Jackson Jambalaya

I'm sure the FEDS could get involved if they wanted to and the AG. Delbert sure is giving him a sweeeeet deal.

This is also called embezzlement...

Probably just a misunderstanding.

Have been wondering when that particular chicken was going to come home to roost.

Criminal charges forthcoming?

KF, this is some of your better stuff.

I don't know him from Adam, but from the deal alone, I'm guessing Morgan Shands is not a poor (white/black/red/yelow) person.

That ain't how it works on the lower rung.

Delbert can only do fines cause the SoS deals with charities. So who is up to bat on the Law Enforcement side?

And the whole time this guy was stealing this money, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, from the American legion, he was collecting a nice paycheck from the American taxpayers, yep, was a staff member for US Senator Roger Wicker, republican from Mississippi!

Doin bizness the Haley Barbour way, nothing new here to see, typical Mississippi bizness!

Morgan P. Shands, Congressional Staffer - Salary Data

Sen. Roger Wicker (-Mississippi) - Staff Salary Data

http://www.legistorm.com/person/Morgan_P_Shands/75965.html

Is he still running Boys State?

What about Steve Guyton - he is listed as the Post Commander for the #1776 Post. IS he still working for Congressman Gregg Harper & Senator Roger Wicker? This whole thing stinks to high heaven!Where's the justice?

And remember, this money came from the bingo hall to the charity.

I doubt Jim Hood will do anything since Morgan worked for Mike Moore and has friends in Jim's office. My only sympathy for him is that he was the only one in his family who ever amounted to anything. Sure, he stole a lot of money but he was the only branch on the family tree to even have access to that kind of money. All of the others had their hands out to him...so it was him to take the fall. His mess of a sister who was the "bookkeeper" for the aforementioned post, a large wife that wants to put on airs in Bay St. Louis, 2 boys that need A LOT of guidance, and a nephew that he put into a cushy spot working for Billy Hewes and the city of Gulfport. I could go on...but it looks the gravy train just pulled up to the station for that whole family.

Spring is just around the corner and the Republican Tree is just blooming crooks.Janus,Walker,Walker,Shands and all of the other dear friends of Stacey Pickering. No telling how many other crooks these blooms will produce after being squeezed by you know who.

The last time the Gaming Commission took a hard look at the bingo business was back in 2004 - 14 years ago!

Morgan Shands is no friend of Stacey Pickering. He worked on the failed campaign of Jacob Ray when Ray ran against Pickering for State Auditor.
Rick Ward must be glad to see that some of the dots he connected in his book have been confirmed.

4:50: Since when did Shands and Pickering have a falling out - Morgan Shands worked on contract with the Officec of State Auditor - that's right - he worked for Stacy Pickering!

Politics aside, this is also about broken hearts. The broken hearts of all the middle aged (or older) men and women who have worked tirelessly for forty or fifty years asking people to donate to the Americal Legion...manning booths, grilling chicken, selling soup, handing out poppy's, etc.

Reminds me of Sandy Johnson and his daughter in Greenville when he was director of The Burn Center and the two of them robbed the non-profit blind. Hundreds, thousands of firemen and others donating time and sweat to raise money for the charity that operated that facility and Johnson giving speeches and grinning and robbing them blind. As a result, the state's only burn center went broke and closed its doors. Johnson had a fine farewell last year and was hailed as one of Greenville's finest.

Our grandfathers would string these bastards up high.

Morgan Shands worked for Stacey Puckering right after Hewes lost to Tate Reeves, starting in in late 2010 or early 2011.

They need to charge both Shands and Guyton - they incoroporated the American Legion Post and neither of them have ever lived in Cleveland! The FEDS need to look at both of them. Shame on Wicker and Harper for allowing this to go on - they both knew that both Guyton and Shands were involved with Bingo. They were made aware of this back in 2011 and did nothing. Now we find out that Stacy Pickering hired him in 2012. SHAME SHAME SHAME! Call Wicker and Harper and demand they do something! Politics as usual!

Hey Conway. If you are considering charges against Shands how 'bout getting off your big shakedown ass and finally bring Robert Graham to trial.

EFunny how birds of a feather flock together. The first time I met Shands was at an American Legion boys state in Cleveland. Mike Moore was singing his praises, but he seemed shady to me. That was the first thing I thought of when Moore's booty buddy Dickie Scruggs was indicted.

Has Delbert Hoseman notified the IRS that there has been a potential crime committed? Seems like that would be appropriate. Heaven forfend that these monies were not properly reported as income, and the appropriate taxes paid.

The only way to be sure there is not a gang of tax evaders on the loose in the vicinity of American Legion Post 1776 is to the IRS determine whether things are in order. A little time with the documents no doubt collected Delbert's crew and some comparison to the tax filings of the people getting money they should not have gotten will reveal whether or not there are tax cheats on the loose.

This might be bad for the finances of Post 1776, as the IRS gets theirs first IIRC.

My time to weigh in. I don't use screen names or hide behind phony names. In mid-2011 I wrote a book to be locally sold that would inform the public about corruption in politics in MS particularly associated with the Bingo Business. The book "Mississippi, the REAL State of Our State" is still available on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Mississippi-Real-State-Our/dp/098280993X

There are still a few floating around but the local bookstores wouldn't handle it. If you need fax pages of Morgan's issues (pages 73-77) let me know.

I dedicated 5 pages to the Morgan Shands American Legion "Bingo Baby" bingo hall in Cleveland. Without being accusatory I gave evidence of a crime brewing on the horizon. I told the reader where to look, what was wrong and who else might have fleas on them from this bunch of dogs. There were many names that read like a political handbook both state and US. Morgan Shands' business receiving money from the charity, his wife's involvement with the different charites he put together and so on. I even made a statement at the bottom of page 77that sounds like it came from this article that it was a cash business and you never know if family members were getting money or if the money was going for its charitable purpose. When Morgan got his license for a bingo hall, I was the director of charitiable gaming and tried to talk him out of it because of the corruption. I had previously worked with him at the Attorney General's office and liked him. I was afraid he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of taking charitable money like most of the thieves in that business do. I have to say I am not surprised, disappointed but not surprised.

But here's the bottom line. This is not an administrative matter for the Secretary of State. It is a crime. One blogger asked where is law enforcement? That's the best question of all. They are in the charitable gaming divison of the MS Gaming Commission and their hands are tied by politicians, always have been, always will be. I was given free reign there for 2 years, put 44 people in jail with 99% conviction rate. The legislators at the time, many of whom served on the charity boards couldn't handle it. They forced my boss to stop me from making arrests and I told them to take the job and shove it. Only a handful of already pending arrests were made over the next couple of years 2000-2003 and all arrests stopped again. I went to the LT Governor about it. Nothing was done. Three years later, I went to the new LT Governor about it...nothing as been done. You and I pay for 11 Gaming Agents who by statute are Peace Officers with the authority to investgative crimes and make arrests even for laws outside the gaming act. But file a public records request and see how many arrests have been made by them over the last 10 years. We wouldn't tolerate no arrests by any police department, sheriff dept or MHP but we pay for law enforcement officers at MGC, outfit them, require their certification as Law Enforcement Officers and don't allow them to make arrests. They will deny that to keep their jobs, but just look at the records. Gaming is a protected hush-hush industry and never has any governor in any state of the state address spoken the words gaming, casinos or bingo even though they bring millions to this state in tourism and tax dollars. They are untouchable and my book will show you that the Peer Committee projected in numerous reports over years that it would happen that way. Nobody cares until somebody like Morgan pops up. There will be many more Morgan's. If you are really interested, contact me and I will give you a MS Bingo Corruption 101 brief. The best thing that could happen here and I will try to help that along is get the feds involved because of the federal funds they also received and see if they have been properly accounted for. The feds award sentences based on dollar amounts. This would net Morgan at least 3 years behind bars.

Rick Ward 601 665 6088

Pull up this old JJ post Rick Ward: The Real State of Our State and then have your browser highlight the words "Morgan Shands".

Additional:

1.Referenced nonprofit "SAINT AMBROSE LEADERSHIP COLLEGE" has been dissolved. See filing (is it valid?) received 1/27/2012 at
https://business.sos.state.ms.us/imaging/33744279.pdf

2.An organization with the same name was apparently on the government teat for millions.

* 1.7 million in this story from 2003: "A $1 million state appropriation will allow supporters to take the next step toward opening a leadership school for male high school graduates, said Mayor Bill Tigner. The money for Saint Ambrose Leadership College was included in a bond bill for the Department of Archives and History passed by the state legislature. The college will be located in the Old Wesson School building." http://dailyleader.com/2003/04/01/funds-boost-st-ambrose/

*what looks like a $500,000 HUD earmark from 2006. Page 242 Item #556: "#556. $500,000 for the Saint Ambrose Leadership College in Wesson, Mississippi, for restoration of a historic building for housing
http://books.google.com/books?isbn=1428985417

I wonder if Feel has ever heard of this cat...

Ambrose is the maiden name of Shands' wife.

Rachel Buser is Shands' sister who was involved in the whole mess.

Bet Guyton won't be running his mouth like he usually does! Come on Wicker and Harper - Steve Guyton has been involved in the Bingo business since February 10, 2000. When the papers were filed for the "nonprofit", Guyton was listed as the "Registered Agent" and had an "Registered Office" located at 409 South Street & P O Box 1101 in Cleveland, MS! He has never lived in Cleveland! Call Delbert and ask him about his investigation. Where are the FEDS when you need them? Since they have cleaned up Pickering's botched coverup at DMR, maybe they can come up north and clean up this mess too!

Guess what - 409 South Street in Cleveland is the home to BINGO BABY! Just call 662-843-6609 and listen to what you can win if you go and play bingo @ "SHANDS & GUYTON'S BINGO BABY". The folks at the Mississippi Headquarters of the American Legion better be getting Boy's State ouit from under these two!

Gonna be a run on bullet proof vests.........

Shit, is this Louisiana?

Footnote: I see KF and JJ backing off this one.

Rick Ward is the new Huey P. Long! And as Bo Diddley would probably say "I ain't got nothing to do with it, but I think the fella's right."

Interesting revelations from Rick Ward on Greenwood LeFlore's screwing the "Indians" out of their land. I had not heard that, but it could explain why Barbour claims kinship to Lefore?

Didnt' something like this happen in Tennesse a few years ago? The FEDS wnet in under the code name of "Operation Rocky Top" They took down several legislators. A top regulator turned lobbyist turned informant helped with the takedown. By the way, is former Executive Director of the Gaming Commission still lobbying for the gaming industry?

To add to 4:25 and 8:22 comments... Rachel Buser, Morgan's sister, resided in Cleveland and was the local address they needed. Her son is Chris Vignes. After Morgan teamed up with Billy Hewes for the LG's race and Billy had to settle for Mayor of Gulfport, who does he hire? Morgan's nephew, Chris Vignes - Public Information Officer for the city of Gulfport. What an incestuous, tangled web...

The Shands' familty has a new venture - the Liquor Cabinet in Bay Saint Louis! Angel, Morgans's wife and Bryce Morgan Shands, his son. Wonder where they got the startup money? They should have named it the "Saint Ambrose Liquor Store"! It would have paid tribute to the Ambrose family (Angel's maiden name)and the Saint Ambrose Leadership Academy"! All I can say is FOLLOW THE MONEY!

10:16 I had forgotten about that business. These people launder money better than the mafia.

Where is the FBI?

"Interesting revelations from Rick Ward on Greenwood LeFlore's screwing the "Indians" out of their land. I had not heard that, but it could explain why Barbour claims kinship to Lefore?"

I usually think Pug is full of crap but this was one great comment!

The main question here is will Gibbert make a referral to the AG (Who won't do anything. He doesn't prosecute SOS referrals) or to a local DA.

Let it be known that this is/was not the long standing American Legion Post in Cleveland that is above board in all respects and is above reproach. Crap like this gives good people a bad rap.

In regard to the Greenwood Lefore comment, I suspect that Ric Ward may have kinship to Columbus historian Rufus Ward, who knows more than any living historian on the history of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in Mississippi. He writes a weekly column for the Commercial-Dispatch, much of related to the native tribes of Mississippi in the Tombigbee River basin.

Of course, the correct spelling is LeFlore.

There is a tornado on the ground near Columbia.

>>Let it be known that this is/was not the long standing American Legion Post in Cleveland that is above board in all respects and is above reproach. Crap like this gives good people a bad rap.<<

Seems like the American Legion has some cleanup to do. If you are bothered by dingleberries then it is time to take action. Time for a feature article in American Legion magazine?

https://www.facebook.com/liquorcabinetbsl

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER

Shands, Hewes, Gregory, Fitch, Walker, Cloyd

Anyone else?

This group seems to corrupt everything they get involved with. The use every political connection to prey on public money.In this you could say Birds of a feather fly together.

Tate is over the budget for the sec of state, and after being uncovered and made a fool of during the campaign he put pressure on the sec of state to start auditing morgan and the bingo hall witch was done every 3 years anyway. After pulling up somethings that were being approved before hand all of the sudden became a problem. I can assure you there is no such scandal going on. Morgan is a victim of circumstance. Think what you want but this is the truth.