A Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) whistleblower said she has been raising red flags about fraud in the state since 2019, but has faced only unyielding retaliation in response, calling Gov. Tim Walz’s assertion that he was unaware of the problem “absolutely false.”

Faye Bernstein, who has worked for Minnesota’s DHS for two decades in contract management and compliance, said she was subjected to a “smear campaign” for trying to make leadership aware of illegal contracting practices. She said she was called “racist” and that her work responsibilities were diminished.

MINNESOTA GOV WALZ, AG ELLISON TO TESTIFY IN HOUSE INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED $9B WELFARE FRAUD

“There is just a continuous effort to stifle you, to shut you up. And it is impossible to overcome,” Bernstein said on “Saturday in America.”

Federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics. The majority of those charged, so far, in the ongoing investigation are part of Minnesota’s Somali population.

Rather than receiving thanks for speaking out about irregularities within the contracting process, Bernstein wrote in a letter obtained exclusively by “Saturday in America” that the “nearly unbearable retaliation” she faced also included being “trespassed from all DHS-owned or leased property” and investigated “at a great cost to the state.”

CHILDCARE EXPERT EXPOSES KEY ROADBLOCK TO UNCOVERING POTENTIAL FRAUD SCHEMES IN MINNESOTA: ‘REALLY DIFFICULT’

Bernstein said she consistently raised concerns internally and escalated them “to the Governor’s Office and external oversight bodies,” but the response was always the same.

“It was that I was, in fact, the bad employee,” she said, and claimed she notified leaders in multiple departments so many times that she was becoming embarrassed about sounding like “a broken record.”

“It’s been sometimes just downright embarrassing to go on and on about this. So to say that leadership was not aware, or the governor was not aware is — I can tell you that is absolutely false.”

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Bernstein said she identified as a Democrat and had only voted for Democrats, but that the fraud in Minnesota was not being invented by Republicans, pushing back on Walz’s description of the allegations as “make-believe.”

“I see this every day… and it is not make-believe. And as far as my being a Democrat, right now, we have to have a governor who is willing to tackle this. And it doesn’t matter if they are Republican or a Democrat.”

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

DULUTH, Minn. — UND freshman Cole Reschny had a step on Minnesota Duluth’s Brady Cleveland.

Reschny skated toward the net with 3:51 to go in the second period, Cleveland slashed him and they both crashed into the end wall.

Reschny didn’t get up.

Silence fell over AmsOil Arena. Ben Strinden and Dylan James immediately checked on their teammate who was in obvious pain. Athletic trainer Mark Poolman rushed onto the ice.

And everyone wearing green in Duluth, Grand Forks or wherever they follow their favorite team held their breath as Reschny left the ice without putting weight on his left leg.

But after UND’s 4-1 win over Minnesota Duluth on Saturday in AmsOil Arena, UND head coach Dane Jackson gave a positive update.

“Positive thing is I don’t think there’s anything major structurally,” UND coach Dane Jackson said. “It’s early but I think it looks more like a contusion than ligament damage, so that’s the initial look, it’s positive. But we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Doc did a basic evaluation here. I’m sure we’ll get some images of it. But I think that’s the positive — it didn’t look like there was any ligament damage.”

After the game, Reschny was walking gingerly on his own power — without a brace or boot.

Reschny, a first-round pick of the Calgary Flames and one of the best prospects in all of college hockey, is having a standout rookie year with the Fighting Hawks.

He’s centering one of the top lines and playing in every situation — power play, penalty kill. He has four goals and 25 points in 23 games, while winning 55% of his faceoffs.

UND could use Reschny back as soon as possible, especially for the Penrose Cup chase.

The Fighting Hawks are at home the next two weekends for series against Miami University and St. Cloud State. Then, they close the regular season on the road at Western Michigan.

“Obviously, it sucks watching one of your best players go down like that,” Wiebe said. “It’s unfortunate. Hope that he can come back soon. I really don’t know what he’s got. But I think it kind of sparked something in us to play for him. I think that’s exactly what we did. We responded well after that. We played well, we got a couple of big goals and it obviously led us to victory there.”

The game was scoreless when Reschny left with an injury, but UND scored four times in the third to grab four National Collegiate Hockey Conference points on the weekend and a series split.

Mac Swanson and Will Zellers each scored a goal and added an assist during a five-minute major power play. Wiebe tallied three assists. Dylan James scored twice, including an empty-netter to clinch it.

“When (Reschny) went down, obviously, he’s a great player for us, one of our better forwards,” Swanson said. “You kind of just automatically think you’ve got to pick up the slack a little bit. We talked about it between periods going into the third period that we’re going to have to pick up some of his minutes and stuff, and I thought we did a really good job.”

Goaltender Jan Špunar stopped 25 of 26 shots, including 16 in the first period as UND took three minor penalties.

“We came for six points, we got four,” Špunar said. “Not bad.”

UND clinched home ice for the NCHC quarterfinals.

“Tough seeing Resch go down, obviously,” Jackson said. “But I liked the fact that we kind of settled in and said, ‘Hey, we’re all right here. Let’s just play our way and get back to it a little bit better. I thought we did a nice job of getting a little simpler with our puck management. Special teams were outstanding.”

Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group

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Schlossman has covered college hockey for the Grand Forks Herald since 2005. He has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the top beat writer for the Herald’s circulation division four times and the North Dakota sportswriter of the year twice. He resides in Grand Forks. Reach him at bschlossman@gfherald.com.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Expect seasonable temperatures on Saturday with a nice warm-up starting on Sunday. 

Saturday forecast

Local perspective:

Clouds slowly increase throughout the day with a little breeze out of the southeast this afternoon. 

Temperatures stay chilly to the north and east, with mid-20s expected for the Twin Cities. 

A southeast wind will help boost temperatures to be a touch warmer in southwestern Minnesota this afternoon.

Extended forecast 

What’s next:

Temperatures stay mild on Saturday night for all of Minnesota and then trend warmer on Sunday. 

The warm trend will be the theme of this forecast, with peak temperatures reaching into the lower 40s on Monday, then near 40 on Tuesday, followed by the mid-30s to close out the rest of the work week.