Analysis: Mississippi Legislative transparency a matter of perspective

A Republican leader of the Mississippi House says the Legislature operates more transparently now than ever. But a longtime Democratic senator says the Legislature falls short of even its own past practices of conducting public business out in the open. House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden of Meridian and Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory presented…

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Mississippi Outlaws Personal Use of Campaign Funds

Legislation that would prohibit politicians from using their campaign finance funds for personal use was signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant Tuesday in his state Capitol office.

When the 2017 session began in January, the bill was labeled as a priority by both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who presides over the Senate.

Efforts were made to pass similar legislation during the 2016 session, but it was killed in the House. Mississippi was one of a handful of states where politicians could spend their campaign finance funds on personal items.

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Mississippi high court to consider public records dispute

The Mississippi Supreme Court will consider a dispute over public access to records from a state agency.

The dispute started in late 2012, when the Sun Herald requested records from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

After the newspaper made its request, state Auditor Stacey Pickering subpoenaed the same documents and took possession of them. Pickering's staff said the records were part of an investigative file and could not be released.

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Executions aren’t supposed to be easy, quiet or hidden

The legislative rationale behind Senate Bill 2237 presumes falsely that the business of taking an inmate’s life as punishment for a capital crime should be easy, quiet, free from confrontation or protest, and hidden as much as possible from public view or scrutiny.

That rationale is incredibly flawed.

This legislation presumes that how the state implements our harshest punishment for the most heinous crimes should be a secret ceremony conducted behind closed doors and without any accountability to the taxpayers.

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Transparency in Mississippi an abstract notion

Beneath the soaring dome of Mississippi’s Capitol building, lights shine on a small bust of a blindfolded woman meant to portray “blind justice.” But she could just as easily represent the 3 million citizens of this deeply conservative Southern state, where transparency and accountability often seem like little more than abstract notions.

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