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The post Marshall Ramsey: Everything’s Peachy appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Longtime state Sen. Chris McDaniel on social media late Monday said he’ll announce his campaign plans Jan. 30 at events in Jackson and in Biloxi, leading most observers to believe he’s going to challenge incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

Asked for comments or further info on his announcement Monday night, the Republican from Ellisville joked in a text, “I’m thinking (of running for) sheriff. :-)”

In a lengthy interview with Mississippi Today last week, the four-term incumbent senator said he was still undecided about challenging Hosemann, but sounded like a man gearing up for a campaign. He’s been traveling the state for months speaking to various political and civic groups and is co-head of a PAC that has been actively fundraising.

Usually on the outs with the Senate GOP leadership and back-benched for much of his tenure there, McDaniel has not seemed enthusiastic about his current seat for years as he looked to bigger offices.

“Yes, we’ve done polling,” McDaniel said. “My name ID is good. My favorability is good, and (Hosemann’s) unfavorability is higher than mine … Any politician in this state who is challenged from the right is vulnerable in this current environment.”

More than a decade ago, with the rise of the Tea Party, McDaniel became a leader of the far-right GOP and libertarians in Mississippi. In 2014, he made a seismic challenge of longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. McDaniel, with financial support from out of state conservative groups and the state’s first true social media bombardment campaign, led the late Cochran in the first GOP primary vote, then narrowly lost in a runoff.

McDaniel’s run shook the Republican establishment in Mississippi, and has been credited by many as the catalyst for a large shift to the right in state Republican politics. McDaniel himself has said, “I was Donald Trump in Mississippi before Donald Trump.”

READ MORE: McDaniel blasts Hosemann as too liberal, weighs Lt. Gov. run

McDaniel ran for U.S. Senate again in 2018, but lost with only 16% of the vote in a nonpartisan, four-way race. Despite his declared loyalty to Trump, the then-president endorsed Cindy Hyde-Smith, who won the Senate seat.

Many in the GOP then wrote McDaniel off as a fringe candidate with only a small, albeit vocal and loyal, base. But McDaniel has mended fences at least with some in the state’s GOP, including his former political foe Gov. Tate Reeves. In 2019, McDaniel’s surprise endorsement of Reeves appeared to help Reeves garner more of the ultra conservative vote and helped him win a tough Republican primary.

McDaniel said his conservative base is strong and large, and more moderate Republicans are foolhardy to say otherwise.

“They tell themselves that so they can sleep better at night,” McDaniel said. “(His base) is going to exceed 40% on any given day in a Republican primary … Nobody thought Trump had a base, either.”

McDaniel, who serves in the Senate Hosemann oversees as lieutenant governor, has blasted Hosemann as too liberal and questioned his Republican bona fides. So far, Hosemann has not taken the bait and declined comment on McDaniel and his brickbats.

“This is the same Delbert Hosemann who endorsed Ray Mabus instead of Kirk Fordice (for governor). This is the same Delbert Hosemann who endorsed Mitt Romney instead of Donald Trump,” McDaniel said. “There’s consistency there throughout his career where he’s been not simply moderate, but more liberal than moderate … If people get wind of that, yes, he’s vulnerable. The cute commercials are one thing, and they are really clever. But the truth is out there, and it’s not the little lady on the bench, it’s his record.”

McDaniel’s improved relationship with Reeves has had many political observers speculating that Reeves, who has clashed often with Hosemann, is helping and urging McDaniel to run. Both McDaniel and the Reeves camp have denied this. A sitting Republican governor is de facto head of the MSGOP, and helping draft a challenge of a fellow incumbent Republican would be considered unsportsmanlike in political circles.

“(Reeves) has got his own races to run,” McDaniel said. “We haven’t discussed it, and we each have to, in some respects, stay in our own lanes. I consider him a friend, and I chalk our past differences up to misinterpretations on my part.”

McDaniel also refuted widespread rumors that he’s helping draft right-wing challengers of some of his fellow state senators.

“No, that’s not something I’m doing,” McDaniel said. “I can’t be playing checkers all over the state like that.”

But McDaniel said he does not feel as ostracized by the GOP machine as he did when he challenged the status quo with Cochran in 2014.

“I’ve gotten calls from all over — probably two dozen consultants offering to help,” McDaniel said. “These are options I’ve never had before. If anyone wants to help me, they can give me a call.”

McDaniel has in the past struggled to raise campaign money inside Mississippi, and he said he knows Hosemann will be well-funded and “incumbents, they try to clamp down fast on that, with threats, holding contracts over people’s heads.” But he said he’s confident he could raise enough money for a successful challenge.

Plus, McDaniel said social media has helped level the playing field on campaign finances, and he has a strong digital presence, including 305,000 followers on Facebook. In numerous comments on his announcement Monday, many followers said they support him. Many said they would attend his announcement if they lived in Mississippi. Some urged him to run for governor, or for U.S. Senate again.

One urged him, “Stream it live and break the internet!”

READ MORE: Chris McDaniel considered bid for Congress in 2021

The post Chris McDaniel announces an announcement on challenge of incumbent Lt. Gov. Hosemann appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A group of ill-advised businessmen and investors, including one of  Mississippi’s own star athletes and former NFL player Jerrell Powe, were done being jerked around.

Several of them hopped on a conference call the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 11. On the line was a guy they call the ultimate con artist, 28-year-old Bryce Mathis. 

Everyone on the phone agreed: Mathis owed them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nearly a year of lies had finally caught up to him.

“We were all just like, ‘Look, we want our money back, Bryce. We want our money back,’” said Rob Howard, an investor in Mathis’ medical marijuana start-up and one of the individuals on the call. “And then he said, you know, ‘I just wanna make this right. I’m tired of doing all this stuff. I just wanna come clean and be done with this. It’s too stressful.’”

During the call, Mathis, Powe and a marijuana grower from California were traveling in a rented Tesla from the southeast Mississippi town of Laurel to the Chase Bank in Ridgeland, the Jackson suburb 100 miles away, where they said Mathis told them he’d stashed their money.

They arrived after the bank closed and decided to stay at a hotel in Pearl – near a Tesla charging station – so they could go first thing in the morning.

The next day, Ridgeland police officers arrested Powe and the grower, Gavin Bates, for allegedly kidnapping Mathis and taking him to withdraw the money against his will.

“If this case gets fully investigated, it’s going to turn out to be much different than what the police think it is,” said Powe’s attorney, Tom Fortner.

The funds in the Chase account weren’t enough to cover the debts. Several of the creditors believe the kidnapping allegation is just another one of Mathis’ clever stunts.

But Ridgeland Municipal Court prosecutor Boty McDonald said he has the written communication to prove the vigilante efforts of the aggrieved investors constitute a felony.

“The fact that someone may owe you money does not allow you to kidnap them to collect your debt,” McDonald said.

The alleged kidnappers apparently didn’t have any restraints, nor did they wield a weapon. Not a material one, anyway. 

“Brute strength was the weapon,” McDonald said.

Mathis’ story goes that Powe – the 6-foot-2, 330-pound former nose tackle for the Ole Miss Rebels and later the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs – slept on top of Mathis’ legs in the hotel bed to prevent him from escaping in the night.

“When this becomes a Netflix series, it’s going to be Apple Dumpling Gang meets The Sopranos,” McDonald said.

Mathis, owner of a number of LLCs including Endless Esports, Endless Media and Chickasawhay Medical, the marijuana startup, is an Air Force veteran-turned-entrepreneur from Waynesboro, Mississippi, according to his online profiles. His primary business, Endless Holdings LLC, is not filed as a company in Mississippi.

“I believe that relationships are at the core of new ventures and have built a reputation of building meaningful connections resulting in a network of people with endless opportunity,” Mathis wrote on his Forbes Council profile.

Powe, 35, is from Buckatunna, another small town in Wayne County. The NCAA infamously denied the athlete, who was described as learning-disabled, eligibility to play at University of Mississippi three separate times – resulting in claims of discrimination against the association. He was drafted to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2011 and finished his college degree in 2018. People that know him describe Powe as a “gentle giant,” a shirt-off-his-back kind of guy, but in the media, his career has been marked by exaggerated claims that he can’t read and, now, kidnapping allegations.

Last year, despite the warnings from friends, Powe entered into business with Mathis, handing over an investment of $300,000 from him and other friends and athletes.

For the last few years, according to interviews Mississippi Today conducted with nine of his former associates, Mathis’ MO has gone something like this:

Mathis meets potential investors and pitches them on a business venture — anything from an oilfield services company; to a video gamer influencer brand; to a new medical marijuana grow facility near his tiny hometown in Wayne County.

“The kid’s a very good talker,” said Mark Amador, owner of an oil drilling company in Midland, Texas.

He takes their money — $50,000, $200,000 or $300,000 investments — and then the fun begins. Trips to California, rooms at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, Wagyu beef dinners, shopping sprees at Best Buy, to name a few.

“I worked hard for my $50,000 and when I give him my $50,000, he magically went to Hawaii two weeks later. Wonder how he got that money,” one of the investors who did not want to be named told Mississippi Today.

To dodge the people expecting quarterly dividends or salaries from him, Mathis would act like he was going to send them the money but then provide some vague excuse: the bank was closed, the wire didn’t go through, Venmo doesn’t work, or he went to the bank but there was a problem with his revolving credit account.

“It was always messed up, always not open or some crap,” said another former associate.

One time, after promising to pay for a business trip to Los Angeles, the former associate said Mathis gave him a flimsy Regions debit card to use on expenses. It declined every time. Another time, Mathis had Amador physically waiting at a bank for hours for a payment that never came. “I looked like an idiot,” he said.

“It’s always the same story,” Howard said.

To solve these problems, one of the consultants on Mathis’ Esports venture opened a bank account at Chase Bank that he could monitor. But he said Mathis used the same tricks not to wire the seed money into the account. The only transfer Mathis made into the account was for 40 cents, the consultant told Mississippi Today.

Over the past year, multiple people have left jobs to work for Mathis’ startups but were never paid, multiple sources said. One of the employees didn’t have money to buy his kids Christmas gifts this past year.

To keep each of his investors and employees from talking to each other and detecting his inconsistencies, they said Mathis bred distrust, fabricating disparaging remarks they’d said about each other.

Once they finally all connected and the jig was up, Mathis claimed one of his employees, the one who set up the Chase account, was connected to the drug cartel and that if he saw Mathis take out the money, the guy would kill his family. 

Mathis’ alleged schemes never seem to take into account what will happen beyond the present moment. In an August column Mathis submitted as part of a subscription with Forbes Council, he wrote about how entrepreneurs can enjoy the “here and now,” about how “the time for happiness is today, not tomorrow.”

“Why is entrepreneurship so difficult?” he wrote. “Why does it seem that odds are perpetually stacked against you, and your own happiness is under attack? … You might say, ‘It’s me against the world,’ and while that might be true for some, you’ll likely learn along the way that this sort of excessive individualism can lead to even bigger challenges.”

Mathis did not respond to Mississippi Today’s text to a number provided for him or an inquiry on Twitter. 

Mississippi Today spoke with more than half a dozen people who said Mathis either owed them money or failed to make promised investments. By their own tally, they estimate Mathis could owe a combined $1.2 million. In some cases, Mathis paid back his creditors, but only after they put immense pressure on Mathis, and even then, the money came from another individual.

“I threatened him with an ass whooping,” said yet another man, a contractor who eventually received a check, not from Mathis but another business partner, months after completing work for him.

That story echoes charges Mathis faced in Covington County for defrauding Rutland Lumber Co. of $66,000 worth of lumber in 2017. A statement of fact filed in court states that after delivering the lumber, a salesman for the company had to contact Mathis repeatedly to get payment. Mathis told him he could pick up the checks at his office in Hattiesburg, but when the salesman got there, there was no office at the address. Finally, Mathis forked over the checks, but they either bounced or the bank account was closed.

A grand jury indicted Mathis for false pretenses and mail fraud in 2019, but the charges were dropped — what’s called a nolle pros — after Mathis paid what he owed, court records show.

The people who have fallen for Mathis’ alleged scams come from all over the country — west Texas, Los Angeles, Seattle, south Florida, Pennsylvania. They all say the same thing: Bryce Mathis is not to be trusted.

“The details are truly unbelievable, I nearly got entangled in a $20 million cannabis related fraud, he has played a significantly damaging role in a number of people’s lives,” one of Bryce’s prospective business partners, Daniel Kauffman, wrote in an email to a reporter at Bloomberg last May. “I suspect he will successfully continue unless exposed, Bryce simply cannot help himself. He’s too good at lying not to do it.”

But when officers arrived at Chase Bank in Ridgeland on Jan. 12 – after Mathis told a teller that Powe had kidnapped him – they took the alleged conman’s word for it.

Powe was inside the bank during the alleged abduction, playing on Snapchat on his cellphone. The athlete told police his side of the story — that Mathis agreed to go to the bank to retrieve their money — but Fortner, the lawyer, said the officers “blindly accepted” Mathis’ version.

Officers arrested Powe and Bates, who was waiting in the Tesla during the incident, at the bank that Thursday. The pair remained in jail until a judge set bail, $100,000 a piece, and they each bonded out on Tuesday.

A couple days later, U.S. Marshals arrested another investor in the marijuana company, a Texas woman named Angie McLelland, on a fugitive warrant for conspiracy related to the alleged kidnapping. Later that night, officers also arrested an attorney close to Powe, Cooper Leggett, for conspiracy. Leggett is the counsel for the Wayne County Board of Supervisors, which was involved in helping launch the marijuana venture.

“That shows you what the Ridgeland Police Department is thinking,” Fortner said, “that anything this Bryce guy says, they’re acting on that, they’re trusting that, and that may be a real problem here.”

Other than Mathis’ account, Assistant Police Chief Tony Willridge declined to tell Mississippi Today what other evidence it used as the basis of the arrests, citing the ongoing investigation. 

But McDonald said the backbone of their case, which they’re turning over to the Madison County District Attorney’s Office, “does not come from the mouth of Bryce.”

“It is based on what they all said and typed and texted,” McDonald said. “… It continues to amaze me what people will put in text messages and emails and voice messages.”

He declined to go into further detail. The case has not yet been presented to a grand jury.

Howard, from Pennsylvania, told Mississippi Today that Mathis had also invited him to come to Mississippi a few days before the alleged kidnapping so Mathis could give him a certified check. Howard had traveled to Mississippi twice before and both times, Mathis failed to hand over the money, so Howard refused to come this time.

“He told me to come down multiple times, ‘And we’ll go to the bank,’” Howard said. “… Was he trying to set me up too, get me to come down and get me wrapped up on all that stuff too? Like what was his plan?”

Mississippi Today spoke with five people who were on the Jan. 11 conference call. Each corroborated that Mathis said he wanted to go to the bank to settle up with them.

“Bryce said he’ll go over there and get this straight. He said too many people is getting pissed off and everything like that,” said Wade Lowery, one of the men on the call. “…That was the last I heard when I got off that phone and the next thing I know, they’ve got his (Powe’s) mugshot.”

Powe’s arrest appeared on many of the major news sites, as well as ESPN and Sports Illustrated. 

The news story, like most in Mississippi, can’t escape race. The arrest itself occurred in a suburban area north of Jackson, in a county that was embroiled in racial profiling lawsuit not long ago. 

Lowery painted a picture of the scene: “Before the TV cameras and all that, we already knew what had happened. He (Mathis) got to the bank and told them that he was getting kidnapped, you know, a white man coming in there with a black man. Of course. There we go. ‘He threatened to kill me, he’s kidnapping me,’ this and that, and there you go,” Lowery said. “That’s not the type of person Jerrell Powe is.”

“I think that the kidnapping shit was just another way for him (Mathis) not to pay nobody,” he added.

Now, most of Mathis’ former associates believe he’s fled Mississippi. They say he’s been using a blocked phone number. McDonald said he believes Mathis is in fear for his life and has good reason to be.

“He frauded them (the bank employees) and frauded the police department and just slipped out of the noose, so now he’s on the run, and it’s just a big mess,” said Angie McLelland’s husband, Colburn McClelland.

Another investor David Hensley concurred: “I think that was a smoke and mirrors to stop the questioning of Bryce and give him enough time to leave the area so his little secret wouldn’t be found out. He’s very creative.”

Another one of Mathis’ purported companies is Mathis Trading, a building materials supplier. Hensley said he bought thousands of dollars worth of metals from Mathis, but the goods never arrived. The fictitious truck driver pretended to get lost on his way to his company in Pennsylvania.

Hensley said he turned over the information to his local law enforcement and they are currently investigating Mathis.

“We’re not here to strong-arm people … We’re not a bunch of gangsters out here trying to get illegal money or illegal investments,” Hensley said. “We’re just hard-working American people and providing work for a lot of other families. Then you have a guy like this who comes along and tries to scam us.”

The post ‘He’s too good at lying not to do it’: Alleged conman claims former NFL defensive lineman and ‘gentle giant’ used ‘brute strength’ in kidnapping appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read in English: Poll: 80% of Mississippians favor Medicaid expansion

Una amplia mayoría de los habitantes de Mississippi a través de las líneas partidistas y demográficas apoya la expansión de Medicaid para brindar cobertura de salud a los trabajadores pobres, según una encuesta recientemente publicada de Mississippi Today/Siena College.

La encuesta mostró que el 80% de los encuestados, incluido el 70% de los republicanos, están muy de acuerdo o algo de acuerdo en que el estado debería “aceptar fondos federales para expandir Medicaid”.

Las cifras parecen mostrar un cambio continuo en el sentimiento de los votantes en lo que durante mucho tiempo ha sido una batalla partidista. Los gobernadores republicanos electos de Mississippi y otros líderes durante la última década han bloqueado la expansión de Medicaid a través de la Ley del Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio y los miles de millones de dólares federales que la acompañarían. Esta resistencia continúa incluso cuando los hospitales en dificultades y más ciudadanos en el estado más pobre e insalubre claman por ayuda.

“Sí, lo apoyo”, dijo Joy Cevera, de 60 años, una votante republicana de Oxford que dijo que en general apoya al gobernador Tate Reeves pero no está de acuerdo con él en la expansión de Medicaid. Varios encuestados acordaron hablar con Mississippi Today sobre sus respuestas.

Para Cevera, una cocinera jubilada por discapacidad, el tema es personal.

“Yo solía ser uno de los trabajadores pobres”, dijo. “Vi sufrir a mi hijo porque no podía pagarle la atención médica… Ahora tiene 35 años y todavía lo veo sufrir porque es uno de los trabajadores pobres. Tiene que haber algo hecho. Si otros estados pueden hacerlo, ¿por qué nosotros no?”.

La encuesta mostró que grandes mayorías en todas las líneas partidistas y demográficas apoyan firmemente que los hospitales del estado, grandes y pequeños, estén adecuadamente financiados y una mayoría cree que el gobierno estatal tiene la responsabilidad de ayudar a los trabajadores pobres a pagar la atención médica básica. La gran mayoría, incluido el 91 % de los votantes republicanos, está de acuerdo en que todos los habitantes de Mississippi deberían tener acceso a una buena atención médica.

“Creo que tenemos la responsabilidad como sociedad de ayudar a la gente y, a veces, las personas a las que ayudas no son tus personas favoritas, pero es una lástima”, dijo Brad Dickey, de 58 años, un ingeniero de Southaven que dijo que vota por los republicanos. al menos el 90% del tiempo.

 “El derecho a vivir es un derecho básico… Deberían ampliarlo. Somos un estado insalubre… Les digo a mis amigos que dicen que no quieren dar dinero a las personas que no trabajan o que no pueden pagar un seguro, ‘Sí, pero tienen hijos’.“Tienen que tener algo, de lo contrario, lo que hacen es ir a la sala de emergencias”, continuó Dickey. “Sería una atención mucho más asequible si se hiciera de otra manera. Estresa a los hospitales, y sí, terminamos pagándolo de todos modos”.

Nota del editor: la metodología de la encuesta y las tabulaciones cruzadas se pueden encontrar al final de esta historia. Haga clic aquí para leer más sobre nuestra asociación con el Siena College Research Institute.

Mississippi es uno de los 11 estados que rechazaron la expansión. La decisión significa que el estado rechaza alrededor de mil millones de dólares al año en fondos federales destinados a ayudar a los estados pobres a brindar atención médica y deja sin cobertura a hasta 300,000 trabajadores de Mississippi.

Mientras tanto, los funcionarios de salud dicen que 38 hospitales rurales están en peligro de cerrar, en gran parte debido al costo de brindar atención a pacientes indigentes. Algunos de esos hospitales son centros regionales de atención más grandes, como el Hospital Greenwood Leflore, e incluso los hospitales más grandes del área metropolitana tienen dificultades financieras debido a los costos de atención no compensados.

Pero el 14% de los votantes, incluido el 23% de los republicanos, según la encuesta, siguen oponiéndose a la expansión de Medicaid. Algunos de ellos, como el propietario de una pequeña empresa Joseph Allen, de 42 años, de Brandon, lo ven como una cuestión de equidad y que una gran parte del dinero de sus impuestos se destina a programas sociales o de ayuda social.

“Yo mismo pago mi propio seguro, y es mucho dinero”, dijo Allen. “… Para mí es como el mismo viejo disco rayado en Estados Unidos. Cuanto más pones, más te penalizan. Cuanto más trabajas, más toman”.

La votante independiente Michelle Dukes, de 52 años, ama de casa y cuidadora en Edwards, dijo que trabajar 15 años en el campo de los servicios de salud mental demostró que Medicaid es un programa defectuoso y que “el sistema debe arreglarse antes de expandirlo”.

Para algunos votantes, el apoyo a la expansión de Medicaid viene con advertencias y límites.

“Lo apoyo, pero de una manera muy específica”, dijo Robby Raymond, de 47 años, un operador de maquinaria pesada que apoya al gobernador Reeves y es amigo de él desde su ciudad natal en Florence.

“Creo que debemos hacer más para ayudar a los trabajadores pobres oa los jubilados”, dijo Raymond. “… Pero para las personas que pueden trabajar que no pueden y piensan que necesitan ayuda, lo que necesitan es un trabajo. Esa es nuestra gran perdición en todo este país, que no hacemos lo suficiente para ayudar a las personas que necesitan ayuda, y hacemos demasiado por las personas que no la necesitan… He tenido suerte y siempre he tenido un buen trabajo, ganaba buen dinero y tenía seguro. Pero hay mucha gente que conozco que lucha.

“No estoy de acuerdo con Tate Reeves (sobre la expansión de Medicaid), pero todavía hablo con él un par de veces al año, y sé que también comparte mi punto de vista de que debemos hacer más para ayudar a nuestros jubilados y trabajadores pobres”. dijo Raimundo.

Tim Moore, presidente de la Asociación de Hospitales de Mississippi y defensor de la expansión de Medicaid, dijo que no estaba sorprendido de ver un apoyo generalizado para la expansión, pero que las cifras eran un poco más altas de lo que esperaba.

“Durante mucho tiempo pensé que es al menos 65%-70%, simplemente debido a los altos números que obtuvimos en nuestra última encuesta solo con votantes republicanos”, dijo Moore. “Una abrumadora mayoría de los habitantes de Misisipí lo apoya. No sé cómo nuestro liderazgo ignora eso”.

Moore dijo que la MHA participó en las encuestas de 2019, preparándose para una campaña de iniciativa electoral para que los votantes forzaran la expansión de Medicaid ante la reticencia legislativa. Pero la Corte Suprema del estado, en un fallo sobre la marihuana medicinal, invalidó el sistema de iniciativa electoral del estado y los legisladores aún tienen que restaurar ese derecho a los votantes.

Moore señaló que Dakota del Sur, al igual que Mississippi, resistió durante mucho tiempo la expansión de Medicaid debido a la política partidista. Dakota del Sur votó 56% contra 44% el año pasado para expandir Medicaid.

“Dakota del Sur también es un estado muy rojo”, dijo Moore. “Su gobernadora hizo una declaración pública de que no lo apoyaba, pero si eso es lo que querían los habitantes de Dakota del Sur, ella lo implementaría.

“Estoy muy alentado por los números que refleja esta nueva encuesta”, dijo Moore. “Mississippi está viendo la necesidad de un cambio”.

El representante estatal Tracy Arnold, un republicano conservador de Booneville, dijo que no está sorprendido por el apoyo que mostró la encuesta para la expansión de Medicaid. 

Recientemente realizó una encuesta informal de sus electores en Facebook y dijo que estima que el apoyo era del 90% al 95%, “siempre y cuando se hable de los trabajadores pobres”.

“No me sorprende, porque esa es la única parte de nuestra sociedad que queda fuera de todo: los trabajadores y los propietarios de pequeñas empresas”, dijo Arnold. Arnold dijo que está interesado en una expansión “algún tipo de híbrido”, tal vez similar a la promulgada por Arkansas.

“Tal vez tener algo de compra, como un seguro normal con copago para visitas y medicamentos, o incluso un cupón que les permita comprar un seguro en el mercado privado”, dijo Arnold. Dijo que también podría apoyar ayudar a las personas mayores que tienen dificultades para pagar el seguro complementario de Medicare.

Arnold dijo que aunque el liderazgo ha frustrado la votación o el debate sobre la expansión de Medicaid en los últimos años, sospecha que al menos se debatirá cuando se planteen otros temas, como el impulso del Senado para ampliar la cobertura posparto para las madres.

“Creo que la gente tiene la mente un poco más abierta de lo que era”, dijo Arnold. “Tenemos una cantidad sustancial de ingresos ahora. Tenemos que ayudar a salvar nuestros hospitales en apuros, y esto no solo les daría más fondos a los hospitales, sino que también ayudaría a los ciudadanos contribuyentes en apuros.

“Solo quedan unos pocos estados que han hecho esto, y parece estar brindando algunos beneficios y servicios donde lo han hecho”, dijo Arnold. “… Mi posición es que escucharé a las personas que represento”.

La encuesta del Mississippi Today/Siena College Research Institute de 821 votantes registrados se realizó del 8 al 12 de enero y tiene un margen de error general de +/- 4,6 puntos porcentuales. Siena tiene una calificación A en el análisis de encuestadores de FiveThirtyEight.

Haga clic aquí para ver la metodología completa y las tablas de referencias cruzadas relevantes para esta historia.

The post Encuesta: el 80% de los habitantes de Mississippi está a favor de la expansión de Medicaid appeared first on Mississippi Today.

U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican who represents Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District, will chair the House Ethics Committee.

Guest, elected in 2019 to replace former Rep. Gregg Harper, will oversee the committee that investigates alleged violations of the House rules by representatives and staff, among other duties.

“It’s necessary that the People’s House maintain the ethical standards of the people who elected us,” Guest said in a statement. “I’m honored to lead the committee that will maintain the level of integrity that the American people expect from their representatives.”

The House Ethics Committee is made up of 10 total members — five of each party, which is unusual in the lower chamber. The party with majority control of the House gets to name its chair.

Guest had previously served as ranking member of the committee in the last Congress, when Democrats still enjoyed a majority. He was promoted to ranking member in August 2022 after Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana died in a car accident.

Last week, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy named Guest to the powerful House Appropriations Committee — a key appointment that will stand to benefit Mississippi, the state that receives the most federal funding.

Guest carries on a long legacy of Mississippians serving on appropriations committees in both chambers of Congress. Former U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, who was defeated by Mike Ezell the 2022 election, previously served on the House Appropriations Committee.

The post Rep. Michael Guest is new House Ethics Committee chair appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Attack! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The disconnect is stunning.

Gov. Tate Reeves, Lt Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn often disagree, as politicians are apt to, but one item where they are on the same page is that “Mississippi is in the best fiscal condition in the state’s history.” They repeat the mantra often, and they all take credit for it.

Indeed, if the state had a quarter for each time the governor and other political leaders said the state was in the best fiscal condition ever, then the fiscal condition would be, well, even better.

Mississippians are clearly not getting the message. According to a recent Siena College poll commissioned by Mississippi Today, a mere 4% of Mississippians described the state’s fiscal condition as “great” and only 22% as “good.” When asked to “describe the fiscal condition of the state of Mississippi right now,” 37% of poll respondents answered “fair,” 32% said “poor,” and 4% said they did not know.

The poll results are a bit perplexing considering Mississippi’s fiscal condition is, indeed, most likely the best ever. The state’s various surplus accounts total $3.9 billion or, incredibly, about half the amount of the annual state support budget appropriated by the Legislature.

“We are in a great financial position,” Gunn said recently. “…We cannot neglect or ignore the fact that conservative spending leads to this type of financial situation. We have rejected attempts to grow government for the previous many years and this has been the result of that.”

There are many reasons for the surplus, most financial experts agree, ranging from an unprecedented infusion of federal spending into the state primarily to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation generating more tax revenue, and wage growth generating additional tax revenue. In addition, the state is still benefitting from past lawsuit settlements with tobacco companies and with BP after the 2010 oil spill. Both lawsuit settlements continue to bring millions of dollars into the state.

Perhaps the disconnect between how Mississippians feel about the state’s fiscal condition and the state’s actual fiscal condition can be attributed to the notion that most people do not view the primary role of government as to build cash reserves. Normally, the role of government and politicians is to provide needed services for their constituents. Sure, a government should have adequate reserves, often called rainy day funds, but the primary role of a government is to provide services, not to hoard money.

If people see high poverty rates, poor health care outcomes, components of education lacking and poor infrastructure ranging from roads and bridges to water and sewer, they might surmise the state’s fiscal condition must not be that great. Because if it is the best in history, then politicians could fix all the problems.

But instead they hear from top state officials like Health Officer Daniel Edney, who recently sounded the alarm about 38 hospitals and about half of the state’s rural hospitals being “in danger of immediate closure or closure in the near term.” Some of those hospitals are larger regional care centers, such as Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Edney said nearly all of 111 hospitals across the state are facing financial difficulties with many areas — particularly in the Delta and some parts of southwest Mississippi — becoming “health care deserts.”

In the area of infrastructure, the federal government has had to step up to commit more than $600 million to ensure safe and reliable drinking water for Jackson after city and state officials were unable to fix the problem.

Notably, the poll found that 42% of African Americans described the state’s fiscal condition as “poor” compared to 26% of white Mississippians. The same poll found that 42% said the state is on the right track compared to 44% on the wrong track, while among African Americans 55% said the state is on the wrong track and 32% on the right track.

Could it be that more Black Mississippians see so many needs going unmet in their communities and reasonably surmise the state’s fiscal condition must not be that great?Because if the fiscal condition were great, we would have better streets, health care and drinkable water. Right?

Maybe there is not a disconnect after all.

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A committee made up of members appointed by state leaders voted unanimously to recommend that the Legislature extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to 12 months.

The Mississippi Medical Care Advisory Committee, which is tasked by state law to advise the Division of Medicaid about “health and medical care services,” cast the vote in October. The committee is made up of 11 members appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House.

Dr. David Reeves, chairman of the committee and a physician on the Gulf Coast, penned a letter to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Jan. 11. He said the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Division of Neonatal Medicine made a presentation to the committee.

“After consideration and review, with a unanimous vote, the Committee recommends, through legislative action, extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months. We feel this extension of coverage will be beneficial to both our mothers and babies and supports the pledge we have made to Mississippi’s women and children with the recent Supreme Court decision upholding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health,” Dr. Reeves wrote.

Mississippi is one of only two states in the nation that has not extended health care coverage for new mothers on Medicaid to 12 months or expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Currently, moms on Medicaid lose their health care coverage 60 days after giving birth.

House Speaker Philip Gunn last year blocked the legislation from going to a vote in the House after the bipartisan bill passed overwhelmingly in the Senate. Lawmakers who supported the legislation and health advocates both noted the state’s high rate of maternal and infant mortality as one reason the extension is needed.

Health experts have told legislators that although extension would cost the state about $7 million a year to keep mothers and newborns healthier, the alternative is spending tens of millions more as a result of preterm births and poor health outcomes for mothers and babies.

Gunn has previously said he is waiting on the Division of Medicaid to take a position on extending coverage. Wil Ervin, deputy administrator for health policy for Mississippi Medicaid, told lawmakers in December his agency is not making a recommendation for or against extending postpartum coverage.

A spokesperson for the Division of Medicaid did not immediately respond to questions from Mississippi Today on Friday afternoon. A spokesperson for Gunn also did not respond.

Several bills to extend postpartum coverage have been introduced in the Senate, including one from Medicaid Chairman Sen. Kevin Blackwell.

Rep. Missy McGee, a Republican from Hattiesburg, introduced a bill in the House to extend the health care coverage of new mothers on Medicaid to 12 months. Its fate remains unknown, however, as Gunn has recently reiterated his opposition to postpartum coverage.

McGee said she supports extending the coverage based on what she’s heard from health experts – including pediatricians, neonatologists and emergency medicine doctors from her district – and based on her experiences as a woman and a mother.

“As a woman and as a mother, I couldn’t let this issue pass without advocating it and really trying to push it forward,” McGee said.

She said the return on investment is another reason she supports extension.

Dr. Anita Henderson, a pediatrician and the president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told members of the Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families in December that the hospital cost for a health baby born full term is around $5,000 to $6,000. For extremely premature babies, that cost can reach $600,000 and even top $1 million –  costs frequently incurred by state Medicaid, which covers about 65% of births in the state.

“If we can invest early in getting babies here healthy then we improve our long-term outcomes, and there are fewer negative outcomes at a cost savings of who knows what to the state. If the average preemie (costs the hospital an average of) $600,000 (from birth to six months), it doesn’t take many of those (being prevented) for the program to pay for itself,” she said.

Mississippi’s pregnancy-related maternal mortality ratio is 33.2 deaths per 100,000 live births, nearly double the national average of 17.3 deaths. Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate, preterm birth rate and low birthweight rate in the U.S. One in seven babies born here are preterm.

Medical Care Advisory Committee Letter 1.20.23 by Kate Royals on Scribd

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Perpetrators in the Mississippi welfare scandal lawsuit are cooperating with federal prosecutors. 

High-profile officials confirm that a federal investigation into the misspending continues. Top defendants in the civil case have implored state prosecutors to pursue their boss, former Gov. Phil Bryant, who they say was responsible for much of the scandal.

But federal prosecutors are keeping quiet about their ongoing probe into the $77 million in welfare funds squandered while Bryant was governor.

And they’re demanding others keep quiet, too, according to a recent court filing.

“John Davis knows of the extent of personal involvement of former Governor Bryant and Governor (Tate) Reeves and the massive waste of taxpayer money,” attorney Jim Waide wrote in a Jan. 12 motion to dismiss the state’s massive parallel criminal case. “John Davis refuses to answer discovery because the FBI has directed him to keep silent.”

Meanwhile, attorneys for people accused of perpetuating the scheme — and even someone who committed fraud in an unrelated case — say they’ve taken all the blame for actions Bryant took, too.

“The landscape is very uneven out here, and if you’re not powerful and you don’t have powerful friends, then you are not protected,” said Lisa Ross, a defense attorney in the unrelated fraud case. “All the people with power get the benefit of the doubt.”

Davis, the former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, pleaded guilty in September to a combined 20 state and federal counts of fraud, conspiracy, or theft and has agreed to aid the prosecution in the ongoing investigation, delaying his sentencing. He is a key witness.

“John Davis is critical because the ladder continues to move up,” Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said after Davis pleaded guilty.

Up the ladder from Davis is Bryant, the former governor who appointed him, and potentially Reeves, the current governor who served as lieutenant governor at the time of the known misspending.

Bryant’s spokesperson, Denton Gibbes, told Mississippi Today on Friday that the former governor has not been interviewed or even contacted by federal authorities.

Most of the stolen funds came from the nation’s welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF. Bryant — who has been tied to the now infamous illegal spending on former NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s pet projects but has not faced any civil or criminal charges — oversaw the welfare agency during the heist.

“As policy director of MDHS, former Governor Bryant adopted policies of spending only a minuscule portion of TANF funds for payments to needy families, of foregoing competitive bidding, and of distributing massive amounts of TANF funds through private conduits,” Waide wrote in the recent filing. “These negligent policies foreseeably caused all of the misexpenditures alleged in the First Amended Complaint.”

Waide also pointed to communication in which Davis described the illegal transfer of $1.3 million in welfare funds to a celebrity fitness camp by former athlete Paul Lacoste as “the Lt. Gov’s fitness issue,” referring to then-Lt. Gov. Reeves. 

Records show that Reeves and Favre discussed the University of Southern Mississippi volleyball stadium, which was built with $5 million in welfare funds, in early 2020. Those texts, as well as Reeves’ decision to fire the attorney who originally attempted to investigate that purchase, have also raised questions about his involvement. Reeves’ texts prior to becoming governor are not considered public records because the Legislature exempted itself from Mississippi’s Public Records Act, so any communication he had with Favre during the scandal, when he was lieutenant governor, has not been released.

Waide is representing Austin Smith, Davis’ nephew and one of dozens of defendants in the state’s civil litigation that attempts to claw back misspent or ill-gotten public funds. The state has accused Smith of taking more than $426,000 in primarily TANF funds to teach coding skills to needy students and failing to conduct the work — an allegation Smith denies.

Owens and State Auditor Shad White, who initially investigated the case, have recently confirmed to Mississippi Today that the federal investigation is ongoing.

“I would speak more generally on this point and say anytime you see sentencing withheld, the reason you withhold sentencing is to get information from those people,” White said. “So, those folks are going to be talking to prosecutors and are talking to prosecutors.”

Under Bryant, the welfare department essentially privatized the TANF program by pushing tens of millions of the grant funds to two nonprofits, including Mississippi Community Education Center founded by Nancy New, a politically connected educator and friend of Deborah Bryant, the governor’s wife. Virtually all of the misspending occurred under the umbrella of this nonprofit-run program, called Families First for Mississippi.

Gov. Bryant was so involved in Families First that he described the privatized program as “us” in a never-before-published text message to New, one of the primary criminal and civil defendants in the case.

In the fall of 2018, shortly after the launch of a new judicial initiative called Family First aimed at preventing the need for Child Protection Services to separate families, there was much confusion between the two entities because of the similar name, shared logo and overlapping members.

Bryant texted New on Nov. 1, 2018, a photo that PR specialist Becky Russell, whose daughter worked on the initiative, took with Attorney General Jim Hood, the Democratic candidate for governor who ran against Gov. Tate Reeves. Reeves was lieutenant governor at the time and gearing up to run for governor in 2019.

“Jim Hood is a strong supporter of the Mississippi’s Family First Initiative-Believes in the approach that Mississippi must first fix families in order to fix foster care,” Russell wrote in a tweet containing the photo. 

“Not good,” Bryant wrote to New with a screenshot of the tweet. “The LtGov will not like this at all.”

“Omg! That makes me sick,” New responded. “The Family First Initiative is causing so much confusion. Just not good.”

The messages provide some insight into the conflict between various officials working on child welfare in the state, exclusively detailed in a July article by Mississippi Today, and the political nature of the programs.

At the time, Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, who worked with Deborah Bryant to launch the Family First initiative months earlier, was distancing herself from Families First for Mississippi because “it was obvious they were not what they had held themselves out to be,” Beam recently told Mississippi Today.

Beam said welfare officials promised to build a database, which they estimated to cost $5 million – the same amount that went to the volleyball stadium – that could connect needy families to resources in their communities and collect data that could be used to better meet needs in the future. But by the time of Bryant and New’s text exchange, Beam said she knew the computer system wasn’t going to materialize. “They were lying,” Beam said.

The two factions hid their infighting behind closed doors while advertising to the public that they were making generational change for families in Mississippi.

Bryant asked New if the entity represented in Russell’s tweet was the privatized welfare program known as Families First for Mississippi, before correcting himself. “Oh that’s Dawn Beam..” he said, referring to the separate judicial initiative.

New explained to Bryant that Beam initially wanted the judicial initiative and Families First to “complement each other,” but then decided New’s program would not be as involved.

“Thanks. Just glad that not us..” Bryant texted, referring to Families First.

New also expressed her frustrations to Bryant when the investigation into her nonprofit’s spending began in 2019. New was squabbling with another nonprofit called Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, which ran Families First for Mississippi in the northern part of the state. The nonprofits, which were affiliated with opposite political parties, had to compete for funding from the welfare department, especially after learning their grants would be cut in early 2019. At one point, one of the defendants in the welfare case alleges, Bryant threatened to cut funding to Family Resource Center because of its director’s support for Hood.

“Sorry to have bothered you. I just wanted to share that I have no choice but to stand up for myself,” New texted Bryant in October of 2019, the same month auditor’s investigators raided her nonprofit offices. “I have tried my best to stay about all this mess that north ms and others started over a year ago. I was not only put in the middle but now I am being dragged through the mud. I have run MDHS grants for 24 years to end up being treated like crap by them now. It’s completely wrong.”

“Go get em..” Bryant responded.

Texts in the months following reveal that Bryant spoke with New about her legal troubles, which she described as “my whole life’s work go(ing) down the drain.” 

“Will b glad to facilitate a meeting,” Bryant responded.

“Waiting to hear back from Lucien,” New said, likely referring to Mississippi GOP Chair and consultant Lucien Smith.

Smith did not return calls or texts from Mississippi Today.

New and her son Jess New visited Bryant on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019, after which, she said “All of this ‘crazy making’ is just way too much and hoping will end soon. Thank you for listening. I always value your input and guidance.”

“I am always here when you need me to listen. Keep the faith…” he texted.

New would be arrested seven weeks later.

The newly revealed texts were recently entered into discovery, joining hundreds of thousands of pages of communication existing in the criminal and civil cases. Key communication that has not been released include text messages between Davis and Bryant prior to February of 2019.

New also pleaded guilty and has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. Her attorney in the civil case, Gerry Bufkin, has similarly blasted the state for not including Bryant as a defendant in the case. Bufkin and Waide are both fighting with Bryant over subpoenas for the former governor’s communication, which would include some of the messages between Bryant and Davis.

Text messages uncovered by Mississippi Today in April of 2022, which covered February to June of 2019, reveal how Bryant steered Davis to award welfare grants to his favored vendors.

The texts show Bryant was in talks about two of Favre’s pet projects – a pharmaceutical startup and a new volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi – that illegally received a total of more than $8 million in welfare funds. Even Favre is facing civil charges for his role in the scandal while Bryant is not. Favre told Bryant when his pharmaceutical venture, Prevacus, began receiving funds from the state and the governor even agreed by text to accept stock in the company after leaving office.

In mid-2019, Bryant relayed a small tip of suspected fraud brought forward by an employee of Mississippi Department of Human Services to Auditor White, whom Bryant initially appointed to the office. White was also Bryant’s former campaign manager.

Bryant was discussing a future working relationship with Prevacus and setting up meetings just one day before White arrested the nonprofit officials who funneled the money to the company.

In a recent unsuccessful appeal attempt, defense attorney Ross criticized White for failing to equitably pursue fraud suspects, namely former Gov. Bryant and current Gov. Reeves. She echoes the sentiments from some Mississippians who believe White has unfairly targeted lower-level offenses, leading to record-making demands for repayment, for political gain – an assertion White rejects. 

Ross represented Toni Johnson, a Democratic Hinds County Election Commissioner who recently pleaded guilty to embezzlement and was sentenced to 20 years for using private grant funds to purchase two personal televisions.

“White bragged in the email that his office ‘has pursued aggressive consequences for embezzlers regardless of whether they were Republicans or Democrats.’ Text messages published by Mississippi Today belie White’s claim that he pursues public corruption ‘regardless of whether they were Republicans or Democrats,’” Ross wrote in a Jan. 6 petition for interlocutory appeal. “The text messages show former governor Phil Bryant and Governor Tate Reeves directed public employees to unlawfully divert $94 million of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families funds to Brett Favre and other friends of Phil Bryant and Governor Reeves. At the behest of White, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens has doggedly pursued Johnson about the misuse of private funding but has buried his head in the sand when it comes to the alleged involvement of Bryant and Governor Reeves and others in a $94 million heist of public funds.”

(The state auditor’s 2020 report questioned $94 million worth of welfare agency spending while forensic auditors found $77 million in unallowable purchases. The state has relied on the forensic audit to determine which funds to claw back.)

Favre also alleged in his motion to dismiss the civil case that the state has neglected the roles of Bryant, and even White, in the welfare scandal.

White recently explained to Mississippi Today that his office conducts investigations, but it does not decide who to prosecute.

“We have a system with multiple players who look at the facts of a situation, and then the system itself comes to a conclusion about who is held accountable, not just the state auditor,” White said. “And some people believe that out there that I am investigator, judge, jury, executioner. Democracy is not set up that way. It’s not supposed to be set up that way.”

Asked if he thinks Bryant’s role in welfare spending warrants further investigation, White said, “I think everybody top to bottom is going to be thoroughly investigated, period, all the way down to the janitor at DHS.”

Owens called Ross’ claims of selective prosecution “baseless.”

“An allegation of other wrong doings doesn’t exonerate her client and the prosecution of the News and Davis or evidence that we prosecute all cases,” Owens said in a text to Mississippi Today.

Overseeing prosecution on the federal side is the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the southern district of Mississippi, which is without a permanent U.S. attorney. President Joe Biden selected Todd Gee, current deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, for the position, but he failed to secure the blessing of Mississippi Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith. The new Congress is now waiting for Biden to re-nominate the position.

The criminal case is running parallel to the civil case Mississippi Department of Human Services has filed against 46 people or organizations.

Several defendants have filed motions to dismiss or requests to stay the case while the criminal investigation continues. In his recent motion to dismiss, Waide argues that Davis has evidence crucial to Smith’s defense, but that he won’t share it due to the ongoing investigation. Davis’ plea deal keeps him out of Mississippi’s notoriously harsh state prisons.

MDHS filed its initial complaint in May and an amended complaint, adding several new defendants, in December.

Other recent filings in the civil suit include memorandums in support of motions to dismiss from retired WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase Sr. and Lacoste, the former football player and fitness coach. DiBiase argued that his ministry, Heart of David, conducted the TANF activities it was hired to perform and that the contract was no secret to the agency. Lacoste argues that he didn’t know the money he received came from TANF and therefore can’t be held liable. Attorney Garrig Shields, a former deputy director at MDHS who was added to the suit in December, filed a 94-page answer denying the allegations against him. Another defendant Nick Coughlin, one of the welfare contractors and former reality TV contestant who also worked for the Attorney General’s Office, also filed a lengthy answer denying the state’s claims.

Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Faye Peterson has not scheduled hearings to address several pending motions in the case, including Bryant’s motions to quash subpoenas against him.

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Friday marks the last day of work for 143 Maximus call center employees in Hattiesburg who were told last week they no longer have jobs. 

Maximus said overstaffing led to the decision to cut some of the workforce handling calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Employees have been organizing at the Hattiesburg location, regularly holding protests over the last 10 months, calling for better working conditions, pay and health care. Workers hope to eventually form a union. 

Workers planned to gather again outside the Hattiesburg office Friday afternoon in protest of the layoffs, which they say arrived with barely 10 days notice last week.

“Maximus cannot possibly claim that it treats its employees with respect and sensitivity when, as a billion-dollar corporation, it’s failing to provide enough notice of their termination or sufficient severance pay for workers to take care of their families,” Tiandra Robinson, an organizer at Communications Workers of America, said in a statement. “Shame on Maximus for pulling the rug out from under hundreds of people who are already struggling to make ends meet.”

Maximus said in a statement that “low attrition rates” resulted in “surplus staffing.” After the layoffs, the Hattiesburg office will employ 787 workers who handle a range of phone calls for the federal government including Medicare and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Workers last held a strike in November, during the start of open enrollment for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, when calls at the office surged. That protest attracted about 200 workers outside the Hattiesburg office demanding better working conditions and better policies to handle caller abuse. 

Robinson said this latest move by Maximus shows why it’s important for workers to unionize so they can be better protected from “arbitrary layoffs.”  

“Whenever we make staffing decisions, we make it a priority to treat all of our people with respect and sensitivity,” Maximus said in a statement. “That is why we are coordinating with other Maximus programs where remote positions may be available for impacted employees. We also will ensure that we consider these employees for other hiring needs if additional staff is required in the future.”

The laid off workers were not given any severance, according to Communications Workers of America.

Organizers say another protest is also planned for Friday afternoon at the Maximus call center in Bogalusa, La., which is also cutting jobs. 

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