<body><div>mississippitoday.org – Mississippi Today – 2024-09-25 08:01:00<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=43h7yW_0vjHM1ze00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=43h7yW_0vjHM1ze00" width="1024" height="576" ></figure>Editor’s note: This press release was drafted and released by the National Press Club and is republished with permission.WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Press Club is honoring Mississippi Today — a nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom based in Jackson, Mississippi — with its highest honor for press freedom, the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award. Mississippi Today is currently involved in a legal case to protect privileged documents used in producing a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation and named in an ensuing defamation case brought by the state‘s former governor. The case has wide-ranging implications for press freedom in the United States, including journalist-source protections. “In a country that holds freedom of the press as one of its core rights, it is shocking that any court — let alone the highest one in a state — would require reporters to hand over their sources simply because the governor was upset to be caught red-handed misusing federal welfare funds,” said Emily Wilkins, president of the National Press Club. “Mississippi Today’s reporting shined light on a critical issue impacting thousands of Americans, and we hope this award both honors their work and draws attention and support for their case.” Mississippi Today is an authoritative voice on politics and policy in the state of Mississippi and produces essential coverage on education, public health, justice, environment, equity, and more. The outlet won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation into a $77 million welfare scandal that revealed how the state’s former governor, Phil Bryant, used his office to benefit his friends and family. Bryant then sued Mississippi Today and its CEO Mary Margaret White in July 2023, claiming that the series defamed him. Editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau and reporter Anna Wolfe were added as defendants in May 2024, according to an editor’s note on the outlet’s website.On June 6, 2024, Mississippi Today appealed a county judge’s order to turn over privileged documents in relation to the defamation lawsuit. The Mississippi Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the newsroom’s appeal. “Ours may be a Mississippi case, but the ramifications absolutely could impact every American journalist who has long been granted constitutional protections to dutifully hold powerful leaders to account,” Ganucheau said. “But this fight is not just about protecting journalists and our sources. We’re also fighting to ensure every single American citizen never loses a fuller understanding of how leaders truly operate when their doors are closed and they think no one is watching. As we continue to stand up for press freedom everywhere, it’s truly humbling to be recognized by the National Press Club in this way.” A team of attorneys is representing Mississippi Today in its case: Henry Laird at Wise Carter; and Ted Boutrous Jr., Lee Crain, Sasha Duddin, and Peter Jacobs at Gibson Dunn. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is also providing legal support. The John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award is named for a former National Press Club president who fervently advocated for press freedom. By selecting Mississippi Today as the domestic honoree, the Club and the Institute are committing to monitor and support this precedent-setting case for the First Amendment protection of reporters’ privilege. The National Press Club will confer the 2024 Aubuchon awards, along with the Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism during its annual Fourth Estate Award Gala honoring Axios’ Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen on Nov. 21 in Washington, D.C. The gala dinner is a fundraiser for the Club’s nonprofit affiliate, the National Press Club Journalism Institute, which produces training to equip journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement. Tickets and more information for the event can be found here. This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.Post Views: 46Proof of income requirement may delay program to help low-income pregnant women get careBymississippitoday.org – Sophia Paffenroth – 2024-09-26 18:42:11<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2wFT8p_0vjHM1ze00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2wFT8p_0vjHM1ze00" width="1024" height="719" ></figure>The head of Mississippi Medicaid told lawmakers on Thursday that the agency is working with the federal government to get approval of a new law that allows uninsured, low-income women short-term Medicaid coverage while they wait for their application to be approved. The program, called presumptive eligibility for pregnant women, has been hailed as a way to get pregnant women earlier access to prenatal care in states that have not expanded Medicaid and to mitigate bad health outcomes for mothers and babies. Mississippi is one of 10 states in the nation not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Mississippi lawmakers wrote in the bill that women must provide proof of income before qualifying for presumptive eligibility, which is potentially at odds with federal regulations. “CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) does not like proof of income or proof of pregnancy,” Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder said Thursday in an annual legislative budget meeting. “To the current federal administration, a person’s word should be sufficient to get the temporary pregnancy coverage … I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to come to a resolution that is faithful to the state law and satisfies federal expectations.” It’s not clear whether the state agency will be able to negotiate the details with the federal government or whether the Mississippi Legislature will need to rewrite the law during the 2025 legislative session. Following the meeting, Snyder quickly left the building and refused to answer questions from a reporter about the status of the program. Mississippi Today has been allowed to communicate about pregnancy presumptive eligibility with the Division of Medicaid solely through email exchanges.House Bill 539, spearheaded by Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, would allow low-income pregnant women to get prenatal care while waiting for an official Medicaid application to be approved. The way the bill is written, these women would need to bring proof of income, such as a paystub, to their doctor’s office. Federal guidelines, however, state that while the agency may require proof of citizenship or residency, it should not “require verification of the conditions for presumptive eligibility” – which are pregnancy and income. “It is my understanding that the Division of Medicaid is currently working with CMS for approval of our presumptive eligibility law, specifically with the language around proof of income,” McGee told Mississippi Today. “This is part of the process and I am optimistic that it will be approved.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, tasked with approving or denying the state’s plan for implementing presumptive eligibility, has until Oct. 9 to make a decision. CMS declined to comment on the status of Mississippi’s state plan amendment. A spokesperson for Medicaid told Mississippi Today via email the agency is moving forward with implementation of the program despite the federal government’s concerns. The Division is accepting applications from health care providers and conducting eligibility determination training sessions – the final requirement for providers before they can begin treating women under the new policy. Nine medical providers have had their applications approved so far, according to the Division of Medicaid. The Division hosted a training for participating Federally Qualified Health Centers Thursday and will be hosting a training for participating hospitals Oct. 10 and 11, according to a participating provider. In addition to the nine providers that have been accepted, the University of Mississippi Medical Center – the state’s largest public hospital and largest Medicaid provider – told Mississippi Today it submitted its application on Thursday. Below is a list of the nine providers that have been approved to participate as of Sept. 25: <ul><li>Physicians &amp; Surgeons Clinic – Amory</li><li>Mississippi Department of Health, Dr. Renia Dotson – County Health Dept. (Family Planning Clinic)</li><li>Family Health Center – Laurel</li><li>Delta Health Center, Inc (Dr. H. Jack Geiger Medical Center) – Mound Bayou</li><li>G.A. Carmichael Family Health Center Providers – Belzoni, Canton, Yazoo City</li><li>Coastal Family Health Center, Inc. – Biloxi </li><li>Delta Health System – Greenville</li><li>Delta Medical Group – Women’s Specialty Clinic – Greenville</li><li>Southeast MS Rural Health Initiative Inc. – Women’s Health Center – Hattiesburg</li></ul>Gwen Dilworth contributed to this report.This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.Post Views: 68<h2>Justice Department says Mississippi town violates residents’ rights</h2>Bymississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-09-26 13:12:53<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2yI4RY_0vjHM1ze00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2yI4RY_0vjHM1ze00" width="1024" height="683" ></figure>Lexington Police Department engaged in excessive force, illegal searches and sexual harassment, the Justice Department concluded in a report released Thursday. “Lexington is a small, rural community but its police department has had a heavy hand in people’s lives, wreaking havoc through use of excessive force, racially discriminatory policing, retaliation, and more,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press conference Thursday. She said these police officers in Lexington “routinely make illegal arrests, use brutal and unnecessary force, and punish people for their poverty — including by jailing people who cannot afford to pay fines or money bail. For too long, the Lexington Police Department has been playing by its own rules and operating with impunity — it’s time for this to end.”The 47-page report discusses excessive force, searches without legal cause and sexual harassment of women. It also discusses the unlawful jailing of those who owe fines or can’t afford bond. The Justice Department’s investigation also “uncovered that Lexington police officers have engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminating against the city‘s Black residents, used excessive force, and retaliated against those who criticize them,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. He also criticized the town’s approach to fines and fees by arresting and jailing people who can’t pay fines. “Being poor is not a crime, but practices like these amount to punishing people for poverty,” he said. “People in that community deserve better, and the Justice Department is committed to working with them, the City, and the Police Department to make the City safer for all its citizens.” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that “public safety depends on public confidence in our justice system,” and that has been undermined by these civil rights violations.U.S. Attorney Todd Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi compared the Lexington jail to the debtors’ prison in Charles Dickens’ novels. Police have the authority to enforce the law, but they shouldn’t “act as debt collectors for the city, extracting payments from the poor with threats of jail,” he said. “No matter how large or small, every police department has an obligation to follow the Constitution.” For instance, he said, police arrested a local man who was fined $224 for public profanity and had to pay $140 before they would release him from custody. Another man was jailed for four days because he refilled his coffee without paying for a second cup. Another was jailed for two weeks for stealing packets of sugar from a gas station. His bail? $1,249, which he couldn’t afford.Police have imposed $1.7 million in fines in one of the nation’s most impoverished areas, he said. “That’s $1,400 for every man, woman and child in town.” Overall, Black residents, who make up 75% of the population, are 17.6 times more likely to be arrested than white people, he said. He harkened back to six decades ago when people were arrested in Holmes County for their involvement in the civil rights movement. In 2022, then-Lexington Police Chief Sam Dobbins was caught on an audio recording using racist and homophobic slurs. He bragged that he had killed 13 people in the line of duty, shooting “one n—- 119 times.”He was fired the next day, and a Black police chief replaced him. Despite that, the discriminatory practices that Dobbins initiated “continued unabated,” Clarke said. Abuses by Lexington police have included using stun guns “like a cattle prod,” she said. One Black man, already being held down by three officers, was Tased eight times, and another was shocked 18 times until he was covered in his own vomit. Clarke said one in every four Lexington residents have been arrested by police, and some of those are being arrested in retaliation for criticizing police or filming them.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2aeW8m_0vjHM1ze00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2aeW8m_0vjHM1ze00" width="500" height="351" ><figcaption>Civil rights attorney Jill Collen Jefferson Credit: Courtesy of Jill Collen Jefferson</figcaption></figure>One of those was Jill Collen Jefferson, whose legal nonprofit, JULIAN, has filed two lawsuits on behalf of Black residents accusing the police of mistreating them, was jailed June 10, 2023, after filming a traffic stop from her car on a public street. The misdemeanor charges against her — resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to comply and blocking a public roadway for filming a traffic stop — were eventually dismissed. Jefferson applauded the department, praised the survivors’ courage and called the findings an “incredible victory.” She vowed to work with the National Police Accountability Project to help bring reforms to Lexington and other police departments across the nation. Clarke said both the city and police officials are cooperating with them to make reforms. Lexington police have yet to comment on the report. Clarke noted that half of America’s police departments have 10 or fewer officers. Lexington has 10.“No city or town is too large or too small,” she said, for the Justice Department “to safeguard the rights that every American enjoys.” This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.Post Views: 28<h2>On this day in 1899</h2>Bymississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-09-26 07:00:00<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=31zMZg_0vjHM1ze00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=31zMZg_0vjHM1ze00" width="1024" height="576" ></figure><h2>Sept. 26, 1899</h2><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=398D7F_0vjHM1ze00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=398D7F_0vjHM1ze00" width="611" height="792" ><figcaption>Credit: Wikipedia</figcaption></figure>William Levi Dawson was born in Anniston, Alabama. He ran away from home when he was 13 to attend Tuskegee Institute. He supported himself through jobs and performed in Tuskegee’s band and orchestra. He continued to study music and graduated in 1927 from the American Conservatory of Music with a master’s degree in composition. His wife, Cornella, died within the first year of their 1928 marriage, and he found solace in music. He composed music in the European tradition before relying on his African roots to write symphonies. “I’ve not tried to imitate Beethoven or Brahms, Franck or Ravel, but to just be myself,” he told the Chicago Defender. “To me, the finest compliment that could be paid my symphony when it has its premiere is that is unmistakably is not the work of a white man. I want the audience to say, ‘Only a Black man could have written that.’” He wrote what others called spirituals, and he called folk songs. “We have got to know and treat them as folk songs, because they contain the best that’s in us,” he said. “All the nations prize their folks’ songs.” He led the 100-voice Tuskegee Choir, which proved so talented that they sang for the grand opening of Radio City Music Hall in 1932. The choir performed for the White House, and in 1946, broke the race barrier at Constitutional Hall, becoming the first Black Americans to perform there. In 1952, Dawson visited seven countries in west Africa to study indigenous music there. His symphonies drew worldwide attention, and churches sang his spirituals such as “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel” and “King Jesus Is a-Listening.” Inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame before his death in 1990, his legacy persists through the internationally acclaimed Tuskegee Golden Voices Choir. This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.</div></body>

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National Press Club awards Mississippi Today with its highest press freedom award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Press Club is honoring Mississippi Today — a nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom based in Jackson, Mississippi — with its highest honor for press freedom, the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award. Mississippi Today is currently involved in a legal case to protect privileged documents...