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In the first episode of the Health Half Hour series, Marshall Ramsey, a melanoma survivor himself, sat down with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to talk about his recent melanoma diagnosis and successful surgery.

The post Health Half Hour: Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Private child care providers across Mississippi are scrambling to spend around $150 million, the remainder of their federal stabilization funds, in the next four months.

The centers, which were hit hard by the pandemic as many were forced to stay open while schools closed, may use the large grants broadly on payroll, mortgages and rent, goods like food, classroom equipment, diapers, masks and cleaning supplies, among other expenses.

Though the federal government allows states to spend these child care stabilization funds — $319 million of which it allocated to Mississippi — through September of 2023, the Mississippi Department of Human Services has given child care centers a deadline of September 30, 2022, to expend the funds.

Advocates say the rush might hinder providers from making the best financial decisions for their centers, many of which serve low-income parents and have been cash-strapped for years, resulting in low wages for child care workers.

But centers may also use past operating expenses dating back to the beginning of the pandemic in their reimbursement requests to draw down the funds, called the Child Care Strong grant, in which case they can bank the money and do with it whatever and whenever they wish.

Mississippi Department of Human Services received 1,204 applications for funding and awarded grants to 1,114 centers, over half of which are owned by Black women, MDHS Director Bob Anderson told lawmakers at a Mississippi Democratic Caucus legislative hearing in May.

The Democratic Caucus requested the hearing with MDHS after advocates complained that the agency is not adequately answering questions from providers who want to make sure they spend and record the funds properly so they aren’t hit with demands for repayment — or worse, punishment — next year. The lawmakers said that MDHS has denied requests that it partner with the Mississippi Small Business Development Center program at the University of Mississippi, for example, to help centers with grant accounting.

Anderson told Mississippi Today that any child care provider is free to seek help from the business development center on their own. Asked whether the university’s program has the capability to provide guidance about the specific Child Care Strong grant, he said he didn’t know, but that his agency has provided adequate assistance to its grant recipients.

“Everybody has a perception of whether our technical assistance has been adequate. I think it has been. I don’t think we’ve had a provider that reached out to us that we ignored,” Anderson told Mississippi Today. “Everybody has a different perspective about whether they got enough assistance but I will say, we can’t take every child care provider by the hand and walk them through this grant process and tell them, ‘Yes, you can do A. No, you can’t do B.’ They have to make some business decisions on their own. And that’s beyond the scope of our technical assistance. We’ve laid out the guidelines for how they can use the funds. I mean, that’s on our website.”

Some providers say that MDHS employees who respond to their questions often simply refer them back to the website, which is where their confusion came from in the first place.

“Wherever there’s confusion, there’s misuse, and wherever there’s misuse, there’s jail time,” Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said in the hearing. “I don’t want to be part of a system, and none of my colleagues do, want to be part of a system where we set somebody up to fail. If these providers are telling you they’re having some problems with some clarity and some understanding, I’m requesting that you try to resolve those issues so we don’t send somebody to jail arbitrarily. $400,000 is a lot of money. If you got a bad accountant, somebody’s finna to do something wrong.”

An agency spokesperson said that the vast majority of providers are on track with their grant spending and are accurately recording their monthly purchases with the agency — which should prevent any surprises on the back end.

“We validate the fact that there are some concerns,” MDHS communications director Mark Jones said. “We hear our providers, but by in large, we see that 86% or 90% of providers are not having these issues.”

As for the tight deadline, which gives centers nine months at most to spend the grant funds, Anderson explained that it took the agency about a year to close out the accounting for $47 million in “booster shot” grants it awarded to centers in 2020. Anderson said the federal government expects a full accounting of how states spent the stabilization funds by the Sept. 30, 2023, federal deadline. Learning from the past, Anderson said, the agency is giving itself a full year to conduct the paperwork.

“The Sept. 30, 2022, deadline gives you a year to be able to do what you need to do for the federal government. My question is, why is it that the reporting period is longer than the time you’re giving providers?” Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, asked in the hearing.

The federal stabilization grants, which Mississippi calls Child Care Strong grants, are intended to provide relief to centers by paying for unexpected business expenses due to the pandemic. The grants are funded by the American Rescue Plan Act signed in March 2021. The state opened up grant applications nine months later in December. MDHS has said it took that long to review guidance from the federal government so it could administer the money within the guidelines. The application period closed at the end of January.

The act also allotted Mississippi nearly $200 million in additional funding for the annual Child Care Development Fund block grant discretionary fund, which may be used to help more low-income children get into child care through vouchers or to improve center quality.

To ensure every center got the amount they were eligible to receive based on a formula MDHS created that mostly accounted for the center’s size, the agency allocated an additional $35 million from the discretionary fund for a total of $354 million in stabilization grants it awarded. Centers received grants ranging from $21,000 to $640,000, which could represent as much as a year’s budget for a center. Through April, MDHS says it has mailed over $158 million in payments to centers.

In a press release MDHS issued Thursday, the agency quoted a child care provider in Hattiesburg, who said, “These funds are providing numerous working parents the assistance to receive free quality childcare in a safe and nurturing environment fostering developmental, academic, social/emotional skills and mental and physical health with qualified and adequate staffing with the proper PPE, support, classroom materials, and environment improvements.”

In the release, Anderson said the agency is also exploring other child care expansion ideas.

“The pandemic has tested the resilience of Mississippi’s child care providers,” he said. “As centers continue to provide services critical to the growth of our workforce and preparation of children for k-12 success, MDHS will work with providers to sustain the industry beyond the current round of Child Care Strong,” he said.

The Child Care Strong grant allows centers to submit reimbursement for expenditures dating back to the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, which advocates say presents a sophisticated accounting exercise for centers who may not have a financial manager on staff. Providers were not permitted to use the money to hire an accountant.

Kassandra Fisher, owner of Agape Love Learning Center in Greenwood, said MDHS’s format for submitting monthly financial reports has changed several times, creating confusion on how the agency wants providers to record their purchases each month.

“They had enough months to have an accurate system where we could have more clarity on how to submit everything. And it seems like we’re trying to learn as we go,” Fisher said. “And providers are already stressed with the time they gave us, the timeframe, we don’t need any more stress.”

Fisher, whose center has received $188,000, has used the money to purchase new equipment and furniture, air purifiers, personal protective equipment, and make building upgrades and repairs. Fisher has been in business 12 years, she said, so many of her classrooms are outdated.

Other providers are worried that if they use the funds on building repairs, contractors might still be working on their centers past the deadline due to delays in construction or items being on backorder. Anderson said in the hearing that work allocated before the September 2022 deadline but not expended until after, such as in the contractor scenario, are permitted, but providers expressed confusion over the explanation, which they say contradicts what they’ve been told.

Suspicion towards the welfare agency from child care providers has lingered during the ongoing fallout of a massive fraud scheme. More than two years ago, the State Auditor’s Office arrested six people, including the former MDHS director John Davis, for taking money from the federal anti-poverty program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Davis continues to maintain his innocence, while the court has delayed his trial several times. Four others who pleaded guilty to several felonies ranging from conspiracy to fraud and bribery have yet to be sentenced to prison as officials continue investigating. Forensic auditors determined the agency and its grantees misspent at least $77 million.

Considering the agency’s recent history, Rep. Hines said it should be doing everything it can to help current grantees follow the rules.

“That agency should be holding those hands to make sure we don’t have the same kind of debacle that took place with the TANF funds,” Hines told Mississippi Today. “They should welcome holding people’s hands to guide them through this process so we don’t be embarrassed like that ever again.”

The agency is attempting to claw back a total of roughly $24 million through a civil suit — though most of the defendants likely do not possess the money to settle or pay on any potential judgements.

The known TANF scheme occurred during 2016-2019, but around the same time, from about 2013-2018, child care providers were screaming about a separate disaster: the department didn’t approve a single new child care voucher from the federal Child Care Development Fund for five years. TANF and CCDF, two federal block grants U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awards to each state’s welfare agency, interact because typically parents receiving TANF automatically receive the voucher, but many more Mississippi parents qualify for the CCDF child care certificate, which has a higher income threshold than TANF.

“With all the fraud that happened, all the years we went through without getting approved a certificate, with parents being on waiting lists, and now we’re finding out why, then I feel like our providers should be compensated,” Fisher said. “All this money they’re talking about they want to regain, going after a lot of people, what about the providers who suffered during that time? What kind of compensation can you offer those providers, you know, for those years that we really struggled and wondered why funding wasn’t there for our children and for the communities that needed it?”

Mississippi Department of Human Services and its auditors have never explained how the agency’s sprawling fraud scheme and misspending of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds may have impacted the child care program, and a similar forensic analysis of federal child care funds has not taken place. Today, MDHS says it spends 85% of its CCDF on child care vouchers — the federal government only requires states to spend 75% on certificates — and that the agency does not have a waitlist. But parents still face issues during the application and redetermination, the antiquated process the agency uses to determine parents are still eligible for the benefit.

While the state positions itself and taxpayers as the victim of theft, Fisher thinks about the low-income parents and what they lost because of corruption inside the agency.

“The system failed. They failed the providers. They failed the low-income parents. And we’re talking about funding that’s misused, but what compensation are they going to put in place?” Fisher told Mississippi Today. “What if a parent was trying to finish school and they couldn’t? You know what I’m saying? It’s some years that we struggled real hard.”

“And now you’re rushing us to spend funding that was provided by the federal government, not the state,” she continued. “Then, my thing is, you’re not being fair. You’re not being fair.”

The post Welfare agency says it can’t ‘take providers by the hand’ to ensure proper spending of $354M in child care funds on tight deadline appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The MHSAA baseball championships are in the books, now the attention turns to the NCAA Baseball Tournament, where Ole Miss and Southern Miss are both vying for that elusive trip to Omaha. Plus, the Cleveland boys discuss the proposed new SEC football schedule formats under discussion at this week’s summer meetings in Destin.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: The NCAA Baseball Tournament Field is set, plus SEC football scheduling appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal lawsuit alleging Mississippi law made it more difficult for naturalized citizens to vote than in any state in the country has been dismissed by a federal judge.

But the 2019 lawsuit was not dropped until the state law challenged as discriminatory was repealed.

After a bill passed during the 2022 legislative session repealing the law that placed an extra burden on naturalized citizens, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves of the Southern District of Mississippi on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit.

The groups that filed the lawsuit — the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Mississippi Center for Justice — and Secretary of State Michael Watson, who was the named defendant in the case, jointly asked Reeves to dismiss the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance and League of Women Voters of Mississippi challenging a 1924 state law that required naturalized citizens to present documentation of their citizenship when registering to vote. The lawsuit claimed federal law and the U.S. Constitution mandated naturalized citizens (those born in other countries but who have met standards to be U.S. citizens) be treated the same as native born citizens.

“No state in the United States other than Mississippi subjects naturalized citizens to a higher proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration than U.S.-born citizens. The time has come for the state of Mississippi to stop doing so,” the lawsuit filed in November 2019 said.

In 2021, the groups filing the lawsuit and Watson asked Reeves to postpone ruling on the issue to give the Legislature time to act. In the 2022 session, the Legislature passed House Bill 1510 that repealed the old law. The bill established a system where people who have been marked as non-citizens by a Highway Patrol database when registering to vote will be double-checked through a more reliable United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.

Only those flagged when registering to vote by both the state driver’s license database and the federal program will have their applications placed on hold while they are notified and required to provide proof of citizenship.

“Having gone through the naturalization process and pledged their allegiance to the nation, naturalized citizens deserve better than to be targeted for unequal treatment. Their patriotism deserves to be honored, not punished,” said Ezra Rosenberg of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The addition of this new safeguard will help prevent naturalized citizens from being erroneously blocked from registering to vote through no fault of their own. While implementation of this new provision will require monitoring, we are pleased with this resolution and are committed to ensuring every eligible Mississippian is able to register to vote.”

Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice said: “We would prefer that there be no database matching. There is no problem in Mississippi with non-citizens trying to vote. But given that the Secretary of State created such a database matching program, HB 1510 makes the situation better and decreases the number of erroneous non-matches.”

The legislation repealing the 1924 law passed both chambers earlier this year by overwhelming margins. Those who opposed the bill were Democrats who maintained that there was no need to require any extra scrutiny of naturalized citizens when they register to vote. State law already requires all people registering to vote to attest of their citizenship, and those who register but are not citizens face criminal prosecution.

“We are grateful that our legislators have taken this step to help ensure naturalized citizens can exercise their fundamental right to vote,” said Vangela M. Wade, president of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “But we have a long way to go to fully protect Mississippians’ democratic rights. Today, many Mississippians, particularly people of color, face enormous hurdles to access the ballot box. We must continue removing barriers to voting and make access the standard, not the exception.”

Editor’s note: Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.

The post Legislature repeals law making it more difficult for naturalized citizens to vote; lawsuit dropped appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read the story this cartoon is based on here.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Census appeared first on Mississippi Today.

All three of the citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives that have been ratified by Mississippi voters have since been approved by state lawmakers, ensuring the laws cannot be struck down as a result of a landmark May 2021 Supreme Court ruling that ended the initiative process.

Since voters approved the now-defunct initiative process in 1992, just three initiatives have made it all the way through the process to gain the approval of voters. They are:

• A photo identification requirement to vote.
• The legalization of medical marijuana.
• A prohibition on the government taking private property for the use of another private entity.

Late in the 2022 session, the Legislature approved and Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law a bill that has the practical effect of preventing the taking of private property by the government for the use of another private entity.

The bill placed in state law essentially the same language approved by voters in 2011 after the Farm Bureau Federation raised enough signatures through the initiative process to place the issue on the ballot.

The reason Farm Bureau and others supported the Legislature passing the eminent domain bill is the May 2021 Supreme Court decision saying the state’s initiative process was invalid.

READ MORE: Mississippi Supreme Court rules ballot initiative process unconstitutional

That Supreme Court decision came after voters in November 2020 approved an initiative legalizing medical marijuana. But the medical marijuana initiative process was struck down by the Supreme Court in May 2021 at the same time the entire initiative process was ruled invalid. Earlier, in the 2022 session, a bill was passed and signed into the law to enact a medical marijuana program.

The Supreme Court struck down the medical marijuana initiative and the entire initiative process because the process required the mandated number of signatures to place an issue on the ballot be gathered equally from the five congressional districts as they existed in 1990. The state lost a congressional seat in 2000.

Some feared that because the initiative process had been struck down by the Supreme Court, a future court ruling also could invalidate the eminent domain initiative. The bill passed during the 2022 session alleviates those concerns.

Voters in 2011 also approved an initiative requiring a government-issued photo identification to vote. Voter ID was not viewed as being in jeopardy because of the May 2021 Supreme Court ruling since it was approved by the Legislature after it was approved by voters in 2011.

While all three initiatives are now safe through action of the Legislature in spite of the Supreme Court ruling, the state no longer has an initiative process. The Legislature could not agree in the 2022 session on language to revive the process.

The post Voters have OK’d three ballot initiatives in state history. Now, lawmakers have written all into law. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The NCAA Baseball Tournament regional brackets were announced just an hour ago and already I’ve been asked about a dozen times: What’s your reaction?

Answer: Surprised.

Not shocked, mind you, just surprised and pleasantly so.

Surprised that Southern Miss was in at a No. 11 seed, even after losing twice at home to Texas-Antonio (UTSA), which wasn’t selected, in the Conference USA Tournament.

Surprised that Ole Miss was selected, particularly after all the unexpected happenings in conference tournaments this past weekend.

What seems clear is that NCAA Baseball Committee, of which Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen is a member, put lots more value on a team’s achievements over the course of a 55-game regular season than what happened in the various conference tournaments.

That was mentioned to Southern Miss coach Scott Berry during a press conference following the selection show. “I agree, I totally agree,” Berry said. “And, to me, that’s the way it should be.”

Berry went on. “In our case, the committee recognized our achievements over the long haul. We won the regular season championship by three games in a very good conference. We finished 43 and 17. We were 23 and 7 in the league. That’s a heckuva achievement right there. To me, what you do over the course of an entire season is much more important than what you do in a double elimination tournament.”

I would agree.

Southern Miss will open the Hattiesburg Regional against Army on Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. LSU, the 2-seed, will play Kennesaw State at 7 p.m. in the other half of the four-team, double elimination bracket. This marks the third time in history the Golden Eagles have hosted a regional.

Berry was asked about Ole Miss receiving a bid — the Rebels are a 3-seed at Miami and will play Arizona on Friday night — while UTSA and Old Dominion both did not.

Berry said he felt for both UTSA and Old Dominion, but added, “I think it’s great for Ole Miss. I love Coach (Mike) Bianco, who a great coach and a classy person, and couldn’t be happier for him or his team.”

Some random thoughts on the NCAA Tournament:

• I’ve never been one to take one team against the field, and I am not sure I would this time. But if there was ever a time to do it, this is it. Tennessee, SEC regular season and tournament champ, is by far the class of the field, quite possibly the best college team these eyes have ever seen.
• Army? The Black Knights won their fourth straight Patriot League championship this season. Army comes in at No. 154 in RPI and was 0-6 against Top 50 competition this season. The Knights hit .301 as a team and love to run. They stole 101 of 120 bases this season. Their pitching ace, the guy Southern Miss likely will face, is Connelly Early, a left-hander with a 7-3 record a 3.39 earned run average. He is seemingly a good matchup against the Eagles’  heavy left-handed hitting lineup.
• Arizona? For Ole Miss, the Wildcats will be a rematch of last season’s Super Regional matchup at Tucson, which Arizona won two games to one. The 2022 Wildcats finished 37-23, 16-14 in the Pac-12. Top-seeded and host Miami finished 39-18 with a No. 15 RPI.
• Is Ole Miss capable of winning the Miami Regional? Yes. No doubt. If the Rebels pitch it well and hit as they are capable, they could win.
• And that could potentially set up an Ole Miss-Southern Miss Super Regional showdown. Asked about that possibility, Berry laughed, “Hold on now, we’ve both got a whole lot of work to do before we talk about that,” he said.
• Kennesaw State, which will play LSU Friday night in the Hattiesburg Regional, is led by former Mississippi State Bulldog Josh Hatcher, who hit .386 with 13 home runs and 55 runs batted in for the American Sun Conference champions.

The post Southern Miss, Ole Miss get pleasant surprises from NCAA committee appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The people. The ocean. The hospitality. The music. The arts.

These are just a few of the reasons why our readers love Mississippi.

At Mississippi Today, we work hard to produce news and resources that keep Mississippians informed and hold our public officials accountable. Why? Because we — like you — love Mississippi.

Over the past six-plus years, Mississippi Today readers have come to rely on coverage that helps them navigate the ups and downs of an ever-changing news cycle. Investigative reporter Anna Wolfe has a passion for amplifying the voices of those in our state who need the most help. Her recent series, The Backchannel, chronicles how former Gov. Phil Bryant used the governor’s office to exploit a dysfunctional welfare system for personal interests.

The stories that matter most to us are the ones that give you answers to the questions no one else is asking.

From famous storytellers to those who are everyday heroes featured in Marshall Ramsey’s Mississippi Stories series, this great state has a host of voices ready to share their unique experiences — and people on the other side ready to listen.

Here’s a recent example of how our public service journalism model allowed us to share a story of a local resident in desperate need of answers:

Earlier this month, we published an article by our community health editor Kate Royals about a 61-year-old Madison resident Frank Dungan, in need of a liver transplant from the state’s only organ transplant program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. But, because of the ongoing contract dispute between his insurer Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi and UMMC, he is currently ineligible for a transplant at the hospital. 

Kate’s story detailed the challenges he faced getting answers from both his insurer and UMMC on how to proceed or the outright costs of his procedure. Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney wrote a letter to BCBS and UMMC attorneys to advocate for Dungan, asking for a response. Our health team continues to cover the ongoing dispute and possible resolutions.

“I chose to work here because of my family and because I believe in Mississippi Today’s mission.” 

Kate Royals, Community Health Editor

So why donate to Mississippi Today? Here’s what some of our members had to say – you might feel the same way: 

“Mississippi is my home. Change is on the horizon. This will require reliable reporting/news.” – Betty D.

“You are providing citizens vital and unbiased information to inform our thinking and actions.” – Mary T.

“I need an honest view of what’s happening in Mississippi.” – Kathie G.

“I want to be a part in building a better Mississippi.” — Meade E.

“All of our member funding goes directly toward our journalism by funding costly records requests…hosting community events…and making sure our staff can care for their families with healthcare and other costs.” 

Alyssa Bass, Product Engagement Coordinator

If you agree with these members that Mississippi needs independent journalism like Mississippi Today, join the crowd by creating a recurring donation of any amount today. 

The post What do you love about Mississippi? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs has been the face of Mississippi’s COVID-19 response. Mississippi Today reporters Bobby Harrison, Geoff Pender and Will Stribling spoke with Dr. Dobbs about his tenure at the health department, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case, and what comes next for him after he leaves the health department in July.

The post Podcast: Dr. Thomas Dobbs discusses his tenure as State Health Officer appeared first on Mississippi Today.