{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://nolan.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/mesabi-daily-news-inspector-general-to-investigate-hibbing-va", "Mesabi Daily News: Inspector General to investigate Hibbing VA", "2014-12-04", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "MN", "Rick Nolan", "N000127", "nolan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2014 The Inspector General\u2019s Office will investigate the allegations of former Hibbing VA Clinic employees who have said they were ordered to backdate medical records at the facility, according to 8th District U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan. In addition, in a telephone interview with the Mesabi Daily News Wednesday afternoon, the Democratic congressman said the investigation will also consider allegations by the former employees of a hostile work environment.\n\t\u201cNone of the six women I talked with (a week ago in Mountain Iron) told me they had ever been interviewed. That\u2019s not an investigation if you don\u2019t talk to people who are making the allegations.\u201d\n\n\tNolan said he believes the investigation will be processed quickly by Washington standards. \u201cI\u2019m thinking months, not years,\u201d he said.\n\n\tThe former VA workers have said that they were required to backdate medical appointment schedules to make it appear that some veterans were being seen far sooner than when the appointments actually took place.\n\n\tIn addition, they also said there was a policy and attitude that put profits ahead of the wellbeing of veterans.\n\n\tThe Hibbing Clinic is run by Sterling Medical, which manages at least four other VA facilities in Minnesota, including Ely, Mankato, and St. James.\n\n\tThe allegations of backdating at the Hibbing clinic were originally reported by the StarTribune.\n\n\tNolan and Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, asked Veterans Administration Acting Inspector General Richard Griffin in early November to look into the charges and report back to them at the earliest possible date.\n\n\tBut Nolan increased the pressure for an investigation following his meeting last week with the six former VA employees.\n\n\t\u201cMy request was that they (the former employees) be interviewed and others, if possible,\u201d Nolan said.\n\n\tThe congressman has praised those who have brought the allegations. \u201cIt takes courage to come forward.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://nolan.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/mesabi-daily-news-inspector-general-to-investigate-hibbing-va"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6950998213142157, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}