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Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau, Geoff Pender and new political reporter Taylor Vance discuss the early days of the 2023 governor’s race. They also break down a key campaign finance reporting period that will set the tone for how campaigns try to reach voters.

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month and in this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with psychiatrist Dr. Katherine Pannel. Dr. Pannel is Medical Director of Right Track Medical Group.

A native of Inverness, Mississippi, she has been a practicing psychiatrist in North Mississippi since 2010. She is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She’s also a passionate advocate who helped push the passage of a new life-saving law legalizing Fentanyl test trips.

The post Mississippi Stories: Katherine Pannel, DO appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MAY 13, 1862

During the Civil War, Robert Smalls and other Black Americans who were enslaved commandeered an armed Confederate ship in Charleston. Wearing a straw hat to cover his face, Smalls disguised himself as a Confederate captain. His wife, Hannah, and members of other families joined them. 

Smalls sailed safely through Confederate territory by using hand signals contained in the captain’s code book, and when he and the 17 Black passengers landed in Union territory, they went from slavery to freedom. He became a hero in the North, helped convince Union leaders to permit Black soldiers to fight and became part of the war effort. 

After the war ended, he returned to his native Beaufort, South Carolina, where he bought his former slaveholder’s home (and allowed his widow to live there until her death). He served five terms in Congress, one of more than a dozen Black Americans to serve during Reconstruction. He also authored legislation that enabled South Carolina to have one of the nation’s first free and compulsory public school systems and bought a building to use as a school for Black children. 

After Reconstruction ended, however, white lawmakers passed laws to disenfranchise Black voters. 

“My race needs no special defense for the past history of them and this country,” he said. “All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.” 

He survived slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction and the beginnings of Jim Crow. He died in 1915, the same year Hollywood’s racist epic film, “Birth of a Nation”, was released. 

A century later, his hometown of Beaufort opened the Reconstruction Era National Monument, which features a bust of Smalls — the only known statue in the South of any of the pioneering congressmen of Reconstruction. In 2004, the U.S. named a ship after Smalls. It was the first Army ship named after a Black American. A highway into Beaufort now bears his name.

The post On this day in 1862 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the controversial House Bill 1020 from becoming law Friday. 

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate granted the motion in a lawsuit brought by the NAACP, which would stop Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Michael Randolph from appointing four temporary special judges to the Hinds County Circuit Court, according to court documents. 

The NAACP had asked Wingate to block the chief justice from appointing judges under the law while HB 1020 is being challenged in court. This is the second time the NAACP has asked for a temporary restraining order on the law passed during the 2023 legislative session, according to court records. 

“The urgency of this renewed motion is acute – Defendant Randolph could at any moment make the appointments that violate Plaintiffs’ rights, and his counsel was unable to give any assurances that he would not do so,” attorneys for the NAACP wrote Thursday. 

The temporary restraining order will be in place until a May 22 hearing at the federal courthouse in Jackson. The law is scheduled to go into effect July 1.

HB 1020 has faced opposition from Jackson and Hinds County residents and lawmakers since it was filed. They have voiced concerns that the law would give power to white state officials to appoint judges and prosecutors, rather than having them elected by residents of the majority-Black city. The law would also expand the state Capitol Police into Jackson, which has its own police department. 

Gov. Tate Reeves signed HB 1020 on April 21, and within days the NAACP’s lawsuit and another lawsuit brought by the Mississippi Center for Justice, the ACLU of Mississippi, the McArthur Justice Center and the Legal Defense Educational Fund were filed.

Wingate’s order comes a day after Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas held a hearing on the lawsuit filed in state court challenging HB 1020. Last week, Thomas issued a temporary restraining order stopping the enactment of the law, and is expected next week to decide whether to move forward with an injunction. 

Attorneys for the NAACP cited developments in the state lawsuit as a reason to ask for a temporary restraining order blocking Randolph from appointing temporary judges, according to its Thursday court filing. 

The state lawsuit argues that the appointment of temporary judges by the chief justice violates the state constitution and Hinds County residents’ right to vote for their judges. The suit also argues that some tax money will be diverted from Jackson and placed in a fund supporting the Capitol Complex Improvement District projects. 

Randolph was previously a defendant in the state lawsuit, but on Thursday Thomas dismissed him and Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace. 

Thomas also allowed the plaintiffs to add two new defendants: Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Gov. Reeves.

The post Another stay blocks law to create separate court in Jackson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves boasts significantly more campaign dollars on hand than Brandon Presley, his Democratic opponent, providing the incumbent governor a substantial financial cushion over his top competitor.

Reeves, according to his campaign finance report, raised over $1.7 million during the first four months of this year, bringing his total amount of cash on hand to more than $9 million from his Tate for Governor account and his legacy J. Tate Reeves account.

Presley raised around $1.4 million this quarter, totaling $1.6 million that he has in cash on hand.

While Reeves has far outpaced Presley with expendable cash, the two candidates vying for the Governor’s Mansion raised close to the same amount of money this quarter.

Campaign contributions often provide a snapshot into how aggressive a race will become, give voters an idea of which groups are backing a particular candidate and show what candidates are spending their money on.

The governor’s largest campaign contributor was $50,000 from the Mississippi Association of Realtors PAC. Other sizable donations include $35,000 from the mega lobbying group the Clay Firm, $40,000 from former state lawmaker Johnny Morgan and $25,000 from Gulfport Memorial Hospital CEO Kent Nicaud. 

Presley’s largest campaign donor was a $250,000 check from the Mississippi Hospital Association. Other notable contributions include $50,000 from former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, $25,000 from former Secretary of State Dick Molpus and $45,000 from the Mississippi Sierra Club PAC.

William Waller, the son of former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. who challenged Reeves in the 2019 Republican primary, also donated $500 to Presley.

Reeves, as the incumbent and a longtime statewide official, has far more name recognition and a larger base of supporters and has long attracted high-dollar donors. Presley, on the other hand, has been running more of a grassroots-style campaign focused on connecting with voters directly.

Ultimately, the campaign finance reports show that both candidates have raised serious amounts of money since January and are likely to run competitive campaigns in the coming months. 

Presley will likely use his cash to generate name ID and introduce himself to voters in parts of the state that he hasn’t represented as a utilities regulator from north Mississippi. Reeves, on the other hand, will almost certainly use his largesse to and generate negative ads about Presley and boast accomplishments of his first term as governor.

Candidates must submit their next campaign finance report on July 10. 

Editor’s Note: Jim Barksdale and Dick Molpus are donors of Mississippi Today. Barksdale served as a founding member of the Mississippi Today board of directors. A list of Mississippi Today donors can be found here, and Mississippi Today’s board of directors can be found here.

The post Reeves far outpaces Presley in total campaign cash, but recent fundraising is competitive appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The National Institutes of Health is awarding the University of Mississippi Medical Center about $2 million to study how to improve health outcomes for newborns. 

UMMC will work with 14 other health centers across the country for the next seven years as part of the Neonatal Research Network. The health systems, which include Duke University, Emory University and Stanford University, will collaborate to conduct studies and trials on infants.

“UMMC has received international recognition by joining this group of other reputed academic centers across the US,” said Dr. Abhay Bhatt, professor of pediatrics and director of research in UMMC’s Division of Neonatology and the study’s principal investigator, in a press release sent Thursday. 

“Our faculty and trainees will get the opportunity to collaborate with their counterparts in other institutions, and our scientists, in collaboration with our newborn faculty, will get the opportunity to develop funded translational research studies involving newborns.”

The network, funded by the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, was formed in 1986 to properly evaluate newborn care, especially those admitted to neonatal intensive care units upon birth. The network studies infant mortality, preterm birth rate and low birthweight rates — all areas in which Mississippi ranks the lowest in the country. 

Connecting multiple clinic centers in the network has allowed for larger sample sizes to be collected and quick testing that wouldn’t be possible on an individualized basis. 

UMMC’s addition to the network is a “monumental achievement,” said Dr. Courtney Walker, assistant professor of psychiatry and Mississippi’s representation in the network. 

“We have the highest preterm birth rate in the country, and being a part of the NRN gives infants and their families the opportunity to be a part of cutting-edge treatment and management strategies that they may not have access to otherwise,” she said. “Given that a lot of our babies are born premature in Mississippi, it is critical to study these new techniques here so that we can help determine whether or not they would benefit our children.”

Since its inception, the network has published nearly 500 articles to guide clinical practice as it relates to newborns. 

As part of the network, UMMC will participate in some ongoing observational studies about premature babies and morbidity and mortality rates in low-birth weight infants, including a study about the effectiveness of treating premature babies with 15 minutes of light therapy per hour instead of continuous light therapy to control bilirubin levels, which at high levels causes jaundice. 

UMMC is home to the state’s only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit. 

The post UMMC receives $2 million to study newborn health appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A Union County judge has dismissed an attempted murder charge against a 24-year-old former Ole Miss student accused of stabbing a Tennessee man in the neck because the victim did not come to court. 

Four days into the trial of New Albany resident Lane Mitchell, Judge Kent Smith dismissed the charge and entered a verbal order of acquittal, the Daily Journal reported. 

As of Thursday afternoon, Smith had not issued a written order about his decision. 

In 2019, then 18-year-old Mitchell was accused of stabbing Collierville resident Russell Rogers, who was unarmed, at the Tallahatchie Gourmet restaurant. In court documents and during trial, Mitchell said he stabbed Rogers because he believed Rogers had a gun and feared for the safety of his father, who was the bartender, and a female waitress. 

After being indicted in 2019, Mitchell, who has high-profile political connections through U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, was admitted to Ole Miss and attended until 2020 before withdrawing over accusations he assaulted two women on campus, Mississippi Today reported from court records filed in the case. Those Ole Miss records also were uploaded onto the court’s online case system, although they were meant to be sealed. 

Mitchell went on to attend Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Cordova, Tennessee, which held its graduation last week. Wicker and Kelly wrote letters of support for his application to West Point Military Academy.

The prosecution had subpoenaed records of the alleged assaults to use in trial, and the defense had asked the judge to exclude that information from trial, according to court records. 

Judge Smith’s decision stems from a Tuesday motion by Mitchell’s defense team, which argued that Rogers’ failure to come to court violated Mitchell’s constitutional rights and prevented him from presenting a full defense, according to court documents. 

“As part of Lane Douglas Mitchell’s defense, he has a fundamental right to question and cross examine Nathan Russell Rogers in the presence of the jury about his behavior at Tallahatchie Gourmet restaurant on February 9, 2019 which goes directly to the question of the reasonableness of Lane Douglas Mitchell’s actions and who was the initial aggressor,” according to a Tuesday court filing. 

The defense also accused the prosecution and the victim’s conservator – his father, Robert Rogers – of not telling them Rogers was out of the country and likely not to come to the trial, which factored into an effort “to deprive Lane Douglas Mitchell of his constitutional, fundamental right ot a fair trial,” according to the Tuesday filing. 

In response, the state said the rules of criminal procedure or state statutes don’t provide an avenue for a defendant to file a motion to dismiss in the middle of a trial, according to court documents. Prosecutors also denied the defense’s accusations. 

The judge’s decision comes a day after Rogers’ conservator filed a writ of prohibition with the Mississippi Supreme Court asking that the court stay Mitchell’s trial. 

In that request to the state Supreme Court, Robert Rogers cited a Tuesday court order from a Shelby County Probate Court judge quashing the defense’s certificate to take Russell Rogers into custody and bring him to the court to testify. 

The judge also found Russell Rogers unfit to testify due to his mental health, according to court documents. Russell Rogers has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder arising from the attack.

On Wednesday, a three-person panel of the state Supreme Court declined to hear the conservator’s motion because he was not a party in the case, according to the order signed by Justice Leslie King. 

Under double jeopardy, Mitchell cannot be prosecuted again, Judge Smith said Thursday. 

The post Judge lets ex-Ole Miss student walk on attempted murder charge appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A majority of justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Mandy Gunasekara is not a certified Republican candidate for Northern District Public Service Commissioner and removed her from the August Republican primary ballot. 

Justice Leslie King, writing for the majority, found that a lower court’s determination that Gunasekara did not meet the necessary citizenship requirements to run for the office was correct. 

Six of the nine justices of the court unanimously voted to decertify Gunasekara, and the three justices from north Mississippi — Bobby Chamberlain, Josiah Coleman and Jimmy Maxwell – did not participate in the decision. No justice dissented. 

At issue is a requirement in the state constitution and state law that candidates running for the three-member utilities regulatory board must be a citizen of the state at least five years before the date of Mississippi’s general election in November.

Gunasekara hails from the rural southwestern town of Decatur, but she worked in Washington, D.C., for several years, including a stint as chief of staff of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Donald Trump administration. She currently lives in Oxford. 

Public records show that Gunasekara voted in Washington on Nov. 6, 2018. Mississippi’s general election this year is on Nov. 7, meaning she had a 24-hour window from her 2018 vote to become a Mississippi citizen.

“The record shows that on Nov. 7, 2018, Gunasekara owned a house in D.C., where her husband and children resided, and on which she received a homestead deduction,” King wrote. “Gunasekara paid income taxes in D.C. She had a full time job in D.C., had a D.C. driver’s license, and was registered to vote in D.C. Gunasekara renewed her car tag in D.C. at the end of October 2018.” 

She and her attorney, former state GOP Director Spencer Ritchie, argued that her intent to move back to Decatur in 2018 should be the strongest factor in determining her citizenship. But the state’s highest court disagreed.

“I’m a fighter and a constitutional conservative,” Gunasekara said in a statement. “I’m assessing all my legal options. The Mississippi Supreme Court acknowledged the potential unconstitutionality of this provision, yet found a convenient, procedural mechanism to avoid a decision on the merits. I believe the voters of Mississippi deserve a ruling on the merits.”

She has used all legal avenues available to her in state court, but she will likely seek further relief through the federal courts.  

Gunasekara raised several constitutional issues in her briefs, including the belief that a “durational citizenship” requirement violates the 14th Amendment. She said in a statement to Mississippi Today that “relief would be sought through the United States Supreme Court.”

The race is now whittled down to two candidates: state Rep. Chris Brown of Nettleton and city of Tupelo administrator Tanner Newman.

Newman in a statement said that the court’s ruling changes little for his campaign and that he hoped all voters across north Mississippi support his bid for public office. 

“Let there be no doubt – Mandy Gunasekara has a bright future in public service ahead of her,” Newman said. “I welcome all of Mandy’s supporters to find a home on Team Newman.”

Brown in a statement thanked Mandy for her work in the Trump administration and her campaign for the PSC. “While she may not be on the ballot in 2023, I plan to keep her America First fight alive.”

Brandon Presley, the current commissioner, is running for governor. There is no Democratic candidate in the race, so the winner of the August GOP primary will become the new commissioner for north Mississippi.

Gunasekara’s disqualification for the PSC stems from a peculiar string of events. Matthew Barton, a candidate running for DeSoto County district attorney, filed the residency challenge with the state GOP’s executive committee, which voted to keep Gunasekara on the ballot. Barton appealed the party’s ruling to circuit court, and Judge Lamar Pickard decided that she did not meet the residency requirement.

Barton’s attorney, Sean Akins, in a statement called the court’s ruling a “victory for free and fair elections where the true winners are the voters.”

“This suit was never about Ms. Gunasekara’s character but about whether she met the Constitutional requirements to run for that office,” Akins said. “While her heart may have been in Mississippi, her citizenship was in Washington, D.C.”

The Republican primary for the north Mississippi PSC race will take place on August 8.

Editor’s note on 5/11/23: This story was updated to include a quote from the attorney representing Matthew Barton.

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Down years are virtually inevitable for college baseball programs. Even for elite programs, it’s almost impossible to avoid an occasional disappointing season, because of so many different factors.

You’ve got the severe scholarship limits: 11.7, spread among 27 players. You’ve got the uncertainty of who will be chosen – and how high – in the Major League draft. You’ve got the fragility of pitching arms: an elbow here, a shoulder there, and you’re in trouble. And, now, you’ve got the transfer portal.

Look at Mississippi State: a national championship in 2021, then 26-30 last year. Or Ole Miss: a national championship last year, 25-23 today. 

But then there’s Scott Berry at Southern Miss. In the last six full college baseball seasons – excluding the COVID year – the Golden Eagles have won 41, 50, 44, 40, 40 and 47 games. All those teams received NCAA bids. Two hosted NCAA Super Regionals.

Berry’s current Eagles enter the weekend with a 32-15 record, the nation’s longest winning streak (10), a No. 25 national ranking and an NCAA power rating (RPI) of No. 23. They are tied for first place in the Sun Belt Conference with No. 8 Coastal Carolina. They appear to be headed to a seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament. If they finish strong, they might host another regional.

Is this USM’s down year? It might be the closest thing to it since 2015, which is amazing. And it is especially amazing when one considers Berry lost six pitchers to the MLB draft from last year’s staff, another (a future first round draft choice) to the transfer portal and still another to Tommy John surgery. 

Such a pitching exodus would cripple most college baseball programs. Berry and his pitching coach Christian “Oz” Ostrander have mixed and matched and patched to the point where the current Eagles have produced the third best pitching statistics in the Sun Belt. The team earned run average is nearly two runs higher (4.98 compared to 3.29) than last season, yet the Eagles are still winning.

Berry was asked about his program’s consistency on our recent Crooked Letter Sports Podcast. “It starts with this. You have a system and a philosophy in place and it’s successful, so you don’t tamper with it,” Berry said. “It starts with the fact that we’ve only had four coaches here in the last 64 years.

“There hasn’t been a turnover at the top,” he continued. “Every coaching turnover brings a new learning curve. It’s disruptive. Just look at football at Southern Miss and all the turnover there in recent years. You had a quarterback, Nick Mullens, who played under four different offensive coordinators in four years. That’s pretty tough…

“…We talk about tradition a lot here and tradition is about consistency,” Berry said. “I don’t want us to be a program that hits it big for one year and then you don’t hear about them for four or five years. That’s not consistency.”

All American Tanner Hall (9-3, 2.71 ERA) has been superb in the Friday night starter role, and Southern Miss has gotten huge contributions from redshirt freshman Kros Sivley and juco transfer Will Armistead out of the bullpen. Ex-Madison Central lefty Justin Storm, heroic in last seasons Regional victory over LSU, has become a bonafide closer. Ex-MRA ace Niko Mazza might have the best array of pitches on the staff. Matthew Adams appears to have bounced back nicely from an arm injury. Billy Oldham, a portal transfer from D-III Eastern Connecticut State, has stabilized the starting rotation.

Hitting-wise, the lineup has received a late-season boost from true freshman Nick Monistere, the Mississippi 6A Player of the Year last year at Northwest Rankin. Monistere, who also pitches, entered the starting lineup at second base a month ago, is hitting .321 and has slugged three home runs, three doubles and a triple among his 18 hits. “He’s been a blessing,” Berry says. 

Designated hitter Slade Wilks leads the Eagles with 18 home runs and 52 RBI, while shortstop-deluxe Dustin Dickerson leads the team with a .332 average and 17 doubles. Lately, veterans Christopher Sargent and Danny Lynch have ramped up their production to what they have provided in previous seasons.

Clearly, Berry’s club is playing its best baseball as the season winds down. “When they’re playing the way they are right now, I try to stay out of the way,” is the way Berry put it.

USM plays a three game road series at Louisiana-Monroe beginning Friday and closes the regular season next weekend when the always-strong Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns visit Hattiesburg. USM’s first Sun Belt Conference tournament will follow at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, beginning May 23.

Should the Eagles finish the regular season strong and then win a couple in the league tournament, they will be in strong position to host another regional. “That’s always the goal here,” Berry says.

The post Scott Berry and USM baseball: models of consistency appeared first on Mississippi Today.