Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
Trump’s pardons have erased more than $119 million in restitution owed to crime victims. Two right-wing influencers were charged with identity theft after disguising themselves and trying to vote. A woman who appeared in a Republican campaign ad warning that a Democrat is dangerous to children previously pleaded guilty to child endangerment. And the FDA has inspected only about 2 percent of Mexican produce facilities that ship food to the United States.
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The scales of justice tip faster when you put cash on one side.
Trump’s pardon wave has wiped out more than $119 million in restitution owed to victims, according to an analysis by CBS News. When factoring in money owed to the Crime Victims Fund and restitution jointly owed with co-defendants, the total funds denied exceeds $1.1 billion.
That figure does not include the potentially tens of thousands of dollars owed by the more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 attack, whom Trump pardoned on his first day back in office.
At least 18 of the clemency recipients had ties to the White House, and in many of those cases, lawyers and lobbyists had contributed to Trump’s campaigns before pushing for pardons for their allies. Former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton diverted nearly $2 million from investors to pro-Trump political committees before his pardon erased $661 million in restitution.
Paul Walczak, an executive at a nursing home who was convicted of withholding more than $10 million from nurses’ and doctors’ paychecks, also received a pardon. Trump granted it in April 2025, weeks after his mother donated $1 million to one of his super PACs.
Milton’s victims included people who lost their retirement savings and those who had never invested in the stock market before. Walczak used the money he stole from his employees’ paychecks to purchase a $2 million yacht and other luxuries, while health care workers at his facilities went unpaid.
The call was coming from inside the polling place.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged conservative influencers James O’Keefe and Cam Higby with felony identity theft and unlawful voting after the two disguised themselves and attempted to vote at Minnesota polling places during August primaries. They said they were trying to expose weak election laws, but the only crime they exposed was their own.
Higby was dressed in a black abaya that covered his face, while O’Keefe wore a white thobe and kufi. Both admitted in a video posted to social media that they were attempting to pass as Muslims. The pair never actually cast any votes, and they walked out of one polling place after being asked to show identification.
O’Keefe is also accused of identity theft after he identified himself to election judges as William Pomerantz, a real registered voter and professor at the University of Minnesota. Pomerantz told CBS Minnesota he only learned his identity had been used after a student showed him the video.
O’Keefe has a history of misrepresenting himself in undercover stunts. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to misdemeanor charges of entering federal property under false pretenses after posing as a telephone repairman at the office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in Louisiana.
Let she who is without a DUI conviction cast the first stone.
The Republican woman featured in a campaign ad warning that Iowa Democratic candidate Sarah Trone Garriott is dangerous to children has a criminal record involving child endangerment. Shellie Flockhart, a 55-year-old Dallas Center city councilwoman, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and driving under the influence in 2017.
A responding officer said her speech was slurred and she seemed to have difficulty answering questions. A preliminary breath test showed a blood alcohol content of 0.254, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08.
The ad cost at least $1 million and was paid for by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC that aims to elect Republicans to the House. The spot features a number of women who accuse Trone Garriott of being dangerous to children because of her voting record on transgender issues as a state senator.
Flockhart called the 2017 incident a “grave mistake” in a written statement, and said it does not define her. Trone Garriott’s spokesperson said it was “disappointing but not surprising” that her opponent has resorted to lies.
The FDA inspects your produce the way you floss before a dentist appointment.
Since 2009, the FDA has inspected only about two percent of Mexican facilities that ship produce to the United States, according to a Washington Post investigation. Mexico exports more fresh produce to the U.S. than any other country, including the iceberg lettuce linked to a cyclospora outbreak this summer that sickened nearly 13,000 people and killed two.
In total, only 7.6 percent of the major foreign facilities that account for 90 percent of U.S. fruit and vegetable imports have been inspected by the FDA since 2009. Last year, the agency performed 1,024 foreign food inspections, only 5 percent of what Congress had called for.
More of what Americans eat now comes from imported produce than it did 20 years ago. About 59 percent of fresh fruit and 34 percent of fresh vegetables now come from other countries, up from 46 percent and 17 percent about 20 years ago.
Foreign food inspections fell even further in early 2025 after Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency cut FDA coordinators who made foreign travel arrangements for inspectors. The FDA now wants $9 million from Congress to step up inspections overseas, and the authority to collect fees from foreign facilities that could generate another $71 million.
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** Georgia Republican Who Ran $76 Million Ponzi Scheme Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison. **A prominent Georgia Republican who orchestrated a $76 million Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Edwin Brant Frost IV, an evangelical powerbroker, was also ordered to pay more than $76 million in restitution after his firm, First Liberty Building and Loan, collapsed in June 2025 and was found to have defrauded more than 300 investors. Frost had promised returns up to 16 percent, touting what he called “Wall Street returns for Main Street investors,” while skimming $17 million for himself and his relatives and making millions more in loans that were never repaid. The plan was frequently pushed on the conservative talk shows of Erick Erickson, Hugh Hewitt, and Charlie Kirk.
** Judge Grants Trans Group the Right to Depose Companies Behind Mysterious Mailers.** A Travis County judge has granted the Transgender Education Network of Texas a chance to depose two companies linked to millions of deceptive mailings and text messages sent to Texas voters that falsely gave the impression they came from the organization. The mailers, titled “Texas Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide,” were sent to kids in conservative households, and arrived as early voting began in the state. TENT’s attorney told the court that an estimated 3.6 million to 4.2 million mailers had been sent, far beyond the group’s $1 million annual budget. The U.S. Postal Service said the bulk mail permit used to send them was for Three Z Printing, an Illinois company owned by a family that has donated more than $700,000 to Trump-aligned organizations and Republican PACs.
Mayor Mamdani Advances Redesign of Deadly Brooklyn Corridor Shelved by Adams. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday that New York City will add protected bike lanes and shorten pedestrian crossings on Brooklyn’s Third Avenue, a six-lane road that has seen 17 people killed by motorists over the past decade. Beginning next year, the Department of Transportation plans to cut the road down to four moving lanes, which will halve the avenue’s 150-foot crossing distance. More than two years ago, former Mayor Eric Adams put the redesign on hold after pushback from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. During the delay, two men were killed on the corridor by a speeding driver who ran a red light.
** Halloween Displays Have Raised $1.2 Million for Pediatric Cancer Research.** More than 600 families nationwide have turned their Halloween decorations into donation centers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through a fundraiser called Skeletons for St. Jude. The effort began in 2020, when Jeff Robertson of Holly Springs, North Carolina, drew statewide attention with his skeleton army, and decided to use the spotlight to raise money for children with cancer. Now in its seventh year, the campaign has signed up 625 homes for the “haunt,” which runs through Christmas day. Participants set out jars for donations in their yards, allowing neighbors and passersby to contribute.
