Phone pests
When Mississippi more than 15 years ago adopted a law to cut down on the nuisance of telemarketers, it provided some relief — for a while.
But it didn’t last, as telemarketers — some representing legitimate organizations, some scam artists — exploited the law’s loopholes or just ignored it, employing deceitful technology to try to avoid detection.
Beginning next month, the state is strengthening the law by narrowing the loophole for charities, allowing businesses to register on the no-call list and making it illegal for telemarketers to try to hide behind a fake number.
The changes are good ones and may reduce the nuisance some. As long, though, as there is money to be made bothering people on their phones, don’t expect the calls to stop.
Tim Kalich
Publisher, Greenwood Commonwealth
Foster care is back in court
If there is one bothersome thing about recent editions of the Mississippi Legislature, it is the Republican majority’s willingness to reduce funding for social services.
Yes, Medicaid spending keeps taking up a bigger share of the budget each year, and that surely drains money from other programs. But many who pay the price for this are defenseless without the aid of state government.
Cutbacks in mental health services come to mind, and a years-long lawsuit about the state’s foster care system makes a compelling argument that the state has not seriously tried to solve acknowledged problems in the Department of Child Protective Services.
A report released this week said the department, which provides care for nearly 5,000 foster children in Mississippi, is meeting only 37 of 113 goals set down in a court decree.
A story from The Associated Press said excessive social worker caseloads remain a big issue. The state had agreed to limit the number of cases a social worker handled, but only 57 percent of those employees were at or below that limit at the end of 2018.
Department managers were not supposed to supervise more than five social workers, but only 79 percent of them met that limit.
The report, prepared by an outside monitor, also questioned whether the Department of Child Protective Services is doing enough to investigate reports of mistreatment of children who have been placed in foster care. Another problem is administrative: The department’s outdated computer system, along with data-entry errors, has prevented the tracking of more than one-quarter of the 113 goals.
Add it all up and it sounds like lawmakers have not allocated money for enough social workers. This has occurred in spite of a large decline in the number of children in foster care over the past two years, from 6,200 in 2017 to 4,848 this spring.
Perhaps there is a high turnover rate in the job, which is understandable given the sad nature of the work. One way to counter that is to pay experienced social workers more so they’ll stick around a little longer.
An attorney who has represented a foster-care child in a 15-year-old lawsuit says she will use this report to ask the federal judge to hold Mississippi in contempt of court, and to seek an outside manager for Child Protective Services.
The department has had an outside manager for the past two years: Jess Dickinson, a former Mississippi Supreme Court justice. He said this week that the Legislature has allocated an extra $15 million to the department starting next month, and the public can expect “greatly improved services to children.”
Most likely, the judge will give Dickinson a little more time to fix things. He probably deserves it. Still, this case is a tempting way to warn budgeters that social services agencies deliver important services. It would be a very appropriate wake-up call if the judge decided to put another manager in charge.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
U.S. Open winner already was a champ
Few sports fans had heard of Gary Woodland until this weekend, when the 35-year-old pro golfer took the lead during the second round of the U.S. Open and held onto it over the weekend.
Woodland earned his first major championship with some crisp shooting on Sunday’s back nine, fending off a brisk challenge from Brooks Koepka, the hottest golfer of the last three years. But far more people are likely to remember Woodland for his kindness to a Down’s syndrome golfer during a practice round in January.
More than 20 million people have seen the online video of Woodland’s encounter with Amy Bockerstette at a tournament in Phoenix. He and playing partner Matt Kuchar welcomed her to a par-3 hole. She hit her tee shot into a bunker, then got the ball onto the green and, with Woodland’s encouragement, sank an 8-foot putt for a par to loud cheers from the gallery.
It was fun Sunday to watch a fresh face win one of golf’s majors. But as the Phoenix video proves, Woodland was a champion long before this. Sometimes nice guys do finish first.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
Naming buildings can be tricky
The Florida philanthropist who became persona non grata at the University of Alabama after his call for a boycott of the school made a good point as his name was being chiseled off of the university’s law school last week.
“You probably shouldn’t put a living person’s name on a building, because at some point they might get fed up and start talking,” said Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr.
Or even if they don’t say something that riles an institution’s feathers, they may do something that tarnishes their name, such as going to prison.
The safer course is to wait until benefactors or public officials have been dead a few years before naming a building after them. Even then, it’s not a guarantee because, as society evolves, sometimes behavior or attitudes that were once accepted are no longer.
Tim Kalich
Editor and Publisher
Greenwood Commonwealth
