00:00There is a lot going on in the Minnesota fraud saga this week. The Department of Justice announced
00:04fresh charges against 15 people who they say swindled taxpayers out of 90 million bucks in
00:10a variety of cons, including, quote, the largest autism fraud scheme ever. Here's Assistant Attorney
00:17General Colin McDonald outlining one that is as heartbreaking as it is brazen. One defendant is
00:23charged with defrauding the Integrated Community Supports Medicaid program. This program is designed
00:29to help individuals with disabilities live independently. One patient was supposed to
00:35be receiving 24-hour care through this program, but he was actually being serviced by a fraudster
00:41and received no services. This patient was later found dead. Oh, but that's not all when it comes
00:49to fraud in Minnesota. Amy Bach, the woman at the center of the Feeding Our Future scam, the one that
00:55was supposed to give food to the less fortunate but instead bilked taxpayers out of millions,
00:58was slapped with a 41-year prison sentence this week after prosecutors successfully argued her
01:05scam took food out of the mouths of hungry children. And rounding out the trifecta of
01:09miniscama fraud stories today, there's the daycare scam focused on the notorious Quality Learning
01:15Center that actually misspelled learning on its sign. Remember that one? Well, the facility,
01:19which shuttered in January, had garnered some $1.9 million from Minnesota's Child Care Assistance
01:25program last year and $10 million in state funding since 2019. But it now seems the fine people at
01:31Quality Leering, yeah, that's how they spelled it, also got federal assistance from the Small Business
01:37Administration during President Trump's first term. Senator Joni Ernst is leading the charge to see
01:42how those federal funds, which were earmarked to pay salaries, rent, and other expenses during the
01:47COVID-19 shutdown were actually spent. I know I am not alone here in wondering what is going on in
01:53the land of 10,000 lakes. Do you remember when a hundred bucks at the grocery store could fill
01:59a whole cart? Now it barely covers what you can fit in a brown paper bag? Well, some relief may
02:05be
02:05in sight on that front. President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that aims to roll back
02:10rules from the Biden administration that crack down on refrigerants in an effort to fight global
02:15climate change. How could rules on refrigerants save you money? Well, the key is the money it will save
02:19the stores, which hopefully they can then pass on to you and me. The Post's chief Washington
02:24correspondent Stephen Nelson explained it all shortly after the signing on Thursday.
02:28The new rules rescind a set of Biden-era regulations that are designed to discourage the use of hydrofluorocarbons
02:39in refrigerants. Now, these are used in industrial grocery store refrigerators. They're used in trucks
02:48that transport groceries to the market. President Trump and the administrator, Lee Zeldin, said that
02:54this will save Americans millions of dollars. There were grocery store representatives on hand,
03:01including the CEO of Kroger and regional operators. The savings, you know, if you hear their telling,
03:08it could be even greater. One said that every grocery store that had to redo its refrigerators
03:13could cost up to one point five million dollars. So today, the administration is saying that there's
03:19a rollback of administrative regulations and that this will help consumers save money.
03:25But government action is not the only possible wallet savior this week, especially if you are on
03:30the New York Post's home turf. Major grocery chain Stop and Shop says it's slashing prices at New York
03:36and New Jersey stores. Now, this may not sound like a staple if you're outside of the tri-state area,
03:40but in my neck of the woods, this is a huge deal. The price of bagels and lox are coming
03:45down as much
03:45as 23 percent below the usual cost. And if you're shopping for your memorial de barbecue, Nathan's franks
03:51have been slashed 28 percent and buns by 9 percent. The president of the chain, Roger Wheeler, told the post,
03:56quote, people are having a hard time stretching their budgets and having to make tough choices.
04:00First and foremost, we're trying to be in tune to where our customers are right now.
04:04I will link to the post article about it, which has a much bigger list of the products getting a
04:09lot cheaper. So happy shopping. President Trump is turning up the heat on Cuba again,
04:14calling it a failed country and pledging that the U.S. will do something to make it right.
04:19They don't have electricity. They don't have money. They don't have really anything. They don't have
04:23food. And we're going to help them along. Other presidents have looked at this for 50,
04:2960 years doing something. And it looks like I'll be the one that does it.
04:33He went on to say he wanted to help the Cuban people as well as Cuban Americans who want to
04:38be able to go back to visit family or loved ones. The president stopped short, though,
04:42of saying just what he's going to do to accomplish that. But maybe just maybe the last few days of
04:47geopolitical developments offer some clues. First, there was the DOJ indicting former Cuban
04:52president Raul Castro on Cuban independence day, no less. Then the president sent the USS Nimitz
04:58aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, presumably to ratchet up pressure on Havana,
05:02though he denied that was the reason. With so much American firepower now spread throughout the
05:08globe, how much of what's going on in Cuba will impact what's going on in Iran? Well,
05:12President Trump is reportedly weighing options for restarting attacks on the Islamic Republic.
05:16Reports suggest those could start as soon as this weekend. But any planning was still in flux as of
05:22Thursday evening. And perhaps trying to balance multiple conflicts on opposite sides of the globe
05:26may have something to do with it. For more on these stories and everything else you could
05:32possibly want to know, check out the New York Post in print or online. And don't forget,
05:36like and subscribe to the New York Postcast wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube.
05:40I promise you'll be glad you did.
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