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The death of a Hinds County sheriff’s deputy over the weekend in south Jackson is being investigated as a homicide. 

Sgt. James Dotson Jr., 32, died Sunday evening at a home on the 1700 block of Dorgan Street from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Hinds County Coroner’s Office. 

“On behalf of the entire Hinds County Sheriff’s Office, I extend our heartfelt condolences and prayers to Sgt. Dotson’s family, friends, and the many lives he touched throughout his career,” Hinds Sheriff Tyree Jones said in a Monday statement. 

“May they find comfort in the legacy he leaves behind and the love that surrounds them during this difficult time.”

Jackson police spokesman Tommie Brown said no suspects had been arrested by midday Monday, and the investigation remains active as detectives interview witnesses and locate surveillance video. The department is encouraging people to reach out with tips, which may lead to a cash reward.

Dotson worked at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond and served the sheriff’s department and community with unwavering commitment, professionalism and compassion, Jones said. 

“His presence was a source of strength and stability, and his contributions to our mission of justice and public safety will not be forgotten,” Jones said. “He exemplified the very best of corrections — steadfast in duty, generous in spirit, and respected by all who had the privilege to work alongside him.”

Dotson’s death comes less than a year after the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department lost Deputy Sgt. Martin Shields Jr., who died Feb. 23 while responding to a domestic violence call in Terry. The suspect, who also shot his wife and another woman trying to flee, shot Shields and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

The National Fraternal Order of Police tracks line-of-duty shootings and releases monthly updates. The most recent report through Oct. 31 found nationwide 285 officers were shot in the line of duty, and 38 of those died. 

Among those fatalities is McComb Police Sgt. Jason Blake, who died Aug. 5 while responding to an off-duty request for help at a domestic violence call. The suspect shot and injured a woman before fatally shooting Blake and himself.  

The Officer Down Memorial Page, a national nonprofit tracking line of duty deaths, also lists the Oct. 17 death of Jackson County Deputy Sheriff Joshua Brashears. The sheriff’s office said he was on his way home in the early morning when his cruiser collided with horses on Mississippi Highway 15.

Information relating to the investigation of Dotson’s killing can be given to Crime Stoppers at 601-355-TIPS (8477) or the Jackson Police Department at 601-960-1234.

In the heart of rural America, small businesses, which have served as the backbone of these communities, are evolving. Among them, microbusinesses – typically defined as those with less than 10 employees – are gaining ground and reshaping local economies, specifically in towns historically reliant on industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and mining.

The JPMorganChase Institute’s research, “The Rural Divide: Small Business Revenue Milestones in the U.S.,” reveals that the vast majority of businesses in rural counties are microbusinesses.

While rural areas are known for historically employing more in industries such as Agriculture, fishing and hunting, Manufacturing, and Mining, regional specialization in those industries has less of an influence on microbusinesses. These enterprises are most prevalent in industries where there are less challenges to starting a business and fewer employees are needed.

The path to success isn’t without hurdles and challenges. The JPMorganChase Institute’s research also found that these rural businesses often face slower revenue growth during the first five years, compared to their urban counterparts. To bridge this gap, rural communities need tailored solutions that empower small businesses to scale and succeed.

Here are five considerations for microbusinesses in Mississippi:

            •           Set up a sales funnel: Turn potential customers into loyal buyers by forming a trusted relationship with them. Start with engaging social media posts – guiding them to informative content, capture contact information for special offers and invite them to online demos.

            •           Enhance customer service: Conduct an audit of your customer service processes. Implement tools like customer relationship management software or a loyalty program to keep your business top-of-mind and boost sales.

            •           Form strategic partnerships: Collaborate with complementary businesses to package deals that potentially reach new demographics. Align with partners that share your values and seek professional advice before formalizing partnerships.

            •           Identify customer pain points: Use focus groups and direct, honest feedback from loyal customers to uncover hidden issues or give inspiration for products and services to offer.

            •           Expand your network: Build a support system of advisors, consultants and experts. Attend trade shows, expos, informational sessions, and networking events to connect with potential customers and suppliers.

To support business on their journey toward growth, JPMorganChase also offers a complimentary one-on-one Coaching for Impact program that will be expanding and in 42 cities by the end of this year, featuring Certified Small Business Consultants to mentor and coach small business owners so they can better run their business. As of the end of 2023, the program has helped over 5,000 businesses grow.

As small businesses grow, they invigorate local economies, sparking innovation and creating jobs. Their growth story is one of resilience and opportunity, proving that even the smallest enterprises can have a big impact.

For more insights on growing your small business, visit chase.com/business

After evaluating applications asking for over $100 million of public money, the Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council discussed Monday which proposals deserved state investment to prevent more deadly overdoses.

But its members have yet to agree on funding recommendations for the Legislature. Instead, the members introduced a number of new concerns with the application process — ones that are expected to be discussed further at another meeting in the coming few weeks.

This spring, lawmakers established this council to make recommendations on how Mississippi should spend most of its money from national lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, a crisis that has claimed over 10,000 Mississippi lives since 2000. The council, overseen by Attorney General Lynn Fitch, is set to oversee around $300 million of Mississippi’s expected $421 million of settlement money over the next 15 years.

Before Monday’s meeting, Fitch’s office published a summary of those applications that assigns each request a score between 0 and 100, with 100 being the most qualified for funding. The council created 10-point tiers based on how highly it recommends the Legislature fund each project. 

The subcommittees scored 23 applications in the top tier of grants — requests that asked for more than $40 million of opioid settlement funds. Around $23 million of those high-scored applications were from organizations with representatives serving on this council. Many of those representatives are the top officials of the requesting group. For example, two applications from the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, which is led by council co-vice chair Wendy Bailey, were among the top-scored projects.

The subcommittees did recommend funding adjustments even from highly-scored applicants. It suggested adjusting grant funding for Oceans Healthcare, whose chief executive officer Mark Stovall serves on the council, from roughly $4 million down to roughly$2 million.

Committee members are supposed to recuse themselves from evaluating grant applications they’re directly or indirectly involved with, according to the council’s rules. There’s no evidence any council member had a hand in evaluating their own application. 

When the meeting started, members of the council were once again quick to point out potential issues with both the call for and evaluation of applications. 

Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford and a non-voting member of the council, told the group she was concerned the council didn’t have a plan to make sure funded projects weren’t duplicating efforts — both in where the projects are planned for and what they hope to do. 

“Have we kind of looked at that aspect yet?” she asked. 

“Not yet,” responded Caleb Pracht, the meeting moderator and a special assistant to Fitch. “But that’s certainly an important consideration, I agree.” 

Boyd also highlighted the absence of a guiding roadmap that could help the council determine how to best respond to the public health crisis. A third DMH opioid settlement application, which scored in the second tier of projects, proposed to create that next year.

That application summary says “the state does not currently have a unified, evidence-based assessment of prevention, treatment and recovery needs.” 

“In the ideal world, we would have done that first thing,” Boyd said. “But I think (the Legislature) would like to go ahead and get this money out to people immediately.” 

Some members asked whether a few of the applications themselves raised questions among council as to whether they would actually prevent more overdoses. Greg Spore, a lawyer with the Office of State Public Defender, called attention to a proposed project from the Yazoo County Sheriff’s Department for license plate readers, tasers and officer tablets – tools more akin to law enforcement than to opioid abatement. 

The local government subcommittee scored the project in the second highest tier of applications.

“How is that responsive to opioid use disorder?” Spore asked the committee. 

Adam Cooper, chief of the Gulfport Police Department, said these types of technology were important for preventing drugs from being sold in the community. He said he thought more Mississippi opioid settlement money should be going for these types of efforts.

“That is what I think really has been missing from these applications,” he said.

Michelle Williams, Fitch’s chief of staff, suggested that tasers might be a “non-lethal use of force” option for law enforcement. 

Another application that concerned some council members was a roughly $9 million request from a company called Stercus Bioanalystics. Its project summary said it would use this money to conduct wastewater surveillance for drug use with the aims of identifying areas and substances the state should address. A report shows the company pitched a similar project to Nevada.  

Mississippi’s settlement council gave the application a score in the third-highest tier of applications, projects the council is not expected to review at its next meeting. But Andy Taggart, a voting member of the committee, asked that the council consider adding it to the second-highest tier of grants at the next meeting. 

Dr. Dan Edney, Mississippi’s health officer and a co-chair of the committee, told members that researchers have found no public health or law enforcement use for wastewater opioid data. But after some council members, including Boyd, suggested the project could still be useful, the members voted to keep the application in consideration for the next meeting.

“I do see what they’re talking about in terms of specific law enforcement instances,” Edney told Mississippi Today after the meeting. “But in terms of overall abatement, I don’t see the evidence that opioid wastewater testing is all that effective.”

At the end of the meeting, Pracht said the council will meet again in the next few weeks to discuss the two highest tiers of opioid settlement projects. He instructed the 15 voting members to more thoroughly review the dozens of applications that scored in those ranges, in addition to Sercus’ proposal.

A state law enacted this year says the committee must finalize its recommendations by Dec. 1. Lawmakers are expected to approve or reject those suggestions during their 2026 session that begins in January. 

This story was updated Monday evening after the meeting ended.

Correction, 11/3/2025: This story has been corrected to reflect the correct number of applications in the top tier of grants for opioid settlement funds.

Republican House Corrections Chairwoman Becky Currie of Brookhaven began touring state prisons when she got her committee chair assignment a couple of years ago, and found a disturbing dearth of medical care for inmates. “We’re paying $124 million to a company for health care and they are not doing it and they are keeping the money,” said Currie, who is pushing for reform and been a centerpiece of Mississippi Today’s investigative series on prison health care, Behind Bars, Beyond Care.

The recent escape of several research monkeys after the truck carrying them overturned on a Mississippi interstate is the latest glimpse into the secretive industry of animal research and the processes that allow key details of what happened to be kept from the public.

Three monkeys remained on the loose after the crash Tuesday in a rural area along Interstate 59 near Heidelberg, spilling wooden crates labeled “live monkeys” into the tall grass near the highway. Searchers in masks, face shields and other protective equipment have scoured nearby fields and woods for the missing primates. Five of the 21 Rhesus macaques on board were killed during the search, according to the local sheriff, but it was unclear how that happened.

Key details remain shrouded in secrecy

Mississippi authorities have not disclosed the company involved in transporting the monkeys, where the monkeys were headed or who owns them. While Tulane University in New Orleans has acknowledged that the monkeys had been housed at its National Biomedical Research Center in Covington, Louisiana, it said it doesn’t own them and won’t identify who does.

An initial report from the sheriff described the monkeys as “aggressive” and carrying diseases such as herpes, adding to the confusion. Tulane later said the monkeys were free of pathogens, but it is still unclear what kind of research the monkeys were used for.

The questions surrounding the Mississippi crash and the mystery of why the animals were traveling through the South are remarkable, animal advocates say.

“When a truck carrying 21 monkeys crashes on a public highway, the community has a right to know who owned those animals, where they were being sent, and what diseases they may have been exposed to and harbored simply by being caught up in the primate experimentation industry,” said Lisa Jones-Engel, senior science adviser on primate experimentation with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“It is highly unusual — and deeply troubling — that Tulane refuses to identify its partner in this shipment,” Jones-Engel added.

One thing that is known is that the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado pickup hauling the monkeys was driven by a 54-year-old Cascade, Maryland, man when it ran off the highway into the grassy median area, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said in a statement to The Associated Press. The driver wasn’t hurt, nor was his passenger, a 34-year-old resident of Thurmont, Maryland.

Confidentiality is built into contracts, blocking information

Transporting research animals typically requires legally binding contracts that prohibit the parties involved from disclosing information, Tulane University said in a statement to the AP. That’s done for the safety of the animals and to protect proprietary information, the New Orleans-based university said.

“To the best of Tulane’s knowledge, the 13 recovered animals remain in the possession of their owner and are en route to their original destination,” the statement said.

The crash has drawn a range of reactions — from conspiracy theories that suggest a government plot to sicken people to serious responses from people who oppose experimenting on animals.

“How incredibly sad and wrong,” Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said of the crash.

“I’ve never met a taxpayer that wants their hard-earned dollars paying for animal abuse nor who supports it,” the Georgia congresswoman said in a post on the social platform X. “This needs to end!”

Tulane center has ties to more than 155 institutions worldwide

Tulane’s Covington center has received $35 million annually in National Institutes of Health support, and its partners include nearly 500 investigators from more than 155 institutions globally, the school said in an Oct. 9 news release. The center has been funded by NIH since 1964, and federal grants have been a significant source of income for the institution, it said.

In July, some of the research center’s 350 employees held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a new 10,000-square-foot office building and a new laboratory at the facility. This fall, the facility’s name was changed from the Tulane National Primate Research Center to the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center to reflect its broader mission, university officials announced.

Research monkeys have escaped before in South Carolina, Pennsylvania

The Mississippi crash is one of at least three major monkey escapes in the U.S. over the past four years.

Last November, 43 Rhesus macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research after an enclosure wasn’t fully locked. Employees from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, set up traps to capture them. However, some spent two months that winter living in the woods and weathering a rare snowstorm. By late January, the last four escapees were recaptured after being lured back into captivity by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

In January 2022, several cynomolgus macaque monkeys escaped when a truck towing a trailer of about 100 of the animals collided with a dump truck on a Pennsylvania highway, authorities said. The monkeys were headed to a quarantine facility in an undisclosed location after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on a flight from Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island nation, authorities said. A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all of the animals were accounted for within about a day, though three were euthanized for undisclosed reasons.

During a recent meeting of the special Mississippi House committee studying school choice, private schools made it clear that they would not participate in any voucher program that required them to follow the same rules as public schools.

An official told legislators the private schools would not submit their students to state assessment tests and would not require their schools to have open enrollment.

When asked about a possible middle ground, Barrett Donahoe, executive director of the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools, replied, “I don’t think we have to compromise anything. I think our schools do a good job.”

The private schools’ refusal to bend on certain issues should not be a surprise to legislators. While House Speaker Jason White, House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar of Senatobia, Gov. Tate Reeves and advocates have touted the need for and advantages of vouchers, the private schools historically have been relatively quiet on the issue, though they do say now they would take the public money as long as they did not have to follow some of the rules adhered to by public schools.

But in recent years, as late as 2024, private schools embraced state tax credits being used to benefit them instead of direct taxpayer payments through vouchers.

They reasoned there would be less oversight with tax credits.

The Mid-South Association of Independent Schools said in a paper titled “The ABCs of School Choice” that tax credits with revenue going to private schools were considered more advantageous to them than vouchers.

“Freedom advocates, instead, look for policies like tuition tax credits and tax credits for donations to scholarship funds, to free up resources so that parents and donors can fund their own choices,” said the paper found on the MAIS website in 2024. “Such policies expand choice for parents without shifting the burden for their children onto others.”

The paper, which no longer is available on the private school association’s website, in part reads, “School choice cannot exist without driving up taxes – or cutting other parts of the budget to avoid deficits. As of 2019, private schools educated 44,000 students in Mississippi. If the Legislature approved a $7,000 voucher for each of those children, it must come up with $308 million more dollars in tax revenue – plus the increased bureaucratic costs (and other costs) associated with administering the program.” 

The state currently offers limited tax credits to private schools through a program dubbed the Children’s Promise Act. The program allows a person or business to make a donation to one of the private schools certified by the Department of Revenue and receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for up to 50% of the donor’s state tax liability or a credit on local property taxes.

In simple terms, the donors to private schools get to pay less in either state income taxes or local property taxes.

The maximum a private school currently can receive through the program is $405,000 annually. Because of the popularity of the program with the private schools, there have been unsuccessful efforts in recent years, led by White and Lamar, to expand the Children’s Promise Act. It is currently capped at $9 million per year in tax credits.

To qualify to receive the benefits of the tax credits, a school must provide services to at least one student with “a chronic illness or physical, intellectual, developmental or emotional disability” or be eligible for the free lunch program or be a foster child.

The Department of Revenue, which oversees the program, has said it does not know how many students who fit into the Children Promise Act categories are educated by each school. Yes, theoretically, it could be only one.

While Lamar, the primary legislative advocate of the Children’s Promise Act, has sought unsuccessfully to increase the amount of the tax credits, he has not made any effort to increase the oversight of the program.

Some have argued that the tax credits do not put a strain on the state budget because money from state coffers does not go out to the private schools.

The argument seems disingenuous since people who donate to the private schools can have their tax liability cut in half, thus reducing the amount of money going into the state general fund.

Reducing the amount of state revenue available, as the tax credits do, accomplishes the same goal as vouchers – decreasing the amount of money available for public schools, health care, law enforcement and other services the state is expected to provide.

WASHINGTON — The crises at the heart of the government shutdown fight in Washington were coming to a head Saturday as the federal food assistance program faced delays and millions of Americans were set to see a dramatic rise in their health insurance bills.

The impacts on basic needs — food and medical care — underscored how the impasse is hitting homes across the United States. Plans by the Trump administration to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Saturday were halted by federal judges, but the delay in payouts will still likely leave millions of people short on their grocery bills.

It all added to the strain on the country, with a month of missed paychecks for federal workers and growing air travel delays. The shutdown is already the second longest in history and entered its second month on Saturday, yet there was little urgency in Washington to end it. Lawmakers are away from Capitol Hill and both parties are entrenched in their positions.

The House has not met for legislative business in more than six weeks, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., closed his chamber for the weekend after bipartisan talks failed to achieve significant progress.

Thune said he is hoping “the pressure starts to intensify, and the consequences of keeping the government shut down become even more real for everybody that they will express, hopefully new interest in trying to come up with a path forward.”

The stalemate appears increasingly unsustainable as Republican President Donald Trump demands action and Democratic leaders warn that an uproar over rising health insurance costs will force Congress to act.

“This weekend, Americans face a health care crisis unprecedented in modern times,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said this week.

Delays and uncertainty around SNAP

The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold payments to the food program starting on Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to make them. Trump said he would provide the money but wanted more legal direction from the court, which will not happen until Monday.

Benefits were already facing delays because it takes a week or more to load SNAP cards in many states.

“People are just nervous, scared,” said Jill Corbin, the director of the St. Vincent De Paul soup kitchen and food pantry in Norwich, Connecticut. ”It’s not really a definite answer that we have right now.”

As people lined up early Saturday for hot meals and groceries, the Connecticut organization had 10 extra volunteers to help newcomers navigate the process. On Wednesday, some 400 families visited the food pantry and 555 people received hot meals.

“It’s kind of like everything is unraveling at the same time,” Corbin said. “I’m not going to lie. It is challenging.”

The SNAP program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and costs about $8 billion per month. The judges agreed that the USDA needed to at least tap a contingency fund of about $5 billion to keep the program running. But that left some uncertainty about whether the department would use additional money or only provide partial benefits for the month.

“The Trump administration needs to follow the law and fix this problem immediately by working closely with states to get nutritional assistance to the millions who rely on it as soon as possible,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said in a statement following the ruling.

Democrats demanded this week that the government fund SNAP, but Republicans responded by arguing the program is in such a dire situation because Democrats have repeatedly voted against a short-term government funding bill.

“We are now reaching a breaking point thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding, now 14 different times,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at a news conference Friday.

Trump injected himself into the debate late Thursday by suggesting that Republican senators, who hold the majority, end the shutdown by getting rid of the filibuster rules that prevent most legislation from advancing unless it has the support of at least 60 senators. Democrats have used the filibuster to block a funding bill in the Senate for weeks.

Republican leaders quickly rejected Trump’s idea, but the discussion showed how desperate the fight has become.

Health care subsidies expiring

The annual sign-up period for the Affordable Care Act health insurance also begins Saturday, and there are sharp increases in what people are paying for coverage. Enhanced tax credits that help most enrollees pay for the health plans are set to expire next year.

Democrats have rallied around a push to extend those credits and have refused to vote for government funding legislation until Congress acts.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., spoke on the Senate floor this week about constituents who she said face premium increases of up to $2,000 a month if the credits expire.

“I am hearing from families in my state today who are panicked,” she said. “The time to act is now.”

If Congress does not extend the credits, subsidized enrollees will face cost increases of about 114%, or more than $1,000 per year, on average, health care research nonprofit KFF found.

In the days before the start of open enrollment, Democratic officials across the country warned that the cost increases would hit their constituents hard.

In Wisconsin, for example, families on the ACA’s silver plan could see premium increases of roughly $12,500 to $24,500 annually depending on their location. Sixty-year-old couples could face increases ranging from nearly $19,900 to $33,150 annually.

“No matter what the percentage is, it’s a hell of a lot,” Gov. Tony Evers, D-Wis., said.

Some Republicans in Congress have been open to the idea of extending the subsidies, but they also want to make major changes to the health overhaul enacted while Democrat Barack Obama was president. Thune has offered Democrats a vote on extending the benefits, but has not guaranteed a result. And he is demanding that Democrats first vote to reopen the government.

So the country waits and watches for Congress to act.

T.J. McCuin, whose family owns and operates farmers markets in Mesa and Apache Junction, Arizona, said 15% of the markets’ customers use SNAP benefits. He was not assuming the delays would immediately hurt the business, but added, “Hopefully this isn’t a long-term problem because once those benefits run out, then it’s going to start to hurt.”

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and Ali Swenson reported from Washington and Susan Haigh from Norwich, Conn.; with contributions from Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and Kevin Freking in Washington.

Moms face a public health crisis that’s putting Mississippi behind every other state, and it could get worse under federal changes, speakers said at a Legislative Black Caucus hearing. 

Amid the cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, exacerbated by the ongoing shutdown, advocates called on the state to take action. They said lawmakers should expand Medicaid, protect food assistance programs, create standardized paid parental leave, support midwives and doulas and invest in child care and early childhood education. 

Mississippi is one of the most dangerous places to give birth, especially for Black women, who are four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related deaths, or deaths that occur during pregnancy or up to one year postpartum and are caused in part by the pregnancy. A combination of poverty, chronic diseases, provider shortages and policies that have shut out tens of thousands of Mississippians from health care contribute to bad outcomes for mothers and babies. 

Now, cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs threaten to walk back progress that has been made over the years, speakers said Thursday at the state Capitol. 

In the past three years, the Mississippi Legislature passed laws to give women an additional 12 months of Medicaid coverage postpartum, timely prenatal care as they wait for their Medicaid applications to process and paid parental leave for state employees. 

Democratic lawmakers and advocates in Mississippi had hoped to build on those policies by passing laws to guarantee all workers paid parental leave, and to expand Medicaid to cover those who currently fall in the coverage gap – making too much to qualify for the state’s strict Medicaid income threshold but too little to qualify for subsidies that make Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance more affordable. 

Now, they worry that even keeping the current policies from shrinking might be an impossible feat. 

“We are facing dramatic cuts to Medicaid through the Big Ugly Bill and Donald Trump and Congressional Republican members’ efforts to gut this lifesaving health care program that covers so many births in your state and across the country,” said U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois, one of the authors of “Momnibus” legislation aimed at addressing the Black maternal health crisis. Underwood attended the Mississippi event by video conference.

“To hear that you all are thinking about growing the workforce, investing in doulas, interested in taking a look at how to support community-based organizations and clinics across the state – these are the kinds of resources that our moms and our families need.”

Partisan disagreements over health care are at the center of the ongoing federal government shutdown. Democrats are fighting to renew Biden-era subsidies that are making health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. If they are not renewed, premiums on ACA marketplace insurance plans will more than double next year, KFF estimates. 

And it’s not just about having health insurance, Cassandra Welchlin of the Black Women’s Roundtable argued. Welchlin described a mother she knows who works at a diner making $10 an hour, has no paid leave and relies on others to transport her. She risked her job to attend prenatal visits and returned to work two weeks postpartum. 

“If you aren’t Danielle, you know Danielle,” Welchlin said of the mother. “It’s not just about the health care coverage but a string of policies that we have to co-create together in order to make strong babies and healthy moms.”

Women in rural areas already have few options for giving birth. Half of Mississippi’s counties are maternity care deserts, and the state Health Department recently declared a public health emergency for the state’s infant mortality rate – the highest in the nation. 

Nobody knows that more than Shenelle Ball-Burks, whose pregnant daughter and unborn grandchild died in 2021 on the side of the road as her husband was driving her 28 minutes from their home to the closest hospital. 

“I come before you from Belzoni in Humphreys County, a place where our hearts are full but our health care is empty, a place where the difference between life and death can be measured not in miles but in minutes,” Ball-Burks said at the hearing. “I didn’t know what to say when I was asked to speak here today because how do you find words when your heart has been shattered? How do you strive after watching your child’s life fade because help was too far away?”

Ball-Burks said she worries for all the moms and babies who will continue to suffer as help becomes farther away through federal and state policy changes. 

“I don’t want another mother to hold her child’s obituary instead of her hand,” Ball-Burks said. “I don’t want another husband to kneel beside a little girl crying for help that never comes. I don’t want another child to walk across a graduation stage in search of a face that isn’t there.”

Research shows that when eligibility for social safety net programs is made stricter, women tend to lose the most. That’s partly because women more often participate in the programs – due to the wage gap and life events such as childbirth – but also because they are more often caregivers to those who use the programs.

“This is not just a statistic, not just someone else’s problem,” said Rep. Timaka James-Jones, a Democrat from Belzoni and the sister-in-law of Ball-Burks. “It’s a sacred responsibility. Because when we save our mothers, we don’t just save one life. We save families. We save our children’s futures. We save the heartbeat of our communities.”

Many of the legislators and health care providers who spoke about their experience living through or witnessing the statistics that put Mississippi at the bottom of nearly every list when it comes to the health of moms and babies. 

“Mississippi remains one of the hardest places in America to be pregnant and give birth, especially if you’re Black,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat from Jackson. “I speak to you not only as a legislator but as a Black mother who has carried life while carrying fear. Our survival should not be revolutionary. It should be standard.”

Women in rural communities don’t just suffer from a dearth of hospitals or obstetricians. They suffer from a dearth of reliable and affordable support in all forms, said Dr. Michelle Owens, maternal fetal medicine specialist in Jackson and the chair of the Mississippi Maternal Mortality Review Committee. 

“There is data to support that having a person at the bedside, consistently, improves pregnancy outcomes and decreases C-section rates,” Owens said. “So what does that mean? It suggests that what we do with our hearts can even be more powerful than what we can accomplish with our hands.”

JXN Water, the third-party manager of Jackson’s water and wastewater systems, said in a quarterly report filed Friday that it will move forward with a rate increase on water bills it first requested this spring. The increase will go into effect by Dec. 15, the report said.

The rate increase, on average, would raise Jacksonians’ monthly bills — which also include costs for sewer and sanitation — by 12%, the utility said.

Ted Henifin, who heads the utility, has reiterated JXN Water is rapidly losing money because of inadequate revenue. In September, the utility said it was “currently insolvent.”

Henifin could not be reached Friday to confirm the utility’s plans to raise rates. JXN Water communications officer Aisha Carson said the report does not serve as an official notice of a rate increase. The quarterly update said JXN Water will issue an official notice to customers by Nov. 15.

Both Jackson’s mayor and city council have spoken out against the proposal, arguing it’s unfair to ask more from those who are contributing while about 30% of customers aren’t paying their bills. The city council voted in April against the increase, and Mayor John Horhn reaffirmed his position last week during a meeting with state lawmakers.

But under a federal court’s stipulated order that outlines the scope of Henifin’s powers and responsibilities, the court allows the utility to proceed with a rate increase without the city’s approval and as long as more than a year has passed since the last rate hike. JXN Water first increased rates in February 2024.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate, who appointed Henifin to his role in 2022, said during hearings this summer the utility should explore all other avenues for funding, including collections from apartment complexes with large debts, before raising rates. Over the last year, JXN Water has pressured apartment complexes to pay their debts leading to shutoffs and ongoing lawsuits. It’s been months, though, since Wingate has last discussed the proposal, and it’s unclear if he plans to address the matter anytime soon.

Henifin’s frustration with the judge’s stance came out during a July hearing where the utility manager threatened to quit, although he walked back the statement soon after.

In response to Wingate and city officials, Henifin maintained that even if all customers paid their bill at the current rates, JXN Water would still lose money. The utility estimated in September that it was losing $3 million a month.

The quarterly update also addressed $54 million the utility asked Congress to reallocate for operating funds. The money was originally part of $450 million in federal funding set aside for larger projects.

While the money was held up as part of the ongoing federal government shutdown, JXN Water said it expected Congress to pass the funding bill “in the coming days,” and that the Environmental Protection Agency would issue the money to the utility in a new grant. But, the report added, the utility wouldn’t be able to access the $54 million until early 2026.

Mississippi Today reached out to Wingate’s office for a comment Friday but did not hear back.