I & I Editorial BoardNick Shirley’s 42-minute YouTube video on daycare fraud in Minnesota is shocking not just because of the scale of abuse he uncovered in a day. It’s shocking because it took a young kid to expose this years-long scheme. Where was the mainstream media all this time?
In the must-see video, Shirley teams up with a citizen investigator and goes door-to-door visiting various “daycare” facilities in Minneapolis that pocketed millions in taxpayer money through a Child Care Assistance Program.
The first two “daycare centers” are both located at the same address in an industrial park, which combined got some $5 million in taxpayer support over the past five years. Another, located a block away, got $3 million. None were open.
Another was the “Quality Learing Center” – which misspelled “learning” in its sign. Like the others, it was closed, but outside of it was a woman who kept shouting “don’t open up!” and “go away!” and “shame on you!” and “ICE!”
None of the places the pair visited showed any signs of having any children under its care. They went to an autism center with the same result, and two buildings that supposedly housed dozens of health care companies, all of which looked like obvious fronts.
Yet somehow, these blatantly fraudulent businesses were able to collect more than $100 million in a few short years.
The video, released on the Friday after Christmas, already has more than 90 million views on X.
See: For Today’s Democrats, Fraud Is A Feature, Not A Bug
The question isn’t just how this escaped the notice of government officials, it’s how it could it have escaped the attention of the mainstream press?
It’s not as though there weren’t warning signs that merited investigation. Evidence of fraud in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program goes back years. In August 2018, an investigator reported that “providers using a similar scheme to successfully steal large sums of taxpayer money from this program” and attacked “the lack of internal controls … that dictate how this program operates.”
So, why did it take a 23-year-old kid to expose just how blatant this fraud continues to be, despite promises by the state to clear it up?
News reporters used to pride themselves on exposing fraud, particularly when government officials are involved in covering it up. That sort of investigative work used to be a ticket to awards and promotions.
You’d think that, having been scooped by a kid, the state’s professional journalists would at least be scrambling to follow up – either to debunk the video or dig deeper into the story. You know – forcing the governor to answer questions. Finding out which government officials were in on the fraud. Tracking the money. Etc.
You’d be wrong.
As RealClearPolitics’ Tom Bevan noted on X, the press not only ignored the fraud happening under its nose, but is now ignoring the explosive video that has captured the public’s attention.
The Minnesota Star Tribune, Bevan points out, had nothing on this expose after it aired. But it did manage to run a front-page story – one that could have been written by Tim Walz’s PR shop – about how the governor was tapping “influencers to spread political messages.”
This form of journalist malpractice isn’t limited to Minnesota. It’s rampant. And it’s the direct result of the legacy media’s decision to put the interests of the Democratic Party ahead of the public.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
The MN Star Tribune has made a practice of not covering stories up complimentary to the Democrat party. They have ignored all the information on Ilhan Omar marrying her brother to avoid immigration laws. Failure to cover the fraud under Walz is business as usual.
It has been said that Minnesota is the biggest insane asylum in the western world and to prove that they are defending the Somalis criminality which is taking tax money out of their own pockets. You just can’t make this stuff up.
“….made a practice of not covering stories up complimentary to the Democrat party”
What a convoluted choice of words…
Sorry. I did not proofread it and autocorrect took over. I did not see n editing feature so it will have to remain that way.
Why is should be surprising that there are crooks in this world is, well, surprising itself. Willie Sutton (Sutton’s Law) replied, when asked why he robs banks, “Because,” he said, “that’s where the money is.”
Our tax money is an almost never ending source of boodle. This sort of criminal action has almost become legalized-not because it is actually legal to steal but because there is so much boodle available to steal.
Moreover, because of our coddling of actual criminals who steal others tax money crime has now become a worthwhile endeavor.
Just ask the Somali community in Minneapolis.
And why have the malefactors taken it upon themselves to steal so much. Because in Government programs, as Sutton’s Law puts it: “that’s where the money is.”
The Government makes it easy for criminals to steal our tax money, which we are forced to pay (as taxpayers) in the first place.
What should be done about it? Well, as long as their is no consequences for this anti-social-not to mention expensive behavior-the behavior will continue. In effect, stealing is not a criminal activity anymore it has become an opportunity to succeed!
Chopping of criminals’ hands is terrible, but executing them (after a court adjudicates them) for stealing millions, and perhaps billions, of dollars is justice. And that’s with a capital J!
You completely left out that Steve Grove, the current CEO and Publisher of the Star Tribune, previously worked for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as the Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development from 2019 until February 2023. One quick trip to ChatGPT or Grok would have told you this. Kind of a big deal given he has maintained professional contact with Walz’s administration since then.
Kind of snarky tone but thanks anyway for telling us about the Steve & Tim link. Glad you knew about it or dug further into the “Why?”
Excellent work!
Please keep it up and also check Ohio and Washington State. Back a few years when Washington’s unemployment department lost several hundreds of milllions of dollars to thieves in Africa – were they Somalians??
There’s a good meme going around on FB and X naming all of the mainstream media powerhouses, all the stations and major news organizations who did NOT attempt to find this story and most of which still haven’t mentioned it. The big question for them is why not?
The collusion of the “press” is emblematic of the whole corruption system and brings into some sharper focus the nature of the vast criminal enterprise. It took Nick and his friend with the receipts (two guys that normally should be out ice fishing) who are just well meaning “citizen reporters” and a heads-up federal DOJ to at least rip the scab off of this gaping financial wound. Real Minnesotans, and for that matter real Americans, are mostly good people who have through complacency aided by the slime media taken a real beating over this.
LOVE IT that it took a You Tuber to uncover the raw evidence of the fraud that was right under the noses of the “experts.”
Hunter’s laptop, Biden’s failing mental state, Russiagate (with walls closing in) . . . the legacy media is well-practiced in ensuring that those who count on them for keeping up with events will be uninformed, misinformed, disinformed and malinformed.
The publisher of the Star Tribune worked for Walz. One reason why limited if any, coverage of the fraud and glowing stories about Walz. It truly is a useless propaganda rag for the dem/libs.
And the St. Paul Pioneer Press is doing the same trick–virtually ignoring/not reporting about any of the Billions lost through Walz’s lack of oversight (at the very least). Don’t know who the publisher of the Pioneer Press is but it’s a full court press in most MN media to suppress any news about this vital issue of government/non-profit, etc. long-running fraud for which Walz is responsible as Governor.
Until there is REAL REFORM in sentencing there will be this type of theft in perpetuity. Seizure of all ill gotten gains should be first, Life in Prison for citizens and immediate deportation for all illegal aliens, should be second…..third should be expulsion of all family members of any illegals convicted/