Max Nestorak

It became clear that Republicans were going to run on this issue.

This was going to be their signature issue in trying to win back the governorship in 2026.

The New York Times publishes a big piece in November that makes it even harder to ignore.

And then it gets the attention of a young independent YouTuber named Nick Shirley, who posts a 40-minute video on December 26th showing himself going around to Somali-run daycares and demanding to see children and not seeing any children.

So he claims to uncover more than $100 million in fraud.

I should note, it's maybe not so unusual that a random person with a video camera who demands to see children in a daycare doesn't see any.

I know at my child's daycare, they have a passcode to get in.

But yeah, I would expect that my daycare center would not let in any random YouTuber off the street.

In the wake of this, reporters have been crawling all over Minnesota trying to fact check Nick Shirley.

Was any of what he reported accurate?

I think we're still trying to figure that out.

So I should say there's definitely problems with his reporting, not just the tactics, but the fact that one that he visited has been closed since 2022, according to state officials.

State officials also visited and found nine operating normally with children.

Still, four of them are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Department of Children, Youth and Families, according to the Star Tribune.

Reporters at the Star Tribune also visited those 10 facilities and were able to go inside four where they found children.

I should also note that local reporters have also made the connection that some of those daycare centers were also meal sites for Feeding Our Future, which was tied to that giant fraud.

But it's important to note the owners have not been charged in that case.

All right.

So here we sit on Thursday morning and you may have seen there are some dark jokes circulating online about everything happens in Minnesota.

You guys had George Floyd's murder in the summer of 2020.