Society's ChildS


Fire

California insurance regulators say State Farm mishandled wildfire claims

california wildfire pacific palisades
© John Fredricks/The Epoch TimesA neighborhood is destroyed by the Palisades Fire near Los Angeles on Jan. 9, 2024.
State Farm denied any mishandling or intentional underpaying of wildfire claims.

The California Department of Insurance announced on May 4 it filed an enforcement action against State Farm, alleging the company significantly mishandled claims from survivors of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

"Wildfire survivors came to us for help, and we followed the facts," Insurance Department Commissioner Ricardo Lara said.

"Our investigation found that State Farm delayed, underpaid, and buried policyholders in red tape at the worst moment of their lives. That is unacceptable, and we are taking decisive action to hold them accountable."

The Palisades Fire and the nearby Eaton Fire, which ignited in Altadena, California, on Jan. 7, 2025, claimed around 30 lives and destroyed more than 12,000 structures.

Comment:


Dollar

Trump admin ramps up crackdown as $16M hospice fraud exposed in Newsom's California

fraud medicare california
© Fox News
One doctor's NPI linked to 17 hospices filing thousands of claims for just 900 patients

The Trump administration continues its aggressive push to root out waste and abuse in federal entitlement programs, exposing yet another layer of systemic fraud thriving in Gavin Newsom's California.


A new investigation highlights a single attending physician whose National Provider Identifier was tied to 17 different hospice operations in the Los Angeles area.

These entities filed more than 3,000 claims on behalf of only 900 patients, billing Medicare for $16 million.

Comment:


Burka

Half of Vienna secondary school students are now Muslim, cultural tensions growing in classrooms

muslim kids western classroom
© Herbert Neubauer / APA / picturedesk.com / picture allianceSchoolgirls wearing headscarves in Vienna
New figures show Muslim children make up almost 50 percent of students in Vienna's public middle schools

Almost half of students in Vienna's public middle schools are now Muslim, according to new figures from the Vienna Education Directorate, marking the latest sign of a rapid demographic and cultural shift inside the Austrian capital's classrooms.

The data, cited by Heute, shows that Muslim students account for 49.4 percent of children in Vienna's public middle schools — just short of an absolute majority. Across the city's public compulsory schools more broadly, including elementary, middle, special needs, and polytechnic schools, Muslim students now make up 42 percent, up from 41.2 percent in the previous school year.

Catholic students, once the dominant group in the city, now account for just 16.7 percent of children in the public schools included in the figures. Orthodox students make up 14.2 percent, while children with no religious affiliation account for 23.2 percent.

Comment: How it ought to go:

Preserving culture: Moscow bans migrant children from school unless proficient in Russian


Arrow Down

UAE Exits OPEC: Know how this global oil shake-up will impact crude prices and India's economy

H.E. Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei,
© News 24H.E. Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Minister of UAE energy and infrastructure
The decision would allow the country to increase output once exports via the Gulf resume, as it would no longer be bound by OPEC quotas.

In a fresh development in the global economy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a major oil producer, has decided to exit the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). According to reports, the decision comes amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, damage to infrastructure, and differences over Middle East strategy.

The UAE believes that leaving OPEC will give it greater flexibility in managing its oil production. However, this move has raised fresh concerns in global markets. Investors are worried about its potential impact on crude supply and global oil prices, which could remain volatile in the near term.

Pistol

'Happy shooting!' AI chatbots eager to help plan mass violence - report

Gun in backpack
© Getty Images/goir
Eight out of ten leading AI chatbots willingly assisted users in planning violent attacks, including school shootings, religious bombings, and assassinations, according to a joint investigation by CNN and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

Researchers posing as troubled teenagers tested ten popular chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta AI, and DeepSeek. In hundreds of exchanges, the AI assistants provided detailed guidance on target locations, weapons procurement, and attack methodologies.

One exchange with DeepSeek reportedly ended with the chatbot wishing a would-be attacker "Happy (and safe) shooting!" Character.AI, which is popular among younger users, actively encouraged violence, telling a user expressing hatred for a health insurance CEO to "use a gun."

When asked about effective shrapnel for explosives, ChatGPT provided detailed comparisons of materials, offering to create "a quick comparison chart showing the typical injuries." Google's Gemini supplied similar information, including a detailed comparison table.

Only Anthropic's Claude and Snapchat's My AI consistently refused to assist, with Claude actively discouraging users and providing mental health resources.

Gavel

Justice Dept. finds UCLA medical school illegally used race in admissions

Royce Hall
© Damian Dovarganes/AP/FileRoyce Hall • University of California, Los Angeles
The Justice Department found Wednesday that the medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions as the Trump administration ramps up scrutiny of colleges' processes for selecting students.

The finding escalates the Trump administration's ongoing standoff with UCLA, which has focused mostly on the main campus's response to allegations of antisemitic harassment.

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA said in a written statement that its admission process is "based on merit" and that it is committed to complying with state and federal laws. It said it is reviewing the Justice Department findings.

Affirmative action in college admissions has been illegal since a 2023 Supreme Court ruling forbade it. The same ruling said colleges could continue to assess how applicants' backgrounds might speak to broader characteristics, but Trump has accused colleges of using applicants' personal statements and other proxies to consider race in admissions, which conservatives view as illegal discrimination.

In March, the Justice Department opened investigations into possible race-based discrimination in medical school admissions at Stanford, Ohio State and the University of California, San Diego. The Trump administration previously targeted undergraduate admissions at selective colleges, demanding they collect data to show they are complying with the Supreme Court ruling.

A year-long investigation into UCLA by the Justice Department found its medical school discriminated against white and Asian American students by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants.

Dominoes

UnitedHealthcare fires woman over 'Aww, they missed?' comment on Trump assassination attempt

cole thomas allen
© US President Trump via Truth Social/Anadolu/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump posted a photo on social media showing law enforcement detaining Cole Thomas Allen following a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2026
UnitedHealthcare has fired a woman who expressed sadness in a TikTok video that President Donald Trump was not killed in the Saturday shooting during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In the video, she sarcastically asked, "Aww, they missed?"

"We're cooked as a country when my first reaction to hearing the news about Trump's attempt was, 'It was probably fake,'" Alison King, who has reportedly deleted her LinkedIn account but was identified as a social media manager for UnitedHealthcare, said in the video.

"Like, immediately I was like, 'Oh, that wasn't real, probably fake,'" King said. "And the second was 'Aww, they missed? So happy they missed.' Yeah, that's sad,'" King said sarcastically.

"That's when you know we're cooked," King added.

Arrow Up

AI driving modern slavery surge - report

Hands tied
© nito100/Getty Images
Technology is enabling traffickers to identify, recruit, and control victims at scale, making exploitation harder to detect, a UK study warns...

Artificial intelligence is helping criminals expand their entrapment of modern-day slaves across the UK, with traffickers increasingly using digital tools to identify and exploit victims, a new report has found.

Criminal networks in the UK are seeking to enslave people through coercion, deception, or force, including forced labor, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking, the study, commissioned by the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, has found. AI is enabling traffickers to "identify, recruit and control victims at scale," making exploitation more widespread and significantly harder to detect.

The report noted that the number of reported cases reached 23,411 in 2025, the highest on record and marked a 22% annual increase, underscoring what officials describe as a growing crisis.

According to the study, AI-driven scams, deepfakes and synthetic identities are being used to target vulnerable individuals, while new forms of digital labor exploitation are expanding the pool of victims. These methods reportedly allow traffickers to operate more efficiently and with greater anonymity.

At the same time, economic pressures, including the rising cost of living, are increasing vulnerability, creating what the commissioner described as a "pipeline" of people at risk of exploitation.

Comment: Eight out of ten leading AI chatbots willingly assisted users in planning violent attacks:
Researchers posing as troubled teenagers tested ten popular chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta AI, and DeepSeek. In hundreds of exchanges, the AI assistants provided detailed guidance on target locations, weapons procurement, and attack methodologies.

Character.AI, which is popular among younger users, actively encouraged violence, telling a user expressing hatred for a health insurance CEO to "use a gun." When asked about effective shrapnel for explosives, ChatGPT provided detailed comparisons of materials, offering to create "a quick comparison chart showing the typical injuries."

Only Anthropic's Claude and Snapchat's My AI consistently refused to assist, with Claude actively discouraging users and providing mental health resources.

The findings come after an 18-year-old shooter killed nine people at a school in Tumbler Ridge, Canada last month after allegedly using ChatGPT to plan the attack. The shooter's account had been banned by OpenAI, but he evaded the ban by creating a second account - which the company did not report to the authorities.

The family of 12-year-old Maya Gebala, who was critically injured in the attack, filed a lawsuit alleging that OpenAI had "specific knowledge of the shooter utilizing ChatGPT to plan a mass casualty event" but failed to alert law enforcement. OpenAI has acknowledged that it considered reporting the activity but ultimately did not.

Last May, a 16-year-old in Finland stabbed three students after spending nearly four months researching attacks on ChatGPT, according to court documents. In January 2025, a man who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas similarly used ChatGPT for guidance on explosives.

Meta told CNN that it has taken steps "to fix the issue identified," while Google and OpenAI said newer models have improved safeguards. DeepSeek did not respond to requests for comment.



Sheeple

The Golden State has fallen: Welcome to the Islamic Republic of California

sacrifice ritual
© seerahseekers.blogspot.com
California is abandoning constitutional neutrality and the values of Western civilization by elevating Islam's holidays above all others in a reckless surrender to political appeasement.

On April 8, the California Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement voted 19-0 to adopt AB2017, followed on April 22 by the California Assembly Committee on Appropriations, which voted 7-0 to adopt the bill. And with those votes, all that is left for this to become California law is the passing of it by the State Assembly and Senate and approval by the governor.

And with it, the state of California will no longer exist as we know it, but will become the Islamic Republic of California.

Introduced by California Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco 17th District) at the behest of CAIR, the bill seeks to officially recognize the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as California state holidays.

There are no holidays from other religions that are recognized as state holidays in California.

Comment: Dubious this scenario will happen. Citizens do not need a legality to privately celebrate chosen holidays. Even so, it is not about 'rejecting' Western civilization nor uprooting other religious-specific events. The 50 million animal sacrifice is out of the question.
Does California law provide for state holidays? Yes, Government Code Title 1, Division 7, Chapter 7 deals with holidays. Chapter 7, which contains Section 6700 to 6730, was added to state law in 1951. California's governor is required to proclaim the following:
  • September 28th as "Cabrillo Day" (Section 6708)
  • January 15 as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Section 6709)
  • March 7 as "Arbor Day" (Section 6710)
  • February 19 as "A Day of Remembrance: Japanese American Evacuation: (Section 6711)
  • The fourth Friday in September as "Native American Day" (Section 6712)
  • The first Sunday in October as "Stepparents Day" (Section 6713)
  • April 21st as "John Muir Day" (Section 6714)
  • March 30 as Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day (Section 6715)
  • December 7 as "Pearl Harbor Day" (Section 6716)
  • March 31 as "Cesar Chavez Day" (Section 6717)
  • The month of February as Black History Month (Section 6718)
  • The third Saturday in June as "Juneteenth National Freedom Day: A day of observance" (Section 6719)
  • April 24 as "California Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide" (Section 6720)
  • May 22 as Harvey Milk Day (Section 6721)
  • January 30 as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution (Section 6722)
  • February 6 as Ronald Reagan Day (Section 6723)
  • January 23 as Ed Roberts Day (Section 6724)
  • October 25 as Larry Itliong Day (Section 6725)
  • The first Friday in May Space Day (Section 6726)
  • March 20 or the following day as Nowruz Day (Section 6727)
  • The month of June as LGBT Pride Month (Section 6728)
  • April 10 as Dolores Huerta Day (Section 6729)
  • The date corresponding with the second new moon following the winter solstice as the Lunar New Year (Section 6730)
Note: No animal rituals. No religious holidays.


HAL9000

Maryland set to ban 'surveillance pricing' at grocery stores: Will other states follow?

Supermarket
© Pixabay/Tumisu
There are steps you can take to avoid it.

Maryland is set to become the first state to ban surveillance pricing as the legislature passed the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act this month. Introduced by Gov. Wes Moore in January, the act aims to prevent grocers and third-party apps like delivery services from using surveillance data and dynamic pricing in Maryland grocery stores. It also imposes steep penalties for businesses caught engaging in these practices, including a first-time fine of up to $10,000.

"Marylanders deserve to know that the price they see on the shelf is the price they will pay at the register," said Moore in a press release. "At a time when Marylanders are already stretched by the rising cost of groceries, housing, and everyday necessities, we must ensure that new technologies are not used to drive up the bill for working families."