2013 Boys State to begin May 26 at MSU.

Gov. Phil Bryant and Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker lead a list of speakers for the American Legion’s Boys State on the campus of Mississippi State University this month.

Bryant and Wicker are scheduled to speak on May 29, the fourth day of the annual event that teaches rising seniors about state and local government and the electoral process.

Boys State will meet May 26-June 1 on the Starkville campus.

Other speakers during the week are Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman; U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss.; State Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg; Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith; State Treasurer Lynn Fitch; U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss.; Attorney General Jim Hood; Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann; State Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg; and Lt. John Poulos of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

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DOJ fishing for information on MS Voter ID.

The U.S. Department of Justice still is considering whether to preclear Mississippi’s voter identification requirement that was approved by voters in November 2011.

Jan Schaefer, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Hood, said information requested by the Justice Department on March 21 “is being sought and will be submitted to DOJ as it is collected from various officials and agencies which have it.”

Pamela Weaver, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, said the Justice Department in March requested “any correspondence between legislators, elected officials, employees and members of the public regarding voter ID. Because this was an unusually broad request without specific dates, we worked with the Justice Department on clarifying the scope of information and time frame.”

Once the Justice Department receives the information, it will have 60 days to respond. Under federal law, any changes to Mississippi elections must be approved by the Justice Department to ensure they do not violate minority voting rights.

Read More

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Senate dispute over Voter ID holds up approval of Secretary of State’s budget.

Mississipi state senator David Blount (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mississippi senators rejected the secretary of state’s budget Thursday over an argument about paying lawyers to defend a proposed voter identification law.

It’s probably just a temporary setback in setting an overall state spending plan for fiscal 2014, which begins July 1.

Appropriations Chairman Eugene “Buck” Clarke, R-Hollandale, said he’ll bring the secretary of state’s budget bill back up next week and he expects it to pass when attendance is better. Several senators were out of the chamber and didn’t vote Thursday.

“I think some of them went to lunch early, to be honest,” Clarke told reporters.

Mississippi needs federal approval for any election changes, and a voter ID proposal was submitted to the Justice Department months ago. If it’s rejected there, Republicans want to ask federal judges in Washington, D.C., to approve it.

Senate Bill 2901 says the secretary of state could spend up to $695,000 for voter ID litigation during the budget year.

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said it’s the attorney general’s job, not the secretary of state’s, to submit election proposals to the Justice Department. He said there’s no point in paying two agencies to do the same job.

“You can be for voter ID and against wasting money,” Blount said.

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Gipson legislation to clarify Mississippi Constitutional right to open carry of guns.

In a June opinion in response to the Ellisville Police Department, Attorney General Jim Hood said state law requires someone carrying a weapon to have it “totally concealed” by clothing at all times in public.

Hood wrote that, “The authority to legally carry a pistol or revolver is derived from (state law)” and then quoting the law, that “… Further, nothing in (the law) shall be construed to allow the open and unconcealed carrying of any … deadly weapon.” Hood went on to say that it is illegal to carry a weapon without securing a concealed carry license.

But Gipson, who says he has a permit and sometimes packs a concealed gun, said the state constitution allows Mississippians to openly carry a weapon and only allows state law to regulate concealed carry.

“Open carry is allowed under our constitution, and it always has been,” Gipson said.

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Hood’s price fixing lawsuit to proceed in federal, not state court.

A Mississippi federal court will hear Mississippi’s lawsuit that alleges price fixing by manufacturers of liquid crystal display screens.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling that sent the case to a state court.

“Nothing we have said denies the State of Mississippi the right to proceed with this case. It will simply proceed in federal, not state, court,” the panel said.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood sued several major suppliers of LCD screens in Hinds County Chancery Court in March of 2011. Hood alleged in the lawsuit that consumers paid extra because of price fixing in violation of the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act.

The lawsuit seeks damages, restitution and civil penalties for actions from 1996 to 2006 by companies in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, plus their U.S. counterparts.

The companies have paid out millions to settle class-action lawsuits and still face other lawsuits in the United States and around the world.

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Hood says federal payday lending legislation would usurp state authority

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has joined at least 40 other states’ legal officers in opposing legislation in Congress that could pre-empt states’ authority in governing payday lending businesses.

Hood says in a news release that the bill in Congress would allow payday lenders, installment lenders, car title lenders, prepaid card issuers and check cashers to obtain a federal charter and sidestep these more stringent state laws.

Lawmakers in 2011 allowed payday lenders to stay in business through 2015, while altering some of the practices, including repayment times and capped fees.

MP

Jim Hood announces no Voter ID in Mississippi for November elections

Attorney Gen. Jim Hood said Tuesday morning that Mississippi voters won’t have to show identification at the polls on Nov. 6 because the Department of Justice wants more information from the state before it will rule on whether to allow the new law to move forward, which could take weeks.

The Department of Justice will rule on House Bill 921, which cleared the Legislature earlier this year, but Hood said the DOJ wants more information to determine that the proposed changes “neither have a discriminatory purpose nor will have a discriminatory effect.” It wants more information from the state about its plans.

“All the DOJ is saying in this response is that they need more details of the state’s plan in order to make a determination,” Hood said. “What this means is that the voter ID requirement will not be in place before the November election. You will not be required to show ID at the poll until DOJ interposes no objections or pre-clears Mississippi’s voter ID bill.”

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Oh Bill, how we’ve missed your venomous rants!

Mississippi’s grumpy old liberal codger, Bill Minor, is back in old form with a recent attack on Voter ID, Delbert Hosemann and anything Republican. To paraphrase an old expression: he’s old as dirt, but too mean to die.

And who can blame him for being so angry? He’s lived so long that he’s come to realize most of what he’s ranted about and stood for over the years has been proven false.

Enjoy:

Here he goes again – to borrow an expression by a Republican deity – Mississippi’s Secretary of State, Delbert Hosemann, who continues to make banal statements giving the impression that the state’s proposed photo ID voting law is likely to survive federal scrutiny.

That’s not going to happen. The handwriting is already on the wall, as made clear from the D.C. federal court panel’s ruling on the Texas ID law, and the rough treatment South Carolina is getting from the Department of Justice on its photo ID Voter law.

To begin with, because of its history of suppressing minority voting dating back to the post Civil War era, Mississippi is the least likely state to get an OK under the 1965 Voting Rights law to make any voting rights change that smells like the old poll tax.

Furthermore, Hosemann keeps giving the impression he’s in charge of Mississippi’s submission of HB 921, the state’s photo ID voter law, to DOJ, when that is not the case. The 1965 Voting Rights Act designated the state’s chief legal office for DOJ to deal with. Attorney General Jim Hood is Mississippi’s chief legal officer. Though he has been low-key about it, Hood is the one to whom DOJ sends official letters if it asks the state for further information (as it has done) about its proposed voting law change.

That’s why behind the scenes Mississippi’s voter ID law is caught in a big impasse.

Subject yourself to more HERE.

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Two gas station owners arrested, charged with price-gouging

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says two gas station owners were arrested Wednesday and charged with price gouging during a state of emergency that’s in place because of Tropical Storm Isaac.

Hood says 50-year-old Rajinder Singh of Madison was arrested Wednesday at his Fuel Time gas station in Jackson.

He also says 51-year-old Kuldip Singh of Natchez was arrested at his business, Roxie Truck Stop in Franklin County.

AP

Mississippi’s Lesbian Circus to take on Ag Museum

Southern Poverty Law Center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A lesbian who sued her school district in 2010 after she was left out of the high school yearbook for wearing a tuxedo is demanding the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum permit a commitment ceremony for her and her partner.

The Southern Poverty Law Center sent a letter to the museum on Thursday on behalf of Ceara Sturgis, 20, and threatened to sue if the facility doesn’t allow Sturgis and her partner, 19-year-old Emily Key, to hold the ceremony there on Aug. 11.

The letter said Sturgis and her mother, Veronica Rodriguez, are both from Jackson and want the ceremony at the museum’s Masonic Hall so friends and relatives can attend.

The state-owned museum refused to allow a similar ceremony for two men earlier this year.

The museum has said it interprets commitment ceremonies to represent a union and cites a 2009 opinion by Attorney General Jim Hood saying it could decline such ceremonies because same-sex marriage is banned in Mississippi.

Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith said Thursday that she was out of the office and had not seen the letter.

The SPLC is not challenging Mississippi’s ban on same-sex marriage, but says the museum should allow commitment and marriage ceremonies to take place even if the couple won’t be recognized under state law.

“The Museum’s policy is premised on a misguided and erroneous interpretation of Mississippi state law and, further, violates the United States Constitution. We intend to challenge the Museum’s policy in federal court if the Museum does not rescind its policy against same-sex commitment and marriage ceremonies and honor our clients’ request,” the letter said.

via Lesbian demands ceremony at ag museum | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com.