Federal prosecutors announce indictments against two Philadelphia men they say submitted up to $3.5 million in fake and inflated bills to Minnesota Medicaid programs, WCCO-TV reports. “Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said.
State Rep. Kristin Robbins alleges – without sharing a name or other evidence – that the Minnesota Department of Human Services paid state money to a Feeding Our Future defendant while they were awaiting trial, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Robbins, who chairs a legislative fraud oversight committee and is running for governor, says she has collected hundreds of whistleblower tips, but she has not shared them with the department’s inspector general.
The state has suspended or delayed payments to several social service providers as part of an effort to catch and prevent fraud, and now one of those providers says the crackdown had deadly consequences, KARE 11 reports. A service provider says a vulnerable adult client was found dead in his St. Paul apartment after the state froze payments that had been covering his care.
Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick, who spent time with Melissa Hortman while covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential campaign, writes about the life of the late Minnesota House Speaker in a 7,000-word profile based on interviews with dozens of family, friends and colleagues.
