Special to Wesson News
New laws are starting to take effect in Mississippi this month: Under the “presumptive eligibility” law, Medicaid will begin paying for a pregnant woman’s outpatient medical care up to 60 days while her application for the government-funded insurance program is being considered, with the goal of reducing infant mortality rates.
The new Mississippi Student Funding Formula assures school districts extra money for students who live in poverty and those with special needs, in gifted programs, with dyslexia or learning English as a second language.
A child born from a pregnancy that begins after a parent's death will have inheritance rights, even if the embryo is not yet implanted when the parent dies if there is a clear indication that a parent intended to the genetic material for “assisted reproductive technology,” in vitro fetilization occurs no more than three years after the parent's death, and the child lives at least five days after birth.
Any town or city, regardless of its size, can hold an election on whether to allow the sale of alcohol, even if that municipality is in a dry county.
Ranked-choice voting in which candidates are ranked in order of preference are mostly banned in statewide, county, city and school district elections, except for military members and U.S. citizens overseas who use absentee ballots to vote in Mississippi elections.
Aiding, abetting or encouraging people to steal at least $1,000 worth of goods is now a felony with punishments for grand larceny.