OurTupelo

As photojournalists, we travel across the state, capturing moments that resonate beyond pixels and frames. From the Delta to the Gulf Coast, we bear witness to the environmental issues shaping the lives of Mississippians firsthand. These images document the impact of climate change, pollution, and natural disasters on local communities. Traveling to the heart of these stories is integral to Mississippi Today’s commitment to honest and impactful reporting, ensuring that the voices and experiences of those affected are vividly portrayed.

By Eric J. Shelton

By Vickie King

The post Photo Gallery: Environmental coverage across Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Legislature has been ordered to create more Black-majority House and Senate Districts by a federal three-judge panel.

“The court rightly held that the Mississippi Legislature used the redistricting process to dilute the power of Black voters. Those legislative districts denied Black Mississippians an equal voice in state government,” said Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi.

 The judges ruled in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Mississippi Conference of the NAACP and Black voters from across the state that the districts that were drawn in 2022 by the state Legislature diluted Black voting strength. Legislative redistricting occurs every 10 yeas after the federal census.

In the ruling, released late Tuesday, the federal panel said it would give the Legislature the opportunity to redraw the districts, but added, “It is the desire of this court to have new legislators elected before the 2025 legislative session convenes, but the parties can make whatever arguments about timing they conclude are valid.”

The state, which opposed the lawsuit, can argue for more time to redraw the districts. Or the state could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office, said the agency is currently reviewing the court’s opinion. She did not say whether Fitch wanted to appeal the order.

The federal panel did not accept all of the arguments of the NAACP and other plaintiffs. But the panel ruled that Black-majority Senate districts should be drawn at least in the DeSoto County area in north Mississippi and in the Hattiesburg area in south Mississippi. In addition, a new Black majority House district should be drawn in the Chickasaw County area in northeast Mississippi.

The state has a Black population of about 38%. Currently there are 42-Black majority districts in the 122-member House and 15 Black majority districts in the 52-seat Senate.

Multiple groups represented the NAACP and other plaintiffs in the case.

The three judges serving on the panel were all appointed by Republican President George W. Bush.

Charles Taylor, executive director of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, said he was pleased with the decision “although we wish the court had gone further.”

The NAACP and others argued the totality of the 2022 redistricting by the Legislature diluted Black voting strength. Groups argued by “packing” a large percentage of Black voters in a concentrated number of districts it deprived them from having an impact in other districts. The three judge panel did not accept the total argument of the plaintiffs.

But still, the people who brought the lawsuit maintained the decision of the federal panel was a victory for Black Mississippians.

“This ruling brings us much closer to the goal of ensuring that Mississippi has a fair number of majority-Black legislative districts to go along with the majority-white ones,” said Rob McDuff, an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice.

READ MORE: Lawsuit claiming Mississippi Supreme Court districts are discriminatory is set for August

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Mississippi, the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Mississippi Center for Justice and civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes all participated in the case.

“This ruling affirms that the voices of Black Mississippians matter and should be reflected in the state Legislature,” said Jennifer Nwachukwu, of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Voting Rights Project.

The next step will be for either the state to appeal or present arguments to the federal panel on why the new districts should not be drawn and filled via election before the 2025 legislative session.

If the federal panel rejects potential arguments from the state about why the new districts should not be drawn before 2025, state lawmakers will likely have to convene for a special legislative session.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has the sole power to call lawmakers into a special session, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the presiding officer of the Senate, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Taylor Spillman, a spokesperson for House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, said the speaker’s office was reviewing the opinion, but had not further comment on the ruling.

The post Federal judges order Mississippi Legislature to create more Black districts, may prompt 2024 elections appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Rick ducks into an abandoned Boston Logan Airport terminal to tell us about the National Federation of High Schools Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Fulton’s own “Dot” Ford Burrow, and the boys recount a fun weekend on the coast at the annual Mississippi Press Association, where Rick picked up some hardware of his own. Plus, Tyler rants about stoplights on Hwy. 49 and newly minted Texas Longhorns baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Now boarding for Boston and the Dot Burrow Bandwagon. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Despite presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women going into effect Monday, it’s still not clear how low-income pregnant women can get the timely prenatal care the law is supposed to make possible.

House Bill 539, which was signed into law by the governor on March 12, allows eligible, low-income pregnant women to receive immediate care covered by Medicaid while they wait for their application to be officially approved by the Division of Medicaid. Applications are supposed to take no longer than 45 days to process, though recent data shows nearly a third of applications in Mississippi took longer than that, bringing pregnant women well into their first trimester – when about 80% of miscarriages occur. 

The policy, which Mississippi lawmakers hope will help mitigate the state’s poor maternal and infant health metrics – some of the worst in the country – exists in 29 other states and Washington D.C. 

Mississippi Today reached out to the Division of Medicaid in late May to request an interview over the next month with an agency official to discuss what the process of presumptive eligibility and timely care for pregnant women would look like once the law went into effect July 1. The reporter continued each week to reach out to spokesperson Matt Westerfield, who on June 10 said the agency was “exploring some options” for the interview.

On June 28, Westerfield said implementation is “complex” and that the agency would only communicate through “written exchanges.”  

The agency on Tuesday issued a general statement about its commitment to implementing the policy – with no details about any outreach, public education or provider training to date.

“The Mississippi Division of Medicaid will continue to do the necessary due diligence to ensure providers interested in making presumptive eligibility determinations are qualified and trained,” Westerfield said in an email.

Not all providers who accept Medicaid will be automatically able to participate in presumptive eligibility, according to a brief explainer on Medicaid’s website posted at the end of June. 

Doctors and other qualifying providers must complete an application and undergo eligibility determination training, in addition to submitting a memorandum of understanding with the agency once approved. Then, a pregnant woman whose income falls below 194% of the federal poverty level – about $29,000 annually for an individual – can bring proof of income to the doctor and, if approved, receive prenatal care the same day. 

Westerfield said in an emailed statement in May that the agency would communicate to the public which locations are participating in the program, but said that they were “still working on what that outreach will look like.”

As of Tuesday, it is still unclear which, if any, providers are participating and whether Medicaid has sent any communication about the steps they must take if they want to participate.

“Medicaid clearly knows that the intent of the Legislature is for pregnant women to get in to see their doctor as early as possible, and they are working to stand up this program that is now the law,” said House Medicaid Chair and the bill’s author Missy McGee, a Republican from Hattiesburg. “As the author of this legislation, I will be closely monitoring the rollout of this new program and am optimistic that it will be done in a timely manner.”  

The Legislature made the bill broad enough that the Division of Medicaid would have the freedom to implement it in whatever way it saw fit, McGee explained.

“ … The Legislature’s job is to create the policy. Now that it is law, it is Medicaid’s job to implement it.”

Mississippi Today reached out to University of Mississippi Medical Center – Mississippi’s largest Medicaid provider – to determine what, if any, communication it has received about how presumptive eligibility will work.

“We are still checking into the process for this, but don’t have any comment at this time,” a hospital spokesperson told Mississippi Today on Tuesday.

In March, the number of Mississippi Medicaid applications that took more than 45 days to be processed was 29%, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, due to “unwinding.” State Medicaid divisions across the country began reviewing their rolls last year for the first time in three years after the end of COVID-19 restrictions that prevented them from unenrolling beneficiaries, and Mississippi at times had a significant application backlog.

Without presumptive eligibility, pregnant women are forced to pay out of pocket or go without care in this interim period. Early prenatal care has been proven to mitigate a number of pregnancy-related problems including hypertension – the leading cause of maternal mortality in Mississippi and across the country – and preterm births, in which Mississippi leads the nation. 

The state received more than $2 million of federal funds and an additional $602,000 in state money to implement the program, according to the 2024 Medicaid appropriation bill. 

Advocates of the policy have said the program pays for itself when compared to how much it costs the state to care for one infant’s prolonged stay in a neonatal intensive care unit, which can easily top $1 million, according to a study published in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. 

How to know if you qualify

Anyone who is pregnant and makes at or below 194% of the federal poverty level qualifies for Medicaid and for presumptive eligibility. These individuals can start receiving care a soon as they find out they’re pregnant by showing proof of monthly income to a doctor at a qualifying location. 

While it’s not known which providers, if any, have chosen to participate so far, Mississippi Today will continue to monitor the Division of Medicaid’s implementation of the policy and report on qualifying providers as they sign up.

The post A new law to improve pregnancy outcomes took effect Monday. But how someone can receive timely prenatal care is still unclear. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The brother of Dau Mabil, the Jackson man whose body was recovered from the Pearl River three weeks after he disappeared, is asking a judge to enforce an order to allow an independent autopsy to proceed. 

The state’s autopsy, released late last month, determined death by drowning by unknown cause. 

In a Monday court filing, Bul Mabil of Texas argues that his brother’s widow, Karissa Bowley, is preventing the second autopsy by vetoing his choice of a qualified forensic pathologist, Dr. Matthias Okoye of Nebraska. 

“This Court did not authorize Karissa Bowley to select or veto the pathologist to conduct the independent autopsy of Dau Garang Mabil,” Lisa Ross, Bul Mabil’s attorney, wrote in the order. 

The court set a requirement for the pathologist to be at least as qualified as pathologists who conduct autopsies for the State of Mississippi along with having certain degrees or certifications. Ross argues that Okoye meets the requirements set in the court order. 

Okoye is director of the Nebraska Institute of Forensic Sciences, a nonprofit organization that operates the forensic pathologist division of the coroner’s office for several counties in the state. 

He has investigated and certified over 15,000 deaths as a deputy and chief medical examiner and a coroner’s pathologist and has performed over 12,000 autopsies, according to his curriculum vitae included in court records. 

Spencer Bowley wrote in a Sunday email that his sister disagrees with Bul Mabil’s choice of Okoye, who Bowley noted was previously sued for providing false information in an autopsy report. 

“Dau deserves nothing less than to have all answerable questions answered regarding his death,” he wrote. “We will continue seeking to agree on a pathologist to pursue truth, rather than any individual person or organization’s agenda.”

More than a decade ago, a daycare provider sued Okoye, who authored the report used to charge her with felony child abuse for the death of a 6-week-old. The charges were later dropped. 

Okoye ruled the infant died from homicide from blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation. Pathologists hired by the plaintiff found the infant’s death was due to sudden infant death syndrome. 

In 2014, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in the woman’s malicious prosecution lawsuit by reversing the lower court’s order to grant Okoye and his organization summary judgment, finding “differing reasonable inferences (that) could be drawn as to whether Okoye knowingly provided false or misleading information in his autopsy report.” 

Another forensic pathologist offered by Bul Mabil is Dr. Frank Peretti of Arkansas, but Ross wrote in the filing that he declined to conduct the autopsy because of a potential conflict of interest. 

Bowley has offered the names of four forensic pathologists, according to a Friday email from her attorney John David Sanford included in court records. 

Okoye has also conducted an independent autopsy for at least one other Mississippi resident: Lee Demond Smith, who died in the Harrison County Jail, according to an affidavit contained in the court records. His ruling disagreed with the county pathologist’s ruling. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, a court hearing had not been scheduled to consider the motion. 

The delay comes a week and a half after the Bowleys released the state’s autopsy results. 

That day, Ross began asking the Department of Public Safety’s attorney if Mabil’s body was ready to be released. She received confirmation about a week later. 

As part of requirements for the autopsy, the court set a 30-day window for the autopsy to be conducted. 

Now that Capitol Police have finished its investigation, Ross is asking the court to act so the autopsy can be done within 30 days of June 27, which is when she received confirmation. 

In May, Bowley agreed to allow a second autopsy, and Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas wrote that it would be paid for at Bul Mabil’s “direction and expense.” 

The post Dau Mabil’s brother goes back to court to get independent autopsy started appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal judge has issued an injunction halting a Mississippi law requiring online platforms to verify the ages of users.

Mississippi lawmakers, parroting measures passed by legislatures in several other states, passed House Bill 1126 this year, saying it would protect children from explicit online content. The law was set to take effect Monday, but the tech industry group NetChoice sued the state in June, claiming it would unconstitutionally limit adults’ free speech and privacy.

U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden granted NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction halting the law while the case moves forward. He said the plaintiff’s claim shows “a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of its claim” of the unconstitutionality of the law.

NetChoice is fighting similar laws in other states and has secured several similar injunctions.

“An unconstitutional law will protect no one,”Chris Marchese, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said in a statement. “We’re pleased the court sided with the First Amendment and stopped Mississippi’s law from censoring online speech, limiting access to lawful information and undermining user privacy and security as our case proceeds. We look forward to seeing the law struck down permanently.

“If HB 1126 ultimately takes effect, mandating age and identity verification for digital services will undermine privacy and stifle the free exchange of ideas. Mississippi also  commandeers websites to censor broad categories of protected speech, blocking access to important educational resources. Mississippians have a First Amendment right to access lawful information online free from government censorship.”

The Mississippi law, authored by Rep. Jill Ford, R-Madison, is called the “Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act,” named after a Mississippi teen who reportedly committed suicide after an overseas online predator threatened to blackmail him.

The post Federal judge blocks Mississippi online age verification law appeared first on Mississippi Today.

BOSTON — In Mississippi, Dot Ford Burrow was Caitlin Clark a half century before Caitlin Clark was born, scoring 50 points per game back in 1950 for tiny Smithville High School in Monroe County.

Monday night in Boston, Mrs. Burrow, grandmother of football’s Joe Burrow, finally received recognition for her basketball excellence 74 years after she completed one of the most amazing high school basketball careers of anyone, anywhere, ever.

Dot Burrow, three months shy of her 93rd birthday, was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame along with the likes of baseball great Joe Mauer, and football stars Takeo Spikes and Tyrone Wheatley and seven others. Mrs. Burrow received a standing ovation from a jam-packed crowd of several hundred, including her famous grandson, in the Boston Marriott Copley Place ballroom.

In many ways, Dot Burrow stole the show from all other inductees. One example: Mauer, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, followed Burrow in speaking at a press conference earlier Monday. After Burrow charmed reporters and onlookers with her remarks, Mauer began his. “How am I supposed to follow her?” he said, evoking laughter from all in attendance.

READ MORE: Seventy-five years later, Dot Ford, now Dot Burrow, gets her due

Bruce Howard, communications director of the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS), called Dot Burrow “one of the most inspiring and touching stories in the 46-year history of the NFHS Hall of Fame.”

She is that. Back when she played for Smithville, the town’s population was just over 400, yet she created such interest in girls basketball that Smithville’s home games often were moved to nearby Amory and played at the National Guard Armory before sellout crowds of more than 1,000. She led Fulton to a state championship and led the team in scoring as a 14-year-old ninth grader, then transferred to nearby Smithville as a sophomore. Dot Ford was so good, so unstoppable around the basket that one opposing team tried to stop her by putting a defender on the shoulders of another.

“I believe it was Aberdeen in the county tournament my senior year,” Mrs. Burrow said. “Their coach instructed one player to get on the shoulders of another under our basket.”

Did it work?

“No,” she shook her head. “It did not.”

Another team tried to stop her by having their defenders try to stomp on her feet. That didn’t work either.

“But I had sore feet for weeks,” said Mrs. Burrow, who once scored 82 points in a single game.

Today, Caitlin Clark is one of the most famous basketball players, male or female, in the world and makes millions of dollars in salary and endorsements. Back in 1950, when Dot Burrow finished her high school career, there was scant opportunity for female basketball players beyond high school. Mississippi colleges and universities didn’t sponsor the sport. There was no WNBA.

“I had offers from two junior colleges, but I decided to get married,” Mrs. Burrow said. “My boyfriend (James Burrow) was playing college basketball, so I got married and went and helped him get through Mississippi State. I wrote most of his papers, helped him all I could. And then we raised a fine family. I have no regrets.”

Their oldest son, Jimmy Burrow, was a terrific football player for Nebraska. Younger son John Burrow played defensive back for Ole Miss. Grandson Joe Burrow – “Joey” to Dot – had perhaps the greatest single season in college football history at LSU and now stars for the Cincinnati Bengals. Twenty-one family members, including children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, were in Boston on Monday to celebrate.

Asked to describe his mother, Jimmy Burrow said, “She’s just got a big, big heart. She is always thinking about other people, not herself. She has all the greatest attributes you could want in a mother, wife, grandmother and friend.”

Said spry, 94-year-old James Burrow, as quick with a quip as he was with feet as Mississippi State’s starting point guard, “All these years I didn’t know I was sleeping with a celebrity.”

James Burrow said Smithville coaches asked for volunteers to date Dot Ford in hopes of convincing her to transfer from Fulton. James Burrow said he wasn’t keen on the idea until he saw her at a party. “Then I said to myself, ‘Hmm, I’ve been looking at this the wrong way,’” James Burrow said, chuckling. “We’ve been together ever since.”

Asked about her greatest memory from her Smithville playing days, Dot Burrow responded, “I just loved playing with all my friends. All my teammates, except one, have passed on. There are only two of us left and the other lives in Arkansas now. I sure do miss ‘em.”

Said Mississippi High School Activities Association director Rickey Neaves, who draped the Hall of Fame medallion around Mrs Burrow’s neck on Monday night to a prolonged standing ovation, “It is an honor and a privilege to see her inducted. She is so deserving. She was an athlete far ahead of her time. She has made Mississippi proud.”

Yes, she has.

Asked what she is most proud of, nearly three quarters of a century after her playing career ended, Dot Burrow responded, “I’m just so proud of my family, all of them, husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I am especially proud of our grandson Joey. He has made a name for himself in Ohio and across the nation. I hope I made a name for myself back in Smithville in 1949 and 1950.”

Not to worry, Dot, your fame now extends far beyond Smithville, Monroe County and Mississippi. And surely we can all agree on this: Seventy-four years later, it is about time.

READ MORE: Joe Burrow has deep roots (and quite the gene pool) in Amory, Mississippi

The post She was Caitlin Clark 74 years ago. Now, Dot Burrow is a Hall of Famer. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

With completion of the state’s autopsy of Belhaven Heights resident Dau Mabil, showing death by drowning of unknown cause, his brother can move forward with getting a second independent  autopsy he fought to obtain. 

Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, said in an email the autopsy can be conducted without delay, impairment or interference now that Capitol Police’s investigation is closed. 

“The family is awaiting results of an independent autopsy and they will move forward from there,” said Lisa Ross, a Jackson attorney representing Mabil’s brother, Bul. 

She said the goal is to have the autopsy completed so that Mabil can have a proper burial. 

A May court order set the terms for a second autopsy, including that Dau Mabil’s body would be stored by the State Medical Examiner’s Office until investigations are complete. 

Ross said the names of two forensic pathologists have been shared with Dau Mabil’s widow, Karissa Bowley. In court, she asked for guardrails for the independent autopsy, including a requirement that the examiner be qualified. 

Bowley was not immediately available for comment Friday. 

Dau Mabil, along with his brother, came to Jackson in 2000 as one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” boys who had fled war and genocide in their country. Bul Mabil said his brother was born in 1990, but the autopsy report states his age as 37.

Dau Mabil was last seen March 25 in the Belhaven area after going on a walk without his phone, according to his wife. Video footage showed him near Jefferson Street and Fortification and High streets, and Bowley said he went to check on corn he planted near the Museum Trail. 

Bowley and community members began search efforts. Bul Mabil traveled from out of state and joined Bowley and others at an early April press conference to call for answers about Dau’s whereabouts.

Three weeks later, a fisherman reported a body floating in the Pearl River near Lawrence County, and a preliminary autopsy revealed that it was the body of Mabil. The Lawrence County sheriff said there was no evidence of foul play. 

Bul Mabil and other family members have questioned if that is true. The day his brother’s body was recovered, he sought an emergency restraining order against Bowley, Capitol Police and the state Crime Lab to preserve Dau’s body for a state autopsy and an independent one. 

Several weeks later in May, Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas removed Bul Mabil from the lawsuit, but Bowley said in court and in filings that she would allow a second autopsy. In his order, Thomas stipulated that a second autopsy would be done at Bul Mabil’s “direction and expense.” 

Last week, Bowley released the state’s five-page autopsy report that listed Mabil’s cause of death as drowning and the manner of death as undetermined. The report notes that there were no internal or external signs of trauma or injury that could account for his death. 

Postmortem toxicology analysis of liver tissue and decomposition fluid found the presence of ethanol. 

An accompanying toxicology report noted that ethanol – also known as ethyl alcohol or drinking alcohol – can be a central nervous system depressant that can cause impaired judgment, reduced alertness and impaired coordination. Ethanol also can be a product of decomposition, the report notes. 

A week before the autopsy results were released, the Bowley family and Mabil family and supporters spoke in separate press conferences. 

The Bowleys dismissed allegations and implications that his widow or family had anything to do with Mabil’s disappearance, which Ross had implied during her questioning of Karissa Bowley during an April court hearing on the restraining order. 

Bul Mabil was joined by his and Dau’s mother, who had traveled from Africa, along with Sudanese family, friends and community members. Bul Mabil still believes someone killed his brother, and he criticsized Capitol Police for how it handled his case, local media reported. 

The post Independent autupsy next step in death probe of Jackson man appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor on Friday stood by Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president after party officials around the nation were left reckoning with Biden’s shaky performance in the first presidential debate.

“Biden is tried and tested,” Taylor said during a recording of Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” political podcast. “If we’re looking at the priorities he’s put forward, I don’t think most Democrats have heartburn about that.”

Taylor’s complete response to the debate, and thoughts on numerous other Mississippi political topics can be heard on “The Other Side,” which will air Monday morning. 

Biden, 81, faced off in a Thursday debate with former President Donald Trump, 78, moderated by CNN that covered topics including abortion, the economy and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Several times during the debate, Biden stumbled over his words, paused to correct phrases and sometimes trailed off, leaving an unclear end to sentences.  

Trump had far more energy than the incumbent president, but often spouted false information, such as continuing to repeat the debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and was rife with voter fraud. 

Several national Democratic operatives and media pundits have said the president should step aside and allow a new candidate to take his place atop the presidential ticket. If that were to happen, it would create a historic scenario at the Democratic National Convention later this year that would give the party’s delegates power to select a new candidate. 

Taylor did say that if the first-term Democratic president does withdraw his nomination from consideration, then Vice President Kamala Harris should take his place as the head of the ticket. 

Mississippi public officials from both sides of the aisle reacted on social media to Thursday night’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Here are some responses:

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves: “If Joe Biden was in your family, you’d take his car keys and keep him safe in your home. But he’s our President, and he needs to rest comfortably somewhere other than the White House.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith: “What we saw tonight were two very different visions for America. Joe Biden was solely focused on division and backwards policies, while President Trump provided a platform for reversing record inflation, closing our Southern border, and keeping our country safe in an increasingly dangerous world. We need a leader who has a record of accomplishment and Making America Great! I couldn’t be more proud of how my friend, Donald J. Trump performed tonight. Vote RED November 5!”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson: “I wish Trump would answer the questions he is asked.”

Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Ty Pinkins: “President Biden demonstrated a clear commitment to addressing the needs and concerns of everyday Americans. It’s this dedication to working for all Americans that I support and look forward to building upon in the Senate.”

Republican state Auditor Shad White: “President Trump was on message and the obvious winner tonight. I honestly struggled to even understand what President Biden was saying most of the time.”

Republican Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson: “‘The idea!’ The idea that this man is President of the United States is a very scary idea for our country. The idea that he wants to continue another 4 years is even scarier. I cannot wait to attend the RNC in July and cast a vote for our candidate Donald J. Trump.”

The post MS Democratic Party chair vows support for Biden despite poor debate performance appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After almost a decade under state conservatorship, Tunica County School District will return to local control on July 1. 

The takeover of the schools, which were placed under state control in July 2015, has been the longest district takeover in state history. 

Margie Pulley has been at the helm throughout the district’s transformation. She previously served as superintendent of the Greenwood School Board before acting as conservator for the Oktibbeha County School District which merged with Starkville’s school district in 2015. She described the process of turning the Tunica district around as challenging but rewarding. 

“We put our emphasis on teaching and learning,” Pulley told Mississippi Today. “That was the focus of the Tunica County School District. We put emphasis on children, and we put academics and teaching first.”

The district was initially placed into a conservatorship after a slew of failures that state officials at the time said jeopardized the safety, security and educational interests of the children enrolled in the district. 

In addition to years of D and F ratings and low graduation rates, the school was found to be in violation of six of eight accreditation standards, and in violation of federal laws like the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act. 

Today, all schools in the district are C rated or higher, the district’s overall rating is a B, and the district’s graduation rate has grown from 57.3% in 2015 to 88.8% in 2023. 

“Teachers have done an outstanding job, and the students have done an excellent job,” Pulley said. “Students here in Tunica County have proven that they can learn and are good students — we just made sure that they were taught.”

One of the major issues with the district pre-conservatorship was its failures in educating students with disabilities. Pulley pointed to the school’s graduation rate for students with disabilities, which was one of the highest in the state last year. 

The district’s financial situation has also improved, from $5,212,625 cash on hand in 2015 to $23,650,634 in 2023. At the district level, it now has one of the highest per-pupil expenditures rates in the state. In the 2022-23 school year, the district spent $17,737 per student. The state average was $11,738.

Pulley said the money always helps. 

“If you want good results, you have to spend the money to get it,” she said. “We’ve spent money, we think, in the places where there was the greatest need. We’ve got full-time English Language Arts and math interventionists and that makes a difference in instruction. The students get the intervention they need. So, I feel good about the money we’ve spent and putting it in the places that it needs to be placed.” 

The district has also made a number of capital improvements to school facilities and purchased new school buses for every bus route. 

The State Board of Education voted in its June 20 meeting to initiate the return to local control, which it has been preparing the district for since late 2022, when it appointed an advisory board that will serve as voting members of the district’s school board beginning on July 1. The new superintendent, selected by what will soon be the school board, will also be announced and sworn in on July 1.

Because school board members are elected officials, they will serve staggered terms with one election in 2025 and every year thereafter until all seats have been voted in. 

At nine years, the state takeover of Tunica County schools is the longest since the state began conservatorships in the late 1990’s. In 2018, the Legislature made changes to the law concerning state takeovers of local school districts, mandating that schools which undergo conservatorship not be released from state control until the district has achieved a rating of C or higher for five consecutive years. 

For districts that cannot make the turnaround from the outset, state takeovers will last longer than they have in the past. 

For example — Noxubee County School District was placed under conservatorship prior to the 2018-2019 school year, but was unable to achieve a C rating until the 2022-23 school year. This means the earliest the district can achieve the necessary requirement to be released from conservatorship is at the conclusion of the 2026-2027 school year. By this point, the school will have been under state control for nine years — and that’s only if the district is able to maintain a C rating for four more consecutive years. 

Holmes County Consolidated School District has been under state control since 2021.

This is Tunica district’s second conservatorship since 1996. When asked if she was confident in Tunica County School District’s success post-conservatorship Pulley said: “All the protocols are in place for Tunica to be successful. They should continue to be successful.”

The Mississippi Department of Education echoed this sentiment. 

“Successful school districts rely on effective leadership from their local school boards, district administrators and school principals,” Jean Gordon Cook, MDE communications chief, said. “Tunica County School District interim superintendent Dr. Margie Pulley has set the district up for success by implementing high-quality instruction, sound financial management and ensuring all accreditation standards are in compliance.”

The post Tunica school district returns to local control Monday, after nearly a decade appeared first on Mississippi Today.