Gibbs was elected in a 2016 special election and was re-elected in 2019 to serve as the District 72 Representative.
In February, State Representative Debra Gibbs, a Democrat representing House District 72, announced her candidacy for Hinds County Circuit Court Judge, Sub-District 2. Reflecting on her experience in both the public and private sectors, Representative Gibbs says she is ready to serve the community in a new capacity.
“I have the skill set, experience and proven record of service required to perform the duties of Hinds County Circuit Judge with distinction,” Rep. Gibbs said.
Gibbs told Y’all Politics that she has many years of judicial experience presiding over bench hearings and approving settlements for injured workers in the state as a Commissioner of the Mississippi Worker ‘s Compensation Commission.
Rep. Gibbs is an attorney who has clerked with the Mississippi State Supreme Court. She has also directed a division within the Mississippi State Department of Human Services. In addition to her law degree, Rep. Gibbs has a M.B.A. and an accounting degree.
“I honor the law, I have practiced the law, I have enacted the law, and now I am ready to interpret the law with fairness, impartiality, and with promptness. I will continue to serve with integrity and courage,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs won the District 72 seat in a 2016 special election and was re-elected in 2019. Gibbs currently serves as the vice-chair of the House Tourism Committee and is also as a member of the Banking and Financial Services, Education, Ethics, Judiciary B and Medicaid committees.
Through her time in the Mississippi Legislature, Rep. Gibbs says she helped secure $100,000 for campus lighting at Callaway High School, $150,000 for improvements at Lake Hico and Northgate Parks and $300,000 for renovations, repair and construction at Cynthia and Pocahontas Volunteer Fire Departments.
“By staying focused on community needs and showing up to work everyday at the Legislature, I knew what we needed and how to get those needs addressed,” Gibbs said. “These improvements make everyday life better and address quality of life concerns residents brought to me. They mean much more than that though. They prove that when we work together we can accomplish great things.”
Should Gibbs win in November, a special election would be necessary to fill the unexpired term for House District 72. This would likely occur even as qualifying for the 2023 state elections were being held.
In reality, electricity from solar and wind (renewable energy) can supplement energy from fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal). But thinking it can replace fossil fuels is wishful thinking. Why? Because renewables are intermittent (sporadic). Solar panels generate electricity about 30% of the time on average. But they may not generate any electricity for days. Same for windmills.
So natural gas or coal plants must be on standby 24 hours a day to backup intermittent renewables to prevent blackouts. This increases plant costs and makes Green electricity expensive even though sunshine and wind are free.
Why is it hard to understand and admit this? And that renewables can’t provide the carbon molecules needed to make plastics, antifreeze, pharmaceuticals, and thousands of other necessities? Why? Because it’s profitable for the Green Energy Cartel and the “scientists” and politicians and virtue seeking hustlers to ignore reality. And say net zero carbon emissions are possible and necessary to save the planet.
When wishful thinking meets physics, physics wins. Politicians in Germany and Great Britain thought wind could generate needed electricity. They shuttered natural gas, coal, and nuclear backups and went all in on windmills. Their wishful thinking will be painful for constituents this winter.
Closer to home, California and Texas grid failures show that intermittent Green energy causes blackouts. Mississippians must be slow learners because EntergyMS just built a new solar plant in the Delta and schemes to build nine more. None are needed to meet customer demand (which isn’t growing).
The plant was shilled as virtuous Green electricity to make Mississippians feel good and as bait to lure out-of-state virtue seeking investors. However, its Green electricity will be exported to northern states or Canada. Entergy’s Mississippi customers will pay for the plant. Some may feel good to pay for others’ electricity. Most probably won’t.
The Public Service Commission enabled the plant and makes Mississippians pay for it. Say what? You thought the PSC’s job is to regulate utility monopolies and see that customers get reliable affordable electricity. And instead, it lets utilities build unneeded plants and makes customers pay for them. And has done it for years.
You remember when the PSC enabled Mississippi Power’s Kemper County Lignite Plant. That fiasco began in 2009 when two wishful thinking PSC commissioners said a $1.5 billion experimental plant was needed – even though there was no demand for its electricity, then or now. (The third commissioner opposed the experiment.)
That experiment cost $7 billion. It failed to convert lignite to synthetic natural gas. The plant wouldn’t run. At all. But the PSC made customers pay $1.3 billion (twice the cost of a new plant) to modify part of the failure to run on natural gas. Now, two commissioners want to shut down an operating coal plant to create a need for the modified failure’s electricity.
Despite these failures, one new wishful thinking commissioner says the PSC doesn’t get enough respect. Seriously? What has the PSC changed to earn respect? The other
(Jackson, MS): The Mississippi Justice Institute’s Director, Aaron Rice, receives an award from the Foundation for Holistic Health Education.
Mississippi Justice Institute Director Aaron Rice received an award from the Foundation for Holistic Health Education for his support and dedication to holistic health and its practitioners.
Rice received the award in recognition of his role in bringing a lawsuit that successfully ended Mississippi’s practice of requiring weight-loss coaches to have a dietician’s license or face jail and fines – even if they did not treat medical conditions or claim to be a licensed dieticians.
“I am honored to receive this recognition on behalf of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy and its legal arm, the Mississippi Justice Institute,” Rice said. “We will continue standing up for the right of all Mississippians to earn an honest living in our state.”
After Rice won the case against the bureaucratic law, the state amended its regulations to allow unlicensed people to offer non-medical weight-loss advice as long as they do not claim to be a dietitian, allowing more Mississippians the opportunity to make a living and provide for their families.
“Aaron is a tireless advocate for working Mississippians, and we are proud to see him receive this award,” said Douglas Carswell, the CEO & President of MCPP. “Because of Aaron’s efforts, regular Mississippians have never felt more confident that their constitutional rights will be protected and, if needed, zealously defended.”
The Mississippi Justice Institute is a non-profit, constitutional litigation center and the legal arm of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. It defends the personal, economic and religious liberty of Mississippians in court to ensure that all forms of government are limited to their essential responsibilities as provided by the Constitution and to foster freedom and prosperity in the state.
You may have heard — and I have written previously — about the ESG movement. ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. In business and investing, ESG is supposed to be a method of rating and evaluating how sustainable and ethical various companies are, but in practice, it is a political football that unjustly cherry picks winners and losers (and all too often, it is you who loses).
According to NerdWallet, an ESG assessment of a company reviews its policies related to the environment, such as waste management, energy use, and emissions; its social policies, such as how employees are treated, diversity in the workforce, and human rights practices; and its governance policies, such as how leaders operate the company, the diversity of leadership and board members, political donations and lobbying, and legal issues.
Whether you agree with the objectives or not, the fact is that ESG standards are being applied subjectively, often according to perceived political ideology rather than hard facts.
Consider this: One might think that Tesla, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, would earn a high ESG rating for its environmental stewardship. But no, it was kicked off the S&P ESG Index earlier this year.
Who remains? Left-leaning Apple and Nike (both of which have been accused of historic human rights violations that directly contradict the stated mission of ESG). Oil juggernaut Exxon also holds a spot on the list. It doesn’t quite make sense, does it?
While Elon Musk’s Tesla has taken some heat from ESG scorers, the main focus of their ire today is on the coal industry – and they’ve been quite successful. The U.S. coal industry has largely been destroyed by a combination of overly-stringent federal regulations and capital starvation from ESG-aligned investment funds. Meanwhile, China and India are building new coal plants every day. What if the oil and natural gas industry is next? How will that affect rig jobs in Mississippi? What if the agriculture industry becomes a target for methane production? What will happen to our beef, pork, and chicken producers? What if Mississippi’s timber industry gets blacklisted by the ESG crowd? That industry alone supports thousands of Mississippi jobs.
And will it stop at industry targets? Some say Mississippi’s conservative state laws could make the state itself a target, jeopardizing our credit rating and costing taxpayers millions. It’s a slippery slope.
The fact of the matter is that ESG is nothing more than a feel-good agenda written by liberal elites. If you invest in retirement funds, it won’t get you closer to retirement. If you have a college savings account, it won’t help you afford an education for your child. And frankly, if you care about the earth, it won’t even clean up the environment as it promises to do. Instead, ESG policies undermine the free market, your free will, and our economic freedom. As a financial officer for the state charged with supporting a strong economy and ensuring the college savings and pension systems remain funded with good returns, I will continue to fight the radicalized ESG agenda.
As always, please contact your Treasury office at (601) 359-3600 if we can help you with unclaimed money, college savings, or other issues.
Mississippi’s former welfare director said he was acting on behalf of then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, text messages indicate, when he funneled $1.3 million into a fitness program that the state is now targeting in its civil lawsuit to recoup millions in misspent federal dollars.
Reeves’ longtime personal trainer and buddy Paul Lacoste is a defendant in the suit – the state’s primary response to the blockbuster scandal uncovered in 2020. The lawsuit has an uncertain fate now that the Reeves administration has fired the attorney bringing the case and Reeves made clear he is calling the shots in the litigation, which is now stalled.
Over the last decade, Lacoste ingrained himself in Mississippi politics, prompting the state’s welfare program to strike a lucrative partnership with his foundation. Not only was the expenditure a violation of federal regulations, auditors and attorneys eventually argued, but emails obtained by Mississippi Today allege Lacoste also paid himself upwards of $300,000 in bonus paychecks from the program.
The trainer was so gung-ho about getting his grant funding from the state, he even told former welfare director John Davis that he’d bring the hammer down on Reeves and another lawmaker in their workout if they didn’t give Davis the budget he wanted. And that the politicians agreed to oblige.
“I told Tate and Senator Josh Harkins this week at training to fully fund you or I would make them pay for it at training,” Lacoste wrote to Davis in a February 2019 text obtained by Mississippi Today. “They told me…”oh, we are taking care of John.””
Months before, Davis, who is now facing charges of fraud and bribery in the scandal, helped the trainer secure a welfare grant from the nonprofit run by Nancy New, another defendant in the criminal and civil cases.
But during the 2019 Legislative session, Lacoste was pushing Davis for meetings with Reeves, who wielded great control over appropriations in the Legislature, and other lawmakers to “share our hearts with them and to get them on board with us politically and financially.” One proposal suggests a 10-year, $13 million commitment from the welfare program for his fitness classes.
Lacoste told Davis that Reeves had selected a date and location for their meeting, and that Reeves wanted to meet with the two men alone before the full meeting to discuss the project. “Tate wants us all to himself!” Lacoste wrote.
Two days after meeting with Reeves, Davis asked his deputy to find a way to push a large sum of money to New’s nonprofit without triggering a red flag in an audit, so that the nonprofit could fund Lacoste’s boot camp. Davis called the project “the Lt. Gov’s fitness issue.”
Auditors say Lacoste’s organization Victory Sports Foundation improperly received over $1.3 million in funds from a federal welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, to conduct free boot camp-style fitness courses for well-to-do community members.
Months later, Lacoste cut commercials publicly endorsing Reeves for governor. Reeves won the election with 52% of the vote.
Reeves did not grant Mississippi Today an interview for this story. But when presented with Mississippi Today’s findings, Reeves staffer Cory Custer responded in a written statement: “It’s entirely possible that—before the abuse was uncovered—Tate Reeves said nice things in passing about people he is now suing and/or the stated goals of DHS. This was all before the fraud was revealed. How is he supposed to remember inconsequential conversations from years ago?”
Credit: Graphic by Bethany Atkinson
Reeves’ connection to this part of the welfare scheme has not been made public until now, shortly after his administration canned the lawyer who crafted the zealous civil complaint against 38 people or companies — including Lacoste.
The governor publicly accused attorney Brad Pigott, a former Bill Clinton-appointed U.S. Attorney who was closing in on many of Reeves’ campaign donors and supporters, of having a political agenda in his handling of the case. Reeves is also accusing Mississippi Today, which has led coverage of the scandal and published damning text messages related to welfare spending that officials have tried to keep out of the public, of “political games.”
“Secondhand characterizations of passing conversations and participation in a workout program that long-predated TANF abuse are hardly newsworthy. They certainly don’t help the argument that Mississippi Today is anything more than a left-wing blog that prioritizes rumors and political games over journalism.”
Gov. Reeves office’s written response to this story
In addition to conducting the workout courses as hired, Lacoste used the money to pay himself a monthly salary of about $11,000, in addition to separate payments of as much as $25,000, purchase a $70,000 vehicle, launch high-price marketing campaigns and treat himself and others to steak dinners, according to audit reports and ledgers Mississippi Today examined.
The civil suit also accuses Lacoste of charging participants a fee for courses he was already being paid with grant funds to conduct – an assertion Lacoste’s attorney denies.
An email from the Nancy New nonprofit says the nonprofit’s internal review found Paul Lacoste received more than $300,000 in bonus paychecks.
“LaCoste never proposed or intended to provide services designed specifically to accomplish any lawful TANF purpose. Nor did he ever do so in response to the TANF funding he and Victory Sports sought and received,” wrote Pigott, who was hired on contract by the welfare department to bring the civil litigation.
In a reply in support of a motion to dismiss the case, Lacoste denies he broke any laws or contract obligations, saying neither the state welfare agency nor the nonprofit told him the payments he received were from TANF funds.
While criminal investigations are ongoing, officials have not accused Lacoste of any crime.
In recent years, auditors found that Mississippi officials and political cronies stole or diverted at least $77 million intended for needy residents to other projects in violation of federal law. Federal law gives states extreme flexibility to define for itself what helping the needy looks like, but auditors say Mississippi crossed the line in its use of TANF funds, which were controlled by an agency under the authority of Gov. Phil Bryant.
Much of the money officials squandered was funneled through the nonprofit founded by former First Lady Deborah Bryant’s friend Nancy New, who has pleaded guilty to several charges of fraud and bribery and agreed to aid prosecutors in their ongoing probes.
The welfare agency had contracted with New’s nonprofit, Mississippi Community Education Center, purportedly to help run a statewide anti-poverty program called Families First for Mississippi.
Lacoste, a 47-year-old retired linebacker for Mississippi State University and the Canadian Football League, had been training Reeves, a 49-year-old career politician, for over a decade by the time the fitness trainer partnered with the state’s welfare program in 2018.
“As Tate Reeves’ coach for 15 years, I’ve seen sweat pouring off his face and those glasses of Tate’s fogged up from intensity that he’s given at every station,” Lacoste said in his 2019 commercial endorsing Reeves in the gubernatorial race.
Lacoste had trained lawmakers for free through a program called “Fit 4 Change” since 2010. Participants would write an “accountability check” of several hundred dollars, which they would receive back at the end of the 12-week program as long as they didn’t miss more than six sessions, in which case Lacoste would cash the check. Reeves was a poster child for this program.
Lacoste was a tough trainer, known for screaming at his pupils and pushing them to exhaustion. But he was also on a redemption path, finding Jesus after contracting West Nile and going through a nasty divorce.
In August of 2018, Dawn Dugle, then-digital marketing director for conservative talk radio network SuperTalk, introduced Davis and Lacoste by email. SuperTalk and its parent company TeleSouth Communications were also entrenched in Families First. They received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of advertising contracts from the welfare program and aired glowing interviews about the state’s new approach to mitigating poverty.
“It sounds like there might be synergy in what you both are trying to do for the state of Mississippi,” wrote Dugle, also a boot camp participant.
Davis and Lacoste met the next day, striking up what would become a very friendly relationship, with the two men calling each other “brother” and texting “I love you.”
“He is one of the most inspirational indiviudals (sic) I have met in some time,” Davis told Dugle. “I appreciate the opportunity to get to know him even better.”
Lacoste drafted a proposal, which included him conducting motivational speaking seminars, and worked with the New nonprofit to set up a contract. Lacoste would be considered a partner of both Families First and Mississippi Department of Human Services and use their logos in promotional materials. The contract, inked in October of 2018, said he would receive the funds in a lump sum payment from the New nonprofit, Mississippi Community Education Center, or MCEC.
“The fact that Paul Lacoste was communicating directly with John Davis on the scope of work, and John Davis’s request to MCEC that they work with (Lacoste’s attorney) Michael Heilman, provides indication that John Davis’s influence was needed for Victory Sports to be awarded a grant from MCEC,” reads an October 2021 forensic audit, which questioned the contract because of the influence Davis had in its awarding.
Though texts show a Families First representative first reached out to Lacoste on Davis’ behalf, Davis lamented about Lacoste’s enthusiasm over the partnership. “I try to avoid him as much as possible cause he is always asking for money,” Davis once texted, referring to Lacoste.
The first boot camp began in January in Pascagoula.
The next month, several lawmakers were slated to attend the meeting with Lacoste and Davis at the Capitol to discuss “Mississippi’s long-term statewide fitness, nutrition and wellness initiative to destroy obesity and all related diseases.” Lacoste texted an invitation directly to Reeves’ cell phone. Another one of the lawmakers, Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, told Mississippi Today he did not recall attending the meeting, though he was in Lacoste’s boot camp.
“I heard Paul explain that the program was sponsored by private entities but was not aware of any other funding sources,” Harkins said by email.
Text messages obtained by Mississippi Today and retrieved from Reeves’ cellphone show that since May of 2020, at which point the welfare scandal had been uncovered, Lacoste has texted the sitting governor ten times, with the last message in October of 2020. There were no responses, at least by text message, from Reeves to any of Lacoste’s texts. The tenor of the messages suggests Lacoste considered Reeves his buddy.“I love you, Brother! You are doing GREAT with EVERYTHING!” he texted on June 30, 2020, the day Reeves signed a historic bill to change the state flag.
Two days after the meeting, the former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services John Davis texted his deputy to ask if he could find an additional $2.5 million in federal grant funds for MCEC.
The nonprofit needed the cash, Davis explained, because it had just paid Lacoste for what Davis described as Reeves’ “fitness issue.” At the time, Reeves was lieutenant governor presiding over the Mississippi Senate. Reeves was notorious at the Capitol for strong-arming his fellow legislative leaders and exercised great control over the state budget, which included the state’s portion of the welfare agency’s annual appropriation.
“Do you have about $2.5 that you can get transferred today to MCEC,” Davis texted deputy Jacob Black, an attorney who helped the agency find loopholes or write creative grants in order to spend welfare funds in the way politicians wanted, Mississippi Today first reported. “They just paid Paul Lacoste on the Lt. Gov’s fitness issue that we met on Wednesday. … The Lt. Gov is very supportive of what we and as I told him you are doing.”
Mississippi Community Education Center shared the responsibility of running Families First for Mississippi with one other nonprofit, Family Resource Center of North Mississippi. Awarded nearly $100 million in welfare agency funding between them, they promised to open centers across the state to provide parenting and workforce development training to needy families, but most of their funding they passed on through grants to other partners.
Private messages obtained by Mississippi Today indicate there was strife between the welfare agency, the nonprofits and other figures in early 2019, shortly after Davis sent letters to TANF subgrantees indicating their budgets would be cut. A news story at the time indicated that Family Resource Center was forced to lay off 100 employees and close 10 of its offices.
An email from Nancy New’s accountant shows her nonprofit was asking for $2.5 million to fund four projects, including Victory Sports, Supertalk advertisements, a program at University of Mississippi and a virtual reality center by a politically-connected startup called Lobaki. (Ole Miss says it never received the funding from MCEC). This email is heavily discussed in one of the forensic audit reports that led the auditor to make a $3 million demand for repayment on Black, though he has not been named in the civil suit. By that time, the nonprofit had paid Victory Sports Foundation about $350,000 and Lacoste was asking the New nonprofit to pay the rest of the money under the nearly $1.4 million contract.
When Davis asked Black to find the money, Black responded by text, “I think I can figure it out and get the money over there due to the cuts we made.”
But he’d have to be clever about it. “Let me figure out how to do it without creating an audit finding,” Black added.
“Oh yes sir. No audit finding,” Davis responded.
Black, who declined to comment for this story, issued the payment to MCEC that day, according to the forensic audit. MCEC paid Victory Sports not in a lump sum, but in several payments over the following five months, according to Mississippi Today’s review of the nonprofit’s ledger, which the state auditor previously said could be fabricated.
Credit: Graphic by Bethany Atkinson
Victory Sports held two more 12-week boot camps during the summer of 2019, as Davis was being ousted from office, in Brookhaven and Greenville. Lacoste’s contract with Mississippi Community Education Center did not require him to restrict the free program to disadvantaged residents. He submitted several testimonials to MDHS from participants who saw health improvements from the program.
And the program accomplished more than helping people lose weight.
“I think those kinds of community initiatives need to be done, especially in a real diverse community like we got,” said Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, who went through the program. “One thing I do know is Black folks and white folks, male and female, working together, sweating together, crying together, fussing together, cussing together and playing together was good for our community. I met some people I never would have met, never would have had a conversation with.”
But folks in Brookhaven were concerned and complained to Mississippi Community Education Center about how Victory Sports was using its grant funding. Lacoste’s boot camp would be one of the first problematic grant contracts identified by investigators.
“We have identified concerns with Victory Sports’ expense reports and services. Also, we have had a number of complaints concerning his services,” New wrote in an email to MDHS officials in September of 2019, after the auditor’s office had already begun its official investigation and Davis was ousted. “…Paul LaCoste was asked not to use Families First for Mississippi’s brand and his funding was suspended.”
In November of 2019, Heilman, Lacoste’s attorney, requested payment of over $85,000 he says the nonprofit owed Victory Sports Foundation.
In response, Nancy New’s other son Jess New emailed the attorney to notify him that the nonprofit identified over $300,000 in “unallowed expenses” during an internal review of the fitness program’s expenditures. This includes bonus checks to Lacoste; fees to two consultants that are a relative and friend to Lacoste; fees to a law firm and tax preparer; and health insurance premiums for Lacoste’s family members, according to a January 2020 email.
“Furthermore, we once again reiterate the the (sic) truck purchased by VSF (Victory Sports Foundation) should be returned to MCEC immediately,” wrote Jess New, who is also a defendant in the civil suit but not the criminal case.
Paul continued to email the News and other nonprofit employees several times asking for payment and denying that any purchases were unallowed, emails show.
Auditors and the state’s civil complaint also allege Lacoste used the Victory Sports Foundation grant to serve lawmakers and other wealthy community members and charged fees for some participants even though the grant was supposed to ensure the program was free.
“Defendant Paul LaCoste … directly proposed to MDHS Executive Director John Davis that Davis steer substantial grant funds to Victory Sports (and thus to LaCoste) in exchange for LaCoste’s continuing provision of ‘fitness camps’ to elected officials, their political staffs, and fee-paying participants,” the complaint reads.
In a recent interview with Mississippi Today, Heilman said that the other boot camps Lacoste conducted – the one for lawmakers and other courses that charged an enrollment fee – were distinct and separate from the welfare-funded program. Heilman said his client’s for-profit company, Paul Lacoste Sports, not the welfare-funded Victory Sports Foundation, were responsible for those courses.
Mississippi Today was the first to uncover in February of 2020 that Lacoste’s program had received welfare funding. In response, Heilman demanded Mississippi Today for a retraction and Lacoste threatened legal action in an email to his subscribers.
Heilman, whose firm was also paid several thousand under the grant for work the firm did negotiating Lacoste’s contract, is aggressively aiming to get the complaint against Lacoste thrown out. He argues in a July filing that Lacoste violated no laws and fulfilled the obligations of his contract, which was with a private nonprofit, not the state, and did not specify the funds came from the TANF program. Lacoste, like many of the unsuspecting welfare recipients within the scandal, has argued he had no idea the money he received came from the welfare fund and would not have accepted the contract if he did.
Pigott argued in response that, “As Defendant Paul Lacoste would have it, Mississippi law makes it easy for a grantee of government funds (required by a statute and contract to be used for a specified public purpose) to convert those funds from that purpose by entering subcontract agreements in terms which simply ignore the public purpose.”
“Under the theory,” Pigott continued, “… a private recipient of grant funds from the government can simply give away the government funds to another grantee, through private subgrant contracts which make no specific mention of the governmental status of either the funds or their purpose. And with that, supposedly, Mississippi law allows the grantor and grantee to wash their hands of the governing statutes and original grant contracts, and to spend the public money on private projects they have decided they prefer to the public purpose for which the money they are spending was raised through taxes, appropriated through legislation, authorized by regulations, and disbursed through governmental contracts requiring their expenditure for the statutory purpose alone.”
Heilman shot back a reply that argued the state had failed to substantiate any breach of contract and accused the state of putting forth a red herring.
Heilman said the TANF scandal has destroyed Lacoste’s business and livelihood, and that the trainer hasn’t been able to find work because of the public’s scorn towards him. The attorney argues that officials in charge of spending welfare money approached Lacoste, not the other way around, and in turn sullied his decades-long mission to help Mississippians get in shape.
In the end, Lacoste’s enmeshment in Mississippi politics and state government led to the demise of his vision.
“I think that Paul’s passion for improving the overall health of Mississippi and Mississippians comes through in every single class that he does,” Reeves told the Associated Press in a 2013 article.
Below is the entire statement from Cory Custer, deputy chief of staff in external affairs for the governor’s office, in response to this story.
Governor Reeves has tasked new agency leadership with cleaning up the DHS mess he inherited and eliminating any waste, fraud, and abuse of federal welfare funds. Their work since the Reeves administration began has not been questioned because it is entirely appropriate and Mississippi Today knows it. However, Mississippi Today is now attempting to use anecdotes and innuendo to paint a fictional picture.
Secondhand characterizations of passing conversations and participation in a workout program that long-predated TANF abuse are hardly newsworthy. They certainly don’t help the argument that Mississippi Today is anything more than a left-wing blog that prioritizes rumors and political games over journalism.
It’s entirely possible that—before the abuse was uncovered—Tate Reeves said nice things in passing about people he is now suing and/or the stated goals of DHS. This was all before the fraud was revealed. How is he supposed to remember inconsequential conversations from years ago?
There is real investigative work being done on the TANF scandal, but this latest narrative is just desperate and embarrassing politics by Mississippi Today.
Americans are deeply concerned about inflation and risks facing our economy. Poll after poll shows it is the number one issue heading into midterm elections. And July’s “break” in steadily-increasing inflation won’t assuage those fears.
Inflation reached 9.1% in June, but came in cooler than expected at 8.5% in July. Food prices, however, surged 13.1%.
As people struggle to pay for gas to get to work, for electricity in the midst of a blazing hot summer, and to put food on the table, rising costs remain an issue. So is there any “good” to be had?
One sign that inflation could be moving in the right direction is the recent rollover in commodity prices. Crude oil prices, and gas prices, have begun to drop. Gas prices not only hurt at the pump but affect the prices of everything else we buy due to increased transportation costs.
Another glimmer of good news is that our state is well positioned to handle some economic turmoil.
The state finished the 2022 fiscal year, which ended June 30, more than $1.4 billion over the revenue estimate for the year. And that revenue estimate was far higher than normal. This marks back-to-back years with over a billion dollars in collections above estimate. We are sitting on substantial reserves to deliver on tax relief, fund essential services, and weather the risks of a recession.
What about the bad and the ugly? The most comparable period in recent history is the stagflation of the 1970s.
Early in the Reagan administration, they tackled inflation by quickly and dramatically raising interest rates. This intentionally slowed the economy, putting it into recession, to quell inflation.
Our Federal Reserve has been more slowly raising interest rates in 2022 but lacks the same ability that Reagan had. This is because the cost of servicing our national debt is tied to our interest rate. Because of the sheer amount of debt we now carry, raising rates commensurate with what Reagan did would result in trillions in new debt service obligations and potentially lead to default and loss of reserve currency status.
Current Pro Tem State Rep. Jason White says he plans to run for the top House leadership position but won’t do so against current Speaker Philip Gunn.
Speaker Pro Tem of the House of Representatives Jason White says he is setting his sights on the Speaker position in the Mississippi House of Representatives. Exactly when that will happen, remains in question.
White, a Republican, said on SuperTalk radio Thursday morning that there is no denying he plans to throw his hat into the race for Speaker, but he will not be doing so against current Speaker Philip Gunn, also a Republican, despite circulating rumors.
“You won’t see a Philip Gunn and Jason White race for Speaker of the House,” said White.
Rep. White added that a lot can happen between now and the qualifying deadline, which is set for February 1, 2023. However, he expects the public will know whether or not it will be Gunn or White’s name in the hat for Speaker long before then.
White added that he would like to see a decision announced by the fall.
Speaker Pro Tem, Jason White
“He’s [Gunn] earned the right to decide and announce at the time he chooses, and I’m certainly going to respect that,” said White. “But I also can’t wait till December to put something together and run for Speaker.”
White said he has received encouragement to run from other colleagues throughout his time serving as Speaker Pro Tem and Rules Chairman.
White said that while it may have been news for others to hear at the Neshoba County Fair, conversations for him to become Speaker have been ongoing in the political sphere.
State Rep. Michael Ted Evans made comments during his Neshoba speech at Founders Square, that when White runs for Speaker, he would support him.
The Mississippi House Leadership Fund PAC was formed last fall by White and has been raising money for future elections. The Pro Tem said that the financial support is intended for conservative Republicans running to be part of the Mississippi House of Representatives.
Speaker Gunn’s plans for the next year are unclear. White said he believes Gunn is waiting to determine what direction he wants to go.
Gunn has served as Speaker of the House for three consecutive terms and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2004.
“That’s all I’ve known is Speaker Gunn as the Speaker of the House, and what I’ve known him to be is extremely conservative, extremely fair, and a great Speaker,” said White.
JACKSON, Miss. – Today State Auditor Shad White announced Roland Graham pleaded guilty to embezzlement and conspiracy charges in Jones County earlier this week. A guilty plea and sentencing order for his co-conspirator, Larry Barnes, were recorded earlier this year in January. Both cases were prosecuted by the Jones County District Attorney’s office in Judge Dal Williamson’s courtroom.
Graham is a former Jones County Road Department foreman. Special Agents from the Auditor’s office arrested him in July 2020. Graham used Jones County equipment and personnel to perform demolition work for a private contractor. Graham also directed disposal fees from the demolition work be billed to Jones County.
“We will continue to ensure that taxpayer resources are only used for the benefit of the taxpayer,” said Auditor White. “Thank you to the investigators and prosecutors who worked this case diligently.”
Judge Williamson sentenced Graham to eight years in the custody of MDOC. Due to Graham’s status as a habitual offender, he will serve 30 months of the sentence day for day in prison, and the remaining time will be spent in post-release supervision. Graham was also ordered to pay full restitution, a $3,000 fine, and all court costs associated with the embezzlement and conspiracy charges. Graham also pleaded guilty and was sentenced for an additional, unrelated criminal charge during his appearance in court this week.
The State Auditor’s office has already recovered $14,139.90 in this case. That money has been returned to the appropriate deserving entities.
Suspected fraud can be reported to the Auditor’s office online at any time by clicking the red button at www.osa.ms.gov or via telephone during normal business hours at 1-(800)-321-1275.
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain plans to ask the Legislature to pass a bill to allow incarcerated people to construct buildings as a form of job training, a tie in with the department’s focus on reentry.
Under state law, the Department of Administration and Finance oversees construction, repairs, additions and demolition for all state buildings. The department also reviews and pre-approves all architectural and engineering service contracts for building projects.
Cain said licensed contractors are required to build any state building, which is why he sees a need for a change in state law.
“It takes too long and we need to move faster,” he told Mississippi Today about the current process. “Those are the things we can hone our own skills on and have the inmates build the buildings themselves.”
Cain envisions incarcerated people constructing one-story buildings that are no more than 5,000 square feet to house prison programs such as a welding school, carpentry program or a commercial truck driving simulator.
The buildings would be at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, which has the most space compared to the state’s other prisons. A certified contractor, electrician, roofer and others involved would supervise incarcerated people during construction, he said.
“You’re teaching an electrician how to be an electrician,” Cain said. “You’re teaching a carpenter how to frame a building. You put a roof on a building, you’re teaching an inmate how to be a roofer.”
The commissioner also believes allowing incarcerated people to construct buildings for prison training programs could help save taxpayer money. That is especially true as construction-related costs remain high, he said.
A Department of Administration and Finance spokesperson declined to comment.
During a previous legislative session, Cain said he tried to get a law passed to allow incarcerated people to construct buildings, but he said the timing didn’t work out and the effort didn’t have momentum.
Now that he has reentry, job training and other programs in place, Cain said he has a way to show the Legislature that it should invest in more of his efforts.
Since becoming commissioner in 2020, Cain has focused on rehabilitation and reentry as a way to prevent people from returning to prison. Skilled jobs training has been part of those efforts.
Last year, MDOC debuted a mobile welding training center. It started with a group of women at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl and moved to the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville.
Earlier this year, MDOC accepted a donated tractor trailer from Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey and District Attorney Bubba Bramlett that was seized during a drug transportation arrest on Interstate 20. The vehicle was turned into a simulator to train incarcerated people for careers in commercial truck driving.
“Now the trend is reentry, and reentry only happens when you send them out with a skill so he can get a job,” Cain said.
Businesses may not want to hire a formerly incarcerated person to sweep the floor, but he said they may be more inclined to if they are certified and have a skill such as welding, truck driving or roofing.
More than 9,000 people leave the Missisisppi prison system each year, according to a 2021 report by the Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force, which Cain is a member of.
“Let me have the freedom to teach them how to build those buildings and pour the concrete and let them do that and to prove themselves,” Cain said.
The facility, called JAN1, will bring nearly 1,500 jobs to the area, news Governor Reeves called a great day for all of Mississippi.
In November 2020, Amazon announced plans for its third fulfillment center in Mississippi. The facility, located in Canton, is Amazon’s first in the state to feature its robotics technology.
On Thursday, Amazon celebrated the launch of the company’s first Amazon Robotics facility in Madison County, Mississippi. Elected officials, key community leaders, and local media were able to tour the facility and hear from Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves along with Amazon leadership on the company’s job creation, economic impact, and innovative technologies.
The facility, called JAN1, will bring more than 1,500 jobs to the area.
Cristal Cole, Amazon’s regional policy manager for the Southeastern U.S., introduced Governor Reeves to the podium and highlighted Mississippi’s successes over the last couple of years.
“As the 65th Governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves continues to build a strong record as a leader who fights to guard taxpayer dollars, improve educational opportunity, and grow new careers just like the ones we are trying to help build here at Amazon so that Mississippi’s best and brightest can raise their families and thrive across the state,” Cole said.
Cole added that since Reeves was elected as Governor, Mississippi has seen record educational gains, including all-time graduation rates that are far above the national average and nearly $4 billion in capital investment, an overhaul of its state-wide workforce development strategy, historic low unemployment rate, and the largest tax cut and teacher pay raises in this state’s history.
Isaiah Flanagan, General Manager and Site Leader at JAN1, spoke about the building, the workforce, and what they offer as an employer.
Flanagan said that the facility is four stories high with 70,000 storage pods. In regard to the workforce at the facility, the General Manager and Site Leader said that the “real heart and soul” of the business is the people.
Flanagan said that they currently have about 800 employees, but with a few more hundred coming in the next couple of weeks.
Amazon offers employees competitive wages, premium healthcare, paid parental leave, retirement 401K with company match, flexible scheduling options, and more.
“At JAN1 we have three major commitments: the safety and wellbeing of our associates, the willingness to integrate and serve our community, and the empowerment and support of our associates who deliver those smiles for all of our customers,” Flanagan stated. “Very, very excited to show of our wonderful building, our building that was built by Madison County, for Madison County and for the State of Mississippi.”
Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, Governor Reeves noted it was initially said that the robotics facility was going to employ up to 1,000 individuals and now they will employ as many as 1,500 employees.
“It’s very good wages, great benefits, and so it’s a great opportunity literally for thousands of Mississippi families who have the opportunity to get to work and I couldn’t be prouder of the partnership of the local elected officials, the local economic development officials, the state, our federal partners,” Reeves said. “It’s a great day for all of Mississippi, but particularly here for Madison County.”
Governor Reeves went on to say that over the last several years, Amazon has invested over $600 million in the state of Mississippi.
“This is something that, certainly, we should all be very proud of,” Reeves said. “We’re seeing significant capital investment in our state, we’re seeing significant jobs created all throughout our state.”
“We proved over the last several years that Mississippi is open for business,” Reeves continued. “I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish and I’m looking forward to seeing even more of these groundbreaking opportunities. We’ve been doing it all over the state for the last couple of years and we’re going to continue to do so.”
