Author: Verified News Online

The Trump administration’s $1.776 billion compensation fund for alleged “victims” of “weaponization” appears to violate and contradict a mandate set out by ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi last year, according to legal experts.
Recipients of the fund, announced by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche last week as part of a settlement after President Donald Trump abandoned his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, will likely remain a secret.
While Blanche — who, like Bondi is a former Trump personal attorney — has stated that Trump and his family are not eligible for the fund, the president’s donors, allies, and supporters have not been ruled out.
Now, former Justice Department officials have pointed to a February 2025 directive issued by Bondi that appears to contradict the compensation fund because it could see major payouts awarded to people or groups who are not involved in an underlying lawsuit, according to The New York Times.
The memo, titled “Reinstating the Prohibitions on Im..

Michelle Petix raised her two daughters in the rural haven of Steamboat Springs, in northwestern Colorado, where they spent their childhoods skiing freely with friends or swimming in the river on balmy summer days.
“We lived off the grid, plowed our own road, built our home board by board,” Petix, 57, said of her family’s idyllic life in Routt County. “Tourism and ranching are truly a unique mixed vibe. We need a community to survive out in the rural areas.”
Tourism is the main driver of the local economy, powered by tens of thousands of visitors who come to “Ski Town USA” to hit the slopes, fly fish on local rivers, or attend the professional rodeo series held at the base of Colorado’s oldest public ski area, in operation since 1915.
Managing the influx of tourists while preserving the area’s ranching culture and history is a delicate balance. But Petix and others in the community fear that balance could soon be upended by a powerful real estate developer’s proposal to open a private..

Brothers to the Rescue, a group founded by Cuban exiles, is at the center of the U.S. Justice Department's decision to seek an indictment against Cuban leader Raúl Castro, a move reviving one of the lowest points in the two countries' bitter decades-long relationship.
The indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two planes operated by the Miami-based exile group. Castro was defense minister at the time, making him the nation's highest authority after his brother Fidel.
What is Brothers to the Rescue?Brothers to the Rescue began operating in 1980 during 125,000 Cubans' unexpected emigration to the United States. Founded by emigré José Basulto, it aimed to help Cuban refugees in the Florida straits by dropping supplies from small planes and alerting the U.S. Coast Guard.
The months-long crisis began after some Cubans protested travel restrictions imposed by President Fidel Castro's communist government and Castro opened the port o..

Several financial firms that profited from well-timed oil trades, made shortly before President Donald Trump announced new developments in the Iran war, are being looked at by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to a new report.
Moments before Trump announced he would postpone bombing Iran’s infrastructure on March 23, more than $800 millon worth of oil futures were exchanged – with at least three firms profiting from more than $15 million combined, according to data and records seen by the Wall Street Journal.
A similar pattern has emerged over the last few months, with a volume of trades made on April 7, hours before Trump announced a temporary ceasefire with Iran; April 17, minutes before Iran’s Foreign Minister announced the Strait of Hormuz was open; and April 21, minutes before Trump announced he would extend the ceasefire with Iran.
It’s led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent agency that regulates futures, swaps and bets, to open an inquiry ..