Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
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March 5
The Greenwood Commonwealth on congressional travel:
Members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation have avoided those acrimonious town hall meetings where Republican lawmakers in a few other states have been grilled by signtoting crowds of opponents.
As a practical matter, for their own political purposes, there’s not much use in the Mississippi congressmen holding town hall meetings. All of them are likely to easily be reelected, barring something unforeseen, the exception being Sen. Thad Cochran, who is getting to the age where he is likely to call it quits before undergoing another tough campaign like his last one. For most Mississippi incumbents, it works better to touch base at home with familiar faces at the courthouses or political party gatherings, where the questions are usually friendly and easy to answer.
A group of citizens called Action Together Oxford, however, held their own town hall meeting recently where they hoped to voice some concerns to their congressman, Rep. Trent Kelly, and U.S. Sens. Cochran and Roger Wicker.
Who knows whether any of three would have shown up anyway, but The Oxford Eagle reported that “according to their offices, all three Republicans were each traveling out of the country as members of congressional delegations. Kelly and Wicker were attending the Winter Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Austria, while Cochran was in Cuba and Colombia.”
A couple of days after the Oxford meeting, USA Today published an indepth article quoting the Treasury Department as reporting that congressional travel cost nearly $20 million last year, the highest figure ever recorded. Many go first class, too. Taxpayers paid for 557 trips that cost more than $10,000 for a member of Congress or a staffer. And all this doesn’t include trips on military planes.
Granted, reducing junkets for members of Congress and their staffers would be a drop in the bucket toward reducing the $20 trillion national debt. But cutting a few million here and there from congressional travel spending might offer a little symbolic relief to taxpayers. That’s especially so if you are of the opinion that the input of Wicker and Kelly won’t do a lot to enhance the security of Europe or that whatever Cochran was doing in Cuba wasn’t worth the trip unless he was going on his own dime.
Online:
https://www.gwcommonwealth.com
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March 5
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on infrastructure funding:
Federal inspectors ordering the closure of nearly 100 bridges on non-state highways across Mississippi last week should serve as a wake-up call regarding the critical need to address our state’s crumbling infrastructure system.
In a somewhat spontaneous announcement, Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, shared from the floor of the Mississippi Senate on Friday that inspectors with the Federal Highway Administration had ordered the closures.
In Mississippi, the office of State Aid Road Construction inspects and rates bridges based on a number of different factors such as the bridge’s structural adequacy and safety. How essential the bridge is for public use is also a factor.
During recent inspections, federal officials closed about three-fourths of the bridges they inspected in the state during the past two weeks. All were posted at less than three tons by local officials, meaning they were open only for use by passenger vehicles, as reported by the Daily Journal’s Bobby Harrison.
Officials with State Aid Road Construction, which is in the process of compiling a complete list of the bridges that were closed, said they hope the closures will be temporary and that individual counties have the ability to go out and conduct necessary repairs to allow the bridges to be reopened.
The impact the closures had on Northeast Mississippi was not immediately clear, although Lee County officials said they knew of no bridges impacted by the recent closures.
These closures highlight the continued need for improvements to our state’s system of roads and bridges and the unfortunate reality that state leaders seem to want to continue kicking the issue of funding down the road.
A number of groups, led by the Mississippi Economic Council, have called for a sustained program to improve Mississippi’s transportation system, both on the state and local levels.
House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who presides over the Senate, have acknowledged the transportation needs, but have not been able to reach a consensus on a revenue source to fund the repairs. Gov. Phil Bryant stated earlier this year that the election of President Donald Trump will provide significant opportunities for highway improvements in the state.
Finding funding for infrastructure improvements will undoubtedly be a challenge, but the reward will be one that will have tremendous results both from a safety and economic development standpoint for our state.
A 2015 MEC study found that 936 state bridges and more than 24,500 miles of state highways are in disrepair, and on the local level, 2,989 bridges and nearly 13,300 roads are in need of repair.
We urge lawmakers and state leaders to get serious about finding a real solution to this issue.
Online:
https://djournal.com
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March 3
The Picayune Item on a domestic violence bill:
One of the many bills considered by the House and Senate during the most recent legislative session entailed establishing domestic violence as a grounds for divorce when both parties can’t come to an agreement as to dissolving the union.
According to news coverage, the bill passed through the Senate, but met with a major speed bump in the House, Mississippi House Judiciary Committee Chair Andy Gipson.
His reason? To Gipson the bill did not clearly define domestic abuse.
His actual words? “To me the way it’s worded could possibly be interpreted that if someone raised their voice at their spouse, is that domestic assault? If that’s the case, then a lot of people would have a ground for divorce in Mississippi.”
It appears as though Gipson thinks there are a lot of verbal arguments going on in our state, which would lead to many people making appointments with their divorce lawyer.
While we agree with Gipson’s ultimate stance that fostering the longevity of marriage should be a couple’s number one goal, there are times when abuse can mean more than the infliction of physical wounds.
What may have been a loving relationship could have turned turbulent. And while simple arguments would not equate grounds for divorce, there are times when it’s clear the two people should go their separate ways.
The problem comes in when one party in the relationship refuses to agree to a divorce. While there are 12 legal ways to file for a divorce, many of them require the consent of both parties, including one of the most common, irreconcilable differences.
In reality, proving domestic abuse could be easier than Gipson makes it out to be. If law enforcement is called to a home for a domestic call, that incident now has a record.
It would be very easy to establish a precedent based on the number of domestic violence calls as grounds to grant a divorce. And that’s just one method.
Online:
https://www.picayuneitem.com
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