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Sergio Garcia, who last week became the winning-est player in Ryder Cup history, easily could have skipped this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, which begins Thursday at Country Club of Jackson.

Garcia, the Sanderson Farms defending champion, could have used exhaustion – both mental and physical – as an excuse. And, really, who would have blamed him? If you watched the Ryder Cup matches, you know how much of himself he poured into every match, every shot. And you know how well he played in a losing cause at demanding Whistling Straits, hard by Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shore.

At 41, Garcia teamed with fellow Spaniard John Rahm to win three points for Europe, giving him 27.5 points in his 10 Ryder Cups. That enabled him to pass Sir Nick Faldo as the all-time leader. He long ago passed the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods. If there ever was a time to rest on his laurels, this was it.

But, no, Garcia was out at CCJ at daylight Wednesday, teeing it up in the Sanderson Farms pro-am and later he was in the interview room explaining why he really never considered skipping Mississippi’s lone tournament on the PGA Tour.

“Well, it’s quite simple. I try to defend my titles every time I can,” Garcia said.”I haven’t been able to do it every single time, but I love to do it every possibility I have.”

Good old-fashioned Mississippi hospitality also played a role, Garcia indicated.

“Second of all, the way everyone treated us here was just amazing,” he added. “And the golf course is just a great golf course, the kind that I enjoy coming back and playing, and I wish I could play more golf courses like this on tour.

“It’s the kind of golf course that make you think a little, but it’s not tricked up or anything like that….So it’s just a solid golf course and a great tournament and I am excited to be back.”

Garcia surely will be welcomed with open arms by Mississippi golf fans, who could not attend in person (because of COVID concerns) last year when Garcia utilized his skills as one of golf’s greatest ball strikers ever to shoot shoot a 72-hole total of 19-under par to win by a single shot. He almost holed a 172-yard 8-iron (into a breeze) to set up a 30-inch birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Earlier, he blasted an incredible 260-yard 5-wood shot to set up an eagle to begin his charge toward the victory.

Those same shot-making skills were on full display at the Ryder Cup last week, when he and Rahm provided just about the only highlights for the Europeans. Rahm showed why he is world’s No. 1 ranked player, and Garcia displayed the will and dogged competitiveness that have made him the Ryder Cup legend he is. Garcia and American Dustin Johnson won the inaugural Jack Nicklaus-Tony Jacklin Award, based on sportsmanship, teamwork and performance.

“I love the Ryder Cup,” Garcia said, in accepting the award. “…I try to play the game to the best of my ability, but always with respect and I enjoyed it.”

Garcia said it was important to show young players “that you can play with respect and have fun, even in defeat. I love my team. I’m so proud of all of them…. I love the guys in that room.”

Here at CCJ, the big question seems: How much of that competitiveness and energy will Garcia have left in his tank after that whirlwind week in Wisconsin, a return to his Austin home for not quite 48 hours, before traveling to Jackson Tuesday evening.

“I feel good,” Garcia said. “I’m not going to lie, obviously didn’t get much sleep on Sunday night. But Monday and Tuesday it’s been good, I was able to rest a little bit in Austin with the family, got here last night and I feel pretty good at the moment. 

“Obviously you all know how much I love the Ryder Cup and even though, yes, there’s a lot of energy involved in it and that you put on it and stuff, I still love it every time I play it. So at the moment I feel quite good, I don’t think it has hit me yet and hopefully it won’t hit me until I get back to Austin next week, so I can have a good solid week here.”

To repeat here, Garcia must find enough energy to beat the best field in the Mississippi tournament’s 54-year history. Several recent major championship winners are involved including 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, Zach Johnson (2007 Masters and 2015 British Open), 2016 PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker and 2009 U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover. Also playing here are, 2011 FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker, 2017 Players Champion Is Woo Kim and 2021 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Will Zalatoris (Masters runner-up last April) and 2019 U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree, the Mississippian who was low amateur in the 2020 Masters.

Garcia, for one, is not surprised by the quality of the field.

Said he, “I think as people come and play and they see the quality of the golf course and the quality of the tournament it just goes from mouth to mouth and then probably more of the top guys want to come and play. It’s as simple as that.”

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BEAUMONT — Sheran Watkins watched families drift past her tent under picked-clean pecan trees at Fulmer’s Farmstead and General Store. Watkins waved and said hello to attendees at the Mississippi Pecan Festival, but mostly she waited for someone, intrigued by the red-white-and-blue sign next to her, to approach. 

Before long, a man walked up to her table. He inspected the shiny blue buttons and the stack of flyers that said: “Get the facts. Get the vaccine. Be a hero!” 

“Hey, I’m vaccinated,” he said as he reached for a pamphlet. “Can I take some of these if I need information? I’m trying to get these guys at work vaccinated.” 

“As many as you need,” Watkins replied. 

When it comes to tabling at Mississippi festivals, Watkins is a seasoned pro, having worked for 26 years as an extension agent for Mississippi State University. In that role, she taught adult canning programs and cooking classes, and went to local high schools to teach food safety courses or host 4-H club meetings. 

Watkins had been retired all of five months when, in July of this year, David Buys, the state health specialist at MSU Extension, gave her a call. MSU had received nearly $1 million in grant money to do vaccine outreach in 32 counties in eastern Mississippi. Buys needed someone who could hit the ground running, and he wanted Watkins to come on board to work on vaccine outreach.

“It’s so important because every one of us knows somebody that has passed away from COVID-19,” she said. “There has been nothing in my adult life that has affected the closing of the church in this way — it affects every aspect of our lives. If I can do one thing to try to help someone, I want to be on the frontline.” 

Public health experts say it’s “abundantly clear” that vaccination is the only way out of the pandemic. In Mississippi, 44% of the population is fully vaccinated, and the vast majority of COVID deaths in the state were of people who did not receive a shot. 

But it’s not that simple. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 25-32% of Mississippians are hesitant or unsure of the COVID-19 vaccine, with an earlier study conducted by the Mississippi State Department of Health finding most were concerned about the vaccine’s safety, potential side effects and effectiveness. 

MSU’s efforts are part of the Mississippi RIVER Project, a larger endeavor by DHA to increase vaccination rates among rural and low-income communities, and communities of color (“RIVER” stands for recognizing important vaccine and education resources). With about $10 million in funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, a federal agency focused on expanding health care for rural and low-income communities, the Mississippi RIVER Project is working with colleges and universities around the state.

For MSU’s part, its work is operating from the premise that people who are vaccine hesitant can be convinced: The more accurate information people get, the more likely they are to get vaccinated. Watkins, one of eight organizers on the project, is not a health worker, but she’s worked in rural Mississippi for decades. Buys hopes that Watkins and other organizers can leverage their ties to rural and agricultural communities to reach vaccine hesitant communities and convince them to get the shot. 

“We have a special focus and concentration on agricultural-related work in the state, so the health and safety of our farm families is of utmost concern for us,” Buys said. “We try to stay in our lane but do some education where we can, reach the folks we have trust with and leverage our trust to get them science-based information so they can make the best decision for their family.” 

Other universities in the state are utilizing similar partnerships to do COVID vaccine education. At the University of Southern Mississippi, Susan Johnson, an associate professor of public health, spearheaded an initiative called the “Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities,” also known as “CEAL.” With funding from the National Institutes of Health, Johnson created a six-week curriculum to train people interested in becoming community health advisors, or CHAs. 

At the end of the course, the newly minted CHAs organized events to spread vaccine awareness. In Hattisburg, a CHA whom Johnson trained held a “vaccination block party” at DeWitt Sullivan park where volunteers gave out popsicles and watermelon. 

“In every community, there are people who naturally, when they tell you something, you just believe them,” Johnson said. “With this initiative, we were looking at people who you know in your family, in your neighbor, in your churches, at your workplace — if we can get (them) the right information, (they) will naturally share that information with other people and help to dispel those myths.” 

Community health workers sometimes have to tread carefully, though, because the vaccine “is so politicized in Mississippi,” Buys said. 

That’s why Buys turned to retired extension agents, like Watkins, as opposed to agents actively working in the field. 

“We’re having to be very cautious,” he continued. “We’ve already got relationships built, people that trust us, that we trust, and that we work with, and we recognize that our relationships in those cases are of high, high, high importance. If we burn those bridges, those relationships, then what do we have?”

Rather than run away from politicization, DHA decided to tackle vaccine outreach like it is a political campaign.

“Political campaigns focus on GOTV, ‘get out the vote,’” Buys said. “Well, this is ‘get out the shot.’”

And just like with political campaigns, there’s a script, which DHA based on research from the World Health Organization, the De Beaumont Foundation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and other health groups. It goes like this: First, educators are instructed to open the door to a conversation with an open-ended question, such as “You may be hearing a lot about COVID vaccines. Tell me what you think about them?” Then, validate their concerns — without playing into misinformation. That’s done by utilizing what’s called the “truth sandwich” approach: Start with the truth, acknowledge misinformation, then return to reality. DHA advises COVID educators to emphasize the benefits people will gain from getting vaccinated, such as the ability to gather safely with family. 

Finally, educators help people make a plan to get vaccinated, much like a canvasser would help a voter identify their polling place.

At the Pecan Festival in Perry County, Watkins didn’t have time to walk people through her script. In that kind of environment, her work was more about listening to the folks who chose to come up to talk to her, like one family of five, who asked about taking some of the pamphlets home. 

“We’re trying to get my parents to get vaccinated,” the dad told Watkins. 

“Make sure they know it’s ‘cause you love them and you want them to be around,” Watkins said. 

“Yeah that’s what I say,” he replied. 

As the family walked away, one of the kids told Watkins, “You have a good time and I hope you don’t get corona!”

On Saturday, just one person who wasn’t vaccinated came up to Watkins, a woman who wanted to say that she wasn’t going to get vaccinated. “That’s your choice,” Watkins told her. 

“That was the right thing to say,” she replied before walking away. 

Watkins shrugged off the encounter: Her goal is to provide information, not judge people who don’t want to get vaccinated. 

“Sometimes people just don’t know,” Watkins said. “To me, you can’t blame them for those things they just don’t know.” 

“Being an extension agent for so many years,” she continued, “you learn that you’re gonna hear a lot, you’re gonna deal with a lot. There’s no reason for me to get upset at someone who got themselves in a financial mess — they’ve still got to take that class to get out of that mess.” 

Watkins knows her job is not without risk. She is in communities weekly meeting new people where the risk of transmission is high, and she worries about bringing the disease home to her husband who has heart stents. Still, Watkins wants to help. 

“It does still make you nervous because COVID is real and people have died,” she said. “Sometimes you have to put that in the back of your mind to try to share the information and let people know there are resources.” 

“But again, it is about being safe,” she added. “I put on a seatbelt and think nothing about it, because it’s for my good. … We’ve been vaccinated all our lives. What’s one more?” 

The post ‘Get out the shot’: This is what vaccine outreach looks like in rural Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday said he’ll call lawmakers into special session on medical marijuana legislation “sooner rather than later,” but would not speculate a date or whether he’ll also let legislators tackle pandemic pay for nurses or other COVID-19 measures they’re proposing.

Reeves said there are still details — such as funding for a medical marijuana program — to be worked out, and indicated a session would be in coming weeks, but not this week as lawmakers had requested.

READ THE BILL: Mississippi’s long-awaited medical marijuana draft

“There is no update on exactly when, but I do anticipate we are going to have one sooner rather than later,” Reeves said at a press conference on workforce training on Wednesday. He said he spoke on Monday with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn.

“We are a long way towards getting a final agreement, but not all the way there yet,” Reeves said. “At this point it’s jut a matter of working out the final details … things such as funding, an appropriation bill, what that would look like.”

After months of negotiations, Gunn and Hosemann announced a House-Senate agreement last week on a medical marijuana program to replace the one adopted by voters last year but shot down by the state Supreme Court on a constitutional technicality. Gunn and Hosemann said they have the votes to pass the measure and asked Reeves to call a special session for Friday.

The draft medical marijuana bill legislative leaders have agreed to would levy the state’s sales tax, currently at 7%, on marijuana, and a $15 per ounce excise. But the bill does not specify funding for the Departments of Health, Revenue and Agriculture to run and regulate it. The bill routes the marijuana revenue into the general fund. This has prompted concern from state health and agriculture leaders that lawmakers would not adequately fund the agencies to stand up such a program.

Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, who said he opposes his agency being involved in marijuana regulations, said the Legislature is “notorious” for creating new programs or duties for agencies without providing extra funding or staff. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs expressed similar funding concerns this week.

Reeves has sole authority to call lawmakers into special session and set the agenda.

Hosemann and Gunn have also asked Reeves to allow lawmakers to tackle COVID-19 issues in a special session.

They want to give federal American Rescue Plan Act money to hospitals to pay nurses extra to help with what some health officials said is a shortage statewide of 2,000 nurses during the pandemic.

Gunn and Hosemann also want to change wording in a law that would allow families of first responders to receive death benefits if the first responder dies from COVID-19. Public safety officials have determined that a 2016 law that provides $100,000 in benefits to families of those who die in the line of duty does not cover COVID-19 deaths.

Hosemann and Gunn also want to provide emergency funding from federal ARPA funds to child abuse and domestic violence shelters and programs, who have lost regular sources of funding due to the pandemic, while cases of abuse have increased.

Reeves has had a rocky relationship with the Legislature, and has clashed particularly with his fellow GOP legislative leaders over control of spending federal pandemic stimulus money. Reeves has also said he doesn’t want lawmakers tied up at length in a special session, which would cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars a day.

READ MORE: Summary of the long-awaited medical marijuana deal.

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Golf professional and Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Randy Watkins joins the Cleveland boys to discuss the Ryder Cup and the Sanderson Farms Invitational, which is played this week at the Country Club. As it happens, all-time Ryder Cup match-winner Sergio Garcia will defend his title, coming off the American’s record-setting victory over the Europeans at Whistling Straits. Watkins, an Ole Miss man, also has an opinion on Saturday’s Ole Miss-Alabama football showdown. You know the Cleveland boys do, too.

Stream all episodes here.

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Mississippi Mental Health Executive Director Wendy Bailey said she will work to carry out a federal order to place more of an emphasis on treating people suffering from mental illness even as the office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch prepares to appeal the ruling.

When asked recently by legislative leaders about a possible appeal of a final remedial order handed down earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, Bailey said, “I feel we are on track to make great progress even over the next 24 months in this area.

“We will comply with the judge’s order and do everything that we need to do as a state agency,” she continued. “As far as the appeal, that would be a question for the Attorney General’s office.”

Last year, Reeves ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Justice, which had sued the state of Mississippi on allegations it violated federal law by not prioritizing treating mental health patients in community settings when possible instead of placing them in hospitals.

Reeves issued his remedial order earlier this month putting in place a monitor and specific guidelines on how the state should achieve the goal of treating people in community settings. On Monday, Fitch’s office filed a motion asking Reeves to stay portions of his order while it was appealed.

Fitch argues the order would mandate the state spend money not yet appropriated by the Mississippi Legislature and it should be up to the state, not the judge, to determine how to meet the mandates of moving toward providing care in community settings.

“The balance of equities tilts strongly in favor of partially staying the remedial order pending the outcome of the appeal,” the AG’s office wrote in its motion to Reeves.

Reeves’ order provides the state 120 days — until Jan. 5, 2022 — to develop a draft plan, and until March 6 to craft a final plan.

“I can tell you we are committed to providing services in the community and to expanding that,” Bailey said. “We know where we need to go. As the Department of Mental Health, we are going to continue to do that.

“There is still progress to be made and still goals we need to meet. We are dedicated to doing that.”

Bailey, speaking on Sept. 24 at a hearing of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee as it works to develop a budget for the new fiscal year beginning July 1, said the $40 million her agency has received from the federal government as part of COVID-19 relief packages will be used in part to move more toward community treatments.

In addition, Bailey said she anticipates going to the Legislature in January after her agency crafts its draft plan to respond to the judge’s order to request the Legislature appropriate at least a small portion of the $1.8 billion it has received in federal COVID-19 relief funds to help address the issue of moving more mental health care to community settings.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann agreed with Bailey, saying, “we need to do the right thing” regardless of the Department of Justice lawsuit.

Since fiscal year 2012, as the U.S. Department of Justice investigation ramped up, Bailey said the state has reduced spending on institutional care by $70.8 million and increased community-based care by $88.8 million as of fiscal year 2020, which ended on June 30, 2020. For the current year, Bailey said, the agency will divert another $5.8 million from institutional care to the community setting.

The DOJ alleged that the state system often denied patients the opportunity to receive care in their communities and increased the risks of long-term hospitalization of people suffering with mental health issues. In ruling for the federal government, Reeves conceded that the state was moving in the right direction in terms of community care, but that there were still gaps in the state system.

“Mississippi now has intensive community support services in all 82 counties,” Bailey said, adding that 85% of the people now being served are receiving that treatment in the communities.

She said “the continuum of care” provided by mental health hospitals must be maintained for those who need it. But she added, “Most anything and everything we can do to divert from state hospitals and provide services in the community, that is what we are going to do.”

The post Mental Health chief says agency will comply with federal order despite appeal by attorney general appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As the state’s Republican legislative leadership waits for Gov. Tate Reeves to call lawmakers into special session for medical marijuana, a special committee of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday held a daylong hearing on the issue.

“The hearing will help us meaningfully evaluate legislation that has been crafted in the event of a special session,” said Black Caucus Chairwoman Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point. “And should the session not materialize, the caucus will use the information provided during the hearing to prepare its own medical marijuana bill.”

The caucus on Tuesday heard from medical experts, including state Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, on the pros and cons of medical cannabis and from patient advocates, policy and industry experts.

WATCH: Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus holds hearing on medical marijuana.

Mississippi’s GOP legislative leadership last week announced House and Senate negotiators had reached a deal on draft legislation to create a medical marijuana program. This would replace a program passed by voters last year through a ballot initiative, but struck down by the state Supreme Court on a constitutional technicality.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn on Friday requested Reeves call the Legislature into special session to address the legislation, and other issues. But Reeves, who has sole authority to call a session and set the agenda, has not responded to the request, although he had previously said he would call a medical marijuana session if lawmakers could reach agreement. Both Hosemann and Gunn last week said they believe they have the votes to pass the measure.

The Black Caucus on Tuesday heard from Karmen Hanson, with the National Conference of State Legislatures, who outlined some of the medical marijuana policies, tax and fee structures of other states. She noted how varied they are.

“If you’ve seen one state’s cannabis regulatory program, you’ve seen one state’s cannabis regulatory program,” Hanson said.

The caucus also heard testimony from Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, a day after Gipson held a press conference to reiterate his opposition to his agency helping oversee a medical marijuana program, as the draft legislation proposes.

“I disagree with the assumption that just because it’s a plant, it should be with the Agriculture Department,” Gipson said. He thanked the caucus for allowing him to participate in the hearing, and said he was not allowed to participate in similar hearings the legislative leadership held drafting the bill.

Gipson said that, among other concerns, his agency doesn’t have the staffing, experience or funding to oversee cannabis growing, processing and transportation. He said this would cost an estimated $3.5 million to $4 million a year, and legislative leaders have not said how it would be funded.

House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez, said, “We need to make sure everybody involved in this has the proper funding and staffing.”

Gipson said he believes the Health Department should be solely responsible for regulating medical marijuana, but that his office would provide any advisory or consulting help it needs.

“I know there’s going to be a medical marijuana program in Mississippi,” Gipson said. “This is the opportunity to get it right.”

Caucus members during the Tuesday hearing questioned many particulars of the bill drafted by the GOP legislative leadership.

READ MORE: Mississippi’s long-awaited medical marijuana draft. Read the bill.

Rep. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel, questioned the proposal allowing only indoor growing, in lock-and-key facilities of at least 1,000 square feet, in a state with some of the richest farming land in the world, and with many struggling small farmers.

“We are precluding Mississippi farmers in this bill from even being allowed to participate,” Scott said.

The caucus heard from minority farming advocates and university research experts, including the head of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, who said the country has seen “virtually the extinction of the African American farmer” in recent decades. Cannabis could help “attract African Americans back to the land” for farming, he said. But allowing only indoor growing, he said, would prevent many Black farmers with small landholdings and less assets from participating.

But research experts noted that most states require indoor growing for medical marijuana to help improve the safety and standardization of products. Others noted that some states have used their land grant universities to help run medical marijuana programs and to help farmers get involved. Mississippi’s land grant universities are Alcorn State University and Mississippi State University.

A Mississippi patients advocate at the hearing Tuesday told harrowing stories and showed photos and video of children with debilitating conditions that could be treated with medical cannabis. Some Mississippi families have had to become “medical refugees” and leave the state for treatment, lawmakers heard.

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Mississippi’s brand new workforce development office has awarded nearly $1 million to a Gulf Coast college program that trains diesel technicians, marking the first time Accelerate Mississippi has publicly flexed its authority over state job training funds. 

The award signals a shift in how the state is spending workforce training dollars under the guidance of Ryan Miller, Accelerate Mississippi’s executive director. Miller’s office oversees tens of millions of dollars, including a $25 million pot collected via an unemployment insurance tax on businesses for the state’s 15 community colleges. But that oversight just began in July.

“We are trying to be more targeted and specific toward the areas where we are focusing funding and resources,” Miller said. “Where are there industry sectors that appear to have a large amount of vacancies with a large need that are also professions that pay above the average wage?” 

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, which will use the money to grow the capacity of its diesel technician program from 20 students to 40, is the first program to make a proposal to Miller’s office and be awarded money. Miller has designated $10 million of the $25 million pot for the office’s grant program to target in-demand jobs.

That money is part of the state’s Workforce Enhancement Training — or “WET” — fund. It had previously been the charge of the state’s Community College Board, which is still involved in processing the funds. 

Miller’s new office, however, was given freedom and flexibility under legislation passed in 2020 to direct those funds in ways the college board could not when it manned the money alone.

The board’s former director, Andrea Mayfield, told Mississippi Today last year that the fund’s guidelines favored those already working and relied upon employers making requests. That’s no longer the case. 

“In essence, we’ve taken the position that, in addition to direct requests from employers, we need to focus our WET fund resources upon those career opportunities in which there is a discernible need and could result in increased wages for Mississippians,” Miller said. 

A Mississippi Today report last year found that a quarter of the roughly $23 million spent through the Community College Board covered businesses’ Occupational Safety and Health Administration training. In most cases employers are required to provide such training, which doesn’t typically result in new skills. 

Miller said as his office looks over past expenses in its new role, it will have to ask hard questions. 

“Does stand-alone safety training meet the requirement of enhancing productivity?” Miller posed. “In most cases, probably not.” 

Kell Smith, the interim director of the Community College Board, said the body has welcomed Miller’s direction. 

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s grant totals $941,701. The grant will cover $500,000 in new equipment and $288,000 in scholarship money among other expenses to train technicians to maintain and repair diesel engines. 

Mississippi graduated 106 diesel technicians per year during a four-year period ending in 2020, according to state data. Yet, the average number of positions open per year in the state during that period was 526. 

The Gulf Coast college created the program in spring 2020 in direct response to businesses that were grappling with the gap in qualified candidates to fill open technician jobs. The college reported in its application that every student in the first cohort found a job in the field. 

“Our college is thrilled to take on this challenge and in return create economic opportunity for residents of the gulf coast,” Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College President Mary Graham said in a statement. 

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