The nonprofit Leapfrog Group released its hospital safety grades for the fall of 2023, showing the state’s largest public hospital joined nine others in scoring a “B,” its highest score to date.
Eight years after it received an “F” rating, the University of Mississippi Medical Center scored a “B,” which hospital leaders say is the result of a targeted effort to improve safety measures.
Eight Mississippi hospitals received an “A” safety score, a decrease from 11 in May.
Leapfrog, which advocates for hospital transparency, assigns biannual grades to about 3,000 general acute-care hospitals across the nation based on how those institutions protect patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.
UMMC is the state’s only academic medical center and cares for the highest-risk patients in Mississippi. It is also home to the state’s only organ and tissue transplant program, Level I trauma center, and a children’s hospital with specialized pediatric programs.
Its latest grade places it in the ranks with other academic medical centers such as Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville and University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, according to UMMC’s press release.
“We’re a Level I trauma center, we’re a tertiary care center, we’re an academic medical center, and we’re the only one of those in a state with the sickest patients in the nation,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, said in the press release.
Following its “F” score back in 2015, the hospital has been gradually increasing its letter grade, receiving a “D” for three years in a row, a “C” for the following four years, and a “B” for the first time this year.
No Mississippi hospitals received an “F” in the latest report, but three scored a “D,” including Merit Health Central in Jackson. The letter grade is based on the hospital’s performance in five categories: infections, problems with surgery, safety problems, practices to prevent errors, and doctors, nurses and hospital staff.
Merit Health Central scored worse than average compared to other hospitals in the rate of deaths from serious treatable complications post-surgery, as well as the rate of dangerous objects left in patients’ bodies after surgery.
The urban hospital, which began cutting services like general surgery and its neonatal intensive care unit last year, has long serviced predominantly Black neighborhoods with a high concentration of people living below the poverty line.
An estimated 160,000 lives are lost annually across the country due to avoidable medical errors, an improvement from the 205,000 lives in 2016, according to the Leapfrog group.
Incumbent Republican Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson faces Democratic nominee Robert Bradford in Tuesday’s general election.
Gipson, 46, of Braxton, is a lawyer, a tree and cattle farmer, a Baptist minister and former longtime state representative, where he served as chairman of the Judiciary B Committee. He was appointed as agriculture commissioner in 2018 to fill out now U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s term, then elected to the post.
Bradford, 50, is a fourth-generation Delta farmer. He is currently serving as the director of the Natchez-Adams County Homeland Security Program, Floodplain Management Program, Emergency 9-1-1 coordinator and Emergency Management Agency. Bradford is a U.S. Army 82nd Airborne veteran, and retired as a major with the Army Reserves. He has a bachelor of science degree in agronomy from Alcorn State University.
Gipson said he’s made great accomplishments during his term-and-a-half as agriculture commissioner. He said he’s consolidated divisions within his agency and saved tax dollars, helped grow international markets for the state’s growers and fought unnecessary regulatory burdens from Washington.
“Agriculture is the single largest economic sector in the state of Mississippi,” Gipson said. “Another reason it’s so critical, is it’s the only industry God personally designed for the sustainability of the world.”
Bradford says his experience in farming, emergency management and military planning make him the most qualified candidate to oversee the state’s agriculture industry.
“Why do we have an attorney running our agriculture?” Bradford told a recent crowd at a candidates’ forum. “… There’s nothing political in agriculture. The only red and blue things in agriculture are strawberries and blueberries.”
Republican Mike Chaney, seeking his fifth term as Mississippi insurance commissioner, is being challenged by Democrat Bruce Burton in Tuesday’s general election.
Burton, who has run unsuccessfully for both the Mississippi Court of Appeals and the Central District Public Service Commissioner, is a Jackson attorney. He was born in Shaw.
Burton was unopposed in the Democratic primary earlier this year. Chaney defeated Mitch Young in the August Republican primary, winning 80% of the vote.
Chaney previously served 15 years in the Legislature, first in the state House and later in the Senate.
“He is charged with providing Mississippians with the maximum amount of consumer protection possible,” Chaney’s campaign website says. “The aim is to create the highest degree of economic security, quality of life and public safety for citizens at the lowest possible cost.”
In earlier campaigns, Burton was described as someone who “believes in hard work and in helping others, and in truth, honesty, and integrity. Bruce is very down to earth, and he is authentically himself. With Bruce there is no pretentiousness. What you see is what you get. Bruce’s genuineness is easily observed from the moment you meet him. He never meets a stranger.”
Chaney, like most Republicans running for statewide office this year in Mississippi, is viewed as a heavy favorite.
According to the latest campaign finance report filed with the Secretary of State’s office, Chaney has $247,025 cash on hand. His campaign has spent $244,515 this year.
Burton has not raised nor spent any funds and has no cash on hand, according to his filings with the Mississippi Secretary of State.
The election for Mississippi state treasurer is a rematch from 2019.
This year, Democratic former Bolton Alderwoman Addie Lee Green will be challenging Republican incumbent Treasurer David McRae.
In 2019, McRae handily defeated Green, garnering 61% of the vote compared to 39% for Green.
Green ran unsuccessfully for the post of commissioner of agriculture and commerce in 2015. McRae ran unsuccessfully for the post of treasurer in 2015 against incumbent Lynn Fitch. In 2019, Fitch opted to run for the post of attorney general, and McRae ran his second statewide campaign for treasurer and won.
Treasurer David McRae speaks during the 2023 Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., Thursday, July 27, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
This election cycle, as the incumbent, McRae, has run a low-key campaign. He did not appear at the recent Mississippi Economic Council’s annual Hobnob, where state politicians address members of the business community.
Green did speak at Hobnob, offering a colorful speech — a hallmark of her campaigns.
Green said that part of the problem in Mississippi is that, “We have left God and it is all about self.”
“It is time for us to make a difference. Come together. We ought to be able to cross lines to help the people who elect us,” Green said, arguing many changes need to be made in the state such as expanding Medicaid.
Green helped organize a union when she worked at a Clinton auto manufacturing plant. McRae was a Ridgeland attorney and managing partner in a family business, McRae Investments, before winning the treasurer’s office.
The office of treasurer — one of eight statewide posts — serves multiple functions, including maintaining the state’s financial records and overseeing the investment of state funds. The office manages the state’s college savings plans, which allow parents to invest funds for their children’s tuition, and the treasurer also oversees the state’s unclaimed property.
McRae has touted his efforts to return to citizens unclaimed property from old financial accounts and from other sources, such as money from a deceased family member.
“I’ve made it my goal to return as much money to Mississippians as possible,” he said on social media.
Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson, seeking a second term, faces Democratic challenger Ty Pinkins in Tuesday’s general election.
Watson, 45, from Pascagoula, served in the state Senate from 2008 to 2020. He ran his own law firm, focusing on business, construction and probate law. He was elected secretary of state in 2019.
Pinkins, 49, from Vicksburg, is a decorated U.S. Army veteran who served three combat tours, a former White House communications aide and former lawyer with the Mississippi Center for Justice.
Watson said he’s cut red tape for businesses and worked with lawmakers to make elections more secure and now it’s “harder to cheat and easier to vote.” He said he will push for major campaign finance reform and further reductions in business regulations if reelected.
“Mississippians and businesses know what to do best and government needs to get out of the way most of the time,” Watson said.
Pinkins said Mississippi’s economy trails most of the rest of the country, and Watson had many years as a state senator before his four as secretary of state to champion campaign finance reform but didn’t. He said he will bring such needed reform, and will also push for online voter registration and no-excuse early voting.
“I’m running for secretary of state because I believe in Mississippi’s potential,” Pinkins said. “… I’m running for secretary of state because I’ve been all over this state and people in Mississippi are ready for someone to lead.”
On Nov. 22, 2003, eventual national champion LSU defeated Ole Miss and Eli Manning (10) 17-14. Credit: Ole Miss athletics
And so, the question is asked: When was the last time Ole Miss played a football game as important and meaningful as the one the Rebels will play Saturday at Georgia?
Good question. So glad you asked.
The last time was Nov. 22, 2003 — 20 years ago — before many of these current Rebels were born. Jaxson Dart was seven months old. Quinshon Judkins had been around for three weeks. Suntarine Perkins was safe and warm in his mama’s tummy.
Do you remember? If you were there, you could not have forgotten.
Rick Cleveland
LSU, 9-1 and ranked No. 3 in the nation, was the visiting opponent. Ole Miss, led by senior Heisman Trophy candidate Eli Manning, had won six straight games including consecutive victories over Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina and Auburn and was ranked No. 15. The winner was headed to Atlanta and the SEC Championship.
As I wrote in a page 1A column for the Clarion-Ledger the morning of the game, the question wasn’t so much whether the Rebels could hang with the mighty Tigers as it was: Could Oxford’s plumbing handle the party? Or, could Oxford’s infrastructure handle the crowd?
An estimated 80,000 people descended on Oxford that day. Yes, only 62,000 or so could get through the stadium gates, but thousands more came hoping to score a ticket or to just enjoy the party in The Grove.
Scalpers were getting $1,500 for a single ticket. Private jets had to schedule arrival times 24 hours in advance. “We’ve got a good water and sewer system, so I think the plumbing will be OK,” then-Oxford mayor Richard Howorth said. “Now, as for the roads, the traffic and the intoxication level, your guess is as good as mine.”
Just as now, there were stories written that week about when was the last time Ole Miss had played a game so huge. The consensus was that you had to go back to when Eli’s dad, Archie, played.
Again, if you were there that day, you have not forgotten. The leaves had turned brilliantly red, yellow and orange. The weather was postcard perfect. The scene was, well, absolutely wild.
So often when the build-up to an event is so extraordinary, what follows falls flat in comparison. That wasn’t the case on Nov. 22, 2003, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The game more than lived up to the pregame hype.
LSU, coached then by Nick Saban, was remarkably talented, especially on defense. The Tigers, who would go on to trounce Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and then knock off Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship, were an amazing blend of speed, ability and strength, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
The deciding factor: Ole Miss could not run the ball at all. The Rebels gained just 27 yards on the ground, allowing the Tigers to come at Eli Manning from all angles with an assortment of Saban-special blitz packages.
Still, Ole Miss battled to the final horn, missing a 36-yard field goal to tie the game with just over four minutes remaining. Ole Miss was good — really good. LSU was just a tad better.
Twenty years later, the current Rebels face a similarly difficult task, and this time they will be on the road, between the famed hedges at Athens. Two decades ago, the Rebels faced the eventual national champion. This time, they face the two-time defending national champions. No. 1 ranked Georgia is an 11-point favorite. The Bulldogs have won 35 consecutive regular season games and haven’t loss since Dec. 4, 2021, to Alabama in the SEC Championship game. (The ‘Dogs returned the favor, winning by 15 in the CFP Championship Game.)
Georgia is the current gold standard in college football. Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs have been ranked No. 1 for 21 consecutive college football polls. Smart is 90-15 at Georgia. The ‘Dogs won their final four games of the 2020 season and are 38-1 since then. In other words, Georgia has won 42 of its last 43 games. They haven’t lost a game in 1,094 days.
That said, this Georgia team seems more vulnerable than the last two. The Bulldogs trailed by 11 at halftime to South Carolina. They had to score late to win at Auburn 27-20. They were tied at halftime last week with Missouri. Tight end Brock Bowers is out with an injury.
Can Ole Miss win? Certainly. Bigger upsets happen every week. Is the 11-point point spread out of line? I think so.
Campaign banner for Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln and running mate Hannibal Hamlin. Credit: Library of Congress
Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States.
The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln struggled as a child. “Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher,” he recalled, “but that was all.”
His physical labor eventually led to law and eight years in the Illinois Legislature.
“His ambition,” his law partner wrote, “was a little engine that knew no rest.”
He lost his 1858 race for the Senate against Stephen A. Douglas, but he gained a national reputation that led to the Republican nomination. After his election, he said in his inaugural address to the South, “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you…. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.”
When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, Lincoln called on the states for 75,000 volunteers, and the Civil War began.
In dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg, he wished that “these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and a year later, he won reelection. He served until 1865 when he was assassinated.
Today both historians and citizens consistently rate him as one of the best presidents of all time, admiring his rise from humble roots, his emancipation of slaves and his dedication to preserve the Union. The Lincoln Memorial, built in his honor, bears these words of his: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
GULFPORT — The Mississippi Gulf Coast is one gubernatorial candidate’s firewall of support, and it’s where his opponent is dreaming of an upset.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley made final campaign pitches over the weekend to voters on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, one of the state’s political battleground areas that could determine the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
Presley wrapped up his final campaign event in Gulfport on Saturday night by speaking to a group of organized labor union members, some of whom have canvassed in the area for the Democratic candidate.
“He doesn’t understand the struggles of average Mississippians,” Presley said of Reeves at the rally. “Not only does he not understand — he doesn’t care.”
Presley sits at a major disadvantage in winning most of the areas on the Coast. He’s a native and former mayor of Nettleton, a small town on the opposite end of the state, and he’s never appeared on a ballot in south Mississippi.
But he told Mississippi Today that because his campaign has worked to build name ID and established a ground game in the area, he believes he can surprise people by picking off certain voting precincts.
“We’re already beginning to see data that shows we’re going to be extremely competitive down here,” Presley said on Saturday. “One of the things that I think Tate has shown in this campaign is he’s kind of taken the Coast for granted as if somewhere they’re just supposed to vote for him for some reason.”
It’s unclear what Reeves’ final pitch to coastal voters was. His campaign did not make Mississippi Today aware of his campaign events ahead of time, and his campaign spokesman did not respond to requests to report on his weekend campaign activities.
He posted on social media that he spoke at a Friday night event hosted by Pass Christian Mayor Jimmy Rafferty and visited with workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula.
Reeves, a Rankin County native, has used his 20 years in public office to strategically cultivate a relationship with leaders in the coastal counties.
During his two terms as lieutenant governor between 2012 and 2020, Reeves went out of his way to visit the Coast. Long eyeing an eventual run for the Governor’s Mansion, he hosted several town halls and press conferences over those years, typically focused on funding opportunities for the region.
Since he started his term as governor in January 2020, however, the governor has doubled down on that focus, sprinkling the region with hundreds of millions in federal grants administered by state agencies that report to him. And Reeves tapped Frank Bordeaux, a longtime Gulf Coast resident, to lead the Mississippi Republican Party.
Hancock County Tax Assessor Jimmie Ladner told Mississippi Today earlier this year that Reeves recognized the political and economic importance of the area early on in his political career, which is something political and business leaders appreciated.
“I think when you boil it down to a nutshell of why I support Tate Reeves, just candidly, he recognizes the importance of the Coast, and he doesn’t just recognize our importance every four years,” Ladner said. “And that’s the key. He’s here when we need him.”
While the coastal counties’ results in statewide elections paint them as a conservative haven and a firewall for Reeves, Democrats think the region is ripe for creating political change.
Community activists, lawmakers and local elected officials told Mississippi Today the Coast’s transient community contains a raft of Democratic voters that party leaders and statewide candidates often ignore because of its collective conservative tilt.
The communities that makeup Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties are more diverse than other areas of the state and home to thousands of union-paying jobs.
State and national Democrats appear to be taking notice and have worked this year use these factors to their advantage and shed more of a spotlight on the region.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison visited Gulfport in August and state party leaders have pledged to organize more strategically on the Coast in the future.
Democratic Rep. Jeffrey Hulum of Gulfport told Mississippi Today that Democrats on the Coast may be outnumbered, but there are still a large number of voters in Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties that could sway a statewide election.
“Look, people are fired up down here,” Hulum said. “My advice to anyone is to stop taking us for granted.”
1) This past Saturday was the deadline for absentee voting, and the number of ballots requested officially surpassed the number of ballots requested for 2019, according to data from the Secretary of State’s office. In 2019, 58,142 absentee ballots were requested before the election. In 2023, 62,121 have been requested. It can often be tough to glean exact trends from absentee breakdowns, but it’s safe to expect an analysis from Mississippi Today before Election Day.
2) It may be the very last thing any Mississippian wants to hear, but if Tuesday’s election is as close as some predict, a winner might not be known that night. Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison breaks down this nightmare vote-counting scenario for us.
3) Could Presley’s potential success have some effect for Democrats down ballot? Democrats are notably challenging all eight Republican incumbents. Most notably of the challengers, Democrat Greta Kemp Martin has waged a formidable campaign against Attorney General Lynn Fitch. Mississippi Today’s Taylor Vance took a deep dive on Martin’s platform.
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
With one last chance to share their message with voters, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley are taking very different approaches.
In the final few days of the 2023 campaign for governor ahead of the Nov. 7 election, the two campaigns are closing out their months-long, multimillion dollar barrage of television ads.
Reeves is airing a 30-second endorsement ad cut by former President Donald Trump, while Presley is airing a 60-second spot focused on his upbringing and values.
The Republican governor is letting someone else speak for him, and his Democratic challenger is talking about himself. And considering the trajectory of both campaigns and the two candidates’ weaknesses, the final messages make perfect sense.
With high unfavorability ratings and nearly universal name identification, Reeves probably doesn’t feel pressed to speak directly to voters. At least in TV ads this cycle, the first-term Republican governor has not done a lot of that. If you have a deep likability problem, airing an endorsement from one of the most likable politicians in recent history (at least to Mississippi GOP voters) could be a coup.
Presley, on the other hand, has long struggled with name ID. One recent Democratic poll showed about one-third of Mississippi voters don’t know him. He’s also had to fight big spending from Reeves, who has tried to paint the Democrat as an out-of-touch liberal who is beholden to out-of-state interests. If you need to introduce yourself to voters or combat attacks on your character, cutting an ad talking about your early life and values seems like the right play.
Now the questions become: Does the Trump endorsement enthuse Republican voters the way Reeves needs ahead of Election Day? And can Presley’s message really resonate with people who don’t know him or are on the fence because of the way Reeves has painted him?
1) Saturday was the deadline for in-person absentee voting, so we’ll have a sense soon of how early voting stacks up to previous elections.
2) In the lead-up to Tuesday, candidates now have to file reports of donations or spending over $200 with the secretary of state’s office within 48 hours. In close races, eleventh-hour donations can help fund get-out-the-vote efforts.
3) Black voters are the base of the Mississippi Democratic Party, and their turnout on Tuesday would be crucial to a Presley victory. His campaign has made a concerted effort in the homestretch to reach out to Black voters, and there are reports that he has set aside a large amount of campaign money for outreach efforts in the final days of his campaign.
