A month before we had even heard about Nick Shirley or "Quality Learing Center," Alpha News did an expose on the Fountain Autism Center in Burnsville, Minnesota. Another business in the neighborhood tipped off Alpha News to the fact that the autism center rarely ever appeared to be open, so they launched an investigation and allegedly found what many are now discovering.
Alpha News reported that since October 2023, the Fountain Autism Center had billed the state of Minnesota for two million dollars through Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) program.
Now that Shirley's investigative reporting has put a glaring spotlight on more alleged Minnesota fraud, rather than being accountable, Fountain Autism has apparently decided to threaten the journalists who allegedly exposed them. On December 23, Fountain Autism sent a letter to Alpha News threatening a lawsuit for “defamation by implication.” The company further claimed that Alpha News "juxtaposes facts in a misleading way to falsely accuse my client of fraud."
Cue the laugh track.
Alpha News has been threatened with a defamation lawsuit by the owners of a Burnsville autism therapy provider after the outlet reported that the center billed nearly $2 million in taxpayer funds despite little observable on-site activity, including no children present during visits and weeks of surveillance footage reviewed by reporters.
Fountain Autism Center LLC and co-owner Sharmake Hassan — through their attorney — sent a demand letter accusing Alpha News of libel and seeking $100,000 and a full retraction of reporting that raised questions about whether services were being delivered consistent with the public payments the center received.
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After receiving the letter, Alpha News' attorney probably rolled his eyes and then drafted this response.
Burnsville autism center demands $100K from Alpha News in lawsuit threat that ‘strains credulity’
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) December 30, 2025
" ... I would love to delve into discovery of your client's 'business' to show exactly what is transpiring within it. I am ready, willing, and able to use the law to ferret out… pic.twitter.com/zuqDmj6jNg
Burnsville autism center demands $100K from Alpha News in lawsuit threat that ‘strains credulity’
" ... I would love to delve into discovery of your client's 'business' to show exactly what is transpiring within it. I am ready, willing, and able to use the law to ferret out another fraud committed on Minnesota taxpayers," attorney Chris Madel wrote in response.
Alpha News’ attorney, Chris Madel, formally rejected the demand, standing by the reporting and warning that any lawsuit would be met with an aggressive legal response. Madel is currently running for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s gubernatorial election.
“All these facts support Alpha News in raising the question of whether Fountain Autism Center is providing actual autism services to actual children to support the $2 million it has received from the State of Minnesota,” Madel wrote. “Under these circumstances, it strains credulity to claim defamation, which requires some statement of falsity.”
Alpha News re-posted their original video investigation on X. The facility appeared to have one employee present, with not a child or a counselor in sight. In speaking with the investigative reporter, the employee claimed that most of the children came after school or participated in in-home services.
FLASHBACK: Minnesota autism center with little on-site activity received $2 million in taxpayer funds
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) December 27, 2025
A taxpayer-funded autism therapy center in Burnsville has billed the state nearly $2 million since October 2023. Yet a neighboring business owner says the facility is almost… pic.twitter.com/CgwhfJPYlo
But Alpha News culled through weeks of surveillance footage of the autism center's entrance, taken from a nearby security camera. The footage captured very few vehicles and no activity of children or staff entering and exiting the building. This included after-school hours and on weekends. Kind of hard to claim falsehood when the footage seems to say otherwise.
The center’s co-owner later told Alpha News that most services occur in clients’ homes and that the facility operates near full capacity during summer months. But the business owner who contacted Alpha News said the location appeared vacant even during the summer period described as busiest.
[...]
The letter demanded $100,000 in damages and a retraction of all Alpha News articles concerning the provider, asserting that the reporting harmed the business and deterred potential clients.
The demand letter also alleged that the Alpha News article was a “false, targeted attack based off of my client’s ethnicity,” claiming the outlet’s front page was “littered with extreme headlines targeting Somalian individuals.”
However, neither the Alpha News investigative exclusive nor their released video footage made any mention of the ethnicity of the business owners or the employees, Somali or otherwise.
Oops. They kind of gave that one away.
The attorney also incorrectly claimed the article omitted information about audits the center had passed.
In a Dec. 28 response, Madel soundly rejected the demands outright, stating that the reporting was substantially true, well-documented, and constitutionally protected.
“We reject each and every one of your demands. Alpha News’ Autism Story is clearly protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as Article I, Section 3 of the Minnesota Constitution,” the response letter reads. “It was communicated by highly respected journalists on a matter of public concern. Your client has no facts to support a defamation claim. And it similarly has no law.”
Even for a private citizen, defamation is difficult to prove. Despite the left's best efforts to erode free speech rights when it suits their purposes, First Amendment protections for journalists, even independent ones, still hold.
Moreover, this investigation into Fountain Autism Center also involves their use — or potential misuse — of taxpayer money. So, the public has a vested interest in learning how that money has been spent. Now that federal law enforcement agencies have gotten involved, it is doubtful that any of these outfits will have a spindly leg to stand on.
BREAKING: Federal law enforcement has found “substantial evidence” of health care fraud at MN autism centers, which have billed the state $400 million dollars in services that were not provided. pic.twitter.com/Y2U3yLYmF4
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 12, 2024
Dive Deeper: Ghost Daycare Gravy Train Derails: Trump Admin Freezes All Child Care Payments to MN Amid Fraud Scandal
So, this threat of a lawsuit against Alpha News is all sound, fury, and a spurious attempt to distract from the fact that free-flowing government funding may soon be coming to a screeching halt, if it hasn't already. And as the flood of fraudulence in Minnesota and other parts of the nation rises, expect to see more threatening letters and garbage lawsuits come down the pike.
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