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Bonnie Griffith of Clinton missed four doctor appointments in June and July because of problems with the transportation company that contracts with the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. 

Griffith, who has a chronic nerve damage condition that requires her to use an electric mobility scooter, relies on Medicaid’s non-emergency medical transportation program to see her health care providers. 

But on two occasions, she said drivers refused to transport her because they did not feel comfortable securing her scooter in the vehicle. Electric scooters qualify as wheelchairs under the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

A third time, she said Modivcare told her there were no drivers available with the capacity to transport a wheelchair. And another time, the driver never showed up to the location she specified. 

In July, she ran out of her medication. 

“I have no way to get to any medical doctor at all,” said Griffith, who has severe peripheral neuropathy. 

There’s no way to know if Griffith’s issues are unique or widespread. Denver-based for-profit Modivcare’s three-year, $96.5 million contract with the Division of Medicaid mandates it submit “monthly reports” containing information about the percent of scheduled trips that are late or missed each day or exceed 45 minutes longer than the average travel time. 

The company assumed the state’s non-emergency medical services contract on June 8 of this year. 

But two weeks after Mississippi Today submitted a public records request for the reports, the agency told the outlet they have no such reports. Spokesperson Matt Westerfield said the reports are not yet due, though he did note that historically, non-emergency medical transportation contractors have struggled to meet the contractual ceiling of 2% late or missed trips each day. 

He did not respond to an inquiry about when the monthly reports are due by the time the story was published.

The federally-required service helps Medicaid beneficiaries with no other means of getting to the doctor make it to their appointments. But some beneficiaries and advocates question whether it properly serves people who use wheelchairs and mobility devices.

People with disabilities – not all of whom use wheelchairs – are some of the most frequent users of the service. 

Griffith made it to her first doctor’s appointment since the contract began on July 18. 

“I feel so much better today just having gotten to where I was supposed to be,” she told Mississippi Today. 

Experts question whether Modivcare’s policy complies with law

Modivcare’s website states that it is the “largest and most experienced broker of non-emergency medical transportation” in the nation. The company provides transportation services in 48 states and reported $118.3 million in profits during the first half of 2024 for non-emergency transportation services alone. 

Modivcare contracts with local transportation companies, which give beneficiaries rides to their doctor’s appointments and take them home afterwards. 

Advocates argue that the program yields cost savings for states and the federal government by heightening access to preventative medicine and routine health care that helps beneficiaries manage their medical conditions and avoid costly trips to the emergency room. 

Griffith said she has relied on non-emergency medical transportation services in Mississippi for over 10 years. 

Modivcare spokesperson Melody Lai told Mississippi Today in an email that while the service can transport people who use power carts or mobility scooters, they “will have to either transfer to a wheelchair or ambulate into the seat of the vehicle,” citing concerns about safety while transporting people seated on their mobility device.

Griffith, however, can not walk to a vehicle or push a non-motorized wheelchair by herself. 

Her home health aide can accompany her to appointments to push the wheelchair, but Griffith must then give up time with the aide intended to support her personal care needs.

Hunter Robertson, the civil rights team supervising attorney at Disability Rights Mississippi, said he believes Modivcare’s policy is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

He said drivers can recommend that wheelchair users transfer to a vehicle seat, but can not require them to transfer, according to the latest guidance from the Federal Transit Authority. 

“The final decision on whether to transfer is up to the passenger,” reads the agency’s circular. 

Robertson said that if a wheelchair fits inside the vehicle and on the lift and can be secured, even if it is not constrained to the comfort of the company, a driver can not refuse to transport a rider.

Scott Crawford, an advocate for people with disabilities and a board member of the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities, disagreed. He said that he believes requiring people using mobility devices to transfer to a seat is an acceptable policy, given concerns that they might tip during hard turns. 

However, transportation providers are still required to transport people and their mobility devices, even if the person must transfer to a seat, he said. 

“It is vital that transportation providers allow people to bring their ‘legs’ (mobility device) with them when they are transported, assuming they will fit,” he said. “There are plenty of ways of securing a scooter or walker so that they won’t move.”

Robertson said non-emergency medical transportation services are a critical service for people who use wheelchairs. 

“There is a limited amount of public transportation or transportation that is accessible when you are a wheelchair user or a power cart user,” he said. “The non-emergency transport is one of the few ways to safely get to doctor’s appointments on time … while using your mobility aid.”

Matt Westerfield, spokesperson for the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, said that Modivcare provided wheelchair securement training to 451 drivers prior to Modivcare’s contract beginning on June 8. He noted that from then to the end of June, there were 4,984 trips completed using wheelchair accessible vehicles. 

Modivcare’s contract with the Division of Medicaid specifies that each wheelchair vehicle must have a wheelchair securement device that meets Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. 

In response to questions about the company’s adherence to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Lai wrote in an email, “Modivcare complies with all applicable laws, quality is very important to us and we provide training as may be required by law.”

Modivcare did not respond to specific questions about the contractor’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and declined Mississippi Today’s request for an interview. 

Problems with transportation are not new for Medicaid beneficiaries

Griffith said the challenges she has faced with Medicaid transportation are not specific to Modivcare. She remembered unreliable transportation during the period another company contracted with the state for the service.

On several occasions, her driver did not pick her up from her appointment. 

“I was offered a ride … by someone who had seen me still waiting there,” she said. 

A 2021 report on non-emergency medical transportation by the federal Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission cited nationwide concerns about limited supplies of wheelchair vans, late pickups, ill-equipped vehicles and long call center wait times.

Some states have sought to heighten regulation of the companies that provide such services.  In 2023, a bill in the New Jersey Legislature to establish performance and reporting standards for Medicaid transportation brokers died in committee. The legislation came after the New Jersey Department of Human Services fined Modivcare $1.7 million between 2017 and 2022 for failing to meet contract requirements, including missing scheduled pickups, according to the Bergen Record.

In Georgia, Modivcare and Southeasttrans, another non-emergency medical transportation company, were fined over $1 million from 2018 to 2020 for picking up patients late, reported KFF. 

Over 450 complaints have been lodged against Modivcare in the past three years, according to the Better Business Bureau.

In July, Griffith’s nurse practitioner detected atrial fibrillation, or an irregular heartbeat, during an examination. 

She worries about being able to get to visit her cardiologist given the unreliability of Mississippi’s non-emergency medical transportation.

“What am I going to do?” she asked. 

The post ‘What am I going to do?’: Wheelchair user says Medicaid transportation caused her to miss medical visits appeared first on Mississippi Today.

To quote Councilman Kenneth Stokes, the boo boo has hit the fan.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Bribery appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As many Americans, this writer eagerly read all I could about Tim Walz after Kamala Harris chose him as her running mate.

I didn’t have to hear or read more than three paragraphs before I became far more interested. There it was: Tim Walz was a former high school football coach, the defensive coordinator of a state championship winning team in Minnesota. He also taught geography and social studies.

Now then, I have spent a professional lifetime dealing with high school coaches and have some observations:

• Number one, some of the smartest, most inspiring, most common-sense leaders I have ever known were high football coaches.
• Number two, some of the most intellectually challenged, ineffective people I have ever known were high school football coaches.

You could say the same about workers in just about any profession, including doctors, lawyers, business execs and sports writers. There are really, really good ones; there are really, really awful ones. I have known scores of high school football coaches who would have been successful in any profession they chose.

Gulfport coaching legend Lindy Callahan comes immediately to mind. Coach Callahan is 96 years young now, and I’d probably still vote for him no matter the office. He could, in the words of the great Jake Gaither, take his’n and beat your’n, or take your’n and beat his’n. He would have been a terrific mayor, congressman or governor. You could say the same about Marion “Chief” Henley, who won 116 games and lost only eight as the coach at old Carver High School in Picayune in the days before integration.

Callahan and Henley both possessed all the qualities and traits and people skills that make football coaches successful. They were smart, yes, but they also surrounded themselves with competent people. They inspired the young folks who played for them. They commanded respect, but they also engendered uncommon love and devotion. They were quick on their feet, adjusted well when the game was on the line. They worked and worked and worked. They inspired others to work just as hard as they did.

I play a lot of golf these days with Mike Justice, another highly successful, championships-winning high school football coach who would have been successful no matter what he did, even if he had been a pulpwood hauler like his father was in Itawamba County. We were talking the other day about whether or not the same qualities and characteristics that make a successful football coach might also make a good vice president or even president. As we know all too well, a vice president is just one heartbeat away from a promotion.

Justice believes the No. 1 path to success as a high school football coach “is the ability to surround yourself with good people, run a system that you believe in and get really good at it. Stay hitched to it, no matter what.”

Said Justice, “You better believe in what you are doing and you better be able to inspire your players to believe in it and buy into it.”

Sounds a lot like qualities and characteristics you need to be an effective leader in government, although I still have a difficult time imagining Justice in the Oval Office – or wearing a suit and tie every day for that matter. So does he.

Here, we haven’t that many coaches venture into politics, although in small-town Mississippi a winning football coach is often the most popular, most respected man in town. One possible reason: By law, a retired coach would have his or her PERS state retirement payments frozen the day he or she took office.

For what it’s worth, we have had more cheerleaders than players or coaches become powerful movers and shakers in government. Sen. John Stennis was a yell leader at Mississippi State. Sens. Trent Lott and Thad Cochran were both Ole Miss cheerleaders. I am not sure what that tells us. “Hotty Toddy” and “Hail State,” I guess.

And I know what many readers are thinking: But what about Tommy Tuberville, the ex-Ole Miss football coach-turned-Alabama senator, who told us he would only leave Oxford in a pine box but then left on a private jet bound for Auburn?

Frankly, I don’t count Tuberville any more than I trust him. He spent four years at Ole Miss during which he won 25 games and lost 20. Indeed, I am not sure Alabamans should count him as one of their own, either. After all, he was living in Florida – and had been for years – when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate from Alabama.

You ask me, Tuberville’s record as a senator is not a great advertisement for coaches becoming politicians. For nearly a year in 2023, he held up all promotions of U.S. military senior officers, drawing the ire of the nation’s military brass and many in his own party who believed he was putting the nation’s security at risk.

“There’s nobody more military than me,” said Tuberville, who has never served one second in any branch of the service.

But back to the original theme of this column. Can a high school football coach become an effective national leader?

My take: Some could, and many could not. This much is certain: Many of the same qualities that make for a highly successful coach would serve a vice president or president equally well.

The post Can a high school football coach make a good U.S. vice president? It depends. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A Jackson City Council member pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal bribery charge related to a proposed downtown development hours after resigning from her office.

Angelique Lee pleaded guilty to everything detailed in a bill of information. 

Lee, who represented northwest Jackson’s Ward 2, admitted to a conspiracy to commit bribery by accepting “cash, deposits and other gifts” valued at more than $5,000 from two federal agents posing as real estate developers from Nashville, Tennessee, who were attempting to influence her and reward her for her vote. She accepted those bribes from the undercover agents through an “unindicted co-conspirator,” according to court documents. Twice they gave her a credit card to go shopping. “Don’t go too crazy but have an f— great time,” the bogus developer told her, according to testimony at Wednesday’s plea hearing.

In March, the “Facility Solutions Team” was one of three companies that bid to build a 335-room hotel across the street from the Jackson Convention Complex. That hotel was slated to include an open entertainment space and a parking garage.

Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens II is listed as the registered agent for the Facility Solutions Team, which is a limited liability company.

The business’ address, the Downtown Cigar Company which is owned by Owens, was raided by the FBI on May 22, along with Owens’ office in the Hinds County Courthouse.

Lee’s attorney, Aafram Sellers, acknowledged the charges against his client are related to the hotel project.

Owens referred questions about Wednesday’s developments to his attorney Rob McDuff. McDuff told Mississippi Today in a statement that it is his understanding the federal investigation is not related to Owens’ work as district attorney. 

McDuff acknowledged that Owens has participated in real estate business deals during the past 15 years, including owning two pieces of property in downtown Jackson. 

“Two gentlemen who claimed they were successful large-scale developers with their own development company raised with him the possibility of building a convention center hotel in Jackson,” McDuff said. “He believed them, and after multiple conversations, agreed to help them. It turns out they were operatives for the FBI.” 

According to the bill of information, Lee voted in favor of the real estate development project proposed by the Nashville developers and supported the closure of a road to aid that project.

“It was further an object of the conspiracy to hide, conceal and cover up the nature and scope of the things of value that Lee received, including the true source and nature of the cash payments,” court papers say.

She received a $10,000 electronic transfer from the FBI sources to pay off a portion of Lee’s campaign debt, a $3,000 cash payment on March 27 of this year, and $6,000 in credit card charges made at a “luxury retail store in the city of Jackson,” according to the indictment. WLBT reported in July that Lee’s wages were being garnished to pay off nearly $21,000 in campaign debt.

Lee will have to forfeit any and all property or proceeds obtained through the criminal actions, including $13,654 in currency, a pair of Valentino wedge sandals, a Christian Louboutin tote bag, earrings, and other items.

In accepting her guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan III listed what she could no longer do, including holding office and serving on a jury. Lee’s voice broke as she acknowledged, “Yes, sir.”

Lee faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She is scheduled to be sentenced at 10 a.m. Nov. 13.

Lee, 28, who has a master’s degree, defeated former Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis in a special election for the Ward 2 seat in 2020. She was elected to a full term the following year.

City Council President Virgi Lindsay released a copy of Lee’s resignation at a brief news conference Wednesday: “Circumstances that I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment have led to this decision,” she wrote. “I will greatly miss working with each of you and I am proud of the work that we have done as a collective body for the city of Jackson and its citizens.”

Lindsay said the council has to meet within the next 10 days to schedule a special election and the election will be held 30 to 45 days after that.

Owens was first elected as district attorney in 2019. At the time of the raids, he posted a statement on Facebook that his office continues to “work on behalf of the citizens of Hinds County. That has been and will continue to be our primary focus.”

Owens handled the state’s prosecution of people involved in a massive fraud case involving theft or misspending of millions of federal welfare dollars meant to help the poor.

The Terry native  previously served as chief policy counsel and managing attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi office. He attended Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and worked for the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran as a legal intern for the Senate Appropriations Committee. Owens is a lieutenant intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves.

UPDATE 8/14/24: This story has been updated to correct Angelique Lee’s position on the Jackson City Council.

The post Jackson City Council member resigns, admits to federal bribery charge appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A University of Mississippi vice chancellor’s husband wants a federal investigation into his arrest last week for animal cruelty.

“I am asking for a federal investigation due to false facts,” Terry Pegues, 47, told a Mississippi Today reporter.

“That’s all, that’s all,” Pegues added before hanging up. “Just print that.”

Pegues bonded out on Aug. 8, a day after the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department arrested him for 10 counts of animal cruelty. Earlier that week, officers had been dispatched to an address on County Road 418, in a hilly, rural area south of Oxford proper, after a citizen complained of possible animal cruelty, according to a press release.

No one was home, but deputies observed several malnourished and deceased dogs still attached to collars and chains, according to the release. After obtaining a warrant and searching the property, officers found 10 deceased animals and rescued 20.

The sheriff’s department did not release the address in question, but Lafayette County property records show Pegues owned a couple of small parcels of land in that area with his wife, Charlotte Fant Pegues.

Fant Pegues has served as vice chancellor of student affairs at Ole Miss since 2019 when she was appointed to the role in the interim. She was not charged in connection to the allegations against Pegues, according to a statement from a university spokesperson.

“University leaders are deeply disturbed and appalled by any instance of animal cruelty,” Jacob Batte, the university’s director of news and media relations, wrote in an email. “The university is not among the parties involved in the ongoing investigation by the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department, and the university is not aware of any charges against a university employee in relation to that investigation. Given the ongoing nature of the investigation, the university will make no further comment at this time.”

It is unclear if sheriff’s deputies interviewed Fant Pegues during their investigation. The department did not respond to a request for comment.

A native of Holly Springs, Fant Pegues has earned several degrees from Ole Miss and has worked at the university since 1993. She did not return a call to her cellphone by press time.

County records show Fant Pegues and her husband have owned multiple properties in Oxford and Lafayette County since the mid-2000s. She recently sold a home in the populated Southpointe subdivision to an Alabama family that was looking to buy a place for their two kids who are attending Ole Miss.

Bobby Michael, the dad who purchased the home, said he walked through it twice and never observed any evidence of animal cruelty. He did not meet Fant Pegues or her husband as the purchase was conducted through his Realtor, he added.

“I didn’t see anything like blood splatter or dog cages or nothing like that,” Michael said. “To be honest, I didn’t even know the names of the people we bought the house from.”

In her role as vice chancellor of student affairs, Fant Pegues oversees the leaders of various offices on campus related to student health and wellbeing, such as housing and the university police department, according to a university organizational chart. Her biography on the university website notes that “my husband, Tee, and I enjoy living in Oxford and love being a part of the Ole Miss family.”

The post Ole Miss vice chancellor’s husband contests arrest for animal cruelty appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal watchdog report Monday laid blame on the Mississippi State Department of Health, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, for prolonging Jackson’s well-documented water woes, saying their failed oversight contributed to the capital city’s infrastructure issues lasting as long as they have.

“The MSDH’s inaction prolonged Jackson’s noncompliance,” the EPA Office of Inspector General’s report reads. The EPA OIG is an independent office within the EPA that conducts investigations and audits on behalf of the agency.

The report goes on to say that the state not documenting or raising attention to critical issues within the water system “obscured the long-standing challenges of the system, allowed issues to compound over time, and contributed to the system’s failure.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, MSDH hadn’t released a statement on the report, only telling Mississippi Today that it was still reviewing the document.

Among the many faults the report identified, the EPA OIG found that MSDH hasn’t had a proper enforcement procedure for drinking water systems since the EPA granted the state primacy — or the authority to regulate those systems — in 1977. The report criticizes both MSDH for not having enforcement procedures, as well as the EPA for not requiring MSDH to do so.

The investigation claims that MSDH didn’t call enough attention to significant issues with Jackson’s water system, and that by not doing so it left the EPA in the dark.

“Because the MSDH did not consistently identify significant deficiencies in Jackson’s sanitary surveys, there were no subsequent violations of which the EPA would have been made aware,” the EPA OIG wrote.

Specifically, the document says: “System staffing was a common concern noted throughout multiple sanitary surveys but only rose to the level of a significant deficiency in the February 2020 sanitary survey. In addition, membrane trains, which provide filtration, failed integrity testing in multiple sanitary surveys from 2015 through 2017 but were not deemed a significant deficiency until the February 2020 sanitary survey.”

Notably, only half of the membrane trains at the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant were running when a 2021 winter storm shut down Jackson’s water distribution.

The EPA OIG also listed several instances when MSDH failed to timely communicate with Jackson over its system deficiencies, including when the city failed a lead test in July 2015. MSDH didn’t notify the city of the test results until January 2016, and, due to the delay, “for approximately six months, Jackson residents were unaware that lead may have been in their drinking water,” the report says.

“For the majority of the sanitary surveys and inspections from 2016 through 2020, the MSDH had inconsistent communication with Jackson,” the report adds. “Either the MSDH sent written notification of significant deficiencies several months after conducting a sanitary survey or inspection, or it did not notify Jackson.”

Federal law requires states to conduct “sanitary surveys” at least once every three years to make sure public water systems are up to code.

Not only did MSDH delay telling Jackson about the city’s deficiencies, the report says, the agency also didn’t adequately reflect the severity of the city’s issues in its inspections. In an interview, an EPA Region IV employee told the EPA OIG that a 2020 diagnosis of Jackson’s water system found issues dating back to 2014 that MSDH hadn’t listed as “significant discrepancies.”

“According to a (Region IV enforcement) employee, the MSDH may have been aware of more problems than what was documented in the sanitary surveys,” the EPA OIG adds. “That employee speculated that there was a lack of ‘political will’ in the MSDH to address problems identified.”

Noting the city’s above-average number of line breaks — which were over three times the industry average from 2017 to 2021 — the report says that while line breaks are usually not reported to the EPA, the state could report the issue to the EPA if they find an “exorbitant number” of boil water notices. From 2014 to 2022, Jackson issued approximately 1,570 boil water notices. The report emphasizes the issue with a photo of a coffee mug captioned “Welcome to Boil Water Alert Mississippi.”

The report is the third this year that the EPA Office of Inspector General, an independent watchdog agency, released about Jackson’s water system. All three stem from the near-collapse of the system in 2022, which happened after the coincidence of flooding on the Pearl River and the failure of pumps at the city’s main treatment plant. Since then, the Department of Justice, EPA and city officials came to an agreement to allow a court-appointed third-party manager to temporarily takeover the water system.

The first report, released in May, found that MSDH and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality didn’t racially discriminate against Jackson in funding the city’s water system.

About a week later, though, the EPA OIG released another report that found that MSDH failed to provide Jackson with flexible loan options that are available for economically disadvantaged cities. That report also described failures on the city level, including poor management of its treatment plants as well as gaps in communication between operators and higher-ups.

Monday’s report lists several recommended actions to prevent the agencies’ short-comings in the future, including assessing MSDH’s sanitary survey program and how it helps water systems overcome deficiencies. Another action it lists is to make sure that MSDH has a procedure for enforcing federal and state drinking water laws.

“If (MSDH) is not implementing enforcement procedures as required by Safe Drinking Water Act section 1413, consider whether procedures for rescinding state primacy for water systems should be initiated,” the recommended action states.

In an e-mailed statement from EPA Press Officer Terry Johnson, the agency said that it has “previously identified many of the same concerns raised by the (EPA OIG) and has already begun implementing actions to address their recommendations. This includes working with (MSDH) to ensure strong drinking water regulatory oversight at the state and federal levels.” The City of Jackson did not respond to a request for comment by this story’s publication.

The post ‘Inadequate’ Health Department oversight contributed to Jackson water failure, federal watchdog finds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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State Auditor Shad White has taken the unusual tack for a leader of an investigative and enforcement agency of writing a book about an ongoing case — the Mississippi welfare fraud scandal.

“Mississippi Swindle: Brett Favre and the Welfare Scandal that Shocked America” hit bookshelves on Aug. 6 even as feds continue to probe and prosecute and the state tries to recoup tens of millions of federal dollars meant for the poor.

White is already drawing some fire for his tell-all from fellow officials he cast in less-than-flattering light. They question whether it’s appropriate for him to write about and profit from a case he investigated, and whether it could hinder ongoing criminal and civil investigation and prosecution.

Much of White’s new tome appears to be his defense of questions he has faced about his own role in the initial probe, his close relationship with a key figure and early decisions he made.

He also heaps criticism on Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch and state GOP Chairman Mike Hurst, who was a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney during the time on which the book focuses. White paints Hurst as too political and egotistical, Fitch as inept and uninterested in going after the misspending.

Hurst and Fitch accuse White of writing a self-aggrandizing work of fiction rather than a documentation of the welfare fraud case.

Hurst in a statement said: “It’s sad and disappointing that our state auditor would stoop to these levels of lies, rumors and innuendo in order to bolster himself politically and enrich himself financially during an ongoing criminal investigation. While fantasy and fiction may sell books, and maybe in his mind bolster his chances for higher office, it is not in the best interest of, or the right way forward for, our state.”

Hurst has also questioned whether White not involving the feds — with their wiretapping, surveillance, statutory and other capabilities — in the case until after the initial state arrests were made public hindered wrapping up all the bad actors in the fraud scheme.

A Fitch spokeswoman said of the book: “There is no question that publishing a book while a case is still active makes a complicated case that much more complicated. It remains to be seen what impact the Auditor’s recollection of events will have on the serious work that is being done on behalf of Mississippians.

“We can’t speak for others, but as far as its account of the Attorney General’s role, we consider the book fiction.”

White, an ambitious politician with eyes on the governor’s office, in his book praises himself and his staff for uncovering massive fraud after a tip from White’s majordomo, then-Gov. Phil Bryant. White in the book also praises Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, to whom White took the case for prosecution.

White initially eschewed federal prosecutors and the FBI, who had much more investigative and prosecutorial might and experience in tracking down misspending of federal money. In the book he explains that he worried the feds would not move quickly enough to staunch the misspending of millions of federal dollars by state actors. So he took the case to the newly elected Democratic Hinds DA Owens, with whom White says he already had a relationship from the two going through conversion to Catholicism together.

Criminal and civil defendants in the case, and the public, have for years questioned then-Gov. Bryant’s role in the frittering of potentially $100 million meant for the poorest of the poor in the poorest state. Mississippi Today’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Backchannel” series by reporter Anna Wolfe showed Bryant using private texts to influence his welfare director and try to broker a deal with a pharmaceutical startup that enticed him with an offer of stock in the company. 

White served as policy director when Bryant was lieutenant governor and was his gubernatorial campaign manager in 2015. Bryant in 2018 appointed White as state auditor, a job that has been a launching pad for runs to higher office, and supported White in his subsequent election.

Former state auditors have said that, had they had similar connections to the governor overseeing the agency that spends welfare money, they would have recused themselves or limited their involvement in the auditor’s investigation.

READ MORE: Former auditors question whether Shad White was too close to investigate Phil Bryant

White throughout the book rails against any questions of whether he feathered or sandbagged any investigation for his former boss, who has not been charged with any crime or been included in the state’s civil prosecution.

“Show some proof of this crazy conspiracy,” White writes. “If the feds can find proof on more people, then good. Everyone who did something wrong should go down. If the feds suspect Bryant of telling (a key defendant) to get rich off this money, or if they think Bryant benefitted, then tell them to do the work we’ve been doing. Investigate! Reach their own conclusions! Tell them to do their jobs!”

READ MORE: Phil Bryant had his sights on a payout as welfare funds flowed to Brett Favre

White, who is critical of Mississippi Today, Wolfe and “The Backchannel” — and never mentions the Pulitzer Prize — shrugs off texts involving Bryant, including one between Bryant and the head of a pharmaceutical company that received welfare money. The drug CEO recently pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges in the welfare case, after White’s book had already been written.

The pharmaceutical CEO texted Bryant two days after the governor left office: “Now that you’re unemployed, I’d like to give you a company package for all your help.”

Bryant responded: “Sounds good. Where would be the best place to meet. I am now going to get on it hard.”

White in his book explains: “Bryant sent these controversial texts after my office took our findings to Jody Owens, so they were not central to the opening salvo of the case. They hadn’t even been sent when we went to Jody. But the message would go on to be a focal point for every prosecutor who looked at the matter from then on. How federal and state prosecutors interpreted his messages — had Bryant agreed to accept something of value in exchange for an official act? — would determine Bryant’s future.”

White further defends Bryant, “the most salient fact … was that Bryant had never actually accepted anything of value” and says Bryant hired a new welfare agency head to get to the bottom of misspending.

READ MORE: Brett Favre says welfare probe has ignored Gov. Bryant’s role

Some of White’s knocks on others, particularly Hurst, appear thinly sourced, such as, “I was still hearing rumors that Mike Hurst was telling people I’d handed the DHS case to state prosecutors instead of the feds to protect Governor Bryant.” And, “The rumors were that Mike had been directing FBI agents as if they worked for him, creating animosity with FBI bosses.”

As for Fitch, White says she appeared disinterested in prosecuting the largest fraud case in state history, forcing those who misspent it to pay it back or seizing millions of dollars in property bought with ill begotten money. He questioned her relationship with famed former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, whom the state has sued to recoup welfare money paid to him.

White writes that Fitch failed to help freeze a bank account holding welfare money but, “Instead Fitch filmed a video around that time with Brett Favre (where he called her ‘Lynn Finch with an n in her last name) discussing COVID and promoting her office — all after the public knew Favre was enmeshed in the scandal … perhaps Fitch was wagering it was better for her long-term political future to align with Favre.”

Favre is suing White claiming defamation, and Fitch has refused to have the AG’s office represent White in the case in part because his book criticizes her office creating a conflict of interest. Fitch’s office has also warned White that any legal matters involving his book would be outside the scope of his job and he would be on his own legally.

In the book White writes: “Attorney General Lynn Fitch has been quiet throughout the DHS debacle, failing to even register a meaningful comment on the largest public fraud scheme in the state’s history. Whereas Jody (Owens) and I faced criticism for moving too slowly — despite being the ones to uncover and serve the first indictments in the scheme — Fitch had escaped controversy by doing nothing at all.”

White’s book has been the talk of Mississippi’s political class for months, with many questioning whether it’s proper for him to profit from a case in which he was involved as state auditor. A recent promotional video of White put out by the publisher appeared to be shot from a state office, with White sitting beneath a large state of Mississippi seal, further prompting the questions.

Tom Hood, director of the Mississippi Ethics Commission, said that generally, an elected official can write such a book.

“The Ethics Commission has advised in numerous opinions that public servants are not prohibited from taking general knowledge or experience gained through the course of their government service and using it in the private sector.”

But professor John Pelissero, director of Government Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said, “I can understand why people would question his motivations here.”

“To be directly involved in investigating the welfare scandal and then, if you will, limiting how much information his office was sharing with the public before coming out with a book, one has to look at the release of this book and ask how is the public interest served by the state auditor using his position … then benefitting personally and perhaps politically,” Pelissero said. “… Maybe in terms of the letter of the law the auditor hasn’t violated anything, but the book is based upon information he acquired in his official capacity. The ethical problem is if the public looks at it and they perceive the auditor is seeking to benefit financially and politically … That undermines the public’s confidence.”

As this article was being reported and written, State Auditor’s Office Communications Director Jacob Walters messaged saying, “I’ve heard around the grapevine” that an article was forthcoming and that he assumed “you would give us a chance to respond.” The state employee, who did not answer whether he was doing the book public relations as a state employee, then sent lengthy written statements from White blasting Hurst and Fitch. (Note: Read the full comments here.)

“The truth, unfortunately, is that Mike was not a particularly good U.S. Attorney,” White’s statement said. And for Fitch, “… she failed to prosecute a soul, failed to seize any property bought with stolen welfare money and forced the state to hire private attorneys … That decision by Lazy Lynn has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars…”

Asked at the recent Neshoba County Fair by Mississippi Today why he wrote the book, White said the writing, which he started a couple of years ago, was partially cathartic.

“I really started writing at a time when the state auditor’s office and the Hinds DA were the only entities doing anything about the welfare scandal in Mississippi, and frankly I was a little frustrated,” White said. “One of the things I do when I’m frustrated is pour my thoughts onto a page … and by the end, I thought this is a story that taxpayers need to know. This is a complicated case as y’all know at Mississippi Today, and I thought I needed to put this all in one place and explain to the people not only what happened but why I made the decisions I made throughout the course of the case.”

And while the feds appear to still be active on the case, White said, “the FBI has not asked us any questions about how to dig into any more facts any time in the last year” and he believes “prosecutors have all the facts and now they’re debating whether to charge anybody else.”

White’s 236-page book, published by New Hampshire-based Steerforth Press, flows fairly well even as it gets into the weeds at times about audit details with lots of numbers. White lists no co-author.

Some of the color in the book can be off-putting, such as what appears to be an almost formulaic — and sometimes harsh — quick description of main characters as they are introduced.

White describes Phil Bryant as having “rugged looks … a thick head of perfectly coiffed gray hair.” Gov. Tate Reeves is, “rosy-cheeked with a full head of blond hair.” DHS Director John Davis is described as, “now a paunchy, balding man with a penchant for flashy ties and decor.” A younger defendant Nancy New had “big hair and a Cheshire cat grin.” Defendant Zach New “still looked like a Southern Miss frat boy … a permanent five o’clock shadow and wore some beer weight around his face.” Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe was “wearing big, horn-rimmed glasses and hair that occasionally changed colors.” An aide to Davis “was callow, still sporting his college haircut.”

White, 38, is himself a small, slender elfish looking fellow with large ears and a receding hair line.

White’s book appears to be written in the vein of c’est fini, but the feds got a guilty plea from the pharmaceutical CEO about one week before White’s book hit the shelves.

A couple of other themes in the book perhaps also didn’t age well.

After White penned his criticism of Hurst and the book was put to bed, Hurst was elected chairman of the state Republican Party. With his ambition for occupying the governor’s mansion, White would probably need the help and support of his party.

Also after the book was put to bed, Hinds County District Attorney Owens’ office and a cigar bar and lounge he owns were in May raided by FBI agents. The purpose of the raids remains unexplained, but Owens said he is cooperating with federal authorities.

The post ‘Lies, rumors, innuendo … fiction.’ State GOP chair, AG bash Auditor Shad White’s book on welfare scandal appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Aug. 10, 1920

Mamie Smith sang Perry Bradford’s song “Crazy Blues,” detailing the “outrage by a woman driven mad by mistreatment,” music critic David Hajdu wrote in The New York Times. 

“Now the doctor’s gonna do all that he can,” she advised, “but what you’re gonna need is an undertaker man.” 

The tune struck a chord with Black Americans, still reeling from the violence of 1919’s “Red Summer.” The song popularized the blues, selling more than 2 million copies, Hajdu wrote. “People were not only moved by it; they moved to it.” 

The success of the song prompted major record companies to market to Black audiences and paved the way for other Black female performers. Smith’s voice “changed presumptions about what popular music was, what it could do — what kind of language it could speak to us about the depth and intricacies of our inner lives,” Daphne A. Brooks wrote in The New York Times. 

A century later, the blues continues to play an outsized role in American music. “Hatred and violence have hardly disappeared from the American landscape,” Hajdu wrote. “Neither has the blues.”

The post On this day in 1920 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A north Mississippi animal shelter caring for 27 dogs whose owners have been charged with animal neglect is hoping that the case is an opportunity to reexamine the state’s animal protection laws, which have been rated as among the weakest in the nation. 

The owner and his fiance are facing misdemeanors.

“Stuff like this case is not as uncommon as people think it is,” said Meridith Perry, interim director of the Corinth Alcorn Animal Shelter. “It is happening more than people realize.”

One puppy was dead and scavenged by the other dogs. 

A tip from a neighbor led the Corinth police to a Pleasant Grove Road home where several dogs were outside. Inside, police and staff from the shelter and rescue organizations found malnourished and sick dogs without food and water. 

Mixed breed dogs ranging in age from a few months old to adult age hid under furniture and others stood on it, video released by the local animal shelter shows. Feces and urine covered the ground. 

Perry said the shelter is over capacity since taking in the rescued dogs. 

The owner of the home, Jonathan Hurst, a Corinth city employee terminated this week, was arrested July 28 and, days later, so was his fiance, Sondra Bullard. Both were charged with 27 counts of animal cruelty – a misdemeanor charge for each dog discovered at the property.

After initial hearings last week, both pleaded not guilty and were released on personal recognizance, according to the Corinth Municipal Court’s office. Their next scheduled court date is Nov. 4. 

They could not be reached for comment Friday.

Hurst, who worked for the city’s sewer department, lost his job Tuesday. Mayor Ralph Dance said the termination was unrelated to the animal neglect case, but rather issues related to his employment, the Daily Corinthian reported. 

The city is also considering demolition of the home where the dogs were found because it has been contaminated and is not salvageable. 

The Animal Legal Defense Funds ranked Mississippi’s animal protection laws as No. 45 in the nation in its recent report, based on statutes and categories of protection. 

In Mississippi, a charge of simple animal cruelty includes the criminal neglect or intent of depriving a dog or cat of adequate shelter, food or water or confining them in a cruel manner. A charge carries a penalty of up to six months in jail or a maximum $1,000 fine, or both. 

For Hurst and Bullard, that could mean up to 13 ½ years of jail time, $27,000 in fines or both if convicted of all 27 charges.

Aggravated cruelty, a felony, is intentional harm of a dog or cat. Each charge can come with a maximum three-year prison sentence, a $5,000 fine or both. Subsequent offenses within five years carry a prison sentence of one to 10 years and a maximum $10,000 fine. 

“We’re not really holding people accountable to the level they should be,” said Perry, who noted that in other states, there is more of an ability to charge animal cruelty as a felony rather than a misdemeanor.

Under state law updated in 2020, a judge can prohibit someone from owning animals in the future, order the person to seek counseling or to complete community service. 

Those found to violate that prohibition can be fined and their animals forfeited to the state, according to state law.  

Convictions have varied for people charged with animal cruelty under the law. 

In 2020, a Jones County woman was charged with 38 counts after caged and hungry dogs were rescued and five dogs were found dead at a property she owned. She was sentenced to 114 months in jail with six to serve, thousands in fines, hundreds of community service hours and an order to undergo a psychological evaluation. 

Last year, a woman who ran a Harrison County animal rescue organization pleaded no contest to 10 counts of animal cruelty and was ordered to serve six months in jail. Sheriff’s deputies went to her property in 2022 and found 30 dead dogs, a dead buzzard and live dogs that were taken in by the nearby animal shelter.

A man pleaded guilty in March to aggravated animal cruelty for throwing a dog off a balcony in Hattiesburg, breaking its bones. In an order of nonadjudication of guilt, he was ordered to complete community service and remain in good behavior. 

The FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System began collecting information about animal cruelty incidents from law enforcement agencies in 2016. But the agency cautions that the numbers may be underreported because not every law enforcement agency reports data and animal control agencies and humane organizations that often investigate cruelty aren’t able to report data. 

Preliminary analysis of the data from 2018 found 4.3 animal cruelty incidents nationally per 100,000 people – far less than incidents of crimes such as assault, robbery and drug offenses. 

In Mississippi, data from the reporting system from 2020 through 2022 showed a total of 362 reported animal cruelty incidents. As the FBI noted, the data is likely underreported because for these years, incidents were reported from 30 to 80 agencies – a fraction of the hundreds of law enforcement agencies that exist in the state. 

As of Friday, the rescued dogs from the Corinth home are recovering. Eight of them were taken into the care of Guardians of Rescue and placed in foster homes out of state. The remaining are in the care of the Corinth Alcorn Animal Shelter. 

Some of the younger ones in better health will be ready for adoption or transport out of state in the coming weeks, Perry said. 

Through the end of the month, adoptions are $50 for dogs that have been at the shelter for a year or more, which she said will help clear up space. 

The shelter staff expressed gratitude to the community and supporters from beyond Corinth who have donated dog food, cleaning supplies and money to help with medical bills. 

“The support has been overwhelming,” Perry said. “We didn’t expect anything of it. We had no idea of what to expect. We just put out the call.” 

For more information about how to help the shelter and updates about the rescued dogs, visit www.facebook.com/corinthalcornanimalshelter

The post Ex-Corinth city employee, fiance charged with 27 counts of animal cruelty appeared first on Mississippi Today.