YouTuber Nick Shirleys grassroots crusade against alleged daycare fraud has now spilled across state lines, and some of the facilities under scrutiny are reacting in ways that raise even more questions.
According to Western Journal, Minnesota has emerged as a focal point in the unfolding scandal, but Shirleys work has emboldened skeptics in other states, including Ohio, to start asking hard questions about how public funds are being used. Fox News and Newsmax commentator Mehek Cooke visited Jubba Daycare in Columbus, Ohio to see for herself what was happening behind the doors of a center benefiting from taxpayer dollars.
Her visit was brief and tense. Cooke entered through the front door only to be shoved back by a man inside, who repeatedly ordered her to Get back! as her cameraman can be heard responding, Dont touch me!
I just walked in there and he just started pushing me and screaming Get back, Cooke explained to the camera before saying she was calling the police. All we did was walk in the door, Cookes cameraman told viewers, underscoring how quickly the situation escalated.
Cooke is now alleging assault, as the footage clearly shows the man in the front room putting his hands on her. Despite a No Trespassing sign posted at the facility, Cooke noted that the door was unlocked, she knocked, and the incident appears to have taken place in broad daylight during normal business hours.
In other words, Cooke could easily have been any ordinary citizen a parent seeking childcare, a delivery driver with a package, or a state inspector conducting a routine check. The obvious question is whether a daycare worker is permitted to shove such people on a whim and then hide behind a sign, claiming that anyone he manhandles is automatically a trespasser.
More likely, the man working at this daycare saw the camera and panicked, pushing Cooke in an apparent attempt to prevent any on-the-ground investigation. Whatever the legal outcome of the altercation, the optics are terrible in light of the ongoing daycare fraud scandal that has already rocked Minnesota.
Cooke also shared a letter from the Assistant Deputy Director of Contracts and Monitoring for the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, addressed to programs participating in publicly funded childcare. The letter reads, DCY is requesting that your child care program prepare the following information that will be picked up by DCY personnel before close of business on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, and it demands the last 90 days of attendance records along with documentation of operating days and hours.
That kind of documentation request suggests state officials are beginning to take potential abuse of public funds more seriously, at least when public pressure forces their hand. To say Shirley single-handedly launched a national movement against fraud would be an overstatement, but he has certainly brought something to the publics attention that would otherwise go unnoticed.
For taxpayers, the outrage is entirely justified. The taxpayer has every right to be angry, especially when law-abiding Americans are working long hours to support their families while others, shielded by bureaucracy and lax oversight, are quite literally lining their pockets by stealing from us.
What makes this moment particularly alarming is how quickly the scandal has expanded once someone finally started looking. This has all unraveled in just a few weeks, which naturally leads to the unsettling thought: Just imagine how much fraud is still out there.
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