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A former University of Mississippi employee is arguing in a federal appeal that a judge’s dismissal of her lawsuit against Chancellor Glenn Boyce would allow a government employer to punish a worker for protected political speech because of backlash from outside critics. 

Lauren Stokes, the former Ole Miss employee, is asking the appeals court to reverse the dismissal and allow the lawsuit to proceed. The brief, filed Thursday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, contends that firing a public employee over protected political speech violates the First Amendment. 

Stokes’ appeal also contends that if the ruling dismissing her lawsuit stands, it would have important and risky implications for free speech.

“If the district judge is correct, a government employer may terminate an employee for no better reason than external hecklers disagree with her political point of view. No other facts matter,” the appeal states. “The First Amendment itself has nothing at all to say about it. 

“That is not the law, but the district judge’s orders set a dangerous precedent that affects everyone, whatever their politics.”

Stokes, a former executive assistant in the university’s development office, was fired in September after she shared to her private Instagram account commentary about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist and CEO of the political organization Turning Point USA. Stokes sued Boyce in federal court, claiming he violated her First Amendment rights. 

On March 16, U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson ruled in favor of Boyce’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Davidson determined that Stokes failed to prove the chancellor violated her constitutional rights. Davidson also ruled that Boyce, in his role as chancellor, is entitled to qualified immunity, which protects him from liability stemming from doing his job.

When reached for comment, Stokes’ attorney Alysson Mills said the brief speaks for itself. 

Jacob Batte, a spokesperson for Ole Miss, said the university does not comment on pending litigation. Boyce’s attorney, Cal J. Mayo Jr., could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Challenging a ‘heckler’s veto’

After Kirk was shot and killed, Stokes shared to her Instagram account a post from someone else that criticized the activist’s views on issues including race, gun control and abortion. The post generated immediate backlash for Stokes, who later deleted it. She also apologized to anyone the post offended, saying, “In all facets we strive to be kind and hold space for all. My husband and I do not support violence of any sort.”

Stokes said she shared the post in a “heated moment” and apologized again, saying she looked forward “to getting off the internet to reevaluate kindness, privacy, and respect for all.”

But she was too late, the appeal notes. Stokes was already being doxxed, and people were sharing screenshots of her post.

Conservative activists and state leaders, including Mississippi State Auditor Shad White, a vocal critic of what he calls “woke” initiatives in higher education, shared a screenshot of Stokes’ post on X, formerly known as Twitter, and tagged the university.  As of Monday, White’s post has received about 60,000 views, 130 comments and has been reposted 1,300 times. 

Stokes said she received death threats and bomb threats against her restaurant that forced it to close for two weeks.

The recent appeal claims that backlash, not Stokes’ actions, led to her firing. That equates to a “heckler’s veto” of Stokes’ politics, the appeal contends, and “the government cannot punish speech ‘simply because it might offend a hostile mob.’” 

The appeal comes at a time when public employers across the country, including other colleges and universities, are facing lawsuits over whether workers can be disciplined for political speech posted on their personal social media accounts.

On July 1, the University of Tennessee System Board of Trustees agreed to pay a $1.9 million settlement to a former professor who sued after being fired for comments she made about Kirk. 

In May, Ball State University in Indiana paid a $225,000 settlement to its former director of health promotion and advocacy. She had been fired over a Facebook post in which she said Kirk’s killing was tragic but reflected “the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed.”

In the new brief, Mills notes that among numerous cases challenging a government employer’s firing of an employee for posting about Kirk’s death on social media, Stokes’ may be the first to go before a court of appeals “because it is the only such case to have been completely dismissed.”

Stokes’ case has also drawn the attention of free speech advocates, including The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, a nonprofit that frequently litigates First Amendment cases involving higher education. 

Stokes’ appeal could have implications for how public universities discipline employees over political speech on personal social media accounts, said Greg Harold Greubel, senior litigation attorney for FIRE. He said the group plans to file an amicus brief supporting Stokes this week. 

Greubel said he also thinks Stokes’ firing was driven by online outrage  — a heckler’s veto — rather than actual workplace disruption. 

Stokes maintains that her termination was not justified.

“I did nothing wrong,” Stokes said in an email to Mississippi Today. “I didn’t deserve to be fired.”

Education Editor Marquita Brown contributed to this report.

Defaults on student loans have surged across the United States, reaching record levels as borrowers struggle to keep up with payments. Mississippi has the highest default rate in the nation.

Numbers across the U.S. have spiked since payments came due again following a lengthy pause intended to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, around 9.5 million people — 1 in 5 federal student loan borrowers — are in default, meaning they are more than nine months behind on their payments.

While credit scores can suffer when borrowers are just a few months behind, entering default brings the possibility of more serious consequences, including garnished wages or Social Security payments. For now, the Trump administration has held off on such involuntary collections.

Despair is on the rise, advocates say.

“Folks are struggling to make ends meet and cover all the rising costs of everything else. The growing student loan bills are making things worse and folks are falling behind,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director for the advocacy group Protect Borrowers.

Here are some takeaways from an Associated Press analysis of student loan defaults.

Why a record number of people are in default now

The U.S. Education Department allowed borrowers to suspend federal student loan payments during the economic tumult of the pandemic. Though payments technically started coming due again in 2023, the Biden administration provided a one-year buffer period that ended in the fall of 2024.

Loans couldn’t enter default during this time, and federal programs designed to help delinquent borrowers and debt forgiveness initiatives brought millions out of default.

Starting in June 2025, with the pause having ended nine months prior, borrowers began defaulting again for the first time since the pandemic.

Since then, the number of defaulted borrowers has exploded from 5.3 million to around 9.5 million, according to data from the Office of Federal Student Aid. Out of $1.7 trillion in federally backed student loans nationwide, $233.3 billion is in default.

Another wave of defaults could be on the way. The Trump administration has eliminated the most generous income-driven repayment plan, Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, as part of its overhaul of the federal student loan system. The millions of borrowers who had been enrolled in SAVE now will face the strain of paying more each month.

Starting this month, new borrowers pick between one standard repayment plan and one income-driven option, as opposed to having several options. The Education Department has described the changes as a simplification of a “fragmented and confusing” system.

States with highest default rates are in the South

Many of the states with the highest concentrations of defaulted borrowers are in the South, an AP analysis found.

Mississippi has the nation’s highest default rate at 28.3%, and others near the top include Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas. Rounding out the 15 states with the highest default rates are Alaska, Arizona, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico and Nevada.

Of those states, New Mexico was the only one Republican President Donald Trump didn’t win in 2024.

“These are folks who live in states that President Trump won in the previous election,” Bañez said. “And why I bring that up is, you know, there’s a lot of misconceptions and tropes about who student loan borrowers are, and who are the ones who are falling behind.”

She said many are “working-class folks who just cannot keep up with these bills on top of everything else.”

Meanwhile, the territory of Puerto Rico had a 30.9% default rate, higher than any of the states.

Borrowers at for-profit schools struggle to repay loans

Students who attended for-profit colleges struggle more than others to pay back their loans. Thirty-three percent of those borrowers were 90 days or more behind on their student loan payments, a rate more than double that of borrowers who attended public schools, according to data by the Office of Federal Student Aid released this year to help schools understand and identify default risks.

Out of the schools in the top quarter for nonpayment rates, 76% were for-profit schools.

The FSA argues that a high nonpayment rate represents a “serious risk” of developing a high default rate.

An association for private trade schools and career colleges is so concerned it has created a task force to reach out to students about the importance of loan repayment.

Jason Altmire, the head of the group, Career Education Colleges and Universities, said some of it can be chalked up to the pandemic. Other borrowers are confused over the Biden administration’s failed loan forgiveness effort. Still, he said the issue will be discussed at the association’s summer convention.

“We take it seriously,” he said. “It’s a real problem.”

Sarah Whites-Koditschek is joining Mississippi Today and the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center as part of The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

Whites-Koditschek begins her work Monday in Mississippi Today’s newsroom in Jackson. She is part of the six-person fellowship class that The New York Times announced June 22.

The fellowship program, led by Dean Baquet, a former executive editor of The New York Times, gives journalists the opportunity to produce signature investigative work focused on the state or region they’re reporting from. Their reporting will be published by The Times and made available free for co-publication by local newsrooms.

“This is the program’s fourth fellowship class, and we’re thrilled to work with them on producing important accountability reporting from their communities,” Baquet said. “Their work will add to the fellowship’s strong roster of investigative journalism from regions across the country, and we’re excited to help foster this next generation of investigative reporters.” 

The fellows are based in Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

Whites-Koditschek is a former investigative reporter for AL.com in Birmingham, Alabama. She has won national awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and the Public Media Journalists Association as well as a Regional Edward R. Murrow award. She previously worked in public radio as a reporter and producer at WHYY in Philadelphia and KUAR in Little Rock. She is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism’s Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, and she completed a fellowship in investigative reporting at Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

 “Sarah digs into important issues, even when facing bureaucratic obstacles,” said Mississippi Today Editor in Chief Emily Wagster Pettus. “She is an outstanding addition to an already strong investigative team, and we look forward to the work she will do in Mississippi.”

Whites-Koditschek joins Bobbi-Jeanne Misick, Mukta Joshi and Rosemary Westwood as local investigations fellows of the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center created in collaboration with The New York Times. Joshi is reporting for Mississippi Today, while Misick and Westwood are reporting for Verite News in New Orleans.

Investigative reporting that was produced through the fellowship has received national recognition. A yearslong examination of abuses by sheriffs departments in Mississippi was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2024 and 2026. The team was also awarded the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism, the First Amendment Coalition’s Free Speech and Government Award and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Tom Renner Medal for Outstanding Crime Reporting.

The Times will continue collaborating with Big Local News, a data-sharing journalism program based at Stanford University. Big Local News will be working again with the fellows on obtaining and analyzing data for their projects and providing ongoing training on investigative data techniques.

Applications for the 2027-28 group of fellows opened July 1. Journalists interested in a fellowship based in Mississippi or Louisiana can visit this application form year round.

Mississippi had one of the nation’s largest declines in the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange enrollment based on early 2026 numbers, meaning that it has become even more difficult for the state’s working poor to garner medical care.

According to The Associated Press, Mississippi’s ACA health insurance exchange enrollment declined 26.4% from February 2025 to February 2026. It is likely that the enrollment will drop even more – perhaps significantly more – because of the higher cost to obtain a policy from the health insurance exchange based on decisions made by the administration of President Donald Trump.

It could be logically argued that the higher costs of the insurance policies obtained on the exchange impact Mississippi’s working poor more than any other group in the country. First of all, Mississippi’s working poor population is behind the proverbial healthcare eight ball because the state is one of 10 nationwide that has not expanded Medicaid, as is allowed under the Affordable Care Act with the federal government paying the bulk of the costs.

In the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid, many of their low income people do not have to depend on the healthcare exchange for coverage. They can sign up for expanded Medicaid to obtain healthcare. But in Mississippi, Medicaid expansion is not an option.

So, when the Joe Biden administration pushed through legislation to greatly enhance the already existing federal subsidies for exchange health insurance policies, the working poor in Mississippi – even extending to middle-class families – signed up en masse.

Mississippi had the second-highest increase in exchange enrollments – second only to Texas, which also had not expanded Medicaid. After the enhanced subsidies went into effect, Mississippi had a 242% increase to 338,159 people, according to KFF, a nationwide nonprofit that studies healthcare policy.

Of the 10 states with the recent highest declines in ACA enrollment after the enhanced subsidies ended, Mississippi and South Carolina were the only two that had not expanded Medicaid. 

The enhanced subsidies ended in December 2025 after the Trump Administration and the Republican-led Congress refused to extend them. While multiple Republican lawmakers made efforts to pass legislation to extend the subsidies, U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith and other Republican members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation made no visible efforts to reinstate the enhanced federal aid.

As a result of the enhanced subsidies ending, KFF estimated that a 40-year-old Jacksonian earning $30,000 per year would see his or her monthly insurance cost increase from $42 to $155 for a policy purchased on the exchange.

Based on that calculation, it should not be a surprise that Mississippians are dropping the health insurance exchange policies. After all, they are dealing with higher costs for groceries, gasoline and other necessities at the same time they are being hit with higher healthcare insurance costs.

They are making the decision to drop the health insurance policies and hoping they do not get sick and understanding that if they do face a major medical bill with no insurance, they will be unable to pay it. The medical bills they cannot pay place a burden not only on them and their families, but also on the overall state healthcare system that must absorb those unpaid costs.

In short, Mississippi’s working poor have been hit with rising health insurance exchange costs and no Medicaid expansion, meaning they have less access to healthcare than most Americans.

But the fact that poor Mississippians, facing higher costs, cannot afford healthcare should not be a surprise.

Is it even news?

Like the old adage goes, it is not news when dog bites man. It is news when man bites dog or when a poor Mississippian actually has access to decent healthcare.

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at mukta.joshi@nytimes.com. Joseph Cranney is a reporter with the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center in collaboration with The New York Times. Learn more about the center’s work here.

SENATOBIA — A white police officer involved in last month’s shooting that killed a Black toddler and injured a Black woman directed a racially offensive remark toward a coworker two days prior, calling him a “Black motherfucker,” according to an internal department complaint reviewed by Mississippi Today.

Senatobia Police Sgt. Hunter Foster was placed on leave two days after the June 14 shooting at the local Walmart that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, though no agency has confirmed if he fired his weapon. In records released by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation “in error,” Foster was listed as the subject of its investigation into the shooting. Law enforcement and Walmart have declined repeated requests to release video footage from the incident.

Late in the afternoon June 12, Foster entered the police department’s booking room where Officer Dexter Smith, who is Black, was completing some paperwork, according to Smith’s written complaint.

“Who is this Black motherfucker back there?” Foster said, according to the complaint. Smith, who wrote that he had almost no prior relationship with Foster, was taken aback, the complaint says.

“I replied that I had been in the sun from training all week and that I had tanned from the sun,” Smith wrote, adding that Foster repeated the remark and that two other officers overheard it.

“Upon Sergeant Foster making the extremely unprofessional remark, the room went silent and I printed my paperwork and left,” Smith wrote. “I have never had any one-on-one conversation with Sergeant Foster, nor do we have any outside relationship to be on a level for him to speak to me in that manner.”

Exactly a month after Smith submitted his complaint, he resigned from his position at the department, an email he sent to department and city leadership shows. The email, obtained by Mississippi Today, said his resignation was in part because of how the department handled his complaint. 

The complaint had not received “any meaningful response or resolution,” Smith’s email said, adding that it could have been “easily verified,” as the site of the incident was equipped with both audio and video surveillance. “The failure to review or consider this available evidence, combined with the disparity in how workplace issues have been addressed, has significantly influenced my decision to resign.”

When contacted by reporters, Smith declined to comment.

Foster, who is 32 and in his eighth year in law enforcement, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Mississippi Today notified Foster’s father, a retired law enforcement officer, of the allegations in Smith’s complaint, but he didn’t respond.

Lt. Shane Howell, a Senatobia police spokesperson, also didn’t respond to a request for comment sent Friday.

Foster and the police department have been subject to a firestorm of criticism in the month since the shooting at Walmart, which, besides killing the toddler, also injured 22-year-old Latoya Ferrell, who is Black. Ferrell had been accused of shoplifting a pack of diapers and baby clothes.

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, was holding Kohen in her arms in the front passenger seat next to Ferrell, who was driving.

Officers had attempted to stop the car, but “the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one,” according to a statement released the day of the shooting by MBI.

Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing the Wiley family, hired a forensic pathologist who concluded that Kohen was struck by a bullet from at least an intermediate distance from the side, which Crump said was evidence that officers weren’t in harm’s way when they opened fire. 

Crump shared a photo showing the vehicle’s front passenger window was blown out. The photo also appears to show a bullet hole in the windshield on the passenger side

Foster was hired in Senatobia in March 2025 and promoted to sergeant six months later, city records show. He spent three years with the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office and a little over two years with the Southaven Police Department prior to that. 

During his time in DeSoto, Foster was named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging that he and other deputies used unreasonable force on a woman after a traffic stop, knocking out multiple teeth and breaking her jaw in three places. Foster’s attorney denied those allegations in court papers and a federal judge dismissed that suit in March.

In a separate lawsuit filed when he was an officer in Southaven, Foster was accused of exaggerating the risks that a car posed to officers during a suspicious vehicle call to a Waffle House parking lot in 2019.

In his report about that incident, Foster claimed that the driver had accelerated his car, “almost running over” another officer. Surveillance footage filed with the lawsuit shows no evidence that the car drove toward, or nearly hit, any of the officers. It shows several officers, though not Foster, aggressively pulling men from the car and striking them while they were on the ground. 

Katherine Kerby, a lawyer for the officers, wrote in her response to the lawsuit that Foster “denies the allegations as to him or that he had any knowledge that any aspects of his report were not accurate.”

Joseph Cranney reported from New Orleans.

PEARL RIVER COUNTY — Pearl River County officials are working to restore water flow to the East Pearl River, a long-planned effort aimed at improving recreation, supporting wildlife habitat and benefiting communities along the river. 

The project remains in the planning and permitting process and will require continued coordination among local, state and federal partners before construction can begin, according to Pearl River County Economic Development Director Lindsay Ward. She said no construction timeline has been finalized. 

Ward said Sen. Angela Burks Hill, a Republican from Picayune who represents District 40, and Rep. Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes, a Republican from Picayune who represents District 108, have worked alongside county officials throughout the process to help move the project forward. 

Ward said restoring water flow would provide environmental, recreational and economic benefits for communities along the Pearl River. 

“You have a lot of homes that are built along the Pearl River that have the potential to lose a significant amount of economic value,” she said. “(It’s) one of the biggest risks to the community — which has this entire culture and way of life along the Pearl River and Walkiah Bluff — that is truly at risk.” 

She said restoring water levels would also improve access to Walkiah Bluff Park and the nearby public boat launch by allowing residents and visitors to more easily launch boats and kayaks. 

“Think about the community benefits of having not only the water flow but also a beautified park and scenic area where families in those communities, as well as visitors, can come,” Ward said. “They can get out in their kayaks, they can launch their boats, and they have enough water to launch them, too.” 

Ward said the effort stems from an environmental impact study completed in the early 1990s that recommended maintaining a 50-50 split in water flow between the Pearl River in Mississippi and the East Pearl River, which forms part of the Mississippi-Louisiana border. 

To help maintain that balance, the Walkiah Bluff Weir was constructed to regulate water flow into the East Pearl River. Ward said the study also anticipated the structure would require significant rehabilitation or replacement after about 25 years to continue operating as intended. 

Ward said heavy spring flooding in 2022 caused the structure to fail, preventing it from directing water into the East Pearl River as designed. 

She said the reduced flow left portions of the river so shallow that boating and other recreational activities became difficult. 

“We had a dedicated team of locals and our state legislators who tried to get both the state of Mississippi and what, at the time, was the local entity responsible for maintaining the structure to get it back up to par,” Ward said. 

According to Ward, responsibility for maintaining the structure previously rested with the Pearl River Basin Development District. The district was created by the Mississippi Legislature in 1964 to oversee water resources throughout the Pearl River Basin before later ceasing operations. 

Ward said county officials continue to work with state and federal partners to complete the planning, permitting and funding requirements needed before the project can move into construction. 

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at mukta.joshi@nytimes.com. Joseph Cranney is a reporter with the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center in collaboration with The New York Times. Learn more about the center’s work here.

SENATOBIA — A Mississippi police officer involved in last month’s fatal shooting of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley at a Walmart was previously accused of exaggerating the risks that a vehicle posed to officers during another parking lot confrontation that escalated into violence in 2019, records show.

That incident took place at a Waffle House parking lot when Officer Hunter Foster worked for the police department in Southaven. It led to a federal lawsuit against Foster and a dozen other officers, which was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2022.

According to the lawsuit, Foster falsified his report that stemmed from a call for a suspicious vehicle, claiming that the driver had accelerated his car, “almost running over” another officer. Surveillance footage filed with the lawsuit shows no evidence that the car drove toward, or nearly hit, any of the officers. It shows several officers, though not Foster, aggressively pulling men from the car and striking them while they were on the ground. 

Now employed by the police department in Senatobia, Foster was among the officers who responded to a shoplifting call at the local Walmart on June 14. At least one officer opened fire on a vehicle, striking Kohen and killing him. 

Officers had attempted to stop the car, but “the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one,” according to a statement released the day of the shooting by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, part of the state Department of Public Safety.

The Senatobia Board of Aldermen placed Foster on leave two days after the shooting, though no one involved has said if Foster fired his weapon. Action News 5 in Memphis reported that MBI had listed Foster as a subject of its investigation into the shooting, based on records that the bureau said it released to the station by mistake. Authorities have not identified the other officers who were present.

The shooting has led to a firestorm of criticism, with some community activists calling for Foster to be fired or prosecuted. Foster, 32, is in his eighth year in law enforcement and has said nothing publicly. He didn’t respond to a handwritten message  a reporter left at his home Thursday.

Reached by phone, Foster’s father, Rick, who is a retired law enforcement officer, declined to discuss his son’s actions. “That will all come out once the investigation is complete,” he said.

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, was holding Kohen in her arms in the front passenger seat. Wiley’s friend, who was driving the vehicle, had been accused of stealing baby clothes and a pack of diapers.

Mississippi’s public safety commissioner, Sean Tindell, told Senatobia aldermen that MBI had obtained body-worn camera footage, but the agency has denied repeated requests to release footage of the incident.

Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing the Wiley family, hired a forensic pathologist who concluded that Kohen was struck by a bullet from at least an intermediate distance from the side, which Crump said was evidence that officers weren’t in harm’s way when they opened fire.

Crump shared a photo showing the vehicle’s front passenger window was blown out. The photo also appears to show a bullet hole in the windshield on the passenger side.

Foster left his Southaven job a month before the federal lawsuit stemming from the Waffle House arrests was filed in the Northern District of Mississippi. Southaven Police Chief Seth Kern declined to say if Foster’s departure was related to the incident.

Foster went on to a three-year stint with the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office, where he was decorated for carrying out the highest number of DUI arrests during his first two years.

Foster carried out 297 such arrests in 2022 and 230 in 2023, the most by any law enforcement officer in Mississippi in those years, according to Sobriety Trained Officers Representing Mississippi, a group that tracks DUIs.

During that time, he was accused in a second lawsuit of using excessive force during a traffic stop.

A woman said Foster and three other deputies pulled her over in August 2022 and beat her,  knocking out multiple teeth and breaking her jaw in three places, according to the suit. In court papers, a lawyer for Foster denied the allegations of excessive force. A judge dismissed the case in March.

Foster’s use-of-force reports from his time at the DeSoto County department do not include the incident, and the judge who dismissed the suit noted that the plaintiff’s only allegation against Foster specifically was that he was too rough when he handcuffed her. 

Foster left the DeSoto sheriff’s office in October 2024 and joined the Senatobia Police Department in March 2025, state records show. DeSoto County Sheriff Thomas Tuggle referred questions about Foster to Tish Clark, a department spokesperson. Clark didn’t respond to emailed questions.

Lt. Shane Howell, a Senatobia police spokesperson, declined to say if the department was aware of Foster’s role in the two federal lawsuits at the time of his hiring. Foster was promoted to sergeant six months after his hiring, city records show.

In Southaven, the incident that was the subject of the 2021 lawsuit began when the two plaintiffs were searching for lost keys, the suit alleges, in the parking lot of a Waffle House. Video footage from before officers arrived shows two men using their car headlights and the flashlight from a phone as they pace the mostly empty lot.

Abruptly, five patrol cars swerve into the lot, with two police SUVs ramming into the plaintiffs’ vehicle. At one point after officers exit their vehicles and stand around the car, the men appear to try to pull forward a few feet. The video does not show an officer in front of the car at that moment.

During the encounter, one of the officers can be seen banging on the hood of the car, pointing his gun at the windshield, smashing the front passenger window with his baton and repeatedly beating one of the men after he exited the driver side and lay on the ground. 

The men were arrested and charged with multiple offenses, including aggravated assault on police, resisting arrest and fleeing law enforcement. 

Foster, the lawsuit alleged, was one of several officers who submitted false and near-identical narratives of the incident, claiming that the driver nearly ran over an officer and that both plaintiffs had resisted arrest.

Katherine Kerby, a lawyer for the officers, wrote in her response to the lawsuit that Foster “denies the allegations as to him or that he had any knowledge that any aspects of his report were not accurate.”

Court records show the lawsuit was settled following a confidential agreement. The city of Southaven has not responded to a request for the amount it paid to settle. 

Joseph Cranney reported from New Orleans.

Five cases of the diarrhea-causing disease cyclosporiasis have been confirmed in Mississippi, the Department of Health reported Friday. 

State Epidemiologist Dr. Renia Dotson temporarily declared cyclosporiasis a reportable disease Thursday due to the nationwide spike in cases, she told reporters at a Friday press conference. Mississippi was previously one of three states that did not require health professionals and laboratories to report the disease to the Health Department.

“We have not been tracking these illnesses,” Dotson said. “So, I cannot with confidence say that the five cases we have now are outside of our norm, or outside of our range, because we don’t have a good handle on what the range of cases we normally see is.” 

Cases were reported in four of the state’s nine public health regions. These regions cover central and southern Mississippi, the Delta and the Gulf Coast. Dotson said the Health Department has not yet identified any commonalities among the cases. 

Cyclosporiasis is a gastrointestinal disease caused by a microscopic parasite. Infections have surged across the nation in recent weeks. As of Monday,  more than 1,600 confirmed cases since May 1 in 30 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said more than 5,000 additional cases required further analysis. No deaths have been reported in connection with the illness.

The disease’s symptoms include watery diarrhea with “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC. It can take between two days and two weeks for an infected person to become sick, and it is typically treated with antibiotics. Young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at risk of more severe or prolonged illness, Dotson said. 

The disease spreads when people eat food or drink water contaminated with feces. It is typically not transmitted from person to person. Previous outbreaks have been linked to fresh produce, including leafy greens, herbs and berries. 

Health officials have not identified a single cause of the wave of U.S. infections.

On Thursday, the CDC, Food and Drug Administration and public health officials in several states announced they are investigating infections connected to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in five states — Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. The federal agencies have identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico in the investigation. Cases in Mississippi have not been linked to this outbreak, Dotson said. 

The CDC is also investigating other clusters of cyclosporiasis cases unrelated to this outbreak.

The true number of sick people is likely higher than the number reported, because some people recover without treatment and were not tested, and it can take as long as six weeks to determine if a sick person’s illness is related to cyclospora. 

The Health Department has asked laboratories across the state to retroactively review cases from the past year to determine a normal caseload as a point of comparison, Dotson said. 

To protect against cyclosporiasis, Dotson said she recommends washing hands and produce before preparing food, including scrubbing fruits and vegetables and removing any bruised areas. She also recommended refrigerating cut or peeled fruits and vegetables as soon as possible and noted that cooking food thoroughly kills the parasite. 

Dotson said people experiencing diarrhea lasting longer than a few days, severe dehydration, bloody diarrhea, persistent vomiting or high fever should contact a health professional.

Nora Miller laughs now when she tells the story. 

As a high school student in the 1970s living in St. Louis, Missouri, Miller threw away a $1,300 presidential scholarship offer she received from Mississippi University for Women before she even opened it. She was certain she wasn’t moving to Mississippi to attend an all-women’s college.

But after much convincing from her parents, who had retrieved the letter, and her high school guidance counselor, Miller visited the campus in Columbus. 

That visit changed everything, setting Miller on a path that eventually led to her presidency at the university. 

Miller retired on June 30 after nearly eight years as president of MUW, also known as The W, and more than three decades in higher education in the state.

“The accents, the colloquialisms, it was all funny to me,” Miller said, recalling her first visit to Mississippi. “I’d never seen roaches before, especially not flying ones. But, the slow pace, the friendliness of the people, my newfound friends and support from my family kept my homesickness away.” 

Miller said her successor will inherit familiar challenges: funding pressures, an evolving higher education landscape and the task of sustaining the progress made by the regional institution. 

Her departure also comes as the college board overseeing the state’s eight public universities is considering a new funding formula for the institutions.

Miller was named president of The W in 2018 after 17 years as the university’s chief financial officer. She also served as director of budget and financial analyst and director of internal audit at Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MUW in 1983 and 1985, respectively. 

Mississippi Today asked Miller to reflect on her challenges, accomplishments and lessons that shaped her tenure as MUW president and the rest of her career. She also shared her hopes for her successor. 

“My hope is that stakeholders can be a part of the search process and get behind the new president to help them understand the big issues, come up with solutions that will support the institution and preserve all the good things we got going on here,” she said.

The following responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

On the biggest challenges of Miller’s career and president tenure

The university was hit by a tornado in November 2002. I was vice president for finance and administration of the university at the time, and I had only been in that role for a year. The storm caused nearly $20 million worth of damages. The campus looked like a war zone. Luckily, nobody was hurt. We got one initial payment from (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) but it was at least 10 years before we were reimbursed for everything. But in the process, we were able to rebuild a few campus buildings, including a new recreation center, and restore the third floor of our art building. 

The second challenge would be the attempt to change the university’s name in 2024. The reason we were changing the name was to help us market our programs better and to be reflective of who our current student body is. Mississippi Brightwell University didn’t stick. Neither did Wynbridge State University. We weren’t able to come up with a name everyone could really get behind. 

The name change also coincided with the Legislature coming up with a bill that would have merged us with Mississippi State University. No matter what opinions were about the name, faculty, alumni and students … wanted to remain a standalone institution. So, I think in some ways it brought us back stronger and helped people to realize just how valuable this institution is. 

On big wins as MUW’s president

The W’s reaccreditation status. It happens every 10 years and is a rigorous and big undertaking to make sure the university meets academic and operational standards. Everybody works so hard on it. The university is also celebrating a decade of having intercollegiate athletics in the NCAA Division III. 

We also joined the Coalition of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC), which is a consortium of 30 public colleges and universities across the country dedicated to providing quality liberal arts education. It’s been great providing our faculty with research opportunities and professional development. Our deans and provosts have benefitted from being part of it. 

We also reopened our Culinary Arts Institute building in 2023. We also renovated Turner Hall, our speech language pathology school. We named it after Alma Turner, an alumna and the first principal of the teacher demonstration school. It’s the first building on our campus named after an African American student, and it was important we gave it to her. 

On advice for the next MUW president

Listen to everyone and attend as many functions on campus and in town. It’s important to be present, seen and involved. Try to love this place, realize how special it is and try to preserve all the good things the university has going on. There are great people who love this institution. The next leader should know, recognize and be thankful for that. When talking with legislators, share the good news about our university with them. 

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As for the alums, faculty, students and community stakeholders, I say be open to the new leader. Help them become a part of campus and the Columbus community. My biggest hope is that stakeholders can be a part of the search process and get behind the new person to help them understand the issues, come up with solutions that will support the institution. 

On university funding issues

It’s a constant battle for funding, mainly infrastructure and operating funds. The state doesn’t fund higher education the way it should be supported and funded. It’s a struggle that our faculty are not paid well enough. We’ve also got buildings that need a lot of work. We’ve got, you know, needs that go beyond what we’re able to fund. 

I think we’re going to be in the same situation with the new funding formula that IHL is considering. There’s a lot of competing interests, and the larger institutions have more resources — more opportunities for resources and support — than the regional institutions. They also have a bigger voice and more people in the House. We don’t have a lot of support in the House. Luckily, we have Donnie Scoggin, chair of the House Universities and Colleges committee.  

On the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science

MSMS is a wonderful institution and was founded here on our campus. It’s also wonderful to see the kids excel at what they’re able to do and the opportunities that this school gives them.

But, the school’s lack of funding continues to be an issue. The state funded it in the very beginning but then neglected it. The state couldn’t pay for the upkeep on the school’s facilities. We support them as best we can, but it’s really the state Department of Education that needs to be the advocate for MSMS. It’s the state school. It’s not Columbus’, it’s not Lowndes County’s, it’s not the W’s school. I have spoken out repeatedly at every chance I get for them, but it’s really not our place. 

On what Miller’s looking forward to most in retirement 

I think being able to read and set my own schedule and calendar. I like to read fiction. I just finished “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans. I’m reading “The Calamity Club” by Kathryn Stockett, a Mississippi native. Every fall semester, I would take a class called Eudora Welty Writer Symposium, and I would read all the authors who were coming to speak at the annual event. Since 2001, I’ve taken every class and have two bookcases filled with those books. It’s just one of the many things I’ll miss not being on campus.