reported:

A federal judge on Monday scrapped a set of state pilot programs intended to restrict the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program money to purchase unhealthy foods.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, wrote in her decision that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees the SNAP program, misapplied federal law in approving requests from states to allow them to impose limits on what participants can buy with funds from the nation’s largest food aid program. Her ruling applies to Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia.

“With her solicitation and approval of the pilot projects in this case, the Secretary purports to waive not just a mere administrative or technical obstacle, but the very definition of ‘food’ as it was laid down by Congress,” Berman wrote. “Neither the USDA nor the states can force this square peg into a round hole to avoid the plain language of the statute and the requirements of 2026(k),” referencing the part of the statute that addresses projects to help improve SNAP households’ health status.

Jackson’s ruling could jeopardize one of the biggest policy achievements of the Make America Healthy Again agenda. Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have urged states to submit food restriction plans, arguing that they will improve health outcomes and that federal dollars shouldn’t be funding junk food.

Kennedy also incentivized the states to apply by tying some federal rural health care funding to whether states had applied for a waiver to limit foods like soda in SNAP.

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LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigns amid ongoing investigation

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigned on Sunday, bringing a abrupt end to his tenure leading the nation’s second-largest school system.

The resignation came nearly four months after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed early-morning search warrants at his San Pedro home and district headquarters, an ordeal that led the Board of Education to place him on paid administrative leave just days later.

Authorities have not publicly disclosed the exact nature of the federal investigation, though sources indicate it is tied at least in part to the district’s contract with AllHere, an educational technology firm that provided a short-lived artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot before collapsing into bankruptcy amid fraud charges against its founder.

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Lawsuit: Top Chip Company Gets $6.6 Billion from the Feds, but Excludes American Workers

Many skilled Americans are being pushed out of high-tech jobs by the ethnic-Chinese Taiwanese managers of a taxpayer-funded computer-chip company in Arizona, says a lawsuit by 13 Americans.

The “grossly disproportionate [ethnic Chinese] workforce is the result of [company’s] intentional pattern and practice of employment discrimination… including discrimination in hiring, staffing, promotion, and retention/termination decisions,” says the lawsuit by 13 American plaintiffs, filed by Kotchen & Low LLC.

The plaintiffs suing the Taiwan-based Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company [TSMC] — which has gotten $6.6 billion from taxpayers — say in their lawsuit:

TSMC’s preference for East Asians and those of Taiwanese or Chinese national origin is reflected in the demographics of the company’s managers and executive leadership. In one of the offsite meetings led by Mr. Perry, all 160 front-line managers in attendance were of Taiwanese national origin, and TSMC’s executive leadership team is exclusively made up of those of Taiwanese or Chinese descent.

….

Taiwanese leadership expressed a desire for a militant and authoritative culture where employees obey commands without question and offer no pushback. One female, a frontline manager at the meeting who is Taiwanese, began crying and stated: “I’m so embarrassed; Americans are lazy, they don’t work hard enough, they don’t know enough, and they don’t know commitment.”

These discriminatory comments towards Americans were common at TSMC Arizona. During Mr. [James] Perry’s employment, he heard Americans being called “lazy” and “not hard working” by members of management (who were predominantly Taiwanese and Chinese). And employees who refused to consistently work twelve-hour days were considered poor performers.

“At TSMC, it was understood that in order to advance in IT, employees needed to speak and understand Mandarin, despite the fact that there is no Mandarin language requirement at TSMC and business was supposed to be conducted in English,” the lawsuit says.

“It’s our tax dollars that we’re paying to be replaced by foreign workers,” noted Rosemary Jenks, a Harvard graduate who founded the Immigration Accountability Project. “It is not the responsibility of the government to make cheaper labor available to employers… [and] if national security is the concern, then the only way to deal with it is to have Americans doing the work,” she said, adding:

There is increasing [public] understanding of the problems with H-1B visas — but there is so much money on the pro-H-1B side that it is distracting — to say the least — for members of Congress because they would have to oppose their donors [to fix the problem].

Polls show rising GOP opposition to the legalized migration — including the white-collar H-1B program — which extracts foreign workers, consumers, and renters from countries.

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Ellison lashes out at reporter over $8B fraud question

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison snapped at a reporter regarding his handling of the Minnesota fraud scandal after Vice President JD Vance demanded Ellison to be investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) amid a widely reported $8 billion Medicaid fraud scheme.

After a Fox News reporter inquired if there was anything Ellison would have done differently prior to the $8 billion fraud accusations, the attorney general replied quickly.

“So, that is a false number,” Ellison said. “The fact is, is that fraud is always wrong.”

“Why don’t you give me a break, man?” he continued. “Fraud is always wrong. We prosecute over 341 cases of Medicaid fraud.”

When the reporter stated he had wanted Ellison to clear up the number and was citing a variety of reports, Ellison continued to accuse the journalist of biased reporting.

“The number you mentioned is tightly identified with people of a very unique political persuasion—aligned with the Trump Administration,” the attorney general claimed

“It’s wrong though. And if you’re a real reporter, you should know that,” he said, pointing to the Fox News reporter.

“So, I’m done talking to you,” he snapped. “Bye-bye.”

The $8 billion figure has been frequently referenced by the House Oversight Committee as well as First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who have stated that potentially billions of dollars were lost to fraud in Minnesota’s public assistance programs.

Thompson stated that investigators believe that about half of the $18 billion paid through 14 Medicaid programs since 2018 could have been part of a major fraud scheme.

The scandal captured national headlines due to congressional probes and numerous major fraud cases tied to federally funded programs in nutrition, education and Medicaid. Prosecutors also claim several nonprofits tapped off millions in taxpayer funds through sophisticated schemes, many of which expanded amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prominent examples, such as the Feeding Our Future scheme, have been linked to Minnesota’s Somali community. Investigators for the House Oversight Committee have also asserted that Ellison received several warnings about widespread fraud years before the scandal became public, based on interviews with state education, human services and executive branch officials.

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CRA records show temporary residents received $1.35 billion in child benefits over four years

Newly obtained Canada Revenue Agency records show temporary residents received more than $1.35 billion in Canada Child Benefit (CCB) payments between 2020 and 2023, including $369.1 million in 2023 alone.

The figures were disclosed in response to an access-to-information request seeking a breakdown of Canada Child Benefit payments by immigration status.

According to the records, temporary residents received $313.8 million in CCB payments in 2020, $356.3 million in 2021, $311.1 million in 2022, and $369.1 million in 2023, for a four-year total of approximately $1.35 billion.

The 2023 figures show temporary residents received more in child benefit payments than protected persons and refugees, who received $345.9 million that year. The CRA also reported nearly $18.9 million in payments to individuals classified as having “no status.”

The Canada Child Benefit is a tax-free monthly payment intended to help eligible families with the cost of raising children. Eligibility is not limited to Canadian citizens. Certain temporary residents may qualify if they meet residency requirements and have valid immigration status.

The records also show permanent residents received $6.29 billion in child benefit payments in 2023, while Canadian citizens received $18.76 billion. Total federal CCB spending that year exceeded $25.8 billion.

CRA notes accompanying the records state that individuals listed under “No Status” and “Unknown” may still qualify for benefits if their spouse was a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, protected person, or temporary resident during the year.

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Oregon County Prioritizing Housing Aid for Non-White and ‘LGBTQIA2S+’ Homeless Over Struggling Families, DOJ Vows Lawsuit if They Don’t Stop

Multnomah County, Oregon, which is home to Portland, is using a points-based screening system that awards extra priority for housing assistance based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

The policy, part of the county’s Multnomah Services and Screening Tool (MSST) rolled out in 2024, is under fire for not using traditional measures of need to determine who gets assistance, such as length of homelessness, domestic violence survival, and having young children.

Multnomah County uses the MSST through its Coordinated Access process to prioritize who gets access to its limited housing resources.

The tool prioritizes groups described as “over-represented” in the local homeless population, including non-white households and “LGBTQIA2S+” individuals.

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Disgraced Former Prince Andrew Demands British Taxpayer-Funded Security Detail After Confrontation With Balaclava-Clad Attacker

Do British taxpayers have to pay to protect Andrew from the consequences of his actions?

After the deluge of damaging information related to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his popularity (if we can even call it that) tanked, and he became one of the most hated men in Britain.

That, of course, leads to consequences.

In the violence-filled UK, it was not a surprise when Andrew was confronted by an armed man near his new home in Sandringham.

Now, the disgraced second son of the late Queen Elizabeth wants taxpayer-funded security to protect him.

GB News reported:

“The former prince is said to remain concerned that he is not provided enough protection and feels as though he is more at risk than other royals, who have round-the-clock security.

The concerns grew after he was allegedly confronted by a ‘balaclava-clad’ man near his Sandringham Estate home.”

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FBI Captures Fugitive Who Scammed $1.2 Billion in Medicare Fraud Hiding in the Philippines

Earlier in June, the FBI announced the arrest of a 60-year-old fugitive found residing in the Philippines who fled the United States after failing to appear for his sentencing in connection with pleading guilty to numerous federal charges involving healthcare fraud back in 2019.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of 60-year-old Herbert Leon Kimble via social media on June 19th, highlighting how the apprehended fugitive was among those listed on the agency’s “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list.

According to authorities, Kimble had run a Medicare fraud scheme between 2014 and 2019, reportedly amassing $1.2 billion in ill-gotten gains from the scheme which largely targeted elderly beneficiaries. The aforementioned operation reportedly consisted of call centers attempting to convince patients to acquire medically unnecessary orthopedic braces.

In April of 2019, Kimble reportedly pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and mail fraud among other similar charges, reportedly entering into an agreement with the federal government to help build cases “against other co-conspirators” which lasted for years. However, when Kimble was scheduled to appear in court on October 7th, 2024, for sentencing, he reportedly went on the run.

An international manhunt ensued, with authorities suspecting he was residing in Manila, Philippines. After nearly two years on the lam, authorities located the fugitive in the Philippines and he has since been returned to the United States, according to Director Patel.

In Director Patel’s statement regarding Kimble’s arrest, he emphasized, “President Trump set a mandate to end the abuse of hardworking taxpayer money and each and every day this team will be committed to delivering.”

Kimble’s arrest serves as the second high-profile apprehension carried out with respect to the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters in recent weeks, with 47-year-old Said Abdullahi Ereg having been arrested earlier in June after self-surrendering to authorities in Minneapolis. Officials claim Ereg engaged in fraud totaling $4.2 million during the pandemic via submitting false claims of hot meals served to those in need under the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

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California Has Gay-Certification Program To Tap Into $633 Million For “LGBT” Businesses

Americans are used to handouts for favored groups. Affirmative action in university admissions, corporate “diversity” initiatives, and minority-owned contracting requirements direct opportunities, resources, and contracts to supposedly “oppressed” groups, such as women, Native Americans, blacks, and Hispanics.

In California, state Democrats have embraced another kind of favoritism: contracts for state-certified gay-owned businesses.

The scheme operates through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates privately owned utility companies. California utilities spent more than $43 billion in 2024 on contractors—fuel suppliers, surveyors, engineers, and others—whose work helps deliver water, gas, electricity, and internet service to California’s 39 million residents.

In 1986, Governor George Deukmejian signed Assembly Bill 3678, which required certain CPUC-regulated utilities to submit annual “plans” for buying goods and services from woman- and minority-owned companies. Two years later, CPUC created its “Supplier Diversity Program,” which would enforce the law and set contracting “goals” for large utilities.

Under a series of Democratic governors, the program has expanded to include gay-owned businesses. In September 2014, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation requiring CPUC to recognize “LGBT-owned businesses” as eligible for supplier-diversity benefits. Five years later, Governor Gavin Newsom expanded the program further, “encouraging” other companies involved in the energy sector to award contracts to gay-owned firms.

In the years that followed, CPUC faced activist pressure as it implemented the gay expansion. BuildOUT California, a since-rebranded LGBT building-industry organization, sent a letter to the commission arguing that “homophobia” existed within “the ranks of the utility companies.” The state’s legislative LGBTQ caucus suggested in a 2021 letter that even considering lower gay-procurement targets was “an insult to the LGBTQ+ community.”

By 2022, CPUC had fully implemented the expansion. In practice, this meant establishing a “goal” for utility companies with annual revenues exceeding $25 million to buy things from state-certified LGBT businesses: 0.5 percent of procurement in 2022; 1 percent in 2023; and 1.5 percent in 2024 and beyond. If “large” CPUC-regulated utilities met these “goals” in 2024, they would have sent roughly $633 million to LGBT-owned firms.

This scheme raises an obvious question: How does a business qualify as officially gay? Paperwork. Supplier Clearinghouse, a group that certifies firms for the CPUC program, features a list of qualifications linked on its website. Applicants can secure certification by providing a letter from an “LGBT organization” attesting to their sexual preferences; proof that a newspaper identified them as “LGBT”; or three letters from “personal contacts” written “on company letterhead” attesting to their homosexual orientation. Corporate officials who “falsely represent” their business as gay face up to a year in county jail.

Supplier Clearinghouse also accepts gay-certification letters from the National LGBTQ+ & Allied Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has its own list of accepted documents, including human resources complaints or police records claiming LGBT discrimination. As NGLCC states on its website, “Certification is a journey, not a destination.”

Mary Ann Horton has experienced this “journey” firsthand. Horton, an early internet pioneer credited with helping develop the e-mail attachment, is a white male who “transitioned” and is now married to a woman. Horton’s company, Red Ace, is registered in California as a woman- and LGBT-owned business.

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