http://www.msgovt.org/blogs Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:07:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en While reading a case that came out yesterday from the Mississippi Court of Appeals (Rankin Group v. City of Richland, No.  2007-CA-02259-COA, 3/17/09) reminded me of how very important the minutes of public entities are to good government.  In fact, what many entities seem to forget is that public entities ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/18/public-entity-minutes-are-essential/ The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of a Texas Federal District Court which upheld the constitutionality of a 2003 state statute which requires Texas public school students to observe a daily minute of silence in order to pray, reflect or otherwise remain quiet.  The 5th Circuit upheld ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/17/public-school-prayer-in-the-bible-belt/ There is a new redistricting decision out from the Supreme Court of the United States from a North Carolina lawsuit.  The decision came down yesterday, and I have not had a chance to read it myself.  I will follow up with an analysis later, but I wanted to put the ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/10/new-redistricting-decision-from-us-supreme-court/ Just a reminder: The annual Mississippi Municipal League Salary survey is currently underway. We've received about 70% of the surveys to date. If you are a City Clerk or Personnel Director for one of Mississippi's 297 municipalities, please make sure that you've completed the survey. Previous ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/09/municipal-salary-survey-reminder/ There are some changes in employer obligations relative to COBRA coverage as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Under the Act, employees who were involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 may be eligible to receive a reduced premium for COBRA continuation ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/06/cobra-news-new-obligations-for-employers-plus-possible-payroll-tax-credits/   In Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, U.S. No. 06-1595, the United States Supreme Court has extended the anti-retaliation protection of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to employees who answer questions in an investigation conducted by the employer based on another employee's complaint of ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/05/extension-of-anti-retaliation-protection-under-title-vii/ Representative Blackburn will be the speaker at the annual Price Prather Luncheon at The Mississippi Bar Association Annual Meeting in July of 2009 at San Destin.  The Price Prather Luncheon is sponsored by the Women in the Profession Committee of The Mississippi Bar.  Justice Prather is Mississippi's first woman Supreme ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/05/following-up-on-representative-marsha-blackburn/ Senator Alan Nunnelee-R (Mississippi Senate District 6) visited Dr. Marty Wiseman's Mississippi Government and Politics class on Monday, March 2. Senator Nunnelee, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a Mississippi State University alumnus, spoke to the students about key Mississippi issues before taking questions. Senator Nunnelee touched on ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/03/03/senator-alan-nunnelee-speaks-to-mississippi-state-students/ On February 5, 2009, the Mississippi Supreme Court once again affirmed that the action of a City in a zoning matter should receive great deference from a reviewing judicial authority.  [Childs, et al v. Hancock County Board of Supervisors, et al., No. 2006-CT-00608-SCT] In a clearly written opinion authored by ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/02/27/city-zoning-issues-presumption-of-validity/ The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides $7.2 billion for broadband development in underserved, rural communities.  A fair portion of this funding (over 50%) is made available to a grant program through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for unserved and underserved communities.  Will Mississippi take advantage of ... http://www.msgovt.org/blogs/2009/02/26/money-money-money/