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Johnnie E. Walls Jr., former circuit judge, longtime state senator and chairman of the state Democratic Party, died on Saturday, according to city of Greenville and state party officials.

He was 80.

Walls served as a Bolivar County Circuit Court judge from 2011 until his retirement in 2016. He served in the state Senate representing District 12, Bolivar and Washington counties, from 1993 to 2011, and served two terms as chairman of the state Democratic Party.

As a senator, Walls was involved in criminal law and civil justice revision and reform and workers’ rights legislation.

Walls received a degree in biology from Jackson State University and his law degree from the University of Mississippi and began practicing law at the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services in Greenwood. He was promoted to director of litigation for the organization before starting private practice.

In a social media post, Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons said Walls was “a dedicated public servant and a distinguished legal mind.”

“Judge Walls leaves behind a powerful legacy of integrity, wisdom, and dedication to public service,” Simmons said. “Please keep his family, friends, and all those whose lives he touched in your thoughts and prayers.”

The state Democratic Party in a statement said Walls served “with fairness and distinction,” and was “recognized for his fierce advocacy and commitment to the law.”

“Judge Walls’ life was marked by unwavering commitment to his community and the principles of justice,” the statement said. “His contributions to Mississippi’s legal and political landscape will be remembered for generations.”

Arrangements for Walls were incomplete late Tuesday morning.

Two Black men tortured by white “Goon Squad” deputies are considering a lawsuit against Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines for calling them “dopers” and rapists.

“He will be held legally accountable. He has to be,” said Malik Shabazz, a lawyer for the two men, Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins. “Some of what [Gaines] said is obviously defamatory.”

Two days after the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department announced it was paying Parker and Jenkins $2.5 million, Gaines told the 100 people gathered at the sheriff’s breakfast that the department’s lawyer, Jason Dare, “beat the pants off of those guys — the dopers, the people that raped and doped your daughters. He beat their pants off.”

Neither of the two men have been convicted of felony drug or rape charges in Rankin County or neighboring Hinds County, according to court records. In 2019, Parker was convicted in Alabama of drug possession with intent to sell.

In 2023, six Rankin County law enforcement officers, some of whom called themselves the “Goon Squad,” tortured the two men with Tasers, used a sex toy on them and shot one of them in the mouth. Deputies planted a BB gun and drugs on the men to try and cover up their crimes, but they were caught. They are now serving between 10 and 40 years in federal prison.

In an emailed response, Gaines said his 22-minute speech covered “a wide range of issues facing Rankin County.

“I want to be clear that my comments wre not aimed at anyone personally, and I did not name any individuals,” Gaines said.

“Law enforcement and safety in Rankin County are topics of deep concern to me because much of my career has been dedicated to protecting the safety and wellbeing of our community. I take my role as supervisor very seriously, and I strive to serve each and every Rankin County citizen in my district. If there was any confusion, I want to clarify that my focus — then and now — is supporting the ongoing efforts by law enforcement in Rankin County to keep our community safe and strong.”

On Friday, Angela English, president of the Rankin County NAACP, asked Gaines to step down: “There is no way you can effectively do your job with the kind of racial hatred you have in your heart.”

Behind the scenes, some local power brokers are urging Gaines to resign. “It’s devastating to us trying to rebuild trust in the community, which was already destroyed,” said one elected official, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “It’s infuriating, because we’re the ones having to pick up the pieces.”

Pressure on the sheriff’s department has been mounting since the torture allegations emerged. The local chapter of the NAACP has repeatedly called on Sheriff Bryan Bailey to step down. 

But at the May 3 breakfast gathering, Gaines and other county officials threw their support behind the sheriff. “Bryan’s got his legs back under him,” he said. “You can’t go through what he’s went through with all the fake news and false information and stay together like Bryan has.”

Bailey thanked Gaines and said, “My board of supervisors stood behind me  110%.”

The sheriff said he thought about stepping down over the past 28 months. “I was ready to quit, give up,” he said, but his mentor and former father-in-law, Irl Dean Rhodes, urged him to stay, saying, “You don’t quit. You’re going to run again.”

In 2023, Bailey faced no opposition, but that won’t be the case in 2027.

Retired Sgt. Ronnie Moore, 58, said he plans to run for sheriff because “everybody wants a change.” In the 72% white county, he served among the small number of Black deputies for three decades before retiring last year from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department.

“You have to love everybody. You’ve got to have a heart for people,” he said. “It ain’t all about wearing a badge and carrying a gun. It ain’t all about Black and white, but about what’s right and wrong.”

He doesn’t believe in “throwing dirt,” he said, “but if you do wrong, karma will come back and get you.”

Moore said of Gaines’ remarks, “Instead of putting out the fire, they’re pouring gas on it. God sees them people.”

Bailey has insisted he knew nothing about what deputies did to Parker and Jenkins and denied these former deputies’ accusations that there was a culture of violence in the department. He said if he had known, he would have stopped it.

After recently announcing his candidacy at the Briar Hill Baptist Church and the Exchange Club of Richland, Scott Womack, 57, has spent his days attending civic events, shaking hands and asking for votes.

He worked for 27 years as a special agent at the state auditor’s office, serving as lead agent on the investigation into the Mississippi Beef Plant, a $55 million, taxpayer-funded debacle, which ended in prison sentences for some. He also served as a chief deputy for Simpson County.

“Our team’s campaign will focus on restoring the trust, integrity, pride and confidence in the position of sheriff in Rankin County,” he said.

There must be a focus on restoring trust with Rankin County employees and citizens through safety and excellent service, he said. In addition, “we will explore ways to work with county leadership to minimize civil litigation, and I will utilize my relationships with local, state and federal agencies to help restore confidence,” he said.

Another lawsuit alleging abuse is pending in federal court against the department, and plaintiffs’ lawyers have discussed bringing other possible cases.

An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror by nearly two dozen Rankin County deputies, but the six officers are the only ones who have been charged.

Another story by Mississippi Today and the Times revealed that the sheriff spent more than $150,000 in taxpayer money on equipment and supplies that were allegedly used at his mother’s commercial chicken farm. State Auditor Shad White is now investigating these allegations.

Jessica Pishko, a lawyer and national expert on sheriffs, said it’s rare for sheriffs to get removed by petition, but Mississippi’s statute makes it tougher than most other states.

Under state law, the governor is the only one with the power to remove the sheriff and can only act if he or she receives a petition demanding the sheriff’s removal signed by at least 30% of the qualified voters.

English said NAACP officials gathered thousands of signatures for a petition to remove Bailey but stopped last Thanksgiving when they ran into roadblocks under Mississippi law that requires them to gather all the signatures within 180 days. In addition to that, any signatures collected more than 60 days before the petition is filed are considered invalid.

Rankin County has more than 102,000 registered voters, which means any such petition would require more than 30,000 signatures. In contrast, 10% of voters can sign a petition to trigger a recall election of a sheriff in California counties with more than 100,000 registered voters.

In Mississippi, there is no requirement in the law for sheriffs to be certified law enforcement officers, but they can’t be atheists. 

In many states, sheriffs have to violate their oath to get removed from office, said Pishko, author of “The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy.” 

That oath requires sheriffs to uphold the federal and state constitutions as well as obeying the laws. “Unfortunately,” Pishko said, “there are a lot of bad things that sheriffs can do that don’t violate their oath.”

Updated 5/13/25: This story has been updated to include a response by Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines.

A panel of three federal judges has approved a revised legislative redistricting plan from the Mississippi Election Commission, which will allow special elections to move forward this year for 15 legislative seats.

The court in April had ordered state officials to develop yet another legislative map to ensure Black voters in the DeSoto County area have a fair opportunity to elect candidates to the state Senate.

The panel, comprised of U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan, U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden and U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick, previously ruled that when lawmakers redrew their districts in 2022 to account for population shifts, they violated federal civil rights law because the maps diluted Black voting power.

To remedy the violation, the court allowed the Legislature to propose a new House map redrawing House districts in the Chickasaw County area and a new Senate map redrawing districts in the DeSoto County and Hattiesburg areas.

Earlier this year, during the 2025 session, the Legislature attempted to comply with the order and tweaked those districts. However, the plaintiffs still objected to parts of the Legislature’s plan.

The plaintiffs, the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters from around the state, did not object to the Hattiesburg portion of the Senate plan. But they argued the Chickasaw County portion of the House plan and the DeSoto County portion of the Senate plan did not create a realistic opportunity for Black voters in those areas to elect their preferred candidates. 

The judges accepted the Chickasaw County redistricting portion. Still, they objected to the DeSoto County part because the Legislature’s proposed DeSoto County solution “yokes high-turnout white communities in the Hernando area of DeSoto County to several poorer, predominantly Black towns in the Mississippi Delta,” which would make it hard for Black voters to overcome white voting blocs. 

The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice.

The court in its latest ruling set deadlines and a schedule for special elections for Mississippi legislative seats impacted by the new maps.

The deadline to publicize and share the maps with local election officials is May 12. Candidate qualification to run will run from June 2-9 and the slate of candidates will be submitted by June 13. Absentee voting for the Aug. 5 primaries will begin June 21.

Absentee voting for general elections will begin Sept. 20 and general elections will be Nov. 4.

Mississippi moms will no longer be able to use Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi insurance to cover lactation services after they leave the hospital. 

The Lactation Network, a third-party biller that allows Mississippians with certain insurance to see non-physician lactation consultants, will no longer accept Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi patients. The network was previously subsidizing the unpaid portion of the claim for these moms’ visits, but it said that it can no longer afford to do so.  

The Lactation Network did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Mississippi Today by the time the story published.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi is the state’s largest private insurer. Lactation consultants and breastfeeding advocates worry the reduced coverage will worsen Mississippi’s breastfeeding rate – already one of the lowest in the country. The loss in coverage could have profound impacts on the health of mothers and children, experts say. 

“It’s such a complex puzzle of how to improve maternal and infant outcomes, but we know that breastfeeding is an integral, foundational part of that,” said Dr. Christina Glick, a retired neonatologist and lactation consultant in the Jackson area. “ … Lack of reimbursement will interfere with delivery of care, which will reduce breastfeeding rates.”

Breastfeeding has been proven to lower the incidence of diseases, infections and depression in both mother and baby. But it’s not always straightforward, and the list of potential challenges is not short: oversupply, undersupply, allergies and sensitivities, problems with pumping upon return to work, milk blisters and a host of other issues. Ninety-two percent of new mothers report having trouble breastfeeding three days postpartum and needing support.

Shay Bequette, a 25-year-old from Hattiesburg with Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, overcame multiple hurdles to breastfeed her baby, born in January.

“I was struggling,” Bequette said. “I’m the first in my family to breastfeed. And my son was really small … I knew something was wrong intuitively, but I just couldn’t understand because I was producing (milk), but he was constantly crying. I was breastfeeding for an hour and a half on each side and he was still crying like he was in pain.”

Emotions and stakes are high for mothers learning to breastfeed. Moms who struggle to breastfeed often report feeling a sense of failure, while also facing intense pressure to make sure their baby is gaining adequate weight. 

Though she didn’t want to, Bequette considered switching to formula – and says she would have if she wasn’t able to access affordable lactation support. 

“I was losing my marbles, I was crying, I was frustrated,” Bequette said. “My whole family was like, ‘you know, you’re just going to have to switch to formula, obviously it’s not working.’”

Instead, Bequette found Maranda Nybo, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) based in Pass Christian who expanded her practice to include a once-weekly trip to Hattiesburg. Bequette credits all of her current breastfeeding success to Nybo.

“She saved my sanity, and she saved his life,” said Bequette.

Now, Bequette will have to discontinue her care – and Nybo worries for the future of her practice, where she estimates between 80 and 90% of her clients use Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance.

“Sunday, Monday and (Tuesday) I’ve had 12 moms schedule appointments with me … every single one of them have been denied as of today,” Nybo told Mississippi Today. “All of them, except one, have canceled their appointments with me.”

The Lactation Network announced April 30 that working with certain insurance companies is no longer affordable.

“Historically, nearly 1 in 4 out-of-network visits that TLN covers go unpaid by health plans,” read an April 30 email from TLN to providers. “For a long time, we’ve subsidized the cost of care, hoping these plans would come around and reimburse us for this vital care. But that’s not sustainable — we can’t continue absorbing the costs that these plans should be covering.”

A spokesperson for Blue Cross Blue Shield Mississippi told Mississippi Today the company wasn’t aware of the changes and has no formal agreement with TLN. 

“Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Members continue to have access to lactation consultation services when they use a Network Provider,” a Blue Cross spokesperson said.

The only in-network lactation consultants currently covered by Blue Cross are physicians, who do not generally operate outpatient clinics focused solely on breastfeeding care.  

While new mothers usually get some form of support while they’re still in the hospital, most breastfeeding problems don’t develop until well after they leave, explained Erin Mattingly, a Jackson-based IBCLC. 

“I hear all the time that parents think breastfeeding is going fairly well in the hospital and then they get home and things fall apart,” she said. “And a lot of that is because during their time in the hospital, for the vast majority of mothers, their mature milk supply has not even arrived yet. So, it’s after the mature milk comes in that they start to have issues.”

After parents leave the hospital, the next appointment is typically scheduled two weeks later with a pediatrician. The majority of mothers who are struggling to breastfeed will give up if they don’t get help in that interim period, Mattingly said. 

Even if moms continue breastfeeding for those two weeks, they don’t always get comprehensive lactation support during the pediatric visit.

Bequette says when she broached the subject with her obstetrician and her pediatrician, each of them referred her to the other for guidance. That’s not unusual, according to Mattingly. 

“Doctors are fantastic at what they do, but they don’t have the same lactation training that lactation consultants have,” Mattingly said. “And in addition to that, they don’t have the time. If they have 10, 15 minutes with a patient, that’s not enough time to observe a feeding, problem solve what could be going on, and create a strategy going forward.”

An average lactation session with Mattingly or Nybo runs between 60 and 90 minutes and costs between $100 and $125 without insurance. 

That may be an affordable out-of-pocket cost to some, but it will put support out of reach for many moms who are already at a disadvantage for breastfeeding. 

“As a private practice, for me this is devastating,” Nybo said. “But it’s also really devastating for the moms.”

Editor’s note: Robyn Tannehill is the second-term mayor of Oxford and is unopposed for a third term. This piece is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing perspectives of mayors across the state.

Oxford is experiencing unprecedented growth and the challenges we face are unique in Mississippi.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in 2023 Oxford had a population of only 27,000 residents. On any given weekday in Oxford, we have more than 80,000 people in town with a student population of 23,981 (an 11% increase from last year) and workforce and visitors totaling approximately 39,000 people a day coming in from surrounding counties. On an SEC home football game, Oxford swells to more than 250,000.

In the simplest terms, Oxford has to be able to provide water and sewer service all year for 300,000 people to be able flush the toilets — even if we only need it for 10 days a year. With a tax base of 27,000, it is difficult to make those numbers work. 

The past eight years have been a rollercoaster in Oxford – from a pandemic that nobody prepared me for to growth that never stops. However, Oxford is a much stronger community with a stronger economy today than we had eight years ago. We are setting records every month in sales tax collections. New businesses are opening across our community, and almost every corner of Oxford is being developed at an incredible pace.

To make all of this work, my staff and I have to think outside of the box.       

When your greatest challenges are the result of tremendous growth in Mississippi, you say ‘thank you’ and you get busy being proactive in your planning. Planning is exactly what my staff, city employees and I have done.

I was told before I was elected in 2017 that our state and federal partners did not provide financial assistance to Oxford. I saw that as a challenge. I quickly learned that Oxford had not been told “no,” but rather Oxford had never told its story and asked for help. My team and I have secured more than $246 million dollars from our state and federal partners in the last eight years. 

That is $246 million that has been and will continue to be invested in transportation infrastructure, water and sewer infrastructure, facility upgrades and capital improvements across our community that our local taxpayers will not have to pay for. It is the result of an investment of time and relationship building in Jackson and Washington, DC. And, it’s the reward for being a community that is planning ahead and being a good steward of the funds we are granted. It also takes give-and-take between our state and federal elected officials, and we have been so blessed with great partners.

Telling our stories and seeking assistance from our state and federal partners is something every community can do. As the chairman of the Mississippi Municipal League Education Committee, I facilitated a session at our annual meeting where staff members from our United States Senate and Congressional offices attended and shared the best ways for our local elected officials to contact their offices. Our state and federal partners often do not know a community’s needs unless a community takes the time to share challenges, needs and concerns.  

Law enforcement is becoming increasingly complex, and the public’s expectations of police officers are becoming more demanding. The city of Oxford and Oxford Police Department have spent hours evaluating our mission, how we serve the community and how we can improve. 

Policing today extends beyond the realm of enforcing laws. Officers are called upon to respond to non-criminal incidents, including many situations that involve mental health issues or people who have no one else to call for help. In these cases, officers are often ill-equipped to handle the call. Afer all, they are not psychologists, psychiatrists or social workers.

We often expect officers to serve as family therapists, medical first responders, homeless advocates, school counselors and dog catchers. Each call is different, and rarely do the calls follow training scenarios; therefore, police officers and police departments must adapt, sometimes on the fly.

As first responders, the Oxford Police Department typically receives the initial call when a citizen is in need or has become the victim of a crime. Our officers respond to more than 1,000 calls per year where victim services are needed, which we define as calls such as domestic violence, sexual assaults, child abuse, harassment and stalking. Wanting to offer the best care for our citizens facing these situations, the Oxford Police Department began evaluating how we can walk hand in hand with our victims and connect them with the appropriate partners who can best serve their long-term needs. 

To meet these needs, we established a Community Response Team within the Oxford Police Department. The Community Response Team is led by a full-time employee who has completed a 10-week FBI Victims Impact Training Program and has a background in social work. This employee is dedicated to victim services, and is accompanied by volunteer officers and staff members of the Oxford Police Department. Our Community Response Team is responsible for identifying cases that could benefit from these services, training our officers to recognize these cases, and connecting our citizens to these services. 

Knowing we have amazing resources in the Oxford community, we invited all of the different victim service organizations to a roundtable discussion. This meeting allowed our police department to put together a comprehensive list of victim services available in our community, and educated our officers on these organizations. We want to operate like the Emergency Room and connect victims to the best resources available. Our goal is to provide a safe place and services needed for victims to help them move forward.

In 2017, my administration established a Safe Site in our downtown business district with the Oxford Polic Department. Uniformed officers are there Wednesday through Saturday evenings assisting patrons who feel unsafe, need assistance in finding a ride home, or would like to be escorted to their car. This Safe Site has become a great way for Oxford Police Officers to meet and build relationships with our citizens, and especially with our student population. 

Realizing that at bar closing time thousands of students are exiting bars at the same time presenting issues with securing safe rides home, my administration established three transportation hub locations in the downtown area with UBER, Lyft and local taxis participating. The rideshare companies direct people requesting rides to one of three sites where cars can stack and be waiting to offer safe rides home. Oxford Police Department has made 100 less arrests for DUI this year since our installation of the hubs. 

Enormous growth requires innovative solutions. Local government is where the boots meet the ground. 

April, 1985: Ronald Reagan was president. Bill Allain was Mississippi’s governor. John C. Stennis still represented Mississippi in the U.S. Senate. Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg was the reigning National League MVP. Madonna’s “Material Girl” was No. 1 on the hit charts. The Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson were well on their way to the NBA Championship.

Yes, and on April 10, 1985, William Carey College (it would not become a university until 2006) named Bobby Halford as its next baseball coach, beginning in 1986.

Last week, more than 40 years later and at the age of 72, Halford coached the Crusaders to his 1,374th victory, thus passing Ron Polk to become Mississippi’s all-time winningest college baseball coach. He has won two more games since. Polk won 1,373 college baseball games at three different schools, including two stints at Mississippi State.

“That’s a lot of games, a lot of winning,” Polk said of Halford’s achievement. “What’s really amazing is that he did it at one place, one school. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I am happy for Bobby.”

Said Halford of Polk: “He was the master. He set the bar in Mississippi baseball for all the rest of us.”

Younger fans might be surprised to learn there was a time when Mississippi State and William Carey competed against one another in baseball. Polk started that. In fact, at State, Polk played games against Carey, Delta State, Millsaps and Mississippi College. He played Jackson State at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson. 

“I just thought it was good for baseball in Mississippi,” Polk said. “People would ask me why we would go to Hattiesburg and play a couple games at Carey. Well, we had a lot of alumni in south Mississippi who got to see us play. Plus, Carey played good baseball. Most of those were really good, competitive games. There wasn’t a lot of travel involved. But the main thing was, I just thought it was good for baseball in a state where baseball needed to grow.”

Nearly four decades later, Knight remembers those games against Polk’s SEC powerhouse teams, including the day when the great Will Clark hit one far over the light poles at the old Carey ballpark. 

“They were the best coached teams I ever played against,” Halford said. “His guys were so professional, fundamentally so good and so organized. Sometimes, I felt like the pupil coaching against the master.”

And, sometimes, the pupil won. After losing 11 straight to the Bulldogs, Knight’s Crusaders won two of the last four meetings in 1992 and 1993 in Starkville.

“We’ve had some really good baseball teams,” Halford said. “We’ve had some teams that would have been very competitive in D1 at the mid-major level.”

That’s probably true of this spring’s Carey Crusaders, the Southern States Athletic Conference regular season champions, who have won 38 games and lost 12 and will host a four-team bracket beginning Monday in the NAIA National Championship tournament at Milton Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg. Top-seeded Carey will play Indiana-Southeast in the first round. The winner will advance to the NAIA World Series at Lewiston, Idaho

William Carey’s impressive baseball tradition precedes Halford’s tenure. The 1969 Crusaders, coached by the late John O’Keefe and featuring Petal natives Jim Smith and Junior Broome, won the NAIA World Series. In 1971, O’Keefe recruited a speedy centerfielder off Meridian High’s state championship team, and Halford became a four-year starter and standout for O’Keefe and then Johnny Stephenson, the 10-year Major League veteran who succeeded O’Keefe. In 1976, young Halford joined Stephenson’s staff as a graduate assistant. So, counting his playing days, Halford has been at Carey 53 years – and counting.

Said Ron Polk, “It’s hard for me to believe that some Division I school hasn’t come along and hired him during all that time.”

Halford, a devout Baptist working at a Baptist school, has had opportunities at bigger programs but puts it this way: “I just feel like the Good Lord always knew where I needed to be. This school, this community has meant so much to be.”

And when you get right down to it, Hattiesburg is a terrific place to be a college baseball coach at any level. You are surrounded by high schools with remarkable baseball tradition: Oak Grove, Sumrall, Petal, Hattiesburg, Purvis, all the Jones County schools and more. Three of the nation’s best junior college programs – Pearl River, Jones and Gulf Coast – are within an hour’s drive. What’s more, sparkling Milton Wheeler Field, named for the late Carey history professor and baseball fan who left an endowment that still benefits Carey baseball, is surely among the best small college facilities in the nation.

The obvious question for Halford: How much longer to you plan to coach?

“I don’t golf, I don’t fish or hunt; this is what I do,” Halford answered. “I love it. I love doing what I do and I love doing it here. Why would I quit as long as that’s the case?”

Why, indeed?

•••

About Bobby Halford, did you know:

• Early on, Halford also served as Carey’s women’s basketball coach and athletic director. He was Carey’s first women’s basketball coach and coached for 10 seasons, winning 152 games, losing 112 and winning one conference championship.
• Halford’s first Carey baseball team in 1986 played 13 games against NCAA Division I teams. They opened the season against Vanderbilt in Hattiesburg, losing 6-4. The losing pitcher that day was Larry Knight, who would go on to coach Hattiesburg and Sumrall High Schools to a combined nine state championships.
• As a freshman centerfielder in 1972, Halford batted against Southern Miss great Ray Guy, the future Pro Football Hall of Famer. Guy threw a no-hitter. “Best I ever faced,” Halford said. “He was Max Scherzer before Max Scherzer. He was mid-to-upper 90s and that slider was absolutely filthy.”

Three nonprofits received over $850,000 in federal grants for HIV prevention between 2021 and 2024 but administered only 35 HIV tests during that period, State Auditor Shad White alleges in a report released Monday. 

The report identified reimbursements for alcohol, late-night rideshares, purchases from a smoke shop, the rental of a nightclub owned by one group’s executive director and a declined payment for gift cards. All of the payments were approved by the Mississippi Department of Health, the agency responsible for overseeing distribution of the funding to community-based organizations.

“The lapses identified are unacceptable and not reflective of our agency’s standards or mission,” the health department said in a press release Monday. 

The agency could not produce monthly reports for grant activities or documentation of hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses, the report said. Nor could it provide all of the funding agreements or say whether the organizations were aware they were required to report testing data, a spokesperson for the auditor’s office told Mississippi Today. 

The grant funding was meant to help states establish and maintain HIV prevention and surveillance programs, and HIV testing was an element of each organization’s agreement. The grants also paid the nonprofits to educate the public about HIV and hire community health workers. 

Mississippi has the sixth highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the country, and the majority of the state’s prevention efforts are funded with federal dollars. 

“It’s almost like our government hates us,” said Auditor Shad White in a press release. “This kind of spending defies all common sense and is an insult to hardworking taxpayers.”

Lorena Quiroz, the executive director of Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, said the nonprofit submitted all required monthly reports and expense documentation to the health department. 

Love Inside for Everyone and Love Me Unlimited 4 Life, the other two organizations investigated by the state auditor, did not respond to questions from Mississippi Today. 

None of the organizations referenced in the audit report still have grants or contracts with the health department, and the agency has already taken steps to hire new leadership in its STD/HIV division and tighten management of grants, it said in a press release.

The audit probes a period when the health department’s STD/HIV division was severely understaffed after public health priorities shifted to the COVID-19 pandemic and skyrocketing syphilis cases in the state. Around the same time, the health department began receiving tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding for HIV prevention efforts as a part of an initiative launched by President Donald Trump during his first term in office to end the domestic HIV epidemic. 

But the funding increases have resulted in only a slight dent in new HIV cases. New diagnoses dropped 5% in the first three years of reported data since the state began receiving the additional federal dollars, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published by AIDSVu – far from keeping up with the federal government’s ambitious goals of reducing new diagnoses 75% by 2025 and 90% by 2030.

Increasing HIV testing in community settings is one of the plan’s core strategies. 

Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, a Jackson nonprofit that advocates for immigrant and indigenous communities in Mississippi, was contracted to take steps to become a rapid HIV testing site, but did not conduct any tests because the health department did not provide a phlebotomist, Quiroz told Mississippi Today in an email. 

It is unclear why the organization would have required a phlebotomist, as rapid tests are administered with a finger prick or saliva. Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity did not respond to a follow-up question for clarification. 

Quiroz said HIV testing materials worth $11,412 were lost in a storm that destroyed the organization’s building and roof. The storm occurred in June 2023, one month before the nonprofit’s agreement with the health department ended and 10 months after the supplies were purchased. 

Health department records showed that Love Inside for Everyone, a LGBT+ advocacy nonprofit, performed 35 HIV tests between 2021 and 2024. 

Love Unlimited 4 Life, a transgender advocacy organization no longer in operation, recieved grant funding between 2021 and 2023 for the salaries of two community health workers. Health department records showed that no HIV tests were administered by the organization. 

The nonprofits’ grant agreements also included education and testing events. The auditor’s report called several events “questionable,” including a Latinx pride month and HIV awareness event hosted by Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity that exceeded its proposed budget and included alcohol purchases in a request for reimbursement. 

Love Inside for Everyone used grant funding to rent Metro 2.0, a nightclub owned by the organization’s executive director, Temica Morton, a possible conflict of interest. 

Due to the health department’s lack of grant monitoring, it could not say if HIV testing or awareness activities occurred at the events, the auditor’s office said.

Several federal grants Mississippi relies on for HIV prevention efforts have been cut or destabilized since the Trump administration took office earlier this year. Public health experts have argued these cuts will undermine HIV testing activities. 

White said the audit shows that the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV prevention efforts have been unfairly criticized in a video on Fox News Digital. 

“Our audit shows that when you dig into how this money is actually being spent, it’s not actually helping people with HIV/AIDs, it’s not helping to test people for HIV, it’s instead being wasted,” White said.  

The health department reiterated the importance of community partners to advancing public health goals in a statement. 

“It is important to underscore that these findings do not reflect the value of many nonprofit partners we continue to work with across Mississippi. Partnerships remain critical to our public health mission.”

On the heels of the Legislature’s most recent failed attempt to legalize mobile sports betting in Mississippi, a 52-year-old gambling enthusiast named Gary drew a distinction between himself and his fellow bettors: He is a winner, and most of them are losers. 

“To say it honestly, most people are losers when it comes to sports betting because they lose control. But I hope they legalize it because I have control over my gambling,” Gary said. “Certain members of my family call me a degenerate, but I guarantee you I’m not a losing sports bettor.”

Gary, whose full name Mississippi Today agreed not to publish so he could speak candidly about placing illegal sports bets, is among the Mississippi residents who have together placed, according to some analysts, billions of dollars in online sports bets through illicit offshore betting platforms. He is also among the dozens of people who told Mississippi Today, in a written survey and interviews, about what legalization would mean for those who currently bet illegally. 

What emerged is a portrait of the state’s shadow sports betting economy alongside growing concern among experts about the potential for gambling addiction. 

A thriving black market 

The push to legalize mobile sports betting in Mississippi has prompted a debate that has captured the attention of powerful moneyed interests and ordinary citizens alike. It has unfolded in bustling casinos on the Coast, church pews in the Delta and the group text chains of sports-obsessed college students. 

Favorable regulatory and technological shifts have led to rapid growth for the online gambling market in recent years. But the industry continues to be undercut by illegal operators. Online gross gaming revenue in the U.S. topped $90 billion in 2024, $67 billion of which went to unlicensed players, according to research commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, a group that lobbies against illegal gambling.

Mobile sports betting statewide has remained illegal in Mississippi, largely due to fears that legalization could harm the bottom line of the state’s casinos and increase gambling addiction. In 2024, illegal online betting in Mississippi made up about 5% of the national illegal market, which is about $3 billion in illegal bets in Mississippi, proponents said that year. 

From the start of the most recent NFL season to about March, Mississippi had recorded 8.69 million failed attempts to access legal mobile sportsbooks in other states, according to materials presented to House members at a legislative meeting.

Those who engage in illegal online sports gambling and spoke to Mississippi Today described a black market that bridges newfangled technologies with the illicit gambling practices of yesteryear. Some use “arbitrage betting tools” and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to bet across the globe on different sites, pitting casinos against each other. Others keep themselves a degree removed from placing bets directly, using “bookies” to place bets on offshore gambling sites.

However people place illegal sports bets, the persistence of a thriving black market and an estimated $40 million to $80 million a year in tax revenue legal sports betting could bring in has prompted a fierce push for lawmakers to legalize the practice. The sports gambling lobby, as it has done in other states, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Mississippi politicians trying to win the Legislature’s support. 

The Mississippi House in 2023 and 2024 passed legislation legalizing online betting, but it died in the Senate.

Some form of sports betting is legal in 40 states, though only 20 have full online betting with multiple operators, according to Action Network, a sports betting application and news site. Some states have only in-person betting, and some only have a single online operator. Mississippi permits sports betting, but it only allows bets made in person at casinos or bets made with apps on mobile devices while inside casinos. 

That is how Greg, 38, placed his bets in Mississippi.

‘Hyper-targeted victimization’

Greg earned his master’s degree at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. When he was a student, Greg would make the roughly one-hour drive north to Tunica, home of several casinos along the Mississippi River. The area was one of the first to capitalize after Mississippi enacted the Mississippi Gaming Control Act in the early 1990s, which legalized dockside casino gambling. 

For Greg, driving through the rural Delta landscape to a casino was as a guardrail against over-indulgence, one that has been lost with the advent of smartphones and easy access to offshore betting platforms.   

“That’s a conscious effort, that you think the whole way, ‘is that money you need to be gambling or losing, versus (now) when you’re dialing it up on your phone,” he said. 

Greg has since moved to Kansas, a state that fully legalized mobile sports betting. He now bets on football and college basketball two to four times a week with wagers ranging from $55 to $500. He places bets on three different apps, all of which compete with special promotions enticing him to return. These deals are not typically matched by brick-and-mortar casinos.

“I can’t imagine walking into the Horseshoe in Tunica and them saying, bet $100 cash and we’ll give you a free $50.” 

Online betting is conducive to marketing campaigns that are precise in their execution and relentless in their frequency, experts told Mississippi Today. The rise of mobile sports betting has been accompanied by the introduction of new technologies in advertising and marketing, including those buoyed by artificial intelligence.

“You can absorb their betting patterns and use AI to predict when to send that notification reminding them to place a bet,” said Dan Durkin, an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Mississippi. “It’s hyper-targeted victimization, let’s just call it what it is.”

Durkin is chair of the steering committee for the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, an organization that works to promote student well-being in intercollegiate athletics. The coalition has monitored the spread of mobile sports betting as college campuses have become hubs of activity for sports betting and, increasingly, gambling addiction.

According to a 2023 survey conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, sports wagering is pervasive among college students, with 67% of students betting on sports. Nearly 60% of students are likely to bet on sports after seeing an advertisement, the survey found.

And more than 60% engaged in sports gambling are betting on sports using highly addictive “in game/micro bets.” This type of betting allows users to wager on specific in-game moments, such as the next football play or golf swing. That sort of betting would become easier if sports betting is legalized because, under current law, many bettors say they still rely on bookies to place bets on offshore gambling sites for them.

These forms of online gambling, made seamless and accessible through digital apps, can allow addiction to fly under the radar.

Gambling addiction has the highest suicide rate of any addiction disorder, according to the National Institutes of Health. The disorder’s ability to fester in private makes intervention more daunting, Durkin said.

PODCAST: Mississippi citizens often left in the dark on special-interest lobbying of politicians

“If you have a drug problem, you are going to have physical symptoms. If you have an alcohol problem, you are going to have physical symptoms. Gambling disorder can remain hidden for a very long time. Most of the folks that have it stay very functional,” Durkin said.

“Until they’re not.”

‘Gambler is going to find a way to bet’

For some students, the appeal of mobile sports betting stems not from cleverly-constructed digital marketing schemes, but as a source of camaraderie.

Cole, a 19-year-old college student, likes to bet on soccer and March Madness and the NBA Playoffs. He and a group of friends recently placed bets on the Master’s golf tournament

“It’s fun to do with your friends cause you’re all watching the game together, you get that adrenaline rush, and you celebrate together,” he said. “It’s not life-changing money, it’s mostly a social thing.”

Nevertheless, some Mississippi universities have become so alarmed by the rise of online gambling on their campuses, they are taking steps to prepare for increased addiction, even as mobile sports betting remains illegal. In Oxford, the University of Mississippi plans to hire a gambling clinician to help students struggling with addiction, according to The Daily Mississippian.

Influential religious institutions in Mississippi, a Bible Belt state, have long opposed the spread of gambling, a stance many retained as mobile sports betting came before the Legislature.

During the 2025 legislative session, David Tipton, District Superintendent for the Mississippi District United Pentecostal Church, sent a letter to the Mississippi Legislature opposing legalization on the grounds that it would harm young people in particular.

“The introduction of mobile sports betting would represent the most significant expansion of gambling in Mississippi since the legalization of casinos over thirty years ago,” Tipton wrote. “This development would effectively place a casino in the pocket of every Mississippian, creating new challenges, particularly for our youth and young adults who are the most vulnerable to gambling-related harm.” 

READ MORE: House Speaker Jason White, staff treated to Super Bowl by gambling giant pushing for legalized betting

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the country, and the extent to which that calls for an added layer of caution lies at the heart of the debate between proponents and opponents of legalization.

“I’m a libertarian. It’s not my job to tell people how to live their life,” said Gary, the 52-year-old sports gambler. “If you can’t control yourself, I’m sorry, learn some control. Is that brutal? Probably, yes. If you want help, there’s ways to get help. You can self-ban yourself.”

READ MORE: Questions to ask Mississippi lawmakers about transparency, ethics, special-interest money

Gary says every gambler is responsible for managing their own “leak.”

The term often refers to a consistent weakness in a bettor’s strategy, but Gary also uses it to connote a weakness of will.  

“Every gambler has a leak, as we call them. Drugs, women, money, strippers, or the dice table, which was my leak. I could win every sports bet, but I’m going to walk through the casino and go to the dice table and lose money on a dice table,” Gary said.

“The Legislature, in their great, infinite wisdom, where they say they are protecting people, they’re not protecting anybody except casinos. A gambler is going to find a way to bet.”

After nearly two years, Jackson State University President Marcus Thompson has resigned.  

No reason was given.

The news came after the Institutions of Higher Learning Board, Mississippi’s governing body that oversees the state’s public universities, met Wednesday to discuss a “personnel matter” regarding an employee at Jackson State University. 

The board met for two hours in a closed door executive meeting to discuss a matter “regarding the job performance of a person holding a specific position at Jackson State University and related potential litigation,” a spokesperson for IHL said. Board officials told reporters there was nothing to report at the end of the meeting.  IHL later released a statement saying Thompson had resigned.

This is the second time in three weeks the board had met to discuss a personnel matter related to the historically Black university. 

In April, the board met for a nearly two-hour executive meeting. The board released a statement that no “personnel action” has been taken regarding JSU president, Marcus Thompson.

IHL hired Thompson in late 2023 after his predecessor, Thomas Hudson, resigned after serving three years in that position. The board had placed Hudson on administrative leave, but to date has not shared with the public the nature of the personnel issue that motivated its decision. He ultimately resigned.

IHL conducted a national search, interviewing 79 applicants, but Thompson was the epitome of an internal hire, having worked at IHL since 2009. He had never before led a university. 

The day the IHL board appointed Thompson president, Jackson-area attorney Lisa Ross, who is also a Jackson State alumnus, filed a lawsuit accusing the board of gender discrimination for overlooking her client, Debra Mays-Jackson, who had been senior administrator at the university. The lawsuit alleges that when IHL makes internal hires at its three historically Black universities, men tend to benefit. 

It’s not the only way women are harmed by the system of internal hires, the lawsuit alleges Ross said that while Hudson was serving as interim president, he sent “unwanted and unwelcome” sexually explicit photographs to a female employee. 

Thompson was permitted to investigate the photographs, but he allegedly closed the investigation without questioning the female employee. 

IHL has not responded to those allegations in its repeated motions to dismiss the case. 

Thompson’s resignation marks the third time in five years the JSU presidency has been vacated by board action or resignation. Hudson’s predecessor, William Bynum, appointed in 2017, was ousted following his arrest in 2020 on a charge of “procuring the services of prostitute, false statement of identity and possession of marijuana.”

The board has named Denise Jones Gregory, provost and vice president of academic affairs at JSU, as interim president. 

Jackson Reporter Molly Minta contributed to this story.

A 74-year-old Navy veteran who says she was assaulted by a retired Long Beach police officer was hospitalized for a couple of days after the alleged attack because of a serious head injury that resulted in brain bleed.

Vivian Ramsay suffered a subdural hematoma of the brain, or a type of brain bleed, caused by a head injury during the April 24 attack, her attorney David Baria said.

“When I was serving my country in the Navy, I never thought there would be a day that any American, especially a retired policeman, would purposely confront me for expressing my opinion in a silent and peaceful manner,” Ramsay said in an interview Monday.

On the afternoon of the April 24 assault, Ramsay had parked her van at U.S. 90 and Jeff Davis Avenue for a peaceful protest against actions by President Donald Trump since he began his second term in office. Her van had signs denouncing various acts during the Trump administration. “We should not have to protect democracy from the President,” read one sign. In another, Ramsay proclaimed, “Married women lose voting rights. SAVE Act is voter suppression.”

Ramsay said she was surprised by the assault suspect, since identified as retired Long Beach Officer Craig DeRouche, 64, who she says approached her and ripped a protest sign off her van.

“He attempted to further intimidate me by grabbing at me,” she said. “I defended myself until he struck me in the head so hard that I fell to the ground, and I think I lost consciousness. His actions were unprovoked and outrageous. I defended my country in the Navy, and I defended myself on April 24, and I intend to defend myself in court for any charge that I violated the law.”

DeRouche has been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of simple assault against Ramsay in the April 24 incident. He is charged with a second count of misdemeanor assault in the same incident for allegedly assaulting a man who saw the attack and stopped to help the veteran protester, Long Beach Police Chief Billy Seal said.

READ MORE: See the full Sun Herald article here.