INTERNACIONAL
Minnesota candidate ‘stress tests’ state’s new fraud law — what she found raised major red flags
A Minnesota state Senate candidate revealed she found several vulnerabilities in a fraud prevention law signed by Gov. Tim Walz after testing it against the state’s previous fraud scandals to see whether it could have caught them sooner.
The measure in question, the Office of the Inspector General law, creates an independent statewide watchdog that oversees inspectors general, investigates alleged fraud across state programs, establishes fraud prevention standards, and improves coordination and data sharing.
However, Heidi Heino, the Republican candidate for Minnesota’s 36th Senate District, told Digital her test against the Feeding Our Future scheme and other past fraud cases found the law lacks extra safeguards when potential risks emerge.
«When I stress tested against Feeding Our Future and some of the other fraud schemes that we had in Minnesota, it would have found the fraud eventually, but it’s way after the money was already gone and we would still be stuck trying to claw it back,» Heino said.
MINNESOTA MAN CAPTURED IN SOMALIA AFTER ALLEGEDLY HELPING ORCHESTRATE $250M CHILD NUTRITION FRAUD SCHEME
The law was passed as Minnesota faces the fallout from massive fraud schemes involving childcare, autism, housing and disability services. Republicans have blamed leadership and oversight failures, while the Trump administration launched a federal anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance.
Working as a corporate leader whose day job involves underwriting, Heino said she used similar review and auditing practices to test where Minnesota’s fraud safeguards fell short.
«Business does a lot with a little,» she said. «Government does the opposite. They do a little with a lot of resources.»
Heino said she used a 2,800% increase in payments to Feeding Our Future from 2020 to 2021 in her test, a jump that should have automatically raised alarm bells and led to further review. The scheme alone allegedly stole $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
FRAUD EXPERT EXPOSES HOW HIDDEN NETWORKS DROVE MINNESOTA FRAUD, OTHER MAJOR SCAMS: ‘CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE’
«You don’t have to be a detective to see that there’s some issue there and so to investigate that and check and see if those claims are legitimate, and if they were legitimate, have someone actually sign off on it,» she said, adding that filling out extra paperwork may be frustrating but can help prevent fraud in the long run.
Heino also argued Feeding Our Future should not have been allowed to address complaints against itself.
«We had 30 complaints to the Minnesota Department of Education regarding the fraud and they are mostly overlooked or Feeding Our Future had to go correct itself and that was a huge gap there,» she said.
She proposed immediately freezing payments, conducting a full review, and triggering an outside audit.
«The OIG has good bones, but it needs teeth,» she said.
Without independent audits, Heino said Minnesota will not be able to uncover fraud-related gaps, saying the additional oversight would save more money than it costs.
GOP ACCUSES WALZ ALLIES OF BURYING $52M MEDICAID FRAUD REPORT BEFORE ELECTION
«We get a lot of pushback saying this is going to be expensive, but is it?» she said. «It will be less expensive to have an independent audit than it is going to be to have all the fraud and lose taxpayer dollars to fraudulent activities.»
Those same issues apply to current state programs like Minnesota’s Paid Leave program, according to Heino.
«However, we need to rein it in and have more investigation before we start sending out the checks, especially with paid family leave,» she said. «They pay out before they have the doctor’s note certifying that this is actually true and they have verified it.»
She acknowledged that the law is a «great first step» toward addressing the problem but said it does not go far enough to protect taxpayers and prevent future fraud.
As a mother, grandmother and taxpayer, Heino said she is fed up with how leaders in her home state have handled fraud, adding the problem has gotten so bad that Minnesota has become the «laughing stock of the nation» and people no longer want to say they are from the state anymore.
«We need to funnel those resources to the people that actually need them and keep people committing fraud from taking our money and running away with it, buying luxury condos or homes, and then funneling it out of the country,» she said.
Digital reached out to Walz’s office and the Minnesota Department of Education for comment.
«We have not slowed down, there is no sense in which the fraud has been stopped in Minnesota,» Bill Glahn, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, told Digital in August, making the case that the fraud situation in the state has not been properly addressed.
politics, minnesota fraud exposed, tim walz, minnesota, financial regulation, donald trump
INTERNACIONAL
Dems seize on midterm rout to demand ICE reform but polls reveal a twist in who prioritized immigration
Democrats are seizing on their sweeping midterm victories to demand immigration reform, even as polling shows economic concerns far outpaced it as a priority for both Democratic and Hispanic voters.
The push follows Democratic gains nationwide, including wins in Texas congressional districts redrawn to favor Republicans and major upsets in the state’s Senate and gubernatorial races. Some winners are casting the results as a mandate to challenge President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and putting prospective 2028 Democratic presidential candidates on notice.
«Whoever wants to get our support in ’28 has to prioritize immigration reform, period,» Rep.-elect Bobby Pulido, D-Texas, who defeated Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in South Texas, said last Wednesday at a news conference alongside fellow Texas Democrats pushing for immigration reform.
But Digital polling showed 27% of Republican voters ranked immigration as their top issue, compared to just 3% of Democrats.
Pulido flipped a redrawn, Republican-leaning South Texas district, ousting De La Cruz, who won her re-election in 2024 by 14. 2 points. He campaigned on affordability while tying Trump’s immigration enforcement raids at worksites to workforce shortages that hurt the economy.
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Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told Digital that voters who split their tickets between Trump and down-ballot Democrats in 2024 were responding this year to both affordability pressures and the president’s immigration crackdown.
«He made a promise that he was going to bring prices down on day one. Liberation didn’t happen, so people remembered that,» Cuellar, whose district encompasses border town Laredo, told Digital. «Second thing is he said he was going to focus on criminals. He didn’t stop there. He started going after construction workers.»
Democrats’ wins came as an estimated 14.5 million Latinos voted across the country in the 2026 midterms, according to UnidosUS. The group’s Texas state director, Eric Holguín, said Democratic support among Latino voters rivaled levels seen in 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidency.
«Cost of living was the number one issue that we saw with Latino voters in Texas and across the country as well,» Holguín told Digital, referring to polling conducted by UnidosUS.
Pre-election polling conducted by Voter Poll, showed that for 45% of polled Hispanic voters, the economy was the most important issue facing the country, followed by the state of democracy for 26% of voters and then immigration at 15%.
VOTER POLL: HOW DEMOCRATS TOOK CONTROL OF THE SENATE
For Hispanics voting in Texas, polling followed a similar trend with the economy the number one issue for 45% of voters, the state of democracy for 25% of voters and immigration for 15%.
«People right now, they see their pocketbooks, they see the bank accounts, they the grocery bills, they see they’re electric bills, they see there gas bills and they’re saying, ‘Hey, a lot of promises were made to us in 2024 by President Trump, and he’s had almost two years to deliver on those promises, and not only has he not delivered on those promise, he’s made them worse with the war in Iran!,’» Holguín said.
Trump said that the Iran war hurt Republicans in the midterms, as conflict in the Strait of Hormuz has destabilized oil supply chains, causing gas prices to soar.
Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told Digital that voters were likely motivated by a rejection of Trump rather than enthusiasm for Democrats’ policies.
«It was driven by an anger that the president hasn’t delivered on the promises that he made, particularly bringing down the cost of living and decreasing international tensions,» Olsen said. «People see that inflation is higher than when he took office, and America is involved militarily in more places than they were under the Biden administration, and that’s not what they thought they were getting.»
HISPANIC VOTERS ARE NATURAL CONSERVATIVES. REAGAN KNEW. GOP NEEDS TO PROVE IT AGAIN
During a 60 Minutes interview, Trump said some of his deportations policies were «too tough»and that a deal with Democrats was «doable.»
Miguel Valenzuela, a business owner in Texas who joined American Families United for the Nov. 11 news conference, said he had spent years warning Republicans that their approach to immigration risked alienating Hispanic voters who otherwise shared some of the party’s values.
«Hispanic values, family, faith, hardworking,» Valenzuela, who does not identify as a Democrat, told Digital. «That sounds like a Republican, right? «
Valenzuela said he had attended local Republican political events and urged the party to address immigration reform before pushing away an entire voting bloc. He argued that children of immigrants were reaching voting age and making their frustrations known at the ballot box.
«Those kids have now became of age and they are voting. And since they are now voting, this is exactly what I had been warning about for years. And it happened last week,» Valenzuela said.
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Holguín warned Democrats that keeping Latino voters’ support will depend on delivering results.
«They’re put on notice right now. Everyone’s watching what they do,» Holguín said. «They’re looking for major change in how our government’s run and how our government delivers for the people.»
Republican National Committee press secretary Natalie Baldassarre defended Trump’s immigration policies and applauded the president for keeping affordability at the center of his agenda.
«President Trump is keeping his promise to secure the border and enforce our immigration laws to keep American citizens safe. While Democrats fight among themselves and focus on impeaching President Trump, Republicans remain united and focused on making life more affordable for working American families.»
Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
midterm elections, politics, democratic party, house of representatives, elections state and local, elections
INTERNACIONAL
La Casa Blanca anunció una cumbre entre Trump, Putin y Xi Jinping en China para discutir sobre Irán y las armas nucleares
La Casa Blanca anunció que los presidentes Donald Trump, Xi Jinping y Vladimir Putin tienen previsto reunirse el próximo jueves en Shenzhen, en el sur de China, al margen del Foro de Cooperación Económica Asia-Pacífico (APEC).
Según informó Washington, los mandatarios de Estados Unidos, China y Rusia abordarán la guerra en Medio Oriente y la posibilidad de avanzar en un acuerdo sobre sus arsenales nucleares, pero dejarán fuera de la agenda el conflicto en Ucrania. Por el momento, ni Moscú ni Beijing confirmaron oficialmente el encuentro.
La posibilidad de una cumbre trilateral, de la que se venía hablando desde hace semanas, marcaría un hecho inédito entre los líderes de las tres principales potencias nucleares del mundo. Sin embargo, los analistas consideran que las expectativas de alcanzar acuerdos concretos son limitadas y que la reunión tendrá un peso mayor en términos simbólicos y diplomáticos.
“El presidente ha dejado claro que, entre otros temas, discutirá la reducción del arsenal de armas nucleares en el mundo. El presidente cree que esta proliferación es muy peligrosa”, declaró el viernes Olivia Wales, portavoz de la Casa Blanca.
Un funcionario estadounidense confirmó además que Trump tiene intención de conversar sobre Irán con Xi y Putin, aunque aclaró que Washington mantiene otro canal de negociaciones con Kiev y Moscú para tratar la guerra en Ucrania.
Jinping
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Two American tourists drowned in the Bahamas after a strong current pulled a group of swimmers out to sea Friday, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a press release.
The pair — a 38-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman — were swimming with a larger group in waters off of the island of Bimini when the strong current swept them away.
Police said the victims were swimming in an area beyond a sign warning of strong currents.
MOM OF 2 WHO DIED RESCUING SONS DURING BAHAMAS SNORKELING TRIP IS IDENTIFIED
A nearby ferry boat rescued some of the swimmers, but the American duo were already unresponsive by the time the boat got to them, police said.
One of Bimini’s beaches found on the west side of North Bimini, the most popular of which is this long stretch of three contiguous beaches in Alice Town. (iStock)
Though CPR was administered to the pair, they remained unresponsive.
WOMAN FOUND FLOATING IN SEA AFTER GOING OVERBOARD FROM ROYAL CARIBBEAN SHIP
«Both victims were transported to the local clinic, where medical personnel continued life-saving efforts. Unfortunately, despite their efforts, both individuals were pronounced deceased by the attending physician shortly before 4:00 p.m.,» the police statement read.
Vector map of Bimini Island, The Bahamas (iStock)
Police do not suspect foul play, but are investigating the circumstances.
ROBBERIES, ASSAULTS AND RAPES SPUR NEW US TRAVEL WARNING FOR POPULAR CARIBBEAN GETAWAY
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death, according to the police.
Aerial view of boats anchored near coral rocks off North Bimini, Bahamas on sunny summer afternoon. (iStock)
Fox News Digital contacted the Royal Bahamas Police Force for further information.
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