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U.S. Dept. of Labor fines Delta farm after South African teen suffocates to death in grain bin

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U.S. Dept. of Labor fines Delta farm after South African teen suffocates to death in grain bin

A 19-year-old farmworker from South Africa suffocated to death in a Delta farm’s grain bin last year because of his employer’s negligence, according to a report and citations from the U.S. Department of Labor. 

The teenager was working at Bare Bones Farms in Greenwood on an H-2A visa. A Mississippi Today investigation last year found farms across the Delta are increasingly relying upon white foreign workers from South Africa to work their fields through the visa program. 

READ MORE: White Delta farm owners are underpaying and pushing out Black workers

The farm was issued a $90,000 fine this week following a federal investigation.

“Well-known safety standards that protect people from the grave dangers of working in grain bins have been in place for decades, and yet Bare Bones Farms jeopardized the lives of its employees by ignoring federal regulations,” said Courtney Bohanno, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Mississippi director, in a statement. “As a result, the life of a young man who traveled more than 8,500 miles to work in the U.S. ended tragically.”

Bare Bones Farm, which grows soybeans, is owned by Dr. Joseph “Asa” Bennett, an orthopedic surgeon based in LeFlore County. Bennett did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

In October 2022, the teen, two coworkers and their supervisor climbed into a grain storage bin in efforts to unclog it, according to OSHA. The teen entered the bin first. The group was engulfed in seconds. Emergency responders had to cut a hole in the bin to free the men trapped inside. 

All but one was a visa worker from South Africa. Three of them survived, but it took first responders five hours to recover the body of the 19-year-old. 

Department of Labor inspectors found that the Greenwood farm “willfully violated federal law by failing to ensure that the employees wore full body harnesses connected to a lifeline while inside the soybean bin, which exposed them to deadly engulfment hazards.” 

OSHA investigators found employees were not properly trained on general safety precautions for bin entry. Workers should have turned off equipment before ever entering. 

Investigators with OSHA and the labor department fined Bare Bone for several violations, including not having a written respiratory protection program for employees required to wear respirators; and not providing a medical evaluations or fit test or training for workers required to wear respirators as they loaded and unloaded soybeans. 

OSHA outlines clear safety plans for workers entering grain bins — usually massive metal silos with peaked roofs — since 1988. 

In 2021, 38% of the grain engulfment incidents reported to OSHA turned deadly because employers failed to follow required safeguards, according to the labor department. 

Bare Bones Farm requested 11 foreign workers for the 2022 season, according to disclosure documents posted by the Department of Labor. 

Among the job qualifications, the job posting listed three months of experience, the ability to obtain a driver’s license and basic literacy and math skills. An average work week was expected to be at least 60 hours. 

Bare Bones had requested nine workers the previous season. Both times, it used agents known for finding young, white white men from South Africa on behalf of farm owners.

In last year’s investigation, Mississippi Today found Delta farm owners would often pay the white foreign workers a higher salary than their local counterparts, who were most often Black men.

Local farm workers told Mississippi Today at that time they were charged with training the South Africans, who they said came from farming backgrounds without the massive equipment and safety hazards common on the average Mississippi farm. 

Department of Labor documents show that Bare Bones Farms did not request any foreign workers for the 2023 farming season. It’s unclear if the farm may have been barred from doing so, a penalty that can be administered should a farm be found to not offer safe conditions. 

Bare Bones has 15 days to respond to the citation notice, according to OSHA. It may also request a conference with the department or contest the findings before a review commission. 

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1997

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-22 07:00:00

Dec. 22, 1997

Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette cheer the jury verdict of Feb. 5, 1994, when Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. Credit: AP/Rogelio Solis

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers. 

In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.” 

He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.” 

The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.

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

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Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-12-22 06:00:00

About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.

The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.

Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.

During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.

“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”

White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.

Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.

White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.

Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.

People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.

White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.

They are correct.

But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.

As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.

Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.

That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.

Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?

If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.

The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.

In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.

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

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On this day in 1911

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-21 07:00:00

Dec. 21, 1911

A colorized photograph of Josh Gibson, who was playing with the Homestead Grays Credit: Wikipedia

Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia. 

When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs. 

He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame. 

The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays. 

Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.

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

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