OurTupelo

Areas of Mississippi were still reeling on Monday from the aftermath of the weekend winter storm — including local elementary and secondary schools and colleges. 

Many will remain closed on Tuesday. See a list of school closures below. 

For some colleges still dealing with power outages, that meant ensuring students and others on campus had warm places to retreat to and hot meals regardless of whether they have paid meal plans.

Delta State University, for example, will open its Statesman’s Shelf Food Pantry on Tuesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Young-Mauldin Cafeteria will be open through Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., according to the university. Delta State students and essential staff can eat hot meals in the cafeteria and take home bagged dinners when they stop by for brunch, spokeswoman Suzette Matthews said in an email. Officials aim to return to regular hours and offering three meals a day by Thursday, Matthews said. 

“And we are SO SO thankful for our staff for making this happen,” Matthews said in the email.

In a Monday Facebook post, Delta State President Daniel Ennis noted lingering safety concerns such as icy roads around campus and interruptions in cell phone service.

“We’re having a cold day on campus, but with power and food; we’re better off than some,” Ennis wrote. “Our facilities crew continues to make progress clearing paths, and the student center has been opened for off-campus students who are still without power.”

K–12 schools across the state are also responding to lingering weather hazards. Roughly half of Mississippi’s public school districts closed or implemented virtual learning on Monday. Dozens plan to remain closed Tuesday or for longer. 

The following list of school closures is not comprehensive.

Public K-12 schools

• Attala County School District
• Benton County School District
• Chickasaw County School District
• Claiborne County School District
• Clarksdale Municipal School District
• Cleveland School District
• Coahoma County School District
• Copiah County School District
• DeSoto County Schools: Closed through Wednesday
• East Tallahatchie School District: Closed all week
• Forest Municipal School District
• Greenville Public School District
• Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District: Closed all week
• Hinds County School District
• Hollandale School District
• Holly Springs School District: Closed through Wednesday
• Holmes County Consolidated School District
• Humphreys County School District
• Jefferson County School District
• Kosciusko School District
• Lafayette County School District: Closed all week
• Leake County School District: Two-hour delayed start
• Lee County School District
• Leflore Legacy Academy Public Charter School
• Leland School District
• Madison County Schools: Velma Jackson school zone is closed for the day. Ridgeland, Germantown and Madison school zones will have a two-hour delayed start except for East Flora Elementary, which will remain closed. Flora students who attend Madison Middle School, Rosa Scott School or Madison Central High School will be excused.
• McComb School District
• Mississippi Schools for Deaf and the Blind
• Natchez-Adams School District
• New Albany School District
• North Bolivar Consolidated School District
• North Panola School District: Closed for the rest of the week
• Noxubee County School District
• Okolona Separate School District
• Oxford School District: Closed all week
• Pontotoc City School District
• Quitman County School District
• Scott County School District: Delayed start at 10 a.m.
• Senatobia School District: Closed through Wednesday
• South Delta School District
• South Panola School District: Close the rest of the week
• SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy: Delayed start at 9 a.m.
• Sunflower County Consolidated School District
• Tate County School District: Closed through Wednesday
• Tishomingo County School District
• Tunica County School District
• Tupelo Public School District
• Vicksburg Warren School District
• West Bolivar Consolidated School District
• West Tallahatchie School District
• Western Line School District
• Wilkinson County School District
• Winona-Montgomery School District
• Yazoo City Municipal School District 
• Yazoo County School District

Colleges and universities (public and private)

• Coahoma County Community College: Closed through Wednesday
• Copiah–Lincoln Community College
• Delta State University: Closed through Wednesday
• East Central Community College: Operating virtually
• Hinds Community College: Operating virtually
• Itawamba Community College
• Jones College: Open at 10 a.m. Classes scheduled to start before 11 a.m. will meet virtually.
• Meridian Community College: Open at 9 a.m.
• Mississippi Delta Community College
• Mississippi Valley State University
• Northeast Mississippi Community College
• Northwest Mississippi Community College: Operating virtually through Wednesday
• Rust College: Operating virtually
• University of Mississippi: Closed though Sunday

Higher education reporter Candice Wilder contributed to this report.

As with tens of thousands of fellow Mississippians since a winter storm struck during the weekend, the Hood family of Oxford was coping with the loss of electricity as best they could early Monday in their Northpointe neighborhood home about 2 miles north of Square.

Tucker and Leanna Hood, husband and wife and both lawyers, and their two young daughters were all bundled up and “camping in” around the gas fire logs in the living room. Mary Ann Hood, Tucker’s mom who was visiting from Brandon, was also sleeping under several blankets. They were all fairly cozy, until the home’s carbon monoxide alarm, which had converted from electric power to battery-operated, went off at 5:30 a.m.

“It woke me up, and I immediately turned off the gas logs,” Tucker Hood said.

The temperature was 7 degrees outside and it was going to get really cold, really fast inside the house. The Hoods’ oldest daughter, Reynolds, is 2. The youngest, Ida Orley, turned 5 months old Monday. The roads were covered in ice and snow.

What to do?

“We decided to go for the cars,” Tucker said. “Seemed like the best option.”

One problem: The car doors and locks were frozen. Using heated water from a gas stove, the Hoods were able to get in the family van and crank it up, along with Mary Ann Hood’s small SUV.

In the vehicles, they had all they needed, except space.

Mary Ann Hood posted on Facebook: ”I am sitting on my lovely heated seat and the warm air is blasting away. I am charging my phone while listening to channel 28 on SirrusXM or sometimes to my favorite playlist… I have three excellent books to choose from and just had a delicious breakfast of belVita Crunchy biscuits. I have on my best Patagonia long underwear, flannel PJ’s, puffy jacket and two pair of Ugg socks in my cozy Ugg boots (thanks to whoever gave me these wonderful socks for Christmas). …Thank goodness, I have a full tank of gas.”

Tucker, LeAnna and the kids were parked a few feet away in the family van. Reynolds, the 2-year-old, was watching a movie in the backseat.

And that’s where they spent the next five hours until a family friend arrived with a generator to use in the house. File this all under: All’s well that ends well.

Said Tucker Hood, “I’m just glad that carbon monoxide alarm worked.”

Delta State’s nationally renowned NCAA Division II baseball team was supposed to open the 2026 season Friday against Harding (Arkansas) University in Cleveland. 

That won’t happen. Boo Ferriss Field at Harvey Stadium on the DSU campus in Cleveland is covered in ice and snow. At noon Monday, the temperature was 21 degrees. The wind chill was 7. The weekend forecast is for more freezing temperatures. The DSU Statesmen are sometimes called the Fighting Okra, but they would be more like Eskimos if they played this weekend.

“We’ll play it by ear, but it doesn’t look good, “ Delta State coach Rodney Batts said Monday. 

Repairs will have to made to the backstop at Harvey Stadium before any baseball is played.

“The ice on the netting is so heavy with ice, it tore away from the poles,” said Delta State athletic director Mike Kinnison, a former DSU baseball All America and Hall of Fame coach. “In fact, it is so heavy that it bent some of the poles that were holding it up. That will all have to be repaired.”

The good news: Delta State, which must replace 25 seniors who graduated from last year’s team, can continue pre-season workouts in the Bryce Griffis Indoor Practice Facility adjacent to Harvey Stadium.

The Griffis facility was the brainchild of the late Boo Ferriss. For decades, the DSU baseball program was plagued by rainouts – and sometimes early season “ice-outs.” Practice time often was hard to come by.

“Baseball is a game of repetition,” Kinnison said. “You have to do it every day: hitting, pitching, ground balls, double play turns, relay throws, everything. We were missing too much.”

Ferriss spearheaded the drive to raise the money for the indoor facility and secured the lead gift from the late Bryce Griffis, a Starkville timber man and former Delta State baseball and football player.

The 10,400-square-foot facility was completed in December 2000, opened in 2001, and is used by DSU’s baseball, softball, soccer and football teams. In 2004, Kinnison’s Statesmen won a national championship.

Says Batts, whose team worked out indoors Monday, “I don’t know what in the world we would do without it.”

Hospitals and health facilities in Mississippi are continuing to provide critical care to patients in the wake of a treacherous winter storm, even as they endure power outages, impassable roads and no running water. 

Scott Simmons, Mississippi Emergency Management Authority’s external affairs director, said his agency is working to bring 30 generators to North Mississippi hospitals, long-term care facilities, nursing homes and warming centers. He said multiple locations had generators that failed over the weekend, and only some had come back online by Monday morning.

Small, rural facilities in northern Mississippi are bearing the brunt of the storm’s impact.

Tippah County Hospital, a 25-bed facility in Ripley, is operating at full capacity with reduced staff and no running water, CEO Patrick Chapman told Mississippi Today. Staff at the hospital delivered a baby Saturday for the first time in years while attending to a heart attack patient. Staff joined forces and went back and forth between two rooms, offering care to patients facing life and death in “a heartwarming moment,” Chapman said. 

“It shows you how people can take the worst circumstances and bring out the best,” he said.

But staff confronted grim realities outside the hospital brought on by the weekend’s wintry conditions. Monday afternoon, Chapman picked up a nurse for her evening shift. When Chapman arrived, the nurse was sitting in her car trying to stay warm because her house had no heat, he said. 

In Winona, Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital is facing many similar trials. The facility has running water, but is operating on a generator while staff members work overtime, said CEO Cori Bailey. 

Staff held a disaster team meeting Tuesday to make sure the hospital had adequate food, water and beds for staff to shelter in place as long as needed. Bailey said she’s heard that could be up to two weeks. 

“One of my directors rearranged her office so that she could bring something to sleep in and be here for the duration,” Bailey said. 

The hospital has seen an uptick in patients who lost power and had to be admitted to continue life-sustaining treatments. 

“They may not be sick enough that they need to be in the hospital, but they’ve got to have electricity to run their (oxygen) concentrators,” said Bailey.

Starting Tuesday, the hospital will start cancelling appointments. 

“It hurts my heart so bad because these patients need to come in, but also, they may not be able to get here,” Bailey said. 

Greg Flynn, spokesperson for the Mississippi State Department of Health, said there were several nursing homes and long-term care facilities that reported being without power and having difficulties operating generators Sunday, all of which were working with local emergency management authorities to restore power. He said he did not know how many facilities were impacted. 

Cornerstone Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, a nursing home in Corinth, has been using a generator all weekend, and has a maintenance man staying overnight to ensure all the rooms are well heated. Everyone there is pitching in additional duties, said Monica Jackson, the facility’s human resources officer, who was on phone duty Monday. 

“We are working on little to no staff,” Jackson said. “Our administrator tried to go and pick up a few people that he could. We’ve got a few people who have been here since this all started Friday night – with no relief. They’ve just been taking naps.”

In the counties surrounding Oxford, community mental health workers for Communicare have been stuck at facilities since Friday because other staff members aren’t able to navigate roads — blocked by trees and downed power lines — to relieve them. Executive Director Melody Madaris told Mississippi Today in a text message she does not know how long the on-site employees will have to continue working.

Madaris said she expects most Communicare services will be closed all week, but its crisis intervention team will be available. 

Wendy Bailey, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, wrote in an email the community mental health center that serves counties in the state’s northeast corner is closed and without power. 

Getting patients to timely care has become a harrowing experience in many parts of the state, including the Mississippi Delta. Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s emergency room remained open through the storm, though the hospital’s clinics, outpatient rehabilitation center and retail pharmacy were closed Monday. The hospital provided accommodations for in-house staff since Friday, said spokesperson Christine Hemphill.

The hospital’s helipad was cleared Monday morning, allowing two patients to be transferred to a higher level of care, Hemphill said. Three additional patients are awaiting transfer.

Pafford Medical Services, one of the largest ambulance providers in the state and the company that provides medical helicopter services to Greenwood Leflore Hospital, began transporting critically ill or injured patients by air from around the state to hospitals in Jackson and Memphis from select facilities late Sunday after landing pads were cleared of ice. 

Unusually thick ice on helipads and continuous precipitation kept air ambulance services grounded in many areas over the weekend, said Clay Hobbs, chief operating officer of Pafford Medical Services.

By midday Monday, most of the state’s hospital helipads were back in service, he said. The company is working to keep as many aircrafts in the air as possible to transport patients to hospitals that can meet their care needs. The company’s emergency operations center, which opened on Friday, triages air and ground transports to ensure that the patients with the greatest needs and who can be transferred safely are transported first.

“Air Ambulance will be busy for the next two to three days,” Hobbs said. 

Hobbs said the company has seen an increased number of 911 calls for traffic accidents and other medical issues since the storm hit. 

Ambulance providers across the state are working to attend to the health needs of patients, particularly those in areas without power who are receiving oxygen or use medical devices that require electricity. 

“Ambulance providers are the first line of defense for those patients,” he said. 

Pafford ambulances are also working to transport patients to Jackson or Memphis for higher levels of care than local hospitals can provide. Operations are fairly normal, Hobbs said, but emergency providers are still encountering some obstacles. 

One ambulance transporting a patient was stranded on the interstate for several hours this morning after an 18-wheeler blocked traffic and made the road impassable, he said. The patient survived. 

All Baptist Memorial hospitals in the state are open and have power, said spokesperson Kimberly Alexander. However, clinics in north Mississippi were closed Monday, Alexander said, and the system’s Oxford hospital was not offering elective or outpatient surgeries and procedures. They will re-assess on a day-to-day basis, she said. 

All eight North Mississippi Health Services hospital locations are open, said David Wilson, chief operating officer for North Mississippi Health Services and president for North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo in a statement. Some clinics and outpatient services are closed today or opening later in the day, and most clinics are expected to return to normal operations Tuesday. 

Large hospitals in Jackson say they are operating as usual and are prepared to accept transfers from smaller hospitals. 

The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s main campus in Jackson, the state’s largest hospital, is operating normally, said spokesperson Patrice Guilfoyle. UMMC Holmes County is operating on a generator, and UMMC clinics north of Lexington are closed Monday. 

St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson is currently experiencing typical transfer volumes, but anticipates an increase as road and travel conditions improve, spokesperson Meredith Bailess said in an email. 

“We remain prepared to support the needs of these impacted areas,” Bailess said.

Wendy Bailey, the mental health department executive director, said some of the generators at North Mississippi Regional Center’s community homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which her agency runs, have failed. But at least one of the generators was up and running again by Monday morning. 

The Department’s legislative budget request for the upcoming fiscal year requests more funding to replace the backup power sources at the regional center and North Mississippi State Hospital. After the agency’s board meeting in December, Wendy Bailey said the state hospital’s generator will not pass its upcoming review if it is not replaced. 

“Backup generators are essential to support operations during a power outage,” she said in her Tuesday email. “These programs are providing 24/7 services to some of Mississippi’s most vulnerable residents.”

Mississippi Today is welcoming two new reporters to its team. Madeline Nguyen will join as an investigative reporter, and Aaron Lampley is the newest reporter on Mississippi Today’s Jackson desk.

Nguyen, who just graduated with a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University, has joined Mississippi Today for a year-long fellowship from the Roy Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU.

“It’s an honor to join Mississippi Today’s investigative team, whose track record of accountability exemplifies the core mission of local investigative journalism: reporting that makes the community we live in a better place,” Nguyen said. “I’m eager to build on the team’s legacy of highlighting inequities in a criminal justice system where justice is too often absent.”

Lampley, a recent broadcast and digital journalism graduate of Mississippi State University, previously interned with Mississippi Today as a video producer during the summer of 2025. He will contribute to the Jackson team as a reporter with an eye towards bringing stories to life through video.

“Growing up in Mississippi, I saw so many different voices and stories go unheard. I’m so grateful to be a part of Mississippi Today, a team whose mission helps to serve those very individuals,” Lampley said. “Shedding light on the untold stories of Mississippi and its many amazing communities, while also providing them with information they might not otherwise have access to, plays a vital role in helping this state grow and succeed. I’m excited to help carry that mission forward.”

Nguyen, who also has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications and political science, will work with the nonprofit news organization’s investigative team headed by veteran journalist Jerry Mitchell as well as assist the newsroom as a whole. 

While at Arizona State, Nguyen led a local, long-form investigation for Arizona PBS uncovering key footage that Phoenix police edits out of body-camera videos released to the public. She engineered a custom Excel database tracking the department’s video editing in nearly 100 use-of-force cases by collecting data on hours of footage and filing public records requests for police reports.

Nguyen previously pioneered a new data-focused beat while working as a cost-of-living intern reporter at the Times of San Diego and was a data and research contributor for The Guardian, Consumer Reports and the Food & Environment Network. She also served as a health disparities congressional correspondent for Arizona PBS-Cronkite News’ Washington bureau.  

“We are thrilled to have Madeline Nguyen join our investigative team,” said Debbie Skipper, justice editor at Mississippi Today. “Her skills and innovative approaches will enhance our abilities to further our mission of informing the public and holding decision makers accountable.”

A Noxapater native, Lampley doesn’t hesitate to tackle sensitive subjects, such as a short documentary he directed, filmed and edited while in school that told the stories of two trans Starkville-area residents navigating the fears and fallout of Trump-era policies. He will cover news and human-interest stories in the capital city. 

“I’m delighted to have Aaron back after working with him last summer on a video about one of the city’s biggest news stories of the year, the human impacts of water shutoffs at apartment complexes,” said Jackson Editor Anna Wolfe. “I appreciated his sensitivity when visiting with residents, and I’m eager to see the audience he reaches with this medium.”

Some power providers say it may be weeks, not days, before electricity is restored to parts of Mississippi battered by the weekend’s deadly winter storm – an event that could turn out to be the state’s most destructive winter weather since a massive ice storm in 1994.

At a Monday afternoon press conference, Gov. Tate Reeves announced he is deploying the Mississippi National Guard to help with logistics and getting emergency supplies to parts of the state hardest hit. Maj. Gen. Bobby Ginn, adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard, said 500 guardsmen are being mobilized and he expects them to be fully operational, based at Camp McCain near Grenada, by Wednesday morning. 

Reeves said that over 20% of the homes across the country without power are in Mississippi. The state has received 30 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to meet critical needs, such as at hospitals and nursing homes. Mississippi requested 30 more generators that will arrive by Tuesday, and the state can request an additional supply if needed, Reeves said.

FEMA officials are in the state to help distribute water, meals, blankets and other supplies after President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Mississippi on Saturday.

The governor said there are many challenges to relief efforts due to the icy weather and low temperatures, with officials from the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency highlighting the unique difficulties of ice storms. 

Frigid temperatures, icy roads and downed trees have impeded restoration efforts, especially in rural areas of the state. Two deaths – one each in Hinds County and Tishomingo County – and two injuries from the storm have been reported in the state.

Officials with Entergy Mississippi, the state’s largest electric utility, on Monday afternoon announced power restoration estimates for different parts of its service area: Wednesday night for Natchez, Clinton, Madison, Vicksburg and Senatobia; Friday night for Cleveland, Indianola, Greenville and Lexington; and Sunday night for Grenada, which the company said was one of the hardest hit places.

About 153,000 customers were without power across 47 of the 82 counties at midday Monday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said.

Entergy

Entergy Mississippi serves over 400,000 customers in 45 counties. The company said Monday that the storm had impacted 55,000 of its customers and it had deployed over 2,700 workers.

As of Monday, the company had assessed just under half of its service area for damages. Those numbers included 234 broken poles, 50 miles of wires down, and 35 damaged transformers.

In a video press release, Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, reminded people to stay away from downed power lines and to report any downed lines to 1-800-968-8243 or on www.entergy.com. He also advised customers with outages to unplug all appliances to prevent surges when power is restored.

Fisackerly added that continued freezing temperatures could cause more outages.

During a press conference with Entergy, Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps called on residents and churches that get heat through natural gas to offer shelter to neighbors staying in cold homes. He also advised Mississippians to keep their thermostats at or below 70 degrees to prevent overburdening the power grid.

Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi 

Twelve of the Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi’s 26 operations have requested restoration assistance with additional crews coming from out of state. According to a Monday press release, travel is dangerous in parts of the state that have been hardest hit and it is difficult to say when everything will be back on.

Tippah, Alcorn, Benton and Union counties 

The Tippah Electric Power Association, which serves 13,927 customers in Tippah, Alcorn, Benton, and Union counties in Mississippi as well as Hardeman County in Tennessee, reported Monday that all but six of its customers had lost power. The provider said Sunday it is looking at “weeks instead of days to restore power” to everyone.

The utility is one of several in north Mississippi that buys power from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“Tippah EPA still does not have feed to 5 of our substations,” the utility wrote on its Facebook page. On Sunday, the provider wrote that its power distribution system had “suffered catastrophic damage.”

“TVA and local power company crews are working around the clock to restore service as safely and quickly as possible,” TVA spokesperson Julia Wise told Mississippi Today on Monday. “We are making progress despite difficult conditions for workers, including fallen trees, deep snow, icy roads and frigid temperatures. Crews are on the ground and in the air assessing storm damage and repairing transmission lines.”

TVA serves 346,000 customers in northeastern Mississippi, through local public utilities and cooperatives.

Officials in Ripley, the county seat of Tippah County, reported both gas and water outages in addition to the power troubles. “Most areas” of Ripley dealt with water issues after an outage at a pump station, city officials wrote on social media. 

On Sunday, the city also reported a “major gas line break” between Ripley and Blue Mountain that left “many residents” without gas. Officials Monday said repairs were still in progress.

Tishomingo County Electric Power Association

“It’s a war zone out here,” said Cody Durham, CEO of Tishomingo County Electric Power Association. Around 80% of Tishomingo Electric’s customers are without power. 

Durham said restoring power to the county’s electric water pumps is the first priority. He hopes water would be restored by Monday night. 

“We’re doing the best we can to work through these tough conditions,” Durham said. Because of cold and icy conditions, he said it’s impossible to know the exact extent of the damage. He requested additional crews to help clear trees and repair lines. He urged people to check for warming shelters that are being set up in the county and go there if the roads are passable.

Water and generator system failures

Local newsrooms report boil-water notices for Quitman County, Panola County and Holly Springs. The Mississippi State Department of Health’s Bureau of Public Water Supply is working with local water systems to clear the boil advisories, according to department spokesperson Greg Flynn. 

He said no contamination has been reported, but water systems need to check their quality whenever a power outage causes a drop in water pressure. Because there may be no power to boil water in some places, Flynn said people might need to use bottled water.

County emergency management contacts in Quitman County, Panola County and Marshall County did not immediately respond to Mississippi Today’s calls Monday. Scott Simmons, Mississippi Emergency Management Authority’s external affairs director, said MEMA is working with local governments and the state Department of Transportation to take 64,000 bottles of water to north Mississippi communities that lack access to fresh tap water. 

“It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s the challenge we’re tackling right now,” Simmons said.

David Kenney, a spokesperson for the state transportation department, said the agency was continuing to clear fallen trees from highways and interstates. 

Sharkey County

Officials in Sharkey County said most of the nearly 4,000 residents don’t have power. The city of Rolling Fork was also under a boil water notice on Monday due to low water pressure some areas. Natalie Perkins, deputy director of Sharkey County Emergency Management, said it could take until Tuesday morning for most people to have water restored. 

Crews are working to fix downed power lines but some roads are still impassable in rural parts of the county due to downed power poles and trees. 

“Everybody’s in the same situation in the whole county and all of the utilities and infrastructure officials are working as fast as they can,” Perkins said, adding that county residents should be prepared for it to take a week for power to be fully restored.

Marshall County

In Marshall County, which for years has dealt with fragile infrastructure owned by the Holly Springs Utility Department, District 1 Supervisor Goston Glover said crews were slowly restoring power in the area as of Monday morning. 

“It’s terrible,” said Glover, while adding that the response has been a “hell of a lot better than” after previous storms. “We had a tremendous amount of ice that came through here.”

Holly Springs officials did not respond to calls from Mississippi Today. Mayor Charles Terry wrote on the city’s Facebook page on Monday, “I want to assure you that we are doing our due diligence to restore your service as quickly as possible. We have contract crews working alongside our regular staff. Additional crews are scheduled to come in tomorrow.”

Update, 1/26/2026: This story has been updated with information from Gov. Tate Reeves and details about Sharkey County and Marshall County.

Political activist Angela Davis will appear at Tougaloo College on Wednesday to speak as part of a new lecture series. The event is not expected to be impacted by the recent winter storm.

The event will be at Woolworth Chapel starting at 5 p.m., with doors opening at 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public. An RSVP is not required to enter and does not guarantee seating. There will also be a livestream. 

Humanitarian organization Mississippi for a Just World partnered with Tougaloo College and Black With No Chaser to create the Voices for a Just World Lecture series.

“One of our main focuses is on educating community, and we want to bring dynamic speakers who have radical imaginations that are rooted in the fight for human rights,” said Candace Abdul-Tawwab, MSJW’s co-founder and executive director.

C.J. Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of Black With No Chaser, said, “It’s very rare that you would get the opportunity to do this. I think it’s important that we seize the moment while we can to connect with a revolutionary person and icon like Professor Angela Davis.”

Abdul-Tawwab said that partnering with Tougaloo College made sense because of the institution’s legacy as a hub for civil rights activists. Several people who work at Black With No Chaser are Tougaloo alumni.

In the 1960s and 70s, Davis was a prominent activist and member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and associated with the Black Panther Party. She previously spoke at Tougaloo College in 2015. Davis, a Birmingham native, was previously a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and vice presidential nominee. She is also a critic of the United States’ prison system.

The focus of the 2026 Mississippi legislative session so far has been the gulf between Republican House and Senate leaders over school choice, or, more pointedly, the House proposal to spend millions of tax dollars on private schooling.

Senate leaders vow opposition to the omnibus House Bill 2 because of this facet. But House Bill 2 is a kitchen-sink measure, with many other education proposals thrown in. And, it would appear, the Senate leadership is open to many of these. Its education panel passed a slew of them in separate bills on to the full Senate last week, and several more have been filed. Those passed include measures to expand the state’s successful literacy into higher grades and create a similar math program and to require financial literacy curriculum in order to graduate high schools. Both chambers appear onboard with allowing public school students to switch schools or districts more easily. And other bills pending before the Senate committee include promoting prayer in school and allowing homeschooled children to play in public school sports, mirrors of House legislation in HB 2.

But will the standoff over private-school vouchers prevent agreement on other measures? A full-court political press is on. Local governments and school officials continue to lobby against HB2, while some apparently well-funded and organized proponents are sending out robo-texts to constituents in home districts of Republican lawmakers who oppose the measure. Even the White House has been applying pressure on Mississippi Republicans for passage of the voucher measure.

Otherwise, lawmakers face a busy couple of weeks, with key deadlines approaching. Importantly, a first major “killing deadline,” one that will likely weed out hundreds of bills, is Feb. 3, the deadline for committees to pass or kill bills from their own chamber.

Other major debates to watch this session are:

• Ballot initiative. This has become a perennial issue since the state Supreme Court nullified this right for Mississippi voters in 2021. Lawmakers can’t seem to get together on the particulars, although many proclaim they want to restore voters’ ability to sidestep the Legislature and put measures to a statewide vote. The 2027 state elections loom, and lawmakers face pressure to resolve this before reelection time.

• Online sports betting. This is a major House initiative, and its leaders have tried to sweeten the pot for a reluctant Senate, proposing to earmark tax revenue from mobile gambling to shore up the state’s government employee retirement system.

• Campaign-finance reform. Another perennial issue facing more urgency with the 2027 elections looming, the state’s lax, confusing, conflicting and often unenforced campaign-finance laws leave our elections open to an unchecked flow of dark money and special interest influence. But it appears two main players in potential reform, the secretary of state and attorney general, are getting on the same page.

Quote of the Week

“I do have a little problem, Mr. House Speaker. In fact, I’ve got three problems … I’ve got a problem with my woman, with my girlfriend and with my wife …” — famed blues musician Bobby Rush, who gave an impromptu singing and harmonica performance on the House floor on Tuesday.

In Brief

Prison health reform proposed

A slate of bills from House Corrections Chair Becky Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, would revamp the delivery of health care in state prisons.

The proposals come after Mississippi Today’s “Behind Bars, Beyond Care” series, which has documented the alleged routine denial of health care in state prisons and deadly outcomes.

Currie’s bills would establish a corrections ombudsman to investigate health care complaints, establish hepatitis C and HIV treatment programs, provide kiosks for prisoners to request medical attention and require correctional officers to wear body cameras. But most of the bills have been double-referred, meaning they would have to pass through two committees. That’s sometimes a sign that a bill doesn’t have the support of a chamber’s leadership. – Michael Goldberg

Bill would provide benefits for gig workers

A growing number of Americans are working as independent contractors and “gig” workers.

They often do not receive employer-provided benefits such as health care and retirement.

House Bill 1072, the “Voluntary Portable Benefit Plan,” aims to help these workers access benefits. Authored by Rep. Lee Yancey, a Republican from Brandon, the bill would create a separate type of benefit that follows workers across jobs. A hiring firm could make tax-deductible contributions to the account and it would not be counted as taxable income for the worker. Similar portable-benefit accounts have been created in other states, such as Alabama and Tennessee. – Katherine Lin

Gov. Reeves to deliver State of the State address

Gov. Tate Reeves will deliver his State of the State Address to a joint session of the Mississippi Legislature on Tuesday.

The address, which will be aired live by Mississippi Public Broadcasting, will be delivered at 5 p.m. in the second-floor rotunda at the state Capitol. Read a transcript of Reeves’ 2025 address here. – Mississippi Today

DeSoto board wants power to remove member

HERNANDO — Some DeSoto County School Board members want a legal process by which an elected school board member could be ousted for concerns including malfeasance and abuse of power. They passed a resolution in November formally asking lawmakers to consider granting that authority in the current legislative session.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, has filed Senate Bill 2068, which would allow a school district’s local governing authority, by majority vote, to remove a school board member for breach of public trust, neglect of duty and abuse of authority. The school board would first have to vote on a recommendation.

Rep. Kimberly Remak, a Republican from Olive Branch, is the primary author of House Bill 573, the House mirror of Blackwell’s bill.  – Leonardo Bevilacqua

Earlier teacher procurement cards proposed

The Senate Education Committee on Thursday passed a bill that would distribute procurement cards, which teachers use to pay for classroom supplies, in July instead of August.

A report from the state Auditor’s office last summer showed that the card is activated too late to be useful, and that many teachers are forced to spend their own money on supplies.

The cards provide every teacher $748.

Sen. Scott DeLano, a Republican from Biloxi, said the new date would be tight, given that the state’s fiscal year starts in July. But he said the change is necessary because school districts are starting earlier and earlier. – Devna Bose

Bill would prohibit secret government settlements

Sen. Angela Hill, a Republican from Picayune, filed a bill that would prohibit government bodies from entering into private settlements and ban judges from sealing settlements, especially if they involve tax money. 

Hill told Mississippi Today that the legislation is about promoting transparency and allowing the public to know if taxpayer dollars are paying settlements. She said government bodies can redact the identities of people involved, if necessary. 

“We’re not talking about making private identities public — this is talking about tax dollars,” Hill said.  – Taylor Vance

Truancy officers would see pay raise

A bill pending before the Senate would give truancy officers a significant pay increase.

School attendance officers, under current law, are paid at least $24,000 a year. The new bill would raise the minimum by $10,000.

The bill also expands the responsibilities of attendance officers to dropout prevention and establishes a more robust framework to combat absenteeism, an issue that Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has said is one of his top priorities.

Chronic absenteeism, or missing at least 10% of a school year, has more than doubled in Mississippi since 2018. – Devna Bose

Boyd wants local governments to livestream

The Senate Government Structure Committee last week advanced a bill that would require all government bodies in the state to livestream meetings and post agendas on their website. 

Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, filed the legislation and told Mississippi Today that requiring public bodies to do this would not cost them a significant amount of money and should not be a significant burden on them because several agencies and local governments already do this. 

“It’s important for everyday citizens to find out what’s going on in our local boards and commissions,” Boyd said. – Taylor Vance

By the Numbers

$100 million

Amount the University of Mississippi Medical Center is asking the Legislature to provide for what hospital officials hope will become a “gold standard” cancer center. UMMC has already raised $90 million of the estimated $250 million total cost.

More Legislative Coverage

Gov. Reeves says Mississippi will participate in federal school-choice tax credits

The federal tax-credit program, created by President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” allows Mississippians to contribute up to $1,700 to an organization that awards scholarships to private-school students, starting in federal tax year 2027. Donors will be given a break on their taxes equal to the amount they contribute. Read the story.

State lawmakers push for protections as Supreme Court considers dismantling Voting Rights Act

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a case that could further weaken the federal Voting Rights Act, some Mississippi lawmakers are moving to write their own version. Read the story.

Mississippi bills would put repeat domestic abusers on a public registry

A handful of bills pending in the Mississippi Legislature propose creating a public online system displaying information about people convicted of two or more domestic violence offenses, including misdemeanors and felonies. Read the story.

Correction: An earlier version of this story has been corrected to show what legislation the Senate Education Committee has passed on to the full Senate and what measures are pending before the committee.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Texas supplied the most new residents of any U.S. state for Mississippi and eight other states, despite having the biggest population growth this decade, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Texas was the top source of new residents for Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma, according to the 2024 state-to-state migration flows, which track where someone lived in the previous year and where they currently live. The Census Bureau released the numbers last week.

With 31 million residents, Texas ranks second in population among U.S. states. Between 2020 and 2024, Texas gained 2.1 million people.

“The obvious and primary answer is size,” said Dudley Poston, professor emeritus of sociology at Texas A&M University. “There’s got to be more people leaving Texas than leaving other states because of the population size of Texas.”

Thousands of Mississippians are also migrating to Texas. Roughly 5,500 people moved from Hinds County, Mississippi, to the Lone Star State from 2017 to 2022, according to Internal Revenue Service data analyzed by researcher Jake McGraw at Rethink Mississippi. McGraw, who conducted the analysis for Mississippi Today, said Dallas and Houston were the top destinations for the relocating Mississippians.

Other large producers of residents who moved to other states included the nation’s other most populous states: California, Florida and New York.

California, the most populous U.S. state with 39 million residents, supplied the most new residents to the western states of Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington. But it also was the top supplier of domestic residents to Tennessee, home to Nashville, which has established a pipeline to Southern California’s entertainment industry.

Florida, the third most populous U.S. state with 23 million residents, dominated the number of new residents in the southeast states of Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina but also Ohio. Florida has gained 1.8 million residents this decade, the second most of any state.

Although the Sunshine State’s size played a primary role, other factors may be involved too, such as Florida’s escalating real estate and homeowners’ insurance prices and the more plentiful job opportunities for recent college graduates in cities like Atlanta and Charlotte, according to Richard Doty, a research demographer at the University of Florida.

“It is no longer as affordable a relocation/ retirement option as it once was,” Doty said in an email.

New York was the top source of new residents in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts and New Jersey, while Illinois provided the most new residents for Midwestern neighbors Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.

“The states with the largest out-migration numbers — California, Florida, Texas, and New York — are also the states with the largest populations. That’s not a coincidence,” said Helen You, interim director of the Texas Demographic Center. “Large populations naturally generate large volumes of both in-and-out migrants.”

Some migration patterns were no real surprises, such as former Massachusetts residents being the biggest source of new Mainers, New Hampshirites, Rhode Islanders and Vermonters. Former Wisconsinites made up the largest number of new Minnesotans, and former North Carolinians were the biggest source of new South Carolina residents.

In most states in 2024, before the immigration crackdown of the second Trump administration, people arriving from a foreign country were the top source of new residents. Among the exceptions, where international migration wasn’t large compared to people moving from individual U.S. states, were Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.