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.
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"Nick 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.
"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." . . .
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