Our readership at RRW is going through the roof and it’s almost exclusively because the public is finally beginning to search for information, and understand better, how so many Somalis have “found their way” to America. Of course we know they didn’t find their way here, but were brought here over more than three decades now through the US State Department’s Refugee Resettlement program with the help of nine major federal contractors. The mall massacre in Kenyawith speculation (no official confirmation yet that I know of) that some of the killers are Americans (former refugees) has prompted this latest round of interest.
See the disturbing images from Nairobi in the UK Daily Mail (hat tip: Ed).
Thousands of new readers visited RRW in the last few days. And, I’m happy to report that we have exceeded our goal of adding 30 new subscribers in the month of September. We have 43 new subscribers with five days left in the month!
Almost every search term yesterday related to Somalis. Here (below) is what people are searching (I took out about 5 searches that didn’t involve Somalis).
somalis in minneapolis
why are there so many somalis in minnesota
maine somalis catholic charities
lutheran brotherhood and somali refugees
how many somalis in kansas city
where in minneapolis the somalias lived
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louisville somalians
how many somalis in america
number of somalis in minneapolis
which administration brought somalies to minnesota?
clarkston ga ann somalis
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how did all the somalis get to minnesota?
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bed bugs shelbyville,tn
To answer the question, which administration brought Somalis to Minnesota?—the answer is all of them since the 1980’s. George W. Bush had some really big years following 9/11! Check out our numbers here.
Mark Peterson, former President and CEO of Lutheran Social Service of MN was making $441,767 a year in salary and benefits doing God’s work, which included resettling tens of thousands of Somali Muslims to Minnesota!
Although he has left, former President and CEO, Mark Peterson of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota made a cool $441,767 reported in their most recently available Form 990. Imagine that—more than the President of the United States of America,and more than double what Members of Congress and US Senators make! What on earth was a man (doing God’s work!) taking a salary like that, primarily paid for by US and Minnesota taxpayers and contributions from the Lutheran flock?
Where are the picketing ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrators outside the offices of these fat cats? They aren’t even making the money the good old fashioned capitalist way, but are siphoning off tax payer dollars from hardworking Americans!
Imagine how many poor people could be helped on that salary?
And where is the ACLU screaming about the separation of church and state?
Interestingly, I have the Form 990 (Oct. 2010-Sept.2011) supplied by my reader (it is a Pdf) and the Form 990 (same year) available at Guidestar (here) and the one available at Guidestar contains a blank page or two where the large salaries of LSS employees are reported.
The Pdf version does list the salaries. The new CEO is Jodi Harpstead. She was the former Executive VP of LSS and she made $249,508 in salary and benefits as the second in command (that is more than the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court makes). Presumably she is now raking-in what Peterson did.
Readers, these salaries (at a state level!) are larger than some of the salaries we’ve reported for the nine major federal resettlement contractors. I think only the International Rescue Committee has salaries as large as these.
New CEO Jodi Harpstead. As second in command to Peterson she took home more than US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts makes!
In that year, LSS was an $89 million operation. $63.3 million came from ‘government fees and contracts,’ $1.2 million was from federated campaign (that’s where govt. employees donate to non-profits), and $5.2 million was ‘pass through revenue’ which I presume came down from the national Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and is federal taxpayer money. Only $7 million of their $89 million appears to come from private charity.
Salaries and wages for the organization totaled $40 million plus approximately another $10 million in benefits, their offices cost them $7 million and another $3 million went to travel expenses. How much does it cost to travel around Minnesota in a year?
If LSS of Minnesota had to rely on private charity, they would not exist as a political powerhouse! I’ll grant they are doing other work for the poor than resettling refugees, but my major objections are two-fold. As a non-profit, concerned citizens cannot get to their financial information in the same way one could research and then complain about a government agency that is accountable to elected officials; and secondly, frankly, they are lobbying for causes that you (the taxpayer) may not support. Here LSS opposed Voter ID for example.
All the while they masquerade as charitable Christians.
Like most of these quasi-government agencies, we support (we pay for!) their political activity!
For new readers, see ‘Why so many Somalis in Minnesota’here. Thank LSS, Catholic Charities, and World Relief! Way back in 2008, a reader told us how Minnesota was a prime target for the stealth Jihad, check it out here.
I just had an amusing (not really amusing) thought—-are these Lutherans from Minnesota from the same stock that is now willy-nilly destroying Sweden. Maybe there is some sort of cultural ‘death wish’ gene?
Seems to me that Somalis have been very busy in the Minnesota courts. Judy reported the settlement in 2009 of an over $1 million pay-out in a religious discrimination suit where Somalis claimed persecution because the chicken plant didn’t let them have special time off for religious observance. Then more recently, also in Minnesota, CAIR sued a dessert maker which objected to the long clothing worn by Somali workers (safety issue, claimed the company).
Bringing hundreds of Somalis to St. Cloud. Photo: Lutheran Social Service St. Cloud facebook page.
We can’t forget that Somali terror-related cases are keeping Minnesota courts busy. Here is one of many posts on the terror-funding trials. And, then we most recently reported on the Somali women convicted of voter fraud, here. So it seems to me they are pretty involved in the Minnesota court system already!
For new readers, St. Cloud is home to a growing Somali community. Up until 2010, refugees arrived on their own to work in what else—meat packing plants. But, in its infinite wisdom, about three years ago, the US State Department made St. Cloud a “welcoming” resettlement site with its primary resettlement contractor —-Lutheran Social Service!
Here is one story from 2010 about the new push to bring Somalis to the St. Cloud area.
Also, in 2010 I wrote this post about the Far Left community agitators hooking up with the Somalis to bring political strife to St. Cloud. I don’t presume to be an expert on the St. Cloud area, but the city has made news here at RRW on many occasions. Go here for all of our posts on St. Cloud.
Now back to the news relating to our headline. This is a notice of a meeting in October billed as a “listening session” for Somalis to gain more access to the court system. If you live in the St. Cloud area, you really should plan to attend. I sure hope they aren’t looking for special “shariah law” treatment in Minnesota courts!
Judges, lawyers and other justice system partners will have a listening session in St. Cloud designed to improve access to the courts for Somalis.
The event is scheduled for 9 a.m.-noon on Oct. 26 at Whitney Senior Center, 1527 Northway Drive. Preregistration is required by Oct. 21.
The listening session is being co-sponsored by the city of St. Cloud and the Equal Justice Committees of the Seventh and Tenth Judicial Districts. The bulk of the St. Cloud area is located within those two judicial districts.
The goal of the session is to advance efforts to eliminate bias in court operations based on race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation and any other status protected by law.
Other goals include ensuring equal access to the courts and a fair and impartial courtroom. There will be a light lunch provided by Somali Cafe.
To register for the event, send an e-mail to Rita.Steinhagen@courts.state.mn.us or call Rita at 320-591-1513.
They were just so excited about voting they did it more than once!
In our previous post we reported the latest conviction in the Somali missing youths case. And, now (hat tip: Cathy) we learn of another criminal case involving Somali women in Minnesota—this time for voter fraud.
About 50 men and women packed a Rice County courtroom Tuesday afternoon as two Somali women pleaded not guilty to charges of voter fraud stemming from the general election last November.
Farhiya Abdi Dool, 38, and Amina A Hassan, 31, each face one felony charge of unlawful voting for voting once by absentee ballot and once at a polling place during the 2012 general election. Each woman faces five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the offense.
The women, both naturalized U.S. citizens, were charged June 21.
With Minneapolis-based defense attorney Julie Nelson at their side, Dool and Hassan each entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday afternoon. As was the case with their first court appearances, the women were backed by family members, friends, neighbors and advocates all listening closely to the proceedings.
Supporters of the women say that their actions were an honest mistake that should not be punished with a felony charge. Nelson took the defense a step further during an interview after the hearing.
Somehow because they came to this country as refugees they should get a pass??? Americans are offended!
“I find it offensive that these women have been criminally charged,” Nelson said. “These women came to this country, they are naturalized citizens, and they wanted to vote.”
Nelson said she expected the outcome of the cases to have a “chilling effect” on the Somali community.
We sure hope it “chills” the voter fraud in the “community.” This isn’t the first time we have reported on fraud in the “Somali community” going back to Al Franken’s victory in that 2008 contested Senate race. There was also a case of alleged Somali voter fraud in Kansas that actually may have swung the outcome of a race, here. Then there is the Ohio case. See a pattern?
Don’t you wonder how refugees become citizens when they can’t understand English. How did they pass the test?
We have a couple of posts referencing Faribault. This is oneabout Somalis moving into small town Minnesota and opening businesses with your tax dollars. And, here is another about CAIR suing a dessert maker somewhere nearby about the Somali workers and the dress code.
The Fridley Trail, in a quiet suburb of the Twin Cities, is an unlikely place to run across a Somali gang so say officials hoping to downplay the incident.
Perhaps a case of ‘sudden jihad syndrome?’
A Balaclava—the latest Muslim fashion trend, demonstrated by a non-threatening white guy.
FRIDLEY, Minn. (WCCO) – In broad daylight, and within full view of a busy stretch of East River Road, a group of seven young men struck two joggers totally at random.
The joggers were out for a Sunday run near East River Road and 37th Avenue North when each one was suddenly and viciously punched by the group.
Lt. Mike Monsrud, of Fridley Police, says attacks like these are rare.
The victims said their attackers demanded no money and said few words before striking. [What words? Inquiring minds want to know!—ed] The attacks, according to Monsrud, appear to be unprovoked.
One of those attacked was Hispanic (they are infidels too!)
The jogging trail follows along the Mississippi River and connects to the nearby Anoka County Riverfront Park. That’s where Carlos Rodriguez comes to get in some exercise and play with his kids.
But to Rodriguez, the safety of the park and its trails is now in question.
Police say this is the first incident of this nature that’s been reported along the jogging path. Authorities said the suspects are described as a group of six to seven Somali men that were traveling together — one wearing a hooded sweatshirt and another who was wearing a balaclava around his neck.
This reminds me of the 2009 story we had from Minneapolis where Somali “youths” were randomly attacking bikers and kids, here. Maybe those marauding youths have grown up and spread out to the suburbs?
For new readers: We have resettled more than 100,000 Somali refugees to cities large and small in the US over the last 25 years. See one of the most widely read posts here at RRW. Large numbers went to Minneapolis, and now they are spreading out throughout the state. In three years since 9/11 ( Bush years 2004, 2005, 2006) the number of Somalis arriving topped 10,000 per year.
Those refugees then began bringing in the family (chain migration!) until 2008 when shock of shocks! the State Department discovered that as many as 30,000 Somalis had lied about their kinship and weren’t related at all. The State Department then closed the “family reunification” program for Somalis. It has recently been re-opened for new and legit family members, but they have no intention of finding and deporting the liars.
Fiscal year 2013 is shaping up to approach those three Bush years in the number of Somalis arriving in the US through refugee resettlement.
Our readership at RRW is going through the roof and it’s almost exclusively because the public is finally beginning to search for information, and understand better, how so many Somalis have “found their way” to America. Of course we know they didn’t find their way here, but were brought here over more than three decades now through the US State Department’s Refugee Resettlement program with the help of nine major federal contractors. The mall massacre in Kenya with speculation (no official confirmation yet that I know of) that some of the killers are Americans (former refugees) has prompted this latest round of interest.
