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Tune in to The Extra Mile presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Co-hosts Paul Katool and Will Craft take listeners inside the world of transportation infrastructure in Mississippi.
(Anna Ehrgott) Hurricane season is here, and MDOT wants to help you get out of harm’s way. Visit GoMDOT.com/hurricanes to download free resources. Find your nearest hurricane evacuation route by downloading MDOT's Hurricane Evacuation Guide, which maps out more than 20 different hurricane evacuation routes. Need help packing your go bag? MDOT's Hurricane Emergency Checklist offers a full list of items to include. Don't wait for a storm to threaten. Prepare today.
[Music and Intro]
(Drew Hall) MDOT presents The Extra Mile Podcast
(Paul Katool) Welcome in to another edition of the Extra Mile Podcast presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm Paul Katool, and as always, I'm joined by my co-host, Will Craft. And we’ve been on the road a little bit. Happy to get a little bit closer at home. We're right across the street at the Mississippi State Capitol. We're here today to speak with State Representative Fred Shanks. He represents District 60. That's Rankin County. And he is also the chairman of the Rules Committee. Very excited to be here. Thanks for hosting us. And where exactly are we in the Capitol today?
(Fred Shanks) Thank you. I'm glad to be here. So we are actually in my office, which is right off the chamber floor, so.
(Will Craft) Got it.
(Paul) Excellent.
(Will) Got it tucked back up in here. I didn't know this space was, uh, uh, for an office back here. But you're telling us a little bit about the history, uh –
(Fred) Yeah.
(Will) before we got here.
(Fred) This was what was called the cloakroom. So, if someone had to, uh, you know, before cell phones, if someone had to, uh, off the floor, needed to come in and have a quick meeting with someone or make a phone call, they would kind of sneak in here, probably sleep a little bit, uh,
(Paul) Of course.
(Fred) because there was a couch in here at one time. And, uh, we kind of rearranged it when, uh, our new speaker came in and, uh, and now it's the rules committee room.
(Will) I like it.
(Fred) Yeah. And rule, the rules committee is the only committee that can meet while we are in session in the chamber.
(Will) OK.
(Fred) So, it kind of made sense to have it right off of the chamber.
(Will) You know, you just slide in here and do what you need to do, then get right back out.
(Fred) That’s it.
(Will) Instead of having to go meander around the Capitol. All right, so that does work good. Well, you, uh, as Paul just mentioned, appreciate you having us over here, letting us come check out the space. Um, let's get into it a little bit. How did you first decide you wanted to get into politics? What brought you into the political sphere?
(Fred) Uh, well, it was a couple of things. I have a deep desire to help people, and I worked as a manager of a, of a small independent pharmacy in Brandon, which was probably one of the largest ones in the southeast. And, you know, I just really learned how to take care of folks. I had a great boss and, you know, the more I thought about it, I was an alderman in the City of Brandon for a little while, and everybody needs to get a piece of municipal politics in their career if you want to get into it.
But after that, you know, I was behind the scenes a lot. And then, you know, this, this popped up. John Moore was here, and he stepped out, retired. And I said, I need a little bit of a life change. I said, you know what? I'm, I'm running, and I just never look back. I didn't really know what you did.
(Will) Sure.
(Fred) I just knew I wanted to be there and that was where I was headed. So, that's kind of how I got into it. The other part is, you know, I got a lot of that sense to serve from my dad.
(Will) Sure.
(Fred) My dad was Doug Shanks, who was a former Jackson City commissioner. And when they had a commissioner form of government, which worked –
(Will) Sure.
(Fred) in the city of Jackson. And I do have a quick story I want to tell about him.
(Paul) Oh yeah, please.
(Fred) He was a fascinating guy, but, uh, at the time they had two city commissioners and the mayor, and the mayor was kind of like what you call chairman of the board. So, at 26 years old, my dad, was over the police department, fire department and sanitation, which is crazy for me to think about.
(Will) A spread right there.
(Fred) Yeah, at 26, you know. He comes in the office one day. So this would been early seventies. So, he comes in the office one day and the mayor called me and said, Hey, uh, You need to come up to my office right now. He said, uh, Hey, we've got these two guys out here. They are this remember it's the Cold War era. He said, these are two, they're two Russian submarine commanders. They have retired, and they are traveling through the United States, and they stopped by City Hall. And he said, you got to do something with it. He's like, okay. So, he was trying to, so he meets them and, uh, he's saying, Hey, what can I do with these guys? So. He's like, I'll take him to the Ross Barnett Reservoir because they had just put the dam in.
Uh, so he's like, okay, all right, so I got it. So, he gets him in his car, and he had a police radio in his car, and it comes in in a minute. So, as he's walking out, he sees a station wagon with the windows rolled down with all these guys smoking cigarettes with white long-sleeved shirts and ties. And he's like FBI.
(Will) Ah.
(Fred) And they were obviously following the two Russians and knowing my dad like the, the Shankses don't break rules, but we might bend them. He's like, okay, he went up to the car and I'm sure he said something smart and they were like, oh, you know, you know, he's like, hey, you know, it's the feds.
(Will) I see you.
(Fred) So, anyway, he gets in his car and he goes to the red light. They get right behind him and he gets on his radio. My dad does and calls in the police. He said, look, they got this guy following me. This, this car, I'm gonna run this red light. And as soon as they run it, pull them over. So sure enough, he squeals out with the two Russians, the car chases them, and they get pulled over. So, he's like, I've won this.
(Will) Pretty sharp.
(Fred) Yep. So they go to the reservoir, they, they pull around on the lower part of the dam and they're looking at it. And then, you know, He said, we just look up and you just hear this car just screaming. And about that time, the feds come rolling through the top of the dam, you know, on the road, and hit the brakes, lock it up, and then they come down and just sit there, you know, and stare at them.
(Will) That’s crazy! I guess they didn't want to let them get out of sight. They didn't know what they were here for.
(Fred) Yeah, yeah, but it's just one of the, you know, he had stuff like that happen to him all the time, but that's one of my favorite stories.
(Will) That’s pretty sharp, now, to think about. All right, I’m gonna run this red light. Y'all stop them.
(Fred) Yeah.
(Will) And they did, too. I'm sure they all had to provide some identification at that point.
(Fred) Oh yeah, well, he says that that was the first time I got a FBI record.
(Paul) Wow.
(Will) Yeah, I bet they didn't think it was as funny as we do.
(Fred) No, no.
(Paul) That is, uh, that's a good story right there, among the best we've had on the show –
(Will) That’s right.
(Paul) for sure.
(Will) And uh, hey, add to that list, too, uh, speaking of uh, Mr. Shanks, a long-time baseball coach.
(Fred) Oh.
(Will) also, right?
(Fred) He was a legend, yeah. he had been around. He had the Jackson 96ers, you know, during the summer for, you know, 25 years. And he was a longtime coach at Mississippi Valley State. He put Mississippi Valley State on the map. When he got to Mississippi Valley State, the baseball field had been condemned.
(Will) Oh, wow. I didn’t realize that.
(Fred) It had tape around it. It was, you know, and by the time he left, he was there for 15 years. He had built him a nice stadium, nice lighting. And, um, I'll tell you, one of the coolest things he did is, he called my brother and I and said, Hey, look, I've got Notre Dame coming down. I'm thinking Notre Dame's coming to Itta Bena? He's like, Oh yeah. Like, you're thinking gold helmets? In Itta – you know, and so they, they run into a problem up north with weather. You know, it's snowing and whatever, so, you know, weather's much better down here. So, I went up to the game and sure enough, man, you're looking at the legendary, you know, Notre Dame. Um, gold helmets and uh, they beat the hell out of us, but after the game, we took them all to Larry's and fed them catfish, and they don't know what a catfish is, but they ate every bit of it. It was really awesome. It was awesome.
(Will) That's only a little bit of a sidebar –
(Fred) Yeah.
(Will) But that's definitely a bucket list of football games for me is to go to a Notre Dame game.
(Paul) Oh yeah.
(Fred) Absolutely. Well, they were in Itta Bena.
(Will) That’s pretty cool.
(Fred) Most people don’t know that.
(Paul) That is pretty wild right there.
(Will) Not too shabby.
(Paul) Not at all.
(Will) Shout out to Coach!
(Fred) That’s it. He was a good guy.
(Paul) All right. So, let's uh, let's circle back to a little legislative kind of stuff. So, a little bit of time has lapsed since the legislative session, but some big accomplishments. Let’s talk about squatted trucks. What happened with that?
(Fred) A lot. A lot happened with that.
(Will) Praise the Lord!
(Fred) Yeah. Um, that has been one of the most talked about, um, not really controversial, but it's got, garnered a lot of attention from the public. But how that came to be, um, I had a lot of judges that I meet up with in Rankin County and a lot of my law enforcement folks were reaching out and say, you know, these things are a problem because they cannot see, you know, so many yards in front of them because, and if your listener doesn't know, squatted truck It's basically like a lifted truck, but the back is not lifted. So therefore, the headlights point to the sky.
(Paul) Ah, OK.
(Fred) And that, that's another problem you cannot see in front of you. And then the headlights in oncoming traffic at night, especially, uh, blind, you know, as you're driving towards them and, uh, they said, look, it's just a real problem. So, I'm a big car guy. So, I got on a couple of different forums that I'm on and just kind of see what the talk was.
And I think it was kind of general consensus that people were like, Hey, we need to. You know, need to do something because I think at this point, we're probably the fifth state that's banned them. Um, but basically if you're, the front of your vehicle is four inches higher than the rear, and you know, you can, you get a, you get, there's three different levels. You get a $100 ticket your first time, if you don't fix it, $200 the next. $300 for the last, and then you get your license pulled for a year.
(Paul) Oh, wow.
(Fred) But what really brought it on, as we started working on it is we found out Smith County, um, unfortunately, a child had gotten run over because the driver couldn't see her. And, you know, just kept hearing more about them running into the back of people and things like that. So, I mean, it's just a real safety issue. No, that's right.
(Paul) No, that’s right on.
(Will) It's crazy that, I, I apologize if I'm insulting anyone out there that has a squatted vehicle, but at no point did anyone that has those things, you know, the headlights point up, I can't see pedestrians, might run into stuff. And none of those issues were problem enough to not do it.
(Fred) Yeah. Yeah.
(Paul) Sure.
(Fred) It changes up the braking, the steering, you know, all the suspension components are all out of whack. Um, and, you know, I, we talked a little bit before, but uh, I've got a buddy that's got a little hot rod shop and he had a four runner that was squatted and I mean, it was set up nice. He had, you know, eight, nine, $10,000 rims on it and it was real clean. And I said, Hey, let me just drive that around the parking lot. And, uh, you literally cannot see 30 yards in front of you. And, uh, you know, I guess it's just a looks thing and I get it and I don't want to look like it's overreach, but it just came down to, you know, safety issue.
(Paul) Absolutely.
(Fred) But it has got a lot of talk.
(Will) Well, that's for good reason. Yeah. Full support there. We did discuss briefly, uh, squatting the MDOT van, uh, for, for future.
(Fred) Maybe we can make an exception.
(Paul) It is shut down. Hey, pedestrian, uh, safety is a big issue these days. Statistics say a lot of, a lot of issues with that. So thanks for taking care of it.
(Fred) Absolutely, absolutely.
(Will) Very much so. And then rolling right on into another one that was a real big for you this session, uh, stuff I know you put a lot of work in that. House Bill 691. Talked about a little bit when we came in.
(Fred) Yeah.
(Will) Tell us about that bill.
(Fred) So on that one, uh, I had heard, uh, DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell on the radio. He was kind of alluding to some, some things that he wanted to do with the Board of Minimum Standards. And I called him, I texted him actually, while he was on the show, but I said, look, I'm your guy. I want to help. And, uh, he and I got together on it.
And to your listeners, the Board of Minimum Standards holds training certificates for law enforcement officers. So, once they complete a training course like MLEOTA, they would get a certificate and uh, you know, if that certificate was ever pulled for any reason, you're, you're basically, you're not a police officer anymore. Uh, and they had some, uh, you know, they would also keep up with your, uh, continuing education.
So right now, only a police department in a municipality, uh, has to have continuing education, whereas sheriff's departments and, uh, state level law enforcement don't. And so, this bill is kind of a two-parter. Uh, it, it adds more, uh, people to the board. And it gives the board some teeth to look into some things, um, while it also, the state level and sheriff's departments will now have to have continuing education.
So, what you're going to get, you know, the police officer is going to be better trained, the public and the police department or sheriff's department is going to get a better product. So, I mean, it's a win all the way around.
(Will) Oh yeah.
(Fred) And uh, the last thing it does is, uh, we'll be hiring two investigators. So, if there's misconduct reported, they can actually look into it. And uh, if you if they don't get their required training or if there's some misconduct issues that are valid, the board can actually pull your certificate and that way, you know, you're not a police officer anymore. So that's one I'm real proud of.
(Will) Yeah, that does have some real teeth to it right there, I mean.
(Paul) No doubt.
(Fred) I had several sheriffs and police chiefs reach out and say, look, this was, this has been needed. We're, we're thankful for this. Uh, you know, this has been needed for a long time. And then I've had some, they're like, hey, can I get on the board? Like I'd really like to get on the board and really kind of push this thing forward and, you know, make some things happen. So, it's, it's been a big success so far.
(Will) Awesome.
(Paul) Good stuff. Another, another big accomplishment there for sure. So, uh, we talked about the, some things that happened during the 2024 session, but I know you're always looking ahead.
(Fred) Yeah.
(Paul) Uh, so what's coming up that you maybe didn't get to this past session and want to accomplish in 2025?
(Fred) Well, there, there's a couple of things that I'll be looking at. Um, one of the things I did this year, uh, was the ballot initiative. It’s, that’s something that I've worked on. This is my third year to do it. Um, and this is a procedure that allows just citizens to put, you know, to make a law if they want to. It's all based on a number of signatures that they get, and they submit it. And it, you know, if you get the correct amount of signatures, it would actually go on the ballot for the whole state to vote on. Um, but we, we brought that out for the third time, and it passed the House floor, and it actually made it onto the Senate floor.
And, you know, I was real optimistic that we're going to get it done. And, uh, you know, then just, I guess, some politics kind of came into play and just couldn't get across the finish line. So, we're gonna look at that. We're looking at that right now and kind of see, you know, how the public is with it and possibly, you know, do that again.
And then also, I work with Chairman Price Wallace, the Constitution chairman about some suffrage bills. So, restoring the right to vote. And uh, yeah, and we got real close on that. Um, basically, there's a nonviolent, some nonviolent crimes. I mean, we had a list compiled that if you had been clean for, let's say, five years and, you know, productive member of society that you could get your right to vote restored. So, um, yeah. But we really made some headway. So, I'm real proud of that. Hopefully we'll be working on that again. So that's one, you know, one, I'm definitely gonna be pushing for next year.
(Paul) Excellent.
(Will) Shout out to the Constitution Chairman from God's country, Simpson County, down there. Appreciate you.
(Fred) He’s also my deskmate, so, yeah.
(Will) Oh, very nice! I apologize then, yeah.
(Fred) He’s one of the best.
(Will) He’s g – I’ve known Representative Wallace for a good long while.
(Fred) Yeah.
(Will) Our families know each other.
(Fred) He’s the only guy I know that can wear a cowboy hat –
(Will) Good dude, man.
(Fred) and look legit.
(Will) And he’s a big fella, too. He can rock a cowboy hat. Nobody’s gonna tell him otherwise.
(Fred) You’re exactly right! Nobody's gonna say anything to him.
(Will) That’s great. Well, look man, uh, we definitely appreciate you walking us through those. Lots of success this past year. Knowing you and knowing your character. I expect that will only continue man, just killing it over here. Um, but yeah, let's take things a little more to the fun side of the house.
We, uh, we always joke where, as a podcast, we like to eat and we love to listen to some music. So, we've got a couple of fun questions here for you while we, while we wrap this up. I'm about to get fussed at. I'm not close enough to the microphone, am I? Uh, so, uh, you know, you do a lot of travel around the state. We do a lot of travel around the state. There's always places where you, you find something to eat and you're like, man, I wish I could get back there more often. And then there's always the local staples. Do you got somewhere around here that, man, if you could eat there five days a week, I would, or if there's somewhere outside of the district, maybe.
(Fred) OK, so, during the session, when we're in Jackson, we eat at Martin's.
(Will) Oh yeah.
(Paul) Oh yeah.
(Fred) Quite a bit. Yeah. We eat there, but if I had to say somebody come, that came from out of town, I live in Brandon. So, if somebody came from out of town, someplace I'd want to take them to would definitely be Gibbes Steakhouse.
(Will) For sure.
(Fred) It’s in Learned, Mississippi. And for those of you who have not been there, you get an awesome charcoal-cooked steak on a paper plate. And then you sit at the table, you can sit with three other, you know, groups and uh, always got good live music and uh, the beers’ on the honor system.
(Will) That's right.
(Paul) There you go.
(Paul) Yeah. Easier, when you walk in, you just keep up with your bottle caps. And, uh, I just, I love it. That, that would be where I would take someone.
(Will) Excellent recommendation.
(Fred) Yeah. The, the other steakhouse that I really like that I've been to, uh, Representative Trey Lamar took me to is Como Steakhouse.
(Will) Yep.
(Fred) And it is fantastic.
(Will) A repeat offender on this podcast.
(Paul) Definitely
(Will) Just last episode, if I'm not mistaken, somebody shouted out Como Steakhouse.
(Fred) Yeah, you walk in, and you were like, am I in the grill? I mean, it's right there at the door, but yeah.
(Will) I love it.
(Fred) It's awesome. So that would definitely be my, my top two steakhouses.
(Will) Fantastic. The man wants steak.
(Paul) Yeah, I was about to say steak guy.
(Fred) Oh yeah.
(Paul) So, what’s your favorite cut of steak, then?
(Fred) Oh, ribeye.
(Paul) Ribeye., ribeye.
(Fred) A hundred percent. Not a filet, a ribeye.
(Will) I sneak a filet in every now and then. Watch my figure.
(Paul) I love all steak. Let’s do, bring all the steak! All right, so we hit the food question. Again, Public Affairs Division at MDOT, we talk a lot about music, too. So, have you been to a concert lately or maybe in the past that just sticks out to you?
(Fred) All right, my favorite one, and y’all will know this. At Hal and Mal’s probably about 15 years ago, it was Old Crow Medicine Show.
(Will) Oh, wow!
(Paul) Nice.
(Fred) Oh, it was the, the best. It’s kind of an American, I guess, string band.
(Will) Yeah.
(Fred) Kind of, rockabilly I guess you’d say.
(Will) That’s a good description.
(Fred) They put on an unbelievable show. It was small, it was intimate, you know. And, uh, everybody, of course y’all know, you know, they all play instruments, of course. In the middle of the show, they all swapped instruments.
(Will) Oh, wow!
(Paul) Whoa.
(Fred) And everybody could play everything. It was probably the best just, entertainment I’ve ever seen in my life.
(Will) Fifteen years ago at Hal and Mal’s, too, right?
(Fred) It was a couple of minutes ago.
(Will) Yeah, that’s, yeah.
(Fred) Yeah, it was my former life. But man, that show was great. It sticks out.
(Will) I didn’t realize they made a tour through the Jackson metro. That’s pretty, that’s definitely a bucket list one. That’s pretty cool.
(Paul) That’s a cool one. Hal and Mal’s, you know, over the years, they’ve had some names that have just kind of blown up. Tyler Childers –
(Fred) Yeah.
(Will) Yeah.
(Paul) Sturgill Simpson have played there, and now they’re huge. So, very cool.
(Fred) I guess outside of that, my dad and I went to Oxford, uh, was actually on the Ole Miss campus and saw Bob Dylan.
(Paul) Wow.
(Will) OK, that’s pretty cool!
(Fred) Yeah, it was pretty neat to see him, uh, great, you know, songwriter.
(Will) No doubt!
(Fred) Singer, ehh, but it was, it was definitely cool to, you know, go watch him.
(Will) That's a, that's pretty cool experience too. We've had a couple of good, uh, submittals, I guess, on favorite concerts, Bob Dylan concert, being able to see him in person. That, that might be top of the list right there.
(Paul) Yeah.
(Will) That's pretty cool.
(Fred) As far as like shows, just while I'm thinking about it.
(Will) Yeah.
(Fred) But two comedians I went and saw in Vegas a hundred years ago and saw Andrew Dice Clay.
(Will) OK. Yep, yep.
(Fred) Dice fan. Pretty cool. And then, um, again, several years ago, I went to Boston Square Gardens and saw Dane Cook.
(Will) Oh man, yeah.
(Paul) Oh, wow!
(Fred) The one that was on HBO. He did the circle of, vicious circle or whatever. It was that one.
(Will) That’s the only one I know, actually.
(Fred) I was there! It was awesome!
(Will) That’s pretty cool. I’m going to have to go back and watch it. Spot you in the crowd.
(Fred) There you go.
(Will) I still, I won’t give this to the podcast at the moment, but I do reenactments of, parts of that show. It was good! On occasion. It is pretty good. Excellent answers, man. Excellent answers.
(Paul) For real. You, uh, definitely passed the music test.
(Fred) Thank you, thank you.
(Paul) You're a certified music guy, so I love it.
(Will) I'm doing it, old bro.
(Paul) There we go. Representative Shanks, thank you so much for making time on a Friday for us. Thanks for having us stop by.
(Fred) Absolutely. Anytime. Glad to do it.
(Paul) Awesome, awesome. We’ll go ahead and wrap things up there. Thank you to our viewers, our listeners tuning into the Extra Mile podcast. You can watch and listen to episodes by visiting GoMDOT.com/TheExtraMile. Follow us on social media; @MississippiDOT is the handle there. Uh, and, uh, remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.
(Will) Thank you for subscribing to The Extra Mile podcast. Help us out by leaving a review and a five-star rating wherever you download the show. After leaving a review, slide on into our DMs over on social media @MississippiDOT and let us know. As a thank you, we have compiled a Google Map list of all of our guests’ favorite spots to eat on Mississippi Highways. It is our gift to you. Seriously, you guys are the best. We could not do the show without you, and we greatly appreciate the support. Remember, drive smart out there on Mississippi Highways.
[Outro Music]