Whistleblower is pleased to announce that our staff is growing. Lora Pabst will soon join me in blogging and writing in this space, chasing your tips and other tales of people struggling against the powerful. At this moment, she’s struggling to get a login to the blog, but in the meantime, she wanted to introduce herself:

When Whistleblower stories started to appear in the paper and on our website last year, I knew I wanted to be a part of the initiative. The stories are captivating for so many reasons, but mostly because they come from people with real problems. Change can come from individuals speaking up and I’m excited to start hearing your voices soon. I began working as a reporter at the Star Tribune in 2007 covering cities and community issues in the north metro. Most recently, I covered crime and breaking news at night. If you have a tip or concern you want to share with me, send an e-mail to Whistlebloweror call me at (612) 673-4628.

Whistleblower may have been a bit quiet on the blog this week, but that’s only because I’ve been pounding the pavement, notebook in hand. Check out this weekend’s Star Tribune and startribune.com for a story and video about a confrontation at the White Castle that raises questions about who can get a Slyder at midnight and who can’t. Also, learn about why winning in conciliation court is only the start of trying to get your money back.

For three years, supporters of a state False Claims Act, an anti-fraud measure proven to save taxpayer money, failed to prevail at the Minnesota Legislature. This year, the whistleblowers got their law, as Whistleblower reported today. Perhaps it helped to have a local face and a big ticket payoff from a successful whistleblower lawsuit that originated in Minnesota.

Neil Thompson, the pharmacist turned lawyer turned whistleblower I wrote about last year, told me that if a state False Claims Act were in place at the time, Minnesota taxpayers could have gained another $270,000 from the Medicaid overbilling lawsuit he and fellow Minneapolis pharmacist Dan Bieurance filed against Walgreens. On Wednesday, Thompson sounded less than enthused about the law Minnesota ended up with, after months of committee hearings, compromises and an intra-DFL dustup between attorney-lawmakers and attorneys general past and present. Still, Thompson said it’s a building block for what he hopes will be amended into a tougher measure in the future. “At least we got it,” he said.

Lawmakers in St. Paul and Washington have given Whistleblower and my colleagues plenty to consider over the Memorial Day weekend. My Sunday column noted that the reforms to guardianships and conservatorships in Minnesota, passed in the last days of the legislative session, are now law. Meanwhile, closer to the action in Washington, colleague Kevin Diaz offers a deeper look at the new credit card law that I have blogged about, including how it might raise fees on people who pay off their balance each month.

Also this weekend, my colleague David Shaffer described how lawmakers have toughened penalties for ripping up wetlands with ATVs, a practice described in mud-splattering detail in last year’s Renegade Riders series that was produced by Shaffer, Tom Meersman, Brian Peterson and Glenn Howatt.