State Auditor's office sends a response team to Madison County to look at Warnock and Associates Contracts

The Flora Harvester has been informed that State Auditor Stacey Pickering's office has dispatched a team of 6 auditors as part of the offices Audit Response Team to Madison County today. The team is reportedly looking into contracts the county has with Warnock and Associates Engineering.

Warnock has been under fire from elected officials Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and Supervisor D.I. Smith, as well as a chorus of county residents turned activists. All have been calling for an audit from the state to uncover what they believe to be a fiscally irresponsible arrangement between Warnock and three of the five Supervisors. Efforts to release subcontracts Warnock says were approved by the Board of Supervisors have met with stiff resistance from Supervisor's Tim Johnson, Karl Banks and Paul Griffin, while being supported by Supervisor's John Bell Crosby and the aforementioned Smith.

In a point by point rebuttal to Mayor Hawkins-Butler's commissioned review of engineering fees and practice, and published on Jackson Jambalya, Warnock denied any wrongdoing stating, "all subcontracts is furnished to the Madison County Board of Supervisors, which votes on them in open board meetings."

Warnock's attorney Dorsey Carson supplied the rebuttal with 31 pages of other documents to the local blogger, but only once touched on the issue of subcontracts. No subcontracts were actually produced or shared by Warnock.

The Flora Harvester has also received information from an informant close to the engineering firm that Warnock, fresh off a recent trip to the Bahamas, was recently heard discussing a planned trip to Paris at an event to celebrate the opening of Calhoun Station Parkway. Records show that Warnock's firm charged the county $150,000 for environmental engineering fees for Calhoun Station Parkway Phase II and $176,800 for Calhoun Station Parkway Phase III.

Related Posts: Madison County Supervisor Asks For Audit Of Engineering Fees . . . Again.
"To Audit Or Not to Audit?" That is the question
Madison County Journal--Report questions engineering fees.
WLBT Report--Madison Mayor questions county engineering fees

Ole Miss investiture services shows universities new leader is ready for the school to become the state's premier "LIBERAL" arts college.

Although I was not in attendance, the word is that Dan Jones official investiture service and the events surrounding it were very left leaning in tone. That lean included a speech by Jones that returned to diversity time and again, and a need to expand new efforts (read programs) to help poor and underpriviledged attend Ole Miss. I thought we already had that in the Pell Grant program. One that, incidentally, was just recently expanded upon by government legislation that took over the entire student loan system and signed by President Obama. If a person wants a quality education, the resources are there to get it.

Reportedly the speech was filled with references to more open borders, and addressing "disparities." That wonderful of code words that really means redistribution. Don't tell me about the "have's" and "have nots" without attempting to address the "work's" and "work not's", the "try's" and "try not's", and the "do's" and the "do not's." There should be diversity in the workplace. But, the first requirement is that a person be qualified to do the job, and actually want to work.

The private prayer service at Paris-Yates Chapel was also reportedly a "diverse" event, allowing for a Muslim chant in edition to Christian prayers. My, how far we have come . . . or fallen?

I do not care today, tomorrow or ever to be so all inclusive that we forget the Muslim Religion is based on the Koran that teaches those who do not agree with it must die. Period.


From NEMS 360:

OXFORD - Dan Jones quoted Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He spoke about his own experiences in China, Russia and Iran. And he acknowledged the presence of the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, who was among the many guests at Friday's ceremony.

As Jones stood at the lectern in the Gertrude C. Ford Center at his investiture as the University of Mississippi's 16th Chancellor in 162 years, he spoke about a vision that reached far beyond Oxford.

"We are a public university in Mississippi and we need to focus on the needs around us, but we also need to focus on what the needs of our world are," Jones said after delivering his speech.

Reflecting the state of the current economy, the ceremony was restrained in pomp. While Jones spoke on stage, all the lights in the building were dimmed and a single spotlight shone on the university's new leader. A bouquet of flowers sat on the floor in front of him.

"We should be less concerned about the general state of the economy than about the growing disparity between those who have and those who have not," Jones said during his speech.

"And I need not remind this audience that to see some of the starkest examples of these disparities, we need only look at our own doorstep."

Among the guests at the ceremony were U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, former Govs. William Winter and Ronnie Musgrove, current Gov. Haley Barbour and the university's previous chancellor, Robert Khayat.

Initially, it will be small townsfolk who will be "going Postal"

The Postal Service needs to make serious cuts. This will be tough on the elderly and poor in rural Mississippi who aren't educated in all this "new fangled" computer business. But, with a reported $7 billion loss in the fiscal year that ends in September and the potential loss of at least $238 billion in the next decade if Congress fails to act, people will just have to deal with not having service on Saturday. And, if their Post Office closes, they may just have to deal with that to.

We'll all get a lesson in the hypocrisy of small town America as this argument continues. Because, it will be everyone elses Post Office that needs to close to save money. Get ready to hear the statement, "I believe in reducing government spending, BUT . . ."

From the Washington Post:



GAO: Postal Service business 'not viable'

The U.S. Postal Service's current business model "is not viable" and the mail agency should make deeper job and wage cuts, hire more part-time staff and consider outsourcing operations, according to a draft of a government audit acquired by The Federal Eye.

Auditors also urge Congress to remove restrictions on the Postal Service's ability to cut Saturday mail delivery and close post offices, according to the report, which offers recommendations similar to the USPS's own proposed 10-year business plan.

Lawmakers requested the Government Accountability Office report, set for a Monday release, as they prepare to consider the USPS plan, which was introduced last month. The proposals call for an end to six-day delivery and ask Congress to give the mail agency the ability to raise prices beyond the rate of inflation and close post offices if necessary.