Corrections and additions

Corrections

A wrong number, a misattributed vote, or a mischaracterized decision gets fixed and logged here.

1. The 2023 Mack cost $344,679, not $142,665October 13, 2026

   The vehicles page showed $142,665.16 as the purchase price of the 2023 Mack plow truck. That figure was the cab-and-chassis quote. The completed truck cost $344,679 in 2024.

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2. Fleet Funder explanations matched to the current mathOctober 13, 2026

   Notes on the plow truck example still described an older version. They said the bars used the consultant’s $86,400 interest figure, that bond fees were left out of the as-paid figures, and that saving wins only when the fund keeps up with inflation. The example uses the truck’s price 20 years out with fees included, and saving costs less down to a fund rate of about 2 percent. The whole-fleet comparison is now labeled a full-cycle benchmark, not money the city can save by changing course in 2027.

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3. Budget page levy increase now uses the certified levyOctober 13, 2026

   The budget page measured the proposed 2027 levy increase from the budget book’s 2026 levy and showed $230,408. It now measures from the certified 2026 levy shown beside it, an increase of $230,410, the same basis the articles use.

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4. Cut calculator debt row relabeledOctober 13, 2026

   The cut calculator called the $439,177 debt levy fixed and said changing it would mean defaulting on bonds. It is the debt levy, held constant in this model, not the $488,413 the city pays on its bonds. Other ways of paying that debt are outside the calculator.

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5. School market-value levies described correctlyOctober 13, 2026

   The tax sources page said school levies on market value included debt levies. School bond levies are charged on tax capacity. The market-value part of a school bill is mainly the operating referendum.

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6. Luverne rate increase totalOctober 13, 2026

   The rates page said the committee’s “about 18% over three years” fits a 6 percent a year path. Three 6 percent increases compound to about 19.1 percent.

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7. Road borrowing and city debtOctober 13, 2026

   The roads page said a city with debt payments and few special assessments tends to borrow for roads. Debt payments cover every city bond, so they do not show how much a city borrowed for roads.

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8. Meeting pages said minutes were not postedOctober 13, 2026

   Meeting pages said minutes were “not posted” when this archive simply did not have them yet. They now say the minutes are not in this archive as of a date. Draft minutes often appear first in a later meeting’s packet.

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9. One-time savings in the levy article counted a lifetime bond estimateOctober 13, 2026

   The levy article counted an $85,000 bond estimate as a one-time saving. That estimate adds up payments over the bond’s whole life, so it is now listed separately, and the one-time total is about $73,000, not $158,000. The article also said much of the 2026 levy increase came from restoring debt payments. Most of the debt increase was $136,355, the first levy for the 2025A bond. Restoring the 2019A bond payments added about $45,000.

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10. Which Sterling the new plow truck replaces, and when it was orderedOctober 13, 2026

    The October 12 correction below said the 2000 Sterling is slated for replacement. That was wrong. On June 18, 2026 the council ordered the new truck, 3 to 2, to replace the 2007 Sterling and agreed to auction the 2000 Sterling. The fleet pages had dated the order July 14, 2026, which is when those minutes were approved.

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11. Tax bill pieces and homes per mile in Part 2October 13, 2026

    Part 2 said the county is the largest piece of the tax bill by far. The county and the school district are the two largest pieces, and in Elk River schools the school share is larger. The homes-per-mile figure compared all road costs with only the operating share of a home’s city tax. Measured the same way on both sides it is about 41 homes a mile, not 52, and the claim that this density is impossible was removed.

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12. Road rebuild cost multipleOctober 13, 2026

    The road pages said a reclamation or reconstruction costs roughly 15 to 150 times as much. The page’s own cost table supports roughly 5 to 60 times the cost of a thin overlay.

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13. Ledger and budget item totals counted the same money more than onceOctober 13, 2026

    The 2025 ledger counted every estimate, quote, bid, and contract for the same job, so approved bids and contracts read $4.84 million instead of about $1.18 million. Each job now counts once at its furthest stage. The bond figure added the authorization, the award, and overlapping parts of the same sale to reach $3.82 million. It now shows the $1.25 million actually sold. The budget items page added estimates, budgets, assessments, and revenue into one total, so that total was removed.

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14. School funding amendment payout increaseOctober 13, 2026

    The guide said a rise from $68 to $81 per pupil was roughly 40 percent more. It is about 19 percent. The guide now shows supporters’ full estimate of $81 to $101.

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15. Elk River referendum cost is a first-year figureOctober 13, 2026

    The guide now says its $419 estimate is the first-year cost and that later bond payments are expected to be larger. The calculator also said the farm first-tier limit for taxes payable 2027 was not confirmed. It is $3,840,000.

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16. State budget balances and reservesOctober 13, 2026

    The surplus answer gave only the positive balances. It now also says spending exceeds revenue each biennium, by about $3.4 billion in FY2028-29 counting inflation. A chart note applied the FY2026-27 reserve amount to FY2024-25, when reserves were about $3.5 billion.

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17. Charged defendants, a commissioner’s tenure, and primary vote countsOctober 13, 2026

    Four source notes stated allegations against charged defendants as fact. They now attribute each claim to the charging documents and say the person is presumed innocent. The Heather Mueller entry now gives her April 2021 to January 2023 tenure, which covered the payment-stop reversal, the lawsuit, and the raids, and dates the legislative auditor’s review to June 2024. Vote counts for Qualls and Klobuchar were each off by a few votes, and all primary figures now come from the Secretary of State.

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18. Fleet Funder plow truck comparison now counts today’s dollarsOctober 13, 2026

    The page led with $204,371 as the extra cost of borrowing for the plow truck. That figure added up dollars paid in different years as if they were worth the same. The page now compares both plans in today’s dollars, adjusted for 3 percent inflation. Borrowing costs about $54,000 more, or about $75,000 more with bond fees. Later the same day the comparison was updated to have the equipment fund earn 3 percent, what the city’s funds actually earned in 2025, with bonds still at 4 percent, and to count bond fees as part of borrowing. Saving now costs about $359,000 and borrowing about $399,000 in today’s dollars, so borrowing costs about $39,000 more. The fleet overview’s yearly saving figure uses the same 3 percent, and the plow truck graphic and its table now count in today’s dollars too.

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19. Dates and details corrected in the levy articleOctober 12, 2026

    The step pay plan took effect June 1, 2026, not July 1. The 2000 Sterling, not the 2007, is the truck slated for replacement in 2027, and the truck that arrived in 2024 was a Mack. Transfers into the equipment fund did not stop entirely in 2023. There were none in 2023 and $6,000 in 2024.

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20. Gravel share of Nowthen roads overstated in Part 1October 12, 2026

    The article said nearly half of city roads are gravel. City staff put it at about 25 of 61 miles, about 40 percent.

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21. Four statements corrected in Part 2October 12, 2026

    The total value of Nowthen property, about $803.9 million, is a payable 2024 figure, not 2026. The county is the biggest piece of the bill in St. Francis and Anoka-Hennepin, but in Elk River the school district levies are bigger. The 1 percent farmland class rate applies to non-homestead land, and homesteaded farmland pays 0.5 percent on its first tier. The average home value comes from the Department of Revenue, not the county.

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22. Plow truck article misdated the emissions change and deliveryOctober 12, 2026

    The new federal emissions standard takes effect January 1, 2027. July 1, 2026 was when build slots under the current standard were expected to close. The new truck is expected in the third quarter of 2027, with the chassis in early 2027. The 2023 Mack was delivered in 2024, not 2023.

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23. Luverne analysis rounding and seat descriptionOctober 12, 2026

    The example now rounds to the nearest $1,000 so its figures subtract correctly. Residents save about $424,000, pay about $639,000 more, and are out about $215,000, where the article had said at least $210,000. The closing paragraph called the proposed commission seats permanently appointed. The council appoints them for three-year terms.

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24. Ham Lake and Nowthen tax comparison was labeled a whole billOctober 12, 2026

    The city comparison on the property tax page called its totals a whole bill. It used payable 2025 tax-capacity rates and a blended school rate and left out school voter-approved levies charged on market value. It is now labeled as tax-capacity levies only, with a note that both cities’ actual bills are higher.

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25. Average Nowthen tax bill left out school referendum levies and one school districtOctober 11, 2026

    The full-bill figures for the average Nowthen home ($3,819 in St. Francis schools and $3,955 in Elk River schools) used tax-capacity rates only. They left out the school districts’ voter-approved levies on market value and Nowthen’s third school district, Anoka-Hennepin. Corrected from Anoka County’s Pay 2026 final rates, the estimates are $4,108 (St. Francis), $4,292 (Anoka-Hennepin), and $5,179 (Elk River). The city’s share is about 28, 26, and 22 percent, not 28 to 30 percent.

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26. Nowthen budget page showed Anoka County budget linesOctober 11, 2026

    The budget page queried budget lines without limiting them to Nowthen, so Anoka County lines appeared as an unnamed $424 million fund. Every Nowthen budget view now reads only Nowthen’s lines.

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Minnesota fraud section

The fraud section keeps its own ledger, with corrections kept separate from routine updates. The most recent substantive changes are below.

1. Abdulkarim Farah’s juror-bribery plea now cites the court docketBetter source, October 13, 2026

   Abdulkarim Farah’s guilty plea in the juror-bribery case was cited to the U.S. Attorney’s release announcing it. It now cites the court’s own minute entry on the case docket (ECF 153), which records the change-of-plea hearing on April 2, 2025 and his guilty plea to Count 2. The date and the plea are unchanged. The other bribery pleas already cite the same docket. The release stays on the sources page.

2. Aimee Bock’s appeal now cites her notice of appealBetter source, October 13, 2026

   Aimee Bock’s June 16, 2026 appeal was cited to her August opening brief. It now cites the notice of appeal she filed that day (ECF 913), which appeals the June 5, 2026 judgment to the Eighth Circuit. The opening brief is its own entry, dated August 21, 2026, with the same description of what it asks for.

3. One name for each kind of number, and the statements page now holds only statementsMethod changed, October 12, 2026

   No figure, classification, source, or date changed. Each kind of number now has one name on every page. "Alleged, not proven" and the decoder’s "Alleged" variants that named a speaker became "Alleged amount," with the speaker in the attribution line. "Attributed at sentencing" became "Court-attributed loss." "Seized" became "Assets seized." "News estimate" became "Media estimate," a new label for a number a news organization created or adopted without a matching government or court calculation. "State payment records" and "Program payments" became "Program spending." Where a statement depends on how far this site searched, it now says "I have not found" instead of stating that nothing exists. The public statements page now ends after the statements table, with one line saying that inclusion reflects a public statement, not an allegation of wrongdoing. Who led the Feeding Our Future scheme moved to that program’s case page, the reporting on who the defendants are moved to the defendant list, when the sponsor was approved moved to the oversight page, and other states moved to the Why Minnesota page.

4. The Kenya resort was labeled recovered. The record shows only an agreement to forfeit itCorrection, October 12, 2026

   Wrong: the Karibu Palms Resort in Kenya, and the wire that helped buy it, were labeled "Recovered," and the recovery page said prosecutors described recovering a resort in Kenya and property in Turkey. Right: Liban Alishire agreed in his January 2023 plea to forfeit the resort and a Nairobi apartment, and the records reviewed do not say whether that forfeiture was completed or the property sold. Both rows now read "Forfeiture agreed, disposition not published." The Turkish properties were not on either plea’s forfeiture list, and no recovery status for them is published. The page now says court and charging records trace proceeds to overseas real estate, including property in Kenya and Turkey, and that published recovery status varies by asset.

5. One set of recovery statuses for every seized, forfeited, or traced assetMethod changed, October 12, 2026

   Every asset, judgment, and traced overseas row now carries exactly one of eight statuses. They are Seized, Forfeiture ordered, Forfeiture agreed, Sold or liquidated, Cash recovered, Restitution ordered (a liability, not money collected), Status not published, and Beyond reach, per prosecutors. "Recovered" is no longer a status. Sold or liquidated and Cash recovered require a cited record of the sale or payment, and an agreement or order to forfeit never qualifies. Two traced items whose own status is not published (the Nairobi apartment building and the Ismail investments abroad) now say so, with the prosecutors’ statements kept beside them, and the China wires keep the officials’ characterization as a note rather than a status. The section that compared the loss figure with seizures is renamed "Comparing the loss figure with published seizures" and now says the two figures were measured differently and on different dates, that their difference is not a recovery rate, and that it does not establish that the remaining amount exists in recoverable assets.

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