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More than a week after the body of Nolan Xavier Wells was found in the waters off a Gulf Coast barrier island where he was last seen, his family met for the first time with the county prosecutor. 

Wells’ parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, met with Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath Wednesday morning in Pascagoula. After the meeting during a news conference, they said McIlrath told them once the investigation is complete, she plans to present the findings to a grand jury. That jury would determine whether there was any criminal wrongdoing and whether anyone should be indicted. 

Although the prosecutor shared those plans and the process the case would follow, McIlrath was not able to share investigation updates with the family, said Ben Crump, the Wonsleys’ attorney. 

“But they still have questions,” he said during a news conference after the meeting. “ … Every morning they wake up, and there’s a hole in their heart and they are trying to say, ‘What happened to my son?’” 

Typically, a district attorney’s office will present non-natural deaths to a grand jury. 

State and independent autopsies have been completed, but results including the cause of death and toxicology, have not been released. On Wednesday, Crump said the legal team would likely share the preliminary findings after Wells’ funeral. 

The service will be held Monday at Center Pointe Church in Ocean Springs. Visitation will be from 9-11 a.m., and the funeral will follow. Afterward, Christine Wonsley said they plan to host a repast at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, bringing together family, close friends and former teammates.

“He would not want us to be sitting around crying and eating,” she said, thanking the community for support.

Christine Wonsley again asked people who plan to demonstrate to keep any marches peaceful, which her son would have wanted.

Last week in New York, the Wonsleys were joined by Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who called for an investigation that can shed light on whether foul play was involved in Wells’ death. 

They also recalled Mississippi’s history of racial injustice and violence, and how investigations into the deaths of Black people aren’t always pursued with the same rigor as the deaths of white victims. 

“Our lived experience tells us that we must question everything, question everybody’s role, the law enforcement role,” Crump said Wednesday. “That is the lived experience of us as Black people.”  

However, some public officials and friends of Wells have pushed back on how some perceive race as a factor in Wells’ case. 

On July 4, the 18-year-old Ocean Springs native traveled by boat with a mostly white group of friends to Horn Island, but he did not return with them. He was reported missing, and following local, state, federal and volunteer search efforts, his body was found off the northwestern tip of the barrier island July 6.  

Wells’ parents have questioned why he separated from the group and why he did not have his phone or keys with him. Crump said at the Wednesday news conference that the legal team’s experts and investigators from the sheriff’s office will inspect the contents of Wells’ phone.  

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department is investigating Wells’ death. The sheriff’s office, the legal team and Christine Wonsley have asked the public to share photos, videos and information from those who were on or near Horn Island that day. 

Sheriff John Ledbetter has also asked the public not to spread unverified information about the case, especially as speculation and commentary have been shared widely on social media. 

On Wednesday, Crump was asked about misinformation being spread in the case, including a picture shared on his Instagram of Wells in a large group at a pool party with drink containers seen in the background. That image was found to be from a month before Wells disappeared. Crump clarified that his office often reposts pictures to encourage people to comment and call in. 

Crump has represented other Mississippians, including the family of Kohen Wiley, the 1-year-old shot by a law enforcement officer in June responding a reported shoplifting from a Walmart in Senatobia and Demartravion “Trey” Reed, the 21-year-old Black man found hanging on Delta State University’s campus in September last year.

BILOXI – When nine young adults tossed their mortarboards into the air at the Little Biloxi Theatre on June 20, it wasn’t their first time graduating from high school. After an emotional celebration that honored the transgender and LGBTQ+ students’ resilience, it became their first graduation without gender-based dress codes or stipulations on how they present themselves. 

Surrounded by friends, local allies and in some cases, family, each student walked across the stage, shook the hand of LGBTQ+ advocate Jensen Luke Matar, and received a “Pride! Graduation” certificate. With their names printed under the intersex-inclusive Progress Pride flag, each student was celebrated for graduating with “courage, authenticity and pride.” 

“We love and appreciate our students, and we care to uplift and serve them always,” said Matar, director of the nonprofit organization Transgender Resources, Advocacy, Networking and Services Program, or TRANS Program, which was a sponsor of the event. 

Students at the event told Mississippi Today that school policies like Harrison County’s restricting gender expression are harmful to their mental health and physical safety. The Harrison County School District is unique among Gulf Coast counties for requiring students to dress according to their “biological sex that is stated in the student’s cumulative folder and permanent record.” 

In contrast, student handbooks for school districts in Hancock County, Ocean Springs, Gulfport, Jackson County, Pascagoula-Gautier, Pass Christian, Long Beach and Biloxi do not include language that restricts students’ clothing choices to their sex assigned at birth. 

For 2023 Harrison Central High School graduate Lana Brown, the June celebration was the first time she walked a graduation stage. Three years ago Harrison Central leaders told Brown, a transgender woman, that she could not wear a dress to her graduation ceremony. She chose not to attend, and filed a lawsuit against the school alleging that the dress code policy, enforced based on gender stereotypes, violated her rights. Although Brown lost the case, she knew at the time that it was a long shot, she told Mississippi Today. Both of her parents were fully supportive, and her dad told her that regardless of the outcome, it was a win to have the incident recorded. 

This year, Brown was the first speaker at Pride Graduation, thrown by several local nonprofit programs. Wearing a formal black dress and in full glam, she addressed her fellow students, who had graduated high school since 2023.

“Three years ago I was, too, ripped from my graduation,” she said. “I was told that I could not walk across the stage unless I dressed like a boy.”

Out of her own experience, Brown said, she learned the importance of self-respect.

“You must respect yourself, and you have to not tolerate the disrespect of others,” she said to the graduates. “It won’t always be easy, but you have to stand up or you will be knocked down.”

Nearly two months ago, a Facebook post by D’Iberville High School drew public attention to the school’s policies around gender nonconforming students. School officials, including then-Principal Cheryl Broadus and Harrison County schools Superintendent William Bentz have not responded to repeated requests for comment from Mississippi Today.  

Brown said she doesn’t know what to say to Harrison County school officials, who in the years after her graduation have doubled down on the dress code. She said they know their policies hurt students.  

“What do you say to one who already knows?” she said. “You’re turning a blind eye. You won’t listen to me.”

Advocates question district’s gender-based dress codes

This was the first year of Pride Graduation, organized by advocates after Harrison County schools students faced gender-norm-based dress codes for senior portraits and the graduation ceremony. Due to the policies, several transgender and gender nonconforming students weren’t able to participate in graduation activities while affirming their identity. 

A letter from the school district that a parent shared on social media, which Mississippi Today reviewed, outlined that male students had to wear a white button-down shirt and black pants, while female students could wear a dress or black slacks. 

A group of parents and advocates are sharing their concerns about restrictive policies at school board meetings. 

At the June 1 Harrison County school board meeting, the first after high school graduation, Noelle Nolan-Rider shared that in the 1960s, when Mississippi was undergoing forced integration, Black students were omitted from multiple yearbooks. Nolan-Rider was one of at least three people working with the TRANS Program who attended the meeting.

Nolan-Rider shared that the first Black woman to graduate from South Natchez High School was her 10th-grade English teacher. 

“She is not in the yearbook,” Nolan-Rider said. “Her name is Patricia West, and it is discrimination when you do that. It was discrimination then. It is discrimination now.”

A school board member who remained off-camera responded to Nolan-Rider, saying students knew they had to adhere to the dress code for their senior portraits, and that in most cases, students get a second chance to take their photo. 

“I want you to understand they are well aware ahead of time, and there’s a second round,” the board member said. 

A Harrison County parent posted on social media a screenshot of the Harrison County School District’s guidelines for senior portraits. 

“Female portraits published in the yearbook will be photographed using the traditional drape. Male portraits published in the yearbook will be photographed using the traditional tuxedo,” the guidelines read. 

Advocates said students told them they were not given a second chance to take their senior portraits. 

The next meeting on June 15, Jonathan Blue, a transgender woman and parent of Harrison County students, attended the meeting. She expressed concerns about D’Iberville High School deadnaming and allegedly digitally altering the photo of a transgender student on social media. School board president Steven Ramsey thanked her for presenting the comment and did not further discuss the comment, according to Blue and corroborated by a recording she shared with Mississippi Today. Harrison County School District policy does not require the board to engage with public comments at the meeting. 

Blue said the board would not allow her to speak at the June 29 meeting. She said she arrived at 5:29 p.m., one minute before the meeting was scheduled to begin, and the employee who had badge access to open the locked door to the meeting waited until it was 5:30 to let her in. The board meeting was underway when she entered, and the sign up sheet had been removed. Because she was not signed up to speak, the board did not allow Blue to give a comment. 

Mississippi Today has reached out to school board members and Bentz, the superintendent, five times since July 10 to verify this sequence of events, and has not gotten a response. 

School boards have wide discretion in how they address public comments, said Jonathan Collins, who researches education policy and teaches political science at Columbia University. While the Harrison County school board’s policies are not unusual, he said they represent a concerning lack of attention to public opinion. 

“Parliamentary procedure is meant to ensure that there is standardization across meetings,” he said. “But it also becomes one of the biggest weapons that school boards can use to keep the public out of the public meeting.”

Collins’ research shows that when a school board is responsive and engaged in public comments, it deepens public trust in their elected officials. Conversely, a lack of engagement tends to reduce trust. 

At the July 13 school board meeting, Blue arrived 30 minutes in advance and was allowed to address the board. She alleged that the district was in violation of federal Title IX policy, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education-related activities. 

In this meeting, Blue estimated that over 20 people showed up who supported the school district’s current dress code policies. Three individuals told the board they didn’t think there were Title IX violations, and they supported the district’s language about students needing to dress as their biological sex.

“I just wanna tell you that I appreciate the work that you are doing,” one speaker said. “We ask that you continue to hold the line for us.”

Blue said she has received a slew of negative comments on social media, and some positive ones. Several commenters, including some anonymous accounts, have labelled her as mentally ill and threatened her with racist and homophobic slurs. Blue said other comments threatened her and her family, including direct threats of violence. 

Blue, who attended the meetings alone, said she left after the public comment period due to concerns about her safety. 

‘I wanted to see myself happy’

The challenges high school students and graduates along the Gulf Coast face extend beyond school photos and board meetings. At the Pride Graduation, recent high school graduates told Mississippi Today about challenges they encountered after “coming out,” or sharing their gender and sexuality identities publicly.

O.K., identified by initials for her safety, is a transgender college student who graduated high school in 2024. As someone who has struggled with depression, speakers’ comments about the resilience of the transgender community resonated with her.

“It takes so much pushing through and remembering that one day it might be better,” she said. 

O.K.’s parents were not present. She said they’re good people but not supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, so she’s sought support elsewhere. Finding the TRANS Program was an important step in that journey, she said. O.K. remembers dressing as a woman for the first time at one of their events. Not only was it accepted, but people cheered her on, she told Mississippi Today.

Now, she’s grateful she was able to keep going during the days she felt numb. 

“I wanted to see myself happy,” O.K. said. “I never want to see myself let the end of the story be, I died sad.”

T.G., another student at the event who asked to be identified by his initials for fear of retaliation, said supportive events like the ones TRANS Program holds are crucial to let people know they’re not alone. In the area of central Mississippi where he’s from, T.G. said there’s little to no public community for LGBTQ+ people. 

A friend of O.K.’s, T.G. has guarded her when she uses the men’s bathroom in states that require people to use the bathroom consistent with the gender they were assigned at birth. 

All the students who spoke to Mississippi Today expressed their love for Mississippi, and their feeling that it would always be home. But many are trying to leave as soon as possible because they don’t feel safe. 

“I’m nine months on (testosterone) now, and I’m still scared to use the bathroom,” said J.W., a transgender student identified by his initials for safety concerns. “It’s pretty much 50/50. I get sir’ed a lot, I get ma’am’ed a lot. I get hit on by old people.”

Others, like Brown, know they may not settle in Mississippi, but are trying to make the most of their time here by educating others about the LGBTQ+ community. 

“Hate is taught. They were taught to hate those who aren’t like them,” she said. “So we’re gonna teach others to accept, to understand, to learn before we judge or push away.”

This story was produced with support from the Sarah Yelena Haselhorst Fund for Health Journalism.

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at mukta.joshi@nytimes.com.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday vacated a decision made earlier this month, which had required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide bond hearings within 90 days to immigrants arrested within the country. 

A panel of three judges from the conservative court, which covers Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, had held July 2 that unjustified detention for an indefinite period would violate the Constitution. The decision on Monday came after ICE and Department of Homeland Security officials appealed that judgment, petitioning the full appeals court to rehear the case. The court will consider the case in September. 

More than 61,000 immigrants held across the U.S. have petitioned federal courts for their release after ICE stopped providing bond hearings to those it arrested within the country, which was the norm for decades. Only two federal appeals courts – the 5th Circuit and the 8th Circuit, which covers Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota – have upheld the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy. 

More than 600 of the habeas corpus petitions are from detainees held in Mississippi, nearly all of which are sitting on the desk of Judge David Bramlette III. He has yet to decide any of these petitions based on their merits. As a result, hundreds of detainees have been held indefinitely, some for more than a year.

Monday’s decision will effectively keep them in limbo. 

Over two days, the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Regulation Task Force heard from 19 speakers on the potential impact of data centers in the state. 

The goal was to listen to a variety of people and to gather facts on some of the biggest issues being raised around data centers, such as power bills, water usage and jobs. The task force is expected to make recommendations to the Legislature before next year’s regular session.

“We worked to bring everyone to the table today. From the companies building these facilities to the agencies that regulate them to our utility providers, local elected officials, economic developers and citizens who have concerns,” said Rep. Jill Ford, a Republican from Madison and one of the task force co-chairs. “So we can hear every perspective before making recommendations.” 

The Legislature created the task force during its 2025 session to study AI usage and regulation in the state. Task force members include representatives from the attorney general’s office, Department of Information Technology Services, the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network and industry. 

Power companies address concerns over rate hikes

Mississippians and people across the country have raised concerns about the impact of data centers on neighborhoods, electricity prices and local water systems and rates. 

Representatives from various companies, including Entergy Mississippi and Amazon Web Services, challenged claims that data centers would hike utility costs or deplete water levels. They said they are paying for their infrastructure needs and that the build-out will not raise rates for or negatively impact residential rate payers. 

“Despite what others are asserting, customer rates today, residential rates, are actually lower than they would have been if AWS was not a customer of Entergy Mississippi,” said Jeremy Vanderloo, vice president of business operations and strategy at Entergy.

Vanderloo said that the contracts Entergy has with AWS include a minimum bill, a contract term and termination provisions to protect existing customers from incurring costs if the large customer walks away. 

Time and time again, speakers said they have a lot of trust in the Public Service Commission and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which regulate utility rates and some aspects of data center development. However, in the case of Amazon, some of the PSC and other oversight was waived by lawmakers in 2024.

Speakers: Let local governments regulate

Most speakers coming before the committee emphasized the importance of local control over development and cautioned the Legislature against excessive state regulation.

“Communities know how to handle those issues and they can do it right if they’re allowed to do it,” said Vanderloo. 

“I think the best support the state can offer communities is in areas where we ultimately cannot regulate, said Clinton Mayor Will Purdie. “Most of these issues, as I said, are profoundly local issues best addressed at the community level.”

“When it comes to the issues of noise and the local issues of that nature, those are local matters that should stay local,” said Bill Cork, the executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. “Lauderdale County and Madison County and places like that ought to decide for themselves what they want in their community.”

Regulation of behind-the-meter power generation emerged as one area for future legislation. Behind-the-meter generation is when a company creates its own energy and never hits the public utility system. SpaceXAI is already doing this in Southaven and a Jackson developer recently proposed a plan to generate power for industrial tenants.

“This is not a criticism of a particular company, but when a data center is off the grid or behind the grid, there’s no opportunity for that data center to help lower rates,” Vanderloo said. 

“There’s some gaps and some grey areas in the current law related to behind-the-meter power that eventually this Legislature is going to have to grapple with,” Cork said.

A call for more accountability

Shannon Samsa, the executive director of the Safe and Sound coalition and a Southaven resident, was the only person testifying who said they live close to one of Mississippi’s data centers. Rep. Ford said that the task force had reached out to 10 groups, but only Samsa showed up to talk to the committee. 

Samsa and other Southaven residents live close to SpaceXAI’s data center and private power plant where the company is running over 50 mobile turbines. The turbines are the subject of several ongoing lawsuits.

For almost a year, Southaven residents have voiced concerns about the noise, air pollution and lack of transparency surrounding the project. Some residents can hear noise from the turbines at all times of day, even from inside their homes.

“This isn’t about being for or against AI. It never was. It’s about whether the people of Mississippi deserve transparency, accountability and leaders who will protect the health and well-being of our families and communities before the interests of a private corporation,” Samsa said. 

Mississippi law requires someone running for district attorney to live within the counties they would serve, but Gov. Tate Reeves’ appointment of a white Madison County attorney to temporarily oversee the top prosecutorial office in Black-majority Hinds County is coming under scrutiny.

Some local attorneys raised questions when the governor picked Brad McCullouch, an assistant district attorney in Hinds County since 2023, to replace the county’s elected district attorney, Jody Owens, who resigned after pleading guilty in June in a federal bribery case.

McCullouch, a white man who ran for district attorney as a Republican in Texas in 2012, will oversee the office until a Nov. 3 special election. In the next few months, McCullouch is poised to indict hundreds of felony cases in a county that hasn’t had a white top prosecutor since 2001.

On his weekend radio show, Jackson defense attorney Shaun Yurtkuran wondered if McCullouch can legally lead the office because of a state law specifying district attorneys “possess all the qualifications of county officers,” which is generally taken to include being a resident of the county. 

Joe Hemleben, an appellate attorney who previously worked for the Hinds DA’s office, told Mississippi Today he was considering challenging the validity of any indictments secured under McCullouch’s tenure. But it remains to be seen if anyone will legally challenge McCullouch’s appointment. 

The optics of the selection of a white prosecutor to lead the district attorney’s office in Hinds County has not gone unnoticed. The Republican-run state government has a history of taking over local, Democratic-led law enforcement, said Matt Steffey, a Mississippi Christian University School of Law professor.

“It doesn’t seem like an appointment crafted to please the voters in Hinds County,” Steffey said, noting that McCullouch is the first white man to serve in the position since Ed Peters resigned in 2001. 

McCullouch has already publicly said he won’t run for election. In recent years, Republican governors have had middling electoral success with their appointees in heavily Democratic Hinds County. 

State law gives the governor power to fill a district attorney’s office in the event of a death or resignation. But the law does not specifically say if the governor must appoint a resident within the electoral jurisdiction. 

In an email, Reeves’ press secretary Shelby Wilcher wrote the governor’s office was aware that McCullouch did not live in Hinds County at the time of his appointment. Wilcher added the statute empowering the governor to make an emergency appointment does not “place any eligibility requirements or other limitations on the Governor’s discretion.” 

McCullouch did not respond to an inquiry from Mississippi Today. He already faces challenges in restoring trust in prosecutions undertaken by the office, where DAs have been embroiled in legal scandals going back to the 2000s.

Owens was indicted on federal corruption charges in the fall of 2024 for allegedly taking bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as real estate developers seeking to invest in downtown Jackson. Last month, he pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. 

Because he won’t be running to permanently fill the post, McCullouch said in federal court last week, he would be free to make politically unpopular decisions.

“I’m in such a unique position because I don’t have to run for district attorney,” McCullouch told U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves on Friday during a hearing regarding overcrowding and other problems at the county jail.

The attorney general’s office has yet to opine on whether an appointed district attorney must meet the qualifications of an elected district attorney. But the office has weighed in on comparable scenarios, writing that when an elected superintendent vacates the post, the board of supervisors must pick an appointee who meets the same qualifications. The office has issued similar opinions on vacancies of a municipal utility commissioner and a county prosecuting attorney. 

When there is a vacancy of a circuit court judge or a school board member, the attorney general’s office has held that state law is clear: The appointee must be a resident. 

Wilcher wrote that because some state laws specify that an appointee must be a resident, the Legislature would have done the same for the statute giving the governor the power to appoint an emergency district attorney. 

“However, the Legislature chose wisely to not impose any such limitations,” she wrote. 

Jim Kitchens, a former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, said he thinks the matter is not settled law because the statute that gives the governor the power to appoint a district attorney in the event of a vacancy does not specifically state whether the appointee must reside in the district. 

Plus, attorney general opinions are not binding. 

“While they may be helpful in many instances, they are mere opinions, not law,” he said. 

Kitchens, a former district attorney, recalled times in decades past when he stepped in for colleagues in other parts of the state who faced personal matters or had to recuse themselves. Kitchens temporarily served in their stead under a different state law that gives a senior circuit court judge the power to appoint a temporary DA. 

To challenge the governor’s appointment, a Hinds County resident would have to file a lawsuit. Kitchens said he believed it was unlikely such an effort would yield a ruling before the Nov. 3 election. 

In 2023, Reeves appointed local attorney Pieter Teeuwissen to fill a Hinds County Court vacancy following the death of LaRita Cooper-Stokes, a longtime judge and wife of Ward 3 Council Member Kenny Stokes. Teeuwissen did not win the election. 

In 2018, Gov. Phil Bryant appointed attorney Joseph Sclafani to serve as a Hinds County Circuit Court judge. 

Faye Peterson, a former Hinds DA, defeated Sclafani, who subsequently became a policy advisor to Reeves in early 2019, according to his LinkedIn.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has ordered the Legislature to convene on Wednesday for a special session to reform Mississippi’s youth court system after lawmakers failed to act during their regular session months ago.

Reeves made the announcement in a social media post on Tuesday afternoon, exactly 24 hours before lawmakers are to return to Jackson. The special session is necessary because statutes relating to youth court expired on June 30. Reeves said lawmakers have reached a deal to “create a far better system,” indicating they will be passing some reform measures and that they are prepared to pass the measure quickly.

“The agreed upon solution (as proposed and agreed by House and Senate leadership) sets up a far better system for both kids who are abused and neglected, as well as those children facing delinquency proceedings,” Reeves said. “For the first time, children and families will have access to full-time judges and moves us toward a uniform youth court system statewide.”

Reeves did not offer additional details on the apparent agreement, but he said he was optimistic that both Republicans and Democrats would support the legislation.

But in a joint statement, Democratic leaders in both chambers said Democratic members have “neither seen nor been meaningfully engaged in negotiating,” and some rank-and-file Republican lawmakers said they know little about the agreement.

“The constituents we represent do not expect us to rubber-stamp legislation we have not had the opportunity to thoroughly review,” the Democratic leaders said. “If this proposal strengthens protections for abused and neglected children, improves our youth court system, and better serves Mississippi families, then it deserves careful consideration. But consideration requires transparency, collaboration, and access to the legislative language — not assumptions about how members will vote.”

Andrew Ketchings, clerk of the House, said the House will convene in the Old Capitol building because the House chamber in the current Capitol is undergoing renovations. Lawmakers had been set to reconvene at the Old Capitol building in May to redraw state Supreme Court districts, but Reeves ultimately called that special session off.

The Old Capitol is the site where Mississippi lawmakers once implemented Jim Crow and voted to secede from the Union over slavery. The plan to host a special session there on redistricting drew fierce criticism from Democratic lawmakers, most of whom are Black.

As of now, Reeves has not called a special session on redistricting. Although unlikely, he could add that to the agenda while lawmakers are back in Jackson starting tomorrow, or call another special session later this year. During his tenure as governor, Reeves has been reluctant to call lawmakers into special session unless at least rough agreements had been reached, to avoid long, costly sessions.

Lawmakers debated a youth court reform bill during their 2026 regular session. The reform package also contained a measure extending the “repealer” in existing law on how confidential youth court records can be shared between courts, state agencies, attorneys and law enforcement.

READ MORE: State court office will follow judge orders on youth court access, while legal conundrum around secrecy remains

When a repealer, or sunset clause, is included in a state law, the law or a section goes away on a specified date unless the Legislature votes to reenact it. Because the Legislature didn’t pass a measure extending the repealer, those confidentiality measures and other youth court laws expired.

The state Supreme Court issued an order earlier this month that state officials said will allow youth court business to proceed as usual. That order expires on July 24, but the Court could extend that order.

The special session will begin Wednesday at 3 p.m.

COLUMBUS — Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, at a Tuesday press conference called for banning members of Congress and their immediate families from trading stocks and criticized his Republican opponent for opposing such a measure last year. 

Colom said in his hometown of Columbus that if elected, he will push Congress to pass a measure that would give independent investigators “more teeth” to enforce ethics laws for congressional officials, require public officials to disclose more of their financial information, and establish an ethics office in the U.S. Senate.

“A rule with no consequences is just a suggestion,” Colom said. “And Congress has run on suggestions for too long.” 

In December, incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith voted to block a stock-trading ban proposal from advancing out of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.  She joined the Republicans on the committee to block the proposal from Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia.  

Jake Monssen, Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, didn’t directly address Colom’s stock-ban proposal, but told Mississippi Today in a statement that Colom’s press conference was “nothing more than political theater” and that his campaign was “just plain sad to watch”

“Can you imagine someone this deceitful as a federal judge?” Monssen said. “Every day, Sen. Hyde-Smith is further vindicated in her decision to block him from becoming one.”

The Democratic nominee also criticized Hyde-Smith for using campaign donations to pay for travel to Las Vegas. Hyde-Smith has not directly addressed repeated questions about her Las Vegas trips, but her campaign has said in a previous statement that the senator routinely “raises funds to support her campaign from donors across the country.” 

Colom is the elected district attorney for Lowndes, Clay, Oktibbeha and Noxubee counties. He was first elected in 2015 and won reelection twice. Former President Joe Biden nominated Colom for a federal judgeship in 2022. His nomination received bipartisan support, but Hyde-Smith blocked his confirmation. 

Hyde-Smith is a former state senator, serving as a Democrat for much of that time, and later as state agriculture commissioner. Former Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to the U.S. Senate in 2018 to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Thad Cochran when he resigned. She was elected to a full term in 2020 and is up for reelection this year.

Colom and Hyde-Smith will compete against each other in the general election on Nov. 3, along with independent candidate Ty Pinkins. 

The Jackson City Council voted Tuesday to approve a citywide data center moratorium. It is the first city in Mississippi to do so.

Ward 1 Council Member Ashby Foote has often been the lone voice on the council extolling the benefits a data center could bring to the city, noting it could boost Jackson’s middling general fund revenue by millions of dollars. 

“While the data center may not be the perfect economic development, I think it’s a very worthy economic development,” Foote said during Tuesday’s city council meeting. 

The moratorium is the latest step in a months-long debate over the future of data centers in Mississippi’s capital city. City Council President and Ward 4 Council Member Brian Grizzell first proposed the six-month moratorium in April. Since then, there have been multiple city and community meetings to educate and solicit feedback from the public. 

“This council has voted to go in the right direction,” Grizzell said after the moratorium passed 5-2, with Foote and Ward 5 Council Member Vernon Hartley voting against. 

The council can extend or cancel the moratorium at any time. For its duration, the ordinance states the council will identify appropriate sites for a data center and investigate the potential impacts of such development on the city. 

A New Jersey-based developer has expressed interest in building a data center in northwest Jackson. Multiple data centers under construction in the state are projected to bring in millions of dollars each year in new property taxes, growing the coffers of local governments. 

When the proposal to rezone the 230-acre piece of property in northwest Jackson went to the planning board, a large crowd turned up in opposition. Public comments have consistently been in favor of a temporary moratorium and passing regulations to address community concerns.  

Even as AI promises to reshape the world, the physical infrastructure it needs has become a maelstrom of contention across the country. Jackson is not alone in passing a temporary moratorium. Other cities and states have considered or even passed temporary bans on data center development.

In Mississippi, Clinton and Madison have updated their zoning ordinances to regulate new data centers and Clarksdale attached a list of conditions when it rezoned property where a developer was considering building a data center. Legislators are also starting to explore regulation at the state level, including an AI task force meeting this week.

During Tuesday’s debate on the moratorium, Ward 3 Council Member Kenny Stokes said that he theoretically supports data centers but believed council members should have more control over economic development in their wards. 

“I don’t think it’s right that we’re putting something in a council person’s ward and the people don’t want it, the council man doesn’t want it, but you’re doing it because you can,” he said. 

Ward 5 Council Member Vernon Hartley said that he spoke to the property owner a few days ago and told him that Jackson is not ready for a data center. 

“We need money, true, but we’re looking at an industry here that is still being developed and tested all over the county,” he said. 

But Hartley said he felt a moratorium would divide the city. Instead, he said Jackson needed to identify engineering or consulting firms that could help the city’s legal department vet potential data center developments. 

Ward 1 Council Member Kevin Parkinson proposed reducing the moratorium to 60 days in an amendment that failed. Another amendment Parkinson offered to create an exemption from the moratorium for land surrounding the Jackson airport passed. 

Now disgraced and convicted former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens laid it out clearly to the undercover feds offering bribes to Mississippi politicians.

Owens, according to a federal indictment, explained the politicians would “clean (the bribes) like we always do, we’ll put it in a campaign account …”

“Owens also explained that because public officials finance their personal lives through their campaign accounts, campaign contributions were the most effective way to influence them, so long as the money came from within the state of Mississippi,” the indictment said.

Mississippi’s weak, jumbled and conflicting campaign finance laws, along with nearly nonexistent enforcement and meager transparency, are a recipe for political corruption and the corrosive influence of secretive big-money special interests.

The conviction of Owens, former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and two City Council members in an FBI bribery sting in which campaign accounts played a prominent role, makes the need for Mississippi campaign finance reform and transparency clear and present.

There have been some, mostly ineffectual, efforts at reform over many years. But the Mississippi Legislature has largely treated these efforts like the plague. The one thing on which most lawmakers appear to agree, be they on the far right, far left or somewhere in between, is that they don’t want any real regulation or transparency over their tax-exempt campaign finance accounts.

Going on a decade ago, lawmakers passed what was billed as a prohibition on personal use of campaign funds. This came after an embarrassing series of news articles about Mississippi politicians using their campaign funds for vacation trips, paying their taxes, a BMW for a family member, an RV to park at Disney World, paying themselves and family, hiring a personal injury lawyer and even buying an $800 pair of cowboy boots.

But the law lacked teeth or clear enforcement authority and, it would appear from what Owens told the undercover FBI agents, politicians still use campaign accounts as personal slush funds. Or, to occasionally launder tens of thousands of dollars in bribes.

Secretary of State Michael Watson has for the last few years pushed for reform, with some assistance from Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England, but the Legislature has snuffed the efforts out. Such reform hasn’t even gotten a real hearing in the House.

Mississippi voters don’t even stand a fighting chance at figuring out who’s buying our politicians. Most other states, including all those surrounding Mississippi, have searchable databases of campaign contributions. Politicians elsewhere, including Congress, have been required to file campaign finance reports electronically for years, in some cases decades. 

But not in Mississippi, nay, nay. Politicians can, if they so choose, file handwritten, illegible reports, in crayon if they like (one candidate did hers in calligraphy years ago). 

Campaign finance reports are not as routine checked by anyone for legibility, completeness or accuracy, and they are stored as un-searchable PDFs. Some politicians have filed blank forms. Or, as has been done with little consequence, they can just not file reports. Mayor Lumumba went for three years without filing a report, and when questioned just noted that is “not uncustomary for my campaign.”

A former state lawmaker once filed a report listing a $1,000 expense as “Auto GAS-Travel” for the payee, “CASH” for the address and “Auto GAS (CASH)” as the purpose for the campaign spending. A $5,000 expense was labeled as “Casual Labors” with no other explanation.

Watson has a new computer system at the secretary of state’s office and is creating an online filing system. He has pushed lawmakers to require electronic campaign finance filing, but to no avail.

“I wonder how many cases like this it will take for the Legislature to finally pass common sense and strong campaign finance reform?” Watson said after recent guilty pleas in the Jackson federal corruption case. 

The legislative arguments against even having to file reports that the public can easily decipher have been asinine.

Longtime Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, has repeatedly argued that requiring Mississippi candidates to fill out an electronic form for campaign donations and spending would be too onerous. He said that using technology that’s been in most people’s homes – or pockets, with cell phones – for decades would prohibit some from running for office.

The Mississippi public at-large perhaps hasn’t tripped to the fact that it’s being kept in the dark more than other states’ residents or that the state’s lack of campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws are an open invite to corruption and special interest control. 

Meanwhile, more and more money flows into Mississippi campaigns. Even legislative races have become more expensive affairs, with campaigns sometimes raising and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. In recent election cycles, we’ve seen millions of dollars of dark money flow into campaigns and PACs and what would appear to be flagrant violations of what few rules and limits the state does have – should anyone try to enforce them.

But ironically, the only time this has appeared to be a real issue with lawmakers is during recent attempts to reinstate the public’s right to sidestep the Legislature and place measures directly on a statewide ballot.

In that case, many lawmakers have said as they have repeatedly shot down ballot initiative reinstatement, they fear big-money special interests might improperly influence such proposals and campaigns and co-opt voters. 

Maybe they’re worried that would leave less money for them.

University of Mississippi researchers, armed with a bevy of data, have in recent weeks met with state lawmakers and outlined their case for why the Legislature should fund new programs to study and treat problematic gambling. 

The researchers will request a $2 million annual allocation to fund two major gambling initiatives on campus, a presentation obtained by Mississippi Today shows. 

The effort comes as gambling in the U.S. is on the rise due to increasing access and availability, the researchers said. It also comes as the legalization of mobile sports betting remains stalled in the Mississippi Legislature, with House and Senate leaders at loggerheads over the policy. 

The University of Mississippi researchers have not taken a position on the legalization of mobile sports betting. Hailing from departments ranging from social work to higher education to the law school, the researchers will ask for $1 million to fund a Center on Collegiate Gambling. The center will conduct academic research on student gambling and gambling on collegiate sports. 

The other $1 million would fund gambling treatment clinics for the general population of Mississippi. The home-base clinic would be located at the University of Mississippi, with additional potential clinics at Mississippi State University, Jackson State University and the University of Southern Mississippi. 

The University of Mississippi announced the launch of its Center on Collegiate Gambling in March, describing it as the “first of its kind in the nation” amid rising national concern about betting on collegiate sports. 

Researchers affiliated with the initiative have since been looking for steady funding for the center. Figures included in the presentation they delivered to lawmakers point to a growing problem that will take resources to solve. 

About 20 million people, or 8% of U.S. adults, report experiencing at least one problematic gambling behavior several times in the past year. The estimated social cost of problem gambling in the U.S. is $14 billion a year, according to findings from the National Council on Problem Gambling. That can be traced to gambling-related criminal justice and healthcare spending, as well as job loss, debt and bankruptcy. 

In Mississippi, an estimated 4% of adults in Mississippi are believed to meet criteria for gambling disorder. 

In late June, Rep. Beth Luther Waldo, a Republican from Pontotoc, said she and several fellow lawmakers visited the University of Mississippi and that the growing problem of gambling addiction among young people “stood out as particularly concerning.” 

“We discussed how easily some individuals can become trapped in a cycle of gambling losses and debt often digging themselves into an even deeper hole as they try to recover what they’ve lost,” Waldo wrote on social media. “While online sports betting is currently illegal in Mississippi, many young people (& adults) are still accessing gambling opportunities through offshore websites and other online platforms.” 

A 2025 survey of schools in the Institutions of Higher Learning found that about 40% of undergraduate students gambled in the past year, most often via lottery, cards and sports betting. Gambling was more prevalent among students who were male, white, lived off campus, participated in sports and were involved in Greek life. About 16% of student sports bettors met criteria for moderate or severe problem gambling. 

But more broadly, the researchers said, nine out of 10 individuals with a gambling problem never receive treatment. 

While gambling might be a financial problem for some individual Mississippi residents, it’s big business for the state as a whole. 

In 2025, total statewide commercial casino gambling revenue in Mississippi was $2.43 billion, the researchers said. That same year, commercial casinos generated approximately $287.9 million in direct gaming tax revenue.

Despite the growing prevalence of gambling addiction and the longstanding power of the state’s casino industry, Mississippi is one of only nine states with no public funding specifically designated for problem gambling services, the researchers said. 

The state used to transfer $100,000 to the Mississippi Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling, but that spending was discontinued in 2018. 

In addition to being one of the few states with no taxpayer-funded gambling services, Mississippi has also remained among a minority of states that haven’t legalized mobile sports betting.

The opposition is largely rooted in fears that legalization could harm the bottom line of the state’s casinos and increase the prevalence of gambling addiction. That hasn’t stopped a thriving black market from taking hold in the state.

In 2024, illegal online betting in Mississippi made up about 5% of the national illegal market, which is about $3 billion in illegal bets in Mississippi, proponents said that year. Supporters of legalization, including House Speaker Jason White, say people will place online sports wagers regardless of whether the practice is legal, so the state should regulate and tax it.

The state House voted, for the third year in a row, to legalize mobile sports betting during the regular 2026 legislative session. But Senate leaders have said they plan to let the measure die again.

Recently, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who leads the Senate, restated his opposition to legalization, citing the potential economic impact on casinos and “a social cost that is of increasing concern.”

“Mobile sports betting could undermine the billions of dollars invested in brick-and-mortar gaming facilities across our state, increase opportunities for misconduct and illegal actions involving athletes, and raise serious questions about whether the resulting tax revenue would even be sufficient to offset the associated social and economic costs,” Hosemann said. “The Senate should continue to reject this harmful legislation.”

Whether or not Mississippi chooses to legalize mobile sports betting in the future, the University of Mississippi researchers told lawmakers that their gambling initiatives will educate the public around responsible gambling while providing a safety net for those who develop problems.