The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor says a program run within the state Department of Human Services does not have appropriate oversight of funds it is disbursing.

The report presented to a committee of lawmakers earlier this week found that the Behavioral Health Administration did not comply with certain requirements and did not have adequate internal control over grant funds.

The Behavioral Health Administration is a division of Human Services responsible for administering grants to programs meant to help children and adults treat different mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders. BHA partners with counties, providers and tribes to deliver services. The division has more than 200 employees.

During OLA’s audit, which spanned from July 2022 to December 2024, auditors visited different program sites, reviewed finances and spoke to BHA staff members. Within that time period, BHA managed 830 unique grant agreements that received $426 million in state and federal funding.

Key findings

Key findings include:

• BHA paid nearly $1 million to grantees for work performed before BHA completed its grant agreements.

• A majority of the grant recipients surveyed had missing or past-due progress reports.

• One grantee could not provide OLA with detailed invoices or data to support a payment of nearly $700,000 from BHA for a single month of work. The BHA grant manager who approved the payment left the agency a few days after approving the grant. The former BHA grant manager now works for the same grant recipient for whom they approved the nearly $700,000 grant.

• In a survey, the majority of staff said they did not receive sufficient training to manage grants.

• BHA paid nearly $300,000 to 11 grantees for unsupported costs and reimbursement requests with errors.

• BHA was not able to demonstrate that it had conducted required site visits to monitor how grant funding was disbursed.

‘It is frankly unacceptable’

Judy Randall, the state’s legislative auditor, noted that her team identified a number of documents BHA either backdated or created after the audit began. Because of this, OLA said they could not fully rely on documentation provided by the department.

“It is frankly unacceptable for the agencies we audit to do this type of activity,” Randall said. “In the 27 years I’ve been with OLA, I have never seen this before.”

During the hearing, temporary commissioner Shireen Gandhi said DHS is working to implement recommendations presented by OLA.

“The findings provide us with a roadmap for our focus going forward to continue strengthening oversight and integrity of behavioral health grants,” she said. “I take the report seriously, I accept responsibility for the findings.”

Gandhi could not answer specifically whether all BHA grantees were providing services to people who need it, but said DHS has the authority to cancel any contracts suspected of being fraudulent.

“The work that we’re doing now to shore up the internal controls is going to give me much greater confidence in the future in answering that question,” she said. “I think we strive to always achieve outcomes, and we are putting in tighter internal controls so that we can, with more confidence, tell you that we are achieving that with the dollars we’re spending.”

Questions on MN social service programs

The findings in the OLA come amid questions surrounding the integrity of Minnesota’s social service programs. On Monday, Gov. Tim Walz announced he would not seek a third term as allegations of fraud in child care centers garnered national attention.

Some members of the Legislative Audit Commission signaled the audit findings could be indicative of more fraud in another program run by DHS.

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“We have another rogue agency that is acting not in the spirit and manner of the law but is rogue and working outside of the law,” said Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa. ”I just can’t believe what we have in this state government in the state of Minnesota.”

Last March, the Department of Human Services lost nearly $30 million in grant funding through Trump administration federal funding cuts. The grants included drug prevention programs in schools, treatment and recovery programs for mental health and substance use, and harm reduction strategies amid the nation’s opioid epidemic.

The St. Croix Watershed Research Station in Marine on St. Croix is changing its focus this year for the Artist at Pine Needles residency program.

Only emerging artists and writers whose work explores the intersection of art, science and the natural world will be considered for this year’s residency program, which runs from May through October. Established artists are not eligible.

“This temporary focus reflects a strategic investment in early-career artists, providing them with time, resources and direct engagement with scientists to advance their creative work rooted in art-science inquiry,” said Alaina Fedie, senior operations manager for the St. Croix Watershed Research Station.

Applicants, who must be 21 or older, must have fewer than six years of exhibit and/or publication history in their medium, demonstrate clear artistic achievement in their work, and not be widely recognized as established artists by other artists, curators, critics or arts administrators, according to the application form.

Since 2002, more than 80 artists and writers have been offered residencies in the Pine Needles cabin, which was previously owned by James Taylor Dunn, a noted historian of the St. Croix River Valley. Dunn wanted the property to be used as a scholarly and artistic retreat.

A scientific illustrator, a mapmaker and a storyteller were among the artists selected last summer.

The selected artists must design and lead a community outreach project, such as a workshop, lecture or demonstration, and donate an original piece inspired by their residency experience to the St. Croix Watershed Research Station within one year of their residency.

Each artist will receive a stipend of $650/week while in residency and up to $600 in additional travel support.

Application packets are available from the research station, which is a department of the Science Museum of Minnesota, or at https://smm.org/scwrs/pine-needles/. The deadline is Feb. 22; decisions will be announced by March 31.

For more information, contact Alaina Fedie at 651-433-5953, staff ext. 12, or researchstation@smm.org.

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By LORNE COOK

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest threats against Greenland pose a new and potentially unprecedented challenge to NATO, perhaps even an existential one, for an alliance focused on external threats that could now face an armed confrontation involving its most powerful member.

The White House says the administration is weighing “options” that could include military action to take control of the strategically located and mineral-rich island, which is a semi-autonomous region that is part of NATO ally Denmark.

Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland could put at risk the entire future of NATO, which was founded in 1949 to counter the threat to European security posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The alliance is normally focused on threats such as those from Russia or international terror groups. It would not function without U.S. leadership and firepower.

NATO, the world’s biggest security organization, was built on a “Three Musketeers”-like vow that an attack on anyone in its ranks will be met with a response from all of them. That security guarantee, enshrined in Article 5 of its founding treaty, has kept Russia away from allied territory for decades.

But in an organization that operates on unanimity, Article 5 does not function if one member targets another.

Uneasy allies and neighbors Greece and Turkey have harassed each other’s military forces and disputed borders for decades. But past internal clashes have never posed the kind of threat to NATO unity that would arise from an American seizure of Greenland.

In a post on social media Wednesday, Trump said that “RUSSIA AND CHINA HAVE ZERO FEAR OF NATO WITHOUT THE UNITED STATES.” But he added: “We will always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us.”

A White House warning

The White House took its threats toward Greenland to a new level Tuesday, issuing an official statement that insisted Greenland is “a national security priority” and refusing to rule out the use of military force.

“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal,” it said.

Ian Lesser, distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank and an expert on NATO, described the White House statement as “very striking.”

“It’s a low-probability, high-consequence event if it were to happen. But the odds have changed, and so it becomes more difficult to simply dismiss this as bluster from the White House,” he said.

The statement came after the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain defended the sovereignty of Greenland, along with Denmark, whose right to the island was recognized by the U.S. government at the beginning of the 20th century.

“It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” the leaders said Tuesday in a joint statement. Canada, which sits off the western coast of an island that has been crucial to the defense of North America since World War II, expressed its support as well.

NATO itself remains reluctant to say anything that might annoy its leading member.

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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that the U.S. threat must be taken seriously, particularly after Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a nighttime raid, and that any U.S. attempt to take control of the island could mean the end of NATO.

Asked whether Frederiksen was right when she said that an American attack on another NATO country means that “everything stops,” an official at the alliance said: “NATO does not speculate on hypotheticals.”

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because NATO protocol forbids the use of their name, preferred to note Greenland’s strategic significance.

“The Arctic is an important region for our collective security, and NATO has a clear interest in preserving security, stability and cooperation in the high north,” the official said. “Together we make sure that the whole of the alliance is protected.”

Trump’s interest in Greenland also threatens to destabilize the alliance at the moment when the U.S.-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine enter a pivotal stage, distracting its members from their efforts to support Kyiv and provide it with security guarantees.

Maria Martisiute, a defense analyst at the European Policy Center think tank, warned that NATO’s credibility is on the line.

When a leading alliance member undermines another member, it hurts “NATO’s cohesion and credibility, and it serves only our adversaries such as Russia and China,” she said.

Tension comes after NATO leaders agreed to Trump’s demands

Last summer, NATO leaders rallied behind Trump’s demand that they increase defense spending. Apart from Spain, they agreed to invest as much per capita as the United States does, within a decade.

Just before Christmas, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte hailed Trump as a savior.

“I believe fundamentally that thanks to Donald J. Trump, NATO is stronger than it ever was,” Rutte told BBC radio. “NATO has never been as strong as this moment since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

Yet in a year-end address in Germany meant to rally to European citizens behind defense spending, Rutte warned that Russia might attack elsewhere in Europe within a few years should it win in Ukraine.

“Conflict is at our door,” the former Dutch prime minister said. “Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.”

Lesser said it’s difficult to reconcile Trump’s defense spending victory with his designs on Greenland.

“What good is it to have revived NATO capability if it’s no longer a functional political alliance” afterwards? he asked. If that breakdown occurs, “it’s a gift to Moscow, and it’s a gift to Beijing.”

Associated Press journalist Mark Carlson in Brussels contributed to this report.

By JAKE COYLE, Associated Press

Not all award shows require you to get up early in the morning to hear the nominations read.

The Actor Awards, formerly the SAG Awards, will announce nominations Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST on Netflix’s YouTube Channel. This is the first year under the new moniker for one of Hollywood’s most closely watched Oscars harbingers.

Presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and voted on by the guild’s 160,000-plus members, the Actor Awards give an accurate window into what the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the actors — is leaning toward in award season.

In the screen actors’ top award, best ensemble, two locks are the casts to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” and to Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” Though both of those films’ stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael B. Jordan, respectively, are top contenders for best male actor, the recent momentum has been behind Timothée Chalamet for his performance in “Marty Supreme.”

The 30-year-old star won the same award last year for his Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.” It was during his SAG acceptance speech that Chalamet said he was “in pursuit of greatness.”

Though best actor later went to Adrien Brody at the Academy Awards, for his performance in “The Brutalist,” the former SAG Awards often come very close to aligning with would-be Oscar nominees. Yet last year there was more separation than usual. While “Anora” triumphed at the Oscars, “Conclave” was crowned best ensemble by the guild. Best female actor also switched from Demi Moore (“The Substance”) at the SAGs to Mickey Madison (“Anora”) at the Oscars.

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Among the favorites this year are Jessie Buckley for “Hamnet,” Amy Madigan for “Weapons” and Stellan Skarsgård for “Sentimental Value.”

The Actor Awards will take place Sunday, March 1, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Netflix will stream the ceremony live. Harrison Ford will be presented with the guild’s life achievement award.