Jackson Free Press

Salon is reporting that Gov. Haley Barbour has gotten HUD waivers that have redirected 80 percent of federal block grants awarded to help Mississippi's low- and moderate-income residents recover from Katrina—and media have ignored it, a national media watchdog group is charging. From Salon:

The official story is that Mississippi is back, thanks to nearly $24 billion in federal aid negotiated by Barbour, a former Washington lobbyist. The federal funds, he claims, have benefited all citizens in the stricken area and allowed most people who lost their homes to rebuild. ... The $23.5 billion in federal funding that Mississippi's governor and its two Republican senators managed to obtain was unprecedented in scope for a state recovering from a natural disaster. But the distribution of the $4 billion the state obtained specifically to help residents rebuild their housing, thanks to Barbour, has been badly skewed toward wealthy homeowners.

Under the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant program, 70 percent of the funds are supposed to be allocated to low- and moderate-income people. But the governor successfully lobbied to waive that requirement, undercutting its impact on Katrina survivors. As a result, only 25 percent of the money has reached the poorer segments of the population. Renters, who make up 40 percent of the population in some sections of the coast, have received nothing. "Only a minuscule fraction has actually gotten into the hands of those that need it most," said Morse.

Read report is here.

Previous Comments

ID

114319

Comment

Who is surprised at this? Even when it comes to disaster relief, they believe in trickle down economics. As sorry as Democrats can be at times, Republicans are proving to be a sinister breed.

Author

Goldenae

Date

2007-08-31T11:07:30-06:00

ID

114320

Comment

OMG!!! How long will the MS media continue to protect this man? Will true sentiments come out at the polls in November? Let's just hope the angry waves of retribution from hurting voters wash Barbour out into the gulf along with George Dale come November. There probably won't be many blogger comments on this hot, Salon item. It appears some folks just don't want anything negative (even the truth) said or reported about this state's beloved, popular, getting the job done down on the coast governor. Thank you Donna. You and JFP are our Tenacious, Truth Warriors!

Author

blu_n_a_redstate

Date

2007-08-31T11:13:42-06:00

ID

114321

Comment

The Clarion-Ledger followed up this Salon story from last week in today's paper. Except, of course, they left out the stuff about Barbour. By the way, it's interesting to see the Ledger admit that they gave a source questions in e-mail—a big journalistic no-no. The question I would ask is why in the world they would go along with such a request, especially of a government agency. The agency is under fire; make them talk to you in a real interview where they can't pass around the questions and shape their answers so carefully. They are accountable to us. And now by putting it in the story, other people will demand questions in e-mail. Follow our lead: Just say no and do the damn story. Do the story right, and they'll talk. Bad media practices in this market make our job harder. People actually tell us that other reporters let them read their stories, interview them in e-mail (the Ledger has interviewed ME in e-mail!) and so on. It's journalisic worst practices, and it lowers the level of information that citizens get from the Fourth Estate. They should know better.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-09-05T08:56:30-06:00

ID

114322

Comment

Also, where is a link to the report and to the verbatim e-mail answers that the MDA chick sent? And why can't readers comment on this story?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-09-05T08:58:10-06:00