Jer Bear

Federal auditors found 14 states paid Medicaid insurers $248.6 MILLION for enrollees who were already dead. California alone: $71M. Ohio: $51M. Michigan: $40M. And a new HHS inspector general report says it's still happening: an estimated $207M in just ONE year. Dead people don't need health insurance. Your tax dollars paid for it anyway.

A Minnesota Democrat lawmaker is back behind bars on a drunk driving arrest, and this time police say someone got hurt. St. Cloud police say DFL state Rep. Dan Wolgamott, 36, was driving Wednesday night when he struck a legally parked car with a man sitting inside. That man was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Officers say alcohol was a factor and that Wolgamott was impaired. He was booked into the Stearns County Jail on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation causing bodily harm, third-degree DWI with an aggravating factor, and a second DWI count. This is not his first time. In 2023, a trooper responding to a report of someone drinking vodka in a liquor store parking lot pulled Wolgamott over near Mora. His blood alcohol came back at 0.09. He pleaded guilty and got a stayed 45-day jail sentence and probation. He still holds his House seat until January. Should a lawmaker with two DWI arrests be allowed to finish out his term?

He deleted it, and his party said he regretted it. Now he has posted it again. Sheffield Green Party councillor Mustafa Ahmed was exposed this week for an Arabic Facebook post he shared days after the October 7 massacre: "Supporting a disbeliever against a Muslim is apostasy." It went on: "You alone will bear the shame of supporting the Jews!" and "Don't be more Jewish than the Jews!" After The Jewish Chronicle reported it, the post came down and his party said he "deeply regrets" it. That lasted three days. He has put the post back up, saying he had been "poorly advised" to delete it. He called the backlash a "politically motivated smear campaign" and "a vicious witch hunt against those on the right side of history." He claims the word for Jews in the post refers to the Israeli state, not Jewish people. He also warned: "I am prepared to take the necessary actions against those who continue to attack me." The local Green Party says the matter has now been referred to the national party for investigation. He still sits on Sheffield City Council.

112 hospice centers in one building. Los Angeles County had 641 licensed hospices in 2016. Five years later: 2,031. One county. Prosecutors have now charged schemes billing $267M (21 defendants, stolen identities) and another $138M. The count has since dropped to 1,306 as licenses were pulled. LA County had about 9.8 million people in 2021. That works out to roughly 21 licensed hospices per 100,000 residents at the 2,031 peak, up from 6.3 in 2016. Even today, after hundreds of closures, LA has six times the national rate of Medicare-certified hospices. Similar-sized counties are nowhere close. Harris County, Texas has 4.0 per 100,000, Maricopa County, Arizona has 3.3, and Cook County, Illinois has just 0.8. Here's why the licenses were pulled. California's State Auditor called it "a large-scale, targeted effort to defraud Medicare and Medi-Cal." Its findings: - **One building:** A single Van Nuys address had 112 licensed hospices. - **Tiny patient counts:** LA hospices averaged fewer than 5 patients a day, compared with 56 elsewhere in the state. - **Patients who weren't dying:** Up to half the patients were discharged alive in some areas, versus 11% nationally. - **Stolen identities:** Many hospices listed administrators who never got paid, and some doctors said their names were used without their consent. The state then froze new licenses and revoked more than 280 over two years. Medicare cut off 181 more after reviews. From 2022 to 2025, 517 LA hospices closed or were terminated, though that total doesn't separate fraud shutdowns from voluntary closures. LA County has 12 Medicare hospices per 100,000 people. The U.S. average: 1.9. Harris County, TX (similar size): 4.0. Cook County, IL: 0.8. And that's AFTER 517 LA hospices closed or were shut down since 2022. Again, state auditors found 112 licensed hospices registered at ONE building in Van Nuys. Sources: CMS, Census, CA State Auditor.

A newly elected British councillor shared a post telling Muslims that anyone who condemned the October 7 massacre would "bear the shame of supporting the Jews." Mustafa Ahmed won the Burngreave seat on Sheffield City Council for the Green Party in May, waving a Palestinian flag and chanting "free Palestine" at the count. Now The Jewish Chronicle has uncovered an Arabic Facebook post he shared in the days after the Hamas attack: "Supporting a disbeliever against a Muslim is apostasy." It went on: "You alone will bear the shame of supporting the Jews!" and "Don't be more Jewish than the Jews!" The JC also found a June 2025 TikTok of missile damage in Tel Aviv, captioned "all praise is due to Allah a victory from Allah," set to a prayer against "the aggressor Jews." After the JC reached out, the post was deleted. The Green Party says he "deeply regrets" it, that he was quoting a Palestinian writer, and that the English translation does not reflect his views. He still sits in the Labour-Green coalition running Sheffield. Is "I was just quoting someone" a good enough excuse for an elected official? I don’t think so.

Perfectly said.

Meghan Markle's father is accused of keeping photos of himself posing with a naked underage girl. Now a judge wants to know if he is even fit to stand trial. Thomas Markle, 82, was arrested by the FBI in Florida on November 6 on one federal count of possessing child sexual abuse material. According to an FBI affidavit, agents seized about 78 items, including slides, film negatives and books, from two Los Angeles storage units he has rented since 2008. Investigators say at least two frames show a man a witness identified as Markle with a nude prepubescent girl. One photo appears to have been taken in a motel room in the Philippines, where Markle once lived. Authorities there have opened their own investigation. After his first court appearance in Tampa, Magistrate Judge Lindsay Griffin ordered a psychiatric exam, citing his advanced age, his health and a "lack of recall." The report is due November 20. He was released to home detention with electronic monitoring. TMZ reports his senior living facility in Lakeland refused to take him back, so he is staying with his daughter. FBI Director Kash Patel said Markle "allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence." Markle has called the accusations "sick lies." He faces up to 20 years if convicted.

A Democrat who just flipped a House seat in North Carolina is due in court tomorrow on a felony charge. Rep.-elect LaKesha Womack is accused of renting a 2019 Toyota Corolla from Budget in October 2019 and never bringing it back. The car was valued at $20,000, and a Charlotte police report said attempts to locate her were unsuccessful. She was charged with willfully failing to return a rented vehicle, a Class H felony. The summons was filed in January 2020 but sat unserved for nearly seven years, until a deputy finally served her at one of her campaign events on October 11. Three weeks later, on November 3, she defeated Republican Rep. Tim Moore, the former North Carolina House Speaker, by about two points. Womack has said she was homeless at the time and believed the matter was resolved. "Accountability, however, must be grounded in facts, fairness, and due process rather than speculation or sensationalism," she said in a statement. Her hearing is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday in Mecklenburg County. Should voters have known about a pending felony before they cast their ballots?

A Philadelphia fifth-grade teacher is accused of murdering her 10-year-old foster daughter. Prosecutors say Carprice Williams, 36, reported Malayshia Alford missing on Oct. 26. The girl's body was found Nov. 4 in the trunk of a car in Lindenwold, New Jersey. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by blunt force trauma. District Attorney Larry Krasner called it a brutal murder. Police say surveillance from early Oct. 26 shows the child's body being removed from the West Philadelphia foster home. Williams was charged Nov. 5 with murder, endangering the welfare of a child, abuse of a corpse, and related counts. A judge ordered her held without bail. Williams taught fifth grade at Lewis C. Cassidy Academics Plus School. Neighbors say she was at school events during the search, including a classroom pizza party, while Malayshia was already dead. Court records reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer say state officials recommended years earlier that Williams never again be a foster parent after a 4-year-old in her care nearly died. An indicated abuse finding was later expunged after she appealed. City child-welfare contractors still placed Malayshia in that home. How does a teacher with a prior near-fatality foster case get another child?

Reelected Tuesday. Arrested Wednesday. Missouri Democratic state Rep. Anthony Ealy Jr. is sitting in the Cole County Jail after police say he threatened to kill someone just hours after winning another term. Jefferson City police say officers responded around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to the 600 block of East Capitol Avenue after reports of a man yelling threats outside a business. Court documents say a family was there making arrangements for a deceased relative. Prosecutors allege Ealy lunged toward a victim, claimed he had a gun, and repeatedly said, "I'm gonna kill you. Call the police, I'm gonna kill you." The 32-year-old Grandview Democrat had just taken 68 percent of the vote in House District 36 the day before. He is charged with fourth-degree assault and disturbing the peace and is being held without bond. House Democratic leadership says it pulled Ealy off every committee in the spring so he could deal with personal issues, and that those assignments will not be restored.

A Mexican federal judge is in custody after U.S. prosecutors say he took a $2 million bribe to free the No. 2 man in a former Olympic snowboarder's cocaine empire. Luis Benítez Alcántara, 49, a district judge in Mexico City, was arrested Sunday in Colombia. The Justice Department announced the case Thursday. Prosecutors allege Benítez accepted about $2 million in exchange for granting bond and ordering the release of Andrew Clark, second-in-command to Ryan Wedding. Wedding is a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who the FBI once listed among its Ten Most Wanted. He is accused of leading a violent transnational cocaine trafficking organization. According to the indictment, Clark moved roughly $2.75 million through intermediaries from November 2024 through February 2025. On Feb. 24, 2025, the same day Benítez allegedly received the full $2 million, he granted Clark bond and ordered him released. Clark was re-arrested days later and brought to the United States. Wedding was captured in Mexico in January 2026 and is in U.S. custody facing drug trafficking, murder, and attempted murder charges. Benítez faces nine counts of accessory after the fact. The U.S. is seeking his extradition from Colombia.

A former judge is accused of opening fire on trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. Police in Duncan, Oklahoma say 73-year-old Jerry Herberger, a former Stephens County judge, fired a gun in the direction of families walking his street around 8 p.m. on October 31. When officers arrived, police say he pointed a firearm at one of them before finally surrendering. A mother who was there with her kids says he yelled at them to get away from his house, warned he had a gun, then fired. She says he was drunk and that his unsteady aim is the only reason the shot missed their group. He was booked on attempted murder, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated. Miraculously, no one was hurt. "He was on the other side of that bench. He was hard on those people. Well, now it's time for somebody to be hard on him," the mother said.

Indicted in October. Elected in November. Lisa Lucas-Burke just won back her seat on the Portsmouth, Virginia City Council while facing five federal counts tied to an alleged marijuana racketeering enterprise. Her mother is Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas, one of the most powerful Democrats in the state. Federal prosecutors say the senator led the operation out of the family's Portsmouth cannabis shop and used her political power to shield it from scrutiny. Lucas-Burke is accused of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute marijuana, honest services fraud conspiracy and maintaining a drug-involved premises. The former two-term vice mayor will be sworn in while her federal case moves forward.

He ran for sheriff on fixing the county jail. On Election Day, he ended up inside it. Florence, Alabama police say Curtis Brian Webber, 58, a write-in candidate for Lauderdale County sheriff, was arrested Tuesday at a Jack's restaurant on three counts of harassing communications. Police say he repeatedly called a local medical facility, at times more than 80 times in 90 minutes, threatening employees and tying up lines needed for real calls for help. His wife says he was only trying to file a malpractice complaint and the hospital kept hanging up on him.

Her own mugshot is what cracked the case. Police say Za'cariah Anglin, 21, of Pompano Beach, Florida, was arrested Oct. 3 outside a Deerfield Beach Target. She is accused, with two other women, of rolling two carts of merchandise past the registers. She bonded out. Two days later, a Lauderhill detective searching unsolved violent cases recognized that fresh booking photo. Investigators say she is the woman who dragged another woman out of a Toyota Corolla by her hair on Oct. 2 and punched her repeatedly. Both women had reportedly dated the same man. She was arrested again Oct. 13 and is held without bond on burglary with battery and grand theft charges.

Democrats just retook both chambers of Congress. The first messages from the incoming power brokers: “LAWYER UP” from Rep. Robert Garcia and “Subpoenas” from Sen. Ron Wyden. Not a word about gas, groceries, rent, or anything else they spent months campaigning on. The priority is investigations into Trump world. This is all they care about.

Kissimmee’s Democrat mayor Jackie Espinosa was arrested on October 21 on grand theft and organized scheme to defraud charges after $50,000 in COVID relief grants went to three businesses owned or controlled by her and her family. She helped create the city’s Business Boost 2.0 program using federal ARPA funds, then she and relatives applied the same day applications opened. The money was deposited in November 2025. After the city attorney warned her it created a prohibited conflict of interest and told her to return it, she refused and said she would fight any complaint. The grants went to a dance studio, a diner, and a real estate company. She pleaded not guilty.

Oklahoma man tied his ankle monitor to three smiley-face balloons and tried to float it away while deputies were on the way to serve felony warrants. William Jared Garcia, 32, took off on foot when Tulsa County deputies arrived Oct. 26, jumping fences and running through yards. They caught him in a backyard. The balloons never left the ground. He was held on the warrants plus an obstruction charge.

She walked up to someone else’s traffic stop… and walked herself into an arrest. Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office bodycam: deputies pull over a silver sedan over a plate mismatch. A woman inserts herself, claims she’s the driver’s wife (she’s not), gives a fake name, then fights when they try to detain her, while claiming she’s pregnant (which she’s not). In the back seat she thrashes, passes out, gets checked by EMS, then starts again, and slips her cuffs, which is when she begins tearing the car up. Active warrants: Cherokee, Fulton, and Gwinnett. You don’t have to be the one they stopped to end up in the back seat.