OurTupelo

BILOXI — A candidate’s concession speech usually reveals a lot about how a person will handle an election loss. They can use their words to graciously accept the will of voters or work to assure their supporters that despite the loss, there are better days ahead.

But when the Associated Press at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday declared that firebrand state Sen. Chris McDaniel had lost his bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, there was no one at McDaniel’s election night party to hear such a speech.

The uber-conservative state senator’s supporters had gone home, TV journalists had returned to their broadcast stations and the rock band who entertained guests earlier in the evening had broken its equipment down.

McDaniel, aided by more than $1 million in dark money spending by out-of-state groups, spent weeks attacking incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann for not being conservative enough for Mississippi Republican voters. By the time McDaniel’s election party had cleared Tuesday night, it was apparent that those very voters decisively disagreed.

READ MORE: Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann defeats Chris McDaniel, will face Democratic newcomer in November

It was an anticlimactic end for McDaniel’s fiery statewide campaign, but the effect of the evening was much more significant to Mississippi politics: For the first time since 2008, Mississippi’s far-right conservative movement had no clear leader. And to make matters worse for the group, Republican voters had soundly rejected its coordinated effort to grow in 2023.

For more than a decade, McDaniel worked hard to pull his fellow Republican elected officials farther to the right. In this endeavor, he was successful. He built and leveraged a sizable base of conservative voters who followed his lead and lived in the minds of establishment Republican elected officials. McDaniel might not have won a statewide election, but those GOP leaders long feared the effects of his political organization and ideology.

But on Tuesday night, after his third statewide loss in a row, McDaniel conceded his race against Hosemann and conceded much more. Appearing visibly tired and speaking with a clear tone of dejection, he suggested to reporters he would step away from public life and that it was time for a fresh face to carry his far-right wing of the Republican Party forward.

“I think it’s on life support,” McDaniel told Mississippi Today of the movement he’s led. “It doesn’t have to be me that brings it back. Anybody can that delivers the message well.”

But the movement suffered a much bigger blow Tuesday night than just McDaniel. Numerous representatives of far-right conservatives in Mississippi circulated an endorsement list on social media that included 11 candidates for statewide, regional commission, or legislative seats. 

These candidates were all challenging Republicans who the faction deemed “not conservative enough.” As one leader wrote of the endorsements in an email the night before Election Day, “This election is Mississippi’s fight for conservative government. If the liberal Hosemann side of the Republican party wins tomorrow, I believe Mississippi will return to a Democrat controlled government within a few years.”

The warnings and coordination fell flat, to say the least. All but one of those endorsed candidates, listed below in bold, lost their primaries — and most by substantial vote margins.

• Chris McDaniel lost to incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann by 9 percentage points.
• Incumbent Southern District Public Service Commissioner Dane Maxwell lost to Nelson Carr by 8 points.
• Lauren Smith lost to incumbent state Sen. Chad McMahan for the Senate District 6 seat by 14 points.
• Ricky Caldwell lost to incumbent state Sen. Nicole Boyd for the Senate District 9 seat by 52 points.
• Alan Sibley lost to incumbent state Sen. Bart Williams for the Senate District 15 seat by 18 points.
• Walter Hopper lost to incumbent state Sen. Kevin Blackwell for the Senate District 19 seat by 18 points.
• Don Hartness lost to state Rep. Robin Robinson for the Senate District 42 seat, previously held by McDaniel, by 12 points.
• Jamey Goodkind lost to Kimberly Remak for the House District 7 seat by 5 points (provisional votes are still being counted as of Friday afternoon, and it’s possible Goodkind will face Remak in an Aug. 29 runoff).
• John Williams lost to W.I. Harris for the House District 28 seat by 34 points.
• Phil Harding lost to two candidates, Zachary Grady and Felix Gines, for the House District 115 seat after earning just 258 votes.

The only candidate on the endorsement list who won his primary was former state Rep. Chris Brown, who handily beat political newcomer Tanner Newman for the Northern District Public Service Commission seat.

Steven Utroska, the Mississippi director for the State Freedom Caucus Network which helped distribute the endorsement list, attended McDaniel’s party in Biloxi on Tuesday. While McDaniel was never a member of the Freedom Caucus, an organization of House members who support conservative policies, the Jones County senator is broadly respected by the members of the organization.

Utroska, in an interview with Mississippi Today in Biloxi, struck a somber tone when discussing the election results.

“It certainly seems like there’s a conservative vacuum, and we’re losing strong conservatives,” he said.

With McDaniel’s loss and the loss of his fellow far-right hopefuls, the future of the faction is unclear. Mississippi, of course, has no shortage of Republican officials, given the state GOP will continue to make up a supermajority of the legislative seats in both chambers of the state Capitol. But the faction McDaniel has led for the last decade now has no clear leader.

Election night results show that Republican state Sen. Kathy Chism of New Albany will be the only ultra-conservative and McDaniel ally to return to the state Senate in January. Several House Freedom Caucus members appear to have survived the primary election carnage, but there is no clear leader of the far-right conservative movement.

But the handful of ultraconservative members returning to the Capitol will have even less influence than they wielded in recent years.

Rep. Jason White is expected to become speaker of the House in January, and most Capitol observers predict he will continue the role of his predecessor, Philip Gunn, in appointing primarily mainstream conservatives to lead powerful committees and largely shutting out the right-wing crowd.

And if Hosemann defeats his Democratic opponent in the November election, the lieutenant governor will almost certainly wield his power to relegate the few members of the far-right faction to the back benches of the 52-member chamber, leaving them with little influence over policy.

Over the next four years in state government, the Freedom Caucus and like-minded lawmakers will have to start from scratch to chart out a new path for their faction and determine what their organization will look like in a new state government.

“I think in the next few months we’ll be reaching out to new members who have been elected to get to know them and their beliefs,” Utroska said. “And after that, we’ll just have to see where it goes.”

The post Republican voters deliver fatal blow to Mississippi’s far-right conservative movement appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The state Health Department deemed Mississippi Baptist Medical Center qualified to host a burn center, health system officials announced at a press conference Thursday.

But with almost half of Baptist’s burn center requirements not fully met and millions from the state Legislature in flux, there’s still a long way to go.

Since the state’s only accredited burn center housed at Merit Health Central closed in October, both Baptist and the University of Mississippi Medical Center have been vying for the designation. Merit’s former burn director, Dr. Derek Culnan, now leads the burn unit at Baptist.

UMMC got its approval in April, while Baptist formally received its designation on July 24.

“I came to this hospital and this community and asked them to take us in, and I said, ‘I have thousands of people who need help here, and they need it now, not years from now,’” Culnan said at the press conference. “And (Baptist) said yes.”

Baptist has treated 927 burn patients since last November when they received their first, according to CEO Bobbie Ware. 

“Today is just the beginning of the development of a premier burn program in this region,” Ware said at the press conference.

After some back and forth, the Legislature ultimately gave the state Health Department the responsibility of choosing Mississippi’s next burn center and appropriated $4 million for whatever facility was chosen to defray expenses. However, nothing in the bill prevents the money from going to more than one center. 

But now that two facilities have been approved, no one is quite sure how the money will get split.  

Baptist’s results versus UMMC

Before Baptist received its designation, a team of experts assessed the facility to determine the health system’s compliance with burn center standards. 

The team — Dr. William Hickerson, who helped establish Memphis’ Firefighters Regional Burn Center and served as the past president of the American Burn Association; Terry Collins, a nurse who directs the trauma program for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; and Teresa Windham, a trauma system nurse in the state Health Department’s Bureau of Acute Care Systems — visited Baptist on July 18. 

Out of 155 categories, the team found that Baptist fully met criteria in 90 categories, but fell short in 61. Another three were not applicable, and one ranking was missing. 

The findings of the two facilities’ site surveys show that while UMMC fully met more categories, Baptist partially met more criteria. Fewer than 20 categories were not met at all by both facilities, showing similar levels of compliance.

Hickerson said UMMC and Baptist had differing strengths and weaknesses, but both showed that they could correct their problems.

“A burn center is not necessarily that you build it, and they’ll come, and you’ll have just absolutely wonderful results,” he said. “It’s developing the team and doing things where it’s going to be safe for the patient. And that’s something that can be challenging when you’re starting out with a new team.”

While UMMC appeared to struggle more with ongoing burn education and training and recruitment, Baptist was docked in several categories for a lack of documentation. 

For example, under the continuity of care category, Baptist “partially met” the criteria for providing support for family members or other significant people. However, the facility only had a verbalized plan in place, and the assessment team was “unable to verify the implementation with current documentation.”

Both facilities need stronger policies and procedures around burn care, the reports found, and the burn directors at both health systems only “partially met” requirements. 

Baptist’s team in particular shined in the report— their burn program manager was noted as a strength of their center.

“This team’s just amazing,” Culnan said at the press conference.

However, while Baptist seems to have a more complete staff compared to UMMC at the time of the survey report, it appears that the director, Culnan, is the only attending surgeon. Hickerson said that might be a problem. 

“One individual a team does not make. Dr. Culnan will need assistance to prevent burnout,” Hickerson said. “He’s going to need to go to meetings, he’s going to need to take vacations with the family. So you’ve got to have someone that’s going to be very qualified to step in during those times.”

On the other hand, UMMC has multiple options because of a good working relationship between their plastics and general surgery department, Hickerson said.

One category was missing a ranking: the inclusion of physician specialists on Baptist’s burn team, which Hickerson said was likely a mistake. 

Baptist spokesperson Kimberly Alexander could not answer whether the facility has made any improvements since the site survey, including the addition of more attending surgeons.

The state Department of Health also could not answer by press time why Baptist was approved while meeting just over half of the burn center requirements. 

Hickerson was hopeful that the facilities could correct their shortfalls, and said ideally, there could be collaboration.

“It seems like with both pursuing having a burn center that it would be nice to have a working relationship between the two,” Hickerson said. 

Baptist has 30 days from the date of the site survey report’s submission to develop a corrective action plan that addresses the burn center’s deficiencies. According to Alexander, it has not yet been created. 

Baptist moves from Level 4 to Level 3 trauma center

In addition to its burn center designation announcement, Baptist also unveiled its upgraded trauma center designation at the Thursday press conference. 

Baptist has recently been deemed a Level 3 facility, which means it can “provide initial resuscitation” and treat the majority of trauma injuries but lack neurological services.

Baptist is now also a primary pediatric trauma care facility, a requirement of all trauma centers in Mississippi. It’s not clear why they didn’t have this designation previously, when the health system operated as a Level 4 trauma center, the lowest ranking from the state Department of Health. The agency annually assesses hospitals’ trauma care capacity. 

Mississippi Today found in 2019 that Baptist was qualified to care for patients as a Level 2 trauma center, but the health system was paying $1.5 million annually to opt out through a non-participation fee. Baptist had been paying the state millions since 2008 to avoid treating certain trauma patients. 

Ware defended the decision to Mississippi Today in 2019 by saying it was what Baptist leaders felt the facility had the ability for, based on the availability of specialists. 

UMMC is the state’s only Level 1 trauma center.

Ware said Thursday, though, that the health system decided to pursue the higher designation because leaders finally felt it was prepared for it.

“We just felt we were at a point … with our general surgery and our orthopedic surgeons, they were committed to supporting that,” Ware said. “We were taking care of trauma patients anyway, they come here through our (emergency department). There are people in Mississippi that want to receive care here, and we felt like it was important to be able to confirm that designation and be able to provide their care.”

While it’s not clear if Baptist plans to pursue a Level 1 designation, Ware said they’re continuing to evaluate whether they should attempt to be designated as a Level 2 facility, which would require recruiting neurosurgeons. Ware said leaders have not yet made a decision.

However, Ware said the burn center is their primary focus right now. 

“We’re going to start moving forward with working on our American Burn Association designation and getting our programming in order to be a leading program not just within the state, but within the country and within the world,” Culnan said.

Millions at stake

Both UMMC and Baptist are eligible to receive funds from the $4 million the Legislative has allocated toward the state’s next burn center.

How it’ll be split, though, isn’t yet clear. 

House Bill 1626, which outlines how the Health Department is funded by the state, says $4 million is intended to “defray the expense of establishing and equipping a burn center” in Mississippi. 

It goes on to say that the funds will be disbursed by the state Health Department as a reimbursable grant to the entities where a burn center is established.

Legislators involved in the bill’s creation, however, either could not be reached or were unclear about how the funds would be allocated. The bill’s principal author, Rep. John Read, said he was under the impression the state Health Department would handle the money’s allocation.

“I have not seen anything from the Department of Health yet,” he said.

A spokesperson from the state Health Department initially said the agency would follow the bill’s instructions. After more inquiries, however, a spokesperson replied that because both facilities are now designated as burn centers, they can now both access the funding. However, they’ll have to bid for the funds through a request for proposal, or RFP. 

On Thursday, Ware was unaware of details. Baptist plans to move forward with the development of its burn center through funds derived from operations and other capital funding and grants. 

“I’m sure (the state Health Department) is working on a plan, and they’ll communicate with me when they have more information available,” she said. 

The post Mississippi now has two designated burn centers. What happens next? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Roberta Bell, a 58-year-old grandmother who lives in Vicksburg, was fired from her job as a women’s correctional officer at the Louisiana Transition Center for Women because she agreed to raise the baby of a pregnant woman jailed at her workplace.

Katie Bourgeois was set to give birth before her sentence ended, and Bell, recognizing that Bourgeois was trying to turn her life around, didn’t think it was right that the baby would be turned over to CPS and potentially forever lost to its mother.

Now, about two months after the baby was born and Bell cared for it in its first few weeks of life, the child and mother are reunited after Bourgeois was released from prison.

And Bell, who sacrificed her job and her own financial livelihood to raise a baby who was not her own, wants to use the experience to help others in need.

‘I’m going to get that baby’

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Bell was living in Jackson. It was a difficult and chaotic time for the mother of three. Her father was ill and her mother was struggling as his primary caregiver.

Most days, Bell drove from Jackson to Vicksburg, picking up her parents and driving them back to Jackson for doctor’s appointments before driving them home to Vicksburg and then returning home to Jackson herself. 

She knew she needed to find a job closer to home, so she took her daughter’s advice and applied for a job at the Madison Parish LTCW, also known as the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women, across the Mississippi River. She was hired not too long afterwards.

Working at the prison not only helped alleviate some of Bell’s stress while helping care for her parents, but it allowed her to do something that has long been important to her: minister to incarcerated women.

“God had already tried to put on my heart to minister to women and to get them to know and start serving Christ,” she said. “Doing the right thing instead of doing the wrong thing. Once I got hired and I started working over there, I was ministering to the young ladies.”

Unbeknownst to Bell, one of the incarcerated women in the facility was facing a serious problem: She would give birth before she was released from prison. 

The woman, Katie Bourgeois, didn’t have many options. Her own mother was struggling through a divorce, so she didn’t think she would be able to get the baby. Without anyone else to help, Bourgeois knew her child would go into Child Protective Services, at which point she may never see her baby again. She anguished over what she could do, talking to some of the other women in the facility about her situation.

Then some of the other women in the facility had an idea: “Mama Bell,” as they called her, should take the baby.

Bell happened to be standing on the walk when the women arrived at this conclusion. One woman noticed Bell and called out to her.

“She said, ‘Ms. Bell, Ms. Bell! You’ll keep her baby for her, won’t you, Ms. Bell? Won’t you keep her baby? She just doesn’t want her baby to go to CPS,’” Bell recalled.

On a whim, Bell agreed to keep the baby, not realizing that they were serious about asking her to do so or that the woman legitimately did not have anyone to help out. But when she later realized the seriousness of the question, Bell’s answer remained the same: she would take care of the baby. 

Bell talked to Bourgeois, who was at the time about five-and-a-half months pregnant, to learn more details about her release and to confirm she truly wanted Bell to keep her baby. Immediately after talking to Bourgeois, Bell said she met with her commanding officer. Gossip travels quickly at the facility, and Bell didn’t want her supervisor to find out about the situation from someone else before hearing about it from her.

“I told him that I didn’t want to do anything against the policy and procedures,” Bell said. “(I said), ‘I want to come to you and let you know that I don’t want to see this child’s baby go to CPS.’”

She says the officer told her that it was “a sad situation,” and that he’d get back to her about it. Bell recalled that at least three months passed between the time Bell spoke with her supervisor and Bourgeois gave birth. As time passed, she heard nothing else about it from the officer — Bell thinks that, with everything happening at the facility, the officer forgot about Bourgeois and her baby. She decided to ask a maintenance worker to give her contact information to the owner of the prison, so that she could talk to him about the situation before going ahead on her own. She says the owner never responded to her or called her.

In the meantime, Bourgeois’ pregnancy continued. When it was almost time for her to deliver, she told Bell that she had to give her contact information to the hospital in order for them to allow her to leave with the baby.

Bell gave her information to Bourgeois. She’s not exactly sure who is responsible for what happened next, but Bell says it transpired like this: On Mother’s Day weekend, Bell was enjoying a rare day off. While she was away, prison authorities authorized a shake down of Bourgeois’ room. They found Bell’s information among Bourgeois’ belongings. Afterwards, the commanding officer told Bell that he wanted to see her. Bell says she received a call from an anonymous woman with a New Orleans area code who warned her about her information being found during the shake down.

“I told her, ‘I’m not worried about that. I can handle what I’ve done. It’s not secret because the major already knew… he knew I was thinking about trying to get the baby,’” she said.

When she arrived at work, she was told to stay in the lobby instead of proceeding through to the prison. The commanding officer told her that he was aware she had released her information to an inmate and that, in doing so, she had violated prison rules. Bell says she explained that she did so because the hospital needed the information, not because she wanted Bourgeois to have it for personal use.

Bell says the officer doubled down, saying that it was a violation regardless. She told him that she understood and was prepared to accept the consequences. Bell assumed she would be disciplined in some way, but she was not prepared for the end of the conversation. The officer  asked her if she intended on still going through with receiving the baby.

“I said, ‘Major, if the hospital calls me to come get that baby, I’m going to get that baby because I gave her my word,’” she said.

Bell says the officer terminated her on the spot and she left. The interaction took place days before Bourgeois was scheduled to deliver, despite the facility knowing Bell’s plans for months. Because of the delay in getting back to her, by the time the shake down occurred, it would have been too late for Bourgeois and Bell to figure out an alternative to Bell taking the baby. 

“It’s a difference if you want your baby and you want to take care of your baby than if you don’t want your baby and you don’t mind somebody else taking care of it,” Bell said. “She’s really trying to turn her life around … I look at it as if you’re trying, you’re taking a step. Once you take a step, God moves on your behalf.”

Bell and her family believe she was targeted for trying to do the right thing. For three years, Bell went above the call of duty as a worker, her daughter Amesha West, said. 

“My mom has missed so many birthday parties, family gatherings, holidays because she was dedicated to her job,” she said. “Some days my mom would go into work at two in the morning, get off at one in the evening. If no one showed up on the second shift once she made it home, she’d literally put the uniform back on and drive back across the river to Tallulah.”

Bell says she loved her job because it allowed her to “give God glory to be able to spread his love throughout that prison system.”

Madison Parish LTCW declined to comment.

‘I wouldn’t give it up for nothing’

Though talking about her former job still causes her pain, Bell lights up when talking about raising Kayson.

“I love him as if he’s my own grandbaby,” she said. 

Kayson was immediately absorbed into Bell’s family. West and her husband drove from Jackson to help take care of the baby. West’s son, Kason, particularly took to the newborn, with whom he shares a name, while Bell’s other grandchildren were also eager to help. Bell’s ex-husband, along with her siblings and other children, also helped out with the baby. 

Raising a newborn can be difficult at any stage, but especially when dealing with unemployment. The family started a GoFundMe to help with expenses and an Amazon wish list to help with items. Since Kayson’s birth, Bell says that she has been “overwhelmed” by how her community, friends and family have supported her, gifting her diapers, baby bathtubs and other items.

“It’s just been tremendously a blessing, and I thank God for them,” she said. “I’m barely making it myself. I don’t make no money, and I’m here trying to maintain my bills the best I know how.”

Bourgeois, in an interview with WLBT in early July shortly after she was released, said she planned to focus on finding a job and embrace her new role as a mother.

“I can’t thank (Bell) enough for everything she’s done. Kayson’s doing great,” Bourgeois said.

Since Bourgeois was reunited with her baby, she and Bell have not communicated very much and she has only seen Kayson in person once. After finding out Bourgeois was not allowed to cross state lines as a condition of her parole, Bell drove back to Vicksburg, loaded her car with items for the baby and drove back to Louisiana. Otherwise, she says that she has been sent a couple of photos of Kayson.

“(Katie) said that everything was good and fine there, so I didn’t push the issue,” Bell said. “I didn’t want her to feel like I was gone be mad or anything because that’s not the issue. The decision was hers and I have to accept that. I think about him all the time, he’s constantly on my mind. I think about him all the time … I don’t have any bad feelings about it. I just pray and hope that everything is still going good.”

Bell says that Bourgeois and her mother have invited her to visit whenever she is able to do so, but Bell’s time immediately post-Kayson was occupied with trying to find a new job and trying to open The Serenity Center, a recovery home for unhoused and formerly incarcerated women.

She hopes to open The Serenity Center before the year is out. Through the center, she plans to help secure safe and supportive housing for women who don’t have it. Through her daughter, Bell started a GoFundMe for the center. So far, she has raised nearly 30% of her goal.

More presently, though, she hopes that her situation will inspire others to do the same if they are in a position to help people, no matter the cost.

And even though it cost her her livelihood, Bell says she would make the decision to take Kayson again.

“I wouldn’t give it up for nothing because of the love that I want to spread abroad on this earth,” she said. “It’s the love that God wants us all to have. It’s a beautiful thing when you can love God and love all the people that come on your path whether they treat you good or not.”

The post She risked her job to care for an incarcerated woman’s newborn. Now she wants to start a center to help others in need. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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

The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors decided this year not to award over $200,000 to the state health agency for the operation of the county health department as it had done the previous year.

But Lauderdale officials say that’s not because they don’t care about public health — in fact, they’re spending more than $2 million of their pandemic relief funds upgrading the facility’s air-conditioning system. 

They say it’s because the Mississippi State Department of Health couldn’t adequately answer what that money was going toward. 

County health departments are funded by a mixture of state and county money. Usually, the county provides a building, while the Health Department provides staffing, according to State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney. The facilities provide essential public health services such as vaccinations, STI testing, diabetes and hypertension care, pap smears, pregnancy testing and more. 

And as hospitals struggle amid a statewide health care crisis and more of the state’s wellbeing may fall on publicly funded health care, Edney has stressed the importance of these local clinics. 

The state Department of Health has been tasked with mounting responsibilities over the years, but their state funding has remained relatively stable. Health officials are still reeling from the pandemic, and 40% of positions at the agency were unfilled as of May.  

Edney acknowledged at last month’s state Board of Health meeting that his agency had dropped the ball with Lauderdale, and it may not be an isolated incident. 

“We did not do a good enough job with that board,” he said. “Fires break out — I personally have been going and putting those fires out — but we’re already talking internally about doing a better job on our regional level of our folks being at board of supervisors meetings, just going and saying, ‘Hello.’”

Chris Lafferty, administrator of Lauderdale County, isn’t aware of any changes at the county health department, so he didn’t realize there was a “fire.” His conversations with Mississippi Today this week was the first time he had heard of any issues, he said.

“The question of need comes up — was the money really needed? If it was, why didn’t they articulate that?” Lafferty said. “None of the local leadership has contacted us. Now they’re all over it. They’ve had a year.”

In 2022, Lafferty sent a letter to Susan Rigdon, a division director at the agency, informing her that the Board of Supervisors didn’t approve any funding for the agency. The previous year, the board had allocated $242,100 in its $65 million budget to the Department of Health.

Lafferty said he hadn’t heard back from the agency, nor did he hear any complaints, until Mississippi Today recounted a quote from Edney at a state Board of Health meeting on July 12, more than nine months later. 

“It was a $200,000-a-year appropriation that (Lauderdale County) defunded,” Edney said at the meeting. “They took us out of their budget totally.”

According to Lafferty, it wasn’t an easy decision. More than a year ago, the Board of Supervisors was determined to avoid a tax increase in Lauderdale, and Lafferty started looking at how to save dollars. 

So, he called David Caulfield, the Health Department’s regional administrator for the Central Public Health Region which includes Lauderdale and 27 other counties. Lafferty wanted him to explain where the nearly quarter of a million dollars was going – whether it was staying in Lauderdale County and what services it was funding. Caulfield couldn’t tell him, Lafferty said.

“I think those are reasonable questions,” he said. “I cannot in good conscience … ask the Board of Supervisors to give money to an organization that could not answer simple questions.”

Lafferty recommended to the Board of Supervisors, then, that the funding be cut, and Lauderdale County did not have a tax hike last year, he said.

According to Lafferty, no services have been cut or reduced at the county health department as a result – which begged the question, what did the Department of Health do with the $242,100 last year?

Mississippi Today reached out to the Health Department on July 31 with questions about Lauderdale County’s funding to their agency.

The agency replied with an emailed statement that said it provided the same information to Lauderdale County last year as it had in prior years, but it’s unclear what specific information that included. 

“Each year, information is provided to each county board of supervisors that includes overall budget information of each county health department and the services these funds support,” the emailed statement from spokesperson Liz Sharlot reads. “Our local administrators also meet with county officials, as needed, to answer any questions and provide additional information. This information was provided to Lauderdale last year as it had been provided in years past.”

The statement goes on to say that the money from Lauderdale was funding county health department personnel as well as equipment and supplies. 

Mississippi Today reached out to the state Health Department again on Tuesday with follow-up questions, including whether the Health Department provided the county officials with the information they sought regarding how the money was spent and how the supervisors’ decision not to award the agency any money impacted the county health department’s operations. 

Spokesperson Elizabeth Grey did not answer any specific questions, including if and how the Lauderdale County Health Department was impacted. She said on Thursday that Edney and Caulfield were working to schedule a meeting with the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors to rectify the situation — after that meeting, the agency would respond to Mississippi Today’s questions, she said.  

Mississippi state law mandates that county supervisors “shall be authorized” to make necessary appropriations to the Department of Health to pay the salary of the employees of the county health department, as well as supplies. It goes on to say more clearly that the board “shall provide” an office, or building, for the health department. 

It’s not clear if most counties are providing additional funding beyond building costs for their health departments — the state Health Department did not respond to that question from Mississippi Today.

Jonathan Wells, president of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors, says the county provides a building — and more. 

“So, the Legislature says — and I would call it an unfunded mandate — that we supply the Department of Health a building,” he said. “Not only are we doing that, but we’re putting $2.5 million in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money into a new HVAC system for that building.”

The county continues to pay for utilities in that building, security services as well as other general upkeep, Wells said. 

That won’t change next year, according to Lafferty — but neither will their zero-dollar allocation toward the State Health Department. 

On Wednesday, Caulfield visited Lafferty in his office, holding a budget request for the upcoming year in his hands, he said. Lafferty says he is still unclear what the county’s funding responsibilities are and will recommend that the Board of Supervisors continue to withhold funding to the state Department of Health.

The post No answers, no money: Lauderdale officials end funding to state health agency for county health department appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A sign perched on a shelf at Valour Cobbins’ Bread and Butter Shoppe reads, “If you cook, they will come.” 

How else to explain a booming business in the center of downtown Greenwood, a business that was supposed to be the resurrection of a winery that had closed?

“God had other plans … a different route for me,” said Cobbins, as she prepared a chicken salad sandwich for a customer. “This used to be The Winery at Williams Landing. I saw this wonderful space and that a kitchen had been added. However, seeing as how the whole wine making process takes quite a bit of time, I thought, you know I really love cooking. Why not make good, nutritional food and make money too while I get this winery going?”

Plot twist. 

Her love for cooking – gourmet cooking at that – and unexpected financial support started Cobbins on a path that would spotlight her culinary talents. 

“If you cook, they will come.”

And come they do.

On a whim, Cobbins says she applied for a grant she spotted while surfing Facebook. 

“I thought, why not? The process was simple enough.” 

Her whim turned into reality when Cobbins learned she had been chosen to receive a $5,000 Coalition to Back Black Businesses (CBBB) grant, along with a business coach. Optimum, along with parent company Altice USA, broadband communications and video services providers, in partnership with CBBB, also awarded Cobbins a $25,000 enhancement grant that “provides the Black business community with resources, funds, and mentorship opportunities.” 

“I’m telling you; it was a blessing. The grants were amazing, something we desperately needed. The pandemic almost put us under.”

“I officially opened in April of 2021. By September, the business was so busy, the winery was put on the back burner. It’s still on the back burner, but not out of the picture,” she said, heading outside to the rear of her shop with a few customers in tow to show off her garden.

“I love gardening too. And a lot of what I cook with, I grow right here in my little garden,” she says, while tending to her tomato plants. 

Located at intersection of Howard Street and Wright Place, the Bread and Butter Shoppe offers a variety of gourmet sandwiches, salads, wraps, specialty teas and smoothies, and fresh juices.

“I’m doing this. Me. And I love it … this … cooking for people,” Cobbins said, adding, “I call myself a ‘solopreneur.’” 

The post Photo essay: The Bread and Butter Shoppe appeared first on Mississippi Today.

GREENWOOD — Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for governor, recently challenged incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to a debate ahead of the November general election, possibly at the Republican official’s deer hunting camp. 

“He said he wanted to debate the governor of California at his deer camp,” Presley said of Reeves. “If he’ll give me his deer camp address, we’ll debate him there. We’ll debate him anywhere, any place, anytime.” 

Presley’s comments about the hunting camp are a reference to a Twitter exchange between Reeves and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom about firearm rights and the 2nd Amendment. 

Newsom wrote on X, the company formerly known as Twitter, that he wants to add a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that raises the minimum gun purchasing age to 21, establishes background checks and bans the purchase of assault weapons. 

Reeves responded to Newsom’s post by challenging the California governor to a debate over firearm policy. 

“I know you would prefer the French Laundry….but let’s do the debate at my deer camp instead!” Reeves wrote. 

Reeves’ campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment about Presley’s debate challenge or if he’s willing to participate in a debate at all this year. 

The Republican nominee, in 2019, participated in two debates with Attorney General Jim Hood, the Democratic nominee for governor, twice that year — one in Hattiesburg and one in Columbus. 

It’s unclear if any media outlet or organization has formally offered a forum for the two candidates for governor to debate before the November 7 general election.

The post Debate at the deer camp? Brandon Presley says he’ll debate Gov. Tate Reeves ‘any place, anytime’  appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied former NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s attempts to escape a civil lawsuit over the Mississippi welfare scandal.

Favre first filed a motion to dismiss charges against him in the lawsuit, which has been ongoing for more than a year, in February. The judge in the case, Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Faye Peterson, denied the motion in April. It was her first major ruling in the case, a sprawling lawsuit with 47 defendants and pending motions that have been stale for months. Favre appealed the decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court in May.

Mississippi Department of Human Services is bringing the case in an attempt to recoup $77 million in misspent funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF. This includes more than $7 million that went to Favre’s projects, a pharmaceutical startup company and a volleyball stadium at his alma mater University of Southern Mississippi.

As part of its complaint, the welfare agency alleges Favre benefitted from these fraudulent transfers, in part because Favre had agreed to fund the volleyball stadium construction himself. Favre’s attorneys argue that not only is MDHS wrong about that, but the agency’s whole theory about who should be liable in this case is faulty.

“MDHS’s theory would effectively place no limits on UFTA (Uniform Voidable Transactions Act) liability—anyone could be sued who could in any way be deemed to have reaped some undefined benefit from a transfer,” Favre’s original motion reads. “That of course is not the law in Mississippi or anywhere else.”

This was much of the basis for Favre’s appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court. His attorneys argued that interlocutory review “would materially advance this case’s termination and enable the parties and the circuit court to avoid the exceptional expense of litigating meritless claims; avoid further unwarranted damage to Favre’s reputation; and facilitate the administration of justice in Mississippi.”

The justices declined to intervene, denying Favre’s appeal Wednesday.

“This will now allow the civil litigation to move forward, and MDHS is encourage by that prospect and by the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Mississippi Department of Human Services Director Bob Anderson said in a statement after the order came down.

MDHS had argued plainly in its answer to Favre’s appeal that the major orchestrators of the illegal welfare fraud scheme had already pleaded guilty to criminal charges and that the purpose of its civil lawsuit was to “recover the misspent TANF funds from those who aided these fraudsters and benefitted from their frauds.”

“Brett Favre is one of those people,” the attorney for MDHS wrote. “Favre took $1.1 million in TANF funds from Nancy New for speeches he never made. Favre repaid that, but he has neither repaid the $1.7 million he arranged for his drug company, Prevacus, to receive in exchange for giving Nancy New stock, nor the $5 million he orchestrated the USM Athletic Department to receive for a volleyball facility.”

Texts made public last year revealed that New, a nonprofit operator tasked with managing tens of millions of federal anti-poverty funds, had paid Favre $1.1 million under a promotional gig, but only so he could pass the funds to USM so the university could get started on constructing the athletic facility. The only evidence of work Favre conducted under this contract is one radio ad he cut for the anti-poverty program. Favre’s attorneys said he never did use the money he received on the volleyball project.

Favre is not facing criminal charges in the U.S. Attorneys Office’s parallel criminal case, which has produced no major public developments since the office indicted former WWE wrestler Teddy DiBiase Jr. in April.

The post Supreme Court blocks Brett Favre’s escape from welfare fraud lawsuit appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippians selected their picks for legislative races on Tuesday in what became a history-making primary election.

Several races had not been called as of Wednesday afternoon as some votes were still being counted. For full live election results, click on the link below.

READ MORE: Mississippi primary election results

Rep. Jason White on his way to speakership

State Rep. Jason White overcame a key hurdle Tuesday in his quest to become the state’s next speaker of the House by comfortably winning his primary.

White, a West native, defeated GOP challenger Cliff Hayes on Tuesday with 80% of the votes in his central Mississippi House district. He is unopposed in the November general election.

White, the current House pro-tem and three-term legislator, is viewed as the likely successor to Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, who is not seeking reelection. No other candidate has emerged as a likely competitor to White for the post of speaker.

First Black Republican since 1800s elected

In an historic election, Rodney Hall of DeSoto County will become the first Black Republican member of the Mississippi Legislature since the 1800s. He won in the newly created House District 20 with 55% of the vote against Charlie Hoots.

Hall, a military veteran, previously served on the staff of U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly of Tupelo.

A second Black Republican candidate, Biloxi City Councilman Felix Gines, garnered enough support in Tuesday’s primary to force a runoff in the House District 115 race. Gines and Zachary Grady will square off on Aug. 29 for the seat currently held by retiring Rep. Randall Patterson.

Late in 2022, the Mississippi Republican Party announced an effort to boost its Black slate of candidates and membership.

Few House or Senate incumbents lost primaries

State Sen. Philip Moran, R-Kiln, was the only Senate incumbent to lose Tuesday. Philmon Ladner garnered 6,501 votes, or 54%, to defeat the three-term incumbent Moran in the Republican primary. Ladner is unopposed in the November general election.

Four years ago, the 2019 Republican primary included several shocking outcomes. Notably, two key members of the House leadership, Ways and Means Chair Jeff Smith of Columbus and Pro-Tem Greg Snowden of Meridian, were defeated in 2019.

There were no such surprises this year, as no key member of the House or Senate leadership was defeated Tuesday.

Four House incumbents, however, did lose their primaries.

• Rep. Brady Williamson of Oxford lost his District 10 Republican primary to Josh Hawkins.
• Rep. Perry Van Bailey of Calhoun County was defeated in the District 23 Republican Primary by Andrew Stepp.
• Legislative veteran Rep. Rufus Straughter of Belzoni was upended in the District 51 Democratic primary by Timaka James-Jones. Straughter is completing his seventh House term.
• Rep. Doug McLeod of Lucedale who was toppled in the District 107 Republican primary by Ronald Lott by eight points. McLeod, who was unopposed in 2019, was arrested that year on charges related to spousal abuse after the deadline for candidates to qualify to run for the post. McLeod later was found not guilty when his wife testified on his behalf.

At least two incumbents will likely advance to the Aug. 29 runoff after no candidates in their elections garnered a majority of the vote.

In one probable runoff, Rep. Nick Bain of Corinth earned just 48.1% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary and will face Brad Mattox, who captured 35.1%. A small number of votes still needed to be counted by Wednesday afternoon.

In the other runoff, incumbent Rep. Dale Goodin of Richton placed second in Tuesday’s District 105 Republican primary with 29.8% of the vote. He will face Elliott Burch, who earned 46.2% of the vote.

Incumbent Tracy Rosebud of Tutwiler appears to have avoided a runoff in the District 30 Democratic primary. With a small number of votes remaining to be counted, Rosebud had 50.8% as of Wednesday afternoon.

The post Legislative elections: Jason White on path for speakership, first Black Republican elected since 1800s, few incumbents lose appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Since launching, it has expanded to 23 full-time nurses and 17 part-time nurses providing services to about 640 patients around the state. 

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said the program is “plugging the gap” by bringing resources to small rural communities that aren’t there. 

“With limited resources for mothers and babies, a lot of our efforts are going to be directed to our highest impacted areas to help the folks in the most desperate need the fastest,” Edney said. 

The way resources are distributed across the state – sparsely in rural and remote areas but plentiful in certain others – means the program must take a targeted approach. 

“We can not look at Mississippi as one organism. We are really six different regions when it comes to public health in terms of populations, demographics, resources available and challenges,” Edney explained. “I have to have different strategies for different areas. The one-size fits all strategy won’t work.”

Dr. Justin Turner, chief medical officer at the state Health Department, witnessed personally how important access to quality health care for mothers is.  

Turner’s wife made 30 total visits to five different hospitals or emergency rooms during her last two pregnancies. 

Seven of those visits came during her pregnancy five years ago, and the remainder of the visits came during their second pregnancy in August 2022. During her last pregnancy, she experienced “uncharacteristic pain” around month five, requiring her to be supervised by her family 24 hours a day until she gave birth.

The pain would spiral out of control resulting in psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), previously known as pseudoseizures – emotional and stress-related episodes similar to epileptic seizures but not of neurological origin. 

As the number of trips increased, Turner said he had a tough time reassuring his family and himself.

“I was thinking, 'how do I continue to do what I’m supposed to do as the chief medical officer and help assist the state as a whole, when I can’t even help my wife at home?'” Turner told Mississippi Today. 

For Black women in Mississippi, the pregnancy-related mortality rate increased from 51.9 to 65.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, quadruple the rate of white women (16.2). With this data in mind, fears of the worst outcome flooded both Turner and his wife’s minds. 

“It was natural for me to think that my wife was going to be another statistic,” Turner explained. “She would ask me things like, ‘Baby, am I going to die?’”

The pregnancy remained a challenge until the day that she delivered their child by cesarean section. Every day prior to her being pregnant was “a day of misery,” Turner said. After delivery, his wife never experienced another pseudoseizure episode. 

Turner said fortunately for his wife, she had a husband who is a doctor, an OB-GYN, support from family and friends, and a great health care team. 

However, he couldn't help but think of how many mothers in Mississippi lack support. Turner said the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program aims to add emotional support for mothers who may be in need of it.

“For a lot of women, they benefit from the nurturing and feeling like someone is listening,” Turner continued. “The more people that’s on their team, the better it helps them to endure the process of pregnancy itself.”

As services are being provided to participants, Turner said the health department, stakeholders, policy makers and community members must collaborate to improve outcomes for mothers and their babies.

“We need to find common ground in the areas that we can improve and make sure that we are providing our moms and babies a decent chance at having a healthy pregnancy and coming into this world,” Turner said.

For moms with Medicaid, the services are reimbursed. Edney said the program works with uninsured moms to help them enroll in Medicaid or, if they are not eligible, will provide the services for free.

The Mississippi State Health Department declined Mississippi Today's request to interview a mother who has participated in the program.

After making contact with a mom in need, the nurse consults with the mother’s doctor, who shares why she may be considered high-risk. Common high-risk conditions include preterm labor, diabetes, multiple pregnancy losses and starting prenatal care late.

The nurse then works to mitigate her symptoms by going to the mother's home and pairing her with a multidisciplinary team of resources, such as social workers and nutritionists.

The team of health care workers educate her on the importance of prenatal care, diet plans and how to limit her chances of becoming high-risk in the future. Edney said the program is “working aggressively” to support affected Medicaid moms.

“In our last reporting from the maternal mortality review committee, 87% of deaths were Medicaid moms, and out of all of our maternal deaths, 80% were preventable,” Edney told Mississippi Today. “That is unacceptable.”

Currently, 86% of the participating mothers are Medicaid beneficiaries. 

Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies monitors not only high-risk mothers but also high-risk babies up to one year of age.

A baby is considered high risk if they are born prior to 37 weeks of gestation, weigh less than 5 pounds 8 ounces at birth, have genetic disorders, experience nutritional deficiencies, infections, or live in unsafe conditions among other factors as well. 

The average age of infants enrolled in the program is less than one month old.

The goal of the program is to increase the infant's chances of survival, Edney said. Mississippi leads the nation in its rate of infant mortality.

“I know that if we continue doing what we are doing, nothing is going to change. So, if we all agree we have a problem, which I think everybody does, then this has got to change,” Edney stated. “I don’t have to convince anybody that being 50th in the nation for dead babies is a good thing, because it isn’t.”

Around 35% of babies were born to women living in rural counties of the state, but only a quarter of maternity care providers practice there, according to the latest March of Dimes’ report. 

Jillian Harper-Peavy, the state program director for Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies, said partnerships with different individuals and organizations are critical for the program to expand.

Those organizations include community health centers; hospitals; OB-GYN offices; pediatricians; managed care organizations; and other maternal and child health programs.

“We are prioritizing outreach and engagement of patients continually, as we do want to see the program serve more pregnant women and infants,” Harper-Peavy continued. “As additional patients are enrolled, we will continue to assess our staffing capacity and plan accordingly.”

However, financial constraints have hindered its expansion. 

Earlier this year, Edney asked lawmakers to fund $9 million to hire nurses needed to fully staff county health departments and Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies. The request was denied.

Now, Edney said he is seeking to redirect the funding he has and cut back in every department possible to hire the 100 or so nurses he’s identified as potential job candidates. 

“I’m trying to provide core public health services around this state with a battered workforce,” Edney explained. “I try to get people to understand that while everybody else may be over COVID-19, the health department is not. We were beaten to pieces, and we’re working hard to rebuild our workforce with the resources that we have.” 

Susan Bates, nurse team lead in the northeastern region of the state, manages a team of nurses who serve patients in 11 counties, seven of which are maternal health deserts: Marshall, Benton, Tippah, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tishomingo and Itawamba.

These counties have no hospitals or birthing centers that provide obstetric care, and no practicing OB-GYNs or certified nurse midwives.  

Across the state, 51.2% of counties are defined as maternity care deserts, compared to 32.6% nationally. 

Bates, who cares for an average of six to 10 mothers and babies each day, has encountered women experiencing preterm labor, preterm delivery, preeclampsia, anxiety and depression. She’s also cared for premature and low-birthweight babies.

With more than 26 years of nursing experience, Bates said she aims to make every patient feel respected, valued and heard. Her approach is to listen, understand and “not just focus on checking a box.” 

“I feel that it is important to establish a relationship of trust between the mother and her doctors that way we can promote and foster communication. This allows us to provide a more comprehensive care and therefore improve our patients’ outcomes,” Bates continued. “So, when we meet our patients' needs, consistently and correctly, they develop trust in us as their caregiver.”

The Corinth native previously worked for the Mississippi State Health Department for 11 years as a public health nurse, promoting and protecting the health of populations using knowledge from nursing, social and public health science.

Bates, who is certified in pediatric advanced life support and neonatal advanced life support, said caring for high-risk mothers and babies requires a calm demeanor to help the family through what can be a scary time. 

“If you look at the big picture, then it may seem overwhelming, but we can’t be stopped by that. We have to know that what we are doing makes a difference to each patient,” Bates explained. “One life at a time, we’re making a difference.”

Edney said that scoring poorly in maternal and infant mortality is a “heavy burden” that requires a “heavy lift” to flip the negative trend to a positive one.

“It’ll take years, but with the work that we’re going to do with the agency, I’m convinced that we will not only get off the bottom with infant mortality,” Edney stated, “we will get off the radar.”

Correction 8/9/2023: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of hospital visits Turner's wife incurred over the span of two pregnancies.

The post New Health Department program puts nurses in the homes of high-risk moms, babies in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.