BRANDON — Rankin County residents packed Brandon City Hall to discuss whether a Confederate statue belongs in the town center where a bulk of local traffic flows. But most took stances on whether it represents heritage or hate.

“It’s hatred,” Janie Mclaurin-Wheaton said at the meeting Monday. “You want to leave ‘that’ history, but you want to take mine out of the school? What about my history? I was born here, too.”

Mclaurin-Wheaton, who is Black, was a member of the first graduating class to integrate Brandon High School and was referring to a new law that seeks to restrict teachers from discussing “divisive”concepts like slavery and the causes of the Civil War. Her grandfather was the first Black man in Rankin County to own land and a car. She was one of the first Black women hired in the Rankin County Tax Assessor’s office, where she worked for 27 years.

She joined some 80 neighbors — Black and white– with deep roots in the city and county to speak before the Brandon Board of Aldermen. Dozens crowded into chairs before the first speaker approached the podium at 6 p.m. City hall employees were forced to unfold extra chairs in the hallway when space ran out.

This discussion follows a June 16 meeting, during which Brandon city leaders approved a first step to assess the cost and logistics of relocating the 37-foot-tall statue of an unknown soldier built in 1907. Mayor Butch Lee cast the tie-breaking vote.

In an interview with WAPT, Lee said the statue is “in harm’s way.” He cited three cars that have recently struck it as well as a recent incident in which it was shot at.

Few locals cited the traffic concern as a top priority. Lee and the board drew condemnation from audience members who questioned why the decision wasn’t left to the voters. 

A favored candidate for the relocation is the Confederate part of the Brandon cemetery – a location some feel could hold and preserve the historical monument without glorifying a difficult part of American history.

“There could not be a more serene, more dignified place to address this history than Brandon’s cemetery,” said Lance Stevens, an attorney and 30-year Brandon resident.

Bettye Ward Fletcher, a Black Rankin County native, called for the city to move the statue she sees as a harmful symbol.

“It continues to be painful,” she said. “Your hometown continues to honor the men that fought to maintain you and your people in slavery.”

“I want something different for my grandkids,” said Will Sims, a Black U.S. Air Force veteran who expressed disappointment with seeing the monument still standing when he returned from years in the service.

However, for some residents, the monument and its history are nothing to be ashamed of.

Former longtime Rankin County Assistant District Attorney Dan Duggan pulled out a portrait of his great-great grandfather, a Confederate soldier, for the board to see. The fifth-generation Southerner said removing the monument would be a betrayal to the memory of his ancestors and other soldiers.

“This is a memorial to soldiers who left their homes to defend their country, the Confederate States of America, against an invading force,” said Mark Allen, a longtime resident of Rankin County and descendant of a Confederate soldier.

Brandon’s Confederate monument was erected across from the courthouse where Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman ordered his Union troops to stack their arms as a sign of military occupation of the town, according to the National Register of Historic Places.

In February 1864, Sherman largely burned Brandon as part of what modern historians call a practice run for his famous March to the Sea, in which he employed “total war” that burned and pillaged everything in his army’s path. 

“It’s a place that people could go to that’s maybe the only representation that they had of their relative who had never come home,” said Allen. 

However, some argued that the statue is a symbol of white power rather than a memorial to fallen ancestors. It was erected 42 years after the end of the Civil War, at a time when white Mississippians worked to ensure the marginalization of Black residents. In 1890, the Mississippi constitution enshrined the disenfranchisement of Black residents into law. By 1900, virtually no Black residents could vote despite constituting 59% of the population. 

John Toney, a local attorney, brought up that Brandon spent $3,000 – what would amount to $105,000 today – on the statue.

“They used these monuments to start a political and cultural dialogue,” Toney said. “On the north side of the statue is carved into the marble: state’s rights and home rule will rise again. That’s not a dog whistle, that’s a training whistle.”

“I doubt any Blacks voted in 1907 to spend taxpayer money on the statue,” said Toney.

Despite its complicated past, some claimed the historical monument should be preserved.

“It’s our history. Whether it’s bad or good, let’s not try to second guess it,” said Sharon Neely Egan, a white resident who opposes the removal of the statue. “I don’t think we need to erase Brandon’s history.”

Still, many feel that leaving a monument built as a homage to the Confederacy in one of Brandon’s busiest streets is siding with a skewed version of history, and disregarding the pain it evokes to Black residents.

“Our past is important, but there’s a difference between remembering and honoring,” said Brandon Middle School principal Trey Rein. “We have an opportunity here to make a statement that we are focused on our town’s future more than its past.”

The rain let up just after 7 p.m. as speakers and spectators exited city hall for their cars and homes. Mclaurin-Wheaton departed with some of her classmates from Brandon High School. They are still good friends today.

“I just see some people stuck in the past and don’t know how to move forward,” Mclaurin-Wheaton said. “That’s because mama told you, daddy told you, sister told you, but when you become of age, you got to learn to do the right thing for yourself.”

The next public discussion over this topic will be July 21 at Brandon City Hall. 

Heading into the Fourth of July weekend last Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a revised study on potential flood controls for the part of the Pearl River that runs along Jackson. The Corps has narrowed its focus to two proposals, and only one of them would resemble the long-debated “One Lake” plan.

The latest step in an effort decades in the making, the 243-page document highlights an array of flood control measures such as building levees, lowering the river’s banks, and elevating and floodproofing vulnerable structures.

The public can view the study, submit comments and find information on upcoming public meetings through the Corps’ website. The public comment period lasts until Aug. 18.

In last week’s study, which is a revision of a draft the Corps released last year, the agency wrote that “Alternative E1” could be the “National Economic Development plan,” or the option that most aligns with the Corps’ cost-benefit criteria. Alternative E1 includes all the above mentioned measures, but notably omits building a dam that would essentially create a lake on the Pearl River.

The idea to pool a section of the river into a lake has been a key component of proposals local officials have favored for years. From 2011 until last year, the Rankin-Hinds Flood Control District, the project’s local government sponsor, pushed an idea coined as “One Lake,” which would have widened the river f0r recreational use. While the Corps last year determined One Lake’s cost wasn’t justifiable, the agency instead pitched a dialed back version of the idea as the potential National Economic Development plan.

The Corps in its new study said that plan, “Alternative D1,” may have more potential for recreation than E1, but added that the two options have equal flood control benefit. The agency’s final selection, it wrote, will likely come down to those two proposals.

The costs of either would be considerably more than what the Corps considered last year: E1, the agency estimates, could cost between $708 million and $753 million, while D1 could cost between $873 million and $918 million. While the Corps pledged $221 million toward the project in 2022, the federal government is only responsible for 65% of costs, meaning the local flood control district, also called the levee board, would have to raise between $248 million and $321 million for the remaining balance through a combination of local taxes and state appropriations.

Levee board attorney Keith Turner told Mississippi Today that either proposal would expand the district to include more homes. Turner said that for many homes, tax payments needed to fund either project would still be lower than what they pay for flood insurance now.

Part of the higher costs comes from four levees, totaling about 6 miles, that the Corps includes in both D1 and E1: a levee that would protect 250 homes in the Canton Club neighborhood; a levee in northeast Jackson that would protect 415 homes, but would require the acquisition of two other homes; a levee that would protect 40 homes in south Jackson; and one that would protect 40, mostly industrial, structures in Richland.

Both projects would also “adversely affect” endangered or threatened species within the Pearl River’s natural habitats, the study says, including three different types of turtles. D1, the Corps wrote, would impact a wider range of species, including the Gulf sturgeon, than E1.

In a presentation to board members at a Monday meeting, Turner said he disagreed with “a lot” of what’s in the new study and that the board will submit a long list of comments to the Corps. For instance, he said the Corps’ greatly inflated its cost estimates with overly safe projections. Turner added the Corps didn’t consider additional maintenance costs from maintaining the shortened river banks under E1, which would just be underwater under D1.

The board last year gave its support to Alternative D (the same as D1 without the levees, which weren’t included in last year’s study), although Turner said their support doesn’t necessarily impact what the Corps chooses.

Turner said the current timeline would allow the Corps’ final study to come out in November, and then a final decision to be made in December. That call would fall to the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, a currently vacant role. President Donald Trump earlier this year nominated Adam Telle for the position, leaving it up to the Senate to confirm the choice. Telle, Magnolia Tribune reported in May, has ties to the state, including having worked for former Sen. Thad Cochran, who once advocated for the project in his role in the Appropriations Committee.

The Corps is preparing to hold a series of public meetings, including a virtual meeting on July 14, in-person meetings in Monticello on July 29; Slidell, Louisiana, on July 30; and in Jackson on July 31. Information on those meetings is also available on the agency’s website.

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book “The Dean: Memoirs & Missives” by Sparky Reardon, the longtime dean of students at the University of Mississippi. This excerpt, which Reardon wrote in 2023 on the anniversary of the 2008 presidential debate hosted at Ole Miss, recalls a rare moment of relative political harmony.

Fifteen years ago yesterday, I was thinking, “What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

It had started months earlier when Chancellor (Robert) Khayat, Vice Chancellor Gloria Kellum and Provost Carolyn Staton assigned me to work with student leaders to plan student activities to go along with the 2008 presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. My friend, Dr. Andy Mullins, had worked arduously to make sure that Ole Miss would put on a first-class affair. I recruited Jennifer Taylor, director of student programming, and her assistant, Bradley Baker, to assist with the students. We were lucky to have Dave Brooks, a production consultant from Cleveland, Ohio, advise and assist us. We couldn’t have done it without him.

I remember distinctly our first meeting with the students when all kinds of ideas were being tossed around. Our student group represented a cross section of the Ole Miss campus, and they were lively and creative. Eventually, they decided to host a week-long series of events and cap it off with a “festival” in The Grove on the day of the debate. 

I also remember sitting in a meeting in the Lyceum boardroom around what has to be the longest table in north Mississippi with administrators, PR folks, maintenance and landscape crews, communication and tech folks, law enforcement leaders and others responsible for assuring that Ole Miss put on a first-class event. When it came my time to give a report on the student events, I said, “Well, the students are planning a festival in The Grove with music and food and speakers.” After Dr. Kellum and Provost Staton looked at me with a “Have you lost your mind?” gaze, I went on to report what the students were planning. I’m sure that most around the table were envisioning a football Saturday with copious amounts of alcohol, blue blazers, chandeliers, fried chicken and fisticuffs. I wish that I could remember all the outstanding students who worked so hard to make the festival happen. Students like Caleb Herod, Anna Rogers, Sarah Rogers, Jake McGraw, Tyler Craft, Tyler Rose Clemons, Kent Ford and others put together a great plan. The event would be an effort to draw attention to the importance of voting and the importance of having free and open dialogue about the election. The students planned for music, food, high-tech displays, voter registration, and providing a forum for dialogue. And, having fun on a day without classes.

We ended up with a strong line-up of music with the North Mississippi All Stars, Josh Kelley, Paul Thorn, Saving Abel, the Mayhem String Band, the Kudzu Kings and the Ole Miss Gospel Choir. I recruited my former student Ben Campbell, award-winning radio disc jockey from KNIX in Phoenix, to emcee. He was funny as always and even revived his imitation of me doing Tone Loc. We started at noon with an amazing acapella solo rendition of the national anthem by a member of the Ole Miss Gospel Choir, and when they finished their set with “O, Happy Day,” I was feeling pretty good about things and thinking, “Wow. This is gonna be good.”

My friend and food expert extraordinaire John T Edge helped us bring to The Grove some of the South’s all-star foodies. We had Newk’s with pimento cheese and caramel cake and sweet tea, Taylor Grocery with fried catfish plates, Jim and Nick’s of Birmingham with barbecue, Taqueria del Sol of Atlanta with tacos and Chef John Folse and Company out of New Orleans with a variety of Cajun dishes. The food was outstanding, but we ran into one little problem. The state of Mississippi Tax Commission showed up about 20 minutes before serving was to begin and demanded that all these businesses provide tax IDs or they wouldn’t be able to serve. Evidently, some uninvited entity had their feelings hurt and reported us to the tax commission. I was riding around in a golf cart with Mississippi’s treasured cartoonist Marshall Ramsey when I got a call about the situation. John T and I tried everything we could think of to get the tax deputies to allow us to go on with the event. I ended up reaching out to Gloria Kellum, asking for her help in getting in touch with “someone in charge.” As it turned out, she was right beside Gov. Haley Barbour at the time. After a quick chat with him, she told me to hold on — help was on the way.

About 10 minutes later the governor’s chief of staff showed up, and I watched from a distance as he had a quick conversation with the tax deputies. Only he spoke as they listened and soon walked away. He looked at us, gave us a thumbs up and lunch was served. We had permission to proceed. It helps to know someone who knows someone. Catfish, tacos, pimento cheese, sweet tea, caramel cake, barbecue, gumbo and jambalaya for all!

I was unsure how the tech displays would be received. Boy, was I surprised when there were long lines all day for the mobile buses and booths from Dell, FedEx, Apple, Cellular South (C Spire) and Microsoft. There were virtual reality displays, new technology, video games and lots of other neat stuff that was well beyond this digital immigrant’s understanding.

The Rock the Vote tent for voter registration was busy all day. They had become a great, valued partner in sponsoring the festival and were excited about the number of students who registered to vote that day.

There were also speakers, most who were stumping for a candidate or for themselves. There were personalities everywhere. Harry Smith did CBS’s The Early Show from the union early that morning. Chris Matthews set up Hardball on the Union Plaza. Katie Couric was everywhere and dropped by the Tri Delt house to visit her sorority. Sean Hannity set up in the union. It was a big day for Ole Miss to be seen by the nation and the world.

What gave the whole affair legitimacy was a concept that the students came up with called “Issue Alley.” Along the sidewalk that leads into The Grove from Farley Hall were designated spaces where groups with agendas could set up. This turned out to be a huge success. The lion lay down with the lamb. The NRA set up next to pro-choice groups. We had the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians setting up next to Rednecks for Obama. We had windmills promoting clean energy. All in all, we had about 30 organizations and associations represented. No one hit anyone or called each other names.

Around 5:30, I got a call to let me know that there was a ticket to the debate available for me if I wanted it. I chose to pass. I was where I wanted to be.

As The Grove darkened and the North Mississippi All Stars rocked their last song, two large screens on either side of The Grove came to life with the logo of the presidential debate. I’m no Sean Spicer, but I’m estimating that there were approximately eight to ten thousand in The Grove that night watching the debate. I pulled my golf cart well behind the crowd and watched from afar. There was a diverse crowd mixed with town folks, families, students and visitors. I don’t remember any booing or arguing or demonstrating. 

That day in The Grove there were no fights; there was no shouting. No one called anyone names. There were those on the Left and those on the Right, but they were sitting next to and across from one another eating fried catfish or gumbo and drinking sweet tea. We provided news outlets a beautiful, positive Ole Miss backdrop for their reporting. There were White folks and Black folks and folks from far away. There were young folks and old folks. There were no arrests. And, as the debate wound down and as PBS NewsHour host and debate moderator Jim Lehrer said, “And good night from Ole Miss,” I thought to myself that this is the way it is supposed to be.

It’s hard to believe that just 10 years ago might be considered “the good old days,” but they were. 

And that was the best day that I ever had at Ole Miss.

Sparky Reardon was dean of students at Ole Miss from 2000-2014. During Reardon’s 36-year tenure at the University of Mississippi, he handled everything from organizing student events to enforcing discipline and managing campus crises. Reardon’s love for writing and reminiscing (along with encouragement from friends) led to The Dean: Memoirs & Missives. He lives in Taylor, where he cherishes his solitude, his porch and the occasional poker game.

“The Dean: Memoirs and Missives” by Sparky Reardon is out Aug. 10, 2025. Preorder at Lemuria Books or at Square Books.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday announced that voters in three different areas of the state will choose new legislators in a November 4 special election. 

Three vacancies occurred because two lawmakers, Sen. John Horhn of Jackson and Rep. Orlando Paden of Clarksdale, were recently sworn into office as mayors of their respective cities, and longtime Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood resigned halfway through his four-year term.  

The legislative seats are all located in areas considered Democratic strongholds, but because they are special elections, they will be nonpartisan races. 

Candidates can begin qualifying for the election now, and the deadline for them to qualify is August 21. 

If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the November special elections, a runoff election between the two candidates who received the most votes would be held on December 2.

The election for the three races will occur on the same date as the general election for 14 federal court-ordered legislative races that must be held due to redistricting. Those races will also have Aug. 5 party primaries.

Several public health groups unveiled a new vending machine Monday in the Jackson Medical Mall, where people can pick up free boxes of naloxone, a medicine that temporarily reverses opioid overdoses in children and adults.

The machine holds 250 boxes. Fund Recovery and the REACH Institute donated the machine, and Padagis donated the naloxone. 

Naloxone attaches to opioid receptors in the brain and reverses or blocks the effects of opioids. It has no effect on people who don’t have opioids in their system. 

Naloxone only works for 30 to 90 minutes. Someone who takes a dose will still need immediate medical attention. 

Jeffery Simmons is a Mississippi native and defensive tackle for the Tennessee Titans. He’s featured throughout Fund Recovery’s  “Tackle Naxolone Now” campaign, and he specifically chose Jackson as the location for Fund Recovery’s fourth naloxone vending machine. 

“I’m not from Jackson, but I grew up right down the road. I see what’s going on in our community,” Simmons said. “Mississippi is home for me, so I don’t just think about Macon, Mississippi, Starkville…. I think about Mississippi.”

The “Tackle Naloxone Now” campaign seeks to make the medicine more accessible by distributing it free in vending machines. The campaign already set up machines in Tennessee: two in Fentress County and one in Nashville. 

“What we know is that prevention is important, treatment is important,”  said Ryan Cain, Fund Recovery’s president and CEO. “We recognize that, but you can’t treat a dead patient, so we have to make naloxone available.”

Jan Dawson is the director of substance use education, prevention and control at the Mississippi Public Health Institute. She explained that the vending machines are part of the larger effort to combat opioid abuse and overdose deaths.

“We know over time that naloxone has saved a lot of lives in Mississippi,” Dawson said.

Working with the Department of Mental Health, the institute has trained first responders about drug overdoses, and she said 77% of them have used naloxone.

“We do think that we’re saving lives,” she said. “However, what we have to realize is, our numbers of overdose deaths are just now down to the pre-COVID numbers.”

The number of opioid overdose deaths in Mississippi spiked by 51% between 2020 and 2021, in part because of the pandemic. It declined by 25% between 2021 and 2022, and grew by 6% between 2022 and 2023. It declined again by 29% between 2023 and 2024.

In 2024, the number of times emergency medical services administered naloxone dropped nearly 14% compared to 2023.

“We have reduced those numbers,” Dawson said. “We haven’t continued to let those numbers go up, but we have to continue to fight.”

According to Dawson, a grant from the Mississippi Department of Mental Health will pay to restock the machine for at least the next year. None of the state’s opioid settlement funds went toward the machine. 

A catalpa tree has lived for more than a century on what is now the University of Mississippi campus, its gnarled branches extending a broad canopy of shade near the student union building. The tree’s trunk is so large that a whole class of professor Ann Fisher-Wirth’s honors students could barely fit their linked arms around it.

In her poem, “Catalpa,” Fisher-Wirth imagines the ancient tree as a sapling, and her “mind enters a great quiet.” 

She sees the tree through Mississippi history: the Depression, yellow fever, the burning of Oxford during the Civil War. She meditates on the lichen on the catalpa’s bark and the hollow in its trunk, and she ends the poem imploring, “turn around, and look at the tree.”

Fisher-Wirth, whose poem “Catalpa” appeared in the 2023 collection “Paradise is Jagged,” recently began her four-year term as Mississippi’s poet laureate, nominated by other writers and leaders of cultural agencies and appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves. Her outreach will invite the state’s residents to create and appreciate poetry together.

“In Mississippi, people have amazing stories,” Fisher-Wirth said in an interview. “And I would welcome to hear some of those stories.”

Fisher-Wirth directed the University of Mississippi’s environmental studies program and taught creative writing in its Master of Fine Arts program before she retired in 2022. She is a past president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, and is a senior fellow of the Black Earth Institute, which concentrates on social justice and environmental issues.

Fisher-Wirth has written eight books of poetry. Her writing centers on place and humans’ connection to nature. 

Her responsibilities as poet laureate include creating poetry and reading poetry at state events. She will also spearhead initiatives that engage the public with poetry.

Fisher-Wirth plans to start a podcast called “The Favorite Poem Project,” where she and fellow Mississippians will read and discuss their favorite poems. A written version of “The Favorite Poem Project” will be published as a column in the Clarion Ledger.

Fisher-Wirth also hopes to continue the Mississippi Poetry Project, started by her predecessor, Catherine Pierce. Each year, K-12 students write poems that respond to a prompt from the poet laureate. Last year’s prompt centered on students’ dreams and wishes.

Fisher-Wirth often writes on seeing and listening to the world. Her poems contemplate natural scenes — such as a lone zinnia near a pond or a stag eating flowers over a raw grave.

“We are absolutely embedded in an interrelationship with the environment,” she said. “We can’t live without this world that we find ourselves in.”

In Fisher-Wirth’s perspective, “paying attention” invites a positive relationship with the nonhuman world. She explained that awareness of the trees in our yard, the types of fish that we catch, the birds that come in the winter and the people who grow our food all shows care to nature.

“A lot of people already have a lot of environmental knowledge,” Fisher-Wirth said. “But this is just a way to kind of bring that forward.” 

She is in the “very, very beginning stages” of a project of collective poetry writing. She hopes to collaborate with residents of Mississippi towns to write poetry fragments about their communities. Eventually, each town’s fragments will be woven into a single poem that represents the town.

At present, she is recovering from a second hip replacement surgery. 

“Nothing can start until I’m back on my feet,” Fisher-Wirth said. 

She said art, including poetry, is “the vital lifeblood of a culture.” Poetry is one way of paying attention. Fisher-Wirth, who has edited two ecopoetry collections, writes primarily about place and is eager to hear Mississippi stories.

“I think poetry is a great way to move people’s hearts and awaken their senses, and just open the world in them,” she said.

The last weeks of January are difficult for Mississippi teachers. Mention of the stretch will draw audible gasps. By then, paychecks last deposited in mid-December are stretched thin. 

For Jefferson County biology teacher Chiquitta Gaylor, that meant Christmas shopping in July. For others, it means pay day loans and a tighter winter budget.

“Even to this day, that’s horrible,” said veteran Amanda Elzy High School teacher Brandice Brown-Williams. “Every year, I try to write a Facebook status and tell as many young teachers as I can to start saving in October.” 

It’s a unique problem for teachers in districts that don’t pay their teachers twice a month or bimonthly. Only 10% of US employers pay monthly, according to the Bureau of US Labor Statistics.

In Mississippi, school districts were granted the right three years ago to pay teachers bimonthly. But few have made the change.

Mississippi Today compiled data from every school district in Mississippi regarding bimonthly teacher pay, calling superintendents and clicking through school handbooks. We found four of Mississippi’s 138 school districts had adopted it.

Lowndes County School District, Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District, Holly Springs School District and Harrison County School District offer bimonthly pay. Harrison County is the largest district to offer it.

During the 2022 legislative session, Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, authored the bill giving districts the choice whether to adopt the policy of bimonthly pay that later became law.

“We have all probably heard teachers ask for it,” he said on the Senate floor.

In a recent interview with Mississippi Today, Debar remarked that it was about “security.”

“We’re trying to help get more young people into the education field,” he added.

In districts with high turnover rates and multiple vacancies, bimonthly pay could be an enticing enough incentive to retain some of their talent.

Mary Johnson felt so during her recent tenure as superintendent of Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District. On July 1, the Delta district became the latest to offer the payroll option. One teacher that was expected to leave already signed a contract for next year. Summer hiring has been easier, she reports.

“A lot of what we notice in the Mississippi Delta is teachers are trying to make ends meet,” said Johnson. “I feel like it’s going to help with teacher retention. It will relieve the stress to aid them to get from one period to the next.”

Her announcement of the new board policy went viral on Facebook. The posted video garnered about 90,000 views and was shared nearly 300 times.

She shared that most of the early resistance to the new policy came from a misunderstanding regarding taxes. Some of her teachers were under the impression their paycheck would be taxed twice. She also had to convince a payroll staff that would now have to double their workload.

“I think it’s going to be a recruitment strategy in the long run,” she said.

Some districts even tried bimonthly payout but found it impractical. The district had to hire payroll staff full time during the summer months to process the twice-a-month payments. That was the case in Gulfport, said Superintendent Glen East.

“But teacher retention has been an issue beyond bimonthly pay,” he said. “In the past, if we could get teachers past the three- and eight-year mark, we could keep them. That isn’t happening anymore.”

For public school advocates and political candidates, bimonthly teacher pay, like other investments in teaching staff, have been important campaign issues. Among other challenges confronted by Delta educators, it inspires former Greenville teacher and principal Clayton Barksdale to run for state Senate.

Barksdale feels bi-monthly teacher pay would help districts hold on to talented teachers. He remembers early on in his teaching career when he would call in sick for work because he didn’t have enough gas money to get to school.

“Teachers are a loving bunch,” he said. “They don’t mind using their own money for their classroom. So it would make sense to pay those teachers back in a form of biweekly pay as quickly as possible.”

“With bimonthly pay, you just feel better about coming to work. You have less stress. You have more life in you,” he said.

As a young single mom, Jefferson County School District biology teacher Chiquita Gaylor found it hard to budget, especially during the winter stretch. She frequently bought science kits out of her own pocketbook. 

“I think it would be helpful,” she said. “You have to be very, very disciplined.”

The Bean Path in Jackson, Miss., wrapped its second annual AI Month in June with the dual draw of its first Electric Vehicle (EV) show and a Family STEAM Day, countering summer heat with cool science, technology, engineering, art and math-related fun at the Bean Barn, the second building in the Bean Path’s Tech District development.

The nonprofit dedicated to bridging the tech and digital divide in Mississippi focused on AI’s real world impact with talks, virtual sessions, classes and hands-on workshops throughout the month. At this closing event, a suite of eight vehicles parked outside offered a low-key intro to the breadth of EV possibilities. 

Bean Path founder and CEO Nashlie Sephus brought her own 2023 Rivian R1T all-electric pickup to the show-and-tell, pointing out features like the Gear Tunnel where she can stash groceries, a flashlight and speaker that can pop out, a spacious front truck, an air compressor on the back, and plugs and outlets all around. 

“I’m a truck girl,” said Sephus, a principal AI scientist at Amazon Web Services, and also a gardener and a frequent traveler between her Atlanta office and native Jackson. An EV that can haul stuff, make the distance on one charge and work nicely for daily use ticked the boxes. 

She highlighted AI features, too, such as Amazon Alexa, automatic raising or lowering depending on terrain, navigation aid (helpful with Atlanta traffic, she said) and automatic battery cooldown if it anticipates a stop to charge. 

So, it does the thinking for you? “It tries to,” she said. “That’s what AI is supposed to do.” 

In a state rating among the lowest for EV registrations, the show was a chance to chat candidly with dealership reps and private owners, get a closer look and get pictures, too.

Jaden Luckett, 25, was all smiles for photos, sitting behind the wheel of a Porsche Taycan brought by Porsche Jackson. Trying it on for size, he happily reported a good fit and pictured his 1-year-old, Jakari, in the back seat. Could he see one of these in his driveway someday? 

“First, I got to get a driveway,” he joked. But, this opened his mind to possibilities.

Porsche Jackson General Sales Manager Lewis BeCoats said, “This helps us help the community, to show what we have and then get other people exposed to fully electric vehicles, and the advantage they have in your life once you accept them in.” He brought the Taycan and Macan EV, and zoomed through a quick list of benefits, including the absence of oil and filter changes.

Range anxiety and charging opportunities were hot topics for questions. Travelers want to be able to fill up and drive all the way to their destination, BeCoats said, but “there’s not many cars that do that on gas.” 

Rest stops are also a good time to recharge the EV. “As long as you plan, it’s the perfect vehicle.” People are often quick to embrace the quiet, smooth ride and performance, he said. And, “for those who are green leaf people, it doesn’t put any emissions into the atmosphere.” 

Mart Shearer’s “Use Lightning, Not Dinosaurs” T-shirt fit the occasion as he leaned against his small blue 2017 BMW i3 (his second EV) and talked up its suitability for an urban commuter. Fuel efficiency and gas savings started him on this road back in 2003 with a Toyota Prius Hybrid, and he had been looking at EVs since 2012. When an electric smart car turned up at the Mercedes dealer in 2019, he drove up for a look. It didn’t have much charge, they told him, but a turn around the lot was all it took. 

“Just in the drive around the parking lot, every problem with the gasoline version of the car was gone.”

A member of EV Mississippi car club on social media, Shearer sees a pretty rapid adoption rate for EVs for a predominantly rural state. 

“There are places like Jackson or Southaven or the Golden Triangle or the Gulf Coast, you see EVs everywhere,” he said, noting that even a small town Mississippi police department added a Tesla to its patrol fleet. “That tells you somebody made the calculations, ‘Is this going to save money for the public?’ and the answer is ‘Yes.’” 

Chargers will come, Shearer said. Jackson just added 10 new public chargers in June. “People look at public charging and we need more of it,” he said, “but the reality is, most of your charging is done at home in your own driveway, unless you live in an apartment.” 

“Cute, isn’t it?” Celestial Gordon-Griffin said, admiring the breezy blue and white Volkswagen Buzz, sporty Porche Taycan and more. “I’m always so in awe about everything that the Bean Path is doing.” 

She is keen to have her two teenagers realize the importance of tech. 

“My son loves to play video games, and I keep telling him if he learns how to code, he can build his own… I want him to just get bitten by the bug.” She hoped this EV focus could capitalize on his fascination with cars, plus, “Knowing that we’re really doing our part for global warming … It’s really good to see this.”

Making emerging technologies approachable and non-intimidating is key at the Bean Path, as is targeting those who usually lack access and exposure to them. 

“We cover senior adults, we cover our K-12, we also cover our mom and pop shops, our small business owners, our startup companies,” Sephus said. 

“We meet people where they are,”  zeroing in on their core interests to show technology links and spark curiosity. “That’s how we build our ecosystem here in Mississippi.”

Cameron Wilson, a volunteer with American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) was on hand as a ChatGPT coach, helping those at computer stations craft questions for generative AI to write a story, start a nonprofit to solve a community problem or start a business. 

“The biggest thing that I say is to not be afraid of technology, and to use it for positive and good things.

“The hardest thing to do is start,” he said. “Once you get the question in the door, and you see that ChatGPT really has the power to give you in-depth details, it’s just using your imagination and going from there.”

Brittany Myburgh of Family STEAM Day partner Mississippi AI Collaborative noticed the growth from 2024’s first AI Month, when many needed a basic AI 101 course, to participants’ growing confidence and curiosity for specific applications this year. 

“It feels like there is momentum. There’s a movement.”

Retiree Jesse Huffman was among those catching the wave. He learned about working a laser, 3D printing and drone flying at the Bean Path, and now enjoys projects on his own printer and flies his own drone. 

“There’s some knowledge down here at the Bean Path,” said Huffman, who helped himself to it. “I tell everybody, it’s just like a gym, though instead of exercising your muscles, you exercise your brain.”

Diners turned watchful eyes to the stage as Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade took to the podium. He visited Stewpot Community Services during its daily free lunch hour Thursday to discuss new state laws, which took effect two days earlier, targeting Mississippians experiencing homelessness.

“I understand that you are going through some hard times right now. That’s why I’m here,” Wade said to the crowd. “I felt it was important to come out here and speak with you directly.”

Wade laid out the three bills that passed earlier this year: House Bill 1197, the “Safe Solicitation Act,” HB 1200, the “Real Property Owners Protection Act” and HB 1203, a bill that prohibits camping on public property. 

“Sleeping and laying in public places, you’re not going to be able to do that anymore,” he said. “There’s a law that has been passed that you can’t just set up encampments on public or private properties where it’s a public nuisance, it’s a problem.”

The “Real Property Owners Protection Act,” authored by Rep. Brent Powell, R-Brandon, is a bill that expedites the process of removing squatters. The “Safe Solicitation Act,” authored by Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, requires a permit for panhandling and allows people to be charged with a misdemeanor if they violate this law. The offense is punishable by a fine not to exceed $300 and an offender could face up to six months in jail. Wade said he’s currently working with his legal department to determine the best strategy for creating and issuing permits. 

“We’re going to navigate these legal challenges, get some interpretations, not only from our legal department, but the Attorney General’s office to ensure that we are doing it legally and lawfully, because I understand that these are citizens,” he said. “I understand that they deserve to be treated with respect, and I understand that we are going to do this without violating their constitutional rights.” 

Wade said the Jackson Police Department is steadily fielding reports of squatters in abandoned properties and the law change gives officers new power to remove them more quickly. The added challenge? Figuring out what to do with a person’s belongings. 

“These people are carrying around what they own, but we are not a repository for all of their stuff,” he said. “So, when we make that arrest, we’ve got to have a strategic plan as to what we do with their stuff.” 

Wade said there needs to be a deeper conversation around the issues that lead someone to becoming homeless. 

“A lot of people that we’re running across that are homeless are also suffering from medical conditions, mental health issues, and they’re also suffering from drug addiction and substance abuse. We’ve got to have a strategic approach, but we also can’t log jam our jail down in Raymond,” Wade said. 

He estimates that more than 800 people are currently incarcerated at the Raymond Detention Center, and any increase could strain the system as the laws continue to be enforced.

“I think there’s layers that we have to work through, there’s hurdles that we are going to overcome, but we’ve got to make sure that we do it and make sure that my team and JPD is consistent in how we enforce these laws,” Wade said.

Diners applauded Wade after he spoke, in between bites of fried chicken, salad, corn and 4th of July-themed packaged cakes. Wade offered to answer questions, but no one asked any.

Rev. Jill Buckley, executive director of Stewpot, said that the legislation is a good tool to address issues around homelessness and community needs. She doesn’t want to see people who are homeless be criminalized, but she also wants communities to be safe.

“I support people’s right to self determine, and we can’t impose our choices on other people, but there are some cases in which that impinges on community safety, and so to the extent that anyone who is camping or panhandling or squatting and is a danger to themselves and others, of course, I fully support that kind of law. I don’t support homelessness being criminalized as such,” Buckley said. 

Many of the people Wade addressed while they ate Thursday said they have housing, don’t panhandle, and shouldn’t be directly impacted by the legislation. But Marcus Willis, 42, said it would make more sense if elected officials wanted to combat the negative impacts of homelessness that they help more people secure employment.

“There ain’t enough jobs,” said Willis, who was having lunch with his girlfriend Amber Ivy.

The two live in an apartment together nearby on Capitol Street, where Ivy landed after her mother, whom Ivy had been living with, suffered a stroke and lost the property. Similarly, Willis started coming to eat at Stewpot after his grandmother, whose house he used to visit for lunch, passed away.

Willis holds odd jobs – cutting grass, home and auto repair – so the income is inconsistent, and every opportunity for stable employment he said he’s found is outside of Jackson in the suburbs. The couple doesn’t have a car.

Making rent every month usually depends on their ability to find someone to help chip in, said Ivy, who is in recovery from substance abuse. She said she’s watched problems surrounding homelessness grow over the years in Jackson. Ivy grew up near Stewpot and has lived in various neighborhoods across the city – except for the times she moved out of state when things got too rough.

“There was just moments where I just had to leave,” Ivy said. “Sometimes if you hit a slump here, there’s almost no way for you to get out of it.”