Quick news hits and context

Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people with defrauding Minnesota social programs since 2020, and recent reporting has highlighted the links between the fraud schemes and the Somali-American community. In November, a report authored by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo and published in City Journal — a periodical funded by the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute — highlighted the fraud’s concentration among the state’s Somali community and claimed the funds were partially directed to the Somali-based terrorist group Al-Shabaab. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the agency would be opening an investigation into Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) oversight of the programs beset by alleged fraud; the House Oversight Committee opened its own probe into the programs on Tuesday. 

Ad-free podcasts are here!

To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!

Watch our most recent live event.

In October, we hosted a live event at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, California. The evening provided us with another opportunity to meet and mingle with Tangle readers and featured a round table discussion on issues relevant to California. Executive Editor Isaac Saul hosted a discussion with Alex Thompson, Ana Kasparian, and our own Editor-at-Large Kmele Foster on immigration, gerrymandering, the 2028 presidential election, and more. 

Today, we’re releasing the video of that full discussion. You can watch it on our YouTube channel here!

You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. 

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast was written by: Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.