News outlets take court action opposing former governor's effort to shield records

by Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today
March 30, 2023

Mississippi Today and two other news outlets have allied to oppose former Gov. Phil Bryant's effort to block the public from viewing emails and text messages that could shed new light on an ongoing investigation involving the misuse of federal welfare dollars.

In a Thursday filing in Hinds County Circuit Court, Mississippi Today, the Daily Journal, and the Mississippi Free Press have moved to protect the public's right to access government records.

The news organizations, which are represented by the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Center for Constitutional Rights, want to argue before a court that documents relating to communications from Bryant's time as governor should not be kept secret if they surface in the course of civil lawsuits that are ongoing over the welfare scandal.

“Although these records relate to one of the largest governmental abuses in this State's recent memory, Bryant seeks to keep them hidden from the public,” argued the news organizations in Friday's court filing.“The public in Mississippi has an interest in these records and what they could disclose about the scandal.”

In a joint statement, the editors of the news organizations said that the press has an obligation to fight on behalf of the public's right to access government records and the correspondence of public officials.

“One of the basic duties of a free press is to hold public officialsaccountable and ensure that the government remains as open and transparent to the people it serves as possible. We are taking action in court as part of our ongoing efforts to get at the truth of one of the largest public scandals in our state's history,” said Adam Ganucheau of Mississippi Today, Sam R. Hall of the Daily Journal and Donna Ladd of the Mississippi Free Press.

The state of Mississippi has sued numerous individuals and organizations in an effort to recover welfare funds that were allegedly misspent. Some of the targets of these civil lawsuits have also pleaded guilty in state and federal court to crimes linked to their use of public welfare dollars. None has served time to date.

Bryant has neither been charged criminally nor sued. Still, several defendants in lawsuits have asked him to turn over emails and text messages as part of an effort by those defendants to claim the former governor allegedly directed them to perform unlawful acts.

Bryant has denied these allegations and asked a judge to find that he doesn't have to provide copies of text messages, emails, and other responsive records. Bryant has selectively released some of his own text messages in a court filing, but does not want to release more, as a pending subpoena could require him to do.

If Judge E. Faye Peterson does force the former governor to turn over more of his communications to the court, he has asked the judge to place them under a protective order that would block the public from examining the documents.

In Thursday's motion, the three news organizations asked Peterson to allow them to present arguments in opposition to Bryant's request for a protective order.

“Transparency is the path to meaningful accountability in a functioning democracy, and Mississippians are owed both,” said Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “Our press should not be hampered by unnecessarily sealed records when reporting on this important case.”

Decades of state court cases have upheld the right of the press to step into ongoing litigation where matters of public access are in question, even when a news organization is not a party to that litigation.

Editor's note: Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, is a member of Mississippi Today's board of directors.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=229597

On this day in 1958

by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
March 30, 2023

MARCH 30, 1958

When Alvin Ailey and other young, modern Black dancers performed at New York City's 92^nd Street Y, it was meant to be a one-night event. Instead, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company introduced the world to the discovery of what Black dancing could be, performing for audiences in 71 countries, including kings and queens.

Ailey grew up in Texas, “glued to my mother's hip. Sloshing through the terrain. Branches slashing against a child's body. Going from one place to another. Looking for a place to be. My mother off working in the fields. I used to pick cotton.”

In 1960, Ailey debuted Revelations, regarded as a masterpiece. Through his dances, he sought to show “dark deep things, beautiful things inside me that I'd always been trying to get out.” And when his friend, fellow choreographer Joyce Trisler died, he created a dance to honor her —a dance that illustrated both loneliness and celebration.

“I couldn't cry,” he later confessed, “until I saw this piece.”

In 1988, he received Kennedy Center Honors, with legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite introducing him as “a choreographer who helped free Blacks from the cage of tap-dancing.”

Dying of AIDS, Ailey passed on his company to Judith Jamison, who said, “Alvin breathed in and never breathed out.” She continued: “We are his breath out.”

A 2021 documentary details his journey, and the Ailey school remains the largest place in New York City dedicated to training dancers.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi lawmakers resolve impasse over K-12 spending, hope to end session Thursday

by Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today
March 29, 2023

The Mississippi Legislature, finally reaching a budget accord, worked late Wednesday night to pass that agreement with hopes of ending its 2023 session on Thursday.

A key peg in that deal is an agreement between House and Senate leaders to provide an additional $100 million for local school districts. The agreement will be divvied out to schools based on student enrollment with the understanding the money cannot be used to provide pay raises for administrators.

A key obstacle in the prolonged budget stalemate that began before last weekend was the desire of the Senate to place an additional $181 million in the funding formula in state law that provides for the basic needs of local school districts.

The Senate plan was to make minor adjustments in the Mississippi Adequate Education Program formula, and fully fund it for an additional $181 million for the first time since the 2007-08 school year.

READ MORE: Senate, Hosemann want to spend $181 million more to ‘fully fund' public education in Mississippi

But House Speaker Philip Gunn and other members of his leadership team opposed placing additional money in MAEP. They have been advocates in the past of scrapping or overhauling the program.

Gunn stressed late Wednesday the additional $100 million will not go into the formula. But it will be provided to the schools, like the MAEP is, based on student enrollment. And while school districts will not have as much discretion as with MAEP in how the funds are spent, they still will have significant leeway in expending the funds.

Overall, Gunn said he is pleased with the agreement.

“We are going to make significant progress tonight and probably finish up on Thursday,” he said. “We are grateful to the Senate for working with us.”

The agreement also will include additional funds to deal with the devastation caused by last week's tornadoes that ripped through the Delta and north Mississippi killing at least 21. Final details of the amount of money that will be set aside for storm relief was still undecided late Wednesday.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the amount of funding “will be a significant amount of money.”

The agreement will take shape in multiple appropriations bills that must be passed by both chambers. Additionally, a handful of general bills — some controversial — still are pending to be taken up.

House Bill 1020 is perhaps the most controversial. In its original form it created a separate judicial district in the white and more affluent areas of Jackson where the judges would be appointed instead of elected by the Black majority population of the city.

A version of that proposal is still alive and expected to be taken up on Thursday.

Another measure, Senate Bill 2343, would give Capitol Police, under direction of the state Department of Public Safety, jurisdiction to patrol within the entire city of Jackson.

But efforts to restore the state's initiative process where citizens can gather signatures to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide was not part of any agreement. That proposal is dead for the session unless an additional agreement is reached overnight. The state had an initiative process until May 2021 when the state Supreme Court ruled it invalid because of a technical flaw. At the time, legislative leaders vowed to fix the concerns of the Supreme Court and restore the process. But for the past two sessions, legislative leaders have been unable to agree on a fix to restore the process.

READ MORE: Senate, in 11th hour, tries to revive ballot initiative measure it previously killed

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.