Mississippi Edition

The mayor of the Capital city assesses the city’s infrastructure and water challenges following a week-long winter storm.

Then, vaccine hesitancy continues to be prominent within the Black community - including health care workers.

Plus, the Society of Archivists responds to a bill designed to restructure of the board of Archives and History.

Segment 1:

Parts of Mississippi are still under a boil water advisory nearly a week since the winter storm started. Temperatures in much of the state rose well above freezing over the weekend, allowing much of the accumulated ice to melt. But in the state's capital city, crews are working to restore water, and deliver bottled water to the city's most vulnerable. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba says the city was not built to sustain an event like last week's storm. He shares more with our Becca Schimmel.

Segment 2:

While many people are clamoring to get a coronavirus vaccine, some are choosing not to get it right now. Vaccine hesitancy appears to be happening more within the Black community AND among Black health care workers. Shalina Chatlani with the Gulf States Newsroom, talked with Black women in the health care field about what’s guiding their choices.

Segment 3:

Quietly last week, the Mississippi Senate passed SB 2727 - a bill proposing a restructuring of the board of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Founded in 1902, MDAH is the second-oldest agency of its kind. As currently designed, new board members are nominated from within the existing board, and then confirmed by the Senate. According to the bill, board members will become political appointees of the Governor and Lt. Governor. Some, like the Society of Mississippi Archivists, see this as a move to politicize a traditionally non-partisan agency. Jessica Perkins Smith is President of the Society. She fears the the change would jeopardize how the agency honestly shares the state's complex history.