Jackson Free Press

On Tuesday, Oxford and Greenwood joined several other Mississippi counties and cities that have removed the state flag from city property. Mississippi is the only (and the last) state with the Confederate symbol on its state flag. An ad that ran this week in the Clarion-Ledger listed over 60 prominent Mississippians including Morgan Freeman, John Grisham, Archie Manning and Kathryn Stockett calling for the state to bring the flag down according to a Washington Post story.

Here is the list of Mississippi cities and local governments that have stopped flying the state flag on city property (so far):

• Oxford
• Greenwood
• Jackson
• Clarksdale
• Columbus
• Hattiesburg
• Grenada
• Leflore County
• Starkville
• Magnolia

Good news out of Oxford, Miss., just now. Legislative hopeful Cristen Hemmins and The Oxford Eagle are reporting on their Facebook pages that the Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to stop flying the Mississippi state flag until the Confederate canton is gone.

Per The Oxford Eage's Facebook Post:

"The Oxford Board of Aldermen have voted to remove the current Mississippi state flag from all city buildings and approved sending the state Legislature a resolution requesting the state flag be changed."

More than one person posting under the Eagle's post used the word "pansies" to refer to the aldermen. Robin Gittemeier Ware, who works with FNC Inc. Professional Services, commented underneath: "What we have here is a bunch of pansies afraid of "offending" someone. Everyone is offended by something but a flag never killed anyone."

Another commenter, Matt Sessums, took an irreverent approach in response to such posts: "Imagine how crazy some of these people will be when they name Obama as Chancellor."

Southerners (and my mom) rejoice: After halting production for what seemed to many like an eternity, Blue Bell is back.

Here's the announcement from the Texas-based company:

Brenham, TX, August 17, 2015 – Blue Bell Creameries announced today it will begin distributing ice cream to select markets on Monday, August 31.

Blue Bell has notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state health officials in Alabama and Texas of its plan to re-enter select markets on a limited basis.

“Over the past several months we have been working to make our facilities even better, and to ensure that everything we produce is safe, wholesome and of the highest quality for you to enjoy,” said Ricky Dickson, vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Bell. “This is an exciting time for us as we are back to doing what we love…making ice cream!”

The Blue Bell production facility in Sylacauga, Ala., began producing ice cream in late July. Additional production facilities in Brenham, Texas, and Broken Arrow, Okla., are still undergoing facility and production process upgrades similar to those made at the Alabama plant.

Due to the limited production capacity while producing in one facility, Blue Bell will re-enter parts of 15 states in five phases. The first of the five phases will be similar to how Blue Bell began and include the Brenham, Houston and Austin, Texas, areas, as well as parts of Alabama, (Birmingham and Montgomery) where the product is being made. The next phases include:

Phase Two: North central Texas and southern Oklahoma Phase Three: Southwest Texas and central Oklahoma Phase Four: The majority of Texas and southern Louisiana. Phase Five: Complete the states of Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas and begin distribution in Arkansas, Florida, northern Louisiana and Mississippi. This phase will also include only parts of the following states: Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Blue Bell will move on to each phase based on product availability and when it can properly service the customers in an area. With the exception of phase one, no other dates have been determined for when each expansion will take place.

For more information and to follow the company’s progress visit bluebell.com.

You can view the announcement from our vice president of sales and marketing here https://vimeo.com/136514867

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2015/aug/17/22573/

11,466 Mississippi residents signed up for health insurance through healthcare.gov during the special enrollment period from February 23 to June 30. According to a new report released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 46 percent of Mississippi residents enrolled because they had lost coverage. Other reasons for enrollment include: denial of Medicaid, tax season or missing other special enrollment periods.

Nationally, the primary reason for enrollment was a loss of coverage. Almost 65 percent of Americans who enrolled in the four-month period were between the ages of 18 and 54. The report's authors said that this enrollment cycle drew higher numbers of young consumers than previous enrollment periods. 31 percent of the 943,934 U.S. residents enrolled were between the ages of 18 and 34.

A lawsuit to challenge Mississippi's same-sex couple adoption ban was filed in federal court by the Campaign for Southern Equality today. Mississippi is the only state in the nation that still bans gay couples from adopting children. The case, Campaign for Southern Equality v. Mississippi Department of Human Services, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on behalf of four same-sex couples. Mississippi has the highest proportion of same-sex couples raising biological, adopted or step children according to a Williams Institute study from 2013.

Roberta Kaplan is the lead counsel in the case. Kaplan also represented the plaintiffs in the Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant case that began the push to legalize same-sex marriage in Mississippi. The Campaign for Southern Equality and Family Equality Council are representing the plaintiffs. According to a New York Times article, the offices of the attorney general and the governor did not return calls for comment by Tuesday afternoon.

Of course it was. Watch:

Hysteria grows in the land of brick and honey as the City of Madison do what they can to keep renters out.

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."

If you are planning to vote on Tuesday, don’t forget to bring a photo ID. In the 2011 November election 62 percent of Mississippi voters approved a Constitutional Amendment that requires voters to present photo IDs before casting in-person ballots at polls or circuit clerk offices.

The only exemptions to the voter ID law are those who have a religious objection to being photographed and don’t have an ID as a result or registered absentee voters. The Secretary of State’s Office lists 10 types of IDs acceptable:

1. A driver's license
   
2. A photo ID card issued by a branch, department, or entity of the State of Mississippi
   
3. A United States passport
   
4. A government employee ID card
   
5. A firearms license
   
6. A student photo ID issued by an accredited Mississippi university, college, or community/junior college
   
7. A United States military ID
   
8. A tribal photo ID
   
9. Any other photo ID issued by any branch, department, agency or entity of the United States government or any State government
   
10. A Mississippi Voter Identification Card
    

If you have not registered to vote, it is too late to do so for the August election, but there is still time to register before November. In order to register to vote, you must be a resident of Mississippi for 30 days, at least 18 years old, not declared “mentally incompetent” by a court and not convicted in court of a crime (crimes listed here). You can register to vote at a circuit or municipal clerk’s office and must be registered for 30 days prior to an election for your vote to count.

Read candidate profiles and more JFP Election Coverage here .

The Texas Department of Safety has posted a 52-minute video of the Sandra Bland traffic stop, showing the state trooper threaten Bland with a Taser, a detail that he didn't put in his arrest report.

The state admitted that it has not met court-order requirements in a 7-year-old lawsuit, Olivia Y v. Bryant, intended to change the state's foster care system. Gov. Bryant has agreed to hire an Executive Director of the Department of Family and Children's Services, which will soon become a cabinet-level position. Additionally, a group will be hired to consult with the state over the next four months and recommend changes necessary to protect Mississippi children going forward. Bryant has also agreed to call a special session of the legislature if the recommendations require legislative changes.

The press release from A Better Childhood, an advocacy organization that works on behalf of abused and neglected children, has been re-printed below in full:

Facing an evidentiary hearing for contempt scheduled to begin in federal court on August 10, the state has conceded that it has not met court-ordered requirements in the 7-year-old lawsuit, Olivia Y v. Bryant, intended to reform the state’s foster care system.

In an Agreed Order submitted to Judge Tom Lee on July 21, the state agreed with factual charges made against it in reports submitted by the court-appointed monitor. In the Order, the parties also agreed on steps that will determine whether the plaintiffs will continue to seek a receivership, this time based on specific recommendations from a neutral consulting group, or whether the state can and will make the changes necessary to finally reform the Mississippi foster care system.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who are all of the children in foster care in the state, had asked the court to find the state in contempt of the court orders for reform, and to appoint a receiver to take over the administration of the state’s foster care system. The state’s admission of non-compliance resolves the first part of the contempt motion. The order submitted to the court today directs the employment of an expert group to make recommendations to achieve compliance, and leaves open the question whether a receiver will be required to administer the state’s foster care system.

The lawsuit was filed in 2004, asserting widespread violations of children’s constitutional rights in the foster care system. Although the case was settled in 2008, the state has never been in compliance with the terms of the settlement.

This is the second contempt motion filed in the case. After the first motion, a new settlement agreement was approved by the Court, but failed to produce necessary results.

“It was clear to us, given the state’s history in implementing these court orders, that the state simply lacks the capacity or the will to run a child welfare system that protects the children of Mississippi,” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of A Better Childhood, a national advocacy organization that works on behalf of abused and neglected children. “We have asked the federal court to appoint a receiver to take over the system. However, we think the appointment of a well-qualified expert group to make specific recommendations is an important step …

A new polling analysis published by examiner.com indicates something about Mississippi that has been in the works for a while: Based on recent elections, our state is trending blue.

Based on polling data on a Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump showdown in 2016, Mississippi is one of the few Deep South states that would go for Clinton in that matchup.

This analysis might surprise many who think that Mississippi is the reddest state of the red (especially based on our statewide cavemen, er, elected officials). But several facts make it much more complicated than at first glance:

1. State Democrats have provided very few even-marginally-progressive options historically, giving younger and less-conservative choices to vote for, creating voter lethargy among those who might turn out and vote "blue" otherwise. That fact is actually changing this year, with several openly progressive (and female) Democrats getting at least some party support, instead of the pseudo-Republicans the party has tended to put up in the last 20 years.

2. More young people of all races are staying in Mississippi, and many of them are voting Democratic, and have since 2004.

3. Demographics, demographics, demographics. The irony of Mississippi being the state with the highest percentage of enslaved people in 1860 is that our state still has the highest percentage of African Americans and is more likely than much of Dixie to go blue first. Put simply, African Americans tend to vote Democratic, ever since the Republican Party embrace of Dixiecrats back in the late 1960s after national Dems supported civil-rights laws, and we have the highest percentage of black residents in the country.

4. And, let's be honest, even many Republicans don't want bat-shit-crazy Trump running this country.

5. Finally, to be honest again, a lot of white people like Clinton better than Obama (even if I'm not one of them).

So, there are no surprises here: Mississippi has been steadily trending blue for a while now. The question, as always, is: Will the people who can flip the state into the blue column turn out both this November (to save public-education funding and turn out a governor who makes us look like the most stuck-in-the-past state) and next November?

Time, and voter registration, will tell. Progressive (which is easy to be here by rejecting the radical right) Mississippians must find the will to stop giving up our power to sellouts to bigotry and backward ideas (and ideologues) to lift our state up. I've watched this will grow since we started this paper in 2002—and saw serious evidence of it when we turned back Personhood, shocking the nation—and I believe in upcoming elections we may well surprise the world once again. I've believed this was coming for nearly 15 years now.

Stay tuned and register to vote.

UPDAT Aug. 24, 2016: The examiner.com link above is broken, but here is an article and another about …

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in the historic Obergefell v. Hodges case, several media outlets reverted and retreated to their ideological lines.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, has garnered national attention in an article by Robbie Ward, former DJ reporter, on the Huffington Post about their now-public stance on same-sex marriage. The third-largest newspaper in the state will not be publishing same-sex wedding or engagement announcements. In a Bible-based op-ed piece, publisher and CEO of Journal, Inc., Clay Foster wrote that "while this decision will require states to issue 'marriage' licenses to same-sex couples, this does not make it acceptable to God." It does not make it acceptable to Foster, either, who advised employees not to post their opinions on same-sex marriage on social media. Employees were also told that if they disagreed with or "didn't like" Foster's op-ed, they could leave.

The Huffington Post printed parts of an internal email sent to leaders at weekly publications from associate publisher, Charlotte Wolfe, that said, "Our job is to report the news objectively and we can't do this if we're also on social media sharing our opinions. We have a right to our opinions, but because we are so tightly connected to our newspaper products, we don't need to vocalize this on social media."

It appears that the Daily Journal is the only news outlet, thus far, in Mississippi that has taken such a hard political (or biblical) line against the Supreme Court's ruling, asking employees to stay silent on the issue even in their personal, public personas.

Other Mississippi newspapers are not following the Daily Journal's lead. The Huffington Post article reported the Clarion-Ledger, The Commercial Dispatch and Starkville Daily News will all (continue to) accept same-sex marriage and engagement announcements.

Sadly, it was only a matter of time before it happened here in Mississippi--a black man was killed by a white cop amid mysterious circumstances and officials are trying to keep tensions from simmering.

It happened on late Wednesday night in tiny Stonewall when, according to various media outlets, a 39-year-old black man named Jonathan Sanders had some sort of altercation with a white officer named Kevin Herrington.

Stewart Parrish, an attorney Sanders had once hired to represent him on a case, told Meridian television WTOK that Sanders was riding in a buggy exercising his horses when Herrington stopped Sanders, initiating an altercation that ended in Sanders' death, reportedly by choking.

The exact details are, of course, muddy. Early reports suggested that Herrington used a flashlight to subdue Sanders. Stonewall Police Chief Michael Street denied those reports, but hasn't gone into much detail about the incident that happened between 10:30 and 11 o'clock at night, citing his department's ongoing investigation. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the case.

"We just ask that the citizens allow that to take place, not to try to take anything out in the streets. Our door is open," Street told WTOK.

Street's comments are an obvious reference to protests sparked by the deaths of African American men by--often white--police officers in the past year. Sanders' death is hauntingly similar to that of Eric Garner in New York City last summer. Like Garner, Sanders reportedly told Herrington that he couldn't breathe in the moments before he died, Parrish told the media.

The Guardian reported that Chief Street said "Sanders had no active warrants against him and that Harrington did not know who he was when the confrontation took place."

However, that didn't stop Jackson's local daily newspaper, the Clarion-Ledger, from using Sanders' mugshot (most other media outlets chose a picture of the victim warmly smiling with family members or with his horses; see below) and devoted the end of its story to talking about his rap sheet, writing:

"Sanders had crossed paths with authorities before. Circuit Clerk Beth Jordan said Sanders was out on bond from an April arrest for possession of cocaine, and that he had been convicted on charges of sale of cocaine in 2003."

The paper went on to point out: "MDOC Communications Director Grace Fisher said Sanders was given five years to serve with five years probation. He was released on May 23, 2007. Sanders' arrest record also shows arrests dating back to 2001 for disturbance of the family peace, sale of a counterfeit substance, domestic violence, and some traffic violations.

Several dozen commenters took the paper to task. Said one woman in the comments section: "Never fails; the weaponless dead victim is always prosecuted in the media to deflect how they ended up dead at the hands of police. Shame on the Clarion-Ledger."

As for the officer, the C-L made a point of noting that Herrington, according to Chief Street, "has never received any complaints of …

Here's an interesting factoid for those of you discussing the Civil War and slavery about Hinds County, which contains Jackson, the capital, of course. It's from this link, where you can also link to a number of other Mississippi counties and see the numbers of slaves that some of the larger slave holders of the time owned. This was the scenario when "firewater" Gov. John Pettus led the secession of Mississippi from here in Jackson over slavery:

According to U.S. Census data, the 1860 Hinds County population included 8,940 whites, 36 "free colored" and 22,363 slaves. By the 1870 census, the white population had increased 10% to 9,829, and the "colored" population had dropped about 8% to 20,659. (As a side note, by 1960, 100 years later, the County was listed as having 112,205 whites, more than a twelve fold increase, but the 1960 total of 94,750 "Negroes"was only about four times what the colored population had been 100 years before.)

It's tough history, but important.

Here's a list of resources to help research who owned slaves, how many, etc.

Marriage—it's what brings us together.

That is, unless you live in Yazoo County and were planning on having a justice court judge officiate your ceremony.

Earlier this week, Judges Pam May and Bennie Warrington sent a letter to the board of supervisors saying they wanted to opt out of having to perform marriage ceremonies.

In a WJTV news report, Yazoo Supervisor Caleb Rivers presumed the letter was spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriages across the country. Rivers said the board voted unanimously to let the judges stop doing any marriages at all.

It was only a matter of time. Not long after the SCOTUS at the end of June, state Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, suggested that the state get out of the business of marriage licenses. Up in Grenada County, a circuit clerk who was retiring anyway bowed out a few months early because she didn't want to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"I believe you can do whatever you want to do in the privacy of your own home but as for Yazoo County we're just not going to allow it," Rivers, the supervisor, told WJTV's reporter.

Love birds looking to tie the knot in Yazoo County needn't fret, though.

Robert Coleman, the circuit clerk there, confirmed to the JFP that his office will still be issuing marriage licenses.

It'll just be up to couples to find someone—other than justice court judges—willing to perform the marriages.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2015/jul/10/22081/

In an occasional blog series I'm inaugurating here, I'd like to pull forward some debate that's happening in the comments and examine a variety of the myths and legends that surround the South's participation in the civil war.

From the comments section came this one from Claude Shannon:

The war was fought over money and power. In 1860, 80% of all federal taxes were paid for by the south. 95% of that money was spent on improving the north.

Now I'm not a history scholar, but I do get curious when things just kinda sound wrong.

First... even if we assume that's true (which, as you'll see later, I can't) I think the construct is disingenuous, as it suggests that "the South" had very little say in the matter and no recourse but secession given the rapacious chokehold that the North apparently had on the South in terms of political power and usurious taxation.

It's a dramatic picture, but there are a few caveats:

1.) Democrats (the party that included most all Southern politicians) controlled Congress leading up to the Civil War (they lost the House in 1859) and had a Democratic president in the "doughface" Buchanan. (The term being one that suggests a Northern with Southern sympathies.)

2.) The Tariff of 1857 was authored and supported by Southern legislators (the primary author was Virginia Senator Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, who would later be pictured on the Confederate $10 bill) and it lowered tariffs to a level they hadn't hit in 50 years.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2015/jul/10/22076/

Remember that through most of 1800-1860 there was no income tax on individuals and businesses or other taxes (sales, property) as we define them today -- Federal taxes were almost exclusively tariffs on imports. (The Nullification Crisis had come when tariffs were considerably higher in order to pay down debts from the War of 1812.)

So, "taxes" were considerably lower leading up to the war.

But then... if there's evidence that "The South" paid "80 percent" of those tariffs they'd managed to lower, I can't find it.

As noted here, about 63% of Federal revenue was collected as tariffs on shipments that went through just the Port of New York alone. And those tariffs were collected from the merchants who imported them.

Aside from New York, there were certainly other ports in the North; so an argument that "The South" paid 80% of tariffs -- e.g. that 80% of imported and taxed goods went through Southern ports where the taxes were paid by Southern importers -- isn't correct.

(The tariffs were also protectionist in nature, and likely benefitted both the North and South as they made locally produced goods more attractive.)

If there's a more esoteric argument that says somehow the South ultimately bought 80% of those goods and therefore experienced the markup that came from them being taxes, I haven't seen it, but it would be interesting to read and parse.

One other point to make on tariffs -- the Southern states …

We don't get to say we're number one in many good things, but here's a nice one... according to The Tax Foundation, $100 in Mississippi is worth the most of any state in the country (an equivalent of $115.21).

If there's anything we've known about Jackson for a while, is it's a pretty decent place to be "broke" (by which we mean college-student-level broke, not impoverished).

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2015/jul/08/22059/

Mississippi native Duvalier Malone has started a petition to remove the Confederate symbol from the Mississippi state flag. The online petition form has over 1,100 signatures. In a statement, Malone said he "wants to create enough momentum for Mississippi to have another referendum vote on the flag, which will hopefully result in positive change."

The petition is written in letter format, and Malone cites recent racially motivated violence in Jackson as well as the Charleston massacre, saying that positive change can come from such atrocities.

He writes, "Now is the time to join forces and face this issue, which has cast a shadow on our state for too long. Even Republican Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn agrees: Now is the time to leave the Confederate battle flag behind us -- before another innocent person is attacked in its name."

As previously reported by the Jackson Free Press, unless Gov. Bryant calls a special session, the flag debate will have to wait until January for the Legislature. If the petition turns into a ballot initiative, it would need a minimum of 107,216 signatures, with specific number requirements from each of the five congressional districts.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2015/jul/07/22026/

He may not be leading money totals or straw polls, but Senator Bernie Sanders apparently did something that no other candidate has done yet in the 2016 presidential race... he had a record crowd last night in Wisconsin, pushing 10,000 people. Interesting.