According to an examination of data from the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, Lawrence County had the highest two-year per capita average of fines and forfeitures in the state at $55.57.

Those numbers have a large caveat, skewed by $1.28 million in fines and forfeitures in 2016 after the sheriff’s department there earned $103,057 in fines and forfeitures in 2017.

In 2015, the county had fine and forfeiture revenues of $98,961 and $116,664 in 2014.

Tiny Issaquena County (population 1,308) was second, with a running two-year average over 2016 and 2015 of $36.10 in revenue from fines and forfeitures. The county received $45,468 in 2015 from fines and forfeitures and $48,971 in 2016. 

In 2016, fines and forfeitures represented 1.06 percent of Issaquena County’s revenues ($4,583,342) and 1.02 percent of revenues ($4,423,202) in 2015.

The county with the largest population in the top five, Simpson, averaged $26.23 per each one of its 26,758 residents for fines and forfeitures for third place. In 2017, fines and forfeitures ($642,093) accounted for 7.84 percent of the county’s revenues. In 2016, fines and forfeitures ($697,283) represented 5.36 percent of the county’s $ 13,006,437 in revenues.

According to a 2018 audit by state Auditor Shad White’s office, the Simpson County Sheriff’s Office didn’t maintain documentation for purchase of information and evidence (PIPE) funds and didn’t deposit funds within one business day into the county’s bank accounts. The county said in its response to the report that it had corrected both deficiencies. 

Fourth was Jefferson County, with a two-year average of $182,409 in fine and forfeiture revenues or $25.67 per resident. Fifth was Franklin County, with a two year average of $182,409 and a per capita figure of $25.38. 

The auditor’s office conducts audits, either directly or via an accounting firms, of the state’s 82 counties periodically. Listed under each county’s revenues was a category for fines and forfeitures, which can include traffic and other fines and forfeitures. Most of the data was from the fiscal years 2017 and 2016. 

The auditor’s office had data from those years for most counties, but 23 did not and data from 2016 and 2015 was substituted.

The average statewide for the state’s counties was $21.16 in fines and forfeiture revenue per resident and counties averaged $428,743 per year in revenue.

Sixteen Mississippi cities earned at least $1 million in fines and forfeitures and the average for residents in cities and towns was $32.54.

Sheriffs are prohibited by law in Mississippi from using radar for traffic enforcement, so it can be surmised that most of the fines and forfeitures listed in the county audits by the Office of the State Auditor are likely seizures. 

*Data from 2016 and 2015

The Mississippi Justice Institute and members of Sidewalk Advocates for Life – Jackson, Mississippi announced a challenge to Jackson’s new prohibition on counseling and other free speech outside the state’s only abortion facility today.

The new ordinance bans individuals who are near health facilities from approaching within eight feet of any person without consent, for the purpose of engaging in various forms of speech such as counseling or education or distributing leaflets; bans people from congregating or demonstrating within fifteen feet of the abortion facility, and bans any amplified sound.

Violations of the ordinance could result in fines of up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail. 

“Our clients are engaging in quintessential free speech, and they are doing so peacefully and respectfully,” said Aaron Rice, Director of the Mississippi Justice Institute. “They care deeply for the unborn and feel morally led to offer life-affirming alternatives to people entering an abortion facility. Jackson’s new ordinance is an attempt to silence our clients’ speech, and we are proud to stand with them and defend their rights.

“Regardless of what anyone thinks of our clients’ views, we all should recognize that they have the right to hold those views. And just as importantly, they have the right to express those views, and to try to convince others to adopt their views. That is the very meaning of a free society.” 

In the past five years, Sidewalk Advocates for Life has trained thousands of volunteers to go to abortion facilities to simply offer loving, life-affirming alternatives to abortion. In that time, nearly 7,000 women and families have freely chosen the help provided and given life to their children.

“Women regularly accept our offer to help in the midst of an unexpected pregnancy, said Pam Miller, Co-Leader of Sidewalk Advocates for Life – Mississippi.“In fact, in partnership with other peaceful community members, more women than ever -- at least 30 this year alone -- have opted to take advantage of the free, alternative resources the Jackson community provides. We are committed to connecting women with the loving, life-affirming assistance they deserve, and we will continue to serve the women of Mississippi in a peaceful and law-abiding way.” 

The lawsuit was filed in Hinds County Circuit Court. A copy of the complaint can be found here. 

Many Americans around the country will not attend school or work today, and that is because, upon that day, we celebrate the life and accomplishments of Christopher Columbus, founder of the New World. 

Unfortunately, many in our society, have now chosen not to recognize the name of this important holiday. In fact, many now claim this day in the name of Indigenous People. Such moral grandstanding dismisses the important historical and cultural significance of Columbus Day to millions of Catholics and Italians around the nation.

Rejection of Columbus Day is a disgrace and highlights modern progressives’ weak-willed insistence on placating the voices of mobs.

Much has been said about Columbus himself, but in this piece, I would like to discuss the origins of this day which we celebrate and its meaning for so many Americans. Columbus Day was unofficially celebrated in many cities and states as early as the 18th century but took on larger importance for many immigrant communities later on. 

In 1792, New York commemorated the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing. Many Italians and Catholics organized annual religious events to honor the explorer. On the 400th anniversary of the landing, President Benjamin Harrison encouraged people to “so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.” 

Ultimately, it was in 1937, due to lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, that President Franklin Roosevelt declared Columbus Day a Federal Holiday.

Today, some oppose the legacy of Columbus and thus reject this holiday. Interestingly, those who stand against the day actually rest on a long tradition of opposition. Almost immediately from its founding, the day was opposed by many due to deeply ingrained biases against the Catholic faith and its followers. 

For many decades in our nation, much of the country felt that one could not be Catholic and be a true American. Catholics were seen as Papists who held the Church as having greater authority than the president and American institutions, and thus many believed that Catholics could not be productive members of society. In public life, Catholics were demonized and belittled. 

This deep-seated disgust for Catholics reared its ugly head consistently in public life. It can be seen in the vitriolic attacks against Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate. Yet, it can also be traced all the way through John F. Kennedy’s presidential run, as he was frequently questioned and distrusted by many on account of his Catholic faith.

Furthermore, biases against Catholics served to further promote deep racism and resentment against Irish and Italian immigrants. For those who came to the United States seeking a better life, many found that they were not entirely welcomed by their new home both due to their faith and race.

Columbus Day became a central rallying point for Catholics. Christopher Columbus was viewed by many Americans as an initial founder of the nation, whose brave exploits ultimately led to the capacity for our great American nation to be established. Catholics seized upon this appreciation for the man and held up Columbus as a shining example that one could in fact be both Catholic, and a proud American. 

Furthermore, Italians especially revered the great explorer as a testament to how their people had contributed richly to American life, and that they ought to be accepted fully into society.

Columbus Day represents what is best about America. The day symbolizes that ultimate goal of immigrants for integration into society, and our constant historical challenge to better meet the full definition of the rights promised to Americans in the Constitution, and the ideas promoted by our traditions. 

Celebrating Columbus Day does not mean white-washing history. One can recognize the ills of Columbus’ actions, however, it is necessary to place his work within the context of the moment and the moral structures of the time.

It should never be forgotten how the day has empowered millions of Catholics and immigrants to make the claim that they, too, are proud Americans. Those who have done so should be ashamed of themselves for striking this day from their calendars. Rather than attempting to intellectually challenge our communities with a proper historical analysis of Columbus’ work as well as the origins of the day which celebrates him, they took the easy path and simply cast the day aside. 

Well, as an individual with family origins in both the Italian and Native American communities, and as a proud Catholic, I am deeply disheartened to see so many willing to dismiss history and tradition in order to appease the mobs of trending opinion who readily decry that which they oppose, without the slightest bit of contextual understanding for history.

Neither Republican gubernatorial nominee Lt. Governor Tate Reeves nor his Democratic opponent Attorney General Jim Hood offered their endorsement for the medial marijuana ballot initiative that will be before voters next fall. 

The Medical Marijuana 2020 campaign recently turned in over 100,000 certified signatures in their attempt to make Mississippi the 34th state in the country to legalize medical marijuana. 

Hood didn’t say how he’d vote, rather offering a vague response that he will leave it to the medial professionals to make judgments on medical marijuana. 

“I did two terms as District Attorney, 16 years as Attorney General,” Hood said. “I’ve been a drug warrior for all those years, and it hadn’t worked. Medical marijuana is something that should be left up to the doctors in the medical profession. I’ve seen a few studies that it may help people get off opioids, I just don’t want it to get in the hands of kids. That’s why I’ve been raising cane about vaping…I think it’s up to the medical profession to make those decisions on the value of medical marijuana.”

Reeves made comments similar to the GOP debate this summer, where he said he was opposed to the initiative, but would respect the will of the voters if the initiative passed.  

“As a father of three girls, I’m going to vote against the amendment that’s on the ballot next year,” Reeves said. “If I am elected governor and the people of Mississippi decide to vote a different way than I do then I’m going to uphold the will of the people.”

If Mississippians approve the initiative, it will be part of an ongoing trend, particularly in Republican states. Last year, voters in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Utah approved ballot initiatives to legalize medical marijuana. Two years prior, voters in Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota did the same thing. 

What would medical marijuana look like in Mississippi?

If the ballot initiative is approved by voters in November, marijuana would be legal for those with a debilitating medical condition and would have to be authorized by a physician and receive it from a licensed treatment center.

Some of these conditions include:

• Cancer
• Epilepsy and other seizure-related ailments
• Huntington’s disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• HIV
• AIDS
• Chronic pain
• ALS
• Glaucoma
• Chrohn’s disease
• Sickle cell anemia
• Autism with aggressive or self-harming behavior
• Spinal cord injuries

If a physician concludes that a person suffers from a debilitating medical condition and that the use of medical marijuana may mitigate the symptoms or effects of the condition, the physician may certify the person to use medical marijuana by issuing a form as prescribed by the Mississippi Board of Health. The issuance of this form is defined in the proposal as a “physician certification” and is valid for 12 months, unless the physician specifies a shorter period of time.

That individual then becomes a qualified patient. After they do this, they present the physician certification to the Mississippi Department of Health and are issued a medical marijuana identification card. The ID card allows the patient to obtain medical marijuana from a licensed and regulated treatment center and protects the patient from civil and/or criminal sanctions in the event the patient is confronted by law enforcement officers. “Shopping” among multiple treatment centers is prevented through the use of a real-time database and online access system maintained by the Mississippi Department of Health.

The Mississippi Department of Health would regulate the cultivation of marijuana, processing, and being made available to patients. There would also be limits on how much marijuana a patient could obtain.

Delta State University will be hosting their third annual celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month on October 17.

Under the theme, “Resistance and History,” the event will play host the first drag show on the Cleveland campus. On an interesting note, the drag show is being dubbed “family friendly.”

The event is being presented by DSU Library Services, DSU QEP, DSU Diversity Committee, DSU Office of Student Affairs, Delta Music Institute, DSU Art Department, DSU Department of Music, DSU Division of Social Sciences and History, and DSU Division of Languages and Literature.

Full details of the event can be found on DSU’s website.

Drag shows and similar LGBTQ+ events are pretty commonplace on Mississippi campuses or with allied organizations. 

Starkville Pride 2019 hosted Drag Queen Bingo and an off-campus drag show this past March.

A similar story can be found in Oxford during Oxford Pride Week. Ole Miss is also home to the Chancellor’s LGBTQ Advisory Committee.

In this episode of Unlicensed, we talk about our ongoing on audit of public higher education in Mississippi with the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

Has anything like this been done before in Mississippi? Did this have anything to do with the chancellor search at Ole Miss? And what can we learn from it?

A new report by a legislative watchdog group recommends that the legislature and the Mississippi Department of Revenue should examine the possibility of privatizing the state-run distribution of liquor and wine.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review or PEER Committee released the report, which also criticized the DOR for worker safety, equipment maintenance, customer service, and inventory issues at the state-owned warehouse which handles distribution for liquor and wine in the state.

The PEER study said that divesting the wholesaling of wine and liquor would likely reduce the revenue collected for the state from alcoholic beverage sales. The study also said that contracting out management of the state-owned liquor warehouse to a private firm would likely not save taxpayers much money, likely 10 percent or less.

Divesting the distribution of wine to private firms, according to the study, would also result in lower revenue collections, but could benefit operations at the warehouse.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control warehouse employs 106 state workers, held 427,709 cases of booze (the capacity is 450,000 cases) and can ship 20,000 cases per day. 

In fiscal 2018, the ABC generated $114.2 million in revenue. Subtracting the cost for warehouse operations ($5.03 million) and ABC enforcement ($2.07 million), the wholesale operation generated revenue of $107.1 million for the state treasury.

In the 2019 session, the legislature appropriated up to $4 million for additional warehouse space, but PEER said in its report that the DOR doesn’t have a formal plan for incorporating new space into its operations.

According to PEER, one of the problems with the state-run warehouse is that any special order items cost the state because the DOR must purchase them in advance to have them shipped to the warehouse. 

The warehouse receives payment only when the retailer receives the special order. Also, since the items in the warehouse belong to vendors and are not purchased by the state, taxpayers are responsible  for broken or damaged goods in the warehouse.

Mississippi is one of 17 states that is what is known as a control state. The DOR regulates the sale of alcohol in Mississippi through the licensing of retailers, taxation at both the wholesale and retail levels, and wholesaling of both liquor and wine. The Magnolia State is one of five states that wholesale both wine and distilled spirits. 

The DOR, unlike some other control states, doesn’t manage retail locations like Alabama does, for example.

A new analysis from the Office of the State Auditor found that many government entities in Mississippi do not have proper cybersecurity measures in place. 

The Auditor’s Office conducted a survey of 125 state agencies, boards, commissions, and universities to track compliance with the state’s new Enterprise Security Program, which is designed to “provide coordinated oversight of the cybersecurity efforts across all state agencies, including cybersecurity systems, services, and development of policies, standards, and guidelines.”

The program was created in 2017 and compliance is required by law. Despite that, 54 of the 125 government entities surveyed did not respond. 

The findings among those that completed the survey showed:

- 53 agencies reporting having proper cyber security measures in place;

- 43 agencies reported having conducted a third-party security risk assessment in the last three years;

- 36 agencies reported having encrypted sensitive information; and

- 49 percent of responding agencies reported being more than 75 percent compliant with the Enterprise Security Program. 

“The results of the survey described above show that Mississippians’ personal data may be at risk,” Auditor Shad White said. “Many state agencies are operating as if they are not required to comply with cyber security laws, and many refused to respond to auditors’ questions about their compliance. State government cyber security is a serious issue for Mississippi taxpayers and citizens. Mississippians deserve to know their tax, income, health, or student information that resides on state government servers will not be hacked.” 

The Auditor’s Office is authorized to verify compliance with the Enterprise Security Program.

The town of State Line earned the most per capita in fines and forfeitures in the state.

This is according to an analysis of data from the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

State Line (population 539) earned $129,581 in 2017 from fines and forfeitures or about $240.41 per resident. This represented 32.1 percent of the city’s revenues ($403,106 in 2017).

In 2016, the town, which is in both Greene and Wayne counties, earned $69,644 in fines and forfeitures ($129.20 per citizen) and $90,710 in 2015 ($168.29 per). This represented 21.7 percent of the city’s revenue in 2016 ($319,871) and 25.1 percent in 2015 ($361,304).

Walls was second, averaging $172.93 per citizen in fines and forfeitures after earning $238,476. The small DeSoto county town (1,379 population) was ranked first in a study by Governing magazine which rank cities and towns nationwide on the amount of their budgets coming from fines and forfeitures.

The town sourced 26.53 percent of its budget from fines and forfeitures in 2017. Walls had 25.7 percent of its budget originating from fines and forfeitures in 2015 and 32.2 percent in 2014.

Magee was third, with its $595,238 in fines and forfeitures in 2017 adding up to $141.89 for each one of its 4,195 residents. This accounted for 24.3 percent of the Simpson County city’s $2.45 million in revenues in 2017.

Sixteen Mississippi cities earned at least $1 million in fines and forfeitures and only one of them, Flowood, was in the top 10 per capita. The average for residents in cities and towns was $32.54.

Flowood, a Rankin County city, was fourth, with its $1,051,453 in fines and forfeitures in 2017 adding up to $112.19 per citizen. With Flowood’s revenues exceeding $19.6 million in 2017, this represented only 6.4 percent of the city’s budget.

Ecru, in Pontotoc County was fifth, with $110,198 in fines and forfeitures in 2018. This added up to $106.99 per each one of the town’s 1,030 residents. These fines and forfeitures represented 6.8 percent of the town’s $1.62 million in revenues.

Bruce was the final town to earn $100 or more per citizen in fines and forfeitures. In 2017, the city earned $196,744 in revenue from fines and forfeitures. This represented 11.42 percent of the city’s $1.72 million in revenues.