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New Orleans community leaders and politicians, including Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, U.S. Rep. Troy Carter and former Mayor Mark Morial, hosted a press conference Friday to demand that federal immigration agents deployed to New Orleans be more transparent and humane in their tactics. 

The press conference followed a letter sent earlier in the day by City Council to Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino with five specific demands for the recently-launched immigration sweep dubbed “Catahoula Crunch,” taking place in parts of Louisiana and south Mississippi.

The council asked agents to report data including number of arrests made and criminal history of detainees, ensure due process, require officers to be identified and unmasked, disavow discriminatory stops and provide medical care and language services to detainees. 

The demands from the City Council come less than a week into the operation, which has led to widespread unease among New Orleans’ sizable immigrant population as individuals have been stopped, detained and even chased at their places of employment, homes and churches. 

“We stand here with an obligation to ensure that federal operations are conducted with transparency, constitutionally and with respect for local residents,” Moreno said. 

As anxiety over the operation continues to rise, multiple leaders spoke about the economic impact to New Orleans’ large hospitality and tourism industries, noting concerns of workers not showing up for fear of being detained or deported. 

Carter represents Louisiana’s 2nd District, which includes New Orleans. He decried any operations that create fear and confusion for families, workers and businesses. 

“We want federal partners, we just don’t want occupation,” Carter said. “We want them to work with us, not around us.” 

City Council members in New Orleans, a Democratic stronghold in a deeply Republican state, have grappled with the legal limitations of their power to push back against federal agents, in part because of laws and policies enacted by Louisiana’s conservative state government, such as a recently passed Louisiana law that prohibits interference with federal immigration agents. Moreno said that she felt they were requesting only basic transparency data, which she said she views as reasonable. 

The clash between local, state and federal officials continues as Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill posted a letter sent to New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, where Murrill wrote that she recommended Kirkpatrick order NOPD officers to cooperate with ICE. 

Earlier in the week, the council published a web page where people can anonymously upload footage that depicts any alleged abuses from federal immigration agents. The page also includes materials to educate people on their rights in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, which states that the NOPD will not ask people about their immigration status. 

Speakers at the press conference urged continued transparency and community collaboration as operation Catahoula Crunch moves forward. 

Council President JP Morrell pushed back against the reasoning behind the quota announced by Border Patrol — to arrest 5,000 people in New Orleans.

“I do not believe you are here for the reason you say you are here but you have an opportunity to prove me wrong,” he said in reference to federal immigration agents. “Provide this information that’s being requested by the New Orleans City Council. … Until then, this council will continue to use all the resources available to us, legal and otherwise, and make sure that the citizens of this city are protected.”

This article was originally published by Verite News in New Orleans, which is part of Deep South Today, the nonprofit news organization that includes Mississippi Today.

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether it should revive a lawsuit from a Mississippi man convicted of violating a local protest ordinance outside the Brandon Amphitheater after authorities said he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker. 

Gabriel Olivier describes himself as an evangelical preacher and alleges the city of Brandon, a suburb in the Jackson Metro area, improperly restricted his religious and free-speech rights. 

But lower courts have ruled a legal quirk may prevent him from challenging the city’s regulations in court.

Olivier also frequently protested outside Mississippi’s only abortion clinic before it closed in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court, using a Mississippi case, overturned abortion rights nationwide. In 2021, Olivier stood outside the Brandon amphitheater, a popular concert venue, waving posters with pictures of aborted fetuses, passing out fliers and using a loudspeaker to get his message out.

Police in Brandon arrested Olivier and charged him with breaking a recently passed city ordinance that confined protests to a designated area near the theater. Olivier pleaded no contest to the charges, received a fine, and was placed on probation.

After Olivier pleaded no contest to the charges, he filed a civil lawsuit against the city seeking to overturn its protest ordinances. But a prior Supreme Court precedent, Heck v. Humphrey, places strict limits on when criminal defendants can file civil rights lawsuits that relate to their conviction. 

The city of Brandon in court papers argues its regulations aren’t about the content of the speech, but rather about limiting disturbances caused when he and his group yelled insults such as “Jezebel,” “nasty,” and “drunkards” at people passing by.

A district court and the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Olivier and sided with the city, but the Supreme Court will have the final say.  

The nation’s high court heard arguments in the case on Wednesday is expected to issue a ruling in the summer. 

Editor’s note: Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share ideas about our state’s past, present and future. The ongoing Brain Drain series is part of that effort. You can read more about the Ideas section here.

Nearly 6,500 people have filled out our brain drain survey to date, which is more than we could have imagined when our three organizations – Mississippi Today, the University of Mississippi’s Center for Population Studies and Working Together Mississippi’s Rethink Mississippi initiative – began developing this project.

Responses have come from people living in 76 of Mississippi’s 82 counties and 48 of 50 states (looking at you, North and South Dakota). We have also received responses from Mississippi expats living in 17 countries.

The most important takeaway from the survey is obvious without even looking at the results: Many people care deeply about Mississippi’s future, even if they live far away. 

Our work is not done. We are still collecting responses, so if you haven’t taken the survey yet, we invite you to take a few minutes to fill it out now. If you have taken it but haven’t shared it with your friends and family, we’d love for you to do so. 

Every additional response moves us a step closer to the goal of finding solutions to the brain drain. There are many theories, but the only way to know what will actually work is for you to tell us. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or where you live now – we even want to hear from people who have never been to Mississippi. After all, Mississippi’s brain drain is the result of thousands of personal and family decisions, and each individual response tells us how our state can retain, recruit or return at least one more person.

We know that many of you have lengthier thoughts about Mississippi than could fit in the confines of the survey. We will soon start contacting people who volunteered to be interviewed to hear your stories and learn more about your ideas for making the state a place that you and others want to call home. We will also be convening community conversations around the state and in places that Mississippians have moved, so if you signed up for our mailing list, be on the lookout for information about when we will be in your area. 

Reversing the brain drain will take a collective effort, so we will make as much of the data available to the public as possible. The demographic experts at the Center for Population Studies will continue to dig into the data as it comes in, and we will release more updates ahead of a final report in the new year. All of our findings will be published through Mississippi Today and www.rethinkms.org. 

Below you’ll find an update on the results we’ve received so far. They could change as more responses come in. In fact, we hope they do – that will mean we’re reaching new people who have different priorities and perspectives. We have received responses from a diverse range of places, identities, ideologies and professions, but our current sample is whiter, more female, more highly-educated and more left-leaning than the general population. Additional responses will help us achieve a more representative snapshot and delve more deeply into specific geographies and subgroups. 

Below are select responses to just a few questions in the survey.

Describe why you stayed in Mississippi or moved back.

“This is my home. I want to make it better. My family lives here.”

“I love Mississippi and it can’t get better if everyone leaves. Investment and buy-in is very important.”

“I lived away from Mississippi during college and after college for about 15 years. I moved back to raise my children in a solidly conservative area surrounded by family and rooted in traditions of the land.”

“Despite its flaws, Mississippi is really a great place to live and raise a family.”

“I have always lived in Mississippi because I want to be near my family. I love Mississippi despite its struggles, and Mississippi has many wonderful people. Unfortunately those people aren’t the ones in charge. So our state, the poorest state in the country, cannot move forward due to the people in power.”

Describe why you moved away from Mississippi.

“I moved away because it was the only way to find a job in my field.”

“Job opportunities, access to people my age and to experience different cultures I now live in a city with walkability and access to public transit. I do not own a car and biking is my primary mode of transit which I could not do in Mississippi.”

“The people are too close minded, lack of job opportunities, poor infrastructure, poor leadership, there aren’t enough social activities, too much poverty, terrible healthcare system, high crime, poor water quality in Jackson. A lot of these issues stem from racism.”

“My politics beliefs do not align with the state, and as a result, my job prospects were slim to none in my field as I work in politics. I got my undergrad education in Mississippi but moved to pursue my masters to give me the best chance of finding a job I love.”

“Lack of economic opportunity. Lack of diversity in ideas and beliefs. Felt oppressive. Lack of access to health care and transportation.”

What ideas do you have for making your community and/or Mississippi a more attractive place to live for others?

“We have to have people stay here and be invested. We need investment to help make Jackson better. Rural health care and access HAS to improve.”

“Build the capital. For example, downtown Jackson has way too much potential for it not to be more bustling. Improve public transportation in our capital city and surrounding neighborhoods. Survey and take care of the needs of those with the least resources.”

“We have to be more accepting of all people, help people who are not able to pull themselves up due to generational poverty, and find a way to improve education in underperforming rural areas.”

“Better public access to parks and recreational areas in good repair. Mississippi has this, they should lean into it with better upkeep and advertise it.”

“Elect younger and more progressive leadership. Work with state and regional leaders as much as practical to gain benefits for Jackson.”

What state and/or local changes could encourage you to move back to Mississippi?

“Improving incentives for first time home buyers to make it more accessible and making in-state college tuition more affordable.”

“Tightening up public corruption laws so that our tax dollars actually go where they are designated.”

“More opportunities for professional jobs. I think the state should invest in small businesses through legislation that promotes the use of in-state businesses as well as incubators to foster more small businesses, particularly tech and expertise driven fields. I see engineering and scientific contracts awarded to companies that have few or no employees in this state.”

“Better access to women’s health care, more walkable cities, attention to climate change and the health of the environment.”

“The enemy of the state isn’t diversity, minorities, the poor, or immigrants. What’s holding us back is clinging to a past we should be ashamed of and fear instilled by the politicians who have nothing of any substance to offer so they peddle fear to the weak minded to stay in office and enrich themselves.”

Jake McGraw leads the Rethink Mississippi initiative at Working Together Mississippi, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization of nonprofits and religious institutions across the state. He began researching and writing about the brain drain when he moved back to Mississippi more than a decade ago. A native of Oxford, he studied public policy and economics at the University of Mississippi and economic history at Oxford University. You can reach him at j.mcgraw@workingtogetherms.org. 

At least 60 people arrested in Hinds County have been jailed in its detention facilities for over three months — including at least five for more than a year — with no indictment filed against them and no pathway to a trial in sight.

One man has been in jail for 18 months on drug charges without an indictment and has no attorney to move his case along, according to court records reviewed by The Marshall Project – Jackson.

Mississippi is one of the few states where people can be jailed indefinitely without indictment, a critical step to send a case to a judge or a jury. This gap has deepened the overcrowding, violence and dysfunction that put Raymond Detention Center — the county’s primary jail — under federal control in the first place.

The lengthy detentions in Hinds County have been caused by multiple issues, including an increased Capitol Police force in Jackson, an overwhelmed state crime lab, and a shortage of prosecutors and public defenders to handle the backlog of cases. 

The federal receiver operating the Raymond Detention Center has warned the county district attorney that the jail cannot be fixed while people remain locked up without a way to get to court.

In a letter obtained by The Marshall Project – Jackson, federal receiver Wendell M. France wrote to Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens telling him that holding so many people is costly for county taxpayers and is impeding France’s ability to fix the jail’s problems. France, who took over the jail on Oct. 1, asked Owens to address the delays in prosecution immediately. 

“Overcrowding affects housing, safety, and services,” France wrote. “Staff and funding that should be directed toward facility improvements are instead consumed managing extended pretrial stays.” 

As part of the court’s receivership agreement, France is barred from making public statements about his work. 

More than half of the unindicted detainees were arrested on violent crime charges, including rape, murder and aggravated assault. Others were charged with nonviolent offenses, including burglary and drug possession. 

One detainee, LaDarius Moore, was arrested more than six months ago and is being held on a $7.5 million bond, one of the highest in the county’s history. As of Dec. 1, he has not been indicted. 

In a handwritten note to Judge Debra Gibbs, Moore asked for his day in court. “I have lost my job after being in here for 6 months. My kids mother can’t afford to feed them without SNAP benefits on her own and they really need me to take care of them. I respectfully ask you to consider my family responsibilities.”

Moore faces charges of aggravated assault, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and 12 counts of armed robbery. His court file shows no response from the judge and no upcoming court date.

‘You’re risking life and limb in the Hinds County jail.’

Hinds County’s indictment delays reflect a statewide problem, said André de Gruy, the state public defender. The Marshall Project – Jackson previously reported on a case in Pike County, in which a man was incarcerated for nearly 18 months before being indicted.

A federal judge appointed France in 2022 after the county repeatedly failed to comply with a Justice Department agreement to address rampant violence, understaffing, a steady flow of drugs into the facility, and poor record-keeping that kept detainees there long past their court-ordered release dates. Appeals delayed France’s start until this October.

More than a decade after the Justice Department first brought its case, reports of inhumane conditions still abound. Detainees at Raymond reported living in darkness, being extorted to use the restrooms and sleeping on filthy floors. Earlier this year, a man was killed inside the jail and two others died of drug overdoses. In October, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors approved an emergency declaration because of overcrowding at the facility, which held about 450 people at the beginning of that month.

“You’re risking life and limb in the Hinds County jail. That is a serious proposition of someone who hasn’t been indicted of any crime, much less convicted,” said Hernandez D. Stroud, a senior fellow in the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, who has studied jail receivership. “That’s scary.”

Typically, after a person is arrested, law enforcement turns the case over to the district attorney, who brings the case before a grand jury. If the grand jury returns an indictment — a formal criminal charge — the case moves to a judge and potentially a jury. 

Already burdened with a backlog of cases, the county’s legal system has been inundated with arrests since the Capitol Police began expanding in July 2021, in response to what Gov. Tate Reeves called a “never-ending cycle of violent crime.” The Capitol Police force previously guarded state property, but its jurisdiction, the Capitol Complex Improvement District, has since grown to more than 20 square miles in the city. The force has also grown from 81 officers in 2021 to more than 150. By the end of 2023, the number of indictments had risen 33% from the previous year.

A receiver is “not going to be able to address those problems until you reduce the population to be more in line with the staffing levels you have, and the bed capacity,” de Gruy said. “Trying to do that in an environment where you’re now seeing a lot more people being arrested, it just makes his job that much harder.” 

Lengthy waits for case files from arresting agencies and reports from an overwhelmed crime lab also drag cases out, said de Gruy. 

In response to France’s letter, Owens wrote that he had not received case files from law enforcement on more than 100 of the approximately 240 unindicted detainees, including those held for more than three months. He also cited delays in receiving final autopsy reports, a need for mental health evaluations of defendants and “the sheer volume of crime plaguing our community.” 

Owens’ office indicted 1,264 cases last year and resolved 1,135, leaving 129 open. The previous year, grand juries returned indictments in 1,696 cases and his office resolved just 989. Cases are resolved by guilty pleas, trials, dismissals or pretrial diversion programs. 

Owens also told France that the jail roster contained misspelled names and outdated information. In some cases, people listed as unindicted had already been indicted or released. 

“This just has layers of institutional incompetence and dysfunction, such that even when you have a receiver, it is hard to disentangle everything to get to the constitutional violations,” Stroud said. “It’s stunning.”

Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones, who used to run the jail and also serves as the Jackson Police chief, said he was not aware of any delays in forwarding cases to prosecutors. 

“When it comes to the jail, I think everybody has their own individual opinion, and everybody has their own professional responsibility,” Jones said. “There’s probably a little bit more room for correction on all levels.”

Owens and Hinds County Public Defender Gail Wright Lowery have asked the county Board of Supervisors for $700,000 in emergency funds, split between their offices, to fund six to eight staff members to focus on reducing the jail population. 

“The only way the system works is that … as many people are getting out of our system as fast as we’re bringing them in,” Owens said at the Nov. 3 board meeting. “Our current volume doesn’t allow us to do that.” 

Wright Lowery said five attorneys have recently left her office. She requested the funds to boost her staff’s salaries and to hire experienced attorneys to work part-time to help move cases through the system. 

“Every time I lose an attorney, you have an average of over 100 people in detention who lose their attorney,” she said. Her office is funded for 14 lawyers. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham said the board would consider the request for the $700,000.

This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project – Jackson, a nonprofit news team covering Mississippi’s criminal justice systems.

Homecoming remains an important enough tradition in the Mississippi Delta that the violence that happened in Leland and Rolling Fork in October didn’t diminish the crowds. Relatives still traveled home. Dozens still set up grills and canopies at games. Mississippi Today produced a collection of stories of homecoming events in the Delta, where traditions have evolved over time.

INDIANOLA — Local law enforcement tended to a newly installed checkpoint at Perry S. Price Memorial Stadium. Even with the added security for the Gentry High School homecoming, the line out front of the stadium paled in comparison to the one at the concession stand.

Across the stadium from the field house, which boasts air conditioning, the concessions shack was equipped with an electronic fan whose blades sluggishly propelled air toward the candies and cashier. Familiar candy and hot chip brands were available, but the crowd-pleasers were mostly homemade: popcorn, nachos and, especially, the pickles soaked in Kool-Aid. Kids as young as six clutched cash in one hand and a superhero backpack in the other in a line that stretched to the chain link fence that lined the field’s perimeter. Other parents and teachers stood parallel to the concession line with relatives on the phone, calling their orders from the road. It was a majority of attendees’ first stop during a day of festivities.

Gloria McDuffy Jimison has been making Kool-Aid pickles, also called Koolickles, for Gentry High School homecomings for over two decades. She sometimes makes bucketfuls, at $34 each, for one Chicago family that makes the homecoming trip each year. One repeat customer is a mother who buys 10 bags at most games. 

“They say, ‘Let me taste one.’ And then they’re hooked,” McDuffy Jimison said.

McDuffy Jimison has perfected the recipe. She experimented with adding sugar from Sno Balls snack cakes.

To try a quality Kool-Aid pickle is to taste its slippery sweetness and not be turned off by the vinegar aftertaste. It should be both refreshing and hearty, like a more flavorful, firmer and slippier gummy.

McDuffy Jimison first tasted a Kool-Aid pickle at a homecoming game in Greenville in the early 1990s. At first intrigued by the fare, she soon resolved to make it better. Back then the concession stand offered two longtime Kool-Aid flavors: tropical punch and cherry. McDuffy Jimison serves two clear favorites: cherry and grape.

Kool-Aid pickles originated in the Mississippi Delta. They grew so popular that gas station chain Double Quick, which started in the Delta, began to sell Koolickles in stores. Kool-Aid pickles are most commonly found as pickle spears, but McDuffy Jimison’s version uses hamburger slices. She said they absorb the Kool-Aid sweetness more completely.

“If you don’t want to buy candy, it’s the quickest way to get a sugar rush,” she said, citing customers. 

As the stadium filled up with fans and families, guards moved from the security checkpoint to the bleachers, guns and tactical gear in tow. The crowd of students, faculty and families split as the men in black and navy took their posts around the stadium.

An armed sheriff’s deputy wearing an armored vest stood outside the concession stand. Other deputies with bigger guns and more tactical gear patrolled the grounds. Their presence was a new feature of the homecoming this year. The previous weekend, multiple shootings marred homecoming events across the state. That included a mass shooting after Leland High School’s homecoming.

Officials moved the Gentry High homecoming game from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m., which made for a sweatier experience. Many spectators strode in with umbrellas to shield them from the sun. Others pulled foldable chairs beneath the bleachers. Under the canopies of tents, alumni were happy to be home around familiar faces. The additional security and earlier kickoff time didn’t seem to bother them.

Qua Hollins traveled from Fort Worth, Texas, for homecoming. He hadn’t been back since he graduated from Gentry High seven years ago. Hollins said it was both surreal and rewarding to cheer for the players who once chanted his name and jersey number when he was a Gentry Ram.

“They were little kids,” he said, looking toward the field.

Hollins’ grandmother raised him in a house on a street populated by abandoned homes in a “rough” part of town, he said. Football kept him on campus most of the week.

Hollins’ commute looks different these days. In Fort Worth, he sees high rises and skyscrapers. His work as an engineer puts him in rooms with people from around the world. 

“I used to tell my teammates, especially the younger ones, to look at their surroundings. Remember where you come from. Think bigger,” Hollins said.

Hollins visited his aunt and reconnected with former classmates. He said he now plans to return home more frequently.

“It hasn’t changed at all,” he said of the Delta. “There’s not many places left like that.”

Over the past few weeks, numerous reports have highlighted the possibility and controversy surrounding large data centers being built in Mississippi and across the South.

State leaders have promised the data centers will bring in “revenue for miles” and create high-tech jobs. But residents across the state have raised concerns about noise, pollution and other environmental impact, the potential for higher energy bills and noted the centers promise very few jobs by scale. A petition asking for more guarantees from local officials in Brandon over a data center being built there now has over 1,000 signatures.

How do you think your leaders are doing in balancing economic growth and environmental concerns when it comes to data centers? Email me at marketplace@mississippitoday.org 

xAI in Mississippi

Some DeSoto County residents living close to the makeshift power plant fueling xAI’s Memphis data centers have raised concerns about the plant’s near constant noise and environmental issues. 

xAI is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, whose company is building two data centers across state lines in Memphis. 

One longtime resident said the noise started at a low level in August but has gotten louder. He told Mississippi Today, “I can’t live here like this for another nine months. It’s going to drive me crazy.”

READ MORE: Southaven residents fear pollution, complain of noise, from Elon Musk’s xAI data-center turbines

Amazon’s next move

In November, Amazon announced it will be building a new $3-billion data center in Warren County.

The new center will create about 200 new jobs. It will not require any more state funds beyond an original 2024 agreement in which the state provided $44 million and loaned Amazon $215 million, along with tax breaks. 

Amazon is already constructing two data centers in Madison County, bringing its total investment to $29 billion in the state. 

Entergy promises upgrades without higher price tag

Speaking of energy, Entergy has said that its historic investment into upgrading the grid won’t result in higher rates.

Entergy Mississippi CEO, Haley Fisackerly recently told the Clarion Ledger that Amazon and data centers will pay “a larger share of the cost of the business.”

Fisackerly recently told Mississippi Today that multiple companies are exploring bringing new data centers to the state. Data centers require huge amounts of electricity and water, and many of the deals involve energy companies.

READ MORE: Entergy Mississippi CEO Fisackerly answers questions on data centers and electricity rates

Other news: ‘A charming Southern haberdashery,’ continuing debate over BP settlement spending

• The New York Times named Oxford’s Hinton & Hinton one of the 50 best stores in America. The store was described as a “charming Southern haberdashery.”
• The Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Fund’s handling of the $750 million settlement from BP’s 2010 oil spill has once again come under scrutiny. In a letter to the state Legislature, Bill Cork, executive director of the state’s economic development agency, wrote, “this year’s applicant pool does not reflect a coordinated regional strategy or the transformational impact envisioned when the Legislature created the GCRF.” The fund is no stranger to controversy. In 2022, the Sun Herald wrote that the Fund was “failing to meet any conventional measure of success for an economic development program.” 
• Hope Credit Union opened the HOPE Economic Empowerment Center in Jackson. The center will offer financial products and services, training and education to expand economic mobility. In a release, Jackson Mayor John Horhn said the new center transformed a vacant city property into a place that will offer financial products and services for individuals, families, and small business owners, along with homebuyer education, entrepreneurial training, and a multipurpose space designed for community engagement. 
• BWC Terminals, a large liquid-storage company, is opening a new facility in Pascagoula. According to the Mississippi Development Authority, the $316-million investment will create 25 jobs. The new site is part of an agreement with the nearby Chevron Pascagoula Refinery.

A quick housekeeping note: the last Marketplace of 2025 will come out on 12/18 and we’ll be back on 1/8/2026 talking about the start of the Mississippi legislative session.

Mississippi faces a worsening obesity crisis, with projections showing 57% of adults could be classified as obese by 2030. 

State health officials say the epidemic is fueling chronic disease and infant mortality. Without major intervention, they warn, the health care system could be overwhelmed.  

To counter the crisis, multiple state agencies are rolling out coordinated programs to expand treatment access, improve nutrition education and promote physical activity. 

Growing crisis with deep health consequences

Mississippi ranks among the worst in national health outcomes, with about 1.2 million adults — roughly 40% of the population — classified as obese, according to federal data. Only West Virginia and Arkansas have higher rates, per Statista. 

Obesity significantly increases the risk of chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, neurodegenerative conditions, diabetes and cancer, according to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.  

Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer and executive director of the Mississippi Department of Health, said obesity also drives some of the state’s most severe health challenges. 

“It’s the No. 1 cause of preterm birth, and preterm birth is a leading cause of infant mortality,” he said. “We have too many babies who die. We have too many children who die. We have way too many teenagers who are dying — and we can prevent all of this.” 

Edney said low-income and minority communities experience the highest rates, but the problem affects all Mississippians. Reports also show that more than 40% of children in the state are overweight or obese. 

“That is scary,” Edney said. “If they’re obese in the fifth grade, then they’re very likely to be morbidly obese when they’re 45 (years old).” 

That trajectory, he added, often reflects deeper economic and social barriers.

Barriers, stigma and the human cost of obesity 

Since July 2023, Mississippi Medicaid has covered anti-obesity medications, but only 2.4% of adults received treatment in 2024, according to the Mississippi Division of Medicaid’s drug utilization report. 

Dr. Rasheedah Hall, owner of Hall Health in Hattiesburg, said patients without Medicaid often face monthly costs ranging from $300 to $1,500 if they pay out of pocket or if their insurance doesn’t cover treatment. 

“We need to make those medications more affordable to everyone,” Hall said. “They are a game changer.” 

Hall said increasing affordability and awareness of available treatments would help reduce obesity statewide. 

For Macayla Douglas, a lack of early access to resources shaped her struggles with obesity as a teenager. 

“As a 13- (or) 14-year-old and you’re super overweight, there’s people that call you names, you get weird looks,” Douglas said. “I was getting out of breath simply just like walking to class in a high school.” 

Douglas said her family often relied on cheap, less nutritious food due to cost and access barriers — a common issue across Mississippi. 

“I didn’t really feel like I had enough resources,” she said. “I didn’t come from a super privileged household.” 

 After years of trying to lose weight, she was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. With that diagnosis, she began medication, adopted a regular exercise routine and made lifestyle changes — ultimately losing 82 pounds. 

“Whenever I was watching what I ate and sticking to consistent exercise, I was able to see a dramatic decrease in weight,” Douglas said. “It was making me feel super good, and it just led me to want to keep going.” 

Hall said stories like Douglas’ help shift public perception.  

“We’re moving forward and getting away from the stigma and the misunderstanding … if you just eat right and exercise, everybody would be at a healthy weight,” she said. “There are (sometimes) other factors at play.”

Policy, prevention and the path forward

Hall and Edney agree that reversing Mississippi’s obesity crisis will require long-term, statewide investment in education, prevention and equitable access to care. 

At the policy level, Gov. Tate Reeves reinstated the Presidential Fitness Test in October for the 2026–27 school year, and state leaders are proposing changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program intended to encourage healthier food choices.  

The Mississippi departments of Health and Education are also developing an interactive virtual platform that delivers daily health education to students through gaming. The goal: to make screen time active and build healthy habits from an early age. 

“That 15 minutes a day, kindergarten through 12th grade — that will change two generations,” Edney said. 

He emphasized that families also play a key role in encouraging physical activity, limiting screen time and monitoring key health indicators like blood pressure and blood sugar. 

“At the core of everything is the education of health promotion principles,” he said.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s watchdog found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put U.S. personnel and their mission at risk when he used the Signal messaging app to convey sensitive information about a military strike against Yemen’s Houthi militants, two people familiar with the findings said Wednesday.

Hegseth, however, has the ability to declassify material and the report did not find he did so improperly, according to one of the people familiar with the findings who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the information. That person also said the report concluded that Hegseth violated Pentagon policy by using his personal device for official business and it recommended better training for all Pentagon officials.

The report looking into Hegseth’s messages and participation in the chat follows a joint letter from Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Republican and Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, respectively, asking the Pentagon’s watchdog to investigate the Signal conversation.

Wicker said in a statement that the report shows Hegseth “acted within his authority to communicate the information in question to other cabinet level officials.”

“It is also clear to me that our senior leaders need more tools available to them to communicate classified information in real time and a variety of environments. I think we have some work to do in providing those tools to our national security leaders,” Wicker said.

Hegseth declined to sit for an interview with the Pentagon’s inspector general but provided a written statement, that person said. The defense secretary asserted that he was permitted to declassify information as he saw fit and only communicated details he thought would not endanger the mission.

The initial findings ramp up the pressure on the former Fox News Channel host after lawmakers had called for the independent inquiry into his use of the commercially available app. Lawmakers also just opened investigations into a news report that a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea in September killed survivors after Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody.”

Hegseth defended the strike as emerging in the “fog of war,” saying he didn’t see any survivors but also “didn’t stick around” for the rest of the mission and that the admiral in charge “made the right call” in ordering the second strike. He also did not admit fault following the Signal revelations, asserting that the information was unclassified.

“The Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along — no classified information was shared,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman said in a statement. “This matter is resolved, and the case is closed.”

Journalist added to a chat where sensitive plans were shared

In at least two separate Signal chats, Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women carrying out those attacks on behalf of the United States were airborne.

Hegseth’s use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. It included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss March 15 military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Hegseth had created another Signal chat with 13 people that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of the same strike, The Associated Press reported.

Signal is encrypted but is not authorized for carrying classified information and is not part of the Pentagon’s secure communications network.

Hegseth previously has said none of the information shared in the chats was classified. Multiple current and former military officials have told the AP there was no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been OK to share on an unsecured device.

The review was delivered to lawmakers, who were able to review the report in a classified facility at the Capitol. A partially redacted version of the report was expected to be released publicly later this week.

Hegseth said he viewed the investigation as a partisan exercise and did not trust the inspector general, according to one of the people familiar with the report’s findings. The review had to rely on screenshots of the Signal chat published by the Atlantic because Hegseth could not provide more than a small handful of his Signal messages, the person said.

When asked about the investigation in August, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters that “we believe that this is a witch hunt and a total sham and being conducted in bad faith.”

Lawmakers called for inspector general to investigate

The revelations sparked intense scrutiny, with Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans saying Hegseth posting the information to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets potentially put those pilots’ lives at risk. They said lower-ranking members of the military would have been fired for such a lapse.

The inspector general opened its investigation into Hegseth at the request of the Armed Services Chairman Wicker and Reed.

“This chat was alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen,” Wicker and Reed’s letter said. “If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”

Some veterans and military families also raised concerns, citing the strict security protocols they must follow to protect sensitive information.

It all ties back to the campaign against Yemen’s Houthis

The Houthi rebels had started launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in late 2023 in what their leadership had described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Their campaign greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthis in 2024 turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II.

A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war had begun in January before falling apart in March. The U.S. then launched a broad assault against the Houthis that ended weeks later when Trump said they pledged to stop attacking ships. The latest Gaza ceasefire began in October.

Following the disclosure of Hegseth’s Signal chat that included the Atlantic’s editor, the magazine released the entire thread in late March. Hegseth had posted multiple details about an impending strike, using military language and laying out when a “strike window” starts, where a “target terrorist” was located, the time elements around the attack and when various weapons and aircraft would be used in the strike. He mentioned that the U.S. was “currently clean” on operational security.

Hegseth told Fox News Channel in April that what he shared over Signal was “informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things.”

During a congressional hearing in June, Hegseth was pressed multiple times by lawmakers over whether he shared classified information and if he should face accountability if he did.

Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and Marine veteran, asked Hegseth whether he would hold himself accountable if the inspector general found that he placed classified information on Signal.

Hegseth would not directly say, only noting that he serves “at the pleasure of the president.”

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and Konstantin Toropin, and Mississippi Today writer Taylor Vance contributed to this report.

Michael Cormack felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. 

In May, Jackson Public Schools’ deputy superintendent was at his desk in the district’s central office, with the most recent third grade reading test results spread in front of him. As he thumbed through the papers, which showed that just over half of the students tested passed the state assessment on the first try, the knot in his stomach grew. 

He realized he had to do something — immediately. Within weeks, Project 75 was born. 

Project 75 is a reading initiative with an ambitious goal: to boost the percentage of third graders in JPS who pass the state assessment on the first attempt from 55% to 75%. Cormack presented his plan for Project 75 to the school board in August, but the initiative kicked off in earnest in mid-November. 

It’s a bold leap, but based on the data about students’ ultimate success rate, Cormack believes it’s possible. 

In 2013, state lawmakers passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act aimed at increasing reading proficiency. The legislation put a historic amount of money and resources toward the goal and established a third grade reading “gate.” To get promoted to fourth grade, students have three tries to pass, or score 3 out of 5 or higher, on the reading portion of the state English Language Arts assessment.

Students have increasing success with each attempt. This past year, about 70% of JPS third graders ultimately scored high enough to move to the next grade, 15 points lower than the statewide average. 

“What that indicates to me is that there is some latent knowledge that scholars activate, and there’s a level of seriousness and intensity once we get the initial scores back,” Cormack said. “But what we want to do is to tap into those energies early to ensure that out the gate, the performance is strong.”

Largely thanks to the literacy act, the percentage of Mississippi’s fourth graders scoring advanced or proficient on the National Assessment of Education Progress has steadily grown, going from last in the country to ninth. But a closer look at the data reveals districts that still struggle, including Jackson. 

Cormack, whose background includes K-12 teaching and leading the Barksdale Reading Institute, reviewed hundreds of files for every student who failed the state reading test last year. The documents arrived by milk crate this spring, after being reviewed by school-level administrators. 

What he found was, in many cases, students were not getting the targeted support they needed. 

At the start of each school year, JPS teachers assess students to identify their strengths and weaknesses. That test helps teachers determine students’ specific instructional needs to improve their weakest academic areas. 

However, in practice, that tailored instruction wasn’t always happening. 

“We know exactly where our students need help,” Cormack said. “So why can’t we do it?”

Project 75 aims to close those gaps by giving students targeted, tiered, thorough support. The plan involves seven strategies that center around data, district-wide coordination, professional development, monitoring and focused student learning.

Some action items include scheduling standing meetings with school leaders and staff to review data and adjust teaching, tracking student progress, offering more professional development for teachers on the science of reading and assigning struggling students to the district’s most successful teachers. 

Project 75 also includes an afterschool component for second graders and third graders who need extra help.

LaRoy Merrick, principal of Walton Elementary School, said some parts of the plan were already being implemented ahead of the fall start date. Early in the year, for example, school leaders identified their students who struggle the most with reading, grouped them together and ensured they received one-on-one help from a reading interventionist in a small setting.

Merrick also realized that his special education teachers — whose students are in the school’s bottom 25% of readers — needed to learn how to teach reading, so he sent them for training.

In preparing for the Project 75 kickoff, Galloway Elementary staff reviewed absenteeism rates, discovering that some of their least proficient readers were also regularly missing school, Principal Natasha Simmons said. 

Simmons said she’s impressed upon her staff the importance of the goal in front of them. 

“They’re going to have to do an obsessive amount of reading to pass that test,” Simmons said. “So we’re attacking this in a number of ways.”

The stakes are high. Research shows that reading is fundamental to academic success throughout schooling, which correlates with career success, financial security and better health outcomes. 

“It can create a snowball effect,” Cormack said of reading. “When scholars are retained, we also know they enter a higher risk category for not successfully graduating high school. That’s not a reality that we want to live with, so we know the urgency of getting this right.”

The initial impact of Project 75 won’t be revealed for months, until the third graders take the state reading test in May. But if the district falls short, Cormack is sure of one thing. 

They’ll keep trying.

A documentary on the career of legendary journalist Wilson F. “Bill” Minor will make its debut on Mississippi airwaves on Thursday.

Set to air on Mississippi Public Broadcasting at 7:30 p.m., the documentary, “Eyes on Mississippi,” shares its title with Minor’s long-running newspaper column. The nearly one-hour film offers an in-depth look at Mississippi civil rights history through the lens of Minor’s reporting.  

Directed and produced by Ellen Ann Fentress, a journalist and former colleague of Minor, the documentary draws on 24 different historical archives and over 40 hours of footage from interviews of Minor by Fentress. The documentary was first released in 2015 and has since been partially re-edited with new archival material from MPB. 

A portrait of Minor and his dispatches from the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement, the film offers viewers a trenchant look at how journalism and race relations intersect.

“I think this is very auspicious timing for this story to come out,” Fentress said at a documentary screening in Jackson on Tuesday. “We need this story and the relevance of honest journalism and truth-telling. Telling truth to power could not be more important than it is right now.”  

Minor covered Mississippi politics for over 70 years, from 1947 until his death in 2017. He earned professional accolades and awards for his gutsy reporting of civil rights violence and the political and social forces that drove it. 

Minor offers an inside view of landmark stories such as the murder of civil rights workers in Neshoba County and the trial of Willie McGee, both of which captured national attention for their window into the racist violence and unequal justice system that infected the Jim Crow South.

The documentary features interviews with figures such as civil-rights leader Myrlie Evers and former Gov. William Winter, the latter calling Minor “our own interpreter of who we are as a state.”

Minor came to Mississippi as the one-man bureau reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. In the years that followed, he documented and explained Mississippi’s society for countless others, including fellow journalists across the nation.

A native of Hammond, Louisiana, Minor was a Tulane University journalism graduate and a World War II Navy combat veteran.

When Fentress decided to make the film, she said that while the film’s title, “Eyes on Mississippi,” was the name of Minor’s column, it also was his strategy – that “the fastest route to change was to get the unvarnished facts of the struggle out. The more eyes on Mississippi, the more the pressure for transformation.”

After Thursday evening, the documentary is set to air on MPB again on Friday at 2 a.m., on Sunday at 2 p.m. and on Dec. 17 at 4 p.m.