A man has been indicted for the murder of former DeSoto County lawmaker Ashley Henley a year after she was shot and killed.
Billy Lamar Brooks was indicted by a grand jury on June 30, according to court records. The indictment accuses him of killing Henley on or about June 14, 2021, which authorities said is the day after her body was found.
He appeared in court July 7 and had his bond set at $250,000, according to court records.
Henley, a Republican who represented House District 40, was shot and killed in Yalobusha County while mowing grass outside of the burned-out mobile home where her sister-in-law, Kristina Michelle Jones, was found dead in December 2020.
Authorities said in 2021 the gunshot that killed Henley was “non-accidental.”
The Yalobusha Sheriff’s Department, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, District 17 District Attorney’s office and other agencies investigated the case as a homicide.
Brooks, who lived across the road from Jones, was arrested and charged with arson in June 2021 for burning the trailer where Jones’ body was found. At the time, he was not charged with the death of Jones.
He was indicted in February on a charge of maliciously setting fire to the home of Jones and Terry Henley, according to court records.
Prior to her death, Henley had expressed frustration on social media about the investigation of her sister-in-law’s death.
Henely represented District 40 from 2016 to 2020. She ran for a second term in November 2019 but lost by 14 votes. Henley challenged the election results and requested a new election, but that request was denied.
Before becoming a legislator, she was a teacher. Henley is survived by her husband and a son.
Mississippi Today reporters Isabelle Taft, Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison discuss issues related to abortion and health care in Mississippi in light of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision saying abortion is no longer a protected right under the federal Constitution. But importantly, how does the 1998 state Supreme Court decision saying there is a right to an abortion factor into the new world created by the overturning of Roe v. Wade on the federal level?
Multiple states, ranging from true blue California to deep red South Carolina, are using their sizable growth in revenue collections to return money directly to the taxpayers this year.
Like most other states, Mississippi is experiencing sizable, even unprecedented revenue growth. But the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves opted to not return any of that revenue growth to the citizens this year.
California is returning up to $1,050 on a sliding scale with high wage earners receiving less or nothing at all based on their income levels. But under the California program, a married couple earning $150,000 or less with at least one dependent will receive the full $1,050. California is also using the surplus funds to provide rental assistance. South Carolina is providing up to $800 and Maine is providing up to $1,700 for couples earning less than $200,000.
In total 14 states have doled out some type of stimulus or rebate, and many others are pondering such a move. Many states are saying they are providing the funds to help with the high price of gasoline.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves recently touted on social media that effective July 1 the largest tax cut in Mississippi history would go into effect. Technically it did. The last line of House Bill 531, known as the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act and authored by Speaker Philip Gunn, says the legislation goes into effect July 1, 2022.
But in actuality, the text of the bill reveals that Mississippi taxpayers do not reap any financial benefits from the legislation until 2023 — nothing for the current calendar year.
Starting Jan. 1, 2023, the 4% tax on the first $5,000 of taxable income will be eliminated. That means starting in January, Mississippi workers should receive a little extra in their paychecks, or alternatively, workers will receive the benefit of the tax cut when they file their taxes for 2023 sometime before April 15, 2024.
According to the Tax Foundation, the elimination of the 4% bracket will save Mississippi taxpayers up to $200 in calendar year 2023.
In addition, with the elimination of the 4% bracket, Mississippians will not be taxed on their first $18,000 for a single filer and the first $36,000 for a married couple. When the tax cut is fully enacted in 2026, a married couple earning $80,000 annually will save $834 in state taxes while a single person earning $40,000 will save $417.
State Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, citing data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said of the Mississippi tax cut: “Once fully implemented, only 37% of the tax cut will go to Mississippians earning, on average, $90,000 and less. In other words, nearly two-thirds of the savings from the tax cut will go to the wealthiest 20% of earners.”
Many states opted to take its surplus funds and give a more immediate, one-time benefit. They opted not to provide permanent tax relief until seeing how the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing inflation would impact the economy over a longer period. They did not want to take funds out of state coffers on a yearly basis until they knew more about whether an economic downturn would severely curtail those unprecedented revenue collections.
Some states opted to provide a combination of immediate rebates and a more modest permanent tax cut.
Mississippi leaders chose to eschew immediate relief for a permanent tax cut that when fully enacted will take about $525 million annually out of the roughly $7 billion revenue stream.
At one point this year, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and some senators proposed a combination of a tax cut and a rebate for 2022, but that proposal did not survive.
Instead of providing rebates this year, the Legislature and governor in the 2022 session opted to spend Mississippi’s $1.1 billion in surplus money providing funds for literally hundreds of projects throughout the state. These included enhancing local and state government infrastructure, tourism projects and for various other items.
In total, the Legislature appropriated about $956 million of those $1.1 billion in surplus funds on those projects and on specific needs for state agencies, leaving about $150 million in surplus funds in what is known as the capital expense fund.
The good news for the state and its citizens is that there will likely be another roughly $1.3 billion in surplus funds for the Legislature in 2023 based on the continued strong surge in revenue collections.
Stay tuned for the 2023 session to see how those funds are spent.
Frank Dungan of Madison needs a liver transplant, but the focus of his past few months has not been his health. His focus has been a battle between his insurance company and his hospital that left him without insurance coverage at the state’s only organ transplant program.
But as of July 1, Dungan has switched insurers, and he’s getting the medical care he’s had to put off – and, most importantly, is back to “active” status on the transplant list.
After Dungan’s hospital, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), went out of network with his insurer Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi on April 1, Dungan spent months trying to get answers about what that meant for him. UMMC marked him as “inactive” on their transplant list, meaning if the perfect liver match became available, he wouldn’t get a call.
Blue Cross directed him to the transplant program in Memphis, which was over three hours away from his home, a logistical and financial nightmare. He knew very little about the program, and he had spent years building relationships with his doctors at UMMC, which houses the state’s only transplant program.
But Dungan said he couldn’t get definitive answers and never received anything in writing.
“It was to the point it would drive you crazy. Every time the phone rang, you were trying to figure out what other freaking problem we had,” he said.
UMMC and Blue Cross had agreed to mediation to try and settle the contract dispute, but more than two months after the hospital went out of network, a resolution still seems unlikely. Neither UMMC nor Blue Cross will speak publicly about how the negotiations are going.
The dispute stems from disagreements over reimbursement rates, with UMMC insisting Blue Cross is not fairly reimbursing the safety net hospital for its services and Blue Cross maintaining rate hikes would necessitate a substantial increase in member premiums. The hospital’s reimbursement rates are not public record.
In June, when squeezing in his appointments with various specialists before the continuity of care grace period expired for certain Blue Cross members at UMMC on July 1, one of his doctors found something concerning. He had esophageal varices, a condition that requires a medical procedure that uses elastic bands to tie off bleeding veins. If untreated, the varices can rupture and cause severe internal bleeding.
The condition commonly occurs in people with serious liver disease.
Dungan said his UMMC doctor told him the banding procedure would be “on my dime.”
Dungan was scared. He worried when going to bed each night if it would be the night he’d bleed out. He knew something had to change.
“I found a (Marketplace) insurance adviser and asked them if there were options (for me) … See, my insurance agent in my hometown had told me you can’t get health insurance except in December, even he gave me erroneous information,” said Dungan. “I was concerned about that, concerned about premiums, concerned about the language … I didn’t understand some of the language (of the policies).”
He connected with an insurance broker trained in federal Marketplace plans and found out he did not have to wait until December to sign up for a plan.
“She walked me through the specifics of the policy, and I found it covered what I needed,” he said. “She explained the deductible, the out of pocket, and the premium, everything.”
Dungan, who had an individual policy with Blue Cross, is now covered by Ambetter, which offers health care plans on the federal Marketplace and is accepted by UMMC. He underwent two procedures to address the esophageal varices earlier this month and has visited his dentist to ensure he does not have any infections in his mouth – a requirement for reclaiming his spot on the transplant list.
Switching insurances is not an option for some people, especially those whose employers only offer Blue Cross to employees.
But he’s starting from square one with his insurance: he has a new out-of-pocket limit to meet of around $8,000. But his monthly premium dropped from almost $1,200 with Blue Cross to $402 with Ambetter, he said.
“I’m back confident that I’m getting good health care and confident that my bills are not going to be outrageous,” said Dungan. “I’m confident (the UMMC doctors) are keeping an eye on me.”
After blowback from House Republicans, Speaker Philip Gunn and Speaker Pro Tem Jason White have backed out of hosting a fundraiser for former Democratic Rep. Shanda Yates, now an independent.
Gunn and White wrote a mea culpa to the House GOP caucus on Thursday. In their memo, they said, “We believe she is considering joining our party and hope she will,” and said they agreed to help with her fundraiser in an effort to get her to join the Republican Party. They said Yates has “voted with Republicans a large portion of the time, which got her kicked out of the Democratic Party.”
But Gunn and White participating in the fundraiser rankled many Republican House members, who said Yates still votes often with Democrats and is backed by some liberal groups. In their memo, the GOP House leaders acknowledged, “Shanda certainly has some liberal ideas and has cast some liberal votes.”
“In hindsight, as your elected Speaker and Pro Tem, we should not have agreed to host the reception unless she switched party affiliation,” Gunn and White wrote. “… because of the reservations expressed by us to many of you, we have informed Shanda that we will not be able to go forward with hosting or attending any reception for a candidate who is not the member of the Republican Party.”
Yates on Friday did not immediately respond to a request for comment and question of whether she is considering a switch to Republican.
Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, on social media on Thursday blasted Gunn and White for planning to host the fundraiser and wrote, “The world has turned upside down!”
“The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Pro-Tem raising money for the most liberal members of the House,” Currie wrote. “She voted against pro-life abortion bills and the Fairness Act which keeps males out of female sports … The Speaker has informed lobbyist (sic) to send money to him and not legislators so we are able to run for re-election and he will decide how and who the money will be spent on. I guess this is his pick.”
Members of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus, which includes a small group of conservative House members, issued a press release Thursday calling on “Gunn and White to disavow liberal Shanda Yates.”
“Yates, who beat out a longtime Republican Bill Denny, ran under a far-left progressive platform,” the release said. “… During her time in the Legislature, Yates has authored bill to remove the prohibition on same-sex marriage, allow gay couples to adopt children, allow for early voting and online voter registration and several bills to expand Medicaid … This is certainly a new low for the Republican leadership in the Mississippi Legislature to help fundraise for a legislator that holds such extreme liberal views.”
The release also described White, seen as longtime Speaker Gunn’s heir apparent, as “former-Democrat turned Republican Speaker Pro Tem Jason White.” White was first elected to the House as a Democrat in 2011, but switched to Republican in late 2012 and has been a top lieutenant on Gunn’s GOP leadership team.
Yates of Jackson is in her first term representing the District 64 House seat, taking office in 2020. In January, Yates announced she was switching to independent because “members of my own caucus and party made it clear that I was not wanted within the Democratic Party.”
A combination of an ammonia leak and improper water treatment has forced all of Jackson’s water customers to boil their water for nearly two weeks straight now. Those boil water notices came only days after the city asked residents to conserve what water they were using because of hotter than average weather.
City of Jackson officials on Thursday did not have a definitive timeline for lifting the boil water notice, but said the service may be back to fully functioning as early as Friday for well system customers, and as early as Saturday for surface system customers.
Officials issued the first citywide notice on June 24, after an ammonia leak as well as filtration issues at the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant forced operators to reduce pressure. While the pressure has been restored, Jackson is still working to answer a second citywide notice that the state health department issued on June 30.
The Mississippi State Department of Health issued the notice because “turbidity levels,” or cloudiness, in the water were too high. Turbidity itself isn’t harmful, but high levels mean a higher likelihood of disease-causing organisms, which can lead to symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
City officials explained on Thursday that operators use two chemicals to maintain the pH in the water: soda ash and a lime slurry. At the time, the soda ash operation “was not working,” and operators used too much lime in the treatment, causing the high turbidity.
Jackson residents have now received over 50 boil water notices since the start of 2022, according to the city’s press releases. Only the two recent notices covered the whole city.
On June 21, the city issued a water conservation advisory because of expected hotter than average temperatures this summer, asking residents to take showers instead of baths, only run full loads in dishwashers and laundry machines, among other measures.
The city requires a number of fixes to bring the system as a whole up to par: hiring more operators for its two treatment plants, upgrading equipment at the plants, and replacing aging distribution lines.
In May, Jackson announced the construction of a new 48-inch distribution line, using about $8 million of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, was underway. The new line is aimed at improving water pressure in the South Jackson, Belhaven, Belhaven Heights, Eastern downtown and I-55 south corridor neighborhoods.
In total, the city has allocated $25 million of the ARPA funds it received for water and sewer improvements. But through county and matching funds the city could receive an additional $33 million, the Clarion Ledger reported in April.
The city said it plans to distribute bottles of water to residents every day until the boil water notice is lifted.
The notices advise that residents bring their water to a boil for a minute before drinking as well as: cooking or baking, making ice cubes, taking medication, brushing teeth, washing food, mixing baby formula or food, mixing juices or drinks, feeding pets, washing dishes and all other consumption.
Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which was the state’s only abortion clinic before it was forced to close Thursday, is asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to allow it to reopen next week.
The request is based on the state Supreme Court’s 1998 decision that said the Mississippi Constitution provided women the right to an abortion. That decision has not been overturned and supersedes laws passed by the Legislature banning abortion in most instances, attorneys for the abortion clinic argue.
The filing before the Supreme Court noted that Halford opened the hearing on Tuesday with a prayer by a specially-appointed chaplain: “Lord, we pray for the presence of your Holy Spirit in this courtroom today … We seek your truth, not our own. We seek your wisdom, not our own. Bless and inspire Judge Halford in her deliberations and judgments here today.”
The abortion rights supporters are asking the Court to suspend two laws. Mississippi has a trigger law that went into effect based on the U.S. Supreme Court landmark ruling in late June overturning Roe v. Wade, which had recognized abortion rights in the U.S. Constitution.
Another law in Mississippi banning abortions after six weeks also went into effect as a result of the overturning of Roe.
“We hope the Mississippi Supreme Court will abide by its prior ruling that the Mississippi Constitution protects the rights of women to make their own decisions in matters of child birth. But unfortunately, we live in a time when settled rules of law are being cast aside. We hope that doesn’t happen here,” said Jackson attorney Rob McDuff, of the Mississippi Center for Justice, who is representing the clinic. The Center for Reproductive Rights also is representing the clinic.
McDuff argued before Halford that those laws would be trumped by the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling saying abortion rights were protected under the Mississippi Constitution. Only the state Supreme Court could reverse that opinion just as only the U.S. Supreme Court could reverse the Roe decision, McDuff argued Tuesday before Halford.
Halford rejected McDuff’s argument, refusing to grant the temporary restraining order because, she said, it was likely that the state Supreme Court would reverse the 1998 ruling.
In the filing before the Supreme Court, the clinic said Halford “abused her discretion” by basing her ruling on what she believed the Supreme Court would do.
“That reasoning is contrary to the rule of law and to this Court’s authority to have the final word on the meaning of the Mississippi Constitution,” the filing said.
The office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued against suspending the enactment of the trigger law and the six-week ban. Fitch also filed the lawsuit – Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – that led to the Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Fitch’s office argued before Halford that the 1998 ruling by the state’s highest court was made based on the fact Roe was national law. Now that Roe has been overturned, the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling is no longer good law. But McDuff pointed out nowhere in the 1998 ruling was that connection made.
The trigger law bans all abortions except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk or in cases of law enforcement-reported rapes. The other law bans abortions after six weeks except in cases of medical emergencies.
“We are simply asking the MS Supreme Court to uphold its own ruling. It would be a mistake to reverse decades of precedent and allow government and politics to override a woman’s right to make health decisions directly impacting her life,” said Vangela Wade, chief executive officer of the Mississippi Center for Justice.
