Sun Herald sues Pickering, DMR

The Sun Herald filed suit yesterday against Auditor Stacey Pickering and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources in an effort to view public documents DMR claims Pickering's office took.

The Sun Herald is trying to shed light on the deals Pickering is making on behalf of DMR and Bill Walker to settle debts incurred due to the presumed mismanagement of DMR funds. You know - they want some sunshine and transparency. Apparently, these debts are being settled at a fraction of the $1M+ that is owed, allowing Walker, at this point, to walk free.

But, if you've been following Slabbed or coverage from The Sun Herald, the web is a lot more tangled. Part of what's going on at DMR included an audit by Horne CPA and Nicholson & Company (brought by new DMR director Jamie Miller with backing by Pickering), which, as a bonus included public relations performed by Frontier Gulf Cost - yes - that's the same Frontier group in Jackson that does all the political ads, etc. They were responsible for communicating Horne's work.

According to Slabbed, Joe Cloyd is part owner of Frontier Gulf Coast. Who's Joe Cloyd? The man who hosted a fundraiser for Pickering a few weeks ago. This was after Horne's 60-day audit concluded. Coincidentally, or maybe not, Cloyd lives next door to Bill Walker.

Apparently very little is being communicated by anyone, and The Sun Herald is determined to get to the truth.

"Wound Licking" and "Soul Searching" - The Sun Herald's coverage of Blue Tuesday

Check out what the Political Editor for the Sun Herald, Michael Newsom, had to say about Blue Tuesday today.

Newsom fuses the terrible Tuesday for the Mississippi Republican Party, which includes Governor Bryant's insistence that women in the workplace contributed to mediocrity in public education, with the failure to elect municipal leaders across the state. Some takeaways:

The Republican Party was licking its wounds late Tuesday night...the results were really ugly for the GOP in races the party had targeted.

Relating to Mayor Moran's re-election:

There never was a solid backing for McKay from the business community and the GOP base there. Also, the push to make party affiliation a major factor for municipal voters still hasn't caught on. Moran ran a good campaign and effectively sold the city's accomplishments under her watch.

 Continuing:

On election night, McKay was clobbered, coming in 25 percentage points behind Moran.

Now, he and his party begin the worn-out TV news political cliché -- the time of soul searching.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/06/08/4719749/michael-newsom-from-moms-to-mayors.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/06/08/4719749/michael-newsom-from-moms-to-mayors.html#storylinkRead more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/06/08/4719749/michael-newsom-from-moms-to-mayors.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/06/08/4719749/michael-newsom-from-moms-to-mayors.html#storylink=cpy

Newsom suggested that the Republican Party's only win was beating independent, disgraced former Republican Greg Davis, and reminded Cottonmouth readers of what they may already know:

 The Mississippi Republican Party is in disarray.  And The Mississippi Democratic Party is capitalizing on that opportunity.

Sun-Herald to PERS Study Commission: Release your recommendations prior to November 8

The Sun-Herald ran an editorial yesterday calling for the release of the PERS Study Commission's legislative recommendations prior to the November 8 elections.  Here's some of it:

The best defense of the commission, and the easiest way to quiet its critics, is for the governor to direct Mayor Schloegel to immediately release, if not the commission’s detailed findings, at least a summary of its recommendations.

That's pretty strong, coming from Commission head George Schloegel's hometown paper.

Geoff Pender's interesting Sunday article

Geoff Pender penned an excellent article for Sunday's Sun Herald. He goes in depth on "electioneering" and our state's non-existent laws covering it. I highly recommend the article, and hope it leads to some reforms in this area.