Free Republic

During an interview with Telemundo 47 on Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) argued that the state is going to lose money under the Republican tax and spending bill and people will lose health care and responded to if she’ll have to cut services to some immigrants by saying, “I don’t want to go there.” And “This is something we have to look at very seriously for how we can not leave these people without essential care.” Hochul said that “no state will be able to make up those kind of cuts. We just don’t have enough money. And...

The Treasury Department is phasing out penny production by early next year after President Donald Trump ordered the government to halt the “wasteful” minting of the coins. The Treasury will stop making pennies by early 2026, which will require businesses to start rounding up or down to the nearest five cents, the agency confirmed in a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Authorities cracking down on national organized-crime rings swiping $18 billion a year through ATM card-skimming have now turned their sights on aiding Big Apple victims. The US Secret Service, which investigates financial crimes along with protecting the president, started the crackdown in California last year because of the staggering problem and has now expanded to team up with a new NYPD task force to try to thwart the criminals better here. “It’s billions of dollars [stolen] annually across the nation, so that jumps off the page by any metric,” Secret Service spokesman James Byrne told The Post on Wednesday, as...

KEY FACTS: The Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 21 (SB 21) with a 101-42 vote, approving the creation of a state-level strategic Bitcoin reserve. The bill, authored by Senator Charles Schwertner and sponsored by Representative Giovanni Capriglione, allows the Texas comptroller to invest in cryptocurrencies with a market cap exceeding $500 billion, currently limited to Bitcoin. Following New Hampshire and Arizona, Texas would be the third U.S. state to establish such a reserve if Governor Greg Abbott, a known crypto advocate, signs the bill within 20 days.

Now you know why Trump is so eager to cut wasteful spending! The real mystery is why Democrats and RINOs are so determined to continue wasteful spending and not cut taxes. Trump inherited a fiscal disaster from Biden and Congress. Not to mention The Federal Reserve. Credit default swaps (CDS) for the USA are near Greece (and China) levels. ... Since Covid struck in 2020, US debt is up a staggering 56% ... And M2 Money is up 40% since Covid.

In a massive sting operation straight out of a crime thriller, Spanish police have smashed one of Europe’s most powerful underworld banks – a slick, secretive syndicate laundering millions using the ancient and shadowy “hawala” method. Cash, crypto and contraband – the works. In unbelievable scenes, Spain’s National Police, backed by EUROPOL and EUROJUST, swooped on a web of luxury and illegality. The secret January raids – now revealed – saw over 250 officers hit 13 locations across Spain and Belgium in a coordinated blitz, nabbing 17 suspects, seizing mountains of loot and blowing apart a money-moving machine that had...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the City of Turlock are continuing their funding fight over the Turlock-based homeless shelter, We Care. On Friday, Newsom wrote a letter to the city and expressed disappointment with their decision to reject allocating a single dollar. "It is imperative that the City reconsider its priorities and demonstrate the kind of collaborative, accountable, and solution-oriented leadership this crisis demands. Enough. Do your job," wrote Newsom. But Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak said she decided against approving the letter and dollar until the shelter took accountability. "This isn't about $1," Bublak said. "This is about ACCOUNTABILITY, and...

Rahn+Bodmer Enters into Deferred Prosecution Agreement for Criminal Misconduct; Agrees to Pay $22 MillionAudrey Strauss, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Stuart M. Goldberg, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Tax Division, and James C. Lee, Chief of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), announced the filing of a criminal Information against RAHN+BODMER CO. (“R+B”), a financial institution located in Zurich, Switzerland. The Information charges R+B with one count of conspiring to help U.S. accountholders evade their U.S. tax obligations, file false federal tax returns, and otherwise defraud the Internal Revenue Service...

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday. “Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.” Prosecutors said that in November 2020,...

We’ve all watched the way paying for things has changed over the years. First it was coins, then cards, then phones and smartwatches. But now, it looks like the next big step is… you. Literally. Your face, your fingerprint, even your eyes could soon be all you need to pay for your next coffee, your weekly food shop, or even your pharmacy run. It might sound futuristic, but this is already in the works here in Spain. Banks and big-name retailers are gearing up for pilot programmes as soon as 2026, and if all goes well, we’ll be seeing biometric...

A child murdered his mother and stepfather at the family's stunning $900,000 home because he thought it would help give him 'clout' to kill Donald Trump. Nikita Casap, 17, was arrested in March after he allegedly killed his parents at their home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, then fled the state in their car. Prosecutors said the teenager shot and killed mom Tatiana Casap, 35, and stepdad Donald Mayer, 51, on February 11 before fleeing the scene and leaving their bodies to decompose inside their home. However, they were not discovered until police performed a welfare check at the family's sprawling home...

Are you ready for the Circle IPO? The “stablecoin” giant just filed to go public. It’s aiming for a valuation between $4 billion and $5 billion and plans to list on the NYSE as early as June under the ticker CRCL. It will be the biggest crypto IPO since Coinbase (COIN) went public back in 2021. Circle is the company behind USD Coin (USDC)— the world’s second-biggest stablecoin. I’ll share my favorite way to profit from the rise of stablecoins in a minute. First, let me quickly break down what stablecoins are and why they’re a huge disruption to the...

It can arbitrate disputes with a flip, add shine to DIY art projects and keep fingernails clean when scratching a lotto ticket. But when it comes to commerce, it’s become so useless that even life-long cent collectors have begun cutting losses. “I've thrown pennies in the trash. Sometimes they’re in horrible condition. They’ve been out in the rain or buried in the dirt or corroded, or they're just damn ugly,” Dan Norris, owner of D&J Coins in Sheridan, told Cowboy State Daily. “I could take it to the bank and redeem it – but they’re pennies.” Norris was expressing one...

Former President Barack Obama sought to distance himself from the Democratic Party after leaving it in shambles following his departure from the White House, according to a new book. The book, “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” published by William Morrow and Company, claims that Obama was never a Democratic Party loyalist. Instead, the authors allege, Obama curried favor from a group of “black professionals” for his campaigns, unlike former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and former President Joe Biden. Additionally, Obama’s creation of Organizing for Action — a...

Long before fiat currency, digital dollars, or cryptocurrency, America’s Founders sought to anchor the young nation’s economy in gold and silver, i.e. sound money. In fact, on April 2, 1792 – 233 years ago – President George Washington signed legislation that established America’s monetary system. Also known as the Mint Act and officially titled An Act Establishing a Mint and Regulating the Coins of the United States, The Coinage Act of 1792 is regarded as one of the most foundational laws in U.S. history. Of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, and George Washington each advocated that...

Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Friday told states that their time to spend COVID relief money had suddenly come to an end—canceling extensions the department had previously granted to states to allow schools more time to spend the money on previously planned projects and services.McMahon alerted state education chiefs in a letter dated Friday that the deadline to spend all remaining funds was that same day at 5 p.m. EST.She said the additional time “was not justified” and that states and school districts “have had ample time to liquidate obligations.”Because the department can reconsider its decisions, McMahon wrote in the...

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk on Tuesday called for the arrest of leaders of “fake” organizations that receive federal funds — saying they represent a politically connected “uniparty” that’s engaged in “money laundering” of taxpayer resources. The Department of Government Efficiency chief’s call for legal action comes as he spearheads efforts to trim annual federal spending by $1 trillion to halve the deficit. “With respect to the non-governmental organizations, these sort of fake NGOs, I think there needs to be a number of arrests,” Musk said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Five.” “These are fake charities [run by] mostly...

Do you consider yourself rich in this present age? Here in the U.S., there’s always someone wealthier than us, so it’s easy not to think of ourselves as rich. After all, you probably didn’t take a rocket to space - like Jeff Bezos. However, if you consider the U.S., it’s one of the wealthiest nations ever in the history of the earth. The truth is, most of us reading this blog post do qualify as rich in this present age... What are the rich to do besides just enjoy their wealth? Do good. Each one of us should be always...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. The continued use of paper-based payments by the Federal Government, including checks and money orders, flowing into and out of the United States General Fund, which might be thought of as America’s bank account, imposes unnecessary costs; delays; and risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies. Mail theft complaints have increased substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, Department of the Treasury checks are 16 times more likely to be reported lost or...

For almost 20 years now, the physical act of making some of our money has weirdly been a money-loser for the United States Mint. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are apparently looking to undo that paradox. Stop making cents In one of the first DOGE posts on X after the department was established, it highlighted the well-known oddity that each individual penny costs more than 3 cents to make and distribute. It also wrongly claimed that producing the coin set US taxpayers back more than $179 million in FY23. (That figure was the loss of minting...