Healthcare Fraud, Lovebug Swarm, & How to Heal Heartbreak

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Adam Rogers
July 01, 2025

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The Justice Department charged 324 people in a record $14.6 billion healthcare fraud takedown.

Federal and state prosecutors charged defendants, including 96 medical professionals, in the largest healthcare fraud crackdown in Justice Department history. The alleged schemes involved $14.6 billion in fraudulent claims - more than twice the previous record - and targeted Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. Authorities seized $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, and cryptocurrency in the nationwide operation.
Sophisticated international crime rings used stolen American identities and fake companies to file fraudulent claims. The largest case, a $10.6 billion urinary catheter scheme, involved over a million stolen identities across all 50 states. Authorities made arrests in Estonia and at US airports as defendants attempted to flee. Other scams used AI to generate fake patient consent recordings and exploited addiction treatment centers that served homeless and Native American populations.
The crackdown prevented over $4 billion in fraudulent payments from being made and led to the suspension of 205 healthcare providers' billing privileges. The Justice Department also announced the creation of a new Healthcare Fraud Data Fusion Center using AI and advanced analytics to detect emerging schemes before they can steal taxpayer money.

The WNBA announced expansion to 18 teams in the next 5 years.

The league will grow from 13 to 18 teams over the next five years in its largest expansion ever, with Cleveland joining in 2028, Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030. Toronto and Portland enter next year. Each new franchise paid a record $250 million expansion fee, compared to around $50 million that Golden State paid in 2019.
The expansion is driven by rising attendance, television ratings, and sponsorships across recent seasons. "The demand for women's basketball has never been higher," said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, noting that numerous other cities, including Houston, Miami, Denver, and Charlotte, also bid for teams. The three teams announced Monday all have NBA ownership groups.
Cleveland and Detroit are returning to markets where WNBA teams previously folded, and the owners are considering reviving the Rockers and Shock names. Philadelphia plans to build a new arena by 2030, while Cleveland and Detroit will use existing NBA facilities. The expansion marks a huge turnaround from just over a decade ago, when teams were closing doors due to a lack of interest.

Elon Musk threatened to primary Republicans who support Trump's massive spending bill.

Musk, who spent $290 million backing Trump in 2024, attacked Trump's legislation that would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion while cutting clean energy subsidies and expanding tax breaks for fossil fuels. "Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history" will "lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth," Musk wrote.
Musk opposes the bill partly because it would eliminate federal subsidies for solar projects after 2027, hurting Tesla's energy division. He also called the legislation a "DEBT SLAVERY bill," objecting to what he sees as massive government spending that undermines his role leading Trump's cost-cutting efforts at DOGE.
The bill faces a narrow path to passage, with Republicans holding only a slim Senate majority and needing nearly unanimous support. Senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis already plan to vote against it, while Alaska's Lisa Murkowski remains undecided. The Senate held marathon voting sessions lasting over 10 hours last night as Republicans scrambled to secure enough votes. The House must vote again if it passes.

President Trump announced plans for a temporary pass program allowing certain immigrant farmworkers to stay and pay taxes, marking a significant shift from strict deportation enforcement in agricultural industries nationwide. (More)

Southern California's Wolf Fire has spread to 1,400 acres with only 10% containment, prompting evacuations and highway impacts as 300 personnel and four helicopters battle the rapidly growing blaze. (More)

The Trump administration sued Los Angeles over immigration policies, claiming the city's sanctuary laws discriminate against federal law enforcement and obstruct deportation efforts. (More)

Spain and Portugal set heat records over the weekend as dangerous temperatures above 100 degrees spread eastward across Europe, making this potentially one of the continent's hottest Junes ever recorded. (More)

Seoul residents are dealing with massive swarms of "lovebugs" invading hiking trails and urban areas as higher temperatures drive the insects northward from subtropical regions. (More)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rescinded plans to tax US technology firms on Sunday, prompting President Trump to resume trade talks after threatening to suspend negotiations. (More)

US stock markets closed higher on Monday (S&P +0.52%, Nasdaq +0.47%, Dow +0.63%). All three indices finished the second quarter with strong gains, with the S&P 500 adding more than 10%, the Nasdaq rising nearly 18% and the Dow up almost 5%. (More)

Home Depot is buying building products distributor GMS for approximately $4.3 billion to increase sales from contractors and home professionals. GMS shares jumped over 11% in Monday morning trading. (More)

Meta shares hit a record high of $747.90 on Monday, driven by investor excitement over the company's new AI superintelligence group amid fierce ongoing competition with key rivals OpenAI and Google. (More)

The Memphis Grizzlies and All-Star Jaren Jackson Jr. reportedly agreed to a five-year, $240 million maximum extension worth $48 million annually. (More)

Police launched a criminal investigation into Bob Vylan and Kneecap's Glastonbury performances Saturday after reviewing footage of comments potentially constituting hate crimes, including controversial chants of "death to the IDF." (More)

Jury deliberations began Monday in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial after six weeks of testimony about his alleged criminal enterprise. (More)

Apple is reportedly considering using OpenAI and Anthropic AI models to power its updated Siri instead of building in-house technology, after technical challenges delayed the AI-enabled assistant until 2026 or later. (More)

Scientists confirmed the discovery of Earth's oldest known rocks in northern Quebec, dating back 4.16 billion years to the Hadean eon, offering rare insights into our planet's earliest formation. (More)

UK researchers launched a $11.7 million project to write artificial human DNA from scratch, hoping to transform understanding of health and disease despite ethical concerns about designer babies. (More)

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