Mississippi Today’s Sara DiNatale and Alex Rozier won the 2022 Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Reporting, and several of the newsroom’s reporters won a dozen other 2022 Mississippi Press Association awards.
The prizes, awarded annually by the state’s print news associations, recognize the best journalism of Mississippi’s newspapers and digital newsrooms. The 2022 prizes were announced at a Saturday luncheon.
DiNatale and Rozier won the state’s top investigative prize for their impactful 2022 investigation that revealed how Delta farm owners paid their primarily Black local workforce less money than temporary workers from other countries — most often, white men from South Africa.
“Good to know there are great reporters in Mississippi; bad to know there are so many issues that need investigating,” the MPA awards judges wrote of the investigation. “Good research, great interviews.”
The Mississippi Today investigation was later a focus of a congressional hearing held in Washington about unfair labor practices and racial discrimination in farming communities across the nation.
Several other Mississippi Today reporters took home 2022 MPA awards. Below is a complete list of the winners and the awards they won:
First place
In-depth investigative coverage: Sara DiNatale and Alex Rozier
Feature story: Julia James and Kayleigh Skinner
Business news story: Sara DiNatale and Geoff Pender
Ada Sipuel Fisher, right, is represented by attorneys Amos T. Hall, left, and Thurgood Marshall, center. Credit: Painting by Mike Wimmer that hangs in the Oklahoma State Capitol
Ada Sipuel Fisher became the first Black woman to attend an all-white law school in the South when she entered the University of Oklahoma Law School.
Her parents had survived the 1921 Tulsa massacre, and her family moved to Chickasha, where she was born and grew up. She became valedictorian of her local high school and decided to become a lawyer after hearing Thurgood Marshall speak.
With the backing of both her family and the NAACP, she applied to the University of Oklahoma Law School, which rejected her strictly on the basis of race. When Marshall began to represent her in her battle for admission, the Oklahoma Legislature decided to step in and create a brand-new law school in five days that was nothing more than a room inside the state Capitol, and the Oklahoma courts agreed these two law schools were “equal.”
After the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the law school could not bar students based on race, Oklahoma officials decided to admit her. Although she recalled white classmates welcoming her, she was forced to sit in the back of the room behind a sign that read “colored” and had to eat in a separate part of the cafeteria.
Her journey to law school began in 1946 when she applied to the law school. A half-dozen Black students joined her in the fight. Two years later, the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, ending segregation for Black students in graduate programs.
In 1952, Fisher graduated and began practicing law. In 1992, Oklahoma Gov. David Walters appointed her to the University of Oklahoma’s Board of Regents. She vowed to bring enlightenment to the position, noting that she had “suffered severely from bigotry and racial discrimination as a student.”
After her 1995 death, the law named a garden to honor her, and a bronze plaque talked of “how the stone that the builders once rejected becomes the cornerstone.” The law school has since received more than $1 million to endow the Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Chair in Civil Rights, Race and Justice in Law to teach, research and empower future lawyers.
With one month remaining in the fiscal year, the state has collected $653 million in revenue more than Mississippi’s financial experts estimated would be collected.
The official guesstimate — er, estimate — is important because it represents the amount of revenue available primarily from general tax collections for the Legislature to appropriate to fund education, health care and other vital services. In other words, late in the 2022 session, legislators made an official estimate that was used to fund state government for the next fiscal year, starting July 1 of last year. With one month remaining in the fiscal year, the state is collecting 10.7% more than that official estimate.
It is important to understand that the revenue over the estimate is normally put into accounts to spend on capital expenses instead of programs to improve governmental services, such as services to curb the 900% increase in newborns with syphilis that occurred over a six-year period in Mississippi.
The official estimate is agreed upon by the legislative leaders and the governor in November before the start of the session. Later on, legislative leaders who serve on the Legislative Budget Committee have the authority to change the estimate — sans input from the governor — during the session before a final budget is adopted by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor.
State law spells out the process for the Legislature and governor to come together to adopt a revenue estimate. What state law does not address is that the revenue estimate for years has been based on recommendations of five financial experts. The recommendation of the five-member revenue estimating committee is generally, though not always, accepted by the political leaders.
That committee consists of:
Corey Miller, the state economist.
Liz Welch, the executive director of the Department of Finance and Administration.
David McRae, the state treasurer.
Chris Graham, the state revenue commissioner.
Tony Greer, the executive director of the Legislative Budget Committee.
They meet behind closed doors to study economic trends and try to predict the future in order to make a recommendation. And as former Gov. Haley Barbour used to say, they will never be right.
Because of the uncertainty of their work, there are safeguards built in to try to avoid mid-year budget cuts. For instance, under state law only 98% of projected revenue is supposed to be appropriated. That 2%, about $150 million, provides a cushion if revenue does not meet projections.
While the revenue estimating group never gets it right, the panel has been more wrong than normal in recent years and has received some criticism. Revenue exceeded estimates by an unfathomable $1.5 billion or 24.6% for fiscal year 2022, and by $1.05 billion or 18.5% for fiscal year 2021. And with one month left in the 2023 fiscal year, revenue collections are again exceeding expectations by a substantial margin.
In fairness to the group, no one expected revenue collections to skyrocket like they did after the COVID-19 pandemic, when billions in federal funds were pumped into the state, spurring economic growth. Most states have experienced similar revenue surges. After a brief but dramatic COVID-inspired drop in collections in early 2020, revenue collections soared and have not come down, though in recent months it appears they might be returning to earth.
Before the pandemic, revenue exceeded projections by 1.6% in 2018 and by 5.5% in 2019. In fiscal year 2020 revenue was 0.72% below the projections. The pandemic hit late in the 2020 fiscal year and revenue dipped briefly before the unprecedented growth began.
In addition to the uncertainty of projecting state revenue collections more than a year in advance, it also is reasonable to assume the committee members are yielding at least slightly to the governing principles of the governor and the legislative leaders in making their recommendations.
The scripted format of the meetings where the recommendations are made is often obvious, and no one involved in following that script is going to win an Academy Award. A lower revenue estimate means the Legislature does not have as much money to spend.
And Reeves and legislative leaders such as Speaker Philip Gunn have worn cuts in state government like a badge of honor. They have not hidden their obsession with cutting or curbing state government spending.
Two of the members of the estimating committee, the DFA executive director and the revenue commissioner, are appointed by the governor. The head of the Legislative Budget Committee staff, of course, is tabbed by the legislative leadership. The treasurer is elected statewide, while the state economist falls under the authority of the Institutions of Higher Learning Board.
In other words, in making their official guesstimate, the experts face not only the uncertainties of projecting the economy months in advance but pressures — even if unspoken — of the political leaders they serve.
Peter Salem became a hero in the American Revolution. He had been born into slavery in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1750 and was freed to fight in the revolution.
After Americans began the British army, British Maj. John Pitcairn demanded that the Americans surrender. When they didn’t, he waved his sword and rallied the British troops to counterattack. He led the charge over the hill, reportedly yelling out, “The day is ours!” As he did, a Black soldier stepped forward and shot Pitcairn, according to eyewitnesses.
“As news of Pitcairn’s death spread, the morale for the American cause skyrocketed,” according to the American Battlefield Trust. Salem, who was generally credited with shooting Pitcairn, survived the battle and continued to serve in the Army for another five years.
Following the war, he married Katy Benson and worked as a cane weaver. He was buried in a pauper’s grave in Framingham, but in 1882, the townspeople erected a monument to honor him. He is also depicted in John Trumbull’s famous painting of the Bunker Hill battle.
FLOWOOD — As hospitals around the state continue to bleed out critical health care services, Mississippi’s two leading candidates for governor shared different visions with the Mississippi Press Association Friday on how to stop the hemorrhaging.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves called on state lawmakers to abolish certain hospital regulations, while Democratic candidate Brandon Presley continued to push legislators to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor.
Since the two candidates have started campaigning for governor, the state’s hospital crisis has worsened. St. Dominic Memorial Hospital in Jackson laid off over 5% of its workforce and eliminated its mental health services, and Memorial Hospital in Gulfport cut 2% of its employees.
A third of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are also at risk of closure within the near future, according to a recent report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform.
Reeves, who is running for a second four-year term, advocated for abolishing the state’s certificate of need laws, or CON laws, because he believes it will cause more innovative medical services to emerge in the Magnolia State.
“By reforming Mississippi’s certificate of need laws, we can root out anticompetitive behavior that blocks the formation of medical facilities and prevents the delivery of life saving healthcare for our fellow Mississippians,” Reeves said.
CON laws require medical facilities to seek approval from the state Health Department before they create a new health care center or expand an existing facility’s services in a specific area.
Republican legislators have filed bills to do away with such laws, but they have never gained any major momentum at the Capitol.
The first-term governor also said he supported establishing more medical residency programs outside of the capital city to address physician shortages and dismissed Medicaid expansion as a viable solution.
“I don’t think the answer to our biggest issues, however, is massively expanding welfare,” Reeves said of Medicaid expansion.
Presley, the current utilities regulator in north Mississippi, dismissed the idea that Medicaid expansion is welfare and declared the main reason the governor has opposed increased Medicaid coverage is because of “cheap, petty politics.”
“It is ridiculous to think that giving 230,000 working people health care because they’re working is somehow welfare,” Presley said. “That’s ridiculous. That’s just totally ridiculous.”
One of the Democratic candidate’s core platforms is to expand the program to more people because he believes it will allow hospitals to reduce the money they lose from uncompensated care.
The federal government would cover the bulk of the expanded program, and the state would likely provide 10% in matching funds. The state economist published a report concluding that the revenue the state collected from the program would cover the increased cost of matching funds.
Presley said he was open to cutting or reforming Mississippi’s CON laws, but openly questioned why Reeves had not implemented the policy while he served as lieutenant governor, the leader of the state Senate, for eight years.
“Where have you been for 12 years?” Presley said about Reeves. “You were lieutenant governor for eight. You’ve been governor for four. If all of these ideas were great, why haven’t you gotten them done, partner?”
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and state Sen. Chris McDaniel, the two main candidates competing in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor, also shared their primary proposals to the press association.
McDaniel advocated for abolishing the state income tax and reducing the sales tax on groceries.
Hosemann praised his past efforts to reduce the size of government, while leading efforts to spend tax dollars on teacher pay raises and new infrastructure projects.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has joined the celebration of a victory handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a 1978 law that aims to keep together Native American children and their families and support tribal sovereignty.
“This is an important win for tribal sovereignty and for tribal children,” Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben said in a Friday statement. “Protecting the welfare of our children is essential to the survival of our language, culture, and traditions.”
The court ruled 7 to 2 Thursday in Brackeen v. Haaland, which centered on whether the Indian Child Welfare Act was constitutional. The act governs child custody of Native children.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion and was joined by six other justices, while
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., dissented.
“By now, the full picture has come into view and it is easy to see why ICWA must stand,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion. “Under our Constitution, Tribes remain independent sovereigns responsible for governing their own affairs.”
If Native American children are removed from their parents, the act sets preferences to place them with other family members, other members of the tribe or a different tribe.
The case was brought by a white foster couple from Texas, Chad and Jennifer Brackeen, against five tribes and the U.S. Department of the Interior over the adoption of American children. The couple was able to adopt one Native American child, because the Navajo Nation was unable to find a Navajo family to take him. The couple then tried to adopt the boy’s sister, but the girl’s extended family wanted to take her in. Two other non-Native American couples, who adopted Native American children even after challenges from the tribes where the children were eligible for membership, joined the lawsuit along with three states.
The plaintiff families said the law discriminated against non-Native families and the children they wanted to adopt on the basis of race.
ICWA recognizes that tribes have sovereignty and exclusive jurisdiction over their members who live on tribal land or are domiciled there.
During oral arguments, the justices heard arguments about whether tribes are political entities or racial groups, which is an argument defendants said threatened tribal rights and sovereignty.
More than 450 tribal nations filed amicus briefs in support of ICWA, and numerous Native American organizations, child welfare organizations, over half of all states and members of Congress showed support for the act.
ICWA was created in response to the mistreatment of generations of Native American people by the government and private citizens such as through the enrollment of children in boarding schools and the adoption of children out of tribes into non-Native families.
In 1978, between a quarter and a third of all Native children were taken from their families and
put in foster homes, up for adoption or into institutions, according to surveys by the Association on American Indian Affairs.
During Senate committee hearings about Indian child welfare, then Choctaw Chief Calvin Isaac testified that raising Native children in non-Native homes reduces tribes’ chances of survival.
His testimony was cited in the Supreme Court’s decision and in a 1989 case brought by the tribe that helped define ICWA.
The court ruled tribes have jurisdiction over children domiciled on a reservation based on tribe membership or eligible membership, even if they aren’t physically present there.
MBCI is the state’s only federally recognized tribe. Over 11,000 members are descendants of Choctaws who remained in Mississippi to preserve their cultural heritage and ancestral homelands, said Chief Ben.
“Today, just as in the past, the preservation and security of our Tribe, our culture, and our tribal children and families are of utmost importance,” he said.
Ray Morgigno will serve as the next interim state superintendent of education in Mississippi. Credit: Mississippi Department of Education
The Mississippi State Board of Education named Ray Morgigno as interim state superintendent, to serve “tentatively” through June 2024 while the board conducts a national search for a permanent replacement.
The board met in executive session for four and a half hours Thursday before naming Morgigno to the role.
Morgigno will replace Mike Kent, who served as a temporary interim for three months following the Senate rejection of Robert Taylor. Taylor was selected through a national search process last year to replace outgoing State Superintendent Carey Wright.
Morgigno is a 20-year veteran of Mississippi public education, having worked as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal. He served as the superintendent of the Pearl Public School District for 12 years. Morgigno also served as an officer in the Mississippi Army National Guard for over 20 years.
Morgigno will earn a salary of $300,000 in this role, the same as permanent state superintendents.
“Dr. Morgigno is a lifelong educator and public servant who brings a wealth of experience in public education in Mississippi,” said Glen East, board vice-chair, in a press release. “The Board is confident he will continue the great strides Mississippi has made in public education over the past decade as we conduct the search for a permanent state superintendent.”
The board will continue to work with McPherson & Jacobson, the Omaha-based superintendent search firm that led the process last year to select Taylor. The search firm’s services will be covered under the original contract amount of $51,200.
The firm will be accepting applications for state superintendent from Aug. 14 to Oct. 19. A press release from the Mississippi Department of Education said the board plans to solicit public input with a survey of educators, legislators, and business and community leaders regarding their ideal qualities and priorities for the next state superintendent. The press release added that the board anticipates selecting the next state superintendent by the end of 2023.
Morgigno will also be eligible to apply for the state superintendent position under a recent education department rule change.
The CEOs of two of the state’s largest hospital systems are resigning.
Scott Kashman, head of St. Dominic Memorial Hospital in Jackson, and Tiffany Murdock, head of Singing River Health System on the Gulf Coast, have both announced they are leaving their positions.
According to spokespeople at both health systems, the CEOs’ decisions were made on their own accord. Both systems have ties to Louisiana Catholic nonprofit Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, which bought St. Dominic in 2019 and announced it was purchasing Singing River in March. The final sale agreement for Singing River has not yet been reached.
The departures continue a trend of hospital CEO turnover across the country. One study found that exits hit a four-year-high in January and attributed it to the tenuous state of health care across the country.
Mississippi is no exception — a third of rural hospitals are at risk of closure, according to one report. Three health systems in the state have recently announced sweeping layoffs.
Kashman, who has been CEO and market president of St. Dominic for a little less than two years, will be pursuing “an opportunity closer to family,” according to hospital marketing director Meredith Bailess.
Scott Kashman, market president for St. Dominic Health Services and CEO of St. Dominic Hospital Credit: Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System
Bailess did not answer whether Kashman’s departure was related to the hospital’s recent layoffs and the closure of its behavioral health services unit. She also declined to answer if there were any other changes on the executive level at St. Dominic.
“We are appreciative of Scott’s commitment to the Jackson community and his leadership of our team through a difficult financial environment and the end of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bailess said in an email. “We pray all the best for Scott and wish him well on his new endeavors.”
In his stead, Kristin Wolkart, chief nursing officer of the health system, will act as interim market president starting June 20.
Murdock is leaving Singing River to become Ochsner Health’s next vice president and chief nursing officer, according to a press release from the health care system on Thursday. Ochsner, a Gulf Coast-based health care giant, operates dozens of facilities in Mississippi and employs more than 9,000 nurses.
Murdock was appointed as the leader of Singing River a year ago after serving in an interim position since last February. She was the first woman to hold the position.
“The Board of Trustees would like to thank Tiffany for her dedication, visionary leadership, and unparalleled commitment to the organization,” said Singing River’s Board of Trustees President Erich Nichols in a press release issued Wednesday evening.
“Under her guidance, we have witnessed remarkable achievements and tremendous growth, setting new standards of excellence within our industry,” he continued. “Her approachability, humility, and genuine care for the team made her not just a CEO but a mentor and friend to many within the organization. We wish Tiffany the very best in her future endeavors.”
Spokespeople for Singing River could not be reached for further questions by press time.
Laurin St. Pe, current chief operating officer, has been appointed the interim CEO upon Murdock’s departure, the exact date of which is unclear. Ochsner’s press release said Murdock would start at their health system later this summer.
“We have full confidence in Laurin’s ability to lead us through this transition period and maintain the positive momentum that has been built,” Nichols continued in the press release. “The Board of Trustees will work closely with Tiffany, Laurin, and the Executive Team to ensure the continuity of our operations, maintain our strategic focus, and uphold the values that define us as an organization.”
Singing River is one of the largest employers on the Gulf Coast, according to their website.
Clarification 6/15/2023: This story has been updated to reflect that while Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System was selected as the buyer for Singing River in March, the sale agreement has not yet been finalized.
