Last week, the FBI raided 22 shady day care businesses in Minneapolis, Minn., as the federal government expanded its investigation of social services fraud there.
On Monday, Vice President JD Vance added Columbus, Ohio, to his fraud task force’s agenda in the wake of a new report alleging a billion-dollar Medicaid scam.
Both investigations were spurred by the dogged work of citizen and independent journalists like Nick Shirley in Minneapolis and Luke Rosiak in Columbus, who knocked on doors and interviewed dozens of supposed service providers to uncover the truth about fraudsters who may have bilked the federal government of billions.
And up and down the West Coast, blue-state lawmakers have leaped to respond — by actively working to make it harder for journalists like me to do our jobs and expose fraud connected to day care centers, hospices, home health care businesses and more.
In California, Democrats are pitching AB 2624, dubbed the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” with claims that it’s a safety measure to protect immigrants and social service workers from harassment.