February 2012 Archive

The House Education Committee voted in favor of a bill that would expand the power to authorize charter schools to both the State Board of Education and an independent authorizing council.  But the bill narrowly passed out of  the committee with some troublesome questions still unanswered. 

The battle over immigration reform in Mississippi is heating up in the state legislature. MPB's Daniel Cherry reports how both sides of the issue are reaching out to state leaders.

The changes at Henley Young are in response to a 2011 lawsuit.

Mississippi artists are not waiting around for the state's bleak financial situation to improve.  They're running their own businesses and pumping up the creative economy.

As state agencies brace for even deeper cuts next year, officials say education could be one of the most impacted. MPB's Daniel Cherry reports how more cuts to higher education could mean Mississippi will slip even further behind. 

Advocates for Grammy Musuem in Mississippi are looking for 6-million in state funds.

The arts are competing for state funding in MIssissippi's dire financial climate.

Mississippi election officials say inflated voter rolls are hampering completely fair elections in the state.

Juvenile justice advocates say the state has agreed to end putting children in private prisons.

Hunting for drugs that target only tumor cells and leave the healthy ones alone remains the Holy Grail of cancer drug development.

Increasing the number of black doctors could improve health outcomes in Mississippi.

Advocates are calling for Mississippi legislators to reform drug sentencing laws in the state. MPB’s Daniel Cherry reports how Mississippi’s punishment of drug offenders is among the toughest in the nation.

Mississippi applied for a waiver to many of the provisions under the federal No Child Left Behind law. But the Obama Administration is asking for several things in return – one of them is teacher evaluations.  

Hunger is back in the Delta and across America, 45 years after the late Bobby Kennedy visited the Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi lawmakers are considering a new budget model that they say would hold state agencies more accountable for the money they receive.