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Clean up state’s child care program

THUMBS DOWN: A Legislative Auditor’s report contains some good news, but mostly bad news on the Minnesota Child Care Assistance Program. The good news — there is no evidence that $100 million or so of the program’s funding has been funneled to terrorists in Somalia or anywhere else.

The bad news, however, is outweighs that nugget. There is rampant fraud and lax enforcement by undermanned personnel in the program, costing the state’s taxpayers an estimated $108 million. Fraud usually took the form of child care providers lying about the number of children they oversaw or the hours of service they provided and overbilling the state.

The Legislative Auditor’s report spelled out problems the state needs to address to prevent this continuing hemorrhage of state funds. The Walz Administration must take quick action to see these problems are addressed.

Business honors

THUMBS UP: Congratulations to Citizens Bank Minnesota and Sewing Seeds, Inc., who were honored this week as the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce Businesses of the Year. Citizens received the honor in the Large Business category, and Sewing Seeds in the Small Business category.

It is the first time the Chamber has taken this approach. It had two deserving candidates who had all the qualifications needed for the award, so the Chamber decided to honor them both.

It’s a great idea, and we join in applauding the two recipients this year.

State Tourney bound

THUMBS UP: As this is being written, it’s still a few hours before Minnesota Valley Lutheran and Springfield meet in the Section 2A boys basketball tournament. The winner of the game will represent the section in the Minnesota State High School League Boys Basketball Tournament.

We wish both our area teams well, and will be checking the sports page headlines today to see who will be going on to state. Whoever it is, we wish them well.

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