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On Black Friday last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its final environmental study on a tweaked version of the Yazoo Pumps. For years now, state politicians and south Delta residents have tangled with conservationists from around the country over the merit of the flood control proposal.

The final study’s release triggered a 30-day waiting period, Corps spokesperson Christi Kilroy explained, for the agency to comb over the proposal one more time. The public and other agencies can still give input, although this isn’t a formal comment period. After the 30 days, which stretches until the end of December, the Corps can enter a final decision over which project to move forward with.

Despite the agency nearing the final stages of a years-long process, the Corps still hasn’t released any cost estimate for the project. The last quote the Corps gave was $220 million for a previous version of the pumps in 2008, but the new cost is likely much higher. In 2021, Rep. Bennie Thompson gave a $500 million estimate.

“Following the signing of a (Record of Decision), (the Corps) will begin the Pre-engineering and Design phase, which will clarify the final design and associated construction costs,” Kilroy said via e-mail. “Funding for both will be requested through the normal budgetary process.”

The agency hasn’t responded to follow-up questions about whether it’s normal to wait this long to disclose a price range and whether it’s fair to not do so until after the public has had a chance to comment.

The final study shows the Corps’ support for “Alternative 3,” which would include a more powerful pumping station than the version of the project that the Environmental Protection Agency vetoed in 2008. The EPA, then under President George W. Bush, vetoed the project in part because of its potential to damage 67,000 acres of ecologically valuable wetlands in the south Delta.

In 2019, in an area which regularly gets inundated when the Mississippi River gets too high, the south Delta saw its largest ever backwater flood. Some homes were flooded for as long as six months, and local agricultural losses amounted to over $800 million, according to research cited by the Corps.

For a story Mississippi Today partnered with NBC News on, former EPA assistant administrator for water Ben Grumbles said that the cost and environmental impacts of the Yazoo Pumps “fully justified” the 2008 veto.

Under “Alternative 3,” the Corps would be able to pump out water from inside the area’s levee system — when the Mississippi River is too high, flooding that happens in between the levees pools up in the south Delta — from March 25 through Oct. 15. The Corps selected the pumping period to balance keeping farmland dry during crop season with keeping enough water in the area to maintain its wetlands.

The new proposed pumping system would have a capacity of 25,000 cubic feet per second, or cfs, which is about 78% more powerful than what the Corps previously proposed. The Corps said that 25,000 cfs is necessary to protect homes above 93-foot elevation. It’d also be more powerful than the world’s largest pumping station in Louisiana, which has a capacity of 19,000 cfs.

The study projects that, with “Alternative 3,” 1,573 structures, including 780 homes, would likely no longer flood in a 2019 repeat scenario. Another 335 buildings, including 152 homes, would still flood in that scenario, but they would be eligible for voluntary buyouts. The latest study removes mandatory buyouts that the Corps proposed in its draft study over the summer.

Environmental advocates from the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society and Healthy Gulf continue to oppose the pumps. They point to the Corps’ projection that Alternative 3 would “change the flood inundation interval” of 89,000 acres of wetlands. While the Corps says the project wouldn’t convert those wetlands to non-wetlands, the agency admits the project could “decrease” the area’s “wetland functions.”

“Our organizations steadfastly oppose the proposed 25,000 cubic-foot-per-second (cfs) pumping plant,” the groups wrote, reiterating their support for non-structural alternatives such as landowners putting their land in easement programs, or buy-outs available through federal funding. “(We) once again call on the Corps to permanently abandon consideration of this and any variation of the Yazoo Pumps.”

They also criticized the lack of a cost-benefit analysis in the Corps’ study, pointing out that the pump station in Louisiana cost roughly $1 billion to build over a decade ago.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote to the Corps that it previously opposed earlier versions of the project that activated the pumps at 87-foot elevation.

“It is our opinion that previous planning efforts by the USACE emphasized agricultural drainage to the detriment of fish and wildlife resources,” USFWS wrote.

This version, though, better protects the area’s wildlife by instead pumping at 90 feet, the agency said. The new version also includes mitigation to offset wetland impacts, which it says were “deficient” in previous pumps proposals.

During the Corps’ comment period over the summer, south Delta farmers advocated for “Alternative 2” in the study, which would allow pumping to start on March 16 rather than March 25. They pointed out that even though the pumping would start in March, it would take weeks to dry out farm land in the area, pushing back when they can plant crops such as corn.

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Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County defeated incumbent state Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens for a seat on the state’s highest court, giving the state GOP a decisive win as they seek to tighten their grip on political and judicial power in Mississippi. 

The Associated Press on Friday called the race for Branning as counties finished transmitting official results from the Nov. 26 runoff election to the Secretary of State’s office. With 99% of the vote reported, Branning received 50.6% of the vote while Kitchens received 49.4%. 

Branning is a private practice attorney who was first elected to the Legislature in 2015. She has led the Senate Elections and Transportation committees. During her time at the Capitol, she has been one of the more conservative members of the Senate, voting against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem, voting against expanding Medicaid to the working poor and supporting mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime.

While campaigning, she pledged to ensure that “conservative values” are always represented in the judiciary, but she stopped short of endorsing policy positions, which Mississippi judicial candidates are prohibited from doing.

Judicial races in Mississippi are technically nonpartisan, but party politics still plays a significant role in the elections. Political parties and trade associations often contribute money to candidates and cut ads for them. 

The state Republican Party worked hard to oust Kitchens, one of the dwindling number of centrist jurists on the high court, and consolidate its infrastructure behind Branning. The GOP endorsed Branning’s campaign. 

Kitchens’ narrow loss to Branning is notable because the longtime jurist was the next in line for chief justice should current Chief Justice Michael Randolph step down. 

Kitchens was first elected to the court in 2008 and is a former district attorney and private-practice lawyer. On the campaign trail, he pointed to his experience as an attorney and judge, particularly his years prosecuting criminals and his rulings on criminal cases. 

A Crystal Springs resident, he is one of two centrist members of the high Court and was widely viewed as the preferred candidate of Democrats, though the Democratic Party did not endorse his candidacy. 

When Kitchens leaves office, that will make Justice Leslie King, elected from the Central District, the second highest-ranking judge and Justice Josiah Coleman, elected from the Northern District, the third most senior judge on the court. 

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A group of civil rights organizations wrote a letter to Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office Tuesday asking for an explanation for why the agency declared that Wednesday would be the final day that elections workers could process mail-in absentee ballots. 

Representatives from Disability Rights Mississippi, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the state conference of the NAACP said that Watson’s office, which oversees state elections, unilaterally counted Friday, November 29, as a business day, even though the state government considered that day a holiday. 

The questions from the three organizations come at a time when incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens and Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning remain locked in a tight race for a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court as absentee ballots are being counted. 

The reason for the questions surrounding what the agency considers a business day is that current state law allows local election workers to process mail-in absentee ballots for five business days after Election Day, as long as the absentee ballots were postmarked by the date of the election. 

Though the United States Postal Service conducted business on Friday November 29, Gov. Tate Reeves declared November 28 and November 29 state holidays because of Thanksgiving. 

“The decision to count Friday, November 29, 2024, as a ‘business day’ disregards Mississippi law, which will lead to voter confusion and undermine the ability of Mississippi voters to participate in the electoral process,” the letter said. 

The decision to count November 29 as a business day, means that December 4 is the deadline for local officials to process the mail-in ballots — not December 5 as originally planned.

Watson’s office declined to comment. 

The secretary of state’s office also published a 2024 elections calendar this year that stated December 5 – not December 4 – would be the deadline for local election workers to process absentee ballots, though the calendar is for planning purposes only. 

Neither candidate in the Supreme Court runoff has conceded the race yet, and county officials have until Friday December 6 to certify the results and transmit them to Watson’s office. 

A federal appeals court ruled last month that Mississippi’s process of accepting mail-in ballots after Election Day violated federal law, though the ruling did not apply to this year’s election.

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Anyone who has read this column regularly through the years knows my love of history, Mississippi sports history in particular. That passion only increases when it involves my hometown, Hattiesburg.

This Saturday night, the undefeated Hattiesburg High Tigers will play Grenada for the State Class 6A Championship. Should Hattiesburg win, it would mark the school’s first state football championship in precisely 100 years. That’s right: On Dec. 5, 1924, undefeated Hattiesburg defeated Louisville 20-14 at Laurel for the state championship.

Hattiesburg High has won several state championships in other sports, but the 1924 championship remains the school’s only state football crown. And boy oh boy, is there some history there.

Let’s start with this: Hattiesburg businessmen chartered a 12-car train from Southern Railway for the 30-mile trip to Laurel. What’s more, they had the cars decorated in school colors, purple and gold. According to reports in the next day’s Hattiesburg American, more than 3,000 Hattiesburgers — nearly 1,000 on the train — made the trip, especially impressive since the entire town’s population was just over 13,000 in the 1920 census.

More than 5,000 fans in all attended the championship game, at the time the second largest crowd to attend a sporting event in Mississippi history, second only to an Ole Miss-Mississippi State football game at the State Fairgrounds in Jackson.

Since there were no stadium lights back then, the state championship game was played in the afternoon. When the victorious Tigers and their huge following arrived back in the Hub City at 6:47 p.m. they were greeted by all the town’s industrial whistles and police and ambulance sirens. Hattiesburg telephone operators reported nearly 2,000 calls from alarmed residents wondering what in the world had happened to cause such a ruckus. A parade led by the mayor through downtown Hattiesburg drew a larger crowd than the parade that celebrated the end of World War I, the Hattiesburg American reported.

“The Tigers of Hattiesburg were in possession of the city,” the American reported the next day. “The sweet taste of victory sent the crowd of more than 3,000 into a riot of cheering … This kept up until late in the evening.”

So much history: Two of the Tigers heroes that night were brothers Gerald “Gee” and Harvey “Hubby” Walker, who would go on to become football and baseball stars at Ole Miss and then on to play Major League Baseball. Gee Walker was an American League All-Star who batted .353 in 1936 and remains the only player in Major League history to hit for the cycle (home run, triple, double and single) on Opening Day, which he did, in that order, in 1937 with the Detroit Tigers.

For the Hattiesburg state champs of 2024, Gee Walker caught the passes that his brother Hubby threw. Hansel Batten, a sturdy, handsome youngster, was the Hattiesburg running star who scored two touchdowns, including the game-winner. Batten would go on to star at Ole Miss, where he was teammates again with the Walker brothers. Batten played both running back and linebacker and captained the Ole Miss football team. After that, his story takes an abrupt turn.

Batten would become the sports editor and sometimes news reporter of the Hattiesburg American, often writing about the sport he once played so well. Tragically, in 1932, Batten was the victim of an apparent murder. Tom and Venie Jones, a husband and wife, were charged with the crime. The husband was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but later granted a new trial and acquitted. The wife was acquitted after a series of trials. The story of Batten’s mysterious death and the trials that followed is covered in a fascinating podcast series “Reckless on the Rails” by Ellisville journalist/historian William T. Browning that can be accessed here. I highly recommend.

A much happier story is that the modern day Hattiesburg High Tigers, coached by Tony Vance and quarterbacked by his son Deuce Vance, will play for a second state championship 100 years after the historic first. Former Mississippi State standout Michael Fair coaches Grenada, which enters the championship game with a 14-1 record. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday night. 

It should be a terrific game. One thing is certain, should Hattiesburg (13-0) win, the Hub City will have a hard time topping the historic celebration that occurred 100 years ago this week.

Columnist Rick Cleveland is a 1970 graduate of Hattiesburg High and a former sports editor of the Hattiesburg American. His father, Robert “Ace” Cleveland, was sports editor of the Hattiesburg American when Rick was born. Ace Cleveland, a four-sport letterman at Hattiesburg High, earned his nickname when the Hattiesburg American referred to him as Hattiesburg High’s “ace placekicker.” It stuck.

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The U.S. Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers.

The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship.

“It was a costly blunder. But the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform,” said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

The U.S. has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the U.S. military to hasten their production.

Hypersonic weapons travel beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, with added maneuverability making them harder to shoot down.

Last year, The Washington Post reported that among the documents leaked by former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was a defense department briefing that confirmed China had recently tested an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon called the DF-27. While the Pentagon had previously acknowledged the weapon’s development, it had not recognized its testing.

One of the U.S. programs in development and planned for the Zumwalt is the “Conventional Prompt Strike.” It would launch like a ballistic missile and then release a hypersonic glide vehicle that would travel at speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound before hitting the target. The weapon system is being developed jointly by the Navy and Army. Each of the Zumwalt-class destroyers would be equipped with four missile tubes, each with three of the missiles for a total of 12 hypersonic weapons per ship.

In choosing the Zumwalt, the Navy is attempting to add to the usefulness of a $7.5 billion warship that is considered by critics to be an expensive mistake despite serving as a test platform for multiple innovations.

The Zumwalt was envisioned as providing land-attack capability with an Advanced Gun System with rocket-assisted projectiles to open the way for Marines to charge ashore. But the system featuring 155 mm guns hidden in stealthy turrets was canceled because each of the rocket-assisted projectiles cost between $800,000 and $1 million.

Despite the stain on its reputation, the three Zumwalt-class destroyers remain the Navy’s most advanced surface warship in terms of new technologies. Those innovations include electric propulsion, an angular shape to minimize radar signature, an unconventional wave-piercing hull, automated fire and damage control and a composite deckhouse that hides radar and other sensors.

The Zumwalt arrived at the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in August 2023 and was removed from the water for the complex work of integrating the new weapon system. It is due to be undocked this week in preparation for the next round of tests and its return to the fleet, shipyard spokeswoman Kimberly Aguillard said.

A U.S. hypersonic weapon was successfully tested over the summer and development of the missiles is continuing. The Navy wants to begin testing the system aboard the Zumwalt in 2027 or 2028, according to the Navy.

The U.S. weapon system will come at a steep price. It would cost nearly $18 billion to buy 300 of the weapons and maintain them over 20 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Critics say there is too little bang for the buck.

“This particular missile costs more than a dozen tanks. All it gets you is a precise non-nuclear explosion, some place far far away. Is it really worth the money? The answer is most of the time the missile costs much more than any target you can destroy with it,” said Loren Thompson, a longtime military analyst in Washington, D.C.

But they provide the capability for Navy vessels to strike an enemy from a distance of thousands of kilometers — outside the range of most enemy weapons — and there is no effective defense against them, said retired Navy Rear Adm. Ray Spicer, CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute, an independent forum focusing on national security issues, and former commander of an aircraft carrier strike force.

Conventional missiles that cost less aren’t much of a bargain if they are unable to reach their targets, Spicer said, adding the U.S. military really has no choice but to pursue them.

“The adversary has them. We never want to be outdone,” he said.

The U.S. is accelerating development because hypersonics have been identified as vital to U.S. national security with “survivable and lethal capabilities,” said James Weber, principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies.

“Fielding new capabilities that are based on hypersonic technologies is a priority for the defense department to sustain and strengthen our integrated deterrence, and to build enduring advantages,” he said.

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Seven high school championship football games will be played Thursday through Saturday at The Rock in Hattiesburg. There are intriguing matchups, involving some of the top recruits in the state. Also, the Clevelands discuss last week’s Egg Bowl, the college football playoffs, the job vacancy at Southern Miss and violence in the NFL.

Stream all episodes here.

The latest from rick cleveland

A century later, Hattiesburg High plays for a second state title

by Rick Cleveland
December 4, 2024December 4, 2024

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A new report warns Mississippi could see the steepest drop off in health insurance coverage if Congress doesn’t vote to extend temporary health coverage subsidies at the end of next year. 

Over 100,000 Mississippians would lose health insurance – a 43% increase in the state’s already-high uninsured rate – the policy think tank The Urban Institute predicted last month. 

“If the enhanced premium tax credits expire, there will be dramatic declines in Marketplace coverage and increases in uninsurance, but the effects will not be felt equally across states or by race, income, and age,” said Jessica Banthin, senior fellow at the Urban Institute in a statement. “Our analysis shows that their expiration could mean some communities may experience greater coverage losses, making healthcare unaffordable and inaccessible.”

The increased subsidies allow Americans to buy health insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace at lower costs with enhanced premium tax credits. The benefits were first authorized by Congress in 2021 to help more Americans attain health care coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They also allowed more Americans than before to access the premium tax credits by raising the income ceiling for eligibility and allowed low-income households to access insurance without paying premiums. 

The benefits, which have led to a record high of 21.3 million people insured through the Marketplace nationwide, will expire in December 2025 without a renewal from Congress.

“If (the premium tax credits) go away next year, I’m afraid it will reset us to where we were five years ago, with the Marketplace policies basically becoming catastrophic plans again,” State Health Office Dr. Daniel Edney told Mississippi Today. 

Catastrophic plans are designed to cover major medical emergencies but not routine medical care. 

Premium payments are expected to increase by over 75% on average if the tax credits expire. 

For a 40-year-old living alone in Jackson and making $30,000 annually, the cost of monthly premiums for a silver health insurance plan would rise $93 a month, from $49 to $143, according to KFF. 

The Marketplace is a federally or state-operated health insurance exchange where people can shop for and enroll in coverage and access financial assistance based on their income.

The enhanced tax credits have contributed to a significant increase in health care coverage in Mississippi since 2021. 

In 2020, 12.9% of Mississippians were uninsured, compared to 10.5% in 2023.

“It’s been a gamechanger,” said Edney. 

Health care coverage through the Marketplace in Mississippi has nearly doubled since the benefits were passed, representing the second highest percent increase in the nation behind Texas. 

Mississippi remains one of 10 states in the nation not to expand Medicaid coverage, making it more reliant on the Marketplace for affordable health care coverage. Marketplace enrollment rates since 2020 have grown fastest in states with high uninsured rates that have also not expanded Medicaid. 

The Urban Institute’s data tool predicts that if the enhanced tax credits are not renewed, 143,000 Mississippians would lose coverage under subsidized Marketplace plans. 

Some would have the option to enroll in employer-sponsored coverage or be able to afford health insurance without the additional benefits. But most are forecasted to lose coverage entirely.

Mississippi currently uses the federal exchange, but the Legislature passed a law authorizing the creation of a state-based Marketplace earlier this year, which could incentivize health insurance companies to offer policies at lower costs. But federal officials will not approve Mississippi implementing its own exchange because Gov. Tate Reeves has not yet provided a letter of approval.

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