It’s sad to see Minnesota in the national news for disturbing instances. Starting with the national attention the George Floyd incident created. Then the trial of the police officer accused of killing Floyd. Even before the trial, Minnesota was in the news with the demonstrations and destruction of buildings during those protests.
Fast-forward to the current scandals involving a fraud scheme that exploited $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. I read a news report that indicated a woman entered a guilty plea, and evidence shows that she and her husband’s grocery and deli store received over $4.2 million, despite claiming to have fed 1.4 million children during a one-year period. It was fraudulent because the couple signed falsified meal count sheets.
There are a lot of other fraud details that you can find on Wikipedia under the title 2020s Minnesota Fraud Scandals, which are related to the bilking of funds from the program titled “Feeding Our Future.”
The most recent scandal was created with the shooting of a woman by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Protestors claim the woman was innocent of any wrongdoing, and the investigation is underway. ICE agents are in Minnesota seeking out illegal immigrants from Somalia under President Trump’s orders. The woman is reported to have been following agents and disrupting their actions. This incident was widely reported, and a Florida sheriff issued a statement telling people that if they interfere with police actions or threaten law enforcement officers with anything that is potentially deadly, the law enforcement officers are likely to shoot.
I don’t know if any of the protests related to this latest incident have turned violent yet, but I pray they don’t if they haven’t already.
Maybe something that should be embarrassing to the residents of Minneapolis is the reaction by the Minneapolis Mayor, who told ICE agents to “get the ‘F’ out of Minneapolis.” Very unbecoming, and very unprofessional – in my opinion.
I hope the state I grew up in, and I remain proud of, can clean up its act and help its citizens become proud of Minnesota again.
Have A Good Week!
