EXTRA: Hinds County judge orders Clarksdale newspaper to remove editorial, alarming press advocates
In other news: Louisiana area dropped from national landmark consideration, Patient dies in Mission emergency department bathroom in Asheville
Outlets featured: Mississippi Today, The Lens, Asheville Watchdog
by Taylor Vance February 20, 2025
A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing the mayor of Clarksdale and city leaders after the officials sued the news outlet, leading press advocates to criticize the order as one of the most egregious First Amendment violations in recent years.
Without a hearing for the newspaper, Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin issued a temporary restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register on Tuesday after the news outlet wrote a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.”
The column criticized the city for not sending the newspaper a notice about a meeting city commissioners held over a proposed effort to ask the state Legislature for permission to enact a local tax on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.
As of Thursday morning, the news outlet had removed the editorial from its website, but Wyatt Emmerich, the newspaper’s owner, told Mississippi Today that he intended to fight the judge’s order in court, which he called “absolutely astounding.”
“There wasn’t a hearing over this or anything,” Emmerich said. “We haven’t even been served with process.”
Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy, a Democrat, and the Board of Commissioners filed the petition in Hinds County, calling the editorial “libelous’ and saying the editorial would bring “immediate and irreparable injury” to the city.
“(The editorial’s) statements could be reasonably understood as declaring or implying that the ‘deceptive’ reason he was not given notice of the meeting is provable through someone in the community willing to reveal promises made by the Board members in exchange for votes or in the process of time,” the city’s petition reads.
The litigation stems from a special-called meeting the board conducted. State law requires public bodies to post a notice of a special meeting in a public place and on the city’s website, if they have one, at least one hour before the meeting.
The state’s Open Meetings Act also requires public bodies to email a notice of the meeting to media outlets and citizens who have asked to be placed on the city’s email distribution list.
The Clarksdale city clerk, Laketha Covington, filed an affidavit saying she did post the meeting notice at City Hall. However, she admitted she forgot to send out an email notice about the special meeting but that it was a simple mistake and not intentional.
Charlie Mitchell is the former executive editor of the Vicksburg Post and is an attorney. He is an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism and New Media, where he has taught media law for years. He told Mississippi Today there were so many issues with the judge’s order that he didn’t even “know where to start.”
The municipality is suing the media outlet over defamation, which is typically used when individuals or businesses believe their reputation has been harmed. But government bodies, according to Mitchell, are “defamation-proof and always have been.”
“The First Amendment allows restraint of expression, including by the media, only extremely rarely and only when there is clear evidence of immediate and irreparable risk to the public — such as blocking publication that would identify confidential informants,” Mitchell said.
For decades, state and federal courts have held that news outlets criticizing government actions through editorials are protected speech. But there have been attempts to silence local news outlets in recent years.
Great River Road dropped from consideration as a National Historic Landmark, for now
The head of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the president of St. John Parish said the West Bank is “now open for business.”
by Delaney Dryfoos February 21, 2025
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior, at the prompting of state officials, announced that the 11-mile stretch of Great River Road along the west bank of the Mississippi River would be withdrawn from consideration as a National Historic Landmark District. This prestigious designation would have enshrined protections against industrialization for the last stretch of rural land between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Now, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) sees the agricultural River Road landscape as prime pickings for new industrial development.
“It is indeed a time for us to celebrate,” said St. John the Baptist Parish President Jaclyn Hotard. “This is a wonderful day because we’re sending the message to everyone that the river region is open for business.”
The governor also rejoiced about the Department of Interior’s decision. “If you really want to lift people out of poverty, you get them work and increase job opportunity,” said Gov. Jeff Landry. “I appreciate DEQ’s work to protect Louisiana’s environment while considering new projects like the Greenfield Grain Elevator, that bring jobs to Louisiana.”
The governor’s statement struck at the hearts of some residents in St. John Parish, who spent the last two years fighting to keep Greenfield from building its massive grain terminal – with an elevator as tall as the Superdome – within the small town of Wallace, a traditionally Black town settled by Black soldiers who returned home after fighting for the Union during the Civil War.
The land was nominated for National Historic Landmark consideration as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reviewed pending permits to build Greenfield Louisiana LLC’s massive grain elevator and export terminal.
In October, after a year-long study, the National Park Service recommended the 11-mile stretch of River Road in St. John the Baptist Parish as a good candidate for consideration as a National Historic Landmark.
Patient dies in Mission emergency department bathroom after call for help goes unanswered
Hospital launches investigation, fires employee; nurses say department was extremely busy, understaffed
by ANDREW R. JONES February 20, 2025
A patient in Mission Hospital’s emergency room died in the bathroom last week after calling for help but getting no immediate response.
Hospital spokeswoman Nancy Lindell confirmed the incident to Asheville Watchdog on Thursday and said one employee has been fired and more action may be taken in an ongoing investigation. But several ER nurses contend that the department was crowded and understaffed that evening, with no rooms available when the patient arrived.
“The sudden death of a patient is devastating, and we grieve whenever there is a loss of life,” Lindell said. “We realize there are many questions that need to be answered, and we are examining every aspect of this incident. Our investigation indicates that certain staff who had been trained did not follow hospital protocols. We have terminated one individual and have reported to the appropriate agencies. We are working diligently to address any additional issues that are identified during the course of our investigation.”
Lindell would not provide additional details about the incident, including the number of staff and patients in the emergency department at the time.
The unidentified man arrived at Mission by ambulance Feb. 10 for a respiratory complaint or chest pain and went to the emergency department’s internal processing area, according to multiple medical staffers who spoke to Asheville Watchdog on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Typically a patient who arrives in the ER by ambulance is immediately admitted to a room so they can be closely monitored. But no rooms were available, they said.
An electrocardiogram, or EKG, was ordered for the patient, they said, but he needed to go to the bathroom before the procedure and was taken there by wheelchair.
“Once they were in the bathroom, they pulled the red cord for assistance,” said an emergency department registered nurse who was working that evening.
When the cord is pulled, an alarm sounds throughout the emergency department and a light flashes.
“Our leadership there at the time had called over our radios multiple times for somebody to please check that bathroom out in the lobby,” the nurse said. “Probably between 12 and 15 minutes it had been going off with no one checking on that patient. And then when they did check on the patient, the patient had arrested,” meaning his heart had stopped beating.
A new resource from the State Democracy Research Initiative makes the current text of all 50 state constitutions available and searchable on one site. This was from State Court Report.
If you're a North Carolina resident and voted in the N.C. Supreme Court race that is still not certified, please check the list of over 60,000 votes that Jefferson Griffin is trying to discard after narrowly losing to Allison Riggs.
Stephen Whitlow from Triangle Blog Blog has more information. Readers can also visit the Orange County, N.C. group's website The Griffin List to search names and more.
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