Bobby Harrison: Agency that doles out tax credit funds to private schools can’t say how the state money is being spent
House leaders, who say they want to bolster public education spending, have also proposed more than tripling the size of a program that sends millions in state funds to private schools even though information is not available on how the money is spent.
Froma Harrop: Creeps hunt kids on social media
We have entered a new social media hell, where online creeps run sadistic schemes targeting high school kids. Since late 2021, their ruses have driven at least 20 young people, mostly boys, to take their lives.
Froma Harrop: Did legalized abortion lead to lower crime rates?
Growing restrictions on the right to an abortion have revived talk of what many still regard as a highly controversial theory. It holds that the legalization of abortion in 1973 reduced the number of unwanted children, who might have been at higher risk of committing serious crimes. And that explained the sharp drop in the crime rate that started in the early 1990s.
Other Editors: The Jan. 6 riot reaches the Supreme Court
The people who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are being held accountable, and attempts to rebrand them as patriotic choirboys are a sign of the bizarre political times. Yet is it unduly stretching the law to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters using the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002?
Other Editors: Thank you, Mississippi taxpayers, for funding Medicaid expansion in 40 other states
Happy Tax Day, when millions of us Mississippians will send our hard-earned money to 40 other states that are providing health care coverage to millions of poor, working people.
Froma Harrop: As Nebraska goes, so could go Maine
Every state is different. Nebraska is quite different. It is one of only two states that doesn’t use the winner-take-all system in presidential elections. Along with Maine, it allocates its Electoral College votes to reflect the results in each of its congressional districts.
Other Editors: Felon voting bill will have to wait
Though the effort was unsuccessful this year, a bill to restore voting rights to certain felons had bipartisan support and should be reintroduced in 2025.
Dustin Gentry: Medicaid is a blessing, not a burden for Mississippi
Medicaid Expansion in Mississippi has been wrongly construed as a vehicle to support non-working, able-bodied people who do not deserve free (to them) healthcare.
Mona Charen: The GOP is the party of Putin
“Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”
Shad White: Fixing the university enrollment cliff
Our universities are facing a looming crisis. The news outlet Inside Higher Ed recently stated that “the number of traditional college-aged students will peak in 2025 and then decline dramatically for several years.”
Froma Harrop: The anti-abortion right is not into compromise
Getting rid of Roe v. Wade was sold as a sensible and mollifying approach to the abortion controversy. It would let each state ban or codify a right to abortion in accordance with local culture.
Adam Ganucheau: The Christian argument for Medicaid expansion
The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson is glued to the legislative debate over Medicaid expansion.
Mona Charen: Democrats should reclaim patriotism
In 1984, at the Republican National Convention in Dallas, a lifelong Democrat stood up to denounce her former party. Jeane Kirkpatrick, who had switched parties to serve as Reagan’s U.N. ambassador, lambasted her former party for always “blaming America first.”
David McRae: April is Financial Literacy Month
It’s no secret that at the State Treasury of Mississippi, we believe deeply in financial wellness for every citizen. And if you give us the opportunity, we’ll scream it from the rooftops to anyone who will listen, sharing our resources for families, individuals, and businesses when and where we can.
Veronique de Rugy: Americans can tell the difference between rosy economic data and reality
The economy is growing, unemployment is low, wages are up, and inflation is down. However, the American people remain grumpy about the state of the economy. This puzzle was just investigated by four economists.
Froma Harrop: For the beneficiaries, losing Obamacare would truly suck
Donald Trump last week posted an item on Truth Social that broke new ground for incoherence. What got his fingers fumbling on the keyboard was Joe Biden’s being out in the country warning Americans that another presidential term for Trump would cost them their health care.
Bobby Harrison: Even Sen. Wicker is not conservative enough for NE Mississippi
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker’s loss in his native northeast Mississippi in the Republican primary earlier this month most likely says more about the region than it does about him.
Wyatt Emmerich: Bob Marley: Modern prophet
Ginny and I and our friends Kemal and Tessy Sanli went to see the new Bob Marley movie at the Capri Theatre in Fondren. We had dinner first at Saltine’s then walked across State Street to see the movie.
Russ Latino: Comparing the House and Senate Medicaid expansion plans
In February, the Mississippi House of Representatives voted for full Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as “Obamacare”). That plan went over like a lead balloon with Republican senators, who developed their own Medicaid expansion plan, one which stops short of full expansion.
Other Editors: Biden does an Iran sanctions two-step
Two days after reissuing a $10 billion Iran sanctions waiver, the Biden Administration on Friday threatened coordinated Group of Seven sanctions against Iran if it delivers ballistic missiles to Russia. The policy signal these two moves send is incoherence.