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Tate the Turtle teaches Mike the “Woke” Worm about power.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Turtle Power 4 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Federal authorities in Mississippi have added another defendant to their witness list in their prosecution of the still unfolding welfare scandal: Christi Webb, former director of the nonprofit Family Resource Center of North Mississippi.

Webb pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of theft concerning federal funds, the latest criminal charge within the scheme that began with state arrests in 2020.

As one of the leaders of a state-sanctioned initiative called Families First for Mississippi, Webb was a key figure in some of the diversion of $77 million in federal anti-poverty funds away from poor families under the administration of former Gov. Phil Bryant. Most of the money came from a flexible federal block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.

As part of her plea, Webb has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their ongoing probe into widespread corruption inside the welfare program overseen by Bryant and his appointed welfare director John Davis. Davis pleaded guilty to state and federal charges in September.

Bryant has not faced any charges, although text messages uncovered by Mississippi Today illustrate Bryant’s involvement in various parts of the scheme, including the promise to “open a hole” for former NFL legend Brett Favre’s pharmaceutical venture, which eventually received $2 million in stolen welfare funds. Bryant has denied any wrongdoing. 

Bryant has denied any wrongdoing, saying he did not carefully read his text messages to understand what Favre was requesting.

Webb has already made allegations that the former governor manipulated welfare spending during his time in office, Mississippi Today first reported. Webb was a supporter of former Attorney General Jim Hood, Gov. Tate Reeves’ Democratic opponent for governor in 2019, and had hired his wife to run one of the nonprofit’s local family resource centers.

That election year, a local lawmaker threatened Webb on behalf of Bryant, Webb told Mississippi Today through her attorney Casey Lott, who currently sits on FRC’s board.

Lott said the north Mississippi Republican lawmaker told Webb, “FRC will never receive another dollar from the state if you don’t fire Debbie Hood.”

“He explicitly said, ‘I’m the governor’s messenger,” Lott said.

Federal authorities have remained silent about who they are targeting in their ongoing investigation. But state officials including State Auditor Shad White, who originally investigated the case, and Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, who secured the first indictments, say they intend to investigate “everybody top to bottom.”

“John Davis is critical because the ladder continues to move up,” Owens said after Davis’ guilty pleas.

Webb pleaded guilty to a bill of information, which occurs when a defendant waives a grand jury indictment. The single count against Webb, the first criminal charge she has faced, mirrors the bill of information Davis pleaded guilty to in September.

So far, all the charges that the U.S. Attorney’s Office have filed in the welfare scandal revolve around money that flowed from the state welfare department through private nonprofits to retired professional wrestlers Teddy DiBiase Jr. and Brett DiBiase.

Lott said Webb ran her welfare grant in accordance with guidance from her attorneys and the welfare department’s state plan.

“The US attorneys will say, ‘Well, the state plan is not consistent with the TANF guidelines.’ Well, that’s a state problem. That’s not a Christi Webb problem. She didn’t create that plan. The state created that plan intentionally broad so they could use it as their slush fund,” Lott said Friday.

Lott, who had been representing Webb pro bono until recently, said he would not have advised Webb to take the plea and that he only stopped representing her after the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued he had a conflict of interest. Because she could not afford one, Webb was represented in her plea by federal public defender Abby Edwards.

Officials have never alleged that Webb received misspent funds personally. The other nonprofit founder originally arrested in the scandal, Nancy New, was accused of personally benefiting from the scheme because she funneled money to her for-profit school and agreed to accept stock in the pharmaceutical company she funded.

Forensic auditors estimated that Family Resource Center, which Webb had served as director from 2005 until stepping down as director this week, misspent at least $11.5 million worth of welfare funds from 2016 to 2019. Her federal criminal charges only cover a fraction of that — $700,000 in TANF funds and nearly $500,000 in federal emergency food assistance funds that Webb funneled to companies owned by retired professional wrestler Teddy DiBiase Jr.

By agreeing with the information, Webb admits that Davis directed her to award sham contracts to DiBiase Jr., though Davis knew the wrestler was unqualified to provide welfare-related services.

“As a result, Webb, through FRC, intentionally misapplied federal funds to various individuals and entities for social services that were not provided,” the bill of information reads. “… As a result of the actions of Webb, Davis, Person 1 (Nancy New), Person 2 (Teddy DiBiase Jr.), and others, millions of dollars in federal safety net funds were diverted from needy families and low-income individuals in Mississippi from at least 2016 to at least 2019.”

The charge comes with a maximum sentence of up to 10 years.

Webb’s federal criminal exposure was foreshadowed in the September bill of information against Davis. In it, federal authorities included Webb, Nancy New, Teddy DiBiase Jr. and one other resident of Hinds County as unnamed co-conspirators.

Teddy DiBiase Jr.’s brother, Brett DiBiase, a resident of Clinton, a town in Hinds County, pleaded guilty to new federal charges against him earlier this month. Brett DiBiase was also the first person to plead guilty to state charges in 2020. In addition to hundreds of thousands from the nonprofits, Brett DiBiase received a $48,000 contract directly from the welfare department for opioid addiction education training he did not conduct because he was himself checked into a luxury rehab facility. Officials also paid $160,000 in welfare funds to the rehab facility for Brett DiBiase’s treatment, auditors found.

The DiBiase brothers are the sons of famous retired WWE wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase Sr., whose Christian ministry Heart of David also allegedly improperly received $1.7 million in welfare funds.

Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing all three men, as well as Webb, Davis, New and dozens of others, in its large civil case that attempts to claw back the misspent money.

Teddy DiBiase Jr. and Nancy New have never been charged federally with crimes related to the welfare scandal, though federal agents did attempt to seize DiBiase’s house in 2020 during their investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also charged Nancy New and her son Zach New in 2021 with defrauding the Mississippi Department of Education as part of a separate scheme related to their for-profit private schools.

In early March, Teddy DiBiase Jr. and his wife Kristen DiBiase agreed with the federal government for the U.S. Marshal Service to sell their home, a nearly 6,000-square-foot, $1.5 million lakeside property in the Madison community of Reunion. After paying the remaining mortgage and any taxes on the house, the federal government will hold the assets pending the conclusion of the forfeiture case.

The court document that spells out the agreement of the sale says one reason for the sale is to prevent foreclosure. Teddy DiBiase Jr. and his LLCs collected over $3 million in revenue from the welfare fund during the scandal, much of which from Webb’s nonprofit.

The admission that Webb intentionally misapplied federal welfare funds is a departure from statements Webb made through Lott in recent months.

“The DiBiase’s and their organizations contracted to provide services to needy families,” Lott said in a written statement in September. “The problem is they didn’t hold up to their end of the bargain. And once they refused to do everything Christi asked them to do, she refused to award any additional subgrants to those organizations. This enraged John Davis. He yelled and cursed Christi and other FRC employees for not sending them money anyway. He threatened to cut their funding if Christi didn’t do what he told her to do. And when she stood her ground and did the right thing, he followed through with his threat. Christi is the only one who ever told John Davis ‘no,’ and she was punished for it. She was forced to lay hundreds of people off. Those innocent people who were providing much needed services to the North Mississippi community lost their job because Christi stood up to John Davis and did the right thing. So, to say she’s a ‘co-conspirator’ is absurd.”

Around the time of this squabble in March of 2019, Davis told Teddy DiBiase Jr. he had communicated with Gov. Reeves, then lieutenant governor, about the situation with Webb, according to text messages Mississippi Today obtained.

“Tate Reeves just called me said he wanted me to know they don’t give two shits about the BC or Christi to keep doing what I’m doing. Boom,” Davis texted Teddy DiBiase Jr. in March of 2019. Phone records show Davis also saved Reeves number two days after this text. (Mississippi Today could not confirm what BC in his text stands for, but two sources believed it could be a typo).

Reeves’s office told Mississippi Today in September that the governor did not recall calling Davis and “doesn’t really know” Webb.

Webb pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves, the same judge that oversaw the pleas of Nancy and Zach New, Davis and Brett DiBiase.

Webb’s sentencing is set for June 16, but like the others, her sentencing could be delayed until the prosecution is closer to a conclusion. No one criminally charged within the welfare scandal has been sentenced and none is currently incarcerated.

The post Nonprofit founder who helped officials raid Mississippi’s welfare fund becomes latest witness for the feds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

William Bynum Jr.’s lawsuit against Jackson State University and the Institutions of Higher Learning is still open more than three years after the former university president, who had been arrested in a prostitution sting, resigned his post. 

The lawsuit, delayed in Hinds County Circuit Court, has dragged on long enough to see Bynum’s replacement, Thomas Hudson, tender his own resignation. Hudson is the third consecutive Jackson State president to resign, but unlike his predecessors, the public has not been told why Hudson stepped down. 

In a March 2020 complaint, Bynum alleged that a provision in his contract assured that he could stay at Jackson State as “a full professor, and with tenure,” in the College of Education with a salary 110% that of the highest-paid faculty member. But Jackson State and IHL “failed or refused to permit” that to happen, his initial complaint alleges. 

A month after Bynum filed suit, Jackson State terminated him as full professor. Jackson State and IHL have countered that Bynum was an at-will employee who had never been granted tenure at Jackson State.

A message left for the Winfield Law Firm, which is representing Jackson State and IHL, was not returned. Bynum’s lawyer Dennis Sweet III, said he intends to keep pursuing the case. 

“If you look at the contract, we win,” Sweet said. “It’s not even a contest.” 

The lawsuit provides a look into how IHL resolves the resignations of its presidents, a process that is typically hidden from the public view due to an exemption for “personnel records” from the state’s public records law. 

For instance, IHL recently denied Mississippi Today’s records request for Hudson’s resignation letter, citing the exemption. The board could release these documents with Hudson’s permission, but a board spokesperson said that has not been granted. It’s unclear if the board asked for it. 

Bynum was appointed Jackson State’s president in the summer of 2017 after serving as president of Mississippi Valley State University for about four years. He was not a popular pick. Members of a search committee that had been tasked with interviewing candidates did not invite Bynum back for a second interview. The board’s announcement of his selection inspired several Black lawmakers to file a lawsuit to prevent his appointment. 

But Bynum became Jackson State’s president anyway. He was paid a $300,000 annual salary from the state of Mississippi, plus an annual $75,000 bonus from the JSU foundation. He was also appointed full professor – a perk all university presidents in Mississippi get – with the possibility of receiving tenure after five years as president, according to IHL board policy. 

Bynum’s lawsuit alleges that perk was supposed to outlast his employment as Jackson State president. A clause attached to Bynum’s contract read: “In the event the Employee resigns or is terminated as President of Jackson State University, but remains employed with the institutions as a professor, Employee’s salary as a full professor shall be 110% of the highest faculty salary on the Jackson campus of Jackson State University.” 

The clause also noted that “the Board will consider an application for tenure as a full professor in the Department of Education, Human Development, and Humane Letters in the College of Education at Jackson State University.” 

After Bynum resigned following his arrest in February 2020, he sent an email on Feb. 14 to IHL Commissioner Alfred Rankins and the IHL board members notifying them of his intent to remain at JSU as a faculty member, according to the lawsuit. Bynum noted that he had served as a university president for a total of 6.5 years, most of that at MVSU. 

On Feb. 18, 2020, Sweet followed up with a letter to Rankins. 

“While it is understandable that you might wish Dr. Bynum to refrain from being physically present on the JSU campus until his pending legal issues are resolved, he may still serve JSU in other capacities while not physically present on campus,” he wrote. 

Sweet suggested that Bynum could teach classes virtually or at the off-campus e-Center. Or Bynum could help staff dissertation committees for the College of Education, which Sweet claimed lacked faculty qualified for that task. 

Sweet added that should IHL “fail to honor” Bynum’s contract, he believed Bynum was entitled to damages due in part to his health issues. 

“In my many years of practice, this is without a doubt a case warranting punitive damages,” Sweet wrote, “especially considering the IHL’s poorly written and contradictory policies.” 

Any email reply from Rankins or IHL was not included in Bynum’s exhibits in the lawsuit. But in joint court filings, Jackson State and IHL have alleged that as government entities, they can’t be sued for a contractual breach under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. They further argue that Jackson State can’t be sued because it was not party to Bynum’s contract. 

Near the end of 2021, Bynum asked the court to rule in his favor without trial. Jackson State and IHL, in a Nov. 23 motion asking the court to dismiss the suit, argue that Bynum has no evidence of receiving tenure or being entitled to it. 

“Despite his voluntary resignation from the position for which he was hired (president of JSU), Bynum now complains of his termination from a position (professor) for which he had no contractual or other right,” Jackson State and IHL argue. “Bynum’s claims all miss the mark.”

A judge has yet to rule on the motions, and the case is scheduled for a docket call on March 29. 

The post As one Jackson State president resigns, another is still suing the university and IHL appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippians on Medicaid officially have health care coverage for a year after giving birth. 

Gov. Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2212 into law on Thursday, extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from two to 12 months.

His signature came after a last-minute endorsement of the bill before a legislative deadline last month. For a year prior, Reeves had not taken a stance on the issue. Two weeks before issuing his endorsement, he said he “needed more data” to decide.

The change will affect thousands. More than two-thirds of babies in Mississippi are born to people on Medicaid. 

Health experts, including State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney, medical organizations and maternal health advocates have long pushed for the change. Mississippi’s maternal mortality rate is getting worse, and Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate, preterm birth rate and low-birthweight rate in the country. 

Experts say that extending postpartum coverage will improve health outcomes for babies and their mothers because it will allow them to seek care and address continuing pregnancy-related health issues long after they give birth, lowering the risk of preterm birth. 

Advocates say the move is especially important after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights last summer. The state is expecting thousands more births in the coming months. 

Reeves, who faces reelection later this year, cited the overturning of Roe v. Wade in a press release as a leading factor in his support of the legislation.

“I believe continuing to offer care for new moms for up to 12 months after the birth of their baby is the right thing to do,” he said in the statement. “This is one more thing that we can do to tip the scales in favor of life. And that has to be our priority.”

For two years, the Senate passed the legislation multiple times, and it was repeatedly blocked by House leadership. But the political tides turned in late February after Reeves unexpectedly urged lawmakers via social media to pass the bill.  

Quickly after, Division of Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder, who had also refused to take a stance on the legislation for months, wrote House Speaker Philip Gunn a letter voicing his support for the change. He estimated the policy change would cost the state $7.1 million, a fraction of its $3.9 billion surplus. 

On Feb. 28, the House Medicaid Committee met for the first time, allowing the legislation to move to the House floor days later, where it passed. 

Mississippi now joins 29 other states, including D.C., that have extended postpartum Medicaid coverage. 

The post Reeves signs extended Medicaid coverage for new mothers into law appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Hiss! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Bob Hickingbottom, a little-known Democrat running for governor in 2023, posted a soon-to-be viral message to his campaign Facebook page on Feb. 17 around 3 p.m.

“… I hope you will join me and vote for the Democrats from the top to the bottom of the ticket. With the exception of my good friend Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who has to run as a Republican to win. Delbert is really a Democrat and has been our friend through the years. We all need to do everything we can for him,” Hickingbottom wrote to his 400 or so page followers. 

A few minutes later, at 3:34 p.m., Hosemann’s GOP opponent in the August primary for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, posted a screenshot of that Hickingbottom post onto his own page with the post: “There you have it. Democrats Love Delbert! #DelbertTheDemocrat.”

McDaniel is the far-right conservative who developed a national brand and following in 2014 when he nearly defeated longtime U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In that 2014 race, McDaniel ran what is considered the first Mississippi campaign to realize the full political power of social media. He has since sharpened that skillset and has hundreds of thousands of followers of like-minded, fired-up conservatives across the state and nation.

After McDaniel posted the Hickingbottom screenshot, his social media machine got to work. Several right-leaning and pro-McDaniel Facebook groups and users begin reposting it with the hashtag #DelbertTheDemocrat. Many of these other accounts have ridden McDaniel’s coattails in the development of their own brands and social media followings.

That evening, though, several Facebook users posted a different version of the Hickingbottom screenshot that spread quickly through Mississippi’s far-right conservative online spaces. This separate version of the Hickingbottom screenshot clearly showed something peculiar under the post: “Posted by Ashley Rae Bright.”

Social media savants know that those words being listed there indicates that a woman named Ashley Rae Bright is the “Elect Bob Hickingbottom” Facebook page administrator. In political campaigns, Facebook administrator duties are typically reserved for staffers of a campaign. It’s a delicate and important power to wield, and campaigns, in particular, are very careful about who gets granted that access.

A quick Google search of Ashley Rae Bright shows that she is a consultant for The Allain Group, a Jackson-based political consulting company “offering strong strategic and creative expertise to political campaigns and business clients.”

The president of The Allain Group is Lane “L.C.” Murray, a longtime Mississippi political operative. Murray, a self-admitted former member of the Ku Klux Klan, became a controversial player in the 2014 Senate race between McDaniel and Cochran. 

Murray told Breitbart News during the 2014 race that he was a McDaniel supporter after Murray threatened a Republican state senator by phone. His former membership to the KKK was a focus of the Breitbart piece.

Mississippi Today contacted Murray last week to ask if The Allain Group was working for Hickingbottom’s campaign in any way.

“The Allain Group hasn’t been hired by him,” Murray told Mississippi Today in a phone interview. “I do know Mr. Hickingbottom, he’s a better friend than anything else. I haven’t talked to him in a while. I know he’s had COVID and he recently got kicked off the Democratic ballot. But no, Hickingbottom has not contacted The Allain Group, and we are not doing anything for him.”

Asked why Bright, an employee of The Allain Group, appeared to be an administrator of the Elect Bob Hickingbottom Facebook page, Murray deflected.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Murray said. “She works some part time for us, uh, back and forth. I remember her saying something about her computer being hacked or something like that. She was raising hell one day about her Facebook had been hacked. But I’m going to talk to her in the next hour or so, and I’ll call you back and tell you what I find out.”

Murray hung up and called back later that day with an update.

“She does not know Bob Hickingbottom,” Murray said of Bright. “She said somebody hacked her computer, something about someone posting something to his campaign page. She reported it. A day or two later somebody hacked it with something else. I don’t know too much about computers. But like I said, I do know him, but we’re not doing any work for him at all.”

Mississippi Today reached out to Bright directly on Facebook and asked if she was working for the Hickingbottom campaign.

“Sir, I do not know the gentleman,” Bright wrote in a message. “My Facebook was hacked a couple times several weeks ago.”

When Mississippi Today sent Bright a screenshot that showed her as the Elect Bob Hickingbottom Facebook page administrator, Bright replied: “I seen that post as well, changed password and all. I don’t know him so therefore I can’t help you.”

When Mississippi Today then asked why a hacker would make her an administrator of Hickingbottom campaign’s Facebook page to post a political message, she doubled down on her denial of any work with Hickingbottom.

“Sir, I told you I do not know the gentleman,” Bright replied. “I do not know how that showed up on my Facebook. I’ve answered your questions. Now please leave me alone!”

Bright and Hickingbottom are friends on Facebook. Mississippi Today did not get the chance to ask Bright about why she is Facebook friends with someone she purportedly does not know before she declined to speak further.

Hickingbottom, 75, has been involved in Mississippi politics for decades. He broke through working as a political operative for scandal-ridden former Jackson Mayor Frank Melton. Speaking on popular conservative radio host Kim Wade’s show in 2007, Hickingbottom put his career this way: “I’ve been at the forefront of every dirty deal that was cut in politics.”

In 2019, Hickingbottom ran for governor as a Constitution Party candidate, using his limited platform to blister Democratic nominee Jim Hood, who came within six points of defeating now-Gov. Tate Reeves. In public Facebook posts during that race, Hickingbottom rarely turned his ire toward Reeves.

And most recently, Hickingbottom has been the subject of broad statewide news coverage after he and another candidate for governor were disqualified from the 2023 Democratic ballot. State Democratic Party officials say he was disqualified for not filing a statement of economic interest, a required form where candidates publicly disclose their personal business interests, and required campaign finance reports when he ran for governor in 2019. Since his disqualification, Hickingbottom has publicly panned Democratic Party leadership and has even threatened a lawsuit.

In a Mississippi Today interview with Hickingbottom last week, he said he thought it was “unconscionable” that the Democratic Party would disqualify two Black men in a primary against Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who is white and widely regarded as the party’s frontrunner.

But later in the interview, talking about his political background, Hickingbottom said: “I’m pretty conservative myself, to tell you the truth. I’m honestly too conservative for the Democrats probably.”

“I’ll put it to you this way, I’m a political operative,” Hickingbottom said. “I’ll work with whoever hires me, Democrat or Republican or whoever.”

Mississippi Today asked Hickingbottom in the interview about the controversial Facebook post about Hosemann and the apparent ties to The Allain Group.

Hickingbottom told Mississippi Today that he published the Facebook post himself. Asked why Bright was listed as his Facebook page administrator who posted it, he got weird.

“I don’t, well, I don’t know an Ashley Bright. I don’t know who she is” Hickingbottom said before abruptly changing the subject.

When Mississippi Today circled back about why Bright showed up as the administrator of his campaign Facebook page, Hickingbottom paused.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m an old guy and I didn’t even know anything about computers,” he said. “… I know how to do email and put stuff on Facebook, and I learned that basically through my telephone. All I can tell you is I don’t know her, I’ve never met her. Maybe she got hacked. All I use Facebook on is my phone. My phone has been hacked many times. I’ve had a reputation — let’s just put it like this, I was a flamethrower … I have a lot of enemies.”

He said several times during the interview that he believes Hosemann, a successful politician who has won four statewide elections as a Republican, is a Democrat. Hickingbottom said that he did not intend to hurt Hosemann nor help McDaniel.

“In 2014, I was on the air with other people talking against Chris McDaniel,” Hickingbottom said. “He was Tea Party, trying to do Thad (Cochran) in. We were talking about him real bad. A lot of people asked us to rip Chris McDaniel and get people to vote for Thad Cochran.”

Asked if he’d in any way solicited the help of The Allain Group to work on his campaign, Hickingbottom said he hadn’t. But he did acknowledge he knew Murray, the president of the consulting firm.

“I’ve known Lane Murray, he’s a fixture in politics,” Hickingbottom said. “I’ve been an operative myself for years and years. I know Lane Murray, Greg Brand, and to some extent they know me. But I haven’t seen him in two or three years at least. Since probably the end of 2020. I know him, but that’s the extent of it.”

Greg Brand, whom Hickingbottom mentioned unprompted, is another Mississippi political operative with a troubled past. 

In 2016, then-Secretary of State Hosemann pushed then-Attorney General Jim Hood to pursue charges against Brand for violating election law — specifically for mailing attack ads without identifying the group or individual who sent it. Brand and another operative were sentenced to six months probation and a $500 fine. Brand briefly tried to sue Hosemann in federal court over the episode, but that lawsuit was dismissed.

There’s yet another strange tie between Hickingbottom and The Allain Group: they are immediate neighbors in the same Jackson office building, according to Mississippi Secretary of State records.

Hickingbottom, who owns a company called “Blackstone Distributors LLC,” lists his business address at 1755 Lelia Drive, Suite 232, Jackson, MS 39216. The office for The Allain Group is 1755 Lelia Drive, Suite 222, Jackson, MS 39216. The suites are directly next to one another on the second floor of the office building.

Hickingbottom told Mississippi Today he had a small office space at that address “a couple years ago, but I was wasting money by paying for it so I moved out.” 

Murray repeated something similar.

“I’ve been in that office for four or five years,” Murray said of the office. “He had an office close to mine, a little one room thing. I might have seen him once or twice, but I don’t think he’s been in there for two or three years.”

Both Murray and Hickingbottom denied any coordinated effort to help McDaniel’s campaign.

Meanwhile, Hickingbottom continues posting incendiary Facebook posts about Hosemann. And McDaniel and his far-right social media circles keep using Hickingbottom’s posts to campaign directly against Hosemann. The strategy appears thorough and coordinated, and it has continued for weeks.

Radio host Kim Wade, a longtime and active public supporter of McDaniel, again had Hickingbottom on his show on Feb. 21 — just four days after Hickingbottom’s controversial Facebook post.

When Hickingbottom reiterated on the show that Hosemann was a Democrat, Wade replied: “Wow. There is some validity to what you’re saying given how he treated President Trump and how he treats conservatives. We can ignore it at our own peril.”

A clip of that radio show made its rounds on McDaniel’s social media.

“A MUST LISTEN,” McDaniel’s 2014 campaign manager and current state Sen. Melanie Sojourner posted to her Facebook page with a clip to the Wade interview.

McDaniel posted the same radio clip to his own Facebook page with similar language to Sojourner’s post: “BREAKING: This is a MUST LISTEN. Democrat candidate for Governor discusses Delbert Hosemann: ‘He’s a Democrat.’” 

Others in right-wing media have been singing the same tune. Jim Cegielski, publisher of the Laurel Leader-Call newspaper and a longtime McDaniel lackey, wrote a column about Hickingbottom’s shock claim with the headline: “Delbert’s a Democrat … Bet your Hickingbottom dollar on it.”

McDaniel posted that column to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers multiple times. In all, McDaniel has posted at least 10 separate posts to his social media pages boosting Hickingbottom’s words and using them to paint Hosemann as a Democrat.

“BREAKING NEWS: Delbert Hosemann gets a huge endorsement this week,” McDaniel posted on Feb. 23. “You are not going to believe it! We’ve always known Democrats love Delbert Hosemann behind the scenes, but now they are becoming public in their support. A Democrat candidate for Governor, Bob Hickingbottom, publicly endorsed Delbert Hosemann this week!”

That long post from McDaniel went on to mention the Kim Wade radio interview, closing the post by writing: “Perhaps Bob Hickingbottom did say it best — Delbert is the best Lt. Governor that Democrats could possibly have in Mississippi. It’s time for a change, Mississippi.”

Hickingbottom, for his part, keeps on posting, even after Mississippi Today questioned him about his posts.

On March 7, Hickingbottom posted a letter he says he sent to Hosemann. 

“To my fellow Mississippian and friend Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann,” Hickingbottom’s letter begins, “I have been told that I may have hurt you and your re-election campaign for Lt. Governor. I sincerely hope that is not true because that was not my intention. If you recall, I first met you many years ago when I was introduced to you by our mutual friend Louis Armstrong. In those days we were all proud Democrats like most of Mississippi at the time.”

On March 9, Hickingbottom posted a rambling, all-caps post that reiterates he never meant to hurt “Lt. Gov. Delbert Horseman (sic).”

On March 12, Hickingbottom posted a criticism of Hosemann for his work to change the Mississippi state flag in 2020, retiring the state’s last-in-American Confederate battle emblem design to a museum. That is a pirated talking point from many of McDaniel’s supporters.

Asked for comment, the Hosemann campaign appeared to be following the sequence of Hickingbottom events closely.

“This scheme was concocted to create a false narrative to support a losing campaign,” said Casey Phillips, senior adviser for the Delbert Hosemann campaign. “Why else would a former Klansman and known McDaniel supporter be running this person’s Facebook page? Before we know it, they will all be locked up in a courthouse again.”

Phillips said Hosemann does not know Hickingbottom, and that Hosemann has never received any letter from Hickingbottom — including that strange March 7 letter posted to Facebook.

The courthouse reference, of course, harkens back to the 2014 U.S. Senate race, when a McDaniel campaign staffer and two McDaniel supporters were found locked in the Hinds County Courthouse late on election night — one of just many shocking wrinkles of that wild race.

McDaniel’s campaign denied working with or communicating with Hickingbottom’s campaign and said that Murray is not working for the campaign.

“Unequivocally, neither Senator McDaniel nor any member of his campaign apparatus are communicating with, coordinating alongside, nor focusing on Bob Hickingbottom’s candidacy,” said Nicole Tardif, spokesperson for McDaniel’s campaign. 

Murray, who told Mississippi Today last week he was not working with McDaniel, apparently fashions himself as working behind the scenes for the conservative state senator.

With the past week, Murray sent text messages to several people across the state. One person, granted anonymity over fear of retribution from the Ku Klux Klan, shared the Murray text with Mississippi Today. The message’s focus: “Delbert the Democrat.”

The post What is Bob Hickingbottom up to? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi lawmakers, in the final two weeks of the 2023 legislative session, will hammer out details of a major election bill that could, among other things, give state officials power to purge “inactive” voters from the registered voter rolls.

Two other major election bills have already passed and await signature or veto from Gov. Tate Reeves.

Mississippi Today compiled an update below of the bill that’s still alive and summaries of the two bills that have already been sent to the governor.

House Bill 1310

The Senate has stripped from an elections bill a House provision that restored voting rights to military veterans convicted of felonies.

The provision restoring suffrage to veterans who had completed their sentence was removed in the Senate Elections Committee chaired by Sen. Jeff Tate, R-Meridian. The bill still provides a mechanism to remove registered voters from the rolls if they do not vote within a specified period of time or perform other functions related to their voter registration, such as responding to jury duty.

While the Senate removed the language giving the right to vote back to veterans, that language remains alive in the process as House and Senate leaders try to hammer out the differences between the two chambers on House Bill 1310.

But it is unlikely that the House leadership will try during the negotiations process to have the provision restoring voting rights to military veterans included in the final version of the bill. While the amendment restoring voting rights for veterans offered by Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley, was approved overwhelmingly by the full membership during a floor vote, it was opposed by House leaders.

Rep. Brent Powell, R-Brandon, is the lead author on the legislation and will be one of the leaders working to hammer out a difference between the House and Senate versions of the bill. He said the Senate contends the language granting voting rights to veterans is unconstitutional, though it has long been the policy of the Legislature and never challenged that voting rights could be restored to large groups of people, such as veterans, without changing the felony disenfranchisement language in the Mississippi Constitution. After World War II the Legislature did just that — restore voting rights to veterans — without amending the constitution.

“I will ask them (Senate negotiators) about it, but I am not really for it,” said Powell, who opposed restoring voting rights to veterans convicted of felonies when it was offered on the House floor.

Mississippi is one of a handful of states — fewer than 10 — that do not restore the right to vote to all people convicted of a felony at some point after they complete their sentence. A challenge to the felony disenfranchisement provision of the Mississippi Constitution is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The portion of the bill that House and Senate leaders support would have the potential to remove registered voters from the poll books. Under the provision, people who do not vote during a two-year period will be placed on an inactive list and can only vote via affidavit, meaning election officials must take action to officially accept the ballot before it can be counted. To regain unencumbered voting rights, the person would have to take affirmative action, such as returning a confirmation card or responding to jury duty or voting during the next two years. If they do none of those things during the two-year period, they are removed from the rolls and must re-register to vote.

As the bill was debated, many Democrats and a handful of Republicans expressed reservations about removing people from the rolls for not voting. Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, said legislative leaders were taking drastic action to remove people from the rolls without providing any examples of the voter fraud they were trying to prevent.

“The right to vote includes the right not to vote,” said Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson.

Tate said, “Every vote is precious. So one fraudulent vote is just as bad (or) as precious as one (good) vote. What we want to do is clean up the voter rolls. When we have people on the rolls by name only and they are not actually living there, that is a vessel for fraud. And yes, there is voter fraud. What this does is give our local election officials another tool to clean up their rolls.”

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said there are many people who are on the rolls, but only vote on occasion.

He pointed out a predominantly African American precinct in Amory where normally between 400 and 500 people vote. But in 2008 when Barack Obama was running for president more than 800 turned out to vote in the election where an African American was elected president for the first time in the nation’s history.

“How could you tell those people they are not allowed to vote?” he asked. Bryan added he is sure the same phenomenon in different precincts happened when Donald Trump was on the ballot. He said there are registered voters who do not vote because they are not enamored by the candidates on the ballot, but they should not be denied the right to vote when they are excited by someone on the ballot.

He said the bill had the potential to hurt people who are registered and eligible to vote, but only do so sporadically.

The bill also gives Secretary of State Michael Watson the authority to perform election audits and submit reports in all 82 counties during two election cycles — the 2023 statewide election and 2024 presidential election.

Senate Bill 2358

Two other election bills already are heading to the governor, who is expected to sign them into law.

Senate Bill 2358, authored by Tate, would prohibit the practice of a third party collecting a voter’s absentee ballot and delivering it to a clerk’s office or voting precinct. In some states, this practice has become widespread and supporters of the ban say it opens the process to election fraud by campaign operatives harvesting absentee ballots.

But opponents of the measure, mostly Democrats in both chambers, said it’s aimed at voter suppression and is a solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist in Mississippi. They also raised concerns it would stifle voting by the military, elderly people, people in nursing homes or disabled people who more often vote absentee.

If signed into law, the bill would only allow U.S. Postal Service or common carriers; election workers doing their official duties; or family, household members or caregivers of the absentee voter to deliver ballots.

Slightly different versions of the measure had passed the House 73-44, and Senate 37-15, on mostly party line votes.

Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville, attempted to kill the bill with a motion on the House floor, saying, “This is a bad bill, people.”

“This is oppressing people’s rights to vote in a democracy,” Bailey said. “This is making innocent people criminals … Everybody stands up here and salutes any time you say military, but then this is going to hurt the military, senior citizens and disabled … What is wrong with us?”

House Bill 1306

A measure that passed Wednesday would prohibit people from being on the ballot for elected office in Mississippi if they have failed to file campaign finance reports. House Bill 1306 would require a candidate to have filed any required campaign finance reports for the last five years in order to be eligible to be on the ballot.

The measure also included a provision prohibiting any unauthorized person from requesting an absentee ballot for someone else — making it a voter fraud crime punishable by a fine of $500 to $5,000 or being jailed up to a year. This provision drew much debate before the House voted 73-37 to send it to the governor. The Senate had passed it 52-0.

Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, questioned whether this measure is “an attempt to railroad people in nursing homes or who are disabled” or otherwise unable to get their own absentee ballot from voting. He questioned whether a nursing home director could get absentee ballots from a county clerk for residents of the home.

House Elections Chairman Price Wallace, R-Mendenhall, responded, “That is not the intent of this bill,” and said that if nursing home residents requested a director or other caregiver get them a ballot there would be no problem. “But if that person running that nursing home does that without them asking for it, it’s fraudulent.”

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Mississippi author Angie Thomas has sold millions of copies of her books, but the Mississippi Library Commission kept readers from checking out her most popular work, “The Hate U Give.”

On Monday, MCIR questioned commission officials about officials barring Mississippians from checking out Thomas’ novel from the lending library in Jackson. (Each copy was marked “To Be Reviewed”.) On Wednesday, all copies and the movie adaptation were available, except for an annotated version as part of the Mississippi Reads project. (Ebony Lumumba, associate professor of English and chair of the English department at Jackson State University, wrote the annotated version.)

The commission is hardly alone in removing books from shelves. Thomas’ book and a number of others that deal with race have been barred in Mississippi and across the nation in the name of keeping “harmful material” away from minors. So far, those “harmful” books include a children’s book about civil rights icon Rosa Parks and a graphic novel that seeks to help children understand the Holocaust. 

Thomas, who is speaking at Mississippi’s first Banned Book Festival on March  25 in conversation with Ebony Lumumba, called the barring of her book “disappointing, especially in a country where people should have the right to read whatever they want to read. And it’s even  more disappointing in a state such as  Mississippi, which needs to learn from its past to understand its present.”

Madison County schools also have kept students from reading Thomas’ novel, according to a 2021-2022 survey by PEN America. Nearly three-fourths of the 20 books barred were written by authors of color, including “The Hate U Give,” Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian.”

Lindsey Beckham — a mother of five who co-founded the Madison County chapter of the Moms for Liberty and worked with others to make sure certain books were taken off the shelves — denied that race was the issue behind the barring of these books. “’The Hate U Give’ features a lot of violence,” she said, and she also cited a graphic rape scene in Toni Morrison’s work.  

A series of new Florida laws, championed by its Gov. Ron DeSantis, caused some books to be barred. For instance, one new law requires school librarians to remove any books that are considered pornographic or “harmful” to minors — or face felony charges. Mississippi lawmakers are debating similar legislation.

Florida also passed the “Stop Woke” Act, which bars any instruction that causes students to feel guilt or psychological distress on the basis of race or sex. Critics have labeled this law an attempt to “whitewash” history.

On Jan. 26, a substitute teacher in Florida tweeted that school officials had “removed every single book from my children’s classrooms.” After he posted a video of the empty bookshelves in his classroom, school officials fired him.

In a March 8 press conference, DeSantis joined forces with the Florida Moms for  Liberty and called talk of banning books a “hoax.” Instead, he decried “pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students.” Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. declared that education should be “about the pursuit of truth, not woke indoctrination.”

Last August, officials in the Keller Independent School District in Texas pulled dozens of books from the library shelves, including an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary, Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and the Bible. Texas school leaders defended their actions, saying these books were being reviewed, and that such a review needed to take place to protect children from “sexually explicit content.”

On March 8, two bills passed the Mississippi House and Senate, proposing age restrictions on libraries’ digital content. But in both House Bill 1315 and Senate Bill 2346, the language is so broad that “I’m pretty sure we just banned the Bible,” an independent state representative told the Mississippi Free Press. Both are headed to conference with House and Senate negotiators.

Under these bills, Mississippi could ban digital books with “sexually oriented” material from public and school libraries. Some lawmakers have voiced concern  that this could mean even adults could not access some e-books.

The PEN America survey shows that most books being banned involve race, sexual content, and/or characters, themes or authors from marginalized groups, including LGBT+. 

Beckham said she got involved in the fight after examining the Jackson/Hinds Library System’s database and finding a video with “a woman talking about lesbianism, and showing explicitly how to have sex with a woman!”

From there, she and others accessed databases for schools all over the state and compiled a list of 22 books they wanted checked out only with parental permission. “We won,” she said, because many of those books “are behind the librarian’s desk now.” Now, ten books can be checked out of school libraries only with parental permission.

She and other Moms for Liberty are not out to ban books or burn them, Beckham said. “We just want a voice in what our children learn in school.”

Last year, Beckham and her colleagues met in Ridgeland with Mayor Gene McGee and the city council. At issue were two books in the public library’s children’s section, “My Shadow Is Pink”, which is narrated by a boy, and “What Are Your Words? A Book About Pronouns”, as well as the adult section’s “The Queer Bible”, a book of essays by well-known figures like Elton John.

After the meeting, McGee announced he was withholding $110,000 in funding for the city’s public library, complaining about “homosexual  materials” there. Months later, the library finally received the funding, and the three books are still on open shelves.

“We stood firm,” said Tonja Johnson, director of the Madison County Library System. “We have books for everybody; we serve everybody. You don’t have to check out a book if you don’t want to read it. Parents have a voice: They can come in with their child and tell them, ‘I don’t want you to take that book out.’”

Beckham applauded Mississippi lawmakers for seeking to restrict online material.  She said, “We want laws in every state that give parents rights over what their children learn. We want transparency in education.”

In a video State Auditor Shad White posted on Twitter in January 2022, he  lambasted critical race theory and a federal grant for public libraries’ spending on anti-racism books.

Anti-racism books “hurt kids just like sexually explicit material hurts kids,” he said. “These ideas are a cancer to our society. They pull us apart, not push us together and make it harder to have honest conversations about race. If we wanted to create a world or have our children create a world where racism no longer exists in a few years, maybe the adults should stop teaching the kids to be racist.”

Stanford University history professor James T. Campbell said critical race theory “has become a bogeyman in much the same fashion that communism did during the Cold War – this vague, dark thing that threatens the integrity of our culture.”

Campbell said there is a “deeply American strain about this politics of resentment, this belief that there are elite people who think they’re better than you are and who think they have a right to decide what your children should learn. What’s different now is there is an entire political party working to weaponize that resentment.”

For decades, Republicans looked to a strong defense, internationalism and fiscal responsibility to unite their party, Campbell said. “Having jettisoned a lot of their traditional positions, they’re now going all-in on the culture wars.”

There is nothing new about the fight for who gets to control what children read, Campbell said. “What is new is it has become the central plank for an entire political party.”

Angie Thomas will be among the best-selling authors scheduled to speak at the first Banned Books Festival in Mississippi on March 25 at Millsaps College in Jackson. The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today is co-sponsoring the event with the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, the Millsaps Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center, the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Mississippi ACLU and Lemuria Books.

The post Mississippi Library Commission barred Angie Thomas’ most popular novel from circulation. Now it’s back on the shelves. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today investigative reporter Anna Wolfe won the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, one of the nation’s most prestigious journalism honors, for her explosive series “The Backchannel.”

Wolfe’s series unearthed new evidence about former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the state’s massive welfare scandal, inspiring multiple court defendants to come forward with allegations against Bryant or publicly insist Bryant be held accountable. The series also exposed key new players in the scandal like former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, patterns of political nepotism and coercion, and damning proof that powerful figures kept millions from people who needed it most.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today’s full “The Backchannel” investigation

“In Mississippi, we’ve all been fortunate to witness Anna Wolfe’s impact and importance to the state for many years,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today’s editor-in-chief and lead editor of “The Backchannel” investigation. “It’s incredibly fitting and deserving that now the nation gets to see and recognize her work through one of the country’s most impactful and shocking journalistic investigations in recent memory.”

Mississippi Today was among five other finalists for the 2023 award: The New York Times, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, Reuters, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. The prize, first awarded in 1993, is given annually by the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School.

This is the second time Wolfe has won the award. She and former Mississippi Today reporter Michelle Liu won the 2021 Goldsmith Prize for their investigation, in conjunction with The Marshall Project, of the state’s restitution centers.

The post Mississippi Today’s Anna Wolfe wins 2023 Goldsmith Prize appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The official announcement Tuesday of Thomas Hudson’s resignation as Jackson State University president drew mixed reaction from students, faculty and alumni. 

The 7 p.m. press release from the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees came on the second day of JSU’s spring break. Many people were confused, but not surprised, by the news, and felt it was the writing on the wall after Hudson was placed on administrative leave earlier this month. 

“When I was told about it last night, I was like, wait, we already knew about that,” said Thomas Kersen, a sociology professor. “But when I stepped back, I was like, yeah that’s a little bit different than him being put on leave.” 

So far, a spokesperson for the board had declined to answer questions about the circumstances that led to Hudson being placed on leave, saying only that it was a “personnel matter.” It is unclear if the board will provide more information now that Hudson has resigned, though trustees will discuss “the future leadership of Jackson State” at their regularly scheduled board meeting next week.

Kathy Sykes, a JSU alumnus and former state representative, said the board should tell the community why Hudson resigned as a matter of accountability. Hudson is JSU’s second president in three years; when the board selects his replacement, Sykes said she doesn’t want trustees to make “the same mistake” again.

“There’s a lot of speculation,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to go on speculation. We need the facts … so we can steer away from whatever it is that led to his ouster.” 

Elijah Karriem, a senior and the secretary of JSU’s NAACP chapter, said students were shocked to hear that Hudson was the third president in a row to resign.

“We are all anxiously waiting for the facts as to why our president resigned,” Karriem said. “As students, we hear the chatter about why we think he left, but everything right now is hearsay and not factual.”

Other community members are hoping to put this episode in the university’s history behind them. 

“That chapter is now closed,” said Don Spann, a visiting assistant professor in the journalism department. “Whatever is this personnel matter, at some point in time maybe it’ll be revealed, but it’s not like I really need to know.” 

Spann, a member of the Faculty Senate executive leadership, said he is looking forward to working with Elayne Hayes-Anthony, the former chair of the journalism department who IHL appointed temporary acting president. 

“My concern now is how to continue to move Jackson State forward, that’s the most important thing,” he said. 

Earlier this year, Spann and other faculty senators voted “no confidence” in Hudson and four members of his administration, citing a “continuous pattern of failing to respect” shared governance and other professional norms of higher education. While Hudson is gone, the four administrators named in the resolution are still at JSU. 

It’s unclear if or how Hayes-Anthony will address the faculty senate’s resolution. And it remains to be seen how long she will be in the role. She told students, faculty and members of the media last week that IHL had given her no timetable. Another open question is whether the board will conduct a national search for JSU’s next president or appoint Hayes-Anthony to a more permanent role like it did with Hudson. 

Hudson was named acting president in early 2020, then elevated to a more permanent role at the end of that year following an expedited search. A search committee of community members was not appointed for Hudson.

Still, many community members were excited about Hudson at the time. Because he was a JSU alumnus, many felt that his appointment was more appropriate than his predecessor’s (William Bynum). Now some of those same people are unhappy about the abrupt end to Hudson’s tenure. 

“I don’t know the details of why he resigned but I’m saddened by it,” said George Flaggs, the mayor of Vicksburg and a prominent alumnus. “I thought he was leading the university in the most progressive way one could.”

A member of the 2017 presidential search committee that protested William Bynum Jr.’s appointment, Flaggs is no stranger to disagreeing with IHL’s decisions. 

But in Hudson’s case, Flaggs said he understood the board could not say more about a personnel matter even though he generally believes government bodies in Mississippi should be transparent. 

“I trust that those people that are on the College Board are intellectual enough to make a good, common judgment about what’s good for these universities that will continue to allow us to move forward,” Flaggs said. “Now having said that, we cannot and they cannot pick perfect people.” 

Many faculty don’t feel that way. They are more distrustful of the IHL board due in part to its history of underfunding historically Black universities in Mississippi. 

Kersen said it doesn’t help that the IHL board is secretive about the process it uses to select the presidents. He had opposed Hudson’s appointment because he wanted the board to conduct a full-fledged national search. 

“We seem to be in a constant state of confusion about things,” Kersen said. “I just hope one day that we can have more determination in our own fate.” 

Though he is frustrated, Kersen said the turnover in leadership has had little effect on his day-to-day work. 

“We just make the whole thing work in spite of whatever they (trustees) do,” he said. “Somehow the big machine that is the university just makes do. People do their jobs, more or less. But it has a downturn on morale when you’re not appreciated and when your voice is not heard.”

Sykes said the turnover in leadership hurts JSU’s big-picture goals, like building new dormitories on campus, upgrading its football stadium or becoming the first HBCU to attain top-tier research status. 

“I hope that IHL has learned from their past decisions and that they will this time take into strong consideration (what) the other stakeholders, such as the community and alumni, have to say about who’s gonna lead our great institution,” she said. 

Open Campus HBCU Student Journalism Network Fellow Alivia Welch contributed to this story.

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