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A defendant in the state’s welfare scandal lawsuit sued Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday, claiming the governor is illegally controlling the lawsuit to protect himself and political allies including former Gov. Phil Bryant and Republican-leaning SuperTalk radio. 

The lawsuit calls for an injunction removing Reeves from control of the state’s lawsuit regarding the welfare scandal and for the governor to repay the state millions of dollars for money spent on a private audit and private law firm.

The lawsuit also includes previously unreleased text messages about Reeves from officials with a drug company, Prevacus, championed by former NFL star Brett Favre. Authorities say the company illegally received welfare money. The lawsuit says the messages show Bryant — whom “Defendant Reeves refuses to sue” — persuaded Prevacus to support Reeves to continue the flow of welfare funds to the company.

As Reeves was running for governor and Bryant was preparing to leave office, the head of the drug company, Jake Vanlandingham, texted, “Tate Reeves is our new guy,” to his company’s board members, and that he was going to meet with Bryant and Reeves, “Hoping to keep that non-dilute (funding) running our way!!” Non-dilutive is funding for a company where the company loses no equity.

One board member responded, “A very sweet deal. Who do we send campaign contributions to?” Vanlandingham, who is now a defendant in the state lawsuit, responded Reeves.

Another board member commented, “Let me get this process down correct. We get $2 million from MS Gov Office and we ear mark some of the funds to the next MS Gov. Campaign fund. America at its best.” 

Vanlandingham responded, “Haha. Not the case.” A few days later, he messaged Favre that he was about to meet with Reeves and, “… we get more grant funds first week of July.” He later texted Favre that he “had a good talk with Tate Reeves.”

Reeves is ‘refusing to sue Bryant’ and SuperTalk radio

The lawsuit was filed by Austin Smith, the nephew of convicted former welfare chief John Davis and former manager of two programs targeted in state and federal investigations. The state is suing Smith for nearly $500,000. He’s one of 47 defendants from whom Mississippi is trying to claw back millions in misspent or stolen welfare money. Attorney Jim Waide, who is representing Smith, has previously claimed in court filings that Reeves and former Gov. Phil Bryant should be defendants in the state’s case.

The new lawsuit claims Reeves is refusing to sue Bryant, even though “there is overwhelming evidence of Bryant’s direct involvement” in both funding the drug company and providing $6 million in welfare funds for a volleyball stadium at Bryant’s and Favre’s alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi. The lawsuit notes a separate criminal defendant in the scandal has alleged Bryant, who has not been charged by state or federal authorities, directed payments of over $1 million to Favre.

A Reeves governor’s office spokeswoman issued only a short response when asked about the lawsuit Wednesday: “The State of Mississippi is fighting to claw back every single dollar that was misspent in the scandal that occurred before Governor Reeves assumed this office.”

Reeves’ campaign later issued a separate statement: “It’s no surprise that some of the defendants who are being sued by the Reeves administration are unhappy because he is aggressively pursuing this case and working to claw back every misspent dollar. It’s another signal of how hard he is working to address this scandal from before his time in office.”

The lawsuit also claims Reeves is neglecting to sue Telesouth Communications Inc., which operates the SuperTalk radio network. It says that the network received $600,000 in welfare funds for advertising that was “made without the fair and open competition required by federal regulations.” The lawsuit refers to SuperTalk as “the Republican Party’s chief media advocate,” and not suing SuperTalk while suing “politically powerless defendants” such as Smith is an abuse of process, arbitrary government action and a denial of equal protection of the law. 

Is Reeves in charge of investigating himself?

Reeves made clear last year that he was calling major shots in the state investigation and lawsuit to recoup millions in stolen or misspent welfare money. The Mississippi Department of Human Services, in charge of the welfare spending, reports to the governor’s office. Reeves had dismissed — for political reasons — the private attorney who had been handling the case for the state. The state auditor, who first uncovered the massive fraud and scandal, said this move by Reeves was a mistake.

After the state hired a Jackson-based law firm — a campaign donor to Reeves — to take over the suit, the governor vowed the state “will vigorously pursue this case … wherever it leads,” and will “eagerly cooperate with … criminal investigators” also probing the scandal.  

Last year, Waide asked the state court to examine whether Reeves is controlling the case to protect himself and his supporters. He said Reeves should be a target of the welfare lawsuit, not in charge of it.

READ MORE: Welfare agency set to depose Brett Favre, but both want to conceal transcripts

The new lawsuit filed this week claims Reeves, who oversees the state’s welfare agency, lacked legal authority to spend $2 million in welfare funds to hire a private accounting firm “to duplicate an audit already lawfully performed by the state auditor.” Mississippi Today reporting last year showed the MDHS director Reeves appointed pushed to limit who and what the hired audit could examine, and he tried to keep the state auditor and other law enforcement agencies out of the mix. A deputy state auditor referred to the audit as a “whitewash.” 

READ MORE: ‘A whitewash’: Emails show MDHS pushed to hamstring probe into welfare misspending

The new lawsuit said Reeves also lacked authority to hire a private law firm to handle the state’s lawsuit to recoup money, and that the use of welfare money to pay the law firm violates federal law.

Reeves involvement in the welfare scandal questioned

The lawsuit also claims “Reeves may have been involved in” a transaction with his former personal trainer, Paul Lacoste, another defendant in the state lawsuit. 

Mississippi Today reports have previously uncovered text messages that connect the governor to Lacoste. The texts show former welfare director John Davis, who has pleaded guilty to federal and state criminal charges in the scandal, directed a subordinate to send $1.3 million in welfare funds for “the Lieutenant Governor’s (Reeves’) fitness issue.” 

Mississippi Today has also reported texts that show the governor’s brother, Todd Reeves, coordinated with state Auditor Shad White on damage control for former NFL star Brett Favre. An audit revealed the athlete had received $1.1 million in welfare funds for speeches the auditor said Favre never made. Todd Reeves also had arranged conversations with Gov. Reeves so that Favre could ask for the governor’s help in funding a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi, a key focus of investigation to date into the welfare scandal. 

Reeves last year said he dismissed the attorney who had been handling the case for the state. That lawyer, former U.S. attorney Brad Pigott, was removed from the case after he attempted to subpoena the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation’s communication with former Gov. Phil Bryant and others. Authorities say $5 million in welfare money was improperly diverted to build the volleyball stadium at USM. 

Reeves’ staff had already forced Pigott to remove the university’s athletic foundation — whose board is made up of many of Reeves’ major campaign donors — from the civil suit.  

Reeves said he ousted Pigott, who had worked on the case for about a year, because he wasn’t up to the task of such a large lawsuit and that Pigott had a “political agenda” and craved the media spotlight. Pigott said he was fired on Reeves’ orders because he sought communications between the USM foundation, Bryant, Bryant’s wife, Deborah, and Favre involving the stadium.

Should Reeves recuse himself?

John Pelissero is an author and expert on government ethics. He is a longtime political science professor and former provost at Loyola University Chicago and a senior scholar in government at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. 

Pelissero said he believes Reeves “should recuse himself from being directly involved in this investigation” and making decisions such as which lawyers to hire or fire.  

Pelissero said that even if there was no wrongdoing by Reeves, the basic tenets of government ethics would call for him to bow out of the mix because of questions about him and his brother, campaign contributions Reeves accepted from defendants and other issues. 

“I would think the governor would recuse himself from being directly involved in this based on a couple of things … One, the governor is alleged to have steered some of the funds, these welfare funds, to other projects,” Pelissero said. “Two, he’s got a family member who has some involvement with one of the individuals being sued, that being the former quarterback. 

“… There are two broad ethical categories here,” Pelissero said. “One is the question of whether there is a direct violation of law or policy … But the other ethical issue that arises is when there simply appears to be the possibility something unethical is going on. That perception can be just as corrosive to trust in government as a legal or policy violation.”

READ MORE: Gov. Bryant promised to release ‘all’ his welfare scandal-related texts. But some key ones are missing.

Attorney General hasn’t filed state charges in scandal

Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office is ostensibly co-counsel in the case, and has signed off on hiring attorneys and other matters. But the state’s chief legal officer has publicly shown little interest in and had scant comment about the case. Fitch, notably, has not filed any state charges in what state Auditor Shad White called the “largest public embezzlement case in state history.” Since White first uncovered misspending four years ago, state criminal prosecution has been left up to the local Hinds County district attorney’s office, with Reeves and others vowing the state is cooperating with federal investigators. 

Fitch did not respond to questions about Reeves’ making it clear he is in charge of the investigation and lawsuit, or whether she believes she or someone else should be in charge and Reeves not involved given questions about his possible conflicts. The new lawsuit contends that only Fitch has the authority to handle the suit and that her office should fund any private attorneys, who should be hired on a contingency fee basis. 

In the past, Mississippi attorneys general have jealously guarded their authority to bring and control lawsuits on behalf of the state or agencies, and clashed with governors. Former Gov. Kirk Fordice in the 1990s attempted to prevent Attorney General Mike Moore from suing tobacco companies on behalf of the state. Moore prevailed.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves says ousted welfare scandal lawyer had ‘political agenda,’ wanted media spotlight

State legislative leaders have likewise shown little interest in getting to the bottom of the scandal, preventing such from happening again or the state’s efforts to recoup stolen or misspent millions.  

When asked whether, given questions about Reeves’ own involvement or his brother’s, they believe Reeves should still be in charge of the state’s investigation and lawsuit, Fitch, House Speaker Philip Gunn and likely next House Speaker Rep. Jason White declined comment. 

A source close to the House leadership said, “the House leadership has not been privy to, nor kept in the loop on, the investigation and is not aware of anyone in the Legislature being informed or updated on the investigation and litigation.” 

A spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said: “Our understanding is that the Attorney General’s Office represents the state (in the litigation).”

New lawsuit claims Reeves should repay state for airplane use

Eight people have been criminally charged in the welfare scandal. Seven have pleaded guilty, but remain free with sentencing postponed for agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Federal authorities continue investigating, but have been silent about the investigation or anyone else who may be under scrutiny. Mississippi has long been without a permanent U.S. attorney to oversee the case, until the U.S. Senate broke an impasse on Sept. 29 and confirmed Todd Gee, a U.S. Department of Justice veteran overseeing public corruption cases.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Smith in Hinds County Circuit Court on Wednesday claims Reeves is suing some people who will already be required to pay the money back because of federal law, and suing others who are “judgement proof” — with little or no means to repay large sums of money.

The new lawsuit also contains what appears to be an odd aside: It says Reeves should be liable for his use of the state airplane “for political purposes.” Mississippi Today recently published reports that Reeves has spent at least $31,000 using the state plan for apparent political trips.

“If low-level, local government employees are criminally prosecuted for embezzlement when they allegedly use government property for non-governmental purposes, then a state official should, at least, be held civilly liable for his or her use of a state airplane for non governmental purposes,” the lawsuit reads. 

Smith in the lawsuit is specifically asking for: a trial by jury, a judgment for the benefit of MDHS for money paid for the second state audit and for private attorneys, an injunction removing Reeves from control of the lawsuit, a judgement for Reeves to repay the state for use of the airplane, and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe contributed to this report.

Update 10/11/23: This story has been updated from its original version to include a statement from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office and another from his campaign.

The post Welfare scandal defendant sues Gov. Tate Reeves, claims he’s protecting himself and political allies appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Employees of a company that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign accused in a TV ad of illegally donating to his Democratic opponent, Brandon Presley, is threatening to sue the governor’s campaign if it doesn’t take the ad off the air.

Jackson-based attorney William Manuel wrote a letter on behalf of solar energy company Silicon Ranch to Reeves campaign manager Elliott Husbands, saying the ad contains audio “falsely accusing” employees of the energy company of breaking the law. 

“In consideration of the foregoing, should you fail to immediately cease broadcasting, publishing, and promoting the subject of the advertisement, Silicon Ranch will pursue all available legal remedies to cease the publication of this defamatory advertisement, including seeking injunctive relief and damages for the continued improper publishing and broadcasting of the advertisement,” Manuel wrote.

READ MORE: The full cease-and-desist letter the Reeves campaign received

The ad in question aired on Oct. 6 and accused Presley, north Mississippi’s current public service commissioner, of illegally accepting campaign contributions from employees of the Tennessee-based company that does business in Mississippi. Presley has denied his campaign ran afoul of state campaign finance law with the donations. 

The basis for Reeves’ ad revolves around a statute that forbids public service commissioners, who regulate public utilities, from taking campaign donations from representatives of public utilities the commission is responsible for regulating. 

But Manuel contends in the letter that Silicon Ranch, a producer of of solar energy, is not considered a public utility under Mississippi law, which would, in theory, clear the way for Presley to accept those donations legally. 

Clifton Carroll, a Reeves spokesman, told Mississippi Today in a statement that Manuel’s letter shows Reeves and the Silicon Ranch donors are “afraid of being caught using campaign donations to corruptly influence PSC actions.”

“…When applying the law and the facts to the matter at hand, it is unlawful for Brandon Presley to accept campaign contributions from any agent of the Corporation,” Carroll said. “And that’s exactly what Brandon Presley did.” 

The cease and desist letter cites a 2017 order that was approved unanimously by the three-member Public Service Commission. The order was based on the findings of the Public Service Commission staff, which is independent of the commission itself. The director of the PSC staff was appointed by then-Gov. Phil Bryant.

The order states: “Petitioner Silicon Ranch is not a public utility and the project is not utility property under the laws of the state of Mississippi. It is further ordered that petitioner Silicon Ranch is not subject to the Commission’s jurisdiction except for the requirement of obtaining a certificate of public convenience and necessity.”

The order gave Silicon Ranch the authority to generate and sell electricity generated at a site in Lauderdale County to Mississippi Power, a public utility. Silicon Ranch was not providing electricity to the general public.

The Reeves campaign ads accusing Presley and Silicon Ranch of violating state law have run extensively across the state for several days. The cease-and-desist letter also was sent to Mississippi and Memphis television stations. But as of Wednesday morning, the ad was still airing.

If the solar company does follow through with legal action against the governor’s campaign, it could mean they will have to spend money defending the ad in court and prove the contents were not defamatory.

Reeves and Presley will compete against one another in the state’s general election on Nov. 7.

The post Solar energy company threatens to sue Tate Reeves campaign for airing ‘defamatory’ TV ad appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s interim CEO Gary Marchand discusses what would happen if the hospital is not granted a critical access designation and the hospital’s growth strategy.

READ MORE: County supervisors reverse course, give $3 million to Greenwood Leflore Hospital

Mississippi health news you can’t get anywhere else.

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The post The Pulse: Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s interim CEO Gary Marchand appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Ole Miss Rebels are 5-1 at the midway point in the season, climbing as high as No. 13 in the national polls. With Rick on vacation, Tyler is joined by WJTV sports anchor Blake Levine to discuss the Rebels’ rise, the Saints’ latest win and the Atlanta Braves’ post-season prospects.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Buying or selling the Rebels? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Democrat Brandon Presley outraised incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves at least 4-to-1 over the last three months, campaign finance reports filed on Tuesday showed.

And the two gubernatorial candidates in this year’s campaign have gone toe-to-toe with spending, each at nearly $7 million for their races to date, the reports also showed.

Presley’s large haul is thanks primarily to the national Democratic Governor’s Association donating nearly $3 million to his campaign. The DGA had previously contributed $750,000 to Presley’s campaign. The donations signify the national Democratic Party’s interest in the race, with the DGA in a press release saying Reeves is “deeply unpopular and vulnerable.”

The Democratic candidate’s campaign reported raising $4.4 million from July 30 to September 30. But Reeves’ new report covered the period from July 1 through September. During that period, Presley raised over $5.6 million — leading Reeves’ fundraising by 5-to-1.

“With these strong fundraising numbers, our campaign has the momentum to send Tate Reeves packing so we can expand Medicaid on day one, tackle corruption head on, and cut taxes for Mississippi families,” Presley campaign manager Ron Owens said in a statement.

Reeves, on the other hand, raised over $1.6 million over the last three months, with his largest contribution of $100,000 coming from Centene, a St. Louis-based managed care company that does business with the state’s Medicaid agency.

READ MORE: Mississippi reaches $55.5M settlement with state’s largest Medicaid contractor Centene over pharmacy benefits

Reeves in a social media post on Tuesday did not address his own campaign numbers, but criticized Presley for accepting money from the DGA, an organization he called a “liberal Washington D.C. PAC.”

“Ask yourself: why are they dropping historic money on Mississippi to flip it blue?” Reeves wrote. “It’s because they know Brandon Presley will govern like a liberal democrat.”

Going into the homestretch before the Nov. 7 election, Reeves has more than $6 million in campaign cash — nearly $2 million of it in a “legacy” account that he could cash in and use personally, grandfathered under old, lax state laws. Presley has only $1.8 million cash on hand in his latest report.

Another noteworthy campaign report filed Tuesday was incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s. Although his general race challenger, little-known Hattiesburg businessman D. Ryan Grover, is not expected to be competitive, Hosemann’s report showed he had to spend millions this summer fending off a primary challenge from Republican Chris McDaniel.

Hosemann spent $5.5 million for the primary, a record for a Mississippi lieutenant governor’s race. McDaniel’s campaign was helped by millions of dollars of out-of-state dark money spending, some of which is allegedly still being scrutinized by authorities.

Candidates are required file one last campaign finance report on Oct. 31 before the general election on Nov. 7.

The post Democrat Brandon Presley outraises GOP Gov. Tate Reeves in home stretch of governor’s race appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: The Rose appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi tax collections have taken a downward trend during the first quarter of the new fiscal year as the state has collected $18.9 million or 1.02% less than what was collected during the same time last year.

The slowdown comes during the first year of the phase-in of the largest tax cut in state history.

READ MORE: Mississippi lawmakers pass the largest tax cut in state history

According to the revenue report recently released by the staff of the Mississippi Legislative Budget Committee, the state collected $1.83 billion between July 1 and Sept. 30. The slowdown in collections comes on the heels of unprecedented growth in recent years.

But the slowdown, unless it gets much worse, should not impact the state budget for the current fiscal year. The reason it will not have an impact is despite unprecedented growth in recent years, legislative leaders and Gov. Tate Reeves have adopted revenue estimates not reflective of that growth.

The official revenue estimate represents the amount of money available for the Legislature to appropriate for the dozens of state agencies, for local school districts, for higher education and other state services.

If revenue collections fall short of the estimate, state leaders either have to dip into reserve funds or make cuts.

But during the first three months of the current budget year, collections are $85.8 million or 4.9% above the estimate, despite revenue being below the amount collected last year.

Mississippi, like most states, experienced unprecedented revenue growth following the COVID-19 pandemic as millions of dollars in federal relief funds poured into the state. Revenue grew a record 15.9% for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, followed by 8.1% growth the next year and 4.4% growth last year.

Throughout those years, revenue estimates were much lower than actual growth, meaning that the money was not used for appropriations that year. Instead, the revenue exceeding the estimate was used in the following year by the Legislature primarily for capital projects, such as building and tourism projects throughout the state.

Through the first quarter, sales tax collections, the largest single source of revenue, were up $28.4 million or 4.2% over the previous year. But income tax collections, the second largest source of revenue, were down $65 million or 10.3%. The slowdown in income tax collections is occurring during the first year of a four-year phase-in of a $525 million cut in the state income tax.

The use tax collections, a 7% tax or items purchased out-of-state such as via internet sales, were up $11.5 million or 12.6%.

A key in the collections during the first three months is that revenue from sources other than tax sources, such as interest earnings, was up $21.6 million or 45.6%.

The slowdown in collections comes in the midst of campaigns for governor and legislative seats. And the slowdown comes as legislative leaders and Gov. Reeves, who is seeking re-election this November against Democrat Brandon Presley, work on developing a budget proposal for the Legislature to consider during the 2024 session starting in January.

The post State revenue slows as phase-in of income tax cuts begins appeared first on Mississippi Today.

William Brown and Millard Bingham, standing with their arms crossed, are waiting in a hallway of classrooms for the executive session to end, hoping it’ll bring some information about who is going to be the next president of Jackson State University. 

But Brown and Bingham know it probably won’t. At least not today.  

The two professors have waited many times before. In their two decades of teaching at Jackson State, they’ve seen four permanent presidents come and go from the historically Black university. And each time, they’ve watched as the search process used by the university’s governing board, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, has become more and more secretive — to the point that now, transparency “just seems like an unattainable dream,” Bingham said. 

“It feels like the fix is in, to be honest with you,” he added.

“Well, I can tell you that God is not pleased,” Brown stated. “It’s sort of like we’re in the dark ages.” 

One thing is certain: Acting president Elayne Hayes-Anthony is not a finalist for the position, she confirmed to Mississippi Today. 

About an hour earlier, at 8:30 a.m., with two sharp bursts of a gavel, Steven Cunningham, the only Jackson State alumnus on the IHL board and the trustee chairing the search, brought the special-called meeting to order in a small conference room packed with people at the University of Mississippi’s School of Pharmacy, a few miles away from the board’s usual meeting place. 

Sitting at the table with Cunningham were two other trustees, the commissioner and William Kibler, a consultant for Academic Search, the executive headhunting firm that IHL had contracted, who had a white binder closed in front of him. 

“Thank you trustees for taking the time to participate in this very important meeting,” Cunningham said, reading a printed statement. 

Then he made a motion for executive session, which passed. 

“If you’re not an IHL trustee, you’re welcome to wait in the lobby or in one of the classrooms in the adjacent hallway,” Cunningham read. 

With that, about 15 members of the public were shepherded from the room as seven security guards watched. Uncomfortable with the guards, some people left. 

Behind them, Glynn Babb, an emergency and safety officer for IHL, and a UMMC security guard shut the conference room door and, for good measure, automatically locked the double-doors that lead to the hallway, the windows taped-up with paper. 

“So they don’t get pictures of them coming in and out,” Babb told the guard before requesting members of the public to move away from the doors.  

“It’s the secrecy,” he tells a reporter. “Not really protection.” 

“Glynn’s not authorized,” interjected Kim Gallaspy, a spokesperson for IHL.

A few feet away, Dawn McLin, a Jackson State professor and the faculty senate president, stood off to the side. She had come hoping to ask Cunningham and the IHL commissioner, Al Rankins, a few questions. Namely, she wanted to know why they had not responded to her repeated emails asking for basic information about the presidential search, such as a rough timeline, which she did not see until Mississippi Today published it. 

Even though she was a member of IHL’s search advisory committee, IHL had not provided McLin with any notable information about the search. 

But they had asked her and other advisory committee members not to talk to the media. 

“They said we should all be speaking in one voice, but it’s concerning when that one voice isn’t giving all of us information about the search process,” she said.  

If there were one thing she could tell IHL, McLin said, it would be in line with the title of a book about corporate management called “Absolute Honesty” that, if given the opportunity to comment, she had planned to read. 

She had also hoped to express her support for Hayes-Anthony.

“This feels like we have a pilot that you all put on this seat to fly this plane and now halfway to our destination you’ve told this pilot to eject,” she said. “What measures are you putting in place for those on the plane to keep us from crashing? You’re getting some stability but it’s like everyone has to hold their breath. You know you can’t hold your breath waiting forever.” 

Without more transparency, McLin said she feels like IHL is setting up the next president of Jackson State for failure. She doesn’t want a repeat of William Bynum Jr., whom IHL appointed president even though he was not initially a finalist, or Thomas Hudson, who resigned for reasons that still have not been shared with the public. Bynum, who was hired from Mississippi Valley State University, resigned in 2020 after he was arrested in a prostitution sting.

“Their past appointments have shown you their results,” she said. “The proof is in the pudding.”

Other attendees were just as disappointed. Monica Wilson, a Jackson State graduate, thought she’d pop over to the meeting — but she was quickly disabused of that notion. 

“My surprise was it was such a small room,” she said. “I’m not even in the room. I’m at the door looking in. That told me this is not going to be for the public.” 

By the time Nike Irving and her husband, Shelton Pittman, had arrived at the meeting around 8:45 a.m., the trustees were already in executive session. They had rushed over after dropping their son off at school. But when they arrived, security guards directed them to a classroom down the hall. Irving, who has a master’s degree from Jackson State, expected one of the TVs to turn on with a broadcast of the meeting. 

But it never did. 

“I just want to know what they plan to do for the university,” Irving said. 

On a whiteboard, Pittman, a military veteran who graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi, wrote out his thoughts on IHL’s search process, which he referred to as “foolishness.” 

“At this particular moment,” Pittman said, “I don’t think IHL nor the kids and young adults can withstand—” 

“Another person quitting on them,” Irving concluded. 

When they left, the doors to the School of Pharmacy building locked behind them.

Five-and-half hours after closing the doors, trustees emerged. Cunningham said they took no action.

Cunningham couldn’t say if every finalist has a doctoral degree — which the search profile stated was preferred but not required — and wouldn’t say how many finalist there were. He added that he didn’t know how the community was coming up with rumors.

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” he said.

The post JSU waits for news from IHL as trustees interview finalists behind locked doors appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s deposition in the ongoing welfare fraud civil litigation has been postponed until December.

Days after local and national news outlets reported that Mississippi Department of Human Services had scheduled the time and place for Favre to give sworn testimony in the case, both parties agreed to push the date from Oct. 26 to Dec. 11.

The initial date would have meant that the face-to-face Favre inquiry, a national media event, would have taken place just days before a heated gubernatorial race, for which the welfare scandal has emerged as a centerpiece.

But both Favre and Mississippi Department of Human Services, the state agency suing him and 46 others, requested that the testimony transcript be held confidential, at least initially.

The latest notice, filed Friday, does not name a location for the planned deposition.

READ MORE: Welfare agency set to depose Brett Favre, but both want to conceal transcripts

The post Brett Favre testimony in welfare case postponed until December appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hundreds of capital city residents attended a community meeting Monday night to discuss the proposed consolidation plan for Jackson Public Schools, with nearly every speaker asking district officials to save Wingfield High School.

Last week, JPS district leadership introduced a plan to close 16 school buildings because of declining enrollment in the district. The district has lost around 9,500 students between the 2015-16 and 2023-24 school years, about a third of the district population. The district has also previously consolidated schools.

District leaders hosted the first of four community meetings Monday night at Forest Hill High School, where about 20 people spoke to share concerns about the school consolidation plan. At various points during the meeting, attendees applauded and reacted enthusiastically to statements made about saving the schools on the proposed closure list.

Samaya Johnson, a current student at Wingfield, spoke about the positive experience she’s had at the school and asked the district to not take it away.

“Y’all are talking about money and everything else but you’re not going off of how your students feel,” Johnson said. “You’re not just tearing down a school, you’re breaking up a family.” 

Errick Greene, the superintendent of Jackson Public Schools, shared additional financial data Monday night, which showed the district had lost $107.7 million over that same nine-year period because of enrollment decline and payments to charter schools. The new plan would be expected to save around $18 million annually.

Greene told Mississippi Today that schools were identified for closure or consolidation based on enrollment declines being steeper in some areas, estimated costs to address facility issues, and related impacts on feeder patterns. He emphasized the academic performance of schools was not a factor in the process.

The following buildings are on the proposed closure list: 

• Clausell Elementary School
• Dawson Elementary School
• G. N. Smith Elementary School
• Green Elementary School
• Key Elementary School
• Lake Elementary School
• Lester Elementary School
• Oak Forest Elementary School
• Obama IB Elementary
• Raines Elementary School
• Shirley Elementary School
• Sykes Elementary School
• Wells APAC Elementary
• Chastain Middle School
• Whitten Middle School
• Wingfield High School

After an overview of the proposed plan from Greene, students, parents, staff and community members asked questions and offered comments for over an hour, with several people emphasizing the social toll these changes will have on the community. 

About 30 Wingfield students were in attendance Monday night, with several more offering testimonials of the support they have received from teachers, the positive experience of the athletic programs, and their concern they may lose class rankings and opportunities for scholarships if merged with another school. 

The impact of merging rival high schools was a repeated concern, with some students saying attendance would become an issue if students were forced to attend rival Forest Hill or Jim Hill. 

“The merger of these scholars … will definitely increase violence and it will affect their education,” said Valencia White, an alumnus of Wingfield.

She listed recent incidents between students of the schools, suggesting that JPS instead merge Whitten Middle School into the Wingfield building, similar to the approach taken at Lanier High School. 

Greene responded to the concern about rivalries. “I resent and resist that language that says our scholars cannot get along,” he said.

After being met with grumbles from the audience, he continued. 

“We can agree to disagree on this point, but I do want to strongly urge you to think about what we’re saying about our children, children who live in our city, and the implications of this assertion that it cannot work.”

He continued that it will take work and changes to help students make the shift, but that he does believe it is possible. 

Multiple people also asked about plans from the district to stem the declining enrollment and prevent future closures. Greene said the city and state are also declining in population, making it likely JPS will continue to lose students, but it is unclear at what rate. He said he wants to be a part of making Jackson successful and highlighted the improved performance of the school district in recent years, which he hopes will attract more people to the area.

READ MORE: Jackson schools, on verge of state takeover just 5 years ago, earns ‘C’ rating

“At some point, the investments that are starting to be made and needing to be made in the city, as well as the investments we’re making, as well as our increased performance, will catch fire,” he said. 

Other people pointed out the majority of the schools on the consolidation list are located in south Jackson, saying it will further harm conditions in the neighborhood if more schools are closed. 

After the meeting adjourned, JPS leadership said they were pleased by the turnout and engagement from students.

“I was very, very excited to see the amount of support that came out for their schools, especially the students and the teachers and the coaches,” said Cynthia Thompson, JPS board member for Ward 6. “To hear that kind of support makes us really think about what we have to do, but what I am hoping we were able to convey is that something has to be done.”

Greene said he appreciated specific questions about data, which the district will be publishing answers to in a FAQ document. He said that as the district hosts the three remaining community meetings, leadership will be looking for trends in the feedback to make adjustments. 

“There’s some (room for change), but they’re tradeoffs,” he said. “At the end of the day, I can’t name a building that doesn’t require some level of investment.” 

Greene asked community members to continue looking at the data the district shared as they continue to gather feedback at the additional community meetings, which are Oct. 30 at Callaway High School, Nov. 6 at Provine High School, and Nov. 14 at Murrah High School.

“This is nothing that I wanted to bring. I really hate that we are in a position where this is even a conversation because it drums up so much emotion and angst, but this is a real issue that we simply can’t ignore,” he said. “Most of the folks here … have had experiences in our buildings that are not so great in terms of HVAC failing or water pressure or restrooms that don’t work. We sometimes have short memories about those things.”

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