A thread on fake news.

When this story was first published, it had a completely different take: ICE had disappeared an innocent restaurateur caught up in an immigration raid at his Mexican restaurant.

https://twitter.com/StarTribune/status/1946344381692182845

In the original version, the Star Tribune implied that Francisco was missing and unaccounted for.

In fact, Francisco was in Federal court, being charged with a felony illegal immigration crime.

A short thread on the Keith Ellison, Feeding Our Future, audio recording kerfuffle.

Ellison's office put out a longer statement today, reprinted below: Despite the Center for the American Experiment's best efforts to smear Attorney General Ellison for partisan political reasons, the recording of the meeting in question shows that Attorney General Ellison acted entirely appropriately. ["for"?]

A thread on government data requests.

I send many public data requests to state government. I rarely get a response.

Today (Friday) shortly before 5 pm, I received a response to a request I made two years ago of the state Dept. of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). My request was in regards to the August 2022 departure of an Assistant Commissioner of the Dept., Anisa Hajimumin. An Asst. Commissioner (AC) is a political appointment within the state's executive branch.

This particular Asst. Comm. slot was a new creation within the Dept.

A short thread on Feeding Our Future as we start the sentencing phase of the case.

It's now clear that many, many fraudsters will be getting away with the crime of the century. A popular misconception has the case in Federal court because of the mistaken belief that ONLY the Feds have jurisdiction.

False: the state can (and does) prosecute in state court for theft from Federal programs all the time. For example, the state AG has a Medicaid fraud unit.

A $120,000 juror bribe undermines the trial currently underway.

It undermines all upcoming Feeding Our Future trials.

It undermines all trials.

It will do more damage than a nuclear weapon.

But the people in charge just shrug. The people in charge of Minnesota, if they even notice what's happened in that Federal courtroom, act as if it's occurring in another country, one very far away.

A short thread on logic and the application of Occam's Razor to the situation involving state Sen. Nicole Mitchell.

To believe her version requires the multiplication of too many unlikely variables. In her telling, the senator heard disturbing news about her dementia-addled stepmom.

This news was so disturbing that she left home at 1 am on a senate off day to check on Mom, the only other heir to her late-father's estate.

A thread on the Facebook statement of MN state Sen. Nicole Mitchell (DFL-Woodbury). She has been charged with one felony count of burglary:

#mnleg She decided to "check on" a family member by leaving her home at 1 am Monday morning and driving 220 miles, arriving shortly after 4 am, Monday morning.

She entered this home she'd visited "countless times," not with a key, but by breaking a basement window. According to police.

This Monday morning, at that same south Twin Cities metro hotel, there were TWO busses from Mexico parked. As I've noted before, the bus line's schedule indicates that this route is run twice-weekly, with Minnesota arrivals early on Friday and Monday mornings.

Some other destinations listed:

A thread on deceit in the nonprofit world:

The headline sounds innocent enough:

"Hennepin County leaders plan crime prevention summit in May" startribune.com/hennepin-count… The @StarTribune subheadline reads,

"Three-day event would bring together leaders from the county's 45 cities to find new solutions."

"New solutions." Hennepin County will try everything but the obvious old solution (that works): enforcing the law.

A thread on an interesting international (Mexico <---> Minnesota) bus service

A Twitter (X) correspondent sent me some photos taken of a hotel parking lot in the south Metro this week. The bus pictured above is owned by an American-based scheduled bus service with an interesting business model.

It serves routes connecting cities in southern Mexico with cities in the upper Midwest. All routes pass through the official international crossing at Laredo, TX.

A thread:

I've been writing about Minnesota's newest major fraud-prone government program, Personal Care Assistance (PCA) for a couple of years now.

#mnleg To oversimplify: the PCA program pays for a person to care for someone with a disability with daily living in their own home.

For many people and families, the program is an indispensable lifeline, and keeps many out of more expensive assisted living and nursing home options.

A thread on "justice" in Hennepin County,

Adam Garcia, the suspect in the Edina bus stop murder case was in court this morning on ten (10) separate unrelated cases.

He has yet to be charged in the murder case. He made his date this morning by the sheer luck of being in custody on the Edina arrest.

By my count, Garcia has failed to appear on 13 separate court dates over the past five years.

A thread on the pernicious "hate incident registry" about to become law in Minnesota.

As we've noted before, the demand for hate crimes in Minnesota vastly exceeds the supply.

And there is an entire industry in the state (bureaucrats and nonprofits) dependent on producing more. The language is contained in SF 2909, the "public safety bill" on page 50, beginning at line 31.

revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php…

The NFL draft taking place at Kansas City's Union Station.

From my visit there a year ago.

23 of the nation's top 400 billionaires gave to MN Democrats in the past three years. Here is the list:

#mnleg For those wondering about Republicans, only 7 Forbes billionaires gave to the MN GOP over that period, for a total of $70,000.

Bill Austin (Starkey) gave the bulk ($49,000). Austin was the only one to give to both parties.

A thread on conservative voters, politicians, and elections.

Like most of you, I've been frustrated with recent election results.

These are my observations from spending the past two weeks digging through campaign finance reports from both parties. In Minnesota, Democrats rely on a handful of mostly out-of-state mega donors to fund their campaigns.

As for grassroot, small-dollar donors, they don't seem to even bother.

A thread on societal collapse.

Since we jettisoned the concept of merit, in favor of equity, the clock has been ticking. Our economy is based on a series of complex, interrelated systems for transportation, and delivery ofenergy, food, and consumer goods.

I am frequently asked for proof that Ilhan Omar married her brother. The people who make this request are not asking in good faith.

But for those who are still new to the story, I've tried to boil down the story to the fewest links that work in the Twitter format.

Here goes... This is the marriage certificate for Ilhan's first legal marriage. It was conducted by a Christian minister in 2009 and she married a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.

To recap: in 2020, Feeding Our Future (FOF) applied to add an additional 144 sites to their food distribution network.

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) refused to approve their applications based on their questions about the FOF operation to date. In November 2020, FOF sued MDE in state court, to force MDE to approve the applications.

In March 2021, MDE stopped payment on invoices submitted by FOF, based on concerns about their operation.

FOF asked the judge to rule also on the payments question.