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Ilhan Omar Accused Of Trying To Steer $1.4M To Nonprofit With Somali Restaurant For Address

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
Ilhan Omar Accused Of Trying To Steer $1.4M To Nonprofit With Somali Restaurant For Address

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is facing fresh accusations after Republicans flagged her reported push to direct more than $1 million in federal taxpayer funds to a small Somali-led nonprofit whose listed project address matches a Minneapolis restaurant.

The nonprofit, Generation Hope MN, describes itself as providing addiction recovery services, peer support, job training, and mental health support for the East African community. The address tied to Omar’s earmark request - 326 Cedar Ave S / 411 Cedar Ave S - matches Sagal Restaurant and Coffee, a Somali eatery. Conservative investigator Angela Rose documented the site in a video, using Google Street View archives and on-site footage to show minimal or no clinic signage over years, with the building primarily operating as a restaurant. The owner has confirmed Generation Hope uses upstairs space in the multi-tenant property, but critics highlighted the optics amid Minnesota’s fraud history.

Minnesota Rep Ilhan Omar attempted to send $1.46 million dollars in funding to an address for a nonprofit called “Generation Hope”

The address to receive the money isn’t a treatment facility, it’s a restaurant

After this was discovered House Republicans stripped the earmarked… pic.twitter.com/iwwSZMi75H

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 24, 2026

Omar, joined by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, had requested approximately $1.031 million (with some reports citing up to $1.46 million in initial figures) through the Department of Justice’s Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program for the group’s “Justice Empowerment Initiative.” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and other Republicans flagged multiple concerns: the restaurant address, three directors listing the same residential home address in filings, and the organization’s limited demonstrated capacity for large-scale treatment services. House Republicans stripped the earmark from a FY2026 spending package in January 2026. GOP senators later requested a formal DOJ fraud investigation into Generation Hope MN.

This development coincides with a separate but related state-level investigation. On April 22, 2026, Minnesota State Rep. Kristin Robbins (R), chair of the House Fraud Prevention & State Oversight Committee, publicly released a formal data request letter to Omar after the congresswoman reportedly declined multiple invitations to testify about her MEALS Act (H.R. 6187, 116th Congress). That 2020 legislation, incorporated into the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, expanded child nutrition programs and loosened some eligibility requirements during the pandemic—changes critics say contributed to conditions enabling the massive Feeding Our Future scandal, which allegedly defrauded taxpayers of more than $250 million. Court records and trials have implicated numerous individuals in Omar’s district, many from the Somali-American community, with some having ties to her orbit (including a former staffer who pled guilty and associates at sites like Safari Restaurant, where Omar appeared in a 2020 promotional video). Omar has distanced herself from the defend ants and called the fraud “reprehensible,” while urging the public not to broadly blame the Somali community.

Robbins’ letter demands detailed records of Omar’s communications with key players, her office staff, and the Minnesota Department of Education by May 5. Omar has not publicly responded to the latest demand.

Additional layer of recent scrutiny: Omar’s amended financial disclosures and dissolved winery Compounding questions about oversight of public funds, Omar is also facing intense Republican-led scrutiny over her personal finances. In her 2024 disclosure (filed in 2025), she and husband Tim Mynett reported combined assets valued between $6 million and $30 million - a dramatic increase from prior years - largely tied to two companies Mynett co-owns: eStCru LLC (a California winery) and Rose Lake Capital (a venture capital firm). After inquiries from the Office of Congressional Conduct and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who requested records citing “serious public concerns,” Omar amended the filing in mid-April 2026. The new version lists joint assets at just $18,004 to $95,000, with the companies now valued at “none.” Her office blamed an “accounting error” in which liabilities were not properly subtracted and stated she is “not a millionaire.”

Notably, the eStCru winery LLC was officially terminated (dissolved) on April 4, 2026 - days before the amendment became public. Independent investigator Angela Rose (who also produced the Generation Hope video) previously visited the listed address and described the operation as a “phantom” or shell business: no active wine production, no tastings, no product available for purchase, and a facility sign confirming it had “ceased operation.” ZeroHedge and other outlets have reported on suspicions of inflated valuations and potential shell-company activity.

No criminal charges have been filed against Omar personally in any of these matters. Her office has defended the MEALS Act as emergency pandemic aid, distanced her from Feeding Our Future defendants, and called the disclosure revisions voluntary and accurate. Generation Hope’s supporters maintain it is a legitimate community organization operating within available space. Rose Lake Capital and eStCru have faced prior investor disputes, but Mynett has denied wrongdoing.

Still, the overlapping controversies - the earmark red flags, the state records demand, deep ties to individuals later implicated in fraud schemes, and the sudden financial disclosure swing followed by a business dissolution - have fueled outrage among critics who argue they reflect insufficient transparency around public funds and personal finances in Omar’s district. With the May 5 deadline approaching, lawmakers, watchdogs, and taxpayers are watching closely for any response.

We can't wait for absolutely nothing to happen to her. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/24/2026 - 14:55
Tyler Durden

FDA Approves First Gene Therapy To Treat Deafness

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
FDA Approves First Gene Therapy To Treat Deafness

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Federal regulators on Thursday approved the first gene therapy to restore hearing, just two months after the therapy’s maker formally requested a license.

Dr. Marty Makary, the Food and Drug Administration's commissioner, in an undated file photograph. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Food and Drug Administration approved the Regeneron therapy, Otarmeni, for children and adults with severe or profound hearing loss associated with OTOF gene variants.

The approval came 61 days after Regeneron filed for a biologics license, under a new effort known as the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher Program that emphasizes quickly reviewing applications for products that address unmet needs.

“Today’s approval is a significant milestone in the treatment of genetic hearing loss,” Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner, said in a statement.

“Through the national priority voucher pilot program, the agency is accelerating therapies for rare diseases with unmet medical needs while proving we can successfully review even the most complex submissions—such as novel dual vector gene therapies and combination products requiring coordination across multiple offices and centers—in significantly shortened timeframes.”

Genetic mutations account for about half of cases of inherited hearing loss. Variants in the OTOF gene account for 2 to 8 percent of those cases.

To treat deafness, Otarmeni is administered to each ear using a syringe and catheter provided in the accompanying kit.

Regulators approved Regeneron’s therapy after reviewing data from a clinical trial involving 24 patients aged 10 months to 16 years. Of the 20 patients included in the efficacy analysis, 80 percent experienced improvement in hearing after receiving Otarmeni.

Common side effects of the drug included ear infection, nausea, and dizziness.

Dr. A. Eliot Shearer, an otolaryngologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an investigator in the trial, said in a statement released by Regeneron that the one-time therapy provides “remarkable hearing improvements.”

“I’ve witnessed firsthand my trial participant responding to their mother’s voice, dancing to music and interacting with the world, and these moments are now possible for more children born with this specific form of hearing loss,” he said.

Dr. Marty Makary, the Food and Drug Administration's commissioner, in an undated file photograph. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Regeneron said it will provide the therapy free of charge to patients in the United States as part of a deal struck with President Donald Trump and announced on Thursday.

Dr. George D. Yancopoulos, president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron, said in a statement that Otarmeni was an “unprecedented breakthrough” in gene therapy.

“Otarmeni is a huge scientific leap and is representative of Regeneron’s approaches to continually push the boundaries of science to benefit humanity,” he said.

“This unprecedented breakthrough in gene therapy has already proven to be life-changing for many of the children in our clinical trial and their families. We are honored to be in the position to be the first company to ever offer such a gene therapy advance for free to those in the U.S. and serves to highlight our belief that the biopharmaceutical industry can be a genuine force for good in the world.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/24/2026 - 14:35
Tyler Durden

Race To Refill U.S. Weapons Stockpiles Will Supercharge War Economy

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
Race To Refill U.S. Weapons Stockpiles Will Supercharge War Economy

The U.S. military's 55-day war with Iran has alarmingly drawn down several categories of high-end air-delivered munitions, forcing the Department of War to draw from critical stockpiles in Asia and Europe. The drawdown of these weapons only suggests a possible readiness problem and helps explain why President Trump's war economy is set to accelerate, with expected increases in munitions production. 

The New York Times has released a report that says since the US-Iran conflict began in late February, the US military has burned through roughly 1,100 JASSM-ER long-range stealth cruise missiles, more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, over 1,200 Patriot interceptors, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS missiles.

"The Iran war has significantly drained much of the U.S. military's global supply of munitions, and forced the Pentagon to rush bombs, missiles and other hardware to the Middle East from commands in Asia and Europe," the outlet said, citing internal Defense Department estimates and congressional officials.

The report continued, "The drawdowns have left these regional commands less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China, and it has forced the United States to find ways to scale up production to address the depletions, Trump administration and congressional officials say." 

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, stated earlier this week, "At current production rates, reconstituting what we have expended could take years." 

One of the first major signals that the DoW was set to call on private industry to begin ramping up Trump's war economy was a report earlier this month that said the Trump administration was exploring whether U.S. manufacturers, including GM, Ford, GE Aerospace, and Oshkosh, could convert civilian industrial capacity into weapons production as multiple conflict areas across Eurasia drag on and deplete critical weapons stockpiles.

The historical precedent is that America converted its automotive base during World War II to produce record numbers of main battle tanks, bombers, and fighter planes to win the war.

"The United States has many munitions with adequate inventories, but some critical ground-attack and missile-defense munitions were short before the war and are even shorter now," Mark F. Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the outlet. He recently published a study estimating US weapons stockpiles.

Evidence of converting underused civilian industrial capacity has recently emerged, with the German automaker Volkswagen set to transform its Lower Saxony factory from producing T-Roc Cabriolets to manufacturing parts for the Iron Dome missile interceptor system.

The important signal we are gathering here is that the US may have to convert underutilized civilian industrial capacity, including truck and auto production lines, to weapons output.

To be frank, this is no longer peacetime procurement. It is wartime industrial mobilization, with Washington now being forced to confront the gap between the weapons it burns in the Middle East and the weapons its defense base can actually replace.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/24/2026 - 14:15
Tyler Durden

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