May 25, 2020

Emails Show Metro Scrambling for Space at Fairgrounds Homeless Shelter

NASHVILLE -- Emails between Metro officials and service providers show that at one point in early May, the temporary shelter at the Fairgrounds Nashville could not admit new guests who were awaiting COVID-19 test results. The emails, which the Scene obtained through a public records request, show that on May 5 there seemed to be some struggle for space at the so-called sick shelter designed to quarantine people experiencing homelessness who tested positive for COVID-19.

That day, Brian Haile, CEO of Neighborhood Health, emailed Metro officials — including Metro Public Health director Michael Caldwell and Coronavirus Task Force chair Alex Jahangir — about two patients who were turned away from the fairgrounds.

“Today two homeless patients who were recently tested for COVID-19 returned to us (on foot) because they were told there was no room at the PUI shelter for them,” Haile wrote. He added that Neighborhood Health confirmed with a fairgrounds worker that there was no more space for persons under investigation (PUI), or people who are waiting for the results of their coronavirus tests.

"Can you give us some direction as to how we should proceed?" Haile asked.

Read more: https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21134742/emails-show-metro-scrambling-for-space-at-fairgrounds-homeless-shelter

May 24, 2020

Nonprofit officials spent $400,000 in welfare dollars to lobby state government. Public education

Nonprofit officials spent $400,000 in welfare dollars to lobby state government. Public education funding flowed their way.


Prominent special education figure Nancy New spent hundreds of thousands of welfare dollars her nonprofit had received from the state to cull favor and lobby state government for her private school interests, according to interviews and documents.

The nonprofit, at the center of what is now called the largest alleged public embezzlement scheme in state history, spent at least $400,000 in welfare funds to “maintain governmental revenue streams or to lobby on behalf of their organization” from 2017 to 2019, the state auditor reported.

In those three years, she and her son’s separate private school companies quietly received nearly $1.3 million from direct legislative appropriations in the public education budget.

But as is the case with many of the purchases her nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center made, investigators have found, little public documentation exists to show what influence their efforts may have had.

Read more: https://mississippitoday.org/2020/05/19/nonprofit-spent-400000-in-welfare-dollars-to-lobby-government-officials-public-education-funding-flowed-their-way/

May 24, 2020

Coronavirus in Mississippi: 9 new deaths, 247 new cases reported Sunday

The Mississippi Department of Health reported nine new deaths and 247 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the state total to 13,252 cases with 625 deaths.

Also Sunday, the Health Department reported 1,683 total cases in long-term care facilities in the state with 315 deaths.

Lauderdale County consistently has the highest number of active outbreaks in nursing homes. The department on Sunday reported 181 cases and 36 deaths. The county — with a population of just over 74,000 residents — also has the highest death toll in the state, with 55 reported deaths from COVID-19.

-snip-

Hinds County, with the largest population in the state, has the highest number of cases of COVID-19 with 893 confirmed cases. Madison County has seen a recent surge of cases and now has the third-highest number in the state, with 654 confirmed cases.

Read more: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2020/05/24/coronavirus-mississippi-9-new-deaths-247-new-cases-reported-may-24/5250628002/

May 24, 2020

Hinds County orders all government employees back to work

The Hinds County Board of Supervisors said Friday all government employees are expected to return to work Tuesday.

The more than 800 employees currently not working will be required to wear facial coverings, or masks, when they return to work. They will also be screened, said County Administrator Jennifer Riley Collins.

In addition to the facial covering and screening requirements, Collins said plexiglass dividers will be put in place in some county offices. She said members of the public will also be required to wear facial coverings if they enter any county office.

Collins said she is aware of two cases in which the family members of county employees have been confirmed to have COVID-19. They've been following state and federal quarantine guidelines.

Read more: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2020/05/22/hinds-county-orders-government-employees-back-work/5243039002/

May 24, 2020

Infamous Ex-Angola Warden Is Reeves' Choice To Lead Beleaguered Mississippi Prisons

Burl Cain, the infamous ex-warden of Louisiana’s Angola prison, is Gov. Tate Reeves’ choice to lead the Mississippi Department of Corrections out of the morass in the state’s prisons that the governor inherited at the start of his term, a culmination of prison issues that grew during his two terms as lieutenant governor and president of the Mississippi Senate.

Cain resigned from his position at Angola in early 2016, after the Baton-Rouge Advocate detailed the then-warden’s business dealings with the family members of state inmates.

The report prompted a dual investigation by Louisiana's legislative auditor and the state’s Department of Corrections into the commissioner’s relationships with the families of the incarcerated and his use of prison funds and labor.

State investigators interrogating Cain’s financial entanglements with the family members of inmates found it more appropriate to adjust the wording of the state’s policies and regulations than to allege misconduct on the part of Cain, The Advocate reported in 2016.

Read more: https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/may/21/infamous-ex-angola-warden-governors-choice-lead-be/

May 24, 2020

Mayor Lumumba's New Robocall Pleads with Jacksonians: No Large Cookouts, Block Parties

Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba sent out a robocall to Jackson residents today warning them to be safe through the Memorial Day weekend as so many businesses open up.

"COVID-19 is still infecting people in our community here in Jackson, so it is important that you remain vigilant," Lumumba said in the recording.

He pointed to new numbers from the Mississippi State Department of Health that show no decrease in infections; in fact, this past week had a higher average of daily cases than the previous week, the Jackson Free Press reported today, with an average of 269 new cases a day, up from 249 last week. The average the previous week was 277.

"This past Friday we saw 402 new cases of coronavirus," he said, calling for safe choices. Today, MSDH announced 381 new confirmed cases yesterday.

Read more: https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/may/23/mayor-lumumbas-new-robocall-pleads-jacksonians-no-/

May 24, 2020

Montgomery mayor Steven Reed: Hospitals asked me to sound the alarm over ICU beds

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Thursday that the local intensive care unit numbers he shared a day earlier were given to him by hospital administrators, who asked him to spread the word that the city was almost out of ICU beds as the pandemic escalates here.

Reed offered that context hours after Baptist Health released a statement addressing its local ICU capacity.

At a press conference Wednesday, Reed told members of the media that Baptist hospitals in Montgomery and Prattville were out of ICU beds and that some patients were being transferred to Birmingham for care. A day later, Reed went back in front of the media to explain that he presented those numbers after being “in constant communication” with Baptist and Jackson leaders.

“We were told quite frankly the shortage in ICU beds that we had and where we were headed,” Reed said Thursday. “One of the CEOs mentioned this was a manageable situation but was not sustainable. Any time that you can see the cliff is coming you want to warn the people that you’re leading that there’s a cliff up there. You don’t want to wait until you get right up to it before you tell somebody.

Read more: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/05/21/montgomery-mayor-hospitals-asked-me-sound-alarm-over-icu-beds/5240903002/

May 24, 2020

Alabama city files bankruptcy citing millions in debt

FAIRFIELD, Ala. (AP) — The Birmingham suburb of Fairfield has become the latest local government in Alabama to file for bankruptcy.

News outlets report that the city of about 11,000 people filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, citing as much as $10 million in liabilities.

Mayor Eddie Penny says the city needs a fresh start. Fairfield has been struggling with finances for years. The mayor says the pandemic only worsened the city's condition because several businesses have closed.

At least a dozen Alabama cities or counties have sought bankruptcy protection over the last three decades.

https://www.apr.org/post/alabama-city-files-bankruptcy-citing-millions-debt
(no more at link)

May 24, 2020

Trump calls Sessions 'slime,' urges him to exit Senate race after former AG defends his record

A Twitter battle between President Donald Trump and his former attorney general spilled into Saturday, with Jeff Sessions defending his support among conservatives and the president later calling Sessions “slime.”

Trump, in his Saturday evening tweet, called on Sessions to drop out of the race for Senate and “pray” that Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones loses in November.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1264328744682078208

Sessions, late Saturday, said he will “never apologize for following the law” and defended his decision in 2017 to recuse himself from the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into Russia’s interference into the 2016 presidential election. Sessions also said that while Alabama will support Trump during the general election, the state’s voters will “not take orders from Washington on who to send to the Senate.”

Sessions also blasted his GOP runoff opponent, former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville, calling him “too weak” to debate him ahead of the July 14 election. Tuberville, also Saturday night, tweeted it was “time to put an end” to Sessions’ public public service and noted that Trump “cannot trust him.”

Read more: https://www.al.com/politics/2020/05/jeff-sessions-trump-twitter-battle-spills-into-saturday.html

May 24, 2020

Sen. Doug Jones: COVID-19 relief should not be a partisan issue

Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama, said Friday during a live-streamed press conference that the Senate should begin debating the next COVID-19 relief package, and Republicans in Congress should stop playing partisan politics with urgently needed COVID-19 relief.

“That bill is not perfect at all. There are a number of things in there that I don’t think will be in a final bill,” Jones said of the House’s $3 trillion HEROES Act. “It’s not perfect, but it is something to start talking about. It is a shame that Senate Republicans have made this into a partisan issue, trying to say that this was some kind of Democratic ‘wish list.’ It is not.”

The $3 trillion relief package includes nearly $1 trillion in aid to struggling state and local governments and another round of $1,200 payments to individual taxpayers and up to $6,000 per family.

The bill, which passed the House last week along partisan lines, appropriates billions for COVID-19 testing and contact-tracing and provides money for hazard pay for essential workers, among many other provisions its 1,800 pages.

Read more: https://www.alreporter.com/2020/05/22/sen-doug-jones-covid-19-relief-should-not-be-a-partisan-issue/
(Alabama Political Reporter)