Category: Update

The Minnesota fraud story did not just emerge in the last few weeks or months. It appears that before it became a predominantly Somali story it was dominated by one white woman.

Concerns about fraud in the federal child nutrition programs (tied to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit sponsoring meal reimbursements for daycares and other sites) began emerging in late 2020, with formal flags and audits in early 2021. It became public knowledge through FBI raids in January 2022.

Aimee Bock, founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, was indicted in September 2022; her trial occurred in early 2025, resulting in a guilty verdict on March 19. She’s awaiting sentencing as of January 2026, with recent asset forfeitures approved in December 2025.

(Notice that this was what civil asset forfeiture was originslly designed for: to confiscate goods used in crimes from convicted criminals. Not grabbing property from people not convicted of anything, as has been happening in these United States for far too long.)

Ms. Bock’s fraud scheme, often called the Minnesota daycare scandal due to involvement of daycares and child nutrition funds misused during COVID-​19 (totaling about $250 million in fraud as counted up from court judgments). It’s described as one of the largest pandemic-​era fraud cases in the U.S., involving fake meal claims, shell companies, and kickbacks. Over 90 people have been charged across related schemes, with dozens convicted.

Here is a timeline of developments in the story:

• 2015 – 2016: Aimee Bock and Kara Lomen form Partners in Quality Care (later Partners in Nutrition) and Feeding Our Future as nonprofits to distribute federal Child Nutrition Program funds (administered by the USDA via states) to smaller organizations, daycares, and programs feeding underprivileged children.
• 2018: Bock and Lomen part ways amid disputes; Bock takes full control of Feeding Our Future, expanding it as a sponsor for meal reimbursements.
• March 2020: COVID-​19 pandemic leads to USDA relaxing rules for child nutrition funds, allowing easier reimbursements without on-​site verifications. Feeding Our Future’s vendors (including daycares and restaurants) rapidly increase, claiming millions in federal aid distributed through the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).
• July 2020: MDE expresses concerns to Feeding Our Future about its explosive growth in vendors and meal claims (e.g., Safari Restaurant claiming 5,000 meals/​day).
• October 2020: Lomen (now at Partners in Nutrition) sends a letter to MDE alleging a “fraud ring” involving child care centers and sponsors. MDE escalates concerns to USDA.
• November 2020: Feeding Our Future sues MDE for delaying vendor applications, claiming discrimination against sites serving children of color.
• December 2020: MDE denies several Feeding Our Future vendor applications amid fraud suspicions. By year’s end, Feeding Our Future receives $43 million in federal funds.
• March 2021: Feeding Our Future reports extreme meal counts (e.g., Safari Restaurant claiming 185,903 meals for March, netting $1 million). MDE pauses funding to 26 associated nonprofits, citing “serious deficiencies” by Bock and board president Benjamin Stayberg.
• April 2021: A state judge rules MDE acted too hastily; funding resumes. MDE, still suspecting fraud, refers the case to the FBI.
• May 2021: FBI officially begins its investigation into potential fraud in the programs.
• December 2021: Feeding Our Future receives $198 million in federal funds for the year amid ongoing concerns.
• January 2022: FBI raids 15+ properties, including Feeding Our Future’s office and Bock’s home. Search warrants allege misuse of funds for luxury items and properties. The case goes public.
• February 2022: Feeding Our Future begins dissolving as an organization. Political figures return donations from implicated individuals.
• April – May 2022: First arrests occur (e.g., for passport fraud to flee). State Senate hearings probe MDE’s oversight.
• September 2022: Federal prosecutors indict 48 suspects, including Aimee Bock, in a $250 million fraud scheme involving fake attendance rosters, shell companies, and laundered funds. Bock is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.
• 2023 – 2024: Multiple trials and pleas for co-​defendants are held, with over 60 convictions or guilty pleas across the scheme. Bock’s case proceeds to trial amid delays.
• March 19, 2025: After a five-​week trial, a federal jury convicts Aimee Bock on all seven counts (including wire fraud and conspiracy). Co-​defendant Salim Said is also convicted. Bock is jailed pending sentencing, cited as a flight risk.
• December 30, 2025: A federal judge approves preliminary forfeiture of $5.2 million in assets from Bock (including $3.7 million in cash/​banks, a Porsche, and luxury items), with final order at sentencing.
• January 2026 (Ongoing): Broader Minnesota fraud probes continue, with 92 charged and 62 convicted across related schemes. Bock’s sentencing is pending; no date set.

To check up on all this, consult The Sahan Journal timeline for pre-​2022 details.

So who is Aimee Bock? A 2022 Star Tribune article noting that Bock filed for bankruptcy with her ex-​husband in 2013 suggests she was previously married and divorced before the Feeding Our Future scandal emerged. Her ex’s name is not mentioned in any reports.

Ms. Bock is described as white/​Caucasian in appearance and background. Reporting on the scandal frequently contrasts her with the majority of co-​defendants, who were members of Minnesota’s Somali-​American community (many first- or second-​generation immigrants). Bock herself accused state agencies of discrimination against Somali-​owned sites in pre-​indictment statements. 

Aimee Bock earned a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2003. Public records and biographies list her residences in various Minnesota locations, including Duluth, Rochester, Burnsville, Cottage Grove, Rosemount, and Apple Valley.

She built her entire professional career in Minnesota, starting in early childhood education roles (e.g., daycare instructor, center director) and founding Feeding Our Future there in 2016.

As of 2025 reports she is 44- or 45-​years old is consistently described as Minnesota-​based, with at least 20 – 25 years of residence in the state.

Revelations of subsidized daycare fraud in Minnesota have come in waves. The latest, biggest came with the Nick Shirley video, covered here on Wednesday. Reactions to it have been all over the map.

Tarl E. Warwick, aka Styxhexenhammer666, declared the revelations just “the tip of the iceberg” and demonstrated as accounting fact, not fancy, while hordes of daycare workers on TikTok said the reporting by the “untrained” “mama’s boy” Mr. Shirley was completely without merit. Reinforcing anti-​Shirley reaction, X user @slimebeasts expressed scorn with some actual back-up:

For those with short attention spans or little time to sit down and watch something — I went ahead and ended Nick Shirley’s credibility in under 10 minutes, showing dishonesty in his Minnesota Somali Fraud video. 

@slimebeasts’ X post, linking to a YouTube critique (December 28, 2024).

The memes attacking Mr. Shirley run the gamut, but this is a good example:

Overall, the “mama’s boy” label seems tied to his mother’s role in his videos (she appears in some and is a right-​wing influencer herself). Criticisms of him being “untrained” focus on his background in pranks and satire rather than journalism, and claims he got the story wrong emphasize that state inspections found no fraud in many centers.

Meanwhile, the story expands beyond Minnesota borders. Peter St. Onge (@stonge) synopsizes the scope, saying that for every three Somalians in the country there is one day care center. A flurry of posting about Somalian activity in Washington State uncovered quite a colorful mess of apparent fraud, one claim showing how two Somalian sisters set up day care centers in each of their homes — their daycare being confined to servicing each other’s children! The number of taxpayer-​funded Somalian daycare centers in Washington State surprised many Washingtonians:

This sort of thing is not limited to just a few states, apparently. And in one case in Arizona, a “Learing Center” echo was identified:

Amidst many accusations and counter-​accusations, the most astounding was made against Somalia’s ambassador to the UN, Abukar Dahir Osman, saying he is also a daycare administrator in Ohio. That is not true. Technically. Osman lived and worked in Ohio for many years before returning to a Somali diplomatic role. His pre-​diplomatic career included a position as managing director/​statutory agent for Progressive Health Care Services Inc., a Cincinnati-​based home healthcare company, which overlapped with the start of his UN role in 2019. He also worked as a supervisor in the Adult Medicaid Unit at the Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services (2007 – 2012).

In case you are wondering, it is not uncommon for foreign countries to tap their diaspora members to high diplomatic posts, including UN roles. For smaller or developing nations, it’s a practical way, the rationale runs, to staff missions with skilled professionals who might not be available domestically.

But it is also worth mentioning that home health care, which Abukar Dahir Osman was associated with, while distinct from daycare, has also been implicated in the scams that have so far focused on subsidized daycare.

If this is all legit, it appears that America has been importing a whole lot of social workers from Somalia! 

And wherever this story eventually ends up at, it will remain the case that the U.S. brought in people from a distant land who went on various forms of welfare and who have then found work (most are unemployed) in those government and contracting agencies providing various forms of “welfare” services. 

The legal framework under which they arrived was the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), established by the Refugee Act of 1980. The Somalians are not, on the whole, illegal aliens. Though they started as a trickle in the 1980s and ’90s, under the Bush and Obama Administrations of the aughts and teens it ballooned. You might say. But caution: this was part of broader increases in overall refugee ceilings (from ~70,000 – 80,000 annually early on, to 85,000 in FY2016 and planned 110,000 for FY2017) due to global crises. Peaks occurred in later years (e.g., ~9,000 in 2016), but this built on prior decades’ flows — not a sudden new initiative from, say, the Obama Administration.

While the migrant story goes way back, this fraud story itself goes back, too; it’s not just a recent phenomenon. But more on that later.

It’s been over a month since this site’s last update on the most fascinating astronomical event of the year, 3I/​ATLAS. The general run of astronomers and astronomical organizations keep insisting on calling the cosmic interloper a “comet,” but it is so very different from all previous solar system comets that the term seems stretched. 

It’s odd how strict on nomenclature — developing and enforcing a discipline-​wide definition — astronomers were when they demoted Pluto from “planet” to “dwarf planet,” in 2006, but now give so much latitude to “comet” when the current object displays so many anomalies.

How many anomalies?

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has documented up to 15 anomalies for the interstellar object 3I/​ATLAS (also known as C/​2024 S1), based on his recent writings and interviews where he compiles and expands on peculiarities in its composition, behavior, trajectory, and other traits that deviate from typical comets.

Some sources reference 14, but his most comprehensive recent list hits 15.

The most recent anomaly he highlighted is the alignment of 3I/ATLAS’s axis (center of rotation) with its persistent sunward direction. Comets tumble in a random, “bad-​punt football” fashion; 3I/​ATLAS entered our observational ambit headed for a flyby, but (we discovered later) with its rotational axis always pointing at the Sun — and then when nearest the Sun, it smoothly flipped, with the other pole also pointing within 8 degrees to the solar system’s gravitational center. 

And all the while there was an “anti-​tail” pointing out of its solar-​side pole, tightly focused like a urine stream, not a sneeze — comet tails point away from the Sun, and usually resemble sneezes!

This is all very odd. The anti-​tail is nudging the trajectory outward from the Sun, bringing the object closer to Jupiter than initial calculations indicated. Why?

Well, if it is an artificial object, Loeb suggests a rationale: “If 3I/​ATLAS is technological in origin, it might have fine-​tuned its trajectory with the help of thrusters so as to arrive at Jupiter’s Hill radius. In that case, the multiple jets observed around 3I/​ATLAS in its post-​perihelion images … might have been used for the slight orbit correction needed to result in min{D}=H.”

There are a lot of ifs here, of course, and Loeb himself says the bets are still favoring “natural object.” But the object is so weird that we know little of its nature. We may understand more of the whats of the object, after several months of observations, but few of its whys. Calling it a comet seems less justified than demoting Pluto. And finding excuses not to investigate this fascinating traveler is, as Loeb argues, the exact wrong lesson to draw.

But if you are looking for an informed mainstream view, consult Vladimir Putin, who insists on calling 3I/​ATLAS a comet: “Our scientists are aware of what is happening. Moreover, this is a comet from another star, so it behaves differently from comets of our galactic [sic] origin. It has a different shell and as it approaches closer to the Sun, slightly different processes occur on its surface, including in the field tail of this rocket. Things look different there, but it’s quite large. I think somewhere between 2 to 6 kilometers. Look, the moon is 400,000 kilometers away from us. And the object you are talking about is hundreds of millions of kilometers away. I don’t think it poses any threat to us. We’ll let it go to Jupiter. And at the beginning of next year, the comet will leave the solar system.”

On Thursday, a provocative post from X user @CremieuxRecueil included a graph showing U.S. federal workforce numbers declining from a peak of around 3.05 million in late 2024 to below 2.75 million by late 2025, with the drop accelerating after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.

Elon Musk replied to it on the 19th, with “The matrix was reprogrammed,” amplifying its reach.

Musk’s somewhat cryptic comment seems to attribute the decline to DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory body led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, which focused on reducing federal spending and bureaucracy through recommendations like hiring freezes, agency reorganizations, and mass layoffs.

Is there any truth to it? Did DOGE do something substantive? 

Based on official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data and reporting from government oversight sources, yes. This precipitous downward slope on the graph represents the largest peacetime reduction in federal employment on record, totaling over 270,000 jobs cut since January 2025.

That is roughly a 9 percent drop from peak levels.

Still, critics note it hasn’t yet translated to significant budget savings.

DOGE’s role does receive credit in many accounts, as its recommendations influenced executive actions like Trump’s Day One hiring freeze (with exceptions for essential roles) and agency-​specific layoffs. But remember, DOGE itself is an unofficial advisory panel without direct authority — its charter expires in mid-​2026, and since Elon left, it has not been quite as active as at its peak.

Federal employment had grown from about 2.85 million in 2021 to over three million by 2024 under the Biden administration, driven by hiring in areas like healthcare, infrastructure, and regulatory enforcement. The reversal in 2025 aligns with Trump’s executive orders and DOGE proposals to eliminate redundancies and non-​essential positions.

As of mid-​2025, over 58,500 confirmed layoffs, 76,000 voluntary buyouts, and 149,000 planned reductions were tracked across 27 agencies, including significant cuts at the IRS, EPA, and Department of Education.

While not a formal department, DOGE’s public campaigns and embedded “team leads” in agencies have driven reorganizations, such as consolidating offices and purging unprotected roles.

Cato Institute hailed it as effective for workforce reduction, but outlets like The Washington Times pointed out that federal spending hasn’t decreased accordingly, calling the savings goal of $2 trillion “unmet.”

Why “unmet”? Well, factors like entitlement programs and debt servicing aren’t just going to go away of themselves, and DOGE limited itself to “waste-​fraud-​abuse” elements in the Social Security system.

References:

• BLS CES Highlights for November 2025 (PDF): Direct monthly data on government employment drops.
• Cato Institute Analysis (December 18, 2025): Details the 9% decline and historical context.
• Fortune (December 16, 2025): Covers the October/​November drops tied to DOGE.
• New York Post Opinion (December 19, 2025): Discusses cumulative 270,000+ reduction.
• Reuters Exclusive (November 24, 2025): Explains hiring freeze and DOGE’s advisory role.
• “2025 Federal Mass Layoffs” (Wikipedia): Tracks confirmed and planned cuts.
• “How the DOGE Do,” Common Sense FYI (February 15, 2025): Covers the way of DOGE’s creation.
• “Elon’s Out,” Common Sense by Paul Jacob (May 30, 2025): The politics of DOGE’s transition to its latter days.

The U.S. federal budget landscape in late 2025 remains tense, as we say, with looming deadlines and partisan clashes over spending, taxes, and entitlements. On December 10, 2025, Chairman Jodey Arrington of the House Budget Committee praised the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut rates, citing it as relief for families amid inflation pressures. The FOMC statement noted inflation remains “somewhat elevated” but affirmed commitment to maximum employment.

If you are (a) wondering what sense any of that makes, and (b) overcome with a nauseating sense of déjà vu, welcome to the club. 

The Boom & Bust Club, that is, where insiders pretend they’re in control and outsiders like us just hope to shore up a big against the ruin.

On the 6th, Trump signed a $12 billion farmer aid executive order, aimed at countering “unfair” trade impacts; it bridged gaps for farmers until full budget reconciliation. 

Meanwhile, thr Full-​Year Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 1968) is in play to avert shutdowns, but reconciliation battles persist. Congressional Budget Office projections warn economic shifts could widen deficits through 2035.

“Today we are building on the work of the last several years and strengthening Minnesota’s defenses against fraud,” the state’s governor, Tim Walz, said yesterday. “If you commit fraud in Minnesota, you will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

This is mostly spin, of course. There is not much “building” on recent work happening in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. It is more like the opposite. The “recent work” was done far from the Walz orbit, work in the Archdiocese of St. Paul by the FBI — not anything to do with Somali-​immigrant fraud networks recently revealed through no merit of Tim Walz or his administration. 

Which is why Walz must now appear to lead the dance. The Epoch Times reports that Walz has appointed as “the state’s director of program integrity” — you might call it his “Fraud Czar” — one Tim O’Malley, the FBI agent who had worked on the Archdiocese fraud.

But maybe the cleverest part is his name. A Tim appointed a Tim. 

Walz also makes much of a new “partnership with WayPoint Inc., a Minnesota firm made up of former law enforcement and federal agents focused on forensic accounting and investigations.  They will develop a comprehensive fraud-​prevention strategy for the state.”

Or so it is spun.

Paul Jacob wrote about the underlying fraud scandal on December First, in “Red-​Flagged Welfare Fraud.”

Readers of Paul Jacob’s Common Sense are quite aware that he has long targeted the FCC on this site, as can be seen by just a few of his past Common Sense commentaries:

• Net Neutrality, Dead Again (January 16, 2025)
• Gloating Time (December 17, 2019)
• Freak-​Out, Death Threats and … Neutrality (December 17, 2017)

But if you yearn for something more, consult Robby Soave on Ayn Rand:

In 1962, Rand penned a prophetic warning about the public interest standard, which then – FCC Chair Newton N. Minow was citing to justify pressuring television companies to create more educational programming. Minow famously railed against a supposedly “vast wasteland” of shoddy television shows, and he claimed that the FCC’s charter empowered him to push for editorial changes to the medium that would align with his view of the public interest.

“You must provide a wider range of choices, more diversity, more alternatives,” said Minow in his well-​remembered 1961 speech. “It is not enough to cater to the nation’s whims; you must also serve the nation’s needs.”

Minow repeatedly claimed that he was not in favor of government censorship and was not trying to tell broadcasters what they could and could not say. Rather, he charged them to make nebulous and ill-​defined improvements to the product that he believed would be better appreciated by the American public — i.e., the public interest.

In her March 1962 essay “Have Gun, Will Nudge,” Rand argued that this was censorship by another name. “It is true, as Mr. Minow assures us, that he does not propose to establish censorship; what he proposes is much worse,” she wrote. Unlike explicit bans on speech, Rand warned, the modern method of censorship “neither forbids nor permits anything; it never defines or specifies; it merely delivers men’s lives, fortunes, careers, ambitions into the arbitrary power of a bureaucrat who can reward or punish at whim.”

Robby Soave, “Ayn Rand Denounced the FCC’s ‘Public Interest’ Censorship More Than 60 Years Ago,” Reason (January 2026).

Read the whole magazine piece at Reason’s online site.

When Thomas Jefferson entered the White House, he promptly began firing civil servants, high-​level and ‑low. It was a big house-​cleaning effort, a streamlining after Federalist bloat. The new Democratic-​Republican president demanded an efficient and minimal government.

Since then, it’s gotten harder for presidents to do such big house-​cleaning jobs, as The Epoch Times explains in a new article:

For months, federal judges have been ordering President Donald Trump to reinstate heads of agencies despite his interest in removing them.

Their decisions have been based on a 90-​year-​old Supreme Court precedent, known as Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, that says Congress can limit the reasons for which presidents remove officials like members of labor boards.

However, that precedent and various legal blocks on Trump’s firings could be removed depending on how the Supreme Court rules in an upcoming case — potentially giving Trump and his successors more flexibility with personnel.

Sam Dorman, “Supreme Court Set to Consider Trump’s Power to Remove High-​Level Bureaucrats,” The Epoch Times (December 6, 2025).

The case, Trump v. Slaughter, goes before the union’s highest court on Monday. It regards Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Something to remember about this “balance of powers” case is that it is not about balancing the constitutional “three branches” of the general government. The permanent bureaucracy, insulated from firing by the “Executive,” has, arguably, become a de facto fourth branch, uncontrolled by an inertial Congress as well as the elected president.

Whatever the Supreme Court decides, the effects of its decision are expected to ripple through many other cases — including ones involving Trump.

For example, two fired labor board officials have filedamicus briefs suggesting the outcome of Slaughter’s case could impact their cases as well.

Trump has not only challenged Humphrey’s Executor but said that even if Congress can insulate certain officers from removal, judges shouldn’t be able to reinstate those officers.

Sauer told the court that while fired officers can seek back pay, their reinstatement intruded on executive power and forces the president to “entrust executive power to someone he has removed.”

Slaughter disagreed, arguing “there is no Article II problem with requiring the President to ‘entrust executive power to someone he has removed’ if he has no Article II authority to remove that person in the first place,” her brief added.

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions on its emergency docket indicated it was sympathetic to Trump’s position.

In at least five separate cases, including Slaughter’s, the justices have allowed Trump to temporarily fire officials as litigation unfolded.

The court has repeatedly said that the executive branch “faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.”

Ibid.

The issue is obviously complicated. The Epoch Times article does a pretty good job explaining that complexity. 

President Donald John Trump’s blowing up of Venezuelan boats on the high seas have not been just here and there, one or two … as an Epoch Times article’s title and blurb ably elaborates: “Trump Declares Venezuelan Airspace Closed as US Intensifies Pressure on Maduro” (November 29, 2025), and

The United States has carried out at least 21 lethal strikes on suspected drug-​smuggling vessels since September, killing more than 80 alleged traffickers.

The USS Gerald R. Ford arrived in the Caribbean mid-​month, and “Operation Southern Spear” is well underway with 12,000 troops and a dozen or so ships in play.

Trump signaled the possibility of expanded operations earlier this week, telling U.S. troops on Nov. 27 that American forces may soon conduct ground actions targeting drug-​trafficking routes inside Venezuela. He praised the work of the Air Force’s 7th Bomb Wing in deterring maritime smuggling, saying traffickers have increasingly shifted away from sea routes.

“You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” the president said.

“Venezuela’s foreign ministry has accused the U.S. of trying to manufacture a pretext for military escalation,” The Epoch Times story goes on to explain. Since this war has been a ramping up of the War on Drugs, of which Donald Trump has long been a fan, the accusation looks plausible.

Senator Rand Paul (R.-Ky.) has offered his warning:

There are undoubtably war-​hungry voices in Washington.

If the administration enters into an invasion of Venezuela or sends more Ukraine aid, it would be detrimental to the party, and would reopen the same divisions we are still trying to mend.

Senator Rand Paul stated an obvious possibility, the other day: soon the U.S. federal government’s official debt will roll over another trillion dollar mark, to $39 trillion.

His Thanksgiving message was not unrelated to the debt:

And there was a follow-​up poll:

Speaking of time, the $36 trillion mark was hit a year ago, in late November.

The $37 and $38 trillion marks both hit this year. Will we squeeze a third trillion dollar mark in for 2025? No, if the Congressional Budget Office’s predictions are correct. The CBO expects the debt will rise above $39 trillion in mid-​2026, with $40 trillion achieved later in the year.