Photo and blog post by John HoffThe story which this blog exclusively broke some weeks ago--a dubious $15,000 contract with the notorious blogger Don Allen of IBNN to promote the struggling Minneapolis Public School system--has been picked up by other media entities including The Deets blog, Twin Cities Daily Planet and, most significantly, the Star Tribune. (Pictured above)
Chris Stewart, former Minneapolis School board director, has publicly called Don Allen's blog "the equivalent of black on black crime." While often crying out about perceived racism, the vast majority of people Don Allen attacks on his grandiosely titled IBNN blog are black community leaders, including frequent attacks on President Obama and Fifth Ward City Council Member Don Samuels.
I should be clear that when I say Don Allen is "notorious," I am referring to Don Allen's lazy fact checking, his well-documented tendency to just make things up, (Poopgate! cough cough) his terrible spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization and also the fact Don Allen operates a kind of "shakedown" blog, leveling scathing accusations or THREATENING to level scathing accusations while, at the same time, offering solutions to the "problems" he has pointed out. Somehow these "solutions" often seem to involve paying money to Don Allen, such as his proposed "con man contract" which involved the Minneapolis Public School District posting (OMG!) a $25 million dollar bond as part of a "community benefits agreement."
But that's all background. In some sense, that's YESTERDAY'S news. What's new, interesting, and exciting is that once the Star Tribune started digging into Don Allen's contract, they didn't stop with Don Allen. The latest problematic MPS contract to come to the attention of the Star Tribune is a $97,000 contract with Schoolwires, Inc. to deliver website services.
Corey Mitchell, the same reporter who did the story on Don Allen, delivered a great story about the Schoolwires fiasco, click here for Star Tribune article.
I only hope Mitchell keeps digging and gets to the bottom of the financial mismanagement at MPS, especially the rumors which just won't die of $100k that went through the Minneapolis Urban League, with some of the money allegedly ending up in the hands of notorious loon-at-large Al Flowers.
Dig, Corey, Dig!
If I was the Minneapolis Public School system, right about now I'd be really, really unhappy that doing business with Don Allen has caused a Star Tribune reporter to take such an interest in mismanaged money. In fact, I'd be trying to figure out how to get out of the Don Allen contract just to get some of the egg off my face.
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(Do Not Click "Read More")
20 comments:
The story is old news, so is Corey "DUH" Mitchell. Why don't you write about the "white" gang moving around right under your nose. (Too close to home - they all know who Johnny-Boy is).
If Corey really wanted to dig, he would be asking nicely to see what I have. It's all documented.
I'm one of the only people who completed the work.
Check The City, Inc; Urban League School and many, many more.
Let us not forget all of the defamatory comments he's made about YOU and ME, and a bunch of our friends.
Criminal, Donald W.R. Allen II, really shouldn't be allowed to do business in Jordan considering how he treats the residents here.
I just want to add to my previous point. Checkout the numerous postings on my blog about this man's nefarious criminal undertakings.
http://www.irvinginquisition.com/2010/09/meet-donald-w-allen-nuisance-tabloid.html
This man DOES NOT have OUR community's best interest at heart.
Please let your readers know where you now officially live?
To Don "Republican" Allen,
1.) I don't know what you mean by the "DUH" you put in Corey Mitchell's name? Do you mean "Duh" like the sound Homer Simpson makes or is that some kind of acronym? As usual, your writing is unclear.
2.) If by "white gang" you mean the articles in various publications about the Beat Down Posse, my friend Jeff Skrenes did a great job writing about that before I could, so I figure he has it covered. If Jeff doesn't do more follow up with that list of addresses, I might hop on it, but extensively documenting conditions at lists of addresses is kinda Jeff's forte so, well, I figure he's all over it.
3.) In regard to you being "one of the only people who completed the work," do tell, Don.
Do you mean there were multiple contracts associated with the PR effort? And you were just one of them? Could you share more details about The City, Inc. and Urban League School? Don't tell me to "go check on something." When you told me one time about an alleged criminal indictment that had supposedly been made against a prominent church leader, I spent hours running around looking for that crap and it didn't, gee, FREAKING EXIST.
Just like so much of the other b.s. you just spin off the top of your head, Poopgate, etc.
You want to tell me about the contracts? Let's start with the $103k and Urban League and Al Flowers, etc. Send me an email with PDF documents. Show you're telling the truth.
For once.
It's so confusing to see Don Allen want to be taken seriously, yet still not take down the blog post he wrote where he completely fabricated a ridiculous story about The I.I..
How can I trust someone who makes up stories about active community members?
I can't support having my tax dollars spent with a documented liar. Especially someone who appears to stand by their lies.
Don, seriously, what's the deal with Poopgate? Why do you continue to publish what you know is not true?
Don't take your Poopgate lies down for The I.I. or me. Take them down to show that you have respect for the truth.
Don "Republican' Allen said...
If Corey really wanted to dig, he would be asking nicely to see what I have. It's all documented.
I'm one of the only people who completed the work.
Check The City, Inc; Urban League School and many, many more.
~~~~
So Don, are you saying you have some news regarding contracts with City Inc, Urban League etc? If you have some smoking guns and news that pertains to contracts gone bad or poor decisions made by MPS, I would strongly urge you to publish that news. It is your journalistic duty, please, inform the community.
Or are you insinuating that you have some dirt on the MPS contracts gone bad, but you are not publishing that info for some reason? Could it be because MPS is paying you to shut up?
What is the reason you are not publishing the news that you have, of which you are saying Corey Mitchell should be trying to obtain from you? I am curious to hear your reasons for withholding the news you claim to have.
Additionally, Don "The Republican" Allen, I'd like to hear from you on why YOU weren't writing about the white gang you refer to in your comment. Did you have knowledge of this white gang running around right under your nose? Because I sure can tell you I have lived here 8 years and the "Beat Down Posse" did not affect my life in one single way. And one of their mortgage fraud houses was less than a block away from my house.
So, Don "The Republican" Allen, why did you never cover the ill affects of the Beat Down Posse on the north Mpls community? You've been around much longer than me, or John, Or Jeff. Or Eric.
Hmmmmmmmm?
I will say what others have been afraid to say aloud, but are probably thinking:
A "Beat Down Posse" that went around terrorizing drug dealers and taking their money is not the worst thing in the world.
They will pay for their crimes and they should, and some of their alleged crimes are truly worthy of harsh condemnation like MORTGAGE FRAUD. I would say that's right up there with stealing from a bedridden vet at the VA hospital, hint hint.
But other crimes, well, we just have to shake our heads and gleefully imagine the (alleged) scene as ill-gotten gains from drug deals were snapped up to buy, well, maybe Harley Davidson motorcycles. Sometimes the Beat Down Posse may have been merely divine agents of karma: easy come drug money, easy go drug money.
In general, I am for people obeying laws and being decent citizens. I don't condone criminal activity. I wish the prosecutors all the success in the world. And if I can do my part to write something about the houses which were caught up in the fraud, I probably will, unless my friend Jeff Skrenes from the North By Northside blog completely eats that lunch before I get a little bite.
And good luck to Jeff in that regard.
Your comment, however, seems to be based in a notion that I haven't written about the Beat Down Posse because of the color of their skin or a fear of who they are.
Well, ask yourself what color skin "Spanky" Pete Rickmyer has or the TJ Waconia fraudsters. As for whether I am afraid to write about the Beat Down Posse, no, I am not. But I can't write everything about every issue all the time, especially with dubious MPS contracts tying up my attention.
In regard to the Beat Down Posse and the color of their skin:
Is the "race card" the only card you have to play, Don Allen? Well, you sure don't have the grammar card, or the spelling card, or the fact-checking card, so I guess you gotta go with the card you got. However, Chris Stewart called IBNN blog "the equivalent of black on black crime," so that says plenty.
To Ed Kohler,
You said "Poopgate" twice.
If you'd been in a court of law, we would have owed you two drinks!
I smell another rat... Is that you Lennie Chism? (His Bestie is never too far away from a scam). I'm sure he'll turn up on a blog somewhere soon exposing his part.
@Nomi P, the beat down posse didn't affect your life because you weren't a gang banging drug dealing thug with drug money stashed in your house and you weren't harboring people who may or may not have possibly been skipping their bail bonds!
I think one point is being lost here: Don Allen only commented on his contract AFTER the story went public on this very blog, and then got picked up by, well, everybody.
If the story hadn't been publicized, would he have talked about the $15,000 in tax money he was promised?
We continue to believe this money was to buy peace and not really for advertising. That's why grammar and facts and CRIMINAL BACKGROUND and general notoriousness weren't really an issue with the contract. Because the subtle understanding was THE MONEY WOULD BUY PEACE.
That's my own speculation and theory, based on the fact pattern, including facts like--oh gee--Don Allen has been accused of extortion before. See the Patrick Pretty blog, which specializes in coverage about Ponzi schemes.
http://www.patrickpretty.com/2010/04/28/steve-renner-fires-gets-restraining-order-against-donald-allen-says-former-vp-harassed-him-tried-to-extort-100000/
Too bad the Star Tribune story was, in some ways, very incomplete, neglecting so many aspects of Don Allen...the man, the myth, the bad grammar legend.
Johnny, Eric, Megan, ED - you crack me up! Have a great day!
POOPGATE!!!
Yeah, Don, I bet it really cracks you up when we link to the actual documents on the Irving Inquisition about how you were on probation after stealing money from a bedridden vet at the VA. (Sarcasm font)
http://www.irvinginquisition.com/2010/09/more-on-donald-w-allen-nuisance-tabloid.html
I bet you're just rolling on the ground laughing. (Sarcasm font)
Here's what Don Allen had to say about Jill Clark before he turned into a back-stabber.
http://www.prlog.org/10271765-minneapolis-bloggers-get-sued-for-stories-and-comments-on-local-blogs.html
Don"Fox News" Allen is,perhaps, the most vile and despicable kind of racist that there is."Fox" mentality type that claims black pride while pitting blacks against each other or simply ripping them off. Clarence Thomas took a shit and you slid out with a monster grip on the peanut ridged walls. Your evil twin Juan said quit blowing your nose into his used drawers while he is still wearing them.Hail, Hail, mulemouth; the mothership told me bootsy don't want you around no more. Good Day.
Boathead got it right:
Don"Fox News" Allen is,perhaps, the most vile and despicable kind of racist that there is."Fox" mentality type that claims black pride while pitting blacks against each other or simply ripping them off.
Come on MPS stop wasting our taxes dollars.
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