As fraud scandals rattle the American Midwest, Republican Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams has announced that he and fellow Republican Ohio state Rep. DJ Swearing have introduced legislation to prevent fraud at daycare centers receiving state taxpayer dollars. “If you are taking taxpayer money, you will provide attendance, prove services, improve compliance, or you will lose funding and face potential prosecution if we find waste, fraud or abuse,” Williams said at the Thursday press conference. Attorney General Dave Yost was also present to lend his support. Fraud Concerns Spread After large-scale fraud at childcare centers was exposed in Minnesota, concern spread to Ohio. In response, Williams called for immediate investigations into the publicly-funded childcare system in Ohio, as The Daily Signal previously reported. On Dec. 30, 2025, Williams led dozens of other state representatives in a letter to Director of Children and Youth Kara Wente emphasizing a need for unannounced visits to daycare centers. Williams’ and Yost’s press conference comes after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine gave remarks during a press conference of his own last week, as well as appeared on a podcast. When asked by The Daily Signal if he believed DeWine was doing enough, Williams spoke about the executive branch not using all of its authority to combat fraud. “I think the executive agency, [the Department of Children and Youth], has more power than they’re using. Speaking with DCY they made it perfectly clear that they get a ton of pushback from providers when they try to provide additional oversight,” he said. “You can just imagine, unlike a legislator who is elected by the people, or attorneys general, or auditors, they get a tremendous amount of pressure, they get accusations, ‘You’re only doing this to me, you’re only doing it for these particular reasons,’ and it puts a strain on that relationship of the providers.” Williams still expressed hope about the role for the department, however. “Now, I mean even my letter, DCY appreciated, because they said, ‘Now we can tell providers, when we go and do additional unannounced visits, the reason we’re doing it is because of Representative Williams,'” he offered, adding that “it took the pressure off of [the department].” Williams argued his bill will standardize enforcement so that “no one can complain about the oversight because it’s a uniform rule by the legislature across the state of Ohio.” New Legislation to Combat Fraud Williams unveiled his legislation, The Childcare Fraud Prevention Act, to combat fraud at Thursday’s press conference The “widespread fraud in Minnesota,” Williams said, showed the state “was turning a blind eye to fraudsters ripping off the American people,” and inspired the legislation. This bill, Williams shared, came “in response to an overwhelming request for better oversight of our publicly funded childcare system in Ohio.” The legislation “has a very simple purpose,” Williams said. “If the government is taking money from Ohio taxpayers and using it to fund childcare, the government has a moral and legal obligation to protect that money and protect the children tied to those state funds.” I am proud to be partnering with Representative @DJSwearingenOH and Attorney General @DaveYostOH on this incredibly important piece of legislation.We owe it to Ohio's citizens to be good stewards of their tax dollars and make sure they aren't being stolen by fraudsters.The…— Rep. Josh Williams (@JoshWilliamsOH) January 15, 2026 What’s in the Bill? As Williams explained about his bill, it will: Install cameras with a clear line of sight to both the exterior and interior of every entrance; Install cameras in general childcare areas, excluding restrooms, changing areas, administrative offices, and other private spaces; Retain video recordings for a minimum of 60 days; Provide the Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY) with instant access to live and stored video for attendance audits, administrative oversight, and child safety concerns; Utilize a secure system developed by DCY to conduct and log visual attendance audits; and Face immediate suspension or termination of public funding upon credible suspicion of waste, fraud, or abuse. Cases of fraud are turned over from the Department of Children and Youth, but may be referred to the attorney general’s office for prosecution. An “enforcement pipeline,” Williams explained, “ensures that fraud is not quietly handled internally like we’ve seen, and not forgotten or swept under the rug because the department or the administration does not want to have a black eye or appear to demonize a particular community or group.” Williams also expressed concerns that the system currently in place with its safeguards is not catching fraud, pointing to public tips following videos from citizen journalists, as well as questioning how much fraud is actually taking place that is not caught. Williams argues his bill can more efficiently catch fraud. “Ohio must shift from a reactive enforcement mechanism to a preventative enforcement mechanism using technology, transparency, and immediate consequences so the system cannot be gamed or exploited in the state of Ohio,” Williams stated. Williams claimed his bill, “attacks fraud at the root by making attendance reporting verifiable, audit friendly, and enforceable in real time.” The shutdown of money when fraud was detected was a provision that Williams stressed was “the difference between real enforcement and political messaging.” Yost Welcomes the Bill “This bill is welcome because my office is, in many ways, a creature of statute,” Yost said upon his turn to give remarks. “We have the authority that is granted to us by the legislature, and we do not have other authority we might wish to have,” Yost explained. Yost detailed how he does not have the authority to open an investigation into a daycare. “This bill appropriately creates some independence for integrity purposes through the auditor’s state’s office and brings the state’s chief legal officer—the attorney general—into play where the auditor has done sufficient work to predicate the possibility of legal action,” Yost explained. The post Bill Aims to Take Concrete Steps to Combat Fraud in Ohio appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Haunted houses are prime material for horror movies, but is there any truth behind the idea? Can physical spaces really be inhabited by evil spirits?On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” a podcast on biblical spiritual warfare, BlazeTV host Rick Burgess interviews Eric Davis about his bone-chilling book “Deliverance at Springhill Plantation.” The book follows the true story of Eric and his wife, Cindy, and their paranormal experiences after purchasing what they thought was the plantation home of their dreams.After two decades of grinding through a failing marriage, an antebellum-era plantation sitting on 34 acres of rolling green property in Alabama seemed like the perfect place for Eric and Cindy — both history buffs and antique collectors — to reconnect and begin anew. But they were hardly settled before the horrors started unfolding.One morning shortly after moving in, Eric saw a moving fog — like “dry ice” — traveling from the barn to the old hospital on the property, where the original owner, who was a doctor, used to treat wounded soldiers during the Civil War.“There was an absolute feeling of absolute evil all over me. I felt the electricity of evil,” he says.A short while later, Eric saw a physical manifestation of a demon near the same barn. Eric was sitting on the front porch watching his wife go out to feed the cats, when suddenly he saw a man with “long, white hair” dressed in Civil War-era clothing approach her. At first, Eric thought it was an oddball neighbor, but when he made eye contact with the being, it “[disappeared] into a puff of smoke.”But then things got even darker. One morning while sitting on his couch, Eric was overcome with a sudden and deep hatred for his wife. “I would have loved to seen her dead,” he confesses.Eric’s animosity toward Cindy was so tangible, the entire family recognized it as demonic oppression. That night, they walked through the home burning sage, anointing doors with oil, and reading aloud from Psalm 91.“I'm anointing the doors and screaming for [the demons] to get out of my house and get out of our lives,” Eric recounts.Then Eric walked to the top of the staircase, where there was a “small cubby hole door.”“I felt a big time pressure behind that door, and I jerked the door open. Naomi [Eric’s daughter] put the sage in. I put my head in there and screamed, ‘Get out of here in the name of Jesus!’ And in the back of my attic was a very, very loud scream. It was like a woman screamed,” he recounts.“I heard the sounds of barking dogs in the house. ... The sage would be lit, and all of a sudden, this cold draft of air would just blow it right out. ... It took probably two hours to get the smoke out of my house, but at the end of that night, everything was gone.”The next several months were uneventful, and Eric’s family settled back into everyday life, believing the demonic activity had been driven out for good.Then one day, Zoe, the family dog, started randomly whining and growling. “I turn, and out of the wall in my bedroom within six foot of me appears a black figure floating. ... It very much looked almost like the Grim Reaper the way it looked. It was dark. It was levitating. It had sleeves. It had a hood. Had no face inside it, no hands, no feet,” Eric tells Rick.“I screamed, ‘Get out in the name of Jesus!’ ... I chased it downstairs and out of the house, and it left.”At this point, Eric was utterly crushed in spirit by the warfare waged against his family. Having nowhere to turn, he “looked up to the night sky” and cried out, “God, where are you?"“And suddenly this peace comes on me. I don't know how to explain it. This peace was on me, and I heard one word,” says Eric.That word was "church."Even though Eric and his family were believers, it had been many years since they’d belonged to a local congregation.Eric reached out to a local church and told one of the people on staff what was going on inside his home. After Sunday service one day, several members of the church came over and “went to war in [the] house.”Eric, who was standing outside with his family, says he could “feel [the demons] as they're leaving.”One of the women in the church group then shared a word the Lord had given her.“She said there's unforgiveness in this house,” says Eric.“I pointed at Cindy, and Cindy pointed at me, and we released forgiveness toward each other. And when that happened, everything broke.”“That was the root” that was permitting the darkness to temporarily flee but come roaring right back, Eric explains. “You can rebuke Satan in the name of Jesus all day long, but if you've got unrepented unforgiveness in your heart, nothing's going to change,” he says.But final deliverance for the Davis’ home wouldn’t come until eight months later after one final demonic siege.To hear how Eric’s harrowing tale ends, watch the full episode above.Want more from Rick Burgess?To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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By Gloria OgbonnaAyatollah Ahmad Khatami, a senior figure within Iran’s ruling theocracy and a powerful voice of its hardline establishment, on Friday openly called for the execution of anti-government…