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OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - An Afghan man arrested on charges of planning a terrorist attack on Election Day worked as a security guard in Afghanistan for the CIA, two sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested on Monday in Oklahoma and accused of plotting to kill Americans with an assault rifle on behalf of ISIS. Court documents said he had contributed to an ISIS charity in March and accessed online ISIS propaganda, but they did not say whether he was radicalized before or after he came to the U.S. in 2021.

One senior administration official said counterterrorism officials assess that Tawhedi became radicalized during the three years he lived in the U.S. A senior law enforcement official said the FBI is still investigating that question.

The CIA declined to comment.

Court documents say Tawhedi entered the country in September 2021, about a month after the U.S. military completed its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. Click here to read more.

 

LANSING, Mich - Michigan families relying on the Family Independence Program can now stay on welfare for a longer period of time after a new law took effect Tuesday.

Senate Bill 932, sponsored by state Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, and signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, extends the time families can receive cash assistance through the FIP from four to five years.

The bill had passed both chambers along party lines, with Democrats arguing it would give families extra time and flexibility during tough financial periods.

But Republicans criticized the bill, citing the burden on taxpayers and arguing the legislation incentivizes long-term dependency on government aid. Click here to read more.

 

Just weeks before Election Day, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits has increased to the highest level in more than a year.

In a news release on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that, for the week ending October 5, there were 258,000 jobless claims, up 33,000 from the previous week’s 225,000 claims. This is the highest number of jobless claims since the week of August 5, 2023.

The Associated Press spoke to analysts who blamed the increase on Hurricane Helene, but a Daily Wire review of the initial claims filed for the past week shows that is not the whole story.

North Carolina, which suffered the most under Hurricane Helene, saw a 290% increase in jobless claims – 8,534 more than the previous week. While North Carolina saw the largest percentage jump, Michigan – which was unaffected by Helene – also saw a large percentage increase of 140%, and had the highest single jump in jobless claims at 9,490. California, which was also not affected by the hurricane, had the third highest increase in claims at 4,484. Click here to read more.

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WASHINGTON D.C. - The Biden-Harris administration gave a six-figure subsidy to a China-linked electric vehicle company in late 2022 and, roughly a year later, its president showered the Democratic presidential ticket with tens of thousands of dollars in donations, records show.

BYD Americas received $395,000 through the Biden-Harris administration’s Clean School Bus program in October 2022, according to Environmental Protection Agency documents. Ke Li, the president of BYD Americas, then made four large donations to support President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign on Nov. 14, 2023, funds that were transferred to Vice President Kamala Harris in July after the president dropped out of the election, campaign finance disclosures show.

“The people of Michigan believe in lending a hand to help their neighbors during tough times, but they also expect these programs to be temporary and aimed at encouraging independence,” state Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, said Tuesday. “Instead, what we’re seeing is a significant shift toward bigger government and longer dependence on taxpayer dollars.”

The Michigan House Fiscal Agency reports that state costs will increase by about $1.8 million to $2.9 million. The increase has been accounted for in the state’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget, which was balanced in part by raising Michigan’s individual income tax rate from 4.05% to 4.25% in January. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The environmental supervisor for Rockdale County’s Soil and Water Conservation District, Kenny Johnson, died after testifying on the recent Georgia biolab fire.

Johnson collapsed near the Georgia State Capitol.

During his testimony, Johnson said this was the second time he had requested a criminal investigation into the biolab. His first call for an investigation occurred three weeks before the fire, The Daily Mail reported.

He explained that he was concerned about the sulfuric acid the company keeps on the property.

“PA Region 4 is the worst region in the United States, look it up,” Johnson said. “Rockdale County been out of federal compliance for four decades.”

“I’ve been fighting for six years,” he explained. “I’ve been saying that company is going to explode. No one listened. We got to move this company out of this community.” Click here to read more.

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WASHINGTON D.C. - The largest North American producer of french fries is shutting down its plant in Washington and laying off hundreds of employees, company officials announced in a recent earnings report.

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. president and CEO Tom Werner cited “soft” restaurant traffic and frozen potato demand in an October 1 press release detailing the business’s failures in the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. 

According to Werner, “key actions” to restructure the business include closing its “older, higher-cost” facility in Connell, Washington, which would reduce its total workforce by approximately four percent.

That means 375 workers will be out of a job, Fox Business reported. 

“We delivered first quarter financial results that were generally in line with our expectations, driven by sequentially improved volume performance, solid price/mix, and strict management of operating costs,” Werner said. “However, restaurant traffic and frozen potato demand, relative to supply, continue to be soft, and we believe it will remain soft through the remainder of fiscal 2025.” Click here to read more.

 

LANSING, Mich - Michigan lawmakers are expected to pass bills this week that would take money from people who care for their disabled loved ones and turn it over to the Service Employees International Union. But home health care providers will have ways to defend their constitutional rights, thanks to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Even if Michigan enacts two dues skim bills currently in the state House, caregivers who do not wish to pay the union will have the right not to do so, Patrick Wright, vice president of legal affairs at Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Senate Bill 790, introduced by Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-St. Clair Shores, and Senate Bill 791, introduced by Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, would resurrect an SEIU scheme to take union dues from home health providers’ paychecks. The two bills passed the Senate in June and are expected to get a House vote this week. Click here to read more.

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Saline, Michigan – School officials at the Saline School District are attributing a recent drop in student test scores to changes in the testing algorithm, sparking criticism from parents and education experts who question whether the blame is being placed in the right direction.

During the latest school board meeting, district administrators explained that the dip in scores was largely the result of adjustments made to the algorithm used to evaluate state standardized tests. They argued that these changes had skewed the results, making it appear as though students were performing worse than they actually were.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. — A University of Kansas professor is on administrative leave after a viral clip circulating social media Wednesday showed him calling for men who refuse to vote for a female presidential candidate to be shot.

The professor in the clip appears to be addressing a lecture hall full of students. He bluntly tells the students that men who underestimate a woman’s ability to lead the country should be shot, arguing "they clearly don't understand the way the world works."

“It’s what frustrates me, there are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president,” he says. “We can line all those guys up and shoot them.”

The professor then adds, “Scratch that from the recording, I don’t want the dean hearing that I said that.” Click here to read more.

 

The FBI arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist organization and was plotting an election day attack targeting large crowds in the US, the justice department said.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest on Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with election day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

Tawhedi, who arrived in the US in September 2021, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan, officials said.

The arrest comes as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over the possibility of extremist violence on US soil, with its director, Christopher Wray, telling the Associated Press in August that he was “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once”. Click here to read more.

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SALEM, Ore. (KATU) — The Oregon DMV announced that more potential non-citizens were accidentally registered to vote by mistake.

The DMV released an "after-action report" at 3 p.m. Monday at Governor Tina Kotek’s request.

It reveals that 1,561 potential non-citizens were registered to vote through the DMV.

Last month, that number was believed to be just over 1,200.

Also, the agency says that its own policy stated that a birth certificate from the U.S. Territory of American Samoa was acceptable proof of citizenship, when in fact, it is not.

The DMV report says that the root of these issues lies in the agency's leadership and not staffers in field offices. Click here to read more.

 

CHICAGO, IL - Average spending per student in Chicago Public Schools has soared in recent years. In Fiscal Year 2022, instructional and operational spending per student came in at $15,274 and $24,132, respectively. In FY2018, those figures were $10,314 and $15,878, representing increases of 48% and 52%.

That dramatic increase in spending per student has not improved academic outcomes. In 2018, 25.1% of CPS 11th graders achieved or exceeded proficiency in reading on the SAT. For mathematics, 25.1% achieved or exceeded proficiency. By 2022, the numbers of students achieving or exceeding proficiency dropped to 21.0% in reading and to 20.5% in mathematics.

Instructional spending only includes activities directly related to interactions between students and teachers or the teaching of students. Operational spending includes instructional spending plus nearly all costs for overall operations in the school district.

The percentage of students who are “partially meeting,” proficiency standards on the SAT has increased as the number of students achieving proficiency has decreased. In 2018, only 33.6% and 43.2% of students partially met proficiency in ELA and math. By 2022, those figures had risen to 40.1% and 55.3%. Click here to read more.

 

BOSTON, MASS - U.S. hospitals charged nearly $120 million over five years for sex-change procedures performed on around 14,000 children, according to new data compiled by medical watchdog Do No Harm.

The first-of-its-kind database, which logs sex-change procedures given to children nationwide between 2019 and 2023, catalogs a total of 5,747 minors who underwent sex-change surgeries, along with 8,579 who obtained puberty blockers or cross sex hormones.

Do No Harm believes the problem is likely even bigger than the data shows. The numbers, which are drawn from insurance claims data across all 50 states, do not include self-pay, charity payments, internal Veterans Affairs claims or patients covered by Kaiser Health Plans.

To create its dataset, the watchdog group matched gender-related diagnosis codes with codes for procedures related to gender transitions, such as body modification surgeries, cross sex hormones and puberty blockers. Click here to read more.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF - Vice President Kamala Harris said in a Monday interview with 60 Minutes that she owns a Glock pistol, but she advocated and currently advocates for gun control measures that would ban or heavily restrict the very pistol she owns.

Despite Harris’ ownership, she advocated for Proposition H, a total handgun ban in San Francisco in 2005 when she was district attorney for the city, and currently backs bans on “high-capacity” magazines and “assault weapons,” according to her campaign website. Glocks can accept magazines that hold well over 10 rounds. If Harris owned a standard issue magazine for a large range of Glock’s pistol offerings, it could land her a misdemeanor and up to a year in prison in her home state, according to the California Penal Code.

The magazine capacity on many Glock pistols would not only be banned under her past legislative records and potentially be banned under her current proposals, but would be designated as “unsafe” under California law since Glocks do not have the required loaded chamber indicator and magazine disconnect, according to The Reload. Click here to read more.

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Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress last month that it had $4 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, officials also warned that the Fund could have a shortfall of $6 billion by year’s end, a situation FEMA says could deteriorate in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

While FEMA is expected to ask Congress for new money, budget experts note a surprising fact: FEMA is currently sitting on untapped reserves appropriated for past disasters stretching back decades. 

An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General noted that in 2022, FEMA “estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open.” 

Drilling down on that data, the OIG found that $8.3 billion of that total was for disasters declared in 2012 or earlier.

Such developments are part of a larger pattern in which FEMA failed to close out specific grant programs “within a certain timeframe, known as the period of performance (POP),” according to the IG report. Those projects now represent billions in unliquidated appropriations that could potentially be returned to the DRF (Disaster Relief Fund).” Click here to read more.