The Department of Homeland Security says its Homeland Security Task Force went after a gang-run sex-trafficking pipeline in Los Angeles, and this time the charges are federal. Not a local citation. Not a revolving-door arrest. Federal racketeering. In a July 6 release, DHS announced the task force launched an operation aimed squarely at gang-operated sex trafficking in Los Angeles. The department said Homeland Security Investigations agents executed 14 federal and state arrest warrants and identified at least 51 sex-trafficking victims. DHS tied the sweep to Operation Broken Blade and said ten gang members or associates now face federal racketeering charges that also include sex trafficking, money laundering, firearms offenses, and narcotics offenses. The department also framed the operation as part of a broader Homeland Security Task Force push against organized criminal networks that profit from trafficking, not as a one-off street sweep. That is the difference between a headline arrest and a case built to hold. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chelsea Norell and Mirelle Raza appeared today on @FOXLA with @Araksya and @JennLahmers to discuss “Operation Broken Blade,” the latest chapter in the ongoing crackdown on sex traffickers on Los Angeles’s Figueroa Corridor. pic.twitter.com/I6RYvdZWbS — US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) July 2, 2026 Fox News reported that DHS carried out 20 federal warrants and made 10 arrests in connection with Hoover Criminals Gang sex-trafficking operations in Los Angeles. The outlet said officials identified 51 victims, including some as young as 14, and linked the arrests to Operation Broken Blade on the Figueroa Corridor in South Los Angeles. Fox reported that DHS framed the crackdown as part of President Trump’s broader anti-trafficking work, with the defendants facing charges well beyond trafficking alone. Those include racketeering, money laundering, firearms offenses, and narcotics offenses, which move the case into a much more serious federal lane. Fox added that the ten suspects are expected to stand trial in March 2027 in federal court. That is the shape of a case designed to dismantle an operation and cut into the money, guns, drugs, and gang structure around it, rather than process a few defendants and send them back to the street. This morning, @HSILosAngeles, @IRS_CI, and @LAPDHQ arrested nine defendants—including gang members and the manager of the Stadium Inn & Spas in South L.A.—in a major operation targeting sex trafficking along the Figueroa Corridor. One defendant was arrested on Monday. These… https://t.co/yZ2zFYwbEZ — F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) July 1, 2026 FOX 11 Los Angeles reported that authorities unsealed a 65-count gang RICO indictment under Operation Broken Blade. The local station described it as the first human-trafficking gang RICO case brought in the Central District of California. FOX 11 placed the operation on a 3.5-mile stretch of Figueroa Street running from Gage Avenue to Imperial Highway, a corridor authorities have been targeting because of entrenched trafficking activity and repeat exploitation. The station reported the superseding indictment names 18 defendants, most of them tied to a racketeering conspiracy involving the South Los Angeles-based Hoover Criminal Gang. That matters because RICO lets prosecutors attack the alleged enterprise, its members, and the business pieces around it in one case. FOX 11 also reported ten arrests in the latest sweep and five additional victims rescued during the warrants, with those victims connected to medical and psychological support services. The report included an allegation that the on-site manager of Stadium Inn & Spas financially benefited from the trafficking, which is exactly the kind of enabler a RICO case is built to reach. The arrests were carried out early this morning along the Figueroa Corridor as part of the second phase of Operation Broken Blade, a coordinated effort aimed at disrupting human trafficking networks operating in the area https://t.co/z0sA017Wu9 — 790 KABC (@KABCRadio) July 2, 2026 NBC Los Angeles reported that federal and local law enforcement arrested a South Los Angeles motel manager and others during the crackdown along the corridor. NBC described Operation Broken Blade as an ongoing takedown focused on the 3.5-mile corridor south of downtown Los Angeles, not a single raid. The station said officials alleged gang members and associates controlled trafficking and prostitution along the corridor, including victims as young as 14. The investigation, NBC reported, brought federal and local partners together instead of leaving the problem to strain a single city department. That partnership is the point here: local police, federal prosecutors, HSI, and financial investigators can each hit a different part of the same alleged network. That is the part worth holding onto. A gang allegedly ran a trafficking operation on a stretch of one street in Los Angeles for years, and it took a federal Homeland Security Task Force with racketeering tools to move on the whole structure at once. Fifty-one identified victims. Federal charges stacked from trafficking to money laundering to guns. A trial set for 2027. President Trump’s DHS is treating this like organized crime, because that is what it is. The post DHS Task Force Hits LA Trafficking Corridor With Federal RICO Charges appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

California just built another affordability squeeze into the health insurance system, and the fight over whether it survives runs straight through Washington. On July 6, California Assembly Republicans sent a letter to President Trump’s administration challenging the legality of a newly enacted Healthcare Premium Tax pushed by Gavin Newsom and Sacramento Democrats. Their ask is simple. Deny federal approval, and the tax cannot be collected. Carl DeMaio, one of the Assembly Republicans behind the effort, announced the letter publicly. Today, CA Assembly Republicans sent a letter to the Trump Administration challenging the legality of the outrageous new $425 tax on health insurance that CA Democrats want to impose. READ: https://t.co/Ahwsnk3JcM pic.twitter.com/VnZiiWh7Jc — Carl DeMaio (@carldemaio) July 6, 2026 Here is the piece that makes this different from the usual Sacramento tax fight. The new tax has a federal off switch, and Republicans are trying to flip it. The New York Post reported that California Republicans are appealing directly to the Trump administration to stop the healthcare tax increase tied to Newsom’s budget and health-tax redesign. The report frames the consumer hit at roughly $400 a year for a family of four, which turns an obscure state financing maneuver into a kitchen-table premium issue. It also puts the political fight where it belongs: the state passed the tax structure, but the federal government still has to approve it before Sacramento can collect it. That means this is no longer just a Sacramento budget fight. It is now a test of whether President Trump’s regulators will let California replace one Medicaid tax scheme with another version that critics say lands on private coverage. The Assembly Republican release, carried by Lassen News, lays out the mechanics. Republicans warn the tax on health coverage will drive up premiums for families, workers, and small businesses across California right as household budgets are already stretched. The release stresses that the tax cannot be collected until the federal government signs off, which makes federal review the entire ballgame before any premium hit can begin. DeMaio’s argument in the release is that Newsom and Sacramento Democrats overspent, could not balance the budget honestly, and now want working families to swallow another backdoor tax hike to cover it. For a state that already ranks near the top for cost of living, that is a hard sell. CalMatters reported that legislators approved a redesigned managed care organization tax meant to protect federal Medi-Cal dollars while shifting more of the cost onto privately insured Californians. The redesign lowers the tax on Medi-Cal plans and raises it on private plans to the same level, a direct response to new federal rules closing the old uneven-tax structure. Under the plan, every health plan would pay $8.85 per enrollee per month, and CalMatters reported premiums could climb about 1.5 percent if plans pass the cost through to consumers. By the plans’ own estimates, that works out to roughly $100 more a year per person, or about $400 more for a family of four. CalMatters also confirmed the revised tax still needs federal approval from the Trump administration before it can take effect. The affordability warning reaches beyond Republican messaging. A statewide physician group raised the same alarm. The California Medical Association warned that the state’s 2026-27 budget and health trailer bill carry a $1.5 billion tax increase expected to be passed along through higher health insurance premiums. CMA put the potential hit at as much as $400 a year for a family of four, landing on the same basic household-cost range now driving the Republican challenge to the tax. That gives the warning more weight than a partisan press release. Doctors are telling Sacramento the tax makes coverage harder to keep, while Republicans are asking Washington to stop the collection mechanism before it starts. Newsom’s office is not disputing the price tag. It is trying to hang it on President Trump. FALSE. This is Trump’s tax — thanks to his Big Beautiful Betrayal HE signed last year, California law needed to be changed. TRUMP hiked your costs, not Governor Newsom! https://t.co/w8zJNo2rPQ — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) July 6, 2026 That response gets the sequence backward. The reason California had to redesign the tax at all traces to a specific federal rule. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a final rule in January 2026 closing a health-care-related tax loophole. CMS said the rule prohibits states from taxing Medicaid business at higher rates than non-Medicaid business, and blocks tax designs built to disguise those differences. The fact sheet says Congress adopted the policy in President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts legislation and allowed transition periods for states to come into compliance. CMS pointed to California specifically as the example, noting a high monthly Medicaid MCO tax stacked against a much lower commercial member-month tax. That is the backdrop for this fight: Washington closed the old financing gimmick, and California answered with a redesign that critics say sends the bill to private premium payers. So Washington closed the old financing trick. It did not order Sacramento to turn around and load the difference onto private premiums. That was a choice, and California’s legislature made it. The leverage now sits with the Trump administration and CMS, because the tax stays parked until federal regulators approve it. Assembly Republicans want that answer to be no, and they are betting a federal review that already flagged California’s tax games will look hard at the next version. The post California Republicans Ask President Trump To Block Newsom’s New Health Insurance Tax appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife reportedly traveled to China just three days after the Kentucky senator was hospitalized to meet with a top Chinese official in Beijing. According to WLKY, a news release posted by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America said former U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife, met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing on June 17. Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao Jets to Beijing to Meet Top CCP Official Just 3 Days After Mitch McConnell’s Cardiac Arrest Hospitalization – China Ties Under Fire Again Link in the comment section. pic.twitter.com/zeMdkWyzLK — The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) July 4, 2026 WLKY shared further: The statement did not say whether Chao’s visit was connected to any official U.S. government business, but it did say both leaders were committed to strengthening relations between the two countries. Han said both leaders “agreed on a new vision of a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability, providing important strategic guidance for future bilateral relations.” Chao served as the U.S. Secretary of Transportation from 2017 to 2021 and previously served as the Secretary of Labor under former President George W. Bush. She has been married to McConnell since 1993. Meanwhile, investigative journalist Laura Loomer claims a “high level source” close to the White House alleged that McConnell is “officially brain dead” and “not coming back.” NEW: High level source close to the White House tells me “Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.” — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 6, 2026 “A very high level source told me Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead and machines are keeping him alive, but he is a vegetable and ‘never coming back.’ So why is his wife @ElaineChao in China instead of by his side? Is she a Chinese CCP spy? How does the wife of one of the most powerful US Senators just travel to China? Is she coming back from China? Who is she meeting with in China? Will she be the one to pull the plug?” Loomer questioned. “Elaine Chao served as secretary of transportation in President Trump’s first administration from 2017 to 2021. Is she a Chinese spy? Who flees the country to China when their husband is brain dead and attached to life support machines?? Why did she flee to China?” she continued. Elaine Chao served as secretary of transportation in President Trump’s first administration from 2017 to 2021. Is she a Chinese spy? Who flees the country to China when their husband is brain dead and attached to life support machines?? Why did she flee to China? — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 6, 2026 More from The Daily Beast: Photos circulating in Chinese media show Chao sitting across from Zheng on June 17, reportedly discussing efforts to strengthen China–U.S. relations. The timing of the visit adds further questions to a growing list McConnell’s aides have declined to answer since an EMS call made public this week revealed he had been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack on June 14, with an emergency dispatch sent to his Washington, D.C., residence. Audio of the call was first revealed by journalist Desiree Townsend. The Republican senator’s team has confirmed he is in the hospital but has offered no further details about his condition, including whether he is conscious or who is currently running his office. The post Mitch McConnell’s Wife Reportedly Travels To China And Meets With Top Chinese Official As Senator Remains Hospitalized appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Patriotic displays were once seen as almost universally beloved, with fireworks and military jets sparking a wave of celebration on July 4 and other important national events. But when it comes to the nation’s 250th celebration in D.C., the mainstream media is dutifully denouncing the entire event, apparently because of President Donald Trump’s involvement. As the New York Post noted, a reporter for that city’s other major newspaper took exception to the flyovers this weekend in the nation’s capital: Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who hosts “The Interview” for The Times, decried the awe-inspiring display of America’s awesome military and engineering genius as “nerve-wracking,” triggering widespread social media mockery. Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who hosts “The Interview” for The Times, decried the awe-inspiring display of America’s awesome military and engineering genius as “nerve-wracking,” triggering widespread social media mockery. She had complained at the very beginning of the aircraft flyover, which went on for a little over three hours on Friday. Needless to say, the comments were not particularly favorable:   Journalism was better when it was grizzled old guys with finely-honed bullshit detectors and zero fucks to give, instead of know-nothing prisses. — Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) July 3, 2026 Have you considered crying about it even harder? — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 3, 2026 We can hope it’s the apocalypse for the America-hating that your publication foments and spews. — Mollie (@MZHemingway) July 3, 2026 Here’s some additional coverage, via MSN: Garcia-Navarro’s July 3 post, made shortly after the flyovers began, drew widespread attention and responses from prominent commentators and numerous social media users. Many replies mocked her remarks, while others used the moment to debate the role of large-scale military flyovers in civilian holiday celebrations. Garcia-Navarro engaged with some critics, noting personal discomfort with loud displays, but the conversation quickly became part of a broader discussion on patriotism and public commemoration during high-profile national events.  The scale of the ‘Salute to America 250’ celebrations The flyovers were part of the ‘Salute to America 250’ program, which also featured record-breaking fireworks—850,000 launched in Washington, D.C., surpassing the previous Guinness World Record. The multi-branch aerial showcase included precision teams like the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds, rare aircraft formations, and ceremonial parachute jumps. Organizers and supporters presented the events as a once-in-a-lifetime patriotic spectacle, while critics like Garcia-Navarro questioned the necessity and tone of such large-scale military pageantry in a civilian setting.   Here’s a look at some of the “apocalyptic” flyovers:     What are your thoughts? TAP HERE TO ADD YOUR VOTE This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post Critics Slam NY Times Reporter For Saying America 250 Flyovers Felt ‘Like The Apocalypse’ appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner is losing endorsements and facing calls to withdraw from the race following a POLITICO report of sexual allegations against him. Maine Democrats Face One-Week Deadline After Sexual Assault Allegation Rocks Graham Platner Campaign "I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line. These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said. I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line. These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement. — Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) July 6, 2026 Maine Morning Star shared further: On Monday, Jenny Racicot, 41, who dated Platner on and off for two years, told Politico that he entered her home in 2021 uninvited while intoxicated and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. Platner denied the allegations, calling them categorically untrue. But he also said in a video on social media that he and his campaign are “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.” He postponed several campaign events scheduled for Sunday and Monday. The oysterman and military veteran has faced a series of controversies during his campaign including alleged unsettling behavior toward previous romantic partners, but the accusations in the Politico story published on Monday amount to the most serious. The Maine Democratic Party referenced those allegations in its statement asking Platner to step down. “The Maine Democratic Party leadership stands with women and survivors, and that principle does not bend based on party affiliation,” said Chair Charlie Dingman, Vice Chair Imke Schessler and Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson in a statement. “We respect the women who made the hard decision to come forward. Speaking up is often costly.” Maine House of Representatives Speaker Ryan Fecteau also echoed those calls in a separate statement. “Today’s revelations, on top of months of allegations and controversies, make it clear that Graham’s campaign cannot be successful,” he said. “The movement that Graham’s candidacy has inspired and helped build is one that has been needed for a long time. In order to carry the movement forward, to give power back to the people, and to defeat Susan Collins in November, I am calling upon Graham to drop out.” Platner also lost an endorsement from Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). "The allegations against Graham Platner are troubling and deeply serious. I am rescinding my endorsement," Gallego said. The allegations against Graham Platner are troubling and deeply serious. I am rescinding my endorsement. — Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) July 6, 2026 Fox News has more: Khanna's statement preceded Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the head of Senate Democrats' campaign arm, issuing a joint statement calling on Platner to "immediately" leave the race, so the party can choose a new nominee. The pair said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) would not invest in Maine — a top pick-up opportunity for Democrats in November's midterm elections — if he continued to seek the battleground seat held by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Both Schumer and Gillibrand supported Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, in the contentious primary and did not endorse Platner until he won the party's nomination. Meanwhile, Khanna, a far-left populist with likely presidential ambitions, had embraced Platner's insurgent Senate campaign for months amid a patchwork of controversies. Khanna personally campaigned with the Maine Senate hopeful in June shortly before Platner became the party's nominee. The campaign stop came just one day after Lyndsey Fifield, a former Platner girlfriend, accused Platner of abuse — an allegation first reported by The New York Times that Platner has fiercely denied. By that point, Platner was also facing scrutiny for sending sexually explicit messages to at least half a dozen women while married, making a plethora of offensive online statements over the period of a decade and getting a Nazi-linked tattoo that he wore for most of his adult life. Khanna previously appeared to dismiss the severity of Fifield’s account alongside many Democratic lawmakers, who seized on her background in Republican politics. He also argued that Platner, a combat veteran who has struggled with PTSD, had overcome a dark past and was deserving of redemption. The post Graham Platner Loses Multiple Endorsements Following Sexual Assault Allegations appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.