FRIDAY: Good Friday morning everyone! Temperatures are in the mid to upper 60s this morning across North Mississippi. If you missed out on rainfall yesterday, there is a better chance of getting some today. We will have slight chance of showers this morning, then a better chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. Otherwise, it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 82. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Tonight, we will have mostly cloudy skies with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10 pm with an overnight low around 64.
WEEKEND FORECAST…..
🌤SATURDAY: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
☁️SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. South southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
⛈SUNDAY: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, it will be partly sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph in the morning. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
THURSDAY: Good Morning everyone! It is pleasant outside at 6 am with temperatures in the low to mid 60s across North Mississippi, under partly cloudy skies. It is a great morning for a walk, run, or to enjoy a hot cup of coffee on the porch! Today will be mostly sunny, with a high near 84. South wind 5 to 15 mph. We stay mostly sunny through the afternoon, though one or two pop-up showers become possible with lingering low pressure in the area over the next few days. 🌧 Rain chance is 20%.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62.
Economic development committee members listen as Jackie Turner, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, speaks during an economic development committee meeting at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., May 7, 2020.
The Mississippi Legislature committed $300 million of the $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds the state has received to small businesses that have been impacted by the pandemic.
The Legislature, working late Wednesday night, passed and sent to Gov. Tate Reeves a proposal to provide checks of $2,000 to all businesses forced to close because of the pandemic. The proposal will also provide grants of between $1,500 and $25,000 to businesses that are approved though an application process overseen by the Mississippi Development Authority.
The program, which defines a small business as having 50 or fewer employees, also sets aside $40 million to ensure minority-owned businesses have access to the grants offered under the program.
“We felt that if you were forced to shut down by the government, you were entitled to a check,” House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, told members of the House before they approved the bill with one no vote in the 122-member chamber.
The 52-member Senate passed the proposal with no dissenting votes. Two senators did voice opposition to the bill by “pairing” their votes with senators who were not present, but would have voted yes. In reality, though, the paired votes do not count in the final vote tally.
Rep. Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula, one of the three House negotiators who hammered out the agreement with Senate leaders, said a little fewer than 30,000 businesses will be eligible for the direct checks. Businesses that were forced to close and those that might have closed voluntarily could apply for the grants.
“If we run out of money, we can put more in the program,” Busby said.
Last week the Legislature and governor were engaged in a contentious conflict over who had control of the federal funds. The Legislature prevailed in the battle over who would appropriate the $1.25 billion. But interestingly, under the bill approved Wednesday night, MDA, an agency controlled by the governor, will administer the program. And before the six House and Senate negotiators signed the agreement late Wednesday night, members of Reeves’ staff were able to read the legislation and offer input.
Both Reeves and legislative leaders agreed that a program to help small businesses during the ongoing economic slowdown should be the first priority in expending the federal funds. Reeves often have cited barbershops and hair salons as businesses forced to close that needed help.
Legislators have been working for days behind closed doors to craft the small business program.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said work on crafting the small business program began before the battle with the governor over who controlled the money was resolved.
The Legislature returned to the Capitol on Tuesday to finalize the program. Normally when legislators are dealing with appropriating large sums of money, the halls of the Capitol are filled with lobbyists and other interested parties.
But for the most part, the halls of the Capitol were empty with only a few onlookers in the building. For the most part, legislators, practicing social distancing, listened to action on the floor from offices instead of being in the chamber.
Both Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn appointed members of the Legislative Black Caucus to the negotiations team that hammered out the final details. Gunn appointed Robert Johnson of Natchez, chair of the House Democrats, while Hosemann named Derrick Simmons of Greenville, chair of the Senate Democrats.
The bill still contains a variation of the language Reeves had objected to and threatened to veto last week. That language puts the money in a fund controlled by the Legislature.
Murali Vullaganti, founder of PeopleShores, present at an July opening of a women’s clinic at the Clarksdale location in July 2019
CLARKSDALE – As the coronavirus pandemic hit, thousands of Mississippians were furloughed, leaving them with no income and no jobs. This sparked an influx of unemployment claims that the state’s top employment agency struggled to process. In response, a Clarksdale-based outsourcing firm announced it is hiring 75 workers to assist the agency process unemployment claims.
The Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) is tasked with helping citizens find jobs and handle unemployment claims, but the agency has struggled to handle more claims than they can process, Mississippi Today reported. Congress passed a $600 increase to weekly unemployment benefits, but many Mississippians who are eligible for the benefits can’t get through to the state’s office. The department reported 222,000 initial claims filed from March 15 to May 2. Mississippi Today updates the number of claims every Thursday.
To help “expedite” filing and processing new claims, PeopleShores, an outsourcing technology firm based in Silicon Valley and Clarksdale, partnered with Horne CPA, a Jackson-based business advisory group, and MDES to launch a program. This program allowed for the creation of 150 news jobs. Of those, 75 positions are in Clarksdale, according to a news release. The two companies are focused on decreasing the hold times, getting claims into the system quickly and providing support to those impacted, the release said.
“We are grateful for Governor Tate Reeves for his support of this mission. We are delighted to see Horne and PeopleShores respond to our needs with speed and scale with their technology and operational expertise,” said Jackie Turner, executive director of MDES.
Jon Levingston, executive director of Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce, “applauded the opportunity” to grow the local economy here.
“It is an honor to serve our state and our citizens by helping them to have a greater and more efficient access to unemployment assistance,” he said. “I am particularly grateful to the executive board chair of PeopleShores, Murali Vullaganti for his ability to recognize and address so quickly this vital need to take care of unemployed workers in Mississippi.”
Mississippi leaders have said that they are testing early and thoroughly for COVID-19, but the state’s Department of Corrections has so far failed to test most of its employees and people in its custody. As of Monday, fewer than 100 people—44 prisoners and 45 employees—have been tested for the novel coronavirus at DOC prisons and detention centers—a rate of 0.4 percent.
The nearly 20,000 staff members and incarcerated people form a population greater than 43 percent of counties in Mississippi. Yet they are being left out of the state’s testing push, which Gov. Tate Reeves has touted as “aggressive” in recent press briefings.
“Testing is critical to manage this disaster,” he said on April 6, “and that’s one thing that we in Mississippi are very fortunate of, is we became very aggressive very early on testing.”
During a May 6 briefing, The Appeal asked Reeves about the low testing rate inside prisons. He responded, “We haven’t had large numbers of individuals in our prison system that have had symptoms.” The DOC has succeeded in avoiding “major, catastrophic spreading” because of early interventions, he said.
“Much like President Trump was very, very early by cutting off travel to China, in Mississippi we were very early in cutting off visitation in the Department of Corrections,” Reeves said at the same briefing. As of Monday, the DOC reported that 10 incarcerated people and seven employees had tested positive for COVID-19.
He added that temporarily banning prisoners from doing road work across the state has helped taper the spread, too.
Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said that low rates of testing are not indicative of low disease rates. “The surest way to have zero confirmed cases in your facility is to conduct zero tests,” he said.
The DOC first confirmed proof of testing within its facilities on April 13, when it said in a press release that a prisoner at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, had died. The DOC makes public prison-specific breakdowns of coronavirus cases among incarcerated people but not among staff.
“While there certainly are steps that can be taken to make conditions better and safer for detained persons,” said Johnson, “the unique reality of this virus is that infection in the detention setting is inevitable.”
In March, plaintiffs who sued the DOC in January over the prison’s “neglected state” began filing motions for the department to take emergency action in response to COVID-19. The plaintiffs requested that the DOC implement testing for employees and prisoners, screen any person entering Parchman, provide non-punitive quarantine for current and new prisoners, increase personal hygiene materials, “implement or increase” opportunities for phone/video calls, and waive health care co-pays.
MDOC
Gov. Tate Reeves visits Jan. 23, 2020, the room where deadly riots took place at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
The court filings detail grim conditions. According to the lawsuit, after a Parchman employee who works with incarcerated men in the kitchen tested positive for the coronavirus, men who came in contact with the employee were still eating meals with men from other buildings until the facilities were locked down a week later.
Six men housed in Parchman’s Unit 30 swore in affidavits that the DOC had not fully met guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They described lax social distancing guidelines that allow prisoners to play basketball. Laundry services are returning dirty linens, bunks are not cleaned, and the DOC failed to sanitize the bedding and property of a man taken to the medical unit for COVID-19 symptoms, the affidavits read.
The men also said guards in their unit do not always sport masks or keep a safe distance, and “most” medical staff members wear gloves, but not all. People incarcerated at Parchman are making personal protective equipment—gowns and masks—but it is not clear if they are being required to wear PPE throughout the prison.
“Inmates with fevers and coughs are not consistently referred to the medical unit or evaluated in any way,” court documents read. “On at least one occasion an inmate was threatened with mace when he tried to inform a nurse of his COVID-19 symptoms.”
On April 24, U.S. District Judge Debra Brown ruled that the DOC did not have to take additional steps to protect people in its custody from the coronavirus. Brown noted that although efforts have been “inconsistent or ineffectual,” the department has still taken steps to address the virus, such as suspending visitation temporarily and offering free weekly phone calls. (Free phone calls were discontinued on April 13.)
DOC guidelines say incarcerated people with a fever of 100.4 Fahrenheit who are coughing or having difficulty breathing will be tested for influenza. If that test is negative, the patient will be tested for the coronavirus, meaning those who are potentially carrying the virus but do not show symptoms are not tested. The DOC told The Appeal on April 30 that employees are to stay home when sick and get their temperature checked daily when they arrive at work.
The department also said that prisoners are quarantined for 14 days if they have interacted with a staff member who tested positive for the coronavirus. “We recognize that social distancing strategies to increase the physical space between inmates will not be feasible in all facilities,” the statement reads. “So MDOC staffers verbally encourage social distancing among inmates in common areas and during meal times and recreation. Inmates are also encouraged to sleep head to foot, rather than head to head, as recommended.”
Marc Stern, a professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health who routinely investigates correctional healthcare standards, toured Parchman in February and said in an affidavit that the prison’s health-related and environmental conditions are “sub-human and deplorable,” and the worst he has seen at any U.S. jail, prison, or immigration detention center in his 20-year career.
Stern added that an outbreak there “would be catastrophic, and potentially fatal to many residents with already compromised immune systems and underlying chronic conditions.”
Another strategy for preventing the spread of COVID-19, said Johnson, the MacArthur Justice Center director, would be to thin the prison population. He said outside of the courts, the governor and the Legislature could expand parole eligibility to immediately include those who would be going through the process within the next year or so.
“Does our interest in the continued incarceration of these people outweigh our interest in their safety, as it exists incarcerated in a Mississippi jail or prison?” he said.
But Reeves opposes releasing anyone early. “As governor of the state of Mississippi, I have no intention of letting prisoners out prior to them serving their sentence,” he said on May 6. “Unlike many other states I do not believe we ought to use the excuse of the pandemic to change our sentencing structure in our criminal justice system.”
This month, Reeves relaxed the state’s shelter-in-place order, opening salons, gyms, and restaurants for limited dine-in, and encouraging Mississippians to gather outside in groups of less than 20 people.
A study by NPR and the Harvard Global Health Institute suggests that Mississippi has neither conducted enough tests nor has it met the World Health Organization’s advised benchmark of 10 percent or less of all tests coming back positive before safely reopening.
A DOC spokesperson told The Appeal in an email, “the Governor’s relaxation of the stay-at-home order has not changed MDOC’s protocol inside its facilities thus far.”
For all prison systems, this pandemic presents the potential for disaster. But the DOC has already faced a devastating year of prison deaths so far: More than 30 Mississippi state prisoners have died since Dec. 29. In the winter, an outbreak of violence in prisons across the state resulted in at least seven killings and three hangings or alleged suicides, the closure of Parchman’s notorious Unit 29, and ultimately, an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation.
“The folks in the power structure here in Mississippi do not value the lives of incarcerated men and women in our state,” Lea Campbell of the Mississippi Prison Reform Coalition told The Appeal. “There is just no way that [Reeves] can deny being complicit in the spread of the infection and the deaths that are going to occur as a result.”
The Appeal is a non-profit media organization that produces original journalism about criminal justice that is focused on the most significant drivers of mass incarceration, which occur at the state and local level.
Economic development committee members listen as Jackie Turner, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, speaks during an economic development committee meeting at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., May 7, 2020.
Lawmakers are in Jackson working out how to appropriate coronavirus stimulus funds, but there are many questions about how those funds can be used and whether any concrete plans are currently in place to help Mississippians and their businesses.
Mississippi Today broke down a few commonly asked questions:
What is the CARES Act?
In March, Congress passed the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. It contains $2 trillion to be distributed for relief efforts, and Mississippi as a state received $1.25 billion. The state received a separate $800 million in funds for various state agencies that are responding to the coronavirus, such as the Emergency Management Agency, Department of Health and education entities. The Mississippi Legislature will not try to re-appropriate those funds. The $1.25 billion the Legislature is appropriating is a separate pot of money sent to the state with wide latitude in how it can be spent to combat the coronavirus. But the money cannot be used to offset revenue shortfalls caused by the ongoing economic slowdown.
Who decides how to spend these federal funds?
Initially Gov. Tate Reeves insisted he had sole spending authority of stimulus funds, but the Mississippi Legislature recently returned to the Capitol to pass legislation that gives them control of how to spend these funds. The governor will be involved in decision-making, but ultimately it’s lawmakers who will allocate the money.
What is the Legislature going to do with this $1.25 billion?
Legislative leaders are still working out how exactly to dole out these funds, but have said priorities include helping small businesses, expanding broadband access and distance learning for schools. Other key focus areas are helping hospitals recover from the financial pressure that comes with coronavirus costs and lost revenue, and helping to offset costs cities and counties have incurred because of the pandemic.
Is that $1.25 billion different from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds that Congress appropriated?
Yes. The CARES Act contains various programs created to address problems caused by COVID-19. Businesses, presumably small businesses, can apply for loans through the federal PPP to continue to pay their employees and to pay other obligations, such as rent and utilities. If the loans are used as intended, they are supposed to be forgiven. The small business program the state Legislature is working on is intended first to provide grants to small businesses that for various reasons did not receive aid through the federal PPP. Many smaller businesses were not able to get help through the PPP. Mississippi companies that did get help through the PPP also can receive a grant through the state program, but the first priority will be the companies that did not receive PPP funding.
Can Mississippi small businesses expect financial assistance from the Legislature?
Yes. The Legislature is in session this week to create a grant program for small businesses in Mississippi. Details are not finalized yet, but they are expected to put $100 million of those federal funds into a bill that will allow small businesses in the state to receive relief monies.
Will what the Mississippi Legislature does affect other programs in the CARES Act?
No. As stated, the CARES Act includes various programs. For instance, the enhanced unemployment benefits ($600 per week) provided through CARES Act will not be impacted by action of the Mississippi Legislature, other than perhaps trying to pass legislation to make the Employment Security Agency more efficient in responding to unemployment claims.
What, if anything, is the Legislature doing to address the problems that Mississippians are experiencing getting through to the state unemployment office?
Last week the Senate Economic and Workforce Development Committee held a hearing for Jackie Turner, executive director of the state Department of Employment Security to testify about her agency’s work concerning unemployment benefits. Senators acknowledged the department’s problem with phone line blockages and failure to deliver benefits in a timely fashion. Lawmakers say they are studying the issue to see if legislative action needs to be made, but no action has been taken so far.
Will the Legislature before it adjourns finish its work other than that related to the coronavirus?
Yes. Under the original calendar, the 2020 legislative session is supposed to be finished — sine die as it is called. But when the Legislature recessed on March 18 because of safety concerns related to the coronavirus, all deadlines were pushed back so that the process essentially would resume when lawmakers returned where it was left off. The new deadlines are still being worked out, but essentially the budget will be completed sometimes in June before the new budget year begins on July 1. The Legislature also plans to take up some bills in the coming weeks that were under consideration before the coronavirus hit. But it is safe to assume that they will take up less bills that they would have if the coronavirus had not hit.
WARMER WEDNESDAY: Good morning everyone! It is a bit warmer this morning at around 60 under cloudy skies across the area. Southerly winds around 5-10 mph will return today which will help to increase moisture. We will stay mostly cloudy today with a high near 80! A stray shower or two is possible in the late afternoon and early evening. A slight chance of a shower will be possible tonight as well with a low around 62. Enjoy your morning cup of coffee ☕and have a pleasant day, friends!
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Gov. Tate Reeves speaks to media about his shelter-in-place order for Lauderdale County, as Executive Director of MEMA Col. Gregory S. Michel listens during a press conference at the State of Mississippi Woolfolk Building in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, March 31, 2020.
Last week, Gov. Tate Reeves threatened to veto a bill that stripped him of sole spending authority over $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus aid. This week, lawmakers are expected to incorporate a small business assistance program into the same bill and send it to Reeves for his signature.
The bill, which Reeves had opposed, ensures $1.25 billion in federal relief funds to address the coronavirus pandemic is appropriated by the Legislature rather than solely by the governor. But this week, the bill will likely be expanded to take a portion of the federal funds – around $100 million – to create a program to help small businesses that have been closed or negatively impacted by COVID-19.
Last week Reeves threatened to veto the bill, which blocked him from having sole spending authority of the federal funds, but gave up that effort after it became likely legislators would override his veto. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn both later pledged to work with Reeves in appropriating the federal funds, but stressed the money could not be spent until appropriated by the Legislature.
Lawmakers could vote on the proposal as early as Thursday as they work this week to deal with issues related to COVID-19. Besides addressing small businesses, Hosemann said other legislative priorities in spending the federal funds are:
• Helping with the costs incurred by cities and counties in dealing with the coronavirus.
• Aiding hospitals that have been hit with the double whammy of coronavirus costs and lost revenue because other medical procedures have been put on hold during the pandemic.
• Improving distance learning for the schools by looking at ways to expand broadband services in rural areas of the state.
State agencies have received an additional about $800 million in federal funds outside of the $1.25 billion to deal with the coronavirus. Those funds have gone to various agencies, ranging from the Emergency Management Agency, Department of Health and education entities and will not be appropriated by the Legislature.
The Legislature will not want to reimburse the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency for the costs of personal protection equipment, such as masks and gowns, if the agency has directly received federal funds to pay for those costs.
Still, Gunn said that the $1.25 billion could be spent quickly if legislators are not careful. He warned that “$1.25 billion seems like a lot of money, but if you have 11 hands in the pot, it goes quickly.”
The money cannot be used to offset lost tax collections that are occurring on both the local and state level because of the economic slowdown that has resulted from the pandemic.
Representatives of both the Mississippi Municipal League and the Mississippi Association of Supervisors told legislators they are working to determine the amount of money they have spent on COVID-19 expenses. Costs vary from overtime pay for law enforcement to funds for disinfectants and personal protection equipment. They also have spent money on technology to ensure that public hearings could be on the internet during the time of social distancing.
“We will try to come up with a figure, but it is going to be difficult,” said Shari Veazey, executive director of the Municipal League. “We know what we spent in March and April,” but determining what will happen going forward could be difficult.
Forrest County Supervisor Chris Bowen, president of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, said there is a possibility that the coronavirus could re-intensify as the economy is reopened, resulting in local governments having to expend more funds. He said it is difficult to plan for such a possibility.
In the House, Mississippi Department of Corrections Interim Commissioner Tommy Taylor outlined his agency’s current and projected coronavirus expenses through June 2021 for things like hand sanitizer, gloves, masks, hazard pay and reimbursement to county jails. The department has incurred expenses of $2.1 million to date and expects to spend $12.2 million over the next year, according to documents provided to lawmakers in the meeting. As of Tuesday, the state had 10 inmates test positive for the coronavirus and one death, Taylor said.
If an inmate does test positive, Taylor said the person is removed from the general population and quarantined, and the inmates housed in the same population as the person who tested positive are also quarantined.
Legislators most likely will return to the business of the regular 2020 session on May 18.
