A group of rideshare drivers from MN Uber Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA) march around the Capitol building, demanding fair compensation from the transportation network companies Uber and Lyft Thursday, May 16. Photo by A.J. Olmscheid/Senate Media Services.
Some of the more unexpected places this year took me to: a church basement full of dairy farm workers outside of St. Cloud; a parking lot next to the airport (multiple times); and a virtual classroom for Minnesota students with an instructor on the other side of the world. As for expected places, I spent a lot of time on picket lines, at job sites and in the state Capitol.
As this year comes to a close, I’m grateful for the opportunity to follow leads across the state to report stories on work, money and politics. Here’s a look back at some of my favorite stories from 2024.
Uber and Lyft drivers win minimum rates
Minnesota became the second state to enact minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers through state statute in May after a rocky year-and-a-half campaign launched by drivers, which included a gubernatorial veto; feuding driver advocacy groups; threats by the companies to leave the Twin Cities; the largest study of its kind of driver pay; and a stand-off between Minneapolis City Council members and state lawmakers.
On the surface, the fight over pay rates seemed straightforward: low-wage drivers without employee protections against billion-dollar tech giants. But the details of how to improve working conditions created fault lines that divided drivers as well as lawmakers, which I wrote about here.
The issue also led the Minneapolis City Council to play a game of chicken with Uber and Lyft, which threatened to pull out over minimum rates passed in the city. A slew of new companies that pushed the boundaries of spelling — with names like Moov, Wridz and MyWeels — announced their intent to fill the void if Uber and Lyft followed through on their threat, but the Legislature ultimately killed the Minneapolis ordinance by banning cities from enacting their own rates. None of those companies seem relevant in the Twin Cities today.
The statewide deal on minimum pay rates, which took effect on Dec. 1, are expected to raise driver pay on average by about 14% over 2022. The law also provides greater protection for drivers against unfair deactivation; broader insurance coverage that begins Jan. 1; and a requirement that the companies contract with a nonprofit to provide driver services (although Uber and Lyft haven’t said who they’ve partnered with yet.) If you’re so inclined, you can travel with me deep into the weeds of the law.
Evergreen Acres wage theft
When Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a $3 million wage theft case against a central Minnesota dairy farm in January, it promised to set an example for a dangerous industry rife with labor abuses. Instead, it underscored how wage theft, despite being a felony, is seldom treated like a crime — and reinforced the perception that the legal system is biased toward the wealthy and white.
The lawsuit against Evergreen Acres and its related companies was one of the largest wage theft cases ever brought by the Attorney General’s Office, alleging hundreds of undocumented workers were robbed of millions in wages. The lawsuit also included startling details of abuse and squalid housing conditions that read like they were ripped from the pages of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle: Some employees who worked 12-hour day shifts shared the same bed with others who worked 12-hour night shifts, and they had their wages automatically deducted for rent. Workers lived in garages, barns and other buildings unfit for human habitation. Farm owner Keith Schaefer allegedly threatened and physically assaulted workers.
Ellison’s office settled the lawsuit for $250,000 — less than a tenth of what the Attorney General’s Office estimated workers were owed. Schaefer and his daughter Megan Hill, who was also named in the suit, admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement but did agree to maintain worker housing in habitable conditions and submit payroll records to the Attorney General’s Office for three years.
“What are the other farmers going to say? It’s minimal. They’re going to keep doing the same thing,” one worker, speaking in Spanish, told Attorney General Keith Ellison through an interpreter during a meeting in November I attended just outside St. Cloud.
At the outset, I asked if there would be criminal charges. After all, if an employee stole $3 million out of the cash register, it’s hard to imagine the attorney general holding a press conference to announce the lawsuit while the thief walked free. Ellison’s office pointed out that it doesn’t have original criminal jurisdiction, and must refer criminal cases to local prosecutors. There’s no word from them on criminal charges.
Ilhan Omar’s husband’s failed winery
One of the most surprising things I learned this year was that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and her husband owned part of a California winery with a longtime Democratic operative.
Omar lists spousal income from the winery, eStCru, on her financial disclosures, but I found it out through a lawsuit filed by investor Naeem Mohd accusing Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, and his business partner Will Hailer of fraud.
According to the lawsuit, Mynett and Hailer failed to deliver on a sweetheart deal they made in 2021 promising to triple Mohd’s investment of $300,000 in just 18 months. The pair only returned Mohd’s initial investment, about a month late. The business’s winemaker, Erica Stancliff, also told me she worked for months without pay before finally resigning.
Mohd reached a settlement with Mynett and Hailer in September, according to court filings that do not include details of the agreement.
Mynett and Hailer told me at the time they were working to sell the intellectual property and trademarks associated with the brand.
A failed winery wasn’t the only business problem for businesses Hailer and Mynett started, as I detailed in my story. Two South Dakota cannabis companies also accused Hailer of fraud in a lawsuit against a company he founded with Mynett. Mynett was mentioned in the lawsuit but not named as a defendant, and he told me he withdrew from eSt Ventures in early 2022. Hailer paid $1.2 million to settle the lawsuit in August.
Alleged scam of education tax credit
My final investigation of the year examined the alleged misuse of a state tax credit that’s supposed to help low-income families pay for tutoring, music lessons and educational supplies.
Three women approached me earlier this year telling me dozens of mothers had lost thousands of dollars from their tax refunds to two tutoring companies — Achievers Tutoring and Success Tutoring — that promised to help their kids recover from pandemic learning loss but only provided online instruction with foreign teachers.
It took me a while to unravel exactly how another state government program was apparently being scammed. The story involves Filipino online tutors, an alleged scammer lobbying legislators in a Louis Vuitton scarf, violent threats against mothers, a state lawmaker’s former employer and a morass of bureaucracy.
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.
I’ll be continuing to follow this story as the mothers try to get their money back and lawmakers promise to clamp down on fraud, waste and abuse in social service programs.