Mississippi

MS Auditor: State-level DOGEs could find millions in waste

Published

10 months ago

May 6, 2025

Press Room

MS Auditor: State-level DOGEs could find millions in waste

Shad White
| Special to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger

Mississippi’s State Auditor, Shad White, highlights examples of government waste in Mississippi, echoing the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s mission.
Millions of taxpayer dollars are allegedly wasted on Medicaid coverage for deceased individuals and ineligible recipients, including a wealthy couple living in a million-dollar home.
Additional examples of waste include unused state-issued cell phones, overpriced TV screens, and extravagant spending on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

Americans spent four years watching Joe Biden throw billions of dollars down the drain and give out tax dollars like candy to all of his left-wing activist buddies.

Compare that to the historic leadership President Trump has displayed with his creation of the Department of Government Efficiency. We finally have a president who makes an effort to save trillions instead of lighting it on fire.

DOGE is a benefit because it’s not only doing real work to make our federal government more efficient, but it’s also inspiring state government officials around the country to start state-level DOGE efforts.

I have the privilege to serve as Mississippi’s State Auditor, and we have spent the last few years finding similar sorts of examples of waste in state government. We even jokingly started calling ourselves MOGE (the Mississippi Office of Government Efficiency) and have released an 800-page MOGE report with tons of detail on how state taxpayer money is going down the drain.

For example, in Mississippi’s Medicaid program, we found the state paid over $600,000 in a year to cover dead folks who were still on the program rolls.

We also found that in any given year, anywhere from 5-7% of people on Medicaid appear to be making too much money to be eligible for the program. That costs taxpayers anywhere from $60-$144 million in wasted funds, depending on the year. And the specific examples of what we found were insane: one couple was living in a 7,000 square foot home valued at over $1 million, and Mississippians were paying for their healthcare via Medicaid.

The Medicaid number is large, but we find smaller examples of waste that add up over time. Mississippi spends about $340,000 every year on cell phones for state employees that are never turned on. State agencies here entered into IT contracts to pay $5,800 each for TV screens (while the federal government bought the exact same TV screens for $2,200). Politicians use the state plane to fly to out-of-state baseball games.

Another area I’ve been excited to see DOGE look into is the massive amount of tax dollars being spent on DEI across our government. Here in Mississippi, my office found that over a four-year period, Mississippi universities spent over $23 million on DEI programs. One university has 20 DEI staffers.

Their head DEI staffer makes more than the governor and the lieutenant governor of Mississippi combined. And when asked what they did with all this money and manpower, that DEI office produced a document showing one of their accomplishments was handing out a grant to study equity-based social justice yoga for preschoolers (it sounds fake, I know).

We’ve found state taxpayer money going to purchase books for public libraries that teach kids that “whiteness is a bad deal.” We have taxpayer funding for left-wing degree programs in universities that teach classes like “Gender and Zombies.” We see grant money going to non-profits for community gardens that don’t exist or paying the speeding tickets of the non-profit’s managers.

Which leads me to this point: all of these left-wing activist ideologies are being promoted even here in Mississippi, the last state you’d imagine you’d find this garbage. This makes starting a state-level DOGE in every state even more important.

I’ve been Mississippi’s State Auditor for seven years now, and I’ve learned a lot during my tenure. I’ve learned that sometimes government waste happens because a bureaucrat is just lazy and isn’t being efficient with other people’s money. But other times, the waste is deliberate. Other times, the waste is there on purpose because it benefits someone powerful or well-connected.

This explains why Democrats spend all their time attacking DOGE and Elon Musk. I’ve had my fair share of attacks from establishment politicians over my office’s findings, too — some from my own party. Most politicians and government bureaucrats have no interest in weeding out the waste and some of them actually depend on it. They will attack and slander anyone who attempts to put a stop to it.

But I know that President Trump and Elon Musk won’t let that stop them. That’s the attitude you must have to go after the pet projects, and it’s what I’ve had to do here in Mississippi as the state auditor. My prediction is DOGE will inspire a new generation of leaders who know how to stand up to the left-wing bureaucratic ideologues and the establishment politicians to finally get a good deal for taxpayers.

— Shad White is the 42^nd State Auditor of Mississippi.

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Mississippi

Former federal attorney faces arson charge after two fires in Fondren

Published

4 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Former federal attorney faces arson charge after two fires in Fondren

A former federal attorney was arrested and charged with arson for two fires in Jackson, Mississippi.
The fires damaged a building and a dumpster at the Yana Club of Mississippi, a recovery community nonprofit.
The suspect, George McDowell Yoder III, has a history of previous arrests and was suspended from practicing law in 2022.

A former federal attorney was arrested and charged with arson after a building and dumpster were set on fire Friday, Feb. 27, in the Fondren area of Jackson, authorities said.

Jackson Fire Department Chief of Investigations Charles Felton said firefighters responded around 12 a.m. Friday in reference to a reported building fire and dumpster fire at Yana Club of Mississippi located at 555 Hartsfield Street.

Felton said fire crews arrived and found two separate fires in the Fondren neighborhood that caused damage to the Yana Club and the dumpster.

No injuries were reported.

After the fires were extinguished, a fire investigator was called to the scene. Investigators spoke with Capitol Police, who had a suspect detained.

Felton said the Jackson Fire Department Arson Division arrested George McDowell Yoder III, a former federal attorney, and charged him with first-degree arson of Yana Club and third-degree arson of the dumpster.

In 2021, WDAM TV reported Yoder had been a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 2009 to 2011. Yoder also ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2016.

According to a 2023 article by the Laurel Leader Call, Yoder was arrested in 2021 for residential burglary and faced multiple charges from 2021 to 2023. Yoder was also arrested in 2023 for arson charges, the outlet reported.

Documents from the Supreme Court of Mississippi also indicate that Yoder was admitted to the practice of law in the state in 1999 but later suspended in 2022 from practicing law for three years.

Court records show Yoder was found to be accepting fees from clients, abandoning them and then failing to deposit their retainers into a trust account. Yoder “commingled” his personal money with those of his clients and performed little to no work on a Madison County criminal case he was hired to resolve.

Jackson fire officials also said that a fire did not occur Friday morning at The Pig & Pint, a barbecue business located next to Yana Club.

Yana Club of Mississippi, a nonprofit organization, is described via their Facebook page as a “recovery community” that serves individuals seeking help with addictions.

The organization confirmed at 10:23 a.m. Friday via a social media post that the Yana Club building will be closed due to damages sustained from the fire.

“Due to the safety of our members, we will be closed through the weekend,” the organization stated. “We are working with [the] fire department and insurance to determine the best course of action. The building is currently deemed unsafe for meetings to be held. We will be in touch with updates when we have them.”

Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Have a tip? Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.

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Mississippi

Renowned New York dance instructor visits Mississippi to recruit for summer program

Published

16 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Renowned New York dance instructor visits Mississippi to recruit for summer program

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) – A world-renowned dance instructor from New York visited Laurel Thursday to conduct a special class and do some recruiting for a prestigious summer dance program in the Big Apple.

Melanie Person, who is co-director of the Ailey School in New York, taught a master ballet class Thursday morning at Laurel Middle School.

It’s part of a three-day residency in the Magnolia State, organized by the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience in Meridian.

She’ll teach two other classes Friday in Meridian before hosting an audition Saturday for a prestigious summer dance program at the Ailey School.

“I typically tour in about six to eight cities in the U.S., and I recruit dancers to come to our summer intensive, so part of this weekend, in one of the classes, I will be accepting students to come to New York for our five-week summer intensive,” Person said.

“We accept the dancers we like, and we see if they are able to come. The decision to come to New York for the summer is a big undertaking for families, so we just hope that they can do it.”

Registration is required for that audition, which will be held at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience.

To do that, click HERE.

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Mississippi

No. 12 Mississippi State’s Balance Shows Again in Road Win at Georgia Tech

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

No. 12 Mississippi State’s Balance Shows Again in Road Win at Georgia Tech

Mississippi State has won plenty of different ways during this 15-1 start, but Wednesday night in Atlanta felt like one of those games where the Bulldogs reminded everyone why they’ve looked so steady all month.

It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t stress‑free, but the 8-3 win over Georgia Tech was the kind of road win that shows a team knows exactly who it is and what buttons to push when things get a little weird.

Alyssa Faircloth set the tone again, even on a night when she didn’t have her cleanest beginning. She gave up a game‑tying homer in the second, shrugged, and then basically disappeared Georgia Tech’s lineup for the next three innings.

Eight strikeouts in nine batters the second time through the order, back‑to‑back innings striking out the side. The only real hiccup came on another leadoff homer in the sixth, and by then she’d already done the heavy lifting.

And while Faircloth was settling in, the lineup did what it’s been doing all year: spreading the damage around.

Des Rivera wasted no time, jumping on the first pitch of the second inning and sending it out. When Georgia Tech tied it, Nadia Barbary answered immediately with a solo shot of her own. It wasn’t loud or flashy, but it was the kind of response good teams make without thinking.

The middle innings were more about pressure than power. Barbary worked a walk, Kiarra Sells split the gap for an RBI double, and Anna Carder did her job with a sac fly. Suddenly it was 4-1, and Mississippi State had the game exactly where it wanted it with Faircloth cruising, the lineup stacking quality at‑bats, and the defense staying clean.

The seventh inning, though, is where the Bulldogs turned a solid win into a comfortable one. Sells homered again, and then Rivera and Tatum Silva kept the inning alive long enough for Morgan Bernardini to drop the hammer. Her three‑run shot to center didn’t just put the game away; it capped off the kind of night she’s been stringing together for a week now. She’s 7‑for‑11 during her four‑game hitting streak and looks like a hitter who’s seeing everything in slow motion.

Peja Goold handled the final outs, picking up her second save and slamming the door on a Georgia Tech team that kept trying to make things interesting late.

What stands out most about this win isn’t the four homers or the 11 strikeouts or even the 15-1 record. It’s how routine it all felt.

Mississippi State went on the road, took a couple of punches, and never looked rattled. Rivera homered. Barbary homered. Sells homered. Bernardini homered. Faircloth dominated. Goold closed. It was the same formula, just in a different ballpark.

Now the Bulldogs head to Clemson for a weekend that should tell us even more about who they are. But if Wednesday night is any indication, they’re traveling with a lineup that can hurt you anywhere and a pitching staff that doesn’t mind carrying the load when needed.