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Pentagon Personnel Files Exposed for Nine Months
The Defense Manpower Data Center has begun notifying people that unauthorized users reached a file-sharing server holding unencrypted personal data. Access ran from October 2025 until the flaw was found on July 16, 2026. The center patched the system the same day. A Department of War official said the files cover 2.76 million living people and 294,000 deceased. Records varied and included names, dates of birth, contact details, Social Security numbers, demographic data, and military job specialties. The agency said it has no sign the data has been misused. It did not name the product or the vulnerability. No group has claimed the intrusion. DMDC held at least 60 million records as of fiscal 2024, covering troops, civilians, contractors, families, retirees and veterans.
đď¸ News & Politics
Oversight Democrat Reportedly Dating YouTuber Tied to Program Under Review
US Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), 34, a freshman on the House Oversight Committee, is in a sexual relationship with Jack Cocchiarella, a 24-year-old progressive YouTuber, according to multiple sources. Cocchiarella sits on Chorus's creator council and has called himself a co-founder. Chorus pays left-leaning influencers up to $8,000 a month. Chairman James Comer (R-KY)) opened a probe in November 2025 into whether the program skirted campaign-finance disclosure rules, and the committee subpoenaed the Sixteen Thirty Fund in May. Ansari was at Cocchiarellaâs home for his birthday party last Friday, sources said. They also appeared together at a Phoenix MoveOn event in August, and he interviewed her in July. Ansari has been on the committee since January 2025. No public record shows her questioning a witness or voting on the Chorus inquiry. She declined to discuss her personal life.
Treasury Starts Mailing $500 ObamaCare Refund Checks
The Treasury Department has begun sending $500 refund checks to more than 950,000 people in 30 states who bought insurance on HealthCare.gov and were overcharged. The checks come with a letter signed by President Trump. The letter says the Biden administration overcharged buyers to fund the exchange and is returning the money. Trump said the excess fees totaled more than $500 million. The refunds go to people who did not get premium assistance and paid the full user fee in states that use the federal marketplace. They are separate from the $5,000 checks he has tied to a Republican midterm win. He also endorsed a Republican health plan that would send payments to patients instead of insurers and require posted prices and disclosure of denied claims.
Schumer Says He Will Keep the Senate Leader Job After the Midterms in Desperate Attempt to Retain Power
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he is running for another term as Democrat leader no matter how the midterms turn out. âI am running for re-election for leader. Period,â the 75-year-old New Yorker said. He told reporters the result of the election has no bearing on that decision. He called the Senate fight 50-50 and said Democrats are âtotally unified.â Nominees Abdul El-Sayed, Troy Jackson, Peggy Flanagan and Juliana Stratton have said they would not back him. No sitting Democrat has launched a challenge. Schumer has led the caucus since 2017 and was majority leader from 2021 until Republicans took the chamber in 2025. Democrats need a net of four seats to regain control. He has treated the leadership fight as something to settle after Election Day.
FBI No. 2 Says Family, Not Bureau Turmoil, Is Why He Is Leaving
Outgoing FBI Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey said he is returning to Missouri to raise his four young children. âThis was 100% about my need to get home,â he said. He announced Monday that he would leave after more than a year, with his exit set for Oct. 2. Bailey said internal conflict drove the decision and defended Director Kash Patel. Patel thanked him for the reforms and said he would miss his leadership. Bailey, a former Missouri attorney general, joined the bureau in 2025. After Dan Bongino left, Christopher Raia shared the deputy role. Bailey cited a shift toward violent crime, child cases and homeland security, more than 2,000 added task-force officers, a claimed 20 percent drop in homicides, more than 5,000 violent-offender arrests, 3,258 kilograms of fentanyl seized and more than 1,500 jobs moved out of headquarters.
Record Low 31 Percent Call College Very Important
A Gallup poll released Thursday found that only 31 percent of Americans say a college education is very important. That is four points below last year and the lowest reading in the seven times the question has been asked since 1978. In 2013, 70 percent said college was very important. The share calling it not too important rose from 6 percent in 2013 to 29 percent. Those calling it fairly important rose from 23 percent to 39 percent. The drop runs through age, sex, party, race and education, with double-digit declines in every major group. Gallup pointed to cost. A related survey found only 12 percent of adults think four-year college is affordable. Parents still prefer some credential after high school, and 73 percent of adults still say a degree matters as much as it did 20 years ago.
Editorâs Note: And thatâs because colleges and universities have made degrees useless in the real world.
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Has-Been Tillisâ Texts Tell Trump Off In Profane Rant Ahead of Tell-All Book
US Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) unloaded on President Trump in private texts that will appear in his memoir, âHow to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents.â On May 22, he wrote, âI still want to help but I donât take this bullshit from anyone, including you Mr. President,â and added, âI care if you fail and right now we are failing.â On June 6, he wrote, âIf you had ever threatened me directly with a primary, I would have immediately told you to fuck yourself, and I would have announced my retirement immediately.â The published excerpts do not include Trumpâs replies. Tillis said in June 2025 that he would not seek reelection after opposing the reconciliation bill. Trump called him a talker and complainer and floated a primary challenger. Trump-backed Michael Whatley is running for the open seat against former Gov. Roy Cooper.
Michigan Woman With a Biden Volunteer Award Charged in $1 Million Scheme
Shannon Monet Steel, 42, of Farmington Hills, was arrested by the FBI and charged with wire fraud after prosecutors said she posed as an ambassador, a private banker and a hotel owner and took at least $1.05 million from at least eight victims between 2022 and 2026. She appeared in federal court in Detroit on Sept. 1 and was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Wire fraud carries a maximum of 20 years. She billed herself as an ambassador of the Central African Republic. The State Department said she is not an accredited diplomat. She claimed a bank with hundreds of millions in assets. Agents found no FDIC-insured bank in her name. Investigators said a Deutsche Bank letter she used was fraudulent. A Southfield hotel she said she bought never received a certificate of occupancy. In 2024, she received a Presidentâs Lifetime Achievement Award under the volunteer program and publicized it with photos of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Court records say she lacked documentation for the service hours, and AmeriCorps found the award inconsistent with program rules.
Seven States Sue to Restore Funds Trump Moved to Cancel
California and six other states sued Wednesday to stop the Trump administration from withholding money Congress already approved, including about $810 million the White House moved to cancel before the fiscal year ended. Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon joined the case in federal court in Northern California. Attorney General Rob Bonta said a president cannot defund a program because he dislikes it. The White House said the spending does not benefit American citizens. About $567 million had gone to refugee, asylum, and other noncitizen services. Another $40 million was aimed at Southwest Key Programs, which the Justice Department has accused of sexual abuse of migrant children in its care. Other cuts hit a $15 million community-relations program and $70 million in international education grants the administration called divisive. Trump used the same pocket-rescission move in August 2025 to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid.
Editorâs Note: But when Jimmy Carter used the process of pocket-rescission in 1977, Democrats just looked the other way.
OPM Reports More Than $500 Million Stopped in Federal Health Benefits
The Office of Personnel Management said carriers in the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs prevented nearly $510 million in losses in 2025 and recovered $21.9 million after claims were paid. Of the prevented total, $237.7 million came from claims stopped or reduced before payment and $271.9 million from billing and policy changes. Director Scott Kupor said the programs cover about 8.9 million employees and retirees and spend about $80 billion a year. He called the haul a start. The agency is reviewing claims data itself for the first time to flag odd prescribing and surgery patterns, and it will drop providers and refer suspected crimes to the inspector general and the Justice Department. The figures sit with a White House anti-fraud effort chaired by Vice President JD Vance.
U.S. and France Charge Hamas Fundraisers Who Collected More Than $1.7 Million
The Justice Department unsealed an indictment Friday against Saleem Alzaq, 45, of Gaza, and announced the arrests of Omar Adhami, Abdel Adhami and Raed Yousef for paying, soliciting and collecting money for Hamas. French police arrested Faouzi Barika, Amel Oualid and Nordine Barika. Prosecutors say Alzaq is a Hamas member and a deputy in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades who photographed events with Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar and posted propaganda celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Since about January 2020, he allegedly ran a network that took more than $1.7 million through campaigns billed as aid for Gaza, with the money sent to Hamas. Abdel Adhami of Covington, Louisiana, is accused of giving about $94,000 and Omar Adhami about $11,000. Yousef of Lutz, Florida, is accused of providing almost $50,000. Alzaq faces up to 20 years on the material-support count.
ON THIS DAY IN 1789:
President George Washington sent the 12 proposed constitutional amendments, drafted by James Madison, to state governors for ratification. The states eventually adopted ten of these in 1791, forming the core guarantees of individual liberties known as the Bill of Rights.
đ International
HHS: Immigrant Children Put at Risk Through Biden Sponsor Rules
The Department of Health & Human Services said Thursday that fraud in the Unaccompanied Alien Children program under the Biden administration helped place children with sponsors who sexually abused them, used them for labor, or left them dead. From 2021 to 2024, about 479,000 children were referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In fiscal 2024, the office denied fewer than 1 percent of sponsor applications. Vetting dropped fingerprint checks for some sponsors, allowed expired IDs, and did not always check adult household members. ORR logged 1,669 fraud reports from Oct. 1, 2023, through Oct. 31, 2024. About 85 percent of reviewed cases involved document fraud. In one case, a man was released to a 15-year-old girl who was not her brother. He was later charged with raping and impregnating her. A 17-year-old boy released to an unverified stepsister was found dead in a car. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the prior administration prioritized speed over scrutiny. ORR tightened rules beginning in February 2025.
Gulf Crude Exports Return to Pre-War Levels While Iranâs Stay Near Zero
Middle East crude exports, excluding Iran, hit at least 16.5 million barrels a day from Sept. 1 to Sept. 28, matching the pre-war average for those producers, tanker tracking by Kpler found. That is 10.5 million barrels a day above the March average, the first full month after the war shut the Strait of Hormuz. Counting Iran, regional exports stand at about 91 percent of pre-war levels. Iranâs own shipments have hovered near zero since the United States reimposed a naval blockade in July. Before the war began Feb. 28, 83 percent of regional crude passed through Hormuz. In September, 40 percent left without crossing it, moving west on Saudi Arabiaâs East-West Pipeline to Yanbu and east on the UAE line to Fujairah. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said about 15 million barrels of Iranian oil remain out for delivery, nearly all bound for China.
G7 to Release 100 Million Barrels of Diesel and Crude
Group of Seven nations agreed Friday to release up to 100 million barrels of diesel and crude from strategic reserves over four months, coordinated by the International Energy Agency. French President Emmanuel Macron chaired the meeting. The joint statement said the group will front-load a substantial diesel release in the first 20 days. Members also agreed not to restrict energy trade with one another and to let refineries run at full capacity. President Trump said Europe would start releasing diesel immediately. U.S. diesel hit a record $6.52 a gallon in late September and was still up about 72 percent from a year earlier. The IEA released about 400 million barrels in the spring after the Iran war. Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned that a U.S. diesel export ban would cut refining and raise gasoline and jet fuel prices. Brent crude fell more than 3 percent, briefly below $100 a barrel.
U.S. Halts Consular Services in Brazil Before Sundayâs Vote
The State Department suspended consular services at the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Brazil starting Friday, citing security concerns it did not describe. Americans needing emergency help were told not to go to the embassy, consulates, or other diplomatic facilities and to contact a duty officer instead. A department spokesperson said the United States is working with Brazilian counterparts and did not say when services would resume. The first round of the presidential election is Sunday. Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is running against Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro. Relations have been strained. Brazil blocked a U.S. delegation over the summer, and Washington revoked the visa of Brazilâs top diplomat in the United States, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti. In July, President Trump said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on Brazilian goods. He has not endorsed a candidate.
California Man Arrested Over $300 Million in Servers Sent to China
Greg Lui, 38, also known as Yiu Kong Lui, of San Gabriel, was arrested Oct. 1 on a three-count indictment accusing him of routing more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China. He owns Earthmade Computer Inc. in City of Industry. Prosecutors say the scheme ran from no later than October 2023 through at least Aug. 12, 2026, using false buyer names, shipping records, and export filings, with goods moving through Malaysia and Singapore. From January to October 2024, Earthmade took more than $176 million from two Malaysian companies and brokered nearly $300 million in Nvidia-powered server sales. One shipment of 27 H100 servers went to Kuala Lumpur and was later transshipped to a Chinese buyer. Another batch was flown to Hong Kong with a Hangzhou firm listed as consignee. The FBI said the sales went to the Chinese government. Lui faces up to 20 years on the export and money-laundering counts and 10 years on smuggling.
