The last month has brought renewed attention to crime lords allegedly stealing $3.5 billion from California’s hospice system. Congress and the Trump administration are investigating, and rightly so. The dying deserve dignity, not to have their safety net looted.But hospice is not the only target — and not every thief wears a ski mask.The federal government does not have to accept California’s bookkeeping tricks.Across California, politicians and their allies exploit Medicaid — a federal program meant to help the poor — to paper over budget holes they created. They do it through a bureaucratic “shell game” that shifts billions while patients and taxpayers pick up the tab.The mechanism is called an intergovernmental transfer. Local public providers or government agencies spend Medicaid funds. The state then counts that spending as its own and uses it to draw matching federal dollars. When that money arrives, the state sends it back to the same providers as higher reimbursements. Those providers end up receiving more than they originally spent, even though the state did not put up additional state funds.This scheme has driven ambulance reimbursements into the stratosphere.Between 2022 and 2024, the cost of publicly funded ambulances in California soared from $339 to $1,168 per trip. The state now asks for 2026 reimbursements to rise to more than $1,600. That increase means more than $1,200 per ambulance ride that does not go to patient care. It pads the state’s books and props up obligations like California’s failing pension system.This is not a straightforward street scam. It is worse: legalized looting with official letterhead.Families pay the price. Patients pay the price. Honest providers pay the price.Imagine what that extra $1,200 per ride could do if it went where Medicaid dollars are supposed to go: patient care, staffing, equipment, response times. Now imagine what happens when ambulance companies that are not connected to the right politicians cannot compete and start shutting down. When that happens, the people harmed will not be the insiders who designed the system. It will be the sick, the poor, and the vulnerable.I know what it means to depend on a functioning safety net.My brother has level 3 autism spectrum disorder — the most severe diagnosis. He is nonverbal. He cannot feed himself, dress himself, or use the bathroom without help. My parents cannot leave him home alone because he can wander into danger. Keeping him safe requires 24-hour supervision.My parents knew what that meant. They also knew they wanted him at home, not in an institution.Medicaid and In-Home Supportive Services, which helps cover the cost of at-home care, made that possible. Those programs kept our family together. They gave my parents a way to provide love and stability that no facility can replicate.It has still been hard. The work never ends.RELATED: Dr. Oz exposes alleged fraud in Los Angeles — so Gavin Newsom calls for investigation into his ‘racially charged’ claims Photo by Alex Wong/Getty ImagesMy brother’s diagnosis hit my parents like a crisis. They answered with courage. They had more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, but they stayed with the Army because it was the only employer that could guarantee my brother’s access to health care.We are a military family. We understand service and sacrifice. We also understand the moral bargain behind safety-net programs: Taxpayers step up so that families in crisis do not collapse.That bargain fails when politicians treat Medicaid as a slush fund.These financial shell games cost taxpayers billions and create nightmares for families like mine who follow the rules. This is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is robbing Peter and leaving Paul on the street.Americans should be sickened by the heartlessness of anyone who steals from programs designed to serve the vulnerable — whether the thieves are organized crime syndicates or the well-connected insiders who know how to work California’s bureaucracy. Hospice exists so that people can die with dignity. Ambulances exist to get patients to care quickly. Neither exists to generate money for the state and its chosen beneficiaries.Here is the good news: Congress and the Trump administration have started digging into hospice abuse. The bad news is that those investigations and policy changes can take years.Ending Medicaid ambulance intergovernmental transfer abuse could be done in a matter of days.The federal government does not have to accept California’s bookkeeping tricks. President Trump can direct federal agencies to stop approving these inflated reimbursement schemes and demand reforms that put patients first. One signature could force California to stop gaming Medicaid and start serving the people the program was built to help.

Michael Jordan is now dominating a new sport, and has started off 2026 by breaking records.Jordan's 23XI racing team settled an antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR in December, after alleging the racing organization is a monopoly that uses unfair practices to decide which teams are guaranteed participation. Now that Jordan's team has acquired that guaranteed (chartered) status, they have hit the ground running and immediately set an all-time record in 2026.'It's time for change.'In the 77 years of NASCAR racing, no team has ever won the first three races of a season until Jordan's 23XI team. Astoundingly, driver Tyler Reddick has won the Daytona 500, EchoPark Speedway, and the Circuit of the Americas to start the 2026 season, despite having zero first-place finishes in all of 2025."It’s time for change," Jordan told Fox NASCAR reporter Jamie Little after the race. "Time for change, and the guys feel the same thing. Tyler came in with the most pressure, I guess. Everybody expected him — or he had a chance — to win three in a row, and that's the hardest one to win. He kept to his strategy, and man, the guys put together a great car."Jordan gave all the credit to his team and drivers, saying, "I just put up the money. I'm just a competitor.""That's what it’s about — winning."RELATED: Michael Jordan sues NASCAR but is dealt major legal blow just 2 days before his driver competes in Cup Series championship Just under Reddick at the top of the standings is another one of Jordan's drivers, Bubba Wallace. Wallace drives car No. 23, representing the number Jordan made famous during his time in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls.Reddick drives car No. 45, a number Jordan briefly wore when he came out of retirement in 1995, before switching back to 23 in the playoffs that year."It's one race, but it was so important, so fitting that we were able to get three in a row and make history," Reddick said after the race, per NBC Sports. "Just trying to remember everything that I knew was going to be important there at the end and just tried to minimize the mistakes."RELATED: It's personal: Michael Jordan is more charitable than the media tells you Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images Jordan's lawsuit, which included team Front Row Motorsports, challenged NASCAR's charter program that consists of 36 charter teams who are guaranteed to compete in the field of 40 for each race.The remaining four spots are decided by a rather complex system that differs depending on the race. In general, non-chartered teams typically compete in a qualifying race or win a spot based on their qualifying time.As Fearless reported in 2024, Jordan's side argued that the unpredictability of being an non-chartered team meant the possible loss of drivers and sponsors from week to week, while binding the teams to the specific series (NASCAR), its tracks, and suppliers.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Sunday that the U.K. will allow the U.S. to use British military bases for limited defensive strikes targeting Iranian missile sites, reversing an earlier refusal amid escalating U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran.In a prerecorded video statement released through official channels, Starmer said the decision was made to prevent Iran from launching missiles across the region that could kill civilians, endanger British nationals, and strike uninvolved countries.'Over the last year alone, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on UK soil.'“The United States has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose,” Starmer said. “We have taken the decision to accept this request to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk, and hitting countries that have not been involved.”RELATED: Israeli officials say Khamenei is dead. Update: Trump confirms. Photo by Jonathan Brady-WPA Pool/Getty ImagesStarmer emphasized in a previous announcement that the U.K. is not participating directly in offensive strikes, which began in late February targeting Iranian military facilities, nuclear sites, and senior leadership. Instead Britain has focused on defensive actions, including intercepting Iranian missiles aimed at allies in the Gulf.Starmer also acknowledged the danger the Iranian regime poses: "Even in the United Kingdom, the Iranian regime poses a direct threat to dissidents and to the Jewish community." He continued, "Over the last year alone, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on U.K. soil."RELATED: 'Painful days': Iran kills US troops as Trump threatens decapitated Iranian regime (Photo by Jonathan Brady-WPA Pool/Getty Images)Starmer described Iran’s actions as increasingly reckless and dangerous and said the decision is consistent with international law under the doctrine of collective self-defense. The government published a summary of its legal advice supporting that position.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

I was living in Brooklyn at the time. I was 40-ish. I went home to Oregon for the Christmas holidays, and one of my siblings suggested we go skiing.We were a skiing family when we were kids. In my teens, I skied nearly every weekend for several months of the year. I got pretty good at it and have fond memories of those days. I remembered a doctor on TV saying something like: 'Most injuries I see are older people trying to do things they did when they were young.'But I had not skied or ridden a chairlift in 20 years. The idea of going again seemed really fun. Why hadn’t we thought of this before?Toys in the atticMost of my old ski stuff was still around my parents’ house. I found my slightly rusted skis in the attic. My old Nordica ski boots still fit. I dug up some musty ski gloves and a ski hat and some old goggles. I wasn’t going to look fashionable or current, but I had the necessary stuff to ski down the mountain. I would be like the eccentric older guys I occasionally rode the chairlift with when I was a teenager. Guys with ancient-looking skis and out-of-date parkas and mittens. Skiing wasn’t a social activity for them. They didn’t mind looking out of place. They were just there for the skiing.Runnin’ up that hillMy siblings and I drove up to Mt. Hood Meadows and bought our lift tickets. We rode up the chairlift, which all by itself was thrilling. To actually ski felt weird at first. I did a couple of snow-plow turns, then a couple of real turns, and then I was more or less back to form. The ski trails were mostly the same. I remembered them from high school. But other things had changed. The skis were shorter and oddly shaped. People wore helmets. There were snowboarders to contend with. And of course, everyone was younger and speedier than I remembered.After a couple easy runs, I was feeling pretty confident. I decided to check out some of the more difficult trails. So I dragged my brother over to one of the black diamond runs. Looking down into it, I was shocked by how steep and formidable it looked. I used to ski down this? And then some 12-year-old shot past me and went flying straight down the face of it.I decided against following him, and instead we found a trail that went along the ridge. Here we encountered a “jump.”This was not a jump like you see on TV, where you do two back flips and a triple twist. This was a little bump off to the side of the trail, where if you could build up enough speed, you might go two or three feet into the air and land six feet from where you started. Still, I’d loved jumps when I was a kid. My body reacted to the sight of it so strongly, I immediately sped up and steered right at it. Unfortunately, it turned out to have a badly shaped landing. You basically stopped dead when you hit. I nearly rolled forward out of my ski boots. It was so jarring, I felt queasy in my stomach. And then I had to get out of the way, so someone else could have that same experience.Slow your rollSo that’s how it went. I found that I got bored cruising the easy runs. But whenever I tried something hard, I was outmatched.After lunch, I made the decision to stick to the intermediate runs. I would do like the other middle-aged people, carving wide, graceful turns, taking it easy, getting into that elder-skier groove. But then my problem became speed. Each time I did a run, I went a little faster. Soon, I was going a little too fast. But I couldn’t resist that downhill racer sensation.And then I fell. I don’t know how. I must have “caught an edge.” One moment, I was leaning into a turn, and the next, I was face-planted into the hard pack.I came to my senses with a face full of snow and my skis, hat, and goggles scattered all around me.My brother pulled up behind me. He was scared. He said my wipeout looked bad. I told him it felt bad. Though as far as I could tell, I wasn’t seriously injured.I sat there for several minutes, making sure I was OK. Then I rose to my feet. Eventually, I put my skis back on. Very gingerly, we made our way down.But by the time we reached the chairlift, I felt fine. I was OK. And there was still time for a couple more runs. I assured my brother I could continue. And we got back in line.RELATED: I was a 'problem student' — until all-male Catholic school let me be a boy Alex_Bond/Bettman/Getty ImagesDazed and confusedRiding the chairlift was when I realized something wasn’t right. My brain seemed slow. I couldn’t seem to focus. I would look at things and not really see them. Everything felt weird and slowed down and unreal.I must have a concussion, I thought. So I gave myself a simple concussion test. What was my phone number? I thought about it. I thought about it more. I had no idea. What about my address? What city did I live in? I couldn’t seem to hold any clear thought in my head.I explained to my brother what was happening. He was concerned. We did one last easy-does-it run. Then we headed home. Dark night of the soulThat night, back at my parents’ house, I did the concussion protocols. I stayed awake for 12 hours, took aspirin, drank water, lay on the living room couch, perfectly still, with a dark towel over my eyes. I now had a very sore neck and back. I could barely move. I probably had whiplash.I was OK in the end. But that was a scary day. As I lay silent and still on the couch, I remembered a doctor on TV saying something like: “Most injuries I see are older people trying to do things they did when they were young.”That was definitely me. I guess I learned my lesson. But I’d also learned the lesson that — for me at least — the desire to do those things, even when I KNEW I SHOULDN’T DO THEM, could be overwhelming. In other words, it was best for me to stay off the ski slopes entirely. And maybe take up some new activities, things I’d never done before. Like softball. Or surfing. Or golf. Activities where memories of youthful glory wouldn’t get me into trouble.

Columbia University — an institution whose radicalism frequently spills out into the streets of Manhattan — is trying to distance itself from Columbia University Apartheid Divest after the coalition of student extremists echoed Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei's go-to motto following his assassination on Saturday.CUAD, a coalition of anti-Israel student groups that purportedly operates "outside of the purview of a registered student organization," didn't take the news of Khamenei's death particularly well, calling it "devastating news."'Columbia has not, and will not, recognize or meet with the group.'In another social media post, which has since been deleted, the student group wrote, "Marg bar Amrika."This Persian phrase, which means "Death to America," was one of the dead ayatollah's go-to slogans."The slogan and shout of 'Death to the U.S.' by the Iranian nation has strong logical and rational support and stems from the Constitution and fundamental thoughts that brooks no injustice and oppression," Khamenei stated a decade ago. "This slogan means death to the policies of the U.S. and arrogant powers and this logic is accepted by every nation when explained in clear terms."CUAD noted in a subsequent tweet that was taken down by Elon Musk's X for violating the platform's rules, "X forced use[sic] to delete our 'marg bar amrika' tweet in order to gain back access to our account but the sentiment still stands."RELATED: 'Painful days': Iran kills US troops as Trump threatens decapitated Iranian regime Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe university — which had its accreditation threatened last year over its alleged "indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students" and is paying the federal government over $220 million to settle investigations into alleged discrimination on campus — rushed to denounce CUAD's "violent, abhorrent language."Columbia emphasized that "'CUAD' is not a recognized student group and is not affiliated, in any fashion, with the University"; "the matter has been referred to law enforcement for further investigation"; and "there is no evidence, at this point, that anyone currently in control of this social media account is a Columbia student, staff, or faculty member."While it is unclear who presently mans the radical group's social media accounts, Mahmoud Khalil — a Syrian-born radical and former Columbia University graduate student who is presently fighting potential deportation by the Trump administration to Algeria — previously identified himself as a spokesman for CUAD.The university, which has been home to anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in recent days, noted that it denounced the group last July, making clear "Columbia has not, and will not, recognize or meet with the group that calls itself 'Columbia University Apartheid Divest' (CUAD), its representatives, or any of its affiliated organizations."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!