Mississippi State didn’t even wait until the end of the season to fire Chris Lemonis, who brought the national championship to Starkville not quite four years ago. Where do the Bulldogs go from here. Robbie Faulk who covers the Bulldogs more closely than anyone else joins the podcast to discuss the situation.
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LONG BEACH — A retired Long Beach police officer arrested Thursday is accused of assaulting a woman holding a protest sign and threatening a second victim, Long Beach Police Chief Billy Seal confirmed Friday.
Police arrested Craig DeRouche, 64, for allegedly assaulting a woman during an encounter on U.S. 90 at Jeff Davis Avenue. He is charged with a second misdemeanor charge of assault by threat for allegedly threatening a man who reported that he saw the alleged attack and tried to intervene, Seal said.
According to Seal, the protester, identified as a 74-year-old woman, was holding a protest sign supporting the right to due process under the U.S. Constitution for Americans before the assault occurred.
The woman, a Navy veteran, is now in stable condition in a local hospital.
On April 28, 2022, the Ole Miss baseball Rebels had won 23 games and lost 17 overall. They were 6-12 in the Southeastern Conference. The various Internet message boards were filled with posts calling for head baseball coach Mike Bianco’s dismissal. Yes, and two months later, Bianco and his Rebels won the College World Series.
Contrast that with this: On April 28 of this year, Mississippi State’s Diamond Dogs had a 25-19 record overall, 7-14 in the SEC. The various Internets boards were filled with posts calling for head coach Chris Lemonis to be fired. He was.
In both those situations, the Mississippi teams were six games over the .500 mark overall. In both those situations, the teams had lost twice as many SEC games as they had won. Ole Miss stayed the course, and it paid off, remarkably so. In sharp contrast, Mississippi State pulled the trigger, and we shall see what happens next.
Another big difference in the two situations: Bianco had never won a national championship in his previous 20 years at Ole Miss. Lemonis won the first national championship in State history just four years ago.
You ask me, that national championship, not even four years ago, should have earned Lemonis, at the very least, the right to finish out this season. I don’t see anything to be gained with firing the man with three weeks remaining in the regular season. Most NCAA Tournament projections have Mississippi State listed as one of the first four teams out. The Bulldogs are ranked 45th in RPI against the nation’s 13th most difficult schedule. They are on the NCAA Tournament bubble, just as Ole Miss was three seasons ago.
This is not to say I believe that Lemonis, given the opportunity, would have done what Bianco did three years ago, But it is certainly within the realm of possibility. We’ve seen it happen. In baseball, more than any other sport, teams run hot and cold. State could have gotten hot, gotten on a roll in May and June and at least made it to the College World Series. It happens for someone nearly every year in college baseball. For that matter, it could still happen for State this year with interim head coach Justin Parker calling the shots.
And I know what many of those calling for the dismissal of Lemonis will say. They’ll say that in firing Lemonis now, State can get a head start on hiring a new coach to turn the program around. Not so. Any coach that the Bulldogs would hire is still coaching a team and will be coaching a team through at least May.
Traditionally, Mississippi State baseball is one of the nation’s top programs. State baseball facilities are second to none. Fan support is among the nation’s best.
But it is not, as athletic director Zac Selmon put it “the premier program in college baseball.” It is much more accurate to say State’s is a really good program in the premier conference in college baseball.
LSU, Texas, and Arkansas, all teams in the same conference, have similar fan support, terrific facilities and have enjoyed much more on-the-field success. Tennessee has improved dramatically. Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Texas A & M have made huge strides in facilities, fan support and baseball emphasis.
And here’s the deal: Tradition, facilities and fan support, while still important, all have become secondary issues when it comes to ingredients for success in college athletics. You know what really matters most? NIL and the ability to attract players in the transfer portal, that’s what. This is no longer amateur sports. It’s pay-for-play. It’s professional sports in every respect.
The first question recruits ask: What can you pay me? The first question any prospective coach will ask Mississippi State: How much money will I get to pay players? In Monday’s press release announcing the dismissal of Lemonis, Selmon was quoted as saying State’s baseball “NIL offerings” are second to none. There’s no way of knowing for sure, but I have heard otherwise from numerous sources.
I hate that we have reached this point in college athletics, but we most assuredly have. I also hate that Lemonis, a good man and a good coach, doesn’t get the chance to finish the season. I thought he had earned that.
Mississippi officials are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a federal court ruling that struck down Mississippi’s five-day grace period for mail-in absentee ballots to arrive after Election Day.
Attorneys for the state filed court documents stating their intention to petition the nation’s highest court to overturn a decision from an appellate court that found a state election law conflicted with federal election laws.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirrola halted all lower court action until the proceedings with the Supreme Court are completed.
The Republican National Committee, the state Republican Party and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi sued Secretary of State Michael Watson and local elections officials over a state law that allows election workers to process absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day for up to five days after the election.
The political parties argue that Congress is the only entity that can set specific parameters for federal elections, while state officials contend that federal law defers to states on specific details for conducting elections.
Judge Guirrola initially ruled in favor of the state, but the plaintiffs appealed. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative appellate courts in the nation, overturned Guirrola’s ruling and struck down the state law.
Now Mississippi officials are asking the Supreme Court to uphold the state law, a decision that could have broad implications for more than a dozen states that have similar laws on the books.
The litigation does not impact state or local races, including Mississippi’s current municipal elections. Mississippi’s next federal election will be the 2026 midterm, where all four of Mississippi’s U.S. House members are up for reelection, as well as U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Mississippi nonprofit centers that serve survivors of domestic violence, dating violence and sexual assault have been unable to apply for crucial federal grants, creating uncertainty and potentially jeopardizing services and staffing.
The U.S. Department of Justice awards tens of millions of dollars yearly through the Violence Against Women Act, but in February, grant information was taken down from the Office on Violence Against Women’s website right before the usual application deadline.
As of the end of April, the information hasn’t returned, and the office’s website announcing funding opportunities was last updated Feb. 6, telling applicants not to finalize any applications.
“So many times when you’re utilizing federal funds to pretty much run your organization, when those federal funds are cut, you have to start looking at cutting staff and services,” said Joy Jones, executive director of the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which receives VAWA funding.
“That is detrimental to victims of crime,” she added.
Since 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded nearly $50 million to Mississippi nonprofit centers, the State Department of Health and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. That’s money that has supported the operation of shelters, transitional housing, victim advocacy, education and more.
Other funding through VAWA includes training for law enforcement officers and prosecutors as well as support for rural communities and college campuses.
Meridian’s Care Lodge serves nine counties in the east central part of the state. Its executive director, Kim Neal, said federal grants support the organization’s emergency shelter, where over 200 women, men and children turned to last year.
She said a lot of the funding is to ensure people have basic needs like clothing, food and a safe environment, in addition to advocacy, like when survivors want to file charges or to seek a protective order.
Tupelo-based S.A.F.E., Inc. serves nine counties in northeast Mississippi. A rural grant has allowed the organization to do work at its domestic violence shelter and in the community, including throughout April – Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Through federal and state grants, S.A.F.E, housed 55 people last year, including those who are homeless as a result of domestic violence and sexual assault, said Zowee Shanks, S.A.F.E’s executive director.
“When people are making these decisions to pull the grants out, they are not understanding these shelters do more work than at our 19-bed facility,” she said.
Another federal funding source for domestic violence and rape crisis centers is through the Victims of Crime Act. That act created the Crime Victims Fund, which collects fines and penalties from people convicted of federal crimes and distributes the money to states.
In October, the start of the federal government’s fiscal year, the crime fund is expected to be cut by $700 million, meaning less funding for states and victim service programs.
The Mississippi Department of Health uses VAWA and VOCA grants along with $12 million from the State Legislature to support victim services that many shelters provide, said Gregory Flynn, a spokesperson for the department.
Currently, the Health Department funds support ten of the 11 domestic violence shelters across the state, including Care Lodge and S.A.F.E, Inc.
At the same time as VAWA grants were frozen, the Justice Department cancelled funding for 365 grant programs for nonprofit organizations across the country working with crime victims. Some of the grant recipients were notified that their projects no longer “effectuate” the DOJ’s agencies, CBS News reported.
“It certainly concerns us,” Neal said about the wait for answers about the federal grants.
“Domestic violence doesn’t stop even though they may freeze the funding.”
Jackson mom Sequaya Coleman was applying for the first time for a voucher to help pay child care for her 2-year-old son when she heard the news.
She may not be getting any help from the state’s Child Care Assistance Program — at least not for the foreseeable future. The Mississippi Department of Human Services has put a cost-cutting hold on which families could apply.
Without it, Coleman, who works as a housekeeper, continues to rely on her relatives and friends to watch her kids, a 2-year-old and a 12-year-old, instead. She doesn’t know if she’s been rejected, but she is in a grey area. She applied in March, the month before the hold took place.
Beginning April 1, MDHS began limiting who could apply for new applications, redetermination applications, and “add a child” applications for child care certificates.
Families who do not fit one of six priority categories (on or getting off Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, are homeless, have foster children, are teen parents, are deployed military or families with special needs) cannot apply for new certificates or have their certificates renewed. There were 36,186 children with child care certificates in late March, a week before the hold began. About 10,800 did not fit any of the six priority categories.
Coleman is concerned that the lack of child care puts an extra strain on relatives and older children, creates a greater safety risk for young children, and makes it harder for communities to thrive.
“Our kids need the help, we need the help, because if you take the help from the American people, how do you expect us to thrive as Americans? How do you expect us to thrive as a state?” she said.
MDHS is trying to reduce the number of children receiving certificates to fewer than 27,000 to fit what the department can afford since COVID-19 relief funding dried up, with a target program cost of less than $12 million a month, said Mark Jones, chief communications officer for MDHS.
“We cannot accurately estimate how long the hold will remain in place, but we will be monitoring the situation very closely and will lift the hold as soon as we can,” he said.
MDHS will notify parents 60 days before their annual redetermination deadline. Parents who want to be notified can enter their email address in the application portal.
The Child Care Payment Program provides assistance to working parents and guardians for child care. The parent or guardian still has to pay the difference between what the program provides and the actual cost of tuition. They may also have to make a co-payment every month.
According to Jones, Mississippi has dedicated approximately $379.9 million from various COVID-19 relief funding programs to child care since 2020. Mississippi currently spends 85% of its funds from the Child Care Development Fund on child care certificates, which was about $127 million in fiscal year 2024 and more than the federal minimum they’re required to spend.
Mississippi also transfers 30% of its annual state funds from the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program to child care. In 2024, that amounted to $25.9 million.
Carol Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative, explained the financial impact for families: “The CCPP can reduce the cost of child care by as much as 80%. And so if a family is gonna have to pick up what the CCPP has offered, it’s gonna really increase the cost of child care for that family.”
MLICCI’s Employment Equity for Single Moms program helps single mothers in Mississippi access resources for child care and workforce development to help single moms find higher-paying work.
A key part of the program is helping these mothers get on the Child Care Payment Program. MLICCI usually covers child care costs for its mothers while they wait to get assistance. Without the assistance, MLICCI can’t afford to pay for long-term child care.
“The biggest chunk of families on CCPP are low-income, single-mom-headed families who are working in jobs with low wages, and they’re not one of the six priorities,” said Burnett.
In addition to the financial impact on families, the hold on applications would disrupt education for children during a crucial period. Research has shown that children who attend quality early childhood education have better academic performance in elementary school.
“Without the CCPP vouchers, many families will not be able to afford child care, and so it’s likely that families’ child care arrangements will become unpredictable and piecemeal…and this uncertainty can cause children stress, which can hinder their development and growth,” explained Biz Harris, executive director of Mississippi Early Learning Alliance.
Deloris Suel, who owns Prep Company Tutorial Schools in Jackson with her husband,said she thinks parents would be able to teach their children at home with the right training, but it would be a strain on top of their other responsibilities.
“Child care today is not a babysitting service. There’s benchmarks and goals that we have to meet,” she said.
Prep Company Tutorial Schools serves 260 children, 61 of whom have child care certificates. Only two of their students fit among the six exception categories MDHS listed.
Last week, a group of child care providers, parents and child care advocates held a press conference on the south steps of the Capitol, urging MDHS to lift the limits on new applications and redeterminations, communicate better with providers and families, and use the current and carry-over TANF funds to supplement the child care voucher program.
At the end of 2023, MDHS had over $156 million in unspent TANF funds, as other states do. Nationwide, states had unobligated TANF balances of nearly $8 billion in 2023. Spending this money on child care would be doable without legislative action, MLICCI said, and has already been done in other states.
Burnett said she does not know why the state hasn’t used this method of funding. “I mean you would think that they would want to do that when they have the money rather than create this harm for so many families,” she said.
When asked why she thinks MDHS has been hesitant to use the available TANF funds, she said “I have two words: ‘Republican state.’ Because if we have other states joining hands to say, ‘Hey, we can pull this down from here.’ Why can’t Mississippi?”
When asked about using unspent TANF funds in this way, Jones responded, “MDHS is committed to following official federal guidance regarding conversion of TANF funds to CCPP. MDHS is resolved to utilize all available recurring revenue streams to support the CCPP and ensure the long-term viability of the program.”
Jones would not comment on why the department will not use left-over TANF funds.
Jones also stated, “MDHS has discussed the potential for a pause in CCPP certificates with the child care industry each month during the information sessions. The members of SECAC (State Early Childhood Advisory Council) were well aware of this potential pause as far back as 2023.”
Families can call the Child Care Payment Program call center at 800-877-7882 for questions or reach out to their nearest Resource & Referral Center for help.
Anna Wolfe contributed to this report.
Update 4/29/24: This story has been updated to clarify that the Department of Human Services has not responded to Sequaya Coleman’s application.
When Mississippi politicians are running for office, they often pledge transparency as if they mean it.
Next time you’re around such politicians, especially if they are legislators or running for the Legislature, you should ask them a few questions.
Ask them why the Mississippi Legislature exempts itself from the open records and open meetings laws it levies on all other divisions of state government, and why legislative leaders have even fought in court to keep proceedings involving a majority of a legislative chamber secret from the public.
Ask them why you cannot get on your phone or computer and easily search for who funds their campaign and by how much. Then ask them why you could go to any surrounding state (and nearly all others across the country) and easily and quickly find such information.
Then, ask the same for why you cannot easily, or sometimes at all, see who buys them expensive dinners, trips or gifts to influence their voting, or why there aren’t any prohibitions or limits on this as there are in other states.
Ask their thoughts on “gift laws,” or prohibition or limits on campaign donors getting massive government contracts from the people to whom they donate.
Ask them if they believe all the folks who lobby lawmakers even bother to register as lobbyists or report what they do to influence them.
Ask them why Mississippi government, state to local, provides so few public records online, or why agencies charge so much when they do cough up records.
Ask them why millions of dollars in out-of-state, secret-sourced “dark money” has been pouring into Mississippi elections in recent years, and what has been done to curb this.
READ MORE: Campaign finance transparency bill faces uphill battle in Mississippi Legislature
Ask them to explain what Mississippi’s so-called “ethics laws” actually prohibit, what penalties they carry and what authority the so-called “Ethics Commission” has. Ask them how we compare here to other states, such as Alabama, where government ethics laws are actually enforced and their ethics agency has some authority.
READ MORE: Does Mississippi have any campaign finance rules?
For that matter, ask them who or what agency in Mississippi enforces campaign finance, ethics or lobbying laws.
Ask them why Mississippi’s attorney general recently decreed Mississippi’s campaign finance laws and limits to be so jacked up, convoluted and contradictory as to be unenforceable or un-prosecutable. Ask why the head of the state’s ethics agency has described Mississippi campaign finance laws as “a jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t fit.”
Ask them why, whenever even modest reforms such as campaign finance reporting requirements for politicians are proposed, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle act like their hair is on fire and line up to help kill it.
Ask them whether they believe Mississippi government is riddled with cronyism, nepotism or pay-to-play politics.
Then, finally, ask them whether they believe any of this might play a role in the historic and persistent government corruption that has often earned Mississippi the label of most corrupt state in the country.
READ MORE: Want to launder some money? Just use your Mississippi campaign account
President Donald Trump has appointed former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant to the FEMA Review Council, which Trump has tasked to “fix a terribly broken system” and shift disaster response and recovery from federal to state government.
The appointment comes as Mississippi awaits a response from the Trump administration on whether it will approve Gov. Tate Reeves’ request for a federal disaster declaration for deadly tornadoes in mid-March. The federal declaration, which Reeves requested April 1, would allow families and local governments devastated by the storms to receive federal assistance. Trump recently denied a similar request for Arkansas.
Trump has said states should shoulder more of the burden for disaster response and recovery, and he and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have threatened to shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency altogether.
“I am proud to announce the formation of the FEMA Review Council, comprised of Top Experts in their fields, who are Highly Respected by their peers,” Trump wrote on social media. “… I know that the new Members will work hard to fix a terribly broken System, and return power to State Emergency Managers, who will help, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”
Trump listed other members of the council, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.
Bryant, a longtime political ally of Trump, on social media wrote he is, “Honored to receive this appointment …” and that “Unfortunately, we’ve earned a lot of experience with natural disasters and recovery in Mississippi. Let’s Make America Safe Again.”
Mississippi saw seven deaths and an estimated $18 million in destruction from multiple tornadoes on March 14-15, the same storm system that caused damage in Arkansas. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported that 233 homes were destroyed across 14 counties, and hundreds more were damaged.
During the initial aftermath, Reeves told reporters he believed there was a “high likelihood” the state’s damages from the March tornadoes would meet the threshold for FEMA’s Individual Assistance, which provides direct payments to disaster victims.
The Trump administration’s FEMA has denied federal assistance for flooding in West Virginia, tornadoes in Arkansas and a storm in Washington state, and refused North Carolina’s request for extending relief after Hurricane Helene.
After Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in 2005, Mississippi received nearly $25 billion in federal relief spending, which state leaders have credited with saving the state from ruin and allowing communities and families to rebuild.
Not quite four years after guiding Mississippi State to a baseball national championship, head coach Chis Lemonis has been fired, effective immediately.
Assistant coach Justin Parker will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Mississippi State made the announcement in a press release Monday afternoon.
“A change in leadership is what is best for the future of Mississippi State baseball,” State athletic director Zac Selmon said. “We have not consistently met the standard of success that our university, fans and student-athletes expect and deserve. I want to thank Coach Lemonis for his work and the time he gave to our program, including a national championship in 2021. We appreciate his efforts and wish him and his family all the best moving forward.”
A national search is underway to identify the program’s next head coach, Selmon said.
“In a team meeting moments ago, I expressed to our student-athletes the confidence we have in their abilities and the potential they have for the remainder of the season,” Selmon said. “I encouraged them to compete with pride, resilience, and intensity. With the hard work, preparation, and talent already within this group, we are committed to putting them in the best position to finish the season competing at the highest level.
“Mississippi State is the premier job in college baseball. The tradition, the facilities, the NIL offerings and the fan base are all second to none. Dudy Noble Field is the best environment in the sport, period.”
The current Bulldogs have a 25-19 record and are 7-14 in the SEC. Most recently, the Bulldogs lost two of three weekend games to Auburn, the nation’s 11th-ranked team. State has lost its last two SEC series and five of seven this season. The Bulldogs are currently No. 45 in the nation in ratings percentage index (RPI) and are in danger of not making the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years.
Lemonis’ MSU teams won 232 games and lost 135 in his six-plus seasons. Hired by former MSU baseball coach and athletic director John Cohen from Indiana, Lemonis has an overall coaching record of 373-226-2.
“This program is built for success,” Selmon said. “Our history proves it, and our future demands it. We are one of only four programs in NCAA history to reach the College World Series in six consecutive decades. With 40 NCAA Tournament appearances, 12 trips to Omaha, 11 SEC regular season titles, and a national championship, our program has always been a national contender. That is the bar. We’re going to find a leader who will embrace that, elevate our program and compete for championships.”