Jackson Free Press

All Citizens for Mississippi, the super PAC created by Bishop Ronnie Crudup of New Horizon Church International, bought radio advertisements at Jackson stations WKXI, WJMI, WOAD on June 20 to air June 21-24. The ads encouraged black voters to turn out to the polls in support of Sen. Thad Cochran and suggested Sen. Chris McDaniel, if elected, would hurt race relations in Mississippi.

The super PAC bought 52 radio spots for each of these stations, which cater to black audiences, amounting to $9,825. Bishop Crudup told The Clarion-Ledger he helped raise nearly $200,000 for All Citizens for Mississippi, which was mostly spent on campaign advertisements for Cochran.

Federal law permits super PACs to raise and spend unlimited sums of money, but they cannot give directly to candidates' fundraising committees nor coordinate with campaigns and must report their activities each month or quarter. For any expenditures over $1,000 from June 4 though June 23, including for advertising, Crudup's PAC was also required to file 24-hour reports with the FEC. A search of federal campaign-finance records yields no filings by All Citizens for Mississippi. Federal law requires the PAC to file a report with the FEC by July 15, detailing all donors to the PAC. The paperwork to set up the PAC, signed by Vann, indicated that it was filled out May 30, 2014, and not received and stamped by the FEC on June 6.

The All Citizens for Mississippi ads were placed by the media buying firm, American Media Advocacy Group, which also placed ads at WLBT for the super PAC Mississippi Conservatives, another campaign group in support of Cochran.

Jon Ferrell, a buyer from National Media Research Planning & Placement, bought the ads through American Media Advocacy Group for both Jackson TV and radio stations.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee filed $175,000 with the Federal Elections Commission on June 19 to the payee National Media Research Planning & Placement for the purpose of phone calls and media supporting Cochran; however, we have found no advertisements in Mississippi that are attributed to the NRSC or the media-buying firm they gave money to.

Checks from American Media Advocacy Group, signed by Ferrell, to Jackson’s radio stations show the same address as National Media Research Planning & Placement.

Sales orders for Cochran’s candidate fundraising committee, Citizens for Cochran, were not found in Jackson’s black radio stations' political public files. Citizens for Cochran did advertise in The Clarion-Ledger and distributed doorknob hangers in whiter parts of Jackson.

Calls to National Media were not returned. Read more here.

Jackson, MS – Five Mississippi school districts have joined the fight to recover their share of almost $134 million owed to them by the State of Mississippi under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (“MAEP”).

Greene County, Humphreys County, Leland, North Bolivar and West Bolivar, join Clarksdale, Clay County, Greenville, Hattiesburg, Leake County, Okolona, Prentiss County, Richton, Simpson County, Smith County, Tate County, Wayne County, West Tallahatchie and Wilkinson County in seeking declaratory judgment to restore funding owed to them by the State. Previous release reported Forest Municipal would join legal action. School Board representatives have confirmed they will not.

The new districts will be joined into the same legal action with the original fourteen districts that filed legal claims in Hinds County Chancery Court in August. The districts allege the State of Mississippi has violated its own laws requiring full funding of the MAEP formula as amended in 2006. The law allowed the State a three-year period – 2007 through 2009 – to phase in full funding to the amounts called for by the formula.

The legal action also seeks to require the State to fully fund MAEP at the current formula levels the law requires. The State of Mississippi has failed to fully fund MAEP in every fiscal year since 2010.

As noted previously, under Miss. Code Ann. § 37-151-6, the law clearly reads:

Effective with fiscal year 2007, the Legislature shall fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program.

Under Mississippi law, use of the word “shall” imposes a legal and binding agreement with the people of Mississippi. It is compulsory and provides no room for interpretation by the State. If the court rules that use of the word “shall” is open to interpretation, the State would be unable to make people pay their taxes, prosecute hundreds of crimes, or truly function as a government.

During the most recent legislative session, the State placed over $400 million in its “Rainy Day Fund” while underfunding education by more than $250 million. Filing for declaratory and injunctive relief is the only way for school districts to recover the money that has been kept from them over the past 6 years. These districts are also seeking injunctive relief to require the State resume full funding of MAEP for all districts going forward – not just those that have joined in the lawsuit.

Now that the suit has been filed, school districts that have not already joined the legal action may do so without court permission until the State’s answer is due. The Attorney General must answer on behalf of the State on or before September 29. After filing of the answer, remaining districts may only join after court permission is granted. School districts that fail to file for legal action may lose the right to recover any of the lost revenue.

For additional information, contact George Shelton at (601) 927-3044 or [email protected]. You may also find more information at www.maeppromisecampaign.com or go to www.facebook.com/mississippiadequateeducationpromise.

The following is a verbatim press release from the American Civil Liberties Union.

ATLANTA – The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit challenging debt collection practices that have resulted in the jailing of people simply because they are poor. The case was brought on behalf of Kevin Thompson, a black teenager in DeKalb County, Georgia, who was jailed because he could not afford to pay court fines and probation company fees stemming from a traffic ticket.

"Being poor is not a crime. Yet across the county, the freedom of too many people unfairly rests on their ability to pay traffic fines and fees they cannot afford," said Nusrat Choudhury, an attorney with the ACLU's Racial Justice Program. "We seek to dismantle this two-tiered system of justice that punishes the poorest among us, disproportionately people of color, more harshly than those with means."

The ACLU charges that DeKalb County and for-profit Judicial Correction Services Inc. (JCS) teamed up to engage in a coercive debt collection scheme that focuses on revenue generation at the expense of protecting poor people's rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled more than 30 years ago that locking people up merely because they cannot afford to pay court fines is contrary to American values of fairness and equality embedded in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court made clear that judges cannot jail someone for failure to pay without first considering their ability to pay, efforts to acquire money, and alternatives to incarceration.

No such consideration was given to Thompson, who was locked up for five days because he could not afford to pay $838 in fines and fees to the county and JCS – despite the fact that he tried his best to make payments. The lawsuit charges that Thompson's constitutional rights to an indigency hearing and to counsel were violated by DeKalb County, JCS, and the chief judge of the local court that sentenced him to jail.

"What happened to me, and others like me who try their best to pay fines and fees but fall short, is unfair and wrong," said Thompson. "I hope this lawsuit will help prevent other people from being jailed just because they are poor."

These debt collection practices have had a devastating impact on people of color in the Atlanta metropolitan area. While blacks make up 54 percent of the DeKalb County population, nearly all probationers jailed by the DeKalb County Recorders Court for failure to pay are black – a pattern replicated by other Georgia courts.

"In a country where the racial wealth gap remains stark, the link between driving while black and jailed for being poor has a devastating impact on communities of color," said Choudhury.

The case, Thompson v. DeKalb County, was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. It names DeKalb County, Chief Judge Nelly Withers of the DeKalb County Recorders Court, and Judicial Correction Services Inc. as defendants. Rogers & Hardin LLP, the ACLU of Georgia, and Southern Center for …

The Secretary of State posted a new initiative to its website that reads:

Initiative #46 would amend the Constitution to restrict or define Mississippi’s heritage in the following areas: religion, official language, state flag, nickname, song, motto and state university mascots. Further, the initiative would prevent the consolidation of Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi University for Women, and Mississippi Valley State University, designate the month of April “Confederate Heritage Month,” and reinstate Mississippi’s Constitutional boundaries.

The initiative was filed by Arthur Randallson, Magnolia State Heritage Campaign Director and former Tea Party of Mississippi Chairman. Randallson also previously proposed an initiative to amend the constitution to designate Colonel Reb the official mascot of the University of Mississippi.

Some say his current initiative is a way to declare Christianity the official religion of Mississippi. This pretty clearly violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, so it doesn't seem that the initiative would pass tests of constitutionality. Either way, the amendment proposal won't appear on the ballot in 2015 unless the group gets 107,216 certified signatures.

Lawmakers cautioned the audience at the Mississippi Association of Educators event Friday about the state’s attack against the public school system.

“And it’s not an assault without significant resources. They’re sincere in their efforts to do what they can to undermine the efforts of public educators,” said Rep. Kevin Horan, D-Grenada.

MAE awarded Horan the “Humanized Education” award alongside Pastor Marcus Dudley for both men’s work supporting public education and setting an example to others in their communities.

The group of educators also gave Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, the “Friend of Education” award for the years he’s spent fighting for public education in the Legislature. Brown served as the House Education Committee chairman for seven years.

Brown urged educators and advocates to become more active in supporting candidates who believe in the public school system.

“I’m sorry you don’t like (politics), but that’s just the way it is,” Brown said. He added that turning the state around in regards to education must happen through state government and through elected officials. “Elections matter,” he said. “We don’t govern you. You govern us.”

Brown is running for Public Service Commission this year. Horan said he hopes to live up to Brown’s legacy by continuing to advocate for public education during his service in the Legislature.

“Being in favor of quality public education just comes second nature, because that’s the way I was raised, and unfortunately people who are policy makers in this state just don’t feel that way,” Horan said.

MAE also recognized achievement in educator associations across the state in several categories. The group honored Jackson Association of Educators for its instructional and professional development, its system for filing grievances, and its support of political candidates.

Two education students who have the intent to teach in Mississippi, Miranda Williams and Trenton Miller, received $1,000 scholarships.

“Justice has no timetable,” said State Sen. Chris McDaniel throughout the course of his challenge to U.S. Senate run-off election results against Sen. Thad Cochran. In the past two months, McDaniel has complained relentlessly about Mississippi’s election process, the one he has a hand in regulating as chairman of the Mississippi Senate Elections Committee.

From the beginning, the McDaniel camp tried to make the claim that so many “bad” votes were cast in the June 24 runoff between their guy and Cochran, that not only did they want Cochran’s win reversed, but they wanted McDaniel named the winner.

They made the claim that the use of election poll books was intentionally screwed up to skew the vote. When Pete Perry, Hinds County GOP Chairman, said that poll workers only found about one-fifth of the votes claimed to be invalid in Hinds County, the McDaniel camp said otherwise.

They compiled a binder of “evidence.”

The McDaniel camp blamed racial messaging. They blamed Democrats.

At more bizarre times, they involved a California blogger in the madness and even named their own lawyer as one of those “bad” votes. When the attorney general’s office launched an investigation into the shady election happenings, the camp’s spokesman was named in said blogger’s subpoena (which ended up on Twitter).

The validity of the challenge was further challenged when the Republican Party refused to hear the case.

Then, when the challenge finally reached the courts, it was shut down before things could get even sillier. Justice may have no timetable in the eyes of McDaniel, but today the presiding judge dismissed the case because he took too long to file.

Of course, McDaniel could always appeal. After reporting on the developments of this story in the last few months, believe us, we’ll be expecting it.

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