(The Center Square) – Florida officials say the state’s investments, which support its pension funds and local governments, hit a record high on its asset values in the recently-concluded fiscal year.

This comes as lawmakers required the State Board of Administration to protect its investments from environmental, social, and corporate governance considerations and focus exclusively on its fiduciary duty to maximize returns for the state’s investments. The board was also required to divest its Chinese-based investments by September of last year. 

“This year’s record results reflect Florida’s commitment to responsible fiscal governance and financial discipline,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a release. “By focusing on returns, not political agendas, the SBA is securing the future for our law enforcement officers, firefighters, teachers and taxpayers alike.”

The board reported $277 billion assets under management for fiscal 2024-25 ending June 30. That’s a $20 billion improvement over last year’s figure.

The Florida Retirement System Pension Plan (defined benefit) reached a peak over $211 billion, while the Florida Retirement System Investment Plan (a 401(k)-style fund) hit an all-time high with an unaudited market value exceeding $20 billion.

Florida PRIME, a pool of investments run by the board, hit a new high of $34 billion. PRIME investors include state agencies, public universities and colleges, counties, cities, special districts and school boards, among other governmental entities. Last year, the plan’s funds totaled $25.3 billion.

“The State Board of Administration closed out a tremendously successful fiscal year with solid investment performance and significant operational improvements driving efficiency,” said SBA executive director Chris Spencer. “Our industry-leading investment and operations professionals will continue to deliver high quality service for our beneficiaries and the state of Florida in the fiscal year ahead.”

The board manages 29 investment funds with a total market value of $257.5 billion, which includes both retirement funds, the Local Government Surplus Funds Trust Fund and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, among others. 

This comes a year after the Florida Retirement System’s pension and investment plans did not meet their one-year benchmarks.

The report by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability released in April also found that the Investment Plan didn’t meet its three-year benchmark, while the Pension Plan failed to meet its 25-year funding objective.

The board invests about half of the managed funds into global equities (stocks), with the latest figure at 48.5%.

The Pension Fund earned a rate of return of 10.5%, still 0.6% below its benchmark of 11%. 

The Investment Fund earned 13.4%, 0.4% before its expected benchmark. 

(The Center Square) – At the northern border, Border Patrol agents continue to arrest Iranians and weapons traffickers and are helping seize record amounts of fentanyl.

While illegal border crossings are down at the northern border under the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents in the busiest northern border Swanton Sector are continuing to interdict crime. The sector includes all of Vermont, six upstate New York counties, and three New Hampshire counties.

Earlier this month, Border Patrol Agents from the Champlain Station in New York responded to a report of suspicious activity near Mooers Forks, New York. Upon arrival, they located a minivan occupied by five Iranian citizens and two Uzbekistan citizens – all adult men in the country illegally.

Border Patrol agents then determined all seven men “had previously illegally entered the United States at various locations along both the U.S./Mexico border and the U.S./Canada border,” Swanton Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said. They were detained and are being processed for removal.

“Border security is national security and directly correlates to public safety,” Garcia said, adding that “Swanton Sector agents remain vigilant and committed to protecting our borders and enforcing immigration laws.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are also arresting Iranians in the country illegally, including Revolutionary Guard soldiers, after more than 1,500 Iranians illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, with more than 700 released into the U.S., The Center Square exclusively reported.

In another instance, Border Patrol agents notified the New York State Police about a suspected driver of a vehicle allegedly involved in smuggling activity in upstate New York. State troopers responded, located and stopped the vehicle near Albany, Garcia said. A subsequent vehicle search resulted in a seizure of roughly 4.7 pounds of powdered fentanyl, enough to kill more than one million people.

“This seizure is a powerful reminder of why strong partnerships between federal, state, and local law enforcement are vital to our national security and public safety,” Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.

In another instance, Border Patrol agents helped ATF federal partners apprehend a criminal foreign national wanted for weapons trafficking. Honduran national Yubert Yasiel Lopez-Lopez, 31, was arrested in North Attleboro, Mass., after he illegally reentered the country after he was previously deported.

He was first apprehended in 2014 after illegally entering the U.S. in Hidalgo, Texas, under the Obama administration. A federal immigration judge in Houston ordered his removal, which occurred four years later under the first Trump administration. In 2022, he again illegally entered the country in Yuma, Arizona, under the Biden administration. It took another three years to arrest him, this time in Massachusetts, with authorities learning he was wanted in Honduras on weapons trafficking charges. A federal grand jury indicted him last month in Vermont, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont announced. He faces up to two years in prison if convicted and removal from the U.S. for a third time.

“We continue to enforce federal immigration laws and seek maximum consequences against those who violate them,” Garcia said.

Garcia also regularly thanks members of the public for supporting Border Patrol efforts, sometimes acting as the eyes and ears for agents in rural areas by calling in sightings of illegal border crossers or suspicious activity. He continues to encourage members of the public to report suspicious border activity in the Swanton Sector by calling 1-800-689-3362.

The sector was hit hard under the Biden administration with illegal border crossings from Canada reaching record levels, totaling nearly one million, according to CBP data and gotaway data exclusively reported by The Center Square. The greatest number ever reported in U.S. history in the sector was in fiscal 2024 of nearly 200,000, excluding those who evaded capture, The Center Square reported.

(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has introduced a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Cruz introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act again this year after doing so in 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2021. U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Florida, introduced companion legislation in the House, as he has also previously done. The bill has multiple cosponsors.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization,” Cruz said, which is “committed to the overthrow and destruction of America and other non-Islamist governments across the world, and pose an acute threat to American national security interests. American allies in the Middle East and Europe have already labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and the United States should do the same, and do so expeditiously.”

The bill states the Muslim Brotherhood “functions as a global terrorist organization and provides material support to [its] branches in countries and territories by providing political support, financial resources, training, services, expert advice, and communications assistance.” Its branches have “sought to destabilize and undermine United States allies and partners throughout the Middle East, including in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates, and have been outlawed as a terrorist group by the governments of those countries.”

The bill amends the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 to include banning all Muslim Brotherhood members from the U.S., making them ineligible for visas or admittance to the U.S. This includes revoking visas of all non-U.S. citizens who are confirmed Muslim Brotherhood members and removing them from the country. It also requires the Secretary of State to impose sanctions on any Muslim Brotherhood branch, charity or organization that is directly or indirectly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas.

“The global Muslim Brotherhood has numerous regional branches, including terrorist organizations such as Hamas, and spreads violence and instability throughout the Middle East,” Díaz-Balart said. “For this reason, it is crucial to U.S. national security interests that we prohibit U.S. dollars from enabling the Muslim Brotherhood’s dangerous activities, and that we ensure Muslim Brotherhood members are blocked from entering the United States. This important legislation gives the Trump Administration the additional authority it needs to protect Americans, and our closest allies, from this insidious threat.”

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Egyptian politician Hassan al-Banna in 1928 as a Sunni Islamic militant group. Over the next few decades, it grew to have hundreds of thousands of followers in multiple countries in the Middle East and north Africa. After a failed assassination attempt of Egypt’s prime minister in 1948, the Egyptian government cracked down on Muslim Brotherhood members, arresting them, trying them for treason and executing them.

By the 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood saw a resurgence in Egypt and multiple countries. In 1987, its Palestinian branch emerged as Hamas in Gaza, committed to the destruction of Israel. The preamble to the 1988 Hamas Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement includes the famous claim, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it,’” made by al-Banna, The Center Square reported.

Since then, Hamas has taken credit for a range of terrorist acts, including the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel, resulting in the death of more than 40 Americans and the kidnapping at least 53 Americans.

The bill was proposed after antisemitic incidents drastically increased nationwide, reaching their highest level on record last year of nearly 10,000, The Center Square reported. Cruz and U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, have been targeted by pro-Hamas rioters and vandals, including at Cruz’s Houston home and at a U.S. Senate hearing, and at De La Cruz’s offices, The Center Square reported.

Hamas has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government since 1997.

After the Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the U.S. House passed the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act, HR 340, In November 2023. Filed by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Florida, it would have required the executive branch to impose sanctions on foreign actors that provide certain types of support to Hamas or its affiliates. It went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Cruz has also repeatedly called on the president to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Last month, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Florida, called on the president to do so highlighting actions taken by other governments.

To date, the governments of Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates have designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.