Jackson Jambalaya

The museums have become a prop for politicians and DEI ceremonies. I'm not sure expanding them is in the best interest of anyone, especially considering green spaces in Jackson become crime and homeless infested wastelands. The last thing the state needs is another Smith Park right next to their flagship museums.

Do I detect some greasy palms?

So the Representative states that the taxpayers won't have to fund the project, which makes me wonder who WILL be funding the project? Is it the City of Jackson? I kinda doubt it. That only leaves one option, one that I'm pretty sure isn't interested in paying for it either.

I would expect the museums to eventually be the next casualties after Welty and Thalia Mara.

The city should just rebuild the tower on site so the bums can steal the copper off of it. Call it "redistribution of wealth".

The state wanted the Welty building because it is an eyesore, and I agree. The state twisted Jackson's arm to get the building and I don't blame Jackson for wanting to preserve an income stream. One of the rare examples of seeing these two entities work together on a win-win, and Andy decides to get the hillbillies fired up. He's probably jealous of all the hillbilly attention Tate got earlier this week.

Both comments are ridiculous, these are state owned properties, not city owned.

Has anybody noticed that the DOT has not replaced the interstate lights along I-20 for several years? Its as dark as the backside of the moon from Pearl to Clinton and I'm told they couldn't keep the copper thieves from breaking into the poles. I noticed last week that they have added high intensity reflectors in lieu of lighting, indicating that the lights are not coming back.

@9:36 thankfully the Museums are not owned and operated by the City

If it involved the city of Jackson, I am wary because of the history. The minute I saw "lease" and 50 years, I automatically thought of the ball fields. Sorry, but my trust with the folks who run the city of Jackson is gone.

"redistribution of wealth" haha good one.

So if the agency now owns the site to tear down and build and the agency will build the new tower who the hell is paying for it? Sounds like the hat might be right. I guess you could technically NOT be required to pay for it as McGee says if you choose not to pay taxes.

They better have a section in the cell tower lease that they can’t put a penthouse daiquiri or cigar bar at the top or sub lease the ground below it for parking!

Andy sure does wear a big-ass hat.

I’m all for calling out the city when corruption is apparent. But we all need to tone down the rhetoric and race-batting that we know stirs up peoples emotions. This kind of stuff needs to stop at locally and nationally. We can express ourselves without fostering an “us vs them” mentality.

Kinda interesting - and very well hidden (obviously hidden enough KF because you either missed it or intentionally failed to point out)

Rep Magee says "the bill does NOT require the taxpayers to fund the project." Maybe she should have put her all-caps emphasis on the word "require" rather than the word "not" when calling out the Commish and suggesting he could not accurately read the bill.

The bill states that Dept of Archieves and History will construct a new tower "paid from public or private funds made available from any source."

Anybody want to suggest what 'private' source might want to contribute a million or so dollars to build the City of Jackson a new tower? Or would you rather bet that Mrs. Senator Blount will find those dollars from a state appropriation.

Shame on you, Missy. A good argument but calling the Commissioner as being deceitful. You should ALSO never let the truth - that includes all the truth stand in the way of a story, good or not.

11:20 is spot on. That’s why he repeatedly says “Jackson” instead of naming the representatives who sponsored and/or voted for the bill. He knows that nothing gets a certain crowd worked up like knowing the city of Jackson may reap some benefit (no matter how small) from something.

A mega amen to 11:20!

I for one would like to know why a representative from Hattiesburg sponsored a bill about a cell phone tower in the city of Jackson.

12:19 Missy and Speaker White are trying to stick it to Andy Gipson cause he called themr out on the MedicaidBill last year. The speaker refused to double refer it so it could be killed and he and Medicaid Missy made it look like Andy was for it to the other legislators.

Acting indignant, has been, for decades, a standard schtick for Republican women politicians playing to lower-middle-class constituents. It's a schtick akin to 'Frustration Humor', which also plays well to 'Strivers' (in '80s/'90s marketing parlance, there were 'Strivers' and 'Achievers').

Remember the indignant Republican woman trying to get elected to something, who ran radio ads denouncing a new building near the fairgrounds? "...looks lahk thuh Tawdj Muhawl!" (It was a small, 2-story Traditional-style brick building for some state agency, in no way excessive - the sort of thing you'd describe as "A nice little building, for what they had to spend"). We never heard from HER, ever-again. But being indignant is still a schtick.

The state is merely swapping out land and a tower for land and a tower. Of course the state should pay to build the new tower and provide the land. They're the ones who want the existing tower site. It's not rocket science here. As for the Ag Commissioner, he's a blowhard just trying to drum up votes from ignorant and uninformed voters. He just needs to shut up.

Great job, 11:35

Easy, its something the state needs to do to fulfill its end of the bargain, and there are no republicans in Jackson to sponsor the bill. This is a non-issue except for the race baiters.

What is the benefit of owning a cell tower if you don’t control what is done with it and you make a whopping $50 in 50 years?

@12:19, BINGO!

Whoever is in the right on this, the state has never been more lacking in genuine leadership than now with Tater, Delwyn, Shadrick, and The Hat.

@1:10 -- not quite, but nice try (just as Missy makes a nice try with this bill, AND her description). The state is not 'merely swapping' land; the city had a pink elephant on their hands, one that turned pink due to their mismanagement of the property allowing it to deteriorate. Granted, the city's failure on Eudora Welty was not limited to it - there were three other libraries, Thalia Mara, and on and on that they let rot to the core.

The state wanted the land - the city wanted to get rid of the land and not have to pay for the demolition of the building. Hell, the City's so mismanaged they had to cut a deal for the state to provide a crane (several hundred thousand dollars) to remove a printing press from the basement and relocate for the city that they needed but couldn't pay to relocate.

The state has been generous in this transaction and to the benefit of the city; removing a building that had to be removed, improving the land with a nice green space, and salvaging their printing press.

I have no problem with the tower being relocated to the fairgrounds property - it is state property, not Andy Gipson property. As to who builds the tower, that should be a negotiable matter and whoever pays the money to move/build a new tower should receive the rental revenue. I believe there is more to this tower than just the parts that are rented to cell companies and other users; that the city and county still have EOC communications antennas on it. (If I'm wrong and the tower is only up for rental purposes, then maybe it should just be removed and not replaced.)

Yes, I think there is more to this than just the matter of a tower and relations with the COJ. Up until this one item, there has been no desire with the House to work with the City, just as there has been no desire of the City to work with the legislature or any other division of the state (see Mayor's attempt to block the State Fire Marshall from entering Thalia Mara as an example of the extremes this administration has taken.) This bill, filed by Missy Magee, the headstrong proponent of Medicaid expansion and carrying the Speaker's water on that bill, wasn't done by her accidently rather than the Chairman of the State Affairs Committee as would normally be done on a bill such as this. It was a gig into Commissioner Gipson's side (one he might deserve for many reasons, but not for his opposition to Medicaid expansion.)

Let's let this move on - knowing of course that Senator Blount will push for this action to placate his wife prior to assuring through appropriations that she will have "public money from whatever source" to pay for this cost.

Hmmmm, maybe an interesting thing to learn would be the estimated cost to remove and replace this tower, along with the annual income from the rentals today.

The fairgrounds are ugly. The fairgrounds are a perfect place for a cellphone tower. This is a fair trade. Andy DOES NOT OWN the Fairgrounds. He runs the Fairgrounds. But, I repeat in all caps again, HE DOES NOT OWN THE FAIRGROUNDS. It is not a kingdom. The taxpayers own the Fairgrounds. The Legislature is cutting a deal, and it is a smart one. Live with it, wannabe plow boy.

A vacant, ugly, field (We're talkin' Jackson, here. What do you expect?), where nobody WILL EVER GO (except maybe to fart, rub antibiotic cream on their infected piercings, let their dogs take a shit, or have a quick vape, is the perfect place for a cell phone tower.

The Fairgrounds, where people spend long periods outdoors, and where people bring valuable livestock, is not a place where people want to linger, unprotected from EXCESSIVE RADIATION.

People want to keep their children out of cancer wards, and want to keep their prize stallions breeding. The presence of a big-giant cell phone tower, in a place where they may be spending the better part of a day (or, if in their RVs, the better part of a WEEK), may cause people to think twice about coming to the Fairgrounds.

The bill now goes to the Senate. Like a JV version of "The House of Cards", Delbert will get it passed to make Andy look dumb. Why? Andy's name is being thrown around to make a run for Governor in 2027. So is Delbert. Same reason Delbert got Polk to be his attack dog on Shad. Get it?

Cell towers are big-ass business. Every one of those arm-size cables you see running up inside the tower represents one corporate customer paying huge rent to the owner of the tower. And there may be as many as thirty of them, plus dish receivers and transmitters.

One has to assume (right?) that several attorneys were involved in this 'deal' from the get-go, so it must be kosher in all respects, right?

If you can't trust your representative and senator, who can you trust, right?

I don't know Andy, but he doesn't just RUN the fairgrounds. More importantly, he is a steward.

Missy is one of the self-anointed important people of Hattiesburg. Campaigns right, governs left. She has plenty of diddy’s money to spend to play politician.

Good ‘ol demented Andy Gipson. He is a slavering, rabid Jackson hater of the first order.

This is a battle that has been fought many times in the past. In the 1950's a baseball stadium at the Fairgrounds was discussed. In the 1990's, when gambling revenue came in way over expectations, a real push was made to demolish the coliseum (which then had the "circus tent" exterior) and replace it with a modern, 12,000 seat version because the state had the cash to do it. Ag Commissioner Jim Buck Ross torpedoed that idea and said they just needed to renovate the old one (which is what happened). The Ag folks were afraid that a new, larger coliseum would gradually take over the Fairgrounds. The Ag & Commerce Department (and even more so the Fair Commission) guards the Fairgrounds area zealously.

Yall are goin pretty hard at the ol pumpkin farmer.

Bless his heart cause you know he's tryin!

From picking pumpkins to working at a really big white shoe law firm like Jones Walker and still wearing his big white hat is a trip few in the 'Sip could make. Yet here he is!

Just stick with Andy and he probably can turn the whole state into a pumpkin patch and find all your stolen rototillers and side by sides too!

If you are not going to the Fairgrounds because of a cell phone tower "radiating" waves off it, you need to lock yourself inside with no electronics and stockpile tinfoil for your hat.

Are you 'AI'? Did your masters, in their 'prompts' tell you to include every possible Southern cliche? (no matter how anachronistic and sickeningly trite)

Was one of the 'prompts', "try to sound like Junior Samples on Hee Haw"?

12:13, I will quote from this morning's 'Coffee & Covid', over on Substack:
" Kennedy said, “We will study the causes of the drastic rise in chronic disease … the childhood vaccine schedule, electromagnetic radiation, glyphosate..." "

Kennedy's no fool. Nor are the farm families who attend functions at the Fairgrounds.

But really, you need to update your Rent-a-troll Stylebook. That 'Tinfoil Hat' thing is soooo 1999.