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Mississippi Covid-19 Update : June 11, 2021

Listed below is the daily COVID-19 update for the state of Mississippi. New cases of COVID-19: 236 Positive test results . . .

Petition presented at board meeting

A group of individuals appeared before the Marion County Board of Supervisors on Monday to discuss the road conditions, mostly . . .

Jobless Mississippians fear what’s next as $300 unemployment checks end

It takes $80 to fill the gas tank inside the beat-up white cargo van 34-year-old Michael Beard calls home. He . . .

Is that all there is to a pandemic?

The bubonic plague killed about half the people in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was called the Black Death . . .

Supreme Court chief quietly gave pay raise to himself and other judges without legislative approval

Supreme Court Justice Michael Randolph used a little-known provision in a 2012 law to quietly — and without legislative approval . . .

Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph used a 2012 law to quietly award pay raises to himself and the state's judges earlier this year. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

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Petition presented at board meeting
By Susan Amundson , 473 Reads
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 10:10 AM
A group of individuals appeared before the Marion County Board of Supervisors on Monday to discuss the road conditions, mostly in black communities within the county.
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Mississippi school districts targeted by ransomware attacks
By Kate Royals and Will Stribling - Mississippi Today, 464 Reads
Fri, 06/11/2021 - 04:45 PM
A group of cybercriminals hacked the Vicksburg Warren School District’s servers last month and claimed to have employees’ personal information and internal school documents.

A group that calls itself “Grief” breached the school’s servers through a ransomware attack on May 28.
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Mississippi $1 billion over revenue estimates
By Sarah Ulmer, Y'all Politics, 387 Reads
Fri, 06/11/2021 - 04:03 PM
Mississippi revenue report totals $1,004.5 million, or $1 billion over sine die estimates year-to-date.

The May revenue report was released on Wednesday and reported an overage of over $1 billion for the entire year up until this point, and over $200 million just for the month of May.
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SALTER: Will thorny medical marijuana issue endanger Mississippi’s voter initiative process?
By Sid Salter - Contributing Columnist, 398 Reads
Thu, 06/10/2021 - 10:37 AM
Below is an opinion column by Sid Salter:

In the 2020 election cycle, Mississippi voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a medical marijuana voter initiative as outlined in Initiative 65 over the express objections of the majority of legislative leaders.
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A special election to fix the Mississippi ballot initiative process would cost the state or local governments and perhaps both. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Special election to address ballot initiative can happen this year, but it will cost
By Bobby Harrison - Mississippi Today, 581 Reads
Tue, 06/08/2021 - 09:49 AM
Below is a political analysis column by Bobby Harrison:

If the Mississippi Legislature does set the date for a special election this year to reinstate the ballot initiative process that was invalidated last month by the Supreme Court, it would cost the state or local governments and perhaps both.
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Fishing can be great for the soul
By Danny O'Fallon, 137 Reads
Fri, 06/11/2021 - 09:40 AM
Fishing ain’t for everybody, I get it. You either love it or hate it — there’s no in-between. Whether you consider fishing a pastime or a waste-of-time, there’s just something innately special about it.
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Opinion: Bat coming home to roost
By Kelley Williams, 1,968 Reads
Tue, 06/08/2021 - 03:39 PM
The Bat Lady is a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. Her name is Dr. Shi Zheng-li. She goes on virus-hunting expeditions in bat caves and does “gain of function” genetic manipulations on coronaviruses to make them more infectious and more deadly to humans.
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CONSERVATION CORNER By James L. Cummins
READ MORE > 330 Reads
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 10:17 AM
Outdoor recreation is enjoyed by nearly every one of us. It provides economic, mental, physical, and social benefits. Recognition of the value of recreation and the importance of June as a time of recreational activity prompted Presidential designation of June as Great Outdoors Month.
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As MS Legislature debates medical marijuana, is recreational marijuana now on the table?
By Frank Corder - Y'all Politics, 446 Reads
Fri, 06/11/2021 - 04:15 PM
After recent hearing, state Sen. Brice Wiggins says yes.
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Special master says state is making progress toward mental health goals, but needs monitoring
By Steve Wilson, 4,244 Reads
Thu, 06/10/2021 - 01:01 PM
The special master in charge of helping the state Department of Mental Health meet federal requirements says the state is making progress, but it needs outside monitoring for compliance.
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Is that all there is to a pandemic?

The bubonic plague killed about half the people in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was called the Black Death. Influenza killed about 15% of the world’s population in 1918-19. It was called the Spanish Flu. (John Barry’s The Great Influenza suggests it first appeared in Kansas.) Justinian’s Plague was the first major plague in recorded histor