Probes may follow bribe accusation [by Jackson, MS councilman].

The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS) ^ | June 11, 2003 | Laura Hipp

[bourbon]

Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes is known for throwing barbs at his colleagues without much response.

Now, his fellow council members say he's gone too far.

On Tuesday, the City Council approved a resolution that would

[bourbon]

They used to say in Chicago that the city's Ethics Board could be found in the local U.S. Attorney's office. That's about the way things are in Jackson right now. It's a veritable "corruption eruption!"

[bourbon]

Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes.

Jackson Craziness PING!!

[WKB]

I would like to take Stokes and Bennie Thompson and, and
If I say it it would get pulled so I will keep it to myself,

[bourbon]

Thompson is awful, I agree. But Stokes is certifiably crazy! He should be mopping the floors over at Whitfield, not sitting on the JCC. :-)

[wardaddy]

Margaret had better be careful....those goons are capable of anything. She is a decent person but her judgment is questionable....remember the Bed and Breakfast she renovated by Enochs and Poindexter Park.....in a veritablewar zone?....not too much common sense on that one.

Looks like all these new council members got their ethics cues from Ed Cates..lol

When I was a teen, it was Russell Davis, Derwood Boyles and and Tom Kelly...it was a Mayor and two commissioners then. Kelly was a prolific womanizer but that was about as wild as it got.

Now, it's pathetic.

"Progress" has killed Jackson.

[bourbon]

Looks like all these new council members got their ethics cues from Ed Cates..lol

HAHA! It's funny that you should mention that. I was walking through the UM Law School the other day and saw a picture of him. I chuckled and wondered if he was still alive and still in prison.

Do you know if the authorities ever figured out whose body that was in Ed Cates' car? I remember that question roiling Jackson when I was younger.

[bourbon]

Now, it's pathetic. "Progress" has killed Jackson.

I hope someday I'll be able to ping you to some good news about your hometown. Keep your fingers crossed. Nah...scratch that. Pray hard!

[wardaddy]

I don't know....it was a bum I think is all I recall.

I think about that everytime I drive over the bridge on old 49 north of Flora over the Big Black....I think that's where he burned the car isn't it?

I think Cates died....I'llhave to check on that. Remember how he got caught? In Atlanta repeatedly calling his wife and then hanging up wasn't it?

[wardaddy]

Actually, living out by Annandale or on the Resevoir and limiting one's exposure to the bad parts of town would not be too bad.

I'd have to get used to the summers again.

You can get a home on the Resevoir there for about half what a decent crib on Old Hickory lake will run.

Better food, slightly friendlier folks, pretty women(neither of us are single), close to New Orleans, close to good deer hunting....there are plusses to be considered objectively.

First time I took my wife there, she proclaimed that she could handle it if we lived in one of those large home places out in Annandale..lol

Another downside besides the endemic crime is the societal polarization...unlike here...you are either in or out and it's very geographically defined there and folks can be rather snotty about all of it. Nashville is much less of that and there is money everywhere ..not just in the Meade or Green Hills.

[bourbon]

I think Cates died....I'llhave to check on that. Remember how he got caught? In Atlanta repeatedly calling his wife and then hanging up wasn't it?

As I recall (and I'll have to check with my mom on this one), one of my dad's law partners wives was over at the Cates house comforting the grieving Ms. Cates when Ed called from Atlanta. D-OH! If this guy had any brains at all, he would have already been in Brazil. :-)

[Yudan]

This is really, really horrible. But it's also really, REALLY funny.....


Right out of Millsaps I worked as a runner for a law firm in Jackson. One of the partners had attended a public event where Frank Melton, the CEO of WLBT-Channel 3 was the featured speaker.

According to the Partner, after the speech Melton was mingling with the folks there, and the city government came up. The discussion was light-hearted enough. As Melton was turning to leave a group of people he'd been speaking with he said, "Guys, remember one thing about the City Council: Fee fi fo, fee fi fo fo. That's Kenny Stokes' phone number."

[WKB]

Melton is now head of the narc suquad in Ms. I hope he does as good as he talks.

[wardaddy]

All sounds like an ambitious US attorney's wet dream for high profile corruption ladder rungs for his/her career..

...who is the US attorney there now?

[WKB]

I think Cates died....

He died in prison I think.
He sent his wife money from Atlanta and made phone calls.
They still don't know who he burned in his car.

[WKB]

I think about that everytime I drive over the bridge on old 49 north of Flora over the Big Black....I think that's where he burned the car isn't it?

The car was burned on County Line Road near 49.

[WKB]

I think about that everytime I drive over the bridge on old 49 north of Flora

When you are going on 49 North of Flora at Little Yazoo you are 3 miles from me.

[WKB]

There is no getting rid of Stokes
June 11, 2003

Deputy AG: Stokes can't be councilman, supervisor


By Clay Harden
charden@clarionledger.com

Kenneth Stokes must leave the Jackson City Council behind if he succeeds in his third attempt to be elected a Hinds County supervisor.

Holding both offices violates the separation of powers in the state constitution, said a spokesman for the attorney general's office.

"Supervisor is considered a judicial position and city council is legislative," said Mike Lanford, deputy attorney general.

Those facts give Stokes' supporter Lloyd Mason, 56, mixed feelings about the 2003 election.

"I hate to lose Stokes at the city, but I think he can do more as a supervisor," Mason, a Maple Street resident, said during a telephone interview Tuesday. "I know he is sometimes controversial, and I may not agree at how he goes about things sometimes, but he has done a good job of representing the people in his ward."

Stokes is trying to unseat 24-year incumbent George Smith, the senior member on the Hinds County board of supervisors, in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary. The two are facing off to represent District 5, which extends from Woodrow Wilson Boulevard, through downtown to I-55, then Terry and out to Utica.

To defeat Smith, Stokes must win in Terry, where Smith resides, and parts of Byram.

Byram businessman Henry Whitfield, 76, said he doesn't think that will happen in a climate where Byram is seeking to re-incorporate and dodge annexation by Jackson. Whitfield, who is white, said he thought Stokes made racist statements when Jackson was seeking to annex Byram .

"Didn't Stokes say that if Jackson annexed Byram it would dilute black voting strength?" Whitfield asked.

Stokes said last year that If Jackson annexed too much of Byram, it might lead to the possibility "of not having a black mayor." Byram is a majority white community.

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. was elected Jackson's first black mayor in 1997 and re-elected in 2001.

Georgetown resident Mary Jordan said she will support Stokes for supervisor.

"If that is what (Stokes) wants to do, I am going to vote for him," Jordan said. "Whatever makes him happy."

Stokes claimed voting irregularities in both the 1999 and 1995 elections.

Lee County Circuit Judge Lee Ford declared Smith the winner over Stokes after the Aug. 3, 1999, Democratic primary. Smith had 2,969 votes to Stokes' 2,788.

Similarly in 1995, a special tribunal appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Smith the winner over Stokes in the Democratic primary runoff.

Stokes had 2,776 votes to Smith's 2,852.

Stokes earns $25,000 in the part-time council position. A Hinds County supervisor earns more — $37,000 annually and also gets a car

[wardaddy]

Thanks...my memory was not good on that.

You live between Flora and Bentonia?

I used to dove hunt back in ancient times...on Morgan's farm which was off 49 past Flora to the left right where the hills drop down to all those occasionally flooded bean fields before the Big Black bottom. Mr Morgan had the GMC truck dealership on South State St back then...60s and 70s. We went to the big Bozeman farms hunt too over near what is now all the big Annandale developments off 22.

I have a friend in Jackson who hunts public land on the Big Black....he goes way up in there by boat and then uses waders to go after these trophy swamp bucks. I hear that the Big Black basin now has deer quality to rival Claibourne, Copiah and Warren counties..

[WKB]

The only deer in Annandale now are the two legged kind.
Actually I live north of Bentonia about 4 miles.
There are plenty of big deer around now. Bill Link has a club on Big Black that has a minimum point and spread.
I don’t know the exacts because I can’t afford to hunt there.:>)

[wardaddy]

I know what you mean. I've watched the Primos tapes (I went to school with a number of them).

I hunt down in Copiah county at my cousin's camp on Bayou Pierre. They have an 18" spread minnimum and 130lb does only...all black powder and archery only. They have harvested a number of P&Y and B&C bucks in the past 7 years. The stock price to enter the club is now 75K....outta my league as well....4000 acres of very nice bottom land. The facilities are like a resort...family oriented.

Here, I hunt over on the TN river near Big Sandy about 20 miles south of the KY line....a lot of deer, not as many big ones but it's 1000/year with 10 members on 3800 acres of ridges and beans and alfalfa valleys...and a Christian club with no booze. The clubhouse/bunkroom is ok...not too shabby but since it's only 88 miles from my house, I mainly do a lot of afternoon hunts. I shoot from ground blinds with either a sidehammer in the wooded ridges or from stands on the field edges with my in-line and optics.

In Mississippi, it's all from stands given the dense swampy terrain...they of course have shoot houses for women and kids. They have one basket stand on a food plot that is 45 foot high...they call it the Skybox...scary. I've hunted it once and had turkeys roosting all around me at eye level at dusk..lol