Mississippi
Jackpot Justice +20: Tort reform’s impact on Mississippi
![Jackpot Justice +20: Tort reform’s impact on Mississippi Jackpot Justice +20: Tort reform’s impact on Mississippi](https://yallpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Jackpot-Justice-20.jpg)
Over the subsequent few weeks, Y’all Politics will likely be sharing interviews and articles associated to the passage of tort reform that occurred 20 years in the past within the longest particular session in Mississippi historical past.
Y’all Politics will likely be speaking with key gamers from that 2002 particular session and the years to comply with, outlining tort reform’s affect on each the authorized neighborhood and Mississippi politics on this collection we’re calling “Jackpot Justice +20.”
Twenty years in the past at this time, over breakfast, then-Governor Ronnie Musgrove instructed a bunch of trial legal professionals who had lengthy supported his campaigns and the campaigns of his fellow Mississippi Democrats that he would convene a particular session of the Legislature to enact tort reform. The stress to take action, Musgrove would later say, was simply too nice.
What would then transpire, regardless of the objections voiced within the room that morning, modified the face of Mississippi politics, and maybe the authorized neighborhood, greater than every other single motion ever taken by the Legislature.
Through the years, trial legal professionals had been in a position to rake in thousands and thousands of {dollars} in settlements from utilizing the court docket system in progressive methods in private harm instances towards hospitals, industries and companies of all sizes. Private harm and mass tort was large enterprise, a lot so the state was recognized throughout America for its “jackpot justice.”
Quite a lot of these trial legal professionals turned unimaginably wealthy, politically highly effective, and nationally well-known – some even notorious – through the years, names like Dickie Scruggs, Joey Langston, and Paul Minor. Practically all trial legal professionals on the time fundraised and gave generously to Democrats and Democratic Occasion causes throughout Mississippi, successfully peddling their affect on the state and native ranges to maintain the state favorably blue whereas rising their bottom-line with relative ease. Being a trial lawyer turned synonymous with being a Democrat.
But, the occasions have been altering. Following large payouts from asbestos instances within the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties and product legal responsibility lobbying from the tobacco business in 1992 and 1993, the Mississippi Legislature took up a model of tort reform that addressed private harm legal guidelines, however the 1993 laws did not cap jury awards to a plaintiff. On the time, it was heralded as a compromise between the enterprise and the authorized particular pursuits.
Nevertheless, trial legal professionals continued to govern the system and capitalize on free Mississippi legal guidelines, giving them much more excessive greenback wins and enormous multimillion greenback payouts. Maybe essentially the most well-known of those instances was the Large Tobacco case that even turned a Hollywood film that includes Al Pacino and Russell Crowe in 1999. These courtroom wins enabled the trial legal professionals to proceed to fund sympathetic Democrats throughout the state, chief amongst them have been former Lawyer Basic Mike Moore and Musgrove.
Musgrove was to be the trial legal professionals’ buddy within the Governor’s Mansion. An legal professional himself, Musgrove had been a state senator after which Lieutenant Governor. His 1999 election for Governor was the closest election in Mississippi historical past as neither he nor Republican Mike Parker received a majority of the favored vote. State regulation mandated, on the time, that the ultimate resolution be made by the Home of Representatives. The Democratic majority within the Home, backed in massive measure by the trial legal professionals’ political motion committee, swiftly put ahead Musgrove and his trial lawyer donors celebrated.
So, when Musgrove known as his trial lawyer friends in on that August 23, 2002, morning, a little bit over a yr earlier than the subsequent statewide election, to inform them of his resolution to name a particular session to take up tort reform in a extra substantive method than tried a decade earlier, the trial legal professionals couldn’t imagine the Democrat Governor that they had backed would give in and upset their political machine.
However Musgrove was proper. The political headwinds had gotten too sturdy to not take up the laws. Mississippi’s medical and enterprise surroundings was considered as essentially the most hostile within the nation when being sued. Buyers have been cautious of organising store in Mississippi. Docs have been refusing to deal with trial legal professionals and their households. Hospitals feared shedding their staffs and having to shut services or cut back service. Enterprise house owners have been up in arms in each a part of the state, worrying if a fall by a buyer would imply they might lose their livelihoods. Even former President George W. Bush spoke on the necessity for tort reform within the state on a go to that 2002 summer season.
What ensued when Governor Musgrove known as in lawmakers was an eighty-three-day particular session, the longest in state historical past, that produced a extra steady enterprise and medical local weather within the state that settled fears. It additionally completely undermined the first supply of funding for Democrats in Mississippi by proscribing massive payouts for trial legal professionals, the principle contributors to the Democratic Occasion, and solidified Republican assist throughout the enterprise neighborhood, assist that continues to this present day.
That doesn’t imply Musgrove, for his half, didn’t attempt his finest to seize enterprise assist and placed on a very good face following the vote. He did. Upon signing the invoice into regulation, he was quoted within the L.A. Instances as saying, “What we’ve got signed is one thing that may give a good, stage enjoying subject to our system in Mississippi… A message has been despatched to the remainder of the world about doing enterprise in Mississippi. This can be a good place to do enterprise.”
However it was not sufficient, and the trial legal professionals and his Democrat base weren’t shopping for it.
“Reform is a misnomer,” David Baria, the president of the Mississippi Trial Legal professionals Affiliation and eventual Democratic state senator and consultant instructed the L.A. Instances following tort reform’s passage. “To cap punitive damages is to say to company America that they will injure or kill folks and be held much less accountable than within the majority of states on this nation.”
Baria went on to say that the Legislature spoke and instructed residents that, “It’s extra necessary to make Mississippi business-friendly than to make it a spot the place companies are accountable.”
Fact be instructed, that fateful breakfast assembly known as by Musgrove was the start of the tip for the Mississippi Democratic Occasion. The results of tort reform’s passing could be extra election losses by Mississippi Democrats to Republicans in 2003 than in any cycle since Reconstruction. Twenty years later, Democrats nonetheless haven’t recovered.
In 2003, a local son of Yazoo Metropolis who had made a reputation for himself in nationwide Republican politics would return house to problem Musgrove for Governor. Though a tort reform package deal had handed the Legislature that Fall of 2002, Haley Barbour made it a main theme in his 2003 marketing campaign, saying the state wanted to go additional to guard docs, hospitals, companies and industries. That message continued to resonate with voters.
Mississippi voters now completely linked trial legal professionals with Democrats, in an identical method as they do labor unions and trainer unions. The messaging caught. Musgrove, the Democrat incumbent who had known as that 2002 particular session, noticed no political upside from tort reform’s passage; if something, Democrats walked away from him. Barbour would beat Musgrove handily in November 2003, profitable 53% to 46%, organising a twenty-year run for Republicans because the state’s chief government.
Barbour, the brand new Republican Governor, could be sworn-in in January 2004 and simply months later name a particular session of his personal to go one other spherical of tort reform laws, additional solidifying the tip of trial legal professionals’ maintain on each the authorized system and Mississippi politics.
###
Y’all Politics will likely be sharing a dialog with authors Andy Taggart and Jere Nash who wrote “Mississippi Politics: The Battle for Energy, 1976-2006,” which a big a part of this text relies on with their permission. You could find the Second Version of their guide for buy on Amazon right here.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Mississippi
MPCA testing the entirety of the Mississippi River within Minnesota
![MPCA testing the entirety of the Mississippi River within Minnesota MPCA testing the entirety of the Mississippi River within Minnesota](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/09/02/0564de83-90fa-4d81-9619-84022c30819e/thumbnail/1200x630/e98078edb78f4dec2ccc9e494c22c33c/4p-pkg-river-testing-wcco61yp.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232)
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. —It winds 650 miles, rushing past the cities, industries and landscapes that make up Minnesota.
However, the Mississippi River has never gotten this type of attention from water quality professionals.
For the first time ever, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is testing the entirety of the river, from Itasca to Iowa, in a single year.
The governor’s office wants the river to be swimmable and fishable, but right now, parts of the river are polluted.
The MPCA says the upper Mississippi is largely healthy up north, but quality drops south of St. Cloud where metro development and tributaries from agriculture muddy the waters. The National Park Service says stretches of the river exceed water quality standards for things like mercury, bacteria and sediment.
Think of the testing like a checkup for one of our state’s most valuable and powerful resources. Researchers will check temperature, transparency and levels of pollutants like phosphorus, nitrogen and ammonia.
Crews also check fish for those contaminants and collect insects to test in a lab to identify any concerning trends.
“If we find the fish community is suffering — maybe the water is too warm and maybe there’s a thermal pollution source upstream or maybe it’s too much runoff — that sort of stuff. Temperature is an important indicator especially for sensitive species,” Isaac Martin with the MPCA said.
Also for the first time, the agency is looking for PFAS contamination with money from an Environmental Protection Agency grant to identify and stop the forever chemicals from streaming into the Mississippi.
PFAS are a group of manufactured chemicals for industry and consumer products that don’t break down in the environment. While research is ongoing, the EPA says exposure to the chemicals can cause human health issues. It’s why the federal agency just lowered the amount allowed in drinking water.
“They go to parts per trillion, which is incredibly sensitive. You get that low, you’re talking drops in an Olympic swimming pool,” Martin said. “Part of the reason why it was chosen is because it’s a primary drinking source or potentially could be a primary drinking source. We’re just finding them in places we never expected to find them. We’re finding them almost everywhere and being that it is new, there’s just a lot of ‘I don’t know’ that goes with it.”
It’s too early to know what this complete snapshot will reveal, but we know this powerful river is part of our community, economy and health.
“Maybe you don’t use the resource yourself, but maybe you know someone who does or future generations of your own will,” Martin said. “In Minnesota, we’re just trying to be the best stewards we can be.”
The data from this testing will be available early next year. Researchers will use that data and compare it to 10-year pollution averages to determine which parts of the river are improved or impaired.
A full report will be released in 2026.
Mississippi
Who should be SBLive’s Mississippi high school player of the week? (Aug. 25-31)
![Who should be SBLive’s Mississippi high school player of the week? (Aug. 25-31) Who should be SBLive’s Mississippi high school player of the week? (Aug. 25-31)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1280,h_720,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/high_school/01j5m63arexrvt6r9tmr.jpg)
Here are the candidates for SBLive’s Mississippi high school Athlete of the Week for August25-31. Read through the nominees and cast your vote. The poll will close Sunday at 11:59 p.m. If you would like to make a nomination in a future week, email Tyler@scorebooklive.com. For questions/issues with he poll, email athleteoftheweek@scorebooklive.com.
Editor’s note: Our Athlete of the Week feature and corresponding poll is intended to be fun, and we do not set limits on how many times a fan can vote during the competition. However, we do not allow votes that are generated by script, macro or other automated means. Athletes that receive votes generated by script, macro or other automated means will be disqualified.
Kohl Bradley, DB, George County: Racked up 17 tackles and returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown in a 33-7 win over East Central.
DaJuan Colbert, DB, Natchez: Recorded 15 tackles, forced one fumble and returned another one 75 yards for a touchdown in a 58-50 win over Hancock.
Garrison Davis, QB, Holmes County Central: Completed 14 of his 21 pass attempts for 375 yards and three touchdowns in a 20-6 win over Vicksburg.
Xzavion Gainwell, DB, Yazoo County: Recorded nine tackles, an interception and an 80-yard interception return for a touchdown in the Panthers’ 20-16 win over South Delta.
Elijah Jones, RB, West Jones: Had 24 carries 226 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-6 win over Laurel.
Kingi McNair, WR, Pearl: Caught four passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-20 win over Neshoba Central.
Ashton Nichols, DB, Clinton: Recorded six tackles to go with two big pass breakups, a blocked punt and a return for a touchdown in a 26-20 win over Warren Central.
Ethan Prater, RB, Pisgah: Rushed for 132 yards on 27 carries with three scores and caught a 60-yard touchdown pass in a 33-32 win over North Forrest.
Glen Singleton, RB, Madison Central: Rushed for 174 yards on 18 carries with all four touchdowns in a 27-20 win over Ocean Springs.
Damarius Yates, RB, Kemper County: Rushed for 193 yards on 17 carries and returned a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown in a 38-15 win over Kosciusko.
Mississippi
‘If they cannot play Thalia Hall, they cannot play in Mississippi at all’: Broadway in Jackson speaks out about possible show cancellations
![‘If they cannot play Thalia Hall, they cannot play in Mississippi at all’: Broadway in Jackson speaks out about possible show cancellations ‘If they cannot play Thalia Hall, they cannot play in Mississippi at all’: Broadway in Jackson speaks out about possible show cancellations](https://gray-wlbt-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/3KMJQZPKGBHNRCT7NENQ3O72YY.png?auth=8e7e3183f489f41a63616389bdae4dd45efc187856d208138265c67183c736b4&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – It’s been one month since Thalia Mara Hall closed its doors due to a mold outbreak.
Innovation Arts and Entertainment is the company responsible for bringing Broadway productions to Jackson.
Representatives from the company visited Jackson after hearing the building had been closed.
CEO Adam Epstein says the City of Jackson did not inform them of the news.
“We did not find out from anybody within the city. We found out by reading news clippings forwarded to us by other people in Jackson,” Epstein said.
Certified Industrial Hygienic Testing reported visible dirt, debris, and suspected mold growth on many surfaces.
Epstein fears this could change the possibility of bigger shows coming to the capital city.
“They’re going to skip over us because of this mess. We need to show as a community that Jackson cares about this valuable asset and that we demand our elected leaders to support and treat this really, incredibly valuable asset with the TLC it deserves,” he said.
Thalia Mara Hall is the only venue in the state that can host a Broadway production due to the technical needs and accommodations required.
“Touring theatrical shows. If they cannot play Thalia Hall, they cannot play in Mississippi at all,” he said.
Broadway in Jackson is not only a great source of entertainment in the city, but it’s also beneficial economically.
“Those other businesses don’t benefit. The city doesn’t earn tax revenue from events that we present. They don’t earn rental income from the events we present. They don’t earn facility fees from the events we present. This is a real tragedy. It’s unacceptable.”
The well-being of the potential audience is the company’s main priority.
“I will not risk our ticket buyers’ health and safety and comfort. Our shows can and will cancel before we’d ever put somebody in jeopardy. We’ve issued a 100% guarantee of a full refund if the venue is not given a clean bill of health,” Epstein said.
All shows will be canceled on a case-to-case basis.
Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.
Copyright 2024 WLBT. All rights reserved.
-
Politics1 week ago
Why won't Pennsylvania voters have results on Election Night?
-
Politics1 week ago
With 13 days until voting starts, 'election season' kicks off sooner than you think
-
World1 week ago
Solingen stabbing: Three killed in attack at Germany festival
-
Politics1 week ago
2024 showdown: What happens next in the Kamala Harris-Donald Trump face-off
-
World1 week ago
French police officer injured in synagogue arson attack
-
World1 week ago
Portugal coast hit by 5.3 magnitude earthquake
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump sets intense pace with campaign events as questions swirl about Harris' policy positions
-
News1 week ago
Former national security adviser McMaster says he won’t work for Trump again