Mississippi Today
Mississippi Medicaid drops more than 18,000 kids from its rolls

New data shows Mississippi children could be the group most affected by Medicaid’s continuous unwinding.
According to the Mississippi Division of Medicaid’s monthly enrollment reports, 18,710 children have recently been dropped from Medicaid, most of them due to unwinding.
“It’s very troubling to see that children are the vast majority of those losing Medicaid coverage in Mississippi,” said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.
Federal law prohibited state divisions of Medicaid from terminating beneficiaries starting in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. However, the emergency order ended in May, and agencies are now reviewing their rolls for the first time in more than three years.
During the most recent wave of disenrollments in July, more than 22,000 Mississippians were dropped, joining more than 29,000 terminated during the first wave in June. New data shows that more than half of the people dropped in June were children.
July’s enrollment numbers, which reflect disenrollments that occurred in June, shows that the number of kids enrolled in Medicaid plummeted from 456,314 in June to 437,604 in July.
In the meantime, the number of children in Mississippi enrolled in Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) remained relatively stable, increasing by 120 children during the same time period.
CHIP provides health care for children whose families are low-income but do not qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid coverage is determined by family income, but the threshold for Mississippi kids to qualify is higher than their parents and other adults.
“This suggests that many of these children will become uninsured because their parents are working in low wage jobs that don’t offer affordable health insurance for their children,” Alker said.
Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield confirmed that most of those terminations were due to the unwinding.
Federal research predicts that children and young adults will be affected disproportionately during Medicaid unwinding nationwide, and the majority of those children may still be eligible.
Mississippi has a high percentage of procedural terminations, meaning many people have been dropped because of failure to return paperwork or similar reasons — reasons that have nothing to do with their eligibility.
Kids in low-income families make up more than half of Mississippi’s overall Medicaid beneficiaries.
In a state without Medicaid expansion, such as Mississippi, it’s especially devastating, Alker said.
“Children are the single largest group, and procedural terminations for children are a problem because they’re mostly still eligible,” she said.
According to Alker’s organization, only four states, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri and West Virginia, have reported the number of kids disenrolled for procedural reasons, even though they’re at high risk of becoming uninsured during unwinding. Mississippi’s monthly unwinding reports do not show what number of terminations were children.
Enrollment numbers for August, which will reveal how many children were dropped in July, won’t be posted until early September, Westerfield said.
So far, about 50,000 Mississippians in total have been dropped from Medicaid during the unwinding, which is set to continue until May 2024. Millions have been dropped nationally, with those numbers predicted to steadily rise.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1945, Sister Rosetta Tharpe hit the R&B charts
April 30, 1945

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, known as the “godmother of rock ‘n’ roll,” made history by becoming the first gospel artist to rocket up the R&B charts with her gospel hit, “Strange Things Happening Every Day.” In so doing, she paved the way for a strange new sound.
“Rock ‘n’ roll was bred between the church and the nightclubs in the soul of a queer Black woman in the 1940s named Sister Rosetta Tharpe,” National Public Radio wrote. “She was there before Elvis, Little Richard and Johnny Cash swiveled their hips and strummed their guitars. It was Tharpe, the godmother of rock ‘n’ roll, who turned this burgeoning musical style into an international sensation.”
Born in Arkansas, the musical prodigy grew up in Mississippi in the Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal denomination that welcomed all-out music and praise. By age 6, she was performing alongside her mandolin-playing mother in a traveling evangelistic troupe. By the mid-1920s, she and her mother had joined the Great Migration to Chicago, where they continued performing.
“As Tharpe grew up, she began fusing Delta blues, New Orleans jazz and gospel music into what would become her signature style,” NPR wrote.
Her hard work paid off when she joined the Cotton Club Revue in New York City. She was only 23. Before the end of 1938, she recorded gospel songs for Decca, including “Rock Me,” which became a huge hit and made her an overnight sensation. Little Richard, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Lee Lewis have all cited her as an influence.
“Sister Rosetta played guitar like the men I was listening to, only smoother, with bigger notes,” said singer-songwriter Janis Ian. “And of course, personally, any female player was a big influence on me, because there were so few.”
After hearing her successors on the radio, Tharpe was quoted as saying, “Oh, these kids and rock and roll — this is just sped up rhythm and blues. I’ve been doing that forever.”
On the eve of a 1973 recording session, she died of a stroke and was buried in an unmarked grave. In the decades that followed, she finally began to receive the accolades that had eluded her in life.
In 2007, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, and money was raised for her headstone. Eleven years later, she was inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame.
“She was, and is,” NPR concluded, “an unmatched artist.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post On this day in 1945, Sister Rosetta Tharpe hit the R&B charts appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article is a historical and biographical piece about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a pioneering musician who influenced the development of rock ‘n’ roll. The content is factual, focusing on her contributions to music and her impact on the genre. The language used does not present any ideological stance or promote a specific political view. It highlights the cultural and musical significance of Tharpe without delving into any political or controversial matters, making it neutral in tone. Therefore, the article can be classified as centrist in its presentation.
Mississippi Today
Ex-MS Coast police officer accused of assaulting 74-year-old female protester
by Margaret Baker, Sun Herald, Mississippi Today
April 29, 2025
LONG BEACH — A retired Long Beach police officer arrested Thursday is accused of assaulting a woman holding a protest sign and threatening a second victim, Long Beach Police Chief Billy Seal confirmed Friday.
Police arrested Craig DeRouche, 64, for allegedly assaulting a woman during an encounter on U.S. 90 at Jeff Davis Avenue. He is charged with a second misdemeanor charge of assault by threat for allegedly threatening a man who reported that he saw the alleged attack and tried to intervene, Seal said.
According to Seal, the protester, identified as a 74-year-old woman, was holding a protest sign supporting the right to due process under the U.S. Constitution for Americans before the assault occurred.
The woman, a Navy veteran, is now in stable condition in a local hospital.
READ THE FULL STORY at the Sun Herald.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Ex-MS Coast police officer accused of assaulting 74-year-old female protester appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article presents a factual account of an incident involving a retired police officer accused of assaulting a protester. The tone is neutral, focusing on the details of the event without engaging in overt political rhetoric or bias. The source, Mississippi Today, is known for providing straightforward news coverage, and there is no clear indication of political framing or partisanship in the language used. The article simply reports the incident and includes basic details about the people involved, including the protester’s age, condition, and the charges against the officer. No ideological perspectives are offered, which supports a centrist assessment.
Mississippi Today
Chris Lemonis had at least earned the right to finish season
On April 28, 2022, the Ole Miss baseball Rebels had won 23 games and lost 17 overall. They were 6-12 in the Southeastern Conference. The various Internet message boards were filled with posts calling for head baseball coach Mike Bianco’s dismissal. Yes, and two months later, Bianco and his Rebels won the College World Series.

Contrast that with this: On April 28 of this year, Mississippi State’s Diamond Dogs had a 25-19 record overall, 7-14 in the SEC. The various Internets boards were filled with posts calling for head coach Chris Lemonis to be fired. He was.
In both those situations, the Mississippi teams were six games over the .500 mark overall. In both those situations, the teams had lost twice as many SEC games as they had won. Ole Miss stayed the course, and it paid off, remarkably so. In sharp contrast, Mississippi State pulled the trigger, and we shall see what happens next.
Another big difference in the two situations: Bianco had never won a national championship in his previous 20 years at Ole Miss. Lemonis won the first national championship in State history just four years ago.
You ask me, that national championship, not even four years ago, should have earned Lemonis, at the very least, the right to finish out this season. I don’t see anything to be gained with firing the man with three weeks remaining in the regular season. Most NCAA Tournament projections have Mississippi State listed as one of the first four teams out. The Bulldogs are ranked 45th in RPI against the nation’s 13th most difficult schedule. They are on the NCAA Tournament bubble, just as Ole Miss was three seasons ago.
This is not to say I believe that Lemonis, given the opportunity, would have done what Bianco did three years ago, But it is certainly within the realm of possibility. We’ve seen it happen. In baseball, more than any other sport, teams run hot and cold. State could have gotten hot, gotten on a roll in May and June and at least made it to the College World Series. It happens for someone nearly every year in college baseball. For that matter, it could still happen for State this year with interim head coach Justin Parker calling the shots.
And I know what many of those calling for the dismissal of Lemonis will say. They’ll say that in firing Lemonis now, State can get a head start on hiring a new coach to turn the program around. Not so. Any coach that the Bulldogs would hire is still coaching a team and will be coaching a team through at least May.
Traditionally, Mississippi State baseball is one of the nation’s top programs. State baseball facilities are second to none. Fan support is among the nation’s best.
But it is not, as athletic director Zac Selmon put it “the premier program in college baseball.” It is much more accurate to say State’s is a really good program in the premier conference in college baseball.
LSU, Texas, and Arkansas, all teams in the same conference, have similar fan support, terrific facilities and have enjoyed much more on-the-field success. Tennessee has improved dramatically. Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Texas A & M have made huge strides in facilities, fan support and baseball emphasis.
And here’s the deal: Tradition, facilities and fan support, while still important, all have become secondary issues when it comes to ingredients for success in college athletics. You know what really matters most? NIL and the ability to attract players in the transfer portal, that’s what. This is no longer amateur sports. It’s pay-for-play. It’s professional sports in every respect.
The first question recruits ask: What can you pay me? The first question any prospective coach will ask Mississippi State: How much money will I get to pay players? In Monday’s press release announcing the dismissal of Lemonis, Selmon was quoted as saying State’s baseball “NIL offerings” are second to none. There’s no way of knowing for sure, but I have heard otherwise from numerous sources.
I hate that we have reached this point in college athletics, but we most assuredly have. I also hate that Lemonis, a good man and a good coach, doesn’t get the chance to finish the season. I thought he had earned that.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Chris Lemonis had at least earned the right to finish season appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article presents an opinion focused on the dismissal of Mississippi State baseball coach Chris Lemonis, highlighting the contrast between the treatment of Lemonis and Ole Miss’ coach Mike Bianco. The writer criticizes the decision to fire Lemonis prematurely, arguing that his past success, including a national championship, warranted the opportunity to finish the season. The piece does not lean heavily toward any political or ideological position, instead focusing on the dynamics within college athletics and coaching decisions. While the critique of the decision might appeal to readers who value stability and tradition, it does not show a clear partisan or ideological bias.
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