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Gov. Tate Reeves awarded another $3.46 million of emergency education funds to child care centers and educational organizations in the state.

This marked the third round of applications and awards for the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER). The funding is meant to provide relief to schools that have been most significantly impacted by COVID-19.

Reeves’ office highlighted two priorities for the $34.6 million Mississippi received: first, educational services for children up to 12 years old and those with disabilities; and second, innovative educational solutions for children of all ages, including college students.

The third and last round of funding was a repeat of the first round. The money went to those that applied but did not receive funding in the first round and all other eligible applicants. Click here for a full list of organizations and funding amounts.

McCarty Learning Center in Picayune is one of six child care centers to receive funding. It received a total of $171,700 for two separate grants.

Director Thelma Cox said the money will be used to provide child care for 40 children under five years old and 10 school-age children who also receive assistance with their schoolwork while at the center.

Nine other educational entities, including universities and nonprofits, received funding for various projects. Waterford.org, the Utah-based virtual education organization that received nearly $2 million in the first round of GEER funding, got an additional $124,451.53.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves capped federal education grants at $1 million. This Utah-based group received nearly twice that amount.

Kim Fischer, spokesperson for the group, said Waterford.org is partnering with three statewide coalitions to allow up to 100 child care providers to access Waterford Upstart, the 15- to 20-minute-a-day computer adaptive program for preschoolers. They are also offering 25 computers for centers.

Centers will have access to the program for a four-month period.

Delta Health Alliance received $472,680 to work with school districts to provide child care five days a week for children who are distance learning. The opportunity is open to parents who are living or working in Washington and Sunflower Counties, and children also receive assistance with their schoolwork from employees at the center.

They also offer services such as physical education, social emotional learning exercises and daily nutrition information to try and replicate some of the activities they do while in school, said Karen Matthews, president and CEO of Delta Health Alliance.

All of the children they serve attend schools that are currently operating virtually, though some may shift to more in-person in coming months.

The second part of Delta Health Alliance’s project will be to open up a similar program for eight weeks in the summer to 300 children. The goal is to address academic learning loss as a result of the pandemic while also continuing to allow parents to work.

Money left over in the $34.6 million pot will be used to defray administrative costs and toward a supplemental grant, said Holly Spivey, Reeves’ education advisor.

The U.S. Department of Education announced the nearly $3 billion in GEER funds in April 2020 to “quickly be made available to governors to ensure education continues for students of all ages impacted by the coronavirus national emergency,” the department said in a press release at the time.

In Mississippi, there were a total of three funding rounds, or chances to apply for the money. For the first round, the governor’s office awarded $5.4 million for educational services for children under five years old. This second round, in which the governor’s office awarded $23.4 million earlier this month, was for innovative opportunities in education.

Reeves will also received a second set of GEER funds, called GEER II, through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA). Mississippi is receiving $46 million, $31 million of which must go to private and independent schools.

The post Day cares, education groups get another $3.5M in emergency education funds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In mid-March, Mississippi lawmakers passed a law banning transgender girls and women at public schools and colleges from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. It was necessary, Gov. Tate Reeves said the day he signed the bill, because Democratic President Joe Biden, by issuing an executive order banning gender-identity-based discrimination in school sports, was “encouraging transgenderism amongst children.” 

The bill’s author, Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, said several high school softball coaches told her they were concerned about trans female students participating on teams with cisgender girls.

“They told me that it is imminent, that it’s going to happen in Mississippi,” Hill told the Picayune Item. 

Yet when asked by reporters, neither Hill nor Reeves could name a single instance of a trans student in Mississippi outcompeting — or even playing on the same team as — their cis female classmates. 

“This law is a solution in search of a problem,” the president of Human Rights Campaign said in a statement. The ACLU of Mississippi is now working to find trans athletes who could serve as plaintiffs in a legal challenge against the law; otherwise, it will take effect July 1. 

Mississippi Today recently spoke with five advocates for trans rights in Mississippi about gender identity and religion in the Deep South, the political origins of Senate Bill 2536, and their vision for a more trans-inclusive state. What follows is a conversation, which has been edited and condensed for length, between Dr. Jemma Cook, a trans woman who co-chairs the Jackson MS Democratic Socialists of America; Calandra Davis, a queer Black woman who organizes with Black Youth Project 100; Elizabeth Henry, a cis woman and college chaplain working with trans students in Jackson; Misty Kendrick, a cis parent of a teenage trans girl; and Jensen Luke Matar, a trans man and the ACLU of Mississippi’s Equality Advocacy Coordinator. 

Editor’s note: This story contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Local resources include the Mississippi Department of Mental Health DMH Helpline at 1-877-210-8513 and the NAMI Mississippi Crisis Lines at 1-877-210-851.

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Mississippi Today: What is daily life like for trans students in Mississippi right now? How is that experience different for trans students in elementary school, high school, college? 

Misty Kendrick: I’ve lived in Mississippi my whole life. I have two daughters; my oldest, (Zoe), is a trans female. She’s graduating high school and going to college. She came out to me her 10th grade year (two years ago). I was very open, very accepting, but she was scared to come out to me. She came out at school in little bits at a time. Came out to the theater group, came out to her friends. It took a little time for her to feel the confidence to come out to everyone, but she did, and she started HRT (hormone replacement therapy) probably about eight months after she came out to me. She was out for at least a year, and even then a few people would still use her deadname, even teachers. That was a struggle. We switched to home school. A lot of that was because of COVID, but also she just felt more comfortable being at home and not having to be out there around everyone.

She’s very excited to go to college. At first I tried to talk her into going to community college and staying close to me, but that’s not what she wants to do, so I’m gonna support her. She’s nervous about the dorms because she can’t get her gender-marker changed yet. The first year you have to live in the dorms, but I can’t see putting my daughter in the male dorms, so that’s another problem we’re facing right now. 

One thing that has really been a thing for me: So many parents are not supportive of their kids. Zoe has run into deep depression, self-harm thoughts, even with me being super supportive. My heart goes out to the youth that don’t have that support.

Jensen Luke Matar: Life’s not easy for young trans people at all. Finding ways to have basic needs met is a struggle. For example, I’ve been working with two young trans females, both teenagers, over the past few weeks. Both of them have been homeless. Their parents kicked them out when they came out as trans. For one, we were able to find a temporary housing program where you learn life skills, get on your feet and get a job. She’s almost 18. Hopefully she can be independent once this program comes to completion. The other, I’ve been bouncing between organizations trying to fund a hotel and make sure that she has an allowance, basically, for food.  

And, Misty, I feel for you. As bills like this pass, I’ve been getting phone calls from parents about their children being bullied just because of the bill. So many parents with young trans kids are pulling (them) out of school because it’s that harmful. A parent of a young female that I’ve been in contact with just did the same last week. She pulled her daughter out of school because the bullying was just going too far. 

Dr. Jemma Cook: As an addendum to that, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, about 77% of kids that were out as trans in K-12 education experienced some kind of mistreatment ranging from verbal harassment to physical assault. Seventeen percent of them left school. They also noted that if their classmates knew they were trans, 56% were supportive or very supportive, while only 5% were not supportive or very unsupportive. So this bill is designed to promote the bullies, more or less. Most kids are supportive or don’t care because they’ve got their own lives to deal with. 

Likewise, an estimated 2% of high schoolers are transgender. It’s a very small population that we’re talking about. And of those kids, jeez, 39% (first) attempted suicide while they were aged 14 to 17. 34% (first) attempted when they were 13 or younger. 

Elizabeth Henry: Working as a chaplain with our transgender students (at Millsaps College) … what we’re worried about most of the time are things like making sure they have stable housing because their parents found out in the middle of their college career and (stopped) paying for school. The amount of time that we spend trying to get them access to healthcare — not just things like access to hormones, but finding any kind of medical professional that’s going to use appropriate names and pronouns. 

There’s also the simple things, like the number of times kids get deadnamed on the first day of class because the roster automatically prints (their) legal name. It sets the tone in such a negative way — and also tells all of your classmates your deadname. Those bullies now have that information to use against you. 

Misty: It’s not even just with sports. One of the things that we encountered in Pearl Public Schools is Zoe wanted to try out for color guard, but they denied her because they said she’s not a girl. 

Mississippi Today: How did SB 2536 passing affect you? What was your reaction to it? Your community’s reaction to it? 

Calandra Davis: For the purposes of this question, when I think of my community, I think of the organizing community and then the larger Black community. I don’t identify as trans, but I identify as queer. The passing of this bill has ruined some relationships for me. 

Basically what I am seeing is that folks are denying the humanity of trans people and queer people. I was in a Facebook messenger thread with a lot of local organizers and somehow the conversation quickly went into, like, “Heterosexuals have rights, too.” And I’m just like, wait, what? How did we get to this point? 

There are some voices that’s missing from the conversation. There’s Black queer folk who are not being included in these conversations. We never get a chance to have the lead on the conversations. Our youth aren’t even ever really included in how they’re impacted by this. And so you have grown folks who have been, quote-unquote, doing this work and organizing for years, for decades, having a conversation about children. That just doesn’t make sense to me. It shows me that at the end of the day, if we keep framing these conversations as just hate — it’s beyond that. If we keep framing the conversation as just as simple as a difference of opinions, that’s dangerous because those opinions are biases that are playing into a larger system. 

At the foundation of it all is the fact that the world we live in puts us at war with each other. It almost seems like we have to choose if we could get, like, the crumbs, if we could get a few crumbs of freedom. But we don’t have to choose. We could have it all, and we could do that by coming together. Personally, I have stepped away from a lot of things over the past couple of weeks. It’s just like, how do you come together with people who are actively denying your humanity? 

Jensen: Young trans people are having to make a case for being treated as human, basically. That’s what’s going on. Most trans people in Mississippi, if not all of them, are having to make a case, and in some instances plead, to be treated as humans. (This bill) is not really about young trans female athletes at all. That’s not what it’s about. It’s to send a message. And I think the overarching message is trans people are not who they say they are. Their identities are not valid. I’m so deeply offended and hurt by this, and everybody else should be, because there is not one thing that is more valuable to an individual person than their identity. Wounds can’t be cut deeper than that. 

Jemma: A common slur for trans women is “trap,” suggesting that we are inherently being fraudulent just by living as who we say we are. 

This is called the “Mississippi Fairness Act,” but it’s a blanket ban on people. There’s no room for discussion about what constitutes fairness. The example (that) keeps getting brought up (of) “someone who’s not a starter on the (men’s) basketball team transitions to become a starter on the women’s team.” But what if a trans girl wants to compete on the gymnastics team, where maybe being bigger is a disadvantage? What happens if a (cis) girl happens to be 6-foot tall? Are we going to deny her a place on the basketball team because she’s tall? 

Jensen: Or are we gonna investigate her and make her go through testing? This is dangerous for cisgender women as well. 

Elizabeth: That’s absolutely going to be used against women of color and girls of color more. You think about how often Serena Williams has been attacked and called a man because she excels at her sport. 

Mississippi Today: Angela Hill, the primary author of the bill, has said repeatedly that trans women have an unfair athletic advantage, but some studies have shown that’s not true, particularly when talking about adolescents, teenagers going through puberty. 

Jemma: A lot of variables go into excellence in sports. You need to be talking about specific measures of athletic performance. Shooting free throws is very different from powerlifting, from doing a somersault. 

Jensen: You mention Angela Burks Hill. She’s responsible for a lot of this. This is not her first rodeo. This session’s not the first session she’s introduced anti-trans legislation. Then you have the “Transgender 21 Act.” That was Angela Burks Hill as well. That was to prevent trans people from under the age of 21 from accessing health care. 

Jemma: It would’ve criminalized anyone who provided health care (to trans youth) and turned everyone into a mandated reporter.

Meanwhile, we have COVID. We have the water crisis, but we can’t get funding to repair our infrastructure. They’re not funding the schools, so they’re not funding the women’s sports that they’re advocating to protect. These people are not advocates for women’s sports, women’s rights, women’s health care. They just happen to be seizing on this because it is politically palatable. It gins up their base. 

Mississippi Today: What has changed for the trans community in recent years? 

Jensen: There’s been some good movement. With the exception of last year, we’ve passed one nondiscrimination ordinance in one city each year starting (in 2016). We’ve been fighting hard to move the Mississippi Civil Rights Act, which is statewide legislation that’s been introduced for, jeez, five years now and hasn’t budged over at the Legislature. If it passed, it would ensure that all people are protected from discrimination in the state of Mississippi. Sounds like common sense? We should have something like that, right? Most states do. But we don’t. 

Jemma: In 2020, the Bostock decision was made by the Supreme Court, which mandated that under Title VII, sex discrimination is inclusive of discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity. So you can’t fire someone for being — well, you can fire them, but then they can sue you for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. 

So these anti-trans bills, which we have seen amping up over (the) years, are now potentially actionable in court. For instance, this bill explicitly discriminates against individuals of the “biological male sex” or trans women. It’s explicit. But the Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. They may rule (it is) actually constitutional. 

Mississippi Today: What does the focus on trans and cis women in this bill tell us about it? What is important about that group being singled out? 

Elizabeth: In addition to trans people being used as a prop, cis women and girls — and particularly cis white women and girls — are being used as a talking point. 

Jemma: A lot of these laws echo the Jim Crow laws and actions (that) were done to protect white women. The bathroom bills … were promulgated on protecting girls from trans women, portraying trans women as predators. These bills are promulgated on protecting women’s sports from trans women they’re (portraying as) big, hulking men with a wig on.

Elizabeth: The reality is trans girls and women are far more likely to be the victims of sexual assault and harassment than to be perpetrators of it. And if you are worried about cis gender girls and women and their safety from potential predators, straight men are far more likely to be the perpetrators of that as well. 

(The notion that it’s) so unfair for transgender girls and their supposed “biological male bodies” to compete against cisgender girls, but we’re seeing newspaper articles celebrating, for example, the young girl in Ocean Springs who played on the football team and kicked the winning field goal and was named homecoming queen. We’re celebrating young girls getting into male athletics in their own gender identities because, of course, a woman can’t possibly have any kind of advantage. 

Mississippi Today: How did you get involved in advocating for trans rights in Mississippi?

Misty: Well, honestly, it’s my baby. My baby really got me involved. It’s disheartening for me that there’s so much judgment, especially in the South. A lot of people base their judgment on religion. I’m a Christian. I grew up in a Christian household. But Zoe doesn’t believe in God, and I think that is because she doesn’t understand why God would make her trans for people to be so judgmental — in the name of God, be so judgmental. So that turned her completely away. A lot of people don’t understand they’re pushing these youths away (from Christianity). 

Elizabeth: As a pastor, it’s important for all Mississippians and all Southerners, regardless of their particular faith, (to understand that) perspective because you can’t have a political conversation in Mississippi without having a spiritual conversation. It’s so in the water. 

(I was) born and raised here. (I) grew up in the church with all the messaging you would expect being a white cis het Christian kid in Jackson, Mississippi. I grew up with “homosexuality is a sin.” I don’t know if “transgender” was even a word I knew. But when I went off to college, a bunch of my childhood friends and high school friends (came) out as gay or bi or lesbian or queer. A lot of my assumptions (were) challenged. These are my favorite people in the world (who) I love and adore, and they’re still the same people.

We’ve talked about how small the trans population is in Mississippi and in the country. A lot of people don’t know or don’t realize they know a trans person. That’s another part of the conversation: A lot of people do know trans people; they just don’t realize it because people don’t feel safe coming out, for good reason.

Jemma: I can trace my activism back to becoming more active in the 2016 Bernie campaign. As I was figuring myself out, I started having a lot of issues, a lot of suffering. It culminated in me coming out. When I started transitioning, I was running into issues (with) health care. (I was) having a hard time dealing with the identity documents (and) getting my name changed on things. 

When my health care wasn’t covered, I was just like, “Oh, yeah, that makes sense. I’m in Mississippi. Why should I expect better of them?” And I realized as that was happening, that’s the point of all this. They don’t want you to try. They want you to be kicked and accept it. So I started getting more active. The Bernie campaign picked up and that got me engaged in political activism. Then I got involved in the DSA. I started looking at forming a chapter. Eventually, I brought up my health care issues to my employer, who are supportive of me dealing with these issues, but because they’re a state entity and their health care system is provided by the state, they can’t do anything to be inclusive. 

It’s been weird. I advocate around trans issues. I get particularly animated because I am trans… but they’re human rights, too. 

Jensen: To link to what Jemma mentioned about her advocacy because it impacts her: Whether trans people want to be advocates or not, they’re gonna be in some capacity. It’s kind of imposed on us in that way. 

I got into the work because of my own personal experiences. I knew I was confused about my gender my entire life. Come to find out, I wasn’t really confused. I knew who I was. I thought I was a boy. When I was younger, I was told that’s wrong. I can’t be that. I tried to shift it around. I tried to be the best female I could be. I overcompensated the way a lot of trans people do, trying to really prove to themselves that they can be OK as the gender that’s in alignment with the sex they were assigned at birth.

But oftentimes what happens? It doesn’t work. I was so depressed. I was drinking every single day. I had a few unsuccessful suicide attempts, and I was just really a sad person. I mean, I was miserable. 

When I moved here, I had already come out as trans to certain people in my life, but it was kind of hush, I didn’t do anything to physically transition. I didn’t really do much to socially transition, either. So when I came to Mississippi, I was at that point where I was just done. I was sick of it. If I was gonna make it, if I was gonna survive, if I was gonna be successful, if I was gonna be, then I was gonna start transitioning. I was gonna come out and be honest with myself, because I had felt like a liar for long enough. 

(Lying) eats away at you. It becomes too much. So when I came to Mississippi, it was like, OK. New state, clean slate, nobody knows me. Take advantage. This is when you’re going to do it. 

I started my physical transition about six years ago now. I ran into some challenges. I was managing a retail store. I had over 100 employees. I had teenagers reporting to me, and they were supposed to now address me as “he/him” and by “Jensen.” But I was confusing (to) them. I looked basically like a female to them. That’s what they saw. 

So I educated that company through the human resource department for several months. I did that until the HR manager felt comfortable enough coming to my store to speak on (my) behalf. I accidentally influenced policy for the company, in a good way. They put discrimination protections in place to protect people on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation and decided to go to the extent of creating a pathway to transition in the workplace for anybody who identifies as trans or comes out as trans.

That was my first experience doing any type of advocacy work. I just so happened to link up with the ACLU at that point. They were impressed by my story. They wanted to get to know me. I volunteered for a few years, and I started getting involved with other organizations as a result. A few years into my volunteer work with the ACLU, they offered me a job as an actual advocacy coordinator.

It’s going to be a long road ahead for Mississippi. Some of the greatest advocates I know are leaving. Everybody’s leaving. Everybody says, “I’m done, I can’t with Mississippi.” And guess what? I don’t even blame them. And for me, I’ll be honest, the reason why I stay in the state is because of the job that I have. Because somebody’s got to it. 

Mississippi Today: What do you envision for the future? And relatedly, what would a trans-inclusive Mississippi or trans-inclusive schools or sports teams look like?

Jensen: I have an answer for you. A trans-inclusive state would look like a state that just treats all people equally. Where all kids are treated the same. That’s it, really. 

Jemma: A trans-inclusive Mississippi would look a lot like Mississippi does day to day. There’d still be barbecue. There’d still be Blues music. People would still go to church. None of that would change. But when I say, “Hi, my name is Jemma,” people believe me. They don’t insist on calling me sir to my face.

Trans women are women, so treat us like women. Trans men are men, treat them like men. Treat non-binary people like people. People would still go to church, people would still eat barbecue, people would still listen to Blues music and all that other stuff. That’s not gonna change. A trans-inclusive Mississippi looks a lot like Mississippi. It’s just a little easier to live our lives day to day. 

The post ‘Denying humanity’: Advocates discuss law that bans trans athletes from female sports teams appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Advocates of changing Mississippi laws to expand parole opportunities for state inmates are hoping their efforts will be more favorably received by Gov. Tate Reeves than they were in 2020.

Last year the Republican governor vetoed legislation designed to give more inmates the opportunity for parole. On Tuesday both chambers passed a compromise proposal that supporters said attempted to address Reeves’ concerns from 2020.

“We have been working with the governor’s office,” said House Corrections Chair Kevin Horan, R-Grenada. “We addressed his veto concerns and went further than addressing his veto concerns out of an abundance of caution. It is just a good bill.”

But those who worked on the bill said they had not received any commitment from the governor that he would not veto the legislation.

The proposal passed the Senate by a 35-13 margin and was approved in the House 91-25. The proposal was passed Tuesday afternoon as legislators worked to finish their few unresolved issues as they prepare to adjourn for at least this portion of the session. There is a possibility that the Legislature will adjourn in such a manner that they will be able to call themselves back into session this year to deal with various items, such as spending some of the funds allocated to the state in a federal COVID-19 relief bill.

Another bill still is pending that deals with enacting changes to the criminal justice system to make certain categories of non-violent habitual criminals, such as drug dealers, eligible for parole. If that bill becomes law along with the bill passed Tuesday by the Legislature, Horan said as many as 2,800 inmates could become eligible for parole almost immediately.

Senate Corrections Chair Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, said with the legislation approved Tuesday about 3,000 could be eligible in three to five years.

“This does not grant parole. It only makes individuals have the possibility of parole,” Barnett said.

Among the problems cited by Reeves last year when he vetoed the legislation is that it would grant parole for those convicted of murder and sex offensives. Horan said the language was written in a manner this year to ensure those people would not be eligible for parole.

But the bill would make those convicted of armed-robbery parole eligible after serving 60% of their sentence or 25 years, whichever is less. Currently armed robbers convicted after 1995 are not eligible for parole. In addition those convicted of car-jacking and drive-by shootings would have the same parole eligibility standards.

Those convicted of violations deemed violent crimes committed without a weapon, such as simple robbery or burglary, would be eligible for parole after serving 20 years or 50% of their sentence, whichever is less. They currently have to serve 50%. And some convicted of possession of drugs or of selling drugs and those convicted of some other non-violent crimes would be eligible after serving 10 years or 25%, whichever is less.

Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, who voted against the bill, said she did not oppose certain non-violent criminals getting out earlier, but said those convicted of murder and other violent crimes already were being released by the Department of Corrections. She said she objected to that and feared the legislation being considered would only add to the number of violent offenders being released.

Horan said the Department of Corrections has released some convicted of murder and other violent crimes under their regulations. He said the legislation approved Tuesday would stop that practice and try to ensure those released are done so by the five-member Parole Board appointed by the governor.

The efforts to expand release opportunities is ongoing as Mississippi trails only Louisiana and Oklahoma in terms of its incarceration rates. In addition, officials said the state Corrections Department is facing a potential Department of Justice lawsuit. Hill said the lawsuit was based on the conditions in the prisons, not on the number of people incarcerated in the state.

Horan said both Alabama and Texas, which have faced similar lawsuits, have passed much more progressive legislation in terms of expanding the opportunities for early release from prison.

Mississippi currently has about 17,000 incarcerated in its prison system.

The post Lawmakers send parole expansion to Gov. Reeves, who vetoed last try appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Lawmakers have passed a measure that would allow home delivery of beer, wine and liquor, similar to grocery deliveries that have become popular, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But a push to privatize Mississippi’s liquor warehousing and distribution died this session.

House Bill 1135, now before the governor who has not indicated whether he’ll sign it into law, would allow home delivery of alcohol from liquor stores and other retailers within 30 miles of the stores. Delivery would not be allowed to any “dry” areas where alcohol sales are prohibited and would be allowed only from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, not on Sundays nor on Christmas day.

Purchasers would have to be 21 or older, as would delivery drivers.

If signed into law, it would take effect July 1.

In a statement, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States praised the move as “a convenience for consumers and a safe alternative way for adults to purchase and enjoy their favorite spirits at home during the pandemic.” The council said Mississippi would join more than 30 states that allow home alcohol delivery from retailers.

House and Senate measures to have private industry take over warehousing and distribution of liquor — something the state has struggled to do efficiently — died after much debate this legislative session.

Mississippi is one of 17 states that tightly control the sale of liquor, and one of 10 that sell spirits to all private package stores. Seven directly own all the liquor stores in their states.

Mississippi’s warehouse and distribution, run by the Alcoholic Beverage Control division of the Department of Revenue, has for years struggled to keep up with demand and new products and its warehouse is too small and antiquated. Lawmakers have been reluctant to sink money into upgrades of the warehouse and system.

Measures to allow Mississippi grocery stores to sell wine or to allow mail-order wine deliveries to Mississippi homes have for years generated debate in the Legislature, but gained no traction this year.

The post Legislature passes home delivery of alcohol. Liquor privatization dead appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The city of Jackson’s request for $47 million from the state for water and sewerage repairs has fallen on deaf ears as lawmakers ink final spending plans for the coming year with only $3 million of $356 million in projects statewide earmarked for a city water plant.

But legislative leaders said they’re not ignoring the capital city’s water crisis. They said tens of millions in federal dollars coming to Mississippi from the COVID-19 American Rescue Act can go to overhauling Jackson’s crumbling infrastructure. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the $3 million for the Jackson water plant is one of the largest individual city projects funded by the state for the coming year.

Lawmakers have approved a $298 million “Christmas tree” bond bill to borrow money for dozens of projects and economic development grants statewide, including $121 million for colleges and universities projects. They also approved $58 million in projects from the state capital expense fund. Besides the $3 million water project, there are about $1.6 million in smaller city of Jackson projects, such as $500,000 to upgrade the Pete Brown Golf Course.

After decades of neglected maintenance, Jackson’s water system is failing as the city struggles financially, largely from “white flight” loss of population and businesses to the suburbs. A recent freezing winter storm left at least 40,000 Jacksonians without running water for weeks, and the system suffers outages and boil-water notices frequently. The city is asking for state and federal help and said $1 billion in repairs are needed.

READ MORE: “A profound betrayal of trust”: Why Jackson’s water system is broken

Recently, lawmakers killed a request to let Jackson voters decide whether to levy a 1-cent local sales tax in Jackson to pay for water and sewerage. Jackson already has a 1-cent local sales tax — one of only two such local sales taxes in the state — for infrastructure.

“Unfortunately, our requests have fallen on deaf ears with regard to our quality of water issues,” said Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson. “The $3 million currently allocated to the J.H. Fewell water plant … is a small deposit on the future improvements of our water treatment plant.”

Another lawmaker from Jackson, Sen. John Horhn, said he believes Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s recent public criticism of the state’s GOP leadership played a role in the city not receiving more from the state. Horhn unsuccessfully challenged Lumumba for the mayor’s seat in the 2017 Democratic city primary.

“We have an unfortunate set of circumstances where the mayor made comments that state leaders took exception to,” Horhn said. “That impacted the reception to the requests.”

Lumumba said in a New York Times interview that state government agencies and offices don’t pay for city water and sewerage, which helps put the system in a financial bind. He later retracted the statement, saying he had incorrect information and that state offices do pay for the city services.

Hosemann, a longtime Jackson resident, said the mayor’s criticism of state leaders hasn’t influenced his decision-making on city requests. But then he criticized the mayor’s comments.

“I wish he’d be accurate — the state pays its water bills,” Hosemann said. “I don’t know why he’d run down the state he lives in to the New York Times, especially when it’s not true … But his inaccurate comments did not affect funding, not with me. I live here.”

Hosemann said lawmakers considered the Fewell Plant (one of two main water plants in the city) repairs an urgent need the state could help fund directly. He said otherwise, Jackson’s water issues can be addressed with some of the $6 billion in federal Rescue Act funding Mississippi will receive.

“We’ve got $1.8 billion in federal funds coming to (the Legislature) that should be here within 120 to 180 days that can help,” Hosemann said. “… Also, the city can apply for grants from another $166 million coming for infrastructure projects … There’s $44 million coming directly to the city — the largest amount for any city in the state — and there’s another $46 million going to (Hinds) county.

“What this means is that we just need to all work together over the next three to four months and make sure things are taken care of,” Hosemann said. “… We were more generous with Jackson than anybody else (with project funding) even knowing they’ve got more coming to them (from the Rescue Act) than anybody else.”

House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said, “No. 1, we want to help the city of Jackson. It’s as simple as that.”

Lamar said city officials and legislative leaders have been meeting and he agrees with Hosemann and others that the “unprecedented” federal funding coming to the state, city and county can solve the issues. He said the state’s congressional delegation is also working on more direct help for Jackson.

“It would make no sense for the state to borrow a bunch of money at this time for water and sewer when the city, county and state are about to get money that can be used for this,” Lamar said. “… I do believe help is on the horizon. We all want to see the city do well and we will help on the state level where we can.”

READ MORE: As Jackson residents suffer during historic water crisis, state leaders keep their distance

The post Jackson wanted $47 million for water crisis. Lawmakers are providing $3 million. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Tucked into a 1,200-page bill with an original purpose of authorizing the issuance of bonds to finance long-term construction projects at Mississippi’s public universities is language that expands a tax credit for private K-12 schools.

Facing growing opposition to the language, both Senate Finance Chair Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, and House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, pledged on Monday to request unanimous consent their chambers to remove language from the bill that allows funds from a tax credit to be provided to the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools, which is the umbrella organization for most private schools in the state.

The language that was added to legislation near midnight on Sunday, according to various sources, would expand an existing program know as the Children’s Promise Act. The program allows a tax credit on income taxes to be granted for providing a contribution to private schools that meet certain standards to serve people with special needs, people from poor families and programs that provide services to foster children.

The language in the massive bond bill was discovered Monday as legislators worked to finalize a state support budget of $6.56 billion (an increase of $249.9 million over last year) and to pass various other bills in hopes to ending the 2021 session before the weekend — and as early as Tuesday.

Adding the tax credit language to the bond bill was controversial — particularly the section naming the private school association as an entity eligible to receive the revenue from the tax credit.

In addition, the language expands the scope of the tax credit to allow it to be used for a tax credit on ad valorem or property taxes as well as income taxes. The program is capped at total of $16 million in tax credits for the upcoming year.

“It is an existing program,” Lamar told House members. “It is very popular. It helps the foster care program and those other schools.”

There are about 70 schools eligible to receive contributions through the tax credit program, according to the Department of Revenue web page. They include many of the state’s private schools, ranging from Pillow Academy in Greenwood to Wayne Academy in Waynesboro to Presbyterian Day School in Jackson.

While Lamar said the program is popular, legislative leaders have a habit of trying to sneak language expanding programs providing funds to private funds into bills during the waning hours of the session. In 2019, legislative leaders had language expanding a program to provide vouchers for students with special needs to attend private schools in an unrelated bill during the final days of the session.

And this year, the language for the Children’s Promise Act was in a bill with a primary purpose of issuing debt for various projects across the state. In total the bill authorizes the issuance of just under $300 million in bonds for infrastructure and building projects in most counties across the state. Since the bill has money for projects across the state, it makes it difficult for members to vote against it even if they might oppose a tax credit for private schools.

The funds for the tax credit can go to programs to help children in the foster care system, children with special needs and children from low-income families.

The post Lawmakers pledge to kill effort to expand tax credit for private schools appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Major League Baseball’s opening day is set for Thursday. All 30 big league teams will play, but for the first time in a decade Mississippian Brian Dozier will not.

Dozier, a Fulton native and former Southern Miss standout, has retired at age 33 with two World Series appearances, one World Series ring, an All-Star game appearance, a Gold Glove award, six 20-home run seasons, 192 career home runs, over $30 million in career earnings and one 42-home run season, which stands as one American League record.

All that, and retired at 33. So what do you do?

“Well, I smile a lot knowing I’m not going to have to try to hit a 100 mile an hour fastball tomorrow,” Dozier said, chuckling. “The truth is I’ve got plenty to do, including being a daddy.”

One need not look far to find the two prime reasons why Dozier won’t be in somebody’s clubhouse Thursday. They are 19-month old daughter, Reese, and three-month old son, Rip. Last summer when the pandemic shut down baseball, Dozier found himself at home in the Hub City with his toddler daughter and his then-pregnant wife, Renee. He loved it. Indeed, he didn’t want to go back.

“I am a guy who relies a lot on my faith,” Dozier said. “I kind of fell out of love with playing the game. There were numerous prayers and talks with my wife involved in my decision. Bottom line is I just didn’t feel called to do that any more.”

The birth of son Rip didn’t change that at all. He was just five seasons removed from hitting 42 home runs in a season, the most ever for an American League second baseman, and four seasons removed from winning a Gold Glove as the American League’s top fielding second baseman. And he was done.

The nearness of Opening Day hasn’t changed that.

“I am more sure now than ever that I made the right decision,” Dozier said.

Here’s the deal: What made Dozier the player he was — and he was a special one — was his passion for the game. He worked hard. He played the game hard. But that passion was gone.

Dozier still has plenty to occupy his time. He is a one-man taxi service for day care. He plays a lot of golf — he is also a long ball hitter in that sport — and has multiple business interests. Dozier majored in business and marketing at Southern Miss where he also was a star student. He has put that degree to work with business and real estate investments. On the day we talked, he was en route to the Florida panhandle to close a deal on a storage facility.

“I’ve been investing and doing different business deals all along,” he said. “That won’t change.”

None of that surprises Scott Berry, the Southern Miss coach who recruited him from Fulton to Hattiesburg when Berry was an assistant to Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Corky Palmer. 

“If there’s anything Doze can’t do, I don’t think I’ve seen it,” Berry said. “He’s blessed with so many different abilities. He can play piano and guitar. He taught himself. You can toss him a Rubik’s Cube and he’ll toss it back to you — all solved — in less than 30 seconds.”

Berry recalls scouting Dozier when he was a teen playing in a summer league tournament in Oklahoma.

“I watched him play several games over a weekend out there,” Berry said. “He was a shortstop then, of course, and he made every play — I mean, every play. He was like a wizard with that glove. I called Cork back in Hattiesburg and told him, ‘We got to have this guy.’”

Southern Miss had a returning starter at shortstop, but Dozier beat him out, hit .368 as a freshman and made every play at shortstop. He was a four-year starter and a .355 career hitter, who helped the Golden Eagles to their only College World Series appearance in 2009.

Earl Wynn, the same guy who scouted Rafael Palmeiro for the Baltimore Orioles, scouted Dozier for the Minnesota Twins. Berry remembers one Winn visit to Hattiesburg.

“Earl asked me point-blank if I thought Doze was a Big League player,” Berry said. “I was as honest as I could be with him. I told him I didn’t know for sure because, you know, Brian was not a power hitter for us and the game was headed so much in that direction. I told Earl I knew he had a Big League glove. That much I knew. And I also told him this. I told him, ‘I guarantee you this much. If you sign him, he will make every player he comes in contact with in your organization a better player. At the very least, he will become a great coach or manager for your organization because he has incredible people skills. He will make everyone around him better.’”

Turns out, Berry was right. And other than the American League record for home runs by a second baseman, Dozier’s Major League legacy might be that of the ultimate teammate. Here’s an example: When Dozier was coming up through the Twins farm system, many of his teammates were from the Dominican Republic and other Spanish-speaking countries.

Says Dozier, “It was so difficult to become good friends with them. I could tell so many of them were really good, friendly people but we could not communicate. So I studied it on bus rides and plane rides.”

He bought the Rosetta Stone program. He was a quick study.

“Rosetta Stone taught me to speak proper Spanish, but it didn’t teach me baseball Spanish,” he said. “Clubhouse talk is different.”

So Dozier and his Twins teammate Eduardo Escobar, a Venezuelan, taught each other the nuances of their languages, baseball-wise. Besides becoming good teammates, they became close friends. Indeed, Dozier says he counts many of the Spanish-speaking teammates he played with during his career with the Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals among his closest friends.

Scott Berry was not surprised.

“That’s Brian Dozier in a nutshell,” Berry said. “He saw a problem, and he took it upon himself to fix it. That’s why I think he’d be a great coach or manager if he ever decided to pursue it.”

Dozier doesn’t discount the possibility in the future. 

“But right now, I am doing what I feel like I am called to do,” he said.

The post Brian Dozier will be at home on Opening Day and loves it appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi is now accepting applications to help struggling renters, three months after then-President Donald Trump signed a massive COVID-19 stimulus bill, including $25 billion for rental assistance.

On Monday, the same day the state opened the program, President Joe Biden’s U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended a federal halt on evictions to June 30th. It had been set to expire at the end of March.

Mississippi Home Corporation is taking applications from needy renters, as well as landlords who file on behalf of tenants, at ms-ramp.com. The home corporation program, called the Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program (RAMP), received $186 million of the $200 million U.S. Department of Treasury allocated to Mississippi through the Federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

Harrison and Hinds Counties secured a total of $14 million for themselves. Anyone living in Harrison should apply through the Open Doors Homeless Coalition at 228-604-8011. Hinds has not begun administering its portion, home corporation director Scott Spivey said, but Hinds County residents may apply to RAMP.

The assistance is meant to help renters who were financially impacted by COVID-19.

The Mississippi Home Corporation first began administering RAMP in July using $18 million the state received through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Emergency Solutions Grant. But the agency stopped offering rental assistance through the program in January, Spivey said, due to federal guidance. Spivey explained that because an eviction moratorium had begun Sept. 4, the federal government suggested renters were no longer at a great enough risk of homelessness to qualify for the grant.

That program also came with strict eligibility guidelines that caused several thousand to be denied, but the treasury money is more flexible. For one, the program announced today raises the income limit for eligibility from 50% to 80% of the area’s median income. In Hinds County, families of four would qualify if they earned under $56,700, instead of the previous $35,450.

Today, individuals can apply to the program for help paying up to 15 months of back due rent, which should help to reduce debts and the number of evictions to come once the moratorium is lifted. Applicants can also secure help to pay for the following utilities and energy costs: electricity, gas, water and sewer, trash removal and fuel oil. The program will not pay for telephone, cable or internet bills.

Renters will be eligible for the assistance if at least one person in the household meets three requirements: they qualify for unemployment or faced financial hardship as a result of COVID-19, are at risk of homelessness or unstable housing and pull no more than 80 percent of the area median household income.

The home corporation also directs applicants to call 601-533-8401 or 1-888-725-0063 to speak to a representative.

The post Struggling renters in Mississippi can now apply for assistance appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves has not made appointments to fill vacancies on Mississippi’s two main education boards — a move the chairwoman of the state Board of Education says has been “crippling” to the work of that panel.

Reeves’ slow-rolled appointments could leave the boards that govern K-12 education and universities with multiple vacancies until the next legislative session begins in January 2022. The delayed appointments have already affected the ability of one board to function as needed: the Board of Education had to cancel a meeting in November because it lacked a quorum.

The state Constitution requires Senate confirmation of the governor’s appointments to both the 12-member board of trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning, which oversees the state’s eight public universities, and the nine-member Board of Education, which oversees the state’s K-12 public schools.

Reeves is currently due to make appointments for four vacancies that will occur on the IHL board on May 7. Without appointments by that date, the college board will be down to eight members — the exact number needed for a quorum. That means that if any board member had to miss a meeting, they would not have a quorum to legally meet.

The governor also must fill two current vacancies on the state Board of Education. There are currently five members on that board, which meets the exact quorum. One of the seats Reeves is responsible for filling on the Board of Education — a teacher representative — has been vacant since June 20, 2020. The other, representing the state’s southern district, has been vacant since Nov. 20, 2020.

Reeves, according to Senate staffers and the legislative web page, has not submitted nominations to the Senate for picks to either board. It is likely too late in the 2021 legislative session for the Senate to consider any appointments, which normally require a background check prior to confirmation.

When Mississippi Today reporters tried on Thursday to ask Reeves about the vacancies as he left the Capitol surrounded by security and staff, he refused to answer questions, saying to contact him via email. He has not responded to Mississippi Today’s emailed questions.

If Reeves makes the appointments after the 2021 session ends, legal experts told Mississippi Today there is question of whether the appointees could begin serving prior to the next legislative session, which begins in January 2022.

The attorney general, in a 1977 opinion, seemed to support the argument that if the governor does not make the appointments during the current legislative session, he must wait until next session. The opinion stated when a “term is about to expire and will expire by limitation before the next session of the Senate, the governor should nominate a person to fill the vacancy” and “if he fails to do so, he cannot make a valid appointment to fill such a vacancy in the vacation of the Senate.” If the governor tried to do so, it “would be to limit and abridge the right of the Senate to advise and consent to the appointment.”

Another option would be for Reeves to call a special session of the Senate to confirm any appointments he might make after the session ends.

In November, the Board of Education had to cancel their meeting because they could not meet five-member quorum. Rosemary Aultman, chairwoman of the Board of Education, said the five current members are doubling up on subcommittee work.

“There are so many good things going on despite the pandemic and despite having to convert to virtual education in some situations,” Aultman said. “Teachers have continued to do their best to teach, and districts have been working hard to keep the pace, and of course part of that equation is the board being able to approve grants, contracts, all the things that come into play to be able to function … It makes it very crippling not to have a complete board.”

Reeves, now in his first term as governor, has been known for moving slowly in appointments to boards and agencies, including during his former role as lieutenant governor. In 2020, he didn’t name people to the board to redesign the state flag until a week after the deadline set by the Legislature. That deadline was clearly spelled out in the bill Reeves signed into law himself.

In 2017, some blamed the state’s late start on its bicentennial celebration — it didn’t fully roll out until near the end of the state’s 200th year — in part because Reeves didn’t appoint people to long-vacant slots on the Bicentennial Commission until late that year.

In addition to Reeves’ two overdue appointments to the Board of Education, there are currently two others: one appointment to be filled by Speaker Philip Gunn, and the other to be filled by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

Both Hosemann and Gunn said they are working to fill their seats.

“The chairman of the state Board of Education stepped down at the end of February, creating a vacancy which must be filled by an appointment of the lieutenant governor,” said Leah Rupp Smith, a spokeswoman for Hosemann. “The lieutenant governor will be considering candidates next week.”

In September, Sean Suggs of Tupelo, an appointee of the speaker’s, stepped down when he accepted a job in another state. Gunn told Mississippi Today he has a stack of resumes on his desk he must read, but the 2021 legislative session has kept him from conducting interviews. He said he plans to begin work after the session ends in coming days to name a replacement for Suggs and hopes to find another northeast Mississippian to fill the post.

The section of law that some believe would prevent an appointee of the governor from serving prior to the 2022 legislative session does not apply to the speaker and lieutenant governor. There seems to be legal consensus that Gunn and Hosemann could make appointments that could begin serving immediately and face Senate confirmation in 2021. They would not have to wait for a new session to begin serving.

To further complicate matters, the term of northern district Education Board member Karen Elam is set to expire this June. That post also is a gubernatorial appointee.

The IHL board has not discussed the pending vacancies, said Shane Hooper, one of the four IHL board members whose term ends in May.

“We’re not experiencing any problems (like the Board of Education) — we still have all of our members, but some of us roll off the board in May,” Hooper said. “That is strictly a governor’s appointment, and we have no involvement in that.”

Senate Universities and Colleges Chair Rita Potts Parks, R-Corinth, said she is ready to act if the governor sends appointments for the IHL board.

“I am sure as soon as we get them we would be glad to take them up in committee. I am just waiting,” Parks said, but acknowledged it “could be” too late to finish the confirmation process this close to the end of the current session.

The post Top education boards may lack quorums after inaction from Gov. Tate Reeves appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the chief executive of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, joins Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau to reflect on the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mississippi and discuss the days ahead.

Listen here:

The post Podcast: Dr. LouAnn Woodward reflects on the year of COVID-19 appeared first on Mississippi Today.