Category: Regional News

ST. MARTIN, Miss. (AP) — A south Mississippi church is allowing parishioners to give offering or pay tithes using cryptocurrency.

Back Bay Baptist Church in St. Martin launched the new method of giving late last month, WLOX-TV reported.

The church takes seven different assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD coin, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Die, and Bitcoin cash.

The church still accepts traditional forms of currency, Pastor Adam Bennett said. But he sees cryptocurrency as being the future of currency transactions.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Book Festival is being shown online after the in-person event was canceled because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Organizers say videos of 31 panel discussions have been recorded in the past month. Those will become available Tuesday on the festival’s website, msbookfestival.com.

“We’ve got an amazing group of authors and moderators who have rallied to record more than 35 hours of great conversations about books and writing,” executive director Ellen Daniels said in a news release. “Honoring these writers and continuing to engage our loyal and growing community of book lovers is what the festival is all about.”

Among the authors speaking are Curtis Wilkie, Kiese Laymon, Nic Stone, W. Ralph Eubanks, Jerry Mitchell, Catherine Pierce, Beth Ann Fennelly, Mitch Landrieu, William Ferris, Angie Thomas, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Robert Khayat and Kai Bird.

The festival originally was scheduled for Aug. 21 at the Mississippi Capitol and nearby Galloway United Methodist Church in downtown Jackson. Organizers switched to the online format because the state was experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases at the time.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi students who left college at least two years ago without a degree can apply for a grant to help them return to — and finish — school.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation recently awarded the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning $1.3 million to fund Mississippi’s Complete 2 Compete tuition assistance grants through 2023.

The Complete 2 Compete program provides one-on-one support for adult learners who have earned college credits, but not a degree, and works with them to complete their education.

Qualifying returning students can receive a $1,000 grant that can be renewed every semester. The award helps pay for any coursework needed to graduate and can help repay prior debt.

Funds can be used at any Mississippi public universities or community colleges. A total of 2,400 students have graduated since the program launched in 2017.

There are more than 200,000 prior students that qualify for the Complete 2 Compete program in the state, according to a press release from the Mississippi Community College Board.

Since May, the Complete 2 Compete program has reached out to former students through postcards as well as internet and social media ads. More than 2,700 former students’ applications were processed over the summer, with 620 returning to enroll in one of Mississippi’s 15 community colleges, 8 universities, and the medical center.

Tyson announces plans to expand its poultry plant in Vicksburg. The $61 million project is expected to bring 50 jobs along with it. That facility makes fully cooked chicken products, both for retail and foodservice customers. This expansion is specifically aimed at increasing capacity for foodservice clients like restaurants and schools, and comes at a time when schools nationwide are seeing delivery shortages because of supply chain constraints. The Vicksburg facility already employs more than 500 people. The Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance for infrastructure improvements though specifics haven’t been released.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi on Wednesday followed through on its promise to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that it come up with a plan to prevent unnecessary institutionalization of people with mental illness.

Lawyers for the state filed a notice of appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Sept. 7, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered that the state’s initial plan be submitted to the U.S. Justice Department and a mental health expert for feedback within 120 days. The judge said then that the final plan must be completed in 180 days.

State lawyers asked last week that the deadline be postponed because Mississippi intended to appeal Reeves’ ruling.

James Shelson, the state’s lawyer, wrote on Sept. 27 that if the Department of Mental Health were required to complete its plan and other requirements of Reeves’ order in the allocated time frame, “Mississippi will suffer irreparable injuries from undue interference with its mental health system and a fundamental alteration of that system both in costs and structure.”

Under Reeves’ order, the state is responsible for tracking a wide array of data, including state hospital admissions and the number of patients who remain in state hospitals more than 180 days; calls to mobile crisis teams, and the number of people being placed in jail while waiting for a state hospital bed.

Another stipulation of Reeves’ order requires Mississippi to fund 250 new vouchers to help people with mental illness pay rent and utilities in the 2022 budget year, and 250 more during the 2023 budget year.

Reeves also ruled that Mississippi must start a clinical review process. The state must sample 100 to 200 patients a year “to assure that services are working as intended to address the needs of people with serious mental illness.”

The requirements are the result of a yearslong legal battle over how Mississippi cares for people with mental illness.

The federal government issued a letter in 2011 saying the state had done too little to provide mental health services outside mental hospitals. The Justice Department sued Mississippi in 2016, and Reeves ruled the state was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

State attorneys contend Mississippi has enacted programs that enable people to obtain treatment in their communities and avoid hospitalizations, such as mobile crisis teams, supportive housing and peer support services. Justice Department attorneys said during a hearing this summer that those services need to be expanded and there need to be metrics to ensure they are working.

Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson will officially open the gates to the 162nd Mississippi State Fair with a ceremonial ribbon cutting at 5:00 p.m. at Gate 1 located at the intersection of Jefferson and Amite Streets in Jackson. The Mississippi State Fair runs through Sunday, October 17, with a gate admission price of $5.00 per person and parking fee of $5.00 per car. Children aged 6 and under get in free. There’s also free admission every weekday from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., excluding this coming Monday.