Jackson Free Press

State superintendent Dr. Carey Wright released her annual report today, which includes how and where school districts spend their state, federal and local dollars. Data included in that report show that school districts use state funds to operate at least half of their budgets on average, while local and federal funding make up the rest of a district's budget.

In total, 67 percent of all funds (federal, state and local) go toward instructional costs, while a little over 10 percent of that funding goes toward general and school administrative costs. School districts also spend a large chunk of their money on support costs for maintenance and building costs, tech support and transportation, the report shows.

The average expenditure per pupil in the 2015-2016 school year was $9,704, Wright's report shows. The average teacher salary was $44,416.

“The report provides evidence that the education reforms and legislative initiatives that have been implemented throughout our state are working,” said Wright said in a press release. “Mississippi students are benefiting from the state’s investment in public education.”

The report also highlights several grants Mississippi received, including a $6.6 million grant for MDE to improve their data system with a focus on evaluation and early learning.

Read the full JFP interview with Carey Wright and see http://www.mdek12.org/MBE/R2017.

The demise of the Mississippi picnic in Central Park, news the Jackson Free Press broke early last week, is not the only economic and public-relations fallout of Mississippi's passage of the anti-LBGT House Bill 1523.

On Jan. 1, California's banned state-funded and state-sponsored travel to North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kansas due to anti-LGBT laws passed in all four states. Assemblyman Evan Low, who is gay, co-sponsored the legislation in response to discriminatory legislation in the four states, The Advocate, an LGBT-focused national publication, reports.

"Our state has clearly said our taxpayer dollars will not fund bigotry or hatred," Low told The Advocate. "If other states try to pass similar laws, we will do everything we can in our power to stop any type of discrimination from happening to Californians. As you know, our zero tolerance policy says there is no room for discrimination of any kind in California and this bill ensures discrimination will not be tolerated of any kind outside our borders."

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation moved a scheduled racial-healing retreat from Asheville, N.C., to Carlsbad, Calif., in December in response to passage of the anti-LGBT House Bill 2 in the Tarheel State.

Dr. Robert W. Pearigen, president of Millsaps College, release this statement in response to President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration this week.

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. introduced two new pieces of technology designed to make the Jackson Police Department more efficient, transparent and accountable.

The first demonstration was technology that will allow the city to track city vehicles in real-time on an online map of the city. Johnson said they have already outfitted 50 city vehicles - including work trucks, police cars and heavy equipment - with trackers and are working out the bugs before they put the technology into all the vehicles.

The Mayor said that technology will make the vehicle operators more accountable, make the police department more efficient in their coverage and reduce the carbon footprint from vehicles in the city by helping them map out the most direct route to their destinations. That project has a $55,000 price tag.

The second piece of technology is an e-ticketing system that will allow traffic stops to easier and more efficient. The handheld devices, already issued to 37 officers, allow them to scan a drivers license using a card-swiper, and enter the information for the citation digitally. If he/she issues a ticket, it will be printed instead of hand-written, and the information will insert itself directly in the county or municipal clerk's office instead of having to be filed manually.

Those devices cost $3,300 per unit.

Mayor Johnson also gave out the COMSTAT trophy for the most-improved precinct to Precinct 1 (Jackson's south side), where crime has dropped nearly 30 percent in the past three months.

The JFP received this release from the mayor's office Wednesday afternoon:

South Jackson has dramatic decrease in property crimes

Recent Jackson Police Department statistics reveal that South Jackson’s Precinct 1 led the entire city in crime reduction for the first Quarter of 2013. The Precinct saw a 28.9% drop in overall crime. Property crime decreased by 28.2% and violent crime decreased by 32.5%.

Each quarter the Jackson Police Department recognizes the precinct with the greatest drop in overall crime. That precinct is then awarded the traveling COMSTAT Trophy.

For Precinct One to win the COMSTAT Trophy represents a “remarkable turnaround” said, Police Chief Rebecca Coleman.

She further stated, “This is a tribute to the hard work, dedication and perseverance of the police officers that are assigned to Precinct One. Working in conjunction with the citizens of South Jackson, and implementing several crime fighting strategies, we have seen great success. Commander Wallace of Precinct 1 and her staff are very deserving of this recognition.”

In recent years, Precinct 1 has routinely led the city in the number of House Burglaries committed. They have averaged as many as fifty a week. Beginning in 2009, Chief Coleman implemented strategies aimed towards reducing these numbers. These included the following:

• Increasing the number of beats from 8 – 10
• Re-assigning support personnel to patrol duty in areas most affected
• Using the D.A.R.T. Unit in these areas as much as possible

“The biggest impact we have seen has been in the individual beat officer’s response time, …

WAPT reported today on what is probably the most coveted mayoral endorsement, saying that Regina Quinn has endorsed Chokwe Lumumba for mayor. In a less significant announcement, Frank Bluntson has endorsed Jonathan Lee.

During the campaign, Quinn was angry at Lee for spreading around that she had voted Republican. This is what she told the JFP via email about it:

That’s ridiculous. Whoever put that information into “databases” is playing the same “old political games” they always play during the waning days of a campaign season. I assure you that if you ask for backup documentation to support that allegation, you will receive none. I have been the most transparent candidate in this race, Ms. Ladd. I told the voters that I filed for bankruptcy and successfully completed the bankruptcy plan to turn my financial life around. Likewise, if I were a Republican, I would proudly say so. Voters should not trust any candidate who would lie to them about who they are. I understand that Mr. Othor Cain has dishonored himself by starting these abject lies. After you satisfy yourself that I am telling the truth just like I did when I was attacked in this fashion the first time, I would suggest that you research the party affiliation of the candidate that Mr. Cain is supporting (Lee) because this allegation is obviously a diversion from his own candidate. Let me be clear, I am and have always been a Democrat and voted consistently that way, albeit I can and do work with people of all persuasions.

Regina Quinn

The JFP blogged here that Quinn's name did surface once in a voting database for a Republican vote, which she says was an error.

We're not saying, however, that Quinn endorsed Lumumba because she was angry at Lee. Her staff wrote this on her Facebook page May 10:

Regina is reviewing each candidate's written plan, has met with both, and continue to monitor supporter's opinions. She expects to announce soon whether she will endorse Lumumba, Lee, or neither first to you her supporters.

Quinn came in fourth in the primary, drawing more vote than most political watchers expected and seems to have a strong voting base among women.

UPDATE: Quinn campaign manager Aaron Banks told us tonight:

Hey Donna, When Regina makes her final decision we will get statement to you. We did not inform 16 of any endorsement and it is sad to say that they posted a story without verifying it with our campaign. But we will inform you first once her mind is made up thanks.

Jackson, MS - Jackson Zoo and City Officials received news during the annual mid-year conference of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums from the Accreditation Board, that the Jackson Zoo will retain accreditation.

The NFL owners recently approved two new rule changes that will be one-year test rules next season. Both were highly controversial, one among coaches and the other among players.

First, here's a look at minor rule changes.

All chop blocks, which are when one offensive player is blocking a defensive player high, and another hits the same defensive player low, are now illegal in the NFL.

Defensive players are at risk to major injuries because of the blocks and in most cases, the NFL already outlawed them. Offensive linemen can still cut block (a one-on-one low block) a defensive player.

Now, just one season after the NFL experimented with the idea, points-after-touchdown kicks ("extra points") are permanent from the 15-yard line. There were 71 misses on extra-point kicks last season with the new rule change, and 27 teams missed an extra point. The defense is still allowed to try and score on missed extra points as well.

The owners also tweaked the horse-collar rule. Now, it is a horse-collar penalty to take a player down by the nameplate or above to make a tackle. Again, this is a player safety rule, but it will have some effect on games next season.

Other changes include:

Eliminating the five-yard penalty for illegal touching after a player goes out of bounds and reestablishes himself inbounds. Now, it is just a loss of down.

Coaches can use the coach-to-player radio system whether they are on the sideline or in the coaches booth.

Teams will receive a delay of game penalty if they try to call a timeout when they aren’t allowed to.

Eliminating multiple spots of enforcement on double fouls after a change of possession.

Teams now don’t have to designate which player will return from short-term injured reserve, although teams can still only bring back one player each season from IR.

Now, here's some information on the controversial rule changes:

First, players or coaches can be ejected from a game after two personal foul penalties. Players and coaches met this rule with resistance, with coaches fearing that players would bait others into penalties.

Only certain types of personal foul penalties will qualify for the ejection. Throwing a punch, forearm or kicking an opponent, if contact is made or not, will be part of the new ejection rule.

Using abusive, threatening or insulting language to an opponent, official, teammates or league officials or using baiting or taunting acts or words to foster ill will between teams can now lead to an ejection with two fouls.

While coaches or players won’t like the ejection rule, it isn’t likely to cause many, if any, ejections. A similar rule exists in college football but rarely comes into play as far as ejections go during games.

The biggest rule change that will affect every game is the new kickoff rule. Now, touchbacks after kickoffs will come out to the 25-yard line instead of the 20-yard line. …

Tonight marks the ninth time that the defending Super Bowl champion has opened their season in prime time. Overall, defending [Super Bowl champions have won 12 straight openers][1]. The last time a defending Super Bowl champion lost their opening game was in 1999, when the Denver Broncos last to the Miami Dolphins 38-21. It must be pointed out that Broncos quarterback John Elway retired after winning the Super Bowl in the 1998 season.

During this 10th anniversary of the Bush invasion of Iraq, I remember well the week that the war started. The JFP was only a few months old and still making a name for ourselves. When we realized that Bush was actualy pushing ahead with the threatened Iraq campaign, we postponed our planned cover story (an interview with then JPD Chief Robert Moore) and published this "myths" of the Iraq War instead. (The other story ran the next week.) At the time, the war was popular, and supporters were lying through their teeth as we now know, even trying to convince Americans that attacking Iraq was, somehow, a way to go after Saddam Hussein (presumably because they had Islam in common).

This was one of those decisions we didn't have to make. We knew it wouldn't be a popular move to publish a cover story and a cover that was clearly against Bush's war, but we started this newspaper to tell the truth, no matter who it perturbs. So in one of our early "do the right thing and wait" moves (which publisher Todd Stauffer now calls stories like these), we put the issue out and waited for the other shoe to fall.

It didn't. The issue after this one had our biggest ad sales as of that time, and we only lost three distribution spots (one of which returned, and the other two are out of business).

The truth isn't always popular, but it is the Fourth Estate's responsibility to tell it. I'm fond of saying that my editorial decisions over the year have kept my conscience clear. This one was no exception.

May all of the soldiers, and civilians, who lost their lives in the Iraq War rest in peace. That includes my cousin, Josh Ladd, who died in Iraq believing he was fighting for a just cause.

Verbatim statement, just in:

National Organization for Woman, Mississippi Insists Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant apologize for statements against working mothers

The Mississippi Chapter of the National Organization for Women condemns the comments Governor Phil Bryant made regarding working women and working families being the cause of education problems in Mississippi.

His statement places all responsibility on mothers and none on the state. It disregards the impact of racism and integration in the decline of Mississippi's historically underfunded schools. It conveniently takes away any responsibility from the Governor and his failure to focus on jobs, healthcare, states economy, and equal/adequate funding for schools.

Rather, the Governor and GOP-controlled House and Senate have been focused on abortion restrictions, guns, school prayer, and immigration.

The Governor is missing the economic reality of the lives of many Mississippians--where both parents have to work, they do not choose to work. Even if women are not economically forced to work, we have the right to make a career without being made scapegoats by state officials who are not doing all they can to create great schools.

If Governor Bryant is sincerely concerned about having a Mississippi where one parent can stay home-if they choose-then we urge him to focus on statewide policies that make that possible. We encourage him to support policies like state-funded childcare so families can afford to have one person work. We encourage him to support raising the minimum wage, so one job/one parent can support a family. Lastly we encourage him to support medicaid expansion because healthy kids are able to learn better and kids need healthy parents.

Policies like these matter just as much if not more than if a child's mother has a job. Governor Bryant you can not blame Mississippi mothers for the state not doing its job.

Companies building a new 582-megawatt power plant near DeKalb are not holding it up as a model for plants around the nation. The Kemper County IGCC plant, now about nine months away from completion, will burn low-grade lignite coal and capture carbon emissions. Kemper is the first plant to use TRIG technology, which Atlanta-based Southern Co. developed in the 1990s.

Southern has said it hopes to sell the technology around the world as a solution to global change, but recently told Reuters that Kemper could not be replicated nationally.

"Because the unique characteristics that make the project the right choice for Mississippi cannot be consistently replicated on a national level, the Kemper County Energy Facility should not serve as a primary basis for new emissions standards impacting all new coal-fired power plants," Southern said in a statement to the wire service.

Louie Miller, who heads the anti-Kemper Mississippi Sierra Club, took aim at the report. Miller said, through a statement of his own, that the company's "confession" that Kemper is not a panacea for the nation's energy woes "should come as a shock" to its customers.

“Since day one, Mississippi Power, its parent Southern Company, and its high-profile backers like Governor Haley Barbour and United States Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu have promised that the Kemper Plant would be a shining model for new coal-fired power plants across the United States, as well as overseas," Miller said.

The Obama Administration recently announced new carbon-limiting rules on utility companies. Southern characterizes its corporate stance as climate-friendly, but told Reuters the new rules "essentially eliminate coal as a future generation option."

The latest court monitoring report for the Hinds County's Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center shows "the facility continues to have "major developmental needs in many areas.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center and Disability Rights Mississippi filed a class-action lawsuit in 2011 that alleged Henley-Young's staff members subjected the children to physical and verbal abuse.

Under a March 2012 settlement children entering the facility are to receive mental-health evaluations, counseling, better rehabilitation options, input from family and advocates, and more time outside their cells.

Leonard B. Dixon, a juvenile justice expert appointed to oversee implementation of the agreement, visited the jail from August 18 through August 23. Dixon said in his report that he witnessed staff training that did not align with juvenile-justice standards.

“As I sat in on several parts of the training, I found the majority of the training was aligned with adult corrections,” he wrote. “Although this training may be adequate for adult facilities, in the juvenile system training is required so that staff will have the skills to effectively interact and manage residents.”

Dixon also cited staffing issues and medical and mental health-care services as still needing improvement.

“Even though the facility has hired new staff, the results of attrition still leave the County far short of the needed staff to properly run the facility,” Dixon wrote. This creates pressure for staff members to keep the peace at all costs, and they often “react to minor misbehaviors” by “locking down residents that present potential conduct issues.”

In early September, the Henley Young brought on a new director when Brenda Frelix took over for Dale Knight, who took the post in 2010.

If you've been itching to see Bruno Mars live, this weekend is your chance. He'll be playing the FedEx Forum in Memphis on 6/6. If that's not good enough, head down to New Orleans and catch his set at the Smoothie King Center on 6/7. Either way, you're sure to have a great time. Why not just go to both shows?

If you need to stay away from the Enormodome and just want some good rock music, check out Better Than Ezra at the Golden Nugget Casino in Biloxi on 6/7.

Tupelo pays tribute to its native son, Elvis at the Tupelo Elvis Festival at the Bancorp South Arena on 6/6.

If you just want to stay home and listen to records, then there's plenty of new stuff to keep you inside all weekend long:

Miranda Lambert - Platinum (Country)

Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin (Noise Pop)

Fucked Up - Glass Boys (Rock)

Die Antwoord - Donker Mag (Dance)

Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal (Rock)

Meshell Ndegeocello - Comet, Come to Me (Pop/Rock)

Echo & the Bunnymen - Meteorites (Alternative)

Joe Henry - Invisible Hour (Pop/Rock)

50 Cent - Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win (Rap)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Only Run (Rock)

Camper Van Beethoven - El Camino Real (Alternative)

Dave Alvin / Phil Alvin - Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy (Americana)

Devon Williams - Gilding the Lily (Pop)

Morrissey - Vauxhall & I [20th Anniversary Edition Definitive] (Alternative)

Cypress Grove / Lydia Lunch - A Fistful of Desert Blues (Punk)

Big Smo - Kuntry Livin' (Country)

Harry Dean Stanton - Partly Fiction (Americana)

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Mississippi public schools will administer new assessments for 3-8 grades called the Mississippi Assessment Program (MAP) this year, and the Mississippi Department of Education released blueprints for the tests today.

The MAP tests will be conducted primarily on computers, with the exclusion of the English language portion which will be handwritten. Tests will be administered at the end of the 2015-1016 school year and will include multiple choice, constructed response, writing, technology enhanced, and performance task questions.

The tests will be administered by Questar Assessment Inc., a Minneapolis-based assessment provider who won a $122 million contract with the state in April. The tests are aligned with the Mississippi College and Career-Ready Standards (MCCRS) for English language arts and mathematics. MAP will replace the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Mississippi is no longer a member of the multi-state consortium, according to the Mississippi Department of Education's press release.

Third graders are still required to take an English language arts assessment this year, and in the 2016-2017 school year, superintendent of education Dr. Carey Wright said she will recommend to the Mississippi Legislature in the 2016 session that the law be amended to make student proficiency the goal and keep testing third graders in following school years.

In the MDE's press release Wright said:

“If the goal is to ensure that our students are successful in 4th grade and beyond, we need to set high expectations for them to be proficient readers. The current law doesn’t say that students need to be proficient in reading to move to the next grade level. The students who met the minimum passing score last year will still need instructional support this school year."

The Mississippi Public Service Commission's Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley issued the following statement about the approval of the state's first net-metering rule:

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - (December 3, 2015) – Today, the Public Service Commission unanimously passed a groundbreaking rule allowing net metering in the state. Net metering is the process by which individual utility customers who use solar panels or other renewable energy generators can sell back their excess power to the power companies. The electricity the customers produce can be placed back on the electric grid to offset what they otherwise would pay on their power bill.

In early January of 2011, the PSC initiated a study of the costs and benefits of net metering. Today’s decision is the culmination of nearly 5 years of work by the Commission.

“Mississippians are self-sufficient. They like to fix their own cars and grow their own food. They should be able to make their own power, too,” Presley said.

The rule requires that customers who produce excess electricity be compensated at the cost the utility will not have to spend each month, plus 2.5 cents for unquantifiable benefits. To assist low income customers, the Commission orders that each utility file a report on the feasibility of community solar by summer, 2016. Further, the first 1,000 low income customers will receive an additional 2 cents/kWh as a way of offsetting some initial costs. The order further protects consumers by establishing a joint working group to address all concerns raised in the docket. The effectiveness of the rule will be evaluated in 5 years.

“Passing this rule is a big step toward creating a solar market in our state; a step that could one day benefit all ratepayers. No one can predict what the cost of electricity or gas will be tomorrow but I can tell you that the sunshine will be free,” Presley concluded.

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U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves has denied Gov. Phil Bryant and executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services John Davis' motion to stay the preliminary injunction Reeves initially issued, which blocked House Bill 1523 from becoming law.

In his 6-page order, Reeves says that the state did not prove irreparable injury in their motion.

"A Mississippian – or a religious entity for that matter – holding any of the beliefs set out for special protection in § 2 [of HB 1523] may invoke existing protections for religious liberty, including Mississippi’s Constitution, Mississippi’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the First Amendment to the United State Constitution," Reeves wrote. "HB 1523’s absence does not impair the free exercise of religion."

Reeves' order means he has officially passed HB 1523's fate into the hands of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"The motions are denied," Reeves concludes. "The baton is now passed."

Gov. Bryant and Davis have also appealed to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals separately, asking them to lift Reeves' preliminary injunction. For more stories on HB 1523, visit jacksonfreepress.com/lgbt.

In about two hours, Jan Michael Brawner will be executed for the murders of his 3-year-old daughter, ex-wife and former in-laws. The Mississippi Department of Corrections issued the following news release detailing Brawner's final day:

This weekend, I've seen a lot of excuses for Donald Trump's bigotry and xenophobia from his supporters, who don't seem to have many reasons for supporting him other than they are sick and tired of the way things are now. One gentleman showed up on my Facebook page to defend supporting Trump, saying it's not about bigotry and calling me "intolerant toward those holding different opinions" because I was willing to call out Trump's blatant bigotry.

I looked at his Facebook page, and he had reposted a letter to the RNC supposedly explaining why Trump supporters are fed up. The gist of it was about getting rid of "rabid, messy, mean raccoons":

You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately…You call the city and four different exterminators, but nobody could handle the job. There is this one guy however, who guarantees you he will get rid of them, so you hire him. You don’t care if the guy smells, you don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he was friends with liberals, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack…you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period. Here’s why we want Trump: Yes he’s a bit of an ass, yes he’s an egomaniac, but we don’t care. The country is a mess because politicians have become too self-serving. The Republican Party is two-faced & gutless. Illegal aliens have been allowed to invade our nation. We want it all fixed! We don’t care that Trump is crude, we don’t care that he insults people, we don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, we don’t care that he has changed positions, we don’t care that he’s been married three times, we don’t care that he fights with Megan Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, we don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslim terrorist.

When I asked the gentleman on my Facebook page (whom I don't know) who he thought the "raccoons" are, he said he "assumed" that the piece he was reposting meant "illegal immigrants"—perhaps not knowing that he is speaking of human beings that Trump has said the most horrible things about, especially the darkish ones south of the U.S. border. He also added: "Not agreeing on issues or politicians or political parties is one thing but when either side turns to vile hate towards others that don't agree with them then that is bigotry."

I'm seeing this argument all the time now from Trump supporters: It is just as "racist" — ??? — to point out someone's bigotry as it is to be the bigot, at least according to their twisted rationalization. In addition to being incredibly absurd logic, this is a straight-up defense of …

As if it's not bad enough that Rep. Todd Akin believes that women who are legitimately raped (I cringe to put those two words together), he was also part of a House Republican effort to redefine rape. The point, Mother Jones reports, was to keep federal funding for abortion away from teenagers, arguing that they might pretend they were raped by an older man (statutory rape, which is very common) in order to get the money because the right didn't want to "federally fund the abortion of tens of thousands of healthy babies of healthy moms, based solely on the age of their mothers."

More from that piece:

The implication of his position is that if you were raped and became pregnant, you must have actually wanted it—it wasn't really rape.

This isn't the first time Akin has expressed fringe views about rape in the context of the abortion debate. Last year, Akin, vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and most of the House GOP co-sponsored a bill that would have narrowed the already-narrow exceptions to the laws banning federal funding for abortion—from all cases of rape to cases of "forcible rape."

Drugged, raped, and pregnant? Too bad, says the House GOP. After I reported on the "forcible rape" language in January 2011, a wave of outcry from abortion-rights, progressive, and women's groups led the Republicans to remove it. But a few months later, in a congressional committee report, Republicans wrote that they believed the bill would continue to have the same effect despite the absence of the "forcible" language.

So, what we have here, are a bunch of dudes in Congress once again trying to decide what happens to women and what to do about it. Anyone else OK with that?

Vickie Stanford called me today. Her 15-year-old son Brennan needs a kidney, and there are no signs of match anywhere in sight.

The JFP featured Brennan as a Person of the Day in April. You can read the story here: POD: Brennan Stanford

Vickie said today that the Tulane University pediatric kidney transplant program shut down recently. Brennan, whose blood type is O positive, is now on the waiting lists for a kidney at University of Mississippi Medical Center, which just recently reopened its pediatric transplant unit, and at Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans.

There is no nationwide, or even statewide, kidney donation program. Each hospital that does transplants has its own waiting list and its own donor supplies. Vickie said that UMMC told her that they may receive one kidney a year that is a match for Brennan, who can only accept a kidney from someone with Type O blood.

Vickie hopes to get Brennan on the list at the University of Alabama-Birmingham soon.

Brennan is currently in good health, and doctors have told Vickie that now is the best time to give him a transplant, if she can find a donor. He currently takes 9 hours of dialysis every night, and Vickie said he cannot do that forever.

Brennan, whose father donated a kidney to him before his second birthday, has no other family with his O positive blood type. If Brennan is going to receive the kidney he needs to survive, he will most likely need a volunteer donor.

Further information about donating a kidney can be found in the JFP's Person of the Day story on Brennan. Brennan's health insurance will pay for all medical expenses related to a donation.

For more information on donating or to find out if you are a match, please call Silvia at UMMC at 601-984-5065, or Becky Guillera at Ochsner Hospital at 504-842-3925.

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