21,000% spike in MA vape seizures throws cigarette ban into question, ex-ATF official says
After Massachusetts authorities released a report showing a sharp rise in flavored cigarette and vape seizures under a recent bipartisan statewide ban, a former ATF official and a network of law enforcement veterans specializing in contraband called into question why the ban remains. An annual multi-agency report from the Bay State’s Illegal Tobacco Task Force showed vape seizures up by more than 200,000 – largely due to large-scale seizures – since 2023, while smokeless tobacco and standard cigarette seizures were down. Calculations by the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network found that Massachusetts police seized 279,432 vape units in fiscal year 2024, up from about 1,300 the year prior. Former New York City Sheriff Edgar Domenech, who is also a former ATF official who focused on tobacco and related contraband, told Fox News Digital the findings showed the illegal vape market is “exploding,” and that when the Bay State became the first to outlaw flavored tobacco, it was a clarion call for cartels and smugglers to say, “[we’re] open for business.” MIGRANT CRISIS ROILS BOSTON AREA AS SCHOOL STANDS FIRM ON RESIDENCY POLICY “A 21,000 percent increase in smuggling proves once and for all that the Massachusetts flavor ban experiment has been an embarrassing catastrophe,” said Domenech, who had been appointed to his Big Apple post by then-Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg and now works with Georgetown University. “They are spending so much time seizing so much product they literally can’t find a place to store the contraband,” he said. While the rule of law is important, sometimes new laws themselves may need revisiting, he suggested. Without the ability to levy taxes on what is now an illegal product that remains ubiquitous elsewhere in New England, bordering states like New Hampshire – less than an hour from Boston – seek to reap the tax benefits of Massachusetts’ ban as customers go a little out of their way to buy their products, he said. Prohibiting adult products like vapes “never works,” Domenech added. “It moves sales out of the stores and into the streets.” RAMASWAMY MOCKS MASS GOVERNOR’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT STANCE AFTER FLIP: ‘NOW ACCEPTABLE TO COMPLAIN’ In January, Boston police in the Drug Control Unit arrested a 58-year-old Dorchester man as part of a raid that netted 50 grams of crack and 700 packages of “illegally possessed unstamped menthol cigarettes.” The man, Parrish Jones, was charged with trafficking cigarettes. Separately, a Hopkinton man was arrested in June for allegedly failing to pay nearly $500,000 in excise taxes after he allegedly sought out-of-state distributors in order to market vape-type products, according to FOX Boston. The ban itself went into effect in December 2019, as the Massachusetts Public Health Council enacted new sales restrictions on vapes and flavored tobacco. The panel was able to do so after then-Gov. Charles Baker – a Republican – signed a bill from the Democratic legislature “modernizing tobacco control.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP More recently, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office filed a complaint against a vape company in 2024 for allegedly ignoring the flavored tobacco ban. The office previously sued several other companies as well, according to a statement. In November, several Massachusetts lawmakers announced plans to file legislation this year to phase out all tobacco and nicotine sales in the state, beginning with those Bay Staters who are currently underage to begin with. Sen. Jason Lewis, D-Middlesex, Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian, D-Melrose, and Rep. Tommy Vitolo, D-Brookline, are collaborating on the bill, according to NBC Boston. Fox News Digital reached out to the AG’s office for further response but did not hear back by press time.
FL spent $660M on healthcare for illegals as hospitals ordered to verify legal status, report shows
New data collected by the state of Florida shows that illegal immigrants cost the Sunshine State’s healthcare system nearly $660 million in 2024. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) announced the latest update to its Hospital Patient Immigration Status Dashboard Tuesday, which records the total number of hospital admissions and emergency room visits based on a patient’s immigration status. The data for 2024 showed a total of 67,700 emergency room visits were made by patients who illegally entered the country, leading to roughly $76.6 million in Medicaid payments for their emergency care. In total, the state paid nearly $660 million for the cost of care provided to immigrants inside the U.S. illegally. PROBATION REFORM MODELED AFTER JAY-Z, DESANTIS EFFORTS PRIMED FOR PASSAGE IN VA “The Agency remains dedicated to fulfilling Governor Desantis’ commitment to protecting taxpayer dollars from being used on individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States,” AHCA Deputy Secretary Kim Smoak said. “The data confirms that the financial burden of illegal immigration continues to strain Florida’s healthcare system. We will continue working to ensure that hospitals and healthcare providers deliver quality services to U.S. citizens.” The county paying the most, according to the AHCA dashboard, is Miami-Dade County, which forked over $282 million to pay for the health services of illegal immigrants in 2024. Neighboring Broward County – anchored by Fort Lauderdale – clocked in at $77 million, Hillsborough County (Tampa) at $64 million, Orange County (Orlando) at $38 million and Duval County (Jacksonville) at $34 million. Several counties, particularly around the Big Bend region, do not have any hospitals, so they did not have any costs to report. DESANTIS CITES ‘GULF OF AMERICA’ IN WINTER STORM ORDER IN FIRST NOTATION OF TRUMP REBRANDING Meanwhile, some major hospitals reportedly saw a large proportion of their ER patients refuse to answer the citizenship question outright. Nearly two-thirds of patients seen at Tampa General Hospital-Spring Hill declined to answer in the first three months of 2024, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Similarly, near St. Augustine, Flagler Hospital reported 96% of its 36,000 ER patients declined to notate on the citizenship question, the paper reported. In 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration in the Sunshine State that presented an immigration question to patients at hospitals that accept Medicaid. While they are not forced to answer it, the move led to a 54% decline in Medicaid billings to a state program for undocumented immigrants’ medical assistance, according to Politico. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Melbourne, who co-sponsored the immigration legislation package that led to hospitals cataloging such data, said last year $500 million had been spent on healthcare for “people who should not be in the United States.” “That’s half a billion dollars stolen from real Floridians,” he told WLRN. In January, President Donald Trump also removed hospitals from a list of places immune to ICE activity.
Longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen not seeking re-election in 2026 in key northeastern swing state
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire is the latest Democrat in the Senate to announce her retirement rather than seek re-election in the 2026 midterms. The Wednesday announcement by the former governor and three-term senator in a key New England swing state will further complicate the Democrats’ efforts to regain control of the Senate from the Republicans in next year’s elections. “I ran for public office to make a difference for the people of New Hampshire,” Shaheen said. “That purpose has never and will never change. But today, after careful consideration, I am announcing that I have made the difficult decision not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2026.” Shaheen, who turned 78 earlier this year, added that “it’s just time.” There was intense speculation regarding whether Shaheen, who first won election to the Senate in 2008 and who this year became the first woman in history to hold one of the top two positions on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will seek another term in office. Shaheen raised a paltry $170,000 in the final fundraising quarter of 2024, which sparked buzz that the senator might not be preparing for another re-election campaign. But sources in Shaheen’s political orbit noted that the senator did not emphasize fundraising in the fourth quarter of last year, which included the final month of the 2024 presidential election. Fox News confirmed that Shaheen had a major fundraiser scheduled for March 20 in Manchester, New Hampshire. There’s no word yet on whether that event has been canceled. National Republicans see opportunities to flip the Senate seat in New Hampshire from blue to red, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee had already run ads targeting Shaheen over her defense of USAID funding that the Trump administration is axing. FORMER TRUMP AMBASSADOR EYES SENATE RETURN Former Sen. Scott Brown, the former senator from Massachusetts who later narrowly lost to Shaheen in New Hampshire in the 2014 election, is seriously considering a 2026 run, in a possible rematch against Shaheen. Brown, who served four years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during President Donald Trump’s first administration, has been holding meetings with Republicans across New Hampshire for a couple of months and has met with GOP officials in the nation’s capital. It has been 15 years since Republicans last won a Senate election in New Hampshire, with Democrats victorious in the past four elections. Republicans flipped four Democrat-held Senate seats in last November’s elections to win back control of the chamber. They now control the chamber and are aiming to expand their majority in 2026. Besides New Hampshire, the GOP is targeting battleground Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announced in January that he would not seek re-election. Also on their 2026 radar is Georgia, another key battleground state where Republicans view first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff as vulnerable. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota announced last month that she would not bid for another term in next year’s midterms, giving the GOP hope that it might be competitive in the blue-leaning state. But Republicans are also playing defense in the 2026 cycle. Democrats plan to go on offense in blue-leaning Maine, where moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election, as well as in battleground North Carolina, where Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is also up in 2026.
Federal judge appointed by Trump quits group over statement on threats
A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018 announced that he had resigned from the largest association of federal judges, decrying how the group issued a rare statement last week condemning recent alleged threats against judges but stayed quiet for years while conservative members of the judiciary faced scrutiny and attack. Judge James C. Ho, of the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, announced his departure from the Federal Judges Association during a speaking event Saturday hosted by the conservative Federalist Society at the University of Michigan Law School. It comes in response to the 1,100-member group issuing a statement on March 5 saying in part that “judges must be permitted to do their jobs without fear of violence or intimidation of any kind.” Trump and his allies have grown increasingly critical of judges who have blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and other aspects of the administration’s agenda, while DOGE leader Elon Musk last month called for an “immediate wave of judicial impeachments.” “I was very surprised by that statement. And the next morning, I sent an email to the organization saying that I wanted to resign,” Ho said of the Federal Judges Association. “I researched for myself, and I also asked the association if they ever issued any such statements when Justice Thomas received attacks, or Justice Alito. Justice Kavanaugh dealt with an assassination attempt. We’ve had federal district judges in Texas and in Florida – as well as, I’m sure, other states, but those are the ones that come to mind immediately – all faced the kinds of things that that statement was complaining about and more. Did we see these statements in 2024 or 2023 or 2022? From what I can tell, no.” WHO IS JUDGE AMIR ALI? THE BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S USAID BATTLE “You can’t say that you’re in favor of judicial independence only when it comes to decisions that you like. That’s not protecting the judiciary, that’s politicizing the judiciary,” Ho said, arguing that such statements actually harm the cause they try to further. “Because one of two things turns out to be true when you’re selective in this way. And either of these options, I think, is a bad thing. Option number one is that you’re basically lying, that you actually don’t care about this principle because you didn’t stand up for it when the shoe was on the other foot, and so you’re telling the world essentially we’re not seriously committed to judicial independence.” “The alternative is perhaps even worse, which is that you are telling the truth – you do care about this, this principle, whether it’s judicial independence or free speech. I think this concept applies to a lot of things,” Ho continued. “If you’re telling the truth, you really care about this principle, but there are just some people who have views that are so anathema to you that you don’t think they are worthy of this principle that you expound on.” “And so what you may think is a statement born of righteousness I think is perceived by a lot of people as merely sanctimonious,” he concluded. Fox News Digital reached out to the Federal Judges Association for comment, but they did not immediately respond. JUDGE RULES DOGE LIKELY SUBJECT TO PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS, SAYS DEPARTMENT OPERATING IN ‘UNUSUAL SECRECY’ The president of the Federal Judges Association, U.S. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, wrote in an email to members last week that the “judiciary faces growing threats, including violence, intimidation, disinformation, and unprecedented impeachments that challenge its independence,” according to Reuters. The Federal Judges Association then released a lengthier public statement the next day that did not elaborate on specific threats against specific judges. It began by saying that “recent events are a clear and urgent reminder that federal judges play a crucial role in upholding our democracy as guardians of the rule of law.” “In the history of our Republic, there has always been tension between the three separate and equal branches of the federal government, including criticism of judicial interpretations. The FJA strives to ensure that accurate information is shared with all American citizens regarding the role of the judiciary as defined in the U.S. Constitution: to impartially interpret the laws that have been created by the U.S. Congress and enforced by the Executive branch,” the group said. “Specific decisions issued by judges are not formed from individual opinions, but rather are prepared against evaluation of what the ‘laws on the books’ require.” The group commended those, including Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, “who have commented recently on the rise in criticism, threats and violence aimed at members of the judiciary.” “Irresponsible rhetoric shrouded in disinformation undermines the public’s confidence that our justice system can fulfill its constitutional duties,” the statement said. “The security of federal judges and all those serving in the judicial branch of our government is fundamental to their ability to uphold the rule of law, and to fulfill their constitutional duty without fear or undue influence. Any erosion in the independence of the judiciary is a threat to our Constitution and to democratic rule of law. Ensuring judicial security is not just about protecting individuals, it is about preserving the integrity of our legal system and the public’s trust in an impartial judiciary.”
SHOCKING! Mumbai hospital where Saif Ali Khan was treated after attack meets unexpected ‘black magic’ twist amid…
Soon after Mumbai’s renowned Lilavati Hospital made headlines due to an alleged misappropriation of Rs 1,200 crores, the authorities of the premier healthcare facility claimed that “black magic” was performed on the premises of the hospital.
IMD predicts rainfall, thunderstorms in THESE 18 states across India as cyclones approach from Iraq, Bangladesh
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued rainfall alerts for 18 states including Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab and Haryana amid cyclones originating from Iraq and neighbouring Bangladesh.
Delhi Metro: DMRC to start services from this time on Holi 2025; check details
Delhi metro services will not be available until this time on all Delhi Metro lines, including the Airport Express Line.
How state lawmakers are trying to crack down on illegal immigration
From requiring law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal officials to forcing state contractors to use E-Verify to spot undocumented workers, here are the bills that could reshape the state’s immigration policies.
Two Texans in Congress defend CHIPS Act in the face of Trump’s criticism
Although the president has said he wants to “get rid of” the act, Rep. Michael McCaul and Sen. John Cornyn say it supports jobs and national security.
GOP lawmaker calls trans Dem ‘Mr. McBride,’ abruptly ends hearing after ultimatum from another Dem
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, abruptly adjourned a congressional hearing on Tuesday after Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., vehemently objected to Self recognizing Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., as “the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride.” McBride, who identifies as a transgender woman, responded to Self — who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Europe Subcommittee — by saying, “Thank you Madam chair.” As McBride sought to continue speaking, ranking member Keating interrupted, asking Self, “could you repeat your introduction again please?” HOUSE REPUBLICAN INTRODUCES TRANSGENDER LAWMAKER AS ‘THE GENTLEMAN … MR. MCBRIDE’ FOR FLOOR SPEECH “Ah, yes,” Self replied, adding, “we have set the standard on the” House floor. “What is that standard Mr. Chairman?” Keating questioned, before again asking Self to repeat what he had said when introducing McBride. “I will,” Self replied. “The representative from Delaware Mr. McBride,” Self repeated. “Mr. Chairman you are out of order,” Keating declared. “Mr. Chairman, have you no decency?” he asked, going on to say “this is not decent.” Self said they would continue the hearing. “You will not continue it with me unless you introduce a duly-elected representative the right way!” Keating declared. In response to the ultimatum, Self announced, “This hearing is adjourned.” GOP LAWMAKER SCRAPS WITH DEMOCRAT IN HEARING OVER TRANSGENDER ‘SLUR,’ BATHROOM RIGHTS: ‘NOT GOING TO HAVE IT’ Last month Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., recognized McBride for a House floor speech by saying, “The chair recognizes the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride, for five minutes.” In a tweet after the episode on Tuesday, Miller sided with Self, saying that Self “is right to state the biological reality that Tim ‘Sarah’ McBride is a man. Enough with the lies. As God ordained and President Trump declared, there are only TWO GENDERS: Male and Female!” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said in a post on Tuesday, “You know what’s indecent? A mentally ill man pretending to be a woman. Biology. Science. The Left should try it some time(sic).” AFTER DECLINING TO STATE WHETHER TRANS REP-ELECT IS A MAN OR WOMAN, JOHNSON SAYS ‘A MAN CANNOT BECOME A WOMAN’ CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP McBride stated in a Tuesday post on X, “No matter how I’m treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress. It is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place.”