Tombigbee Tales
A Podcast about Columbus, Mississippi - Its scandals, eccentric people, and our version of Southern Hospitality...which ain’t always so hospitable. Pull up and let me tell you about Mama and them. Bring you some tea because we are going to sit here a spell and catch up.
Episodes
Unravel the financial irregularities in this community housing organization. Let's take a deep dive into the financial transparency, or lack thereof, and the organizational accountability that is missing at the Columbus Housing Authority. From single and rubber-stamped signatures to initialed checks with no invoice or purchase order numbers...the financial mess at both the Non-profit CCHDO and the CHA is appalling.
This comprehensive investigative report exposes deep-seated governance challenges within the Columbus Housing Authority (CHA), revealing a complex network of potential systemic failures that compromise organizational integrity, financial accountability, and public trust.
We're uncovering a peculiar board member who appears to be a long-standing fixture in the organization. Appointed under a previous administration, Greta Gardner se...
Today we examine the Mississippi Ethics Commission rules related public access to public records information and how the Columbus Housing Authority Executive Director and Board Attorney are in non-compliance.
The housing authority uses federal grants or gifts to help pay the housing cost of its customers. Federal money is given to the housing authority to cover all the normal costs of maintaining a place to live. As a result, the housing authority must comply with state and federal bidding rules on purchasing.
The laws are really clear, and they're easy to comply with if an agency chooses to follow them. Is the Columbus Housing Authori...
My most recent FOIA request has been described as requiring 160 hours of work and cositn over $7000 to complete. What hogwash! Is nothing in the CHA digitized?
What started with looking into a truck that CHA purchased and got scammed on has made me look more carefully at how they conduct their business. It makes me question a lot of things they do and makes me wonder who else is scamming them. Follow along as I explore their ledgers.
It would appear that most of the service providers to the Columbus Housing Authority are from out of town, adding to the cost of their services. Was the Cook Pest Control account ever put out for bid? Is it rebid each year? Why does the Columbus Housing Authority have a huge bedbug problem that shows up each month in one and only one unit at varying amounts for treatment?
Since October 13th, 2023, Executive Director Robert Grathree has spent $52,000 on conference travel and per diem.
In that same period, over $100,000 has been charged to the Columbus Housing Authority's credit card. None of that is spent on resident housing improvements, and none of that is spent on bills. All of those invoices and all residency work are paid for by checks. What is this credit card used for? What have they spent o...
Looking through the board minutes on the truck and the scammer, I found other anomalies that caught my eye…big dollar anomalies and still no mention of the scam. Interesting!
My recent FOIA request related to the Columbus Housing Authority (CHA) Truck and the 60K scam has raised even more questions about the activities of the director and board at CHA.
Tonight, I am going to tell you a story that was told to me by people in positions of authority with the Columbus Housing Authority…a strange, convoluted story…and then I will read you three emails I was handed in a meeting. I should have much more on Friday as a result of a FOIA request and a couple of hundred dollars to get said public documents…but here is the story. Bear with me as I may struggle to keep it all straight—it is a...
Wales Land embodied the archetypal small farmer - hardworking, unassuming, and deeply rooted in the agricultural traditions of the American South. He farmed with his father and the sharecroppers who worked the land beside them. The Great Depression and the Prohibition era had transformed quiet rural communities into complex battlegrounds of legal enforcement, social tension, and economic survival. This is the setting of how three f...
City Councilman and Mayoral Candidate Stephen Jones answers questions generated by Columbus, MS, citizens.
Columbus Mayoral Candidate Darren Leach answered questions generated by Tombigbee Tales followers living or owning businesses in Columbus, MS, city limits.
This episode is a continuation of my series about the Columbus Housing Authority and my pursuit of public information.
Let me give you a little context about public accountability. In an era of increasing demand for governmental transparency, the pursuit of public information represents a really critical aspect of civic engagement. The narrative of this podcast explores the complex interactions between me and the Columbus Housing ...
The Columbus Housing Authority (CHA), a critical public service organization responsible for managing affordable housing and community development, is at the center of a potentially significant procurement scandal. This investigation delves into a truck purchase's intricate details that expose potential systemic vulnerabilities in public sector financial management. Don't Worry! Tombigbee Tales is ON the Case!
The post-Reconstruction era in Mississippi represented a complex tapestry of economic manipulation and racial subjugation. Sharecropping emerged not as an opportunity for economic mobility, but as a sophisticated system of continued economic bondage for recently freed African Americans.
In this environment, labor agent D. H. Smith began recruiting farm laborers to move to Arkansas. Smith, a Black man from Forrest City, Arkansas, is...
In a departure from history and current events, I interviewed my friend Mario Ruiz, a competitive sport fisherman. Come learn about his sport and how he is using it to shift the mindset of fishing in the Pacific waters of Mexico! Follow them on Facebook Team Tex Mex
Follow them on Instagram at Team Tex Mex
Our story centers on Nancy Carpenter, CEO of the CCHF, and a web of financial allegations that raise serious questions about grant management and public accountability based on a recent Memorandum of Agreement between the city of Columbus and the Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation.
By 1884, Artesia was a boomtown. It sat on the M&O Railroad and was a busy center for business. Mississippi was a bit of a wild frontier in many ways, and Artesia embraced that image fully. It was known for all its saloons and the blind eye the town fathers appeared to turn to the rules of Prohibition. The Prohibition Presidential Platform was ignored, and the Anti-Saloon League and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union were n...
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