TYB
Gunfire erupts during Denver Nuggets NBA Finals victory celebration, leaving 10 injured; police arrest 2
June 13, 2023
A shooting in Denver, Colorado, early Tuesday morning that left 10 injured is believed to be linked to a "drug nexus" involving fentanyl, police say.
Denver Police Department Commander Matt Clark told reporters Tuesday that two people are in custody and five weapons have been seized following the violence that broke out as fans flooded the streets of the city to celebrate the Denver Nuggets winning the franchise's first NBA championship Monday night.
The Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat, 94-89, in Game 5 to clinch the title.
Police identified the suspects as 22-year-old Ricardo Vasquez and 33-year-old Raul Jones. Vasquez was found to be suffering from a gunshot wound.
Vasquez is being held on charges of possession of a weapon by a previous offender and for possession of a controlled substance. Jones is being held for possession of a weapon by a previous offender.
Denver Police said the shooting in the 2000 Block of Market Street — which is believed to be unassociated with the Nuggets celebrations — resulted in 10 total victims.
Police said they believe five to six of the victims were bystanders not involved in the drug deal.
Medical officials said as of Tuesday afternoon, the five who remain hospitalized are in fair condition and four of them had to immediately undergo surgery.
"Crime scene technicians also located a significant quantity of fentanyl pills in the area that were bundled in several baggies," Clark said, adding that investigators believe a "drug nexus" is linked to the shooting. At least 20 rounds were fired, he said, striking nine adult men and one adult female.
Denver Police PIO Doug Schepman told Fox News the shooting happened at approximately 12:30 a.m. MT.
"Preliminary info indicates multiple shots were fired during an altercation involving several individuals," the police department wrote on Twitter.
It is not immediately clear if the individuals were specifically targeted or if there was more than one shooter.
"This is a complex, ongoing investigation in its early stages. Preliminary info indicates multiple shots were fired during an altercation involving several individuals. Updates will be provided as they become available," the police said.
The incident remains under investigation.
Photos and videos online show people gathering in roadway intersections and climbing streetlights to celebrate the victory.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/gunfire-erupts-denver-nuggets-nba-finals-victory-celebration-leaving-9-injured-police-arrest-suspect
No Abortions, Pride Flags or Transgender Care: Republicans Use Spending Bill to Block VA Policies
June 13, 2023
House Republicans moved Tuesday to block the Department of Veterans Affairs from providing abortion services, flying LGBTQ+ pride flags at its facilities, and providing gender-affirmation surgery or hormones to transgender veterans.
The effort, made by GOP lawmakers in the annual VA spending bill, aims to stop the agency from following policies it sees as welcoming to women and LGBTQ+ people. Gay civil rights, transgender health care and abortion have all come under increasing attack from politicians on the right ahead of the 2024 presidential race.
The amendment to the spending bill barring the VA activities approved in a party-line 34-27 vote in the House Appropriations Committee takes aim at Biden administration policies that Republicans have spent months griping about. They vowed to roll back the policies when they took the House majority at the beginning of the year.
"This is something that should be handled by Congress, not by the executive branch," Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, the sponsor of the amendment and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee's VA subcommittee, said about the VA's abortion policy.
The language is not likely to survive negotiations with the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats and where an effort to undo the VA's abortion policy already failed earlier this year. But it signals that House Republicans are digging in on their long-held grievances.
In response to last year's Supreme Court ruling that has allowed states to ban abortion, the VA last year started offering abortions for the first time in cases of rape, incest, or where the life or health of the mother is at risk from the pregnancy. As of February, the VA has provided 34 abortions under the policy, the department told Congress in a letter in March.
The VA and Democratic lawmakers maintain the VA's abortion policy is allowed by a 1996 law that requires the department to give needed medical care to veterans.
But Republicans immediately cried foul at the policy, arguing it violates a 1992 law that directed the VA to provide reproductive health care except for "infertility services, abortions or pregnancy care," unless that care is needed because of a service-connected condition.
In addition to barring funding for the abortion policy, the amendment approved Tuesday would also add language to the VA spending bill modeled off what's known as the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment is an annual rider included in the Health and Human Services spending bill that prohibits funding from being used for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy.
The nonbinding report accompanying the bill also calls on the VA to regularly report to Congress on how many abortions it has provided under the policy and how much it has cost.
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The amendment approved Tuesday also targets some LGBTQ+-focused policies, which Republicans nationwide have increasingly taken aim at. Republican state legislatures have particularly targeted transgender rights with hundreds of bills introduced this year across the country.
The appropriations amendment would prohibit the VA from providing "surgical procedures or hormone therapies for the purposes of gender affirming care." Doing so would not only block a yet-to-be implemented policy on surgery the Biden administration announced two years ago, it would also roll back coverage for hormone therapy the VA has offered since 2013.
The VA told Military.com last week it has no timeline for covering gender-affirmation surgery for transgender veterans despite saying in 2021 that it would take about two years to implement the policy. The department denied the delay is related to Republican criticism and the growing anti-trans movement.
The House measure would also prohibit the VA from flying any flag "other than the flag of the United States, the flag of a state, territory, or District of Columbia, the flag of an Indian tribal government, the flag of the department, the flag of an armed force, or the POW/MIA flag."
While the amendment does not specifically mention the Pride Flag, it comes after Republicans complained that the VA was displaying the rainbow flag at facilities this month, and Appropriations Committee members made clear that barring that flag is the intention of the amendment.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., who said he proposed the flag language, argued the amendment is needed to ensure the "work and the message of the VA is not divisive, is not controversial and is not promoting a particular gender ideology, but rather is respect[ful] of our veterans."
The amendment would also prohibit "any discriminatory action" from being taken against someone who believes "that marriage is, or should be recognized as, a union of one man and one woman." And it would block any funding from being used for the "purposes of diversity, equity, and inclusion training or implementation."
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/06/13/va-barred-abortions-flying-pride-flags-transgender-health-care-under-gop-bill.html
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Rep. Luna | House Floor Remarks 6/13/23 | Rep. Luna Files Privileged Schiff Resolution
https://youtu.be/K0a6L143uK0
New estimate finds $420 billion in fraud and waste in COVID-19 spending
June 12, 2023
An estimated $420 billion in COVID-19-related spending may have been wasted through fraud and corruption, according to a new report.
The Justice Department’s acting director for COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement, Mike Galdo, told the Associated Press that the staggering figures represented “an unprecedented amount of fraud.”
Independent analysis conducted by the AP reveals that over $280 billion of COVID-19 relief was stolen through common identity theft scams and fraudulent loan applications, and another $123 billion was wasted through mismanagement and misappropriation.
Over $5.2 trillion was allocated for COVID-19-related relief under both the Trump and Biden administrations, according to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. Approximately $1.15 trillion of this relief was paid directly to individual recipients either through stimulus checks or through benefits programs such as rental assistance or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Reports of fraud and mismanagement of COVID-19 relief funds are not new, but compiling the total amount of fraud has proven to be a difficult task.
Dan Fruchter, the chief of the U.S. attorney’s fraud and white-collar crime unit in the Eastern District of Washington, said that the perception of the “endless pot of money” practically encouraged a crime wave.
“Folks kind of fooled themselves into thinking that it was a socially acceptable thing to do, even though it wasn’t legal,” Fruchter said.
The programs administered by the Small Business Administration appear to have the greatest share of abuse in part because fraud protection measures were waived to ensure rapid relief for those who needed it.
Current estimates assess the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program was defrauded $86 billion, whereas the Paycheck Protection Program was defrauded approximately $20 billion. These figures, however, are likely to grow as investigations continue.
The inspector general of the SBA, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, said that it has over 800,000 actionable leads of fraud to investigate, and the agency is set to release new fraud estimates in the coming weeks.
Ware said that the newest estimate “will be a figure that is fair, that is 1,000% defensible by my office, fully backed by our significant criminal investigative activity that is taking place in this space.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/covid-19-relief-fraud-waste-420-billion
LIVE: President Trump to Deliver Remarks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ - 6/13/2023
https://rumble.com/v2tq7oc-live-president-trump-to-deliver-remarks-at-trump-national-golf-club-in-bedm.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENmld97ubo