Mastriano nominated to serve as Ambassador to Slovakia

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that women can continue to access abortion drugs through the mail without making an in-person doctor's visit, while a lawsuit continues against the practice. 

Justices on the high court graned two emergency requests from Danco Laboratories and GenProBio, two makers of the abortion drug mifepristone. 

The manufacturers challenged a ruling in Lousiana that upheld the state's ban on prescribing abortion drugs without an in-person doctor's visit. In 2023, the Biden administration finalized a rule to allow the drugs to be obtained without an in-person visit. 

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the majority's decision. Alito said the litigation limits a state's ability to make determinations on abortion, as granted in the high court's 2022 decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. 

"Louisiana’s efforts have been thwarted by certain medical providers, private organizations, and States that abhor laws like Louisiana’s and seek to undermine their enforcement," Alito wrote. 

Thomas said allowing abortion drugs to be prescribed without an in-person doctors visit is a crime. 

"[Danco Laboratories] cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes," Thomas wrote in his dissent. 

In 2023, approximately two-thirds of all abortions in the United States were through medications. 

As the case plays out, access to the abortion drug is expected to be uninterrupted until into next year. The high court could be petitioned again to rule on the merits of the lawsuit after litigation begins. 

A bench trial for former Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel is scheduled Monday before Judge Michael Gilley in Camden County Circuit Court.

Pinkel, 74, is facing the loss of his driver's license after being stopped by a state trooper in July on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Resolution of the case has been delayed for 10 months of legal procedure while Pinkel has retained possession of his license.

He was stopped July 7 near Camdenton at the Lake of the Ozarks   and held briefly before being released.

According to court documents, Pinkel refused to submit to a chemical test that would determine his blood alcohol content.

Under Missouri law, refusal of an alcohol or drug test will result in the suspension of driving privileges for one year.

Two days after the stop, Pinkel’s attorney submitted a motion to stay the revocation of his license until the court delivers a ruling. Gilley granted the stay on July 11.

An initial hearing was held Sept. 25 and another hearing held Nov. 20, but it was rescheduled for Jan. 26 and postponed again until March 30.  During that hearing, the May 18 bench trial was scheduled. 

The stay on the revocation of Pinkel’s license has remained in effect throughout the rescheduling.

In 2011, Pinkel faced a DWI charge after he was pulled over just before the final home game of the season against Texas Tech. He admitted to drinking two “jumbo” glasses of wine after failing multiple field sobriety tests, according to Missourian coverage.

He pleaded guilty Nov. 18 and was put on two years' probation. He resigned as football coach at the end of the 2015 season after a lymphoma diagnosis. 

Pinkel coached the Tigers from 2001 through 2015, bringing the team to 10 bowl games in 15 years and winning six. He is “the winningest coach in school history,” according to the MU Tigers website. He was voted the 2014 SEC Coach of the Year by fellow league coaches.

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Department of Justice has created a new task force to fight healthcare fraud in three Western states.

The West Coast healthcare Fraud Strike Force will focus on California, Arizona and Nevada.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the DOJ’s Fraud Division said data shows the states have seen a “significant and accelerating increase in healthcare fraud.”

“The Fraud Division is committed to bringing that same relentless, data-driven prosecutorial force to bear across every corner of this region, making unmistakably clear that no scheme is too sophisticated, no network too large or small, and no fraudster too distant to escape federal accountability,” McDonald noted.

Scott Lampert, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ acting deputy inspector general for investigations, said “emerging threats” across Arizona, California and Nevada are “targeting billions of taxpayer dollars from federal healthcare programs.”

“Many of these schemes are driven by sham operations designed to appear legitimate while exploiting patients and inflating claims through increasingly sophisticated methods,” he added.

Timothy Courchaine, U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, said, “Federal law enforcement and the United States Attorney’s Office have disrupted fraud schemes worth over a billion dollars of taxpayer money" in the state.

Courchaine said the mission of the task force is to “ensure Americans who need critical services are not used as pawns to make bad actors rich.”

“Through excellent investigations, trial work and seizures of ill-gotten gains, the District of Arizona will continue safeguarding those services,”  he added.

Attorney General Kris Mayes told The Center Square via email that “Arizona has been on the front lines of fighting Medicaid fraud for the past several years, and we welcome the federal government’s help in combatting this problem.”

She highlighted a 2023 case where $2.5 billion of taxpayer money was stolen from the state’s Medicaid program by directing Native Americans to unlicensed or fraudulent sober living homes that then billed the state for inadequate services or services that never occurred.  

The state recovered only $125 million, or 5% of the $2.5 billion in taxpayers’ money lost to the fraud scheme, according to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

Last year, Mayes announced a $6 million grant program to help tribal nations affected by the healthcare fraud scheme.  

Since 2023, the Democratic attorney general said her office has “indicted 166 individuals and entities, and recovered or seized more than $139 million in cash and assets.”

“We are not done. To anyone committing healthcare fraud in Arizona: We will find you, and we will hold you accountable," she noted.

In June 2025, Farrukh Jarar Ali, the owner of a Pakistan-based company, was charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, as well as wire fraud and money laundering after allegedly billing around $650 million to Arizona’s Medicaid program through at least 41 substance abuse treatment clinics in the state.

Six months later, Arizonans Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King were sentenced to 15.5 years and 14 years in prison, respectively, for causing more than $1.2 billion of false or fraudulent Medicare and health insurance claims for medically unnecessary wound grafts, the DOJ said.

Gehrke and King submitted these false claims between November 2022 and May 2024, the DOJ noted.

In California, Silicon Valley is “ground zero for technology-driven healthcare fraud schemes that seek to cheat taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare,” according to Craig Missakian, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.

To illustrate, last year a Silicon Valley-based digital health company saw its CEO, Ruthia He, and its clinical president, David Brody, convicted of carrying out a scheme involving more than $100 million in healthcare fraud that distributed Adderall over the internet.

In April, the California Department of Justice charged 21 suspects for allegedly defrauding the state’s Medicaid program of $267 million through a hospice fraud scheme.

Also last month, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford charged two Nevadans, Lawrence Carter and Leasa Carter, with allegedly defrauding Nevada’s Medicaid program of at least $2 billion.

“These charges reflect a serious breach of trust and an alleged scheme that exploited both Medicaid and vulnerable individuals,” said Ford.

“Our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit works every day to uncover this kind of misconduct and ensure those responsible are brought to justice," the Democratic attorney general said.

The Center Square reached out to Ford’s office for further comments, but did not receive a response before press time.

WASHINGTON — Montana Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Washington Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) went to Beijing ahead of this trip for conversations regarding pulse crops, potatoes, apples and the Boeing deal, laying the groundwork for this trip ahead of the President Donald Trump's arrival.

Senator Daines sat down with NonStop Local Thursday for his take on the trip so far. The senator has extensive experience in China, having been instrumental in Procter & Gamble’s Chinese division before running for office.

"I use that experience now to help promote our American agenda as we were negotiating with the Chinese," Senator Daines said. "It was remarkable. I met with the premier last week. In fact, at that same great hall where we've seen all the images of President Trump and President Xi Jinping, that's exactly where I was last Thursday."

The delegation met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi for discussions focused on expanding market access for American products. That will also be a focal point of President Trump's visit.

“The bottom line is I think we're going to see some really nice deals come out for, I call it the three B's, Boeing, beef and beans,” Senator Daines said.

Boeing operates a facility in Helena, Montana and has its headquarters in Everett, Washington. CEO of Boeing Kelly Ortberg is joining the president for this trip and it’s believed a sizable deal for the Washington based aerospace company, which has plants in Moses Lake and Helena, could be made.

Boeing and China are in conversations about around 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777x widebody jetliners. Multiple outlets have reported that the President is expected to potentially make that announcement of the deal on the trip.

"There's a lot of reason why the United States and China have to keep dialogue going forward to have a stable relationship," Senator Daines said. "Clearly, last year was a tough year in the relationship. The tariffs went to 145%. There wasn't much cooperation"

Senator Daines believes this trip is an important part in lowering the temperature between the two powers.

"I'm very proud of what's happened here in the last 24 hours," Daines said. "I think this summit's gone very well. Both leaders are saying the right things. We just have to make sure it turns into action here for next steps."

This is the senator's eighth visit in an official capacity. The senator made headlines when on one of those trips he took a cooler full of beef to Chinese officials.

"It was Fred Wacker steaks from Miles City that I gave to the premier of China and now we have access to that market," Senator Daines said in February 2025.

The senator said that the face-to-face visits make an impact and help with accountability. 

“I told the Chinese officials last week, including the premier, that if you're going to want to keep seeing U.S. senators coming to China and having these discussions, we've got to see action results,” Senator Daines said, “It's got to be not just a bunch of talk. We've got to see results. And I'm seeing that."

Daines also said a deal on opening China up to American beef exports is "all but done."

"That's the second largest beef export market in the world, and the Chinese shut it off last March when we got in that big trade fight. "Senator Daines said. "They were unwilling to open it back up until I went there last week and told them, we've got to have this opened up and (I) wanted to tee that up certainly for President Trump and his team. So they are listening. It's 1.4 billion consumers there in China."

But the senator said these trips have changed over time. The posture from the Chinese is different, which he said could lead to real progress.

"Over the years, oftentimes I'd go into these meetings (and) the Chinese government would be spending most of their time talking at us," Sen. Daines said. "This time, they said, we want to hear from you. So, we were able to lay out our concerns, what we want to see from China. And that was a shift, I think, in tone that I've seen from prior visits.”

On the heels of that and with the president's arrival—we now watch for details of these deals to potentially be released and what they could mean for American producers.

"I had some text messages last night directly from Ambassador Perdue, who's on the ground there for the United States," Senator Daines said. "Things are going very well. And there's a spirit of cooperation. And that's a good thing. Look, the relationship is far from perfect, but we're in a lot better place now than we were certainly a year ago."

(The Center Square) – Teacher’s guide learning modules and self-assessment tools for students are part of the third annual Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence, a production of Elon University, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and The Princeton Review.

“Capacities such as critical inquiry, ethical reasoning, creativity and communication are more important than ever because they enable students to engage AI thoughtfully, question its outputs and apply knowledge with judgment and purpose,” said President Lynn Pasquerella of the AAC&U.

Authors say, “The guide draws on 10 voices across centuries and cultures – from Aristotle, Cicero and Descartes to Mencius and Ptahhotep – whose enduring insights into human judgment, creativity, ethics and wisdom take on new urgency as AI reshapes how we learn and work.”

Artificial intelligence is a burgeoning influence on the world. In American, second-term Republican President Donald Trump has reversed a number of Biden era policies inclusive of deregulation, accelerating private-sector innovation and promotion of “ideologically neutral” artificial intelligence. He’s concerned with competition from China.

In April, the Elon University Imagining the Digital Future Center and Elon University Poll found 82% believing artificial intelligence will play “a significantly larger role in shaping people’s lives and key societal functions in the next 10 years or less.” The resilience infrastructure is to “counterbalance the human and systemic challenges posed by widespread AI adoption.”

The sampling Dec. 26 to Feb. 12 invited more than 4,000 experts to weigh in.

“The central risk described by these experts is not a single catastrophic AI event,” said Janna Anderson, professor of communications and senior researcher for the center. “They said accelerated AI use will lead to a cumulative reallocation of human agency until people and institutions find it harder to question, contest or even notice what has changed. That drift can look like ‘progress’ in the short term, but it has a price – the gradual weakening of human judgment, accountability, shared truth and the social fabric that makes self-government possible.”

Rob Franek, editor in chief at The Princeton Review, said students are “both excited by AI and uncertain about how to use it well.”

“What they’re really looking for is guidance,” he said. “This field guide meets that moment by translating big ideas – like critical thinking, creativity and ethical decision-making – into practical habits students can use every day.”

More than 4,000 colleges, universities, schools and organizations access Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence publications. More than 87,000 users in 170 countries have been provided information through the guide’s website.

The American Association of Colleges and Universities, headquartered in Washington, is an international organization billing itself as “a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the democratic purposes of higher education by promoting equity, innovation, and excellence in liberal education.”

The Princeton Review, headquartered in New York City, is not affiliated with Princeton University. The private organization provides test preparation, tutoring and college admission services.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. House committee that oversees election laws advanced multiple bills Thursday to stop fraudulent campaign donations and foreign influence in elections.

Three of the Republican-led bills arose out of committee Chairman Bryan Steil’s, R-Wis., three-year investigation into online campaign fundraising platform ActBlue.

“Our current campaign finance laws were not written for the digital age,” Steil said during the Thursday markup. “Through our investigation, we’ve learned that fraudsters and foreign nationals could exploit the current system to make illegal campaign finance contributions. That’s an unacceptable vulnerability and we have an opportunity to fix it.”

Steil’s three-year investigation into ActBlue not only revealed the platform’s “weak” fraud prevention practices, but more importantly identified security gaps in America’s existing campaign financing laws.

To close those potential loopholes for fraud, the Campaign Finance Transparency Act would require political donations made via credit or debit card to include a CVV/CVC number, billing zip code, and a name that matches the name of the donor.

It would also prohibit political contributions via prepaid gift cards and require platforms to report all political donations, not just those over a certain dollar amount.

Contributions made from donors without a U.S. mailing address would require document verification to ensure that foreign actors are not using American identities to funnel money to preferred political candidates.

The other two bills sent to the House floor – the Preventing Foreign Interference in American Elections Act and the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act – aim to prevent foreign money from influencing how U.S. elections are conducted and what proposals make it to the ballot.

“Foreign nationals cannot be allowed to influence American elections,” Steil said. “That’s why I introduced the Preventing Foreign Interference in American Elections Act, which bans foreign nationals from donating to electioneering activities. This includes voter registration, get out the vote efforts, and ballot harvesting.”

In 2024, foreign billionaires moved money through nonprofit “dark money” groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund to support progressive ballot initiatives related to abortion access and automatic voter registration in multiple states, including Ohio, Arizona and Nevada. Such activities are currently legal under federal election laws.

With the midterm elections quickly approaching, the Republican-controlled Congress has amped up attempts to reform or restructure election and voting laws, arguing that both federal and state-level election rules are inadequate to protect election security and prevent fraud.

The House-passed SAVE America Act, which would strengthen voter identification requirements nationwide, faltered and effectively died in the Senate after it became clear that every Democratic senator would oppose it.

(The Center Square) – Responses are due by 5 p.m. Thursday in Virginia’s emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over the commonwealth’s congressional redistricting dispute, as outside groups and legislative officials continue weighing in ahead of any action from the court.

Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this week ordered responses to the emergency stay request filed by Virginia House Democrats and state officials after the Virginia Supreme Court voided the Commonwealth’s April redistricting referendum.

The May 8 ruling found lawmakers missed a constitutional deadline because early voting for the November 2025 House of Delegates elections had already begun when the General Assembly approved the amendment on Oct. 31.

Three outside groups have now filed amicus briefs in the case.

The NAACP Virginia State Conference and Advancement Project filed in support of the stay request, saying the Virginia Supreme Court adopted an incorrect interpretation of election law.

The NAACP brief argues the ruling effectively discarded more than 3.1 million ballots cast during the referendum.

A separate filing from West Virginia Attorney General John B. McCuskey opposed the stay request, saying the dispute centers on Virginia constitutional law and does not present a federal question for the U.S. Supreme Court to review.

The West Virginia filing also said changing course this close to the 2026 election cycle could create confusion for voters and election officials ahead of 2026.

“A stay would only further compound the confusion, inviting a whiplash situation in which elections are held under new maps for just one election, only to revert to the old maps for the next, all at the behest of this court,” the filing states.

The American Center for Law and Justice also opposed the stay and said the amendment process violated additional state constitutional requirements involving timing and ballot language.

The clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate also filed a response Thursday supporting the emergency application, saying legislative immunity issues tied to the case were not addressed in the Virginia Supreme Court’s May 8 ruling.

Roberts has not indicated when the court may act after responses are filed. The court could rule quickly, request additional briefing or take no immediate action.

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump is asking Congress to approve the largest military budget in American history for an agency that has never passed a financial audit.

The Department of Defense, rebranded the Department of War by the Trump administration, says it has a new plan to finally clear that hurdle, but a congressional watchdog warns the effort may prioritize balancing the books over fixing the underlying problems.

The department is seeking $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027, a 44% increase from current spending levels, despite failing eight consecutive audits and remaining the only major federal agency never to pass one, unable to fully account for about $4.7 trillion in assets.

In March, the Pentagon unveiled a revised audit strategy that shifts away from repairing the internal controls needed to produce reliable financial data and instead emphasizes validating account balances through a combination of artificial intelligence, automation and hands-on verification.

"We rely on internal controls where they exist, maximize the use of artificial intelligence and automation wherever we can, and have the auditors perform substantive testing where they must," Deputy Chief Financial Officer Thomas Harker told lawmakers.

Subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, welcomed the new approach but said questions remained.

"I'm encouraged by this approach, but still have questions about how sustainable this approach is for the entire department and how the department will prioritize high-risk areas that need attention," he said.

The Pentagon's size and complexity make the challenge immense. The Marine Corps is the only military branch to receive a clean audit opinion, a process that required more than 70 site visits and physical inventories of roughly 26 million assets, even though the Marines account for just over 1% of the department's total assets.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative watchdog, warned that the Pentagon's new approach appears "more focused on bookkeeping" than correcting the systemic weaknesses that caused the audit failures in the first place.

"Even if under the new approach DOD achieves a clean audit opinion by the end of 2028, the department's financial management will likely still be on the high-risk list," said Asif Khan, the GAO's director of financial management and assurance. "The department will still need to turn its attention back toward improving systems, internal controls, business processes and operations throughout the department."

Khan also warned that weak internal controls, combined with a proposed $441 billion increase in military spending, could increase the risk of waste, fraud and abuse. He compared the vulnerability to the fraud that plagued several federal relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The money may not be going to the right places," Khan told lawmakers.

The department expects to spend $1.7 billion on audit-related work in fiscal year 2027 alone, according to GAO, about the cost of a dozen F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

Pentagon officials have pushed back on the characterization that the department's audit problems reflect poor financial management. Acting comptroller Jules Hurst told reporters in April that the difficulty lies less in wasteful spending than in tracking and valuing decades-old military assets.

"We buy a nuclear missile in the 1970s and then we have to account for the present-day value, which includes every single repair or modification we made of that missile over 50-plus years," Hurst said. "That's the kind of stuff that makes it hard for the department to get an audit."

The explanation did little to satisfy lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing.

"In all good conscience, I can't vote for that, knowing we've gone seven straight years without an audit," Rep. Kweisi Mfume, the committee's ranking Democrat, said.

The department has, in fact, undergone eight consecutive audits since 2018, but has failed each one.

(The Center Square) – After two years of hearings, whistleblower testimony and document reviews, Minnesota House Republicans say they’ve uncovered what they describe as an “unprecedented” pattern of fraud in Minnesota.

The sweeping 84-page oversight report, adopted Wednesday by the Republican-led Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, concludes a two-year investigation into fraud throughout Minnesota’s taxpayer-funded welfare programs.

“The report outlines the ‘anatomy of fraud’ and the failure of the [Gov. Tim] Walz administration to take action,” said Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, who chaired the now-adjourned committee.

Robbins explained the report is intended to serve as both a record of findings and a warning about how fraud can spread when government fails in oversight.

“We, through the whistleblowers, really did uncover how there had been a cover up,” Robbins told The Center Square in an exclusive interview following the vote. “They weren’t just sort of unaware of the fraud. They were aware of it and actively allowing it to continue or suppressing people who are trying to call it out.”

The report asserts that by 2019, senior officials in the Walz administration were aware of significant fraud risks in child care assistance programs but failed to act, essentially creating a "culture of fraud."

“The Walz Administration ignored and consciously downplayed shocking levels of fraud across more than a dozen Medicaid waiver programs,” the report states. “Despite having sufficient authority to take action to prevent fraud and the authority to place new controls when necessary, the Walz Administration allowed the fraud explode to unprecedented levels.”

It further claims that whistleblowers who raised concerns were ignored or retaliated against and that oversight warnings from the Office of the Legislative Auditor were not adequately implemented.

“When diligent and courageous government employees reported fraud and tried to get action, the Walz Administration ignored, demoted, and retaliated against whistleblowers,” the report states, adding that those who did speak out were often accused of “being racists.”

“This complicit acceptance of fraud by the Democrat leaders allowed a culture of fraud to take root in Minnesota,” it says.

The committee was created in January 2025 as part of a House power-sharing agreement after the chamber was tied. It was the first oversight committee of its kind in Minnesota legislative history and was tasked with holding hearings on fraud prevention and agency oversight.

“The scope of the fraud is staggering,” Robbins said during the committee’s final hearing. “We have made enormous progress in exposing fraud, strengthening internal controls and bringing a culture of accountability to state government, but there is more work to do.”

A central theme of the report is what Republicans call the “anatomy of fraud,” describing a repeatable playbook used by criminals across multiple programs.

The report says fraud typically begins when providers enter programs with “significant federal money, no enrollment caps, and low barriers to entry,” then escalate billing through falsified attendance records, duplicate claims and shell-company arrangements.

“We’ve seen the same pattern over and over and over,” Robbins said. “We have to clamp down on it right away.”

Robbins explained the committee’s hearings revealed that fraud was not isolated to one program or agency but instead spanned multiple systems over many years.

“All of these failures have created opportunities for serial fraudsters to steal billions from Minnesota taxpayers across multiple programs for years,” the report states.

The report also alleges that state agencies relied too heavily on self-attestation rather than documentation and verification, creating what it calls “predictable” vulnerabilities.

“When a program requires little more than an online form to become a provider, with no documentation, pre-approval site visits, capital investment, or infrastructure, fraud flourishes,” the report states.

Much of the committee’s recommendations focus on tightening eligibility standards, increasing oversight authority and modernizing fraud detection tools.

One of the report’s central proposals is the creation of an independent Office of Inspector General within the executive branch with investigative authority to pursue fraud across agencies. Other recommendations include extending the statute of limitations for public program fraud to 10 years and creating criminal penalties for falsifying information submitted to the Office of the Legislative Auditor or state oversight bodies.

The report also calls for mandatory electronic verification systems for attendance-based programs such as child care, autism services, sober homes and non-emergency medical transportation, arguing that paper or attestation-based systems are too easily manipulated.

“Programs billed based on attestation of attendance are magnets for fraudsters,” the report states. “We’ve learned that the ‘anatomy of fraud’ contains many elements, but it starts with the reality that fraud is a crime of opportunity. While criminals are intent on scamming taxpayers, they are only able to do so if the conditions are right.”

The committee also recommends requiring unannounced site visits before providers can enroll in public programs, along with full disclosure of ownership structures and financial capacity reviews.

Another proposal would create automatic “stop-payment” triggers if program spending grows more than 50% year-over-year.

“This trigger, which would immediately stop payment when spending grows by more than 50% of the previous year, would incentivize the oversight taxpayers deserve and expect,” the report says.

Additional recommendations include expanded use of artificial intelligence to detect irregular billing patterns, mandatory reporting from agencies on oversight gaps, and stronger whistleblower tracking systems.

“State agencies should proactively tell legislators where they lack oversight of programs or gaps in statute,” the report states.

Democrat lawmakers on the committee strongly objected to both the report’s conclusions and the process used to adopt it—as well as the existence of the committee itself.

Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul, criticized the timing of the report’s release and said Democrats were not meaningfully involved in drafting it.

“This document came together without any input, any review, anything from three of the eight members of the committee,” Pinto said.

Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, said the committee had strayed from its stated purpose.

“This committee is called the Fraud Prevention and Government Oversight Committee, not the make the case and picture what you think the Democratic Party is,” Greenman said.

Republicans, however, defended the report as a necessary record of findings from the committee’s two-year investigation.

Robbins said the goal of the report was to preserve the work of the committee, regardless of which party is in power in Minnesota in the years ahead.

“If this is the only session in the history of the Minnesota Legislature where we actually had the guts to have an oversight committee,” she said, “I want there to be a record of our work.”

BOZEMAN, Mont. - Bozeman Municipal Court and the nonprofit HRDC are partnering for the second Food for Fines event, in which defendants can trade nonperishable food items in exchange for credit toward their fines. The event is scheduled for May 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Bozeman Public Safety Center. 

Each donated nonperishable item is equivalent to $10 of credit, up to $200 (or 20 items). 

“Due to income levels, not everyone experiences a $200 penalty the same way,” Judge Karolina Tierney said in a press release. “Those who are low-income are going to feel that penalty much more significantly. That’s why we’re hosting this event. Defendants still need to be accountable for crimes they have committed, but by providing food items in lieu of cash, they can take responsibility, complete their sentence, and help a worthy cause at the same time.”

Parking tickets are ineligible for credit. Defendants are also ineligible, according to a press release, if they are only paying restitution, have an active warrant, are in collections for fines or restitution, have a deferred prosecution agreement or are completing community service in lieu of fines. 

“Everyone deserves the opportunity to give back in meaningful ways," President and CEO of HRDC Heather Grenier said. "Every food item donated during Food for Fines will help us stock the shelves of our local food banks and make a real difference for our neighbors struggling to pay rent and still afford groceries."

For more information about the program or event, visit the City of Bozeman website.