TWO BROOKLYN MARKETERS pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to defraud Medicaid in a $68 million kickback scheme tied to adult day care and home health services that were billed but not provided, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. Manal Wasef and Elaine Antao, both 46, admitted to steering Medicaid recipients to two Brooklyn social adult day care centers and a home health care fiscal intermediary in exchange for illegal cash bribes. Prosecutors said the scheme ran from 2017 through 2024 and involved laundering proceeds through shell entities to fund kickbacks. The guilty pair agreed to forfeit about $1 million. They each face up to 10 years in prison
I am but one in a sea of many Americans viewed as a threat to the established order. I was once a part of that order. I helped build it. It would turn out I couldn't survive because I couldn't follow the rules of thought and speech that are mandated by everyone on the Left, especially those at the New York Times. It's personal, you see. I used to believe that if all I did was read Page One of the New York Times, I'd be well-informed. Brainwashed is more like it.
President Donald Trump's tough-on-crime rhetoric appears to come with a caveat for people in his political orbit. Trump this week quietly commuted the sentence of James Womack, son of longtime Arkansas Republican Rep. Steve Womack, granting clemency to a man who pleaded guilty in 2023 to distributing more than five grams of methamphetamine. The conviction carried an eight-year federal prison sentence. Rep. Womack, a long-time Trump ally who was endorsed by the president during his most recent re-election campaign, publicly thanked Trump the following day.
To all the federal agents who make up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection " you know, the ones out there who are so humble they wear masks over their faces, lest they be publicly lauded for their good deeds " I want you to know something: You're doing great, everybody loves you and you're definitely going to wind up on the right side of history! I realize you've been getting some negative feedback on your recent visit to Minneapolis, due to things like shooting and killing a mother in her car, firing chemical agents directly into protesters' faces and breaking down doors to arrest hardworking migrants with no criminal records. And you've lost a podcaster. Read more
For the first time in more than two decades, the United States did not export any soybeans in the month of October, the traditional start of the exporting season, to the world's largest market, China. October was also an unprecedented fifth consecutive month without any U.S. soybean exports to China in at least three decades, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. It matters. U.S. soybean farmers export about 55% of all soybeans they produce, whether as whole bean, which is the most common, or "crushed" into meal form or as oils, a much smaller percentage, according to the U.S. Soybean Export Council.
The Donald Trump administration is asking countries to contribute at least $1 billion if they want a permanent spot on his new Board of Peace, seen by critics as his attempt to create an alternative, or rival, to the United Nations.
Donald Trump War on the UN
If antisemitism has long plagued France, dating back to the Middle Ages, it's now metastasizing in new, alarming ways, according to a recently published book by French journalist Nora Bussigny. Titled "Les Nouveaux Antismites" ("The New Antisemites"), it exposes virulent Jew-hatred endemic to many far-left organizations in France, infiltrated by Bussigny as part of a lengthy undercover investigation. Using a false identity, Bussigny uncovered pervasive antisemitism and anti-Zionism, now a common denominator among diverse groups that often disagree on other matters. "I saw with my own eyes to what degree Islamists, far-left so-called progressive' militants and feminist, LGBT and ecological activists are closely linked in their shared hatred of Jews and Israel," Bussigny told The Times of Israel during a recent interview on Zoom. Read more
When Donald Trump, said he would "rescue" protesters if Iranian authorities started shooting, Siavash Shirzad believed the US president. The 38-year-old father had seen protests rise up before, only to be brutally crushed by authorities. But this was the first time in his life that the president of the United States had promised to help demonstrators. Reassured, Shirzad took to the streets, ignoring his family's warnings and joining the growing crowds. Authorities started shooting, but no help came. On 8 January, the internet was shut off and Iran went dark, Shirzad was shot at a protest in Tehran and died of his wounds hours later, leaving behind a 12-year-old son. "Siavash hoped until the very end that Trump's help would arrive," his cousin said, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions. "We told him: Don't go, it's dangerous.' But he gave a firm answer: Trump said he supports us, I'm going.'" Read more
Today, it's not just U.S. foes that find themselves scrambling to reinterpret Trump's grandiose ultimatums in the wake of the stunning Venezuela operation. Partners and allies as well are now viewing Trump's open vow to pursue a more assertive policy across the Western Hemisphere in a far more serious light, one bound to have repercussions across the globe. Read more
Nasa's mega rocket has been moved to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the final preparations get underway for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. Over almost 12 hours, the 98m-tall Space Launch System was carried vertically from the Vehicle Assembly Building on the 4-mile (6.5km) journey to the pad. Read more
The post-1945 financial order: Europe buys US debt, America stations troops in Europe. Simple. Elegant. Mutually beneficial for seventy years.
Seventy-five years of transatlantic alliance. The most formidable military bloc in human history.
When (Z) served as a TA for History of Religions (back then, History 4), and for History of Christianity (back then, History 161), the phrase that professor S. Scott Bartchy surely used more than any other was "radical inclusivity." That is the nutshell version of how Jesus' version of Judaism was different from what came before. He largely rejected various forms of ritual purity (particularly keeping kosher) and said, "What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them." Yehshua ben Yosef did not prefer to figure out who was in the tent, and who was outside, but instead to try to make the tent as big as is possible (and to treat even those who are outside the tent with kindness and decency).
This Week in Schadenfreude: Kennedy Center Performers Keep Opting Out It's been long enough since we wrote a "schadenfreude" (excepting the bonus schadenfreude earlier this week) that we did not realize that the last one was ALSO about the Kennedy Center. We guess that institution has become a vergence in the schadenfreude force.
New documents show the crew on board the United States' newest aircraft carrier are growing increasingly frustrated by design flaws that lead to regular failures in the ship's toilet system.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland, setting up a potentially dangerous test of U.S. partnerships in Europe. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a social media post while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The rate would climb to 25% on June 1 if no deal was in place for "the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland" by the United States, he said.
