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OXFORD — In basketball, urgency matters. Mississippi State played with a clear sense of urgency here Saturday evening. Ole Miss did not.

That stark difference translated to a badly needed 80-70 victory for the Bulldogs, who completed a sweep their two-game series with the Rebels. This one didn’t seem nearly as close as the final score would indicate.

Ole Miss (now 19-7 overall and 8-5 in the SEC) came in with a three-game winning streak, including two straight on the road. The last time the Rebels had played at home, they blew away blue-blood Kentucky with an almost perfect performance. In contrast, State (18-7, 6-6) came in having lost six of nine (three of their last four) and desperately needing a victory on their arch-rival’s home floor. The Bulldogs snatched that victory with the same ferocity they snatched rebounds and loose balls. They seemed to get every rebound that mattered.

Surely, Ole Miss players wanted to win. Everybody wants to win. But State needed to win. The Bulldogs desperately needed to win. They played like it. As Sean Pedulla, the Rebels’ normally sharp-shooting guard put it, “They played like they had a chip on their shoulder.” He said the Rebels played as if they were “complacent.” His word, not mine.

Someone asked Pedulla if the Rebels were tired after two straight difficult, down-to-the-wire road wins Pedulla answered, “We weren’t tired; we just weren’t aggressive.”

Pedulla said more. “When you play a team that’s playing for a lot right now and as competitive as they are, it’s going to show like it did today,” he said. “They were definitely the most aggressive team today in pretty much every category.”

State was. It seemed as if every time a shot was missed, two or three Bulldogs crashed the boards, compared to a single Rebel. In two meetings now, State has out-rebounded Ole Miss 99-65. That’s dominance with a capital D.

It’s no great secret Ole Miss has achieved its 19-7 record and No. 19 national ranking despite severe rebounding deficiencies. Thing is, the Rebels usually make up for that rebounding deficit with Grade A defense and by forcing far more turnovers than they commit. That wasn’t the case Saturday night. State committed just one more turnover than Ole Miss (15-14). 

When State defeated Ole Miss 84-81 in overtime four weeks before at Starkville, the Bulldogs out-rebounded the Rebels 51-29. The Rebels kept it closer that time by out-shooting the Bulldogs and by out-scoring State 14-3 on points off turnovers. Ole Miss had no such advantages this time. The Bulldogs not only out-rebounded the Rebels, they out-shot them and thoroughly out-hustled them.

Ole Miss started well. The Rebels led 22-15 with eight minutes to play in the first half. Then, it was as if both teams switched gears with State going into overdrive and Ole Miss seemingly into reverse. Over the next 19 minutes of playing time, State out-scored the Rebels by 26 points. With 8:55 to play in the game, State led by 19. From seven points down, to 19 up in just 19 minutes – that’s getting it done.

Beard tried everything he could to change the momentum: timeouts, substitutions, encouragement, butt-chewings, benchings. Nothing worked. 

Because of severe impending weather, State did not make players available post-game and State coach Chris Jans was brief in his postgame comments. Beard, on the other hand, had all five of his starters appear at the postgame conference. It was as if he wanted all to face the music, as the saying goes. When asked why he had chosen to break postgame precedent, Beard replied, “Hopefully some of you guys asked questions that need to be asked.”

“I’m not throwing the players under the bus,” Beard said. “It’s my job to get them ready to play. . . . There was a lot of softness to us tonight.”

Beard went on to apologize to the packed house of mostly Ole Miss fans who drove to the game and “paid good money” to attend. He seized on one his star player’s use of the word “complacent.”

“If complacency is a part of this, then we have some guys that really need to do some soul-searching,” Beard said. “Complacent for what? What have we done that allows us to be complacent?”

Jans, who now holds a 5-1 record against Ole Miss, praised his team’s aggressiveness and togetherness. Yes, he said, the Bulldogs really needed a victory given their recent slump. But he stopped short of saying his team displayed a sense of urgency that State’s arch-rival did not.

Jans didn’t need to. It was clearly evident to anyone who watched. The Bulldogs just played harder. They wanted it more. That’s urgency. 

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State employees – including public school and community college teachers – would get six weeks of paid parental leave under a bill that passed the Senate Thursday. It now advances to the House, which passed its own version of the policy unanimously in January. 

It’s likely the two chambers will need to go into “conference” later in the legislative session – an opportunity for a smaller group of senators and representatives to talk at length about a bill’s details and reach a compromise.

The House version gives primary caregivers eight weeks of paid leave – two more than the Senate version. However, senators added an amendment to their bill during its floor debate to include public school and community college teachers, which was not included in the House bill. 

Fourteen senators voted ‘No’ on the bill, authored by Sen. Jeremy England, R-Ocean Springs, after a long discussion. 

Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, said he thinks paid parental leave is “a step too far” since the federal government mandates 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave for state employees. 

“I don’t know why we’re even dealing with it,” he said on the floor. 

Mississippi is one of only 12 states without dedicated paid family leave for state employees, according to A Better Balance, a national nonprofit advocating for better work-life balance. 

Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who was presenting the bill, responded by saying that it’s “the right thing to do” in the state that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion and claims to value families.

“We stand up here and put on our campaign commercials about families – ‘I’m a family man,’” said Wiggins. “Are we going to put on our campaign commercials into action or are we just going to talk about it?”

The policy has garnered wide support from leadership in both chambers. Speaker of the House Jason White  and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann have championed it. Attorney General Lynn Fitch has also publicly spoken out in support of it. 

Each bill now advances to the opposite chamber. 

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Last week, the state Public Service Commission unanimously approved a special contract that will extend the life of a Mississippi Power coal unit in order to meet energy demands for a recently announced data center project in Meridian.

Gov. Tate Reeves announced last month a $10 billion investment from Compass Datacenters. The Dallas-based company will build eight centers, and in exchange will receive multiple tax exemptions, Mississippi Today reported. The project will be located within the Mississippi Power service area. The utility, a subsidiary of Southern Company, serves 192,000 customers in the southern and eastern parts of the state.

Following a 2020 directive from the PSC to get rid of excess generation capacity, Mississippi Power initially planned to close the two coal-powered units at Plant Victor J. Daniel — in Jackson County, about 10 miles north of Moss Point — by 2027. In 2023, though, the utility pushed the retirement date back a year in order to support demand needs for its sibling company, Georgia Power, Grist reported.

Then on Jan. 9, Mississippi Power informed the PSC that, in order to power the Compass Datacenter facilities, it would have to delay closure of at least one of the coal units, as well as “potentially other fossil steam units,” until the mid-2030s.

Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps told Mississippi Today that the PSC’s job is to meet demand, and that until Mississippi Power has the option to include nuclear power in its arsenal, “we’re going to need all the power we can get in that service area.”

“We can’t stop economic development because we’ve got to wait, you know, 15 years for some nuclear power in the service area,” Stamps said.

Throughout the last couple decades, the country has moved away from coal as an energy source because of its contribution to global warming but also because of air and water pollution associated with coal-burning facilities. A 2023 study from George Mason University, the University of Texas and Harvard University found that exposure to fine particulate pollutants known as PM2.5 from coal plants contributed to 460,000 deaths around the country between 1999 and 2020, twice the mortality rate of PM2.5 exposure from other sources.

Sen. Jeremy England, R-Vancleave, whose district includes Plant Daniel, called the facility a “fixture of our community” because of the jobs and tax revenue it provides. He said he wasn’t aware of any health concerns related to air emissions from the plant.

“I don’t hear from any constituents that say, ‘Hey, we don’t want this here,’” England said.

England added that Plant Daniel retiring units could potentially hurt its tax assessment, meaning less revenue for public needs like the local school district. He also pointed to emission “scrubbers” that Plant Daniel and other coal facilities have added in recent years. The same 2023 study found that scrubbers have dramatically decreased sulfur dioxide emissions as well as air pollution-related deaths.

In addition to Compass Datacenters, Mississippi Power also entered into a special contract to supply power for a plywood manufacturer, owned by Hood Industries, in Beaumont, Mississippi.

The two deals, a spokesperson for Mississippi Power said, necessitate keeping the coal and other units set for retirement alive.

“We are committed to keeping the Mississippi Public Service Commission and our customers up to date and will present additional details in our upcoming 2025 Mid-Point Supply-Side Update,” spokesperson Jeff Shepard said via email. “These incredible economic development projects will create a significant number of jobs and bring billions of dollars of investment to southeast Mississippi.”

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A bill that would establish a clear pathway for Mississippians seeking to become professional midwives passed the House after dying in committee several years in a row. 

“Midwives play an important role in our state, especially in areas where maternal health care is scarce,” said Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus and author of the bill. “I’m happy that House Bill 927 passed the House yesterday and urge our senators to join us in passing this much-needed legislation.”  

Despite the legislation imposing regulations on the profession and mandating formalized training, many midwives have voiced their support of the bill. They say it will help them care more holistically for women and allow them new privileges like the ability to administer certain labor medications – and will open the door to insurance reimbursement in the future. 

“We have so few midwives integrated in the system and so few midwives practicing in the state,” explained Amanda Smith, a midwife in Hattiesburg who went out of state to receive her professional midwifery license. “We believe that licensure really will help create a clear pathway so people know exactly how to become a midwife in Mississippi.”

It isn’t guaranteed that the bill would make midwifery more accessible to low-income women. But licensure makes it more likely. 

Currently, neither Medicaid nor private insurance reimburse for unlicensed midwifery services. Licensing professional midwifery wouldn’t necessarily mean that insurance companies would immediately start reimbursing for the services, but it’s the only way they might. 

A new federal program is seeking to make midwifery reimbursable by Medicaid. 

Mississippi is one of 15 states chosen by the federal government to participate in a new grant program called the Transforming Maternal Health Model, which began in January 2025 and will work to expand access and reimbursement for services – including licensed midwifery. 

The bill has historically faced opposition both from those who think it does too much, as well as those who think it does too little. 

To those who think it overregulates the profession, McLean says her loyalty lies with her constituents and making sure they have the most transparency when seeking birth options. Currently, anyone can operate under the title midwife in the state of Mississippi – with no required standard of training. 

“We are legitimizing (professional midwifery) … As a legislator, it’s my duty to try to protect the citizens of Mississippi,” McLean said. “And by putting this legislation forward, it helps to inform those clients that would want the services of a midwife but don’t know how to choose.”

As for those who think it does too little, McLean says the bill would leave the details up to a board – established by the bill and made up mostly of midwives – who would be able to decide requirements for professional midwifery better than a room full of lawmakers. 

“There’s a lot of men in here that know a lot about birthing babies,” McLean said during a lively floor debate Thursday.

The bill now advances to the Senate. 

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Editor’s note: This essay, offered through the American Forum, examines how Black Mississippi women are disproportionately harmed by instances of cervical cancer.

Mississippi, a state known for rich culture and strong heritage, also faces some of the nation’s most glaring health disparities. Among them is the inequity in cervical cancer prevention and treatment, which is often shaped by racism and systemic discrimination in healthcare.

Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer at later stages and have a lower five-year survival rate, meaning they are less likely to survive for five years after diagnosis. Mississippi, which has the highest cervical cancer death rate in the country, is a stark example of this disparity. In the state, Black women are nearly 1.5 times more likely to die from cervical cancer than their white counterparts, even though the incidence rates between Black and white women are nearly identical.     

I am a community-based researcher and health equity advocate with over 20 years of experience addressing healthcare disparities in the Mississippi Delta. My work has brought me face-to-face with the structural barriers that continue to disproportionately harm Black women in our state. These barriers, rooted in systemic racism, perpetuate cycles of mistrust and disengagement with the healthcare system, further exacerbating health inequities. 

When Black women experience bias or dismissal, trust in healthcare providers erodes, leading to avoidance of care and worse outcomes. For many Black women I interviewed, generational mistreatment by medical providers and institutions has left a justified and chronic skepticism about the intentions and reliability of healthcare systems. This discourages them from pursuing needed gynecological services. This mistrust complicates efforts to promote preventive care, such as regular screenings and timely treatment for cervical cancer, leaving many women hesitant to seek care from a system that has marginalized them for generations.

One woman I spoke with shared her experience of severe cramping from an IUD, only to be dismissed by her gynecologist’s office. When she was finally seen, the care she received was rushed and aggressive, leaving her feeling unheard and mistreated. It wasn’t until she switched providers that her concerns were properly addressed.

Another interviewee recounted her decision to avoid local doctors altogether after enduring substandard care in Washington County. “When I left Washington County, I was provided with better health care, and my health increased tremendously,” she said. Her story reflects a painful truth for many Black women in Mississippi: equitable, compassionate care often feels out of reach.

These individual stories are part of a broader, well-documented pattern. Research consistently shows that healthcare providers are less likely to recommend preventive measures like HPV vaccinations to Black patients. Providers also frequently dismiss Black women’s health concerns, resulting in delayed diagnoses and subpar treatment. This pattern of medical racism is more than an injustice—it is a public health crisis.

Cervical cancer should not be a death sentence in Mississippi or anywhere else. The eradication of the entrenched racism and discrimination in our healthcare system will move us closer to a future where every woman has an equal chance at prevention, treatment and survival.

Addressing these disparities requires more than acknowledgment; it demands action. We need increased investment in community health clinics to bring quality care to underserved areas. Cultural competency training for healthcare providers is equally essential to combat implicit bias and foster better relationships with patients.

Mississippi has the opportunity to lead by example in dismantling the systemic inequities that have plagued its healthcare system for far too long. By prioritizing health equity and addressing these disparities head-on, we can ensure that every woman in our state—regardless of race or zip code—has access to the preventive care and treatment she deserves.       

Barbara Rose Brooks is a community-based researcher and a lifelong resident of Leland. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Alcorn State University and has dedicated 20-plus years of service to eradicating health disparities. The first African American female mayor elected in Leland in 2005, she is currently Leland’s vice mayor and a community health advisor with the Deep South Network for Cancer Control. Formerly Brooks was Project Development Officer for Tougaloo College’s Delta Health Partners Healthy Start Initiative. In 2021 the Delta Health Center’s Leland clinic was renamed the Barbara Brooks Medical Center in her honor. 

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Mothers and advocates with the Black Women’s Roundtable gathered at the Capitol Thursday and called on the Legislature to prioritize women and children this year. 

Speakers asked lawmakers to act on a range of issues from midwifery care to child care, but all their priorities centered around making women more financially secure in the poorest state with the worst maternal health outcomes. 

Advocates brought with them “money bags,” which they said would be placed on the desks of all lawmakers.

“Inside those money bags are coins that represent access to child care, access to health care, higher wages for families and the need to move paid family and medical leave,” said Robin Jackson, director of policy advocacy for the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable. “We are not asking you anymore – we are telling you ‘Secure the bag for Mississippi families.’”

Shequite Wilson-Johnson, a mother of five and assistant professor at Mississippi Valley State University, spoke about her struggle to birth her children safely and with job security – even when she worked her way up the social ladder. 

Wilson-Johnson was a teenager when she had her first baby. By her second child, she was in college, working up until the day she gave birth. With her third, she was married. With her fourth, she had a master’s degree, and with her fifth, a doctoral degree. But she received no paid leave for three of her children, and she was laid off twice after giving birth – including with her last child.

“Understand this: No matter how hard I worked, no matter how hard I tried, no matter the education I had, no matter the standard of life, I was still told, ‘You don’t matter,’” Wilson-Johnson said.

There are currently two bills moving through the Legislature that would create the state’s first paid parental leave mandate for state employees. The bills wouldn’t help people like Wilson-Johnson, but they would be a start, and might encourage the private sector to follow suit and “do the right thing,” said Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, and author of the House’s bill. 

But it isn’t just about the money. Studies show that paid maternity leave drastically benefits the health of mothers and babies – including reducing postpartum depression and infant mortality, and increasing bonding and breastfeeding.

There are a dozen states that mandate paid parental leave across both private and public sectors. But the majority of states offer paid parental leave to state employees. 

Sen. Angela Turner-Ford, D-West Point, voiced her support for paid leave during the press conference.

“Our state does lag behind, whether it’s welcoming a newborn, caring for an elderly loved one, or managing a personal health crisis,” Turner-Ford said. “… Come back next year if we have not passed this legislation, hold us responsible, make us do more.”

Wilson-Johnson, of Indianola, also struggled to find adequate and affordable child care for her children, even when she worked at a child care center – a common plight for mothers everywhere. 

Two out of five child care workers in America make so little they need public assistance to support their families. In Mississippi, there are so few child care employees willing to work under the industry’s conditions that it’s affecting every other sector of the job market, with moms staying out of work because they can’t find a safe day care in which to place their children. It’s costing Mississippi $8 billion, according to a report from the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance. 

Bills aimed at allocating funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, or TANF, to create child care vouchers for needy parents died in committee. 

Advocates commended lawmakers for passing 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage in 2023, calling it “a win” – but emphasized the need to do more, and quickly. Mississippi, the state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation, was among the last states to ensure that these mothers could continue their Medicaid coverage for a year after they gave birth – the time during which most maternal deaths occur. 

In fact, between 2018 and 2023, the Mississippi Legislature only passed four bills related to maternal health, according to a study by researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told Mississippi Today he recognizes the need for legislative action supporting women, and that’s why he founded the Women, Children and Families Study Group, a Senate committee tasked with reviewing the needs of women and children in the state, in 2022. He said more maternal health bills were passed in the last two years than ever before. 

“This session, I hope to build on that progress by passing bills for paid maternity leave for state employees and enhancing postpartum depression screening to ensure more effective and efficient care,” Hosemann said.

Correction 2/13/2025: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of times Wilson-Johnson was offered paid leave after giving birth.

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Nearly a year after he disappeared after going on a walk in Jackson and his body was discovered counties away in the Pearl River, Dau Mabil has been laid to rest, but questions about his death remain. 

The 34-year-old Belhaven resident was buried Sunday and a celebration of life ceremony was held and attended by family and friends from the area, said Spencer Bowley, the brother of Dau’s wife, Karissa.

However, several key members of Dau’s family, including his older brother and birth mother who traveled from a Kenyan refugee camp last year, were not present or informed beforehand. Bul Mabil said he learned about his brother’s burial through someone else – not a member of the Bowley family – and he hasn’t received a response from them since he reached out Sunday. 

“Why wouldn’t they reach out to us?” Bul Mabil asked during a Tuesday interview. 

Spencer Bowley defended his sister and family’s decision not to inform Bul Mabil ahead of time because they believed he would potentially make the funeral service difficult. Mabil has accused members of the Bowley family of murdering his brother a number of times publicly on Facebook, which the family has continued to deny.  

“We frankly didn’t feel safe informing him of what we were doing,” he said Wednesday. 

The mother of Dau’s son was told about the funeral beforehand and they were invited, but she and the boy were not able to attend, Spencer Bowley said. She could not be reached for comment. 

Dau was buried months after two autopsies and a Capitol Police investigation were completed. 

Bul Mabil has raised concerns about whether his brother would be cremated, saying as early as last year that their culture does not permit it. Bowley said Wednesday that cremation was not part of the plan to put Dau to rest because his wife knew it was against his wishes. 

Dau and his brother came to Jackson in 2000 as “Lost Boys” of Sudan who fled war. They were among 50 boys who came to Missisisppi through the help of local churches.

Karissa Bowley reported her husband missing March 25, 2024, after he left their Belhaven home to walk around an area in town where the couple was known to go. 

On April 13,2024, fishermen spotted a body in the Pearl River in Lawrence County – over 50 miles downstream from Jackson. A preliminary autopsy by local officials identified the body as that of Dau and the sheriff said there was no evidence of foul play.

Since the discovery of Dau’s body, Bul Mabil has questioned whether his brother was the victim of a homicide. That suspicion led him to file a lawsuit against Karissa Bowley to prevent the release of Dau’s body to her until an independent autopsy could be conducted. 

In court, insinuations were directed at Bowley and members of her family, and at one point Karissa Bowley’s attorney asked if she had anything to do with her husband’s death, to which Bowley responded no. The hearing in Hinds County Chancery Court was for a civil case rather than a criminal one.

Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas later dismissed Bul’s lawsuit and affirmed that Karissa Bowley, as Dau’s widow, was his next of kin who has legal authority over how to handle his remains.  

Thomas did, however, allow an independent autopsy to be conducted at the “direction and expense” of Bul Mabil. 

A second autopsy was completed in August in Florida by Dr. Daniel Schultz – a pathologist approved by Karissa Bowley over one proposed by Bul Mabil, according to court records. 

In a recent email, Bul disagreed with previous reporting that he agreed with Karissa Bowley to use Schultz. Instead, he said the court forced him to use that pathologist “or else the second autopsy would not have been conducted.” 

The second autopsy shared with Mississippi Today is longer and more thorough than the first completed by the state, but it arrived at the same conclusion: Dau died from drowning and his manner of death was undetermined. 

It addresses allegations of a video showing what is believed to be Dau’s abduction and harm. Schultz wrote he watched the video repeatedly and didn’t find evidence to support the claims, noting that the video showed a blurred image from a distance likely moving but not a specific activity. 

“And it is extremely important to also consider the context of the two independent autopsies (one by the state and one by a pathologist [myself] effectively hired by those who think that this might be a homicide and want to clarify),” Schultz wrote.

“My role is to be honest and neutral. And in that vein, there is no evidence of foul play.”

The report provides more context about how Dau ended up in the Pearl River. The place where he entered the water is unknown, but the report states a reasonable location could be the dam near the water treatment plant, which is an area where Dau walked. 

Google Earth pictures included in the report show a 1.4-mile distance between where Dau was last seen in video surveillance and the dam. 

The pathologist wrote Dau’s manner of death as undetermined because available information make it difficult to distinguish whether his death was an accident or by suicide. 

To support that conclusion was a new finding of a bite mark on Dau’s tongue, which the pathologist said likely happened from a seizure from drowning after entering the river or before due to a seizure related to consumption of alcohol.

The report noted Dau had a “history of chronic alcohol abuse” supported by several pieces of information, including how his wife reported him drinking more than a dozen alcoholic beverages in a week and how he experienced shakes that could be a sign of withdrawal.

It also notes how a person who saw Dau in the early morning before he disappeared smelled alcohol on him, and how former coworkers at times saw him drunk at work. 

Toxicology reports can’t pinpoint whether Dau had alcohol in his system at the time of his death because alcohol is a common byproduct of decomposition, the report noted. 

Spencer Bowley said the family had some reason to believe alcohol may have been a contributing factor in Dau’s death, and the autopsy report supports that. Overall, he said they are glad to have more information that wasn’t available earlier on and in the previous autopsy report. 

Bul Mabil disagreed with the report’s emphasis on Dau’s alcohol consumption and a years-old DUI charge, which he said made it seem like Dau caused his own death.

He also wanted to learn more about the bite mark in the report, which was called a deep muscular hemorrhage, and found a scientific journal article that suggested such injuries on the tongue could be evidence of strangulation from homicide.  

Bul Mabil said he shared the journal article with the pathologist and asked if it could be incorporated into his findings, but the pathologist did not, and he said it felt the information was dismissed.

Mabil said the emphasis on Dau’s drinking, findings about the tongue injury and what he sees as a failure to incorporate other evidence of a crime against Dau leads him to see the recent report as biased. 

He is looking to hire a new attorney and a private investigator to uncover new information and a forensic pathologist to review the recent autopsy report. 

“It’s very difficult for me to accept any report and to give up on my brother’s case,” Mabil said in a video posted on Facebook Sunday evening.

The post Dau Mabil buried amid strained family relations and unanswered questions appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The House on Thursday will likely let a proposal that would restore voters’ right to sidestep the Legislature and put measures on a statewide ballot die without a vote.

House Constitution Chairman Price Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall, told Mississippi Today that he would let the measure die by Thursday’s legislative deadline because he believed the Senate would not be receptive to any ballot initiative proposal. 

“They’re not taking it up on that end of the building, so there’s no sense in us fighting about it down here,” Wallace said of the Senate. 

This would be the fourth straight year that lawmakers at the Capitol have been unable to agree on restoring the ballot initiative after the state Supreme Court in 2021 ruled the state’s initiative was unworkable because of the signature-gathering process. 

Despite the Mississippi Constitution explicitly stating that voters still have a right to offer amendments through an initiative process, citizens have no process to change state laws or the state Constitution. 

Since the court’s ruling that the initiative process was invalidated, some lawmakers have questioned whether Mississippi needs an initiative and raised concerns that uber-wealthy out-of-state donors can use their wealth to manipulate voters through a ballot initiative. 

During the 30 years that the state had an initiative, only seven proposals made it to a statewide ballot: two initiatives for term limits, eminent domain, voter ID, a personhood amendment, medical marijuana and a measure forcing lawmakers to fund public education fully.

Of those seven, only eminent domain, voter ID and medical marijuana were approved by voters. The rest were rejected.

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