Mississippi’s senior Senator Roger Wicker recently said on the Paul Gallo radio show, “The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota,” and has received national criticism for it. Vowing to choose from a particular pool of qualified candidates is nothing new for presidential candidates. Both President Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump pledged to nominate women to the Supreme Court. And I am not sure why having a Supreme Court that looks like the face of America is a bad thing.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said at a Monday press conference that he was “pushing back” against a notice of non-compliance the Environmental Protection Agency sent the city last week, citing delays in the supply chain for needed parts at the water treatment facility.
Last week, the EPA told Jackson that it had fallen behind state health department requirements by not repairing an electrical panel at the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant. The panel broke during a fire at the plant last spring, taking pumps out of operation and reducing water pressure for parts of the city.
In a December letter to the city, the Mississippi State Department of Health alerted officials that it had 30 days to provide a plan for correcting the issue, and 120 days to fix it. The EPA notice stated that Jackson missed the first deadline, which was Jan. 14.
Lumumba said the city had ordered the parts to fix the panel, but widespread supply chain issues are delaying the order.
“I agree with the EPA’s overall approach to environmental justice, and one that looks to bring resources to cities that are tasked with these challenges,” Lumumba said. “But with that being said, I want to be clear, the City of Jackson is actually pushing back on the latest letter of non-compliance.
“Like everything in the distribution chain in our world, we are waiting on the parts. So Jackson is not in a position in order to fix a panel without the parts that are provided by a sole source.”
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (left) listens as City Engineer Charles Williams answers questions from the media regarding the city’s water issues during a press conference at City Hall, Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
MSDH’s set deadline for fixing the panel is April 14, which City Engineer Charles Williams said he doesn’t expect Jackson to meet. He said the city ordered the parts on Jan. 13, and expects them to arrive around April 22.
When a WAPT reporter asked why the city waited so long to order the part, Williams declined to go into further detail, saying instead the city has followed protocol.
Lumumba added that the delay “shouldn’t be a surprise” given the city’s communication with the vendor, General Electric, and the EPA. He also said despite the disagreement, he’s generally aligned with the federal agency’s approach and that they communicate every other week.
Williams also touched on the city’s ongoing distribution troubles, as south Jackson is still receiving low water pressure. Despite making progress at the end of last week, Williams said the city had to cut back how much water it sent out after noticing turbidity, meaning that there isn’t enough water in the city’s storage tanks to restore pressure. He expects to see progress during the week, but didn’t provide an exact timeline.
He also added that he expects to have all six of O.B. Curtis’ membrane trains running within the next two weeks. The city took one of the trains offline two weeks ago after it failed an integrity test from MSDH.
Jackson State University’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution Friday opposing legislation that seeks to ban the teaching of critical race theory in Mississippi.
The faculty senate at Mississippi’s largest historically Black university is the first to formally speak out against efforts by the Legislature to curtail discussion of racism in the state’s K-12 and college classrooms.
In the Jan. 27 resolution, the faculty senate writes that it “resolutely rejects any attempts by bodies external to the faculty to restrict or dictate university curriculum on any matter, including matters related to racial and social justice, and will stand firm against encroachment on faculty authority by the legislature or the Boards of Trustees.”
Earlier this month, every Black senator in Mississippi walked out of the chamber when the Senate passed SB 2113. The bill’s description states it will “prohibit” critical race theory, but the language in the legislation is more broad and includes that no public school or public college or university “shall make a distinction or classification of students based on account of race.”
The House has not yet taken up its bill, HB 437, which is more specific and would ban teaching fourteen “divisive concepts,” including that “racial equity and gender equity … should be given preference in education and advocacy over the concepts of racial equality and gender equality.”
These bills would impede faculty at Jackson State faculty from fulfilling the university’s mission of providing a quality education to students from diverse communities, the resolution states. Specifically, the resolution denounces the House bill’s definition of “divisive concepts,” which the faculty senate called “indeterminate, subjective, and chills the capacity of educators to explore a wide variety of topics based on subjective criteria that are inapposite from the goals of education and the development of essential critical thinking skills.”
“Educating about systemic barriers to realizing a multiracial democracy based on race or gender should be understood as central to the active and engaged pursuit of knowledge in the 21st century,” the resolution states.
The resolution calls on the administration at Jackson State to join the faculty senate in opposing anti-critical race theory legislation.
“In a nation that has for centuries struggled with issues of racial inequity and injustice, many students do not have adequate knowledge of BIPOC and LGBTQI history and the policies that contributed to inequities,” the resolution states. “Jackson State University has a responsibility and opportunity to help build equity and social justice.”
Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive early access to weekly analyses.
Chris McDaniel walks into Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s office with his family on Jan. 3, 2023, places his left hand on a family Bible, raises his right hand, and is sworn into the 118th Congress of the United States.
This scenario, though premature to consider, is not nearly as improbable as it may seem.
McDaniel, the far-right flamethrower who gained national notoriety while twice trying to win a U.S. Senate seat in recent years, could finally make it to Washington if he wanted it.
And, according to people close to McDaniel, he is considering it with about one month before the March 1 qualifying deadline.
“My polling numbers are stronger than they’ve ever been, so I’m keeping all of my options open at this time,” McDaniel told Mississippi Today on Monday.
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The race for Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District is wide open. There’s a 10-year incumbent in Congressman Steven Palazzo, but that incumbency may mean little considering he’s being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly misspending campaign funds.
As of this week, at least six other Republicans have announced their intentions of challenging Palazzo in the primary. This list includes some high-profile names like Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell, state Sen. Brice Wiggins and retired bank executive Clay Wagner.
The district itself is the most Republican in Mississippi, and it’s among the reddest in America. In 2020, former President Donald Trump won 68% of the vote in the 4th District. It features big population centers like the Gulf Coast, Hattiesburg, and up through the Free State of Jones — McDaniel’s home turf.
But it’s not just Jones County where McDaniel has always enjoyed his biggest support. He lays claim to the I-59 corridor, from his home county all the way down through Pearl River County.
Results from the two statewide campaigns McDaniel has run prove that he has a tight grasp on the 4th Congressional District.
In the 2018 special U.S. Senate election, he earned 54,000 votes in the 4th Congressional District alone. That special election featured four total candidates in a “jungle primary,” including incumbent U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the hand-picked Republican of the establishment, and well-known Democrat Mike Espy.
That same year, the last midterm primary, Palazzo earned just 30,000 votes — about 20,000 votes shy of McDaniel.
The 2014 Republican primary provides a more apples-to-apples vote comparison. That year, McDaniel was running for the U.S. Senate against longtime incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran, and Palazzo was running for his third term in the U.S. House.
In the Republican primary for the House in August 2014, Palazzo won handily with 54,286 votes. In the Senate runoff for precincts in the 4th Congressional District that same year, McDaniel earned 67,000 votes in a close loss to Cochran — about 13,000 more than Palazzo.
Though running in different races in both 2014 and 2018, McDaniel earned more votes in the 4th Congressional District than the district’s incumbent congressman.
There are some obvious caveats. First, most obviously, McDaniel and Palazzo weren’t running against each other.
And the political landscapes of 2014, with the nation closely scrutinizing the Senate primary, and 2018, when a first-term Republican president was trying to retain a House majority, could be seen as lightyears away from the realities of today. But not much has changed, at least politically and electorally, in Mississippi’s 4th.
And with so many candidates in the crowded primary, it seems likely that there will be a runoff if no single candidate can garner 50% of the vote. How might McDaniel’s chances look given that dynamic?
All that said, the first question is the most simple: Will McDaniel run?
On Jan. 6, McDaniel posted to his Facebook page a photo of himself speaking in a church: “Huge crowd tonight. Patriots are awakening. Change is coming!”
On Jan. 27, he wrote a similar post: “Speaking to conservatives from around the state. People are awake; change is coming!”
While a devout Chicago Cubs fan, McDaniel’s very favorite pastime seems to be stirring the pot on Facebook and making people wonder whether he’s running for higher office.
He enjoys the relatively humble lifestyle of a state senator. And being a congressman can be… well, miserable. With two-year terms, you’re constantly running for office, the weekend red-eyes between Washington and Mississippi wear you down, and it seemingly takes eons to rise in the ranks of Congress.
If he does run, it will certainly make for an interesting few weeks in Mississippi.
Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender get the lowdown on redistricting from Rep. Jim Beckett, who is handling the task in the Mississippi House. Beckett is putting together a consequential puzzle: redrawing the 122 House districts to match population shifts found in the 2020 Census.
In 1939, a movie theater was built in an outlying neighborhood of Jackson called Fondren. Originally called, The Pix, the theater closed and reopened in the 1960’s as Capri theater. In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with the trio who helped bring Capri back to life. Developers David Pharr, Jason Watkins and restauranteur Robert St. John talk about how the $13 million redevelopment of the long-dormant theater came about and how it is already helping the booming Fondren neighborhood. With a combination of movies, food and bowling, The Pearl Tiki, Highball Lanes, Capri and upcoming Ed’s Restaurant show how a dream can come to life, no matter what a global pandemic can throw at it.
Three days after the Mississippi Supreme Court’s landmark May ruling striking down both the initiative where voters approved medical marijuana and the entire ballot initiative process, House Speaker Philip Gunn urged Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session.
Importantly, the Republican speaker wanted the special session specifically to reenact the initiative process. He said nothing about medical marijuana in the statement.
“We 100% believe in the right of the people to use the initiative process to express their views on public policy,” Gunn said on May 17, 2021. “If the Legislature does not act on an issue that the people of Mississippi want, then the people need a mechanism to change the law. I support the governor calling us into a special session to protect this important right of the people.”
Reeves, of course, did not call a special session. And it wasn’t until this past week, early in the regular session, that the Legislature passed a medical marijuana bill. It is now a governor’s signature away from being the law of the state.
Nearly one month into the session, legislators in one chamber or the other also have voted on teacher pay, critical race theory, vaccine mandates, equal pay and a host of other issues. But it has been nothing but the sound of crickets on reinstating the initiative to allow people to bypass the Legislature and gather signatures to place an issue on the ballot.
On the House side, Constitution Chair Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, says that is going to change. He said he has been working on a proposal to restore the initiative process. He intends to take up the proposal in his Constitution Committee during the coming week.
Over in the Senate, there seems to be less urgency. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, says he supports restoring the initiative process. He has referred legislation dealing with the reinstatement to both the Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee and Constitution Committee.
It is not uncommon to double refer legislation, but it is more difficult to move bills through the legislative process when they start in two separate committees.
And Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Chair John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, is playing his cards close to his vest in terms of reinstating the initiative.
“I think we need to do what is best for Mississippi,” Polk said when asked about the initiative. “I am studying the bills to see if they are doing what is best for Mississippi.”
While Polk is offering few, if any, details, it seems most legislative leaders, including Gunn and Hosemann, have concluded any new voter initiative should be used to amend or create state law — not the Mississippi Constitution, as was previously the case.
The process enacted in the early 1990s allowed initiative sponsors, if successful, to place their proposals in the Mississippi Constitution. The new proposal most likely will allow Mississippians to amend general law.
Legislative leaders say they support using the initiative for general law because it is much easier to change general law than the Constitution. Change the Mississippi Constitution requires both a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature and majority approval by voters on a statewide ballot. Before the Supreme Court ruling, the Constitution also could be changed via the initiative by gathering the required number of signatures to place an issue on the ballot.
The proposal Shanks is expected to take up in the Constitution Committee would allow initiative sponsors to gather signatures (12% of the total from the last governor’s election) to place an issue on the ballot to change general law. But once approved by voters, the general law could not be changed by the Legislature for two years unless in an “emergency” situation by a two-third vote of both chambers of the Legislature. Normally it takes a simple legislative majority vote to change general law.
It is important to remember that if and when the Legislature does finally vote on reinstating the initiative, to pass it will require a two-third vote of both chambers and approval by the voters, presumably this November.
Until that finally happens, there will be healthy skepticism by some about whether legislators will restore the rights of citizens to place issues directly on the ballot.
The Mississippi Supreme Court ruling marked the first time in the modern political era that the judiciary in any state has struck down an entire initiative process, according to Caroline Avakian, director of strategic communications for the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a national pro-initiative nonprofit.
Way back in 1920s, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down a previous initiative process approved by state voters. After that action, the Legislature did not give that right back to voters until the early 1990s.
Supporters of the ballot initiative are hoping it doesn’t take 70 years this time to restore the process.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Friday morning to share their opinions on potential changes the Mississippi Department of Education is making to the state’s social studies standards. The pushback was so strong that the department announced it was walking back much of the proposed changes.
Last month the State Board of Education began the process to revise Mississippi’s K-12 social studies standards and received passionate feedback on social media. The department periodically updates the standards following feedback from teachers, with the last revision occurring in 2018. MDE said teachers felt some standards needed more clarity while others had excessive examples, leading to the 2021 revisions.
At the beginning of the hearing, MDE officials said based on the feedback they had already received, they would not be removing the lists of examples from the standards, including lists of names, organizations, and legislation and court cases.
Marian Allen, executive director of the Laurel-Jones County Black History Museum, said she came prepared to make a lot of persuasive arguments, but “we’ve already clarified that the people’s names will not be stricken from the standards, so he has really saved me a lot of time.”
Mississippi Rising Coalition President Lea Campbell expresses concerns, and asks questions regarding inclusivity when proposed revisions were made to academic standards for social studies. Campbell, educators and other members of the community attended a Mississippi Dept. of Education public comment hearing concerning the proposed changes. The hearing was held at the Sparkmann Auditorium in Jackson, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Angela Broussard said when she reviewed the standards, “it became clear that the basic tenets of family, our nation’s founding documents, our nation’s true history and the development of a healthy patriotism was selectively and calculatingly removed …The earliest days of our nation were framed upon the premise that people were taught to adhere to the word of God as a light to the path and a boundary to be governed by.”
The audience responded with loud applause after Broussard spoke.
Several speakers addressed their issues with critical race theory, including Sen. Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, who is the author of a Senate bill that would prohibit teaching the subject. McLendon said his bill ensures that no child will be told they are “inherently superior or inferior” based on any demographic information.
Others spoke about the importance of ensuring specific instances of racial discrimination throughout Mississippi’s history are included in the standards for students to learn about and discuss.
Alexandria Drake, a U.S. history teacher at JPS-Tougaloo Early College High School, brought about ten of her students to observe the hearing. When asked what they thought, her students discussed some people straying from the standards in their comments, and the importance of respecting all religions in a public school setting.
“I have been really disgusted today because I have seen and heard so much hatred,” said Ivory Phillips, dean emeritus at Jackson State University, who has been teaching since 1963. “ I was hoping that we were coming more and more together.”
The proposed revisions were put out for public comment when the state Board of Education approved them last month, and anyone can submit their opinion on them. To submit in writing, mail to Jen Cornett at 359 N. West Street, Post Office Box 771, Jackson, MS 39205-0771, or email jcornett@mdek12.org. The deadline to submit is 5 p.m. on Feb. 4. Public comments will be presented to the board for discussion at the March 17 board meeting.
