Latest news with #MississippiLegislature
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
ACLU, partners file lawsuit challenging Mississippi's DEI ban
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – A federal lawsuit had been filed against the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL), Mississippi Community College Board, Mississippi State Board of Education, and the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU of Mississippi, Mississippi Center for Justice, Badat Legal and Quinn, Connor, Weaver, Davies & Rouco LLP, the challenges the constitutionality of House Bill 1193 of the 2025 legislative session. With budget approved, Mississippi lawmakers look ahead to 2026 session According to the complaint, House Bill 1193 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution by imposing the state government's preferred views on matters of public concern – like race, gender and sexuality – on students, educators and families across Mississippi and censoring contrary views. The complaint also alleges that some of the provisions of the law are vague and contradictory that students and educators do not know what they can and cannot do at school. 'Members of the Mississippi Legislature may very well be incapable of having productive discussions on race, gender, or our state's history. That doesn't mean our educators and students aren't up to handling difficult conversations,' said Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi. 'The First Amendment protects the right to share ideas, including teachers' and students' right to receive and exchange knowledge. Open and honest dialogue benefits all students and, if given a try, it would benefit the Mississippi Legislature.' 250609_complaint_challenging_ms_dei_law_final_0Download Plaintiffs allege that the law, which was passed to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), would ban teachers and students from discussing slavery, the Civil War, various forms of discrimination in the past and present, the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage and women's rights movements and the LGBTQ rights movement. Plaintiffs asked the federal court in Jackson find various provisions of the law to be unconstitutional in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs and to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the law from being enforced, followed later by a permanent injunction. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press
03-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Opioid settlement plan allows millions to be spent on purposes other than the public health crisis
In the fallout of over 9,000 Mississippians dying of overdoses since 2000, lawyers and lawmakers have set up a plan to distribute the hundreds of millions of dollars from corporations that catalyzed the crisis. But public health advocates and Mississippians closest to the public health catastrophe worry the setup could enable these dollars to be spent on purposes other than ending the overdose epidemic. Mississippi is expected to receive $370 million from pharmaceutical companies that profited while people struggled with addiction. That payout is set to be split between the state and local governments, with 85%, or about $315 million, being controlled by the Legislature. For years after the state attorney general's office helped finalize the first settlements in 2021, it was unclear how the state would distribute its share and how much would be used to prevent the crisis from persisting. State senators and representatives took a major step toward answering these questions earlier this year. They nearly unanimously passed Senate Bill 2767, a law that outlines a general framework for how about $259 million of the funds will be distributed. A 15-person advisory council — made up of representatives for state government agencies, elected officials and law enforcement officials — will develop a grant application process for organizations focused on addressing the opioid addiction crisis. After evaluating the applications and making a list of which grants should be funded, the Legislature will decide whether to approve or deny each of the council's recommendations. The state lawmakers can spend the remaining $56 million they control for any purpose — related or unrelated to addressing addiction. House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who wield massive power over lawmakers and how state funds are spent, did not respond to questions from Mississippi Today about their priorities for the funds. Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford and the bill's lead sponsor, said she and other senators borrowed some ideas from surrounding states to determine how these funds could best prevent more fallout from the opioid crisis. 'It involves everything, from child welfare services to the judicial system to medical care to mental health services,' she said. 'It is a crisis that has affected every aspect of society, and we needed a comprehensive group of people making those recommendations.' However, the bill leaves some questions unanswered, like how the application process will work, when it will open to the public and how grants will be evaluated. Public health advocates and Mississippians impacted by addiction expressed concern about the advisory council's makeup, the $56 million carveout for expenses unrelated to the opioid crisis and the Legislature's final decision-making power. They said those provisions could cause some of the corporate defendants' dollars to be spent on issues other than addressing and preventing overdoses. Jane Clair Tyner, a Hattiesburg resident, lost her 23-year-old son Asa Henderson in 2019 after he struggled for years with substance use disorder. Until last month, through her former job with the Mississippi overdose prevention nonprofit End It For Good, she worked to ensure that fewer parents have to go through the pain her family experienced. She said the only ways these state settlement dollars should be spent are on improving Mississippi public health and keeping people who are at risk of overdosing safe. 'That's what it should go towards, but not to the Legislature,' she said. 'This is not a rainy day slush fund.' An evolving plan It wasn't always the plan for the Legislature to control so much of the settlement dollars. In 2021, when Mississippi and other states were in the midst of negotiating settlements, State Attorney General Lynn Fitch published an agreement between the state and local governments that would send only 15% to the Legislature's general fund. The agreement said that the bulk of the money – 70% – would be sent to the University of Mississippi Medical Center to build a new addiction medicine institute. But Mississippi law says the Legislature is the ultimate decision maker for how this type of state settlement money gets spent, according to Fitch's Chief of Staff Michelle Williams. So lawmakers passed their bill to change the plan. The Legislature changed the arrangement to make sure the money goes to where the state's most pressing addiction needs are, said Boyd. The advisory council, which will be supplemented by at least 22 additional nonvoting members, is a good way to have those needs captured, she said. As for the Legislature having final approval power, Boyd said that and other provisions were put into the bill to keep some power with lawmakers if the council becomes ineffective or political. It's the highest percentage of any state's opioid settlement share that will be controlled by a Legislature, according to the Vital Strategies Overdose Prevention Program and state guides. Dr. Caleb Alexander, an epidemiology professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, served as one of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses for some of the opioid lawsuits. Alexander has also helped U.S. cities and counties develop blueprints for how to use the settlements to quell their opioid crises. He said using the money on a variety of prevention, treatment and recovery strategies, rather than one big project, is likely a better way to save lives and prevent more addiction. But having the Legislature, rather than an apolitical body of addiction experts, play such a large role is not the setup he would suggest. 'I would have some concerns that it may gum things up,' he said. Additionally, Alexander said creating ways for funds to not be used to address the opioid epidemic, as the 2025 bill does, is 'a shame.' While the settlement agreements say that 70% of the funds must be spent on addressing addiction, there is nothing that prevents all the money from being used for the crisis, and most statesare doing that. He said the settlements define a wide variety of uses as addressing the epidemic — from first responder training to medication research and development — and he doesn't see a scenario where it makes sense to spend the money on other uses. 'The costs of abatement far outweigh the available funds for every city or county that I've examined,' he said. Boyd said she believes her colleagues in the House and Senate are all motivated to use this money to address addiction as a mental health condition. She said the new bill categorizes some funds as 'nonabatement' to free them up for ways to address addiction that may not fit neatly into the settlements' list of uses. The attorney general's original plan was the first to categorize a percentage of the funds as not needing to be used to stop the opioid crisis. Williams said it was written that way to match the terms of the national settlement agreements, although the settlement for the largest payout says spending on purposes other than addressing the opioid crisis is 'disfavored by the parties.' She said Fitch would love to see all the funds be spent on addiction response and prevention, like the One Pill Can Kill campaign the office runs. 'But it's the Legislature's prerogative,' she said. 'Where are the people in recovery?' Jason McCarty, the Mississippi Harm Reduction Initiative's former executive director, said he's glad the plan is no longer to send such a large portion of the settlement funds to UMMC. Organizations like the Initiative, he said, also could use additional support to keep Mississippians from dying. And he's concerned that while a peer recovery specialist will serve as a nonvoting member, none of the committee's 15 voting members must be people who've experienced addiction. 'Where are the people in recovery?' he asked. 'We're the subject matter experts.' Boyd said many of the voting committee roles are representatives of state agencies that she expects will help administer the settlement grants, like the Department of Mental Health. And there were only so many people who the Legislature can assign spots. 'It was no slight to anybody,' she said. 'It's just, this is a completely complex issue.' The Mississippi governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the house will each assign two people to the committee, and Boyd said it's possible they will choose people in recovery. The bill says council members need to be appointed by early June. However the process plays out, McCarty hopes all the state's funds go to reputable organizations focused on preventing more opioid-related harm. In Mississippi, he sees a lack of housing and treatment options, especially for new parents, as areas that this money can help address. And as hundreds of Mississippians continue to die from overdoses each year, he said the state government has to move quickly and responsibly to make these funds available. 'We don't have a year to wait. It needs to go out quicker.' ___ This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mississippi joins other states in banning lab-grown meat products
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Lab-grown meat will be prohibited in Mississippi when a bill becomes law this summer. Mississippi is the latest state to ban anyone from making or selling any food products produced from cultured animal cells. Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson released a statement regarding the passage House Bill 1006. I want to express my sincere appreciation to the Mississippi Legislature for enacting House Bill 1006 that prohibits cell-cultured food products in Mississippi. The State of Mississippi joins other states that have taken similar action. So-called 'lab grown meat' products have begun to creep into markets globally and even nationally, presenting a serious concern to consumers and to our agricultural producers. Mississippi consumers deserve to know the beef, poultry and pork purchased and served to their families is real farm-raised meat, not something cultivated in a petri-dish. Unlike the radical globalists pushing artificial man-made 'foods,' I stand with Mississippians who support our farmers and farm-raised meat. We at the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce look forward to enforcing this new law. Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson (R-Miss.) One Mississippi shopper was curious about how much meat will cost when the law goes into effect. 'My concern would be what happens as far as supply and demand. Does this cause the price of meat to go up, because there's less meat available? Because before we were eating a lot of lab-produced meat? That would be my concern to kind of see how this affects it,' said JT Sanders, a shopper. Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) approved House Bill 1006 without his signature, because it unanimously passed the House and the Senate. The law will go into effect on July 1. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
This week in politics: Why was Jimmy Hoffa, Teamsters Union leader, discussed in MS House?
If you know how many times the 'disappearance' of former Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa has been mentioned during debates in the Mississippi Legislature, let somebody know. A bill to restrict union access throughout Mississippi was killed on Wednesday by a motion to reconsider just before the House gaveled out of the 2025 session. The bill was not readdressed, killing it. Before the House adjourned for the year on Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats fiercely debated the legislation, in which several Democrats argued that unions had helped to guarantee labor rights and protections for Mississippians and Americans across the country. At one point Rep. Oscar Denton, D-Vicksburg, asked Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, who presented the bill, who unions ever actually hurt. Yancey quickly shot back, stating that "they still haven't found Jimmy Hoffa." 2025 special session: MS governor considering 'priorities for conservatives' for 2025 special session. Read why Public broadcasting seat denied: Senate votes 'no' on governor staffer's appointment to MPB board. Read why Hoffa, who was the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1957 until 1971, disappeared suddenly in 1975. In 1981, he was officially declared dead. Hoffa had become and still is notorious for his alleged ties to organized crime and for his disappearance. In 2003, years after his death, Frank Sheeran, a man who also had deep alleged ties to the Mafia, admitted to killing Hoffa as part of a book titled "I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa," by Charles Brandt. Mississippi lawmakers on Wednesday killed a piece of legislation aimed at banning most intoxicating hemp products while allowing for the sale and regulation of hemp beverages containing "low" amounts of THC, the psychoactive part of cannabis. The bill had been put through the ringer twice in the Senate, where it first passed by only a slim margin in the first half of the 2025 Legislative Session. However, the bill died by less than a few votes in the Senate early last week. It was held back from death by a motion to reconsider the bill, but Senate lawmakers did not take it back by the time they gaveled out the 2025 session. Hemp ban: Hemp THC ban bill facing challenges in MS Senate. Read why DEI ban update: DEI bans for schools, colleges passed by Mississippi Legislature The situation will leave many of these intoxicating hemp products on Mississippi shelves, mostly in gas stations and convenience stories, for at least another year. Currently no regulations exist to restrict who, regardless of age, can purchase these products. It's probably not common knowledge among average Mississippians, but the first sign that the 2025 session was ending early this year came when tomatoes were placed on the desks of House lawmakers, and on Thursday when they were put on the Senate's. The tradition is a long-standing one in the Mississippi legislature and is often the sign for lawmakers to wrap up the session and go home, if for no other reason, than to plant tomato seedlings before they die on lawmakers' desks. On Thursday, the Legislature ended the session early after budget negotiations stalled and thus stonewalled the final stretch of the session. That work stoppage on the budget came when the House skipped a Saturday working deadline day last week to hash out a budget, citing that it did not want to pass a rushed budget at the last minute without proper vetting, as is done every year. The Senate blasted the House for not showing and then refused to consider suspending the legislature's deadlines to revive more than 100 budget proposals. The House tried to send a suspension resolution to the higher chamber, but after the Senate didn't take it up by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the House adjourned and left the Capitol. The Senate did the same the next morning. As House members and Senators were leaving the Capitol this week, most were seen carrying these little plants, a bit of an odd image of the session coming to a close. Grant McLaughlin covers the Legislature and state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@ or 972-571-2335. This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: State Politics: Jimmy Hoffa discussed during union debate in MS House
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MS House adjourns 2025 Session without budget. How much would special session cost?
The Mississippi Legislature's 2025 session is now effectively over, leaving the state without a $7 billion budget for the coming fiscal year and without a multi-million-dollar local project funding bill. As a result, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who did not reply to requests for comment by press time, will now have the responsibility to bring lawmakers back to Jackson before July 1 and make them hash out $7 billion in state spending to avoid a government shutdown. A special session would cost roughly $100,000 per day, which is just shy of the cost for an out-of-state student to obtain a four-year degree at the University of Mississippi. On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution to suspend the rules of the Legislature and revive about 100 budget proposals that died over the weekend by legislative deadlines. Those deaths were attributed to House lawmakers not showing up on a Saturday workday, typically referred to as conference weekend, to finish budget negotiations between the House and Senate. House Speaker Jason White, R-West, who authored the bill, put into its contents a deadline of 5 p.m. on Wednesday for the Senate to agree to the resolution so that budget and other discussions related to tax cuts and state retirement funding could continue, two hotly debated topics this session. Special session imminent: Cities may not receive funding for special projects from MS Legislature this year. See why The Senate didn't take the bait and gaveled out for the day before ever even discussing the resolution on the Senate floor. The House later kept its word and ended the session. The Senate is scheduled to re-meet Thursday morning. With the House adjourning for the year, business between the two chambers can no longer continue, effectively ending the legislative session. The Senate can, however, continue meeting until April 6 and pass bills already sent over from the House. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said he would send the resolution to a Senate committee for further work but also said Senate and House budget negotiators can just come back next week and restart budget talks while waiting for a special session to be called. "This is not a yo-yo budget," Hosemann told reporters. "This is a $30 billion budget in which they have ignored the deadlines, failed to show up, repeatedly, taken their marbles home at least twice, and given us conflicting statements every other time. So, yeah, our guys are ready to do the budget, I'm going to ask that we start the budget next week, that our chairman get with their chairman, and we start the budget for next week." A special session would give Reeves an enormous amount of power to set an agenda and require lawmakers to work on whatever legislation he wants in addition to the budget. That fact was not lost on White, who told reporters he wanted to workout a budget with Senate leadership before the end of the session on April 6 but did not have an agreement from Hosemann that budget talks would continue. "(Reeves) always said he wouldn't call a special session on any item until there was an agreement, so that we didn't sit up here for days on end, wasting taxpayer money coming in or fussing and punching out," White said. "I suspect he would require that an agreement be in place before we come back. But even if we do have an agreement that's going to take a few days to work through those bills." Hosemann and White's team had been in backroom meetings since Monday trying to find a path forward. While the House was generally in support of suspending the rules of the Legislature to extend the session and revive budget proposals, the Senate was not. The Clarion Ledger polled 20 senators on Saturday, and of them, 15, including members of leadership, said they would not consider extending the session. Also, on Saturday several others, both Republican and Democrat, expressed not wanting to extend the session just so House lawmakers "could take a day off." One of the sticking points of continued disagreements, White said, was whether to have a local projects funding bill, which is typically funded with $100-$400 million in capital expense funds spread for various projects around the state. Early voting: 'Great step for Mississippi.' New voting method passes Legislature. Read how it works Typical projects are for parks, public buildings and rural road projects. White said the House wanted a projects bill and the Senate was leaving municipalities out on a limb without it, but Hosemann and his team would not entertain the idea. Hosemann responded by saying it was not fiscally responsible to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on local projects when the Legislature just passed a net $2 billion tax cut. "If you're articulating that we got to watch our funds because of the tax cut or looming cuts from the feds, then we shouldn't be spending any capex (capital expense) money," White said. "But we can't pick and choose some big projects that look good for folks that might want to run for statewide office and not look to local governments." Earlier in the session, lawmakers passed House Bill 1, which eliminated the income tax over a decade, cuts the sales tax on groceries to 5% and raises the gas tax by 9 cents. The bill also established a new, some call controversial, hybrid set of state retirement plan benefits for future public employees. One issue with the bill is that it contained a tax cut trigger typo that more aligned with a House priority to quickly eliminate the income tax. The House discovered the mistake and went with it anyway, and Reeves later signed it. Several senators said their unwillingness to consider a project bill came from frustration with the House for not sending the tax bill back to the Senate to fix the typo. Hosemann also noted that just in the past few weeks, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal dollars flowing toward state health and education programs had been frozen, further justifying his decision not to have a projects bill this year. Upon adjourning the session, White thanked House staff, members and his own staff for their work in the session. In his goodbye speech White said the house conducted its business fairly and efficiently. Neither Hosemann or White had received word from Reeves' office on when the special session might take place or what items Reeves would put on the agenda. Grant McLaughlin covers the Legislature and state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@ or 972-571-2335. This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Special session incoming as MS House adjourns 2025 Session without budget
