Melvin Robinson, the executive director of the Mississippi Cannabis Trade Association, joins Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau and Geoff Pender to discuss updates on the state’s rollout of its medical marijuana program.
The post Podcast: Medical marijuana could hit the shelves in October appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Gov. Tate Reeves took to social media recently to ask “why does the Democratic Party hate working people so much” after President Joe Biden announced his limited student loan forgiveness program.
The first term governor surmised that the tax dollars of working Mississippians would be used to pay off the student loans taken out by “Harvard doctorate degree gender studies majors living in California.”
Individuals earning less than $125,000 or $250,000 for a family can have $10,000 of their student loan forgiven under the Biden plan. People who receive Pell grants (which provides financial help for the needy for undergraduate studies, not Harvard doctorate degrees) can get up to $20,000 forgiven.
People who attended college, but dropped out, perhaps due to financial hardships, can take advantage of the loan forgiveness. Those people certainly are not Harvard elites and are probably the working people the governor cited as being treated unfairly by the loan forgiveness.
Still, the governor makes a good point.
Under our system of government on the local, state and federal levels, people pay taxes for what is considered the greater good of the government and of society.
People who don’t have children in public schools pay taxes because it is a benefit to society to have a good educational system. People pay taxes for restaurant inspections whether they eat out or not.
The list could go on of services that taxpayers pay for whether they use them or not.
Working Mississippians also are paying their taxes for Medicaid expansion. But since the governor steadfastly refuses to allow the state to expand Medicaid, the Mississippi tax dollars are going to the other 38 states that have expanded Medicaid to provide health care insurance to primarily the working poor.
The tax dollars of working Mississippians also are going to help pay for rental assistance in other states since the governor is ending the state’s participation in an emergency rental assistance program designed to help the poor and those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor will be sending more than $100 million in rental assistance funds back to the federal government.
But Reeves nor anyone else should be too concerned about Mississippi taxpayers subsidizing people in other states – those Harvard elites or anyone else. By multiple measurements, Mississippi is the beneficiary of federal tax dollars, not the subsidizer.
Mississippi ranks sixth nationwide in terms of federal spending per resident at $6,880, according to a 2022 study. Virginia, home to a large percentage of the federal work force, ranks first at $10,301 per resident, followed by Kentucky, New Mexico, West Virginia and Alaska.
New Jersey is last in federal spending per resident at a minus $2,368, followed by Massachusetts at minus-$2,343. California, the state where Reeves was afraid Mississippi tax dollars would go for the Harvard elites, garners minus-$12 in federal spending for each resident.
Using a different measurement — return on tax dollars — Mississippi gets $3.40 for each tax dollar sent to the federal government, according to a 2020 report. In that study, Mississippi trails only New Mexico, which gets $4.33 for each dollar it sends to the federal government, and West Virginia, which garners $3.74 for each dollar it directs to the federal government.
New Jersey gets 78 cents for each dollar its residents provide in federal taxes. The other states that get less than a dollar for each dollar sent to D.C. are Nebraska, Washington, Minnesota and Illinois.
Mississippi gets more federal spending than most states in part because it has the highest percentage of people living in poverty who qualify for various federal programs. Mississippi also has multiple federal military bases. Many, but not all, of the state’s farmers also are big winners in terms of federal subsidies.
The taxing system is set up to send funding to programs that political leaders believe are good for the betterment of the nation, state or local government. A big part of the nation’s political discourse centers around what those programs should and should not do.
But regardless of that discourse, Mississippi has and will continue to be a winner in terms of the federal government providing tax dollars to the state despite the Biden student loan forgiveness program.
If Reeves really wants to stick to those other states and those elites by taking more of their tax dollars, all he has to do is expand Medicaid.
That decision would provide Mississippi about $1 billion per year in additional federal taxes.
The post In student loan argument, Gov. Reeves ignores Mississippi’s federal dependence appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday as Mississippi officials received a new projection of flooding from the Pearl River. The National Weather Service now expects the river to crest by early Monday morning.
“If this happens, there will be dozens of streets in downtown Jackson that will flood,” Reeves said, adding that businesses near Town Creek as well as homes and streets in Northeast Jackson that may also flood if the Pearl reaches the projected 36 feet peak.
With the river forecast changing in the last 24 hours Reeves emphasized that projections are subject to evolve over the next few days.
Officials said that Jackson residents who were affected by the floods in 2020 should anticipate similar impacts.
As of Saturday morning, the NWS projects the Pearl to crest by 6 A.M. Monday morning, meaning that residents whose homes may be flooded should prepare to evacuate by Sunday evening, Reeves said.
To see their flood risk, Jackson residents can use the city’s interactive map at this link, or refer to a list of streets that may be affected on the city’s website by clicking here.
Reeves and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials also reminded residents that if they anticipate flooding in their homes to take pictures of their property before and after the flooding to document any damages. Doing so helps meet the guidelines for Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Individual Assistance Program, which Jackson residents didn’t receive after the 2020 flood.
As far as other areas along the Pearl that could see flooding, Reeves said the river could peak in Monticello around Thursday, Columbia around Friday, and Pearl River County the following Tuesday. Those projections could change depending on how quickly the Ross Barnett Reservoir management is able to release water back into the river, the governor added.
MEMA director Stephen McCraney said that the following areas around Mississippi have declared local emergencies: Wilkerson, Rankin, Hinds, Leake, Newton, Clarke, and the City of Jackson. Among those areas, 45 homes, 13 businesses, and 55 roads have flooded so far, McCraney said.
Officials also expect that Lawrence and Copiah counties could see moderate flooding next week as high water levels make their way down the Pearl.
The American Red Cross has one shelter open in Jackson so far, at 3000 Saint Charles St., located at the Jackson Police Department Academy.
The post Gov. Reeves declares state of emergency as Pearl expected to crest Monday appeared first on Mississippi Today.
The governor tweeted a red-meat tweet on Wednesday saying, “Today Biden will announce that welders, plumbers, laborers, & other Mississippians (black, white, Hispanic, etc.) will be forced to pay off the debts of Harvard doctorate degree gender studies majors living in California. Why does the Democrat Party hate working people so much?”
Hmm.
Forget that there are a lot of working Mississippians who have college debt.
At the end of the day, whipping of outrage and dividing to conquer may be a winning political tactic — but like starting a fire, it can come back to burn you.
The post Marshall Ramsey: Outrageous! appeared first on Mississippi Today.
The Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA), the governing body of the state’s public schools athletics, begins its 100th year of operations with this football season.
Mississippi high school football is slightly older.
On Dec. 5, 1905, Yazoo City defeated visiting Winona 5-0 in the state’s first high school football game. No, there wasn’t a field goal or a safety. A touchdown counted five points back then. Yazoo scored the only one. There were no shoulder pads, no helmets. The largest players on either team tipped the scales at about 145 pounds. The Winona team and supporters rode a train to Yazoo to play the game. You could look it all up. I did. Details are sketchy. There were no sports writers in Mississippi back then.
Little did those country boys from Winona and Yazoo know, but they were starting a tradition that has not only endured but flourished. Mississippi high school football has produced an inordinate amount of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Friday night football has become almost a part of the state’s culture as Sunday morning church services.
Years ago, someone asked me why high school football has such a hold on the state’s citizenry. Why do we love it so much? I wrote my answer in a column. It follows:
It’s the dimly lit, small-town field, carved and leveled from a cow pasture or a bean field, and surrounded by wooden bleachers that sag toward the middle on a Friday night.
It’s the bugs, by the millions, that swarm in the stadium lights.
It’s the mamas who wince and cover their eyes every time their boy gets hit.
It’s the dads who fidget and fret, just as they did in a hospital waiting room 16, 17 or 18 years ago.
It’s the grandmas and grandpas, aunties and uncles who scream themselves hoarse.
It’s the railbirds, too nervous to sit, who prowl the sidelines shouting encouragement to the players, advice to the coaches and things we can’t print here to the men in stripes.
It’s the rivalries: Brandon-Pearl, Booneville-Baldwyn, Mendenhall-Magee, Laurel-Hattiesburg, Forest-Morton, Pisgah-Pelahatchie and so many more.
It’s the cheerleaders, smiling, bouncing, clapping and screaming. They live for this night, and it shows.
It’s the managers and ballboys, often small boys with towels wrapped around their necks, who eagerly race onto and off the field with water bottles throughout the night.
It’s the bands, some large, most small. It’s an often off-key version of our national anthem that fans on the visitors’ side can’t hear.
It’s the majorettes shivering on a chilly November night.
It’s the little kids, behind the bleachers, playing their own spirited games with footballs made of crumpled paper cups, dreaming of their turn on the striped field on the other side of the bleachers.
It’s the homecoming court, daddies escorting daughters, praying their darling’s name will be called.
It’s the smoky aroma of hamburgers and hot dogs grilling just outside the concession stands. It’s a steaming cup of hot chocolate on that first brisk, late October night.
It’s the explosive crack of a linebacker’s shoulder pads crashing into a fullback’s gut.
It’s the coaches, some who act as generals and others more like drill sergeants. More often than not they are as edgy as a cat in a dog kennel. Wouldn’t you be if your job depended on the capricious bounces of an oblong ball and the fickle focus of teen-aged boys?
It’s coaching legends such as Jim Drewry, Mike Justice, Willis Wright, Ed Steele, Jack Bailey, M.C. Miller, Marion “Chief” Henley, Ricky Black, Mac Barnes, Stanley Blackmon and so many more.
It’s those teen-aged boys, themselves, pounding each other’s shoulder pads, shaking their fists, bouncing on the tips of their toes just prior to kickoff.
It’s the big-bellied, gray-haired head linesman in a striped shirt, telling the 15-year-old wide receiver he needs to back up a little bit.
It’s that brutally hot first game in August when everyone is undefeated and everyone’s expectations are so high.
It’s that first Friday and Saturday in December when the best of the best play in the State Championship games and whole towns follow them.
It’s so rich a heritage: a skinny wide receiver named Rice, a drum major- turned-running back named Payton, a freckle-faced redhead named Archie, a coach’s son named Favre, a mama’s boy named Stevie McNair.
It’s all those broad-shouldered, rangy, raw-boned country boys named Poole.
“Boys, have I found us a game to play,” Buster told Ray and Barney, and, boy, had he. . .It’s the sports writers, from big daily newspapers and small weeklies, thanking heaven someone actually pays them to write about these weekly passion plays.
It’s how important it all is. It’s how entire communities rally around the team. It’s our culture, part of our fabric.
It’s a fall Friday night in Mississippi.
And it doesn’t get any better. Anywhere.
The post Friday night football: A thriving Mississippi tradition begins again appeared first on Mississippi Today.
The monkeypox virus has spread to dozens of countries and infected more than 44,000 people worldwide since the outbreak began in May. Nearly 16,000 of those infections have occurred in the United States, and 23 cases have been identified in Mississippi as of Aug. 25. Dr. Paul Byers, state epidemiologist, answered some of the most common questions about the disease for Mississippi Today.
Monkeypox was discovered in 1958. Cases usually occur in areas of West and Central Africa where monkeypox is endemic. Cases have occurred outside of these countries before but have been associated with travel to or exposure to someone who’s been in these endemic countries. In the current outbreak in the U.S. and worldwide, person-to-person transmission is occurring in countries that don’t normally report monkeypox.
Monkeypox is part of the variola virus family, the virus that causes smallpox. This a naturally occurring virus.
Monkeypox is spread through close personal, often skin-to-skin contact, including direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person, their rash, scabs, or contact with respiratory secretions. Direct contact can include sexual contact, hugging or kissing, or prolonged face-to-face contact. Monkeypox can also be contracted by touching objects, fabrics (clothing, bedding or towels), and surfaces that have been used by someone with monkeypox.
Anyone who engages in close personal or physical contact with an infected person is at risk for contracting monkeypox.
Monkeypox is a virus closely related to smallpox, but not as severe and fatalities are rare. People with certain underlying medical conditions may be at higher risk for severe infections. People with monkeypox develop a rash that may be located on the face, hands, feet, legs, genitals or other areas. Sometimes, people have flu-like symptoms before the rash. Some people get a rash first, followed by other symptoms. Others only experience a rash.
Monkeypox symptoms usually start within 3 weeks of exposure to the virus. If someone has flu-like symptoms, they will usually develop a rash 1-4 days later.
Adults 18 and older are eligible for the vaccine if:
Individuals interested in monkeypox vaccine who meet the eligibility criteria are encouraged to call the Monkeypox Call Center at 1-877-978-6453 to determine their eligibility and a make vaccination appointment.
There is an antiviral medication, TPOXX, available for individuals with severe disease or who are at higher risk for severe disease.
Those who are at risk for monkeypox have been in close physical contact (including household or sexual contact) with someone diagnosed with monkeypox. To date, most of the cases have occurred among individuals who identify as gay, bisexual, other men who have sex with men or in transgender individuals. But anyone exposed to monkeypox is at risk for infection.
The post Dr. Paul Byers answers common monkeypox questions appeared first on Mississippi Today.
The Pearl River by Jackson surpassed its flood stage Wednesday night, and officials on Thursday afternoon urged those in downtown and northeast Jackson to start preparing immediately.
The National Weather Service expects the Pearl River to crest on Tuesday, which means that flooding could continue throughout next week as the river drops back below the 28-foot flood stage.
NWS projects the Pearl to crest at 36 feet, which would equal the eighth highest peak ever for the river at Jackson. Of the top ten highest peaks, this would be the only one to occur during the summer. NWS also announced that Wednesday’s rainfall made this month the wettest August ever in the capital city’s history.
Marty Pope, senior hydrologist with the NWS in Jackson, said the area has seen anywhere between five and 15 inches of rain over the last three days, filling up the upper Pearl River basin and its tributaries. The Tuscolameta Creek, an offshoot of the Pearl, is close to record levels near Walnut Grove, Pope said.
WAPT also reported flooding in Canton for the second time in a month, as well as in Scott, Leake and Rankin counties yesterday.
Those in need of sandbags can call the Jackson’s constituent services at 311 to get them delivered or get them in person on Michael Avalon Street. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said that information on shelters and which streets may be flooded will be on the city’s website later Thursday.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Stephen McCraney said the agency is also anticipating impacts to places along the Pearl south of Jackson, including Terry and southern Hinds County, as well as Lawrence and Copiah counties.
MEMA urges anyone who experiences damages to documents those impacts on its self-reporting tool (which can be found at this link) to help receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The post Pearl River expected to flood Jackson, set to crest Tuesday appeared first on Mississippi Today.
ROLLING FORK – Patience wore thin in the South Delta Wednesday night.
Several hundred business owners, farmers, families and other Mississippians filled into a high school auditorium, summoned to give their input on flood control solutions. To most of the attendees that night, that solution is the Yazoo Pumps.
Frustration in the room stemmed from decades of what the pumps’ supporters call a broken promise, and what opponents call an illusion.
Sen. Roger Wicker, who hosted the town hall meeting along with Rep. Bennie Thompson, has pressed federal officials in recent months to revisit the pumps proposal after the Environmental Protection Agency shut down the idea for the second time last November.
Wicker told the audience that the agency, after restoring a veto from 2008, promised an alternative plan to the pumps within 12 to 16 months, or at earliest this coming November.
The federal government first presented the idea of the Yazoo Pumps in 1941 as part of a response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
After decades of planning and design, the EPA first vetoed the idea in 2008, determining that the pumps could drain 67,000 acres of wetlands in the South Delta. The agency briefly brought the project back to life in 2020, when, under President Donald Trump, the EPA decided that an altered proposal that moved the pumps’ location exempted it from the 2008 veto.
Wicker and Thompson – both of whom support the project, although Thompson more tentatively in recent years – sat on the auditorium stage next to Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Brenda Mallory, along with representatives from four different federal agencies.
“We want an enduring solution, we recognize that what is going on in this community is unacceptable and not sustainable,” said Mallory, who added that the pumps are “not necessarily what we’re going to need today.”
Opponents of the pumps, largely scientists and conservation advocates, have pointed to the large price tag, which Thompson has estimated as around half a billion dollars. They also argue that only 17% of the half million acres that flooded in 2019 would have been spared with the pumps, citing data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
As record-setting rainfall landed across Mississippi Wednesday, many recalled the devastating 2019 backwater flood, which left properties inundated for over six months. Some of the residents who testified on Wednesday said their homes and businesses still need repairs.
“You guys have no idea what it’s like to live through a seven-month flood,” said Ann Dahl, an Eagle Lake resident.
About thirty members of the crowd came up to the microphone over the course of two hours, displaying a wide range of hopes, emotions, and truths about the pumps.
Victoria Garland, who lives in Issaquena County, held back tears as she spoke. In 2019, she had to park at her neighbor’s home and boat through a creek to get to her house.
“The things that we saw on our trips to and from (the house) were indescribable,” Garland said.
“If you’ve never seen deer that just don’t look right, the smell of decaying flesh will more than turn your stomach at eight o’clock in the morning when you’re just trying to leave and go make some money.”
At one point, a commenter asked the audience to raise their hands if they supported building the pumps. A vast majority of hands went up.
Eventually, the crowd directed their feelings towards the bureaucrats on stage.
“Get off your asses,” one of the commenters begged.
“Have you ever had to fill a sandbag?” another audience member shouted from their seat.
While most in attendance supported the pumps, others were in favor of seeing more options presented to flood victims, such as easements, buyouts, and raising homes.
“‘Finish the pumps’ is a nice slogan,” said Ty Pinkins, an organizer and attorney, after the event. “But one solution won’t satisfy every citizen. Raising a home might be a viable solution for someone.”
The most consistent theme among the speakers on Wednesday was impatience. With generations of families having come and gone since 1941, residents are anxious to see something change in an area where roughly a third of people live in poverty.
“All the political minutia, the arguments between farmers and non-farmers, and all this other crap, I could care less about it,” said Roy Rucker, from nearby Panther Burn. “But what I do care about is the people who live here, and why industry won’t come here.”
The post The South Delta airs its frustration as feds work to solve flooding appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Mississippi has opened applications for first-year teachers to apply for loan repayment funds on a first-come, first-serve basis with priority given to those in districts with a teacher shortage.
The Office of Student Financial Aid will award up to 150 first-year, full-time teachers through the William Winter Teacher Loan Repayment Program, which was created by the Legislature in 2021. The program makes loan repayment awards to teachers for up to three years.
Awards are paid to teachers at the end of the school year, and the amount will vary depending on a teacher’s school district. First-year teachers with a valid, five-year state educator’s license who work in a geographical critical shortage district will receive $4,000 in loan repayment, while teachers who do not will receive $1,500.
A school district is declared a geographical teacher shortage area if it has 60 or more teaching positions and 10% or more of them are not appropriately licensed. Not appropriately licensed includes teachers teaching out of field, teachers teaching with no certificate, and long-term substitutes.
A school district with less than 60 teaching positions becomes a geographic shortage area if 15% or more of their teaching staff isn’t appropriately licensed.
Second-year teachers who received funds last year are also eligible to reapply. Second-year teachers in geographical shortage districts will receive $5,000 in loan repayment; those in a non-shortage area will receive $2,500.
The deadline to apply is Sept. 15.
To qualify, teachers with undergraduate loans must be graduates of a regionally accredited university and cannot be delinquent or in default.
Teachers who have received funds from other state loan programs targeting the education profession – such as the Critical Needs Teacher Forgivable Loan Program, the William Winter Teacher Forgivable Loan Program, or the Teacher Education Scholars Forgivable Loan Program – are not eligible.
Teachers who don’t qualify might be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, according to OSFA’s website.
The William Winter Teacher Loan Repayment Program was proposed by Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, last year as a way to ameliorate the state’s current teacher shortage. It replaced a slew of loan programs targeting teachers that the Legislature had created in the 1990s but left unfunded in recent years.
The post Applications open for teacher loan repayment program appeared first on Mississippi Today.
