Governor Hair Gel to the nation he hopes to lead: "Who ya going to believe: me or your own lying Oz?

/

A network of hundreds of hospices are under investigation for allegedly ripping tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers in Los Angeles Country and across California.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is now actively cutting off payments to suspicious operations across Los Angeles, which is home to almost half of America’s end-of-life care providers.

A hospice industry insider provided the California Post with data detailing hundreds of suspicious hospices and home agencies across the state, including addresses where multiple agencies are listed at the same location.

A Post investigation found the addresses include empty storefronts, an auto parts shop and other offices that are unoccupied, some for years. Others don’t appear to exist at all.

The investigation comes as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz confirmed that “every single hospice in California is now under investigation.”

“Thirty to 40% of all the hospices in America are in Los Angeles, so there’s just no way they are all legitimate,” Dr. Oz said.

>>>>

One such center is St. Rita’s Home Health, which is registered to a vacant Van Nuys strip mall.

On the California Department of Public Health database, St. Rita’s is listed as active at the Van Nuys location.

Despite being up for rent, the agency is still listed with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) as active, with data showing it billed Medicare about $4.3 million between 2019 and the first-half of 2025. 

The agency has no website, and when The Post called to confirm it was still at 6360 Van Nuys Blvd., we were told the agency moved to Glendale and were provided a Yahoo email address to send questions. 

About six miles away in North Hollywood, another building is listed as the operating address for 12 hospice and home health agencies — despite a large ”for rent” sign hanging out front.

But in 2023 and 2024, more than $20 million was billed to taxpayers from the building. The Post contacted eight of the providers at the North Hollywood address.

Pluto Home Health Care hung up when asked to confirm its location, Kaplan Hospice Care Inc, went to voicemail before being answered by ”Alexander from Southern California Auto.”

A representative for Confident Home Health claimed they moved to a different location, despite the North Hollywood address being listed on the CDPH database. When asked if the company has a website, the representative replied: “I don’t know — we have an email.”

Queen of The Valley Home Health, which is still listed as active on CDPH’s website, is located in Sun Valley, but when The Post visited the address, there was an auto store. The agency billed nearly $600,000 between 2023 and 2024, according to CMS data.  

The address for Queen of the Valley Home Health is actually the location of an auto parts store. Benjamin Brown for CA Post

The license for Queen of the Valley Home Health is listed as active on CDPH’s website, but the address is the location of an auto parts store.

>>>>

Dr. Ira Byock, one of the leading palliative care physicians in the country, told The Post the level of alleged fraud and the speed in which it had grown has ”completely overwhelmed” state and federal authorities tasked with dealing with it.

“There are roughly 7,000 hospice programs across the US. There are 91 in Florida, 39 in New York — and over 2,800 in California,” Dr. Byock said.

“Many of them have come into existence in California in the last four years,” he said, adding that “clearly some of these programs in Southern California are not legitimate at all and seem like vehicles for fraudulent billing [of] Medicare.”

>>>>

The 2022 California Hospice and Licensure and Oversight report delivered a scathing review of rampant fraud in home health and hospice care, saying “weak controls have created the opportunity for large-scale fraud and abuse.” 

This is not a new issue: The fraud was investigated and reported on by the LA Times as far back as December 9, 2020, and met with a deafening silence:

And this year on February 22 2026 the LA Times reported on the issue again, this time emphasizing the political nature of the Trump/Oz attack, but conceding this much:

EDD fraud

  • The state’s Employment Development Department, known as EDD, reported in 2021 that approximately $20 billion was lost due to fraud, largely in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

  • The state itself admitted in 2021 that it failed to take precautions that had been implemented in other states, including using software to identify suspicious applications and cross-checking benefit claims against personal data on state prison inmates.

  • A recent audit also found EDD wasted $4.6 million by paying monthly service fees for more than 6,200 cellphones that went unused for at least four consecutive months between November 2020 and April 2025 — including some devices that were inactive for more than four years.

  • State audits show vulnerabilities persist. The California State Auditor has repeatedly flagged Medi-Cal eligibility discrepancies that have exposed the state to billions of dollars in questionable payments, while also warning that weaknesses in information security across state agencies remain a high-risk issue.

(For the non-readers on FWIW, ere’s a video that recaps Oz’s charges)

Related:

The memesters have been busy, and they're still at it (But when will the inevitable “Hitler in the Bunker” video be released?)

/

Oh, nooo!

And of course …

Henry was there

Greenwich Invisibles’ sister org Code Pink and their fellow travellers have mobilized

/

Anti-US protesters funded by pro-China tycoon mobilize ten minutes before first bombs fall on Iran

Nonprofits funded by tech tycoon and his wife (founder of Code Pink) aligned with the Chinese Communist Party unleash anti-US protests and propaganda supporting the regime in Iran

Ten minutes before President Donald Trump even announced that the U.S. and Israel had attacked Iran, a network of U.S. nonprofits aligned with China, Russia and Tehran activated foot soldiers to hit America's streets.

Groups funded by Neville Roy Singham, a Shanghai-based, American-born tech tycoon, which regularly parrot messaging from America's adversaries, swung into action even as the initial bombs were dropping. The nearly instantaneous response was the latest salvo in an information war on the U.S., with foot soldiers called upon to converge in protests and echo anti-U.S. talking points.

At 2:34 a.m. ET, the ANSWER Coalition, a nonprofit project whose leaders self-describe as Marxist and communist, announced: "EMERGENCY NATIONWIDE DAY OF ACTION TODAY, SAT. FEB 28 — STOP THE WAR WITH IRAN!"

It announced its network: groups that have long supported the regime in Iran, including the National Iranian American Council, 50501, American Muslims for Palestine, the People’s Forum, Palestinian Youth Movement, and CodePink.

Ten minutes later, at 2:44 a.m., Trump posted a video, confirming the attack on Iran, telling the world: "A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.

Eight minutes later, at 2:52 a.m., the People’s Forum — a New York-based activist hub funded by Singham as an "incubator" for socialist groups — issued an "emergency" call to action for a protest in Times Square.


AI Overview

The People's Forum, a New York-based "political education and cultural hub," is primarily funded by Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. technology mogul living in Shanghai with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

Between 2017 and 2022, Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans [Code Pink], donated over $20 million, accounting for nearly all the organization's funding.

Key details regarding The People's Forum funding:

  • Funding Source: The majority of funding originates from Neville Roy Singham.

  • Method of Funding: Money was funneled through various shell organizations and donor-advised funds (such as Goldman Sachs).

  • Allegations: A 2025 House investigation revealed the organization is a likely CCP-funded propaganda arm, with funding linked to a larger network ($100 million system) that supports initiatives like the ANSWER Coalition

    .

  • Activity Focus: The group uses this funding for training and coordinating activists, including those involved in 2024 campus pro-Palestinian protests.

    House.gov +4

Who is Code Pink funded by?

AI Overview

Code Pink receives significant funding from sources linked to tech millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who married co-founder Jodie Evans in 2017, with reports indicating about a quarter of its funds (over $1.4 million) come from Singham-linked groups, while other donations come from organizations like the Tides Foundation, and Medea Benjamin's Benjamin Fund also provides substantial support, with investigations highlighting potential foreign influence and CCP ties. 

Key Funding Sources:

  • Neville Roy Singham: A major benefactor, providing around 25% of Code Pink's funding through linked organizations, coinciding with a shift in Code Pink's stance on China. 

  • The Tides Foundation: A known philanthropic funder, granting over $54,000 in 2020. 

  • Medea Benjamin's Benjamin Fund: Provides significant support, granting over $355,000 in 2022. 

Concerns & Investigations:

  • Congressional committees have investigated Code Pink's funding, raising concerns about potential influence from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) due to Singham's close ties to Chinese government media and propaganda efforts. 

  • Reports from organizations like NGO Monitor highlight a lack of transparency in Code Pink's donor information. 

In summary, while Code Pink accepts donations from various sources, a significant portion of its funding is tied to Neville Roy Singham and his network, prompting scrutiny regarding foreign influence and alignment with CCP narratives, according to New York Times and U.S. congressional reports. 

And not to be outdone, the “Indivisible” ladies have weighed in from Belle Haven:

Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran? Who cares? Here’s real news: I didn't even know they were planning a Kamala Harris bio, let alone that auditions have already started

/


"The significance of the passage of time, right? The significance of the passage of time. When you think about it, there is a great significance, passage of time."

Famous (?) Actress urges Americans to eschew daylight hamburger dining and eat word salads instead.

Actress Kristen Stewart is suggesting that Americans stop buying burgers during the daytime in order to protest the crackdown on illegal immigrants.

After being asked, “What would break your heart if it disappeared from LA?” the Twilightstar replied, “immigrants,” before offering the public a lengthy word-salad that contained a bizarre suggestion for protesting the United States’ crackdown on illegal immigration.

“I, I can’t stand the idea that the dismantling of the culture that did have a hand in, like, making me who I am, which is so meaningless in the face of people’s lives being, like, completely unearthed, uprooted, destroyed, like, just the, this is, this is, like, not who we are,” Stewart continued.

“So, like, where I’m from, I don’t identify with that right now. And so like, I, I, I, I, I definitely am dying every day thinking, so do we make movies about this? Do we throw all of our money at it?” the Snow White and the Huntsman star added.

Stewart went on to suggest that perhaps refraining from buying burgers during the daytime could be a way to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

“Do we stop buying burgers in the daytime? What do we do about this?” the actress asked, adding, “Like it, I can’t, I can’t fathom that it’s happening until it doesn’t happen. It’s like Los Angeles doesn’t exist without all of us.”

Here’s a sobering thought: Meticulous polling conducted by FWIW has revealed that, by a factor of one million to one, more Americans have heard of Kristen Stewart and know who she is than have heard of John Locke.

(To be fair, FWIW’s primary pollee in this survey, Henry the Cat, had heard of both, and prefers Stewart’s vacuousness over Locke’s rejection of the divine right of kings in Two Treatises of Government, but that’s a cat for you.)

And in a nod to some of the comments, this, from Ed Driscoll:

SCHRODINGER’S AYATOLLAH: Fate of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei unclear after US-Israeli strikes flatten compound.

"Forty acres and a mule" update: the crops have failed, the mule's dying, and other people's money has run out

/

Evanston's reparations program runs dry after high cannabis taxes backfire

The City of Evanston, Illinois' Reparations Committee issued $25,000 to 44 residents earlier this month in reparations' payments and is currently looking for other ways to keep the program funded.

Committee members have reportedly previously discussed the lack of revenue from their cannabis tax source, due to low sales at the two dispensaries in the city. "When you tax something at a high rate, customers are less likely to purchase that product and are more likely to identify alternatives," Tiffany Ingram, the executive director of the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

"And so that's why you see customers going to other places like Michigan or Missouri, if they're close to the border, or purchasing products from the illicit market or purchasing alternatives like unregulated Delta 8," she said.

According to the city’s resolution, Evanston committed the first $10 million of the city’s Municipal Cannabis Retailers' Occupation Tax — a 3% tax on gross sales of cannabis — to fund the program. 

Another way the program is funded is through the city’s Real Estate Transfer Tax Ordinance. According to a city memo, the fund had received $276,588 from Evanston’s real estate transfer tax.

The fund was primarily supported by the cannabis sales tax and real estate tax money, since there were no philanthropic donations this year as of Jan. 31, and it received $1,010 last year. Furthermore, the city reported $55,956.22 in donations to the Reparations Fund as of September 2024. 

Evanston was the first city in the nation to pass a reparations plan, pledging $10 million over a decade to Black residents in November 2019. Established in 2019 and approved by the City Council in 2021, the program issues $25,000 direct cash payments to Black residents and descendants of Black residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969. 

So far, 137 Evanston residents have received reparations payments totaling $3.47 million, and more are expected by year’s end, reaching 171 recipients with about $4 million allocated to direct descendants.

The collapse of the Evanstan plan may be discouraging news for San Francisco’s black residents (California was always a free state, by the way) who are anticipating receiving $5 million apiece from their own city’s taxpayers.

Every day is Jubilee Day in San Francisco, although it often rains

Could be an interesting weekend for all sorts of weapon wielders, not just skeet shooters

/

John Hinderaker, PowerLine:

Here We Go

Full text:

At 10:24 this morning, Friday February 27, the United States Ambassador to Israel emailed his own staff and told them to leave the country today.

Not next week. Not when convenient. Today.

Mike Huckabee, the man Donald Trump personally appointed to represent America in Israel, sent an email to every embassy employee in Jerusalem telling them that anyone wishing to depart should book “any available flight” and leave Israeli soil before the day ends. The embassy has shifted to “authorized departure” status, meaning the US government will pay for nonessential personnel and their families to evacuate. The New York Times obtained the email. The timestamp is 10:24 AM local time. The language says “no need to panic.” The action says panic.

When an ambassador tells his own people to leave the country he is assigned to, he is not managing risk. He is clearing the blast radius.

Authorized departure is the second-to-last step on the State Department’s crisis escalation ladder. The only step above it is ordered departure, which is mandatory evacuation. The United States has not reached ordered departure. But at 10:24 this morning it reached the step directly below it, and the ambassador personally urged speed.

Now hold this against what happened in the last 72 hours.

Wednesday, Geneva. Six and a half hours of talks. Araghchi called it the most serious session yet. The Wall Street Journal reported the US and Iran remain far apart on every core issue. Iran refused permanent zero enrichment. America refused anything less.

Thursday, 37 advanced combat aircraft landed at RAF Lakenheath in a single day. 12 F-35As. 14 F-15E Strike Eagles. Additional F-22s. The staging base that funneled the first wave of Raptors to Israel is now reloading with strike aircraft carrying 23,000 pounds of ordnance each.

Friday morning, the ambassador tells his people to leave.

Wednesday you negotiate. Thursday you reload. Friday you evacuate your own embassy.

That is not a sequence of unrelated events. That is a countdown visible to anyone reading the timestamps.

Huckabee’s email went out five hours ago. Tomorrow, Saturday February 28, Oman’s Foreign Minister meets Vice President Vance in Washington carrying Tehran’s response to Geneva. Technical talks are nominally scheduled for Vienna next week. But you do not tell your embassy staff to leave today if you believe next week’s talks will happen in a world that looks like this one.

The email says “make plans sooner rather than later.” Ambassadors are trained to communicate in precise diplomatic language where every word is calibrated. “Sooner rather than later” from a political appointee who does not speak in euphemism means the window for safe commercial departure is closing and he knows approximately when it closes.

India told its citizens to leave Iran. Germany told citizens in Israel to prepare for airspace closures. Beirut’s US embassy began evacuating. And now America’s own ambassador in Jerusalem is telling his own staff to get out of the country he represents.

Everyone with classified briefing access is moving in the same direction. Toward the exit.

Today. Not Monday. Not after Vienna. Today, Friday February 27.

The people who know what is coming are not waiting to find out. They are already on planes.

The only people still debating whether this is real are the ones without the clearance to read what Huckabee read before he typed that email at 10:24 am this morning.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Meh — maybe; there’s a lot of stuff posted and published out there that ain’t necessarily so. I usually wait to comment on stories like these until there’s confirmation, this seems strongly plausible, given the ongoing buildup of U.S. ships and aircraft in the region, and besides, it’s a slow day for real estate news.

Just load with rock salt, and let fly

/

[Speaking of salt, you may want to take a grain of it along with this report because, despite a diligent search, all I could find on the Internet were posts denouncing a “reported” plan of Moms Demand Action to protest the event — those reports may be accurate, or they might be the product of a fervid imagination of some Xer, but it’s a fun story, true or not. — FWIW]

Stephen Green:

MINNESOTA NOT-SO-NICE: Hoplophobic* Harridans Plan to Protest Minnesota High School Clays Fundraiser This Weekend… Here’s What You Can Do.

You read that right. A bunch of teenagers who like to shoot clays for sport and are conducting a fundraiser for their club will likely face a passel of hoplophobic harridans and a sprinkling of hen-pecked beta males this weekend. These scolds think that’s the perfect venue to scream about “gun violence,” as if these kids are somehow the equivalent gang-bangers that turn cities like Minneapolis into war zones.

It’s odd that these gun-haters never pull these stunts in crime-ridden urban neighborhoods, isn’t it?

Nothing says “imminent threat to society” quite like a 16-year-old in safety glasses yelling “Pull!” before busting a clay bird. We’ve all seen the shocking videos of these clean-cut trap and skeet shooters looting convenience stores, robbing pedestrians or carjacking big city residents with their 12-gauge pump shotguns, right?

Let’s get real for a second. High school trap shooting is statistically one of the safest sports out there. Safer than football, wrestling, cheerleading and pretty much everything else including P.E. class. Zero school killing sprees have been carried out by a school trap team member. These kids are drilling discipline, focus, responsibility, and—gasp!—proper firearm safety under strict adult supervision. It’s a lifeline for some bookish types who’d otherwise warm the bench in other sports, giving nerds, quieter kids, and future engineers a place to shine, build confidence, and learn that tools aren’t toys. To say nothing for young people with disabilities.

But we can’t have that, can we? Because guns are icky. And scary. So instead of cheering on kids who are literally doing everything right, these lame lefties choose to harass teens and their families at a fundraiser to support their sport. Because nothing screams “protect the children” like intimidating actual children who are just trying to pay for ammo and targets.

So here’s the play for Minnesota gun owners and normal humans within driving distance: show up this Sunday.

*Word for the Day

Immediately after posting on the flaws in Google’s AI’ search function, I returned to that resource to learn the meaning of this new-to-me word. This time, it seems to have gotten it right:

AI Overview

Hoplophobic describes

an irrational, intense, and persistent fear of firearms or weapons, known as hoplophobia. Coined in the 1960s by Col. Jeff Cooper, it represents a specific phobia that may cause panic attacks, anxiety, and extreme avoidance behavior. It is sometimes used in political contexts to characterize intense opposition to gun ownership as illogical.

Key Aspects of Hoplophobia:

  • Definition: Derived from the Greek hoplon (weapon) and phobia (fear), it specifically refers to a fear of firearms, sometimes extending to all weapons.

  • Symptoms: Individuals may experience severe anxiety, panic attacks, rapid pulse, sweating, nausea, and trembling when in the presence of or even thinking about guns.

  • Causes:

    It can stem from personal traumatic experiences, environmental factors, or media portrayal of firearms as dangerous

  • Treatment: Similar to other phobias, it is managed through psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, and sometimes medication.

The term is often used in debates surrounding gun control to characterize opponents' views as emotional rather than rational.

Pending in Riverside, 9 days

/

47 Owenoke Way, $3.995 million. When this hit the market on the 18th I queried Gideon about its pricing; seemed a bit low to me. He agreed, but then pointed out that “in this market, the asking price simply no longer matters …. there’s nothing to buy, and 40 buyers will drive it up by a million or so.” That’s exactly what happened one street over earlier this week at 63 Wesskum Wood Road: listed at $4.190 million, sold three days ago for $5.148. Will lightning strike twice? Stay tuned.

Bonus Material: Artificial Intelligence

— you can trust it with your life, and certainly for lesser matters —

I used Google search to attempt to find my own previous post on this property — the Squarespace search function itself is awful — and got this “answer”:

AI Overview

47 Owenoke Way in Greenwich, CT, is the address of "

Applejack Farm," a historic estate formerly owned by Bethenny Frankel. Christopher Fountain, a local Greenwich real estate commentator, discussed the property's sale in his blog, "For What It's Worth," noting its significant price appreciation after renovations. The 3-acre property sold for $7.825M in 2024.

Key Details Regarding 47 Owenoke Way:

  • Location: Greenwich, Connecticut (Greenwich area).

  • Property Name: Applejack Farm.

  • Historic Significance: Dates back to 1743.

  • Former Owner: Bethenny Frankel.

  • Sale Price: $7.825 million.

  • Context: The property underwent extensive renovations by Frankel before being sold.

So now you know — or don’t.