Who is subsidizing the Leonard Bentz PSC election campaign?

LEONARD BENTZ

From Better Mississippi Report:

Nothing like having the luxury of a taxpayer-funded tour around the district during the last week of a campaign to keep a candidate in the public eye. Just ask incumbent Public Service Commissioner Leonard Bentz.

Bentz announced today a series of “ratepayer forums,” where Bentz and his staff will meet with voters, er ratepayers, “to assist Mississippi Ratepayers with their utility concerns in the continuation of the series of Ratepayers’ Forums. Information on registration for several utility assistance programs such as LIHEAP, Lifeline/LinkUp, Weatherization assistance, Zap the Gap and the No-Call program will be available. Other utility questions and current issues involving the Public Service Commission will also be addressed.”

House Democrat – not Phil Bryant – created sales tax holiday

PHIL BRYANT

As Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Bryant swings across the state taking credit for this weekend’s sales tax holiday, Better Mississippi Report wants to set the record straight.

Other than serving as president of the state Senate, Bryant had NOTHING to do with the legislation.

State Rep. Percy Watson, a Democrat from Hattiesburg and chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, sponsored the sales tax holiday legislation. He and other Democratic Party leaders in the House are the reason this passed and became law.

The debt ceiling -- Tupelo's Reed makes sense

We think it's safe to say that everybody in the world within earshot of a television, radio or podcast, understands the United States is on the brink of defaulting on its debts.  A little-known process called "raising the debt ceiling," a necessary step in preventing an economic collapse with world-wide implications -- something referred to by the previous administration who avoided catastrophe seven times by employing it as "housekeeping," has suddenly become a part of the common vernacular.  Kind of like "balanced budget" and "election promises."

We ran across a column by Tupelo's Scott Reed in Sunday's Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, that was one of the most cogent discussions of the importance of this issue we've seen to date.  Mr. Reed breaks it down in terms everyone can understand.  We particularly note his closing paragraphs:

Raising the debt ceiling was what we have to do to pay our debts and the ramification of not paying our debts is unthinkable.

We are considered the safest investment in the world. If we give the world markets a reason to question that safety, then we will be sailing into uncharted and unsafe waters.

Bernanke said that we have spent years spending money with no plan for paying it back and then we say we will never raise taxes or decrease benefits. Then we complain about raising the debt ceiling.

Does any of that make sense?

The reason the two party system has done so well over the years is that it forces us to compromise on major issues.

One party can’t have it all, but it tends to fall apart when there is no compromise. That is what we seem to have in Washington these days.

The Republicans refuse to raise taxes and the Democrats refuse to cut services, yet we know that we have too little money and too many services.

One of the best things you can do for your investments is to tell your Congressmen and women that we are past the point of good sound bites and we need real change to the system. That will take willingness to compromise and a desire to do what is right for this country.

Not easy, but necessary.
Read more: NEMS360.com - SCOTT REED We need real change to our system

 

Scott Reed is CEO of Hardy Reed Capital Advisors in Tupelo.

Mann V. Ford to air July 18 on HBO

As part of its summer documentary series, HBO is set to air Mann V. Ford on Monday night, July 18, at 8:00 p.m. 



Attorney Vicki L. Gilliam of Clinton



Featuring Clinton lawyer Vicki L. Gilliam, plaintiffs attorney, the movie follows the saga of the Ramapough Mountain Indians seeking justice for the environmental disaster they suffered from toxic paint sludge left by a Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant.  Posting in The New York Observer, one attendee of the production's New York premiere last week had this to say:

Isis: I was at a premiere for this documentary -- heartbreaking and horrific. First heard about this story through The Record newspaper's Toxic Legacy series, which is now continuing under the name Toxic Landscape and covers many of the sites, including Ringwood, in NJ. So glad the Ramapough's story is getting out there.

Here's the review summary from the July 16 New York Times.

A community's mission to clean up the toxic byproduct of the American Dream, and to seek justice for themselves and their families. Located just 19 miles from New York City is one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States. This toxic site is the former home of the Ford Motor Plant in Mahwah, NJ, which was the country's largest car factory when it opened in 1955. Thousands of cars were produced there over several decades, along with a mountain of toxic paint sludge, which was dumped on the land of the Ramapough Mountain Indians. Here, we meet Wayne Mann, the leader of a small Native American community, who stands up to Ford and whose efforts resulted in the first Superfund site ever re-listed by the EPA. ~ Baseline StudioSystems

Mann V. Ford marks the second documentary of the HBO summer series to portray a Mississippian in the struggle for civil justice -- Hot Coffee, aired in June, recounts the struggles of former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz against the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the United States Justice Department.

Pulling curtain on tort reform, appropriations chair controversy

REP. JOHN MAYO

By BETTER MISSISSIPPI REPORT

Gotta hand it to Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale. The guy makes a special effort to keep his constitutents informed via regular, newsy e-mail posts. Occasionally, he'll say the unthinkable for a politician -- a truthful assessment of a sticky situation.

Today's post is another example of Mayo's propensity for, as they say, venturing in where angels fear to tread. He reveals the role legislative rhetoric played in dismantling the Mississippi civil justice system as he takes up for Republican Sen. Doug Davis, whose performance as Senate Appropriations chair is being challenged. 

Here is Rep. Mayo's revelation about what was going on behind the scenes during the great tort reform battles of 2002 and 2004: 

In the legislature there is rhetoric and then there is responsible discussion.  Case in point.  During the big tort reform debate, I wish I could tell you the number of Republican attorneys who came up to myself and other Democrats quietly telling us they hoped we had the votes to turn back reform.  All the while they were at the podium and in the papers telling the public just how much they supported tort reform.

Justice Court Judges -- Is a Bar license necessary?

By BETTER MISSISSIPPI REPORT

This week's Jackson Free Press highlights the Justice Court Judge candidacy of Micah Dutro, a Jackson lawyer who is running for the Hinds County District 1 post.  The opponent, first-term incumbent Don Palmer, brought 10 years of experience as an assistant justice court clerk to the job. He is not a lawyer.

It is not at all unusual to see reports of Justice Court Judges being admonished by the higher courts for actions unbecoming. As Dutro points out in the article, many problematic justice court decisions wind up in the chain of appellate courts, adding additional burden to already overbooked court dockets.

On the flip side, Palmer maintains that his experience as a clerk in the venue qualifies him for the post that was first created almost as a neighborhood convenience during early statehood.  As such, it is truly a people's court, legal missteps notwithstanding.

Better Mississippi Report will be interested to see what the voters think in the August 2 Democratic primary.  There's a Republican who's also a non-lawyer waiting in the wings.

Better Mississippi Group questions Phil Bryant e-mails to teachers

LT. GOV. PHIL BRYANT

By BETTER MISSISSIPPI REPORT

JACKSON – Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Bryant’s weekly campaign e-mails have appeared unsolicited in teachers’ in-boxes across the Rankin County Public School system, according to documents obtained by Better Mississippi Group.

Better Mississippi Group questions whether a candidate for political office – in this case, a sitting lieutenant governor who is running for the open governor’s seat – should mine public schools’ e-mail rosters as a forum for political correspondence.

Bryant faces Coast businessman Dave Dennis and three other candidates in the Aug. 2 GOP primary. The winner will advance to the November general election, where he will face the Democratic nominee.

Better Mississippi Group is not charging that Bryant and his campaign have misused public funds. We do, however, believe that Bryant and his campaign’s decision to co-opt taxpayer-funded e-mail inboxes raises serious ethical questions.