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Civil War reenactors brought history to life at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson as members of the 3rd U.S. Colored Cavalry taught attendees how soldiers of that era lived on rations or off the land, the wool uniforms they wore; the armaments they used; how meals were cooked, and how their horses were taken care of and used to transport men and materials.

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The U.S. Open will be played at Pinehurst No. 2 this week. It’s a golf course with which Randy Watkins is extremely familiar. Watkins says it will be a test, even for Scottie Scheffler. Today’s discussion also covers the College World Series, the bidding war the L.A. Lakers lost to UConn, and Hurston Waldrep’s debut with the Atlanta Braves.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: It’s U.S. Open Week and Mr. Golf Randy Watkins joins to discuss whether anybody can beat Scottie Scheffler right now. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Originally published by The 19th

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced a new effort to ban medical debt from credit reports, something that would ease a burden that falls most heavily on women and Black people. 

“Medical debt makes it more difficult for millions of Americans to be approved for a car loan, a home loan or a small business loan, all of which in turn makes it more difficult to just get by, much less get ahead, and that is simply not fair. Especially when we know that people with medical debt are no less likely to repay a loan than those without medical debt,” Harris said. “No one should be denied access to economic opportunity simply because they experienced a medical emergency.”

Federal efforts to remove medical debt from credit reports began last fall after Harris announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) would take the first steps to create rules that would take medical bills off credit reports, prohibit creditors from using medical bills to make underwriting decisions and ban collectors from using medical debt to pressure consumers to make payments. These proposals would narrow the 2005 exemption in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which allowed creditors to use medical debts in underwriting credit decisions. Creditors would still have the ability to access medical debts and bill information in certain instances, such as to evaluate loan applications for medical services.

Other federal efforts to curb medical debt include the No Surprises Act, which took effect in July 2022 and requires private health insurers to cover most emergency services, emergency care and non-emergency in-network services and prohibits medical providers from billing patients more than in-network cost sharing.

The rule change could lead to more people being able to borrow money, as CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said it would give lenders more accurate and predictive information about borrowers.

“The 15 million Americans who would benefit from this credit reporting change would see their scores rise by an average of 20 points. … For mortgages alone, we estimate that this could lead to approximately 22,000 additional home loans each year,” he said. “Our action today is an important step toward reducing some of the unnecessary costs of getting sick in America.”

According to a senior administration official, this rule would include historical medical bill information and dental debt.

Other federal efforts to curb medical debt include the No Surprises Act, which took effect in July 2022 and prohibits surprise billing for most emergency services and non-emergency services done out-of-network.

The nationwide credit reporting agencies, which are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, removed medical debt under $500 from consumer credit reports as of April 2023. However, this April, the CFPB released research that found 15 million Americans still have medical debt on their credit reports — particularly those in the American South and low-income communities. A March 2022 report from the CFPB found that Americans were harboring $88 billion in medical debt.

A KFF Health Policy Research analysis published this year based on the 2021 national Survey of Income and Program Participation found that 20 million people owed a collective $220 billion in medical debt. The analysis found that 13 percent of people with disabilities reported having medical debt, compared with 6 percent of those without a disability. It also found that non-Hispanic Black people carry more medical debt than other racial and ethnic groups, and women carry more than men. A separate analysis found that 14 percent of people who gave birth within the last year and a half reported having medical debt, compared with 7 percent of those who did not. 

“Since we know that Black adults and women are more at risk of having medical debt, then I would expect this policy would benefit those groups,” said Cynthia Cox, KFF vice president and director of the foundation’s Program on the Affordable Care Act, which examines health care coverage costs, affordability and accessibility.

Undue Medical Debt, the nonprofit formerly known as RIP Medical Debt that contacts hospitals and health care systems requesting that they sell or donate portions of patients’ debt, and Perry Undem, a nonpartisan public opinion research firm, surveyed over 2,600 adults in August 2023, 229 of whom were Black women. Among Black women, 27 percent said they have delayed or said no to health services out of concerns over acquiring medical debt. A study from the American Cancer Society published in March suggested that “medical debt is associated with worse health status, more premature deaths, and higher mortality rates at the county level in the US.”

In 2022, YouGov, a research data and analytics technology group, reported that 66 percent of Americans supported government relief for medical debt. Eva Stahl, the vice president of public policy and program management at Undue Medical Debt, attributes this support to the fact that it can impact anyone. 

“It’s not a debt of choice, it’s a debt of necessity. Because there’s a general consensus about that, it’s not really a partisan issue,” she said. 

Stahl said they have gotten interest from legislators across the nation, even in the South, with some jurisdictions in Texas and Kentucky showing interest in erasing residents’ medical debt. Some state-level efforts to erase medical debt for state residents have either passed or been proposed — some in partnership with Undue Medical Burden.

In June 2023, Colorado became the first state to prohibit medical debt from being included on residents’ credit reports. Similar legislation was passed this year in Connecticut and proposed in New Jersey. 

Last year, Connecticut’s state legislature approved a budget that would allocate $6.5 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding toward erasing medical debt for residents whose medical debt is 5 percent of their income or whose household income is up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line. Earlier this year, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, announced efforts to use $30 million of ARP funding to cancel medical debt for up to 1 million Arizonans, using similar criteria as Connecticut. Both states partnered with Undue Medical Debt

To Stahl, removing medical debt from credit reports has limitations.

“It’s an action that is helpful, but it’s not getting it’s not at the it’s not at the root,” which is “that people don’t have access to affordable high quality health care,” Stahl said. “Even if you banned medical debt from credit reports, which is an important and worthy exercise, people still have unpaid medical bills. … Patients will still feel the stress of having debt collectors call them several times a day, asking them when they’re going to pay their medical bills, or they may get into payment plans that they can’t really afford.”

A senior administration official said public comments are being accepted through August 12. They expect the rule to be finalized early next year.

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Whether it’s through their animals, their careers, or their homes, Mississippians have fascinating connections to the environment, and it’s been a privilege getting to talk to them over the six or so years I’ve been on this beat.

One of my favorite things about doing this coverage is that, because everyone interacts with the environment, there’s no telling where the next story will come from. Every now and then, we get a tip from someone with no political connections, talking about some issue I’ve never heard of, in a town I’ve never been. Often, those become some of the most special stories to tell.

Be it pollution, farming, habitats, energy, disaster mitigation, climate change, or water infrastructure, we want to keep engaging with our readers on what’s happening with the environment around Mississippi, and we hope you’ll keep letting us know what we’re missing.

Take the survey below, and we’ll use your questions to create an FAQ.

The post What questions do you have about climate and environment in Mississippi? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appears to be moving on from the “One Lake” flood control plan, the agency is indicating its support for an altered version of the proposal that includes other flood control components.

Since 2011, local officials at the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District — also referred to as the Flood Control District or the Levee Board — have backed One Lake as the solution to a decades-long effort to curb flooding in Jackson. The effort traces back to the record-setting flood of 1979, which the Corps estimates would leave behind over $1.2 billion in damages if it happened today.

The proposal has garnered both support and opposition from politicians on either side of the aisle, with environmental advocates cautioning that One Lake would disrupt the water flow downstream of Jackson and harm valuable ecosystems. Proponents, including local business leaders, have hailed the proposal as a potential revenue-builder for Jackson and Rankin County. The idea behind One Lake was not only to reduce flooding by lowering and spreading the Pearl River out, but also to create recreational areas along the water.

The Corps, the federal agency in charge of approving such a project, visited Jackson last year to hear the public’s input. The group of engineers came back with a draft environmental study on Friday that appears to support a plan with similar features as One Lake with additional mitigation measures, including elevating homes and improving the nearby levee system.

Friday’s report also initiated a new public comment period that lasts until July 22. The Corps will hold a new round of public meetings, including two in Jackson on July 10 and one the following day in Monticello. For more information on how to submit comments or attend the meetings, visit the Corps’ project page.

What options are the Corps looking at?

Friday’s 300-page draft study narrowed the scope of the Pearl River flood control project to four options: a nonstructural option, the locally preferred plan (One Lake), a combination of other plans without a weir, and a combination of other plans with a weir.

The nonstructural option (called “Alternative A1” in the report) would consist of elevating and floodproofing up to 143 structures. Property owners would also have the option of voluntary buyouts, and their land would be converted into publicly owned greenspaces. This option, the report found, had the highest cost-benefit ratio of the four, a key criteria in the Corps’ decision-making. But Alternative A1 also comes with “significant uncertainties and risks,” the Corps wrote, as the plan’s success depends on the participation rate of the property owners.

One Lake (or “Alternative C” in the study) would relocate a dam near the J.H. Fewell water treatment plant, excavate the sides of the Pearl River and widen it for a 10-mile stretch from near Lakeland Drive to south Jackson. Alternative C had the lowest cost-benefit ratio of the four options, the study found. The Corps estimated that the project could cost anywhere from $1 billion to $2.1 billion, and that the annual cost of the project (between $40 million and $80 million) far outweighs the benefits from damage reductions ($14 million). The Corps’ estimate also far exceeds the $340 million cost estimate that local officials attached to One Lake as recently as 2022.

“Alternative C… is not justified under the traditional (Corps) benefit-cost analysis,” Friday’s report said.

The last two options are combinations of other plans. “Alternative D,” the one the Corps is tentatively supporting, includes building a dam on the Pearl River and widening the channel, creating a 1,700-acre lake — a smaller, but similar version of the 2,500-acre lake in Alternative C. Alternative D also doesn’t include moving the existing weir by J.H. Fewell, and the new dam would go in a couple miles upstream of the one proposed in Alternative C.

Another main difference is the other components of Alternative D, which includes elevating or floodproofing up to 60 structures, including 43 homes, as well as voluntary buyouts. The plan would also include improving existing levees, as well as building a new levee on the west side of the river that would reduce flooding for an estimated 250 homes in northeast Jackson.

The other combination plan, “Alternative E,” doesn’t include a new weir, but has less flood-reduction benefits than Alternative D.

“As a result, it can be reasonably expected that one of the (combination) plans, likely (Alternative D), would be the NED plan,” the report says (the “NED,” or National Economic Development, plan indicates which plan best meets the Corps’ criteria as far as weighing the costs and benefits of a proposal).

Alternative D, the report says, would cost between $485 million and $655 million. In 2022, the Corps announced it would spend $221 million in funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on the project.

Environmental advocates who spoke to Mississippi Today said they’re still reviewing the details of the corps’ new proposal, but said that the idea appears to raise similar concerns that came with One Lake.

“It’s going to dig out the wetland areas and the bottomland hardwoods, and it’s going to affect critical habitat, just a little bit less than (One Lake) would have,” said Andrew Whitehurst, Water Program director for Healthy Gulf. “So, it still requires a lot of mitigation.

“Alternative D and old Alternative C are pretty close in what they are going to do to the river.”

The post Corps indicates support for altered version of ‘One Lake’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House Rules Chairman Fred Shanks will likely consider legislation next year that would replace Mississippi’s two statues of Confederate leaders at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, a move that would follow the lead of several other Southern states. 

Shanks, a Republican from Brandon, told Mississippi Today on Monday that if House Speaker Jason White refers a measure to his committee in the future that would replace the state’s statues of Jefferson Davis and J.Z. George in Washington, he would seriously study the legislation.

“The things I’m going to take into consideration is how much it costs and if we have the votes,” Shanks said. “So I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me. I got asked about it this year, but we had so much else going on that it was impossible to get to it. But it’s going to be a major decision.” 

While Democratic lawmakers have filed measures to replace the statues for years, Shanks’ recent comments are the first significant movement by GOP legislative leadership to replace the statues that the state placed in Washington nearly a century ago.

The Legislature could create a committee to decide on possible replacements, similar to the one made in 2020 to recommend a new state flag, or lawmakers themselves could pick the replacements. 

Shanks said he’s open to different ideas when selecting new statues, but he supports having world-renowned musician Elvis Presley as one of the two replacements. 

Shanks’ comments come after Arkansas last month unveiled a new statue of civil rights leader Daisey Bates. Bates’ statue stands next to Mississippi’s statue of Davis, the president of the Confederacy. Arkansas also voted to replace its other statute with one of musician Johnny Cash.

Alabama, in 2009, replaced a statue of Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a Confederate officer, with one of Helen Keller, a political activist and disability rights advocate.

Florida approved a measure in 2016 to replace Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith with Mary McLeod Bethune, a civil rights activist and founder of a Florida university.  

Virginia, in 2020, removed Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the collection and plans to replace it with civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns. 

Each U.S. state is allowed to place two statues of people “illustrious for their historic renown” or “distinguished civil or military services” after Congress passed a federal law in the mid-nineteenth century establishing the national collection. 

According to the Architect of the Capitol’s website, 3 million to 5 million people pass through the Capitol collection each year to glance at what are supposed to be the country’s most reputable figures.

Both Davis and George were leaders of the Confederacy, and their vivid racism is well documented.

Davis served in the U.S. House and Senate from Mississippi before becoming the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, which fought to preserve slavery. Davis later said in a speech to the Mississippi Legislature that if he had the chance to change his past actions about secession, he would not do anything differently.

George was a member of Mississippi’s Secession Convention in 1861, and he signed the secession ordinance that included these words: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world.”

George served in the Confederate Army and was also the architect of the 1890 Constitution that sought to reestablish white supremacy in the state and disenfranchise Black citizens from voting or holding elected office.

Federal law allows states to replace the statues in the collection. To change a statue, a majority of lawmakers in both legislative chambers must vote to approve the replacement, and the state is required to pay for the costs of replacing the two statues.

House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III, a Democrat from Natchez, and Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, a Democrat from Greenville, filed separate resolutions last year to replace statutes of Jefferson Davis and J.Z. George in the U.S Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection. But both measures died. 

The post Key Mississippi leader is open to replacing state’s white supremacist statues in Washington appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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House Speaker Jason White on Monday said he supports changing state law to make it easier for K-12 students to transfer to other public schools outside their home districts.  

White, a Republican from West who just completed his first year as speaker, told attendees at the Stennis Capitol Press Forum in downtown Jackson that parents should have greater freedom to select which school district their child attends, though the state would not provide them transportation to attend a school outside their home district under his proposal. 

“We want any public school student to be able to go to another public school without the home district being able to hold them against their will and the state portion of the per-pupil cost to follow that child,” White said. 

Mississippi currently has a very limited form of “open enrollment” that allows students to transfer from their home district to a nearby school district. However, the transfer requires both the home school district and the receiving school district to sign off on it. 

A senator and a House member filed legislation during the 2024 session to remove the current requirement that the home school district approve a student transferring to another district, but both bills died. 

The first-term speaker also said he personally supports a robust school choice or school voucher system but believes the political realities at the Capitol, including within the state GOP, make it extremely difficult for the Legislature to pass such a policy.   

“We’ve got to come to acknowledge and understand that there is a place for choice for some kids and some parents,” White said. “And somehow or another, I’ve got to be able some kind of way to earn Mississippians’ trust on that issue as we move in that direction.” 

But White, who attended both public and private schools as a child, told attendees that while he supports a significant voucher system, his goal is not to “blow up public education.” 

READ MORE: Speaker Jason White names members of committee to explore state tax cuts 

“The last thing I want to do is go after public education, and while Republicans have gotten a tough rap on some of that, maybe we’ve earned some of it,” White said. “I commit to you we simply want to make it better while acknowledging that our parents in this state have some rights when it comes to their kids and the education that they receive.” 

Other priorities the speaker outlined for the 2025 session are: 

• Cutting the state income and grocery tax 
• Reforming the way Mississippi restores voting rights to disenfranchised felons
• Tweaking the way the state determines whether school districts are successfully educating students 

Unless Republican Gov. Tate Reeves calls lawmakers into a special session to consider a specific topic, the Legislature will not reconvene to consider new laws until January 2025. However, lawmakers typically form committees to study particular issues during the summer and the fall. 

White announced last month that he was forming three committees that were expected to meet in the fall to explore the state’s tax structure, certificate of need laws and prescription drugs. 

The post Speaker White wants to make it easier for Mississippi students to switch school districts appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Democratic Party on Monday called for a boycott of this year’s state fair after state Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson held a support rally for former President Donald Trump last week.

“This event, hosted and funded by Ag Commissioner Andy Gipson’s campaign, comes in the wake of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election,” a Democratic Party press release on Monday said. “… The Mississippi Democratic Party believes that this rally is not just a show of support for Trump, but a dangerous endorsement of criminal behavior and corruption.

” … In light of this event, we are calling for a boycott of the upcoming Mississippi State Fair, an event closely associated with the AG Commissioner’s office. By boycotting the State Fair, we aim to send a clear message that the citizens of Mississippi will not support or tolerate the actions of leaders who stand with a convicted criminal.”

Gipson responded to the call for a boycott in a statement on Monday: “The Mississippi Democrat Party’s statement and boycott of our State Fair is about as ridiculous as the charges brought against Donald Trump in New York City. I invite everyone to come enjoy the Mississippi State Fair October 3rd through 13th?”

Republican Gipson, who oversees the fair and state fairgrounds, called the New York trial and jury conviction of Trump a “rigged and politically motivated witch hunt.” He held a rally, funded by Gipson’s campaign according to ads for the rally, in support of Trump on Thursday night at the Mississippi Agriculture Museum.

The 165th Mississippi State Fair is scheduled for Oct. 3-13.

A successful boycott could have a large financial impact for Jackson and the state.

The capital city’s largest annual event last year drew more than 500,000 attendees, according to Gipson’s department. According to Visit Jackson, the fair generates more than $30 million a year in tourism spending in the city.

In the Democratic Party press release, party Chairman Cheikh Taylor said, “It is deeply concerning and frankly alarming to see our state leaders, including Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Governor Tate Reeves, supporting a convicted felon.”

“The time for action is now,” Taylor said. “We must take a stand against those who would undermine our democracy and the values we hold dear.”

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