FOCUS: 2022 Elections • Housing & Evictions • #MSWelfare Scandal • Jackson Water • Abortion • Race & Racism • Policing • Incarceration
If Americans take full advantage of the Biden-Harris climate plan for clean-energy investment, our country can embrace a clean electricity standard and begin to advance environmental justice and infrastructure stability in Black and Brown neighborhoods, one charging station and electric vehicle at a time.
Pipes froze and burst all over the city starting Feb. 15. We got hit with another set of freezing temps on Feb. 17. The crisis escalated quickly. Most of Jackson either lost water pressure or had no water at all for days. The City issued a boil-water notice on Feb. 18. That notice lasted until March 10. Jackson had no drinkable water for 24 days. Read that again. The capital city in a first-world country had no drinking water for 24 days.
Providing yet another tax break for the state’s wealthiest—particularly during a global health crisis and economic recession—should not be a policy priority of state lawmakers. Nonetheless, state lawmakers are still considering eliminating the state individual income tax. State lawmakers’ top priority right now should be all Mississippi residents, particularly those facing hardship.
House Bill 1439, authored by Speaker Phillip Gunn, purports to eliminate the income tax and stimulate the economy. Still, it dramatically increases taxes in at least 28 other areas, including agricultural equipment, automobile sales, manufacturing machinery and a sizable across-the-board sales tax increase on all items.
When it comes to voting, there is no denying a simple fact about Mississippi: our state has refused to eliminate antiquated laws that disproportionately silence Black and young voters. In drafting the state’s constitution in 1890, white lawmakers with mal intent sought to limit the voting power of Black Freedmen by permanently disenfranchising those convicted of a specific set of felony offenses. Black Mississippians are still disproportionately harmed by these measures.
Today’s Americans have significant advantages over those of a century ago. We have a much better understanding of virology and epidemiology. We know that social distancing and masking work to help save lives. Most critically, we have multiple safe and effective vaccines that are being deployed, with the pace of vaccinations increasingly weekly.
Over the past year, attacks on Asian Americans have increased more than 150% over the previous year, including the March 16 murders of eight people, including six Asian American women, in Atlanta. Some of these attacks may be classified as hate crimes. But whether they meet that legal definition or not, they all fit a long history of viewing Asian Americans in particular ways that make discrimination and violence against them more likely.
You tell us in no uncertain terms that you want real truth-to-power journalism in Mississippi fully focused on solutions over political gamesmanship. We hear you. We’re on it, Mississippi Free Press editor and co-founder Donna Ladd writes as both MFP and the pandemic turn a year old in the state.
During this last week, the clergy have been engaging their congregants and have launched an email and call blitz to legislative leadership and legislators. Working Together Mississippi is also currently conducting a Civic Academy Campaign where more than 1,000 leaders will be trained on the critical issues of personal, communal and economic health that are at stake in the current health-care debate.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).