The U.S. Small Business Administration has opened an office in Jackson, Miss., for organizations in Hinds County and seven adjacent counties to access disaster loans to remediate the impact of the water crisis in the capital city. Other counties that can apply at the office include Claiborne, Copiah, Madison, Rankin, Simpson, Warren and Yazoo counties.
The SBA Business Recovery Center at the Chamber of Commerce Building will be open Mondays to Fridays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m at 201 S. President St., Jackson. It will cease operation at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, though businesses will still be able to apply for loans online until June 14, 2023
“Applicants may also apply online using the Electronic Loan Application via SBA’s secure website at DisasterLoanAssistance.sba.gov/ela/s and should apply under SBA declaration #17621, not for the COVID-19 incident,” a Sept. 15, 2022 news release said. The loan terms include having an “acceptable” credit history and having an ability to repay the loan.
SBA’s Mississippi District Director Janita R. Stewart said in a news release that the SBA offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans, or EIDLs, to eligible applicants “to help meet working capital needs caused by the disaster.” Mississippi-based small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and private nonprofit organizations are eligible, the press release said.
U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman said in a Sept. 15, 2022, press release that the federal disaster loans available for businesses in and around Hinds County that the Jackson water crisis has affected will help the “communities recover and rebuild.” Photo courtesy SBA
The recent water crisis in Jackson began on July 29, 2022, when the City of Jackson posted a boil-water notice. A city-wide fall in water pressure followed. Businesses felt the effects of the crisis through increased operating expensesand a reduction in clientele. On Sept. 15, 2022, Reeves announced the removal of the boil-water notice following remediation efforts that federal and state agencies underwent.
U.S. SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman said in the Sept. 15, 2022, press release that
The contract dispute between the state’s largest insurer and hospital is still not resolved more than three months after the two parties began mediation proceedings.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi and University of Mississippi Medical Center have been locked in a dispute over reimbursement rates throughout 2022. The Medical Center went out of network with Blue Cross on March 31, and since then, thousands of Mississippians have been forced to take on higher out-of-pocket costs for their health care or leave the state for certain specialty care.
The two parties agreed to utilize a mediation process to settle the dispute in April after Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney urged them to do so.
“The commissioner (Mike Chaney) is certainly very hopeful that the parties can make great progress, if not find a resolution, by early June,” Mark Haire, deputy commissioner of insurance, told Mississippi Today in early May.
Evidently, that hope was misplaced.
Patrice Guilfoyle, director of communications at UMMC, told Mississippi Today on Tuesday that there’s “no update at this point” on mediation proceedings. Blue Cross did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Chaney told Mississippi Today he has not had any contact with either party or the mediator relating to mediation since before Sept. 5. Under state agency rules, Chaney is not allowed to directly mediate or help settle disputes over contacts between insurance companies and health care providers.
There is no requirement the two parties come to an agreement.
A targeted market conduct examination of Blue Cross that Chaney ordered on July 1 is ongoing. The examination is to determine whether the insurer is in compliance with the state’s network adequacy regulations since UMMC provides specialty care that cannot be found elsewhere in Mississippi.
Chaney told Mississippi Today on Tuesday that the network adequacy review is nearly complete but cannot be finished until UMMC provides his office with materials that have been subpoenaed.
“It (the network adequacy review) will probably be surprising to a lot of folks,” Chaney said.
Blue Cross sued top UMMC employees on July 28 over the public relations campaign the hospital has been waging against the insurer due to their contract dispute. The insurer claims the campaign was “designed to disseminate false and defamatory statements about Blue Cross to the public.”
In advertisements and public statements made by employees, the claim was made that the insurer “excluded” UMMC from its network of providers, though it was UMMC who voluntarily allowed its contract with Blue Cross to expire.
It is unclear how that lawsuit has impacted the progress of mediation proceedings.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how seriously individuals with cardiovascular disease and related comorbidities should consider their overall health and wellness. Risk factors including obesity, high blood pressure and high LDL cholesterol (or bad cholesterol) proved to worsen outcomes for patients who contracted the coronavirus.
The Partnership to Advance Cardiovascular Health recently released an alarming report citing that insurance companies were more likely to deny life-saving medications to lower harmful cholesterol levels for women, Black and Hispanic patients than male and white patients. Mississippi ranks among the highest states in claim denials. Blue Cross Blue Shield Mississippi has a 49% rejection rate for these medications.
Some people can alter their diet and increase their exercise routine to make their LDL levels manageable. Still, others with pre-existing conditions and hereditary high cholesterol need medication to lower their levels. Now more than ever, patients need access to medications that can reduce cholesterol up to 70% and cut the risk of a heart attack up to approximately one-third.
This table identifies the insurance organizations with the highest rates of rejection for cholesterol-lowering PCSK9 inhibitors. Courtesy Partnership to Advance Cardiovascular Health
The compounding effects regarding the prevalence of high cholesterol within Black communities and higher-than-average prescription coverage denial rates in Mississippi are troubling. We must improve preventive care if we want better patient outcomes surrounding cardiovascular disease.
Mississippians have three ways to address lowering LDL levels in our state.
Screenings, Education and Prescription Access
Most people with high cholesterol show no signs or symptoms. However, a simple blood test can measure your cholesterol levels. Your health-care provider can do this in their office, which is often a covered benefit through many insurance plans. If you do not have a primary-care physician, check your local health clinics for availability or free screening events in your local community. Many churches and nonprofit organizations provide cholesterol screenings
Priscilla Sterling is a teacher at Murray High School in Jackson, Miss., and has had “several of her children diagnosed with lead poisoning,” a class action lawsuit over Jackson’s water system alleges. Sterling joined three others as plaintiffs in the case against the City of Jackson, Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba, former Mayor Tony Yarber, previous public works department leaders and two companies—Siemens and Trilogy Engineering Services.
A press release on the lawsuit indicated that it is “seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages against various government and private engineering defendants over the neglect, mismanagement, and maintenance failures that led to an environmental catastrophe leaving over 153,000 Jackson-area residents without access to safe running water.”
“The lawsuit seeks immediate injunctive relief, including the removal and remediation of lead pipes and fixtures, an adequate water supply delivered to each home until the water supply is safe for consumption, and an injunction entered to stop all Jackson residents from paying for the contaminated water, as well as compensatory, punitive, exemplary damages.”
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Jackson on Sept. 16, 2022. After a request for comment on the lawsuit, Jackson Director of Communications Melissa Faith Payne told the Mississippi in a Sept. 19, 2022 email that “Due to pending litigation… the City has no comment.”
The lawsuit alleged that the City suffered a loss of revenue following a botched attempt from Siemens to revamp the water billing system, followed by the company’s settlement for “$90 million, reflecting nearly the entire original value of the contract,” the lawsuit says.
Four Jackson, Miss., residents filed a class-action lawsuit on Sept. 16, 2022, regarding the capital city’s water crisis’ condition.
“But after attorneys’ fees and loan payments/reserves, that amount was not sufficient to rectify the damage the Siemens Defendants caused to the PWS of the City of Jackson,” it added. The preceding conduct by the Siemens Defendants’ conduct caused the City of Jackson’s PWS to deteriorate, which contributed to the failure to provide safe water.”
Trilogy Engineering Services advised the city on corrosion control in
In anticipation of the distribution of P-EBT funds to approximately 466,000 Mississippi children in October, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) and the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) would like to provide the following information.
Families will be able to chat with a P-EBT customer service agent beginning September 19, 2022. A customer service representative will be able to help parents with all P-EBT benefits questions and concerns.
Please do not call your child’s school or district concerning P-EBT. The schools will not be able to answer any questions about the distribution of P-EBT funds.
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
An Oxford woman who stole $2.9 million from a Mississippi State University sorority was ordered to pay back all of the money and serve nearly four years in federal prison.
Betty Jane Cadle, 75, was sentenced Friday to serve 45 months or one count of wire fraud at the federal courthouse in Oxford. Over seven years, she wrote checks from the account of Delta Omega Chapter House Corporation for the Kappa Delta Sorority to her personal bank accounts and business.
“The defendant abused her position of trust and authority by stealing money she was entrusted with for her own personal gain,” Clay Joyner, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, said in a statement.
As treasurer, Cadle was responsible for managing sorority dues, purchasing items for the sorority house, paying utility bills, filing tax documents and general bookkeeping, according to court records.
At her sentencing, representatives from the sorority said Cadle bullied members and “maintained an attitude of superiority” to avoid questions about the sorority house’s finances, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson imposed restitution for $2.9 million.
Court records state Cadle received millions as part of a “scheme,” but she only faced one count of wire fraud.
She pleaded guilty in March for writing a $20,000 check from the sorority corporation and depositing it in 2018 into an account for her business, the Oxford children’s clothing store Belles and Beaus, which is now closed.
Between 2018 and 2019, Cadle deposited another five checks totaling about $111,500 into the business, according to court documents. As part of her plea deal, the federal government dismissed five counts of wire fraud.
Court records did not say where the rest of the money went.
The maximum sentence she could have faced was 20 years incarceration, a $250,000 fine, three years supervised release and a $100 special assessment.
Cadle is scheduled to report to prison Oct. 24. The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not say at which facility she will serve her sentence, and Bureau of Prison records do not list her as of Tuesday.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Jackson residents seeking unspecified damages and to order the city to remove lead contamination, fix supply issues and not charge residents for water until issues are resolved.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, includes as defendants the City of Jackson, its current and former mayors, the former city public works directors, and companies that have contracted with the city “for their involvement in the ruination of the public water system in Jackson,” attorneys said in a statement. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of four residents to represent all customers. It comes after a nearly two-month long boil-water notice lifted only last week, and a complete failure of the system that resulted in loss of water pressure for most of the 200,000 residents it serves for several days in late August and early September. This prompted an emergency state takeover of the system, and a governor’s state of emergency is still in effect.
The lawsuit was filed by the law firms of Gibbs Travis PLLC, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, Larry D. Moffet PLLC and Kershaw Talley Barlow PC.
The Jackson Mayor’s Office had no immediate comment on the lawsuit Monday.
There have been three other lawsuits filed over Jackson’s troubled water and sewage system since 2021, including one in October alleging that lead in the water is harmful to children.
On Monday, a chlorine leak at the city’s main treatment plant resulted in workers being temporarily evacuated.
A statement from lawyers filing the new lawsuit said: “the City of Jackson’s water supply has been neglected for decades, culminating in a complete shutdown in August 2022 that left over 153,000 residents, 82% of whom are Black, without access to running water. These residents lacked safe drinking water, or water for making powdered baby formula, cooking, showering or laundry” and residents could not flush toilets for days.
“We’re suffering because of the lack of leadership and planning by government officials and others,” said Raine Becker, one of the named plaintiffs, in a statement. “The purpose of the lawsuit is to force them to fix the water mess, care for our community that has been put in danger, and put the right systems in place so that this never happens again.”
One year after a law expanded parole eligibility to more people incarcerated in Mississippi prisons, the state’s parole grant rate has declined by more than a third, a sign criminal justice reform advocates say shows the law isn’t being fully implemented.
Senate Bill 2795, known as the Mississippi Earned Parole Eligibility Act, became law in July 2021 with the goal of giving more people the opportunity to be heard by the Mississippi Parole Board and potentially be released from prison. As a result, about 5,700 additional people are expected to become parole eligible within the next five years, according to an estimate in the Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force’s January report.
FWD.us, a criminal justice and immigration reform group, supported SB 2795. Once the law was implemented, results were encouraging; the parole grant rate climbed and the prison population rate declined to its lowest point in more than 20 years, the group said.
By November 2021, the parole grant rate reached a high of 93% and the board held over 1,000 parole hearings, according to numbers from the Mississippi Department of Corrections obtained by Mississippi Today. But soon after, parole rates and hearings began dropping each month. In July 2022, the most recent data available, the grant rate was 40% and the board held 633 hearings.
“Parole grant rates have fallen by more than half, reducing the incentives of people in Mississippi’s prisons to participate in programs and prepare to safely reenter society,” FWD.usState Director Alesha Judkins said in a statement to Mississippi Today.
Judkins said parole is an evidence-based policy that gives people second chances, reunites them with their families and community and curbs taxpayer spending. It is also a way to address Mississippi’s long prison sentences.
Parole Board Chair Jeffery Belk stepped into his role at the beginning of the year, around the time the board was coming down from working through a wave of hearings spurred by parole eligibility expansion taking effect.
He said the board is aware that since he’s become chairman, the parole grant rate has fallen. Belk said the numbers don’t dictate decisions, and the board looks at a range of available information to decide whether to grant parole.
“I would rather have the numbers be true and accurate and go back and look at them then just ‘we did whatever we did to get the numbers down’ mentality,” he said during an interview with Missisisppi Today.
When writing the law, Belk said legislators had faith that the Parole Board would review and determine who would receive parole and who wouldn’t.
Generally, a person can become eligible for parole after serving a certain amount of time on their sentence and having been convicted of a crime that is parole eligible.
Under SB 2795, those convicted of nonviolent crimes and non habitual drug offenses committed after June 30, 1995must serve either 25% of their sentence or 10 years before becoming parole eligible.
Those who committed a violent crime must serve half their sentence or 20 years, and people convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon, a drive-by shooting or carjacking must serve 60% of their sentence or 25 years.
People who have reached the age of 60 and served at least 10 years of their sentence for a parole-eligible crime can also receive it.
Capital offenses, murder, drug trafficking, sex crimes and being a habitual offender are among the crimes in the state that are not eligible for parole.
When Gov. Tate Reeves signed the Mississippi Earned Parole Eligibility Act in April 2021, he called it “a measured approach to (second) chances” and said it would be a “net positive for (Mississippi)” with proper implementation.
Under SB 2795, a parole hearing date shall be set when a person is within 30 days of their parole eligibility date.
Belk said there is a misunderstanding that a parole eligibility date means automatic release or sentence reduction. He said he often gets emails from family members of incarcerated people asking why they haven’t been released.
Newly-parole eligible people have had hearings, Belk said, but some may not be ready for release because they have not had access to programs such as skills and job training to succeed outside of prison.
If someone is not ready for parole, he said the board will give them time, maybe a year, to be reconsidered.
“Now that they’re parole eligible, just because they missed their first parole eligibility date, doesn’t mean they’re going to miss their next one if they start taking advantage of (programs),” Belk said.
In an Aug. 17 interview with Supertalk Radio, MDOC Commissioner Burl Cain said he asked the parole board not to approve parole for gang members to protect public safety and to send a message that gang membership in prison won’t help.
“So that kind of makes the (prison) numbers spike up, but it’s public safety and that’s what we’re all about,” he said.
In response, Belk reiterated that the Parole Board has shifted from a numbers-driven perspective and takes time to make tough decisions about parole, including for those who are gang members.
While parole hearings have decreased, Belk said there has been a related wave of hearings to determine whether someone should have their parole revoked. A revocation may happen if a person commits a new crime or fails to report to a parole officer for a certain period of time.
Belk said the board will give the person a chance to clear up any issues to be able to continue on parole. Otherwise, the person will be returned to prison.
As the parole rate has fallen, the state is seeing its prison population increase. Mississippi is a world leader in incarceration. The prison population has grown and is higher than last year when parole eligibility expansion became law, according to MDOC records.
Judkins, of FWD.us, said less opportunities for parole and a growing prison population don’t just hurt people who are incarcerated. Those situations also don’t improve public safety and can cost taxpayers more.
“Unfortunately, the rapidly declining parole grant rate is not only blunting the impact of the new law but also denying meaningful opportunities for release to those who were parole eligible before the new law,” she said.
Let’s go back 50 years to 1972. Title IX has just weeks earlier become the law of the land. To paraphrase Bob Dylan: The times, they were a-changin’.
I was a young sports writer at the Hattiesburg American, working my way through college. My editor told me to go report on a seminar at the university. The federal government – the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), specifically – was sending a representative to explain the ramifications of Title IX. I went.
Rick Cleveland
But first I had to look up the Title IX legislation. It was all of 37 words: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
I didn’t see the words “sports” or “athletics” in the wording anywhere. I wasn’t sure why I was being sent to cover it. The answer came quickly.
The woman from HEW didn’t mince words. She said all public schools – elementary schools through universities that received federal funding – would have to spend money equally on boys and girls and men and women – in athletics, as in every other aspect of education. And, if they didn’t, they would lose all federal monies.
Hands shot up. People had questions. One of the first: How are universities such as USM, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, already struggling to make ends meet, supposed to double their spending on scholarships, salaries, expenses, etc. within their athletic programs?
Her answer: That wasn’t the government’s concern. They’d do it or else.
At that point, I muttered something to the effect: “That’s insane. It’ll never fly. It’s not fair.”
The man next to me, a professor in the health and physical education department, looked at me and replied, “Obviously, you’ve never had a daughter.” He had three. One became the point guard on the first Hattiesburg High basketball team.
Fifty years, a son and a daughter later, I get it.
Last week, the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at Ole Miss celebrated 50 years of Title IX with a panel discussion that featured Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter, women’s basketball coach Yolette McPhee-McCuinn (better known as Coach Yo) and Rita Igbokwe, a senior player on the Ole Miss women’s basketball team. I moderated. You can find it here.
If the discussion did nothing else, it surely highlighted the remarkable change in the American sports scene those 37 words have spurred. I’ve lived it. I’ve covered it.
In 1972, no co-ed Mississippi college or university had a single women’s athletic team. Since then, Delta State has won six national women’s basketball championships. Ole Miss has won a national championship in golf. Mississippi State has made it the NCAA women’s basketball championship twice. Southern Miss made the women’s College World Series in softball. In track and field, USM’s Tori Bowie of Pisgah won NCAA championships in track and field and later an Olympic gold medal and three world championships. Last season, Coach Yo’s Ole Miss team won 23 games and made the NCAA Tournament.
More importantly, over the last 50 years, thousands upon thousands of young women have competed in multiple sports and had their educations financed as was never the case before.
In more than half a century of covering Mississippi sports, the two most meaningful transformations I have witnessed: One, the widespread racial integration of sports at all levels; two, the meteoric rise of women’s athletics.
Fifty years ago, I think I would have predicted what has happened as far as integration. As for what has happened with regard to women’s athletics, I had not a clue.
Pearl, Miss– This morning, September 19, 2022, at 9:04 a.m. on-site safety personnel were notified of an alarm at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant. Officials identified a chlorine leak in the chemical building. All personnel were evacuated immediately from the chemical building. That building is designed to have air scrubbers to keep chlorine from leaving the structure and reportedly worked as designed. Ridgeland Fire Department, Jackson Fire Department Hazmat Team and O.B. Curtis maintenance staff identified three leaking valves and secured the area. No other evacuations of surrounding areas were necessary.
“The chemical building at O.B. Curtis is an area where increased focus needs to occur to abate additional safety hazards. We continually work to improve the safety of this facility. While this was a chlorine leak, the Mississippi State Department of Health engineers monitored the water disinfection during the leak; the disinfection process was uninterrupted, water being distributed to the public is still safe for consumption as long as you follow MSDH precautions,” says Jim Craig, MSDH Incident Commander.
No injuries occurred and fire officials gave the all-clear at 11:08 a.m.
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
Source: Mississippi Department Of Human Services (MDHS)
