Magnolia Marketplace

The Seattle Times is reporting that Northrop Grumman and its partner European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. will pull out of the race for the $35 billion contract to supply the Air Force with a new fleet of refueling tankers.

The paper cites an anonymous source who says the official announcement will come after the stock market closes this afternoon.

There had been rumors that Boeing would eventually have the competition to itself after the Pentagon released the final request for proposals Feb. 24.

For the ST’s full report, click here.

Yesterday was a major deadline for legislation at the Capitol, with bills that have already cleared one chamber needing to make it out of committee or die until next session.

Senate Bill 2153, which would have allowed concealed weapon permit holders to carry their firearms into public parks, unsecured public buildings and bars and restaurants — provided owners chose to allow it — died in the House Judiciary B Committee.

Magnolia Marketplace has a story about the legislation in this week’s MBJ. The restaurant owners we talked to were wary, to say the least, of allowing handguns into their buildings. Andy Wilson, who has Underground 119 in Downtown Jackson, was the most adamant, saying the legislation reminded him of the Wild West days when cowboys packed their pistols in swinging-door saloons.

Although the issue is dead for this session, look for it to appear next year. The National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbies in politics, has made this legislation a priority.

The two bills that deal with the Old Blind School property, which Jackson developer Ted Duckworth wants to turn into a mixed-use development, are still active. SB 3097, authored by Jack Gordon, would authorize the state to lease the property for development. Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, has authored House Bill 637, which calls for the state to sell the property to a developer with conditions attached that would allow the state to take it back if those conditions were not met.

We had a story about the competing pieces of legislation about a month ago, in which we learned that Duckworth would most likely pull out of the project if the state insisted on leasing the property instead of selling it. With both the lease and sell bills still alive, Duckworth’s future involvement would seem to be still very much up in the air.

As we mentioned earlier, Judith Phillips, a research analyst with the Stennis Institute of Government, was the keynote at today’s monthly luncheon meeting of the Stennis Capitol Press Corps.

Phillips released the findings of a report she just completed that looks at some of the facts and figures associated with obesity – more specifically, how much sugar-sweetened drinks contribute to the condition.

Mississippi is at or near the top of almost every list that ranks the most obese states in the U.S.

Figures from 2008, the latest that are available from the Centers for Disease Control, tell us that 33.4 percent of Mississippians are considered obese relative to their Body Mass Index, which measures height and weight to determine if a person is obese, overweight, at his ideal weight or even underweight. Mississippi is first on that list, followed in second place by Alabama, at 32.2 percent.

The CDC also puts Mississippi at the top of deaths per 100,000 people that are obesity related. In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, 270.9 Mississippians died of heart disease, which is the most common obesity-related disease that causes death. Alabama, at 253.3 deaths per capita, is second on that list, too.

In 2009, according to Phillips, Mississippi spent $700 million in Medicaid money to treat obesity-related conditions. Phillips said that number is expected to rise above $1 billion the next decade, as states are forced to pick up bigger portions of their Medicaid tabs.

“Action is needed (to combat obesity and pay for the tratment of related illnesses and diseases) but that decision is left up to the decision-makers,” Phillips said, adding that her report wasn’t meant to forge policy, but to provide information to those who make policy decisions.

A bill that would have added an excise tax on sugar-sweetened drinks like sodas has already died this legislative session.

But the issue is far from over.

Rep. John Mayo, who authored the bill this session, has said repeatedly the past few months that he will continue to introduce similar legislation. Phillips’ report says that a one-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened drinks would produce an average of $145 million per year in revenue the next four years; a tax-per-ounce of 1.5 cents would generate an average of $187 million per year over that same period. A two-cent-per-ounce tax would produce an average of $208 million over the next four years.

Ron Aldridge, who is the Mississippi director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, also serves as the executive vice president of the Beverage Association of Mississippi, which staunchly opposes any excise tax on its sugar-sweetened products.

Aldridge said the BAM led the charge in 2007 as Mississippi became the first state to remove full-calorie sugar-sweetened beverages from public schools.

“This thing is not about whether or not our beverages cause obesity. There’s been no scientific study that says that. There’s been no scientific study that proves there’s a direct link to that, either. What they do say is that it’s about calories in and calories burned.

We believe we need to attack obesity at every front. The public schools have done an excellent job of that. Taxes aren’t going to make us healthier. That’s the reality of it.”

This sounds a lot like the rhetoric that surrounded the cigarette tax in its first years of debate at the Capitol. Legislation to levy an excise tax on cigarettes died the first three or four times lawmakers attempted to move it forward. While it’s not certain that a soda tax will pass, like the cigarette tax eventually did, what is certain is that it’s an issue that will be a part of the next handful of legislative sessions.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my story in this week’s MBJ about the bill that would allow people who have valid concealed weapon permits to carry their firearms into public parks, unsecured public buildings and bars and restaurants, if owners choose to allow them to do so. The angle that we pursued was the bar and restaurant conundrum. Not surprisingly, people on both sides of the issue have strong feelings about handgun possession in places that serve alcohol.

The bill sits in the House Judiciary B Committee, and since it originated in the Senate, it must clear Judiciary B by 8 p.m. Tuesday, or it dies. Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville, chairs Judiciary B, but Magnolia Marketplace was unable to corner him for comment before press time last week.

Also arriving just a little too late for the print edition was a statistic from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which issues the weapon permits, which shows that 14,004 people in Mississippi have a valid concealed weapon permit. That number is as of Feb. 26.

On the agenda today is the monthly luncheon meeting of the Stennis Capitol Press Corps, in which Judith Phillips, of MSU’s Stennis Institute of Government, will discuss her research and report, “Obesity and Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: An Overview for Decision-Makers.” The effects of soft drinks on public health and its impact on the state’s bottom line, and whether they should be taxed, has gotten a good amount of play this legislative session.

Magnolia Marketplace will have the particulars as soon as they’re available. Stay tuned.

We reported last week that Gov. Haley Barbour has a big fundraiser coming up Sunday after next whose price tag would suggest it’s going to be used to fund a very expensive race.

This weekend’s meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington did nothing to slow down the rumor mill. Barbour told the Associated Press he had still made no firm plans one way or the other about running for the White House but did say, “If you see me losing 40 pounds that means I’m either running or have cancer.”

Magnolia Marketplace believes Barbour when he says he is focusing on this fall’s midterm elections and the next wave of gubernatorial races and not giving much serious thought — yet — to a presidential run. We also believe, though we have nothing to confirm it, that Barbour really, really, really wants to run for president, and he thinks he would have a good shot at winning if he did.

As for whether he will, it’s just too early to hazard a guess. By year’s end, though, it most likely will be pretty clear if he is or isn’t.

An interesting piece  of paper made its way to the desk of Magnolia Marketplace late yesterday afternoon.

It’s a flier announcing a fundraiser for Haley’s Leadership PAC, a political action committee formed by Gov. Haley Barbour. And this isn’t just any fundraiser. To go with a pile of cash, participants better have nerves of steel.

For a minimum gift of $5,000 you can hop in a stock car and take a few laps around Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Barbour on Sunday, March 7. After that, you can rub elbows at a cocktail party with Barbour and casino and resort mogul Steve Wynn.

Obviously, politicians at every level hold all sorts of fundraisers pretty much all the time. But a minimum gift of $5,000 is enough to make reasonable folks wonder if that kind of heavy financial weight might be targeted toward a national race — you know, like the one whose winner gets to live in the White House.

So we called Dan Turner, Barbour’s press secretary, and asked him.

Nothing’s changed regarding Barbour’s plans for 2012, Turner said a few minutes ago. Barbour is concentrating on the midterm elections this fall, in which Republicans think there’s a decent chance they can take one or both of the chambers of Congress, and the few dozen governor’s races that will go down between now and 2012. That’s been Barbour’s response to every one of the million different ways he’s been asked if he’s running for president.

“That’s all I’ve ever heard him say,” Turner said.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your speculation.

Toyota announced today that it will idle two of its manufacturing facilities — one in Texas, the other in Kentucky — as the fallout from the recalls spreads. The plant in Texas, which makes the Tundra truck, will shut down for one week in March and one week in April. The facility in Kentucky, where Toyota builds the Camry and Avalon sedans and the Venza crossover, will idle Feb. 26 and possibly two or three more days in March or April,a spokesman told the Associated Press.

That doesn’t make much of an impact here in Mississippi, but I have a story in this week’s edition of the MBJ that takes a look at how the recalls — which added the Prius about 10 days ago — might affect the Blue Springs plant, which supposedly will build the Prius, though nobody really knows when production will start. Be sure to check it out.

Anyway, there remain a few notes from that story that didn’t really fit with the overall theme of the final draft, but are still worth mentioning:

Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at Edmunds.com, had an interesting take on how Toyota is handling the public relations boondoggle the recalls have created. A lot of folks have said that Toyota was slow to react, and when it did, did not do that great a job. That may be due to a couple things, Krebs said. The first is that there apparently was no established blueprint  to start putting out the fires immediately after they started. Krebs’ second theory goes to the Japanese culture.

“I would think that any major corporation of any sort would have a crisis management plan ready to enact at any moment,” she said. “You would think they would practice some of these scenarios. I think it’s definitely a lack of experience. If you look at the Japanese culture, the companies are revered. They don’t have a lot of lawyers. They don’t have the scrutiny of the media like we do here. And frankly, I think Toyota got arrogant and got complacent.”

Mark Ragsdale, a former dealership owner who now serves as a consultant to the automotive industry, said Toyota put too much of the PR burden on its dealers, which runs counter to the reputation it has enjoyed among its individual franchises.

“Toyota always is in the top two or three in dealer-relations surveys,” Ragsdale said. “But automakers are their own breed of cat. They’re not real big on taking responsibility. The automakers use dealers as human shields to get in front of the customer and handle things, but dealers don’t always have the tools to do that.”