Day: May 7, 2014

Alright let’s inch it forward

GOP Senator Thad Cochran Is Facing Residency Questions In Competitive Primary ~ Samantha Lachman

This morning I’m going to pretend that Lachman is an AP writer and that Handshoe, as editor of Slabbed adds to one sentence that adds the nuance and color (in bold):

Breitbart, a conservative news site, reported Sunday that Cochran listed an Alexandria, Va., home he sold in 2003 as his address on Federal Election Commission statement of candidacy in 2002, and listed a Capitol Hill apartment as his address in 2008.

Cochran’s campaign said he rents the Capitol Hill apartment from his executive assistant, who is often seen in public with the Senator and who in the past has been misidentified by the media as Cochran’s wife, Rose, who is chronically ill. That address was included on his statement of candidacy filed in May 2013, which was changed last week to an Oxford, Miss. home he owns.

Some documents show Cochran designated his Mississippi house as a second home, with the Capitol Hill apartment as his “present address” on others.

Seems to me there is a lot of tap dancing on this issue.

My Professional Opinion: Horrifying

Yesterday’s Bay City Council finance workshop was horrifying on two levels in fact folks. I put the workshop out on Twitter yesterday via my smartphone while Dwayne and Jennifer took pages of copious notes old school style. The long and short of it is the City is broke and has been broke for several months. Now the Mayor is pitching a new plan to refinance the City’s debt just weeks after telling Dwayne that City finances were groovy. The plan hizzoner is pushing will plunge the City deeper into debt to paper over the accumulated deficit the City has been financing off the back of its trade vendors and claims docket.

Accounting, legal compliance and related financial concepts are arcane, sometimes mind numbingly so thus I get a charge when audit presentations are recounted by the print media. I’ll be back with a detailed post on this exact topic but first here are the takeaways from the other two media organizations in attendance on this issue of vital public interest:

Bay eyes audit; tax hike may be near ~ Dwayne Bremer

Bay St. Louis council passes measure supporting LGBT residents ~ Jennifer Lenain

No word in either story on whether the City Council authorized the Mayor to begin discussion with Butler Snow to begin the bond refinancing process as proposed by Mayor Fillingame. In fairness to the Echo, Dwayne was fighting deadline issues.  The Sun Herald is not in the game.