Friday, May 8, 2026

The difficulty of doing business in LA

Beloved Hollywood restaurant 25 Degrees serves up searing take on city government in decision to close



Fighting unpaid child support debt

State Department set to revoke passports of thousands of parents with unpaid child support debt



The shocking sentence a California court gave for killing a pro-Israel Jew

The shocking sentence a California court gave for killing a pro-Israel Jew

I have spent my career using courts of law to hold terrorists and their financiers accountable. I am, by training and by conviction, a believer in the legal system. 

Due process, careful evidence, the discipline of statute and precedent — these are tools I have wielded for decades, and they are tools I trust. Which is why I do not raise concerns about a criminal resolution lightly.

But a recent, shocking plea deal in California demands that concerns be raised.

I have spent my career using courts of law to hold terrorists and their financiers accountable. I am, by training and by conviction, a believer in the legal system. Barbara Davidson/The New York Post
But a recent, shocking plea deal in California demands that concerns be raised. via @buttonslives/Twitter

Pro-Palestinian professor Loay Alnaji was charged in in 2023 connection with the death of 69-year-old Paul Kessler, a Jewish demonstrator killed at a public protest after the October 7 terror attack by Hamas in Israel.

Alnaji recently pleaded guilty in advance of trial as part of a plea deal. The expected sentence is one year in jail, at most, and three years of probation.

On paper, this might appear to be the routine resolution of a criminal case. It is not.


What makes this case extraordinary is not the sentence alone. It is the language in which the court has resolved it. The incident has been characterized as “a dispute that escalated into an accident.” That single phrase carries the weight of the entire judgment. And on the facts, it is deeply inadequate.

Language is not ornament in the law. It is the law’s instrument. The words a court chooses to describe a crime determine how that crime will be remembered, deterred, and judged in every comparable case that follows. 

When the death of an elderly Jewish man, struck during a charged public confrontation in a climate of escalating antisemitism, is reduced to a “dispute” and an “accident,” the court has not merely closed a file. It has authored a precedent about what we are prepared to name this kind of violence, and what we are not.

Alnaji recently pleaded guilty in advance of trial as part of a plea deal. Barbara Davidson/The New York Post

This case did not happen in a vacuum. 

Antisemitic incidents in the United States have surged to numbers not seen in modern American memory. Jewish students are harassed on campuses. Jewish institutions are targeted. Jewish identifiers: a kippah, a Star of David, a sign at a public rally, have once again become reasons people calculate their public movements. 

American Jews are not asking for special treatment. They are asking that the obvious context of the violence directed at them not be quietly excised from the record.

To recognize context is not to abandon legal standards. It is the opposite. 

Every prosecutor knows that intent, motive, and circumstance are not optional flourishes — they are the substance of what separates manslaughter from murder, accident from assault, private grievance from public harm. 

The argument is not that every troubling incident must be charged as a hate crime. The argument is narrower and more important: where context is plainly relevant, it cannot be quietly set aside for the sake of expediency.

When a justice system selects language that softens the contours of a hate-tinged killing, it does three things at once. It denies the victim’s family the dignity of an honest accounting. It signals to those weighing similar acts that the price may be modest. And it tells communities watching from the outside that their fear is more than they should expect the state to share.

Minimization is not de-escalation. It is invitation.

At Shurat HaDin, we have litigated against terror financiers, foreign regimes, and the architects of mass violence in American courts, Israeli courts, and international tribunals. The lesson is the same in every jurisdiction. When violence connected to hatred is renamed into something smaller, the violence does not shrink. It grows. 

Minimization is not de-escalation. It is invitation.

No single case defines a justice system. But certain cases reveal where a system is straining, where the gap between the facts on the ground and the words chosen to describe them has become too wide to ignore. The Kessler case is one of those.

Paul Kessler is dead. He was 69. He went to a public demonstration in his own country, defending his beliefs, and he did not come home. The man responsible will serve approximately one year, at most.


And the court has called it an accident.

Justice must be done. It must also be named. If we cannot bring ourselves to do the second, the first begins to fail us.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is an Israeli attorney who founded Shurat HaDin, which represents terror victims.


Detroit man pleads guilty in $16 million student aid fraud scheme

Detroit man pleads guilty in $16 million student aid fraud scheme

Charles E. Ramirez
The Detroit News
May 7, 2026, 2:16 p.m. ET
Federal wire fraud suspect Brandon Robinson of Detroit is seen in surveillance footage taken at a Detroit ATM.

A Detroit man accused of bilking the government out of millions in federal student aid has pleaded guilty to charges, officials said.

Brandon Robinson entered guilty pleas to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday.

The 42-year-old also admitted to filing more than 100 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims between April 2020 and March 2023, receiving more than $1 milion in benefits.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 1. Robinson faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for wire fraud and up to two years for aggravated identity theft.

Robinson's attorney, Doraid Elder, was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.

Authorities alleged he led a decade-long, multi-million-dollar Federal Student Aid fraud scheme.

“More than 1,000 fake students," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Jerome Gorgon said in a statement. "A decade of fraud. This man built an industrial-scale operation to loot federal student aid programs and to steal from the American taxpayer."

Investigators said that from January 2015 to February 2024, Robinson submitted fraudulent student aid claims for more than 1,200 individuals at more than 100 schools in 24 states.

The scheme netted Robinson and his co-conspirators more than $16 million in student aid benefits, according to authorities.

Federal prosecutors charged Robinson in September 2025.

Gorgon said two of Robinson's co-conspirators in the scheme, Antonio Robinson and Joshuan Porter, also pleaded guilty to charges.

Antonio Robinson is scheduled to be sentenced on July 7, and Porter is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 4. Both face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

"Scams like this steal money from hardworking taxpayers and legitimate students, and that is unacceptable," John Woolley, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General Central Regional Office, said in a statement. "The OIG and our law enforcement partners are committed to fighting student aid fraud, and we will continue to aggressively pursue those who participate in these types of crimes."

The case follows others in Michigan involving identity theft and fraud.

Last week, a Detroit man was ordered to stand trial for allegedly stealing others' identities and defrauding the state of $400,000 in pandemic relief.

Last month, a Detroit man accused of a credit card fraud scheme pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Also in April, three Michigan residents were sentenced for their roles in an identity theft and unclaimed property fraud scheme totaling more than half a million dollars.

They are right to flee because Mamdani represents the mentality of the people of NYC and they will continue chasing their Marxist dream with or without him


NY leaders desperately try to stop billionaire bigs from fleeing city over Mamdani



The deep state and the WaPo will do anything to hurt American interests find the leaker and execute him/her for treason

BREAKING: Deep State Leaks CIA Iran War Dossier to WaPo


The Deep State leaked a CIA Iran war dossier to the Washington Post that refutes Trump’s claims that the Iranian Regime’s missiles are mostly decimated.

On Wednesday, President Trump sparred with a reporter in the Oval Office during a meeting with UFC fighters.

The reporter asked Trump about his decision to pause Project Freedom amid a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Trump told the reporter that the US military has decimated Iran’s missile capabilities and they probably only have about 18 percent left.

Another crooked ethically challenged Democrat

Congressman's Aide Allegedly Collected $31K in Pandemic Unemployment — While Working for Congress

CAIR-MN director operates taxpayer-funded ‘adult foster care’ out of Rosemount home

EXCLUSIVE: CAIR-MN director operates taxpayer-funded ‘adult foster care’ out of Rosemount home

What's more, after Alpha News contacted Jaylani Hussein for comment on April 29, his name and phone number were removed from the license record.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR-MN. (CAIR-MN/Facebook screenshot)
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Alpha News has learned the executive director of the state’s Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was on the receiving end of more than $110,000 in taxpayer payments over six months for a publicly-funded adult foster care program he ran from a Rosemount residence.

What’s more, after Alpha News contacted Jaylani Hussein for comment on April 29, his name and phone number were removed from the license record.

License records changed after inquiry

Hussein, who has led the Minnesota chapter of CAIR since 2015, was — until days ago — listed as a license holder for an adult foster care program alongside co-licensee Fardosa Adan Hassan, according to state records.

A screenshot shows Hussein’s name listed alongside Hassan on the license. The phone number previously listed on the license record matched the number listed for Hussein in multiple CAIR press releases.

Screenshot: Minnesota DHS Adult Foster Care License

The Minnesota Aging and Disability Resources website continues to list Hussein’s namealongside co-licensee Hassan.

Alpha News obtained payment data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) that shows between August 2025 and February 2026, the program in Hussein’s and Hassan’s names received more than $110,000 in taxpayer-funded reimbursements.

According to DHS, adult foster care is a licensed, home-based residential option for adults age 18 and older who need help with daily living. These programs are reimbursed through Medicaid — meaning taxpayer dollars flow directly to providers for housing and care of vulnerable adults.

Alpha News asked Hussein how he balances operating a home foster care program with his role as executive director of CAIR-MN, as well as running Zeila Consultants — a business he created to “develop and offer cross-cultural training workshops on East African cultures,” where his co-licensee, Hassan, also works as a consultant.

Hussein did not respond to inquiries.

No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against Hussein, Hassan or the adult foster care.

Speaking out while inside the system

Hussein — who moved to Minnesota from Somalia in 1993 — has been an outspoken figure in the state’s fraud debate, frequently raising concerns about what he describes as bias against the Somali community.

In the wake of a viral video by Nick Shirley, a Somali-run daycare in Minneapolis held a press conference to report a break-in and vandalism — including missing “important documentation” related to employees and children. The claim quickly drew widespread skepticism online.

Of the reported break-in, Hussein stated: “This disturbing incident raises serious concerns about the real-world consequences of anti-Somali, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate speech circulating online … That raises serious questions about whether bias played a role in the vandalism, and those questions deserve a thorough investigation by law enforcement authorities.”

In an interview with CNN on the Shirley video, Hussein said, “This climate of fear is disrupting livelihoods, separating families, and undermining the sense of safety and belonging for an entire community.”

“Somali Americans sit in an intersection of multiple marginalized identities. We are black, we are immigrants, and we are Muslim. As a result, our community has been scapegoated through sweeping narratives that criminalize our entire community based on identity rather than evidence,” he said during a January hearing.

Conversely, Alpha News found no public instance in which Hussein disclosed his role as a license holder of a taxpayer-funded program that has collected more than $110,000 while publicly commenting on similar programs under scrutiny.

All inquiries to Hussein have gone unanswered.