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

The Mississippi Legislature, for the first time since the early 1990s, has redrawn the four U.S. districts to match population shifts found by the federal Census.

Gov. Tate Reeves this week signed into law the redistricting bill approved by the Legislature to complete the process. After both the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the Legislature could not agree on a plan to redraw the congressional districts. After lawsuits were filed, the federal judiciary stepped in to draw the districts.

The plan approved earlier this session by the Legislature and signed by Reeves was passed along a party line vote, with most in the minority Democrat Party rejecting the proposal.

District 2 will now run nearly the entire length of the state with Adams, Amite, Franklin and Walthall counties in southwest Mississippi being added to the district. The district now extends from Tunica in northwest Mississippi to the Louisiana-Mississippi border in southwest Mississippi. The only county that borders the Mississippi River not in the district is heavily Republican DeSoto County.

District 2, which is the state’s only Black-majority district, is the only one of the state’s four congressional districts to lose population since 2010 — more than 9% or about 65,000 people.

READ MORE: Lawmakers face redistricting reality: Mississippi’s non-white population is growing

Based on federal and state law, the districts have to be redrawn to ensure near equal population representation.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, had proposed that all his home county of Hinds be placed in District 2 to maintain some compactness for the district. Legislative Republicans rejected that proposal, choosing to leave several majority-white neighborhoods in Jackson in District 3, which is a majority-white district.

The plan signed by Reeves is likely to result in maintaining the current partisan breakdown of three Republicans and one Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation.

Some believed that if the Thompson plan had prevailed, District 3 might have been slightly more competitive that it is now. Under the Thompson plan, Black voters would not have been a majority in District 3, but they would have had more influence than under the proposal ultimately signed into law. This reality could set the stage for a potential lawsuit from civil rights groups.

READ MORE: Rep. Bennie Thompson wants all of Hinds Co. placed in his 2nd District

District 3 is currently represented by Republican Michael Guest, who state legislators said opposed moving all of Hinds County into District 2.

Under the plan approved by the Legislature, District 2 will have an African American population of a little more than 61%. Federal law most likely would mandate that Mississippi, the state with the nation’s highest Black population, maintain an African American majority district.

The post Lawmakers redraw congressional districts for first time since early 1990s appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Senate almost unanimously approved spending $177.3 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act money Monday with the only questions and votes of “present” coming from Democratic lawmakers who wanted more specificity about the spending.

Senate leaders also outlined to the 52-member chamber their plan to spend the rest of the state’s $1.8 billion in ARPA money. Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said bills to spend the bulk of the funds will be presented to the chamber in the coming days. But the spending must also be agreed to by the House, which has yet to release its own plan for the spending.

The largest expenditure in the Senate plan is $750 million to match spending by cities and counties in Mississippi, who are directly receiving about $900 million in ARPA funds. The state match would be available for cities and counties spending their own allocations on water and sewerage infrastructure, and for rural water associations.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has called for Mississippi to spend its federal pandemic stimulus billions on “transformational” and generational projects, such as major public works repairs and upgrades. He said Monday that cities and counties that have already spent their stimulus money on raises for workers or other non-infrastructure items would likely be out of luck on receiving a match from the state under the Senate plan.

READ MORE: Should safe drinking water be a priority for Mississippi’s federal stimulus spending?

“We are trying to do things with this money that will be transformational,” Hosemann said, “and last a lot longer than two years from now when this drug of all this money the federal government is giving us dries up.”

Over several weeks before this legislative session, the Senate held numerous hearings and asked local governments, state agencies, universities and nonprofits for input on how the Legislature should spend $1.8 billion in federal pandemic stimulus money. The groups provided the special Senate subcommittee with nearly $7 billion in requests. Hosemann for months has also traveled the state and met with many city and county leaders, urging them to spend money on big infrastructure projects.

READ MORE: Lawmakers wanted input on spending $1.8 billion in pandemic stimulus. They got $7 billion in requests.

On Monday, the Senate passed four spending bills for $177.3 million for Child Protective Services, the Department of Mental Health, the state National Guard and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Hosemann said these agencies had immediate needs from pandemic expenses, and noted that the state faces federal court mandates to improve its troubled Child Protective Services and Department of Mental Health.

“We want to get to where we can show the federal courts that Mississippi can run our own Child Protection Services and the same with Mental Health,” Hosemann said.

The American Rescue Plan was passed by Congress last year to provide help to local and state governments and to individuals in dealing with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. While all congressional Republicans voted against the program, the expenditure of the funds had strong support Monday from state Senate Republicans. Besides all voting for the measure, many wished to be added as co authors to the first four spending bills.

With the bills passed Monday, “we tried to get to the point to offer the best care we can to mental health patients and the best protection we can to children,” said Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, who headed up the special Senate committee that studied the best method of spending the federal funds.

Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point, was among a handful of Democrats who voted present on some of the bills. She said she wanted more detail on just how the agencies could spend the funds and what would occur when funds allocated for recurring expenses, such as for hiring additional personnel, were exhausted.

Based on the questioning of Turner Ford and other Democrats, Polk did provide some additional details, such as the hiring of 202 employees at Child Protection Services, and the addition of 60 beds to care for mental health patients. Plus, the bills provided for additional funding to train law enforcement to deal with mental health patients and help pay for a special phone number (988) for people to call to request emergency assistance in dealing with someone suffering from mental illness.

Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said it seemed the legislation would take “recurring costs and pay for them with one-time money.”

Polk said the additional 202 employees at Child Protection Services would help deal with a backlog in the foster care programs. But over the years, the number of employees would be reduced through attrition as the backlog is eliminated.

Horhn also expressed concerned that it did not seem that Child Protection Services was providing funds through the American Rescue Fund to help people who leave the foster care system at age 18.

READ MORE: The rules: How can Mississippi, local governments spend billions in COVID-19 stimulus?

The Senate plan for ARPA spending includes:

$750 million: Matching stimulus spending by cities, counties and rural water associations on water and sewerage infrastructure projects. This includes $350 million for rural water associations and $50 million for smaller cities that are receiving less than $1 million in pandemic recovery funds.

$59 million: For the Child Protection Services department to hire 202 people to deal with the state’s beleaguered foster care system and speed up the state’s adoption process.

$104.6 million: To help the state’s Department of Mental Health, including $18.5 million for community mental health centers.

$26.7 million: For the Mississippi Department of Health’s central operations.

$5 million: Workforce training and job retention. This includes money for nursing and health care programs at universities and community colleges and a program to repay nursing student loans.

$62.5 million: For tourism statewide. This includes $30 million for local destination marketing organizations across the state and $32.5 million for state parks.

$7.5 million: For death benefits for law enforcement and firefighters who died from COVID-19.

$211.4 million: For infrastructure work at state agencies including the Department of Corrections, and including $26.5 million for work on various state buildings.

$110 million: For water and sewerage projects at universities and community colleges.

$3.2 million: For the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, to reimburse it for COVID-19 expenses not reimbursed by the federal government.

$10 million: For private colleges and universities.

$10.49 million: For the Mississippi National Guard, with a large part of this going to infrastructure improvements at Camp Shelby.

$12 million: To reimburse hospitals for ICU and negative pressure beds dealing with surges in pandemic cases.

$250 million: Reimbursement for lost state revenue from the pandemic.

$133.6 million: A “holdback” amount, for which spending will be determined later.

The post Senate unveils plan for spending $1.8 billion in federal pandemic stimulus appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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

Nearly one year ago, thousands of residents in Mississippi’s capital city without water for weeks when a winter storm shut down the city of Jackson’s main water treatment plant.

Today, the city’s head engineer says the plant is still another couple years away from having the protection it needs against a repeat winter weather event.

The city is also working to fix a new set of outages in south Jackson, which began last week after an equipment failure at the treatment plant as well as breaks in some of the water lines. City Engineer Charles Williams said that the issue was not weather related, and updated on Monday that it’ll take at least a couple days to rebuild pressure in the system.

Williams — who recently stepped aside as Public Works Director, but still oversees the water system — explained that while the city has improved the efficiency at the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant over the last year, the facility remains vulnerable to freezing weather. 

“I’m not really sure how we would respond again to that right now,” Williams told Mississippi Today.

He said that because Jackson, like many Southern cities, never anticipated the kind of unrelenting freeze that struck last year, it will take a while to adjust.

“What we’ve been trying to articulate is this is not something that’s going to be done overnight,” he said. “It’s going to take probably a couple years for us to get to where we need to be.

“The likelihood of another winter storm coming, we don’t know. Obviously there have been some changes in the climate. It looks like the South is going to be a lot more affected with the polar vortexes that are coming down, bringing colder temperatures and potential for snow and ice.”

Williams specified that the long-term goal is to build enclosures around O.B. Curtis, especially on the side that intakes untreated water from the Ross Barnett Reservoir. A majority of the equipment at the plant is outdoors and exposed, which is why the cold had such devastating effects a year ago. 

READ MORE: Why Jackson’s water system is broken

He said he expects one new enclosure around the membrane side of the plant to be finished by April. The city recently secured $27 million through the federal Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund, which it’s spending on the enclosure as well as upgraded heat tracing at the plant to help warm the equipment and prevent freezing.  

O.B. Curtis, Jackson’s primary treatment plant, is itself split into two filtering systems: the conventional and membrane sides, which each can treat 25 million gallons of water per day. 

Williams said that after repairs the last few months, both sides of the plant are in better shape than when last year’s storm hit. 

The conventional side, which uses ultraviolet light to kill bacteria, was only running at about two-thirds capacity before the freeze. Williams said that a couple U.V. reactors still need repairs, which he hopes will take just another 30 to 45 days, but that the conventional side is running at its needed capacity. 

On the other side, only three of the six membrane trains were running when the storm hit. Williams said that five of the six are now working, and that he expects to have the last one fixed by February. 

He clarified that the train that went offline last week — which in part caused the current outages — didn’t break, but failed a test from the health department, forcing plant personnel to turn the train off.

As far as upgrades, the city is also looking at its aging distribution system: $8 million of the $42 million the city received through the American Rescue Plan Act is set to go towards a new 48-inch water main near Jefferson St. that will reach down to Interstate 20. Williams said the new line will bring better water pressure to south Jackson, and expects it to be in place by this time next year. 

Jackson City Council also recently approved a 20% increase on water and sewer bill rates in addition to a $9,000 salary increase for treatment plant operators; both moves should help recruit and retain plant personnel, Williams said, and the added bill revenue will go towards routine maintenance.

He said the plant lost some staff over the last year, and described the situation as being “barebones” during the fall, although the department did recently hire a new operator and instrument technician. Operators are still the priority because federal law requires one of them to be at the plant 24/7, and Williams said he hopes to hire two more within the next month or so. 

READ MORE: Federal infrastructure bill won’t address Jackson water crisis without help of state leaders

The post Jackson water plant still ‘a couple years’ from winter protection appeared first on Mississippi Today.

So much of the late Lusia Harris’ legacy boggles our minds: three-time national tournament MVP; scored first points in Olympics basketball history; and led Delta State to three straight national championships beginning just the second year after the program was recreated.

And then there’s this: First and only woman ever drafted by an NBA team.

Even now, nearly 45 years later, you might wonder: How in the world did that happen?

Glad you asked.

The 1977 NBA draft was held on June 10 at Madison Square Garden. There were 170 names called over eight rounds. With the 137th pick in the seventh round, the New Orleans Jazz selected Harris, making headlines around the world in the next day’s newspapers.

The Jazz, who did not attend the draft, were in a state of flux at the time. Butch van Breda Kolff had been fired early in the previous season with a 14-12 record.

Now you might ask why a coach would be fired with a winning record by a franchise that had never known success. It was not for his record. No, van Breda Kolff had lobbied hard for the Jazz to trade three first round draft picks to the Los Angeles Lakers for Gail Goodrich, a trade that lives on in NBA infamy. (The Lakers would use one of those first rounders to take another future Hall of Famer, one named Magic Johnson.)

READ MORE: Delta State legend Lucy Harris, a basketball pioneer, has died at 66

All that has nothing to do with why the Jazz took Harris, but we’re getting there. The Jazz participated in the ’77 draft by long distance from their offices, located then in the Louisiana Superdome. That’s where the Jazz played their games, which during that period of time might be best described as “The Pete Maravich Show.” Often, more than 40,000 fans would attend to watch Pistol Pete, when his knees would allow, do his thing. I know this because I was often one of those many thousands. The Jazz most often lost, but the entertainment value was off the charts.

Elgin Baylor, one of the greatest players in history of the sport, was the interim head coach. Lewis Schaffel was the new general manager. Mississippian Pat Speer, an Ole Miss grad who had once played basketball for the legendary Bert Jenkins at Gulfport High, was in the Jazz front office and present in the Jazz “war room” for the 1977 draft.

“We didn’t have a first round pick,” recalls Speer, who now lives in Madison. “We had traded that for Goodrich.”

With the second round pick, the Jazz took Essie Hollis out of St. Bonaventure, who would play a total of 25 NBA games. With the third round pick, the Jazz took Connecticut’s Tony Hanson, who would not play at all.

In the fourth round, the Jazz took Dennis Boyd out of Detroit Mercy, who would score a total of six points over five games in his brief NBA career. Fifth rounder Jim Grady out of Gonzaga and sixth rounder Wayne Golden out of Chattanooga never played a game.

So eventually the draft reached the sixth pick of the seventh round and it was time for the Jazz to select. 

Only here’s the deal: The Jazz had nobody left on their list of draft prospects. Schaffel asked Baylor, who shook his head. Schaffel had no thing left on his list either and asked, “Anybody?”

And Speer chimed in, “We should take Lucy Harris.”

Harris had just led Delta State to a third straight national championship, scoring 23 points and pulling down 16 rounds to help the Lady Statesmen defeat LSU for the title. Speer had heard about Harris from his friends in Mississippi. His father was from Indianola and knew all about Harris, Coach Margaret Wade and those fabulous Lady Statesmen.

Nobody voiced any objections so Schaffel went with Speer’s suggestion and delivered the news to then-NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien, who announced the pick. Forty-five years later, I can assure you: The Jazz selecting Harris with the 137th pick of the draft received at least as many headlines as Milwaukee taking Indiana’s Kent Benson with the first pick — and a whole lot more than Kansas City taking Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner) two picks after the Jazz took Harris.

“You know, a lot of people called it a publicity stunt, like it was planned or something,” Speer said. “It wasn’t. It was spur of the moment. We had never discussed it.”

Speer remembers talking to Harris on the phone in the aftermath of the draft. “At first, she seemed determined to come to training camp,” Speer says. “Later on, she declined. Turned out, she was pregnant.”

Harris’ basketball-playing career was over for all intent and purposes. She played briefly for the Houston Angels of the ill-fated Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL) in the 1979-80 season.

Says Speer, “I don’t know what possessed me to blurt out her name, but in retrospect, I am glad I did. I mean, it seems such a shame there wasn’t a WNBA at the time so she could have continued to play. At least, this way, she has some lasting recognition as a professional. I mean, here we are all these years later, and she’s still the only one, the only woman ever drafted by the NBA. That’s pretty neat.”

Yes, it really is.

The post Why did an NBA team draft Lucy Harris? A Mississippi guy was involved. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive early access to weekly analyses.

Sen. Derrick Simmons sensed his Black colleagues were growing more and more frustrated.

During Jan. 21 debate of a bill that seeks to ban the teaching of critical race theory, white senators were arguing that the existence of systemic racism was “a subjective myth.” They argued that Mississippi children should not be taught about how racism permeates society, that the teaching of racism was similar to the teachings of Karl Marx.

The personal, emotional pleas of Black senators during the debate were being ignored by their powerful white colleagues.

So Simmons, a Black man from the Mississippi Delta who serves as the Senate Democratic leader, hatched an idea. One by one, he approached the desks of his 13 Black colleagues and got their approval.

When the vote for final passage was called, Simmons stood up and requested a roll call vote. That meant instead of a typical voice vote, each senator would be called upon individually to vote yea or nay.

As the Senate clerk began calling the roll, all 14 Black senators stood up and walked off the floor. The decision by Black senators — all Democrats — to walk out ultimately meant nothing for the final outcome since Republicans alone have enough members to pass any bill they want. But the symbolism of their decision ran deep.

In the state with the most sordid and violent history of racism, Black lawmakers employed a principal strategy of the civil rights movement — organizing a walkout — to protest passage of a bill that threatened the teaching of that very history. 

It was an unprecedented moment in Mississippi history. In 1993, Black caucus members left before then-Gov. Kirk Fordice delivered his State of the State speech in protest of his policies. But no Capitol observer can recall an instance of members walking out in protest before a vote on a bill.

“The greatness of America is the right to protest for what you think is right,” Simmons told Mississippi Today. “Together we believed that this was the right thing to do, to walk out. So that’s what we did. We decided that nonsense wasn’t worth our votes.”

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

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One great irony: It could’ve been a historic day for such different reasons.

A few minutes after the critical race theory bill passed, the Senate passed what would be the largest pay raise for public school teachers in decades — a critical moment for the nation’s lowest-paid educators.

The teacher pay plan was Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s top legislative priority in 2022, one he and his staff had worked on for months. Hosemann, who did not preside over the debate of either bill on Friday, sent a press release following the eventful day touting passage of that bill.

But Hosemann garnered few accolades about his teacher pay plan on Friday because the Black senators had complete control of the narrative of the day.

They owned the headlines across Mississippi, and television stations across the state led with B-roll of their walkout on primetime news. The walkout went national and international. Simmons appeared Saturday on MSNBC to discuss the implications of the bill and the historic decision by Black lawmakers to skip the vote.

“The people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school are now upset that their grandchildren might learn that they threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school,” Simmons said. “To improve Mississippi and America, the truth must be told. White children, Black children, my children, your children should hear the history of slavery, the civil rights movement, the uncontrolled killing of Black Americans. They should hear that history and decide they want to make Mississippi a better place together.”

Simmons continued: “Racism is part of our history. We have to acknowledge it exists, and we have to talk about it.”

Several Black senators went to the well before the final vote, laying out clearly where they stood on the bill and what they thought of its passing.

“There are 14 Black senators in this chamber, and these 14 are telling you that this bill is morally wrong,” said Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton. “Yet you ignore the thoughts, positions of these 14 members of this body. So it must be something if all 14 of us feel or think that something is wrong with this bill.”

Perhaps the most powerful plea made from the floor was from Sen. David Jordan, a freedom fighter during the movement. The 88-year-old Jordan taught for 33 years in Mississippi public schools — and 20 of them in integrated public schools.

As Jordan put it, many white Mississippians didn’t want him teaching their children. But he taught them the way he’d taught all his students: by providing facts, science and truth.

“It’s sad we’ve wasted so much time on something that’s not necessary,” Jordan said from the floor before the vote. “Mississippi has come a long way together. If anybody has suffered from racism, it’s people of color. We feel that we don’t need this bill. We are satisfied without it; what do you need it for? We have been the victims of it (racism). We cannot continue, Christian friends, stumbling into the future backwards. That’s what this bill does for us. We have more important things to do. We need to show more cohesiveness and progress.”

State of play and what to watch for:

1) The consideration of critical race theory legislation stands to jeopardize relationships between white and Black legislative leaders.

In the Blackest state in America, where a major constituency is often ignored or left behind by policy passed in Jackson, these relationships are a very big deal. Black leaders have continued to project good will toward white leaders following the June 2020 state flag change. After decades of effort from Black lawmakers, white leaders finally chose to work with their Black colleagues to change the flag, the last in the nation featuring the Confederate battle emblem.

“You couldn’t help but to feel good after what we did together in June 2020,” Simmons said. “You had this mindset as a Mississippian that we can move forward in a spirit of being inclusive, not exclusive. And then here we are less than two years later, we allow what goes on in the nation (critical race theory debate) to come into the state to divide us. We had so much hope and optimism after the flag. But on Friday, you almost feel completely deflated.”

2) What will the House do?

The Senate critical race theory bill was relatively mild compared to legislation proposed in other states. And the House is led by Speaker Philip Gunn, who has made his intention to address critical race theory very well known. Will the House bill be more restrictive in terms of what Mississippi teachers can or can’t teach? Having seen the broad public outcry from the Senate vote, will House leaders accept the Senate version and move on to other issues?

Black caucus members in the House have a big head start now to prepare for how they’ll respond to whatever happens. The debate will almost certainly be more dramatic in the House, where pretty much everything is more dramatic.

3) Is this all worth it? 

This push to ban critical race theory is rooted in national political rhetoric — a red meat issue pushed by out-of-state interest groups. Republican Sen. Mike McLendon, the bill’s author who defended it on the floor last week, said himself that his constituents pushed the issue based on what they saw on Fox News. McLendon nor any other politician can point to a single instance of critical race theory being taught in the state — a fact confirmed by state education officials.

White Republicans are pushing this bill knowing definitively that it will hurt their relationships with Black colleagues and their Black constituents. That harm cuts deep, and it will linger for a long time. In November 2023, when those Republican lawmakers are running for reelection, will their constituents remember or even care about this hot-button issue that’s gotten play on Fox News in recent weeks?

4) Mississippi teachers are, once again, caught in the middle of a major political fight at the Capitol.

Another great irony of all this is white legislative leaders are simultaneously pushing massive pay raise proposals for teachers while effectively telling them what they can and cannot teach. That reality could stand to further sow distrust of lawmakers among educators, who already deeply distrust lawmakers. 

There are more than 30,000 educators (plus their families and loved ones) in Mississippi. That’s a major voting bloc that could remember all this when legislative and statewide elections come up in 2023.

The post How Black senators controlled the narrative on a historic day at the Capitol appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s political team discusses what happened in the Mississippi Senate on Jan. 21. In an unprecedented move, every Black senator walked out of the chamber as their white colleagues voted on a bill to purportedly ban critical race theory.

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

The post Podcast: Inside the wildest day (so far) of the 2022 legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor At Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with public speaker and owner of Champion Communications, Janie Walters. Janie, a Madison resident and former Gulfport High School teacher, talks about her long and successful career as a speaker and gives tips on how to overcome the fear of public speaking.

She also shares tips on how to be resilient during difficult times — a conversation we all need to hear these days. Walters has spoken thousands of times in 47 different states in her long and interesting career. Faithful, she loves teaching and sharing as a ministry.

The post Mississippi Stories: Janie Walters appeared first on Mississippi Today.