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In November, attorneys from the Department of Justice reached out to staff at Mississippi’s Community Mental Health Centers, which serve as regional hubs for mental health resources and treatment. A federal judge had recently approved a remedial plan calling for the Department to oversee the state’s efforts to expand mental health services at the local level, years after the Department first sued Mississippi over its practice of institutionalizing people with mental illnesses.

In an email to one of the CMHC executive directors, DOJ attorney Patrick Holkins wrote that he and colleagues were “reengaging with key stakeholders in Mississippi” to discuss the plan.

“We are also interested in hearing directly from stakeholders regarding their experiences providing and receiving adult mental health services in the state,” he wrote. 

The executive director responded enthusiastically, saying she and her team would be glad to meet with the federal lawyers.

But then the state of Mississippi intervened. Mississippi lawyers claimed a rule of professional conduct for attorneys prevents the DOJ from communicating directly with the CMHCs, according to documents filed by the Justice Department in federal court. 

The Justice Department says Mississippi has never before made that claim in more than five years of litigation. It’s asking a federal judge to rule that the state can’t intercede in its communications with community mental health staff, who are neither employed nor represented by the state. 

To mental health advocates in Mississippi, the dispute is another example in what they see as a pattern of avoiding scrutiny and transparency. In November, the non-profit oversight group Disability Rights Mississippi sued DMH for refusing to turn over incident reports from state hospitals.

In court, the state argues it has already sufficiently expanded community mental health services. Because the CMHCs are the main providers of local mental health services in Mississippi, talking to them could be a way to find out what’s going on at the local level. 

“It really begs the question of what do they not want people to know,” said Joy Hogge, executive director of the nonprofit Families As Allies, which advocates for children with behavioral health challenges and their families. 

The state’s 13 Community Mental Health Centers are the primary provider of mental health services at the local level in Mississippi. Funded through Medicaid, state and federal grants and county contributions, they are also receiving an increasing share of DMH’s budget.

They operate mobile response teams and intensive outpatient services, and they’re supposed to help prevent people from ending up in a mental health crisis that requires hospitalization. 

How well they are actually doing all of that remains the question at the heart of the federal lawsuit. Mississippi argues services are already in place in its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 

But advocates and the court’s special monitor, Dr. Michael Hogan, have said it’s too early to make that claim. 

Mississippi has not filed its response to the DOJ’s motion. The rule it cited, Rule 4.2, prevents attorneys from communicating directly with someone they know is represented by another attorney in the same matter. It’s intended to protect people who may not understand the risks of talking to a lawyer on the other side of a dispute.

Mississippi’s invocation of Rule 4.2 is based on a 2018 order by Southern District Magistrate Judge F. Keith Ball. Asked to weigh in on when Rule 4.2 prevented federal lawyers from communicating directly with current and former state employees, Ball determined that the rule applied to “any person whose act or omission in connection with the claims and allegations of the Complaint may be imputed to the State of Mississippi for purposes of civil or criminal liability”— in other words, someone who could be considered to be speaking on behalf of the state.

Michelle Williams, chief of staff for the attorney general, said state lawyers concluded that includes CMHC managerial staff. 

In his 2019 order finding that Mississippi had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by institutionalizing people with mental illnesses, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves noted that CMHCs would be key to moving the state away from that practice.

“It is ultimately DMH’s responsibility to manage the expansion of community-based services at CMHCs,” he wrote. 

DOJ says Ball’s order addressed only current and former state employees and has no bearing on the CMHCs.

“During more than five years of litigation, the State has never asserted that it represents the CMHCs or that the United States cannot communicate with CMHC staff,” DOJ argues.

The DOJ sued the state of Mississippi, not the CMHCs, for violating individuals’ civil rights through its mental health practices. But now the CMHCs are responsible for implementing much of the remedial plan. The federal lawyers could want to talk with them to make sure they’re aware of what the plan entails and to find out what’s going on day to day, Hogge said.

“The CMHCs know who the people are who are receiving the services, and that voice has never been at the table,” Hogge said.

To add another layer of oversight, the legislature created the position of coordinator of mental health accessibility in 2020. The first coordinator, Bill Rosamond, has so far produced two quarterly reports on the CMHCs. 

The most recent report, released in late December, focused on the financially struggling Region 11, which serves nine counties in southwest Mississippi.

Rosamond concluded that “this Region does not have sufficient operational funds to sustain the required mental health services and that the delivery of mental health services is inconsistent in the nine county region.”

In an email to Mississippi Today, DMH communications director Adam Moore said the department doesn’t have information about the Rule 4.2 dispute and referred questions about the ongoing litigation to the attorney general’s office. 

He said the department is continuing to expand community-based services. Its proposal for funding from the American Rescue Plan Act would add 60 beds at crisis stabilization units and fund additional mobile crisis response teams that would work with the 988 system, the new three-digit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, launching this July. 

“DMH is also adding an Office of Utilization Review to be responsible for tracking and analysis of the utilization of behavioral health services for state operated programs and key community-based services,” he wrote. 

Mississippi may file a response to the Justice Department’s motion before the judge issues an order allowing or prohibiting DOJ from communicating with staff at these mental health centers.. 

Williams told Mississippi Today the attorney general’s office is evaluating options for its next steps. 

The post State moves to block communication between feds and local mental health staff appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison discuss a “crazy” deadline week for the Mississippi Legislature that included a six-hour debate on critical race theory, a stare-down between House and Senate leaders on teacher pay and the constant undercurrent caused by Speaker Philip Gunn’s obsession with eliminating the personal income tax.

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

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In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey talks to Neil Woodall, Jr. about his recovery from opioid pain pills.

Woodall had the world going his way. A successful student athlete at Millsaps college, little did he know how his life would change due to a freak hunting accident. Shot in the face and chest, Woodall dealt with a painful recovery. Part of the recovery involved opioid pain pills. After his recovery and healing, he discovered that the pills also helped mute a deeper pain he was experiencing — fear and lack of self esteem. Soon the substance that helped ease his pain began causing it. Woodall shares his motivational journey — from his fall to his triumphant recovery and a new life based on his faith.

Watch Marshall’s previous interview with John.

The post Mississippi Stories: Neil Woodall, Jr. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

People reading controversial Senate Bill 2113, which all 54 African American members of the Mississippi Legislature voted against, will not find the money phrase banning critical race theory until the very bottom of the final page of the bill.

In nondescript type, running along the bottom of the page is “ST: Critical Race Theory: prohibit.” That is the only mention of CRT.

The phrase cannot be found in the summary at the top of the legislation. It is not in the text of the three-page bill.

Because of the unusual way in which the legislation was crafted, there is a real chance that the phrase “Critical Race Theory: prohibit” will not be placed in Mississippi’s legal code. Or put another way, there is a possibility that the teaching of critical race theory will not be banned at all even after Gov. Tate Reeves does what is expected and signs the bill into law.

“You can teach critical race theory because it is not in the text of this bill,” proclaimed Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader, who is also an attorney.

READ MORE: Despite objection from every Black Mississippi lawmaker, anti-critical race theory bill passed to governor

Each year the publisher of Mississippi’s code (or laws) includes new laws passed by the Legislature. That updating process is far from exact. There is a joint legislative committee that oversees the code, but the members seldom meet, normally leaving the work of crafting the updates to the editors and legal staff.

Perhaps the editors will seek out the short title — “Critical Race Theory: prohibit” — and incorporate those words in the code. But based on precedent, there is a good chance they will not.

Incorporated into the code might just be what the bill actually says, which is no university, community college or public school “shall direct of compel students to affirm that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or that individuals should be adversely treated based on such characteristics.”

Supporters of critical race theory say that is not what critical race theory does. Instead, CRT explores the impact of racism on the nation, especially on the legal system.

Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, who presented the bill last week to the House during more than six hours of sometimes emotional debate that exposed old and current racial wounds, said that the teaching of critical race theory would be prohibited if the teaching adhered to the tenets spelled out in the bill of making someone feel inferior or superior.

When asked if the only critical race theory class in the state at the University of Mississippi Law School would have to be canceled if the bill became law, Hood said, “That will be up to Ole Miss.”

The presenters of the bill in both the House and Senate left more questions unanswered than answered during debate.

Sen. Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, the primary author of the legislation, said he heard from many of his constituents who had learned of critical race theory “on the national news” and wanted to ensure it would not be taught in Mississippi.

So if the bill does so little or at the least is exceedingly vague, why did Black House members spend such an inordinate amount of time trying to kill it last week? Why did all 14 African American senators walk out in an unprecedented move before the vote on the bill earlier this session?

READ MORE: Every Black Mississippi senator walked out as white colleagues voted to ban critical race theory

Black legislators argued the bill sent the wrong message, perhaps even causing teachers to be hesitant to teach the state’s history that is ripe with racial strife. When Black members tried to amend the bill to ensure the continued teaching of the state’s history, including all its warts, the white majority blocked those efforts.

Perhaps the more appropriate question is why did legislative leaders spend so much time and energy passing such a vague bill that might not accomplish the stated goal?

Some say it is politics. Anti-CRT sentiment has been a big talking point in the conservative media.

Both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Reeves, who could be squaring off next year in a Republican gubernatorial primary, spoke of the evils of critical race theory last year during the Neshoba County Fair.

“This bill is only before us so that some of you can go back home and have something to campaign on,” said Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville.

While it might be questionable whether the critical race theory ban will be in the legal code, the language still could be found on the screens in the House and Senate as the proposal was debated. The language also was on the legislative calendar and in the legislative computer system.

So legislators could say they were voting to ban critical race theory even if the state’s legal code never reflects that vote.

READ MORE: Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory

The post Lawmakers spent hours on a bill to ban critical race theory. But does it? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Starbucks employees in Oxford want to unionize, writing in a letter to the company they’re not only overworked but dealing with homophobia, transphobia and racism at the workplace. 

Ten employees from the store on Jackson Avenue signed the letter, addressed to CEO Kevin Johnson, on Thursday. Starbucks Workers United posted a copy of the letter to social media on Friday. 

“Since COVID-19, this store has suffered ordeal after ordeal, from inconsistent management to understaffed shifts working well beyond what they are compensated for,” the Oxford workers wrote. “Starbucks claims to protect and value its baristas first but we have yet to feel this in our daily efforts.” 

This is the first location in Mississippi to announce plans to organize. More than 100 stores nationwide have petitioned to hold elections of their own. 

Buffalo Starbucks workers first began their union campaign — eventually voting in favor of a union — in 2021. The growing movement has been a major challenge to the Seattle-based chain, which has said its workers are given some of the best pay and benefits in the retail industry.

The Mississippi location’s letter detailed issues beyond understaffed and uncompensated work. It also said employees have had to “endure homophobia, racism and transphobia on a near-daily basis” from both customers and management. The employees also say they have received no updates regarding an internal investigation of their current manager. 

“We feel as though the company is not fulfilling its promises of inclusivity and support,” the letter said. 

A Starbucks spokesperson told Mississippi Today the chain takes the allegations made in the letter seriously and denounce discrimination of any kind.

“We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores,” the spokesperson said, referring the dozens of ongoing union campaigns.

Starbucks has said repeatedly throughout the last year that while it does not think its workers need unions, it respects their right to organize.

One of the chain’s early union leaders has a direct tie to Mississippi. Jaz Brisack, a University of Mississippi graduate and Rhodes scholar, is credited with beginning union talks among her Starbucks coworkers in Buffalo. She moved to Western New York to work on union campaigns with an organizer she met while helping with the failed attempt unionize the Nissan plant in Canton.

The momentum has continued since the campaign began in Buffalo.  A store in Arizona became the third Starbucks in the United States to win a union vote just three weeks ago. 

Mississippi is a right-to-work state, meaning workers are not required pay dues or join an established union. While uncommon, workers in Mississippi can still unionize.

The National Labor Review Board will hold an election if at least 30% of workers sign cards or a petition saying they want a union. If a majority of those who vote choose to unionize, the union is certified and can bargain on behalf of the employees.

“Change can happen,” Starbucks United Workers of Oxford posted as their first-ever tweet. “Even in MS, progress takes form. This is just the beginning.” 

The post Mississippi Starbucks workers want a union in Oxford appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Japanese car manufacturer Nissan announced last month it will spend half a billion dollars to upgrade its facility and workforce at its Canton plant, with the goal of building two new all-electric models by 2025.

“For nearly two decades, Mississippians have kept our state at the forefront of the world’s automotive industry,” Gov. Tate Reeves said. “The announcement that Nissan Canton is shifting some production to EVs (electric vehicles) further positions Mississippi as a leader in this crucial economic sector.”

But it’s less likely Mississippians will be driving those cars compared to drivers in the rest of the country. Mississippi has, per capita, the lowest number of electric cars registered of any state, according to U.S. Census and Department of Energy data. 

Policymakers and businesses around the U.S. are trying to jolt the electric car industry, with the hopes of emitting less carbon into an already warming atmosphere. The transportation sector accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the country — about 30%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

In Mississippi, one of a few states that doesn’t require emissions testing for vehicles, only about 3 out of every 10,000 people own an electric vehicle. For the country as a whole, there were about 1.8 million EVs registered in 2020, or about 55 per 10,000 people. 

The state’s charging supply is also low compared to the rest of the country, ranking second to last, ahead of only Louisiana, in electric charging ports per capita. 

New federal dollars coming to the state will soon change that. Mississippi is set to receive $50 million from the Infrastructure Bill that would pay for charging stations and establishing corridors across the state for electric car drivers to use. The state has until August to submit a spending plan, according to a spokesperson from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, after which it can receive the money. 

While electric cars are getting cheaper, they’re still about $10,000 more than the average car. The federal government offers a tax credit worth up to $7,500 for EV purchases. 

Thirty-one states offer incentives, such as a tax credit or rebate, for purchasing an EV. Mississippi doesn’t have such a program, although the state’s largest power company, Entergy MS, does offer a $250 rebate for customers who buy a charger, which costs about $2,000.     

Other than that rebate, the state hasn’t done much to encourage drivers to make the switch. In 2018, the Legislature passed a bill that charges electric car owners to pay an $150 annual fee, and $75 if they own a hybrid, although the fees have increased since with inflation. 

While some electric car owners and advocates in the state scoffed at the law when it went into effect, most of the country has a similar policy.

Rep. Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula, who wrote the bill, argued that the fees are fair because the state relies on gas taxes to pay for roads and bridges. 

“If they’re going to travel on those roads and bridges they need to make a contribution,” said Busby, who chairs the House Transportation Committee. 

Busby added that he didn’t see a need yet to give customers an incentive for buying EVs, and that the market should dictate what cars people buy.

“Obviously if we transition towards electric vehicles, I want that to be supported in the state of Mississippi,” Busby said. “So I am for that, but I don’t think that we ought to be in the business of promoting one over the other. It needs to compete on the free market by itself.”

Failed attempts to encourage EVs in the state include a bill last year that would have given up to $30 million in tax credits for businesses that build charging stations, as well as several attempts to repeal the 2018 annual fee. 

In addition to the $500 million Nissan is investing in the operation, the Mississippi Development Authority is also spending $50 million through grants on the project, an agency spokesperson told Mississippi Today. 

The money will go towards building improvements, installing new equipment, and upskilling 2,000 of the 5,000 workers at the plant. 

Mississippi Today reporter Sara DiNatale contributed to this story. 

The post Nissan will build new electric vehicles in Mississippi, the state where they’re the least popular to own appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Here’s the deal where Mississippi’s high school state basketball championships are concerned: Any sports writer worth a flip can walk into the coliseum, tear a page from his notebook, fold it into a paper airplane, sail it any direction, and wherever it lands, he or she can find a fascinating story.

Thursday afternoon, if that paper airplane landed at the feet of Cliff Little, the head coach of both the Biggersville High School Lions boys and girls basketball teams, the writer had a potential novel — or at least one heck of a screenplay.

First things first: Tiny Biggersville is located in Alcorn County, Hill Country, in the northeast corner of the state. Biggersville, named for its founder and not its size, is one of the smallest communities represented at Mississippi Coliseum. The town is not even populated enough to have its own ZIP code. But, boy oh boy (and girls), those Lions can ever more play basketball.

Before nightfall Thursday, Biggersville had won two state championships over a period of four hours. The Lions’ basketball-mad fans will take two shiny, gold ball trophies over a ZIP code and a stoplight any day.

First, the Biggersville girls erased an 11-point third quarter deficit to McEvans High of Shaw and won a thrilling, 56-53 victory for the Class 1A state championship. Then, after an abbreviated celebration with his girls and a short but emotional post-championship interview, a sweat-drenched, teary-eyed Little returned to the floor to coach his boys to a hard-fought 45-37 victory over H.W. Byers High of Holly Springs.

Hard to say whose celebration was wilder, the girls or the boys. I’m going to give a slight edge to the girls, probably because this was Biggersville’s first-ever girls state championship. Little’s boys have now won three in the last 10 years and Thursday made two straight. Believe this: At least 400 or so fans made the nearly four-hour drive to Jackson, and they commenced to scream themselves hoarse. And then they screamed more.

Someone asked Dylan Rousey, one of the boys team’s standouts, how many people were left in Biggersville Thursday. He thought for a couple seconds, smiled and answered, “I’m guessing nobody.”

That’s the way it goes in this tournament where, annually, dreams are lived and dashed in equal measure. When this week has ended, there will have been 36 games played, 24 in the semifinals and 12 championship games, nearly all the sports equivalents of a passion play — so much ecstasy and so much agony.

Little, the 43-year-old Biggersville coach, knows this tournament well. An Alcorn County native, he has been been coming to the state tournament every year since the age of 5. Both of his parents played ball. So did he. “I love basketball,” he said. “And what I love most is this tournament. It just matters so much.”

This guy can coach. His teams play sound, disciplined basketball. And they play as if they are playing for their mothers’ lives. Said Rousey, “In my mind, he’s the best coach in the state. He has to be to coach two teams at once and then to win win like he does. I don’t know how he does all he does. I’m just glad he does.”

Little will tell you he can do it because he has a lot of help and support. He has two assistant coaches. One is Tracy Stafford, his right-hand man. The other is Jana Little, his wife. And, boy, is there a story there.

Cliff and Jana Little met when he was coaching as an assistant at East Webster High in Maben. She was the scorekeeper. They dated, then married and then she became pregnant. In late February of 2007 East Webster’s girls won North State to qualify for the state tournament. Meanwhile, Jana, two months from her due date, was diagnosed with toxemia (pregnancy-induced hypertension).

“This could be really serious,” a doctor told them.

The Littles stayed behind while East Webster went and won the state semifinal game. On March 3, 2007, Jana gave birth to a one-pound, 15-ounce girl. They named her Lainey Jackson Little. Jackson? That’s where they had planned to be that night. That’s the place they loved to go every March. They called her Lainey Jack.

“You should have seen her,” Cliff Little said. “She would have fit in the palm of my hand.”

The prognosis was grim. Doctors said it could go either way. Lainey Jack spent the first six weeks of her life in the hospital.

Did we say this tournament is all about agony and ecstasy? Cliff Little knows both sides. The only time Cliff left the hospital during that six-week stay was for East Webster’s championship loss. Now, that’s agony. A year later, in 2008, the first basketball game Lainey Jack ever attended was when her daddy’s East Webster boys team beat Durant for the state championship. Now, that’s ecstasy.

Skip ahead four years to 2012, when Cliff Little coached the Biggersville girls to the state championship game with five-year old Lainey Jack seated nearby on the bench. Biggersville lost to Coldwater that day, a defeat Cliff was able to better put into perspective when his daughter skipped up and hugged his leg during his postgame interview.

Back to the present: Thursday presented the Little family with a double dose of ecstasy. And here’s what made it even better. Down the bench from Cliff and Jana Little, sat Lainey Jackson Little, now an eighth grader already playing for the Biggersville varsity. She didn’t play Thursday but she did play in the Lions’ semifinal victory. And she has four more years.

A reporter asked Cliff Little what it meant to share such a remarkable moment with both his wife and his daughter beside him.

Little began to answer and then he couldn’t. His voice shook. His eyes moistened. He didn’t need to finish.

We already knew.

And, besides, he had another game to coach — another championship to win.

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The easiest problem to solve politically is the one that doesn’t exist. But it does motivate the base.

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