Trump DOJ weaponizes False Claims Act
lawsuits to target DEI in higher ed
Posted By: sunset, 5/22/2025 11:29:04 AM
The Justice Department on Monday launched a new Civil Rights Fraud Initiative that will use the False Claims Act to investigate and pursue claims against federally funded entities that knowingly violate civil rights laws — including colleges and universities. The act, originally passed by Congress in 1863 to address fraud by defense contractors during the Civil War, will now be used to work to ensure universities and others do not allow civil rights abuses, such as favoring one race over another. The act allows private citizens to file complaints on behalf of the government, called “qui tam” lawsuits, against those who have allegedly defrauded the government,
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In the latest signal that relations between state workers and their boss are getting tense, one public sector union created a strike fund to prepare for a fight over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to freeze employees’ salaries. The union hopes the first step to potentially walk off the job sends a clear message to the governor and lawmakers. The union leader said he hopes to communicate to members that the labor group is ready to fight over the budget proposal that aims to save $767 million by withholding salary increases
The Justice Department on Monday launched a new Civil Rights Fraud Initiative that will use the False Claims Act to investigate and pursue claims against federally funded entities that knowingly violate civil rights laws — including colleges and universities. The act, originally passed by Congress in 1863 to address fraud by defense contractors during the Civil War, will now be used to work to ensure universities and others do not allow civil rights abuses, such as favoring one race over another. The act allows private citizens to file complaints on behalf of the government, called “qui tam” lawsuits, against those who have allegedly defrauded the government,
California Republicans are launching an investigation into the Low Carbon Fuel Standard update that is expected to increase the cost of gasoline by 65 cents per gallon — impacting not just California, but the parts of Nevada and Arizona that rely on the Golden State for fuel — on July 1. “CARB and the Governor pushed an expensive gas price hike behind closed doors, ignored public input, and misled Californians about the real cost,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones. CARB says its updated LCFS standards will increase fuel prices by $162 billion through 2046, with $105 billion going to credits for electric vehicle charging network owners
A Virginia church is encouraging its congregants to speak out against a school district where a transgender male student allegedly videotaped boys in a locker room. A father of one of those boys [said] that his son is among those being investigated by the district for sexual harassment. "He was questioning why there was a female in the males' locker room,". "And other boys were uncomfortable [with a female in the boys' locker room]. There were other boys asking the same question. "They [LCPS] created a very uncomfortable situation. They're young, they're 15 years old. They're expressing their opinions, and now they're being targeted for expressing those opinions."
The U.S. Senate will vote within days on overturning California’s stringent and influential regulations mandating 100% electric vehicle sales by 2035, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday.
The move has massive implications for the U.S. auto industry and represents a dramatic break from past procedure by Senate Republicans.
“While the Biden EPA EV mandate was bad,” Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said in a floor speech, “California is much worse." The Senate measure, which only needs a simple majority to pass, would nix a waiver granted late in the Biden administration for California to set nation-leading emissions standards
The Tennessee Valley Authority said it is the first utility in the United States to submit a construction permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for small modular reactor technology.
The utility said this is the next step in bringing a small modular reactor to the Clinch River site near Oak Ridge. The application is for GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy's small modular reactor BWRX-300 technology. Small modular reactors are significantly smaller than a traditional power plant, and they’re designed to produce a large amount of low-carbon energy.
For two years, New Orleans police secretly relied on facial recognition technology to scan city streets in search of suspects, a surveillance method without a known precedent in any major American city that may violate municipal guardrails around use of the technology, an investigation by The Washington Post has found.
Police increasingly use facial recognition software to identify unknown culprits from still images, usually taken by surveillance cameras at or near the scene of a crime. New Orleans police took this technology a step further, utilizing a private network of more than 200 facial recognition cameras to watch over the streets,
Ras Baraka arrest: Trump administration
eyes charging three more NJ Democrats
in ICE fracas 15 replies
eyes charging three more NJ Democrats
in ICE fracas 15 replies
The Trump administration suggested Saturday that New Jersey Democratic lawmakers involved in a clash a day earlier with authorities at a federal immigration detention center that led to the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also could face criminal charges.
“There will likely be more arrests coming,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN in an interview on Saturday.
“We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting these ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer,” McLaughlin said.
President Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to slash legal pathways for over half-a-million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who are temporarily in the U.S. for humanitarian needs. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked the Biden-era special parole program in March, but a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from making any changes for now. Trump pushed the justices to reinstate Noem’s policy and correct a “recent, destabilizing trend in immigration cases. “When lower courts have disregarded Congress’s commands in the INA and usurped the Executive Branch’s control over immigration policy, this Court has not hesitated to intervene and has repeatedly granted complete or partial stays
The pharmaceutical industry estimates President Donald Trump’s new drug pricing proposal could cost drug companies as much as $1 trillion over a decade, its largest trade group is telling members of Congress.
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When the pandemic upended the world of higher education, Robin Pugh, a professor at City College of San Francisco, began to see one puzzling problem in her online courses: Not everyone was a real student. Of the 40 students enrolled in her popular introduction to real estate course, she’d normally drop three to five who don’t start the course or make contact with her at the start of the semester. But during the current spring semester, Pugh said she had to cut 11 students. These “ghost students” are artificially intelligent agents or bots that pose as real students in order to steal millions of dollars of financial aid.
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis-area Hennepin County Attorney’s Office’s new directive for its prosecutors to consider race when negotiating plea deals with criminal defendants. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle and Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon informed Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in a letter that the Justice Department is opening a probe into whether the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office "engaged in a pattern of practice of depriving persons of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protect by the Constitution or laws of the United States."
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“Boy, this burger is great, Roy! What’s your secret?”
“Tom, don’t you know Hillary Clinton says Trump’s new budget is going to increase food insecurity?”
“*&%$ it Roy! I just wanted to enjoy Memorial Day with friends. Shove your burger! C’mon Betty, we’re leaving!”
“Hey, you! Trump blah blah blah! Put that on your burger, you deplorable, you!”
Rather than honoring the military men and women who gave their lives defending their fellow Americans’ right to live in freedom, two-time failed Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is calling on her supporters to bash President Donald Trump and his One Big Beautiful Bill that passed the House this week
On Thursday’s “Alex Marlow Show,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) talked about wasteful spending on government credit cards.
Ernst said, “[T]he federal government, through GSA credit cards, has 4.6 million active credit cards and accounts…we have a little less than half that number in federal employees.” She added that “a lot” of card usage occurs during federal holidays and on days like New Year’s Eve at “nightclubs, bars” and on “Sunday afternoons, okay, a big UFC fight or something pay-per-view.” And there are also cash withdrawals at casino ATMs.
Ernst further stated that about 500,000 cards have now been canceled.
Judge Jeanine Pirro has only been in the role of U.S. Attorney for D.C. since May 14, but already she’s faced with a serious tragedy after the horrific assassinations of a young couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Thursday night by a crazed antisemite.
As we’ve reported, Elias Rodriguez flew in from his hometown of Chicago, ambushed Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky (30) and Sarah Lynn Milgrim (26), and fired 21 rounds even as Milgrim tried to crawl away in terror.
The two were reportedly set to get engaged next week. It’s an almost unimaginable crime.
On Thursday, Pirro announced that Rodriguez may pay the ultimate penalty
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Trump announced his plans the previous day to develop the multilayered, $175 billion (€155 billion) system with ground- and space-based capabilities that can defend against a wide range of enemy weapons, like drones, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The US President said he expected the missile shield to be ready by the end of his second term in 2029.
St. Louis' Emergency Management Director
Placed on Leave After She Forgot to Sound
Tornado Alarm 25 replies
Placed on Leave After She Forgot to Sound
Tornado Alarm 25 replies
I have no idea how to comprehend this act of incompetence. Last Friday, severe storms rolled into St. Louis. A tornado touched down and struck the northern part of the city—and there were no warning sirens. The tornado alarm system was never activated. It wasn’t due to a computer glitch. It was human error: the emergency management director, Sarah Russell, essentially forgot to turn it on, but it gets worse: the staff wasn’t even in the office. Russell contacted the fire department to initiate the system, but this was a shambolic failure
In the last two and a half years, eight sitting members of the House or Senate have died in office. Every time, it's been a Democrat. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, died on Wednesday at 75, after a battle with esophageal cancer. He's the third House Democrat to die in the last three months. If Democrats had gained a narrow 1 or 2-seat majority in 2024, they would have lost it by now. The streak of Democratic deaths could just be something of a coincidence. After all, there are plenty of elderly
Ed Martin’s nomination to serve as DC Attorney was nuked by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). He was in office on an interim basis. Trump selected Jeanine Pirro to replace Martin, who is now a pardon attorney and helming the Department of Justice’s weaponization task force. Martin is looking at Biden’s pardons, specifically the ones issued toward the end of his presidency. They might not be legal. It comes off allegations that Biden aides might have illegally used the autopen. President Trump has asked who was behind the autopen since it’s become clear that Joe Biden was not mentally cogent enough to know what was going on (via The Hill):
Imagine a kindergarten talent show where every child is handed a microphone, told they’re brilliant, and encouraged to scream whatever they feel. Facts are optional, and tantrums are welcome. Now replace those toddlers with embittered semi-celebrities clinging to cultural relevance, amplify their egos with national airtime, and broadcast it five days a week. That’s The View. What once was pitched as a platform for intelligent dialogue has morphed into a bitter cocktail of rage, identity politics, and intellectual laziness. Once known for its various voices, The View has devolved into a soapbox for those who believe their outrage is a virtue.
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Thursday temporarily reinstated hundreds of Education Department workers laid off by the Trump administration and blocked the president's executive order attempting to dismantle the decades-old agency.
District Court Judge Myong J. Joun, a Biden appointee in Boston, said the White House's decision to fire more than 1,300 workers in March has prevented the federal government from effectively implementing legally required programs and services.
Earlier this week, I made the case that Dr. Kevin O’Connor — Joe Biden’s longtime physician and former White House doctor — should be called to testify before Congress about his role in the cover-up of Biden’s obvious cognitive decline and now his cancer diagnosis. A growing number of medical experts agree that Biden’s condition didn’t just appear out of nowhere; it was likely known about for years. And now, we may finally be seeing the walls start to close in.
On Thursday, House Oversight Chairman James Comer ramped up his investigation into the deliberate and coordinated cover-up, not just of Biden’s mental and physical deterioration,
Only 8 Republican Mayors Left
19 replies
In April, there were 9 Republican mayors in America’s 50 biggest cities. In May, that number fell to 8. Democrats are celebrating Omaha’s mayoral election win as proof that Republicans are out of step with America, when it’s really evidence how the nation’s cities have fallen out of step with America. There was a time when America’s cities were symbols of progress, but they have long since become sinkholes of decline, clinging to a handful of industries that employ a tiny fraction of their population as evidence of their relevance.
The Trump administration “unquestionably” violated a court order when it put eight migrants with violent criminal convictions onto a flight to South Sudan, a Biden-nominated federal judge ruled Wednesday.[snip] Murphy alleges that the eight immigrants were not given a “meaningful opportunity” to object that the deportation could put them in danger in South Sudan[snip] The Trump administration has defended the deportations[snip] “[Myint] sexually assaulted a mentally disabled woman with the mental capacity of a three-year-old,”[snip]the activist Massachusetts District Judge is trying to bring back to the United States after he was deported yesterday.”
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Beautiful news