During the government shutdown, Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins has been reviewing data from 29 states administering the food stamp program. Rollins’s review has found EBT cards that have been carrying balances of more than $10,000. It found cards that haven’t been used in years. It found cards issued to people who never existed. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as food stamps are formally known, has been around since the 1930s but ballooned during the Biden administration years and now serves 42 million people in the US, one-eighth of the population. What’s happening? Is the program running efficiently and properly? Will the shutdown really “starve children” as the Trump administration’s critics are charging?
Joining host Eric Eggers on The Drill Down podcast is returning guest Andrew McClenahan from the United Council on Welfare Fraud. McClenahan’s organization represents state-level investigators of welfare fraud. And it turns out there is a lot of it to investigate.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk and other killings by young and seemingly well-educated but radicalized young people has led many to ask: Why does this keep happening? The problems begin not in college, but in the K-12 schooling that is infested with a mind-altering system of control. It is called “social emotional learning” (SEL), and a new book by Priscilla West warns that it will take decades to undo the damage it has done to childhood education.

Voting security is always a hot topic around election time, but manipulation of our electoral system is a bigger problem that we have to worry about all the time. On the most recent episode of The Drill Down podcast, we are not talking about stolen ballots, “ballot harvesting,” or other shenanigans that can happen during an election, but about how congressional districts are both drawn and apportioned. Two things recently in the news raise questions about how we do those things, and whether it’s still the best way.

Riot Inc - The Hidden Networks Fueling Unrest

The federal government remains in a shutdown and, depending on whom you believe, it is either because Democrats want to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants, or Republicans want to jack up costs on ordinary Americans. What’s going on, and who’s right?

The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey has raised cries of “lawfare” from Democrats declaring that President Donald Trump’s administration is going after his political opponents.
It’s a rich charge to make, given the number of prosecutions against both Trump and those in his orbit during and following his first term. One of those targeted during the first Trump terms, Steve Bannon, joins The Drill Down podcast on the most recent episode.

The TikTok Dilemma - A Deal in the Making

“Evil is on the rise in America, and overseas,” says author and talk show host Bill O’Reilly. “Evil is very simple: It's when one human being hurts another human being on purpose with no remorse.” Like Charlie Kirk’s killer. Like Vladimir Putin. And about 15 percent of the world’s population, O’Reilly thinks.

The NFL's Hidden Agenda - Wokeness or Profit

Is George Soros a racketeer? The billionaire currency speculator, who in 1992 netted $1 billion by shorting the British pound and bringing the Bank of England to its knees, controls a large network of leftwing activist organizations from under the umbrella of his Open Society Foundations.  Days ago, President Donald Trump threatened Soros and his son, Alex, with prosecution under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a 1970 law providing for extended criminal penalties against participants in ongoing criminal organizations. The law was meant to be a weapon for prosecutors against the Mafia, but it has been used in other contexts as well. Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers discuss.