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The Liberty opened their seven-game homestand with a dud.

Trump Admin Targets States' Medicaid Fraud Units

Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,

Vice President JD Vance said during a recent press conference that he was intensifying attempts to counter Medicaid fraud by investigating state-level units responsible for oversight.

States such as California and Hawaii seemed to lag behind others in combatting fraud, said Vance, whom the president picked in March to lead an anti-fraud task force.

“Now, we have red states and blue states that go after fraud aggressively, but we also unfortunately have some states, mostly blue states, unfortunately, that do not take Medicaid fraud very seriously,” he said.

In response, Vance said the administration would withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid-related payments to California and also consider withholding from other states.

The administration put each of the 50 states on notice with recent letters signed by Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas “March” Bell. It focused on state-level Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), which receive federal funding.

Letters also went to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Here’s what to know about the units and Vance’s efforts.

Federal Grants at Stake

The letters threatened to take away all federal grants provided to a state’s Medicaid program if the state was not fulfilling its duties.

“It has become clear ... that many MFCUs have been happy to rake in taxpayer dollars without fighting fraud,” Bell stated in the letter. “And for too long, there has been a lack of leadership at HHS that has allowed billions of our fellow Americans’ dollars to flow out to State capitals to fund MFCUs to supposedly fight Medicaid fraud without any real oversight.”

He said that the units must comply with certain requirements to receive funding. Federal law requires the units to investigate and prosecute fraud, investigate patient abuse and neglect in Medicaid-funded facilities, and recover overpayments.

The units must operate statewide, employ investigators, auditors, and attorneys, and remain separate from the state agency that administers Medicaid. The law requires the units to either possess prosecutorial authority or formally coordinate with prosecutors.

Bell told the attorneys general that “your failure to do your job as head of the MFCU has put all of your State’s Medicaid funds in jeopardy.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office told The Epoch Times that the administration wrongly accused the state.

“That the new HHS-[Office of Inspector General] would send such a letter to all 53 MFCU’s in the nation, writing that ‘your failure to do your job as head of the MFCU has put all of your State’s Medicaid funds in jeopardy,’ is inconceivable and completely disconnected from the performance record of Michigan’s MFCU and the tremendous reporting our office makes in compliance with the federal government’s oversight,” Danny Wimmer, Nessel’s press secretary, told The Epoch Times.

“While some states have been, over the last year, singled out by the federal government for purported performance issues, Michigan has never been among them."

The federal government covers most of the costs for MFCUs for each state.

For example, the attorney general’s unit for Michigan received a $5.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that covers 75 percent of its funding. The state picks up the remaining 25 percent, or $1.8 million.

In 2024, the total cost of all these state-based units was $396 million, of which $297 million was picked up by the federal government.

Wimmer said Michigan’s MFCU went through a “rigorous” recertification process every year in which the HHS’s Office of Inspector General determined whether it was in compliance with regulations.

How Do Fraud Control Units Work?

The Social Security Act requires each state to operate an MFCU.

Cases usually start as referrals from other organizations, third parties, or from MFCU staff members who detect potential fraud from data mining.

MFCU staff review referrals to determine the potential for criminal prosecution and civil action. Besides fraud, abuse and neglect are also investigated.

In 2025, about 1 in 5 cases investigated by MFCUs nationwide were for abuse and neglect. There were 3,019 investigations nationwide into abuse and neglect compared with the 12,902 investigations into fraud.

For example, Pennsylvania’s MFCU this year investigated a case involving a 50-year-old woman who was convicted of failure to renew a resident’s medications, which led to a fatal seizure in 2021.

About 4 in 10 fraud convictions from 2015 to 2024 involved Personal Care Attendants, nonmedical professionals who provide daily living assistance to people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.

Wimmer said Michigan’s unit “submits extensive questionnaires and produces significant accountings and reports on various aspects of their operations, such as investigative efforts and fiscal operations.”

He added that HHS “conducts very thorough weeklong on-site audits every 5-7 years on state MFCUs, including ours, wherein they send a team of approximately 10 inspectors to audit the fraud control unit.”

Ed Haislmaier, an expert in health care policy at The Heritage Foundation, said that although licensed providers were involved in fraud cases, fraud on an “industrial scale” appeared to occur more often in non-specialized areas of health care where professional licensing is not required.

Those sectors often included providers who could receive approval for government funding without undergoing background checks.

“The lower the barrier to entry for a type of provider, the more likely you are to see this kind of fraud,” Haislmaier said.

Targeted States

While the administration reached out to every state, Vance highlighted three—Hawaii, California, and New York—that he said were not taking fraud seriously.

During his press conference, he noted how Indiana had many more prosecutions than New York.

Vance said it was “absurd” to think that the people of Indiana were just more likely to commit Medicaid fraud than the people of New York.

“What is happening is that the leadership in New York are just not taking the fraud issue seriously,” Vance said. “They are not using these antifraud control units to actually investigate and indict the fraud.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

HHS data revealed that Indiana had 951 investigations in fiscal year 2025 with 42 indictments and 32 convictions.

California, a top target for the Trump administration, had 1,052 investigations with 83 indictments and 43 convictions.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office criticized Vance on social media.

Newsom’s office said in-home support services have grown because California is keeping seniors and people with disabilities out of the more expensive nursing homes—the cost of a nursing home was $137,000 a year compared with $30,000 a year for in-home support services.

Newsom said the approach saved taxpayers money.

Hawaii’s Medicaid investigative unit had 484 total investigations in fiscal year 2025 but not a single indictment or conviction, according to federal data.

Hawaii’s state data showed that from 2021 through 2025, the state conducted a total of 2,779 investigations into fraud and abuse that resulted in just five convictions. All were reported in 2021. That would mean Hawaii has conducted 2,104 fraud and abuse investigations from 2022 through 2025 without a single conviction.

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez rejected Vance’s characterization of her state as not taking fraud seriously.

“Our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has secured or helped secure more than $14 million in judgments, settlements and recoveries since 2021, filed recent criminal charges—and is actively working with federal and state partners to strengthen investigations and prosecutions,” Lopez said in a press release.

“We welcome accountability, but we will not allow the work of this unit to be mischaracterized as doing nothing.” 

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/21/2026 - 22:35

Under pressure, the DNC finally released its autopsy of the 2024 election, after rampant speculation about what it contained and why it hadn’t yet been made public.

See all the celebrities supporting the blue and orange.

See all the celebrities supporting the blue and orange.

New Jersey’s new governor said she wants to bring the Nets back to the Garden State. But don’t hold your breath. It’s not happening anytime soon.

Devin Williams should have had one out in the ninth inning Thursday, but a misread by his center fielder placed the Mets lead in jeopardy.

On a night when arguably the biggest cheers were reserved for the Knicks score on the video board, the Yankees bats came up emptier than airballs.

Albert Itzkowitz, 75, was discovered with gunshot wounds to his neck and back along the Kissena Lake shoreline in Flushing on Monday.

Rinna has become famous for her eclectic sense of style at major events across the globe.

Rinna has become famous for her eclectic sense of style at major events across the globe.

Toyota To Import Taiwan-Built Minivans To Japan Amid Factory Strain

Toyota will start shipping Taiwan-built Noah and Voxy minivans to Japan later this year, marking a rare shift in the company’s production strategy as mounting pressures strain the country’s auto manufacturing sector, according to Nikkei.

Production for the Japanese market is set to begin in October on a dedicated line at Toyota’s plant in northern Taiwan, according to Nikkei. While Japanese automakers have long sold foreign-built vehicles at home, those models were typically intended for overseas markets first. Toyota’s decision to create an offshore production line specifically for Japanese consumers is highly uncommon, particularly for two of its key domestic models.

The move comes as Toyota faces increasing difficulty expanding output inside Japan. Factory utilization is already near its limits, while labor shortages, higher material costs, and tighter compliance requirements have made domestic manufacturing more expensive and less flexible. Delivery delays for popular vehicles have stretched for months — and in some cases more than a year — forcing the automaker to suspend orders periodically as demand outpaces supply.

Nikkei writes that Toyota has committed to maintaining annual domestic production above 3 million vehicles to support employment and preserve Japan’s industrial base. At the same time, however, the company is increasingly relying on overseas operations to ease bottlenecks and reduce operational risk.

The Noah and Voxy are among Toyota’s strongest-selling minivans in Japan, with annual sales typically ranging between 70,000 and 80,000 units. To help meet demand, Toyota plans to build roughly 100,000 vehicles per year in Taiwan, focusing mainly on lower-cost variants. Production in Japan will continue in parallel.

The Taiwan facility already assembles models including the Corolla sedan and Yaris Cross through a local joint venture. For the fiscal year ending March 2026, the plant produced around 120,000 vehicles. Expanding output for Japan-bound minivans is expected to significantly increase overall production volumes.

Building a new automotive production line with annual capacity of 100,000 vehicles can require investments worth tens of billions of yen. Even so, Toyota appears willing to absorb those costs as domestic factories struggle to accommodate additional output. The company currently produces about 14,000 vehicles per day across Japan, leaving little spare capacity.

Pressure on the production system intensified after certification issues uncovered in 2024 prompted Toyota to tighten testing and regulatory oversight procedures, further constraining manufacturing flexibility.

Producing vehicles in Taiwan also introduces new challenges. The yen recently fell to its weakest level against the New Taiwan dollar in more than three decades, raising labor and operating costs for Japanese manufacturers there. Still, Toyota sees offshore production as necessary to stabilize supply and reduce delivery times.

Toyota president Kenta Kon has warned that persistent shortages are unsustainable, calling the situation “abnormal and critical.” The company fears prolonged waits could eventually push customers toward rival automakers.

Toyota is not alone in turning to reverse imports. Industry data shows sales of Japanese-brand vehicles built overseas and sold domestically climbed 19% last year to more than 111,000 units — the highest level in three decades. Honda is also preparing to bring an India-made EV into the Japanese market by fiscal 2028 as automakers increasingly seek lower-cost production bases abroad.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/21/2026 - 22:10

"Marylanders Are Voting With Their Feet": Johns Hopkins Finds Blue State Exodus To Persist For Years

A new Johns Hopkins University survey shows that more than half of Baltimore respondents expect to move out of their current neighborhoods within three years, as the one-party-ruled state of Democratic Party queens and kings has failed taxpayers on affordability, law and order, and other basic issues commonly standard in red states.

The Hopkins survey, conducted from September to November 2024, found that 42% of Baltimore City residents want to leave the city entirely. Of those, 27% expect to stay somewhere else in Maryland, while 15% expect to leave the state, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Among the 58% of city residents who plan to remain in Baltimore, only 36% expect to stay in their current neighborhood, while 22% expect to move to another part of the city.

In Baltimore County, the urgency to relocate is also high, but most residents who want to move expect to remain in the county: 66% say they plan to stay.

Vice Chair of the Maryland Freedom Caucus, Republican Delegate Kathy Szeliga, explained the dire situation in Maryland, where a very real exodus is underway:

Every day, I hear from friends, neighbors, and constituents that they are considering or they are actually moving out of Maryland. It's not just the crushing taxes, unaffordable energy bills, and concerns about public safety; it's also the failing education system.

Governor Wes Moore is unable to deliver results or give people confidence that he can turn this state around, and so people are voting with their feet and leaving Maryland.

How bad is this exodus in Baltimore?

Well, the population of Baltimore City alone has collapsed 40% from its 1950s level, and deindustrialization, blended with half a century or more of toxic left-wing politics, has transformed parts of the city into an utter economic wasteland.

"There is no question that Governor Moore's policies on crime, affordability, and government competence make Marylanders want to flee the state," said Republican Delegate Robin Grammer, a founding member of the Maryland Freedom Caucus from Baltimore County.

Grammer added, "The Maryland Freedom Caucus has put affordability at the center of every fight in Annapolis, from electric bills to the increase in car registration fees. Marylanders are voting with their feet."

Related:

• "Billion-Dollar Ghost Town" Surrounds Under Armor Headquarters

• Downtown Baltimore CRE Crash Signals Deeper Fiscal Crisis Ahead

• Build It, And They Will Come? Not The Case At Baltimore's Harbor East Luxury Tower

• "Exponentially Deteriorating": Baltimore's Lawlessness Spreads Into Suburbs As Democrats Lose Control

Maryland is likely on track to become the California of the East Coast, as progressive policies over the last half century have epically backfired, unleashing crime and chaos, unaffordability, high taxes, and a deteriorating quality of life.

The end result of this left-wing experiment is a massive population collapse in Baltimore City and negative net domestic migration for the state. The city was once the beating heart of American industrialization, but it has now transformed into an economic wasteland run by unhinged left-wing politicians.

However, there is good news. The remaining residents who are sticking out the looming financial crisis, as well as a worsening power bill crisis, in the state and city are beginning to see these politicians for what they really are: left-wing activists. They are also beginning to understand that the pillaging and corruption must end. Hence, the rise of the Maryland Freedom Caucus.

Notably, Hopkins is considered a left-leaning institution, which makes the survey even more concerning for Maryland's Democratic leadership. Additionally, the state's top media outlet, The Baltimore Sun, is leaning more center-right under new ownership, suggesting that left-wing propaganda in print and on the airwaves no longer works. This shift may usher in new, common-sense ideas and welcome a new era of politicians unlike anything the city or central part of the state has seen in generations.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/21/2026 - 22:10

Josh Hart is redeeming himself for his Game 1 blunders by being the main offensive factor for the Knicks during Game 2 against the Cavaliers.

The Atlanta Braves are holding their breath as their star outfielder is dealing with a thumb issue.

A Marine veteran father and his 14-year-old daughter fearlessly rushed to rescue six strangers trapped in a fiery car crash on the side of an Arizona highway on Saturday night.

"I want to get to know what is in your brain that makes you think this is OK?"

"I want to get to know what is in your brain that makes you think this is OK?"

Can Progressivism Be Overthrown?

Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

For the last year and a half, Americans have been slammed with politics to the point that it has made vast numbers of people nearly crazy. Following the news, the blow-by-blow is not easy, and it is worse seeing coalitions form, collapse, reconstitute, form again, and be witness nonstop to what seem to be subversions, betrayals, duplicates, and disappointments.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the University of Texas at Austin, in Austin, Texas, on April 15, 2026. AP Photo/Eric Gay

We follow the polls, donate to candidates, listen to podcasts, cheer our friends and boo the bad guys, all in this exciting spectator sport. I'm told it's not really this way in Europe. Americans have a distinct sense of investment in the way our public life operates and we believe we can and should do something about it.

Do we really have a clear conception of the larger forces at work? I sense that what is lacking is a clear-headed theory about what is actually going on, that is the thematics of the larger struggle going on here.

Oh sure, there are plenty of people who will tell you that this is about stopping the attempt of Donald Trump to be like a king. My neighborhood was filled with "No Kings" yard signs, until the same households quietly took them down as they cheered the visit of King Charles of Britain.

Others say this is really a struggle between the two political parties, an argument about U.S. foreign policy interests, wrangling over personnel, and so on. I'm not going to discount other theories entirely but what they all lack is a bigger philosophical way to understand our times.

A Supreme Court Justice recently gave a spectacular speech, one of the most important - probably THE most important - in a century or more. I've rarely read anything so clear, concise, accurate, and incredibly truth-telling.

Those who understand the speech and its message are going to be better positioned to understand what is really going on in our times. Those who ignore this speech will continue to be mystified by the day-to-day headlines and roiling political news.

The author and speaker is Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the most impactful voices of our times. It was delivered at the University of Texas, Austin, on April 15, 2026.

The core underlying message: Progressivism is falling apart or already is gone because it is contrary to the American idea. The remaining argument today that matters is what will replace it.

To understand the implications, we need to understand what Progressivism is, the role it played in remaking this country, its theory of power and expertise, why it was never consistent with American ideals, and why it is destined for the dust bin of history.

He begins with the historical context and the centrality of the Declaration of Independence. It "did not establish a form of government - that was the job of the Constitution that followed - but it stated the purpose of government. The Declaration made clear in unmistakable prose that the purpose of government is to protect our God-given inalienable rights, rights that all individuals equally possess."

"The ideas of the Declaration," he says, "were so powerful that our nation could not coexist with the contradiction created by the great evil of slavery. Those principles were so powerful that hundreds of thousands of Americans fought and died in the Civil War to make men free. Those ideas have been so powerful that they convinced our nation to finally end segregation. They continue to be so powerful today that they have inspired people throughout the world to throw off the shackles of their oppressors."

As he says, the Founders were willing to commit everything with great courage to the cause of individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was not mere philosophy but life purpose, something for which they were willing to fight with courage and enormous risk and sacrifice. That decision shaped the American experience.

It is about a third of the way through where the speech gets hot and revealing of a history that very few students or adults today understand. He explained how the advent of Progressivism in the early teens of the 20th century effectively attacked and overthrew the vision of the Founders and the Declaration.

"At the beginning of the 20th century, a new set of first principles of government was introduced into the American mainstream," he says. "The proponents of this new set of first principles, most prominently among them the 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, called it Progressivism. Since Wilson's presidency, Progressivism has made many inroads in our system of government and our way of life. It has coexisted uneasily with the principles of the Declaration. Because it is opposed to those principles, it is not possible for the two to coexist forever."

"Progressivism was not native to America," he continues in ways that are consistent with everything I've read about this period. Indeed, some of the most influential intellectuals that emerged on the U.S. scene in that time had in fact done their graduate work in Germany, schooled in the dreams of technocracy and centralized social and economic management.

"Wilson and the progressives candidly admitted that they took it from Otto von Bismarck's Germany, whose state-centric society they admired. Progressives like Wilson argued that America needed to leave behind the principles of the Founding and catch up with the more advanced and sophisticated people of Europe. Wilson called Germany's system of relatively unimpeded state power 'nearly perfected.'"

To Wilson, the inalienable rights of the individual were "a lot of nonsense." Wilson redefined "liberty" not as a natural right antecedent to the government. Instead he saw liberty as "the right of those who are governed to adjust government to their own needs and interests." The government, as Wilson said, would be "beneficent and indispensable."

Progressivism, says Thomas, "requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a Constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights."

It was this period in history when the original design of the Constitution was mangled with a 16th Amendment that authorized the income tax and the 17th Amendment that turned the bicameral Congress into a unitary majoritarian body, thus empowering large cities over states. The central bank came along at the same time. The federal agencies grew and grew, with ever more power and invasions of rights.

Central to the Progressive vision was the exaltation of science, as understood by credentialed experts, at the expense of liberty. They believed that Darwin had demonstrated the dangers of unchecked procreation and sought to replace freedom with race theory, segregation, and eugenics. This wicked vision of the purpose of government mutated further in Europe with the rise of Nazism, fascism, communism, and the administrative state that effectively deleted people's government.

Justice Thomas explains all of this in bracingly brief form. It is an extremely satisfying read because he compresses hundreds of books into a short address. I frankly doubt that any Supreme Court Justice has dropped so many truth bombs in such a short space in the history of our country.

The central point: the entire vision failed. It did not give us a better managed society but social and economic stagnation, an overweening government ruled by supposed experts, invasions of our communities and families, and a crushing of individual liberty.

Make no mistake: all of this flowed from a philosophy of government that had nothing to do with the Founders' vision.

The system that displaced the Founders' structure is under pressure as never before today. Indeed, Progressivism is unraveling in our times because it has failed to live up to its promise, it breeds corporate corruption, it impoverishes people, and it is contrary to all our moral intuitions as a people.

"As we are gathered to celebrate this 250th anniversary of the Declaration," he concludes, "it may be tempting to do so as if we are passive spectators. It may be tempting to ... treat the Declaration like a shiny object or a keepsake, and listen to the sound of our own voices. ... What we must turn our attention to today is finding in ourselves the same level of courage that the signers of the Declaration had, so that we can do for our future what they did for theirs."

His final message to students: "Each of you will have opportunities to be courageous every day, whether your calling in life is as a day laborer, a stay-at-home mom, a small business owner, an educator, an office worker, a judge, or a Senator. It may mean speaking up in class tomorrow when everyone around you expects you to live by lies. ... It may mean turning down a job offer that requires you to make moral compromises. One thing I know to be true: It will mean waking up every day with the resolve to withstand unfair criticism and attacks. These are the choices that will confront you, and you must decide whether to respond with timidity or with courage, as the signers of the Declaration did."

Hear, hear! This is a mighty and glorious speech in all its essentials, worthy of deep study and wide readership. Once you internalize the meaning of it all, and consider how the Founders confronted a system they too had to overthrow in order to realize the blessings of liberty, our task becomes very clear.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/21/2026 - 21:45

Cotti Coffee is preparing to take over the Bay Area and Northern California amid closures statewide by the coffee chain Starbucks.