Latest news with #CARES
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Bluefield woman pleads guilty to COVID-19 fraud scheme
BLUEFIELD, WV (WVNS) — A Bluefield woman pleaded guilty to a COVID-19 relief fraud scheme. According to a press release, 43-year-old April Elick, of Bluefield, pleaded guilty to the theft of government money on June 2, 2025. She obtained $84,000 in COVID-19 loans through the Small Business Association (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and used the funds for personal use. Elick is set to be sentenced on September 8, 2025, and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, three years probation, and a $250,000 fine. She owes $97,802.59 in restitution, as well. Court documents and statements made in court stated that Elick received two Paycheck Protection Program loans (PPP) amounting to $14,520 in April 2021, after stating that the money was for her home healthcare business to cover payrolls and other expenses. She received an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) amounting to $61,000 through the CARES Act in January 2022, and also increased the COVID-19 business loan by $8,700 in April 2022, the release stated. As part of her plea, Elick confessed that she knew she could use the proceeds only for things outlined in CARES Act programs, the release noted. Elick also stated that she used funds for personal expenses, such as withdrawing $30,560, an estimated $16,350 in digital wallet transfers, and $8,290.11 in purchases made in West Virginia, North Carolina, and Virginia. The CARES Act allowed for forgivable PPP loans to be used for eligible for impacted businesses and sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals, the release stated. It also approved the SBA to provide EIDL loans of up to $2 million for eligible small businesses that were experiencing substantial financial struggles. Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston released the announcement and applauded the work of the WorkForce West Virginia Integrity Section, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Inspector General (NASA OIG), the Litigation Financial Analyst with the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the West Virginia State Police — Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Honolulu City Council advances sewer fees bill
Mayor Rick Blangiardi administration's proposed 10-year, 115 % sewer fee rate increase that's expected to begin this summer has been countered by the Honolulu City Council. The Council's five-member Budget Committee voted 4-1 Tuesday, with Radiant Cordero dissenting, to approve passage of a committee draft of the city-initiated Bill 60. Budget Committee Chair Tyler Dos Santos-Tam's version of the measure, which shaves the city's decade-long span for increased rates down to about six years, will start Jan. 1, 2026 and run through 2031. Dos Santos-Tam's Bill 60 proposes sewer fee increases for a household that uses about 6, 000-gallons per month—deemed 50 % of all single-family households in Honolulu—equates to a 6 % increase in sewer fees in fiscal year 2026, 7.5 % in fiscal year 2027, 8.5 % in fiscal year 2028, followed by 9 % over the remaining three fiscal years. If adopted, Bill 60 would see a 60 % base charge—a fixed monthly fee—and a 40 % volumetric charge, or fees based on monthly water usage. Currently, city and county sewer bills calculate a 70 % base charge—a fee of $77.55 for all single-family homes—and a 30 % volumetric rate, which is applied equally for every 1, 000 gallons used, the city Department of Environmental Services states. ENV indicates that a household using 6, 000 gallons per month pays $99.77—with the base of $77.55 plus $22.22 for the volumetric rate. Dos Santos-Tam's version of Bill 60 also will align with ENV's 6-year capital improvement projects plan. 'So we can get through a full CIP cycle, ' he added. 'And then we can deal with what happens in the out years thereafter.' Under Dos Santos-Tam's Bill 60, the budget committee voted to allow 'rule-making authority ' for ENV to set up a program called Customer Assistance for Residential Environmental Services, or CARES, to help with 'affordability and equity ' of increased sewer fee rates. Sewer customers who qualify based on household income of less than 80 % area median income will be eligible for a $20 to $25 credit on their monthly base fee. The program will be funded at $10 million per year. Customers will have to apply for the program to prove eligibility and then be re-verified every six months, ENV states. Bill 60 is scheduled to return for a third and final reading before the full Council on June 4. In October, ENV initially proposed to increase sewer fees annually for the next 10 years—by 9 % over the first six years, followed by smaller annual increases of 8 %, 7 %, 6 % and 5 % over the subsequent four years. But by April, ENV Director Roger Babcock presented to the Council's Budget Committee the so-called 6 % option—which sees sewer rates rise by 6 % on July 1. Those rates would increase by 7.5 % in 2027, 8.5 % in 2028, 9 % in the following four years, then rise by 8 %, 7.5 % and 7 % in the final three years, ending in 2035. City officials say proposed sewer fee hikes are necessary to support ongoing wastewater operations and maintenance efforts, as well as a $10.1 billion capital improvement program for Oahu's wastewater collection and treatment system that is planned through 2040. The fee hikes also will fund projects to prepare the city's wastewater infrastructure for climate change and sea-level rise, city officials say. And they assert the work includes a $2.5 billion upgrade to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant as required under a 2010 federal consent decree. Previously, Council Chair Tommy Waters—who does not sit on the budget committee—offered his version of Bill 60, a 6.75 % increase for the first five years, starting July 1. The initial increases would be followed by an 8.75 % increase for the next two years, then a decrease to 7.75 %, 6.75 % and 5.5 % over the remaining years, 'thereby creating savings, ' Waters said previously, adding instead of a 100 % increase over the decade, 'it would amount to approximately about a 70 % increase over 10 years.' But at Tuesday's hearing, Waters admitted his version of the bill was found to have calculation errors. 'We started from 2012 rather than 2016 … which is the last date that sewer increases took effect, ' he explained. During a presentation, ENV Director Roger Babcock highlighted that Waters' proposed Bill 60 in fiscal year 2026 would provide less revenues—about $397.5 million, a 13 % drop—compared with the city's current revenues of $457.03 million devoted to sewer funding. 'So that's a $60 million decrease, ' Babcock said, 'which would be very problematic for the program.' In contrast, Babcock noted the city's proposed 6 % option would provide $484.4 million in revenue needed to support required sewage system upgrades. Initially stating he'd resubmit a corrected version of his measure, Waters later backed Dos Santos-Tam's draft of Bill 60. Still, Waters noted households using 6, 000 gallons of water or less per month could see their sewer bills rise by over 61 %, from $99.77 per month to $160.85 per month. 'And those using 9, 000 gallons per month, which is the typical user—a family with two kids, a dog, maybe in-laws—that would go up from $110 to $204 ' per month, an over 85 % increase, said Waters. 'I mean that's really what we're voting on.' At the meeting, city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services Director Andy Kawano favored Dos Santos-Tam's measure as 'revenue calculations will meet our required minimums going forward through 10 years.' However, 'there could be an option, if it's more palatable for Council members, to truncate the (10-year ) term to five to seven years, that's possible, ' Kawano claimed. 'If we do that, we would meet our required minimums for every year, for one through five or one through seven, depending on what Council members decide.' Ways to defray the overall cost of the city's wastewater operations also were touched on at the meeting. During public testimony, Frank Doyle, a former city and county ENV director, testified the Council and city should work together to end the 2010 federally-mandated consent decree that included upgrading the island's sewage treatment plants to 'secondary treatment.' Although secondary treatment does not make the water drinkable, it does turn it into recycled water that can be used for things like landscaping, city officials say. 'Since entering the consent decree the city has spent billions of dollars for improvements of our wastewater system, and has essentially completed almost all of the requirements of the decree except for the one, largest project—a $2.5 billion (secondary treatment ) project for Sand Island, ' Doyle said. 'If secondary treatment was required at Sand Island (Wastewater Treatment Plant ) in 2010—because it really holds some significant public health or environmental concern—that project would have been prioritized immediately.' 'Instead, it comes in last, not needed until 2030, ' he said, adding no real public health concern occurred in 2010. 'And there isn't any today.' Doyle requested the Council 'urge the administration to continue to pursue a discussion with EPA ' on the consent decree. 'And if the administration doesn't want to do it, the Council should do it, ' he added. In 2010 the negotiated consent decree included three phases and a 25-year implementation schedule, the city says. According to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the work was meant to reduce the public health risk caused by exposure to pathogens in raw sewage and the amount of harmful pollutants affecting the island's marine environment. At the time, overflows caused millions of gallons of untreated sewage to be discharged into water off Oahu. The city had to pay a total fine of $1.6 million to be split between the federal government and state to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act and Hawaii's water pollution law, the EPA states. Those violating acts included the March 24, 2006, Beachwalk force main break which spilled about 50 million gallons of sewage into the Ala Wai Canal, according to the EPA. For his part, Waters stated 'as a Council, we've asked the administration to discuss with the EPA removing the need for secondary treatment or extending the term of the consent decree.' 'We need to extend the sewer fees, but not for the full 10 years, as requested, ' he added, 'to give us time to work with the EPA and find alternatives to funding the wastewater system.'
New York Post
19-05-2025
- New York Post
NYC's child services agency keeps cases secret due to state loophole, but investigators say it's time for a change
The Big Apple's beleaguered child service agency is able to keep its records secret because of a state loophole — but fed-up city investigators are now backing a bill that would force them to loosen their grip on their closely guarded books. Department of Investigation officials said they have been blocked from reviewing at least a dozen child neglect or abuse cases handled by the Administration for Children's Services since 2023 that raised 'red flags,' all because state law keeps the files sealed — regardless of the consequences for battered children. Most troubling are abuse claims deemed 'unfounded' by ACS with no explanation or scrutiny. 'If one of the unfounded rulings was flawed in some way, we have no insight into that whatsoever,' DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber told The Post. 'We need [the state Office of Children and Family Services] to get approval, so we have to tell them what it is we want and if they ask why we want them, we have to tell them. 3 New York State Social Services Law largely shields ACS from the city's Department of Investigation. William Farrington 'That is not typically how independent oversight works,' she said. 'You don't typically want the entities that you are overseeing [to have] access into what you are investigating.' The Post reported earlier this month that at least seven children died under the lax supervision of ACS caseworkers in the past year, with staffers encouraged to keep children in potentially abusive homes and offer troubled families services rather than launching investigations that could save young lives. The tragic tots were as young as one month when they met horrific ends. Cases included several kids who starved to death inside homes where ACS either returned them to their parents or were allowed to remain despite allegations of mistreatment, the report found. 3 The Post revealed on May 5 how at least 7 children died in abusive homes while unfer ACS supervision. The soft approach by ACS is based on an initiative adopted by the agency in recent years known as CARES, or Collaborative Assessment, Response, Engagement and Support. 'There's been a lot about this program called CARES,' Strauber said, 'but as of now we don't have access. This is yet another blind spot. 'We won't be able to evaluate if that program is working the way it is supposed to work,' she added. 'Obviously there are unique interests with the privacy of families, but in our view when there's a risk to children there should be transparency and oversight. 'What we are really focused on is the systemic issues. We are not looking to re-traumatize these families.' New York State Social Services Law shields ACS from outside scrutiny — even if the agency goofed by not removing a child from an abusive home or launching an investigation into the parents. DOI officials are looking for help from Albany, and are backing a bill introduced this month by state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesy (D-Queens) that looks to remove the ACS blinders. 3 New York State Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi is sponsoring a bill to increase scrutiny of the city child services agency. Hans Pennink 'Even though child fatality cases known to ACS have declined 18% within the last decade, out of an abundance of caution this bill will provide the professionals from the NYD Department of Investigation access to confidential records to assist in their investigations,' Hevesi said. The bill would allow more scrutiny of child fatalities and incidents inside juvenile detention facilities — but it has yet to find a required sponsor in the state senate. In a statement to The Post on Monday, a spokesperson for ACS said the agency 'look[s] forward to further discussions about the bill,' and addressed the DOI push for more access. 'ACS is committed to transparency, and we appreciate the important oversight role of DOI,' they said.
New York Post
14-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Insiders reveal why ACS decided to leave kids in hands of abusive parents
'Pathetic.' That's how Kevin O'Connor describes the response from Administration for Children's Services Commissioner Jess Dannhauser in The Post last week to accusations that his agency is prioritizing progressive ideology over children's safety. O'Connor, a 35-year NYPD veteran who retired two years ago, knows whereof he speaks. His whole career — rising from a school cop in Hell's Kitchen to the Bronx Juvenile Crime Squad to assistant commissioner for youth strategies — has been devoted to serving the vulnerable kids of this city. Advertisement O'Connor tells me, 'ACS is a complete disaster. There is no accountability by the administration whatsoever.' O'Connor points to two developments in particular that have set ACS on its unfortunate path. First, 'they destroyed ACS when they went to Family Assessment.' Advertisement The Family Assessment Program (FAP) is, according to the state Office of Children and Family Services, 'a non-investigative, family-centered approach to addressing some reports of child maltreatment.' Rather than take seriously claims of child abuse and neglect, agencies like ACS shift what they see as the less serious problems and then move them onto this more cooperative track. 3 Nazir Millien, 8, special needs child, who died of neglect. Obtained by NY Post Unfortunately, many caseworkers have no way of knowing what is serious or not based on a single report, and without a real investigation they may never find out. Beginning of the end Advertisement This shift happened before the Adams administration, and it's a practice that has been adopted in other jurisdictions as well. But O'Connor says this move in New York to offer families voluntary services instead of having official investigations with actual consequences for those who failed to comply was the beginning of the end. The CARES program, instituted by the most recent administration, has pushed an even larger percentage of families into the voluntary services track. Advertisement The assumption of the program is that what families mainly need are material resources — housing, assistance with utility bills, access to food — but most families in the system are already receiving public assistance. Their problems generally stem from substance abuse and/or mental illness, as the recent spate of fatalities in families known to ACS demonstrates. Under FAP, ACS has also been reluctant to use PINS (person in need of supervision) warrants. Typically, when a parent (often a single mother or grandmother) would find themselves with a kid who was out of control, ACS would get a warrant. Then the NYPD would bring that child in front of a judge who would 'put them on notice or mandate services or rules for the child. The program, says O'Connor, 'empowered parents' and allowed them to get their kids under control. But now ACS's strategy for dealing with juvenile delinquency is just to pretend it doesn't exist. Take, for instance, the Children's Center, which is designated as a temporary shelter for kids who have been removed from their families. It is not supposed to be a juvenile detention facility, but O'Connor says that ACS is regularly putting kids there who need to be in a secured environment. The Kips Bay neighborhood where it's located is traditionally one of the city's safest, but juvenile robbery rates skyrocket periodically when ACS doesn't have anywhere else to put young lawbreakers. And the lack of space is becoming a bigger problem in recent years. Because of the 'raise the age' law, more and more adults are taking up space in juvenile facilities — 60% are over 18 in New York's two facilities, according to O'Connor. Advertisement 3 De'Neil Timberlake, 5, OD'd on methadone in The Bronx. Instead of moving those who are adults into adult jails, though, we have overcrowded and more dangerous juvenile institutions. ACS used to cooperate with the NYPD, says O'Connor. If the police suspected a child was becoming increasingly out of control and the parents weren't willing or able to help, the police would ask ACS to get involved. The case could end up in family court, and the kid would be removed if necessary. Today, says O'Connor, the family is just offered services to work through the issue on their own. Dismantled protections Advertisement Shortly before he retired, three preteen boys raped a 9-year-old girl on the roof of the Taft Houses. The police made the arrest, but the boys' case was handled in family court. Now, says O'Connor, the police have no role at all thanks to a change in the law that bars the arrest and prosecution of anyone under 12 for any crime other than homicide. Today, those boys' families would simply be offered services by ACS. But what are the parents going to do at that point? Advertisement 'You think those boys are being raised properly?' O'Connor asks. 'We have dismantled the system designed to protect kids.' And why? James Osgood was able to get a firsthand view of the ideological pressure that has pushed ACS down this road. Osgood was the executive officer at the Brooklyn Child Abuse Squad and an investigative consultant supervisor at ACS from 2007 to 2018. Advertisement 'Their priorities are keeping the family together,' he tells me in no uncertain terms. 'I've been to meetings where caseworkers were discouraged from removing children of color because removed children are at greater risk for being involved in the system as adults.' Shortly after the riots in Ferguson, Mo., Osgood says, ACS hosted a guest speaker from that city who said the fact that black children are removed to foster care at higher rates is actually the reason for the higher rates of black incarceration. And then the speaker told the assembled ACS employees that 'more white children should be removed introduced into the system to even out the black/white population in prisons.' As Osgood said, 'you can't make this up.' Osgood was told before the meeting 'to be quiet.' 'Mind-boggling' O'Connor finds the idea that ACS is making policies that prioritize keeping black children in dangerous homes because of racism to be 'mind-boggling.' He wonders: 'Does anyone care that a black child was murdered?' He says that he has worked his entire career in minority communities. He just attended the wake of a mother who lost two boys to gun violence. 'Do you think I care what color their skin is?' he added. 3 Jelayah Eason Branch, 6, beaten to death in The Bronx. Osgood was among the first hired by ACS as part of a partnership with the NYPD. And while most of the caseworkers they worked alongside appreciated them, the managers did not. He often spoke to caseworkers to help them understand how to ask the right questions, how to tell whether family members were lying, and how to stay safe in dangerous situations. 'I had over 20 years of experience,' Osgood said. 'I could walk into an apartment right away and tell what was going on.' He and his colleagues also did database and background checks about families being investigated. As former members of the NYPD, they were able to access information about families that caseworkers may not have. For instance, if a child had previously reported abuse but then recanted, that would be in a police record, but ACS would have no knowledge of it. The caseworkers wanted these partnerships, but management was less keen on them. Osgood says that since COVID, these investigative consultants work from home 40% of the time, doing background checks and other desk work instead of helping out in the field where they are most needed. His former colleagues at ACS, meanwhile, 'are overworked,' he says. They are 'trying not to open cases,' because that will only add to the load. They are 'burnt out after two or three years,' partly because they don't feel like they are making a difference. He tells them to become police officers instead. 'You can do a lot more good as police officers. You can go into the special victims unit,' he would advise them. The NYPD priorities are keeping kids safe but at ACS 'the priorities are keeping the family together.' Indeed, as O'Connor notes, ACS seems intent on ignoring possible signs of trouble. He marveled at the recent report on chronic absenteeism in New York City public schools, with more than a third of students — or roughly 300,000 — absent for 10 or more days in a school year. 'That's supposed to be an ACS case after 10 days,' he said. As it happens, ACS has been discouraging teachers from reporting students to the agency. It has bragged about a reduction in calls coming from schools to the state Central Register. Since COVID, truancy has become all but ignored by both the Department of Education and ACS. In response to The Post, ACS disputed these points, saying it provides support to prevent burnout, and that it handled 6,711 allegations of 'educational neglect' in 2024. 'In this administration, we are focused on getting it right — for all children and families — regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, neighborhood, or LGBTQAI+ status,' an ACS spokesperson said. 'When children are at imminent risk, we will take action and place them in foster care. When there are services and supports available to mitigate risk or give families the help they need, we will provide it.' No accountability O'Connor recalls an incident under former Commissioner Gladys Carrión's tenure where a school finally called after a 6-year-old girl had not showed up to school for 14 days. He and a fellow officer knocked down the family's door and found her in the closet beaten to death. Maybe they could have helped if someone called sooner. What happens to all of the children who die of abuse or neglect? O'Connor says that ACS is using privacy laws to cover up the problems: 'It gives everyone a get-out-jail-free card.' As for the recent announcement by Dannhauser that ACS has convened a 'multidisciplinary panel' to examine these fatality cases (which still won't release the results to the public), O'Connor says it is 'the definition of lunacy.' 'They keep doing the same thing over and over. When programs that they say will help vulnerable groups don't help them, they just double down,' he said. When, O'Connor wonders, 'will they just admit it doesn't work?' Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she helped to found Lives Cut Short. She is the author of 'No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts, and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives.'
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Worcester's record-setting free bus program takes another victory lap
The longest-running fare-free program in Massachusetts will continue into next year. The Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA) advisory board voted to extend the agency's fare-free program until June 2026, according to an announcement posted on the authority's X page on Thursday. The fare-free program is part of the agency's FY2026 budget, with the board voting unanimously to extend the program. The WRTA first implemented the fare-free bus program in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the advisory board voted to renew the program, allocating funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020. The WRTA has renewed the program for the last five years, making Thursday's vote the sixth time they've done so. The Zero Fare Coalition, an advocacy group that supports fare-free transportation in Worcester County, celebrated the extension in an X post on Friday. 'Thank you to the WRTA for voting to extend free bus service through June 2026!' The post reads. 'Special thanks to advocates and riders for your continued advocacy; without you, the WRTA would not be the longest-running, fare-free regional transit system in the country!' The program will continue until June 2026 unless the WRTA votes to extend the program again. Beverly man faces OUI charge in connection with Worcester County pursuit Central Mass. coffee house opens new location — with new drive-thru Worcester colleges slam ballot question that would sap their endowments
