Gavin Newsom Has A New Problem - $1 Billion Fraud Scheme Discovered
Los Angeles has a homeless crisis. Everyone knows this. What California GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton’s walk through Skid Row just exposed is something considerably darker than simple government incompetence: there is an organized, well-funded operation actively working to make sure the crisis never ends.
Meet LA CAN — the Los Angeles Community Action Network. While Karen Bass holds press conferences about her commitment to solving homelessness and Gavin Newsom crisscrosses the country pretending California is fixable, LA CAN has been in the courts blocking every attempt to actually clear encampments, remove drug users from public sidewalks, and restore basic safety to neighborhoods that have been abandoned by the government supposedly responsible for them.
Their legal theory is breathtaking in its cynicism: homeless individuals camping illegally on public sidewalks have personal property rights that police cannot violate by enforcing the law. The courts, remarkably, have entertained this argument long enough to give LA CAN repeated injunctive wins against cleanup operations. When Hilton walked through Skid Row and asked why police weren’t clearing the encampments he was stepping around, the answer was simple: LA CAN had obtained legal orders preventing it.
Here is the economic reality that explains everything you need to know about LA CAN’s actual incentives. The city of Los Angeles is spending nearly $1 billion annually on homelessness — and the problem keeps growing. LA CAN has positioned itself as the indispensable advocacy organization standing between the homeless population and whatever the city is trying to do about it. Money flows to LA CAN because homelessness exists. The moment homelessness is meaningfully reduced, the money stops. So does the relevance. So does the organizational purpose.
This is not speculation. It’s the inevitable logic of activist organizations that have confused their existence with their mission. LA CAN was supposedly founded to help homeless people. It now deploys lawyers to prevent the city from removing homeless people from sidewalks where they are actively dying of drug overdoses. It has a choral group — the Freedom Singers, composed of formerly homeless individuals — that has appeared on national television to raise the organization’s profile and drive donations. The formerly homeless members are now raising money for an organization legally fighting to keep people in the condition they escaped.
You genuinely cannot make it make sense. Unless you follow the money. Then it makes perfect sense.
Karen Bass’s office, according to reporting from Hilton’s walkthrough, actively coordinates with LA CAN — the same organization blocking her own city’s cleanup efforts. This is the California Democratic machine in perfect miniature: politicians who campaign on solving a crisis, nonprofits that fundraise off the crisis, lawyers who litigate to preserve the crisis, and residents who live with the consequences of all three.
One billion dollars a year. Skid Row looks exactly like it did a decade ago.
California doesn’t have a homelessness problem. It has a corruption problem. The homelessness is just the most visible symptom.
FBI Assisting After Graham’s Sudden Death As Questions Continue
The sudden death of one of Washington’s most influential Republicans continues to generate questions, with a new announcement from the FBI adding another development to an already closely watched story.
While many public figures have speculated about what may have happened, federal officials have so far limited their comments to confirming they are assisting authorities as the investigation into Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death continues.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced Sunday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting local authorities following the unexpected death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died Saturday at the age of 71 after what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness.”
“Our FBI is assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available,” Patel wrote on X.
Patel did not elaborate on the nature of the FBI’s assistance, and neither the bureau nor local authorities have indicated that foul play is suspected.
Graham’s office announced his death early Sunday morning but did not disclose an official cause of death.
According to multiple reports, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call from Graham’s Washington, D.C., residence at approximately 8:30 p.m. Saturday for a person experiencing cardiac arrest.
Authorities have not publicly released the findings of any medical examination, and no official cause of death has been announced.
The longtime South Carolina senator had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visited Ukrainian military facilities while reaffirming his support for continued U.S. backing in the country’s war against Russia.
Graham had also been one of the Senate’s most outspoken advocates for strong action against Iran and other U.S. adversaries.
Following news of his death, Iranian state television aired comments from a presenter celebrating Graham’s passing because of his outspoken positions on Iran and U.S. foreign policy.
The combination of Graham’s high-profile national security role, his recent overseas travel and the absence of an official cause of death has prompted widespread public speculation online.
Megan Mobbs, director of the Center for American Safety and Security at the Independent Women’s Forum, argued that a cardiac arrest call alone does not explain what caused Graham’s heart to stop.
“Cardiac arrest tells us how his life ended. It does not tell us why his heart stopped,” Mobbs wrote on X.
She said the circumstances warranted “a complete forensic autopsy, preservation of all relevant biological specimens, comprehensive toxicology and histology, and consultation with federal law enforcement and counterintelligence authorities.”
Conservative commentator Matt Van Swol questioned the timing of Graham’s death, pointing to recent video showing the senator appearing healthy during his trip to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, conservative activist Laura Loomer called for a full investigation, citing past threats made against Graham by individuals associated with Russia.
Others urged caution against jumping to conclusions.
Townhall columnist Dustin Grage wrote that a source told him Graham had dealt with blood pressure issues for decades and noted that the senator’s father also died from cardiac arrest at age 69.
“I know the conspiracy theories won’t stop, but sometimes life just happens. Not everything is a conspiracy,” Grage wrote.
Radio host Dana Loesch echoed that sentiment, saying sudden cardiac events often occur without warning.
For now, the confirmed facts remain limited: Graham died following what his office called a brief and sudden illness, the FBI has confirmed it is assisting local authorities, and officials have not announced an official cause of death.
Until additional information is released by investigators or the medical examiner, questions surrounding the circumstances of Graham’s death are likely to continue.
Top DHS Special Agent And His Wife Found Dead
A Department of Homeland Security special agent and his wife were found dead in their New Jersey home in what appears to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors said.
Police in Sayreville responded to the couple’s home on Glynn Court around 8 p.m. July 3 and found Kelly Latauro, 46, dead inside the residence, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Her husband, 52-year-old Christopher Latauro, was discovered dead in the backyard.
Both appear to have been shot.
Authorities said Christopher is believed to be the shooter and the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Police told residents to keep away from Glynn Court, from Deerfield Road to Scarlet Drive, briefly because of police activity.
The area was reopened about 40 minutes later, but police remained on scene.
According to NJ101.5, citing DHS records from 2019 and 2020, Christopher was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities have not said what may have sparked the violence.
Kelly’s sister-in-law Robyn Perlman-Spencer confirmed her death in a Facebook post on July 7, remembering her in a heartbreaking tribute.
“As many of you may now know, my beautiful sister in law Kelly Iatauro was senselessly and suddenly taken from us on Friday. Kelly was a bright light- kind, thoughtful, hysterical, inappropriate, and just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She left a lasting impression on anyone that was lucky enough to know her,” Robyn wrote in part.
Sayreville police confirmed officers responded to the Glynn Court residence on July 3 and found both people dead of gunshot wounds.
The incident is being treated as a murder-suicide, and Christopher is suspected to be the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the case.
What began as a heavy police response to a deadly scene left two people dead and the quiet Middlesex County neighborhood stunned.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened inside the home leading up to the gunfire.
Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made headlines last week with an election-related announcement.
Mullin on Friday said officials who don’t cooperate with the administration’s election security efforts may be slapped with fines — and potentially prison time.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections — and they chose not to — then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Mullin also promised DHS would work to “speed up our security enhancements” for states.
He vowed to hold up federal election security grants until state officials took steps the administration demanded, including running their voter registration lists through a system that checks for non-citizen voters on the rolls.
Mullin made his comments after President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday night, when he repeated already known concerns about the security of voting systems, alleged Chinese efforts to get into voter rolls, and aired old gripes about the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In his remarks on Friday, the DHS secretary focused on DHS’s work with states to secure election systems and scrub voter registration rolls for fraud and concerns about noncitizen voting.
The Justice Department also sent letters this month threatening prosecution to election officials across the country if they don’t remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
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On Friday, Mullin seemed to suggest that the agency was able to estimate the numbers using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and said 23 states are already working with DHS to analyze voter rolls.
And he criticized the legal challenges that are hindering the administration’s efforts: Last month, a judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of information about Americans, including Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
