Minnesota
As COVID spread, so did fraud. Minnesota saw a lot of it.
Champion and Hamilton double-charged the county and the business owners for their services, according to the government. They also recruited them to craft fraudulent applications to defraud the county’s pandemic program along with PPP and EIDL.
Businesses receiving services through Futuristic Management overstated income, expenses, taxes and lease records. In one case, Champion helped a boxing coach obtain a $100,000 loan by falsely claiming a business earned $405,000 in 2019. The coach made less than $1,000 and had no employees or expenses.
Champion and Hamilton await sentencing after each pleaded guilty to felony offenses last month.
Even now, prosecutors are still “trying to play catch-up” with the volume of fraud, Galdo said.
Jeffrey Meitrodt of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
A woman was found dead at a complex on the Mississippi River in Winona County, Minnesota, on Wednesday morning.
Officials in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, called Winona County Dispatch around 7:45 about a report of a body, later identified as the woman, in the water at U.S. Lock and Dam 6, according to the Winona County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies responded after learning the location of the woman was within Winona County.
“Due to the difficult location, Winona firefighters rappelled down the dam and were able to safely secure the body,” the sheriff’s office said.
The woman has been taken to the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Rochester, Minnesota, for an autopsy, according to officials. Her identification will be released at a later time.
Amy Klobuchar launches run for Minnesota Governor
The four term Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is launching her run for governor of Minnesota, emphasizing the need for leaders to find common ground.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar has raised $4.8 million for her campaign since she launched her bid for Minnesota governor at the end of January, her campaign announced Wednesday.
Klobuchar’s total, amassed in just 62 days, suggests she’ll have a staggering cash advantage from now until November, compounded by outside spending by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and well-funded allies like Alliance for a Better Minnesota.
Over 90% of donors have given Klobuchar’s governor campaign less than $100, which means she can keep asking them for more as the contest heats up, and she has $3.4 million cash on hand. Klobuchar’s campaign said her haul is the most raised by any candidate for governor in its first two months. In 2022, Gov. Tim Walz raised just over $1 million in the first quarter of that year, according to Minnesota campaign finance data.
“(Klobuchar’s) grassroots donor base knows that she fights for people no matter the odds, and they stepped up the moment she announced her campaign for governor,” said Joe Radosevich, her campaign manager, in a statement.
Klobuchar, Minnesota’s senior senator and the state’s most accomplished vote-getter, has raised over six times as much as GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who is a leading GOP candidate for governor. Demuth has raised over $730,000 since she launched her campaign in November, Demuth’s campaign said. Demuth raised about $226,000 in the first quarter.
Kendall Qualls, an army veteran and former health care executive, has raised $700,000 since he launched his campaign for governor last summer, Qualls’ campaign said. In the first quarter of 2026, Qualls raised about $123,000, according to his campaign.
Since launching her campaign on Jan. 29, Klobuchar has held no campaign rallies and has largely refrained from campaigning on social media, unlike her Republican opponents.
Klobuchar hopped into the race after Walz ended his campaign for a third term after intensifying scrutiny of fraud in safety net programs. Walz reportedly met with Klobuchar and urged her to run.
Other Democrats have stayed out of the race since then, no doubt deterred by Klobuchar’s electoral record, top-flight political operation and fundraising prowess.
Klobuchar is a heavy favorite to win in November against a field of Republicans who are unknown to most Minnesotans, aside from MyPillow mogul Mike Lindell. Republican candidates include Demuth, Qualls, and state Rep. Kristin Robbins.
The DFL Party and the Republican Party of Minnesota will hold their endorsing conventions next month.
Klobuchar has spent two decades in the U.S. Senate, where lawmakers primarily send out press releases, take lots of votes and manage constituent services.
The governor of Minnesota oversees an enterprise with more than 36,000 employees, an annual general fund budget of $33 billion and billions more in Medicaid and other federal dollars now under considerable scrutiny following the discovery of hundreds of millions in fraud in recent years.
As the Republican Party of Minnesota has noted, since she launched her campaign, Klobuchar’s campaign website lists no priorities, top issues or even a description of her. She also hasn’t conducted any interviews with Minnesota media outlets.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Minnesota
Jarren Duran directs obscene gesture toward fan at Minnesota and says fan told him to kill himself
MINNEAPOLIS — Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran directed an obscene gesture toward a fan at Target Field as he returned to the dugout after a fifth-inning groundout in Boston’s 6-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.
Duran, who has spoken about his past struggles with mental health, said a fan made a personal comment that crossed the line.
“Somebody just told me to kill myself,” Duran said. “I’m used to it at this point, you know? I mean, (expletive) happens. I mean, I’m gonna flip somebody off if they say something to me, but it is what it is. I shouldn’t react like that, but that kind of stuff is still kind of triggering.”
Duran discussed bouts with severe depression and a suicide attempt in a Netflix series that debuted last year.
“Honestly, it’s my fault for talking about my mental health because I kind of brought in the haters. So I’ve just got to get used to it,” Duran said. “I was just trying to hold it in and not really bring that up to the team. I mean, we’re trying to win a game. I shouldn’t even bring that up to anybody. … It just happens.”
Boston manager Alex Cora said he didn’t witness the incident and hadn’t reviewed video of it.
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