Minnesota
Feeding Our Future: Minnesota AG Ellison faces GOP questioning
Ellison answers tape recording questions
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison faced the Republican-dominated House fraud committee on Monday, answering questions about the $250 million pandemic era Feeding Our Future fraud.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison faced the Republican-dominated House fraud committee Monday to answer questions about Feeding Our Future.
Feeding Our Fraud
AG on tape:
The GOP has called a recently released recording “disturbing” – saying Ellison offered support for criminal defendants in the country’s largest pandemic scam.
A month before the FBI raided the Feeding Our Future headquarters, at least a few of its fraudsters had a meeting with Ellison.
“We need you in this fight with us,” the group implored Ellison in December 2021.
The group identified as the Minnesota Minority Business Association complained to Ellison that East African businesses faced racism from state agencies.
“April 30th, I got shut down,” said Abdulkadir Nur Salah, the now-convicted former owner of Safari restaurant.
Feeding Our Past
Dissecting the call:
Ellison acknowledged knowing the restaurant in the recording, but he says at the time all he knew about what would become the Feeding Our Future scandal was that a judge had ruled against the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) stopping payments to some vendors. He didn’t arrange the meeting and said he didn’t know exactly who he was talking to.
Republicans were skeptical of Ellison’s professed confusion.
“Why do you say now that you didn’t know who he was when he clearly told you who he was, and why are you offering help to these people to work against your client (MDE)?” asked Rep. Patti Anderson, (R-Dellwood).
“What’s the help that these people got?” Ellison said. “No help. I mentioned DHS, and yet they were talking about MDE, so it’s not clear. It wasn’t clear. It’s apparent that in that conversation, it wasn’t clear to me what agency they were even discussing.”
“It should be no surprise that they’re talking about MDE because it’s almost on every page of my transcript: MDE, MDE, MDE,” said Rep. Marion Rarick, (R-Maple Lake).
Ellison said the tape proves a couple of things: He listened to constituents with complaints that would be important to him, but then he told them to put it all in writing.
Bottom line
You can hear it:
And in the end, he didn’t help them, even when they offered campaign contributions.
“Of course, I’m here to help,” he told them in the recording. “But let me be clear. I’m not here because I think it’s going to help my re-election.”
“When offered help in my campaign, I rejected it on the tape,” Ellison told the fraud committee. “You can hear it. I didn’t know I was being recorded. That happened.”
Ellison acknowledged the fraudsters tried to use racism as a shield to not be investigated, but said ultimately, it didn’t work.
Minnesota
Minnesota woman detained by ICE needs emergency surgery for tennis ball-sized ovarian cyst, lawmakers say
Minnesota lawmakers are calling for the humanitarian release of a woman detained earlier this year, amid Operation Metro Surge, who is suffering from a tennis ball-sized ovarian cyst.
Federal immigration agents arrested 23-year-old Andrea Pedro-Francisco in Burnsville on Feb. 5, just days before she says she was scheduled to have surgery.
Pedro-Francisco moved to Minnesota seeking asylum with her mother back in 2019. Right now, she is being held in a detention center in El Paso, Texas.
State lawmakers — including practicing ER physician Sen. Alice Mann, D-Edina — held a news conference Thursday morning at the Capitol to push for Pedro-Francisco’s immediate release.
“An ovarian cyst this big can put weight on the ovary and cause the ovary to twist onto itself, cutting off the ovary’s blood supply. This is a medical emergency,” Mann said. “This can impact fertility, and we are talking about a 23-year-old. If not treated, this can lead to infection and even death.”
Also on hand Thursday was North Dakota-based pastor Ellery Dykeman, who said he met with Pedro-Francisco last week in the detention center. Dykeman said she looked thinner than he had seen her in pictures.
Dykeman said Pedro-Francisco told him she is forced to climb up to a third-level bunk despite immense pain extending from the right side of her abdomen to her back.
Earlier this month, Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig said her team is tracking 20 medical cases with improper care within ICE detention. A quarter of them have serious conditions, her office says.
WCCO has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Minnesota weather forecast. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Most of Minnesota will be under a marginal risk of severe weather on Thursday, with rain and rumbles expected.
Thursday weather forecast
Local perspective:
A line of storms is expected to develop in west-southwest Minnesota on Thursday and grow in coverage as well as intensity tracking east into the early evening.
Large hail and damaging winds are the prevalent threats, but an isolated tornado is also possible along the line.
Isolated showers are expected to form in the western part of Minnesota on Thursday morning.
Rain chances in the Twin Cities area increase in the afternoon, as a line pushes through with possible thunderstorms.
Stay Sky Aware with FOX 9 for the latest.
The Source: This story uses information from the FOX 9 weather forecast.
A TikTok creator is no longer banned from parks in St. Paul, Minnesota, after appealing the city’s restriction, according to his agent.
St. Paul Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez earlier this month accused Josh Liljenquist of going to Pig’s Eye Park to “harass, record and profit from vulnerable adults residing there without said individuals’ permission.” Liljenquist, who is known for giving away food and cash in his videos, denied the allegation.
On Wednesday, Liljenquist’s agent shared a new letter from the city.
“Based on an evaluation of the facts of this situation as they were relayed during your appeal meeting, I will be rescinding your ban from our parks, effective immediately,” the letter from Rodriguez read.
Rodriguez also wrote the city expects “all residents and visitors to our parks to abide by the rules.”
“Our responsibility is to ensure park spaces remain safe, respectful, and accessible for all, and we appreciate your partnership in that effort,” the letter read.
Liljenquist told WCCO he has only recorded at Pig’s Eye Park once, and it was with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office’s consent. He said he and his videographer always get consent from individuals they film, too.
Local organizations that work with people experiencing homelessness are split on Liljenquist’s impact. Sue Phillips, director of the Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing, said his content “is exploiting people experiencing homelessness/housing instability.” Feeding St. Paul founder Michael Brendale, on the other hand, said, “Josh has changed many lives, taken people off the streets.”
Liljenquist told WCCO he films his efforts instead of making them private in hopes of “inspiring other people to do it, showing that it doesn’t take a lot of money, it doesn’t take a lot of resources to go out there and do something for somebody.”
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