In 2017, a Mississippi nonprofit called Operation Shoestring received a federal grant worth more than $200,000. But when the organization sought to renew the funding a year later, the money was no longer available.

Have a sports betting question? Submit it here to have it answered by The Post’s Neil Greenberg.
“It had been reallocated in ways we’re reading about now,” Robert Langford, executive director of Operation Shoestring, which has been providing aid to families in need for more than a half-century, said in an interview.

Mississippi’s widening welfare scandal involves tens of millions of dollars and has embroiled the state’s former governor, Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre and professional wrestlers, among others. Organizations such as Operation Shoestring, and the at-risk populations that rely on those funds, continue to feel the sting.

As Langford tried to renew the funding in 2018, the state officials tasked with distributing the money were found to be funneling millions away from those it was intended for. The scandal’s impact will be felt for years, advocates say.

“It makes my blood boil,” Langford said. “We’re talking about funds that were supposed to be used to help move people out of poverty in the poorest state instead becoming literal currency for favors, both political and financial for people. It’s amazing.”

The details of the scandal continue to emerge in court filings and reporting by nonprofit news organization Mississippi Today. Last week, John Davis, the former executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, pleaded guilty to two federal charges and 18 state counts of embezzling federal welfare funds. The U.S. Justice Department said Davis misused the money and helped create “sham contracts … knowing that no significant services would be provided.”

Brett Favre sued by state of Mississippi over welfare misspending

His plea has spurred speculation that Favre and others could be further implicated. Favre received $1.1 million intended for welfare recipients in exchange for speeches and appearances the state auditor says he never made. And text messages included in court filings show Favre was heavily involved in discussions that resulted in $5 million in welfare money going toward the construction of a volleyball facility at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter played volleyball.

Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre’s reputation has already been tarnished by scandals involving text messages. In one, you may remember, Favre settled out of court with two massage therapists back in 2013, after they had accused him of sending inappropriate and unsolicited sexual text messages to them while he played for the New York Jets in 2008. (Favre’s lawyers denied the allegations throughout the ordeal.)

Favre also was investigated by the NFL over allegations that he had sent inappropriate photos to a Jets TV host. The league ultimately said it could not conclude that he had violated the NFL’s conduct policies, but fined him $50,000 for failing to cooperate with the investigation.

Now, it looks like Favre’s phone behavior has him at the center of a more far-reaching scandal.

That’s because Mississippi Today this week published a batch of text messages from Favre and former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant that paint both as eager participants in a scheme prosecutors say was aimed at bilking millions of federal dollars from a state program meant for poor children and families.

The texts were revealed after a nonprofit manager who also was accused of skimming from the fund, Nancy New, filed the messages as evidence in a state civil suit involving her, Favre, Bryant and a host of other well-connected Mississippi conservatives who are alleged to have received tens of millions of dollars in handouts with the help of the state welfare agency’s then-director, John Davis.

New and her son have pleaded guilty to misusing public funds in exchange for their testimony. Davis has pleaded not guilty in the case and is awaiting trial......

The newly released messages, however, seem to suggest a consciousness of guilt on Favre’s part, and they may add to Bryant’s potential criminal exposure as well, depending on what other facts come out. The former governor has denied that he was intimately involved in shunting the welfare money to his friends, but one message Favre allegedly received from New suggested that there was a plan introduced to name the volleyball facility after Bryant. Potentially, as a political favor.

The revelations this week indicate the story around the alleged corruption is far from over. And Brett Favre’s descent in the eyes of the public seems all but certain to continue

Any flash of integrity among Texas state officials these days is worthy of mention, but particularly when it involves the rebuffing of the most scandalous scoundrel in their ranks.

Attorney General Ken Paxton was so smug earlier this year when he encouraged his supporters to go after an all-Republican panel of judges on the state’s highest criminal court after they ruled against him .

The case involved Paxton’s authority to unilaterally prosecute Texans for voter fraud — a favorite pastime for the attorney general even if he has few convictions to show for it . But the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals had ruled in December that the Texas Constitution doesn’t allow the attorney general’s office, which handles civil matters, to bring criminal cases, which is the job of county district attorney’s offices acting on behalf of the state.....

So it was only moderately surprising when he began denouncing his fellow Republicans on the high court, riling his supporters to hound them, and sounding alarms that their ruling could pave the way for a fraud-fueled liberal takeover of Texas.......

People did call and email the judges in droves, leaving messages that spanned from outrage to direct threats that were forwarded to law enforcement. Some were no doubt prompted by a robo-message , obtained by Hearst Newspapers, from Houston Republican activist and kingmaker Dr. Steven Hotze, who provided a phone number for the judges to tens of thousands of Republicans, urging them to: “Leave a message that you want the court to restore Paxton’s right to prosecute voter fraud in Texas,” Hotze said. “If this decision isn’t reversed, then the Democrats will steal the elections in November and turn Texas blue.”

Hotze, incidentally, was also indicted this year on charges of unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for his part in a voter-fraud-hunting scheme that went awry. Terribly awry. See a pattern here?.....

Meanwhile, we applaud the judges who sided with the Texas Constitution over Texas politics. That’s all we ask. It’s a simple request of public officials — and yet so rarely honored.

Any flash of integrity among Texas state officials these days is worthy of mention, but particularly when it involves the rebuffing of the most scandalous scoundrel in their ranks.

Attorney General Ken Paxton was so smug earlier this year when he encouraged his supporters to go after an all-Republican panel of judges on the state’s highest criminal court after they ruled against him .

The case involved Paxton’s authority to unilaterally prosecute Texans for voter fraud — a favorite pastime for the attorney general even if he has few convictions to show for it . But the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals had ruled in December that the Texas Constitution doesn’t allow the attorney general’s office, which handles civil matters, to bring criminal cases, which is the job of county district attorney’s offices acting on behalf of the state.....

So it was only moderately surprising when he began denouncing his fellow Republicans on the high court, riling his supporters to hound them, and sounding alarms that their ruling could pave the way for a fraud-fueled liberal takeover of Texas.......

People did call and email the judges in droves, leaving messages that spanned from outrage to direct threats that were forwarded to law enforcement. Some were no doubt prompted by a robo-message , obtained by Hearst Newspapers, from Houston Republican activist and kingmaker Dr. Steven Hotze, who provided a phone number for the judges to tens of thousands of Republicans, urging them to: “Leave a message that you want the court to restore Paxton’s right to prosecute voter fraud in Texas,” Hotze said. “If this decision isn’t reversed, then the Democrats will steal the elections in November and turn Texas blue.”

Hotze, incidentally, was also indicted this year on charges of unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for his part in a voter-fraud-hunting scheme that went awry. Terribly awry. See a pattern here?.....

Meanwhile, we applaud the judges who sided with the Texas Constitution over Texas politics. That’s all we ask. It’s a simple request of public officials — and yet so rarely honored.

On the surface, it was a routine sentencing hearing for one of the more notorious Jan. 6 rioters. Kyle Young, whose lawyer said he was “injected” with political lies, took his teenage son to the U.S. Capitol, violently assaulted police officers, and got caught. Federal prosecutors sought a significant prison sentence.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed, sentencing Young to more than seven years in prison.

But just below the surface, there was a little more to it. In fact, the judge in this case — who has a no-nonsense reputation for not suffering fools gladly — took the opportunity yesterday to contextualize the proceedings.

“You were not prosecuted for being a Trump supporter,” Jackson explained to Young. “You were not arrested or charged, and you will not be sentenced, for exercising your First Amendment rights. You are not a political prisoner.... You were trying to stop the singular thing that makes America America, the peaceful transfer of power. That’s what ‘Stop the Steal’ meant.”

As Politico noted, however, the federal judge also rebuked the Republican leaders who bore responsibility for the violence perpetrated by the defendant and people like him.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said former President Donald Trump had turned his lies about the election into a litmus test for Republican candidates and that “high-ranking members of Congress and state officials” are “so afraid of losing their power” that they won’t contradict him. That fealty, she said, comes even as law enforcement and judges involved in cases related to the former president are facing unprecedented threats of violence.

The jurist went on to marvel at the extent to which GOP leaders are so beholden to “one man” that it has become “heresy” for Republicans to contradict Trump’s election lies.