Daily Business Report: February 10, 2026
By Will Huntsberry and Jakob McWhinney | Voice of San Diego
Contrary to the truism, great investigators know smoke doesn’t always equal fire.
Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old YouTuber whose viral video about Minneapolis child care centers claimed to uncover one of the largest frauds in U.S. history, has fanned immense smoke. So much so that the Trump administration froze billions of dollars in child care funding and unleashed an immigration crackdown in Minnesota causing confrontations that left two citizens dead.
Last week, Shirley came to San Diego and teamed up with Amy Reichert, a local self-styled independent researcher with a private investigator’s license.
They showed up at multiple Somali-run day care centers with video cameras, asking where the kids were. In Minneapolis, Shirley alleged that empty day cares were collecting government money, while providing no service.
Dozens arrested in crackdown on open air drug markets in East Village
by Times of San Diego Staff Reports | Times of San Diego
A grand jury indicted 34 defendants after a months-long undercover operation targeting drug sales in East Village, District Attorney Summer Stephan announced. A take down operation last Thursday resulted in 23 arrests.
The cross-agency “Operation Street Sweeper” targeted illegal drug markets in East Village with the goal to dismantle the open sale of substances like fentanyl, meth and crack cocaine. Stephan praised the effort for improving public safety in the downtown neighborhood.
“This operation reflects a coordinated, proactive law enforcement response to the community we serve, with the goal of improving the quality of life in a downtown area that continues to face public safety challenges,” Stephan said. “It’s clear that the heightened drug sales are also the reason we have heightened drug overdoses in the same areas.”
San Diego County initiates health inspection at Otay Mesa Detention Center
By Elizabeth Ireland | Times of San Diego
San Diego County has begun the public health inspection process at the Otay Mesa Detention Center following reports of concerning conditions inside the privately operated immigration facility.
San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer directed staff to assert the county’s authority after detainees reportedly threw lotion bottles wrapped with handwritten notes over the facility’s fence, alleging cold temperatures, inadequate medical care and poor-quality food.
“When people detained in a facility are reduced to throwing handwritten messages over a fence to be heard, that is a public health emergency signal,” Lawson-Remer said. “The county is exercising its lawful authority to inspect conditions inside Otay Mesa because silence and secrecy are not acceptable when health and safety are at stake.”
