Los Angeles Lost Track Of Billions In Homelessness Funding, Audit Finds

 by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

Los Angeles City officials have lost track of billions in spending on homelessness services, according to an independent audit released on March 6.

The audit was commissioned by federal U.S. District Judge David O. Carter and completed by Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services, LLC. (A&M).

The report noted that A&M found it challenging to completely quantify how Los Angeles officials spent approximately $2.3 billion in funding meant to shelter, feed, and serve homeless people due to the incomplete and inaccurate manner the city’s homelessness program recorded and collected data.

The report painted a grim picture of Los Angeles’ homeless program managed by Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), which was established in 1993.

“Repetitive information gaps, coupled with a lack of accurate and complete data and documentation, posed significant obstacles to this assessment,” the report states.

“Insufficient financial accountability led to an inability to trace substantial funds allocated to the City Programs. Fragmented data systems across LAHSA, the City, and the County and inconsistent reporting formats made it challenging to verify spending and the number of beds or units reported by the City and LAHSA, track participant outcomes, and align financial data with performance metrics.”

The report also cites a paucity of uniform data standards and real-time oversight, which limited the ability of the auditor to fully assess the true impact of homeless programs and raised concerns of resource misallocation.

A&M found that key stakeholders failed to monitor homelessness programs, and that LAHSA was unable to identify relevant service provider contracts and expenses. It also found gaps in documentation.

“Contracts between the City, LAHSA, and service providers frequently contained broad terms without clear definitions, which created ambiguity about the scope and type of service delivered,” the report reads.

The county and city of Los Angeles outsources the management and allocation of funds to the LAHSA, an agency that the city and county are responsible for overseeing.

Fragmented data across the city, county, and LAHSA posed challenges to verifying spending and aligning financial data with performance metrics. The audit also found that the LAHSA failed to corroborate whether services were provided for invoiced items.

“The lack of uniform data standards and realtime oversight increased the risk of resource misallocation and limited the ability to assess the true impact of homelessness assistance services,” according to the report.

A&M said it is now recommending the City of Los Angeles consider approving and appointing an independent financial manager to create a robust framework for reviewing and approving service provider invoices and LAHSA invoices or cash requests.

The auditor also recommended the city mandate that service providers produce detailed, itemized invoices outlining specific costs, along with clear supporting documentation for the verification of service delivery.

LAHSA has not returned a request for comment.

Homelessness has reached historic levels in Los Angeles, according to the report. In 2023, seven homeless individuals died per day in Los Angeles, according to a separate report released on March 6 by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

People experiencing homelessness were 4.5 times more likely to die than the L.A. County population as a whole, according to the county’s report. The leading cause of death was a drug overdose.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/los-angeles-lost-track-billions-homelessness-funding-audit-finds

Israel Cuts Gaza Electricity Supply As Truce Falters

 Is a new Israel Defense Forces (IDF) assault on the Gaza Strip imminent? Israel has on Sunday cut all electricity to the Strip, in a move which typically signals some kind of escalation in military operations.

Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister announced in a video message that Israel would use "all means available … to ensure the return of all Israeli hostages" and to force Hamas out of Gaza.

"I just signed an order for the immediate halt of electricity to the Gaza Strip," Cohen confirmed. There had already long been lengthy blackouts throughout the Hamas-Israel war.

Via Middle East Eye

Hardline Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir praised the move:

"The Gaza Strip must be completely and immediately blacked out as long as even one Israeli hostage is being held there," he said.

"Israel must bomb the huge fuel depots that entered the Strip as part of the unfortunate deal, as well as the generators operated by Hamas."

Some 2.3 million Palestinians are in the Gaza Strip, and those that have electricity supplies are mostly reliant on generators. The scant remaining supplies going into the Strip have effectively been cut by Israeli authorities.

Hamas is demanding access to all resources, and the return of humanitarian shipments from outside countries and international organizations.

"We call on mediators in Egypt and Qatar, as well as the guarantors in the US administration, to ensure that [Israel] complies with the agreement … and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms," Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, told Agence France-Presse.

The White House seems to have grown more quiet on pushing the controversial Trump plan to push all Palestinians out of Gaza in order to build a "Rivera on the Mediterranean".

Still, Trump has warned there will be "hell" to pay if all Israeli captives aren't released. Media estimates commonly say the following of those that remain:

Fifty-nine hostages are thought to remain in Gaza, more than half of whom are thought to be dead, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Five of the 59 are American Israelis, only one of whom – Edan Alexander – is still alive.

On Sunday, senior Hamas official Taher Al Nunu was quoted by Al Aqsa TV – a channel affiliated to the militant group – as saying that it did not oppose releasing Alexander as part of negotiations to end the war.

A phase one ceasefire deal has held and been completed, but it's an open question whether it will hold into a phase two. For now, the guns have still remained silent, and there is an uneasy truce.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-cuts-gaza-electricity-supply-truce-falters

CMS tells hospitals it's eyeing new policies, regulations on gender-affirming care

 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) took early steps last week to pressure hospitals against the delivery of gender-affirming care to children and adolescents—a key policy of the Trump administration that has so far faced pushback from blue states, transgender rights advocates and the courts.

Wednesday, the agency sent a special alert to hospitals across the country that it “may begin taking steps to appropriately update its policies to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” language the White House has used in executive orders to describe hormonal treatments and surgical procedures used in transition-related care.

The notice and an accompanying press release also said the CMS “may” be looking to adjust regulations and “take additional appropriate actions” related to restricting those services and said that “similar alerts” are being sent to other Department of Health and Human Services agencies and grantees.

Though the alert outlines federal health agencies’ ideological shift on the issue and signals intent for future activity, it does not explicitly outline new requirements or restrictions for hospitals.

“CMS will continue to follow any applicable substantive and procedural requirements in taking any future action,” the agency said.

The CMS said its position is backed by inconclusive research findings on how hormonal treatments and surgical procedures impact individuals whose bodies are still undergoing development. To support that stance, it cited a combination of journal articles, news reports, legal briefs, provider resources—some of which were outwardly supportive of gender-affirming care—and trackers developed by advocacy groups that oppose gender-affirming care in minors.

The agency’s alert also described the U.S.’ government’s prior support of these treatments as an “outlier” among other developed nations. It pointed to policies or recommendations emphasizing psychotherapy as a first-line treatment promulgated in the U.K., Sweden and Finland.

Gender-affirming care services comprise a range of social, behavioral and medical interventions that affirm an individual’s gender identity when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth.

The services are supported by major medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and numerous others that warn of transgender individuals’ elevated risk for self-harm when denied affirming treatments.

Advocates and providers of the services also note that the interventions that receive the most attention from critics, such as surgical procedures, are generally rare among minors and require parental consent.

About 300,000 youth aged 13 to 17, or about 1.4% of the U.S. population, identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. A Reuters and Komodo Health analysis of insurance claims, which was cited in the CMS alert, found 1,390 claims of new use of puberty blockers among patients aged 6 to 17 in 2021, 4,231 for new use of hormone therapy among those aged 6 to 17 and 282 “top surgeries” among those aged 13 to 17.

President Donald Trump’s first day in office brought an executive order that forbade the federal government from funding, sponsoring, promoting, assisting or supporting subsets of gender-affirming care services, including hormonal treatments and surgical procedures, in those 19 years and younger. During his March 4 address to lawmakers and the nation, the president called for those restrictions to be codified in federal statute.

The days immediately following Trump’s order saw several gender-affirming care providers either pause or initiate a review of their gender-affirming services as well as warnings from blue state attorneys general that withholding those services would violate antidiscrimination laws.

Those states, as well as LGBTQ+ rights groups, have brought legal challenges against Trump’s ban on gender-affirming care and another order opposing “gender ideology.” To date, two federal judges have granted preliminary injunctions against portions of the orders and said that the policies are damaging to patients and likely unconstitutional.

Though the CMS’ Wednesday notice brings no new regulations or requirements, it does appear to be teeing up a conflict for hospitals navigating the law and their continued participation in federal funding programs like Medicare. 

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/cms-tells-hospitals-its-looking-new-policies-regulations-gender-affirming

US to assess Ukraine's peace stance in Saudi Arabia meeting

 U.S. officials are planning to use Tuesday's meeting with a Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia in part to determine whether Ukraine is willing to make material concessions to Russia to end the war, according to two U.S. officials.

The U.S. delegation will also be watching for signs that the Ukrainians are serious about improving ties with the Trump administration after a meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy devolved into an argument last month, said one of the officials, who requested anonymity to preview the closed-door talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will fly to Jeddah on Sunday for the bilateral talks with Ukrainian officials, who will be led by Andriy Yermak, a top Zelenskiy aide. Rubio is expected to be joined by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

"You can't say 'I want peace,' and, 'I refuse to compromise on anything,'" one of the U.S. officials said of the upcoming talks.

"We want to see if the Ukrainians are interested not just in peace, but in a realistic peace," said the other official. "If they are only interested in 2014 or 2022 borders, that tells you something."

POSITION OF STRENGTH

Ukraine's European allies argue that Ukraine can only ink a deal with Russia from a position of strength and that Kyiv should not be rushed to the negotiating table with an aggressor.

Zelenskiy has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want peace, and that Russia will attack other European countries if its invasion of Ukraine does not result in a clear defeat.

U.S. officials met with Russian officials in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in February for separate bilateral discussions, which were focused largely on rebuilding a working relationship after a near-total freeze on official contact under former U.S. President Joe Biden.

Trump has expressed frustration with Ukraine in recent weeks, saying the eastern European nation is running out of manpower and resources, and that it needs to quickly come to the table with Russia.

His administration has cut off weapons shipments and some intelligence sharing with Kyiv in recent days, with his administration accusing the Ukrainians of not being sufficiently open to a potential peace process.

Critics say Trump's moves risk prolonging the war by strengthening Russia's hand and thus making the country less likely to lay down arms and strike an equitable peace deal.

Russian troops have been making slow but steady progress in eastern Ukraine, while thousands of Ukrainian troops who stormed into Russia's Kursk region last summer are nearly surrounded.

In a statement, National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said Zelenskiy had made progress in restoring the U.S.-Ukraine relationship following his acrimonious meeting with Trump on February 28.

He pointed to comments by Trump during his address to the U.S. Congress earlier last week, when he said he had received a conciliatory note from the Ukrainian leader.

"With meetings in Saudi Arabia this coming week, we look forward to hearing more positive movement that will hopefully and ultimately end this brutal war and bloodshed," Hughes said.

Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, said publicly earlier this week that he hoped to discuss a "framework" for a potential ceasefire and peace deal during the talks.

Hanging over Jeddah is the fate of a minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine. Zelenskiy and Trump had been slated to sign that accord - which would give the U.S. access to certain mineral resources in Ukraine - during Zelenskiy's White House visit. But after the blowup between the two men, it was not signed.

Since then, both sides have expressed a renewed willingness to sign the deal, but no signing has yet occurred.

The State Department and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-to-assess-ukraine-s-peace-stance-in-saudi-arabia-meeting/ar-AA1AzogC

US Air Force F-16 fighters forced to intercept 2 aircraft that invaded Mar-a-Lago airspace

 Air Force F-16 fighter jets have been scrambled to intercept aircraft that invaded the airspace over President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida — the second time that’s happened in 48 hours, NORAD says.

A civilian aircraft flew into the no-fly zone over the property at around 1:15 p.m. Sunday, according to a statement.

The fighter jets fired flares to warn the pilots to move out of the area, the military said.

The aircraft was then escorted out of the area.

For the second time this week, NORAD intercepted aircraft violating the airspace around President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.AP

A US Air Force F-16 fighter jet.dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
It’s part of a raft of private aircraft ignoring the no-fly zone of the “southern White House” — where the president often spends his weekends.

“Since the January 20, 2025 presidential inauguration, NORAD has responded to over 20 tracks of interest entering the Palm Beach, Florida temporary flight restrictions area,” the statement read.

The two incursions this weekend happened while Trump was staying there.

This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.

https://nypost.com/2025/03/09/us-news/us-air-force-f-16-fighters-forced-to-intercept-2-aircraft-that-invaded-mar-a-lago-airspace/

Watch: Trump Says Zelenskyy Took US Money "Like Candy From A Baby" -- Talks Tariffs, Econ 'Transition'

 In a Sunday interview with Fox News' Mario Bartiromo, President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took US money "like candy from a baby" under President Biden.

"He took money out of this country, under Biden, like candy from a baby. It was so easy," Trump said in the interview which aired on Sunday. "I just don’t think he’s grateful. We gave him 350 billion and he is talking about the fact that they have fought and they have this bravery," Trump continued, adding that he was the one that gave Ukraine Javelin anti-tank weapons, and that the war in Ukraine wouldn't have started in the first place if he had been president in 2022.

On the topic of European aid to Ukraine, Trump said: "All he (Zelenskyy) had to do is say (to Europe), you got to stay even with us (the US) ... We're not in the danger, they (Europe) are ...So they're paying all this money to Russia, and we're in there for $350 billion."

The Economy & Tariffs

Bartiromo also asked Trump about whether he was worried about a looming recession for the US economy.

"I hate to predict things like that," said Trump, when asked if he expected a recession this year. "There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of — it takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great."

Bartiromo also pressed Trump on his use of tariffs, telling Trump: "I think CEOs want to see predictability. They say, look, I have to speak with shareholders," adding "Can you give us a sense of whether or not we are going to get clarity for the business community?"

To which Trump responded, "Well, I think so. But you know, the tariffs could go up as time goes by, and they may go up and, you know, I don’t know if it’s predictability."

Trump has acknowledged that tariffs on imports may result in "disruptions" to the economy - to which Bartiromo asked whether the recent dip in the stock market had to do with Trump's tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico.

"What I have to do is build a strong country," Trump replied. "You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We go by quarters. And you can’t go by that. You have to do what’s right."

Education

On the topic of education, Trump said "We have the worst education department in the world," adding "We want to not only have school choice, but we want to bring it back to the states so the states can run the schools, and they will be every bit as good as the top educational departments anywhere in the world."

Trump's comments came days after the White House denied a WSJ report that Trump was expected to issue an executive order on Thursday aimed at abolishing the Department of Education - which was established under President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and has an annual budget of around $80 billion.

State Of The Democratic Party

Trump and Bartiromo also discussed the state of the Democratic party, and how woke ideology has more or less destroyed it.

"There’s something wrong with them. I can’t even believe it… they were talking about men playing in women’s sports… they had their signs—their little tiny signs… it’s unbelievable. They don’t get it," said Trump.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-trump-says-zelenskyy-grabbed-cash-candy-baby-talks-tariffs-economic-transition

Judge Declines To Block Policy That Lets Agents Arrest Illegal Immigrants At Schools

 by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge on March 7 declined to block a new federal immigration enforcement policy that lets agents enter schools to arrest illegal immigrants.

An American flag hangs in a classroom as students work on laptops in Newlon Elementary School, in Denver, Aug. 25, 2020. David Zalubowski/AP Photo

U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Domenico, during a hearing in Colorado, rejected a request from Denver Public Schools to enter a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction against the policy. He said that Denver Public Schools failed to prove that a drop in attendance was due to a new policy from President Donald Trump’s administration.

The federal government in January rescinded guidelines that largely barred federal officers from arresting illegal immigrants at certain places, including schools and food banks.

Denver Public Schools said in its lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had not demonstrated there were good reasons to implement the change.

“Defendants have provided no evidence that it examined relevant data, or any data. For example, Defendants have not cited any evidence to support its statement that criminals were hiding in schools,” the suit stated.

That means the move was arbitrary and capricious, in contravention of federal law, Denver officials said.

A DHS spokesperson said at the time that the administration was “protecting our schools, places of worship, and Americans who attend by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and taking safe haven there because these criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the previous Administration. DHS’s directive gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs.”

A DHS official said in a Jan. 31 memorandum that a supervisor needed to approve immigration enforcement operations at or near churches and other “protected areas.”

Since the policy change, Denver school officials said that there has been a decrease in school attendance and a slew of reported ICE raids around schools. Denver’s superintendent told the court that students and parents had been arrested in the raids, stoking fear in the school community.

Under a previous version of the policy, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a DHS component, made just two arrests at schools, under exigent circumstances, from Oct. 1, 2018, through Oct. 31, 2020, according to a court filing. Another 18 arrests were made near schools.

Federal officials said in court filings that Denver officials have not shown the drop in attendance or any other injury was caused by the new DHS policy. “Rather, the evidence shows that any drop is the result of fears among students and parents, not any actual enforcement actions by DHS at schools, and may relate to false reports of immigration enforcement at schools or enforcement actions that did not take place on school grounds or at bus stops,” officials said in one filing.

They also said that the new policy did not differ significantly from the previous policy. While that 2021 policy said in part that “we should not take an enforcement action in or near a location” listed as protected, agents were still able to conduct arrests at or around such places, the officials noted. Schools remain on a list of protected areas, and agents still need authorization before entering the locations, they added.

Domenico, the judge, said on Friday that it wasn’t clear how much of the fear surrounding possible enforcement actions in schools was really due to the new rules as opposed to broader concerns of increased immigration actions.

He noted the requirement that authorities receive supervisory approval before entering sensitive places and said that the fear over the new rules, as well as the belief that the old rules provided protection to schools, both seemed to be overstated.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-declines-block-policy-lets-agents-arrest-illegal-immigrants-schools