Independent journalist exposes massive fraud at childcare centers; Not news for Star Tribune, networks

by WorldTribune Staff, December 29, 2025 Real World News

Multiple Minnesota childcare centers appear completely inactive, including one that received millions in taxpayer funds but had no visible children or operations, a 42-minute video released by independent journalist Nick Shirley shows.

In just one day, Shirley’s investigation which went viral and outraged the nation uncovered over $110 million in potential fraud across several sites. He described what he found as the tip of the iceberg.

Meanwhile, for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and major media networks it was not a big deal.

ABC and NBC together spent 17 minutes through the morning of Dec. 29 on the latest developments on the Somali Community in Minneapolis with only 21 percent of that coverage focusing on the welfare fraud scheme.

What about the front page and home page of the state’s largest newspaper, the Minnesota Star Tribune? While Shirley’s report was dominating social media, the Star Tribune ironically reported on its printing plant shutting down and a winter storm bringing bearing down on the Twin Cities.

Star Tribune CEO Steve Grove is a longtime supporter of Governor Tim Walz and previously commissioner of employment and economic development.

“Steve Grove, the Star Tribune CEO and supporter of Tim Walz, has stayed dead silent as Minnesota’s biggest fraud story goes viral,” conservative commentator Mario Nawfal said on X. “It wasn’t the media or state auditors who exposed it – it was a guy with a camera and public records driving through Minnesota.”

Shirley visited other centers tied to similar funding, finding locked doors, no staff, and no children present.

The footage includes one facility, the Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis, where the sign misspells “learning” as “learing.”

Licensed for up to 99 children, the facility showed no activity during a weekday visit, yet it collected approximately $4 million in state Child Care Assistance Program funds over recent years, with $1.9 million in 2025 alone. When approached, a woman at the facility shouted “Don’t open up. It’s ICE,” assuming the visitors were immigration agents.

Taxpayer money was funding the Quality Learing Center. / X

Vice President JD Vance said in a post to X: “What’s happening in Minnesota is a microcosm of the immigration fraud in our system. Politicians like it because they get power. Welfare cheats like it because they get rich. But it’s a zero sum game, and they’re stealing both money and political power from Minnesotans.”

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer demanded Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz explain the $4 million to a center that can’t spell “learning.” Rep. Mike Lawler called for accountability, arrests, and congressional hearings. Donald Trump Jr. urged viewers to watch the full video, highlighting misuse of tax dollars. Elon Musk posted “Prosecute” Walz.

The “learing” center accumulated 95 violations from 2019-2023, including missing child records and safety issues. State records confirm the funding, but critics say oversight failures under Walz’s administration allowed such discrepancies to persist.

In the wake of Shirley’s investigation, Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler revealed that the agency would be “cutting off” grants to Minnesota in response to ongoing reports of Somali fraud.

In a post on X, conservative activist Benny Johnson shared that Loeffler told him she would be “taking immediate action” after Shirley and his team exposed fraud in Minnesota and “uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day.”

Johnson added that Loeffler said it was “due” to Walz refusing “to enforce laws governing small businesses” and because of his “allowance and facilitation of fraud.”

Shirley’s reporting comes after the City Journal reported in November that the Minnesota Somali community was sending “millions of dollars in stolen” taxpayer funds back to Somalia, and that the funds were ending up “in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab.”

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