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News of the alleged public embezzlement scheme within Mississippi’s TANF program, or welfare, explains so much about the secrecy reporters have faced in trying to report on the agency. Here’s what happened when I tried to request TANF records in 2017: scribd.com/document/38582…

The ethics commission eventually sided with the newspaper: scribd.com/document/39818…

@MS_DHS

@MS_DHS

The program attracted national attention earlier that year after @MS_DHS reported approving just 1.4 percent of applicants for welfare (the agency promptly stopped publishing the stat in its annual reports after that). thinkprogress.org/mississippi-re…

I published a story with the partial headline, “Why is the state so secretive about how it manages welfare funds?” almost exactly a year ago.

Don’t wonder. No more wondering.
mississippitoday.org/2019/01/28/mis…

I’ll never forget catching Dir. Davis—a rare moment—after the little-known SLDS meeting last May. When I asked why it was so much trouble to get the kind of data I was seeking about how DHS helps poor folks, he assured me, “I want exactly what you want.”
mississippitoday.org/2019/05/14/sta…

“Families First for Mississippi, the administrator of the gen+ plan, compiles many output measurements — how many people participated in and completed GEDs, parenting classes, etc. But it does not say whether its efforts resulted in people finding a job or a livable wage.”

Here’s something else we do with TANF money: mississippitoday.org/2019/04/24/wel…

Because of federal leeway, there’s little stopping states from spending TANF however they want — like on marriage classes for middle-class newly weds (slate.com/articles/news_…) — but what’s playing out in Mississippi is something so different and truly mind boggling.

In one of the poorest states in the country, officials tasked with using the few federal dollars we get to address our massive poverty problem have allegedly stolen (not misappropriated or mismanaged—stolen) millions to enrich themselves and their friends. mississippitoday.org/2020/02/05/for…

So I’m thinking about Marty (clarionledger.com/story/news/pol…), Josef (mississippitoday.org/2019/05/21/wag…), Dolecia (clarionledger.com/story/news/pol…), Annita (mississippitoday.org/2020/01/09/res…) and others often treated as if they aren't worthy of the help, all while DHS allegedly funneled it away to the already rich.