OurTupelo

The stink of the largest public embezzlement scheme in Mississippi history goes all the way to the Governor’s Mansion.

And two years after the scandal exploded, there’s no evidence that those at the highest levels are being held accountable or that the system they manipulated is being changed to protect taxpayers in the future.

Tens of millions of dollars in federal welfare funds were misspent or stolen by state officials and contractors. Most reprehensible, that money was specifically intended to help the poorest people in the nation’s poorest state.

Bombshell revelations in Mississippi Today’s “The Backchannel” investigation, which revealed former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the scandal through many of his never-before-published text messages and other communications, raise grave questions about the origins of the misspending and the thoroughness of the investigation that ensued.

Are those truly responsible for the fraud, including those who allowed it to happen, really being held accountable, and why aren’t our leaders doing something — anything — to fix this?

Text messages show that Gov. Bryant — who had the sole, statutory responsibility to oversee the policy and spending of the state’s welfare agency during his eight years in office — was at best asleep at the wheel while millions in taxpayer funds designated for poor Mississippians flew to the pocketbooks of many people in his orbit. He admitted as much in our three-hour interview on April 2.

“Look, I’ll take my responsibility,” Bryant acknowledged. “Yeah, I was the governor. I wish I had been able to catch it.”

The Mississippi Today investigation also revealed that Bryant, after he left office, appeared poised to accept stock in a company that received welfare funds in exchange for the help he provided the company while he was governor. Bryant now says he had not carefully read the text messages he received or gave much thought to his own replies.

“Now I can clearly see why you’re following those trails. And it doesn’t look good,” Bryant said. “Should I have caught it? Absolutely. I should’ve caught it. Was I extremely busy as governor? I can’t even describe to you what it is like on a daily basis as governor.”

Is the excuse of being inattentive or busy enough to absolve the governor of blame or allow him to avoid a more thorough investigation? His administration never would have been that lenient on welfare recipients allegedly cheating the system.

Another major revelation from “The Backchannel” is that Bryant pulled strings with welfare officials to get help for his troubled great-nephew — all while setting welfare policy that made it nearly impossible for other poor Mississippians to get the same kind of assistance.

“I remember struggling trying to help this young man,” Bryant told Mississippi Today of helping his great-nephew. “I didn’t know he was out of prison. I don’t remember the timeline, but there was no, again, no benefit to us whatsoever of helping this child except trying to save his life. I mean, Anna, if that’s a bad thing …”

State Auditor Shad White, who led the state criminal investigation without giving federal prosecutors any heads up before the first arrests were made, told Mississippi Today in October 2021 that he had not seen evidence that Bryant broke any law.

But White’s deep personal and political ties to Bryant — and the timing and announcement of the arrests more than two years ago — raise serious questions about the impartiality of that investigation. White, a former Bryant staffer and campaign manager who the governor later appointed state auditor, said he believed it was the welfare director’s duty to reject any improper requests from the governor, not the governor’s responsibility to know agency spending regulations.

Some of the loudest public outcry following our reporting raises the questions: Shouldn’t Bryant, a former state auditor who himself probed federal welfare grants, have known the agency spending regulations? And could White possibly have conducted a fair investigation of his political mentor? 

Meanwhile, Mississippi lawmakers, who could drastically increase scrutiny of future welfare spending with a few meetings and the stroke of a pen, have ducked for cover, making no serious efforts in three legislative sessions to determine how this fraud occurred under their noses or to pass laws to ensure it won’t happen again.

Most members of the U.S. Congress, who annually appropriate the federal welfare funds that were stolen, don’t even appear to be aware that massive welfare fraud occurred in Mississippi and is almost certainly occurring in many other states.

Neither state nor federal lawmakers have held a single hearing to learn more about the depths of the fraud, how they could keep it from happening again or how to better spend the welfare money in the first place.

This fraud went under the radar for years because neither the state nor the federal government required Mississippi officials to show that the programs receiving welfare funds actually helped anyone. Regardless of how the funds were spent — and whether legal or not — the poor Mississippians who were supposed to receive the help got nothing. 

Current Gov. Tate Reeves and his state welfare leader have worked to assure the public they’ve added safeguards and stopped the generational rush of misspending at that agency. But they’re asking for a lot of faith from Mississippi taxpayers whose distrust of government was already high before Mississippi Today’s investigation.

When asked for comment on “The Backchannel” revelations about Bryant and what they say about the current welfare agency, Reeves said simply: “It is my view that that is an ongoing federal investigation, and it would not be appropriate for me to comment at this time.”

Those words aren’t likely to reassure Mississippi taxpayers.

An executive branch operating in secrecy misspent millions of dollars for personal or political gain while abandoning the state’s poor. State investigators made such questionable decisions during their probe that they are being publicly accused of a coverup. And lawmakers won’t pass laws to stop the fraud from occurring now and in the future.

Worst of all, the Mississippians who needed the stolen money the most were ignored. As far as we can tell, they’re still being ignored. How, in good conscience, can our elected officials continue to let this happen?

“There’s just such little oversight, so things like this (systemic fraud) can happen. It’s tragic and outrageous in light of the fact that families in Mississippi who live in poverty didn’t get the help they needed,” said Carol Burnett, founder of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative.

Burnett continued: “The amount of flexibility states have with this program could be used to the benefit of people who need it. The ultimate litmus test, I think, should be the state’s poverty rate. What have we as a state done to reduce poverty rather than just move people off the welfare rolls? Unfortunately, that poverty rate hasn’t moved really at all.”

Note: This editorial follows Mississippi Today’s “The Backchannel” investigation, which revealed former Gov. Phil Bryant’s involvement in the state’s sprawling welfare scandal.

The post Officials stole taxpayer money from the poor. Mississippians deserve answers and accountability. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today reporters Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender interview – or more accurately listen – as longtime state Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory vents about massive tax cuts passed in the 2022 legislative session. Bryan says the state has too many infrastructure, education and other needs to be making such huge cuts in revenue.

The post Podcast: Sen. Hob Bryan discusses 2022 legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

On this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Rita Soronen, President and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Leading the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national nonprofit public charity, since 2001 and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption-Canada since 2004, Soronen works to find adoptive families for the more than 150,000 children waiting in North America’s foster care systems.

Under her leadership, the Foundation has significantly increased its grant-making while developing strategic initiatives that act on the urgency of the issue. In 2021, the Foundation dedicated more than $40.9 million to grants and award-winning programs, such as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, Adoption-Friendly Workplace and National Adoption Day.

Additionally, through public service announcements, social media campaigns, articles, events, sponsorships and more, the Foundation is building awareness around the growing need for foster care adoption. Marshall caught up with Soronen when she was in Mississippi to announce a partnership with the Mississippi Department of Children Protection Services.

The post Mississippi Stories: Rita Soronen appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves has been vocal in his opposition to the teaching of critical race theory and his support of the nation’s and state’s “patriotic” history.

Critical race theory, normally taught at the college level, explores the impact of race on various aspects of society. Opponents, though, say critical race theory is an effort to divide the country along racial lines. While opposing critical race theory, the Republican Reeves has long advocated for the teaching of “patriotic” history or history that portrays the state and nation in a positive light.

Reeves, a self-proclaimed “numbers guy” who worked in banking and finance before entering politics in his late 20s, offered a history lesson recently when vetoing a bill that would ensure people whose felony convictions were expunged would regain their right to vote.

“Felony disenfranchisement is an animating principle of the social contract at the heart of every great republic dating back to the founding of ancient Greece and Rome,” Reeves wrote in his veto message. “In America, such laws date back to the colonies and the eventual founding of our Republic. Since statehood, in one form or another, Mississippi law has recognized felony disenfranchisement.”

Granted, the loss of voting rights for those convicted of felonies was once common in America. But most states — at least 40 of them — now restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies at some point after they complete their sentence.

And perhaps people convicted of felonies in ancient Rome and Greece also lost their voting rights. Perhaps, a question for the governor is whether the slaves in ancient Rome and Greece could vote.

In Mississippi, the issue of felony disenfranchisement intersects with the state’s sordid history of slavery and systematic racism. The narrative of the day made it clear that felony disenfranchisement was among a litany of provisions placed in Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution to keep African Americans from voting.

At the time, the Mississippi Supreme Court said the disfranchisement of felons was an effort “to obstruct the exercise of the franchise by the negro race” by targeting “the offenses to which its weaker members were prone.” The provision’s intent was the same as the poll tax, the literacy test and other Jim Crow-era provisions that sought to prevent African Americans from voting.

Heck, murder and rape — the two crimes that would be disenfranchising if any were — were not listed in the 1890 Constitution as disenfranchising. They were added much later, in the 1960s.

While most states have moved on from lifetime bans on voting for people convicted of felonies, Mississippi holds tightly to the process placed in its 1890 Constitution. Under that process, a person either has to obtain a gubernatorial pardon or approval by a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature to regain the right to vote.

Because of that difficult process, Mississippi leads the nation in percentage of residents who have lost their right to vote. This past session, the Legislature passed bills restoring voting rights to only five Mississippians. Reeves opted not to sign those bills, instead allowing them to become law without his signature.

The bill Reeves did veto would have clarified that people whose felony convictions are expunged by a judge also would regain the right to vote. It should be pointed out only a limited number of crimes under specified conditions are eligible for expungement.

At any rate, some jurisdictions are restoring voting rights when crimes are expunged. Others are not. The bill was an attempt to clarify what many said was the Legislature’s intent — to restore voting rights when crimes were expunged.

But Reeves said to restore the rights, the state Constitution needs to be amended through first legislative action and then a vote of the people.

There are legal experts who agree with Reeves’ assessment that a change to the Constitution is needed to bypass the Legislature or a gubernatorial pardon to restore voting rights. Others do not believe a change to the Constitution is required to do so.

Still, Reeves used the occasion of the veto to brandish his version of history, which was absent the racial components surrounding Mississippi’s felony disenfranchisement rules.

When the Legislature debated a bill that supporters said would prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in Mississippi classrooms, some voiced concerns that passage of the anti-critical race theory bill would prevent the teaching of the impact of race on the state’s and nation’s history.

Supporters of the anti-critical race theory bill said it was not their intent to downplay the impact of race.

But Reeves, who signed the critical race theory bill and who touts the importance of teaching “patriotic” history, seems intent on ignoring the racial component of the state’s felony disenfranchisement provision.

The post Reeves ignores racist history of state’s felony voting ban with vetoes appeared first on Mississippi Today.

My late and great friend Willie Morris once confided, “Rickey, you know, we all write best about what we care about most.”

In that case, what follows should be a doozy.

Bobby Cleveland  – Robert Hayes Cleveland, Jr. – was my younger brother by 21 months. Our daddy, a sports writer before us, often instructed us both: “Make sure you get the news in first.” So, I will: Bobby died Thursday of injuries suffered in an automobile accident. He was 67, and he had lived every day of his time on this planet to the absolute fullest – and then maybe to overflowing.

He was a big man with a huge appetite for life. I was older but Bobby was always larger. My big little brother, I called him. He was an expert fisherman and hunter – and a gourmet chef. Let’s put it this way, a lot of seafood and a whole lot of love went into his gumbo. It was always rich and spicy.

He loved the Saints, the Braves and his alma mater, Southern Miss. A quick story, when Sid Bream slid safely into home plate to send the Atlanta Braves into the 1992 World Series, Bobby leaped from his chair and let out a roar – and then a howl. He wore a bandage on his hand for weeks to protect a wound from the ceiling fan. I can also report that until his dying breath he never forgave the officials who robbed the Saints of a second Super Bowl with the worst no-call in football history.

Some other things Bobby loved: sunrise, his sweet Mama, dogs, Bloody Marys, anything John Prine wrote and sang, pranks, The Big Lebowski, anchovies, Pink Floyd, olympic curling, Thai food (Thai hot), puzzles of any kind, tequila, oysters, telling stories, sunset and good friends of which he had so many.

Some things he hated: bullies, racists, light beer, yard work, dress shoes, closing time, long stories that should have been shorter, dull headlines and anything overcooked.

Bobby was the younger brother but he was the one named after our daddy. And that was appropriate because he was Ace Cleveland made over. As Bobby aged, he looked more and more like our pop. Acted like him, too. Ace had a quick and often devilish wit. Bobby took that to another level. Both Robert Hayes Clevelands could seem gruff to a new acquaintance. But both had tender hearts. Both were smart enough to have been successful in any profession they tried. Both did what they loved. Both had personalities that filled a room.

Many long-time Clarion Ledger readers will remember Bobby’s splendid outdoors writing. My column ran on the front page of the sports sections, Bobby’s on the back cover. And I can’t tell you how many times people would come up and say they enjoyed reading my columns but they always read Bobby’s first. He wrote stories the way he told them, filled with wit and expertise. Often, in his fishing and hunting stories, he was the butt of his own jokes.

Bobby once told me, “I figure by the time people get to the back page of the sports section, they are tired of reading about wars and murders in the news section and reading about how their teams lost in the rest of the sports section. When they got to me, they are ready to be entertained.”

They were. I also can’t tell you how many times people told me they neither fished or hunted, but they always read what Bobby wrote.

LISTEN: Crooked Letter Podcast with Bobby Cleveland

What many readers didn’t know was that Bobby for years was the editor and designer of the CL’s Sunday sports sections, which were annually judged among the nation’s best. During football seasons, Bobby often produced sports sections as hefty as 28 pages that were the equal of sports sections in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. He had a knack for page design, and he was hands-down the best headline writer I ever worked with.

After leaving the CL, Bobby continued as a free-lance outdoors writer and went to work for the Barnett Reservoir and Pearl River Supply District doing public relations work and putting on the various events that make The Rez a special place. He took particular pride in the branding – “The Rez.” Those handsome car tags you see – The Rez – were his idea.

We thought we had lost Bobby 27 years ago. At age 40, he suffered a heart attack that very nearly killed him. His Widow Maker artery clogged and a vein turned into an artery and saved him. Bobby changed the way he cooked and the way he ate – and added some exercise into his daily schedule.Those of us who love him are so thankful for all that. My big little brother made good use of that 27-year bonus. He met Pam, the love of his life, appropriately in a bait shop. We are thankful for the way they loved one another. We are thankful for how he loved his grandchildren, and a niece and nephew who adored him as the second father he became.

And I am thankful to have shared 67 years of playing, working, cooking, laughing and loving with my brother, my best friend.

The post Bobby Cleveland lived 67 years on his terms and to the fullest appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Registration is now open for GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi‘s Summer Session FastTrack — a weeklong day camp that will give young musicians ages 9 to 14 insight into the creative and technological processes of recording and performing music.

The camp will take place from June 27 through July 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost is $25 per child, and the deadline to register is June 4 at 5:30 p.m. CST. Sponsors for Summer Session FastTrack include Hard Rock Biloxi, Maddox Foundation, Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Entergy, and Mississippi Arts Commission. 

“We are so excited to host our Summer Session FastTrack weeklong day camp for young musicians, and we’re thankful to our wonderful partners for making this experience possible,” said Emily Havens, Executive Director of GRAMMY Museum Mississippi. “We call it ‘fast track’ because these young music makers are going to learn so much about the process of recording and performing music in a short amount of time. We’ll also dive into the influence of Mississippians on American music. It’s going to be a fantastic week of music and learning.” 

Taking place at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, the weeklong day camp will give participants the opportunity to: 

• Learn about the influence of Mississippians on American music and our cultural heritage 
• Study work by Mississippi artists featured in the Museum 
• Receive instruction on recording techniques, music production and live performance 
• Explore song structure, harmony, melody, lyric writing, and vocal technique 

The participants will also collaborate with industry professionals and each other for a final production inspired by the Mississippi artists featured in the Museum. The final production will be featured on the Museum’s social media channels. 

Registration is required to attend the Summer Session FastTrack. Limited space is available. Parents can register their children for the camp at grammymuseumms.org. The $25 cost includes lunch and snacks that will be provided during the camp. Registration is open now through June 4, and a deposit is required at registration. 

The post Registration open for GRAMMY Museum Mississippi Summer Session FastTrack appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Leo “The Lip” Durocher once said: “Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.”

Count me in the few — and maybe that’s why I love it so.

Baseball confounds us as no other sport. Every time we think we understand, we learn we don’t. Take this season in Mississippi college baseball. Go ahead. Step back. Take a look.

Mississippi State came into the season as college baseball’s defending national champion and with several key players back. Ole Miss, with a lineup filled with proven sluggers, was ranked No. 1 in the nation this season back in March. Meanwhile, after losing probably its top three pitchers from last season, Southern Miss dropped to an unimpressive 10-6 record after being swept by Dallas Baptist in mid-March.

So here we are, in late April, and look: Southern Miss is ranked No. 4 in the nation and is on a school record 15-game win streak heading into a weekend series at UAB. After starting 9-0 and 12-1, Ole Miss is 14-17 in its last 31 games and in danger of not even making the SEC Tournament. Mississippi State is 24-18 and has much work to do – and not that much time to do it – to even make the NCAA field. Meanwhile, most college baseball experts now rank Southern Miss as a high national seed.

If you predicted all this back in mid-March, good for you. Nobody else did.

Let’s take a look at where all three stand heading into the last month of the regular season:

We’ll start with Southern Miss, where Scott Berry might well have the best team in school history. Southern Miss is 33-8 overall and 16-2 in its last season in Conference USA. The Golden Eagles’ RPI now sits at No. 10. Probably more impressive than the 15-game overall win streak is the fact Southern Miss has won 12 straight road games. The Eagles also boast a 15-7 record against team ranked in the top 100, RPI-wise. Only Tennessee, which is playing like a Major League team against college competition, has won more games than Southern Miss.

The challenge for Southern Miss is to stay hot through May and into June. Recent injuries will make that difficult. Left fielder Reese Ewing, a productive .304 hitter with 29 runs batted in and eight home runs, is out with a broken hand and could miss another two to three weeks. Designated hitter Slade Wilks (.319, six homers, 15 doubles) has missed four straight games with a strained oblique muscle but should be back soon. 

But here’s the deal: Pitching – three terrific weekend starters and a deep, talented bullpen – are what has carried Berry’s team. Berry, who should become the Golden Eagles all-time winningest coach this weekend, knows how quickly all that can turn around in baseball. And if he doesn’t, he can just look north to Oxford and Starkville.

Both Ole Miss and State desperately needed to get on a roll headed into last weekend’s Ole Miss-State weekend series and Tuesday night’s Governor’s Cup. Neither did. They split the four games, two victories apiece and still have mountains of work to do over the last month.

Let’s take Ole Miss first. The Rebels are 23-17 overall, 6-12 in the SEC (ahead of only Missouri), have a No. 62 RPI and a 7-14 record against Top 100 RPI teams. What has happened? The Rebels haven’t pitched it well enough and they haven’t hit well when it matters most.

They are not dead in the water but they are floundering. They have 14 games remaining, beginning with three this weekend at Arkansas. They need to win that series – a difficult task – and also win SEC series against Missouri (home), at LSU and at home with Texas A&M. That would get the Rebels easily into the SEC Tournament and get that RPI up into NCAA Tournament range. A May 11 road non-conference game at Southern Miss is also an opportunity for an RPI boost. Bottom line: There is little, if any, room for error where Ole Miss is concerned.

Mississippi State shares that leaking boat. The Bulldogs are 24-18, 8-10 in the SEC. They have a No. 81 RPI and an 11-15 record against Top 100 teams. Frankly, none of that is NCAA Tournament-worthy and State must turn it around fast in order to have the opportunity to defend its national championship. Like Ole Miss, the Bulldogs have 14 games remaining, including road series against Missouri and Texas A & M and home series against Florida and Tennessee. The Dogs have midweek games remaining at Samford and at home against North Alabama.

This weekend’s series with Florida and a regular season-ending series with top-ranked Tennessee (currently a ridiculous 38-3) will give the Bulldogs an excellent opportunity to boost their NCAA resume. They might well need it.

The post Let’s step back and take stock of this unusual Mississippi baseball season appeared first on Mississippi Today.

I’ll write more about this in my newsletter Sunday, but let’s just say this one is personal. I was blessed to work with Bobby Cleveland (Rick’s brother) for many years at The Clarion-Ledger. And as I wrote on Twitter, “In the South, we say nice things about people when they die. But let me reassure you — Every great thing you read about Bobby Cleveland is true.”

Heaven is full of laughter today. Down here? Well, a bunch of us are still in shock.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Bobby Cleveland appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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