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The Mississippi attorney general’s office now has the authority to enforce some federal immigration law, including identifying people in the country without authorization and initiating removal proceedings for those booked in a jail. 

This is possible through the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Section 287(g) program. Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office is the only agency in the state that is part of the program, and her office is also one of three attorney generals to sign a memorandum of agreement to participate in the program. 

“This partnership will not only ensure that we protect our communities, but also strengthen our efforts to combat human trafficking, drug cartels, and violent crime,” Fitch said in a Thursday statement. “Together, we will make Mississippi — and our entire nation — safer than ever before.”

Once individuals are identified for deportation, they would be transferred to ICE custody. 

About half of all people detained by ICE have no criminal record, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Many have minor offenses, such as traffic violations. 

Nearly 300 law enforcement agencies across the country have an active 287(g) agreement, according to current records from ICE, and nearly 30 additional agencies have pending agreements. 

As of February, participating 287(g) agencies have had over 900 encounters with people unauthorized to be in the country, handled over 600 detainers, filed over 200 charging documents, assisted with 170 removals and carried out over 150 warrant arrests, according to the most recent report from ICE. 

State and local law enforcement agencies are able to join the ICE program through a January executive order by President Donald Trump titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” 

Fitch’s office is participating in the program through a task force model. Through it, all sworn law enforcement officers with the office will be members. 

Other models of the 287(g) program include jail enforcement, where state and local law enforcement identify unauthorized people with criminal or pending criminal charges for deportation, and the warrant service officer model, which allows ICE to train and authorize state and local law enforcement to execute removal warrants on people in their agency’s jail. 

In addition to enforcement, ICE detainees are also being held in the state. Last month, private prison company CoreCivic announced it entered into contract modification for the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler to hold an additional 250 people. The facility has held ICE detainees there for years. 

The company also operates the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, which is holding the largest number of ICE detainees, averaging 2,153 a day, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

The post Mississippi AG joins ICE roundup of undocumented migrants appeared first on Mississippi Today.

First things first: Friday, in Atlanta, Chris Beard’s Ole Miss Rebels try to achieve what no Ole Miss team has ever done before.

Should Ole Miss defeat Michigan State, the Rebels will advance past the NCAA’s Sweet 16 and into Elite 8, something that has never happened. Indeed, Ole Miss men have only reached the round of 16 once, and that was in 2001 when Arizona ended the Rebels’ dream in San Antonio. Remember?

Rod Barnes was the National Coach of the Year and should have been. Ole Miss, which finished with 27 victories, went on a 16-0 run early to take a 12-point first half lead over the favored Wildcats. And then Arizona, coached by Lute Olsen and led by future NBA great Richard Jefferson, took over and eventually won by 10.

That Arizona team would go on to defeat Illinois in the regional final and then Tom Izzo and Michigan State in the national semifinals before losing to Duke in the championship game.

Beard might not win Coach of the Year this season, but he should have been a finalist. He has taken a team picked to finish ninth in the SEC, the best league in the country by far this season, and put it in the national spotlight. And he has done it with a singular inside-the-paint presence in Malik Dia.

“Chris is just a terrific coach,” retired and much respected college and NBA coach Tim Floyd told us on this week’s Crooked Letter podcast. “He reaches his players and he does it on an individual basis. To a man, his guys are playing their basketball right now and that’s the mark of a great coach.”

Floyd, as this writer, has been amazed that Beard has guided the Rebels this far with such an acute rebounding weakness. Ole Miss ranked 15th of 16 SEC teams in rebounding margin. The Rebels have been out-rebounded by 4.5 rebounds per game. There are no readily available statistics on how many teams have reached the Sweet 16 with such a rebounding deficit, but you can bet on this: There haven’t been many.

The Rebels make up for it in other ways, mainly by protecting the basketball when they have it and taking it away from opponents when they don’t. Ole Miss led the SEC in turnover margin and it wasn’t that close.

In Michigan State, the Rebels face a team that does well in all phases, especially rebounding. The Spartans out-rebounded their opponents nearly 10 per game. If this sounds like a match-up problem for Ole Miss, well, yes, it certainly is. Again Dia, a muscular 6 feet, 9 inches, is the Rebels’ inside presence. Michigan State counters with three bigs that tall and taller. All of them rebound. All of them can run the floor.

Actually, Michigan State would be a matchup problem for most teams. It has been that way for a long, long time where Izzo is concerned. He is an old school basketball coach whose teams have been marked by two constants: rebounding and defense. They pound the boards and they guard.

Izzo’s record speaks loudly for itself: more than 700 career victories (the most in Big 10 history, surpassing Bobby Knight), 11 Big 10 regular season championships, eight Final Fours, four times National Coach of the Year, and an incredible 16 Sweet 16s.

Forget rebounding, this is the matchup that deserves the biggest exclamation point: Ole Miss, the program, has been to one other Sweet 16 in its history. Izzo, the coach, has been to 16 himself!

None of that prior history really matters when they take the floor Friday night. Kermit Davis Jr., Beard’s predecessor at Ole Miss, proved that in 2016 when he took Middle Tennessee to the Sweet 16 for the first time ever in 2016 and stunned Izzo and Michigan State in one of the NCAA’s most shocking upsets ever. Should Beard and Ole Miss knock off the Spartans, it would be nowhere near that huge an upset. Indeed, Michigan State is just a 3.5-point favorite.

Looking for an early clue on the ultimate outcome? Watch Dia. Where Ole Miss is concerned, he is the key. Floyd, who has watched the Rebels closely all season, has noted that Dia’s effectiveness is often dictated by his early shooting. If he makes baskets early, watch out. If he is off early, he sometimes seems to disappear.

Says Floyd, “When Dia is on, he is as good as any big in the tournament.”

For the Rebels to make history Friday night, they must have Dia at his best.

The post For underdog Ole Miss to make history, Malik Dia must be at his best appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A bill cleared the Legislature Wednesday that will make it easier for medical facilities to make capital improvements and require the state’s only academic medical center to seek state approval before opening educational facilities outside of Jackson. 

The legislation, which passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 113-3, will next go to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk, where he has the option to sign it into law, allow it to become law without his signature or veto it. 

The bill also mandates that the Mississippi State Department of Health study dialysis and geriatric psychiatric units in small hospitals, and uncompensated care rates in psychiatric hospitals. 

These studies could lead to further reform of the state’s certificate of need law in coming years, said Chair of the Public Health and Human Services committee Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, who authored the House’s proposal. 

“To start that process, is to me, very positive,” said Creekmore, who commended both chambers of the Legislature for working together to pass the bill. 

Certificate of need laws aim to lower costs and improve the quality and accessibility of health care by preventing duplication of services, but stakeholders are divided on whether or not the law accomplishes its goals. 

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, spearheaded the reforms on the Senate side. 

Certificate of need reform is a familiar goal for legislators in Mississippi, but few substantial changes have been made to the law since 2016. 

The bill strikes a good balance of maintaining access to care and maintaining low costs of care for patients, said Richard Roberson, the President and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association, who applauded its changes to capital expenditure limits and effort to study other impacts of certificate of need law. 

The Mississippi Healthcare Collaborative, which represents dozens of hospitals that broke away from the hospital association, did not respond to a request for comment.

During the legislative process, the Senate removed several key provisions of the bill originally approved by the House of Representatives, including those that freed certain in-demand health care services – including substance use treatment and outpatient hospital dialysis units – from being required to acquire a “certificate of need” from the state to open. The House’s version of the bill also would have streamlined the law’s appeals process. 

Raising the capital expenditure threshold, or the maximum amount hospitals can spend on capital improvements without approval, will make it easier for hospitals to purchase needed medical equipment and complete renovations without first seeking approval from the state. 

The bill also seeks to create a level playing field between the University of Mississippi Medical Center and other health care providers. For years, UMMC has been exempt from certificate of need requirements for facilities or equipment that is used for educational purposes. 

“The University of Mississippi Medical Center is establishing facilities which look a lot like facilities that other people have and using their teaching exemption to build the facilities without a certificate of need,” said Bryan March 12, citing the new clinic UMMC opened in Ridgeland this year. UMMC plans to open another clinic in Madison County in 2026. 

The final version of the bill limits UMMC’s certificate of need exemption to the area around UMMC’s main campus and the Jackson Medical Mall. 

This will also encourage the medical center to continue opening health care services in Jackson, Creekmore said. 

The medical center recently announced it will remove some services from the Jackson Medical Mall, including the cancer center, OB-GYN, and pain management. The plan has been criticized by some Jackson legislators. 

“When they (UMMC) start moving things out of the medical mall to other areas, you know, it just kind of hurts the city of Jackson,” said Creekmore. 

A spokesperson for UMMC declined to comment.   

The bill also aims to maintain psychiatric services in Jackson by granting a certificate of need to Oceans Behavioral Hospital Jackson, which re-opened St. Dominic’s shuttered mental health beds last December under new management. 

It will also put Oceans’ legal battle with Merit Health Central to bed. Merit Health, which operates a psychiatric unit in Jackson, sued Oceans last year, arguing that it violated the law by using a workaround to avoid a requirement during the certificate of need application process that the hospital spend at least 17% of its patient revenue on indigent and charity care. 

Creekmore said he hopes the bill’s provisions to study uncompensated care rates in psychiatric hospitals will help legislators address the issue of hospitals offering limited uncompensated care in the future. 

A Senate amendment on the floor that would have allowed rural emergency hospitals to open psychiatric units through a third-party entity without acquiring a certificate of need initially passed the chamber but was defeated on a motion to reconsider. 

Creekmore said his only disappointment with the final bill’s final language was its inability to address certificate of need applications’ often time-consuming and costly appeals process. Health officials argue that the appeals process can prevent needed health services from opening. 

Language in the House’s bill would have expedited the application process by ordering the Mississippi Supreme Court to appoint a special chancery judge to hear appeals and return a final decision within 120 days. 

The post Bill changing certificate of need law heads to governor appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Leavell Woods park in south Jackson used to host some of the best baseball around. 

“Everyone wanted to come to play at Leavell Woods because that’s where the competition was,” park president and coach Eric Barbour said.

Over its more than 60-year history, Leavell Woods has saved hundreds of kids’ lives, Barbour said, as home to a successful baseball little league. The park hasn’t held tournaments for over a decade, but Barbour is aiming to bring the park back to its heyday.

“When you have kids out there that are getting in trouble at 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, they have nothing to do. That’s the problem. They don’t have strong and positive mentors these days to try to steer them away from trouble,” Barbour said.

After years of neglect, churches and community members pooled resources and elbow grease in 2022 to renovate the fields so Barbour could begin recruiting players again with spring training camps. The volunteers replaced the tops of the dugouts with aluminum, erected new batting cages and gave the structures a fresh coat of paint. But more investments are needed to make it a safe place for play, Barbour said, especially new floodlights.

Rep. Grace Butler-Washington, D-Jackson, is seeking $150,000 in funding from the state Legislature this session for such additions at Leavell Woods. Similarly, Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, is asking for up to $4 million to renovate various community centers, senior citizen centers and gymnasiums across the city.

Rep. Earle Banks, D-Jackson, has requested $2.2 million for urgent upgrades at the city’s airport, such as new escalators, and Rep. Zakiyah Summers, D-Jackson, wants to see $100,000 go towards infrastructure improvements at the Boys and Girls Club on Capitol Street in west Jackson.

These are the kinds of requests that lawmakers from across the state make every session, often by filing individual bills that quickly die. They then try to get the appropriations included in the large projects bill, known as the Christmas tree bill because of the gifts it provides local communities across the state. House and Senate leadership craft this legislation just before they leave the Capitol for the year. 

But proportionate to its size, Jackson is frequently shortchanged by the end-of-session earmark legislation, a process driven by politics as opposed to studied need. In the past three sessions, Jackson, the state’s largest city with a population around 150,000, has received just $5.9 million for improvement projects. That’s in comparison to $38.6 million for the 28,000-resident Tate County, the home of House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, Mississippi Today reported in its 2024 investigation on earmarks.

When Jackson does receive love in the projects bill, Gov. Tate Reeves is apt to strike appropriations for the Capital City, such as $1 million for the downtown planetarium, which lawmakers have passed and Reeves has vetoed multiple times.

A Christmas tree bill hasn’t been released yet as the 2025 session nears its end. There is talk about the Senate blocking passage of one this year over its fight with the House over eliminating the state income tax. In years past, lawmakers have forgone a projects bill, either over political differences or because the state couldn’t afford to pay for or borrow for the spending.

Having hired an aggressive lobbyist this year, city of Jackson leaders crafted an ambitious 2025 legislative agenda that asks for a total of almost $60 million – a pie in the sky figure.

Some of the requests include $14 million to rebuild the No. 5 station and purchase new trucks for the Jackson Fire Department, $6.4 million for continued upgrades and renovations to Thalia Mara Hall, $2 million to renovate the parking lot across the street from the Convention Center and several million for improvements to various park and community centers.

Christmas tree spending is done with the political spoils system – areas with the most powerful lawmakers reap the rewards, and Republicans control state government with supermajorities in the Legislature. With its mostly Democratic city leadership and legislative delegation, Jackson typically gets scraps.

While Speaker of the House Jason White set up the Select Committee on Capital and Metro Revitalization last summer to study ways the Legislature can bring improvements to Jackson, lawmakers said the Senate, led by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, hasn’t been as receptive to requests.

“We’re cautiously optimistic as we get ready for the final days of the session,” the city’s lobbyist Donna Echols said Tuesday. “We have momentum coming from the House side and hope that the Senate picks up the slack and helps push some of these issues through for the Capital City.”

Bell said that during a meeting Tuesday, White supported appropriating the portion of the delegation’s request for the Jackson airport dealing with building new escalators. “The speaker is on board with it 100%, it’s just the other end of the hall,” he said.

Bell said he believes the contention greatly stems from a years-long fight between the city and state over control of the airport, which started under former Gov. Phil Bryant and continued under current Gov. Reeves.

“Delbert (Hosemann) and Tate (Reeves) despise the city of Jackson. They despise the leadership of the city of Jackson. That’s what it all boils down to,” Bell said.

Last year’s federal bribery indictment against Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, to which he’s pleaded not guilty, hasn’t helped.

Has that discouraged Jackson lawmakers from pressing? “Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” Bell said. “We are going forward with what we’re requesting and we’re gonna keep requesting.”

Hosemann, the only statewide official whose personal home is in the city of Jackson, pointed to past years of legislative spending when asked about the project requests this session.

“We recognize and prioritize the primary needs of every municipality,” Hosemann said in a statement on Tuesday. “Since 2020, the legislature has allocated over $40 million for projects for the City of Jackson, supporting infrastructure, tourism, safety, and more. Additionally, $30 million in ARPA funds have been designated for the Jackson area. I remain committed to supporting our capital city by addressing critical issues such as the Property Cleanup Revolving Fund, to remove dilapidated properties, as well as other pressing needs.”

If there’s anything Capital City and state leaders can get on the same page about, it’s the need to clean up dilapidated, abandoned structures across the city. Leaders recognize blight both hampers economic development and invites crime.

“It’s a double-edged sword if you don’t get things cleaned up,” Echols said.

Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, who sat on the revitalization committee, introduced three policy changes to address blight – speeding up the process for the Secretary of State to assume tax-forfeited properties, utilizing Land Maintenance Records Funds to clean and maintain these parcels, and giving tax incentives to developers willing to tackle them. While the House passed the bills, the first two died in the Senate and the chambers are still negotiating on the third regarding tax incentives, Echols said.

The policy changes don’t provide the resources Jackson needs to clean up the roughly 1,900 state-owned tax forfeited property in the city – a large driver of Jackson’s blight. That funding has come in piecemeal appropriations.

Last session, Butler-Washington and Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr., D-Jackson, who both represent parts of south Jackson, successfully teamed up to secure $250,000 in the projects bill to demolish the abandoned Coca-Cola bottling plant Gipson Grocery Store buildings on Highway 80 in south Jackson, work that is getting underway today. 

“These are quality of life issues for me,” said Crudup, who also filed several bills for improvements to Forest Hill, Livingston, Sykes and Flowers parks.

City officials are making its biggest legislative request this session – a whopping $25 million – for blight removal, including $20 million for residential and $5 million for expensive, complex commercial demolition.

“It’s easy to get a lot of support for doing something about blight, now you’ve got to be able to turn that support into funding, and that’s sort of the big challenge,” said Jackson City Councilman Ashby Foote.

The city’s figure is far-fetched, but Butler-Washington said it’s been helpful to point to the blight removal underway in south Jackson while discussing additional requests with legislative leadership this year. The city solicited bids for the demolition last fall and announced in late February that the crews would begin work shortly. 

“In general, but specifically for Jackson, the question comes about when we talk about requesting funding for certain things within the city, ‘What is the city doing with that funding?’ Or, ‘What have they done with what we have given them so far?’” Butler-Washington said. “… So it was great to be able to say, ‘Here’s where we are with that funding. The city of Jackson is utilizing money to do this particular project on Highway 80.’”

“Every area of the city has needs, and so just being able to have some accountability for the funding that we are requesting, it goes a long way,” she added.

State-owned tax forfeited blighted property in the Capital City isn’t the only area where Jackson lawmakers believe the state has a responsibility to contribute to the solution.

While the city is asking for $5.5 million to build a new No. 5 Fire Station – the station that serves the state’s only teaching hospital and Level 1 Trauma Center – Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson has another proposal: funding for the University of Mississippi Medical Center to build its own station, which the Jackson Fire Department would operate.

“The state does not have a fire department. The medical center, if there’s fire, or a state building catches on fire, they’re going to call the Jackson Fire Department and the Jackson Fire Department is going to respond,” Blount said. “The state should shoulder some of the responsibility for financial support to the fire department it relies on.”

Blount’s bill to do this also died. If Jackson doesn’t receive its requests in the projects bill historically hashed out in this part of the session, or if the leadership forgoes the legislation altogether, it’ll have to wait until next year to take a shot at this avenue of funding.

Blount looked at it another way: 2025 being a quiet legislative session for Jackson has been a reprieve. Inattention is better than the alternative, when in recent years, sessions have been dominated by what Jackson describes as “state takeovers” – efforts to wrest assets from the city, such as the airport and the historic Smith Wills Stadium, or expand state police jurisdiction to more Jackson neighborhoods.

“I’ve been happy that this session, the state Legislature has focused on state issues and not bills that attempt to take away the rights of people of Jackson to decide city related issues,” Blount said. “There is a municipal election this year and the last few years has been dominated by Jackson-related legislation, much of it bad, and I think for the Legislature to take a year off from that has been a good thing and to let the people of Jackson decide without outside interference about who they want their elected leaders to be.”

Back in south Jackson, Barbour is looking forward to the day kids in his neighborhood become acclimated to Leavell Woods Park and he has enough players to start a league again. Some of his former players are eager to help him spearhead the effort.

“It’s important to me to have them back out there and give the kids something to do, to let them know that people care about them and to teach them good things through sports and build character in them,” Barbour said. “… The impact of a coach helps the kids through their life.”

Meanwhile, other cities and small towns across the state are enjoying the millions they received just last year to improve their recreation spaces, such as:

• $2 million for a new amphitheater at a park in Gautier, population 19,000
• $500,000 for upgrades to a 17-field baseball park in Southaven, a suburb of Memphis
• $500,000 for the construction of a recreation center in Wilkinson County, population 9,000
• $150,000 for improvement and operation of the Tammy Wynette Legacy Center at a park in Tremont, population 300
• $600,000 for improvements to a sports park in Senatobia, population 8,000 and Rep. Lamar’s hometown

The city of Jackson’s 2025 legislative request of nearly $60 million includes:

• $25 million for residential and commercial blight elimination
• $14.3 million for the Jackson Fire Department for new trucks, funding to rebuild Fire Station No. 5 and other equipment
• $8 million for Human & Cultural Services, including upgrades and renovations to Thalia Mara Hall
• $7.2 million for Parks & Recreation
• $2 million to renovate the parking lot across the street from the Convention Center
• $1.2 million for Jackson Police Department vehicles and license plate readers
• $1.5 million for road widening at Northwest Industrial Park
• $380,000 for cybersecurity

Among the asks for parks and recreation include:

• Park security, tree removal and playground equipment
• $1.8 million for Pickleball courts
• $1.9 million for Buddy Butts Park bridge replacement and restoration of the Pearl River Basin Model
• $2 million for the Pete Brown Golf Course
• $650,000 for community centers and Mynelle Gardens

Most of the requests were based on memos that individual city departments – Jackson Police Department, Jackson Fire Department, Parks & Recreation, Human & Cultural Services and Information Technology – sent to the mayor detailing their legislative wishes.

Politics Editor Geoff Pender contributed to this report.

The post Replacing blight with baseball: Jackson puts Legislature on notice of its multi-million dollar needs appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Ties that bind, not lines that divide, at the heart of “Little Women” are what make Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel such an enduring classic. More than a century and a half since its 1868 publication, the March sisters’ coming-of-age tale continues to resonate in fresh approaches, say cast and crew in a musical version opening this week at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Mississippi.

“Little Women, The Broadway Musical” adds songs to Alcott’s story of the four distinct March sisters — traditional, lovely Meg, spirited tomboy and writer Jo, quiet and gentle Beth, and artistic, pampered Amy. They are growing into young women under the watchful eye of mother Marmee as their father serves as an Army chaplain in the Civil War. “Little Women, The Broadway Musical” performances run March 25 through April 6 at New Stage Theatre.

In a serendipitous move, the production coincides with Women’s History Month in March, and has a female director at the helm — Malaika Quarterman, in her New Stage Theatre directing debut. Logistics and scheduling preferences landed the musical in March, to catch school matinees with the American classic.

The novel has inspired myriad adaptations in film, TV, stage and opera, plus literary retellings by other authors. This musical version debuted on Broadway in 2005, with music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and book (script) by Allan Knee. 

“The music in this show brings out the heart of the characters in a way that a movie or a straight play, or even the book, can’t do,” said Cameron Vipperman, whose play-within-a-play role helps illustrate the writer Jo’s growth in the story. She read the book at age 10, and now embraces how the musical dramatizes, speeds up and reconstructs the timeline for more interest and engagement.

“What a great way to introduce kids that haven’t read the book,” director Quarterman said, hitting the highlights and sending them to the pages for a deeper dive on characters they fell in love with over the two-and-a-half-hour run time.

Joy, familial warmth, love, courage, loss, grief and resilience are all threads in a story that has captivated generations and continues to find new audiences and fresh acclaim (the 2019 film adaptation by Greta Gerwig earned six Academy Award nominations). 

In current contentious times, when diversity, equity and inclusion programs are being ripped out or rolled back, the poignant, women-centered narrative maintains a power to reach deep and unite. 

“Stories where females support each other, instead of rip each other apart to get to the finish line — which would be the goal of getting the man or something — are very few and far between sometimes,” Quarterman said. “It’s so special because it was written so long ago, with the writer being such a strong dreamer, and dreaming big for women.

“For us to actualize it, where a female artistic producer chooses this show and believes in a brand new female director and then this person gets to empower these great, local, awesome artists — It’s just really been special to see this story and its impact ripple through generations of dreamers.” For Quarterman, a 14-year drama teacher with Jackson Public Schools active in community theater and professional regional theater, “To be able to tell this story here, for New Stage, is pretty epic for me.”

Alcott’s story is often a touchstone for young girls, and this cast of grown women finds much in the source material that they still hold dear, and that resonates in new ways.

“I relate to Jo more than any other fictional character that exists,” Kristina Swearingen said of her character, the central figure Jo March. “At different parts of my life, I have related to her in different parts of hers.” 

The Alabama native, more recently of New York, recalled her “energetic, crazy, running-around-having-a-grand-old-time” youth in high school and college, then a career-driven purpose that led her, like Jo, to move to New York. 

Swearingen first did this show in college, before the loss of grandparents and a major move. Now, “I know what it’s like to grieve the loss of a loved one, and to live so far away from home, and wanting to go home and be with your family but also wanting to be in a place where your career can take off. .. It hits a lot closer to home.”

As one of four sisters in real life, Frannie Dean of Flora draws on a wealth of memories in playing Beth — including her own family position as next to the youngest of the girls. She and siblings read the story together in their homeschooled childhood, assigning each other roles. 

“Omigosh, this is my life,” she said, chuckling. “We would play pretend all day. … ‘Little Women’ is really sweet in that aspect, to really be able to carry my own experience with my family and bring it into the show. … It’s timeless in its nature, its warmth and what it brings to people.”

Jennifer Smith of Clinton, as March family matriarch Marmee, found her way in through a song. First introduced to Marmee’s song “Here Alone” a decade ago when starting voice lessons as an adult, she made it her own. “It became an audition piece for me. It became a dream role for me. It’s been pivotal in opening up doors for me.” 

She relishes aging into this role, countering a common fear of women in the entertainment field that they may “age out” of desirable parts. “It’s just a full-circle moment for me, and I’m grateful for it.”

Quarterman fell in love with the 1969 film version she watched with her sister when they were little, adoring the family’s playfulness and stability. Amid teenage angst, she identified with the inevitable growth and change that came with siblings growing up and moving on. Being a mom brings a whole different lens. 

“Seeing these little people in your life just growing up, being their own unique versions, all going through their own arc — it’s just fun, and I think that’s why you can stay connected” to the story at any life juncture, she said.

Cast member Slade Haney pointed out the rarity of a story set on a Northeastern homestead during the Civil War. 

“You’re getting to see what it was like for the women whose husbands were away at war — how moms struggled, how sisters struggled. You had to make your own means. … I think both men and women can see themselves in these characters, in wanting to be independent like Jo, or like Amy wanting to have something of value that belongs to you and not just just feel like you’re passed over all the time, and Meg, to be valuable to someone else, and in Beth, for everyone to be happy and content and love each other,” Haney said.

New Stage Theatre Artistic Director Francine Reynolds drew attention, too, to the rarity of an American classic for the stage offering an abundance of women’s roles that can showcase Jackson metro’s talent pool. “We just always have so many great women,” she said, and classics — “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Death of a Salesman,” for instance — often offer fewer parts for them, though contemporary dramas are more balanced.

Reynolds sees value in the musical’s timing and storyline. “Of course, we need to celebrate the contributions of women. This was a woman who was trying to be a writer in 1865, ’66, ’67. That’s, to me, a real trailblazing thing.

“It is important to show, this was a real person — Louisa May Alcott, personified as Jo. It’s important to hold these people up as role models for other young girls, to show that you can do this, too. You can dream your dream. You can strive to break boundaries.” 

It is a key reminder of advancements that may be threatened. “We’ve made such strides,” Reynolds said, “and had so many great programs to open doors for people, that I feel like those doors are going to start closing, just because of things you are allowed to say and things you aren’t allowed.”

For tickets, $50 (discounts for seniors, students, military), visit www.newstagetheatre.com or the New Stage Theatre box office, or call 601-948-3533.

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Tracy Harden stood outside her Chuck’s Dairy Bar in Rolling Fork, teary eyed, remembering not the EF-4 tornado that nearly wiped the town off the map two years before. Instead, she became emotional, “even after all this time,” she said, thinking of the overwhelming help people who’d come from all over selflessly offered.

“We’re back now, she said, smiling. “People have been so kind.”

“I stepped out of that cooler two years ago and saw everything, and I mean, everything was just… gone,” she said, her voice trailing off. “My God, I thought. What are we going to do now? But people came and were so giving. It’s remarkable, and such a blessing.”

“And to have another one come on almost the exact date the first came,” she said, shaking her head. “I got word from these young storm chasers I’d met. He told me they were tracking this one, and it looked like it was coming straight for us in Rolling Fork.”

“I got up and went outside.”

“And there it was!”

“I cannot tell you what went through me seeing that tornado form in the sky.”

The tornado that touched down in Rolling Fork last Sunday did minimal damage and claimed no lives.

Horns honk as people travel along U.S. 61. Harden smiles and waves.

She heads back into her restaurant after chatting with friends to resume grill duties as people, some local, some just passing through town, line up for burgers and ice cream treats.

Rolling Fork is mending, slowly. Although there is evidence of some rebuilding such as new homes under construction, many buildings like the library and post office remain boarded up and closed. A brutal reminder of that fateful evening two years ago.

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George Foreman, surely one of the world’s most intriguing and transformative sports figures of the 20th century, died over the weekend at the age of 76. Please indulge me a few memories.

This was back when professional boxing was in its heyday. Muhammad Ali was heavyweight champion of the world for a second time. The lower weight divisions featured such skilled champions and future champs as Alex Arugello, Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, Tommy “Hit Man” Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Boxing was front page news all over the globe. Indeed, Ali was said to be the most famous person in the world and had stunned the boxing world by stopping the previously undefeated Foreman in an eighth round knockout in Kinshasa, Zaire, in October of 1974. Foreman, once an Olympic gold medalist at age 19, had won his previous 40 professional fights and few had lasted past the second round. Big George, as he was known, packed a fearsome punch.

My dealings with Foreman began in January of 1977, roughly 27 months after his Ali debacle with Foreman in the middle of a boxing comeback. At the time, I was the sports editor of my hometown newspaper in Hattiesburg when the news came that Foreman was going to fight a Puerto Rican professional named Pedro Agosto in Pensacola, just three hours away.

Right away, I applied for press credentials and was rewarded with a ringside seats at the Pensacola Civic Center. I thought I was going to cover a boxing match. It turned out more like an execution.

The mismatch was evident from the pre-fight introductions. Foreman towered over the 5-foot, 11-inch Agosto. Foreman had muscles on top of muscles, Agosto not so much. When they announced Agosto weighed 205 pounds, the New York sports writer next to me wise-cracked, “Yeah, well what is he going to weigh without his head?”

It looked entirely possible we might learn.

Foreman toyed with the smaller man for three rounds, almost like a full-grown German shepherd dealing with a tiny, yapping Shih Tzu. By the fourth round, Big George had tired of the yapping. With punches that landed like claps of thunder, Foreman knocked Agosto down three times. Twice, Agosto struggled to his feet after the referee counted to nine. Nearly half a century later I have no idea why Agosto got up. Nobody present– or the national TV audience – would have blamed him for playing possum. But, no, he got up the second time and stumbled over into the corner of the ring right in front of me. And that’s where he was when Foreman hit him with an evil right uppercut to the jaw that lifted the smaller man a foot off the canvas and sprayed me and everyone in the vicinity with Agosto’s blood, sweat and snot – thankfully, no brains. That’s when the ref ended it.

It remains the only time in my sports writing career I had to buy a T-shirt at the event to wear home. 

So, now, let’s move ahead 18 years to July of 1995. Foreman had long since completed his comeback by winning back the heavyweight championship. He had become a preacher. He also had become a pitch man for a an indoor grill that bore his name and would sell more than 100 million units. He was a millionaire many times over. He made far more for hawking that grill than he ever made as a fighter. He had become a beloved figure, known for his warm smile and his soothing voice. And now he was coming to Jackson to sign his biography. His publishing company called my office to ask if I’d like an interview. I said I surely would.

One day at the office, I answered my phone and the familiar voice on the other end said, “This is George Foreman and I heard you wanted to talk to me.”

I told him I wanted to talk to him about his book but first I wanted to tell him he owed me a shirt.

“A shirt?” he said. “How’s that?”

I asked him if remembered a guy named Pedro Agosto. He said he did. “Man, I really hit that poor guy,” he said.

I thought you had killed him, I said, and I then told him about all the blood and snot that ruined my shirt.

“Man, I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I’d never hit a guy like that now. I was an angry, angry man back then.”

We had a nice conversation. He told me about finding his Lord. He told me about his 12 children, including five boys, all of whom he named George.

I asked him why he would give five boys the same name.

“I never met my father until late in his life,” Big George told me. “My father never gave me nothing. So I decided I was going to give all my boys something to remember me by. I gave them all my name.”

Yes, and he named one of his girls Georgette.

We did get around to talking about his book, and you will not be surprised by its title: “By George.”

The post Remembering Big George Foreman and a poor guy named Pedro appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House Speaker Jason White acknowledged for the first time on Monday that House leaders knowingly passed a typo-riddled plan to overhaul Mississippi’s tax system that Senate leaders have since admitted was a mistake.  

White also said his Republican caucus is willing to use a still-alive Senate bill to restart negotiations on some elements of the tax overhaul that could override the bill headed to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk. The speaker appeared to underscore that last week’s typo tax snafu gave his House caucus the upper hand, and that they would extract further concessions from the Senate in exchange for restarting negotiations in a conference committee. 

House leaders have pushed for years for eliminating the state personal income tax, and doing so in relatively short order. The Senate has urged a more cautious approach, saying it’s foolhardy to slash a third of the state’s revenue in uncertain economic times. Senators last week had conceded to eliminate the income tax, but only with economic growth “triggers” as safeguards — the tax wouldn’t phase out unless the state saw robust economic growth and controlled spending.

Or so they thought. The Senate bill had typos that essentially nullified the growth triggers and would eliminate the income tax nearly as quickly as the House proposed. The House passed the flawed bill on to the governor, who said he will sign it into law.

READ MORE: Policy analyst: Income tax elimination risks significant harm to Mississippi’s future 

Speaker White on Monday confirmed for the first time when he and his caucus realized the Senate had sent them a bill with language different from what the chamber had intended to pass, even as he claimed he didn’t know what the Senate’s intentions were.  

“Wednesday is when we knew. We met and we talked about it. Then we met as a Republican caucus and talked about it. And y’all heard the debate in here as the chairman called it up to concur,” White said.  

The two chambers had appeared to remain dramatically far apart from a final compromise. White said his chamber was left in the dark by Senate leaders, who often call their chamber the “deliberative body.”

“You hear a lot about transparency, deliberateness,” White said. “It really wasn’t until after they passed it that were able to look at it, and they certainly didn’t talk to us about it on the front end.”

White said the Senate had communicated through multiple channels, including Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, that the bill the upper chamber sent over would be their final offer. So he said the House to take the Senate at its word and send the bill with the Senate’s mistake to the governor.   

“They said that’s it, we’re not going any further, we’ve barely got the votes, that sort of thing,”White said. “So that played into our decision. So do we take this, take them at their word that this is it, or do we invite conference and see if they can get this fragile vote count together again on their end?” 

The House on Thursday morning surprised the Senate, unaware of its typos, by voting to agree with the Senate’s latest plan. 

But lobbyists, legislators and the media soon discovered the reason the House hurried to pass the Senate plan is because senators inadvertently inserted decimal points that essentially rendered the growth triggers meaningless and would almost ensure a quicker timeline for eliminating the income tax.

“After they passed it, we got theirs amended and sent to them, then we sat down and started looking at theirs, and we, I mean, it’s page six and seven,” White said. “It’s the first thing you see when you get into the meat of the bill … So it was pretty apparent once you read it, you’re like ‘that trigger doesn’t seem as cumbersome as what has been explained or talked about.’ So we’re like, we can live with this.”

Now, Senate leaders are hoping they can convince the House to correct the mistake, but it appears that might not be an easy sell with the House. 

“We are willing to talk about a reasonable trigger, but not a cumbersome trigger that nobody can ever hit,” White said. “Of course, if we’re going to revisit that, there are other features of the tax reform package that we would certainly like to address as well.”

Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told Mississippi Today he would not talk about the bill and deferred comments to Harkins, the chamber’s lead tax-cut architect. Hosemann last week feigned ignorance about the typo and tried to claim victory over the final product. 

On Monday, Harkins, a Republican from Flowood, took responsibility for the error but said he hoped House leaders would work with the Senate to “clarify any ambiguity” about the “growth trigger” language because it was not what the Senate meant to propose to the House.  

But it appears House leaders, who have expressed frustration with the GOP-majority Senate this year for killing a lot of its major policy proposals, want the Senate to reverse course and pass some policies that they have otherwise been hesitant to agree to. 

If negotiations were to resume, the House hopes to use its leverage to force the Senate into adopting its preferred approach to changing the structure of the Public Employees Retirement System, which had been a key wedge issue between the chambers in their negotiations over tax reform. The Senate wants to cut benefits for future public employees while the House wants to divert about $100 million a year in state lottery money to the system. 

Harkins was not asked about White’s specific comments on the public employee retirement system. Still, he told reporters, in general terms, he did not think there was any appetite in the Senate to dedicate a recurring revenue stream to the retirement system. 

The Rankin County senator stopped shy of rebuking House leaders for how they handled the tax bill, as some have done behind the scenes. But he questioned whether his fellow GOP House colleagues “worked in good faith” to deliver a final compromise. 

“In legislating, when you’re asked to work in good faith to help get to a position, and you do so, I think there should be some mutual respect on both sides,” Harkins said. “We’re both trying to get to a policy that we can both agree on.” 

When asked if he was concerned senators might feel burned by the House leadership, White said: “If they were misled, it was on that end of the building. There was no misleading from down here. They amended our bill as they saw fit.”

Harkins also said that he met with Lamar, his House counterpart, sometime around Friday, March 14, to discuss what the Senate planned to propose regarding trigger language, though he was still ironing out specific details. The two chambers then passed their different proposals the following Tuesday. 

Gov. Reeves has said on social media that he intends to pass the mistake-filled bill into law. The growth triggers, under the plan, would not take effect for four years. So lawmakers could try and address the mistakes in future sessions. 

Given the four-year window before triggers would take effect, White said legislators didn’t necessarily have to reach an agreement. They could instead tweak the bill when “you would conceivably have other leadership in place.” 

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