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The post Marshall Ramsey: Life Champion appeared first on Mississippi Today.

While oral arguments in a Mississippi abortion case were heard at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Wednesday, protesters both for and against abortion access were making themselves heard across the Magnolia State’s capital city.

Music was bumping in downtown Jackson’s Smith Park for the “Abortion Freedom Fighters” rally, which saw over 100 attendees, some traveling from Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia. The rally was live-streamed onto the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, where thousands gathered on Wednesday. 

Rally organizers Michelle Colon, Tyler Harden and Valencia Robinson spoke first, subsequently opening the floor to other community organizers and out-of-state guests. 

Harden, the Mississippi state director for Planned Parenthood, spoke about the history of white supremacy and subjugation that has led to this moment, emphasizing that these battles are not new.

“Even though this place doesn’t want to love us back, we love you Mississippi,” Harden said.

Nearly every speaker emphasized that regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, they will continue to make reproductive health care available and accessible to anyone who needs it.

READ MORE: Supreme Court appears likely to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban

“We are here for abortions, and we are here if you want to keep your baby. You need diapers? You need wipes? You need menstrual products? We’re here,” said Kayla Roberts of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund. “We have condoms, we have abortion information, we have a food pantry, we have emergency housing; you tell us what you need.”

Five or six anti-abortion protestors attended the rally to disrupt the gathering, preaching and yelling at the speakers and attendees with bullhorns. The counter protestors were heavily outnumbered at Smith Park, though, and the abortion advocates turned up the volume on their public address system and the rally continued without major interruption.

“It is no coincidence that the voices trying to disrupt women of color, people of color, are white men,” said Lakeesha Harris, director of reproductive health and justice at Women With A Vision, Inc. in New Orleans. “As per usual, they come here empty-handed, with no money and no resources to help the children that we’ve already given birth to.”

Organizations who attended the rally included SHERo, Mississippi in Action, Planned Parenthood, Access Reproductive Care Southeast, the Yellowhammer Fund, the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, One Voice MS, and Cooperation Jackson.

“Mississippi has always been counted out, but today we showed not just the Supreme Court but the governor — we’ve shown people that we are not going to let y’all make decisions on our bodies,” said Valencia Robinson, CEO and founder of Mississippi in Action. “Women, pregnant people, nobody. Because if you’re taking one right away, you’re going to start trying to take other rights away.”

Outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s only abortion clinic located several miles north of Smith Park, things were relatively quiet. Around 30-40 anti-abortion protestors were praying with red tape over their mouths with “LIFE” written on it, holding signs with graphic images or waving pink flags. One man was trying to talk to people in cars as they drove out of the clinic parking lot, and another was preaching. 

“God almighty visited you and gave you a baby. Will you save it today? Will you love it?” said Coleman Boyd, a regular protester outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

One man drove his car up and down the street honking and playing loud music to disrupt the preaching, but left after a few minutes. The building’s speakers were also loudly playing pop music, with the protestors in turn aiming speakers at the building playing hymns. 

READ MORE: Is Mississippi the ‘safest state in the nation for an unborn child?’ Data shows it’s not even close.

Clinic escorts, who have become known as the “Pink House defenders” (named after the building’s recognizable pink exterior), were guarding the parking lot. Sharon Lobert, a Pink House defender, said that this was part of the shift in operations that came during the pandemic, since people now wait in their cars to be seen instead of in the lobby. 

Lobert, a retired nurse, has been volunteering with the defenders for three-and-a-half years and has watched anti-abortion protestors become more ardent. She also said she has noticed an increase in out-of-state patients.

“I’ve learned how Derenda (the lead organizer of the defenders) works very hard to have a relationship with the (anti-abortion protestors) so you can know what to expect and how to keep people safe,” Lobert said. “It’s the people that you don’t recognize that you’ve got to worry about.”

Editor’s note: Michelle Colon, an organizer of the Dec. 1 downtown Jackson rally, is a part-time employee of Mississippi Today. She assists our administrative team, but she does not have any editorial role.

The post As America debated abortion, Mississippi protesters made themselves heard appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Attorneys for the state of Mississippi and the Jackson Women’s Health Organization clashed for nearly two hours Wednesday as they presented oral arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court on a challenge to the state’s 15-week abortion ban.

The case represents the most serious challenge to the landmark decisions of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in decades. When the arguments were said and done, the court appeared unlikely to reaffirm Roe, but the court’s six-member conservative majority also appeared split on whether to weaken or overturn Roe entirely. 

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart said that Roe and Casey “haunt our country” and repeatedly asserted that a right to abortion is found nowhere in the text of the Constitution. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor in turn argued that the Constitution has been interpreted to include many legal principles that are not explicitly laid out in its text. 

Attorney Julie Rikelman, a lawyer representing the Jackson clinic, argued that allowing pre-viability abortion bans to stand would do “profound damage to women’s liberty, equality and the rule of law,” essentially making women second-class citizens. 

The conservative justices appeared to repeatedly push back on this argument through their lines of questioning. Justice Brett Kavanaugh pointed out that abortion would remain legal in many liberal states if Roe were overturned and the question of abortion rights was removed from the Court’s purview. Justice Amy Coney Barrett repeatedly brought up giving up a baby for adoption as an alternative. Justice Clarence Thomas repeatedly questioned Rikelman on whether criminal child neglect laws can be used to prosecute a woman who abused drugs while pregnant, a clear fetal personhood argument. 

Multiple questions also arose about whether the viability standard, which prevents abortion restrictions before the fetus can survive outside the womb, or 24-weeks of gestation, should remain in place. No alternative was presented by the abortion-rights attorneys when pressed for one.

Justice Samuel Alito asked why viability should be the line for abortion restrictions. He noted that a woman who doesn’t want to have a baby has that same interest regardless of how far along she is in the pregnancy. He also noted that the point of fetal viability, when a fetus can survive outside the uterus, is subject to change over time through advancements in medical technology. 

Over the course of the arguments, the Latin phrase “stare decisis” came up often. The phrase refers to a legal doctrine which states the court should stand by its previous decisions and be wary of overturning precedent. 

The court’s three-member liberal minority  — Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sotomayor — showed that the integrity of the court was pressing on their minds throughout the arguments. Recent polls have shown a sharp decline in public perceptions of the court, many viewing it as beholden to political whims. 

Sotomayor was perhaps the most forceful in her language when discussing the dangers posed to the institution if it were to abandon the precedent established in Roe. 

“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?” Sotomayor asked.

Chief Justice John Roberts, viewed as the most moderate of the court’s conservative wing, appeared frustrated with what he suggested was a bait-and-switch strategy the state used to transform the case into a challenge to Roe and Casey. In its original petition for Supreme Court review, officials told the justices that overturning Roe or Casey was not required for this case. After the court agreed to hear the case, the state shifted its strategy to a full throated assault on these precedents. 

Roberts voiced his preference to stick to that narrower question on pre-viability bans, saying “the thing that is at issue before us today is 15 weeks.” Alito rejected that position, saying “the only real options we have” are to reaffirm Roe or to overrule it.

In the coming days, the justices will cast their votes in a private conference. Then the members of the majority and minority will draft and share their opinions. Though the average length of time after oral arguments for the court to issue a decision is three months, the decision in this case is not expected till June or July next year, when the most major rulings tend to be released. 

If Roe were overturned, 26 states are certain to or likely to ban abortion altogether. Mississippi’s trigger law banning all abortions would immediately go into effect. 

The post Supreme Court appears likely to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi College and Jackson State University (JSU) are receiving $5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds for the creation of a public health partnership.

The joint project is one of six to receive funding from Gov. Tate Reeves’ second round of Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) aid, which totaled $15.57 million. The aid is meant to provide relief to schools and education-related groups that have been most significantly impacted by COVID-19.

Unlike in the first round of funding, Reeves awarded this money at his discretion, not through an application process. 

The public-private partnership will create a bachelor’s in public health program at both institutions and allow students to share resources, including faculty and lab and classroom space. It will also create a pipeline for students at Mississippi College to transition into the master’s and doctoral public health programs at JSU.

Alisa Mosley, provost and vice president of academic affairs at JSU, said the partnership was the brainchild of the two institutions’ presidents. 

The money will also go towards offering certificates for public health professionals. The goal is to equip those already in the workforce with a deeper knowledge of public health and more skills, said Brandi Newkirk-Turner, associate provost in the division of academic affairs and a professor of communicative disorders at JSU. 

The main goal is to improve public health in Mississippi through the education of both future and current public health workers, in addition to community members.

“We want to use the expertise at both institutions to help advance public health in Mississippi,” said Keith Elder, provost and executive vice president of Mississippi College, who also has a background in public health. “Together with the combined resources we know we can make even a more significant impact.”

READ MORE: Schools, state slowly spending federal COVID-19 money

JSU and Mississippi College received the largest award.

Reeves also awarded $3 million to the Office of Student Financial Aid to assist students who have fallen behind during the pandemic in completing courses during the summer of next year.

Jennifer Rogers, the director of student financial aid, said the extra funding is significant because state aid is not currently available to students during the summer term. 

“We appreciate Governor Reeves for recognizing the challenges faced by students over the course of the pandemic and for making this additional funding available,” she said, noting the office only recently learned about the award and has not yet established rules for the program. 

Connect Our Kids, a Virginia-based nonprofit, also received $3 million. The organization provides software to foster care professionals that helps track down extended family members who could potentially care for children in foster care. 

According to Reeves’ office, social workers at Child Protective Services will be able to use the program.

Representatives from both Connect Our Kids and Child Protective Services had not responded to requests for comment and more information by Tuesday.

Other recipients of this aid include:

• $475,000 to CampusKnot, an online teaching platform for K-12
• $2 million to National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to support current National Board Certified Teachers, candidates and eligible teachers to equip them with tools and training to improve instruction

Holly Spivey, education policy adviser to Reeves, said there is an additional project that has been approved, but details weren’t available at the time of publishing.

The post Reeves awards $14 million of federal education funds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State agencies and other groups pitched lawmakers for hundreds of millions in federal pandemic stimulus funds in hearings at the Capitol on Monday and Tuesday.

The agencies want to fix or replace dilapidated buildings, water and sewer pipes, and computer systems. They asked for money to expand nursing programs, hire more law officers, improve the state’s tourism marketing and workforce training, buy a helicopter and do many other projects that would otherwise be out of reach in the regular state budget.

The Legislature has $1.8 billion in American Rescue Plan Act money it can allocate from now through December 2024, with relatively broad leeway under federal regulations.

Mississippi is behind most other states in planning for and spending its ARPA funds. But a special Senate Appropriations subcommittee appointed by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is holding hearings through the end of the year and will make recommendations to the Legislature when it convenes in January.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: How will Mississippi spend billions in federal pandemic stimulus dollars?

The agencies this week made more than $1.6 billion in requests. But some of the requests were duplicative, would not likely qualify under the federal rules, and some agencies are receiving other federal pandemic funds directly. Sen. John Polk, chair of the special committee, said those are issues that will have to be sorted out.

Mississippi’s city and county governments are also receiving a combined $900 million in ARPA funds. Hosemann, who has called for the money to be spent in “transformational” ways that will have an impact for generations, has proposed the Legislature use up to half its funds to match city and county spending, to provide for larger projects.

READ MORE: How are other states spending COVID-19 stimulus money?

Some requests made during the two days of hearings include:

Institutions of Higher Learning

$200 million

State universities are asking for money for money to improve broadband internet services, especially for rural campuses, to fix aging water, sewerage, ventilation and other infrastructure and to expand health programs to help with the state’s shortage of nurses and other health practitioners.

Commissioner of Higher Education Alfred Rankins Jr. told lawmakers that needed projects include “potable water contingencies” at Jackson State University and Alcorn State, heating and air projects at the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State and a project to alleviate flooding at the University of Southern Mississippi.

“For many of our campuses, the water and sewer systems are more than 40 years old,” Rankins said.

Community colleges

$84.6 million

The state’s 15 community colleges need upgrades for water and sewerage and broadband connectivity, said Kell Smith, interim director of the Community College Board. The schools also want to use the money to focus on supply-chain issues with workforce training and to expand allied health programs — to produce more nurses and other health workers currently in short supply statewide.

“(Regular) Appropriations and bonds have not been enough to cover these needs in the past,” said Smith, who said his request includes $54.5 million for infrastructure, $15 million for supply chain workforce training and $15 million for health programs.

Private universities and colleges

$39.5 million

The state’s seven private colleges would qualify for the state’s federal pandemic funds, said Jason Dean, director of the Mississippi Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Dean said many campus buildings at the schools are around 100 years old and need work, and like public universities, they could expand their nursing and other healthcare programs to help the state’s shortage.

State courts

$13 million

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael K. Randolph told lawmakers that the state’s court system is constitutionally required to keep operating even during the worst of a pandemic, and federal dollars could help the system address backlogs and improve technology.

He noted that with previous federal pandemic funds, the court system sent back hundreds of thousands of dollars it didn’t need, proving the system is frugal and trustworthy.

“I look at it like it’s my own checkbook,” Randolph said.

Accelerate Mississippi workforce training

$250 million

Ryan Miller, director of the state’s new workforce development clearinghouse agency, said there are “4,000 jobs unfilled in nursing alone” in Mississippi, and federal funds can help produce needed trained workers in healthcare, emerging technology sectors, logistics and supply chain and other areas.

Mississippi Department of Employment Security

$91.9 million

The agency’s main request is $90.9 million to replenish the state’s unemployment trust fund to its pre-pandemic levels, said interim Director Robin Stewart.

In January of 2020, the fund had $707 million. It got hit with $488 million in unemployment claims during the worst of the pandemic shutdown. The state replenished the fund with about $397 million from an earlier round of federal pandemic relief, but it is only at $595, still below pre-pandemic level. Keeping the fund flush staves off automatic tax increases for state businesses.

The agency also requested $1 million for four new customized buses to serve as mobile WIN Job Centers, to replace its current bus, which is old, large, hard to maneuver and breaks down often, Stewart said.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency

$12.9 million

MEMA Director Stephen McCraney told lawmakers his agency had to scramble with COVID-19 response, including standing up a warehouse and distribution for personal protective equipment — and noted, “there’s another variant coming.”

McCraney said the agency needs the federal dollars to pay salaries for staff and reservists, cover utilities and maintenance for its emergency supply warehouse, cover COVID-19 contracts and PPE expenses.

“Without ARPA funds, we’re going to be forced to dip into the state coffers,” McCraney said.

State buildings and infrastructure/government health insurance plan

$553 million

The state Department of Finance and Administration asked lawmakers for $500 million for capital projects — work on state-owned buildings and infrastructure — and $53 million, for now, to prop up the state employee insurance plan.

Some of DFA’s request for projects appeared to duplicate requests from colleges and universities and other agencies. Part of the request is for the state employee health insurance program, which was hit with more than $50 million in pandemic costs and has had to dip into cash reserves over years to prevent huge premium increases for workers.

Mississippi Development Authority

$102 million

The state’s economic development agency is asking for $52 million for tourism, to provide grants to local tourism agencies and for $50 million for “Quality of Place” and downtown revitalization grants for local communities.

MDA Interim Director Laura Hipp said the agency is also receiving about $4 million in ARPA funds more directly from the federal Economic Development Administration that will be used for upgrades at state welcome centers and parks and trail markers and for working with universities on technology-based economic development.

Mississippi Department of Human Services

$0*

MDHS badly needs to replace its old computer system that was built in the 1980s and ’90s, said Director Bob Anderson. The pieces of the system cannot even communicate with each other.

“For instance, when a single mom comes in and we can’t sit down with her at a single station on a single system and determine all the programs she might be eligible for,” Anderson said. This often requires families to spend hours or make multiple trips trying to get certified for programs.

But Anderson said the price tag for a new system is $150 million, and there’s no way it could be bidded, built and installed by the 2026 deadline for ARPA projects. Instead of asking the state for ARPA funds for the project, Anderson is asking the state use ARPA funds for other agencies and hopefully “free up” general fund dollars MDHS could use for the system. He said MDHS will ask the Legislature for $54 million for the system, and hopes to receive other federal dollars for the balance.

MDHS is also receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic dollars directly for programs such as workforce childcare.

Department of Public Safety

$74.4 million

DPS wants to provide premium pay of $1,000 each to public safety workers who soldier on through the pandemic and to provide death benefits for families of first responders who die from COVID-19.

Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said that as of Oct. 1, 30 first responders statewide had died from COVID-19 and that total is expected to reach about 50 by the end of the year.

Tindell said he also wants to use ARPA funds to bring the number of state troopers and other sworn officers up to levels they were years ago. He said Highway Patrol now has about 500 troopers, but had about 600 in 2007.

“I don’t think Mississippi is a safer place than it was 15 years ago,” Tindell said.

DPS also wants to use the funds to purchase a building in Canton to centralize drivers services, renovate or purchase other buildings, increase cyber security and buy a second MHP helicopter (which costs $7.9 million). DPS also wants funding to improve the Medical Examiners Office and provide incentive pay to recruit forensic pathologists to help with a backlog of autopsies — some dating back to 2011.

Mississippi Department of Corrections

$118 million

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said his agency needs to make water, sewerage and stormwater improvements to the prison system statewide.

“The Justice Department is knocking on the door and I’ve been through that before, and they’re going to get us on wastewater,” Cain said. “The numbers are humongous, but we need to fix it before the Justice Department makes us fix it.”

The agency’s request includes $44.6 million in improvements at the troubled State Penitentiary at Parchman, built in 1901, and $20 million in work at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.

Mississippi Veterans Affairs

$30 million

Director Stacey Pickering said the agency’s top priority is to relocate the Veterans Home at Jackson, which is antiquated, dilapidated and located in a high crime area. Pickering said the agency, like many others, is also facing a critical shortage of nurses.

Relocating the nursing home would cost more than $56 million, but Pickering said the federal VA would provide 65%, so he is requesting $19.7 million from the state’s ARPA funds.

But Chairman Polk told Pickering that the ARPA rules say the money cannot be used as a match to other federal dollars. Pickering said his office had put in a request with the U.S. Treasury to see if the money could be used as a match for a new VA home.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Click here to read all our coverage of Mississippi’s federal spending.

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The post Marshall Ramsey: Get Rich Quick appeared first on Mississippi Today.

You may have seen her walking in slow motion on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building in a hype video for what could be one of America’s most consequential legal hearings.

You may have read her Washington Post op-ed about how the Supreme Court in 1973 “pitted women against our children, and woman against woman.”

You may have heard her podcasts with right-wing media outlets about the background of the case and how she has long fought for “the sanctity of life.”

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch knows that this is her time to shine. And she’s working hard and spending taxpayer money to enlighten a whole new political constituency.

Fitch is leading Mississippi’s defense against the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which sued the state in 2018 after lawmakers passed what was, at the time, the nation’s strictest abortion ban.

The nation’s high court will hear oral arguments in the case on Dec. 1, when Fitch’s hand-picked solicitor general will lead the defense. Fitch will be in the courtroom. Scholars believe the case, which Fitch inherited from Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, will allow the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its Roe v. Wade decision, the nation’s long-standing legal precedent that guarantees women the right to obtain an abortion.

Several advisers and others close with Fitch have told her that a favorable SCOTUS decision could catapult her political career, setting her up for a run for higher office. Some of those advisers have specifically suggested she consider running for governor in 2023 against fellow Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who some see as vulnerable after his questionable handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Future political office aside, Fitch has taken clear steps to build her profile on this gargantuan stage.

Since Fitch took office in January 2020, she has fired two communications directors — staffers typically hired to help shape the external image of an elected official. 

But in June 2021, about three weeks after the Supreme Court announced they would hear the Mississippi case, Fitch replaced her in-house communications staffers with two out-of-state media consultants with national Republican political experience.

First, Fitch hired Debbee Keller Hancock of Birmingham, Ala., who will “provide assistance in developing messaging, drafting written and graphic materials, working with reporters and others, and performing other duties as assigned for AGO litigation.” Hancock’s contract began on June 7, 2021 and runs through June 30, 2022. Hancock will be paid a fee not to exceed $5,000 per month and not to exceed a total of $60,000. The fees come directly from the attorney general’s office budget — funded by taxpayers.

A few days later, Fitch hired Becky Rogness of Alexandria, Va., for the exact same stated purpose. Rogness’ contract began on June 17, 2021, and runs through June 30, 2022. Payments to Rogness are not to exceed $4,000 per month or a total of $48,000. Those funds, like Hancock’s, are taxpayer money.

Hancock and Rogness quickly got to work. Fitch has appeared in several right-wing national outlets like The Daily Signal. There, Fitch sat down with a journalist who praised Fitch for defending the case and working to overturn Roe and asked basic questions about the background of the case. Fitch also did an interview for a podcast called “Explicitly Pro-Life.”

Meanwhile, the only in-state interview Fitch has given in recent weeks is with Supertalk Mississippi, a statewide conservative talk radio show network. Since she took office, Fitch has remained off the grid and off limits to Mississippi reporters. Journalists working to get basic information from her office often reach out to Michelle Williams, her chief of staff, in order to receive any response whatsoever.

Before she was elected attorney general, Fitch previously served eight years as state treasurer, a tenure highlighted by the office forgetting to make a state debt payment for the first time in modern history, high turnover of staff, and Fitch garnering complaints of lavish spending on décor and furnishings for her office.

Fitch also became known for using her office and taxpayer money for advertising and promotions that at times appeared self-promotion for an ambitious politician. Such spending helped prompt an unsuccessful push by lawmakers to restrict taxpayer-funded advertising by elected officials.

In recent days, Fitch’s social media feeds have been busier than usual, mostly promoting the upcoming hearings. She has even advertised a “watch party” for the Dec. 1 oral arguments and Washington rally, encouraging people to visit the Attorney General’s Office state website and leave their email address, name and hometown.

One of Fitch’s biggest political climbs is name identification. In January 2021, the most recent public polling available, 33% of Mississippians approved of her job performance, 34% disapproved and 32% lacked sufficient information about her work. That latter figure is something she would need to address before considering higher office.

One sure-fire way to build name ID and give Mississippians sufficient information about your work: Make yourself the face of overturning Roe v. Wade.

The post Lynn Fitch wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. Is she up to something more? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read More: Former DOJ attorney under Trump will argue Mississippi’s case to Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade

The post Mississippi’s abortion law will go before the Supreme Court Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

College football’s silly season — when athletic directors spend money like drunk, rich sailors — is off to an amazingly silly start.

Let’s start in Baton Rouge, where LSU will pay Ed Orgeron $17 million not to be its football coach. That’s silly enough on its own merit. But you must also consider that LSU’s first offer to someone to take Orgeron’s place reportedly went to Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, who turned it down. Yes, and then Fisher’s Aggies finished the regular season playing Orgeron’s Tigers last Saturday night. Of course, Orgeron won.

Color me blind, but I can’t for the life of me see the fascination with Fisher, who was 5-6 in his last season at Florida State before going 34-14 in his first four seasons at Texas A&M. OK, you are right, 34-14 is not terrible, unless you realize the expectations of Aggie fans and how much the Aggies are paying Fisher. Remember, Texas A&M ran off Fisher’s predecessor, Kevin Sumlin, after a 51-26 record over six seasons. Sumlin’s record for his first four seasons at A&M was better than Fisher’s.

You ask me, if you pay a coach $9 million a year at A&M, you should expect to win at least one of two games against your two SEC Western Division foes from Mississippi. Fisher, of course, did not win against either this past season.

LSU, spurned by Fisher, made a run at Lincoln Riley, who was then at Oklahoma. Riley changed jobs all right, but he headed west to Southern Cal, which now leaves the Oklahoma job open, giving LSU still more competition for its head coaching hire. Surely, this isn’t playing well in Baton Rouge, where athletic director Scott Woodward faces mounting pressure to make what is now known as a “splash hire.”

Woodward could have made an easy and wise hire. Woodward could have gone 45 minutes down the road and hired Billy Napier, a Nick Saban disciple who has been marvelously successful at Louisiana-Lafayette. He did not. So Napier took the Florida job, a home run hire for Scott Stricklin, I predict. We’ll see.

Wait! We have breaking news: We interrupt this column about the silly season with this: LSU has just hired Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, agreeing to pay Kelly $95 million over the next 10 years — plus incentives. You read right: Ninety-five million over 10 years. It was just last week that Kelly pooh-poohed the idea he would leave Notre Dame — unless, he said, “a fairy godmother came along with a $250 million check.”

Well, it wasn’t a fairy godmother and it wasn’t 250 mill, but it was Scott Woodward and it was a lot.

I am almost afraid to ask this: What’s next?

The silly season has just begun and already there have been 21 job openings in major college football. Surely, there will be more.

And sooner or later, someone is going to make a run at Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin and/or Mississippi State’s Mike Leach. 

If not for some incidents in Kiffin’s past (re: Tennessee, USC), some school already would have offered him enough money to buy a Pacific island. He has been prominently mentioned in reports of coach searches at Florida, Oklahoma and LSU — not to mention the search that hasn’t even begun yet (and might not happen) at Miami. The Miami job, currently held by former State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, seems a better fit from this viewpoint. 

And here’s a pertinent question: Would you rather have to beat Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Auburn, Texas and Texas A&M to win your division — or beat Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech? 

You don’t have to answer. It’s obvious. The daunting idea of competing in the SEC Western Division might well have had something to do with Riley bolting for Southern Cal – and why the many rumors of Michigan State’s Mel Tucker or Penn State’s James Franklin moving to LSU never came close to happening.

Leach’s name also has come up at Oklahoma and from no lesser a source than Sooner coaching legend Barry Switzer, who has just come right out and said that Leach is the guy the Sooners should hire. That scenario may have no legs at all, but with all the games Leach has won at places like Texas Tech, Washington State and now State, one must wonder what he might achieve if he ever got a shot at one of college football’s most coveted blue-blood jobs, of which Oklahoma is certainly one. 

Mississippi football fans should also keep an eye on Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby and Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders, the newly minted SWAC Coach of the Year. Lebby is an up and coming star, sure to draw some head coaching interest before this silly season is over. Sanders reportedly got an interview with TCU before that school opted for Sonny Dykes. 

For now, just remember the silly season is far from over. In fact, it has only begun.

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This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and NBC News. Sign up for The Marshall Project’s newsletter, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter. 

GRENADA, Mississippi — Robert Loggins wandered into a neighbor’s backyard and fell down, crying for help. A woman dialed 911, telling the operator, “Please hurry!” 

When police arrived at the home in this small town between Jackson and Memphis in November 2018, they found a Black man face down with his arms tucked beneath his body. One officer recognized Loggins, 26, who had battled both mental health and drug problems. 

Officers repeatedly asked Loggins to put his hands behind his back, police video shows. 

“Y’all going to kill me?” he asked. 

“Nobody’s going to kill you,” a policeman reassured him. 

In less than an hour, Loggins was dead, yet another fatality linked to police use of a dangerous restraint technique that the Justice Department condemned back in 1995. The agency, along with the International Chiefs of Police, warned law enforcement officials that keeping people restrained face down in what is known as the prone position increased the risk of death from asphyxia. 

“As soon as the suspect is handcuffed, get him off his stomach,” the report urged. If that’s not possible, that person “should be closely and continuously monitored.” 

The Justice Department also told officers never to use a hogtie — a form of prone restraint in which officers also attach wrists to ankles behind the person’s back. Many police departments have banned the practice because of its link to positional asphyxia. 

But as the story of the Loggins family shows, actually persuading law enforcement to stop using hogties and prone-position restraints has proved almost impossible in small-town Mississippi. 

At 5:45 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2005, deputies in Carroll County, a rural area southwest of Grenada, responded to a call about a fight and found Loggins’ mother, Debbie, grappling with another woman. 

Debbie, 5-foot-4 and 220 pounds, had the woman in a headlock, Don Gray, the sheriff at the time, told reporters. When deputies tried to intervene, she became “verbally and physically combative,” he said, hitting one of the officers with his own flashlight. 

Deputies initially placed her in handcuffs and leg shackles. 

“It still was not enough,” Gray said. “They were trying to reduce the amount of her kicking. They had difficulty getting her into the car because she was putting her legs up and blocking them.” 

That’s when deputies decided to hogtie her, binding her arms and legs together behind her back with an additional set of handcuffs, and placing her face down in the back seat of the squad car. 

Deputies said that she “continued to squirm, kick and twist even after being hogtied,” according to a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in a lawsuit filed by her estate, claiming police violated her constitutional rights. 

During the trip to the jail, she became quiet and may have stopped breathing, but the deputy driving her didn’t realize that, the court said. When they arrived, the deputy went to get assistance from a jailer. They found she had no pulse. They began CPR and took her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:37 a.m. 

Authorities did not respond to requests for comment, but in court filings responding to the estate’s lawsuit, they have said that the officers did nothing wrong. A lawyer for Carroll County said in the filings that the death “had little to do with the actions of the officers,” and a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by her estate, saying the restraints deputies used were reasonable. 

Seth Stoughton, the co-author of the book “Evaluating Police Uses of Force” and an expert in law enforcement training, said officers erred in leaving her handcuffed in the prone position because of the danger of positional asphyxia, which occurs when a person is immobilized in a position that impairs breathing. 

“You may need to put someone into that position while they’re being handcuffed or while leg restraints are being applied, but you don’t keep them in that position afterward,” he said. “You definitely don’t hold them or transport them in that position.” 

Asked why hogtie deaths keep happening, Stoughton replied, “I wish I knew,” adding that the cases seldom draw administrative discipline, civil liability or criminal prosecution. 

In Mississippi in 2015, four police officers in Southaven, on the Tennessee border, pinned Troy Goode down, handcuffed him and called for an ambulance. He died after being kept hogtied in the prone position for 90 minutes. 

After the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that “hog-tying a drug-affected person in a state of drug-induced psychosis and placing him face down in a prone position for an extended period constitutes excessive force,” a lawsuit brought by Goode’s family was settled in July for an undisclosed amount. 

A joint investigation by NBC News and The Marshall Project identified at least 23 deaths involving hogtying or similar restraints across the country since 2010. At least 13 of those who died had mental illnesses or were in mental crisis. 

In the case of Debbie Loggins, the coroner’s chart suggested blood work should be done to rule out positional asphyxia, but no such test results are reflected in the autopsy report. The late pathologist who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Steven Hayne, made no mention of positional asphyxia in his findings. 

Hayne ruled out trauma, drugs and alcohol, concluding that Loggins died because of advanced heat stroke, despite the fact the sun hadn’t risen when she was arrested, the weather temperature was in the 70s, and officers transported her in an air-conditioned car. 

Instead, the pathologist — whose autopsies have been called into question — concluded her death was an accident, blaming her “excessive exertional activity.” 

As a child, Robert Loggins loved to draw and write poetry, said his sister, Jessica Hayes. 

His mother’s death when he was 13 years old devastated him, she said. “It gave him a different outlook on the world and the officers.” 

That tragedy was compounded by the death of his grandmother, who helped raise him. He began to struggle in school, family members say. 

He experienced mental and behavioral problems, receiving psychiatric treatment. Marijuana and meth became an unfortunate escape for Loggins, said his father, Robert Ford. 

Loggins began committing burglaries and other crimes to fund his habit. He was 17 when he was arrested in 2010 for stealing four tires and wheels from a Toyota Camry. The judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison. 

In 2015, the parole board gave Loggins a second chance. 

He married, and he and his wife had a son. He earned his GED, worked a couple of jobs and began putting himself through community college, where he began to learn welding, his father said. He also won some local renown, writing and recording his own rap music. 

But drugs reentered his life, his father said. He struggled to break the habit, enrolling in two different rehabilitation centers. 

In 2018, Ford visited his son in the Grenada County Jail; Loggins had been arrested for violating parole. 

“It’s kind of hard to talk about, but he was calling me, ‘Dad,’ and he was crying,” Ford recalled. “I told him, ‘Son, it’s going to be all right.’” 

When Loggins was freed several months later, Ford picked him up, and all Loggins could talk about was seeing his son in Oxford, about 50 miles north. Ford said he would be happy to drive him there at the end of the workweek. 

For Loggins, the weekend never came. 

The 911 call in the early morning hours of Nov. 29, 2018, recorded a neighbor saying, “Someone’s in the back of my house calling for help.” 

Five members of the Grenada Police Department responded, some of whom had known Loggins since he was young. 

In bodycam footage obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and The Marshall Project, officers repeatedly asked Loggins to put his hands behind his back. 

“My soul belongs to Jesus Christ,” he told them. 

“Take your hands from up under you,” one officer barked. 

“He’s my savior!” Loggins said. 

“Your ass belongs to us now,” an officer replied. 

When Loggins didn’t put his hands behind his back, police used a Taser eight times, according to Grenada police records. (Taser’s manufacturer warns that repeated blasts increase the risk of a heart attack.) 

“Give me a baton, give me a baton,” one officer said. 

Officers then grabbed Loggins. Albert Deane Tilley, who had worked in the department for little more than a year, in his first job in law enforcement, said Loggins bit him on the hand. Bodycam footage showed officers striking Loggins with a flashlight. 

After handcuffing the 5-foot-8, 190-pound man, officers carried him to a carport, where a report by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation claims “Loggins’ disorderly behavior” kept emergency personnel from conducting “a full medical assessment.” 

But bodycam footage paints a different picture. As officers carry Loggins, an EMT can be heard saying, “He looks fine to me.” 

Jail video shows that at 5:59 a.m., officers carried Loggins upside down into the lobby of the jail. They left him on the floor, handcuffed and in the prone position. 

He seemed in distress, rolling from side to side, shift supervisor Sgt. Edna Clark told the investigations bureau. “To me, he was trying to gasp for breath because he couldn’t breathe.” 

She said she asked officers to take Loggins to the hospital but was waved off.

After Tilley reportedly told the jailers that he needed his handcuffs back, at least four officers and jailers piled on top of Loggins at 6:04 a.m. to remove the cuffs from his wrists, video shows. When the officers got off Loggins more than three minutes later, he didn’t move. 

Clark noticed he was bleeding and called 911. The dispatcher replied that EMTs had previously checked him. 

“He’s bleeding from his mouth. He’s bleeding from his legs,” she told the dispatcher. “I’m not gonna take him.” 

At 6:14 a.m., Clark checked Loggins’ pulse and his breathing. She called 911 again. 

“This man has got no heartbeat, and he’s not breathing. I want them officers back over here. I want an ambulance,” she said. “Get them over here now.” 

A few minutes later, medical personnel arrived. They pounded on Loggins’ chest in hopes of reviving him, and when they couldn’t, they airlifted him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was 26 — seven years younger than his mother when she died. 

Five officers were placed on administrative leave with pay, but there were no criminal charges and no known disciplinary action. The investigations bureau interviewed the officers, who denied any wrongdoing as part of the probe.

Tilley told the bureau’s investigator, Mark Steed, that when the police first encountered Loggins, he was saying things that didn’t make sense, which made him believe Loggins was under the influence. 

Tilley and Steed sparred about whether Loggins was hit with a flashlight, according to the transcript in the bureau’s report. At first, Tilley denied using his flashlight to strike Loggins and said no one else did either. 

After being pressed to tell the truth, Tilley conceded he had seen Loggins being hit — in the elbow.

Tilley denied seeing any broken teeth, but photographs of Loggins after his death show his teeth were indeed broken. 

Asked if he put his knee on Loggins’ neck or head at the jail, Tilley replied, “Not to my recollection, no, sir. I don’t believe it was.” 

In the video, Tilley can be seen kneeling on Loggins, although it’s not entirely clear if the deputy is kneeling on his neck or upper back. Later, the officer can be seen sitting on Loggins. Tilley’s attorney would not comment on the matter. 

“What these officers seem to be saying is this man’s ability to breathe was less important to them than a pair of handcuffs,” said the lawyer for Loggins’ estate, Jacob Jordan of Tannehill, Carmean & McKenzie in Oxford. 

On Dec. 31, 2020, Loggins’ wife, Rika Jones, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, accusing the officers of assault and the medical personnel and private jail operator of failing to provide him proper medical treatment. 

In responding to the suit, Tilley’s lawyer wrote that there is no proof the officer caused Loggins’ death or acted with excessive force, and that he is shielded by qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that says government workers can’t be held liable for what they do on the job, except in rare circumstances. 

Other officers also deny any wrongdoing. They are asking the judge to throw out the lawsuit, saying they are immune from such litigation because Loggins’ constitutional rights were never violated. 

“Loggins repeatedly failed to follow commands, would not display his hands, and even assaulted an officer,” they wrote in court filings. “The video shows only the use of force necessary to effectuate the arrest.” 

In its response, the private jail operator, Corrections Management Services, says that its staff acted in good faith, with Sgt. Clark advising police “multiple times that Loggins would not be accepted into the jail and that he needed medical attention.” Medical personnel have denied the suit’s allegations of failure to provide proper treatment. 

The state medical examiner ruled Loggins’ death an accident, just like his mother’s. 

The alleged culprit Methamphetamine toxicity. 

The chief medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Mark LeVaughn, was placed on administrative leave last November as the result of an unspecified attorney general’s investigation. In January, he resigned. He could not be reached for comment. 

The autopsy makes no reference to the jailhouse video, which isn’t contained in the case file. 

After viewing the video as well as the autopsy report and photos at the request of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden concluded Loggins’ death was a homicide, saying the methamphetamine was not a fatal amount. 

“They killed him by piling on top of him,” he said. “He absolutely died from some kind of asphyxia.” 

After MCIR’s story on Loggins’ death appeared in April, with the video included, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson and other Mississippi leaders asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to have the Justice Department investigate. Loggins’ father said the FBI has interviewed him. (The FBI declined to comment.) 

This summer, Ford stood with other protesters outside the Grenada County Jail, calling for justice in his son’s case. If officers had taken Loggins into a cell to remove his handcuffs instead of piling on top of him while he was face down, “he would be alive today,” his dad said. “He didn’t deserve to die like that.” 

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