Month: March 2018

Guest Post | Lana Noonan: Congratulations to the Local Public Officials that made Restructuring the Bay Waveland Schools Possible

The Hancock County Alliance for Good Government would like to offer our congratulations to those public officials who made possible a restructuring of our local Bay St. Louis-Waveland School Board.

We’ll start with former Mayor Les Fillingame, who last February, 2017, did not re-appoint Maurice Singleton, leaving that appointment to the new administration. Current Mayor, Mike Favre, and the new Bay St. Louis City Council replaced Singleton with Vicky Arnold, and most recently replaced Joan Thomas with Ann Latrop.

Those of us who regularly attend School Board meetings, review claim dockets and test scores could not be more pleased in the new Board. We will hold them accountable for their opportunity to make the long overdue improvements to the School District.

One has been accomplished, that being the resignation of Superintendent Vicky Landry, which ends the nepotism arrangement in the School District Business office between her and her brother, Business Administrator, John McCraw. The Director of the Miss. Ethics Commission and the Attorney General both advised against this arrangement last year, and it has finally been accomplished. Sadly they prevailed for 12 months in violation of state law to the tune of $217,000 in salaries for these two. We feel those funds could have been better spent on the students and their teachers.
Next, and actually, most important on our list of challenges for the new Board is to address the academic conditions of our two elementary schools. North Bay dropped from a”B”rated school to a”C” and Waveland from an”A”to a “D”as reported by the State Department of Education.

We will continue to attend the School Board meetings, and hopefully witness some long awaited leadership that will result in the most important goal for our community–putting the kids first, and developing a personnel roster that can make that happen.

Lana Noonan, Chairman
The Hancock County Alliance for Good Government

As Promised, Today’s Protest at City Hall

My thanks to you readers that sent in photos. Here is a representative picture via the Slabbed Twitter account.

We have a movie that was sent in as well where I counted 19 total protesters. Here are their demands:

1. No PJ’s Coffee drive through be allowed in town.
2. The Alcan property must remain vacant.
3. A Minority be placed on the school board.

As the above Tweet stated my understanding is Mayor Favre pulled the groups permit to hold the event as he was getting Citizens complaints about the event on Highway 90, which was staged without a permit. Props to Hizzoner for helping instead of harassing the peaceful group of demonstrators.

The gang at WLOX was there was well as the Echo. It will be interesting to see their coverage.

Cancer in the locker room……

I’ve had this post title conceived for several weeks now, ever since MDAH shut down the new PJ’s Coffee House project, a story which was well reported in the local media but which Slabbed actually broke on Twitter. Given those events as well as more recent ones it seems appropriate for the post title to cover multiple topics there in the Bay. First up was Monday’s special called school board meeting. Lana Noonan attended and she sent in a short report:

After a 33 minute Executive Session, the Bay St. Louis-Waveland School Board took action to go forward with advertising the position of Superintendent of Education.

In addition to advertising on their website and several educational entities in the state, the board voted to notify all 33 applicants who had applied in the previous search that the position is open again.

Two more Special Meetings were scheduled for April 2, and April 4, to begin interviewing those applicants who respond to the District’s ad. Those interviews will be conducted in Executive Session after the meeting opens in open session as required by the Miss. Open Meetings Act.

The Board also accepted the resignation of the Athletic Director, Vernon Powell, effective March 16.

A way to the inside observation but I do not think Bay Waveland is ready for a swinging Superintendent so lets make that 32 instead of 33.

Moving back a few weeks in time does everyone remember MDAH shutting down the construction of PJ’s Coffee House? Here is the 4 paragraph refresher from Casandra Favre: Continue reading “Cancer in the locker room……”

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Likely War in Iran by End of September 2018

Posted on March 19, 2018

The likelihood of the US getting involved in actual combat operations against Iran by the end of September is closing in on 50% for the following reasons:

ONE. Trump needs something to get his job approval rating above 40%. War always gives a sitting president a short term boost in the polls. When we were hit on 9-11 Bush got a 40%…that’s correct…FORTY PERCENT rise in his Gallup job approval numbers. When he commenced military action against Iraq he got a 12% boost. Trump hasn’t had poll numbers above 40% since June of 2017. With low poll numbers Trump is in a difficult position to fire Mueller. A war would get Trump’s numbers up a bit…who says it has to be necessary…if it helps Trump get rid of Mueller why not? And if people die…hey, people die every day.

TWO. Any accomplishment by Obama, who left office with a 59% Gallup Job Approval, reminds Trump that Obama was an actual functioning President. Any accomplishment by Obama has to be destroyed. Why? I can’t help on that one, but I have observed that bashing Obama still gets a rise out of that 20% of the population who get apoplectic at the mere mention of Obama’s name. The Iran Deal was a magnificent accomplishment bringing the US, UK, France, Russia, Germany, and China together in a major step towards less conflict. In Trump’s head, that means it must be destroyed.

THREE. Sheldon Adelson wants a war with Iran. He didn’t give $35 Million to Trump for good government. In response to a question about how to negotiate with Iran, Adelson replied “what’s there to negotiate?” He went on to say we should nuke Iran in the desert and tell them to do what we want “or the next one is in downtown Tehran.” Adelson funds people and organizations that want a war with Iran. Adelson did not like Tillerson and he wants H.R. McMaster gone. He’s interested in slipping an Israeli born woman, Safra Catz, or John Bolton into McMaster’s job.

FOUR. Netanyahu wants and possibly needs the US to go to war in Iran. Netanyahu has a number of scandals to deal with in Israel that have brought his poll numbers down. Part of Netanyahu’s political strength in Israel is based on his perceived ability to get the US to do his bidding. He was once caught on a hot mic saying “the United States is very easy to move.” Netanyahu has always benefited domestically when he can play the “they’re out to get us” card. Nothing like a war to make him look strong…especially if he can get the United States to fight it.

FIVE. Rupert Murdoch, the Jewish Australian-born immigrant, who owns FOX, The New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal wants a war. Continue Reading……..

Hope everyone saw Lana on the news last night

The reason WLOX ended up seeking her commentary on the recent activity inside the Bay-Waveland Schools as opposed to some of the loud mouths bloviating on social media is because Lana actually attends School Board meetings such as the one held this past Monday. For those that missed it the video from last night’s 10:00PM WLOX newscast is embedded below:

WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi

Was Assistant Superintendent Kristen Ladner really supervising the business manager like former Board President Mike Bell claimed? Ladner, who oversees special education, has no background in finance so such an arrangement, unique among Mississippi public school districts, would certainly raise the eyebrows of people that know better but if Ladner were really the CFO answering to the Superintendent like Mr. Bell claimed, wouldn’t she be presenting the cash balances and the claims docket to Vikki Landry?

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Bullshit Chinese firewalls may sound good to $435/hour hired guns but it certainly didn’t pass muster with the locals.