U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker has tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced in a release Thursday morning.
Wicker sought a test after experiencing mild symptoms, his spokesman Phillip Waller said in a statement.
“Senator Wicker is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, is in good health, and is being treated by his Tupelo-based physician,” Waller said. “He is isolating, and everyone with whom Senator Wicker has come in close contact with recently has been notified.”
Wicker, the 70-year-old Republican, has served Mississippi in the Senate since 2007. He previously served in the U.S. House.
Wicker has encouraged Mississippians to get vaccinated for COVID-19, and called vaccinations “a miracle shot.”
“Each new shot in the arm will help our state and the nation finally put this pandemic behind us,” Wicker said in March.
Wicker is the second breakthrough case reported in the Senate, with vaccinated Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina testing positive earlier this month.
Schools are now allowed to implement hybrid schedules — or a combination of virtual learning and in-person school days — after the State Board of Education approved a temporary policy revision on Thursday.
The board voted unanimously to allow school districts to utilize this schedule until Oct. 31 of this year. The Mississippi Department of Education cited the increased number of COVID-19 cases among school-aged children as the reason for bringing the policy to the board.
Hybrid schedules differ from one district to another but generally involve half of a school’s student body learning virtually and the other half in-person for part of the week. The two groups then swap, with the former virtual learners coming into the school while the former in-person students learn virtually.
The goal is to minimize the number of children students on a school campus at one time and to reduce transmission of the virus. Last week 20,334 students were in quarantine across 803 schools, according to state Department of Health data. More than 7,400 students, teachers and staff tested positive for the virus.
“We did confer with the Mississippi Department of Health (on this). We were hearing from superintendents who were expressing concern about the inability to provide adequate social distancing space in the schools,” said Carey Wright, state superintendent of education. “The Department of Health seems to think this is about an 8-week window, so we thought this would provide some relief to districts that are having trouble with that.”
The news comes as Children’s of Mississippi announced its highest-ever number of pediatric patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 on Thursday. Over the weekend, an eighth grader in Smith County School District died several days after being diagnosed with the virus.
The policy may be extended beyond Oct. 31 depending upon the status of the pandemic.
Board member Ronnie McGehee asked about the possibility of making the policy retroactive to the beginning of the school year, but that was not considered.
“The penetration of this virus knows no boundaries. And it doesn’t matter if you’re small sized district, or medium or large … To continue instruction, educators need the flexibility to protect their communities,” he said.
Last year, schools had the option of using an all virtual, hybrid or traditional in-person model.
This school year, the board on July 15 required schools to offer in-person learning as the primary mode of teaching for the 2021-22 school year. Local school boards may develop specific policies regarding virtual options for students who have medical conditions and district-wide virtual instruction in the event of a coronavirus outbreak, weather event, or some other emergency.
Chief Accountability Officer Paula Vanderford said at the time the department brought the policy to the board, “we did not anticipate the rapid rise in COVID cases so early in the school year.” The board last met on July 15, four days before the state saw its first big spike in daily cases of COVID-19.
Black and Hispanic Mississippians pay a larger percentage of income in state and local taxes than higher earning white Mississippians, a new study says.
“Black households pay an average of 8.7% of their income in state and local tax while Hispanic families pay 9.1%,” according to a recently released study by non-profit One Voice, based on data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “Those rates are significantly above the statewide average tax rate of 8.4% and the average rate paid by white households of 8.2%.”
The studies have been conducted at least in part because legislative leaders are considering significant changes to the state’s tax laws. Gov. Tate Reeves wants to phase out the state’s income tax, which accounts for about one-third of the state’s general fund revenue stream, without offering any additional tax increases to offset the lost funds. House Speaker Philip Gunn is proposing a massive tax swap that includes increasing the state’s sales tax while phasing out the income tax.
A joint House and Senate committee formed by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Gunn is preparing to have hearings on the state’s tax structure.
The recently released study, as well as one earlier this year, compiled by One Voice and the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy argue both Reeves’ and Gunn’s plans would further escalate the tax burden on Mississippi’s low income families while giving the wealthy a tax break.
According to the most recent study, the bottom 80% of Mississippians — earning less than $77,500 annually — pay a greater percentage of their income in state and local taxes than do those in the top 20%.
Kyra Roby, a policy analyst for One Voice, said, the top 20% of taxpayers “are paying proportionately less than they should be, which is why the bottom 80% has to pick up the slack and pay more than what would be proportionately fair. This amounts to a 1.1% income boost for the top 20% and a 1.6% income penalty for the bottom 80%. In other words, in order for the top 20%’s share of income to be equal to the share of taxes paid, they’d need to pay 1.1% more of their income on taxes. In order for the bottom 80%’s share of income to be equal to the share of taxes paid, they’d need to pay 1.6% less of their income on taxes.”
The first One Voice study released in March found a person in the top 1% with average income of $924,000 would pay $28,610 less per year in combined state taxes under Gunn’s proposal, while the next 4% of state income earners would save about $3,760 in taxes on average. Based on the analysis conducted by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, those earning $49,100 or above would pay less in taxes under the Gunn plan, while individuals earning less than that would pay more in state taxes than they currently are paying.
Both studies found that under the state’s current tax structure the income tax is the only mechanism that places more of a tax burden on the wealthiest than on low income Mississippians.
The sales and excise tax exacerbates the inequity, according to the study. The study found that Mississippi’s Black households pay on average 30% on average above the level paid by white households in sale and excise taxes while Hispanic households pay 27% above average.
The reason for the discrepancy is that the sales and excise taxes place a greater burden on the poor and Black and Hispanic households in Mississippi are more likely than white households to fall into low income categories.
While Gunn and Reeves want to eliminate the income tax, One Voice advocates:
A more graduated personal income tax structure that would result in the wealthy paying more.
The elimination of the personal income tax exemption for the wealthy.
The reduction of the state’s dependence on the sales tax.
An estate tax levied on the wealthy. Mississippi is among the 38 states without an estate tax, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
One Voice advocates for Mississippi’s poor and working families. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy is a progressive think tank that provides analysis of federal, state and local taxes.
Clinton football coach and friend of the show Judd Boswell stops by to share his insights into the 2021 high school season and what it’s like to head into another uncertain season.
To help hospitals wade through the current staffing crisis amid a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections that is stripping the state’s healthcare system down for parts, the Mississippi Department of Health issued an order on Wednesday that permits certified paramedics, as well as regular and advanced emergency medical technicians to care for patients in any part of a Mississippi hospital.
“This has been a pandemic of resource squeezes,” State Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said. “We are fighting amongst ourselves for resources. Outside the state, companies are paying a lot to lure staff away. So it is a challenge, but a lot of people are staying here.”
The lack of staffed hospital beds in Mississippi has left patients waiting days for a hospital bed. As of Thursday morning, there were only six open intensive care unit (ICU) beds open across the state, with 46 patients waiting for an ICU bed. Additionally, 251 Mississippians were waiting for an emergency room (ER) bed.
“We are clearly at the worst part of the pandemic that we’ve seen throughout, and it’s continuing to worsen,” Dobbs said.
Mississippi has around 2,000 fewer nurses working than it did a year ago, and every hospital in the state is feeling that strain. The University of Mississippi Medical Center has constructed two field hospitals in parking garages to help with patient overflow and provide monoclonal antibody treatments to keep infected people from being hospitalized.
This fourth wave of COVID-19 infections continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Between July 20 and Aug. 16, 98% of cases (56,748), 89% of hospitalizations (302) and 86% of deaths (303) were among unvaccinated people.
The threat of the delta variant has motivated more Mississippians to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Last week, more than 71,000 Mississippians took the shot, the highest number seen since the end of April. Dobbs said that the increased vaccination rate will pay dividends down the road and help depress the level of transmission that’s occurring rapidly across the state.
“This is going to pay huge dividends in a few weeks, but it’s not going to make a difference this week, or even next week,” Dobbs said. “This is something that’s going to help us in the fall, in September. But still, this is a critical first step to making sure that we’re protecting these folks.”
As the delta variant pushes Mississippi’s healthcare system to the brink and sends coronavirus cases skyrocketing, several advocacy organizations are hosting free COVID-19 vaccination clinics and providing accessible information about the pandemic in immigrant communities across the state.
The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA), the Jackson Free Clinic and the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity (IAJE) have been working since April to administer COVID-19 shots and combat misinformation about the vaccine and the pandemic in Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities in Mississippi.
Across the state, immigrants have settled in rural and small-town communities, centered around agricultural labor and poultry plants in Mississippi, where mostly Latin American immigrants work. In places like Scott County, nearly 12% of the population is Hispanic. This is where one of the state’s largest poultry plants is located — and where one of the nation’s largest single-day ICE raids occurred in 2019.
Fear of ICE and the government’s immigration policies, compounded with fear of the coronavirus pandemic, has increased the need for advocacy organizations like MIRA and IAJE to go directly into Hispanic and immigrant communities to provide access to vaccines, healthcare and reliable information about the pandemic, Lorena Quiroz-Lewis, IAJE founder and director, said.
“Fear, I think, is a part of life of the undocumented person, and then we had the hateful rhetoric of the last eight years,” Quiroz-Lewis told Mississippi Today. “(Poultry plant) working conditions are what lead to (COVID-19) breakouts…The conditions that we’re working in make us more prone to catch COVID-19, so this is why we definitely need to be vaccinated.”
Since April, the Jackson Free Clinic, a volunteer-based clinic that provides free healthcare to uninsured Mississippians, has collaborated with immigrant advocacy organizations to provide over 1,100 COVID-19 vaccine doses, with 955 doses being administered to Hispanic Mississippians, Michael Hohl, Jackson Free Clinic outreach officer, told Mississippi Today.
Hohl said by traveling to immigrant communities across the state, the Jackson Free Clinic is helping reduce barriers of access, like transportation to clinics or having to take off work to travel or be vaccinated. He also said collaborating with IAJE and MIRA, known and trusted organizations within Hispanic and immigrant communities in Mississippi, are vital to the success of the vaccination drives.
The Jackson Free Clinic is a volunteer-based clinic that provides free healthcare to uninsured people in Mississippi. Credit: Michael Hohl, Jackson Free Clinic
“We see the value in partnering with people’s trusted local community organizations,” Hohl said. “If you can go to someone's place where they feel comfortable, somewhere where they don't feel intimidated at all, it breaks down the first barrier, and allows us to address some more personal and private concerns...It gives people, and the physicians, individual time with the patient that they vaccinated, so they're able to ask their questions.”
MIRA community organizer Luis Espinoza also said other barriers, like language and the price of healthcare, can deter immigrants from seeking medical care and COVID-19 vaccinations. Since their first vaccination drive in Richland in April when less than 20 people came to be vaccinated, trust has grown in the Hispanic community. Now, more and more immigrants and Hispanic people are being vaccinated and seeking out information about the coronavirus.
“It’s been difficult to convince people, convince families to get the vaccine, but over time, they started talking to each other and say ‘no, it’s OK to take the vaccine,’” Espinoza said.
Since the beginning, Quiroz-Lewis at IAJE has been focusing on not just vaccinations but also providing immigrant communities with COVID-19 education. IAJE’s promotoras de salud, or community health workers, is a group of immigrant women in rural Mississippi towns who provide free resources, like videos on how to care for yourself if you have COVID-19 and care packages with over-the-counter medications, vitamins and food. Quiroz-Lewis said this helps “the community educate the community.”
The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance held a free COVID-19 vaccination drive in Carthage on Aug. 14. Credit: Luis Espinoza, Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance
“We need to be concentrating on community members, the gente, the people, and teaching them because they’re the ones who sit in these quinceañeras, who sit in these public spaces, who sit in these churches,” she told Mississippi Today. “That, to me, is valuable and can help combat these myths that are circulating widely.”
Additional free vaccination drives are upcoming Aug. 21 in Forest from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and Aug. 28 in Laurel from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“(Mississippi Development Authority) Executive Director John Rounsaville’s resignation was tendered on August 13 following an investigation into his conduct,” Reeves’ spokesperson Bailey Martin wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “He is removed from day-to-day operations of the agency and on administrative leave until the end of the month.”
On Aug. 13, Reeves issued a press release saying Rounsaville was “stepping down to pursue new opportunity” effective Aug. 31, 2021. Reeves, in that same release, went on to praise Rounsaville’s leadership at MDA and said, “I wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Rounsaville was quoted in the Aug. 13 press release praising Reeves and saying he was resigning “to focus more on my family and spend less time traveling.”
But on Tuesday, Mississippi Today reported that sexual misconduct allegations led to Rounsaville’s resignation. Sources familiar with the incident and investigation said Rounsaville appeared intoxicated and propositioned the three subordinate female MDA employees for sex and rubbed against or touched them. Additionally, Reeves’ office received a recommendation that Rounsaville’s employment be terminated 15 days before his resignation was announced.
On Tuesday, asked for comment on his resignation in light of the sexual misconduct allegations, Rounsaville said he voluntarily resigned.
In a written statement to Mississippi Today on Tuesday, Rounsaville said: “I didn’t live up to my own standards or MDA’s standards. My behavior was not reflective of my character. I deeply regret that, and I apologize to everyone involved. I believed voluntarily resigning was the appropriate consequence. And, it was my hope to save MDA, my colleagues, and my family further embarrassment by doing so.”
The written response from Reeves’ office on Wednesday was in response to questions from Mississippi Today. Those questions included asking why, after receiving a personnel investigative report on Rounsaville on July 29 that recommended his employment be terminated, Rounsaville’s resignation didn’t come until Aug. 13. They also included questions why his resignation was not effective until the end of the month, and whether any action was being taken to prevent Rounsaville from having contact with the subordinate female employees he allegedly harassed while he works out his final two weeks.
Often, when state employees resign, they make it effective at a month’s end to accrue more service time in the state retirement system. As MDA director, Rounsaville makes a state salary of $180,000 a year. MDA directors typically also receive a stipend from a consortium of private businesses under a 2012 state law. The total pay cannot exceed $250,000 a year.
Reeves’ response said: “The governor follows state law and State Personnel Board rules which direct that in any matter such as this, an investigation be conducted by a professional, independent third party. If such an investigation is completed and the recommendation calls for the resignation of a public official, the Governor will accept it or he would demand it if necessary. After a thorough review of the facts of this case, he allowed the director to resign.
“For the protection of state employees, the identities of individuals making personnel complaints are known only to the investigators and not to anyone else in the administration or media. State statute prohibits disclosure of personnel records and prevents the Governor and other administrative officials from even discussing the matter. Only the claimant and the respondent have a right to discuss such a matter publicly.”
State law allows exemption from open records and open meetings laws for personnel records and matters, but does not include a prohibition on them being released or discussed.
The incidents in question occurred on July 9, when Rounsaville, other MDA employees and economic development officials from across the state attended the Mississippi Economic Development Council annual conference at the Beau Rivage Casino Resort in Biloxi. Sometime in the early morning hours of July 9, Rounsaville and others were drinking in a still-crowded casino bar when he allegedly made sexual advances toward the three women.
Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the chief executive of Mississippi’s largest medical center, is no longer mincing words about so many Mississippians’ unwillingness to protect their neighbors.
The chief executive of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, long the most outspoken state leader since the COVID-19 pandemic began, delivered a brutal, tough-love message to Mississippi on Tuesday as the state’s hospital system is on its last breath: Get vaccinated. Wear masks. Protect the future of the state. Do better.
Woodward gave the speech as state officials unveiled a second field hospital set up in a UMMC parking garage — a necessity because the large medical center, like every other hospital in the state, has no additional staff capacity to adequately serve the surge of COVID patients. Samaritan’s Purse, a national disaster relief organization, is staffing and funding the second field hospital that will also include ICU beds.
Mississippi, Woodward said, has “failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat” and “failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves, to protect our families, to protect our children, and to protect our state.”
Her speech, no doubt, should raise eyebrows across the state with the second-lowest vaccination rate in the nation.
Below is the full transcript of Woodward’s speech:
“I want to thank the Samaritan’s Purse organization for coming to Mississippi, and for assisting us in this disaster response. And I also want to thank all of those who behind the scenes made this happen. And everybody — the army of people that have been out in this garage these last few days, turning it into a real thing.
You know, Samaritan’s Purse right now is responding to a disaster in Haiti — a natural disaster in Haiti. But the response that they are responding to here in Mississippi today is a disaster of our own making.
We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat. We have failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves, to protect our families, to protect our children, and to protect our state.
We have an effective and available, a safe, and a free vaccine that we are not using to its fullest capacity. This time last year in press conferences, we all talked about, ‘Boy, if we can just get to that place where we’ve got a vaccine, we’ll get on the other side of this.’ What I have to say to the citizens of Mississippi is we have that vaccine, we have that tool. And we have not appropriately and fully used it. This where we are. We do not have to be here, but this is where we are.
Our healthcare workforce all across the state is traumatized. We are in trouble. I implore you, if you have not yet gotten vaccinated, please do so right away. It is the right thing to do for yourself, for your family, for our children all across the state of Mississippi, and for the future of our state.
We do not need any mandates to do the right thing. This is a decision each individual can make.
I have spent a lot of time over these last years defending Mississippi to colleagues across the country. And I have done that with great pride. I love this place. This is my home. I’m proud of Mississippi. But our actions this last year are not easy to defend.
I am grateful that there are resources out there, people that are out there that are willing at this point to come help us. I’m grateful for the D-mat team that’s over in Garage B. I’m very grateful to the Samaritan’s Purse team that will start seeing patients here tomorrow. I’m grateful that these people are willing to come in and help us as a state.
But I want to say again, and I want to be as clear as I can be: We are not out of this. In order for October and November to look different than August looks and the way that September will look, we have to do something. And what that is: We have to get vaccinated. Wear masks, get vaccinated. Let’s be responsible for ourselves and to each other. Thank you.”
I want Governor Tate Reeves to succeed. We’re in the middle of a medical disaster that features an awful virus that doesn’t care what political party you belong to. It doesn’t care who criticizes who. It doesn’t care what your base thinks. Recently the governor sent out a tweet where he said what is in the cartoon bubble. Haley Barbour didn’t ask for Katrina. But he rose to the occasion, used his connections and leadership ability to help the state recover and Mississippi was better off for it.
The numbers are in. Last week’s “Field of Dreams” baseball game, featuring the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees and a whole lot of corn, was a smash TV hit. The game drew six million viewers, the largest audience for a regular season baseball game in 16 years.
The Sox and Yankees played a helluva game, but the ballpark, carved out of an Iowa cornfield, was the star of the show, with first Kevin Costner and then the two teams seemingly wandering onto the field through row after row of corn.
Rick Cleveland
It was, in a word, beautiful, and harkened back to the splendid “Field of Dreams” movie, starring Costner, which debuted 32 years ago.
What you might not know is this: Three Mississippians played a huge role in the making of that movie.
You probably know about James Earl Jones, born in the Tate County community of Arkabutla, who plays a most memorable role and lends a most compelling presence — but he is not all. The movie was the brainchild of brothers Lawrence and Charles Gordon, born in Yazoo City and raised in Belzoni, the sons of a Jewish furniture store owner. Larry and Charles Gordon produced Field of Dreams.
Charles Gordon died of cancer last October, but Larry Gordon, 85, is still living and working. And he was watching the evening of Aug. 12 when the first Major League game was played on the same Iowa farm where his iconic movie was shot.
“It was quite something wasn’t it?” Gordon said by phone Tuesday from Los Angeles. “It was a beautiful scene, much like the movie. It was amazing to watch and I think it showed that our movie definitely is still relevant.”
Larry Gordon, the native Mississippian who produced the “Field of Dreams” movie.
“Field of Dreams” has stood the test of time. It has become almost like our generation’s “It’s a Wonderful World.” Who would have thought that a movie, made in Iowa, about farming, baseball and with so much implausible fantasy mixed in, would become such an American treasure?
Larry Gordon and I first spoke back in 1989 just after Field of Dreams debuted. The beloved Mississippi writer Willie Morris, like the Gordon brothers a Yazoo City native, put us together. Gordon had produced more than 200 films, many highly successful, but said “Dreams” was by far his favorite.
“It’s not about the money,” he told me then. “It’s really not. It’s the way people react to this movie. It touches people.”
Gordon told me about a conversation with Major League pitcher Ron Darling, then with the Mets, who watched the movie one afternoon before pitching that night. “Ron told me he cried like a baby at the end of the movie, and was so inspired that he went out and pitched a shutout that night,” Gordon said.
Recently, Gordon was at dinner in a group with NBA superstar LeBron James. The conversation turned to movies and James said Field of Dreams was his favorite.
Said Gordon, “The Dallas Cowboys might be America’s team, but I often feel like Field of Dreams has become America’s movie.
So much about the movie works: the scenery, the casting, the fantastical story itself. We have author W.P. Kinsella to thank for the story. The movie is based on Kinsella’s book, “Shoeless Joe.”
Larry Gordon read the book and was instantly smitten. “I knew I was gonna make a movie,” he said. It wasn’t that easy. Gordon figures he knocked on more doors than he can count to raise funding for the project.
Phil Alden Robinson, also smitten by the book, wrote the screenplay and directed the film. The obvious story is that Costner’s character risks his farm to build his own baseball field. The underlying story is about the relationships of fathers and sons. Costner’s character longs to mend a fractured relationship with his long-dead father. And that’s where the movie really hits home with Larry Gordon.
You see, Gordon left Belzoni to attend first Tulane and then Ole Miss law school. In 1959, he left for Hollywood where he basically was doing odd jobs, working as an errand boy, eking out a living. His father pleaded with him to come back to the Delta and eventually inherit the furniture store. Gordon had other dreams.
“My father was bitterly disappointed in me,” Gordon said. “He thought what I was doing made no sense.”
A letter his father wrote to a friend in 1959 still hangs, framed, in Gordon’s office. In the letter, his father says Larry needs to learn he searching for something that doesn’t exist, that he needed to return to Mississippi and make something of himself. Shortly after the letter was written, Larry Gordon’s father died suddenly and unexpectedly.
When the letter reached Gordon more than a quarter century later, he was the president of 20th Century Fox.
All that makes Larry Gordon’s answer to one of my questions make all the more sense. What was he thinking as he watched the “Field of Dreams” game last week?
Answered Gordon, “You know, I was wishing my father was watching with me.”
