Poll: 69% Nationwide Believe Data Center Costs Outweigh Benefits

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Poll: 69% Nationwide Believe Data Center Costs Outweigh Benefits

(Jon Styf, The Center Square)  A majority of adults in the United States believe that the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits with 69% believing the costs are greater and 30% believing that the benefits are higher, according to a new national poll from the Marquette University Law School.

The results were an increase from the 62% who believed that the costs outweighed the benefits in January.

The results mirrored results from a survey of 850 registered voters in Wisconsin, when 69% of those voters said the costs outweigh the benefits.

Questions were asked of 982 voters nationwide between April 8-16.

Large-scale data center projects have popped up across the country in recent years with the tax incentives often hidden in tax increment districts and waiving sales tax on construction materials.

A recent Good Jobs First report showed that 14 states and scores of local governments fail to properly disclose how much revenue they are losing to data center tax breaks while a deeper look at just three states showed that they are losing more than $1 billion per year to data center tax breaks.

A Wisconsin waiver on sales tax on large-scale data center construction materials has led to that $70 million in forgone sales tax in its first two years, a number that is expected to multiply as data centers in Mount Pleasant, Verona, Beaver Dam and Port Washington have now been certified by the state to be eligible for the sales tax exemption.

The new Marquette Poll showed bipartisan opposition to data centers with 62% of Republicans, 76% of Democrats, and 73% of independents saying the costs are greater than the benefits. Those numbers all increased since a January poll.

Senate To Vote on War Powers Resolution To Block US Attack on Cuba

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Senate To Vote on War Powers Resolution To Block US Attack on Cuba

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Next week, the Senate is expected to vote on a War Powers Resolution aimed at preventing a US attack on Cuba amid reports that the Pentagon is ramping up preparations for a potential war against the island nation.

The bill, S.J.Res. 124, was introduced last month by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and would block hostilities against Cuba that haven’t been authorized by Congress (use this link to tell your senators to support the bill).

“When will President Trump understand that Americans want lower prices, not more unnecessary wars?” Kaine said in a statement when the bill was introduced last month.

“Only Congress has the power to declare war under the Constitution, but he operates with the belief that the U.S. military is a palace guard, ordering military action in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and Iran without Congress’ authorization or any explanation for his actions to the American people,”

Since the US attack on Venezuela to abduct President Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration has cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and also pressured Mexico not to ship oil to the island, causing a major humanitarian crisis in the country.

Amid the blockade, President Donald Trump has been threatening to attack Cuba, making it clear it’s his next preferred military intervention after the Iran war. The president said last month that he thinks he’ll have the “honor” of “taking Cuba” and that he feels that he “can do anything I want with it.”

The US and Cuba have been engaged in some talks, but it’s unclear what sort of deal the Trump administration would accept. The message from Havana has been one of defiance in the face of the US aggression, with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel saying that the country is ready to fight against a US invasion.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.  

Man Who Swiped Noem’s Purse in a DC Restaurant is Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison

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Man Who Swiped Noem’s Purse in a DC Restaurant is Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison

(Headline USA) A man who stole a purse from then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem while she dined at a restaurant under the protection of Secret Service agents was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for a string of thefts in the nation’s capital.

Mario Bustamante Leiva did not recognize Noem when he grabbed her Gucci handbag from the floor of a restaurant where she was eating with her family in April 2025, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Noem’s purse had credit cards and about $3,000 in cash. Police recovered it from Leiva’s motel room.

Bustamante Leiva, a 50-year-old native of Chile, is facing deportation after his sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden.

“Bustamante Leiva came to Washington illegally to prey on citizens of the district,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in a statement. “His pattern of theft ends here.”

Noem, who is identified only by her initials in court filings, acknowledged the incident in a statement last year that referred to Bustamante Leiva as a “a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years.”

He pleaded guilty in November to three counts of wire fraud and one count of first-degree theft. He was charged and convicted of robbing two other people and charging fraudulent purchases to their credit cards.

Bustamante Leiva was charged along with a second suspect, Cristian Montecino-Sananza, who was sentenced in March to 13 months of incarceration for his role in one of the other thefts.

Investigators said they identified Bustamante Leiva as a suspect in the thefts after he used a stolen gift card to make a purchase.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Chemical Leak at a West Virginia Plant Kills 2 People and Sends 19 to Hospital, Officials Say

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Chemical Leak at a West Virginia Plant Kills 2 People and Sends 19 to Hospital, Officials Say

(Headline USA) A chemical leak at a West Virginia silver recovery business on Wednesday killed two people and sent 19 others to the hospital, including one in critical condition, authorities said.

The leak occurred at the Catalyst Refiners plant in Institute as workers were preparing to shut down at least part of the facility, Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said.

A chemical gas reaction occurred at the plant involving nitric acid and another substance, Sigman said, speaking at a news briefing. He added that there was “a violent reaction of the chemicals and it instantaneously overreacted.”

“Starting or ending a chemical reaction are the most dangerous times,” Sigman said.

Among the injured were seven ambulance workers responding to the leak, officials said.

Other people were taken to the hospitals in private cars or even in one case a garbage truck, Sigman said.

One person was in critical condition, Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango said.

Vandalia Health Charleston Area Medical Center, one of several hospitals in the area, was treating multiple patients, some brought by ambulance, while members of the community were arriving Wednesday afternoon asking to be checked, hospital spokesman Dale Witte said.

Witte said patients were experiencing respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, sore throat and itchy eyes. They were being evaluated in the emergency room.

WVU Medicine Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston said in a statement it has cared for a dozen patients, including eight who arrived by personal vehicle and were not at the scene but were in the area at the time. It said none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.

A shelter-in-place order was issued for the surrounding area and lifted more than five hours later. Officials said all the deaths and injuries occurred on the plant site.

“You had to get really close to the facility to smell it,” Sigman said.

The leak required a large-scale decontamination operation in which people had to remove their clothes and be sprayed down, authorities said.

Catalyst Refiners works to remove silver from what remains of chemical processes and can find thousands of dollars of the precious metal just by vacuuming the floors in a plant’s offices, Sigmon said.

Ames Goldsmith Corp., the owner of Catalyst Refiners, said it is saddened by the deaths and its thoughts were with all those impacted and their families.

“This is an unfathomably difficult time,” company President Frank Barber said in a statement released at the news briefing. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues and their families.”

Ames Goldsmith promised to work with local, state and federal officials as they investigate what happened.

The plant is located near Institute, a community about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Charleston, the state capital. The plant is in an region known as West Virginia’s “chemical valley,” although many plants that lined the area along the Kanawha River and produced hazardous materials have closed or changed ownership in the past several decades.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat Seeking His 13th term in Congress, Dies at Age 80

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Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat Seeking His 13th term in Congress, Dies at Age 80

(Headline USA) U.S. Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat and the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has died. He was 80.

Scott, who was seeking his 13th term in Congress despite challenges from within his party, was once a leading voice for Democrats on issues related to farm aid policy and food aid for consumers and a prominent Black member of the party’s moderate Blue Dog caucus. But he faced criticism and concerns in recent years because of declining health, enduring a primary challenge in 2024 and facing another one at the time of his death.

Democrats on Capitol Hill praised the longtime lawmaker.

“The news of Congressman Scott’s passing is deeply sad,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday.

“David Scott was a trailblazer who served the district that he represented admirably, rose up from humble beginnings to become the first African American ever to chair the House Ag Committee,” Jeffries said. “He cared about the people that he represented. He was fiercely committed to getting things done for the people of the great state of Georgia, and he’ll be deeply missed.”

News of Scott’s death came during the Congressional Black Caucus’ weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill. The Black Caucus’ chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke, told lawmakers at the outset of the meeting.

The White House lowered its flags to half-staff after Scott’s death.

Death creates another vacancy

Scott’s death slightly widens Republicans’ narrow House majority going into the thick of this midterm election year The GOP began the current Congress with a 220-215 advantage, but the margin has fluctuated. Scott is the fourth House Democrat to die in office during this Congress.

Scott had been mostly absent from the campaign trail in 2024 and 2026 and had become a noted example of Democrats’ aging leadership targeted by younger generations of the left. He dodged questions from reporters when he qualified for another term in March, but he earlier dismissed pressure to retire.

“Thank God I’m in good health, moving and doing the people’s work,” the congressman said in 2024.

His wife and campaign adviser Alfredia Scott was even more direct. “When the congressman decides to leave, he won’t be pushed out,” she said in 2024. “He will bow out.”

State officials will have to schedule a special election to fill out the rest of Scott’s term, which could overlap with elections to choose a representative for the next two-year term. Early in-person voting starts Monday for May 19 party primaries for the next full term.

Scott was a pioneering Black lawmaker

David Albert Scott was born in rural Aynor, South Carolina, on June 27, 1945, in the era of Jim Crow segregation. He spent part of his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, along with stints New York and Florida. Scott graduated from Florida A&M University, one of the nation’s largest historically Black college campuses — and in office he was an outspoken advocate for federal support of HBCUs. Scott also earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1969.

He settled in Atlanta, opened his own advertising business and got his start in politics as a staffer on Andrew Young’s 1972 congressional campaign. Young would go on to be Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador under President Jimmy Carter, another Georgian.

The support of Young and baseball legend Henry “Hank” Aaron, who was the older brother of Scott’s wife, helped launch Scott into Congress in 2002, said Democratic state Sen. Emanuel Jones. He was opposing Scott in the May 19 primary, although he called Scott “a good friend.”

Scott was one of a pioneering generation of Black state lawmakers in Georgia, winning election to the state House in 1974 and the state Senate in 1982 before being elected to Congress. Once identifying as a moderate “Blue Dog” — Scott had sponsored a law mandating a moment of silent school prayer in the state Senate — he evolved into a more mainstream liberal.

An advocate for historically Black schools

Scott served decades in Congress while living outside his district after maps were redrawn. He maintained support, focusing intently on constituent service including hosting job and health fairs.

Among his notable achievements on Capitol Hill, Scott secured $80 million for historically Black land-grant schools as part of the 2018 Farm Bill. The money was steered to agriculture-related scholarships at 19 campuses. He helped author various housing and mortgage aid measures, and he pushed for better health care and other benefits for veterans and their families. On foreign policy, Scott was an outspoken advocate for NATO and post-World War II American alliances.

Scott’s fellow Democrats ousted him from his post as ranking minority member on the Agriculture Committee in 2024 amid concerns about his age and health.

Scott is survived by Alfredia Scott, the couple’s two adult daughters and grandchildren.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

SPLC Paid Millions of Dollars to Nazis and Klansmen, DOJ Says

Ken Silva
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SPLC Paid Millions of Dollars to Nazis and Klansmen, DOJ Says

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups for inside information, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program to infiltrate white supremacist and other extremist groups. Prosecutors allege some of the money was used by extremists to carry out other crimes, but court papers did not include specific examples.

“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.

The civil rights group faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought in the federal court in Alabama, where the organization is based.

The indictment came shortly after the SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its disbanded informant program to gather intelligence on extremist group activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.

The SPLC said it “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work” against what it described as false allegations. The group said its informant program saved lives.

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” interim CEO and president Bryan Fair said in a statement. “The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all.”

A program that dated back to the 1980s

The Justice Department alleges the SPLC made false statements to banks in order to set up accounts used to funnel money to informants. The group created bank accounts for fictitious entities such as “Fox Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse” that were used to send money from donors to informants, in a scheme to conceal the money’s actual purpose, the indictment alleges.

Prosecutors say the group never disclosed to donors details of the informant program.

“They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” Blanche said.

The indictment includes details on at least nine unnamed informants were paid by the SPLC through a secret program that prosecutors say began in the 1980s.

Within the SPLC, they were known as field sources or “the Fs,” according to the indictment. The indictment listed several “Fs,” with the highest numbered one being “F-43”—implying that the SPLC’s network of spies numbered into at least the dozens.

One informant was paid more than $1 million between 2014 and 2023 while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the indictment said. Prosecutors say another informant was a member of the “online leadership chat group” that planned the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The informant attended the rally at the direction of the SPLC, according to the indictment, and helped coordinate transportation for several others. That person was allegedly paid more than $270,000 between 2015 and 2013.

Headline USA was able to identify at least one of the informants: ‘F-39’ is likely former National Alliance accountant Randolph Dilloway. The indictment says he was paid $6,000 to take the blame for stealing documents. That information aligns with a lawsuit from around that time accusing Dilloway of being paid over $5,000 by the SPLC to steal documents.

Speculation continues to swirl about the possible identity of the other SPLC sources.

The SPLC said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants. However, critics have noted that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have used the SPLC’s informant network to skirt constitutional restrictions on domestic surveillance.

For instance, about eight years after the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing, a leaked FBI memo revealed in 2003 that the SPLC had its own informants operating in an Oklahoman white supremacist compound called Elohim City, where OKC bomber Tim McVeigh was suspected to have visited.

The leaked January 1996 FBI memo said: “Information has also been received through the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that [NAME REDACTED] telephone call from [Oklahoma City bomber] Timothy McVeigh on or about 4/17/95, two days prior to the OKBOMB attack, when [NAME REDACTED], per a source of the SPLC, was in the white supremacist compound at [Elohim City].”

Citing a “highly placed confidential source in the DOJ,” the journalists who obtained the memo reported in 2005 that the FBI had been using the SPLC as a surveillance cutout. The journalists, J.D. Cash and Roger Charles, said the FBI was using a spy network operated by the SPLC to do what many in the bureau were afraid to do because of guidelines in place during the Clinton administration.

“Attorney General Janet Reno would not allow the FBI much latitude in developing intelligence inside the far-right due to concerns that such activities might violate existing departmental guidelines on ‘domestic spying,’” J.D. Cash and Roger Charles wrote in July 2005 for the McCurtain Daily Gazette.

“To skirt Reno’s policies, the FBI developed a relationship with cutouts such as the SPLC that could use their own spies to do what the FBI could not. These non-government agents then passed their intelligence products back to the bureau.”

Because the OKC bombing suspects who had resided at Elohim City were never arrested in relation to the attack—as Headline USA reported here—Cash and Charles wondered whether the SPLC was helping the FBI conceal information about the case. Cash and Charles—the latter who worked a brief stint on McVeigh’s defense team—were developing the theory that the FBI was trying to conceal the fact that one of its informants had gone rogue and helped carry out the bombing.

The two investigators confronted SPLC founder Morris Dees with their suspicions, but Dees reportedly declined to divulge information.

“Dees admitted that he had an informant at Elohim City as the [FBI] teletype said. However, the coy attorney refused to elaborate on the situation, except to say he had warned then-attorney general Reno, six months before the attack, that, ‘An attack on the government is planned by members of the far right,’” Cash and Charles wrote in 2005.

“Dees went on to say that after the attack he immediately called Reno to say the media had it wrong. ‘I told her the attack was domestic, not foreign,’ Dees said.”

Dees was reportedly also confronted about the matter during a conference at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 2003, but he also declined to comment at that time.

“If I told you what we were doing there, I would have to kill you,” Dees reportedly said in 2003.

More recently, the SPLC came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The SPLC included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the SPLC, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the SPLC had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.

House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration “to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

 

The Gates Foundation is Reviewing its Epstein Ties as Released Emails Raise Questions for Funders

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The Gates Foundation is Reviewing its Epstein Ties as Released Emails Raise Questions for Funders

(Headline USA) The Gates Foundation is reviewing its ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the global health funder confirmed Wednesday, as its only remaining founder faces mounting scrutiny over his appearances in Justice Department documents related to its investigation of the disgraced financier.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates reportedly spoke “candidly” about his relationship to Epstein in a February town hall meeting of the influential foundation he started with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. But the external probe marks the nonprofit’s plainest attempt yet to address associations that have cast a pall over its concentrated efforts to end preventable maternal/child deaths and control key infectious diseases.

“In March, with the support of our chair, Bill Gates, and our independent Governing Board members, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman commissioned an external review to assess past foundation engagement with Epstein, and our current policies for vetting and developing new philanthropic partnerships,” the Gates Foundation said in a statement. The Wall Street journal first reported news of the staff memo detailing the review.

The philanthropic giant has already undergone a period of change. The Gates Foundation shared plans in January to cap operating costs and incrementally cut as many as 500 positions, or about 20% of its staff, by 2030. The move follows last year’s announcement that the foundation would close in 2045, earlier than previously expected.

The Justice Department’s files include email correspondence between Gates and Epstein about philanthropic projects, calendar entries documenting dates they held meetings and photos of Gates at events attended by the two men. Gates has not been accused of any wrongdoing regarding their connection, denies knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claims they met only to discuss philanthropy.

The foundation acknowledged that “a small number” of employees met with Epstein based on his “claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health and development” in a February statement. They never created a fund together and the foundation made no financial payments to Epstein, according to the previous release.

“The foundation regrets having any employees interact with Epstein in any way,” the statement read.

The files’ disclosures are being closely followed by one of the Gates Foundation’s earliest and most ardent supporters. Investor Warren Buffett, who donates a portion of his annual Berkshire Hathaway shares to the nonprofit, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last month that it’s clear “there was a lot I didn’t know.”

Buffett, who resigned as the foundation’s trustee in 2021, has completed his donation every year around the end of June. But he said he will “wait and see what unfolds” in the Justice Department’s documents and congressional hearings on their contents. He noted the foundation is “sitting” on a large endowment, which totals $86 billion, and said Gates has “plenty of his own money.”

“So, in any event, I’ll just wait and see. And there’s three and a half million, or whatever it is pages – I mean, it is astounding,” Buffett said of the Epstein files.

A Gates Foundation spokesperson described Buffett as “an extraordinarily generous partner” for nearly two decades in a statement Wednesday to the Associated Press.

“We are deeply grateful for his support, which has enabled us to accelerate progress on some of the world’s toughest challenges that would not otherwise have been possible,” the spokesperson said.

The Gates Foundation expects its board and management will receive an update on the Epstein review this summer. The third-party investigators have not been publicly named.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

 

Top House Republicans Probe Puzzling Disappearance of Scientists 

Luis Cornelio
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Top House Republicans Probe Puzzling Disappearance of Scientists 

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The leaders of two House panels are investigating the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and deaths of scientists and researchers who have recently fueled viral speculation on social media. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Economic Growth Subcommittee Chairman Eric Burlison, R-Mo., on Tuesday requested information from several Trump agencies, including the FBI and NASA, “about the scientists and other personnel connected to U.S. nuclear secrets or rocket technology who have died or mysteriously vanished in recent years.” 

The congressional probe stems from viral speculation involving 11 individuals who worked on nuclear or other sensitive government projects and who have either been fatally shot or gone missing. 

“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets,” Comer and Burlison wrote to Trump administration officials. 

“We request a briefing on any information regarding these deaths and disappearances, as well as the processes and procedures in place to protect American scientific secrets and ensure personnel safety,” they added. 

The probe comes after President Donald Trump said last week he had been briefed on the matter, while expressing hope that the circumstances were random. 

“Pretty serious stuff,” Trump said while speaking to reporters outside the White House. “Some of them were very important people, and we’re going to look at it over the next short period.” 

Following those remarks, the FBI said it “is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists.” The bureau said it was working with the Department of Energy, Department of War and with state and local law enforcement to “find answers.” 

Comer and Burlison also wrote to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, requesting a briefing on the ongoing investigation. 

Among the individuals cited is Maj. Gen. William “Neil” McCasland, who reportedly went missing from his Albuquerque home in February 2026. His wife said he would not have simply walked away. 

Other missing professionals include Monica Jacinto Reza (missing since June 2025), Melissa Casias (missing since June 2025), Anthony Chavez (missing since May 2025), and Steven Garcia (missing since August 2025). 

Additional individuals, as reported by FOX 11 LA, referred in the federal probes include: 

  • Jason Thomas, found dead in March 2026, after being missing since December 2025. 
  • Nuno Loureiro, fatally shot in December 2025 
  • Amy Eskridge, who died in June 2022 
  • Frank Maiwald, who died in July 2024 
  • Michael David Hicks, who died in July 2023 
  • Carl Grillmair, who died in February 2026 

Political writer Richard Hanania has noted that the scientists do not to be connected. He thinks Republicans are concocting a baseless conspiracy theory.

“They toiled in widely divergent fields, held different positions, had no obvious connections to one another, and lived in different parts of the country,” Hanania wrote for Unherd on Monday. “They included a retired Air Force major general, an MIT professor, and a pharmaceutical scientist who apparently only made the list due to having a Pentagon contract.”

Unearthed Files Expose Yet Another Biden FBI Probe Targeting GOPers

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Unearthed Files Expose Yet Another Biden FBI Probe Targeting GOPers

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Efforts to unmask the extent of the Biden-era weaponization of the federal government have centered on Operation Arctic Frostbite and Special Counsel Jack Smith. Newly released documents, however, reveal yet another investigation targeting Republican lawmakers.

Dubbed “Operation Rampart Twelve,” the Biden-era probe targeted at least four Republican members of Congress through secret subpoenas their phone records in the final days of the Trump administration.

The investigation was launched just days before Trump left office.

According to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the so-called Rampart Twelve probe served as a precursor to Arctic Frostbite, which ultimately paved the way for Smith’s appointment and Trump’s indictment years later.

Among the lawmakers targeted were Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; and former Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala.

The Biden FBI reportedly sought information to support unproven claims that Boebert and Gosar led “reconnaissance tours” ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 protests against certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Grassley announced the findings alongside Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., during a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Judge Postpones OxyContin-Maker Purdue Pharma’s Sentencing to Let Opioid Victims Attend in Person

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Judge Postpones OxyContin-Maker Purdue Pharma’s Sentencing to Let Opioid Victims Attend in Person

(Headline USA) A judge on Tuesday delayed the criminal sentencing of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma in order to allow victims to attend the court proceeding in person.

U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo originally planned to hand down the sentence Tuesday during a court hearing conducted only by videoconferencing. But she said she changed her mind after seeing some victims of the opioid crisis protesting outside her courthouse in Newark, New Jersey. She said they should be allowed to attend in person, too, and moved the hearing to next Tuesday.

When it happens, Arleo is expected to order the company to forfeit $225 million to the Justice Department, clearing the way for the company to finalize a settlement of nearly all of the thousands of lawsuits it faces over its role in the opioid crisis.

The penalty was agreed to in a 2020 pact to resolve federal civil and criminal probes it was facing. If the judge signs off, other penalties will not be collected in return for Purdue settling the other lawsuits.

After years of legal twists and turns, the settlement was approved by another judge last year and Purdue said it could still be effective May 1 if the sentence is given on the scheduled date. The settlement requires members of the Sackler family who own the company to pay up to $7 billion to state, local and Native American tribal governments, some individual victims and others.

Purdue pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges in November 2020.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based company admitted that it did not have an effective program to keep its powerful prescription painkillers from being diverted to the black market, even though it told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that it did.

It also admitted that it paid doctors through a speakers program to prescribe the drugs and paid an electronic medical records company to send doctors information on patients that encouraged more opioid prescriptions.

Although Purdue produced only a fraction of the opioid pills that flooded the market in the 2000s, advocates have long seen aggressive sales of OxyContin as one of the touchstones of the crisis. At a 1996 event to rally Purdue’s sales force, Richard Sackler, then a top Purdue executive and later president of the company, called for a “blizzard of prescriptions.”

While Purdue is expected to pay $225 million, the government agreed in the plea deal not to collect $5.3 billion in criminal forfeitures and fines and $2.8 billion in civil liabilities. Instead, portions of that money are considered part of the broader settlement — and the federal government will receive a small slice of that.

The broader settlement calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years. Most of the money is to go to government entities to use to fight the opioid crisis.

It’s among the largest in a series of settlements by drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies in recent years — and the only major one that includes payments for some individual victims or their survivors.

Together, the settlements are worth more than $50 billion, and most of the money is to be used to address the overdose epidemic.

Under the Purdue deal, members of the Sackler family would be shielded from lawsuits over opioids from those who agree to the payments.

Purdue itself would cease to exist and be replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, which would operate for the public benefit and have a board appointed by the states.

The reorganization is considered one of the most complicated ever. By the end of last year, Purdue had paid law firms and other professionals working on all sides of the case more than $1 billion, according to a court filing.

Members of the Sackler family have long been cast as villains in the opioid crisis, seeking to increase profits even as it became clear people were becoming addicted to OxyContin and overdosing.

But no members of the family were charged.

Family members received $10.7 billion in payments from Purdue from 2008 to 2018 — with nearly half of it used to pay taxes on behalf of Purdue. They have not been paid by the company since 2018 — and the last of the family members left Purdue’s board in 2019.

Under the settlement, they would not object if their names are removed from museums and other institutions they’ve supported — something that’s already happening.

More than 54,000 people with personal injury claims against Purdue voted to accept the settlement, and 218 voted against it.

Still, some victims and their family members have been pushing back for years, asserting that the settlement and the guilty plea stop short of justice for victims of a crisis that has been linked to 900,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999.

The sentencing will give them another chance to make that case.

Outside the courthouse Tuesday, Stacy Schwab said she was dependent on OxyContin 20 years ago, that opioids killed one family member, and that another is struggling with addiction and insurance doesn’t cover the treatment she needs. That makes Schwab furious at Sackler family members.

“My family just doesn’t have the money to pay for private treatment for her, while they’re sitting on billions of dollars,” Schwab said.

Like others, she said it’s good that the judge is giving victims a chance to be heard.

Meanwhile Tuesday, a lawyer filed a request that the federal government’s expected $225 million be used for victims’ medical care.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

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