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A bill that has angered many state historians would have the governor and lieutenant governor appoint members to the board that oversees the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, a move opponents say would politicize an agency that has remained above that fray for more than 100 years.

“This is an outrage,” said Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, a vocal opponent of the bill. “… I don’t know of any other board or agency that has for decades been running so well. Changing the board to a bunch of political appointees is very troubling … They’ve been insulated from the political whims of the moment. Where would we be if (former Gov. Ross Barnett, a segregationist) had appointed Archives and History board members?”

Currently the nine-person board’s members appoint their own successors, a “self-perpetuating” board, subject to state Senate confirmation of members. MDAH preserves and provides access to the state’s archives and records, does historic preservation work for the state’s historic sites and structures and runs numerous museums, including the world-class Mississippi Civil Rights and Mississippi History museums.

Senate Bill 2727, authored by Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Long Beach, would have the governor and lieutenant governor name board appointees, subject to Senate confirmation. The bill passed the Senate and this week was passed by a House committee, but only after it made changes that would ensure more deliberations, and a trip back to the Senate, before it could be passed into law.

Thompson, during Senate committeework, said the change would simply bring Archives and History’s board appointments in line with many others — political appointments by the state’s elected executives.

Sen. John Polk, chairman of the Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee that first handled the bill, said having the governor and lieutenant governor make appointments would bring new thought and ideas to the board, and prevent myopic thinking.

But 46 Mississippi historians, many from the state’s colleges and universities and from the Mississippi Humanities Council, penned a letter urging lawmakers to “not interfere with the independence of an entity that has done so much good work for our state.”

“As scholars and teachers of history at Mississippi’s colleges and universities, we have benefitted from the considerable resources of the Department of Archives and History,” the historians wrote to lawmakers. “Whether conducting research in its vast archives, examining its artifacts spanning 13,000 years of Mississippi history, or participating in one of the Department’s many public events, we have directly experienced the incredible asset of a competent and well-run state history department.”

The historians said MDAH has become one of the most respected such agencies in the country. They said its running of the Civil Rights and Mississippi History museums “has rightfully garnered nationwide praise and acknowledgement” and the “Two Museums” have become one of the state’s largest tourist attractions since opening in 2017.

“Last year, the department also modeled for the world how to navigate historic moments in a way that embraces the future while respecting the past,” the historians wrote. “The Department showed integrity, dignity, and transparency throughout its role hosting the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag … As a direct result of the Department’s leadership, the process was dignified and helped bring Mississippians together like few events in the state’s long history.”

The historians pleaded with lawmakers to not interfere with the independence of the agency and suggested to improve it, “what is needed is an increase in funding.”

“Please do not politicize its board of trustees,” the historians wrote.

READ MORE: Here are some key bills to watch during the 2021 legislative session.

The post House advances bill that would entangle Mississippi Archives and History board in politics appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey visits with award-winning director Tate Taylor (The Help, Get On Up, The Girl on the Train, Ma and his new film, Breaking News in Yuba County) on his career, his move to Natchez and his belief in Mississippi’s film industry. Taylor also talks about Film Natchez and its goal to grow Natchez’s and Mississippi’s creative community. Taylor talks about the importance of chasing your dream and what Mississippi needs to do to make sure its youth has a chance to realize those dreams.

Episode 4.

The post Mississippi Stories: Tate Taylor appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A teacher with nearly two decades of experience in schools across Mississippi, Chanda Ferguson has done everything she can to raise her salary to support her family, including three kids. 

In addition to having a master’s degree, she is National Board Certified, the highest certification a teacher can achieve. The certification process costs money, but the state reimburses the costs, in addition to awarding anywhere from a $6,000 to $10,000 increase in salary for certified teachers.

Ferguson, a kindergarten teacher in the A-rated South Pontotoc Elementary School, considered going for her doctoral degree to get a $5,000 yearly bump in pay. The problem, however, is the cost of the degree outweighs the salary increase. 

“I don’t know if I could recoup my cost (for the degree) before I’m eligible to retire,” Ferguson explained, noting a single doctoral class at Mississippi State University runs around $1,500, plus the cost of dissertation hours and a $200 fee to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). 

Despite her achievements and 19 years of experience in the classroom, she still doesn’t make what her husband, a community college instructor, made just five years into his career. 

So, she currently works weekends at a local restaurant and as a mentor for the World Class Teaching Program at the University of Mississippi, where she mentors teachers who are candidates for National Board certification. Her husband also works a second job as a part-time adjunct instructor for Mississippi State University.

Emily Speck, her boss and school principal, said she is an “outstanding” teacher.

“She is passionate about students and it shows in her classroom,” she said. 

But she must direct some of that passion to making enough money to pay for her children’s extracurricular activities, go on vacations and sometimes simply pay the bills. 

Recent reports from the Southern Regional Education Board and Mississippi First revealed startling data about teacher salaries. Take-home pay for new and even mid-career teachers is extremely low compared to neighboring states, according to the SREB’s teacher pay dashboard that uses data from the 2018-19 school year.

In turn, there’s been a 32% decline in graduates of educator preparation programs from 2013-2014 to 2017-2018, and the out-of-state pipeline of teachers has diminished almost entirely with a 96% drop in four years, according to the Mississippi First report. In short, fewer college students are choosing teaching as a career, and educators coming from out of state have declined to almost nil.  

In Mississippi, teachers are paid primarily with state funds. The average salary for a classroom teacher this school year is $46,862. Some districts also include supplements from local tax dollars, and additional stipends are available for teachers in certain underserved areas. 

The report concludes the declining value of teacher salaries coupled with the rising cost of college attendance could be responsible for the state’s teacher shortage. Current proposals to raise teachers’ annual salary by $1,000 do not come close to the $3,000 across-the-board raise, plus an additional stipend for teachers in certain areas of the state, the report says is needed to make a difference.

Two young, single teachers, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution in their jobs, work additional jobs to make ends meet — including paying off student loans. 

“This is my 7th year teaching, and I’ve (worked additional jobs) every year,” one said, noting she works as a bartender and waitress two to three days a week. 

She’s still paying off her student loans from college, though a special grant covered the costs of her master’s degree. In addition, she has a large family that occasionally depends on her for support, particularly since her dad has fallen ill with a terminal disease and is unable to work.

Another fellow teacher, who has some financial support from her family and fewer student loans, still works extra jobs to survive financially. 

Both teachers know they are meant to be in the classroom. They both say the same thing about their first year teaching, which can often be a challenge. 

A few months into their first semester, they both say they had hit their stride.

But the financial stresses make it difficult, and they often wonder how they will be able to make it work with a family.

“I always pictured myself more ‘settled’ by now,” said the 29-year-old teacher. But her only day off every week is Sunday, and that doesn’t leave much time for a personal life. 

Ferguson, a mother of three who decided to become a teacher partly because of what she described as a “family friendly” schedule, said the more years that pass, the less true that becomes of the career.

“Every year it’s gotten a little bit more demanding, and even more so this year with virtual teaching, online learning platforms and everything we’ve had to learn so quickly. I love what I do … but unfortunately there’s not a lot of reasons to stay with it, especially for young (people) coming out of college,” she said, noting other benefits have dwindled as well. “When I first started, you only had to work three years to be vested in the retirement system. Now it’s eight.”

A 13-year veteran teacher in a Delta school district, who also spoke off the record to protect his job, said he and his wife make their finances work with strict budgeting.

But he also spoke of extra costs that fall on districts like his — especially during the pandemic. 

He said his district told teachers last semester they couldn’t use their procurement cards for classroom supplies for disinfectant and hand sanitizer, and the district didn’t provide enough to make him and his students feel safe. 

Then there’s the needs of the students in a low-income area even without the added pressures of the pandemic.

“Our kids need so much stuff, especially in the Delta,” he said, noting how he spends his personal money buying things like snacks and bookbags for his students. 

“We’re doing double the work — we’re having to prepare for kids that are present and kids that are virtual,” he said. “They made us essential workers but they don’t pay us like essential workers.” 

One teacher was working her second job as a bartender at a wedding and struck up a conversation with a guest.

“I told him I was a teacher and he said, ‘My daughter wanted to do that, but I told her no, the only way you can make it (as a teacher) is if you have another income,’” she recalled. “I wanted to argue with the man but there I was, working my second job.” 

The post Why teachers in Mississippi work second jobs to get by appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Five years ago this month, Mississippi Today launched as the state’s first nonprofit, nonpartisan, digital-only news outlet. The vision of our founders and early team was that of an entrepreneurial start-up: build a new way of delivering news and usher in an age of journalism that answers to the reader, not to a mass media holding company.    

We cut our teeth on Capitol coverage and watchdog reporting, and have since grown to cover a myriad of beats, never straying from our mission of providing the best journalism for Mississippians without the barriers of paywalls and subscriptions. Our reporters listen, dig deep and mine data to give you the full picture of what is happening in our state, bringing awareness to systems, issues and stories that have long gone untold. 

We will be celebrating our five year milestone all year long, and as we kick off this anniversary, I want to say thank you for reading our site, sharing our stories and helping us get the word out about Mississippi Today. We are humbled by the support we’ve been shown since 2016, and are especially grateful to become a part of the lives of so many new readers over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Over the next month, we’ll be sharing more about our past and future. I invite you to join us in celebrating the value of mission-driven journalism focused on Mississippi.  We intend to be around for a long time, and we need your continued support to make it happen.

Being a nonprofit is central to who we are as a newsroom. It means we are driven by values, not by dividends, and it means that we rely on donations from readers to power the work we do: paying for records requests, keeping the lights on (literally), providing our team with health care and much more.

To our current membership: thank you, truly, for your generous support. Our work is not possible without you.

To our readers who are not yet members: thank you for your readership and engagement. I hope you’ll consider joining our community of members by making a donation. Our journalists may be the ones writing the stories, but without you, those stories go untold.

The post Mississippi’s first nonprofit newsroom marks five years in March appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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

Editor’s note: Based on House leaders’ comments, we reported in an earlier version of this story that the House had killed SB 2765, the legislative medical marijuana alternative proposal. But House Ways and Means later took the bill up, overhauled it to match a voter-passed medical marijuana program, and passed it on to the full House before Tuesday’s deadline.

A House panel on Tuesday gutted a Senate medical marijuana proposal and inserted the medical marijuana language voters passed as a constitutional amendment in November.

“I’m interested in seeing that bill die — I think it just did die,” said Rep. Robert Johnson III, House minority leader. “The people have spoken, with a constitutional amendment about medical marijuana, and that bill went against the spirit of what the people decided.”

Johnson made those statements about Senate Bill 2765 on Tuesday afternoon, when it appeared the bill had died, with no Ways and Means Committee meeting called on the floor for the afternoon to take the bill up. Later, Ways and Means had a meeting and took the bill up, then struck the Senate language and inserted Initiative 65. It now goes to the full House and if passed, back to the Senate in its amended form.

Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, who helped lead, and fund, the successful citizen initiative to enshrine medical marijuana use in the state constitution, offered the amendment to replace the Senate bill language with Initiative 65’s language.

Senate Bill 2765 was originally a legislative alternative to the medical marijuana program voters overwhelmingly approved in November with Ballot Initiative 65, which is now being challenged in the state Supreme Court. The bill passed the Senate only after much wrangling and a “do-over” vote in the wee hours of the morning in mid-February. It was initially drafted to create its own medical marijuana program, regardless of whether the court upholds the voter-passed program. But it was amended during heated Senate debate to take effect only if the courts strike down the voter-passed program.

The legislative move had many Initiative 65 supporters crying foul, claiming the Legislature was trying to usurp the will of the voters. After lawmakers failed for years to approve use of medical marijuana despite a groundswell of public support, voters took matters in hand in November with Initiative 65.

READ MORE: Mississippi’s medical marijuana mess

Jessica Rice, director of the Mississippi Cannabis Trade Association was among many watching the legislative alternative marijuana bill with skepticism and trepidation. She questioned whether lawmakers were truly trying to provide a backstop in case courts strike down Initiative 65. If so, she said, they would codify Initiative 65 — as the House panel did — not come up with a proposal with higher taxes and more or different regulations as in the Senate version.

“Our position is that the people have already had an option to vote on a legislative created program, and they chose not to,” Rice said last week. “Just because this is up before the Supreme Court does not give the Legislature a second bite at the apple … I think this is about control — they want to be able to be in control of the program, but people have already rejected that.”

But many state leaders and lawmakers had lamented that Initiative 65 was drafted to favor the marijuana industry and is just short of legalized recreational use. It puts the Mississippi State Department of Health in charge of the program, with no oversight by elected officials. It also prevents standard taxation of the marijuana, and any fees collected by the health department can only be used to run and expand the marijuana program, not go into state taxpayer coffers. The measure allows little regulation by local governments, no limits on the number of dispensaries and otherwise leaves many specifics … unspecified.

The Senate proposal would have taxed medical marijuana, with a 4% excise at cultivation, and with a 7% sales tax patients would pay, which was originally 10% in earlier drafts of the bill. Most of the taxes collected would have gone to education, including early learning and college scholarships. And the Departments of Agriculture and Revenue would be in charge.

The bill also would have imposed large licensing fees on growers and dispensary shop owners. Originally, those fees would have been $100,000 for growers and $20,000 for dispensaries. Those were reduced to $15,000 and $5,000, respectively, on Thursday night. Other changes were made in an effort to assuage those who believed such fees would keep small businesses and farms out of the game.

The bill barely gained the three-fifths vote it needed to pass the Senate. It faced a Tuesday deadline for the Ways and Means Committee to pass it on to the full House. Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar had said late Tuesday he was still undecided on what to do with the bill.

He noted the Ways and Means meeting late Tuesday was not announced on the House floor, as is standard procedure.

“No, it wasn’t announced,” Lamar said. “We just added it to the schedule. I know that’s not the usual way we do it, but I wasn’t there to announce it on the floor.”

This left many believing the bill had died on deadline without a vote Tuesday — apparently, including House Speaker Philip Gunn.

Gunn said: “The issue, or the challenge here is that the people voted on it in November, and they spoke pretty strongly … I know there is a lawsuit, but that can be dealt with later if we need to. If the Supreme Court throws out that vote, then the Legislature can come back and deal with it. If they uphold it, well then I don’t know what the Legislature would have to do with it then.”

The post House guts Senate medical marijuana bill, inserts Initiative 65 language appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The state Senate, late on a key deadline day, passed a bill through committee that would give Mississippi public school teachers pay raises, ensuring that the proposed raises remain alive in the legislative process and aren’t linked to a sweeping House tax bill.

At one point Tuesday, it appeared that both of the bills written with the sole intent to provide a pay raise to teachers would die as legislative leaders drew battle lines over the controversial House proposal that would restructure the state’s tax system.

The House refused on Tuesday to take up a Senate bill that would increase teacher salaries by $1,000, ensuring that bill’s death. The Senate, meanwhile, appeared poised to let die a House bill that would increase teacher salaries by a similar amount. Late in the day, though, Senate leaders blinked and passed the House proposal.

At the heart of the deadline theatrics was debate over House Speaker Philip Gunn’s tax proposal, which would eliminate the state’s personal income tax, cut the grocery tax in half and raise the sales tax on most other items by 2.5 cents on each $1 purchase. Gunn’s proposal, which he considers his most substantive policy proposal in his three terms as speaker, was met with public criticism by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and other Senate leaders.

Notably, Gunn included the teacher pay raise in his tax proposal, which several education advocates feared could lead to the teacher pay raise being caught up and potentially used as leverage to pass the tax plan. When asked Tuesday as the drama unfolded if there was a possibility the session could end without teachers receiving a raise, Gunn said, “I do not know. I do know if (teachers) support the income tax bill, there is more benefit to them.”

Senate Education Chair Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, who earlier in the day said he believed the House should take up the Senate pay raise bill, said he reversed course late in the day and passed out of his committee the House bill to “make sure politics did not enter the fray” for teachers.

“We greatly appreciate the Senate leadership on this most critical issue, particularly that of Chairman DeBar who has been supportive of a pay raise for teachers since he became Education Committee chair,” said Kelly Riley, executive director of the Mississippi Professional Educators. She said she was particularly appreciative of DeBar’s efforts to ensure teachers did not get caught up in the battle over the tax bill.

Gunn said earlier he incorporated the teacher pay language in the bill to highlight the fact it would result in about $3,000 in additional money for most teachers — about $2,000 from the income tax cut and $1,000 from the pay raise.

Hosemann has not ruled out the possibility of passing a version of the Gunn tax plan during the 2021 session, but he stressed that the proposal has many “unintended consequences” that he said could be detrimental to the state’s economy.

When asked earlier why the teacher pay plan was put into the House tax bill and whether a teacher pay raise was contingent on the tax bill passing, Gunn said, “Why would they not want both? No logical reason I can understand.”

The potential death of the pay raise bills on Tuesday would not necessarily have meant it would be impossible to provide a salary increase for K-12 grade teachers this session, but the process would become less certain and more chaotic. Gunn’s tax proposal, which faces a mid-March deadline for action in the Senate, would have become the best vehicle remaining to provide teachers a pay raise during the 2021 session.

“While being used as a bargaining chip is something to which we’ve become accustomed, it still stings,” said Erica Jones, president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, on Tuesday afternoon before the Senate passed the bill out of committee. “We suspected the pay raise and our educators’ livelihoods were being used as a political football. We wanted to be wrong.”

Jones continued: “That said, there is time for cooler heads to prevail. Legislative leaders can still find avenues independent of the tax bill to ensure Mississippi teachers get the pay raise they so deserve. This fight should be over the merits of the tax bill, and the tax bill alone. Leave educators out of it.”

After the Senate bill passed committee on Tuesday evening, the Mississippi Association of Educators praised DeBar and Senate leaders on social media, saying they are “thrilled to see a clean pay raise bill still alive.”

READ MORE: Education groups rip Speaker Gunn’s massive tax proposal

Another proposal also could be alive in the legislative process that has the legal code section that could be amended to provide a pay raise for teachers. Even with that hope alive, education groups fumed on Tuesday.

“This is politics at its worst,” Nancy Loome, executive director of The Parents’ Campaign, said before the Senate passed its bill. “Speaker Gunn is apparently willing to sacrifice teachers in order to get what he wants on a tax swap bill that is opposed by nearly every citizen and business group I can think of. Teachers have been put through the wringer. They deserve much better than the way they’ve been treated. I am hoping that the Senate will come through for our teachers and get a pay raise bill out of committee before tonight’s deadline.”

READ MORE: House leaders move to eliminate Mississippi income tax, raise sales and other taxes in landmark bill.

The post Mississippi teacher pay raise gets caught up in standoff over controversial tax proposal appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Tuesday that he’s lifting all state-imposed mask mandates across Mississippi and removing COVID-19 related restrictions on business operations. 

“The governor’s office is getting out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do,” Reeves said at a press conference.

The executive order, which will go into effect on March 3, replaces mask mandates and business restrictions with nonbinding recommendations that they continue to follow CDC guidelines. Reeves encouraged Mississippians to continue listening to the advice of public health officials like State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who continues to recommend people wear masks in public and avoid social gatherings.

Shortly before Reeves’ announcement, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas announced similar moves and declared his state would be “100%” open by March 10. Both governors attributed their decisions to declining COVID hospitalizations and the rollout of vaccines. 

Under Reeves’ new order, restrictions will remain on venues hosting collegiate sporting events. The maximum capacity for indoor arenas has been doubled to 50%.

Restrictions will also remain in place for both public and private K-12 schools, though they have been weakened. Masks will still be required where social distancing is not possible. Seating for K-12 extracurricular activities is now set at 50% maximum capacity outdoors and 25% indoors. 

Mask mandates are currently in effect in 75 of Mississippi’s 82 counties. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original statewide mandate issued by the governor on Aug. 4 with helping cases improve after a sharp summer spike. Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate on Sept. 30, but subsequently issued orders for individual counties.

Reeves said vaccines are a “new, better tool to combat COVID” than executive orders and expressed his distaste for signing them in the first place.

“The risk of overwhelming our hospitals with severe COVID cases is coming to a close. It gets less and less every single day we see more and more of our people, particularly those most vulnerable, vaccinated,” Reeves said. 

Reeves has drawn heavy criticism from multiple sides of the political spectrum over his handling of COVID-19 in Mississippi, with some decrying any COVID-related executive order as “tyrannical” and others criticizing his patchwork approach to mask mandates.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported on Monday that 407,647 people in Mississippi — about 14% of the state’s population — have received at least their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. About 219,000 people have received both doses since the state began distributing vaccines in December.

Thousands of vaccination appointments are currently available on the MSDH website. First responders and employees of K-12 schools, preschools and daycares became eligible for vaccination on Monday.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported on Monday that 407,647 people in Mississippi — about 14% of the state’s population — have received at least their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. About 219,000 people have received both doses since the state began distributing vaccines in December.

“There will still be COVID in our communities, perhaps for a significant amount of time in our state as well as across the country,” Reeves said. “We will all need to assess for ourselves and our families to handle the risks and rewards of every and every activity we choose to pursue.”

January saw the most coronavirus-related deaths in a single month in Mississippi, with 1,240 confirmed. The state also set new single day records for new cases: 3,255 cases on Jan. 7, and 98 deaths on Jan. 12.

Additionally, the number of COVID-19 cases, COVID-related hospital admissions and clinic visits for COVID-19 like illnesses in Mississippi have been trending sharply downward in 2021.

MSDH reported 301 new COVID-19 cases of COVID-19 and 44 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday. This brings Mississippi to a total of 295,295 coronavirus cases and 6,724 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves ditches mask mandates, COVID-related business restrictions appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A congressional ethics report made public this week claims that U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo misspent campaign and congressional funds, and says it found evidence he used his office to help his brother and used staff for personal errands and services.

Palazzo is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after a report was forwarded from the Office of Congressional Ethics in the summer. The OCE on Monday released its full report, which included allegations that had not yet been made public in the months-long probe.

Allegations have previously been reported that Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile wife nearly $200,000 through companies they own — including thousands to cover the mortgage, maintenance and upgrades to a riverfront home Palazzo owned and wanted to sell. A Mississippi Today report also questioned thousands in Palazzo campaign spending on swanky restaurants, sporting events, resort hotels, golfing and gifts.

The newly released report says it found “substantial” evidence that Palazzo used his position and office to help his brother, Kyle Palazzo. Kyle Palazzo, the report said, was prohibited from re-enlisting in the Navy for “affecting a fraudulent enlistment.” The report said Rep. Palazzo may have used his official office and resources to contact the assistant secretary of the Navy to help his brother’s efforts to re-enlist.

The report also questions Palazzo’s campaign paying his brother nearly $24,000 over 10 months as a “political coordinator” and letting Kyle Palazzo use the campaign’s credit card for food, gas, hotel rooms and other goods and services.

The report also says OCE found evidence that Palazzo used congressional staffers for personal errands and campaign work. It said that former staffers it interviewed “portrayed a district office that failed to separate official work from campaign and personal activities,” including shopping for his kids. For instance, one unidentified staffer said she and another spent an entire workday looking for iron-on clothing labels for Palazzo’s children’s clothes before they departed for summer camp. In 2011, during his first term in office, Palazzo faced allegations that he and his wife used congressional staffers for babysitting, chauffeuring kids around and moving.

READ MORE: Is Congressman Steven Palazzo’s campaign account a slush fund?

Palazzo has through spokespeople denied any wrongdoing and has hired former U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, a former House Ethics Committee member, as his lawyer in the matter. The OCE is a referral agency, with House Ethics deciding whether a member be further investigated, punished or the case handed off for criminal investigation.

“We look forward to the opportunity to go before the committee to present our case and our facts that we believe will clarify many of the inaccuracies in the OCE report,” Harper said Tuesday. “The House Committee on Ethics is very unique, in that it is the only committee that has an even number of Republicans and Democrats, regardless of which party is in power. They have a professional staff, and these members are all handpicked either by the speaker or the minority leader, and we look forward to this opportunity. And of course we will cooperate with them fully to provide them with any information that they may need.”

The OCE report released Monday said that Palazzo, his campaign treasurer and five current and former staffers refused to talk with the OCE for its investigation and that the congressman and his campaign failed to provide many requested documents. It suggested House Ethics subpoena witnesses and records.

Federal law and U.S. House rules prohibit conversion of campaign money to personal use. Violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act can carry felony criminal penalties.

The House Ethics Committee has made little comment on Palazzo’s case other than to confirm it is still investigating the matter. It could dismiss the allegations, offer its own rebuke of Palazzo, or pass the matter off for criminal investigation to the Department of Justice.

The probe into Palazzo’s campaign finances and related issues began after a challenger in last year’s GOP primary for the 4th District seat saw what he believed were irregularities in Palazzo’s campaign finance records and hired a private investigator. He then turned his findings over to the watchdog group the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics.

In a statement, Palazzo spokeswoman Colleen Kennedy said: “This matter is the direct result of false allegations made by a primary opponent and the Campaign Legal Center claiming that the Congressman’s campaign paid him for rent of a farm in Perkinston, Mississippi. Simple investigation shows that the payments were actually made for a property in D’Iberville, Mississippi owned by the Congressman, appropriately and legally used for a campaign office and rented at fair market value.

“Congressman Palazzo will continue to serve his constituents with honor and integrity, and he looks forward to having this matter concluded as soon as possible.”

The post Ethics report: ‘Substantial’ evidence of Rep. Palazzo wrongdoing appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi will receive 24,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine this week, days after the federal government authorized use of the third vaccine.

The J&J vaccine only requires a single shot, unlike the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which require two doses. In addition to being able to rapidly increase the rate at which Americans are fully vaccinated, the J&J vaccine is cheaper to produce and easier to store. It can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures for up to three months, 18 times longer than the Pfizer vaccine and three times longer than Moderna’s.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the new vaccine emergency use authorization. Mississippi’s allotment makes up just over half a percent (0.61%) of the 3.9 million doses that will be distributed to states this week. 

The Johnson and Johnson vaccine comes with a lower efficacy rate than the earlier approved COVID-19 vaccines. Documents published by the FDA last Wednesday showed that the new vaccine had an overall efficacy rate of 72% and an 86% efficacy rate against severe forms of COVID-19 in the United States. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have an overall efficacy rate of about 95%.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported on Monday that 407,647 people in Mississippi — about 14% of the state’s population — have received at least their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. About 219,000 people have received both doses since the state began distributing vaccines in December.

Thousands of vaccination appointments are currently available on the MSDH website. First responders and employees of K-12 schools, preschools and daycares became eligible for vaccination on Monday.

As vaccine eligibility increases, COVID-19 cases and deaths continue their dramatic decline in Mississippi — an encouraging sign after a brutal winter spike that set new records for both statistics.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 301 new COVID-19 cases of COVID-19 and 44 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday. This brings Mississippi to a total of 295,295 coronavirus cases and 6,724 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020.

January saw the most coronavirus-related deaths in a single month in Mississippi, with 1,240 confirmed. The state also set new single-day records for new cases: 3,255 cases on Jan. 7, and 98 deaths on Jan. 12.

Additionally, the number of COVID-19 cases, COVID-related hospital admissions and clinic visits for COVID-19 like illnesses in Mississippi have been trending sharply downward in 2021.

Mask mandates are currently in effect in 75 of Mississippi’s 82 counties. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original statewide mandate issued by Gov. Tate Reeves on Aug. 4 with helping cases improve after a sharp summer spike. Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate on Sept. 30, but has since issued orders for the individual counties.

The post Mississippi will receive shipments of newly approved COVID-19 vaccine this week appeared first on Mississippi Today.