FOCUS: #MSWelfare/TANF Scandal • Jackson Water • Abortion • Race & Racism • Policing • Incarceration • Housing & Evictions
At least 5,000 more babies will be born in Mississippi each year than in the past now that abortion is almost completely outlawed and the Magnolia State is not prepared to handle it, officials say. Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney shared that estimate with members of the Mississippi Senate.
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn says abortion should be illegal even for a 12-year-old rape victim carrying her father or uncle’s child.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed an income-tax cut into law that will eliminate $524 million from state revenues.
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.
“The clock is ticking” on spending federal funds that would provide Mississippi with economic relief, alleviate hospital shortages and repair ailing infrastructure and more, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann warned in an MFP Voices piece today.
For the second year in a row, Mississippi House leadership has once again killed an extension of postpartum Medicaid benefits, likely guaranteeing that many low-income people will lose health insurance benefits only two months after giving birth.
Mississippi Power executives and political backers and lobbyists pushed a huge moonshot of an idea back in 2006 to turn low-grade lignite into “clean coal” to provide electricity from its Kemper County plant in east Mississippi. They also used new legislation to force ratepayers to fund the experiment in advance—funds they later had to repay before imploding part of the facility on Oct. 9, 2021, 15 years after hatching the plan.
The Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act bans Mississippi prisons from shackling pregnant women and expands visitation rights for minor children.
LGBTQ rights advocates say that Gov. Tate Reeves put transgender teen and young adult lives “in danger” today by signing Senate Bill 2536, “The Mississippi Fairness Act,” banning transgender students at public schools and colleges from participating in sports teams that match their gender.
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