FOCUS: #MSWelfare/TANF Scandal • Jackson Water • Abortion • Race & Racism • Policing • Incarceration • Housing & Evictions
Two wealthy Mississippi political donors “conspired” to “fraudulently” obtain more than $2 million in public education funds and used it to pay for teachers’ salaries at their private school in Jackson, federal prosecutors allege.
The City of Jackson may receive federal assistance for its ongoing water crisis after U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith introduced a three-pronged relief bill on Tuesday.
All Mississippians aged 16 or older are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine starting the morning of March 16. The expansion in eligibility comes well ahead
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves says he still opposes expanding Medicaid in Mississippi even though the federal government is offering to give the state an extra $600 million to do so over a two-year period.
Members of the Mississippi clergy invoked the tradition of solidarity and acknowledged the still-unfinished work when they hosted a press conference in conjunction with Working Together Mississippi to unveil a letter expressing their discontent with the Mississippi Legislature’s seven-year inaction regarding Medicaid expansion. The letter also endorses the Mississippi Cares plan, a version of Medicaid reform initiated by the Mississippi Hospital Association that is intended to provide health-care coverage for working-class Mississippians who currently fall into the “gap” between traditional Medicaid coverage and private health-care plans.
Mississippi’s Department of Archives and History’s board will continue to pick its own appointees, with Senate approval, after the Mississippi House rejected a bill that would have turned power to select board members over to the governor and lieutenant governor.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba and Lt. Gov Delbert Hosemann met today at the Capitol for a “respectful conversation,” in the mayor’s words, to discuss a concrete plan to address Jackson’s short-term water-system needs. The meeting was a preface to the much more complex discussion of how to permanently address the city’s aging water infrastructure.
Mississippi Critterz board member Janice Antonow announced that Oxford’s animal shelter will be closing temporarily after months of rumors, leaks, and photos circulating of sick animals in unhygienic and crowded conditions. “We don’t have specific plans right now for the shelter,” Antonow said March 8. “I do know we’re going to close down, at least temporarily.”
Incarcerated pregnant women and mothers of minor children will gain new protections under Mississippi law after the state senators, like their House colleagues, unanimously passed House Bill 196, “The Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act,” on Thursday.
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