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Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, right, wears his “Trump” mask as he waits while Secretary of State Michael Watson tends to the official duties overseeing the casting of Mississippi’s votes in the electoral college at the state Capitol in Jackson on Dec. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Gov. Tate Reeves and Secretary of State Michael Watson defended the presidential electoral college and questioned the validity of election results in other states Monday morning as Mississippi’s six electoral votes were cast for incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Watson, the state’s chief election officer, referred to the electoral college as “a shining example of the brilliance of our founding fathers” as Mississippi joined the nation’s other states and the District of Columbia in meeting Monday to solidify the results of the Nov. 3 general election in which former Vice President Joe Biden defeated Trump.

Both Reeves and Watson were in attendance Monday as the electors voted in a Capitol committee room known for being the location of a statue of Theodore Bilbo, a former governor and one of the state’s most notorious segregationists.

Under the electoral college process, each state gets the number of electoral votes equaling their two United States senators and their U.S. House members. In Mississippi, like most states, all of its electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the state’s popular vote.

Watson and Reeves both touted the electoral college for ensuring smaller, less populated states like Mississippi have a larger say in the election of president. Detractors say the electoral college is counter-intuitive to democracy since in recent years the candidate who won the popular vote has not often won the presidency.

For instance, the Democrat has won the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections, but the Republican won the electoral college and thus the presidency in two of those elections.

This year, Biden defeated Trump by more than seven million votes, but was on pace Monday to win the same number of electoral votes — 306 — as Trump won in 2016 when he lost the popular vote by almost three million to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“For those individuals around this county who want to change the electoral college because they believe it will benefit them, I argue… they fundamentally misunderstand the principle we live in a republic not a true democracy because our founding fathers recognized the importance of not only the big states, but the small states as well,” Reeves said. Reeves said elimination of the electoral college would “disenfranchise” Mississippi voters.

Reeves and Watson both defended a lawsuit entered into by state Attorney General Lynn Fitch to throw out millions of ballots in four key swing states in an effort to throw the election to Trump. The lawsuit was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the electoral college vote, Reeves cited “a safe and fair election here in Mississippi — not upended by last-minute schemes to radically alter voting methods. Election integrity is vital.”

Reeves and Watson voiced frustration with the judiciary for putting in place election changes to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic that violated the Constitution. But they offered no examples that would have changed the results in any of the swing states that gave the election to Biden.

Mississippi’s vote of the electors — all white males — was uneventful. The six electors, all chosen by the state Republican Party since Trump won Mississippi, were Frank Bordeaux, John Dane III, Francis Lee, Terry Reeves, E. Bruce Martin and Johnny McRight.

Bordeaux is the newly elected chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party. Lee is one of Reeves’ largest individual political contributors. Terry Reeves is the governor’s father.

The governor said it was a testament to the country that his father, who grew up one of 11 children in a two-bedroom home in Lincoln County, could be an elector for the president.

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Sandra Lindsay, left, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, is inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by Dr. Michelle Chester on Dec. 14, 2020, in New York. Lindsay was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, Pool)

Mississippi’s top health officials, including State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, received the first COVID-19 vaccines in the state in a press conference on Monday.

Dobbs, State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers and Director of Health Protection Jim Craig were the first in the state to receive the vaccine.

“Proud and privileged,” Dobbs tweeted on Monday, adding in a press conference that the shot “felt like a butterfly with a little sting.”

First COVID vaccination in MS – proud and privileged pic.twitter.com/wVl4ifJGjN

— thomas dobbs (@TCBPubHealth) December 14, 2020

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COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,648 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 14, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Monday, December 14:

New cases: 1,648| New Deaths: 5

Total Hospitalizations: 1,264

Total cases: 181,095| Total Deaths: 4,204

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 54 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 2

After a record reporting of 2,457 new cases on Wednesday, the current seven-day average of 1,605 is now far past Mississippi’s summer peak. 

During a news conference yesterday, Gov. Tate Reeves denied that Mississippi had hit a new record for case spread, even though the rolling average had already surpassed the previous high of 1,381 in the summer. 

On Wednesday, the state health department issued new guidelines on distancing, recommending that people avoid all social gatherings with people outside of their home or nuclear family.

Mississippi also hit a new high for confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations on both Sunday and Monday, with the rolling average having increased 68% since the start of November. The rolling averages for ICU patients and people on ventilators are up 45% and 88%, respectively, in that time. Total hospitalizations, which includes suspected and confirmed cases, are still below the record set in August. 

Thirteen major hospitals are without ICU capacity, according to this week’s health department numbers. Currently, 86% of the state’s ICU beds are full — including 96% capacity among the highest level COVID-care centers — and COVID-19 patients are filling 30% of those spots.

On the county level, Choctaw (17% increase in the last week), Kemper (15%), Rankin (14%), Jefferson (12%) and Stone (12%) counties saw the sharpest rise in cases this last week. 

The Delta continues to accumulate the most cases per capita out of anywhere in the state. Of the 15 counties with the highest rates, 11 are in the Delta. 

The state health department reported 128,746 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,648 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,500 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 13, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Sunday, December 13:

New cases: 1,500| New Deaths: 19

Total Hospitalizations: 1,264

Total cases: 179,447| Total Deaths: 4,199

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 54 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 2

After a record reporting of 2,457 new cases on Wednesday, the current seven-day average of 1,605 is now far past Mississippi’s summer peak. 

During a news conference yesterday, Gov. Tate Reeves denied that Mississippi had hit a new record for case spread, even though the rolling average had already surpassed the previous high of 1,381 in the summer. 

On Wednesday, the state health department issued new guidelines on distancing, recommending that people avoid all social gatherings with people outside of their home or nuclear family.

Mississippi also hit a new high for confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations on both Sunday and Monday, with the rolling average having increased 68% since the start of November. The rolling averages for ICU patients and people on ventilators are up 45% and 88%, respectively, in that time. Total hospitalizations, which includes suspected and confirmed cases, are still below the record set in August. 

Thirteen major hospitals are without ICU capacity, according to this week’s health department numbers. Currently, 86% of the state’s ICU beds are full — including 96% capacity among the highest level COVID-care centers — and COVID-19 patients are filling 30% of those spots.

On the county level, Choctaw (17% increase in the last week), Kemper (15%), Rankin (14%), Jefferson (12%) and Stone (12%) counties saw the sharpest rise in cases this last week. 

The Delta continues to accumulate the most cases per capita out of anywhere in the state. Of the 15 counties with the highest rates, 11 are in the Delta. 

The state health department reported 128,746 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,500 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi is one of few states to impose a grocery tax. As leaders debate the state’s tax structure, many ask: Is our tax on food fair?

Mississippi is among just 13 states that place a sales tax on groceries.

If Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker Philip Gunn get their way, Mississippi will remain among the minority of states taxing groceries but will become the 10th state that does not tax earned income.

Reeves has proposed that in addition to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic during the upcoming session that the Legislature also pass a bill to phase out the state’s income tax. Gunn has said he supports the effort.

“We have been trying to find ways to develop a more solid, fairer tax structure,” Gunn said recently.

Many believe Mississippi’s 7% tax on groceries, bread, milk and baby food is about as unfair as a tax can be.

No other than the late Alan Nunnelee, as respected in conservative circles as any Mississippi politician in recent years, said as much during his tenure in the Mississippi Senate where he championed the reduction or elimination of the tax on food.

Nunnelee, who died in 2015 while serving in the U.S. House, told the New York Times in 2007 the sales tax on groceries “is just the most cruel tax any government can impose.”

The argument, of course, is that it is much more of a tax burden for a poor person to buy that gallon of milk, loaf of bread or baby formula than it is for a wealthy person. But both the wealthy and poor are going to buy essentially the same gallon of milk or loaf of bread.

Reeves and Gunn believe that eliminating the income tax will spur economic development and, apparently, is also a “fairer” endeavor to undertake.

Of eliminating the income tax, Reeves said, “Right now, the global economy is chaotic. We have the chance to attract investment and high-paying jobs. We need to produce more products here and grow our population. We need to make a bold move to capitalize on the growth possibilities.” That bold move is phasing out the income tax.

Mississippi first enacted a sales tax during the Great Depression when the existing meager income tax was not producing enough revenue to fund state services.

Michael Leachman, vice president of state fiscal policy for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, points out that former Mississippi Gov. Mike Conner, who proposed the sales tax increase, said, “There are today in Mississippi thousands of people who pay no taxes, but who enjoy all the rights and privileges of citizenship. These people will be glad of an opportunity to share in the responsibility of maintaining the government of the state in which they live.”

There has long been the argument that the sales tax is fair because people who own no property to tax or who have no income to tax still will have to pay the sales tax when they buy food.

Leachman argues that Mississippi, which he said enacted the first modern day sales tax, did so at least partly for racial reasons. Even if Mississippi politicians are given a huge benefit of the doubt on the issue of race that history tells us they might not deserve, it is fair to assume that a high percentage of people whom Connor was referencing as paying no taxes were African American. After all, because of the higher levels of poverty among Black residents, they had then and have now less property and income to tax.

Many of the states where the higher sales taxes can be found are in the South. And only three states levy as much sales tax on food as they do on other retail items. Two of those also are southern states — Mississippi and Alabama — with the other being South Dakota.

In the 2000s, the Mississippi Legislature, led by then-Republican Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and by other Republicans, such as Nunnelee, did vote to phase out the sales tax on food. But then-Gov. Haley Barbour, who shared the views of Gunn and Reeves that it would be economically advantageous and fairer to reduce the income tax, vetoed the legislation.

Barbour never got the opportunity to reduce the income tax during his tenure — in large part because of the economic and financial conditions the state faced.

Some question whether Mississippi in 2021 can afford to phase out the income tax, which accounts for about one-third of state general fund revenue, at a time when there are so many other needs.

Another question might be: Which is fairer for Mississippi to cut — the tax on income or on food? The answer to that question depends on who you think should be paying taxes.

The post Some see grocery tax as ‘cruel.’ Others, including top state leaders, believe it is fair. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Country music singer Charley Pride waves to the crowd before signing the National Anthem before a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers, Saturday, April 28, 2019, in Arlington, Texas. Texas won 9-4. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

Mississippian Charley Pride, one of country music’s all-time most beloved performers, died Saturday at age 87 from complications due to COVID-19. Upon hearing the news, I immediately thought back to meeting him more than 37 years ago.

This was the first week of April 1983, which meant that pro golfers and a few big-time celebrities were descending on the Hattiesburg Country Club for the old Magnolia Classic pro-am. Pride, then 45, was holding court with a few sports writers and TV reporters in an old green army tent that served as the tournament’s media headquarters. We were about two minutes into the interview and still laughing at one of Pride’s first answers when a crusty, old south Mississippi sports writer, long since dead, blurted this question: “Charley, can you tell us what it was like playing baseball in the old n—– leagues?”

Silence.

Rick Cleveland

For a split second that seemed so much longer, nobody said anything. Pride’s smile quickly faded to a blank stare. I remember wanting to climb under my chair. I couldn’t imagine how Pride must have felt. Here he was, at the pinnacle of his success, already with 14 gold albums and 21 No. 1 hits. He was the reigning Country Music Entertainer of the Year. And here he was, back in his home state, and he has to hear something like that. I thought the entire interview might end before it really got started.

And then, just like that, Pride managed a smile. And the he turned back on his considerable charm.

“Let me tell you about my baseball…” he began, and off he went, beguiling us with story after story, mostly about baseball.

Who knew? This son of sharecroppers from the Delta town of Sledge who sang so soothingly songs like “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” and “Is Anybody Going to San Antone” also once pitched against the likes of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

“I don’t think Aaron ever got a hit off me, but I never could get Mays out,” Pride said. “He hit me everywhere except the bottom of my foot.”

Pride told us he learned to play baseball in a cow pasture in Sledge, where he grew up picking cotton and then a guitar. At 14, he used the money he saved from picking cotton to buy his first guitar, an old Sears and Roebuck Silvertone. He learned to play quickly and well. At 15, he had his first professional engagement. “A guy from up the road gave me three dollars to come play at his dance,” Pride said. “That was my start.”

But for years, Pride’s musical career played second fiddle to his desire to make a living playing baseball.

“I was a pitcher and an outfielder,” he told us. “I had a hummer, a hook and a change. I had all a pitcher needed until I hurt the old hose. Then I tried a knuckleball. That didn’t work out, but I could always hit. Still can.”

You should know that Pride had come to Hattiesburg from Pompano Beach, Fla., where he had attended baseball spring training, including one game covered by Sports Illustrated. Back then, celebrities were often allowed to take part in spring training games. Pride played and struck out twice in two at bats.

“They wrote Charley Pride hits three ways: right-handed, left-handed and seldom,” Pride said, chuckling. “But they don’t tell you that last year I went one for two against Jim Palmer. I know I can still hit.”

In the mid-1950s, Pride had played for the old Memphis Red Sox. “That was in old Negro American League,” Pride said, glancing at the old sports writer who had chimed in earlier. “I guess they’d call it the Black American League now. Anyway, we used to barnstorm after the season and the best players from our league would play the Willie Mays All-Stars from the Major Leagues.” In those barnstorming days, Pride not only pitched against Aaron and Mays, but also against such established Major League stars as Ernie Banks, Elston Howard and Junior Gilliam.

“I almost beat the Mays All-Stars in 1956 at Albany, Ga.,” Pride answered when asked to name his best baseball memory. “I struck out 12 and had ’em 1-0 in the ninth inning. Then they scored twice and beat me 2-1. I cried.”

Pride quit organized baseball in 1961, but not because of country music. So, why, he was asked?

“It was the opinion of several major league teams that I was too old,” Pride said, seemingly trying to hide a smile. “That wasn’t my opinion, mind you, but that’s what they thought.”

Pride told us the most money he ever made in baseball was $200 a month, plus $2 a day in meal money.

“I do a little better than that now,” he said, eyes twinkling.

He had that right. Pride’s accomplishments included 36 No.1 hit singles, 31 gold albums, four platinum albums and one quadruple platinum album. As an RCA Records recording artist, he ranked second in all-time record sales behind another native Mississippian: Elvis Presley. He never reached his goal of playing Major League baseball, but he did become part owner of the Texas Rangers Major League team. And he sang the national anthem before a World Series game.

Yes, Pride told us, he was often asked about how a Black man from Sledge, Mississippi, could possibly become one the greatest stars of country music, an industry dominated by white artists.

“It was just the music I heard on the radio that I liked,” he told us. “I don’t see anything that unusual about it. Everybody has to grow up somewhere. Just so happens, I grew up in Sledge.”

The post Remembering the great Charley Pride and a most memorable day in Hattiesburg appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 2,665 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 12, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Saturday, December 12:

New cases: 2,665| New Deaths: 56

Total Hospitalizations: 1,267

Total cases: 177,947| Total Deaths: 4,180

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 54 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 2

After a record reporting of 2,457 new cases on Wednesday, the current seven-day average of 1,605 is now far past Mississippi’s summer peak. 

During a news conference yesterday, Gov. Tate Reeves denied that Mississippi had hit a new record for case spread, even though the rolling average had already surpassed the previous high of 1,381 in the summer. 

On Wednesday, the state health department issued new guidelines on distancing, recommending that people avoid all social gatherings with people outside of their home or nuclear family.

Mississippi also hit a new high for confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations on both Sunday and Monday, with the rolling average having increased 68% since the start of November. The rolling averages for ICU patients and people on ventilators are up 45% and 88%, respectively, in that time. Total hospitalizations, which includes suspected and confirmed cases, are still below the record set in August. 

Thirteen major hospitals are without ICU capacity, according to this week’s health department numbers. Currently, 86% of the state’s ICU beds are full — including 96% capacity among the highest level COVID-care centers — and COVID-19 patients are filling 30% of those spots.

On the county level, Choctaw (17% increase in the last week), Kemper (15%), Rankin (14%), Jefferson (12%) and Stone (12%) counties saw the sharpest rise in cases this last week. 

The Delta continues to accumulate the most cases per capita out of anywhere in the state. Of the 15 counties with the highest rates, 11 are in the Delta. 

The state health department reported 128,746 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 2,665 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.