Katrina Kids And Illness

Children of displaced families from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are struggling with serious health problems, according to a new report released today by the New York-based Children’s Health Fund and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

The report focused on the medical records of 261 of the poorest children displaced by the hurricanes. These kids and their families were moved into a federally funded Baton Rouge trailer park until the park closed in May 2008. This is the first in-depth review of children’s medical and mental health after the storms in 2005 that struck the Gulf Coast and displaced thousands of families.

Forty-one percent of children under 4 years of age were diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia–twice the rate found in children in New York City homeless shelters and more than twice the Centers for Disease Control’s rate for high-risk minority populations. More than half the kids had behavioral or learning problems. And 42 percent had respiratory infections and disorders that may be linked to formaldehyde and crowding in the ramshackle trailers supplied by the government.

The study made many urgent recommendations. Among them: FEMA must provide contact information for these children so their medical needs can be treated and an extension in funding is necessary so these kids can receive further medical attention. Redlener told Newsweek that he’s optimistic that funds will be extended at least through mid-2010, since all that will require is “a stroke of the pen” from the new administration.

Katrina Fraud Nails Police Chief

Lumberton Police Chief Maurice Hammond has been indicted on eight charges involving false claims he allegedly made to FEMA and the Small Business Administration for Katrina disaster assistance money, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today.

The indictment alleges that Hammond, who is from Poplarville, filed a false claim for disaster assistance, made false statements to FEMA, stole government funds, and committed wire fraud. The indictment also alleges Hammond made a false statement to the SBA.

If convicted of each count, Hammond faces up to 105 years in prison and up to $2 million in fines. Hammond has been released on bond and ordered to appear Dec. 1 for arraignment in U.S. District Court.

New Taxes Taking A Bite

Jackson County supervisors, bombarded with calls from homeowners because property values and taxes went up with reappraisal, are joining the push for a solution.

The Board of Supervisors took a look at the issue Monday and decided to ask the Legislature to increase the part of homestead exemption that affects senior citizens and the disabled.

Board President John McKay also suggested that the state freeze a home’s value when its owner reaches a certain age, but others on the board said that’s not possible.

Instead the board will join tax assessors on the Coast and in other counties that have undergone reappraisal in asking the Legislature next year to increase homestead exemption for homeowners over 65. McKay suggested an increase from $75,000 to $85,000 or $90,000. The tax assessors are asking for $100,000.

That means that for someone over 65, the first $100,000 of the value of their home would not be taxed, and they would pay taxes only on the value that is over that amount.

Tax assessors Tal Flurry in Harrison County and Jimmie Ladner in Hancock County have already talked with Sen. Billy Hughes of Gulfport, who plans to introduce legislation asking for an increase in homestead exemption to shift some of the tax burden off homeowners, especially those 65 or older or disabled.

Flurry said Harrison County tax bills have gone out and a good number of people are asking questions about the higher bills.

In Hancock County, Ladner said the tax bills will go out midweek. He said he has called his county supervisors as a courtesy to let them know since there will likely be a number of constituents calling.

Barbour: Repub To Watch

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is in the Top 10.

The Washington Post’s political blog, “The Fix” by Chris Cillizza listed the Top 10 GOPs to watch today.

In the “Friday Line,” Cillizza talks about the Republicans who will emerge as leaders of the party who can rebuild it back to the Grand Old Party.

Barbour is No. 9. Here’s what Cillizza had to say about the governor:

“Haley Barbour: There are those who mention Barbour’s name for the 2012 GOP nomination. We are decidedly skeptical about that — will the country be ready for a man who had a hand in inventing modern-day lobbying in Washington? — but Barbour is clearly someone to watch. Remember that before he became governor of Mississippi in 2003, Barbour was one of the leading political operatives in the country and has tentacles (and acolytes) all over the country. That makes him a force to be reckoned with.”

You can read more about the Top 10 list by linking to the Washington Post’s web site.

States Caught In Economic Crunch

As the number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits hits a 16-year high, states are imposing higher taxes on employers and reducing benefits to replenish dwindling accounts.

Funds to pay unemployment benefits were down in 32 states as of Sept. 30 compared with a year earlier. As the accounts shrink, states will cut benefits or increase taxes on employers to keep the funds solvent, says Richard Hobbie, executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

The jobless rate nationally is 6.5%. The average weekly benefit is $295.78.

The number of workers filing initial claims reached 542,000 in the week ending Nov. 15, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Mississippi is so far been a bit fortunate, but will it continue?  Already there are cuts in medicare and such how long will it be before taxes rise in the state to cover any shortfall of revenue?

Senators Speak Out On Auto Bailout

If it’s no surprise that Michigan lawmakers are behind the pitch for a $25 billion lifeline for Detroit automakers, then it might be just as predictable that Southerners would be leading the charge against it.

Southern politicians have spent years luring foreign automakers to build cars in their states, with huge success. South Carolina has BMW. Mississippi recently landed a major plant for Toyota Motor Corp. Alabama boasts plants run by Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co.

In Georgia, the governor recently began using a Kia SUV in honor of the company’s planned $1.2 billion manufacturing facility there.

It’s not that Southerners are secretly wishing for the Big Three to collapse. But if those automakers were to falter, the new players are poised to ramp up production and possibly turn the South into the next Detroit.

The regional divide is not black and white. Most Southern states still have a stake in the well-being of the Big Three and would suffer their own losses if the companies dramatically scaled back operations or closed their doors.

Kentucky and Tennessee have large GM plants, for example, and major auto suppliers are scattered across the region. In addition, the foreign automakers could see temporary supply disruptions in a destabilized market.

But just as U.S. consumers have increasingly turned to foreign cars, the foreign makers have made clear their preference for the union-resistant South as a U.S. manufacturing base. Increasingly, the states’ economic interests – and those of their political leaders – are realigning accordingly.

Southern members of Congress – as well as a handful of Southern governors – have been among the most vocal critics of a Detroit bailout. Most are Republicans, and they insist their opposition is largely about fiscal restraint and free markets: They don’t think taxpayers should be forced to rescue troubled companies and they argue that a federal bailout won’t do Detroit much good anyway.

But competitive interests are also at play. Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina recently wondered whether BMW would have ever built its plant in Spartanburg County if the government had been handing out money to its rivals, and Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia voiced similar concerns about the state’s Kia plant

The collapse of the US Auto industry would bring more problems than it would solve.  IMO, it is more that Michigan and the UAW did not vote for Repubs and they are out for revenge.

MS Joins The Rest Of The Country

Advocates for the state’s gay and lesbian community participated in a nationwide protest against Proposition 8 over the weekend. About 70 people met on High Street, between the state Capitol building and the Sillers Building to protest the passage of the California ballot initiative, which changed that state’s constitution to prevent California from recognizing the marriage of same-sex couples. California voters approved the constitutional amendment Nov. 4 with about 6.2 million supporting the amendment and 5.6 million in opposition.

Mississippi ACLU organizer Brent Cox said Proposition 8 is not just a California issue. “This is an equality issue for anyone who wants full equality. With marriage, you have immediate entry into an emergency room, and you don’t have to explain the dynamics of your relationship everywhere you go,” Cox said. “The bottom line is the United States has created this institution called marriage, and in the U.S. we don’t have institutions that only allow some people in, that only allow white people in, or only heterosexuals. We have a United States government that is supposed to be all inclusive.”
Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Brad White told the Jackson Free Press that a majority of Mississippians likely oppose gay marriage, and that he could not bring himself to recognize the right of gays to marry. He said he would not be opposed to homosexuals having access to a civil union status offering the same rights as marriage.

“Civil unions or some kind of similar accommodation is not out of the question, but there are too many people who are not willing to accept gay marriage at this time,” White said.

The refusal to allow marriage denigrates gays and lesbians to second-class citizenry, argue advocates, and contradicts the language of the 14th Amendment, among other aspects of the U.S. Constitution.

Many of the protesters were not gay, but straight allies; parents, children or friends of gays and lesbian. Jackson resident Patrick Neely, for example, is not gay, but appeared at the rally because he said he sympathized with the cause.

This post exerpted from a story that appeared in the Jackson Free Press.

Habitat Homes Unoccupied

In four states along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, Habitat for Humanity came with a mission to build hundreds of homes during a spring blitz so people pushed into poverty after Katrina would have the chance to own a home.

Many of the dozens of completed houses in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama are occupied or will soon be dedicated. But not in Mississippi, where only six of the 30 homes are filled.

Potential homeowners are having a hard time meeting the program’s requirement to save about $3,500 in an escrow account for a year’s worth of taxes and insurance, said Chris Monforton, chief executive officer for Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

And most of the account would be for insurance, with just $500 going toward taxes, said Duane Bates, spokesman for Habitat for Humanity International.

But Hurricane Katrina, which hit in 2005, has exacerbated the average challenges homebuyers face.

The storm nearly wiped out Mississippi’s Coast, taking with it affordable housing. That is compounded by some insurance companies, scared off by the hurricane risks, greatly increasing their rates and others pulling out of the region altogether.

Habitat houses are never sold for the appraised value but usually for thousands of dollars less. Along with the financial obligation, low-income families must invest hundreds of hours in sweat equity that can be earned by attending home-buying classes and helping to build other houses.

And families need to raise some money to cover some fees, which have turned out to be less in the other three states where the homes were built. Homeowners’ insurance rates skyrocketed after Katrina in other Gulf Coast regions as well. But Habitat affiliates differ in the amount and structure of their escrow accounts, Bates said

Promise Not Kept

When Malcolm McMillin accepted the job as Jackson’s police chief last year, he promised to improve the moribund department while balancing his duties as sheriff of Hinds County.

He faced budget, manpower and morale problems and responded by marrying resources of the Police and Sheriff’s departments, restructuring patrol beats and reinstituting policies on dress code, take-home cars and promotional exams.

While McMillin may have improved JPD’s image, he can’t say he has lowered crime.

During his first 11 months as chief, major crimes in Jackson rose 5 percent. Crime statistics reported to the FBI by JPD shows there were 15,640 total major crimes reported between November 2007 and September of this year, compared with 14,945 between November 2006 and September

McMillin often has expressed concern about the city’s homicide rate. There have been 60 reported killings, more than any other year in a decade. Though McMillin worries the statistic could overshadow improvements within JPD, he says the department is not to blame because most of the homicides result from domestic altercations. “We don’t have the manpower to put an officer or a deputy in every house, in every kitchen,” he has said.

Waveland And Tasers

This is an editorial that has appeared in the Sou. Miss. Sun-Herald:

Until last month, the United States Marine Corps did not authorize the use of Tasers… in Iraq. The Corps sent more than 100 Tasers to Iraq in 2004, but “its use was scuttled after concerns were raised over whether the training in place was sufficient and whether its use would hurt efforts to gain the trust of Iraqis,” according to the Marine Corps Times.

Only now, with new guidelines in place for training and use, is the Corps comfortable with issuing the device to its troops in a combat zone.

Yet in the last 12 months, the Waveland Police Department has used Tasers at least 87 times.

Among law enforcement agencies along the Coast providing information to the Sun Herald, the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department is a distant second, with 48 Taser incidents between Nov. 1, 2007 and Nov. 1, 2008.

In Biloxi, a city with more than 130 sworn police officers – Waveland has 25 – officers have unholstered Tasers on about 15 occasions. But usually, just showing a Taser to someone will encourage compliance with an officer’s requests, said Lt. Jim Adamo. “They have only been fired once since October 2007,” he said.

Waveland Police Chief James Varnell declined interview requests from the Sun Herald for reporter J.R. Welsh’s front page story on Sunday.

But sooner rather than later the chief should be held publicly accountable for the stunning frequency with which his officers resort to these devices, which can send 50,000 volts of low-amperage electricity through a body.

In an on-going court case, the testimony of two of Varnell’s officers, Clay Necaise and Patrick Barber, indicated that it was commonplace for them to use their Tasers.

Necaise refused to testify under oath how many times he had fired a Taser in his eight months with the department, saying only that it was “less than 100.” Barber testified he had subdued people with a Taser “multiple times” – as many as 50 occasions in 23 months.

Tasers are not toys for big boys.

Although considered a non-lethal weapon in the law enforcement arsenal, Amnesty International claims that since June 2001, more than 320 people have died after being shocked with Tasers by police officers.

“Obviously, you can’t use a Taser on a person just because they won’t do what you tell them to do,” said Maj. Randy Cook with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department.

Yet as Andrew Scott, a national police consultant and retired police chief in Boca Raton, Fla., observed, Taser use can easily become indiscriminate, especially among younger police officers.

“The officer today utilizes a Taser less as a necessity and more as a convenience,” Scott said.

“In a lot of cases, they’re getting sued, and quite successfully.”

If the Marine Corps was so concerned about not only the proper use, but the perception of using Tasers in Iraq that it delayed deploying them for years, why should police departments in South Mississippi be any less concerned about the consequences of their use?

Obviously, they shouldn’t be.

And the most obvious law enforcement agency that South Mississippians should be most concerned about is the Waveland Police Department.