Mississippi Today

Jackson leaders insist city water is safe to drink. Some mothers struggle to trust them.

Published

2 years ago

July 6, 2023

As federal and city officials continue to work to assure residents the water flowing from the troubled Jackson system is safe to drink, distrust among many capital city residents — particularly mothers and caregivers of small children — runs deep.

Regular boil water notices, lack of consistent water pressure and concerns about the safety of drinking the water even when there is not an active boil water notice are commonplace in Mississippi’s largest city.

Multiple federal lawsuits about the city’s recent water quality are pending, and the U.S. Department of Justice last fall acknowledged several major water system problems, including an acknowledgment that the city had consistently not met federal safe water standards. And since 2016, the city has mailed residents quarterly warnings that pregnant women and small children, who are most susceptible to lead poisoning, should follow state and federal safety guidelines before drinking the water.

In recent days, Ted Henifin, the federal appointee to manage the city’s water system, argued that those city notices are no longer necessary after years of clean water tests. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has for months publicly repeated the refrain that the water is safe to drink.

In mid-June, while reiterating the water is safe to drink, Lumumba joined officials at the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center to publicly announce a $100,000 donation to provide water filters specifically for pregnant women and with children under the age of 5.

Meanwhile, many caregivers across the city struggle to trust that the water flowing from the pipes is safe to give their loved ones.

“It’s hard in every way,” said Mary Rooks, a mother of four children under 10, who runs “JXN Motherhood,” an Instagram account that connects mothers across the capital city. “There are so many costs when your children are young … We pay a water bill, so you wouldn’t think you’d have to add an additional cost with water … There are so many factors of mom guilt. You just want to be the best parent of your child — bathing is a pretty simple necessity, and you’re like, ‘Can I bathe them in this water?’”

Rooks says that other parents, including parents of newborns, reached out to her during and after the 2022 Jackson water crisis, which left residents without safe tap water for weeks, to ask about how to handle various water concerns — many of which would likely not even occur to non-parents.

Even after the city-wide crisis passed, a friend with a newborn texted Rooks to ask if it was safe to wash baby bottles in the city’s water. She told them that she thought it should be fine, but the question was indicative of larger struggles parents of young children and babies have faced and continue to face.

“It’s nuts, all the implications that it has,” she said. “Anyone without children wouldn’t have a category for (the difficulties), which is fine — they haven’t been there. But washing bottles is taxing in and of itself, and then add I’m washing bottles with bottled water? It’s ridiculous.

“There’s a lot of responsibilities and hardships of parenthood, and then such a simple thing of water added to that makes it so much more complicated,” Rooks continued. “We pay for water, so it’s like one of those things where we feel like it’s a right as a citizen to have access to clean water, not only for ourselves, but for our families … It’s a simple thing, but when it’s taken away it’s a huge stress added on top of all the million ways you question yourself as a parent.”

‘The baby is extraordinarily susceptible’

During the August 2022 water crisis, some parents used unique methods to ensure their children had safe water to bathe in.

Maisie Brown started the MS Student Water Crisis Advocacy Team with more than 20 other students at Jackson State University, where she is now a rising senior. The organization — organized almost immediately after Gov. Tate Reeves announced that the city would be without clean, running water “indefinitely” — delivered bottled water to people’s homes.

Though Brown says that the majority of the calls she received were from elderly and/or disabled people, she estimates that roughly 30% of the calls were from mothers of young children. These mothers were hesitant to use the water for bathing or making formula for their babies, even after boiling it.

“You don’t want to put your baby in some water that might have bacteria or microbes in it,” Brown said. “(Adults) barely want to wash our hands with it.”

To help parents with bathing small children, some donation-based organizations like the MS Student Water Crisis Advocacy Team, asked people to donate not only bottled water, but also baby wipes and products like shower bags, which would allow people to freshen up without fully immersing themselves in contaminated water.

One week, Brown says her organization got a call from a disabled mother of several young children. When a volunteer arrived, she saw that the home was surrounded with buckets that were full of rainwater. The mother had been collecting the rainwater and, after boiling it, used it to bathe her children and flush toilets. She was more comfortable using boiled rainwater than she was using boiled water out of the faucet.

Maisie Brown, right, delivers water to a Jackson resident on Sept. 1, 2022. Credit: Rory Doyle/Deep Indigo Collective for Mississippi Today

This mother’s continued concerns are not unique, as some parents fear that contaminants in the tap water will be absorbed through their child’s skin.

Dr. Christina Glick is a neonatologist who runs Mississippi Lactation Services, a free-standing breast-feeding clinic in Jackson. She estimates that about 70% to 80% of her clients live in the capital city. Glick says that breastfeeding is “the greatest protection against a crisis like this.”

The people who would be most negatively affected by drinking contaminated water are immunocompromised people and newborn babies. Even if a mother were to get sick from drinking the water herself, Glick says that breastfeeding filters the majority of contaminants out of the milk that babies drink.

Her major concern is for mothers who use formula to feed their babies.

“If the water isn’t clean, the baby is extraordinarily susceptible to even very small amounts of contaminants. It could make them very sick,” she said.

Globally, diarrhea is the second leading cause of death for children under the age of 5. According to the CDC, “about 88% of diarrhea-associated deaths are due to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and insufficient hygiene.”

Despite breastfeeding being the safest option for those who are still concerned about the cleanliness of the water, it is not without issue, nor is it feasible for all parents and caregivers.

The water is ‘yucky’

Nakeitra Burse, owner of Six Dimensions, a public health research, development and practice agency, said that her major concerns with the water crises are how they impact breastfeeding mothers and people who are expecting.

Burse says that not having adequate access to clean, drinkable water could impact mothers’ milk supply. Dehydration can lead to reduced milk supply and to serious pregnancy complications. Water is essential for life at all stages, but it is especially vital when developing a new life, she said.

“For pregnant or postpartum mothers, (water) is really, really important to them being able to provide for their families, provide for their babies, provide for themselves and do whatever they need to produce the milk they need,” she said.

Because babies have such sensitive skin, Burse says she understands parents’ hesitation to use contaminated water for bathing. Not knowing what’s in the water could potentially have long term impacts for infants, she said.

Laurie Bertram Roberts is the executive director and co-founder of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund. She is also a mother, grandmother and Jacksonian. Her granddaughter, who is a toddler, has never taken a bath in the capital city’s water. She and her family filter her granddaughter’s bathing water through a device that removes lead.

Bertram Roberts says that many of the expectant people with whom she works are already hesitant to use the water in any capacity because “the water looks gross, it smells gross and who the heck wants to put that in their body when they’re carrying a baby to term?”

But, she says, concerns go beyond those for expectant people and young children. Caregivers, in general — those who are helping care for elderly or disabled people — also have reasons to be wary of the water, especially if they are dealing with ailments like bed sores that make them more susceptible to infection.

Her own daughters have eczema, a skin condition that affects nearly 20% of African-American people. According to a 2019 study, Black and Hispanic children are more likely to miss school due to eczema. Bertram Roberts says that her daughters are hesitant to bathe using Jackson’s water in fear of exacerbating their eczema.

For Rooks, it was difficult to explain to her children that they should be drinking water, but that not all water was safe to drink. She and her husband explained to the children that the water was “yucky” and not safe for bathing because the children might potentially get the water in their mouths, or drinking, which led to cognitive dissonance when the family traveled out of town.

“My 7-year-old, he was 5 and 6 at the time, he was pretty receptive,” she said. “But he did think it was weird. We were traveling and getting water out of the sink, and he was like, ‘Why can we drink this water, but we can’t drink the water at home?’”

One of her younger children struggled with the water messaging even more.

“He was utterly confused,” she said. ‘Like, ‘You always tell me to drink more water and now you’re telling me not to drink water?’”

‘Compound issues’ pile up

Though the citywide water crisis has ended, concerns about the long term viability of the city’s water, specifically for young children and expectant mothers, continue. MSDH has issued recommendations for such households including running tap water for one to two minutes before drinking or cooking, not using hot tap water for drinking or cooking and using only filtered or bottled water for baby formula.

But Bertram Roberts thinks that many people, including young children and expectant people, are “probably drinking it anyway because the public health messaging in this city has been inadequate.”

“I think about all of these compound issues because people a lot of time look at it from one issue, like it’s just the lead or it’s just bacteria,” Bertram Roberts said. “But it’s all of those risks and then it’s … with the compound issues of medical racism and lack of health care and issues with access to assistance programs and unemployment issues. All of these compound issues that build on top of, like, just this water issue that make it so much more of a risk and a crisis.”

She notes that many people were unaware about the potential for lead in the water until the lawsuit two years ago — despite the fact that MSDH had acknowledged potential lead concerns about five years prior. She’s also concerned that, though all people should be wary of lead exposure, most of the warnings are only for pregnant people or young children.

The CDC notes that “exposure to high levels of lead may cause anemia, weakness, and kidney and brain damage. Very high lead exposure can cause death.”

Ted Henifin, the City of Jackson’s water system third-party administrator, speaks about the company that will be running the city’s water treatment plant operations during a press conference at Hinds Community College in Jackson on Feb. 24, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

At a court status conference in June, Henifin, the city’s water system administrator, repeatedly said that the water is safe for everyone, including pregnant mothers and young children. If anything, he said, filters recently provided to pregnant and expecting mothers could make the water less safe if residents don’t change the filters out every four months, which could cause bacteria to build up.

Still, some don’t want to take any chances with their loved ones. Bertram Roberts says that many of the people with whom she works have only been told not to use the water for making formula, but not that their young children should also avoid drinking the water. Even when parents do know to keep their children from drinking the water, she says people should be cognizant of the added costs parents must incur to be able to do so.

“A lot of parents don’t let their kids drink Jackson water, but think of the expense that is to keep up bottled water for a family on SNAP, a big family. It’s expensive to keep up bottled water for thirsty kids,” she said.

Rooks’ family ultimately ended up installing a reverse osmosis device on their kitchen sink. The device is not a solution to ensuring the safety of water from other sources, like bathroom sinks or bathtub spouts, but it does help in making sure the children have access to at least one clean, safe water source. Rooks also recognizes that not everyone can afford to modify their drinking situation.

“Not everybody can do that,” she said. But it is providing comfort to her to know that her children are a bit safer. “Now they can just drink out of this one little spout. We’ve definitely adjusted, but I hate it’s an adjustment that we have to make.”

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

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Mississippi Today

Hospitals see danger in Medicaid spending cuts

Published

11 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-07-10 15:30:00

by Sophia Paffenroth, Mississippi Today
July 10, 2025

Mississippi hospitals could lose up to $1 billion over the next decade under the sweeping, multitrillion-dollar tax and policy bill President Donald Trump signed into law last week, according to leaders at the Mississippi Hospital Association.

The leaders say the cuts could force some already-struggling rural hospitals to reduce services or close their doors.

The law includes the largest reduction in federal health and social safety net programs in history. It passed 218-214, with all Democrats voting against the measure and all but five Republicans voting for it.

In the short term, these cuts will make health care less accessible to poor Mississippians by making the eligibility requirements for Medicaid insurance stiffer, likely increasing people’s medical debt.

In the long run, the cuts could lead to worsening chronic health conditions such as diabetes and obesity for which Mississippi already leads the nation, and making private insurance more expensive for many people, experts say.

“We’ve got about a billion dollars that are potentially hanging in the balance over the next 10 years,” Mississippi Hospital Association President Richard Roberson said Wednesday during a panel discussion at his organization’s headquarters.

Richard Roberson, Mississippi Hospital Association president and CEO, discusses the impact of what the White House calls “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at the Mississippi Hospital Association Conference Center in Madison.

“If folks were being honest, the entire system depends on those rural hospitals,” he said.

Mississippi’s uninsured population could increase by 160,000 people as a combined result of the new law and the expiration of Biden-era enhanced subsidies that made marketplace insurance affordable – and which Trump is not expected to renew – according to KFF, a health policy research group.

That could make things even worse for those who are left on the marketplace plans.

“Younger, healthier people are going to leave the risk pool, and that’s going to mean it’s more expensive to insure the patients that remain,” said Lucy Dagneau, senior director of state and local campaigns at the American Cancer Society.

Among the biggest changes facing Medicaid-eligible patients are stiffer eligibility requirements, including proof of work. The new law requires able-bodied adults ages 19 to 64 to work, do community service or attend an educational program at least 80 hours a month to qualify for, or keep, Medicaid coverage and federal food aid.

Opponents say qualified recipients could be stripped of benefits if they lose a job or fail to complete paperwork attesting to their time commitment.

Georgia became the case study for work requirements with a program called Pathways to Coverage, which was touted as a conservative alternative to Medicaid expansion.

Ironically, the 54-year-old mechanic chosen by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to be the face of the program got so fed up with the work requirements he went from praising the program on television to saying “I’m done with it” after his benefits were allegedly cancelled twice due to red tape.

Roberson sent several letters to Mississippi’s congressional members in weeks leading up to the final vote on the sweeping federal legislation, sounding the alarm on what it would mean for hospitals and patients.

Among Roberson’s chief concerns is a change in the mechanism called state directed payments, which allows states to beef up Medicaid reimbursement rates – typically the lowest among insurance payors. The new law will reduce those enhanced rates to nearly as low as the Medicare rate, costing the state at least $500 million and putting rural hospitals in a bind, Roberson told Mississippi Today.

That change will happen over 10 years starting in 2028. That, in conjunction with the new law’s one-time payment program called the Rural Health Care Fund, means if the next few years look normal, it doesn’t mean Mississippi is safe, stakeholders warn.

“We’re going to have a sort of deceiving situation in Mississippi where we look a little flush with cash with the rural fund and the state directed payments in 2027 and 2028, and then all of a sudden our state directed payments start going down and that fund ends and then we’re going to start dipping,” said Leah Rupp Smith, vice president for policy and advocacy at the Mississippi Hospital Association.

Leah Rupp Smith, Mississippi Hospital Association general counsel and vice president for policy and advocacy, breaks down a timeline for what the White House calls “One Big Beautiful Bill,” during an event to discuss the impact of the law on health care in the state, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at the Mississippi Hospital Association Conference Center in Madison.

Even with that buffer time, immediate changes are on the horizon for health care in Mississippi because of fear and uncertainty around ever-changing rules.

“Hospitals can’t budget when we have these one-off programs that start and stop and the rules change – and there’s a cost to administering a program like this,” Smith said.

Since hospitals are major employers – and they also provide a sense of safety for incoming businesses – their closure, especially in rural areas, affects not just patients but local economies and communities.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is the only Democrat in Mississippi’s congressional delegation. He voted against the bill, while the state’s two Republican senators and three Republican House members voted for it. Thompson said in a statement that the new law does not bode well for the Delta, one of the poorest regions in the U.S.

“For my district, this means closed hospitals, nursing homes, families struggling to afford groceries, and educational opportunities deferred,” Thompson said. “Republicans’ priorities are very simple: tax cuts for (the) wealthy and nothing for the people who make this country work.”

While still colloquially referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the name was changed by Democrats invoking a maneuver that has been used by lawmakers in both chambers to oppose a bill on principle.

“Democrats are forcing Republicans to delete their farcical bill name,” Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer of New York said in a statement. “Nothing about this bill is beautiful — it’s a betrayal to American families and it’s undeserving of such a stupid name.”

The law is expected to add at least $3.3 trillion to the nation’s debt over the next 10 years, according to the most recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Hospitals see danger in Medicaid spending cuts appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article reports on the negative impacts of a major federal tax and policy bill on Medicaid funding and rural hospitals in Mississippi. While it presents factual details and statements from stakeholders, the tone and framing emphasize the harmful consequences for vulnerable populations and health care access, aligning with concerns typically raised by center-left perspectives. The article highlights opposition by Democrats and critiques the bill’s priorities, particularly its effect on poor and rural communities, suggesting sympathy toward social safety net preservation. However, it maintains mostly factual reporting without overt partisan language, resulting in a moderate center-left bias.

Crooked Letter Sports Podcast

Podcast: The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of ’25

Published

2 days ago

July 9, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @rick_cleveland – 2025-07-09 10:28:00

by Rick Cleveland and Tyler Cleveland, Mississippi Today
July 9, 2025

The MSHOF will induct eight new members on Aug 2. Rick Cleveland has covered them all and he and son Tyler talk about what makes them all special.

Stream all episodes here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Podcast: The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of '25 appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Mississippi Today

‘You’re not going to be able to do that anymore’: Jackson police chief visits food kitchen to discuss new public sleeping, panhandling laws

Published

7 days ago

July 4, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-07-04 13:00:00

by Maya Miller, Mississippi Today
July 4, 2025

Diners turned watchful eyes to the stage as Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade took to the podium. He visited Stewpot Community Services during its daily free lunch hour Thursday to discuss new state laws, which took effect two days earlier, targeting Mississippians experiencing homelessness.

“I understand that you are going through some hard times right now. That’s why I’m here,” Wade said to the crowd. “I felt it was important to come out here and speak with you directly.”

Wade laid out the three bills that passed earlier this year: House Bill 1197, the “Safe Solicitation Act,” HB 1200, the “Real Property Owners Protection Act” and HB 1203, a bill that prohibits camping on public property.

“Sleeping and laying in public places, you’re not going to be able to do that anymore,” he said. “There’s a law that has been passed that you can’t just set up encampments on public or private properties where it’s a public nuisance, it’s a problem.”

The “Real Property Owners Protection Act,” authored by Rep. Brent Powell, R-Brandon, is a bill that expedites the process of removing squatters. The “Safe Solicitation Act,” authored by Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, requires a permit for panhandling and allows people to be charged with a misdemeanor if they violate this law. The offense is punishable by a fine not to exceed $300 and an offender could face up to six months in jail. Wade said he’s currently working with his legal department to determine the best strategy for creating and issuing permits.

“We’re going to navigate these legal challenges, get some interpretations, not only from our legal department, but the Attorney General’s office to ensure that we are doing it legally and lawfully, because I understand that these are citizens,” he said. “I understand that they deserve to be treated with respect, and I understand that we are going to do this without violating their constitutional rights.”

Homeless encampment located in the 1700 block of S. Gallatin Street in Jackson, Wednesday, June 2, 2025.

Wade said the Jackson Police Department is steadily fielding reports of squatters in abandoned properties and the law change gives officers new power to remove them more quickly. The added challenge? Figuring out what to do with a person’s belongings.

“These people are carrying around what they own, but we are not a repository for all of their stuff,” he said. “So, when we make that arrest, we’ve got to have a strategic plan as to what we do with their stuff.”

Wade said there needs to be a deeper conversation around the issues that lead someone to becoming homeless.

“A lot of people that we’re running across that are homeless are also suffering from medical conditions, mental health issues, and they’re also suffering from drug addiction and substance abuse. We’ve got to have a strategic approach, but we also can’t log jam our jail down in Raymond,” Wade said.

He estimates that more than 800 people are currently incarcerated at the Raymond Detention Center, and any increase could strain the system as the laws continue to be enforced.

“I think there’s layers that we have to work through, there’s hurdles that we are going to overcome, but we’ve got to make sure that we do it and make sure that my team and JPD is consistent in how we enforce these laws,” Wade said.

Diners applauded Wade after he spoke, in between bites of fried chicken, salad, corn and 4th of July-themed packaged cakes. Wade offered to answer questions, but no one asked any.

Rev. Jill Buckley, executive director of Stewpot, said that the legislation is a good tool to address issues around homelessness and community needs. She doesn’t want to see people who are homeless be criminalized, but she also wants communities to be safe.

“I support people’s right to self determine, and we can’t impose our choices on other people, but there are some cases in which that impinges on community safety, and so to the extent that anyone who is camping or panhandling or squatting and is a danger to themselves and others, of course, I fully support that kind of law. I don’t support homelessness being criminalized as such,” Buckley said.

One of the homeless in Jackson panhandles at the intersection of U.S. 80 and Gallatin Street, Wednesday, June 2, 2025.

Many of the people Wade addressed while they ate Thursday said they have housing, don’t panhandle, and shouldn’t be directly impacted by the legislation. But Marcus Willis, 42, said it would make more sense if elected officials wanted to combat the negative impacts of homelessness that they help more people secure employment.

“There ain’t enough jobs,” said Willis, who was having lunch with his girlfriend Amber Ivy.

The two live in an apartment together nearby on Capitol Street, where Ivy landed after her mother, whom Ivy had been living with, suffered a stroke and lost the property. Similarly, Willis started coming to eat at Stewpot after his grandmother, whose house he used to visit for lunch, passed away.

Willis holds odd jobs – cutting grass, home and auto repair – so the income is inconsistent, and every opportunity for stable employment he said he’s found is outside of Jackson in the suburbs. The couple doesn’t have a car.

Making rent every month usually depends on their ability to find someone to help chip in, said Ivy, who is in recovery from substance abuse. She said she’s watched problems surrounding homelessness grow over the years in Jackson. Ivy grew up near Stewpot and has lived in various neighborhoods across the city – except for the times she moved out of state when things got too rough.

“There was just moments where I just had to leave,” Ivy said. “Sometimes if you hit a slump here, there’s almost no way for you to get out of it.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post 'You're not going to be able to do that anymore': Jackson police chief visits food kitchen to discuss new public sleeping, panhandling laws appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article primarily reports on new laws in Jackson, Mississippi, targeting public sleeping, panhandling, and squatting, focusing on statements by Police Chief Joseph Wade and community perspectives. The coverage presents the legislative measures—authored by Republican and independent lawmakers—with a tone that emphasizes law enforcement challenges and community safety, reflecting a conservative approach to homelessness as a public order issue. While it includes voices concerned about criminalization and the need for social support, the overall framing centers on law enforcement and property protection. The article maintains factual reporting without overt editorializing but leans slightly toward a center-right perspective by highlighting legal enforcement as a solution.