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Gunn, Hosemann name Mississippi flag redesign appointments. Reeves still hasn’t.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

House Speaker Philip Gunn, left, Executive Director of Mississippi Department of Archives and History Katie Blount, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann prepare to deliver the state flag to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on July 1, 2020.

House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann have named appointments to the nine-member commission tasked with redesigning the Mississippi state flag.

But despite a Wednesday deadline for appointments, Gov. Tate Reeves — who had pushed for voters and not lawmakers to decide whether to change the flag — on Wednesday afternoon said he hadn’t gotten to it, but he would “hopefully today, if not really, really soon.”

Lawmakers last month, after decades of debate, retired Mississippi’s old flag, the last in the nation to include the divisive Confederate battle emblem. The legislation they passed set a Wednesday deadline for the speaker, lieutenant governor and governor to appoint three people each to a commission to redesign the flag.

Gunn’s appointments:

Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill

“Robyn’s background as a businessperson in the marketing industry, and as a community leader in north Mississippi makes her a perfect member of the commission,” Gunn said. “She is known for her passion for Mississippi and for having a forward-thinking vision for her community and our state. I’m confident that she will be a vocal and active member of the commission.”

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College President Mary Graham

“Dr. Graham has proven herself to be a visionary leader for the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast region,” Gunn said. “Her dedication to preparing our students for jobs in the 21st century through focusing on and growing workforce development initiatives is exemplary. Everyone admires the work of Dr. Graham and she will be a great voice for Mississippians on the commission.”

House staffer TJ Taylor of Madison

“TJ Taylor has been a member of my staff for five legislative sessions,” Gunn said. “He is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and Mississippi College Law School. He has served as policy advisor, general counsel and currently serves as policy director for my office. He has been a key figure in the success of the effort to build support and ultimately pass legislation to change the state flag and ultimately form this commission. His passion for this issue and his calm demeanor will add much to the commission’s process while representing the voice of a younger generation of Mississippians.”

Hosemann’s appointments:

Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson

Anderson served as the first African American Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court from 1985 to 1991.  He received his undergraduate degree from Tougaloo College, and law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law. Anderson currently serves as president of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Attorney Mack Varner of Vicksburg

Varner currently practices family and business law in Vicksburg. He received his undergraduate degree from Millsaps College, and law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law.  He is the past president of the Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park and Vicksburg Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and formerly served on the Board of Trustees for Millsaps College.

Marketing and communications veteran Sherri Carr Bevis of Gulfport

Bevis was recently named Community Relations Liaison to the Singing River Health System.  She received her bachelor’s degree in communications from Mississippi State University and a master’s degree from George Washington University.  She previously worked as Assistant Secretary of State for External Marketing for the Secretary of State’s Office, and as a public school teacher in the Bay-Waveland and Hancock County School Districts.  Bevis is the current national president of the Mississippi State Alumni Association.

Hosemann said the commission has “a heavy responsibility to bear in coming weeks.” He said he has confidence the commission “will come to a conclusion which will be respectful of our past and reflect a bright future.”

“Ultimately, the people of Mississippi will decide whether this design, or some other design, should be the flag of our future,” Hosemann said.

The law passed in late June requires that Reeves’ appointments be members of the Mississippi Economic Council, the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Reeves on Wednesday noted lawmakers placed “very tight, very limiting” restrictions on his picks, but no such restrictions for Gunn and Hosemann.

Gunn and Hosemann pushed for the Legislature to remove the Confederate-themed flag that had flown since 1894 over arguments by some GOP leaders including Reeves that voters should decide whether to remove it in a referendum.

The new commission has a deadline of Sept. 14 to select a design to put before voters in November for an up-or-down vote. If voters reject the new design, the commission will go back to the drawing board, and put a new design before voters in 2021.

The law stipulates the new design must include the words “In God We Trust,” and that it cannot contain the Confederate battle emblem.

The state Department of Archives and History on Monday put out a call for public submissions of flag designs. The deadline for public submissions is August 13.

The post Gunn, Hosemann name Mississippi flag redesign appointments. Reeves still hasn’t. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Marshall Ramsey: It’s Not The Heat…

President Trump told supporters at a New Hampshire rally in February that the virus would be gone by April, claiming the virus would miraculously go away when temperatures rose.  I think we now have proof that that is not going to happen.

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‘It’s not safe’: As pandemic worsens, teachers plan to rally against reopening schools

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Vicksburg Warren School District employees prepare to make food deliveries to students in the school district Wednesday, March 18, 2020.

Mississippi teachers are planning a rally at the state Capitol Friday to urge state leaders not to reopen schools for the upcoming school year as the state’s coronavirus statistics continue to worsen.

A Facebook group called “Mississippi Teachers Unite” is organizing the event, and organizers list two demands:

  • That the Mississippi Department of Education postpone reopening schools until Sept. 1 to ensure safe environments for students and teachers. The department must also make sure schools can meet current CDC safety guidelines and not allow schools to conduct in-person classes until those needs are met.
  • Fully fund schools so that districts and teachers do not have to purchase their own personal protective equipment to return to work

The group identifies itself as “a non-affiliated grassroots group of Mississippi teachers, school staff, and supportive community members who are concerned for the safety of our students, ourselves and our communities in returning to school.”

“All of us want to be back with our kids is the biggest thing,” said Max Vanlandingham, a teacher involved in planning the event. “Parents want their children to be in school, kids want to be in school, teachers want to be in school, but it’s not safe at this point.”

He emphasized Friday’s 11 a.m. rally is not a strike, but a group of teachers voicing their concerns about returning to the classroom as the number of new cases and deaths continues to rise in Mississippi. Teachers cannot legally strike in Mississippi or they will be fired from their jobs and banned from teaching in the state thereafter.

The event comes on the heels of dire warnings from public officials. Last week the state’s top health officials pleaded for people to take the virus seriously as hospitals and ICUs are running out of beds and having to turn away patients. Rolling averages for patients in an ICU have increased for 16 consecutive days, and the number of patients on ventilators have increased for the past nine days.

“It makes no sense to rush back into a model that we deemed unsafe four months ago,” said Don Turner, a Mississippian who has organized the Mississippi chapter of Safe Return to Campus, a group advocating that schools do not return to campus until counties show no new cases for 14 days. “There’s this kind of laissez-faire attitude taken and no clear directive from leaders.”

Gov. Tate Reeves last week said he was still “100 percent committed” to districts starting school this fall in a “safe, responsible way.” When the pandemic became serious in the spring, Reeves closed school buildings and districts had to pivot to remote learning. As schools across the state are preparing to open up for the new school year, the state Department of Education has given them three options to choose from: in-person, traditional schooling, virtual learning, or some hybrid of the two.

Each school district has to make a decision and post it to its website by July 31. Many have already done so, making tough decisions about how and when students will report back to the classroom if at all, how lunches will be served and bus transportation will work.

However, as the number of cases in the state continued to reach an all-time high last week, Reeves announced a mask ordinance for 13 counties based on criteria of having seen 200 new cases within the last 14 days or an average of 500 cases per 100,000 residents over that time. This throws a wrench in plans for districts in those counties, which now have to figure out how to operate and comply with the mandate which limits social gatherings to 10 people indoors and 20 outdoors.

Take our survey: How should schools in Mississippi reopen in the fall?

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Despite pandemic, state ends budget year with an estimated $56 million surplus in funds

Despite the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears the state collected enough revenue, primarily from tax collections, to have ended the last fiscal year on June 30 with a surplus.

According to a report recently released by the staff of the Legislative Budget Committee, the state ended the fiscal year with “an estimated excess of $55.9 million,” though, that number could be adjusted in the coming two-month closeout period. But the surplus means that Gov. Tate Reeves and/or the Legislature will not be forced to dip into the state’s reserves funds to ensure a balanced budget for the just-completed fiscal year.

The state has a healthy Working Cash Stabilization Fund or rainy day fund of about $680 million.

After a dramatic drop in tax collections for April, it appeared likely that the rainy day fund would be needed to balance the budget. But in the final two months of the fiscal year, collections rebounded despite the pandemic, according to the report released by the Legislative Budget Committee staff.

Total revenue collections for the fiscal year were $5.82 billion while total appropriations were $5.76 billon.

Still, for only the fifth time since 1970, the state collected less revenue during the past fiscal year than it did in the preceding fiscal year. The state collected $151 million or 2.5 percent less during the recently completed fiscal year.

State economist Darrin Webb

Surprisingly, the state’s largest source of revenue, the 7 percent sales tax on most retail items, was up $18.1 million or .85 percent. State Economist Darrin Webb said the state’s sales tax collections might have been buoyed by the fact that Mississippi imposes its full sales tax on groceries and collects the nation’s largest state-imposed sales tax on food items. While some retailers have struggled during the pandemic, it does not appear that grocery sales have declined and might have increased.

Many point out the tax on food is a regressive tax that places a larger burden on the poor. But Webb said during the coronavirus pandemic the tax has been a boost for the state’s revenue collections.

“What the sales tax does, it stabilizes your revenue source,” Webb said recently. “And again, I am just a cold-hearted economist. I just look at the data and I look at forecasting. If you eliminate the food tax, that increases the amount of instability in your revenue source.”

Webb surmised during the pandemic the grocery tax has particularly helped smaller towns because people who normally might travel to a larger municipality to purchase groceries were more likely to do so locally.

“It has been the lifeblood for many small local communities…I think it has helped small communities tremendously and has helped the overall revenue stream of the state as well,” Webb said.

The state’s second largest source of revenue, the personal income tax, was down $78.5 million or 4.1 percent. But that number might be misleading because the state Department of Revenue extended the period to file taxes and pay tax liability from April 15 in the past fiscal year to July 15 in the current fiscal year. That could result in revenue collections for July being much higher than normal.

The 7 percent use tax, which is imposed internet sales, was up 4.1 percent or $13.5 million and the tax on liquor was up $7.3 million or 9 percent. Most other sources of revenue were down for the year.

The post Despite pandemic, state ends budget year with an estimated $56 million surplus in funds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A tour of Mississippi: The Turning Angel in the Natchez City Cemetery

Color your way through Mississippi with me! Click below to download a coloring sheet of The Turning Angel in the Natchez City Cemetery.

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Thursday Forecast

Good morning everyone! It is comfortable out the door this morning with temperatures in the upper 70s, under partly cloudy skies. We will have mostly sunny skies, with a high near 94 this afternoon. Heat index values will be as high as 107…YIKES! South wind around 5 mph. There is a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms today. The Storm Prediction Center has placed the northwest corner of Mississippi is in a Marginal Risk for strong to possibly severe thunderstorms. Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 77. Looking towards the weekend it looks like partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid to upper 90s!

Strange Corner – The Case

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‘It sucks’: Coronavirus outbreak at Capitol leaves state government in limbo

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann during the legislative session at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, May 28, 2020.

When COVID-19 kicked into full force, state Rep. Trey Lamar said the aches “felt like somebody took a nine-iron to my back.”

Lamar is among dozens of Mississippi legislators and staff infected in a coronavirus outbreak at the state Capitol as lawmakers ended, for now, their 2020 legislative session. Many lawmakers by the end of the session on July 1 were eschewing face masks and social distancing, and the Capitol at times was packed with people as lawmakers voted to retire the state flag with its divisive Confederate emblem.

With unfinished business, including dealing with the governor’s veto of the state public education budget, the legislative outbreak has state government in limbo. The Capitol is shut down, and health officials warn lawmakers shouldn’t gather again for at least a couple of weeks.

Both Speaker of the House Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, have tested positive. A spokesperson for the Republican speaker, who announced his test results on July 5, said earlier this week that Gunn is “doing great.” He is slated to give online interviews later this week in his capacity as the chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national organization that promotes conservative ideas and legislation.

A spokesperson for Hosemann said: “There has been little change (in his condition), and the lieutenant governor remains in quarantine and working from home.” Hosemann confirmed his positive test on July 7.

The state health officer on Tuesday said 41 people — staff and legislators — have tested positive so far, including 30 legislators. Dobbs said there have been two hospitalizations associated with the Capitol outbreak.

Lamar said he’s heard even higher numbers of potential cases.

Lamar, the 39-year-old House Ways and Means chairman from Senatobia, was succinct in how he felt starting the evening of July 4, when he first fell ill.

“It sucks,” Lamar said on Tuesday. “It’s definitely nothing to take lightly.

“On the night of July 4, I started feeling bad, and had two to three days of flu-like symptoms – aches, fever, chills … then I started having a dry cough, where I couldn’t catch my breath … I lost my sense of smell and taste.”

Lamar said he began feeling better starting Sunday afternoon, and by Tuesday was definitely on the mend. He said he wasn’t hospitalized – although he knows of at least one lawmaker who has been – and none of his family has come down with it.

“They put me in a guest bedroom and locked me in isolation,” Lamar said.

As lawmakers and legislative staff recover, additional work looms. The Legislature left Jackson without passing a budget for the Department of Marine Resources because of a power struggle over spending federal Gulf Restoration funds. And the governor vetoed the bulk of the state’s public education budget after lawmakers failed to specifically fund a bonus system for top performing teachers he supports.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday said the executive branch has been able to fund both agencies in the meantime. He said the situation is “fluid,” and he is reluctant to call lawmakers back into special session to deal with the issues until the health threat is minimized.

“Public health must trump everything else,” Reeves said. “… Is it an ideal situation? No. Is it perfect? No. Should the Legislature have left without finishing these things? No. I am confident that working together we can find a solution.”

Reeves added: “I am not going to put them in harm’s way.”

The post ‘It sucks’: Coronavirus outbreak at Capitol leaves state government in limbo appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Crews move Confederate monument at University of Mississippi after years of student activism

Workers move the Confederate statue at the University of Mississippi on Tuesday. (©Bruce Newman)

UNIVERSITY — As the sun rose Tuesday morning, workers began the process of moving the controversial Confederate monument at the University of Mississippi.

The 30-foot monument has greeted visitors at the university’s main entrance as the campus’ most visible ode to the Lost Cause since it was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1906.

Students, faculty, staff and administrators adopted a student-developed plan in 2019 that would move the statue from its central location to a Confederate graveyard in a quieter corner of campus. The politically appointed board of trustees of the Institutions for Higher Learning signed off on the plan last month after several weeks of procedural delays.

Workers began disassembling the statue at dawn Tuesday morning to little fanfare. The date of the move, which university officials had broadly signaled would occur “as quickly as possible,” had not been announced publicly. As a worker began sawing the stone soldier off its pedestal at dawn, there were no bystanders. One university police officer watched from his parked patrol car.

Crews are expected to have completed the statue’s move to the cemetery by the end of the day.

The approved plans to move the statue were met with criticism as sketches of the renovated cemetery leaked. As additional details of the $1.15 million cemetery renovation trickled into the public sphere, students and faculty fumed over the plans.

One proposal, which was shared with IHL board members, called for the university to construct a well-lit brick path to the monument. A new marker and gravestones would also be added to the cemetery to “recognize the men from Lafayette County who served in the Union Army as part of the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War,” the proposal stated. 

Benches would be placed in the cemetery, and cameras would be installed around the cemetery to allow the University Police Department to monitor it.

Anne Twitty, associate professor of history at UM, was a member of the committee that in part was tasked with creating plaques that contextualized vestiges of slavery and the Confederacy around campus.   

“This fantasy that you can go into this resting place and put up headstones when you don’t know exactly who was still there, and when you don’t know where they’re located on that plot — that strikes me as deeply offensive,” Twitty told Mississippi Today last month. “I think what that rendering sort of suggests is a kind of Confederate-palooza that the university wants to establish in its back forty and it just means that they’re replacing one site for Lost Cause nostalgia, which is currently at the entrance to our campus, with another one.”

University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce released a statement in the wake of the criticism, clarifying that the leaked proposal was not the final one and that several aspects of the leaked renderings would not be implemented.

The students who developed the plans to move the monument from the center of campus criticized university leaders for the proposed cemetery renovations, saying in a statement they “strongly oppose any measures that would uplift white supremacist narratives or glorify the Confederacy.” 

“We urge the University of Mississippi administration to refrain from renovations of the cemetery that would amplify ahistorical and racist Confederate narratives,” the students said. “The unanimously passed resolution called for relocating the monument to a less prominent place on campus. We did not co-sign onto a project beautifying the Lost Cause.”
















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