In episode 100, we have a surprise visit from Sahara to celebrate our 100th episode. Get ready for this meeting of the Midnight Society. Last episode of the year! We’re taking some much needed time off.
All Cats is part of the Truthseekers Podcast Network.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large (and cartoonist) Marshall Ramsey sits down with cartoonist Paige Braddock. Braddock tells how she decided at the age of 7 that she wanted to be a cartoonist.
After a 20-year run, Braddock stepped away decided to end the strip. But her book Love Letters to Jane’s World recently won her the Mississippi Library Association’s Mississippi Writer’s Fiction Award. Paige attended elementary school in Wiggins, Mississippi.
In 1999, Braddock assumed the position of Chief Creative Officer and in this role is charged with overseeing the visual and editorial direction for all Peanuts licensed products worldwide. The Schulz studio works in tandem with the licensing office in New York, Peanuts Worldwide. As a professional cartoonist, she has illustrated several Peanutschildren’s books. The Snoopy U.S. postage stamp issued in April 2001 was designed by Braddock.
The Mississippi Women’s Economic Security Initiative Coalition is a collective of over 50 organizations with thousands of members from across the entire State of Mississippi. The Coalition is organized to promote policies to improve the economic wellbeing of Women and those supported by Women.
Mississippi’s working women are “economically insecure.” Without equal pay protection, the women of our state face persistent poverty, and live under perpetual financial trauma. An Equal Pay Law that protects the women of Mississippi should be a priority for our state, and our leaders. Without support, women are forced to balance the duress they face in unprotected jobs with the need to provide for the basic needs of a family including childcare, housing, healthcare, and transportation.
Despite the fact that 49% of the state’s workforce are women,
83% of single female led households live below the poverty level;
Women make up nearly two-thirds of workers being paid the minimum wage of only $7.25/hr;
More than 70 percent work in tipped jobs; and
More than seven in 10 work in low wage jobs that typically pay $11.50/hour or less.
Mississippi’s women are economic drivers for their families and the broader Mississippi economy. Equal pay protection would benefit the whole of Mississippi. Passing an Equal Pay Law, $4.15 billion dollars would add to Mississippi’s economy. Passage of a comprehensive equal pay law would benefit and protect both the employee and the employer. Equal pay protection is good for business.
Mississippi is the only state in the nation without an Equal Pay law. Mississippi urgently needs to enact an equal pay law that ensures that all employees:
Receive equal pay for equal work, without regard to their sex, race, national origin, or other protected characteristics, unless an employer shows a bona fide business justification for the pay difference;
Are protected from retaliation for discussing their pay with co-workers;
Aren’t forced to provide their salary history when seeking a job, because pay discrimination follows individuals from job to job when employers rely on job applicants’ salary history to set pay;
Are able to recover compensatory and punitive damages and be fully compensated for the harm they experience from pay discrimination; and which
Provides a safe harbor from damages for businesses that conduct a self-evaluation of their pay practices and are working towards closing gender and racial wage gaps.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Gov. Tate Reeves have had a roller coaster relationship during the period their political careers have overlapped.
During much of Reeves’ term as governor, the two statewide elected officials have been working well together. That is why speculation that Fitch is considering a challenge of Reeves in the 2023 Republican gubernatorial primary is so surprising.
For his part Reeves seems to be expecting a crowded primary for governor. During an October meeting of the state’s eight statewide officials — all Republican — he reportedly joked that his fellow officeholders probably would run for re-election unopposed while he would face multiple contenders.
Whether one of those contenders will be Fitch is an intriguing question.
While Reeves and Fitch seem on the same page now, that has not always been the case. Fitch replaced Reeves as treasurer when he captured the open seat of lieutenant governor in 2011. From almost the beginning of her tenure as treasurer, Fitch clashed with her predecessor.
It most likely began when Fitch shut down new enrollment in the state’s college savings plan for about a year because of concerns by actuaries that it was not financially sound.
The Mississippi Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Plan, where people can purchase a college education for children at today’s prices, was not created by Reeves, but he was a vocal advocate for the program. During his tenure as treasurer, two key House members, Appropriations Chair Johnny Stringer and Cecil Brown, a former state fiscal officer, met with Reeves to express concerns about the plan’s financial soundness. He neglected those concerns.
When Fitch shut the program down, Reeves was angered. But she stuck by her guns and opened it up about a year later after making significant changes, including increasing the cost to participate in the program.
And later, Fitch got on Reeves’ bad side when she sent a letter to the state’s political leadership expressing concern at what she described as the high level of state borrowing and the wisdom of some of the projects the Legislature was funding with the borrowing.
Reeves, loaded for bear, was prepared to confront Fitch about the letter at a meeting scheduled between the treasurer’s office and legislative leaders. But alas, Fitch did not attend, leaving it to one of her deputies to absorb Reeves’ wrath.
But in their new positions, Reeves and Fitch have been, well, simpatico.
The first any person noticed of the new relationship was when Speaker Philip Gunn, also viewed as a possible opponent for Reeves in the 2023 Republican primary, sued the governor when he partially vetoed an appropriations bill in 2020. Gunn charged the Constitution did not allow the governor to partially veto the bill in the manner that he did.
The attorney general is the state’s lawyer. But the AG always has the discretion not to participate in a case for various reason, such as believing the state’s case is legally wrong or choosing not to take sides between two powerful politicians — in this case the speaker and the governor.
But Fitch chose to take the side of Gov. Reeves and oppose Speaker Gunn. The governor’s side prevailed incidentally.
In more recent days, Reeves has hitched his political wagon to Fitch’s efforts to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that established a woman’s right to an abortion.
The court case originated from a 2018 law passed by the Mississippi Legislature banning abortions after 15 weeks. Under previous court rulings, the right to abortion in most instances is guaranteed until around the 22nd week.
In asking the high court to uphold the 15-week ban, Fitch went a step further requesting that the court completely overturn Roe v. Wade.
Reeves has appeared on multiple national news shows in recent week arguing that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. On a national level, at least, he is the Mississippi politician most closely affiliated with the effort to overturn Roe.
And true, Reeves was lieutenant governor, presiding over the Senate, when the bill was passed and signed into law by then-Gov. Phil Bryant. But it was a House bill, not a Senate bill.
Interestingly, the multiple bills introduced in the Senate in 2018 — including some that also would have banned abortion after 15 weeks — all died in committee in the Senate where Reeves exercised considerable control.
It was only after the 15-week abortion bill, authored primarily by Rep. Becky Currie of Brookhaven, passed the House and made it to the Senate that the Senate leadership ultimately took up and passed the legislation.
And now Lynn Fitch and Tate Reeves are in lock step touting the virtue of that legislation. Will they remain on the same page in 2023 after the deadline for candidates to qualify to run for statewide office?
Editor’s note: This story includes graphic details and language.
MERIDIAN — After three and a half years, Marsha Harbour’s family got the only thing that could make a dent in the pain they’ve felt since her murder: justice.
Truitt Pace was convicted on Thursday of first-degree murder for the death of Harbour, his wife. His trial was rescheduled eight times for reasons ranging from COVID-19 delays, changes in the public defender’s office and “time to investigate,” along with other vague explanations listed in court records.
“It’s been a long time for us to wait,” said Courtney Kirkman, Harbour’s sister. “We finally got justice, and she can rest in peace.”
While the family is relieved at the outcome, it came at a price. They had to listen as the defense attacked Harbour’s character — and sit through days of testimony, autopsy photos, gruesome and graphic displays of their loved one’s murder.
Over the last three and a half years the family has waited, haunted by the knowledge Pace was walking around a free man. In the time between Harbour’s murder and the trial, Pace was living in Alabama where he ran a roofing and construction business and got involved with a Pentecostal church. Several church members attended the trial.
During the four day trial, Pace often wandered around the courthouse. Because there was only one door out of the courtroom, he would occasionally breeze by Harbour’s family on his way out.
After Harbour died in the early morning hours of June 16, 2018, Pace, who was originally charged with second-degree murder, bonded out of the Lauderdale County Detention Center. His bond was set at $100,000 by a justice court judge — a relatively low bond, according to the guidelines that dictate bond ranges for certain crimes.
The state provided evidence and witnesses showing Pace shot Harbour in the back of the head at a distance of more than 2-3 feet while their 9-year-old daughter was in the house.
Autopsy photos revealed she was beaten before she was shot. Former State Medical Examiner Dr. Mark LeVaughn testified that in his opinion, the black eyes and abrasion on her right cheek were due to blunt force trauma — not the gunshot wound.
The defense strategy from public defenders Katie Curren and Chris Collins included trying to poke holes in the state’s case, suggesting it was all a horrible accident. They offered details about Harbour’s personal life in an effort to discredit her.
An attempt to reach Curren and Collins for comment Friday was not successful.
They brought up medication she was on, a cosmetic procedure she’d had and a part-time job with a modeling agency where she attended banquets for hunters. Harbour’s former supervisor testified she used the job to supplement her main source of income as a clerk at a medical clinic.
“Marsha’s job was to look pretty and serve men favors while feeding them alcohol,” Curren said in her closing argument, a last-ditch effort at convincing the jury Pace acted accidentally or in self defense.
And because no one actually witnessed Pace abuse Harbour, Curren suggested that maybe she got the bruising and black eyes jurors saw in photos from the “rowdy, drunk men” she saw at her job.
She pointed out Harbour visited a domestic violence shelter to initiate paperwork for a domestic abuse protection order “only after” a divorce attorney told her to — insinuating it was part of Harbour’s plan to win big in the divorce, despite the attorney’s prior testimony that Harbour expressed she wanted a no-fault, or uncontested, divorce.
After Curren concluded, District Attorney Kassie Coleman, who for eight years prosecuted crimes against women and children, stood in front of the jury for the final portion of the state’s closing argument.
Her response to Curren defended not only Harbour, a mother of four, but all women in her position.
“Victim shaming. Victim blaming,” Coleman said. “And we wonder why domestic violence victims don’t come forward and are afraid people won’t believe them.”
Testimony from witnesses painted a picture of a history of domestic violence. Several recalled seeing injuries on Harbour, and Harbour had asked her ex-husband to keep pictures of her injuries from two separate occasions on his phone.
Prior to her death, Harbour confided in a few people about the abuse she endured by Pace. The jury saw photos of injuries she incurred on a couple of occasions — black eyes and bruising on her arms — but she never followed through with pressing any charges. She told one friend she didn’t want him arrested, a common refrain heard from victims.
She also told them she was afraid involving police would make things worse for her and her children — another common sentiment.
Coleman defended Harbour and placed the focus squarely back on Pace, reminding the jury they’d seen “no evidence or testimony” he shot her accidentally.
Advocates for victims of domestic violence say these narratives about victims as crazy, unable to be believed, unstable or money-hungry are a major problem inside the courtroom and out.
“This victim blaming is so difficult for victims. They’re already going through such emotions with the abuse from someone who supposedly loves them and suffering from an avalanche of emotions,” said Sandy Middleton, executive director of the Center for Violence Prevention, which offers resources and shelter to domestic violence victims. “To be blamed for the behavior of an offender is just the worst of all.”
It can also downplay the harm the abuser is capable of inflicting, Middleton said.
“When we talk to these local prosecutors in municipal and justice courts in this state, we try to convince them how lethal some of these offenders are,” Middleton said. “We have to start looking seriously at these misdemeanor domestic violence cases … and putting these people in jail before people are terribly hurt or killed.”
Beth Meeks with the National Network to End Domestic Violence said these narratives are unfortunately exceedingly common” and affect whether women report their abuse.
“Unfortunately these exact narratives about battered women by the abuser are exceedingly common, even by batterers who have not killed their partner,” Meeks said. “What the offender is typically trying to do is erode the victim’s credibility so that charges won’t go forward or so that they will invoke sympathy and get a lighter sentence. Unfortunately this tactic often works.”
Since Harbour is no longer alive, it was her family members in the courtroom who bore the brunt of that narrative.
They listened to the accusations, unable to say a word to defend her. Graphic details of her murder were put on display, including body camera footage from law enforcement showing Harbour lying on a bed, gurgling and wheezing her last breaths.
Her loved ones had to watch as the prosecution showed the jury her autopsy photos, including a picture of the inside of her skull that the medical examiner used to determine that she was beaten before she was killed.
They heard the recording of Pace making the 911 call that took place before the officer arrived — again, with the horrific gurgling breaths audible in the background. Pace wasn’t frantic, or apologetic, and they didn’t hear him speak any comforting words to Harbour as she laid there. They heard Pace tell the dispatcher he hit Harbour “with my fucking fist” and to get an ambulance over because she was “fixing to die.” They heard testimony from the first sheriff’s deputy on scene describing Pace as “calm and emotionless.”
Harbour’s brother Robbie Spears said when he heard the irrelevant and sometimes untrue statements brought up by the defense, he was incredulous.
“Marsha had nothing to be ashamed about,” he said, noting both he and his sister suffered from anxiety and depression after they lost their mother at a young age, then three more family members years later.
Kirkman, Harbour’s sister, was angry.
“No one deserves what happened to Marsha,” she said. “She was treated so cruelly, not only that night but her entire marriage to Truitt.”
In the end, the jury agreed.
After less than an hour of deliberations on the fourth day of the trial, jurors returned their verdict: guilty.
Pace will spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole.
Corey Wiggins, a Hazlehurst native and head of the Mississippi NAACP, has been appointed to run the 252-county Delta Regional Authority.
Corey Wiggins, the executive director of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP, has been appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as the federal co-chair for the Delta Regional Authority.
Wiggins, a Hazlehurst native, will face U.S. Senate confirmation for the post.
The Delta Regional Authority encompasses parts of eight states — including 252 counties and parishes — in the Mississippi River Delta region. The federal-state partnership was created during the Bill Clinton administration to aid economic development efforts in the mostly economically distressed region.
The authority is governed primarily by the governors in the Delta Regional Authority, including Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, and a federal co-chair appointed by the president. Wiggins was appointed this week by Biden as federal co-chair of the authority.
The authority is based in Clarksdale. Mississippi has 48 counties in the DRA.
“As someone who grew up in a rural community, I’m excited about my nomination for federal co-chair of the Delta Regional Authority,” Wiggins said. “If confirmed, this would be a tremendous opportunity to create regional economic opportunity for all residents in the eight state Delta region.”
The previous federal co-chair was Little Rock, Ark., native Chris Caldwell, who previously worked on the staff of Arkansas U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a Republican. Caldwell was appointed to the post by former President Donald Trump.
Missouri Gov. Mark Parson is currently the state co-chair.
Wiggins previously served as senior vice president at Hope Enterprise Corporation and Hope Credit Union, nonprofits that in part focus on providing loans and assistance in low income areas in an effort to strengthen communities.
Wiggins received his undergraduate degree from Alcorn State University and his masters and doctorate from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has also taught at Jackson State University.
A news release from the White House said Wiggins “is driven by a mission to serve the community.”
In October, Mississippi U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith joined a group of other Republican senators in the Delta Regional Authority states urging the president to fill the co-chair post.
A statement from the senators said, “As a federal-state partnership, the DRA requires an affirmative vote of both a federal member and a majority of state members in order to execute its grant making activities. We understand that the DRA does not have the statutory authority to make program eligibility determinations or new grant awards without the appointment of a federal co-chair or alternate federal co-chair. We urge you to promptly appoint a new federal co-chair to the DRA.”
Of Wiggins’ nomination, Hyde-Smith spokesman Chris Gallegos said in a statement: “Sen. Hyde-Smith is pleased a Mississippian has been nominated for this position, and she looks forward to meeting Dr. Wiggins and reviewing his credentials.”
Roger Wicker, the state’s senior U.S. senator, said, “I look forward to meeting with him and discussing the importance of the Delta Regional Authority to Mississippi.”
The good news? It is supposedly less virulent. The bad? It’s waaaaaaaay more contagious. So while we may not get as sick (It’s just like the flu? Well, the flu isn’t fun.) But a whole lot of us will get sick at the same time. That’s not good. I’m listening to Dr. Osterholm’s podcast and he calls it a “viral blizzard unlike anything he as seen since the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic.”
Deion Sanders promised all who would listen Tuesday he was about to shock the country. Then, on national signing day, he delivered.
Sanders signed Travis Hunter, the Collins Hill (Ga.) High cornerback/wide receiver, ranked by many the nation’s top high school football recruit. Ironically, Sanders flipped Hunter, a five-star recruit, from Florida State, Sanders’ alma mater, to whom Hunter had been committed for nearly two years.
“I got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play for one of the greats,” Hunter told an Atlanta television station. “I got a chance to make a change in history.”
Hunter, in a statement after he signed, said he chose Jackson State to help Historically Black Colleges and Universities like Jackson State regain their football prowess of old, specifically citing Mississippians Jerry Rice and Walter Payton who chose to play at HBCUs.
“I am making this decision so that I can light the way for others to follow, make it a little easier for the next player to recognize that HBCUs may be everything you want and more: an exciting college experience, a vital community, and a life-changing place to play football,” he tweeted.
Rick Cleveland
He certainly made by far the most shocking news in all of football Wednesday. Jackson State stole the biggest, boldest signing day headlines from the Notre Dames, Alabamas, LSUs, USCs and Michigans of the world. Many were calling Hunter’s flip to Jackson State “a game-changer.”
“I do think this is a game-changer,” Reggie Bush, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Southern Cal, told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. “This speaks to who Deion Sanders is. He is one of the rare guys who transcends all age groups and genres, college or NFL. Everybody loves and respects Prime. He just has such an infectious personality. People listen to him and believe him because he backs it up. I think this could really be the start of something.”
Clearly, Sanders already had started something, turning the JSU football program around with just one recruiting class and an influx of transfers. The Tigers, 11-1, won the SWAC championship and will play South Carolina State in Atlanta Saturday in the Celebration Bowl.
Now this.
My take: We need to wait a while before calling Hunter’s surprise decision a game-changer. We’ll have to see how many other highly rated recruits follow his lead. It could be more of a head-scratcher than a game-changer. Time will tell.
So, you might ask, how good is this Travis Hunter kid?
National recruiting experts all have him rated one of the top two or three recruits of the Class of 2022. He’s the nation’s top-rated cornerback. He also is one of the nation’s best wide receiver prospects. He led Collins Hill of Sewanee, Ga., to a 15-0 record and Georgia Class 7A state championship.
You may recall that Mississippi’s Greenville Christian — who made history this year themselves — played Collins Hill its closest game of the season back in September.
So, how good is Hunter?
“He’s an elite athlete,” Greenville Christian coach Jon Reed McClendon said. “He’s explosive, fast-twitch, very fast and very quick with great change of direction. He has fluid and graceful movements. He’s what you think of when you say someone runs like a deer.”
And here’s the deal: Hunter might have had his least productive game against Greenville Christian.
“We really did a good job on him, so I didn’t get to see much of his play-making ability in person,” McClendon said. “But on film, he makes special plays. In my opinion, at this point, he’s a better wide receiver than corner, but he’s still really good at both.”
Any weaknesses?
“He’s not super physical,” McClendon answered. “That’s the one weakness that I think stands out.”
People used to say the same about Deion Sanders, surely one of the greatest corners in history of the sport.
“He’s very much in the mold of Deion Sanders, a two-way guy who is always a threat to score when the ball is in his hands,” McClendon said. “I do think he needs to get stronger and become a more physical player, a better tackler.”
Something similar was once said about the guy now known as Coach Prime. He’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
I asked McClendon if Hunter had covered Greenville Christian’s superb wide receiver Chris Bell, who signed with Louisville Wednesday and who was the best high school football player I saw this past season.
“Yes sir, he did,” McClendon said. “Chris outplayed him that night.”
The numbers would appear to bear that out. Bell, a big, physical receiver in the mold of A.J. Brown, caught five passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
Trust me, that’s no huge knock on Hunter. Chris Bell will do that to a lot of people.
