Names That Make Me Giggle

 6/22/26 CBS News:

Washington — A federal judge on Monday ruled the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it created a centralized database that contains Americans' private information, which she said has since been used by some states to incorrectly remove U.S. citizens from their voter rolls.

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., sided with a voting rights group and nonprofit that works to protect privacy in finding that the administration violated three different laws with its new system that includes Americans' citizenship data. [emphasis added]

Yes. Sparkle. Aside from the question as to whether the Administration violated the law to allow states to verify citizenship, the name alone makes me giggle. Look, a lot of silly names came out of the 1960s and 1970s. A friend had a classmate who had to bring in his birth certificate to show that his middle name was 

 

But I think I would have changed my name rather than sound like I forgot to stop using my stripper stage name. I speak as someone whose first and last names seem to be unspellable by some.

 

DOGE is Still Busy

Not much discussion since Musk left but what he started is still busy. The sheer volume of stuff is amazing. Not multibillion savings but add them all together and they add up to a lot. A professional services contract for a national health advisor in Senegal for $524K. I would love to know how much eventful ends up in Virginia. 

A Billion Here, Another Billion There

After yesterday's coverage. 6/22/26 Fox News:

A fugitive accused of helping mastermind a $3.7 billion Medicare fraud scheme — one of the largest in U.S. history — is in American custody after authorities tracked him down in Turkey and flew him back to the U.S. to face charges, the FBI announced Monday..

It used to be an article of faith on the left that we would have enough money to take care of every poor person if we were not wasting it on the military.  I wonder if we could take care of every poor American if so much of the budget was not being stolen, often by non-citizens. 

Only a billion if you round. 6/19/26 Houston Chronicle:

A nurse practitioner from Nevada has been charged with multiple federal felonies after being accused of using clinics in the Houston area to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare.

Marizel Yukee, of Las Vegas, was indicted Thursday on federal Medicare fraud charges. Yukee is accused of working with others to defraud terminally ill people by providing them with unnecessary treatments and then billing the government for their care.

The Blazing World: Full of Amazing Stories

P. 361 tells how Edmund Halley calculated the total acreage of England at the close of the 17th century. He took the most recent map of England, cut it out and weighed it.  Then he cut out a circle at the center of the map and weighed it. The area of that circle adjusted by relative weights gave a pretty accurate total acreage. Yes, mountains works render this imprecise until you consider how few mountains England has 

Curious Educational Services Company CEO Indicted; LA Schools Chief Resigns

6/22/26 KABC:

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District resigned Sunday night, nearly four months after the FBI served search warrants at his home and the LAUSD's headquarters as part of an ongoing investigation.

An LAUSD spokesperson confirmed to Eyewitness News that the district received a letter of resignation from Carvalho...

On Feb. 27, two days after the FBI conducted searches at Carvalho's home and LAUSD offices, the district's Board of Education voted unanimously to place him on leave pending the outcome of the probe.

"Mr. Carvalho remains confident that the evidence will ultimately demonstrate that he acted appropriately and in the best interests of students," said a statement released in March, attributed to a spokesperson for Carvalho. "We hope the school board reinstates him promptly to his position as superintendent."

Authorities have not charged Carvalho with any crimes.

The FBI also searched a third location near Miami. The Miami Herald reported the Florida property belonged to Debra Kerr, who previously worked with AllHere, an education technology company that had a contract with Los Angeles schools before it collapsed and its leader was indicted for fraud.

 In 2024, Carvalho heavily touted a deal with AllHere for an AI chatbot named "Ed" designed to help students. But about three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere, which collapsed into bankruptcy. Months later, founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft.

At the time, Carvalho denied personal involvement in the selection of AllHere, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Do you wonder why Los Angeles city schools perform so much worse than the standard? Perhaps less money spent on "Ed" and more on "Education."

 

Paranoia? Or Has the CIA Found Common Ideology With the Denizens of the Deep?

6/18/26 The Hill:

(NewsNation) — China has alleged marine life is being weaponized by foreign intelligence agencies for espionage.

China’s Ministry of State Security released an article Friday on social media platform WeChat, saying an “invisible secret war” is ongoing.

 “In recent years, the work of national security organs has found that overseas spy intelligence agencies continue to collect and steal sensitive data from our ocean through a variety of new spy devices,” the ministry said. 

he article named a variety of measures allegedly taken by foreign agencies to collect information, such as buoys, unmanned submarines, wave gliders and marine life.

“Spy turtles” and “spy fish” are existing in the China sea, according to the ministry.

Have those Chinese fishing fleets devastating fisheries around the world caused those who identify as aquatic to make common cause with us?

Your Collection of College Hate Crime Hoaxes

 6/19/26 College Fix has a collection of college hate crime hoaxes. Among the more interesting stories: 1/16/26 College Fix:

A red cross and a reference to a 15th century French duke has caused an uproar at Northwestern University as LGBT students and professors fear for their safety.

Around Jan. 6, someone painted a “Cross of Burgundy” and wrote “CHARLES THE BOLD DUKE OF BURGUNDY 10 NOV 1433 — 5 JAN 1477” over a “trans flag” on campus. Students regularly paint over “The Rock” with various messages....

“It’s one thing to go repaint the entire rock white with a red (symbol) and take away the trans memorial,” Yarberry (pictured) told the student newspaper. “But to use the trans memorial as the backdrop for a symbol associated with Nazism and fascist ideologies, that is a very political statement.”

While Yarberry and others were painting over the X, “a student approached them and took responsibility for painting the cross.”

“[T]he student mostly defended the decision as solely expressing interest in the duke of Burgundy. The person did not identify themself,” the newspaper reported.

Yes, X is definitely a fascist symbol.  Remember these?

 

Kudos to the student sufficiently interested in history to do homage to a Duke of Burgundy. I suspect most Poison Ivy League students think this is about a wine.