Mississippi Today
Mississippi officials sue to block federal voter registration efforts
Mississippi is joining eight other states in a lawsuit attempting to block efforts by the administration of President Joe Biden to make voter registration easier.
Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson and Attorney General Lynn Fitch — all Republicans who compose the Mississippi Election Commission — filed the lawsuit. They oppose an executive order issued by Biden instructing federal agencies to develop strategies to expand voter registration efforts and to report those strategies to the White House. In addition, the executive order mandates federal agencies to work with states on voter registration, such as providing efforts to register to vote at military offices.
The lawsuit claims that the federal effort was not transparent. And other lawsuits by conservative groups claim the executive order is unconstitutional because voter registration efforts are the purview of the states.
Watson, who oversees elections in Mississippi, has been critical of the Biden executive order for about two years.
โFrom the day this unlawful Executive Order (EO 14019) was signed, my team and I had hoped it was another Biden administration word salad with no action,โ Watson said in a news release. โUnfortunately, that was not the case. In 2022, several secretaries of state and I sent a letter to the administration asking them to stand down.โ
The Biden administration has not commented on the numerous lawsuits filed by states and other right wing groups.
But during an online interview, Lisa Danetz, an adviser for the Brennen Center for Justice, a national non-profit that promotes voter access, said the order โdirects federal agencies to provide access to voter registration application opportunities and reliable voting information when eligible citizens are already interacting with the federal government. The order also aims to improve access in other ways, such as by requiring the government to examine obstacles to voting for people with disabilities.โ
But Fitch said the executive order is a partisan effort to impact elections.
โWe fully support encouraging voter registration and promoting an engaged electorate,โย Fitch said. โBut putting the full weight of the Oval Office behind an effort first developed by partisan activist groups and then hiding the agency activities from public scrutiny goes too far. The law does not allow it. Mississippi will not stand for it.โ
Reeves said, โFederal agencies should be prioritizing their core duties, not acting as an extension of the Democratic National Committee.โ
The lawsuit comes as speculation mounts that former President Donald Trump might attempt to challenge the outcome of the upcoming 2024 election as he did after losing the 2020 contest to Biden.
In 2020, Fitch, supported by Reeves, joined an unsuccessful lawsuit attempting to throw out the votes of millions of primarily Black Americans in four states.
The lawsuit maintained with no evidence that Biden had โless that one in a quadrillionโ chance of winning the four states that helped swing the election for Biden.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Late and missed Medicaid rides triple the contractual limit in July
Six percent of rides provided by the company that coordinates Medicaid recipients’ transportation to medical appointments โ or three times the allowable limit โ were late or missed in July.
The company’s first report to the Division of Medicaid since assuming the contract for transportation services indicated that five percent of scheduled rides were late, and one percent was missed, said Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield.
The company’s contract states that no more than two percent of scheduled rides should be late or missed each day.
For-profit, Denver-based Modivcare is working to lower the percentage of rides that are late or missed, said company spokesperson Melody Lai in an email.
โWe utilize data and close partnerships with healthcare facilities, transportation providers, and members across the state to continuously improve service,โ she said.
Modivcare, which began its three-year, $96.5 million contract with the state on June 8 of this year, scheduled over 52,000 trips with beneficiaries in July.
About 3,000 of the rides were late or missed.
Nearly 40,000 rides were completed after cancellations made by both Medicaid recipients and drivers in July. Thirty-seven trips took 45 minutes longer than average.
Modivcare’s contract mandates it submit monthly reports detailing late or missed trips, along with other information.
Despite filing a public records request, Mississippi Today did not obtain a copy of the company’s first monthly report. The Division of Medicaid indicated that the reports could contain proprietary, third-party trade secrets and that Modivcare had the right to obtain a protective order prohibiting the release of the records.
State Medicaid programs are required to provide rides to doctor appointments to health plan recipients. States can manage the benefit directly, provide the service through Medicaid managed care contracts or contract with a third-party broker, like Mississippi.
Modivcare subcontracts with local transportation companies to provide rides to beneficiaries. Late or missed trips are considered the fault of the transportation companies that provide rides to beneficiaries, Westerfield said.
Mississippi Today last month reported that a woman who uses a wheelchair missed four doctors appointments after Modivcare assumed responsibility for the service in June. She said drivers refused to give her a ride on two occasions because they did not feel comfortable securing her mobility device. On another occasion, Modivcare told her there were no available drivers with the capacity to transport a wheelchair. Another time, the driver did not show up to the location she indicated.
Modivcare’s contract with the Division of Medicaid requires that each wheelchair vehicle have a wheelchair securement device that meets American with Disabilities Act guidelines.
People with disabilities are some of the most frequent users of the service.
Modivcare has been penalized for a high volume of late or missed rides in other states.
The New Jersey Department of Human Services fined Modivcare $1.7 million between 2017 and 2022 for failing to meet its contractual obligations, including missing scheduled pickups, reported the Bergen Record. The New Jersey Legislature considered a bill in 2023 to establish performance and reporting standards for Medicaid transportation services, but the legislation died in committee.
This month, The Maine Monitor wrote that patients have reported missing appointments and being refused rides by the company, which provides transportation services to 16 counties in Maine.
In Georgia, Modivcare and Southeasttrans, another non-emergency medical transportation company, were fined over $1 million from 2018 to 2020 for picking up patients late, KFF reported.
Modivcare was the lowest bidder during the contract selection process in Mississippi. The agency chose it over Medical Transportation Management, Inc., the previous contractor, and Verida, Inc.
Westerfield said that when the number of late or missed trips exceeds the two percent threshold, the division works with the company to correct the issue. If the issue persists, the company will receive official warning letters and the division could choose to seek damages.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1968
Sept. 17, 1968
Diahann Carroll starred in the title role in โJuliaโ โ the first Black actress to star in a non-stereotypical role in her own television series.
She grew up loving singing, dancing and performing in the theater, and she began modeling for Ebony magazine at 15. Three years later, she appeared on the TV show, โChance of a Lifetime,โ taking home the top prize for her performance of the song, โWhy Was I Born?โ That same year, she acted in the film, โCarmen Jonesโ, and appeared in the Broadway musical โHouse of Flowersโ.
In her TV show โJuliaโ, her performance garnered an Emmy nomination for her, and she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series. Mattel even created a Barbie in her image.
After โJuliaโ ended, she returned to Broadway and Hollywood, earning an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 1974 film โClaudineโ. She went on to portray Dominique Deveraux in the primetime soap opera โDynastyโ. In 1996, she became the first African American to play the role of Norma Desmond in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, โSunset Boulevardโ.
Carroll devoted much of her time to the Celebrity Action Council, which works with women in rehabilitation from problems with drugs, alcohol or prostitution. Eight years before she died in 2019, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Favre loses another round in lawsuit agaisnt ex-talk show host
Former โUndisputedโ host Shannon Sharpe remains undefeated in his defense of critical remarks toward fellow NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
On Monday, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request by Favre to resurrect a defamation lawsuit against Sharpe, who said on his Sept. 14, 2023, show that the former Southern Miss and Green Bay Packers quarterback stole funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families government program meant for those living in poverty.
Favre hasn’t been charged in the scandal in which six people have been convicted of state and federal charges involving $77 million in federal TANF funds.
In 2022, the state Department of Human Services sued Favre and many others to try and recoup the $77 million that was illegally diverted between 2016 and 2019. A year earlier, the department had sought to recover $1.1 million in TANF funds that Favre received for speeches he never delivered. (The speaking fees had come through the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center.)
After a Sept. 13, 2022, article appeared in Mississippi Today, Sharpe said on the Fox Sports show, โSkip and Shannon: Undisputed,โ that โBretty Favre is taking money from the underservedโ and that he โstole money from people that really needed that money.โ
Favre sent Sharpe a letter, demanding a retraction and asking him to stop making any โfurther defamatory falsehoods against Favre.โ
Sharpe refused, and Favre sued for defamation, saying that Sharpe had falsely accused him of serious crimes and hurt his reputation. Sharpe responded that his remarks are โa classic example of the king of rhetorical hyperbole and loose, figurative languageโ protected by the First Amendment.
A federal judge ruled in Sharpe’s favor, and so did the 5th Circuit. โNothing in life or our law guarantees a person immunity from occasional sharp criticism,โ 5th Circuit District Judge Leslie H. Southwick wrote.
Favre has paid back the $1.1 million, but State Auditor Shad White said in February that Favre still owed more than $700,000 in interest.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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