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.
Nearly a month after an Indianola police officer was accused of shooting an 11-year-old boy in the chest, the officer will continue his suspension from the force without pay and faces additional legal action.
On Monday, the Board of Aldermen voted 4-1 to suspend Greg Capers without pay, according to Nakala Murry, the boy’s mother, who attended the meeting. This comes about three weeks after Capers was placed on paid suspension following her son Aderrien’s shooting.
“I felt like it was a step further to getting the right thing done,” Nakala Murry said about the decision. “At least for the board, it was a step for accountability.”
She started a petition and collected signatures from about 350 residents who agreed that taxpayer money should not have been used to pay for Capers’ suspension. That petition was placed on the board’s agenda and members took action.
Michael Carr, a Cleveland attorney representing Capers, said neither he nor Capers were given notice of the board’s meeting and an opportunity to be heard. Carr said they both learned about the meeting and vote through social media.
“This is very disturbing to Officer Capers, and he should have been allowed due process by the city board,” Carr said.
The attorney said the shooting was “a complete and total accident,” but the boy’s mother said it could have been avoided.
“You can’t afford this kind of accident,” Murry said. “This accident almost cost me my son’s life.”
The Murry family and supporters maintain that Capers should be fired and prosecuted. They do not think he should be able to work for another law enforcement agency again.
On May 20, Indianola police arrived at the home of Murry and her two children because a former partner had been acting irate and she worried his behavior could escalate.
Officers were in the doorway when Aderrien rounded the corner from his bedroom to enter the living room, which is when an officer identified as Capers shot the boy in the chest. Aderrien was taken to the intensive care unit in Jackson where he was treated for a collapsed lung, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver.
Through his attorney, Capers said he is sorry about what happened to the boy.
On May 30, Murry filed a federal lawsuit against Capers, Police Chief Ronald Sampson and the city of Indianola alleging “reckless indifference” by failing to fully assess the situation before shooting.
Attorneys representing the city, Sampson and Capers have not yet responded to the lawsuit complaint.
Last week, Murray filed a criminal affidavit against Capers for aggravated assault, writing that Capers caused “bodily harm to my minor son, Aderrien Murry, by recklessly shooting him in the chest with a gun,” according to a copy of the affidavit.
A probable cause hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 2 at 10 a.m. in the Sunflower Circuit Court in Indianola. At that hearing, a judge will decide whether evidence exists for Capers to be charged and arrested.
Carr said the charge cited in the affidavit does not fully reflect the statute, which says someone would have needed to act purposely or recklessly showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life.” He said that is not how Capers acted.
He also added that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which took over the case, is still investigating the shooting. Typically, once MBI is done, it shares its findings with the district attorney’s office, which would then present it to a grand jury, Carr said.
The Murry family has asked for body camera footage from May 20 to be released. City officials have said that footage has been turned over to MBI.
Carr, Capers’ attorney, is hopeful that once the video is released, it will clear him of any criminal allegations stemming from the shooting.
Meanwhile, Aderrien has a long way to recovery. His mother plans for him to return to school in the fall, but for how she’s trying to give him and her younger daughter a good summer.
Occasionally, the boy has problems when he coughs or sneezes.
The biggest challenge has been the emotional toll of the shooting. Murry said the other night Aderrien had a nightmare and woke up crying. He asks her if the door is locked. She said they both feel uneasy.
Murry said her family, friends and faith make her feel like she isn’t handling the situation alone.
“I pray that the justice system doesn’t fail me,” Nakala Murry said. “I hope the right thing will be done and people will see this as a wake up call.”
John Damon, chief executive officer of Canopy Children’s Solutions, talks about Canopy’s annual Children’s Mental Health Summit, a two-day event, Friday, May 12, 2023, at the Sheraton Flowood The Refuge Hotel and Conference Center in Flowood, Miss.
Mississippi health news you can’t get anywhere else.
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A new national report on child well-being ranks Mississippi 32nd in the nation for education, the only measure in which the state’s rank has meaningfully improved in the last decade.
The 2023 KIDS COUNT Data Book, published annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, ranked Mississippi as 48th for overall child well-being, 47th in economic well-being, 50th in health, and 50th in family and community.
Credit: The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Economic well-being is composed of metrics including housing cost burden, secure employment, and child poverty. Education is based on pre-K participation, graduation rates, and reading and math proficiency. Health is calculated using low-birth weight, access to health insurance, and obesity. Family and community is based on single-parent homes, teen birth rates, and children living in high-poverty areas.
The education ranking has seen steady improvement over the last decade, moving from 48th in 2014. A press release from the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi, a partner in the report, attributed the most recent improvement to the increased high school graduation rate. This year’s report is based on graduation rates for students who graduated in May 2020, when the Mississippi Department of Education waived several graduation requirements in light of the pandemic and the graduation rate rose. More recent data from the education department shows the graduation rate has remained higher than pre-pandemic levels, even when the requirements have been reinstated.
“The overall rank for education is quite a bright spot,” said Linda Southward, executive director of the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi.
Commenting on the results generally, Southward also said the four areas of the report are very interconnected because of the essential role of the family in a child’s life. She tied the overall scores to the high child poverty rate of 28% in Mississippi.
The report also highlights problems with the nation’s child care system, which stem from rising costs and fewer workers in the field. Data cited in the report showed the national average cost of child care in 2021 was $10,600 annually for one child. The average cost in Mississippi, at $4,382, was the lowest in the nation. Child care workers in Mississippi are also the lowest paid in the nation, with an hourly median wage of $9.83.
Southward said there are about 1,500 licensed child care centers in the state, which are only able to offer slots for about two-thirds of kids under age 5, which points to a need for additional investment in family-based child care.
“(Research shows) that when parents can confidently go to work, know their child is being taken care of in a quality setting, the whole comprehensive approach to child care pays for itself,” Southward said.
One of the policy recommendations is to strengthen the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a federal program that gives states money to assist low-income families with the cost of child care.
Carol Burnett, director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative, said the program is an excellent support to parents in Mississippi who receive it but only about 30% of the state’s eligible kids are being served because the program doesn’t have enough money to cover all of the eligible children. She said this problem is widespread nationally.
She also added that procedural barriers, or “red tape,” also limit parents from successfully applying. Burnett said she has observed the Mississippi Department of Human Services work to improve the process, including recently lifting a requirement to sue noncustodial parents for child support before being eligible for the grant.
Donna Echols had just returned to her north Jackson home from her eldest son’s fairytale wedding in the Bahamas and expected to greet the groom’s father who had stayed behind to watch the house and her pets.
What she didn’t expect was the start of an emotional rollercoaster.
That night, April 27, Echols found her ex-husband, “Diamond Jim” Mabus, on the living room floor unresponsive. Furniture was strewn around. She called 911 to ask for an ambulance.
What followed were five calls and an excruciating 90- minute wait before the county’s ambulance provider, American Medical Response, arrived and took Mabus to St. Dominic Hospital.
Mabus was in the intensive care unit for a week until his death on May 4 at the age of 76. An MRI scan revealed he had suffered a series of small strokes and a large stroke. He left behind two sons from his marriage to Echols, two other sons, and friends and family.
“It angers me so much,” Echols said about AMR’s drawn-out response time. “It’s so much a death sentence for someone.”
AMR spokesperson Nicole Michel said the night Echols called, the central Mississippi service area was at a level zero, meaning there were no available ambulances. Eight ambulances and two sprint medics were already responding to other calls, and during the nine o’clock hour, AMR received six service requests, including one for a heart attack.
Triage protocols are applied to service calls to determine if people are suffering or are likely to suffer a life-threatening illness or injury, the spokesperson said.
Medical providers say that seconds count when someone suffers a stroke because brain cells immediately start to die. Response time can determine whether someone fully recovers, faces complications such as paralysis or dies.
Echols made the first 911 call at 9:15 p.m., according to cellphone records shared with Mississippi Today. Within 10 minutes, four Jackson firefighters arrived and started tending to Mabus, but they were not able to render further medical attention because they are not trained EMTs or paramedics, she said.
When the ambulance still hadn’t arrived, firefighters at the scene called the ambulance provider themselves and were told Echols’ address was in the queue but nobody had been dispatched yet, Echols said.
At one point, Echols called someone she knows who works at Pafford Ambulance, another private company contracted with Madison and Rankin counties, to see if they could send an ambulance. There was an ambulance bus five minutes away, but she was told she needed toget AMR to give permission to Pafford to respond and cross over into Hinds County – AMR’s territory.
Echols called 911 again, and asked the AMR dispatcher what needed to be done to have Pafford respond instead. They told her there wasn’t anything they could do about that.
Finally, at 10:25 p.m. the AMR ambulance arrived. Echols saved the home security image of first responders wheeling Mabus out the front door around 10:30 p.m.
Jam Mabus was taken by ambulance from Donna Echols’ home in Jackson to St. Dominic Hospital on April 27 after nearly 90 minutes after she called 911. Credit: Courtesy of Donna Echols
In its contract with Hinds County, AMR is required to meet 85% of its Jackson and Clinton emergency calls in eight minutes or less and outer-Hinds County calls in 18 minutes or less, Mississippi Today reported in 2018 after analyzing the company’s contract.
That year, there were over 32,000 emergency calls countywide. A review of calls by Mississippi Today and WLBT found the average trip time is an hour and a half. Time starts from when an ambulance is dispatched to when a hospital admits the patient.
Hinds EMS Coordinator Joey Jamison did not immediately respond to a request to receive a copy of or review the most recent AMR contract.
Echols’ experience waiting for an ambulance came as providers across the state – including AMR – have shared fears that an ambulance system collapse is near.
A combination of staff shortages, low wages and an incomplete reimbursement system have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has greatly affected Missisisppi’s ambulence system, Mississippi Today reported.
In 2018, Mississippi Today reported that “wall time” – the time ambulances wait at a hospital for a bed to become available – often contributes to long response times. AMR agreed that hospital wait times are a challenge its first responders face.
“Every minute a crew is waiting for a bed is a minute the crew cannot respond to assist a patient outside of the hospital,” the company said in a statement.
Weeks since Mabus’ death, Echols has more answers about that night, but she wonders whether AMR will make changes to ensure other families don’t have to go through what hers did.
She understands that staff shortages have plagued multiple fields, including police and fire departments and hospitals, but she wants to know what the company is doing to fix that.
While efforts are taken to build up staff, Echols sees a mutual agreement or “helping hands” clause in AMR’s contract as a potential solution to help when they are overwhelmed by a high volume of calls.
For example, such an agreement could have allowed a Pafford Ambulance to come to her home to tend to Mabus sooner, Echols said.
An AMR spokesperson said mutual aid agreements among ambulance providers in Mississippi tend to be in place for natural disasters or mass casualty events, but not for daily service requests.
Mutual aid can be requested, but the ambulance provider who receives it isn’t required to respond because their service area takes precedence, the spokesperson said. Providers strongly prefer not to send crews outside the primary service area and often they don’t have the resources to do so.
The spokesperson did not respond to questions asked about whether it is possible for another ambulance company to respond to a call in Hinds County and whether there is a process for someone to grant permission for an out-of-county ambulance to come to them.
“What I don’t understand is why AMR has not pushed for mutual aid for a helping hands situation if they can’t do the job,” Echols said. “It makes you ask the question: Are they more concerned about territory and profit than saving lives?”
