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Nearly half of state’s population now under mask mandate
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Masks are worn as hand sanitizer is distributed at Corner Market on Fortification Street in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, April 8, 2020.
More than 1.4 million Mississippians are now under a mandate – imposed by Gov. Tate Reeves – to wear a mask in public and while shopping.
On Monday, the first-term Republican governor added 10 counties to the original 13 he had placed under a mandate on July 10 to wear a mask in public crowds in an effort to try to combat the spread of COVID-19.
The new executive order will remain in effect until Aug. 3.
State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said the state’s health care system is at the point of being overwhelmed.
“If we don’t see a decrease in transmissions immediately, it is pretty likely the health care system will be thoroughly overwhelmed,” Dobbs said Monday during the news conference he and Reeves had to provide an update on COVID-19. He said hospitals already are converting emergency rooms into intensive care unit beds.
Dobbs said statewide there are 293 cases of coronavirus being treated in intensive care units – representing 40 percent of all patients in intensive care. He said nine hospitals – mostly the state’s larger ones – have no intensive care beds and there is one ICU bed in the Jackson metro area.
The new counties covered by the mask mandate are Bolivar, Covington, Forrest, Humphreys, Panola, Sharkey, Simpson, Tallahatchie, Tate and Walthall. The original 13 counties still under the mask mandate are Claiborne, DeSoto, Grenada, Harrison, Hinds, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Quitman, Rankin, Sunflower, Washington and Wayne counties.
While covering only 23 of the state’s 82 counties, the mask mandate encompasses many of the state’s most populous counties, such as Hinds, Rankin, DeSoto, and Harrison. The state has a total population of just under three million residents, according to the latest census data.
Mississippi, which has seen a surge in both positive tests and coronavirus hospitalizations, is in a red zone where a statewide mask mandate and the closing or bars and gyms in hotspots are recommended, according to an internal document from the White House coronavirus task force. The report also recommends increasing testing and contact tracing.
The Mississippi State Medical Association, a physician group, has also called for a statewide mask mandate. Reeves has rejected a statewide mandate, saying it is more effective and will encourage community participation to target the state’s hot spots, though he and Dobbs stress that people statewide should wear masks and practice physical distancing of remaining six feet apart when possible.
The criteria for counties chosen for the mandate include having seen 200 new cases within the last 14 days or having had an average of 500 cases per 100,000 residents over that time.
Under the executive order, groups of more than 10 indoors and more than 20 outdoors are banned.
“COVID-19 is spreading and killing in our state. It is not a hypothetical. It is happening,” Reeves said.
On Monday, the Mississippi Department of Health reported a record of 1,251 new cases, three deaths, 943 hospitalizations for COVID-19. The previous single day record of 1,230 new cases was set last week. The number of hospitalizations also was a record.
At the news conference, it was reported about 30 members of the Legislature have contracted the coronavirus with multiple members hospitalized – some in serious condition.
The post Nearly half of state’s population now under mask mandate appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Watson asking attorney general whether Mississippi Legislature made it harder to vote in pandemic
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Voters fill out ballots at Eudora Welty Library in Jackson during the Mississippi Senate runoff election Tuesday, November 27, 2018.
Secretary of State Michael Watson is asking for an official opinion from Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office about whether a bill passed by the state Legislature will make it more difficult for Mississippians to vote if COVID-19 is still an issue during the Nov. 3 election.
The bill, which was signed into law earlier this month by Gov. Tate Reeves, specifies people can vote early during the pandemic if:
- They are under a physician-imposed quarantine related to the coronavirus.
- They are providing care for a dependent under quarantine.
Watson is asking the attorney general to issue an opinion on whether the new language conflicts with existing language that gave local circuit clerks discretion in allowing people to vote early. In May, during a joint meeting of the House and Senate elections committees, Watson said that existing law could be used to allow people to vote early because of concerns about COVID-19 at the discretion of the circuit clerks. The language allowed people to vote early because of “a temporary disability.”
Democrats on the committees wanted the law expanded so that the circuit clerks did not have so much discretion on whether to allow people to vote early. But by the same token, many Democrats praised the Republican Watson for saying the language related to “temporary disability” was broad enough so that circuit clerks could interpret it to allow people who did not want to be in a crowded polling place to perhaps vote early.
Watson said he was asking for the opinion after Mississippi Today asked whether the new language saying a person had to be in quarantine to vote early meant circuit clerks could no longer use the old language concerning the temporary disability to allow people to vote early to avoid possible exposure to the coronavirus in a crowded precinct on election day.
“In an attempt to provide further guidance to our county election officials, our office will be submitting a request to the Attorney General’s office for an official opinion regarding the definition of a ‘physician-imposed quarantine,’ and whether or not that qualifying language removes circuit clerk’s ability to interpret what is included as a ‘temporary disability,’” Watson said in a statement.
He said during debate of the bill in the Legislature, supporters of the bill said the excuse to vote early could be granted by “a general statement by a licensed physician or government official, such as the state health officer, advising people to enter into a self-imposed quarantine.” Watson added, “Our goal is to ensure all counties are acting in the best interest of voters while upholding the integrity of the general election.”
The Fulcrum, a digital publication that focuses on voter access issues, quoted Watson as saying, “The Legislature narrowed it down further than the former law we had.”
Senate Elections Chair Jennifer Branning, R-Philadelphia, said “it’s not the intent (of the legislation) to make it harder to vote.” She said that the language referencing the quarantine to vote early should not remove the circuit clerk’s ability to use the “temporary disability” language.
House Elections Chair Jim Beckett, R-Bruce, said there was no discussion during the legislative session of trying to prevent the use of the exiting language referencing “temporary disability” to allow people to vote early.
“That was never my intent,” he said.
Mississippi is among the minority of states that do not have no excuse early voting. In Mississippi, a voter normally must be disabled, over the age of 65 or away from home to vote early by mail or in person.
Mississippi also is the only state to require both the request for an absentee ballot and the ballot itself to be notarized. Because of the coronavirus, most states have taken steps to make it easier to vote this November to try to avoid long lines at the polling places and to attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Mississippi has taken a few steps, such as giving an absentee ballot five days to arrive at the circuit clerk’s office as long as it is postmarked by election day. The old law required it to be postmarked before election day. And the other significant step was the quarantine language, which in reality, might make it more difficult to vote early.
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said the changes made in June are inadequate to deal with the pandemic. He said the Legislature did not do its job to make it easier for Mississippians to vote during the pandemic.
“It is the most difficult election process in the country,” he said. “We need to do better.”
Watson said he proposed to the Legislature to give the secretary of state the authority to allow people to vote early in person if under an emergency declared by the governor or the president. Legislative leaders rejected the language.
Watson said before debate on the voting legislation began in earnest that he supported expanding early in-person voting, but not mail-in voting.
The Legislature also opted not to provide about $15 million in federal funds to purchase optical ballot scanner machines for about 68 counties that do not currently have them. Beckett said the purpose of the machines was “reducing our human contact during elections.”
Officials said other steps to ensure safety will be taken, such as social distancing, increasing the number of poll workers, requiring poll workers to wear personal protection equipment and continuing sanitizing of the polling places.
The post Watson asking attorney general whether Mississippi Legislature made it harder to vote in pandemic appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Marshall Ramsey: Crossing the Final Bridge
I don’t know if the Edmund Pettus Bridge will be renamed after Rep. John Lewis; however, I know the one in the great beyond will. It took a lot of courage to get across the bridge on Earth. #GoodTrouble
The post Marshall Ramsey: Crossing the Final Bridge appeared first on Mississippi Today.
‘We cannot breathe’: Top Democrat blasts party chairman Bobby Moak ahead of leadership election
Rogelio V. Solis / Associated Press
Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Moak (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Willie Simmons, a Mississippi transportation commissioner and one of the top Democratic elected officials in the state, blasted Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Moak in an email to the party’s 80-member executive committee last week and endorsed the man running to unseat Moak as party chairman.
Simmons laid out a long list of grievances to committee members, including that Moak and state party officials “did nothing to assist” during his 2019 campaign for central district transportation commissioner, and that the party has done little to support Black candidates running for office.
“The facts appear to suggest that we do not want real inclusion in the party, and discrimination practices are alive and well in the Mississippi Democratic Party,” Simmons wrote on July 18. “We are suffering from having the knees of members of our own party on our necks and we cannot breathe.”
Simmons continued: “If we are going to win elections going forward we have to overhaul the Party and revise our mission… Today, the Mississippi Democratic Party must have effective leadership that has a commitment to inclusion.”
The email began a back-and-forth exchange between Simmons and Moak, all copying the 80 members of the executive committee. The exchange, ahead of a contentious internal election to decide the next party leader, included direct and indirect character criticisms and a photo of Moak meeting with Simmons’ Democratic primary opponent at a Jackson restaurant.
Moak was elected party chairman in 2016 and is again running for the top leadership position this year. Tyree Irving, a former Mississippi Court of Appeals judge who is Black, is running against Moak. The 80 members of the party’s executive committee will elect the party’s chairman later this week. In his email last week, Simmons directly endorsed Irving in the chair race.
Willie Simmons-Bobby Moak Emails (Text)
Simmons also wrote in his initial email that party leadership “silenced” former party staffer Jacquie Amos, who was “made ineffective in assisting me and other Black candidates on the ticket.” Amos, a Black woman who was one of the party’s three paid staffers in 2019, resigned in December after working seven years for the party.
The day after Simmons sent the initial email, Moak fired off a 1,300-word reply and responded directly to many of Simmons’ points. Moak wrote that party officials remained in close contact with Simmons’ campaign in 2019.
“First of all, I understand and am sympathetic to the impulse to embellish, exaggerate and distort certain facts while campaigning,” Moak wrote in a July 19 email to Simmons, copying all 80 members of the party’s executive committee. “It’s something I’ve seen often in my dealings over the years with Republicans. In this setting… we must strive to keep an honest dialog and avoid the tendencies to mislead members of our own party. There is a known record here, we’ve saved the receipts and our records do not support a number of the claims you are making.”
Moak also refuted the notion that he “silenced” Amos, the former party staffer.
“Secondly, any insinuation that any member of our staff was silenced is false,” Moak wrote. “MDP provided tremendous flexibility to Ms. Amos when she made her departure known, and accommodated employment while she tried to join numerous campaigns. This accommodation is a far cry from silencing — it’s laying a path forward for a planned staff departure.”
Earlier this year, Mississippi Today chronicled how dysfunction within the state Democratic Party led to the historic 2019 losses, how the state party leaders established and pushed no clear identity, and how the party’s leadership has failed to support and devote resources to Black candidates and constituents.
In his lengthy email, Moak laid out his platform for the chair election, pointing to 22 specific items the party has accomplished during his four years as chairman.
Simmons replied to Moak, writing: “Please know that I never received a call from you during or after the 2019 election.” Simmons also attached a May 2019 photo of Moak meeting at a Jackson restaurant with Marcus Wallace, who ran against Simmons in the August 2019 Democratic primary.
“Today, I am like the late Fannie Lou Hamer, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Simmons wrote. “We must all work overtime to ensure that Vice President Biden is elected as our next President of these United States. In doing so, we must fix our Mississippi Democratic Party.”
The post ‘We cannot breathe’: Top Democrat blasts party chairman Bobby Moak ahead of leadership election appeared first on Mississippi Today.
A tour of Mississippi: Infiniti Science Center’s Saturn V
Color your way through Mississippi with me! Click below to download a coloring sheet of the first stage of the mighty Saturn V moon rocket located at the Infiniti Science Center.
For all of my coloring sheets, click here.
Don’t miss my next coloring sheet! Sign up below to receive it straight to your inbox.
Don’t miss my art lessons — live every Friday at noon.
The post A tour of Mississippi: Infiniti Science Center’s Saturn V appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Tuesday Forecast For North Mississippi
Good morning everyone! Another sultry July weather day is in the forecast. We will have mostly sunny skies, with a high near 93. The humidity will push the heat index into the lower 100s! There is a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly this afternoon. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph.Tonight will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the early evening. Otherwise, skies will be partly cloudy, with a low around 74.
31: Episode 31: Dolphin Suicides
*Warning: Explicit language and content*
Trigger Warning for disturbing stories of suicide & animal sexual abuse.
In Episode 31, We discuss cases of famous dolphin suicides. Kathy (Flipper), Peter, and Dolly.
All Cats is part of the Truthseekers Podcast Network.
Host: April Simmons
Co-Host: Sahara Holcomb
Theme + Editing by April Simmons
http://anchor.fm/april-simmons to donate to our pickles & coffee fund
Contact us at allcatspod@gmail.com
Call us at 662-200-1909
https://linktr.ee/allcats for all our social media links
Shoutout podcasts this week: Murder Squad with Jensen and Holes
Credits:
https://www.ranker.com/list/beached-flipper-dolphin/crystal-brackett
https://nypost.com/2014/06/10/the-dolphin-that-fell-in-love-with-a-human/
The Dolphin Who Killed Himself Over A Broken Heart
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/malcolm-brenner-sex-dolphin-like-5154423
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/malcolm-brenner-dolphin_n_974764?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALcN_vvjferBSFeqQKfR2G-scVPwlOUz9AITTNKjW4rOpOgGlmq5L6SXvTJhM6tf3rPc1BSUr9yN2C2genwNE7A79A045nEZXbaHNn5lJGreu15HZWH1U7a59Z4Dp67KweH6Ux0temU-FLIiQnVPyMIvKq6mFmXDYjC3btI5JKyn
—
This episode is sponsored by
· Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Faces of Tupelo: The Booths
Tupelo Hardware was originally founded by George H. Booth in 1926 in a building across the street from its current location.
In 1945, George’s son, William, returned from World War II to work for his father.
William “Bill” Booth owned and managed the business until his death in 2000.
Since that time, the business has been owned and managed by William’s son, George H. Booth II.
His son, George III, joined the business as a full-time employee in 2014.
Throughout most of the company’s history, Tupelo Hardware has served its customers from its three-story brick, Main Street location in the historic downtown district of Tupelo, Mississippi. Tupelo Hardware is widely known as the business where an eleven-year-old boy named Elvis Presley bought his first guitar in 1946.
Tupelo Hardware is also known for continually reinventing themselves. They started with serving farmers, to manufactures, to industrial, to tourism. They are known as the worlds most famous hardware store and constantly strive to stay relevant to the community.
As the Tupelo community grew from an agricultural community to a manufacturing-based economy, Tupelo Hardware shifted its focus to selling industrial supplies. Today, Tupelo Hardware promotes excellent service to all hardware customers, be they contractors, maintenance personnel, small engine repair companies, or the general retail shopper. And if you want a guitar, they have those too!
Tupelo Hardware has a reputation for knowledgeable, reliable, and personal service which is largely attributed to the many staff members who have worked behind the antique wooden counters waiting on multiple generations of good customers. Long-time employees know their market and have not only waited on customers for years, but have also likely waited on their customers’ parents in the same location.
The employees at Tupelo Hardware are always here to help the customer. They pride themselves on a no-pressure sales and anticipating the customers needs.
George Booth III helped the hardware store move into a new age with the computer system. He says its important to know your data to stay relevant to your customers. He is constantly updating and reviewing spreadsheets to keep their distribution center on the 3rd floor active and keep their shelves stocked.
Tupelo Hardware may be widely known for their association with Elvis and their farming supplies and tools, but did you know they also have a small parts counter?
They pride themselves in helping you after the sale. They want to be able to keep your purchases running like brand new. They also have an extensive inventory of lawn service needs.
Tupelo Hardware knows that good customer service is what brings the customer back. It is also a well run family business that loves to treat their customers like family.
Stop by the store anytime to see some of the Tupelo Spirit that everyone talks about.
You can find Tupelo Hardware online at their website, or visit them on Facebook!
Tupelo Hardware Company, Inc.
114 W. Main Street • Tupelo, MS 38804
Phone: 662-842-4637 • Fax: 662-680-4670
Monday-Friday: 7am – 5:30pm • Saturday: 7am – Noon • Sunday: Closed
Legislators pay price for disregarding COVID-19 precautions at Capitol
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Lawmakers during the legislative session at the Capitol in Jackson on Thursday, May 28, 2020.
As a Republican House chairman waited outside Speaker Philip Gunn’s office one day in late June, another prominent member walked up and they began an intense, face-to-face conversation literally inches apart with no masks.
Several other Republicans — all without masks — joined the group a few seconds later. A masked reporter waiting near the door said to the members: “You guys aren’t too concerned about the coronavirus.”
One of the members in the face-to-face conversation looked at the other and proclaimed, “Yeah, get away from me.” The other let out a fake cough. Everybody laughed, including the reporter.
The scene is not so funny now that those two legislators are among the at least 30 lawmakers and at least 11 legislative staffers who have tested positive for COVID-19 the past two weeks. Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, are among those who tested positive.
The intent in sharing the anecdote is not to embarrass. There were, no doubt, countless other similar instances in the Mississippi Capitol not witnessed by a reporter as the Legislature was in session during a chaotic June.
But the episode does highlight the cavalier attitude many members of the Legislature took about the coronavirus — particularly the longer the session went.
The Legislature recessed the session in March because of safety concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. When lawmakers returned in May, Gunn and Hosemann implemented strict precautions, including limiting the number of members in the chambers at any one time. Temperature checks were administered as people entered the Capitol.
“When we came back from the recess, the speaker had developed a good plan,” said House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson of Natchez. “But the longer we were in session, the less we adhered to the rules.”
Johnson said he hopes when legislators return to the Capitol in coming days that those original precautions will be re-imposed and one additional restriction will be initiated: a mask mandate.
“We should all understand by now how important wearing a mask is,” Johnson said. “It is a little burdensome, but it is not that much of an inconvenience.”
Some legislators who have gotten sick with the coronavirus wore masks all the time. For instance, Rep. Bo Brown, D-Jackson, who has confirmed he has tested positive, seldom was seen without a mask in the halls of the Capitol. But many who got sick never wore masks.
To be clear, not all Democrats were wearing masks, but most were. And not all Republicans were eschewing the wearing of masks, but many were.
Health experts have reiterated the wearing of a mask protects not so much the mask wearer but those who come in contact with the person wearing the mask. So if everyone wears a mask, everyone will have an added layer of protection.
State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs cited a Centers for Disease Control study where two stylists in a hair salon tested positive for COVID-19, but none of their 130 clients caught the virus presumably because the stylists were wearing masks.
“Pretty strong endorsement of the power of masks,” Dobbs said. “The more data that is available” points to “what a simple, easy, effective intervention it is.”
Both Hosemann and Gunn set good examples wearing masks in public early on. But as the session progressed and intense debate developed over changing the state flag, disbursing $1 billion in federal funds for COVID-19 relief and funding state agencies in the midst of economic uncertainty, many of those safeguards were discarded.
Perhaps the Legislature is a microcosm of the state. Dobbs said the state is having record number of coronavirus cases now because Mississippians have let down their collective guard in terms of battling the pandemic.
“It’s insanely difficult to control a pandemic when people A) think it’s not real, B) find every reason to undermine the reality of it to justify not following the rules,” Dobbs said in a recorded meeting on July 10.
Just as the pandemic is preventing the full reopening of the state, the Legislature’s coronavirus outbreak is delaying lawmakers’ return to the Capitol to address the important issues of funding the Department of Marine Resources and taking up Gov. Tate Reeves’ veto of the kindergarten through 12th grade education budget.
Reeves, who espouses the virtues of wearing a mask even though there are high profile instances of him not doing so, says those entities can survive in the short term without legislative action.
“We believe we are in a situation in which both of those entities can function,” Reeves said. “Is it perfect? No… But we are a position in which we will bring them back at an appropriate time if and when it is safe to do so. I think public health must trump everything else in regards to legislative action.”
Without question, for part of the 2020 legislative session, public health concerns were placed on the backburner.
The post Legislators pay price for disregarding COVID-19 precautions at Capitol appeared first on Mississippi Today.