The federal board that will determine whether the Gulf Coast gets its Amtrak route back is closer to reaching a decision.
The Surface Transportation Board issued an order Friday, spelling out questions it wants Amtrak and the freight rail companies to address in its upcoming evidentiary hearing on April 4. Following the latest set of hearing dates, the board is expected to finally make a decision about the route’s future.
Freight company CSX Transportation has been at odds with Amtrak over the proposed train route that would run between New Orleans and Mobile with stops in Mississippi for years. Amtrak trains that once traveled along the Gulf Coast never returned following Hurricane Katrina. A year ago, Amtrak filed a petition with the transportation board to operate the route along the freight-owned railways after failing to reach any agreements with CSX and another freight company that owns tracks along the route.
In its latest filing, the transportation board asked the freight rail companies and Amtrak to have conversations with the U.S. Coast Guard over the use of drawbridges on the route. The bridges, and whether they can be drawn down and support added traffic from a passenger train, have been one of many of many points of contention and confusion during the debate over the route’s future.
Alabama leadership largely sided with CSX, saying they wanted more studies done on whether added passenger trains would affect the freight trains ability to move product during public hearings last month. Mississippi leaders, such as U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, said Amtrak’s return to the Gulf Coast has been delayed long enough.
The evidence hearings were first scheduled for March. CSX asked they be postponed. They’re now set to be held virtually on April 4 and 5 with the option of extending to April 7 and 8 as needed.
Ultimately, the board will decide if the addition of Amtrak routes would unreasonably affect the freight companies that run 11 trains on that set of railroad per day. Amtrak’s legal right to operate its proposed two-train route on freight-owned tracks comes from a 1970s agreement that reprieved freight companies from providing public transportation.
The transportations board’s decision on the Gulf Coast will likely set a precedent for other passenger train access cases across the country.
Dr. Christina Glick is a neonatologist who has had a career-long interest in human milk diet for premature infants and breastfeeding for all babies. She also runs a free-standing breastfeeding clinic in Jackson, Mississippi Lactation Services, to continue and expand her advocacy efforts for the many benefits of breastfeeding.
Mississippi Today spoke with Glick this week about the benefits of breastfeeding, the stigma around it that exists in Mississippi and how the larger culture around breastfeeding in America needs to change.
Editor’s note: This Q+A has been edited for length and clarity.
Mississippi Today: Why is breast milk important for the health of babies, and especially preterm babies?
Dr. Christina Glick: Breast milk in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) has been shown to be absolutely life saving. Fewer babies die when they’re given a breast milk diet. That should convince all of us that it’s absolutely important, right? There’s a couple of things that breast milk does that are life saving. One, it reduces the number of infections that babies have. One of the things that premature babies die from in the NICU is bloodstream infections and they are actually reduced by using a breast milk diet. There’s also necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a catastrophic intestinal infection that has a very high mortality rate. (NEC typically happens within the first 2 weeks of life in babies who are fed formula instead of breast milk. In this condition, bacteria invade the wall of the intestine.) We can really reduce the rate of NEC infections when babies are fed breast milk instead of formula. It goes almost to zero when there’s an exclusive breast milk diet, which is just phenomenal.
Some of the more subtle things breast milk does is that it changes the bacterial microbiome of babies, and when we establish a normal, healthy microbiome from the newborn period, we think it actually changes lifelong health. That’s one of the things that we’ve lost when we use formula and we cannot replicate that using probiotics. There’s no way to do it other than using fresh breast milk.
There’s a lot of stuff that breast milk does that is really sort of magical, and that we are only now beginning to understand. And we think that the longer and more intensive research that goes into it, we’re going to learn more about these kinds of benefits.
MT: As you know, in Mississippi, one of every seven babies is born preterm. We also have the highest rates of preterm birth, infant mortality, child mortality, low birthweight and neonatal mortality. Despite all these issues, we also have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the nation. Why do you think the stigma around breastfeeding still exists here, even though it offers so many benefits?
CG: I’ve had my breastfeeding clinic for about seven years now, and what I’ve noticed that has a really profound effect on women breastfeeding is the culture that they live in. So that includes how their mothers and their grandmothers fed. One of the most common things I hear is someone coming in and saying, ‘my mother says I need to use formula because I’m not making enough milk. That’s how I was fed and I’m fine.’ And so it’s those kinds of voices that really discourage women from breastfeeding. And so we need to get the breastfeeding rates up in our whole community so that the mothers and grandmothers and neighbors and sisters have all breastfed, and then they know about the breastfeeding journey so they know how to counsel the new mother who is struggling with low milk supply and a hungry baby. So that first answer isn’t give that baby a bottle of formula, it’s let’s breastfeed or a little more often, so we can increase your supply. There’s a lot of confusing information that exists just culturally about what normal feeding is. And when we live in a formula culture, that’s not good information for babies who are breastfeeding.
MT: In recent years, the discussion around working mothers’ needs around breastfeeding has become more prominent. But any gains in workplace accommodations for breastfeeding mothers has been concentrated in wealthier, whiter workplaces. I was hoping you could talk a bit about that disparity.
CG: People that work hourly wage jobs tend not to be given adequate breaks for breastfeeding. Nor are they given an adequate place to breastfeed. The hourly wage workers are often told to go pump in the bathroom. That’s like saying ‘go eat lunch in the bathroom.’ That’s gross! So, there needs to be universal, safe, clean and private places to pump for mothers who are working. And that just doesn’t happen except in the white collar environment. You know, if you’re a banker, or a lawyer or whatever, you’re going to have a private office, and you can certainly have a lot more flexibility with your hours and how long you’re going to break to go pump. But if you’re working where there’s no place to pump, it’s going to be very, very hard to get adequate pump sessions and to continue to be able to provide milk for your baby.
MT: What do you think about how breastfeeding is handled in America and what needs to change there?
CG: You’ll find that in countries where breastfeeding is standard, even the taxicab drivers will turn around and say to the mamas when there’s a crying baby, ‘well feed your baby.’ We hide breastfeeding here. We don’t breastfeed very well in public. And until we begin to have that as a perfectly normal part of our standard behavior, it’s going to interfere with our breastfeeding rates. I want to have mamas and grandmas that have the expertise in breastfeeding, so new moms don’t need me as much. I mean, there’s gonna be a need for me and my clinic no matter what, but I want there to be that community support where they don’t have to come to me for every little problem in their breastfeeding because they’re getting that support at home.
Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive early access to weekly analyses.
Speaker of the House Philip Gunn is still privately telling donors and political advisers he’s considering a 2023 run for governor against Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves.
That’s why Jackson politicos have been closely watching Gunn during this 2022 legislative session. They’ve wondered whether the third-term speaker would use the final legislative session before the election year to show strong leadership — the kind of leadership that inspires and brings political factions together, that brings about lasting and positive change for the state.
After all, Gunn and others say that Reeves has long lacked such qualities dating back to his two terms as lieutenant governor. If Gunn wanted to make a name for himself and launch a viable statewide campaign against an incumbent, he needed to set himself apart from Reeves during the pivotal first three months of this year.
But so far this session, Gunn has done nothing of the sort. He looks more like a spitting image of Reeves in his Capitol days: a stubborn bully, quick to kill bills that he and his allies didn’t write because he can’t get his way.
And in the shock of the 2022 legislative session thus far, Gunn has begun aligning himself with Reeves to intimidate Republican senators into supporting a bill they don’t like.
Gunn’s dug-in heels ahead of Wednesday’s major deadline signals that he will not let any spending bills — including the historic $1.8 billion in American Rescue Act Plan funds — pass unless Senate Republicans commit to supporting his proposal to completely eliminate the state’s personal income tax.
“I am of the belief that if we can’t get this tax elimination done in the next two weeks, the governor should call a special session to eliminate the income tax before we spend a dime of other money … (American Rescue Plan Act) money, capital expense fund money, anything,” Gunn said on Feb. 28. “The governor has been very supportive of elimination and this issue. He shares our view that we don’t spend money until such time as we give the taxpayers some tax relief… We hope the governor would call a special session on income tax elimination.”
Reeves, whose political aides have nervously stalked Gunn’s every move for months, is relishing the speaker’s public invitation to help get income tax elimination across the finish line.
“I’m impressed by the improvements (the House has) made, and I’m impressed they have a true plan to eliminate the state income tax,” Reeves said in a press conference last week. “I’m very reluctant to call special sessions … but elimination of the income tax is an issue that certainly could rise to that level. I am not taking that option off the table.”
Gunn’s best idea to set himself apart during the 2022 legislative session was to pass a complete elimination of the income tax — a once-in-a-lifetime achievement that would certainly play well among Republican voters on the statewide campaign trail in 2023.
But after struggling to earn buy-in from Republican senators, Gunn has become so desperate that he’s willing to ask Reeves for help and hand his arch-rival the political gift of a lifetime: the chance to take full credit for Gunn’s best idea.
It’s enticing to consider the 2023 ramifications of this moment, but the speaker’s holding hostage the ARPA funds will dominate news cycles for at least the next three weeks. Lawmakers have until 2024 to spend the $1.8 billion pot, but that deadline means little to the many Mississippians who need the money now.
Cities and counties have been holding off spending their own small pots of ARPA money on long overdue road, water and sewerage repairs because there have been indications from lawmakers that a state match could be coming their way. The Senate passed a $750 million state match program for local governments to spend on these projects.
Hospital leaders and nurses are desperate for relief as they come off a fourth COVID-19 wave. The Senate passed a $12 million plan to address that.
Several state agencies have major needs and lost revenue during the pandemic. The Senate passed a $211.4 million plan that would provide infrastructure upgrades to state agencies, including $26.5 million for work on various state buildings. The Senate also passed a $110 million plan for water and sewerage projects at universities and community colleges, and a $250 million plan to reimbursement for lost state revenue from the pandemic.
The state’s teacher shortage crisis will drastically worsen after this school year in large part because of growing mental health crises among faculty and students. The Senate passed a $105 million plan to address several mental health issues across the state.
Many Mississippians can’t work because they can’t find or afford child care, and others face evictions and foreclosures because of the economic effects of the pandemic. Many states have used ARPA funds to help child care centers expand and help protect people who may lose their homes.
All of these Senate spending proposals are among the many in jeopardy between now and the end of the session as Gunn struggles to garner support for his tax cut plan that some — including Republican senators — say could drastically harm the state’s economy in the long run.
Meanwhile, as Gunn continues to create drama at the Capitol, at least one person in downtown Jackson is already reaping political benefits of the moment — and it might just get him reelected as governor.
State Sen. Angela Hill, a Republican from Picayune, joins Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau and Geoff Pender to discuss her bill, a proposal seeking to create “Buddy’s Law,” to provide mental health resources to minors who abuse animals. She also discussed tension between GOP leaders during the 2022 legislative session.
In episode 110, we discuss the tragic case of Christopher Bennett and the pursuit of justice in this case. This one comes with a big ole trigger warning, ya’ll!
All Cats is part of the Truthseekers Podcast Network.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large sits down with Ki Harris, the Executive Director for the Freedom Project Network. Ki knew he wanted to give back the moment his diploma hit his hand. That meant he would teach and the Atlanta-native ended up teaching in the Mississippi Delta thanks to Teach For America. Coach Ki, as he was known to his football players and English students quickly learned his students were hungry to learn.
That love of giving back is what led him to his next job: Director of College Access and Experimental Learning at the Sunflower County Freedom Project. Today, Ki is the Executive of the Freedom Project Network which helps support and tie the Sunflower County, Meridian and Rosedale Freedom projects together. Ki shares his life and passion for uplifting lives and proves he is not talking out of a book; he is talking out of his heart.
Just because Mississippi is among the rare group of states that have elections every year does not mean that the state always has compelling election seasons.
Unless unforeseen events occur, this year’s election cycle falls under the not-so-compelling category. All four general elections for the state’s U.S. House seats are expected to be snoozers. In all four elections, both major political parties are running candidates, and the candidates from the party out of power in each district deserve respect and our attention as they try to accomplish near herculean tasks. But those elections would be major upsets should those candidates prevail.
The respected Cook Political Report compiles what they call “partisan voting index” for each congressional district in the country. The index shows how strongly a district or state leans toward a party based on a formula developed by the Cook political scientists using historical data.
The partisan voting index for all four Mississippi House districts are in the double digits. Both the 2nd Congressional District, where Democrat Bennie Thompson is the incumbent, and the 3rd, where Republican Michael Guest is the incumbent, have partisan voting indices of 13 in favor of the incumbent. The 1st District, where Republican Trent Kelly is the incumbent, has a pro-Republican tilt of plus-18, while the 4tb District seat occupied by Republican Steven Palazzo is at plus-22.
In other words there is no naturally “competitive” seat in Mississippi, where under normal circumstances the candidate of each party would have a reasonable chance of winning.
There are districts with higher partisan voting indices than those found in Mississippi. But another study by the FiveThirtyEight blog, which also uses historical data, suggests that Mississippi has the most inelastic electorate in the country. In other words, the people who vote Republican in Mississippi generally always vote Republican, and the people who vote Democratic in Mississippi seldom, if ever, cross over.
The partisan voting index of the entire state, according to Cook, is Republican plus-10, which incidentally is lower than at least four states with governors from the other party. The partisan voting index of both Maryland and Massachusetts is more pro-Democrat than Mississippi is Republican, yet they have Republican governors. The reverse is true for Louisiana and Kentucky that have what appear to be popular Democratic governors.
On the other hand, Mississippi has not elected a Democratic governor since 1999 — former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. But remember that elasticity index. People in Mississippi are more set on how they vote than people in other states.
The NAACP and others are seeking through the federal courts this year to have Mississippi congressional districts redrawn in a way that would make at least one congressional district — likely the 3rd — more competitive. The state Legislature redrew the districts this year to adhere to population shifts found by the 2020 U.S. Census. That redistricting is being challenged by the NAACP on the grounds it diminishes the impact of Black voters by placing the bulk of them in the 2nd District and spreading the remainder out in a manner to minimize their impact in the other three districts. If a greater percentage of African American voters, who are the Democrats’ primary voting bloc in the state, were placed in the 3rd, then that district could perhaps become more competitive.
Most people believe the lawsuit is a long shot in the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Mississippi.
The early 2000s, when Democrats still controlled both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature, was the last time an effort was made to develop more competitive congressional districts. That year, based on U.S. Census data, the state lost a congressional district. The goal of Democrats in the state Legislature was to draw a new map where they would be the solid-blue 2nd District but make the 3rd District more competitive.
They attempted to do this by drawing the 1st District to encompass much of north Mississippi, including the Tupelo and DeSoto County areas, and stretching it all the way down into suburban Jackson. The late House Speaker Tim Ford, a Democrat from Baldwyn who supported the plan, dubbed it the “tornado district” — not a moniker that engendered support. But the intent of the plan was to place more African American voters in the 3rd District in an attempt to make it competitive.
But Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, the presiding officer of the Senate who was then a Democrat but later switched to the Republican Party, blocked the “tornado” plan. Since then, with a couple of exceptions, Mississippi has not had competitive general elections for the congressional seats.
Perhaps 2022 will be an exception for one or more candidates in Mississippi, but history and math are not on their side.
Gas prices in the United States have significantly increased recently, with places such as California and Illinois experiencing some of the highest prices of $5 per gallon and upward, according to the American Automobile Association.
• Over two years into the pandemic, economic recovery and increased vaccination rates mean a post-pandemic demand for gas as people are driving more for work, trips, etc.
• In the early days of the pandemic, oil production was cut due to low demand, and now production as a whole has been slow to catch up.
• The United States does not import much gas from Russia — less than 10%. But, U.S. sanctions do add to the issues with the overall global market.
Mississippi ranks lower with an average price of $4 per gallon. However, lower prices can still be financially impactful given states' varying economies.
Quick math: Gas price/wage comparison
Mississippi
Average gas price
$4.01/gallon
Average hourly wage
$23.51
Work hours needed to fill a 15-gallon tank
2 hrs 34 mins
California
Average gas price
$5.72/gallon
Average hourly wage
$37.18
Work hours needed to fill a 15-gallon tank
2 hrs 18 mins
As CNN puts it, Mississippians need to work two hours and 34 minutes to fill up a 15-gallon tank at an average price of $4.01, but Californians only have to work two hours and 18 minutes with a significantly higher average price per gallon of $5.72.
I know, I know — gub’ment is bad, right? Well, gub’ment makes up the people and services that we depend on daily. It is our neighbors, friends and family. So removing 1/3 of the revenue out of the state budget doesn’t seem like such a hot idea. I’ve never believed that government is the answer. But I definitely believe starving the one we have isn’t either.
Family members of Emmett Till are calling on Mississippi officials to arrest the woman they say is the last living accomplice in Till’s lynching.
The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, founded by Till’s family members, announced Friday at a press conference at the Mississippi State Capitol that they were delivering a petition with over 300,000 signatures to Mississippi officials, calling for Carolyn Bryant Donham to be charged.
Donham was the wife of Roy Bryant, one of Till’s two murderers. She and her husband owned a store together in Money, Miss. that Till and his cousins visited in August 1955, where she later testified that he allegedly grabbed her arm, put his hands on her waist, and made sexually suggestive comments.
In 2018, the investigation into Till’s death was reopened after a book by Timothy Tyson published that included a confession from Donham that her allegations at the time were false. In the book, Donham recanted that Till made advances on her, telling the author “that part is not true.” Donham later disputed this claim that she recanted her story, according to the Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting. In December 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice closed the case without filing any additional charges because authorities found “insufficient evidence to prove that she ever told the professor that any part of her testimony was untrue.”
Family members said they met with the Department of Justice in Oxford earlier this week, but left disappointed as they feel other information still needs to be investigated.
“We want justice,” said Jaribu Hill, a civil rights attorney representing the family. “We want the original warrant that should have been served on her in 1955. We want that warrant to surface, and we want it served…We want the evidence that shows her culpability brought before a grand jury, and we want the state of Mississippi to take accountability, to be responsible, for all of the Emmett Tills.”
Posters next to the podium showed paintings of Till with career goals he was not able to fulfill, including peacekeeping, cooking, comedy, and playing baseball.
“It is frustrating that I have to keep screaming and hollering about the importance of getting closure, not only for the family of Emmett Till but for the whole nation,” said Keith Beauchamp, whose 2005 documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till helped reopen the case.
Shelton Chappell, whose mother was shot during the 1964 Jacksonville race riots, played the freedom song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” on his saxophone while other speakers sang along.
Deborah Watts, co-founder of the foundation, said that it was “invigorating” to see so many petition signatures, which reminds her that “we are not walking this road alone.”
“We made a promise to Mamie (Till) that we would persist, and that’s why we’re here today,” Watts said.
A “Justice for Emmett Till” rally will be held in Smith Park in Jackson on Saturday, March 12 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
