Just one of the ten applicants hoping to open a new charter school in Mississippi received approval Monday.
The Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board voted to approve Instant Impact Global Prep unanimously at their Sep. 26 board meeting. Four other schools were denied charters at the meeting, two with split votes and two unanimously.
Instant Impact Global Prep will operate in Natchez beginning in the 2023-24 school year. The school will serve grades K-2 in its first year, with the ability to expand to the eighth grade. Their mission statement emphasizes a rigorous STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum as well as emotional development and community engagement. Representatives from Instant Impact Educational Services who will be operating the school could not be reached for comment Monday.
Of the five schools that made it to the final stage of the application process, Instant Impact Global Prep was the only one recommended for approval by an independent evaluator. Clarksdale Collegiate Prep, Columbus Leadership Academy, and both the Tallahatchie and North Bolivar locations of Resilience Academy of Teaching did not meet 100% of the performance standards.
Clarksdale Collegiate Prep would have served grades 7-12 as a feeder for students who currently attend Clarksdale Collegiate Public, a K-6 charter elementary school. Nearly 20 students, parents, and teachers attended the board meeting in person Monday, with four speaking to the board directly in favor of the charter getting approved.
Amanda Johnson is the leader of Clarksdale Collegiate charter school. Credit: Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School
Amanda Johnson, executive director of Clarksdale Collegiate Public, spoke to the board about her confidence in her team’s ability to open a new school and the challenges the school has overcome. She added that the final report from the independent evaluator does not paint a full picture of their school community and its impact on student learning.
When voting on Clarksdale Collegiate’s application, board members were split, with those opposed citing the need for additional planning and concerns regarding the current school’s test data. Jennifer Whitter, a board member who voted against granting the charter, invited the school to apply again in the future but said they were not ready at this time.
After they were denied, Johnson said she is deeply disappointed by the board’s decision, but emphasized that she will be applying again.
“I am not giving up on our kids,” Johnson said. “But because we understand how to open and run a school, we understand that we need the time to plan, which is why we came here today.”
Clarksdale Collegiate Public will also have their charter up for renewal this school year, which Johnson said she anticipates being a challenge.
“It is clearly going to be an uphill battle because of the way the board characterizes our school,” she told Mississippi Today. “We are coming off of a pandemic and this is our first year ever having an accountability score. What we are doing is hard. We get that. We have shown and we are demonstrating that we are willing and able to do that work.”
Despite this, Johnson expressed confidence that they would have their high school operational by the time students reached ninth grade.
The board’s vote was also split for Columbus Leadership Academy, with some board members saying they deserved a chance to prove themselves, but they were also denied. The board was unanimous in their denial of the Resilience Academy of Teaching’s schools, citing concern that the plans were not appropriately thorough.
Grant Callen, CEO of school choice advocacy group Empower Mississippi, said students are being failed by an overly-restrictive board.
“Today, the Board had before them multiple applicants, who in our view, more than surpassed the threshold to be approved to start a high quality charter school,” Callen said. “(We) remain hopeful that in the future a majority of the Board will come to understand that creating more options for more students is an urgent imperative and their primary charge. The children of Mississippi are depending on it.”
Those convicted of murder are not eligible for parole in Mississippi, but court rulings paved the way for a man previously sentenced to death to receive parole and be scheduled for release.
Frederick Bell had been serving a sentence at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman for the May 1991 shooting of 21-year-old Robert “Bert” Bell (no relation) during a robbery in Grenada County.
Capital murder typically carries the death penalty. But after years of appeals and filing for post-conviction relief, Frederick Bell was resentenced to life without parole and then life with the possibility of parole. He was approved for release by the state Parole Board in August and is set to leave prison as early as Monday.
Family members of Bert Bell have been attending Parole Board meetings since 2015 and thought Frederick Bell wouldn’t be paroled, but last month Gene Bell, Bert’s younger brother, received a letter saying Frederick Bell’s parole had been approved, according to a copy shared with Mississippi Today.
The family wants the Parole Board to reconsider. More than 50 community members from Grenada County and beyond have signed a petition addressed to Gov. Tate Reeves asking him to reverse the board’s decision. State law enforcement groups and residents have written to Parole Board Chair Jeffery Belk and board members. Several lawmakers have also spoken about Frederick Bell’s parole.
“We should never parole a violent criminal,” Gene Bell wrote in a Thursday emailto Mississippi Today. “That is not the way to reduce the population in the penal system and is certainly not the way to protect every law-abiding citizen in regards to our safety.”
Belk wrote to Gene Bell about the board’s decision to parole Frederick Bell, saying he understood it would be a disappointment to the family.
In a previous interview with Mississippi Today, Belk said when considering parole, the board looks at a range of available information, including input from victims and their families and the person’s record while incarcerated, to make a decision.
“However, in our opinion Bell has been rehabilitated and at this point we feel that parole supervision will be more beneficial than further incarceration,” Belk’s letter states.
Belk and a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment about Bell’s parole.
Bert Bell at his high school graduation. Credit: Gene Bell
On May 6, 1991, then-19-year-old Frederick Bell and a group of men went into Sparks Stop ‘N Go in Grenada County where 21-year-old Bert Bell was working. They bought chips and beer and went outside to eat, according to court records.
Frederick Bell wanted to go to Memphis and said he needed money so he decided to rob the store, according to court records. He went back inside with one of the group members, Anthony Doss. Gunshots rang out from the store, and Bert Bell was shot nine times and killed.
Later that day, Frederick Bell and three of the men from the group drove to Memphis, where Bell shot and killed another man, 20-year-old Tommy White.
In 1993, the Grenada County Circuit Court convicted Frederick Bell and Doss for the killing of Bert Bell. A jury found Frederick Bell killed the store clerk, contemplated using lethal force during the robbery and intended to kill Bert Bell, which factored into its decision to impose the death penalty, according to court records.
Before the 1993 trial, Frederick Bell and another man from the group, Frank Coffey, were charged for the Memphis shooting and pleaded guilty, according to court records.
For years Frederick Bell sought to appeal his Mississippi conviction, including an unsuccessful direct appeal with the state Supreme Court in 1998, multiple filings for post-conviction relief and denied requests for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his case.
Gene Bell said it is a shame for anyone convicted of a violent crime to continue to appeal because victims and their families don’t get an opportunity to appeal any decisions made by the courts.
In 2011, the state Supreme Court found Frederick Bell was entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether he was mentally disabled. This was based on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found it was cruel and unusual to execute mentally disabled people.
Doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital evaluated Frederick Bell and determined he was mentally disabled.
As a result, in 2013 the Grenada County Circuit Court sentenced Bell to life without parole. He appealed, and in 2015 the State Supreme Court voted 5-4 in his favor. On June 5, 2015, the Grenada County Circuit Court sentenced him to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
Gene Bell said his family was devastated to learn his brother’s killer was eligible for parole. He began attending Parole Board hearings in 2015 to speak against Frederick Bell’s release.
“Do I like doing this? No,” Gene Bell said. “But it’s my duty. It’s my duty for my family and for the law abiding citizens of the great state of Mississippi.”
The family’s main concern is about public safety. Gene Bell said people shouldn’t have to fear the system has failed them by allowing someone who has committed violent crimes out of prison.
A person granted parole will serve the remainder of their sentence under supervision. They are required to report to a parole officer and follow rules laid out by the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Gene Bell said the current Parole Board did not indicate it would parole Frederick Bell.
Rather, the board told him it would extend the time between Frederick Bell’s hearings from one year to up to five years. This would be done out of consideration for Bert Bell’s family.
“(T)his was too brutal of a case for me and family to have to endure such a horrible date in history this often,” Gene Bell said.
He doesn’t understand what changed this summer between the July meeting that felt positive and the August one when the board granted Frederick Bell parole.
The Rev. C.J. Rhodes of Mount Helm Baptist Church in Jackson is President of Clergy for Prison Reform, which is focused on criminal justice issues including parole.
Parole can be complicated and should be viewed on a case-by-case basis, he said. It should also consider those affected, including victims, their families, the incarcerated people and their families and community.
The Christian faith recognizes redemption and how incarcerated people can be rehabilitated and demonstrate that after prison.
“This becomes a test case if we want to apply that particular theology,” Rhodes said.
The group wants to reimagine corrections in a way that doesn’t emphasize imprisoning people, he said. Rhodes said there is an opportunity to make victims and victimizers whole again, and redemption and rehabilitation shouldn’t be lost in conversation about criminal justice reform.
Monday is Frederick Bell’s expected release date. Multiple efforts to reach an attorney for Frederick Bell were not successful.
Sen. Angela Burks Hill (R-Picayune) said in an interview with Supertalk Radio that his release from prison is likely to be delayed because the Parole Board did not follow a state law that requires public notification in a newspaper in the county where the crime was committed.
Gene Bell remembers his brother as a happy-go lucky person who enjoyed the outdoors and loved his family and friends.
“We miss Bert tremendously,” Gene Bell said. “We often wonder what he would have become in life. What would his brother- and sister- in-law think about him and what would his nieces and nephews think about him? How would we all interact as family?”
On Monday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan again met with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, this time alongside the U.S. Department of Justice, to plot the next course of action over the city’s water system.
“Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim from the Department of Justice and I met today with Mayor Lumumba to discuss the actions the federal government is prepared to take to help remedy this longstanding injustice,” Regan said in a press release. “During that meeting, I conveyed our desire to work with the City to reach a judicially enforceable agreement that ensures a sustainable water system in the mid- and long-terms.”
The release did not mention the agreement between the EPA and Jackson that’s already in place. The two parties signed an administrative order in 2021, which contains a list of 40 hiring and repair requirements outlined by the federal agency.
Mayor Lumumba recently said the EPA has been flexible in setting deadlines in that agreement. All of the original deadlines have since passed. Mississippi Today reached out to the EPA to ask which of those items the city has met so far, but was told by a spokesperson, “Due to the ongoing enforcement activities, we are unable to provide information related to the city’s compliance status.”
The two parties are also under a court-ordered non-disclosure agreement that prevents them from sharing a “very detailed plan” with a cost estimate for fixing the city’s water system, Jackson officials said recently. The EPA confirmed to Mississippi Today that there is a confidentiality order in place, but didn’t provide further detail.
The press release added that Jackson has issued roughly 300 boil water notices in the last two years.
New boil water noticeshit over 1,200 customers
Since the state health department lifted the month and a half long boil water notice just 11 days ago, Jackson has since issued new boil water advisories for over 1,200 customers.
The city announced on Monday afternoon that a “contractor inadvertently severed the water line” for approximately 1,000 connections in Byram.
Jackson issued boil water notices for the other 200 connections because of line breaks caused by increased pressure in the system, officials said. Mayor Lumumba warned residents in early September that the worn down distribution system would be susceptible to such issues.
City workers, with assistance from the Mississippi Rural Water Association and teams from Maryland, Arkansas, Minnesota and South Carolina, have continued repairs at both of Jackson’s treatment plants. A Monday press release said the crews brought two of the raw water pumps back into service at O.B. Curtis before the weekend.
The city said on Monday that the following areas, including Byram, Belhaven, North Jackson, and Eastover, are currently under a boil water notice:
Byram:
[7300-8899] Gary Road, Byram: 39272
Gary Drive
Glen Haven Subdivision
Glennhaven Drive
Glennhaven Court
Glenn Oak Circle
Cedar Glenn Drive
Brank Creek Drive
Red Oak Cove
Cedar Glenn Cove
Trelles Cove
Highland Cove
Azalea Cove
Glennwood Cove
Ridge Place
Redwood Cove
Holybush Place
Glennoak Circle
Eagle Nest Subdivision
Eagle Nest Drive
Freedom Cove
Highpoint Drive
Mountain Crest Drive
Golden Eagle Drive
Talon Cove
Canyon Cove
Lake Ridgelea Subdivision
Turtle Road
Park Avenue
Mary Lane
Lake Shore Drive
Oak Avenue
Pike Avenue
Ridgelea Road
Lure Avenue
Meadow Lane
S. Ridge Road
E. Ridge Road
Bob White Street
Rod Street
Reel Street
Hook Street
W. Ridge Road
Horse Shoe Circle
Line Street
Spinning Street
Jackson:
[1200-2399] North State Street: 39202
[1600-1899] Pine St.
[700-799] Euclid St.
[700-799] Oakwood St.
[700-799] Fairview St.
[700-799] Arlington St.
[700-799] Pinehurst St.
[700-799] Gillespie St.
Popcorn Alley
Park Avenue
[1300-1399] Peachtree Street: 39202
[5300-5599] Highland Drive: 39206
[4300-4599] El Paso Street
Paso Cove
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include more streets impacted by the boil water notices because the City of Jackson released more locations after this story first published.
A former professional wrestler and defendant in the Mississippi welfare scandal is alleging that he personally witnessed Republican Gov. Phil Bryant instruct an appointee to cut welfare funding to a nonprofit because its director supported Democrat Jim Hood in the 2019 governor’s race.
The allegation that Bryant leveraged his control of welfare spending to punish a political opponent comes in a two-year-old federal court filing released Friday after Mississippi Today successfully motioned to unseal the case.
The account echoes a similar allegation Mississippi Today published just over a week ago that the same nonprofit was forced to fire Hood’s wife in order to keep receiving welfare grant funding.
Former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. had received millions of federal welfare dollars to conduct various anti-poverty services for two private nonprofits when suddenly, the state allegedly pulled the program.
Federal authorities, who are attempting to seize DiBiase’s house because of his alleged role in the welfare scheme, say the Mississippi Department of Human Services “abandoned” the program and the wrestler failed to perform the work under his contracts. The federal complaint against DiBiase mirrors new federal charges that former welfare director John Davis pleaded guilty to on Thursday.
But what actually happened, DiBiase says, is that in 2019, Gov. Bryant directed Davis to discontinue the agency’s partnership with nonprofit Family Resource Center of North Mississippi because of its connection to Democrats in the state.
Family Resource Center director Christi Webb was an outspoken supporter of her friend and then-Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat who was running against Republican then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves for governor in 2019. That year, the term-limited Bryant, who still oversaw the welfare agency, also worked hard on the campaign trail to get Reeves elected to the Governor’s Mansion.
FRC was one of two nonprofits that funded the wrestler. DiBiase said his program, called the “RISE” program, was then moved out from under the private nonprofits to the state agency.
“Shortly before John Davis retired in mid-2019, he indicated … that the RISE program would be taken ‘in-house’ and overseen at MDHS as opposed to being overseen by FRC or MCEC,” reads DiBiase’s Aug. 10, 2020, answer to the federal complaint for forfeiture against him. “Upon information and belief, this occurred as a result of the Governor directing John Davis to cease funding and working with FRC because FRC’s Executive Director, Christi Webb, was openly supporting Jim Hood in the race for Mississippi Governor.”
“The claimant, who witnessed Bryant give that direction to Davis, was subsequently informed by Davis that his contracts with FRC would be moved to MCEC,” the filing continued. “This did not affect Claimant’s performance under the contract.”
Former Gov. Phil Bryant, left, and welfare grant recipient and former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase pose for a photo.
Teddy DiBiase made this claim in his response to a federal forfeiture complaint the U.S. Department of Justice filed against him in 2020 alleging he entered fraudulent contracts in order to obtain welfare funds. Mississippi Today motioned to unseal the case on Aug. 18.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Ball dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s initial complaint against Teddy DiBiase in 2021, after his lawyers successfully argued that the complaint failed to allege a crime, and allowed the government to enter an amended complaint in August. Teddy DiBiase argues that he completed the work the nonprofits paid him to conduct, therefore earning the money legally.
Teddy DiBiase Jr.’s allegation against Bryant adds to claims that the former governor used his power to influence welfare spending, not just to benefit political allies, but to punish a Democratic opponent.
Officials have not charged Bryant civilly or criminally.
The state prosecutor who secured a guilty plea from Davis last week said investigators have their sights set on higher level officials as the welfare probe continues.
“We’re still looking through records and text messages as we continue to move up,” Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said after Davis’ guilty plea Thursday. “We also continue to work with the federal authorities in Washington and in Mississippi. John Davis is critical because the ladder continues to move up.”
Mississippi Today first reported a similar allegation from Webb that a local lawmaker had threatened her on Bryant’s behalf to fire Hood’s wife Debbie Hood in order to keep receiving funding from the state. Webb said she relayed the news to Debbie Hood, who agreed to resign. Hood’s campaign manager Michael Rejebian said Debbie Hood confirmed the account. Webb also alleged that she eventually refused to continue paying the DiBiases, which angered Davis.
Family Resource Center’s original founder, Cathy Grace, was also running as a Democrat in 2019 for a local House seat against Republican Rep. Shane Aguirre, R-Tupelo, who worked for FRC as an accountant in charge of reviewing invoices from its partners. Aguirre told Mississippi Today he did not work on or review the DiBiase projects.
Teddy DiBiase Jr. is the son of WWE legend Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase Sr. His younger brother, Brett DiBiase, also received welfare funds and pleaded guilty to his role in the fraud scheme in 2020. Through various contracts with the men, as well as Ted DiBiase Sr.’s Christian ministry, the DiBiase family received over $5 million in welfare funds.
In the 2020 ongoing forfeiture complaint against Teddy DiBiase, federal authorities are attempting to seize his $1.5 million French-colonial lakeside home in the Madison community of Reunion, Clarion Ledger first reported. Prosecutors say he purchased the property with money obtained from the state’s welfare program — a total of over $3 million, according to the state auditor. At the time in 2020, the complaint contained details of an ongoing investigation.
Davis pleaded guilty on Sept. 22 to two federal charges — one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of theft — related to these payments to Teddy DiBiase. Mississippi Today identified one of the four unnamed alleged co-conspirators in the charges against Davis as Teddy DiBiase.
Teddy DiBiase Jr. and Ted DiBiase Sr. have not publicly faced criminal charges, though they are targets of an ongoing state civil case that attempts to recoup misspent welfare funds.
All of the charges are part of a wider scandal that resulted in the misspending of $77 million in federal welfare funds. The money flowed through Family Resource Center of North Mississippi and another nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center, founded by defendant Nancy New. New, who has pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud, was a friend of Bryant’s wife.
The two nonprofits were running a statewide program called Families First for Mississippi.
Filings in the federal forfeiture case against Teddy DiBiase Jr. outline several alleged events:
June 2017: Teddy DiBiase’s company Priceless Ventures signed a contract with FRC and MCEC for $250,000 to “act as a ‘leadership training coordinator’” for Families First for Mississippi. FRC paid the retired wrestler in full on June 1, 2017, the first day of the contract period.
August 2017: FRC paid Ted DiBiase Sr. $250,000, near the beginning of a year-long contract to be a motivational speaker for Families First.
May 2018: Teddy DiBiase’s company Priceless Ventures signed a contract with FRC for $500,000. MCEC paid $500,000 on May 17, 2018. He “performed no significant work under this leadership outreach contract,” the complaint alleges, “but instead merely provided one or two training sessions — an immaterial amount of work that fell far short of what the contract required.”
July 2018: FRC paid Priceless Ventures nearly $500,000 in emergency food assistance funds on July 13, 2018, for a contract that was supposed to run from May 2018 to September 2018. “The only work DiBiase Jr. completed on this contract was to send a list of food pantry locations to FRC,” the filing alleged.
October 2018: Priceless Ventures signed a $130,000 contract with MCEC to create a personal development training program. MCEC eventually paid the company $199,500 under this contract.
December 2018: MDHS signed a $48,000 contract with Brett DiBiase to conduct training sessions on opioid addiction from December 2018 to June 2019.
February 2019: Brett DiBiase began treatment at a luxury drug rehabilitation center in Malibu called RISE, where he would receive therapy for four months. Davis directed MCEC to make four $40,000 payments to the facility.
The federal complaint alleges that Teddy DiBiase used the money from the Family Resource Center contracts to make a more than $400,000 down payment on his Madison home. Teddy DiBiase denies the assertion that he failed to complete the work for which he was hired.
The federal complaint also uses Davis’ text messages to establish the close relationship that the government bureaucrat developed with the DiBiase family, such as Davis telling his administrative assistant that he “loves B. DIBIASE like his own child,” the amended complaint reads. Davis also pleaded guilty last week to charges related to welfare payments to Brett DiBiase and to pay for his drug rehab stint.
As Mississippi Today previously reported, Davis and Teddy DiBiase swapped Christian devotionals, traveled out of state and exercised at the gym together. Davis frequently texted the older brother, “I love you.” The welfare director flew across the country to visit Brett DiBiase while he was in drug rehab, discussed his treatment options with a specialist and called him the “son I never had.” When not together, they shared long, late-night phone calls, phone records show.
While Teddy DiBiase Jr. was never a payroll employee of the state welfare agency — only a contractor of the welfare-funded private nonprofits — he occupied one of the largest offices inside the private downtown high-rise where Davis relocated MDHS offices after he became director.
Under one of the contracts, Teddy DiBiase was supposed to accomplish several things, including meeting “the multiple needs of inner-city youth”; identifying services for “successfully linking the youth served with opportunities for self-sufficiency and independence”; providing feedback about “parents as they pursue skill-building and education that lead to better jobs”; and helping employers on “improving opportunity and outcomes in the workforce.”
Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. appears in a 2019 internal Mississippi Department of Human Services video message to agency workers.
In Mississippi, nearly one in five people live in poverty. Average wages in the state, as well as the state’s workforce participation rate, are among the lowest in the nation. Teddy DiBiase’s contract illustrates both the state’s frenetic emphasis on workforce development and its disregard for whether the programs it supports actually produce the desired outcomes.
In this case, the U.S. Department of Justice contends the actions were illegal.
Davis and DiBiase Jr. entered into the workforce-related contracts, according to the federal complaint, “even though DAVIS and DIBIASE JR. knew, at the inception of the contract … that, in fact, no significant services would be performed under the contract and that the actual purpose of entering into the contract and disbursing funds under it was to enrich DIBIASE JR. by stealing and misapplying funds under the federally-funded contract.”
Tougaloo College will get nearly half a million dollars from the federal government to shore-up campus security and mental health care in the wake of this year’s nationwide bomb threats targeting historically Black colleges and universities.
The funding will come from a U.S. Department of Education initiative called Project SERV, or “School Emergency Response to Violence,” that provides short-term support to educational entities that have experienced a traumatic event.
When the department opened applications in March, it said grants would range from $50,000 to $150,000, but Tougaloo will receive much more than that – $420,000 – for a year’s worth of additional staff.
Schenika Harrison, a special projects director who applied for the grant, said the funds will cover two trauma therapists to help students whose mental health was affected by the threats, three security officers to better patrol the 500 wooded acres of campus and about 20 adjuncts, which will make it easier for faculty to take mental health days.
Carmen J. Walters answers questions from the audience and media after it was announced that she has been named Tougaloo College’s new president during a press conference at the Tougaloo’s Woodworth Chapel Monday, March 18, 2019. Credit: Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America
Carmen Walters, Tougaloo’s president, said that seven months later, many people on campus still struggle with “the shock and trauma of dealing with bomb threats at 4 o’clock in the morning, being awaken out of your sleep, not being able to walk the buildings freely and having everyone say, ‘look for any packages that look unfamiliar.’”
“That’s a lot of trauma for our kids that they shouldn’t have to deal with,” she added.
So far, Tougaloo is the only HBCU in Mississippi that has received the funding. Rust College did not apply, a spokesperson told Mississippi Today. Jackson State University’s spokesperson said the school is still working on its application with the goal of using the funds to create an “emergency central hub” on campus.
Alcorn State University did not return Mississippi Today’s request for comment.
Mississippi Valley State University’s director of communications, Donell Maxie, told Mississippi Today that a reporter’s inquiry was the first time the university had heard of the program.
“They will be looking into it,” Maxie wrote in an email.
The FBI has yet to announce any arrests related to the bomb threats despite identifying six “tech savvy” juveniles as persons of interests in February.
POLITICO reported that the FBI told the House Oversight Committee in March no arrests have been made due to “‘challenges with attribution’ because ‘some of [the threats] come from encrypted platforms.’”
In recent weeks, several HBCU leaders, including Walters, have publicly criticized the pace of the investigation. She said she was “beyond frustrated” with the lack of updates from the bureau at a dinner for HBCU presidents in Washington., D.C. in August, POLITICO reported.
“I’m very angry that no one has been brought to justice,” Walters said, “but there’s been no conversation about the investigation at all.”
Though Project SERV provides much-needed funding, Walters also took issue with the application process, calling it a ‘complete joke,” POLITICO reported.
Since POLITICO published its story, Walters said the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice held a national call to update HBCU leaders on the investigation.
“I won’t repeat it, because it’s their update, but I will say that we were on the call feeling connected and that this is a priority and that they’re taking it seriously and that’s what we wanted,” she told Mississippi Today.
Walters said that the Department of Education has provided “phenomenal” support to HBCUs this year. She added that she was frustrated with the grant application process for Project SERV because it seemed needlessly competitive.
“When you say, ‘a grant process,’ it makes me feel that it’s competitive, that I’m competing against my colleagues,” she said.
Tougaloo is also in the process of applying for grants to replace keyhole locks in the campus dorms with scan-and-swipe technology.
Mississippi State Personnel Board Director Kelly Hardwick talks with Mississippi Today about the state government workforce, how workers are paid and whether a pay raise is in order.
The Mississippi Supreme Court did not testify during the one day of public hearings held recently by the influential Legislative Budget Committee, but that does not mean the justices were not discussed.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph’s interpretation of a law enacted in 2012 that he says grants him the authority to give the state’s judiciary a pay raise without legislative approval was an undercurrent of the meeting of legislative leaders.
Actually, for Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, it was more than an undercurrent.
“I just think it is appropriate for the Legislature to do the appropriations,” Hosemann said. “That is what people hired them (legislators) to do. I don’t think there should be an exception to that.”
Hosemann, of course, was referring to the classic, old school breakdown of the responsibilities of the three branches of government: the legislative branch makes the laws and appropriates funds, the executive branch carries out those laws, and the judiciary interprets the laws.
Randolph would argue lawmakers in the 2012 legislation relinquished to him the authority to appropriate money for the judicial pay raises.
Starting after 2019, the 2012 law called for the Supreme Court justices and other judges to receive an automatic pay raise if funds are available, based on a determination of “an adequate level of compensation” as determined by the state Personnel Board. That board regularly conducts studies to determine the salary levels for state employees based on various factors, such as pay for similar positions in the private sector and in neighboring states. Until the 2012 law, the Personnel Board had not been involved in the issue of providing pay raises for the judiciary. That had been left up to the Legislature as it continues to be for other state elected officials.
The 2012 law increased the fees on various court filings — such as the fee to file a civil lawsuit or on the levies in criminal proceedings — to help pay for the salary increase. Some argued at the time the increase on the court filings was equivalent to a tax increase for those who use the courts. But then-Chief Justice William Waller Jr., who advocated for the 2012 legislation, said judges at the time desperately needed a pay increase and he was trying to be responsible by providing a method to pay for it.
What was not clear at the time, at least to many legislators, is that the law would be used by the chief justice to bypass the Legislature to provide a pay raise for himself and other members of the judiciary.
In the 2020 session, House Appropriations Chair John Read, R-Gautier, authored legislation that would have provided a judicial pay raise but would have removed the 2012 language that allowed the judges to set their own salary based on the Personnel Board report. The legislation passed the House, but died in the Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg.
In September 2020, less than six months after the 2020 legislation died, Randolph contacted the Personnel Board inquiring about its salary recommendation report for the judiciary. That recommendation was for about a cumulative $2 million increase for state judges starting in January 2021 — a pay increase greater than what was proposed in the 2020 House bill. Randolph enacted the pay raise based on that report.
During last week’s Legislative Budget Committee meeting, House Pro Tem Jason White, R-West, asked questions about one of the guidelines the legislative leaders adopted for developing a budget – a requirement that any across-the-board pay raise for an agency had to be approved by the Legislature.
“We got in a position, one particular agency where raises went into effect and we were kind of in a take it or leave it scenario,” White said.
“You mean the Supreme Court?” asked Hosemann.
“Yes sir,” White replied.
Referring to the 2012 law, Hopson said, “I think the statute probably trumps what we do…When we get back into session there needs to be something that confirms this (guideline.) We probably need to adjust the statute.”
Whether Hopson and other legislators will be willing to take the power to provide their own raises away from the judiciary remains to be seen. Many of the top legislative leaders are attorneys who often must appear before Randolph and the other justices in their private lives to argue cases. They might be reluctant to incur the ire of the Supreme Court.
Hosemann also is an attorney, but at age 75 has directed most of his active work life away from private law practice and toward public service, where he believes in the system set out by the nation’s and state’s founding fathers where the legislative branch appropriates public funds.
Former Gov. Phil Bryant has publicly produced dozens of text messages in an attempt to prove he was unaware that former NFL quarterback Brett Favre was using welfare money for his volleyball project.
The court documents filed Friday come within a court battle between Bryant and the attorney for nonprofit founder Nancy New over whether Bryant should have to produce any more of his communication regarding the welfare-funded volleyball stadium.
In response to a state civil complaint against her, New alleged in July that she had the approval and direction from the governor and other welfare officials to make the allegedly illegal purchases.
Bryant now objects to turning over any more records that New’s attorney Gerry Bufkin has subpoenaed in order to argue New’s defense.
In the latest filing, Bryant’s newly-hired attorney Billy Quin suggests Bufkin lacks the evidence to prove Bryant directed New’s payments – yet the purpose of Bufkin’s subpoena is to obtain additional evidence.
The most-recently filed texts, which were selected by Bryant’s attorney and do not reflect the entirety of communication that exists, show Bryant and Favre discussed in 2017 raising private donations to build a state-of-the-art volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi — both men’s alma mater.
“Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Governor Bryant, New and Favre were pursuing MDHS funds for the USM Volleyball Center,” Bryant’s filing reads.
Other key arguments Bryant’s attorney made in the latest court filing include:
Bryant was unaware of the 2017 plans that Favre, New and Davis had allegedly made to secure welfare funds from the state for the volleyball stadium — including plans to pass welfare funds through a lease with the USM Athletic Foundation to skirt federal regulations.
Bryant warned Favre in September 2019 after a meeting the two had about the volleyball center: “We are going to get there. This was a great meeting. But we have to follow the law. I am to[o] old for Federal Prison. [smiley face, sunglasses emoji].”
Bryant asked that if the court compels him to produce all his text messages regarding the USM volleyball center, the records should be kept from the public and from the press.
The filing suggests Bryant’s appointed welfare director, John Davis, who pleaded guilty this week to state and federal charges, instantaneously committed $4 million in federal welfare funds to the Favre volleyball project without his boss’s knowledge. The filing produces no texts between Bryant and Davis.
The texts shed more light on the pressure that Favre and New attempted to place on Bryant in 2019 in order to secure even more money from the Mississippi Department of Human Services, an agency under Bryant’s control. They even proposed naming the facility after Bryant — a gesture that was meant to be a surprise, but, “Due to the urgency in getting this secured, we felt it appropriate to share,” they wrote in a proposal.
“She’s relentless,” the governor’s attorney texted Bryant in September of 2019.
“Nancy is worrying,” Bryant responded. “She know[s] what they were doing was wrong.”
Knowing that the auditor’s office was investigating welfare spending, Bryant spoke frankly to Favre about their need to follow federal spending regulations and agency regulations around contract procurement.
“We are going to get there. This was a great meeting,” Bryant texted Favre in September of 2019, directly after they met with Christopher Freeze, the welfare director who replaced Davis after Davis was suspected of defrauding the agency. “But we have to follow the law. I am to[o] old for Federal Prison. [smiley face, sunglasses emoji].”
Texts indicate that during this time in late 2019, Bryant had shifted normal course. “Until Audit has [completed] its work I am staying out of all decisions that the agency will make,” Bryant texted New, according to the most recent filing.
The text messages appearing in this story are quoted from Bryant’s court filing, with editing from his attorney.
In 2017 and 2018, New’s nonprofit paid $5 million to the volleyball construction and $1.1 million to Favre directly. But by 2019, builders needed more funding to complete the project, and Favre became worried that he would be left holding the bag, as he was the one who initially committed the funds. As investigators cracked down on Mississippi Department of Human Services and the New nonprofit, the welfare funding dried up and Favre began talking to other state agencies about getting the rest of the money to finish the project. It’s unclear what, if any, other public money wound up going to the volleyball project.
Nancy New’s son Zach New pleaded guilty in April to defrauding the government by acting “with John Davis and others at their direction, to disguise the USM construction project as a ‘lease’ as a means of circumventing the limited purpose grant’s strict prohibition against ‘brick and mortar’ construction projects.”
The Favre-related payments reflect a small portion of a scheme to misspend $77 million in funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program during the last four years of Bryant’s administration. Most of the money flowed through two nonprofits who were running a state-sanctioned anti-poverty program called Families First for Mississippi, which Favre references in texts to Bryant.
According to the filing, Favre first reached out to Bryant about fundraising in April of 2017.
“Deanna and I are building a volleyball facility on campus and I need your influence somehow to get donations and or sponsorships. Obviously Southern has no money so I’m hustling to get it raised,” Favre texted the governor.
“We will have that thing built before you know it,” Bryant responded.
In July of 2017, Davis, New and Favre met with University of Southern Mississippi officials to discuss the welfare department supporting the volleyball stadium construction. Not long after, New texted Favre that she had “just got off the phone with Phil Bryant! He is on board with us! We will get this done!”
“New did not tell Governor Bryant that she and Davis had arranged to contribute $4 million in TANF funds to the project,” Bryant’s filing reads. “She simply explained that she was helping Favre gain university approval of the project and it appeared the university would ultimately approve it. Just as he had indicated to Favre, Bryant told New that he would assist them in raising private donations and corporate sponsorships to help fund the project.”
The project involved New’s nonprofit entering a five-year, $5 million lease of the university’s athletic facilities, which it would purportedly use to provide programming to the community’s underserved population. The filing explains that the lease agreement was approved by university attorneys, then the Institutes for Higher Learning’s appointed Attorney General’s Office attorney. A USM announcement said the project would be funded by Mississippi Community Education Center and private donations.
Later, in May of 2018, Favre reached out again to Gov. Bryant for help constructing lockers for the facility.
“I’m still trying to save money on [the] Vball facility,” Favre texted.
Favre even suggested “the prison industry possibly as a builder.”
HGTV star and woodworker Ben Napier assisted with constructing the lockers on Bryant’s request, according to the filing.
The filing says Bryant first learned that the welfare department had funded the volleyball project through a text Favre sent him in July of 2019, after Bryant had ousted Davis from office.
“I’m on [my] way and I’m sure I won’t have time [or] privacy enough to speak about this so I want you to know how much I love Nancy New and John Davis,” Favre texted Bryant, according to the filing. “What they have done for me and Southern Miss is amazing. Her family’s first is incredible and she cares. We were planning to do workshops and youth clinics in the new Vball facility with her families first kids. And also[,] I paid for 3/4 of Vball facility and the rest was a joint project with her and John which was saving me 1.8 million. I was informed today that she may not be able to fund her part. I and we need your help very badly Governor and sorry to even bring this up.”
The filing notes that while Bryant had no reason to question Favre’s characterization of the funding, Favre’s message was inaccurate, considering the welfare department had paid much more than $1.8 million.
“Moreover, based on the content and tenor of Favre’s text message, it is also apparent that Governor Bryant did not know what had previously transpired between New, Davis, and Favre regarding the funding of the USM Volleyball Center,” the filing reads. “If, as MCEC and certain press members have insinuated, Governor Bryant was directing the funding for the project, why did Favre provide him a synopsis of the project’s funding history? And why did Favre provide details of the funding history to the governor? Regardless of the answer to these questions, the record is clear that USM and its attorneys, the IHL Board, and the state attorney general’s office all approved a $5 million payment of TANF funds from MCEC to construct the facility without Governor Bryant’s involvement.”
At this point, however, Bryant did begin aiding Favre and New in their efforts to seek additional funding from the welfare department.
New sent the proposal to the governor’s office – with a project title of “The Dewey Phillip Bryant Center for Excellence at the University of Southern Mississippi focusing on Obesity, Bullying Prevention and Personal Development Project.” Bryant suggested ways to reword the proposal to pass muster at the department.
Favre texted New, ‘[the Governor] said to me just a second ago that he has seen [the funding proposal] but hint hint that you need to reword it to get it accepted,” reads Bufkin’s Sept. 12 motion.
But by 2020, Bryant’s filing says, the governor had instructed Freeze to cease payments to New’s nonprofit.
This appears to conflict with State Auditor Shad White’s statement that the February 2020 arrests were necessary in order to stop the flow of funds to the perpetrators.
“Just his (Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens’) decision alone to indict those individuals, who we then arrested, likely saved the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars of welfare funds because we know now that more money was prepared to be pumped out to those same individuals who have today plead guilty to fraud,” White said after Davis’ plea hearing Thursday.
A review of state expenditures shows that Mississippi Community Education Center received its last TANF payment of nearly $1.4 million on Dec. 6, 2019, though the nonprofit did receive a few smaller food assistance payments after that time.
After Bryant left office in early 2020, the filing explains that Favre continued to push for Bryant’s help, and Bryant consulted Favre about lobbying the Legislature for bonds to finish out the volleyball construction.
Bryant also talked to then-USM President Rodney Bennett about the predicament.
“I’ve asked Brett not to do the things he’s doing to seek funding from state agencies and the legislature for the volleyball facility,” Bennett texted Bryant in late January 2020, according to the filing. “As you know, IHL has a process of how we request and get approval for projects and what he’s doing is outside those guidelines. I will see, for the ‘umpteenth time’ if we can get him to stand down. The bottom line is he personally guaranteed the project, and on his word and handshake we proceeded. It’s time for him to pay up – it really is just that simple.”
After the auditor’s office arrested New and Davis in February of 2020, Favre again asked if Bryant had spoken to the incoming Gov. Tate Reeves about the project. Bryant forwarded a link to a story about the embezzlement case to Favre, saying, “This has been the problem. Not sure what funding will be available in the future.”
Bryant then again encouraged Favre to meet with Reeves to explore a bond bill.
Bryant’s latest court filing in the state’s ongoing civil suit is an objection to a motion to compel that Bufkin filed on behalf of New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center. Bufkin wants Bryant to publicly produce all of his communication surrounding the volleyball deal. Bryant’s attorney Billy Quin argues the information is privileged and irrelevant to the civil suit.
While the volleyball stadium is not a subject of the state’s civil suit, Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing New and Favre over the $1.1 million payment New’s nonprofit made to Favre under a promotional agreement. The suit also targets over $2 million in welfare payments to a pharmaceutical start-up company called Prevacus, another project on which Favre and Bryant worked together.
Texts show Favre suggested New pay him $1.1 million under an advertising contract as a way to get more money to the volleyball project. This is one way Bufkin is arguing the relevancy of Bryant’s involvement in the volleyball stadium to the allegations against his clients.
“Governor Bryant was not involved in crafting the (advertising) arrangement, and he had no knowledge of its existence. Clearly, the concept of passing through funds to USM was not Governor Bryant’s idea,” Bryant’s filing reads.
Bufkin filed the original subpoena on July 25; Quin wrote a letter objecting to the subpoena on Aug. 26; and Bufkin filed the motion to compel on Sept. 12, attaching several text messages between New, Favre and Bryant. Bufkin’s filing made national airwaves, catapulting the Mississippi welfare scandal into every major national news outlet.
“MCEC filed the present motion and attached numerous text messages to create a media frenzy that distracts from New’s felonious conduct,” Bryant’s latest filing reads. “MCEC’s primary intention with the present motion is not to seek legitimate discovery, but rather to create a media circus. The purpose of this response is to set the record straight regarding Governor Bryant’s knowledge of and involvement with the USM Volleyball Center project.”
Bryant’s filing also asks the court to quash the subpoena or to place any subpoenaed documents under a protective order. He also asks that the court sanction the nonprofit for abusing their subpoena power.
Quin argues that any more text messages Bryant might be required to produce should be shielded from the public because of how they may be portrayed in the media.
“In a court of law, Governor Bryant has the right to respond to unfounded or misguided allegations before an impartial court,” the motion reads. “This is not true with the media. Media members sometimes carry biases and unfounded and unfair opinions that impact their work. Instead of impartially seeking the truth, the media member sometimes seeks to reinforce her already-existing beliefs, however unfounded they may be. This can result in a social media echo-chamber of confirmation bias that unduly influences court proceedings and biases potential jurors against parties and/or witnesses. And this influence threatens the integrity of this court’s proceedings.”
Mississippi is one of only 13 states that tax groceries, and at 7%, the state’s tax is the highest in the nation.
View the data on the states that tax their groceries, including standard sales tax rates:
Grocery taxes only continue to burden low-income people, which compounds another problem of food insecurity: Mississippi has the highest food insecurity rate in the country, according to 2020 data provided by Feeding America.
Mississippi, the poorest state, also has one of the highest sales tax rates across the board, matching Indiana, Rhode Island and Tennessee. California has the highest sales tax of 7.25%.
The debate on whether or not to cut Mississippi's grocery tax has persisted for years, with late politician Alan Nunnelee calling the 7% tax "the most cruel tax any government can impose" as far back as 2007.
As Bobby Harrison reported in a 2020 analysis, Vice President for State Fiscal Policy MichaelLeachman of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argued that Mississippi — the first state to impose a modern-day sales tax — did so because of race, at least partially.
To quote Harrison, "Even if Mississippi politicians are given a huge benefit of the doubt on the issue of race that history tells us they might not deserve, it is fair to assume that a high percentage of people whom [former Gov. Mike] Connor was referencing as paying no taxes were African American. After all, because of the higher levels of poverty among Black residents, they had then and have now less property and income to tax.
Many of the states where the higher sales taxes can be found are in the South. And only three states levy as much sales tax on food as they do on other retail items. Two of those also are Southern states — Mississippi and Alabama — with the other being South Dakota."
As of 2022, the number of states that levy their full sales tax on food is now seven: Alabama, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
