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contents

JACKSONIAN

May 13 - 26, 2020 Vol. 18 No. 19

ON THE COVER Dr. Woodward Photo courtesy UMMC

6 Publisher’s Note

9 Reeves Gives In The Mississippi Legislature wins control over $1.15 billion in federal relief funds.

A

mid a pandemic, Joscelyn Allen, 34, is grateful to work as a nurse. “I feel lucky to have chosen a profession I love,” she says, adding that it is rewarding to watch COVID-19 patients get better. “They can’t have family with them. They’re thankful for you being there.”

Originally from Yazoo City, Allen graduated from Benton Academy in 2004 and then from the Holmes Junior College nursing program in 2008, securing a full-time job at the University of Mississippi Medical Center that same year.

She later earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mississippi University for Women in 2013. Since entering the field, she has worked at Sta-Home Health, TrustCare Heart Clinic, St. Dominic Hospital and Merit Health Madison, where she currently works.

Allen began her career as a medical surgical nurse and a nurse educator but now operates in a designated float pool, going back and forth between the medical surgical, emergency-room and intensive care units. “I like the new learning exposure that comes with the job and being able to teach and also learn. Nursing is such a vast profession—you can learn things every day,” she says.

The nurse currently works three to four days a week, 12 hours each day. Life has changed for most of the world over the past sev-

12 Opinion 13 progress

14 United Against COVID-19

Joscelyn Allen eral months, no more acute than hospitals. “We never used to wear protective gear at all times. Now we’re wearing masks and gowns and foot coverings,” Allen says.

With far fewer surgeries during COVID-19, she says, many personnel are cross-training to help in ICU and emergency rooms.

“The lack of patients is obvious,” she says.

“When we do see a COVID-positive patient, we’re decked out head to toe. The patient is coughing, and you have to wonder if the mask is going to protect you. We’re breathing heavy. It’s hot in the mask. Not an easy situation for sure.”

Of course, the protections do not end at the hospital door.

“When I get home I leave my shoes in the garage. I go straight to the laundry room, which is by the garage. I take off the scrubs and proceed to an antibacterial shower. I don’t want to bring it home to my family,” Allen says.

And there are sacrifices. “I haven’t seen my parents in a month, who are in the at-risk category, she says. Her son is doing distance learning. “I worry about his education in the long-run,” she says.

Still, Allen knows her purpose: helping her patients. “I like to think I spend a little more time talking with them now than I would have before all this happened,” she says.

— Mike McDonald

Read how Mississippians have banded together to help the state and Jackson get through this pandemic.

16 Woodward Interview 19 expat 20 Best of Jackson 27 bites

27 Doris Berry’s Provisions The Berry family continues to provide fresh produce and other goods for purchase to the Jackson metro.

28 Puzzle 28 Sorensen 29 astro 29 Classifieds 30 Virtual Events

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Photo courtesy joscelyn allen

11 Education

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publisher’s note Editor-in-Chief and CEO Donna Ladd Publisher & President Todd Stauffer Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin Creative Director Kristin Brenemen REPORTERS AND WRITERS City Reporter Kayode Crown State Reporter Nick Judin Culture Reporter Aliyah Veal State Intern Julian Mills Contributing Writers Dustin Cardon, Bryan Flynn, Alex Forbes, Jenna Gibson, Tunga Otis Torsheta Jackson, Mike McDonald, Anne B. Mckee, Ashton Pittman, Mauricio J. Quijano EDITORS AND OPERATIONS Deputy Editor Nate Schumann JFPDaily.com Editor Dustin Cardon Executive Assistant Azia Wiggins Consulting Editor JoAnne Prichard Morris

ONLINE & DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Web Developer Ryan Jones Web Editor Dustin Cardon Social Media Assistant Robin Johnson Web Designer Montroe Headd Let’s Talk Jackson Editor Kourtney Moncure SALES AND MARKETING (601-362-6121 x11) Marketing Writer Andrea Dilworth Marketing Consultant Mary Kozielski Advertising Designer Zilpha Young Events Assistant Leslyn Smith DISTRIBUTION Distribution Coordinator Ken Steere Distribution Team Yvonne Champion, Ruby Parks, Eddie Williams TALK TO US: Letters letters@jacksonfreepress.com Editorial editor@jacksonfreepress.com Queries submissions@jacksonfreepress.com Listings events@jacksonfreepress.com Advertising ads@jacksonfreepress.com Publisher todd@jacksonfreepress.com News tips news@jacksonfreepress.com

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

Jackson Free Press 125 South Congress Street, Suite 1324 Jackson, Mississippi 39201 Editorial and Sales (601) 362-6121 Fax (601) 510-9019 Daily updates at jacksonfreepress.com

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The Jackson Free Press is the city’s award-winning, locally owned news magazine, reaching more than 35,000 readers per issue via more than 600 distribution locations in the Jackson metro area—and an average of over 35,000 visitors per week at www. jacksonfreepress.com. The Jackson Free Press is free for pick-up by readers; one copy per person, please.

First-class subscriptions are available to “gold level” and higher members of the JFP VIP Club (jfp.ms/ vip). The views expressed in this magazine and at jacksonfreepress.com are not necessarily those of the publisher or management of Jackson Free Press Inc. © Copyright 2020 Jackson Free Press Inc.

Email letters and opinion to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019 or mail to 125 South Congress St., Suite 1324, Jackson, Mississippi 39201. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, as well as factchecked.

// by Todd Stauffer

A

s Gov. Tate Reeves learned this past week, the most powerful public office in Mississippi isn’t actually that of governor.

While Reeves has been on Facebook Live opening businesses ahead of the official guidance even from this White House, he ran into a brick wall when he decided the Legislature would have no say in spending $1.25 billion of CARES Act funds.

In Mississippi, it’s the lieutenant governor who sets the legislative agenda and, particularly when he’s got a legislative supermajority, it’s the lieutenant governor who can get the governor to turn on a dime and declare his desire to work in “unity.”

“Unity” was the declaration Reeves, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Majority Leader Philip Gunn made over the CARES Act money that Reeves thought he and what I call his “Country Club Cabinet” of campaign backers were going to have a free hand to spend.

Reeves should have known that lieutenant governor is a powerful position— he’d been Mississippi’s “LG” for the eight years prior to this one. It’s from that position that he pushed through corporate tax cuts, killed Internet tax collection, killed equalpay laws for women, oversaw the passage of anti-LGBT legislation, created the “42A” amendment to shut down grassroots efforts to fund adequate education, tried to change education funding with a cynical per-pupil formula, expanded voucher programs by sneaking them into unrelated bills, and opposed Medicaid expansion for years.

In January 2019, to begin his last

“Selfishness” and “self interest” are not the same thing. year as lieutenant governor, Reeves stood at the Capitol Press Forum and chanted: “I am opposed to Obamacare expansion in Mississippi. I am opposed to Obamacare expansion in Mississippi. I am opposed to Obamacare expansion in Mississippi.”

(Word is he left his banjo at home.)

Fast forward to the spring of 2020.

With tens of thousands of people out of work, Mississippi’s unemployment “infrastructure” seems to have largely failed. Even with Reeves trying to jettison the policies designed to slow people from getting benefits (suggesting their cynical roots) we at

the JFP are getting persistent reports of people who filed legitimate claims weeks ago and still don’t have money, much less the federal $600-a-week subsidy. So many people out of work means so many people without health-care coverage. Mississippi’s much-maligned safety net is completely overwhelmed at a time when many of its citizens need it. Given the power of the LG, is there any one single Mississippian who, more than anyone else over the past decade, we could point to and say, “He’s the guy?”

Mr. Reeves, Mississippi is your Pottery Barn. You broke it, you own it. courTeSy Todd STauffer

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY Senior Designer Zilpha Young Contributing Photographers Seyma Bayram, Acacia Clark, Nick Judin, Imani Khayyam, Ashton Pittman, Brandon Smith

We’re All Living in Tate Reeves’ Pottery Barn Now

Todd Stauffer

Let it sink in. Reeves chants his opposition to federally funded expansion of Medicaid in Mississippi so that the least among us could get a modicum of preventive health care, while rural hospitals could get something of a lifeline for funding and continued operations—you know, just in case a pandemic comes along.

But Reeves sets up a committee of campaign funders as quickly as you can say “let’s meet in the men’s locker room for a game of Texas Hold’em” and declares that they’ll decide how to spend $1.25 billion of federal dollars. In private.

As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo rightly pointed out in a public fight with Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, southern states are by-and-large “taker” states, getting more federal funding than our taxpayers pay in.

Mississippi is one of the biggest takers.

And Tate Reeves is totally willing to take.

For some reason, he just wants to make sure the benefits don’t accrue to those who have it worse in our society.

Well, right now, a lot of Mississippians have it worse. And if there’s anything

that COVID is showing us in Mississippi, it’s that “drown government in a bathtub” is an idea that conservatives need to let go. Government needs to save money in good times and spend it in bad. Government needs to be prepared for emergencies in tough times, and gracious to those in trouble during the good times.

Government also needs oversight, open meetings and accountability. As the Department of Human Services fiasco reminds us, when somebody like Tate Reeves, Phil Bryant or Donald Trump tells you “don’t worry, I’ll be the oversight,” it’s a good idea to have an auditor on speed dial.

Now that many of us are suddenly much more reliant or beholden to the government for subsidy or subsistence, it is the right moment to remember that the government is us.

Having an effective government that is “by the people” requires two things.

1. You have to participate. Sitting back and “consuming” government isn’t an option—it’s not like ordering from Amazon.

Being an effective citizen means being informed, engaged and involved. Those who pine for the “good ole days” might also remember how business associations and chambers, youth groups, mentor groups and other civic organizations can help further active citizenship in this country.

2. You have to realize that “selfishness” and “self interest” are not the same thing. Wanting the government to pay for your kids to go to religious school is selfish; working to improve the quality of public schools for all of our children is in your selfinterest. Worrying about whether or not “the other” is getting food stamps to feed their kids is selfish. Working to improve our social safety net for whenever one of us needs it is self-interest.

My hope is that Mississippi will come out of this crisis a more compassionate, efficient and effective state. To do that, we have to work together now to flatten the curve and save lives, and then we’ll need to get our leaders to create a more effective safety net while investing in education, health care and access to good-paying, fair-paying jobs.

Our forefathers didn’t create a “government-free” country. They created one with government of, by and for the people.

The true American Experiment is the notion that a diversity of people could come together as one—e pluribus unum—to advance all of our interests together.

Now is a great opportunity to try it.

contributors

Nick Judin

Sarah Kate Pollard

State reporter Nick Judin grew up in Jackson and graduated from the University of Mississippi. He is covering this year’s legislative session. Try not to run him over when you see him crossing State Street. He wrote about COVID-1o politics and interviewed Dr. LouAnn Woodward.

Sarah Kate Pollard is a senior at Marymount Manhattan College, photographer and writer. Her hobbies include trying to be witty, reading art and connecting with humans. She wrote several BOJ blurbs for the issue.

Torsheta Jackson

Nate Schumann

Freelance writer Torsheta Jackson is originally from Shuqualak, Miss. A wife and mother of four, she freelances and is a certified lactation counselor. She wrote about the Tinkergarten program.

Deputy Editor Nate Schumann loves consuming stories, whether that story be in the form of a book, a comic, a television series, a game, a radio serial, etc. He enjoys comic books and related media. He wrote numerous stories for the issue.

VAN GOGH, MONET, DEGAS, THE MELLON COLLECTION OF FRENCH ART FROM THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

ON VIEW IN 2020 Jenna Gibson

Michele Baker

Freelance writer Jenna Gibson is originally from Petal and graduated from Millsaps College, where she majored in communications and English literature. She now works as a copywriter at an ad agency in Fondren. She wrote the arts story and a BOJ blurb.

When not whipping up a loaf of fresh bread from scratch, writing grants or creating websites, published author and hobby photographer Michele Baker can be found gallivanting around the globe. She owns 4,000 books and lives in a restored 1920s bungalow in Belhaven. She wrote the story on the Doris Berry Farmers Market.

The 17th presentation in the Annie Laurie Swaim Hearin Memorial Exhibition Series MADE POSSIBLE BY THE ROBERT M. HEARIN SUPPORT FOUNDATION. Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, model executed ca. 1880 (cast in 1922). bronze, cloth skirt with tutu and satin hair ribbon, 38.5 x 14.5 x 14.25 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, State Operating Fund and the Art Lovers’ Society, 45.22.1. Image © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

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May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

AND THEIR TIMES:

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Discover something incredible.

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Visit mdah.ms.gov today.

FOR MORE CONTENT AND UPDATES, FOLLOW US @MDAH_OFFICIAL.

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JXN // politics

Road to a Gentleman’s Surrender

Gov. Tate Reeves Strikes Hard, Then Bows to Legislature

F

‘More About Power Than People’ Across the street, Gov. Tate Reeves was fulminating about the insurrection by leaders of his own party. He railed against the Legislature with a sound and fury rarely seen in his public addresses.

“Tying the hands of these two great human beings,” Reeves said, referring to Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Director Greg Michel and State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, “who have worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week simply because you’re interested in who is in control, because you care more about power than people, is wrong.”

To hear it from Reeves, the Legislature fiddled while Mississippi burned, gambling with the lives and livelihoods of its people through unnecessary legalistic dissembling.

“They want us to guess how much money we need for emergency supplies,

and budget based on that guess,” Reeves said, disgust in his voice. “Best-case scenario, they overestimate and send a whole lot of money back to the federal government when it goes unused. Worst-case scenario, they underestimate, and people die because we can’t get them what they need.”

As the governor raged, the Legislature voted. Two senators—Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, and Melanie Sojourner, RNatchez—stood with Reeves. Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, voted present. Every other lawmaker who voted, across both parties and houses, stood with Hosemann and Gunn—a hyper-majority that made a grim prospect of the governor’s veto power.

For the next week, as the bill steeped

ber. I guess I’m happy to see that—I just pray they remain strict constructionists for the remainder of their term.”

Rare Moment of Unity The showdown was long in the making. The political daylight between Hosemann and Reeves was the subject of much discussion during last year’s election. Policy differences, including conflicting opinions on Medicaid expansion, provided the possibility for a party schism.

At an event in 2019, Hosemann spoke glowingly of the days when “we worked across the aisle, back when Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, and Republicans controlled the other side.” courtesy state of Mississippi

rom the gallery above the Mississippi House of Representatives, Speaker Philip Gunn cut a lonely figure as he gaveled in the Legislature on May 1, an empty hall ahead of him. The Capitol soaked in a frenetic quiet, with crowds of legislators dispersed through the building, traveling one by one to the House floor to speak over a live stream, a 21st-century concession to a 20th-century catastrophe.

Lawmakers discussed only one bill, 45 days after the Legislature had last met, and an amendment at that. Senate Bill 2772 was a two-page escalation to a sudden, furious battle over who in Mississippi would control the state’s coffers in an emergency like COVID-19. The prize was authority, formal control over the process of doling out $1.15 billion in federal relief funds from the Congressional CARES Act. Hours before, in the Capitol rotunda, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Gunn stood shoulder to shoulder—with 6 feet interceding—laying out their case for their right to take command of the funds.

Gunn, a Republican from Clinton, quoted a Mississippi Supreme Court decision from 1905: “Indeed, it is the supreme legislative prerogative, indispensable to the independence and integrity of the legislature, and not to be surrendered or abridged, save by the Constitution itself, without disturbing the balance of the system and endangering the liberties of the people.”

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann (right) and House Speaker Philip Gunn (left) have triumphed, for now, in their battle for appropriations authority over Gov. Tate Reeves (center), coming together on May 7 to announce a “pause” in the Legislature’s favor.

on the governor’s desk, Reeves jabbed the legislative branch from his daily press briefings. The following Monday, Reeves floated the idea of “stabilization payments” for barbers and salon owners, their businesses still closed by executive fiat. But there was a catch: “Plans such as that are threatened by the reckless action of the Mississippi Legislature in a hastily called meeting late on Friday afternoon,” Reeves said.

McDaniel, who emerged as one of the governor’s only vocal defenders in the Senate debate, could scarcely contain his sarcasm in an interview.

“The entire body was hiding behind constitutionality,” McDaniel said. “I was a bit shocked that, all of a sudden, we found all these strict constructionists in the cham-

And so it came to pass. The struggle with the governor brought a rare moment of unity to the Capitol. Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, joined Hosemann and Gunn, representing the Democratic wedge lobbying for their own seat at the table.

“I think it’s bipartisan that the $1.25 billion coming to the state of Mississippi should be managed by the Legislature,” Simmons told the Jackson Free Press.

Marty Wiseman, director emeritus of the John C. Stennis Institute at Mississippi State University, was one of many political observers unsurprised by Hosemann fielding a broad coalition against Reeves. “I consider Delbert Hosemann very much a pragmatist, in that he can bracket the whole

partisan argument between Republicans and Democrats in order to accomplish a goal,” Wiseman said in an interview.

At the day’s end, Simmons filtered out of the Capitol with the rest of the lawmakers, not to return until the following Thursday when the Legislature came back to finish the session and appropriate the money it had claimed. His face was half obscured by the pastel blue of a surgical mask, but it couldn’t hide his smile.

What the Democratic delegates will receive in exchange for their assistance prying the CARES money out of the hands of Reeves, his Restart Mississippi board and the still-undetermined “third party administrator” he intended as oversight remains to be seen. “I’m very optimistic,” Simmons said in an interview on May 11. “I’m hopeful that those who otherwise would not have an opportunity to be heard or represented are at the table.”

On May 7, the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus requested $457 million of the relief funds for the “Black Empowerment RESET Initiative,” a percentage of the total roughly proportional to Mississippi’s black population. The funds will go to grants to minority-owned businesses, funding for federally qualified health centers critical to rural health-care access, and other policies.

The first bill intended to formally appropriate the CARES Act funds is the “2020 COVID-19 Mississippi Business Assistance Act.” The Act, in its nascent form in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would task the Mississippi Development Authority with doling out grants between $1,000 and $25,000 to small businesses in Mississippi with fewer than 50 employees, worth less than $500,000 and that do not derive income from passive investments.

Of the $100 million set aside from the new act, the administrator must spend $15 million on minority-owned businesses.

Here the Legislature faces its first great hurdle in doling out the money Reeves insisted only his gubernatorial council and oversight body could properly disburse.

“You’ve got good hard-working folks that may have a crew of five, six, seven people working for them, and they keep basic records out of a shoebox so that they can pay income tax and Social Security for their employees,” Wiseman said. “But now they more GENTLEMAN’S SURRENDER, p 10

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

// by Nick Judin

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JXN // GENTLEMAN’S SURRENDER, from page 9

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An Emergency Without End If any observers during the 2019 campaign season anticipated that a rampaging virus would be the catalyst for era-defining decisions about public health, power and purpose of government, or the balance of authority between executive and legislative branches, their voices surely went unheard.

For Reeves, the early days of coronavirus were an opportunity to reconfirm his dedication to the principles of small government and constitutional supremacy.

“Mississippi will never be China,” the governor bellowed. When national media pilloried him for saying it, it became his mantra, a defiant reminder to the “metropolitan narcissists” he rejected at his term’s opening that no crisis could shake his rockribbed conservatism.

Strange, then, was this new dynamic.

Reeves declared that the governor’s emergency powers over the purse and sword alike were well established in state law. But the coronavirus is not an emergency like Hurricane Katrina, a solitary catastrophe with a long and cruel recovery trailing behind. In the long months of corona ahead, reaction and recovery must balance on a razor’s edge.

“I think it’s a very astute observation,” Wiseman said. “This is still fluid.”

Hosemann raised this point, and Reeves seized on it as proof of the lieutenant governor’s failure to grasp the seriousness of the catastrophe. “As was said on Friday morning by the lieutenant governor, we don’t need to act with ‘immediacy’ because ‘it’s not like we have a Katrina event here.’

This is power politics at its worst,” Reeves said on May 4.

Deliberate or not, it was a misreading: Hosemann plainly meant that if there is a permanent end to the “emergency” of this new plague, it is far off in some hopeful future where testing, tracing, vaccines or herd immunity has rendered the threat negligible. Powers ceded to emergency contingencies, then, are ceded for an indeterminate period of time. “There were a lot of folks that weren’t certain that one set of eyes, in the person of the governor, should be the be-all and end-all of where things are going to go,” Wiseman said.

Gunn, who emerged during the struggle as the more openly aggressive check on Reeves’ executive power, returned fire at the governor in both a Capitol address and a scorching letter he later assured Mississippi

Today’s Bobby Harrison that he “had no intention of … being made public.”

But public it was.

At the Capitol, Gunn thwarted Reeves’ interpretations of state statutes, including the Mississippi Emergency Management Law of 1972, which served as the foundation of the governor’s claim. “The governor may accept and receive funds. Nowhere in that statute does it say the governor can spend those funds,” Gunn said.

In his letter, Gunn excoriated the governor’s dramatic augury of legislative theft and dead Mississippians. “In your comments Friday you portrayed legislators as thieves and killers,” he wrote.

“You said we ‘stole the money’ and people would die. Such cheap theatrics and false personal insults were beneath the dignity of your office. They were out of character for you personally.”

Seeking Barbour’s Shadow One of the governor’s many grievances lay with the rapidly emerging gulf between his power relative to legislative leadership COURTESY MSU

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

are faced with meeting federal guidelines, which can be very onerous.

“The Legislature has got to figure out how to close that gap.”

MOST VIRAL STORIES AT JFP.MS:

Marty Wiseman, director emeritus of the John C. Stennis Institute at Mississippi State University, says Gov. Tate Reeves ran afoul of his own grudges in his struggle with the Legislature.

and the power of his predecessors. Gov. Haley Barbour and the heavy hand he exerted over the recovery to Hurricane Katrina loomed large in the debate, a wistful backdrop for Reeves, and perhaps proof that he was due the same degree of authority.

Barbour himself emerged in support of his beleaguered grand-successor.

“I have been surprised and disappointed to read reports that some in our legislative branch of state government are trying to disrupt and change how Mississippi has

effectively responded to emergency situations for decades,” the former governor said in an opinion column for The ClarionLedger, which only mentioned his eight years of Mississippi governing, not his decades of international lobbying.

But even Barbour could not lend Reeves the magisterial control he once wielded over the state and statehouse alike.

“Haley Barbour was a master at saying ‘give me the rules, and I’ll find a way to make them do what I want them to.’ He was unique in that regard,” Wiseman said.

He added that “a lot of people use Barbour as an example, but his decisions were not without controversy.”

Barbour’s financial connections to the beneficiaries of Katrina relief funds caused controversy in his day as well. After his Clarion-Ledger op-ed, some lawmakers conjectured on background that Butler Snow, the powerful Ridgeland law firm Barbour joined as a partner after his governorship ended, could successfully vie for the lucrative oversight of the CARES Act money, if both governors got their way, even as no evidence of such a plan has turned up. And among Reeves’ appointees to his Restart Mississippi commission, there are at least six whom Barbour appointed to various roles during his time in office, including two who served on the elder governor’s Katrina commission.

Reeves seeks to have neither the benefit nor the burden of Barbour’s historic potency, however. Wiseman chalked it up to personality, in large part.

“Governors in Mississippi have to gain their power by the force of their personality. Reeves has skills in that regard, but once he is in a tiff with someone, then he holds a grudge against them…,” Wiseman said.

“Politics is a game of addition, not subtraction. Reeves has left too many former allies as bodies on the sidelines.”

‘We Don’t Have To Agree’ As suddenly as the great Republican schism began, it was over, at least in public view. Reeves appeared at his regularly scheduled press conference on May 7, flanked by Hosemann and Gunn, to announce the results of a private conversation at the governor’s mansion. “We don’t have to agree on every single issue,” Reeves said, opening the conference with an olive branch. “As long as we agree that we’re going to work hard for the people of our state.”

The new agreement required Reeves to acknowledge the Legislature’s prerogative to appropriate the remaining $1.15 billion of CARES funds, not including the $100 million elevated to the governor’s emergen-

1. “OPINION: Face It, White America: Mississippi Is Not Exceptional on Racism” by Ted Atkinson 2. “Jackson Attorney with COVID: ‘A False Sense of Protection Here” by Seyma Bayram 3. “‘When Is the $600 Coming?’: Mississippi Unemployment Questions Answered” by Todd Stauffer 4. “Two Days of Record COVID-19 Deaths Precede Mississippi Reopening”

by Julian Mills, Nick Judin 5. “Mayor Lumumba Revises, Extends Jackson Stay-at-Home Order”

by Seyma Bayram

cy control before the battle began.

In exchange, lawmakers agreed to include the state’s chief executive in talks about where they ought to spend the money—an arrangement never in question to begin with—and ordered a hold on SB 2772. But in spite of Reeves’ previous assertions that the bill represented a change to state law that inherently proved his authority, there were no alterations in SB 2772 to the statutes that govern appropriations authority. The bill simply forced the CARES Act money into a budgetary fund only the Legislature can access.

For Hosemann and Gunn, it was a victory on the terms laid out in their original Capitol address. For Reeves, it was a gentleman’s surrender, in which all parties could claim to have negotiated a truce on behalf of the people of Mississippi, and the governor retains the right to “administer” the fund on those expenditures at the direction of the Legislature.

“Who knows what pressure was coming to bear from Republicans inside the party? One of the sticking points for sure was the panel that the governor had announced he was going to appoint, that largely were supporters of his, financial supporters, a lot of big-business types and so forth,” Wiseman said. The governor was the victim of circumstance in addition to his own political style, he added.

“There’s a jaundiced eye being cast on the spending of money from the executive branch with few controls or oversight from the legislature, based on the DHS scandal,” Wiseman said of the alleged $94 million in fraud under the leadership of ex-Department of Human Services head John Davis.

“That’s on everybody’s tongue. How can anyone get that much money coming out of Washington for one intended purpose that goes entirely to something else?”

State intern Julian Mills contributed to this report. Read full coverage of COVID-19 at jacksonfreepress.com/COVID19. Email tips to nick@jacksonfreepress.com.

JXN // education

Learning Through Nature, Tinkergarten // by torsheta Jackson

Kristina Gibb PhotoGraPhy

the Tinkergarten program when the family moved to Austin for a brief period in 2018.

While there, she sought outdoor activities for her oldest child. After attending some classes, she was impressed with how well he responded. “(Matty) was always stimulated indoors, so I’d always take him outside and that is where he thrived the best,” Dawson says. “In Texas, we found the program, and he loved it. He is very shy, but he actually participated in the group projects.”

Upon her return to Mississippi in 2019, she applied to become a leader and brought the program to the metro area. Dawson, who also works as a children’s yoga instructor at The Village, hosted her first season of classes this past winter at Strawberry Park in Madison.

“We started with four families,” Dawson says. “We had 10 families enrolled for the spring.”

The restrictions on gatherings and the closure of parks due to the COVID-19 virus caused The Tinkergarten program teaches children some modifications to the prolife skills through interacting with nature. gram including the cancellation of in-person classes this spring season. for children ages 6 months through 8 years However, families are still able to take part old, the classes provide children with the in the Tinkergarten program. In-person opportunity to develop life skills such as classes have been substituted with weekly empathy, collaboration, creativity, coop- DIY activities and live online sessions. eration, persistence and problem-solving “The Tinkergarten activities that they through outdoor play experiences. The cur- can do at home and on the Facebook page riculum focuses on natural learning in fresh are something fun and are a way that kids air and green spaces. Classes are guided by a can still learn and develop the way needed leader who introduces an activity and then (and) they think they are just playing, havallows parents and children to explore the ing a good time and bonding with their skill independently, allowing children to parents,” Dawson says. learn and grow at their own pace. Dawson Dawson believes that outdoor learnsays that the program helps promote a bal- ing is more important now than ever. anced learning experience for children who “Especially now with the COVID-19 are often inundated with technology. (virus) and the online learning, just step“Eighty percent of the brain develop- ping outside for 15 minutes or so has so ment for kids (occurs) before age 5,” Daw- many health benefits for kids. It reduces son says. “Tinkergarten aims to develop the stress, anxiety and aggression. It (also) helps brain in all the right ways so that instead the parents have a break to refresh. It’s a of what they may obtain through screens, good way to spend time together now with they obtain through nature and natural everything that is going on,” she says. learning. The opportunities for play in naDawson still hopes to be able to host ture are endless.” the in-person summer session of the proDawson is married to John Lindsey, gram, scheduled to begin on July 10. and the couple are parents to 5-year-old For more information about the Matty, 2-year-old Sage and 1-year-old program and registration information, visit Westley. She first became acquainted with tinkergarten.com.

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See the full list at jfp.ms/vip-members

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

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rikka Dawson has always loved being outside. She grew up playing in the backyard of her Brandon home with family and exploring the neighborhood with friends. As a child she enjoyed the beauty, peace and freedom of the natural world. As a parent, she wanted her children to have a similar appreciation of nature. Her work allows her to not only provide that opportunity for her children, but for other local youth as well.

The 29-year-old mother and homeschool instructor teaches as part of the metro area’s Tinkergarten program. Designed

11

OPINION // facing history

In 50 Years from Gibbs-Green Deaths to Ahmaud Arbery Killing, White Supremacy Still Lives // by robert luckett, PhD

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May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

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Protesting Persistent White Supremacy The Ballard incident was one of many student demonstrations at the public and historically black college. Informed by the modern civil rights and Black Power movements, Jackson State students organized in the 1960s to protest persistent white supremacy in the state and on their campus.

Those demonstrations began annually in earnest in 1964.

Each spring, protesters became increasingly demonstrative against aggressive actions aimed at them. In 1970, that included a dump truck that was parked in the middle of Lynch Street, a few blocks from campus, and set on fire.

Although the evidence did not indicate that students had been involved in the burning of the truck, white officials prepared to assert their power with the same violence that has undergirded the American power structure. They sent troops in full riot gear to assault any black person found in the immediate area.

On May 14, 1970, Jackson police officers and Mississippi Highway Patrolmen marched on the campus of Jackson State, accompanied by the infamous Thompson Tank, an armored personnel carrier that Allen Thompson, the segregationist mayor, had purchased ahead of what he termed the civil rights “invasion” of Freedom Summer in 1964.

When the phalanx of officers reached Alexander Hall, a women’s dormitory, they stood ready to unleash their full force on the peacefully assembled students, who were not protesting at all but were enjoying a Thursday evening as graduation neared.

courtesy Margaret Walker center, Jackson state university

n Feb. 3, 1964, a white driver, Jesse R. Aldridge, slammed into Jackson State College student Mamie Ballard as she was walking along Lynch Street on campus.

At the time, John R. Lynch Street ran through the middle of what is now Jackson State University. White motorists took advantage of the route to taunt students with racist epithets, throw objects at them and threaten to hit anyone in the crosswalk.

With an aggressive tenor, the ensuing student demonstrations demanded justice for Ballard, who survived, and that Lynch Street be closed to traffic.

Widowed at 17 and not knowing she was pregnant with her second son at the time, Dale Gibbs was left to raise two boys after a fuselage of gunfire from law enforcement killed her husband, Phillip Gibbs, at Jackson State on May 14, 1970. From left: Dale Gibbs and sons Demetrius and Phillip Jr.

Later asserting the absurd and false claim that a sniper had shot at them from a window in Alexander Hall, the police fired more than 400 rounds of ammunition over 28 seconds in every direction.

Gibbs and Green Killed, Dozen Students Wounded In the chaos that spilled into the early morning hours of May 15, two men, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, were left dead; a dozen young people were wounded in the gunfire; and hundreds of others bear physical and psychological scars to this day.

Phillip Gibbs was a junior politicalscience major. He had married his high school sweetheart, and they had one son.

Unbeknownst to Phillip and his wife, Dale, she was pregnant at the time with their second son.

James Green was a senior at nearby Jim Hill High School. He was walking home from his after-school job on the opposite side of the street from Alexander Hall, which meant that law enforcement had turned to fire in the other direction

from the supposed sniper.

Due to the wanton police attack, Lynch Street was finally closed through campus, and the Gibbs-Green Memorial Plaza now stands in front of Alexander Hall. But, those concessions were not victories and did nothing to lessen the trauma for those who survived.

Graduation was cancelled at Jackson State, and the members of the Class of 1970 received their diplomas in the mail.

Civil rights attorney Constance Slaughter represented the families and some of the injured in a lawsuit against the City and the State. Plaintiffs lost their case, and no one was ever charged in the police murders.

From COVID-19 to Arbery’s Murder, Race Injustice Continues Today, the coronavirus pandemic and the news of continued violence upon black bodies reveal the ongoing nature and impact of the history of racism in the U.S. When considering the insufficient and belated response of state and national leaders that has inflamed the pandemic, the news is clear, especially in Mississippi: The

most dangerous implications of the disease disproportionately affect people of color and poor people. In that sense, white supremacy unabatedly assaults marginalized communities.

Now, the Jackson State Class of 2020 faces the possibility of not having their commencement. Not only that, the Class of 1970 was prepared to walk across the stage this year for its 50th reunion and officially receive their diplomas for the first time, and relatives of Phillip Gibbs and James Green were set to accept Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters on behalf of their murdered family members.

While the administration at Jackson State and our community hold out hope that we will be able to safely gather for these events at some unknown date, there is a real prospect that this modern catastrophe, 50 years later, will prevent us from doing so.

Then came the news that Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man out for a jog, was murdered in Georgia. Activists have turned to the streets to demand that his assailants face trial, but, as the GibbsGreen survivors and modern proponents of Black Lives Matter understand, justice remains elusive.

Through it all, we must be reminded that state-sanctioned violence aimed at minorities remains a systemic part of America.

The ever-present threat of assault continues to prop up white supremacy in the U.S. As we prepare for the 50th GibbsGreen Commemoration at Jackson State, the survivors have lived in its shadow with grace, strength and dignity, and they deserve a legacy of triumph despite that tragedy.

With that in mind, we must demand an honest dialogue around our white-supremacist history and its present-day manifestations. White Americans in particular must be willing to take responsibility and action if our society is ever going to begin rooting out racist power and all its ongoing implications.

Robert Luckett, PhD is an Associate Professor of History and the director of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University.

He will moderate a Virtual Town Hall to remember the tragic events of May 15, 1970, on Thursday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. Details at http://www.jsums.edu/GibbsGreen50/.

This column does not necessarily reflect the views of the JFP.

JXN // progress

Continuing on, Despite Pandemic // by Dustin cardon

Virtual Tours for Walthall Lofts The newly finished Walthall Lofts (225 E. Capitol St.) in downtown Jackson is offering both virtual and in-person tours of its apartment complex in the historic Edison-Wathall Hotel, which will open for move-ins on Friday, May 15.

Walthall Lofts features amenities such as two restaurants, a barbershop, a theater, a game room, a massage room, a resort-style pool and more. Studio lofts start at $900,

JSU Engineers, Students Studying Yazoo Clay Highway Slopes Sadik Khan and Farshad Amini, civil engineers from Jackson State University’s College of Science, Engineering and Technology, have partnered with the Mississippi Department of Transportation and graduate students from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering on a project to study six highway slopes made of Yazoo clay.

The study uses moisture sensors, rain gauges and temperature sensors to monitor the impact of rainfall and temperature changes that cause slopes to fail.

JSU is also simulating the behavior of the slopes under different climate condicourtesy Walthall lofts

Walthall Lofts is hosting virtual tours of its grounds. The new apartments are in the renovated and historic Edison Wathall Hotel in downtown Jackson.

and apartments start at $1,265. The grand opening of the apartment complex, which has been under construction for 10 months, will take place on June 1.

Guests can schedule virtual tours online at walthalllofts.com. Virtual tours take place via Zoom and cover the different apartment types available and the building’s amenities.

In-person tours are available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but Walthall Lofts is asking potential visitors to wear protective masks and make use of hand sanitizer available on the building’s premises.

For more information on the new downtown apartments, call 601-288-8311 or email community@walthalllofts.com.

tions of Mississippi and evaluating scenarios that cause highway slopes to fail.

The study will help MDOT better manage slope failures and avoid costly repairs from landslides that cost the state millions of dollars, a release from JSU says.

Canopy Launches LINK to Help Canopy Children’s Solutions recently launched a new program called LINK, which connects families with state, local and federal community resources for when they are in crisis situations.

Key features of the program include Helping families navigate through community resources, enhancing parenting skills using Active Parenting, increasing as-

sistance in accessing formal and informal supports, educating and linking family to mental-health and substance-abuse services, educating parents on self-care and self-control and providing teen pregnancy prevention and substance abuse training LINK is a free resource provided to any family in need. For assistance, individuals can contact a Canopy Children’s Solutions Care Coordinator at 800-388-6247.

Canopy Children’s Solutions offers an array of behavioral health, educational and social service solutions to children and families throughout Mississippi. For more information about solutions offered through Canopy, visit mycanopy.org.

Northpark Mural Project Northpark is hosting a photographybased social-media project on behalf of communities practicing social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “Northpark’s Got Heart – Communities #ComeTogether” photo project will use submitted photos to create a largescale, heart-shaped mural that will go on display at Northpark after the social-distancing period ends.

All of Northpark’s social-media platforms will host activities such as digital scavenger hunts, pet photography, coloring pages, dress-your-best from home photos and more.

Northpark’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter pages will each feature content based around a theme each week.

For more information on the project, see visitnorthpark.com.

Cathead Distillery’s COVID Pivot On March 22, Cathead Distillery in Jackson, which previously had to close its brewery due to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced that it had repurposed its facilities to create its own line of hand sanitizer called Comfort & Mercy.

Cathead began selling the product online as well as through select retailers across the South. Comfort & Mercy is compliant with FDA guidelines and features 80% alcohol antiseptic.

The product is currently available in packs of 12 for $100 or $270 for a fivegallon bucket, which customers must then pick up from the distillery. Each 12-ounce bottle of hand sanitizer is individually packaged with a sealable, easy-to-dispense top designed with safety in mind.

For more information, email handsanitizer@catheaddistillery.com.

Mt. Olive Cemetery Preservation The National Park Service recently awarded Jackson State University a $496,023 grant to preserve the historic Mt. Olive Cemetery on the university’s campus.

Heather Wilcox, director for community engagement at the Center for University-Based Development at JSU, applied for the grant in 2017 after Mt. Olive Cemetery made it onto the National Register of Historic Places.

Mt. Olive, constructed more than 200 years ago, serves as the resting place for famous African American figures in Mississippi such as Jim Hill and Ida Revels-Redmond. JSU will use the funding to repair all of the cemetery’s headstones and mausoleums and recreate the pathways and original landscaping on the site.

The National Park Service has donated a total of $7.7 million in grants to 18 Historically Black Colleges and Universities for the preservation of historic structures on their campuses, and has awarded more than $60 million in grants to more than 80 HBCUs since the 1990s.

Robinson Road Repaving On Wednesday, May 6, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba along with Hinds County District 3 Supervisor Credell Calhoun announced the Robinson Road Repaving Project.

The project will come in three phases.

Phase 1 includes Capitol Street to Ellis Avenue and is currently underway as of this writing.

Phase 2 includes Ellis Avenue to Highway 80, while phase 3 includes Highway 80 to I-20. The City will also repave Woodrow Wilson Avenue in the package from Fortification Street to Martin Luther King Drive.

The resurfacing project came from an inter-local agreement with Hinds County Board of Supervisors. Hinds County received a $950,000 grant from the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which the City of Jackson matched with $1,085,058.82 through the city’s 1% Sales Tax Commission. The total cost of the project will be $2,396,194.00.

Email business and development news to dustin@jacksonfreepress.com. Read full COVID-19 coverage at jfp.ms/covid19.

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

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espite setbacks from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Jackson is still moving forward.

Here are just some of the latest developments taking place in and around the capital city.

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BIZ // health and recovery

Mississippi Unites to Combat COVID-19 Crisis // by Dustin Cardon

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n the wake of COVID-19, many Mississippians and Mississippi-based schools, businesses and organizations have banded together to help residents across the state cope through the crisis, be it through donations of time, money and resources.

14

Belhaven University First Responder Scholarship

Belhaven University recently announced a new First Responder Scholarship to help reduce tuition for first responders during the COVID-19 crisis, along with a no-cost opportunity for people to contribute to the new program.

Belhaven is partnering with Express Feedback for Good to launch a 30-day campaign to create up to $100,000 for the scholarship fund. It will offer first responders looking to enroll in Belhaven’s adult degree completion, graduate or online programs a 20% scholarship.

Express Feedback for Good is a program that allows users to share opinions on companies and brands they care about.

Through Tuesday, May 26, every time a participant shares a piece of feedback through Express Feedback for Good, the company will donate $2 in support of Belhaven’s first responder scholarship.

For more information on Express Feedback for good, call 469-638-6930 or visit hundredxinc.com.

USM Partnering with Hospitals on COVID-19 Testing

The University of Southern Mississippi is partnering with health-care pro-

Women’s Foundation of Mississippi Grants for Women’s Health Aid

The Women’s Foundation of Mississippi, a public grant-making foundation focused on improving conditions for women and girls across the state, announced rapid response grant awards totaling $55,000 for 11 Mississippi-based nonprofit agencies and programs directly serving some of our state’s most vulnerable women and families in wake of the public health crisis caused by COVID-19.

Awards will support organizations across the state that serve women and families, many at or below the poverty level who are already struggling, and find themselves even more severely impacted now. Many Mississippi women work in job sectors that are being hit the hardest by COVID-19: health care, retail, food services, social services and education. These funds are available for immediate use by the granted organizations to help them continue serving their communities.

personal protective equipment to protect health-care professionals and others during the pandemic.

Molina is also working with partner providers facing low or depleted PPE supplies and donating more than 17,000 three-ply masks, 4,000 N95 masks and 7,000 nitrile medical gloves to small clinics, federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and larger health systems.

The company previously made a $36,000 donation to 14 Mississippi organizations that are providing food and other resources to individuals and families in need.

Molina has waived all cost share and prior authorization requirements for COVID-19 services for all health insurance products offered in Mississippi.

The organization is also providing virtual urgent care for Medicaid and Marketplace members through its partnership with Teladoc.

For information on how to access this Molina Healthcare service, visit its website courtesty University of Southern Mississippi

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

UMMC Aiding Jackson Residents Through EversCare Food Pantry

The University of Mississippi Medical Center EversCare Ambulatory Clinic is housed at the Jackson Medical Mall and is part of the Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities. The UMMC health system serves residents across the state and also serves as the safety-net hospital for Mississippi’s poor, disadvantaged, under- and uninsured patient populations.

For this reason, patients in every region of the state, including the Mississippi Delta, are eligible for services, physician care, specialized treatments and services offered through EversCare Food Pantry.

viders at Forrest General Hospital and Hattiesburg Clinic on efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic through increased testing.

Researchers at USM’s Center for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and the Mississippi IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence will provide technical laboratory support and help transport samples to outside labs.

USM will also help the clinics develop a workflow to perform up to 50 highpriority tests per day with a turn-around time of 24 hours or less.

The USM medical team tested COVID-19 samples at the university using its own viral transport medium and established that it was reliable and matched the Mississippi State Department of Health’s test results, a press release from USM says.

While USM personnel will not receive patient data and are not involved in patient contact, clinical decisions or referrals, clinicians at Forrest General Hospital and Hattiesburg Clinic will prioritize samples sent to USM for testing, interpret all test results and handle patient follow-up.

Fleet Feet Offering Essential Workers Discount

Fleet Feet Sports is offering a 20% discount on certain shoe brands to all health-care and other essential workers during the COVID-19 crisis. The discounted brands include Saucony, Asics, Karhu, New Balance and Altra.

The store is also hosting a running-focused social media series called “Up & Running” to offer advice on running and training safely during the pandemic.

The series is available on Anna Wan, mathematics professor at USM, used a 3-D printer to make 250 respirator masks Fleet Feet’s Facebook and for medical professionals in the Pine Belt who are treating COVID-19 patients.

Instagram pages.

Fleet Feet’s stores in or call 1-800-Teladoc.

Flowood and Ridgeland are open for call-ins Molina Healthcare Donations

Molina members can receive free and online curbside orders from 10 a.m. to for COVID-19 Care In response to the COVID-19 pan- home delivery of prescriptions through 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For information, call 769-235-4786 or 601- demic, Molina Healthcare of Mississippi any CVS Pharmacy. is donating $50,000 for the purchase of Molina is also offering its Coronavi899-9696 or visit fleetfeetjackson.com.

BIZ // wellness

uniform system in hospitals nationwide, meaning others could use Wan’s model.

Wan worked with Hattiesburg Clinic physician and Forrest General’s Chief Anesthesiologist Dr. Joe Campbell and

ratory field clinic in Parking Garage B.

The course’s practical application features 36 hours of approved volunteer work. Many UMMC students met this requirement several times over before the Trip BUrns / File Photo

The Department of Veterans Affairs is conducting a three-stage plan to resume regular operations at its medical centers.

USM Professor Produces 3-D Printed Protective Masks

Anna Wan, a mathematics professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and director of the university’s 3-D printing lab—called the Eagle Maker Hub—recently used the lab’s 3-D printers to create 250 respirator masks for medical professionals in the Pine Belt treating COVID-19 patients.

After going through three prototypes over two weeks, Wan partnered the Mississippi Polymer Institute, USM’s School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and other USM faculty, staff, and students to deliver the first set of masks to Forrest General Hospital.

The development cycle included creating mask molds using 3-D printing, plaster and silicone, then using a thermal molding process called thermoforming, in which plastic sheets form over the molds to create the masks. After Forrest General verified the masks with positive fit and leak test results, the Maker Hub team began replicating the masks. The mask design does not include a filter but has a “hub” that acts as the standardized connection port, leading the team to name the product “The Hub Mask.”

The mask serves as a hub to multiple filters of the same tube size. When in use, staff members hook the masks up to an existing hospital n99 filter that uses a

Director of Respiratory Therapy Dr. Brittany Coberly; Hattiesburg Clinic pulmonologist and Forrest General’s Director of ICU, Dr. Steven Stogner; as well as Hattiesburg Clinic nephrologist, Dr. John Fitzpatrick in creating the final product.

Community members and quilting clubs organized to create straps for the masks from cotton fabric and T-shirts.

Each mask costs $2 to make.

Wan and Kathmann are currently seeking funding in order to scale up and produce more masks.

UMMC Offering Classroom Credit for Student Medical Volunteers

The University of Mississippi Medical Center is offering a new Disaster Management Course for students, which gives classroom credit for hours that medical students have spent volunteering as part of UMMC’s anti-pandemic campaign.

Many UMMC students from different campus schools carried out swab testing for the public and UMMC employees at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds in Jackson.

Students made swabs themselves; collected and constructed protective masks; staffed telehealth operations; volunteered at Mississippi MED-COM, the statewide emergency communications clearinghouse; handled the infection prevention hotline; and helped set up an acute respi-

Disaster Management Course began, a release from UMMC says.

Roughly 138 students signed up for the program, the release says. Those who finish the course before the end of July, of which nine students have done so far, earn two hours of academic credit at their own pace and at no financial cost to them.

VA Center Plan to Resume Operation of Closed Health Centers

The Department of Veterans Affairs is conducting a three-phase plan to resume regular operations at its medical centers, benefit offices and national cemeteries amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a release from the VA Center in Jackson says.

While the VA did not close during the pandemic, it did implement policies to ensure the safety of its patients and employees. Under the new plan, the VA will consider conditions on the ground to determine how quickly each facility can resume normal operations, the release says.

Phase 1 of the plan will begin with VA medical facilities if the VA observes a falling numbers of patients exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, reduced numbers of people testing positive for the virus and increased testing capacity.

After the first phase, local VA facilities will continue risk-mitigation activities such as continued telework but may also

determine how best to permit elective procedures and resume previously postponed face-to-face visits.

In the third phase, VA facilities will again allow visitors to hospitals, community living centers, senior living facilities and spinal cords injury and disorder units provided that conditions improve in the areas those facilities are located in. Most VA employees will also return to work in this phase, the release says.

VA’s national cemeteries, benefit administrators and Board of Veterans Appeals will follow the same three-phase plan for resuming public cemetery interments and face-to-face meetings with veterans about their benefit status.

VA Center Announces Expanded Support Services

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced that it has expanded support services through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to provide relief for veterans currently experiencing or at risk of homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CARES Act has allocated $17.2 billion for the Veterans Health Administration, which will use $300 million this fiscal year for homeless and at-risk Veterans.

The aid money will support three VA programs that provide emergency response to veterans in need.

Of the total funds, $202 million will provide emergency housing and homelessness prevention assistance to low-income veteran families through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program.

The Housing and Urban DevelopmentVA Supportive Housing program will also use the funds to place veterans in safe housing to isolate them from the virus.

The Grant and Per Diem Program received $88 million, which the VA will use to waive per diem limits for transitional housing during the pandemic and provide grantees with emergency housing and supportive services, including emergency placement for at-risk veterans.

Ten million dollars in funding will provide emergency shelter and supportive services through the Health Care for Homeless Veterans Program, including placement in hotel rooms for veterans who need emergency shelter or isolation, as well as care, treatment and rehabilitative services.

Email business, education and wellness story tips to web editor Dustin Cardon at dustin@jacksonfreepress.com. Read full coverage at jacksonfreepress.com/COVID19.

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

rus Chatbot tool for members seeking information about COVID-19 risk factors, which is available on the Molina website, member portal and mobile app. For more information, visit MolinaHealthcare.com.

15

COURTESY UMMC

‘We Have Not Met Our Peak’

Dr. LouAnn Woodward on UMMC’s Battle Against COVID-19 // by Nick Judin

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

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wice now, LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, has made headlines for her strong public stance on Mississippi’s response to COVID19. Gov. Tate Reeves’ delayed statewide shelter-at-home order came on the heels of her impassioned letter to state leadership: “In my opinion, (a shelter-in-place order) is the only additional thing we can do right now to decrease the force of the impact,” she wrote on April 1.

Then on May 4, Woodward cautioned on Twitter that the state had yet to see the peak of the virus, only days before Reeves expanded the state’s reopening well in advance of the national guidelines.

Her urgings reflect the challenges facing UMMC at large, responsible for both treating COVID-19 patients and, as the state’s only research hospital, developing partnerships with state agencies to test, trace and eventually treat the disease.

Woodward spoke to the Jackson Free Press about the breakthroughs in testing

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, University of Mississippi Medical Center’s vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, is eager to see the unique abilities of UMMC at work in fighting COVID-19 in Mississippi and across the nation.

and treatment at the medical center, as well as the state’s larger coronavirus strategy.

Help me understand UMMC’s role in the fight against COVID-19, both as a hospital and as a research institution.

That’s my favorite thing to talk about right now. I’m glad you started with that.

We are doing the things that every other hospital and health system is doing. Right out of the gate, as soon as the (Centers for Disease Control) recommendations, Department of Health recommendations and the governor’s orders started coming out, we restricted our visitor policy.

We clamped down and stopped doing elective cases and canceled a lot of clinic appointments that can be postponed.

Then we started looking at our PPE (personal protective equipment) supplies.

All of those things that everybody else did, we did that with a vengeance. There were a lot of things that we did that, because we’re an academic medical center, we have the capability, the range of resources and expertise to be able to do.

As soon as we started wrapping our heads around what this virus meant and what things were happening all around the country, we started working fast and furious on an internal test development. That was really one of the game-changers, you know, developing this internal test.

We were doing a lot of work around things like making swab kits, because all of these supplies that we took for granted became very precious and very hard to get.

We spent a lot of time and energy looking at alternate sources of PPE. So the test development was a very big thing.

We started early on looking at what was happening in the space of clinical trials, and now we’re at a point where—I don’t know our last number—it’s between 12 and 15 clinical trials that we have stood up and available for patients in Mississippi.

We’re the only site in Mississippi that’s offering those.

When you say clinical trials, can you elaborate?

Yes, so for clinical trials for treatment, this is a virus for which there is no known

identified treatment plan. And so we are now participating in a dozen or more national clinical trials that are treatment trials.

So different types of drugs are being trialed. Also, we’ve got a long existing, very good relationship with the Mississippi Department of Health and have partnered with them before at the state level in different disasters. So we very quickly, with their partnership, with (the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) and with the Department of Public Safety, stood up testing opportunities at the Fairgrounds.

With the partnership we have with CSpire, we developed—over a couple of days’ time—an app for screening. We were able, right out of the gate, to participate with the Department of Health and to provide the medical expertise in screening at a statewide level and testing at a statewide level.

I don’t know the number exactly, but by the end of this week, it’s definitely north of 50, it may be close to 60 sites across the state where we have sent teams to perform tests in local communities, realizing that everybody can’t come to the (Mississippi State) Fairgrounds for testing.

at-home order. More recently, you tweeted that Mississippi has yet to enter its peak, something that the numbers are continuing to bear out.

Is Mississippi opening too quickly?

We have not hit our peak. I’m trying to read everything that I can read, and talk to our own in-house specialists.

I have become personally convinced that, unlike maybe the expectations back in early March that all this was three months and then we’d get on the other side of this. ... I have become convinced that we are going to be faced with this challenge for a year or 18 months. I don’t think that this is going to go away anytime soon. And I say that because we don’t have the ability as a state, or a nation, or a medical center, or a people, to know the prevalence in the community.

We don’t know really how prevalent this is.

There are things that may look en-

“I have become convinced that we are going to be faced with this challenge for a year or 18 months. I don’t think that this is going to go away anytime soon,” UMMC Vice Chancellor LouAnn Woodward says of COVID-19.

so that we can get north of a thousand.

But right now that’s still another couple of weeks out probably.

We’re looking at all the different avenues to increase our testing capacity.

We are testing for our own patients, for several other hospitals in the state, and we are doing some tests for the Department of Health. We’re running some of their specimens that are collected, so we are trying to increase our capacity.

‘This is a Tricky Virus’

You’ve been supportive of an abundance of caution since the early days of COVID-19 in Mississippi.

Your letter to Governor Reeves preceded the statewide shelter-

couraging, but as it stands today, we don’t have a proven, effective treatment. We don’t have a proven vaccine. I think that’s a number of years out, or at least a year or so out at best. This is a tricky virus. It is causing a lot of bizarre symptoms that people are having a hard time explaining and piecing together the exact mechanism of the virus.

We’re starting to see some mutation of the virus. I can envision a future where, similar to the flu, every year we’re chasing the mutation of the year. So my point is I don’t think we can shelter as a state or as a country. I do not believe we can shelterin-place through the completion of the cycle of this virus. I don’t think that we can.

When you look at the economic impact, it is unhealthy for an individual, and it is unhealthy for a community for people to be

unemployed and lose their job.

Not to be able to pay their mortgage or their rent, not be able to buy their medication, not be able to feed their family. That is unhealthy as well.

So I personally feel a great deal of—I don’t know if sympathy is the word or empathy is the word—for the governor and for the leaders that are having to balance these two very, very difficult things.

What we have to do as we are opening back up the world, the community, the country is, be smart about it. Because it is a very contagious virus.

It has the effects of which are often unexpected, the range of impact it’s having on an individual patient who gets sick from it is very broad. It is not just a respiratory virus. We are seeing renal failure. We are seeing blood clots. We are seeing (central nervous system) effects.

It is a wide-reaching virus in its effect on individuals that get sick with it, but the truth is while I would love from a medical standpoint for us to do everything we can do to reduce the spread, we can’t shelterin-place for the duration of this virus. I’ve become convinced of that.

What does a responsible opening look like?

In my opinion, the responsible opening is where we continue to do as much distancing as we can. People (should) continue the hand hygiene—of all the things that we do, that is the most important thing.

Don’t touch your face. I think continuing to wear masks, while it is not the perfect solution and it does have its own negative consequences, I do think that for most people, it is a positive thing. I don’t think we’d go back to shaking hands with everybody, yet. Boy, in Mississippi, that is a hard tradition to break.

I think we have to continue to be very cautious not to be around people who are sick. If you yourself are sick, you need to self isolate at home. We need to continue to take care and wipe down surfaces with disinfectant. … I don’t think that we need to start congregating back in bars and being 12 inches away from people.

All of those sorts of really close encounters. I think that’s really where there’s been the greatest risk that large numbers of people will get sick.

Fifty-percent capacity for dine-in services at restaurants begins May 7. What’s your medical advice for Mississippians? Is eating at restaurants safe?

I think the safest thing would be to not (dine in at restaurants.) But I think the emotional place we all are is we’re ready to do it. All I can say is, let’s be smart about it. more WOODWARD, p 18

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

You talked about UMMC’s in-house tests. Could you give me a quick update on how many tests the institution is performing daily? Can that procedure can be replicated elsewhere?

We’ve got three different vehicles for an in-house test. If you’ve been tracking it, we might have an announcement one week that, now we can do 200 tests, and the next week is 400, and the next week is 600 or what have you.

And you think, why does the number change? It hasn’t been going down, but we’ve been able to add additional capacity.

That’s because we’ve got three different ways that we’re doing the in-house tests. The first test that we did was a combination of an inhouse process integrated with a commercial product. So it was sort of a half in-house and half-commercial integrated lab test.

That’s the one that we were able to get out of the gate first. Then we have what we’re calling a lab-derived test, which is from start to finish completely in-house developed. So that is pathway number two.

Then we have pathway number three, which is using the commercial Cepheid product, which you might’ve heard of.

It’s one of these commercially available products that they count as a 45-minute test. What that means is it takes 45 minutes, when you get the sample on the machine, until it’s done. But with the entire time of getting the sample, it’s really about a four hour turnaround. So right now, we’re able to work those three modalities.

And our capacity right now is around 625 to 630 per day. Now it depends, in some cases. For example, that Cepheid test, our third pathway. We have (chemical) reagents right now to run about 200 of those tests. We’re going to run out of those in the next week, and we don’t know when we’re going to get more reagents.

So part of our capacity for running these tests depends, particularly for those two that require commercial products, on how much of that we can get and when we can get it. As you might imagine, we are in the fight with everybody else in the country in trying to get these materials.

So I feel confident in saying our test capacity right now and for the foreseeable future is north of 600 per day. If we can get access to more of the Cepheid product, we can increase that. And we are working to increase the capacity of our lab to run tests

courtesy UMMC

I wanted to ask about some of those pop-up testing sites. Will UMMC be shifting its focus to areas like Leake and Scott County, which are growing hotspots for the disease?

It’s the Department of Health that determines the testing sites each week. I know that they are trying to factor in a number of things in those decisions. There are some communities in the state that either their local hospital or some other entity are performing some tests.

So not every community needs us to come in and do the testing.

The Department of Health—and I can’t necessarily speak for their thought process—but they are balancing where there are needs and where there are requests, and trying to hit all the geographic regions of the state. I know that they are very much in tune to where they are seeing some increased activity.

I don’t feel qualified to speak for them (MSDH), but I know we’re having regular daily conversations with them, typically multiple times a day. I know that they are sending teams to some of those areas where they are seeing increased activity outside of the testing sites.

17

WOODWARD, from p 17 I’ve seen some things out of other countries showing, for example, the seating chart of the restaurant where an infected individual was sitting in front of the AC unit. It’s a ray of infections all the way across the restaurant. Are you worried that, in an enclosed space, that distancing will not be enough?

Absolutely I’m worried. Part of my worry is just like you mentioned, an individual who may be shedding virus in front of an air vent.

But the other reason that I’m worried about gatherings of people in enclosed spaces and other things like that is we do know that somebody, I, you, anybody could be

If we see big outbreaks around the state, I think that at the very least, we’ll have to take local measures to have some containment in those areas.

Now, the number of positives will go up. Because we’re trying at the state level to test more people. Because we’re trying to learn how many people have this.

Right now we don’t have confidence in the numerator, and we don’t have confidence in the denominator, because there’s not complete, widespread testing. So the number of positives will go up.

But what we really need to be tracking is how many patients require hospitalization, how many patients are very sick, and how many patients are dying.

be able to conduct some of those studies.

That’s looking at the longer term. (We should) really find out if there is something about this virus and the way that the virus works that accounts for those.

In the short term, I think what we have to do is be extra vigilant and alert to patients who have existing comorbidities, whether it’s rates of diabetes, hypertension or heart disease.

We know that all patients that fall in those categories are at higher risk. We’ve got to be certain that we are getting the right message out to everybody about the right steps to take from the standpoint of distancing: hand hygiene, all of those things.

So short term, I think we do what

infected with the virus and shedding for a few days before they become symptomatic.

That’s part of what is so frustrating about this is. As we start getting out and getting around—and like I said, I think there’s just no way to shelter in place for the duration of this virus—we’ve got to realize that there’s some inherent risks, because people can shed virus and be contagious before they know they are sick.

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

‘The Number of Positives Will Go Up’

18

How do we know if and when we are loosening up too quickly? Is there a rate of infections or a number of infections that would suggest that we need to pump the brakes?

I don’t have a number to give you, but I know that Dr. (Thomas) Dobbs and myself, state leadership and all the medical professionals, and I’m sure the community at large will be watching the number of patients that have to be hospitalized. And we’ll be watching the number of deaths.

We’ve got to take what we’ve learned as a state, as a medical center, and as a country over the last few months, to help us respond more quickly and more effectively where we see spikes in numbers. Even though there are many questions that we don’t know the answers to, we have learned some things.

There are some troubling trends nationally and here in Mississippi as well. One is obviously the racial disparities of COVID-19.

Black women are massively overrepresented in the contraction of coronavirus, and black men are highly overrepresented in deaths.

How do we address that short term and long term?

There are definitely research studies that need to be done in this space. We are watching for funding opportunities and grant opportunities.

I hope that some of those become available. I think they will be. I think that Mississippi would be a wonderful place to

courtesy UMMC

Enclosed spaces like restaurants are unavoidably dangerous, Woodward says. “We’ve got to realize that there’s some inherent risks, because people can shed virus and be contagious before they know they are sick.”

we’re doing and do more of it.

Long term, we’ve really got to figure out what is the reason for these differences.

We don’t know what it is right now.

I had a conversation with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann last week, and we discussed preventative health measures. What is UMMC thinking for no or low-cost preventative health solutions that could address some of these health disparities?

We’ve got a Department of Preventive Medicine, and we have a School of Population Health. And both of those are relatively new. The intent of both of those is to really help us understand some of these underlying health issues that affect populations in Mississippi. So we’ve got that area of focus.

Like I said, it is relatively new. We are looking at the ways that we can use technology and other things to expand our ability to do chronic-disease management and to reach patients through telehealth, remote patient monitoring and other things (if

they can’t) get to Jackson.

It’s a challenge for them. We’ve looked at some pilots using remote patient monitoring with a group of diabetic patients that were in the Delta, things we can look at as a small scale. I don’t have an answer to give you today, but access is a major obstacle to care, distance is an obstacle to care, and (so is) access to technology.

So we’re trying to look at all of these ways that help us address the challenges that patients have in their own home, in their own environment, without them having to come to the medical center to see a diabetes specialist every other month, or something like that. It is a multi-pronged challenge and a problem that will take multiple layers of work to address.

Everyone hates it when I ask them this question: Is there a single better preventative health initiative than Medicaid expansion?

I don’t know what the right answer is.

I spent about 20 years here working in our adult emergency department. From that perspective, you see all the failure points in our system, you see all the patients that didn’t have regular access to care. You see the diabetic patients that present, basically, a diabetic coma, whereas normal access to care would have given them a whole different kind of a life.

So you see all the failure points. And like I said, there’s not one solution. I do believe that anything we can do as a state to improve access to care is a benefit to the patient. And whether that’s Medicaid expansion, whether that is some other program, I don’t feel like I’m qualified to say what that looks like, but what we need is improved access to care.

Part of the problem, and I know I’m side-barring a little bit, but part of the problem is you look around the state of Mississippi at the workforce—the health-care workforce. There are a lot of communities where one of the major problems is access to care in a clinic.

It’s having health-care personnel there.

It’s the physicians per capita in the state of Mississippi. We’re last. That was part of the driving force, now 15 years ago, when we first started increasing our class size in the medical school. It’s because we were last in physicians per capita. That’s not the solution to the problem we have in Mississippi, but when you’re last it’s part of the issue. So it’s not one single thing that we as a state can do to get that access, but there are a lot of pieces to that puzzle.

Read online at jacksonfreepress.com/ woodward. Intern Julian Mills contributed to this report. Email nick@jacksonfreepress.com.

EXPAT

// blues

Zac Harmon, Raised Under Jackson’s Limitless Sky // by nate Schumann

Zac Harmon held onto his traditional southern values during his careers in music and finance.

“Growing up in Jackson, the sky was the limit, as far as what we were going to do with our lives,” he says, crediting Jackson for giving him the ability to say that he can do anything and be whatever he wanted to be. He continues, “There was just an infusion of the whole thought process of ‘I can do it. No matter what, I can do it.’ So we did it.”

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Becoming a blues musician happened organically for Harmon: “There was nothing that drove me to be a blues musician. That’s like asking a lion what drives it to roar.

Blues is the foundation of American music, and it just so happened that it was birthed in Africa, brought to America and nurtured in Mississippi and the other southern states.”

Playing with many Jackson musicians while growing up, Harmon developed a strong appreciation for the knack the capital city had for cultivating artists.

Another element of Jackson that Harmon loved was the local music community. “It was an incredible microcosm of—and I would say the motherload of— music in America,” Harmon says. “I came up through the Jackson music scene, which was probably one of the most fertile music scenes in America.”

The musician still owns a home in Jackson and visits from time to time, with a couple of his favorite pastimes being to hunt and fish.

“I’ve been hunting and fishing since I was a kid, and I’m still hunting and fishing. And what better place to do that than in Mississippi,” he says.

Harmon says another thing that is great about the state is that it has not been as affected by pollution as other areas in the United States have. “Mississippi as a state is just a beautiful place,” he says.

To learn more, visit zacharmon.com.

Darren Carroll

Z

ac Harmon may have left Jackson in his adult years to bolster his career as an award-winning guitarist, singer and songwriter who specializes in American blues, but he has always kept the lessons learned in his southern upbringing close to his heart.

The artist says the Jackson he left was a very traditional southern city, with all of the attributes that such a city affords, including a familial friendly vibe. His Jackson upbringing helped him be able to compete in other parts of the country.

“I was just so strongly rooted, you know?” he says.

Born and raised in Jackson, Harmon grew up in a household that valued both music and education. His mother played the piano and served as Millsaps College’s first African American librarian, while his father played harmonica and earned his place as the city’s first state-registered African American pharmacist.

“I came up during a time when it was about education in Mississippi,” Harmon says.

In addition to his successful blues career, the Mansfield, Texas, resident established a successful career as a businessman in the financial sector. During his early days, he would often work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in finance and then enter the studio at 9 p.m., only to leave at 4 a.m. and repeat the cycle, with the help of some coffee.

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May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

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BEST OF JACKSON // MEDICAL

A

Best of Jackson: Medical s we as Jacksonians endure this pandemic the best we can, wellness and health care is at the forefront of many of our minds.

Here at the Jackson Free Press, we want to ease the process of finding medical professionals who can take care of your needs, however broad or specific. You voted foryour favorites in our Best of Jackson Medical ballot. Here are this year’s results.

Best Specialty Clinic: GI Associates & Endoscopy Center

Best Dentist; Best Pediatric Dentist: LaMonica Davis Taylor

(multiple locations, gi.md)

(Smiles on Broadway Dental Care for Kids, 5442 Watkins Drive, 601-665-4996, smilesonbroadwaydental.com)

Finalists: Batson Specialty Clinic (UMMC, 421 S. Stadium Drive, 601-984-5210, umc.edu) / Enhanced Wellness Living (115 W. Jackson St., Suite 1E, Ridgeland, 601-202-5978) / Mississippi Sports Medicine (multiple locations, mississippisportsmedicine.com) / Right Weigh Clinic (309 Airport Road S., Pearl; 105 Span Drive, Brandon, 888-656-7348, rightweighclinic.com) / TrustCare Heart Clinic (multiple locations, trustcarehealth.com) / MEA Primary Care Plus (5606 Old Canton Road, 601-957-3333; 1777 Ellis Ave., 601-371-0400, meamedicalclinics.com)

Best Dentist Finalists: April Watson-Stringfellow (Watson Family Dentistry, 2181 Henry Hill Drive, 601-9221171, watsonfamilydental.com) / Diedra Snell (Ridgewood Smiles Dentistry, 5800 Ridgewood Road, Suite 105, 601-398-2934, ridgewoodsmilesdenistry.com) / John Patterson (Patterson John DDS, 4793 McWillie Drive, 601-366-4891) / Kimberly Wade (3502 W. Northside Drive, 601362-5321) / Patrice Griffith (Mississippi Smiles Dental, 1189 E. County Line Road, Suite 1010, 601-308-2022, mississippismilesdentistry.com)

Best Physical Therapist: Jasmine Smith (Healing Hands Rehabilitation Services, 105 Lexington Drive, Suite H, 601-910-7300, hhrehab.com)

Best Urgent Care Clinic: MEA (multiple locations, meamedicalclinics.com) courtesy MEA

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

Jasmine Smith, co-founder of Healing Hands Rehabilitation Services, has known she wanted to be a physical therapist since she was 10 years old, after observing sessions her grandfather had to take after having a stroke, as well as later sessions she observed when her parents had to undergo PT.

A Jacksonian by birth, Smith graduated from Callaway High School and earned her physical-therapy credentials through degrees obtained from Mississippi State University and UMMC.

She worked in physical therapy for several years Jasmine Smith before a family member encouraged her to open her own private practice in Jackson in 2016 alongside Brittany Flaggs.

“I have never wanted to leave Jackson, or Mississippi for that matter. I was born and raised here. Jackson’s been good to me. Mississippi has been good to me. I wanted to return the favor by staying and playing a part in helping Mississippi be all that it could be,” Smith says. “With the brain drain, where professionals are trained and then take their talents elsewhere, I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to contribute to my state, to my city, and stay here and try to do great things here.”

She is married to Robert Smith III and has two children, Robert Smith IV and Rylee.

—Nate Schumann

courtesy Jasmine Smith

Best Pediatric Dentist Finalists: Jerrick Rose (The Pediatric Dental Studio, 201 Riverwind E. Drive, Pearl, 601-965-9549) / Patrice Griffith (Mississippi Smiles Dental, 1189 E. County Line Road, Suite 1010, 601-3082022, mississippismilesdentistry.com) / Susan Fortenberry (Pediatric Dentistry, 5315 Highway 18 W., 601-922-0066) / Tiffany P. Green (Southern Smiles Pediatric Dentistry, 101 Luckney Station, Flowood, 601-992-8000)

20

When your medical needs become narrowed, specialty clinics come to the rescue. GI Associates & Endoscopy Center provides medical assistance for a number of gastrointestinal conditions, including hepatitis, gastroparesis, lactose intolerance, pancreatitis, ulcerative colitis and many more. The clinic also offers procedures such as colonoscopies, capsule endoscopy, infusion therapy and more.

Doctors James H. Johnston III, Billy W. Long and James Q. Sones founded GI Associates in 1981 and relocated to central Jackson in 1987. The clinic now serves the metro with locations in Flowood, Vicksburg and Madison.

In addition to all its services, GI Associates also conducts research into the gastrointestinal field. Physicians from the clinic have directed clinical trials and have published a number of scholarly articles that are listed on the organization’s website, which also includes resources on diets, pediatrics and other subjects.

—Nate Schumann

courtesy GI Associates & Endoscopy Center

courtesy LaMonica Davis Taylor

Dr. LaMonica Davis Taylor, owner of Smiles on Broadway Dental Care, is working to educate communities about health and to help children see dentistry in a different light.

The dentist obtained her undergraduate degree from Spelman College and her doctorate from the UMMC School of Dentistry before completing her residency at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York.

She founded Smiles on Broadway in 2014 and also sees school-based children in the Jackson area and provides preventive dental care for four school-based LaMonica Davis Taylor clinics in the Delta and for Jackson Head Starts.

“I always knew I wanted to be a health-care provider. I had a traumatic experience as a child and was in an accident, and I ended up having to see a dentist multiple times. So, I definitely knew I wanted to take that route and also do something where I could still be involved in the community,” Taylor says.

Taylor lives with her husband Anton and two children, Braxton, who is 4 years old, and Brookly, who is 10 months old. She is also involved in the medical ministry and teaches children’s church at her church, True Vine Baptist Church. ——Jenna Gibson

In 1979, a group of physicians founded the first MEA Medical Clinic in Pearl. The clinic offered extended hours, including Saturday, and allowed patients to visit without booking appointments beforehand.

Today, MEA has grown and now boasts 16 clinics located in Brandon, Byram, Canton, Clinton, Flowood, Flora, Laurel, Madison, North and South Jackson, Pearl, Richland, Ridgeland, Vicksburg and Yazoo City.

While MEA does not treat chronic pain syndromes, all clinics do offer a continuum of care for chronic conditions like hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and more. MEA notes on its website that its clinics do not represent or replace hospital emergency care, and for medical conditions outside of the organization’s scope of practice, MEA professionals refer patients to appropriate specialists.

—Nate Schumann Finalists: Baptist Urgent and Primary Care Clinics (multiple locations, baptistmedicalclinic.org) / Fast Pace Urgent Care (multiple locations, fastpacehealth.com) / TrustCare Express Medical Clinics (multiple locations, trustcarehealth.com) / UMMC Quick Care (2500 N. State St., 601984-1000, umc.edu)

Finalists: Brittany Flaggs (Healing Hands Rehabilitation Services, 105 Lexington Drive, Suite H, Madison, 601-910-7300, hhrehab.com) / Charles Benford (Capitol Physical Therapy, 5888 Ridgewood Road, 601-978-1798, capitolpt.org) / Kathy McColumn (McColumn Physical Therapy, 5225 Highway 18 W., 601-487-8456, mccolumnpt.com) / Lisa Bryant (Christian Preparatory Nursery, 363 Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, 601-991-0057)

Thank You For Your Support

Dr. Justin Turner Best Doctor, Best of Jackson 2020

We are now offering telehealth.

Schedule your televisit appointment today!

601-398-2335 2135 Henry Hill Dr, Jackson | (601) 398-2335 @justinturnermd turnercarems@gmail.com | www.turnercarems.com Turner Care

Thank you for your support

Our deepest gratitude to all the voters who made Dr. Arthur Dampier a

finalist in this year’s Best of Jackson

voting and who continue to support us!

We are open for all exams again and

we’re offering telehealth and curbside pickup as well.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Chandra Minor was selected Best Orthodontist by the Jackson Free Press readers for the 4th consecutive year.

Voted Best Orthodontist 2018-2020

201 Riverwind East Drive , Pearl, MS 39208 üõöĖÿüûĖÿûüöŘĆŘ222Ā.($' .$")*-/#*(.Ā *(

8 Professional Pkwy, Ridgeland, MS 39157 (601) 957-8444 • ridgelandeyecare.com

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

Call 601-957-8444 for your appointment.

21

BEST OF JACKSON // MEDICAL from page 20 Best Cosmetic Dentist: Deidra Snell

Best Women’s Health Clinic: Lakeland Premier Women’s Clinic

(Ridgewood Smiles Dentistry, 5800 Ridgewood Road, Suite 105, 601-398-2934, ridgewoodsmilesdentistry.com)

(2506 Lakeland Drive, Suite 600, Flowood, 601939-1600, lakelandpremierwc.com)

Finalists: Fulton Center for Women’s Health (1963 W. McDowell Road, 601-372-3632, lorijfultonmd.com) / Jackson Healthcare for Women (291 E. Layfair Drive, Flowood, 601-936-9190, jhcfw.com) / Southern Women’s Health (Merit Health River Oaks, 1020 River Oaks Drive, Suite 310, Flowood, 601-932-5006, swhealth.net) / The Women’s Clinic (501 Marshall St., Suite 400, 601-354-0869; 401 Baptist Drive, Suite 402, Madison, 601-354-0869) / Women’s Health Associates (1050 River Oaks Drive, Flowood, 601-420-0134)

Dr. Deidra Snell, owner of Ridgewood Smiles Dentistry, says that even though her work has become more challenging during the current COVID-19 crisis, she believes her job is worthwhile.

After earning her undergraduate degree from Alcorn State, she enrolled in UMMC for her dentistry degree. She then worked as a general-practice resident and later at other dentistries before opening her own.

While at UMMC, Snell discovered her love for mission trips and has traveled with the Christian Medical and Dental Association, Flying Doctors of America Deidra Snell and Salt and Light Ministries on trips to help meet the needs of people in South and Central America.

“It’s a blessing being from Mississippi. I get so much support. I love having people come from everywhere but especially my hometown, Port Gibson. It means so much that my friends and family have faith and believe in me,” she says.

—Sarah Kate Pollard

Acacia Clark

courtesy Lakeland Premier Women’s Clinic

A local leader in the field of women’s health, Lakeland Premier Women’s Clinic aims to provide comprehensive health care to women of all ages and races throughout the Jackson metro and beyond, its website says. Doctors Rhonda SullivanFord, Natasha N. Hardeman and Temeka Johnson founded the clinic, with the goal of meeting patients’ needs—whether they be physical, emotional or spiritual—the organization’s website says. Lakeland Premier’s physicians share 50 years of combined experience between them.

The clinic offers a full range of obstetric and gynecological services, including preconception planning, prenatal visits, gynecological examinations, menopause treatments, breast cancer screenings, colposcopies, hysteroscopies, contraception counseling and more.

In addition, Lakeland Premier’s website features a library of informational resources for visitors on a plethora of subjects relating to women’s health.

—Nate Schumann

Finalists: Preston L. Cobbins (Smilebuilders, 1863 Highway 43, Canton, 601-859-7050) / Terrance Ware (5800 Ridgewood Road, Suite 104, 769-251-5909, twaredds.com)

Best Chiropractor: Stanley J. Sims (Sims Chiropractic Clinic, 500 E, Woodrow Wilson Ave, Suite F, 601-982-0988)

(1225 N. State St., 601-968-1000, mbhs.org) courtesy Baptist Medical Center

Baptist Medical Center is a faith-based health organization with various locations in Mississippi whose goal is to provide care in a way that reflects the traditions of Christian disciplines, Baptist’s website says. The hospital’s core values include integrity, compassion, excellence, stewardship and innovation.

Baptist features centers that offer services in various fields, such as cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, neuroscience, pediatrics, sleep disorders and many more.

Doctors John Farrar Hunter and Harley Shands, both from Jackson, founded Baptist as a clinic in 1908. The Mississippi Baptist Convention acquired the property in 1911 and began the series of expansions that led it to be the organization that it is today, one Jacksonians rever enough to bestow upon it the honor of Best Hospital in this year’s Best of Jackson Medical.

For more information, visit mbhs.org.

—Nate Schumann

Finalists: Merit Health Central (1850 Chadwick Drive, 601-376-1000, merithealthcentral.com) / Merit Health River Oaks (1030 River Oaks Drive, Flowood, 601-932-1030, merithealthriveroaks. com) / St. Dominic Hospital (969 Lakeland Drive, 601-200-2000, stdom.com) / UMMC (2500 N. State St., 601-984-1000, umc.edu)

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

Acacia Clark

22

Scott Runnels

Best Cosmetic Surgeon: Scott Runnels (Runnels Center, 1055 River Oaks Blvd., 601-939-9778, runnelscenter.com)

A recurring name in the annual Best of Jackson Medical editions, Dr. Scott Runnels lands the title of Best Cosmetic Surgeon yet again. As the owner of The Runnels Center in Flowood, which opened in 2005, Runnels and his center specializes in breast-cancer reconstructive surgery, as well as cosmetic features such as facial enhancements, Botox, liposuction and breast augmentation. The

Dr. Stanley J. Sims of Sims Chiropractic Clinic began his path into health care after attending a minority health seminar in Nashville in 1993. At Jackson State University, he started to lean away from traditional medicine and found chiropractics.

Sims says more and more people turn to him looking for non-invasive health care, as they become resistant to conventional drug therapy, especially for the treatment of chronic issues such as headaches, sinus problems and high blood pressure.

“Most people think we’re pain doctors, but reStanley J. Sims ally we’re much more about preventative healthcare,” he says. “I love making a patient feel better mentally and physically. Everyone needs a chiropractor due to activities people undergo daily, (and) everyone needs realignment to prevent as many issues as possible.” —Sarah Kate Pollard

courtesy Stanley J. Sims

Best Hospital: Baptist Medical Center

Finalists: Addie Standford (575 Highway 51, Ridgeland, 601-605-4993) / Clayton Pitts (Norville Chiropractic Clinic, 1000 Lakeland Square, Suite 400, Flowood, 601-932-3855, flowoodchiropracticcare.com) / Endre’ Matthews (Matthews Chiropractic Clinic, 108 E. Northside Drive, 601-3669005, matthewschiroms.com) / Jeremy Coleman (Adjusted Life Chiropractic, 5295 Galaxie Drive, Suite C, 769-524-4735, adjustedlifejxn.com) / Laura Stubbs-Wright (Body in Balance Healthcare, 5472 Watkins Drive, Suite C, 601-376-5636)

Runnels Center also includes SKIN the Spa, which offers facials, chemical peels, laser procedures, eyebrow microblading and more.

Runnels accredits his approach to aesthetic surgery to his artistic background. He is a portrait artist who primarily works with graphite on paper but also practices with oils and acrylics on canvas.

This natural inclination toward the visual drew him toward cosmetic surgery during his medical training.

“I love having an insider view of (my patients’) journeys. It’s definitely great to be a part of people’s journeys with my craft of plastic surgery,

whether it’s helping them reach their cosmetic ideal or reconstruction (surgery),” he says.

—Nate Schumann,wSarah Kate Pollard Finalists: Adair Backledge (Blackledge Face Center, 1659 Lelia Drive, 601-981-3033, blackledgefacecenter.com) / Emile Picarella (UMMC, 2500 N. State St., 601-984-1000, umc.edu) / Kenneth Barraza (The Face & Body Center of Plastic and Hand Surgery Associates, 2550 Flowood Drive, 601-202-4294, faceandbodycenter.com) / Shelby K. Brantley Jr. (The Face & Body Center of Plastic and Hand Surgery Associates, 2550 Flowood Drive, 601-202-4294, faceandbodycenter.com)

Thank you!

Thank You!

We are so grateful for your support.

Dr. LaMonica Davis Taylor Best Dentist Best Pediatric Dentist Best of BEST OF

Best of Jackson 2020 Best of

â„¢

M E D I C A L

2018, 2019, 2020 BEST OF

5442 WATKINS DRIVE JACKSON, MS 39206 BEST OF

6S m0i l es1O.n B6r oa6d 5way.D4e nt9a l9. c o6m

We are grateful for your continued support and trust.

Dr. Tonyatta Hairston

Voted Best Optometrist

Congratulations to Keila Brown-Jones

Voted Best Nurse Practioner

Now offering curbside eyewear pickup by appointment only.

Best of Jackson 2020

www.987eyes.com 1316 N State Street, Jackson, MS 39202 0 s &

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

Best of Jackson 2020

23

BEST OF JACKSON // MEDICAL from page 22 Best Optometrist/Ophthalmologist: Tonyatta Hairston

Best Doctor: Justin Turner

(Envision Eye Care & Optical Boutique, 1316 N. State St., 601-987-3937, 987eyes.com)

(TurnerCare, 2135 Henry Hill Drive, 601-398-2335, turnercarems.com)

Finalists: Arthur Dampier (Ridgeland Eyecare Center Inc., 8 Professional Parkway, Ridgeland, 601957-8444) / Christopher Bullin (Mississippi EyeCare Associates, 350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave., 601-366-9020) / Marjorie McLin Lenoir (Reflections Vision Center, 101-C, Lexington Drive, Madison, 601-605-4423; 2129 Grand Ave., Yazoo City, 662-716-8161) / Taylor Smith (UMMC, 2500 N. State St., 601-984-1000, umc.edu) / Tina Sorrey (Eyecare Professionals, 1501 Lakeland Drive, 601-366-1085, eyecare4ms.com)

(Smile Design Orthodontics, 201 Riverwind Drive E., Pearl, 601965-9561, smiledesignorthoms.com; Vicksburg Orthodontics, 1909 Mission 66, Vicksburg, 601-661-0804, vicksburgorthodontics.com)

Best Nurse Practitioner/Physician’s Assistant: Keila Brown-Jones

Finalists: G. Dodd Brister Jr. (Brister Orthodontics, 3007 Greenfield Road, Pearl, 601-824-5878, bristerorthodontics.com) / Eugene C. Brown Jr. (Smiles by Design, 5800 Ridgewood Road, Suite 103, 601-957-1711, dreugenebrown.com) / Jason Vassar (Bierdeman Vassar Orthodontics, 2680 River Ridge Drive, 601-981-3036; 525 Thomastown Lane, Suite A, Ridgeland, 601-856-3054; 749 Clinton Parkway, Clinton, 601-926-1772; bvortho.com) / Noel Reed (Reed Orthodontics, 451 Pebble Creek Drive, Madison, 601-898-8000, noelreed.com) / Priscilla Jolly (Jolly Orthodontics, 1000 Highland Colony Parkway, Suite 7201, Ridgeland, 601-605-2400, jollyortho.com) / William P. Edgar (101 Avalon Court, Suite C, Brandon, 601-919-2990)

Keila Brown-Jones always knew she wanted to enter the medical field. After earning her bachelor’s degree in biology from Tougaloo, she began teaching elementary-school math while working toward her master’s degree in health services administration through Mississippi College. After two years of teaching, Brown-Jones decided to pursue nursing.

Brown-Jones works at the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center, one of the largest community health centers in the state. The center provides health care to the uninsured, insured, underinsured and everything in between. With the center, she leads its chronic care management program.

“Mississippi ranks at the top for chronic diseases. I want to work with other professionals to help decrease that and improve the quality of life,” she says. “Being in the South, there’s a stigma of us being unhealthy, and I want to work to remove that. (But) Keila Brown-Jones it takes all of us working together and making big changes to do that.”

—Sarah Kate Pollard, Nate Schumann

courtesy Keila Brown-Jones

Originally from Hazlehurst, Miss., Dr. Chandra Minor now owns and operates two orthodontics businesses in the Jackson metro, Smile Design Orthodontics in Pearl and Vicksburg Orthodontics in Vicksburg.

She completed her undergraduate degree with Alcorn State University in 2008 before enrolling at the UMMC School of Dentistry, earning her doctorate of dental medicine in 2012.

She decided to open her first practice in Pearl after being encouraged by a colleague. Given that Hazlehurst already had an orthodontics practice, Minor felt she would be able to serve a larger area by setting up shop in the Jackson metro. The Vicksburg location followed not long afterward.

Chandra Minor

“Running a small business takes a lot of patience, hard work and dedication, (but) orthodontics is great. I love it. It’s the easy part,” Minor says. “I enjoy interacting with patients and being able to improve their smiles and self-confidence.”

Outside of work, Minor enjoys spending time with her family. She has recently married and is expecting a baby later this year.

—Nate Schumann

courtesy Chandra Minor

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

Finalists: Channing Twyner (UMMC, 2500 N. State St., 601-984-1000, umc.edu) / John Vanderloo (Vanderloo Family Medicine, 3000 Old Canton Road, Suite 240, 601-228-5491) / Kimberly Smash (Prolific Health & Wellness, 2675 River Ridge Drive, 601-718-0308) / Rosie Walker-McNair (Merit Health River Oaks, 1030 River Oaks Drive, 601-932-1030, merithealthriveroaks.com) / Stanley Sims (Sims Chiropractic Clinic, 500 E, Woodrow Wilson Ave, Suite F, 601-982-0988) / Timothy Quinn (Quinn Healthcare, PLLC, 768 Avery Blvd. N., Ridgeland, 601-487-6482, quinntotalhealth.com)

(Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center, 601-362-5321, jackson-hinds.com)

Best Orthodontist: Chandra Minor

24

Dr. Justin Turner of TurnerCare believes in treating the whole person and understanding that physical and mental health go hand in hand.

“(I strive to go) to sleep knowing that that day I was able to help make patients leave the office better than how they came,” he says. “I realized that working for corporate health care wasn’t what I was suppose to do, I wanted to have individual relationships with my patients.”

Through his practice, Turner aims to creative his own path in offering health care.

Justin Turner

“Health disparity isn’t new, but right now is the perfect time to start intentionally addressing it. … I strive to individually educate my patients so that they know the changes they can make to make a difference in their everyday lives,” he says.

Currently, Turner is on five COVID-19 task forces and explains that his decision to do so was more of a calling than simply accepting a job and that he’s excited to continue to work with others to make a difference.

—Sarah Kate Pollard

Courtesy Justin Turner

courtesy Tonyatta Hairston

Dr. Tonyatta Hairston, owner of Envision Eye Care & Optical Boutique, knows she is practicing where she should be.

“Mississippi is my home, so I can’t imagine providing my talents anywhere else. This city and state have given me so much. It’s a true blessing being able to give back to a community that’s given to me.”

As a health-care professional, Hairston uses her business as a means of teaching clients how to manage their eyesight.

“There are certainly a lot of needs with health Tonyatta Hairston disparity. Diabetes is the number-one cause of losing eyesight, so being able to educate and help people and help them understand what they can do to make a change is important to me.”

After having her first eye exam at age 6, Hairston knew exactly what career path lied ahead for her. “Seeing a new patient’s expression when they get to see clearly for the first time, that’s my favorite part of the job,” she says.

“When we think about our eyesight and all it does for us, I love that I have the ability to help people experience vision as clearly and as best as possible,” she says.

—Sarah Kate Pollard

Finalists: Alisha McArthur Wilkes (Quinn Healthcare, 768 Avery Blvd. N., Ridgeland, 601-4876482, quinntotalhealth.com) / Ashleigh Twyner (UMMC, 2500 N. State St., 601-984-1000, umc. edu) / Bethany Edwards (TrustCare Express Medical Clinics, 4880 Interstate 55 N., 601-4879199, trustcarehealth.com) / Kelly B. Engelmann (Enhanced Wellness Living, 115 W. Jackson St., Ridgeland, Suite 1E, 601-202-5978, enhancedwellness.com) / Racolesha Denson (St. Dominic Hospital, 969 Lakeland Drive, 601-200-2000, stdom.com) / Rochelle Sandifer (Family Health Care Clinic, 1307 Airport Road, Flowood, 601-936-3485, familyhealthcareclinic.com) / Skye Gray (Mississippi Medical Aesthetics, 111 Fountains Blvd., Madison, 601-790-9427, msnewyou.com) / Stacia Dunson (Harmony House Calls and Medical Services, 7 Lakeland Circle W., Suite 500, harmonyhousecallsllc.com) / Tamela Mathis (1051 Highland Colony Parkway, Suite E, Ridgeland, 601-707-3737) / Tracy Rhinewalt (TrustCare Express Medical Clinics, 4880 Interstate 55 N., 601487-9199, trustcarehealth.com)

<ObOaVO < 6O`RS[O\ ; 2 BS[SYO : 8]V\a]\ ; 2 @V]\RO AcZZWdO\ 4]`R ; 2 4/1=5Ä´(

Specializing in quality dental care for all ages

Thank you for your support during this difďŹ cult time.

Every vote means more than you know.

Dr. Deidra Snell

Voted Best Cosmetic Dentist 2018-2020 5800 Ridgewood Rd. Ste. 105, Jackson, MS 39211 601.398.2934 (ofďŹ ce) 769.216.3311 (fax) www.ridgewoodsmilesdentistry.com

Dr. Endre Matthews Best of Jackson Finalist Best Chiropractor 2020 We continue to serve our community during this difďŹ cult time.

Specializing In: â&#x20AC;˘ Headaches â&#x20AC;˘ Car Accidents â&#x20AC;˘ Neck and Back Pain â&#x20AC;˘ On the Job Injuries â&#x20AC;˘ Carpal Tunnel Syndrome â&#x20AC;˘ Allergies â&#x20AC;˘ Sports Care

May 13 - 26, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ boomjackson.com

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Our staff and family thank you.

You took a moment to vote for Dr. Matthews during this difďŹ cult time.

We are humbled and grateful.

25

Sims Chiropractic Clinic We'd like to thank all of our patients, family and friends for voting Dr. Stanley Sims the Best Chiropractor in the metro-Jackson area.

Best of Jackson 2019-2020

500 E Woodrow Wilson Ave # F Jackson, MS 39216 (601) 982-0988

Vanderloo Family Medicine | John Vanderloo, MD, FAAFP 601.228.5491 | 3000 Old Canton Road, Suite 240 VanderlooFamilyMedicine.com

Find us in Fondren, at â&#x20AC;&#x153;The place where your doctor is family!â&#x20AC;?

Telemedicine appointments $50 In-person appointments $100 Direct Primary Care Memberships $65 per month $45 full-time students No health insurance necessary

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JFP Daily?

May 13 - 26, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ jfp.ms

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BITES & DRINKS // provisions

A Farm-to-Table Heirloom // by Michele D. Baker

Michele D. Baker

Now in Pearl, the market continues to feature what it’s always been known for: fresh fruits and vegetables and Michele D. Baker

A

t least two dozen people are shopping for fresh vegetables on a beautiful sunny Saturday, May 2, as I walk about. The small parking lot is packed with cars, and more are lined up on Highway 80 waiting to pull in. Most shoppers are wearing protective COVID19 masks and carefully selecting from generous mountains of fresh produce on freestanding displays.

This is Doris Berry Farmers Market, a local whole food—and woman-owned—institution in the greater Jackson area that has been active for about seven decades.

Doris Berry opened her market in the 1950s and moved the operation to Pearl in 2017. She posted the move on Facebook: “It is with a heavy heart that after 68 years I regretfully announce that I have closed … the old farmers market on Woodrow Wilson Boulevard. I will miss the many friends that I have had the great pleasure of serving for so many years. Many of you are second, third, and fourth generation customers.

I have watched you grow up, have children and grandchildren of your own … (but) it is time to turn the page. I am not retiring; I’m just making a change.”

Doris Berry’s son John and his wife Brenda rest in rocking chairs at the family-owned farmers market.

frozen veggies ready to take home and cook or stash in the freezer. Fifteen farm families from nearby Morton, Magee, Bassfield and Crystal Springs produce the bounty—just some of the farmers that form the backbone of central Mississippi’s fresh food supply.

The market also sells Amish-made products (pepper jelly, cane syrup, butter, cheese, cottage hams and summer sausage), Pennington Farms Mississippi Wildflower Honey,

vegetable soup stock, chow chow, pickles, canned tomatoes, homemade jams and jellies, fresh brown eggs, and a variety of potted plants and flowers.

Berry passed away at age 89 in 2018, but Marcie Bullock, Berry’s niece, still works at the market.

She attributes the stand’s enormous success during the pandemic to the fact that with people at home, more and more people now have time to cook.

“I’d guess our business has doubled,” Bullock says.

“More people are cooking now, and they want fresh and local. They don’t necessarily want to go to the grocery store, and they enjoy the people and the open-air market here.”

Doris Berry’s son John and daughter-in-law Brenda are at the market most days, relaxing in rocking chairs and adding to the friendly atmosphere. “It’s all about customer service,” John says.

Before retiring, John was a farmer, so the family knows supporting local farmers is important.

“We do it for the people,” Brenda Bullock explains.

“Like Doris, we know that the customers are more than customers. We know their families. We just come here and spend all day talking to friends.”

Doris Berry Farmers Market (3615 Highway 80 E., Pearl) is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, find the market on Facebook. Michele D. Baker is a travel writer and photographer. For more on her work, visit MicheleDBaker.com.

ARTS // photography

I See You, Now See Yourself

Jackson resident D’Artagnan Winford is a fine-art portrait photographer.

The Itta Bena, Miss., native enjoys taking portraits because of his admiration for the human face and how he can just sit and talk to people as he shoots them.

“Art is my relaxation. It’s my getaway from daily designing on the computer. I get to interact with people and just sit and talk,” he says.

Winford’s favorite part about being a fine-art portrait artist is that he can help his clients see themselves as he sees them.

“I remember this one time, I did a shoot for this girl who was a nurse, and while shooting, I showed her some of the pictures on the camera and she made a comment like, ‘Who is that?’” he says.

“I thought she was just playing, but then later on she sent me a video that was like, ‘I’ve been going through depression the last year, and when I said that I honestly meant it—like who is that girl?’ And she was so thankful that I helped her see herself again, and she hadn’t seen that person in a while. It made it all worthwhile to me.

“To me, with that camera, I’m able to give back to people, and just show people

how I see them,” Winford says.

In the future, Winford aspires to one day have a book of his photography in the Mississippi Museum of Art and for sale in the gift shop, perhaps the type of thing you would see on a coffee table, he says.

“Most of the people I shoot are Mississippians, and part of the reason I do that is that I just want to show Mississippi in a different light than what we naturally get known for,” he says.

Winford lives in Brandon with his wife and four children.

Outside of work and photography, he likes to travel, hang out at the Rez and spend time with his kids.

This month, Winford will be releasing new photos for Lupus Awareness Month. Most of Winford’s work can be found on his Instagram page @DartagnanPortrait. To learn more, visit the photographer’s business page on Facebook.

May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com

courtesy D’artagnan WinforD

D

’Artagnan Winford has been an artist since he was a kid, growing up taking art classes in school and being admitted in a gifted arts program throughout middle and high school.

While he now runs his own portrait photography business on top of serving as the senior art director at the Ramey Agency in Fondren, Winford says that he never saw himself as a photographer until he started working at Mississippi Valley State University, from which he earned his bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 2002.

“I worked at Valley after I graduated, and there were times we had to take pictures because we didn’t have a photographer on staff. I just figured I needed to learn how to use a camera, and it didn’t really click until 2012 or 2013. My wife bought me a camera, and I just started taking pictures of my kids. It just kind of blossomed from there,” Winford says.

// by Jenna gibson

27

47 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chicagoâ&#x20AC;? lyricist 48 Promgoing kids, for short 49 Poly finish 51 21___ (Shaqâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foot stat) 53 180â&#x2C6;&#x17E; from WSW 54 Hashtag post thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always apt 62 WWFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hitmanâ&#x20AC;? Hart 63 War of 1812 pact city 64 Raison dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;___ 65 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wordplayâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Simpsonsâ&#x20AC;? crossword guy with Will 66 Bob who did â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hollywood Nightsâ&#x20AC;?

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BY MATT JONES

38 RPI gradâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s abbr.

40 Car also known as a Bug 44 Hairstylist known for cowboy hats 45 Throat doc that also works in ophthalmology 50 Conduits found in â&#x20AC;&#x153;TMNTâ&#x20AC;?

52 Ovoids in a carton 53 ___ nous 54 â&#x20AC;&#x153;So ___ to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzyâ&#x20AC;?

(Kipling) 55 Not horiz.

56 Syngman ___ of 1950s Asian politics 57 Brain activity monitors 58 Suffix for carbon compounds, plural

59 Child star who was Damian in â&#x20AC;&#x153;Millionsâ&#x20AC;?

60 Grayish-brown aquatic bird 61 Angry, with â&#x20AC;&#x153;offâ&#x20AC;?

62 MIT study topic including hospitals, diagnostics and MRIs Š2019 Jonesinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Crosswords (jonesincrosswords@gmail.com)

Last Weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Answers

For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800 655-6548. Reference puzzle #931 Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: Psycho Sudoku by Matt Jones has been discontinued.

Down

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Here!â&#x20AC;? --grid only, though.

Across

1 ___ out a living (got by) 5 KFC drumsticks, basically 9 Half a cartoon duo with a platypus 13 Mattâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wild Thingsâ&#x20AC;? costar 14 Didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it right 16 Actor Omar of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Almost Christmasâ&#x20AC;?

17 Form an opinion 18 Pupil, in Paris 19 Handbook info 20 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Finding Doryâ&#x20AC;? star 23 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dr. Marioâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Duck Huntâ&#x20AC;? platform 24 Quattro minus uno

25 School tasks using Scantrons 28 Big buy for suds 31 K-pop group with a 2019 Grammy nomination 33 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lucky Manâ&#x20AC;? prog rock trio, for short 34 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tommyâ&#x20AC;? song on day two of Woodstock 39 â&#x20AC;&#x153;___ Griffinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Crosswordsâ&#x20AC;? (20072008 show) 41 Gallup poll finding 42 TV cook Paula 43 HOF Brooklyn shortstop with uniform no. 1 46 Physics unit of work

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1 Conclusion, in Koln 2 Boat bottom 3 Bus-jumping stunt cyclist, casually 4 Folk/country musician Iris 5 City not far from Kingston upon Hull 6 Oil tycoon Halliburton 7 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Diary of a Wimpy Kidâ&#x20AC;? kid 8 Golf pro who won post-Fuzzy 9 Dug around, with â&#x20AC;&#x153;outâ&#x20AC;?

10 Olympics sword 11 D&D and similar campaign pursuits 12 Flimflams, for short 15 Auto body flaw 21 Loch for cryptozoologists 22 Kathryn of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ozâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;L&O: C.I.â&#x20AC;?

25 Mall Santa job or sub at work, say 26 Robt. ___ (Civil War fig.)

27 Buying outing 28 TV cook Graham and family 29 Abu Dhabi VIP (var.)

30 Mutation factors 32 Bad driving condition 35 July and August, to Balzac 36 Gps. that assist putting out conflagrations 37 Nothing but

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Of all the signs, Tauruses are among the least likely to be egomaniacs. Most of you arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t inclined to indulge in fits of braggadocio or outbreaks of narcissism. (I just heard one of my favorite virtuoso Taurus singers say she wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a very good singer!) Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why one of my secret agendas is to tell you how gorgeous you are, to nudge you to cultivate the confidence and pride you deserve to have. Are you ready to leap to a higher octave of self-love? I think so. In the coming weeks, please use Taurus artist Salvador Daliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boast as your motto: â&#x20AC;&#x153;There comes a moment in every personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life when they realize they adore me.â&#x20AC;?

When I was young, I had a fun-filled fling with a smart Gemini woman who years later became a highly praised author and the authorized biographer of a Nobel Prize-winning writer. Do I regret our break-up? Am I sorry I never got to enjoy her remarkable success up close? No. As amazing as she was and is, we wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been right for each other long-term. I am content with the brief magic we created together, and have always kept her in my fond thoughts with gratitude and the wish for her to thrive. Now I invite you to do something comparable to what I just did, Gemini: Make peace with your past. Send blessings to the people who helped make you who you are. Celebrate what has actually happened in your life, and graduate forever from what might have happened but didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have two ways to live your life, from memory or from inspiration,â&#x20AC;? writes teacher Joe Vitale. Many of you Cancerians favor memory over inspiration to provide their primary motivation. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not necessarily a bad thing, although it can be a problem if you become so obsessed with memory that you distract yourself from creating new developments in your life story. But in accordance with astrological potentials and the exigencies of our Global Healing Crisis, I urge you, in the coming weeks, to mobilize yourself through a balance of memory and inspiration. I suspect youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be getting rich opportunities to both rework the past and dream up a future full of interesting novelty. In fact, those two imperatives will serve each other well.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Author Anne Lamott has some crucial advice for you to heed in the coming weeks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even when weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re most sure that love canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t conquer all,â&#x20AC;? she says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;it seems to anyway. It goes down into the rat hole with us, in the guise of our friends, and there it swells and comforts. It gives us second winds, third winds, hundredth winds.â&#x20AC;? I hope youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll wield this truth as your secret magic in the coming weeks, Leo. Regard love not just as a sweet emotion that makes you feel good, but as a superpower that can accomplish practical miracles.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Theologian St. Catherine of Siena observed, â&#x20AC;&#x153;To a brave person, good and bad luck are like her left and right hand.

She uses both.â&#x20AC;? The funny thing is, Virgo, that in the past you have sometimes been more adept and proactive in using your bad luck, and less skillful at capitalizing on your good luck. But from what I can tell, this curious problem has been diminishing for you in 2020â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and will continue to do so. I expect that in the coming weeks, you will welcome and harness your good luck with brisk artistry.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m curious about everything, except what people have to say about me,â&#x20AC;? says actor Sarah Jessica Parker. I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an excellent strategy for you to adopt in the coming weeks.

On the one hand, the whole world will be exceptionally interesting, and your ability to learn valuable lessons and acquire useful information will be at peak. On the other hand, one of the keys to getting the most out of the wealth of catalytic influences will be to cultivate nonchalance about peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinions of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

On the kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; TV show Sesame Street, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a muppet character named Count von Count. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a friendly vampire who loves to count things. He is 6,523,730 years old and his favorite number is 34,969â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the square root of 187. The Count was â&#x20AC;&#x153;bornâ&#x20AC;? on November 13, 1972, when he made his

first appearance on the show, which means heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a Scorpio.

I propose we make him your patron saint for the next four weeks. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an excellent time to transform any threatening qualities you might seem to have into harmless and cordial forms of expression. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a favorable phase for you to count your blessings and make plans that will contribute to your longevity.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool,â&#x20AC;? writes novelist Erica Jong. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Until youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ready to look foolish, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never have the possibility of being great,â&#x20AC;? says singer Cher. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom,â&#x20AC;? declared art critic James Huneker. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced,â&#x20AC;? observed philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. According to my analysis of astrological omens, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re primed to prove these theories, Sagittarius.

Congratulations!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Few people have a treasure,â&#x20AC;? writes Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s speaking metaphorically, of courseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; not referring to a strongbox full of gold and jewels. But Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy to inform you that if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a treasure, the coming months will be a favorable time to find or create it. So Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m putting you on a High Alert for Treasure. I urge you to be receptive to and hungry for it. And if you are one of those rare lucky ones who already has a treasure, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy to say that you now have the power and motivation to appreciate it even more and learn how to make even better use of it. Whether you do or donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t yet have the treasure, heed these further words from Alice Munro: â&#x20AC;&#x153;You must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.â&#x20AC;?

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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

At this moment, there are 50 trillion cells in your body, and each of them is a sentient being in its own right. They act together as a community, consecrating you with their astonishing collaboration. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like magic! Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an amazing fact: Just as you communicate with dogs and cats and other animals, you can engage in dialogs with your cells. The coming weeks will be a ripe time to explore this phenomenon. Is there anything youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to say to the tiny creatures living in your stomach or lungs? Any information youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to receive from your heart or your sex organs? If you have trouble believing this is a real possibility, imagine and pretend. And have fun!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A myriad of modest delights constitute happiness,â&#x20AC;? wrote poet Charles Baudelaire. I think that definition will serve you well in the coming weeks, Pisces. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, there wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be spectacular breakthroughs barging into your life; I expect no sublime epiphanies or radiant transformations. On the other hand, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be a steady stream of small marvels if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re receptive to such a possibility. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s key advice: Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss the small wonders because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re expecting and wishing for bigger splashes.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

During a pandemic, is it possible to spread the news about your talents and offerings? Yes! Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why I suggest you make sure that everyone who should know about you does indeed know about you. To mobilize your efforts and stimulate your imagination, I came up with colorful titles for you to use to describe yourself on your rĂŠsumĂŠ or in promotional materials or during conversations with potential helpers. 1.

Fire-Maker 2. Seed-Sower 3. Brisk Instigator 4. Hope Fiend 5.

Gap Leaper 6. Fertility Aficionado 7. Gleam Finder 8. Launch Catalyst 9. Chief Improviser 10. Change Artist

What has been your favorite lesson during our Global Healing Crisis? FreeWillAstrology.com

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GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

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EVENTS

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COMMeMOratiOn

SPOrtS & WeLLneSS

Gibbs-Green Commemoration “Virtual Townhall” May 14, 7:30 p.m., Online. The Margaret Walker Center hosts a virtual town hall to remember the tragic events of May 15, 1970, that occurred at Jackson State College leading to the deaths of Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green and leaving countless students physically and mentally wounded. Dr. Robert Luckett moderates the event. Panelists include Dale Gibbs, widow of Phillip Gibbs; Vernon Weakly, a student shot on campus by a Jackson police officer; Gailya Porter, a student injured by flying debris; and Lap Baker, student eyewitness.

Free admission; call 601-979-3935; email mwa@ jsums.edu; find it on Facebook.

Soul Synergy Virtual Yoga May 13-14, May 18-21, May 25-27, 10 a.m. Online. Soul Synergy offers a virtual yoga class. $7 individual class rate; call 601-992-7721; email soulsynergycenter@gmail.com; soulsynergycenter.com.

COMMUnitY 10th Annual ‘I Got Bank’ National Youth Essay & Art Contest May 13-May 27, all day, Online. OneUnited Bank sponsors the 10th annual financial literacy contest for youth ages 8-12. Participants either write and submit a 250word essay or create and submit an art project (PDF only) about what they learned from the book “I Got Bank!”—or from another financial literacy book available in their library or home— and how they can use what they learned in their lives or the lives of their families. Submission deadline is June 30. Winners receive a $1,000 savings account. This contest is completely accessible online, including free access to the financial literacy children’s book “I Got Bank: What My Granddad Taught Me About Money.” Free admission; email suzan@circleofonemarketing. com; oneunited.com.

The Black Lunch Break May 13-15, May 18-22, May 25-27, noon, on Facebook Live.

Black With No Chaser hosts talk show. Free admission; email info@blackwithnochaser.com; find it on Facebook.

The World’s LARGEST Scavenger Hunt! May 24, 12 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Participants are invited to take part in the virtual scavenger hunt. Participants encouraged to attempt to break the world record, and the event can take place completely at home. Free admission; call 833-202-7626; email Support@letsroam.com; letsroam.com.

May 13 - 26, 2020 • jfp.ms

Fusion at 6 May 13, May 20, May 27, 7-8 p.m., on Facebook Live. The student ministry of First Baptist Church in Madison holds an online worship event. Free admission; call 601-8566177; email aloving@fbcmadison.org; find it on Facebook.

30

Jax-Zen Coherence Hotspot May 13, May 20, 2 p.m., on Facebook Live. Jax-Zen Healing Arts Center and The Community Canvas at Jax-Zen host a five-week event to teach love, care and compassion via science-based tools. Registration required. Free admission; call 769-233-8746; email contact@jax-zenfloat.com.

Choreorobics Dance Off May 15, May 19, May 22, May 26, 5:30-6:30 p.m., via Zoom. Roger & Tena’s Choreorobics Dance-Off hosts hip-hop dance fitness classes. Payments may be made through PayPal, Cash App and Venmo. A class invitation link will be sent via email/text to allow you admittance to class(es) once payment is received. $7 per class or $10 per week (2 classes); call 601-853-7480; email golongproductions@ yahoo.com; choreorobics.com.

LiterarY Welty at Home | A Virtual Book Club May 13, May 20, May 27, noon-1 p.m., via Zoom.

Eudora Welty House & Garden and Mississippi Department of Archives & History host the virtual book club to explore Eudora Welty’s novel “Losing Battles” over a period of 10 weeks, an average of 45 pages per week with live book club discussion on Zoom led by Welty’s friend and biographer Dr. Suzanne Marrs. Those unable to make the Zoom video call can follow on Facebook and Instagram. For more information email info@eudoraweltyhouse.com. Free to the public. Free admission; call 601-353-7762; find it on Facebook.

Author Katy Simpson Smith Virtual Event May 13, 4-5 p.m., via Zoom. Copperfish Books in Partnership with The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) holds the virtual author event on Zoom with Katy Simpson Smith, Jackson, MS native, talking about her book “The Everlasting”. Registration required.

Free general admission; Eventbrite.

Virtual Book Club: Rising Tide May 15, noon12:30 p.m., on Facebook Live. Museum staff answer questions on the book, “Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it changed America.” Free admission; call 601-5766800; find it on Facebook.

Emma Straub with “All Adults Here” May 19, 5:30 p.m., on Instagram Live. Square books hosts Instagram Live book event @SquareBooks as Emma Straub talks about her new book, “All Adults Here.” Free admission; call 662-2362262; email books@squarebooks.com; squarebooks.com.

Pick Up!

CEO Space Virtual Gathering: Southeast May 20, 1-2:30 p.m., Online. CEO Space hosts a virtual gathering of business leaders. Participants are encouraged to network. Registration required. Free admission; Eventbrite.

CreatiVe CLaSSeS Virtual smART Spaces Classes May 13, May 15, May 18, May 20, May 22, May 25, May 27, 9 a.m., on Facebook Live. Hattiesburg Parks & Recreation holds online creative classes. Free admission; call 601-545-6682; find on Facebook.

New Stage Virtual Classroom: Voiceover 101 with Keri Horn May 14, May 21, 5-6:30 p.m., Online. New Stage Education hosts Virtual Voice Over Training Classroom. Registration required. 16+. $175; call 601-948-3533 Ext 236; email education@newstagetheatre.com; find it on Facebook.

Virtual Wine and Candle Making Class May 17, 6-9 p.m., via Zoom. Beautifying Me, an aromatherapy service, conducts virtual training in wine and candle making. $20; email beautifyingmeapparel@gmail.com; find it on Facebook.

PrOFeSSiOnaL & BiZ

Basic Grant Proposal Strategies Part 1 May 21, 1-2:30 p.m., Online. Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts a three-part virtual training for beginners and practiced grant writers who need to understand the elements of a proposal, how to successfully integrate each into a compelling proposal, and the process for successful grant research. Registration required.

Admission TBA; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org; thedatabank.com.

Managing for New Realities Part 2 May 26, 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m., at Webinar (Online ). Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts a two-part virtual training on strategies for managing the workplace and workforce realities confronting nonprofit organizations today.

Registration required. Admission TBA; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org; thedatabank.com.

Be tHe CHanGe

How To Start A Side Hustle Business In Four Easy Steps May 13, May 20, May 27, 5:306:30 p.m., Online. Precipice IP, PLLC holds a business webinar. Free admission; call 662-2056174; email info@precipiceip.com; find it on Facebook.

Entrepreneur Crash Course - Jackson May 13, May 16, May 18, May 20, May 23, May 25, May 27, 8-9 p.m., Online. Coachieve hosts a Webinar to help participants transition from being successful professionals to successful entrepreneurs. Registration required. After registration on Eventbrite, participants receive email reminders with the link to join the webinar. Free admission; Eventbrite.

Managing for New Realities Part 1 May 19, 9-10:30 a.m., Online. Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts a two-part live virtual training on strategies for managing the workplace and workforce realities confronting nonprofit organizations today. Registration required. Admission TBA; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org; thedatabank. com.

Webinar: The 3 Secrets of the Solo Formula May 20, 11 a.m.-noon, Online. Certified coach

We are open for curbside pickup AND our grocery store is fully stocked with canned goods, rice, beans, cheese and much more.

Behind the Restaurant

and author Sandra Smith holds webinar to help the self-employed, entrepreneurs and freelancers.

Free admission; Eventbrite.

COVID Crusader Virtual Race May 13-27, all day, Online. The Good Samaritan Center hosts the COVID Crusader Virtual Race to funnel in much-needed funds for food pantries and community soup kitchen. Registration open till May 31st on Race Roster. Participants can submit their results anytime while registration is open. Signing up for the COVID Crusader virtual race helps the center continue to assist the needy during this COVD-19 crisis. Use #COVIDCrusaderVirtualRace on social media to document your race experience for a chance to win prizes. Admission TBA; call 601-355-6276; email madelinewaggoner@goodsamaritancenter. org; raceroster.com.

VIRTUAL Postpartum Depression Group May 18, 5:30-6:30 p.m., via Zoom. The sixweek group helps moms in the postpartum season overcome the challenges of transition to motherhood. For those who have recently had a baby or are still struggling with depression after transitioning to motherhood. Free admission; call 786-603-1748; email niketapechan@gmail.com; niketapechanlcsw.com.

Send web events to events@jacksonfreepress.com.

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STOCK #:LB005236A | Mileage: 52,027 HWY: 26 MPG | CITY: 19 MPG

Used 2013 Lexus ES 350 4dr Sdn FWD 4dr Car

Used 2019 Honda HR-V LX FWD Sport Utility

Sale Price: $17,000

Sale Price: $18,200

STOCK #: B000803A | Mileage: 62,310 HWY: 31 MPG | CITY: 21 MPG

STOCK #:S15184| Mileage: 3,942 HWY: 34 MPG | CITY: 28 MPG

Used 2019 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring STOCK #: P15099 | Mileage: 17,689 HWY: 30 MPG | CITY: 24 MPG 5

Sale Price: $24,000

Used 2018 Dodge Durango GT RWD Sport Utility

STOCK #:B036315B | Mileage: 37,063 HWY: 26 MPG | CITY: 19 MPG

Sale Price: $25,749

Advertised price excludes tax, tag, registration, title, and $179.85 documentation fee.

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