Republican voters in Georgia have showed up to the polls to officially agree with the president’s recommendation.

More than 700,000 votes decided the Georgia Republican Senate runoff on Tuesday, with the victory going to the Trump-endorsed favorite.

‘Now it’s time to get to work.’

Sitting U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) received a detailed endorsement from President Trump just two days before the election, when he called Collins a “Highly Respected Congressman who has been with me from the very beginning,” in a post on Truth Social.

Collins won the runoff with about 56% of the vote against fellow Republican Derek Dooley — a former football coach for the University of Tennessee Volunteers — despite Dooley outperforming Collins in the counties surrounding Atlanta, including Fulton County, where the capital city is located.

Collins’ victory was by nearly the same margin that separated the two during the May primary. At that time Collins finished with nearly 41% of the vote, while Dooley had about 30%, according to CBS News. This time, Dooley finished 11 points behind Collins again, garnering nearly 45% in the head-to-head vote, per The Hill.

RELATED: Early red flag for GOP? Democrats rack up massive Q1 fundraising hauls

Collins has long been considered the favorite in the election as a MAGA-style Republican and led polls ahead of the primary by an average of 11.5 points. However, polls had him with just a two-point advantage over Dooley ahead of the runoff election in June.

Collins now heads to the November general election against Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff. Ossoff went unopposed in the Democratic primary, having held his office since 2021.

Collins reacted to his victory with a post on X, saying he is “honored” to be the Republican nominee.

“Now it’s time to get to work, defeat Jon Ossoff, and take this seat back for the people of this state. Hammer Down!” Collins wrote.

RELATED: ‘Friend’ of President Trump advances to Georgia Republican Senate primary runoff

Jason Allen/Getty Images

Trump had previously endorsed Collins ahead of the primary, as well, calling Collins his “friend” while adding that he likes him “a lot.”

On Sunday, the president assured voters that Collins would work hard to “Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Champion American Energy DOMINANCE,” and more.

Collins reaffirmed his immigration stance in a post on runoff Election Day, stating that “America wasn’t built by people who chose the easy path. It was built by patriots who worked hard, took risks, and never gave up.”

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​Jon ossoff, News, Mike collins, Georgia, Republicans, 2026 midterms, Politics 

A Democrat-aligned lawfare outfit filed a lawsuit on behalf of a pair of anti-Trump protesters earlier this month in the hope of shutting down the UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn last Sunday.

Evidently, the Public Integrity Project and activist plaintiffs were not the only ones keen to rain on President Donald Trump’s parade.

‘The landscape has changed.’

The FBI announced on Tuesday that an alleged assassination plot targeting the UFC event was uncovered on June 10 and ultimately thwarted thanks to a timely phone call from a concerned mother and the rapid action of local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Five men have been charged in the alleged plot to assassinate “high value targets” at the UFC event: Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio; Bryan Omar Roa, 24, of Calimesa, California; Michael Alan Thomas 32, of Pinon Hills, California; Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri; and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska.

According to the Justice Department, the suspects’ plan consisted of two parts: First, they would use explosive drones in and around the event to prompt an evacuation; and second, they would deploy snipers to assassinate specific individuals within the fleeing crowd. In addition to the estimated 4,300 people present for the invite-only event on the South Lawn, there were roughly 85,000 additional people gathered nearby during the back-to-back fights.

One of the suspects, Michael Thomas, allegedly discussed the four “tiers” of this anti-government plot: the first being the gunmen on the ground; the second being the drivers and drone operators; the third being logistical suppliers; and the fourth being social media suppliers.

In addition to allegedly advocating for jail breaks for surviving tier 1 members in the aftermath of the planned attack, Thomas allegedly underscored the need for suspects to train for “gorilla [sic] style warfare.”

Another suspect, Daniel Eskridge, allegedly proposed that they form “5 teams of 3 each team consisting of 1 sniper, 1 tier one operator as support/ look out, [and] one drone operator.”

RELATED: James Comey-style ‘threat’ against Trump apparently etched into National Mall grass

Screenshots of messages and maps on a suspect’s phone and a photo of another suspect’s equipment. Justice Department.

Another suspect, Alvarez, allegedly suggested that snipers could escape to the Potomac River after taking their shots and identified an old church in Nebraska as a potential safe house.

Multiple federal complaints filed in relation to the case across the country allege that Tycen C. Proper told investigators that the ball got rolling on the plan around March. While there were apparently more individuals involved in the discussions at the outset — roughly 19 — Proper allegedly claimed that the more serious plotters migrated their conversations to an encrypted chat app.

The FBI alleged beyond amassing firearms, ammunition, and tactical gear at his Ohio home, Proper identified multiple targets, including multiple members of Congress and business executives.

According to an affidavit submitted with Proper’s complaint, the Ohio suspect proposed the following lawmakers as targets: Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Jim Justice (W.Va.), and Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), and Republican Representatives for West Virginia Carol Miller and Riley Moore.

The targets were allegedly chosen in part because of their perceived coziness with the Israeli lobby.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Elon Musk’s names were also allegedly floated as targets in the suspects’ conversations.

The affidavit indicates that the alleged plot — the purpose of which was to “jumpstart” a revolution in the United States — was foiled thanks to the vigilance of Proper’s mother, who called law enforcement on the evening of June 10, expressing concerns about her son’s recent conduct, including his firearm purchases and communications online.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Danville Police Department arrived 20 minutes later and soon learned from Proper’s father that the teen, who lived at home, was allegedly planning “recons” with individuals he met online; planning to leave to meet up with those individuals on the weekend of June 13; had spent roughly $3,000 of his graduation money to purchase camping gear, firearms, ammunition, plate carriers, and food; and had quit his job recently in preparation for his big excursion.

The following day, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office got the FBI involved.

If convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, each of the defendants faces a maximum of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. They each face an additional five years in prison apiece if convicted of conspiracy to commit violence on the White House grounds.

“The FBI, our law enforcement partners and our U.S. attorneys did what they do every day to make America safe through quick response and vigilance in investigating, disrupting, and dismantling this alleged plan before it could be carried out,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“Protecting the president of the United States and the White House grounds is priority number one for the U.S. Secret Service,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran. “The landscape has changed, and as a result we have seen a dramatic rise in threats against our protectees.”

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​Assassination, Murder, Donald trump, 250, Ufc, Republican, Marsha blackburn, Sniper, Drone, Attack, Plot, Fbi, Doj, Arrest, Politics 

Four years after the Dobbs decision, the pro-life movement faces a sobering crossroads. The end of Roe v. Wade was a historic victory. But abortion remains the leading cause of death in the United States, and the most vulnerable among us are still denied the basic human right to life.

Dobbs held that the people’s representatives at every level of government may pass laws protecting unborn children. That includes national leaders. Half the states have enacted pro-life laws since Dobbs, yet abortions have gone up, not down. A “states-only” strategy does not merely fail. It abandons unborn children in blue states to the same logic that once treated fundamental human rights as a local question.

We must extend equal protection and the right to life to all Americans, in every state, no matter how small.

As America marks its 250th anniversary, the pro-life movement and the Republican Party must move beyond half-measures. They should embrace national leadership for the right to life.

A national minimum standard — whether tied to a baby’s detectable heartbeat or the point at which a baby can feel pain — would not replace stronger state pro-life laws. It would set a floor for the whole country, including blue states, while allowing pro-life states to protect life more aggressively.

The Democratic Party has made abortion with no limits its de facto position. But public opinion is not with them. Only 10% of voters support abortion until birth. Fifteen states allow abortion at any point in pregnancy, including the seventh, eighth, and ninth months. The United States is one of only eight countries that allow all-trimester abortion, a list that includes China and Vietnam.

This is not hypothetical. Second- and third-trimester abortions happen in blue states. Babies who can feel pain and survive outside the womb are being killed.

In Washington, D.C., the bodies of five full-term babies were found in medical waste boxes outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion facility. They are now known as the D.C. Five. Several abortion businesses openly advertise third-trimester abortions, including the DuPont Clinic in Washington, D.C.; RISE Collective in Colorado; Partners in Abortion Care in Maryland; and Hope Clinic in Illinois.

Planned Parenthood performs late-term abortions as well, and women have died alongside unborn children. An 18-year-old girl in Colorado died last year after a late-term abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility. According to her family, Fort Collins Planned Parenthood did not call an ambulance immediately and specifically requested no sirens on the way to the hospital.

RELATED: The judgment behind the abortion numbers

DREW ANGERER/AFP/Getty Images

The other side has a national strategy, and it is no secret. If Democrats gain power, they will try to pass the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act. That bill would block states from enforcing pro-life laws and push the country beyond the Roe status quo. In practice, it would make abortion available at any time, for any reason, in all 50 states. Almost every elected Democrat in Congress has voted for the bill, and party leaders have committed to eliminating the filibuster to pass it.

A leave-it-to-the-states strategy will not stop them. No great human rights cause in American history has been won that way. The GOP must commit to pro-life action at the national level.

The first step is to elect leaders who believe unborn children deserve protection no matter where they live. Those leaders must pledge to help America turn the page on its ugly chapter of late-term abortion. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is beginning that work by dedicating $160 million in 2026 and 2028 to elect candidates who will take pro-life action nationally.

After the midterms, the pro-life movement must rally around a presidential candidate who will take up this fight and fiercely defend mothers and their unborn children. That leader must act on the consensus of the American people and sign the most ambitious national protection for life possible.

On America’s 250th anniversary, we should remember that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution inspired great human rights triumphs, including the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage. With 1.1 million Americans losing their lives to abortion every year, this is the moment to confront the greatest human rights violation of our time.

We must extend equal protection and the right to life to all Americans, in every state, no matter how small.

​Dobbs v. jackson women’s health organization, Abortion, Democrats, Planned parenthood, Gop, Midterms, Opinion & analysis, Pro-life, Full-term abortions 

The Justice Department has announced indictments against more than a dozen members of Direct Action Minnesota, a group dedicated to opposing federal immigration enforcement.

In a media briefing Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen claimed the Antifa-related organization members had “violently” opposed immigration law enforcement.

He identified a Direct Action Minnesota subgroup called the Black Cat Workers Collective, which he accused of utilizing, advocating, and promoting ‘militant tactics and violence.’

“Today, a federal indictment was unsealed charging 15 defendants with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers and other charges related to efforts of two Minneapolis-based Antifa groups that violently opposed the enforcement of federal law in our state,” Rosen said.

Some of the members faced additional charges, including making interstate threats, interstate stalking, assault on a federal officer, destruction of government property, and solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

Rosen accused Direct Action Minnesota of training its members in the “aggressive use of shields against law enforcement, surveillance, operational planning, and rapid mobilization against law enforcement actions.”

He identified a Direct Action Minnesota subgroup called the Black Cat Workers Collective, which he accused of utilizing, advocating, and promoting “militant tactics and violence.”

Some of the members infiltrated peaceful protests against the Whipple Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and blockaded federal operations on at least two occasions, according to Rosen.

The evidence included video from 37-year-old Kyle Wagner, who allegedly made explicit threats of violence against ICE members and called them Nazis. Wagner was arrested in February at his Minneapolis apartment.

“We want to know who they are. We will identify every single one of them and we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. If it has to be done at the barrel of a gun, then let us have a little f**king fun,” Wagner allegedly wrote.

“This is where ICE has come to die,” he added.

In one of the videos of Wagner’s arrest, he wore a shirt reading, “I AM ANTIFA.”

Only 12 of the 15 indicted were in custody, and three others are being sought.

Direct Action Minnesota did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: ‘This is where ICE has come to die’: Self-identified Antifa member arrested for threats against federal agents, DOJ says

The DHS lashed out at the framing of the indictments by CBS News, which noted that no actual acts of violence against federal officers were cited by Rosen.

“These violent rioters weren’t charged for ‘opposing immigration enforcement’ — they were charged because they violently obstructed and assaulted law enforcement agents and destroyed government property. Why is the media excusing violence?” the agency asked Tuesday on social media.

In St. Paul on Tuesday afternoon, activists outraged over the charges against the Direct Action Minnesota defendants held a rally outside the federal courthouse. Some allegedly refused to shut the courthouse doors and chanted, “Drop the charges, drop them now,” according to KSTP.

One participant told the outlet: “We tried to get into the courthouse to pack the court.”

In response, law enforcement apparently sprayed some type of orange-colored chemical on crowds gathered by the doors.

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​Justice department, Politics, Antifa, Conspiracy, Ice 

Part of what makes Fitbit Air so good is the new Google Health app. Google Health is a complete overhaul of the original Fitbit app, taking Fitbit’s core features and expanding on them with a new design. Plus, paid users get a nifty AI upgrade that provides clarity to their data, and it can even help users get in better shape. Here are my thoughts after testing the app for two full weeks.

Now, a quick disclaimer before we dive too deep — many users didn’t like the new Google Health app when it first launched, and some even reported several pretty egregious bugs with missing data, unfinished UI elements, and clutter. From what I can tell, iPhone users had more trouble getting the app to work properly than Android users, signaling a possible development issue between platforms. Personally, I tested the app on my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, and it was mostly bug-free.

Most data in the app is collected automatically.

There are two experiences you’ll find in the Google Health app. Free users get access to all the tracking features you’d expect in a fitness band, including everything we covered in the Fitbit Air review. There is also a subscription option called Google Health Premium (available as an add-on for all users and included for free on all Google AI Pro and AI Ultra accounts), which unlocks a Gemini-powered AI coach that looks through your data, builds custom fitness plans, and serves as a personal trainer through your fitness journey. Before you raise the red flag on privacy, Google states that it is “committed to not use Fitbit users’ health and wellness data for Google Ads. The Fitbit app is now the Google Health app, and we’ll continue to keep this commitment.”

Take that as you will.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Google Health app

The good

Information tabs: At first glance, Google Health is packed with information. The “Today” view offers quick glances at customizable tiles that show useful data like steps, sleep, heart rate, readiness score, etc. The “Fitness” tab shows a running list of weekly activities, as well as cardio and fitness metrics that highlight your overall heart health and output for the day. The “Sleep” tab provides neat daily graphs of your sleep quality from the previous night, along with a sleep score that tells you how rested you are. Finally, if you want even more information, check the “Health” tab for an entire wall of everything your fitness tracker knows about you. There’s a lot.

Google Health Coach: Like having your own personal trainer, the AI-powered Google Health Coach is great at building workout plans and tuning them based on how your body reacts and recovers. Coach looks at your data every morning, measuring yesterday’s activity against last night’s sleep quality to determine how hard you can push today. Coach is also flexible, so if your body isn’t responding well to the current plan, it can use your data and feedback to make a new one. The coolest part is that Coach is always available to chat about anything related to your health, whether it’s exercise routines, diet, illnesses, mental health, etc. Although Coach is powered by Gemini, all health data and conversations stay within the Google Health app; the main Gemini app doesn’t have access to this information.

Food log: If you’ve ever used a food tracking app to watch your calories and maybe lose some weight, you’ll know that the worst part is logging the data by hand. If you spring for the AI plan, Coach makes food logging more accessible with a new photo feature that lets you take a picture of your food, describe what it is, and it’ll log the calories for you. That said, accuracy was a mixed bag during testing, with some foods marked accurately while others were tens to hundreds of calories off. Your mileage will vary depending on the foods you eat, but at the very least, this feature has made me more conscious of my food choices over the last two weeks.

Interoperability: Since Google Health is replacing the Fitbit app, it has to work across platforms. It’s currently available for Android and iPhone, and it can track health metrics directly from existing Fitbit devices, the new Google Fitbit Air, and Google Pixel watches. For iPhone users, it even has the ability to pull health data from Apple Watch via the Apple Health app and analyze it in the Google Health app.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Google Health app

The bad

Clutter: While the app provides a lot of health data, the user interface is busier than I’d like. The Health tab in particular is just a wall of information that’s sometimes more daunting than informative, especially when searching for a specific metric among the mess. Google needs to overhaul the layout and allow users to group data together into organized sections — heart, activity, sleep, energy input and output, etc.

Manual data: Most data in the app is collected automatically via a fitness tracker, but manual data is a different story. You can input things like weight, body temperature, glucose levels, food, and water intake by hand, but you’re out of luck if you want to add medical information. You’ll have to connect Google Health to your medical provider or upload blood tests to log your allergies, medications, blood pressure, health conditions, procedures, and more. There should be a way to log everything by hand without turning over your medical records, but that currently isn’t an option.

Google Health Coach: I like Coach a lot (as you can see above), but it also has some issues. For instance, it doesn’t always listen. On my initial setup, I told it about my health ailments, including a year-old arm injury that only bothers me on occasion. For a week after that, it repeatedly asked me how my arm was doing after workouts — even ones that didn’t involve my arms at all — despite telling it to stop. On a couple of occasions, it also misread the metrics in my app and built an activity plan based on incorrect data. As it turns out, Coach can and will hallucinate just like any other AI. Finally, Coach adds to the clutter by leaving walls of AI-generated text everywhere throughout the app. I would prefer if Coach lived only in one section of Google Health, but right now, you can find it spread around every single tab, adding to the chaos.

The shady

Privacy: Lastly, there’s the massive elephant in the room. Google is a data hog. Its entire business model is built on gathering as much information as possible and monetizing it through ads. This is how it offers so many “free” products and services. Ultimately, to get the most out of the new Google Health app (and Fitbit Air hardware), you have to turn over a lot of very personal data, and whether or not you trust Google with your health is something only you can decide for yourself.

For what it’s worth, Google promised not to use customer health data for ad targeting and other “Don’t be evil” things. In the EU, it’s even legally blocked from monetizing this data, but there’s a time limit in place. The ban only lasts for 10 years from Google’s Fitbit acquisition in 2020. With only 4 years left, Google can legally monetize health data at the turn of the decade. The only question is: Will it? Google would face a massive PR nightmare if it decided to cash in on its users’ trust in its products, but that hasn’t stopped it before. As for what Google will do about all the information contained in Google Health, I guess we’ll find out … in 2030.

​Tech, Google health, Fitbit, Ai 

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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​Dating websites, Hijab, Immigrant crime, Muslim, Serial rapist, Crime 

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

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.

​Jd vance, Medicare, Medicaid fraud, Mehmet oz, California, Medi-cal, Spas, State spending, Cms, Fraud, Fraud crackdown, Opinion & analysis 

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.

​Spirit airlines, Democrats, Air travel, Elizabeth warren, Merrick garland, Antitrust, Biden administration, Airline industry, Jetblue, Opinion & analysis 

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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