89 Arrested In Florida Human Trafficking Operation, Sheriff's Office Says

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/89-arrested-florida-human-trafficking-operation-sheriffs-office-says

BY TYLER DURDEN

TUESDAY, MAR 10, 2026 - 06:20 AM

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A sheriff’s office in Florida announced this week that an undercover operation led to 89 human and sex trafficking-related arrests, resulting in more than 1,200 separate felony charges.

A Hillsborough County Sheriff vehicle as seen in a file photo. Google Maps via The Epoch Times

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which includes the Tampa metropolitan area, said that the operation was carried out over several weeks and targeted individuals “seeking to sexually exploit children and purchase sex.”

The suspects arrested allegedly believed they were communicating with underage victims and showed up at agreed upon locations but were instead met by undercover sheriff’s detectives, according to a news release issued by the department.

They also located a missing 17-year-old girl who was being exploited, the news release said, adding that she was rescued, and her trafficker, identified by officials as 23-year-old Armani Hopkins, was arrested and charged in connection with the incident. It’s not clear if Hopkins has legal representation.

Authorities gave more details about other suspects who were arrested by sheriff’s officials.

Stephen Fabic, 41, a math teacher at Hillsborough High School, was arrested after he allegedly “offered to pick up a teenager and bring them to his home to engage in sexual activity during conversations with someone he believed to be a minor,” the office stated.

Fabic was arrested and made a court appearance last month. An attorney speaking on his behalf, Daniel Fischetti, was quoted by local media outlet Fox 13 as saying that “it’s unknown what exactly happened the day of, or what the meeting was going to be, so I ask the court to take that into consideration when setting bond.”

The Epoch Times has contacted his attorney for comment.

John Altieri, 69, was also arrested in the operation after he allegedly “arranged for a ride share to pick up a juvenile from their home and bring them to his residence to perform sexual acts,” the office’s news release stated.

“At the time, Altieri was serving home confinement while on probation in Hernando County for two counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance,” it said, in part. It’s not clear if he has an attorney.

The office said that it safely recovered a 2-year-old child after it received a tip that the child was being exploited. A suspect, 42-year-old Peter Torres, was later arrested and the child was recovered in a safe manner, it said. It’s not clear if Torres has a lawyer.

Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister, a Republican who was tapped by the second Trump administration to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration before he withdrew himself in late 2024, vowed to pursue human traffickers or individuals who seek to sexually exploit minors.

“If you are using a hotel room, a chat app, or a fake profile to pursue a child, we are there,” Chronister said in a statement. “Our detectives will follow the digital trail all the way to your door.”

The arrests took place several months after the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, and local law enforcement officials said 122 missing children were found in Florida as part of an operation. The operation, the results of which were announced in November, encompassed much of Central Florida, including the Tampa area.

N.C. Medicaid Scammers Sentenced To Over 14 Years In Prison For 'Somali-Style Fraud' Scheme

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/nc-medicaid-scammers-sentenced-over-14-years-prison-somali-style-fraud-scheme

BY TYLER DURDEN

TUESDAY, MAR 10, 2026 - 07:15 AM

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

A federal judge has sentenced four individuals to more than 14 years in federal prison for running a $12.7 Million “Minnesota-Somali-style fraud” scheme in North Carolina that paid more than $1 Million in kickbacks to drug addicted patients.

The fraudsters, Brandon Eugene Sims, 40; Kimberly Mable Sims, 39; Francine Sims Super, 64; and Keke Komeko Johnson, 53, operated Life Touch, LLC, a now permanently shut down fake substance abuse facility and 1st Choice Healthcare Services, a urine drug screening company.

Between 2018 and 2023,  Johnson and Super reportedly oversaw more than $1 million in illegal kickback payments to drug using Medicaid patients.

The kickbacks were meant “to lure patients to show up for costly substance abuse and lab services that Johnson billed to Medicaid on behalf of Life Touch and 1st Choice,” the Eastern North Carolina U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in a press release.

Inmate Sims, Inmate Super’s daughter, owned 1st Choice Healthcare, and paid Medicaid kickbacks to Inmates Super and Johnson for fake lab services ordered by Life Touch, LLC. Meanwhile, Inmate Brandon Sims, who owned Life Touch and resided in Texas, received Millions in illegal proceeds from the Life Touch operation, but failed to file or pay taxes on that money. The gift card kickback scheme resulted in more than $12.7 Million fake billings to the Medicaid program.

The feds seized $6 million in assets from them in 2023, including cash, cars and homes. After becoming aware of the criminal investigation, Brandon Sims “withdrew more than $1 Million in cash from a bank account, hiding it in a safe at his Texas home.”

Agents executed a search warrant and seized $1.3 million in cash, a 2021 Rolls Royce Cullinan, a 2021 Chevrolet Corvette, and a 2020 Chevrolet Silverado.

Agents seized millions more in other real property, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“This is shocking Minnesota-Somali-style fraud right here in North Carolina,” said U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle in a statement. “For too long, government has allowed grifters to steal taxpayer dollars with impunity. Here, these vultures exploited particularly susceptible drug abusers trying to recover their lives and dignity. Shameful abuse, no remorse. They better learn, and everyone should get the message. Cheaters. Never. Win.”

The Judge sentenced Johnson, the company’s “Compliance Director,” to six years in federal prison and to pay $15,286,912.91 in restitution to North Carolina Medicaid and $331,851.00 to the IRS.

Johnson pleaded guilty in August 2025 to a health care fraud conspiracy, “including making and receiving illegal payments, making and using materially false documents, and failing to file a tax return.”

The Judge sentenced Super, the “Kinston office manager,” to six years in federal prison, and to pay $15,286,912.91 in restitution to North Carolina Medicaid and $373,810.00 to the IRS.

Super had previously pleaded guilty “to conspiracy to pay illegal kickbacks, healthcare fraud, making and using materially false documents,” and “failure to file a tax return.”

The Judge sentenced Kimberly Sims to two years in federal prison and to pay $1,845,276.95 in restitution to North Carolina Medicaid and $207,383.00 to the IRS.

She previously pleaded guilty to “a conspiracy to paying illegal kickbacks, healthcare fraud, making and using materially false documents, and filing a false tax return.”

The Judge ordered Life Touch, LLC, to pay a $15 Million fine, “to dissolve, and serve five years of probation and repay $12,762,511.30 in restitution to the North Carolina Medicaid program.”

Brandon Sims was sentenced to two and a half years and six months in federal prison, and was ordered to pay $1,892,919.40 in restitution to the IRS.  He has also been ordered to “forfeit all traceable proceeds of the Life Touch scheme to the United States.”

“Healthcare Fraud robs American taxpayers and betrays the very programs meant to protect our most vulnerable citizens. In this case, more than $12 million was stolen by these defendants directly from those who need it most,” said Reid Davis, the FBI Special Agent in Charge North Carolina. “These defendants now face more than 170 months in federal prison, over $30 million in restitution to North Carolina Medicaid, and a $15 million fine. This outcome sends a clear message: those who defraud public healthcare programs will be held accountable.”

“These defendants orchestrated an egregious scheme involving illegal kickbacks, placing greed above patient care. Fraudulent operations like this undermine the availability of federal health care program funds intended to support millions of beneficiaries,” said Special Agent in Charge Kelly Blackmon of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS‑OIG). “Together with our law enforcement partners, HHS‑OIG will continue to safeguard the integrity of Medicaid and other federally funded health care programs.”

“The people behind this scheme were supposed to help patients,” said N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “Instead, they developed an elaborate scheme to steal millions in taxpayer dollars. My office and our federal partners will hold accountable anyone who exploits patients and abuses Medicaid for their personal gain.”

The anti male gender fantasy is a money maker for some

Gavin Newsom’s wife pushed weird gender films into California classrooms — while paying herself a fortune

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom is a filmmaker whose documentaries have been seen by millions — but that didn’t happen purely because of talent. 

Siebel Newsom leaned on her powerful hubby and his education board to push preachy flicks about “toxic masculinity” into classrooms, casting her husband as an enlightened Democratic savior — all while raking in up to $300,000 annually through her nonprofit, The Representation Project, and for-profit outfit Girls Club Entertainment. 

“I turned the lens on boys and men and looked at the boy crisis in America and how we were failing our boys and men with this sort of rigid notion of toxic masculinity,” Siebel Newsom said about one of her films in an interview. 

Newsom is featured as a humble-bragging talking head in Siebel Newsom’s films “Miss Representation” and “The Great American Lie” alongside a cadre of lefty activists, Democratic politicians and academics hammering viewers with progressive totems like raising the minimum wage as a cure for gender inequity.

“We have the ability to step up and solve big problems … it’s just a question of prioritization, of political will,” Newsom said in The Great American Lie in what could easily pass for a stump speech. 

Even the liberal New York Times called the latter film “disingenuous” because it’s directed by the spouse of a top Democrat — but the relationship is never disclosed to unwitting viewers. 

What’s more, Newsom’s own Department of Education shilled his wife’s documentaries in official state guidelines — after the Representation Project bragged in a 2014 tax filing that its films and “curricula” were used in 1,000 California public schools.

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Siebel Newsom leaned on her powerful hubby and his education board to shove preachy flicks about toxic masculinity into classrooms. FilmMagic

Newsom’s Board of Education recommended Siebel Newsom’s films in controversial health education guidance in 2019 — shortly after he became governor — that was later adopted by the state education department. The guidance sparked heated debate for its focus on sexuality and gender identity. 

In 2020, the Department of Education worked with partners, including Siebel Newsom’s state-sponsored Office of First Partner, to push “social-emotional learning” in low-performing California schools — again recommending her films for classrooms. 

“We’ve seen literacy rates at the lowest that we’ve ever had in the state. And we’ve seen math rates at the lowest we’ve ever had in the state,” said Assemblymember David Tangipa. 

“This is a very clear attempt to indoctrinate the next generation of Californians. It’s a lot easier to control an uneducated group,” Tangipa added. “For the first time in history, this generation is significantly lower educated than our parents and grandparents.”

Forty-four percent of California 11th graders were not meeting reading standards in 2024, according to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. Nearly 70% were below par in math. 

Representation Project, which Siebel Newsom founded in 2011 when her husband was lieutenant governor, licenses her gender-obsessed documentary trilogy — “Miss Representation,” “The Mask You Live in,” and “The Great American Lie” — and another film called “Fair Play” to K-12 schools, universities and corporations, charging anywhere from $49 to $1500, according to its website. 

Her for-profit outfit, Girls Club, produces the films out of the Newsoms’ palatial, $9 million estate in Kentfield, Calif. 

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Newsom is cast as an enlightened talking head in “The Great American Lie,” which bemoans “extreme masculine ideals.” The Representation Project

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Teaching manuals quiz middle schoolers on terms like pansexuality using a diagram labeled “The Genderbread Person.”  Representation Project

Representation Project’s curricula include cringey activities such as a “Privilege Walk” sorting students by race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Other teaching manuals quiz middle schoolers on terms like pansexuality using a diagram labeled “The Genderbread Person.” 

In addition to free screenings in California’s struggling classrooms, Siebel Newsom — daughter of a multimillionaire Republican — said in a 2021 impact report that 5,000 schools across 50 U.S. states had shown her films, reaching 2.8 million students.

The Representation Project has earned more than $3 million in screening and film sales, paying Siebel Newsom a $150,000 salary plus additional reimbursements worth up to $150,000 annually, per IRS filings. 

Siebel Newsom did not respond to the Post’s questions about her nonprofit.

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Newsom humble-brags about appointing a female police chief in his wife’s film “Miss Representation.” Miss Representation

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Representation Project licenses her gender-obsessed documentary trilogy. FilmMagic

Siebel Newsom’s films have been screened in school districts such as Campbell Union and Stanislaus County, where some parents were reportedly outraged after an uncensored version of The Mask You Live In showing profanity and references to porn was mistakenly shown to middle schoolers. 

At the University of Texas Austin, a male student who was found guilty of harassment in a contested Title IX investigation was forced to watch Siebel Newsom’s “The Mask You Live In” and write an essay as punishment.

“The Great American Lie” pins America’s economic inequality on its “hypermasculine value system” and “extreme masculine ideals of money, power and rugged individualism.” 

Fair Play, starring Democratic Rep. Katie Porter and philanthropist Melinda Gates, deals with gender inequity at home.

Siebel Newsom is “prepping a film that’s about climate, Mother Earth and the feminine,” according to a 2024 interview with the BrandStorytellingTV podcast.

A sequel to “Miss Representation,” called “Miss Representation: Revolution,” has been mysteriously delayed. 

https://nypost.com/2026/03/09/us-news/gavin-newsoms-wife-pushed-preachy-gender-films-into-schools-with-state-help/

By 

Annie Gaus

Published March 9, 2026, 4:23 p.m. PT

Everywhere you look in California you find Democrat corruption and/or malfeasance

LA power player writes withering take down of LAUSD boss Alberto Carvalho: ‘Morally bankrupt’

https://nypost.com/2026/03/09/us-news/lausd-boss-alberto-carvalho-blasted-in-letter-from-former-superintendent-austin-beutner/

By 

Ben Chapman

Published March 9, 2026, 2:00 p.m. PT

A culture entitled to violence

Girl, 12, dies after savage fight with fellow student at school bus stop: ‘Oh my God, Jada!’

https://nypost.com/2026/03/10/us-news/girl-12-dies-after-savage-fight-with-fellow-student-at-school-bus-stop-oh-my-god-jada/

It will be very interesting to find out who is funding American universities. I suspect China, Qatar and other America haters will figure prominently

NEWS

EXCLUSIVE: Taxpayers Will Finally See Which Foreign Entities Fund US Universities

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell  | March 09, 2026

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Education will soon require universities to publicly disclose the counterparties of foreign funding, a senior Education Department official told The Daily Signal.

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires higher education institutions to report gifts and contracts valued at $250,000 or more to the Department of Education, to make them available for public inspection.

Universities currently report counterparties, their gifters or contractors, to the agency. However, the identities of foreign counterparties are not made public, which the senior department official said violates the law. The totals received from counterparties of concern are listed in the Section 117 Foreign Gift & Contract Reporting portal, but the gifters’ identities are not named.

Why Hollywood hates Trump

CRIME

Coast Guard cutter Munro returns to California home after record-breaking 11-Ton cocaine seizure

https://www.foxnews.com/us/coast-guard-cutter-munro-returns-california-home-after-record-breaking-11-ton-cocaine-seizure

The Munro's 119-day mission included tracking sanctioned tanker across Atlantic for 18 days and 4,900 miles

 By Louis Casiano Fox News

Published March 9, 2026 2:07pm EDT