Ilhan Omar’s sister used the address of a woman who was business partners with several major convicts in the “Feeding Our Future” scandal, a Daily Wire investigation found. The federal meals scandal is described as the largest public theft in Minnesota history. The statehouse’s House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee is probing the Somali-born congresswoman’s involvement in the scandal, but Democrats in May blocked a subpoena that would require her to produce records. The congresswoman’s sister, Sahra Noor, ran People’s Center Clinics & Services in the Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis. While Ilhan Omar was a state representative, she arranged for a $2 million earmark to her sister’s “340B federally qualified health center.” Noor went on to found Grit Partners Consulting, and says she “has secured more than $20 million in funding for health initiatives and consulted on projects backed by the US CDC, USAID, GAVI, and the World Bank.” Grit Partners was incorporated at a home on Hyacinth Ave. in Lakeville. That address, and the woman who lives there, are lynchpins tying together at least three Feeding Our Future convicts, The Daily Wire found. The Hyacinth Ave. home is occupied by Mashah Ahmed Ali and his wife Ister (a.k.a. Ismahan) Ahmed Afraa. According to incorporation records, Afraa opened a company called Sunrise Business Center, Inc. alongside Hanna Marekegn. Marekegn in 2022 pleaded guilty to wire fraud for stealing $7 million. Marekegn claimed to be feeding 4,000 poor children a day. Instead she bought a mansion for herself, claiming she embodied the “American Dream.” Marekegn testified under oath that she falsely alleged racism to manipulate Minnesota bureaucrats to look the other way at red flags. Afraa also incorporated Sunshine Care Center MN, Inc., which claimed the same office address as Sunrise Business Center. On LinkedIn, Marekegn listed her employer as Sunshine Care Center at that address. Aimee Bock, the executive director of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future (Photo by Shari L. Gross/Star Tribune via Getty Images) Afraa is also tied to Aimee Bock, the Feeding our Future ringleader sentenced to 41 years in prison. Minnesota Department of Health data listed Bock as point of contact for Sunshine Care Center LLC. Her Hyacinth Ave. home was also the incorporation address of Diversity Childcare Center LLC, which listed Bock as point of contact. According to state investigative documents, Bock said the head of Sunshine Care Center MN, who is not named in the documents, was brought to Feeding Our Future by a woman named Sahra Nur – a key player in Feeding Our Future who was sentenced to four years in prison, and to whom Afraa is closely tied. Afraa was CEO of Aflah Property Inc., which operated out of Nur’s home on Fordham Ct NE. Afraa had a $30,000 state tax lien placed against her in April 2025, listing the Fordham home as the address. Nur’s home on Fordham Ct. was ground zero for Feeding Our Future, being used by at least 17 different companies, most of them designed to bill the government or launder profits. Nur was an owner of S & S Catering, which claimed to have made more than eight million meals. It enabled the fraud of the various Feeding Our Future nonprofits by giving them fake invoices so they could tell the government they spent money purchasing meals. The government reimbursed more than $12 million as a result, according to Nur’s indictment and guilty plea. Nur’s home was also used to set up some of those nonprofits, like the Academy for Youth Excellence, which allegedly stole $3.5 million in federal funds. It also housed Golis Properties LLC, which allegedly stole $3.9 million from taxpayers and used $2.5 million in stolen funds to buy an entire block on East Lake Street. Nur ran Kulmiye Management LLC, while Afraa, the woman connected to Omar’s sister, was an executive in Kulmiye Property LLC. Afraa bought a property directly across the street from one that was forfeited to the government, 2529 12th Avenue South, for being purchased with stolen funds. sahranoor.com According to Breitbart, Omar’s sister left her position at the People’s Center and moved to Kenya, with her Grit Partners doing work in Africa funded by the now-defunct USAID. Her husband, Mohamed Keynan, worked for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, but after going back to Africa, he has worked as chief of staff to the Somali Prime Minister and policy advisor to Somalia’s president, Breitbart said. The husband is also known as Mohamed Ali, the same last name as the owner of the Hyacinth home where Noor incorporated Grit Partners, Mashah Ahmed Ali. The latter created two companies: Pro Transit Allies LLC, seemingly a Medicaid transportation company; and Puntland Transport LLC. Puntland is an area of Somalia for which Mohamed Keynan – Ilhan Omar’s brother-in-law – is a fierce advocate. In a phone call with The Daily Wire, Mashah Ahmed Ali claimed to have never heard of any of the companies registered to his home or by his wife, saying someone must have created them without his knowledge. “There must be some sort of scam going on, I have no idea,” he said. “For the last 10 years I have a professional job, I have nothing to do with anything,” he said. Asked if his wife Afraa might be the person who knows about the companies in her name, he refused to provide her number. Afraa did not reply to a text sent to a number associated with her. Noor, who has written a book scheduled for release next month, did not return a request for comment.

Driving down Tennessee roads with rolling green fields, a big blue sky, and beautiful 19th-century homes, I wasn’t sure what to expect from my interview with Lakelin Lemmings, but I couldn’t wait to find out. Three years ago, the rising star became the first 17-year-old to sign on with Quartz Hill Records. Just days before the release of her debut album, the Gen Z singer spoke with me about her music, passion for God, goals of motherhood, and mission to “remain country.” Lakelin arrived at the recording studio in a boot-cut denim jumpsuit and red paisley scarf around her neck, and I knew right away this girl wasn’t someone who takes herself too seriously. When I told her that we share the same birth year and I couldn’t wait to hear from a woman who’s dealing with the same issues as other Gen Z girls our age, she smiled. With Lakelin’s first album coming out on Friday, she is excited. “I’m feeling like all the hard work and stuff is about to pay off, and that hopefully everybody loves it as much as I do,” Lakelin said. “I think one of the earliest songs in the album I wrote was when I was freshly 16 and the last one when I turned 20. It’s finally gonna be introduced into the world.” Many of the songs in the album tackle the topics of young love, relationships, and heartbreak. As someone who loves “How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days” and any good rom-com, Lakelin said she sometimes pulled inspiration from shows she watched, but she has also dealt with a series of her own relationship struggles. Like other young women her age, Lakelin has had her share of situationships — a term Gen Z uses to describe a romantic relationship without commitment labels. Lakelin’s song “What Are We Doing” is trying to figure out just that. In “Get Around Boy,” the song lists the places Lakelin hopes to travel to and describes a young man who stays behind in Tennessee as she chases her dreams. Eventually, Lakelin did travel to nearly all the places she mentions, and now says she has a boy “in the back of my mind.” As the title “19 & Single” suggests, the song touches on the pressure to get married with lyrics like, “I’m all for a Friday night with the girls / ‘Cause 19 and single ain’t the end of the world.” Lakelin said she feels pressure when friends get engaged, married, and start having babies. With earnest hopes for marriage and motherhood, Lakelin said she has made sacrifices to be where she is, but still wants to perform her music and pursue her dreams. Not all of Lakelin’s lyrics were inspired by what you’d expect. After singing along in the car to Lakelin’s “He Ain’t Coming Back,” I had to get the scoop behind this earworm. Another smile. “Yeah, so everybody thinks that, you know, ‘He Ain’t Coming Back’ is about some boy that did me wrong and something like that,” Lakelin said. “But the story of it is actually — I was finishing up writing the album and we needed an up-tempo song.”  Just days before it was time to record the album, Lakelin texted her two favorite co-writers to tell them the emergency: They had to come up with one more track. They convened on a Friday, but the co-writers had to cancel another appointment to make the timing work.  “We get there, and we’re writing, and we hadn’t really gotten a title or anything yet, and — a knock on the door. It’s the guy that they were supposed to write with,” Lakelin said. After the co-writers explained the rescheduling and the man’s confusion passed, he left. But the situation was “just really awkward,” Lakelin said. “My co-writer, after he leaves, is like, ‘Man, I hope he comes back,’ and I just look at him, and I go, ‘Oh, he ain’t coming back.’ And a light bulb and a flip switched, and we were like, ‘We’re writing that.’” Throughout Lakelin’s journey, her faith in God has been central. There have been difficult moments, Lakelin said, but she believes “God’s called me to country music.” Lakelin describes herself as a Christian who writes country music, not as a Christian country artist. “I feel like there’s a need in country music for somebody that loves country music and can talk about those types of things, but also is rooted in her faith and is genuinely someone who’s only after God’s will,” Lakelin said, noting that Christian country singers often sing traditional Christian songs that feel less “country.” “I love Christian music, and I’m sure I’ll dabble in it,” she said. “And I have a little bit to keep the faith life of mine, but I’m always going to remain country.” As someone who stays with her family whenever she’s not on the road, Lakelin loves seeing her two little sisters — aged one and three — who know her as “Lae Lae.” Lakelin said she’s like their second mother, with a large age gap between them and the three oldest siblings. Lemmings was the middle child for years with her now 23-year-old sister, whom she would compete with in singing, and a 17-year-old brother. However, after the first daughter left the nest, Lemmings said her parents wanted more kids, dreaming of having a family of eight. Lakelin’s family couldn’t be more supportive of her burgeoning music career. Since she was little, Lakelin has performed in competitions, and her extended family still recalls when she was performing at their barbecue singing competition. Lakelin said she does wonder what they think watching her grow from small performances to standing on grand stages.  How does she stay grounded in some sort of routine with a life that is always moving from writing and recording sessions to performances and tours? She named only two things: her coffee in the morning and her Bible in the evening.  “After a long week or a long day in the music world, I like to just go home and have a cup of coffee, read my Bible, maybe tan a little bit, and just spend time with family and friends,” she said. Lakelin has a message to other girls who are dreamers with a desire from God but see too many roadblocks. “If you’re gonna be a dreamer, you got to be a doer. And I think that if you have a dream, then chase it,” Lakelin said. “If it’s God’s will and his plan, then it’s going to work out just the way it’s supposed to. It’s going to be hard at times to trust that and trust in Him, but you just got to keep the faith.” *** This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Elon Musk lit the fuse and didn’t look back. In a blistering face-off with The Economist Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, the world’s richest man brushed off claims he’s widely despised and flipped the script, insisting it’s the media that’s truly hated. After Beddoes criticized him for his involvement in European politics, saying, “Why should you be able to shape European politics? You don’t even live there,” Musk responded mildly, “I think of it as sort of the West collectively.” “But do you see why this makes people think that this man who has all this power, he’s the world’s richest man, he thinks he has a right to influence our politics,” Beddoes pressed. “It makes people, it’s why, you know, we started this conversation saying superlatives. It’s why people loathe you. I mean, some people do loathe you.” Musk then took the gloves off: “Yes, some people do. … Maybe some people do loathe me, and that’s probably true. I don’t care. But the fact that as you pointed out, a quarter billion people follow me is that I think a lot more people actually like me than don’t. And I think a lot more people hate you and the media more than you realize. Do you realize the media is despised?” “The shoe is on the other foot,” Musk said, citing rock-bottom trust in journalism. “They hate you far more than they hate me.” Beddoes had challenged Musk over his vocal support for what she described as far-Right parties across Europe. Musk rejected the label outright, arguing he’s simply backing “normal people” and mainstream policies like border security, safe cities, and controlled spending. “What you call the far-Right falsely … these were completely normal positions 10 or 15 years ago,” he said, accusing critics of rewriting the political center. He also took direct aim at journalists, warning that their portrayal of Right-leaning movements as extremist is “false and misleading and nonsense.” The clash intensified over Musk’s repeated warnings about the United Kingdom — including his claim that “civil war in Britain is inevitable.” Beddoes pushed back hard, citing falling crime rates and her own experience living in London, calling Musk’s depiction exaggerated and harmful. Musk stood firm. “If current trends continue, it is,” he said, pointing to what he described as a growing population with values “antithetical to the West,” which he believes will inevitably spark conflict. The two also sparred over free speech, with Musk condemning European governments for prosecuting social media posts and warning that censorship is a growing threat. “That’s the sort of thing that I think is bad,” he said, while accusing the media of ignoring these issues.

In a video that has gone viral across social media this week, a bear was captured stuck on top of a utility pole in New Mexico. While driving from New Mexico to Oklahoma, Shannon Mullens recorded the shocking video of the large animal aggressively panting on top of the pole on the side of Highway 56. “We really didn’t believe what we saw at first, so we turned around to get another look,” Mullens told Storyful. “At first, we thought the bear was dead, until we got closer to it and then we realized he was still alive.” Mullens and her fellow passenger immediately called 911, as heard in the background of the video. In the clip, you can hear the dispatchers informing Mullens that they have already received many calls about the bear and notified state officials, but they could not tranquilize it and said there was nothing they could do. “We just hope that the bear was able to get down safely,” Mullens said. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Robin Dawson, another witness of the incident, said in Facebook post that the bear was electrocuted and died before the New Mexico Department of Wildlife could rescue it. The department told The New York Post that “despite the best efforts of local authorities,” the animal was fatally electrocuted. Wildlife experts said the bear’s head-scratching decision to climb the pole was most likely caused by it being frightened by a person or traffic. When bears are frightened, they are likely to climb trees to escape potential danger.

Therapists are actively encouraging family estrangement, and it is not just a small number of them, either. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled, “Are Therapists to Blame for the Rise of Adults Cutting off their Parents?” As someone with 25 years in the mental health field, I can attest that the answer is a hard yes.  I am an outlier in the mental health field, as I believe in traditional family values and personal responsibility. I provide consultations for parents with children affected by gender issues, and one of the main themes I encounter is the repeated pattern of other therapists turning their children against them. The stories are eerily similar to one another, and the grief runs deep. One mom of a trans-identified male wrote to me, “I haven’t heard my son’s voice in almost a year. I continue to call him, just to remind him that I’m here for him no matter what. He moved across the country last year and every few months I will get an ‘I’m doing good’ text from him, but it hurts bad. I wish they understood our pain.”  Like the author of the Wall Street Journal piece, I am am not speaking about cases of serious abuse where alienation is warranted. There is a rising number of young adults who have chosen to cut off their loving parents simply because of different political, ideological, or religious beliefs, and the left-wing dominated mental health field is all for it. In fact, I personally attended a large therapy training that asserted that anyone who voted for President Donald Trump is in a cult. See the shocking video for yourself here. It’s hard to believe that well-meaning therapists would ever encourage family alienation, but it’s happening. And there are a number of reasons why. To start, with every uncomfortable feeling now being labeled as “trauma,” the notion that decent parents deserve to be alienated has become more justified. Let’s not forget, therapists say trauma is in the eye of the beholder, so it is natural that the same therapists believe it’s okay to cut off loving parents due to “trauma” without looking back. Beyond the explosion of inflated trauma claims, one of the biggest drivers of this trend lies within the mental health profession itself. Many therapists have abandoned the Judeo-Christian values that once emphasized the importance of family, forgiveness, and reconciliation, replacing them with social justice ideologies that are reinforced throughout graduate training programs and continuing education courses. Instead of spending sufficient time teaching foundational counseling skills, many programs increasingly emphasize ideological frameworks. Students are exposed to concepts rooted in critical theory, encouraged to view relationships primarily through the lens of power and oppression, and taught therapeutic approaches influenced by postmodernism and identity politics. Institutions such as the American Psychological Association and the National Association of Social Workers have embraced these perspectives, helping to shape a generation of therapists whose training prioritizes activism over reconciliation and family preservation. Responses to the Wall Street Journal article suggest that a profit motive is driving the trend. The theory is that if therapists encourage clients to become estranged from their families, those clients will remain isolated and continue returning for therapy. While I understand why people believe this, I don’t think it is the primary motivation for therapists. Having worked in the profession, I see something different. I’ve observed the most prominent driving forces are the rescue fantasies and projected unresolved issues that therapists place onto their patients.  It wasn’t always this way, though. When I was in training 25 years ago, I was taught to separate myself from my patients. In therapy terms, this natural tendency toward closeness is called “transference” and “countertransference.” That is, to see yourself or people close to you in your cases. However, the act of recognizing that a client reminds you of yourself is a skill that has been lost. Instead, therapists believe feelings are truth, allow their sessions to be patient-led, and only develop surface-level conceptualizations of their cases.  Therapy is no longer about finding the clearest insights and making better choices; rather its goal is helping the patient feel “safe” and “affirmed.” Clinicians tend to over-identify with their patients, and if the TikTok-infused patient describes his parents as “toxic” or “narcissistic,” the therapist takes her patient’s word at face value and advises carelessly. Unfortunately, in our culture, too many parents have outsourced their parenting to helping professionals, and in many cases they have paid a heavy price. Hindsight is 20/20, and my clients learned the hard way that most therapists cannot be trusted. It’s easy for us to blame these parents, but I do not think we should entirely blame desperate parents for trusting a profession that was helpful in the past.  Also, let’s not forget how aggressively therapy culture has been promoted to younger generations in recent years. We are told that everyone can benefit from therapy. Yet many of these same young adults who spent their formative years locked down, isolated, and taught to fear one another during the pandemic eventually seek counseling on their own, only to come away with the perception of themselves as victims and viewing their families as the source of their problems. That story has become all too common. This estrangement trend is a relatively new and growing on a large scale, all being reinforced by anti-family, Marxist-captured institutions. Sadly, in the near future, many adult children and families will miss out on important life events and live with deep regret. When a credentialed expert with a warm demeanor tells a hot-headed young adult what she wants to hear, rather what may be best for her, families and societies suffer.  *** Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, LCSW, is a licensed therapist.  She is the author of “A Practical Response to Gender Distress: Tips and Tools for Family” and “Froggy Girl.”  You can find her on Instagram at @the.truthfultherapist, X as @pgarfieldjaeger, and Substack as Pamthetruthfultherapist. This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.