Tag: AMS

Breakwater Cattle Company’s Letter to President: Protecting Taxpayer Dollars

Mike Callicrate

PRESS RELEASE BREAKWATER CATTLE COMPANY 499 Breakwater Drive Benton, MS 39039 August 4, 2014 United States President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20500 Re: Protecting Taxpayer Dollars Dear Mr. President I know we can agree that there are seven continents, and North America is one of them. North America includes 41 separate countries and territories. I also know there are embedded within USDA certain National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) sympathizers that want Read More …

The Other Shoe Drops

Fred Stokes

The second “final” report on the USDA OIG Audit of the Beef Checkoff was released the end of January. An earlier seventeen page report was released in March of 2013 but was shortly withdrawn for “additional audit work” under withering charges of whitewash and cover-up. It was generally accepted that the audit was prompted by the disturbing findings in an Audit in 2010, ordered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). You may recall that the CBB ordered audit Read More …

Latest Chapter in Beef Checkoff Saga; USDA OIG Relents

Fred Stokes

A letter dated November 4, 2013 from USDA Office of Inspector General contained some very welcome news, specifically: “…your FOIA appeal is granted”. For some time OCM’s legitimate request for material relating to a particular OIG audit had met with what could best be described as evasion and stalling. But, unlike previous correspondence from this agency, this letter was signed personally by the Inspector General, Phyllis K. Fong. Background: Back in July of 2010, an outside independent audit Read More …