Pearl man pleads guilty as feds tackle biofuel business for illegal dumping
A Pearl man pleaded guilty this week for his role in allowing a Brandon company to illegally dump its waste into Jackson’s worn-down sewer system.
The U.S. Department of Justice is alleging that leadership of the company, Gold Coast Commodities (GCC), intentionally deceived local and state officials about how it was disposing of its waste.
As part of its deception, the DOJ’s indictments against GCC allege, the company used businesses in Jackson to dispose of its wastewater there after officials in Brandon, where GCC is located, told the company it was illegally discharging into Brandon’s sewer system.
William Roberts, 44, an employee at one of the Jackson businesses, Partridge-Sibley Industrial Services Inc.. on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges that he “negligently introduced and caused” GCC’s waste to be discharged into Jackson’s sewer system.
But Roberts is just one in a group of alleged bad actors the DOJ has investigated.
Last month, the DOJ indicted GCC president Thomas Douglas Jr. and plant manager John Welch Sr. with felony charges of illegal disposal. A week prior, the company’s co-owner and vice president, Robert Davis Douglas, pleaded guilty to similar charges. The indictments also charge Thomas Douglas and Welch with conspiracy to defraud the government and giving false statements.
GCC, which converts animal fats and greases into biofuel, has violated clean water statutes several times spanning nearly two decades. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality first cited GCC with a violation in 2002 for allowing waste to reach state waters.
In 1995, MDEQ gave GCC a permit to dispose in public sewer systems as long as the company pretreated its waste to limit certain pollutants, according to the federal indictments. That permit expired in 2000.
In 2016, Brandon city officials told GCC that pollutants were found at the company’s outfall leading into Brandon’s sewer system, which led into Jackson’s sewer system. Even if GCC had a proper permit to use the cities’ sewer systems, the pollutants found — suspended solids, bio-oxygen demand, and oil and grease — were still at levels hundreds of times higher than the legal threshold, the DOJ’s indictment shows.
After MDEQ issued the company a violation for the discharges, Douglas, GCC’s president, falsely told Brandon and state officials that the company never discharged into the city’s sewer system, the indictment says.
About a month later, Douglas reached out to Andrew Walker, owner of Rebel High Velocity Sewer Services in Jackson, asking him to dispose of GCC’s waste into Jackson’s sewer system because of GCC’s recent run-in with state regulators, the DOJ alleges.
Walker complied and helped GCC dispose of about 3 million gallons of untreated industrial waste into Jackson’s sewer system. Rebel High took on GCC’s waste disposal for about 10 months, according to the indictment, until MDEQ discovered the ploy in October 2017 and ordered GCC to cease and desist.
Walker pleaded guilty in January 2021 to federal pollution charges for his role in the matter.
In 2018, GCC requested permission from MDEQ to build a lagoon to use as a wastewater disposal site. MDEQ granted GCC the permitting in 2019.
But MDEQ soon found infractions at the new facility. The agency detected odors from the disposal lagoon that constitute a “public nuisance,” and found that GCC hadn’t installed aerators for the facility. MDEQ issued the company a violation in 2019, and another one in 2020, for failures at the site.
In April 2021, the state issued a $505,000 fine against GCC over its wastewater handling.
Meanwhile, Jackson is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to bring the sewer system into federal compliance with the Clean Water Act. The city’s broken infrastructure results in untreated sewage regularly flowing into the Pearl River, and officials last year estimated it’ll take nearly a billion dollars to bring Jackson into compliance.
Jackson is suing GCC for damaging their infrastructure, estimating $15 million in damages. Brandon also filed a lawsuit against the company, although its case was dismissed earlier this year.
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Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame announces Class of 2023
The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame will induct a diverse class in 2023, including the first marksman in the hall of fame’s history, Olympic skeet shooter Tony Rosetti.
The class, to be enshrined in ceremonies next July, also includes women’s basketball player and coach Carol Ross, Major League Baseball standout Paul Maholm, Millsaps baseball player and coach Jim Page, and former college and professional football standouts Jeff Herrod, John Mangum, Patrick Surtain and Lewis Tillman.
In alphabetical order:
Jeff Herrod: A Birmingham native, Herrod was headed to the U.S. Marines before a late football scholarship offer from Ole Miss where he played for Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Billy Brewer. When he finished at Ole Miss, Herrod was the second all-time leading tackler in Southeastern Conference history. He then played for the Indianapolis Colts where he led the team in tackles for seven of his 11 seasons and is the franchise’s all-time leading tackler.
Paul Maholm: Born in Holly Springs, Maholm chose a baseball scholarship at Mississippi State instead of bonus money from the Minnesota Twins. It was a wise decision. As a left-handed pitcher for Pat McMahon and Ron Polk, he excelled at State, where he is the fifth winningest pitcher in school history. Maholm was the eighth pick of the 2003 Major League draft. He spent 10 years in the Major Leagues with the Pirates, Cubs, Braves and Dodgers. Maholm is a member of the Ron Polk Ring of Honor at State.
John Mangum: He will be the first of the remarkable Mangum family of Magee to be inducted into the MSHOF. Mangum’s father, John Mangum, was a football star at Southern Miss and in the old American Football League. Younger brother Kris played at Ole Miss and in the NFL. Son Jake Mangum is one of Mississippi State’s all time baseball greats and is at the AAA level in the New York Mets organization. The younger John Mangum chose Alabama over Southern Miss after being the Mississippi high school player of the year and made the Alabama Team of the Decade for the 1980s before a nine-year career with the Chicago Bears. He still holds the career record for passes broken up at Alabama with 47.
Jim Page: Holds the Millsaps school record for hitting with a batting average of .487 and has coached Millsaps baseball teams to 815 victories, eight NCAA Regional appearances and one College World Series appearance. Page is a renowned hitting instructor who has coached literally thousands of Jackson-area players in summer baseball camps.
Tony Rosetti: A Biloxi native and West Point resident, Rosetti began rifle shooting as a young teen and was named to the 1970 Sports Afield All American team. He won the 1971 U.S. skeet shooting championship and was on the U.S. gold medal winning team in the 1971 Pan American Games. In 1972, he was part of the U.S. Olympic shooting team in the Munich Olympics and is in the National Skeet Shooting Association Hall of Fame. He retired from competitive skeet shooting in 1992 and now is an accomplished golfer at Old Waverly.
Carol Ross: Born in the Yalobusha County town of Oakland, Ross was an outstanding basketball player for MSHOF coach Van Chancellor at Ole Miss where she made the first SEC Women’s Tournament all-tourney team in 1980. She still holds the Ole Miss steals record with 333 and is only one of two players in school history to top 1,000 points, 500 assists and 250 steals. She later was the head coach at both Florida, where she was SEC Coach of the Year two times, and at Ole Miss. She was the head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks where she was the WNBA Coach of the Year in 2012.
Patrick Surtain: A four-sport high school star in New Orleans, Surtain played for Hall of Famer Jeff Bower at Southern Miss where he was the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year in 1997. He was a second round choice of the Miami Dolphins in 1998 and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection in his 11-year NFL career. He was voted the NFL Defensive Back of the Year in 2002. Surtain, a member of the Southern Miss Team of the Century, now coaches for the Dolphins.
Lewis Tillman: From Hazlehurst, Tillman chose to play college ball for MSHOF member W.C. Gorden at Jackson State, where he rushed for 3,989 yards, broke several of Walter Payton’s records and was the SWAC Player of the Year in 1987 when he gained 1,474 yards. That season, in a 17-7 loss to Southern Miss, Tillman out-gained the entire Southern Miss team. He earned a Super Bowl ring with the 1991 New York Giants. He played five seasons for the Giants and then two with the Chicago Bears where he was teammates with John Mangum.
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Mississippi Republicans announce minority, women outreach initiatives
The Mississippi Republican Party, touting its unifying conservative values, kicked off a minority outreach initiative Wednesday outside of party headquarters in downtown Jackson.
The state party also announced an initiative, led in part by Attorney General Lynn Fitch, to try to increase the number of women elected officials in the state.
At the event, attended by about 20 African Americans, party officials said Republicans and Mississippians of all races hold the same conservative values.
“There is more that connects us than divides us,” said Rodney Hall of Southaven, the chair of the GOP outreach committee.
Fitch, whose office defended the Mississippi law that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that repealed a national right to an abortion, said: “We are very conservative about life. We are conservative about family … Now more than ever, Republican values are needed.”
In Mississippi, perhaps more so than in any state in the country, the vast majority of white residents vote Republican while most Black residents support the Democratic Party. African Americans comprise about 38% of the total state population — the highest percentage of any state in America.
There are few elected Black Republicans in the state and none in the Legislature.
At the event, state Republican Party leaders did not address some of the issues that African American elected officials often stress, such as the need to expand Medicaid to provide health care coverage for about 250,000 primarily working Mississippians. Republican leaders have blocked those efforts, leaving Mississippi as one of only 12 states in the nation not ensuring health care coverage for poor workers.
Another issue where there have been policy differences is on the elimination of the tax on groceries, the highest of its kind in the nation. Efforts to eliminate the tax have been blocked in past years by Republican leaders, though it results in poor people, many of them people of color, paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes. Plus, many have cited efforts of Republicans to ban the teaching of critical race theory as an effort to prevent the teaching of the impact of racism on the history of the state and nation.
Fitch did endorse providing Medicaid coverage for mothers for one year after giving birth. Currently, the state Medicaid program only provides 60 days of postpartum coverage, though the Biden administration mandated a year of coverage as part of the federal COVID-19 emergency order.
Many Mississippi Republicans have opposed expanding health care for poor mothers.
“We as Mississippi Republicans are eager to grow our party,” party Chair Frank Bordeaux said in a news release. “We know our plans and policies to reduce inflation, lower taxes, cut wasteful spending, secure our borders, invest in national defense, and restore American energy are appealing to all Americans. We’re going to take that message to communities where Republicans have not traditionally been as successful in order to recruit, train, and elect a more diverse group of candidates and bring thousands more freedom-loving Mississippians into our party.”
Fitch said there have been only four women elected to statewide “constitutional” office in Mississippi, and just 15% of the majority Republican Legislature is comprised of women.
There have, however, been six women elected statewide: Nellah Bailey as tax collector, Julia Henrich Kendrick as Supreme Court clerk, Evelyn Gandy as lieutenant governor and treasurer, Amy Tuck as lieutenant governor, Cindy Hyde-Smith as commissioner of agriculture and commerce, and Fitch as attorney general and treasurer.
Hyde-Smith is currently serving in the U.S. Senate as the first woman from Mississippi elected to federal office.
The posts of tax collector and Supreme Court clerk have been eliminated as elected offices.
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Biden’s student loan forgiveness application officially opened on Monday. Here’s how to apply
The Biden administration’s application for student loan forgiveness is officially open. The deadline to apply is Dec. 31, 2022.
Eligible borrowers, among them hundreds of thousands of Mississippians, could see their balances erased within four to six weeks if they apply today, according to the U.S. Department of Education, the federal agency overseeing the plan.
Borrowers who want to see their balances reduced before payments resume in January should fill out the form by Nov. 15. Loan repayment has been on pause due to the pandemic since March 2020.
Though the plan is facing a raft of legal challenges, President Joe Biden has said he believes it will prevail in court. The lawsuits have already resulted in the U. S. Department of Education making a number of tweaks to the program, including removing about 800,000 borrowers from eligibility whose loans are backed by the federal government but held by commercial banks.
In late September, the Department of Education also announced that borrowers can opt-out of loan forgiveness following a lawsuit that claimed the plan would unfairly harm borrowers who live in the six states, including Mississippi, that will tax student debt relief as income.
That lawsuit was dismissed, though it’s unclear how Mississippi will carry out its plan to tax student debt relief as income because the federal government has directed servicers to not provide 1099-Cs – the tax form needed for filing debt cancellation.
READ MORE: Mississippi plans to tax student debt relief. But Paycheck Protection Program loans are tax exempt.
The Department of Education has said it will notify about 8 million borrowers who automatically qualify for relief. Borrowers in this group who’d like to opt out should contact their servicer by Nov. 14, according to the Washington Post.
The form, available in Spanish or English, takes less than one minute to complete – it asks for name, date of birth, phone number, email address, and Social Security Number. The form will ask borrowers to attest that they meet the income limits, up to $125,000 a year.
Some borrowers may need to verify their income after submitting the application, but the Department of Education has said it will let them know. The Washington Post reported that borrowers “who present a higher likelihood of exceeding the income limit threshold” will likely be asked to submit documentation.
Relief is capped at $10,000 for many borrowers and at $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants in college. The form notes that income is calculated “based on your adjusted gross income (AGI), which tends to be lower than your total income.”
To qualify, borrowers must have taken out student loans before July 2022. Current college students are eligible for relief if their parents make less than $125,000. Borrowers with private loans are not eligible.
As many as 40 million Americans qualify for student debt relief, including 439,000 people in Mississippi. For nearly half of those Mississippians, the plan will wipe away student debt, according to an analysis by the Education Data Initiative. The average Mississippi borrower with federal student loans owes about $37,000, one of the highest average debts in the country.
The Biden administration has cast the plan as a way to ameliorate the country’s racial wealth gap. In Mississippi, Black borrowers take on higher amounts of undergraduate student debt than those of other races, according to data from a recent National Postsecondary Aid study.
Black students in Mississippi borrowed an average of $10,800 in undergraduate student debt during the 2017-18 school year, while borrowers of other races took out an average of $7,400. Black borrowers in Mississippi also took out more loans during the school year than the average Black borrower across the country, while borrowers of other races took on less debt than average.
One legal challenge that claimed the Biden Administration violated the Equal Protection Clause because it “intentionally crafted the program to benefit borrowers of color” was dismissed two days after it was filed, USA Today reported.
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A medida que se acerca el invierno, pocos en Mississippi reciben vacunas de refuerzo COVID-19
El refuerzo bivalente de COVID-19, que brinda protección tanto contra la cepa original del virus como contra la variante Omicron, ahora representa la mayoría de las dosis de vacuna administradas en todo el estado. Pero solo alrededor de 45,000 habitantes de Mississippi lo han obtenido desde que estuvo disponible en septiembre.
Las personas mayores de 12 años son elegibles para la nueva vacuna de refuerzo, siempre que hayan pasado al menos dos meses desde la última dosis. Todas las vacunas contra el COVID-19 son gratuitas.
La baja aceptación de refuerzo bivalente de Mississippi está en línea con la tendencia nacional: solo alrededor del 4% de las personas elegibles en los EE. UU. han recibido los nuevos refuerzos.
Actualmente, el estado está viendo un bajo número de casos y admisiones en hospitales y UCI, dijo el miércoles el epidemiólogo estatal, el Dr. Paul Byers, en una reunión de la junta estatal de salud. Pero es probable que el invierno traiga un aumento en los casos a medida que las personas pasan más tiempo en el interior, y los expertos en salud pública temen que miles de personas mueran innecesariamente.
Un análisis por Commonwealth Fund encontró que si las tasas de vacunación se mantienen estables durante el otoño y el invierno, podrían morir 75,000 personas que podrían haber estado protegidas por un refuerzo.
Los residentes de Mississippi pueden hacer una cita para el refuerzo bivalente en el sitio web del departamento de salud. Las citas para vacunas también están disponibles en el sitio web federal vaccines.gov.
Las personas pueden recibir el refuerzo actualizado incluso si no han recibido una vacuna de refuerzo anterior. Eso significa que si recibió dos dosis de Pfizer, Moderna o Noravax, o una dosis de Johnson & Johnson, califica para el nuevo refuerzo siempre que hayan pasado dos meses desde su última dosis. También es elegible si recibió una dosis de refuerzo hace más de dos meses.
La vacuna de refuerzo actualizada fue aprobada por la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos y los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades hace unas seis semanas. El departamento de salud del estado anunció que las citas de refuerzo bivalente estaban disponibles en los departamentos de salud del condado a partir del 13 de septiembre.
Byers explicó que a medida que el COVID-19 circula y evoluciona, surgen nuevas variantes que pueden evadir la inmunidad conferida por una vacuna o una infección previa. El nuevo refuerzo proporciona una protección más amplia que la vacuna original.
El futuro de las vacunas COVID-19 puede parecerse mucho a la vacuna contra la gripe, con nuevas versiones disponibles regularmente para proteger contra el virus evolucionado.
“Ese es el tipo de cosas que vemos con la vacuna contra la gripe todos los años”, dijo Byers. “Uno porque su inmunidad puede disminuir, pero también porque le brinda protección contra los virus actuales que circulan y causan enfermedades”.
Hasta ahora, la gran mayoría de los refuerzos bivalentes en Mississippi se han dirigido a personas mayores de 50 años, según los datos que Byers presentó en la reunión.
La tasa de consumo de refuerzo ha aumentado semana tras semana desde principios de septiembre, pero parece estar disminuyendo a mediados de octubre.
Solo el 52 % de los habitantes de Mississippi están completamente vacunados, en comparación con el 67 % de los estadounidenses, según el informe estatal de vacunación publicado el 1 de octubre.
Pero cuando se trata de la dosis de refuerzo, el país en su conjunto se parece a Mississippi: tanto en los EE. UU. como en Mississippi, solo el 48 % de las personas han recibido al menos una vacuna de refuerzo. Estados Unidos va a la zaga de países como el Reino Unido, donde más del 70 % de los adultos han recibido un refuerzo.
Una encuesta realizada por KFF, una organización sin fines de lucro dedicada a la política de atención de la salud, encontró que solo la mitad de los adultos estadounidenses dijeron haber oído hablar de las vacunas actualizadas.
Casi 1 millón de habitantes de Mississippi han sido infectados con COVID-19. El virus ha matado al menos a 13,000 personas en el estado.
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Podcast: Ole Miss-LSU, it happens every year but it doesn’t always mean this much
Ole Miss is 7-0 going into its annual game with LSU for the first time in, well, a long, long time. Ole Miss-LSU is important any year but there’s much more than usual at stake for the Rebels this time. Ole Miss has gone from favorite to underdog since oddsmakers posted the opening line. The Clevelands discuss this year’s game as well as the storied history of the rivalry known as the Magnolia Bowl.
Stream all episodes here.
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‘Downright sinful’: As Mississippi is mired in welfare scandal, advocates say the state still isn’t aiding the poor
Nearly three years after arrests in the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history, exposing systemic corruption and negligence within Mississippi’s federal safety net grants, advocates and clients say the state’s welfare program still contains widespread flaws.
On Tuesday morning, the Mississippi Legislative Democratic Caucus held the first of several planned hearings to address how the state administers its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
“My hope is that the tragedy of the scandal behind this program leads to changes to how much money families receive to help with everyday expenses, who is eligible for the program, and how families are prepared for their exit from the program,” Brandy Nichols, a working mother of four and TANF client, said during her testimony.
The hearing, held by the minority party and not an official legislative committee, was the first legislative hearing about the corruption or the TANF program specifically since the scandal broke three years ago. No legislative leader has called a similar hearing.
First, some statistics on Mississippi’s TANF program currently:
- Mississippi Department of Human Services is still approving less than 10% of poor families who apply for cash welfare assistance.
- Of the $86.5 million in federal funds allocated each year, it spends roughly $4 million on direct payments to poor families and leaves roughly $20 million unused.
- Of roughly 190,000 children living in poverty in the state, just 2,600 receive the monthly aid.
- The state is using around $30 million of the grant to plug budget holes at the child protection agency.
- The state isn’t using any of the money to increase the availability of the child care voucher, which is regarded as one of the most meaningful work supports and is reaching a fraction of the families that qualify for the assistance.
- The state is still spending around $35 million in TANF funds per year on subgrants to private organizations to provide services like workforce training, after school programs and mentorship. But MDHS Director Bob Anderson confirmed Tuesday that the agency isn’t tracking outcomes of the programs — though it hopes to start doing so soon.
- MDHS has successfully lobbied for legislation to increase the monthly TANF cash assistance amount from $170 to $260 for a family of three.
- MDHS has lobbied unsuccessfully for legislation to roll back some provisions of the 2017 HOPE Act (Act to Restore Hope, Opportunity and Prosperity for Everyone). The act imposed some of the strictest eligibility restrictions in the nation, primarily for clients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, creating maze of bureaucratic red tape that burdens the department and arbitrarily kicks people off the programs. Anderson said the state should repeal the HOPE Act.
- Mississippi could be on the hook to pay back $75 million to $95 million, depending on how much spending the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deems impermissible, plus additional penalties if the federal government finds the misspending was intentional. The money would have to come from state coffers, HHS told Mississippi Today in 2020.
The known TANF corruption scandal — in which forensic auditors say state and nonprofit officials misspent $77 million — occurred from 2016 to 2020, but the state’s decision not to use much of the money on evidenced-based methods to reduce or prevent poverty began long before, and it has continued since.
“That we have had nearly $100 million per year for 26 years in welfare funds and that we still have the highest poverty rate of any state is, in my opinion, downright sinful,” Carol Burnett, founder of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, said at the hearing.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services has increased internal controls to address fraud with the TANF program. Currently, Mississippi does not appear to be spending TANF money on things like volleyball stadiums or contracts with former NFL quarterback Brett Favre — two 2017 TANF purchases that have made national headlines.
But that doesn’t mean the state is using the money in the wisest ways to meet the needs of poor families.
“There’s two parts to this, one is the part that’s in the headlines, which needs to be in the headlines, and that is the scandal and the illegal activity. The harder work for us is going to be to fix the program going forward. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s smart,” Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said.
During her testimony, Nichols, who has held jobs as a waitress, a receptionist, a housekeeper, and a cashier, explained the barriers she faced in receiving government assistance.
“What may seem like an easy handout program is not. It’s work. And sometimes work that takes away from my ability to find a true stable job,” Nichols said. “TANF is supposed to help us find jobs, but if you don’t find a job within a week of being in the program, you’re stuck spending hours at DHS offices to fulfill volunteer hours. You’re basically exchanging your body to sit or file papers at the office for less than minimum wage. That’s not career development. That’s called being stuck in limbo.”
“When you apply for TANF, it takes nearly a month for your application to be processed. But when you need money in hand immediately, waiting a month for help only digs you further into the ground,” she continued. “Communication with the office is poor. You can’t directly contact your caseworker. And your caseworker is often changed without you knowing. It hurts to know that this program was taken advantage of by people who already make more money than I could ever imagine. A former quarterback received in a lump sum, over 300 times what I have ever received from TANF.”
Reginald Buckley, senior pastor of Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson, provided more anecdotal evidence of the impact the scandal had on needy families in Mississippi. Buckley’s church noticed in 2019 that the number of people seeking their help for things like food, rent, and electricity was increasing, week by week. The congregation supplies a benevolent fund to pay these costs, and while members were continuing to give, it wasn’t enough anymore to cover the need.
“We speculated that the sharp increase for assistance was due to just the economy, inflation, stagnation – the standard culprits,” Buckley told lawmakers. “But later that year, when State Auditor Shad White announced the largest fraud case in state history due to the improper use of TANF funds, things became much clearer. It was not just hard times. It was not just fewer jobs. The sharp increase of need was largely a result of support for the needy being siphoned from the less fortunate and poured into the coffers of the connected and put into the financing of pet projects. We have all seen and read the reports that implicate some of the state’s highest public officials and their connection to what has happened here. And if it is true, the stench of hypocrisy is pungent and repugnant.”
While federal criminal investigations and a state civil case are ongoing to address the illegal spending, Anderson acknowledged that, at a less than 10% TANF approval rate, the funds still aren’t being pushed out to families that need the aid. Many people who apply for TANF abandon their application before the process is complete, contributing to the low approval rate.
“I told my staff when I arrived that I thought we were doing a woefully inadequate job at providing basic assistance to families. And that is something I have a plan for,” Anderson said at the hearing. “I want to get to the individual answers about why families either don’t feel comfortable coming to us to apply or what figures into their decision to abandon their application. Are they fearful of sanctions? I don’t know. Are the eligibility guidelines too harsh? Could be. We’re looking at all of those things.”
Mississippi currently imposes a drug screening requirement on welfare applicants, a significant barrier to eligibility, even for people who don’t abuse substances, because applicants must find transportation to the testing clinic. Yet, during the scandal, TANF funds were used to pay for drug treatment at a luxury rehab facility for former professional wrestler Brett DiBiase. Former Gov. Phil Bryant even enlisted the help of his welfare director to try to get his nephew into treatment, according to text messages Mississippi Today obtained.
“So in effect, if you’re poor and in many cases a person of color – the use of drugs could disqualify you from receiving assistance. But if you’re rich and in many cases not of color – then the funds that were not intended for you that were restricted to others based on drug usage, can be yours. Mississippi, you have to make this right,” Buckley said in the hearing.
The most recent federal TANF financial report from 2020 shows that Mississippi had piled up an unused balance of TANF funds totaling nearly $50 million. That number has likely grown significantly, as the state is currently leaving $20 million on the table annually.
In explaining why the state has such a large unobligated TANF balance, Anderson explained that the state may be required to return those funds — but federal law requires Mississippi to use state funds to pay back the misspent money, so federal penalties should not impact the state’s existing TANF fund.
Anderson also told lawmakers that MDHS could not provide outcome data for programmatic grants issued under TANF — something Mississippi Today has been requesting since 2018 — because the agency is still not tracking the efficacy of the programs at lifting families out of poverty. “You’re asking me for information that doesn’t exist,” he said.
In limited output reports Mississippi Today has retrieved in the past, the documents contained nonsensical figures, such as the number of clients served year-to-date declining in certain months. In 2019, Mississippi Today reported that MDHS was not even maintaining a list of organization to which it was awarding grants.
“There’s not really a culture of keeping documentation at DHS,” Stephanie Palmertree, financial and compliance audit director for the state auditor’s office, said at the time.
MDHS began maintaining a list of subgrantees, which it has provided to Mississippi Today multiple times, most recently in September.
Anderson said the agency is working on a strategic plan that will dictate how the TANF program is administered going forward. One concept the agency is mulling is hiring navigators who can help MDHS clients apply for and maintain assistance.
Elizabeth Lower-Basch, deputy director for policy for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and national TANF expert, noted a navigator program would be MDHS creating extra programming to “navigate the obstacles you created.”
“Remove the barrier,” she suggested.
Asked whether Mississippi should repeal the 2017 HOPE Act, Anderson said yes.
The hearing, which took place in the Senate committee room, was not live-streamed as some lawmakers expected. The Senate denied the caucus’ request for to use the Senate infrastructure for live-streaming since it was party-affiliated and not an official committee hearing, lawmakers told Mississippi Today. The Democratic Caucus is expected to schedule more hearings to discuss TANF in coming months.
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He may not look it, but Coach Prime has an ‘old school’ football approach
You see all the the gold chains around his neck, including the one that spells out “PRIME.” You see the reflective sunglasses he so often wears. You see the cameras and microphones that follow his every move on the sideline. You see the hoodies he wears and often flips over his head.
You see Deion Sanders along the Jackson State sidelines or at a postgame press conference and you think: Man, this is an avant-garde football coach. This is new wave. This is football meets hip hop. We’ve never seen this flashy a college football coach before.
But then you watch his team play. You watch how the players respond to him. You watch how he teaches. You see his attention to detail. And then you listen to him talk, and you hear him wax on about the value of discipline, about doing things the right way, about the value of hard work, about striving for consistency and about how special teams are so important to winning.
And then you think to yourself: There’s a lot of “old school” football coach in Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders.
I mentioned this to Sanders at his weekly press conference at the Walter Payton Health and Recreation Center. I told them that when I listen to him much of what I hear sounds like an old school football coach with old school values.
Said Sanders, “Your analysis is 100 percent correct.” And then he talked about following the lead of many of his football coaches — all “old school” — through the years.
“Dave Capel, my peewee coach who has passed away, was old school,” Sanders said. “My high school coach Ron Hoover, who died this past spring, was straight old school.”
Sanders then talked about the late Bobby Bowden, his decidedly old school and folksy head football coach at Florida State, and about Mickey Andrews, the long-time, fiery Seminoles defensive coordinator.
“Coach Andrews is still alive and I talk to him usually once a week,” Sanders continued. “A lot of the people guiding and shaping me were old school football minds, and I have adopted their ways. I am not going to change any time soon because their way works.”
Sanders wasn’t finished. He talked about his “old school” parents and how he strives to be an old school parent himself.
“I am not going to say it’s the right way or the only way, but it’s the way I know,” Sanders said.
With his players, Sanders is nothing if not demanding. You can see it on the sidelines. You can hear it in his interviews. Indeed, you could hear it Tuesday afternoon. “I want to see some of the guys we have been waiting on get up and play up to expectations,” Sanders said. “We got several of those guys and I am waiting. I am waiting. Some of the guys have to wake up or they will be replaced.”
Message delivered.
Old timers, including this one, can close our eyes, think back and remember coaching legends such as Bear Bryant, Eddie Robinson, John Vaught, Marino Casem and W.C. Gorden sounding much the same. They didn’t dress like Sanders but they surely had some of the same values when it came to toughness and discipline.
You can’t argue with the results. In the four seasons prior to Sanders’ arrival, Jackson State won 15 games and lost 29. In his first full season (2021), Sanders’ Tigers finished 11-2. They are 6-0 this season, ranked No. 1 among HBCUs heading into Saturday’s homecoming game against Campbell University.
And that brings up another way Sanders can sound old school. Tuesday, he made the Campbell University Camels sound like the Green Bay Packers. (The Camels are 4-2 and have won three straight.)
“They are tough, really tough. This is not going to be a cakewalk,” Sanders said.
With Sanders, we usually get more than just football talk. Tuesday was no exception, He talked about JSU homecoming and how it should be a boon for the city of Jackson.
“The city is going to be swamped,’ he said. “This should be a windfall for the whole city…”
Sanders paused before continuing. “The one thing I do desire is for us to unite and put a cease on the crime for this weekend. I wish it could cease forever but let’s take one step at a time. No crime this weekend. No killings this weekend, no robberies this weekend. No aggressive nature. Let’s just show love this weekend. That would be a true blessing and that’s what I want to see this weekend.”
Don’t know if that qualifies as “old school” — but, surely, we can all agree on the message, can’t we?
The post He may not look it, but Coach Prime has an ‘old school’ football approach appeared first on Mississippi Today.