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The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board indicated Thursday it has heard the clamor for more transparency in the selection of Jackson State University’s next president. 

The board unanimously approved the request by Steve Cunningham, chair of the Jackson State search committee, to begin gathering a proposed list of potential members to serve on a Search Advisory Constituency. 

The advisory group will support the board’s search committee by providing recommendations and insights during the process. 

Cunningham and IHL Commissioner Al Rankins must submit a list of names for review and approval at a future meeting, possibly before IHL’s next board meeting on Nov. 20. 

“This is the first time our board has done this in a long time,” said Gee Ogletree, president of the IHL board. “It’s because we have heard from many people asking us to broaden this process and we’re listening, and you’ve seen the board act.” 

The move marks the first time in recent years the board has used an advisory group to assist with Jackson State’s presidential searches. The last time the board used a group was in 2017 during the university’s executive search that resulted in William Bynum. In 2022, the board’s policies were revised to provide for a Search Advisory Constituency.

Alumni and supporters of the HBCU have repeatedly raised questions about the board’s opaque process, calling for a fair, transparent national leadership search for the university. This includes having multiple supporters’ voices heard and valued. 

The top job at Jackson State has been vacant since May. Marcus Thompson resigned as president less than two years into his tenure without explanation from the IHL board. 

Thompson was the third president to depart in five years — similar to his two predecessors, Thomas Hudson and Bynum. 

Denise Jones-Gregory is serving as the interim president. 

The IHL board can seek additional input from constituents and stakeholders by appointing members to serve on an advisory group for a university’s presidential search, according to board policies. 

The group can have up to 15 members and should represent a diverse range of university stakeholders, such as students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. The advisory group will not discuss potential candidates, since the process only seeks to gather input. Nor will the board publicly share the group’s input, as stated in board policies. 

The board also heard Thursday from Kim Bobby and Carlton Brown, two consultants with ABG Search, an executive headhunting firm based in Washington. The consultants presented a proposed timeline for Jackson State’s president search as well as best practices. 

In September, the board voted to select ABG Search, to assist with naming the university’s next leader, departing from its usual pick of Academic Search, an executive firm it has used twice in the past. 

It is unclear when the board will announce constituency group members or how long the presidential search will take, but AGB’s proposed timeline said it could be up to five months. The board said it is committed to getting it right. 

“This work will take time and due diligence, and is not locked into a specific timeframe,” John Sewell, director of communications for the IHL board, said in a statement.  

Cunningham, who is also a Jackson State alum, said the board is working to find the best possible candidate. 

“We all know the university has a rich history and bright future,” Cunningham said.

In the small, rural town of Taylor, eight miles south of Oxford, residents are debating a proposed asphalt plant that would include rezoning land from agricultural to heavy industrial usage. 

The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors will decide whether to approve the change on Monday. The county’s planning commission voted 3-1 last month to move forward with the proposal. 

Residents have come together over concerns about the precedent the rezoning would set, potential air emissions and water run off, and how the plant would affect the bucolic nature of the town of about 300 people.

“We’re worried about pollution and how it’ll affect our health,” said Melissa Roberson, a Taylor resident.

The September planning commission meeting saw a large turnout, with most voicing objections to the plant proposal. Many came in support of Falkner Farms, a grass-fed beef and egg producer that supplies markets in the area. 

The family-owned farm sits across a two-lane highway from the proposed asphalt site. Reed Falkner, whose parents bought the land in 1996 to raise their family, is worried the plant would disturb their business. Too much noise, for instance, could cause chickens to produce fewer eggs, he said. 

“There’s the potential to put us out of business,” Falkner said. “ This decision (from the county) has a lot of weight. It’s sending a much larger message than asphalt over agriculture. It’s the precedent they’re setting.”

J.W. McCurdy, the developer and owner of the land where the asphalt plant will be built, has lived in Lafayette County since he was 3 years old. 

“I’ve lived here virtually my entire life,” McCurdy said. “I care about the success of Lafayette County as much as anybody in the world. I mean, I’m probably going to die here.”

Between new subdivisions and paving roads, the county has a high demand for asphalt, Joel Hollowell, the county’s director of development services, said. He also pointed to an upcoming project, starting in March, to add new lanes to parts of Mississippi Highway 7.

“We’ve survived a lot of years without competition (in the asphalt market),” Hollowell said. “Could we survive longer? Probably so, but competition tends to create a more affordable product.”

McCurdy and other local developers said the area has only one asphalt provider, which has long lines and isn’t always open when it’s needed. That’s why a new plant could help make it easier and cheaper to build around Oxford, McCurdy said. 

“ I’m trying to better our community and make things more affordable for people to be able to buy houses, rent houses, build restaurants or whatever it may be,” McCurdy said.

Regarding concerns over emissions and runoff, such as into the nearby Yocona River, Hollowell said the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality would have to approve any water runoff or air emissions before the plant could open. 

In 2022, MDEQ cited McCurdy for violating rules around sediment runoff at a construction site in Oxford. The developer told Mississippi Today the error was quickly fixed, describing it as a “misperformance by a subcontractor.”

For nearby residents, though, the decision before the county isn’t just about the asphalt plant. It’s about preserving the area’s identity in the face of growing development and constant expansion around Oxford. This issue is especially acute amid local struggles with rising housing costs, as The Daily Mississippian wrote about a year ago.

“This kind of fight is a familiar growing pain in counties that are transitioning from rural to suburban,” said Ellen Meacham, a longtime resident of Taylor who saw similar fights in DeSoto County during the late 1990s.

Editor’s note: This Mississippi Today Ideas essay is published as part of our Brain Drain project, which seeks answers to why Mississippians move out of state. To read more about the project, click here.

I didn’t leave.

That simple phrase carries more weight than most people realize. As a millennial born and raised in Mississippi, I’ve heard all the reasons to go, and I’ve watched many of my peers follow through.

But I stayed. Not because it was easy, but because I believe in the soil here. Mississippi is not just where I’m from. It’s where I’m building something that reflects the best of who we are and what we can become.

I’m Dyamone L. White, a daughter of western Hinds County – Edwards to be exact. I am a banker and housing strategist by training and a community developer at heart. But in this season of my life, I’m something more: a hospitality entrepreneur, a creative economy advocate and the founder of The High Horse: Bite & Beverage Barn of Bolton – a modern-day juke joint and cultural venue rooted in Mississippi pride.  

The High Horse isn’t just a bar or music spot. It’s a bet – a bet that Mississippi’s culture, stories and soul are not only worth preserving but worth investing in. It’s my answer to the question: What if we stopped exporting our best and brightest, and instead created the kind of spaces that made them want to stay?

The idea came to life during a drive through Louisiana when I stumbled upon the concept of beer barns — informal, deeply local gathering spots that once populated the rural South. Curious, I dug deeper and discovered these spaces weren’t just a Louisiana thing. Mississippi had them too. Changing times wiped them out.

Around that same time, I visited Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale. I saw how music, memory and place could intersect to create something magnetic. The vision started to form.

At first, I called the project Beer Run: The Beer Barn of Bolton. But as the idea matured, I partnered with Crema, a marketing and branding agency in Ridgeland.

After hearing my story, they quickly landed on a name that captured the spirit of what I was building: The High Horse. It is not just a brand, but a statement that we, as a people, deserve to feel elevated.

But as I brought the project to life, I saw more clearly than ever how poverty, displacement and disinvestment continue to choke not only our neighborhoods, but our hope. That’s when it clicked. Mississippi’s economic revival must be tied to its cultural revival.

And I still believe Mississippi already has everything it needs. It just takes someone bold enough to light the fire.

The High Horse is that fire. It’s a place where the blues isn’t background noise – it’s the heartbeat. It is where Black Southern foodways, music, storytelling and style converge under one roof. It is where tradition and progress don’t compete; they dance together.

On any given weekend, The High Horse transforms into something bigger than its square footage, hosting everything from blues jams and cultural parades to health fairs and voter registration drives. But the vision stretches beyond events or entertainment. It’s a blueprint that merges culture and commerce, storytelling and strategy, tourism and talent retention.

That’s why the recent Mississippi Today essay by Danielle Morgan of the Mississippi Tourism Association about the importance of tourism in the state moved me so deeply. It gave language to something I’ve lived: the tension of loving this place while working every day to transform it. Her writing made me feel seen. In return, I want this essay to make others feel possible.

We hear so much about those who left. I want to speak to, and for, the ones who stayed. The ones who are building something from scratch. The ones who see potential in the overlooked. The ones who know that investing in Mississippi isn’t foolish. It’s forward-thinking.

This journey hasn’t been easy. I’ve had to teach myself tax law, sift through local ordinances and figure out marketing and operations in real time. But every time someone walks through the doors and says, “This feels like home,” it reaffirms why I do it.

And I’m not alone. All across Mississippi, people like me are quietly – and boldly – building. We deserve a seat at the table in the tourism conversation. We are creating the next Mississippi.

So, no, I didn’t leave. I chose to stay. And every song sung, every meal served, every story shared at The High Horse is a love letter to the place I’m still betting on.

Bio: Dyamone L. White is a housing strategist, community developer and founder of The High Horse: Bite & Beverage Barn of Bolton. A proud daughter of western Hinds County, she works at the intersection of culture, hospitality and economic development to reimagine what’s possible for a rural region and small-towns Mississippi.

COLUMBUS — The groundbreaking of Kloeckner Metals’ new facility was a celebration of the area’s long-term investment in manufacturing and a continued push for American-made goods.

“ Today’s groundbreaking is another example of the special things happening in our state,” Gov. Tate Reeves said at the event on Wednesday.

The Georgia-based company already has a presence in Louisville, and this new $90-million flat-rolled aluminum processing facility will create 40 direct jobs.

Kloeckner Metals is the first company to join the Aluminum Dynamics Customer Park in Columbus, a venture of Steel Dynamics. Kloeckner will make automotive and other goods from metal manufactured next door at the Aluminum Dynamics factory.

Mark Millet, the co-founder and CEO of Steel Dynamics, celebrated the partnership between Steel Dynamics and Mississippi that dates back to 2014 when the company purchased a factory in Columbus. He emphasized the company’s continued commitment to Mississippi and thanked Reeves for the incentives the company received from the state. These included a $247-million package for the aluminum factory passed by the Legislature in 2022. 

Agriculture was once the Golden Triangle’s primary industry. But local economic developers and leaders have successfully brought new manufacturing jobs to the area. Leroy Brooks, who represents District 5 on the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, recalled growing up and smelling cotton just a few pastures away from where the new factory will break ground. 

Meryl Fisackerly, COO of the Golden Triangle Development LINK, the area’s economic development agency, said the factory, “Means jobs, opportunity and long-term commitment to our people and our region’s future.” Fisackerly is overseeing day-to-day operations of LINK after the sudden departure of its longtime CEO Joe Max Higgins in August.

While speakers mainly focused on the partnership between local and state governments and industry, the event also highlighted the national push for more American manufacturing. This included a logo on the event backdrop that read, “We are building North America.”

“ This investment by (Aluminum Dynamics) brings aluminum production back to North America at a critical moment in time. And Kloeckner is excited to become a strategic supply chain partner that helps deliver American-made aluminum,” said John Ganem, CEO of Americas Kloeckner Metals. 

Talking with the press after the event, Reeves emphasized that Mississippi’s investment in manufacturing has positioned it well for the current business climate.

“The president is focused on an American-first agenda and that includes manufacturing in America. The good news for Mississippi is that’s what we do,” said Reeves.

The partnership between the companies and the state still has room to grow.

“ We know this is just the beginning. This facility has been designed with expansion in mind. We anticipate growth phases beyond the initial build,” said Ganem.

Louisiana and Mississippi rank last in serving Medicare recipients, a new study shows. 

People in both states who are covered by the federal health insurance program that primarily serves older adults have more trouble accessing and affording care than those in other states, and the quality of care they receive is lower, according to a report released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that studies health care access in the U.S. 

Medicare costs in Louisiana and Mississippi are some of the highest in the nation, but do not correspond to better health outcomes for patients. The states’ life expectancies at 65 are some of the lowest in the country, according to federal data. Mississippi comes in last place, with people living two years shorter than the national average. 

Lower ranking states have weaker overall health infrastructure, a trend across Southeastern states, said Gretchen Jacobson, the Commonwealth Fund’s vice president for Medicare. 

The report used 31 metrics to assess each state’s care, including strictness of prior authorization policies, access to outpatient care and how much beneficiaries pay. 

About 650,000 Mississippians and 960,000 Louisianans – over 20% of each state’s population – are enrolled in Medicare, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The program provides coverage to nearly all people 65 years or older and covers some younger people with disabilities. 

Sixty-nine million Americans are enrolled in Medicare, making it the largest payer for health care in the country. The program was established in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to provide health insurance to older Americans. It has changed over the last six decades, expanding eligibility to more people and offering additional benefits, like prescription drug coverage and Medicare Advantage plans. 

Private companies run Medicare Advantage plans and provide an alternative to traditional Medicare. About half of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in such plans. 

Medicare was designed to deliver uniform benefits to older Americans regardless of where they live, but states differ widely in their delivery of quality care, the report authors said. 

“We have more work to do to ensure it delivers the care equally and effectively for people in every state,” said Dr. Joseph Betancourt, president of the Commonwealth Fund, during a press conference Wednesday

Some disparities stem from how the program is structured, because Medicare relies on private providers to deliver care, said Mark Diana, associate dean for research and graduate programs at the University of West Florida who has researched health policy and management. 

“All of the variations in how private medical care is provided across the country exist in the Medicare program, just like everywhere else,” Diana said. 

While coverage may be the same across states, the services that patients are able to access may differ. 

In Louisiana and Mississippi, older Medicare recipients are prescribed medications that should be avoided in the elderly at higher rates than in other states, according to the report. Such medications increase the risk of confusion, falls, bleeding risk and other potential harms.

Nursing home residents who are hospitalized are readmitted to the hospital more frequently in Louisiana and Mississippi, and avoidable emergency room visits are more common,the report said.

Patients are sicker when they enroll in Medicare in Louisiana and Mississippi, where there are high rates of uninsurance and poverty, said David Radley, a senior scientist for the Commonwealth Foundation, during a press conference Wednesday. For example, more than two out of three Medicare beneficiaries in Mississippi and Louisiana have three or more chronic conditions, like diabetes or high blood pressure.

“When people are sick coming into Medicare, they tend to be really sick when they’re in Medicare,” Radley said. 

Research has shown that people who are uninsured before age 65 have higher health care costs when they enroll in Medicare. 

Improving health care systems’ ability to care for people of all ages will enhance care for Medicare recipients, Jacobson said. 

Even with the support of Medicare, older people in Mississippi and Louisiana struggle to afford the costs of health care. More Medicare recipients in Mississippi and Louisiana went without care because they couldn’t afford it in the past year than in most other states. 

Experts say the Medicaid spending cuts passed this summer in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act may impact low-income Medicare beneficiaries, many of whom are enrolled in both programs. 

Cuts to Medicaid may make it more difficult for dually enrolled beneficiaries to access services that aren’t required to be provided by traditional Medicare plans, like dental care or home and community-based services, Jacobson said. 

More than a third of Mississippians and Louisianans over 65 went without a dental visit in the past year, the report said.

The legislation also imposed a moratorium on changes that aimed to reduce enrollment barriers for Medicare Savings Programs, which allow Medicaid to pay Medicare premiums and other costs for low-income beneficiaries. These changes will not be implemented until 2034.

The open enrollment period for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. 

Andy Young strode through the campus of connecting buildings at Pearl River Glass Studio in Jackson with the easy comfort of decades, the anticipation of impending celebration and, much like the striking stained glass windows the studio creates and restores, a keen sense of pieces falling into place.

The studio’s founder, lead designer and artist checked in on the latest progress. Colorful glass mosaics, including the studio’s iconic spirit bird, spiff up the floor of a renovated bathroom. A new kitchen awaits catered events, and the reworked marketing space holds stained glass windows studio visitors always want to see. A former ceiling joist is charred and treated for a second life in a window. Young happily demonstrated an ADA accessible automatic door, among upgrades possible by a Mississippi Arts Commission Building Fund for the Arts grant, for the relatively new Pearl River Glass Conservatory, a sister nonprofit with glass art classes for the public. 

A huge window, encased in a steel frame Young salvaged from a downtown office demo 21 years ago, streams natural light for the new ceramics studio. Asiatic jasmine twigs peek up from a thick blanket of pinestraw in a sidewalk bed with two young tulip poplars, and transplanted irises settle into their new home along a border. 

All point to a visionary creative, businessman, gardener even, playing the long game.

A golden anniversary salute to that long game happens Saturday as the studio celebrates 50 years in business with a reception that honors its past and looks to the future. The 2-6 p.m. event is free, welcoming the public to its home at 142 Millsaps Ave. in Jackson, with a live demonstration of leaded stained glass window construction, refreshments, music, door prizes and giveaways. 

Tickets are on sale now for an accompanying raffle with the grand prize of a year of free classes (a $1,340 value) at the Pearl River Glass Conservatory. Proceeds from the raffle and a 4-6 p.m. silent auction at Saturday’s event benefit the conservatory.

“My legacy project” is how Young, 73, describes the Pearl River Glass Conservatory, started two years ago this January. With its own dedicated space in the Wesley Avenue building that once held Patton Publishing and Offbeat, the conservatory is dedicated to preserving and advancing the art of glass. 

“We have spent all this time learning how to do all these wonderful things,” Young said of studio innovations in fused glass, acid etching and more that pushed the expressive potential of the medium. “I didn’t want it to just disappear without making an effort.

“It’s always been about creativity,” he described the studio renowned for church window creation and restoration, architectural installments, contemporary art works in glass and home and garden decor. 

“We wanted to find a way to share that with the community at large, too.” 

Weekly classes do that, from introduction to leaded glass to fun seasonal projects like fused pumpkins or spooky garden stakes this month. Christmas ornament classes start in November, and plans are to expand offerings in the coming year.

Such efforts address multiple fronts, from providing an authentic, creative experience increasingly rare in today’s consumer society, to giving back to a community for their decades of support, Young said. He sees a deeper value as well. 

“As we move forward, people are going to need to have as many creative skills as they can, to cope with the changing dynamic of our society.

“And also, I’m a businessperson, so I’m always interested in trying to ingratiate myself with the public as much as possible,” he confessed with a chuckle. “That’s how we stay alive, you know?”

Pearl River Glass Studio began in a one-car garage in downtown Jackson in 1975, and within the next year moved to what became its forever home in the city’s Midtown neighborhood, drawn by cheap rent and available space in what was the city’s first industrial and wholesale commercial district.

It started with a single building on Millsaps Avenue, rented for $200 a month.

“If the rent hadn’t been so cheap, I don’t think we would have been able to last in business,” he said with a fond look back at the cozy, efficient, 2,000-square-foot starter space. 

One Christmas break, his drive-around survey of the area’s empty buildings found about 200,000 square feet of vacant space in a few blocks. “I realized if there was going to be an arts district, it could be here.” 

Additional artists moved into studio spaces in the area, with a Midtown Arts District heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s. Though the scene is quieter now, it remains abuzz with working artists and other creative professionals, and continues to inspire the next generation of artists.

The studio bought its home building from the landlord’s heirs in 1985, renovated a second building in 1995 and bought more property and continued to expand about 15 years later. It remains a high-profile art anchor in the district.

 “We are proud to celebrate Pearl River Glass Studio’s 50 years of creativity and excellence!” Midtown Partners Executive Director Kristi Hendrix said in an email. “They have long embodied the spirit of innovation, craftsmanship, and even planted the early seeds for what has now developed into Midtown’s Creative Economy Initiative.”

The studio’s visitorship and artist support demonstrate the impact a creative enterprise can have within a community.

“They have also been a constant reminder of what’s possible when creativity and community grow side by side,” she said.

Over the years, Pearl River Glass Studio has grown to its current 17 employees and 17,000 square feet across multiple buildings in a campus that spreads from the original Millsaps Avenue building north to Wesley Avenue, which the conservatory fronts.

The studio has always been a collaborative, Young said. The nature of the art form, and the series of functions it requires, demands more people. 

“It was never just me,” he said. 

Many area artists have worked there at one time or another, including Bebe Wolfe, Jerrod Partridge, Ron Lindsey and more, and so have successful lawyers downtown when they were students at Millsaps College, Young said. The different contributions feed an atmosphere of creative problem-solving.

“The creativity part of it is a key component in the success of the company — the idea of innovation,” Young said. “All of that is a sort of cornerstone to how we operate, and so, having the various creative artists as part of that has been part of the special sauce.”

Glass painter and artist Rob Cooper came to Pearl River Glass Studio first as a Forest Hill senior and an internship through APAC in 1994. This year he marks 31 years at the studio. Stained glass church work is the studio’s bread and butter. 

“Andy was keeping up with design work, and meeting the churches in a more modern way,” he said. “Innovation is one thing Andy likes to do — leaning into the curve of what glass can do.” 

That was a key spark for Cooper’s imagination as well. 

From the early days of fusing glass to create imagery (now a big staple), to painting, acid etching and different mark making techniques, “I got to be on the ground floor of trying new things,” Cooper said.

Some key projects over the years include Pearl River Glass Studio’s 2015 restoration of the more than 100 outside stained glass windows in the 1903 Mississippi State Capitol, including the three stunning monumental figures that grace its staircase landing, and the restoration of the House of Representatives Chamber stained glass skylight dome, completed last July (now safely stored and awaiting reinstallation).

 “Mississippians should really be proud of that structure,” he said of the historical building. “It’s really a tour de force as far as design and execution.” 

The commission for stained glass windows for Christ United in Jackson ranked among Young’s favorites, for their large size, the creativity required and the way it suited his skills. 

“The stained glass windows were my particular style — kind of contemporary with Christian symbols,” Young said. “The stained glass windows are always telling a story.”

He also noted the windows at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Madison, another large-scale commission for a new church and point of pride, with stained glass windows that told the saint’s story.

While the studio remains interested in new church commissions, church construction seems less robust than in years past. The business has adapted, focusing on repair, restoration and maintenance of church windows around the state.

“We’ve had wonderful opportunities over the years,” Young said, highlighting the conservatory as a way to continue engaging with a community that has embraced their art from the start, and continues to a half century later.

LELAND – Nearly a week after gunshots ripped through homecoming celebrations killing six and hitting at least 20 people in Leland, state, local and federal law enforcement partners gathered blocks away Thursday to ask the public to continue coming forward with information. 

“We look forward to speaking with you. All information is valuable,” said Robert Eikhoff, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Jackson. 

But the public wants answers, too. 

“What assurance do we have that all of this is going to stop or it will come to a close?” Reseann Mitchell, a Leland resident, asked the police. 

“I understand. We can’t stop it but we can slow it down,” Chief Jimmy Myrick replied. 

When asked for details about the shooting, including motives, whether the shooting was random or if the suspects had any relation to the victims, Myrick said he couldn’t answer because of the ongoing investigation. 

After the press conference, Mitchell said her son, Terregernal S. Martin, is among those charged in the shooting. She said he did not fire a weapon, but was working as security at a building near where gunfire broke out.

She said it’s been frustrating trying to get in touch with law enforcement agencies that are involved in the investigation and to advocate for her son. She has been able to talk to him on the phone while he is being held at the Washington County jail. 

“I hate to see this happen,” Mitchell said, noting how her son grew up with one of the victims. She said she was inside a club near the Leland block party and dropped to the floor when she heard gunshots and saw bodies lying on the ground. 

Nine arrests have been made in Leland, but only five names have been made public, including Martin, 33, who is charged with capital murder. The others are Morgan Lattimore, 25, charged with capital murder; Teviyon L. Powell, 29, capital murder; William Bryant, 29, capital murder; and Latoya A. Powell, 44, attempted murder.

The FBI said Martin’s bond was set at $1 million cash. Bond information for the rest was not immediately available. 

The shooting was one of several that happened during homecoming festivities on high school and college campuses last weekend, which left another four people dead and more injured. 

Two people in the Leland shooting remain in critical condition. More than 25 were hit by the gunfire.

Those killed have been identified as Oreshama Johnson, 41; Calvin Plant, 19; Shelbyona Powell, 25; Kaslyn Johnson, 18; Amos Brantley Jr., 18; and JaMichael Jones, 34.

At Thursday’s news conference, officials recognized the tragedy that the community has experienced and the grief it is processing, and said they will hold those responsible accountable.

The officials were asked about how to ensure public safety in Leland and in communities having homecoming celebrations. They responded that there would be an increased law enforcement presence. 

Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said there is much to be done to answer questions of why the shooting happened. When asked what can be done to prevent similar shootings, he said that is a question communities will need to answer. 

A day earlier in Columbus, Gov. Tate Reeves offered his potential solutions after the recent shootings: Convince young people who are committing crimes to value life and to know that actions have consequences. 

Tips can be given to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitted at  tips.fbi.gov. All tips can be made anonymously. 

Reporter Katherine Lin contributed reporting 

More than a quarter of Mississippi students are chronically absent from school.

A new report from the Mississippi Department of Education revealed that rates of chronic absenteeism, defined as missing at least 10% of the year or 18 days of school, are on the rise.

While chronic absenteeism rates decreased slightly for middle and elementary schools, overall the percentage has more than doubled from 13% during the 2018-19 school year to 27.6% during this past school year, or 120,408 students. The increase is largely due to a huge uptick among high schoolers — a 9% increase in the past two years — especially toward the end of the year when some students are exempt from exams. 

It’s not a Mississippi-specific issue, State Superintendent Lance Evans stressed at Thursday’s state Board of Education meeting. Nationwide, chronic absenteeism rates nearly doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Education reports that 28% of students were considered chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year. 

But the report comes at a precarious time for the state’s public education system. After years of huge academic gains, Mississippi students have slipped slightly in some areas, recent tests show. Absenteeism is directly tied to student achievement — when students miss school, they miss essential instruction time. It can add up, leaving chronically absent students far behind their peers. 

That’s why the agency is working hard to combat it, Evans said. 

“We already have a plan moving forward,” he told state board members on Thursday. “We’re beefing that up even more.” 

Legislators have increasingly expressed concern about the state’s chronic absenteeism rate. Evans said at the meeting that Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is particularly interested in the numbers, and lawmakers heard the agency’s strategies to get more students to school at a Senate Education Committee meeting last week. 

Mississippi Department of Education officials told senators that moving forward, the agency would implement consistent systems for documenting absenteeism, focus on graduation success rather than dropout prevention and build outreach systems to intervene earlier when students start missing school. Evans said at the board meeting that the agency’s plan also calls for more personnel and an overhaul of the office that oversees attendance. 

The report also said the agency is encouraging districts to “adopt recognition programs to reinforce positive attendance habits, build partnerships with health care providers, provide flexibility for families facing extenuating circumstances.” It is also asking them to “implement grade-specific supports — such as advisory periods, peer mentoring, and career or technical pathway connections — to strengthen engagement among older students.”

The merits of engaging families on the importance of getting their child to school is clear because of the low absenteeism rates among younger students, the report notes. By grade, chronic absenteeism is lowest in Mississippi in the fourth grade, steadily decreasing each year from kindergarten. But as students advance into higher grades, rates go up again, hitting a peak in the 12th grade. 

Senators were especially concerned about the 12th-grade numbers and asked the state education agency to prioritize making senior year more about college and career preparation, so students would take attendance more seriously. Some districts permit seniors who aren’t taking a full load of classes to leave school during the day.

That was shocking news for Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, who conveyed his disappointment to education officials at the committee meeting. 

“It seems to me that what we’re doing … is signaling to students it’s not really important to come to school,” he said. “We’re shifting from the concept of, there’s an infinite number of things to learn … to something that is so focused on the requirements and testing.”

Districts with the lowest chronic absenteeism rates in the state, all lower than 15%, are Okolona School District, Jefferson County School District, East Jasper School District, New Albany Public Schools and Rankin County School District.

Jackson Public Schools, despite its chronic absenteeism rate of 37.7% district-wide, has the lowest school-specific rate in Mississippi. Just 2.5% of students at McWillie Elementary School are considered chronically absent. 

The state’s highest chronic absenteeism rates are in Claiborne County Public Schools, Moss Point School District, Simpson County School District, North Panola School District and Holly Springs. Nearly half of students at the districts are considered chronically absent. 

Smaller schools in districts with high-poverty rates have higher chronic absenteeism rates, data show. 

Superintendents for three of Mississippi’s four school districts under state control — all in areas with large low-income populations — gave presentations to state Board of Education members Thursday, directly tying chronic absenteeism to their academic struggles.

Stanley Ellis from Humphreys County said the school district was incentivizing attendance with ice cream socials, “dress down days” and recognition for students with perfect attendance. 

Yazoo City High School saw a surge in absenteeism at its high school and a 20-point drop in graduation rates, said Superintendent Earl Watkins. He stressed that improving the numbers will require a shift in perspective among parents and community members about the importance of attending school and staying the whole day.

“Parent liaisons are calling home when kids aren’t at school,” he said. “We need to change the mindset around kids needing to be at school every day.”

Mississippi lags behind other states in tech sector jobs. But Innovate Mississippi believes it might have a solution. 

The nonprofit is providing funding and training to Mississippi tech startups through a 12-week accelerator. The hope is to help companies and workers stay and grow in Mississippi.

Last week, I talked with founders that are part of this year’s cohort. They’re in early stages of development and will pitch their ideas to potential investors in November. 

The companies include software to analyze oral reading skills, an artificial intelligence-powered smart watch app to track basketball workouts and a platform to help find the best price for prescription drugs. 

So far, nobody has said that Mississippi is poised to be the next Silicon Valley. But they are excited about the opportunity to grow the tech sector here and the support available through colleges and organizations like Innovate. 

“ I think there’s a huge startup potential in Mississippi that’s untapped. There’s a lot of great ideas,” said Ricky Romanek, one of the founders of the accelerator.

Email me at marketplace@mississippitoday.org.

Other news

• China imported a record amount of soybeans in September. But the world’s largest soybean purchaser has not bought any American soybeans this year as a result of ongoing trade wars. “This is the worst economic situation for the Mississippi Delta since the early 1980s,” according to an article from The Clarion Ledger. President Trump has considered giving billions of dollars in aid to row-crop farmers but the current federal government shutdown has delayed talks. Soybean futures dropped as President Trump threatened additional tariffs on China.
• The Mississippi State Fair brought in $35 million last year and state officials hoped it would bring in more this year. In 2023, attendance was over half a million, by far the city’s largest event but attendance was down this year. Tourism is the state’s fourth largest industry, and brought in over $1 billion in tax revenue for the state in 2023.
• The Mississippi Legislature will review how to spend millions of dollars in economic development money for the counties along the Coast. “The funding has produced only a few projects that promise the kind of transformative economic impact the business community envisioned,” according to The Sun Herald.

• Elon Musk’s xAI bought a disused energy plant in DeSoto County to power its data center across the border in Memphis. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved xAI’s temporary use of portable natural gas turbines at the former Duke Energy plant for up to a year. Because the turbines are temporary and portable, they are exempt from permitting requirements under Mississippi codes. However, in a letter to the company, MDEQ “implored” xAI to minimize pollutants citing ongoing air quality issues in the area. 

READ MORE: Mississippi unemployment hovers at ‘no-hire, no-fire’ rate

After spending nearly a year living in professional limbo, former Millsaps College professor James Bowley was terminated from his tenured position in early September. But the saga that began on Nov. 6, 2024, after Bowley’s remarks in the wake of the presidential election, continues. 

Bowley, who taught religious studies, had emailed his class of three students telling them their class had been canceled, “to mourn and process this racist fascist country” after Republican Donald Trump won a second, non-consecutive term as president. The very next day, Bowley was placed on paid administrative leave while the college reviewed his use of an institutional email account “to share personal opinions” with students. 

Throughout the tumultuous grievance and appeals process in the months that followed, Bowley has maintained he does not regret his actions. A faculty grievance committee recommended Bowley be restored, but the college administration and ultimately the board of trustees overruled its decision. 

Now, he’s taking Millsaps to court. 

In his lawsuit filed Sept. 26 in Hinds County Circuit Court, Bowley alleges the college violated its contractual obligations and promises by punishing him for his speech. 

For a tenured professor to be dismissed from employment, Millsaps’ faculty handbook requires documented evidence of “neglect, indifference, incompetence, professional or personal misconduct” that “substantially” impairs the faculty member’s fulfilment of their institutional responsibilities. In its initial decision to dismiss Bowley, the college claimed he was improperly grading assignments, that attendance was being incorrectly logged and that he was neglecting and routinely canceling one of his classes. 

Bowley’s lawsuit says the college fabricated those charges against him after already having made the decision to fire him for his email. 

“What they have done to me is censorship. There’s no other way to define it,” Bowley said in an interview with Mississippi Today. “Once they get away with censorship of one person, then everybody else either protests or self censors.”

A representative for Millsaps confirmed in a statement that the college was aware of the lawsuit. “We believe the facts of this matter will speak clearly during the court process ahead,” said Joey Lee, who is Millsaps’ director of communications and community engagement. 

Bowley’s termination and subsequent lawsuit come amid a nationwide battle over academic freedom, with a spate of faculty firings in universities such as the University of Mississippi, the University of South Dakota, Clemson University and Texas A&M University. There has been pushback by civil liberties organizations such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the ACLU, some of which have also mounted legal challenges to these firings on First Amendment grounds.

“We are concerned that universities and colleges continue limiting the ability of professors to comment on important matters of public concern,” said Joshua Tom on behalf of the ACLU of Mississippi, clarifying that the organization was not commenting specifically on Bowley’s dismissal. “It is important especially in higher education for professors and students to be able to talk about and debate topics from different viewpoints. Firing people results in a shutdown of that opportunity and a worse academy.”

In the days since his termination, Bowley says, he has witnessed an outpouring of support, both from Millsaps alumni and other community groups, but still longs for justice from the courts. 

“I just do not want to be that person who bows down,” Bowley told Mississippi Today. “Freedom of speech, academic freedom – those principles, those ideas, are super important to me, and I’m willing to spend money and put time in to defend them.”