Joe Biden fueled outrage after he commuted the sentence of a judge caught taking kickbacks in exchange for sending children to for-profit jails. Known as the kids-for-cash scandal, former Judge Michael Conahan received a 17-year prison sentence after he shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and shared over $2 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Another judge, Mark Ciavarella, was also involved in the scandal. According to Fox News, the illicit scheme is one of Pennsylvania’s worst judicial scandals. Hmmmmmmm. Why? Biden slammed for commuting sentence of notorious ‘Kids-for-Cash’ judge Michael Conahan https://t.co/YVtFYQxr8K — Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. (@naomirwolf) December 13, 2024 Per Fox News: The scandal is considered Pennsylvania’s largest-ever judicial corruption scheme with the state’s supreme court throwing out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 kids after the scheme was uncovered. Conahan, 72, pleaded guilty in 2010 to one count of racketeering conspiracy but was released from prison to home confinement in 2020 because of COVID-19 health concerns with six years left in his sentence. But Biden, the so-called favorite son of Scranton, commuted Conahan’s sentence Thursday as part of the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history in which he commuted jail sentences for nearly 1,500 people and granted 39 pardons. “My Administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances,” the president said. Sandy Fonzo, who once confronted Ciavarella outside federal court after her son was placed in juvenile detention and committed suicide, said that the president’s actions were an “injustice” and “deeply painful.” Biden commutes sentence of disgraced PA judge who sent kids to jail for $2.1 MILLION in kickbackshttps://t.co/mTxYMFKmQW — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 13, 2024 Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Biden “got it absolutely wrong” by commuting the disgraced former judge’s conviction. “Governors and presidents have unique power to grant pardons and clemency and commute sentences. It is an absolute power, and it is a power that should be used incredibly carefully,” Shapiro said, according to Pennsylvania Capital-Star. “I study every single case that comes across my desk where there’s a request for a pardon or clemency or a reduction of sentence, and I take it very seriously. I weigh the merits of the case. I weigh what occurred in the court proceedings. I think about public safety and victims and all of those issues factor into my decision,” he continued. “So I’ll offer these thoughts as an outsider, not privy to all the information he looked at, but I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” he added. WATCH: Democrat Josh Shapiro says Biden commuting Kids for Cash judge’s sentence as….“absolutely wrong” In 2011, Michael Conahan was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison after he and another judge, Mark Ciavarella, were found guilty of accepting $2.8m in illegal payments in… pic.twitter.com/Uo8vWSuO4y — SLS (@Appalachianish) December 14, 2024 From Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Shapiro called the “Kids for Cash” scandal not only a “black eye on the community,” but said it affected families in “really deep and profound and sad ways.” “Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart,” Shapiro said of the scandal. “There was all kinds of mental health issues and anguish that came as a result of these corrupt judges deciding they wanted to make a buck off a kid’s back.” Sandy Fonzo, whose son died by suicide after he was put in juvenile detention, said in statement Thursday that the commutation was “deeply painful,” adding “this pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer.” State Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne) called the commutation “incomprehensible and indefensible” in a statement late Thursday. “Where does ruining the lives of vulnerable kids in order to enrich oneself warrant a presidential commutation?” Shapiro added Friday that he thought the 17-year sentence for Conahan was “too light.” WATCH:

ISLAMABAD — The recent assassination of a Taliban minister in Afghanistan by a local Islamic State offshoot has raised concerns about the terrorist network's expansion in the region, while signifying an escalation of the terror group’s conflict with the country’s de facto Taliban leaders. Taliban Minister of Refugees and Repartition Khalil-Ur-Rahman Haqqani was killed, along with several staff members, in a suicide bombing while he was exiting his office in the Afghan capital on Wednesday. Haqqani, 58, is the highest-profile target of Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, since the Taliban swept back to power in August 2021. The group has so far killed at least eight high-ranking Taliban officials and prominent figures in suicide bombings. The victims include the governors of the northern Afghan provinces of Balkh and Badakhshan. Taliban authorities have repeatedly claimed that their security operations have effectively diminished IS-K in Afghanistan, urging critics to provide evidence or stop making unfounded allegations about the terrorist group’s presence within the Afghan population. Islamic State social media channels again derided the Taliban’s claims following Haqqani’s assassination, asserting the latest deadly attack was a testament to the group’s presence in the country and its capacity to strike at will. The United States has refrained from immediately commenting on the deadly attack against the Taliban minister. “The only thing I would say is that we recognize — and we said so at the time — that there was still an ISIS threat inside Afghanistan,” National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told a White House news conference on Thursday, using an acronym for the terrorist group. “And clearly, they have set their sights on the Taliban.” Afghanistan’s growing terror threat? The assassination and the terrorism threat emanating from Afghanistan prominently figured in a meeting the United Nations Security Council held Thursday to discuss the situation in the crisis-ridden country. “Terrorist forces in Afghanistan such as Daesh, al-Qaida and ETIM/TIP still pose a major threat to international peace and security,” Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the U.N., told the gathering. Fu used the Arabic acronym Daesh for the IS-K and referenced the anti-China group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). “We call on the Afghan interim government to take counterterrorism measures to eradicate the breeding ground for terrorism and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a gathering place for terrorist organizations again,” the Chinese ambassador said. The Russian representative, Vassily Nebenzia, addressed the meeting and highlighted Moscow’s concerns regarding Islamic State activities in Afghanistan. “We are particularly concerned about the ongoing security risks emanating from the persistent terrorist activity of the ISIL Afghan wing,” Nebenzia said, using another acronym for the regional IS offshoot. The Russian envoy acknowledged the Taliban’s efforts to combat the terrorist threat but characterized them as insufficient. “We see that the fighters are enhancing their presence in the country, and they are deliberately escalating the situation, thereby recruiting new fighters, including foreign terrorist fighters, and carrying out new terrorist attacks targeting representatives of religious and ethnic minorities, including women and children,” he said. Nebenzia went on to assert that Islamic State militants are actively attempting to establish themselves as an alternative force, thereby jeopardizing stability in Afghanistan and the broader region. Transnational terror groups On Thursday, the U.S. State Department’s annual country report on terrorism also underscored the threat transnational groups pose to regional stability from Afghanistan. “Despite commitments by the Taliban that Afghan soil would be used neither to support terrorist groups nor to launch attacks against the United States or its allies, terrorist groups such as the Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (the TTP) continued to take advantage of poor socioeconomic conditions and uneven security procedures that make for a more-permissive operating environment,” the report stated. “The Taliban arrested some notable ISIS-K operatives in 2023 and viewed ISIS-K as the primary threat in Afghanistan while appearing to apply less pressure against al-Qaida and TTP,” the report noted. TTP, a globally designated terrorist group, has waged attacks against Pakistan and has intensified its cross-border raids since the Taliban seized power in Kabul. The IS-K began its extremist operations in the region in early 2015 and mainly consisted of defectors from members of the then-insurgent Afghan Taliban and the TTP. Despite both being ardent advocates of the strict interpretation of Islamic law known as Sharia, the Sunni-based Afghan Taliban and IS-K are notorious for their intense rivalry. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for multiple attacks it carried out beyond the Afghan borders in 2024. The targets included a memorial service in Shiite Iran, a Moscow concert hall and a church in Turkey, collectively killing nearly 250 people. Pakistan, while briefing the Security Council Thursday, highlighted growing TTP attacks, saying the violence is being orchestrated from Afghan hideouts. “The TTP — with 6,000 fighters — is the largest listed terrorist organization operating in Afghanistan. With safe havens close to our border, it poses a direct and daily threat to Pakistan’s security,” Usman Iqbal Jadoon, the Pakistani representative at the U.N., told the meeting Thursday. “We have evidence of its [the TTP’s] collaboration with other terrorist groups … to disrupt Pakistan’s economic cooperation with China. Given its long association with al-Qaida, the TTP could emerge as al-Qaida’s arm with a regional and global terrorist agenda,” Jadoon asserted without elaborating further. Taliban leaders deny allegations Afghanistan is being used by foreign militants, including the TTP, to threaten other countries, including Pakistan.

December 16, 2024

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Investigators say they have found “substantial evidence that many of these companies have been submitting fraudulent claims for EIDBI services that were not actually provided or that were not covered by the EIDBI program.” FBI searches Minnesota autism service providers in connection with fraud investigation by Luke Sprinkel – AlphaNews.org – Dec 12, 2024 Federal agents searched two autism service providers on Thursday morning. One of the provider, Smart Therapy Center, is located in Minneapolis and reportedly has connections with Feeding Our Future, a now-defunct nonprofit at the center of another federal fraud investigation. According to a search warrant obtained by Alpha News, the federal government has reason to believe that Smart Therapy Center has committed wire fraud, healthcare fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire and healthcare fraud. Star Autism Center in St. Cloud was also searched by federal agents today in connection with the alleged fraud. DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU! A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

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