Medicaid Train Wreck
The most momentous action so far during the special session wasn't technically on the agenda: Gov. Haley Barbour signed HB 1434 Wednesday, May 26, a "landmark" bill to cut $106 million from the state budget and terminate 65,000 low-income and disabled Mississippians from the Medicaid rolls as of July 1. Of those, 60,000 will be shifted to the federal Medicare program by 2006 (which can see more cuts later), and the medical fates of the other 5,000 are uncertain. They will not be eligible right away for Medicare, nor are they certain to receive prescription drug coverage under Barbour's plan.
[Update] Speaker McCoy: Gov, Senate Move ‘Terrible Thing'
After spending eight days in special session, costing taxpayers a total of $41,162 so far (see below), the Mississippi House of Representatives went home Friday, saying they will return next Tuesday and start over on tort-reform legislation after the Senate and governor ceremoniously rejected their plan, saying it was "flawed" and "halfway tort reform." House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, spoke forcefully on the floor of the House late Thursday afternoon, saying that civil justice reform is "one of the most delicate subjects that exist in American democracy, but, in the end, this House spoke." The Senate should have let the democratic system proceed, he said: "I conferred with the governor and assured him that this House would pass any measure brought by and referred by conferees. ... That was the best we could do. They did not believe that; I regret that very much. They were wrong. ... They made a mistake; they have wasted the people's money."
[Breaking] ‘Tort Reform' Hits Brick Wall
UPDATE, 4 p.m.: After an apparent lunch meeting between Gov. Barbour, Speaker Billy McCoy and Senate President Pro Tem Travis Little, Sen. Charlie Ross, R-Brandon, announced on the floor that the Senate would reject HB 4, the tort-reform bill the House sent to conference committee this morning because they do not believe it will result in damage caps. The House will reconvene at 5 p.m.; the stalemate continues.
‘Philadelphia Coalition' Calls for Justice
The Neshoba Democrat is reporting that a multi-racial coalition of leader, business owners, newspaper editors and citizens in Neshoba County today issued a long-overdue statement, calling for justice for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The group—whites, blacks and Choctaws—also issued an apology on behalf of the citizens of Neshoba County to the families of the three men:
JFP "Cheap Date" Night - May 26
Where: Smith Wills Stadium on Lakeland Drive
Come out to Smith-Wills Stadium for JFP "Cheap Date" Night, for $1 beverages and, if you bring the ad from LAST WEEK's issue—the Howard Stern cover story—you'll get 2-for-1 tickets! If you haven't been out to a game yet this season, this is a perfect day for it. It's cheap, the weather looks perfect and it's a great time to enjoy a good ol' fashioned ballgame! (And if things get dull between innings, you can grab a copy of the new JFP in our rack at the stadium.) The Senators lead their division but have lost two this series against Edinburg—they need a home crowd to rally them to a victory! The Game: Senators v. Edinburg Roadrunners
Leland Speed Touts ‘Creative Class'
A Clarion-Ledger story today about a Leland Speed speech talks about the "Creative Class" concept that we started talking about way back in our preview issue: "Other successes are discussed in The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida, he said. The book says successful locations sold themselves because people sought them first as places to live in, then they searched for a job. That goes against tradition, Speed said."
Face-Off: The Battle for ‘Tort Reform'
When Sen. Gloria Williamson walked up to the podium on the first day of the 2004 Extraordinary Session called by Gov. Haley Barbour, she had one goal. The senator from Neshoba County, a Democrat, wanted to convince the Senate—an assembly of mostly well-to-do Republican men lined up behind Barbour's mission to end "lawsuit abuse"—to do the right thing. She wanted to appeal to the human side of the chamber, to convince them to continue allowing Mississippians who had suffered horrendous disfigurement as a result of a defective product, negligence or an act of malpractice to collect "pain and suffering" damages.
Coalition Calls for ‘Meaningful' Insurance Reform
Gov. Haley Barbour may be getting more than he bargained for in the 2004 Extraordinary Session he called to wrangle the House of Representatives into accepting his versions of tort reform and voter ID. A coalition of legislators, consumer advocates, civil rights organizations and everyday people gathered this morning at the Capitol to call for insurance reform in the state of Mississippi—a first for the Magnolia State. Rep. Jaimie Franks, D-Tupelo, organized the press conference to call for legislation to roll all insurance rates—not just medical malpractice—back to 2001 levels. Franks said that insurance companies saw nearly $30 billion in profits in 2003, and have no intention of lowering rates, whether or not the Legislature gives Barbour his non-economic damage caps—the sticking point in the special session. Franks wants Mississippi to follow the lead of states like California and Missouri, which have regulated insurance companies to ensure that doctors, small businesses and everyday citizens aren't bilked by exploding rates.
[Ladd] Ask the $34,000-A-Day Questions
In January, I wrote an editor's note about the governor that miffed some Democrats around the city. They told me I went too easy on Barbour. I wrote then that although his wink-wink, race-tinged, nationally financed campaign tactics had really turned me off, I still hoped that he really wanted to come in and bridge gaps, not widen chasms. I wrote: "It's up to Barbour. This wasn't our game; the new governor needs to convince me, and other Mississippians, that he deserves the benefit of our doubt. Can he do that? Sure, if he will."
Bush Ratings Fall Steady, Predictable?
In Salon this week, economist James K. Galbraith challenges the conventional notion that the relvelations of torture and prisoner abuse in Iraq have caused Bush's current record dip in the polls. He makes a case that the decline has been steady over some time: "The four-month decline is a bit higher on average than Bush's long-run downward trend. But it is not much higher. It is not enough higher to show that anything exceptional has happened. In particular, February's decline is not significantly greater than normal. And May's decline is within the normal range of 0.6 percent, give or take, around the standard minus 1.6 percent -- the 95 percent confidence interval. This suggests that Abu Ghraib has not had any special effect on public opinion. Not yet, anyway.
Kerry, Nader to Meet Today
AP is reporting: "When Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry meets with independent rival Ralph Nader on Wednesday, Kerry isn't likely to ask him to leave the race. And it's even less likely that Nader will offer to bow out. Kerry probably will point out that the two rivals share a goal - ousting President Bush - and contend that a joint effort is the best way to achieve it, aides to the Massachusetts senator said. Nader told The Associated Press that he looks forward to discussing 'certain common policies' with Kerry. 'I think that's for the good of our country and for the benefit of the American people that are being ignored or repudiated by the Bush regime,' Nader said in an interview.
Stop the Blaming
Reason magazine's Cathy Young provides perspective on the attempt to place 9-11 blame: "With the 9/11 commission holding its hearings, the blame game is in full swing. It's Bush's fault. No, Clinton's. No, it's everyone's fault. No, it's no one's fault. And so it goes. Attorney General John Ashcroft goes before the panel and gets grilled on his lack of attention to terrorism pre-9/11. Ashcroft turns the tables and points the finger at panel member Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, for tying law enforcement's hands with guidelines that made cooperation with intelligence agencies virtually impossible. Whether you think Ashcroft or Gorelick ended up in the hot seat generally depends on which one of them you'd like to see squirm. Everyone, it seems, is being confirmed in what they already know."
Barbour: Of Course, Bush Will Take Mississippi
The Clarion-Ledger reports today: "Mississippi Republicans say President Bush can bank on a solid re-election showing here and in much of the South, but the latest poll shows him in a dead heat with Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry. ... Despite the fallout from the conflict in Iraq and U.S. abuses of Iraqi prisoners, Mississippi's GOP congressmen and Gov. Haley Barbour said they are confident Bush can hold onto the presidency."
Barbour Calls Special Session for Tort Reform, Voter ID
[Verbatim statement] Governor Haley Barbour is standing by his pledge to call lawmakers back to the Capitol since the House of Representatives failed to address lawsuit abuse during their Regular Session. Today he called a Special Session to address tort reform, which will convene at 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 19, 2004. Governor Barbour is also including the voter identification issue in the Special Session agenda. "I would have preferred for comprehensive tort reform to have been achieved during the Regular Session," Governor Barbour said. "Since it was not, this Special Session became necessary." While the Senate has been strongly supportive of tort reform, the House has not been allowed to vote on it.
Bush Approval Ratings at All-Time Low
CBS News is reporting: "President Bush's overall approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, 44 percent, in the latest CBS News poll, reflecting the weight of instability in Iraq on public opinion, despite signs of improvement in the economy. Two weeks ago, 46 percent of Americans approved of the job President Bush was doing. On April 9, his approval rating was 51 percent. American's opinion of Mr. Bush's handling of the economy is also at an all-time low, 34 percent, while 60 percent disapprove, also a high of the Bush presidency. Increasing employment is seemingly not affecting Americans' view of Mr. Bush's economic policy.
[Ladd] Thin Line Between Love and Hate
I was talking to a young woman the other day who is in the family of a Jackson man who toiled and lobbied and prodded and threatened for many years to try to block school de-segregation and then to encourage white families to pull their children out of the public schools. The young woman told me that she admires my work. She has progressive ideas. She likes the JFP.
GOP Blames Soldiers, Dems, Media for Scandal
In an editorial, The New York Times exposes the strategy to protect the White House from prisoner-abuse fall-out: "The administration and its Republican allies appear to have settled on a way to deflect attention from the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib: accuse Democrats and the news media of overreacting, then pile all of the remaining responsibility onto officers in the battlefield, far away from President Bush and his political team. That cynical approach was on display yesterday morning in the second Abu Ghraib hearing in the Senate, a body that finally seemed to be assuming its responsibility for overseeing the executive branch after a year of silently watching the bungled Iraq occupation." [...]
‘We Owe It to Emmett Till'
AP is reporting: "The Justice Department said Monday it is reopening the investigation into the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a black teenager whose death while visiting Mississippi was an early catalyst for the civil rights movement. Till was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., on Aug. 28, 1955. The mutilated body of the 14-year-old from Chicago was found by fishermen three days later in the Tallahatchie River. Pictures of the slaying shocked the world. Two white men charged with murder - Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam - were acquitted by an all-white jury. Both men have since died."
[Ladd] Doing Mama's Business
This column was originally published in 2003. We feature it this week in honor of a very special mama. The first issue of the JFP was published on Sept. 22, 2002, Miss Katie's birthday.
- Best in Sports May 6-12
Pro baseball: Jackson at Coastal Bend, 7 p.m. (1240 AM): The Senators begin their season in Texas. ... College baseball, SWAC Tournament, Houston: In the first round, East champ Mississippi Valley State plays West runnerup Texas Southern at 11 a.m., and East No. 2 Jackson State faces West champ Southern at 2:30 p.m.
Macon, Miss., Contractor Escapes; 11 More Troops Killed
AP is reporting: "In a daring escape, American hostage Thomas Hamill pried open the doors of the house where he was being held late Sunday morning and ran a half-mile to a military convoy that was passing by, officials and his wife said. Insurgents attacked U.S. forces across Iraq, killing 11 Americans.
Black College Women Take Aim at Rappers
AP reports: "Maybe it was the credit card that rap superstar Nelly swiped through a woman's backside in a recent video. Here at Spelman, the most famous black women's college in the country, a feud has erupted over images of women in rap videos, sparking a petition drive and phone campaigns.
GOP Warriors vs. Rap Music
Salon reports: "'We need to understand rap, folks,' Limbaugh told his listeners, in a mocking tone. 'There's a lot of poetry and anger in this. Social energy. It's important. Look, it's one thing to say you like it, but to try to pass this off as something you've intellectually examined and assigned value to? Sorry, senator. Don't stand up for white music -- associate yourself with rap.' (In the edited version of his comments on Limbaugh's Web site, his reference to defending "white music" is deleted.)
America's Pastime: Moneyball
The Oakland A's have turned conventional baseball wisdom into a lie. Many people who work in, report on or follow major league baseball say that the game has changed from an athletic contest into a financial one. The small-market and/or cash-poor teams have no chance to compete against free-spending clubs like the New York Yankees and Mets, Boston Red Sox or Atlanta Braves.
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College baseball, Southern Miss at Tulane, 6:30 p.m.: Need a reason to go to New Orleans? The Golden Eagles begin a three-day CUSA series against Tulane. Baseball and decadence mix well .
Quoteworthy
Tee Martin, who succeeded Peyton Manning as Tennessee's starting quarterback in 1998, with some advice for Micheal Spurlock as he prepares to take over for Eli at Ole Miss next season: "There's only a certain amount of Mannings born, and they are who they are, and you are who you are. Don't give in to the pressure of people saying you're not a great player because you're not a Manning."
‘I'm Going to Get There,' by Lynette Hanson
Telling the story of his first encounter with the record business—other than the normal retail one that many 44-year-olds remember—brings a smile to Greg Preston's blue eyes. "I was about 7 when my dad brought home these two guys from CBS Records in New York," he said. His dad had met them on the plane coming into Atlanta; his mom, always a saint, made them a home-cooked meal, and Preston thought it was cool when, later on, he began to get records from them in the mail. He'd found his calling.
[Ladd] Life in the Fast Lane
Not to be a drama queen here, but hanging out at the Mississippi Legislature can really shatter one's faith in humanity. After doing years of research on harmful youth policies (zero tolerance, adult sentencing, "superpredator" rhetoric, media demonization of youth), I'm already convinced that most people don't give a damn about young people they didn't raise. And too many don't really care enough about the ones they did.
Not Too Hip to Vote
Christopher Hayes writes for Alternet: "[T]his crowd, which formed a line that snaked around Astor place onto Lafayette, was garbed in American Apparel t-shirts, thrift store blazers, and the hyper pointy-toed shoes that are currently standard issue for women south of 14th Street. ...
‘Built This City' Tops Worst Song List
AP reports: "Starship may have built this city on rock and roll, but Blender magazine is tearing it down, naming the band's 'We Built This City' as the worst song ever. Some tunes on the '50 Worst Songs Ever!' list were selected for their melodies, others 'are wretchedly performed' and 'quite a few don't make sense whatsoever,' the magazine said. The list, which appears in the May issue, includes songs by New Kids on the Block, Meat Loaf, The Doors, Lionel Richie, Hammer and The Beach Boys, among others."
Jesse Jackson Seeking Macon Man's Release
AP is reporting: "The Rev. Jesse Jackson will contact religious leaders in Iraq to seek the release of Thomas Hamill, the American civilian truck driver abducted in Iraq, Hamill's wife said Saturday. Kellie Hamill, who has been pleading in the media for her husband's release, said Jackson made the offer last week and she asked him to intervene. 'We talked with him several days ago,' she said in a telephone interview from the couple's home in Macon. U.S. Sen. Trent Lott said Friday at a news conference in Tupelo he had talked with Jackson and helped the longtime civil rights advocate contact the Hamill family.
NAFTA Tribunals Stir U.S., Mississippi Worries
More NAFTA woes ... New York Times reports today: "Any Canadian or Mexican business that contends it has been treated unjustly by the American judicial system can file a similar claim. American businesses with similar complaints about Canadian or Mexican court judgments can do the same. Under the Nafta agreement the government whose court system is challenged is responsible for awards by the tribunals. 'This is the biggest threat to United States judicial independence that no one has heard of and even fewer people understand,' said John D. Echeverria, a law professor at Georgetown University.
State GOP Twists Kerry Out of Context
Linked to the top of the conservative Magnolia Report right now is a press release the Mississippi GOP put out April 15 to explain "why John Kerry is wrong for Mississippi." Beyond focusing on emotional wedge issues (that "reflect the values and ideals of folks down here") that don't actually affect most Mississippians' everyday lives ("partial-birth" abortion, death penalty for drug-related murders) rather than issues that do (jobs, public education), the GOP twisted John Kerry right out of context to apparently prove that he's some Yankee who doesn't give a damn about southerners.
Who's Scaring Whom?
April 14, 2004 -- This is a weird press release from Gov. Barbour's folks, blaming school administrators, who are facing funding cuts thanks to the governor and the Senate, for "scaring" teachers. Who's scaring whom here?
Bush: Drop ‘Political Posture'
The New York Times editorializes today: "No reasonable American blames Mr. Bush for the terrorist attacks, but that's a long way from thinking there was no other conceivable action he could have taken to prevent them. He could, for instance, have left his vacation in Texas after receiving that briefing memo entitled 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' and rushed back to the White House, assembled all his top advisers and demanded to know what, in particular, was being done to screen airline passengers to make sure people who fit the airlines' threat profiles were being prevented from boarding American planes. Even that sort of prescient response would probably have been too little to head off the disaster. But those what-if questions should haunt the president as they haunt the nation. In all probability, they do and it is only the demands of his re-election campaign that are guiding Mr. Bush's public stance of utter, uncomplicated self-righteousness.
Business Students Shifting Focus
"Corporate responsibility" is becoming the mantra at many business schools, AP reports: "As the stereotype goes, business students are supposed to be single-minded in their career goals: making money, more money and still more money. But don't tell that to Daron Horwitz, who spent his spring break in Iraq - visiting schools that will be helped by a nonprofit group he and a small group of students formed at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Student Trades Rock Posters for Food
Wiretap reports: "'If I give food to the hungry, they call me a saint,' Brazilian Bishop Dom Helder Camera once famously quipped. 'But if I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist.' Colorado-based food gatherer Justin Baker will tell you he isn't really interested in being either one. Rather, the 24-year-old honcho of Conscious Alliance is more into swapping one kind of hunger for another -- the appetite for music and art, and the desperate craving for, well, food. But the carte du jour of this non-profit is definitely more Chef Boyardee than escargot.
Sex and the Single Voter
"Single women are the hot, must-have demo for the 2004 presidential race. But will they put out this November?" Rebecca Traister explores this burning question in Salon.
AP Poll: Bush 45%, Kerry 44%, Nader 6%
AP reports today: "Bush was backed by 45 percent of voters and Kerry by 44 percent in the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs. Independent candidate Ralph Nader had 6 percent support. The numbers are essentially unchanged from AP-Ipsos polls taken in early and mid-March."
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College baseball, Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss at Smith-Wills Stadium, 6:30 p.m. (620 AM and 97.3 FM): Expect a packed house for the latest edition of the Mayor's Trophy Game.
Clarion-Ledger Acknowledges Crime Drop
C-L editorial today: "Jackson's 30 percent drop in overall crime the first quarter of this year is an encouraging sign that with persistence by the police and public the decline could turn into a trend. All but aggravated assault (up 14 percent), among major crimes, showed a decrease from the same first three months last year, Jackson Police Department figures show. Could this be a trend? Police figures show 17,144 major crimes were reported in 2003, a 3 percent drop from 2002 and the lowest since before 1988. So, if the rest of 2004 continues at this rate, it will show substantial progress."
Black-White Disparities Still Severe
AP reports: "Black Americans are less likely than white Americans to own homes, don't earn as much as whites, don't live as long, and don't do as well in school, according to a report by the National Urban League. The report, released on March 24, is a collection of survey data and essays by experts in race, social justice, health, psychology and civil rights. The most conspicuous differences it found were in the areas of home ownership and economic parity, with black earning power about 73 percent that of whites. 'The wealth gap is significant,' Urban League President Marc Morial said in an interview."
Nina Parikh
Nina Flaminiano Parikh isn't the sort of name you'd expect for the associate manager of the Mississippi Film Office, but that's what the 30-year-old answers to (even after April 10 when she says will also be honored to be called Mrs. Jerel Levanway). That exotic name fits her to a T. Her looks—her dad is Indian, and her mom is Filipino—might convince you she belongs in front of the camera, though.
That Old-Time ‘Southern Strategy'
Jack Bass writes for Salon: "The recent recess appointments by President George W. Bush of two controversial Deep South Republicans to federal courts of appeals indicates that the Republican 'Southern strategy' remains alive and well. Much of the Democratic opposition in the Senate to confirming Charles W. Pickering of Mississippi and William H. Pryor of Alabama focused on matters suggesting insensitivity to civil rights issues. Opponents cited the records of both men that included criticism of or efforts to limit important remedies or provisions of the Voting Rights Act."
Medicare In Trouble, Thanks to Health Costs and New Medicare Law
Let me guess: federal tort reform is the cure-all? NY Times reports: "Medicare's financial condition has significantly deteriorated, partly because of exploding health costs and partly because of the new Medicare law, the government reported on Tuesday. In its annual report to Congress, the Medicare board of trustees said the program's hospital insurance trust fund could run out of money before the end of the next decade. The trustees have made such projections in the past, but this one was much bleaker than the outlook reported just last year.