Good Thursday morning everyone!! Temperatures are in the mid to upper 70s under mostly cloudy skies across the area. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible again today, with a high near 88. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Showers and thunderstorms will be possible again Friday and some of those could be strong with gusty winds.
Tropical Storm Isaias formed south of Cuba last night. It is forecast to impact Florida the weekend into early next week. There is still much certainty in strength and the track after it passes over Hispaniola. We will keep our eyes on it because it could impact our weather some next week.
Mississippi Highway Patrol officers retire the state flag outside of the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, July 1, 2020.
The commission charged with presenting a new Mississippi state flag to voters in November on Tuesday heard from a vexillologist, or expert on flags.
“Simplicity,” Mississippi vexillologist Clay Moss told the commission, is the first rule of flag design. “A small child should be able to draw it from memory. Less is more … Keep it simple.”
The other four basic principles of flag design are to use meaningful symbolism, use only two to three basic colors, refrain from using lettering or seals and to be either distinctive or related.
Moss noted that the Mississippi Legislature has mandated the commission violate one of the principles — the commission must include the words “In God We Trust” on whatever design it approves and puts before voters. Moss said this could still be done in an aesthetically pleasing way — perhaps in a ribbon or emblem — and noted both Florida’s and Georgia’s flags include the same words.
The Mississippi Legislature, after decades of debate, voted to remove the 1894 state flag with its divisive Confederate battle emblem. The legislation it passed created the commission to choose a new flag to put before voters on the Nov. 3 ballot. Voters can either approve or reject the new design. If they reject it, the commission will go back to the drawing board, and present another design to voters next year.
Tuesday was the flag commission’s second meeting. Its nine members are appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker.
“We have a challenge before us,” said former state Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson, who was elected commission chairman last week. “I can assure you of one thing: We are going to adopt and approve a flag Mississippi can be proud of.”
The commission plans to begin reviewing the more than 1,000 flag designs the public has submitted — which will be available for the public to see on the Mississippi Department of Archives and history website starting Aug. 3 — and each select their favorite 25 by Aug. 7. The commission is free to come up with its own designs, or tweak or combine submitted ones.
Commissioners will then each rank their top 10 picks around the middle of next month and vote to narrow the list to a final five. There will be a public comment period for the top five, then the commission will pick a final design at a Sept. 2 meeting and submit that flag to the Legislature and secretary of state to be put on the ballot.
“I’m jealous of you, as a flag nerd,” Moss told commissioners on Tuesday. He also urged them to “be wide open” to designs and “have fun.”
Moss in a slide presentation showed commissioners various designs — good and bad — from flags across the country and the world. He pointed out intricacies of design tenets, such as putting emblems closer to the “hoist” side of the flag as opposed to the “fly” side.
“Horizontal stripes are generally better,” Moss said. “It’s been scientifically proven that the human brain identifies a horizontally striped flag easier. That’s why about 50% of the world’s flags have horizontal stripes, and 12% vertical.”
Moss told commissioners, “A lot of U.S. state flags are mundane.”
“There’s state seal after state seal,” he said.
Mississippi horticulturalist, author and gardening radio show host Felder Rushing attended Tuesday’s meeting. He’s not pitching a particular flag design, but is urging the commission to include the magnolia blossom in the new design. He gave commissioners a brochure he made advocating the magnolia blossom.
The brochure notes that Mississippi, the Magnolia State, during the Civil War had a state flag that included the magnolia tree. He said the new design should use “the flower, not the tree.”
“It’s on everything in Mississippi,” Rushing said. “It’s even on our quarter.
“The rest of the country has already moved on, leaving us with the daunting challenge of agreeing on a new state flag that will fly proudly long after we participants are gone,” Rushing’s brochure said. “And we can choose a symbol that either says something, or not.”
Good Wednesday morning everyone! Temperatures are currently in the mid 70s under mostly cloudy skies. Showers and thunderstorms will be likely today with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Tonight, showers and thunderstorms will continue. Otherwise expect mostly cloudy skies, with a low around 73.
Grab the umbrella as you head out the door this morning and have a pleasant day ahead
Two potential charter schools in the Mississippi Delta and Canton made it to the final step of the application process, officials announced Monday.
The Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board approved the applicants to move forward at their regular board meeting on Monday afternoon:
SR1, a K-5 school to open in the Canton Public School District that would serve 450 students
Voices for Education, a proposed 300 student school for grades 7-12 in North Bolivar Consolidated School District.
Southwest Leadership Academy also submitted an application, but failed to meet all but one of the application thresholds, according to the board. SR1 is the only operator who applied in last year’s process but was denied for various reasons.
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Students step off the school bus to attend Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School.
The most recent charter approved was Leflore Legacy Academy, serving grades 6-8 by 2023. It will open this school year as a middle school with just sixth grade in the Greenwood Public School District. This past school year, Mississippi had six operating charter schools – five in Jackson and one in Clarksdale.
Charters are public schools that do not charge tuition, and are held to the same academic and accountability standards as traditional public schools. By law, charter schools have the capacity for more flexibility for teachers and administrators when it comes to student instruction. Unlike traditional public schools, charters do not have school boards or operate under a local school district, although they are funded by school districts based on their enrollment.
Charter schools can apply directly to the authorizer board if they’re planning to open in a D or F district. If an operator wants to open in an A, B, or C district, they need to get approval from the local school board.
Each year the authorizer board goes through a months-long process to screen potential operators and grant them the authority to open a school in Mississippi. This year the timeline for the 2020 application cycle has been slightly pushed back because of the pandemic.
Operators submitted their applications in June. The board announced the schools moving forward on Monday afternoon. These potential operators will hold public meetings in mid-September and go through interviews and evaluations with the board and an outside evaluator, who looks at the applications on the merits of their educational program and proposed financial and operations program. The board’s final decisions will be announced on October 12.
Good Tuesday morning everyone! Temperatures are in the mid to upper 70s across North Mississippi. We will see partly sunny skies, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph. There is a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms mid to late morning through the afternoon. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A chance of showers and thunderstorms will be possible tonight as well, with mostly cloudy skies, and a low around 72.
The chance of showers and thunderstorms will go up through the remainder of the week. Some thunderstorms could be strong with gusty winds and heavy downpours
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Gov. Tate Reeves and former AG Jim Hood
During last year’s gubernatorial election, Republican candidate Tate Reeves could not find much positive to say about his Democratic opponent Jim Hood’s four terms as state attorney general.
But now Gov. Reeves is relying heavily on a 2009 official opinion from Hood’s AG office to ensure the public schools are funded during this unprecedented time in state history when the kindergarten through 12th grade education system has effectively no legislative appropriation.
The fact that this non-funding is occurring while local districts are struggling with decisions over if and when to start the school year in the midst of COVID-19 only exacerbates the uniqueness of the problem.
The Legislature in late June did provide a $2.5 billion budget for education. But Reeves partially vetoed about $2.2 billion of the appropriation because the budget bill did not provide funds for the School Recognition Program, which provides essentially Christmas bonuses for teachers and certified staff of top performing and improving school districts.
Before Reeves vetoed the bill, House Education Chair Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, said the Legislature’s failure to fund the program was an oversight and that it would be fixed.
“We informed the governor’s staff that legislative clarification will easily fix this matter and that a veto was unnecessary,” Bennett said.
At that point, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said the governor should have declared victory. But instead, Reeves decided “to grandstand” by partially vetoing the education budget, Bryan said. Coincidentally, the bulk of the $2.2 billion vetoed portion of the bill went for teacher salaries – all of their salaries not just the merit bonuses.
Reeves argued the veto was the best way to ensure the teachers received their merit pay bonuses, which as he points out were promised in earlier sessions.
Now almost a month into the new fiscal year, Reeves is citing the 2009 opinion from Hood to maintain he has the authority to provide funding on his own for the schools.
Hood, as Mississippi’s chief legal officer, maintained that while it is clear that the sole responsibility to appropriate state funds rests with the Legislature, there are certain services spelled out in the state Constitution that must be provided regardless of whether there is a legislative appropriation.
Indeed, the Constitution does mandate that there be public schools.
The question is at what level should the system be funded? Reeves reasoned, again based on the opinion of his former rival, that it should be funded at the level it received in the last legislative appropriation, which was in the 2019 session.
That is what Reeves said he is currently doing.
“Because the providing of funds for schools by the state is a constitutional issue, I have provided a letter…to make the transfer…There will be a transfer to the local school districts,” Reeves said
The 2009 AG’s opinion was written in the middle of a monumental standoff between then-Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, and a Democratic Party-controlled House. Barbour wanted a tax imposed on the state’s hospitals. The House opposed the Barbour plan.
The disagreement on the hospital tax resulted in the inability to reach an overall budget accord on issues ranging from health care to law enforcement to education.
In 2009, the opinion was a legal theory but never was put into practice because of a late night budget agreement only hours before the clock struck midnight on July 1 to start a new fiscal year.
This year, Hood’s opinion is no longer a theory but the law of the land unless it is challenged in court and struck down by the judiciary.
In recent weeks the Legislature has been beset by a COVID-19 outbreak within its own ranks, further exacerbating an already difficult situation. But at some point the Legislature will return to deal with Reeves’ veto of the education budget. Legislators’ options then will include:
Doing nothing and hoping how the schools are currently being funded without a legislative appropriation will hold up if challenged in court.
Overriding the governor’s veto.
Overriding the governor’s veto and passing a separate bill to provide the bonuses for teachers.
Passing a new appropriation bill, that includes the School Recognition Program.
If the Legislature does opt to override Reeves, it will mark the first time since 2002 for a governor’s veto to be overridden. Republican Govs. Barbour and Phil Bryant each served eight years each without having a veto overridden.
It could happen to Reeves in his first year in office. Of course, he would argue that the indignity of a veto override was worth it to ensure funding of the School Recognition Program.
But Bennett and others would argue it would have been funded without the veto and without Reeves having to depend on his old rival to ensure the funding of public education.
Good Monday Morning North Mississippi! Temperatures are comfy and in the mid 70s this morning. We will see mostly sunny skies today with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph. We have a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Tonight, we have a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, mostly cloudy skies, with a low around 71. We will have cooler temperatures over the next couple days, but the rain chance goes up with some heavy downpours at times.
Tyree Irving, 74, was elected chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party on Saturday.
Former Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Tyree Irving was elected chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party on Saturday, becoming the first Black leader of the party since 1998.
Irving, a 74-year-old Greenwood native, received 54 votes on the 80-member Democratic executive committee in a virtual Saturday meeting. He defeated longtime state Rep. Earle Banks, who received 21 votes.
“I thank you for the trust and confidence you’ve placed in me,” Irving told committee members shortly after his election.
The party chairman typically serves as the organization’s face, communicating the party’s policy goals, raising money and ensuring political operations are running smoothly. Irving replaces Bobby Moak, who served as Democratic chairman since 2016 and abruptly withdrew his bid for reelection on Friday afternoon.
Though at least 70 percent of the Mississippi Democratic Party’s voter base is Black, the last six party chairmen, including Moak, have been white. Just twice in the modern history of the Mississippi Democratic Party has an African American served as chairman. From 1987-1994, Ed Cole, a Black man, served as chairman. And from 1994-1998, state senator Johnnie Walls of Greenville held the seat.
Others also decried a lack of leadership in the party and support for candidates, particularly amid the party’s dismal showing in the 2019 statewide elections. Republicans swept all statewide offices last year, solidifying supermajority control of the state Legislature and increasing down-ticket wins on the local level.
Speaking with Mississippi Today earlier this week, Irving said: “My vision is turning this state blue.”
“I know most people would say, ‘What did this guy drink or eat that he things that can be done?’” Irving said. “I’ve always been forward looking and optimistic, believing against all odds that we can achieve our goals.
“We have got to have a really good messaging program going, and we’ve got to convince a lot of white Mississippians that they are constantly voting against their economic interests. That’s a tall order. The problem is the white leadership that you have. If they have tried, they have failed at it.”
Irving continued: “They’ve been running away from the national party all the time — at least the white politicians in recent times have. We’ve got to change that culture if we are going to build this party and have any chance at statewide elections.”
Irving was elected to the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 1998, and reelected in 2002 and 2010. He retired in 2018.
He was the first African American to clerk at the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1975 and in 1978 became the first African American assistant U.S. attorney in Mississippi since Reconstruction.
“I just wanted to congratulate (Irving) on his victory,” Banks said to the party’s executive committee shortly after the election. “Our problems and issues are not with each other. We have to work together to defeat the Republicans. I look forward to working with you and whoever else is elected.”
