Gov. Phil Bryant this week celebrated the legislative passage of much of his “Education Works” agenda. House Speaker Phillip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves both touted passage of a charter schools bill with Bryant’s pledge to sign it.
VA’S appalling failures in state not recent problems
March 27, 2013 By
While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
Medicaid expansion or not, health care costs will be paid
March 20, 2013 By
While the battle continues between state Republicans and other fiscal conservatives intent on focusing on the long-terms costs of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and Democrats, health care advocates and state hospitals intent on focusing on the short-term benefits, the fact remains that one way or another, the costs of providing health care for the poor, the blind, the aged and the disabled will be paid by the taxpayers.
State’s annual Medicaid battle different in this year’s session
March 13, 2013 By
In most years and certainly in recent years, Mississippi’s annual state legislative battle over Medicaid has been different than it is in 2013.
Zacharias cast a long shadow over MSU’s past and future
March 6, 2013 By
In life and in death, Donald W. Zacharias cast a long shadow over Mississippi State University – the school he successfully led from 1985 to 1997 – the second longest tenure in the history of the university behind founding president Stephen D. Lee. Higher education in Mississippi has had few better friends.
Stewart’s false ad personal attack on state like section 5
February 27, 2013 By
Comedy Central “news” host Jon Stewart’s factually challenged, sloppily reported and downright false attempt at painting all 3 million Mississippians with the same broad brush of backward racism, ignorance and insularity is much like the legal arguments many attempt to make in defending no change whatsoever in Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Online sales tax collection remains a political enigma
February 20, 2013 By
In the decade or so that I’ve written about the fact that Mississippi fails to collect sales tax on online purchases, three things have become painfully evident.
First, there’s the shocking news that people who aren’t currently paying sales tax on their online purchases really don’t want any change in the status quo.
School consolidation efforts likely to gain momentum statewide soon
February 13, 2013 By
STARKVILLE – State Rep. Toby Barker’s House Bill 716 calling for creation of a new Starkville Consolidated School District from a merger of the existing Starkville School District and the Oktibbeha County School District is likely the first salvo in a more systematic battle to reduce the number of school districts in the state after decades of the issue of school consolidation being a political planet killer to politicians who dared mention it.
After 2012 failing, Moak returns with a new online gaming bill
February 6, 2013 By
Despite politically crapping out last year on virtually the same piece of legislation, State Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, is rolling the dice again in the 2013 legislative session on online gaming legislation that could have a profound impact on the future of legal gaming in the state.
‘Kids Count’research stirs interest on both sides of legislative aisle
January 30, 2013 By
STARKVILLE – This week’s unveiling of the annual “Kids Count” Data Book for Mississippi will – as always – stir interest on both sides of the state’s legislative aisle as Democrats and Republicans alike confront reliable statistics from the leading resource for comprehensive research and information on Mississippi’s children.
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