The Clarion-Ledger and Mississippi Community Education Center are going to war in Hinds County Chancery Court. MCEC is fighting to block a Clarion-Ledger public records request submitted the DHS. Clarion-Ledger reporter Giacomo Bologna asked DHS to provide several records in March:
* All emails between Anne McGrew and DHS. McGrew was the accountant for MCEC. She was indicted for conspiracy and making fraudulent statements. She is no longer employed at MCEC.
* Any RFP applications submitted by MCEC Executive Director Nancy New between July and January. MCEC submitted three proposals to DHS.
DHS notified MCEC of the public records request as required by law. MCEC petitioned the Court on April 22 to seal the records. It said the proposals contained proprietary information that would help its competitors. The petition states:
8. The Proposals contain information that constitute confidential commercial and financial information of a proprietary nature and trade secret information. Petitioner would show that public disclosure of the entire contents of the Proposals would expose Petitioner's closely held business decisions and confidential commercial and financial information to present or future competitors in the field and compromise MCEC's ability to compete fairly in this highly specialized, competitive business.Attorneys Parker Berry and Tommie Cardin of Lord Snow represent MCEC.
The Clarion-Ledger decided to show up for the fight and filed a motion to intervene yesterday. It argued the petition was vague and didn't specify what should be protected:
9. Notably, the Petition does not disclose the number of pages of emails it seeks to shield from public scrutiny, nor does it identify any specific email by sender, recipient, date, time or subject matter, and it advances no argument as to why any of these public records should be exempted from production under the Mississippi Public Records Act. Rather, MCEC seeks to block responsive emails and their attachments on the speculative grounds that, “the contents … may also include portions of the Proposals that include trade secrets and/or confidential commercial and financial information of a proprietary nature …”
Attorneys John Sneed and Charles Cowan of Wise Carter represent the newspaper.
20 comments:
Remember this when you are emailing a funny to a government employee. If you don't want your mama to read it, don't send it in an email, but especially don't email it to a government email address.
Anne McGrew is wearing an ankle bracelet and singing like a bird in order to save her own skin.
Good to see someone other than Kingfish actually going to the mat.
what a pissing contest-
8:05, how about “in addition to” rather than “other than?” Agree with your sentiment that we need more folks willing to go the mat, especially with regards to holding government accountable. We the People deserve better.
Mississippi's government is less open than it has ever been.
Before Gannett bought the Clarion Ledger, a reporter was sent to even rather small government meetings. And, that reporter was well versed in the subject upon which he was assigned to cover.
Now reporters write from the government entities press release far more often than not. And, fewer and fewer reporters have any knowledge whatsoever about city government or environmental issues or government contracts or civics , for that matter. Nor do they have an editor above them who is experienced and knowledgeable in the subject they are covering.
I’m sure a lot of the information is “sensitive “ , trade secrets, etc, not so much. Based on Nancy’s history when she was in Rankin County could also be embarrassing. I hope she’s not using money she scammed to pay the attorneys.
I’m sure a lot of the information is “sensitive “ , trade secrets, etc, not so much. Based on Nancy’s history when she was in Rankin County could also be embarrassing. I hope she’s not using money she scammed to pay the attorneys.
MCEC is a non-profit and the information requested concerned it's acquisition and use of TANF funds. I wish some lawyer could explain to me how they are involved in a "highly competitive" field and need their "commercial interests" protected. Is it Legal jackassery?
I’m pretty sure MCEC is about to find out their “trade secrets” are a moot point going forward.
Right. Meant 'in addition to'. LeMaster can be dogged in the pursuit also. The rest only talk.
Not quite sure how a nonprofit can argue "proprietary" information??? Particularly a nonprofit that allegedly produced virtually no products or services. Who are the "competitors"?
It looks like everyone else is as suspicious as I am about their claims of "proprietary" information for a non-profit.
Smells like a junior associate defense attorney's desperate attempt to block production of documents. The Court will deal with it.
The lawyer who brought up this proprietary bull shit was simply doing his job. What we've come to know about judges in the Metro, it's real safe to assume one of them would jumped and run with that bogus claim. And still might.
Where's Deppity Pheel on this?
The reporter's last name is Bologna. Am I the only one who thinks that's a hilarious name for a news reporter? (this is coming from a former journalist, so no disrespect to Mr. Bologna)
5:35 good question. All this happened right under his nose. His Administration was full of scandal.
When are we going to get the names of the nursing homes with the virus. Almost every state in the U.S. has divulges the names, except for Mississippi.
So not only did the News steal from the state and the poor, the state has to pay back that money with Medicaid funds. The News doubly screwed the poor
https://mississippitoday.org/2020/05/14/feds-mississippi-must-replace-all-misspent-or-stolen-welfare-money-with-state-funds/
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