Members of Congress quietly rack up luxury flights, charter jets, and self-reimbursed travel while Americans struggle to afford groceries and rent

Congressional Perks: Congress spends on pricey airfare, lodging and private jets.

Members of Congress regularly commute between Washington, D.C., and their home districts with taxpayers paying the tab, but some choose to spend more than others – a few even charter private jets, an investigation by The Center Square found.

When it came to charter – or private airplane – travel, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., was the top spender with nearly $63,000 paid for charter flights since 2019. U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., was second, paying $18,295 in the same time period for five flights from Executive Aircraft Leasing, LLC., data from the Members’ Representational Allowance data shows.

When it comes to overall travel expenses, the office of U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, was in the top three of both airfare and lodging for all of Congress since 2019, including some pricey reimbursements to himself – not airline or charter companies – for flights.

David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said there have to be better controls on travel to avoid abuses.

https://citizenwatchreport.com/members-of-congress-quietly-rack-up-luxury-flights-charter-jets-and-self-reimbursed-travel-while-americans-struggle-to-afford-groceries-and-rent/

Meta secretly let “high value” scammers rack up 500 strikes and target vulnerable users while raking in billions for its AI war chest

Documents showed that internally, Meta was hesitant to abruptly remove accounts, even those considered some of the “scammiest scammers,” out of concern that a drop in revenue could diminish resources needed for artificial intelligence growth.

Instead of promptly removing bad actors, Meta allowed “high value accounts” to “accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down,” Reuters reported. The more strikes a bad actor accrued, the more Meta could charge to run ads, as Meta’s documents showed the company “penalized” scammers by charging higher ad rates. Meanwhile, Meta acknowledged in documents that its systems helped scammers target users most likely to click on their ads.

“Users who click on scam ads are likely to see more of them because of Meta’s ad-personalization system, which tries to deliver ads based on a user’s interests,” Reuters reported.

Internally, Meta estimates that users across its apps in total encounter 15 billion “high risk” scam ads a day. That’s on top of 22 billion organic scam attempts that Meta users are exposed to daily, a 2024 document showed. Last year, the company projected that about $16 billion, which represents about 10 percent of its revenue, would come from scam ads.

https://citizenwatchreport.com/meta-secretly-let-high-value-scammers-rack-up-500-strikes-and-target-vulnerable-users-while-raking-in-billions-for-its-ai-war-chest/

All Ukraine's State Thermal Power Plants Down After 'Largest Ever Attack' By Russia

Friday night witnessed more heavy Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, which has left a reported eleven people killed and large swathes of Ukraine without power. Moscow said its attacks targeted the country's energy infrastructure.

Ukraine's military confirmed Saturday morning that Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles from the air, land, and sea, primarily targeting vital energy infrastructure, ahead of a potentially severe winter.

In total some 500 aerial attacks were detected overnight, including 45 missiles and over 450 drones. Ukraine's military said just nine missiles were intercepted, but air defenses managed to shoot down 406 UAVs.

Gas and power facilities, including thermal energy sites, were damaged, leading to widespread outages across several regions - something which has started to become the norm as Russia escalates these strikes.

An attack on eastern Dnipro region included a building being hit, which killed three people and injured 11 others, with Ukrainian media saying children were among the casualties. This was the result of a drone ripping through a residential building.

"Russian strikes once again targeted people's everyday life. They deprived communities of power, water and heating, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged railway networks," Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said in the aftermath.

Emergency management crews are working overtime to restore power to the impacted grids, but this has been a growing problem as badly needed parts are hard to constantly replace after years of accumulated damage.

Reports say Kiev has been plunged into darkness, and swathes of the city and region could be without power for some 9-hours or more:

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/all-ukraines-state-thermal-power-plants-down-after-largest-ever-attack-russia

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Non-Citizen Mayor Charged With Election Fraud One Day After His Reelection

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) announced on Wednesday that Coldwater Mayor Jose Ceballos is being charged for election fraud, just one day after Ceballos was reelected.

Ceballas is a green card holder and legal permanent resident, but he is not a U.S. citizen, according to Kobach. He is a citizen of Mexico and his application for citizenship in February raised questions about whether he can legally hold his current office, according to Coldwater city attorney Skip Herd, who spoke to local media in Kansas.

“He’s been a registered voter since 1990. He applied for citizenship in February of this year, and through that, raised the issue of whether he was a legal citizen,” Herd said.

Kobach accused the mayor of violating public “trust.”

“In large part, our system right now is based on trust. Trust that when the person signed the registration or signs the pollbooks saying that he’s a qualified elector or that he is a United States citizen, that the person is telling the truth,” Kobach said. “In this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that trust.”

Ceballos is facing three counts of voting without being qualified, and three counts of election perjury. If convicted, he could face more than five years behind bars and a $200,000 fine.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said officials have been using a program to go through their current voter rolls.

“We now have tools, thanks to the current White House, that we haven’t had in over 10 years that we can check through the SAVE program, to find out if folks end up on our voter rolls. And they could be a legal resident, but they’re not a citizen.” Schwab said.

Ceballas was informed he can finish out the two remaining months of his current term. If his citizenship is not approved by the end of that current term, the city council president will step into the mayor’s role.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/non-citizen-mayor-charged-election-155750722.html

Top Kiwi cop falls from grace after kiddy porn found on his computer

DEPUTY Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming, New Zealand’s second-highest ranking police officer, has been caught secretly watching child sexual exploitation and bestiality on his work devices.

McSkimming, 52, was suspended on full pay back in January in relation to separate investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct. His lawyer said McSkimming was “co-operating fully” with Police and looked forward to the investigation being concluded “swiftly” and McSkimming resuming his duties as Deputy Commissioner.

But in March McSkimming was notified of a second criminal investigation relating to his use of his work devices.

It was not until two months later, after the public broadcaster Radio NZ approached McSkimming for comments on the allegations, that the Public Service Commission provided McSkimming with two documents including a summary of a forensic report on the activity on his work devices as well as a pre-submission classification summary by the Deputy Chief Censor.

The accompanying letter from the Public Service Commission said “a preliminary view had been reached” that the information it had received from Police called into “serious question” McSkimming’s fitness to remain in his position and justified consideration of whether he should be removed from office.

Three days later, on 12 May, the Police Minister in a sternly written press release announced McSkimming had resigned saying he had effectively jumped before he could be pushed. It was the end of a 29-year career.

The following month, McSkimming was arrested on charges of possessing objectionable publications, namely child sexual exploitation and bestiality material, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the publication is objectionable. The offending occurred between July 2020 and December 2024.

On Thursday this week, the 52-year-old pleaded guilty to the charges and will be sentenced in December.

https://cairnsnews.org/2025/11/08/top-kiwi-cop-falls-from-grace-after-kiddy-porn-found-on-his-computer/

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/ex-top-cop-needed-different-types-porn-feel-anything-rnz