SCRAMBLE: Reuvers and Frattallone send out the year of 2025 in only one way!!

Summary

Garage Logic: SCRAMBLE – Reuvers and Frattallone Send Out the Year of 2025 in Only One Way!!

Podcast: Garage Logic
Host: Gamut Podcast Network
Episode Date: January 1, 2026
Hosts: Chris Reivers and Mike Frattalloni

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Episode Overview

This "Weekly Scramble" episode is a classic Garage Logic roundtable: a mixture of ordinary Midwestern life, holiday reflections, and a deep dive into the controversial daycare fraud scandal enveloping Minnesota. Hosts Chris Reivers and Mike Frattalloni use their humorous, candid rapport to dissect day-to-day traditions, the New Year's mood, and, most notably, their frustrations regarding widespread daycare and government fraud, bringing both personal and policy viewpoints to the conversation.

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Table of Contents

1. New Year’s Eve Traditions and Humor
2. Routines, Travel, and the Joys of Home
3. The Somali-Run Daycare Fraud Scandal
4. Media Coverage, Racism Claims, and Political Response
5. Reflections on Minnesota Politics & Systemic Issues
6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
7. Timestamps for Key Segments

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New Year’s Eve Traditions and Humor

• New Year’s plans: Both hosts share their low-key plans for the holiday, riffing on typical questions from bank tellers about big New Year's Eve parties.

  • Mike quips about his 4 pm dinner reservation with his wife, laughing about their early night and efficient eating (02:19).
  • The hosts rib each other about parental responsibilities and teenage kids' plans for the evening.
  • Chris jokes about "going to bed before the ball drops," poking fun at classic TV specials (03:33).

• On Celebrating:

  • Mike admits he'll be home by 6 pm, probably watching TV, and trying to keep track of his kids as they come and go to various parties. The discussion spotlights the differences between the hosts’ generations and their priorities.
  • The two reflect on the tradition of watching New Year's Eve events—Vegas versus New York, the appeal of local (warmer) celebrations, and why traditions persist.

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Routines, Travel, and the Joys of Home

• Reluctance to Travel:

  • Mike expresses his love of routine: "I am a creature of habit. Today, hypothetically, I was going to have the day off. Couldn't do with the day off." (07:15)
  • Discussion about the monotony versus comfort of daily routines—lunch, work, dinner—and why neither host is much for "pleasure travel."
  • They joke about exotic vacations, describing how the novelty wears off and both yearn to return to their routines (09:43-10:56).

• Travel Anecdotes:

  • Chris shares a story about staying within 'tourist-safe' zones while in Mexico, acknowledging the anxieties that come with travel beyond familiar territory (11:17).
  • Mike recounts being warned off a dangerous area while in Santo Domingo (12:29), underscoring their preference for "home."

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The Somali-Run Daycare Fraud Scandal

• Frustration Over Persistent Fraud:

  • The conversation turns to the state’s massive daycare fraud, allegedly mostly perpetrated by Somali-owned businesses in Minnesota (14:53+).
  • Chris introduces a New York Post story—“I don't know if you know this, Mike, but somehow there's a link between fraud and Somali-run daycares” (14:53).

• Details of the Scandal:

  • Reports of empty daycare centers supposedly serving large numbers of children, with massive payments funneled through them (15:15).
  • Allegations that essential documentation was stolen, conveniently after a viral YouTube video investigation (16:45-17:34).
  • Cumulative fraud figures cited: $1 billion uncovered so far, up to $9 billion possible, with 92 people arrested (80 Somali immigrants) (19:02).
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has frozen all childcare payments to Minnesota—$185 million in 2025 alone—pending proof of legitimacy (19:19).

• Mocking of Excuses:

  • Frattalloni and Reivers mock official explanations, especially blaming fraud exposure on “targeting the Somali community” and accusations of racism (18:34-19:01).

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Media Coverage, Racism Claims, and Political Response

• Press and Political Accountability:

  • Chris defends the work of investigative journalists like Tom Hauser and Jay Kolls but notes limitations—they report but can’t enforce accountability (20:00-20:52).
  • Frattalloni highlights public anger: why hardworking taxpayers are fed up with fraudsters and a seemingly complicit government (21:03).

• Discussion of Race and Blame:

  • Chris and Mike debate the line between holding criminals accountable and the risk of ethnic stereotyping (24:13-25:31).
    • Chris: “For me pointing that out on this show, to be called a racist. Forget. Get that noise.” (23:44)
    • Mike: “You have to be careful painting this thievery brush over 80,000 people…” (24:50)
  • Mike urges not to generalize blame, warning against unfair stigmatization of the entire Somali community.
  • Chris insists his frustration is directed specifically at criminals and their enablers.

• Shifting Blame and Political Rhetoric:

  • Mike relays a story of a daycare operator seen dancing after Mayor Frey’s post-election party (30:00), suggesting inappropriate coziness between city officials and alleged fraudsters.
  • Chris lampoons Governor Tim Walz’s statements touting a crackdown on fraud, criticizing the administration’s attempts to deflect responsibility by invoking Trump and blaming “national attention” (31:14-32:50).

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Reflections on Minnesota Politics & Systemic Issues

• Disillusionment with Leadership:

  • Both hosts bemoan chronic political gridlock, lack of meaningful reform, and the feeling that entrenched interests are perpetuating the problem.
    • Mike: “At some point in time, people are gonna have to say, emperor, the liberal emperor has no clothes. We can't keep doing this.” (35:40)
  • Frattalloni condemns the “money train” in state politics and wonders when "Minnesota is gonna get better" (35:28).

• Systemic Failures:

  • Reivers: “This administration, the people who allowed this shit to happen. I couldn't agree more.” (28:48)
  • Mike points out fraudsters only exploited systems set up to be easily abused, pinning blame on government negligence as much as on the perpetrators (29:04-29:27).
  • Discussion of how politics rewards distributing money for votes, not necessarily improving the state (35:28).

• Bittersweet Closing:

  • Chris: “Happy New Year, ladies and gentlemen. Crap hole of 2025.” (36:05)
  • Episode ends with a dad joke contributed by Chris’s son (36:21).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Early New Year’s Plans:

  • Mike: “I'm 100% going to dinner at... 4pm.” (02:28)

• On Dislike for Traveling:

  • Mike: “Nothing's better anywhere else. And when people say, oh, it's so great in that country, it's like you're on vacation. Go live there every single day.” (08:26)

• On the Fraud Scandal:

  • Chris: “A Somali-run daycare in Minneapolis is now claiming somebody broke in and stole very important documents... damaging a wall and breaking into the building's office…” (16:42)
  • Mike: “What are the chances of that? ...You know what I like to do is I like to steal children’s paperwork, then take it to a pawn shop, because big money.” (17:05, 17:25)

• On Media and Racism Accusations:

  • Chris: “The issue is not racism. The issue is I am sick and tired of a certain faction of society coming here and ripping off my state... I’m sick and tired of this crap continuing, and for me pointing that out on this show, to be called a racist. Forget. Get that noise.” (23:44)
  • Mike: “We have to be very careful, careful painting this thievery brush over 80,000 people. I don’t believe it.” (24:50)

• On Political Spin:

  • Chris (reading Governor Walz’s statement): “If you threaten everything that makes our state a great place to live by committing fraud in Minnesota, you will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” (31:52)
  • Mike: “He is so brain blind, brain dead and blind on this subject. It is shocking how obtuse the guy is.” (33:12)

• On Systemic Stagnation:

  • Mike: “When is Minnesota gonna get better? ...And maybe the right can't do shit about it. They're not doing anything great either. I'm so disenchanted.” (35:40)

• Ending Dad Joke:

  • Chris’s son: “A guy with no arms and no legs who practices karate—he practices partial arts.” (36:39)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• New Year’s Traditions & Humor: 00:56–04:50
• Routines, Travel, and Call of Home: 07:01–12:29
• Transition to Daycare Fraud Discussion: 14:29
• Details of Daycare Fraud & Blame Game: 14:53–19:43
• Debate About Racism, Responsibility, and Coverage: 23:00–28:45
• Political Responses and Systemic Critique: 30:00–35:40
• Dad Joke & Closing: 36:10–end

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Summary prepared for listeners new to Garage Logic’s “Weekly Scramble”: this episode is a lively, unvarnished critique of Minnesota’s holiday culture, daily routines, and a raw, often comically frustrated discussion about systemic fraud and political dysfunction in the state. The hosts balance personal anecdotes, news commentary, and pointed humor throughout—making for both an entertaining and thought-provoking hour.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Just a heads up to you folks sitting with a notebook and pen Mishke, the new podcast here in Garage Logic Land is now coming out twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you're in fact scribbling this down, Wednesday is kind of tough to spell. It's not like it sounds. You want to spell it W, E, N, Z, but that of course would be a mistake. Friday is spelled just like it sounds. You're going to be okay there, but Wednesday's a bugaboo. Let me tell you people. Just a pain in the patootie. Jeez, it's hard.

[Mike Fratelloni]

This is the weekly Scramble, a place where we chat about life over a cold one or two. It's time to belly up to the pod with Mike Fratelloni and your host, Chris Reivers.

[Chris Reivers]

That's right, it's time for the weekly Scramble podcast. My name is Chris Reivers with me as always, his name is Mike Fratelloni. Hello Michael.

[Mike Fratelloni]

How you doing?

[Chris Reivers]

Reverse doing good. Last day of the calendar year of 2025. Happy new. You know it's funny, before we get into the really heavy topics that we're going to bust down here on the weekly Scramble podcast, I had to make a stop earlier today. I had to deposit some money and the person at the teller, it was not North American banking companies, for those of you that might be wondering, it was for basically a non bagging outlet. I had to make a payment on something and the teller goes, oh, do you have big plans for New Year's tonight? And I have gone to the Joe Susheri and Patrick Royce school of interacting with tellers over the last 20 plus years. I looked at her and I said, look at me. I'm wearing a Park Nicolette stocking hat. I'm wearing a hooded sweatshirt. I haven't worn jeans in six months. If I'm awake past 9:30, I hope somebody puts a bullet in my forehead. She went, oh. I said, ah, just kidding with you.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Just kidding ya.

[Chris Reivers]

No, I did say that actually. Anyway.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That is a nice thing to do to tellers cause they don't want to hear that stuff. No, the guy. I went to the bank today too and had to deposit some Christmas checks for my kids, like putting them into their account. And people kept asking me, they did say, happy New Year. Do you have plans? And my plans are like, I'm going out to dinner. At what time do you think?

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, I know. Nope, nope.

[Mike Fratelloni]

No. You're not even going to guess this?

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah, I will. Yes, I will. Yes I will. Because I can tell you're never going to guess. You are going to be at dinner at 4pm oh my God.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, I'm 100% going to dinner at.

[Chris Reivers]

4Pm you're gonna be at dinner at 4pm Is it just you and the beautiful bride and the kiddos?

[Mike Fratelloni]

No, no, just us.

[Chris Reivers]

Just you two. Nobody else?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Nope, nobody else.

[Chris Reivers]

You two will be back at your estate by Latest. Latest is 5:30, maybe, maybe 6:00'.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Clock. Yeah, we go fast when we eat.

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah, we do a lot of fast. It's just the two of you. That's why it's so much more efficient to go out for dinner. Okay, and then, let's see. So are the kiddos and all their friends coming back to the house?

[Mike Fratelloni]

They're at the house. They're at my house tonight.

[Chris Reivers]

So they'll be back. They'll be at your place and they want. Hey.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They're going out though.

[Chris Reivers]

But okay, so they're going, coming over.

[Mike Fratelloni]

For a little bit, started up at.

[Chris Reivers]

The house and then they're going to take off. Because you, you hate people at your house.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I hate people. I hate kids.

[Chris Reivers]

Especially kids at your house.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And I go downstairs and like ping pong balls are all over the place. We have a ping pong table. But then the balls go into this drawer.

[Chris Reivers]

Sure.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Put the damn balls away.

[Chris Reivers]

So let's see, the kids are going to take off. You guys will start watching Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark's Rocking E Waste.

[Mike Fratelloni]

One second with that and you'll be.

[Chris Reivers]

In bed before I am.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Well, I don't know. Sometimes I can stay up late accidentally. Right. When you eat real early at 4 the day, get a couple of drinks, nap at 5:30 to 6:30, then all of a sudden I have eight hours to go. And then I have to kind of keep an eye on the girls coming back.

[Chris Reivers]

Right. Plus with you, you've got three teenage daughters that you kind of. You got to keep the phone on the street. Yeah.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Where are they? Where are you? Don't be driving. Where are you going? And so they go to cdh, right?

[Narrator]

Creighton, Dammer Hall.

[Chris Reivers]

Yep, yep.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Or two of them do. One of them's graduated and went to college. In college. And the problem with a private school like that is kids come from everywhere around town. So they're like, oh, we're going to Jenny's in Chanhassen. It's like, no, not tonight. Let's go to Jimmy's party on 7th Street.

[Chris Reivers]

It's not like it's June, it's New Year's Eve. And the roads are not great right now.

[Mike Fratelloni]

100%.

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah, I get it. I get it. Totally.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Those are my big plans for tonight. I will not see the ball drop. I do not care.

[Chris Reivers]

Can I tell you one thing though? Because this morning, it was just at home before I came here. It was just me and the oldest boy and we were watching. No, he was playing Xbox and I had the news on and I was doing whatever I was doing on the computer and laundry and whatever. And I said, will get in here. They did. So I was. Full disclosure, I was watching the morning show on Fox. Because once Channel 5 goes to good morning, I don't want to watch Good Morning America. I want to see the local newscast.

[Narrator]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

I always flip from 5 to 9 whenever they switch. 8 o', clock, 7 o', clock, whatever it is. And the Fox News reporter was doing a live report on the festivities in Las Vegas.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, okay.

[Chris Reivers]

And I went, okay, wait a minute. Now you might have my attention here. So they did the thing where the sphere, which I still have never been and I desperately want to go to something there. But it's just prices gotta come down for Papa Bear to be able to afford to go to the sphere. But they did this cool ball drop thing from the sphere and an unbelievable fireworks show. And then they also had drones. And apparently there's this family owned and operated drone company that does this in Vegas every year.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, that's cool.

[Chris Reivers]

So like the. Yeah, the nerds. The nerds do this. It's really cool. So anyway, I've never been a big fan of whether it's Dick Clark's Rockin Eve or any of those.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Dick Clark was great though.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, sure. I mean, when you're little, like, oh man, this is so cool. I feel like an adult because I'm staying up past 9:45. But I will say it looked cool. And it made me wonder why was it that we established New York City as like the go to destination for New Year's Eve? Hear me out. It's Vegas. There's everything known to man in Vegas. And oh, by the way, it's not 15 billion below zero.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, time zone difference. Right.

[Chris Reivers]

That's also my point.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. But then New York has to stay up. Then we have to stay up. Yeah. Cause what is Vegas? An hour behind us?

[Chris Reivers]

No, two.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Two hours behind us. Wait, so it'd be one or two hours. So it'd be 1 or 2am for us to celebrate, right? New York, it would be 3:00am or.

[Chris Reivers]

What you could do is like what we did when the kids were younger. Yay. 10:00pm you're right. You made it to New Year. Now go to bed so we can.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I would do that tonight. I would do that. Honest. God, I don't care. Reivers. What I like to do is wake up, go to work, have lunch, come back from work, usually go to dinner and then go to bed. That's what I like to do when people say, oh, I'm saving up for my dream trip to Paris. I don't care about Paris. I don't want to go to Paris. I want to wake up, I want to go to work, I want to go to lunch, I want to go back to work, go home, go to dinner, and then start the next day. I am a creature of habit. Today, hypothetically, I was going to have the day off. Couldn't do with the day off.

[Chris Reivers]

Let me guess.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

You woke up.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

You went to lunch.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I went to work.

[Chris Reivers]

Sorry, you went to work. You went to lunch?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yes.

[Chris Reivers]

You came here?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I came here.

[Chris Reivers]

You're going to go back to work.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yes.

[Chris Reivers]

And then you're going out to dinner.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm not going back to work. I'm going to grab my beautiful wife.

[Chris Reivers]

Yes.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Take her out to my parents and have a glass of champagne, Hit dinner time at the place that we have dinner reservations at 4 o'.

[Narrator]

Clock.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Truthfully, at 4 o'. Clock. Do that for a little bit. It's gonna involve some golf simulation. Right. We're gonna do a little.

[Narrator]

Sweet.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, sweet.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. So it's two and one. Be home by six. And then tomorrow, you know what I'm gonna do? You know what sucks about tomorrow?

[Chris Reivers]

You can't go to work.

[Mike Fratelloni]

We're closed.

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I mean, I can go to the office and I will go to the office tomorrow. I like the regularity of consistency.

[Chris Reivers]

You like consistency? Yeah.

[Mike Fratelloni]

People make fun of me. Cause I don't travel very much. Right. And.

[Chris Reivers]

You kind of do.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I travel for work a lot.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, you're saying from a personal standpoint.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I don't do pleasure travel. I don't care.

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah, you're right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Nothing's better anywhere else. And when people say, oh, it's so great in that country, it's like you're on vacation. Go live there every single day. Right. It's not the same when you go to France and you're in a great hotel in Paris.

[Chris Reivers]

Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You don't live in a great hotel in Paris. You live in the ninth. Advertisement. 40 miles out of town. The train would. You'd have to go in on the train. Where you'd say, I don't even know who's driving this train. It would break down where life gets crappy and real.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, but I get the okay, for instance. Well, I don't want to go there. I get the allure of wanting to experience something new in a very short period of time.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

That I do completely get.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I get it. I get why people like that.

[Chris Reivers]

But I think you're saying you're just wired differently.

[Mike Fratelloni]

My mind says you have to be able to have fun on a Tuesday because Tuesdays are a nothing day. So you better make life great on Tuesday, because then when you do go on a trip, it's really great. But Tuesdays are your goal day. My brother's a big traveler, right? And he'll say, oh, it's 16 days, 15 days, 14 days, till it's like, what about those 16 days beforehand? Make those as great. And he does have a great life, don't get me wrong. But make the Tuesday the best. All days are vacation.

[Chris Reivers]

I know someone, and he and his wife, they do three week vacations.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That's a long time.

[Chris Reivers]

That's a long. I remember the longest trip I ever took. It might have been for our honeymoon. And it was. It was 10 days. And that's where. And this is our honeymoon. Like, I want to get back. I want to go home.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. If, you know, you got one chance at a honeymoon, my friend.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, but I guess my point was.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Were you 10 for 10?

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, I was 25 for 10. Who are you kidding? But my point, My point is there does get to a point where I am wired like you were. I want to go home. I want to again, because I'm not roofing a house for a living.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

I'm not digging a ditch. Like, I don't mind. I don't mind being back in my structure. I don't mind that at all.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Daily disciplines. Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

And it's okay. There's only so many, you know, margaritas you can drink and so much love you can make. Well, but it's not even that. It's just. It's almost like, okay, this was fun. It's beautiful. We did the sightseeing. We took the big ferry to Cozumel. We did all of that. Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay, now what?

[Chris Reivers]

I don't want to go parasailing. Do you want to go? I will if you want to go. But I don't really want to do that. I don't really want to go into town because Lord knows what might happen if we did that. If we go off from where the white people are supposed to be.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I don't know if you can say.

[Chris Reivers]

That, but you know what I mean. The locals. You don't want to go to where.

[Mike Fratelloni]

The locals might look at you, like, wait.

[Chris Reivers]

Because I remember having a conversation with somebody. It wasn't on this trip. I've been to Mexico 15 times, but I remember talking to somebody. And this was when we were in Cabo San Lucas, which is gorgeous. Absolutely stunning.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Never been there.

[Chris Reivers]

In fact, I have a good friend that's there right now. And so you go there and it's beautiful. It's basically an extension of San Diego because it's on the West Coast.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

Stunning sunsets. I mean, stunning sunsets. Right. And if you have. And if you hit me up, if you want a good recommendation, I have two great places that are there. It's. They're smaller, all inclusive. You're never going to get bored of the same food. It's there. It's an amazing spot. And at the same time, they'll say, hey, like this area, there's like a.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Don't go out of here.

[Chris Reivers]

But there's a big mall. Absolutely. You're cool going there. There's a little shop over here that's got stuff. Absolutely. Like, if need stuff that we don't have at the resort, go there. You go a mile that way, you're on your own. Kind of a deal. Right? So I don't know where I was going with that, but anyway. But you want to get back home. I want to be back to my routine. I want to see who the twins aren't going to sign in the off season. I just want to get back to my routine.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I was on a vacation in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, nice.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And we were in the old town. When I say old town, like really old, 1500s, the oldest church in North America was where the people were getting married. That we went to the wedding and my wife and I were walking my pick and I were walking down the road and a guy jumped out in front of us and said, where are you? And it was a guy from the Dominican. The Dominican guy said, where are you going? And we said we were just kind of going down. He goes, nope, nope, don't, don't.

[Chris Reivers]

Real bad idea.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Don't go that way. And I said, really? And he goes, yep, it looks the same. It's not. Don't go that way. And he said, do these two blocks and here. And he gave us the. And I said, hey, thank you very much. He goes, yeah, no problem. You Just don't want to go that way. I was like, oh, that was awfully nice.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, if I had to venture a guess, because something similar happened to me. Had you been by yourself, he might not have said that.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

Because you were with a beautiful female. That's probably why he jumped into action.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Well, you're forgetting my sexuality. Because he might have looked at me and said, you are a sexy guy.

[Chris Reivers]

I'm saying you would have been.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Because he might have thought he could get.

[Chris Reivers]

No, no, no, no. He was trying to more than he was trying to protect you.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Not many people care about me.

[Chris Reivers]

No.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Surely the random dude in Dominican, he's like, ah, look at that, Blanco. How do you say white butthole, cracker, white guy in Dominican. And he would have let me go. Okay, so you don't have big plans for tonight? I don't have big plans for the night. It doesn't matter. That's why we're here. Dedicated to our listeners.

[Chris Reivers]

Correct.

[Mike Fratelloni]

On the weekly scramble podcast and YouTube channel. Cause you can watch us on YouTube.

[Chris Reivers]

That's right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You can see me when I had to make the little break noise with my hands. Can we a little behind the curtain.

[Chris Reivers]

No, let's not do that. Okay, let's not do that. Because I think I know where you're going and I really don't want to do that. But that's Mike Fetaloni. I am Chris Reivers. This is the weekly scramble podcast. And we will be right back. All right. We had Tom Hauser in to do GL today, and I wanted to avoid fraud. Yeah, we can't avoid fraud.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Can't avoid fraud.

[Chris Reivers]

Can't avoid fraud. Because here's why I want to bring this up today. And I don't necessarily want to bring up the route that we went down yesterday, which I thought was a really good conversation, by the way, but this surfaced today from our friends at the New York Post, because Lord knows you aren't gonna find this story in the Star Tribune.

[Mike Fratelloni]

The Minnesota Star Tribune is not sending out 50 crack reporters to find this stuff.

[Chris Reivers]

Are you ready?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yes.

[Chris Reivers]

I don't know if you know this, Mike, but somehow there's a link between fraud and Somali run daycares.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

It seems to be kind of rampant here in the state of Minnesota. And by the way, as we learned with Mr. Hell' earlier today, this is becoming a trend nationwide now, and some of the numbers that you're going to start to see surfacing probably within the next couple of days are staggering.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Just daycare fraud nationwide, not Somali daycare fraud.

[Chris Reivers]

Somali and daycare fraud. Sorry, daycare fraud nationwide, a lot of which is being run by our Somali runners.

[Mike Fratelloni]

A crap thing for honest Somalis that really screws them.

[Chris Reivers]

How about this story? Yeah, okay, so we had the story that we talked about where basically a YouTuber was going up to random Somali daycares, and there weren't any kids there. They were empty buildings. And in fact, he was confronted by a couple of people. But this story just absolutely takes the cake. And once I get done reading this story, I have a completely different mindset about all of this. Now, are you ready? A Somali run daycare in Minneapolis is now claiming somebody broke in and stole very important documents. As the national spotlight shines on the unfolding multi billion dollar fraud scandal involving Minnesota Human Services. Nasrula Mohammed. They are the manager of Nokoma's daycare center, told reporters that a suspect.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Wait, wait, wait. They said they.

[Chris Reivers]

No, I said, I don't know if Nasrula is male or.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Cause I'm like, oh, my God, if Nasrula has a pronoun of they, I'm gonna crap myself.

[Chris Reivers]

I don't wanna assign a gender.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You are gender neutral because you don't know.

[Chris Reivers]

I don't know.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I think Nasrallah is a male's name.

[Chris Reivers]

Is that a male's name? I think so. Well, Nasrula is the manager of Nokomis Daycare center and told reporters that a suspect entered through the kitchen at the rear of the facility, damaging a wall and breaking into the building's office sometime on Tuesday. Man, that's unbelievable time.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What are the chances of that? He.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay, I'm sorry. He said the alleged prowler stole very important documentation, including children's enrollment information, employee documentation, and also checkbooks. My gosh.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What are the chances of that?

[Chris Reivers]

Unbelievable timing.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Because you know what I like to do is I like to see. Steal children's paperwork, then take it to a pawn shop, because big money. You're gonna get huge in those kind of things.

[Chris Reivers]

Mohammed blamed last week's viral video. Oh, my God. I can't take this. I cannot take this anymore. Sorry. Muhammad Blamed last week's viral video on YouTuber Nick Shirley in which he visited nearly a dozen daycare facilities looking for evidence of fraud for the incident. This is devastating news, and we don't know why this is targeting our Somali community, as one video made by a specific individual made this all happen. So you're. You're. You're blaming. This is. This is an editorial comment from the news reader. So, sir, you're you're blaming the guy pointing out the fraud as to why someone would break into your facility and steal his information. Okay, got it, got it.

[Mike Fratelloni]

He's like, because they caught us stealing, someone had to break in and steal our records.

[Chris Reivers]

This is devastating news and we don't know why this is targeting our Somali community, as one video made by a specific individual made all this happen, he said, claiming they've received hateful and threatening messages over the last several days. This is frightening and exhausting, he said. Calling Shirley's reporting false. Nokomis Daycare center was not one of the facilities featured in Shirley's video, which has been viewed. Well, I'll update this over 125 million times.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It's a lot of times.

[Chris Reivers]

At least $1 billion in fraud has been uncovered by authorities in Minneapolis so far, including fraudulent food, housing and childcare payments, with warnings from the U.S. attorney's office that the true figure could be as high as $9 billion. 92 people have been arrested in connection with the scheme, 80 of which are Somali immigrants. On Tuesday night, the United States Department of Health and Human Services announced it was freezing all childcare payments to Minnesota, which totaled in 2025 alone, $185 million. Unless proof is provided. No, that's nothing that the payments are legitimate.

[Mike Fratelloni]

$185 million is nothing. Well, you think you can fraud us out? We could fraud you. Well, more than 185 million do. I could fraud billions worth.

[Chris Reivers]

Let me take the two part approach to where I'm going to decide to go with this type of stuff in the future. Because I'm at the point I can't take much more of this. We had Tom Hauser in and I pushed back on Tom a little bit because he doesn't get why both him, KSTP and the like are getting accused of not going after the people hard enough. Well, I'll defend KSTP and Tom and Jay Coles and say they have been reporting on this, but there's only so much they're gonna be able to do. They don't have the power to call for. That's not their job to call for the resignation.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And they have a different standard than some random YouTuber.

[Chris Reivers]

Correct.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay. They have to live to a different standard.

[Chris Reivers]

So we've established that. But I told him the people that you're hearing, the most vitriol you're hearing from, the angriest mob you're hearing from are the people like me, which I don'. Decide to go after news reporters because they have a job to do, too.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They're doing it.

[Chris Reivers]

The point I was trying to make with Tom is people are beyond frustrated with this. They're angry, they're mad. Why is it okay that I go to work and I don't even have a difficult job? I mean, unless the powers of be are listening, because it is.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You have a difficult job working with Joe.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay, but let's say you're a guy that works 60 hours a week doing hard manual labor, and you're doing physically exhausting work. You're paying the freight for this crap. I don't blame that guy or that gal one second for being too bad.

[Mike Fratelloni]

We can't have a class action lawsuit against the state of Minnesota government.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay, but what would happen. What would happen if. Let's just say we called it the reverse Fratelloni class action lawsuit against daycare center fraud. What would we be labeled as? Racist?

[Mike Fratelloni]

No, I don't think we would.

[Chris Reivers]

100%. No.

[Mike Fratelloni]

100% we wouldn't. I think there's enough people in Minnesota that said, oh, up to what did we think it was? $14 billion is missing. No, no, no. It was $24 billion vanished. Right. We had an $18 billion surplus to a $6 billion deficit. So a $24 billion delta, if we sued for that, granted, we'd be paying it. We are the owners of the Minnesota government. Right. So you can't sue the state of Minnesota for a classroom lawsuit of mismanagement of funds, Mike. But I wish you could.

[Chris Reivers]

I'd love to agree with you in this particular piece where this guy. I'm gonna get his name right again. Naruzla Mohammed, who claims that all the important documentation, which, by the way, never existed to begin with, was stolen from his office, which he. Okay, let's just call it what it is. He's lying. There was no kids. There was no documentation. Oh, it just so happened that all this.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Anyway, even if there was documentation there and it was stolen, the kids are still gonna show up the next day. If you have 90 of them, where are the 90 kids?

[Chris Reivers]

But they're on holiday break.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, they're on hol. That makes a little bit more sense.

[Chris Reivers]

In that photo, he's standing there and behind him is Karen White. Karen from South Minneapolis with her handmade sign. You know what the sign says?

[Mike Fratelloni]

No ice.

[Chris Reivers]

Racism has no place in childcare. You see, the thing is. Oh, boy.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Karen.

[Chris Reivers]

The thing is, ladies and gentlemen, you have got to stop placing blame where it doesn't belong. That's the problem. We keep deflecting the Issue is not racism. The issue is I am sick and tired of a certain faction of society coming here and ripping off my state. You aren't from here. You weren't born and raised here. You don't have a vested interest in this state. I do and so do my kids. And I'm sick and tired of this crap continuing. And for me pointing that out on this show, to be called a racist. Forget. Get that noise.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Well, Reivers counterpointing that a lot of people feel your way.

[Chris Reivers]

I'll just shut my mic off because I think I just lost my voice.

[Mike Fratelloni]

A lot of people feel your way. They get your frustration. What I'm saying is it doesn't have to be about any born culture. It doesn't have to be about that.

[Chris Reivers]

That's the problem. It is.

[Mike Fratelloni]

No, it's about the people who committed the crimes. Period. That's it.

[Chris Reivers]

Because. And oh, by the way, it's one demographic.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So what? So what?

[Chris Reivers]

So what?

[Mike Fratelloni]

There's 80,000 Somalis in Minnesota. The vast, vast majority of them are Minnesotans, by the way. Doesn't matter if they came here one day ago. If they're legalized Minnesotans. They're Minnesotans. They're members and citizens of the United States. If they just happen to be thieves, then those are the ones that are thieves.

[Chris Reivers]

That's who I'm going after.

[Mike Fratelloni]

But you're not going after. But we have to be very careful, and I know you are careful.

[Chris Reivers]

We have to be very careful.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Careful painting this thievery brush over 80,000 people. I don't believe it.

[Chris Reivers]

But the problem, Mike, is those that are being. That have been pulled aside and pointed out like you're committing fraud. For you to automatically go to the racism card, everything else you say has no credibility. You have.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Totally valid point. Totally valid point.

[Chris Reivers]

You can't just automatically go to the racism card.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, but then we can't.

[Chris Reivers]

That's what the likes of Ilhan Omar do all the freaking time.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You're right. But we can't say all Somalis are.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay, I'll use Joe's line then. Not all Somalis. Wait, what is it?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Not all Somalis are criminals. The criminals that committed the fraud were Somalis.

[Chris Reivers]

All Somalis that commit that are in the news are thieves.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay? I can't do that. I can't do that to 80,000 people. I wouldn't have wanted people to do that to my cultural background. And they did. They did that to the talents.

[Chris Reivers]

If you were to look at. At the fraud that has taken place in this state Whether it's daycare fraud. Now I know it's tough to keep them all separate. Whether it's daycare fraud, whether it's housing fraud, whether it's Medicaid fraud, whether it's feeding our future fraud. It's.90% of the people involved in those particular schemes, 100 are from one Democrat. I agree with you 100%. That's my point. My point is, is for those of you who have been caught red handed and for you to claim the racism card.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Stop. But they'll go to jail. They'll get.

[Chris Reivers]

They won't, though.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Many of them will. Many of them will. These people that are being prosecuted will go to jail. They won't be deported because they're United States citizens.

[Chris Reivers]

They're being targeted. Oh, the Somali. That's why the lion. The Somali community is being targeted. The Somali community is being targeted because you're the ones that are committing the fraud.

[Mike Fratelloni]

11 year old boy, Somali boy. His parents moved here in 2000.

[Chris Reivers]

But I'm not placing the blanket statement. Naraz Muhammad is the one placing the blanket statement on the Somali community.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It's not the Somali community. It's people that just happen to be Somali Americans that are. Some of them are committing this fraud. A handful of the 80,000. I don't believe you can take an entire cultural group, ethnic group, and say this about anybody. I don't like that. It doesn't feel right to me. And it's unfair. And here's when I say this, someone moved here in 2000. Somali family, let's call him Mohammed. And he had a daughter 11 years ago. That little daughter watches YouTube, she goes to her school, she does everything. I'm not gonna look at her and say that girl's committing fraud. Her ethnic background, where she came from, her birthplace, racism. I'm not gonna do that to her. She's just an innocent kid who, if we do that, by the way, if we do that, it's more likely she'll not ingratiate herself into Western culture. She'll not say, wow, America is great. She'll feel this overall black cloud of racism over her.

[Chris Reivers]

That's another. I think that that's another entire point it's worth bringing up right now. But I also think, Mike, the people. Okay, let's just talk about the people that are committing the fraud. They have no interest in ingratiating themselves with Western culture. They came here because they saw the opportunity to rob the system, enrich their own lives.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They didn't come here for that bs. They came here to not get killed in fricking Somalia. They came here to use the bathroom inside instead of outside. They came here to not starve to death.

[Chris Reivers]

They also came here. Okay, maybe that was their original intention, but they saw a loophole. They saw a way to enrich their lives, and they took full advantage of it.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Who we really have to blame? Reavers.

[Chris Reivers]

This administration, the people who allowed this shit to happen. I couldn't agree more.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It is not. The people who committed these crimes are not masterminds. Reavers. They are not masterminds. They are people who said, no.

[Chris Reivers]

There's a puppet master for sure.

[Mike Fratelloni]

No, no, no, no.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, yeah, there is.

[Mike Fratelloni]

But you don't even need to have a puppet master. If you say, oh, oh, if I open a fictitious daycare, you're gonna pay me $1,000 a month per kid. So I can say, I have 90 kids here. And some federal or government bureaucrat from the state of Minnesota says, yeah, oh, you went from nine kids to 90 overnight. Congratulations. Now you get $90,000 a month. It's not. I mean, they did it. They're gonna go to jail. People are gonna be prosecuted and go to jail, but it's not their fault that we were so stupid.

[Chris Reivers]

All right, we're running short on time. Let's take a quick pause. That's Mike Fernalotti. I'm Chris Reivers. We're gonna take a break, and we'll be right back. It's the weekly scramble podcast. All right. So, not that I really didn't think. I thought we were gonna have a nice, easy, relaxing.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Can I piss you off even more? I have a story for you.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, do you want to move on from this?

[Mike Fratelloni]

No. It's about what we were talking about. So I don't know if you've seen this, but the manager of the Quality Leering center, right? It was supposed to be spelled learning, but it was misspelled. So they're signed on the outside of their building.

[Chris Reivers]

Quality Learning.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Quality Learning Center. The manager of that who got got onto the video and said, hey, I'm the manager. He is in the background allegedly dancing on stage with Mayor Fry after Mayor Fry's post election party. At Mayor Fry's post election party. So he is the manager of this daycare center. Quality Leering Center, Allegedly. And we don't know if that's him for sure, but it is the guy's doppelganger in the background of Mayor Jacobs. Fry's post election celebration dance party. Do I know that? That's 100% factual. No. Does it sure look like him? Absolutely. It looks like him. Right? And he's dancing in the background with Mayor Fry up front. And all along he's thinking to himself, allegedly, I'm getting $1.8 million in daycare costs from the Quality Leering Center. Again, all of that is allegedly. I don't know any of that. 100% factual.

[Chris Reivers]

I'm not here to give anybody any type of career advice and certainly not here to give anybody any type of political advice. You know who really needs to sit this play out? Governor Tim Walz.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

Because yesterday he tweeted out the following. Are you ready for this?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

We've spent years cracking down on fraud, referring cases to law enforcement, shutting down and auditing high risk programs. Trump keeps getting letting fraudsters out of prison to the national.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, my God, are you shitting me?

[Chris Reivers]

To the national news just now paying attention. Here's what we've done to stop it. And then, of course, he cites a bunch of articles from the Minnesota Star Tribunal, which, oh, by the way, is overseen by someone that used to work for Tim Walsh. My message remains clear, Mike.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, my God.

[Chris Reivers]

If you threaten everything that makes our state a great place to live by committing fraud in Minnesota, you will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And you will be asked, instead of becoming a daycare provider, we're gonna ask you to be a Medicaid provider or an autism resource provider so you can move from one fraud to the next to the next.

[Chris Reivers]

The Homeland Security office decides, okay, we gotta stop payments here till we figure out what the hell's going on.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, something's going on, which we should have done in Minnesota, which is a timeout. Prove to us that you have 90 kids.

[Chris Reivers]

I don't know if you knew this.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Chris Reivers]

But it was announced on social media, and Governor Tim Walz decided to respond to that with his own what did he say? Message. This is Trump's long game. We have spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It's a serious issue. But this has been his plan all along. He's politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, Tim. You've lost all your credibility. Tim. When? Remember that dip? I almost just said it. And I don't. I don't know him. I don't know Tim Walls. But remember the only thing that he was proud of as a governor, what was the one thing he was proud of?

[Chris Reivers]

Let's see.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You gotta remember this. Cause every single time he got on National News. What did he talk about?

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, it was feeding.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Feeding children at school. We're feeding kids breakfast at school. That was the one thing he was ever proud of and little did he. He never said, oh, not only are we feeding them, we're offering them daycare to the tune of billions of dollars worth of total BS fraud payments. And it. He is so brain blind, Brain dead and blind on this subject. It is shocking how obtuse the guy is.

[Chris Reivers]

Do you know why he's doing this?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Why?

[Chris Reivers]

You want to know why?

[Mike Fratelloni]

He's gonna run for president, Become president.

[Chris Reivers]

No.

[Narrator]

What?

[Chris Reivers]

You're thinking way too deep on this, way too broad. Do you know why he's doing this?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Tell me.

[Chris Reivers]

Because it's gonna work. He's doing this because the gaslighting mantra, especially those of the Democratic party. And again, I got my issues with.

[Mike Fratelloni]

The Republicans, do it all day long.

[Chris Reivers]

But I'm talking about the state of Minnesota. He's doing this for one reason and one reason only. It's going to work. Sure, because people will read that and think, I'm only looking at things in my little echo chamber.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm on the left echo chamber.

[Chris Reivers]

But walls told me they're fighting fraud.

[Mike Fratelloni]

He's been fighting it for years.

[Chris Reivers]

Reverse for years. He's been going after it. And that's the reason we're in this mess to begin with.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You know, I am disenchanted with both sides. I really am. I'm not loving what the right's doing and I'm not loving what the left's doing.

[Chris Reivers]

But.

[Mike Fratelloni]

But if you're in this state and we're getting raped, I mean full on financially raped with fraud and it's been controlled by Democrats for years, wouldn't some people get together and say, timeout, let's try a conservative governor, let's try a couple conservative mayors that say, oh, a billion dollars for a new NGO in the state of Minnesota to help with autism. We're not doing it. I'm sorry. Work with your. Provide health care.

[Chris Reivers]

But it's almost like those here in the 694, 494 loop, we call that the metro area. It's almost as if those that would have absolutely gone for that have fled and have been replaced by those that don't want that to happen, that want the money train to stay in place. It's almost like that that was the plan all along.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I mean, I go back to this where if you're in politics and you take $500 from one guy and you give $100 each to five people. You just got five votes.

[Narrator]

Yep.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You lost one, but you got five. And we are mired in that discontent here. But at some point in time, people are gonna have to say, emperor, the liberal emperor has no clothes. We can't keep doing this. What are we doing? When is Minnesota gonna get better? When is it gonna get better? Well, and maybe the right can't do shit about it. They're not doing anything great either. I'm so disenchanted.

[Chris Reivers]

Happy New Year, ladies and gentlemen.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Crap hole. A 20, 25.

[Chris Reivers]

I have one for you.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

And it comes to us from my 14 year old son.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, good.

[Chris Reivers]

Who's way into dad jokes, by the way. And sometimes like, oh, bud, you better not be telling that one publicly. But he had a good one.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay, good.

[Chris Reivers]

Do you know what? A guy with no arms and no legs who practices karate, do you know what he is called? No, no. In fact, it's not called karate. But a guy with no arms and no legs, there's a specific style of karate that that person practices.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What does he practice?

[Chris Reivers]

He practices partial arts.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, God. Reivers, you are the best. Happy New Year.

[Chris Reivers]

Happy New Year, everybody. That's Mike Frattalotti. I'm Chris Rivers. Please do us a favor, rate and review the show, or maybe not after this particular episode, wherever you happen to be listening to your podcast, it helps others find the show. It helps us out as well. We appreciate each and every single one of you. Thank you so much for sticking with us throughout the entire calendar year. Happy New Year to each and every single one of you. We'll talk to you again next time. Until then, cheer.