2022 was a historic year for Alpha News.
More than 2.8 million unique viewers visited our website, and we broke some of the biggest stories in state and national politics.
Read on below for the biggest stories from Alpha News in 2022. Click each headline to read the full, original story.
1. EXCLUSIVE: New details emerge from DFL’s Farmfest rollover: Two high-ranking Democrats — Minnesota State Auditor Julie Blaha and Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen — were involved in a rollover crash in the summer of 2021. A “cold” and “pretty full” White Claw was found in the car immediately following the accident.
2. Controversial energy official charged with stealing woman’s luggage at MSP: A Biden admin energy official who claims to be “genderfluid” was charged with stealing a woman’s luggage at MSP Airport. He was later found to have also stolen luggage at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and consequently lost his job with the U.S. Department of Energy.
3. Minneapolis teachers union contract calls for layoffs of white teachers first: A Minneapolis teachers union contract says that Minneapolis Public Schools must lay off white teachers before laying off non-white teachers. The story went viral and resulted in the vice president of the union describing Alpha News as a “third-rate, off-brand Breitbart” on Good Morning America.
4. EXCLUSIVE: Mike Freeman keeps address hidden from public, tracked down to Ramsey County home: Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman was found to be living in Ramsey County instead of the county in which he serves, which is illegal by state law. When reporter Liz Collin knocked on his door in Ramsey County, Freeman’s wife answered and denied that he lived in the house.
5. EXCLUSIVE: Prominent activist has been falsely accusing police of killing fiancé for years: There is no evidence to support the allegations that Toshira Garraway has been using against the St. Paul Police Department — allegations that her fiancé was brutally beaten and killed by police.
6. Sheila Qualls: Grooming children for a life of crime: Young children and toddlers punched, kicked, cursed at, and threw rocks at Minneapolis police officers who visited a St. Paul home on a search warrant.
7. Fellow veteran speaks out on Walz’s misleading statements about military record: Veteran Tom Behrends spoke out on Gov. Tim Walz’s military leadership, or lack thereof, during their time in the National Guard together. Two additional whistleblowers corroborated claims that the governor dodged a deployment to Iraq.
8. EXCLUSIVE: Somali whistleblower speaks out on Feeding Our Future case: Alpha News published an exclusive interview with a man who believes he knew about the alleged Feeding Our Future scandal before it came to light.
9. Liz Collin Reports: Go undercover with carjacking unit for firsthand look at Twin Cities crime: Liz Collin’s first story with Alpha News revealed staggering numbers of carjackings and stolen catalytic converters in the Twin Cities.
10. Med students take ‘anti-racism’ oath at University of Minnesota: University of Minnesota Medical School students took an oath to “promote a culture of anti-racism” during a white coat ceremony. White coats, the students said, are themselves a “symbol of power, prestige, and dominance.”
11. Court transcript sheds new light on Walz’s DUI arrest: Gov. Tim Walz has said in past campaigns that he wasn’t actually drunk when he was pulled over for driving under the influence in 1995, but an unearthed court transcript from the case revealed his blood alcohol level was .128.
12. COVID-19 researcher unpacks ‘illogical’ data in Minnesota records: A researcher shared her insight after thousands of hours of research on death certificates and COVID-19 data. Her own father’s death certificate included only COVID-19 as the cause of death and disregarded his many comorbidities.
13. Doctors said a 6-year-old needs the COVID vaccine; now he has myocarditis and can’t walk: A six-year-old boy received the COVID-19 vaccine after doctors strongly recommended it. He was in the hospital two days later, struggling to breathe and sit up on his own. Alpha News is the only Minnesota outlet to report on the countless vaccine injuries from the COVID-19 vaccination.
14. MDH threatened with legal action over ‘racist and immoral’ COVID policy: MDH was threatened with a lawsuit after Alpha News reported it was using race as a factor in its rationing of monoclonal antibodies, a life-saving treatment for COVID-19.
15. One Minnesota: Thousands reported on neighbors using tattle-tale hotline during pandemic: A hotline set up by Gov. Tim Walz’s administration to monitor compliance with his 2020 stay-at-home order generated thousands of reports from Minnesotans who snitched on their neighbors for things like playing basketball in a park, walking their dogs, and throwing small parties.
16. Special Report: Inside Duluth’s opioid crisis with Liz Collin: An undercover officer described Duluth as a direct hub to the drug trade for the small towns that surround it. Opioids were behind 29 deadly overdoses in 2020 in St. Louis County and 42 in 2021.
17. EXCLUSIVE: Alpha News granted behind-the-scenes look at Biden’s border crisis: Liz Collin visited border town Del Rio, Texas, where about 1,000 migrant apprehensions happen every day. Alpha News was the only local news outlet in Minnesota to go to the border during this historic crisis.
18. College cancels appreciation lunch for non-white staff following civil rights complaint: Gustavus Adolphus College canceled its “People of Color & International Faculty and Staff Appreciation Lunch” after a man filed civil rights complaints against the college.
19. Officer’s 24-year career crushed by Federal Reserve’s vaccine mandate: Rodney Maki’s 24-year career as a law enforcement officer with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis ended in January after he refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
20. High school scraps sexuality unit video after parents voiced concerns: Buffalo High School got rid of a video featuring “Bill Nye the Science Guy” that claimed “what makes someone male or female isn’t so clear-cut.” The video was part of a 10th-grade curriculum in health education.
21. New Golden Valley police chief has history of suing his employers: Alpha News discovered that Virgil Green, Golden Valley’s new chief of police, has a history of suing his employers, sometimes with claims of discrimination.
22. Walz policies prevented landlords from evicting tenants who piled feces in home: The headline says it all. Alpha News investigated the real-world impacts of Gov. Tim Walz’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium. What we found were small-time landlords who were forced to pay $100,000 to repair the mess some tenants left behind.
23. Burnsville district can now conceal students’ gender identity from parents: The Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District adopted a new transgender student policy that experts said will permit students to change their gender identity at school and allow the district to conceal that information from parents. The policy caused an uproar among Somali parents and the district later apologized.
Follow us in 2023 for more stories you won’t find anywhere else.
