Author: J.P. Knowles

Republicans in the House of Representatives are asking the inspectors general of eleven cabinet- and sub-cabinet-level executive branch agencies to prepare plans that will allow Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funds to be distributed without the potential for significant fraud.

The House Republicans reference fraud associated with COVID-19 relief programs, as well as failed broadband expansion programs, in their letters. The IIJA distributes $1.2 trillion in federal funds, with $550 billion of it recently approved. The remainder is redirected from COVID-19 relief dollars that were not spent.

“As much as $400 billion, or half of the unemployment claims, could be fraudulent,” the Republicans write, citing the estimate of an online identity protection company. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds were targeted by criminals, with the Department of Justice publicly charging over 100 people with fraud and other charges in relation to misrepresentations and falsehoods connected with applications for and spending of PPP loans.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a task force in May 2021 aimed at various forms of fraud associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and government programs created to respond to it.

“It’s no secret the government has a history of mismanaging grant and loan programs. Whether funds are given to phantom projects that never materialize or the grants are never awarded, taxpayers are on the hook for waste, fraud, and abuse. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is filled to the brim with grant programs ripe for bad actors to exploit and incompetent bureaucrats to mismanage,” Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs, who organized the letter campaign, said in a statement.

“Given the extraordinary and unprecedented level of funding in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, taxpayers deserve to know that agency inspectors general are keeping a close and watchful eye on these funds. My colleagues and I are very concerned about the potential for these programs to be mismanaged or used to reward Democrat interest groups. That is why we are demanding to know how inspectors general will prevent corruption and mismanagement. The last thing we need is another Solyndra-style corruption scandal,” he added.

Substantial amounts of IIJA funds will be distributed through block grants to states, and through regional commissions and agencies. Regional commissions such as the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), aimed at job creation through grants to start-ups, local businesses, as well as non-profits, received billions of dollars for distribution. Gayle Manchin, the wife of key negotiator Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, currently chairs the ARC.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said that the Biden administration’s blaming food companies for higher prices is ”an attack on American enterprises and businesses and farmers and ranchers” adding that this is helping China control U.S. food markets, creating a ”national security issue.”

Noem, a Republican, said Sunday that she has ”talked for years about how our food supply is a national security issue; how, when another country grows our food for us and provides our food for us, that they control us.”

Noem argued that Biden is attacking American food suppliers while avoiding the real issue of ”out-of-country businesses, China controlling our food markets.”

”One of the biggest problems I had during the pandemic was a China-owned processing facility right here in South Dakota. And they didn’t want to work with me because they didn’t have to and because this administration didn’t make them do that. So, I really think it’s a big concern. People get worried about a virus,” she said.

”I get worried as well about how scary it gets in this country when people go to their grocery stores, and there isn’t any food there, and realize that another country controls it because we have an administration that allowed the other countries to have control over those markets and didn’t address the real problems that we have within our antitrust and anti-competitive laws on the books,” she added.

A Maryland family discovered an intruder who was trapped in their home’s chimney Saturday.

Ibrar Khan called the police after hearing strange sounds, but it was not until the second time they called the police that they realized someone was trapped in their chimney.

The incident occurred in the family’s home on Dameron Drive around 3 a.m. when Khan heard strange sounds in the home. “I kept hearing some really loud banging noises, some thudding noises, like something was banging the wall,” Khan said.

Khan called the police when he could not find where the noise was coming from.

Police investigated the home and yard but found no evidence of an intruder.

The noises continued for about an hour after police left and sounded as though they were coming from inside a wall of the home.

Khan called the police again and upon further investigation, they followed the noise to the source in the wall above the fireplace.

Firefighters were called to the scene to find what was causing the noises in the chimney. They spent the next 90 minutes removing parts of the wall and bricks with rescue equipment, including ladders, lights, and shovels, to find an adult man was trapped in there.

The man was taken to a hospital where he was treated for serious injuries, but he is expected to make a recovery.

Khan and his family expressed concern for the man but were also grateful that his break-in was not successful.

Following a plane crash Sunday, Los Angeles police were able to pull the pilot from the crash site just seconds before a train plowed into the wreckage, saving the pilot’s life.

The nail-biting video has gone viral and the police are being called heroes.

Though the train had its horn blasting it could not slow down in time, crashing into the Cessna 172 as the police and the bloodied pilot were barely feet away.

The plane crashed around 2:10 p.m. Sunday, not long after taking off from Whiteman Airport in the San Fernando Valley community of Pacoima, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The timestamp on one of the police officer’s body camera shows the train crashing into the plane at 2:15 p.m. PT.

The plane went down on the tracks of a railroad crossing just blocks from the LAPD’s Foothills Division station, officers were on the scene within minutes.

CBSN Los Angeles said four officers worked together to free the pilot and drag him onto the pavement. The station identified them as Damien Castro, Christopher Aboyte, Robert Sherock, and Sgt. Joseph Cavestany.

Upon reaching the scene authorities realized the plane was on the tracks and there was no time to spare.

“I had requested Metrolink to cease all train activity, but apparently that didn’t happen,” Cavestany said.

The pilot was the only person on board and was taken to a nearby hospital in unknown condition, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. No other injuries were reported.

“Seeing what happened, I’m grateful to be alive. I’m grateful the pilot survived as well,” Sherock said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday to discuss the mounting tension between the U.S. and Russia as they are poised to make a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has been “committing acts of aggression” against its neighbors for the past decade according to Blinken. Blinken also said that Russia’s acts of aggression stemmed from Putin’s desire to “restore the former Soviet Union,” and called it “unacceptable.”

“We can’t go back to a world of influence,” Blinken stated. “That was a recipe for instability, a recipe for conflict, a recipe that led to world wars.”

When Tapper asked whether an invasion of Ukraine was likely, Blinken maintained that the ball was firmly in Putin’s court. “It’s up to President Putin which path he wants to follow,” he stated, though promising that the U.S. was “prepared to deal very resolutely with Russia” if it chose confrontation.

The U.S. and Russia are scheduled to begin talks in Geneva Monday to avert conflict even as Russia continues to position troops on the Ukraine border. Dismissing concerns that this build-up would potentially give Putin leverage, Blinken maintained that because the U.S. is working with international partners it will make it “clear to Russia that their aggression will not be accepted, will not be tolerated.”

Putin has blamed the U.S. and NATO for escalating tensions by building up defenses near Russia’s borders and welcoming Ukraine into NATO.

“We have clearly and precisely let them know that any further NATO expansion eastward is unacceptable,” Putin stated last month. “Is it us who are putting missiles near the U.S. borders?” he continued. “No, it’s the U.S. who came to our home with their missiles. They are already on the threshold of our home. Is it some excessive demand not to place any offensive systems near our home?”

Blinken responded to Putin’s argument stating that “one country can’t dictate to another its foreign policies … or with whom it will associate.”

Blinken stated, “It’s not about making concessions. It’s about seeing whether, in the context of dialogue and diplomacy, there are things that both sides, all sides can do to reduce tensions.” Though he conceded that he did not believe anything would be resolved this week.

“We’re going to be able to put things on the table. Russians will do the same … and we’ll see if there are grounds for moving forward,” Blinken concluded.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday that he is in agreement with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that more than 30 of the chamber’s Democrats may retire before the year is out, in light of the constraints lawmakers are under.

“First of all, the House under Nancy Pelosi is not a very happy place, with all the COVID restrictions, all the voting by absentee, all the different things they are doing, the masking, the police requirements,” Gingrich said. “Members get corrected walking on the floor. I walked on the floor recently and I was astonished that to get on the floor of the House, you go through sort of a TSA system with a policeman watching you, as though you are some subservient person who is a danger to your colleagues.”

He added that he believes Democrats are looking ahead and have concerns about being in the minority.

His comments come after McCarthy, R-Calif., said this weekend that in 2010, when Republicans won the majority, 17 Democrats retired, but now, there are already 25 leaving and he believes there will be more than 30 “because they see what the future holds.”

McCarthy also said this weekend that Republicans are seeking to secure the border, and Gingrich said he’s glad the minority leader “transferred immediately to real issues, real substance.”

“Controlling the border is a big, big deal,” Gingrich said. “[Immigrants] weren’t checked for COVID or criminal records. They could be in your neighborhood and you have no idea. The Biden administration is shipping people around the country. But it’s deeper than that. we had 100,000 people die last year from drug overdoses. We have an amazing number, a tragic number of suicides. We have a mental health problem that exhibits itself in homeless towns.”

Gingrich went on to say that he believes that under the leadership of McCarthy as House Speaker, “the Republicans are going to have serious hearings looking at the big issues that affect our lives, as well as going through the stuff you have to do just to uncover all the bad stuff the Democrats did. I think you have got to have both things.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Republican state lawmakers Sunday, describing their efforts to pass and enact election integrity laws as a “continuation” of Jan. 6.

“There is nothing more important for us to do than protect our constitution and our democracy,” Pelosi said. “What the Republicans are doing across the country is really a legislative continuation of what they did on January 6, which is to undermine our democracy, to undermine the integrity of our elections, to undermine the voting power, which is the essence of democracy. So we have to do that bill. There is no more important bill that enables us to support and defend the constitution of the United States.”

Pelosi was speaking about the Freedom to Vote Act, introduced by Democrats in the wake of several election reform bills passed in Republican-controlled states after the 2020 election. It would make automatic voter registration the standard across the nation, give voting privileges to the incarcerated after they finish their sentences, make Election Day a national holiday and expand early and absentee voting.

Senate Republicans blocked the legislation four times in 2021, arguing that the legislation would infringe on the right of states to set their own election laws and unfairly benefit the Democratic Party.

Republican Secretary of the State of Georgia Brad Raffensperger defended Senate Republicans stating, “January 6 was terrible, but the response does not need to be eliminating photo I.D. and having same-day registration. If you don’t have the appropriate guardrails in place, then you’re not going to have voter confidence in the results.”

Pelosi insisted she was focused on passing this bill to “protect and defend the constitution and the voting rights.”

Accusing Republicans of not only “suppressing the vote but nullifying elections,” Pelosi continued, “this is a very major threat on our democracy. This legislation is the most important, and we have to keep working in order to get the job done because it is vital as any legislation we could ever pass,” she concluded.

Two of the three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery have received a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Travis and Gregory McMichael were sentenced to life without parole, while their accomplice William “Roddie” Bryan was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. The McMichels, both father and son McMichaels were convicted on four counts of felony murder, while Bryan was convicted on three counts.

The murder took place in Brunswick, Georgia, in February 2020. The defense argued the three killers had been trying to carry out a citizen’s arrest after they had seen Arbery walking around a construction site in their neighborhood. They claimed to believe Arbery was committing a robbery and boxed him in with their pickup trucks, then things got physical. The younger McMichael, Travis, fatally shot Arbery during a struggle.

Prosecutors said Arbery was unarmed and simply going for a jog and posed no threat to the men, who hunted him down in an act of attempted vigilantism.

Attorneys for the three men said they will file an appeal. In addition to the felony murder charges, they were convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony.

The Pentagon is building a new $4 million war court chamber at Guantanamo Bay which the public will not be allowed access to.

The new courtroom is scheduled to begin holding proceedings in 2023. The new chamber will allow two military judges to hold proceedings simultaneously and will hear smaller cases.

Although members of the public will not be allowed inside the courtroom, they will be able to watch the proceedings in a separate building via video, on a 40-second delay. This separate room is a “virtual gallery with multiple camera angles simultaneously displayed,” according to Office of Military Commissions spokesman Ron Flesvig.

The new chamber was designed prior to President Joe Biden taking office, with the Biden administration’s goal being to completely empty and close the Guantanamo prison.

The new courtroom demonstrates another example of a lack of transparency at Guantanamo Bay. In recent years, photography has been banned in areas that once allowed visitors, and places such as empty wartime prison facilities are now inaccessible to journalists.

Guantanamo Bay already has an existing courtroom that opened in 2008. Members of the public can watch proceedings live in this chamber, though they also hear audio on a 40-second delay, giving those in charge time to mute comments deemed classified.

Bigger cases, such as the five men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks, will be held in the 2008 courtroom. Despite being accessible by Guantanamo Bay standards, there have been complaints about this court’s secrecy as well. A lawyer representing Encep Nurjaman, the lead defendant charged in two Indonesian terrorist bombings, has made complaints regarding how restrictive this court is.

“I’ve observed trials in Mongolia that were more transparent than this,” the lawyer James R. Hodes said.

Authorities in Boulder County, Colorado, have not excluded arson as the possible cause of the wildfire that destroyed thousands of acres and hundreds of homes.

Police said they are investigating all possible causes of last week’s fire, adding that if arson or human negligence were to blame the responsible party would be held accountable.

Nearly 1,000 structures were completely destroyed by the fire across Superior, Louisville, and unincorporated Boulder County, Colorado, according to a preliminary report the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office released Saturday. Over 100 other structures were damaged by the fire, which stretched more than 6,000 acres as historically high winds fueled the fire and spread the blaze.

The fire was the most destructive in the state’s history, but no fatalities were reported as a result of the disaster as of Saturday, although authorities say three people are still reported as missing.

Deputies with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on a property Saturday to investigate a tip on the origin of the fire.

“We are actively investigating a number of tips that came in yesterday and last night from the community,” Sheriff Joe Pelle said. “One of those tips has resulted in us executing a search warrant on a property.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Sunday that the FBI is involved in the investigation of the fire.

“Gov. Jared Polis confirms the FBI is helping investigate the cause of the fire,” reported Colorado Public Radio’s Allison Sherry on Twitter Sunday.

Pelle also noted that the day the fire started was a “red flag day,” meaning there was a burn ban in effect.

“We’re looking into the cause and origin of the fire. If it turns out to be arson or reckless behavior with fire, we’ll take appropriate actions,” said Pelle. “It was a red flag day the day of the fire, so there shouldn’t have been any burning.”