Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today

Mississippians continue gathering signatures for six initiatives, including legalizing recreational marijuana and restoring the old state flag. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Six active ballot initiatives could be halted by Mississippi Supreme Court ruling

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 230 Reads
Fri, 05/07/2021 - 02:21 PM

A pending decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court could end citizen efforts to put several issues on the statewide election ballot for voters to decide.

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Pay raises for state employees yet to be determined

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 349 Reads
Wed, 05/05/2021 - 11:34 AM

How many of Mississippi’s roughly 26,000 state employees will receive raises and the amounts they receive will not be known until later this year.

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Mississippi House speaker Philip Gunn speaks during Gov. Tate Reeves press conference at the State of Mississippi Woolfolk Building in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, May 7, 2020. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Gunn, often guided by his faith, does not see Medicaid expansion in religious terms

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 388 Reads
Mon, 05/03/2021 - 12:29 PM

Health care advocates, many health care providers and others who desperately want to see the state expand Medicaid to cover primarily the working poor blame Gov. Tate Reeves for blocking the effort.

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‘Relic from the past’: Lawmakers examine Mississippi felony voting prohibitions

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 636 Reads
Thu, 04/29/2021 - 01:47 PM

House Judiciary B Chair Nick Bain, R-Corinth, questions the logic of why at least some of the people convicted of felonies permanently lose their voting rights unless they are restored by a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature.

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Mississippi loses population, not expected to lose House seat

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 571 Reads
Wed, 04/28/2021 - 11:11 AM

Mississippi will not lose a congressional seat even though it was one of only three states to lose population during the past decade, according to early U.S. census data released this week.

State leaders had said for some time they did not believe the census would result in a loss of a congressional seat for Mississippi.

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Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, left, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann speak after Gov. Tate Reeves press conference in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, May 7, 2020. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

The new era of cooperation in Legislature continued in 2021

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 571 Reads
Mon, 04/26/2021 - 11:17 AM

On the final day of the 2021 legislative session in early April, Speaker Philip Gunn spoke of the “good spirit of cooperation” that had permeated the House.

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Mississippi Senate killed 19 House bills to restore voting rights

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 6,265 Reads
Wed, 04/21/2021 - 04:07 PM

Jackson resident Omar Travis was released from prison about four years ago after being convicted of receiving stolen property. Before that, in 1991, he was convicted on a burglary charge.

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National report ranks Mississippi low in voter access

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 476 Reads
Mon, 04/19/2021 - 10:43 AM

Unlike many other state legislatures, the Mississippi Legislature did not pass bills during the 2021 session that would make it more difficult to vote.

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Medicaid coverage for postpartum likely to continue through year despite legislative inaction

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 690 Reads
Wed, 04/14/2021 - 11:13 AM

Mississippi women who have given birth will likely continue to receive Medicaid health care coverage until at least the end of 2021 even after legislation recently died that would have extended the coverage.

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U.S. Supreme Court denies Fitch motion to halt education lawsuit over Jim Crow-era language

By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 750 Reads
Wed, 04/14/2021 - 10:25 AM

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to act on Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s motion to pause a lawsuit filed on behalf of African American parents saying the state violated federal law by spending less on majority-Black schools than majority-white ones.

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