All eyes have been on Minnesota when it comes to uncovering fraud, but I predict a California gold rush is coming, and the signs are already out there.
There have been many California gold rushes, of course, including the original one that gave us San Francisco, Levi's Jeans, and an enduring sense that California is the place you gotta be. If New York is where you made it in finance, publishing, and theater, San Francisco is where you could strike it rich in gold, silicon, software, aerospace, or build a middle-class life in what amounts to paradise.
Over the past few years, another gold rush developed: welfare fraud, and in particular the kind of daycare fraud that has been uncovered in Minnesota, and likely on a scale that makes my tiny state of 6 million people look puny. Billions of dollars have likely been pocketed by scammers, and it has all happened under the noses and likely with the acquiescence of state officials.
In 2026 there will be a new kind of gold rush to sweep California, only this time the gold found among all the mud and dirt will be information about political corruption that has been covered up by the political and media class in that state. And the big reward, it is hoped, will be the political scalp of some of the most powerful politicians in the state and the country.
And there is plenty of gold in them there hills to be found.
Leading the charge is California political activist and licensed private investigator Amy Reichert, who has already gotten the attention of some of the biggest players in California, and who is about to become a media star.
GET THIS: AHMED, DIAMOND FAMILY CHILD CARE has 14 children enrolled. When the state arrived for an unannounced inspection, ZERO children were present & only one staff member was there. The licensee & one child arrived shortly after, & a second child was dropped off for their 1st… pic.twitter.com/DKqPXgsYJr
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 4, 2026
Amy has been doing a little digging and has already found a significant number of cases where child care centers, when inspected by the state, have zero or one child in attendance—often the children of the people "working" there. Yet they will get state reimbursements for 10, 12, 15, or more kids based on a COVID-era law that reimburses daycares for the number of students they claimed from before the shutdown.
I had to GROK this because I didn't believe it:
— GEMMA6271 (@GEMMA62711) January 5, 2026
- California's 2025-26 budget extends "Cost of Care Plus" monthly payments to childcare providers through June 30, 2026, reimbursing based on authorized enrollment rather than actual attendance, which can result in funding for…
In California, state law requires surprise inspections once every three years, but apparently, a daycare that does not actually have clients is not seen as a red flag. Millions of dollars can flow to the business as long as it doesn't violate the regulations on the book. Fraud, it appears, is not seen as a problem.
SHOCKER in San Diego:
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 4, 2026
2 out of 2 childcares reviewed so far had ZERO children present during state inspection. ABDULAHI, SUAD FAMILY CHILD CARE had only the owner & her own baby present. Owner was cited for missing school enrollment verification for 6 out of 6 enrolled children. pic.twitter.com/Y5z0reIs2r
When I saw Amy's tweet via Chamath Palihapitiya's tweet about her, I had to look her up. We chatted for a bit, and as with many people, it was the COVID tyranny that radicalized her. She started ReOpen San Diego and now runs Restore San Diego. And, as a licensed private investigator, I would argue that she is perfectly positioned to help take down the whole corrupt system.
Amy knows what she is talking about.
Amy: When I was really inspired by what Nick Shire was doing in Minnesota, and I decided to start doing digging in my own. So I started alphabetically, and in San Diego County, there are 40,000 childcare providers and I started looking into each facility individually, and clicking on their inspection reports, and what I was finding was a pattern, and so far, just in about eight hours, I've been able to find eight ghost daycares in San Diego, and the stories are always the same. What the report shows is they'll be anywhere from 14 to 19 kids that are supposedly enrolled, but when state inspectors show up, there's zero kids, or it's the owner with their own child there, so and these are during normal business hours in the middle of the week and the middle of the day.
Me: And does the state do anything with that information?
Amy: No. So the reason why the inspectors are there is because, they're supposed to do unannounced visits every 3 years, they're not looking for ghost daycares, right? And, uh, there's some perverse incentives right now that also explain why, uh, some of these daycare centers are empty. So, uh, a lot of people don't realize that even though COVID ended a few years ago, COVID funding did not. Family daycare owners are unionized, so now they're a powerful political ally to Gavin Newsom, and Gavin Newsom signed. The COVID funding was extended until mid-2026. There's talk of extending it even further, and basically, you can, if you can be a daycare right now in San Diego with 0, 1, or 2 kids, but if you can show you had 9 kids before COVID, you get a check from the state of California for the exact amount of of a student, so you are incentivized not to be at capacity or running an actual daycare in the state of California. It's scary.
In California, daycares are unionized, and the union is one of the more powerful in the state. It can pour gobs of dark money into political campaigns, and of course, that money often originates at the state level, flows down into the daycares, and then flows back out into the political system to elect friendly politicians. The donations amount to millions of dollars.
Another GHOST daycare in California.
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 6, 2026
SHARIFY, HASEEBA FAMILY CHILD CARE: During a state inspection only one child was present and it was the licensee’s own 6 month old child. Records show 8 children enrolled. The licensee admitted she has not actually cared for children at the… pic.twitter.com/470XIydpJY
It's money laundering. The state pays for ghost kids; some of the money goes to the unions, who elect the politicians, who keep the money flowing.
And so the grift goes on.
ALL EYES ON CALIFORNIA.
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 6, 2026
After @GavinNewsom locked us down, destroyed California & tried to force my family out of the state with unconstitutional mandates, I promised myself I’d do everything I could to end his political career if it was the last thing I did. https://t.co/wfnJRpCjjn
Obviously, the "gold rush" Newsom and his cronies were interested in promoting was mining the taxpayers, but if I am right, there will be a new round of digging for political gold.
Information that could break the stranglehold of Democrats in California would be very shiny and valuable indeed.
I have come here to chew bubblegum… and kick ass. And I’m all outta bubblegum @GavinNewsom https://t.co/ugshAMZ20p
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 7, 2026
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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