Morning Brief: California Healthcare Fraud, The Search For Nancy Guthrie, & Foreign Aid Corruption

The Trump administration is suing California over “billions” in healthcare fraud, the elderly mother of “Today Show” host Savannah Guthrie vanishes from her home, and the Senate votes to keep a federal agency alive after its CFO confesses to taking bribes.

It’s Wednesday, February 4, 2026, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:

CMS Probes Fraud In California

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz says Los Angeles County has become an “epicenter for health care fraud,” sparking a battle with California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Oz says his agency has identified billions of dollars in alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud in California, largely tied to hospice and home care fraud. Scammers make fraudulent claims by enrolling people in hospice care when it’s unnecessary or is never actually provided. Fraudsters are billing the government for services such as grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning when these services are not provided. There appears to be a lot of coordination in Los Angeles County, specifically, essentially organized crime, to pull off these scams on taxpayers. Oz has suggested this is largely tied to the “Russian-Armenian mafia.”

Nancy Guthrie Investigation

Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today Show Host Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, over the weekend, with investigators fearing the worst. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said he believes Nancy was taken from her home in a “possible kidnapping or abduction.” Meanwhile, Savannah spoke out on Instagram late Monday, asking for prayers to bring her mom home, as this troubling case unfolds. “We believe in prayer. We believe in voices raised in unison, in love, in hope. We believe in goodness. We believe in humanity. Above all, we believe in Him,” Savannah wrote.

Foreign Aid Official Admits Taking Bribes

The chief financial officer of a federal agency providing aid to Africa will plead guilty to taking bribes. Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak revealed back in May that the African Development Foundation was doing exactly what the Trump administration suspected its larger counterpart, USAID, of doing: Using foreign aid to enrich D.C. insiders. The foundation is a federal agency that not many people knew existed until it became a hero to Democrat politicians and some media outlets when its staff locked the doors to prevent DOGE from entering. According to court papers filed Friday, the foundation sent $800,000 to a Kenya-based company run by CFO Mathieu Zahui’s friend. The friend paid Zahui a $12,000 kickback, and the company retained $134,886 for no work. And that is just one of many examples connecting the foundation to fraud. And yet, after Zahui’s plea, the Senate voted against abolishing the agency with help from 11 GOP senators.