OurTupelo

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at BancorpSouth Arena in Tupelo, Miss., Friday, November 1, 2019.

Lawmakers were stunned to recently learn from Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell that the state has the highest homicide rate in the nation.

Included in the information Tindell presented to legislative leaders last week as part of his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year were statistics detailing that the state’s homicide rate had increased 41% during the past five years and was currently the highest rate in the nation.

“It is expected that there will be over 500 homicides in the state for 2020,” the DPS document read.

“What in the world is going on?” asked House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia.

No doubt, such information conflicts with much of the current political rhetoric from Republicans and President Donald Trump’s constant refrain that most of the crime in the nation is occurring in blue states and cities.

“The places we have trouble were in Democratic-run cities and states,” Trump said during last week’s contentious presidential debate. “I think it is a party issue,” Trump later said, referring to what is a rising crime rate in some areas, though it should be pointed out that the crime rate is still much lower than its peak in the 1990s.

Even Gov. Tate Reeves, who, based on these statistics, governs the most dangerous state in America, is fond of parroting the president on this issue.

In mid-August, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot cited what she said was a steady supply of guns coming from Mississippi, where gun laws are lax. Reeves shot back on social media, saying, “It’s a pathetic excuse for the failure of left-wing experiments in undermining police and letting criminals run free.”

No doubt, Chicago has a crime problem. It is discussed just about every day by the president and his supporters. But Mississippi also has a crime problem and has had one for years.

According to 2018 data from the National Center for Health Statistics, Mississippi led the nation in terms of the number of homicides per 100,000 residents at 13.4. Seven of the top 10 states in 2018 in terms of highest homicide rates were — sorry to President Trump and Gov. Reeves — red states. The top five were Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and New Mexico. New Mexico would be considered the only blue state in that group.

Illinois, home of the notoriously violent Chicago, came in at number 10. Among the 10 with the lowest murder rates, based on the 2018 numbers, are four red states. Oregon, home of Portland, another city often criticized by the president, had the 10th-lowest rate, and New York had the 15th-lowest rate.

Granted, most crime is committed in urban areas where there are denser populations. And most large American cities, though not all, are run by Democrats.

But is it fair to place all the blame for crime on local officials — Democrats or Republicans? Most experts on crime cite poverty, lack of opportunity and various other environmental and social factors for crime problems. Most of those issues require help from the state and federal government to solve.

And according to the National Center for Health Statistics, Mississippi also led the nation in 2018 in the number of gun deaths, and most of the other states at the top of that list were Southern states that generally have the most lax gun laws.

When legislative leaders asked Tindell about the high homicide rate in Mississippi, he cited the breakdown in the family where people “are coming up in a world where the taking of a human live does not mean anything to them.”

Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, asked Tindell if he would ensure that the Department of Public Safety, which includes the state Bureau of Narcotics and Bureau of Investigations, would work with Jackson and Hinds County in an effort to reduce the murder rate and to reduce other violent crimes in the capital city area.

Tindell said his agency would try to expand those efforts.

Jackson, no doubt, the state’s largest city, is responsible for much of that Mississippi murder rate and it is run by Democratic officials. Horhn, who serves on a state Department of Health task force dealing with the issue of violent deaths, said Hinds County is the “epicenter” in the state for murders, while Harrison County on the Coast is the epicenter for suicides.

He argued murder, like suicide, should be considered in many instances a mental health issue.

“It is very difficult,” Horhn said. “There are socioeconomic issues, a lack of opportunity, a lack of resources” that contribute to crime.

Solving the issue might require a little less political rhetoric and more working together across the aisle on the local, state and federal levels.

The post Republicans say blue states have the most crime. Mississippi has the nation’s highest murder rate. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

National Democratic leaders and outside groups are perking up to the possibility of a Mike Espy win and a Senate seat flip in one of the reddest states. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

As the national Democratic Party apparatus pumped manpower and money into U.S. Senate races across the country earlier this cycle, Mississippi candidate Mike Espy lamented his campaign was overlooked and neglected, even as he appeared to gain momentum in his challenge of incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Espy likened his campaign to Mississippi being the unnamed “land mass” in national media hurricane coverage, and said, “They don’t think a Black man in Mississippi can win.”

But all that changed dramatically the past two weeks, as record amounts of money pour into Espy’s campaign in the final stretch before Nov. 3, and the scant polling of the race shows him closing the gap with Hyde-Smith, including a recent one that showed him within just 1 point of the Republican incumbent.

National party leaders and outside groups are perking up to the possibility of a Senate seat flip in one of the reddest states.

“Now the help is coming, and the difference now is, it’s coming in time,” Espy told Mississippi Today this week. “They see it now. Mississippi is just now getting on the radar.”

Espy keeps smashing campaign fundraising records for Democratic statewide candidates. On Thursday alone, he raised more than $700,000. In just the first 48 hours of October, Espy raised $1.35 million, according to a source close to the campaign. For reference, that two-day collection is more than Hyde-Smith had in the bank at the end of June, the most recent report.

James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist to President Bill Clinton, told Mississippi Today that when he told people earlier this cycle that Espy has a shot at winning, “people’s eyes kind of glazed over.”

“But I think there is increasing interest in the Mississippi Senate race,” said Carville, who spends a good deal of time in Mississippi and has a home in Bay St. Louis. “I think the signals traffic has increased … Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee — of all those hard-red states, Mississippi is one of the best chances of turning one blue. People are starting to wake up to it.”

Espy said he had a lengthy phone call with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on Wednesday, and within a couple of hours, “they had me on a national DNC fundraiser conference call, where I spoke to 1,000 people. It was the only race they focused on with the call.”

Espy has financially benefitted from a galvanized Democratic base since the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18. He said this week that his campaign, since Ginsburg’s death, has been averaging about $156,000 a day in donations. That effort was bolstered after Espy’s candidacy was added to a fundraising website entitled Get Mitch or Die Trying, which is run by hosts of Pod Save America, a popular liberal podcast hosted by former Obama administration staffers.

Espy said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee still hasn’t given his race the support it has others, but it appears to be coming around, providing some field, polling and organizational help and giving the maximum direct donation to the campaign of $49,000. Last week, the DSCC organized a phone bank for the campaign.

“The momentum is with Mike’s campaign because Mississippians want an independent leader who will stand up for them, and voters see the clear choice between his leadership and Sen. Hyde-Smith’s failed record,” said DSCC spokeswoman Helen Kalla. “We were proud to be on Team Mike early, and are excited for it to continue to grow.”

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a powerful veteran congressman and Mississippi’s lone Democrat in Washington, said he has pushed for national party help for Espy.

“Just as I did two years ago, I have shared my support with Sen. (Minority Leader) Schumer and others for Mike Espy’s candidacy,” Thompson said. “I made sure that the (Congressional Black Caucus PAC) endorsed him. I think it is just a matter of time, given what the recent polls are saying, that the DSCC will also be more financially supportive than they’ve already been.”

Also last week, Espy received an endorsement from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. And The Lincoln Project, a super PAC formed by Republicans opposed to President Trump, pledged to make a large ad buy in Mississippi to help Espy and oppose Hyde-Smith.

Espy said he’s happy for the recent support, but he hasn’t been waiting on it. He said he’s continued to build his campaign and messaging to voters since his unsuccessful challenge to Hyde-Smith in a 2018 special election. In lieu of the national party helping build a Democratic infrastructure in Mississippi, Espy said, his campaign has.

Espy said the national Democratic Party’s lack of interest in Mississippi in recent years has been self-fulfilling prophecy.

“They’ve been doing it so long because they’ve been doing it so long,” Espy said. “There is less polling here because there is less polling. You’re ignored here until you prove your own viability, but it’s hard to prove your viability if you’re ignored … In Mississippi we have a legacy of disinvestment. If the national party, the DSCC, had been putting in $5 million, or $10 million in off years, we’d have a competitive party now — the best data, an army of door knockers. But the Mike Espy campaign has built it since 2018 because we had no choice.”

Espy said that fundraising for a Democratic campaign in Mississippi without national help is difficult because many of the people the party seeks to represent have little means.

In his 2018 challenge of Hyde-Smith, Espy’s campaign saw an influx of national cash and help, but it came late, during a runoff after Hyde-Smith made comments about a public hanging and voter suppression that garnered national criticism. Espy had raised about $2 million prior, then about $4 million “gushed like water out of a fire hose,” Espy said, and the campaign had to pump it into television advertising “when it should have been put in the field.”

“Now we are getting an influx of money, and we know where to put it, know where it goes down to which precincts and where to knock doors,” Espy said. “We have the knowledge and data we’ve built since the last race.” Espy said his campaign infrastructure was able to help several Democratic Mississippi legislative candidates win last year.

Carville said, “In politics, a week is a year — five weeks is like five years,” and that Espy should have time to put increased money and support to work. “This race might have been on the back-burner nationally, but Mike has been moving forward.”

Newly elected state Democratic Party Chairman Tyree Irving said that from ground level in Mississippi, “Espy has been picking up steam based on the calls I’ve gotten here at party headquarters.” Irving said that anecdotally, he’s seeing growing support for Espy, and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, among women.

“Primarily from white females,” Irving said, “who have an anxiousness about themselves. Trump has spooked a lot of people, and made a lot of folks start asking us what they can do to help.”

Of growing support from women voters, Espy said “it’s more than anecdotal” and his campaign’s internal polling has shown it. He said his platform on improving healthcare, education and economic opportunity is resonating.

Irving said he’s told national Democratic leaders, “Look, there’s an energy here. Mississippi Democrats want to be part of the process, and we hear an urgency in people’s voices … There are a lot of people who believe Trump is still likely to win the state, but firmly believe it is possible to snatch the Senate race away from Republicans.

“There is an energy out there for him. There really is.”

The post Espy finally lands support from national Democrats in Senate race. Is it too late? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

I got up at 4:55 this morning, flipped on my phone and scanned Twitter. There was a tweet that said the President of the United States had tested positive for COVID-19.

Holy crud.

I felt a burning in my gut I haven’t felt since my middle-school principal came on the intercom telling us that President Reagan had been shot. Then I felt numb.

I thought back at the events of this year. If you had told me any of this would happen last year, I’d say you were nuts. I am not a fan of Donald Trump as a president but I do wish him well as a human being. No one deserves to die from COVID-19.

Sadly over 200,000 Americans have done just that.

The virus is real and doesn’t give a damn about politics. May, for the sake of the country, he heal.

The post Marshall Ramsey: 2019 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After nine months in and out of the state Capitol due to the pandemic, the Mississippi Legislature this week shifted some federal COVID-19 relief money to landlords, farmers, hospitals and veterans, then ended the 2020 legislative session Friday.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, left, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann

House Speaker Philip Gunn likened managing the Legislative session — which saw a COVID-19 outbreak that included him and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann getting infected — to “calling an audible at the line of scrimmage.”

“We balanced the budget, basically in the dark, after seeing a one-month loss in state revenue of $240 million,” said Hosemann, who also recounted his personal battle with the coronavirus, which left him so weak he could barely walk at one point. “… We’ve had quite a session.”

After battling with Gov. Tate Reeves over control of the money, the Legislature directed much of the spending of $1.25 billion in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act pandemic relief, including hundreds of millions in grants to small businesses and health care providers.

“We’ll be back in three months to tee it up again,” Gunn said of the 2021 legislative session set to start in January. Lawmakers have already begun the process of setting a roughly $6 billion budget for the coming year.

In its final two days of the session on Thursday and Friday, lawmakers redirected CARES Act money unspent from small business, hospital and other programs to new directives.

These include:

• $20 million to a grant program for landlords who have lost money during a pandemic moratorium on evictions. If landlords accept funds through the program, the back rent for people who avoided eviction must be forgiven. The maximum amount a landlord can receive is $30,000. The grants will be administered by the Mississippi Development Authority.
• $13 million for farmers. The grants, administered by the Department of Agriculture, will be capped at $3,000 per farmer.
• $10 million in grants available to hospitals to improve intensive care units to help them battle the coronavirus.
• $10 million available to state-run nursing homes for veterans to help them with the costs associated with the coronavirus.
• $3.9 million available to 22 specialty hospitals, such as psychiatrist hospitals, for coronavirus-related expenses. The Legislature provided funds to the state’s more traditional hospitals earlier this year for the same purpose.
• $10 million to the Wireless Communication Commission to improve communications among first responders. Legislators said the money will be used to solve problems that developed as patients were transported during the summer when various hospitals were at or near capacity because of the coronavirus.

Federal law mandates the CARES Act funds to states be expended by the end of the year. Funds not applied for and awarded by Dec. 15 will be directed to Mississippi’s Unemployment Trust Fund, which has been depleted because of the recession caused by the pandemic.

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Associated Press

Lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that will help Mississippi renters and landlords who are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More help is coming to Mississippi renters and landlords who are facing economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But federal and state officials will have to prioritize the efficient delivery of these dollars if they want to prevent an eviction avalanche in coming months. Mississippi has spent just a sliver of the rental assistance funding it received over the summer so far.

The Mississippi Legislature passed a bill Thursday evening to divert $20 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds, which had been earmarked for small businesses, to residential and commercial landlords who have lost rent revenue after various eviction moratoriums. Mississippi Development Authority will administer the grants, up to $30,000, and no more than 25% may go to commercial properties.

The Legislature’s appropriation for rental assistance comes nearly seven months after the pandemic began in March, causing Mississippi’s unemployed population to spike from 64,286 to 195,429 people in one month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Separately, Gov. Tate Reeves’ office plans to announce shortly its decision to allocate the entirety of the state’s $38 million Community Development Block Grant from the CARES Act to rental assistance. The recurring federal Community Development Block Grant gives states flexibility to use the funds to expand economic opportunity for low-income communities through infrastructure development, rehabilitation projects and business revitalization.

But for this round, Reeves saw the greatest need among Mississippi’s low-income renters, thousands of whom face large rent debts after months without work due to the pandemic, even if they’ve since returned to their jobs. The assistance also stabilizes landlords, who might be struggling to pay mortgages due to the decline in collections.

“This has been an incredibly difficult time for so many families, and we want to provide some much needed help to get through. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s the right way to use these funds,” Reeves said in a statement to Mississippi Today Thursday evening.

The money will flow through the Mississippi Development Authority to the Mississippi Home Corporation, which already oversees the existing Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program (RAMP).

A little less than a third of the state’s population — 915,000 people — live in Mississippi’s 352,000 renter households. A July study by global advisory firm Stout Risius Ross shows as high as 58% of those households were at risk of eviction. The national figure was about 43%.

READ MORE: More than half of Mississippi renters could face eviction during pandemic without protections from Congress.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a stop to some evictions and residential removals beginning Sept. 4 to the end of the year, but a renter must provide a declaration to their landlord or property manager, certifying that the order applies to them.

Mississippi Home Corporation already began administering $18 million in rental assistance over the summer from a pot of funds called the Emergency Solution Grants (ESG) program at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Also a recurring grant, Emergency Solutions Grants are typically targeted to serve the homeless population and for rapid rehousing, which mean they have stricter regulations and eligibility criteria than other funding sources.

The federal housing authority offered states nearly $3 billion total in additional ESG funding due to COVID-19. Mississippi Home Corporation put the funds in the existing RAMP program, which three continuum of care agencies across the state are administering.

As of Sept. 11, the three organizations had received 2,460 calls for help, approved 404 for the program and obligated $1.01 million to aid those renters. 463 applications were still in process.

“Everyone is working as fast as they can and there are so many I’s to dot and T’s to cross,” said Mississippi Home Corporation Director Scott Spivey.

“A lot of these funds, the way the rules were written, the money is supposed to be spent on rapid rehousing for people who are homeless, not those in danger of getting kicked out of their apartment,” he said. “In a pandemic, you have to be flexible with those rules, but in government, flexibility and regulation do not go together. They’re oil and water.”

Of the 1,046 that were denied, which usually means they did not meet the income limit of earning under 50% of the median income in their local area, 433 qualified for other assistance and 613 did not.

In Jackson, a family of four would have to earn under $35,450 to qualify. The Community Development Block Grant will offer more flexibility with renter eligibility.

Spivey said his agency is already working on an online application for the program, so that when Mississippi Development Authority is finished negotiating the grant with the federal government, they can hit the ground running.

“When they’re ready to go, we’re ready to go, so it can be as fast as possible and reach as many people as possible,” Spivey said.

“People are behind on rent,” he added. “We’re working on programs and working on eligibility, between the governor, the Legislature, MDA, Mississippi Home Corporation, we’re all pulling in the right direction, trying to get people help.”

The city of Jackson also received a COVID-19 Emergency Solutions Grant of $575,228. It gave the entirety of the grant to the Salvation Army, minus administrative costs. Jackson is eligible to apply for an additional $1.4 million, a city spokesperson told Mississippi Today in mid-September.

Mississippians in need of rental assistance should contact the Continuum of Care program covering their region: Central Mississippi Continuum of Care (769-237-1012) covers Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Warren and Copiah counties; Open Doors Homeless Coalition (228-604-2048) covers Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone and George counties and Mississippi United to End Homelessness (601-960-0557) covers the rest of the state.

Read how to invoke the CDC’s eviction moratorium here.

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Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

Voters wait to vote at Byram City Hall during the midterm elections Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

Bills that would allow people to vote early in person to avoid crowed precincts on Election Day during the COVID-19 pandemic are not expected to be considered while the Legislature is in session Thursday and Friday.

These bills are among several filed this year to make voting easier and safer during the pandemic. All those bills — with the exception of one that provided limited early voting opportunities — died after legislative leaders did not support their passing. The continued deaths of these bills come as most states passed robust measures in 2020 to expand early voting and to ensure safety during the pandemic.

Two bills filed this week by Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, and three members of the House would allow no-excuse early voting in circuit clerks offices for people who want to avoid going to what are expected to be crowded precincts on Election Day. The three House members jointly filing the legislation were Reps. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville; Kent McCarty, R-Hattiesburg; and Shanda Yates, D-Jackson.

“This year’s election is incredibly important, and likely to be one of the highest turnout elections in the history of the state. With that said, we are also in the midst of an incredibly dangerous health crisis that is the COVID-19 pandemic,” Owen said. “This bill aims to reduce the number of voters at the precincts on Election Day, stymy the potential spread of the coronavirus, and allow voters the option to vote safely, while keeping the integrity of our election secure.”

But late Thursday, it appeared the bills will not be considered while the Legislature is in session this week. This week is likely the last opportunity lawmakers will have to consider expanding voting opportunities before the Nov. 3 general election.

House Elections Chair Rep. Jim Beckett, R-Bruce, said there does not seem to be enough support to take up such legislation this year. He said there would have to be a consensus from the circuit clerks, election commissioners and legislators. Sources close to Senate leadership said they do not believe there is any interest in that chamber to pass the legislation.

Mississippi has done less to expand early voting or vote-by-mail opportunities during the pandemic than most states. The Brookings Institute, which has tracked states’ actions on mail-in voting during the pandemic, gave Mississippi a D ranking for its 2020 efforts. Lawmakers in 42 states better expanded mail-in voting than Mississippi, according to their scorecard.

Even before the pandemic, Mississippi had some of the most restrictive early voting laws in the nation. Only people who are going to be away from their home area on Election Day, those over the age of 65 and people with disabilities are allowed to vote early either in person or by mail. Unlike Mississippi, a majority of states, even before the pandemic, had no-excuse early voting.

“Mississippi has the strictest requirements for voting absentee in the nation,” said a study published by the National Notary Association. Those eligible to vote by mail must get both the application for a ballot and the ballot itself notarized.

Blount’s Senate proposal filed this week would eliminate the requirement for the documents to be notarized during 2020. He said the notary requirements were particularly troublesome during the pandemic for people with pre-existing conditions who might not want to venture out to vote in person or to find a notary. Plus, during the pandemic, Blount said a notary might be more difficult to find since many banks where people often find notaries are limiting hours or limiting the number of customers in banks.

Interestingly, in both the 2016 and 2017 sessions, the state House passed bills to allow early voting in person for all Mississippians. In each of those years, the bills were killed without being considered by the Senate Elections Committee.

This year, though, in the midst of the pandemic when many people expressed concerns about big crowds on Election Day, there was no effort by the House leadership to again pass early voting bills.

Lawmakers did pass a proposal earlier this year to allow people to vote early in some instances if under a medical quarantine or if taking care of someone under quarantine. Lawsuits have been filed in both state and federal courts to try to expand Mississippi’s early voting laws.

In the state lawsuit, the Mississippi Supreme Court seemed to narrowly define those who would be allowed to vote early.

“Having a pre-existing condition that puts a voter at a higher risk does not automatically create a temporary disability for absentee-voting purposes,” the majority opinion from the state Supreme Court said.

The federal lawsuit is yet to be resolved.

Lawmakers are back in session this week to consider how the state is spending its federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Security Act funds. Lawmakers planned to finish work Friday to shift federal COVID-19 relief money they had allocated in June to small business and other programs to new relief endeavors.

Lawmakers on Thursday evening were working to move at least $69 million that had been earmarked earlier this year for small business grants and health care programs but remains unspent to programs to help landlords who haven’t been able to collect residential or commercial rent during a pandemic freeze on evictions. They are also hoping to provide financial support to hospital ICU operations, farmers – including specific earmarks for poultry and sweet potato growers – and veterans homes.

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