Waste Of The Day: Grants For Winter Heating Bills Are Missing

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

Topline: The nonprofit New Opportunities, Inc. used $2.8 million in taxpayer funds meant for low-income families’ heating bills on its own operating expenses, according to the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management.

In a Dec. 22 letter obtained by CT Insider, CT Mirror and more, OPM Secretary Joshua Wojcik claims New Opportunities admitted to “impermissibly” using grant funds "to provide fiscal support for other organizational operations."

Key facts: New Opportunities was founded in 1964 and now helps administer Connecticut’s federally funded Energy Assistance Program, which helps families earning 60% or less of the state median income pay their heating bills over the winter. 

The federal Administration for Children and Families, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, gives grant funding to Connecticut, which in turn sends it to nonprofits like New Opportunities. The nonprofits then pay energy companies to deliver oil, natural gas or another heat source to low-income families.

According to Wojcik’s letter, New Opportunities recently sent three checks worth $2.8 million to the energy company Eversource to pay for natural gas. The checks bounced when Eversource tried to cash them because New Opportunities had already used the grant money for unrelated expenses, and there were not enough funds left in its account. That is a violation of state and federal contracting rules, according to CT Mirror.

New Opportunities later paid Eversource $1.2 million of the balance, but $1.6 million was still missing as of Dec. 22.

Connecticut’s Department of Social Services barred New Opportunities from the Energy Assistance Program in the towns of Waterbury, Meriden and Torrington, CT Mirror reported. Wojcick also plans to appoint a representative to oversee all of New Opportunities’ spending and fire any board member who fails to “ensure that State or Federal funding was used for their intended purposes,” according to his letter.

Background: New Opportunities is almost entirely taxpayer-funded. It received $38.8 million in government grants in fiscal year 2024 from Connecticut, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and more, but only $995,000 from private grants and $1,700 from fundraising events, according to its most recent 990 tax form.

The nonprofit operated at a deficit of $1.6 million that year, according to an independent audit reviewed by the CT Mirror, which found there is “substantial doubt” about the nonprofit’s ability to remain solvent. 

President and CEO William Rybczyk still collected a $267,000 salary, part of over $12 million spent on payroll and benefits, the 990 form shows. Former President James Gatling, who retired in 2021, still earned over $100,000 in fiscal year 2024. 

Office expenses cost $480,000, and employee travel cost $427,000. The nonprofit runs food production and early childhood education programs in addition to its energy assistance program.

In fiscal year 2025, the nonprofit accepted $26.4 million from the State of Connecticut, according to records obtained by Open the Books.

Summary: The federal government has already approved $3.7 billion for Energy Assistance Programs around the country in 2026. As always, it’s vital that the government tracks every penny to ensure it reaches the families it’s intended for.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 23:20

Zelensky Calls On Trump To Topple Chechen Leader After Maduro

Suddenly everyone wants to enter the regime change business, as various country names and 'rogue' leaders are now being casually thrown around in conversations of "who's next" for Trump to take out.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has joined in. He's now urging the United States to pressure Russia by "carrying out some sort of operation" against Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov (and staunch Putin-ally) from power.

Source: Ramzan Kadyrov/Telegram

Zelensky drew direct comparisons with Trump overthrowing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. According to the quite provocative Wednesday comments, Zelensky said that removing Kadyrov would make Russian President Vladimir Putin "think twice" about keeping the war in Ukraine going.

"They need to put pressure on Russia. They have the tools, they know how. And when they really want to, they can find them," Zelensky said of the US under Trump.

"Here's an example with Maduro. They carried out an operation... Everyone can see the result, the whole world can see. They did it promptly. Let them carry out some sort of operation with, what's his name - Kadyrov," Zelensky said.

Earlier, Zelensky went so far as to "joke" that Putin himself should also be targeted in a Washington decapitation operation.

"If you can do that with dictators, then the United States knows what to do next," he said at a presser from his capital over the weekend, while laughing and smiling.

Such rhetoric, especially if it persists, could make Russia do some decapitation strikes of its own. Its forces have increasingly been targeting Kiev with missiles and drones, and even recently struck government buildings, and not far from Zelensky's presidential offices.

As for the Chechen issue, hundreds of thousands of troops from Russia's Muslim-majority republic of Chechnya have been fighting in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a counter-threat...

Kadyrov: If the order is given, Zelensky and his cronies will end up in Grozny even faster than Maduro ended up in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/x3L7UIoUob

— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) January 5, 2026

Kadyrov has ruled there since 2007, and has throughout the Ukraine conflict remained among Putin's most vocal supporters.

He has been not infrequently photographed with Putin, and large contingency of Chechen troops have held pro-Kremlin parades and displays of military power of late.

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 22:45

Silver Will Remind Us: We Are Deeply Dependent On The Earth

Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Commentary

We live in a world that has engineered distance between us and the physical limits our ancestors once lived inside of. The constraints that shaped generations before us—weather, harvest, transport, salt, fuel, season, strength, distance, labor, time—have been replaced by one dominant modern restraint: money.

Silver bars are stacked in the safe deposit boxes room of the Pro Aurum gold house in Munich, Germany, on Jan. 10, 2025. Angelika Warmuth/Reuters

Money has become our proxy for limits, the translation layer between desire and reality. But somewhere along the way, we started believing the translation was the terrain. Constraints didn’t disappear—we outsourced them to systems so efficient we stopped noticing their fragility at all.

My husband grew up in a town with no road connecting it to the outside world. When his family wanted to slaughter a pig, they didn’t reach for salt in a pantry. They first rode horses to the salt flats, mined the salt by hand, carried it home, and then began curing the meat. Their survival depended on terrain, season, muscle, and community. Nothing was guaranteed. Everything required presence.

Here in the United States, scarcity is rarely part of our daily friction anymore, so we forget to respect its possibility at all.

But silver is reminding us now.

Not a Price Rally—A Resource Alarm

The world is treating silver like a financial headline. Analysts debate whether it will hit $45 or $125 an ounce in 2026. But the real story isn’t about price movements; it’s about access to metal that physically exists.

Silver is not just money—it is matter, manufacturing, and infrastructure.

Unlike dollars, you can’t print more silver when you need it. Unlike gold, silver is consumed at an industrial scale because it is required for the defining industries of our time:

• Solar panels

• Electric vehicles

• Semiconductors

• Advanced electronics

• Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers

• Critical defense systems

You can build a financial system with paper promises, but you cannot build the future’s physical economy without metal.

China’s Jan. 1 Licensing Regime

On Jan. 1, 2026, China activated a licensing structure that authorizes only 44 domestic companies to export silver. This mirrors the same strategic resource playbook China previously used for rare-earth metals:

• Restrict exports

• Consolidate control into state-aligned entities

• Prioritize domestic supply

• Control refined production rather than raw extraction

This isn’t a supply hiccup—it is mineral nationalism.

And refined silver—the form required for manufacturing—is now subject to state gatekeeping.

Inventories Reveal Reality

In late December 2025, physical silver on the Shanghai Gold Exchange traded at a record premium to U.S. paper futures. Normally, arbitrage would close that spread quickly.

It didn’t.

Because physical metal is tightening, it is no longer moving freely.

Shanghai inventories have dropped to levels not seen in a decade. London vault holdings are down dramatically from pandemic highs. Futures have entered backwardation—buyers paying more for metal now than later. Lease rates have surged, signaling institutions scrambling for metal they cannot easily source.

And here is the key truth: Paper markets for silver now dramatically exceed the supply of physical metal available.

That imbalance works—until someone demands delivery.

And industry will always demand delivery.

Dec. 26 Was Containment, Not Correction

When silver’s paper price dipped on Dec. 26, 2025, it wasn’t profit-taking. It was a forced liquidation event triggered by emergency margin hikes after large holders claimed registered inventory. It was not a market correction; it was containment.

Because here is the truth markets keep avoiding: You can cash-settle a contract. You cannot cash-settle a solar panel, a semiconductor, or a microchip.

Industry needs atoms, not arguments.

We Live Inside Physics, Not Policy

We are addicted to having everything we want the moment we want it. We think politicians can sign papers and declare that every grid will be electric by 2030, as if energy is summoned by legislation rather than mined, manufactured, transported, stored, and built from finite materials.

But the Earth does not negotiate with impatience.

Policy does not override physics.

Technology does not run on forecasts.

It runs on resources.

And silver is the resource tightening fastest.

How Will We Receive the Reminder?

The math is obvious.

In 2026, we will discover what was real all along.

The Earth we are all connected to is physical, finite, and unshakably real, no matter how much of life we now operate from our phones, over Zoom, or through AI.

The minerals beneath our feet are real.

The land that feeds us is real.

The planet that provides everything we build, eat, power, and depend on is real.

The question is not whether the physical world will remind us of its terms—but how we choose to receive the message when it arrives.

As I watch the signs of this tightening, I will remember what is real:

My family.

My husband.

My land.

My friends.

My community.

My skills.

And my ability to lead.

Sure, we can all generate clicks, comments, and interactions in the increasingly digital world we now spend more time inside of. But when the rubber hits the road, we are deeply interconnected with the Earth.

The homes we live in came from nature. The food we eat comes from nature. The energy grid, the cars we drive, the metals in our phones, the data centers powering AI—all of it depends on this extraordinary planet and what it provides.

It’s easy to forget that. It’s easy to act as if we live inside boxes, disconnected from the natural world.

But those boxes came from nature itself.

And it would serve us well to remember.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 22:10

U-Haul Growth Index: Newsom's California Dead Last For Six Straight Years

Moving company U-Haul has released its annual migration ranking, which continues to show a sustained outflow from high-tax, crime-ridden, Democrat-run states toward lower-tax states where law and order are cherished.

Right off the bat, the report's authors note that "Florida ranks 2nd for net gain of one-way customers; California last for sixth year in a row."

U-Haul just released its annual "Growth Index" for all 50 states. For the 6th straight year, California is ranked 50th. We have the highest rate of people moving out versus moving in.

Newsom has turned the greatest state in the country into the most popular state to leave.

— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) January 6, 2026

The U-Haul Growth Index compares one-way truck and trailer rentals into a state versus out of a state, allowing researchers to calculate net migration, which reflects relocation trends nationwide.

This real-time tracker shows that Texas reclaimed the title of the No. 1 growth state for the seventh time in a decade. Florida ranked No. 2, followed by North Carolina at No. 3, Tennessee at No. 4, and South Carolina at No. 5. The common denominator among these states is that politicians are considered more based and grounded in reality than the far-left activists running blue states into the ground (cough, cough Tim Walz).

Conversely, the behavior-based migration indicator shows that blue states such as California ranked dead last - in other words, more people left than arrived. Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland also landed at the bottom of the list. The common denominator among these states is that their political leadership focuses on being left-wing activists rather than proper stewardship of their respective states.

"Blue-to-red state migration, a hotly debated political topic that became more pronounced after the pandemic of 2020, continues to be a discernable trend," U-Haul wrote in the report.

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 21:35

Wyoming Supreme Court Rules Abortion May Stay Legal Due To Obamacare Amendment

Authored by Arjun Singh via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Supreme Court of Wyoming, on Jan. 6, ruled that two state laws banning the procedure and the availability of abortion medication were unconstitutional.

A patient prepares to take a pill for a medication abortion during a visit to a clinic in Kansas City, Kansas, on, Oct. 12, 2022. Charlie Riedel/AP Photo

The court, in the case of State v. Johnson, held that the two laws in question—the Life is a Human Right Act of 2023, which bans abortion procedures, and the state’s abortion drug ban—violated Article 1, Section 38 of the Constitution of Wyoming. That provision of the state constitution was added by a statewide referendum in 2012, which states, “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”

“All five Wyoming Supreme Court justices agreed that the decision whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy is a woman’s own health care decision protected by Article 1, Section 38,” wrote the court in a summary of its opinion and announcement of the decision.

The court added that “all five justices also concluded that an adult’s right to make his or her own health care decisions is a fundamental right because of the very specific language used,” even though the referendum was passed in response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known more commonly as “Obamacare.”

The court, however, split four to one on deciding whether the laws in question could be struck down.

“Four justices (Boomgaarden, Fox, Jarosh, and Fenn) voted to strike down the 2023 abortion laws. Justice Gray voted to uphold the laws,” the court’s summary read.

The court noted that even though Article 1, Section 38 was passed in response to Obamacare, the language of the provision was inflexible, writing, “The Court recognized it cannot add words to the Wyoming Constitution. ... But lawmakers could ask Wyoming voters to consider a constitutional amendment that would more clearly address this issue.”

Lower courts, when reviewing the case, also struck down the laws.

Wyoming is a heavily conservative state that is dominated by the Republican Party, and pro-life sentiment is widespread. Following the ruling, Governor of Wyoming Mark Gordon called for a referendum to amend the constitution and invalidate the ruling.

“This ruling may settle, for now, a legal question, but it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself. It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote,” Gordon wrote in a statement published on social media. “I call on the legislature to pass and place a clear constitutional amendment on my desk.”

The lead plaintiff in the case, Wellspring Health Access in Casper, Wyoming, celebrated the ruling.

“Our clinic will remain open and ready to provide compassionate reproductive health care, including abortions, and our patients in Wyoming will be able to obtain this care without having to travel out of state,” said Julie Burkhart, the organization’s president, in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 21:00

EU Strategery

Authored by T.L.Davis,

The EU, so desperate to exert their dictatorial powers, to feel the exhilarating rush of adrenaline from smashing someone’s face with the butt of a rifle, has revealed itself. It is that rarest of all birds, both fascist and communist in its outlook on the world. Having been able to conquer most of Western Europe with a simple change in immigration policy it is heady with success, brazen and anxious to lead the entire world from a small office in Brussels.

The aggressive, hostile EU is like a drunk trolling a bar looking for a fight. It chose to make Ukraine its sidekick, someone already subject to Russian aggression, who could be sent out to make loud claims and kick the bullies in the knees, while the EU sat back, waiting for an opportunity to bring big brother into the fray. Big brother, in this case, is NATO.

The EU has no army. To liken it to the United States, it would be as if there were no American troops, but National Guard from every state and even some foreign guard units to throw at their enemies. The EU supports Ukraine and threaten every day to intervene in that conflict to help Ukraine, but the EU has no money, it has no troops. Their intent is to take funds from all of their member states and give that to Ukraine to help fight Russia. It’s like the IRS extracting taxes to give to Somalian day care centers (an issue that needs resolution here).

While the Ukrainian people have my sympathy and I wish nothing other than that this war would end and Ukraine could live in peace, have elections and elect their leaders, the EU is against that. They’ve done all they can to prevent peace and now threaten Russia with an extension of the war.

All of this relies on NATO, the bulk of that force being made up of American military units. NATO was designed to deter the Soviet Union from being able to gain a foothold in Europe from which to strike the US. To that extent is has article 5 promises to enter the war on behalf of any member state that suffers from Soviet aggression and has laid somewhat dormant since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It’s a different world, now, and these peons who run the EU and NATO believe that because big brother might be able to beat up some drunk in a bar, inciting violence to invoke it is stupid. But that’s the course they’ve chosen. Only now, they seem to believe that they are the puppet masters of the world. It’s bold, I have to give them that, but anyone can see through their tactics.

The latest move is to defend both Denmark and Greenland, but with what troops? NATO troops. Okay. So, largely an American-based group is going to go to war with America to protect Greenland under Danish control to establish the superiority of the EU?

Hubris is all that comes to mind. It’s radical and dangerous, but the EU has become used to standing on quicksand throwing rocks at those on shore, threatening them with lawsuits if they don’t come and help them gather rocks. There’s no limit to the illogical nature of their reasoning.

What it has done effectively, though, is it has placed them at odds both with Russia and the United States. This is what happens when local featherweights are given power, any power. They exaggerate their value by their associations with larger organizations until they come to believe that they are the masters of their masters. They become a Rasputin of sorts on the global stage. It’s the same with the WEF, the WHO, etc. If they can corrupt leaders of nations they can effectively control those nations with bribes and threats.

Holdouts like Hungary and Viktor Orban threaten that control. They submit to punishment rather than being bought off and any resistance is characterized as pro-Russian. That Orban has been able to survive the constant drumbeat of harassment from the EU is a miracle and recent polls show that the EU just might win the propaganda war it has unleashed on Orban. If it does, and Orban is defeated in April, it will be the end of Europe as it was once known. They will simply be the Greater Middle East, but with nukes.

That all of this is built on propaganda and censoring opposition views should alarm the world. The tactics are clearly both fascist and communist. The EU is the instigator of violence and world wars, but hold no territory of their own. They are a bureaucratic assembly, nothing more. NATO is the same, yet they preen around like the drivers of world policy, the headmaster to whom all nations must answer.

If the US thought it was safe from the warmongering of the EU it’s mistaken. The EU criticizes Russia and attempts to rally the world against it, just as it criticizes the US and is trying to rally the world against it. They pretend to be the champions of the victimized while they attempt to victimize.

What they should recognize, that the world recognizes already, is that they have used strategery to place themselves on a war footing with both the US and Russia. What they should be worried about, is that they may be the catalyst for a renewed alliance between those two nations against it, their now common enemy.

Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 20:30