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19 Feb, 10 tweets, 5 min read
NEW: Moss Point Mayor Mario King & his wife Natasha told contributors for the 2019 "Mayor's Gala" that proceeds would support a mental health program for K-12 students.

Prosecutors say they used the money to buy a Volvo & pay off personal debt instead. 1/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The Kings plan to plead guilty to at least one charge each on Feb. 24. But Mayor King has signaled no plans to resign despite facing 14 federal charges and up to 20 years. His term ends in June.

An alderman is calling for him to "immediately" resign. 2/
mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The Kings told gala attendees that their contributions would “support the efforts of mental health in the City of Moss Point with a focus on the Moss Point School District, converting spaces into a therapeutic and innovative learning environment." 3/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
None of the money ever made its way to the school or to mental health programs, prosecutors say.

The Kings created Rejuvenate LLC in 2018 and set up an LLC bank account where they deposited or transferred the donations for the mental health program. 4/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The indictment says: "On April 8, 2019, defendant, Natasha R. King, used a debit card on the Rejuvenate LLC bank account and the funds solicited for the Gala to make a $2,000 down payment on a Cadillac XTC with CarMax," but returned the car on Apr. 20. 5/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
After CarMax sent her a $2k refund for the down payment, the indictment says, she deposited it in the couple’s personal bank account.

On May 12, the document says, Natasha King used $3,000 of proceeds from the Gala for a $3,700 down payment on a Volvo. 6/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The charges say the couple also used the funds from the gala to pay off $745 in credit card debt which the couple had used “for the purchase of a Biewer Terrier.” 7/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
Voters will select nominees for Moss Point mayor on April 6, with absentee voting starting on Monday. The general election is on June 8. The same dates apply for the year's municipal elections in other cities and towns across the state. 8/
mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
If you'd like to support journalism that holds power to account on a cross partisan basis, please follow us @MSFreePress and consider a one-time or recurring donation to help us keep publishing and grow our work at mfp.ms/donate. Thanks for your support. 💜
For excellent local journalism on the Moss Point mayor story, read @sunherald's reporting, including today's report from @margar45: amp.sunherald.com/news/local/cri…

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Ashton Pittman Profile picture
19 Feb
NEW: After Marc Davis, a Black man, called 911 to report he'd been in a car crash, a responding police officer shot Davis three times, killing him.

Petal's Chamber of Commerce just declared that officer, Aaron Jernigan, Petal's "2020 Officer of the Year." mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Petal Mayor Hal Marx is a director with the Petal Chamber of Commerce that gave Officer Jernigan the award.

Last year, Marx drew hundreds of #BlackLivesMatter protesters after mocking George Floyd's death: “If you say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing." mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Petal Mayor Hal Marx's remarks about George Floyd and the claim that George Floyd died of an overdose drew renewed attention to Marc Davis' death.

State investigators and a federal judge ruled the shooting "justified," but Davis' family challenged that. mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Read 14 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
18 Feb
Later, we'll probably hear some contrived excuse like, "He was just accompanying his family to see them off safely and always intended to return."

But the long silence and failure to communicate that sooner will refute that.
Well, call me Miss Cleo and lay down a Benjamin. (h/t: @CCarter520) Image
A statement from the senator:
"With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, so flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon."

His return flight was originally for Saturday; it changed this morning. Image
Read 5 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
16 Feb
NEW: U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker voted for more than $3.6 trillion in stimulus spending under Trump last year.

But he says he'll vote 'No' on Biden's stimulus because it “would add to the mountain of debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay.” mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
In 2009, Sen. Roger Wicker cited concerns about the debt as he voted against Obama's stimulus $830billion stimulus, calling it "the most expensive piece of legislation in the history of our republic.”

Under Trump, he voted for the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
Since he joined the U.S. Senate, @SenatorWicker has twice voted against stimulus bills when under Democratic presidents, calling them "Spending Bills," and twice voted for stimulus bills under a Republican president—Trump—calling them "relief packages." mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
Read 9 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
10 Feb
NEW: University of Mississippi Police are pursuing a criminal investigation into Ole Miss Information, the anonymous whistleblowers who tipped @MSFreePress off about racist emails between UM officials and prospective wealthy donors. #UMEmails mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
The emails revealed how, even as University of Mississippi officials condemned racism publicly, they privately catered to and coddled donors like the one who referred to Black students as "African hookers" or using ape emojis to describe Black women. mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
Now, the UM Emails whistleblowers, who obtained the emails following an official and legal public records request, are facing a criminal investigation as officials and some faculty members accuse them of "creating a hostile work environment."mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
Read 13 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
9 Feb
Just help set 4 up with vaccine appointments. If you know anyone who needs them, esp if they don't have access to or skill to use technology or just might not know when appointments are available, give them a call NOW and help them set up an appointment: covidvaccine.umc.edu
Appointments are going QUICKLY and there likely won't be many if any left an hour from now, so get on it! covidvaccine.umc.edu
Remember, the more people you can help get COVID-19 vaccine appointments and get the shot in the arm, the closer we all will get to herd immunity and ending this pandemic.

So if you need a selfish motivator, there's that, too! covidvaccine.umc.edu
Read 5 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
8 Feb
When a politician's main talking points are some variation of:
-"I'm a true _______" (conservative/progressive)
or
-"I'm committed to _______ principles/ideas"

then they aren't looking for solutions to fit your problems; they're trying to make your problems fit their sortions.
And that can either be because they're an ideologue or because they believe the people who vote for them are ideologies and they're essentially "virtue signaling" to that crowd.

Either way, such people aren't about problem solving. They're about furthering their ideology.
Because if they were about problem solving, they wouldn't have to invoke ideology or promise to uphold it; they'd just craft the best solutions based on the problem, and hey, maybe one ideology fits the problem! Maybe it's a combination. Or no ideology. Who cares? Solve problems!
Read 4 tweets

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