Mississippi Today managing editor Kayleigh Skinner will join 30 newsroom leaders for the Poynter Institute’s seventh annual Leadership Academy for Women in Media.
The program, hosted online, is designed for women and nonbinary journalists who directly manage people to learn to manage teams more effectively, develop and communicate their strategic vision, and steer their organizations toward greater success.
“We are thrilled to welcome our final cohort of women leaders this year,” said Doris Truong, director of training and diversity at Poynter. “Every cohort inspires because we see the members’ ongoing commitment and passion for journalism. These are also leaders who are dedicated to self-improvement that will have a ripple effect with their staff as they work toward more diverse and inclusive news products.”
Those chosen for Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media passed through multiple rounds of review with an emphasis to ensure diversity across race, ethnicity, geography, age, platform/medium, organization size and expertise. Reviewers included Poynter staff and faculty, as well as a volunteer committee of program graduates.
Skinner joined the Mississippi Today staff in January 2017 as an education reporter and has advanced to a senior staff member in her four years with the organization. She served as deputy managing editor before assuming the role of managing editor in July 2020. She works alongside editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau to manage the newsroom’s daily and enterprise reporting and craft broader editorial strategy. She is a member of Mississippi Today’s management team, where she plays a key role in organizational development and long-term vision for newsroom growth.
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st-century public discourse.
After months of negotiations, Congress passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package in early November, sending about $4.46 billion to Mississippi over the next five years.
The infrastructure deal garnered bipartisan support, even among the Mississippi delegation. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson voted to pass the bill, while Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Republican Reps. Trent Kelly, Michael Guest and Steven Palazzo voted against it.
The White House released a preliminary breakdown of where that money will flow to Mississippi. These estimates are based on allocation of funds in previous bills, meaning the formulas for the current bill could change based certain factors like the state's population changes and energy consumption.
It is still unclear which state or local entities will get to spend this money. Much of the federal money will be given to the state through grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation, but how states spend these pots of money can differ based on the specific money.
Mississippi Today is comprehensively tracking the historic amount of federal funding coming to the state, and we will diligently update this coverage to clearly show which officials and governmental entities will be responsible for its spending. Click here to read that coverage, and check back for regular updates.
Below is a breakdown of what Mississippi will receive based on the White House estimates.
Roads and bridges: $3.3 billion
Mississippi will receive about $3.3 billion for federal-aid highway apportioned programs and $225 million for bridge replacement and repairs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act over five years. This money can be spent, among other things, on replacement and repairs for both federal and state highways in Mississippi.
Mississippi can also compete for the $12.5 billion Bridge Investment Program for economically significant bridges and nearly $16 billion of national funding in the bill dedicated for major projects.
Water lines and pipes: $429 million
Mississippi will receive about $429 million over five years to improve water infrastructure across the state. This money is expected to be divvied up by state lawmakers to municipalities and counties across Mississippi.
Public transportation: $223 million
Mississippi will receive about $223 million over five years under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to improve public transportation options across the state.
High-speed internet: $100 million
Mississippi will receive a minimum allocation of $100 million to help provide broadband coverage across the state, including providing access to the at least 531,000 Mississippians who currently lack it.
About 1,181,000 Mississippians, or 41% of residents in the state, will be eligible for the Affordability Connectivity Benefit, which will help low-income families afford internet access. This is a subsidy program that provides eligible households with a monthly broadband service discount of $50 — or $75 on tribal lands — and reimbursement for connected devices of up to $100 per household.
Airports: $99 million
This pot of money is for maintenance and upgrades at existing airports. "The United States built modern aviation, but our airports lag far behind our competitors," the White House said.
Some leaders in other states have suggested spending this money on gate and terminal repairs. The White House, in its breakdown, said the funds could "address repair and maintenance backlogs, reduce congestion and emissions near ports and airports, and drive electrification and other low-carbon technologies."
Electric vehicle chargers: $51 million
Mississippi would expect to receive $51 million over five years to support the expansion of an electric vehicle charging network in the state. As federal leaders and the automobile industry move toward fully-electric fleets, this infrastructure is a critical need in Mississippi.
Mississippi will also have the opportunity to apply for the $2.5 billion in grant funding dedicated to electric vehicle charging in the bill.
Protection against climate change, cyberattacks: $35 million
Mississippi will receive about $19 million over five years to protect against wildfires, and about $16 million to protect against cyberattacks.
Mississippians will also benefit from the bill’s $3.5 billion national investment in weatherization, which stands to reduce energy costs for families.
Gov. Tate Reeves proudly claimed victory on social media in the opening round of the legal fight to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate on private companies.
“The fight continues but this is a big first step,” Reeves said this week on social media after the courts temporarily halted the mandate.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction on Nov. 6 on the mandate that companies employing more than 100 either require their workers to be vaccinated or subject to weekly testing for COVID-19. The three-judge panel cited “cause to believe there are grave constitutional and statutory issues” with the mandate.
The temporary stay means little since the vaccine mandate is not scheduled to go into effect until early January. A mask requirement that is part of the mandate and also was halted goes into effect in December.
The lawsuit, which included various states and private companies, is one of multiple lawsuits being filed to challenge the Biden mandate. Mississippi’s participation is notable in that the state leads the nation in number of COVID-19 deaths per capita and has one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates.
When Reeves first began bemoaning vaccine mandates, he said, “I don’t believe public sector entities have the authority to mandate vaccines. I don’t think private sector entities should mandate vaccines, but if an individual doesn’t like what their boss is doing, I guess they can go find another job.”
When it was pointed out that there are multiple vaccine mandates imposed by the state of Mississippi — like the vaccinations necessary to attend public schools — the governor eventually backtracked to say he does not believe one person, including the president, can unilaterally issue mandates.
And even last week, Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn was proclaiming the government could not issue vaccine mandates.
“I believe strongly the government should not force any Mississippian to take the vaccine against his or her will,” Gunn wrote to members of the House.
The speaker and governor, of course, are parts of the government — and important parts at that. Gunn, as the speaker of the House, and Reeves, first as lieutenant governor and later as governor, have had the power to influence whether Mississippi had vaccine mandates or eliminate them as many anti-vaccination advocates lobby them to do every legislative session. Thus far Gunn, Reeves and other state leaders have rejected the pleas of the anti-vaccination advocates. Whether that will change in the upcoming 2022 session remains to be seen.
In reality, the lawsuits against the Biden vaccine mandate have nothing to do with whether the government can issue vaccine mandates. Government has been, with the blessing of the courts, doing so for decades. What is at issue in the lawsuits against Biden is whether his Department of Labor can use federal law to impose the mandate. Federal law gives the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration the authority to issue rules and regulations to ensure workplace safety. The question for the courts is whether the vaccine mandate is a proper use of that OSHA authority.
The case could likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who Reeves said is working closely with him on the litigation, is already asking the Supreme Court to strike previous rulings that ensured abortion rights. Oral arguments in that case will be held in December.
Last year, Fitch joined a national lawsuit to have millions of votes thrown out in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case was summarily rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In that case, Fitch and other Republican attorneys general who filed the lawsuit famously claimed that Biden “had less than one in a quadrillion to the fourth power” chance of winning the election in four key swing states.
“One in a quadrillion to the fourth power” equates to “less than one million million million million billion billion billions chance,” according to an article in Bloomberg Businessweek.
Leaders of Mississippi’s largest and capital city say they need at least $1 billion to replace Jackson’s failing water system, which left thousands of residents without water for weeks in March following a historic winter weather event.
The city’s leaders acknowledge they cannot afford the repairs themselves and have begged state and federal leaders for help.
Before the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package in Congress last week, Democratic President Joe Biden promised to address aging and dangerous water systems across the country.
“Never again can we allow what happened in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi,” Biden said before the bill was passed by both the Senate and the House.
But the bill does not seem likely to save Jackson’s water system: It includes just $459 million for water improvements across Mississippi — less than half of what the city needs. And that money will likely be spent across the state and will be divvied up by state leaders, who for generations have divested from Jackson and continue to seem unwilling to offer much help.
“We have to make certain that (Jackson not getting its fair share of the federal infrastructure funding) does not happen,” Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba told the Post.
Mississippi Today has extensively covered the Jackson water crisis, explaining why a tense relationship between Jackson City Hall and the state Capitol is keeping Jacksonians fearful of the short and long term future of the water system.
Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader, tells Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender it is time to focus on spending the $1.8 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funds on pressing state needs such as health care, aid for essential workers, broadband, water and sewer. To do that, he said, a special session is needed to quickly deal with legalizing medical marijuana.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Brittany Wagner. Brittany is a nationally respected athletic academic counselor and motivational speaker best known for her role as the breakout star of the hit Netflix documentary series Last Chance U.
Recognized for her compassion, encouragement, and no-nonsense attitude, Brittany guided many young men to academic and professional success despite run-ins with the law, extreme poverty, abandonment, and often a complete lack of academic preparedness. She has helped over 200 football players academically qualify for nationally respected NCAA Division I schools, and all of the students Brittany advised who are currently playing in the NFL, also hold college degrees.
Brittany’s inadvertent stardom led to feature interviews with ABC’s Nightline, The Dan Patrick Show, GQ,The New York Times, The LA Times and Sports Illustrated — to name a few. For the past four years, Brittany has traveled all over the country as a motivational speaker. In the fall of 2017, she launched her own company, Ten Thousand Pencils (10KP).
Mississippi Democrats must be asking themselves why they cannot do what Republicans did in Virginia and almost did in New Jersey this past week.
In Virginia, of course, the Republican candidate for governor, Glenn Youngkin, defeated the former Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe. In New Jersey, the Republican came close to defeating incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.
Democrats in Mississippi, on the other hand, have not won a gubernatorial election since 1999. And to top it off, no Democrat running for governor in Mississippi has come as close to winning as Republican Jack Ciattarelli came to upending Murphy in New Jersey.
Both New Jersey and Virginia have been Democratic strongholds. In the 2020 presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by 10 points in Virginia and by 16 points in New Jersey, which incidentally is about the same margin by which Trump won Mississippi.
If Republicans can prevail in those deep blue states, why can’t Democrats win in Mississippi?
No doubt, one day a Democrat will win again in Mississippi. Many view Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley as the next best chance for Democrats to recapture the Governor’s Mansion.
But two years before the 2023 election, Presley is playing his political cards close to his vest.
“That log will shake itself out between now and election year, and, you know, quite frankly, the good Lord will open doors or shut doors however he sees fit,” Presley said recently on Mississippi Today’s The other side podcast.
He added, “We’re two years out… I’m not worried about any of that.”
Presley, despite his country charm and communicative abilities that rival those of former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, faces headwinds in Mississippi that the Republican candidates in Virginia and New Jersey did not endure.
For instance, a 2020 study by FiveThirtyEight, a respected blog that breaks down political trends and data, labels the Mississippi electorate as the nation’s least elastic or least persuadable. In other words, Mississippi voters are less likely to vote for a candidate of the party they normally oppose even in cases of scandal or economic turmoil.
Mississippi is not the most Republican state. But it has the least — per capita — persuadable voters, according to FiveThirtyEight. Mississippi has more Republicans who will not vote for the Democratic candidate and more Democrats who will not support the Republican candidate.
An argument can be made that race is a factor in that inelasticity. Most white people vote Republican in Mississippi and most African Americans vote Democratic. Polls bear out that fact. For instance, CNN exit polls from the 2018 Senate special election in Mississippi found 84% of white voters supported the Republican candidates and 94% of African Americans supported the Democratic candidates.
The same FiveThirtyEight study found Virginia in the bottom 10 states in terms of elasticity and New Jersey in the middle. New Hampshire and Rhode Island had the most persuadable voters.
For whatever it is worth, the study found Alabama is the second least persuadable state. Still, Alabama elected Democrat Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate in a 2017 special election. Of course, Jones barely squeaked by controversial former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who among other things was accused of sexual misconduct, including with some underage girls.
Can anyone say scandal?
Of course, three years later in the 2020 regular election, Jones was trounced by former Auburn and Ole Miss football coach Tommy Tuberville, a political novice who ran as a Republican.
While the loss in Virginia and unexpectedly close election in New Jersey do not look good for Democrats, there were some unusual circumstances. In Virginia, McAuliffe, who was first elected governor in 2017, was trying to become the first governor to serve two terms since the 1970s. Virginia governors cannot succeed themselves but can serve multiple terms. Plus, the state has a long history of electing governors opposite of the party of the president at the time.
For instance, a Republican won the governorship in 2009 despite the fact Democrat Barack Obama won the state only a year earlier when running for president. Now granted, Democrats did get trounced a year later in the 2010 midterms, but two years after that shellacking Obama comfortably won re-election.
In New Jersey, Murphy was vying to be the first Democratic governor to serve consecutive terms since the 1970s.
But there are other examples of states electing governors and other statewide officials opposite of the party they most often strongly support in presidential elections. Kentucky and Louisiana, solid Republican states in national elections and in most other instances, have Democratic governors just as strong Democratic states like Massachusetts and Maryland have Republican governors.
So perhaps there is hope yet for Mississippi Democrats.
