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Rep. Steven Palazzo makes his way to a bipartisan Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Committee in the Capitol on Wednesday, January 30, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo’s campaign spending, after a watchdog group in March filed a complaint questioning whether he was using campaign contributions as a “personal slush fund.”

The Campaign Legal Center in late March requested OCE investigate whether Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile spouse nearly $200,000.

A Palazzo campaign spokesman on Friday said that Palazzo’s campaign has supplied documents and “cooperated fully” with OCE inquiries, and that the campaign’s spending has been aboveboard. He said Palazzo expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing and the allegations are politically motivated. The Sun Herald first reported confirmation of the investigation on Friday.

Federal law and U.S. House rules prohibit conversion of campaign money to personal use. Violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act can carry felony criminal penalties. The OCE investigates such complaints and can recommend they be dismissed, handed off to the House Ethics Committee for further review or discipline of the representative, or refer them to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation.

The CLC’s complaint said Palazzo’s campaign committee paid a total of $60,000, in monthly payments of $3,000, for rent at a property called Greene Acres MS that Palazzo owns in Perkinston.

The complaint said, “there was no bona fide campaign purpose for renting Representative Palazzo’s farm for more than a year.” It said the campaign’s official address was in Gulfport and that Greene Acres “would be an unusual choice” for a campaign office, given that it is “in an extraordinarily rural part of Mississippi.”

While campaigns can and often do rent space owned by a candidate, it must be at fair market value and used for legitimate campaign purposes. The CLC complaint said the $3,000 a month rent was unusually high, and there is a “lack of any publicly available information about the campaign using the farm as an office.”

The complaint also questioned Palazzo’s campaign paying nearly $128,000 to his now former wife’s accounting firm, while it paid another accounting firm “for apparently the same services,” and that his spending on accounting services is far more than other similar campaigns.

Palazzo transferred ownership of his accounting firm to his wife when he joined Congress in 2011 because of House rules limiting outside income, the CLC complaint said. Palazzo and his wife divorced in 2016, but she still owns the firm.

Palazzo campaign spokesman Justin Brasell on Friday said, “Congressman Palazzo’s primary opponents teamed up with a George Soros-funded organization in Washington, D.C., and generated this complaint that’s full of false allegations.”

Brasell said Palazzo’s campaign rented a house from Greene Acres that was used as a campaign office for Palazzo’s reelection campaign and “people worked there.”

Brasell said that the Palazzo firm handled all the campaign’s day-to-day accounting — paying bills, keeping a ledger, etc. — while the other firm handled FEC compliance and reporting.

Kedric Payne, general counsel and director of ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, said: “The big picture is that this diminishes the public’s trust when a congressman uses campaign money for a personal slush fund. It is encouraging to see there is an investigation into this.”

Payne said “the fact the investigation is still going on shows there seems to be a violation.”

“The way the OCE works, there is an initial stage where a member can simply explain things and disprove a complaint,” Payne said. “If that does not occur, then there is a longer stage. OCE can refer any criminal violation to the Department of Justice.

“Yes, I think there is a high likelihood this has found personal use, due to how long the investigation is going, and that would mean criminal conduct has occurred.”

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center was founded by Republican Trevor Potter, a President George H.W. Bush appointee to the Federal Elections Commission. It has received donations from the Open Society Institute founded by billionaire liberal political activist George Soros, among dozens of other foundations and groups. The CLC has a history of filing complaints against candidates or PACs of both parties.

The Sun Herald reported Friday that one of Palazzo’s opponents in the March GOP primary spotted questionable campaign spending, hired a private investigator to look into it, and turned over findings to the Campaign Legal Center and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The newspaper also reported that Southern District Public Service Commissioner Dane Maxwell said he is “aware of the apparent situation” and would consider running for the seat if Palazzo had to leave office.

Brasell said Palazzo has not had any inquiries from the DOJ, Attorney General’s Office or other law enforcement about the campaign finance issues.

At least three members of Congress have resigned and/or been prosecuted over alleged personal use of campaign money.

In 2013, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois pleaded guilty to spending campaign money on a Rolex watch, fur coats, mounted elk heads and other items and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

In 2014, Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey resigned from Congress amid years of allegations that he spent campaign money on personal trips and used his daughter’s graduation party to raise campaign money.

In March, former Rep. Duncan Hunter of California was sentenced to 11 months in federal prison for corruption charges from misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds.

The post Rep. Steven Palazzo’s campaign spending probed by congressional ethics office appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Marshall Ramsey, Editor-at-Large here. Like many other fields, the pandemic has disrupted the media business causing job losses in newsrooms across the country, further diminishing journalism’s watchdog role. As a nonprofit newsroom, it is our mission to help fill gaps in that coverage. Because when the health of our democracy and Mississippi communities are at stake, we know that Mississippians everywhere need reliable sources of news now more than ever.

That’s why just last week our reporters traveled across 24 counties on Election Day — from Bolivar to Lee to Harrison and everywhere in between — to report to you. We do this work for Mississippi, with Mississippi.

And while we are proud to provide this public service free of charge, it’s expensive to produce. The staff time, mileage, records requests and technology all cost real money. We’re committed to reporting on the issues that matter to Mississippians, not just in the weeks surrounding Election Day, but for as long as we can. You play a critical role in ensuring that happens.

Donate to Mississippi Today any time between now and the end of the year and NewsMatch will match your new monthly donation 12x or double your one-time gift, all up to $5,000.

Will you do your part to support public service journalism that never stops reporting to you?

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Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Jefferson County Elementary School math teacher Tomika Wise instructs students in class and those learning at home via laptops in Fayette.

During any given week in Mississippi, thousands of students who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus are in quarantine. For two weeks, they stay home from school, separated from friends, teachers and even other family members within the house. 

Statewide, more than 9,000 students, teachers and staff had to quarantine this past week alone, according to data provided by the Mississippi Department of Health. As a result, parents and teachers must shift how they teach and care for children at home — and some say the impact on student learning and parents’ ability to work is detrimental.

But at least one school district is playing by its own rules when it comes to quarantining. Although state health guidelines recommend that anyone who comes in close contact with an infected person should be quarantined and excluded from the school setting for a full 14 days, the superintendent and school board in the Jackson County School District allow parents to choose whether to quarantine their child after he or she is exposed. 

Jackson County School District

Dr. John Strycker, superintendent of the Jackson County School District.

Last week Superintendent John Strycker penned a letter that began: “Mandatory quarantine of healthy students — is it the right decision? Based on data, Jackson County School District says no.”

Strycker, who came to Jackson County in January from Alabama, said he monitors the district’s COVID-19 numbers daily and is making decisions based on what he believes is best for the children. Last month, he made headlines for his decision to end virtual learning in the district except for students with medical conditions.

He cites the statistic that at any one time, positive COVID-19 cases among his students never exceeded .5%. He calculates that number by periodically taking the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in students over a two-week period and dividing that number by the district’s total enrollment.

“When I was (a superintendent) in Michigan, we’d get up to 10% to 15% of our students (in one building) would have the flu. We’d monitor the situation,” he said. “I was told here in Jackson County that even last year, (flu numbers) got as high as 20%.”

“Are we really going to shut down our schools for a quarter of 1%?” he asked.

Strycker also pointed to data showing students who were learning virtually were failing one or more subjects at high rates. Seventy-eight percent of virtual middle schoolers in the A-rated district were failing more than one subject, while 69% of high schoolers were doing the same. In elementary school the number was 38%. 

Strycker said the data made it clear to him that students — particularly those in poverty and those who already struggle academically — need to be in school. In addition, the teachers were struggling to keep up with the workload of teaching both in person and virtually. 

He went to the school board and told them he had a crisis. 

“I was going to lose my good teachers — they were going to burn out,” he said. “You cannot maintain classroom students and online. K-12 is just not set up that way.” 

As of early November, 98% of students had returned to full-time, in-person learning in the district.

But data submitted by schools to the state health department shows that since the beginning of the school year, the rate of COVID-19 infections among students in Jackson County School District is more than double the rate in surrounding districts since the beginning of the school year. 

When asked what feedback he is receiving from families, staff and community members about not requiring quarantine, Strycker said to look at the numbers.

“Initially (at the beginning of the school year) about 88 to 90% of students came back (to traditional learning), which speaks for itself,” he said. “And we always max out what we’re allowed at football games, the Homecoming parade — I go to something every night.” 

When asked about differing quarantine practices among school districts, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Education said the Mississippi Department of Health and the Office of the Governor lead the state’s pandemic response. 

“All school districts are required to follow the directives of these state authorities. The Mississippi Department of Education does not have the legal authority to enforce public health or executive orders in school districts,” spokeswoman Jean Cook said. “Community members who believe their schools are not following MSDH and CDC public health protocols should immediately contact their local school boards. Issues that are not corrected at the local level should be reported to MSDH.”

A request for comment about Jackson County School District from the state health department was not returned by press time. A spokeswoman referred the reporter to a Facebook town hall event.

In many districts, quarantine numbers affect how decisions are made. In Petal School District, the large numbers of quarantined students led the superintendent to transition the high school from a traditional, in-person schedule to hybrid learning in late October.  

The week before the school made the transition to the new model, 30% of students at Petal High School were quarantined, said superintendent Matt Dillon. 

“We knew going into the school year we were going to have some positive cases (of COVID-19). However, the amount of (students) quarantining has been the most challenging for us,” said Dillon. 

He said because of the active and involved student body across his district and at the high school in particular, the number of students quarantining was consistently high, making learning difficult for teachers and students. 

“From one moment to the next you don’t know who’s going to be quarantined,” he said. “It’s hard for our teachers to teach not only the traditional students but the quarantined students. Trying to juggle all that is really tough.” 

Since transitioning to the new schedule, the quarantine numbers have dropped as intended, said Dillon. 

“It (the hybrid schedule) does pose some challenges for our teachers, but they have done a great job adapting to the new schedule,” he said. 

For Tatia Kiser, a mother of two children in the Madison County School District who have been quarantined, the process wasn’t easy.

Her daughter, a 9th grader at Rosa Scott, was quarantined midway through the fall semester after a classmate she sat next to tested positive for the virus. 

Although both students were wearing masks, the lack of space in the classroom meant they were seated less than six feet apart, her mom said. 

“She was very anxious and worried about it because she had been working really hard for good grades,” Kiser said. “With this particular case they did suspend all the deadlines … but still missing classroom time is stressful on the student.” 

And not all of her daughter’s teachers offered virtual instruction. Instead, she was given handouts and on some occasions offered one-on-one sessions when she returned to school. 

“I will tell you when my daughter went back to school, she was so overwhelmed with the list of missed things. But she did catch up after about five days,” she said. 

Kiser was able to keep working because her daughter was old enough to stay home during the daytime, but she said it would’ve been a different situation if her 9-year-old had to quarantine. 

But despite the stress, she knows quarantining is necessary.

“I trust Madison County schools are doing the best thing for our kids, and I don’t fault them for anything,” she said. “They’re looking out for the whole student body.”

The post Thousands of Mississippi students quarantine in any given week. One Gulf Coast district is leaving that decision up to parents. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves and Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs speak to the media about the coronavirus during a press conference at the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson on March 26, 2020.

Two days after announcing his daughter tested positive for COVID-19 and postponing a press conference, Gov. Tate Reeves went live on Facebook Thursday to share his thoughts on the rising COVID-19 case numbers in Mississippi.

As of Thursday, the seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases in Mississippi reached 968, a 23% increase in the last two weeks. On Wednesday, the average surpassed 1,000 for the first time since Aug. 5.

In a virtual town hall on Thursday, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs warned that the state’s hospital system is under “extreme stress.”

Intensive Care Units are 88% full statewide, and seven of the highest level COVID-care centers have zero beds: Baptist Memorial Hospital in Southaven, Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Baptist Medical Center, St. Dominic, and Merit Health Central in Jackson, and Merit Health Wesley in Hattiesburg.

In the last two weeks, total hospitalizations are up 6%, patients in the ICU are up 15%, and patients on ventilators are up 23%.

“Our fall surge is going in very much the wrong direction over the last week or so,” Dobbs said on Thursday. “We’re seeing near record high case numbers, and the consistency is pretty astounding.”

Meanwhile, Reeves, who is currently quarantining because of possible exposure by his daughter, focused time during his Thursday social media appearance on presidential politics.

After an adviser to President-Elect Joe Biden mentioned the idea of a six-week lockdown, Reeves called the proposal “totally and completely beyond reasonableness.”

“What I would tell you is, even based upon some of the things I’ve heard from his campaign, I don’t think much of anything’s going to change with respect to the virus,” Reeves said. “The fact is, we’re going to try to work with whomever the president is, but we’re not going to participate in a nationwide lockdown.

“While I don’t believe that there’s any constitutional or statutory authority for any president to shut down Mississippi’s economy, we will certainly fight that if it becomes necessary.”

The governor also addressed questions around the criteria for county mask mandates. Currently, the following 15 counties are under mask mandates: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Humphreys, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Marshall, Rankin and Yalobusha.

Reeves said the criteria for issuing county mask mandates has not changed since his office began issuing them.

Previously, he had said counties would be under a mask mandate if they either: had over 200 total cases in the last two weeks, or if they had over 500 cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks.

“There is no fudging of the data, there is no fudging of the numbers,” he said. “It is what it is.”

However, the counties in the chart below meet the second criteria but aren’t under a mask mandate:

Erica Hensley contributed to this report. 

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READ: Gov. Reeves gave to Justice Coleman’s campaign. Now Coleman is hearing a case against Reeves.

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There’s a clear winner in the 2020 Mississippi high school football championship playoffs: COVID-19.

So far this week, six teams have forfeited Friday night playoff games due to coronavirus outbreaks, thus ending their seasons.

Rick Cleveland

Michael Fair holds the State Championship trophy during post-game interview in 2016. There will be no state championship for Fair or Lafayette in 2020. COVID-19 saw to that.

“It’s not supposed to be this way,” said Lafayette County coach Michael Fair, whose team was set to play Neshoba Central in a Class 5A playoff game on Friday night. “In football, your season is supposed to end on the field.”

Instead, Fair informed his team that their season had ended as the team gathered for a practice on Tuesday afternoon. The MHSAA follows Mississippi State Department of Health guidelines that deem three or more positive COVID-19 tests an outbreak requiring quarantining for 14 days. Fair had one player test positive on Saturday, another on Monday and a third on Tuesday. And that was that.

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” said Fair, the former Mississippi State offensive line standout. “There were lots of tears. I feel for my seniors, some of whom have played their last games. But I feel for all our players. I mean, you work so hard for so long for something and then it ends like this.”

Lafayette County’s season had begun under tragic circumstances. Longtime Lafayette assistant coach Nacoma James, the team’s special teams coordinator, died of COVID-19 on Aug. 6. He was 42.

“Coach James was beloved by our players,” Fair said. “He wore a bow tie to school ever Wednesday, so we put a bow tie decal on our helmets this season to honor him. He was a real inspiration to our kids. You know, football teams are like a family and we lost a loved one. That made us that much closer, and it makes it that much harder for it to end the way it ended.”

Lafayette County is by no means the only high school team grieving this week. The scene was much the same at other schools across the state. In Class 1A, McAdams, near Kosiusko in Attala County, forfeited its game with Lumberton. In Class 4A, three of eight playoffs games scheduled have been cancelled due to COVID-19. McComb forfeited to Mendenhall. Lawrence County forfeited to Sumrall. Clarksdale forfeited to Itawamba Agricultural. Another 5A playoff game was cancelled when Brookhaven was forced to forfeit to Pascagoula.

All this was as of Wednesday afternoon. More could follow before scheduled kickoffs on Friday night.

Last week, Puckett forfeited to Bogue Chitto in 2A, and Shannon forfeited to West Lauderdale in 4A.

Not coincidentally, pandemic numbers have soared in Mississippi recently. The state’s average number of daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 900 for the first time in three months. On Tuesday, 1,256 new cases and 17 deaths were reported.

The MHSAA reported just over 100 games forfeited during the 10-game regular season. Nearly two dozen teams, including all Jackson Public Schools teams, opted not to play football this season. Many teams’ seasons were ravaged before the regular season ended and the playoffs began. Take 6A powerhouse Starkville, for example. Coach Chris Jones’ Yellowjackets appeared the best team in the state for much of the season. They were 5-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state before COVID-19 struck.

Because of COVID, Starkville didn’t play a game for 21 days and didn’t so much as practice for two full weeks. When the Yellowjackets finally returned to the field, they lost three straight games, finished with a 5-3 record (including one forfeited loss) and out of the playoffs.

“I know it’s been a tough year for everybody, and some of it is things you don’t even think about,” Jones said. “Because of COVID, we didn’t have the summer work you usually get. Our conditioning wasn’t what it should have been, and I’ve heard a lot of coaches say the same. Injuries rocked us about as much as COVID. And then when it hit us in October, we had to quarantine and we couldn’t even practice. Then, you come back and it’s like starting over and you have to play a team like Clinton, which was really hot at the time. Nobody wants to make excuses, but it is what it is. We weren’t ready.”

Jones was the first person to reach out to Lafayette County’s Fair when he heard the news about Lafayette having to forfeit Friday night’s playoff game.

“I know how it feels when it’s out of your hands,” Jones said. “It’s just sad.”

Mississippi’s public schools teams still playing are shooting for championship weekend to be held at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson on Dec. 4-5.

The post The undisputed winner thus far in Mississippi high school football playoffs: COVID-19 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Josiah Coleman, who received $5,000 in campaign contributions from Gov. Tate Reeves’ political action committee earlier this year, apparently will participate in ruling on whether recent partial vetoes issued by the governor are constitutional.

Coleman was among the eight justices hearing oral arguments on Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by House Speaker Philip Gunn and House Pro Tem Jason White that challenges the constitutionality of Reeves’ partial veto this summer of money going to health care providers to combat COVID-19.

During the more than 60 minutes of oral arguments in the case, Coleman, who won reelection to his Northern District seat last week, asked questions that appeared favorable to Reeves.

When asked to comment on Coleman’s participation in the case, Supreme Court spokesperson Beverly Kraft said the justice declined to comment, adding: “It would be inappropriate to comment on a pending case.”

Reeves also offered no comment.

A few days before the election, though, the Republican governor had plenty to say about Coleman, and it was all positive. On social media a few days before the election, Reeves endorsed Coleman’s candidacy.

“Josiah Coleman is the true conservative running in north Mississippi,” Reeves tweeted on Oct. 26, eight days before the election. “Please don’t let liberals sneak one of their judges in here. Vote for Josiah Coleman.”

When Reeves was asked during an October news conference whether he supported a proposal on the November ballot that would remove language from the state’s 1890 Constitution designed to keep African Americans from holding political office, the governor urged support for Coleman’s reelection effort instead of answering that question.

“I hope all of my friends in north Mississippi will go to the polls and elect Justice Coleman,” Reeves said.

Documents filed with the Secretary of State’s office also revealed that the governor’s Tate PAC donated $5,000 to his campaign on Sept. 14.

The Code of Judicial Conduct says “judges should disqualify themselves in proceedings in which their impartiality might be questioned by a reasonable person knowing all the circumstances or for other grounds provided in the Code of Judicial Conduct.”

The Code of Judicial Conduct says a party to a lawsuit could seek a judge’s recusal or removal based on the fact the opposing party is a major campaign donor to the judge.

It should be pointed out that Coleman was not asked to step down by the House leadership, and in theory judicial candidates are not supposed to know who contributes to their campaigns. Contributions are supposed to go to a campaign committee overseen by a treasurer.

Coleman won his Nov. 3 reelection to a new eight-year term on the Supreme Court, defeating DeSoto County Chancellor Percy Lynchard Jr.

Central District Justice Kenny Griffis also faced an election challenge. While Griffis is leading in the race against Court of Appeals Judge Latrice Westbrooks, that race has not been officially called. Griffis, whose election effort Reeves did not comment on, was not present for oral arguments in the case, though that fact does not necessarily mean he will not participate in the final ruling.

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Last year’s Veterans Day cartoon. But the sentiment is still the same. Thank you to all the men and women who have served our nation.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Veterans Day appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday, under COVID-19 quarantine with his family after a daughter tested positive, extended a mask mandate for 15 counties and other orders through Dec. 11.

The counties under a mask-wearing mandate because of high numbers COVID-19 cases are: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Humphreys, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Marshall, Rankin, and Yalobusha.

“I know that we are all tired and ready to move on,” Reeves said in a statement. “But the virus is still here. It’s still working to infect and kill. We’ve gotten far better at dealing with it, and allowing for life to go on. But we’re not all the way there yet.”

Jones and Neshoba counties had been in his previous mask mandate, set in late October and expiring Wednesday, but were not included in his new list. Rankin County was added to the new mask mandate list.

Reeves on Tuesday announced on social media that the youngest of his three daughters had tested positive for COVID-19. He said his family would all be tested and isolating.

Later he tweeted:  “Quick update: Elee and our other girls tested negative again. So did I. Since Maddie also had a negative test as recently as yesterday we’re going to monitor closely and be cautious. I’ve heard and felt the outpouring of prayers, and they mean the world to Maddie and all of us!”

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves’ daughter tests positive for COVID-19.

Reeves urged Mississippians to social distance and wear masks.

Reeves on Sept. 30 lifted a statewide mask mandate — making Mississippi the first state to rescind such a mandate — that he had issued on Aug. 4, and he relaxed restrictions on social gatherings. Since then, cases have risen.

During the span of the statewide mask mandate, Mississippi cases plummeted, dropping by 54%.

Reeves had been hesitant to issue a statewide mask order in the summer, instead taking a county-by-county approach until state hospitals were becoming overloaded. He has said that a county-by-county approach to mask mandates and other restrictions as cases spike is better because people are more likely to pay attention and heed the orders.

This week, Mississippi’s average number of daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 900 for the first time in three months and has continued to climb.

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