LA mayor won't tell Congress how homeless money is spent; prosecutors just did: Tahiti, a nightclub, luxury cars.

“They'll tell you there's no money for a shelter bed, then three people take homeless-services money to Tahiti and put a nightclub tab on it — so where was the money the whole time it wasn't going to the guy on the sidewalk? The mayor won't even go sit in the chair for Congress and answer for the program, but federal prosecutors somehow found every dollar. That's not a scandal, that's the business model, and the rent you're behind on is the ledger they balanced against.”

Sal

“These are three individuals, allegedly, and nobody's put the mayor on a flight manifest to Tahiti, so let's not pretend this is some City Hall conspiracy — it's an isolated fraud case, full stop. And declining a congressional invitation isn't the same as refusing to testify, that's just scheduling — okay, her own lawyer's letter literally says "declining," but that's boilerplate, lawyers write that. Look, DSA endorsing her primary opponent a week before this story broke is what this is actually about, and if you can't see that, that's kind of a you problem.”

Chip

The receipts

The 2025 reconciliation law cut SNAP by $187 billion - the largest cut in the program's history. SNAP feeds one in five American children Congressional Budget Office estimate, via CBPP SNAP tracker

Taxpayer funds meant for LA homeless allegedly spent on Tahiti trip, nightclub, luxury cars: feds

Fox Newsright§14:13 EDT

Three defendants face federal charges in a Los Angeles homeless services fraud crackdown involving alleged wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.

Karen Bass’s own allies fear she is floundering in LA mayor’s race: ‘energy is with Nithya’

New York Postright§13:17 EDT

Bass is also campaigning under the shadow of several controversies from her first term.

· Bass refuses to testify on Los Angeles homelessness before Congress from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026

· Nithya Raman wins Democratic Socialists’ endorsement in bid to unseat LA Mayor Karen Bass from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.