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MSU forensic anthropologist offers hope in identifying long missing persons

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MSU forensic anthropologist offers hope in identifying long missing persons

On June 1, 1960, Lyrian Barry-Stallings, a 5-foot-tall Black woman, boarded a Greyhound bus in Columbus to get to St. Louis, Missouri. She vanished, never to be seen at her destination or have further contact with her family.

Her missing persons case is among the profiles of hundreds of people in a searchable online database created by a Mississippi University forensic anthropologist who hopes to enforcement find them and give their loved ones closure.

โ€œ(This is) to allow the public access to missing persons data so the state of Mississippi and anyone in Mississippi could find anyone who was missing in this state and information for families to advocate for them,โ€ said Jesse Goliath, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures.

The Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons, launched in November, includes pictures, demographic information, where they were last seen and circumstances of their disappearance.

Since its launch, the database has profiles for 475 missing people and 51 profiles for unidentified remains.

Black and Indigenous people and people of two or more races are among the majority of missing people in Mississippi, which Goliath said mirrors national trends.

The database shows the average missing age was around 34.

Among the unidentified, the majority are white and the average estimated age is around 28.

Cases in the database stretch back decades and the oldest unidentified case is of a Black woman between the ages of 30 and 40 whose skeletal remains were found in Natchez in May 1967.

People went missing or remains were uncovered mostly from population centers such as Jackson, the Coast, outside of Memphis and Hattiesburg, but there are cases from all over the state.

Jesse Goliath, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at Mississippi State University, has helped create the Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons at MSU. Credit: Grace Cockrell/MSU

Before the database, Goliath said it wasn’t clear how many missing and unidentified people there are in Mississippi.

There are national databases, like the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, but because law enforcement isn’t required to submit information to it, there is likely underreporting, he said. The National Crime Information Center collects information from law enforcement and compiles annual statistics about missing and unidentified people, but it has had challenges with receiving quality data that is often incomplete, too.

Goliath has spoken with members of law enforcement about how a database could be helpful to solve missing persons cases. He has found that there’s not always enough staff dedicated to locating missing people, or there is a lack of communication between law enforcement agencies.

When someone goes missing, the local law enforcement agency will submit information to the Mississippi of Investigation to put out a missing persons alert on its emergency system that has the ability to be broadcast statewide, a spokesperson from the agency said.

This can also include posting the missing person’s picture and information on social , which would originate from the law enforcement agency where the person was filed missing.

The main way Goliath has found out about missing people is through Facebook when law enforcement post an alert and information about someone or posts from nonprofit advocacy groups such as MissingSippi and Mississippi Missing and Unidentified Persons.

โ€œThe more eyes, the more awareness these cases get,โ€ he said about supporting the groups’ work.

Undergraduate student workers scan social media to find information about missing and unidentified people to add to the database, Goliath said. Family members have also reached out to ask the team to include their loved one or to their profile already included in the database, he said.

Goliath said the goal is to update the database every few weeks.

The database is modeled after one in Louisiana, which is based at Louisiana State University and is also run by forensic anthropologists.

Goliath said one of the goals of a Mississippi database is to build something lawmakers can support and create policy around, such as mandatory to the database by law enforcement.

He and Assistant Professor Jordan Lynton Cox plan to use the database for research. He is interested in why people from certain demographics go missing to others.

With Cox, a cultural anthropologist, they want to map food deserts, hospitals and of poverty to find where people are missing from the most in Mississippi.

They also want to look at law enforcement budgets to see if the offices have the overall funding and resources and support to work in missing persons cases. Goliath wants to know if there are more people missing from areas with departments that are under budgeted.

He used his forensic skills for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the goal of which is to identify all remains of soldiers missing since World War II and return them home to their families. Goliath said the agency is the biggest employer and trainer of forensic anthropologists.

At MSU, he is able to teach and research and occasionally the anthropology department is called to assist in missing persons cases, such as the exhumation in Pontotoc County of Felecia Cox โ€“ who had been missing since 2007 and was located after her killer, David Cox, told attorneys where to find her before his 2021 execution for killing his estranged wife Kim Kirk Cox, and sexually assaulting her young daughter as her mother lay dying. Felicia Cox was the wife of David Cox’s brother.

Goliath said the The Bureau of Indian Affairs has contacted the department to go into a creek with cadaver dogs to look for a missing woman from the Neshoba area.

He also is called when bones are recovered and people want to know whether they belong to a human or an animal.

โ€œWe’re all in this together in finding these people,โ€ Goliath said about his forensic anthropology work.ย 

For more information about the Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons, visit https://www.missinginms.msstate.edu/ or reach out by email at missinginms@msstate.edu.

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

Mississippi Today

Senate panel weighs how much โ€” or whether โ€” to cut state taxes

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mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2024-11-04 15:42:00

A group of senators on Monday grappled with how much to slash state taxes or if they should cut them at all, portending a major policy debate at the Capitol for next year’s legislative session. 

The Senate Fiscal Policy Study Group solicited testimony from the state ‘s leading experts on budget, economic and tax policies to prepare for an almost certain intense debate in January over how much they should trim state taxes while balancing the need to fund government services.ย 

Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, a Republican from Flowood whose committee has jurisdiction over tax policy, told that he wanted senators to have basic facts in front of them before they help decide next year if Mississippi should cut taxes.

โ€œWe’re getting a tax cut the next two years whether we do anything or not,โ€ Harkins said. โ€œI just want to make sure we have all the facts in front of people to understand we have a clear picture of how much revenue we’re bringing in.โ€  

Mississippi is already phasing in a major tax cut. After a raucous debate in 2022, lawmakers agreed to phase in an income tax cut. In two years it will leave Mississippi with a flat 4% tax on income over $10,000, one of the lowest rates in the nation.

However, the top two legislative leaders, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who oversees the Senate and House Speaker Jason White, have both recently said they want legislators to consider new tax cut policies.  

Hosemann, the Republican leader of the Senate, has publicly said he would like to see the state’s grocery tax, the highest of its kind in the nation, reduced, though he hasn’t specified how much of a reduction or how long it would take for the cut to be implemented. 

White, a Republican from West, said last that he would like to see the state’s 4% income tax phased out and have the state’s 7% grocery tax cut in half over time. 

โ€œWe are hoping to construct a tax system that, yes, prioritizes certain needs in our state, but it also protects and rewards taxpayers,โ€ White said last week. 

But it’s difficult to collect accurate data on the state’s grocery tax, and state lawmakers must grapple with a laundry list of spending needs and obligations based on testimony from state agency leaders on Monday. 

Mississippi currently has a 7% sales tax, which is applied to groceries. The state collects the tax but remits 18.5% back to . For many municipalities, the sales tax is a significant source of revenue. 

If state lawmakers want to reduce the grocery tax without impacting cities, they could pass a new law to change the diversion amounts or appropriate enough money to make the municipalities whole.  

State Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham said the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the agency in charge of collecting state taxes, does not have a mechanism in place for accurately capturing how much money cities collect in grocery taxes. This is because the tax on groceries is the same as non-grocery items. 

However, Graham estimates that the state collects roughly $540 million in taxes from grocery items.

The other problem lawmakers would have in implementing significant tax cuts is a growing list of spending needs in Mississippi, a state with abject poverty, and sewer and other woes and some of the worst health metrics in the nation. 

Representatives from the Legislative Budget Office, the group that advises lawmakers on tax and spending policy, told senators that lawmakers will also be with rising costs in the public employee retirement system, the Medicaid budget, public education, state employee health insurance, and state infrastructure projects. 

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

State agencies, the employee retirement system, also requested $751 million more for the coming budget year.

โ€œThat’s the billion dollar question, I guess,โ€ Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, said. โ€œHow we’re able to fund basic government services?โ€ 

Harkins and Hopson said the committee would likely meet again before the convenes for its 2025 session on January 7.

A House committee on tax cuts has also been holding hearings, and White in September held a summit on tax policy.

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

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Already dire lack of affordable housing for low-income Mississippians on verge of worsening

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mississippitoday.org – Simeon Gates – 2024-11-04 11:00:00

In Mississippi, where there’s already a dearth of 50,000 or more affordable homes for extremely low-income , that number could grow in the next five years.

Housing units available under the federal Low Income Tax Credit program could lose their affordability by 2030 โ€“a number estimated nationwide to be 350,000 with 2,917 in Mississippi, alone; 496 in the already have.

The federal program responsible for most of the nation’s affordable housing is expiring.

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit, introduced as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986,  provides for developers to buy, build and restore low-income housing units. Under the deal, the housing only needs to stay low-rent for 30 years. Construction began in the early 1990s. 

Some LIHTC housing will remain affordable due to other subsidies, nonprofits, state and individual landlords.

โ€œI think the low-income housing tax credit has done everything that it can to address the need for affordable housing around the state,โ€ said Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Housing Corporation, a state office that administers the program and works with the state government and those in the affordable housing industry to create and affordable housing

Spivey supports the proposed Affordable Housing Credit and Improvement Act, a federal bill that would expand upon the low-income housing tax credit in several ways, including giving developers more credit for certain projects for low-income households and changing tenant eligibility rules. 

The bill was introduced in the House and the Senate last session, and is co-sponsored by Mississippi Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker and in the House by Reps. Mike Ezell, and Michael Guest. As of this spring, both bills are in committee. 

While housing has become a major issue for Americans, getting legislation passed has been challenging. โ€œEverybody knows that housing is an issue, but it gets caught up with everything elseโ€ฆand it kind of gets lost in the shuffle,โ€ said Spivey.

This issue is especially important in Mississippi, where demand for housing is high across all incomes. 

โ€œAll the market studies that we see that come with the applications tell us that there’s a huge need for affordable housing across the state at all the income bandsโ€ said Spivey.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, almost a third of Mississippi renters are extremely low income; 65% of them are severely cost burdened, meaning they spent more than half their income on rent. The majority of these households are seniors, disabled people, single caregivers of young children, people enrolled in school, or other. 

Director of Housing Law at the Mississippi Center for Justice, Ashley Richardson said housing problems worsened after Mississippi stopped participating in the federal rental assistance program in 2022.

MCJ’s work on housing includes a statewide eviction hotline, investigating instances of housing discrimination, and more. 

Richardson praised the LIHTC program, but echoed Spivey’s concerns. โ€œEven with the affordable housing we do have in Mississippi, we are still at a lack,โ€ she said. 

The National Housing Preservation Database estimates Mississippi is short 52,421 affordable and available rental homes for low-income people. The National Low Income Housing Coalition puts the figure at 49,478.

Richardson wants the state to deal with issues like providing more tenant protections and rental assistance. There’s also a need to improve homes that are or in poor condition, and many housing nonprofits are running out of

Spivey said people should to their property managers and learn about their rights. MHC’s website has resources for homebuyers and renters.

As the housing crisis goes on, there are options for people struggling to find and keep affordable housing and an effort to take action at the federal and state levels.  

Some aspiring low-income homeowners may qualify for Habitat for Humanity, a program that builds homes for families in need. Families who qualify work on the homes alongside volunteers, pay an affordable mortgage and financial literacy education.

New applicants must meet the qualifications, including a good debt-income ratio, 125 hours of sweat equity and taking classes on financial literacy, home repairs, and being a good neighbor.

Merrill McKewen, executive director for Habitat for Humanity Mississippi Capital Area, emphasized the importance of housing to individuals and communities. 

โ€œThere are untold studies that have been done that, you’ve gotta have a safe, decent, affordable place to . The children are better , the parents are better employeesโ€ฆit grounds you to a community that you can contribute to and be a part of. It is the American dream, to own a home, which is what we’re all about,โ€ she said. 

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

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Mississippi Election 2024: What will be on Tuesdayโ€™s ballot?

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-11-04 10:00:00

will go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5, to elect federal and judicial posts and some local offices, such as for election commissioners and school board members.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. To find your polling place, use the secretary of state’s locator, or call your local county circuit clerk.

READ MORE: View the Mississippi sample ballot.

The following is a list of the candidates for federal and judicial posts with brief bios:

President

  • Kamala Harris, current vice president and Democratic nominee for president. Her running mate is Tim Walz.
  • Donald Trump, former president and current Republican nominee. His running mate is J.D. Vance.
  • Robert Kennedy Jr. remains on the ballot in Mississippi even though he has endorsed Trump. His running mate is Nicole Shanahan.
  • Jill Stein is the Green Party candidate. Her running mate is Rudolph Ware.
  • Five other candidates will be on the Mississippi ballot for president. For a complete list of presidential candidates, see the sample ballot.

U.S. Senate

  • Ty Pinkins is the Democratic nominee. He is a Rolling Fork native and attorney, representing, among other clients, those alleging unfair working conditions. He served 21 years in the U.S. Army, combat stints, other overseas deployment and posts in the White House,
  • Roger Wicker is the Republican incumbent senator. He resides in Tupelo and has served in the U.S. Senate since late 2007 after first being appointed to fill a vacancy by then-Gov. Haley Barbour. He was elected to the post in 2008. He previously served in the U.S. House and as a state senator. He is an attorney and served in the United States Air Force.

House District 1

  • Dianne Black is the Democratic nominee. She is a small business owner in Olive Branch in DeSoto County.
  • Trent is the Republican incumbent. He was elected to the post in a special election in 2015. He previously served as a district attorney and before then as a prosecuting attorney for the of Tupelo. He is a major general in the Mississippi Army National Guard.

House District 2

  • Bennie Thompson is the Democratic incumbent. He was first elected to the post in 1993. Before then, he served as a supervisor and as alderman and then as of Bolton.
  • Ronald Eller is the Republican nominee. He grew up in West Virginia and moved to central Mississippi after retiring from the military. He is a physician assistant and business owner.

House District 3

  • Michael Guest is the Republican incumbent and is unopposed.

House District 4

  • Mike Ezell is the Republican incumbent first being elected in 2022. He previously served as sheriff.
  • Craig Raybon is the Democratic nominee. Raybon is from Gulfport and began a nonprofit โ€œfocused on helping out the community as a whole.โ€

Central District Supreme Court

  • Jenifer Branning currently serves as a member of the state Senate from Neshoba County.
  • Byron Carter is a Hinds County attorney and previously served as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Armis Hawkins.
  • James Kitchens is the incumbent. He has served on the state’s highest court since 2008.
  • Ceola James previously served on the Court of Appeals.
  • Abby Gale Robinson is a Jackson attorney. She previously was a commercial builder.

Southern District Supreme Court

  • Dawn Beam is the incumbent, having been first appointed in 2016 by then-Gov. Phil Bryant and later winning election to the post. She is a former chancellor for the Hattiesburg area.
  • David Sullivan is an attorney in and has been a municipal judge in D’Iberville since 2019. His father, Michael, previously served on the state Supreme Court.

Northern District Supreme Court seats

  • Robert Chamberlin of DeSoto County is unopposed.
  • James Maxwell of Lafayette County is unopposed.

Court of Appeals 5th District seat

  • Ian Baker is an assistant district attorney in Harrison County.
  • Jennifer Schloegel is a Chancery Court judge for Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties.
  • Amy St. Pe is a Municipal Court judge in Gautier.

Court of Appeals District 2

  • Incumbent Latrice Westbrooks is unopposed.

Court of Appeals District 3

  • Incumbent Jack Wilson is unopposed.ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย 

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

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