OurTupelo

OMAHA, Neb. — Colin Hynek’s three-run homer broke open a close game in the eighth inning and sent North Carolina to a 6-2 win over Mississippi in the College World Series on Friday night.

The Tar Heels prevailed in what began as a pitcher’s duel between Jason DeCaro and the Rebels’ Taylor Rabe. They had just three hits through seven innings and led 3-2 when Hynek ripped Walker Hooks’ first-pitch changeup out to left with two outs.

“You have to do special things to win and get this far already, but you have to do even more special things to win out here,” Carolina coach Scott Forbes said. “It’s all about pitching and defending and being fundamentally sound and manufacturing a run. The ballpark is going to play bigger out here, so you have to have good outings. That sets the tone.”

Carolina (51-12-1), playing in the CWS for the second time in three years, will face West Virginia on Sunday with control of Bracket 1 at stake. Mississippi (41-22), in Omaha for the first time since winning the national title in 2022, will try to stave off elimination against Troy on Sunday.

North Carolina scored twice in the seventh inning to take a 3-2 lead, with Gavin Gallaher’s line drive up the middle driving in the go-ahead run.

Rebels leadoff man Dom Decker, hitless in two CWS games for Murray State last year, doubled twice off DeCaro. Decker’s first double put Mississippi up 1-0 in the third, and he scored the go-ahead run in the seventh on Judd Utermark’s single off Caden Glauber.

DeCaro, who pitched a two-hitter against Southern California in the second game of their super regional last Saturday, struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings and appeared to get stronger as he went along until Decker’s hit in the seventh. Glauber (11-0) worked the last 2 1/3 innings.

Owen Hull, the hero of the Tar Heels’ super regional-clinching walk-off win last Sunday, homered off Rabe in the sixth to tie it at 1.

“The guy’s pitch count was pretty high, and that was our goal,” Hull said. “We knew we would get to him eventually, and we did just that.”

Rabe, who retired the next two batters before Hudson Calhoun relieved, had turned in strong starts in the regionals and super regionals but wasn’t as sharp against the Tar Heels. He allowed one hit over the first five innings, but he walked a season-high four.

The Rebels had broken through against DeCaro in the third after left fielder Tyler Howe lost Brayden Randle’s fly in the sun. The ball landed just inside the line, Randle ended up on second and he came home on Decker’s double.

“We had the lead and we couldn’t finish,” Rebels coach Mike Bianco said. “But I thought Taylor pitched his guts off today and, of course, Judd with the big hit. Just came up a little short. And it happens.

“North Carolina did more to win it than we did.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in unmarked vehicles have been conducting traffic stops and detaining people in Oxford, according to videos and accounts from local residents. 

Videos of the vehicles circulated on social media as community members warned one another of the federal agents’ presence early Tuesday and Wednesday. The rapid response network Vecindarios901 posted footage of the vehicles on Facebook in real time and continued to post warnings of further activity in the areas around Memphis.

An Oxford resident who witnessed and shot video of detentions near Mississippi Highway 6 described the behavior of ICE agents, who operated in civilian clothes under bulletproof vests, as “hostile.”

The resident requested to remain anonymous because he feared speaking publicly could harm his chances of finding a job. He described seeing the unmarked SUVs with Mississippi plates “swarm out of nowhere” and cut in front of drivers who slowed at roundabouts to yield to oncoming traffic, then immediately pull drivers and passengers out of the cars. He said they appeared to be targeting Latino drivers. 

The video shows several agents in plain clothes and bulletproof vests pulling two people from a truck and escorting them to one of the unmarked SUVs. One agent is seen throwing what appears to be the person’s cellphone back into the vehicle before closing the door and leaving, raising concerns about how detainees will be able to communicate with their families.

It is unclear where detainees have been taken. The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to questions about the immigration enforcement or whether detainees were being held at the Lafayette County Detention Center. 

The nearest ICE detention center is 250 miles to the south in Adams County. ICE’s locator tool allows users to search for detainees nationwide, but users have reported that the tool is not always up to date.

Oxford Police Department spokesperson Breck Jones said federal immigration enforcement officers “don’t really communicate with us.”  A representative from Sheldon’s Towing said the business had towed five driverless vehicles from Highway 7 after the arrests.

Residents have not reported further apparent immigration enforcement activity on Friday. Efforts to reach ICE for comment have been unsuccessful.

The Jackson Planning and Development Department on Friday held a public forum about data centers amid a city debate over a proposed project.

“What we’re trying to do today is just have a conversation so that we can educate ourselves about what makes sense for us, said Jackson Mayor John Horhn at the start of the meeting. “Do we want this in our community? And if so, under what conditions?”

The meeting, billed as a public education forum, was announced just two days before it was held. It was unclear why there was such short notice. About 30 people attended. They were allowed to submit written questions, some of which were addressed during the meeting.

During the nearly hour-and-a-half long meeting, panelists covered topics including what artificial intelligence and data centers are, how many jobs data centers might bring, and what communities can do to get the most benefit from the projects.

“I always encourage the city, these companies have deep pockets. When they’re coming to the table, they know that you have something of value and you should demand the same in return,” said panel speaker Nashlie Sephus, founder of the Bean Path, a tech education nonprofit in Jackson.  

Other panelists included James Lott, Ward 6 Alderman in Clinton; and Natasha Parker with the Georgia Institute of Technology Real Estate and Development Office.

The meeting was facilitated by Butler Snow attorneys Tray Hairston and Charity Karanja. Hairston said that Butler Snow serves as the city’s outside counsel on public finance and other matters, and the company was asked to moderate the panel. 

Hairston said the city would summarize the questions and publish answers online. 

Hands across the room went up when Angela Brown, the director of the city’s Planning and Development Department, asked if anybody had learned something at the forum.

Some attendees said that they found the panel helpful. Others said they wished there was time to ask follow-up questions and some were skeptical.

“The meeting was informative, in terms of giving a profile of all the different forms of data centers,” said Sabir Abdul-Haqq, director of public engagement at Mississippi for a Just World. But he added that he would have liked to hear from the perspective of someone more opposed to data centers.

 “I think this was a missed opportunity for our community,” Abdul-Haqq said.

Data centers have rapidly been proposed across Mississippi and the country. At the beginning of 2025, Mississippi had announced two projects. It now has seven in the works. The projects have faced growing pushback from residents. 

The developer of the proposed Jackson project, New Jersey-based Saxum Investment Company, is asking the city to rezone 230 acres of land from mostly residential and commercial to heavy industrial use in northwest Jackson. Most of the land has never been developed and is still covered by trees and brush. However, there is a small, 2-acre farm in the middle of the land.

In May, Ward 4 Council Member Brian Grizzell proposed a six-month ban on any data-center construction or permitting to give the council time to understand the issue and put needed regulations in place. The proposal cited concerns over a data centers’ potential environmental pollution, noise pollution and impact on the city’s infrastructure.

The council debated the moratorium but ultimately voted to table the proposal to clarify the legal picture. The city attorney said that the moratorium could constitute a zoning change and would require a public hearing with a 15-day public notice.

A few days after the council vote, the developer postponed its zoning hearing before the city Planning Board. At the meeting, amid a crowd opposed to the project, the developer’s lawyer said that the company wanted time to talk with the city.

Fierce debate over the project has continued. 

The Planning Board is currently scheduled to take up the rezoning application again during its June 24 meeting. 

Editor’s note: Tray Hairston, an attorney with Butler Snow, serves on the Board of Directors of Deep South Today, the parent company of Mississippi Today.

The president of the union representing Jackson’s bus drivers said he thinks membership is “98 percent” likely to vote for a strike amid stalled contract negotiations with the company that runs JTRAN.

If members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1208 vote later on Friday to strike, Charles Tornes, the president, said the union will let the company know when the workers plan to stop working. 

The union has been negotiating with MV Transportation, the company contracted to run JTRAN since early 2024, about pay raises and other issues. Tornes said the last day of negotiations was Wednesday. 

“We’re at an impasse,” he told Mississippi Today on Friday. 

In an open letter to the city released Thursday, MV Transportation claimed the union had rejected a company proposal that would have raised wages for some employees. 

“Rather than recognize the realities of a difficult situation and seek to find common ground, local union leaders flatly refused every proposal presented, including proposals to get the help of a federal mediator in order to resolve our differences,” the letter said. 

Tornes said the company’s description of its proposal in the letter was inaccurate. 

“Well, absolutely all that is false,” he said. 

The potential strike comes as MV Transportation is proposing an overhaul to the city’s bus system that would shorten the work day by two hours, eliminate two routes, cease Saturday services and expand on-demand “microtransit” services, which involve on-demand, shared rides in smaller vehicles. 

The city’s Planning and Development Department brought the redesign before the Jackson City Council on June 2, but the council did not vote and referred the agenda item to a planning committee. 

The proposed changes alarmed a vocal contingent of bus riders in Jackson who rely on JTRAN to get around the city. 

“Nothing happens in my world without JTRAN,” Scott Crawford, a Jackson resident and disability rights advocate, said. 

It has also drawn union opposition. The union said it had asked the company for details of the redesign, but the company never provided it. 

“Of course, the public is against it and we’re against it,” Tornes said. “We think all the routes we have are essential.” 

MV Transportation and the union have been negotiating a contract since a previous collective-bargaining agreement expired in December 2025. 

The union and MV Transportation have sparred in the past, with members voting to strike for two weeks in 2024. 

Federal mediators ultimately assisted in resolving the dispute. 

Hinds County plans to hold a July 14 special election to determine whether current District 2 Supervisor Anthony “Tony” Smith will finish his four-year term or be replaced by his predecessor, David Archie.

However, Smith says he is planning to appeal the judge’s ruling that ordered the special election – a race that’s a do-over of a disputed 2023 Democratic primary.

Smith’s appeal could put the special election on hold in the district that stretches through western Hinds County, including Edwards and Bolton, parts of Clinton and Raymond and into parts of Jackson.

Archie was seeking a second term in 2023, and he challenged the outcome of the primary in which Smith was declared the winner. Archie claimed that irregularities marred the election. Smith took office in January 2024.

Special Judge Barry Ford spent weeks hearing Archie’s appeal. On June 3, he ordered the special election, stating that while there was no indication of fraud, errors occurred in the safekeeping of voter materials and the chain of custody had also been compromised. 

The winner of the special election will serve the rest of the term that ends on Dec. 31, 2027.

Smith confirmed Friday in an interview with Mississippi Today that he and his team will be moving forward with an appeal. They have until July 9 to do so.

Smith initially declined to appeal the ruling, saying on June 3 that he would beat Archie by an even greater margin. He told Mississippi Today that he decided to appeal after community members reached out to voice their opinions.  

“They’re calling me directly. They’re reaching out on Facebook. I spent the whole day on the telephone. I just got off the telephone about the same thing a few minutes ago,” Smith said. “I can’t even be as effective as a supervisor, because I’m constantly on the phone with people calling about and complaining about David Archie.”

Smith also said he and his team had new evidence about the matter and were involving the FBI, saying that “something funny is going on and it’s not on our behalf.”

Archie, who is notorious for his explosive outbursts and various run-ins with the law, told Mississippi Today that his previous antics were over.

“We’re going to do better, and we have asked the people to forgive us in that sense,” Archie said. “We are apologizing for the antics, we ask them for a second chance, so we can continue, what we have got started. And that is getting the job done.”

Whenever the special election is held, absentee ballots will be available in advance and polls will be open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. in 26 precincts.

Mississippi voters do not register by party, and any registered District 2 resident will be allowed to vote in the election, Hinds County District 2 Election Commissioner Bobbie Graves said.

Graves said the commission is doing everything in its power to avoid mishaps in the special election.

“See, sometimes, when we have a big election, things are kind of going in haste,” Graves said. “We’re taking our time with this election. There’s only 26 precincts. So we’re going to handle each one individually with kid gloves.” 

Graves said everything in the election will be done in accordance with the law, and that the court had not swayed their election process.

In his ruling, Ford criticized Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace’s failure to maintain possession of voter materials. Ford said the missing materials during the ballot box review were “a serious problem.”

When asked how the county will make changes to avoid similar issues in the future, Wallace said he was still gathering information. 

Ford also questioned potential conflicts of interest in the certification of Archie’s election, saying that Democratic committee member Sandra McCall and previous Hinds County Democratic Chair Jacqueline Amos should not have taken part in the process.

“It appeared to the court that it was certified, but it was not certified by an impartial body based upon the testimony that I heard coming from this stand,” Ford said. “And because it was not certified and because that statute says it should be certified by an impartial body, that certification is void.”

McCall served as campaign manager for Hinds County Tax Collector Eddie Fair during Archie’s 2023 race. Despite her leave of absence from the Democratic committee during Fair’s campaign, Ford argued McCall returned to certify Archie’s election during the 12-day period when Fair’s election could have been contested, which would still make McCall his campaign manager at the time. 

Ford said a text message Amos sent to Timothy Lidell after an altercation with Archie in August of 2023 –  “But I’m f—ing David Archie on site !!!” – automatically created a conflict of interest. Amos testified that the message was taken out of context and there were no ulterior motives behind it. 

Precincts in Hinds County District 2

Precinct 8: Fire Station 5, 1810 North State St., Jackson.

Precinct 11: Jackson Medical Mall, 300 West Woodrow Wilson, Suite 101, Jackson.

Precinct 13: Walton Elementary School, 3200 Bailey Avenue, Jackson.

Precinct 14: Fondren Presbyterian Church, 3220 Old Canton Road, Jackson.

Precinct 16: Fondren Church, 3227 Old Canton Road, Jackson.

Precinct 23: Medgar Evers Municipal Library, 4215 Medgar Evers Blvd., Jackson.

Precinct 25: John Hopkins Elementary, 170 John Hopkins Road, Jackson.

Precinct 27: Grove Park Community Center, 4126 Parkway Ave., Jackson.

Precinct 28: Golden Key Community Center, 3450 Albermarle Road, Jackson.

Precinct 29: Brinkley Middle School, 3535 Albermarle Road, Jackson.

Precinct 30: Faith Presbyterian Church, 3255 Bailey Ave., Jackson.

Precinct 37: Boyd Elementary School, 4531 Broadmeadow Drive, Jackson.

Precinct 39: Fire Station 7, 4625 North State St., Jackson.

Precinct 40: Collins Northside Chapel, 461 West Northside Drive, Jackson.

Precinct 41: Green Elementary School, 610 Forest Ave., Jackson.

Precinct 84: China Grove Baptist Church, 3317 Forest Ave. Extension, Jackson.

Precinct 85: Fire Station 26, 2223 Flag Chapel Road, Jackson.

Precinct 86: Triumph Church of God in Christ, 5302 Queen Mary Lane, Jackson.

BO: Bolton Volunteer Fire Station, 117 West Madison St., Bolton.

BR: Brownsville Volunteer Fire Station, 8057 Bolton Brownsville Rd., Bolton.

C1: Olde Towne Depot, 281 East Leake St., Clinton.

ED: Edwards Community Center, 108 Mount Moriah Road, Edwards.

PN: Clinton Visitors Center, 1300 Pinehaven Drive, Clinton.

R1: Belmont Baptist Church, 14011 MS Highway 18, Raymond.

ST: St. Thomas Baptist Church, 4699 St. Thomas Road, Bolton.

TN: St. Paul Masonic Lodge #343 (United Methodist Church), 6054 Jimmy Williams Road, Clinton.

Ole Miss heads back to Omaha for the College Baseball World Series, the Knicks take a two-game lead in the NBA Finals and Rick and Tyler reflect on their epic trip out west.

Stream all episodes here.

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.  

As a Black woman who is born, raised and generationally from Mississippi, I carry the state’s history, culture and politics on my back.

Both of my parents are older than the Civil Rights Act of 1965, and I am only three generations removed from the first free-born African Americans in my family. So when I became aware of a harmful federal reconciliation package that was made into law last summer, I was immediately alarmed how this law makes our beloved hospitality state hostile to the most vulnerable Mississippians.

On July 4^th, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” sometimes called the “Working Families Tax Cuts Act,” became law. This law will cause Mississippians to suffer because fewer vulnerable people will be able to access important human needs programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides food benefits.

This law is highly immoral because it takes food and healthcare from the poor to give even more money to the rich. Major permanent tax cuts were given to billionaires; meanwhile, very small, temporary tax breaks on tips and overtime pay were given as breadcrumbs to working families. 

These small, short-lived tax cuts are canceled out for low-income families due to the huge cuts in human needs programs. The law will cause Mississippi hospitals to lose up to $1 billion over the next decade and threatens to close or reduce services of over 400 hospitals nationwide that primarily serve Black communities. It could leave 160,000 Mississippians without care and has killed Mississippi’s Medicaid expansion proposals. 

Our state’s budget is in a chokehold due to the One Big Beautiful Bill, further causing harm to Mississippians. To offset the harmful Medicaid cuts, the teacher pay raise passed by the Legislature earlier this year was slashed by thousands of dollars. Even state Rep. Karl Oliver, a  Winona Republican and key House appropriator, has admitted that the state budget is very tight. This could be a looking glass into the future.

Legislation that addresses human needs is put on the backburner while our state is on the brink of a recession. That means the state’s leaders will have to accept defeat and leave the most vulnerable Mississippians with a mountain of burdens or finally make the rich and big corporations pay their fair share by raising their taxes to make our lives affordable. 

I take the social and economic needs of humanity seriously, since for longer than my lifetime Mississippi has been in a state of sustained poverty. As a granddaughter of the Mississippi Delta, the blood running through my veins comes from a subregion that is especially poverty stricken. Yet, simple human needs programs meant to heal the sick and feed the hungry have continuously been villainized.

In previous years the poor were labeled as “militant agitators” and today the poor are characterized as continuing “waste, fraud and abuse.” In the past and present, laws have been created to keep the disadvantaged stuck in a cycle of poverty. In 2026, that looks like paying for tax giveaways to the wealthy by cutting the lifeline of the poor.

In reverence to Civil Rights activist, organizer and my fellow Mississippian Fannie Lou Hamer, I’m still sick, I’m still tired, but my God I am far from done. I refuse to be satisfied living in a world where any Mississippian is pushed into a crisis because of man-made traps done to benefit the wealthy few. We need laws and legislators that are rooted in the principles of care instead of greed.

Partisanship aside, I urge Mississippi to choose a land of the living for I know we can change.

Katherine Jones, a Brandon native, currently lives in Washington, D.C., where she works for the national nonprofit Public Citizen as a tax organizer, doing accountability work for the federal One Big Beautiful Bill. She continues to have a deep love for her hometown of Brandon.

Betting-wise, the Ole Miss baseball Rebels are underdogs in their opening College World Series game Friday night against North Carolina. That means nothing. Zero. Zilch.

There really is no such thing as an underdog in baseball. There are no upsets, either. Baseball is different that way. Anybody can beat anybody. There are so many variables.

But for entertainment purposes only, here’s the way the oddsmakers rank the eight CWS teams: 1) a tie, Georgia and North Carolina, 3) Texas, 4) West Virginia, 5) Ole Miss, 6) Alabama, 7) Oklahoma, and 8) Troy.

Now then, for entertainment purposes again, here’s the way I would rank them: 1) a tie, Georgia and Texas, 3) North Carolina, 4) Ole Miss, 5) Alabama, 6) West Virginia, 7) Oklahoma, and 8) Troy.

That written, don’t count Troy out. Oddsmakers didn’t give Troy much chance in the Gainesville Regional, especially after the Trojans lost their first game to Miami. But then the Trojans reeled off four straight victories, including sweeping No. 8 national seed Florida in the final two games 16-11 and 10-2. You score 26 runs in two games against Florida, you can beat anybody. Troy can. One through nine in the batting order, Troy hitters are a line drive waiting to happen.

Ole Miss fans should know better than most how much betting odds mean in baseball. Ole Miss was the fifth betting choice entering the 2022 College World Series, just as the Rebels are now. And you know what happened: Ole Miss, the last team to get in the 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament, won the championship. Texas, which was the betting favorite, lost its first two games. Stanford, the second betting favorite, also went two and out. Ole Miss defeated Oklahoma, the seventh betting favorite, in the championship series.

State fans know, too. Texas and Vanderbilt were the co-favorites to win the 2021 College World Series, but Mississippi State, the No. 7 betting favorite, won it all.

In college baseball, it’s about playing your best when it matters most. It’s also about the matchups you face along the way. The best Ole Miss baseball team I ever covered – better than the national championship team – was the 2005 edition that featured Stephen Head, Brian Pettway, Chris Coghlan, Zach Cozart, and I could go on and on. That team had six MLB first day draftees, won 48 games and a Regional – and then got matched with Texas in a Super Regional. It was crazy: The best two teams in the country that season had to play one another in a Super Regional at Oxford. In a three-day display of terrific college baseball, the Rebels played error-less, inspired baseball. Texas just played better. And then Texas waltzed through the College World Series to win the championship.

Head, a pitching and hitting standout for those Rebels and now a Los Angeles Dodgers talent scout, remembers it all too well.

“We knew how good we were,” Head now says. “Texas was really good, but so were we. It was kind of sickening to watch that World Series on TV, knowing we were good enough to win it all and didn’t even get there.”

Mississippi State players surely will feel the same way watching this World Series. The Bulldogs, who lost two close games in the Super Regional at Georgia, surely had the talent, hitting, pitching and depth to win it all. They just ran into a Georgia buzzsaw. It happens.

Southern Miss, the No. 9 national seed and winner of 44 games this season, won’t have any fun watching Troy in the CWS, having beaten the Trojans in four of six meetings this season. The Eagles also own victories over CWS participants Alabama and Ole Miss, but they couldn’t get it done when it mattered most.

Ole Miss did. So what are the Rebels’ realistic chances at Omaha? They could win it all. They also could go two and out. It’s baseball, you know.

So much depends on the game against North Carolina. Only three teams this century have lost their first CWS game and then gone on to win it all. It can be done, as three teams have shown, but it is exceedingly difficult. Few teams possess the pitching depth to lose the opener and then navigate the losers’ bracket.

And that means so much depends on the strong right arm of lanky Taylor Rabe, the announced Rebel starter for Friday night’s game. Rabe, a draft-eligible sophomore, has emerged as the Rebels’ most dependable starting pitcher late in the season with six consecutive quality starts in his last six outings.

Most onlookers probably expected Mike Bianco to to go with 23-year-old left-hander Hunter Elliott, who has been there and done this before. He was the pitching hero of the 2022 national championship run. But North Carolina handles left-handed pitching well and Rabe has been absolutely terrific down the stretch. The Rebels badly need for him to continue that excellence Friday night.

A federal judge in Mississippi dismissed attorneys from a case this week after discovering they irresponsibly used generative artificial intelligence to research and write legal documents.

As first reported by Mississippi Free Press, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi Sharion Aycock said in a ruling Monday that counsel from both sides “blindly” used AI in their legal filings, resulting in hallucinations, or fabricated quotes or sources, which is a hallmark of AI usage.

The four attorneys are involved in a lawsuit stemming from a contractual pay dispute between Tom Withers III and the city of Aberdeen. Withers was represented by Kathleen Wilson and Shauncey Hunter Ridgeway. Mark McClinton and Kathryn Young Williams represented the city. 

Aycock informed the parties about her concerns in December. She ordered the attorneys to defend their AI usage at a January hearing, and both legal teams filed documents correcting the hallucinated sources. 

Though the attorneys “expressed embarrassment and apologized” for their actions at the hearing, according to Aycock’s ruling, she announced Monday that she was removing the four attorneys from the case and barring two of them from appearing before Northern District of Mississippi courts for two years.

According to the June 8 ruling, Williams admitted to using an AI tool to conduct research, and Wilson admitted to using an AI tool to draft her legal filing. Neither verified the AI work before filing their briefs. McClinton and Ridgeway, based in Mississippi, admitted to failing to review the error-laden legal filings before submitting them, despite signing their names to the documents.

Wilson, who is based in Baton Rouge, testified in January that she didn’t know AI could hallucinate sources. But Aycock called that explanation “insufficient and incredulous” in her ruling, given increasing legal AI usage incidents throughout the country.

Judges in other states have applied sanctions and fines or disqualified lawyers caught negligently using artificial intelligence. Last year, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi Henry T. Wingate admitted that his staff used AI to draft a flawed court order.

“I’m trying to shake back from all of this and regroup,” Wilson said Thursday, when reached by Mississippi Today. 

She declined to comment on case specifics, but said the sanctions were fair.

“Unfortunately for the attorneys, I think the judge gets it exactly right,” said Ben Cooper, a professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law who studies AI and is a member of the Mississippi Bar Association’s Ethics Committee. 

“You’d have to have your head in the sand to not know what’s going on in terms of AI hallucinating and lawyers getting in trouble for submitting briefs that contain hallucinated citations,” he added. “At this point, no lawyer can credibly say they aren’t aware of the risks, and it’s kind of hard to believe that this keeps happening.”

Williams, who is based in Houston, Texas, testified her firm started using an in-house AI legal research software a few months prior to the court’s December order. She first told the court that the software was designed for Texas law, but later backtracked and said Mississippi was within the software’s scope.

Additionally, Aycock wrote that Williams disregarded her firm’s AI policy, which requires attorneys verify AI work. 

“The Court finds that she was aware that the software was not designed to produce Mississippi case law and that she acted in bad faith in using it anyway,” Aycock wrote.

Aycock also noted both Wilson and Williams are based in other states and practicing in Mississippi as pro hac vice attorneys, which means they’re out-of-state attorneys who have been given temporary permission to practice in Mississippi.

The temporary permission is a “privilege, not a right,” Aycock wrote. She revoked their admission in this case. She also barred them from appearing in any case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi for two years and ordered them to pay fines. 

Additionally, Aycock ordered Wilson to attend a legal education course on artificial intelligence and submit proof of attendance.

“The problem isn’t that they used AI,” Cooper said. “It’s that they used AI irresponsibly. No matter what AI they use, they have to be checking what it’s giving them. It’s not hard, and it doesn’t take a lot of time for a lawyer to check the citations and make sure they exist.”

Aycock disqualified Ridgeway and McClinton from the case and ordered them to pay fines. Aycock noted that while they both “acted negligently and carelessly,” they did not act in bad faith. 

“In an era of rampant unverified AI usage within the legal field, this case presents a prime example of the risk associated with serving as a rubberstamp when acting as local counsel,” Aycock wrote.

Cooper said the determination was “tough, but fair.” While the judge recognized the Mississippi-based lawyers had less culpability, they were still responsible, he said. 

“It’s a wake-up call for lawyers when they act as local counsel that they are also going to have to do a final check themselves,” he said.

RIdgeway, Williams and McClinton could not be reached for comment.

Copies of Aycock’s order are also being sent to the Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas bar associations. Cooper said those bar associations will have to decide if they want to prosecute the case, and the attorneys will have an opportunity to defend themselves. 

“It’s surprising and disappointing that this keeps happening, and unfortunately, it seems to be happening more and more,” he said. 

Mississippi’s chamber of commerce is partnering with the state’s workforce development office to strengthen the state’s talent pool.

The Mississippi Business Alliance Foundation’s partnership with Accelerate Mississippi will support a new council that establishes state higher education goals and strategies. There will be a focus on certification and credentialing programs in addition to more traditional degrees.

“By leveraging data, employer input, and strategic partnerships, we can strengthen pathways that help more Mississippians develop the skills and competencies employers need,” Courtney Taylor, executive director of Accelerate Mississippi, said in a statement. 

The Mississippi Postsecondary Attainment Council replaces the Education Achievement Council, a move that Scott Waller, president of the foundation, says will help the state better meet its workforce needs.

“It creates a different approach in creating the strategy of how attainment aligns with our job needs in Mississippi.” Waller said. 

Key questions are whether the state is focusing on training and certifications that meet the needs of businesses and how to help students identify pathways that they want to pursue and are motivated to be successful in. 

“When we do this properly, it will make a difference. It will help us get to a point that we can start to see us have real outcomes. That means opportunities for Mississippians and every population across the state to be successful,” Waller said.

Amazon in Mississippi: growth at what cost?

In 2024, the state Legislature limited oversight of utility spending to support Amazon’s data centers. Entergy Mississippi, which supplies power to Amazon and is the state’s largest provider of electricity, has maintained that its agreements with Amazon will lead to long-term savings for ratepayers. 

New reporting from Mississippi Today’s environmental reporter, Alex Rozier, breaks down concerns from outside experts over the legislation and how it is almost impossible to independently verify the company’s claims.

Entergy has said that rates were expected to increase anyway but the data center investment will keep the hikes lower than previously forecasted. However, a recent report, commissioned by environmental groups, claims that residential rates have already increased by $10.60 a month because of data centers.

Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, recently wrote that the company’s customers will see $2 billion worth of savings over the next 20 years. 

Last year, Fisackerly told Mississippi Today that before the Amazon deal, Entergy Mississippi wasn’t growing, costs were increasing and infrastructure needed to be replaced. He said that the revenue from data centers will enable the company to build new, more efficient power plants and make other improvements to the grid that will benefit all rate payers.

Also, on the Mississippi Amazon data center front:

• Amazon and the city of Clinton celebrated the start of construction of one of the company’s newest data centers.
• More details and a status update for all of the company’s projects in the state.

In other news: 

• In Lowndes County, a construction summer camp is giving girls an opportunity to gain new skills and explore different careers through hands-on learning.
• Residents of DeSoto County are suing Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company over the “persistent and disturbing noise” coming from its power plant. This comes just days before its parent company is expected to go public with a target valuation of $1.7 trillion.
• According to reporting from the Mississippi Business Journal, five projects have recently finished filming in the state. And a Mississippi-based film maker has ideas on opportunities for the state to grow the industry.
• Nissan is exploring partnerships with other automotive companies to build their vehicles in its Canton plant. Last year, the company delayed plans to construct electric vehicles at the site, citing slowing demand in the U.S.
• NPL Construction is investing $1.9 million to build a new fabrication plant in Greenwood. The Arizona-based energy infrastructure construction company said the 70,000 square foot facility will create 40 jobs.