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Two of the 17-year-old boys who were not wearing seat belts were ejected from the vehicle during the horrifying crash.

A burglary crew used wild tactics but cops caught them with the help of a drone.

ESPN NFL draft analyst Matt Miller has been hit with a misdemeanor for his alleged role in the horrific car crash that resulted in the amputation of his arm.

The pull Aaron Donald is feeling to unretire and chase football greatness again is hardly unique. Sports history is littered with legends who walked away, only to hear, and ultimately heed, the same call. Some, like Michael Jordan and Mario Lemieux, discovered that shaking off the rust was little more than a formality. They returned...

Woman Who Defrauded USAID-Funded Nonprofit Avoids Prison, Settles Civil Claims For $160,000

A Maryland woman has agreed to pay the U.S. government $160,000 to resolve civil allegations that she submitted false claims for payment, following her earlier criminal conviction for defrauding a nonprofit that received USAID funding.

Carleena Graham, 59, formerly served as vice president of human resources at World Learning, a nonprofit that received millions of dollars in grants and contracts from both the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. According to the USAID Office of Inspector General, she orchestrated a scheme that drained roughly $425,000 from the organization between about 2016 and mid-2022. Of that total, approximately $272,500 came directly or partially from U.S. government funds.

Graham arranged for goods and services to be delivered to Washington-area nonprofits where she held positions or had relationships, then directed World Learning to pay for them through electronic transfers from its accounts. She falsified vendor invoices to create the appearance that World Learning itself had received the items. She also used the organization's credit cards to cover expenses for those outside entities.

Federal authorities charged her with one count of wire fraud in May 2023. She pleaded guilty and, in March 2024, received a sentence of four years' probation, an order to pay $425,000 in restitution, and a three-year debarment from receiving U.S. government funds. Her plea agreement estimated an advisory sentencing range of 27 to 33 months' imprisonment.

In July 2026 she entered a separate civil settlement with the Department of Justice under the False Claims Act, agreeing to the $160,000 payment. That agreement closes a joint investigation by the USAID and State Department Offices of Inspector General. The government's announcement notes that the claims resolved by the civil settlement are allegations only and that there has been no determination of liability.

Graham's is not the only USAID-linked fraud case to reach resolution. As we reported in June of last year, former USAID contracting officer Roderick Watson and three corporate executives pleaded guilty over a decade-long bribery scheme spanning at least 14 prime contracts worth more than $550 million. Prosecutors said Watson accepted bribes valued at more than $1 million, including cash, laptops, tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, and down payments on two residential mortgages. He faced a maximum of 15 years. The two contractors involved, Apprio and Vistant, admitted criminal liability and entered deferred prosecution agreements. In a separate case, a British national who worked on a USAID-funded power distribution program in Pakistan was extradited after more than two years, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to time served for a kickback scheme that cost the program almost $100,000.

The settlement lands amid broader scrutiny of USAID's oversight of foreign-aid spending. Inspector general memoranda issued in 2025 flagged weaknesses, including limited visibility into sub-recipients, resistance from some international partners in sharing misconduct information, and incomplete reporting of potential fraud by organizations that received agency funds. World Learning was among the recipients of USAID programming during the period of the scheme.

USAID was formally dissolved on July 1, 2025, with its remaining functions absorbed into the State Department.

Also, the DNC is oddly out of money.

 

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/11/2026 - 18:50

"Earth's gravity, or total gravitational force, is determined by its mass," NASA said.

SANTA CLARA – In what might have set a new record for training camp hostility, the 49ers and Tennessee Titans went after each other in a fistful of fury four different times during their joint practice Tuesday. Not four times over the course of the two hour practice. Four times within the first six snaps...

Homeschool Families Are Pushing For High School Sports Participation

Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times,

Luke Cecchi watched from the bleachers as his friends and neighbors played varsity sports.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Courtesy of Sherry Luke Photography, Courtesy of Luke Cecchi, Clemed/CC BY-SA 3.0

The homeschooled student from Cazenovia, New York, wasn't allowed to try out for the local high school soccer and basketball teams under a state law regulating scholastic athletics, even though his family paid thousands of dollars in property taxes to the local school district and supported local recreation sports programs through fees, participation, and volunteer coaching.

New York state has resisted change, despite bipartisan support from lawmakers and the growing number of states allowing homeschooled students access to extracurricular activities at their neighborhood public schools.

"I wanted to play so badly," Cecchi, now a 23-year-old law school student, told The Epoch Times. "It didn't make sense to me."

On his own, Cecchi found a way to train in competitive basketball and eventually made a Division I college team as a walk-on.

Still, he took an unusual, daunting path against incredible odds in America's ultra-competitive scholastic sports landscape.

All told, the vast majority of states either have laws allowing homeschooled students to participate in their local public school sports and extracurricular activities or leave it to individual districts to decide on a case-by-case basis.

But in California, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, and Virginia, homeschooled students are barred from public school sports by way of legislation, court decisions, or regulations set by organizations that govern interscholastic athletics, according to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association.

A pending state court case in Virginia could set a precedent that opens interscholastic competition to all students, though many families in these exclusive states are content building a league of their own.

Tim Tebow Laws

A decade after Florida passed laws allowing homeschooled students to participate in public school sports, University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy as college football's best player and went on to compete in the National Football League.

His parents chose to homeschool him because of their Christian beliefs. He played on a public high school team in the Jacksonville area despite never being enrolled at that school.

The Sunshine State's legislation inspired red and blue states across the nation to follow suit and enact "Tim Tebow" laws.

Some states, such as Alabama, require public schools to make sports available to all nontraditional students. Others, including Georgia, stipulate minimum academic standards and code of conduct provisions. Wisconsin allows it "if space permits."

Nine states and the District of Columbia leave it up to the school district or locality to decide, though New Jersey so far "rarely allows homeschoolers to participate," the Homeschool Legal Defense Association says on its website.

"The majority of states allow it now because of Tim Tebow," Will Estrada, the association's senior legal counsel, told The Epoch Times.

"It was because of legislation, not litigation. We were losing in court everywhere. Judges didn't like to force public schools to do anything."

"All we really need is one case to set precedent."

In Mississippi, where sports and extracurricular participation is currently decided at the district level, the state's House passed its Tim Tebow Act during the 2025-2026 legislative session.

The bill stalled in the Senate Education Committee early this year following opposition by the Parents' Campaign. The citizens group says the measure "incentivizes dropouts, creates an unlevel playing field that favors homeschool over public school students, and inflicts an enormous administrative burden on public school administrators."

Litigation

In Virginia, two parents from the Roanoke area filed a lawsuit after the local public school, as dictated by a governing high school athletic association, refused to allow their ninth-grade son, Samuel Palmer, to join local high school cross-country and track teams. A federal court declined to hear the case, so it's now before a state court.

The complaint filed by the Founding Freedoms Law Center states that Palmer shouldn't be excluded "from an otherwise available government benefit" simply because his parents choose to educate him at home for religious reasons.

Josh Hetzler, the center's executive director and chief counsel, said Palmer had been allowed to run in middle school meets and that the state organization should consider that there are provisions in both high school and college athletics to allow "unattached" runners to compete if they cover their own entry and travel fees and wear apparel that doesn't represent a school.

Moreover, the governing scholastic athletic organization has allowed Christian schools to compete in the same league, as well as students who are fully online and complete all of their coursework at home.

"There's a lot of inconsistencies," he told The Epoch Times.

Alternative Organizations

In Central New York, homeschooled students can join soccer, basketball, or volleyball teams run by the Syracuse Eagles or the Port City Royals community athletic organizations. They compete against each other and small private schools that are also not part of the statewide interscholastic high school sports leagues.

It takes volunteers, fundraising, and sometimes small fees to keep it going. A web search shows there are many groups like these serving homeschool communities in several states.

Nathan Emmons, one of Port City's main volunteers and leaders, said there has been plenty of lobbying and bipartisan support for legislation reversing New York's current regulations, "but we just can't get it over the finish line."

He said the lack of money, facilities, equipment, and trained coaches and referees makes it difficult for his organization to expand to other sports such as track and field, ice hockey, or football. The availability of junior varsity teams and level of competition vary by year, and students who are very serious about their sport also participate in travel-level clubs.

"I don't remember the last time an NCAA recruiter has cared to come to a game," Emmons told The Epoch Times.

Still, he added, this arrangement goes a long way in providing socialization, physical fitness, and lessons about teamwork for students who desire some level of competition without overshadowing their interest in other activities.

"The sports piece is the most challenging for homeschoolers," he said, "but these students still kind of find their way to sports."

Samuel Palmer of Roanoke, Va., leads the pack during a middle school track event. Palmer, a rising high school freshman who is homeschooled, is barred from competing on his local public high school team under current Virginia regulations. His family has filed a lawsuit challenging the rules. Courtesy of Daniel Palmer Tyler Durden Tue, 08/11/2026 - 18:25

The "Squad" star, 36 — who got engaged to Roberts in April 2022 — has been spotted in recent months without her engagement ring.

The Topps card, which is a numbered rookie debut patch autograph card, is believed to be worth potentially more than $1 million and was signed by Flagg in July during Fanatics Fest in New York. 

The UCSB rapist who once made a mad dash for freedom after his conviction is now staring down decades behind bars. Arian Eteghaei, 24, was sentenced on Monday to 30 years to life in state prison by Judge Von Deroian for sexually assaulting multiple women while he was a student at the University of California,...

Puka Nacua unexpected departure from Rams practice appears to have a far less dramatic explanation than the speculation surrounding him suggested. California Post reporter Vincent Bonsignore spoke with an anonymous source inside the organization who indicated that Nacua was removed from Tuesday’s joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys “out of precaution” because of a minor...

The actress said she's "at peace" with "whatever comes next."

The actress said she's "at peace" with "whatever comes next."

Those who think that Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights is a bit too scary with all the lights off are getting a new option at the attraction this year.

The agency hired more than 2,000 air traffic controllers this year after a campaign targeting gamers -- and has already hit 94% of its recruitment goal, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced.

Embarrassed by City Hall's rollout of her tax — the mayor's gloating videos and nasty enemies list — she's acting like she'd barely even heard of the tax that her own office designed.

This quaint California town has been crowned the fairest of them all...or at least the fairest in the state.

A depraved mother and her two trans lovers are facing child endangerment and murder charges after police discovered her 7-year-old son dead and bound inside her Cincinnati, Ohio home.

49ers WAGs Claire Kittle and Kristin Juszczyk skipped NFL training camp for a sunny girls' trip to Italy, rocking bold bikinis on a boat.