Jackson Free Press

In a segment highlighting how easy it is to buy up old medical debt and learn about the patients who have it, John Oliver on his show "Last Week Tonight" put together a shell company to do just that.

6:00 p.m. Final polls in Indiana/Kentucky. Polls close in Virginia. (They also close in Georgia, South Carolina and Vermont.)

Bernie Sanders has won re-election in Vermont; Virginia Senate race too close to call.

NBC calls Indiana for Romney; Democrat Joe Donnelly has slight lead with 7% reporting.

6:42 p.m. West Virginia and South Carolina both called for Romney.

6:47 p.m. Polls still open in Florida although there's some counting going on, with Obama in the lead, but close.

North Carolina polls are closed, and Obama is leading with 9% of the vote in. Exit polls seem to give Obama a shot in North Carolina.

7:00 p.m. NBC calls Georgia for Romney. 7:00 p.m.

Poll closings... Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, North Dakota, Florida and New Hampshire. (Also non-leaners Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas.)

7:04 p.m. Interesting Senate races in this round, including Warren/Brown in Massachusetts; NBC calles Maine Senate race for independent Angus King.

7:06 p.m. New Hampshire, Florida and Pennsylvania are too close to call according to NBC.

7:08 p.m. AP: reports: Obama carried Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and Romney's home state of Massachusetts. Also as expected, he won Delaware and Maryland as well as the District of Columbia and Illinois. Romney had South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky and West Virginia in his column. He also won Indiana, a state Obama carried in 2008 but did not contest this year.

7:29 Roger Wicker wins re-election in Mississippi.

7:56 A lot still undecided; NC and FL being tough to call bodes better for Obama than Romney. McCaskill, Warren leading; CNN calls Pennsylvania for Casey, all Democrats leading/winning.

8:00 Polls close in swing states Colorado and Wisconsin, and in close-ish Arizona, Minnesota and New Mexico. (Plus: Louisiana, Nebraska, New York and Wyoming.)

8:02 Wisconsin and Colorado too soon to call; Wisconsin said to be lead by Obama. Romney gets 4 of 5 votes in Nebraska. Michigan projected quickly for Obama. Arizona too early to call and Romney leading; Minnesota too early and Obama leading.

8:04 NBC says the House will stay with the GOP. No surprise.

8:06 I just realized Orrin Hatch is still in the Senate. Good lord.

8:15 NBC calls Pennsylvania for Obama -- rust belt firewall continues to hold.

8:35 Wisconsin called for Obama; arguably first legit swing state. He's one medium-sized state away from the win.

8:37 CBS calls New Hampshire for Obama. Another swing state.

8:42 NBC calls Elizabeth Warren the winner in Massachusetts.

9:00 Polls close in Iowa and Nevada. (Also Montana and Utah.)

Again, these are two swing states (Nevada less so) both leaning toward Obama. If Obama has won New Hampshire, Colorado and Wisconsin by now and has held in the leaners (Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada) then Iowa's swing votes (and Nevada's leaning votes) make him president of the United States. Again.

9:24 CBS says that Democrat Tim Kaine has won the Senate race in Virginia.

9:55 North …

President Obama plans to deliver a statement on the Connecticut school shooting at 2:15 p.m. Central time.

Here's the White House's YouTube version:

Todd checks out Lazy Mag's pale ale, including a little discussion of the name change.

Republican Mike Pence, governor of Indiana, has a long history of railing against "Obamacare." But according to the Washington Post, he may become the next governor to expand Medicaid in his state.

Republican Gov. Mike Pence, after months of discussions with the Obama administration, is offering a new plan Thursday morning to expand coverage to low-income uninsured Hoosiers. As expected, he's doing it through an existing state insurance program for adults that's been championed by some conservatives.

The Indiana program offers health spending accounts to folks that are slightly above Medicaid eligibility; Pence is looking to expand that access, much the same way that the ACA was designed to expand Medicaid access for the working poor and those slightly above the poverty line, up to 138 percent.

Pence is getting credit (and criticism) for finding a clever way to accept Medicaid expansion while still saving a little face as an Obamacare denier; any chance Governor Bryant could do the same and help the 300,000 Mississippians in the insurance gap?

After all, his logic that the state would be stuck once Obamacare was struck down seems less and less likely at this point.

Maybe it's time to go ahead and help working Mississippians get access to decent healthcare?

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/oct/12/14111/

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Josh Marks, a Chicago native who attended Tougaloo College and worked for a time in Vicksburg for the U.S. Army as a contract specialist, died Friday of a what the coroner has ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The victim, of the South Side, was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. on the scene, according to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy conducted today ruled his death a suicide.

As an amateur chef, Marks was a contestant on the show Masterchef, having left Jackson to compete on the show's third season in 2012. In an article published by the JFP, Marks summed up his experience: Class Under Fire.

This past summer, Marks was arrested for assaulting a police officer and attempting to pull the officer's weapon; he faced multiple felony charges. According to the Tribune:

At the time of Marks' arrest in July, police say he claimed to have been possessed by "MasterChef" judge Gordon Ramsay who turned him into God. During the scuffle, officials say it took multiple officers to capture Marks, after he lunged at one and attempted to take his gun.

Just this past Wednesday a continuance was granted in the case to November 6th.

Jackon Mayor Yarber has been called out as one of the 'Tweet Elite' mayors in the United States, ranking 19 among 250 mayors for his use of Twitter.

In a fax sent to media this afternoon, union president Brenda Scott announced that the Mississippi Alliance of State Workers, Communications Workers of America, Local 3570, AFL-CIO (that's all one union) will endorse Chokwe Antar Lumumba in his bid for his father's seat.

"Among his other qualities," the release says, "we find that he possesses a genuine desire, like his late father the Honorable Chokwe Lumumba, to continue the vision of bringing new economic ideas to the city anchored in green job creation, living wages, and strong worker protections."

The official endorsement is scheduled for the steps of City Hall in Jackson on Friday, March 18, at 3:00 p.m.

Members of the JFP's editorial and design staff have won numerous honors in the 66th Annual Green Eyeshade award, including our first ever "Best in Division" award, receiving the top honor among all non-daily print publications in the contest.

Lost in some of the Rand/Medicare/Taxes discussion of Rep. Paul Ryan was a glib line that he's now offered a few times on the stump, taking President Obama's "You Didn't Build That" line out of context to suggest that Obama was saying that small businesses didn't build their businesses.

The irony is two-fold (a.) Ryan has spent his adult entire career working in government in Washington, aside from a year he listed as a "marketing consultant" for his family's company and (b.) his family business, Ryan Incorporated, began in the 1800s building railroads for the government, switched to roads and highways (for the) government in the 20th century, had a hand in building O'Hare in Chicago, and more recently has made a a fair bit of scratch on defense contracts. In other words, the family fortune has done just fine by way of the government and, particularly, the infrastructure that Obama was talking about when Ryan misquoted him.

A current search of Defense Department contracts suggests that “Ryan Incorporated Central” has had at least 22 defense contracts with the federal government since 1996, including one from 1996 worth $5.6 million. … Mr. Anti-Spending secured millions in earmarks for his home state of Wisconsin, including, among other things, $3.3 million for highway projects. And Ryan voted to preserve $40 billion in special subsidies for big oil, an industry in which, it so happens, Ryan and his wife hold ownership stakes.

Speaking of his wife, Janna Ryan was a D.C. lobbyist before she became the "stay at home mom" that she has been introduced as -- for big pharma, big oil, "nuclear waste issues," health insurance and the cigar lobby, as they fought to keep the same warnings off cigars that cigarettes have.

The Human Rights Campaign this evening announced in a release that the Mississippi Manufacturers Association—a frequent contributor to conservative candidates and supporter of "pro-business" legislation in Mississippi—is calling on Governor Phil Bryant to veto HB 1523, which has passed both houses and awaits the Governor's response.

In a move that I wouldn't be surprised to see repeated in the near future in the Magnolia State, Governor Rick Perry of Texas declared today that he [won't be implementing Obamacare][1] in Texas. Specifically, he says the state will not increase its Medicaid roles to cover additional working poor with the program, and the state will not set up the state exchange that's required in the law.

Perry's office sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday morning asserting his opposition, both to accepting more than a hundred million federal dollars over the next several years to put more poor Texas adults onto Medicaid, and to creating an Orbitz-style online insurance marketplace for consumers.marketplace for consumers.

The story notes that the insurance exchange isn't optional, and that the Federal government will set up a "one size fits all" exchange for the state.

“If anyone was in doubt, we in Texas have no intention to implement so-called state exchanges or to expand Medicaid under Obamacare," Perry said in a statement. "I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government."

Texas, according to the story, has the country's highest percentage of uninsured residents.

But Dan Stultz, president and CEO of the Texas Hospital Association, said without the expansion, "many will remain uninsured, seeking care in emergency rooms, shifting costs to the privately insured, and increasing uncompensated care to health care providers."

And for folks who think the current ACA is a "socialist" expansion, does anyone find it curious that conservative leaders would leave their state exchanges to the Federal government to set up? It seems you would want a hand in there, making sure free market principles reign and such.

Although I guess stamping your feet and say "No! No! No!" feels like better politics to Governor Perry.

[1]: http://www.texastribune.org/texas-health-resources/medicaid/perry-tx-wont-implement-key-elements-health-reform/marketplace for consumers.

We took a spin around social media to see what the candidates did for St. Paddy's Day. Here's what we've found so far. (Candidates -- if we missed anything give us a shout @jxnfreepress on Twitter.)

The deeply "red" state of Kentucky -- the folks who put both Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul as in Senate (and, excruciatingly, on our TVs) -- is also the only Southern state that has expanded Medicaid in accordance with the Affordable Care Act.

They also implemented their own ACA online exchange, instead of relying on the Feds.

The result?

Kentucky’s experience has been exemplary: In its first day, 10,766 applications for health coverage were initiated, 6,909 completed and 2,989 families were enrolled. Obama himself bragged that Kentucky led the nation with its glitch-minimized performance.

Kentucky's opt-in attitude is the result of their Democratic governor, Steve Beshear, who has done end-arounds on his GOP-lead state Senate and poked his finger in the eye of the Tea Party. Focusing on the moral implications of improving healthcare access for the citizens in his state, Beshear is perfectly willing to tell the national media why he's willing to make ACA compliance a signature accomplishment of his tenure.

“[T]o those more worried about political power than Kentucky’s families, I say, ‘Get over it’…and get out of the way so I can help my people. Here in Kentucky, we cannot afford to waste another day or another life.”

And why is ACA popular in-of-all-places Kentucky? Is it because it gives people an opportunity to buy into their own health security and that of their families? Is it because it's an actual market-based solution -- a Republican idea from a few decades back, polished up and implemented first by Mitt Romney in Connecticut -- that might help lessen the burden on families, small businesses and, ultimately, on state coffers?

Time will tell, but it should be a cautionary tale for "red" state politicians -- such as, oh, Governor Phil Bryant -- who have taken the path of least resistance within their own party and buckled to their Tea Party and Talk Radio constituencies.

If Obamacare works -- especially since it now looks like the GOP is pretty much out of tricks to block it from getting started -- then folks like Phil are going to be on the losing end not just of a moment in political history, but of actually doing the right thing for the citizens of their state.

Call it "us vs. them politics"—like National Memo does in this piece—or what I call the "virtue of selfishness" that has been pushed for the last 30 years by conservative think tanks and pundits, but it boils down to this—social conservatives in this country like to blame the "other" for societal ills.

From the American Family Council calling an open-door campaign in the wake of anti-gay legislation "bullying" of Christians, to the persistent bellyaching here in the JFP comments about crime and social safety net programs, you see this "us vs. them" argument over and over again.

But here's what's interesting... the "us" may be getting smaller and smaller all the time.

For the first time since Gallup started asking the question in 1999, there's a tie between people who identify as "socially liberal" and those who identify as "socially conservative." The number is pinned at 31 percent each. Up until now, conservatives had led in that poll.

Likewise, on specific "moral" issues, again as measured by Gallup, the country has showed large left-ward shifts since 2001 on questions such as gay and lesbian acceptance, sex and childrearing out of wedlock, divorce, and stem cell research; smaller shift show on issues such as abortion rights, doctor-assisted suicide and against the death penalty.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/183413/americans-continue-shift-left-key-moral-issues.aspx

Going into an election year in Mississippi, we probably won't feel that shift; most likely the we'll hear more about conservative wedge issues such as immigration, marriage equality and irrational rallying cries against expanding Medicaid and education.

But on a national stage going into the 2016 elections, this tilting landscape could spell trouble for the GOP, especially as it seems largely intent on trotting out the same candidates and many of the same tropes that have failed them in previous presidential election cycles. From the Salon piece:

Gen-X dreamboats Marco Rubio and Scott Walker, on the other hand, are offering young people a bleak vision of endless war, antiquated social values and economic hardship and they know it. It matters little if that dark picture of the future is offered by a youthful fellow with an ethnic name. It’s embarrassing for the Republicans that they don’t understand that.

If the country continues on its path to the left on social issues, it does seem that the clever politician who can marry a fiscally moderate position (strong economy plus strong safety net plus modern education and workforce) with a leftward social platform will likely continue to win outside of the gerrymandered districts of Congress.

From there, it's a question of rallying voters to the cause of fixing broken Congressional districts and campaign finance, so the voice of the people truly be heard at all levels of government.

In WAPT's online video they don't identify the Jackson-area creek (is it Town Creek?) that turned into a "raging river" after today's rains, but one look at the video does force me to wonder out loud about the water quality of any lakes or riverwalk projects that we end up developing for downtown Jackson.

Jackson has many impermeable surfaces with oil, grit and other residue (not to mentioned trash, street drainage, etc.) that rush off to the creeks and Pearl.

I don't know the answer, but this visual at least suggests it would make sense to ask the question. Does still water somehow run cleaner? Am I judging this murky mess too harshly?

ON one had, the Pearl often looks pretty when you glance at it over the Lakeland bridge, and I've canoed it in the past and felt the water was clear and clean.

But the video doesn't make it this creek water look too appealing. Any river geeks have thoughts?

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/sep/24/13833/

"A Mississippi Love Story" is a documentary about JFP's own Eddie Outlaw and his partner, Justin, living as a successful, committed gay couple in Mississippi, but without the legal right to marry.

The documentary is available to rent or own on Vimeo On Demand. A special screening will take place at the Mississippi Museum of Art Friday evening from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Here's the trailer:

A Mississippi Love Story - Trailer from Fisher Productions, LLC on Vimeo.

An the full release, verbatim:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 27, 2014

CONTACT: Eddie Outlaw, (601) 955-3474, [email protected] Robbie Fisher, (601) 941-1865, [email protected]

JACKSON, Miss – Mississippi-based film producer Robbie Fisher and Fisher Productions, LLC announces the release of a short documentary entitled A Mississippi Love Story. The film introduces the viewer to Eddie and Justin, together living what might otherwise be considered an ordinary life during an extraordinary time in history. It provides a glimpse into the relationships the two have with one another, and with family, friends and their Deep South hometown. Against the backdrop of legal battles about same-sex marriage, Eddie and Justin share their personal take on what love really means.

“It was important to us, as Mississippians, to tell the story of this loving and devoted couple who are productive business people and well-liked members of the community, and who want their legal union to be recognized in their home state,” said Fisher.

The 13-minute film is now available on Vimeo on Demand for a $1 rental fee or for purchase for $2.50.

Cinematographer Lauren Cioffi spent months, beginning in March 2013, documenting the day-to-day lives of Eddie Outlaw and his partner Justin McPherson Outlaw. A second unit team captured footage in Washington, D.C. as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on California's Proposition 8 and on the Defense of Marriage Act. Editor Azod Abedikichi employed an upbeat and whimsical style, which included animating original illustrations by Joy Abedikichi, to capture the essence and spirit of the subjects. Composer Chris Gibbons' simple and beautiful Red Tango reflects the energetic and optimistic disposition of Eddie and Justin.

WHAT: A new short documentary about the lives of Eddie Outlaw and Justin McPherson Outlaw in Jackson, Mississippi, throughout the months surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases.

WHO: Produced by Fisher Productions, LLC, featuring Eddie Outlaw and Justin McPherson Outlaw

WHEN: Now available on Vimeo on Demand

WHERE: vimeo.com/ondemand/mslovestory

Super Tuesday is here, with 865 pledged delegates up for grabs for the Democratic candidates and 595 available to the Republican candidates. Here's a visual guide to the states in play and the delegate counts.

Here's the Presidential Primary tracker, updated as results come in:

The JXN Trailblazers is a group dedicated to encouraging and promoting the building a multi-use trail from the Farmers' Market in downtown Jackson to the Lefleur's museum district centered at Lakeland Drive just east of I-55.

So if you're a presidential candidate pitching the idea that the government is too big and the private sector needs to be convinced to hire more people -- what data are you using to reach that conclusion?