FOCUS: Medicaid Expansion • Pauper’s Field Burials • State Legislature • National News • Fact Checks • #MSWelfare/TANF Scandal • Jackson Water • Race & Racism
On Tuesday, 124 years after Ida B. Wells-Barnett first visited the White House to campaign for a federal antilynching law, her efforts finally paid off as her great-granddaughter, Michelle Duster, stood next to President Joe Biden while he signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law.
Local businesses along Farish Street have allowed the Mississippi Museum of Art to install art displays relaying words of wisdom to help guide readers through life lessons.
After a bruising fight between Mississippi’s House and Senate, the Legislature passed a significant income tax-reduction bill on Sunday, doing away with the state’s lower tax bracket and shearing 1% off of the top bracket. The total cut to revenue will amount to $524 million after the plan fully phases in by 2026.
Robert Foster, a former Mississippi House lawmaker who lost a 2019 bid for governor, is using his social-media platform to call for the execution of political foes who support the rights of transgender people.
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn signaled that he will not follow through on threats to make the use of $1.8 billion in federal relief funds dependent on the success of his push to eliminate the state income tax.
ACLU-MS Deputy Director Alicia N. Netterville told the Mississippi Free Press on March 9 that the first version of the 2021 Mississippi House Bill 747 allows convict-leasing, which is akin to slavery. The organization helped guide the language for the final version of the bill that became law.
Medical cannabis is legal in some form throughout much of the United States, but only a handful of states allow its use for the specific mental-related conditions of Alzheimer’s disease, PTSD and anorexia (this, specifically because it stimulates the appetite).
Although the original Postpartum Medicaid extension bill died with a March 9 deadline, Sen. Kevin Blackwell and the Senate still have a few opportunities to send the provisions in the bill back to the House. The Senate can amend bills from the House currently in conference between the two chambers that address the relevant sections of Mississippi Code to include the postpartum extension.
Mississippi lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk today that will raise pay for the average Mississippi teacher by $5,140 this year, with additional future pay raises throughout their careers.
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