OurTupelo

Mississippi State and Ole Miss will both face familiar rivals in NCAA Baseball Super Regionals; this weekend. State plays at Georgia. Ole Miss plays at Auburn. The two winners advance to the College World Series. The Clevelands also discuss what happened to Southern Miss, which is what happened to so many national seeds in NCAA Regionals last week. Today’s show also touches on the NBA championship series,, the College Softball World Series, the legacy of Vic Purvis, and Pearl River Community College’s national championships in both baseball and softball.

Stream all episodes here.

In 2022, Dyamone White, then in her late 20s, filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that Black voters like her didn’t have a fair chance to elect justices to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Three years later, she won a significant victory. A federal judge ruled that Mississippi Supreme Court election districts violated the Voting Rights Act and that Black candidates who wanted to run for the state’s highest court were unlikely to succeed. U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock instructed lawmakers to draw a new map to give Black voters more power, with court-ordered special elections to follow, likely this fall.

“WE WON,” White wrote in a social media post that day in August 2025. “This isn’t just a personal victory — it’s a win for every Mississippian who has waited too long for fair representation. I became a plaintiff because I refused to accept that our state’s highest court could exclude the very people it serves. Today, that changes.”

But that change still hasn’t happened — and a recent seismic ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court means it may never happen.

In late April, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Louisiana v. Callais that dramatically weakened the Voting Rights Act, making it much harder for racial minorities to win voting discrimination lawsuits.

The decision further intensified a mid-decade redistricting war that’s been spreading across the country ahead of the congressional elections in the fall. But the decision affects politics beyond the federal level. The now-upended court battle about Mississippi’s judicial elections will serve as an early test of whether voting rights plaintiffs can still mount a convincing case in some circumstances.

In May, a federal appeals court vacated Aycock’s ruling from last year after the plaintiffs and defendants agreed that the Callais decision had dramatically changed the legal landscape.

That removed the state’s obligation to draw a new court map. It also eliminated the possibility that the state would hold special elections for its Supreme Court seats this fall, ending Black voters’ hope that 2026 may yield fairer representation at the top of the state’s judiciary. The case will now head back to Aycock’s court for new arguments under the higher standard created by the Callais decision.

The plaintiffs still see a path forward to win new maps. Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center argue on behalf of White and her fellow plaintiffs that they can still prevail under that new standard.

Looking to the court battles ahead, White is also looking back. She is from the tiny town of Edwards, a rural community near the state’s capital city region, and she recites its history of Black resistance to oppression, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond.

“It’s an area that is resilient,” White said. “The people I grew up around, they were all fighters.”

The Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965, was a key tool in dismantling the Jim Crow regime of White supremacy that blocked Black residents from ballot box access in Mississippi and across the South.

Among other provisions, the law prohibited states from diluting the voting power of racial minorities and required that those voters have an opportunity to elect candidates of their choosing.

So, with Callais decided, what’s changed?

When plaintiffs filed suit over the Mississippi Supreme Court voting districts in 2022, they had to show a violation of the law only by pointing to discriminatory effects of the voting districts in use, regardless of what the original architects of those districts may have intended.

Those effects? Black people make up about 38% of Mississippi’s population, but the state has just one Black justice currently sitting on its nine-member Supreme Court. Only four Black justices have ever been on the court, all serving since 1985 and never more than one at a time. All four first reached the court through a gubernatorial appointment to fill a vacancy.

That has meant very little Black representation on a body that interprets state laws and the state constitution, hears appeals in criminal and civil cases and has some control over the operations of lower courts.

With no need to delve into the intention of the legislators who created the current districts in the late 1980s, Aycock, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the Mississippi Supreme Court districts as drawn have the effect of diluting Black voting power, violating the Voting Rights Act.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in the Callais case, however, sets a higher standard. A Voting Rights Act violation may now be found “only when circumstances give rise to a strong inference that intentional discrimination occurred.”

Legal experts have said that proving intentional discrimination is challenging — made even more difficult by the Alito opinion’s endorsement of partisan gerrymandering as a legitimate purpose of redistricting. The conservative justice wrote that states can now defend themselves against race dilution claims by arguing that Black districts are being eliminated not because of racist motivations but partisan ones since Black voters have typically supported Democratic candidates.

States like Louisiana and Tennessee have moved to quickly eliminate Black-majority Congressional districts. They will likely defend their new maps as partisan gerrymanders, not racially motivated ones.

“It’s going to be just lightning-strike rare for a Voting Rights Act claim to work where partisanship is permitted,” said Justin Levitt, a former Department of Justice official and election law expert who teaches at Loyola Marymount University Law School.

However, Mississippi Supreme Court elections are nonpartisan, and that may make a meaningful difference in the current litigation, said Amir Badat, a civil rights lawyer who has argued a number of voting rights claims in the state.

Badat said that even under Callais, lawmakers may not be able to hide behind partisan intent to shield themselves from judicial scrutiny.

“In this kind of narrow circumstance, you still have viable Section 2 claims,” said Badat, referencing the section of the Voting Rights Act that bans discriminatory election practices.

Levitt agrees that voting rights cases in nonpartisan elections may still be possible to win under Callais, though he added that the overall impact of the decision likely makes even those cases quite difficult.

While the legal standard may have changed, White, the lawsuit’s lead plaintiff, says one thing has not: The reality faced by Black voters who want to see a fair state Supreme Court map.

“We laid out the facts of representation in the state. You can’t deny that, “ White said. “We can go back to court again, and the facts remain the same. Representation is not equal.”

This article was produced in collaboration with Bolts, a nonprofit publication that covers criminal justice and voting rights in local governments; sign up for their newsletter.

A topsy-turvy regional round in the NCAA baseball tournament has set up an intriguing set of eight super regionals featuring seven teams from the Southeastern Conference, just one from the Atlantic Coast Conference and four mid-major programs.

Nine of the 16 national seeds advanced to super regionals but conspicuously absent are the top two, UCLA and Georgia Tech. Two No. 4 regional seeds, Little Rock and St. John’s, reached the tournament’s second weekend for the first time.

Four of the best-of-three supers are Friday through Sunday: Cal Poly (39-22) at No. 16 national seed West Virginia (43-15); Little Rock (39-26) at Troy (36-30); Southern California (47-16) at No. 5 North Carolina (48-11-1); and Mississippi (39-21) at No. 4 Auburn (42-20).

The four series Saturday through Monday: Oklahoma (36-22) at No. 15 Kansas (45-16); St. John’s (36-24) at No. 7 Alabama (40-19); No. 11 Oregon (43-16) at No. 6 Texas (43-13); and No. 14 Mississippi State (43-17) at No. 3 Georgia (49-12).

The eight winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, starting June 12.

2025 CWS teams all gone

None of the 2025 CWS teams will be back in Omaha after Arkansas, Coastal Carolina, Oregon State and UCLA were eliminated in regionals. The other four CWS teams from last year — Arizona, Louisville, national champion LSU and Murray State — did not make the NCAA Tournament.

This marks the first time no teams from the previous year’s CWS reached super regionals. It will be the second straight CWS with no teams from the previous year after there had been at least one in every CWS from 1957-2024.

SEC bounces back

The SEC had seven of its 12 tournament teams get through regionals after having only four of 13 do so last year. College baseball’s most powerful conference has produced the last six national champions, 11 of the last 16 and have had a team in 15 of the last 16 CWS finals.

The SEC is assured of having two teams in the CWS and could have a record-tying four.

ACC flops

The ACC had the No. 2 conference RPI and had nine teams in regionals. Only one, North Carolina, made it through. Prior to this year, the ACC had never had fewer than two teams in super regionals. The Tar Heels went 3-0 in their regional and if they make it to Omaha, they’ll play for the ACC’s third national title in baseball and first since 2015.

First-timers in supers

Cal Poly, Kansas, Little Rock and Troy will be making their super regional debuts.

Big West Tournament champion Cal Poly was the No. 3 seed in the Los Angeles Regional and beat Virginia Tech once and St. Mary’s twice. Mustangs pitchers combined for a 1.33 ERA in the three games and Nick Bonn earned his nation-leading 16th and 17th saves. Casey Murray batted .583 (7 for 12).

It’s old home week for Kansas, which hosts former longtime conference mate Oklahoma after overcoming a five-run deficit to beat Arkansas 13-10 in the regional final. The Jayhawks’ 45 wins are tied with the program record set by the 1993 CWS team, and they’ve hit a school-record 110 homers.

Little Rock of the Ohio Valley and Troy of the Sun Belt are paired against each other for a battle of the Trojans. One surely will be adopted as the local fan favorite in Omaha (think 2025 Murray State, 2023 Oral Roberts, etc.)

Little Rock, which reached a regional final a year ago, broke through with three straight wins as the No. 4 regional seed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Blake Simpson was regional MVP after going 8 for 14 with a double, triple, homer and four RBIs.

Troy, one of the last four teams to receive an at-large bid, went to Florida and outscored the Gators 26-13 over two games to advance. Regional MVP Jabe Boroff homered four times and drove in 12 runs over five games in Gainesville.

It’s been a while, Johnnies

Big East champion St. John’s heads to Alabama after one of the most surprising regional runs. The Red Storm went 3-0 in Tallahassee, Florida, to advance to supers for the first time since 2012. They’ll be playing for their first CWS berth since 1980.

St. John’s was the first team since 2023 to win three games in a regional when trailing by multiple runs. Adam Agresti’s two-out grand slam in the fifth inning Monday sent the Red Storm to a 5-4 win over Florida State, Agresti also homered in a 6-5 win over the Seminoles on Friday.

Year of the catcher

The deep pool of talent at catcher will be on display across the country.

SEC player of the year Daniel Jackson of Georgia is batting .396 and is fourth nationally with 29 homers and 83 RBIs. Then there’s Texas’ Carson Tinney (.333, 21 HRs, 56 RBIs); Auburn’s Chase Fralick (.321, 20 HRs, 60 RBIs); St. John’s Adam Agresti (19 HRs, 54 RBIs); Oklahoma’s Deiten Lachance (14 HRs, 58 RBIs); West Virginia’s Gavin Kelly (.381, 16 HRs, 56 RBIs); Cal Poly’s Ryan Tayman (.362, 18 HRs, 56 RBIs); and Troy’s Jimmy Janicki (.349, 23 doubles, 85 RBIs).

Two possible top-10 picks in the MLB amateur draft, Georgia Tech’s Vahn Lackey and Arkansas’ Ryan Helfrick, didn’t make super regionals.

Home field advantage

Since the tournament went to its current format in 1999, the team hosting a super regional on its home field has won 69.3% of the time. That’s 142 of 205 and does not include three series that were played at neutral sites.

CANTON — Lakiska Garrett wanted a different school for her granddaughter. She said her granddaughter cried each day she had  to go to the local public elementary school,  where she felt ignored and overwhelmed. Then a kindergartener, the girl would sometimes play sick or lie on the floor. 

Once, she fell to the ground and cried at the school drop-off because she didn’t want to enter her classroom, Garrett said.

When SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy, a charter school, opened in Canton in 2023, Garrett was excited. She enrolled her grandchild in the first grade at SR1 CPSA and saw her succeed. She was able to read with higher proficiency and make her way confidently through math worksheets.

“All my grandbaby needed was someone to be hands-on and take their time,” Garrett said. “I believe if I would have left her in public school that she’d probably have failing grades.”

Now the state may revoke the school’s charter because of numerous concerns with its leadership, including severe fiscal mismanagement.

In December, the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board began the process of shuttering SR1 CPSA after regulators found the school had one day’s cash on hand, turned in multiple late financial audits and had over-projected its enrollment for a third year. Regulators also said they have evidence of food safety issues in the cafeteria in violation of federal standards.

Regulators also expressed academic concerns about SR1 CPSA during a May hearing. Seven out of 11 Individualized Education Plans, or IEPs, were missing parent signatures, according to Dillon Pitts, charter school authorizer board attorney. These plans outline how school officials are accommodating a student’s disability. The board also claimed to not have received documentation for who supplied the school curriculum.

Amid the fight about the schools’ future, parents and some SR1 CPSA employees said they’re in the dark about what’s going on and why. 

Thursday, at an event that school officials organized to discuss the situation, some SR1 CPSA employees asked if they would still have jobs in the fall. Parents asked for suggestions of how they could advocate for the school. Some questioned why the authorizer board was moving to close the school. Parents, guardians and one employee said they’ve had minimal direct communication from state officials about the situation. One employee shared that school leaders have provided minimal communication about the charter revocation proceedings, too. 

They also expressed anxiety at losing one of the few alternatives to the local public school district. They said their kids enjoyed the more experiential approach to learning, which they say involves more projects and science experiments. School officials organized the event to dispel misconceptions about the charter revocation process, which still may culminate with the school’s closure.

Ozie Smith, whose daughters attend SR1 CPSA,  said she has felt ignored at charter authorizer board meetings about the school. She wishes state leaders and regulators would consider parent perspectives more. She recalled a cold reception from charter authorizer board members when she explained how impactful the more experimental curriculum had been for her daughters.

Authorizer board Executive Director Lisa Karmacharya told Mississippi Today that it’s school officials’ responsibility, and not the agency’s, to communicate with a charter school’s stakeholders before the board takes action. Charter schools are public, and public school boards are tasked with keeping the public informed on actions, spending and other updates as outlined in state law.

“Our responsibility and our contract is with the governing board who has the responsibility to oversee and communicate with the school until the charter board takes action to actually close the school, and then there would be responsibility on both ends,” Karmacharya said. 

The charter contract requires that governing authorities keep a record of all action taken by the school as well as all corporate affairs. In the case of SR1 CPSA, that would be the board of SR1 (Scientific Research), the Ridgeland-based nonprofit organization run by Tamu Green that operates the charter school. 

Some parents say embattled charter school was a ‘godsend’

After the recent event at SR1 CPSA, some parents and guardians lamented losing an alternative to the local public school district. Garrett said she would rather homeschool than send her granddaughter back to the local public schools. Three other SR1 CPSA parents said they have the same plan.

Smith said a representative from the Canton Public School District called her two months into the beginning of the 2023-24 school year to ask why her daughter hadn’t shown up for classes. Smith was shocked that the district just realized she was enrolled elswhere. She said she knew at that moment she had made the right choice for her kids.

SR1 CPSA is for parents that “want something different for their child,” Smith would tell other Canton parents with students enrolled in the local public schools. In the public schools, they were “only teaching the kids how to pass the state test.”

For Garrett and Smith, SR1 CPSA has been a “godsend.” Around 88% of the school’s roughly 19 third-graders passed their state reading tests this year. Garrett said her granddaughter has learned how to read faster than her own children did. 

Smith was one of the first parents to enroll her child in kindergarten at SR1 CPSA. She also went door-to-door to recruit local parents. She said she was met with much resistance because locals have a lot of pride for their hometown public schools. 

Canton Public School District elementary schools have improved their test scores in the last five years. Two elementary schools in the district received a B on the state accountability model last year, while one received an A. SR1 CPSA enrolls 98 students, while roughly 3,142 students attend district schools. 

Some parents sought out SR1 CPSA for its curriculum geared toward careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — or STEM.

Three parents and grandparents who left Canton public schools for SR1 CPSA said bullying is common in the district, and they accused district leaders of playing favorites when disciplining students. Canton public schools also reported 90 incidents of violence during the 2023-2024 school year, which is the most recent year with data available. Beverly Luckett, a spokesperson for Canton schools, declined to comment.

Smith told Mississippi Today her children had a different experience at SR1 CPSA. She said its teachers and administrators are largely not from Canton. She said they’ve exposed her daughters to new career pathways like engineering and got them thinking early about their futures.

“We needed things to make our kids think differently,” Smith said. “This is college prep. They’re thinking about college.”

Some SR1 CPSA parents said they want to help the school and be better advocates. 

Smith told Mississippi Today she wishes she was better informed about the figures and data on which the charter authorizer board based its decision to start the process of shuttering the school. The authorizer board cited late audits, over-projected enrollments, lack of adequate documentation for spending, incomplete recordkeeping and food safety issues as some grounds for closure.

“We don’t have as many options in Canton, and that’s the issue,” Smith said. “I really wish that they could see it from our eyes so they can let us know what we can do, if we can do anything to change their decision.”

Volunteers with the Zoo Area Progressive Partnership, a nonprofit led by west Jackson residents, were shocked when they pulled up to the Jackson Zoo to find families lined up at the ticket booth. 

It was 9:50 a.m. on Saturday. The zoo – and its renovated splash pad – wouldn’t open for another 10 minutes. 

“We’re excited that y’all are here,” said Heather Logan, a ZAPP board member, who took a video on her phone to remember the moment. 

A number of events on Saturday drew families from across the metro area to the Jackson Zoo – from Pocahontas to Pearl – including many who said they couldn’t remember the last time they’d visited. About 175 people went to the zoo last weekend, Logan said. 

The turnout encouraged volunteers, local leaders, city officials and zoo employees who’ve been working to revitalize the struggling west Jackson attraction. Earlier this year, Jackson Mayor John Horhn announced his Planning and Development department would seek developers for the Jackson Zoo and the adjoining Livingston Park, but the city has yet to open bids. 

Nonetheless, improvements are underway. After three years, kids can once again wade in the bright-blue splash pad, featuring a tiger-tongue slide and a pelican that dumps water from its orange bill. 

“I’m so excited about the splash pad that I don’t know what to do,” said Pamela D.C. Junior, director of the city’s Human and Cultural Services department. 

ZAPP volunteers also spruced up the entrance of the 100-year-old zoo. With the help of a $5,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Mississippi, they installed signs featuring some of the zoo’s prized animals, including Big Mike, the rare white rhino. 

“It’s a great day in Ward 5, a great day for west Jackson,” Ward 5 Council Member Vernon Hartley said. 

Two local artists painted colorful murals featuring birds, trees and a magnolia flower. Justin Ransburg, one of the two muralists, said he wanted to capture “how peaceful it is here.” 

Deanna Crews, a 35-year-old teacher, said she could tell ZAPP’s work had freshened up the historic property. Her son, 4-year-old Issan, loves animals and is “a young scientist in the making,” but the last time she brought him to the zoo was a year ago. 

As they walked past the gibbon exhibit, Crews and her friend remarked that the zoo seemed like it had more animals than it did last time. 

The zoo also has at least 10 prairie dog pups that were born within the past few weeks, said Dave Wetzel, the deputy director. 

The prairie dogs – which Wetzel said don’t have names, because there are so many – are the only animals the Jackson Zoo is currently breeding. Wetzel said the chimpanzees are partially related, so they take oral birth control. The black-necked swans are brother and sister. The ostriches are too old. And don’t get Wetzel started on those gibbons, Buster and Emma. 

“The gibbons, they do everything but breed,” he said. “They are allowed to, if they so choose to.” 

Instead, Buster and Emma prefer to groom each other and snuggle. Wetzel speculated their relationship has remained platonic because Buster was hand-raised. 

“He didn’t get to see those movies,” he said. 

 A 7-year-old boy named Keylon and his 9-year-old sister named Lyniah toured the zoo with their parents, who did not want the family’s last name published. With lips stained from a blue raspberry snow cone, Keylon hollered in excitement at the ostrich exhibit. The Gluckstadt boy loves to recite facts about animals that he learns from watching YouTube videos, and the large bird reminded him of his favorite type. 

“That’s a dinosaur,” he shouted.

Lyniah was more critical of her time at the zoo. Standing in front of a shady exhibit housing a kookaburra, she said she thought some of the animals looked sad and that the $5 snow cone was too expensive. 

“Me and my brother had to share,” she said. 

There might be a grain of truth to Lyniah’s observation. Wetzel said the animals are happier when lots of people visit the zoo – especially Mathan, the North American black bear that Wetzel affectionately calls “Buddy.” 

“He likes company,” he said. “He likes people to sit there and talk to him.”

Ray McCants, the president of ZAPP, said the zoo is holding another family friendly event this coming Saturday, the “Kidtrepreneur Youth Marketplace” where dozens of kids will set up vendor booths. 

“Hopefully we repeat the traffic again next week,” he said.

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

When I was a sophomore at a small rural high school in Mississippi, I took the ACT for the first time on a Tuesday morning in the school auditorium. There was no prep course, no college counselor explaining the score, let alone what to aim for.

My school had no advanced placement classes, and the number of foundational classes outweighed the number of honors classes. I never thought this was unusual. It was just how school works.

I have reflected on this memory more often as Mississippi officials and national education reporters have celebrated what they are calling the “Mississippi Miracle,” the dramatic climb from 49th in the nation in reading and language to genuinely competing with the national average – an extraordinary achievement by one of the poorest states in the country.

Early literacy policy, phonics instruction and high standards in primary school worked. That much is provable, and it deserves recognition.

But a phenomenon that ends in fourth-grade classrooms isn’t a miracle. It is a head start that we keep failing to build on.

The current media coverage continues to dismiss that by the time Mississippi high school students reach graduation, the numbers tell a very different story. Mississippi’s ACT composite average for the graduating class of 2023 was 17.6 out of a possible 36 points, compared to the national average of 19.5. The ACT’s college-readiness benchmarks – scores that indicate a reasonable chance of passing an introductory college course – require around a 22 in most subjects.

Out of 240 public high schools in Mississippi, only one school graduated a majority of seniors who indicated college readiness in all four tested subject areas. That school is the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS), a selective public academy. For everybody else, the picture remains far less miraculous.

The NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) is an excellent measure of what an 8- or 9-year-old has learned to do. It does not measure a 17-year-old’s ability to form a college essay, understand a loan document or pass a statistics course. When we continue to conflate a fourth-grade test score with educational prowess, we are reframing the beginning of an educational journey as the final destination.

The gap between these two things is exactly where I grew up.

My high school offered no AP courses. This wasn’t neglect from any of my teachers, many of whom I cherish. It was a problem of resources. It compounds in rural districts where there aren’t enough high-performing students to justify the addition of an AP chemistry course, not enough trained staff available to teach it and nowhere near the amount of funds to pursue it realistically.

I did not see this as a disadvantage until I arrived at college and found myself in introductory courses alongside students who had covered a semester of material a year, or even two, prior. Many of my former classmates never made it to these types of rooms at all.

The absence of college counseling compounds this further. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of no more than 250 students per counselor — yet Mississippi’s average has consistently exceeded 400:1, far above that recommendation. When a single counselor is responsible for hundreds of students, college planning becomes an afterthought. Students cannot pursue opportunities they have never been told exist.

The gap in expectation and access is dire. Mississippi is one of only 13 states to mandate the ACT, yet it has no requirement or curriculum for ACT preparation. The result is a system that administers a college-readiness exam without committing to the students taking it. Access to preparatory materials varies greatly across the state, and the distinction falls predictably along lines of wealth and geography.

None of this negates the state’s accomplishments in early literacy. The Literacy-Based Promotion Act was a serious, evidence-based intervention, and its effects are tangible. When adjusting for student demographics, Mississippi fourth graders scored among the highest in the nation for reading and math.

But credit is not synonymous with completion. A state that has learned to teach children to read must still guide them on what to do with that skill. Access to advanced coursework, college counseling, ACT preparation and career pathways is not a luxury, but a necessity. Right now, this scaffolding is distributed unequally, and students in rural and underfunded districts are the ones left reaching for rungs that aren’t there.

Mississippi is a state where roughly 36% of its young people move out-of-state. Part of what drives that migration is the sense that opportunity lives elsewhere – and they’re typically correct.

The “miracle” narrative feels good because Mississippi has spent so long garnering negative attention. But the students who will leave this state, or continue to struggle within it, deserve more than a feel-good spin.

The real miracle is one that could follow them all the way to graduation – and beyond.

Abigail Presley attends Columbia University in the city of New York as a rising sophomore and John W. Kluge Scholar majoring in neuroscience and behavioral biology. She is a native of Grenada, Mississippi, and a 2025 graduate of Grenada High School. 

National NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson talks with Mississippi Today about GOP redistricting in Mississippi and across the South, and on his organization’s call for a boycott of major college athletic programs in states pushing to weaken Black voting power through gerrymandering.

A controversial, state-created water authority set to take over Jackson’s water and sewer systems is now limited by a partial federal injunction announced on Monday. By design, the Metro Jackson Water Authority would only take over after the end of an ongoing federal receivership.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate granted in part and denied in part a request from the city to enjoin the water authority from moving forward. State lawmakers created the authority, under House Bill 1677, this past legislative session. A nine-member board would run the new utility with appointees from state and local officials. Jackson leaders have protested the law for not giving the city a majority of appointees.

Under the injunction ordered Monday, the authority and its board cannot take any action other than appointing and seating board members.

“The Authority may not at this time, select a Board President, unless and until this court gives approval,” Wingate’s order said. “The Authority shall enact no regulatory measures, finalize no lease agreements, issue no bonds, and assume no managerial influence or deputy control over Jackson’s water and sewer systems unless and until this court explicitly alters this decree or determines to relinquish its ongoing authority over the systems.”

In its request for an injunction, the city argued HB 1677 interfered with the federal receivership Wingate initiated in 2022. In an order placing Jackson’s sewer system under the receivership, Wingate tasked receiver Ted Henifin with creating a transition plan by Oct. 5.

As things stand, the judge wrote, HB 1677 doesn’t interfere with his 2022 order because it only takes effect once the court allows Henifin and his company, JXN Water, to step down. Moreover, Wingate could reject the Metro Jackson Water Authority altogether.

“The state law, in this court’s eye, simply stands as an unexecuted contingency—a structure waiting in the wings,” Wingate wrote. “If this court decides to reject the Authority as a viable successor entity within the final transition framework, the Authority cannot assume control.”

Even so, the judge specified three ways the water authority law “attempts to encroach upon” his role overseeing Jackson’s utilities:

• First, by creating a specific governance model, the state law attempts to narrow the options for a succession plan available to the court.
• Second, the state law says the president of the water authority would serve as Henifin’s deputy, disrupting the “inner management” of JXN Water.
• And third, the state law requires the authority to immediately negotiate a lease of the water and sewer assets with the city, in addition to allowing the authority to issue bonds as soon as July 1. Such actions would “infringe upon” the court’s rule overseeing the utility systems’ finances.

“This court is persuaded that the potential insertion of a state-appointed official into the operational hierarchy of the (interim third party manager) risks creating an administrative dichotomy that could fracture the unified command necessary to rehabilitate Jackson’s infrastructure,” Wingate ruled.

Officials so far have named most of the nine board members. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann chose Jackson businessman Sandy Carter, the city of Ridgeland named its city engineer, Paul Forster, and the city of Byram chose WGK engineer Tramone Smith.

Jackson Mayor John Horhn selected Daniel Walker, a water treatment professional, as well as longtime politico Austin Barbour and Jackson businesswoman Shirley Tucker. The Jackson City Council, though, still has to confirm the mayor’s picks.

Gov. Tate Reeves last month declined to name his two selections, citing Wingate’s initial temporary injunction against the water authority. Reeves and Horhn have to consult over the ninth board appointee.

Former Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach, the eccentric and revolutionary offensive savant whose teams set dozens of scoring and passing records over his 21-year head coaching career, is among the nominees for the 2027 College Football Hall of Fame class.

The National Football Foundation released the ballot Monday for the class that will be announced in January. It includes 80 players and nine coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision and 99 players and 39 coaches from lower levels.

A player is eligible 10 full seasons after his last year in college and must have received first-team All-America honors by a major selector. The nominee’s college football achievements are a prime consideration, but his post-football record as a citizen also is a factor.

Leach, who died in 2022 at age 61, became eligible for induction under adjusted criteria for coaches to be considered. The NFF announced last year the minimum career winning percentage required would go from .600 to .595 beginning in 2027.

Leach had a .596 winning percentage with a 158-107 record at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State.

Leach was known for his innovative wide-open offenses and his knack for pulling upsets. He won 18 games against Top 25 opponents when his team was unranked.

Among other FBS coaches on the ballot are Larry Coker, whose Miami team won the 2001 season’s national championship; Dennis Franchione, who made stops at TCU, Alabama and Texas A&M; Ralph Friedgen, who led Maryland to bowls in seven of his 10 seasons; Darryl Rogers, 1977 Big Ten coach of the year at Michigan State; Jackie Sherrill, all-time wins leader at Mississippi State; and Tommy Tuberville, who coached at Ole Miss before leading powerful Auburn teams of the 2000s.

Heisman Trophy winners Cam Newton of Auburn (2010) and Robert Griffin III of Baylor (2011) are on the ballot along with first-time nominees Tavon Austin of West Virginia, Melvin Gordon of Wisconsin, A.J. Hawk of Ohio State and Barrett Jones of Alabama.

Nominees go through a screening process to assure they meet eligibility criteria before a vote is taken among members of the NFF and Football Writers Association of America. Voting results are sent to the NFF Honors Court, which makes final selections.

A Mississippi company plans to move forward in building a private power plant and an artificial intelligence industrial campus. 

State utility regulators, though, declined to make a ruling on the project, calling the developer’s request for an opinion “premature” and “hypothetical.”

The state’s two largest power companies are protesting the effort, arguing the project would classify it as a public utility. 

“We’re celebrating the ruling of the Public Service Commission,” said Gabriel Prado, CEO & president of PraCon Global Investment Group, the developer of the project and a slew of others throughout the Jackson metro area, including Topgolf in Ridgeland and a luxury apartment complex in Fondren.

While his initial filing to the PSC said the data center campus would be in Ridgeland, Prado has since said the project will be in the Jackson metro area and declined to say exactly where the project will be. The Jackson metro area, which includes Ridgeland, is in Entergy Mississippi’s service territory, meaning the company has exclusive rights to sell power there. 

In March, Prado AI, an affiliate of PraCon Global Investment, asked for a PSC opinion on whether it would be considered and regulated as a public utility if it generated and supplied power to its tenants at a potential data center and semiconductor manufacturing campus. It said in its initial filing that electricity would be included in the lease and not metered. 

On Friday, the PSC, which regulates public utility providers in the state, declined to issue an opinion saying that it did not have enough information. Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps told Mississippi Today that Prado didn’t answer “basic” questions, such as how many tenants the power would serve.  

“The limited facts presented by Prado AI present multiple questions of fact such that [a change in] any variable could result in a different opinion,” the report said. 

When asked why he didn’t provide more detail to the PSC, Prado said making that information available to the utility companies would take away the project’s competitive advantage. 

Prado called the decision “the best outcome in our legal strategy.” 

Prado AI is still working on securing all the funding it would need for a project of this size. Amazon’s data centers in Mississippi start at $1 billion in investment, and Gabriel Prado says his long term goal is to bring in over $25 billion. Any potential project would still need to go through state and local permitting.

In Mississippi, companies are generally allowed to generate power for their own use. The sticking point for utility companies is that Prado AI would be generating and providing power to its tenants. Entergy and Mississippi Power, the state’s two largest power providers, argue this arrangement would make Prado AI a public utility, subjecting it to the same PSC rules and regulations as them.   

In a brief to the PSC, Mississippi Power wrote that the request “could intentionally or unintentionally upset this delicate regulatory balance” and warned that the request could cause “significant and sweeping impacts that are truly difficult to overestimate.”

Prado AI disagrees and has cited an exemption which allows landlords to supply electricity to tenants. But the utility companies say the exemption only applies to transmitting electricity, not generating it. 

Even if Prado AI didn’t qualify as a public utility, the power companies argue Prado would need a “certificate of public convenience and necessity,” or CPCN, from the PSC in order to generate power. 

“An entity seeking to construct a generator, even without becoming a public utility, must still obtain a CPCN from the (PSC) first, giving the (PSC) the opportunity to determine whether the construction of the generator is in the public interest,” Entergy wrote in an April 13 filing. 

The company added, in a statement to Mississippi Today on Monday, that while it “supports customers’ right to generate their own power in compliance with state laws,” Entergy wants to guarantee the facility won’t affect its ratepayers. 

“We want to ensure if this large industrial project asks to connect to the electric grid in the future, it will cover all related interconnection costs so those costs aren’t passed on to Entergy’s residential, small business and other customers,” Entergy said in the statement. 

In the Jackson metro area, officials are trying to balance economic development with pushback from residents over environmental impacts. Jackson officials are grappling with potential zoning changes after being recently approached by a data center developer, while the City Council is considering a six-month moratorium on any data center construction in the city. 

Prado said that while he’s opposed to a moratorium in Jackson, he thinks it’s important for there to be public debate.

“When we go into our site and then need to speak to the public, I will be there,” Prado said. 

In April, Ridgeland officials passed an ordinance creating a 500-foot buffer between data centers and residents, and also ensuring such facilities plan for their utility needs ahead of time, including electricity, water and sewer.