OurTupelo

Attorneys defending Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., the only person to face trial in a welfare fraud scandal that has rocked Mississippi over the last six years, kept their case succinct.

They began Tuesday and rested Wednesday afternoon, the 18th day of trial, after calling just four witnesses. DiBiase opted not to take the stand. On Thursday, the judge will deliver the jury’s instructions, both sides will present closing arguments and jurors will begin deliberating. 

DiBiase, an ex-WWE wrestler turned influencer, is on trial on federal charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, theft and money laundering. From 2017 to 2019, he accepted $3 million in federal funds earmarked to fight poverty after striking up a close friendship with John Davis, who was then the director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Davis had privatized a portion of the agency by pushing tens of millions in grants to two private nonprofits that used the money to pay DiBiase and other athletes.

The defense argued that DiBiase never solicited the money from Davis, but rather that Davis offered it freely. The lawyers sought to show DiBiase did carry out work under his agreements with the nonprofits – no matter how meager the agreed upon deliverables – and that any shortfalls were the result of interference from Davis and unresponsiveness from the nonprofit directors.

According to testimony, two of the defense’s witnesses were in that same boat. Nicholas Coughlin, a business consultant, and Jesse Pierce, a client success manager, were both introduced to opportunities in the welfare arena by DiBiase’s brother, Brett DiBiase. 

Both said they signed on to work for the nonprofits believing their skills – Coughlin’s relationships with industry leaders and Pierce’s passion for fitness and nutrition – would help the nonprofits in their mission to help families reach self-sufficiency. But both testified that the nonprofit directors were hard to reach, impeding them from seeing their vision actualized, despite the fact that they still got paid.

The defense also called businessman Kevin McClendon, who was working with DiBiase to pitch an idea for a phone app to the welfare agency, and New Orleans-based consultant Matthew Theriot, who helped DiBiase form one of his LLCs. 

The prosecution, on the other hand, spent many days over the last several weeks questioning nearly 20 witnesses – including Davis, former DHS employees, nonprofit directors Nancy New and Christi Webb and their former employees, bank executives, federal officials, an assistant attorney general and a forensic auditor with the FBI.

DiBiase’s role with the welfare agency was that of a celebrity promoter. He’d amassed a large following on social media during his time with the WWE. This was the same reason he and Coughlin began working together prior to their welfare dealings. “It quite literally opened any door we needed to get into,” Coughlin said.

But Coughlin also said during questioning by the defense that he wouldn’t have let DiBiase handle the more sophisticated matters of their businesses, such as submitting incorporating paperwork. 

Later, the prosecution tried to rebut this testimony with a text message in which DiBiase told Davis he’d only pretended not to know how to form an LLC or make powerpoints and that he pitied Coughlin.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves allowed the prosecution to read the long, frenzied text to jurors – the last piece of evidence they heard before the parties rested – to the dismay of defense attorney Scott Gilbert, who said the tactic was a blatant violation of DiBiase’s rights.

The prosecution asked for three hours for closing arguments, which amused Gilbert, who indicated the defense wouldn’t need nearly that long. The trial began in January and experienced several delays, with the jury preserved throughout. 
Despite the trial lasting longer than expected, jurors heard from just a fraction of the roughly 80 potential witnesses named at the outset. State Auditor Shad White, whose office investigated the case, and former Gov. Phil Bryant, Davis’ boss, never appeared on the stand.

MORE TRIAL COVERAGE:

Ex-wrestler sought to gamify self-help for poor Mississippians, defense witness testifies in welfare scandal trial

DiBiase defense seeks to discredit witness who testifies the ex-wrestler got federal welfare money but did almost no work 

DiBiase radio ads, conference talks and teen rallies were not in contract for federal welfare funds, Nancy New testifies

Ex-welfare director with ‘two separate personalities’ waffles on the witness stand. Some jurors tire

In trial of ex-wrestler, Mississippi’s former welfare director testifies about appeasing politicians, trying ‘my very best’

Defense for ex-wrestler seeks mistrial in welfare fraud case

Trump faith initiative drove decision to hire wrestler, ex-welfare chief testifies in fraud trial

Welfare director texted wrestler who was his high-paid aide about ‘money bags,’ testimony shows

Feds ask disgraced former welfare director ‘million-dollar question’: Why? Loneliness and love

Opening statements in welfare scandal trial paint former director as villain who doled out millions over infatuation

TRIAL PREVIEW: Ex-WWE wrestler faces feds in first – and potentially only – criminal trial in Mississippi welfare scandal

A federal judge dismissed a former University of Mississippi employee’s lawsuit against Chancellor Glenn Boyce, which claims he violated her First Amendment rights by firing her for comments she shared on social media after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, criticizing the politically far right activist’s stances on issues including gun rights and women’s rights. 

U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson ruled Monday in favor of a motion Boyce had filed to dismiss the lawsuit. Davidson determined that Lauren Stokes, a former executive assistant in the university’s development office, failed to prove that the chancellor violated her constitutional rights. Davidson also ruled that Boyce, in his role as chancellor, is entitled to qualified immunity.

Stokes sued seeking damages, legal fees, and a declaration that Boyce violated her First Amendment rights.

Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10. In a statement issued the next day on behalf of the university, Boyce did not name Stokes, but described the comments she shared as  “hurtful” and “insensitive,” and that they “run completely counter” to the university’s values of “civility, fairness, and respecting the dignity of each person.”

Davidson wrote in his ruling that Stokes, the plaintiff, “cannot rebut the Defendant’s qualified immunity defense because she cannot show her interest in her social media post outweighed the Defendant’s interest in the University’s efficient operation.”

United Campus Workers, which represents higher education employees in Mississippi, raised concerns about Davidson’s ruling and its implications for free speech within the context of ”modern online discourse.” 

In a statement, the union said Davidson also did not adequately consider the merits of Stokes’ claim that Boyce engaged in viewpoint discrimination when, after firing her, he attended a political rally honoring Kirk, the statement read. The “ruling will enable the mob to trump an individual’s right to hold and express contrary political opinions.” 

An Ole Miss spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alysson Mills, Stokes’ attorney, said they plan to appeal the ruling.

“This is not the law as we understand it,” Mills said Wednesday. “This is the heckler’s veto. We intend to appeal to defend the rights of employees at the University of Mississippi.”

The fate of a pilot program to provide public defenders in rural counties — called “a model for the nation” — is now in the hands of a legislative conference committee.

The Mississippi Senate has approved an amended version of House Bill 1930 that includes second-year funding for the three-year pilot program that provides resources for rural counties that lack a robust public defender program. On Wednesday, the House declined to concur on the changes, seeking final negotiations with the Senate.

Wednesday also marked the 63rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that established the right to counsel for people charged with serious crimes who can’t afford a lawyer. 

That 1963 case involved Clarence Gideon, who was convicted after he was forced to represent himself in court. As a result of the ruling, he received a new trial, this time with a court-appointed lawyer. He was acquitted.

The pilot program is taking place in Mississippi’s Fifth Circuit Court District. In Attala, Winston, Montgomery and Grenada counties, these new public defenders are tackling a third of the felony cases. In Carroll, Choctaw and Webster counties, the new defenders are handling cases where conflicts arise.

If the pilot program works, it could be expanded to rural counties across the state. “This is a new program,” State Public Defender André de Gruy said. “We’ve never done anything like this at the local level. Not every county is big enough for a public defender, so this is designed for the 67 counties that are less than 50,000 in population.”

He said the year two request in the original bill is $838,000 to fully fund four lawyers, an investigator and two support staff members. The Senate’s recommendation is to provide $778,677 in funding.

Pamela Metzger, executive director for the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at Southern Methodist University’s law school, called the program “a model for the nation.”

Metzger, whose center collaborated with de Gruy to design the project, called the pilot program “a cut above” what she’s seen in other states. “The pilot office lawyers are working seven days a week to provide Day One representation in seven counties,” she said.

What makes the program different, she said, is these lawyers are getting involved in cases within 24 hours of an arrest and staying involved, “providing continuous representation rather than stop-start representation — a problem in Mississippi and other states.”

In its first five months, Mississippi’s pilot program has represented 84 clients facing felony charges. Because the public defenders became involved early in their clients’ cases, 31 of the case arrests were resolved without a felony conviction, Metzger said.

In another case, the judge originally set a $1 million bond, but after a preliminary hearing, the judge concluded the prosecution’s case was “very, very weak” and reduced the bond to $50,000, she said.

Such legal help creates a “smaller, smarter and fairer system of justice,” she said. “The quality of justice improves.”

The public defenders have also helped 16 clients obtain substance use and mental health treatment.

Only a handful of Mississippi counties currently have a full-time public defender’s office. In counties where boards of supervisors don’t establish a public defender office, the maximum amount an attorney can be paid for a single felony case is $3,000, plus expenses.

The Public Defender Task Force concluded in 2018 that Mississippi “has no permanent institutionalized oversight mechanism to ensure that its constitutional obligation to provide effective counsel to the indigent accused is met in noncapital cases in many of its trial courts.”

According to a 2018 report by the Sixth Amendment Center, Mississippi is the only state in the Southeast that doesn’t have either a statewide public defender system like Arkansas or state oversight like Louisiana. As far as de Gruy said he knows, that is still true.

The report also noted that lawyers hired as public defenders “consistently carry excessive caseloads that prevent the rendering of effective representation.”

Metzger said the pilot program’s success is enabling existing public defenders, who have been overburdened by caseloads, to do their jobs even better.

The Deason Center is gathering data on the pilot program so that lawmakers and others can see how well it works, she said. “Nothing I’ve done in the past has made me more proud than to be associated with the pilot program now going on in Mississippi.”

CLARKSDALE – A large crowd of residents gathered Monday evening at Clarksdale’s Civic Auditorium to ask questions about or voice their thoughts on a proposed data center development. 

Many were excited about the economic benefits that such a large project could bring to the small, financially struggling Delta community.

“We’ve been praying for Clarksdale’s economic turnaround for a long time. And this is a godsend that can turn around Clarksdale,” said business owner Bob Wright. 

Few details have been provided about the proposal, including who the developer is and the size of potential investment. Officials said this is due to the preliminary nature of negotiations.

The town hall came ahead of next week’s Clarksdale Board of Commissioners meeting, when the board will consider a rezoning application for the proposed 648-acre site. 

Officials from the city have stressed that while there have been conversations with a developer, there are currently no agreements in place, and that even if the property is rezoned, the project is not guaranteed.

“Does approving a zoning ordinance mean that the project is absolutely going to happen and that the company is absolutely going to make the investment? No,” said Tray Hairston, a lawyer from Butler Snow hired by the city as a consultant on the project. 

Clarksdale is a historic town known for its contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and as the birthplace of blues music. However, it has struggled economically and experienced a steady population decline, like many other farming towns in the Mississippi Delta.

In 2000, its population was around 20,000; now it is about 14,000. The poverty rate is about 40%, over double the statewide rate. The tax base has eroded with the loss of people. 

In Clinton, a different data center project is estimated to bring in a minimum of $5 million a year in taxes to the city and its school district. Other cities with data center projects have projected tens of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue. In 2021, Clarksdale’s annual general revenue is $12.5 million.

“We need to be able to pay our teachers. We need to be able to improve our facilities. And I think this data center could provide tax revenue that would do that,” said Jason Matthews, a retired public school educator. 

However, some residents raised concerns about noise, energy and water consumption, customer utility rate increases, health risks, or other potential impact from such a project. 

“My concern is about how it will affect the babies, the ears, and the local animals that we have here,” said Patricia White, a retired nurse and lifelong Clarksdale resident. “Money is good. I love money. But I’m concerned about the health of the residents. Why was it chosen? Why was it chosen to be where it is? It’s going to affect us?”

There are five data centers being constructed in Mississippi. Including Clarksdale, there are at least four more centers under consideration.

The city did not make any decisions at the meeting and said that it would work to address the public’s questions and publish its responses. The board is expected to vote on the rezoning of the site at its Monday, March 23 meeting.  

“I think those are legitimate and real and earnest questions that we have to answer,” said Hairston.

Editor’s note: Tray Hairston, an attorney with Butler Snow, serves on the Board of Directors of Deep South Today, the parent company of Mississippi Today.

Though school choice talks have stalled this session, bills regarding a state tax program that incentivizes Mississippians to donate to private schools have now passed both chambers of the Legislature and head to final negotiations. 

Since 2020, private schools and foster care organizations have been receiving money through the Children’s Promise Act, which gives donors a dollar-for-dollar tax credits for up to 50% of the donor’s state tax liability. 

The program, passed in 2019, was originally billed by House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, as a way to give money to nonprofit organizations that care for foster children. But a provision to give tax credits to private school donors was quietly included in the bill. 

READ MORE: House tax credit bill would send more public dollars to private schools

Half of the program’s tax-credits are earmarked for people and organizations that donate to foster care service organizations. The other tax credits are available to donors to private or special purpose schools that have any students in the foster care system, students with chronic illnesses or disabilities or students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

Lamar has unsuccessfully tried for years to raise the cap on the program, which is currently set at $18 million a year in total. This year’s attempt — a provision in House Bill 1944 that would’ve increased the program’s cap to $40 million by 2028 — has failed thus far. 

The Senate on Tuesday passed an amended version of House Bill 1944, Lamar’s bill, that removed the provision that would have raised the cap on the tax credit program. However, the amended bill would still add money to the program by creating a separate category and allowing more tax credits for the state’s special purpose schools.

The amendment would separate schools in the second category, creating three buckets of eligible organizations — nonprofit foster care organizations, special purpose schools and private schools — and creating an additional $6 million in tax credits for special purpose schools.

That means next year nonprofit foster care organizations would be eligible for $8 million, private schools would be eligible for $8 million and special purpose schools would be eligible for $6 million.

An amendment offered by Democratic Sen. David Blount of Jackson would have removed private schools from the program, but kept nonprofits that serve foster youth and kept special purpose schools that serve students with disabilities.

“By setting up a separate bucket for the special purpose schools, the effect of that is you are giving more tax credits to private schools because they’ve got their own bucket,” he said. “What the amendment would do is it would protect and completely hold harmless the nonprofit groups in your community that you care about.”

Blount’s amendment failed by a thin margin. House Bill 1944 will now head to negotiations between the two chambers, where it can still be amended — a concern longtime Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, voiced on the floor. 

“I’m very confused about the finances of the state,” he said. “We’ve got to be careful about how much money we send to school teachers now because the budget’s real tight and we can’t afford that, but now we’re back on another tax credit to send money to private schools and suddenly we’ve got enough money to do that. You can understand why I’m confused.”

The bill’s passage comes at the tail end of a legislative session headlined by education policy. School choice proposals that would allow parents to spend state tax dollars on private schools have died, but teacher pay raise bills in both chambers have been hotly contested and remain alive. 

And another bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday appears to include language pertaining to the Children’s Promise Act.

House Bill 4067, a bond bill that would potentially fund millions of dollars in projects across the state, includes the section of state law about the Children’s Promise Act. That means it could also be amended during negotiations between the chambers. 

Additionally, an amendment that would have added language pertaining to the Children’s Promise Act was rejected on the House floor last week.

Lamar on Tuesday couldn’t recall where else he had filed that language, but told Mississippi Today that he has filed the bill in multiple ways because there’s a great need for the program across the state. 

“If you’ve been around this process a while, it’s the same reason a diaper tax just got put in the tractor tax,” he said, referring to amendments on the House floor on Tuesday that included an exemption on sales taxes for diaper purchases. “It just happens … I don’t know what to tell you.”

Lamar tried similar tactics in 2025, when he inserted the Children’s Promise Act in various Senate bills after the original bill was killed. 

“It’s just a great piece of legislation that does a lot of good and hurts no one,” he said. “It defies common sense and logic for anybody to be against the bill.”

What would help solve generational poverty in Mississippi? 

Phone apps, according to a witness who testified Tuesday in the ongoing trial of former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase, who is charged in a welfare misspending case.

On the 17th day of the trial, which has had several pauses since it began in early January, the prosecution rested its case after it finished questioning a forensic accountant for the FBI. The defense called its first witness, Kevin McClendon, co-founder and former CEO of Birmingham-based marketing agency Telegraph Creative. 

McClendon testified that he met DiBiase more than a decade ago and not long afterward, he was introduced to John Davis, the then-director of Mississippi Department of Human Services. 

In 2017, Davis brought DiBiase into the fold of the welfare agency, helping the ex-wrestler secure a $3 million windfall of federal public assistance funds. Prosecutors say DiBiase was paid under sham agreements while the defense argues he was a legitimate contractor.

Davis pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges in 2022 and DiBiase is on trial for charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, theft and money laundering.

Davis and DiBiase bonded over God, fitness and a number of pie-in-the-sky supposed anti-poverty initiatives – such as the idea for two phone apps. They wanted to develop one of the apps to encourage better fitness and nutrition among welfare recipients and another to reach troubled teens with Bible verses.

These projects represent just a sliver of the overall welfare scandal, which occurred when DHS outsourced tens of millions of its functions to two nonprofit organizations running an initiative called Families First for Mississippi. Those entities then squandered the money on the pet projects of politicians and celebrities.

McClendon said DiBiase approached him with the idea of developing the first app called Get Fit and that they spent six months developing a pitch deck. Part of DiBiase’s defense strategy is to show that DiBiase attempted to conduct work under his agreements with the nonprofits.

DiBiase was instrumental with the app, McClendon said, not because he had any tech development capabilities but because he would convince Mississippi celebrities to sign onto the project and film video content – guided workout plans and cooking lessons – that would be used within the app. 

“The purpose of this application was to gamify the work that MDHS was doing, you know, essentially to break the cycle of poverty within the state,” McClendon said.

McClendon said the state’s goal was also to collect data on residents, such as where they purchase food.

The pitch deck included plans to feature DiBiase, Archie Manning, Cat Cora and Jerry Rice inside the app, though McClendon admitted he didn’t know if DiBiase had received commitments from any of them. To unlock the content, users would complete “challenges” such as the “forget fried challenge,” McClendon explained, with an explainer of how to bake okra instead of frying it.

“Let me just say, baked okra sounds terrible,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Fulcher said on cross examination.

The prosecution presented evidence of payments between companies controlled by McClendon and DiBiase. Telegraph paid one of DiBiase’s companies, Priceless Ventures, more than $7,000 in 2017. In 2018, Priceless paid one of McClendon’s companies, Nonfiction, $25,000. On that check, the “for” line read “INFLCR.” McClendon said he couldn’t remember the reason behind either of those payments.

Priceless wrote another check for $50,000 to a separate company, INFLCR LLC, for “investment.” McClendon said he had nothing to do with that payment.

INFLCR was an app developed primarily to help athletes post content to promote themselves on social media. Both Mississippi State University and University of Southern Mississippi partnered with that company. 

Additionally, Mississippi Today’s review of a forensic audit shows Mississippi’s welfare agency directly paid Telegraph $57,500 in 2017-2018 for a “6-week audit of the external and internal marketing and communications strategy for MDHS.” Forensic auditors found the payment was allowable but the agency should have used funds other than welfare dollars to pay for it.

Beyond DiBiase’s contracts with the nonprofits, the welfare agency also provided subgrants to DiBiase’s father’s Christian ministry called Heart of David. The ministry, which pitched the app for teens in partnership with Families First, also paid Telegraph $110,000 for web design and maintenance. On Heart of David’s pitch deck, the organization said it planned to leverage the INFLCR platform to help its mentors elevate their personal brand to expand reach.

At one point, McClendon said his company made a pitch to MDHS for nearly $2 million to develop the app. It was not accepted and the project never materialized. McClendon left Telegraph Creative in February 2020.

The prosecution’s last witness was FBI forensic accountant Matthew Auckerman, who analyzed DiBiase’s personal bank accounts as well as the accounts for his companies, Priceless Ventures and Familiae Orientem. Auckerman also analyzed the accounts of the welfare-funded nonprofits who paid DiBiase – Family Resource Center and Mississippi Community Education Center. These nonprofits had received tens of millions of dollars, mostly from a federal program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and a smaller amount from the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program. 

Auckerman described shell companies as “hollow inside” – absent of expenses or employees and often used to shield unlawful activity.

“It is my expert opinion that Priceless Ventures and Familiae Orientem were shell companies,” he said.

Auckerman testified about his analysis of records from bank accounts controlled by the nonprofits and DiBiase. He outlined how nearly $3 million flowed from the two nonprofits to accounts associated with DiBiase’s LLCs. From those accounts, Auckerman said he found purchases of a $55,000 pontoon boat, a $40,000 truck, and nearly $31,000 worth of country club fees and golf equipment.

But Auckerman said the majority of the money doled out to the LLCs  – $2.7 million – was transferred to other personal bank accounts controlled by DiBiase. From there, Auckerman’s analysis showed the money flowed toward the purchase of a 6,000-foot home in Madison and into a high-dollar investment account.

Auckerman also analyzed DiBiase’s personal income and expenses prior to his work with the welfare agency. 

Auckerman’s analysis showed that in the three and a half years prior to DiBiase contracting with the nonprofits, the bank accounts controlled by him and his wife saw average monthly deposits of around $10,000. In 2018, his biggest year with the welfare agency, that amount rose to about $200,000 a month.

Auckerman said he did not observe a great difference in the types of expenses in those two time periods, such as new office rentals and supplies associated with his LLCs. He said he did see large increases to retail shopping and entertainment and recreation purchases, such as luxury vacations.

From the outset of the welfare scandal breaking in 2020, defendants highlighted what they saw as a problem with the case: The nonprofits had commingled their federal grant funds with other operating revenue, making it hard to know to which purchases federal rules actually applied.

At one point in Auckerman’s analysis of Family Resource Center’s bank account, for example, he identified that less than half of the money in there was from federal sources.

When DiBiase’s lawyer Sidney Lampton questioned Auckerman on cross-examination, she focused on whether the forensic accountant could confirm whether the federal government was the original source of the money associated with the payments from the nonprofits to DiBiase. In several instances, Auckerman said the payments were traced back to other sources. The prosecution retorted that an intent to use federal funds outweighed whether every dollar was traceable to federal funds.

The defense on Wednesday called its second witness, New Orleans-based consultant Matt Theriot, who helped DiBiase form one of his LLCs. He testified that it is commonplace for people with multiple businesses to form LLCs, which have no employees, to protect against liability. 

MORE TRIAL COVERAGE:

DiBiase defense seeks to discredit witness who testifies the ex-wrestler got federal welfare money but did almost no work 

DiBiase radio ads, conference talks and teen rallies were not in contract for federal welfare funds, Nancy New testifies

Ex-welfare director with ‘two separate personalities’ waffles on the witness stand. Some jurors tire

In trial of ex-wrestler, Mississippi’s former welfare director testifies about appeasing politicians, trying ‘my very best’

Defense for ex-wrestler seeks mistrial in welfare fraud case

Trump faith initiative drove decision to hire wrestler, ex-welfare chief testifies in fraud trial

Welfare director texted wrestler who was his high-paid aide about ‘money bags,’ testimony shows

Feds ask disgraced former welfare director ‘million-dollar question’: Why? Loneliness and love

Opening statements in welfare scandal trial paint former director as villain who doled out millions over infatuation

TRIAL PREVIEW: Ex-WWE wrestler faces feds in first – and potentially only – criminal trial in Mississippi welfare scandal

Correction 3/18/26: This story has been updated to reflect the correct charges to which Davis pleaded guilty: fraud and conspiracy.

World Series Game Seven winner Jay Powell, the former Mississippi State great, joins the podcast to talk Mississippi college baseball, the World Baseball Classic and Konnor Griffin.

Stream all episodes here.

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.

For decades, Mississippi child care advocates have exposed the broken system that parents of young children have struggled to navigate. The problems appear so overwhelming that it is difficult to know where to begin to fix an early childhood education program that is so vital to the state’s economic success.

Yet, there is in reality a fix that does not require additional state funding. The problem could be solved to a large extent by freeing up unspent federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds to be used for child care.

But through the years, misinformation, lack of transparency and warring political ideologies have resulted in the lack of support for freeing up the TANF funds.

The current income level is 85% or below the state median income, or $51,424 for a family of four, to receive financial assistance for child care. This fact directly contradicts public opinion that programs administered through the Mississippi Department of Human Services are entitlement programs to support non-working families.

That perception is simply incorrect. The federal law to support low-income workers and those seeking employment, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Child Care Development Block Grant, both require parents to work, be in school or serving as a foster parent. These programs exist to support working families by offsetting some of the high costs of child care.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government recognized that child care was essential for keeping parents in the workforce. As a result, approximately $200 million was allocated to the Mississippi Department of Human Services to distribute to eligible child care centers to continue serving parents. The grants extended for several years until the funds were spent.

While the special COVID-era child care funding being provided by the federal government has ended, the overall child care funds being allocated to Mississippi are approximately the same as before COVID. Even with the return of the funding to the pre-Covid era levels, we still have viable solutions to the child care crisis .

It is in large part decisions made within the state Department of Human Services that have resulted in a waiting list of about 20,000 families who need child care to work. The TANF funds could be freed up to be used to offset the loss of federal COVID funds and ease or even eliminate the waiting list.

It makes sense to do so. Numerous surveys conducted by business associations and research centers support the critical need for child care. In 2024, the Mississippi Economic Council surveyed members and found 77% of the businesses reported child care as a problem and 44% said it was their biggest problem.

When the COVID funding ended, many child care programs lost the support that helped them remain open. As a result, some families were forced to leave the workforce because they could no longer find or afford reliable care.

In 2025, after the funds were depleted, more Mississippi child care programs closed than during any other time in recent memory, leaving a void in available child care.

The situation should not be so bleak. For years, the state Department of Human Services has not allocated all funding the state received through the federal TANF program designed to help low-income families. Millions of dollars remain with no explanation as to why the funds are not being used to relieve the child care crisis.

Rumors have been rampant as to why the money is not transferred from one program to another. The lack of full disclosure by the state Department of Human Services makes it hard to know how much is going unused annually.

After several years of the argument that the federal regulations do not allow it, state Human Services officials finally revealed the money can be legally used for child care through a direct spending transfer.

When asked several months ago by Senate Public Health Committee Chairman Hob Bryan why the state chooses not to use the TANF funds for child care, Mississippi Department of Human Services Executive Director Robert Anderson said he would investigate. Bryan asked if help was needed since this was such a serious situation. Bryan was told no.

The amount of money in the TANF account is thought to be over $100 million, but the true current figure has not been released. Figures reveal the amount needed for eligible families and to keep the child care centers in business is $60 million.

Moving the money does not require a law or state appropriation. The director can approve the transfer. No additional funding is needed this year if the transfer is made. 

To avoid a future child care crisis, there is a need for a state law requiring unspent federal TANF funds to be legally transferred annually to child care programs. This one act will eliminate the stress on child care businesses and families.

This one act can pay off big time. If just 7% of parents who are not working due to child care challenges entered the workforce, the state would stand to make $1.2 billion a year.

The state pays nothing. Yet the return would be enormous. There is no reasonable explanation why this is not done immediately. It is up to Gov. Tate Reeves and Human Services Director Anderson to provide the leadership.

Parents, businesses and child care directors are waiting.

Bio: Cathy Grace is the early childhood specialist at the North Mississippi Education Consortium. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 50 years as a first -grade teacher, consultant to state and nonprofit agencies and child care programs. Grace taught early childhood education at four state universities and retired from Mississippi State University as professor emerita. She also directed the planning and implementation of public kindergarten while employed at the Mississippi Department of Education. She has worked in Washington as an early childhood advocate and presented research numerous times at state, regional and national conferences. 

Clinton residents who came out to the city’s municipal court building Monday night offered varied reactions to a new data center local officials recently announced. The development is one of the latest in a surge of recently announced data center projects in Mississippi.

Many of the speakers at Monday’s meeting expressed hope the city will finally earn revenue from a building that for years went unused, while others focused on limited information as well as a high energy demand.

“I’m cautiously optimistic about this,” said Shea Whitfield, who said his family has lived in Hinds County for six generations. “What good is an industrial park if we don’t bring industry into it?”

The center is set to move into a facility on Industrial Road Drive, just north of I-20 and west of downtown Clinton.

Mayor Will Purdie said he expected to be able to release more details on the project “in the next few weeks.” The property had been a Milwaukee Tool facility from 2021 to 2023, but before that was a wiring plant that closed in 2009.

Clinton leaders have yet to reveal the new owner, but on March 4, WLBT reported that Amazon would own the data center, according to records it obtained.

Purdie said the facility will be “air cooled,” meaning it won’t need the large amounts of water other data centers use to prevent equipment from overheating. The data center in Clinton will also connect to the Entergy grid, meaning it won’t have the same air or noise pollution concerns brought up in places like Southaven, he added.

He also shared projections for city revenue from a fee-in-lieu of taxes, or FILOT, agreement with the company: In the first year, the Clinton Public School District stands to receive $3 million, and the city’s budget is set to receive an additional $2 million. Purdie said those annual gains will decrease over the next decade before climbing back up in year 11. The project will also create 50 permanent jobs as well as 800 to 1,000 temporary construction positions, the mayor said.

Another resident, Jill Hiers, was concerned the immense amount of energy the center will need will “tank” the local power grid if more transmission lines aren’t built. She also said the city should focus on bringing in businesses that will have more engagement with the local community.

“We want to bring people that will, you know, sponsor our Little League team,” Hiers said. “This is not that. It will bring some money into our city, it will not bring a good steward to our city.”

Tia McArthur, an insurance broker, said the data center will bring an “exponential” increase to local tax collections. Still, McArthur recognized that only having limited details about the project arouses suspicion among locals.

“We do need to have an honest discussion, we should avoid all appearances of evil,” she told the mayor and Board of Aldermen. “When you can and what you can, please disclose with the public.”

Resident Greg Dreaper questioned how much research city officials had done before approving the FILOT agreement in January.

“What I don’t see is how y’all are making decisions, whether it’s percentages (of the company’s revenue going back to the city) or whether it’s environmental impacts,” Dreaper said. “ I would like to see those studies and those numbers so that we can make educated decisions.”

An out-of-state businessman is one step closer to his goal of building a manufacturing facility behind the Metrocenter Mall after the Jackson City Council voted to approve his rezoning request on Monday. 

However, he may no longer own some of the land he wants to build on after years of failing to pay property taxes. 

Christopher Jones, a South Carolina businessman, wants to build a small industrial facility behind the abandoned mall in west Jackson to manufacture recycled plastic foam and concrete blocks through his company, BioCrete Global Manufacturing. 

If it comes to fruition, the project would bring economic development to a part of Mississippi’s capital city virtually bereft of industry. Jones has said that this project would be phase one of his larger plan to revitalize the area.

But after Jones repeatedly failed to pay years of property taxes, two of the three parcels he asked the city council to rezone became state-owned, tax-forfeited property last year, according to the Hinds County landroll. 

The secretary of state’s office confirmed on Monday that the state owns the two parcels. Jones is set to lose the third parcel to the state this fall if he does not pay his back taxes. 

Jones says he paid part of the taxes but the county made administrative missteps that have made him distrustful of the process so he is waiting for pending litigation to pay the remainder.

The businessman is now suing Hinds County and the state of Mississippi to regain his ownership of the vacant lots. While the county is not contesting the lawsuit, Jones is facing opposition from the attorney general’s office. 

Despite the legal issues, the council on Monday voted 6-0 to approve the rezoning request – from mixed use to industrial – after asking no questions about Jones’ ownership of the lots. Several of Jones’ trainees, many of whom were wearing name tags and white lab coats, broke out into loud applause after the vote.  

“We are not in danger of not doing what we say we are going to do,” Jones told the council. “So we are going to do it no matter what, no matter if we get the participation that we need. We’re dug into this. We have a lot of investment already, and we just can’t see it fail.” 

After the meeting, Ward 5 council member Vernon Hartley said he didn’t ask about Jones’ unpaid taxes because the businessman had included a warranty deed with his rezoning application that he submitted to the city in January. 

When Mississippi Today told Hartley the county landroll shows the state of Mississippi owns two of the three parcels that Jones wants to redevelop, the councilman said he did not want the city to be the reason a project fails. 

“We’re going to allow it to go until it doesn’t go,” Hartley said. 

Ward 2 council member Tina Clay said she was not aware that Jones was delinquent on his taxes but that she still would have voted for the rezoning. If Jones’ proposal falls through, Clay reasoned the rezoning could help another future developer. 

“I mean, we zoned the land, we didn’t zone him,” she said.

Ester Ainsworth, the city’s zoning administrator, said the legal department spoke with Jones about the unpaid taxes but that she hasn’t seen anything on the landroll showing ownership has changed. 

“That’s something that’s going to have to be worked out in another realm,” she said. “Like I said, the information that we have shows that he does (own the parcels).”

The warranty deed shows that Jones purchased the property in 2022, but he has failed to pay his taxes since, according to the landroll. 

Like many property owners who lose land through Mississippi’s notoriously dysfunctional tax sale process, Jones is alleging that he never received proper notice the county was going to put his property up for sale. 

This argument often works in Mississippi courts, since many counties do not provide owners with a certified notice their property will be in a tax sale — a routine process through which individuals and limited liability companies bid on properties with unpaid taxes in exchange for a future interest they can use as leverage to get the original owner to repay back taxes. 

In the case of Jones’ lots, no one bid on the parcels, so they were “struck” to the state in 2023. Jones had until last year to maintain his clear ownership of the properties by paying the back taxes, but he didn’t do that. 

Hinds County is not contesting the lawsuit. But the attorney general’s office is putting up a fight, filing a motion last month that Jones should not be able to argue he never received notice because he didn’t need one – since he’s known for years about the unpaid taxes. 

“Christopher Jones is coming to the Court with unclean hands, as he knew that he would have to redeem the subject tax parcels … or they would mature to the State of Mississippi,” Nancy Morse Parkes, a special assistant to the attorney general, wrote in the March 6 motion. 

Parkes’ basis for alleging this was a statement she said Jones made to her “off the record” following a court proceeding last year – also concerning Jones’ unpaid property taxes – in which he stated “that he would pay all of the taxes.” 

The parcels on which Jones intends to build the manufacturing facility are lots of cracked and barren concrete behind the Metrocenter. Rezoning them was a key step in Jones’ yearslong efforts to redevelop part of the dilapidated mall in west Jackson. 

To gin up support, Jones has held press conferences and employment fairs, claiming the facility will create 200 jobs along Jackson’s U.S. 80 corridor.  

“We know that this’ll be a gamechanger,” he told Mississippi Today, adding that “Jackson and Hinds County could benefit very well from the workforce here getting some really good jobs in the city.” 

Jones said that he intends to pay the back taxes on the property after he receives a court order establishing that he is the rightful owner. He called the tax sales “an adverse taking.” 

“There was a lot of dispute concerning the property and the taxes and notifications,” he said. “All those things were helter skelter, everything was all over the place, no clarification or anything, and so the clerk did not perform the duties as outlined by statute.” 

The businessman added that he doesn’t trust the system in Hinds County because he did in fact pay a sliver of the back taxes he owes – about $1,900 on one of the parcels last fall. He said he didn’t understand why the county once again sent the parcel to a tax sale. 

A review of the landroll shows that’s because Jones paid just one year of back taxes on one parcel, when he in fact owed three years of taxes for three parcels. The total owed amounted to nearly $20,000, according to the landrolls.  

“Yeah, I don’t understand the process, that’s what I’m saying,” Jones told Mississippi Today. “I don’t understand the process in Mississippi. If you pay the money, then everything should clear out and it shouldn’t take months to do that, but when I paid that small amount and nothing happened, it continued to still reflect the tax situation for that year.” 

This is not the first time big plans have been proposed for the former Metrocenter property. In 2022, WLBT reported a woman who purchased the Metrocenter Mall and pledged to revitalize it was arrested on a warrant out of Jefferson County in southwest Mississippi for failing to pay restitution on a 2013 conviction for false pretenses.

“We cannot go through any more trauma of hearing projects being announced, projects being proposed and not following through on them,” said Ricky Jones, the president of the West Jackson Community Improvement Association, describing his hesitations about BioCrete’s project, even as he spoke in favor of it at the council meeting. 

Metrocenter opened in 1978. At the time, it was “Mississippi’s largest and most complete under-one-roof shopping center,” according to the Clarion-Ledger. 

Activity at the shopping center began to decline in the 2000s, a trend suffered by many malls across America, but in Jackson it was accelerated by white flight and divestment from the city’s western and southern areas. 

Big stores moved out, and while there were attempts to revive it, the 1,250,000-square-foot mall shut its doors completely in 2022. 

“I don’t know what it is about the Metrocenter, but nothing goes smoothly,” Christopher Jones said.