In Clay County, Kentucky, which has a poverty rate of nearly 36%, The City of Manchester’s long-serving mayor Daugh White and several of his cronies pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges in 2007 for pursuing kickbacks from companies bidding on city contracts. To date only one such event has occurred. Another $5 million went to build a volleyball stadium at Favre’s alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, with the justification that the funds would be used to host events for underserved youth. Favre was paid $1.1 million by New’s nonprofit for speaking events that, according to Mississippi state auditor Shad White, did not happen. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anna Wolfe uncovered the scheme, but the whole thing might not have made national headlines but for the involvement of Super Bowl champion quarterback Brett Favre. Rather than alleviating poverty through cash aid, child care, or job training, New and Davis used New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center to line their own pockets and those of a number of celebrity athletes, among other dubious schemes. It’s the largest public corruption scandal in the state’s history. Any such fraud is dwarfed by the actions of Nancy New, a nonprofit leader in Mississippi, and John Davis, director of the state’s welfare agency, who, from 2017 to 2020, scammed a government program meant to help impoverished children in Mississippi, the nation’s poorest state, to the tune of nearly $80 million. These days, though, the biggest story about welfare cheats isn’t about the poor making off with a few dollars in undeserved aid. Indeed, the narrative of the shiftless poor inhabits a perpetual space in the nation’s collective consciousness. They don’t want to work, don’t behave like they should, and have become dependent on government welfare programs. Head to any of the most disadvantaged places in America and ask local leaders what is holding their community back, and invariably you will hear a story about the local poor.
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