Errol Harmon is the fifth individual charged in connection to a conspiracy to defraud the Mississippi Department of Education through bid rigging, false quotes and fake purchase orders.
Mike Hurst, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi
Cerissa Neal, the former director of the Office of Educator Licensure at the state education department, is accused of conspiring with several others to circumvent the state’s contract procurement process and award contracts to individuals in exchange for kickbacks. U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst brought the charges against Neal and the others in February, but court records were sealed until August.
A request for comment from Hurst’s office was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Neal pleaded not guilty to 12 total counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and bribery.
In the initial indictment, three other Tennessee-based individuals were named as Neal’s co-defendants. In a separate document filed Aug. 25, Harmon was accused of working with Neal, Joseph Kyles, David Hunt and Lambert Martin in the scheme.
Attempts to reach Harmon on Wednesday were not successful.
Neal is accused of splitting contract requests from one contract into smaller contracts to avoid the competitive bidding process. Then, using her position in the department, she would allegedly award the contract to her co-defendants’ businesses at an inflated price, then personally receive a check from the business that won the contract.
Joseph B. Kyles, whose company The Kyles Company was paid more than $650,000 in a three-year period, paid Harmon on numerous occasions in 2014 and 2015. Harmon would then pay Neal soon after, the indictment stated.
Harmon is being charged on one count of conspiracy, one count of bribery and a third count of crossing state lines and using the mail to distribute unlawful funds. His arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 24 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson.
Mississippi’s Secretary of State’s office released the 2020 general election sample ballot on Wednesday.
See what voters will see on Election Day when they head to the polls Nov. 3, 2020. For more information on the candidates and initiatives on the ballot, visit our 2020 Voter Guide.
Since classes began for Mississippi’s eight public universities less than a month ago, there have been a total of at least 896 students, faculty and staff members who have contracted the coronavirus.
College campuses are expected to become the new COVID hotspots, with infections rising as students return to campus and share living spaces and common areas. All public colleges in Mississippi began class on Aug. 17, except the University of Mississippi, which started Aug. 24.
It is difficult to gauge the scale of infections at the state’s public colleges and universities because they are not required to disclose this information to the public and those that do all use different metrics. The Mississippi Department of Health recently started reporting K-12 cases by county, but there is no weekly report yet for the state’s higher education institutions.
All universities except for Alcorn are publishing case count numbers on their websites, though each school is doing it very differently.
For example, the University of Mississippi’s dashboard contains detailed case counts and other trends, but is missing the vital metric of disclosing how many tests have been performed. Without knowing that, it’s impossible to know the positivity rate, which tells how widespread infections are in an area.
Democrat Mike Espy is challenging Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in November. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
A week after the Nov. 3 general election, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on a lawsuit, supported by President Donald Trump, to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
As COVID-19 continues to grip the nation, healthcare costs and accessibility remains one of the top issues for voters, and multiple polls show that most Mississippians consider the issue as their top policy concern.
Incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith hopes the nation’s highest court sides with the president. Former congressman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, her Democratic opponent in the November election, hopes the court does not.
Espy, who lost to Hyde-Smith by about 7 percentage points in a 2018 special election, wants to expand the Affordable Care Act. He said repealing the ACA could place in jeopardy pre-existing condition coverage for 593,000 Mississippians. In addition, about 100,000 Mississippians have health insurance through the ACA Health Insurance Exchange that would presumably be shut down should the Supreme Court rule Obamacare unconstitutional.
Hyde-Smith, on the other hand, wants to replace the ACA.
“Sen. Hyde-Smith believes that common-sense, patient-centered reforms would better help Mississippi families afford health insurance without expanding government’s role in providing healthcare,” said Justin Brasell, a spokesperson for Hyde-Smith. “She believes that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with healthcare that puts patients at the center of their own healthcare, not the government.”
Asked about what would happen to people with pre-existing conditions should the ACA be repealed, Brasell said, “President Trump has repeatedly stated that he will ensure that individuals with pre-existing conditions will continue to be covered regardless of the outcome of the litigation. Sen. Hyde-Smith agrees with the president that ensuring continued protection for these individuals is important, and so does Senate Republican leadership.
“That’s why the Senate’s most recent COVID-19 bill included language to ensure these protections are maintained,” Brasell continued. “It is unfortunate for so many reasons that Democrats have blocked consideration of that bill, but this is definitely one of the worst.”
The proposals made by Senate Republicans to cover pre-existing conditions in absence of the ACA have been met with skepticism by many healthcare advocates. The nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, for instance, points out some Senate GOP plans have prevented the exclusion of pre-existing conditions coverage from insurance policies, but do not provide financial supplements to make the plans affordable.
In short, the insurance companies might be able to charge more for people based on their pre-existing condition and might even allow higher premiums for women than for men, according to the KFF analysis.
Espy has worked to make healthcare a central focus of his campaign. In recent years, he has revealed his own pre-existing condition, a throat virus resulting in his often raspy or hoarse voice and his need for regular shots to combat the condition.
He has spoken of nearly dying from an asthma condition as a youth because the hospital started by his grandfather in Yazoo County — the Afro-American Hospital, the state’s first hospital for Black Mississippians — had run out of oxygen canisters. Espy’s father drove to the then-white hospital in Yazoo City to get oxygen to provide treatment for his son.
“That was 60 years ago,” Espy said in a campaign statement. “Mississippi has made a lot of progress in the past 60 years, yet our healthcare system is still in crisis. Healthcare is not equal. We have failed our rural hospitals and our rural communities because we can’t guarantee affordable and accessible healthcare.
“That’s why my top priority in the Senate is to finally expand Medicaid in states like Mississippi, where health insurance and access to rural healthcare can make the difference between life and death.”
Mississippi is one of just 12 states nationally to not have expanded Medicaid under the ACA to provide coverage for primarily the working poor. The state’s leadership, governor and legislative leaders, have balked at the idea, saying the state cannot afford to provide the Medicaid coverage for 200,000 to 300,000 Mississippians.
Under the Medicaid expansion program, the federal government would pay 90% of the costs, and the state would be responsible for 10%.
Recent polling has indicated a majority of Mississippians now support Medicaid expansion.
A Hyde-Smith campaign spokesman said the decision of whether to expand Medicaid is for the governor and state Legislature to make — not a U.S. senator.
“In fact, the Supreme Court agrees. By a vote of 7-2 in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would be unconstitutional for the federal government to mandate that all states expand Medicaid,” Brasell said. “The Supreme Court recognized that our Constitution is built on the concept of federalism and the balance of power between the states and the federal government.”
If elected, Espy said he will work with state leaders to try to build a coalition to expand Medicaid. He also said he will push on the federal level to try to convert all the costs for the Medicaid expansion to the federal government.
Of course, if the U.S. Supreme court does overturn the ACA, the Medicaid expansion program, now covering most of the United States, would also be halted.
Brasell said the ultimate goal of Democrats is actually to overturn the ACA.
“Democrats want to replace Obamacare with Medicare for All, making private insurance illegal and putting the government in charge of 100% of healthcare in this country,” he said. “This is the last thing Mississippians want or need. Perhaps you could ask Mike Espy where he stands on government-run healthcare.”
Espy, like Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, has touted expanding the ACA, not replacing it with so-called Medicaid for All.
“I am committed to building upon the Affordable Care Act in order to lower health care costs for all Mississippians,” Espy said on his website.
Good Thursday morning everyone! Temperatures are in the low 70s, under clear skies this morning. We will see plenty of sunshine today, with a high near 91. North northeast wind around 5 mph. Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low around 71.
FRIDAY: Sunny, with a high near 92. Northeast wind around 5 mph.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear, with a low around 72. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
SATURDAY: A 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming south southeast around 5 mph.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. East southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
In today’s video, we start to explore the origins of common superstitions. For centuries our reflections have generated thousands of myths and legends. Most of these have been benign, however, some have a more sinister origin. Follow us on this journey and learn the origins of Narcissus.
Color your way through Mississippi with me! Click below to download a coloring sheet of the Temperance Angel Statue in front of the Lee County Courthouse in Tupelo.
A day after visiting students and educators in Holmes County, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tours a classroom at the Edward Hynes Charter School in New Orleans, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018.
State superintendents of education, including Mississippi’s Carey Wright, received a letter last week with a clear message: expect to administer state tests this school year.
Despite the global pandemic and its effects on instruction, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos penned a letter to the heads of state education departments last week telling them not to expect waivers for federally required assessments.
In Mississippi, students’ performance on state assessments impacts districts’ annual accountability grades, which are measured on an A-F scale. State tests are used to measure proficiency and growth for students in 3rd through 8th grade and high school students taking end-of-the-year tests in Algebra I, English II, Biology and U.S. History.
In March, as the novel coronavirus spread in Mississippi, schools were closed and state tests were canceled. School and district accountability scores were rolled over from the previous year.
DeVos opened her Sept. 3 letter by stating school closures in the spring disproportionately impacted the most vulnerable students, and that fact underlines the need for more data on the impact of lost learning time.
“Moving forward, meeting the needs of all students will require tremendous effort,” she wrote. “To be successful, we must use data to guide our decision-making.”
DeVos said that while assessments must be administered this year, the department is “open to discussions about what, if any, actions may be needed to adjust how the results of assessments are used in your state’s school accountability determinations.”
Jason Dean, chair of the State Board of Education, said based on his own beliefs and the opinions he’s heard from around the state, state testing will, and should, proceed this year — barring another shutdown or major event.
“We’ve got to understand the magnitude of the learning loss, if there is any,” resulting from school closures and other effects of COVID-19, Dean told Mississippi Today. “We need to understand where we are compared to two years ago (in the spring of 2019).”
However, said Dean, education officials are open to looking at how assessment scores will impact accountability ratings this year, and a team at the state education department is currently looking at potential ways to address concerns about accountability ratings.
Dean acknowledged many educators are concerned and said a decision regarding accountability ratings won’t be made until closer to the time state assessments are administered — usually in April and May.
The Mississippi Department of Education said in a statement it has no plans at this point to ask the U.S. Department of Education to waive the requirement to administer state tests.
A request for comment from the Mississippi Association for School Superintendents was not immediately returned Thursday.
