And judging from the article, which was posted earlier tonight on the Globe website, Woolston's actions are also a key part of the upcoming state audit. Of course, Turner Report readers have been aware of that for weeks.
It has to be tough to be the Joplin Globe as the fallout from city officials' actions following the Joplin Tornado are being investigated, both by the state auditors and the FBI.
The Globe ignored everything negative about former master developer Wallace Bajjali Development Partners until David Wallace and Costa Bajjali skipped town. Even then, all of the newspaper's wrath was turned on the Texas company and not those who ignored one warning sign after another and invited Wallace-Bajjali to come to Joplin.
It was much the same with Mike Woolston. The Globe went to court to ensure that the public would be able to see not only the 10 missing pages of the Loraine Report, but also all of the depositions taken by the Osage Beach investigator, including his revealing interviews with Woolston and with a number of citizens who described Woolston's activities in the months following the tornado.
After the judge made the documents public, the Globe buried them on its website, even though Woolston was up for re-election. Instead, the newspaper continues to refer to the Loraine investigation as "controversial" and spends more time talking about how much it cost than what it revealed.
Now that state and federal government investigators are looking into what has happened in Joplin, it is going to be extremely difficult for the Joplin Globe to explain how it has been sleeping at the switch since the tornado.
Of course, that is a charitable way of putting it. The Globe has been so heavily involved in what has happened in Joplin, it has played more the role of an unindicted co-conspirator than a newspaper of record.
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What the Joplin Globe hasn't told you would fill a book and fortunately, I wrote that book. Copies of Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud: Greed, Corruption, and the Joplin Tornado are available locally at Always Buying Books and Changing Hands Book Shoppe in Joplin and Pat's Books in Carthage, as well as online at Amazon.com.
The Globe has been complicit in every aspect of the Rohr, Wallace Bajali, Woolston, and Chamber of Commerce involvement in this Music Man travesty.
ReplyDeleteJust wait as the Globe continues when they bury meaningful coverage of the audit findings.
The above photo would make a good mug shot.
ReplyDeleteI hope this doesn't cast realtors in a bad light.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have the link to the Lorraine Report? Randy's link from April 2014 is no good anymore, and I would really like to read it, as I did not when it was released last Spring.
ReplyDeleteI'd really appreciate it.
From the city of Joplin charter available on the city of Joplin website
ReplyDeleteConflict of interest
A city council member shall not have a financial interest, direct or indirect, in any contract with the city, or be financially interested, directly or indirectly, in the sale to the city of any land, materials, supplies or services, except on behalf of the city as an officer or employee. Any violation of this provision renders the contract or sale void, and any council member violating this section thereby forfeits his office or employment.
Hmm. Woolston, Hogan, Huff, and Good are all part of Bright Futures Joplin and Bright Futures USA. All are part of CART or JPC, along with Sharp. Wasn't it Woolston who suggested Bright Futures USA receive all the tornado donations? And wasn't Hogan in charge of the Rebuild Joplin group? It could be coincidence that all of these people in land development, title work, real estate sales, and city recovery were in these two institutions with all of that money coming in with no governing body supervising it. The only person in charge of it had declared bankruptcy more than once on credit cards. I hope the FBI dives right into the Bright Futures and Bright Futures USA accounts, as well as the school foundation (Ron Gatz is the treasurer--the commissioners' choice of BoE member by accident?). There is the appearance of collusion, and it was CJ Huff who said the state auditor wouldn't find anything since they put the money in BF and the Foundation.
ReplyDeleteIt's time for the IRS and the FBI unit of the IRS to drop in for a visit. Past time.
He was on the news tonight proclaiming his innocence and all I can say is "Me thinkith he protestith too much!"
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ReplyDeleteIf you don't find it another way, send me an e-mail at wildbill226 at hotmail dot com. I can send you the PDF.
If you take even one commission you are guilty, which he did. Kinda of like shoplifting, whether it's one item or 20, you are still guilty. And the company he worked for profited, leaving out other real estate companies I presume. How do we know he was not compensated in other ways aside from commission checks. I don't believe he did all that work for just one commission. And don't forget the builder involved. It was not right from the beginning. Left our council one vote short on important matters. He definitely took advantage of a situation at tax payer expense. He should remove himself from the council... Sometimes even nice people make wrong decisions and should admit so. The fact that council was short one voter in many cases, hmmm, didn't he bring pressure to bear on property owners in that area, wasn't it his company that benefited, didn't he take commission, wasn't he helping one exclusive builder. He was just WRONG.....Collusion. Most saw the F5 has a travesty, and then there are those that saw $ signs
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that Wallace and Bajjali are ALSO being investigated by the FBI, since they are the bigger fish in this scheme? Does anyone know?
ReplyDelete636 I don't disagree with your post but I don't think it's about one commission. Mr Woolston likes to focus on the one commission but I think the bigger problem is he helped buy several properties cheap and then resold them to the city for several times what they paid for them. If he paid $15,000 for a lot and sold it to the city for $60.000 he helped a builder make huge profits off the backs of taxpayers he represents. I don't like WB and think David Wallace belongs in jail, but at least WB admitted they were here for profit. To me a public official using their position to make a profit off the citizens it represents is even worse than WB,
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