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Both the State Senate and House have passed legislation that prohibits the abortion of an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat. Gov. Phil Bryant is standing ready to sign the bill into law once lingering differences have been settled.

This bill comes in the wake of the recent and shocking New York legislation, along with similar legislation concerning late term and post birth abortion.

If the heartbeat bill becomes law, the only way to obtain an abortion after the heartbeat is detected would be when medical emergencies, the life of the mother or loss of major bodily function, necessitate. The bill also stipulates that the Mississippi State Board of Health is to regulate the appropriate methods for performing an examination to detect the fetal heartbeat.

Furthermore, any physician who does perform an abortion procedure without first detecting a fetal heartbeat will be subject to license revocation or disciplinary action. The ramifications of this bill are far reaching on both sides of the debate.

Bryant, a fervent defender of life, has stated that an unborn child is a human being and he/she have rights bestowed upon them. When questioned about the recent legislation in New York, along with other states, he commented that he hopes that these blatant attempts to grow a culture of death will shock people into realizing just how horrific this movement has become and motivate action. It appears that this just might be true.

The states of Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee are also attempting to pass versions of a heartbeat bill and enforce stricter abortion laws.

Naturally, abortion proponents will do all they can to stop this.

This is not simply a political debate; it is a deeply personal one. Pregnancy centers around the nation, including the Center for Pregnancy Choices in Jackson, witness the powerful testimonies of women choosing life after hearing or seeing their baby’s heartbeat. As someone who has personally heard the accounts of such women, I can attest that it is a tender and life-altering moment.

“We see lives changed when women are able to connect with their baby through sonogram images, Erin Kate Goode, the executive director of CPC, stated. The CPC has seen this truth reflected in so many of its client’s journeys.

One expectant mother who visited CPC said, “Once I got my free sonogram, I fell in love with my baby, and I knew right away I wanted to keep her.”

“I saw my little bitty baby,” another former patient said, “I saw its heartbeat. I did my nervous laugh, attempting to hold back my tears, as I watched my tiny baby jump and dance around. That’s when I knew that I was going to do this, whatever it took.”

While the debate is considered from every angle, the same truth emerges; an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat is a life.

The heartbeat bill only reinforces what medical science has known all along, a heartbeat is not only an indication of a viable pregnancy, it is intrinsically bonded with life. It is with hope that we witness life beginning to win and it is with pride that we know Mississippi is a pioneer of the movement to value every heartbeat.

A majority of members in the Mississippi House voted Tuesday to add more than $173 million in bond debt to the taxpayers’ credit card.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where a companion bond bill has already passed. The difference between the two amounts to a deep chasm.

Senate Bill 3065 only has $12 million total for projects. Four-year state universities would share $10 million, community colleges would share $1 million, and Huntington Ingalls would receive $1 million.

Legislators from both chambers will have to settle the differences between the two bills in conference later this session.

The House bill’s final amount could be higher, as state Rep. Jeff Smith (R-Columbus) said Tuesday that the bill would be the vehicle to help members out with their (funding) requests.

House Bill 1674 has more than $85 million in borrowing for projects for the state’s universities, including $13 million for renovating the Cook Library at the University of Southern Mississippi and $12 million for matching funds for an expansion for the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

There is also $25 million for projects at the state’s community colleges.

There’s also $63 million spread over five years for restoration of historic buildings around the state. Some of these include:

The House has already voted to pass a bill that would provide $45 million to Huntington Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula. They have also approved several other bonds for various entities totaling over $40 million.

According to the latest Financial State of the States report released in September by the non-partisan public policy group Truth in Accounting, the state owes more than $5.8 billion in bond debt alone.

The state will also borrow $300 million for infrastructure needs after the 2018 special session.

On Tuesday, the House also passed HB 822, which passed by a 92-15 margin. This bill would levy a $400 tax on any attorney licensed to practice in Mississippi who doesn’t have a practice or lives in the state.

A bill passed by the Mississippi House could impact the rights of the accused in campus sexual assault cases.

The Sexual Assault Response Act requires all of the state’s universities and community colleges to adopt a comprehensive policy on sexual assault that a critic says could hurt the rights of the accused in sexual assault cases.

Joe Cohn, the Legislative and Policy Director for FIRE, said this year’s bill, House Bill 1300— authored by state Rep. Angela Cockerham (D-Magnolia) — is better than the previous two iterations, but still not ideal.

“HB 1300 is not the worst bill we’ve seen on sexual assault, but it’s far from good,” Cohn said. “They’re (the bills) incrementally improving, but they’re still problematic.”

One of those problems was the language in the bill, which labels anyone who brings an accusation as a survivor. He said this signals to people in charge that impartiality isn’t important in the proceedings.

He also had problems with the definition of consent in the bill, which he said means the institution which doesn’t make clear that it has to prove that the sexual activity was non-consensual.

Cohn also said that the bill doesn’t recognize some of the jurisdictional limits of Title IX. He cited a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education as setting these boundaries.

This decision says that institutions have a duty under Title IX to respond to known acts of sexual harassment or violence either on the institutional grounds or in the programs and activities of the institution.

Cohn said that those who oppose replacing Obama administration era regulations want the jurisdiction of institutions extended off-campus if both people involved are students. This would go far beyond the guidance given by the Davis decision.

He said HB 1300 takes that approach.

There is a provision in the bill that would have any federal guidance or regulation supersede it. Cohn said it’d make more sense to wait for the final regulations, due this summer, before passing a bill.

There have been two previous bills — all authored by Cockerham — which would’ve codified now-superseded guidance provided by a problematic “dear colleague” letter sent to federally-funded universities and colleges by the Obama administration in 2011 concerning Title IX and sexual harassment and assault.

The U.S. Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights instructed higher education institutions in the letter to use a lower evidence standard to determine guilt and also mandated that accusers would also have the right to appeal a verdict, which meant even baseless allegations could result in a retrial.

Universities and colleges that receive federal funding are required to obey all Title IX regulations or risk having their funding pulled.

For three consecutive years, Cockerham has gotten a bill on campus sexual assault out of the House, but it hasn’t fared as well in the Senate.

In 2017, Cockerham’s first sexual assault bill died in the Senate Judiciary A Committee.

In 2018, a similar bill by Cockerham was doubled-referred (usually a death sentence for a bill) to a pair of Senate committees, Universities and Colleges and Judiciary A, where it also died.

This year, HB 1300 passed by a 115-3 margin on February 13 and has yet to be referred to a committee in the Senate for consideration.

Occupational licenses should cross state lines and the state of Arizona has a chance to be a national leader, while Mississippi falls further behind.

Republicans in the Arizona legislature have introduced a bill that would allow anyone with an occupational license from a different state to move to Arizona and automatically qualify for the same license without having to retake classes and pass tests again.

Contrast that attitude with the Magnolia State. Mississippi has one of the most restrictive occupational licensure regimes nationwide and the state licenses more occupations than most states.

Two bills that were far from any long-reaching reform that would’ve allowed licensed medical professionals such as physicians, dentists, dental hygienist, optometrists or nurses to practice in the state for charitable or voluntary health care without a fee didn’t even make it out of committee.

Senate Bill 2248, authored by state Sen. Angela Hill (R-Picayune), would’ve given out-of-state practitioners the right to practice in the state for charitable reasons and they would’ve been given one credit hour of continuing education for every 60 minutes of voluntary medical services.

House Bill 1491, a similar bill, but without the continuing education component, was authored by state Rep. Shane Aguirre (R-Tupelo).

The Arizona bill has several requirements. The license holder would have to pay a fee to the state board that administers the license and provide proof that they’re in good standing with the licensing authority in their old state. This would happen even if the license holder’s old state doesn’t reciprocate by honoring Arizona licenses.

“If you’ve been licensed to work in another state and want to move here, let it be known: Arizona will not stand in your way,” Gov. Doug Ducey said during his State of the State address earlier this month.

The Republican governor has said he’d sign the bill if it makes it to his desk.

Mississippi does have some limited reciprocity by honoring occupational licenses for military families that’s intended mainly for spouses of active members. There is also statutory language with some occupations — such as cosmetologists, general contractors and home inspectors — that allows reciprocity agreements. Doing so would be up to the individual regulatory boards.

The Mississippi Legislature did pass a bill in 2017 that created the Occupational Licensing Review Commission to put the state in compliance with a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision, North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission. The court ruled that state occupational licensing boards can receive immunity only if they’re actively supervised by the state.

Today, approximately 19 percent of Mississippians need a license to work. This includes everything from a shampooer, who must receive 1,500 clock hours of education, to a fire alarm installer, who must pay over $1,000 in fees. All totaled, there are 66 low-to-middle income occupations that are licensed in Mississippi. According to a recent report from the Institute for Justice, Mississippi has lost 13,000 jobs because of occupational licensing and the state has suffered an economic value loss of $37 million.

A single mom in Mississippi was arrested after the start of the school year when she chose to homeschool her son rather than enroll him in the local public school.

The story began during the 2017-2018 school year. Her seven-year-old son’s health struggles led to attendance problems at the local public school that year. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, who would provide counsel to the mother, the mother provided doctor’s notes for her son’s absences, but that wasn’t enough.

That is when she made the decision to homeschool. She would be able to educate her son, while still having the flexibility that her son needed. It seemed like a great option. 

She started homeschooling this past August. Homeschoolers in Mississippi have a considerable amount of freedom, but they must still file a notice of intent with the local school attendance officer. The cutoff date is September 15, more than a month about public schools begin.

But before the end of August, the mother was arrested on charges of truancy, booked at the sheriff’s office, and ordered to post bond. She was warned that she would face fines of up to $1,000 and a year in jail if she didn’t enroll her son in school.

HSLDA was able to persuade the local prosecutor to drop the case, and she is free to educate her son today.

Mississippi state law does provide parents with the freedom to educate their children at home, free of government intrusion. However, this isn’t the first time in the past year that local school districts have attempted to overstep their authority.

Mississippi families who choose to homeschool their children should not be susceptible to illegal attempts by school districts to regulate their education.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said Monday that he would support expanding Medicaid in Mississippi if elected as lieutenant governor if the cost to taxpayers isn’t significant.

The three-term secretary of state made his remarks at the Stennis Capitol Press Forum.

“I think we can come up with something acceptable and affordable,” Hosemann said. “When we get close enough to where the cost (to state taxpayers) is not significant, that’d be something we’d consider. It needs to be where the state is not out significant amounts of money.

“The way you do that is you do accurate projections on how many people are going to be added on, what’s their cost. There are a number of different plans out there, work requirements and it’s like everything else, you start by taking each one of these steps and get it to where it’s closer to break even.”

He said the state would receive about $800 million in federal money to expand the program, which is intended to provide taxpayer-funded health insurance coverage for low income people. He also said the state match would add up to about $200 million.

Twenty four percent of all Mississippians are on Medicaid, even without the expansion which was authorized by the Affordable Care Act.

When Louisiana expanded Medicaid in 2016, projections said that 306,000 new people would enroll, but those numbers have grown exponentially to 502,055 this year. That’s a 64 percent increase.

In 2015, Louisiana’s Medicaid program served 1,313,387 residents. By October 2018, the program was serving 1,623,869 residents.

The numbers for Medicaid expansion’s cost in Mississippi by Hosemann are even higher than a previous state study on Medicaid expansion would suggest.

According to a 2012 study by the Institutes for Higher Learning, Medicaid expansion would cost state taxpayers $148.7 million in 2021 in a high enrollment scenario (95 percent participation by eligible residents), $132.6 million in a medium scenario (85 percent participation) and $124 million in a low enrollment scenario (75 percent participation).

Hosemann said the primary theme of his campaign will be an educated workforce. He said he wants the community college “embedded” in the high schools and he wants to increase the state’s 55 percent labor force participation rate by 1 percent per year.

Hosemann also said that he’d support annual teacher pay raises, “not just in an election year.”

He decried that $80 million of the projected revenue from the state’s new lottery will go to the Mississippi Department of Transportation for highway maintenance and repair under the $250 million infrastructure package passed during the June special session by the legislature.


Millennials are going crazy for the Green New Deal. Some say it’s more popular than Instagram and more influential than the Top 40, but one thing’s for sure; it has everybody talking. It’s just that those conversations might not be what the Democratic Party was expecting.

Maybe telling people their truck has got to go, air travel should become a thing of the past, nearly all the buildings in the United States need to be remodeled, and cow flatulence is now punishable by the force of law got people’s attention? President Donald Trump’s line “it sounds like a high school term paper” was an accurate description of how many of us view the green tropes of the new progressives.

Championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Ed Markley of Massachusetts, the idea of an earth free from climate change touched the hearts of those on the left and led the majority of Democratic presidential candidates to endorse the idea without reading the fine print…or the second sentence. Never mind the fact that the earth has always been and forever will be susceptible to changes in the climate and our attempts to eliminate this design from Washington, D.C. reflect a supreme arrogance.

The rewards for the supporters of the New Green Deal? Money for those unwilling to work, justice on behalf of the marginalized, no more gasoline and no more pesticides – all for the low cost of a couple trillion dollars. Lucky for those presidential hopefuls and political leaders alike who aspire for the deal, they’ll have a chance to vote on the measure thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. No doubt a vote for the New Green Deal will demonstrate to the true believers how committed they are to a green planet and all the social justice attached thereto.

If you listen to much of the mainstream media you’ll often hear that the future of our country rests with the millennials cheering on the Green New Deal, people like Reps. Ocasio-Cortez or Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. “The presidency of Trump and the GOP’s electoral success in recent years is nothing more than a fluke,” Omar insists. According to the young progressives now pushing the New Green Deal, the future belongs to the millennial who is well versed in the merits of socialism, the philosophy of social justice, and environmental activism.

These notions wouldn’t be out of place on NPR or MSNBC. The radical left has been making similar arguments for decades. Now, such progressive policy positions are creeping into the mainstream of a party, which seeks to control the White House.

The Green New Deal is preposterous on its face. However, despite being doomed to fail, it does provide a window into how the highly educated, coastal, liberal elite in America think. Solutions which amount to the complete deconstruction of the American economy in an effort to cure the environment and combat social justice sounds radical to the average American, yet at elite universities, the coffee shops of urban cities, and the newsrooms of media’s upper echelon, the Green Deal  is Avant Garde. It is woke. It is hip. In short, it is the new black.

Despite the mainstream media’s fascination and coronation of AOC and her tribe, polling shows millennials as a whole don’t want a Green New Deal, a 70% marginal tax rate, the recognition of infinite genders, or the abolition of national borders. Despite the Democratic Party moving towards progressivism and the Republican Party moving towards statist cronyism, the people of America still want a representative republic where ideas like individual liberty, free markets, limited government, and personal responsibility reign.

If coastal elitists want to understand how those of us in “fly over country” feel about a world without trucks, grilled meat, or homecoming queens, I suggest they attend a tailgate at an Ole Miss or Mississippi State game day this fall and ask around. It’s a pretty safe bet there will be more than a couple of enthusiastic answers.

Mississippi taxpayers, both at the state and local levels, often provide rafts of incentives to lure new industry to a community and “create” jobs.

The Mississippi Development Authority has several infrastructure and job training grant programs and tax incentives that include rebates on income tax paid by employees. Counties can offer tax breaks on property taxes, which support local schools and other local government services.

Here are some of the more recent examples, with calculations on how much the incentives cost per job.

Krone

According to a story from Memphis TV station WREG, Mississippi taxpayers will be paying a heavy price in grants and tax incentives to get a German agricultural implement company to move its North American headquarters and 45 jobs across the state line from Memphis to Olive Branch.

Mississippi will provide a $7.3 million in property and inventory tax breaks, in addition to a $250,000 grant to relocate its equipment. Krone could also receive incentives that rebate some income taxes for its employees to the company, provided the workers are paid at least $37,521 annually.

That could add up to $675,000 annually over the next decade.

All of those incentives, if realized, could add up to $8,225,000 or about $182,777 per job.

Amazon

Amazon announced in December that it will be building a fulfillment center in Marshall County in north Mississippi. The 554,000-square-foot center will employ 850 with a $15 per hour minimum wage and these employees will pick, pack and ship household consumer goods to customers.

Mississippi taxpayers will provide a $2 million grant for construction assistance and a $4 million grant for road improvements, according to MDA spokeswoman Tammy Craft. Marshall County will provide about $6.3 million in assistance for road improvements and a property tax exemption.

All of those incentives, if realized, could add up to $12.3 million or about $14,470 per job.

Enviva

Enviva and Mississippi officials announced that the company — which makes wood pellets that fuel overseas power plants — will build a $140 million pellet mill and a $60 million loading terminal at the port in Pascagoula.

Enviva is expected to hire 90 employees in Lucedale, with 300 loggers and truckers possibly finding work supplying logs to the company.

Mississippi taxpayers will be providing $4 million in grant funds, with $1.4 million for a water well and a water tank, while the other $2.5 million is for other infrastructure needs and site working, according to Craft. George County will provide $13 million in property tax breaks over the next 10 years.

All of those incentives, if realized, could add up to $17 million or about $188,888 per job.

Counting the jobs of loggers and truckers not directly employed at the George County pellet mill, that figure shrinks to $43,589 per job.

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