Illegal alien steals from SNAP program in massive fraud scheme
As more than 40 million Americans prepare for a disruption to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program handouts amid the Democrat-led government shutdown, a member of a fraud conspiracy related to SNAP has been brought to justice.
On October 15, an Italian illegal alien living in Oregon was sentenced to federal prison after previously pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Over the course of 14 months between August 2023 and October 2024, Giovanni Spirea, 29, and his co-conspirators purchased over 120,000 pounds of groceries using electronic skimming devices to steal SNAP benefits.
“Spirea shared stolen account information with other members of the organization, who, along with him, used the stolen benefits to purchase large quantities of infant formula, energy drinks, and other SNAP-eligible nonperishable food items from grocery stores … and through websites associated with grocery stores offering curb-side pickup,” the DOJ said in a press release.
The stolen items were then sold on the black market, the DOJ added.
Spirea and his co-conspirators operated in Oregon, Washington, and California. The estimated value of the stolen goods is $2.4 million.
“By siphoning millions of dollars in government funds intended for food-insecure households, this illegal criminal alien proved to be one of the worst of the worst,” said April Miller, Homeland Security Investigations Seattle acting special agent in charge….
Immigration raid at New Jersey warehouse busts illegal aliens, arresting 22% of workforce
Federal immigration agents executed a raid of a New Jersey container freight warehouse that resulted in the arrest of dozens of illegal aliens, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Activists arrived on the scene to protest as federal agents conducted the arrests, WCBS-TV reported. They claimed that most of those taken into custody were packers for the international shipping company.
Local reports indicated that DHS agents initiated the workplace inspection at a facility owned by Savino Del Bene, a logistics company headquartered in Italy.
The sweep resulted in the arrests of 46 illegal aliens, approximately 22% of the on-site workforce, a DHS spokesperson told Blaze News.
“The operation is part of DHS’ ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with customs and immigration regulations, safeguard the integrity of the supply chain, and verify that warehouse operators are adhering to all applicable security requirements,” the agency spokesperson said. “DHS is committed to maintaining the highest levels of security and accountability within bonded facilities to protect both U.S. commerce and the public.”….
Nearly $200M in Federal Grants Aimed at Expanding Programs for Illegal Immigrants
Deputy Policy Editor Rachel O’Brien discusses a litany of federal grants that include “undocumented” populations in the spending, contra claims from Washington politicians that these immigrants get no access to federal dollars for health care.
Maryland Democratic state senator indicted for allegedly blackmailing former political consultant
Maryland Democratic state Sen. Dalya Attar was indicted for allegedly blackmailing her former political consultant with the woman’s affair.
The unnamed victim, a dual Israeli-American citizen and political consultant who supported Attar’s first state delegate campaign before souring on her after a disagreement, was allegedly secretly recorded in bed with a married man as part of the blackmail scheme, The Hill news outlet reported.
Attar, her brother Joseph, and a Baltimore police officer, Kalman G. Finkelstein, who assisted with her campaign, each face eight counts, including multiple counts of conspiracy, extortion via interstate communications, aiding and abetting, and interception and disclosure of a wire.
According to the indictment, Attar allegedly participated in a multiyear plot to obtain and leverage the secret recording. Attar and her codefendants allegedly put a tracker on the victim’s car and recording devices in her apartment living room and bedroom in early 2020.
In 2021, after obtaining the recording, Attar allegedly started to attempt to extort the consultant, according to the charging documents. She allegedly sent messages that indicated the consultant “needs to be warned” before she did more damage to Attar’s campaign.
“I think we have a very, very easy on our end, simple way to very likely get her to just shut up and leave us alone,” Attar allegedly wrote, according to the indictment.
Attar’s brother allegedly met with the consultant’s romantic partner in December 2021, showing him the recording and urging him to convince the consultant to leave the state senator alone,….
Israel vows to strike Hamas hard; U.S. & Germany warn Lebanon TV7 Israel News 31 Oct.
1) Two Israeli hostages who were murdered in Hamas captivity are returned to Israel.
2) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterates that unless the Islamist Hamas disarms, Israel will eliminate the terrorist organization.
3) Germany tells Turkey that Israel has a right to self defense.
‘TIME TO RETIRE’: GOP rep’s DESPERATE call for Nancy Pelosi to ‘move on’
Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to discuss Democrats’ use of the shutdown as political leverage, warning it’s hurting vulnerable Americans, driving SNAP costs higher and risking Thanksgiving travel chaos
President Trump: ‘Dems NEED to open up the country!’
President Donald Trump talks the government shutdown and his recent trip to Asia.
@realDonaldTrump
Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” — But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done! I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!
DONALD J. TRUMP,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
WATCH: Democrats Get ROASTED by… LIB MEDIA as Gov’t Shutdown “Strategy” Completely Backfires 😂
You know things are getting bad for the Democrats when they’re finally forced to admit why they shut down the government. BlazeTV Host Sara Gonzales breaks down this latest Democrat trainwreck and how the government shutdown continues to expose their true colors.
Obamacare’s Chronic Conditions: Shutting Down Government and Propping Up Policy Failure
We have been witnessing lunacy. Senate Democrats repeatedly voted against a short-term, “clean” resolution to reopen the federal government because they insist, amidst massive deficits and dangerous debt, on adding another $1.5 trillion in total federal spending.
Among other items on their wish list, such as Medicaid eligibility for illegal aliens—House and Senate Democrats want to make the expansion of temporary COVID-19-era emergency taxpayer subsidies for Obamacare insurance premiums permanent. The COVID-19 pandemic is over, folks.
Recall that President Barack Obama and Congress established an income cap for the taxpayer insurance subsidies at 400% of the federal poverty level, or $128,600 for a family of four.
Today, congressional Democrats want to abolish that six-figure cap and subsidize the rich. Beyond fiscal insanity, this is a surreal rewrite of the social contract: Compel today’s lower income taxpayers to subsidize tomorrow’s higher income Obamacare beneficiaries—indefinitely.
While Congress should reform the Obamacare subsidies to ensure that poor and lower middle-income people can afford coverage, they should refrain from expanding dependency on government up the income scale.
When this madness ends, Congress must address the routinely neglected and supremely unpleasant underlying problem: the indisputable and costly failures of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, or Obamacare, itself.
Rarely has there been such a massive disparity between the official promises and the real-world performance of any major government program.
Let us pass over, for the moment, Obama’s solemn 2009 promise that if you liked your health plan, you could keep it. In fact, millions of Americans lost the coverage they knew and liked. Even Politifact, the lefty “fact-checker,” called Obama’s promise the “lie of the year.”
But Obamacare’s chronic conditions are still with us. The rapidly rising health care costs, the collapse of personal choice and competition in the individual markets, and the widespread reduction of patient access to preferred doctors and hospitals in the Obamacare plans.
The law was supposed to solve, prevent, or at least ameliorate these problems. It did not.
Lest we forget. During the health care debate, Obama boldly promised that his signature legislation would “bend the cost curve” downward, and furthermore, the “typical” American family would see a yearly reduction in their health insurance premium costs of $2,500. Even without the benefit of hindsight, President Obama’s claim seemed extravagant.
So, what happened? A comprehensive Heritage Foundation analysis of the insurance data describes the trends in quantitative detail. For example: ….
Obamacare sticker shock is more shocking in some states than others
With open enrollment on most of the nation’s Affordable Care Act state marketplaces and the federal exchange starting Saturday, many consumers will suffer sticker shock.
But the impact will not be felt evenly. It will depend on how heavily your premiums have been subsidized, the state you live in and your household income.
For example, some enrollees who live in New Jersey will see their out-of-pocket premiums rise more than 175 percent. In Colorado, it’s 101 percent. In Maryland, one of the states that is adding money to reduce the impact of the hikes, it’s 30 percent.
“It’s devastating. We’ve gotten to the point that real people are in the middle of this now,” said Jessica Altman, executive director of Covered California, the state’s Obamacare exchange.
The worst-case scenarios states have been warning Congress about for months are becoming closer to reality as lawmakers remain stalemated over an extension of enhanced ACA subsidies that Democrats enacted in 2021.
Democratic senators have made an extension a principle condition to vote to reopen the government and believe the big premium increases will strengthen their case. Republican lawmakers seem unmoved from their position that Democrats must first agree to end the shutdown before the GOP will consider the future of the subsidies.
A new KFF analysis highlights the difference the enhanced subsidies make for consumers.
Residents of the 30 states that use the federally run HealthCare.gov will see an average 26 percent premium rise in 2026 for an average ACA plan, according to the analysis. Residents of the 20 states with their own exchanges will see an average 17 percent hike. These numbers include everyone on the exchanges.
However, that figure doesn’t reflect what a person who gets a subsidy might pay…..
Drug makers recalled blood pressure medicine for having potential cancer-causing chemical, FDA
Two U.S. drugmakers are recalling more than a half-million bottles of the blood pressure medication prazosin hydrochloride for possibly containing a cancer-causing chemical, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and Amerisource Health Services issued voluntary nationwide recalls earlier this month of more than 580,000 bottles of the blood pressure medication, according to the FDA, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Prazosin is prescribed by doctors to help lower blood pressure, and sometimes for people with post-traumatic stress disorder who have nightmares and other sleep disturbances.
The FDA said that it gave the affected lots of the drug a Class II risk classification last week because some of the recalled medication may have nitrosamine impurities that are considered potentially cancer-causing. These impurities can form during the manufacture or storage of a drug.
ICE Arrests Over 145 Illegal Alien Truck Drivers on Indiana Highways
On Thursday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that, thanks to ICE’s 287(g) agreement with the Indiana State Police, more than 220 illegal aliens were arrested on the Hoosier State’s highways in recent weeks.
Of those arrests, 146 illegal aliens were driving semi-trucks and more than 40 had been issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses. The states that issued the most Commercial Driver’s Licenses were Illinois, California, and New York — all sanctuary states.
“Far too many innocent Americans have been killed by illegal aliens driving semi-trucks and big rigs,” Noem said in a statement:
And yet, sanctuary states around the country have been issuing illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses. The Trump Administration is ending the chaos.Thanks to President Trump, Operation Midway Blitz has already removed over 140 illegal alien truck drivers in Indiana. The brave men and women of ICE and the Indiana State Police are working nonstop to get criminal illegal aliens out of our communities and off our roads. [Emphasis added]
Some of the illegal aliens arrested in the sting, part of Operation Midway Blitz, had been convicted of drunk driving, drug trafficking, theft, burglary, assault, child abuse, domestic violence, prostitution, and fraud….
Feds: More than 7,200 Truck Drivers Removed from U.S. Highways After Failing English Test
“[DOT] requires commercial truck drivers to speak and understand English to operate a big rig- or they will be taken out of service,” Duffy wrote on X. “This is about [President Trump] and his administration making America’s roads SAFE again!”
According to Duffy, almost 7,250 truck drivers have been placed out of service for failing the Trump administration’s English language proficiency standards that the Obama administration had gutted — making way for foreign truckers with no understanding of English to drive dangerous semi-trucks on American highways.
The new standards are meant to shut down the black market trucking industry, which relies on low-wage foreign truck drivers with little-to-no understanding of English.
The announcement comes after another illegal alien from India is accused of killing three Americans on a highway in the sanctuary state of California, which issued him a Commercial Driver’s License and, according to Duffy, did not require him to abide by the Trump administration’s English proficiency rules.
“My prayers are with the families of the victims of this tragedy. It would have never happened if Gavin Newsom had followed our new rules,” Duffy said in a statement about the case. “California broke the law, and now three people are dead and two are hospitalized. These people deserve justice. There will be consequences.”…
Populist German Influencer Naomi Seibt Applies for Asylum in U.S. over ‘Political Persecution’ from Berlin
Seibt, who rose to prominence as an “Anti-Greta” figure railing against the green agenda and who has become a leading voice against the open borders agenda in Germany and Europe, beseeched President Trump to grant her asylum.
She said that as a vocal supporter of the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and as a free speech advocate, she has faced “political persecution” in the form of “intelligence surveillance, state media defamation, [and] Antifa threats”.
Writing on X, Seibt accused the German government of “supporting left-wing violence, covering up migrant crimes, and silencing dissidents with mass house raids.”
“The tax-funded propaganda media monopolize the narrative and defame the Trump administration – even Charlie Kirk – constantly,” she continued.
The influencer told Fox News that she has filed for asylum under Section 208 of the Immigration and Citizenship Act, given that she is fearful of imprisonment or political violence if she returns to Germany….
Blue state ICE agents dodge bullets, speeding cars as left ramps up tracking campaigns
Two shootings involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took place over the past 10 days in Southern California as individuals on the left continue to track its agents.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital that an individual pulled their car in front of ICE officers on Thursday in Ontario, California.
After ICE officers ordered the driver to leave the area, the individual attempted to run them over “by reversing directly at them without stopping,” the DHS official said.
One ICE officer feared “for his life” and fired shots at the car, which McLaughlin said fled the area.
McLaughlin said the incident is “another example of the threats our ICE officers are facing day-in and day-out.”
“ICE officers now face a 1,000% increase in assaults against them including cars being used as weapons and death threats against our agents are up 8,000%,” she said. “This violence must end. Let me be clear: Anyone who assaults, impedes, obstructs, or threatens the lives of federal officers will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
In a separate incident on Oct. 21, DHS said TikTok influencer Carlito Ricardo Parias, an illegal immigrant, tried to ram his car into a law enforcement vehicle in Los Angeles.
ICE officers fired shots at Parias, hitting him in the elbow, McLaughlin said. One U.S. Marshals officer was also shot in the hand by a ricochet bullet……
Unearthed records expose Swalwell campaign’s ‘bizarre inconsistency’ in payments to California man
One of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is raising eyebrows over a “bizarre inconsistency” in his campaign’s Federal Election Commission filings that list several different reasons for payments to a Haitian American staffer, totaling over $360,000.
FEC filings from Swalwell for Congress and his Remedy PAC, dating back to 2021 and as recently as last month, show over 75 payments to an individual named Darly Meyer, with various reasons given for the disbursements. Individual payments vary from as little as $53 to over $12,000.
Based on the payments, Meyer has earned varying amounts each year, including over 27 payments last year that added up to over $120,000. He is also on pace to make over $120,000 in 2025.
The FEC filings list several different reasons for the payments, ranging from travel expenses, car service to security services to salary. There are also several payments to Meyer for things like “personal travel expense reimbursement,” “event flowers reimbursement” and postage…..
Hans von Spakovsky, a former FEC commissioner and now senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that “this is the type of bizarre inconsistency that should catch the attention of the FEC.”
Von Spakovsky added that the irregularities should “cause the agency’s auditing arm to investigate whether these were legitimate payments to a legitimate contractor.”
This is not the first time Swalwell has raised eyebrows over his campaign expenditures. According to FEC filings through the years, Swalwell’s campaign has reported a multitude of expenditures on luxury car services, expensive restaurants and lavish, luxury hotels, including in Dubai, Berlin, Paris, London and others.
Fox News Digital previously reported on Swalwell’s campaign dropping tens of thousands of dollars on Just Dreaming Yacht Charters, a San Francisco agency that offers “relaxing and luxurious” private yachts for up to 40 passengers, as a fundraising expense. In October 2023, his campaign spent nearly $17,000 with the company….
Analysis: FBI’s Jan. 6 pipe bomb update omits key evidence, withholds video
An 8 ½-minute FBI video on the Jan. 6 pipe bombs, released last week, omits key new evidence, relies on likely manipulated, low-quality footage, and excludes crucial hours of security video that could clarify the most persistent questions that surround the languishing investigation.
The bureau released the video to revive public interest in a case that has gone unsolved for nearly five years.
Its timing comes just two weeks after a video sleuth briefed congressional investigators, alleging serious flaws in the FBI’s account of the pipe bombs.
Despite those claims — including apparent video manipulation and ignored public tips — the bureau has stuck to its original story.
The new footage also offers no hint that the FBI considered publicly acknowledging another theory: that the pipe bombs were part of a poorly timed training exercise.
FBI sources told Blaze News weeks ago about rumors the bureau had been preparing to report that several federal agencies took part in a training exercise that diverted police resources from the Capitol as thousands of protesters breached its barricades at 12:53 p.m.
Those same sources said that once word of this alleged new theory leaked, the FBI abandoned it. The latest video reflects that retreat, repeating the same facts and framing first presented in 2021…..
15 DUIs, still driving: California’s failure to take repeat drunk drivers off the road
The state of California gave Sylvester Conway every opportunity to kill.
He already had two DUI convictions by 2019, when the California Highway Patrol arrested him for driving drunk in Fresno County. The jail released him three days later. Conway didn’t show up to court and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
The cycle continued. In April 2021, prosecutors say he drove the wrong way on the highway with a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit. Conway signed a citation for driving under the influence, promising that he’d show up to court. He didn’t.
The same thing happened in August that year — another DUI arrest, this time by Fresno police, and another warrant for skipping court.
All three Fresno DUI cases were still open, and all three warrants were out for Conway’s arrest, when police say he sped — drunk again — on his way to a casino in February 2022. This time, he lost control, flipped his Acura and killed his passenger, Khayriyyah Jones. He’s now facing murder charges in Madera County.
California’s DUI enforcement system is broken. The toll can be counted in bodies.
Alcohol-related roadway deaths in California have shot up by more than 50% in the past decade — an increase more than twice as steep as the rest of the country, federal estimates show. More than 1,300 people die each year statewide in drunken collisions. Thousands more are injured. Again and again, repeat DUI offenders cause the crashes……
Federal appeals court cancels daily Border Patrol chief check-ins
The Department of Homeland Security is celebrating a victory after an “act of judicial overreach has been paused.”
On Wednesday, an appeals court blocked an order issued on Tuesday that required a senior Border Patrol official to give unprecedented daily briefings to a judge about immigration sweeps in Chicago.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis had ordered the meetings after weeks of tense encounters and increasingly aggressive tactics by government agents working on Operation Midway Blitz, which has resulted in more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.
While Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino told Fox News earlier Wednesday that he was eager to talk to Ellis, government lawyers were appealing her decision at the same time, calling it “extraordinarily disruptive.”
“The order significantly interferes with the quintessentially executive function of ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced by waylaying a senior executive official critical to that mission on a daily basis,” the Justice Department argued.
“We are thrilled this act of judicial overreach has been paused,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to The Associated Press….
The EBT Scam Just Went From Bad To Worse | Ep. 1682
Today on the Matt Walsh Show, as we’ve talked about it this week, I’ve done a deeper dive in the EBT program. It turns out this scam is even worse than I thought, and much worse than most people realize. I’ll give you the facts today.
Also, a popular liberal podcaster says that Democrat politicians need to get on board with wishing death on their opponents. An MSNBC anchor claims that no Democrat has ever compared Trump to Hitler.
Of all the fake news ever reported by the fake news, this has to the fakest. And a single childless millennial woman has a moment of realization in a video that has gone majorly viral.
Newsfeed News.com 