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Gov. Tate Reeves, running for a second term this year, is traveling the state vowing he’ll continue to block Medicaid expansion, a policy that would provide health coverage to at least 200,000 working Mississippians and bring at least $1 billion in new annual revenue to the state.

A powerful fellow Mississippi Republican Party leader appears to have had enough of his defiance.

Presumptive new Speaker of the House Jason White told Mississippi Today last week that Medicaid expansion would be on the table in the 2024 legislative session. White’s remarks sparked an earth-rattling flash in a state that has resisted expansion for more than 10 years.

In just one interview, the likely new House speaker bucked his party’s leader in a prolific way. But the candor of White’s statement was telling in itself. He acknowledged that his own party was being rightfully criticized for not being willing to even discuss expansion. It was a brutally honest, almost self-deprecating statement, the likes of which are rarely seen in modern politics. 

And it was a clear contrast in how Reeves has long discussed and handled the issue.

“I think we as Republicans have probably earned a little bit of the bad rap we get on health care in Mississippi,” White said in a Thursday interview with Mississippi Today. “Part of that is that we haven’t had a full-blown airing or discussion of Medicaid expansion. We’ve just said, ‘No.’

“Now, I’m not out here on the curb pushing Medicaid expansion, but we are going to have full discussions on that and on all facets of health care in Mississippi,” White said. “… Right or wrong, we have been wearing the yoke of, ‘Y’all haven’t even considered this or dug down into the numbers.’ And that’s true.”

There’s all sorts of political cover for any Mississippi leader to float expansion. Public polling this year suggests anywhere between 65% and 80% of Mississippians — and well over 50% of Republicans — support it. Voters broadly want Medicaid expansion, and they’re letting candidates hear it.

White, for what it’s worth, knows this sentiment better than anyone. The past few months, he’s been coordinating political efforts to keep the House GOP supermajority intact in this November’s elections. Many of his partymates are facing challenges from Democrats, who have for years advocated for Medicaid expansion and have recently coordinated a concise pro-expansion message. Several Republican candidates across the state are no doubt having a hard time justifying their party’s inaction to voters.

Beyond just the politics, the facts are impossible to ignore. The federal expansion program would provide Mississippi, the poorest and unhealthiest state in America, billions in new revenue and create tens of thousands of new jobs. It would provide health care to at least 200,000 Mississippians who live in what’s called the “coverage gap” — people who have jobs but do not make enough money to afford health insurance plans on their own and are not offered coverage from their employers. And it would be a major financial shot in the arm for struggling hospitals.

READ MORE: Nearly half of rural hospitals at risk of closure in Mississippi, new data shows

But Tate Reeves doesn’t want it. He plays politics, calling it “Obamacare” and likening it to “welfare.” When the governor gave his State of the State address earlier this year, he issued a direct appeal to lawmakers to resist it.

“Don’t simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare, and socialized medicine,” Reeves said in that speech. “You have my word that if you stand up to the left’s push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”

White, who sat a few feet from the governor’s podium that evening, apparently doesn’t care if the governor is standing with him or not.

For the first time since the Affordable Care Act was passed, the top two leaders of the Legislature may be on the same page about having a conversation, at least, about expanding Medicaid. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, a shoo-in to be reelected for another four-year term, has expressed openness to some version of Medicaid expansion in the past. 

While there has never been an earnest debate of expansion under the Capitol dome, most GOP lawmakers have clearly been awaiting leadership from a party leader. In the 2023 legislative session, Mississippi Today spent weeks surveying lawmakers about the issue. A voting majority in the House and just shy of a voting majority in the Senate said they either supported expansion or were still undecided. Only a small handful of lawmakers in either chamber said they outright opposed it.

White, apparently, is the leader they’ve been waiting on. And on this issue, he may just take his fellow Republicans along with him and leave his governor behind.

READ MORE: Why so many top candidates are ignoring Mississippi’s worsening hospital crisis

The post Are Republicans about to leave Gov. Tate Reeves behind on Medicaid expansion? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Sept. 12, 1992

Dr. Mae Carol Jemison became the first Black woman to travel in space, going into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour with six other astronauts. 

A native of Decatur, Alabama, she excelled in a classroom as a student, attending Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship. She also attended Cornell University Medical College and became a physician, working at the University of Southern California Medical Center. 

After serving as the Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia, she decided to follow her dream of becoming an astronaut. In 1987, she became the first Black woman admitted into the astronaut program. During the space shuttle journey, she conducted scientific experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness. She later appeared in an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and now is the principal of the 100 Year Starship organization, which is working with NASA to help make interstellar space travel possible.

The post On this day in 1992 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A financially struggling Delta hospital received another bit of bad news: its application for a federal designation that would bring in more money has been initially denied. 

The regional Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services office in Atlanta has declined to designate the Greenwood hospital as a critical access hospital, according to a letter the agency sent to interim CEO Gary Marchand on Aug. 24.

Leaders of the hospital, which is co-owned by the city and county, have long been counting on the hospital’s conversion to increase its financial viability — critical access hospitals are reimbursed by Medicare at a higher rate. The hospital is currently classified as an acute care facility.

Marchand has repeatedly called the application their “plan A.”

But all hope is not lost — despite the regional office’s denial, Marchand is still counting on the national CMS office in Washington D.C. approving the hospital’s application.

He shared in an internal email to staff sent Aug. 30 that even with recommendations from the state Health Department and a regional Medicare administrative contractor to convert the hospital into a critical access hospital, a review by the CMS regional office did not yield the same results.

Marchand stressed the decision wasn’t a surprise.

“We expected the Regional Office of CMS to review the application without considering the full scope of the arguments for its approval,” he said. 

Critical access hospitals must be located 35 miles from the nearest hospital. South Sunflower County Hospital in Indianola is just 28 miles away from Greenwood Leflore Hospital. The regional CMS office cited the hospital’s proximity to nearby hospitals as cause for the application’s rejection.

Marchand’s argument for waiving that requirement was that transportation issues plague the Delta — many of the hospital’s patients struggle to make their appointments because they don’t have a way to get there. 

This doesn’t mean the conversion is out of the question, though. The hospital’s application is still being considered by the national CMS office, Marchand said.

“We have always expected the final decision would be made in the national office, and Congressman (Bennie) Thompson and Senators (Roger) Wicker and (Cindy) Hyde-Smith and fully engaged and supportive of the GLH application,” he says in the internal email, before noting that he doesn’t not expect a final answer from the federal agency before the end of the year.

The pandemic has left the hospital in financial straits this past year, and stakeholders are exhausting all options to keep the facility open. Aside from the critical access hospital application, hospital leadership has also closed several departments and services, including neurosurgery and labor and delivery. 

After a potential lease agreement fell through last year, the hospital went up for lease again recently.  

Greenwood hospital leaders have also applied for grants from the Legislature, but as of August, no hospitals in the state have received that money. 

They desperately need it — one report puts nearly half of the state’s rural hospitals at risk of closure.

The longer the state goes without Medicaid expansion, the more dire the situation becomes, Greenwood Mayor Carol McAdams previously told Mississippi Today. 

In the meantime, leaders are still accepting bidders to buy or lease the hospital and save it from closure. 

Marchand says the hospital can stay open until 2024. After that, its future is unclear. 

“Critical access status remains key to the hospital’s ability to provide services over the long term,” Marchand said. “We remain hopeful of the application’s final approval by CMS’s National Office.”

The post Greenwood Leflore Hospital hits another roadblock in struggle to stay open appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with author Michael Farris Smith about his new book, “Salvage This World” and the upcoming movies based on his novels “The Fighter” (“Rumble through the Dark”) and “Desperation Road.”

Michael talks about his career, what it is like being on a phone call with Mel Gibson and the secret to making your literary dreams come true. Plus, see a trailer of “Desperation Road.”

The post Mississippi Stories: Michael Farris Smith appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Incumbent Republicans have sizable leads, as expected, in two down ballot races, according to a new poll from Mississippi Today/Siena College.

The gubernatorial campaign between Democrat Brandon Presley and Republican incumbent Tate Reeves is receiving the bulk of the attention, but Democrats have candidates challenging for all eight statewide elected posts.

In addition to polling the Presley-Reeves gubernatorial election, Mississippi Today/Siena College polled the race for attorney general and secretary of state.

Editor’s note: Poll methodology and crosstabs can be found at the bottom of this story. Click here to read more about our partnership with Siena College Research Institute.

The poll, conducted in late August, showed incumbent Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch with a 54% to 35% lead over Democratic challenger Greta Kemp Martin.

It also shows incumbent Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson with a 56% to 33% lead over Democratic challenger Shuwaski Young.

But this past week, Young dropped out of the race for health reasons, allowing the state Democratic Party to name a replacement to run against Watson. That candidate is Ty Pinkins, an attorney and military veteran, who had announced his intention to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker in 2024. It is not clear whether Pinkins would pursue that campaign should he upset Watson, who is running for his second term as secretary of state.

As election day nears, the contest for attorney general could garner additional interest. Fitch, after all, has received national attention for filing the lawsuit that led to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which provided a national right to an abortion.

Fitch, the former state treasurer who is completing her first term as attorney general, seldom takes questions from the media. Kemp Martin has been an active campaigner.

Kemp Martin, like all the statewide Democratic candidates, is struggling from a lack of name identification.

According to the poll, Fitch was viewed favorably by 37% of the respondents and unfavorably by 29%, with 33% saying they did not know enough to offer an opinion.

A whopping 70% of respondents said they did not know enough to offer an opinion on Kemp Martin, the litigation director for Disability Rights Mississippi. She was viewed favorably by 9% of respondents and unfavorably by 18%.

Young’s numbers were similar to those of Kemp Martin and, of course, the poll was conducted before Pinkins was named as the new Democratic candidate for secretary of state.

Watson was viewed favorably by 27% and unfavorably by 17%, with 54% of respondents saying they did not know enough to offer an opinion.

The Mississippi Today/Siena College Research Institute poll of 650 registered voters was conducted August 20-28, 2023, and has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.0 percentage points. Siena has an ‘A’ rating in FiveThirtyEight’s analysis of pollsters.

Click here for complete methodology and crosstabs relevant to this story.

The post Poll: Republicans lead big in down ballot statewide races appeared first on Mississippi Today.

An active duty Army staff sergeant is accusing an Indianola police officer already under investigation in a separate case of tasing him, choking him and pointing a gun at him while handcuffed in December 2022, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week. 

Kelvin Franklin, 33, made the allegations against Officer Greg Capers, who has been  suspended without pay and faces legal action in a separate incident: the May 2023 shooting of 11-year-old Aderrien Murry. 

Carlos Moore is representing Franklin and the boy’s family in their respective lawsuits. In both interactions, the attorney said Capers escalated the situation. Capers’ alleged aggressive response came when Franklin arrived at his then-fiance’s house to retrieve a bag and after Aderrien called for help during a domestic situation.

“In both instances I believe both results would have been a lot safer if Greg Capers didn’t arrive at either scene,” Moore said. 

Franklin’s lawsuit asks for a jury trial and for at least $500,000 to be awarded to cover compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and interest. 

Cleveland attorney Michael Carr is representing Capers in proceedings for an aggravated assault charge the boy’s mother filed against the officer and in a $5 million federal lawsuit filed on Aderrien’s behalf. 

Carr declined to comment Thursday because it was the first he had heard about Franklin’s lawsuit. He also doesn’t know if Capers has been served and is aware of the suit, which was filed Aug. 28. 

The city of Indianola, Police Chief Ronald Sampson and five unnamed officers are also named as defendants. The lawsuit alleges Capers’ actions are the result of the city and police chief’s policy and failure to supervise and train officers. 

The city defendants have not responded in writing to the lawsuit, and a representative from the police department did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. 

The night of Dec. 30, 2022, Franklin was traveling home with his then-fiance’s cousin from Camp Shelby to his fiance’s residence in Indianola. 

Once in Indianola, the lawsuit details how, as Franklin exited the car and went back to get a parking decal from inside the car, the fiance misread the situation and called 911. 

Seeing the driveway was blocked, Moore said Franklin approached the cousin about moving their vehicle, and the fiance thought they were arguing. She called the police “out of an abundance of caution,” Moore said.

When Capers and the other officers arrived, Franklin told them he was there to retrieve a bag before returning to Camp Shelby, according to the lawsuit. He also said he had a firearm, which one of the unnamed officers took. 

Capers pulled his gun on Franklin then put it back into the holster only to grab his taser, using it on Franklin up to four times and choking him, according to the lawsuit. 

Franklin told the officers he was in pain and only had one kidney, but his request for medical attention was ignored and he was taken to the Sunflower County Jail, where paramedics evaluated him but didn’t treat him, according to the lawsuit. 

When Franklin was released from jail a day later, he sought treatment at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg because he was in pain and felt sick and weak, Moore said. Franklin had a dehydrated kidney and injuries to his neck, stomach and right hand, according to the lawsuit.

Moore said a bystander who knows Franklin filmed a portion of his encounter with police. 

In the 3 ½-minute video shared with Mississippi Today, blue lights illuminate some of the darkness. Franklin is seen standing with his hands out to the side when an officer tases him. He bends over with a hand on his stomach and then falls to the ground. An officer starts to handcuff him.

The man filming makes several comments as the taser crackles and Franklin cries out. 

“Put your hands behind your back, you’re fixing to get it again,” an officer says right before Franklin is tased. 

The lawsuit alleges Capers acted suddenly when he drew his firearm and pointed it toward Franklin, who questioned the officer: “I haven’t done anything wrong for you to shoot me,” according to the suit. This moment was not captured on video. 

Moore said body camera footage from the officers exists, and he plans to request it through discovery. 

Franklin, who has been deployed in Kuwait since May, has over 16 years of military service, Moore said. Not only did the experience leave him mentally distraught and emotionally drained, but he worried about how the incident could have put his military career in jeopardy. 

“It’s been an ordeal,” Moore said about how his client is doing.

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The leader of the Mississippi Democratic Party announced Thursday that Ty Pinkins, an attorney, will become the party’s replacement nominee for the ongoing secretary of state’s race. 

Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor told reporters in front of the Mississippi Capitol that when he asked Pinkins to become the party’s new candidate for the statewide office, he agreed “without hesitation” to place his name on the November general election ballot. 

“This is a man who has served his country, his beloved Delta, and people in marginalized communities across the state of Mississippi who needed his legal expertise,” Taylor said. “Now, he’s stepped up to ensure that come November, Mississippians still have a choice in who will serve them as secretary of state.”

Pinkins is an attorney, Army veteran and native of Vicksburg. He spent much of the last two years aiding Black farmer workers in the Delta who were being paid less money for their work than white visa workers from South Africa doing the same jobs — a legal case that garnered national attention and spurred congressional hearings.

Since January 2023, Pinkins has been actively campaigning as a Democratic opponent against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, who is up for reelection in November 2024.

In a separate interview with Mississippi Today, Pinkins did not specifically answer a question on whether he intended to continue campaigning for the U.S. Senate while running for secretary of state or if he would suspend his Senate campaign if he were elected secretary of state. 

“That’s something that’s down the road,” Pinkins said. “Right now, what I’m focused on is this race and making sure that Mississippians have an option when they go to the ballot box in November.”

But the Democratic candidate does believe his early efforts campaigning for the U.S. Senate give him an unexpected leg up to become a sudden substitute candidate for a crucially important state office. 

“There are 82 counties in this state,” Pinkins said. “And already, we’ve been to over two-thirds of those counties over the last eight months. And we plan to continue what we were doing before: getting out to voters, explaining to voters the issues.” 

Pinkins is now faced with a daunting challenge. Voters will participate in the general election in roughly two months, and Pinkins, a Democrat running in a conservative state, must convince enough voters to elect him to a statewide office he wasn’t even seeking a week ago.

But the new Democratic nominee believes he can attract a coalition of supporters by promoting what he believes are “common sense” reforms to the state’s notoriously strict voting laws and continuing his past efforts of speaking directly to Mississippians. 

Mississippi law allows for online voter registration, no early voting or no-excuse absentee voting. 

Pinkins said, if elected, he would urge the Legislature to ease some of those laws and allow for alternative voting methods. 

“Making sure people can register to vote online makes sense, making sure that we have a way for people to do early voting – that makes sense, and not restricting access to the ballot for people with disabilities,” Pinkins said. 

The Democratic nominee will compete against incumbent Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson, who recently reported having over $883,000 in cash on hand for his campaign efforts. 

“Our record of tackling the tape to protect small business, preserving the integrity of our elections, assembling a statewide conservation plan, and making sure our entire team understands we work for and serve the taxpayers of Mississippi speaks for itself,” Watson said in a Thursday statement. 

The state party was forced to find a replacement for the race because its previous nominee, Shuwaski Young, withdrew his candidacy from the race because he recently experienced a sudden medical event. 

The State Board of Election Commissioners on Wednesday afternoon formally approved a request from the Democratic Party to replace the vacancy left by Young. Both Taylor and Pinkins thanked Young for his early efforts in campaigning for the office. 

The post State Democratic Party names Ty Pinkins as new nominee for secretary of state  appeared first on Mississippi Today.