A group of nonprofits in and around the capital city are teaming up to build new green spaces in Jackson, looking to offer environmental benefits such as limiting both flooding as well as a phenomenon known as “heat islands.”
Dominika Parry, a Polish native, founded the Ridgeland-based 2C Mississippi in 2017, hoping to raise awareness around climate change impacts in the state. The group has attempted relatively progressive ideas before, such as bringing climate curriculums to public schools and establishing the state’s first community solar program.
With a lack of political appetite, though, those projects have struggled to get off the ground, Parry explained – “I realized that no one in Mississippi talks about climate change,” she told Mississippi Today. But she’s confident that the green spaces initiative will have a meaningful environmental impact.
Dorothy Davis, president of the Farish Street Community of Shalom, showing a sensor used to measure heat and humidity. Credit: Alex Rozier / Mississippi Today
In one project with the Farish Street Community of Shalom, 2C Mississippi is building green spaces along the historic Farish Street in downtown Jackson. The groups recently acquired $1.5 million through the Inflation Reduction Act for the idea.
A 2020 study in Jackson from consultant CAPA Strategies identified “heat islands,” or urban areas that absorb more heat because they have fewer trees and bodies of water. The study found that at times during the summer, parts of downtown were over 10 degrees hotter than areas around the edge of the city.
The idea for the spaces, which will go in courtyards between Amite and Griffith Streets, includes new trees, vertical gardens, and a maintained grassy area for gatherings and events like the neighborhood’s Juneteenth celebration (renderings of the project from 2C Mississippi are shown below). Parry said they’ll start to plant the trees in January and have the whole spaces done sometime next year. Then, she plans to monitor the impacts, including on the energy needs of surrounding buildings.
Dorothy Davis, Shalom’s president, said that the new tree canopy will give shelter from the simmering temperatures that brew over the city concrete. It’s a concern in an area where, Davis said, many live without reliable or even any air conditioning. Over a few weeks this summer, as an extension of the 2020 study, she and a group of local students measured the heat index along Farish Street, which Davis said never dipped below 100 degrees.
“It wasn’t surprising because I’ve been in Mississippi all my life, I know how Mississippi heat is,” said Davis, who has been in Jackson since 1963. “But it was very concerning because we have a lot of elderly people in this area especially.”
According to the National Weather Service, which has temperature records dating back to 1896, five of the top 10 hottest years in Jackson have occurred in the last 10 years.
In addition to the Farish Street project, 2C Mississippi is also working on building “microparks” around west Jackson. Voice of Calvary Ministries, another local nonprofit, partners with the city of Jackson to eliminate blight, and, along with some other groups, is working to restore and build new homes in about 150 properties around West Capitol Street near the Jackson Zoo.
“We have a lot of lots that we can really do some reinvestment in, not just with housing, but the parks,” said VOCM’s president and CEO Margaret Johnson. “I think we can offer something new and different to an impoverished area of the city.”
Johnson explained that the area is near a flood zone, and the microparks are a preemptive measure to reduce risk as well as the financial burden of flood insurance.
Many of the lots have been abandoned for years, she said, often after people moved away or an owner died without a family member coming to take care of the property. With no one to tend to the land, it deteriorates, turning into an eyesore.
“It seems to be more concentrated in west Jackson than some other parts of the city,” Johnson said, adding that the area doesn’t have a real park for children to play in or for people to get together. “There hasn’t been any real, new construction in west Jackson, of any significant level, in the last, 20, 25, 30 years.”
So far, VOCM and 2C Mississippi have picked about six neighboring lots on Louisiana Avenue to turn into microparks, which Parry said will be done by the end of 2025. The groups also plan to hold a community meeting Oct. 15 to invite residents’ feedback. Johnson hopes they can eventually expand the idea to other parts of Jackson.
“I think once we do this and people see it, we can go to other parts of the city and do the same thing,” she said. “So, I think this is just the start of something great for the city of Jackson.”
The head of Mississippi Medicaid told lawmakers on Thursday that the agency is working with the federal government to get approval of a new law that allows uninsured, low-income women short-term Medicaid coverage while they wait for their application to be approved.
The program, called presumptive eligibility for pregnant women, has been hailed as a way to get pregnant women earlier access to prenatal care in states that have not expanded Medicaid and to mitigate bad health outcomes for mothers and babies.
Mississippi is one of 10 states in the nation not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Mississippi lawmakers wrote in the bill that women must provide proof of income before qualifying for presumptive eligibility, which is potentially at odds with federal regulations.
“CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) does not like proof of income or proof of pregnancy,” Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder said Thursday in an annual legislative budget meeting. “To the current federal administration, a person’s word should be sufficient to get the temporary pregnancy coverage … I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to come to a resolution that is faithful to the state law and satisfies federal expectations.”
It’s not clear whether the state agency will be able to negotiate the details with the federal government or whether the Mississippi Legislature will need to rewrite the law during the 2025 legislative session.
Following the meeting, Snyder quickly left the building and refused to answer questions from a reporter about the status of the program. Mississippi Today has been allowed to communicate about pregnancy presumptive eligibility with the Division of Medicaid solely through email exchanges.
House Bill 539, spearheaded by Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, would allow low-income pregnant women to get prenatal care while waiting for an official Medicaid application to be approved. The way the bill is written, these women would need to bring proof of income, such as a paystub, to their doctor’s office.
Federal guidelines, however, state that while the agency may require proof of citizenship or residency, it should not “require verification of the conditions for presumptive eligibility” – which are pregnancy and income.
“It is my understanding that the Division of Medicaid is currently working with CMS for approval of our presumptive eligibility law, specifically with the language around proof of income,” McGee told Mississippi Today. “This is part of the process and I am optimistic that it will be approved.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, tasked with approving or denying the state’s plan for implementing presumptive eligibility, has until Oct. 9 to make a decision.
CMS declined to comment on the status of Mississippi’s state plan amendment.
A spokesperson for Medicaid told Mississippi Today via email the agency is moving forward with implementation of the program despite the federal government’s concerns.
The Division is accepting applications from health care providers and conducting eligibility determination training sessions – the final requirement for providers before they can begin treating women under the new policy. Nine medical providers have had their applications approved so far, according to the Division of Medicaid.
The Division hosted a training for participating Federally Qualified Health Centers Thursday and will be hosting a training for participating hospitals Oct. 10 and 11, according to a participating provider.
In addition to the nine providers that have been accepted, the University of Mississippi Medical Center – the state’s largest public hospital and largest Medicaid provider – told Mississippi Today it submitted its application on Thursday.
Below is a list of the nine providers that have been approved to participate as of Sept. 25:
Physicians & Surgeons Clinic – Amory
Mississippi Department of Health, Dr. Renia Dotson – County Health Dept. (Family Planning Clinic)
Family Health Center – Laurel
Delta Health Center, Inc (Dr. H. Jack Geiger Medical Center) – Mound Bayou
G.A. Carmichael Family Health Center Providers – Belzoni, Canton, Yazoo City
Coastal Family Health Center, Inc. – Biloxi
Delta Health System – Greenville
Delta Medical Group – Women’s Specialty Clinic – Greenville
Southeast MS Rural Health Initiative Inc. – Women’s Health Center – Hattiesburg
Lexington Police Department engaged in excessive force, illegal searches and sexual harassment, the Justice Department concluded in a report released Thursday.
“Lexington is a small, rural community but its police department has had a heavy hand in people’s lives, wreaking havoc through use of excessive force, racially discriminatory policing, retaliation, and more,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press conference Thursday.
She said these police officers in Lexington “routinely make illegal arrests, use brutal and unnecessary force, and punish people for their poverty — including by jailing people who cannot afford to pay fines or money bail. For too long, the Lexington Police Department has been playing by its own rules and operating with impunity — it’s time for this to end.”
The 47-page report discusses excessive force, searches without legal cause and sexual harassment of women. It also discusses the unlawful jailing of those who owe fines or can’t afford bond.
The Justice Department’s investigation also “uncovered that Lexington police officers have engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminating against the city’s Black residents, used excessive force, and retaliated against those who criticize them,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
He also criticized the town’s approach to fines and fees by arresting and jailing people who can’t pay fines. “Being poor is not a crime, but practices like these amount to punishing people for poverty,” he said. “People in that community deserve better, and the Justice Department is committed to working with them, the City, and the Police Department to make the City safer for all its citizens.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that “public safety depends on public confidence in our justice system,” and that has been undermined by these civil rights violations.
U.S. Attorney Todd Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi compared the Lexington jail to the debtors’ prison in Charles Dickens’ novels.
Police have the authority to enforce the law, but they shouldn’t “act as debt collectors for the city, extracting payments from the poor with threats of jail,” he said. “No matter how large or small, every police department has an obligation to follow the Constitution.”
For instance, he said, police arrested a local man who was fined $224 for public profanity and had to pay $140 before they would release him from custody.
Another man was jailed for four days because he refilled his coffee without paying for a second cup. Another was jailed for two weeks for stealing packets of sugar from a gas station. His bail? $1,249, which he couldn’t afford.
Police have imposed $1.7 million in fines in one of the nation’s most impoverished areas, he said. “That’s $1,400 for every man, woman and child in town.”
Overall, Black residents, who make up 75% of the population, are 17.6 times more likely to be arrested than white people, he said.
He harkened back to six decades ago when people were arrested in Holmes County for their involvement in the civil rights movement.
In 2022, then-Lexington Police Chief Sam Dobbins was caught on an audio recording using racist and homophobic slurs. He bragged that he had killed 13 people in the line of duty, shooting “one n—- 119 times.”
He was fired the next day, and a Black police chief replaced him.
Despite that, the discriminatory practices that Dobbins initiated “continued unabated,” Clarke said.
Abuses by Lexington police have included using stun guns “like a cattle prod,” she said. One Black man, already being held down by three officers, was Tased eight times, and another was shocked 18 times until he was covered in his own vomit.
Clarke said one in every four Lexington residents have been arrested by police, and some of those are being arrested in retaliation for criticizing police or filming them.
Civil rights attorney Jill Collen Jefferson Credit: Courtesy of Jill Collen Jefferson
One of those was Jill Collen Jefferson, whose legal nonprofit, JULIAN, has filed two lawsuits on behalf of Black residents accusing the police of mistreating them, was jailed June 10, 2023, after filming a traffic stop from her car on a public street.
The misdemeanor charges against her — resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to comply and blocking a public roadway for filming a traffic stop — were eventually dismissed.
Jefferson applauded the department, praised the survivors’ courage and called the findings an “incredible victory.” She vowed to work with the National Police Accountability Project to help bring reforms to Lexington and other police departments across the nation.
Clarke said both the city and police officials are cooperating with them to make reforms. Lexington police have yet to comment on the report.
Clarke noted that half of America’s police departments have 10 or fewer officers. Lexington has 10.
“No city or town is too large or too small,” she said, for the Justice Department “to safeguard the rights that every American enjoys.”
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland met Wednesday with law enforcement officials in Mississippi, days after the Justice Department announced it was widening its investigation into a local sheriff’s office where a group of deputies known as the “Goon Squad” has been accused of brutalizing residents for two decades.
He called the Goon Squad’s acts “a betrayal of their community, a betrayal of their profession and a betrayal of their fellow officers.”
Rankin County came to national attention last year after officers from a self-described “Goon Squad” tortured two Black men in their home and shot one of them, nearly killing him. Six officers were sentenced to federal prison in March, and last week, the Justice Department announced a probe into the county’s policing practices.
Garland’s visit was part of a tour he said he is making to each state as attorney general, and reiterated the Justice Department’s commitment to working with local officials, deputies and the community to conduct a comprehensive investigation into violations of civil rights committed by law enforcement.
He also discussed various efforts by the Justice Department throughout the state, including their work to reduce violent crime, curb interstate drug trafficking and investigate police departments accused of misconduct.
He touted the Justice Department’s convictions of drug traffickers funneling narcotics from California to Mississippi and $300,000 in funding to enhance the state’s forensic science capabilities.
He credited the department’s work with helping to reduce homicides by nearly 12% across the U.S.
After addressing the press, he spoke with representatives from federal agencies along with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the Jackson Police Department, the Department of Public Safety for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, as well as sheriffs from Hinds, Warren, Lauderdale, Adams and Harrison counties.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who has denied any knowledge of the Goon Squad’s operations, was not among those present.
Justice Department investigators are seeking to determine if the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional policing through widespread violence, illegal searches and arrests or other discriminatory practices.
This review, known as a pattern or practice investigation, is expected to probe department records and practices to determine whether the agency has allowed routine abuses to occur. The investigation would not seek criminal charges for individual officers, but could result in a lawsuit against the department designed to force reforms and federal monitoring.
An investigation by The New York Times and Mississippi Today detailed the stories of nearly two dozen residents who said that Rankin deputies had burst into their homes, restrained the residents and brutalized them in search of illegal drugs.
According to dozens of interviews with victims and witnesses, the deputies waterboarded people, beat them and used Tasers to shock them in the groin and face. The accusations are supported by medical records, photographs of injuries and department records tracking deputy Taser use.
At least 20 Rankin County deputies were present during these incidents, reporters found, including the former undersheriff, high-ranking detectives and a deputy who later became a local police chief.
Five deputies and a local police officer were convicted for their role in torturing Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker last year, but so far, no other deputies have been criminally charged.
In a statement on Facebook last week, the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department wrote that it would “fully cooperate with all aspects of this investigation, while also welcoming DOJ’s input into our updated policies and practices.”
Rankin County NAACP chapter president Angela English Credit: Jerry Mitchell/Mississippi Today
The Rankin County NAACP is collecting signatures for a petition calling on the governor to remove Mr. Bailey from the office. Rankin County NAACP chapter president Angela English said they are close to the nearly 30,000 signatures required.
“He has allowed his deputies to carry out criminal activities without any repercussions,” she said. “In any other leadership capacity, someone would have lost their job or accepted responsibility for their actions and resigned. He has done neither.”
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Gov. Tate Reeves said Wednesday that he is appointing a district attorney in northeast Mississippi to become a judge on the state Court of Appeals.
John Weddle of Saltillo will succeed former Judge Jim M. Greenlee of Oxford, who retired June 30.
Weddle will step down from his current job and begin serving on the 10-member court on Oct. 14.
Weddle has practiced law since 1995 and has been district attorney since 2015 in Alcorn, Itawamba, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss and Tishomingo counties. He was previously an assistant district attorney for the seven counties.
Weddle also previously served as public defender in Lee County and municipal court judge in Tupelo.
“His years of legal experience and public service make him an excellent addition to the court,” Reeves said.
Weddle earned a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University and a law degree from the University of Mississippi.
Reeves will call a nonpartisan special election for Nov. 3, 2026, to fill the final half of the eight-year Court of Appeals term that expires at the end of 2030. Weddle can choose to run in that race.
Undefeated and fifth-ranked Ole Miss prepares for its SEC opener, as Mississippi State and Southern Miss suffer increasingly frustrating losses. Plus, the Saints crash back to earth and the Braves head into the biggest series of the season against those loathe some Mets.
Editor’s note: This press release was drafted and released by the National Press Club and is republished with permission.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Press Club is honoring Mississippi Today — a nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom based in Jackson, Mississippi — with its highest honor for press freedom, the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award.
Mississippi Today is currently involved in a legal case to protect privileged documents used in producing a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation and named in an ensuing defamation case brought by the state’s former governor. The case has wide-ranging implications for press freedom in the United States, including journalist-source protections.
“In a country that holds freedom of the press as one of its core rights, it is shocking that any court — let alone the highest one in a state — would require reporters to hand over their sources simply because the governor was upset to be caught red-handed misusing federal welfare funds,” said Emily Wilkins, president of the National Press Club. “Mississippi Today’s reporting shined light on a critical issue impacting thousands of Americans, and we hope this award both honors their work and draws attention and support for their case.”
Mississippi Today is an authoritative voice on politics and policy in the state of Mississippi and produces essential coverage on education, public health, justice, environment, equity, and more.
The outlet won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation into a $77 million welfare scandal that revealed how the state’s former governor, Phil Bryant, used his office to benefit his friends and family.
Bryant then sued Mississippi Today and its CEO Mary Margaret White in July 2023, claiming that the series defamed him. Editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau and reporter Anna Wolfe were added as defendants in May 2024, according to an editor’s note on the outlet’s website.
On June 6, 2024, Mississippi Today appealed a county judge’s order to turn over privileged documents in relation to the defamation lawsuit. The Mississippi Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the newsroom’s appeal.
“Ours may be a Mississippi case, but the ramifications absolutely could impact every American journalist who has long been granted constitutional protections to dutifully hold powerful leaders to account,” Ganucheau said. “But this fight is not just about protecting journalists and our sources. We’re also fighting to ensure every single American citizen never loses a fuller understanding of how leaders truly operate when their doors are closed and they think no one is watching. As we continue to stand up for press freedom everywhere, it’s truly humbling to be recognized by the National Press Club in this way.”
A team of attorneys is representing Mississippi Today in its case: Henry Laird at Wise Carter; and Ted Boutrous Jr., Lee Crain, Sasha Duddin, and Peter Jacobs at Gibson Dunn. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is also providing legal support.
The John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award is named for a former National Press Club president who fervently advocated for press freedom. By selecting Mississippi Today as the domestic honoree, the Club and the Institute are committing to monitor and support this precedent-setting case for the First Amendment protection of reporters’ privilege.
The National Press Club will confer the 2024 Aubuchon awards, along with the Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism during its annual Fourth Estate Award Gala honoring Axios’ Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen on Nov. 21 in Washington, D.C.
The gala dinner is a fundraiser for the Club’s nonprofit affiliate, the National Press Club Journalism Institute, which produces training to equip journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement. Tickets and more information for the event can be found here.
WASHINGTON — Minutes before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing Tuesday on the topic of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the subject of a still unfolding scandal in Mississippi, Chairman Rep. Jason Smith huddled with his colleagues.
The other congressmen wanted to know why the chairman had invited former NFL quarterback Brett Favre — who is facing civil charges for his alleged role in diverting TANF funds to a volleyball stadium and a pharmaceutical startup — to testify.
Then, Smith revealed, one of the congressmen asked a question that underscored the larger problem: “What is TANF?”
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a $16 billion-a-year federal block grant administered by states to address poverty. While it is known for providing cash assistance, known as the welfare check, to low-income families, states have been spending the vast majority of the money in other ways, “including some with tenuous connections to a TANF purpose,” the federal agency that oversees the funds recently concluded.
The unnamed lawmaker is about four years late to the game.
Favre said he learned what TANF was in 2020, when Mississippi State Auditor Shad White released an audit naming Favre as one of the improper recipients of an estimated $94 million in misused funds.
“Now I know, TANF is one of our country’s most important welfare programs to help people in need,” Favre told members of House Ways and Means, the budgeting committee responsible for revenue-related legislation within the nation’s social safety net programs. “Importantly, I have learned that nobody was — or is — watching how TANF funds are spent.”
Smith said he invited Favre to testify about rampant abuse in the program, which ensnared the athlete in a reputation-marring scandal, as part of a conversation about how to transform TANF to reach needy families and move people into work. Tuesday’s hearing, which lasted nearly four hours, followed a similar hearing of a House Ways and Means subcommittee held more than a year ago.
But four years after the original audit, Mississippians have more to learn about how the misspending occurred, who all was responsible and how the government plans to hold them accountable. A federal criminal investigation quietly drags on as seven people who pleaded guilty await prison sentencing; a slow-moving state civil lawsuit against Favre and three dozen others gags defendants and their attorneys from speaking publicly about the case; and the federal human service agency has yet to enact meaningful guardrails around the program.
A report that the committee requested last year, and was released Tuesday, found that accounting deficiencies within the TANF program occur in all 50 states and little is done to correct them.
The committee heard Tuesday from a beneficiary of Missouri’s TANF work program, Matt Underhile, a corrections officer and father of seven children.
Underhile was in his early 40s when he took action to turn his life around after nearly two decades of drug abuse and unstable employment. He learned about the state’s TANF-funded work program called the Missouri Excel Center on Facebook. Through it, he received transportation assistance to get to and from class and earned his high school diploma. He said the program offered to pay for things like steel-toe boots or scrubs to help people succeed at work.
He said the program taught him “that there is always a way to remove any barrier you may have; that there are people and programs out there that care and can help you.”
But Mississippi’s TANF program hardly works this way. In 2022, the cash assistance program — no more than $260 a month for a family of three — served just 291 adults. Of those, fewer than 1% were employed, according to federal data.
TANF is supposed to be a work program, but Mississippi imposes such strict eligibility requirements and such harsh sanctions — such as taking away a person’s food benefits — that low-income Mississippians are scared to apply, said Jarvis Dortch, director of the ACLU of Mississippi.
When the state has contracted with outside agencies to provide work training like Underhile described, it has not produced reports to say what the programs offered or who they served.
The largest subrecipients of non-assistance funds are not workforce training agencies, but organizations that work with children — the child abuse and neglect investigations department, the Boys & Girls Club, a children’s mental health organization and a global humanitarian nonprofit.
“Mississippi continues to spend little on direct cash assistance while continuing to provide TANF dollars to unaccountable third parties,” Dortch said in his testimony on Tuesday.
The federal government gathers little information about how states choose to use their TANF grants, except for periodic reporting of how they divvy up the money among several vague categories — basic assistance, child welfare services, work, education or training activities, work supports, child care out of wedlock pregnancy prevention, fatherhood and two-parent family formation and maintenance programs, etc.
Mississippi consistently spends a much greater share of its TANF grant on “work, education and training activities” than most states — 40% in 2022. With that statistic, Mississippi’s TANF program might seem as if it’s prioritizing solutions to generational poverty.
“Sounds good until you look under the hood,” Dortch said.
A closer look shows that roughly 80% of that spending is on a college scholarship program serving many middle-class families, Mississippi Today first reported in 2019.
Dortch offered an alternative: More child care funding for working parents. Mississippi is allowed to transfer up to 30% of its TANF funding to the existing Child Care Development Fund to provide vouchers to more families, though it hasn’t opted to do this in recent years. Dortch also pointed to the success of Magnolia Mother’s Trust universal basic income program created by Jackson-based Springboard to Opportunity.
“People that get cash assistance … they’re able to get the space to breathe to be able to do things like apply to go to school, look for other jobs, they aren’t so pressured in life by trying to make ends meet,” Dortch said.
In Mississippi, $5 million of the spending that it labeled work activities, work supports or fatherhood programs was actually the construction of a new volleyball stadium.
In 2017, Favre started lobbying for money from a nonprofit funded almost entirely by TANF funds to build a volleyball stadium at his alma mater, University of Southern Mississippi. The nonprofit founder, Nancy New, informed him that federal restrictions prevented her from using the money on construction projects. But, they thought, if they called the facility a “Wellness Center,” and included classrooms where the nonprofit could ostensibly hold classes for needy parents, the nonprofit could provide the funding through a $5 million upfront lease of the property.
Lawyers hired by the state welfare department in 2022 filed civil charges against the university’s athletic foundation and seven people they say are responsible for this sham, including Favre. New is awaiting sentencing on state charges for her role in the overarching scheme.
U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Nebraska, asked Favre on Tuesday how officials characterized the source of the funding he was seeking. Favre said it was his understanding that they were grants.
“Never was TANF or welfare funds mentioned in any conversations,” Favre said.
“Were public funds mentioned?” Adrian Smith asked, and Favre didn’t immediately respond. “Was it your understanding that it was private funds from a wealthy individual or some source?”
“I don’t recall. I just remember that grant money,” Favre said.
Favre and New also arranged an additional $1.1 million payment in exchange for Favre to record a radio ad promoting the welfare program, which aired the following year.
“If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” Favre once texted the nonprofit operator.
U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-California, enlarged and printed the text message on a display board that she brought to the hearing. Favre returned those funds to the state in 2020 and 2021.
After Favre secured the funds for the initial groundbreaking on the volleyball stadium, he returned to New for an additional investment in a startup pharmaceutical venture claiming it was going to produce a drug to treat concussions — an injury with which Favre was familiar. The project received over $2 million in welfare funds, but no drug was developed.
“Sadly, I also lost my investment in a company that I believed was developing a breakthrough concussion drug I thought would help others,” Favre said in his testimony. “As I’m sure you’ll understand, while it’s too late for me — I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s — this is also a cause dear to my heart.”
The founder of the company, Jake Vanlandingham, pleaded guilty within the ongoing federal probe in July. The revelation of Favre’s Parkinson’s diagnosis made national headlines before the TANF hearing concluded.
Testimony from Sam Adolphsen, policy director for the conservative think tank Foundation for Government Accountability, challenged whether states should be entirely to blame for TANF misspending.
When Adolphsen served as the chief operating officer of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, he said his agency exercised policy that allows states to transfer TANF funds to another federal program, the Social Services Block Grant, which involved home-based services for seniors and people with disabilities, domestic violence support centers, transportation, and other services.
This resulted in a similar comingling of funds that got Mississippi officials in trouble.
Adolphsen said in his written testimony that Maine officials sought guidance from the federal agency that administers the funds, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “with often unclear communications from the officials.” Maine auditors eventually raised concerns about some of this transfer spending and the state reversed the expenditures.
“More work can be done in federal law to provide states with more clarity on the flexibility of these transfers in advance of such expenditures,” Adolphsen said in his testimony.
Adolphsen’s organization, FGA, lauded Mississippi for policies it enacted during the scandal, including the HOPE Act — a law that imposed some of the strictest eligibility requirements in the nation, creating a maze of bureaucratic red tape that current Mississippi Department of Human Services Director Bob Anderson said burdens the department and should be repealed.
Last year, the House Ways and Means Committee requested that the Government Accountability Office conduct a nationwide review of non-cash TANF spending, which is where 78% of the funds go. The committee wanted to know, among other things, how states track the performance of their non-assistance programs, how they ensure they are submitting accurate financial reports, and what the federal government does with the annual TANF audit findings it receives.
The report, released in conjunction with the hearing, shows that from 2021-2023, all 50 states had unresolved audit findings in their TANF programs, 50 of which were “severe” and the majority of which were repeated findings from previous years.
Before the Mississippi welfare scandal became known, these audit deficiencies proved to be a warning sign of the larger program breakdown.
West Virginia has recorded an accounting deficiency for 15 years. Thirty-one of the 155 findings contained questioned costs, like the ones cited in Mississippi’s widely publicized 2019 audit. One state’s questioned costs involved over $107 million and repeated for two years.
As for how the federal government follows up on these unresolved findings, the Government Accountability Office didn’t have an answer, but said that it would examine this process in its ongoing work.
Movement in the civil case against Favre and roughly three dozen other people or companies — which attempts to claw back an implausible $80 million in misspending — picked up the day before Favre’s testimony.
On Monday, Favre’s lawyers fired off 10 new subpoenas requiring depositions from the state auditor’s office, deputy state auditor Stephanie Palmertree, the attorney general’s office, the lieutenant governor’s office, Gov. Tate Reeves, former Reeves chief of staff Brad White, former First Lady Deborah Bryant, and three individual Mississippi Department of Human Services employees.
At the hearing, Favre predictably threw shade at State Auditor Shad White, the state official who launched the initial investigation into welfare spending and has since written a book about the ordeal with Favre’s name in the subtitle. The athlete is currently suing White for defamation.
Favre called White “an ambitious public official who decided to tarnish my reputation to try to advance his own political career.”
White wrote a letter to the Ways and Means committee Monday evening in an effort to preempt any negative impression Favre may give of him. White included photos of Favre’s text messages to remind lawmakers of the athlete’s interest in keeping the payments confidential.
Favre also questioned the current leadership of the state welfare agency, which has paid Jones Walker law firm nearly $1.5 million in TANF funds to bring the ongoing civil action.
“Those same lawyers, before they sued me, came to my home town to try to convince me to retain them in this very dispute,” Favre said.
University of Southern Mississippi attempted to resolve the claims against it by setting up a scholarship program for TANF-eligible students, Favre said, but the plaintiff rejected the settlement, which “would have shut off the spigot of TANF funds to the lawyers.”
Back to the original question by Chairman Smith’s colleagues: What’s the purpose of inviting Favre to speak before Congress?
“If someone in Mississippi is accused of misspending $50 in SNAP benefits, that person’s life will be turned upside down. Mr. Favre’s right here and he’s accused of misspending a million dollars and he’s speaking before Congress,” Dortch told the committee. “Something is wrong.”
For years in Mississippi, state employees and politicians scrambled to please Favre when he reached out about funding for projects or requests for meetings. One of the state’s favorite and most notable sons was in their corner, and they often responded accordingly.
Similar behavior was on full display in the House committee hearing on Tuesday. When Favre entered the Longfellow Office Building hearing room, cameras clicked and attendees turned their heads to catch a glimpse of the NFL Hall of Famer.
U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, said it seemed Favre had become a victim of his own celebrity.
Sanchez, the California representative, delivered the most aggressive questions about Favre’s involvement in the welfare scandal, to which U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Georgia, responded, “Unlike my colleague, I’m not mad at you about much, but I am mad that you couldn’t stay with the Atlanta Falcons.”
