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A ribbon-cutting was held Friday morning in the Delta town of Marks to celebrate the improbable re-opening of the Quitman Community Hospital.

Multiple rural Mississippi hospitals have closed in recent years because of financial difficulties. The Quitman County medical center is one of the few to reopen.

“For the first time in five years, Quitman County residents will have access to critical care with the reopening of this rural hospital,” said state Sen. Robert Jackson, who represents Quitman County and the area the hospital will serve. “It’s nothing short of a miracle to see this come to fruition, especially in a time when we are going through a pandemic and our current political climate. I can’t think of anyone who is against this particular project.”

In September, the Quitman County Board of Supervisors voted to reopen the hospital in partnership with the Panola Medical Center in Batesville and with the Delta Medical Foundation, which provides clinical health care in the area.

“This means that 75-100 good paying jobs will return to the county, and it goes without saying, we need a hospital close by to provide medical services for our citizens,” said Manuel Killebrew, president of the Quitman County Board of Supervisors.

According to a news release, the hospital will offer both 24-hour emergency medical services and beds for those who need hospitalization.

Various statistics indicate the county, which has about 6,800 residents, according to the latest U.S. Census, is in dire need of medical help. According to the National Rural Accountable Care Commission, the county ranks 79th of the 82 counties in Mississippi in terms of health outcomes.

Quentin Whitwell, chief executive officer and chairman of the board for the Panola Medical Center, said reopening the hospital in nearby Quitman County will help improve health care outcomes for the region.

“Serving our patient populations in the North Delta region is our mission. Providing exceptional care for better health is our driven passion,” Whitwell said in a news release.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents Quitman County and who attended the ribbon-cutting, said, if the state would expand Medicaid as is allowed under federal law to provide health care coverage to primarily the working poor, it would help ensure rural hospitals like the ones in Panola and Quitman counties do not close.

“The Quitman County Hospital closed because of Gov. Reeves’ unwillingness to expand Medicaid,” said Thompson, a Democrat. “The governor shouldn’t turn down federal dollars that will give Mississippians the same healthcare coverage that he also enjoys.” 

Reeves, along with other state leaders, have refused to expand Medicaid, saying the state cannot afford its share of the cost. Under the program, the bulk of the costs is paid by the federal government and there have been studies, including by the Mississippi University Research Center, indicating expanding Medicaid would result in additional funds to the state general fund. 

The Mississippi Hospital Association had joined other groups in trying to place on the ballot a citizen-sponsored initiative to expand Medicaid. But in May the entire initiative process was struck down by the Mississippi Supreme Court. 

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker also attended the ribbon-cutting on Friday.

The post ‘Nothing short of a miracle’: Quitman County Hospital reopens after closing five years ago appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID numbers are dropping. The governor has declared the emergency over. I pray he is right. We’ve lost 10,000 Mississippians already.

The post Marshall Ramsey: It’s Over? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Thursday his intent to allow the state of emergency he declared in early 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic to expire on Nov. 20. 

Reeves previously announced in June that he would let the emergency order expire on Aug. 15, but reversed course as the delta variant pushed the state’s hospital system to the verge of collapse. 

Issuing states of emergency — which provide a legal framework for extraordinary government actions to be carried out — is one of the governor’s most direct powers in Mississippi.

“With more than 3,000,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine having been administered in Mississippi and with COVID-19 infections and resulting hospitalizations being effectively managed, it is time to end the State of Emergency in Mississippi,” Reeves tweeted. 

Mississippi’s seven-day average for new COVID infections have decreased by more than 91% since the August peak. Hospitalization and death rates have followed this trend. Still, ending the state of emergency could severely limit hospitals’ ability to coordinate patient transfers if the state sees another winter surge of infections. 

Reeves’ announcement comes 11 days after 900 nurses the state funded to help keep hospitals afloat during the worst of the delta wave left dozens of hospitals across the state. It also comes as Reeves has refused to call a special session of the state Legislature to address the massive staffing crisis hospitals across the state are experiencing. 

On Nov. 5, chief nursing officers from 36 hospitals across Mississippi begged Reeves and other state leaders for help as they confront the need to close hundreds of hospital beds this winter due to the ongoing labor shortages.

The original state of emergency order allowed Reeves to issue dozens of executive orders related to the pandemic, ranging from imposing mask mandates to closing businesses and other activities to limiting crowd capacities at various venues.

Since March 4, 2020 — when the governor first issued a state of emergency — Reeves has issued at least 78 executive orders and supplements to executive orders related to the coronavirus — most of them legally allowable because of the state of emergency.

Under the state of emergency, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs was able to mandate that hospitals coordinate under MSDH’s COVID-19 System of Care Plan. In its current form, the System of Care Plan prioritizes all Mississippi hospitals’ inpatient hospital beds and other resources for COVID-19 patients who require admission.

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for University of Mississippi Medical Center, told Mississippi Today in August that she was concerned that the expiration of the emergency order would diminish the authority of Dobbs to mandate that coordination. 

“Without that in place, the transfer and the management of these patients at a statewide level would be not as organized, it would be more chaotic and more ad hoc,” Woodward said.

The state of emergency order also granted Dobbs the power to issue his own health-related orders, including requiring quarantine for infected or exposed Mississippians, requiring hospitals to participate in a state-run program that allows real-time tracking of hospital bed space, and requiring school districts to report their COVID-19 infection data the Mississippi State Department of Health.

A number of other actions related to Mississippi’s COVID-19 response could expire without the state of emergency order in place. These include:

• The authority for state agencies to provide paid administrative leave for public employees for various reasons related to COVID-19, such as an employee contracting the virus or being quarantined or caring for a loved one with the virus.
• The authority of counties, municipalities and local school districts to offer paid administrative leave to their employees related to COVID-19 absences.
• Dobbs’ authority to mandate that all the state’s hospitals coordinate with the state Department of Health to assess bed space in real time and provide adequate care for the state’s hospital patients.
• The activation of the Mississippi National Guard to assist with COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, among other duties.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves announces COVID-19 state of emergency will expire on Nov. 20 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Dr. Phil appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal judge has approved a $626 million settlement in a lawsuit filed against the state of Michigan, the city of Flint and others on behalf of thousands of children affected by the Flint water crisis.

The same lead attorney in the Michigan case recently helped file two federal lawsuits claiming hundreds of children in Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson have also been harmed by dangerous levels of lead and lack of access to clean drinking water.

Corey Stern, one of the architects of the Michigan settlement, said in a statement that it’s the largest such settlement in Michigan history, representing more than 4,000 children. He recently said that Flint was the “canary in the coal mine” for other water crises including in Jackson.

“This settlement would not have been possible without the children and families of Flint relentlessly taking a stand against those who failed to keep them safe,” Stern said in a statement Wednesday. “… Although this is a significant victory for Flint, we have a ways to go in stopping Americans from being systematically poisoned in their own homes, schools and place of work. The big banks that financed Flint’s water supply switch in 2014, and the water engineering companies that failed to ensure the switch was safe still have not been held accountable …

“And similar cycles of environmental injustice are playing out in Benton Harbor where yet another Michigan city has denied predominantly Black and brown communities their rights to clean drinking water, and in Jackson, Mississippi, where I recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of 600 children who have also been exposed to lead in city-provided water.”

READ MORE: ‘The next Flint’: City of Jackson, state leaders sued over lead in drinking water

The Mississippi lawsuits claim that children were exposed to dangerous levels of lead for years and that numerous Jackson and state officials attempted to cover it up.

The lawsuits allege that the city learned of its lead problem within its water well system in 2013 and was warned again in 2014 but instead of addressing the problem, the city attempted a quick fix that made it worse.

The litigation was filed against the city of Jackson, the state Department of Health, Trilogy Engineering Services and other current and former city and state officials including Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

Jackson’s water system is crumbling after years of neglected maintenance and upgrades. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said the system poses “imminent and substantial” danger to consumers.

READ MORE: Federal infrastructure bill won’t address Jackson water crisis without help of state leaders

The post Lawyer suing over Jackson water wins $626M settlement in Flint, Michigan appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Whether it’s tracking the bright pink eggs of invasive snails, hunting feral hogs, upgrading airport facilities, barricading against Gulf waves, or training estheticians, Mississippi leaders are continuing to leverage funds from the 2010 BP oil spill towards a wide-ranging and long-lasting restoration effort. 

On Tuesday the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality presented to Coast stakeholders about those projects and dozens of others during the agency’s annual Restoration Summit, which updates the public on how the state is spending the roughly $2 billion provided to it after the 2010 disaster. 

After last year’s 10th anniversary of the destructive oil spill, Mississippi Today reported that the state had remained in the early stages of addressing ecological priorities, while completing several expensive non-environmental projects. Local stakeholders also criticized the state for not having a cohesive plan for spending the funds.

READ MORE: Several years into BP settlement spending, the bulk of Mississippi’s restoration work remains undone

Since 2016, the state has spent just over $200 million for more than 90 projects that address either an ecological or economic need on the Coast, according to data from MDEQ. In total, the state has budgeted about $580 million in completed or ongoing projects; Mississippi will continue to receive the rest of the $2 billion over the next decade.

Over the last two years, the state has prioritized spending towards restoring its shoreline and coastal habitat; that includes nearly $11 million that went to the Hancock County Living Shoreline, helping to fund a new 46-acre marsh completed this summer. In total, the state has spent $40 million on that project, by far the most expensive one so far.

Several million in recent spending has also gone towards acquiring and managing property to conserve habitat and improve downstream water quality, such as the more than $5 million for land along the Pascagoula River.  

Non-environmental spending in the last couple years includes $7 million on a road in Jackson County to reduce traffic along I-10, and $3.6 million that went towards completing the Mississippi Aquarium.   

As for total spending so far, about $127 million, or 63%, has gone towards environmental projects versus non-environmental projects. Yet non-environmental projects still comprise about 70% of completed project spending.

As MDEQ Director Chris Wells told Mississippi Today last year, much of the scientific work is not visible and takes years of research, creating a frustrating contrast with the conspicuous economic and infrastructure projects. 

During Tuesday’s event, Wells showed a video with testimonials of those impacted by BP spending, including graduates from a work-ready program, oyster gardeners, and a land manager tracking down the invasive apple snail.

Also on Tuesday, Gov. Tate Reeves announced 16 new projects totaling $62 million funded through the RESTORE Act, which were recommended to him by his Gulf Coast Advisory Committee.

Below is a list of those, as well as an updated table of current and completed projects listed on MDEQ’s restoration site:

RESTORE Act Direct Component (aka Bucket 1) Funding:

• Water Quality Improvement Program ($1.1 million) — implementation of new, repaired, or upgraded stormwater and wastewater systems including septic to sewer conversions.
• Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center ($1.54 million) — funding for design, permitting, construction, and installation of parking lot and outer concourse safety and security features. A continuation of previously-funded improvements.
• Commercial Proving Grounds for Space to Sea Floor Environmental Monitoring ($1.65 million) — development of airborne and waterborne unmanned systems to test and calibrate new systems from private, educational, governmental, and military entities.
• City of Moss Point I-10 Commercial Corridor Improvements ($2.2 million) — improve access, connectivity, and safety of the Moss Point Interstate Commerce District to enhance the city’s economy and quality of life.
• Hancock County Tech Park at Stennis Airport ($2.2 million) — construct a building to house the Department of the Army’s Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise (JALBTCX), which has outgrown its existing incubator space.
• Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport Site Expansion and Facility Relocation ($3.19 million) — expand the airport’s 241-acre runway-adjacent Project Ready site to attract industrial aerospace investment. Also, demolish the antiquated vehicle fleet maintenance facility and build a new facility adjacent to the airport’s maintenance building. 
• Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport Project Ready Site Mitigation and Prep ($4.18 million) — funding for the mitigating, clearing, and grubbing of an economic development site at the airport.
• Broadwater Marina Restoration Project ($5.5 million) — funding to return to public use 30 acres of state-owned lands that includes future tourism and economic development potential.
• Hancock County Fairgrounds Revitalization/Hancock County Multipurpose Arena ($6.05 million) — upgrades and improvements to the 80-acre fairgrounds and multipurpose arena including facilities and infrastructure to foster economic growth.
• Washington Street Avenue Gateway (Jackson County — $6.6 million) — construct pedestrian-friendly features including sidewalks, crosswalks, landscape the median, and install mast arm signals for safety for Washington Avenue in Ocean Springs. 

RESTORE Act Spill Impact Component (aka Bucket 3) Funding:

• Accelerate Mississippi Public/Private Workforce Training Partnership ($2.2 million) — develop and foster workforce development through Accelerate Mississippi in the three coastal counties.
• Coastal Habitat Management Fund ($3.3 million) — provide funding for management plans and management on existing and newly-acquired coastal preserves tracts.
• Beachfront Resilience ($4.95 million) — additional funding for enhancing and repairing Highway 90 boardwalks and sidewalks along with dune plantings and fencing to address sand migration onto Highway 90.
• Gulf Coast Center of Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) Fusion ($5.5 million) — project will focus on developing an Information Technology (IT) workforce for economic expansion, innovation, and societal growth.
• Improvement of wastewater quality and solid waste disposal from Shrimp Processing industry ($5.5 million) — funding for improvements to wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal from the shrimp processing industry.
• City of D’Iberville working waterfront and commercial seafood harbor ($6.6 million) — a project to build a mixed-use working waterfront and seafood harbor in D’Iberville.

Full project list:

The post Here’s how Mississippi is spending its BP oil spill settlement funds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal judge has rejected former President Donald Trump’s effort to block Jan. 6 investigators from accessing hundreds of pages of White House records related to the riot at the U.S. Capitol, determining that the former president has no authority to overrule President Joe Biden’s decision to waive executive privilege and release the materials to Congress.

“Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in her 39-page ruling.

Trump immediately appealed the decision, but the National Archives, which houses Trump’s White House records, is still planning on turning over a number of documents on Friday unless a court intervenes. These documents include White House call logs, video logs and schedules related to the Jan. 6 riot and three pages of handwritten notes from Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff at the time. 

Chutkan’s ruling is a major victory for the Jan. 6 committee in the House, which is led by Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson. The record will help the committee in its pursuit of more records or information from people who have been subpoenaed but haven’t testified in front of the committee. The House committee has subpoenaed multiple people close to former President Donald Trump, and added ten former administration officials to the list on Tuesday. 

Committee investigators are hopeful the White House records will provide insight into Trump’s months-long and ongoing campaign to portray the 2020 election as rigged, as well as his efforts to use the power of his administration to aid his attempt to overturn the election. 

READ MORE: Will Rep. Bennie Thompson’s Jan. 6 committee subpoena Trump? “Nobody’s off limits.”

Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee, has said the committee is open to subpoenaing former President Donald Trump “if the evidence” leads them there.

Thompson called the ruling a “big deal” as he learned of it live on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” program. Thompson said that he looks forward to investigators “going through (the documents) with a fine-tooth comb to make sure that our government was not weaponized against its citizens.”

In her ruling, Chutkin declined a request to look at Trump’s records document by document and wrote that the incumbent president is the person in the best position to protect the interests of the executive branch. She also noted that though the committee has made sweeping requests for requests, it does “not exceed” its legislative power.

“The court holds that the public interest lies in permitting — not enjoining — the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on January 6, and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again,” Chutkan wrote.

Thomson told Chris Cuomo in the Tuesday night interview that the former president should stop trying to block the release of White House records through court challenges.

“We are a nation of laws,” Thompson said. “So if you take your issue to court, and lose, then you need to man up, and deal with it and not be a spoiled brat.”

READ MORE: With insurrection investigation underway, the nation’s eyes turn toward Bennie Thompson

The post Judge rules Trump cannot keep records from Rep. Thompson’s Jan. 6 committee appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The 14-member Legislative Budget Committee, with Gov. Tate Reeves breaking tradition and not attending, adopted a revenue estimate Wednesday for the coming fiscal year of $6.49 billion — a $566 million increase over the projection used to develop the budget for the current fiscal year.

State law requires the governor and budget committee to agree on a revenue estimate to begin the task of developing a budget for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2022.

In the past, with few exceptions, the governor and budget committee have met jointly to adopt the revenue estimate in November before the start of the next legislative session in January. But Reeves, who has been at odds with the legislative leadership over his refusal to call a special session to approve a medical marijuana program as supported by voters in 2020, opted to send a letter and a representative to Wednesday’s meeting.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is presiding over the committee this year, read the governor’s letter that said he concurred with the revenue estimate recommended by a panel of state’s financial experts. Members of the budget committee then approved the estimate provided by the group of financial experts, which includes State Economist Corey Miller.

Speaking of the strong state tax collections, House Speaker Philip Gunn said, “We have an opportunity — an opportunity to give money back to the taxpayers. If ever conditions were right to do that, it is now.”

Both Gunn and Reeves have offered separate proposals to phase out the state’s tax on personal income, which accounts for about one-third of general fund revenue. Gunn’s proposal also has included increases in other taxes, such as on retail items, to offset the loss revenue. Reeves has not proposed any additional revenue to make up for the cut in the income tax.

READ MORE: Lawmakers hold hearings on how, why, if Mississippi income taxes should be cut, others raised

When asked Wednesday if the Legislature is still planning on providing a salary increase for teachers, the speaker said, “Absolutely.”

Brenda Scott, chair of the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees, said that state employees also are in need of a pay raise, especially considering the issues they have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have lost the lives of state employees with COVID-19,” she said. “State employees feel so unappreciated. A state employee appreciation day will not fix that.”

Before adopting the revenue estimate, which will be used to craft a budget proposal, Miller told the legislators that the large influx in federal money provided to battle COVID-19 is helping to drive the Mississippi economy and the surge in tax collections. The state, like the federal government, is poised to see economic growth, though the state is projected to return to its pre-COVID levels of employment much later than the nation as a whole.

The state, like the nation, is seeing a significant increase in wages, driven in part by a shortage of workers accelerating supply chain issues and giving rise to inflation. He said the state wages are projected to grow by 4.7% during the current calendar year.

“The projected growth in personal income, if realized, will mark the largest annual increase since 1981,” Miller told the legislative committee members.

He said the supply chain issues and inflation increases are not expected to subside until 2022.

Miller added many people who lost their jobs during the pandemic have opted not to return to the workforce. Some decided to retire early and some are looking for jobs other than the employment they had pre-pandemic. He said the search for new jobs is particularly true for people employed in the service sector.

With the adoption of the revenue estimate, the next steps in the state budgeting process are for Reeves to release his proposal prior to Nov. 15, and for the budget committee to release its recommendation on Dec. 7.

Then, the full Legislature will begin work in January to craft a general fund budget funding education, health care, law enforcement and other aspects of state government for the new fiscal year beginning July 1.

State Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader and member of the Legislative Black Caucus, said Democrats and Black Caucus members would be developing plans on how to use the massive amount of federal money the state is receiving at the same time revenue collections are surging.

“We have people who need help,” Johnson said last week on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast.

The post Mississippi could spend half billion more in 2022 budget appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Baseball is over (except for Atlanta Braves fans still celebrating), but high school football playoffs, college football’s crunch time, the yo-yo New Orleans Saints all have our attention. What’s more, the college basketball regular season tips off in the Magnolia State this week. There’s something for everyone, including ESPN GameDay coming to Oxford, Jackson State at 8-1 and Ole Miss, State and Southern Miss all facing Top 20 foes.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: So, so much going on in the Crooked Letter sports world appeared first on Mississippi Today.

BILOXI — Gov. Tate Reeves told reporters during a Tuesday press conference he has no immediate plans to call lawmakers to Jackson for a special session.

That means Mississippi is no closer to having a medical marijuana program or funding an incentive program that keeps nurses and health care workers from leaving their hospitals jobs at alarming rates.

Without a special session, lawmakers won’t meet until the regular session begins on Jan. 4. Nurses and hospital leaders have told Mississippi Today for the last two months they cannot wait that long.

Hospitals are anticipating the nursing and health care worker shortage to grow worse this winter, leaving hospitals statewide to close hundreds of more beds that should be open to patients. In a letter sent to Reeves on Nov. 5, chief nursing officers at 36 hospitals across Mississippi begged the governor to step in.

“Chief Nursing Officers are predicting that staff shortages will result in closing over 500 acute care hospital beds over the upcoming months,” the nurses wrote in the letter. “The shortage is driven by losses in the nursing workforce which are attributable to burnout, fatigue and, to a growing extent, nurses who took travel nursing positions and made significantly higher wages and now desire to take time off.” 

READ MORE: Nurses beg Gov. Tate Reeves to act as they face statewide hospital staffing crisis

When Mississippi Today broke the story about the nurses’ letter on Friday, Reeves’ office had not responded to submitted questions about the nursing crisis. The governor had previously said publicly that he would consider an incentive program and was in discussion with legislators about a special session.

But on Tuesday, Reeves was in Biloxi at the Gulf Coast Coliseum to announce how the state would spend $62 million in federal funds related to 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill on south Mississippi projects.

At the event, a reporter asked Reeves specifically if he had any short-term plans to address the immediate needs of hospitals and nursing staff. He did not address the question directly, instead giving a five-minute answer that spoke only to the state’s ongoing, long-term workforce development plans.

Legislative leaders, however, already have a bill they wrote weeks ago that would create a funding program to assist the state’s struggling hospitals. Their proposed program would allow hospitals to give their most in-demand workers a $5,000 bonus for agreeing to stay at their job for at least five more months.

They sent that bill, along with a promised agreement between the House and Senate, to the governor on Sept. 30. But the could-be program funding cannot be allocated this year unless Reeves calls a special session to allow lawmakers to officially pass it. 

Hospitals leaders have repeatedly said throughout the pandemic their inability to compete with salaries from out-of-state hospitals and temporary staffing is the main reason they are hemorrhaging health care workers. 

“We have a labor shortage in virtually every industry in Mississippi right now,” Reeves said in response to Mississippi Today’s question. “The reason we have a labor shortage in Mississippi is because we have a labor shortage in virtually every industry in America because of the far-left policies of the Biden administration.”

Reeves — after explaining how high school graduation rates have improved under his administration — pointed out the state has a shortage of respiratory therapists, doctors and “every health care sector,” emphasizing it’s a problem every state is facing. 

“We’ve got to continue to encourage more and more Mississippians to go into the field of health care and we will continue to do so,” Reeves said. “It is certainly an issue, and one that we are aware of, and continuing to look at ways to address it.”

In a recent interview with Mississippi Today, a Singing River nurse said 12 people left her nursing staff in just one week. From March 2020 to mid September, the hospital system — which has three hospitals on the Gulf Coast — lost 289 nurses, or more than a third of its overall nursing staff. 

READ MORE: A new hospital crisis: Mississippi loses hundreds of nurses

Singing River’s leadership has been vocal about the shortage. Hospital CEO Lee Bond is pushing lawmakers to make an even broader incentive program that gives nurses $20,000 bonuses spread over two years.

Meanwhile, legislative leaders continue to await word from the governor about a potential special session regarding medical marijuana. Legislative leaders worked all summer to draft a bill after the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down a medical marijuana initiative that was overwhelmingly approved by Mississippi voters in 2020.

Reeves, over the summer, regularly said he was open to calling a special session for medical marijuana and even the nursing crisis stopgap. But since lawmakers finalized bills for both programs, the governor has remained silent about whether he will call a special session at all.

“I have not heard anything from him or his staff about (a health care worker funding) bill, medical marijuana or anything else,” Speaker of the House Philip Gunn told Mississippi Today last week.

Rep. Robert Johnson, the Democratic House leader, last week joined a growing chorus of lawmakers who say passing a medical marijuana program during a special session would free them up to focus more on pressing issues when they go back into regular session in January. 

“With everything we need to do with this state, that we’re going to spend even a day on something that has been talked about so much bothers me,” Johnson said on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast. “It continues to be a moving target, and we’re going to end up spending most of our session debating medical marijuana when we have so many other issues to focus on.”

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves dodging on promised special session

The post Gov. Reeves: No immediate plans to call special session for nursing crisis, medical marijuana appeared first on Mississippi Today.