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The lead Senate and House negotiators working on a Mississippi medical marijuana program to replace the one shot down by the state Supreme Court say they’re close to having a draft that could prompt a special legislative session, as early as this month.

“I believe we have basically most of the major issues resolved,” said Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, who’s leading the Senate’s medical marijuana work. “… We’re very, very close.”

Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, said, “I would be surprised if there were not a special session soon, but that’s not my call … I think at some point soon we will be ready to say to the governor that we have something we can work with.”

Mississippi lawmakers are trying to reach consensus on a medical marijuana program after the state Supreme Court shot down one overwhelmingly passed by voters last year with ballot Initiative 65. The state Supreme Court ruled in May that the medical marijuana initiative and the entire ballot initiative process is invalid.

Gov. Tate Reeves has sole authority to call lawmakers into a special session. He has said he would do so for a medical marijuana bill, but not before the House and Senate have general agreement on a proposal to avoid a long, drawn out session.

Blackwell and Yancey had previously estimated a session could be called by mid-August. They said that might be pushed back, but that having one before the end of the month is still doable.

Neither Blackwell nor Yancey would provide specifics of agreements they’ve reached on taxation, licensing and other particulars of a program.

“I think we owe it to other legislators to let them have a chance to view and vet what we have worked on to this point,” Yancey said. “Each of us will have to get consensus to get 3/5 passage in both houses. We are cognizant of how important this is, that there are those our there who need this medication, and we are trying to put together a program we can be proud of — and know that we will have to tweak it year to year — but trying to get it as good as we can on the first push.”

Blackwell said: “They don’t have a program right now, and I think we are going to give them a program that is better than the one from Initiative 65.”

Ken Newburger, director of the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, said he’s been in contact with Blackwell and Yancey, and is likewise confident an agreement, and a special session, will happen soon. Newburger said he believes lawmakers have taken input from medical marijuana advocates, patients and business leaders.

“I think that’s been the most refreshing and surprising part of this whole legislative process, has been the willingness of the legislators in both chambers to reach out to people who have been advocating it, and patients who have been advocating it for years,” Newburger said.

Newburger said his association has four main points it wants lawmakers to retain from the defunct Initiative 65:

• To allow broad patient access to various forms — smokable, edibles, pills, etc. — of cannabis products with varying levels of THC, the psychoactive agent in marijuana.

• For certification of patients to remain in the hands of doctors, not “some bureaucratic system.”

• For cultivation and dispensing of cannabis to be a “free market enterprise” that allows broad participation and doesn’t limit businesses with exorbitant fees and license costs.

• That the program be self-funded, that fees collected for the program fund it.

Newburger said he is optimistic lawmakers will work to enshrine these tenets of Initiative 65 into a new law.

Yancey said he believes the House will work to hew as closely to the voter-passed initiative as possible.

The post Lawmakers ‘very, very close’ to medical marijuana deal appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Just as it did last school year, the Mississippi State Department of Health is releasing weekly data on coronavirus infections in schools.

Though both public and private schools in all 82 counties are required to submit weekly reports to MSDH, many do not. Because this data is self-reported and not every school or district participates, the figures are variable from week to week.

These reports contain data about how many students, teachers and staff tested positive for the virus. The reports also show how many people are in quarantine in a given week, as well as how many outbreaks occurred at a school.

Mississippi Today will update this page regularly with the weekly data provided by the health department.

Despite a small number of schools participating so far this year, the numbers are grim.

This week, 342 schools reported 1,338 cases among students, teachers and staff so far this school year. For reference, in the first week MSDH reported data in August 2020, 720 schools reported just 897 positive cases.

For general COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs, click here.

The post Chart: COVID-19 in Mississippi schools, 2021-22 school year appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Please get vaccinated. It is safe. It is free. And it can save your life.

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

Yalobusha County Sheriff Mark Fulco died Tuesday from complications of COVID-19 and pneumonia, according to a Facebook post by the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department. Fulco is the second Mississippi sheriff to die in a week. 

Hinds County Sheriff Lee Vance died Aug. 4, two weeks after testing positive for COVID-19.

“Sheriff Fulco was a fearless advocate of the Sheriff’s Department and the citizens that he served.  A career law enforcement officer, Sheriff Fulco made many friends and touched many lives,” the YCSD said in the Facebook post. The post did not include whether Fulco was vaccinated.

Fulco’s death occurred in the midst of the “fourth wave” of COVID-19 cases, as the highly infectious delta variant rapidly spreads throughout Mississippi. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the coronavirus is “sweeping over Mississippi like a tsunami,” as the Mississippi Department of Health reported 3,488 new cases on Tuesday, the highest number of new cases in a single day since the pandemic began in March 2020. 

MSDH is urging all Mississippians to wear masks in public indoor spaces and to take the COVID-19 vaccine. In Yalobusha County, MSDH reported 1,797 total COVID-19 cases and 41 total deaths. Forty-six percent of Yalobusha County residents are fully vaccinated, according to MSDH.

Various law enforcement agencies in North Mississippi will honor Fulco Tuesday night in a “sea of blue” as they escort his body from Baptist DeSoto Hospital in Southaven to the Seven Oaks Funeral Home in Water Valley.

The post Yalobusha County sheriff dies from COVID-19 complications appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Lawmakers plan to hold two days of hearings on eliminating or cutting Mississippi’s individual income tax on Aug. 25 and 26.

The hearings will be before a joint select committee of eight senators and eight House members, selected by the lieutenant governor and speaker, Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins said on Tuesday. Harkins said the hearings will likely include testimony from state and national tax experts, agency leaders and business people, but its itinerary hasn’t been finalized.

The hearings are in response to House Speaker Philip Gunn’s push to eliminate the state’s individual income tax, cut taxes on groceries in half and increase sales and other taxes to make up the lost revenue. The House in this year’s legislative session passed Gunn’s plan, but the Senate killed it without a vote, saying the plan needed more vetting and vowing to study it over the summer and fall.

READ MORE: Speaker Philip Gunn struggles to garner support for income tax-sales tax swap

Recently, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said, “The Senate will hold hearings … on comprehensive tax reform, and we have invited the House to join us.” While he has stopped short of agreeing that individual income taxes can be eliminated, Hosemann has said recently he expects at least a cut in income taxes, with state revenues coming in at a record click recently.

READ MORE: Mississippi sees massive increases in tax collections as economy awakens, stimulus funds flow

Gunn’s plan has raised concern from numerous interests. Advocates for poor and moderate income Mississippians and retirees fear it would shift more of the state’s tax burden on them. Big business interests such as manufacturers and some small business groups fear the sales tax increases in the plan would increase their “input” costs drastically down their supply chains.

Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle fear the major change in tax structure — individual income taxes generate about $1.8 billion a year, or 32% of the state’s revenue — would tank the state budget.

Gov. Tate Reeves has said he supports eliminating the income tax, but wants to do it with no commensurate increase in other taxes.

While Gunn has had trouble getting business and interest groups to sign on with his plan, he said last week that it has been warmly received by many people as he’s traveled the state talking with civic and business groups in recent months. Gunn said the nine states with no income tax, including Florida, Tennessee and Texas, are economically thriving and attracting more people, unlike Mississippi, one of just three states to lose population over the last decade.

No state has ever phased out an individual income tax. Alaska, the only state to eliminate an existing income tax, did so in one fell swoop.

Harkins agreed with Hosemann’s assessment that at least an income tax cut is in the offing next year. But he said eliminating income taxes or a major overhaul of tax structure will take much deliberation and study.

“You’ve got one chance to do this right, and I want to make sure that we are really looking for everything, dotting our Is and crossing our Ts,” Harkins said. “There’s a reason no other state has done this, because it’s hard to do it, but I know other states are in the process of trying … My goal with these hearings is to provide a lot of information — how the money comes i n, from what sources, how much, what are some of the diversions and tax credit exemptions … What are the pitfalls? Proceeding with caution is how I would describe this.

Hosemann also recently said, “All of the hearings will be webcasted because we want you to be a part of the process. It is your money.”

The post Lawmakers set hearings on Mississippi income tax elimination or cuts appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As the COVID-19 delta variant has given Mississippi the third highest infection rate in the nation, and the state’s hospitals remain completely overwhelmed with patients, there is at least one bright spot: The state’s vaccination rate has shot up for four straight weeks, increasing 107% over the past month.

Though Mississippi is no longer last in the nation for the share of its population that has been vaccinated, it still trails 48 other states. Just 35% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Medical experts are pleading with Mississippians to get vaccinated as the state’s hospital system has reached its full capacity to care for COVID-19 patients — a vast majority of them unvaccinated. And things inside hospitals are becoming more dire than ever.

As of Sunday, there were 1,349 Mississippians hospitalized with COVID-19, with 345 in ICUs and 205 on ventilators. On Monday, none of the 827 adult ICU beds in Mississippi were available.

Across the nation, this latest stage of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be one of the unvaccinated, and the numbers bear that out. Between July 13 and August 9 in Mississippi, 97% of COVID-19 cases, 89% of hospitalizations and 85% of deaths were among the unvaccinated, according to health department data.

And there is no end to this wave in sight. The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 3,488 new cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day caseload the state has seen throughout the pandemic. Physicians say these high daily case numbers will translate to record hospitalizations in coming weeks.

This strain on the healthcare system is not sustainable, health care experts warn, and has created an environment where, as of Monday, more than 200 COVID-19 patients were receiving care in emergency room settings when they should be in an ICU. This not only limits the ability of healthcare workers to effectively care for these patients, but it also causes delays in the time-sensitive care that non-COVID patients need. 

Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs and COVID-19 clinical response leader at University of Mississippi Medical Center, has warned that UMMC has not had to turn away any patients yet, but that breaking point is approaching. 

“We are not infinite resources,” Jones said. “We can break. We can have to close… And I think we’re rapidly headed that direction.”

The exhaustion and anger of healthcare workers is bubbling over in a myriad of ways as they deal with a system stretched to the brink by preventable infections and deaths. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted Tuesday morning that he has begun listening to the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers in the morning, “a long standing indication of irrepressible frustration” for him.

In the absence of substantial vaccine encouragement from political leaders like Gov. Tate Reeves, other prominent Mississippi figures are stepping up. 

Archie Manning, the Mississippi native and patriarch of the Manning football family, partnered with the Delta Health Alliance to encourage Mississippians to get vaccinated. 

“We know the vaccine works, but only if you get it,” Manning said in a promotional video. “It’s easy and it works. Please get vaccinated, my friends, and stay healthy.” 

On Sunday, Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin announced that the entire football program, including players, coaches and staff, had been fully vaccinated. No other college or NFL football team has gotten all of their players vaccinated. Following the announcement, Kiffin called the decision to not get vaccinated “irresponsible.”

As scientists continue to collect data on the newest variant that is spreading rapidly, medical experts continue to reiterate that vaccination remains the best protection against contracting the delta variant. The nation’s leading medical researchers agree that vaccines are nearly as effective against the delta variant as the original strain, greatly minimizing the chance of infection and nearly eliminating the risks of developing a serious illness.

Studies suggest, however, that being fully vaccinated is the only adequate protection against the delta variant, as a single shot of either of the two-dose mRNA vaccines provides only weak protection against infection.

Of the 2,510 Mississippians who died of COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 4 of this year, just 51 were fully vaccinated.

The post COVID vaccines up 107% in past month as delta variant ravages Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hope the door hits him on the way out.

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CLEVELAND — Schools across the state are beginning a new school year this month with in-person classes. With no statewide mask mandate from the governor, districts are deciding for themselves what COVID precautions to put in place. In the Cleveland School District, masks are required. Mississippi Today photojournalist Vickie King visited the district on the first day of school.

READ MORE: Which Mississippi school districts are requiring masks?

The post Photo essay: First day of school in Cleveland appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Every intensive care unit bed in Mississippi is full, and hospital leaders are begging — praying — for relief. Thousands of Mississippi students are going back to class without masks, and several schools have had to shut down after immediate COVID-19 outbreaks. Government leaders fear the effects if a critical state of emergency order expires as scheduled next week.

Nearly everyone in the state — medical, government and education leaders and voters on the political right and left — is asking: Where is our governor?

Gov. Tate Reeves is holed up most days at the Governor’s Mansion, according to people close to the governor. Reeves, who has defiantly rejected issuing any new statewide orders, has isolated himself from many of his closest advisers in recent weeks. He’s holding no press conferences, decidedly not making himself available to the public as he did earlier in the pandemic. Right now, as the crisis reaches its biggest inflection point, he’s out of state at a Republican Governors Association candidate conference.

His penthouse Sillers Building office, where governors traditionally work, has been rarely used since he took office in 2020. And as the crisis mounts, Reeves is hemorrhaging staff. Since Mississippi Today reported in late June that Reeves has lost four senior staffers and several policy staff since he took office in 2020, four additional staffers have left his office. 

Liz Welch, his interim chief of staff and well-regarded state government veteran, is splitting duties, working mostly from the Woolfolk Building as she continues to run the Department of Finance and Administration. Prominent officials who are desperately trying to get in touch with Reeves are reaching out to David Maron, the governor’s chief counsel and deputy chief of staff who had never previously worked in state government.

When asked who Reeves has been taking advice from in recent weeks, the name that several people close to the governor brought up most consistently is Brad Todd, a political consultant who works in suburban Washington, D.C. Todd, a nationally-known politico who helped run the campaigns of former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, has managed Reeves’ campaigns dating back to his treasurer’s race in 2003.

The best explanation that anyone can come up with for Reeves’ continued absence during the crisis and why he’s listening closely to Todd’s counsel: politics. Reeves is receiving relentless criticism from seemingly every quarter in Mississippi. He’s flip-flopped many times depending on the politics of the moment, and nothing he does or says seems to land with any base or constituency.

The wunderkind who has quickly risen the ranks because of his ability to read the state’s political winds is seeing that those winds are swirling. So, too, is he during the worst days of this crisis.

Reeves’ previous public statements about the pandemic are so strikingly different from his statements today that they could be coming from a different politician.

A year ago, as schools were going back into session and a second COVID-19 wave was growing, Reeves issued statewide mask mandates, saying masks were “important not only to protect oneself, but also to avoid unknowingly harming our fellow Mississippians through asymptomatic community transmission of COVID-19” and “the key to reducing transmission of the virus.”

The past two weeks, though, as the politics of mask-wearing and other COVID-19 orders are as volatile as ever, Reeves has capitulated. He’s gone out of his way to cast doubt on the recommendations of medical professionals in public forums and sow distrust in policies he previously enacted himself.

“The change in the CDC’s mask guidance is foolish and harmful and it reeks of political panic to appear that they are in control,” Reeves said during his speech at the Neshoba County Fair in late July. “It has nothing to do with rational science … In Mississippi, we believe in freedom.”

A year ago, Reeves consistently defended his COVID-19 policies with talk of keeping the state’s hospital system above water during peaks of virus cases.

“Our goal in Mississippi has never been to completely eradicate the virus. It has never been to completely eliminate the virus, because we do not believe — or at least I don’t — that that’s a realistic goal,” Reeves said in October 2020. “Our goal has always been to protect the integrity of our healthcare system.”

Today, the Mississippi healthcare system Reeves claimed he wanted to protect a year ago is failing because of the state’s debilitating COVID caseload, and he has barricaded himself in the Mansion and has made little contact with the public.

Health care experts say the vaccine is the quickest, most effective way to defeat COVID-19 and save lives. Reeves, however, has worked hard to have vaccine policy both ways. He has seen and heard the disagreement and the conspiracy theories, and, knowing much of it is being spawned on his side of the political aisle, has avoided decisiveness.

READ MORE: Other governors use bully pulpits, incentives to urge vaccination. Where’s Gov. Reeves?

“It was recently said nationally that the delta variant was becoming a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated,’” Reeves posted to social media on Monday. “The most recent data from Mississippi suggest the same. Talk to your doctor. Assess the risk. Do the right thing for you. Do the right thing for your family.”

The response to his carefully-worded post shows how divided Mississippians are: Many people panned Reeves for not doing enough to encourage mass vaccination, and others criticized him for being too hands-on and preaching to them. And if politics are dictating Reeves’ actions (or inactions) right now, it’s important to highlight recent reporting that Reeves could have at least one formidable 2023 challenger for governor in Republican Speaker of the House Philip Gunn.

So many Mississippians are scared, tired and as divided as ever, and are now at the precipice of what appears to be another few weeks of difficult changes. They’ve lost friends and family members, personal time and life experiences, and it’s likely they’ll lose even more.

In other states, including neighbors run by Republicans, governors are leading. They’re facing the tough politics head-on and providing a steady hand and a clear message: Get the vaccine, wear masks in public, look out for your neighbors. By going underground the past few weeks, Reeves has left a vacuum of leadership that stands to greatly increase the likelihood that the virus will harm many more Mississippians and continue to overload the state’s hospitals.

As criticism of Reeves grows during this phase of the pandemic, fewer people are seemingly coming to the governor’s defense. Alan Lange, a conservative commentator and longtime close political ally of Reeves, recently took to Twitter to critique Sun Herald reporter Anita Lee’s analysis about the governor’s recent absence from the public sphere.

Lange’s tweet, published five days ago, has just one “like” — from the governor’s trusted political adviser Brad Todd.

The post Mississippi lives are at risk. Our governor is hiding, avoiding the tough politics. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Imagine you are a football coach. You have a quarterback, both accurate and resourceful. He gets the job done. He’s a winner. You have a wide receiver who runs a 4.3 40-yard dash and can catch everything thrown anywhere near him. But, despite defeat after defeat, you steadfastly refuse to play either.

Your team keeps losing. The scores are lopsided. You are in last place in your conference. Every week, the statistics are frightful. You are in 49th place in a 50-team division, but you stubbornly stay the course, keep your best weapons on the bench, and keep on losing.

Yes, you are right, that scenario sounds inconceivable. What coach in his right mind would refuse to use all the weapons available to win? 

Dr. Thomas Dobbs, this state’s chief health officer, must feel sometimes like he’s watching that football team play.

Mississippi ranks 49th of 50 states in percentage of its citizenry fully vaccinated. The pandemic is raging. The delta variant of COVID-19 is winning. People are dying. ICU units are filled. Emergency rooms can’t handle the numbers of really sick folks. We have more deathly ill people than we have medical staffing to care for them. Doctors and nurses must feel like quarterbacks facing an all-out blitz with no offensive line. Schools are shutting down classes before they can even open. 

Yes, and on a much less important note, the upcoming football season is threatened. Already some high school teams have stopped practicing because too many players have COVID. The Oak Grove football team, the defending Mississippi Class 6A champions, has suspended preseason practices because of a COVID outbreak. The way this pandemic is raging, the colleges might not be that far behind.

In a one-on-one interview last week, I asked Dobbs about all this. Where is all this headed?

“It’s really up to us,” Dobbs answered. “We have the tools to beat this, but we just are not using them. In some ways, we are worse off than we were this time last year.”

Listen to him: We have the tools. We just aren’t using them. Nearly two-thirds of our people have not been vaccinated. My guess is that a lower percentage are wearing masks in public. 

The sports analogies are endless. Would you play football without a helmet and face mask? Would you play shortstop without a glove? Would you play golf with wooden-shafted clubs against a field playing with modern technology?

Dobbs, a high school tennis All American and a centerfielder for his Emory University baseball team, must feel a coach giving a pep talk to a team that won’t listen.

“We need to get people vaccinated, especially with school starting,” he said. “These shots are extremely safe. They do not cause problems. They are spectacularly effective for teens with strong immune systems.”

Yes, there are vaccinated people who do get COVID. But Dobbs quickly will tell you those cases are relatively infrequent and that vaccinated folks who do come down with the virus do not become nearly as sick as those who are not vaccinated.

I asked Dobbs what he would do if he were a football coach preparing his team for the upcoming season.

“I would strongly urge everyone associated with the team — players, managers, coaches, everybody — to get vaccinated,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re going to see tons of outbreaks, even with people wearing masks. This delta variant scares me. It spreads so much faster… It is spreading across Mississippi like a tsunami.”

Dobbs said that large crowds attending games in open air stadiums are far from his biggest concern.

“I am not nearly as worried about gatherings in outdoor spaces with good air circulation,” he said. “I am much more concerned with the teams and bands traveling to the games in a bus that doesn’t have good air circulation. I am worried about classrooms. I know we have to educate our kids, but until we get this under control, we just can’t do it like we did it before.”

Bottom line: Much more than the upcoming football season is at stake here. We are in a life and death situation with this delta variant, and people are dying every day.

We have the tools to win this fight. Why in the world would we not use them?

There are success stories. Ole Miss reportedly has reached 100% vaccination rate within its football program. Sources tell me Mississippi State and Southern Miss are not far behind. That’s what it’s going to take — for football, and our lives, to return to normal.

The post ‘Not using the tools we have to beat this’: Dobbs discusses 2021 football season during COVID-19 appeared first on Mississippi Today.