The Labor Department deployed a “strike team” to California to address federal findings of improper payments and alleged fraud within the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) program. California has been found to have a depleted UI trust fund, along with $21 billion in borrowed federal funds to keep the system running — which federal officials say has led state employers to pay higher UI taxes to repay the debt....

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved a disaster declaration for Washington, D.C., over the Potomac River sewage disaster. The declaration will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to step in and provide assistance after a sewer line collapsed in January and dumped millions of gallons of raw filth into the water outlining the nation’s capital. “The President’s action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to...

The Department of Government Efficiency’s release of years of anonymous, open-source Medicaid data was hailed by former DOGE chief Elon Musk as a transparency win that will make fraud “easy to find.” But turning internet sleuthing into prosecutions could prove far harder for the Justice Department— and legally messy. Prosecutors and privacy experts warn the leap from anonymous tips to a courtroom case runs through three choke points:...