State of Mississippi

Family Medicine

Only abortion clinic in Miss. fights to stay open

May 31, 2013 Kermit 0

It can’t meet the mandates of a 2012 state law and the governor wants to shut it down, but Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is not about to quietly retreat.

The clinic’s owners are fighting on a legal front, with a federal lawsuit against the state, and supporters and staff are trying to make inroads on site – urging patients to call elected officials and peppering state-required counseling with their own views and information.

Protesters, too, are zeroing in on the clinic. A national anti-abortion group, Operation Save America, has targeted Mississippi as a state where it hopes to end abortion, and it has sent people from as far as Colorado and Nevada to protest. Congregants from local churches pray outside the clinic several days a week. Some hold fetus posters and use microphones to call out to patients. […]

Education

Corporal punishment declining in Miss. schools

April 25, 2013 Kermit 0

A report finds Mississippi students were physically punished, typically with a wooden paddle, 39,000 times during the 2011-12 school year.

That punishment was meted in 99 of the state’s 151 school districts, according to the districts’ counts self-reported to the state Department of Education and obtained by The Clarion-Ledger through an open records request.

The numbers reflect a trend in decline. For example, in 2007-08, 58,343 instances of corporal punishment were reported, and that number has dropped almost every year. […]

Top Stories

Mississippi finally abolishes slavery

February 22, 2013 Kermit 0

Due to a procedural glitch the last time around, Mississippi – this month – formally ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery within the state. 

It comes a bit late though.

The United States abolished slavery with a constitutional amendment in 1865.  But, there were several states that opposed the 13th amendment.  And Mississippi didn’t get around to voting on it until 1995. […]

Health

Chaney says gov. hands control to feds

January 17, 2013 Kermit 0

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is handing control of a state health insurance exchange over to the federal government by trying to block creation of a state-run exchange, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney told the governor in a letter.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter, and in it, Chaney tells Bryant, a fellow Republican, that the federal government will run an exchange in Mississippi if the state does not create its own.

“Phil, there is simply no legitimate reason to impede the development of a state-based exchange in this point in time,” Chaney wrote. […]

News

Congressmen Thompson and Harper cruise to re-election

November 7, 2012 Kermit Comments Off on Congressmen Thompson and Harper cruise to re-election

JACKSON – Mississippi’s incumbent U.S. Congressmen Gregg Harper and Bennie Thompson both handily won their re-election bids yesterday, MPB reports.

Hundreds of 3rd District U.S. Congressman Gregg Harper’s supporters at his victory party in Pearl swelled to applause as the election was called in his favor. […]