Cupertino? No, copper thieves keep hitting Los Angeles Los Angeles keeps losing copper wire from streetlights, and the bill is not small. The thefts knock out lights, leave neighborhoods dark, and cost the city millions every year. That means repairs, replacements, and more public money going into the same hole over and over. It is the kind of civic routine that makes taxpayers wonder if anyone is actually in charge, or if the city has simply decided to let the problem mature on its own. Mayor Karen Bass has been criticized for not putting enough focus on arrests and tougher penalties, which, in a sane world, would be a basic first step. The city’s bright idea is solar lights and bigger bills Instead of pushing a hard crackdown on thieves, Bass has backed solar lighting and a 120 percent jump in the streetlighting assessment for property owners. That is a bold move in the usual government style, where the people who did not break the lights are asked to pay more for the privilege of living near them. Critics say the approach treats the symptom, not the crime, and turns a theft problem into a billing problem. Bureaucracy does love…

A fraud case with a very large billFederal prosecutors say Shamso Ahmed Hassan and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf helped steer a Medicaid autism program into a $21.1 million drain. They are accused of filing nearly $47 million in false claims under Minnesota's Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program, then collecting real money for therapy that investigators say never happened. The charges include conspiracy, health care fraud, and money laundering. In other words, the paperwork was busy, the services were not, and taxpayers once again got the invoice. How prosecutors say the scam workedAccording to investigators, Hassan ran two clinics, Smart Therapy Center and Star Autism Center, while hiding her ownership to keep claims flowing under Minnesota's disclosure rules. Prosecutors say Yusuf handled day-to-day operations, submitted fake paperwork, and helped push the scheme along. The indictment says parents were paid to enroll children in the program, even when the children had no autism diagnosis, and that kickbacks were disguised as normal business expenses. Some money was routed through shell companies and sent overseas, which is a nice reminder that fraudsters tend to love the same tools as ordinary accountants, only with worse intentions. Minnesota's fraud habit is getting expensiveThis case lands…