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Attorneys for a Utah woman accused of murdering her husband are seeking a last-minute change of venue, arguing the case has become too well-known locally for justice to be decided by an impartial jury.

Kouri Richins, a Utah children’s book author and mother of three, is charged with murdering her husband, Eric Richins, in a case that has drawn intense scrutiny and widespread media attention.

In a motion filed Friday, defense attorneys argued that publicity surrounding the case has so permeated Summit County that seating an impartial jury is no longer realistic. Jury questionnaires cited in the filing show more than 85% of potential jurors recognized the case, with roughly 60% saying they followed it closely.

Defense attorneys said that once jurors who acknowledged familiarity with the case or who indicated bias or other disqualifying issues are removed, the remaining jury pool shrinks to approximately 72 potential jurors, far fewer than what is typically needed to seat a jury and alternates in a felony trial.

SUSPECTED CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSIN’S LAWYER POUNCES ON WITNESS FLIP IN UTAH POISON MOM CASE

"With a jury pool of less than 100 jurors it will be nearly impossible for Ms. Richins to receive a fair trial by a jury of her peers," the defense wrote.

The filing also warns that some jurors may not fully realize how familiar they are with the case until specific evidence is discussed in court. Defense attorneys said referencing certain details, including a document referred to as the "walk the dog letter," could trigger additional jurors to recognize the case during jury selection, further shrinking the pool.

To seat a jury of eight with four alternates, the defense notes, the court must qualify at least 43 jurors, something attorneys argue is unlikely given the number of disqualifications already identified.

The venue request marks the second defense motion filed in the past week, as jury selection approaches. In a separate motion filed last week, Richins’ attorneys accused members of the prosecution team of witness intimidation, alleging a key witness was threatened with arrest and jail time if she did not cooperate with investigators.

UTAH CHILDREN’S AUTHOR KOURI RICHINS SAYS STATE THREATENED WITNESSES AHEAD OF TRIAL IN HUSBAND’S POISONING

Richins has pleaded not guilty and denies killing her husband.

Prosecutors allege Richins poisoned her husband with a cocktail laced with illicit fentanyl while the couple was celebrating at their home in March 2022. 

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A medical examiner later determined Eric Richins had more than five times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system. Charging documents also state his gastric fluid contained 16,000 ng/ml of quetiapine, an antipsychotic medication sometimes used as a sleep aid.

Authorities claim the fatal poisoning was not the first attempt. Court records allege Richins tried to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day 2022 by slipping fentanyl into his favorite sandwich. Eric Richins reportedly broke out in hives and struggled to breathe after eating the sandwich, used his son’s EpiPen and took Benadryl before falling asleep for hours. He survived the incident.

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Prosecutors allege Richins killed her husband as part of a plan to collect millions of dollars in life insurance proceeds. Court documents say she purchased multiple life insurance policies totaling nearly $2 million, later changing the beneficiary to herself without her husband’s authorization. Authorities say Eric Richins discovered the change and switched the beneficiary back to his business partner.

Investigators also allege Richins planned to use the insurance money to finish and flip a $2 million Wasatch County mansion, an investment Eric Richins’ family said he did not approve of.

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Richins was arrested in May 2023 and later gained national attention after publishing a children’s book about grief following her husband’s death.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Feb. 10, with trial set to start Feb. 23 before Judge Richard Mrazik. The judge has not yet ruled on the defense motion to change venue.

Kathy Nester, one of Richins’ defense attorneys, is also representing Tyler Robinson, the defendant charged in a separate, unrelated Utah criminal case stemming from the fatal shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Robinson is scheduled to appear in court this week.

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The Senate Republican campaign chair has a stark warning for his party as the GOP defends its 53-47 majority in the chamber in this year's midterm elections.

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chair Tim Scott, pointing to a ballot box deficit the GOP's facing in the latest Fox News national poll, said it could impact specific Senate races this year.

And Scott said the toughest challenge may be in Maine, where longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins is running for re-election for a sixth six-year term in the blue-leaning northern New England state.

The straight talk from Scott, at a closed-door meeting earlier this week with fellow GOP senators, comes as Republicans, as the party in power in the nation's capital, face traditional political headwinds in the midterms. And the GOP is also facing a rough political climate, with President Donald Trump's approval ratings remaining underwater while Democrats are energized as they work to win back the House majority and possibly recapture the Senate.

GOP CALLS TRUMP ITS ‘SECRET WEAPON’ — BUT POLLS SHOW WARNING SIGNS HEADING INTO MIDTERMS

While the NRSC remains optimistic they can not only defend but expand their majority, the GOP will be playing defense in half a dozen key races.

Here's a look at the most vulnerable Republican Senate seats up for grabs in the midterms.

Collins is the only Republican senator running for re-election this year in a state that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried in her 2024 presidential election defeat to Trump.

TIM SCOTT TELLS MAGA VOTERS TRUMP ‘IS ON THE BALLOT’ AS GOP FIGHTS TO GROW SENATE MAJORITY IN 2026

And Collins has seen a deterioration of her poll numbers among Mainers from her last re-election six years ago.

But Collins, who has long been a top target of the rival Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has proven tough to beat.

Complicating the Democrats' push to flip the seat is a competitive primary between two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who has the tacit backing of longtime Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and the DSCC, and veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner, who is running to the left of Mill and who is backed by progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Republicans are defending an open seat in the southeastern battleground state, with GOP Sen. Thom Tillis retiring at the end of this year.

DEMOCRATS TARGET ‘VULNERABLE’ REPUBLICAN SENATORS AHEAD OF HIGH-STAKES HEALTH CARE SHOWDOWN

Democrats landed their top recruit when former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper launched a Senate campaign last summer. Cooper enjoys tons of name ID in North Carolina and is 6-0 when running statewide races.

Republicans are rallying around former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley, who has the president's backing.

The race is expected to be one of the most expensive and competitive Senate showdowns this year.

Democrats scored another major recruiting victory when former longtime Sen. Sherrod Brown announced he would challenge Republican Sen. Jon Husted.

A former lieutenant governor, Husted was appointed to the Senate a year ago after then-Sen. JD Vance stepped down to serve as vice president.

Ohio, once a premiere general election battleground, has turned red over the past decade, and Democrats view Brown as their only competitive candidate in the race to serve the final two years of Vance's term.

Brown lost re-election in 2024 by roughly four points while Trump carried Ohio by 11 points.

DEMOCRATS EYE NARROW PATH TO CAPTURE SENATE MAJORITY, BUT ONE WRONG MOVE COULD SINK THEM

Similar to North Carolina, the showdown is expected to be very expensive and competitive.

Democrats were given a big boost in the red-leaning state when former Rep. Mary Peltola announced last month that she would challenge GOP incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Peltola lost re-election last year in the at-large district that covers the entire state by three points, while Trump carried Alaska by 11 points.

Republicans are defending an open seat in Iowa, a onetime swing state that's shifted to the right over the past decade.

FOX NEWS POLL: AN EARLY LOOK AT THE 2026 MIDTERMS

But the GOP has rallied around Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is backed by Trump, in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.

Hinson, a former local TV news anchor who flipped a Democratic-held seat in 2020, is seen as a rising star in the party.

Democrats have a contested primary that includes state Rep. Josh Turek, a Paralympian, state Sen. Zach Wahls and military veteran Nathan Sage.

Longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is in the middle of a competitive and combustible GOP nomination battle against state Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Trump, to date, has stayed neutral in the primary, which will be held early next month.

If neither Cornyn, Paxton, nor Hunt win a majority of the vote next month, a runoff will be held in May.

Cornyn enjoys the backing of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the NRSC, which worries that the seat would be vulnerable if Paxton, who has plenty of political baggage, wins the primary.

The Democrats, who are eyeing the seat in the right-leaning state, have a competitive contest for their nomination between progressive firebrand and vocal Trump critic Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico, a rising star in the party.

While playing defense, the NRSC is also eyeing three Democratic-held Senate seats.

The GOP's aiming to flip open seats in battleground Michigan, where Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, and swing state New Hampshire, where longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is ending her long career, in which she made history as the first woman elected governor and senator.

Republicans are also eyeing battleground Georgia, where they view first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff as the most vulnerable Democrat seeking re-election this year.

The NRSC is also spotlighting the open Senate seat in blue-leaning Minnesota, where Democratic Sen. Tina Smith is retiring.

Former longtime sportscaster Michele Tafoya is being backed by the NRSC as she runs for the GOP nomination.

Some Republicans are calling last weekend's double-digit shellacking in a special state Senate election in Texas in a district Trump carried by 17 points in 2024 a wake up call.

The stunning ballot box setback for Republicans, coming amid backlash over the Trump administration's unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration, is further energizing Democrats as they aim to win back congressional majorities.

The victory in Texas was the Democrats' latest win or over performance in a slew of elections since Trump returned to power in the White House a year ago, as the party stays laser focused on the issue of affordability amid persistent inflation.

BLUE-LEANING STATE EMERGES AS TOP GOP TROUBLE SPOT AS SENATE CAMPAIGN CHIEF SOUNDS MIDTERM ALARM

"The White House needs to focus less on foreign policy and immigration and more on affordability to improve our chances in the midterms," Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling chief executive officer and a prominent Republican donor and bundler, told Fox News Digital.

And Eberhart, pointing to some key Senate races, said he's worried about "the money game."

"We’re woefully behind in Georgia. We’re behind in North Carolina. I think that in Texas we’re going to have somebody limp out of a runoff," he cautioned.

Thune, speaking to reporters this week following the NRSC briefing, said that "the Democrats are targeting a number of our incumbents. And so we've got some races that are going to be expensive and hard fought in places like Maine and North Carolina."

But Thune added, "We feel really good about... where our Senate races are." And he emphasized that "incumbents in our conference are seasoned veterans who will outwork any of their opponents."

Meanwhile, DSCC Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told Fox News Digital last month that "President Trump is creating a toxic agenda that's harming people."

And Gillibrand emphasized she's "optimistic that we have a shot to take back the majority."

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"Real Time" host Bill Maher criticized celebrity "virtue-signaling" at the 2026 Grammys, calling out singer Billie Eilish’s anti-ICE speech.

"You don’t know facts," Maher said of the singer during Friday’s episode of his HBO show.

Eilish, who won Song of the Year at the music award show, condemned ICE during her acceptance speech. The 24-year-old went viral when she declared, "No one is illegal on stolen land."

Maher picked apart a transcript of Eilish’s speech, which began with the singer saying, "It’s hard to know what to say."

BILL MAHER SAYS DEMS NEED TO TELL CELEBRITIES TO 'SHUT THE F--- UP,' HOLLYWOOD IS HOLDING PARTY BACK

"Then, don’t say anything, ‘cause you don’t know things," he charged. "You didn’t go to school, I don’t think, and you don’t know facts."

However, Maher admitted he agreed with Eilish on one subject, before roasting her credibility on immigration.

"She said, ‘Keep fighting and protesting and speaking up.’ I totally agree with that," Maher continued. "She said, ‘Voices still matter. People matter.’"

NOEM RESPONDS TO BAD BUNNY, BILLIE EILISH BASHING ICE AT GRAMMYS: 'I WISH THEY KNEW'

"And I would just say so does knowledge," he added.

It was "pretty great" that a tribe in California asked for Eilish’s house after her speech, the host argued.

He then confronted his panel with a follow-up question to the singer’s speech.

"What’s the practical next step if you say there is no such thing as illegal people on stolen land?" Maher asked. "Do we just go back to living in teepees?"

NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE RESPONDS TO BILLIE EILISH'S 'STOLEN LAND' GRAMMY COMMENTS

One of Maher’s panelists, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said his kids "forced" him to watch the Grammys. He ridiculed what he called "all bulls---."

"The fact is, it’s a complicated history," Christie said.

"People got screwed along the way. Yes, we agree with that," the Republican conceded. "But if what we’re going to do today is say these pronouncements and then have no real solution behind that pronouncement, it’s all bulls---."

Meanwhile, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister and a self-identifying progressive, shared what "really bugs" her about the Grammys controversy.

"I thought it was powerful that some of those award winners at the Grammys did speak about ICE," Freeland countered.

BILL MAHER CLASHES WITH PROGRESSIVE COMMENTATOR OVER ISRAEL'S WAR IN GAZA

"And I agree with you broadly, Bill, that celebrities should not be the leaders of political movements. But I think it would have been wrong for them not to comment on this really horrible thing happening," she continued.

Earlier in the show, Maher compared Eilish’s remarks to the "from the river to the sea" slogan often heard during "Free Palestine" protests.

"The people of Los Angeles will not move, and neither will all Israelis from Gaza," Maher asserted.

"We have to deal with the future, not just the past," he posited.

Fox News Digital reached out to Eilish’s representative for comment and did not hear back in time for publication.

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The Department of War said Friday that it will end all professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs with Harvard University.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth slammed the university in a video announcement posted on X, saying the department would be cutting ties with Harvard for active-duty service members beginning in the 2026–27 school year — a move he said was "long overdue."

"Harvard is woke; The War Department is not," Hegseth stated.

While Hegseth, who has a master’s degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said the U.S. military has had a "rich tradition" with the Ivy League school, he argued that Harvard has become one of the "red-hot centers of Hate America activism."

HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS AFTER TRUMP CUTS BILLIONS IN FUNDING

"Too many faculty members openly loathe our military. They cast our armed forces in a negative light and squelch anyone who challenges their leftist political leanings, all while charging enormous tuition. It's not worth it," he said.
"They’ve replaced open inquiry and honest debate with rigid orthodoxy."

The announcement comes amid the Trump administration’s ongoing feud with the Ivy League school.

President Donald Trump said Monday he is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University, which the Trump administration has made a primary target in its effort to leverage federal funding to crack down on antisemitism and "woke" ideology.

40-YEAR HARVARD PROFESSOR PENS SCATHING PIECE ON SCHOOL'S 'EXCLUSION OF WHITE MALES,' ANTI-WESTERN TRENDS

Lawyers for the Trump administration have appealed a judge’s order requiring the restoration of $2.7 billion in frozen federal research funding to Harvard. The university sued the administration in April over the funding freeze, arguing in court that the move amounted to an unconstitutional "pressure campaign" aimed at influencing and exerting control over elite academic institutions.

Hegseth also criticized Harvard’s campus environment, alleging that research programs have partnered with the Chinese Communist Party and that university leadership has encouraged an atmosphere that celebrates Hamas, allows attacks on Jews, and prioritizes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.

"Why should the War Department support an environment that's destructive to our nation and the principles that the vast majority of Americans hold dear?" Hegseth said.
"The answer to that question is that we should not, and we will not."

HARVARD DEAN REMOVED AFTER ANTI-WHITE, ANTI-POLICE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS RESURFACED

"For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class," he continued. "Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks."

In addition to Harvard, Hegseth took aim at much of the Ivy League, saying the schools have a "pervasive institutional bias" and a lack of viewpoint diversity, including the "coddling of toxic ideologies," that he said undercuts the military’s mission.

He said that in the coming weeks, all departments at the Pentagon will evaluate existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at Ivy League schools and other civilian universities.

UNIVERSITIES SLASH 9,000+ POSITIONS IN 2025 AS TRUMP TARGETS FEDERAL FUNDING AND FOREIGN STUDENTS: REPORT

"The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost effective strategic education for future senior leaders, when compared to, say, public universities and our military graduate programs," he said. "At the War Department, we will strive to maximize taxpayer value in building lethality to establish deterrence. It's that simple. That no longer includes spending millions of dollars on expensive universities that actively undercut our mission and undercut our country."

Hegseth concluded his message, saying, "We train warriors, not wokesters. Harvard, good riddance."

Harvard University did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Fox News Digital's Brian Flood contributed to this report.

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It appears that agitators are trying to spark confrontations with federal law enforcement that could lead to protesters being harmed, even killed, to spark outrage and support for their cause.

It’s a sick story. It sounds outrageous. But it’s true, and everything old is new again.

I saw it 40 years ago and testified about it to Congress. Today we are seeing again: Inserting American citizens into flashpoints as part of a political strategy to get people shot for the purpose of inflaming the public against a president and his policies.

The recent deaths of two Minneapolis protesters reminded me of what I had learned as a 24-year-old in the mid-1980s while infiltrating radical groups – much as people in their twenties are doing today.

JOURNALIST ATTACKED DURING MINNEAPOLIS BLOCKADE SAYS ANTI-ICE AGITATORS TRIED TO ‘DETER' THE TRUTH

Revolutionaries and insurgents create or exploit flashpoints in anticipation of getting some of their followers killed. Journalist Cam Higby has reported on this in Minneapolis. They need martyrs to spark or fuel public anger.

Facing professionally organized provocations and stressors, it was inevitable that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents would plunge into circumstances that domestic extremists had created to provoke media outrage.

Revolutionaries call it "armed propaganda."

DAVID MARCUS: ANTI-ICE AGITATORS ADOPT PALESTINIAN TACTICS, INCLUDING MARTYRDOM

After Portland, Ore., activist Benjamin Linder was killed in Nicaragua by U.S.-backed resistance fighters, or contras, against the Soviet-backed Sandinista regime in 1987, the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs held a hearing.

Linder was armed with an AK-47 at the time of his death. Sympathizers portrayed him as a peaceful humanitarian worker. I was called as a witness.

"For two years," I testified, a group called Witness for Peace had "anticipated the killing of an American citizen by the contras so that they could use his death for political propaganda. They wanted someone like Benjamin Linder to die."

FOX NEWS DIGITAL ANALYSIS: HOW MINNEAPOLIS AGITATOR NETWORKS USE INSURGENCY TACTICS TO HINDER ICE

That was hard to say, not only because it sounded so outrageous, but because I was sitting with Linder’s parents in the congressional hearing room.

The Linders were lifetime radicals from Portland. They supported North Vietnam and the Vietcong against American troops. The mother was local leader of a group that collaborated with Soviet active measures operations against the United States. They raised their son Benjamin to place himself in mortal danger.

My impression was that they seemed less like grieving parents and more like mourners of a fallen comrade.

ANTI-ICE AGITATORS ARRESTED OUTSIDE MINNESOTA HOTEL AS POLICE DECLARE UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY: 'NO LONGER PEACEFUL'

As college students and afterward, my friends and I had infiltrated and exposed groups across the country that supported the Central American communists. I also worked with the Nicaraguan resistance fighters against the Sandinistas.

At the hearing, I gave my eyewitness account, plus secondary reports, about how American militant leaders wanted U.S.-backed forces to kill some of their do-gooder allies.

Revolutionary insurgencies require martyrs to outrage and inspire.

DEPUTY AG DETAILS 'MASSIVE UNDERGROUND FRAUD NETWORK' ALLEGEDLY BEHIND MINNEAPOLIS ANTI-ICE PUSH

"It is obvious that Witness for Peace leaders are aware of the military role they are playing in Central America," I testified.

"On one of my trips with the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) resistance in 1985, I asked several commanders and fighters if the presence of Americans was having any effect on their ability to fight the Sandinista army," I said in my testimony. "The answer was positive: The FDN fighters were afraid of hurting any Americans working with the Sandinistas for fear of a backlash of public opinion in the United States."

At a 1995 Witness for Peace meeting in Boulder, Colo., I learned that the group was planning to expand operations to El Salvador, only to abort three days later when its guerrilla friends murdered four off-duty U.S. Marines and two other Americans.

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I testified that in a later New York meeting, we heard "that some of the group’s leaders privately expressed hope that some of their activists in Nicaragua would get shot by the resistance. If a Witness for Peace activist was killed, they reasoned, American public opinion would turn against the contras."

The Boston Globe quoted another WfP activist, a lawyer from Bangor, Maine, as saying that "Some of us have got to die" at the hands of U.S.-backed forces. "If some of us die, we bring the cause home to our countrymen in a very personal way," he said. "If that’s what it will take, that’s what it will take."

With Linder’s death, I told Congress, the American radicals "finally had a martyr. They got their televised interviews. They have their congressional hearing. They got their wish."

Which brings us back to Minneapolis today. America must face the fact that organizers are out there to enrage, demoralize and manipulate us all. They don’t care about the human fallout.

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The immigration debate is focused almost entirely on the border, but the real failure happens after entry, inside taxpayer-funded benefits systems that rarely demand proof. While enforcement dominates the headlines, billions of dollars quietly move through Medicaid, housing and social services with weak identity verification, inconsistent eligibility checks, and little accountability. This is where the system breaks down: Americans work harder, taxpayer dollars move faster and fraud thrives in the absence of enforcement.

While Democrats and much of the mainstream media obsess over ICE enforcement and border encounters, a far more serious failure is unfolding inside Medicaid offices, housing authorities and social services agencies nationwide. Federal data show that Medicaid improper payments of our tax dollars reached $37.4 billion in fiscal year 2025, with error rates climbing above 6%, up from $31.1 billion the year before. Across federal healthcare programs, improper payments now approach $95.5 billion.

They are the taxpayer dollars of hardworking Americans paid out without adequate documentation, verified eligibility, or proof that payments met program rules. Federal auditors report that over 77% of improper payments stem from documentation gaps unsubstantiated by administrators. While not every improper payment constitutes fraud, weak identity verification and minimal oversight create incentives for abuse by both providers and recipients. States lacking robust verification systems are far more likely to issue improper or fraudulent payments, a risk repeatedly flagged by federal watchdogs. This is the predictable outcome of systems that prioritize rapid enrollment over verification, expansion over accountability, and optics over enforcement.

CONGRESS OPENS ‘INDUSTRIAL-SCALE FRAUD’ PROBE IN MINNESOTA, WARNS WALZ DEMANDS ARE ‘JUST THE BEGINNING’

Minnesota has become ground zero for an epic collapse in benefits oversight. Since 2018, approximately half of $18 billion in federally funded social service spending has come under scrutiny amid allegations of fraud tied to Medicaid, housing stabilization services, and disability care programs. Prosecutors allege schemes involving billing for services were never provided, shell providers approved with minimal vetting, and even after red flags were raised, state agencies continued payments. The Feeding Our Future case alone resulted in more than 50 federal convictions and hundreds of millions in fraudulent claims, making it one of the largest nonprofit fraud prosecutions in U.S. history. This is the predictable result of ignored audits and failed oversight.

California is another stark example of taxpayer fraud when verification is optional. A federal Office of Inspector General audit found the state improperly claimed more than $52 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements for illegal aliens because California failed to check eligibility and enforce basic verification. That same breakdown appears in homelessness spending, where federal auditors warned that hundreds of millions of dollars were at risk given weak controls, a warning recently highlighted by a federal criminal complaint alleging a California nonprofit fraudulently obtained $23 million in federal homelessness funds. Instead of proving eligibility, the system assumed eligibility and taxpayers paid the price.

SEC SCOTT BESSENT: HOW TO STOP FRAUD IN MINNESOTA—AND ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Maine shows the same dangerous pattern. A federal Office of Inspector General audit found at least $45.6 million due to improper Medicaid payments driven by lack of compliance of eligibility checks and inadequate documentation. Maine agreed to repay up to $28.7 million in federal funds, but oversight failures continued. Just last month, state investigators also found that Gateway Community Services overbilled MaineCare by more than $1 million, triggering payment suspensions and investigation amid suspected fraud.

WALZ’S MINNESOTA MESS COULD SPARK THE TOUGHEST FRAUD REFORMS IN DECADES

These cases are only the ones that were investigated, but showcase a national pattern where, when benefits systems are designed to move money quickly and verification is treated as optional, waste and fraud are inevitable. Americans feel this disconnect, and the data confirms it. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in January 2026 found that 53% of Americans say immigration policy is moving in the wrong direction, outweighing approval. At the same time, Pew Research reports only 17% of Americans trust the federal government in Washington to do what is right. That distrust is not just about immigration, but reflects a broader belief that government has lost control, spending taxpayer dollars without audits, accountability, or consequences. The political class is stuck in denial. Democrats often frame audits and eligibility enforcement as cruel or discriminatory, while some Republicans tout it as the "cost of doing business." Both positions are a losing message for taxpayers who see massive fraud with little oversight. Protecting public trust in social safety nets requires pro-taxpayer, pro-rule-of-law enforcement.

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We must enforce the same standards working Americans face daily when they apply for jobs, loans, or any government services. Identity verification, eligibility checks and continuous audits are the bare minimum of responsible governance.

Arguing over border enforcement while ignoring the benefits systems only deepens the chaos. You cannot control immigration while refusing to control the programs that quietly finance disorder. Immigration did not spiral because Americans demanded order — it spiraled because government stopped demanding proof.

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A newborn baby in New Mexico died from a Listeria infection likely tied to the mother drinking raw milk while pregnant, according to state health officials.

The New Mexico Department of Health issued a warning Tuesday urging people to avoid consuming raw dairy products following the newborn’s death. Health officials believe the "most likely" source of infection was the mother drinking unpasteurized milk during pregnancy.

While investigators said they could not determine the exact cause, they said the "tragic death underscores the serious risks raw dairy poses to pregnant women, young children, elderly New Mexicans and anyone with a weakened immune system."

Raw milk has seen a surge in popularity amid the Make America Healthy Again movement led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

FIVE DEATHS REPORTED AMID BACTERIAL INFECTION OUTBREAK IN MAJOR CITY

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a regulation decades ago prohibiting the interstate sale of raw milk, but the drink is not federally banned, leaving individual states to decide whether it's safe for human consumption.

"Individuals who are pregnant should only consume pasteurized milk products to help prevent illnesses and deaths in newborns," Dr. Chad Smelser, deputy state epidemiologist for the New Mexico Department of Health said in a statement.

Raw milk has not been pasteurized — a process that heats milk to remove disease-causing germs.

DEADLY BACTERIAL OUTBREAK INFECTS DOZENS IN CITY NEIGHBORHOOD AS OFFICIALS SOUND ALARM

Consuming food or beverages made from raw milk can expose people to Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Listeria is the third leading cause of death from foodborne illness in the U.S., infecting about 1,250 people and causing roughly 172 deaths each year, according to the CDC.

The CDC notes that certain groups of people, including children under the age of 5, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, have a higher risk of serious illness.

"New Mexico’s dairy producers work hard to provide safe, wholesome products and pasteurization is a vital part of that process," Jeff M. Witte, New Mexico secretary of agriculture, said in a statement. "Consumers, particularly those at higher risk, are encouraged to choose pasteurized dairy products to reduce the risk of serious foodborne illness."

Last August, an outbreak of E. coli and Campylobacter linked to raw milk from a Florida farm sickened 21 people, including six children.

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