The guys welcome to the studio Yazoo City basketball coach Anthony Carlyle – the son of legendary coach Archie Carlyle – who last week led his alma mater to their first state title since 1996. He reflects on his sixth championship, a wild week at the “Big House” and what it means to build on a legacy.
Stream all episodes here.
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Henry L. Marsh III became the first Black mayor of the former capital of the Confederacy, Richmond.
Growing up in Virginia, he attended a one-room school that had seven grades and one teacher. Afterward, he went to Richmond, where he became vice president of the senior class at Maggie L. Walker High School and president of the student NAACP branch.
When Virginia lawmakers debated whether to adopt “massive resistance,” he testified against that plan and later won a scholarship to Howard University School of Law. He decided to become a lawyer to “help make positive change happen.” After graduating, he helped win thousands of workers their class-actions cases and helped others succeed in fighting segregation cases.
“We were constantly fighting against race prejudice,” he recalled. “For instance, in the case of Franklin v. Giles County, a local official fired all of the black public school teachers. We sued and got the decision overruled.”
In 1966, he was elected to the Richmond City Council and later became the city’s first Black mayor for five years. He inherited a landlocked city that had lost 40% of its retail revenues in three years, comparing it to “taking a wounded man, tying his hands behind his back, planting his feet in concrete and throwing him in the water and saying, ‘OK, let’s see you survive.’”
In the end, he led the city from “acute racial polarization towards a more civil society.” He served as president of the National Black Caucus of Elected Officials and as a member of the board of directors of the National League of Cities. As an education supporter, he formed the Support Committee for Excellence in the Public Schools. He also hosts the city’s Annual Juneteenth Celebration.
The courthouse where he practiced now bears his name and so does an elementary school. He has also worked to bridge the city’s racial divide, creating what is now known as Venture Richmond. He has often been quoted the saying, “It doesn’t impress me to say that something has never been done before, because everything that is done for the first time had never been done before.”
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The House on Tuesday sent Gov. Tate Reeves a bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers in Mississippi from 60 days to a year.
Reeves, who for more than a year refused to endorse the idea, recently announced he would sign it into law. His election year announcement coincided with recent polls that showed widespread, bipartisan support for the extended coverage. This would make Mississippi the last state in the country to provide extended services to new mothers through federal-state Medicaid coverage.
The extension of services, pushed by Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate leaders, is an effort to ameliorate Mississippi’s high rates of infant and maternal mortality and help the state’s ailing health care system cope with an expected boom of thousands more births a year from a ban on abortions.
But for more than a year the measure, which would cost the state about $7 million a year to draw down more than $30 million a year in federal dollars, was caught up in internecine Republican political feuding.
“This is the right thing to do for babies and mothers,” Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, said to her colleagues before Tuesday’s vote. “I don’t think something involving mothers’ or babies’ health should ever be a political chess piece.”
The House’s 89-29 vote to pass Senate Bill 2212 came after Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn, who had previously killed similar measures including one authored by McGee, without a vote, did an about face on the issue after Reeves’ announcement. Gunn had lumped the measure in with broader Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor, which he and Reeves have staunchly opposed and thwarted for years.
There was very little debate or questioning of the measure on Tuesday before its passage by the House, and no attempts at amendments, which would have held it for more debate and votes. Rep. Steve Hopkins, R-Southaven, made a motion to table the bill, which would have likely killed it with a looming deadline, but his motion was defeated by a voice vote.
Rep. Dan Eubanks, R-Walls, who also voted against the bill, briefly questioned McGee as she handled its passage on the floor. He questioned Mississippi’s Medicaid coverage for pregnant women. More than 60% of Mississippi births are to mothers on Medicaid coverage.
“It doesn’t matter your net worth, or how much money you make, if your pregnant, you’re eligible for Medicaid, right?” Eubanks said. “If you are a woman in Mississippi and pregnant you can choose to be on the state’s dime.”
McGee responded that only mothers making at or below 194% of the federal poverty level are eligible.
“Do you want to know what that level is?” McGee said. “It’s $26,300 for one, or $35,521 for a family of two.”
Eubanks said, “My understanding must be wrong.”
While the bill garnered some Republican support, 29 of the House’s 77 Republicans, including Gunn, voted against it, with one not voting and one absent.
Hosemann on Tuesday said the measure is “a great example of post-Dobbs (Supreme Court abortion ruling), pro-life policy.”
“The Mississippi Senate, particularly Senator Kevin Blackwell and Senator Nicole Boyd, has championed legislation to extend postpartum care for mothers from 60 days to 12 months as most other states have done. This hard work has paid off. We appreciate the House passing Senate Bill 2212. When we have healthy mothers, we have healthy babies …”
House and Senate minority leaders, Rep. Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez, and Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, issued a statement after the House vote. They continue to advocate for full Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act to cover the working poor in Mississippi and help hospitals on the brink of closure.
“Postpartum Medicaid extension … is a very good thing for Mississippi,” they wrote. “We’re grateful for the advocates and the medical professionals who fought tirelessly to ensure this moment would come to pass, and for the many Mississippians who spoke out to let our state’s elected leaders know that Mississippi’s moms and babies deserve better … We’re also acutely aware that there is so much more work to be done. This legislation won’t protect the Mississippi hospitals on the brink of closure. It won’t ease a parent’s mind that there’s an emergency room nearby should their child need one. It won’t provide healthcare to the nearly 300,000 working Mississippians without basic medical care. And it’s only the first step in beginning to address our third-world infant and maternal mortality rates.”
As lawmakers worked Tuesday to meet a Wednesday deadline, the House also voted on:
Senate Bill 2079 to create a program for trained, armed teachers in schools. The House after lengthy debate struck Senate language from the bill Tuesday and inserted its own language from a version that died earlier, ensuring more work and debate on a final version. The bill would create a program — optional for school districts — for the Department of Public Safety to train teachers in the use and carry of firearms on campus. House Judiciary B Chairman Nick Bain, R-Corinth, said the measure would also give school districts some legal immunity and would allow them to be insured as opposed to having their own program and training for armed teachers, which is allowed now. Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, questioned whether armed teachers, even with the DPS training, might pose a danger in an intense situation. “Have you ever been in a situation where you have to shoot someone? I have. There are nerves, adrenaline … you can miss. What about a Taser or a stun gun? How about crawling before you walk?”
Senate Bill 2420 to create a “Public Funds Offender Registry.” This bill, now headed to the governor, would require public officials convicted of bribery, embezzlement or other crimes involving public money to register as an offender with the Department of Public Safety for five years, or until certain restitution or other conditions are met. It would also prohibit state or local Mississippi governments from hiring those on the registry.
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A reworked version of a controversial House bill that will add a total of five appointed judges to the Hinds County court system and expand Capitol Police presence throughout Jackson passed by a majority vote in the Senate Tuesday.
“The Legislature has said it wants to help Jackson,” said Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson. “Well, help and don’t hurt. If you want to help, sit down and communicate with us.”
The vote, which fell mostly along party lines, was 34 to 15 after three hours of debate. Every Democrat representing the city of Jackson voted against it after underscoring several times that they and their House counterparts from Jackson have not been at the table for the legislative process.
Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who chairs the Judiciary A Committee and defended the legislation on the floor, called it the “Jackson bill” and said the committee’s goal of redoing the bill was to make the city safe. That echoes what bill author Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, has said about HB 1020’s intent.
“That’s all we’ve been trying to do,” Wiggins said.
Senators drastically amended the original House bill, removing controversial House provisions including a proposed separate court system within the city, an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District and permanent appointed judges.
The amended bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday would approve five state-funded judges who would be appointed by the Supreme Court chief justice to serve until December 2025. The Senate bill would also give existing Capitol Police department jurisdiction throughout the entire city of Jackson, and it would provide funding for positions in the Hinds County court system including legal assistants.
Attorney Cliff Johnson of the MacArthur Justice Center has questioned the Legislature’s basis for having five appointed judges for Hinds County. The center attempted to analyze the number of pending criminal cases in circuit court districts across the state using Mississippi Electronic Courts, but found that system doesn’t contain accurate information.
During debate, Horhn asked whether an analysis of court caseloads and backlogs could be completed to determine whether additional judges are needed.
He cited data showing Hinds County Circuit Court judges closed nearly 2,700 cases last year and gave the breakdown of open cases versus disposed ones by judge. He said that the special appointed judges handled about 230 cases last year, which is about 7% of jury trials in 2022. (Horhn acknowledged that the judges didn’t get started until the fall.)
Wiggins said judicial redistricting is upcoming and information about case load and backlogs would help make decisions about whether additional judges are needed.
“What is clear is that redistricting of any kind will be focused on caseload,” Wiggins said. “We certainly know there is a backlog.”
Wiggins agreed with Horhn that certain cases, such as violent offenses, take more time and resources to move through the court compared to misdemeanors. Horhn said case type should also be factored into consideration when adding judges.
Wiggins proposed an amendment that would divert about $300,000 proposed to fund three additional assistant district attorneys for Hinds County. Instead, that money will go to the Crime Lab.
House and Senate lawmakers have said backlogs within the Crime Lab impact the ability for prosecutors across the state, including in Hinds County, to receive evidence and for judges to clear cases.
Wiggins said he made the amendment after hearing Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens say at a Monday public hearing that he doesn’t want the funding for his office.
Horhn and Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, both called Owens from the Senate floor on Tuesday after Wiggins introduced his amendment. Blount said Owens clarified that he wants the funding for the ADAs, but backlogs with the Crime Lab and other parts of the criminal justice system need to be addressed, too.
That amendment passed in a 32-17 roll call vote, even after Horhn and Blount urged senators to vote against it.
A reverse repealer, which ensures the bill must return to the Senate before it can be enacted, was also added and approved.
Several other amendments were proposed but did not pass.
Two amendments by Sens. Barbara Blackmon of Canton and Derrick Simmons of Greenville proposed eliminating the appointed judges and adding two elected judges to the 7th Circuit Court District of Hinds County, but they failed.
Blount proposed an amendment that would mandate the state attorney general’s office designate an independent investigator for officer-involved shootings by Capitol Police. This is because the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which looks into all law enforcement shootings except those by troopers, and Capitol Police are under the same agency.
Wiggins said the amendment was not relevant to the bill, so it was thrown out.
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Years after a federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of a mentally ill Mississippi man jailed in Clay County for 11 years, the case was settled this week.
Steven Jessie Harris, now 42, was charged with murder, kidnapping and other offenses in 2005. He is accused of fatally shooting his 72-year-old father, Malichi Randle, in West Point before allegedly committing other crimes and running from police.
In 2007, doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield diagnosed Harris with schizophrenia, and a year later he was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, but Harris was not released from the Clay County Detention Center until 2017, according to his attorney. All charges against him have been dismissed.
After his release, Harris went to East Mississippi State Hospital but is now home with family.
Harris’ guardian and family member, Rachel Harris, filed a federal lawsuit on his behalf in the Northern District of Mississippi in 2018 against Clay County, former sheriff Laddie Huffman and current Sheriff Eddie Scott and other officials. The demand was $11 million for the years Steven spent in jail in violation of his 14th Amendment right.
“We believe Clay County won’t be able to do this again,” said Carlos Moore, one of Harris’ attorneys.
Attorneys representing the county and the current and former sheriff did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Moore said Harris and his family members are pleased that the case is over.
The case had been set for trial today at the federal courthouse in Oxford. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mills dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice because of the settlement.
“The court retains complete jurisdiction to vacate this order and to reopen the action upon cause shown that settlement has not been completed and further litigation is necessary,” he wrote.
Moore said the settlement was financial, but the amount is confidential.
In his criminal case, Steven Harris’ trial had been continued at least twice. After Whitfield doctors reiterated that he was not competent to stand trial, his case was transferred from circuit to county court, according to court documents. Then-Clay County District Attorney Forrest Allgood asked for Harris’ competency to be reevaluated, but that didn’t happen and neither did a trial.
Over the years, several defendants were dismissed from the lawsuit. Trial was first set for 2021 but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two stays were ordered in the case and the lawsuit went to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in June 2021 affirmed the district court’s judgment in part and dismissed the county’s appeal, saying “it it has long been the law that sheriffs can be held responsible for unlawful detentions, especially when a court order tells them that the
detainee should be released.”
Moore said attorneys for Clay County and the sheriffs had also petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court over the 5th Circuit’s ruling.
Attorney James Bryant, who also represents Harris, said the 5th Circuit Court ruling set a precedent that it is unconstitutional to detain a mentally ill person after they have been ruled mentally incompetent and civilly committed to receive treatment at a state mental health hospital.
Under qualified immunity, which states that a government employee can’t be sued if they were acting within the bounds of their job, clearly established law would be the way to hold them accountable for actions against citizens. Bryant said Harris’ case can be used to challenge law enforcement actions.
“His name will always be the first case,” Bryant said.
Before Harris’ case, Moore said he had never heard about someone being held in jail without a trial after being declared mentally incompetent. Now, there are other cases, such as that of Raffell Franklin, who had been at the Jasper County jail for five years, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting reported.
Following that story, Disability Rights Mississippi was able to get Franklin transferred from jail to the Mississippi State Hospital and their counsel within 48 hours of asking for information on his case, MCIR reported.
Moore said Franklin’s family has retained him as their attorney, and he plans to file a lawsuit addressing the man’s detention.
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A Delta health care center had to pay $201,000 in missing wages owed to its staff – including nurses – according to investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hours Division.
The facility – North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville – owed money to 110 employees, according to the Labor Department. The health center calls itself the “health care hub of the Delta” and employs about 500 people. It did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Depriving healthcare workers (of) their full wages makes it hard for them to care for themselves and their families,” the Jackson division’s Wage and Hour Division District Director Audrey Hall said in a statement. “These people provide essential services to our community and must be paid every dollar they’ve earned.”
Federal investigators found the medical center was automatically deducting 30-minute lunch breaks from nurses without making sure they were free of work tasks during that time. Often, nurses were working through lunches to update patient records, according to the Labor Department.
Investigators also found the center failed to combine employees’ hours when they worked in different departments. That meant workers’ total number of hours worked to calculate were inaccurate, leading to missing or inaccurate over-time rates owed.
Mississippi’s statewide nursing shortage is at an all-time high, putting all the more pressure on hospital and health care centers’ staff to do more with less. Registered nurse turnover rates in Mississippi went from 23.5% to 31.9% from 2021 to 2022, meaning almost a third of RNs left their jobs last year.
In her statement, Hall reminded health care facilities that they could avoid costly errors by asking for help from the local Wage and Hour Division.
Employees and employers can contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE, for questions or to report missing wages.
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Senate leaders announced Monday a plan to give an additional $181 million to K-12 public education and make changes to the state’s school funding formula so they can more easily “fully fund” it in coming years.
The funding formula used to allocate money to public schools, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, was established by the Legislature in 1997 and has been consistently underfunded every year since 2008. MAEP funding provides the state’s share of funding for the basic operations of local school districts, ranging from teacher salaries to textbooks to utilities.
“This is a continuation of the Senate, and hopefully the Legislature’s, emphasis on education,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. “The best thing we’ve got in Mississippi is a child’s brain.”
READ MORE: Senate leader wants to fully fund public education for just the third time since 2003
Hosemann and Senate leaders said that despite changes that reduce the amount the state has to add to fully fund MAEP, all schools will receive more money next year. They increased the minimum percentage more affluent districts have to pay into the formula from 27% to 29.5% — but said most districts are already paying more than the minimums in the formula require. They also changed the way inflation is calculated – using a 20-year average instead of current inflation rates – and reduced the amount of costs subject to inflation.
“By spreading it out over that period of time, (the inflation change) gives some certainty in funding to schools,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg. “It does a lot better job of helping (schools) understand about where they’re going to be.”
Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leaksville, said under the current formula, it would take an additional $261 million above last year’s allocation to fully fund MAEP. Under the new version, the additional $181 million that the senate appropriations committee approved will get the program to full funding. The total appropriation for MAEP with the changes would be $2.8 billion.
Hosemann denied the idea that the move to fully fund MAEP is coming because it is an election year, emphasizing that this change is possible because the Legislature has been “running this state like a business.”
Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, one of the original authors of the MAEP formula, was involved in process of making these changes and said Monday evening that he was satisfied with them.
“For years, we’ve talked about ‘We want to fully fund MAEP, we all know it’s flawed, let’s make the changes,’” DeBar said. “So, we’re finally putting out money where our mouth is.”
DeBar also said he has spoken to House leadership about this proposal and they were receptive to the changes.
But on Monday evening, House Education Committee Chair Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, said he had not been contacted by the Senate.
“Something of this magnitude should have been brought forward earlier for proper vetting,” Bennett said. “Nevertheless, we’ll review the proposal and run the numbers when the amendment is available publicly.”
Nancy Loome, executive director of the public education advocacy group the Parents’ Campaign, said it was “very good news” that the Senate Appropriations committee had passed a bill fully funding MAEP, and that they have expressed a commitment to do so in the future. Loome also said she approved of the changes to the funding formula.
“Importantly, the Senate plan leaves intact the formula for the base student cost, which is the primary driver of public school funding,” said Loome.
To see how the changes would affect your school district, search the chart below:
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Jackson State University’s temporary acting president said she has no timeline for her appointment at an on-campus press conference Monday.
Elayne Hayes-Anthony’s address to the media and campus community came as questions are still spinning about the circumstances that led the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees to suddenly place her predecessor, Thomas Hudson, on administrative leave with pay last week.
“I’m going to be here as long as I’m needed,” Hayes-Anthony said. “I’ve not been given a timetable.”
For now, Hayes-Anthony has limited hiring and firing powers. Decisions like that, she said, will be made in coordination with IHL Commissioner Al Rankins.
“I am committed to upholding our operations at the highest possible standard,” she said.
But in other aspects, Hayes-Anthony is fully embracing her new role at the historically Black university in the capital city. The Jackson native and former chair of the university’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies emphasized her connection to Jackson State, her love of the university’s athletic teams and her commitment to academics.
“I’m homegrown,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere. This is not something for me as a resume builder. I love this university, and I think it shows.”
The IHL has been silent about its decision to place Hudson on leave due to a “personnel matter” though, in a press release last week, the board said it will “discuss the future leadership of Jackson State” at this month’s meeting. The stunning decision came about a month after IHL voted to renew Hudson’s contract through 2027.
Any questions about Hudson, Hayes-Anthony said, were for IHL. But she did answer questions about the deep-rooted sense among many in Jackson State’s community that the IHL board does not look out for the university’s best interest — or even that trustees sabotage the university by appointing presidents who are not fit for the role.
“We can really bridge and go over whatever we think are troubled waters,” she said. “I think it can be done. I think the community is ready for that to be done. And I think the people that serve Jackson State, like I do, will be ready for that to be done.”
Hayes-Anthony said she planned to meet with students Monday afternoon.
“I want to know what students need because a part of my mission is increasing enrollment, and you can’t do that without listening to students,” she said.
She has also scheduled a meeting with the faculty senate later this week, said Dawn McLin, the faculty senate president, who attended the press conference.
“The largest room in the world is the room for improvement,” McLin said. “I appreciated that she talked about trust. It’s earned. And she’s working hard to earn our trust and foster a culture of inclusiveness here at Jackson State University.”
In January, the faculty senate voted no confidence in Hudson and four members of his administration, including 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.
The resolution cited a “continuous pattern of failing to respect” shared governance and other professional norms of higher education from Hudson’s administration.
Rico Jackson, a 21-year-old senior communications major, said he went to the press conference to “show some love” from his department because Hayes-Anthony has been a supportive leader.”
This semester, Jackson said that Hayes-Anthony made it possible for him to graduate on time by arranging for him to take two classes in tandem that are normally required to be taken apart.
“She’s always been there to try to make whatever way that she can possible for you,” he said.
Hayes-Anthony will be at the Capitol Wednesday to promote the university’s legislative agenda that includes requests for funding for new dormitories and improvements to its water system.
“Jackson State is one of the great pillars of the city of Jackson,” she said.
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