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Gov. Tate Reeves is adamant that he will not call a special session to enact medical marijuana and to fix the ballot initiative process until legislative leadership reaches a consensus on how to deal with the separate but related issues.

In May, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down medical marijuana, a ballot initiative approved by voters this past November, and the entire initiative process. The court ruled the ballot initiative process invalid because language in the Constitution requires signatures to place an issue on the ballot be gathered equally from five congressional districts. The state has had only four U.S. House districts since the 2000 Census.

Both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, seem to support the governor’s position and are apparently trying to reach that consensus so the oft-discussed special session can be called.

Even Sen. Hob Bryan, the Democrat from Amory who often disagrees with the governor and who chairs the Public Health Committee where a medical marijuana bill would originate, concurs that a special session should not be called until consensus is reached.

“If I was governor, I would not call one before then,” Bryan said earlier this month. Bryan’s Senate Public Health Committee held a hearing recently to try to determine what should be entailed in legislation to legalize medical marijuana.

Not holding a special session until there is consensus, no doubt, is good fiscal policy to prevent legislators from being in prolonged session costing taxpayers more money.

But if reaching consensus had always been required to call a special session, some important special sessions never would have occurred. Accomplishments in those special sessions called without a consensus include:

• Enacting public kindergartens and other education reforms in 1982.
• Changing the laws in both 2002 and 2004 to make it more difficult to file lawsuits against businesses.
• Providing a deficit appropriation to the Division of Medicaid in 2005 to prevent the shutdown of the program.

The list goes on and on. Whether those special sessions resulted in positive results for the state is in the eye of the beholder, but they did create significant change. Often the pressure of being in a special session compels legislators to reach a consensus.

The special session always cited as what can happen when legislators meet with no consensus is the 83-day special session in 2002 on changes to the civil justice system to limit the ability to file lawsuits against businesses. Trial attorneys and business group waged a bitter war in the special session called by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. That battle established unique circumstances that led to what seemed like a never-ending special session. It is unlikely that many issues would result in similar circumstances and a similar special session.

The biggest drawback to special sessions, of course, is the cost. Legislators receive $75 per day while in special session plus a daily per diem for expenses, based on the federal rate, which is around $150 per day. Adding in retirement, the total comes out to more than $35,000 a day.

In reality, it would be cheaper to just remain in regular session year-round as legislators are allowed to do constitutionally by a two-thirds vote of both chambers. Legislators remained in session most of 2020 as they gave themselves the option to return to Jackson to deal with COVID-19 and other issues. House leaders wanted to remain in session again in 2021. The Senate balked at the idea.

It is important to note than being in session — special or regular session — but not actually convened at the state Capitol does not cost the state extra.

From a legislative standpoint, there are two advantages of staying in regular session: It takes power away from the governor to call a special session and to set the agenda, and it is less expensive to return to Jackson in regular session than in special session.

One of the most significant accomplishments to occur in a special session where there was no consensus happened in 1969 when Gov. John Bell Williams called a special session to try to convince legislators to opt into the federal Medicaid program. As a U.S. congressman, Williams had voted against the program and railed against the overreach of the federal government. But as governor, Williams saw Medicaid as a program that could help improve health care access.

The Legislature eventually bought into Williams’ argument and opted into the federal-state health care program. But it was not easy. The Legislature was in session from July 22 to Oct. 10.

Many would argue the results of that special session — a Medicaid program — was worth the effort and expense. The question for Reeves and legislators this year might be whether a special session to enact medical marijuana and fix the initiative process is worth it if there is no consensus.

READ MORE: Is history repeating itself on Medicaid expansion in Mississippi?

The post Successful special sessions often began without consensus Reeves wants on medical marijuana appeared first on Mississippi Today.

STARKVILLE — Seemingly unfazed by the largest Super Regional crowd in NCAA history and the intense Mississippi heat, Notre Dame came off the bus swinging hot bats. The Fighting Irish Saturday pounded out 12 hits, six for extra bases, and led 7-3 early and for much of the back-and-forth game.

And then came Landon Sims.

The fire-balling Mississippi Sate closer slammed the door on the Irish, retiring all six batters he face — three on strikeouts — to put the Bulldogs one victory away from the College World Series. The final: State 9, Notre Dame 8 before 14,385 surely sweat-drenched fans who endured a heat index of 101 degrees.

They will play again Sunday at 5 p.m. If State wins, it’s on to Omaha. If the Irish win, they’ll play the rubber match Monday at 6 p.m.

Many of us wondered throughout the game when State coach Chris Lemonis would call on Sims, the All American. You knew he was coming, you just didn’t know when.

State catcher Logan Turner made the decision for Lemonis. With two out in the bottom of the seventh, Tanner blasted a home run over the right center field fence to give State the 9-8 lead.

“I was debating, but as soon as that ball went out of the park, Landon was coming in,” Lemonis said. “We were going to play the last six outs with the best closer in the country.”

Sims did not disappoint. Mixing a 96-97 mph fast ball, which seemed to rise, with a biting slider that broke sharply down, he dominated — just as he usually does.

And you should have heard that record crowd when Sims took the field from the bullpen down the left field line. It got louder and louder and louder. Even Sims, who has heard those cheers many times in the past, was taken aback by the volume. 

“When I passed Kamren (third baseman, Kamren James) I looked at him and said, ‘This is just unreal,’” Sims said. “These are the best fans in college baseball.”

Sims retired the first two batters in the eighth, which brought up Niko Kavadas, the Irish clean-up hitter, he of Popeye arms, broad shoulders, barrel chest and 21 home runs — five in last week’s Sound Bend Regional. It was a classic matchup: one team’s best slugger against the other team’s best pitcher. It lasted 10 pitches, every one dripping with drama, before Sims finally caught Kavadas looking at a 96 mph fastball when he appeared to be looking for the slider.

Said Sims, “Those first two outs were really big so the bases were empty when Kavadas came up. That battle was fun — really, really fun. I knew if I teed one up for him, he’d hit it 450 feet.”

Sims, who earned his 10th save, was perfect in the ninth, as well. But there were many Bulldog heroes this sweaty day. Rowdey Jordan had three hits including a double and a two-run home run. Tanner Allen also home run. And Preston Johnson provided State’s pitching bridge to Sims with 2.2 innings of high-quality relief pitching against Notre Dame’s powerful bats,

Not to be underestimated was the assist from the huge crowd, which jammed into every nook, cranny and standing room area of Dudy Noble Field. Here, they call it the “Dude effect.” It is real.

“When we need it most, the crowd gets loud,” Jordan said. “Then we get a hit and they get louder, then we get another hit and they get louder and then we get on a roll. You’ve got 14,000 people having a good time, so you have a good time as a player.”

Difficult to say how much the crowd affects the opposition, but Jordan definitely thought it did.

“This atmosphere makes it difficult (for visitors), especially because the crowd is right on top of you,” he said. “I think it made a difference in some of the errors they made.”

Notre Dame, one of the nation’s top fielding teams, committed four errors, which led to two unearned runs in a one-run game. That’s not hard math. Said Lemonis, “Our crowd makes it tougher to pitch, tougher to make plays, tougher to stay off pitches. Sometimes it’s hard to talk.”

Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett called the one-run game: “national championship caliber,” saying, “I love the atmosphere.”

Jarrett also said he liked his team’s chances of fighting back and taking the series. “Our guys are resilient, they will respond,” he said. “We have not lost back-to-back games over the last two seasons.”

They will likely face Sims again at crunch time. He used only 29 pitches to complete the two inning save. Said Jarrett, “Sims’ fastball seems to climb on you. We studied him, but until you’ve seen some pitches in the batter’s box, it’s hard to prepare for that climbing fastball.”

And, even then, it’s hard to hit it.

The post Sims turns out the lights on Irish, puts State one victory from Omaha appeared first on Mississippi Today.

About 75 people gathered to honor the life of Medgar Evers on Saturday — exactly 58 years after he was assassinated at his home.

The event, held on June 12 each year, also honored Charles Evers, Medgar Evers’ brother and a notable longtime Mississippi politician, who died in July 2020 at the age of 97.

Before his assassination in 1963, Medgar Evers was one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights leader, working to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, end the segregation of public facilities and expand voting rights for African Americans.

Evers family members, politicians and other notable community members spoke at the event on Saturday, held at the Medgar Evers home in west Jackson — now a national historic landmark.

Among those who spoke at the event included Medgar’s daughter Reena Evers-Everette, Charles’ daughter Carolyn Evers Cockrell, civil rights activist James Meredith, Mississippi state Sen. Hillman Frazier and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

The post Photos: Medgar Evers and Charles Evers honored by family, politicians appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A group of cybercriminals hacked the Vicksburg Warren School District’s servers last month and claimed to have employees’ personal information and internal school documents.

A group that calls itself “Grief” breached the school’s servers through a ransomware attack on May 28.  

“The network of Warren Vicksburg School was screwed and now we have about 10 GB of data from file servers, including internal company documents and personal information,” the group’s website read before it was removed. “According to our rules we are publishing this data step by step in case if this company will keep silence (sic).”

While the district declined to answer whether it paid a ransom to the group to prevent the release or sale of personal information, Brett Callow, a threat analyst at the antivirus company Emisoft, said when the cybercriminals remove the threat from online, “it’s usually an indicator they are in negotiations or have been paid.”

A district spokesperson said Thursday they are “working to determine what information might have been affected.”

A Mississippi Department of Education spokeswoman confirmed the district had contacted the department in recent weeks about the attack. George Co. School District also made the department aware it had been attacked in recent weeks. It’s unclear if the attacks were carried out by the same group. 

Most employees in Vicksburg Warren School District first heard of the breach Friday morning, two weeks after it occurred and after Mississippi Today asked the district why teachers had not been informed their personal information may have been compromised.

“On May 28, we identified suspicious activity on some of our computer systems. We immediately took steps to stop the activity and investigate it further,” a Friday email from Superintendent Chad Shealy to district employees said. “Out of the concern to protect our staff and students, the District engaged an independent cybersecurity expert and law enforcement to help in our investigation. At this time, there’s no evidence that employee sensitive information was accessed or misused.” 

The Vicksburg attack comes after last month’s ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline and dozens of other American entities in recent weeks, renewing fears about technology being used to hold the government or entire sectors of the economy hostage.

The phenomenon is not new to Mississippi schools. In October of last year, Yazoo Co. School District was also the victim of a ransomware attack and was made to pay $300,000. 

Superintendent Ken Barron said the district’s insurance provider handled the attack and paid the ransom, and a cybersecurity company negotiated with the hackers. Since then the district has upgraded its firewalls, reconfigured its servers and taken several other measures to ramp up its protection against future threats, but leaders are still unsure exactly how the attackers made it into the school servers.

“It’s a growing concern” among schools in Mississippi, Barron said, noting he knew of another Mississippi superintendent who recently increased his district’s insurance coverage in case of future cyber attacks.

At least four Mississippi school districts or universities have been targeted in ransomware attacks since 2013, according to a database compiled by StateScoop, though others may not have been publicly disclosed. The Oxford School District was targeted in 2016, though officials said they did not pay a ransom. The FBI investigated the Oxford hack.

Callow said attacks in other school districts led to extremely sensitive information being released online.

“An attack in Ohio’s Toledo Public Schools has been especially egregious. Information posted on the hacker’s website in October includes Social Security numbers and dates of birth for students and employees, disciplinary and disability information on students, employee evaluations and exam grades,” Callow said. “It included the identities of an eighth-grader listed as emotionally disturbed, a ninth-grader suspended for sexual activity and a roster of foster children.” 

Callow said while it’s disappointing when schools and other companies pay a ransom to the cybercriminals, it’s not surprising. 

“Unfortunately, it’ll help keep schools in the crosshairs. If a sector proves to be profitable, they’ll keep on hitting it,” he said. 

Aside from Vicksburg Warren, “Grief” has also apparently targeted Lancaster Independent School District in Texas, Clover Park School District in Washington and Mobile County in Alabama. The Mobile County attack apparently shut down systems for three days and sparked a federal investigation.

The post Mississippi school districts targeted by ransomware attacks appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Several days of heavy rainfall fell over the Delta and parts of north and central Mississippi, breaching multiple levees, flooding homes and businesses, drowning crops and washing out roads.

Parts of Mississippi received up to seven inches of rain per day over a three-day period this week — a historic weather event.

“One observer measured slightly over 20 inches of rain in the last three days,” Andy Sniezak, National Weather Service meteorologist in Memphis, told the Clarion Ledger of rainfall in Tallahatchie County.

Several state and county highways in the Delta were closed this week because of flooding on Thursday. In Bolivar County, Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Lamb said that floodwaters got inside between 150-200 homes.

“We’ve had to use boats to rescue people and get them to safe ground,” Lamb said. “All the roads are under water, so we’ll have to wait until the water goes down before we can see if we have some infrastructure damage.”

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency released video that showed two levees breached in Tallahatchie County, where more farmland was flooded.

Officials in Carroll County warned on Thursday evening that a dam known as the Pelucia Control Structure could collapse within the next 12 to 24 hours.

Earlier in the week, several in Lafayette County were asked to evacuate their homes on Wednesday due to a failing dam at Lake Tara. Those residents were later given the all-clear to return to their homes.

The weekend forecast calls for more rain and maybe severe weather in parts of the already affected areas of the state.

“After the week we’ve had this is not something anyone wants to see,” the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MSEMA) posted on Twitter.

The post Photos: Historic rainfall floods homes across north Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Learn more about this episode here.

Read the full transcript below:

Adam Ganucheau: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Other Side, Mississippi Today’s political podcast. I’m your host, Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side lets you hear directly from the most connected players and observers across the spectrum of politics and Mississippi. This week, we’re dedicating our episode to an exciting new project that we’ve recently launched.

[00:00:25] It’s called NextGen Mississippi, and it’s centered around one of our state’s biggest problems. Young people are either leaving the state in droves for various reasons. Or, they’re stuck here wanting to leave. A month ago, we learned that Mississippi was one of just three us states to lose population over the past 10 years.

[00:00:41] Only twice before had Mississippi lost residents during a 10-year span. Those years were 1920 and 1960. And, now, of course we can add 2020 to that list. More and more other states reaped the benefits of our minds, our energy and our passion. Meanwhile, Mississippi can’t get off the bottom in so many categories.

[00:01:00] It’s a tragic cycle that certainly isn’t limited to just our young people, but as a member myself of the next largest generation of Mississippi’s workers, voters and citizens, it’s become a little bit too hard to stomach. So, on May 25th, we launched this long-term reporting project called NextGen Mississippi.

[00:01:15] We’re hiring a full-time reporter for this, and we’re committing much of our existing newsroom’s energy to several things. First, we want to clearly define the problem, working to answer questions like, How many young people are leaving? Why are they leaving? What could convince them to stay? Why have so many young people stayed and what are they doing and what are they sacrificing?

[00:01:34] What more can we do for all of them? Next, we want to examine the implications of the problem, answering questions like what does this increasing Exodus of young Mississippians actually mean for Mississippi? What about for the states that they’re settling in? What are we missing out on because of it? How is our state’s future effected by the problem?

[00:01:52] Finally, we want to engage Mississippians — everyone from the people afflicted by the problem to our elected officials who have the responsibility to do something about it. We want to hear from anyone and everyone about how we can together keep more of our young people at home and create a better future for our state all the while we’ll make a concerted effort to regularly showcase the great things that so many young Mississippians are up to here.

[00:02:15] That’s as big a part of this story as anything. Last week, I was invited to talk more about this project on WJ TV, a local TV station here in Jackson that we regularly partner with. I want to play that interview now, which I think will give a bit more insight into what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

[00:02:31] But, before I play that, I want to tell you how you can get involved. Go to our website, mississippitoday.org, and at the top of the page, you’ll see a link that says NextGen Mississippi. There, you’ll find a survey that will ask you some basic questions about this problem. We’ll then take a close look at what you write, and that’s going to really help us inform our reporting in the coming weeks and months.

[00:02:51] We won’t use any of your information publicly, unless you give us the permission to do so. And also you can follow along our regular weekly coverage, and please share with your friends and on social media. Thanks for listening. And thank you so much for engaging with us on this project. Now here’s my interview with Byron brown at WJ TV.

[00:03:10] Today’s Adam Ganucheau joins us to talk about an ambitious reporting project designed to answer those questions. Also, Carla Lewis, CSpire’s chief technology officer joins us. She’ll explain why her company went all in with support for the new computer science and cyber education equality act. To set the stage for our first interview…

[00:03:31] I want to read a passage from our partners at mississippitoday.org: “More and more other states reap the benefits of our minds, our energy, our passion. Meanwhile, Mississippi can get off the bottom as a tragic cycle that certainly isn’t limited to just our young people, but as a member myself of the next large generation of Mississippi’s workers, voters, and citizens, it’s become too hard to stomach.”

[00:03:55] That passage is part of a column introducing Mississippi Today’s NextGen Mississippi. It’s a wide ranging reporting project just launched this week. It will explore the longterm impact of migration away from the Magnolia state. The man who wrote that passage joins us now this morning by Zoom. Adam Ganucheau is editor in chief of mississippitoday.org.

[00:04:15] And, he’s one of the lead authors of this project. Adam, welcome back to Mississippi Insight. Thanks for having me, Byron, excited to be here. Explain for us what NextGen Mississippi aims to accomplish and why it is so important for you and your news team. Yeah. So, I’m a 29-year-old native Mississippian. All my life I’ve thought about — I’ve heard these points brought up — you know, “As soon as soon as we can, we’re getting outta here.”

[00:04:41] You know, if you’re a young person in Mississippi, I know that you’ve heard that, you’ve been around that, you’ve been exposed to it all your life. Even if you’re not a young person in Mississippi, this is something that we all know. It’s one of the biggest problems facing our state — our young people either are running from Mississippi as fast as they can, or they want to. That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of people, certainly like myself who want to be here, who are doing good work and trying to make a difference.

[00:05:10] But, at the end of the day, we know that we are not in the majority. We were kind of thinking about that problem, looking at the scope of it. Mississippi Today, when we launched, a little more than five years ago, we’ve kind of our bread and butter has been focusing on the state Legislature.

[00:05:26] You know, these, these policy leaders, these elected officials who have the ability to help solve any problem that the state faces. And this has been a big one. And, uh, Tom, and again, we’ve just, we’ve continued to see, uh, either, you know, little or no movement, uh, to try to help curb this problem more often than not, we we’ve experienced and covered the fact that.

[00:05:46] Our leaders don’t even acknowledge the problem, let alone do anything about it. So, uh, you know, we, we just kind of felt this responsibility, this obligation to ask these questions, to help people, uh, understand the real scope of the problem first and foremost, to help Mississippians understand why, like, how this is affecting our state and why this is a problem for us in the future.

[00:06:08] And, then to engage people, to really bring them into the fold, have them connect with us, have us connect with them and talk about how we all together can try to make these things better. So, that’s sort of the Genesis of NextGen Mississippi. It’s something we’re really excited about. And, again, it just stems from this understanding, no matter who you are, if you’re a Mississippian, you know this is an issue, this is a problem that we have to address.

[00:06:33] And, unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough focus placed on it. Well, we mentioned at the top of the program that Mississippi is only one of three states to lose population, according to the last month’s data, released from the U.S. Census. When you factor in births, deaths and people moving in and out of the safe, we lost 6,018 people between 2010 and 2020.

[00:06:52] What does your research indicate about who’s leaving the state and why? Yeah. So, first off, the Census data, this 10 year Census data, we don’t have a lot of specifics yet. That’s coming later this year. We’re going to be able to really drill into who the people are who live here, who left, what their backgrounds are, their education levels, racism, you name the demographics.

[00:07:14] We’re going to be able to drill into that a little bit more specifically, but based on some of the annual update the Census Bureau puts out there called American Community Surveys, we can sort of lean a little bit from just those. And, those certainly aren’t as comprehensive as these 10-year Census numbers will be later this year, but we can tell that the people who are leaving Mississippi are younger, or, you know, age 35 or 40 or younger, in most cases. They have higher levels of education attainment.

[00:07:44] And, certainly there are a lot of factors that go into all of this. That’s not a blanket statement. There are a lot of different Mississippians and a lot of different backgrounds and experiences who are leaving the state. When you’re lumping groups together and trying to assess some trends in the data, that’s what we’re seeing.

[00:08:01] So trending younger people, regardless of race or region of the state and trending toward that higher level of education attainment. So, that’s part of the issue, but another thing that we want to look at Byron, and I’m really curious to get the rest of this data back later this year, is take a look at some of the older generations who are leaving, as well.

[00:08:22] We, of course, know that depending on what region of the state you’re thinking about or talking or looking at, we have some communities across the state that are attractive for retirement. We have some communities across the state where we know we can see in the data already that even older people are flocking.

[00:08:38] They’re leaving those communities. And in many cases, leaving the state. So generally speaking, we’re really kind of counting down the days until we get that data. We’re not sure exactly when the Census Bureau is going to give that to us, but sometime. Probably this fall, maybe early winter or at the end of the year.

[00:08:53] But, like I said, the big trends we’re seeing — young people and educated people are leaving the quickest in Mississippi. Let’s look at a map that your team published for this project. Here, here, our viewers can see each county colored in different shades of blue and light green, the darkest colors in places such as Rankin county, Madison County, the Gulf Coast, and other denser populated centers show population growth, but the lighter colors are the Delta and other river counties over in East Mississippi and a lot of thePine Belt, uh, point to big population decline since 2010. What can you tell us about the geographical component in these populations? Yeah. So first off, I’d say, look at the job growth and economic development. The counties that you’re seeing there that have actually gained population over the years.

[00:09:38] Some of those more extreme ones like Desoto, Madison, Rankin, Lafayette, Oktibbeha and all those coastal counties, there’s been a huge focus by state leaders on creating jobs and boosting economic development in those places. I think no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, the number one factor for whether or not you want to stay or leave Mississippi has everything to do with the economy.

[00:10:02] There are other factors at play, of course, but as we’ve sort of been digging into these numbers, as we’ve been interviewing and collecting data from thousands of Mississippians the past few weeks, this is the number one issue I’d say across the board for most everyone. So, looking at economic development, but then also look at education.

[00:10:19] So yeah, Oktibbeha and Lafayette counties of course those are big college/ university towns. Now, you know, you look at some of the other sort of growing in population counties across the state — they have good public school systems, K through 12 public school systems. They have great community colleges or junior colleges where people can earn post-secondary degrees that aren’t those four years.

[00:10:43] And then, of course, where all those four year universities are, you’re seeing some growth there as well. What do these folks have to say about leaving or staying in the state? Yeah. So probably the thing that I’m most excited about with this project is that we are doing that direct outreach to Mississippi.

[00:10:58] You know, as best as COVID restrictions and travels sort of pandemic-related issues will allow u, we’re on the ground. We’re talking to the vehicle. We also released this pretty comprehensive survey on our website through the NextGen Mississippi brand that allows anyone in Mississippi or outside of Mississippi who left to come in and tell us a little bit about themselves and answer some questions — like why did you leave or why did you stay? If you stayed, what more do you need from state leaders? If you left, what might attract you to come back? You know, talking about issues about like the future of Mississippi, as it relates to the future of the City of Jackson. Do you think Mississippi needs an urban center in Jackson, the Capitol city, a metropolitan area of Jackson that has to thrive for the whole state of thrive. We’re trying to dig into a lot of these specific questions. And, like I said, we’ve been reaching out directly to Mississippians or former Mississippians who left about those very things. So we put out the survey, Byron, and we’re up to over 1,000 responses now. We’re really excited about that. It’s been a great, great response so far and in just a few days time, and we need more of that. So if you’re watching this, if you’re interested, go to our website, mississippitoday.org, and at the top of the website, you’ll see a link there that says NexGen, Mississippi, click on that and find the survey. But just looking through those survey responses, Byron, and as a native Mississippi, and again, who I’ve been, like I said, dealing with these issues my entire life, I’ve been thinking through them.

[00:12:27] Reading these responses from people — these, you know, hundreds of Mississippians who are either here or have left — has been pretty emotional. You know, I think I wrote when we announced this project, this isn’t about me. This isn’t about us at Mississippi Today, the reporters in the building. But, it is personal, it’s personal in a way that is personal to every Mississippian.

[00:12:48] And, you know, we miss our friends. We miss our family members who left. For those of us who stayed, we understand that there are such great things about the state and we love it. But we also understand that there are a lot of things that need to get better and need to improve. And, you know, I think, at the end of the day, that’s the shared experience of every Mississippian, whether they stayed or left, and and reading through these responses, it’s just been an emotional thing.

[00:13:11] This is something that we all should care about so much. And, this is our future that we’re talking about. And it’s been really, I think, rewarding already to see these responses. But, if you’re watching this, please get involved. Go fill out that survey. Those responses they remain anonymous unless you tell us otherwise.

[00:13:29] But, regardless of whether you want to stay anonymous or not, it helps inform our reporting in the days and weeks to come. And the more, the better. The more experiences and perspectives that we can see and share, the better it will be for everyone.

And, you also reached out to state leaders about their perspectives on the brain drain, but you didn’t have a lot of luck getting many responses, I understand. Is that correct? That’s right. You know, myself and Candace McKenzie, who’s kind of this young reporter who herself, she’s a native Mississippi, and she just graduated from college at Millsaps College. She’s our lead reporter on this project. And, you know, the two of us sat down as we were thinking through the launch and the rollout of this project.

[00:14:09] And one thing that we couldn’t stop thinking about was that we got these Census numbers a little more than a month ago. Now, the numbers that we just talked about that showed that we were one of three states in the country to lose population — only three. We were just talking about that and, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that our state leaders have been largely silent about it. If this is indeed one of the state’s biggest problems, it just is striking that so many of these top state leaders haven’t even acknowledged that the problem exists —let alone offer up solutions to it.

[00:14:42] So what we did, what we wanted to do was was if they’re not going to talk about it themselves, which is disappointing and unfortunate, we’ll ask them, you know, that’s, kind of why we exist in this journalism world. You know, we want to be the eyes and the ears of the public who don’t have access to these elected officials.

[00:14:59] And, oftentimes, we can ask the questions that need to be asked. So we reached out to the state’s top three policymakers that would, of course be Gov. Tate, Reeves, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn.You know, these three men together collectively have as much power, the power needed to pass any policy they want to — really sort of implement some agendas and ideas to fix this problem, or to say, at least start fixing this problem. We asked several times for comment from all three of them, and we only heard back from one, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, and his statement was, you know, it talks about the importance of focusing on the core sort of policies of infrastructure, healthcare, and education, public education.

[00:15:41] That’s good. That’s certainly needed. And we were happy to hear back from him, but it was disappointing, to say the least, to not hear back at all from Gov. Reeves or Speaker Gunn. And, then, in that same piece, we kind of further contextualize this and talked about how underrepresented young people in Mississippi are in state government of the eight statewide elected officials.

[00:16:00] Just one of them is a Millennial or younger, you know. In the 174 member of legislature in 2019, we had fewer than a dozen members of the Legislature of those 174 who are Millennials or younger. So, you know, you talk about solutions to the problem or setting agendas, or even just throwing out some ideas.

[00:16:20] The problem, what we’ve seen, unfortunately, is, a state leadership that just hasn’t been engaged. They haven’t wanted to engage, seemingly, in helping address this and that was a big Genesis — the big reason for why we wanted to start this project. Adam Ganucheau of mississippitoday.org. Thank you for joining us.

[00:16:38] Thanks so much, Byron.

[00:16:46] Thanks again to Byron Brown at WJTV for giving me the chance to talk about that hope that helps everyone understand why we’re doing this and what exactly we’re trying to accomplish. Before we go, I just want to kind of reiterate how y’all can get involved, because we really want you to. Go to our website, mississippitoday.org. At the top of the site, you’ll see a tab that says NextGen Mississippi.

[00:17:07] When you get to that page, you’ll see a link on that page pretty high up to a survey that we’ve put out. We asked a lot of questions about a lot of these things that we’ve just been discussing on this podcast episode. So, fill that out. It’s really going to help us to see your answers and help inform our reporting in the coming weeks and months.

[00:17:25] And, of course, we won’t use any of your information publicly, unless you tell us that we can do so. Other than that, just stay engaged. Keep following Mississippi Today. In every one of our NextGen Mississippi stories, you’ll see a link to our newsletter for the NextGen Mississippi coverage.

[00:17:40] That’ll keep you up to date pretty regularly about what we’ve been writing and what we’ve been up to. And, as always, share what you see if you like it with your friends and on your social media pages, but otherwise, thank you so much for listening. Thanks for taking the time. And thanks for engaging with us.

[00:17:54] Hope you have a great week

[00:17:58] As we cover the biggest political stories in the state, you don’t want to miss an episode of The Other Side. We’ll bring you more reporting from every corner of the state, sharing the voices of Mississippians and how they are impacted by the news. So, what do we need from you, the listener? We need your feedback and support.

[00:18:13] If you listen to the podcast on a player like iTunes or Stitcher, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. We also have an email in which you can share your feedback, that address is podcast@mississippitoday.org. Y’all can also reach out to me or any of my colleagues through social media or email.

[00:18:29] And, as always, thank you for your feedback and support. Subscribe to our weekly podcast on your favorite podcast app or stream episodes online@mississippitoday.org forward slash the other side for the Mississippi today. Team I’m Adam Ganesha. The other side is produced by Mississippi today and engineered by blue sky studios.

[00:18:47] We hope you’ll join us for our next episode.

The post Episode 161: Why we launched NextGen Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

An emergency grant program for small businesses during the worst of the pandemic last year was supposed to give priority to minority and women-owned businesses in Mississippi in giving out grants up to $25,000 each from federal COVID-19 relief passed by Congress.

Although the program overall appeared to sputter — with only half the money allocated being spent — nearly half the grants approved did go to minority and women-owned businesses, as did $51.4 million of the $118 million in grants approved.

The Mississippi Development Authority, the agency that oversaw the grants using a private contractor, said it cannot provide a breakdown between minority-owned and women-owned businesses awarded grants. It reported that 18,015, or 53%, of all applications received for the program were from minority or women-owned businesses.

MDA reported that the entire Back to Business program awarded grants to 21,200 businesses, totaling $118 million. Of those, 10,579 grants totaling $51.4 million were to minority and women-owned businesses.

“The short answer is, I don’t think we did a very good job as legislators in putting the program together,” said House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez, who helped negotiate the programs, and the priority for minority and women-owned businesses. “It helped, but again, the whole process ended up being too cumbersome and restrictive. There were certain (lawmakers) who wanted to police the money more than make sure we got it out quickly to businesses … There were also people who didn’t want to do the (minority) set aside at all.”

READ MORE: CARES Act money was supposed to help Mississippi businesses. Did it?

Lawmakers in May of 2020 earmarked $300 million in federal CARES Act money for small businesses with two programs. One, funded at $240 million, would provide Back to Business grants up to $25,000 each to qualified businesses that applied. The other, funded at $60 million, would provide “automatic” grants of $2,000 each — no application necessary — to businesses shut down by state COVID-19 actions.

For the Back to Business program, $40 million for the first 60 days of the program was to be reserved for minority and women-owned businesses.

But the program moved slowly, and business owners reported problems navigating bureaucracy and red tape, and by August, only 1% of the Back to Business grant money had been given to businesses.

An analysis of the program by Mississippi Today showed that only about half of the $300 million was spent. The rest was redirected to other pandemic programs, such as rental assistance grants, help for hospitals and veterans, with the bulk swept into the state’s unemployment insurance fund.

Johnson said he hopes lawmakers have learned a lesson with the business grants programs as Mississippi receives more federal pandemic relief.

“We don’t need to make things too restrictive,” Johnson said. “… All (the federal government) had asked was that we verify it was going to small businesses. But this was frustrated by certain members who were more intent on policing the money. This wasn’t just partisan, it was Democrats and Republicans. We had conservative House members, members of both parties, who were sitting there appalled that we made this so hard, so cumbersome that we ended up spending only half the money and not meeting the objective of the federal money, which was to get it into the hands of our small businesses to keep the economy going.”

The post COVID-19 grant program promised to prioritize minority businesses. Did it? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hattiesburg is, no matter how you strike it, a Democratic city.

In 2020, Democratic President Joe Biden earned at least 60% of the votes in the state’s fourth-largest city. Of the 16 voting precincts that are within the city limits, Donald Trump received above 40% of the vote in just two. Democrat Jim Hood earned at least 65% of the city’s votes in the 2019 governor’s race, and a Democrat previously served as the city’s mayor for 16 years.

That’s why when 39-year-old independent Toby Barker won a second term Tuesday with an astounding 85% of the vote against Democrat Lakeylah White, it turned heads.

“We already knew Barker was good,” said Brannon Miller, director of voter targeting for the Jackson-based political consulting firm Chism Strategies. “He was the only Republican House member with an opponent in 2015 to get a higher share of the vote than former Gov. Phil Bryant, and he beat a Democratic incumbent in 2017. But he may well be the most talented politician of his generation.”

Barker, who previously served as a Republican in the Legislature, wasn’t the only successful independent winner this week. Notably, independents unseated several prominent local officials of both major parties.

In Gautier, independent Casey Vaughan unseated Republican incumbent Mayor Phil Torjusen. In Columbus, independent candidate Keith Gaskin appears to have unseated Democratic Mayor Robert Smith. In Pass Christian, incumbent Republican Alderman James “Buddy” Clarke was defeated by independent Betty Sparkman.

Well-known independent Mayor George Flaggs coasted to re-election in Vicksburg, independent Mayor Robyn Tannehill was re-elected in Oxford, and independent Mayor Richard White was re-elected in Byram.

In today’s political environment rife with polarizing pandering and intense partisan bickering, what explains the appeal of these independent candidates in so many Mississippi cities?

“I don’t think there’s a Republican or Democratic way to pick up garbage or pave streets,” Barker told Mississippi Today on Wednesday. “There’s no political philosophy, in my mind, that does that one way better than another. If you care about your community and seek to take care of needs and lead everyone equitably, I think being an independent is the best way to do that.”

You’d be hard-pressed to find any Republican or Democratic elected official talk about all of their constituents — regardless of their party affiliation or race — the way Barker talks about his. And a close examination of the effects of his work in Hattiesburg the past few years could explain why he won re-election so definitively.

When he took over as mayor four years ago, the city was mired in financial reporting problems. Barker has balanced the city’s budget and begun making visible investments across the city. In 2019, he championed a 1% restaurant, hotel and motel sales tax increase to pay for upgrades to the city’s parks. That vote passed with 81% approval.

In 2019 and 2020, the city received separate million-dollar transportation grants to improve infrastructure and mobility problems. The city’s school district had previously been at risk of state takeover because of financial reporting problems, but district leadership have achieved several fiscal and academic gains recently.

As his first term wore on and wins began piling up, Barker began sensing a transformation in how Hattiesburg residents thought about their city.

“The most rewarding thing to me is seeing people from every walk of life fall in love with our city again and find a place in it,” Barker said. “From day one, it’s been about bringing everyone to the table, listening to folks, communicating, and telling our story — the good and sometimes the bad.”

Barker continued: “It’s about helping people try to find their place in where the city is going, and how we’re going to tackle our challenges together… I could sense over time that people began celebrating each other’s successes regardless of what side of the city you’re on. We’ve tried to communicate that your neighborhood is as important as mine, and every neighborhood needs to see progress.”

Flaggs, the Vicksburg mayor, said leading as an independent, not a partisan, is critical to a local government’s success.

“Running municipal government is about providing services at the least cost to the taxpayer,” Flaggs told Mississippi Today. “It has nothing to do with political posturing or policy. You can’t be effective in managing municipal budgets without the state and federal government. In order to access money from the state and federal government, you have to be in a position to follow money and not the party.”

Flaggs continued: “Politically, all Democrats are not right, all Republicans are not wrong, and vice versa.”

But as statewide politics remain one-sided as ever, there is a growing sense that the state’s local officials — led by independents who have experience building coalitions based on people and issues, not parties — could pose unique electoral problems for top statewide officials.

A glaring example of the pushback state officials saw from local officials was COVID-19 policy. As Gov. Tate Reeves struggled for consistency in issuing statewide mask mandates and business requirements, mayors set policies in their own cities.

In Oxford, Tannehill became one of the first Mississippi mayors to issue a mask mandate, before Reeves finally gave into pressure from medical experts begging for the wearing of masks to stem the quick spread of the virus. The same could be said of Barker in Hattiesburg, as well as Flaggs in Vicksburg.

After Mississippi voters decided in 2019 to remove the Constitutional provision that effectively nullified any independent candidate’s chances to serve in a statewide elected position, the prospects of an independent’s statewide success has become more enticing to consider.

“People are looking for people that represent people,” said Flaggs, who said he has “certainly prayed about” a possible 2023 statewide run. “I believe (changing the Constitution) creates an opportunity to where an independent candidate — particularly an African American candidate — can be elected at the statewide level.”

In the meantime, though, Flaggs and Barker both said they expect the rise of local level independents to continue. 

“I think it started with my generation — people identifying more with causes or people rather than a set, rigid partisan ideology,” Barker said. “I think people understand that there’s a lot of gray out there. Sometimes, running as an independent, you can define yourself and define what you believe in. It allows you to have some very open conversations with people who might otherwise label you as a partisan before they even meet you.”

As for what his success and the success of other Mississippi independents means for our polarized political system today?

“It shows that even in this polarized world, there’s a way back,” Barker said. “It’s hard — it really isn’t easy because you never know what position you’ll be forced to consider because of the reality you’ve created for yourself — but we should be encouraged that there is a way back.”

The post The rise of independent elected officials in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

CARRIERE — It takes $80 to fill the gas tank inside the beat-up white cargo van 34-year-old Michael Beard calls home.

He can’t afford that, so he usually fills it in $20 increments. He spends no more than $5.40 on food each day. The shower and washroom at a nearby Pearl River County truck stop are his biggest expense, eating up one of the largest chunks of his weekly unemployment checks after child support. Each shower costs $13.

“I have to, though,” Beard said. “No one wants to hire someone who hasn’t showered.” 

That’s what Beard says he’s wanted for the last year: to land a job. But all he has to show for his efforts is an inbox of auto-generated rejection emails. Soon, the money he’s relied on to get by will be more than halved because Mississippi is dropping out of the federal pandemic aid program.

Ahead of the June 12 end date, about 87,000 Mississippians were collecting an extra $300 in unemployment on top of the state’s average payout of about $200 per week. Mississippi is one of the first states to drop the federal benefits, creating a mess of anxiety for people like Beard who say finding a decent, stable job after losing work to the pandemic has been a struggle. 

Beard says in the state’s smaller towns, like his own, that struggle is only amplified. He keeps a marbled notebook with information about each job he’s applied for written in black ink. He started a new notebook a few weeks ago after filling the last one.

“I applied for nine jobs so far this week,” he said, looking down at the pages. It was only Tuesday.

Gov. Tate Reeves announced the program would end as early as federally allowed, giving recipients a four-week notice. Reeves, and two dozen other U.S. governors, have said the extra benefits have kept people from going back to work.

“I’m tired of this narrative that we are lazy,” Beard said. “People want to work. I want to work.”

At most, Mississipians can collect $235 per week from state unemployment. At minimum, $30. The extra $300 in federal benefits put minimum-wage workers above what they could make at $7.25-per-hour jobs each week.

Reeves said in a statement last month that after talks with small business owners, it “became clear” that the unemployment assistance “may have been necessary in May of last year” but wasn’t anymore. Reeves’ decision came after politicians and business leaders said people were denying job offers to continue collecting unemployment. 

In response, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security pushed businesses to report people who denied offers to continue collecting benefits. The employment office says they’ve gotten 4,300 reports of “refusals to work” since January. Those are just the incidents that have been reported, not confirmed by the department’s investigators.

Even if the department’s investigators found every one of those reports to be true, they would still only account for about 5% of those collecting the extra aid in the state.

Mississippi’s labor outlook, while improved, still hasn’t recovered to what it was before the pandemic.

“Our job growth has kind of stalled out over the last few months,” said state economist Corey Miller. 

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows about 28% of Mississippi jobs — or 42,000 jobs — that existed before the pandemic have not returned. The job count has actually worsened since the start of the year. The April jobs report, the latest available, showed 4,600 fewer jobs accounted for than there were in January.

Although Mississippi’s service industry jobs — typically minimum-wage positions — are returning some, industries like construction and manufacturing have lost positions, according to the labor data.

Economists largely agree low wages, the cost of and lack of child care, and fear of COVID-19 are all contributing to the labor demand.

“The federal aid is just part of it,” Miller said. “It’s not the whole story.”

Before the pandemic, Alexis Lee, a 35-year-old Vancleave resident, was a teacher’s assistant in Gulfport. 

Lee, a single mother of four, went home for spring break and was never called back in. Her position wasn’t needed during remote learning.

She briefly collected unemployment starting in May 2020. By August, she became a COVID-19 substitute teacher for Jackson County. It was a good fit; she’s working on a degree online in secondary education. 

It was in the final days of the school year, just before her last paycheck, when Lee learned the extra $300 in federal benefits would end.

“It was heartbreaking. Mississippi has the lowest everything,” she said, from wages to education ranks. “How can you say we shouldn’t have this anymore? And to cut them so fast? People didn’t get enough time to prepare.” 

Unlike permanent teachers, substitutes like Lee don’t collect a paycheck over the summer. Further, her substitute position isn’t guaranteed to be available next school year. So, she signed up for unemployment a second time. 

She thinks the state should have weaned back the federal funds, rather than cut them off completely at once. But right now, she’s not collecting anything. She has a hold on her account with the employment office over a discrepancy she doesn’t understand. 

She says after more than a day waiting to hear back from the office by phone, she was told an investigator would look at her claim and potentially clear it up so she can receive the money in three to six weeks. Other substitutes have reported the same issue. 

The Mississippi Department of Employment Security did not respond to request for comment regarding Lee’s issue. 

She has been applying for a mix of jobs: seasonal retail gigs to get her family through the next few months and teaching assistant jobs in case she isn’t offered a substitute position for the fall.

She said when she is honest with employers that she intends to go back to teaching in the fall, they’re no longer interested. 

“It isn’t as easy as people think,” Lee said. “I got rejected from McDonald’s.” 

Tara Owens, a 39-year-old Gulfport resident, used to work in childcare. Now many of her former clients work from home and don’t need her to watch their children like they used to. 

Two of her own children are Type 1 diabetics, which makes Owens hesitant to take a public-facing job. Should those children contract the virus, they’re at a higher risk of having complications. She also has asthma and a history of bronchitis, which puts her in the same high-risk category.

She and her husband have six kids total, five of whom still live at home.

“I’ll apply to any and every job that’s COVID safe,” she said, “but a lot of places aren’t.” 

Mississippi has one of the lowest rates of vaccination at about 29% and was one of the first to lift its mask mandates and business restrictions.

Owens has focused on applying to jobs paying above minimum wage. Ideally, she’d have a customer service job she could do by phone at home. The cut in benefits won’t change the types of job she applies to. 

“I’m going to sit here and apply for jobs like I have all along,” she said. “I’m not going to stop doing what I’ve been doing.” 

She said the decision to pull back the federal aid should have been matched with a minimum wage hike. 

For now, she’s shifting her focus on her own online retail business selling mugs and T-shirts online. It’s something she can do from home, something with a chance of a payout above a bleak $7.25 an hour. Her family can’t survive on that. 

“I just have to believe the good Lord would never give me more than I can carry,” Owens said. 

Beard says he doesn’t see a major demand for workers in Pearl River County, where he’s lived his entire life. It’s home to about 55,500 people — 18% of whom are living in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. That’s double the national average.

On a recent afternoon, Beard pulled his van off Interstate 59 in Carriere, a few miles outside the even smaller town where he held his last job — the McDonald’s in Derby. He was laid off at the onset of the pandemic, but then the franchise owner decided to shut down the fast-food spot altogether.

Beard tucked his van onto a dirt lot with a drive-up ice machine. It was hot. He sat on a camping chair — a gift from a stranger — inside the flat back of the van so he could face the roadway. 

A white poster board was beside him: “PLEASE HELP! HOMELESS MAN START A BUSINESS!! WILL WORK.”

Beard had been at McDonald’s for about a year. Even then, he was always looking for something better. He’s done the math: He’d need to make at least $14.25 an hour to inch above the poverty line in Mississippi.

He has completed some college in computer engineering, which left him $16,000 in student loans. He has worked call center jobs, which he’d like to get back into, but a lot of them are now making those positions permanently remote.

He sighed as he gestured to the van. Remote work, obviously, isn’t an option.

Beard balanced the laptop he bought with his stimulus check on his passenger seat, using his phone as a hotspot as he checked the payout balances on the state employment website. 

Mississippi usually sends him $116 a week, though sometimes it’s as low as $53 when his child support is sent out. He expects the last $300 from the federal program to be deposited June 14. 

His whole life is packed up in the compact space. He sleeps sprawled across the two front seats at night. Three plastic bins hold all his clothes.

His father’s ashes are in a tin box on a shelf secured to the van’s back wall. His mother died right before the pandemic, and he can’t afford the drive to Jackson to retrieve her ashes. 

Beard recently decided he will broaden his job search to the Gulf Coast, where the summer tourism surge has meant a pick-up in business. Outside of his immediate surroundings, he’d been applying largely just across the state border in Louisiana and Alabama where he found slightly higher wages.

Ashley Edwards, the CEO of the Gulf Coast Business Council, said there’s a labor demand in his region but that doesn’t mean getting a job there, or anywhere, during this time isn’t challenging.

“I think with the demands comes increased wages, and in some areas increased wages increases competition,” Edwards said. “It’s clear employers are looking for talent. We live in a human capital economy in which workforce talent and workforce skills are one of the major driving factors.” 

He also sees businesses recovering and having record months. That’s especially true of the coast’s casinos, which just reported another record-breaking revenue month in April. 

But Edwards says workers who lost jobs in 2020 are not walking into the same economy or employment outlook as they apply for jobs in 2021. The market isn’t static, he said.

For Beard, years living with little have made it feel impossible to catch up. He just got his current van in February, but he has been living out of a vehicle for the last two years.

Scratched in his notebook is a job opening that has given him more hope than any other in a while. He had to plan when he could take the typing test around which days the public library in Picayune was open. 

It’s at a call center that pays $13.35 an hour. It’s in Bogalusa, Louisiana.

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