OurTupelo

Domestic violence advocates say Mississippi lawmakers have missed an opportunity to pass legislation aimed to help survivors, such as the creation of domestic abuse courts geared to their needs.

“In order to fix your problem, you have to be willing to admit that there is a problem. And nobody in the state wanted to admit there was a problem with domestic violence,” said Rep. John Hines Sr., D-Greenville. “If you kill (the bill), we don’t have to talk about that.”

He has been filing legislation to establish domestic abuse courts since as early as 2013, and those bills died in committee and didn’t make it to the full House floor.  

This year, Hines filed House Bill 170 to establish domestic abuse courts across the state, and that bill passed the House with 119 votes and moved to the Senate’s Judiciary B and Appropriations committees where it died. Sen. Joey Fillingane, chair of the Judiciary B Committee, and Sen. W. Briggs Hopson III, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, did not respond to a request for comment.

Hines wonders how many people would still be alive or uninjured or how many families would still be together if the state had domestic abuse courts in place. 

Nearly 40% of Mississippi women and 32% of Mississippi men experience intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence or stalking in their lifetimes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Wendy Mahoney, executive director of the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said domestic abuse courts are needed and there are already models of them working in Vicksburg and Hattiesburg. 

Hines said the intervention court model, which is already in place for drugs and mental health, can work for domestic abuse. In addition to helping survivors, the court would be a place for  abusers to learn their actions are violent and how to not hurt others. He said it could also 

disrupt the cycle of children learning that domestic abuse is okay or that it is okay to be abused. 

Hines sees parallels between how control is exercised in domestic abuse situations and the state Legislature: One political party maintains control and makes decisions, such as what ideas and policies move forward. That is what happened with Medicaid expansion, postpartum Medicaid expansion, funding for historically Black colleges and universities and with House Bill 1020, Hines said, referring to the legislation that would subvert the power of Jackson’s police force by empowering the state Capital Police to have citywide jurisdiction and allow the state’s chief justice to appoint judges to hear cases in Hinds County.

This year is the furthest Hines’ domestic abuse court bill has advanced, which he sees as a good sign that legislators are more open to the idea of establishing the courts. If needed, he plans to refile the bill in the next session and as long as he is a lawmaker. 

The idea to set up domestic abuse courts came from former 9th District Chancery Court Judge Marie Wilson, whom Hines said wanted the authority to create programming to help survivors, perpetrators and their children by getting them the proper care and treatment they needed. 

Other legislation filed this session was House Bill 65, which would allow a domestic abuse survivors to get out of a rental lease without notice if their safety is at risk, and Senate Bill 2084, which would allow judges to include pets in domestic abuse protection orders. 

Mahoney said domestic abuse court programs and these other efforts are the standard in other states. 

Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit, proposed HB 65 and a similar bill last year. In the current session, the bill made it to the House floor, but it was tabled and died before the body’s Feb. 9 deadline to advance bills. 

Under HB 65, landlords would have been prohibited from removing a tenant or ending the individual’s rental agreement if the tenant is a domestic violence survivor and calls 911 for safety or medical help. 

Mahoney said in other states, shelters are able to verify those who have experienced domestic abuse if they have reached out or received services from the shelter. 

Landlords also would not have been able to charge a penalty if the survivor terminated the rental agreement or disclose personal information that can be used to locate the tenant after the individual left the property, according to the bill. Termination of a rental agreement due to domestic abuse also couldn’t have been used against a person seeking to enter a new rental agreement. 

Porter did not respond to a request for comment. 

Under SB 2084, companion animals such as dogs and cats would be considered personal property that a judge can direct a person not to abuse or damage. 

Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, proposed the bill and started filing similar legislation in 2018. Most of the bills have died in the Judiciary A Committee, but in 2019 the legislation made it to the full House before failing to receive action by deadline. 

Hill and Sen. Brice Wiggins, who chairs the Judiciary A Committee, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Mahoney said domestic and animal abuse are connected, and harm or threat of harm to an animal is often used as coercion to keep an abused person from leaving. 

People have called shelters in the state to ask if they can bring pets, she said. Shelters have worked with veterinary clinics and Mississippi State Unversity’s Veterinary School to house animals. Domestic Abuse Family Shelter, which serves the Pine Belt area, received a grant to provide space for pets in its shelter. 

Overall, Mahoney said the coalition and other advocates aren’t always informed about domestic abuse-related legislation when it’s filed and more often they learn about it later in the process. She believes there can be a greater impact if advocates can learn earlier to provide feedback to lawmakers as they work on legislation. 

“Out of the need of survivors, this is what we do in our field,” Mahoney said. 

The post Bills to help domestic violence survivors make progress, then die in the Legislature appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Legislature has approved changes to Mississippi’s cannabis law that will limit the information available to the public about businesses’ citation records and will attempt to crack down on inconsistencies from the agencies tasked with running the new medical marijuana program. 

The bill, first filed in the House, was amended by a Senate committee and the full Senate before the House passed it last week. Gov. Tate Reeves must sign the bill before the new regulations are added to the law. The changes span from minor language tweaks to new provisions on background checks and public records. 

The medical marijuana program has been fully operable — with dispensaries selling Mississippi-grown cannabis — for just under three months. 

The rollout hasn’t been without hiccups. A Mississippi Today investigation found the Department of Health wasn’t being consistent, especially in its approval of cultivation plans, while dealing with a backlog of applications. 

Legislators echoed businesses’ concerns throughout hearings over the bill. 

“Unfortunately the Department of Health in their rules and regs probably accepted some things that were not intentioned (sic) by the bill,” said Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven and one of the bill’s authors on the floor on March 8. “So we are trying to correct those … and we do so in the bill.” 

Legislators approved a new addition that says: “No state agency, political subdivision or board shall implement any rule, regulation, policy, or requirement that is contrary to the provisions of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act.”

The bill also turns a mistake by the Health Department into part of the law. Blackwell told the Senate that the department approved a large operator’s secondary location under one license when it submitted its application. The adjustment allows for the state’s largest cannabis growers to have up to two locations as long as the total canopy size doesn’t exceed 150,000 square feet.

That makes the setup of Mockingbird Cannabis, one of the state’s leading cultivators, with a smaller secondary greenhouse-style location 12 miles from their main site, acceptable under one license. 

While growers have been debating if adapted greenhouses should be permitted, none of the bill’s updates directly addresses their use. 

Mississippi Today was able to learn specifics about Mockingbird – and the construction of its greenhouse – through a public records request for the Department of Health’s investigation records. 

The law’s changes make investigation records, including citations handed out by Health Department agents, exempt from the public record law until an investigation has concluded and all appeals ended.  

An early draft of the bill called for such records to remain exempt from public record indefinitely, but some senators found the records being exempt from public record for any period unacceptable. 

“I think if it was put out in transparency, it would dispel any of the back and forth on social media,” said Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, one of five senators who voted against approving the changes. “I think hiding that is only going to fuel that speculation.” 

Critics pointed out an appeal process could take a long time, keeping citation records away from the public and legislators even if they’re ultimately found valid. Blackwell said the changes were made because of “falsehoods” being spread on social media as competitors became aware of other growers’ cited infractions. 

The addresses of all cannabis-related businesses, outside of dispensaries, will also be exempt from public record and no longer posted publicly. Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, said during hearings this was to protect businesses already not accessible to the public, which could make them vulnerable to crime because of the large amount of cash and marijuana products on hand. 

The bill includes several other changes that affect patients and businesses:

• The Department of Health will now have only 10 days within submission (changed from 30) to approve a patient’s medical cannabis card application. This change comes after the department has experienced major backlogs in processing applications.
• Patients can now have a follow up with a different doctor than the one who first approved their medical cannabis card without disrupting their care or access to medical marijuana.
• Doctors and nurses who have approved a patient to receive a medical cannabis card can now help them fill out the online application with the state. Yancey said this was especially to help elderly patients. 
• The law now specifies the Mississippi Justice Information Center of the Department of Public Safety and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will handle background checks on workers and caregivers. 
• Testing facilities can become licensed transporters or contract with transporters. 
• Businesses can display marijuana imagery in company logos and other branding. Dispensaries can also post pictures online to display what they sell. 
• Hemp products are not affected by the cannabis act.
• Dispensaries can sell hemp items that are legal under federal law, such as low-THC products known as “CBD.” Dispensaries can also sell topical products that contain marijuana, which cannot be ingested, to patrons over 21 who don’t have a medical cannabis card. These products have to be placed in a separate area than the products for card holders.
• Dispensary licensees now have 18 months instead of 12 to complete construction and still maintain their accreditation.
• The Health Department can contract with private laboratories for compliance testing, but those labs cannot also perform commercial testing for medical cannabis businesses. 

The post Changes to the medical marijuana law are headed to Gov. Reeves’ desk. Here’s what they are. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MARCH 20, 1957

Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee was born on this date in Atlanta. His first film, She’s Gotta Have It, with a budget of only $175,000, helped pioneer the independent film movement of the 1980s and changed how Black characters were depicted in film. 

The film that cemented his reputation as a premier filmmaker, Do the Right Thing, took a searing look at racism in America through a hot summer day in Brooklyn. Movie critics Ebert & Siskel picked it as the best film of the year, but the Academy Awards failed to even nominate the movie for Best Picture, giving the award instead to Driving Miss Daisy. 

Ebert described Lee’s Malcolm X as “one of the great screen biographies” and called it the best film of 1992. Denzel Washington, who portrayed the civil rights leader, received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor but lost to Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman), drawing Lee’s ire. 

His 1997 documentary about the KKK’s 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls received an Oscar nomination, but again didn’t win. In 2015, he received an honorary Academy Award for his work, and the Library of Congress selected several of his films for preservation in the National Film Registry. 

In 2019, he finally won an Academy Award, albeit for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKKlansman. 

“I think it’s very important that films make people look at what’s forgotten,” he said. He won an Emmy and Peabody for his documentary on Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in New Orleans, When the Levees Broke, and later received the prestigious Gish Award: “We honor Spike Lee for his brilliance and unwavering courage in using film to challenge conventional thinking, and for the passion for justice he feels in his soul.”

The post On this day in 1957 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, outlines the Senate plan to tweak the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding formula for K-12 education, then fully fund it for the first time in more than a decade. The issue is now before the House, where the GOP leadership, along with the governor, has voiced skepticism about the plan. But DeBar said he’s talked to rank-and-file House members and believes there is widespread support for it.

The post Podcast: Senate leader says House rank-and-file support fully funding public education appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Michelle Williams, a renowned epidemiologist and dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, caught up with health editor Kate Royals following the state Legislature’s decision to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage. 

Harvard University’s School of Public Health has an active program focused on the maternal mortality rate in the Mississippi Delta. Williams has also paid close attention to Mississippi’s debate over Medicaid expansion. 

While Williams says she is heartened by Gov. Tate Reeves’ decision to extend postpartum coverage, the esteemed public health expert says the new law doesn’t go far enough. 

Kate Royals: Tell me about the school’s work in the Mississippi Delta.

Michelle Williams: We have a long history of collaborating on research and education in the Delta, in partnership with state officials, community health centers and local colleges, including Mississippi State and the University of Mississippi.

When you talk about health in Mississippi, the focus is often on the dire statistics, such as sky-high infant and maternal mortality. But it’s important to know that the state has a history of truly important innovation. For instance, the first community health centers sprang up in Mississippi — an outgrowth of the civil rights movement. Our collaborations aim to build on and nurture those innovations.

We gather regularly with our partners to discuss and develop health care programs. We work together on research grants, too. As one example, we would love to secure funding to enable state health officials to make regular home visits to new moms in the Mississippi Delta; we would then evaluate the impact of the program and widely disseminate lessons learned.

Finally, we organize academic exchanges so students in Mississippi spend time at Harvard and vice versa, with opportunities to get involved in research and community projects. I recently talked to one of our (master’s of Public Health) students who is in Clarksdale for her fieldwork practicum, working with a program called “Baby University” that teaches new parents about early childhood development and gives them tips for supporting their babies’ growth.

Royals: You have cited some pretty startling statistics about outcomes for mothers – particularly Black mothers – in Mississippi compared to other countries. What were those?

Williams: I’m glad you asked, because I think these are statistics that every policy maker – and every citizen – should know.

For Black women in Mississippi, the mortality rate is 65.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the state Department of Health.

That’s a horrifying number. To put it in context, Black women in Mississippi are nearly 20 times more likely to die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth than women in Greece, Poland, or Slovenia. They’re nearly 8 times more likely to die than women in Turkey.

The mortality rate for white women in Mississippi is lower, at 16.2 deaths per 100,0000 live births, but that is still far above the U.S. average. They are at least three times more likely to die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth than women in the UK or Canada.

Each of those deaths is a tragedy with long-lasting effects: Too many young, promising lives cut short; too many children who grow up without the love and support of their mothers; too many families who struggle with grief for the rest of their lives.

It is heartbreaking but it is also, quite frankly, infuriating. We know why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women. They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias, including lack of access to appropriate care. That we allow this to continue to happen, in the wealthiest country in the world, is unforgivable.

Royals: What do you believe, from your research and experience, will be the benefits of extending the health care coverage of mothers on Medicaid for women and babies in Mississippi?

Williams: We know from state data that 42.5% of pregnancy-related maternal deaths in Mississippi occur between 60 days and a year after childbirth. That’s the precise period that would be covered by the Medicaid expansion bill now on the governor’s desk.

I am certain that having access to care in this period will save lives. Remaining on Medicaid will give new mothers … access to mental health care, which is critically important for not only a mother’s health but also the health of her children. It will also allow women to get care for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. That’s important because cardiovascular conditions are the most common cause of pregnancy-related maternal deaths in the state.

There are many other benefits as well. Extending Medicaid coverage should help more young mothers get … screened for cancer. This is crucial because Mississippi has among the highest mortality rates in the nation for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer, all of which can often be treated successfully if detected early.

The bill should also help new mothers get access to contraception to help them control the spacing of future pregnancies. Given that abortion is now banned in Mississippi, with very limited exceptions, access to effective birth control is critical.

Finally, I want to emphasize what I mentioned earlier: Extending Medicaid will improve the odds not only for the mom, but for the newborn – and for any other children in the family. This generational effect is particularly important in Mississippi, which has long had the highest infant mortality rate in the U.S.

As every parent knows, the first year of a child’s life is wondrous, but it can also be tiring, isolating, and stressful. Parents are better equipped to navigate those stresses and support their children through this crucial phase of development if they have access to the care they need to keep themselves healthy.

Royals: I understand you applaud Mississippi for passing extended postpartum coverage but maintain there’s much more to be done. Can you say more about that, and how Medicaid expansion factors in? 

 Williams: Absolutely. That’s a great question.

The extension is critical for all the reasons I mentioned above. But the state could – and should – enact the full Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act. So far, I believe 39 states plus D.C. have taken advantage of this provision to extend Medicaid to nearly all adults with income up to a certain level, typically about $20,000 a year for a single person. That would cover not just new mothers, but all adults who meet the income guidelines.

One particular group that would benefit is young women who are not yet pregnant but might conceive in the near future. It would give them access to the care they needed to get chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes under control. That could be a game changer in reducing maternal mortality.

 And of course, Medicaid is not the only way to protect public health.

I firmly believe that Mississippi must restore physicians’ freedom to deliver the full range of health care for every resident, including gender-affirming care and abortion. State policy makers must also address the environmental factors that threaten health and well-being. That includes the unconscionable water crisis in Jackson, air pollution in Pascagoula, and the lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables in “food deserts” across the state.

Williams cited the following articles in her responses: 

Health Status : Maternal and infant mortality

Mississippi State Plan for Comprehensive Cancer Control 2018-2022

A Mississippi community is ‘grateful’ for more air testing, but skeptical of what comes next | WWNO 

Food Deserts in Mississippi

The post Q&A: Harvard public health dean talks Medicaid expansion and heartbreaking mortality rates of Delta mothers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Feel discouraged about what direction the world is headed? Watch Mississippi Today’s Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey‘s interview with Harry S. Truman Foundation Scholarship Finalist, Maisie Brown. Brown is now the Executive Coordinator at the ACLU and was recently named one of Teen Vogue’s 21 under 21 for her advocacy. She talks about that and her passion to make the world around her better.

The post Mississippi Stories: Maisie Brown appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MARCH 19, 1966

Texas Western, the first NCAA championship basketball team to have five Black starters, defeated the top-ranked, all-White University of Kentucky team. 

The starters were Orsten Artis, Harry Flournoy, Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin and Willie Worsley. They were basketball’s David facing the mighty Goliath in the form of Kentucky and its vaunted coach, Adolph Rupp, whose teams had already secured four national championships. 

Before the game began, coach Don Haskins told his players that Rupp had vowed five Black starters would never beat his team. They took that personally and imposed their will on Kentucky with tough defense, steals and slam dunks. 

“It was a violent game,” recalled Kentucky player Pat Riley. “I don’t mean there were any fights — but they were desperate and they were committed and they were more motivated than we were.” 

The victory helped to end racist stereotypes in basketball and change the game for good. Nolan Richardson, who played for Texas Western under coach Dan Haskins, said of the game: “What a piece of history. If basketball ever took a turn, that was it.” Soon, schools that had long closed the door to Black athletes began to offer sports scholarships. Over the next two decades, the average number of Black players on college teams nearly doubled. The 2006 movie, Glory Road, recreated events leading up to the famous game.

The post On this day in 1966 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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To quote baseball legend Yogi Berra, the 2023 gubernatorial election could be “deja vu all over again.”

In the 2019 election, Republican Tate Reeves opposed expanding Medicaid while Democrat Jim Hood supported it. Hood supported reducing or eliminating Mississippi’s grocery tax while Reeves advocated, instead, for eliminating the income tax. Hood wanted to fully fund public education while Reeves fought the effort throughout his eight-year tenure as lieutenant governor.

Four years later there’s a new Democratic nominee, but the emerging issues feel the same going into the 2023 election. Democrat Brandon Presley, like Hood, supports expanding Medicaid to provide health care coverage for primarily the working poor, supports eliminating the state’s sales tax on groceries and champions fully funding public education.

Reeves still opposes expanding Medicaid, would rather cut the income tax than the tax on groceries and has spoken derisively about recent legislative efforts to fully fund public education.

In 2019, Reeves won by 5% — 52% to 47%. What is different in 2023? Is it the same song, different verse, game over for the 2023 election?

Perhaps. But a breadth of recent polling indicates that on the issues — and solely on the issues — the Democrat wins.

A poll earlier this year by Siena College Research Institute, commissioned by Mississippi Today, revealed 80% support for Medicaid expansion where health care coverage is provided for the working poor with the federal government paying the bulk of the cost. If that is not convincing enough, a second more recent poll by Siena and Mississippi Today found 75% support for expanding Medicaid.

Siena is documented by the FiveThirtyEight Blog, a reputable blog for its data analysis, as being perhaps the best pollster in the nation.

But it should be pointed out other pollsters over the years also have found strong support among Mississippians for Medicaid expansion.

A Siena poll also found 79% support for fully funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which provides the bulk of state funding for the basic needs of schools — needs like teachers, textbooks, buses and water and lights.

Cutting or eliminating Mississippi’s 7% tax on groceries, the highest tax of its kind in the nation, also is more popular than eliminating the income tax, according to the Siena poll.

If all this is true, why did Reeves win in 2019 by a comfortable, but not landslide margin, and why is he favored to win again in November 2023?

The easiest and most obvious answer is money. In 2019, Reeves spent $15.9 million compared to Hood’s $5.3 million on the gubernatorial campaign, according to records on file with the Secretary of State’s office. Reeves plans on similar domination in campaign spending during this year’s elections. Going into this year, the incumbent Reeves had $8 million in campaign cash on hand compared to $723,800 for Presley, the northern district public service commissioner.

Perhaps there are other issues more important to Mississippians than the aforementioned issues that were polled by Siena. But it is hard to imagine issues like education, health care and taxes are not way up on everyone’s lists.

Reeves will want to focus the campaign on other issues more closely associated, fairly or unfairly, with national Democrats. He most likely will have an overwhelming money advantage to craft that narrative and get it out to the public.

And it is easier to sell that narrative because for the vast majority of Mississippians, for whatever reason, their default vote in for the Republican candidate. Mississippi is a solid Republican state that has not voted for a Democrat for governor since 1999 or a Democrat for president since 1976.

To try to make electoral history, Presley will attempt to connect his campaign to the issues of health care, education and taxes rather than those issues that Reeves will want to talk about — those issues associated with national Democrats.

If he can do that, he might have a chance.

Mississippi’s loyalty or perhaps more accurately opposition to the national Democratic Party and Reeves’ money will make Presley’s task difficult. It is a task no Democrat on a statewide level has been able to accomplish for a long time.

But Presley may have at least one distinct advantage in the race: the issues.

The post Brandon Presley could have one advantage in governor’s race: the issues appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MARCH 18, 1968

Martin Luther King Jr. wept at what he saw in Marks, Mississippi. He came as part of his Poor People’s Campaign, visiting impoverished places in the nation. Tears came to his eyes when he saw a teacher slicing a single apple to feed lunch to students, along with crackers. He also saw hundreds of Black children walking the street without shoes. 

King encouraged those in Marks and the rest of the poor across the nation to come with him to Washington, D.C., so they could force the nation’s leaders to think about those affected by poverty. 

“We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on,” he said. “People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, ‘We are here; we are poor; we don’t have any money; you have made us this way … and we’ve come to stay until you do something about it.’”

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