A nonprofit called Mined Minds promised to teach West Virginians how to write computer code and then get them well-paying jobs, was looking for recruits, according to a New York Times report. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) had invited the group to come into the state. The National Guard hired it to teach at its military-style academy. County commissioners arranged space rent free. However, almost none of those who signed up for Mined Minds are working in programming now. They described Mined Minds as an erratic operation, where guarantees suddenly evaporated and firings seemed inevitable, leaving people to start over again at the bottom rungs of the wage jobs they had left behind. More than two dozen former students in West Virginia are pursuing a lawsuit, arguing that Mined Minds was a fraud.
