Jackson Free Press

Community leaders will hold a press conference at the Mississippi State Capitol next week to call on Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant to issue an apology to Mississippians during “Racial Reconciliation Month”.

They are asking Gov. Bryant to apologize for his refusal to back the removal of the Confederate symbol from the Mississippi flag, and for his declaration of the month of April as "Confederate Heritage Month," a press release says.

Duvalier Malone, a Mississippi native, who was a part of the Take It Down America movement, which culminated in a rally in Washington, DC to bring awareness to the Mississippi state flag, is helping to organize the press conference next Thursday, October 13 at the Capitol at 11 a.m.

In order for any reconciliation to take place, the Governor and the state of Mississippi must first join the rest of America in the denunciation of the Confederate emblem, and all that it stands for, Malone said in a press release. Malone has spoken on how hate crimes link the Confederate symbol to the swastika, the emblem of Nazi Germany.

“It's time for us to recognize that although the Confederate symbol and the Nazi symbol originate from different countries," he said in a press release. "They are equals in terms of hate, intolerance and bigotry.”

Stacey Pickering, the incumbent Republican candidate for auditor, is targeting his opponent, Joce Pritchett, for being an "LGBT Candidate" in his campaign's automated calls.

One robocall that ran before the primary states:

"The liberal left-wing media has their own agenda in the state auditor's race...They want to see their LGBT candidate for auditor, Jocelyn Pepper Pritchett, have a chance in the general election. They know they can't defeat Pickering, but they know they can defeat Mary Hawkins-Butler...Let's stand up for Mississippi values; let's stand up for Mississippi's Conservative leadership. Let's stand up for the traditional Mississippi family."

Pritchett's campaign has responded to the call on their website saying, "This type of message is unacceptable in the 21st century. The Republicans know they can't attack Joce's qualifications, so they have to attack her orientation and her family. We can't let this happen."

On deadline day, both the House and the Senate passed their respective versions of "dummy" education funding formula bills out of committee that bring up code sections regarding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The bills mark both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves' commitment to at least looking at some of EdBuild's education funding recommendations, which were released two weeks ago in an 80-page report.

EdBuild's main recommendation is for the state to transition to a weighted student formula, which would work in a very different way than MAEP does now. Weights are attached to certain characteristics of students like special education, English language learners or "low-income" students to name a few. Weighted formulas give money based on those weights and the student populations they affect, so in theory, the district with the highest number of highest weighted student populations could have the most to gain--or not. How much weight each of those and other measures will get in the Legislature's proposed new formula is still unclear, and experts say that the weights are the political part of any weighted formula.

The dummy bills that came out of both committees today give no indications of what sort of weights the top lawmakers are considering or what total dollar amount lawmakers are working with to determine funding for the new formula or fiscal-year 2018, which begins July 1.

It's possible that specifics on any plans to re-vamp the formula won't be out until conference committee time, right before session ends. It's also possible that lawmakers will only address certain parts of EdBuild's recommendations. Both Rep. John Read, R-Gautier, and Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, mentioned the transparency measures from EdBuild's report, which would require school districts to track and report how they spend their funds in new ways.

There are a lot of questions up in the air, and the answers are few and far between. What's for certain is that the formula is certainly still up for debate and potential changes this session, but to what extent changes will be made depends on top lawmakers' decisions in the next 60 days.

Run-offs are old-school anyway, right?

The fate of District 79's representation in the House of Representatives will be decided on Friday by drawing straws, according to Mississippi election law. Rep. Bo Eaton, D-Taylorsville, has represented the district since 1996, but in this election he pulled in the exact same number of votes as his Republican challenger, Mark Tullos.

The two candidates tied with 4,589 votes each.

In a press release, Rep. Eaton said he will not challenge the result of Friday's straws. Technically, the loser on Friday has the right to challenge the vote and appeal to the House of Representatives, which would then decide who gets to take District 79's seat when they reconvene.

Eaton's press release said: "Whatever the outcome of the procedure, I will abide by the result and not challenge the election. I hope my opponent will agree to do the same thing."

The District 79 race straws will be drawn on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the governor's office conference room in the Sillers Building when the governor and the secretary of state return from Israel.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled Lauren Czekala-Chatham's divorce legal in concurrence with the ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage in June. Czekala-Chatham filed for divorce from her estranged wife in 2013 in Mississippi, and has been waiting for an order from the Mississippi Supreme Court since July when both the state and Czekala-Chatham's lawyer filed entry motions for judgment in the case following the Obergefell decision.

After a four-month silence, the Mississippi Supreme Court has finally ruled, but not without pontificating. Five of the Mississippi Supreme Court justices signed the order in support of granting Czekala-Chatham a divorce. Chief Justice William Waller and Justices Michael Randolph, Ann Lamar, Randy Pierce and David Chandler ordered a short entry of judgment in Czekala-Chatham's favor, reversing the previous DeSoto County Court ruling that said Czekala-Chatham could not get a divorce. Justice Pierce wrote a separate statement in support of the court's order.

Four justices objected to the order, however. Justices Jess Dickinson, Josiah Coleman and Leslie King, however, in three separate written statements, objected to the order, and Justice James Kitchens joined Justice King's statement. The 36-page order and statements are available here.

Czekala-Chatham released the following statement after the court's ruling:

"I'm happy this battle has been won. But the war on discrimination is still on going. I continue to struggle with the negative consequences that being in the public's eye has caused. I will soon be divorce (sic) from my former spouse. And realize there are still road blocks when testing discrimination laws. So much still needs to be addressed. This fight has damaged my life in ways I can't recovered (sic) from. Searching for employment for 18 months has put a mental and a financial strain on me. Any potential employer can google my name and I'm dropped as a potential candidate. You can win the battle but the war on discrimination is very much real."

A report in the Olivia Y case, filed on Jan. 6, found that an infant died within five days after entering the state's foster care system. The report found that the state had not inspected the home where the baby died before the baby was placed there. Judith Meltzer, from the Center for Study of Social Policy, found that the baby's death was a result of poor documentation and failure to "properly collect and document information significant to the licensing process" and "record information in the case record."

Mississippi's foster care system has actually gotten worst, the report found. Only 2 percent of children entering the foster care system received a health exam within 30 days, and 2 percent of foster parents received all the relevant medical information on a foster child within 15 days of placement.

The Olivia Y case has been ongoing since 2004, since the state was sued by A Better Childhood, a national nonprofit advocacy organization, on the state's foster care children's behalf. On Dec. 22, 2015 the federal court issued an order requiring that the state create the Division of Family and Children's Services--separate from the Department of Human Services. Gov. Phil Bryant selected former Mississippi Supreme Court Judge David Chandler to be the executive director of the new division on Dec. 29, 2015.

The court order also requires increased compensation and technology for caseworkers as well as an increase in foster homes in the state. Executive director of A Better Childhood, Marcia Robinson Lowry said there are far too few foster homes and workers in the state, in a press release. "The facts could not be more clear," she said in the release. "The foster care system in Mississippi is well beyond crisis."

Gov. Phil Bryant has filled both Mississippi Supreme Court vacancies, following the departure of Justices Randy Pierce and David Chandler. Former District 1 Court of Appeals Judge James Maxwell and tenth district chancellor Dawn Beam will join the state's highest court in the new year.

Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. said in statement that Judge Maxwell's "energy and experience will serve the court and the citizens of the state well.” Waller expressed enthusiasm at Beam's arrival to the court. In a statement, he said Judge Beam has continued to go above standards in helping her court's district convert to an all electronic filing system. Beyond clerical duties, Waller said Beam "has tirelessly worked to resolve issues regarding placement and supervision of abused and neglected children.”

Judge Beam has been involved with her district's work to guarantee safe homes for all children and recently spoke at a community meeting in December praising the local Department of Human Services workers in Marion County for the changes they've made in their office--including upping personnel numbers. The increased personnel led to 160 children being removed from their homes due to court orders that cited deplorable living conditions or drug abuse at home.

Judge Maxwell was appointed to the district court by former Gov. Haley Barbour in 2009 and re-elected in 2014. He practiced civil law in Jackson and worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the northern district of Mississippi.

Gov. Phil Bryant announced his fourth budget cut to the current fiscal-year budget this afternoon. He will cut over $20 million from the state's budget, meaning a less than half percent cut for each state agency. He also pulled $39 million from the state's rainy day fund to plug budget holes, a letter to the state's fiscal officer Laura Jackson shows.

Gov. Bryant announced the news on his Facebook page today, shortly after the Joint Legislative Budget Committee met to adjust their revenue estimates, decreasing anticipated revenue projections for the upcoming budget year, which must be finalized by Saturday night and starts July 1.

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves told reporters after the meeting that revenue estimate change will make the budgeting process "even more challenging." Lawmakers will have to cut $174.6 million from the already reduced legislative budget office's proposed budget for fiscal-year 2018.

The state now has $240 million in its rainy day fund, which the governor has drawn from three times already this year as well as cutting agency budgets to keep the state's budget balanced in spite of lagging revenues.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed the Google lawsuit against Attorney General Jim Hood.

The 5th Circuit struck down a lower court's injunction that prevented Attorney General Jim Hood from enforcing the administrative subpoena or bringing any civil or criminal action against Google “for making accessible third-party content to internet users.” The 5th Circuit said that Google's case against Hood should be remanded to the lower court and dismissed as well as the preliminary injunction removed.

The Court did not rule on the merits of Hood's subpoena, which sought "sought information on Google’s platforms, advertising practices, and knowledge of and efforts to police 'dangerous' or 'illegal' content such as prescription or illicit drug sales, drug abuse, credit card leaks, fraudulent identification documents, human trafficking, and copyright infringement."

AG Hood will hold a press conference today at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the lawsuit.

A U.S. District Judge ruled Mississippi's adoption ban for same-sex couples unconstitutional today. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan released an order in the Campaign for Southern Equality v. Mississippi Department of Human Services preliminary enjoining MDHS from enforcing Mississippi's same-sex adoption ban.

Jordan dismissed the complaints against the governor and the attorney general in the case, but said that MDHS is involved in the adoption process and therefore responsible for enforcing Mississippi's ban on same-sex couples adopting in the state. Jordan ruled that the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause and ruled that the executive director of MDHS is not allowed to enforce the adoption ban, as of today.

Read the whole order here. Read more about the CSE v. MDHS case here.

The Mississippi House of Representatives voted to add domestic abuse as grounds for divorce this afternoon when Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, brought out an amendment to Senate Bill 2680, which clarifies that abused and neglected children can be placed with their relatives when they are removed from their homes.

Gipson's amendment clarifies that "cruel and inhuman treatment" in the state's grounds for divorce law includes both physical and non-physical abusive conduct as a ground for divorce. The amendment thoroughly defines both types of conduct as well as outlines standards of proof that a spouse would need to make.

The amendment would allow the injured spouse's testimony to meet the burden of proof to divorce their partner. The House passed Senate Bill 2680 with the new amendments unanimously. Now the Senate will have to concur with those amendments or invite conference on the bill to keep it alive.

Last week, lawmakers and citizens alike criticized Rep. Gipson for killing Sen. Sally Doty's, R-Brookhaven, bill to clarify that domestic abuse could be grounds for divorce. Gipson initially said that domestic abuse was already included in the state's divorce grounds that says "habitual cruel and inhuman treatment" is a ground for divorce. Days after killing the bill, Gipson announced on Facebook and Twitter that he was working with the Center for Violence Prevention to come up with the "House plan for this issue." Today, before bringing up the new amendment for a vote, Rep. Gipson introduced representatives from the Center for Violence Prevention to the House.

The Rankin County School District is under fire for one teacher's disparaging comments against atheism. The American Humanist Association's legal center sent the district a letter on Tuesday detailing a complaint from a student and her parent that said the student's history teacher, who is also a pastor at a Baptist Church, has made several jabs at atheism in comments made in class throughout the year.

Northwest Rankin High School, where this history teacher teaches, has had trouble with the First Amendment before. A few months ago, the district came to a settlement with a former student who sued and won after she was forced to attend a blatantly Christian assembly during school hours.

The letter is not a lawsuit, but it asks the district to comply with the Establishment Clause and provide written notices to all faculty reminding them to not make remarks "promoting religion and disparaging atheism." The American Humanist Association has asked for a response from the district within a week. The seven-page letter details parts of the Constitution and legal history that could be argued to prove the teacher's comments unconstitutional.

Monica Miller, an attorney at the association's legal center wrote, "Good faith is not a defense to contempt and you are court-ordered to ensure that your employees are complying with the Consent Decree and Establishment Clause."

The American Humanist Association provided counsel to Magdalene Bedi, the Northwest Rankin High School student who sued and won after being forced to attend a Christian assembly in 2013. The district must pay damages to Bedi for additional violations since they violated two consent decrees after she filed her original lawsuit.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann has announced several revisions to Mississippi election laws that will bring our code up to date with current elections procedures and technology. Some of the changes include tightening down campaign finance disclosure laws for political committees and moving Mississippi's presidential primary vote day to the first Tuesday in March. See full list of changes reproduced below from the Secretary of State's press release:

• Modernized Criminal Penalties: consolidates all election crimes in Chapter 13, Title 97 of the Mississippi Code; updates penalties to match fines and sentences applied to other felonies and misdemeanors

• Online Voter Registration: modernizes and streamlines Mississippi's voter registration system; brings Mississippi in line with over half the United States which allow for online registration; will allow US citizens who are Mississippi residents who possess a Mississippi driver's license or DPS issued identification card to register electronically; will help eliminate errors and reduce costs of paper registrations

• Pre-Election Day Voting: creates a 21 day no excuse voting period for citizens to cast their ballot before election day; voting will be conducted only at the County Courthouse during the pre-election voting period; any registered voter may cast a final vote during the pre-election voting period; eliminates the need for in-person absentee voting

• Financial Disclosures to Voters: moves deadline for political committees to file a statement of organization from 10 days after receiving or spending funds to 48 hours after spending or receiving funds; increases transparency by requiring filers to itemize payments made to credit card issuers, banks, or online payment portals; places sanctions on political committees that failed to make required filings with the Secretary of State

• Presidential Primary: moves Mississippi's Presidential Preference Primary from the second Tuesday in March to the first Tuesday; will make Mississippi have a stronger voice in choosing the presidential nominees

Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) sent a letter to Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security John Kelly today regarding Daniela Vargas, the 22-year old undocumented immigrant detained in Jackson last week. Thompson's letter asks Sec. Kelly to ensure that his department "exercises available discretion and looks upon her case favorably."

Vargas is Thompson's constituent, and the congressman describes her story to Kelly, saying "Daniela is the kind of young person who, as President Trump put it, should be treated with 'great heart.'"

Thompson asks Kelly to release Vargas from detention while her case proceeds.

"I would also ask that any pending application for immigration benefits, including her DACA renewal, be expeditiously reviewed and favorably considered by your Department," Thompson's letter says. "Young people like Daniela are an important part of communities all over this country, and deserve a chance to pursue their American dream."

National law firms and advocacy groups filed a petition for Vargas' release on Monday, asking the U.S. District Court in Louisiana to stay her pending deportation so that the court can consider whether or not Vargas deserves a hearing before an immigration judge--or to be released from ICE's custody altogether.

Vargas is currently held in the LaSalle Immigration Detention Facility in Louisiana.

Read Congressman Thompson's letter here.

Gov. Phil Bryant called out Congress today, saying that the American Health Care Act resembles Obamacare too closely.

In a Facebook post, Bryant cited the Heritage Foundation's concerns on the new American Health Care Act, which support his stance that the new plan is "Obamacare Lite." (The Heritage Foundation gave Gov. Bryant an award last year for passing House Bill 1523, which was blocked in court before it went into affect.) Bryant's post says he will be working with Mississippi's congressmen in the coming days to ensure that Republicans "end Obamacare once and for all."

"Republican voters who gave majorities to both chambers and delivered the White House do not want Obamacare Lite," Bryant's Facebook post says. "I know it takes tremendous courage to turn back an entitlement once it is in place. But with $20 trillion in national debt, we best start making some tough decisions."

Read his full statement here.

A new poll paints Mississippi purple, calculating Trump's lead over Hillary Clinton in the state to be only three points, in a four-candidate race. The online-only survey had over 800 respondents from Mississippi, who are registered voters, and over 74,000 voters in the country. The results put Mississippi in the "tossup" category—not a red state.

Gov. Phil Bryant hosted former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (SC) and representatives from the Heritage Foundation at the Governor's Mansion on Tuesday night for a reception in Gov. Bryant's honor for receiving the prestigious Conservative Leadership Award, an honor he received for signing House Bill 1523 into law (even though it didn't actually become law) last month in Washington, DC.

“I am humbled to be recognized as a Conservative Leader by this outstanding organization. It's the greatest professional honor of my career," Bryant said in a press release from the Mississippi GOP. "Standing together, we can right America and make it that shining city on a hill once more. Mississippi has become a beacon to the rest of the nation.”

Demint is the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has managed to influence many of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's policy platforms and U.S. Supreme Court nominee list. Demint left Congress back in 2012 to take his role as president of the foundation.

"I'm leaving the Senate now, but I'm not leaving the fight. I've decided to join The Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas," Demint said in a statement in 2012.

Part of that "fight in the conservative movement" came to Mississippi during the 2016 legislative session when the Mississippi Legislature passed House Bill 1523. Demint wrote an article (posted on the Daily Signal, the media arm of the Heritage Foundation) praising Gov. Bryant's "courage" back in April for signing the bill into law.

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves wrote the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions a letter this week, to put his support for Trump's Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos in writing. In his Jan. 10 letter, Reeves wrote to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) that DeVos represents a change that "our students so desperately need."

"As Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, I know the importance of ensuring that every student has access to a truly revolutionary education, regardless of the zipcode in which they live or the income level of their parents," Reeves writes. "Mrs. DeVos's continued commitment to ensuring that every student has access to a school that best serves their needs -regardless of the delivery model or the school governance structure-gives me utmost confidence in her nomination and subsequent position."

DeVos's confirmation hearing was pushed back and is now scheduled for next Tuesday, largely due to the fact that the Office of Government Ethics had not completed a review of "DeVos's financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest," the Washington Post reported.

DeVos, known for her work as the Republican Party Chairwoman in Michigan and for using her political and monetary influence to support the school-choice movement there, is a big advocate of voucher programs, charter schools and lobbying for those efforts, reporting from the Detroit Free Press over the years show.

One editor in Detroit writes in an op-ed that DeVos is not qualified for her role because she has very little practical education experience. Indeed, DeVos hold a bachelor's degree in business administration and political science from Calvin College and has worked as a businesswoman at the Windquest Group and a principle actor in how the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation spends its money. Her political experience is evident, and her involvement in Michigan's Republican Party and lobbying for school-choice reforms are well-documented.

"She is, in essence, a lobbyist — someone who has used her extraordinary wealth to influence the conversation about education reform, and to bend that conversation to her ideological convictions despite the dearth of evidence supporting them," Detroit Free Press editor Stephen Henderson writes. "For 20 years, the lobby her family bankrolls has propped up the billion-dollar charter school industry and insulated it from commonsense oversight, even as charter schools repeatedly failed to deliver on their promises to parents and children."

DeVos and her husband, a billionaire businessman, were influential in how Michigan's charter school law was written back in 1993, Chalkbeat reports, and continues to be involved with ed policy decisions there.

"When Michigan lawmakers this year were considering a measure that would have added oversight for charter schools in Detroit, members of the DeVos family poured $1.45 million into legislators’ campaign coffers — an average of $25,000 a day for seven weeks. Oversight was not included in the final legislation," a 2016 Chalkbeat report says.

Consequently, the majority of Michigan's charter schools are run by private companies, …

Attorney General Jim Hood sent a letter to legislative leaders today reminding them that they must release the EdBuild contract to the Transparency Mississippi website, despite their own House Management Committee rules.

Last week, several news organizations attempted to get access to the contract between the Mississippi Legislature and the nonprofit EdBuild that the state is contracting with to examine the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The contract with EdBuild is paid in part by the state and in part by private donors. The state is paying $125,000 of the cost, while undisclosed private donors are paying another $125,000, the AP reported.

The House Management Committee changed their rules last week, allegedly keeping all contracts private and not accessible via the state's Public Records Act.

Hood's letter says that while lawmakers do have the power under the Public Records Act to limit access to legislative records, they are not exempt from the Mississippi Accountability and Transparency Act, which requires all agencies to let the Department of Finance and Administration access their data and post the contracts on the Transparency Mississippi website. Hood told legislative leaders that they have two weeks to give DFA access to that information, as is prescribed in the Mississippi Accountability and Transparency Act.

The Senate has not changed their management rules yet to come into compliance with the House's new rule, but the Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to meet this week.

Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Greg Snowden and Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Terry Burton released a statement after Hood's letter was sent.

“When the agreement was approved in October, the terms of the Legislature’s contract with EdBuild to review school funding was shared with the public,” the joint statement says. “Over the last four days as House and Senate leadership continued to study the issue, Legislative legal staff concluded the contract should be posted to the Transparency Mississippi website. The contract has been released to the Department of Finance and Administration to be posted on the Transparency Mississippi website.”

The contract is up and available on the Transparency Mississippi's website this morning or you can read it here.

It's convenient to presume that Mississippi will bleed red on Election Day, but if that's true, then a fair question follows. Why would Donald Trump waste time and resources stopping in Jackson, Miss., this evening for a $1,000 per ticket fundraiser and rally?

Polling done in Mississippi this presidential year might help explain why. An April Mason-Dixon poll only favored Trump to Hillary Clinton by three percentage points, a slim margin for a candidate who won the primary election in Mississippi with an 11-point advantage over Ted Cruz, Politico reports. A second poll, conducted by Magellan Strategies and commissioned by Y'all Politics, revealed a larger gap between the two candidates, with Trump leading by 13 percentage points.

One question in the Magellan poll gave Mississippians three options: Trump, Clinton or Undecided. Fifty-four percent chose Trump; 39 percent chose Clinton; and 7 percent were undecided.

FiveThirtyEight gives Clinton only a 14-percent chance of winning Mississippi's six electoral votes, but that number is a result of the weighted analysis of only two polls: the Mason-Dixon and Magellan polls.

November has the potential to be a competitive election, depending on which poll you believe, and as NewsMax pointed out: "The last time a Democrat presidential candidate won the state was Jimmy Carter in 1976," but it's likely too early to confidently project a solid winner.