Italy might have overtaken France as the laughing stock of Europe.
Uganda closes its border with Congo, where suspected cases of a rare Ebola type are surging
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda on Wednesday ordered the closure of its border with Congo, where suspected cases of a rare type of Ebola are surging, and as cases have been confirmed at home after Ugandan health workers were exposed to the disease from Congolese patients.
The measure, which goes against the guidance by the World Health Organization, underscores growing fears of contagion in East Africa from Bundibugyo, a rare type of the Ebola virus that is behind this outbreak and that has no approved medicines or vaccines.
Like Congo, Uganda has faced Ebola outbreaks in the past. A local Ugandan task force made the decision on the border closure. The Ugandan health workers were exposed to the virus by Congolese patients who had crossed the border before the outbreak was declared in eastern Congo on May 15.
The border closure was temporary, with “immediate effect,” Dr. Diana Atwine of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, told journalists. Border crossings will be authorized only in emergency cases, including for the outbreak response, humanitarian, cargo or security reasons, she added.
Anyone entering from Congo under emergency circumstances will be taken into mandatory isolation for 21 days.
Tracing and isolating Ebola contacts is seen as key to stopping the spread of the disease, which usually manifests as hemorrhagic fever. The virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids. Experts say healthcare workers and family members caring for patients face the highest risk.
The number of suspected cases in eastern Congo is nearing 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths. Congo’s health ministry on Tuesday said 101 cases have been confirmed, and they are looking into over 3,000 possible contacts.
https://apnews.com/article/ebola-congo-uganda-border-virus-b96734598ea95b1cdb71986c8b1adf43
Then leave…
https://x.com/miatalias/status/2059330944012607684
Matthew Perry’s assistant sentenced to three years, five months in actor’s drug overdose death
Kenneth Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, resulting in the “Friends” star’s death.
Matthew Perry’s personal assistant was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in federal prison for giving the “Friends” star the ketamine injections that left the actor dead of an overdose in a hot tub back in 2023.
Kenneth Iwamasa was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine to the U.S. government and told to surrender to the authorities by noon July 17.
Iwamasa, 59, is the last of the five suspects who were charged in connection with Perry’s death Oct. 28, 2023. And during the sentencing, he got an earful from Perry’s stepfather, NBC “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison, who scolded him for betraying Perry and their family.
Iwamasa, Morrison said, knew that the actor had been battling drug addiction and had been told explicitly by the family to call them if it seemed like Perry was about to fall off the wagon. But he didn’t do that.
“You could have called someone. … You didn’t do that, did you?” he said, his voice cracking, his eyes locked on Iwamasa. “But you didn’t because you were living a pretty damn good life. … You were living like a king. … That’s the motivation.”
Addressing the judge, Keith Morrison said Iwamasa was an experienced Hollywood assistant who gradually took over Perry’s life, not the deferential employee that his lawyer made him out to be.
“Kenny had been around a long time,” he told the judge. “He was no neophyte.”
Lisa Ferguson, who told the judge she had been Perry’s business manager since he was 22, said Iwamasa started taking control of the actor’s life soon after he was hired in 2022.
“Your motive was: You were going to be in this lifestyle for the rest of your life,” Ferguson said, her voice shaking. “What you are is the monster that killed him.”
When she finished, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett asked Iwamasa whether he had anything to say.
Facing the Morrison family, Iwamasa said, “I’m so sorry to all of you,” and offered his condolences.
“I’m just so sorry,” he said, his voice flat. “I’ve done illegal acts that I will forever regret. I will take that to my grave.”
The penalty that Garnett handed down was much less than what Perry’s half-sister Madeline Morrison has been seeking.
In her victim impact statement, Madeline Morrison wrote that Iwamasa deserved a harsher sentence than Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen” who was sentenced in April to 15 years behind bars and three years’ supervised release for supplying the drugs.
“Your honor, you asked counsel a question at the sentencing of Jasveen Sangha about who was more culpable… the drug dealer responsible for supplying the drugs that killed my brother, or the so-called loyal assistant who bought the drugs by any means necessary, injected him with a lethal dose and left him to die,” Madeline Morrison wrote. “I think it’s safe to guess what my answer would be.”
Iwamasa fooled their family, Madeline Morrison wrote.
“Kenny even spoke at Matthew’s funeral,” Madeline Morrison wrote. “The person responsible for my brother’s death stood up and addressed the people who loved him most. That is like a cruel joke I still struggle with. He didn’t just take my brother’s life — he tainted our final memories of saying goodbye.”
Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, resulting in the actor’s death. And he admitted repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine despite having no medical training, including giving him multiple ketamine shots on the day the actor died.
Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, wrote in her impact statement that Iwamasa enabled the addiction that led to her son’s death.
“His number one responsibility was to ensure that Matthew remained what he wanted to be: drug‑free,” Suzanne Morrison wrote. “But instead of protecting Matthew, he aided and abetted illegal drug use, arranged for one source of supply and then another.”
Perry, 54, was pronounced dead after he was found facedown in the water at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was later determined to have died from an accidental overdose of ketamine, which is a hallucinogenic anesthetic that has been used as a treatment for depression.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/matthew-perrys-former-assistant-sentenced-three-years-rcna346985
Federal agencies made $186 billion in improper payments
https://www.gao.gov/fraud-improper-payments
Rapid Response 47
@RapidResponse47
.
@SBA_Kelly: "At the @SBAgov, we found $200B in fraudulent PPP loans that the Biden Administration tried to hide, and forgive, and sweep under the rug. We've turned the first $22B of that over to Treasury for collections, and to DOJ for prosecution."
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2059679975964385719
Why would kek give digits to Perry?
Gen Z hang out at gyms more than bars
At 7 p.m. on a Friday in London, the lobby of Third Space in Soho looks more like a members’ club than a gym. There’s a humming smoothie bar, twenty- and thirtysomethings in color-coordinated workout sets and a steady stream of arrivals heading to reformer Pilates classes.
A decade ago, this crowd might have been outside the pub, drinking anything but a smoothie.
Across the UK and US, younger consumers are redirecting their discretionary income from nightlife to fitness. Gym-related spending among Gen Zers and millennials is rising as alcohol consumption continues to decline, according to a February report from Bank of America. And, according to market intelligence firm Mintel, 30% of US Gen Z consumers say they’re spending more on gym memberships and classes than a year ago, as fitness takes a broader role in their lives. “We’re seeing consumers across the board becoming more focused on their wellbeing,” says Claire Tassin, principal strategist for wellness at Mintel. “But Gen Z in particular is driving a lot of that energy.”
Tassin says gyms and studios are filling a gap once occupied by bars, restaurants and even offices. Meeting people at a gym or through pickup sports activities is nothing new, but younger people are investing in fitness as their must-do social activity instead of just a healthy habit for their bodies.
As a result, boutique fitness and premium gyms are increasingly functioning as social hubs for younger consumers, offering the structure, familiarity and community they’ve lost elsewhere. That’s the case for Nicolette Brewer, 25, a technology consultant who lives in New York’s West Village. Her main gym, Equinox, costs over $300 a month. She estimates she spends around $500 monthly on fitness between her SoulCycle spinning classes, boutique Pilates-Barre fusion studio the Silhouette Method, and entry fees to run races.
She says she met her boyfriend at a run club, and made other friends by attending the same workout classes week-in, week-out. “It reminds me of being in school and sitting next to someone in class and becoming friends because you’re in close proximity,” Brewer says. At the very minimum, if you need a conversation starter, there’s always the fitness class you just sweated through together.
Brewer, who attended college during the pandemic, says she appreciates the chance to do more in-person activities. “People are more comfortable living digitally now because of Covid. So it’s nice to have a space where we can go out and it’s OK to socialize and start conversations,” she says.
Olivia Antonelli, 26, also sees group fitness as a key part of her social life. “Every friendship I have now, no matter what phase of my life I met them, we always say, ‘Let’s go take a class’ instead of let’s go to drinks or dinner,” the Manhattan resident says. “There’s something so empowering about it.”
If older millennials made athleisure acceptable daywear, Gen Z has turned wellness into a full-fledged identity. On TikTok and Instagram, gym routines, Pilates classes and “What I eat in a day” videos have become a core genre, with more than 3.4 million posts under #Pilates alone.
“Gen Z is very visually motivated,” says India Gay, a 23-year-old Atlanta-based content creator, who posts about beauty, lifestyle and wellness. “There’s definitely an aesthetic tied to fitness and nutrition right now.” She spends about $100 a month on an all-inclusive gym membership. She’s one of many young adults who treat fitness as an investment. “For many people in our generation, that includes going to the gym, taking classes, prioritizing healthy eating and focusing on wellness overall,” Gay says.
She’s up at 5 or 6 am to the gym. That means avoiding the bar the night before. She strength-trains with the same group almost every morning. They encourage her to lift heavier weights or push through extra reps.
View this post on Instagram
In a first-time survey by Mintel, 77% of US Gen Z consumers say they are more focused on wellness than they were a year ago, while 45% report actively prioritizing physical fitness, followed by sleep at 34%.
In the US, single classes at boutique studios like Solidcore or Barry’s Bootcamp can start at about $40. Packages and memberships can easily climb into the hundreds per month. Memberships at high-end London gyms like Third Space can exceed £3,400 a year ($4,576), while a boutique program like Surrenne or the new Tramp Health can cost as much as £15,000.
Beyond meeting people, workout spaces are also great hangout and celebration spots.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/the-new-social-scene-swaps-bars-for-300-gym-memberships/ar-AA249zUp
Haven't seen a kekulatician around for a while.
Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
🚨 Stephen Miller says the scale of welfare fraud is SO MASSIVE that eliminating it alone could balance the ENTIRE federal budget
"The amount that has been fleeced from us is in the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars."
"We could balance the federal budget if the only dollars that went out of the treasury went to individuals who were properly, lawfully, correctly eligible to receive them."
This should infuriate EVERY taxpayer.
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/2059344808716509554
Democrat congressional candidate traveled with Blind Sheikh terrorist
A Democrat running in a crowded House primary is defending his past connection to the late Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind cleric who was convicted in 1995 of planning a bombing campaign intended to destroy the United Nations and other New York City landmarks.
Physician Adam Hamawy, one of 12 Democrats vying for their party’s nod in the 12th Congressional District on June 2, testified for the defense at Abdel Rahman’s trial, leading one of Hamawy’s rivals, Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, to call Hamawy a “radical extremist.”
Mapp said voters need a fuller accounting of that relationship, and suggested Hamawy’s connection to the man known as the blind sheikh could jeopardize national security.
“The blind sheikh was not a marginal or misunderstood figure,” Mapp said in an interview. “He was a convicted terrorist, convicted of seditious conspiracy. He was connected to one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history.”
Hamawy, a former U.S. Army combat surgeon, dismissed Mapp’s attacks as desperate and Islamophobic in an interview.
“My patriotism and my record is clear,” he said. “I think he’s desperate, and desperate people say desperate things.”
The two men are vying to succeed a retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson-Coleman in the 12th District, a district widely regarded as a safe one for Democrats in November.
Hamawy brushed off his connection to Abdel Rahman as minimal and decades-old news. He said he was young when he first encountered the blind cleric in 1991, and remembers carpooling with him and others on one occasion. Hamawy said he testified at the man’s trial out of a sense of “a civic duty.”
“I was called as a witness, and I gave my testimony under oath, and then I walked out,” he said. “It was never an issue back then, and they’re trying to make it an issue now.”
Abdel Rahman, who died in a North Carolina federal prison in 2017, was the spiritual leader of radical group al-Jama’a al-Islamiyaa. Before coming to the United States, he was tried in Egypt for instigating the 1981 assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat (Abdel Rahman was acquitted).
Abdel Rahman built a following with anti-American sermons in Brooklyn and Jersey City. He was not convicted on charges stemming directly from the World Trade Center bombing, but prosecutors said he and his codefendants were coconspirators of the men convicted in that attack.
Hamawy, who was born in Egypt and moved here as a child, maintains he had no relationship with Abdel Rahman. He noted he was in the military during the trial, and afterward was trusted to treat troops in combat in Iraq, including now-Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), and victims of the 9/11 attacks.
“Any Muslim is going to be called a terrorist at some point, and these tropes are outdated and worn. Unfortunately, they continue to be used right now,” he said. “These are not serious arguments, and they’re getting old.”
Mapp, who said his criticism is not aimed at Hamawy’s Muslim faith and said religion should “never be used as a political weapon,” said Hamawy’s military service and his treatment of 9/11 victims do not discount his past associations.
Mapp said the other Democrats in the race lack the political courage to join him in criticizing Hamawy on this issue.
“The other candidates, they want to say things but they are afraid. If you want to be a leader, you can’t lead from behind,” he said.
Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said the attacks against Hamawy have largely failed to gain traction in part because they haven’t made it into paid advertising, but also because much of the district’s electorate is too young to have a visceral memory of Abdel Rahman.
“That’s always something you have to contend with. If you talk about something that happened 30 years ago, you’re missing everybody who’s under 50,” he said.
Rasmussen said a question he finds unresolved is not why Hamawy testified, but why he was drawn to Abdel Rahman in the first place, noting that the Muslim leader often spoke about jihad.
“That’s the question I don’t feel we understand enough about, why somebody who talked about jihad all the time was somebody who he felt compelled to travel with,” Rasmussen said.
Hamawy said voters are not focused on three-decade-old associations. He said no one has brought this up outside of right-wing media and “unfortunately, some of my opponents who have really nothing else to grasp on.”
“People are worried about affordability. They’re worried about healthcare,” he said. “They want to make sure that we unrig this economy, and that’s what I’m addressing.”
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Gregg Mele in November. Mele is running unopposed in the GOP primary.
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2026/05/27/adam-hamawy-blind-sheikh-12th-district-primary/
It's pretty rare to overdose on just Ketamine, according to the AI.
WH meme team has been pretty good this week.
Seeking allies in all the right places.
Dan Bongino
@dbongino
Just a reminder that this fraudulent piece of shit never called me a single time when I was working overtime on this case, and for transparency. Not once did I hear from this fraud about the case. When I saw him at main Justice he never even mentioned it.
And then when I offered to brief him at FBI HQ about this case, and others, he passed. Because he’s full of shit. I’ve met a lot of political zeroes in my time but never a bigger zero than this pinecone. I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. He jumped the shark, and when the shark bit back, he cried “The Jooos,” and “Epstein!”
I’ve seen him behind the scenes and he’s a pathetic, boner-phone-club VIP points member. It says a lot that the people who know him best just kicked his sorry ass out by ten points. If he wants a war with me then I’m more than happy to oblige. Because nothing he vomits out will change the fact that he’s a zero, and a performance artist.
https://x.com/dbongino/status/2059419767690211497
Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
🚨 HUGE DEVELOPMENT: Sec. Markwayne Mullin announces DHS is drawing up plans to BLOCK ALL international flights into sanctuary cities by ending Customs screening there
This would DEVASTATE those cities.
Mullin is doing it as a direct result of sanctuaries refusing to cooperate
GOOD! We need consequences where it hurts!
"Why are we processing international flights into the airport there? And we are currently, which we're not issuing it yet, but we're currently drawing up plans to say, listen — in these sanctuary cities where the local radical left Democrats aren't allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws, then we shouldn't be processing international flights into their cities either, because they don't want us to enforce immigration, but they want us to process immigration at their facilities!"
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2059633424181215725
Justice Department launches a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll for perjury
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president – one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type and claimed she made it up to boost sales of a book.
Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll, 82, that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses.
Carroll’s team declined to comment for this story. Attempts to reach Hoffman on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
The probe is the latest move in the department’s ceaseless, and somewhat strained, efforts to meet Trump’s demands to target his long-standing personal foes.
Under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the department has pushed to speed up Trump’s campaign of retribution. But the cases he’s brought since taking the reins of the department in April have been heavily criticized and are likely to face challenges in court over allegations of politicization.
But Blanche has been recused from this matter because he worked as one of Trump’s personal attorneys on the Carroll appeals, according to a source familiar with the matter. Blanche has not attended meetings or been involved in discussions about the investigations, and the investigation is being overseen by other officials in the deputy attorney general’s office.
Senior leaders at the Justice Department referred the investigation to federal prosecutors in Chicago, according to two sources familiar with the matter. While Carroll’s deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll’s legal fees, Hoffman, has a nonprofit based in Chicago.
Hoffman’s support of the case caught Trump’s attorneys off guard when it came to light on the eve of trial.
In a 2022 videotaped deposition, Carroll told then-Trump attorney Alina Habba that no one else was paying for her legal fees. But two weeks before the trial Carroll’s attorneys informed the judge and Trump’s lawyers that they secured funding from Hoffman’s nonprofit.
Carroll’s lawyers said she never met nor had conversations with anyone associated with the nonprofit. Habba said in court at the time that Carroll’s team “conspired to conceal the truth for nearly six months.”
The judge permitted Trump’s attorneys to question Carroll again in a deposition, which has not been made public.
When the trial began two weeks later Judge Lewis Kaplan said he saw no issue with Carroll’s credibility and blocked the lawyers from asking about Hoffman’s funding.
Caroll is still embroiled in multiple legal battles with the president. Juries awarded Carroll millions of dollars in damages, which the president is appealing. Trump has appealed the $5 million sexual abuse case judgement to the Supreme Court and has pledged to do the same with the $83 million defamation case.
The Supreme Court has deferred its decision on whether to take up Trump’s appeal twelve times. The most recent deferral was made Wednesday morning.
In a different case, the president unsuccessfully asked for the Justice Department to join the case as a defendant so that he could argue he is immune from liability. An appeals court panel of judges said the argument was raised too late in the legal process.
https://lite.cnn.com/2026/05/27/politics/exclusive-justice-department-launched-e-jean-carroll-investigation
DHS memo directs ICE to ramp up asylum-related fraud cases
The Department of Homeland Security's top lawyer on Tuesday directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorneys to aggressively pursue administrative fraud cases against immigration lawyers accused of filing false asylum claims, the latest step in the administration's push to speed up removals, expand enforcement and challenge the legal infrastructure around immigration.
In a memo dated May 26 and obtained by CBS News, DHS General Counsel James Percival instructed ICE attorneys within the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor to develop "anti-fraud policies" designed for "robust enforcement" of existing federal anti-fraud law. The memo said that any effort "should include enforcement against immigration attorneys filing false asylum claims in immigration court."
While the directive does not create new penalties, it signals that ICE lawyers will begin to use existing administrative enforcement tools more frequently to crack down not only against migrants accused of submitting fraudulent applications, but also against the lawyers who represent them.
"For many years, millions of illegal aliens have committed fraud on our immigration system," Percival wrote, without citing specifics. "In no place is this more rampant than in immigration court."
The sweeping directive asserted that asylum claims are meant for "unique and narrow circumstances," but that it has become "standard practice" for immigration lawyers to argue that "virtually every illegal alien" faces persecution or torture in their home country because of a protected characteristic such as race or political opinion.
The right to seek asylum in the U.S. is broader than the right to receive it. Federal law dictates that any noncitizen who is physically present in the United States or arrives in the country, including outside a designated port of entry and regardless of status, may apply for asylum. But in order to be approved, individuals must prove that they qualify — typically by showing a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
The statute cited in Percival's memo allows the government to pursue civil penalties against people accused of immigration-related document fraud, including those who knowingly prepare, file or help file applications that are false or contain false statements.
Any case would typically begin with a "notice of intent to fine," a formal charging document that informs the recipient that the government believes they violated the law and may be fined.
While recipients can fight the allegations before an administrative law judge, successful penalties can add up: first offenses can cost up to $4,730 for each fraudulent document or act, while subsequent offenses can reach up to $11,823 per document or act, according to the Justice Department.
The government could also seek a cease-and-desist order against certain targets. For attorneys, any fraud finding could be referred to disciplinary authorities and potentially lead to suspension or expulsion from practice before the immigration courts. In more serious cases, prosecutors might even consider criminal charges.
The government has long prosecuted organized asylum-fraud schemes. In 2023, federal prosecutors in New York City announced guilty pleas by immigration attorneys accused of preparing fraudulent asylum applications and affidavits and coaching clients to lie under oath. In 2021, a Florida man posing as an immigration attorney was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison after prosecutors said he filed hundreds of fraudulent asylum applications. And in 2019, an immigration attorney in Queens, New York, was sentenced to five years in prison for operating an asylum-fraud ring.
But in his memo, Percival wrote that ICE lawyers have not been using the administrative statute as aggressively as DHS would like: "Historically, ICE has depended on the discipline of immigration judges and the enforcement of criminal fraud laws to deter this conduct … but ICE has its own tools." The notice directed ICE attorneys to pursue document-fraud enforcement, seemingly as part of their immigration-court strategy.
The memo also appears to anticipate concerns about conflicts of interest, suggesting ICE must ensure that the attorney pursuing any fraud violation is appropriately separated from litigation of the underlying immigration case.
Inside President Trump's administration, the memo reflects a mounting focus on immigration lawyers, asylum advocates and large law firms challenging federal immigration policy. In March, the president issued a memo directing the attorney general to seek sanctions against lawyers and law firms that bring "frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation" against the U.S. or before federal agencies.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-memo-ice-asylum-fraud/
Fidel Castro’s Daughter Low-key Admits Justin Trudeau Is Her ‘Half Brother’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldbpEPs7qns
Inside Gavin Newsom’s Solar Scam
Governor Gavin Newsom has dismissed fossil fuels as “alternative energy,” and wants to power California with, among other things, the sun. Through extensive mandates and extra energy costs for non-solar consumers, the Newsom administration has directed billions to building solar energy capacity.
The centerpiece of this initiative is the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program. SOMAH began under Governor Jerry Brown, who signed legislation requiring a state commission to apportion up to $100 million a year from California’s cap-and-trade program to pay for the installation of solar panels on apartment buildings in poor areas. Since then, California has devoted nearly $900 million to SOMAH, which the state hoped would create 300 megawatts of power by 2030 and advocates envisioned would create a million solar-using renters.
The results have been disastrous. Since 2015, the program has installed or reserved only 129 megawatts of solar power for approximately 65,600 residents—nowhere close to the target of 1 million “solar renters.”
What happened? First, incompetence. For a decade, businesses and utilities have been forced to buy emissions credits, and while the state has lavished nearly $900 million on SOMAH, administrators designed the program so poorly that they have paid out only $131 million for solar installation.
As the program’s largest contractor admitted in a draft audit, potential customers were turned off by the paperwork, bureaucracy, and red tape. “Initially, we found housing owners excited about the program,” the contractor said, “but after a long and laborious process, they are much less enthusiastic.”
That is an understatement. From the beginning, the SOMAH program has been plagued by delays and cancellations. More than 400 applications have wound up cancelled or withdrawn, or about a third of the total. On average, projects take three and a half years to make it through the program’s gauntlet of paperwork and inspections.
Some projects have been fully installed—only to sit idle for a year or more waiting for permission to begin operating. As a result, more than $700 million of the program’s budget remains unspent. In other words, California can’t even give away a heavily subsidized, and sometimes free, product.
These failures do not mean, however, that no one is profiting. The managers of the SOMAH program have spent about $60 million on overhead, including salaries, conferences, website development, and more. And, as part of that budget, they have devoted at least $5.5 million to “community-based organizations” (CBOs), most of which are left-wing nonprofits that, in one case, labeled giving solar panels to low-income housing residents a way to fight “racial injustice.”
Under the guise of marketing and outreach, SOMAH paid more than $163,000 to the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN). Vivian Yi Huang, the group’s co-director, extolled the need to “fight against the systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism of the extractive economy.” The organization called for Richmond, California to “Defund the Police and Invest in Black Lives” and is a member of the Defund Police Coalition in Oakland, California.
California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) told supporters that it “led in the creation” of SOMAH. Officials awarded it $230,000. The nonprofit wants the “democratization” of “land, labor, and resources” to “reverse the long course of environmental racism, the climate crisis, and colonialism.”
CEJA uses aggressive language to support its apparent goal of banning oil. “What’s at stake is our very survival,” its then-executive director said in 2021. “We must make the transition to 100 percent clean energy and bring all communities along to avoid a devastating climate apartheid.”
The group’s political arm, CEJA Action, endorses candidates and publishes voter guides as it “builds the political power of communities of color to advance environmentally and socially just policies.”
While APEN and CEJA no longer partner with the state, one of the active CBOs, Communities for a Better Environment, is no less radical. Last year, the group demanded the immediate release of everyone who was detained in immigration raids in California. “[T]here is no environmental justice without migrant justice,” the group wrote. “[W]e stand in solidarity with migrant, low-income, queer and trans, and people of color.”
Have these groups delivered results? No.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/california-gavin-newsom-solar-panels-affordable-housing-somah
Muckraker
@realmuckraker
MASSIVE EBT & CHARITY FRAUD EXPOSED: Immigrants Are Openly Buying Food with Food Stamps and Collecting It from Charities, Then Shipping It Overseas to Sell for Profit
In Lawrence, Massachusetts, a whistleblower revealed a welfare scam that the Dominican community has been running for over a decade.
Here is how it works: Dominican immigrants buy food with EBT cards or take it for free from food banks. They then load it into shipping barrels and send it to the Dominican Republic, where it is sold for profit in local bodegas.
We tracked the entire pipeline, from corner stores in Massachusetts to shipping hubs in New York to bodegas in Santo Domingo that are stocked with food paid for by the American taxpayer.
We are prepared to share our findings with any legitimate investigative body.
@JDVance
https://x.com/realmuckraker/status/2059663910148452781
What's the RSBN reporter there with them for?
Careful with that foot juice…