The shooting of Alex Pretti by Federal agents on Saturday morning, following the equally controversial shooting of Renee Good a few weeks ago, and the usual threat of rioting, and the National Guard being sent in to enjoy all the peaceful protesting that Governor Walz and Mayor Frey were talking about on Saturday, is getting all the attention in Minneapolis and nationwide.
But let's not forget the original scandal from way back before Minneapolis's "Sanctuary City" status seized the headlines.
The fraud scandal. You might think it's gone away. It hasn't.
The shooting took place in a neighborhood that used to be where the starving artists hung out; for those of you who remember the great Minneapolis punk bands of the 1980s - Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, and so on - they all hung around the area back in the day. More recently, the neighborhood was "Eat Street", a couple of blocks of tony restaurants and other lifestyle hangouts. COVID didn't treat the area well, of course, but the area has always been a mixed bag. The shooting took place in front of a building I remember having a dog's breakfast of different businesses - record shops, sketchy "clinics", coffee shops, tax services - going back decades.
And today?
How ironic that today's Minneapolis ICE shooting took place in front of the building that housed Smart Therapy, one of the Somali fraud businesses. A building that @DataRepublican says houses 184 "nonprofits."
— CrimeWatchMpls (@CrimeWatchMpls) January 25, 2026
You'd think with all the billions they could fix the awnings. pic.twitter.com/AgA9WjxcMX
The tweet points to a piece by the essential DataRepublican, who did some digging into the address:
Took a look, and OMG... 184 NPIs at 2614 Nicollet.
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) January 24, 2026
That's just health care providers. Not including child care. And none of them are on an exclusion list. @DOGE_HHS https://t.co/lgyHgzthIg pic.twitter.com/OhXu2DMpBj
Meaning that many of these are businesses that haven't even tangibly turned up on the radar for existing fraud investigations.
Speaking of which - a few weeks ago, when President Trump promised a new Deputy Attorney General to focus on fraud, starting with Fraud in Minnesota...
The assistant attorney general will be Senate-confirmed, and Vance said a nominee will likely be announced in the coming days. He said Senate Majority Leader John Thune pledged "swift confirmation."
The assistant attorney general leading the investigations will likely remain in place until the end of the Trump administration, according to Vance. He said the official will have "nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud," but efforts will begin and be focused primarily on Minnesota.
... many of us here said "what's the hold-up?"
It's getting closer:
Colin McDonald is being considered for the newly created position of assistant attorney general, the sources said. McDonald is a longtime federal prosecutor who is currently an associate deputy attorney general.
Mr. Trump said Wednesday he had someone in mind for the post, but he was not ready to announce a name. His nominee will require Senate confirmation.
"We have chosen a person who's very tough, very smart, very fair," the president told reporters in the Oval Office. White House spokespeople declined to comment on Thursday.
In the meantime, the former head of the "Feeding our Future" non-profit whose nine-digit fraud case started things rolling in earnest a few years back - appears to not be content to take the fall:
Bock alleged the state approved program sponsors and was responsible for monitoring claims, but officials repeatedly failed to investigate or stop suspicious companies after she flagged them.
"I honestly believe Keith Ellison and Gov. Walz need to be held accountable. There needs to be an investigation done. If they weren't aware, that's concerning," she told Fox News.
Let's not take our eyes off the fraud. There's a lot more there, there.
