Meanwhile, in Tupelo...

This...

Rep. Brian Aldridge (R - Tupelo)

became this...

Rep. Brian Aldridge (R - Tupelo)

By the way, I do have a potential explanation for where Aldridge could have gotten the money for that trip to Hawaii: You know those guys at the fair who try to guess your age?  I bet he kills it at that game.  He's the oldest looking 36 year-old I've ever seen.  

A happy Fourth of July from Jacinto!

Got this photo from a blog supporter just a bit ago, who is at the historic courthouse in Jacinto, MS. Jacinto used to be the county seat of the old Tishomingo County, before that county was divided into modern-day Alcorn, Prentiss and Tishomingo Counties. 

Each year, the Jacinto 4th of July Festival draws politicians from across Mississippi to give stump speeches. It's especially active in years of statewide elections, so go ahead and mark your calendars for 2015.

Failure to expand Medicaid to cost Greenville's Delta Regional $3.9M starting October 1

Well, it's not like Mississippi Democrats (and Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran) haven't warned everyone time and time again.  Today, the AP is running a story on how the Phil Bryant-led effort to prevent Medicaid expansion is going to severely impact Greenville's Delta Regional Medical Center.  According to DRMC CEO J. Stansel Harvey:

With federal reductions set to hit starting Oct. 1, Harvey said the Greenville hospital is anticipating a revenue loss of more than $3.9 million.

That's because the federal Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments to hospitals are being cut starting then.  Under the Affordable Care Act (which is federal law whether you like it or not), Medicaid expansion was to replace the DSH payments.  Of course, Gov. Bryant led legislative Republicans to reject even a compromise on Medicaid expansion that would have kept the federal money flowing into Mississippi. and he was mighty pleased with himself.  Let's see if he's still smiling as hospitals start laying off doctors and nurses and cutting services.

Touched by the grand jury - Republican Rep. Brian Aldridge reportedly indicted for embezzlement

Rep. Brian Aldridge (R - Tupelo)

Fresh on the heels of what longtime Mississippi political observers called "one of the most unethical moves" in recent history by the Republican dominated state Ethics Commission, the Mississippi Republican Party has another scandal to deal with.  Rep. Brian Aldridge (R - Tupelo) reportedly turned himself in this morning after being notified he had been indicted for embezzlement by the Lee County grand jury.  From the Daily Journal:

The charges stem from a 2008 lawsuit filed against the Aldridges by Florence Aldridge, the widow of Louis’ brother. She came to Tupelo in 2005 after her husband’s death after Louis and Janice promised to care for her while she suffered deep depression complicated by bipolar disorder.  

From 2003 to mid-2008, she granted Louis durable power of attorney to look after her assets while she could not.  

But in 2008, she discovered all her nearly $700,000 assets and family treasures were gone. 

Today, 68-year-old Florence Aldridge is believed to be living in a nursing home. Until her health failed again, she lived in Tupelo and taught piano lessons

After lengthy legal proceedings in 2011, Chancellor Michael Malski termed Louis Aldridge’s behavior “monumental impropriety and malfeasance” and ordered him to repay Florence $552,000. He also ordered his former charity, Touched By An Angel Ministries Inc., to come up with $140,000 Louis directed to it while he held Florence’s power of attorney.

Brian Aldridge is chief executive officer of the charity, which operated a camp for disabled children and adults. His father once was its chief financial officer.

This was ugly back in 2011 when it first came to light, and I imagine will get uglier before it gets better.

Personal note - Politics aside, I do hope Rep. Aldridge isn't guilty of these charges, and I hate to see anyone go through this process, even if he votes wrong all the time.

BOONDOGGLE - Mississippi Power announces more overruns likely on Kemper plant

I'm "shocked" that this happened yesterday: 

Mississippi Power Co. warned Monday that costs are still increasing at the power plant it's building in Kemper County.  

The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. told stockholders that an ongoing review of costs at the coal-fired plant has initially identified at least another $160 million in cost increases.  

... 

Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley, a consistent opponent of the plant, said the additional cost overruns are "very disturbing." 

"Not once have we received good news that things are coming in under budget," said Presley, a Democrat. 

Under the settlement, Mississippi ratepayers will have to pay for $2.4 billion of the plant's price, plus pay for up to another $1 billion in bonds that Mississippi Power won't make a profit on. That's not counting the additional hundreds of millions for costs of the mine and pipeline. 

The PSC voted 2-1 to approve a 15 percent rate increase to start paying off the plant's debt even before it begins operations, followed by an additional 3 percent increase in 2014. Mississippi Power has said it's likely in 2014 to seek an additional increase of at least 4 percent over 20 years to pay off the bonds.

Gotta love that good ol' Republican corporate welfare.  I can just hear the chatter in the back room at Tico's now:

What's that you say, Mississippi Power?  Oh, you can't find investors to help you build an insanely expensive AND experimental power plant?  Folks won't lend you money to build it because none of them think it will work as advertised?  Well, let us Republicans here on the Public Service Commission put our Mississippi consumers on the hook for you!  They're gullible, and we'll just tell them it's "economic development".  So quit worrying.  Just keep picking up the tab for these steak dinners, ok? Waiter, can I get another bottle of that merlot? I'm sorry, Mississippi Power.  Throat was getting dry.  Look at it this way, if this whole thing doesn't work out, these rubes I represent will just pay for it anyway. 

Mississippi "conservatives": using the common man as grist for the mill since 1817.

Video of Percy Bland being sworn in as mayor of Meridian

Here's video of Mayor Percy Bland (D - Meridian) taking the oath of office.  He is the first African-American mayor of Meridian.  (My apologies for the shakiness of the video.)

MS Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole's statement on rising student loan rates and the healthcare exchange

The following email was sent from the Mississippi Democratic Party today. In it, Chairman Rickey Cole discusses the failure of Republicans to avoid a sharp increase in student loan interest rates and their vote to block the creation of a Mississippi-run healthcare exchange.  Both of these things are going to cost Mississippians more money each month, and both were easily avoided.  Here's the email:

Friends,

Today, student loan rates on our future college students doubled. Why? The Republican “leadership” in the U.S House has no control over its extreme tea party infused caucus. They may even be in worse shape than our tea party run state legislature.

As Congress sits on its hands, future loan rates on students will double. The problem is the tea party caucus, of which Mississippi Congressman Steven Palazzo is a member, will not support any reasonable legislation. They would rather let the rate double, raising the burden felt by future college graduates, all in the name of deficit reduction.

This is as outrageously incompetent as the House GOP here in Mississippi killing a Democratic amendment last week to create a health insurance exchange, based here and operated by our Insurance Commissioner. Republicans, under the fantasy belief that they are somehow blocking an exchange, killed the Democratic effort. The result? Mississippi will still be getting a health insurance exchange, except one run by Washington instead of Jackson.

In Washington, action on everything from Education to the Farm Bill continues to be stalled by a small group of extreme tea party Republicans who have control over their caucus. Here in Jackson, action on jobs, education, and health care have been stalled and hindered for the same reason.

It is imperative that we work to defeat these extreme Republicans, removing power from the reckless and putting it back where it belongs, in the hands of common sense.

Our opportunity starts now! Please donate to help us build a better future for our common sense Mississippians who simply want reasonable and sensible policy solutions. Every minute the tea party continues to hold power, our students and our hard working middle class families lose.
You can also help our cause by joining our Yellow Dog Club, Finance Council, or Chairmans Council today!

The fight for our future starts now!
Your friend,

Rickey 

Some Republican House members who voted for higher insurance for their constituents

Want to know which Mississippi House Republicans put their allegiance to Speaker Philip Gunn (R - Clinton) and Gov. Phil Bryant (R) ahead of the interests of their constituents last Thursday by keeping them out of the state healthcare exchange?  Here's a partial list of Republicans who voted to keep part or all of their districts out of the exchange:

Rep. Tracy Arnold (R - Booneville)

Rep. Donnie Bell (R - Fulton)

Rep. Joey Hood (R - Ackerman)

Rep. Bobby Howell (R - Kilmichael)

Rep. Timmy Ladner (R - Poplarville)

Rep. Bill Pigott (R - Tylertown)

Rep. Randy Rushing (R - Decatur)

Rep. Jason White (R - West)

Going to be quite a sight watching these folks explain to their constituents that they voted for them to have higher insurance.  Take Randy Rushing, for example.  In 2015, Rep. Rushing is going to have to go around Scott and Leake Counties explaining to them why he voted for them to have higher insurance premiums than his constituents back home in Newton County.

Want to know why the vote on the insurance exchange was a big deal? Let Kaiser tell you

Gov. Phil Bryant and his merry band of dullards in the Mississippi House really stuck it to the citizens of Mississippi this time. Last week during the Medicaid special session, an issue came to the House floor by way of amendment that was pretty unexpected. The House Democrats, in addition to getting a vote on Medicaid expansion, also got a vote on creating a state-run insurance exchange.

Here's the whole thing in a nutshell:  The Affordable Care Act created something called "health care exchanges", which are online marketplaces where people can go to purchase health insurance at reduced rates.  A Republican idea, each state was to create and manage its own exchange, subject to initial federal approval.  Gov. Haley Barbour (R) was on board, and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R) went to work putting the Mississippi exchange together.  Then Gov. Bryant came into office, and said Mississippi wouldn't be running its own exchange.  That move left the federal government in charge of running the Mississippi exchange.

Well, the federally-run Mississippi exchange only has one insurer participating, and that insurer has decided not to sell its plan in 36 of our 82 counties.  That means that, come October 1, some of us will have access to cheaper health insurance, and some of us won't. (Click here to see who gets to pay more.) The way to fix that is to revive Chaney's exchange, which would have provided access to all Mississippians.

Don't believe me?  Here's what Kaiser Health News had to say:

Tens of thousands of uninsured residents in the poorest and most rural parts of Mississippi may be unable to get subsidies to buy health coverage when a new online marketplace opens this fall because private insurers are avoiding a wide swath of the state. 

No insurer is offering to sell plans through the federal health law’s marketplaces in 36 of the state’s 82 counties, including some of the poorest parts of the Delta region, said Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney. 

As a result, 54,000 people who may qualify for subsidized coverage would be unable to get it, estimates the Center for Mississippi Health Policy, a nonpartisan research group.
Many make a living picking soybeans, working on tree farms or in fast food restaurants, earning too little to buy coverage on their own. 

... 

Insurers currently sell policies in all 36 counties – and are expected to continue to do so next year – but only outside of the new marketplaces. Subsidies are available only through the marketplaces, so those sold outside of it come with no subsidy, and many residents are unlikely to purchase them without one.

(Oh, and before you get all upset, these subsidies that are being referenced are federal subsidies, not state ones.  So there's not a dime of state money being discussed here.)

But of course, it simply wouldn't do to let this Barbour-born and Chaney-bred idea go into effect in all Mississippi counties.  Oh, no.  If you want to see how your representative voted on the issue of leaving Mississippians in 36 counties in the cold, click here.

The map showing which Mississippians get to pay more for health insurance

The Mississippi House Republicans, under the leadership of Speaker Philip Gunn (R - Clinton), voted last week to stick with a federally-run health insurance exchange rather than implementing the exchange created by Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R).  That federally-run exchange doesn't cover all Mississippians, meaning that folks in the covered counties will be able to purchase insurance at a much lower rate than folks in the excluded counties.  Here's a map that shows which Mississippians will have to pay much more each month for health insurance.  If you live in a blue county, you're fine.  But if you live in a brown county, you're getting hosed by Gov. Bryant and the House Republicans, who are against the Chaney exchange.

Map of Mississippi Counties left out of Federal Exchange