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By Newsweek EditorsShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberThe welfare fraud scandal roiling Minnesota burst on to the national stage last week as President Trump moved to cancel the visas of the community of legal immigrants implicated in it. U.S attorneys have charged 78 people, 56 have pleaded guilty and 7 have been convicted in trials, all but a handful of them members of Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the United States. At least $300 million has been lost to fraud, although some estimates exceed $1 billion.
Christopher Rufo ⬆
The conservative activist, who was largely responsible for turning “critical race theory” into a household phrase, co-authored an explosive report in City Journal saying that the long-running fraud channeled money to al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based Jihadist group. The allegations have yet to be verified, and may be unverifiable, but they were explosive enough for Trump to cite them in his remarks on the D.C. shooting. Now the media, from The New York Times to the New York Post, is piling on.
Minnesota Star Tribune ⬇
The hometown newspaper has covered the fraud investigation sporadically and the Somali community consistently, but barely ever put the two stories together. After Rufo’s story and Trump’s explosive reaction, the Star Tribune limped in with a story on the Somali community’s concerns about stereotyping and left the tough reporting on accountability to national media.
Tim Walz ⬇
The Minnesota governor, who is running for an unprecedented third consecutive term, is under fire for allowing the fraud to blossom under his watch. Walz has come out swinging, showing off some of the modern masculinity he was supposed to bring to Kamala Harris’ presidential ticket. But with indictments mounting and reporters sniffing, he is unlikely to emerge unscathed.
Donald Trump’s MRI ⬆
The president is in a confident mood after the shooting in D.C. by an Afghan immigrant and the fraud scandal bolstered the argument for his immigration policy. So confident that he responded to a barb from Tim Walz about mental acuity by promising to release the results of his MRI scan. Trump admits he has no idea what the results will show.
'People of East African descent' ⬇
The term of art adopted by the some left-wing media or avoid confirming right-wing stereotypes of Somalis. This despite the fact that most of the indictees are either Somali immigrants or of Somali heritage. No one seems to be concerned about stereotyping other East African communities of Kenyan and Ethiopian heritage who have made Minnesota their home.
PayMeToDoYourHomework.com ⬆
The website was listed as one of the places a defendant in the fraud case spent his stolen money. Abdimajid Mohamed Nur was sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking $47 million to pay for 18 million meals that were never prepared or served. Nur, who graduated high school with a 1.75 GPA, paid $12,000 to the web service and graduated with a bachelor’s degree and a 3.75 GPA. Your tax dollars at work!
Originally a staple of Newsweek's print edition, Conventional Wisdom used arrows to track whose stock was rising or falling in the political circus. We're reviving it in the digital age because the problem it lampooned—hyperbole and partisan certainty masquerading as insight—has only intensified.
CW assigns arrows—up, down, or sideways—to the figures and forces shaping current events. The arrows don't predict the future or claim special insight. They capture the prevailing winds of the moment, uncluttered by tribal howling. In an era when partisan media reinforces rather than questions assumptions, CW operates from the center—skeptical of left and right alike, committed to puncturing inflated reputations and recognizing overlooked truths.
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