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The state of Mississippi isn’t getting anything past Danielle Thomas.

Thomas is a bright, young single mother raising her six kids in south Jackson. Because she lives in poverty, Thomas is also an expert in the convoluted policies and bureaucratic red tape surrounding one of the biggest scandals in state history: the TANF program.

Despite recent attention on the graft and corruption within the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, Mississippi is still pumping less than 5% of the money directly to mothers like Thomas.

“I really think it’s still them stealing from people, to be honest,” Thomas, 34, said. “I really feel like they feel like a lot of us aren’t smart enough, or they feel like we probably don’t know the system in and out well enough.”

Thomas works part time as a home health aide earning $9.50 an hour, the same wage she started at 10 years ago. When she’s not on the job, she’s feeding and changing her 5-month-old, ferrying her other kids to and from school, cooking meals, fetching medication, tending to boo-boos, monitoring screen time, and trying to keep the shrieking to a tolerable decibel.

On top of all that, Thomas basically moonlights as the unpaid lawyer, auditor and investigator on her own cases at the Mississippi Department of Human Services and other state service agencies. As most public assistance recipients know, it takes fierce self advocacy to ensure fair treatment within Mississippi’s social safety net.

Only about 1,600 very poor families in Mississippi are successfully jumping through the hoops required to receive the small TANF cash assistance payments each month.

Thomas knows a great deal more about how the TANF program works than the politicians who write the laws that govern the program.

But what happened to Thomas in recent weeks has stumped even the nation’s top policy experts.

In October, Thomas learned that she would be receiving a lump sum of more than $5,000 in back due child support from her ex-husband Larry Young, the father of her four youngest children. The state’s child support office, run by a private contractor, intercepted the money from Young’s child tax credit.

This tax offset process is part of the state’s child support enforcement program that Thomas is required to participate in to keep receiving public benefits. The rationale is, if the state is going to provide taxpayer support to single-parent families, then the noncustodial parents, usually fathers, should be forced to pay up as well.

This is where things get tricky: When the office collects support on behalf of a child receiving TANF, the state then seizes the funds to pay itself back for the welfare payments it issued. Most of that money goes straight back to the federal government.

Thomas said she sees the rationale in this, but at the same time, “I think that’s messed up a lot of co-parenting relationships … it doesn’t help how they think it helps. It kinda actually divides the family a little more.”

Thomas receives assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, for all of her children – several hundred dollars a month that comes on a debit card Thomas can only use on qualified items at qualified stores. 

But Thomas only receives TANF cash assistance, $118 a month, for each of the two eldest children, not Young’s kids.

This is because of a harsh and little-known rule in Mississippi that if a parent is already on welfare when she gets pregnant and gives birth, that new child is not eligible for TANF benefits. These are sometimes called “capped” children. Just 12 states still have this policy in place, according to a 2020 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report.

For Thomas, this makes the child support payments for the younger kids all the more crucial.

The $5,000 cash infusion from the tax credit was coming just in time for Christmas. Thomas also planned to use some of the money to replace the radiator fan and valve cover gasket on her 2012 Dodge Durango – long overdue repairs on her only mode of transportation to work and the kids’ schools. Right now, she gets under the hood and manually sets spark to the fan before driving anywhere.

Thomas and her kids survive on the combination of her work income, no more than $13,000 a year, about $900 in monthly Supplemental Security Income, or disability benefits, that Thomas gets for her severe depression and anxiety attacks, and the public assistance. Because Thomas receives disability, she doesn’t receive a TANF payment for herself.

The prospect of a financial cushion provided Thomas some hope, but it was short lived. 

In late October, Thomas received the child support payment on her debit card. It was $100.

She called a representative at the child support office, who told her that, according to the computer screen she was looking at, the TANF program had seized the rest.

That’s not how that works, Thomas thought.

“TANF took $5,000 from my kids, but the kids that they took the money from, they don’t receive TANF. They have never received TANF,” Thomas said.

Without the incoming funds, Thomas told her ex she still needed him to help pay for clothes and shoes for the kids. At first, the dad was skeptical that the state had taken the money. The situation caused tension between the parents.

“It makes me feel bad,” Young said. “It’s sad how Mississippi does things, man. Mississippi don’t care about no one, but what they do? Help Brett Favre. Help Phil (Bryant). They don’t help the ones that actually need help.”

Mississippi, which offers some of the lowest wages, strictest public assistance requirements, fewest labor protections and most meager health care of any state is also the most poverty stricken.

But Mississippi politicians have long blamed “fatherlessness” and nonmarital pregnancy for the state’s high poverty rate, ignoring the research that reflects the inverse: that those family outcomes are most often a symptom of poverty – and the feeling that upward mobility is unachievable – rather than the cause of it.

Instead of focusing on evidence-based practices for interrupting systemic poverty, the state has spent hundreds of millions of welfare funds attempting to address fatherhood and teen pregnancy. Along the way, MDHS admits it has gathered no evidence of how these “family stabilization” programs reduced poverty. 

Millions through these programs ended up going to the pet projects of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, other famous athletes and the cronies of state politicians.

Escaping poverty was always going to be a challenge for Thomas, whose parents split before she could remember. Child Protection Services took Thomas from her mother, who is legally blind and ran an unstable household, when she was 6. She moved with her father to South Carolina until her mom regained custody, and, at 16, Thomas returned to Jackson. She bounced around high schools before dropping out, meeting her first child’s father and becoming a mother. 

Thomas secured her GED and has started several higher education programs in the hopes of securing a better paying job, but it seemed like something always got in the way of her finishing. “I start strong, I start motivated, and then I might take a blow from different things and I kind of back out,” she said.

She has prioritized the paying gig that she has versus striving for another because, she said, “I know from experience that if I don’t work, we don’t eat.”

Several years ago, Thomas entered a work program offered through SNAP, the federal food assistance program administered by Mississippi Department of Human Services. It was a 24-week course, she recalled, to learn medical billing and coding – a job in which she could potentially earn $50,000. The program promised to provide her with a certificate at the end.

“During the seventh week, we went in and they told us it was no funds left to be able to continue the program,” Thomas said.  “I really felt like it might have been something where they just found a way to reroute the money.”

Like that, the program was over.

During the pandemic, Thomas had to leave her home health job to take care of her kids, who were conducting virtual school at home. She applied for unemployment, which would have provided her an additional $600-a-week, more than she’d ever made and finally a chance to get ahead. But unemployment insurance only covers people who make over a certain amount, and because of her low earnings, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security denied Thomas the benefits. 

It appeared a technicality: Thomas didn’t qualify under traditional unemployment insurance rules, but she should have qualified under the special pandemic unemployment program, the purpose of which was to extend benefits to people not typically covered, including part-time workers like herself.

Thomas did her research, appealed the decision, and secured a hearing with the labor office. She even got her employer to corroborate the information on her claim. But after representing herself in the proceeding, she was still denied because she had filed under the traditional unemployment insurance.

Through setback after setback, Thomas doesn’t blame the government for her current situation.

“I’m not a victim because I know the decisions and the choices I have made when it comes to these children and certain things, I’ll take the accountability for. But when it comes to my children … I’d shovel horse manure to make sure my kids eat every night. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make sure me and my children have a roof over our head and we have food on the table.”

Then there’s the added stress of raising her children in a neighborhood where gun violence is prevalent. “We’re in an area that’s really crime-ridden. It’s real, real crime-ridden and poverty-ridden,” Thomas said.

Not too long ago, Thomas’ 9-year-old son found a bag of marijuana on the ground on his way to school. A curious mind, he picked it up and carried it with him to class. When the administration discovered it, Thomas said they almost opened a DHS case, but because she’d been such an attentive parent – attending all parent-teacher conferences and volunteering to bring food for parties – a school administrator vouched for her.

“I’ve been raised in this type of environment … but I don’t wanna repeat cycles. I wanna break generational curses. I don’t want us to be here, but for some reason I feel like I’m stuck, because nothing will come in to allow me to get away from here,” Thomas said.

“Yes, I had all these kids. I made this bed. I have to lay in it,” she said. “But I also know I’m the type of person to where I’m not looking for the government to take care of me and my kids. I can do without, but they also gotta realize the trauma that they have forced upon some of us to where we can’t even live properly. Like, I don’t even like going outside of my home unless I have to.”

In August, State Auditor Shad White, who initially launched the ongoing TANF fraud investigation, released a report demonstrating the cost of “absent fathers” to Mississippi taxpayers. The report focused on how children who grow up in single-parent households are less likely to finish high school, more likely to go to prison and more likely to become teen mothers.

“I’m hoping folks will be informed as taxpayers, but will also realize collectively as a society we need to be sending the message that if you’re man enough to father a child, you ought to be man enough to step up and help raise that child,” White said when the report was released, WXXV reported.

In Young’s case, Mississippi has done nothing to inspire his participation. The state took from him to indirectly support the kids of someone else, while his own kids got nothing.

National policy experts have long advocated against states confiscating the child support payments of poor children to pay back the TANF support they received. They say the practice, which barely makes a difference for states since the money is returned to the feds, keeps families in poverty and harms the relationship between children and their noncustodial parents.

“In this case, it’s even worse: the state is taking money paid by a father for children who the state didn’t even provide assistance to,” said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, deputy director for policy for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). “While the state may have found a loophole that makes this legal, keeping these funds from Mrs. Thomas and her children is a violation of both decency and common sense.”

Little to no research on this scenario exists. Mississippi’s TANF policy manual doesn’t explicitly address it, according to the reviews of Mississippi Today and two national experts who reviewed the manual at Mississippi Today’s request for this story. It does not come up in exhaustive Q&As published by the federal agency that administers the programs, the Administration for Children & Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. When asked about what happened, the federal office told Mississippi Today that the agency was following Mississippi state law.

The Mississippi Department of Human Services similarly confirmed in an email to Mississippi Today that this is the agency’s policy. It said it could not comment on Thomas’ case specifically.

“While they (capped children) are not considered in the calculation of benefits, these children are still part of the head of household’s TANF case,” the statement reads. “When there are multiple children in the TANF-recipient household with different non-custodial parents, and one of those non-custodial parents makes a child support payment, that payment is applied to the overall household’s TANF recovery balance.”

It’s a miniscule policy distinction but with substantial implications – as is true with much of the state’s social safety net. The Legislature could change it.

But this area of government is often too complicated, too niche to capture the attention of the public or even policy makers. It’s part of the reason so much corruption was able to occur within the program in recent years.

Without a closer analysis, it’s easy to miss the catch-22. 

When it behooves the state to exclude the children, in the case of determining who gets monthly benefits, it excludes the children. But when it benefits the state to count the children, such as to seize their child support payments, it counts them.

MDHS said it did not have any data on how many mixed-family households this policy affects.

Thomas questions it plainly: “I don’t see how one parent can be responsible for what another parent owes.”

Since the $100 child support payment, Thomas has had countless calls with MDHS, the child support office, and advocates, many of whom told Thomas they’ve never encountered this scenario and that they believed it was a mistake.

When Thomas visited MDHS in person, a supervisor in the office said her TANF case carried an unreimbursed balance of about $17,000 – a mathematical mystery since she’s only received a total of $146-a-month for both children, recently raised to $236-a-month, on and off over the last several years. TANF has a lifetime limit of 60 months. At one point, an MDHS caseworker told Thomas she had been receiving TANF for two children since 2008, before her second child was even born.

“I’ve calculated and added some things up myself and I’m like, you know, ain’t no way,” Thomas said. “… It’s a lot of things I’m not understanding, but I’m really thinking like it is really just (determined by) who reviews your case and files at the time. Like, if you have someone who is reviewing your case who might let some stuff slip through the system.”

Shortly after she began pressing the agency, Thomas found a letter in her mail. It was from the child support office, notifying her that her entire MDHS public assistance case had been closed. This wasn’t true, but it added to her list of issues to resolve. She wondered if her speaking out had triggered this notice.

Several days later, Thomas received another letter. This one targeted her 5-month-old, who had barely begun receiving assistance, and ordered Thomas to add the baby to her child support case. The notice said she had 21 days to visit the office and hand over paperwork proving the child’s father or her entire family would be cut off from assistance altogether. 

Following Mississippi’s ban on abortion, which led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and others have advocated for more strictly enforcing child support. The policy is advertised as a protection for mothers.

But for Thomas, the state’s meddling has only hurt her.

“They usually don’t contact you this early,” Thomas said after receiving the last letter. “I really feel like once again, this has something to do with me going and talking to people about them.”

With about $12,000 in supposed unreimbursed TANF still hanging over her head, it’s questionable if she’ll ever see a dime of child support from any of the three fathers of her children.

By this point, Thomas was dejected.

“I don’t understand how this system works,” she said in a slow, flat voice. “I’m no longer trying to figure out how it works.”

In fact, Thomas understands better than anyone how the system works. It is working the way it was designed, by wearing down the people it purports to serve.

But then, after talking to a free legal aid office, Thomas learned she could request a formal hearing from the TANF office to challenge the paradoxical policy. It’s scheduled for later this month. She’s already downloaded and started reading the agency’s program manuals from its website.

“I’m actually not going to stop fighting,” Thomas said.

In one of her educational stints, Thomas was studying to become a paralegal. When she thinks about going back to school, that’s the career path she envisions. 

If her TANF case is any indicator, she’s a natural.

The post Welfare recipient won’t stop fighting for ‘decency and common sense’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A massive federal spending bill slated to be voted on this week includes $600 million for work on the beleaguered City of Jackson water system.

Congress is expected to vote this week on the $1.7 trillion spending bill that will avert a pending government shutdown and continue funding federal agencies through late 2023.

Little information was available Tuesday about the earmark for the City of Jackson. But tucked inside of the 4,155-page bill are appropriations of $150 million in one section and $450 million in another section in areas where “the president declared an emergency in August for fiscal year 2022.”

In August, President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency as did Gov. Tate Reeves after customers in the Jackson Water System lost water pressure.

The loss of water pressure and perennial boil water notices were caused by long-term problems with the system. Those problems were exacerbated by flooding on the Ross Barnett Reservoir, which is the primary source of the city’s water.

The 180,000-customer system is plagued with numerous problems, including aging pipes that often freeze and burst during extreme cold snaps. In February 2021 during a prolonged cold period, most of Jackson lost water pressure for multiple weeks.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said earlier this week the extreme cold temperatures expected later this week could cause problems for the city’s water system, though, progress has been made in winterizing the O.B. Curtis Treatment Plant that treats most of the water delivered to the system’s customers.

The spending bill says the funds allocated for work on the water system would be administered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Earlier this month, a federal judge approved an order for the U.S. Department of Justice to step in and oversee the troubled system. A third-party administrator has been appointed to oversee the system as part of the agreement.

Jordan Downs, chief of staff for 3^rd District Rep. Michael Guest, who represent a portion of Jackson, confirmed that the money was placed in the spending bill at the request of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of the 2nd District, who represents a large portion of Jackson, has been vocal in advocating for funds for the water system. He said $150 million of the total is for technical assistance and $450 million is for capital projects.

“I look forward to voting for the complete omnibus package,” said Thompson in a statement. “I am proud to support the $600 million that will be included … to help Jackson. Jackson also will be receiving additional funding from the omnibus bill.”

Sen. Roger Wicker said he intends to vote for the proposal. In addition to the funds for the city of Jackson, the Mississippi Republican said it provides money for many other infrastructure needs across the state.

“This legislation fully funds our National Defense Authorization Act while cutting the president’s proposed increase in domestic spending by 50%,” he said in a statement.” It represents the best possible opportunity to end this budget stalemate…  and get our military men and women the resources they need to win.”

The post $600 million slated for Jackson water in massive federal spending bill set for vote this week appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves has joined with 24 other states to ask President Joe Biden to end the Federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19, which would allow the state to remove some people from Medicaid coverage. 

First declared in January 2020 under the Trump Administration, the public health emergency gives health care providers flexibility in how they operate. This public health emergency has been extended repeatedly since — it was last extended again in October and set to end in January 2023, though the department has not indicated it will not renew. The department has said it will give governors at least 60 days notice before a declaration ends.

“It’s past time to get back to life as normal,” Reeves said in a tweet Monday. 

His comment echoed the notion put forth by the governors in the letter: “While the virus will be with us for some time, the emergency phase of the pandemic is behind us.”

While Mississippi is not currently seeing a major surge, COVID-19 cases are still occurring on a daily basis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,255 cases were identified in Mississippi in the last week. Case numbers have ticked up slightly in recent weeks, but have not approached any of the earlier peaks. The CDC also reports that 53.5% of Mississippians have completed the primary vaccine series, a number that has held stagnant for some time. 

During the public health emergency, states are not allowed to kick anyone off Medicaid under federal regulations. In exchange, the states have received extra federal funding. 

In the letter, the governors say the increased number of people covered by Medicaid has been a drain on state funding. The percentage of each person’s care the federal government covered was increased, but the state has more people they are responsible for overseeing. 

The governors say that 20 million people have been added to Medicaid coverage since the start of the pandemic, a number that “continues to climb as the (public health emergency) continues to be extended every 90 days.”

The Mississippi Division of Medicaid has also changed the services they provide for those who would have traditionally lost eligibility, to the confusion of patients and providers. 

By lifting the public health emergency, Mississippi could return to only providing Medicaid coverage to specific groups: poor pregnant women, poor children, the disabled, some categories of the elderly and some caretakers of Medicaid recipients living in extreme poverty.

Reeves ended Mississippi’s state of emergency in November of last year.

The post Gov. Reeves, other governors ask Biden to end COVID-19 health emergency appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hard to believe this has been my 57th year of covering sports in Mississippi. Fifty-seven years! Think about it. I covered the integration of sports in Mississippi. I covered the game-changing effects of Title IX on women’s sports. I have watched college baseball go from being a springtime dalliance to a huge business, one that Mississippi teams are extremely proficient at. Two years, two national championships. Can’t wait for next spring.

I have covered 13 head football coaches at Ole Miss, nine at Mississippi State — including the legendary Mike Leach, 13 at Southern Miss and 10 at Jackson State. That 13th coach at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin, and that 10th at Jackson State, Deion Sanders, have kept me really busy here the last few weeks.

And I know what you’re thinking: Where is he going with this? Bear with me, I am getting there …

People ask me all the time: Do you ever get tired of writing about games or the people who play them? I do not. Every game is its own passion play. Every athlete has his or her own story. I have learned over the years, it’s not so much about the games as it is the people who play them. Fact is, sports are a huge part of Mississippi’s social fabric.

I love what I do. I love my job. Indeed, I love the job I have now more than any I have ever had. For the past six years, I have written my columns for Mississippi Today, joining this not-for-profit company not long after its launch.

I believe in Mississippi Today’s mission. I believe we have filled a void left by newspapers’ drastic cutbacks and, worse, closures, across the state. In a democracy such as ours, newspapers have been the traditional watchdog over government at all levels. In Mississippi, we were dangerously close to losing that, especially at the state level. Mississippi Today has filled the void.

As our newsroom has grown, so has our influence. One of the biggest news stories in Mississippi this year has been the Robin Hood-in-reverse, robbing-from-the-poor, giving-to-the-rich welfare scandal that has rocked the state. Mississippi Today’s Anna Wolfe first uncovered and then has owned that ongoing story.

What’s more, Mississippi Today currently is covering the state’s health care crisis as no other news organization has. Hospitals are closing, and many more are on the verge. Health services are being slashed. Hundreds of thousands of Mississippians cannot afford the care they need. Too many people are dying far before they should. State government has largely turned a blind eye to the catastrophe. Mississippi Today hasn’t. And won’t.

By now, you probably know that Mississippi Today is a non-profit newsroom. Our digital, public service journalism is free. We operate for the most part on gifts from foundations and on donations from readers such as you. Please consider helping us continue to cover Mississippi and its people in the manner it must be covered.

I work here, but I give, too. Please join me.

Most of all, keep reading. You keep reading, and we’ll keep telling your stories.

Now through December 31, the Maddox Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s education program, and additional supporters will match your new recurring donation dollar-for-dollar, combined up to $54,000. That means your $25 turns into $100 to continue telling your stories.

Maddox Foundation was founded by Dan Maddox in 1968. He and his wife, Margaret Maddox, had a commitment to young people, a love of nature and a vision for making their corner of the world a better place. Maddox Foundation President Robin Hurdle has continued their legacy, which lives on through the current work of the foundation. 

Maddox Foundation, located in Hernando, has made many signature investment grants into youth development. These investments include renovating and supporting the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA; putting an internet-connected computer in every public classroom in Mississippi; creating innovative places for children to learn and play; establishing the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi; and funding the Education Director position and the MTV exhibit at the Grammy Museum Mississippi.

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation (JLFF), based in Berkeley, CA, supports organizations that advance social justice by promoting world-changing work in investigative journalism, the arts, documentary film and democracy. As a small foundation, JLFF’s investment in NewsMatch allows the Foundation to make a difference across the entire field of local investigative journalism.

The Hewlett Foundation’s Education program supports media outlets that strengthen the information ecosystem around our country’s K-12 education systems. They believe that local communities are a key part of improving teaching and learning opportunities for every student.

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Read this story in English: With hospitals under strain, health officials beg people to get COVID, flu vaccines

Los hospitales regionales más grandes en Mississippi, donde los pacientes más enfermos suelen recibir atención, están llenos, y los funcionarios de salud estatales están rogando a los habitantes de Mississippi que se vacunen contra el COVID-19 y la gripe para protegerse a sí mismos y al sistema de atención médica.

“Es la incapacidad de transferir (a los pacientes) a un nivel superior de atención: nuestros hospitales de Nivel 1 y Nivel 2 realmente están siendo inundados”, dijo el jueves el Dr. Dan Edney, Oficial de Salud del Estado. “… Hemos tenido muchas transferencias fuera del estado”.

Los hospitales de los estados vecinos también se encuentran en situaciones similares y no pueden aceptar transferencias.

Hasta el mediodía del jueves, algunos hospitales en Tennessee no aceptaban transferencias, dijo Jim Craig, adjunto principal y director de protección de la salud del Departamento de Salud del Estado de Mississippi.

Las camas disponibles en la unidad de cuidados intensivos (UCI) alrededor de Mississippi están disminuyendo, con 65 camas disponibles en todo el estado, una tendencia similar a los últimos dos inviernos, dijo Edney.

Hasta el jueves, solo había 27 camas de UCI disponibles en los hospitales más grandes.

“Son 27 camas para todo: traumatismos, accidentes cerebrovasculares, ataques cardíacos. No solo la gripe y el COVID”, dijo. “Queremos proteger esas camas lo mejor que podamos”.

El Centro Médico de la Universidad de Mississippi, el único centro de trauma de Nivel 1 del estado, estaba lleno, lo que significa que las camas están llenas, dijo un portavoz de UMMC a la 1 p.m. Jueves.

North Mississippi Medical Center en Tupelo, un centro de trauma de Nivel 2, ha negado un promedio de transferencia de un paciente cada día durante los últimos tres meses debido a problemas graves de personal. También ha tenido problemas para transferir pacientes a otros hospitales.

“Cuando tenemos que transferirnos, principalmente por servicios que no brindamos, como quemaduras, experimentamos más dificultades debido a los problemas de capacidad de los hospitales receptores”, dijo Kim Marlatt, vicepresidenta de marketing de North Mississippi Health System.

El único centro de quemados del estado, anteriormente ubicado en Merit Health Central en Jackson, cerró en octubre.

St. Dominic Memorial Hospital en Jackson también está experimentando problemas de capacidad.

“S t. Dominic’s está trabajando diligentemente para explorar todas las soluciones posibles para satisfacer las necesidades de atención y seguridad de los pacientes en las comunidades a las que servimos”, dijo Meredith Bailess, directora de marketing del hospital.

Edney, junto con el epidemiólogo estatal Dr. Paul Byers, instó a los habitantes de Misisipi a obtener su refuerzo bivalente de COVID-19, que incluye un componente de la cepa del virus original y un componente de la variante omicron para brindar una mejor protección contra la cepa dominante actual del virus.

“Este (refuerzo bivalente) es una vacuna de refuerzo muy importante para brindar protección no solo contra la infección, sino también contra esas hospitalizaciones y protegernos de las muertes”, dijo Byers. “Es extremadamente importante para nosotros ahora, especialmente para las personas más vulnerables de nuestra población, asegurarnos de que todas las personas elegibles estén al día con la vacuna de refuerzo bivalente”.

La aceptación del refuerzo bivalente de Mississippi ha sido baja, al igual que la nación.

Mississippi está experimentando una actividad gripal “muy alta“, y Edney y Byers también alentaron a las personas a vacunarse contra la gripe.

Los habitantes de Mississippi pueden programar una cita para las vacunas contra la influenza y el COVID-19 en el sitio web del departamento de salud. Las citas para vacunas también están disponibles en el sitio web federal vaccines.gov.

Las personas pueden recibir el refuerzo COVID-19 actualizado incluso si no han recibido una vacuna de refuerzo anterior. Eso significa que si recibió dos dosis de Pfizer, Moderna o Noravax, o una dosis de Johnson & Johnson, califica para el nuevo refuerzo siempre que hayan pasado dos meses desde su última dosis. También es elegible si recibió una dosis de refuerzo hace más de dos meses.

“Haga lo que pueda para protegerse a sí mismo y a su familia para que no termine en el sistema de atención médica cuando está bajo estrés”, dijo Edney.

Andrés Fuentes

Andrés Fuentes es periodista de FOX8-TV en Nueva Orleans y traductor de Mississippi Today. Antes de que el nativo de Nueva Orleans regresara, era periodista para WLOX-TV en Biloxi, Mississippi.

The post Con los hospitales bajo presión, los funcionarios de salud ruegan a las personas que se vacunen contra el COVID y la gripe appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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A Ridgeland man who left threatening voicemails and said he wanted to kill federal health officials pleaded guilty to making those threats, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi. 

In July 2021, Robert Wiser Bates, 39, called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and left messages for its director, Rochelle Walensky, saying that he wanted to kill her, according to court documents. 

He admitted to FBI agents that he made the threatening calls to Walensky and that he also wanted to kill Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. 

The reason why he made the threats was not available in court records. 

Bates was charged with making threats against a federal official and making threats in interstate communications, according to court records. He only pleaded guilty to making interstate threats, according to court documents. 

A trial date was set for Dec. 5, but in November he changed his plea to guilty and on Monday signed a plea agreement, according to court documents. 

Bates is set to be sentenced on March 7, 2023 in Jackson by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan III. 

Interstate transmission of threats has a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. 

The post Ridgeland man faces jail time for threatening federal health officials appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Chemical plants and paper mills are among the top polluters in Mississippi, which has seen a decrease in the total amount of toxic releases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency over the last five years.

Certain industries are required by federal law to report every year to the EPA their toxic releases, which include air and water emissions as well as land disposals.

Over the last five years, the facilities with the most toxic releases in Mississippi were: 

1. Tronox, LLC – 72.6 million pounds of releases: Tronox is a chemical plant in Hamilton, which received a $65,000 fine from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in July for exceeding air pollution limits. MDEQ also issued the facility a $65,000 fine for an air pollution violation in 2013, as well a $7,500 fine in 2011 for not having a groundwater monitoring plan.  
2. Chemours DeLisle – 72.3 million pounds: Chemours is a chemical plant in DeLisle formerly owned by Dupont. MDEQ has issued the facility multiple fines over the last decade for air pollution violations: a $28,350 fine in 2011; a $117,000 fine in 2012; a $19,500 fine in 2015 for failing to test emissions; and then a $33,750 fine in June for exceeding emissions limits.
3. Georgia Pacific Leaf River – 15.7 million pounds: Georgia Pacific is a pulp mill in New Augusta. 
4. Choctaw Generation LP – 10.6 million pounds: Choctaw Generation LP is a coal-fired power plant in Ackerman owned by Southern Company. MDEQ issued the facility a $18,750 fine in 2020 for exceeding water pollutant limits. 
5. Tyson Farms, Carthage –  9.5 million pounds: Tyson Farms is a poultry processing center in Carthage. In 2016, MDEQ fined the facility $65,000 for unpermitted wastewater discharges. 

Overall, toxic releases reported to the EPA show a 17% decrease in the state from 2017 through 2021, the latest year of available data. The most abundant chemicals in those releases were manganese, nitrate, vanadium, ammonia and chromium.

The industries with the most toxic releases in that time were chemical plants, paper and pulp mills, meat products — specifically poultry processors — facilities, fossil fuel power stations, and oil refineries.

But the amount of toxic releases from a facility doesn't tell the whole story. As ProPublica explored in its in-depth analysis of air pollution last year, the EPA assigns a risk score for certain chemicals included in the toxic release data to quantify their threat-level to people living nearby. The analysis found that residents in the Cherokee Forest neighborhood in Pascagoula faced an especially high risk of getting cancer because of nearby air pollution, including from the shipbuilding facility VT Halter Marine, which was recently purchased by Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards.

The EPA announced last month that Mississippi would receive a $500,000 grant to measure air pollutants in the neighborhood.

In 2020, the latest year with available risk, or RSEI, scores, the facilities in Mississippi with the highest scores — a higher score meaning more dangerous emissions — were:

1. True Temper Sports Inc. (RSEI score: 265,663): a fabricated metals plant in Amory that emits chromium, zinc, and nickel into the air. MDEQ fined the company $37,500 in 2012 for exceeding water pollution limits, and $39,655 in 2013 for a hazardous waste violation.
2. Rolls-Royce Naval Marine Inc. (RSEI score: 244,407): a facility in Pascagoula that builds propellers for U.S. Navy ships. It emits chromium and nickel into the air.
3. Chevron Products (RSEI score: 188,439): an oil refinery in Pascagoula that releases mercury and other chemicals into the air and water. In 2017, MDEQ fined the company $70,200 for failing to do required air emission tests.
4. Georgia Pacific Leaf River (RSEI score: 122,745): a pulp mill in New Augusta that discharges polycyclic aromatic compounds into the water.
5. Quality Steel Corp. (RSEI score: 85,079): a metals manufacturer in Cleveland that emits chromium and nickel into the air.

The post Data Dive: Mississippi’s worst polluters appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The state’s legislative watchdog committee has issued a report critical of the Mississippi Board of Barber Examiners, and suggests lawmakers consider dissolving it and the separate cosmetology board and put regulation of both under the Health Department.

Findings of the report by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, or PEER, include:

• Mississippi has more restrictive requirements for a barber’s license than 40 other states.

• The board’s exam practices “are not effective in evaluating a candidate’s preparedness for licensure.” In the last year, only 39% of candidates taking barber exams passed.

• In the last year, the board inspected only 191 of the state’s 2,134 barber shops and schools.

• The board last year paid its members improper per diem and travel reimbursement, including paying board members for days they did no board work and paying travel expenses without proper documentation. It also improperly paid staff members at a lower mileage rate than that set in state policy.

• The board lacks internal accounting controls, which puts it at risk for mismanagement and fraud.

• The board’s “lack of knowledge and expertise related to required retirement contributions” cost the board and its licensees nearly $20,000 in delinquent interest payments. And, “the board might have extended its current lease with terms that are not in the state’s best interest.”

• The board’s records are hard to decipher and not easily accessible to staff. The board is not located in a state-owned office building and not easily accessible to licensees or the public.

• Lawmakers “should consider dissolving the Barber Board and the State Board of Cosmetology to create a Barbering Advisory Council and a Cosmetology Advisory Council within the Department of Health’s Professional Licensure Division.” Also, lawmakers should consider making age and education requirements comparable to those of surrounding states and consider prohibiting board members from administering exams.

Lawmakers and other state politicians have for years discussed and debated consolidating or eliminating many of the states scores of small agencies, boards and commissions and reigning in bureaucratic red tape in professional licensure and regulations. They are run by appointed boards, mostly members of the industry they regulate, which raises questions of fairness and competition.

But efforts to reduce or consolidate such boards have had minimal success. They have legislative and political clout. For instance, no elected leader relishes the prospect of thousands of barbers or cosmetologists mad over consolidation come election time.

The barber board refutes many of the PEER report’s findings and “does not agree or concur with dissolving (barber and cosmetology) boards under any circumstances.”

In a written response, the board said it does agree some changes need to be made, but “Dissolving boards does not address the issues of the industry. You will lose the knowledge, history and expertise of the current professionals attempting to streamline or effect cost savings over time.”

The board said it has tried but has not received support from the Legislature in updating current laws. It says it lacks funding to find a third party to administer exams and that its inspectors are part time and limited to working 60 hours or less a month, which limits the number of inspections annually. It said it also lacks funding for a records management system.

The board said, “All board members, inspectors and staff have been provided a copy of the state travel policy rules and regulations. All board members, inspectors and other staff will have training.” But it said it was not asked by PEER to provide documentation of travel and expenses and has since provided them. It also said the state has failed to provide help for the agency to secure better office space.

The post Watchdog report slams state barber board, recommends axing it appeared first on Mississippi Today.

PASCAGOULA – Aaliyah Jackson almost didn’t make it to her job interview at Ingalls Shipbuilding on a recent Monday morning. 

The 18-year-old St. Martin High School senior was pumping gas when a faulty latch sent gasoline spraying all over her only professional dress. Panicked and shaking, she took out her phone and dialed the one person she knew would know what to do: Mrs. Marvin.

That’s her high school career coach. The one who helped her prepare for Ingalls’ first-ever high school career fair. Jackson hopes to land a job sandblasting ships. 

“I don’t have a lot of professional clothes. So I texted her, having a panic attack, covered in gas, asking what I should do,” she said.

Brittini Marvin, per usual, knew what to say. She told Jackson to go home and clean up. She reminded her it would be ok, even if she missed the school bus taking students to the interviews. 

After quickly washing her dress at home, Jackson made it on the bus on time to ride with her coach to the Ingalls offices. And Marvin wasn’t far during the whole process: cheering Jackson on between a written test, physical test and interview.

“I love her,” Jackson said. “I didn’t even know what a resume really was before I went to her office.”

Jackson County has one of the most thorough career coaching programs in the state that goes by the name “P3,” short for “purpose, passion, and paycheck.” The first iteration of a similar program launched about six years ago in northeast Mississippi, funded by grant money from Toyota. 

The programs use career coaches hired from outside the school system — but stationed within a high school — to help students develop a post-grad plan. P3, for example, focuses on its students having one of “three Es”: enrollment (into higher education), employment, or enlistment. 

Meanwhile, a statewide career coaching program has been steadily unrolling as a way to confront Mississippi’s ongoing struggles to increase the workforce participation rate and get young Mississippians into high-paying and in-demand jobs. Last session, the Legislature designated $8 million in American Sovereignty Restoration Act Funds for the statewide version of the program.

Now that funding could double. Gov. Tate Reeves’ legislative budget proposal included the recommendation to up the program’s funding to $16 million through general state funds. 

The statewide program is run by the workforce development office, Accelerate Mississippi. The state had 25 coaches — including those in Jackson County — before last year’s funding. By mid-January, there will be 140 coaches, according to the workforce development office. 

“We’ve been watching what’s happening in Jackson County and what had already been going on in the northeast part of the state,” said Garrett McInnis, Accelerate Mississippi’s deputy director of external affairs. “It was the right place and right time to expand the concept and now we have something that has the potential to positively impact a lot of people and make us more competitive as a state.” 

The access to career coaches was vital for students like Jackson, who graduated early with a last day of school on Dec. 16. Without help to form a plan and set up a job for after graduation, Jackson worries she could have felt stuck at her current job at Taco Bell. 

She is confident enough that she’d start training for a new job at Ingalls come January; she already put her two-weeks notice in at the fast-food joint. 

Jackson County’s success over the last two years, with help from its local chamber of commerce and economic development office, has set a roadmap for the budding statewide program to follow. Career coaches say their advice is catered to every type of student — not just those looking for guidance for in-demand trades like at the Ingalls career fair.

“As career coaches we work with the private and public sectors,” said Amanda Stubbs, a coach at Gautier High School. “We have brought in Ingalls, Chevron, health care workers, counselors, attorneys. We take students on tours and to meet CEOs. The more our students know, the more they can grow.” 

Ava McRaney, 17 and a senior at Vancleave High School, may be her class’ valedictorian but she still felt lost when it came to sorting out how to set up a path to become the first physician in her family. She wound up making an appointment with the school’s career coach, Kim Wiley. 

“I don’t know if I would have been applied to colleges already if it wasn’t for her,” McRaney said.

Wiley set up for McRaney to talk to a medical student about exactly what steps to take during undergraduate college — even carving out what time of year to study for the MCATs — in order to make her dreams a reality. 

“She walked away feeling confident, knowing this is exactly what I need to do,” Wiley said. “She has a plan in place and knows how to move forward.” 

Through the program’s connections to the community, McRaney was able to meet Singing River hospital’s CEO and shadow surgeons in November. 

“I loved every second of the surgeries and I couldn’t take my eyes off what was happening,” McRaney said. “I got to be in the actual operating room. It was just an awesome experience and if I didn’t have that, I’d probably still feel unsure of everything.” 

McRaney already received an acceptance letter from the University of Mississippi. She hopes to one day be an orthopedic surgeon. 

Valerie Jerde, 18 and an early-graduate senior at Pascagoula High School, was at Ingalls’ recent job fair applying to work as a joiner, or a ship’s craftsman. Jerde recently found out she is pregnant. She wants a well-paying career to provide for her new family.

“I could see myself growing at Ingalls,” she said. “But I have always been taught not to keep my eggs in one basket.”

That’s why she’s grateful for the strong connection she’s built with career coach Shunda Williams. Jerde says she knows the coach will be there if she needs career or life advice even when she’s no longer a student. 

“She’s a role model,” Jerde said. 

Unlike high school counselors, the career coaches salaries aren’t paid by the school district. They can’t get called in to proctor a test or substitute teach a class. Their schedule is fully dedicated to helping students plan career paths. 

The American Schools Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250 students to one counselor. In reality, the national average for that ratio is more like 415-to-1. The career coaches add to a student’s team to ensure fewer are leaving Mississippi high schools without a job or pathway to a job in place. 

The coaches say they’re often intervening to help break cycles of poverty, whether that means buying interview clothes for a student who cannot afford their own or helping a family fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (commonly called FAFSA) so a student can enroll in community college. 

McInnis with Accelerate Mississippi said by January, 51 of Mississippi’s 82 counties will have career coaches in their schools. 

“It’s not nearly enough,” he said. “We need more.

The post Mississippi is investing millions of dollars in high school career coaches. Here’s how it works. appeared first on Mississippi Today.