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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has posted a steady stream of food recalls, following a summer with historic rates of cyclospora-induced illnesses and several products with potential salmonella contamination. Mississippi Today talked to food safety experts to learn about top concerns, how food safety is addressed in Mississippi and how food systems are linked.

What are the active food recalls in Mississippi now?

Several active food recalls in Mississippi include some of Prime Line Distributor’s ready-to-eat pork products potentially contaminated with Listeria, Graziers raw milk cheeses from Sierra Nevada Cheese Company potentially contaminated with E. coli and raw meat products that were produced without federal inspection.

The recalls come in three classes, depending on the level of risk. Class I is for probable serious health risks, including death, such as E. coli or Listeria. Class II recalls have a remote chance of adverse health effects, and Class III recalls violate regulations but are unlikely to cause harm. 

Mississippians should know that recalls are very specific to certain brands, product names, use or freeze by dates and lot numbers, said Courtney Crist, a food safety specialist at the Mississippi State University. All information must match for a product to be considered part of the recall, she said, and one product being recalled does not mean every food of that category is unsafe. 

“Do not try to make a recalled food item safe,” she cautioned, recommending that consumers properly dispose of their purchases or return them for a refund. 

Should I be concerned about cyclospora in Mississippi?

Asked if Mississippians should be concerned about lettuce on their grocery shelves, State Epidemiologist Renia Dotson offered a succinct answer. 

“No, I don’t,” she said, while recommending people wash or scrub their fruits and vegetables as a general safety practice.   

On Sept. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared an end to the multi-state cyclospora outbreak. Officials linked nearly 13,000 confirmed cases to this outbreak, the largest in modern U.S. history. 

Mississippi’s cyclospora cases, however, were not linked to the multi-state outbreak, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health. On July 15, the department temporarily made cyclosporasis a reportable disease in order to “do our part” and provide more data for the CDC investigation, Dotson said. Mississippi was previously one of three states, along with Idaho and Pennsylvania, that did not require clinicians or laboratories to report positive cases to the state Health Department. Dotson said Mississippi has not previously seen large numbers of the illness and that mandated reporting began, not due to increased cyclospora cases, but to contribute to the national database. 

On Aug. 22, Mississippi had 33 confirmed cases of cyclospora, Dotson said. For each confirmed case, nurses and a team of epidemiologists conducted an extensive interview with the affected person that included what they ate, where they ate it and when their symptoms started. 

“Each one seems to be an independent case on its own, and none of them trace back to the actual multi-state outbreak,” she said. 

Cyclosporasis tends to be a seasonal infection that runs from May to the end of August, Dotson said. Positive cases can emerge later because the disease can incubate for two or more weeks. 

Should I be concerned about salmonella in Mississippi?

Several recalls remain active for salmonella, a bacteria that causes illness year-round and has been reportable in Mississippi for decades.

“We’re always looking at salmonella,” Dotson said. 

Amid multi-state outbreaks of salmonella reported in jalapeno and eggs, Mississippi had some stores in the recall distribution chain but no confirmed cases linking salmonella to either outbreak, Dotson said. On Sept. 3, the CDC closed the investigation into potentially salmonella-contaminated eggs. The jalapeno investigation remains ongoing.

To test for clustered salmonella cases, state public health laboratories send samples through genomic sequencing and add it to a national CDC database called PulseNet. The amount of similar genetic sequences shows how closely bacterial samples are linked. If the samples reveal striking resemblances to a similar sequence, epidemiologists know it is connected to a certain outbreak.  

How can I keep myself safe from foodborne illnesses?

Experts recommended the following measures:

• Stay up to date on food recalls through the FDA and USDA websites, or sign up for email alerts;
• Pay attention to recall notices from grocery stores. If you have a shopper’s card at Kroger or Costco, for instance, you will get emails about their food recalls; 
• Clean fruits and vegetables, even produce that is pre-washed;
• Wash your hands, utensils, and kitchen surfaces often, including before food preparation and eating;
• Separate raw meat, poultry, eggs and seafood from foods that are ready to eat, to help prevent cross-contamination;
• Refrigerate and freeze foods promptly, such as by refrigerating perishable foods within two hours, or one hour if food is exposed to temperatures above 90°F;
• Buy produce locally when possible, such as at farmer’s markets;
• Be aware of your risk level. Young children, older adults, pregnant people and those with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of severe symptoms from foodborne illnesses.

Grocery shoppers who see a recalled product or concerning product on store shelves can scan the QR code on a Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce regulatory inspection sticker to report it, said Andy Gipson, the department’s commissioner. The red, white and blue stickers are placed throughout grocery stores and the checkout counter. 

What should I do if I think I am sick with a foodborne illness?

First, seek medical care, Dotson advises. From there, medical providers can offer tests for different foodborne illnesses. A cyclospora test is not included in the routine panel and has to be specifically asked for by the patient. 

Why have foodborne illnesses been so prominent this year? 

It’s hard to say whether food is getting less safe or not, but the whole food distribution system is under stress right now, said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University. 

“When you have a system under stress, failures do tend to happen more,” she said. The challenges start from the farms under stress from increased labor and fuel costs. They then spread all the way up the supply chain to distributors and escalating retail costs. Then, there’s public health agencies and regulatory agencies overseeing the safety of the food supply. 

As an example, Kowalcyk brought up the CDC’s parasitology group, once comprised of 11 staff members who were in charge of coordinating outbreak response across states and internationally. Part of the CDC team’s funding came from a different federal agency that was responsible for foreign aid and development, USAID. After the Trump administration cut USAID funds in early 2025, the CDC team was reduced to three staff members. 

Part of USAID’s work was funding water sanitation and hygiene programs in countries that import produce into the U.S. 

“And when you’re talking about cyclospora, you’re talking about contaminated agricultural water in all likelihood, or processing water,” Kowalcyk said. 

She thinks it’s important to understand that beyond the number of outbreaks, people should be aware of how quickly a response is mounted. Kowalcyk likens food safety to a fishnet. If the fishnet has big holes, it can only catch big fish, and not many. “Ideally you’ll have a strong fishnet with smaller holes so you can catch fish when they’re smaller, before they become a problem,” she said. 

 Who’s in charge of food safety in Mississippi?

Recalls are handled by two federal agencies. The FDA covers about 80% of the U.S. food supply, including fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs, packaged foods, dietary supplements and seafood, except catfish. The U. S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, handles recalled meat, poultry, processed egg products and catfish. However, most recalls are voluntary and come after the distributing company identified a health hazard in its product.  

The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce has a team of about 200 food safety inspectors in grocery stores working with store managers to make sure recalled products have been taken off the shelves. 

“We’re the boots on the ground making sure that lettuce is not being offered for sale at the Dollar General if it’s under a recall,” Gipson said, as an example.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Health is in charge of restaurant and food facility inspections, conducted one to four times a year, depending on the facility’s risk level. 

Gipson emphasized that the level of food safety in the U.S. is the “gold standard.” 

“There’s no country that has the high level of food safety protocols that we have,” he said. “I feel very good about the safety of our food in Mississippi.” Gipson also encouraged Mississippians to shop for local food, which tends to be fresher than grocery store products.

In the most recent Global Food Security Index report, the U.S. ranked third out of 113 countries on the “Quality and Safety” pillar in 2022. Crist acknowledged this general safety with a caveat, saying, “The United States has many safeguards to protect its food supply, but no food system is completely free of risk.”

This story was produced with support from the Sarah Yelena Haselhorst Fund for Health Journalism.

The process of developing a state budget for Mississippi is never-ending. There are steps in the process occuring nearly year-round.

Work in earnest – at least the work seen by the public – began last week on Mississippi’s $32-plus billion state budget to fund education, public healthcare, law enforcement, transportation and other services.

The 14-member Joint Legislative Budget Committee met publicly for two days to hear from some state agency leaders on their budget requests for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Before the 2027 legislative session begins on Jan. 5 (always the first Tuesday after the first Monday of the year), the Budget Committee will develop a budget recommendation. That proposal serves as a guide or starting point for legislators when they meet in the new year to develop a plan to fund all state services.

Used to, the Budget Committee, which includes the lieutenant governor and speaker who alternate yearly as the chair of the panel, would meet for a month in late summer or early fall to hear from scores of state agencies about budget requests.

Now, the Budget Committee meets with a select few and depends on written requests that agency leaders had been working on during the summer. It is of note that the work on the next fiscal year’s budget begins behind the scenes for the agency leaders not long after the current budget year started on July 1.

In short, work on state agency budgets is a never-ending process.

One of the key steps in that process is when the Budget Committee and governor meet in the fall to develop a revenue estimate. That estimate represents the amount of revenue anticipated to be collected by the state during the upcoming fiscal year which runs  from July 1 until June 30 of the following year.

If actual revenue collections do not meet that estimate, the governor is forced to make mid-year budget cuts or dip into reserve funds to offset the shortfall.

During the legislative session, which begins in January, as stated earlier, the Legislature will work to appropriate the anticipated revenue to fund state services. The revenue estimate made by the governor and Budget Committee is important since knowing how much money is available is a crucial step in any budgeting process. But its importance is mitigated by the fact that the Budget Committee can, and often does, meet during the legislative session sans the governor to change that estimate.

At any rate, near the end of the three-month session (about four months the first year of every four-year term), legislators are supposed to come up with a budget.

Often, they have to extend the session or go into special session when they have disagreements or roadblocks to completing the budget, but it always gets done.

This current fiscal year, the overall state budget is a whopping $32.02 billion, including $13.11 billion in federal funds,

Federal funds make up a significant portion of the budgets for multiple state agencies, including Medicaid, Human Services, Environmental Quality and Transportation.

The portion of the budget that receives the most attention is the general fund (mostly revenue from such items as the sales tax, income tax and a litany of other taxes, including the so-called sin taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and gambling.) The general fund is often combined with the state-support funds, which include other taxes and revenue, such as  the 1-cent sales tax for education, the annual tobacco lawsuit settlement payments and others.

The general fund and state support funds total $9.22 billion. These are the funds legislators have the most discretion in how they are spent and are the funds that generally result in the most disagreements in the process.

The budget also is made up of $9.68 billion in special funds, generally fees or taxes to fund specific agencies. A lot of these agencies are small, such as boards that regulate various professions. The groups being regulated pay a fee to operate the agency. The largest special fund agency is the Department of Transportation, which is funded with a motor fuel tax and with federal funds.

There are multiple steps and moving parts associated with building a state budget each year. Yet, somehow those agencies are always funded.

And the budget cycle never stops.

STARKVILLE — Kamario Taylor has had far better days this season and even last year as a freshman. He will have many much better days in the future. As has been written in this column several times, the gifted quarterback will win many, many big games at Mississippi State.

But this sunny, humid Saturday at Scott Field was a reminder of two important facts:

• One, for all his remarkable ability and his accomplishments to date, Taylor is 19 years young and will not turn 20 until February. Saturday was only his sixth college start. As good as he is, he’s far from as good as he will become. He made mistakes that cost State dearly.
• Two, Alabama is still Alabama, which is elite. And we could add a third important factor: Crimson Tide quarterback Keelon Russell, like Taylor only a sophomore, seems a lock to be the next in line of so many splendid Crimson Tide quarterbacks (think Starr, Namath, McCarron, Hurts, Tagovailoa, Young and so many more). 

Russell, strong-armed and so uncommonly quick, passed for three touchdowns and ran for another as No. 7 Alabama raced past No. 16 Mississippi State 56-23 to remain undefeated and unceremoniously knock the Bulldogs from the ranks of unbeaten. 

If you saw Russell play in in Alabama’s first two games and then saw him again against State, you can be excused for thinking you were watching two different quarterbacks. In a month’s time, the Duncanville, Texas, native has become much more efficient, much more confident and sure of himself, much quicker with his decisions. Saturday, he completed 16 of 22 throws for 275 yards and used his quickness and speed to escape State defenders, buy himself some time, and make accurate throws down the field. 

Some of Russell’s throws, particularly a couple of perfect back-shoulder tosses, almost didn’t seem fair. State defensive backs seemed in perfect position, running step for step with the receiver, and then the receiver stopped, turned around and snagged a perfectly timed pass. 

State defensive back Isaac Smith, one of the Bulldogs’ veteran leaders, offered no excuses. “Russell is a really good player, but we shot ourselves in the foot,” Smith said. “That’s on us, the players. It’s not on the coaches, not on the crowd. I apologize to our fans. I’ll take the blame. I’m the leader on the back end, and we just didn’t do our job.”

There were excuses that could have been made. Taylor came into the game hobbled with a lower leg injury, didn’t play the fourth quarter and limped off the field with his foot in a protective boot. Said State coach Jeff Lebby, “Kamario wasn’t able to do anything with his legs.” As anyone who has watched Taylor play knows, his long legs – and his foot speed – are so much of what make him who he is. 

Taylor did manage to throw for 258 yards and three touchdowns, but he suffered two interceptions, one a pick-6, and he lost a fumble. All three mistakes led to Alabama touchdowns.

The fumble actually led to Alabama’s first score when Taylor seemed to pump fake a pass, but the ball tumbled out of his hands. Bama recovered. Officials reviewed the play and the call on the field, a fumble, stood. Alabama quickly scored.

Some day, perhaps, someone will explain that rule to me in a way I can understand it. Taylor’s arm was moving forward, the ball went forward and I’ve seen that ruled an incomplete pass as often as not. Maybe you have to be a mind reader to officiate that call. If so, clearly some refs read minds differently than others.

On State’s next possession, Taylor simply threw a bad pass, nowhere near the intended receiver, which Alabama cornerback Dijon Lee snatched out of the air and returned 30 yards for a second touchdown.

That was two touchdowns in 71 seconds, no way to start a game against anybody, much less against Alabama.

Lebby praised Taylor for his courage and grit, but at the same time also stated the obvious, that Taylor has to be more careful with the ball. 

State’s other valid excuse was that the Dogs’ best back by far, Fluff Bothwell, was banged up coming into the game and carried only one time for 1 yard before retiring to the sidelines. His absence was glaring.

But then, when Alabama loses a great back, the Tide just plugs in another, and they all run behind mammoth, yet mobile, offensive linemen who look as if they just walked off an NFL bus. Bama won the line of scrimmage on both sides as it usually does in this lopsided series which the Bulldogs have won only 17 of 109 meetings. 

At times, this writer felt as if I was watching a rerun of a bad movie I’ve seen maybe 25 or 30 times before. Indeed, Alabama has now won 17 straight games over State by an average of 26 points per game. 

Maybe a healthy Kamario Taylor is the quarterback who can finally snap that streak. State will have to improve greatly across both lines and play much more efficiently, Taylor included, to do so. Until then, the Tide will keep on rolling.

NEW YORK — Two months past his 90th birthday, Buddy Guy is still up for a little bragging, a lot of cursing and a long night of partying.

The blues great was celebrated Thursday night with a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall in New York, where a lineup of guest musicians and a house band led by Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan had the audience on its feet for much of the three-hour-plus “Buddy’s Got the Blues” concert.

Guy himself was only on stage part of the time, but his name was heard throughout, and his spirit always present. One of the last of the Chicago bluesmen who thrived in the mid-20th century, Guy has become so much the ideal of the genre that musicians didn’t need to perform his songs to summon his legend.

John Mayer, with an ache in his voice on Otis Redding’s “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,” and Eric Gales and Joe Bonamassa jamming on the Jimmy Reed standard “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” seemed as fitting as Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks reviving an old Guy-Junior Wells favorite, “Messin’ with the Kid.”

But no one was going to top the guest of honor. Guy, wearing a dark cap, dark pants and a polka dot shirt, opened the show with a long, raunchy acoustic workout of John Lee Hooker’s “I’m in the Mood” and only seemed to get friskier after bringing out his electric guitar.

He leered and joked with longtime friend Shemekia Copeland on a duet of “Rock Me Baby,” left no doubt about the meaning of “to buzz all night long” in Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee” and carried on a lot more when joined by one of his few contemporaries, Bobby Rush, just a month away from his 93rd birthday. Everyone came on at the end for an all-out, self-fulfilling “Got My Mojo Workin.’”

Guy is still making plans. His team announced this week that he has a new album out next year, produced by Jordan and featuring multi-instrumentalist Ivan Neville, bassist Willie Weeks and others who played at Radio City Music Hall.

Guy didn’t seem at first to have a lot on his mind Thursday besides the next double entendre or the next profanity. “Help me f—k up this song,” he liked to call out. But the tributes offered by the younger performers and the presence of Rush, who testified that he would have walked from Mississippi just to be here, left him moved and near tears.

“I didn’t think this many people would be coming out for a 90 year old man,” Guy said, after confiding he didn’t have the strength to blow out that many “f—kin’ candles” on the cakes brought out at the end. “This is the greatest day I ever had in my life.”

The Mississippi Division of Medicaid asked lawmakers for a roughly $179 million increase in state spending for the coming fiscal year after receiving a steep increase last year that squeezed other parts of the state’s budget. 

The proposed increase for the fiscal year beginning in July 2027 represents a 15% increase over last year. The agency is also anticipating a $34 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.

But Mississippi Medicaid’s $1.3 billion state funding request is expected to change again, Cindy Bradshaw, the state’s executive director for Medicaid, told the Joint Legislative Budget Committee at a Friday hearing.

“The one thing I can guarantee you is that will not be the amount that we need,” she said. “This is a fluid process, and it changes quickly.” 

For example, officials learned Thursday the federal government will increase the share of money it pays toward the state Medicaid program in 2027. Mississippi’s federal matching rate will increase slightly — by .0024% — for the upcoming fiscal year, said Bradshaw. This is expected to reduce the agency’s request by roughly $25 million.

Medicaid is one of the state’s largest budget items, accounting for roughly a 10th of the state’s spending. The agency’s total projected budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $9.4 billion, including federal funds. 

The agency administers health coverage to nearly 700,000 children and low-income pregnant, disabled and elderly Mississippians. The program’s enrollment is at its lowest level in over a decade and decreased by about 7,500 people in the past year. 

Mississippi Medicaid has launched initiatives to lower costs, Bradshaw said. Efforts include audits of contractors and long-term care facilities, reviewing prior authorizations and reducing managed care companies’ profit margins. Managed care companies receive per-member payments to maintain a provider network and implement programs intended to improve health outcomes for enrollees.

The agency’s requested increase is smaller than its ask last year early in the budgeting process of nearly $390 million. Lawmakers were stunned by the request and baffled by Gov. Tate Reeves’ roughly $160-million-lower proposal. Reeves’ office oversees Medicaid. 

Lawmakers ultimately approved a roughly $200 million increase in Medicaid’s budget for the current fiscal year, setting aside $100 million from the state’s capital expense fund. The fund is a reserve intended for one-time expenses, such as repairs and renovations of state-owned properties. State legislators also approved a $35 million deficit appropriation to cover a shortfall for the prior fiscal year.

Medicaid officials said last year’s large funding increase was the result of a a reserve of funds leftover from the COVID-19 pandemic running out, which necessitated a significant boost in state appropriations to maintain services at the same level.

After lawmakers balked at the agency’s budget request for the current fiscal year, Bradshaw warned in January that underfunding the agency could force it to cut payments to providers. 

State agencies present budget requests to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in the fall. The committee makes recommendations in December, and most appropriations bills are passed by lawmakers in the latter months of the legislative session, which ends in April.

Christa Pike was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious in a hospital in the hours after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.

Hospital staff, her lawyers said, were working to save Pike’s life and as of late Thursday were trying to clear the two doses of the drug that the state uses to execute prisoners.

The stunning failure in Tennessee’s execution chamber on Wednesday has left both sides of the death penalty debate demanding answers. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an independent review.

The court filing offered the first detailed account of Pike’s condition after an ambulance carried her away from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday night. Her attorneys said a day earlier that she was in critical condition.

Christa Pike’s attorneys point to problems with the IV

Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body,” they wrote in the court filing.

Instead of “remedying this failure,” they prepared and administered a second dose of pentobarbital, her lawyers said.

State officials have not offered any explanations about what went wrong.

Tennessee leaders want a review of execution methods

Lee demanded a review of the execution procedures and indefinitely postponed Pike’s execution and another that had been scheduled for this year. Republican Tennessee lawmakers said the state should review whether to stop single-drug lethal injections and consider other options to carry out death sentences.

The execution team worked for an hour to administer the lethal drugs, said Pike’s defense lawyer Randy Spivey, who counted at least seven needles in her left arm.

Neither the initial nor the backup dose of pentobarbital worked. Pike was still snoring when the execution chamber’s microphone was cut off more than an hour into the attempt.

Pike’s attorneys asked a state court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence from the failed execution.

“Preserving this evidence is essential to understanding what happened, ensuring accountability and protecting Christa’s legal rights,” two of her attorneys said in a statement.

She was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate in a jealous rage. She later became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row.

Following the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, her attorneys said.

“It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in an earlier clemency petition.

The mother of the 19-year-old woman Pike killed expressed frustration over the failed execution. “I didn’t get justice for my daughter,” Maya Martinez said Thursday.

Problems found with executions four years ago

Four years ago, Tennessee’s governor ordered another independent review into capital punishment after abruptly stopping the April 2022 execution of Oscar Smith. Lee then paused all executions after acknowledging the state had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested.

Months later, a report found the state hadn’t complied with its own lethal injection process since its revision in 2018, resulting in executions being conducted without proper testing of the drugs.

At the time, the state used a three-drug execution protocol of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The state later switched to using just pentobarbital.

Pentobarbital has been used to carry out death sentences in multiple states and by the federal government.

The review, led by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, also found that the state’s unidentified executioner had no formal healthcare training and learned the role mainly through on-the-job experience.

After the release of the report, the Tennessee Department of Correction fired its longtime top attorney and another employee.

___

Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

A father and son have been arrested for selling packages of kratom tied to the overdose deaths of two University of Mississippi students, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District announced Friday. 

Store clerk Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Yahya Mosleh, 18, each face federal charges of possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute. 

On Sept. 21, an Ole Miss student was found dead in his dorm room. An hour later in a separate location, another student was found dead. At both scenes, law enforcement found packages of suspected kratom derivatives, and some tablets were missing. 

Investigators used bank records to trace purchase of some of the kratom derivatives to an Oxford vape, tobacco and beer store, according to court records. An informant spoke to the elder Mosleh, the store clerk, who sold them kratom pills and warned them to be careful with them, according to the criminal complaint. 

Law enforcement executed several search warrants, resulting in the seizure of kratom substances from the store and the arrest of Mosleh and his son, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office. 

The victims were identified in court records as Aidan Hamilton, 18, a freshman from Englewood, Colorado, and Robert Strang, 20, a junior from Atlanta. 

Hamilton enjoyed the outdoors, hiking and climbing and skiing and will be remembered as someone who was caring, loving and upbeat, according to his obituary. Hamilton is survived by his parents, a brother and a sister. 

Strang was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Ole Miss who will be remembered for the joy he brought others and a strong sense of fairness, according to his obituary. He is survived by parents, a twin sister, a younger brother, other family members and his two dogs. 

A day after the students’ deaths, local law enforcement confirmed it was investigating their deaths and advised people to avoid kratom. 

Kratom is plant-based and, in its natural form, is considered a stimulant in low doses and an opiate-like sedative in higher doses, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Derivatives of kratom are Schedule I controlled substances because they are more potent and associated with a high risk of addiction, overdose and even death. 

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the extract. 

However, kratom is sold in many gas stations across the country, including Mississippi, to those over the age of 21. Lafayette County is one of 30 counties and cities in the state that have restricted or banned the sale of kratom. It can also be purchased over the internet. 

The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department and the Oxford and University of Mississippi police departments are investigating the case with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful ideas to be shared 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.  

Mississippi has spent years debating how to keep talented young people from leaving or to stop the brain drain.

Artificial intelligence adds a new dimension to that challenge. The risk is not simply that technology changes jobs. It is that employers use AI to remove the beginner work that once gave young people a reason to stay, learn and build a career.

A revised Stanford Digital Economy Lab analysis released this month found that employment among workers ages 22–25 in highly AI-exposed occupations was about 19% below where it would have been if it had kept pace with similarly aged workers in less-exposed occupations. The comparable gap in the July 2025 data vintage was 15%, and reduced hiring of young workers appears to be a major channel of adjustment.

That finding gives Mississippi employers a practical warning. If AI drafts the first memo, summarizes the first spreadsheet, prepares the first customer response and researches the first market question, the organization may gain efficiency while quietly deleting the experiences that teach a beginner how the business actually works.

Mississippi Today Ideas was launched in part to surface constructive solutions to the state’s long-running brain-drain challenge. One solution belongs inside the workplace: make the first job more developmental, not less.

Employers should create a first-project guarantee for entry-level knowledge workers. Every new hire in an AI-exposed role should own at least one meaningful project within the first 90 days, with AI handling some routine preparation while an experienced employee coaches the judgment around it.

The project does not need to be glamorous.

A new employee at a bank might use AI to organize customer information, then be responsible for identifying inconsistencies, documenting what requires human review and explaining a recommendation. A healthcare administrator might use AI to summarize scheduling or billing patterns, then investigate exceptions and speak with the people affected. A junior marketer might receive an AI-generated first draft, then test claims, interview a customer and defend the final message to a manager.

The common element is ownership. Beginners learn when they are responsible for getting from an imperfect starting point to a defensible result.

That requires managers to resist an understandable temptation. When AI saves five hours, the easiest move is to fill those five hours with more output.

The smarter move is to invest some of that time in supervised judgment. Pair newer employees with experienced reviewers. Give them difficult exceptions. Ask them to explain why an AI output is wrong, incomplete or inappropriate. Make them communicate the final answer to a real colleague or customer.

Then measure the outcome that matters: time to independent competence. How long does it take a new employee to handle a recurring decision without close supervision? How many coached reviews were required? Which exceptions still trip people up? Which AI-assisted tasks actually accelerate learning?

These questions turn workforce development from a training-calendar exercise into a management system.

They also fit Mississippi’s economic needs. A state worried about losing young talent cannot afford to offer graduates only two choices: leave for experience elsewhere or stay home for a job stripped of the experiences that build a career. Employers need to create roles in which young people can see a path from beginner to trusted professional.

AI can help. It can remove tedious preparation, surface examples quickly and give employees more chances to practice. But that benefit appears only when leaders deliberately preserve the human learning loop around the technology.

Mississippi does not need to protect every old task. It needs to protect the pathway from novice to capable worker. The employers that do that will not merely keep pace with AI. They will give more young Mississippians a reason to build their future at home.

Named the “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times, Gleb Tsipursky helps tech-forward leaders stop overpaying for AI while boosting engagement and innovation as the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts. His eighth book, due out with Georgetown University Press this fall, is “The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results.” Tsipursky earned his doctorate in the history of behavioral science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011, his master’s at Harvard University and his undergraduate degree at New York University. A proud Ukrainian American, he lives in Columbus, Ohio. In his free time, he said he spends abundant quality time with his wife to avoid his personal life turning into a disaster. See his full bio.

Hinds County may soon end its six-year arrangement providing a temporary morgue space to handle a backlog of unclaimed bodies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in homicides. 

Robert Graham, president of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, said the coroner is working toward getting unclaimed bodies out of the space the office has used since 2020. The county entered an agreement with Hinds County Community College, which owns the building on Highway 18 about a mile from its Raymond campus. 

The need to make the move gained urgency last month. A power outage at the temporary morgue shut down the coolers where the bodies were being held, WLBT reported. 

Graham referred questions about what would need to be done to clear the space and how it would be accomplished to Coroner Jermiah Howard, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Last week in a statement, the college said it entered an equipment use agreement with the board of supervisors to use the space for cold storage. The college has “neither controlled nor been responsible for the use or maintenance of the facility.” 

College spokesperson Karin Meadows declined to respond to Graham’s comment that the coroner’s office has been asked to wind down use of the facility. 

During the height of the pandemic, the coroner’s office struggled to keep up with recording deaths in the county and transporting the bodies, Howard previously told Missisisppi Today. The need for space also came from a record high 155 homicides in Jackson in 2021, his predecessor, Sharon Grisham-Stewart said in 2022. 

The coroner’s office processes more unclaimed bodies than it has in the past decade, according to Howard. 

Hinds County had at least 24 unclaimed bodies in 2019, 17 in 2024 and 20 through August 2025. Records show identification was listed for unclaimed bodies for those years. 

One way to process unclaimed bodies is through pauper burials in a cemetery behind the Hinds County Penal Farm in Jackson. These burials are meant for families who cannot afford a burial and those whose bodies are unclaimed. 

Unclaimed bodies have been an ongoing issue for the board of supervisors for at least the past year, according to meeting agendas and minutes. Hinds County records show the number of pauper burials surpassed 20 last year. 

Graham said the process for the county to approve a pauper burial starts with the coroner’s office. 

State law directs counties to make reasonable efforts to notify a person’s family members about a body. If the body is not claimed for burial or cremation within five days, the board of supervisors or coroner can approve burial.

After exhausting family contact and checks with law enforcement agencies to determine if a person is missing, Graham said the coroner can recommend a pauper burial. 

A need for a procedure and checks for unclaimed bodies became clear in 2023, when the county buried three men in the Hinds paupers’ cemetery without officials telling their families they died. Bettersten Wade had been looking for her son Dexter unaware his body had been labeled unclaimed and buried in the paupers’ cemetery. 

Last year, county officials made further investments to help process unclaimed bodies. The board voted to install plaques beside plots in the paupers’ field, which Graham has told Mississippi Today would provide more dignity to their burial.

The temporary morgue also stores bodies as families make burial arrangements. At least 33 were stored there, according to most recent county records available through August 2025. The year earlier, at least 55 bodies were sent to storage.