Jackson Jambalaya

I say we change hit title to Guardian of the Beans!

Go Mr. Shad! Stay the course!

Great move to go ahead and investigate without the feds knowledge! If he had brought them in it would have been more roosters in the hen house and harder to keep the investigation quiet, more importantly the Feds would have red taped everything and it would ( will) take years to finish without stopping the flow of federal money. Well played chess move Shad!

There's no doubt in my mind, many more anal sphincter muscles at DHS are very tight this weekend.

I won't say anything about 16 penny nails.

I’m starting to really like this guy.

Leave it to Kingfish to speak pejoratively of the State Auditor. As if he's the mayor of Jackson or Chris Epps.

Mike Hurst has his sights on state-wide office and basks in headlines as a Gotham City crime fighter. You can bet he blew a fuse when Shad upstaged him. Way to go Mr Auditor.

This dude is going places. Never heard of him before he was elected. But wow.

Question. Why isn’t John Dowdy , former director of a state agency, in jail.? He was guilty of taking money for overtime and he was not certified in his position but yet, he gets to pay his back, why didn’t Shad White arrest him?
All who you know, not what you owe?

I’m beginning to think they deliberately waited until after the election. Six months is a long time to turn up a fake contract and six checks investing in the FL company.

SHAD WHITE FOR GOVERNER!!!

Drain the swamp Shad

When is Lynn Fitch going to get involved?

@7:43 PM - let me help you out, son; there is a HUGE difference between $4,200,000++ and a few dollars in overtime.

@8:13PM - Ding ding ding

8:48
Hopefully never if she still has the leftover Public Integrity division from Hood!! They are Gutless .

I am a big supporter of Shad White, but anybody that thinks keeping Mike Hurst out of the loop --- for any of your stupidass reasons --- just don't know what the hell you are talking about.

Would he prosecute? Hell yeah - as was said by some that were worried when he was nominated for the job, he would prosecute his mother if he thought she was guilty.

Would he and his staff keep it quiet?

His record and all his investigations since he took over that office prove that one as well.

Does he make a public pronouncement after he has moved in and indicted?

Yes, just like Shad does. And most anybody else when dealing with corruption of this nature.

Does Mike Hurst have further political ambitions for elective office?

I seriously doubt it. Wouldn't bet against it, but would want some damn good odds to bet on it.

Does Shad White plan to run for elective office again?

I'd damn sure bet on it - reelection and in the future higher office. Hell, not that long ago he admitted his ambition was to be POTUS one day.

Does either of the last two question matter at all?

Not a damn bit - about either one of them. They both are doing a great job, and I hope that both run for higher office and get elected.

Needs to get to Canton. Heard that they are re-aligning the Departments and that the City Clerk got canned. Had to be escorted out of City Hall. Jackson's Minor League franchise. Friends told me this.

This is just a simple case of a rookie mistake by a very smart and capable auditor who unfortunately didn’t have the right experience for the job when he was appointed. There is no question this is a matter of federal jurisdiction.

Shad needs to get a bunch of Alfred E. Neuman "What, Me Worry?" T shirts that he can hand out to the (soon to be convicted) criminals he encounters when he catches them. That would be epic!

Shared jurisdiction, 11:03, as is the case anytime an agency of one jurisdiction is in receipt of funds from another. Federal money, State agency. You're flat wrong if you think White had no jurisdictional authority to act. As an attorney, you can probably audit some MC courses free of charge.

Hard to believe all this graft and fraud was kept quiet so tater would not have to deal with it....

RepublicCrooks stealing from the poorest of the poor....while on the way to church.

Muslims don’t even do that shit

why were these criminals (after proven guilty) allowed to walk without posting any bail fee? Sure would be granted to 99% of us.

It appears that several of Chad's and Hurst's staff are commenting. Nobody outside of those two circles really cares who gets the credit, I'm just glad this got busted and like others, I suspect the story to get bigger before its over.

I hope the Bureau works this as a RICO; the state has similar laws with easier elements, but the penalties are milquetoast and most state/local prosecutors don't know how to prosecute state RICO, so they go for lesser charges (I know from personal experience). There's enough prosecution to go around for everybody; and, counter to some opinions, White didn't "conceal" the case, he did his due diligence so he could estimate the size and scope of the fraud before he brought it to federal agencies who also have jurisdiction.

Shad may catch them, but Jody Owens cant clean them.

Anyone that works in State Government is aware that the Executive Director only signs off on documents, sometimes! (They can’t sign off on every damn document) The work is done by program administrators, approved by Division Directors all the way up to the Deputy Director and on to the top dog John Davis. It’s too many involved that knew this shigity was wrong and did not pass the smell test! However, why would they jeopardize their $30,000 plus year job snitching on the boss.

John change that little nasty, elitist attitude, that shigity won’t work in the slammer. Can you say, put money on my books for the canteen.

So Jody conned Shad into letting his office get the indictment, and now will hand everything off to the USA's office because there is no attorney in the Hinds Co. DA's office or the MS AG's office competent enough to handle a complex financial crime prosecution. Got it.

9:30 am

Or it’s misuse of federal funds and they are the proper ones to work on it and have a budget to do it.

But you keep on being a dick

So Shad needs to hire a CPA? Maybe I can become AG and just hire a lawyer to do the legal work.

@ 10:16. You kind of made my point for me. If there were federal funds, then the USA's office should have been part of the investigation from jump street - not brought in after the Hinds Co. DA presented the case to a grand jury for indictment. Getting a state court indictment (with Tomie Green is presiding over the case - hahaha) and having the press conference BEFORE even meeting with the FBI were stunts.

Afraid Shad's true purpose is now shining through, based on his latest statements about this scam. And, it takes a lot of the shine off the gold trophy he has been awarded by some (including me. And no, by the way, I'm not employed by either the Auditor's office, the US Attorney, or for that matter, any governmental agency.)

Shad's claim that the "whistleblower" was Phil Bryant himself is pure b/s. The whistleblower was a DHS employee who called (blew his whistle at) the Governor's office. Appropriately the Governor called Shad White to tell him and thus the audit began.

But to even think that the Governor would be aware of this without having been told by someone in the department is ridiculous; doesn't pass the smell test. And everyone connected to this situation knows that while it was the Governor that reported it to the Auditor, the 'whistleblower' was a DHS employee, not the Governor (who we all recognize appointed Shad to this position, so this appears to be nothing but a thank you gift to Phil's departure basket.)

Makes one believe that maybe the reason that Shad didn't involve Hurst in the process is that he was afraid that a too deep of an investigation would reach into the 20th floor of the Sillers Building itself and by turning it over to Owens he could protect his former boss and mentor.

Hate to think that is the case, but the evidence is beginning to point that direction, and this latest proclamation from Shad supports the idea.

Any idea how this meeting went?

Clean house. Everybody that had knowledge of this should be gone. To Parchman. Repay all money with interest. Then give that money to those who needed it. And to our Auditor. Next audit is DPS. Clean house. Then to Dept of Education. Then the legislature. There is a reason we are towards the bottom. Let’s get it fixed.

How often do we see (and have we seen) these things result in the prosecution of one count of some minor shit like wire fraud, a fine and twelve with five suspended at the federal level. Shad is balls to the wall and should be. If the feds recommend one damned count, each participating should be shot at sunrise, or worse.

Go to bed Mike. Shad already scored the headlines.

Federal money, state agency, state employees, contractors...much room for crossed jurisdictional lines and shared authority. Sorta like a Pearl cop pulling you over on the interstate in the city limits while you're involved in interstate commerce with an outstanding Texas warrant.

There was zero onus on Shad to defer.

The top floor at Sillers is the 19th.

But I get your point.

Hey Mr. Hurst cheerleader at 10:16--question--what has happened to the Madison Timber investigation? Why are the elitist local yokels that foisted this scheme on their neighbors still wining and dining and driving their fancy cars like nothing happened after the redneck patsy went to jail? Why is it business as usual at their respective law firms? Hurst ain't gonna do anything with this except for try to protect his Eastover handlers.