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The Jackson State University faculty senate voted “no-confidence” in President Thomas Hudson and his administration on Thursday. 

A two-page resolution from the governing body elected by faculty to represent their concerns called out Hudson and four members of his administration for a “continuous pattern of failing to respect” shared governance and other professional norms of higher education at the historically Black university in Mississippi’s capital city. 

Though his tenure has brought JSU athletic success and millions in research dollars, faculty say their concerns have gone ignored for months as Hudson has stopped meeting with them. With the no-confidence vote, years of behind-the-scenes issues – like mold, lax campus security, and worsening pay inequity as high-level administrators have received pay raises – are bubbling into the public eye. 

“There are serious issues regarding effective leadership at Jackson State University,” stated the resolution, which also named Joseph Whitaker, the vice president of research and economic development; Michael Bolden, vice president of facilities and operations; Robin Pack, the executive director of human resources, and Brandi Newkirk-Turner, the associate provost. 

One faculty senator, at a meeting in August, described the general sentiment toward the administration this way: “The honeymoon period is over, and now the pressure is on.” 

At that same meeting, another senator concurred that faculty were starting to feel “like second class citizens.” 

In a statement, Hudson said that he is looking forward to working with the faculty senate to address their concerns. 

“I’m proud of what my administration has been able to accomplish to date,” Hudson said, “and I am committed to continuing the work to collaboratively execute the strategic plan to make Jackson State the best institution it can be.” 

While no-confidence votes signal faculty dissatisfaction with their president, they have no binding effect. Such votes are relatively rare in Mississippi. The most recent was in 2019 after the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees appointed Glenn Boyce as chancellor at the University of Mississippi. While faculty at Alcorn State University had concerns with their president in 2021, the senate did not call for a no-confidence vote.

Hudson was appointed acting president in the wake of a scandal at JSU after former president William Bynum was arrested in a prostitution sting. Hudson, a Jackson resident and JSU alum, had broad support on campus when the IHL board solidified his appointment at the end of 2020. 

A few months before Hudson was confirmed by IHL, faculty, noticing that new hires were making more than tenured faculty, started asking his administration to conduct a pay equity study. Black women in particular were increasingly making below the median salary for faculty, according to a data analysis from an Oct. 21 faculty senate meeting.

More than two years later, JSU still hasn’t funded the study. Human resources issued two requests-for-proposals, but the only vendor that replied in 2021 was outside the budget, according to faculty senate meeting minutes. It is unclear how much the university committed to the study.

In April 2022, the provost told the faculty senate they had negotiated the original bid down to $40,000, but that was the last update the senate received on the pay study.

Hudson said in a statement that he is committed to funding the pay equity study and that his administration “has worked extensively with the Faculty and Staff Senate to make it a reality.” He told Mississippi Today that “the pay equity study, it just is what it is. We’re not sure what angle they’re going with the delay.” 

For the first year and a half of Hudson’s term, the primary vehicle for faculty to address their concerns with administration was a monthly meeting held by faculty senate leadership. The faculty senate executive committee would talk with Hudson about pressing issues and relay his comments to the senate at large. 

But at a meeting with the cabinet on Aug. 23, 2022, Hudson informed the executive committee that it would be his last, according to faculty senate meeting minutes. While the provost would continue to attend, going forward, Hudson wanted “more holistic engagement” with faculty, like town halls. If faculty had concerns, the meeting minutes say that Hudson requested they email other members of the administration and copy him.

Hudson “indicated that he does not think that it’s the best use of his time to go down what is basically a list of concerns every meeting,” the meeting minutes say. 

Don Spann, the faculty senate treasurer and a visiting assistant professor, said the executive committee asked Hudson “what do we need to make sure we utilize your time wisely?” 

“One of the things he basically said was to make sure it aligns with his strategic plan,” Spann said, adding he felt like Hudson was basically saying, “if it’s not in line with my strategic plan, then I’m not really going to take the time out to listen to it.” 

At a faculty senate meeting two days later, faculty expressed concern with Hudson’s request. One senator called town hall meetings “public relation meetings” and another noted that, without changes, faculty “will get frustrated.” One senator said she had a “concern that this format will create a lot of going back and forth and a writing campaign.” 

On Sept. 16, the senate sent a letter to Hudson outlining its concerns about the meetings. He never responded, according to the senate. 

Emails from faculty senators to administration started to go ignored. They haven’t received an update on the pay equity study in months. 

In particular, faculty have repeatedly asked the administration to address what they say is a persistent lack of public safety on campus. Faculty have noted at senate meetings they don’t see security on campus and that there have been car thefts and incidents of homeless people harassing students. 

“The campus is too open to strangers,” the Sept. 2022 meeting minutes note. 

Spann said that while Bolden has attended faculty senate meetings to talk about facilities and security, he is disappointed with the lack of progress on safety initiatives, like making sure campus cameras are working or hiring new officers.

The Senate shared the resolution with IHL and the commissioner, the staff senate and SGA, and the alumni association. The Clarion Ledger reported that IHL will investigate.

“We want to make the university better as a whole,” Spann said. “In order to do that, you have to have dialogue. But if you’re not at the table with the president, it’s not effective communication at all.”

The post ‘The honeymoon period is over’: JSU faculty senate votes no confidence in president, administration appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House Constitution Chairman Fred Shanks said, based on conversations he has had with Senate leaders, that he anticipates the Senate passing a bill to revive Mississippi’s initiative process that allows voters to bypass the Legislature and place issues on the ballot.

Because he believes the Senate leaders will advance the initiative legislation, Shanks, R-Brandon, said he does not plan to take up a House proposal before Tuesday’s deadline. Last year, a bill died when House and Senate leaders couldn’t agree on details. Tuesday is the deadline to pass general bills and constitutional resolutions out of committee in the chamber where they originated.

It will take a constitutional resolution to amend the state Constitution to revive the initiative process. Constitutional resolutions require a two-thirds vote of both chambers to pass the Legislature. Then the resolution must be approved by voters.

After discussions with Senate leaders, Shanks said he believes the Senate will pass a resolution out of committee before Tuesday. When that resolution passes the Senate, it will come to the House to be taken up.

“We’re optimistic we can get something done this year,” Shanks said.

While Shanks might be confident that a resolution to revive the initiative process will come out of Senate committee by Tuesday’s deadline, Senate Committee Chair John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, has not publicly made that commitment. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has referred the resolutions to revive the initiative process to the Accountability, Efficiency Transparency Committee chaired by Polk instead of the Constitution Committee chaired by Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg.

Polk has repeatedly said several proposals have been filed by senators to revive the initiative process and that he will make a decision on what to do with those resolutions before Tuesday’s deadline. He did say recently he anticipates his committee meeting twice on Tuesday.

The initiative process was struck down in 2021 at the same time the medical marijuana initiative that was approved by voters in November 2020 was ruled invalid by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled the process unconstitutional because the signatures were required to be collected equally from five congressional districts that existed in 1990 even though the state lost a congressional seat after the 2000 census,

The Mississippi Supreme Court action marked the first time in the modern era that the judiciary in any state had struck down an entire initiative process, according to Caroline Avakian, director of strategic communications for the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a national, pro-initiative nonprofit.

While the only time in the modern era, the state Supreme Court landmark decision is not the only time a ballot initiative process has been ruled invalid by the judiciary. In the 1920s the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down a previous initiative process approved by state voters. After that 1920s ruling, it was not restored until the early 1990s.

In the 2022 session, the House and Senate could not agree on the number of signatures of registered voters that should be required to place an issue on the ballot. The House wanted the number of signatures to be the same as it was in the proposal that was struck down by the Supreme Court – 12% of the total from the last gubernatorial election or about 100,000 signatures. Polk and Hosemann wanted to more than double the signatures required.

The post Future of Mississippi ballot initiative in hands of Senate Chairman Polk appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A new report released Thursday by the Mississippi State Department of Health shows that the state’s maternal mortality rate — already one of the highest in America — is worsening.

The report, conducted by 28 health care professionals and advocates who make up the Mississippi Mortality Review Committee, weighed the state’s maternal mortality data from 2017-2019. The most recent state report was released three years ago and weighed data from 2013-2016.

Three years ago, Mississippi’s pregnancy-related mortality ratio was 33.2 deaths per 100,000 live births — the sixth-worst rate in America. But this week’s new report showed the state’s pregnancy-related mortality ratio had increased to 36.0 deaths per 100,000 live births.

And while mortality rates for white mothers are improving slightly in Mississippi compared to three years ago, they are drastically worsening for Black mothers.

Three years ago, the pregnancy-related mortality ratio for Black women was 51.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, nearly three times the white ratio of 18.9 deaths. This week’s report, however, showed the pregnancy-related mortality ratio for Black women was 65.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, more than four times the white ratio of 16.2 deaths.

“Regardless of race, maternal loss is a tragedy for everyone, for all of us,” said LeJeuene Johnson, a clinician and advocate who has extensive background in studying maternal mortality in Mississippi and across the nation. “We need to highlight this reality while being sensitive to the fact that this problem has disproportionately affected Black women. It begs tough questions about discrimination, bias, how we evaluate social determinants of health and how that plays a role in our health outcomes.”

The new report was released this week as lawmakers face increasing pressure to extend health care coverage for moms on Medicaid from two months to one year, as 28 other states have done and several others are considering. The committee in its new report this week is the latest to recommend that state leaders extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to one year.

READ MORE: Pressure grows for lawmakers to pass postpartum Medicaid extension

The release of the new report does not appear to be timed to influence debate at the Capitol, but it is expected to reach the desks of every lawmaker in the coming days.

“It is critical that no one walks away from seeing this data thinking Black mothers are dying just because of chronic health issues,” said Dr. Charlene Collier, a member of the Mississippi Mortality Review Committee and Jackson-area OB-GYN. “Gaps in our overall health infrastructure, insufficient obstetric care access, racism and bias in care and the persistent refusal to expand Medicaid are significant contributors to the poor outcomes and disparities we see in Mississippi. Most of these deaths were preventable and there are actions we must take now to create change – like passing postpartum Medicaid (extension), getting more OBs and midwives working in care deserts and clinical training to ensure pregnant and postpartum individuals needing help are heard and receive the best care possible.”

Johnson said that the data, while important, should not distract from the human effects of maternal mortality in the state.

“Behind these numbers are people and their unique stories of loss and tragedy,” Johnson said. “These are mothers. These are sisters and aunts. I’ve spent a long time talking with surviving family members who are experiencing this profound loss. Maternal mortality impacts family structure, a family’s economic ability to survive. And the psychological wellbeing of surviving family members can often be compromised. We have to keep that in mind.”

Mississippi Today’s Kate Royals contributed to this report.

The post Mississippi’s already troubling maternal mortality rate is worsening appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Advocates say pending legislation on midwifery could help alleviate Mississippi’s lack of maternity health care and protect mothers and babies from those practicing without proper training.

But Senate Bill 2793 and House Bill 1081 are likely going to die without a vote in committee this session, as legislative leaders say they need more time to study the issue.

More than half of Mississippi’s 82 counties are considered “maternity care deserts,” with no hospitals providing obstetric care and no OB-GYNs. Advocates say trained midwives could help this shortage of care for low-risk pregnancies, but say the state should license and regulate them.

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and a ban on abortions in Mississippi, advocates say trained midwives could help with the expected increase of thousands of deliveries a year for a health care system that is already woefully inadequate.

Mississippi is one of 14 states that does not regulate or license direct-entry midwives, those who practice without first becoming a nurse. Certified nurse midwives in the state are licensed as advanced practice registered nurses. There are only 26 certified nurse midwives in Mississippi, and only a few deliver babies, because only three hospitals allow them to.

Mississippi prevents free-standing, midwife-led clinics for low-risk births and prohibits certified nurse midwives from performing in-home births – both of which are popular in other states and in Europe. More mothers want personalized care at home or in a small clinic as opposed to giving birth in a larger hospital, and want natural birth instead of induced labor or non-necessary C-section surgeries for delivery that have become more and more common in hospitals.

But Mississippi’s lack of licensure or regulation also results in untrained or poorly trained people claiming to be midwives providing substandard – or dangerous – care to mothers and newborns at home.

“Anybody can say, ‘I’m a midwife,’ and nobody can stop them,” said Getty Israel, founder of Sisters in Birth, a nonprofit clinic that integrates nurse midwives with community health workers to improve patient care and birth outcomes. Israel hopes to open Mississippi’s first birth center. Such centers in other states serve women with low-risk pregnancies, and provide compromise between hospital births and home births.

READ MORE: Bills to watch in the 2023 Mississippi legislative session

Israel said she supports midwifery and wants to see it become a viable alternative in Mississippi, but believes they should be state regulated and licensed.

Erin Raftery is with Better Birth Mississippi, a group advocating for the midwifery legislation. The group says, “Community-based midwifery is a key solution to the challenges faced by the maternity care system in Mississippi.” Trained midwives could help with health care shortages caused by closure of rural hospitals and help save Medicaid money by “minimizing the use of costly, ineffective interventions.”

“The goal of these bills is accountability,” Raftery said. “… This would provide protection for patients, and for midwives. This would also hopefully open the door for insurance coverage for midwife services, and help with the maternity desert.”

Raftery said her group knows of at least one infant death in Mississippi overseen by an unlicensed midwife, and that a similar instance a decade or so ago had also prompted proposed legislation. Raftery said licensure would help protect patients from the “select few” midwives practicing without training.

Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, authored the Senate midwife bill.

“I think we need to look at all our opportunities for health care in Mississippi,” Blackwell said. “We are last, and we won’t change. We need to look at all the other states that are changing the way they do things.”

Both Blackwell’s bill and a mirror one authored by Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, would create a state board of licensed midwifery.

“There are community midwives already practicing in this state, and this would help legitimize them, provide some oversight, and I think our primary responsibility is to make sure those that are practicing are doing so with some standard of care and level of experience,” McLean said. “Safety for moms and babies is the first priority. But I think there’s also an issue of allowing for reimbursement for Medicaid and private insurance. They do require some sort of certification or licensure before they would reimburse for these services.

“Rural areas are closing maternity wards, and if this is an option that can help for low-risk births, then we need to explore that.”

But many physicians and hospital groups say child delivery should be overseen by trained physicians in hospital settings. Beyond these arguments, there has been a push by conservative groups and GOP lawmakers to reduce government agencies, boards and regulations, not create new licensing and a new regulatory board.

Nurse practitioners have also struggled for more autonomy and expanded scope of practice in Mississippi – with limited legislative success – saying they, too, could help with the state’s shortage of doctors and health services.

Israel said doctors and hospitals treat cesarean deliveries as a “cash cow,” and that their lobbyists and influence at the Capitol prevent “progressive, evidence-based health care.”

The House and Senate bills are now in each chamber’s public health committee, facing a deadline for committee passage next week. That passage this year, or even a vote in committee, appeared unlikely days before the deadline.

House Public Health Chairman Sam Mims, R-McComb, asked Wednesday about the midwifery bill pending in his committee, said he was unaware of it.

“I’ll go look at it,” Mims said. “I will read it. I will go look at it. Thank you, though.”

Raftery said her group had met with Mims and his committee vice chair only a couple of weeks ago and outlined the bill. She said Mims told her he would be opposed because he’s against new government boards and licensing.

Senate Public Health Chairman Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said he doubts he will bring the bill up for a vote in his committee this year.

“It’s sort of late in the session, and I really wasn’t aware of this legislation before we got here,” said Senate Public Health Chairman Hob Bryan, D-Amory. “I don’t think the committee would have time to fully study this … I’ve met with two different midwife groups, and I try to listen to people. I learned that at least one group will assign someone to an individual, and they will stay with that person, work with them, throughout their pregnancy and after delivery, and be there for them to discuss other health care issues. I think that is a very good idea, that could perhaps carry over into other health care services, and I am interested in learning more.

“I am neither opposed to nor supportive (of the midwifery legislation), but I have an open mind,” Bryan said.

The post Advocates say licensed midwives could help Mississippi’s maternity care desert. Bills appear dead appeared first on Mississippi Today.

While a massive federal cash infusion is on the horizon for Jackson’s troubled water system, the city’s notorious boil water notices are piling up.

Since Gov. Tate Reeves proudly declared the end of a citywide advisory on Sept. 15 following the state’s takeover of the drinking water system, Jackson — now under the supervision of a federally appointed third-party administrator — has issued 70 new boil water notices, or more than one every other day, including 16 this month alone.

The city hasn’t gone a day without an active boil water notice for over a month, since Dec. 21.

In the U.S. Department of Justice’s complaint against Jackson in November over drinking water violations, the agency listed over 320 boil water notices that had been issued between May 2020 and last October. Mississippi Today mapped out those notices, as well as those issued since then — totaling 381 — below:

The zip codes that received the most boil water notices in that two and a half-year stretch were 39211 (northeast Jackson) and 39209 (west Jackson) with 56 each.

In terms of Census tracts — a narrower geographic breakdown — the parts of the city with the most notices were Belhaven (between Woodrow Wilson Avenue and Fortification Street, east of State Street) with 29, and central Jackson (between Woodrow Wilson Avenue and Meadowbrook Road, including Fondren) with 22.

The average length of the notices was about four days, with the longest notice lasting 49 days; that advisory came in January 2021 for 25 connections on Forest Hill Road in south Jackson and continued during the winter freeze that led to a citywide notice.

On average, the length of boil water notices are longer in south Jackson, the section of the city farthest from the city's main treatment plant in Ridgeland, than the rest of the city, as mapped below:

City officials attribute most of these notices to aging and fragile water lines. Ted Henifin, the city's third-party manager of the water system, said last month he expects a project using $20 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade 10 miles of water lines in the city to start this summer. With about 100 miles of smaller-than-ideal water lines in Jackson, Henifin estimated it may take five to 10 years to make the necessary replacements.

Currently, the city has three active boil water notices for different parts of the city — Oak Brook Drive, Lakeland Lane and parts of Byram (click here for full details) — affecting 190 connections, as well as a conservation notice that went into effect last summer.

For information on what to do during and after a boil water notice, visit the state Department of Health's guidelines here.

The post Jackson is issuing a new boil water notice every other day appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As the first major legislative deadline of 2023 nears, legislative leaders face growing pressure to extend health care coverage for moms on Medicaid from two months to one year.

After Speaker of the House Philip Gunn killed the effort last year, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, mothers across the state and health care professionals are ratcheting up the conversation at the Capitol this session about the benefits of the bill for Mississippi mothers and children. Mississippi, as it has for many years in a row, has the highest infant mortality rate and among the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation.

Several lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate — filed bills early this year to extend the Medicaid coverage to one year. This would put Mississippi on the same page as 29 other states, including most of the Southeast. Eight additional states are currently considering full extended coverage or a limited extension of coverage.

The Senate last year overwhelmingly passed the legislation and has since held hearings where experts and physicians spoke to its positive impact on women and babies’ health. Several senators filed bills early this year to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said he would usher it through his chamber.

And in the House, Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, filed a bill this year to extend the coverage. Several of her Republican colleagues, including Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, co-authored the bill.

“I really think that this is a pro-family position and certainly a pro-life position to take care of these moms who are carrying and delivering and bringing these babies into the world,” McGee said. “Healthy moms equal healthy babies. They go hand in hand, so I really believe it’s currently the most impactful thing we can do for women and children.” 

Roberson, who authored the main postpartum bill last year that the House never had the opportunity to vote on, also cited being pro-life as a reason he fully supports the extension.

“I feel like if you’re pro-life, then this is a pro-life issue,” Robertson said. “You support the baby and the mother for as long as we can, and obviously we have financial constraints that enter into this, but I do think in the long run it would be less expensive and more conducive to the health of that child and that mother.”

But that momentum could halt, as it did last year, at the House dais, where Gunn wields immense power. He could, as he did last year, block the issue from ever coming up for a full vote. 

Gunn spoke to Mississippi Today this week about his stance on the proposal. He said he believes the Mississippi Division of Medicaid should act — not the Legislature — to extend the coverage.

“My point is, any time I can call an agency and say, ‘Fix this by regulation, it doesn’t take legislation,’ that’s the best way to do it,” Gunn told Mississippi Today on Monday. “Legislation is the hardest way to get it done. If the Division of Medicaid felt like it was a good idea, they could’ve submitted a request a year ago and I believe CMS would grant it in a heartbeat.” 

The Division of Medicaid has not taken a stance on extending postpartum coverage. But even a committee appointed by Republican leaders, including Gunn, to advise on Medicaid policy recommended that the Legislature extend postpartum coverage.

Dr. David Reeves, a pediatrician from the Gulf Coast whom Gunn appointed to the committee tasked by law to advise and make recommendations to the agency, penned a letter to state leaders, including Gunn, earlier this year urging them to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months. 

“I see moms that lost postnatal care after a few months and ended up pregnant again, or have postpartum depression and couldn’t get treatment,” Reeves told Mississippi Today. “A lot of women do have complications during pregnancy, and they need follow up (care) that will take more than two months — like for gestational diabetes, hypertension … These things need continued coverage.”

Gunn said he had not seen Dr. Reeves’ letter. The Division of Medicaid, which is housed under the governor’s office, did not respond to questions Mississippi Today sent over a five-day period. Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder did not return text messages to his personal cell phone about the issue.

Staffers for Gov. Tate Reeves, who oversees the Division of Medicaid and appointed Snyder, also ignored questions from Mississippi Today on the topic of extending postpartum coverage.

In the Mississippi Today interview this week, Gunn said he has asked the Division of Medicaid for data on how continuous coverage during the federal public health emergency impacted health outcomes for women and babies, but he has not received it. Trey Dellinger, Gunn’s chief of staff, told Mississippi Today he wanted to see data that covers whether there was “any actual change in maternal or infant mortality.” 

Experts say Gunn’s office hasn’t seen that data because it does not exist yet.

“The research awards for … what the full impact of the postpartum coverage extension has been — those were just awarded, and they’re five year grants,” said Maggie Clark, senior state health policy analyst for Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “We’re not going to know the impact of this (extended coverage during the Public Health Emergency) nationally and definitely at the state level for many years.” 

In Mississippi, for example, the maternal mortality data for 2017 through 2019 only became available Thursday.

Clark made another point about making decisions around postpartum based solely on mortality numbers. 

“The goal of extending postpartum coverage is to support maternal health. There’s a lot more to maternal health than, ‘Did you die?’” she said. “That’s just the absolute bare minimum.”

A recent Texas study, however, showed postpartum women with continuous coverage used twice as many postpartum services, up to 10 times as many preventive, contraceptive and mental health services, and 37% fewer services related to what’s called “short interval pregnancies” within the first year postpartum compared to before continuous coverage was in place. 

Short interval pregnancies are defined as becoming pregnant within six months after giving birth – and they are associated with a higher risk for preterm birth. For mothers over 35 with short interval pregnancies, there’s an increased risk of death and serious illness. 

Dellinger, Gunn’s chief of staff, said they had reviewed that study but concluded it was not the data they needed to see.

“The Texas study you sent us, it showed there was increased utilization of health care services,” Dellinger said. “But what it didn’t cover was whether there was any improvement in outcomes.”

But according to Clark, the Texas study is “one of the only, if not the only” such study. She also pointed out the time frame researchers looked at was early in the pandemic (March to December 2020) — when health care utilization as a whole was down. 

A reduction in short interval pregnancies, Clark said, is a positive health outcome.

The Texas study also showed an increase in the use of mental health and substance use services. Data shows mental health conditions (including substance use disorder) are the leading underlying cause in maternal mortality.

“The Texas study showing increases in services for mental health and substance use disorder is significant, because these conditions are drivers of maternal mortality,” said Clark.

Editor’s note 1/26/2023: This story has been updated to reflect that Mississippi’s maternal mortality data for 2017 through 2019 was published after the story was run.

The post Pressure grows for lawmakers to pass postpartum Medicaid extension appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Lifeguard appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Joe Burrow, the superb Cincinnati Bengals quarterback, inherited much of his remarkable athletic ability from a northeast Mississippi gene pool on his father’s side of the family.

His dad, Amory native Jimmy Burrow, was an all-star safety on a Nebraska national championship team after walking on at Ole Miss and then transferring to the Cornhuskers. His uncle, Johnny Burrow, was a starting safety at Ole Miss. His grandfather, James, was the starting point guard for Mississippi State basketball in the early 1950s.

That’s a lot, but that’s not all. His grandmother, Dot Burrow (the former Dot Ford) once scored a state record 82 points in a high school basketball game for Smithville, six miles up the road from Amory, and averaged 49.5 points a game for an entire 30-game season.

In fact, when someone mentioned that Kobe Bryant once scored 81 points in a game for the Los Angeles Lakers, Joe Burrow quipped, “Yeah, but Kobe’s still one short of my grandma.”

Late Sunday afternoon, James Burrow, 92, and Dot Burrow, 91, will watch the grandson they still call “Joey” and the Bengals take on the Kansas City Chiefs from their living room in Amory, where they watch all his games.

“Joey has told us he’ll send a jet to fly us to the games,” James Burrow said Tuesday by telephone. “I told him, ‘But, Joey, we’re too old to do all that walking, especially up all those steps.’ So Joey said we wouldn’t have to walk and that we can take an elevator up to his private suite. The truth is, we’d just rather watch here. That’s a lot of travel when you’re our age.”

Both of Joe Burrow’s paternal grandparents were fine athletes in their day — as James puts it, “back in the dark ages.” James Burrow walked on at Mississippi State and became a two-year basketball starter at point guard for Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Paul Gregory. He averaged 10 points per game, third highest on the team, as a senior. But James will be the first to tell you his high school sweetheart, Dot, was the better basketball player.

“When I was at State, I told all my teammates about my girlfriend back in Smithville who was averaging 50 points a game,” James Burrow said. “Nobody believed me, so I took a couple of them to a game when Smithville played near Starkville in Hamilton. Well, she scored 72 that night.”

A few nights later, nearly the entire State team went to nearby Caledonia to watch the amazing Dot Ford. “That was the night she scored 82, breaking her own state record,” James Burrow said.

Asked whether he ever played his future wife in a game of H-O-R-S-E, James Burrow chuckled and answered, “Oh no, I didn’t want to mess with her.”

Years later, James Burrow was involved in Mississippi sports history in another way. He was the Amory schools administrator who hired high school football coaching legend Bobby Hall as the head football coach at Amory High.

“When he interviewed, I warned him, ‘Bobby, our cupboard is bare. You might not win a game,’” James Burrow recalled. “Bobby said, ‘If you hire me I guarantee you we’ll win more than we lose.’ Well, he won seven that first year.”

Three Amory state championships followed. Bobby Hall went on to win 309 games as a coach. Yes, and when Southern Miss head coach Will Hall (Bobby’s son) attended his first day of school in kindergarten in Amory, Dot Burrow drove the yellow school bus that delivered him to his dad’s football practice that afternoon.

“The Burrows are salt of the earth, good as gold,” Bobby Hall said.

James and Dot Burrow haven’t always been too old to travel to watch grandson Joey play. During summers, they would travel to Athens, Ohio, and watch him play Little League baseball and summer league basketball. Said James, “Joey could hit the baseball a mile and field every position. In basketball, he could shoot it from anywhere on the court. He played varsity in the ninth grade. He played varsity in the ninth grade in football, too, both offense and defense, but when they went to the spread offense in his 10th grade season, he really took off.”

Most football fans know the rest of the Joe Burrow story. He was the Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior and signed with Ohio State. He transferred to LSU in 2018 and led the Tigers to the national championship and a 15-0 record in 2019, throwing for seven touchdowns in a semifinal victory over Oklahoma and six touchdowns in the national championship game against Clemson. That’s perhaps the equivalent of scoring 82 points in a 32-minute high school basketball game.

That 2019 season, Burrow threw for 60 touchdowns, while throwing just six interceptions. Said Archie Manning, who knows the Burrow family well, “I really believe that’s the best season any quarterback ever had and probably ever will have.”

It is difficult to imagine a better one. Naturally, Joe Burrow was the first pick of the 2020 NFL Draft. Through three NFL seasons, Joe Burrow has thrown for nearly 12,000 yards and 82 touchdowns. When the situation calls for it, he runs for crucial first downs as well. His original NFL contract called for $36 million over four years, but he becomes eligible for a contract extension this off-season. The Bengals would be fools not to act on it. They will need a calculator with fresh batteries.

Needy children in Ohio and Louisiana will surely benefit, as they already have. The Joe Burrow Foundation, founded just last fall, has already donated $200,000 toward helping children facing food insecurity and mental health issues.

Said James Burrow of his grandson’s passion for helping children who desperately need help, “We’re proud of Joey for a lot of reasons, especially that.”

The post Joe Burrow has deep roots (and quite the gene pool) in Amory, Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Behind closed doors, Mississippi’s eight-person medical cannabis office is struggling against its workload.

The Health Department office charged by the Legislature with running Mississippi’s new medical marijuana program is steeped in disorganization: agents rarely visit cultivation sites, application  backlogs reach hundreds deep, and lags in communication with licensees often stretch on for weeks, a Mississippi Today investigation found. 

Business owners feel frustrated, unheard and worried that the millions of dollars they invested — and the tens of thousands they paid in fees to the state — could go up in smoke.

“The state threw them to the wolves,” cultivator Joel Harper said of the fledgling marijuana office. “They should have paid the money to bring in professionals, even a third-party consultant. Instead, they’re sending people out into the cannabis world who have no idea about anything cannabis.” 

At the center is a handful of workers, tasked with unrolling a massive program without enough staffing to operate efficiently. Cultivators say when they do hear back from the office, the messages are incomplete or inconsistent – especially when it comes to how they construct their farming facilities. 

And that’s if they hear back at all. The office already has mountains of unprocessed paperwork.

As of the second week of January, 277 work permit applications sat in a queue waiting to be processed, according to copies of the office’s records obtained by Mississippi Today. Could-be cannabis workers can’t start their jobs without permits. Another 995 patients had yet to to be told whether or not they’ve been approved for their dispensary cards. 

Three dozen businesses had their own applications stuck, along with almost 40 other medical practitioners, the records show. 

In a statement to Mississippi Today, Department of Health spokesperson Liz Sharlot acknowledged the backlogs.

“We are working with the MMCP (Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program) licensing director and the team on how to put more efficient processes in place,” she said. 

Even when the office hired new workers – growing from four to eight in recent months – little was done to train them on the law and the industry, an employee of the health department told Mississippi Today. The employee spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of repercussions.

The Health Department said in October, when Mississippi Today first reported the backlogs, it was working to fill 25 more positions. That has yet to happen. 

The Health Department worker said much of the disorganization stems from the office’s former director Kris Jones Adcock.

The Health Department did not answer questions related to plans to increase staffing levels or what medical marijuana-related training their current staffers received. 

“The people of Mississippi deserve better,” the worker said. 

During one five-week period, Adcock held three jobs simultaneously within the health department: the cannabis role, the head of a domestic violence office, and a promotion to a department-wide role as assistant senior deputy.

The Health Department didn’t respond to questions about the effects managing three positions may have had on her ability to run the cannabis office. Adcock now holds only one department-wide role: assistant senior deputy to the senior deputy.

Adcock announced two weeks ago that the office’s attorney, Laura Goodson, would be the acting director. 

The Health Department employee also said Adcock set a tone of rushed processes and absentee leadership that has left the marijuana office in clean-up mode.

“There was no due diligence on some of the applications,” the worker said. “Some of it was her knee-jerk reaction to get stuff out the door after it (the backlog) built up. Instead of an orderly process, it was just rushed.”

Emails obtained by Mississippi Today show that it wasn’t just cultivators struggling to hear back. The head of a lab testing facility also expressed frustration.

“The complete lack of communication is just not feasible any longer,” Rapid Analytics director Jeff Keller wrote to Adcock on Dec. 16. “I am begging you to please just name the time on Monday and I will make it work.” 

A month later, one of Keller’s employees sent his own desperate plea to the office. 

“I’m trying to find out when I’ll be able to start working there,” he wrote about his job at the lab. “My background check was cleared on December 15th … I’ve left multiple messages but have not received a response.” 

The CEO of test facility Steep Hill, Cliff Osbon, sent his own email on Jan. 13 on behalf of four employees who still needed their work permits so they could begin work and the lab could start testing marijuana. 

Neither testing lab responded to Mississippi Today’s request for a comment. 

Zack Wilson, a micro-grower in Potts Camp, said he had a worker waiting more than two weeks on a work permit. 

“You send an email. Wait two weeks. Email again,” Wilson said. “You just sit and wait. I know they’re short staffed, but come on guys.” 

Cultivators say unanswered questions have led to a murky-at-best understanding of how some of the regulations are being interpreted and enforced.

That’s bubbled up with the use of so-called “adapted greenhouses,” putting already competitive cultivators more at odds. The regulations call for no outdoor growing, a solid roof, permanent walls and slab foundations. 

In the early days after the law was passed, Harper, the head of Como-based Pharm Grown Canna Co., said officials made it clear to industry hopefuls that greenhouses would not be approved as growing facilities. So he, like many others, invested money in renovating a large warehouse that would rely on artificial lights. 

In the last few months, he’s noticed much cheaper greenhouse-style structures popping up with the health department’s approval. 

Harper and others who followed the bill’s creation closely say greenhouses go against the spirit of what legislators intended.

The debate comes down to word definitions that aren’t spelled out in the law itself. If the bill doesn’t allow any “outdoor” growing, that should mean the structure can’t utilize the sun, some argue. The greenhouses have clear-plastic roofs to use a mix of sun and artificial light. If the facility needs to have a solid and secure roof, clear plastic shouldn’t be permitted, according to some interpretations.

Cultivators like Wilson don’t see it that way. 

“The roof certainly isn’t made of liquid or gas,” he said. “Plastic is a solid.” 

Wilson said his site plan, including the materials he was using, were all approved by the health department when he handed in his application. He was given his cultivation license in August, according to public records.

Another cultivator, Jason McDonald, is building his own greenhouse under the company name SADUJA. He received his license on Dec. 22. He said his roof is two layers of clear plastic. He has screened-in shutter windows, a cement foundation and plumbing. McDonald runs a tea farm. He’s used to meeting regulations and dealing with bureaucracy and hopes to start growing marijuana by the end of the month.

Mississippi Today also obtained documents Adcock signed off on the site plan, including a hand-drawing where the facility was labeled “greenhouse.” 

“I emailed them and asked: ‘Will this greenhouse we’re planning to build meet regs?” McDonald recalled. “They came back and said: ‘you need to read the regulations’ so, I quoted the regulations and said ‘what’s the ruling on this?’ and they said ‘you need to read the regulations.’ I added the specific subsection, and then never got an answer back.” 

The word greenhouse, he said, can summon something different depending on the cultivator. He, like others, agrees Mockingbird Cannabis should have been cited for its greenhouse that was under scrutiny in the fall because it had roll-up sides, not permanent walls.

Mockingbird also built a massive state-of-the-art warehouse as its main cultivation site. 

“I will tell you we haven’t done anything we didn’t disclose to the Department of Health and in our application,” Mockingbird CEO Clint Patterson told Mississippi Today in October. 

Harper and other warehouse operators don’t blame the small businesses for building greenhouses — they’re cheaper to construct and run, leading to significantly higher profit margins. They blame the state for approving them. 

“We want them to succeed,” Harper said of greenhouse growers. “We just want them to do it in the way everybody else had to.” 

The leading authors behind the bill that created the medical marijuana program could not be reached by Mississippi Today after repeated requests for comment. Rep. Lee Yancey said in the fall that it was the health department’s job to interpret the rules, and if the statutes were not clear enough, it would be addressed in the Legislature. 

Sharlot, the Health Department spokesperson, said it did not approve a model for greenhouses and pointed to the “regulations that specify the physical requirements for a cultivation facility.” 

“The MSDH met and continues to meet its statutory requirements as it did with the aggressive timelines in creating the MMCP,” she said. 

On Jan. 11, Adcock brought her recommended changes to cannabis regulations before the Board of Health hoping for the members’ swift approval.

Public commenting regarding updates to the regulations were open for less than a week, ending the day before Christmas Eve. It got about 150 comments, Adcock told the board.

The end result was a thick stack of paper delivered to each board member fewer than two days before the meeting.

“To get 1,000 pages, less than 48 hours before our meeting, it’s almost impossible to review to know what we’re really doing,” said Jim Perry, the head of the board’s cannabis committee.

Adcock’s proposed changes covered everything from batch sizes for testing to whether a cultivation license could cover more than one growing space under a single license. 

During the meeting, Perry said he wasn’t comfortable with passing changes without time to review them and ask questions. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney apologized to the board for the ream of paper and the lack of notice. He promised it wouldn’t happen again.

“Cannabis is special and unique and needs to be heavily vetted,” Edney said at the meeting.

Adcock went over some of the regulation changes she said were the most “emergent,” but ultimately the board chose not to act on most of them.

Following the meeting, Perry told a Mississippi Today reporter the committee process was created so “we can hear from people and be able to make well-informed and not rushed decisions.”

A committee meeting about the regulations has been scheduled for Jan. 26 at 3 p.m.

With the constant flood of applicants, strapped-for-time staffers aren’t making regular site visits, according to cultivators and those with inside knowledge of the office. That means growers can get their provisional four-month licenses extended, begin growing, finish batches and have them tested and sent to market without having ever met an agent in person. 

Onsite visits are required for a renewal of a license, but not for moving a provisional license to a permanent one, according to the health department. When asked about the frequency of agent visits, Sharlot emphasized that the office is remotely monitoring all cultivators with the seed-to-sale tracking program.

Meanwhile, the 163 licensed dispensaries are eyeing the number of patients – Sharlot said 1,732 as of Monday – who have licenses to purchase medical cannabis. They’re worried it won’t be enough to sustain a business after months paying rent without revenue.

The Department of Health worker who spoke to Mississippi Today said whenever they make a dent in the patient queue, it doesn’t take long to climb back over 1,000.

The health department says it has licensed a total of 73 cultivators; 12 processors; four waste disposal companies; nine transportation companies; three testing labs; 151 medical practitioners; and 975 workers with permits. 

It’s a constant battle to keep up.

Correction 1-26-2023: A previous version of this story stated the Board of Health did not approve any regulations for the medical cannabis program at its Jan. 11 meeting. The story has been updated to reflect some regulations were approved.

The post ‘The state threw them to the wolves’: Health Department struggles to manage massive medical marijuana program appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Editor’s note: This list will be updated throughout the legislative session.

About 3,000 bills have been filed in the Mississippi Legislature to be considered during the 2023 session. Last week was the deadline for legislators to file general bills.

The deadline, though, does not apply to revenue and appropriations bills that face a February deadline.

Ballot initiative

Senate Concurrent Resolution 517, authored by Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, and House Concurrent Resolution 26, authored by Rep. Tracy Rosebud, D-Tutwiler, are among multiple bills filed to revive the state’s initiative process where voters can bypass the Legislature and place issues on the ballot for the electorate to decide. The state Supreme Court rendered the state’s initiative process unconstitutional in 2020 on a technicality and the legislative leadership has vowed to renew it. But that did not occur in the 2021 session.

Medicaid expansion

Senate Bill 2070, authored by Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point, and House Bill 108, authored by Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, are among multiple bills filed to expand Medicaid coverage as is allowed under federal law to provide health care coverage to primarily the working poor. Under the proposal, the federal government would pay the bulk of the costs.

Postpartum coverage

Senate Bill 2212, authored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaen,  and House Bill 426, authored by Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg,  are among multiple bills filed to extend Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months for mothers after giving birth.

Health care & hospital crisis

Senate Bill 2371, Senate Bill 2372, Senate Bill 2373 and Senate Bill 2323, authored by Senate leaders with support from Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, are aimed at helping Mississippi’s struggling hospitals and shoring up the health care workforce. The bills would spend a combined $111 million of the state’s federal pandemic relief money. This includes $80 million in grants to hospitals based on their number of beds and type of care, a nursing student loan repayment program, grants to help community colleges beef up their nursing programs. Senate Bill 2323 would eliminate legal barriers to consolidation of or collaboration among hospitals.

Senate Bill 2793 and House Bill 1081 would create licensure and regulation — by a new board — for midwives in Mississippi. Currently, midwifery is not regulated in Mississippi as it is in 36 other states, meaning anyone here can claim to be a midwife without formal training or certification. More than half of Mississippi counties are considered “maternity care deserts,” with no hospitals practicing obstetric care, no OB-GYNs and no certified nurse midwives. Advocates say midwives could help in these areas. But many physicians groups say child delivery should be overseen by trained physicians.

Burn center

House Bill 469, authored by House Speaker Philip Gunn, would provide $12 million for Mississippi Baptist Medical Center to create a burn center or unit at the hospital in 2024. The state’s only accredited burn center closed last year, but recently the University of Mississippi Medical Center announced it will increase its burn treatment capabilities.

Welfare agency reform

House Bill 184 and House Bill 188, authored by Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, would establish a board to oversee Department of Human Services, taking the agency out of the sole oversight of the governor’s office. House Bill 1054, filed by Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, would require legislative watchdog PEER to evaluate TANF subgrants. Senate Bill 2331, filed by Sen. Rod Hickman, D-Macon, would remove the child support cooperation requirement for TANF and SNAP beneficiaries.

Felony suffrage

Senate Bill 2405, authored by Sen. Sollie Norwood, D-Jackson, and House Bill 1247, authored by Rep. William Tracy Arnold, R-Booneville, are among multiple bills filed to change the state Constitution to allow people convicted of felonies to regain their voting rights at some point after finishing their sentence.

Elections & voting

Senate Bill 2299, authored by Jeremy England, R-Vancleave, would establish a mechanism for voters to recall state and local officials, including legislators.

House Bill 370, authored by Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, would establish a mechanism for voters to recall municipal officials.

Government accountability

Senate Bill 2667, authored by Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Brookhaven, with multiple co-sponsors, would reiterate that the open meetings law covers the Mississippi Legislature. The bill is a response to a controversial 2022 ruling by the state Ethics Commission saying the Legislature is not covered by the open meetings law. The bill also increases the fine for violations of the open records law from $100 to $500.

Gender procedures ban

House Bill 1125, the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures Act,” is similar to measures passed or debated in other states and was authored by Rep. Gene Newman, a Republican from Pearl. The bill, passed on a partisan 78-28 vote by the full House early in the session, would ban gender affirming surgery and drugs for Mississippians 18 and under.

Taxes

House Bill 418, authored by Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, and co-sponsored by others, would eliminate the sales tax on most grocery items.

The deadline to file tax bills is not until Feb. 22, so most likely others will be filed.

Education

House Bill 294, authored by Carolyn Crawford, R-Pass Christian, would prohibit public schools and universities from imposing mask mandates.

Senate Bill 2079, authored by Angela Hill, R-Picayune, would create the Mississippi School Protection Act and authorize that schools could designate personnel with gun permits, to be armed.

House Bill 112, authored by Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, would create the Mississippi Universal Preschool Act.

House Bill 595, authored by Bo. Brown, D-Jackson, would authorize the Department of Education to create curriculum for African American studies and racial diversity.

House Bill 1070, authored by Lee Yancey, R-Brandon., would create grants for schools to teach patriotic education.

Law enforcement

House Bill 1020, authored by Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, creates a separate judicial district within the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which is an area around downtown Jackson where many of the state-owned buildings are located. The judges, who would hear civil and criminal cases, would be paid equivalent to chancery and circuit judges, but would be appointed by the Supreme Court chief justice instead of elected like other judges in state.

House Bill 1222, authored by Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany with other co-sponsors, would make a number of changes to state mental health policies, including requiring law enforcement agencies to offer “first aid mental health training.” It would appoint court liaisons to work with families in counties where more than 20 people are involuntarily committed each year, require chancery clerks to keep more detailed records on civil commitments, and aim to reduce delays in conducting screenings of people being civilly committed. Under the bill, community mental health centers would be required to hire an accountant and conduct regular audits. It would also change the composition of the board of mental health to include more subject matter experts and at least one sheriff and reduce board members’ term lengths.

The post Bills to watch in the 2023 Mississippi legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.