Archie Manning remembers Kellen Moore coming to the Manning Passing Academy at Thibodaux, Louisiana, as a counselor during the summer of 2010, just before Moore’s junior season at Boise State.
Moore had just turned 22. But, said Manning, “He looked like he was 12.”
“I remember him as a really nice, polite kid, a left-hander” Manning said. “He was a coach’s son. His daddy was a legendary high school coach in Washington (state). I remember that he didn’t have the arm strength that a lot of the quarterbacks we bring in have. He wasn’t a big guy, but he was really accurate and he knew where to go with the ball. He impressed me as being really, really smart, ahead of the game. As so many coaches’ sons do, he really understood the game.
“I don’t know how much he got from us, but he must have enjoyed the camp and gotten something out of it because he came back the next year.”
Yes, and Moore has enjoyed south Louisiana a lot lately. Sunday, in the Superdome, he called the plays for the Philadelphia Eagles in their Super Bowl trouncing of the two-time defending NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs. He was back in the Crescent City Wednesday to start his new job as head coach of the New Orleans Saints.
Fixing the Saints will be much more difficult than torching the Chiefs, and we will get to that shortly. But first some more background on Moore, who will not turn 37 until July. Most college football fans will remember Moore for his remarkable four-year run as the starting quarterback at Boise. After redshirting as a freshman, he led the Broncos to a ridiculous 50-3 record over the next four seasons 2008-11. Southern Miss fans should recall that in 2008, Moore’s freshman season, Boise State came to Hattiesburg and trounced a good Jeff Bower-coached Southern Miss team 24-7. For his Boise career, he completed 70% of his passes for nearly 15,000 yards. He threw for 142 touchdowns, compared to just 28 interceptions. Clearly, he was really accurate and did know where to go with the football, which was quite often into the end zone.
Despite all those gaudy statistics, Moore was not drafted. He wasn’t quite six feet tall and, again, he lacked elite arm strength. He signed as a free agent with the Detroit Lions and played sparingly over six NFL seasons with the Lions and the Cowboys, retiring in 2017.
The Cowboys, who saw firsthand Moore’s football knowledge, hired him in 2018 as their quarterbacks coach. In 2019, at age 32 he was promoted to offensive coordinator. He has also served, successfully, as offensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers (2023) and, of course, the Eagles last season. Perhaps the best way to put into perspective his contributions to the Eagles’ championship run is this: In 2023, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts threw 15 interceptions and had a passer rating of 89.1. Under Moore, Hurts threw just five interceptions and had a passer rating of 103.7. That’s a huge, huge jump.
No doubt, naysayers will point out that calling successful plays with Hurts throwing and running, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith catching, and Saquon Barkley running should not be confused with inventing the wheel. And those same critics will correctly say Moore won’t have that many highly skilled weapons to work with in New Orleans. (He also will not have the same quality offensive line wearing black and gold as he had wearing green and silver.)
Other critics will question whether a guy who will have just turned 37 when the 2025 Saints begin training camp will have the experience (both football- and management-wise) to command an NFL coaching staff and football team. And, frankly, given the choice I probably would have at least gauged the interest of highly successful Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator Todd Monken before hiring a guy 23 years younger and with far less experience, none as a head coach.
But we all know Sean McVay coached the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl at age 32 and won it all at age 36. You don’t have to have a gray beard to coach football. That said, Moore is only a year older than Saints defensive stars Demario Davis and Cam Jordan. A bigger problem for Moore is that the league’s youngest head coach will inherit one of the league’s oldest rosters. At the risk of mixing cliches, the Saints are as long in the tooth as their new coach is wet behind the ears.
Manning, who still closely watches his hometown team, put it this way: “Kellen’s got his hands full. The Saints have some issues.”
The biggest of those: The Saints are a league-worst $54 million over the NFL salary cap. Some of those salaries must be slashed or eliminated. The league’s youngest head coach faces huge decisions, beginning with what to do about quarterback. Go with Derek Carr? Or start over and go younger? The Saints do have the ninth pick of the upcoming draft. That’s just for starters. As Manning put it, the Saints have issues, as in plural. It’s hard to get a whole lot better while chopping the payroll so drastically.
This all will be interesting to watch. And we should all remember what happened the last time the Saints hired a young, former Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator as their young head coach. Sean Payton, like Moore, had never been a head coach before he took the Saints job. That worked out pretty well, did it not?
Deep South Today is pleased to announce that it has received a $300,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation. This generous funding will be primarily utilized by Mississippi Today to establish a new Jackson Desk, dedicated to providing in-depth coverage of Mississippi’s capital city.
“This generous support from The Kresge Foundation strengthens the ability of our award-winning newsroom in Mississippi to further meet its mission to provide essential local journalism to the communities it serves,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “It is particularly meaningful in that it will deepen Mississippi Today’s coverage of the state’s largest city during an important municipal election year, when the need for reliable information will be even more critical.”
“In a world overflowing with information, supporting local journalism is more important than ever,” said Kevin Gray, program officer with the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Program. “Journalism bridges divides, amplifies diverse voices, and keeps us informed about the issues that matter in our communities – and the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Program is proud to support Deep South Today as it continues its work of telling community stories with integrity and care.”
Mississippi Today’s Jackson desk, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Wolfe, will focus on four reporting themes that get to the heart of the needs of Jacksonians:
Quality of life: infrastructure, schools, crime, mental health
Cost of living: jobs, wages, poverty, housing
Culture and resilience: entrepreneurship, community outreach, arts, civic engagement
Government: voter apathy, corruption, distrust in institutions
“In every way, Jackson matters,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today editor-in-chief. “It’s a capital city with the future of a struggling state on its shoulders. The most populous city in our state, it’s too often defined by its problems and not nearly enough by its successes and opportunities. It’s our home, and its progress and success means everything to each and every Mississippian. It’s really as simple as the age-old Magnolia State adage: As goes Jackson, so goes Mississippi.”
About Deep South Today and Mississippi Today
Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today and Verite News. Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now one of the largest newsrooms in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.
About The Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.
A bill that would allow some Mississippi parents to use taxpayer money to pay for private school does not have the support to pass this session, House leaders said Wednesday.
The early demise of one of Republican House Speaker Jason White’s top policy priorities came after proponents and opponents battled to sway lawmakers. As outside forces lobbied lawmakers, they were themselves engaged in closed-door jockeying. In a private House Republican caucus meeting on Tuesday, White discovered the GOP majority could not reach an agreement.
“You probably won’t see us take up that bill,” White said on Wednesday. “We don’t have a consensus.”
House Education Chairman Rob Roberson’s legislation, House Bill 1433, would have allowed students who were enrolled in a district rated D or F within the past five years to use the state portion of their base student cost — money that would normally go to their local public school — and use it to pay for private school tuition. Students could only use the money at a private school if there were not an A- or B-rated district willing to accept them within 30 miles of their home.
Proponents of the legislation said it would give parents greater autonomy to customize their children’s education. White touted the proposal as a key component in a package of education bills that align with President Donald Trump’s executive order promoting “school choice.”
“School choice, whether anybody in this circle or this Capitol likes it, is coming,” White said. “You have a president who was elected with a national mandate who has made it one of his top priorities. You have a ruby red state in Mississippi who voted overwhelmingly for President Trump.”
The bill also prompted consternation among opponents, who argued the proposed law was unconstitutional and could undermine public schools serving some of the state’s neediest students. The legislation also does not cover transportation costs for students who wish to transfer to schools outside their home district, an omission that Democrats said would limit opportunities for poor families.
But ideological and practical disagreements among House Republicans ultimately sank the bill. Some Republicans felt it didn’t go far enough and wanted universal school choice. Others wanted to start with a pilot program. And there was a cloud of uncertainty around the Trump administration, which has floated eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and making drastic spending cuts.
“So we’re all over the place in exactly what it looks like, and it was tough to find consensus on that,” White said. “It seemed like not finding a consensus and then a president who said the federal government is fixing to get involved in this in the way that we send federal money to states, it was probably good for us to hit the pause button and figure out what looks like.”
The bill passed out of the House Education Committee on a voice vote last week after Roberson denied Democrats’ request for a roll call where each member’s vote could be recorded.
In conversations with committee members, three Republicans told Mississippi Today they would have voted no. Five Republicans declined to reveal how they would have voted and two Republicans said they favored advancing the bill out of committee but were unsure how they would have voted had the bill come before the full House. All the Democrats on the committee reached by Mississippi Today said they opposed the bill.
Rep. Dana McLean, a Republican from Columbus, walked out of the committee meeting when the bill came up for debate. McLean declined to comment on how she would have voted on the measure and walked away from reporters when pressed for more specifics. McLean will likely have to run in a special election this year because of redistricting.
Opponents said it was clear the bill did not have the votes to advance out of committee, so Roberson advanced the measure on a voice vote with uncertain results. White — who pointed out that voice votes are common practice under the Legislature’s procedures — also acknowledged that members might have wanted to spare themselves from taking a tough vote.
“This won’t surprise you, but some members don’t want to be on the roll call in committee, on both sides of the aisle,” White said.
According to multiple House members, White asked Republican House members to simply advance the measure out of the Committee, but he did not suggest it would pass the full House chamber on the floor.
As those discussions between lawmakers were taking place in private, public school advocates waged a furious campaign to scuttle the bill ahead of a Thursday legislative deadline.
Mississippi Professional Educators, the state’s largest teachers union, warned in an email to supporters that pro-school choice lobbyists were polling House members over the weekend on whether they supported House Bill 1433.
They also said the legislation would open the door to a wider-reaching policy in the future that would allow all public school students in the state to use taxpayer money for private schools, not just those who attend D or F rated schools.
“If HB 1433 should make it through the legislative process and be passed into law, it opens the door for universal school choice and vouchers in our state,” wrote Kelly Riley, the union’s executive director.
White confirmed on Wednesday that some Republican House members support such a policy.
The school choice push has been intertwined with debates over race and class in education. Those against school choice say the policies could effectively re-segregate schools. School choice supporters say some high-performing school districts fight school choice measures to avoid accepting students from poor and minority backgrounds.
White said school choice measures — which also include making it easier for students to transfer between public schools and attend charter schools — improve competition and student outcomes.
Even as House Bill 1433 appeared dead, the House passed another bill that would increase the number of charter schools in the state. The bill would allow charter schools to open in an additional 31-35 districts, which Democrats said would further starve existing public schools of resources.
It is not clear whether that bill has enough support to pass the Senate, where school choice measures have been a tougher sell.
Roberson said members were left wondering what the Trump’s administration broad definition of school choice could mean for the state. Prematurely locking the state into the proposed law could have shut the state out of federal money in the future, he said.
“We gathered in the office to look at this to see ‘ok, well what does this mean,’” Roberson said of the Trump administration’s proposals. “And of course, none of us really know exactly what that means. Especially in view of the fact that you have such a wide definition of what school choice is.”
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Wednesday unveiled a $326 million tax cut package that reduces the state income tax and the sales tax on groceries and raises the gasoline tax to fund road work.
The plan is more austere than the overhaul the House has proposed. That plan would eliminate the individual income tax in Mississippi over the next decade, raise sales taxes and create a new indexed gasoline tax. The House plan would be a net tax cut of $1.1 billion.
Flanked by Republican senators, Hosemann said the Senate plan would cut taxes over the next four years while allowing the Legislature to spend tax dollars on core government functions such as public education.
“This needs to be sustainable,” Hosemann said. “A conservative approach to tax reform. Now, just to do things for one year doesn’t mean it’s sustainable. This needs to be sustainable.”
Senate leaders at a Wednesday press conference with Hosemann used the terms “measured, careful, cautious and responsible” when explaining details of the Senate plan.
Hosemann said the Senate plan would within four years reduce Mississippi’s individual income tax to 2.99%, one of the lowest rates in the nation of states that collect income taxes.
Legislation for the plan has not yet been filed, but if passed, the proposal would reduce the state’s 7% sales tax on grocery items to 5% in July 2026.
Municipalities currently receive a portion of the state tax collected from grocery sales. Hosemann said the Senate plan would make municipalities whole and allow them to collect the revenue they would typically receive from the state.
The plan also raises the state’s 18.4-cents-a-gallon gasoline excise by three cents each year over the next three years, eventually resulting in a 27.4 cents per gallon gas tax at completion. The gas tax funds highway infrastructure maintenance and new infrastructure projects. The House plan would create a new 5% sales tax on top of the current excise, which at current rates would cost consumers more at the pump than the Senate plan.
Hosemann’s plan reduces the state’s flat 4% income tax to 2.99% over four years, a component that’s likely to set up a major debate with the House.
The announcement comes after the House passed a plan last month that eliminates the income tax over a decade, cuts the state grocery tax and raises sales taxes and gasoline taxes.
House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, has made income tax elimination his top priority this legislative session. He told reporters that even though there were a lot of differences between the House and Senate tax plans, he applauded the Senate for introducing a tax cut plan to allow the two chambers to potentially negotiate a final proposal.
Last week, White had criticized Hosemann and the Senate for not having presented a detailed plan, and legislation, with the three-month legislative session nearing the midway point.
“I’m glad they’re in the ballgame,” White said of the Senate plan Wednesday. “They’re in the ballgame, so we’ve got a chance. Mississippians have a chance at a tax cut if the Senate’s in the game, so that’s a positive.”
Hosemann said he and his Senate leadership “took our time, to run proformas and make sure this works the way we intend it.”
If the Legislature passes a final tax cut plan, it will head to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk for consideration. Reeves has encouraged lawmakers to pass legislation to eliminate the income tax, but it remains unclear if he would sign a tax cut package into law that does not fully eliminate the income tax.
Panola County officials made an unorthodox demand of the county’s ambulance service last month: stop picking patients up from the hospital.
Transfers from Progressive Health Batesville to higher-level care by the county’s ambulance services ground to a halt Jan. 20, as first reported by the Panolian. The Panola Board of Supervisors stopped the services, arguing that numerous transfers to far-off facilities have left county ambulances unavailable to respond to emergencies.
They say the problem began in 2023 when the facility became a rural emergency hospital, a federal designation that gives struggling rural hospitals a $3.3 million federal funding boost but forces them to close their inpatient beds. Average patient stays are limited to 24 hours, necessitating transfers to larger facilities if a patient needs additional care.
Experts say they have not seen the rural emergency hospital program provoke similar disputes in other areas, in part because the hospitals that chose to convert to the status had low inpatient volumes, meaning they likely have few patients to transfer.
But Progressive Health of Batesville had a higher average daily inpatient census – by a factor of two – than any other hospital in the nation that became a rural emergency hospital, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid data.
Progressive Health of Batesville provided inpatient care to 12 people a day on average in 2022, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid data. Most hospitals that later converted to rural emergency status had an average daily inpatient census of two or fewer patients.
Batesville had a relatively high inpatient volume for a rural hospital, said Harold Miller, the director of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. Under the restrictions of the new model, many of these patients would need to be transferred to another facility to receive care.
Facing an ambulance contract increase of nearly a quarter of a million dollars to keep up with service volumes, Panola County officials want the hospital to foot a portion of the bill before they resume paying for transfers from the facility.
This request sets a dangerous precedent for hospitals and could jeopardize patients’ safety, said Quentin Whitwell, the CEO of Oxford-based Progressive Health Group, the company that owns the hospital in Batesville, and five other hospitals across the Southeast.
“We do not believe this policy is warranted, we do not believe this policy is in the best interest of the patients and the community that we serve, and we do not believe this policy is legal,” Whitwell told Mississippi Today.
Transfer volumes from the hospital have increased just 5% from 2023 to 2024, according to a document Whitwell provided to Mississippi Today.
Two other ambulance services – Priority Ambulance and Pafford EMS – are currently providing transfer services to the hospital. Lifeguard Ambulance Services, the company that contracts with the county, still delivers patients to Progressive Health of Batesville.
The Board of Supervisors and hospital management are in negotiations to resolve the conflict.
Panola Medical Center – later renamed Progressive Health Batesville – was bankrupt in 2019 when Whitwell bought the hospital from Georgia-based Curae Health.
But the hospital could not reach a financially sustainable inpatient census and its psychiatric unit was losing money, said Whitwell. It became a rural emergency hospital in November 2023, closing both services but maintaining an emergency room and outpatient care.
Experts say the choice to convert is a thorny one. It means the loss of acute inpatient care, a valued service that keeps people in their communities when they are sick or injured. But the federal subsidies can create renewed financial stability for hospitals that are struggling to keep their doors open.
Nationwide, 34 hospitals have converted to rural emergency hospital status since 2023. Most of them are located in the Southeast.
Progressive Health of Batesville has become one of the most robust rural emergency hospitals in the nation by operating a “hospital within a hospital”: a separate long-term acute care facility that has taken the place of the shuttered inpatient floor, said Whitwell.
But it isn’t unreasonable for a county to request support from the hospital to cover the costs of ambulance services, especially if the hospital’s lack of inpatient care places a greater burden on the county’s existing emergency transportation services, he said.
The county’s contract with Lifeguard has doubled since the hospital converted to a rural emergency hospital while ambulance services have become increasingly strained, said Panola County Board of Supervisors President Cole Flint.
In the second half of 2024, transfers from Progressive Health of Batesville to larger facilities averaged about three hours, said a spokesperson for Lifeguard.
Medically necessary transfers to higher-level care are typically covered by a patient or their insurer, but the rate an ambulance is paid does not always cover its costs, said Miller.
And there are greater costs to a community if an ambulance is not available when it is needed, he said.
Progressive Health of Batesville has a transfer agreement with North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo 74 miles away, but also transfers patients to hospitals in Oxford, Southhaven or Memphis depending on their condition.
Rural emergency hospitals are required to have a transfer agreement with a Level 1 or Level 2 trauma center. North Mississippi Medical Center is the closest trauma center to Batesville.
Before the hospital converted to a rural emergency hospital, Whitwell said he met with county leaders and did his best to communicate the impact the change would have – both positive and negative.
The hospital provides essential emergency room care to Panola County, said Rep. Josh Hawkins, R-Batesville, who represents the county in the state Legislature. But he said the county, with a population of 30,000 people, is too large to go without inpatient care.
“I would rather have a full-service hospital than just a (rural emergency hospital),” he said.
Charles Huff left the Sun Belt championship Marshall football program to take over the job at Southern Miss, which finished last. He talks about the difficult task ahead of him in his Crooked Letter debut. Also, the Clevelands discuss the Super Bowl, college basketball and the upcoming weekend of college baseball.
This essay is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing first-person perspectives of former Mississippi governors. We asked them to write about their successes while in office and perhaps what they wished had gone a little differently during their tenure.
Reflecting on the years I wore the title of governor, I’m struck by more than what was accomplished. Who contributed to getting it done mattered, too.
Sure, my name was on the ballot. I took the oath of office, swearing to faithfully support the constitutions of this country and this state, to obey the laws of both and discharge the duties of the office.
Only days before taking that oath, I called the state Senate to order as the outgoing lieutenant governor while the House of Representatives took an historic vote to uphold the popular vote from November 1999, in essence, “electing” me to the office of governor. A now repealed archaic and racist provision of the state Constitution required the House to select the governor if no candidate obtained a majority of the popular vote and won a majority of the 122 House districts.
Waiting in the wings as the House voted were a small number of individuals committed to working the many hours it would take over the next seven days to get ready for my inauguration. This was not something I could do alone.
I think about Melody Maxey who headed a team to put together the inauguration itself. They designed and delivered everything associated with the day’s events from early morning gatherings to the swearing in to the grand ball that evening.
Intentionally, we celebrated more than my win. We celebrated who we are as Mississippians, our contributions to this country and the world. We celebrated what it could mean to improve the quality of life for every single person who would call Mississippi home for generations to come.
Donna (Addkison) Simmons headed a separate team tasked with creating a smooth transition into the office – making sure the necessary staff and the most necessary “cabinet level” officials were in place and the outline of a legislative agenda for a session already underway had been built.
This team ensured that the fledgling staff, the newly appointed department heads, and I would know where the previous governor and staff paused office operations, what was most pressing by department and where my/our attention needed to be focused during the early days of the administration. In addition we needed to handle a variety of tasks and challenges as they arose moment by moment.
In short we had seven days, not the customary 60, to transition into office, to produce an inauguration worthy of the office and the people of this state and to come up to speed on the innumerable things necessary for discharging the duties of the office.
None of which I could do alone.
Add to that making good on my commitments to creating greater public access to me and to the staff, expanding economic opportunity and financial sustainability, opening up health insurance coverage to as many children as possible and moving Mississippi’s public schools to new heights through internet access, technology in the classroom and modernizing facilities while lifting teachers up as professionals deserving of professional compensation.
Again, not something I could do alone.
Qualified individuals, possessing the courage and commitment to doing their best in service to their neighbors from the Gulf Coast to the Tennessee border, had to say yes.
Yes to serving on the 7-day transition team or the seemingly impossible inaugural team.
Yes to working on the governor’s staff.
Yes to heading major departments with life-impacting responsibilities.
Yes to accepting appointments to various boards and commissions, many with terms that would last well beyond my time in office.
Real live human beings with names, faces and families they love and who love them are the “bureaucrats” and “politicos” who said yes. Real people made real sacrifices pulling off an historic seven-day transition, serving a limited number of years leading a department or as a board/commission members or dedicating their entire careers to providing necessary and often overlooked public services.
In 2000 and beyond, men and women from across the state embraced the vision of a better day, one made possible through “Unprecedented Goals” and the realization of “Unparalleled Progress.” As a team, we brought this vision into being.
Who were a few of these courageous and dedicated men and women?
Armerita Tell and Michael Bentley reimagining one-on-one service to Mississippians and outreach statewide.
Michael Boyd and Kelly Riley making recommendations after digging into the details of policy topics, finding best practices and exploring other states’ experiences.
Peyton Prospere providing legal counsel and going beyond to share his expertise in so many areas.
David Huggins leading the state’s public safety efforts along with L.M. Claiborne, the first African-American colonel of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
Robert Latham expanding our ability to alert residents to hazardous weather and to respond in the aftermath.
James Lipscomb III leading Mississippi’s National Guard offering the leadership necessary to grow the ranks of Guard members.
Marilyn Starks bringing her Corrections experience to the State Parole Board.
Virginia Newton serving with integrity a 12-year term on the IHL Board.
Len Blackwell chairing the Gaming Commission.
Toni Cooley representing the First Supreme Court District on the board of the Mississippi Home Corporation.
Every Mississippian who said yes to serving on the State Flag Advisory Commission or the Computer Technology Task Force.
I’m told it’s dangerous to start listing individuals, knowing that all can’t be named and might be offended by the omission. I hope those not named here will forgive me, knowing their service and contributions are in no way diminished.
It’s important to be aware of some so perhaps we can better appreciate the simple reality of a government that is of the people, by the people and for the people.
One person (singular) may wear the title of an office, but people (plural) work together in service to the whole of the state or nation.
I honored my own commitment to build a staff and a cabinet of talented individuals who were themselves a reflection of the state and the people more broadly. Together, we expanded that commitment to truly reflecting the state, regionally and demographically, through hundreds of appointments of highly qualified individuals to boards and commissions.
After all, it is people (plural) who make, interpret and carry out policy. Only people (plural) dedicated to something bigger than themselves can truly breathe life into slogans like “Unprecedented Goals, Unparalleled Progress.”
Only people working together, with a shared interest in what can make positive differences for the greatest number of people, can deliver on promises of more and better employment opportunities, higher quality schools in every community, safe water to drink and roads to travel.
We may disagree on matters of policy and policy preferences may change over time. Even so, I remain convinced that the group of individuals who came together as a team during my term in office made a difference. Their presence mattered. Their work mattered then and now.
Who a leader surrounds himself with makes all the difference, now and for generations to come.
Ronnie Musgrove served as governor from 2000 until 2004. Before then, he served as lieutenant governor and as a member of the state Senate. A Panola County native, Musgrove lives in Oxford with his 9-year-old son. He also practices law and is involved in various other business ventures. Musgrove also has three grown children.
Another client of former licensed professional counselor Wade Wicht is accusing him of sexual abuse, joining two other women who have already filed criminal complaints with Hattiesburg police.
“Wade saved my life,” she said, “but he also betrayed me.”
Wicht’s lawyer, Michael Reed of Hattiesburg, did not respond to requests for responses regarding the women’s accusations. The Hattiesburg police continue to investigate the complaints and have declined to comment.
Police are also investigating a third criminal complaint filed against Wicht. The Mississippi Child Protective Services has previously investigated the matter.
“My understanding is the allegations reported to CPS were unsubstantiated,” Reed said. “Of course, Mr. Wicht wholeheartedly denies the allegations.”
‘Real love doesn’t do that’
In a sworn statement, a woman, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said Wicht sexually abused her during the time he counseled her.
The young woman went to him in 2016 because she was still reeling from a 28-year-old man sexually abusing her when she was 8. “I was the kid who took a shower with my underwear on,” she said.
Wicht’s counseling helped her immensely, but some of the things he did also disturbed her, she said. He once asked if she looked at child porn and when she angrily replied no, she said he asked, “Why are you reacting like that?”
Wade Wicht Credit: Courtesy of Ramona Wicht
While she was still counseling with Wicht, she called him drunk, she said. “I’m out in the woods. I’m bawling. I’m mad at God.”
He drove to where she was, took her home and insisted she head to the bathroom, she said, but when she did go, he refused to leave the bathroom while she urinated.
He encouraged her to sleep on her parents’ couch, rather than her bedroom, and after she closed her eyes to sleep, she said she felt his hand go down into her jogging pants and underneath her panties.
When she objected, she said he pulled his hand back out and said, “Oh, it’s OK. It’s OK.”
Earlier this year, she said she confronted Wicht about that night, and he said nothing in response.
She had confronted him before, she said, accusing him of being a sex addict. “Your mind is sick, and your heart is seared,” she quoted herself as saying. “You can’t work multiple women over at the same time and call it love. Real love doesn’t do that. You have confused love with something else.”
In response, he wept and spoke of being truly sorry and changed by God, she said.
Artwork by a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by longtime counselor Wade Wicht.
She credited God, journaling, counseling from others, expressing her feelings through art and distance from Wicht with helping her heal. “There would have been no healing if God hadn’t given me the courage to go to counseling,” she said. “My faith is central to who I am.”
Unlike the other women, she has no plans to file a criminal complaint against Wicht because she doesn’t want to go through the same agony she did in testifying against her 28-year-old abuser. She said Wicht’s sexual abuse of her could only be prosecuted as a misdemeanor because Mississippi law requires penetration in order to be classified as a felony.
Her past made her an easy target
Jenny Green is going public with what she said Wicht did to her during counseling sessions.
“He’s a free man, and nothing has happened to him,” said Green, who has filed a criminal complaint with Hattiesburg police. “I want to do all I can to help make sure he can’t do anything like that again.”
Her past made her an easy target, she said, because she had been sexually abused as a minor.
A 17-year-old tomboy who bloomed late, she had few friends, she said.
Then a teacher began to stalk her, praised her looks and intelligence, and listened to her share how the only boyfriend she ever had left her for someone else, she said. “He saw someone in a fragile place and pounced.”
At night, he would call and converse, she said, and the words he shared helped fill the emptiness she felt.
One night after returning to school from a track meet, she said the teacher plied her and a girlfriend with wine coolers. It was the first alcohol she had ever had, and she became drunk, she said.
The next thing she knew she was in a bedroom, and he was on top of her, she said. “I was a virgin.”
Afterward, she said, “I asked him, ‘Did we just have sex?’ I was clueless.”
Like a number of other victims, Green suffered disassociation, she said. “It was almost like I wasn’t in my own body. I didn’t feel like I was there.”
Such disassociation is the brain’s way of placing distance between the victim and the traumatic event, scientists say.
She later wrote poems about what happened.
Keep quiet
Don’t cry
We can pretend it didn’t.
We can lie.
Her teacher told her she must never breathe a word about this, and if she did, he would kill himself. She said she believed him.
Your body
It is like none other.
It’s beautiful,
But you must never tell your mother.
Each school day, she sat in his class, and when he gazed at her, guilt and shame washed over her , she said. “I thought what the teacher did was my fault.”
Unable to sleep, she finally woke her mother to tell her what happened. “I didn’t know how to say, ‘My teacher raped me,’” she said. “I didn’t have the verbiage.”
For the first time in her life, she visited a gynecologist, who determined she wasn’t pregnant.
When her family decided against pursuing charges, she blamed herself. “I was told to never talk about it,” she said, “and for 20 years, I didn’t.”
Marriage counseling gone wrong
Jenny Green is waiting for prosecutors to decide if they will pursue her criminal complaint against longtime counselor Wade Wicht, accusing him of sexually abusing her during a counseling session. Credit: Jerry Mitchell/Mississippi Today
In April 2021, Green and her husband walked into Wade Wicht’s office.
She had been pushing for marriage counseling, and Wicht was the only counselor her husband would see.
What the couple didn’t know was that Wicht had already had sex with a client, according to an order from the State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors, which oversees and licenses counselors.
After a few sessions, Wicht suggested separate counseling sessions, she said. Her husband’s sessions lasted 40 minutes or so; hers lasted up to two hours.
In a separate session with Wicht, she said she confessed her nervousness in talking about private matters and joked about needing a drink. She said he poured drinks for both of them — a habit he continued at times.
He steered conversations to the sexual, discussing the size of her breasts and asking if she had implants, she said. When she came to one counseling session after a workout, he questioned why she had a jacket tied around her waist, she said.
“Covering up a little bit,” she replied.
“Why are you doing that?” she recalled him asking.
Another time, she said he told her, “You need to be careful where your gaze goes. You stare at my crotch.”
His words mortified her, she said, because it was a ridiculous lie.
After each session, he tried to hug her, and she recoiled. “He said I needed to be comfortable hugging,” she said. “He said I was stiff and uncomfortable.”
When she showed up one day with coffee, he told her to get him a coffee next time. “He mentioned that again and again,” she said. “I realize now he was seeing what he could get me to do.
“He eventually did get me to bring him a coffee. He did eventually get me to hug him.”
She said this was reminiscent of what her teacher did, getting her to bring him a Snickers candy bar and a Coke during each break.
The torment exhausting
The self-doubt to no end
The shame a coat of many colors
The secrets all held within.
‘It devastated me’
In October 2021, when her husband talked of possible harm to himself or others, Green said she felt scared and hopeless. She called Wicht’s office, and he rushed to their house.
After that, her trust and dependence on the counselor “went through the roof,” she said.
In her sessions, she said she confessed to Wicht that she was experiencing some transference, that is, redirecting her feelings from her husband to him.
He responded this could be beneficial for her therapy, she said. “Instead of passing me off to someone else, he used that to his advantage.”
The hugging progressed, she said. He began to hug her from behind and tell her it was therapeutic, she said.
He also put his hand on her knee and told her she needed to learn to say no, and in each session that followed, he touched her knee higher, she said. “Every time he touched me, I froze. I didn’t give consent.”
Studies show that many victims of sexual abuse or assault report “freezing.” That’s because fear can block the neural circuits that signal the body to move, scientists say.
Green said Wicht urged her to quit initiating sex with her husband and falsely claimed she suffered from sex addiction. “It devastated me,” she said.
When Wicht suggested she spend weeks at a treatment center, she said she balked, saying she couldn’t leave her husband and children.
He offered an alternative approach. He said he was a certified sex therapist, and she could do that therapy with him, she said.
In his 2018 letter to the licensing board, Wicht listed Chemical and Process Addictions as an area of certification, but not sex therapy.
Green said Wicht asked her to share intimate details about her past abuse, including whether she bled, she said.
When she wouldn’t share details about what she liked sexually, he urged her to masturbate so he could observe, she told police in her complaint. She refused.
Lie to myself or subconscious
Should I say?
Lie like a good girl.
Be the perfect prey.
‘I became a scared little girl’
Four days after Christmas, Green suffered a meltdown. Three family members suffered from serious illness, and memories of her teacher’s abuse haunted her, she said. “I was crying uncontrollably.”
In desperation, she telephoned Wicht, who called her to his office.
This time, when he hugged her from behind, he began to caress her breasts over her clothing, she said. “He said, ‘This is loving touch,’ and I’m just sobbing.”
She continued to reel from depression. In a March 2022 session, she said he asked her to remove her clothes. She had refused to do this before, but this time she said she broke down and gave in, crying the whole time.
The commands he gave her echoed some of the same commands she had been given as a child, she said. “That day at the office, I became a scared little girl. I had no choice but to be compliant. I was the perfect prey.”
Wicht made her put a blindfold on, made her lie on her stomach and spread her bottom cheeks, and “he proceeded to penetrate me with his fingers,” she told police. When he finished, “he held me and acted as if it had been a caring moment,” she told police. “That was the last time he touched me.”
She froze, just as she had before, she said.
One study showed that 70% of 298 women who came to a rape clinic for treatment reported “paralysis” or an inability to resist during the assault.
Throughout Wicht’s abuse, Green told police, “He would remind me I could never in my life breathe a word of it. Said someone could die or be killed if I did. This was triggering as my abuser from teen years threatened to kill himself if I told anyone.”
After this abuse, she said thoughts of self-harm flooded her mind. She posted the suicide prevention hotline number on her wall, and sometimes slept in the closet.
The stillness. The peace.
The madness. The dire.
When will it end?
I long to expire.
After the alleged abuse, Green sought treatment from another therapist, whom she said helped rescue her from her despair.
She has since spoken to other of Wicht’s alleged victims, some of whom have yet to file complaints, she said. “He convinced women that they’re damaged, and you’re going to be beholden to him so that you don’t tell anybody,” she said.
Counselors have power over their clients, she said. They can groom, lie, manipulate and coerce those they treat into obeying their commands because “we believe we must do as we are told,” she said.
It’s bad enough for a trusted person to exploit you, but when it’s a counselor, who knows so many intimate details about your life, she said, “It rapes every part of your soul and mind.”
How sick
And how twisted and who
The f— let that happen?
Keep quiet
Don’t cry
We can pretend it didn’t.
We can lie.
‘The law protects the guilty’
Wicht has already admitted to having sex with two women he counseled, a violation of the ethical code that prompted the loss of his counseling license.
One of those was Kimberly Cuellar, who has filed a criminal complaint against Wicht. She told police that in one counseling session, he had her lay on the floor, pulled down her pants and digitally penetrated her without her consent, claiming it was for his research. She said he continued to touch her sexually in sessions, claiming it was therapeutic.
Kimberly Cuellar says her journey dealing with Wade Wicht has taught her, more than ever, about God’s amazing grace. Credit: Jerry Mitchell/Mississippi Today
In addition to those allegations, she said he tried to rape her while she was sleeping in her parents’ home in 2023. She said she awoke to him on top of her. “You moved my shorts, and you absolutely tried to get inside me,” she wrote in text exchanges she shared with Mississippi Today.
“Omgoodness, what??!! … What you’re accusing me of is criminal, Kimberly! … I touched you with my fingers, and I was touching myself,” he responded. “I was NOT trying to have sex with you while you were sleeping.”
She told him “no” multiple times, but he refused to stop, she wrote. “You then touched me without consent while you ejaculated on my body after all the no’s I had given. Attempted rape? Absolutely.”
In April, another licensed professional counselor in Mississippi, Dr. Philip Raymond Baquie of Oxford, surrendered his license after he admitted having sex with a female client during a counseling session in December 2023.
More than half the states consider sex between mental health professionals and their patients a crime. Mississippi isn’t one of those states.
In 2023, the Mississippi House passed a bill that would have made it a crime for therapists, clergy, doctors and nurses to have sexual contact with those they treat or counsel.
But the bill died in the Senate Judiciary B Committee after some senators questioned the need for a law. Committee Chairman Joey Fillingane has said if something like this happens in a church-affiliated organization, the church can fire that person.
Brad Eubank, a pastor for First Baptist Church in Petal who serves on the Southern Baptist Convention’s sex abuse task force, said firing those guilty of sexual abuse isn’t enough.
“We must stop this scourge of sexual abuse and put a stop to any counselor, medical professional, social worker or clergy who would take advantage of an individual who finds themselves in a vulnerable state seeking help,” said Eubank, a victim of sexual abuse himself. “We need clear laws with stiff penalties to be a severe deterrent to stop this from ever happening as well as providing justice for those victims when it does happen.”
Green said she’s willing to testify to lawmakers to let them know that when counselors use their power to sexually abuse their clients, they deserve to be punished.
Because there is no videotaping of sessions, the counselor’s office provides “the perfect setting for that crime,” she said. “That’s why there needs to be protection.”
This crime damages victims for life, she said. “Sexual abuse distorts, if not destroys, the victims’ ability to express romantic love in a healthy way. Stealing that part of us should not go without consequences.”
Under Mississippi’s current statute, “the law protects the guilty,” she said. “We as sexual abuse victims don’t stand a chance.”
Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette cheer the jury verdict of Feb. 5, 1994, when Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. Credit: AP/Rogelio Solis
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
