Complicating the narrative on poverty and providing job security to FOIA officers for @MSTODAYnews. Story tips go: [email protected]
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Gov. Phil Bryant screenshotted my tweet below—which touched on my investigation into welfare in the spring of 2019, at the fever pitch of the largest taxpayer theft in state history—and sent it to MDHS Director John Davis. “How is she figuring this?” he asked. #TheBackchannel
For every dollar Mississippi spends on basic cash assistance for poor families, the state leaves three dollars unspent, rolling over to the next year. It spends the most on “Work” — grants to training programs, work supports like transportation vouchers, etc. @MSTODAYnews
Mississippi Today is hiring reporters for a new desk, led by me, to cover the many inspiring, gut-wrenching, profound, absurd, delightful, layered, deeply human stories of my home, Jackson, MS. Please share! mississippitoday.org/2024/11…
Imagine you're Nancy New, going down for the crime of the century, and you open @MSTODAYnews to read texts a retired QB sent to the governor about the very scheme sending you to prison...texts you realize the state has had for 2 years and you've never seen
mississippitoday.org/2024/02…
Officers took a look at the alleged kidnappers — a 330-pound retired NFL player and a longhaired pot grower from California — and “they just went haywire and thought they had something that they just didn’t have.” mississippitoday.org/2024/02…
Nancy New, key welfare scandal defendant, is offering new accounts in her defense -- such as the Christmas party where Gov. Bryant allegedly "got excited" that the CEO of a company he "had been funding" with welfare $ "offered him 'half the company.'" mississippitoday.org/2024/02…
Since TANF’s creation, states have spent billions on non-cash programs, some “with tenuous connections to a TANF purpose” – one generous way to describe the overarching Mississippi welfare scandal. New rules would require purchases to be “reasonable.” mississippitoday.org/2024/02…
Dang. The Uncertain Hour was a guiding light when I started really digging into the TANF story—a complicated, bureaucratic mess. We need to keep this kind of storytelling around.
A welfare scandal defendant lost up to $30,000 —allegedly partially DHS funds — to an African gold bar scam. It would have taken a family of three 15 years to receive that much in the welfare check — which would have been impossible since the assistance maxes out at five years.
New @ayewolfe just dropped.
Been thinking of what to tweet about this for several days, and all I could come up with is: wow.
mississippitoday.org/2023/12…
Attorneys interrogated Brett Favre for over eight hours at the Primerica insurance office in Hattiesburg Monday. He answered Qs in a civil case about the use of welfare funds for a volleyball stadium at his alma mater @southernmiss and a pharma company.
(video via @HPatriot)
To my knowledge, Bryant has not been questioned about why he did not produce years-worth of texts between himself and his former welfare director John Davis, many of which we obtained and published, even though he said he produced them all. mississippitoday.org/2023/05…