Stembridge News Digest

  • JD Vance is ending the Medicaid gravy train Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000


    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may have just signaled the beginning of the end for one of California’s most aggressive Medicaid financing schemes.

    In late May, CMS proposed a rule that would limit many Medicaid payment arrangements to Medicare-equivalent reimbursement levels while targeting the financing mechanisms that shift excessive costs onto federal taxpayers.

    The more states spend, the more federal money they receive.

    The proposal specifically highlights intergovernmental transfers and similar arrangements that have allowed states to inflate federal reimbursement claims.

    This rule comes as California health officials are asking CMS to approve a set of pending state plan amendments that would further expand reimbursement arrangements built around intergovernmental transfers — the very type of financing mechanism now facing increased scrutiny from federal regulators.

    For years, states have exploited these loopholes in Medicaid’s financing rules to draw down more money from Washington. CMS now appears ready to put some limits on that practice.

    Vice President JD Vance and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz deserve credit for cracking down on these kinds of abuses. Vance said the administration is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California because the state does “not take Medicaid fraud very seriously.”

    Oz warned that states have exploited “the cracks and crevices” between state and federal systems — describing California as a member of the “varsity team” of fraud alongside Massachusetts and New York.

    The proposed rule makes the fate of California’s pending SPAs clear: They cannot survive. Approving them would directly contradict a rule CMS has already put forward, expanding the exact reimbursement scheme the agency has identified as a threat to Medicaid program integrity.

    The only question now is whether CMS will formalize what its own rulemaking has already decided.

    At the center of the IGT problem is Medicaid’s open-ended reimbursement structure. States spend money, and the federal government reimburses a percentage of those expenditures. Public entities recycle funds through multiple agencies to trigger larger federal Medicaid matching payments.

    The more states spend, the more federal money they receive.

    These arrangements may technically comply with federal rules, but they function as financial engineering schemes rather than legitimate health care financing. Medicaid was designed to fund health care for vulnerable Americans, not maximize revenue for governments and health care bureaucracies.

    California’s ambulance reimbursement system provides a textbook example of the kind of payment arrangement CMS now appears determined to rein in.

    RELATED: Trump’s next bill needs tax relief with teeth

    Trump's next bill needs tax relief with teeth Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images

    Under current rules, a public fire district can hold an emergency medical services franchise while subcontracting the actual ambulance operations to a private company.

    Even though the private contractor performs the transport itself, the public entity can still bill Medi-Cal at the elevated IGT reimbursement rate — around $1,168 per transport in 2024, with a proposed increase to nearly $1,600.

    If that same private ambulance provider billed Medi-Cal directly, that $1,600 would become roughly $339 under the standard fee schedule.

    Federal taxpayers are therefore paying nearly five times the normal reimbursement rate for operationally identical services, simply because the billing structure has been routed through a government intermediary eligible for enhanced federal matching funds. For ACA expansion enrollees, a large share of Medi-Cal, Washington covers 90% of that already inflated cost.

    The fire district keeps the difference between the inflated Medi-Cal reimbursement and the private contractor’s actual operating payment. Taxpayers finance the excess.

    Unlike these existing payment arrangements that may eventually be required to conform to the new federal standards, California’s pending ambulance SPAs have not yet been approved. Federal regulators should not authorize an expansion of a reimbursement model they have already identified as inconsistent with Medicaid’s future direction.

    CMS has now made clear that payment arrangements built around inflated reimbursement rates, intergovernmental transfers, and excessive federal matching dollars are no longer business as usual. States have been put on notice.

    California’s pending ambulance SPAs should be among the first tests of whether the agency intends to enforce the principles it has now announced. If CMS truly believes Medicaid exists to fund patient care rather than reimbursement gamesmanship, these proposals should not survive review.

  • Serial rapist immigrant sentenced to nearly 300 years in prison — he found some victims on Muslim dating sites Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:30:00 +0000


    An immigrant was sentenced to 291 years in prison after being convicted for raping seven women, some of whom he found on Muslim dating websites.

    St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo sentenced 30-year-old Yahya Maly to spend the rest of his life in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

    'I've been here 19 years, and I've never seen a sentence like this.'

    Maly expressed no remorse and continued to maintain his innocence while claiming that the case was a setup.

    Prosecutors said Maly used the name "John" to lure women to his apartment on Log Trail Drive in Ballwin, where he sexually assaulted them. The crimes began in February 2023 and continued for two years until February 2025 when he was arrested.

    The seven women Maly raped testified at trial, and two of them were present at his sentencing.

    One of the women said she was raped by Maly after he forced her into his apartment, and then later she returned to his apartment, where he raped her again, according to prosecutors.

    Another woman told prosecutors he forced her into numerous sexual acts while he kept her at his apartment for seven hours.

    One woman who was Muslim testified that he took her hijab without her consent and claimed she was his wife in order to rape her. He told her she needed to perform her "wifely duties" or risk going to hell.

    "I was confused," she testified. "This felt like the weirdest misunderstanding ever."

    She claims that she was raped by Maly twice and decided to return a third time in order to kill him. He raped her a third time.

    "Life felt like it was already over," she said.

    A jury recommended 319 years in prison for Maly, but the judge decided on a slightly shorter sentence.

    "I've been here 19 years, and I've never seen a sentence like this," St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith said after Maly was sentenced.

    Maly is an immigrant from Finland and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was studying at the Logan Chiropractic College when he was arrested.

    RELATED: 'You are an absolute monster': Teen sentenced to 35 years for 'sadistic and evil' serial rapes

    "I was actually thinking about not coming into it because of just putting my energy out there. Then I knew I had to be brave enough and then come out and actually be able to have this closure within this as well. So, it was very important for me," said one victim, who wished to remain anonymous.

    "These women are no longer victims of Yahya Maly or anyone," Price Smith continued. "Justice has been served, and I am so proud of these amazing women."

    An attorney for the convicted rapist released a brief statement.

    "Mr. Maly maintains a firm belief in his innocence and intends to appeal his conviction," he said in part.

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  • ‘Epic levels of terminal TDS’: The most American event ever just BROKE ‘The View’ co-hosts’ brains Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000


    As expected, President Trump’s White House UFC celebration sent liberals into meltdown mode, with the women of “The View” hysterically calling the event a “desecration” of the White House.

    “We are talking terminal cases of Trump derangement syndrome all across the country with the libs,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says before playing a clip of the angry hosts.

    “I don’t know how MMA or cage fighting is emblematic of our country,” Sunny Hostin said to the rest of the panel. “I just don’t understand how that sort of reflects American culture.”

    “This doesn’t feel like a sport. This feels like you’re trying to show us who we’re supposed to be,” Whoopi Goldberg chimed in, before Ana Navarro added that it was evidence of the "continued desecration of the White House.”


    “They’re concerned about the desecration of the White House because they believe that the White House should be respected, is what I’m hearing,” Gonzales says, pointing out that under the Biden administration, they had no issues with Biden essentially turning the White House into a Pride flag.

    “You guys are prancing trannies around on the White House lawn. You want to talk about desecrating the White House? Give me a break,” she continues. “How about Joe Biden desecrating Easter Sunday, calling it Trans Visibility Day and hosting the event at the White House?”

    Gonzales illustrates her point with a clip of a transgender woman on the White House lawn, pulling down his shirt to flash his fake breasts to the camera.

    “That’s what happened on the White House lawn under Joe Biden’s tenure,” she says. “I’m not going to be lectured by these people. I’m not going to listen to these people claim that they care about desecration of the White House because it’s just such an esteemed place.”

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  • Socialist antitrust activists killed Spirit Airlines — and learned nothing Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000


    It is a bad time to fly. Willie Walsh, head of the International Air Transport Association, drove home the point this week when he warned that “war-related disruptions in the Middle East and rising fuel costs have shifted the outlook for airlines to the worse.”

    Walsh pointed to the recent closure of Spirit Airlines, America’s most iconic budget carrier, and warned that more airlines could suffer the same fate if current trends continue. That means fewer choices for fliers and higher prices at the airport.

    Before Democrats demand that courts second-guess another antitrust settlement, they should reckon with the consequences of the last one they cheered.

    But blaming the state of air travel solely on the Iran war is far too convenient. Airlines are also struggling because overzealous regulators and left-wing antitrust activists decided they knew better than the market.

    Three years ago, Spirit had a plan to survive. It struck a merger agreement with JetBlue, another economy carrier, to create a new, globally scaled affordable airline. The Justice Department joined six states and the District of Columbia to file an antitrust lawsuit blocking the deal.

    In early 2024, a federal judge sided with the Biden administration and blocked the merger. Biden officials and congressional Democrats cheered. Without JetBlue’s capital, Spirit’s struggles mounted. The airline filed for bankruptcy and earlier this year shut its doors.

    Now many of the same officials who applauded the court order that killed Spirit are trying to shift blame to President Trump. The American people should not buy it, especially given what those same Biden officials said at the time.

    Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland called the judge’s ruling “a victory for tens of millions of travelers who would have faced higher fares and fewer choices had the proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit been allowed to move forward.”

    Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took to X to declare, “I’ve warned for months that a @JetBlue-@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares. @JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation. This is a Biden win for flyers!”

    Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s transportation secretary, openly bragged about siding with the Justice Department and helping prevent the merger in the name of protecting “low fares” and “competition.”

    The reality looks very different now.

    Spirit’s shutdown was the first complete closure of a major U.S. carrier in 25 years. It was caused directly by the same actions the Biden administration once boasted about.

    Travelers lost a low-cost option. Spirit’s more than 11,000 employees saw their lives upended. And Spirit’s disappearance will deepen the coming travel recession. The airline placed downward pressure on fares for years. Without it, prices are rising.

    RELATED: Dear airlines, please stop pitching your credit cards at 33,000 feet

    Kevin Carter/Getty Images

    Travelers now face fewer choices at the airport. The remaining choices tend to be pricier, more consolidated carriers that no doubt welcomed Spirit’s demise.

    One might hope antitrust enforcers would learn the obvious lesson: Bigger does not always mean worse. Sometimes mergers preserve competition. Sometimes they lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers. Sometimes blocking a merger kills the very competitor regulators claim to protect.

    Unfortunately, many Democrats refuse to accept that reality.

    Some of the same members of Congress and state attorneys general who supported blocking the Spirit-JetBlue merger now want courts to use the Tunney Act to second-guess other Trump administration antitrust decisions. The Tunney Act gives courts a limited role in reviewing antitrust settlements negotiated by the Justice Department. Democrats now want judges to stretch that role and challenge straightforward Trump settlements, including one merger backed by the intelligence community on national security grounds.

    Historically, courts have deferred to the executive branch’s enforcement decisions. Democrats now want judges to intervene because they do not like the Trump administration’s policy choices.

    Perhaps they should look in the mirror first.

    Competition policy should protect consumers. It should not exist to punish private commerce, indulge ideological hostility to business, or let socialist antitrust activists pretend they can manage markets better than the people actually operating in them.

    Spirit Airlines offers a painful lesson. The Biden administration, Elizabeth Warren, and other antitrust crusaders celebrated the decision that prevented Spirit from joining forces with JetBlue. Today, Spirit is gone, more than 11,000 workers have paid the price, and travelers have fewer choices at the airport.

    Before Democrats demand that courts second-guess another antitrust settlement, they should reckon with the consequences of the last one they cheered.

  • New York Democrats get annihilated with backlash after revealing which World Cup team they're rooting for Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:06:32 +0000


    Two Democrats vying for the same seat in New York are going viral for saying they would cheer for a team other than the U.S. team in the World Cup.

    At the end of a WPIX-TV candidates' forum, Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat and his socialist challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier (D) were asked who they believed would win the final game of the global soccer tournament.

    'I can't imagine an elected official not rooting for the country they are officially elected for.'

    Chevalier said she was supporting Senegal, while Espaillat said he rooted for Mexico.

    Espaillat said earlier in the forum that he had been an illegal alien after overstaying his visa before legalizing his status. Chevalier is the daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic and spent much of her time growing up there and Florida. Espaillat was also originally from the Dominican Republic.

    A video clip of the exchange was posted to social media, where many were outraged that neither had said they were backing the U.S. soccer team.

    "It's just a soccer game, you might say. but that's exactly why this strikes me as so insane. there are zero stakes, the easiest 'I care about america' in the world, and they still can't support our country. in fact, they seem to see any demonstration of support as a liability," writer Mike Solana said.

    "These scumbags can't even root for the USA in the World Cup. Their loyalty is to everywhere but here. That's exactly why Americans are rejecting them," one user said on X.

    "It is so crazy. I can't imagine an elected official not rooting for the country they are officially elected for," another user said.

    Others called for them to be immediately expelled from Congress.

    RELATED: Mamdani-endorsed candidate deleted extremist posts about seizing private property and abolishing police, prisons

    Still others argued that they were being pragmatic, as the U.S. men's team is considered a long shot to make it to the finals, despite its decisive first victory.

    The contest between Espaillat and Chevalier is seen as a battle between the centrist establishment wing of the party and the far-left socialist fringe trying to take over. Chevalier has already had to apologize for extremists posts she previously made about abolishing private property, prisons, and police.

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  • 18-year-old thug allegedly guns down 40-year-old mom as she protects her son amid Facebook Marketplace purchase gone wrong Tue, 16 Jun 2026 22:25:00 +0000


    An 18-year-old male allegedly gunned down a 40-year-old mother as she protected her son amid a Facebook Marketplace watch transaction last week in Indiana.

    John Harrison Ford is now charged with murder, felony murder, attempted murder, and attempted armed robbery after Jean Gragg died from her injuries Saturday, WNDU-TV reported, citing amended charging documents. Ford also faces a felony firearm enhancement, the station said.

    '2 words....DEATH PENALTY!'

    The shooting occurred Wednesday, June 10, in the 2600 block of MacArthur Avenue on South Bend’s east side, WNDU reported.

    Police said Gragg's son was trying to sell a watch to Ford as part of a transaction he arranged through Facebook Marketplace, the station said.

    Gragg's son told police that Ford pulled a gun while looking at the watch, said he needed it, and tried snatching it from the son, WNDU reported.

    But police said Gragg got in between Ford and her son and chased Ford away from the property, the station said.

    Surveillance video shows Ford shooting toward Gragg multiple times after she turned around and ran back toward the home, WNDU reported, citing investigators. Police said Gragg was shot in the head, the station said.

    Ford during an interview with detectives reportedly admitted that he shot Gragg, WNDU reported.

    He remained Tuesday in St. Joseph County Jail, records indicate. No bail is listed.

    RELATED: Final words revealed from Marine who survived war — but was gunned down at home in Facebook Marketplace trap

    More than 150 comments hit the sheriff's office Facebook post about the upgraded charges. The following are but a few of them:

    • "Life in prison," one commenter wrote.
    • "If you're gonna sell stuff on Marketplace, go to the South Bend police station, 701 W. Sample onto East End," another user said. "They have a designated area with cameras. It's a safe zone. I use it all the time."
    • "Condolences to her family," another commenter reacted.
    • "2 words....DEATH PENALTY!" another user suggested.
    • "Public hanging," another commenter offered.
    • "Does he look sorry?" another user wondered.

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  • School admits to violating student's constitutional rights over tribute to Charlie Kirk painted on rock — and pays up big Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:39:31 +0000


    A high school teenager won a $95K settlement after a school accused her of vandalizing a rock with a tribute to Charlie Kirk and then painted over it.

    Ardrey Kell High School student Gabby Stout said she got permission from officials for the tribute on a large rock at the school that students painted to support various causes.

    'Today's settlement shows that students do have free speech rights, and school officials, when they overstep their bounds, can be held accountable.'

    The design had a large red heart with the benign messages "Freedom 1776" and "Live Like Kirk — John 11:25."

    After she painted the innocuous tribute, the school officials apparently changed their minds, painted over it, and then accused her of vandalism. They also said there was an investigation under way and that law enforcement had been contacted.

    Stout told Fox News she was shocked by the school's actions.

    "I was very intimidated and scared, as I had no idea what I did wrong or that I could be getting in trouble for simply sharing and expressing my views and beliefs," she said.

    Stout's family was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom in court.

    "The school’s paying a very substantial settlement here because it violated Gabby Stout's constitutional rights," ADF senior legal counsel Travis Barham said.

    "They publicly accused Gabby of engaging in vandalism, of violating the school student code of conduct," Barham added.

    The school made the accusation in an email sent to the entire community. In the settlement, the school was forced to make another statement admitting the accusation was false.

    "That's exactly the kind of name‑clearing statement that we wanted to get from the school from the outset," Barham said.

    Barham had previously noted that the students were allowed to make other political statements on the rock, including one for the Black Lives Matter movement, without incident.

    RELATED: Liberals spew hatred against moment of silence for Charlie Kirk on Thursday Night Football

    The lawsuit also forced the school to adopt a formal student free speech policy in order to have a consistent policy about expression.

    "Today's settlement shows that students do have free speech rights, and school officials, when they overstep their bounds, can be held accountable," Barham added.

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  • Liz Wheeler floats a Trump plan to force election reform in California Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:00:00 +0000


    Conservatives need to stop treating California’s election system as untouchable — and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler knows how, saying, “We don’t have to accept the rigged system, the rigged election system in California, just because it’s California.”

    “The federal government has multiple things that can be done to ensure the integrity of California elections,” she adds.

    “If we do not do something to secure the integrity of our elections, then we aren’t the constitutional republic that we have been,” she says, noting that despite this fear, she’s “not blackpilled.”

    “The radical left has defeated us in many ways, but they have not totally defeated us. And we, the right, have finally recognized, we’ve finally acknowledged the reality of this political enemy that we face. And that is the fundamental thing necessary in order to construct our defense to defeat them,” she explains.


    While Wheeler notes that the leftist majority isn’t going to change in California, there’s still hope for change.

    “There are mechanisms that can be used by the federal government to entice, incentivize, or essentially coerce states into doing certain things if that state is also receiving federal money,” she continues.

    Wheeler points to drinking age laws as an example.

    “The federal government, the United States Congress, the House and the Senate, and then the president, the executive branch, also have authority under the General Welfare Clause,” she explains.

    “The Reagan administration did not exceed their authority because they ruled that this specific provision, this 21-year-old drinking age, was related to highway safety,” she continues, noting that this law was pushed through “negative reinforcement.”

    “There’s also a precedent of positive reinforcement regarding car seats, children’s car seats and booster seats. And you can think that car seat laws are too restrictive or not. That’s kind of the morality of the thing is not even the point that I’m making,” she says.

    “There’s precedent on the books of the federal government being able to influence state laws simply by offering positive or negative reinforcement when it comes to the funding that states so readily accept and depend on from the federal government,” she continues.

    “So what I would propose to you today,” she adds, “is why doesn’t President Trump do this?”

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  • Liberals are trying to CANCEL funnyman Nate Bargatze for what he did on Sunday Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:10:50 +0000


    Many on the left are furious with popular comedian Nate Bargatze for what he did on Sunday.

    Like thousands of others, Bargatze attended the UFC event at the White House, where he snapped a photo with Robert Kennedy Jr., the head of the Health and Human Services Department, and Kennedy's wife, Cheryl Hines, at the celebration of America's 250th anniversary.

  • 'Blue wave' expected for midterms looks more like a tiny ripple, says CNN's Harry Enten Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:45:00 +0000


    While Democrats are hoping for a "blue wave" to hit Election Day and hand over control of Congress, CNN's political analyst is tossing cold water on those expectations.

    Harry Enten showed how the polling ahead of the election shows Democrats are not performing as well as they were in previous midterm elections against a Republican president.

    'It is no guarantee; it is far from a guarantee at this point if you believe these pollsters.'

    Democrats are up by five percentage points in generic congressional polling from NBC News, but at the same point of the 2006 midterms, Democrats were ahead by 11 points in polling, and in 2018, they were ahead 10 points.

    "And now the Democratic lead is on a single hand," Enten said.

    "Democrats are ahead, but don't count your chickens just quite yet."

    He showed other signs that the blue wave is receding from the shoreline.

    "So this is not just one poll in which we are seeing this. There is this group of pollsters that are out there that are just not showing the wave you might expect given where the president's approval rating is," he explained.

    In three separate polls shared by Enten, Democrats failed to increase support from January and February as compared to the results from the same polling four months later. The NBC poll showed them losing 1% of support, Marquette Law School showed them losing 3%, and the Ipsos poll had them even.

    Enten went on to point out that redistricting in Republican-controlled states has further eroded Democrats' edge.

    "We really think that Democrats need between three- and four-point advantage in the national polls. You average those polls together ... it's right on the border there. It's right on the border. It is no guarantee; it is far from a guarantee at this point if you believe these pollsters."

    RELATED: 'Historic' loss for John Cornyn shows that the Bush era of the GOP is 'DEAD,' Enten says

    Democrats have about a 78% chance to win the House of Representatives, according to prediction markets shared by Enten, but Republicans have a 57% chance of maintaining control of the Senate.

    On Monday, Enten posted video of the segment to his social media account, where it garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

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  • 'Insanity': Jason Whitlock blasts doctor who wrote an article condemning Austin Metcalf's dad as the villain Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:30:00 +0000


    As reactions to Karmelo Anthony’s murder conviction continue to flood social media, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says the most shocking behavior isn't happening in the form of riots — it's happening on the internet.

    “There has been a different form of rioting that I did not predict or see coming. … People are rioting and looting their brains online. People are saying crazy things in defense of Karmelo Anthony,” Whitlock says.

    “They’re saying really ridiculous things defending Karmelo Anthony because they’re defending this demonic culture that black people have adopted — black people have been baited into. And now, in order to defend our racial idolatry, we have to defend some of the dumbest, most repulsive behavior on the planet,” he says, before pulling up an article one woman wrote that represents this “repulsive behavior.”

    The article, by Dr. Stacey Patton, is called “Dear Jeff Metcalf: Your Son Is Dead Because You Failed to Teach Him That Black Boys Have Boundaries.”


    Whitlock calls the article “insanity.”

    “A lot of these things that we’re seeing are black women making the most ridiculous arguments in the history of the planet justifying the murder,” he says, before showing another example.

    “Here’s two black women sitting around talking about the lies that black people should tell to get on those juries so that we can free Karmelo Anthony,” he says.

    “If they say, ‘Can you be fair?’ Don’t say, ‘No, I’m not going to put a black man in jail.’ Don’t say that, OK? ‘Cause if that’s what you gonna say, you could have stayed home. You have to go and be like, ‘No, I will hear the evidence. I can be fair.’ Don’t say, ‘I hate white people and I don’t care what he did.’ Don’t do that,” one woman said on the “Gin and Juice Podcast.”

    “That’s what people were doing in this case, OK? And then everybody’s like in an uproar because there’s no black people on the jury when damn near half of the black people who could have been on the jury canceled themselves out, you know?” she continued.

    “‘Hey, go be dishonest. Go help a kid that murdered someone get away with murder,’” Whitlock mocks, explaining that women like this are a “force for nihilism and wickedness and deception.”

    “They’re doing this out in front of everybody. This isn't a private conversation. They’re unrepentant about their wickedness. And that’s the culture that they’ve created. And that’s why their kids, boys and girls, are unrepentant about their wickedness,” he adds.

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  • New York women flock to convents — for the cheap rent: 'Nuns are awesome' Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:15:00 +0000


    Amid sky-high prices for just a single room in New York City, living among nuns is becoming increasingly popular.

    Average rent prices in the city have already jumped by almost $150 in 2026, sitting at just under $3,700 per month for June.

    'It was the cheapest place I found in Manhattan.'

    Rent could get as high as $4,000 by the end of August, trends on Zillow show, a long way from where studio apartments or even two-bedrooms were in 2021: $2,000 and $2,600, respectively.

    Get thee to a nunnery

    In the face of these prices, New Yorkers are reportedly filling up residences run by nuns, who offer cheaper prices but require tenants to adhere to a stricter set of rules — a polar opposite of New York City free-for-alls Americans saw during the NBA Finals, for example.

    The Wall Street Journal reported on five different nunneries in New York that offer housing at a third of the price, or less, of the average NYC apartment. St. Agnes Residence on the Upper West Side starts at about $950; Centro Maria in the Bronx charges about $800; and St. Mary’s Residence on E 72nd St. is around $1,200 per month.

    One former renter at Sacred Heart Residence in Chelsea, named Katie, paid $1,650 for her spot.

    "Nuns are awesome," Katie told the outlet. "They be chilling."

    Hannah remarked that the Menno House, a 10-person residence in Gramercy Park, had its smallest room listed for $580/month.

    "It was the cheapest place I found in Manhattan," she said.

    Cheap rent is not all the nuns are offering, either.

    RELATED: 'One nation under God': Christians to march through DC as part of 2,000-mile Eucharistic procession

    - YouTube

    Daily habits

    At Centro Maria, five nuns live with 21 residents in a four-story building. The benefits of this show up in the form of a daily morning breakfast for the residents cooked by the nuns, including pancakes, eggs, sausage, fruit, and more.

    The nuns not only clean the building, they host parties for residents to intermingle and even have karaoke in the dining room.

    There are rules, of course, offering some stability to residents in the crazy city. Some had a reported curfew of 11 p.m. or midnight, while women's residences bar male visitors from bedrooms, as well as alcohol.

    "I love living with the girls. They keep me young," said a Sister Rita. But as loving as the nuns can be, they are also strict, and they're not hiding it.

    RELATED: Washington Nationals under fire after anti-Christian public relations disaster EXPOSED (UPDATE)

    Eric Thayer-Pool/Getty Images

    Sister smackdown

    One convent has a display board in the lobby that lists who is home and who is out; the nuns say they lie awake until everyone is home.

    "I don't go to bed if I don't know where someone is," Sister Maria says. If a girl is late for her curfew — which she has likely informed her nuns of ahead of time, possibly out of fear — Sister Maria lies down and waits. The nun said she typically thinks, "I'm gonna kill her tomorrow," and then gets up when the door opens.

    Sister Maria also conducts surprise room inspections twice per month.

    "You don’t know the date, but I'll be there," she reportedly said with a smile.

    As for Sister Rita, who loves her girls, she said that she vets any boyfriends who are brought to the building and tells the girls to their faces if she doesn't like them.

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  • HOT STOCK: SpaceX IPO is making even its welders rich Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +0000


    A welder named Juan Hernandez joined SpaceX in 2015 at $28 an hour. He took stock instead of a fatter paycheck. The day the company was listed, those shares were worth about $880,000.

    He has company. More than 4,000 current and former SpaceX employees became millionaires when the company began trading on the Nasdaq at $135 a share. The valuation hit $1.77 trillion, the seventh-largest public company and ahead of Tesla. It was the biggest IPO ever recorded. About 400 of those workers now hold stakes above $100 million, and some of them ladle soup in the cafeteria.

    The teenager weighing a coding boot camp against welding school should study the leaderboard in Brownsville.

    Learn to weld

    That last part flips the usual script. Rank-and-file employees have struck gold in stock debuts before, but most often they were the ones writing code or creating marketing decks

    This time it’s very different.

    SpaceX handed equity down to welders, machinists, and line workers at Starbase, many of whom took below-market pay for shares. The bet looked reckless a decade ago, back when SpaceX still lost rockets on the launchpad. Today, the only thing still exploding is their net worth.

    The setting makes it stranger. Brownsville sits near the bottom of every income chart in Texas, and SpaceX put more than 3,000 jobs there. Home prices in Cameron County have more than doubled since the rockets arrived, climbing from around $131,000 in 2014 to over $281,000.

    Critics call that unaffordable, but the complaint misses who is doing the buying. The new money was earned in the county, by people who lived there before SpaceX showed up. When a poor town's home values double on the back of local paychecks, the residents hold the deeds. Rising prices turn dangerous when wages sit still. Brownsville got richer faster than it got expensive.

    Deskbound

    Now for the mandatory dread about machines coming for our jobs and, in the more ominous forecasts, our throats. But now automation is a white-collar problem. AI can draft a deal sheet or pass the bar exam. What it can't do is snake a wire past a joist or seal a fuel tank that holds at cryogenic temperatures without splitting. The jobs vanishing first are the ones done sitting down. Paralegals should sweat. Plumbers can light up a cigarette and relax.

    In April, a humanoid robot built by the phone maker Honor finished a Beijing half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, quicker than any human has run the distance. A year before that, at the first such race, one machine toppled at the start and another walked into a barrier, and every robot needed a human handler jogging beside it like a parent at a toddler's first steps. Ask one of those to fish a cable through a finished wall and find the live wire before something ignites. Fine motor control and sound judgment still belong to people. The robots can run, but keep them away from your breaker box.

    So the trades have an opening, and it widens if manufacturing returns. A factory needs hands long before it needs a wellness coordinator. The teenager weighing a coding boot camp against welding school should study the leaderboard in Brownsville.

    RELATED: The first trillionaire: SpaceX goes public — and it's not just Elon Musk who's striking it rich

    Marvin Joseph/Washington Post/Getty Images

    Elon earned it

    Then there is Musk. The IPO makes him a trillionaire, the richest man alive. Bernie Sanders, the millionaire who wrote a best-seller about the immorality of millionaires, calls the number obscene. Paul Krugman blames a "rigged system."

    None of this started with the IPO. Attacking Musk has been a fixture on the left for years, somewhere between a hobby and a second income. The trillion-dollar number raised the stakes. The objections write themselves and skip the question worth asking first. How did he get there?

    Plenty of fortunes start with a dead grandparent and end in an offshore account. But this one came from hardware that lands itself and flies again. Musk bet on factories and launchpads while easy money chased apps. He keeps hours that would bury most executives. He sleeps on factory floors when a launch date slips, a habit his critics conveniently ignore.

    And he paid everyday Americans in stock when cash would have cost him less, allowing them to win as well.

    Before wheeling out the guillotine and inviting Mark Cuban to drop the blade, separate the fortunes built on extraction from the ones built on output. Musk is a visionary, a builder of truly great things. He made the rocket cheaper and the cook richer. Capitalism has never looked so hard to hate.

  • Sisters accused in stabbing of Detroit restaurant worker — over wrong food order Tue, 16 Jun 2026 18:30:00 +0000


    Two sisters are accused in connection with the stabbing of a Detroit restaurant worker over a wrong food order — and one of the sisters reportedly was nine months pregnant at time of the incident.

    Brianna and Kierianna Long were charged with assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, and assault with a dangerous weapon after the incident on the city's east side, WDIV-TV reported.

    'I'm going to kill you.'

    Police told WDIV the stabbing occurred in the 17100 block of East Warren Avenue just after 6 p.m. May 30. WDIV did not name the restaurant; Metro Detroit News said it was a chicken restaurant.

    Brianna Long is 29, and Kierianna Long is 26, Metro Detroit News said, citing court records, adding that the restaurant worker is 23.

    Prosecutors allege that after the sisters received a wrong food order from the worker, they argued with the worker, went behind the counter, and began assaulting the worker, WDIV said.

    Brianna Long and Kierianna Long allegedly chased the worker and threw items at the worker inside the restaurant, the station said. Metro Detroit News said the items included pots and pans.

    WDIV said the worker threw things back at the sisters, and prosecutors indicated the sisters picked up a knife thrown at them and used the knife to stab the worker in the stomach.

    More from the station:

    Prosecutors also said hot grease was attempted to be thrown at the worker, and one of the sisters allegedly told the worker, “I’m going to kill you,” during the alleged assault.

    The worker was taken to a local hospital and had to undergo surgery, officials said.

    The sisters allegedly drove away from the scene but were later taken into custody, WDIV said.

    RELATED: Heroic gas station clerk saves girl from sex offender amid alleged kidnapping after she mouths desperate plea to him

    Image source: Detroit Police Department

    Brianna Long was nine months pregnant at the time of the alleged stabbing, the station said, adding that she gave birth four days before her arraignment.

    During the arraignment, Brianna Long’s defense attorney claimed the worker told the sisters that she didn't "give a f**k" about the wrong food order and threw things at Brianna and her sister first, WDIV reported.

    Brianna Long also pleaded with the judge during the arraignment, saying she was innocent and that she had a four-day-old baby at home, the station added.

    The judge expressed concern that a food order error led to an alleged violent assault, WDIV reported, adding that the judge as a result set the sisters' bonds high.

    Prosecutors said Kierianna Long is accused of stabbing the employee, while Brianna Long is accused of taking part in the assault and helping drive away from the scene, Metro Detroit News reported.

    Brianna Long was given a $25,000 cash bond, the station said, adding that Kierianna Long was given a $100,000 cash bond.

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  • Inside the UK's under-16 social media ban: AI girlfriends, Bluesky, and a few open questions Tue, 16 Jun 2026 18:15:00 +0000


    Alongside the fact that the British government is now apparently in the business of regulating AI girlfriends, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer just announced a sweeping ban on social media for anyone under 16 in the U.K.

    Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X are the platforms named so far in the U.K. government's official announcement. Modeled on Australia's ban, the list may not be final.

    'Is this simply overt political censorship?'

    Restrictions will also be enforced on gaming sites, including blocks on livestreaming and stranger communication with children under 16.

    Starmer previously said he was personally opposed to a "blanket ban," but according to GB News, a government consultation closed in May with nearly 120,000 responses and over 90% of parents backing a ban.

    The U.K. government also preloaded the announcement with a spending pledge.

    A £132.5 million "Every Child Can" program was unveiled to fund "enriching activities" in sports, art, and nature — framed as alternatives to doomscrolling.

    RELATED: New York schools banned smartphones a year ago — and it seems to be a smart idea

    Isabel Infantes/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

    But nobody can say for sure whether Bluesky, the left-leaning alternative to X, is even covered by the ban. GB News says it "looks set to escape a ban" entirely, but according to LBC, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told a radio host on Monday, "In Australia, Bluesky is included in the ban, and we plan to use their model."

    Reem Ibrahim of the Reason Foundation suggested the ban could be a form of "political censorship": "The UK is banning under-16s from social media, under the guise of 'protecting kids', but it will not include Bluesky. Is this simply overt political censorship?"

    The U.K. government's definition is broad enough to cover almost any app "whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material" and therefore could include sites like Reddit, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

    And buried in the same announcement is a ban on under-18s using "romantic companion chatbots," with all AI chatbots required to dial back "intimate functionalities" for minors.

    Washington isn't thrilled either. In its formal response, the U.S. Embassy in London said it preferred "narrowly targeted requirements" over "broad social media bans," adding that "most content should remain accessible by default, including political speech."

    Making any of this stick will likely require platforms to confirm who is underage, though the government has not said how that will work yet.

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