Posts Tagged ‘fraud’

Daycare Fraud, Visa Fraud, Flashy Cars, And Communism

Sunday, May 3rd, 2026

Here’s a story that has a little bit of everything: Welfare state fraud, visa abuse, and ties to communist China.

A North Texas daycare operator is facing scrutiny after a video surfaced showing a journalist confronting the business owner over dozens of H-1B visa filings tied to his companies, including for positions that appear unrelated to child care operations.

In the video, BlazeTV and Texas Scorecard personality Sara Gonzales visits Allen Infant Care Center, formerly known as Golden Acorn Academy, which she says is connected to Golden Qi Holdings LLC and DFW ABA Center, an autism behavioral therapy provider. According to Gonzales, the entities have collectively sponsored at least 37 H-1B visa workers and filed more than 50 labor condition applications with the federal government.

Those filings include positions such as market research analysts and supply chain analysts—jobs atypical of a daycare.

When confronted, the owner Yuan Yao declined to answer detailed questions and struggled to respond in English. When approached on camera, he told Gonzales, “I only can tell you, everything is legal,” while repeatedly directing her to contact his attorney.

Gonzales also pressed for access to required H-1B records which the Department of Labor requires to be made available to the public. Yao did not provide the documents during the interaction and again referred her to legal counsel.

The video further includes allegations from an individual whistleblower identified as familiar with the business, who claimed, “He sells visas,” alleging that foreign nationals paid as much as $20,000 for sponsorship.

The individual also alleged that workers were underpaid after arriving, saying the owner “gets them to work for him for next to nothing.”

Gonzales also raised questions about whether the facilities tied to the businesses were actively operating, noting during her visit that “this day care just closed” and appeared to be undergoing changes.

According to Gonzales, the businesses have also received government funds in the past, including Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling more than $100,000 that were later forgiven.

So far, so scummy, just another case of welfare state fraud being perpetrated by foreigners like the numerous Minnesota Somali day care cases. But take a look at the video:

In it the whistleblower says “He’s getting his money from somewhere and I think he’s getting it from his dad. His dad’s high up in the [communist Chinese] government.”

But what really attracts my attention is his car. “Isn’t it interesting that he’s got this amazing nice car? It’s so crazy. How is he earning his money when he has a crap hole like this and a crap hole like that?”

With scissor doors and a rear-engine profile, you might be forgiven for thinking this reflective rose-painted (wrapped?) monstrosity is a million-dollar hypercar like a Lamborghini. What it actually appears to be is a BMW i8 Roadster. With a starting price around $135,000 and hybrid powertrain putting out some 369 horsepower, the BMW i8 Roadster was a pricey sports car, but still falls well short of hypercar territory. (A Lamborghini Aventador, sold at the same time as the i8, came in at 690-740 horsepower, and sold for over half a million dollars.)

You know, if I were a communist-connected foreign national committing welfare and H1-B visa fraud, I would think you would want to keep a low-profile and drive something like a Honda Accord, a Toyota Camry or a Ford F-150. What you don’t want to do is drive a reflective rose-colored European sports car that yells “Look at me.”

I suspect that state and national law enforcement are now going to look very closely indeed at Mr. Yao…

LinkSwarm For May 1, 2026

Friday, May 1st, 2026

Iran is beyond broke, more Trump assassination repercussions, FBI finally raids some fraudsters, racial carve-out congressional districts are unconstitutional, Russia loses more ships and planes, Cornyn amnesty pander unearthed, an oil theft ring busted, DEI earns some college pink slips, and a brand spanking new Microsoft Zero Day exploit.

It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Remember that today is Victims of Communism Day.

  • Iran’s economy is toast.

    The Wall Street Journal offers a deep dive into the state of Iran’s wartime economy. And it turns out that the mullahs are, effectively, broke:

    Government revenue has dried up just as the needs of its population are rising.

    The war has thrown around one million people out of work directly and another million indirectly, according to early estimates cited by Gholamhossein Mohammadi, an official at Iran’s Labor and Social-Affairs ministry. That is a significant portion of the roughly 25 million people who are normally employed in Iran.

    The cost of living has soared, with the annual inflation rate reaching 67 percent in the month through mid-April from the same period a year earlier, according to Iran’s central bank. The subsidized price of red meat, which was mostly imported through sea routes, has gone up to the equivalent of around $3.60 a pound, beyond the reach of most in a country where the minimum wage is around $130 a month.

    “Living is not affordable anymore,” said Mahdi Ghodsi of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies. “Iran is at its weakest point.”

    Businesses across the country — from manufacturers to retailers — are closing, residents said. The lack of steel and other raw materials is hampering production in various industries. Electronic goods, which are mostly imported, are in short supply and expensive.

    A 67 percent inflation rate? The worst we’ve experienced in recent memory was 9.1 percent in June 2022.

    Snip.

    “Iran’s rial weakened on Wednesday, with the dollar trading at around 1.8 million rials, according to market trackers. The rate reflects continued pressure on the local currency amid economic strains.” Back at the start of January, this newsletter informed you, “When Ruhollah Khomeini swept to power in 1979, one US dollar traded for 70 rials. Today, that same dollar commands a staggering 1,130,000 rials, more than 16,000-fold its price in 1979. In the last year alone, the rial has lost 50 percent of its value.” The Iran rial was the weakest currency in the world . . . back when one dollar could buy you 1.3 million rials.

    Plus the specter of hunger riots.

  • Our ridiculous media referred to the attempted Trump assassination as a “security incident” or “loud noise.”
  • The left is made up of horrible people. “Meet the teachers who decided to voice their displeasure that Trump wasn’t murdered over the weekend.”
  • The latest Trump assassination attempt and the left’s hate machine.

    The security establishment has promised and made better security arrangements after the two prior attempts on Trump’s life in 2024 in Butler, Pa., and West Palm Beach, Fla., the assassination of Charlie Kirk at an open-air Utah college campus in 2025, or the wounding of congressman practicing baseball at a suburban Washington field all the way back 2017.

    Those events – along with the BLM riots in summer 2020, the Antifa attacks on immigration agents, the execution of the United Health Care CEO and the attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh near his personal home – have something more in common than just the exploitation of current security postures.

    They all, according to publicly released evidence, involved perpetrators influenced by a vast left-wing machinery that bombards social media, community protests and even establishment television with an unrelenting message of hatred and intolerance that can dehumanize the targets of violence and motivate armed actors to action, experts said.

    That machinery ranges from nonprofits like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which actually paid racist actors in the name of fighting extremism, to the organizers of the No Kings protests who unleashed hundreds of thousands of old and young protesters onto the streets on the false notion that America has somehow become a monarchy under Trump.

    In between, elitists and teachers have infused the nation with claims that America’s history is racist and unrighteous and that young Americans are predestined to fates determined as oppressors or the oppressed based on their skin color. And well-funded nonprofits consorting with America’s enemies in China and Cuba are openly fomenting a color revolution in hopes of securing a Marxist future on U.S. soil.

    Allen appears to have been influenced by some of that ideology, as well as Democrats’ incessant but unfounded claims that Trump was involved in the late Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.

    The manifesto police said Allen wrote suggested he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” and that he subscribed to the Marxist paradigm of critical race theory that divides people into oppressors and the oppressed.

  • Who funded American Nazis and the KKK? You did, through USAID.

    (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

  • Finally: “FBI and DHS Raid Dozens of Minnesota Fraudsters, Including ‘Quality Learing Center.'”

    Federal officers are conducting raids of suspected fraudsters in Minneapolis on Tuesday, including the most infamous Somali-linked false front, the “Quality Learing Center.”

    The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are targeting more than 20 locations in their latest operation against the massive Minnesota fraud network, according to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, who said that he spoke with the Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI’s parent agency. The size and scope of the Minnesota fraud scandal, which is heavily linked to the Somali community there, but also implicates multiple Democrat politicians, including Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, continues to astound patriotic Americans.

    Melugin posted on X April 28, “Sources tell FOX the locations are largely Somali linked businesses, including the infamous ‘Quality Learning Center’. I’m told these are court approved search warrants being served and they are tied to fraud, not immigration enforcement. Fox is told 22 search warrants were executed in Minnesota this morning.”

    He also shared a statement from a DOJ spokesperson: “Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation.”

    While investigating apparent false fronts for taxpayer-funded daycares in Minnesota, journalist Nick Shirley found one that had even misspelled “learning” in its own name on its sign, calling the place a “Quality Learing Center.” Tikki Brown, the commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, then asserted that the childcare facility in question closed down the previous week, explaining why Shirley didn’t see any children there. But on Dec. 29, the same location was “packed with kids.” Apparently, some fraudster panicked and summoned children to provide a veneer of legitimacy. It’s The Truman Show in real life.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • Teacher’s unions are a huge funder of leftwing causes.

    A new pair of reports is shedding fresh light on how teachers unions across the country have quietly poured more than $1 billion into political causes over the past decade, with a top education watchdog warning the spending reflects a growing focus on activism rather than classroom priorities.

    According to research from Defending Education, national teachers unions alone have directed roughly $669 million toward left-wing political groups, advocacy organizations and campaigns since 2015. When state and local affiliates are included, that figure balloons to more than $1 billion in total political spending.

    The reports track spending from the two largest unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), as well as their state-level affiliates, using federal filings and campaign finance records.

  • The Supreme Court strikes down racial gerrymandering.

    The Supreme Court just handed down one of the most consequential redistricting decisions in a generation — and Democrats are not going to like it one bit.

    In a 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, the majority held that Louisiana’s congressional map — redrawn to include a second majority-black district — constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the Fifteenth Amendment. The Court stopped short of striking down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act entirely, but it dramatically narrowed the ways in which states may use race when drawing congressional maps.

    For Republicans eyeing the House in 2026, this is the kind of ruling that changes the math.

    I’m sure I don’t have to tell you which justices dissented.

    The ruling’s immediate implications are huge. As we’ve previously reported, Republicans could potentially pick up anywhere from 12 to 19 new House seats across the South, as states seize the opportunity to redraw maps that were previously constrained by Section 2 requirements.

    (Hat tip: Charlie Martin at Instapundit.)

  • “Southern Poverty Law Center donors include George Soros, JPMorgan, George Clooney — as nonprofit ‘funneled’ millions to hate group.”

    The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been funded by big name businesses and philanthropists including George Soros, JPMorgan, ex-Apple CEO Tim Cook and George Clooney.

    The group — indicted Tuesday for allegedly funneling millions to the hate groups it says it is ideologically against — also holds over $786 million in assets, yet still solicits donations.

    In fact, it took in $106 million in donated cash 2024, according to its latest available financial disclosures, yet still ran “urgent” appeals for “emergency” cash.

    Over the years, donations have been made by big name donors, many of whom pledged to the organization after clashes at a 2017 by “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Virginia, which resulted in the death of one protester.

  • Tuapse hammered again. “Ukraine seems to hammer this every day now.”
  • Huge Strike on Russian Command Post: Nine Officers Eliminated. Another FSB Also Hit.” In Luhansk.
  • “Ukraine Advances 15km And Liberates Ternove Near Dnipro.”
  • Three Russian Ships & MiG-31 Hit By FP-2 Drones in Crimea.”
  • Iskander Storage Hit by FP-2 Drones in Crimea.” Not clear they penetrated the bunkers.
  • “Ukraine Hits Shadow Fleet Tanker Marquise with Marine Drones.” “The vessel was hit about 210 kilometers southeast of Tuapse, Russia” in the Black Sea.”
  • “A Su-57 stealth aircraft was destroyed by drones at Chelyabinsk, confirmed by satellite imagery with Ukraine reporting two destroyed and a Su-34.” This is some 1,600km away from Ukraine.
  • “After Al-Qaeda in Mali (JNIM) [Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin] & FLA [Azawad Liberation Front] took the city yesterday, the Russian Africa Corps & Malian soldiers fled to a military base outside town where they got surrounded…The Russians negotiated an exit from the [base] and fled. But the agreement didn’t include the Marian soldiers who were left behind. So, Russia once again abandoning its supposed allies as soon as the going gets tough.” Mali rebels also shot down a Russian helicopter.
  • Speaking of Mali: “Defense minister killed in united al-Qaeda and ISIS jihad attack, country on verge of collapse.”

    Mali was on the brink of collapse last year as al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) unleashed attacks on the country. Then came a report that Jihad Watch covered yesterday about renewed attacks that injured 16 people, as efforts to create an Islamic state in Mali escalated. The new siege rapidly spiraled into much worse, with JNIM, ISIS and Northern rebels coordinating attacks. Mali’s defense minister was killed.

    I’m guessing the ISIS here is the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.

    Mali’s military government, which Gen. Assimi Goïta leads, broke ties with France in 2021-2022 and hired the Russian Wagner Group (known as the Africa Corps) to fight the rebels.

    Technically, Wagner Group and Africa Corps are different Russian mercenary groups, though I’m sure a lot of soldiers for the former ended up in the latter.

    The siege also served as “a major blow to Russia as the mercenaries had no intelligence about the attacks and were unable to protect major cities.”

    Mali now faces an existential threat, which Kurdistan24 News characterized as “a profound failure for Mali’s Russian-backed military junta, signalling severe regional instability.”

    Governments in the Sahel have never been the most stable, but the Russian-backed coups there have made things measurably worse.

  • Dispatch from the Texas Senate Runoff: “Cornyn Touted Legalization for Illegal Aliens in 2020 Campaign Ad.”

    A resurfaced 2020 campaign ad shows U.S. Sen. John Cornyn promoting his support for the “legalization of Dreamers”—a message that has since been removed from his YouTube channel.

    In the Spanish-language ad, a narrator proclaims that, while Cornyn supports secure borders, he “firmly supports legalization of Dreamers.”

    The video, which was previously available on his official YouTube channel, was quickly removed after circulation on social media.

    Created by executive action under President Barack Obama in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program allows certain individuals brought to the United States illegally as children, known as “Dreamers,” to remain in the country and shields them from deportation.

    The program was challenged by President Donald Trump and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argued it was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end the program in a 5–4 ruling.

    The messaging aligns with comments Cornyn made on the Senate floor in 2020 regarding recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program following that Supreme Court ruling.

    “DACA recipients must have a permanent legislative solution. They deserve nothing less,” Cornyn said at the time. “We need to take action and pass legislation that will unequivocally allow these young men and women to stay in the only home, in the only country, they’ve known.”

    Cornyn also described the uncertainty surrounding their status as “terrifying” and said many recipients have built careers and families in the United States.

    “These young people deserve better,” he added.

    The senator further noted he had been working with advocacy groups and stakeholders—including the Texas Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, LULAC, and Catholic bishops—to find a long-term solution.

    Cornyn has long been known as a squish on amnesty, but no Republican should be seeking the approval of the hard-left LULAC.

  • “Former Fauci Adviser Indicted for Allegedly Concealing Covid-Related Records.”

    David Morens, 78, worked under Fauci while he served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The DOJ charged Morens with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

    Morens, along with two unnamed co-conspirators, “concealed, removed, destroyed and caused the concealment, and removal of federal records to evade FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] and FRA [Federal Records Act],” according to the indictment.

    During his time at NIH, which ran from 2006 to 2022, Morens used his personal email account to conduct government business, specifically discussing the origins of Covid-19 with Manhattan-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak. Morens deleted said emails after sending them.

    He also spoke with NIH’s FOIA liaison, asking for tips on how to evade FOIA requests.

    Sure acts like he’s guilty, doesn’t he?

  • “Despite state law, we’re secretly keeping DEI.” College: “All right, then, enjoy this pink slip.”
  • “Poll: Trump’s approval rating among Catholics INCREASED after his scuffle with Pope Leo.”
  • “Overwhelming Opposition in Spain to Giving Amnesty to 500,000 Illegal Immigrants.”
  • This war goes to 11.
  • More rank Biden Admin dishonesty: “Biden SBA hid $90 million in loans to Planned Parenthood by calling them ‘Benghazi’ in emails.”
  • The UAE leaves OPEC.
  • Fourteen Indicted for Alleged Texas-New Mexico Permian Basin Oilfield Theft.”

    Fourteen defendants from Texas and New Mexico were federally indicted for large-scale oil theft in the Permian Basin.

    The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced on April 22 that the 14 conspirators were indicted for the alleged transport and theft of crude oil across the Texas-New Mexico border.

    The criminal activity allegedly took place in the Permian Basin, which is responsible for nearly 40 percent of all oil production in the U.S.

    Snip.

    The Texas defendants are Randell Wayne Reid, age 41, of Electra; his father, James Darrell Reid, 65, also of Electra; and Christopher Frederick Harris, 22, of Seminole. Randell Reid and James Reid are both owners of Reidco Enterprises, a Texas-based company.

    The defendants allegedly conspired to steal crude oil from the Permian Basin, “some of which was then stored on land that one of the conspirators leased from the United States government,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Stolen crude oil was then sold to the other conspirators well below the market value set by West Texas Intermediate (WTI) pricing. WTI is used as a benchmark to set crude oil prices in the region.

    The indictment of Randell and James Reid restates these claims, adding that the men conspired to trade oil across the state borders.

  • Spirit Airlines to cease operations tomorrow, thanks in part to Elizabeth Warren blocking a merger with JetBlue.
  • Sony will lock the games you’ve already paid for if you don’t log into the Internet every 30 days. (Update: Now Sony claims you only have to log in once.)
  • Another day, another another Microsoft zero day exploit, this one called BlueHammer.

    Not quite.

    The zero-day flaw combines a time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition and path confusion in Windows Defender’s signature update system, according to an advisory from the Retail & Hospitality-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC). If exploited successfully, a local user can access the Security Account Manager (SAM) database, obtain password hashes, and eventually gain administrator rights using the pass-the-hash technique, which would give the attacker full system control.

    Local user rather than remote, so that mitigates the potential attacker pool. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)

  • Louis Rossmann, call your office. “Conroe residents say city is stonewalling their requests for information on Flock Safety cameras.”

    People in Conroe are asking city officials for answers about how Flock cameras are being used and where the collected information ends up.

    Residents say they feel like they are not getting straight answers.

    Residents are working to learn how these cameras operate and, on Thursday, spoke to ABC13 about their demands for city officials to be more transparent, as they feel their questions are being ignored.

    “Everybody in the community wants to feel safe. Everyone agrees this could help with kidnappings and hit-and-runs. To me, I just haven’t seen the data that proves that,” said concerned citizen, James Fletes.

    Officials have said in the past that Flock cameras read license plates and alert police if the plates are linked to any crimes.

    This technology has been used in the greater Houston area for years. In Conroe, some people say they are worried about the number of cameras and the lack of information about them.

    Fletes says this concern led him to file a public records request with the city of Conroe. He asked questions such as how many cameras there are, how they work, where the data goes, and who can access it.

    He says the city told him it would cost $1,200 to release the information, so he and others in the community joined forces to cover the cost.

    “This is no longer just my request. It’s the people of Conroe’s request. They funded it, and we’re tired of being stonewalled,” said Fletes.

    The original request was sent in March. Now, it’s almost May, and he says no information has been released yet.

    “They were quick to take the money and very slow to provide the documents,” said Fletes.

    There seems to be a whole lot suspicious about the ways cities have surreptitiously rolled out AI-enabled cameras and hoped people wouldn’t notice. (Hat tip: TPPF.)

  • Google co-founder Sergey Brin rejects California’s billionaires tax and is drifting towards the Republicans. “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place.”
  • Part 2 of that Robert Rodriguez interview with Quintin Tarantino.
  • “Media Still Stumped As To Motive Of Gunman With Manifesto Titled ‘Why I’m Going To Kill Donald J. Trump.'”
  • “‘This Is A Both Sides Issue,’ Says Side That Shot President Trump, Assassinated Charlie Kirk, Tried To Assassinate Kavanaugh, Tried To Shoot Trump Again, Shot Steve Scalise, Firebombed Governor Shapiro, Tried To Shoot Trump A Third Time, (cont’d).”
  • “After Failed Assassination, Democrats Observe Customary 5-Minute Pause On Calling Trump ‘Hitler.'”
  • “In Blow To Democrats, SCOTUS Rules They Have To Stop Being Racist.”
  • “SPLC Says Funding KKK Only 3% Of What They Do.”
  • Vegan Crossfitter Cyclist Unsure What To Tell You About First.”
  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    How Much Does It Cost To Build A Bridge?

    Thursday, April 30th, 2026

    In the Before Time, The Long Long Ago, people could still be mildly shocked when the cost of Boston’s Big Dig, a project to build some five miles of traffic tunnels underneath Boston and the bay, ballooned from $2.8 billion to $14.6 billion from conception to finish. These days, of course, Dmeocrat-run states can inflate infrastructure construction costs at a greatly accelerated rate, which is how cost estimates for California’s insane, never-to-be-built high speed rate have now ballooned to $232 billion, or more than the entirety of Reagan’s first defense budget.

    Another case in point: The estimated cost to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has ballooned from $1.8 billion to over $5 billion in two years. Those are some impressive blue-state project management skills at work.

    Bridges are expensive. (Not as expensive as tunnels under Boston, but expensive none the less.) Gone are those 19th century days when you could throw a few million dollars and tens of expendable manual labor lives into a project to achieve the desired results. You have a lot more safety regulations to comply with, and more palms need to be greased.

    “The new Francis Scott Key Bridge is designed as a modern cable-stayed structure that will stretch more than two miles across the Patapsco River.” You know what else is a modern cable-stayed bridge? Corpus Christi’s New Harbor Bridge. It’s slight shorter than the planned Francis Scott Key Bridge (10,820 vs. 11,015 feet), but a whole lot cheaper. New Harbor Bridge cost $1.2 billion, despite numerous delays, assessments and revisions to the design.

    So even after all those delays and revisions, they were able to build a large (but slightly smaller) bridge in Corpus for $400 million less than the starting estimate on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and a fourth of the revised Francis Scott Key cost.

    No wonder Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is scrutinizing the Francis Scott Key Bridge project.

    How much of that four times cost is due to the graft, fraud and waste of building something in a blue state like Maryland rather than a red state like Texas?

    LinkSwarm For April 24, 2026

    Friday, April 24th, 2026

    The Iran war remains on pause, more of that Democrat voting fraud that never happens, more California, more felonious illegal alien scumbags, a corrupt Democrat resigns before she can be kicked out, Virginia’s radical Dem redistricting ploy gets court-blocked, black rain in Russia, and some auction artifacts for the Golden Anniversary of punk rock.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

    Also, I’ve trimmed the blogroll of a few (mostly gun) blogs that haven’t posted for a few years, and added According to Hoyt, partially for the tasty meme roundups.

  • The Iran war remains mostly in suspended animation. The blockade is still in place, and the IRCG tried to attack a couple of ships in the Strait of Hormuz, without notable effect. But this is interesting.

    JUST IN: Iran just pulled a thirty-year-old empty supertanker out of retirement and began towing it toward Kharg Island. She is moving so slowly that a voyage that should take a day and a half is taking four days.

    Her name is NASHA. IMO 9079107. Built 1996. A two-million-barrel very large crude carrier that has been anchored empty off Kharg for years. TankerTrackers confirmed her reactivation yesterday. Gulf News, Iran International, and Fox News all picked it up within hours.

    The reason she is moving at all is that Iran is running out of places to put the oil.

    Kharg Island handles roughly ninety percent of Iran’s crude exports. Its onshore tanks had about thirteen million barrels of spare capacity when the US blockade began on April 13. Net inflow since has been running at one million to one point one million barrels per day because exports have collapsed to single digits of vessels while upstream production continues. The math is mechanical. Roughly twelve days of spare capacity. The calendar says that window closes this week.

    NASHA is not a strategy. NASHA is what you do when you have run out of strategy.

    A two-million-barrel floating storage vessel buys Iran approximately forty-eight hours of continued upstream production. After that, either the wells get shut in or the crude goes somewhere else. The parallel options being pursued, ship-to-ship transfers in the Riau Archipelago, AIS-dark transits, sanctioned VLCCs returning home through the blockade line, are not enough. Lloyd’s List Intelligence has tracked roughly twenty-six Iran-linked vessels evading since April 13. That cannot absorb a million barrels a day.

    The wells will shut in. The question is which wells, for how long, and whether they come back.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • “Former Alabama mayor arrested for doing that thing they tell us never happens.”

    Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the arrest on Wednesday of two Lowndes County residents on charges related to the unlawful use of absentee ballots in the August 2025 Ft. Deposit municipal election.

    Jacqulyn Boone, 51, and Steven Thigpen, 49, were each charged with unlawful use of absentee ballots, a Class C felony under Alabama law. Boone previously served as mayor of Ft. Deposit, and Thigpen was a candidate for the Ft. Deposit City Council. Both were declared winners in the August 2025 election.

  • Good news: “Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Resigns from Congress Ahead of Potential Expulsion.”

    Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D., Fla.) announced her resignation from Congress on Tuesday after Republicans threatened to hold a vote to remove her from her seat over allegations that she misused federal disaster relief money, among other misconduct.

    She was also indicted by a grand jury last year on charges of stealing federal disaster funds.

    Snip.

    Ahead of her resignation, Representative Greg Steube (R., Fla.) threatened to file a motion to expel her from Congress, which would have set up a vote on her ouster for later this week. Her announcement also came moments before a House Ethics Committee hearing was set to begin, in which the committee was expected to recommend sanctions against her for a number of ethics violations involving financial misconduct.

    The panel previously found the congresswoman guilty on multiple counts of failing to comply with Federal Election Commission regulations and uphold the Code of Ethics for Government Service. It found “clear and convincing evidence” that she misused $5 million in federal disaster relief money that was improperly paid to her family’s healthcare company, in order to boost her 2021 campaign.

    But on Tuesday, House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest said that her resignation meant the committee had lost its jurisdiction and would no longer consider sanctions against her.

    (Previously.)

  • “How Gavin Newsom Subsidized the Migrant Invasion. The California governor has spent nearly $1 billion on nonprofits that want, among other things, to dismantle the border, “abolish ICE,” and help immigrants ‘living with HIV.'”

    In this City Journal investigation, we have traced the money and can reveal that Governor Gavin Newsom has granted approximately $1 billion to an army of nonprofits that has encouraged unchecked numbers of migrants to enter the country, fought deportation orders in the courts, and led street protests against ICE. These groups often operate under the guise of “humanitarianism” or “immigration justice,” but many, as we have uncovered, are in fact left-wing activist groups that use propaganda, lawfare, and street protests to transform America’s demographics and build political power for California Democrats—all on the public dime.

    This is the story of how Gavin Newsom subsidized the illegal invasion and turned a wave of desperate people into pawns in his political game.

    California was ground zero for the Biden-era migrant wave. The state saw an enormous number of people cross its border, including more than 400,000 illegal immigrants between 2021 and 2023 alone. Under Newsom’s leadership, the nation’s largest “sanctuary” state granted hundreds of millions of dollars to nonprofits that have encouraged the flow of humanity across the border, variously providing migrants with transportation, shelter, social services, and legal protection.

    The expenditures have been enormous. According to our review of state funding records, since Newsom took office, California has granted massive contracts for migrant-related services: more than $250 million to Catholic Charities; $85 million to Jewish Family Services; $12 million to Centro Legal de la Raza; $23 million to the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area; and more.

    Many nonprofits benefiting from these funds are shockingly radical. Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit that has been awarded more than $2 million from California since Newsom took office, helps migrants enter the United States—hence the group’s name, “to the other side.” On social media, Al Otro Lado touts its efforts to provide “freedom of movement” to migrants. In addition to providing legal guidance, the group deploys volunteers to “remote migration routes to leave water, food, and essential supplies.”

    According to its own materials, Al Otro Lado is anti-borders and openly hostile to the American nation. In one Instagram video, the group’s litigating attorney Diego Teixeira clumsily summarized the view: “I honestly just believe that there’s no reason for why we should have borders.” In another video, the group shows off books from its library, such as Undoing Border Imperialism, that “remind us that the U.S. is [sh*t].” The organization, which did not respond to our comment request, is currently suing the Trump administration to prohibit the government from turning away certain migrants at the border.

    Other groups focus on ideological subpopulations. Oasis Legal Services, another taxpayer-funded group, has worked on helping “queer and trans immigrants navigate immigration relief and benefits.” In a recent report, the group boasted that “the odds of winning an asylum case go up to 99% for clients when they are represented by an Oasis team member.” (The group denies that it encourages the entry of immigrants.)

    Adam Ryan Chang, Oasis’s executive director, believes that “homosexual audacity” is his “superpower,” and he has framed his work with the nonprofit as part of a broader left-wing campaign of “liberating” the “LGBTQ+ community.” In a recent annual report, the group highlighted its work of apparently representing migrants with a sexually transmitted disease. In 2024, the report said, “one in six of new clients is living with HIV and the rest are all at significant risk of contracting HIV.” In 2025, the proportion increased to one in five.

    In response to a request for comment, Chang said people “living with HIV are not barred from entering the United States on that basis.”

    For Oasis, the public health implications are apparently not a cause for concern; it is all part of reducing “stigma” and ensuring that “immigration justice” prevails.

  • Bad news: Virginia voters approved the Democrats’ radical redistricting proposal.

    Democrats spent $70 million on this referendum.
    Almost every penny came from out of state.
    They broke laws.
    They wrote a deceitful ballot measure.
    They ran tv spots for two months, nonstop.
    They brought in Obama.
    They brought in Hollywood.

    We had grassroots.
    That’s really it.
    They only beat us by 70k votes.
    In an April election.

    Here’s the most ironic part … what do you notice?

    All that money, all that effort, and all they did was prove our 6/5 map is accurate.

    Almost exactly.

  • But: “Virginia Judge Rules VA Gerrymandering Vote Unconstitutional.” “From the Tazewell Circuit Court, the Judge reaffirmed all prior rulings, declared the referendum as unconstitutional and the amendment process of HB 1384 as unconstitutional. He entered injunctive relief and specifically enjoyed the certification of the election. He denied a motion to stay pending appeal. A final order will be entered once drafted.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Tuapse Port Burns Heavily After Multiple Drone Strikes: Russians in Panic.” Tuapse gets getting hammered hard by Ukraine.

    I think now this is having a big effect not just on Russian fuel exports but on the city of Tuapse itself. Twitter and online Telegram sources reporting toxic clouds black coatings from oil on houses cars and animals because of rainfall with oil in here. Some Telegram posts are saying residents are advised not to go outside.

    More:

    Here’s a statement shared by Russian online which I’ll read out. “City of Tapsa no longer exists. It’s been destroyed. In fact, the land there is poisoned. The water is poisoned. The air is poisoned. Black rain is falling there right now like water in Hiroshima mixed with oil salt. It’s killing vegetation, insects, and birds. The human consequences are also predictable. Residents in the city and surrounding areas are ordered not to leave their homes and not to open windows at all. I suggest we realize this. There’s an oil slick up to seven kilometers deep in the sea. That is the harbor and the entire coastline are dead. What can I say? Since 2022, we’ve been told very pompously. Do you want Chernobyl and Kiev? Well, now Chernobyl is in Tuapse.

    The moral of the story: Don’t launch illegal wars of territorial aggression.

  • Iskander Launcher Storage, Multiple SAM Systems, Oil Depots and Drone Storage Hit By FP-2 Drones.” Bit of a grab bag, but it included two oil depots in Crimea.
  • Five Russian Ships Damaged in Sevastopol By FP-2 Drones.”
  • “Ukrainian Drone Operation Eliminates 12 FSB Officers in Donetsk.”
  • Reminder: LA Mayor Karen Bass is an actual communist.

    Karen Bass was not only a Castro operative and Communist, but she got elevated to Vice Chair of National Endowment for Democracy, which is the center of soft power operations in the US government. She is not a “DEI mayor.” She is extremely powerful at the global stage.

    She was actively involved in shaping foreign policy with the Obama administration, especially Africa. Her Ghana visit during the LA wildfires wasn’t a vacation, it was part of a Biden delegate to greet Ghana’s new President.

    She was considered HUD Secretary for the Biden administration. Instead, she nominated the person who would become the actual HHS Secretary – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

    Now, let me ask you. If a literal Castro operative gets elevated to this stage, what does this imply about the rest of the United States government?

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • One reason for the high price of beef? “DoJ Opens Criminal Probe Into Meatpacking Cartel.”

    The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department’s antitrust division has opened a criminal probe into major meatpackers.

    The report follows President Trump’s push for an investigation into meatpackers as supermarket beef prices remain near record highs.

    Criminal antitrust cases are typically brought for alleged price-fixing, collusion, or bid-rigging. While the DoJ previously disclosed an investigation into beef companies after Trump called for action, it had not provided details on whether it was criminal.

    In early November, Trump publicly stated, “I have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through illicit collusion, price fixing, and price manipulation.”

    “We will always protect our American ranchers, and they are being blamed for what is being done by majority foreign-owned meat packers, who artificially inflate prices and jeopardize the security of our nation’s food supply,” Trump continued.

  • Sneaky local elections creeping up on May 2 in Texas. Check to see if your school board is having an election. (Not to be confused with the primary runoff elections, which are coming May 26.)
  • Trump Administration Shuts Down “Reputation Risk” as a Cudgel Against Gun Industry.”

    The decades long discriminatory tension between the financial sector and the firearm industry underwent a positive shift with a final rule published on April 10 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This landmark effort in a long fought battle, which NRA-ILA has reported on extensively, codifies the removal of “reputation risk” as a basis of adverse action under oversight programs that apply to FDIC-supervised financial institutions.

    Ultimately, this final rule eliminates reputation risk as a means of injecting politics into banking regulation by prohibiting examiners from using this subjective assessment to pressure or penalize banks. It also prohibits regulators from pushing banks to close accounts or deny services based on their ill-conceived aversion to the lawful firearms and ammunition industries, which are vital to supporting our constitutional rights.

    This rule helps to mitigate unjustified biases against these business sectors left over from the Obama-Biden Administration and importantly helps to prevent future efforts in the same vein. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in coordination with regulators such as the FDIC, began pressuring banks to cut ties and services to industries they considered to be “high risk,” which under the anti-gun Obama-Biden administration unsurprisingly included firearm and ammunition-related business.

    The program, billed Operation Choke Point (OCP), encouraged broad financial “de-risking” and led to banks freezing or terminating services to lawful businesses based on “reputation risk,” instead of any proven misconduct or illegality. Guidance documents provided to banks at the time specifically listed firearm and ammunition sales as high-risk activity, although they are some of the most highly regulated industries in the country.

    OCP’s circular reasoning held that even law-abiding businesses could generate ill-will among banking customers, merely because of the controversial nature of those businesses’ products or services. Thus, to prevent some customers from canceling their banking relationships out of protest or disgust that businesses they didn’t like were also being served, banks were supposed to sever ties with those businesses. Meanwhile, the administration did all it could to stoke this same ill-will by portraying these “suspect” industries in a relentlessly negative light.

    In 2017, President Trump officially ended Operation Choke Point, with the DOJ issuing a missive characterizing it as a “misguided initiative” and conceding that “law abiding businesses should not be targeted simply for operating in an industry that a particular administration might not favor.” And while it was noted that the initiative would not be undertaken again, there was still work to be done to strengthen protections for the industry and prevent similar back-door discriminatory efforts in the future. Among these, for example, are various attempts to surveille firearm and ammunition-related purchases through credit card companies, supposedly to flag “suspicious” purchases to regulators.

    Last year, in acknowledging the continued threats of financial discrimination, President Trump took more decisive steps by issuing an Executive Order, Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans, emphasizing that lawful individuals and businesses should not be denied access to financial services due to ideological bias. The order also called for greater oversight and accountability to prevent discriminatory debanking practices.

  • “Illegal Alien Freed by Biden Admin Accused of Sledgehammer Killing in Houston. Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice was released at the border in 2023.”
  • “ICE Houston Arrests 277 Criminal Illegal Aliens in Two Weeks, Including Murderers and Child Predators. Among those arrested were 17 convicted child sex offenders, six murderers, and a Salvadoran MS-13 member sentenced to 228 years in her home country before the Biden administration released her into the United States in 2024.”
  • “NYC neighborhood that voted overwhelmingly for Mamdani now suing him for relocating homeless shelter near them.”

  • Tim Cook Stepping Down As Apple CEO; John Ternus, Head Of Hardware, Will Take Over.” Cook has been an efficient technocrat that lead Apple to having one of the largest market caps in the world, but he lacks Steve Jobs’ vision for future products.
  • Feel good story: Oklahoma principle who tackled a would-be school shooter elected Prom King.
  • Robert Rodriguez interviews Quintin Tarantino about his early career. It’s a really good interview, and I look forward to subsequent parts.
  • Dwight reports on the NRA Convention in Houston. His is more a report of walking the exhibits and dealers rather than policy decisions. For that, you should probably read No Lawyers, Only Guns And Money.
  • “Texas DSHS Commissioner Tapped by Trump Administration for CDC Leadership. Dr. Jennifer Shuford is an infectious diseases specialist.”
  • The UK nanny state will outlaw anything except rape by Muslim illegal aliens. “British politicians finalize lifetime smoking ban on anyone born after 2008.”
  • “Michael and Susan Dell Become UT-Austin’s First Billion-Dollar Donors.” “The university announced Tuesday that the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation had pledged $750 million towards the construction of a medical research facility as part of the expansion of the Medical School that was already named after Dell.”
  • Bonhams has an auction for 50 Years of Punk Rock, just in case you want to pay £1,000 for a CBGB’s poster you could have ripped off a lightpost for free back in 1978.
  • Also, Heritage Auctions is having a Star Wars auction on May the 4th, because of course they are. Despite how badly the Kathleen Kennedy era has damaged the franchise, a 5 foot Millennium Falcon model would still be a very cool thing to have…
  • “After Losing SPLC Funding, KKK Forced To Buy Robes Off Temu.”
  • “Gen Zer Puts On Her Nice Pajamas For Job Interview.”
  • “Tim Cook To Be Replaced By Tim Cook Pro Max 17.”
  • “Hollywood Baffled By Success Of Movie Made To Entertain People.”
  • “Nation Excitedly Gathers For Annual Tradition Of Seeing Whose Career Will Be Killed By Cleveland Browns.”
  • “Cyclists Shocked, Dismayed To Learn Vehicles Also Allowed To Use Roads.”
  • I really should save this one for Halloween:

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    Paxton Sues ActBlue Over Fraud, Foreign Donations

    Tuesday, April 21st, 2026

    Sometimes Ken Paxton’s lawsuits are limited in size or scope. Not this one. Paxton is suing Democrat fundraiser ActBlue for allowing “fraudulent and foreign donations.”

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Democratic political fundraising platform ActBlue over its donation processes that allegedly “allow fraudulent and foreign donations.”

    According to the New York Times, ActBlue has processed nearly $19 billion in contributions since its 2004 inception. The organization reported $1.8 billion in 2025 alone, a 41 percent increase compared to 2021. Last year, ActBlue saw 1.35 million new donors add to its over 52 million contributions received.

    “The radical left has relied on ActBlue as a way to funnel foreign donations and dark money into their political campaigns to subvert our laws and compromise the integrity of our elections,” the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said in an April 20 press release.

    Paxton alleged the organization has lied to Congress and “blatantly ignored state law that prohibits deceptive practices.”

    “In 2023, Attorney General Paxton opened an investigation into whether ActBlue was enabling donor fraud in violation of Texas law,” the press release stated.

    “ActBlue has cooperated with our ongoing investigation,” Paxton said in August 2024. “They have changed their requirements to now include ‘CVV’ codes for donations on their platform.”

    “This is a critical change that can help prevent fraudulent donations,” he continued, adding that “suspicious activity on fundraising platforms must be fully investigated to determine if any laws have been broken.”

    In October 2024, Paxton sent a petition for rulemaking to the FEC “detailing how suspicious actors had appeared to be continuing to use ActBlue’s political fundraising platform to make a large number of straw political donations,” the press release said. He also made a criminal referral to the U.S. Department of Justice the same month.

    “Amidst the OAG’s investigation and a Congressional investigation, ActBlue claimed it stopped its illegal operations,” the OAG said.

    Paxton cited recent reporting from the New York Times in which “ActBlue’s own outside counsel acknowledged that the organization’s representations about its donation safeguards were not true.”

    Paxton further alleged that certain safeguards are not consistently implemented, “creating a substantial risk that impermissible foreign contributions may have been processed.”

    The OAG said it was able to show that ActBlue processes gift card and prepaid debit card donations, “despite the company’s representations that the opposite is true.” Paxton said these payments could enable fraudulent donations and violations of state and federal election laws due to limited identification requirements.

    Reports have ActBlue carrying out the very shady, unethical actions Paxton is accusing them of, allowing foreign nationals to donate to American campaigns and enabling straw donations in the names of people who never donated to Democrats. Such accusations have been flying around almost as long ActBlue has existed, and the persistence of the same “mistakes” over and over again suggest such criminal activity is intentional.

    Discovery for this lawsuit should be epic.

    Two Georgia Election Officials Indicted For Fraud

    Monday, April 20th, 2026

    Here’s news I missed last week: Two employees with the Macon County Board of Elections were among those indicted for fraud. The catch is that it’s the just the regular money kind of fraud.

    Five people in Georgia—including two election officials with a county government—have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of orchestrating a multi-million dollar healthcare scheme.

    Sure seems to be a lot of healthcare fraud popping up recently. Almost like someone made it easier to cheat…

    An unsealed indictment names Dawn James-Ellis, Angela Childs, Adrian Harris, Lamonica Lakes and Tarshea Fudge-Riley as defendants, all facing charges of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.

    Fudge-Riley and Lakes are employees with the Macon County Board of Elections.

    All five pleaded not guilty when they appeared before a federal judge this week. The case against them involves the alleged submission of fraudulent medical claims to insurers for mental health services that were never delivered.

    Prosecutors have accused James-Ellis, a licensed therapist, of billing Cigna, Aetna and other companies for mental health counseling sessions that never happened. As part of the conspiracy, the other defendants were allegedly willing accomplices, who served as would-be patients to have their insurance billed.

    James-Ellis, who also faces a charge of identity theft, would allegedly send kickbacks to the others after she received payment from health plans.

    To cover her tracks, it’s alleged she had the “patients” create session notes to solidify the idea that services were delivered through James-Ellis’s practice, called Therapy on the Go.

    Authorities maintain that the fraud scheme involved millions of dollars exchanging hands, but no specific figure was revealed. For now, the case is in its early stages, and facts allowed at trial will be decided during future hearings.

    It’s believed incidents of fraud spanned nearly four years. The indictment claims the conspiracy began in January 2019 and ended sometime in December 2022.

    So we have two Georgia already accused of participating in a fraud ring that started before the disputed 2020 Presidential election. Macon is a small county that went for Biden in 2020. Perhaps too small to make a notable difference, but here are two election officials already (allegedly) engaged in one type of fraud. Why not another?

    In any case, pious declarations that Georgia election officials are beyond moral reproach appear to be misguided…

    Texas Not Free From Welfare State Fraud

    Thursday, April 16th, 2026

    Every day brings new revelations about how widespread welfare state fraud runs rampant in blue states like Minnesota and California. Is Texas immune from fraud? Not entirely.

    Amid a national debate over waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health and welfare programs, Texas lawmakers heard testimony this week on potential problems in state oversight of taxpayer-funded programs designed to assist the poor.

    “We are dealing today with a healthcare epidemic, but not from a disease or virus. We are examining a nationwide epidemic of fraud in healthcare,” said state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), chair of the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

    Kolkhorst presided over a nine-hour hearing in Austin on Wednesday, prompted by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s interim charges and President Donald Trump’s call for greater oversight in state-managed programs.

    Although the state’s 8 percent “error” rate in administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is lower than many other states, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Texas must reduce that rate to 6 percent or less or else face significant penalties. The state must also reduce the Medicaid eligibility error rate to 3 percent or less.

    “New federal laws are now going to make it imperative for Texas to reform some of its eligibility programs and improve its compliance with regulations for Medicaid and especially SNAP,” said Kolkhorst. “For the first time in history, states must now fund part of the SNAP program, and improper payments and errors in that system will cost us hundreds of millions of dollars.”

    Witnesses informed the committee of potential oversight problems in Medicaid and other programs.

    Kaitlyn Finley of the Foundation for Government Accountability said that Texas’ “reasonable opportunity period” (ROP) gives new Medicaid recipients up to 90 days to prove their immigration status, but that some were continuing to remain on temporary status for as many as 1,800 days without documentation.

    “The costs have exploded under this policy,” said Finley. “Texas ROP spending went from $650,000 in 2019 to $13 million in 2023. That’s a 1,900 percent increase.”

    Finley also noted that Texas had spent over $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2025 on emergency Medicaid for illegal immigrants. She said the state’s “honor system,” allowing applicants to self-report household members, residency, and income without verification, should be reformed.

    Jamie Dudensing, President and CEO of the Texas Association of Health Plans (TAHP), which oversees the state’s Medicaid-managed care organizations and dental managed care groups, noted that implementation of prior authorization standards had reduced abuse of a state-managed orthodontics program and reduced “inappropriate use” by 72 percent.

    Dudensing warned, however, that preventing abuse of programs requires constant monitoring and her organization often must work with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to refine guardrails for various programs.

    One area of service not under TAHP or other close scrutiny is the state’s hospice network.

    Lisa McNair, President and CEO of Hospice Brazos Valley and treasurer for the Hospice Alliance, presented data on taxpayer-supported hospice providers and warned of “low patient counts, multiple hospices in one building, high ‘live discharge’ rates, excessive billing, and shared staff across multiple companies.”

    McNair noted that the number of hospice providers in Texas had increased by 98.5 percent since January 2020 for a total of 1,366 as of March 2026, and that 308 of the newest providers were co-located with at least one and as many as 15 other hospices.

    “Data showed 15 hospices located in one building on the Northwest Loop 410 in San Antonio. Two were established in 2019, 13 were established in 2021,” said McNair. “[At] 9896 Bissonnet in Houston, there were six hospices, one foundation, one health care company and three [medical services] companies, all with the same owner.”

    McNair also pointed out that although hospice serves terminally ill patients — those diagnosed with six months or less to live — at least seven Texas hospices had a 100 percent “live discharge” rate and another 25 had live discharge rates of greater than 90 percent.

    It’s an Easter miracle! The dying have been healed!

    This week, the California attorney general filed charges against a Los Angeles hospice care fraud ring reportedly responsible for $267 million in fraud, as part of an ongoing federal and state investigation.

    Multiple witnesses offered recommendations for limiting fraud, waste, and abuse, including creating means tests for providers and establishing statewide service provider identification numbers and a state database of those providers.

    Finley also suggested counting all income for SNAP households and codifying a “proper definition” for qualified aliens to match that in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. She also suggested Texas adopt a policy requiring notification to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when an illegal alien applies for Medicaid, such as that in Louisiana.

    Dudensing recommended creating a task force at HHSC with a focus on waste, fraud, and abuse.

    California clearly has an order of magnitude or two (or maybe three) more fraud than Texas, and California’s fraud obviously has support at the highest levels of state government because leftwing activists are the ones getting their beaks wet, which clearly isn’t the case in Texas. But as the hearings shows, there’s still plenty of room for improvement…

    LinkSwarm For April 3, 2026

    Friday, April 3rd, 2026

    Happy Good Friday! More Democrat voting fraud, Iran manages to shoot down a couple of planes, more California fraud under Governor Hairgel, Commies gonna commie, Microsoft behaving (and performing) badly, Pakistan’s nefarious actions backfire (yet again), the best rifle for a militia, and a list of bad actors in the job market.

    Also: We’re going back to the freaking moon!

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • More of that Democrat voting fraud Democrats claim doesn’t exist.

    A hidden-camera 🔥🔥 bombshell:

    This is Democrat Joel Caldwell of the “Coalition for the People’s Agenda,” a Fulton County ballot-harvesting NGO chief—caught on tape admitting it all.

    Democrats are stuffing ballot drop boxes with fraudulent votes, and it’s all caught on videotape. He also admits this is how they rigged the 2020 election and why Democrats fight to the death against voter ID.

    • They pay people to illegally ballot-harvest.
    • They bribe ballot counters and election officials.
    • They forge and falsify ballots.

    And the Atlanta mayor straight-up stole the election.

    He says it all himself—on tape.

    Joel Caldwell:
    “That’s what happened in 2020, ’cause that’s when the ballots—they started stuffing them ballots and people stuffing them ballots, and they got videotape of them, but nobody talks about it. That’s why Trump was making that big deal about it, because you see it on videotape. It’s like, come on. We see the man pull up and put a hundred ballots in this box. You know? You can’t do that sh*t.

    So groups were paying people to do just that—drop off ballots.”

    He continues: That’s why Democrats fight to the death against voter ID laws.

    Joel Caldwell:
    “That’s why the Republicans are always trying to fight the ballot—you know, that’s the whole argument, because Republicans are the ones who put out that kind of stuff, so they want voter IDs and stuff. Democrats are fighting voter ID laws. It’s a two-sided thing. That’s what they’re fighting over. Republicans are trying to say, ‘Hey, look, we got proof of this sh*t.’

    And the Democrats are like, well, we don’t want voter ID laws, and we want to make it where you can just drop your ballot off—online voting and different things they try to come up with.”

    (Hat tip: Small Dead Animals.)

  • Iran manages to shoot down both an F-15 and an A-10 on the same day. Two of the three downed airmen have already been rescued. It’s worth noting that neither of those planes are remotely stealthy.
  • Fetterman Blasts Democrats After Illegal Immigrant Murders College Freshman.”

    Earlier this week, Jose Medina-Medina, an illegal immigrant whom the Biden administration caught and released at the border, murdered Loyola University freshman Sheridan Gorman. Medina-Medina had previously been arrested at least twice in Chicago, yet was released by local authorities, thanks to their sanctuary policies. According to reports, he approached her, raised a gun, and opened fire as she tried to flee. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

    The Democratic Party’s response has been nothing short of horrific.

    Snip.

    The reaction from Democrats to Gorman’s death has been so despicable that Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) unloaded on his own party over it.

    “Why can’t we just talk about that life lost?” Fetterman told Fox News’s Bill Hemmer. “Why can’t we just acknowledge that this is serious, serious failure?”

    Fetterman also invoked the Laken Riley Act, the legislation requiring the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Fetterman was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote for it — a fact he’s clearly not going to let his colleagues forget.

    “I think only seven or eight Democrats even voted for [the] Laken Riley [Act],” he said. “Why can’t you just agree that if you’re breaking the law and you’re already here illegally, deport them? I just don’t understand.”

    He continued, “Tragedies like what happened to that young woman, they are gonna continue to happen,” he said. “That’s beyond common sense.”

    Hemmer pressed him on why Democrats can’t seem to get there, and Fetterman gave an honest, if uncomfortable, answer.

    “I guess they’re afraid of the base,” he replied.

  • Singham uses extensive CCP-aligned network in China as he finances global Marxist influence efforts.”

    A Just the News investigation has detailed how a wealthy Marxist activist best known for the funding of a global financial network both inside the U.S. and around the world has extensive ties to Chinese Communist Party-linked organizations inside of China.

    China-based entrepreneur Neville Roy Singham lives and works in Shanghai, — which the American businessman now calls home — where he runs his network of pro-CCP news sites and other China-linked endeavors. Singham, who sold his ThoughtWorks tech company in 2017, has used the money to fund openly communist endeavors worldwide. Just the News can show that inside of China, Singham and his network collaborate with an array of Chinese propaganda sites, Chinese universities, and other Chinese groups committed to advancing the CCP.

    Singham leads and funds a global financial and activist network that operates inside the U.S. and many other countries, and while he rarely grabs the spotlight for himself in public speeches, he did so in November through the Chinese release of a report that sought to denigrate U.S. and Allied Power contributions to WWII.

    Singham admitted during a CCP-backed forum in Shanghai in November that he had written the 174-page report to combat the U.S.-backed “international rules-based order” — which he called a “lie” — and to help the CCP and its longtime strongman Xi Jinping achieve a “new world order” more favorable to China. This report and the conference where it was introduced helped expose the extensive CCP-linked network in which Singham is ensconced within China.

    Just the News reviewed hundreds of pages of Chinese business documents and U.S. tax records, English and Chinese language news sites, Chinese government websites, and more in an effort to provide the most comprehensive look yet at Singham’s operations from his perch in Shanghai.

  • Also: “Singham colludes with CCP to rewrite history of WWII to advance Xi Jinping’s ‘new world order.'”

    The wealthy Marxist businessman behind a sprawling far-left network is collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party to denigrate the Allied actions in World War II in an effort to upend the U.S.-led international system and to advance Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “new world order.”

    China-based businessman Neville Roy Singham leads and funds a global financial and activist network that operates inside the U.S. and many other countries, and while he rarely grabs the spotlight for himself in public speeches, he did so in November through the release of a report that denigrates U.S. and Allied Power contributions to WWII.

    Singham directly admitted during a CCP-backed forum in Shanghai in November that he had written the 174-page report to combat the U.S.-backed “international rules-based order” — which he called a “lie” — and to help the CCP and its longtime strongman Xi achieve a “new world order” more favorable to China.

    The wealthy communist activist summed up the crux of his WWII argument thusly: “As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War (WAFW), the Western powers spin their familiar tale: U.S. industrial might and British resolve saved the world from fascism. This is a lie. The truth burns in the numbers: while the Western powers calculated their economic advantage, the Soviet and Chinese peoples paid in blood. Fascism was defeated not by Anglo-American capital but by socialist leadership and mass heroism – a brilliant strategy from Moscow and Yan’an, unbreakable resilience from workers and peasants who refused to surrender, and a sacrifice that saved humanity from slavery.”

    Commies gonna commie…

  • “California has lost 25% of state budget to fraud under Gavin Newsom.”

    Multiple senior HHS officials estimate that, under Gavin Newsom, California’s state Medicaid program has lost 25 percent of its budget to fraud. This would mean it is currently losing $50 billion a year to scammers, fraudsters, and organized crime rings.

    Snip.

    We conducted interviews with public officials, fraud experts, and political figures, and reviewed hundreds of pages of government reports, state audits, criminal indictments, and other public records on California fraud. From unemployment insurance and Medicaid to failed homeless initiatives and welfare programs, seemingly every state program has been compromised by criminals. The best estimates suggest that, on the governor’s watch, fraudsters, scammers, and organized crime rings have stolen at least $180 billion from taxpayers.

  • In this firehose torrent of news, less attention than is proper has been paid to the fact that we’re finally going back to the moon. Or, technically, around it, since they’re doing the figure flyby of the dark side. They’re already halfway there…
  • “Scenes of Communist Flags, Riots, and Violent Clashes With DHS During ‘No Kings’ Protests.”

    Though the mainstream media will undoubtedly portray them as “mostly peaceful,” much of what we saw at the “No Kings” protests Saturday was anything but, whether through actions or symbols used during the demonstrations.

    We’ll start off with New York City, where the Communist flags were in full effect:

    BREAKING: Leftists in NYC chant “There is only one solution, Communist revolution” at the No Kings rally.

    They’re really going mask off. pic.twitter.com/JY3yvFXzf2

    — Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 28, 2026

    Communist flags at the NYC ‘No Kings’ protest pic.twitter.com/bIh2UiwkDI

    — NJEG Media (@NJEGmedia) March 28, 2026

    Snip.

    Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz (D) was pledging solidarity with the Somali community:

    “We will never leave the side of our Somali Minnesotans. Here’s our pledge to you, our Somali Minnesotans, your grandchildren will still be here when that orange clown is in the dustbin of history.”

    I guess its too much to ask a Democrat governor to stand with actual Americans. Plus rioting in Denver.

  • “Democrat Mail-In Ballot Strategy At Risk From SCOTUS Election Day Case.”

    Earlier this week the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case challenging a Mississippi statute allowing mail-in ballot received up to five days after Election Day to be counted.

    The law appears to defy three federal laws that require that federal elections be held the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. The question is what did Congress mean by Election Day. Was it a day, five days later, a month later. Does Election Day mean election season.

    The 5th Circuit ruled against Mississippi, which brought the case to SCOTUS. It could have profound impact on Democrats’ mail-in ballot strategy if ballots must be received by election official by Election Day.

    I discussed the case and oral argument, plus redistricting and the Equal Protection Projects challenge to discriminatory NY State education practices, with Jesse Kelly, who tweeted out the portion regarding NY State: “It appears Kathy Hochul is defying the Supreme Court.”

    If they can’t cheat they can’t win…

  • “Trump Fires Attorney General Pam Bondi.”

    Pam Bondi is out as attorney general, President Trump announced Thursday, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general.

    “Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump said in a statement on Truth Social. “Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.”

    “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General,” he added.

    The announcement came just one day after Bondi was at the White House to attend Trump’s address to the nation on the Iran war. She had also accompanied Trump to the Supreme Court to watch oral arguments in a birthright citizenship case.

    The handling of the Epstein files and the lack of progress on indicting anti-Trump conspirators like James Comey were suggested as reasons for Trump letting her go.

  • Behold the sub-$100, 3D printed manpad.

  • Target has gone from pushing the radical transsexual agenda to being boycotted by Randi Weingarten for not condemning ICE. I haven’t shopped there once since they started boosting the tranny agenda, but maybe it’s time to go back again…
  • “As Chicago and other blue cities move toward reparations for African Americans, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D, Wa.) wants reparations for illegal immigrants for the trauma caused by immigration enforcement.” because of course she does.
  • In a blast from the past, I missed this news that Gavin Newsom admitted to an adulterous affair with his chief of staff’s wife.
  • Pakistani is enjoying a nice, rich dinner of blowback.

    For decades, the Islamabad establishment has played a dangerous game, nurturing the Taliban as a strategic depth agent against India. Today, this plan backfires, and the resulting explosion of violence threatens to send a fresh wave of illegal immigration toward the already strained borders of the European Union.

    The “open war” declared by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif marks the end of a thirty-year illusion. The apprentice has not only left the master. He has now turned openly against him. The March 16 strike on Kabul was the moment masks fell. When Pakistani warplanes hammered a rehabilitation centre in the heart of the Afghan capital, the “Islamic brotherhood” of the two neighbours officially ceased to be.

    Islamabad claims it is hunting the TTP — the Pakistani Taliban who find sanctuary under the wings of their Afghan cousins. Kabul denies it. The result is a cycle of diplomacy-in-name-only, where the only language spoken is the language of the air strike, the AK-47 and the suicide vest. This is the reality of the post-American vacuum.

    Critics of the Biden presidency, watching from America and Europe, see the vindication of their most cynical instincts. They warned that the vacuum left by the 2021 withdrawal would be filled by chaos. They were right. Just look at Bagram Airfield. It once was the crown jewel of American power. It has now become a trophy in a war between two states the West can no longer control.

    While the world’s eyes are fixed on the Iranian plateau, South Asia is burning. The region’s most volatile border is no longer Kashmir. It is the frontier where the Taliban’s jihadist agenda meets Pakistani nuclear-armed desperation. How safe is the world when a nuclear power goes to war with a ghost? The answer is terrifying. Pakistan’s military capacity dwarfs that of the Taliban, yet the Taliban have time, resolve and a complete lack of accountability.

    While the Pakistani economy teeters and its domestic security implodes with a second insurgency front up against Baloch separatists in the south, the Afghan Taliban are playing the long game. They see a Pakistan that is overextended and a West that is exhausted. They are not interested in ceasefires brokered by Qatar or Turkey. They are interested in survival and the expansion of their ideological reach.

    Almost nobody talks about it, but we are witnessing the “Gaza-fication” of the Durand Line. The same knowhow of displacement and grazing the land is being applied to the tribal areas. Millions of thousands of people have already been displaced. But the humanitarian cost is only a footnote in a larger, more brutal calculation.

    For Islamabad, this is an existential fight against the TTP thorn in its side. For Kabul, it is about defending the sovereignty they fought for twenty years to reclaim. Neither side can afford to blink. The light of the old order is fading. The era where the Pakistani military could manage Afghanistan like a colonial fiefdom is over. The trust is dead.

    Trump’s “America First” doctrine means that if Pakistan wants to fight this war, it will do so without a blank check from the Pentagon. The bitter truth for the region is that old security guarantees are gone. We are entering an era of fluidity, where borders are written in fire. The “special relationship” between Islamabad and Kabul has become hatred. The Taliban have proven they can survive an American occupation. Surviving Pakistan’s aggression should not be that hard.

    And then there are all of those “refugees” Euroelites seem bound and determined to import. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • A recap of last week’s Ukraine strikes on Russia’s Primorsk and Ust-Luga oil terminals.

    The attack involved a sophisticated mix of long-range unmanned systems, likely between eight and fifteen primary strike drones supported by smaller decoys designed to saturate Russian air defenses. These drones traveled approximately one thousand kilometers from Ukrainian territory, penetrating deep into Russian airspace and reaching the Gulf of Finland near the Estonian border. Evidence suggests the use of fixed-wing kamikaze drones optimized for endurance and precision. Ukrainians also utilized small prop-planes modified to fly as unmanned aircraft, mounting droppable Fab bombs on the bottom, which could be dropped on target, in addition to the craft being used as a kamikaze platform.

    Also:

    Ukraine has delivered a decisive strategic blow just as Russia expected to capitalize on soaring oil prices driven by the Iran war, but got its export system crippled instead. With unimaginable 40% of its oil export capacity wiped out, ports burning for days, and follow-up strikes continuing, the question is no longer whether Russia can recover quickly, but whether Ukraine will strike again before Russia has the chance to do so.

  • Ukraine is testing exoskeletons in actual combat.

    After over four years of war, Ukraine’s military says it’s testing an exoskeleton in the field that can help soldiers more easily load artillery and run at speeds of up to 12 mph over sustained periods. The tests would mark one of the first known examples of exoskeletons used on the front lines of an active military operation.

    A Facebook video shared late last week by Ukraine’s 7th Air Assault Corps shows a handful of soldiers putting on the device while inside of a muddy artillery trench. The device itself wraps around a soldier’s waist and legs and is supported by a back brace. The military claims that it can reduce overall load on leg muscles by 30 percent. In practice, that means the devices should make it easier for soldiers to pick up and load heavy artillery rounds. Each round can weigh upwards of 100 pounds, depending on the particular caliber used. Since a soldier on the battlefield may load several dozen of those runs every day, all of that weight adds up and can increase the odds of injury or fatigue.

    Not quite Heinlein’s powered armor, but we’re getting there…

  • “Paxton Unveils Rules To Enforce Texas Ban on Hostile Foreign Land Ownership. The new law targets countries such as China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea.”

    Paxton’s office has now proposed detailed rules to implement the statute. The proposal was submitted to the Secretary of State on March 16 and published in the Texas Register on March 27, triggering a public comment period before the rules can be finalized.

    The draft rules flesh out how SB 17 will work in practice, with the Office of the Attorney General as the central enforcement hub for the ban.

    One of the most significant features is a new duty to report suspected violations.

    Under the proposal, anyone involved in facilitating a real estate transaction—such as mortgage lenders, title insurance companies, property insurers, appraisers, and licensed real estate professionals—would be required to report any suspected SB 17 violations to the attorney general.

    Complaints would have to be submitted either through an online complaint form on the OAG’s website or by mail to a designated address. Failure to report may subject entities to enforcement action once the rules are in place, potentially deputizing the real estate industry to help police foreign adversary land deals.

    The rules would also place a tight lid on information that reaches Paxton’s office.

    All complaints, civil investigative demands, and related materials submitted to or issued by the OAG would be treated as confidential and not subject to public disclosure, except when disclosure is required by law. That means Texans may see enforcement actions and lawsuits, but not necessarily the complaints and background investigation files that triggered them.

  • “Seniors who eat more meat have lower risk of developing dementia.” Between this and the caffeine news, I’m evidently going to live forever…
  • Wither Canada? “The 177,000 signature threshold has now been passed, officially clearing the requirement for an Alberta independence referendum on October 19th.”
  • John Cleese: “The British do not like the kind of diversity that intends to take over Britain and kill any infidel who does not convert to Islam.”
  • “Apple pulls the plug on its high-priced, oft-neglected Mac Pro desktop.”
  • Some TVs now require a Walmart account for all smart features to work.
  • Microsoft screws up a Windows 11 update yet again, pulling it after users encounter install errors.
  • Weirdly, Microsoft is also saying that “Microsoft says Copilot is for entertainment purposes only, not serious use — firm pushing AI hard to consumers and businesses tells users not to rely on it for important advice.” Which is ironic, since right now its website touts Copilot as “AI built for work.”
  • Stephen Green: And the first piece of software to break on the moon mission? Microsoft Outlook.
  • And speaking of Microsoft woes, “Microsoft closes worst quarter on Wall Street since 2008 on AI concerns.”
  • Speaking of AI follies, “Anthropic on Tuesday confirmed that internal code for its popular artificial intelligence (AI) coding assistant, Claude Code, had been inadvertently released due to a human error.” Oh sure, Clankers, blame the humans…
  • Bad actors in the job market.
  • Speaking of bad actors in the job market: “Outrage as Oracle makes thousands of foreign-worker requests amid layoff bloodbath.”

    As thousands of Oracle employees awoke on Tuesday to an email informing them they were being laid off, the workers likely didn’t know the tech company had been busy trying to hire foreign staff.

    According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, Oracle filed for roughly 3,126 petitions to employ H-1B workers in fiscal years 2025 and 2026. Employers must submit the paperwork when seeking to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations like technology. Some 436 of those petitions were filed this year alone.

    Amazon, which in January said it would axe 16,000 corporate employees, has filed for some 2,675 H-1B petitions during the same two-year fiscal period. That came on top of news in October that the retail giant was axing 14,000 corporate workers.

  • What’s the best gun for a militia? No surprise that three different gun experts (including Ian McCollum) all pick the AK-47.
  • Bush Intercontinental Airport’s $4 billion expansion project.
  • Critical Drinker finally watches Mr. Inbetween, and really likes it. It’s been on my radar for a while, but there doesn’t seem to be a US DVD or Blu-Ray release of it, and I don’t have any streaming service. 
  • Talk about narrow-cast April 1st humor: The Chieftain reviews Warhammer 40K vehicles.
  • “Trump Begins Negotiating With Iranian Leadership Via Ouija Board.”
  • “49 States Enact Legislation Banning Immigrants From California.”
  • “‘Good News, You’re Finally Useful,’ Says Trump As He Sends Aquaman To Strait Of Hormuz.”
  • “‘AI Will Kill Us All! We’re Doomed! DOOMED!‘ Says AI Company CEO In Latest Pitch To Investors.”
  • “Get in mah belly!” “I’m not dead yet!”

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    Epic Stupidity (Or, Another Nail In EPIC City’s Coffin)

    Tuesday, March 31st, 2026

    Last week brought two developments in the EPIC City saga of attempts to build an “sharia city” west of Dallas. They were touched on in Friday’s LinkSwarm, but I’m going to recap them here as well, since they set the stage for today’s news.

    First: “Judge Freezes Utility District Tied to Islamic EPIC City Development.”

    Attorney General Ken Paxton has obtained a court order halting actions by an EPIC City-linked municipal utility district.

    The case centers on allegations that the Double R Municipal Utility District No. 2A has been used to advance a controversial development project organized by the East Plano Islamic Center by skirting state oversight and standard MUD-creation procedures. The project, originally known as EPIC City, has been rebranded as the Meadow.

    Judge Christine Nowak’s order blocks the district and its board from taking further steps to support the development while the litigation continues.

    The state’s lawsuit focuses on a 2025 special meeting where the Double R MUD board allegedly resigned en masse, installed new directors at a remote roadside location identified only by GPS coordinates, and then quickly voted to annex more than 400 acres tied to the EPIC project.

    We covered that bit of shady MUD shenanigans here.

    State lawyers say that maneuver effectively transformed the MUD into a vehicle for EPIC City’s backers, allowing them to expand taxing authority and infrastructure support without going through the process of forming a new district.

    After the annexation, regulators requested documents to confirm that the new board members met legal requirements to hold public office and levy taxes on residents inside the district.

    According to the suit, records submitted by Double R MUD showed the individuals did not meet statutory qualifications—a finding the attorney general’s office said casts doubt on every action the board took, including the EPIC City annexation.

    The state is asking the court to remove the disputed board members, unwind the 402.5-acre annexation tied to EPIC City, and restore what Paxton describes as lawful governance of the utility district.

    And then Hunt County rejected the plan.

    Hunt County officials unanimously rejected plans for a controversial Muslim community originally known as EPIC City and rebranded as The Meadow, citing technical, regulatory, and legal deficiencies in the plat application.

    Other than that, I’m sure it was fine…

    During a meeting on Tuesday, Hunt County commissioners adopted a resolution “disapproving” the plat application submitted by developers of the subdivision, which was planned as an expansion of the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC).

    Plans include up to 1,000 residences plus a mosque, school, and other amenities catering to Muslim families, located on more than 400 acres in unincorporated areas of Hunt and Collin counties.

    Residents in both counties—and across Texas—have objected to communities like the proposed EPIC development, which Gov. Greg Abbott and other elected officials have referred to as “sharia cities.”

    In addition, Attorney General Ken Paxton sent letters urging Collin and Hunt officials to reject EPIC’s plat applications while he sues the developers and related entities over alleged fraudulent activities surrounding the project.

    Now comes news that another court order has blocked the utility district hard:

    A state court judge in Collin County has temporarily blocked further actions by a utility district slated to service the controversial planned community known as EPIC City or The Meadow.

    The court previously issued a temporary restraining order against the Double R Municipal Utility District No. 2A of Hunt and Collin Counties, which the state says appointed ineligible directors who then annexed the proposed Islamic development into the MUD.

    Annexation into an existing MUD allowed developers to skirt new state regulations surrounding the creation of new utility districts.

    On Monday, Judge Christine Nowak of the 493rd District Court in Collin County granted the state’s request for a temporary injunction after all parties agreed that the MUD’s current directors are not eligible to serve.

    The question now is who will make decisions on behalf of the utility district going forward, and how that will affect the EPIC development.

    “The state is just asking for a pause until we can figure out what’s going on,” Wesley Williams with the Texas attorney general’s office told Judge Nowak. “There’s a lot of secrecy surrounding this board.”

    Texas Water Code authorizes the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to oversee MUDs, which are special districts granted power to issue bonds and levy property taxes for the purpose of providing water, wastewater, and other services to subdivisions in unincorporated areas of the state.

    Snip.

    Preliminary development applications have been rejected by Collin and Hunt officials for being incomplete. In both cases, EPIC developers’ submissions included “will serve” letters from Double R.

    Such letters are required commitments from service providers that ensure proposed developments will be successful, Collin County’s Director of Engineering Clarence Daugherty testified Monday.

    It was Daugherty who notified TCEQ that newly appointed Double R MUD directors might not be eligible, after his office reviewed EPIC’s initial application submitted late last year.

    He testified that subsequent filings have continued to include Double R MUD as a service provider.

    Due to the acknowledged ineligibility of the MUD’s current directors, the validity of those service commitments is now in question, which may delay development approvals needed for the EPIC City project to proceed.

    “Delay” or completely destroy.

    Williams explained to the court that the state’s Water Code establishes eligibility requirements for MUD directors.

    Five new Double R directors—Yaneli Molina, Hatim Mahmoud Yusuf, Nadeem Ashraf Khan, Asim Hussain Khan, and Faisal Abbas—were purportedly appointed during a September 12, 2025, meeting in which the previous board members resigned.

    What do you think the odds are that particular slate wins an actual MUD election in exurban/rural Texas?

    Molina’s attorney said Monday his client had resigned on March 19, and she signed an agreement in court to abide by the terms of the injunction.

    Williams argued that none of the new directors met the eligibility requirements and concluded they thus had no authority to accept the resignations of the previous directors or to approve annexing the EPIC City property into the utility district.

    I’m going to guess that none of those “directors” actually live within the boundaries of the MUD.

    He asked the court to “freeze the status quo to just prior to the September 12 meeting.”

    The order granting a temporary injunction states that “Double R MUD shall immediately cease all operations and activities until such time qualified directors are appointed by the TCEQ pursuant to Texas Water Code 49.105(c).”

    TCEQ Districts Section Manager Justin Taack testified Monday that MUD board vacancies can be filled by the board or by his agency.

    Defense attorney Jerry Hall with Mayer LLP said he agreed his three clients, Abbas and the Kahns, were not eligible to serve as Double R MUD directors.

    Sounds like pretty much everything about that shady midnight MUD board switch was illegal, wasn’t it?

    There are probably times and places you could probably have gotten away with pulling a fast one for a land development deal in Texas, especially if people weren’t paying attention and/or a powerful, well-connected figure wanted the deal to go through. H. Ross Perot Jr. sort of got away with pulling several fast ones in his late 80s-early 90s “Perotville” development north of Fort Worth. The arcana of plats, MUD boards and regulatory filings are very far indeed from the consciousness of most Texans.

    But there’s a big difference between getting away with a little land deal hanky panky when you’ve got billions backing you and few people are paying attention, and trying to pull a fast one when the very highest levels of state government, including the Governor and Attorney General, have put your illegal “Sharia City” idea in their crosshairs. (And they had the bad luck of their deal coming to light after the Colony Ridge fiasco raised awareness of questionable land developments run by shady operatives.)

    Trying to pull a fast one when every local and state regulatory agency already has you under a microscope is simply epic stupidity. If the people running the East Plano Islamic Center had simply cooled their heels and bided their time, dotted the Is and crossed the Ts on every part of their regulatory paperwork, and sworn up and down that, no sir, we’re not illegally limiting our highly speculative land development to Muslims, they might eventually have gotten the thing across the finish line.

    Now they’ll be lucky if some of them don’t end up in prison.

    Followup: Fort Bend Democrat KP George Convicted Of Money Laundering

    Sunday, March 29th, 2026

    Remember KP George, the Fort Bend county judge who previously faked hate crimes against himself and was indicted for using campaign funds for personal finances? He just got convicted of money laundering.

    Last week, a jury found George guilty on felony counts of money laundering and tampering with his campaign finance reports, but his sentencing will not take place until June 16, leaving his status as the chief executive officer of Fort Bend County in limbo.

    I’m reversing the first and second paragraphs here to better tell the story.

    Following the felony conviction of Fort Bend County Judge KP George, the county commissioners court re-assigned the judge’s signing authority and voted to designate Commissioner Grady Prestage (D-Pct. 2) as the presiding officer should George be found ineligible to serve.

    County officials convicted of a felony must be removed from office under Texas Law, but the charges are not final until sentencing.

    Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has notified the county auditor that 27 state grants — which include funds for a victim services program, law enforcement, and cybersecurity — have been paused since George’s authority to serve as the official signing agent for the county is uncertain.

    “PSO has 27 active grant awards with Fort Bend County. Upon acceptance of those awards, Fort Bend County agreed to ‘immediately notify the Office of the Governor (OOG) in writing if a project or project personnel become involved in any litigation, whether civil or criminal,’ and ‘immediately forward a copy of any demand, notices, subpoenas, lawsuits, or indictments to OOG,’” wrote the governor’s office. “The OOG has identified Judge KP George as the current Authorized Official on all 27 active awards.”

    The OOG also requested verification that none of the grant funds awarded to Fort Bend County were “involved in criminal acts.”

    George did not attend the regular commissioners court meeting Thursday, but all four county commissioners voted to designate Prestage as authorized the county’s signing agent.

    The court also voted unanimously to order the county’s auditor to conduct a financial review and “investigate, identify, research, and provide the Commissioner Court any exposures or risks that said events surrounding the county judge have exposed or potentially exposed the county.”

    You never know what other hanky panky a crooked man might get up to, so a thorough audit is probably in order.

    Both Commissioners Vincent Morales (R-Pct. 1) and Dexter McCoy (D-Pct. 4) have called for George to resign.

    Snip. “If his conviction stands, George could face up to 20 years in prison.” The hate crime hoax charges are still pending.

    Whenever Democrats get their hands on taxpayer money, they just can’t seem to keep themselves from handing out grants to hard left NGOs to launder the money into Democrat pockets. I wonder if George is the same, or if the presence of Republicans in county government thwarted his sticky fingers from penetrating more taxpayer pies…