Six people were charged Friday in an alleged scheme to divert tens of thousands of dollars in public money to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign months before his election.

The indictment, announced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, does not implicate Adams or other current city employees in the upended plot.

Rather, it describes a straw donor conspiracy orchestrated by people with business before the city who hoped to maximize their donations in exchange for political favors.

Among the defendants are a former NYPD commander who has known the mayor for decades and the owners of a construction safety business that’s currently working on a trash depot on Staten Island.

‘We allege a deliberate scheme to game the system in a blatant attempt to gain power,’ Bragg said in a statement. ‘The New York City Campaign Finance Board program is meant to support our democracy and amplify the voices of New York City voters. When the integrity of that program is corrupted, all New Yorkers suffer.’

Prosecutors said the effort to illegally structure donations was led by Dwayne Montgomery, a former NYPD inspector currently listed as the director of integrity for the Teamsters Local 237, which represents municipal workers.

Montgomery is accused of recruiting friends and relatives to take advantage of the city’s generous matching funds system, which provides an eight-to-one match for the first $250 donated by a city resident.

He allegedly orchestrated more than two dozens straw donations between 2020 and 2021, while also helping to organize fundraisers for Adams. It’s not clear how much money was ultimately steered to the campaign.

Evan Thies, a spokesperson for mayor’s campaign, acknowledged that Adams knew Montgomery ‘socially,’ noting the two served in the NYPD together and later worked on criminal justice issues. However, he denied that the campaign had any knowledge of the scheme.

The indictment also names Shamsuddin Riza, Millicent Redick, and Ronald Peek as helping to organize the illegal donations. Yahya Mushtaq and Shahid Mushtaq, the leaders of EcoSafety Consultants, a construction company with active city contracts, are named as well.

Although New York’s campaign finance rules bar those with business before the city from donating more than $400, prosecutors say the defendants devised a scheme to donate to the campaign under the names of EcoSafety’s employees, without their knowledge.

‘You could use a straw man,’ Riza allegedly told Yahya Mushtaq during a phone call. ‘Whoever’s on the LLC or the incorporation, those are the people that do business with the city. Anybody else is an employee, the employees don’t fall under that criteria.’

Riza, who owns a construction company and was previously charged with falsifying business records, also allegedly indicated that he was hoping to secure work from the city.

‘FYI ! This is the one I want , Safety , Drywall , and Security one project but we all can eat,’ Riza wrote in a July 2021 email to Montgomery in which he sent along the information for a construction project called Vital Brooklyn, prosecutors allege.

A City Hall spokesperson said Adams never discussed city business with any of the defendants, though he said it was likely the mayor and Montgomery had spoken about other matters in passing.

All of the defendants face charges of conspiracy, attempted grand larceny, and making false statements.

Muhammad Ikhlas, a lawyer for Riza, said his client pleaded not guilty on Friday and was released on his own recognizance. He declined to discuss the case further.

Scott Grauman, a lawyer for Shahid Mushtaq and Ecosafety Consultants, Inc., said they would ‘vigorously defend against these charges.’

Lawyers for the other defendants didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Thies, the campaign spokesperson, pledged to work with the campaign finance board and the district attorney as the case proceeds.

‘The campaign always held itself to the highest standards and we would never tolerate these actions,’ he said.

Adams has previously faced scrutiny over his fundraising practices. Earlier this year, he was fined $20,000 by the Campaign Finance Board for violating their rules on accepting donations from people with business before the city and failing to hand over paperwork in a timely manner.

Susan Lerner, the executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause New York, said it was too soon to know if Adams had acted improperly. But she said the indictment was evidence that the city’s public financing system was working as intended.

‘The campaign finance system we have in New York City deliberately makes it harder for people who want to buy influence,’ Lerner said. ‘The lesson here is do not try to game the system because you will be caught.’

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A nonprofit aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars from secret donors in recent years as the New York lawmaker decried dark money in politics, tax forms show.

Majority Forward, an advocacy group that conceals its contributors and has links to the Senate Majority PAC, has seen its war chest exponentially expand by nine figures over the past three years compared to its first three years in operation. 

Between July 2019 and late June 2022, Majority Forward received $271.6 million in anonymous donations, according to a Fox News Digital review of tax forms. The nonprofit, launched in 2015, saw only $69 million in donations from June 2015 to May 2018. 

The $200 million boost over the past three years compared to its first three years came as Schumer and other Democrats ramped up their attacks against Republican dark money operations. The skyrocketing cash also exemplifies Democrats’ increased reliance upon a practice they consistently rail against. 

According to Majority Forward’s most recent tax forms obtained by Fox News Digital, the group raked in $75.2 million between early July 2021 and late June 2022. During this time, it funneled $31.2 million in grants to eight left-wing organizations like Priorities USA, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Americans for Economic Growth, Save My Country Action Fund, Protect Your Vote Nevada, Swing Left and Emily’s List. 

But its biggest recipient was the Senate Majority PAC, which is also aligned with Schumer and works to elect Democrats to Congress’s upper chamber. During the calendar year, the nonprofit doled out $23 million to the PAC, which has consistently received large sums from the group. This means that considerable amounts of secret money have been poured into elections to aid Democrats across the country.

JB Poersch, a long-time Schumer ally, is president of both Majority Forward and Senate Majority PAC. Both groups share office space and personnel, and Majority Forward has put hundreds of thousands toward the PAC for salaries, insurance and IT security, federal filings show.

Schumer, meanwhile, has publicly criticized dark money as Democrats have benefited from it. The Senate majority leader has advocated for legislation against the practice and urged right-leaning judicial groups to identify their backers.

As part of the push, Schumer has championed the For the People Act, which contains provisions to make political nonprofits disclose donors who give more than $10,000. The bill also calls for nonprofits to file disclosure reports to the Federal Election Commission when they drive more than $10,000 into election-related activities.

Schumer, dark money critic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and other Democratic politicians also called on the Judicial Crisis Network, a right-leaning organization, to release a list of donors who provided the group with more than $10,000.

The senators criticized the group for concealing ‘the identity of its donors’ who ‘have contributed tens of millions of dollars used to fund political advertising campaigns in support of nominees like Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.’

The lawmakers made the demand as they reaped the rewards from their own judicial dark money groups, including Demand Justice and the Alliance for Justice. Both groups have undertaken initiatives to influence President Joe Biden on judicial nominations, including with Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson.

Schumer has also regularly assailed dark money on his social media feeds.

‘The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United paved the way for endless dark money in our elections,’ Schumer said last September. ‘The Senate is voting on the DISCLOSE Act because we must cure this cancer of dark money. Every Senator has a choice: Vote for transparency, or stand with the forces of dark money.’

Majority Forward did not respond to a request for comment. 

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voiced support for President Biden in an interview Thursday, though she said the president could have done better in certain areas.

Ocasio-Cortez appeared on the political podcast ‘Pod Save America’ on Thursday, where she was asked for her honest thoughts on the Biden presidency.

‘I think he’s done quite well, given the limitations that we have,’ Ocasio-Cortez said, adding, ‘I do think that there are ebbs and flows as there are in any presidency.’

‘There are areas that I think are quite strong — when he came right out of the gate with the American Rescue Plan, and of course the Inflation Reduction Act was a massive step in terms of our climate agenda.’ 

However, Ocasio-Cortez questioned the enthusiasm of the president — and the entire Democratic Party — on immigration issues.

‘There are also areas that I think could have gone better. The president and I think the Democratic Party in general continues to struggle with immigration. We don’t want to own this issue,’ she said.

‘There are plenty of other issues as well,’ she continued. ‘Even with what is happening with asylees — the ability to grant people basic work authorization so that they can work while they are going through their legal processing. There is [an] enormous amount of political resistance to that.’

Ocasio-Cortez has been a tepid supporter for Biden since his election in 2020. In the Democratic Party’s primary, she backed fellow democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders.

She has, until now, refrained from saying she will support the president in a 2024 Democratic primary. 

In her Thursday interview, she noted that she would back Biden out of the current line-up of candidates.

‘So, president’s only primary opponents are Marianne Williamson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Haven’t been any rumors about anyone else even thinking of jumping in. Will you be supporting Joe Biden for re-election?’ asked ‘Pod Save America’ host Jon Favreau asked.

‘I believe, given that field, yes,’ Ocasio-Cortez replied.

Democrats attempted to take aim at Montana Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy for a potential conflict of interest claim, while ignoring incumbent Sen. Jon Tester — who helped pass a farm bill that benefited his own business.

Bloomberg reported Friday that Sheehy’s fire fighting aviation company, which holds many government contracts, could present a conflict of interest if he’s elected in 2024. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) amplified the report. 

A spokesperson for Sheehy told Fox News Digital he would step down from his CEO role if elected to the Senate next cycle. Meanwhile, Tester, who currently owns farmland worth up to $5 million according to his financial disclosures, voted for legislation in 2018 that would provide $400 billion in taxpayer subsidies and expanded support for organic farming, which is core to his own operation. He also has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm subsidies over the past three decades.

‘It’s surprising to see Democrats attack Tim Sheehy over his firefighting business when Jon Tester has voted for farming subsidies that benefit himself and his family,’ Maggie Abboud, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Fox News Digital.

Senate ethics rules prohibit senators and their staff from engaging ‘in any outside business or professional activity or employment for compensation which is inconsistent or in conflict with the conscientious performance of official duties.’ Tester did not answer Fox News Digital’s question regarding whether his subsidies represent an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Tester’s farm, T-Bone Farms, has received $458,064 in subsidies from 1995 to 2021 in commodity subsidies and disaster-related payments, according to the Environmental Working Group, which collates public Department of Agriculture data. Additionally, Tester has received around $283,288 federal subsidies listed under his own name. That total includes roughly $6,000 Tester receives annually for conservation payments — used to reimburse farmers for leaving land unfarmed for ecological reasons.

Tester has been criticized for voting on major farm legislation every six years while directly benefiting from the policies and subsidies contained there. 

‘As the only working dirt farmer in the U.S. Senate, Jon Tester knows firsthand the challenges Montana farmers and ranchers face, which is why he’s fighting for programs that make sure Montana farmers can continue to feed America,’ Tester’s campaign told Fox when asked about the subsidies.

Farmers who take agriculture subsidies may not run afoul of congressional ethics rules — even though officials in the federal government agencies would be breaking the law if they were in a similar situation, according to Walter Shaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration.

‘If they were executive branch employees, participating in a benefits or welfare program for farmers like this would be a crime for someone receiving payments,’ Shaub told Politico earlier this year. ‘But there are no meaningful conflict of interest laws applicable to members of Congress. They know it’s wrong, which is why they criminalized it for executive branch employees, but members of Congress have always held themselves above the law,’ said Shaub, senior ethics fellow at the Project on Government Oversight. 

While the Farm Bill received wide bipartisan support, some Senators expressed concern over potential conflict of interests between members like Tester, whose net worth increased by about $5 million during his time in the U.S. Senate.

Democrat farmer Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, expressed discomfort with the bill, specifically with the ‘loopholes’ in the bill that allowed family members of farm owners to collect subsidies.

After its passage, Grassley slammed the ‘loopholes’ that allowed distant family to receive subsidies ‘without any new requirements that they actually have to work.’ 

‘To say I’m disappointed the bill makes more subsidies available to the wealthiest farmers and many non-farmers is a severe understatement. Especially when the impact of large farmers being allowed to manipulate the system is that young and beginning farmers face even larger hurdles,’ Grassley said in 2018 after the bill passed. ‘Today, we have a Farm Bill that is intentionally written to help the largest farmers receive unlimited subsidies from the federal government. There is no other way to characterize what the conference committee has done.’

The latest version of the Farm Bill, passed in 2018, reauthorized and extended federal farm and nutrition programs through fiscal 2023, including crop subsidies.

According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data from 2021, Tester has a net worth between $1,768,009 and $6,695,000, which is partially made up of the value of his farmland and associated assets he owns. 

Tester, who is running for re-election in red-state Montana, previously blasted ‘multi-millionaires’ who he claimed didn’t ‘understand what a hard day’s work looks like,’ dispute the Federal Election Commission (FEC) data from 2021 reporting the Senator has a net worth between $1,768,009 and $6,695,000.

Sheehy, who announced a run against Tester in June, co-founded Bridger Aerospace, an aviation company that has a fleet of aircraft that scoop water to fight wildfires and multiple contracts with the federal government. Bloomberg News reported last week that Sheehy would likely face ethics issues in Congress, but the Republican candidate plans to step down as CEO and board member to adhere to ethics rules.

‘There are genuine conflicts of interest if he is receiving funds and government contracts,’ Craig Holman of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen told Bloomberg. ‘Those are the types of issues that not only the executive branch, but Congress also deals with.’

Katie Martin, spokeswoman for Sheehy, told Fox News Digital that ‘when Tim Sheehy is elected to the U.S. Senate, he will fully comply with Senate ethics rules and standards of conduct.’

‘Tim believes his private sector business experience of founding and running companies across multiple industries to include aerospace, technology and agriculture can bring a unique perspective to Washington,’ Martin said in a statement. ‘As a fiscal conservative, Tim’s top priorities include getting spending under control, reducing waste and making government more efficient, so it runs like a business.’

Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

The Democrat-led movement to lower the legal voting age to 16 — or in some cases even younger — is gaining momentum as teenagers and other activists seek to score local victories while winning the support of some voices in the media.

The so-called ‘Vote 16’ campaign recently notched a victory in Vermont, where the Democrat-controlled state legislature last month overrode Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of a measure allowing 16-year-olds to vote in municipal elections and hold the highest elected offices.

Specifically, 16- and 17-year-olds can now vote in the southern Vermont town of Brattleboro. Young voters will be able not only to vote in local elections but also to serve on the community’s selectboard if elected. They can also be representatives to the town’s annual town meeting, where local issues are decided.

Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, a Democrat from Brattleboro, said last week that getting more young people to vote will help keep them politically involved.

‘Vermont is an aging state and we’re a state that really prides ourself on democracy and participation,’ said Kornheiser, according to the Associated Press. ‘I think the more we can do to bring youth into that process so that they learn the skills and practice the skills of participation and politics with sort of a lower case ‘p’ the stronger our communities will be and the more I think folks will feel tied to their communities.’

Scott had vetoed the bill in late May, arguing in part that it would worsen inconsistencies in Vermont law on the age of adulthood

‘I believe it is important to encourage young Vermonters to have an interest in issues affecting their schools, their communities, their state, and their country,’ he wrote in a letter to lawmakers. ‘However, I do not support lowering the voting age in Brattleboro, nor lowering the age to run for Town office and sign contracts on behalf of taxpayers.’

In Missouri, meanwhile, a statewide group is lobbying to lower the voting age for local and school board elections to 16.

DJ Yearwood, the teenager leading the effort, recently launched the Vote16MO campaign, which advocates for Missouri lowering the voting age to 16. Vote16MO is working with Missouri lawmakers to introduce legislation in the next session. According to Yearwood, the bill has both a Republican and a Democratic sponsor, but he said he couldn’t reveal them yet. He hopes to see a measure to lower the voting age measure on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in next year’s elections.

‘We’re asking 16-year-olds to take this government class and to do this one small unit on local government, and then save it for two years and apply it to their lives,’ Yearwood told St. Louis Public Radio in a recent interview. ‘We could be doing it right now, while it’s intimate and impactful to them the most.’

Yearwood also thinks lowering the voting age would help with teenagers’ transition to adulthood and teach young people to approach politics without the influence of political parties.

‘In the current system, 18-year-olds are launched into the political process at all levels, all party politics,’ he said. ‘They have no chance to really digest what governance is [without] party politics.’

Yearwood argues that lowering the voting age would strengthen civic education and engagement and that not letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote amounts to ‘taxation without representation’ since teens can also work and pay taxes.

However, Vote16MO’s campaign doesn’t have the support of Missouri’s top election official, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. 

‘What if a 14-year-old is working on the family farm earning money? Are we saying that they should be voting?’ he asked St. Louis Public Radio. ‘I think it’s reasonable to say we want you to be a little bit older, we want you to have a little bit more of the level of responsibility that other people have.’

Beyond Missouri, the push to allow underage children to vote has prompted outcry and legal challenges from election experts opposed to the effort.

‘It is an extremely unwise push to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote,’ Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation told Fox News Digital. ‘We don’t consider them to have the judgment and maturity to make important decisions, which is why they are not legally adults and can’t sign contracts, lease an apartment, buy a car, join the military, drink alcohol, or do the many other things only adults can legally do. Why would we think they have the maturity to make decisions in the political process if they can’t make any of these other decisions?’

Critics of lowering the voting age often cite the fact that a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed, not reaching full development until about the age of 25. According to one oft-cited study on this subject from 2006, ‘research in neuroscience suggests that the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is still undergoing major reconstruction and development during the teenage years.’ The study noted that the prefrontal cortex is what ‘enables us to weigh dilemmas, balance trade-offs, and, in short, make reasonable decisions in politics.’

Amid the push to lower the voting age, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently proposed amending the Constitution to raise the voting age from 18 to 25. However, the other side of the momentum seems to be gaining momentum.

Vermont and Missouri are hardly alone in undergoing campaigns to lower the voting age. In New Mexico, for example, two Democrats introduced a bill earlier this year to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to register as voters starting in 2024.

In Oregon, meanwhile, 15-year-old high school sophomore Devon Lawson-McCourt recently ‘secured a promise’ from Democratic state Rep. Rob Nosse to propose an amendment to the state constitution giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

Coming back to the east coast, the Boston City Council late last year approved a petition allowing 16- and 17-year-old residents to vote in municipal elections. The Massachusetts town of Southborough in March similarly approved a petition lowering the voting age for residents to 17. Both measures must pass the state legislature to be implemented.

Just last month, the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Election Laws heard testimony from advocates and lawmakers speaking in favor of different bills to lower and even outright eliminate the voting age for some elections.

‘Only with suffrage are social groups able to hold their governments truly accountable to their needs,’ John Wall, a professor of childhood studies at Rutgers University, told the committee. ‘It is incorrect and discriminatory to apply to children the need for voting capacities when we don’t apply such capacities to adults. All adults have the right to vote, even if they have severe dementia, cognitive disabilities, illiteracy, or just plain stupidity.’

Two cities in California — Oakland and Berkley — and five others in Maryland — Takoma Park, Hyattsville, Greenbelt, Riverdale Park, and Mount Rainer — already permit 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections. (Alameda County, where Oakland and Berkeley are located, has yet to implement the measure in either city.)

Another area of Maryland pushing to lower the voting age is Howard County, where the Board of Education is composed of eight members, including one reserved for a student elected by their peers in grades six through 11. Sixth graders are typically 11 or 12 years old.

Across the Potomac, a Virginia Democrat submitted a bill last year to be introduced in the 2023 General Assembly for a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age for local elections to 16.

‘If we can get 16- and 17-year-old’s the ability to vote in at least local elections, it will empower them to think about their civil responsibility,’ said Delegate Sam Rasoul, who argued young people don’t have a sufficient say despite being affected by important decisions.

In Culver City, Calif., meanwhile, a ballot initiative to allow residents as young as 16 to vote in city and school board elections fell short in last year’s midterm elections. However, proponents of the Vote 16 movement were encouraged.

‘The movement continues to grow in interest and strength,’ Andrew Wilkes of the group Generation Citizen told the Los Angeles Times. ‘This lays the groundwork for the baton to be passed to rising high school students.’

At the federal level, Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., introduced legislation in January to amend the Constitution to make 16 the national minimum voting age.

‘Over the past few years, we have seen the influence young people in our nation have on trends, political movements, and elections,’ Meng said at the time. ‘They continue to advocate for many crucial issues for which they are deeply passionate about. It is time to give them a voice in our democracy and reward their passion so that their voices are heard at the ballot box. 16- and 17-year-olds are legally permitted to work, drive, and they also pay federal income taxes. They are contributing members of our society and I believe it is right and fair to allow them to vote in our elections.’

Critics contend such arguments disguise the chief motive of those in power pushing this effort: gaining more votes.

‘Why would officials suddenly consider that minors have the ability and judgment to make important political decisions when they don’t trust them to make any of these other decisions [such as signing a contract or serving on a jury]?’ von Spakovksy asked Just the News last year. ‘Nothing other than politics and the belief it will somehow help them get elected. This is a crass motive and a betrayal of all of their other constituents and particularly voters whose votes will be diluted by children.’

A near-record 27% of voters aged 18 to 29 cast ballots in last year’s midterm elections, the second-highest turnout in three decades, according to an analysis of exit poll data by Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Across the country, these young voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats over Republicans.

In 2021, 125 House Democrats voted in favor of an amendment to the For the People Act, which included several Democrat-backed election rule changes, to add a provision to the legislation lowering the voting age for federal elections to 16.

Vote16USA, a group pushing for the voting age to be lowered to 16, argues it’s important to make voting a ‘habit’ for life, 16- and 17-year-olds are ready to vote and deserve a ‘stake in the game,’ and lowering the voting age will ‘strengthen civics education.’

In recent months, several prominent media outlets — such as CNN and Rolling Sone, in addition to more local publications — have published opinion pieces advocating for lowering the voting age to 16.

The Maine Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a proposal to expand access to abortions later in pregnancy, sending the bill to the governor for her signature.

Once signed into law by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, as expected, Maine will have one of the least restrictive abortion laws in the country.

Current state law bans abortions after a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks, but allows an exception if the patient’s life is at risk. The bill would allow abortions at any time if deemed medically necessary by a doctor.

The Senate enacted the bill 20-11 on Thursday, sending it to the governor’s desk.

Democrats control both chambers of the Maine Legislature but that didn’t prevent emotional debate over the proposal, with opponents regularly appearing in the State House to make their voices heard.

Some opponents of the bill said it goes too far, allowing a major expansion of abortions and putting too much trust in doctors to say when the procedure is appropriate. Supporters said the bill would apply to patients only in rare instances in which patients learn later in pregnancy that the fetus won’t survive.

Republican Sen. Eric Brakey of Auburn said Thursday it was difficult to understand why other lawmakers didn’t include language requiring doctors to make a fatal diagnosis, and he expressed concern about the bill’s language being ‘used as a pretext for something much bigger.’

He didn’t clarify further, and urged the bill’s supporters to vote it down.

But Democratic Sen. Anne Carney of Cape Elizabeth said the bill was about showing compassion for people in a difficult circumstances.

‘There’s no pretext,’ Carney said. ‘What the bill is really about is ensuring that women and families get the most compassionate health care they can — and the most accurate, medically necessary health care within the medical standards of care, in these tragic circumstances.’

Currently, only six other states leave the decision to get an abortion to doctors and their patients, without restrictions. They are Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont, plus Washington, D.C.

Abortions later in pregnancy are rare. Nationally, about 1% happen after 21 weeks, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallies, which do not have full data from every state.

Mills said during her reelection campaign last year that she was content with the existing abortion law but since then, she changed her mind.

In January, the governor was joined by legislative leaders in unveiling a proposal to expand abortion access in response to the story of a Maine woman who had to travel to Colorado for an abortion after discovering 32 weeks into her pregnancy that the fetus would not survive outside the womb.

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The Maine Legislature on Thursday approved a budget addendum that includes a program allowing workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave to deal with illness, to care for a relative or for the birth of a child.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has said she would sign the budget which includes startup costs for the paid family and medical leave program. It also includes an income tax cut for retirees and other provisions.

‘It’s not a perfect budget, but it’s a good budget. And it’s a bipartisan budget,’ said Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, a co-chair of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.

The House vote fell short of a two-thirds majority needed for it to take effective immediately, so the new spending provisions would go into effect in 90 days.

The Democratic-led Legislature already approved a nearly $10 billion essential services budget along party lines in March to avert any late attempt to use a shutdown as a bargaining tactic. That budget went into effect July 1 with the new fiscal year.

The votes on Thursday were for additional proposals and amounted to about $800 million in additional spending.

That includes $25 million in startup costs for the paid leave proposal that would be funded through a payroll tax split between workers and employers and capped at 1% of wages. The benefits could be paid out for qualifying conditions, such as the birth or adoption of a child, a serious illness, care for a sick relative or transition from military deployment.

Key to the bipartisan support were several tax-related proposals including one that raised the amount of pension income that’s exempt from state income taxes from $30,000 to $35,000.

Lawmakers also included money to double an existing $200 wage stipend for childcare workers, as well as funding for the governor’s proposed Dirigo Business Tax Incentive Plan, which would replace the existing Pine Tree Development Zones.

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Hunter Biden’s daughter out of wedlock could be at risk of severe psychological harm due to the Biden family’s rejection of her, experts tell Fox News Digital.

Hunter’s daughter with ex-stripper Lunden Roberts has been an ongoing source of controversy for the first family, but the way they have handled it has drawn criticism. 

President Biden refuses to acknowledge his seventh grandchild’s existence, consistently saying publicly that he has six grandchildren, not seven. The president has reportedly gone so far as to instruct his staffers to repeat that. 

Hunter, for his part, has refused to let his daughter take his last name and has gone to court to lower his child support payments to Roberts. He has reportedly never met his daughter with Roberts. 

Fox News Digital asked several child psychologists about the psychological and emotional impact of a child being rejected by a family. 

‘If a birth parent or family member does not respond to, or denies, their child’s existence, this can trigger feelings of abandonment and grief,’ clinical psychologist Dr. Staci Weiner told Fox News Digital.

‘Children, in their natural and developmentally age-appropriate narcissism, believe what happens in the world is about them,’ Weiner continued. ‘For example, ‘Why would my family reject me or not allow me to take the name unless I was bad?’

‘The child may feel shame and insecurity due to the rejection, thinking it was their fault in some way,’ she added. ‘This can result in poor self-worth, leading to difficulties in forming attachments, specifically, when deciding when to trust others in relationships.’ 

Dr. Roy Lubit, a former child psychiatry resident supervisor at the NYU School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry, told Fox News Digital the ‘impact on a child of a father (and his family) not wanting contact with a child and not wanting to recognize the connection to a child depends upon how the mother handles it.’

‘If the mother says that the child’s father did not know the child existed until recently and the mother and father agreed it was in the best interests of the child for the child to have one home, and when the child is an adult he can approach the father if the child wishes, it is not likely to cause any significant harm, or even any harm,’  Lubit added.

‘If the mother tells a young child and makes it widely known publicly that the child is the biological child of a member of a prominent family and they are rejecting to the child, the child is at risk for dysphoric emotions and suffering damage to self-esteem and fears of rejection and abandonment in the future.’

While dating his brother’s widow in 2017, Hunter briefly shacked up with Washington D.C.-area stripper Roberts, who was then operating under the stage name ‘Dallas.’

Roberts become pregnant shortly after her encounter with the younger Biden and gave birth to their daughter in August 2018. 

In May 2019, Roberts filed a paternity suit against Hunter Biden that was resolved in June of this year. As part of the deal, the younger Biden’s daughter will receive several pieces of art and a reduced monthly child support payment but will not get to take the Biden family name.

The president has gotten flak for the decision to not publicly acknowledge his granddaughter amid the highly-publicized custody battle, especially as he talks about his other grandchildren.

White House Christmas decorations included stockings for all the president’s other grandchildren, as well as his pets, but none for Hunter’s daughter with Roberts. 

Additionally, White House aides have been told during strategy meetings that the president and first lady Jill Biden have six, not seven, grandchildren, two people familiar with the discussions told The New York Times earlier this month.

The White House once again refused to respond to questions about the president’s seventh grandchild during Wednesday’s press conference, earning more backlash from social media.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked specifically about a Saturday New York Times story about 4-year-old Navy Joan Roberts and whether the president considers her his granddaughter.

‘There was a story in The New York Times over the weekend about Hunter Biden’s daughter in Arkansas. Does the president acknowledge this little girl as his granddaughter?’ Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey asked.

‘I don’t have anything to share from here,’ Jean-Pierre replied.

This interaction marked the second time Jean-Pierre refused to answer a question about Biden’s grandchild, and she faced intense pushback on Twitter.

Hunter Biden’s daughter is living in rural Arkansas with her mother and that side of the family.

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar and Lindsay Kornick contributed reporting.

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The New York Times is calling into question a story from New York City Mayor Eric Adams that he has carried a photo of a fallen officer in his wallet for decades.

Since taking office last year, Adams has repeated an anecdote about fallen police colleague and friend Robert Venable, who was fatally shot in 1987. The mayor told the media during his first month in office last year that he ‘still thinks about Robert’ and has kept the officer’s photo in his wallet. 

Adams is a former transit officer who rose through the ranks of the NYPD to captain before he was elected Brooklyn Borough president and then mayor of the city in 2021. 

A report published Thursday by the Times, however, cast doubt on the mayor’s story, reporting that the photo ‘had not actually spent decades in the mayor’s wallet.’

Just days after Adams first publicly mentioned the fallen officer last year, City Hall employees were reportedly instructed to recreate a worn-looking photo of Venable, a person familiar with the request told the newspaper. An employee reportedly printed a black-and-white photo of the officer off of Google and spilled coffee on it to make it look as aged as possible.  

Two unidentified former City Hall aides confirmed to the outlet they were informed about the altered photo last year, according to the Times.

The mayor additionally posed for the camera last year while holding the photo after a Times reporter requested to see the image. 

Adams’ press secretary Fabien Levy has slammed the report as a ‘campaign to paint the mayor as a liar.

‘The Times’ efforts to attack the mayor here would be laughable if it were not so utterly offensive,’ he said in a statement this week.

Levy directed Fox News Digital on Thursday to his office’s full response to the report, which highlighted that ‘multiple members of Officer Venable’s family today came out to criticize The New York Times’ effort to create a divide between Mayor Adams and the Venable family.’ The family members cited in the city’s response include Venable’s sister and niece as well as his daughter, Januari Venable, who was 8 years old when her dad died.

‘I don’t remember most of the people who were there for my family, but in the 36 years since I lost my father, Eric Adams has been there, even after the cameras were gone,’ Januari Venable, said. ‘Eric personally drove me and my family to Fourth of July fireworks in the past, and when I called him last minute to attend a memorial for my father, the mayor was there.

‘When the mayor met my son at that very memorial, he immediately recognized my dad’s smile. Like I told the Times, if the mayor can do some good by using my father’s story to get more guns off the street, I am happy for him to do so,’ she added in her statement provided in the city press release.

The Times, however, reported that Januari Venable ‘said that she did not recall ever meeting Mr. Adams until this year’ and was surprised to learn this past spring he carried a photo of her dad.

Meredith Benson, Venable’s niece, took to Twitter on Thursday to say she was ‘appalled & furious’ with the New York Times over the coverage. 

‘They should apologize to my family for making us relive this trauma,’ she tweeted. ‘Robert Venable was a victim of gun violence & I applaud the Mayor 4 honoring their friendship by calling attention to its impact.’

Levy said in a statement that Adams and Venable, along with other officers in the late 1980s, ‘were close friends before Officer Venable’s murder, and any implication otherwise is patently false.’

‘Countless members of the Police Department can verify their friendship that started as two officers who were coming up in the force together, at a time when few Black leaders had positions of power in the Police Department,’ Levy said. 

The Times did report that five officers who rose in the NYPD ranks around the same time as Adams and Venable said the pair were friends. 

‘There weren’t many young Black officers,’ former officer Randolph Blenman told the outlet. ‘Those of us who came on after the fiscal crisis of the 1970s – we basically stuck together.’

A spokesperson for the New York Times told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the mayor’s office has not denied the crux of the story. 

‘The mayor and his office don’t deny the story’s main point: that the photo he showed to reporters and claimed to have carried for decades was made by aides, who took steps to age its appearance,’ spokesperson Brian Latu said. 

Adams more recently publicly discussed Venable twice in April of last year, and also showed the photo at a Police Academy ceremony last June.

‘I understand the pain,’ Adams told News 12 at the time, according to the New York Post. ‘I carry around a picture of Robert Venable, my close friend, that was shot several years ago during my early days of police, and I always have Robert’s picture. The pain never dissipates.’

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Federal disaster funding has been made available to North Dakota to deal with damages caused by major spring flooding following record snowfall.

The money became available on Wednesday, when President Joe Biden approved North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s request for a presidential major disaster declaration.

Affected counties reported about $4.1 million in flood-related damages, but Burgum’s office estimates damage to roads, culverts and other infrastructure at more than $5 million; some counties did not meet the per-capita damage threshold to be included the disaster request, the governor’s office said.

The disaster declaration covers 21 counties in the state for the period from April 10 to May 6.

The 2022-23 winter in North Dakota was one of the snowiest, including double the average snowfall in Bismarck, which saw its second-snowiest winter on record, according to National Weather Service Senior Forecaster Jeff Schild. Bismarck’s snow reports date back to 1886.

Biden also granted the governor’s request to make federal funding available for flood mitigation projects statewide.

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