Mississippi
This land is our land: States crack down on foreign-owned farm fields
Andy Gipson gets concerned even when American allies such as the Netherlands and Germany invest in large swaths of Mississippi’s farmland. “It just bothers me at a gut level,” he said. For Gipson, Mississippi’s commissioner of agriculture and commerce, the growing trend of foreign ownership could threaten what he views as the state’s most valuable […]
GOP states embrace Uber, Lyft to take low-income patients to medical appointments
This story originally appeared on Stateline. This month, Mississippi becomes the latest state to partner with ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to ferry residents to their medical appointments. It’s a bid to improve overall health in a state where advocates and medical groups have called health care a crisis that’s getting worse. Ryan […]
Some states back hospital mergers despite record of service cuts, price hikes
Some illnesses and injuries — say, a broken ankle — can send you to numerous health care providers. You might start at urgent care but end up in the emergency room. Referred to an orthopedist, you might eventually land in an outpatient surgery center. Four different stops on your road to recovery. But as supersized […]
Death rates for people under 40 have skyrocketed. Blame fentanyl
A new Stateline analysis shows that U.S. residents under 40 were relatively unscathed by COVID-19 in the pandemic but fell victim to another killer: accidental drug overdose deaths. Death rates in the age group were up by nearly a third in 2021 over 2018, and last year were still 21% higher. COVID-19 was a small […]
Laws banning gender-affirming treatments can block trans youth from receiving other care
In some states, new laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth are dissuading health care providers from offering mental health services and other medical care that isn’t explicitly banned by those laws. In the first few weeks after Mississippi’s law went into effect in February, nurse practitioner Stacie Pace said she was fielding calls and […]
Decrying attempts to ‘bury history,’ Biden designates Emmett Till national monument
WASHINGTON — On what would have been the 82nd birthday of Emmett Till, a Black boy kidnapped and murdered by two white men in Mississippi, President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated a new national monument at sites connected to the lynching that became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. “Telling the truth and the […]
Plagued by teacher shortages, some states turn to fast-track credentialing
Faced with alarming teacher shortages, Virginia last month agreed to partner with a for-profit online teacher credentialing company, hoping to get more teachers into classrooms faster and without the higher tuition costs of traditional colleges and universities. While some of the Virginia school board members had qualms about the process, they agreed to give it […]