OurTupelo

Michael Chiaradio, an entrepreneur and owner of a small farm in Shubuta, is the Democratic nominee for Mississippi’s 3rd District congressional seat, challenging incumbent Republican Michael Guest. Chiaradio, a first-time political candidate, said that as a constituent he was disappointed with Guest rubber stamping the Trump administration agenda, and that when he saw Guest as the only name on his ballot in 2024, he decided he would challenge him. “Who the heck is going to do it if not me,?” Chiaradio said.

Hitachi Energy is investing $528 million to build a new transformer factory in Copiah County, with plans to create 654 jobs. 

Gov. Tate Reeves announced the development on Tuesday morning from the G20 Energy Abundance Ministerial in Houston, alongside President Donald Trump administration leaders. 

Federal leaders emphasized that the Zurich-based company’s investment is a part of Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda and goal to bring back American manufacturing.

“This is bigger than just one factory announcement,” said U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council. “This is about America’s determination to build the infrastructure to win the intelligence race, to power the next generation of American manufacturing and to bring prosperity and affordability to American citizens.”

Reeves said: “This administration is doing the work to bring back jobs to America because in Mississippi just like in America this what we do. We make stuff. We build stuff.”

The plant would be Hitachi Energy’s largest investment in America and is part of the company’s total $1.5-billion investment across the U.S. to increase production of transformers and other grid infrastructure to meet energy demand. The company is a subsidiary of multi-billion dollar Japanese firm Hitachi, Ltd.

Trump has said that he wants the U.S. to be the leader in energy production and exports. 

According to the company, the transformers produced in Mississippi will bring additional capacity to help growing demand for electricity. Consulting company Mckinsey has estimated that the U.S. demand for power will increase by 3.5% annually through 2040. 

“America needs more affordable, reliable and secure electricity generation, and this new investment by Hitachi will help make that happen,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “The Trump Administration welcomes today’s announcement of a Hitachi transformer manufacturing facility that will provide jobs to local Mississippi communities while also helping improve electricity reliability and affordability for millions of Americans.”

Hitachi Energy has been in Mississippi for 70 years, but this investment would double the size of its existing operation. The company will build the new factory on a 45-acre site at the Copiah County Industrial Park in Gallman. Construction is expected to begin later this year with production to start in 2029.

Reeves called it a historic day for the U.S., Japan and Mississippi, emphasizing Mississippi’s existing relationship with other Japanese companies such as Toyota and Nissan. 

“Hitachi could’ve picked any state in the country. They chose Copiah County. They chose Mississippi,” Reeves wrote on social media.

A national trend of Republican candidates warning that Democrats are a bunch of Bolsheviks trying to turn the U.S. into the USSR has trickled down to Mississippi, with some of our GOP politicians warning of the red menace in the midterms.

But Mississippi McCarthyites seeking reelection to Congress or other offices might want to look inward, to the current administration they appear to support without question. As they seek to root out socialists and communists on the Mississippi midterm ballot, Comrade President Donald J. Trump appears to have broken out the Marx-Engels playbook. He’s been pushing to seize the means of production, redistribute wealth and institute what appears to be socialist-leaning market and price controls.

“If you elect a Democrat, you’re going to elect a socialist party,” Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell told Mississippi Today recently. “Anybody that votes for a Democrat, that’s what we’re going to get.”

But if Ezell’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. Jeffrey Hulum, is a fellow traveler, he must be one heck of an embedded sleeper agent. Retired Army Sgt. Maj. Hulum, a 22-year combat veteran, has shown no overt socialist or communist leanings in his nearly five years in the Legislature nor in his congressional race platform.

That’s exactly what commie sleeper agents do. Better keep an eye on him.

But despite their vocal fears of the creep of socialism and communism into American government, Ezell and his fellow Republicans in Mississippi’s congressional delegation have been noticeably quiet about what critics and analysts have called “Trump socialism,” or “state capitalism.”

A Wall Street Journal column recently opined that Trump is “imitating the Chinese Communist Party by extending political control ever deeper into the economy.” The libertarian think tank the Cato Institute has noted the “irony” of the Trump administration denouncing the left for socialism while it seizes federal equity stakes in private businesses and implements centralized planning.

The Trump administration has taken federal government equity stakes in more than two dozen companies. It has converted federal grants into stock and taken “golden shares” of private companies. The federal government has created quite a venture investment portfolio, seeking control of production in industries including nuclear power, semiconductors, steel, minerals and quantum computing.

The pretense for federal government control of private companies has been national security and to — kid you not — promote innovation.

Anyone who believes socialism or communism promotes product innovation should go out and buy a Lada automobile.

The real corker is the potential U.S.-Venezuelan oil “deal.” The term deal here means the U.S. taking another country’s oil production at gunpoint, ousting one dictator and installing another and cooking up a deal in secret without approval from the elected legislatures of either country for the U.S. government to seize more control of the global oil market.

But don’t worry, Trump is full of proposals to redistribute wealth to the workers, although his promised checks have a way of not ever showing up in the bank accounts of the proletariat.

Back home in Mississippi, our Republican politicians appear unperturbed and unimpressed by this. Instead, they are trying to create a new Red Scare for Mississippi voters to shun those commie Democrats in the midterms and next year’s statewide elections.

“We can’t let the radical Democrat socialist agenda take hold in Mississippi,” Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith recently urged.

“This November 3rd, we must rally and defeat the Marxist Communists, Democratic Socialists and Red-Green alliance …” wrote Republican Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Andy Gipson. “Standing with President Trump, we will never let the enemies of freedom win!”

There is an unprecedented shift from capitalism to some form of socialism that probably has Ronald Reagan rolling over in his grave. But it’s not being led by Mississippi Democrats.

Update, 9/16/2026: This story has been updated to correct a spelling error in one reference to Communist.

An early morning blaze engulfed the old Midtown Center located on Mill Street in downtown Jackson Tuesday, causing extensive damage but no injuries, fire officials said.

The Jackson Fire Department was dispatched to 1030 Mill Street at about 5:30 a.m. Crews arrived to heavy smoke and flames.

Division Fire Chief of Investigations Charles Felton confirmed the building was vacant and there were no injuries.

“At this time, I do not have any information as to how long it’s been vacant. We do know it’s been vacant for some time. But the definite time frame we do not have,” Felton said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The fire broke out near a residential neighborhood and not far from the Midtown Head Start Center on East Fortification Street.

Luckily, the childcare facility was not in operation, said Nita Norphlet-Thompson, the executive director of the Mississippi Head Start Association. The building is under construction, according to Norphlet-Thompson.

“Currently, that center is under renovation and probably won’t be open until the 1st of the year,” Norphlet-Thompson told Mississippi Today.  

Capitol Police closed off nearby streets near the fire zone, as water from firetrucks slickened streets.

Mississippi does not hold runoffs for general elections for federal offices, Secretary of State Michael Watson is reminding voters. 

“Ensuring Mississippi voters and election officials have clear, straightforward information about how our elections are decided is imperative,” Watson said in a statement. “The requirements are not the same for every office, so we want to make sure candidates, election officials, and voters have trusted information prior to Election Day.”

Watson’s clarification comes amid a high-profile Senate race, with Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith facing two challengers: Democratic nominee Scott Colom and independent opponent Ty Pinkins. 

Runoff elections can be confusing in Mississippi because some offices require them, but others do not. There have been runoff elections in recent congressional elections. But those were either primary elections or special elections, not regular general elections.     

In 2018, a runoff between Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy occurred after the two received more votes than former state Sen. Chris McDaniel. This was a special election after longtime Sen. Thad Cochran’s resignation. 

McDaniel also forced Cochran into a 2014 runoff in the Republican primary after neither gained an outright majority because of a third-party candidate, Thomas Carey. Cochran later defeated McDaniel in the runoff. 

But it’s long been the law in Mississippi that there are no runoff elections for general elections in federal races. The winner is required to win only a plurality of the votes, not a majority. 

Cochran famously became Mississippi’s first Republican U.S. senator since Reconstruction in 1978 without securing an outright majority. Cochran competed in the general election against Maurice Dantin, the Democratic nominee, and Charles Evers, an independent. 

Cochran received 45% of the vote, Dantin received 31%, and Evers received 22%. 

Mississippi requires candidates for the eight statewide state offices, judicial offices, and county offices to receive a majority. Only a plurality is required for candidates running for congressional, legislative, state district, and municipal offices.

Under the welcome shade of Fondren Park trees, dozens of LGBTQ+ friends and allies socialized and enjoyed barbecue with a drag performance at a local Black Pride event, organized by public health group My Brother’s Keeper. Then, they were called upon to provide the entertainment.

After some cajoling by repeat Jackson Black Pride host JStruktuur on Saturday, a few intrepid attendees stepped up to the open mic, which featured a $75 cash prize for the winner. First up was Tony Patrick, who sang Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking of You.” Patrick came to the event with Jose Ramirez, driving from an hour away in Scott County on his lime green motorbike. After hearing about Pride in the Park the night before at Shade, a LGBTQ+ bar and nightclub in Jackson, they decided to make another trip to the city.

Despite living in an environment that can feel “closed in,” Patrick said he feels comfortable expressing himself as a gay man.

“We’ll go right now to a club that we’ve never been to and hold hands,” he said.  ” If I love myself, there’s nothing nobody can do about it.”

Afterward, they were off to a birthday party, again traveling by motorcycle and hoping the rain would hold off. 

Next on the mic was Cyanne Herron, an artist, fashion designer and poet. Herron told Mississippi Today that she is still shy about sharing her poetry. When she found out about the open mic, her first reaction was, “ Don’t look at me.”

An hour later, wearing a bright yellow bandana and a shirt she painted herself, Herron sat on the steps on the Fondren Park stage and began reading from her phone. Friends who had encouraged her to speak cheered her on, including Landon Williams, a retail worker by day and drag queen by night. 

Herron and Williams first met at Shade, and at Saturday’s event, they caught up on his Batman-themed show hosted at the nightclub the weekend prior. Williams flipped through videos on his phone of a fellow drag artist performing stunts as DC antihero Harley Quinn, while he twirled his cape as Quinn’s paramour, Poison Ivy.

 ”Drag has saved a version of myself that was kind of scared,” Williams said. He’s 26, but remembers that at 18, he didn’t have public events like Pride in the Park to meet other members of the LGBTQ+ community. In January, he started doing drag after finding two drag mothers, or mentors, who gave him a makeup kit and his first wig. 

“When you want to show your confidence in a bold way, you kind of feel shy about wanting to put it out there like that because people might look at you a certain way,” he said. “ But it’s just like, why don’t I get to be bold in my confidence?”

“ I love that for you, actually,” Herron said. “ Because I feel like we all deserve, our last day on Earth, to at least have some type of thought in our consciousness that says that I actually was being myself while I was here.” 

Connecting people to care

Aside from building a sense of community, Pride in the Park allowed attendees to connect with resources. Some partners, like MS Capital City Pride and the Transgender Resources, Advocacy, Networking and Services (TRANS) Program, have been at previous iterations of the event. Others, like Awakening Love, a Jackson-based, Black and trans-led organization with a drop-in center that offers health resources and regular social programming, were there for the first time. 

Love Latonia, the founder of Awakening Love who is herself a veteran drag entertainer and transgender woman, tabled a booth alongside her longtime friend, Aubrey Grayson. The two got to know each other through the Jackson nightlife scene, where Grayson loved the way her friend performed in drag shows. 

“It just drew me to her,” she said, turning to Latonia.  “And then you did my hair. Remember you did my hair?”

Latonia replied with an emphatic, “Uh-huh,” as they laughed together.

Grayson said she knew several of the people there but wanted to mingle in the crowd. “ I thought it was more important for me to come out here because I’ve never really been, and I just wanted to just see my community,” she said. 

Participants also learned about health resources and received HIV screenings through the Open Arms Healthcare Center, the clinical arm of My Brother’s Keeper. 

Inside an air-conditioned trailer several notches cooler than the humid 90 degrees outside, phlebotomist Monica Smith took finger pricks for about a dozen attendees throughout the day. With each blood sample, she then administered an HIV test. Seconds later, the appearance of a blue dot in the HIV test showed a positive or negative result. 

The mobile unit can be requested through Open Arms Healthcare to travel across Mississippi, and provides both screenings and information or referrals to PrEP, a prescription drug that prevents HIV.

Outside, the party wound down as the sun began to set. Dana Brooks, who owns a catering company and is a transgender man, started packing up the burgers and beans he supplied. Friends folded up their lawn chairs, and Taylor Turnage, running the vintage sports clothing pop-up booth, put away her wares. 

The open mic wrapped up, too, after announcing the winner: Cyanne Herron. 

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

Key Senate & House Races Explained

Midterm elections in November will determine control of both chambers of Congress. In Mississippi, a U.S. Senate race tops the ticket, which includes contested general elections for all four of the state’s U.S. House districts.

Who’s in the race: U.S. Senate

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is running for reelection to a second full term. She faces Democratic nominee Scott Colom and Ty Pinkins, who is running as an independent.

Cindy Hyde-Smith (Republican, Incumbent)

Native of Brookhaven, she is a former state agriculture commissioner and previously served as a Democratic state senator. She was appointed to the U.S. Senate by then-Gov. Phil Bryant in 2018, later won a special election, then a full six-year term in 2020. She is the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress.

Committee roles: Serves on the Senate Agriculture, Appropriations and Energy committees

Scott Colom (Democrat)

Native of Columbus, Colom was elected district attorney for the 16th Circuit serving Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay, and Noxubee counties in 2015. Colom is the first Black DA for his district.

Notable: Nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023 for a northern Mississippi federal judicial seat, but his nomination was blocked by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Ty Pinkins (Independent)

Vicksburg-based attorney and military veteran, former White House communications aide and lawyer with the Mississippi Center for Justice. Pinkins ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in 2024 against incumbent Roger Wicker and ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state in 2023.

Focus: Pinkins says partisan politics and big-money influence have caused government to fail Mississippians.

Who’s in the races: U.S. House

1st Congressional District, northern Mississippi

2nd Congressional District, western Mississippi

3rd Congressional District, central Mississippi

4th Congressional District, southern Mississippi

Key issues for this election

Most pundits and prognosticators have Mississippi’s midterm federal elections firmly in the “noncompetitive” category, expecting incumbents to sail to reelection in November.

But challengers are putting in the shoe leather, traversing the state, bombarding social media and, at least in the state’s U.S. Senate race, raising significant amounts of campaign cash.

Particularly, the state’s Democratic challengers to the majority Republican congressional officeholders here hope polling across the country showing dissatisfaction with the GOP on consumer costs, the Iran war, tariffs and trade wars and other policies will provide a foothold to flip seats even in one of the reddest states in the country. Plus, conventional wisdom is the incumbent party can face voters’ ire in midterm elections.

Referendum on Trump

The key question for the 2026 midterms: Will voters in Mississippi, a state dominated by Republican politics, stay loyal to the GOP, even after President Donald Trump’s approval ratings nationwide have plummeted? Rising costs of goods and a protracted war in Iran could erode Trump’s popularity even in red states. 

So far, Mississippi’s incumbent Republican members have allowed little daylight between themselves and Trump, generally praising him and continuing to campaign on alignment with most of his policies.

But the state’s lone Democratic member, Rep. Bennie Thompson, and Democratic challengers for the other open seats this midterm have criticized the Trump administration and campaigned against many of the president’s policies.

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has aligned her campaign closely with Trump, who has endorsed her, and she has emphasized her access to and support from the current administration. She has been one of Trump’s staunchest allies in the Senate.

That closeness is also the center of the Democratic case against her. Democratic nominee Scott Colom’s campaign has focused heavily on her vote for Trump’s tax-and-spending package, the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which cut health coverage for many Mississippians and delivered tax breaks weighted toward the wealthy. Colom has tried to characterize Hyde-Smith as a rubber stamp for the White House while forsaking average Mississippians.

Affordability: tariffs, trade wars, inflation and imported beef

The cost of living, or “affordability,” has emerged as a central theme of the midterms, with rising prices, tariffs’ effects on farmers and consumers, gas prices and health insurance and healthcare access are all incampaign issues. After Republicans criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of inflation, prices have continued to rise under Trump, who pledged to get them under control. 

Generally, Mississippi’s incumbent Republicans have supported the Trump administration’s trade wars and tariff policies, or at least held their tongues.

Hyde-Smith, a farmer and former state agriculture commissioner, has at times been in a tough spot with Trump’s trade wars. She has supported Trump’s use of emergency powers to enact tariffs, but has also urged the administration to protect farmers from some tariff hikes, such as on fertilizer, and has tried to downplay the costs to Mississippi’s farmers and ag markets.

President Trump’s recent proposal to import cheap beef to try to drive down consumer costs as midterm elections near has drawn flak from Mississippi cattle producers, and at least muted dissension from Hyde-Smith and Republican Rep. Michael Guest. Hyde-Smith faced criticism from Colom and others when she commented in February when asked about high beef prices that, “You have so many proteins to choose from and all commodities go through peaks and valleys.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson has vocally criticized Trump’s tariffs and trade wars, as have Democratic challengers for the midterms. But Thompson’s Republican challenger, Ron Eller, has said more tariffs are warranted because they will spur more domestic manufacturing.

Iran War

The conflict between the U.S. and Iran, which followed strikes ordered by Trump earlier this year, has become an issue nationally and in Mississippi. Congress has been divided over the president’s use of military force without prior congressional authorization, and a War Powers Resolution aimed at curbing that authority passed the Senate with bipartisan support, though it fell short of a veto-proof majority. 

Hyde-Smith and Mississippi’s three U.S. representatives voted against the resolution, consistent with their broader support for the administration’s national security approach.

The war has also become entangled with the affordability debate, as critics have linked the chokehold in the Strait of Hormuz with higher gas and grocery prices and questioned its cost and open-ended objectives.

Lack of national party support, fundraising

The two main national political parties have not invested heavily in Mississippi’s midterm races, which is not unusual, given the state has not been considered very competitive for non-incumbents in general elections for many cycles.

Some candidates have lamented this, saying the GOP has become too complacent in its hold on all but one congressional office, and the Democratic Party has written the state off as a lost cause.

But for candidates to be successful, they have to raise enough money to buy ads to build name ID. They also need the funds to develop a strong campaign infrastructure leading up to the election. Incumbents tend to have the edge in fundraising, as is the case with this election, though some of the challengers have raised enough money to be competitive. 

Colom has outraised Hyde-Smith for two fundraising quarters this election season. Cliff Johnson, the Democratic nominee for the 1st Congressional District, has for at least a couple of quarters bested incumbent Republican Trent Kelly in fundraising. But both incumbent Republicans have far more campaign cash in their coffers than their challengers.

A recent report showed Hyde-Smith with $2.54 million cash on hand, and Colom with $847,000.

But things could change in short order in Mississippi races, should national parties or big-money interests decide to weigh in. Mississippi’s media market is relatively cheap, so campaign donations or independent expenditures can go a long way in campaign advertising as races enter the final stretch.

When, Where & How to Vote

Mississippi’s federal midterm Election Day is Nov. 3. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. All Mississippi voters are required to present a photo ID. If you do not present an acceptable form of photo ID, you are entitled to cast an affidavit ballot, but must then present an ID in the local circuit clerk’s office within five business days. For voter ID information or help obtaining valid identification, call 1-800-829-6786.

Register to vote. Mississippians can register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election by mail, at their local county circuit clerk’s offices or at Department of Public Safety offices through Oct. 5. All mail-in applications must be postmarked on or before 30 days prior to Election Day. Mail in applications are available here, or from your circuit clerk. For your circuit clerk’s address and contact information, go to the Secretary of State’s County Election Information page here.

Absentee voting begins Sept. 19. Mississippi does not have standard early voting like many other states do, but the state allows for absentee voting in person and by mail under certain circumstances, including for students attending schools away from their homes, people who will be away from their residence due to work or “any qualified elector who is required to be away from his or her residence within the county on election day for any reason.” Those who are 65 or older also can vote absentee by mail or in person. For more information on how to vote absentee in person or by mail, go to this secretary of state’s web page.

Find your polling location. To find your polling location, view sample ballots and see who your current officeholders are, go the the secretary of state’s My Election Day page.

David Magee’s memoir is inspired by the last conversation he had with his late son.

“The last thing my son William had told me, like literally the last words, were, ‘Dad, you know, I hope you’ll tell our story one day,’” he recalled. “I didn’t really understand what that meant, and then I never saw him again.”

“Dear William,” a bestselling book, is about their family’s intergenerational struggles with addiction and mental illness. Now a feature film based on the book is being shot in Mississippi with help from an $800,000 grant from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Opioid Settlement Fund.

Magee is an author, speaker and Mississippi native. His oldest son and the book’s inspiration, William, died from an overdose. David Magee and his younger son Hudson are both in recovery from addiction, and his daughter struggled with an eating disorder. Magee and his wife live in Oxford. 

Magee explained that the grant money will go toward research and the film’s production. The rest of the film’s funding comes from in-kind donations from Magee and The Magee Foundation and from private investors. Donations and grants will cover the screenings.

“The film is a tool to (reach) the hearts and minds and students and families of Mississippi, and then beyond,” he said.

Principal photography began in Greenwood on Sept. 8. Greenwood was previously a filming location for “The Help,” “Mississippi Masala,” and the miniseries “Women of the Movement,” among others.

Additional filming will take place at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Magee said filming should wrap within seven to nine months, and that talks with distributors have been promising.

He previously told the Clarion-Ledger newspaper that the Delta region would be a pilot community for the educational component of the project. He previously worked there as an editor.

Last year, Mississippi Today investigated how the state had spent less than 1% of the tens of millions of dollars it received from the opioid settlement lawsuits on directly addressing addiction and overdose deaths.

Most of that money – 85% –  is now managed by the Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council and the Mississippi Legislature. The council reviews applications for projects that address Mississippi’s opioid crisis and makes recommendations to the Legislature on which ones to fund. 

Last year, the Legislature passed a bill expanding its ability to fund projects outside of the council’s recommendations.

Magee believes there should be more resources of all kinds for people impacted by addiction, and strongly believes in the power of storytelling to make an impact. 

“We’re not standard, and I own that,” he said of settlement funds being used to help produce the film. 

“But I think students and families need us, and the AGs and all these people who fought for the opioid settlement, they need somebody and some people to jump out there and try something new and different – also that happens to have a lot of evidence around it supporting that it just might work.”

The plan is to show screenings of the film to K-12 students across Mississippi, followed up by panel discussions and directing people to addiction abatement resources.

There are plans to expand screenings to college students, establish storytelling workshops in the Delta and set up an online hub with prevention resources.

Magee added that the Center for Research Evaluation at the University of Mississippi will also be doing research on the project.

“The opioid funds, if they don’t belong to making this movie, to take to students and taking this education to them, then I don’t know where it belongs,” he said.

Jarques Ratliff of Jackson was denied bond Monday after he pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of Tasia Fortune, whose body was found hanging in a tree in west Jackson in August.

Ratliff, 51, appeared at Jackson Municipal Court for his initial appearance Monday. 

In court, investigators revealed Ratliff tried to hide in a car on Friday, the day he was arrested. Prosecutors said he had prior charges of grand larceny and cocaine possession and several thousand dollars in traffic fines. No convictions were found for Ratliff via a search of the Mississippi Electronic Court system.

Ratliff’s attorney Toney Baldwin argued his client was gainfully employed and “a pillar of the community.” 

Judge Taurean Buchanan determined Ratfliff was a flight risk and denied his bond.

Ratliff, who is Black, was charged with murder for the death of Fortune, a 29 year-old Black woman who was found hanging from a tree outside a vacant home in west Jackson. The case drew national attention because the manner in which Fortune’s body was found hearkened back to Mississippi’s history of racist violence.

After court, Baldwin cautioned the public and the media from prejudging the case. He said his client made no confession, but could not provide further details on the investigation.

“I sympathize with the family, and therefore we want the truth to give the family closure,” Baldwin said.

The Jackson Police Department arrested Ratliff after the state medical examiner ruled Fortune’s death as a homicide. After the hearing Monday in Jackson Municipal Court, JPD Chief of Staff Tonya Norwood said the department has no further comment. 

The case is still active. JPD announced on Friday that additional arrests were expected.

The Associated Press reported that Christy Spivey, Fortune’s mother, said when she learned of the arrest, “I just started crying and told them ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’”

Spivey, a Kentucky resident,  said the family was in “shock” and “disbelief.” She said she didn’t know Ratliff and was asking Fortune’s friends if they did.

Fortune, a mother of four, was a Kentucky native who ran away from home at 16 with someone she had met in foster care, her family earlier told Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday announced 167 awards together worth over $104 million to providers across Mississippi for projects aimed at improving rural health care. 

The projects are a part of the state’s first three grant opportunities for healthcare providers funded by the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. The awards, which represent over half of the state’s funding through the program for this year, will be used to help rural hospitals, health clinics, mental health practitioners and other providers make facility improvements, expand service offerings, upgrade technology systems, bolster cybersecurity defenses and increase telehealth capacity. Reeves posted a full list of the awardees to his website Monday. 

“When you step back and look at these projects together, you really see something bigger than a list of grants,” Reeves said at a Monday press conference at his office. “You see a strategy built around Mississippi.”

Mississippi was awarded nearly $206 million in December as a part of the national $50 billion program. States will receive payments over five years for initiatives designed to bolster rural healthcare and offset the disproportionate impact that federal spending cuts Congress passed and that President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025 are expected to have on rural hospitals.

The state received over 700 applications from 236 organizations for the initial three grant opportunities offered as a part of the program. Nearly 500 eligible applications requested roughly $450 million. 

Though the governor’s office initially allocated about $80 million for the grants, it increased the budget to $104 million in response to the high demand. 

The state’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes the Delta, most of Jackson and southwestern Mississippi, will receive roughly a third of the funding. Fifty-two projects were selected for roughly $31 million in funding. 

Healthcare providers in Jackson and other urban areas received funding because they serve rural communities in Mississippi and provide access to specialty and advanced care, Reeves said. 

“It can seem counterintuitive, but sometimes the smartest investment in rural healthcare isn’t necessarily physically located in a rural community,” he said. 

Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District, which includes the northeastern portion of the state, received the smallest amount of funding by district, amounting to $16 million for 32 awards. 

Applications for the funding were submitted in July, and recipients will have less than a year — until July 2027 — to use the funding.  

Reeves said the scoring rubrics used to grade applications will soon be available for the public to view. 

Mississippi’s funding plan includes a statewide rural health assessment and other initiatives to coordinate care, strengthen the workforce, create a statewide health information exchange, expand telehealth opportunities and improve infrastructure. 

Reeves is overseeing the distribution of the funds through the state’s newly established Rural Health Transformation Program Office, making Mississippi one of two states where the governor’s office directly manages the distribution of the money. Some lawmakers and other stakeholders have expressed disapproval over the governor’s control of the funds. 

“Governors know our state best, and governors know how to set priorities,” he said Monday. 

Awardees for several other grant programs, including $16.8 million for four grant programs aimed at addressing critical healthcare workforce shortages in rural communities and $14 million to create calm, therapeutic units at hospital emergency departments to improve crisis mental healthcare, will be awarded in 30 to 45 days, Reeves said. 

Reeves said Mississippi has submitted its request for second-year funding as part of the Rural Health Transformation Program to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and expects to receive word of the funding amount by November. 

Rural health pilot programs

Reeves in August announced pilot efforts that will use Rural Health Transformation Program dollars to combat obesity, serve obstetric care deserts and expand mental health services in rural Mississippi. The programs will operate through partnerships with the state Department of Health and Department of Mental Health. 

Reeves said Monday some, but not all, of the agreements have been signed, and staff will soon shift their attention to the programs. 

The Department of Mental Health in August signed interagency agreements with the Governor’s Office to oversee pilot programs to improve crisis mental healthcare at hospitals, establish a new telehealth program for veterans and first responders and expand access to training for behavioral healthcare staff. 

Funding amounts for the agreements with the Department of Mental Health obtained by Mississippi Today were redacted. Katie Storr, chief of staff for the Department of Mental Health, said the amounts were not disclosed because the agency is not required to disclose them while preparing for or conducting competitive procurement, and the amounts could change.

Two pilot programs will provide funding to crisis diversion centers located in Purvis and Pascagoula. These facilities serve as short-term inpatient facilities to care for and monitor people experiencing acute mental health or substance use crises, and act as an alternative to holding people in crisis in jails or treating them in emergency departments. 

The facilities selected for the funding demonstrated a need for additional capacity, are close to being ready to accept patients and have the support of local officials, Department of Mental Health spokesperson Adam Moore said to Mississippi Today in an email. 

“Our goal is to create more options for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis so that emergency departments, jails, and inpatient psychiatric hospitals are not the default simply because a more appropriate level of care is unavailable,” he said. 

The Purvis facility, which will serve Lamar, Forrest, Marion and Perry counties, will have 16 inpatient beds and a new, ‘living room’ area for de-escalation during shorter stays when a higher level of care is not necessary. The facility has finished construction but lacks the funds necessary to operate and fill vacant positions, Forrest County Sheriff Charlie Sims told Mississippi Today. 

Moore said Forrest and Lamar counties have among the highest numbers of people held in jail prior to admission to a state hospital, demonstrating a high need for the facility. Rita Porter, adult services director at Pine Belt Mental Healthcare Resources, added in an email that currently, many individuals must be transported to crisis stabilization programs outside the area. 

The Pascagoula facility run by South Mississippi Mental Health Center will use the funding to expand its existing location from eight to 16 beds. The funds will also strengthen nursing and security capacity, allowing the program to serve individuals with more complex needs, Moore said. He added that Jackson County, where the facility is located, has the fourth-highest number of state hospital admissions in Mississippi. 

The Department of Mental Health requested $650,000 from the state Legislature this year for the Pascagoula facility. Moore said the agency did not receive these funds from the state because the Rural Health Transformation Program provided an alternative opportunity for the funding. 

Jackson County Chancery Clerk Josh Eldridge, who handles civil commitment affidavits and works closely with South Mississippi Mental Health Center, said in an Aug. 28 phone call with Mississippi Today he was hopeful the facility would receive the funds but had not yet been informed the facility was selected. 

“If it’s a done deal, I need to start staffing up,” he said.