Max Nesterak, Minnesota Reformer

Minnesota Democrats are already embroiled in an ugly battle for control of the state House after a judge ruled one of their newly elected members was ineligible to hold office for not living in the district he won.

Now, another Democratic candidate faces a residency challenge, but this time in the race for the Senate District 60 seat to replace former Majority Leader Kari Dzeidzic, who died of cancer last month, leaving the Senate tied 33-33.

Mohamed Jama, a potential top contender in a crowded special election to represent the safely Democratic district in northeast Minneapolis and Cedar-Riverside, likely does not meet the residency requirements according to state voter data.

Sonia Neculescu, a former DFL House candidate and resident of the district, filed a challenge to his candidacy with the state Supreme Court on Monday alleging Jama registered to vote on Election Day in neighboring Senate District 63 in November.

Under state law, candidates must live in the district they’re running to represent for at least six months prior to the election.

Jama did not immediately return a voicemail seeking comment.

Jama listed his address as “private” on his filing for candidacy, although all candidates must sign an affidavit that they meet the residency requirements.

According to Neculescu’s challenge, the Senate DFL Caucus campaign reached out to Jama’s campaign manager, Jacob Hooper, on Jan. 2 to confirm that he met the residency requirements.

Hooper replied that Jama has lived in Senate District 60 for six months but is not registered to vote there.

“He did vote in 2024 but used old address because this was during process of moving,” Hooper wrote, according to the challenge.

But that defense raises the prospect that Jama illegally voted where he doesn’t live.

Neculescu is asking the state Supreme Court to declare Jama ineligible to hold the office and direct the county to not print ballots with his name on them.

The dispute over Jama’s residency could delay the special primary scheduled for Jan. 14 and the special election for Jan. 28, though challenging Jama’s residency before the party endorsement and primary election saves Democrats from potentially repeating the embarrassing mistake they made in Johnson’s race of backing an ineligible candidate.

Jama’s campaign website describes him as a “community leader, passionate grassroots organizer and relentless housing advocate.”

Before running for office, he co-founded the Cedar Riverside Youth Council and served on the boards of the West Bank Community Coalition and the Neighborhood Revitalization Program.

In 2014, he was part of a brawl at a DFL caucus event in Cedar-Riverside that sent then-party activist Ilhan Omar to the hospital with a concussion, according to a MinnPost story from the time. Jama alleged Omar slapped him, which Omar denied, saying a group of women attacked her.

In March 2023, Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf went before the Minnesota Senate Taxes Committee with a critical plea.

Not enough parents could take advantage of a state tax credit for low-income families for tutoring services from companies like his, Success Tutoring.

“What we have here is not an achievement gap, we have an opportunity gap. We have students who are not able to get the help that they need because the parents cannot afford it,” Sheik-Yusuf said.

Sheik-Yusuf, wearing a plum-colored suit and Louis Vuitton scarf, said Success Tutoring had helped hundreds of students overcome the “literacy curve.” And they could help even more disadvantaged students if lawmakers would support a bill to raise the income ceiling and increase the amount of the credit.

“There’s a saying that we used to use in the classroom: Today’s reader is tomorrow’s leader. If we invest in education, it’s an investment in the child’s future,” Sheik-Yusuf said.

Sheik-Yusuf’s testimony was well received by both parties, who’ve long supported the K-12 Education Credit. The bill was folded into a larger tax package and passed with little attention. In fact, it was one of the few noncontroversial items of the 2023 session, when the Democratic trifecta passed a sweeping progressive agenda.

What lawmakers were unaware of at the time were the many disgruntled parents who say Success Tutoring and a related company called Achievers Tutoring outsource instruction to foreign teachers online whom their kids couldn’t understand.

Nor did lawmakers anticipate the outrage those parents would feel when they would later find thousands of dollars missing from their tax refunds to pay debts to Success Tutoring and Achievers Tutoring for services they say their kids barely used and didn’t benefit from.

The allegations surrounding the K-12 Education Credit come amid a larger crisis of fraud in state government, with hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly siphoned away from programs supposed to fund child nutrition, autism services, transportation and interpretation assistance.

The bill to increase spending on the tax credit was authored by Rep. Matt Norris, DFL-Blaine, who prior to his election to the Legislature, founded Minnesota Afterschool Advance to help more people use the credit. The organization, a collaboration between Venn Foundation and Youthprise, gives families zero-interest loans to pay for tutoring, music lessons or driver’s ed and collects the money from their tax refund. Norris helped grow the program to $1.8 million in funding for educational programs in 2022, according to his campaign website.

Norris had lobbied lawmakers for years to raise the income threshold and, after being elected in 2022, it was one of the first bills he authored. The bill (HF915) expanded the tax credit from $1,000 to $1,500 per child and more than doubled the income threshold to $70,000, with higher earners eligible for a smaller credit. The bill also tied the income threshold to inflation, so it may increase every year.

After the law passed, state spending on the credit more than doubled, from $5.3 million in 2022 to $13.7 million in 2023.

Norris, who left Minnesota Afterschool Advance when he entered the Legislature, says he was unaware until recently of the mothers’ complaints — and debt.

Lul Mohamud’s story

Lul Mohamud learned about free tutoring help for her four children at the mosque she attended, Dar Al-Farooq, in Bloomington one day in summer 2022.

After prayer time, three men told the congregation that they could get their children back on track after the pandemic caused so many to fall behind in reading and math. The tutoring was completely free for low-income parents, she recalled them saying.

Mohamud said a mosque leader who previously ran the youth program encouraged families to sign up. So did members of a group that she respected called the Muslim Coalition.

“They were introduced at the mosque as good people so I trusted them,” Mohamud said in an interview in Somali through an interpreter. “(They) said if you don’t help your kids, your kids will fall behind.”

As she was leaving the mosque, the men were standing outside the exit signing people up, and she gave one of the men her phone number. The man called her later that day. She gave him her Social Security number, and he gave her an address in Bloomington.

Mohamud says she didn’t bring her kids to begin tutoring until some months later, as school was getting back into session. She went to the address of a nondescript, three-story office building. It wasn’t at all like she pictured. It was a small office space without any clues that children learned there — no chalkboard or textbooks.

A representative for Achievers Tutoring said she would need to buy $50 laptops for each of her kids, ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade, to do the tutoring online. Mohamud didn’t have $200 for four computers — the man only accepted cash — but she was able to get two. Her two other kids could use the laptops they had from school.

Mohamud said he directed them to go to another address in Bloomington the following week for online tutoring sessions.

But that turned out to be no more promising. Instead of teachers, there were half a dozen or so young men there, scrolling on TikTok. One directed her to set up the laptops for the kids to use and told her she could leave and come back later to pick them up.

“When I saw the place, I determined it wasn’t a place I could leave my children alone,” Mohamud said.

She stayed, and watched her kids log into a virtual class with an instructor whom she believes was in another country. Mohamud speaks Somali and only a little English, but her kids are native English speakers and said they couldn’t understand the teacher. After about 40 minutes, the lesson was over.

It seemed like a joke, but Mohamud said she tried bringing them back one more time. After that, she decided to pull her kids out. She went back the next week to return the laptops, both of which had already stopped working.

Months later came a horrible surprise — thousands of dollars were taken out of her tax refund to pay for the two subpar tutoring sessions. Her refund wasn’t enough to cover the entire expense, so she went into debt.

Mohamud had signed up with a company called Achievers Tutoring, a company created in 2021 by Osman Sheik-Yusuf, who shares a last name with Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf, the Success Tutoring founder, according to records from the Minnesota Secretary of State. (The men did not answer a question from the Reformer on how they’re related).

Both companies were registered with the same business address in Bloomington. Both companies have nearly identical websites offering online courses in math, English, coding and public speaking. Both boast “975+ satisfied students, 150+ teachers and 27+ years in experience.” And both websites have identical testimonials from four satisfied individuals all named “Griffin Wooldridge” with different stock images.

When sent a list of questions by the Reformer, both companies sent nearly identical statements with the same lawyer copied on the email.

The statements say Osman Sheik-Yusuf and Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf launched their respective companies to help students of color overcome the achievement gap.

“For those who have not received the credit, we encourage them to Adhere to the guidelines set by the Minnesota Department of Revenue and Minnesota Afterschool Advance,” the statement from Osman Sheik-Yusuf said.

Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf, when asked again about the list of questions sent by the Reformer, wrote “We compliance (sic) with all guidelines.”

Mohamud says dozens of Somali mothers who signed up for tutoring services with the two companies have formed a WhatsApp group to try to help one another. Eighteen moms shared their stories with Sahan Journal, which first reported complaints about Success Tutoring.

The companies promote their services on social media, mostly in Somali. In one TikTok video for Success Tutoring, Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf sports a large gold watch and tells viewers from a black SUV that the only thing parents need to make their children successful is to sign up for Success Tutoring. In another video for Achievers Tutoring, Osman Sheik-Yusuf flashes the peace sign from a Tesla Cybertruck.

The two men also posted videos with grinning parents and children holding certificates, saying they’ve caught up to grade level in math and reading.

In a June 2023 letter, the Minnesota Department of Revenue told Mohamud she was being audited because of the $3,000 she claimed for the K-12 Education Credit.

The agency requested a dizzying number of documents showing what programs her children were enrolled in, the dates her children met with a qualified instructor and the type of tutoring they received.

They wanted to see that she had paid for 25% of the tutoring services, as required by state law, and the contract she supposedly entered into with Minnesota Afterschool Advance. They also wanted her children’s birth certificates and school records or medical bills showing she is their guardian.

Mohamud was overwhelmed. The letter was in English, not Somali. They were also asking for things she never had: She didn’t sign a contract; she said she gave her information over the phone. She didn’t have a receipt for what she paid; she was told it was free. She didn’t have verification that the instructor was qualified; she didn’t know the teacher’s full name.

With her tax credit claim denied, in September, she received a letter from the Department of Revenue saying the entirety of her state tax refund — $2,418.43 — was used to pay for her debt to Minnesota Afterschool Advance, which had advanced the money to Achievers Tutoring.

Like most low-income parents, Mohamud was counting on her tax refund — bolstered by the child tax credit — to pay for necessities and a trip to Texas with her family.

It didn’t just happen once. The next year, in 2024, more of her tax refund disappeared.

The Reformer interviewed two other women who enrolled their kids in Success Tutoring and whose stories are strikingly similar to Mohamud’s experience with Achievers Tutoring: They gave their Social Security numbers over the phone for supposedly free tutoring that would help their children recover from pandemic learning loss. Then, they got cheap laptops for the online sessions.

Raho Hussein said her 10th grader, a native English speaker, was put in a tutoring session where the instructor was teaching “ABCs” and “1-2-3’s.” Sometimes the instructor didn’t show up at all. She had thousands of dollars taken from her tax return.

So did another mom, Sawda Ali, for her four kids. She said she only intended to sign up her two oldest children but she was also charged for tutoring for her 3-year-old and 4-year-old even though they are too young and never attended tutoring.

The women also said their kids, who are native English speakers, couldn’t understand their instructors because of their heavy accents. They looked Asian, and the mothers believed they were in a foreign country.

Tutoring from the Philippines

Julieross Elveña, an Achievers Tutoring instructor based in the Philippines, said she was recruited through a Facebook page for Filipino freelancers about four years ago.

She spoke to a Reformer reporter who logged into her virtual classroom one evening this month through a publicly available link on the Achievers Tutoring website. The Reformer also entered two other virtual classrooms, both led by instructors based in the Philippines.

The instructors aren’t licensed to teach in Minnesota, although at least two do have baccalaureate degrees according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Elveña spoke with clear English, which is one of the official languages of the Philippines, although the other two instructors the Reformer spoke to had thicker accents.

She said she has 17 students with Achievers, who are divided into two groups she meets with twice a week. She said she’s mostly there to answer questions as the kids work through online modules in reading and math.

Elveña has been able to help students catch up to grade-level in reading and math, some more quickly than others, she said.

“I do love teaching,” she said.

She said she gets paid $4.50 per hour.

“It’s not that much I guess compared to if I work in Minnesota,” Elveña said, laughing.

Achievers Tutoring charges parents $166 per month per child for two subjects, according to the company’s website. Contracts posted to Success Tutoring’s website start at $150 per month, with a three-month minimum and no refunds.

Parents are also charged for tutoring regardless of whether children actually attend, according to contracts available on both companies’ websites.

Refunds denied

Mohamud and the other mothers have been trying for months to get their money back. She started with Osman Sheik-Yusuf, who she says told her he would get the necessary paperwork to the state authorities.

Had he done so, taxpayers would have underwritten the unsatisfactory tutoring services.

So long as parents submit paperwork showing the educational expenses qualified for the tax credit, the state pays for 75% of the cost. But if the expenses are not qualified, or paperwork is missing, the funds are paid back through the parents’ tax refund.

Because the process is so complicated, Minnesota Afterschool Advance advertises free tax preparation help to families who take out loans for tutoring with them.

It’s unclear how much Achievers and Success have received from state funds. The Minnesota Department of Education certifies tutoring companies for the tax credit program but doesn’t track how much tutoring companies are paid. The Department of Revenue only provided the total amount claimed under the credit, but said they don’t know how much was paid to individual tutors or lenders like Minnesota Afterschool Advance because it comes from individuals’ tax returns, which are private.

Mohamud said Osman Sheik-Yusuf stopped returning her calls, so she went to another man she knew to complain. But he blocked her number.

She and other moms complained about the men on social media and warned others not to use their services. That seemed to motivate Osman Sheik-Yusuf to resolve their complaints: the Venn Foundation contacted her with a form that would give them business power of attorney to represent her before the Department of Revenue. But she wasn’t sure what the form meant and was by that point too distrustful to sign anything she didn’t understand.

Mohamud says Osman Sheik-Yusuf also asked for a meeting with her and an imam at the Dar Al-Farooq mosque to mediate the dispute. But she says it ended with Sheik-Yusuf insulting her with a pejorative for a rural, uneducated person. Mohamud says she and her children no longer go to the Dar Al-Farooq mosque, having lost faith in its leaders.

A spokesperson for Dar Al-Farooq denied that an imam ever mediated a dispute at the mosque with a parent and Osman Sheik-Yusuf. Mohamud shared screenshots of text messages between her, Sheik-Yusuf and a religious leader connected to the mosque.

The spokesperson for Dar Al-Farooq also denied representatives from the companies ever addressed the congregation and said the mosque has “no formal or informal ties” with Osman and Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf.

The Dar Al-Farooq spokesperson also sent a recent article on Somali Media MN, however, promoting Success Tutoring, saying it would provide “valuable context for your story” including the “systemic challenges minority families face … accessing the education tax credit.”

While the mosque claims it has no ties with Osman Sheik-Yusuf and Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf, the two appeared in a video promoting their services as recently as last month with a man who is the board secretary for Dar Al-Farooq, also known as the Al Jazari Institute, according to the organization’s most recently available tax filing. The man is also a lead organizer for ISAIAH’s Muslim Coalition, the group that Mohamud trusted.

Asked about the video, the spokesperson for Dar Al-Farooq said the man was there in his “personal capacity.”

Mohamud and other Somali mothers said they sent a letter to Attorney General Keith Ellison in April but have yet to hear back. The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to requests for comment about whether they’re investigating the mother’s complaints.

This year, after Mohamud’s tax return was garnished again, she and the other mothers became more assertive.

They went on a Somali-language YouTube channel to warn other families not to sign up for the services, after which she says she and the other women received threatening phone calls. They filed a police report in Minneapolis, but the case went nowhere. A spokesman for the police department said the case is inactive.

They went to the Department of Revenue and were advised to call a consumer complaint line. They had already done that, too.

Mohamud had met with former Rep. Hodan Hassan, a Democrat from Minneapolis, who had helped her find the address for the Venn Foundation. So she and seven other moms went to the address, which turned out to be the home of Venn Foundation Director Jeff Ochs. (Hassan did not return calls or an email seeking comment.)

That was in the summer, and while he seemed helpful, the women still haven’t been made whole.

“We have gone everywhere looking for assistance,” Mohamud said.

In response to an interview request, Minnesota Afterschool Advance Director Erin Martin shared a joint statement with its parent organizations Youthprise and Venn Foundation saying they have a formal process for families with concerns.

“When there are breakdowns in the system that ultimately result in MAA families not receiving the (Minnesota Education Tax Credit) and instead repaying MAA from their normal tax refund, we understand and share their frustration,” the statement said.

“MAA is actively working with a number of stakeholders, including Minnesota Department of Revenue and a local faith leader, to understand and help address the concerns of a group of families, as well as to work on improving the overall (Minnesota Education Tax Credit) and assignment system for all involved moving forward.”

Mohamud said there have been three meetings with a different imam and representatives from Minnesota Afterschool Advance, but they’ve since broken down.

Martin testified before the Legislature in support of the bill expanding eligibility for the credit in March 2023, even holding up Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf’s Success Tutoring as an example of one of the many Black-owned organizations they partner with that provide “culturally relevant” services to low-income students in “new and creative ways.”

Asked if Minnesota Afterschool Advance still works with Success Tutoring and Achievers Tutoring, a spokeswoman said the businesses “are not an offering on MAA’s menu of available service providers.”

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Education would not say if the agency is investigating Success Tutoring and Achievers Tutoring, saying only the companies are no longer certified as eligible to be paid through the tax credit. Certification expires after two years, and there are only five providers currently certified, according to the Department of Education. That means many providers on MAA’s menu are not certified.

Youthprise spokeswoman Lynne Matthews also said Minnesota Afterschool Advance will periodically visit tutoring sites in person. If their expectations are not being met those tutors could be removed from their services menu, she said.

Asked if the organization would make the mothers whole, Matthews wrote, “Despite having no responsibility or legal obligation to do so, MAA wants to do what it can to help ease the burden that families may be experiencing as a result of systems failure, in certain circumstances.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Revenue did not say if the agency is investigating Success Tutoring and Achievers Achievers, saying the agency can’t comment on specific cases. The spokesperson said they had met with “multiple taxpayers” with concerns about the tax credit.

“We are working with all parties involved to ensure specifics of the program are being properly communicated,” spokesman Ryan Brown wrote in an email.

Tutoring companies continue expansions

The tax credit remains popular with key legislators, including Republicans. Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, was one of the architects of the credit when it was created in 1997 as the head of a group called Minnesotans for School Choice. Robbins and Norris, who expanded the credit’s use as the head of Minnesota Afterschool Advance, defended its value despite allegations of misuse.

“Regardless of the issue with Success Tutoring, this is a tax credit that serves tens of thousands of families across the state,” Norris said. “And the income limit and the credit limit hadn’t been updated in over 25 years.”

Norris said he didn’t have enough information to say what the state should do to ensure low-income families aren’t losing their tax refunds to pay for substandard tutoring, but said it is something that should be looked at.

Robbins called the women’s experience “terrible” and was surprised to learn that it was possible for non-government organizations like Minnesota Afterschool Advance to be repaid from parents’ tax refunds and other credits — like the child tax credit and earned income tax credit — if the Education Tax Credit wasn’t awarded by the Department of Revenue.

She said that wasn’t the case when she advocated for its creation in the 1990s and she said she’s troubled by the existence of middlemen like Minnesota Afterschool Advance who have a claim to parents’ entire returns.

“If there’s a loophole that says they can claw back from other parts of the tax return, that should not be,” Robbins said. “If the tutoring service doesn’t provide the service and the family wants to withhold the payment, then that’s something the family and the tutoring service have to work out.”

Meanwhile, Mohamud and the other mothers say they continue to receive threatening phone calls and text messages from anonymous numbers for speaking out about their experiences.

And Achievers Tutoring and Success Tutoring continue to recruit families to their services.

Achievers Tutoring recently posted a video on TikTok and Facebook, which was shared by Success Tutoring, with Osman and Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf meeting with an imam at the mosque and lead organizer with ISAIAH’s Muslim Coalition.

They were in Columbus, Ohio, promoting their tutoring services to families there. Ohio’s program that funds tutoring services is easier to navigate, according to the article shared by Dar Al-Farooq in its email to the Reformer.

The men asked viewers to come to the Minnesota Capitol in January for Youth Day to advocate for making tutoring funding easier to access.

“We need to make the funding accessible. We need to make the funding something that is practically usable,” Abdijalil Sheik-Yusuf said in Somali.

Reporting and interpreting contributed by Kayseh Magan.

A Republican candidate for a state House seat who is running on his experience in law enforcement was excoriated by a state judge last fall for “intentionally or recklessly mischaracterizing the truth” on a pair of affidavits in a felony drug case.

House candidate Bidal Duran was a deputy with the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office last year, when he requested permission to search the cell phones of two men arrested during a traffic stop that turned up a large quantity of meth and thousands in cash.

Duran first said the suspects were pulled over in a routine speed trap on a quiet county road but later said he was tipped off by a confidential informant, leading the judge to deny the search warrant and accuse him of “lying” about the existence of the informant.

“The conduct of Agent Duran could be insidious and has hopefully not spread to other officers in the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office,” Minnesota Ninth District Court Judge Eric Schieferdecker warned in an Oct. 2 judgment.

The denial led to the drug case falling apart, and Duran was investigated for misconduct after the judge’s order. The disciplinary investigation ultimately cleared Duran of violating department policy, but details of the investigation raised questions about Duran’s thoroughness and work-ethic as a law enforcement officer.

Last fall, Duran was also given a written reprimand for turning off his body camera twice during an interaction with a member of the public, who told investigators Duran threatened them with jail unless they answered his questions.

Duran’s employment with Hubbard County was terminated last month. The county and Duran declined to say why, but Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee spokesman Andrew Wagner said it was part of a medical retirement.

“For the past 9 months, I have been pursuing a medical retirement. During this extensive process, I exhausted the entirety of my medical leave, and as a result was terminated from employment,” Duran said in a statement shared by Wagner.

Duran is a Marine corps veteran who was deployed on a combat mission to Afghanistan in 2010, according to his campaign website. He became a police officer for the city of Bemidji in 2013 and then joined the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office in 2020.

Duran is favored to beat Democrat Reed Olson, a restaurateur, homeless shelter operator and former Beltrami County commissioner in the Republican-leaning House District 2A that covers a large stretch of northern Minnesota from Bemidji to the Canadian border.

Voters in the district elected outgoing Republican Rep. Matt Grossell four times, even after he entered into a court diversion program following a drunken incident at a St. Paul hotel bar.

Olson said in a statement that he is a firm believer in the Constitution and its protections against unwarranted search and seizure: “A violation of anyone’s rights is a potential violation of everyone’s rights.”

‘It looks pretty bad’

Duran, who served on the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force, started his quest for a search warrant after two other deputies stopped a vehicle on a rural road near Park Rapids in late December 2022 for going 33 mph in a 30-mph zone.

Deputies smelled marijuana and searched the vehicle, finding 118 grams of purported meth, 15 grams of marijuana and $7,292 cash. Law enforcement believed the men were on a mission to sell the meth, and Duran wanted the judge to allow him to search their cell phones.

In his first search warrant application in March 2023, Duran said the two men were caught in a speed trap that the sheriff’s deputies set up because of community complaints about speeding.

Schieferdecker denied Duran full access to the suspects phones because police didn’t have enough probable cause. Instead he granted a narrow warrant to access the phone’s web history, search history and location data, according to court records.

A few months later in June, Duran resubmitted the search warrant seeking all the communications on the cell phones. This time, he included new information about a confidential informant, who had tipped him off to a driver bringing large amounts of drugs to the area.

This affidavit aligned with what Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Agent Dan Skoog, who was also involved in the stop, would say during a later investigation: that the car was pulled over because of information Duran said he had from a confidential informant, not from a speed trap.

Schieferdecker, apparently surprised by the existence of a confidential informant, circled the paragraphs about the informant and asked Duran over email if he had this information when he wrote the first affidavit and if the speed trap was set up because of that information. Duran emailed back “yes” to both questions.

“I had previously advised you not to jerk me around about on probable cause in search warrants. That had no effect on your practices. I am very disappointed,” Schieferdecker replied, according to an email thread included in the disciplinary investigation.

He said Duran would have to submit all of his search warrants to the sheriff before he would review them and would inform other judges and the suspect’s attorney about his concerns.

Months later, in his October order denying the search warrant, Schieferdecker wrote that the omission of the confidential informant made him unsure if there were even more details left out of either affidavit about the traffic stop. After Duran submitted his first search warrant, Scheiferdecker asked him if he had included all of his probable cause, and Duran said yes.

“Intentionally misleading the Court in pursuit of a search warrant is extremely serious and inexcusable,” Schieferdecker wrote.

After Schieferdecker’s order denying the search warrant, the Hubbard County Attorney’s Office dropped felony charges of methamphetamine possession or sale and driving while intoxicated.

“It looks pretty bad on my behalf,” Duran said in an interview with the Reformer.

But Duran said there’s more to the story. He told the Reformer to ask the Hubbard County Attorney’s Office what legal advice they gave him.

“Because if I was given bad advice and I was told to move forward with the search warrants .. is that me?” Duran said.

Duran would not elaborate on what that advice was. Asked if the prosecutor told him not to mention the confidential informant at first, Duran said there was “no need to because the information provided during that case did not need for that.”

Hubbard County Attorney Jonathan Frieden did not respond to requests for comment on what legal advice he provided Duran. He told the officer in charge of investigating Duran for misconduct that his office did not review the first warrant application but did review the second warrant, to which he added detail.

Duran also suggested digging deeper into why the judge ruled the way he did, as well as “the judge’s history.”

“Then we can actually have a real good conversation once you get all the facts straight,” Duran said.

The candidate didn’t elaborate on the judge’s “history,” and said he would share his side of the story after the Reformer found out more information. Then he said goodbye and hung up.

Investigation finds no policy violations

Following the judgment, the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office opened a misconduct investigation into Duran.

The investigative file isn’t public under Minnesota law because the complaint didn’t result in discipline, but the file was shared with the Reformer by Wagner, the Minnesota House GOP campaign spokesman.

Wagner pointed out that the review, which was conducted by an outside investigator with the Becker County Sheriff’s Office, determined Duran didn’t do anything wrong.

But the investigation also revealed sloppy police work and poor communication, and the investigator said he understood why Schieferdecker would feel Duran was not being truthful, even if he did not intentionally lie.

Frieden, the Hubbard County attorney, and Assistant County Attorney Jonathan Olson, who was the lead prosecutor on the drug case, told the investigator the first warrant application looked like it was copied and pasted from other police reports.

They said they thought Duran “was being somewhat lazy and not wanting to fully complete his work and not wanting to add more detail into the warrant application.”

Frieden and Olson also said they had concerns with other warrant submissions from Duran and had previously talked to him about being more transparent and specific. Still, they said they didn’t believe Duran did anything wrong.

Skoog, the BCA agent who was involved in the stop, told the investigator that police commonly leave confidential informants off of search warrant applications.

The investigator also interviewed the Paul Bunyon Task Force commander at the time, Joe Klezyzk, who also said task force officers commonly withhold information about a confidential informant on a search warrant unless the deputy is specifically asked if there is an informant involved.

After Duran submitted his first affidavit, Schieferdecker did email him to ask, “Is this the entirety of your [probable cause]?” according to court records.

Duran replied, “It should be. I hope I sent the right one?” but did not mention the confidential informant.

In his order, Schieferdecker made clear he did not think it was appropriate for officers to withhold information about confidential informants and noted the state has a process for protecting their identities.

Schieferdecker declined to comment through a spokesman and also declined an interview with the Becker County investigator.

The Hubbard County attorney could have appealed Schieferdecker’s judgment denying the search warrant. But he told the disciplinary investigator that they decided not to because he felt it would “open a big can of worms” by siding with Duran over the judge.

Frieden, in an interview with the Reformer, said without the search warrant it would be too difficult to prove that the drugs belonged to the two suspects.

“Just because something’s in a vehicle does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone in that vehicle was aware of it. And even if they were aware of it, that they actually possessed it,” Frieden said.

Frieden said he wouldn’t have any problem putting Duran on the witness stand in future cases.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and X.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Former President Donald Trump had new material on Vice President Kamala Harris for thousands of cheering supporters in St. Cloud on Saturday evening at a rally with his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D Vance.

Trump called Harris — the likely Democratic nominee for president since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign a week ago — a “radical left lunatic” who supports defunding the police, taking away guns, letting in tens of millions of undocumented immigrants, and limiting red meat. He also said she isn’t very smart.

Trump also took swings at his other favorite targets: Biden, “fake news,” radical Islamic terrorism and violent “illegal aliens” whom he compared to Dr. Hannibal Lecter from the horror movie “Silence of the Lambs.”

“I mentioned him because we have people like that coming into our country. They’re closing their insane asylum all over the world. They’re sending the criminals into the United States,” Trump said.

Trump added some optimism to his speech, promising an immediate turn of fate for America as soon as he’s back in the Oval Office: “Inflation will stop. The illegal aliens will be turned back. The cartels will be in retreat. Crime will fall. Energy prices will plummet. Incomes will soar. And a world in chaos will rapidly be transformed into a planet of peace.”

In fact, economists from an array of think tanks and Wall Street firms say Trump’s plan to halt immigration and raise tariffs on imported goods would cause inflation to increase and inflation-adjusted incomes to drop.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics and economic adviser to the presidential campaign of the late Sen. John McCain, told CBS MoneyWatch that consumers “will be hopping mad a year from now” about inflation if Trump wins and enacts his policies.

The line to see Trump at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center serpentined nearly a mile through a residential neighborhood, with people sweating in the 90-degree heat through t-shirts reading “I’m voting for the felon” and “Mean tweets and cheap gas.”

Standing in line, Jake Wolf of St. Cloud said he believed Trump would get the country “under control” with border security and “getting transgender sh** out of childrens’ schools.”

Darla Schmidt of Montevideo befriended fellow truck driver Brian Nelson of Pine City in line. Both said their main concerns are the increased cost of living eating into their wages, and believes Trump will be able to rein in prices.

Asked about the prospect of higher tariffs driving up prices, Schmidt said it was like cleaning a house: “It gets nasty first, but eventually it’s going to work its way through.”

While some 8,000 supporters made it inside the arena, more than a 1,000 others were disappointed to be turned away and left to cheer for Trump’s image on a giant screen set up in the arena’s parking lot. The Reformer was outside the arena with them.

Trump said they will win Minnesota easily as long as “they don’t cheat.”

Ahead of the rally, Democrats including Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar held their own event to energize 300 volunteers at the St. Paul Labor Center to kick off a Saturday door-knocking session.

“Three days ago, the nation found out what we’ve all known in Minnesota, [Trump and Vance] are just weird,” Walz said at the rally.

Walz is suddenly receiving lots of chatter as a potential running mate to Harris, in part for his blistering attacks on the Trump-Vance ticket: “They’ll be happy to only be 10 points behind by the time we’re done with them,” he said, according to a Harris campaign press release.

Despite its faint-purplish hue, Minnesota hasn’t gone red in a presidential election since voting for Richard Nixon in 1972.

Even when Trump knocked down much of the blue wall across the Upper Midwest in 2016, Minnesota remained stubbornly Democratic. Hillary Clinton won the state, albeit by just 1.5 percentage points, a closer margin than in any election since native son Walter Mondale squeaked out his only state win against Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Minnesota’s elusiveness has made the state a particularly precious prize for Trump, who spent millions here in 2020 even as he lost ground in the state, trailing Biden by 7 percentage points.

Trump vowed never to return to Minnesota if he lost the state in 2020, although he returned this year in May to speak at the Minnesota GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner, where he repeated the flagrant lie that he won the state in 2020.

Even though Biden suffered floundering approval ratings in recent years, he maintained a 6 percentage point lead over Trump in Minnesota, according to a June KSTP/Survey USA poll.

Harris has widened the margin for Democrats since becoming their all-but-certain presidential nominee with a 10 percentage point lead over Trump — 50% to 40% — in a KSTP/Survey USA poll released on Saturday.

Ruby red St. Cloud was friendly territory for Trump, who won 60% of the vote in Stearns County in 2020.

Vance took the stage first, speaking for about 20 minutes, with a speech that previewed Trump’s message on immigration at the southern border, Islamic extremism and support for the police, even though his running mate is now a convicted felon and facing charges in three other cases.

Vance also repeated a new attack on Harris for a tweet she sent four years ago in support of Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit organization that pays cash bail for people facing criminal trials or immigration hearings. At the time, the organization was bailing out people arrested in the protests and riots following the police killing of George Floyd. Harris hasn’t been involved in the organization beyond that one tweet, according to the organization.

“When rioters and looters were burning American cities to the ground, including Minneapolis, Kamala Harris was raising money to bail them out of jail. Let’s throw them in jail and deport them out,” said Vance, who’s now on a ticket that promises to pardon many of the people convicted of rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump sought to disrupt the peaceful of transfer of power after losing the election.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund has bailed out more than 2,500 people awaiting trial since its founding in 2016, arguing that the constitutional right to be innocent until proven guilty shouldn’t depend on a person’s income. Some of the people for whom the organization has posted bail have gone on to commit serious crimes, including rape and murder.

But the Trump campaign also attacked the organization for bailing out Jaleel Stallings, who was accused of attempting to kill police officers but later acquitted of all charges by a jury. One officer involved in the incident pleaded guilty to felony assault on Stallings, and apologized to him.

Trump also falsely said Saturday that he sent in the National Guard to quell the rioting in Minneapolis after Floyd’s murder; in fact, Walz, a 24-year veteran of the National Guard before his time in politics, called up the Guard.

Trump was joined on stage by Shannon Owen, whose husband Josh Owen was killed in the line of duty as a Pope County Sheriff’s Deputy, and Paul Perez, president of the National Border Patrol Council.

The rally drew many East African immigrants, despite Trump’s anti-immigrant message. He promised in his speech to reinstate the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, including Somalia.

Osman Dagane, an Uber and Lyft driver from Minneapolis, said he arrived early Saturday morning to organize East African immigrants to come support Trump. He brushed off Trump’s previous comments on immigration — including that Somali migration to Minnesota has been a “disaster.”

“Well, now he gets to know a lot,” Dagane said. “He didn’t know that time, but now he know a lot.”

Dagane left before Trump took the stage because he was mainly interested in seeing Vance. Many people started filtering out of the arena thirty minutes into Trump’s speech, leaving only the most devoted behind.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and X.

In fall 2021, D.C.-area restaurant owner Naeem Mohd was presented with an unbelievable investment opportunity.

Two political operatives-turned-venture capitalists would triple Mohd’s money in just 18 months if he invested $300,000 in their new California winery.

The pair had been paid in grapes by a former client and had hired a well-respected Sonoma winemaker to turn those grapes into profit. They promised if they didn’t pay Mohd the full $900,000 on time, they would tack on 10% monthly interest on any outstanding balance, according to the contract shared with the Reformer.

The offer might have seemed suspicious if not for the person making it: Tim Mynett, a well-connected political consultant and husband to U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom he married in 2020.

Mynett came recommended by Mohd’s attorney, Faisal Gill, a former Democratic operative himself who knew Mynett from his days working on Keith Ellison’s congressional campaigns. Mynett and Gill had been friends since. Omar endorsed Gill in his unsuccessful bid for L.A. County Attorney, and Gill donated $1,000 to Omar’s campaign in 2021.

“I trusted Tim,” Gill said in an interview. “If it was not for Tim, the deal would have never happened.”

Mohd wired the $300,000 to Mynett and his long-time business partner Will Hailer, with whom he founded a political consultancy called E Street Group in 2018.

But 18 months came and went without Mohd receiving the 200% return he was promised from the winery, eStCru.

Mynett and Hailer only returned Mohd’s $300,000 — about a month late — according to a lawsuit Gill filed on behalf of Mohd in California last fall seeking at least $780,000.

The complaint, which has not been previously reported, claims the pair “fraudulently misrepresented … that estCru, LLC was a legitimate company.”

Hailer and Mynett deny they defrauded Mohd. Rather, they say they simply struggled to build a successful business in a challenging industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“ESTCRU LLC like many wineries is living invoice to invoice, sale to sale to stay afloat given the economic conditions of the industry,” Hailer wrote in response to a list of questions from the Reformer. Hailer declined requests for an interview on the phone.

The winery’s struggling finances represent a significant change in fortune for Mynett and Hailer since Omar announced she would no longer use their firm E Street Group on her campaigns after paying them around $3 million in the 2020 election.

Still, Hailer defended the potential for large returns in the wine business, writing, “If any investor put $X dollars in to allow the company to purchase grapes and we turned those grapes into bottles of wine that we sold you would see a 3 or 4x return.”

Within minutes of Hailer sending responses to the Reformer’s questions, lawyers for Mynett and Hailer followed up with a three-page letter saying they had been retained to “help ensure that defamatory falsehoods are not published about them.”

“Any suggestion that Will or Tim deliberately defrauded investors or otherwise consciously conspired to rip people off would be false and defamatory,” wrote attorneys Mark Thomson and Andy Phillips with the law firm Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch.

eStCru did produce a line of wines with names like Blockchain, Overt and The Devil’s Lie with their winemaker Erica Stancliff, who left a job at a prestigious vineyard to work with Hailer and Mynett.

Hailer sent the Reformer a brochure listing eStCru’s accolades and noted Wine Business Monthly called eStCru a hot brand of 2022.

Stancliff said things were going well from her point of view until early 2023, when she stopped getting paid.

“It happened very abruptly,” Stancliff said. “I couldn’t even tell you exactly how it happened other than we hit a wall and the reserve was no longer there.”

She said she continued working without pay for several months hoping things would turn around for her and her coworkers, but eventually she couldn’t afford to wait any longer and resigned.

Hailer said eStCru has never had any employees working without pay. When asked about Stancliff, he clarified that “As the economic conditions wreaked havoc on the industry we had a few former employees who wanted to stay with the company and weather the storm as contractors.”

Hailer acknowledged that Stancliff is owed money: “I do believe that as a contractor she may have invoices that may not be current.”

Mynett and Hailer say they are now working to sell the intellectual property and trademarks associated with the brand.

$1.2 million for weed ventures goes up in smoke

A short-lived winery isn’t the only source of financial trouble and litigation for companies connected to Hailer and Mynett.

In April 2023, soon after Stancliff said she stopped getting paid and Mohd was due a big payday that never came, three of Hailer and Mynett’s other companies agreed to pay $1.7 million to three South Dakota marijuana entrepreneurs to settle a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of contract.

The companies — eSt Ventures, Badlands Fund GP and Badlands Ventures — only paid $500,000. That led to a confession of judgment last fall, not previously reported, which was signed by Hailer, with the companies admitting they still owe $1.2 million.

The marijuana entrepreneurs and their investors are now suing Hailer and the companies in Nebraska, where Hailer lives, for the remainder.

Mynett was mentioned in the lawsuit but not named as a defendant. He wrote in an email that he withdrew from eSt Ventures in early 2022, “because I wasn’t active in any of the work (securing investment, placing investment or even structure).” The company is now listed as “inactive” because it’s delinquent on its business filing fee in Nebraska.

Consistent with Mynett’s response, the companies don’t appear on Omar’s 2023 disclosure.

Although the business is typically called eSt Ventures, Omar lists an “EstVenture LLC” on her disclosures in previous years. She reported spousal income from EstVenture of $5,001-$15,000 in 2021 and $15,001-$50,000 in 2022.

In her latest congressional financial disclosure filed in May, Omar reported spousal income in 2023 of $201-$1,000 from eStCru and $15,0001-$50,000 from Rose Lake Capital, a venture capital management firm founded by Mynett and Hailer.

The modest sums stand in stark contrast to the income Omar reported when she was paying her husband’s political consulting firm millions for campaign work.

Omar reported spousal income from E Street Group ranging from $100,001 to $1 million in both 2020 and 2021.

In an email to the Reformer, Mynett said he and Will began to pivot from politics to business in order to test advertising strategies that could then inform political strategies. He said they were “incredibly successful” at digital advertising and targeting — skills that could be transferred to business success.

Mynett said he was also confronted with a barrage of harassment and intimidation by “MAGA extremists” since marrying Omar and felt it was in his best interest to get out of politics.

In the beginning, Mynett said he and Hailer agreed to a 50-50 split between eSt Ventures and other business prospects.

Hailer and Mynett were also co-managers of a company called Born to Run GP LLC, which purported to control a $50 million investment fund, according to a management services contract between eSt Ventures LLC and Born to Run obtained by the Reformer. Born to Run does not appear on Omar’s financial disclosures.

Hailer said the fund did not end up having $50 million but does have active investments. Mynett said he withdrew from Born to Run at the same time he left eSt Ventures in early 2022 and never received any compensation from the company.

Omar’s office has not yet responded to a list of questions the Reformer sent last week. A spokesperson for the congresswoman said they would respond on Monday and then said the answers would come on Tuesday morning.

From OFAC to missing zeroes

Around the time Mynett said he left eSt Ventures is when the cannabis entrepreneurs say they were lured into business with Hailer with similarly fantastical promises made to the winery investor.

605 Cannabis Founder Ned Horsted said Hailer approached him with an offer to raise millions for his cannabis venture. Horsted and another cannabis business — led by Josh Wood and Bekki Engquist-Schroeder — had already raised $3.54 million from friends, acquaintances and even grandparents to capitalize on the state’s new medicinal marijuana program.

If the three turned over their $3.54 million, Hailer told them, eSt Ventures could more than triple their capital within days or weeks to fund two grow operations and a testing facility. Hailer said eSt Ventures had secured $6 million from outside South Dakota and another $1.5 million was expected from within the state, according to the lawsuit settled in Minnesota.

Horsted, who also had a brief career as a political operative, had met Hailer at the Minnesota DFL headquarters in 2010, and was impressed with Hailer’s connections and convinced by his pitch.

“He tells a great story,” Horsted said of Hailer in an interview. “It made sense in my mind. If you’re well connected, you could pick up the phone and get someone to give $100,000 to a campaign, you could probably get that same kind of money for a business venture.”

The three cannabis entrepreneurs turned over everything they had to a new affiliate of eSt Ventures called Badlands Ventures LLC.

All through the summer of 2022, Hailer told the entrepreneurs and their investors that the millions in investments were just weeks away from being secured for their two marijuana companies, Dakota Natural Growers and 605 Cannabis. As the excuses began piling up, Horsted said he tried to reach out to Mynett via direct messages on LinkedIn and Twitter, but got no reply.

Horsted and his business partners said in their lawsuit they don’t believe that Badlands Ventures brought in any other money to capitalize the companies.

In August 2022, according to court documents, Badlands returned $1.86 million of the entrepreneurs $3.54 million “in exchange for promissory notes convertible into equity units in their cannabis businesses.” In other words, Hailer used the entrepreneurs’ own money to buy a stake in their businesses.

Later that month, Hailer promised to wire hundreds of thousands of dollars to Dakota and 605 but couldn’t at the moment because the Office of Foreign Assets Control had placed a hold on the funds.

That explanation confused the owners of Dakota and 605. The Office of Foreign Assets Control is a federal agency under the U.S. Treasury Department that enforces economic and trade sanctions. It investigates and penalizes companies for illegally dealing with foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Hailer, citing the settlement agreement, declined to comment on the Treasury Department hold on their money.

Through September, Hailer assured them the money was just days away. He told them on Sept. 6 that he was “waiting on a call back from the bank that we can move the money today.” On Sept. 26, Hailer said, “I just landed a call into the bank. I personally hit send on wires Friday afternoon.” The money didn’t arrive.

In October, Hailer said he had to go to the hospital but continued his assurances that the money would be transferred right away, according to the lawsuit. He said he tried to wire $1 million to each company but it ran up against the bank’s limit so he would wire them the money in chunks.

“Rest assured — $500k min will be to you tomorrow and the other $500k if not tomorrow [then] the next day,” Hailer said, according to the lawsuit.

Each company received just $50,000, which Hailer attributed to the bank forgetting a zero. But they never received another transfer.

In November 2022, through an attorney, Dakota and 605’s founders and investors requested to see Badlands Ventures’ bank accounts. They were entitled to see the company’s books as a part of their contract, but Hailer’s attorney refused, according to the lawsuit.

Horsted, his business partner and their investors filed that lawsuit in Minnesota the following month seeking the rest of their $3.5 million. Now they are hoping to win back their $1.2 million through the lawsuit they filed in Nebraska, while they continue to grow the medical marijuana businesses on a shoestring.

“We’re surviving but it’s been very difficult.” Horsted said.

‘The prowess to execute the right opportunities’

But discovery documents in that case show Hailer’s businesses have little in their bank accounts. According to answers Hailer provided in court documents in February this year, eSt Ventures had 5 cents in its bank account.

Rose Lake Capital had $42.44 and Rose Lake Inc. had $10. ESTCRU had $650. Hailer’s personal checking account had $3.05.

“Running a business is hard and I’ve learned that the hard way,” Hailer wrote in an email to the Reformer. “In all my business struggles, though, I’ve always tried to put my employees, contractors, and investors first.”

Hailer said he could have taken the easy route, by declaring bankruptcy, but has stuck it out for the best outcomes for his investors and workers.

While Mynett says he withdrew from eSt Ventures in early 2022, he and Hailer didn’t stop doing business together. The pair incorporated Rose Lake Capital, the international venture capital firm, in Delaware later that year.

Hailer said Rose Lake Capital is now a “dormant entity” because they transitioned the company from an LLC to a public benefit corporation called Rose Lake Inc., which focuses on socially responsible investing.

The company’s website touts “exclusive partnerships for global operators” and “on-the-ground experience in more than 75 countries.”

The website lists Hailer and Mynett as co-founders with Democratic political consultant Alex Hoffman and an impressive lineup of advisors, including a former U.S. ambassador to Bahrain, a former CEO of Amalgamated Bank, and former U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson.

“From distressed assets to buying publicly traded companies – our team has the prowess to execute the right opportunities,” its website says.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter.

Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news from Minnesota and beyond. This week: Trader Joe’s launches raid on New Deal; Minnesota lawmakers receive public option estimates; Minneapolis and Rochester teachers protest on ‘Walkout Wednesdays’; Twin Cities janitors to take strike vote; Forces align to kill U.S. Steel deal; and the prison labor that feeds America.

Nautical-themed grocery chain launches raid on the New Deal

In defending itself against union busting allegations, Trader Joe’s fired a cannon ball that could sink the ship of modern American labor law.

The grocery store chain is arguing that the federal agency prosecuting it for unfair labor practices — including giving union workers worse retirement benefits and barring workers from wearing union pins on their company-issued Hawaiian shirts — is unconstitutional.

The argument, first reported by Bloomberg, is unlikely to be ruled on before an appeal but could pose an existential threat to the National Labor Relations Board, a nearly 90-year-old institution created as part of the New Deal to protect workers’ right to unionize and act collectively to improve their working conditions.

The board was born from the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which faced stiff resistance from businesses but was ultimately affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in 1937. But businesses may now find a more sympathetic audience with the current conservative supermajority of the high court, which has shown itself willing to overturn decades of precedent.

Trader Joe’s argument follows a similar attack by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — which is represented by the same law firm, Morgan Lewis — in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Texas challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB, which is prosecuting the company for illegally firing eight employees for criticizing Musk in an open letter in 2022.

“This isn’t just an attack to bust Trader Joe’s United, I think this is an attempt by right-wing billionaires and Morgan Lewis and Trader Joe’s and Elon Musk to destroy the American labor movement,” Seth Goldstein, an attorney for the union Trader Joe’s United, said in an interview with the Reformer. “American labor should wake up.”

Trader Joe’s did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Trader Joe’s attorneys, including one who previously worked for the NLRB, introduced the argument that the labor board is unconstitutional at a Jan. 16 hearing in Connecticut before an administrative law judge in a case dealing with a slew of complaints brought by the agency.

The NLRB alleges Trader Joe’s illegally fired a union worker, posted false information about the union, unlawfully interrogated union workers, threatened to freeze workers’ wages if they unionized, gave union workers worse retirement benefits and forced workers to attend unlawful “captive audience” meetings to hear the company’s position against unionizing.

Most of the complaints stem from conduct at a Trader Joe’s in Hadley, Mass., but workers at the downtown Minneapolis location are also witnesses in the trial for having their retirement benefits cut.

Depending on the outcome of the trial, the case could be appealed to the five-member board and then to a U.S. Court of Appeals and ultimately the Supreme Court.

The NLRB judge overseeing the case, Charles Muhl, said he is “certainly not going to be ruling on my own constitutionality anytime soon.”

Trader Joe’s workers in Minneapolis were the second to unionize, voting 55-5 to join Trader Joe’s United in 2022. At the time, Trader Joe’s said it was “prepared to immediately begin” negotiations, but none of the four unionized stores have won a first bargaining agreement covering wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Lawmakers weigh many public option options

The Minnesota Commerce Department delivered a key report to state lawmakers on Thursday estimating how many people would sign up for publicly subsidized health insurance. And, what it would cost the state if there were a public option for workers — like farmers and small business owners — who don’t have affordable employer-sponsored plans.

Many workers are locked into jobs because they need the employer-based health insurance. A robust public option, Democrats say, would give those workers the freedom switch jobs or start a business by lowering costs for individual plans.

The actuary’s estimates vary widely, projecting anywhere from 107,000 to 151,000 Minnesotans enrolling at a cost somewhere between $86 million and $364 million annually depending on how the program is set up. The estimate doesn’t include state administrative costs, which could be significant, and there are numerous other unknowns: how the state would pay for the subsidies; if there would be an income cap for discounts; and how much doctors would be paid for services.

Democrats said they’re committed to filling in the blanks and developing a public option, which could become available in 2027 at the earliest.

“Today’s report puts us on a path to a credible public option and we have our sleeves rolled up to do this important work,” House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, said in a statement on Thursday.

Any program proposal is likely to face resistance: Republicans over uncertain costs to taxpayers; health care providers over likely cuts to their reimbursement rates; and health insurers over constraints on costs and the potential threat to their business.

There have been challenges in the two other states with public option-style insurance: Insurers in Colorado have largely failed to meet the state’s price targets, while in Washington, public option plans haven’t been available in all counties. But on the whole, advocates point out the programs have saved consumers money and improved their benefits.

Minnesota Commerce Department Commissioner Grace Arnold said Minnesota will be able to learn from other states and her agency has identified questions for the Legislature to answer as it weighs how to structure the program.

“We’re glad to have a lot more information,” Arnold said. “We haven’t had this much information to dig through.”

Minneapolis teachers begin ‘Walkout Wednesdays’

Greta Callahan, president of the teacher chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, speaks to reporters during the first “Walkout Wednesday” after school on Jan. 31, 2024. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.

Minneapolis public school teachers and support staff joined Rochester teachers in beginning a regular protest on Wednesdays to ramp up public pressure on school administrators amid stalled contract negotiations. Every Wednesday, the teachers’ union says their members will leave school right when classes end and won’t show up early on Thursdays.

About three quarters of school districts across Minnesota have settled contracts with their local teachers’ unions, but several dozen remain stuck in negotiations.

The Minneapolis teachers’ union is asking for an 8.5% raise in the first year of the contract and a 7.5% raise in the second, which together would make them among the highest paid in the state. In 2022, teachers in Minneapolis struck for 14 school days, ultimately winning about 5% raises over two years.

The latest demand is a difficult proposal for a district on the brink of insolvency, beleaguered by declining enrollment and a sprawling real estate portfolio. In response to the walkout, the district released a statement saying it needs to reduce spending by $90 million next year in order to remain solvent.

The union released its own report on Thursday aimed at countering the district’s dim financial outlook, accusing district leaders of overspending on administrative support services and budgeting “for declining enrollment as a foregone conclusion.”

The union’s position is that the district can refill its schools by investing in educators who will attract the roughly 40% of Minneapolis students who don’t go to public schools.

“It’s essential that to get families back, we are attracting and retaining the finest,” said Greta Callahan, president of the teacher chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, outside Southwest High on Wednesday.

8,000 janitors and security officers to take strike vote

SEIU Local 26 announced its 8,000 members of Twin Cities janitors and security officers will vote on Saturday on whether to call an unfair labor practices strike if they don’t reach a deal with employers.

The union has been negotiating for months with a slew of companies that provide cleaning and security services to office buildings and retail stores across the metro, but the union says talks are stalled over higher wages, retirement benefits and “respect on the job.” The union said Attorney General Keith Ellison is expected to join workers at a rally on Saturday.

SEIU Local 26 planned for its contracts to expire around the same time along with other unions, which could lead to a strike affecting multiple industries.

Forces line up to disrupt U.S. Steel sale

The announcement that Japan’s Nippon Steel would buy the iconic industry titan U.S. Steel last December was a blow to both the United Steelworkers and American rival Cleveland-Cliffs, which had made an unsolicited offer to buy the company with the union’s support.

A deal of such magnitude and importance to American interests is never a sure bet: it must pass regulatory scrutiny and the political gales of an election year. The Biden administration has voiced skepticism of the deal, while former President Donald Trump said this week he would block it if reelected.

The president of Cleveland-Cliffs signaled during an earnings call that he was ready to help disrupt the deal, too, reports Iron Range Today’s Jerry Burnes. The company has brought on a new member of its board of directors, Ron Bloom, who helped the United Steelworkers leverage its labor agreement to block the sale of another steel company to a foreign buyer in 2007.

The prison labor that feeds America (and a couple local companies)

The Associated Press published a two-year investigation into prison labor in America, beginning with this arresting lead from Angola, Louisiana: “A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison.”

Inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and prisons across the country work for meager wages — sometimes as little as 2 cents an hour or nothing at all — raising cattle, planting turnips and harvesting grains.

Those products are then bought up by behemoth commodity traders like Minnesota-based Cargill and household names like General Mills to produce McDonald’s Happy Meals and boxes of Frosted Flakes. Some goods are exported, including to countries that the United States has sanctioned for using forced labor, according to the report.

Cargill acknowledged to Associated Press reporters Robin McDowell and Margie Mason that it purchased goods from prison farms in Tennessee, Arkansas and Ohio. The company said it was just a small fraction of its overall volume and that it was “now in the process of determining the appropriate remedial action.”

The conditions can vary greatly across prisons: Some former inmates said they learned valuable job skills while others described conditions reminiscent of the Antebellum South — picking cotton in scorching heat under the watchful eye of armed guards on horseback who would “beat you right there in the field.”

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter.