Tag: taxes

New York Housed Child Rapists Near Playground While Taxpayers Foot the Bill

The Big Apple has quietly turned a former hotel into a taxpayer-funded shelter for those that are registered as sex offenders, and it is reportedly located less than 250 feet away from a kids playground.

At least five level two and level three sex offenders, which are considered the worst of the worst, are living in a homeless shelter at 61 Chrystie Street, 243 feet from the Hester Street Playground in Chinatown, the New York Post reported. One individual that is allegedly staying at the shelter raped a seven-year-old. 

“There’s so much wrong with this, I don’t even know where to begin,” said resident Brian Chin, the father of a four-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl who he no longer allows on that playground. 

“Finding out that the city has secretly been putting child predators into an all-expenses paid hotel overlooking the children’s park, on the taxpayer dime, it verges on being almost unbelievable,” he said. Chin is a neighborhood activist who researched the hotel and discovered the city was playing sex offenders there.

“The sheer amount of sex offenders concentrated in that one hotel, the fact that they’re free to roam around, and that it’s literally situated directly across from the kids park and the local high school, it’s appalling,” he said.

New York state law prohibits level two and level three sex offenders, who are considered at medium and high risk of reoffending, from living within 1,320 feet, or a quarter mile, of playgrounds, schools, parks and childcare facilities.

“We don’t even know how many level one sex offenders are living there because they’re not listed [in the state sex-offender registry],” Chin said of the lowest level sex predators.

The shelter was once a boutique hotel called Hotel MB and before that a Comfort Inn. It was reportedly converted into a homeless facility in the summer of 2021.

It is not clear when the city began moving in sex offenders or how many of them actually live at the site. 

The shelter is run by a Bronx-based non-profit called the Neighborhood Association for Inter-Cultural Affairs Inc. (NAICA), which has pocketed nearly $1.3 billion in city contracts over the past decade, records show.

NAICA’s Chrystie Street location was part of a four-year $160.5 million contract with DHS to provide 467 beds for single adults there and at two other locations in the Bronx and Queens, as reported by the city Comptroller’s office.

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US D-9 bulldozers worth billions of shekels arrive in Israel after Trump admin. releases shipment

A US shipment of dozens of D-9 bulldozers for IDF ground troops arrived in Israel on Wednesday, following its release by the Trump administration, the Defense Ministry confirmed.

“The shipment of D9 bulldozers is part of a broad-scale arming and military equipment effort worth billions of shekels, which the US government released and the Defense Ministry procured and transported to Israel,” Defense Ministry Director-General Maj.-Gen. (res) Amir Baram said, adding that Israel has received a number of cargo ships and aircrafts in the past several weeks.

“We must continue to strengthen our military buildup to support all of the IDF’s needs in the current campaign and in preparation for the next decade,” Baram said. 

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‘We’re Impressed’: Zelensky Now Sings Trump’s Praises & CIA Director Breathes Sigh Of Relief

“They have to be able to defend themselves,” Trump said Monday, offering confirmation of his weapons to Ukraine policy U-turn. “They’re getting hit very hard. … We’re gonna have to send more weapons.”

A presidential aide to Volodymyr Zelensky has offered new insight into how Trump’s reversal came about, especially related to his phone call with the Ukrainian president held last Friday, after a prior ‘disappointing’ Putin call.

Yermak described that Trump’s decision to reverse course on the pause in weaponry was “very well received in Ukraine, especially after very substantial phone conversation” on Friday. He added in a NY Post interview that the US President clearly remains “fully supportive of continuation of the aid to Ukraine.”

“He was quite disturbed by recent strikes — they’ve been happening for more than three years — but by recent strikes, murders with drones and missiles that fall in Ukrainian cities, including the capital of Ukraine,” Yermak told the Post. “Absolutely, [Trump and Zelenskyy] are united in this. These two leaders definitely want peace, and they are absolutely against the killing.”

The latest Russian assault, being widely reported Wednesday morning, involved a staggering more than 700 drones, as well as at least a dozen cruise and ballistic missiles. Moscow indicated it is seeking to destroy military airfields and logistics hubs tied to foreign defense aid.

“We’re here to make things happen. Good deals — that’s what matters,” he said. “But let’s be honest: when Russia launches over a hundred Shahed drones almost every night, along with ballistic and cruise missiles, any delay in deliveries becomes a real concern.”

And then he hailed Trump, after his term in office started on a very rocky note with Zelensky. “We’ve seen President Trump’s recent messaging on Ukraine — and frankly, we’re impressed,” Yermak said. “No exaggeration. The clarity, the leadership, the determination — we truly appreciate it.”

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Net Zero to Cost Taxpayers £800 Billion, Warns OBR

Britain’s move to a Net Zero economy will cost taxpayers more than £800 billion over the next two decades, the OBR – the UK’s fiscal watchdog – has said. But even this is based on implausibly generous assumptions, say critics. The Telegraph has the story.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said Government plans to limit climate change will cost the public purse £30 billion every year until at least 2051, as tax revenue from the sale of petrol and diesel fuel dries up.

This includes nearly £9.9 billion of spending every year on tech investments – for example updating the electricity grid – as well as £20.5 billion in revenue losses from declining fuel duty from petrol cars, as electric vehicles (EV) become more common.

Investments in green technology will initially make up most of the Net Zero cost before lost tax receipts become the bigger factor, the OBR said.

“In the next decade, expenditure accounts for the bulk of the fiscal cost, particularly public investment in residential buildings, removals and surface transport, which start to decline from 2036 to 2037,” it said.

While the sums are significant, the fiscal cost of Net Zero has been revised down from £1.1 trillion since the OBR last reviewed it in 2021. The watchdog said this was because of fuel duty freezes leading to lower lost receipts and a higher-than-expected uptake of EVs.

It also assumes the Government will spend less on the transition after the Climate Change Committee revised down the costs across the whole of the economy.

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DOJ questions ex-UnitedHealth doctors in probe into Medicare fraud: report

The Department of Justice questioned former UnitedHealth doctors as it investigates claims that the health insurance giant pushed staffers to make diagnoses that triggered higher Medicare payments, according to a report Wednesday.

The investigation, which dates back to at least last summer, concerns alleged efforts to encourage staffers to record certain diagnoses that trigger higher payments under Medicare Advantage, the program for seniors and the disabled, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Investigators for the Justice Department, FBI, and Health and Human Services Department have been asking for details on patient testing, procedures used to reach certain diagnoses and the process of sending nurses to patients’ homes, according to former UnitedHealth employees.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

UnitedHealth, whose healthcare executive Brian Thompson was executed by an assassin last year outside a Midtown hotel, said it stands “firmly behind the integrity of our Medicare Advantage business.”

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Waste Of The Day: Puerto Rico, Guam, Others In Debt

Topline: The five inhabited U.S. territories are collectively $57.8 billion in debt and have issues with their financial statements that “can lead to poor financial decisions and lost access to capital markets,” according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Key facts: The GAO suggested that the territories may struggle to repay their debt even more than the 50 U.S. states. The territories have high energy and import costs, extreme weather, economies that rely on just a few industries, and had a population decrease from 2010 to 2020.

Puerto Rico holds the most debt by far with $52.8 billion as of 2022, which is 47% of its gross domestic product. Guam ($2.5 billion of debt as of 2023), the Virgin Islands ($2.2 billion as of 2021), the Northern Mariana Islands ($121 million as of 2021) and American Samoa ($145 million as of 2023) are also struggling to balance their budgets.

If some of those statistics seem outdated, it’s because they are. The territories are supposed to release financial statements nine months after each fiscal year ends, but American Samoa is the only one meeting that deadline.

While Guam includes 2023 figures, it issued them seven months late.

The delays could hurt the territories’ credit rating, making future borrowing more expensive, according to the GAO. The territories also can’t be audited if they don’t have financial statements, which the GAO says will make it more difficult to identify potential fraud.

American Samoa is also the only territory properly managing its federal funds. The other four territories all had “questioned costs” in the most recent audits of their financial statements, which could mean “there was a violation or possible violation of a statute, regulation, or the terms and conditions of a federal award.” 

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Lockheed Martin offers to rescue Mars mission from budget death

NASA’s beleaguered Mars Sample Return mission may get a reprieve from an unexpected source. Lockheed Martin has proposed a streamlined, lower-cost alternative that could slash the mission’s price tag by more than half.

Facing significant funding cuts across multiple programs, NASA’s ambitious international effort to retrieve Martian samples and return them to Earth is under threat. Already jeopardized by Russia’s withdrawal from the program following its invasion of Ukraine, the mission now faces potential cancellation due to shifting priorities within the current US administration.

Under new agency guidelines, NASA has been ordered to focus more on deep-space crewed missions to the Moon and Mars, along with other endeavors involving cutting-edge technology, while axing projects that have been marked by massive spending without a proportionate scientific return.

One prime candidate for the chop is the Mars Sample Return mission, which is a staggeringly ambitious international program involving many nations that is tasked with using multiple spacecraft to collect samples from the surface of Mars and then return them to Earth for in-depth laboratory analysis.

The mission’s first phase is already underway, with NASA’s Perseverance rover exploring the surface of Mars. As it traverses the dunes and dead river beds that last saw water two billion years ago, it’s been collecting drilling samples that have been sealed in special container tubes left behind on the ground like a paper trail in a cosmic game of Hares & Hounds.

The idea is that a second lander will eventually set down in the vicinity of the first and deploy a second rover that will follow the path blazed by the nuclear-powered Perseverance and collect the tubes. These will be stored in a special sealed container, which will be placed in a small rocket that will be fired into orbit around Mars where it will rendezvous with yet another spacecraft for return to Earth.

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Eleven Republican Members of Congress Demand NIH End Fauci’s ‘Barbaric’ Animal Tests as Agency Clings to Cruel Legacy

Eleven members of Congress have signed a letter requesting that the National Institutes of Health end its funding for barbaric dog and cat experiments approved under Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The letter cited Gateway Pundit’s reporting and the relentless investigations of taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project (WCW).

Writing to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the House lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, demanded the immediate cancellation of all Fauci-funded dog and cat experiments. Citing WCW’s evidence, they blasted the NIH for “disturbing” tests, including a $10 million UNC-Chapel Hill project that breeds hemophiliac puppies only to slaughter them post-experiment. “We are sending this request with considerable urgency,” the lawmakers wrote, signaling a zero-tolerance stance on the NIH’s animal cruelty.

The letter cited Gateway Pundit’s exclusive report about how the NIH, under Director Bhattacharya, has renewed millions in funding for controversial experiments, including THC tests on monkeys at Harvard, tick bites on beagle puppies, and Anthony Fauci’s notorious “Monkey Island.”

“Ongoing investigations by the non-profit group White Coat Waste have documented how the NIH continues to renew and fund dozens of Dr. Fauci’s disturbing experiments on dogs and cats in labs around the world, in which animals are infested with insects, infected with viruses, force-fed experimental drugs, and killed,” the letter states.

Gosar laid out three ironclad demands to dismantle Dr. Anthony Fauci’s legacy of cruel animal testing. First, they requested that the NIH immediately cancel all active funding for dog and cat experiments approved under his tenure. Second, they insisted on a blanket prohibition of all new NIH grants for harmful dog and cat testing, aiming to choke off future atrocities. Finally, they demanded full transparency, asking the NIH to disclose all current taxpayer funding for these experiments, exposing the scope of the agency’s gruesome practices to public scrutiny.

The letter was co-signed by Republican Representatives Harriet Hageman, Daniel Webster, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, Eli Crane, Scott Perry, Pete Stauber, Michael Cloud, Chris Smith, and Pat Fallon.

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Report: USAID Quietly Sent Thousands of Viruses to the Infamous Wuhan Lab

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reportedly shipped thousands of viruses to a Chinese military-linked biolab in Wuhan.

USAID sent 11,000 viral samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) over the course of a ten-year program, despite not having any formal agreement with the laboratory, according to documents obtained by Daily Caller.

The viruses were reportedly sent from China’s Yunnan province to Wuhan — the infamous epicenter of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic — with the exportation being funded by the USAID, which seemingly failed to devise a strategy that would prevent the samples from becoming bioweapons and staying accessible to the U.S. government.

Notably, the Wuhan Institute of Virology lacks adequate biosafety practices and has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s military, People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The $210 million USAID program, dubbed PREDICT — which failed to implement a long-term storage plan when funding ceased — was spearheaded by the University of California-Davis and involved gathering virus samples from countries around the world.

Among the thousands of viral samples sent via USAID funding to the Wuhan lab is one of the closest known relatives of the Chinese coronavirus that ravaged the world in 2020, Daily Caller noted.

“Investigations involving USAID’s former funding of global health awards remain active and ongoing,” a senior State Department official told the outlet. “The American people can rest assured knowing that under the Trump Administration we will not be funding these controversial programs.”

Last week, USAID was finally shuttered after President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered a slew of examples of waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

“Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

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Churches Can Endorse Political Candidates to Their Members: IRS

The IRS on July 7 outlined an exception to a decades-old rule, the Johnson Amendment, which had banned tax-exempt religious organizations from campaigning for political candidates.

In a court filing regarding a lawsuit against the government by two Texas churches and the National Religious Broadcasters Association, the federal agency said the ban would not apply to faith organizations when they are campaigning to their own members.

The Christian groups sought reforms to nonprofit law that bans tax-exempt groups from political campaigning, arguing that the rule “unconstitutionally prohibits § 501(c)(3) [non-profit, tax-exempt] organizations from engaging in political speech.”

When campaigning for his first presidential term, President Donald Trump told the “evangelical and religious community” he wanted to repeal the law that “threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views.”

“Their voice has been taken away,” he said at the time.

“I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and to protect free speech for all Americans.

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