The ‘Most Diabetic Place in America’ grapples with the devastating disease that affects nearly 1 in 3 residents

NEWPORT, Arkansas – This is the most diabetic place in America.

None of those interviewed knew that. Not even the mayor. “I didn’t know it until you told me,” Mayor David Stewart said.

State economist refutes politicians’ claim that Mississippi cannot afford Medicaid expansion

The most common refrain of prominent Mississippi elected officials who have long rejected the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act — that the state cannot afford the costs of the program — was refuted this week by the state’s leading economic expert.

Mississippi News, News, Mississippi SpotlightKatherine MitchellSeptember 15, 2021Mississippi Medicaid, federal money, expand coverage, medicaid expansion, Mississippi Spotlight, Unsteady Pulse, medicaid coverage, investigation, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, Gov. Tate Reeves, Philip Gunn

Over the past 3 years, diabetes has killed more Americans than all the wars over the past century. Mississippi is ‘ground zero’ in that fight.

Bombs are exploding across the nation, with injuries and casualties reaching the millions, but few recognize the war that is taking place, experts say.

That war is diabetes, and Mississippi is ground zero, the only state in the nation where every county is in what researchers call the diabetes belt.

News, Civil RIghts, DiabetesKatherine MitchellSeptember 8, 2021Diabetes, healthy food, food access, obesity, Diabetes belt, Stephen Farrow, Dan Hurley, poverty, processed foods, Mississippi Delta

A case that ‘flips justice on its head’: Victim, not shooter, convicted in 1960 bloodbath

More than six decades ago a grand jury assembled to hear a grisly case. Four Black men had been shot to death and a fifth seriously wounded in a hail of gunfire on Ticheli Road near Monroe, Louisiana.

News, Civil RIghtsKatherine MitchellSeptember 7, 2021LSU Manship School News Service, LSU Cold Case Project, Patricia Sherman, Robert Fuller, Civil rights killing, KKK, Murder 4 men, shot 5 men, Killings on Ticheli Road, 1960s

‘The WORD’: A step of faith in preventing diabetes in underserved communities

Dr. Karen Yeary brought The WORD to churches in the Arkansas Delta.

The former professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences decided to introduce a lifestyle intervention plan through places of worship — The Wholeness, Oneness, Righteousness, Deliverance, a faith-based weight loss intervention to stem the ravages of diabetes.

‘When you’re diabetic, every decision you make will keep you alive or kill you.’

Frank Henn knew something was wrong on his spring break trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

News, Civil RIghts, DiabetesKatherine MitchellAugust 25, 2021Frank Henn, Diabetes, Organ donation, organ transplant, Diabetes type 1, Type 1 diabetic, insulin prices, chronic illness, glucose monitor, blood sugar

‘Mr. Fuller has shot his men’

MONROE, La. -- In the rural neighborhood around Ticheli Road, the sound of multiple gunshots erupted in the early morning quiet of July 13, 1960.

News, Civil RIghtsKatherine MitchellAugust 24, 2021LSU Manship School News Service, LSU Cold Case Project, Sam Brooks, Patricia Sherman, Robert Fuller, Civil rights killing, KKK, David Lee Pitts

Diabetes and COVID forge deadly ‘perfect storm’

Amid the worst pandemic in a century, Mississippi is leading the nation in increased diabetes deaths per capita, according to a just-released study.

News, Diabetes, coronavirus, Coronavirus PandemicKatherine MitchellAugust 18, 2021Diabetes, diabetes deaths, covid, covid-19, coronavirus, UMMC, Mississippi diabetes deaths, delta variant, field hospital, hospital tents

A Daughter’s Plea

GoFundMe began as a place to support social and similar causes, but now families battling diabetes are using the fundraising platform as a last-ditch attempt to cover the skyrocketing price of their life-saving drugs and supplies.