So I sent a few inquiries. What I found out I was asked not to disclose. Maybe SRHS Watch will return one day. Maybe not. Regardless it was additive to the discussion and for that reason it will be missed.
13 thoughts on “A few of you have inquired….”
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SRHSWatch must have gotten too close to the fire. I miss it already.
The last post explaining the connections between Singletary, Simpson and certain Plaintiff’s counsel was a great history lesson.
If you are implying that Singletary, Simpson or any other attorney with a Mississippi bar card threatened the operator of SRHSWatch.org so as to cause the shutting down that blog, I’d say you have a civic duty to disclose it. Moreover, if you consider yourself a journalist, you have a professional duty to report on it. Frankly, if you have knowledge that anyone made such highly improper threats to SRHSWatch.org, I’d argue you still have such duties, but again, if you have knowledge anyone involved in such threats had MS bar cards, there is very little argument to made in defense of withholding that information from both the public and appropriate authorities, both state and federal.
I’m not implying that at all and the operator did not indicate feeling threatened when we communicated. If I had reason to believe otherwise this post would have been framed in a much different manner.
All that said however I am aware that certain people that have spoken out have experienced retaliation over the past year plus including instances of workplace retaliation. Jackson County is big by Mississippi standards but its still a place where everyone seemingly knows everyone else and on the SRHS debacle feeling have been running high so this is not a surprise.
Fair enough.
And speaking of Jackson County cesspools:
http://yallpolitics.com/index.php/yp/post/43695/
Folks might be – or really, ought to be – curious as to why Kenny Griffis, a MS COA judge who announces he running for the MSSC District 1 (middle of the state) immediately has a “reception” at Pascagoula’s Charter Bank in District 2. Especially since Charter Bank is owned by some of the very people – including lawyers, doctors and “businesspeople” – who currently have and are likely to have even more cases before the MSSC (both pre- and post-election) in which they, their family and numerous close associates are personally involved (as opposed to the lawyers simply representing clients before the MSSC).
Regardless of anything else, the appearance of this given all of the circumstances is pretty sketchy. Of course, Mississippi’s appellate courts don’t regularly get horrible grades in everything from campaign finance to legal scholarship because the rest of the country’s judiciary and legal scholars and watchers are jealous.
The creator of the SRHS Watch blog is a know face to many of the retirees who have been vocal and active. He has visited and had many face to face conversations with people about the mess that has been created and identified himself as the SRHS Watch blog owner. He has researched and posted facts about many people in Jackson County who are not the people they pretend to be. He has called out the likes of the Cumbest clan,the Roy Williams and Sons gang, the come late to the EB-5 swindle Morris Strickland, the fired supervisor John McKay, the brainless Melton Harris, the crooked attorneys involved, the don’t give a damn judge, the incompetent SRHS trustees and so many more. I have been told he has been threatened by some of these powerful crooks. He must be careful because these same people will do anything to keep all of the lies,frauds,theft,bribery,and other potential crimes quiet. He could be considered the Ira Harkey of this era. If his safety is in question he must discontinue shouting out the truth. If indeed his blog is no more ,we all have lost what I consider to be a strong voice against wrong doing. Who will take his place? Somebody must. Until we meet again my friend at SRHS Watch, best wishes.
If the operator of SRHSWatch.org was threatened into terminating that site, he might want to contact federal authorities including the FBI, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), etc. There are any number of well-heeled groups out there that would love to get up the face of a bunch of Mississippi redneck crooks – especially if many are lawyers – trying to screw over a group of retirees.
Indeed, a shame. Yes, a damn crying shame. A great loss, not only to the hostages of the SRHS pension plan, but also to all seekers for honest governments. He provided a more penetrating, thorough analysis, of the mess that is the pension plan, than did the Mississippi Press, WLOX, WXXV, or the Sun-Herald.
Unfortunately, that quest for the simple, honest truth took him right into the “Heart of Darkness”. He, and his volunteer correspondents began to shed light upon the ineptitude, incompetence, negligence, and down right deliberate deceitful illegal activities of those charged with protecting the common good. As Mr. Gordon has so well layed out (in his above comments), there appears to be a price to pay! That being the elimination of the message as well as the messenger.
For at least the last 50 years, Jackson County has been the hot-bed of corruption, from Khayatt/Cumbest to today’s Walkers. It must be the unfettered chemically infused water that everyone in Jackson County consumes. (Perhaps, we too should be asking for Flint, Michigan bottled water.)
Now, the truly sad part of this morality play is that most of the actors in this saga willingly accept their fate. It appears that almost 90% of the pensioners are happy with their fate; the voters keep re-electing at city, county, state, and national levels. It appears that Mr. SRHS Watch has given his all for essentially a bunch of ingrates. Wishing it weren’t so, doesn’t change the facts.
Mr Handshoe, please tell us again how we can support your continuing search for the truth? After all, the only local news source to receive the prestigious Pulitzer Prize did so for handing out “free newspapers” (as a public service) not for critical, insightful, investigative reporting.
Jackson County didn’t become a cesspool of corruption overnight and it will take a while to turn it around. The voters there made a good start last year toward cleaning the place up.
You can support Slabbed by clicking here and sending in a contribution. Its timely you bring up supporting this website because we’ve not had a single donation in quite some time.
On the SRHS saga, District Attorney Tony Lawrence could have done his elected official duty by subpoenaing former CEO Chris Anderson, CEO Kevin Holland and others involved in this miscarriage of retirement funds. Why not? And Supervisor Barry Cumbest continues to vote on matters he should recuse himself according to MS Code 25-4 105(1). Where is the County Attorney while this is happening?
Do you mean the former board attorney Paula Yancey? She was part of the bunch that created that mess – Roy Williams and Dogan and Wilkinson’s “inside gal.” Or do you mean Gary Evans, the current board attorney and Yancey’s long-time middle-aged assistant? Let’s put it this way: why would an even marginally competent attorney spend years and years as an assistant county attorney – to Paula Yancey! – in Jackson County, MS? Paula Yancey attempted to “flee the jurisdiction” back in 2012-13, before the SRHS mess hit the fan, when she attempted to bullsh!t Pasco County, FL into hiring her as their county administrator based on her alleged success as board attorney extraordinaire, cunning FEMA grant-getter, and all-around super-duper county manager in Jackson County. Pasco laughed their asses off and passed on that “opportunity.” Then, she publicly got into bed with Dogan and Wilkinson in an attempt to keep their pull in the local courts, especially important because ol’ Chuck Bordis couldn’t keep his hands off another man’s wife and was soon to be off the bench.
Tony Lawrence spent his early legal career as bartender-slash-delivery boy for Roy Williams and crew. Apparently, one of his kids wants (or wanted?) to follow in his footsteps by getting her start working for Brett Williams, Bobby Wilkinson, et al.
Barry Cumbest is a third generation county supervisor, whose family has been greedily gobbling at the Jackson County trough for decades and whose father went to prison for a small part of his thievery while a supervisor. Prior to being a supervisor, Barry showed absolutely no aptitude for anything requiring the slightest amount of brains, skill, honesty or common sense. But in Jackson County terms, he had all the qualification he would ever need: his last name was “Cumbest.”
So, which of these folks were you hoping might have done something about anything that their cronies didn’t want something done about? But there is a small bright spot – when folks get involved in stuff like that, they do not “friends,” they only have “co-conspirators.”
Nunn, I’m sure you are correct in all you have stated. But I am talking about 2016.
Why is the present Jackson County Attorney for the JCBOS not doing her/his job by telling Stupid Cumbest he cannot vote for Lake Cumbest items or SRHS subjects since it is against the law and he should recuse himself? He owns property in the proposed damming of the Pascagoula River and his wife has retirement monies with SRHS, therefore, according to State Law MS Code 25-4 105(1), he has to recuse himself.
John, you are quoting the law as it is written, I’m laying out the situation as it is. Do you really think Cumbest is going to recuse himself unless he is forced to do so? Do you really think anything will change in these tax dollar-enriched “Gangs of Mississippi” unless that change is demanded by the people?
I do understand your concern and confusion. If you really want to change things, I’d suggest getting as many like-minded folks as you can _and_ here’s the difficult thing – attempting to educate as many other folks as you all possibly can. Will it work? That depends on you and the folks you can gather. I wish you luck because you will need it. I can tell you this: there are folks who are ready, willing and able to help, as long as the local, on-the-ground folks are prepared to do the grunt work. Why should others put forth effort to do what the locals should take the lead on? That’s the whole problem – these crooks are free to scarf up fed money because damned few locals care enough to stop them. If you want change, it begins locally and then gets broad attention. Look no further than the widespread condemnation of 1523 – national news reports, concerts canceled, etc., but the same idiots who passed it, along with their friends and family, can “appropriate” billions in tax dollars and loot retirement funds and seemingly, no one cares. 1523 is a redneck-stupid law, but in reality, it won’t deprive many folks of much, and yet, it gets attention, but redneck-stupid trough feeders can steal billions and folks all but ignore it. There’s your problem.