A new Mississippi Today/Siena College poll shows incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann with a substantial lead over challenger Chris McDaniel ahead of the Aug. 8 primary, but Hosemann doesn’t crack 50% and many remain undecided.
The poll of respondents who are likely to vote in the 2023 GOP primary showed Hosemann with 47% support and McDaniel with 32%. But 21% said they don’t know who they’ll vote for or declined to answer.
The poll also surveyed favorable/unfavorable numbers for both candidates. Hosemann was at 58% favorable to 22% unfavorable, and McDaniel was at 46% favorable to 28% unfavorable.
Editor’s note: Poll methodology and crosstabs can be found at the bottom of this story. Click here to read more about our partnership with Siena College Research Institute.
With incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves’ recent semi-endorsement of McDaniel, the poll showed 41% of likely primary voters said they would rather vote for a candidate with his endorsement down ticket, 24% said they would not and 35% said they don’t know.
Both candidates appear to have loyal bases among Republican primary voters. Of those polled who voted for Hosemann in 2019, 61% plan to vote for him again. Of those who voted for McDaniel in his unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate in 2014 or 2018, 63% plan to vote for him again.
The poll showed some wide differences in regional voter sentiment. In the northeast congressional district, Hosemann and McDaniel were a dead heat, at 36% each. In the Delta and west Mississippi, Hosemann led 60%-20% and led 50%-26% in east-central. In the southeast district which includes McDaniel’s hometown Ellisville, Hosemann polled 45% to McDaniel’s 42%.
Of those surveyed, 31% said they would vote for a candidate considered part of the far-right wing of the GOP, while 45% said they would support a moderate Republican and 24% said they don’t know.
The Mississippi Today/Siena College Research Institute poll of 646 registered voters was conducted June 4-7, 2023, and has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.8 percentage points. Siena has an ‘A’ rating in FiveThirtyEight’s analysis of pollsters.
Editor’s note: The methodology and crosstabs document linked directly above this note was updated to accurately portray the makeup of the survey sample.
Lawsuits alleging that Mississippi’s legislative and judicial districts dilute Black voter strength could be bolstered by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
In a surprise ruling last week, the nation’s highest court found that the seven U.S. House seats in Alabama were unconstitutional and violated the federal Voting Rights Act because they diluted Black voter strength. Presumably, that ruling will force the congressional districts to be redrawn in Alabama and perhaps in other states and could impact the balance of power in the U.S. House.
The ruling could also have an impact in Mississippi. In February the U.S. Supreme Court refused an effort to continue a decades-old lawsuit that placed congressional redistricting in Mississippi under the jurisdiction of a three-judge federal panel. The federal panel had overseen the drawing of Mississippi’s congressional districts since the early 2000s. But with the state Legislature redrawing the districts in 2022 after the 2020 Census, the federal panel opted to end its jurisdiction. A group challenged the decision to end the lawsuit, claiming the districts drawn by the Legislature still diluted Black voter strength.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused the effort to keep congressional redistricting under the jurisdiction of the three-judge panel. Theoretically, the decision in the Alabama case could leads to groups again challenging whether the congressional district in Mississippi dilute Black voter strength.
The decision in the Alabama case also could impact lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the drawing of the 174 Mississippi House and Senate districts and the three districts used to elect Mississippi Supreme Court justices and commissioners to the Public Service Commission and the Transportation Commission.
Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the Mississippi ACLU, said the Supreme Court decision in the Alabama case “affirmed the (federal) Voting Rights Act (and) prevents states from packing or cracking Black communities in a way that limits their ability to elect candidates of their choice.”
“This is exactly why the ACLU of MS is challenging Mississippi’s recently enacted legislative districts and the decades-old state Supreme Court district lines,” Dortch said.
The groups filing the lawsuits challenging the legislative districts and the judicial districts include the ACLU of Mississippi and the national chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the national and state chapter of the NAACP, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the law firm of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, the Mississippi Center for Justice and others.
The groups filing the lawsuit have asked the three judge federal panel hearing the case to set an expedited trial date so that if they prevail a special election could be set for November 2024 to elect legislators under new districts. The groups are not trying to hold a trial quick enough to have new legislative districts drawn, should they prevail, for the regularly scheduled legislative elections in November of this year.
The lawsuit says the state Legislature’s redrawing of the House and Senate districts in 2022 to match population shifts gleaned from the 2020 Census “packed” Black voters in a limited number of districts to dilute their electoral impact.
Carroll Rhodes of Hazlehurst, a longtime civil rights attorney who is involved in the lawsuit, has said the new legislative districts violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution by “packing” Black voters in a smaller number of districts to dilute their strength.
Rhodes and others claim that a new redistricting plan could generate more Black majority districts in addition to increasing the number of African Americans in other districts to provide them more impact in non-minority majority districts.
Dortch pointed out that in 2010, there were 12 House districts that had Black populations of over 40% but not a majority, meaning they could have a significant impact in those districts. But under the maps drawn in 2022 by the Legislature, there is only one district in that category.
A separate lawsuit says the three Supreme Court districts that have not been redrawn in more than 35 years also are unconstitutional.
The state, which has an African American population of about 38%, has nine Supreme Court justices — just one of whom is Black.
Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who is running for governor as a Democrat, said the ruling in the Alabama case “was a victory for the Voting Rights Act — and the generations of Southern organizers who made it a reality. Instead of shutting the door on Black and minority communities, those of us in elected office must protect this fundamental right and work to bring new voters into our democracy.”
Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves did not comment on the case on social media.
Southern Miss shortstop Dustin Dickerson (10) attempts to turn a double play against Tennessee during an NCAA Super Regional Sunday, June 11, 2023, in Hattiesburg, Miss. (Aimee Cronan/The Gazebo Gazette via AP)
HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss was up one game in the best-of-three Super Regional and had snatched a 4-0 lead over Tennessee in Game 2. A sun-baked, humidity-broiled overflow crowd at Pete Taylor Park of 5,882 was thundering its approval Sunday. The Golden Eagles were six innings away from a trip to the College World Series, and two-time All-American Tanner Hall was on the mound.
Rick Cleveland
Then it happened.
Christian Moore doubled to left field to start the Tennessee fourth. After a fly out, Merritt Griffin singled home Moore to cut the lead to 4-1, bringing first baseman Blake Burke, a left-handed slugger, to the plate. The count reached two balls and two strikes, and Hall threw a slider, down at the knees across the plate.
“A good pitch,” USM coach Scott Berry would later say. “It wasn’t like Tanner hung it. It was a good pitch down in the zone.”
Burke unleashed a violent swing, connected and there was never any doubt. Golden Eagle right fielder Carson Paetow just turned around and stared. He didn’t move. No need.
Burke’s blast rocketed far above the smoking barbecue grills in Southern Miss’ right field roost, sailed through the tops of tall pine trees, landed in the parking lot of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, and then one-hopped high off the church’s brown exterior.
We were told in the press box Burke’s two-run home run, which cut USM’s lead to 4-3, traveled 479 feet from home plate. It did more than that. It changed the game.
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello used a basketball metaphor. “It’s like in basketball where two points is two points, but yet an emphatic slam dunk can kind of change the momentum of the entire game. A home run like that can be like a slam dunk. It changes the mood in the dugouts. It kind of changes everything.”
Burke’s blast surely seemed to do just that. Before the fourth inning was over, the Vols would score three more runs, take a 6-4 lead and never look back for an 8-4 victory that sends this Hattiesburg Super Regional to a third and deciding game Monday. Late Sunday night, the starting time was set for 5 p.m.
Southern Miss’s Dustin Dickerson (10) slides safely into third base while Tennessee infielder Zane Denton (44) waits for the ball during an NCAA Super Regional game Sunday. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
The first two days of this Super Regional have been like a grueling, sweat-drenched marathon. Southern Miss won the first game, which began at 2 p.m. Saturday, endured two lengthy weather delays, and ended early Sunday afternoon. After leading 4-0 Saturday, Southern Miss held on for a hard-earned 5-3 victory.
Beginning at 11 a.m., Justin Storm pitched the last 4.2 innings for Southern Miss for the victory, blanking the powerful Vols on just two hits after Billy Oldham had given the Golden Eagles a quality start the day before. Shortstop Dustin Dickerson slammed a home run and a double, second baseman Nick Monistere homered and left fielder Tate Parker ripped a two-run triple.
Game 2 also started well for the home team. Hall blanked the Vols for three straight innings and then his teammates struck for four runs in the third inning off Tennessee’s highly touted right hander Chase Dollander, expected to be a top 10 pick in this summer’s Major League draft.
Christopher Sargent’s three-run home run off the scoreboard in left field was the big blow of the four-hit, four-run inning. But who would have thought it? Southern Miss never managed another hit off Dollander, who mixed 96- and 97-mph fastballs with some nasty breaking pitches. Dollander only seemed to get stronger. Put it this way: Dollander’s 107th pitch in the 9th inning was a 97-mph fastball on the inside corner.
Dollander couldn’t quite finish. Vitello brought in Chase Burns for the final three outs, which must have seemed like good news for the Golden Eagles at the time. But then three of Burns’ first four pitches hit 100 mph on the radar gun and he used just 10 pitches to get the last three outs.
Berry, who Monday could be coaching his last game of a remarkable 14-year run as Southern Miss coach, often likens post-season baseball games to heavyweight fights. In this Super Regional, Tennessee has gotten off the canvas and floored Southern Miss with a bevy of punches, including Burke’s haymaker.
How will the Golden Eagles respond?
Hall, who might well have pitched his last game as a Golden Eagle Sunday, believes he knows. “We know what it takes to win and we’ll do what it takes to win,” Hall said. “After a tough loss, we always come back.”
Said Berry, “We are a veteran team. We believe in ourselves.”
Tennessee, just one season removed from being one of the most dominant regular season teams in college baseball history, is likewise a veteran team that feels like it has some unfinished business after falling flat in its own Super Regional last year.
So here we are, one game, winner-take-all for a ticket to Omaha. Tennessee will likely pitch sophomore Drew Beam (8-4), who won the final game of the Clemson Regional. USM will likely go with either sophomore Nikko Mazza (5-1) or junior Matthew Adams (3-2).
Civil rights attorney Jill Collen Jefferson was arrested Saturday night by Lexington police — the same department she complained about nine days earlier to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March confirmed Jefferson’s arrest. She is being held in the Holmes-Humphreys County/Regional Correctional Facility. According to Jefferson’s defense attorney, Michael Carr of Cleveland, she is charged with failure to comply, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. March referred all questions to the Lexington Police Department, which referred comments to Police Chief Charles Henderson, who was out of the office and unavailable.
Carr said he reached Henderson on Saturday night and that the chief said he knew nothing about the arrest and agreed to release Jefferson without bond. But the jail rdquires detainees to pay a $35 processing fee before being released. Carr said Jefferson refused to pay the fee, both because she said it was an unlawful arrest and because people in Lexington can’t afford to pay such a fee. Carr said Jefferson will remain in jail until her court date, which has yet to be set.
Carr said around 10 p.m. Saturday Jefferson was filming traffic a stop from her car on a public street and that apparently incensed the police officer. He asked for her ID, which she gave him. Then he told her to get out of the car, which she refused to do. So he pulled her out and arrested her, Carr said.
Those working for Jefferson’s nonprofit, JULIAN, complained that she has been falsely arrested. In a press release, her office maintains the charges are bogus: “It’s clear this is retaliation against her work to seek justice and truth for the onslaught of police brutality in the area.”
On June 1, Clarke met with residents of Lexington to hear their concerns and complaints regarding local law enforcement. She also met with Jefferson, who has filed repeated complaints against the Lexington Police Department.
The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting broke the story of a recording of then-Lexington Police Chief Sam Dobbins, who is white and can be heard on a recording filled with racist and homophobic slurs, bragging about killing 13 people in the line of duty.
In one case, he said, “I shot that n—– 119 times, OK?” In another part of the tape, Dobbins can be heard saying, “I don’t give a f— if you have to kill a motherf—er in cold blood.”
A day later, the City Council fired Dobbins, but Jefferson and other residents said the harassment of Black residents has continued under the new chief. JULIAN filed a lawsuit that said more than 200 Black residents had complained about unconstitutional treatment by the Lexington Police Department.
But a federal judge rejected a request for a restraining order against the department.
In her visit to Mississippi, Clarke said the Civil Rights Division she oversees is already investigating whether Rankin County sheriff’s deputies used excessive force when they allegedly shot a Black man in the mouth during a drug raid.
Jefferson named the nonprofit, JULIAN, after her mentor, Julian Bond. She worked on civil rights policy in Congressman John Lewis’ office and helped implement and served as a speechwriter for then-President Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Marshall Ramsey sits down with Poké Stop owner and food lover Rachel Phuong Le. Rachel’s motto is “COOKING is my HOBBY. EATING is my SPORT. FOOD is my COMFORT. I am Food’s biggest fan.” Rachel, whose family relocated from Vietnam to Long Beach, California, moved to Mississippi and fell in love with its food and people.
That love led her to photographing food and creating new communities and places where foodies could meet and hang out. That eventually led to her restaurant Poké Stop, which is now located in Flowood, Mississippi. You’ll enjoy this high-energy episode that will leave you inspired and a little bit hungry.
Incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Friday reported raising a whopping $958,000 in May for his reelection campaign.
The one-month haul dwarfs the $211,000 Hosemann had reported raising for January through April in his last report. His campaign at the time said that he had abided by the longstanding lawmakers’ honor system of not holding fundraisers during a legislative session, which ran from January through April 1 this year.
For scale, Hosemann’s nearly $958,000 for May outpaces the $650,000 incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves — a consummate fundraiser — raised for the month.
The deadline for filing campaign finance reports for May was Friday, but many had not yet been posted on the secretary of state’s website Friday afternoon, including Hosemann’s main primary opponent, state Sen. Chris McDaniel.
It has thus far been unclear exactly how much McDaniel has raised or has on hand for his campaign, because of confusing reports he has filed for his campaign and a PAC he ran. He reported that he returned his largest donation to-date, $465,000 from a dark-money group his PAC funneled to his campaign. Hosemann claims McDaniel violated state campaign finance laws and has a complaint pending with the attorney general. But Mississippi’s campaign finance laws are seldom enforced.
Hosemann’s largest contributions for the period were $50,000 from the Mississippi Bankers Association PAC and $30,000 from the Homebuilders Association of Mississippi PAC. Hosemann received large donations — from $20,000 to $25,000 each — from several state health care PACs, roadbuilders and manufacturers.
“These contributions allow us to travel the state, meet with Mississippians in every county, and share our successes over the past four years,” Hosemann said in a statement. “We’ve enacted the largest tax cut in the state’s history and the largest teacher pay raise in the state’s history, downsized state government and paid off more than $500 million in state debt. We are so grateful for the support, and encouraging endorsement of our conservative achievements and platform.”
Reeves reported in a press release Friday that his campaign has $9.4 million cash on hand, after launching a $1 million media campaign running May-June. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley in a press release Friday reported raising $355,000 for May and having $1.7 million in his campaign account.
CORINTH — In the back of the Alcorn County Correctional Facility, a regional prison in the top-right corner of Mississippi, is an ice-cold trailer.
It’s new. And it’s where Bill Stone — a retired Northeast Mississippi Community College instructor who, for the past three years, has taught a public speaking class at this prison — was headed early Wednesday afternoon.
To get there, he must go through a pat-down. A guard inspects his materials — folders, notebooks and seven copies of the textbook “Practically Speaking.” Then Stone must walk through the prison’s long, loud hallway, past his old classroom; past the canteen, the case managers’ offices and the guard; and past the living pods. Some of his students come to the glass or they shout hello, adding to the din. Finally, after a few steps on a sidewalk walled-off with a chain-link fence, Stone is inside the trailer.
Sometimes, Stone thinks it’s not unlike walking the halls of a high school.
On Wednesday, he had Michelle Baragona, NEMCC’s vice president of instruction, in tow. She’d driven 20 minutes from NEMCC’s main campus in Booneville. Since fall 2017,she has overseen NEMCC’s prison education programs, which are part of a growing movement in Mississippi and across the country. Boosted in part by research that has shown that prison education reduces recidivism, more colleges and universities are offering classes in prison.
Now, as the federal government is preparing to make federal financial aid once again available to incarcerated people starting July 1, these programs are primed to explode in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Key stakeholders are on board: In interviews, Burl Cain, the MDOC commissioner, has correctly linked the availability of jobs for formerly incarcerated people, which prison education can help them get, to reduced recidivism.
In the quiet, air-conditioned trailer, Stone was hoping his students could, just for an hour, find some reprieve from prison. Or at least, from their often sweltering hot living pods, which on Wednesday were burning up in the 84-degree heat. All 295 students at this facility can take classes, as long as they have a GED.
“This is much better than the old room,” Stone said. “By a long, long shot.”
He started arranging the desks into three rows.
Around 12:20 p.m., guards brought the students from each living zone until all the desks were filled. They waited quietly for class to start. Some were antsy, tapping their feet or twirling their pencils. One student from the work zone was running behind.
Five minutes later, class started. Stone introduced the assignment. Each student was to talk about three things that interested them. If they talked for more than one minute, they’d get an A.
“At the end, we all clap for them,” he told the class. “Even if they pass out.”
Stone was confident they wouldn’t, but in his 28 years of teaching public speaking, it had happened to two students — it’s always a possibility. So he’d tapped one student to start them off.
“Terrence, I asked you to go first,” Stone said. “Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’m gonna be,” he replied.
Carlos White, left, watches as a fellow student gives his speech. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
There used to be hundreds of college classes just like Stone’s in prisons across the country. Up until the mid-1990s, these programs were considered a key part of doing time — an “opportunity for ‘reformation,’” according to Higher Education in Prison Research. But in 1994, the Crime Bill took away the primary source of funding, which was the Pell Grant, a federal financial aid program for low-income students, by barring incarcerated people from receiving it.
The classes all but disappeared. Now, they’re making a comeback. In Mississippi, colleges and universities across the state are working with MDOC, sheriffs and wardens to set up what are, for many prisons, the first accredited college classes that have been offered in decades. NEMCC had been supporting its programs with private funding, but the Pell Grant will be a game-changer.
This will benefit the whole community, Baragona said. Not only does prison education reduce crime, she said, but families of incarcerated people often move to Alcorn County. They want their loved ones to be able to support the family when they get out.
“We’re not teaching the people who are in there for life,” Baragona said. “These are people who are fixin’ to rejoin society.”
Since 2017, 77 students have taken NEMCC classes at Alcorn County Correctional. The participation rates reflect the institutions’ demographics, Baragona said. Black students made up 57% of participants, and 43% were white — a ratio that was mirrored in Stone’s class, where 7 students were Black and 4 were white.
More than half have taken three or more classes. Two students have taken five classes.
“I don’t want anybody thinking that this is a patsy,” Stone said. “I want these students to write as well, to speak as well as any Northeast student who has come through my traditional classes.”
He poised his finger over the iPad timer as Terrence Glover stepped up to the podium.
“Hello Terrence,” the students said in unison.
Glover talked about how he hates foreign languages (difficult to learn) and loves fishing. Then, 138 seconds later, his speech was over. It was time for the next student. Stone asked for a volunteer. No one moved.
“Anybody that just wants to get it over with right now?” Stone asked.
Carlos White rocked out of his chair. Though he had seemed shy at his desk, he was at ease at the podium. The first thing he was interested in, White said, was TikTok, because it offered access to “a multitude of people from a single device” — that is, to the outside world. He also liked cooking, because it reminded him of his grandmother’s collard greens. His final interest was mentoring. That’s what he wants to do when he gets out.
“So much of the youth go down the wrong road like I did,” he said.
White spoke for 139 seconds, Stone noted. A new record.
The students seemed less anxious and more comfortable sharing. For many, the topic of prison was unavoidable. Another, Vincent Breazeale, talked about the value of education, working and family — three interests, he said, that would “probably be different outside these walls.”
What everyone was really talking about were their dreams, and what they hoped to do when they finally left.One said he’d like to get a dog. Another couldn’t wait to work on cars again. A third student said wanted to start a business manufacturing cologne.
One of the last students to go, Antonio Harris, said that after 19 years of incarceration, he was looking forward to being an entrepreneur when he’s finally released (he’ll become eligible next year).
“I want to be able to work and still kind of like, enjoy life at the same time,” Harris said. “It generates great revenue also.”
By the end, the temperature in the class felt warmer. Stone congratulated the students. This was the first class he’s ever had, he said, where every student talked for more than a minute. He wanted to know how it felt.
“Like riding a bike,” Glover said.
A student named Bruce Parker passed out root-beer-float-flavored candies. He’d used $1.16 of his $20-a-week allowance to pay for a bag.
After a lecture from Stone, it was time for the students to talk to the “navigator.” That is Tina Wilburn. It’s her third day. She’s NEMCC’s eyes and ears in the prison, and it’s her job to advocate for the students. Gripping a prison-issued walkie talkie and a notebook, she wanted to know how they were going to do their homework.
“Are you able to study in the pod where you’re at?” she asked. She’d heard the library was too small.
All the students shook their heads. Dozens of incarcerated people live in each pod and sleep bunk-to-bunk. There’s a lot of distractions.
NEMCC has offered college prison classes at ACCF since fall 2017. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
“It’s extremely difficult,” White said.
Despite everyone’s excitement that day, these students are up against tough odds. They’re unlikely to finish. Last semester, 10 students enrolled, and only two graduated. According to data from NEMCC, the completion rates were higher before COVID, when more career-readiness classes were offered.
Some of the reasons for this have to do with the very nature of prisons, said Ruth Delaney, a program director at the Vera Institute of Justice, a national organization that has been helping prisons set up college classes. For instance, it’s common for incarcerated people to be suddenly transferred for reasons that supersede the class, like a sentencing order that prohibits them from staying in the same prison as a co-defendant.
“A prison is a total institution,” Delaney said. “The minute you cross that threshold, all of your relationships start to feel different.”
If a fight broke out in a students’ living pod, they could be transferred, even if they weren’t participating, she added. That’s more likely to happen during the summer months, when violence in prison rises with the temperature outside. And while some research has shown prisons that have classes become safer over time, the students at Alcorn County Correctional said they had yet to see that happen.
But other reasons can be managed. A huge issue Stone has noticed is dental hygiene. When his incarcerated students’ have cavities, they’re sent to the Mississippi State Prison in Parchman to get teeth pulled.For weeks after, their mouths are too swollen for them to talk in class.
Then there are some students who get demoralized if they do poorly, even on a quiz that doesn’t matter for their final grade.
“It’ll just knock them for a loop, and I’m not used to that,” Stone said. “That’s a definite prison-type thing. A regular college student would go, ‘well, crap.’ They’d just keep on going. For a prison student to make a 40 or a 50, their whole self esteem is locked up in that.”
What makes the difference, Stone added, is support.
All of the students told Wilburn they would be able to finish their homework. Some of them offered tips: The best time to study is around 3 a.m. That’s when the prison is quietest.
The door to the trailer opened. It was a guard. He walked into the middle of the room with his hands on his hips. Everybody turned to look at him.
“I believe they said class is over now,” he said.
So it was.
A student goes back into the prison after class. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
NEMCC has big dreams for the program. Baragona wants to offer more career-technical programs — classes that are more likely to directly lead to jobs when students are no longer incarcerated. But she’s worried about the logistics of bringing equipment into the prison.
Another issue is giving students computers, which is crucial for learning how to do research. This isn’t possible because they’re not allowed free use of the internet. Stone makes up for that by bringing print-outs of research to class.
Baragona also wants there to be more instructors. Right now, Stone is one of two. Even though society is slowly leaving the tough-on-crime era behind, she still has to “sweet talk” instructors into participating in the program. She was able to convince Stone because, in the early 1980s, he used to minister to a congregant in prison.
And Baragona still hasn’t figured out an efficient way of providing accommodations for students who have disabilities like dyslexia. When the Pell Grant becomes available, she’ll need to set up a system for them to talk to NEMCC’s financial aid office. She’s hoping Wilburn can help with that.
Before class, Baragona asked Stone to tell her if he needed more equipment. A white board would be nice, he mused. Then he thought of something even better.
“A bigger TV would be glorious,” he said. “If someone had an extra 69-inch TV that would be just glorious.”
Dustin Dickerson connected for four home runs in five games in the Auburn Regional. Credit: Joe Harper/Southern Miss
HATTIESBURG – Southern Miss shortstop Dustin Dickerson, from nearby Laurel, hit two home runs in his first three seasons with the Golden Eagles.
At the Auburn Regional last weekend and Monday, Dickerson slammed four round-trippers, twice as many in one extended weekend as he had in three previous seasons. All totaled at Auburn, Dickerson hit safely eight times, including a triple and a double, in 22 at bats. He scored five runs and batted in 11 to help the Golden Eagles win four straight games to advance to the Super Regional this weekend against Tennessee in Hattiesburg. Little wonder he was selected the Regional’s most outstanding player.
Rick Cleveland
“Same swing I’ve always had,” Dickerson said, after the tournament. “I’m not doing anything differently.”
Perhaps not, but clearly there’s so much more power packed in Dickerson’s swing. Those weren’t wind-blown balls that just got over the fence at Auburn. No, he whacked a couple of tape-measure shots over Auburn’s green monster wall in left field and also hit another well over the 396-foot sign to straight-away centerfield.
Dickerson for three seasons had been a huge asset for the Golden Eagles, but mainly as a slick-fielding shortstop who could make all the plays. He batted ninth in the order for much of that time. He hit for average, but not for power. This season, he has hit .328 with 10 home runs, 20 doubles, and three triples. Moved up to the No. 2 hole in the batting order, he has driven in 50 runs.
“When I came here I weighed 155 pounds soaking wet,” Dickerson said smiling.
“Dustin was a twig,” is the way Southern Miss strength and conditioning coach Todd Makovicka put it.
He’s a sturdy oak now, having added 30 pounds to his physique. “All muscle,” Dickerson said. “Coach Mac has been really, really good for me.”
Dickerson still doesn’t look like a body builder. But his shoulders are much broader, his chest is thicker, and his upper legs are much more muscular. Said Makovicka of Dickerson, “He wasn’t born with it. He wasn’t naturally strong. He has had to work for it.”
Dustin Dickerson is congratulated by Scott Berry after the first of his two home runs last Saturday against Auburn.. Credit: Robert Greenough/Southern Miss athletics
Makovicka and his two graduate assistants have been invaluable to the entire Southern Miss program. Scott Berry, the head coach, swears by them. In fact, Berry will tell you that perhaps the best move of his 14 years as the head man was to raise $540,000 for a strength and conditioning building behind the third base stands at Pete Taylor Park in 2015.
“Just look at our records before and after,” Berry said. “There’s your proof.”
Let’s do just that. In 2010, Berry’s first season as head coach, the Eagles were 36-24. Their victory totals over the next five seasons were 39, 32, 30, 35 and 36.
In their first full year of the weight room, the Eagles won 41 games in 2016, followed by 50 in 2017, 44 in 2018, 40 in 2019, 40 in 2021, 47 in 2022 and 45 this season. They were 12-4 in the COVID season of 2020.
“That increase in victories is no accident,” Berry said. “We lifted before but we shared a weight room with every other athletic program on campus at the football facility. There were only certain times we could lift and sometimes the time we had wasn’t conducive to fitting in our baseball schedule. To me, getting our own weight room, at our ballpark, right next to our clubhouse, right behind our dugout, was the missing piece of the puzzle. I think it shows in our record.
“And its not just what it has done for us on the physical side,” said Berry, a long-time lifter himself. “There’s definitely a mental advantage to it, too. You put in the work, you see the results. You’re stronger physically, but you are also more confident mentally because you know how much stronger, more durable you are.”
Dickerson is Exhibit A. Balls that were Texas League singles two years ago, are gappers for doubles and triples now. Balls that were fly balls even a year ago are sailing far beyond the fences now. It’s not just at the plate. Dickerson has added pop on his throws from the hole at shortstop. The son of Philadelphia Phillies coach Bobby Dickerson, he always has possessed at Major League glove. He can make all the plays at shortstop.
The added muscle presumably will improve greatly his value in this summer’s Major League Draft. Dickerson has much more pressing matters that consume him currently. Southern Miss defeated LSU in its own Regional last year, then got blown out and shut out by eventual national champion Ole Miss is a Super Regional at Pete Taylor Park.
“We’re a year older,” Dickerson said. “We’ve been here before. We know what it takes. The moment is not going to be too big for us. We expected to win the Regional last week. We expect to win the Super Regional this week.”
The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Hickingbottom waited too late to appeal the state party kicking him off the ballot for the Aug. 8 primary.
Specially appointed Hinds County Circuit Judge Forrest Johnson Jr. late last month ruled the state Democratic Party improperly disqualified Hickingbottom, and that he should be placed on the ballot. The party appealed to the state’s high court, which released its decision Thursday.
Hickingbottom’s ouster leaves Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley as the lone candidate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He is expected to face incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in the November general election.
The lower court had ruled that Hickingbottom met all requirements to run for office. That ruling noted that while Hickingbottom had waited too late to appeal his disqualification per state law, his right to run for office and the right of people to vote for him “prevails over his delay in seeking relief from this court.”
The state Democratic Party Executive Committee in February ruled that Hickingbottom and another little-known candidate, Gregory Wash, both failed to meet qualifications to run because they failed to file statements of economic interest with the state Ethics Commission. The lower court ruled this was not a disqualifying offense for candidacy.
But the high court said the law gave Hickingbottom 15 days to file an appeal of his disqualification, but he filed 75 days later. The court noted that Hickingbottom failed to provide any “excuse for his excessive untimeliness.”
The decision, written by Justice Robert Chamberlin, noted “we decline to address the other issues addressed by the (Democratic Executive Committee)” when it disqualified Hickingbottom.
The Supreme Court voted 8-0 on the decision, with Justice Kenneth Griffis not participating. The court made clear its decision is the final word on the appeal “in light of the impending ballot deadlines for the August 8, 2023 primary election.”
The ruling in the Hickingbottom case in some ways mirrors a decision from last week by the state Supreme Court in a Lowndes County case.
In that case, the Lowndes County School District had appealed a ruling of the supervisors who granted tax exemptions – equaling $3.4 million in school taxes — to an industry. A chancery judge sided with the school district.
But the supervisors appealed the chancery court decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court found in favor of the supervisors saying the law provides only 10 days to appeal a decision of the supervisors and the notice of appeal had to be filed with the circuit court.
The school district, according to the Supreme Court decision, failed to file its appeal within 10 days and did not file the notice in the circuit court – both of which are mandated in state law.
“The (Lowndes County School) District failed to file a notice of appeal in the circuit court and it failed to do so within the 10 -day deadline, both of which are jurisdictional requirements,” Chief Justice Michael Randolph wrote for the majority. Seven of the nine justices joined the Randolph decision.
