The Health Department revoked the licenses for group homes owned and managed by Sekou Dukuly, the executive director of the National Port Authority of Liberia, as well as those connected to Andrea Sampson, a former Anoka County Attorney who prosecutors say used some of her properties to traffic women before converting them into group homes and billing Medicaid.
Golden Touch Health Care was one of several Minnesota group home companies linked to Sekou Dukuly, who has served as the managing director of the Liberian National Port Authority since 2024. He told state authorities in 2025 he was the licensed assisted living director for its three group homes — even though an MPR News/APM Reports investigation found he lived overseas.
Politicians in Minnesota and commentators in Liberia were stunned to learn that the managing director of the West African country’s National Port Authority was simultaneously serving as the assisted living director for three group homes in the northwestern Twin Cities.
Companies linked to Sekou Dukuly received $36 million in taxpayer money over the past decade to care for disabled adults in Minnesota group homes — despite multiple residents dying and repeated findings of neglect. Dukuly has also misrepresented his finances in Minnesota family courts, and he’s caught up in a lawsuit concerning a business venture overseas. But the state kept sending payments to the group home companies even after he took a job in the Liberian government, more than 5,000 miles away.
At least 50 Minnesota group home clients have died since late 2022 under circumstances serious enough to trigger a state maltreatment investigation. But many penalties amounted to fines of $5,000 or less, and most homes kept their licenses. When Ryan Riggs died in the backyard of his group home, the state’s initial fine was just $1,000.
A half-century ago, the Indigenous Tsimshian village of Metlakatla, in Southeast Alaska, preserved its reservation when others in Alaska were terminated. Today, the reserve sustains a thriving fishing industry — and the tribe is fighting in court to expand its territory.
Taxpayer-funded group homes help thousands of Minnesotans with physical or mental disabilities live as independently as possible. But the industry’s rapid growth in the Twin Cities’ northwestern suburbs has led to problems that leave vulnerable people in danger and local governments struggling with the consequences. Nowhere is that clearer than in Brooklyn Park, the state’s group home capital.
A company allegedly used to launder money stolen from the government in the Feeding Our Future fraud case owns at least five houses where taxpayer-funded group homes operate. Those group homes have collected millions of dollars from the government.
The GOP activist, who has touted election fraud conspiracies, came forward after trying for years to remain anonymous. The U.S. Supreme Court declined his case.
Alaska’s Legislature adjourned last week without addressing an issue that many residents of coastal, Native villages see as urgent: expanding access to commercial fishing careers.
Five years after George Floyd’s killing set off nights of destruction, vacant lots and broken buildings remain along Lake Street and other Minneapolis business districts. Some business owners say money woes and city zoning rules have made it hard to rebuild.
MPR News found problems tied to inspections and local political pressures that leave low-income renters in potential danger across greater Minnesota. In Bemidji, those problems have pushed their way to the surface.
A permitting system designed in the 1970s was supposed to make Alaska’s commercial fishing industry more sustainable and more profitable. But over the past 50 years, it has hollowed out many Indigenous coastal villages where residents no longer can earn a living by harvesting salmon.
In spite of years of pressure from advocates, access to emergency contraceptives remains difficult for women who rely on the health care systems run by or on behalf of their tribal nations. APM Reports spent more than six months surveying tribal clinics and pharmacies around the country. Dozens refuse to provide Plan B — or impose restrictions.
When Tim Walz first ran for Congress in 2006, his campaign proudly touted his extensive experience in China. In fact, earlier in his political career, he occasionally exaggerated it. But now that he’s running for vice president, Walz barely mentions China. And Republicans have tried to turn those connections into a political liability.
Once offshore oil platforms drain their wells, the government has the power to force the companies that own them to tear the structures down. But the owners can put off that costly process using a strategy one critic calls “delay, deny and diddle around.” And in Alaska, the state has let them do it — for decades.
Frank Edelblut pledged to stay “nonpartisan.” But as head of New Hampshire’s education department, he’s used his platform to pursue conservative grievances against the education system and individual educators.
New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut criticized a middle school art class slideshow for discussing gender. For the teacher who made the presentation, it was the last straw.
Maryland automatically charges more teens as adults than almost any other state. An analysis of recent decisions found that some judges rely on what juvenile justice advocates say is unfair reasoning to keep those young people in adult court.
During his campaign for governor, then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo claimed the Las Vegas police department he led seized just six ghost guns in one year. But officers actually seized 252 of the weapons during that time.
The municipal board that approved the sale — and a below-market lease — includes two members with ties to former Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who also used to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate.
More than $215 million in federal money is pouring into ARMI, a nonprofit that promises to revolutionize medicine and revitalize Manchester, New Hampshire. At least $34 million is flowing through ARMI to for-profit companies controlled by its executive director.
Newly released data reveals no resolution for the families of hundreds of homicide victims. Police refused to release homicide clearance data, so we sued to find out.
Jeremy Cubas resigned from his $110,000 a year job as Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s pro-family policy adviser after Alaska Public Media and APM Reports revealed that Cubas defended Hitler, used racist slurs and said a man raping his wife is "an impossible act."
