A New York City entrepreneur who illegally sold marijuana at a dozen shops across Manhattan must pay more than $400,000 in taxes and proceeds from illicit sales of cannabis, as part of a crackdown on the thousands of unlicensed operations across the city.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that business owner Rami Alzandani would not face litigation as part of a non-prosecution agreement. He can keep his stores open but can no longer sell cannabis products.

The state of New York’s Office of Cannabis Management has now issued more than 250 licenses for entrepreneurs to open storefronts to sell cannabis in all of its forms, including edibles, flowers and vapes.

Azandani must pay $103,000 in restitution to the state Department of Tax and Finance and must also forfeit an additional $300,000 in illegal proceeds, the district attorney’s office said.

Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the seizure of $11 million worth of illicit products from 33 storefronts during a recent sweep of unlicensed stores in New York City, Ithaca and Binghamton.

Since New York legalized recreational marijuana two years ago, relatively few of the stores that have received licenses to operate have opened, allowing illicit shops to continue to prosper.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that public safety is undermined ‘when there is such a huge proliferation of unlicensed and unregulated storefronts selling cannabis products that have not been properly inspected.’

His office said that it is pursuing other criminal investigations and is ‘in active conversations’ with landlords to evict shops in violation of state law.

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Financier George Soros and his son Alex provided maximum donations to President Biden’s campaign during the second quarter, filings show.

The father and son duo each cut $6,600 checks to Biden’s re-election committee on June 30, according to its recently released records. The cash represents their first jump into the 2024 presidential election. 

Neither has given money to Biden’s Victory Fund so far this cycle – which carries astronomical contribution limits – though that will presumably change as the election draws closer. 

Both George and Alex Soros will likely provide considerable amounts directly to Biden’s re-election efforts and support outside super PACs backing his candidacy after helping to propel him during the 2020 elections.

During the last presidential race, Alex Soros provided the Biden Victory Fund with over $720,000, while George Soros added more than $500,000 to the committee’s coffers. The two also maxed out donations to Biden’s campaign that election cycle.

The newest Biden donations occurred weeks after George Soros announced he had handed Alex control of his massive Open Society Foundations network, which funnels large sums to left-wing initiatives across the country.

Alex, meanwhile, has maintained a direct pipeline to Biden’s White House and has visited at least 20 times since he took office, Fox News Digitial previously reported. He’s also posted recent photos with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Soros’ spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the donations.

The House last week passed a defense policy bill that strongly encourages the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence to its advantage, but also requires defense officials to examine how America’s national security infrastructure may be vulnerable to AI systems deployed by China, Russia and other adversaries.

Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., pushed to include language in the bill requiring an assessment of AI vulnerabilities, and watched it pass easily on the House floor. That’s a strong sign the language will remain in the final bill even after a negotiation with the Senate, and Molinaro told Fox News Digital that this assessment is needed in the face of ever-evolving AI capabilities.

‘The average person knows at least the rudimentary use of AI. China, terrorists, Russia are using AI in a much more sophisticated way, certainly as aggressors,’ he told Fox news Digital.

‘DOD has to catch up,’ he added. ‘We have to as a government advance ourselves in an effective way to protect the American people, and we know that AI is the next platform of military interaction that can be weaponized.’

Molinaro’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requires the Defense Department to identify ‘potential vulnerabilities in the military systems and infrastructure of the United States that could be exploited by adversarial artificial intelligence applications’ used by China, Russia and others.

This addition passed easily in a voice vote, signaling clear support from both Republicans and Democrats. Molinaro said forcing DOD to look at itself in the mirror is critical in part because AI is evolving so quickly.

‘I am well aware that DOD is aware of the capacity and certainly the steps that others are taking to make use of AI, but we have to be very specific as to what are the vulnerabilities and how do we react, respond and protect ourselves from it,’ he said.

‘AI evolves, that’s the point, and so we have to evolve with it,’ he added.

Molinaro’s language in a sense requires a defensive posture at the Pentagon, in a bill that otherwise encourages the offensive use of AI. Among other things, the bill encourages the Navy to incorporate AI into its logistics plan, pushes the Army to develop autonomous combat vehicles and asks the whole department to research how AI can be used to bolster U.S. national security.

The House is also looking at spending bills that encourage other national security agencies to use AI in everything from routine office work to managing port security. But Molinaro’s language requires officials to examine where foreign AI systems post a ‘real national security risk.’

While there has been talk all year of a comprehensive bill to regulate AI, Molinaro said he and many other members clearly support the idea of making sure the U.S. is not waiting for that bill before it explores how to use AI to its national security advantage.

‘We’re certainly well aware that AI can be used as an effective tool and must be used as an effective tool,’ he said. ‘The base text of the NDAA acknowledges that, and I support that.’

His amendment to the bill could also be an early glimpse at how Congress ultimately regulates AI. Instead of chasing after a grand regulatory framework, Congress might instead take smaller bites when it can, an idea Molinaro supports.

‘I do think that too often… we think too broadly and accomplish very little,’ he said. ‘We may end up incrementally getting there, which sometimes gets us to the goal much quicker than negotiating some broad piece of action that will often get shelved.’

A new report published by the Manhattan Institute threw cold water on the purported climate and cost benefits of electric vehicles (EVs) widely touted by lawmakers and automakers.

Overall, the rapid electrification of the U.S. transportation sector would increase consumer costs, make the electric grid more vulnerable to blackouts, threaten national security and may not even lead to fewer greenhouse gas emissions, according to the paper titled ‘Electric Vehicles for Everyone? The Impossible Dream’ and authored by Manhattan Institute senior fellow Mark Mills.

‘I think it’s morally consequential. It’s geopolitically consequential and socially, economically consequential,’ Mills told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘The subsidies and the mandates run the risk of causing maybe the biggest misallocation of capital in modern times in the industrial markets. Hundreds of billions of dollars are going to be spent chasing these mandates, requirements.’ 

‘And it won’t, as the report shows, it won’t achieve the goals intended and the attempt to do so will have enormous economic and social costs because the underlying premises are either incorrect, too poorly understood or too difficult to quantify in order to take the actions that are being taken,’ he continued.

Mills said the government push to aggressively electrify the transportation sector over the coming years is based on the premises that it will both help the environment by lowering economy-wide carbon emissions and help save consumers money through lower fueling costs while keeping car prices co-equal with current prices.

However, Mills’ report highlights that emissions and costs are subject a wide range of conditions. 

‘It depends on when and where you charge the vehicle,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘Then you have to add to that, the emissions that occur before you get the vehicle in your driveway for the first time because all vehicles entail CO2 emissions associated with the energy you use to build the vehicle. You use of materials and machines to build everything.’ 

‘For an internal combustion engine, something on the order of 15 to 20% of the emissions that is associated with the vehicle over its lifetime of operating occur before you drive it,’ he continued. ‘With an electric vehicle, the share of emissions range from 15% to 100% of total lifecycle emissions. And they’re far greater than the conventional vehicle because you’re building a fuel tank, a battery, on difficult-to-acquire metals.’

Mills added that there are ‘realistic scenarios’ where driving an electric vehicle will cause greater global emissions than driving an internal combustion engine.

His report, meanwhile, comes as lawmakers at the federal and state level continue to take aim at traditional gas-powered vehicles while boosting EVs. 

In December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized rules targeting heavy-duty trucks that it said at the time were the ‘strongest-ever national clean air standards to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions’ from such vehicles. The new standards went into effect on March 27 and will be implemented for new trucks sold after 2027.

Then, in April, the EPA proposed the most aggressive federal tailpipe emissions targeting light- and medium-duty emissions ever crafted. If finalized and implemented, a staggering 67% of new sedan, crossover, SUV and light truck; up to 50% of bus and garbage truck; 35% of short-haul freight tractor; and 25% of long-haul freight tractor purchases could be electric by 2032, the White House projected.

The EPA also reinstated in March 2022 California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to implement its own emission standards and electric vehicle sales mandates, allowing other states to also adopt California’s rules. 

Months later, in August, the California Air Resources Board, a leading state environmental agency, approved regulations mandating that all car purchases in the state — which leads the country in annual car sales — are zero emissions by 2035. Overall, it is estimated that the nearly 20 states set to adopt California’s regulations represent more than 40% of total U.S. car purchases.

‘Ultimately, if implemented, bans on conventionally powered vehicles will lead to draconian impediments to affordable and convenient driving and a massive misallocation of capital in the world’s $4 trillion automotive industry,’ Mills wrote in his report.

‘Imagining a hypothetical all-EV world requires acknowledging the unavoidable fact of a rats’ nest of assumptions, guesses, and ambiguities regarding emissions,’ he concluded. ‘Much of the necessary data may never be collectible in any normal regulatory fashion, given the technical uncertainties and the variety and opacity of geographic factors, as well as the proprietary nature of many of the processes.’

‘Those uncertainties could lead to havoc if U.S. and European regulators enshrine ‘green disclosures’ in legally binding ways, and it all will be subject to manipulation, if not fraud.’

FIRST ON FOX: Two House Republicans are demanding that the Biden administration release Climate Envoy John Kerry’s flight records to determine how much was spent on military flights and the carbon emissions from any travel he took on private jets.

Kerry is facing a new wave GOP-led criticism after a congressional hearing last week where he insisted he ‘personally’ has ‘never owned a private jet’ but admitted to taking five military flights since joining the Biden administration.

‘As you know, chartered Military Aircraft (MILAIR) flights are much more costly than flying commercial, and the use of such flights by past presidential cabinet officials have drawn heavy scrutiny for its abuse of taxpayer allocated funds,’ Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, was co-led by GOP Reps. Brian Mast and Cory Mills of Florida.

‘SPE Kerry testified in that hearing  that, ‘I have flown five times in the last two-and-a-half years on MILAIR.’ What were the exceptional circumstances that required the use of this aircraft?’ the lawmakers asked.

The letter also questioned Kerry’s admission during the hearing that he used a private jet ‘maybe once’ in his current role as climate envoy.

‘Was this flight in his official role?’ it asked. ‘If so, did the State Department consider the carbon emissions of private jet use when approving this travel, particularly in light of SPE Kerry’s current mandate?’

‘Kerry also agreed to hand over all his official travel records. This is very welcome, since State’s perceived lack of transparency on his activity has been a key area of concern for my colleagues and I on the committee,’ the letter stated. ‘Not only is there no website for SPE Kerry’s office on the official State Department web page, but the identities of his staff – from the most senior to the most junior – were completely unknown before our hearing on July 13.’

‘Therefore, we request that you turn over all flight records including commercial, MILAIR, and private travel that were paid with federal funds since the beginning of Special Envoy Kerry’s tenure by August 1, 2023. We also request you turn over Special Envoy Kerry meeting records with foreign officials since he took office as special envoy,’ the wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Kerry at the State Department for an estimate of how much his five MILAIR flights would have cost.

In his letter, Waltz pointed to past reporting that accused Trump administration Health Secretary Tom Price of using MILAIR flights for multiple multi-national trips at a $500,000 cost to taxpayers.

At last week’s House hearing, Kerry fumed that the claim he used a private jet to conduct official business ‘one of the most outrageously persistent lies that I hear.’

But while he claimed to never personally owned a private jet, a Fox News Digital report from last year found that Kerry’s family jet, which has since been sold, made more than 60 trips between President Biden’s swearing in and the time of publishing.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan,  R-Ohio, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday alleging that the FBI has failed to comply with congressional subpoenas and warning to take action if they do not follow through by next week. 

The letter specifically cited two subpoenas sent by the committee, one that was ‘Regarding School Board-related Threats’ and its subpoena on ‘Catholic Domain Perspective.’

In the letter, Jordan called the FBI’s actions ‘unacceptable’ and set a new date and time — noon on July 25, 2023 — for the requested materials. If the FBI does not deliver, the committee ‘will take action’ such as holding Wray in contempt of Congress, he said.

‘To date, the FBI’s compliance with these subpoenas has been wholly inadequate and has materially impeded the Committee’s oversight efforts,’ Jordan said in the letter, dated July 17. ‘After several accommodations, months of persistent outreach by the Committee, and attempts to negotiate and work with the FBI in good faith, we write to notify you that if the FBI does not improve its compliance substantially, the Committee will take action—such as the initiation of contempt of Congress proceedings—to obtain compliance with these subpoenas.’

The first subpoena mentioned in the letter concerns FBI surveillance of parents at school board meetings in Virginia who expressed outrage over changes to schools’ curriculums, the promotion of race-based education and the district allegedly covering up sexual misconduct.

‘The Committee on the Judiciary is continuing its oversight of the programs and operations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Of particular interest to the Committee is the FBI’s weaponization of its law-enforcement powers against Americans who exercise their First Amendment rights. On February 3, 2023, the Committee issued a subpoena to you for documents and information regarding the FBI’s targeting of concerned parents who speak out at school board meetings,’ Jordan said to Wray.

The Republican chairman said the FBI failed to volunteer information, so the committee issued an initial subpoena on Feb 3 for documents relating to investigative efforts into parents.

By the March 1 deadline, the FBI handed over a mere four documents.

The committee then instructed the bureau to hand over the documents on a rolling basis, and it turned over eight documents by March 8. An additional 364 documents were made available via camera.

‘Following the limited production on March 8, Committee staff participated in phone calls with the FBI’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) on March 13 and March 16, about the FBI’s compliance with the Committee’s oversight,’ Chairman Jordan said in Monday’s letter. ‘On those calls, Committee staff reiterated that the FBI was not in compliance with the subpoena and queried OGC as to when the Committee, consistent with its accommodation in accepting a rolling production, could expect the next tranche of documents responsive to the subpoena. No specific dates for the next production could be provided by OGC.’

The second subpoena concerns an eight-page memo leaked by former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin, which said the FBI and the Department of Justice were specifically investigating the actions of ‘radical traditionalist’ Catholics and alleged connections to ‘the far-right white nationalist movement.’

The House Judiciary Committee formally requested documents from the FBI on Feb. 16 concerning the ‘FBI’s assessment of traditional Catholic Americans as domestic violent extremists based on their religious beliefs.’

However, those documents never arrived, Jordan said.

The committee requested the documents again during a hearing on March 9, and Assistant Attorney General Uriarte said under oath that the FBI would be ‘responding to this committee in the coming weeks’ and information would be ‘forthcoming soon.’

On March 23, the FBI provided the committee’s members only 18 pages ‘many with significant redactions,’ Jordan said.

On April 10, the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for the outstanding documents, and by the time an April 28 deadline came, the FBI had handed over 248 pages to the committee.

Jordan explained in Monday’s letter that this was insufficient.

‘The FBI did not produce an unredacted version of the memorandum or any documents or communications concerning the process of drafting, reviewing, approving, or disseminating the memorandum — information that the subpoena compelled the FBI to produce,’ he wrote.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

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Dozens of House Democrats put forward legislation last week that claims the sea level will rise as much as 30 feet by the year 2100 if the government does not act to counter climate change.

The non-binding resolution from 65 Democrats argues there is a disproportionate impact of climate change on children, and warns that the warming climate is a threat to the fundamental rights and mental health of children around the world. A government acknowledgment and solution to the ‘threat to national security’ posed by climate change is needed to counter potentially irreversible harms to the environment, they wrote.

‘The best scientific information available projects a 15- to 30-foot rise in sea level by 2100 if current trends continue, with ever greater rises and acceleration in subsequent centuries, resulting in increased erosion and the loss of land, causing the loss of communities, homes, infrastructure, agriculture, and coastal ecosystems for affected children, until such time as levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are dramatically reduced, and steps are taken to cool the upper portion of the ocean,’ the resolution says.

The resolution claims the ‘planetary energy imbalance’ cause by climate change is ‘equivalent to the amount of energy of exploding more than 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day, 365 days per year, across the planet.’

The Democrats’ resolution says there are several ways climate change is hurting kids. They listed potential family loss or separation, school interruption, and ‘feelings of uncertainty about the future and a belief that their government is not protecting them from climate change, all of which result in anxiety, trauma, shock, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic impacts.’

It added that kids are ‘especially susceptible to air pollution given their developing lungs, higher ventilation rate, and higher levels of physical activity,’ and said climate change leads to a longer pollen season that contributes to allergic rhinitis.

Children, the lawmakers said, will shoulder the cost of climate change more than anyone as ‘global temperature will saddle children with an enormous, perhaps incalculable, cost burden.’ These burdens, the resolution argued, come even as they are unable to vote.

‘[C]hildren are a politically powerless minority without economic or political power to influence climate and energy policy, as they are denied the right to vote until they become 18 years old, and their interests are subjugated to the interests of adults,’ the resolution states.

Aside from just hurting children, Democrats argued that climate change is a ‘threat to national security,’ as it contributes to and exacerbates global instability and conflict.’

In light of these problems, the resolution calls for a ‘national, comprehensive, science-based, and just climate recovery plan’ from the federal government that puts the U.S. on a path to lower carbon emissions by 2100 to ‘uphold children’s fundamental rights.’