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Dependent on her satellite service for an internet connection at her home in rural Sharon in Madison County, Nunn experienced slow internet and static calls to customers, resulting in repeated questions and statements.

After being given two weeks without pay by her employer to look for another internet service, Nunn had no luck. She was let go. 

Nunn went eight months without a job and almost had her car repossessed over something she said she “had no absolute control over.”

“It was the most horrific day of my life to lose a good job,” Nunn told Mississippi Today, “not because I did anything wrong – or wasn’t completing my tasks – but because of the internet.” 

Two years ago, the Madison County Board of Supervisors approved funding for over 370 miles of high speed internet to cover more than 4,000 homes in the rural northeast areas of Madison County in District 5 – carried out in collaboration with Comcast.

These areas include Camden, Sharon, Pine Grove and some parts of Canton. 

As of Aug. 17,  zero areas have been covered within this newly estimated $17 million project, said District 5 Supervisor Paul Griffin, president of the Madison County Board of Supervisors. 

The original $22 million cost was lowered a month ago after Comcast conducted a walkthrough of where fiber would be installed. 

Federal officials have been pouring billions of dollars into the expansion of high-speed internet in Mississippi, yet the tedious process of selecting providers and distributing funds has resulted in a slow rollout. 

After receiving no actions and few answers from county officials, residents in the rural northeast portions of Madison County are left wondering when broadband will come to their area.

Griffin said “red tape” – actions the government requires to perform services – have delayed the project’s progress.

“It is not Madison County. It’s been the federal government getting the money down to the local government,” Griffin told Mississippi Today. “The district is waiting on the funds that have gone through the government down to the state, to move from the state down to internet providers.”

Madison County, which received over $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, set aside $10 million for the project but now is contributing half of that. The county applied for a Capital Project Fund aid match through the Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi office. 

If the county receives the grant, Comcast will also contribute funds up to $7 million to cover the remaining balance, the Board of Supervisors said. 

With only partial funds in hand, the project remains at a standstill. 

And of the areas unserved, at least half are in the rural northern areas that Griffin said are to be prioritized.

As this delay continues, many of Madison County’s schoolchildren and adults, particularly in the least wealthy parts of the county, can’t access high-speed internet. Griffin’s advice is to just keep holding on.

“There was no future to get the internet at all until two years ago when federal funding started coming down,” Griffin told Mississippi Today. “We’ve held on that long. Hopefully we can hold on for another year.”

In Sharon, nearly all –  over 94% – of locations are considered unserved and underserved, according to data collected in 2022. 

When it was announced broadband high-speed internet was coming to Nunn’s area, she said she believed the community was progressing and the Board of Supervisors cared about its citizens. But with the prolonged wait, the mother of three says it’s becoming difficult to raise her family in the area she loves and grew up in.

“This is my livelihood. This is how I provide for my family,” Nunn said. “The world is technology now. You need the internet to basically do anything.” 

In rural areas like Nunn’s without cable, fiber, or DSL internet access, the commonly served satellite internet providers are Viasat and HughesNet. Satellite internet is the only thing she’s able to get, but these services are not recommended for those who work from home and need high-speed connection. 

The 24-year-old said she has satellite internet service with Viasat, but the 100 GB plan package she needs runs $275.45 per month, which is higher than the average cost of satellite service ($100). Nunn said the 100 GB wouldn’t even last her two days before it’s used up and begins to run slow. 

“This is becoming too much. People in the Canton area mention to me that I can get Xfinity Internet that’s priced at $10 or $13 per month because I have low income and children,” Nunn continued. “I go to check. But the providers, of course, say that they don’t operate in my area.”

Sally Doty, director of the Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi office, said her office is working to develop a new map to be released within the next month or two that will provide an accurate representation of broadband availability across the state. 

This map will be funded by the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program through Doty’s office out of the $1.2 billion Mississippi will receive to serve approximately 300,000 unserved and 200,000 underserved locations across the state.  

Doty said this new map will help the office accurately determine where funding should be allocated and what areas still need to be addressed. It will also help residents determine what services are available to them.

“We are really kind of turning to a new way of keeping up with who has what service in some areas,” Doty continued. “As we do with all of the grants from our office and any grant that we give out, we are going to know the exact location and the addresses where (the awardee) is going to provide service.”

The broadband deployment program will begin its application process after money from the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund has been dispersed.

A few hours before the application for those funds closed Aug. 17, there were 103 applications and over 100 applications in progress. Of the $356.4 million that providers are asking from Doty’s office, only $162 million will be dispersed.

As more funding is distributed, Doty said the number of unserved and underserved residents will continue to shift.

“We have 268,000 unserved, but I’m not quite sure how many we will serve with this (coronavirus fund) … We hope about 35,000 or more. Then, we’re down to 233,000 unserved, so that gives us more for the underserved,” Doty told Mississippi Today. “It’s a moving target all the time.”

Johnson has two children, ages 15 and 16, who are required to do virtual learning and submit assignments online. But with no access to high-speed internet at home, the children have missed deadlines to turn homework in by 11:59 p.m.

Johnson said she had to call the school several times to explain their situation and plead for understanding to be granted to her children. 

She said she hoped to never experience hurdles like this again and to provide her children with the same educational opportunities as the rest of the county. But because the situation has persisted for so long, she is starting to feel forgotten.

“Everything is prospering and growing around us, except for our area,” Johnson told Mississippi Today. “It makes you feel like you’re in a foreign country.”

People in the community like Johnson also see benefits of working from home, considering the lack of opening positions in the area. 

“There are no jobs in Sharon. The closest thing to me would be Canton, but with gas prices, you can’t get very far” Johnson said. “If you have to go 30 miles to at least get a minimum wage, then that’s not benefiting anyone.”

According to Census Bureau data, the average commute time to work in Sharon was 52.5 minutes compared to the state’s average commute time of 25.2 minutes. 

Johnson said she doesn’t know how people are supposed to manage with so little resources that help the community to grow economically and socially. 

“We have always got the short end of everything out here.” Johnson stated. 

In early August, the California-based organization submitted a report to Mississippi’s broadband office integrating the stories and recommendations of residents and community leaders in Utica, pushing for internet access and a visit from officials.

“How can (officials) have any sense of what kind of solutions a community wants, if they haven’t even come and told the community about what kind of solutions are possible?” Brandon Forester, the national organizer for internet rights at MediaJustice, told Mississippi Today. 

Forester works to help communities see that they can have a role, have agency and make decisions about the technology in their community. Forester said he relied on the power of storytelling to detail the barriers and solutions to broadband access as identified by the experiences of residents of Utica. 

“The report was to say these people exist. They’re 45 minutes down the road from the Capitol. These people are completely disconnected,” Forester continued. “And the state doesn’t even realize it.” 

Utica, a rural town in Hinds County of around 600 residents, found itself grappling with similar problems as those in rural Sharon: lack of internet access and high internet rates. 

Forester said some residents reported not receiving the service they paid for and others required different levels of service needs. Forester said ultimately, a common theme was that the internet was too expensive. 

“Part of that is because companies essentially are monopolies. AT&T and HughesNet are not competing for the same customers, so providers are able to put whatever pricing they want on these folks,” Forester said, referring to studies conducted by the Los Angeles Times and The Markup.

In rural communities, assistance can be slow due to multiple factors, but one reason is that internet providers need incentives.

Forester said for large, publicly traded corporations, their incentives may be to maximize profits for shareholders. For Electric Co-Ops – private, nonprofit companies delivering electricity to customers –, their goal may be to connect as many people as possible.

Forester said he thinks about people’s abilities to have telehealth savings, access to education and entertainment, if only rural communities had high-speed internet. 

“(MediaJustice) is trying to help people figure out how to organize their resources because it may not be that the right internet solution for one area is the same as it is for another neighborhood,” Forester explained. “It’s not about us saying this is the best thing for someone, but it’s about a community being able to make choices regarding how technology shows up for them.”

The post Two years after funds were obligated to bring high-speed internet to more than 4,000 homes in rural northeast Madison County, zero have been served appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Cleveland boys watched their first high school football games of the season last week and head full throttle into college football this coming weekend. At first glance, Oak Grove and Picayune look like powerhouse teams, which is nothing new for either.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Football is here! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Police in two Pine Belt towns have found no evidence to back up a claim made Monday by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign that members of their Democratic opponent’s campaign recently vandalized businesses.

TV station WDAM reported someone in early July sprayed the message “Tate Reeves stole our money” on the side of a business in downtown Hattiesburg, and the station tweeted on Monday that someone last weekend sprayed a similar message on a Purvis business.

Reeves’ campaign manager Elliott Husbands sent a Monday release to reporters across the state claiming that Presley “and his team are so desperate to save their failing campaign that they have no resorted to vandalizing Mississippi small businesses” with messages related to the state’s sprawling welfare scandal.

But there is no evidence that anyone connected to the Presley campaign or a Presley supporter is behind the incident.

Local law enforcement in the south Mississippi towns said they have placed no one in custody in connection to the two events, meaning there is no way the campaign can credibly accuse the Presley campaign of orchestrating the events.

Purvis Police Detective Jimmy Green told Mississippi Today that the incident there launched an ongoing investigation, and the department has not placed anyone in custody or charged anyone with a crime in connection to the incident. 

“I don’t see any kind of connection that this has anything to do with a campaign,” Green said on Tuesday.

Samantha Alexander, the chief communications officer for the city of Hattiesburg, told Mississippi Today in a statement that a police report was filed about the July spray painting incident, but “there have been no leads in the investigation.”

Communications officials from the Reeves campaign declined to comment when asked to clarify the discrepancy or offer new evidence to support their claim about the incident.

Presley told reporters at a Monday press conference that he had “no clue” what Reeves’ campaign was talking about with the accusation that someone connected to him was responsible for the graffiti. 

“I know nothing about it,” Presley said of the graffiti. “This is the first I’ve ever heard of it.”

The post Police have no evidence to back up Reeves campaign claim that ‘Presley team’ vandalized businesses appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves, who has continued to staunchly oppose expanding Medicaid in Mississippi, appears to have attended a meeting in May about “Medicaid policies,” according to his official calendar.

But no one with the governor’s office or the Division of Medicaid will discuss the purpose of the meeting, which Mississippi Today discovered through a records request of the governor’s calendar. 

When Mississippi Today submitted a records request for communications, notes and reports about and from the meeting, both the governor’s office and the agency claimed no such records existed.

The purpose of the meeting could be important for a number of reasons. Reeves, who is running for reelection this year, has faced criticism from his Democratic opponent Brandon Presley and health care leaders for his refusal to expand Medicaid. The move would provide both health coverage for hundreds of thousands of poor, working Mississippians and an economic boon to rural hospitals, more than half of which are at risk of closure because of financial concerns.

And in recent weeks, the state’s Medicaid division, which is statutorily overseen by the governor’s office, has been removing tens of thousands of adults and children from the Medicaid rolls.

The meeting would have come just a month after the Mississippi Division of Medicaid began its unwinding process.

It would have also been about a month after Reeves called Medicaid expansion “expanding welfare” at an event in Flowood.

The meeting, which was hosted in the Governor’s Mansion conference room at 2 p.m. on May 8, did not include a description and did not list attendees — just the title “Meet on Medicaid Policies” and the meeting’s location.

When asked if anyone from the division attended the meeting and what was discussed, a spokesperson from Medicaid only said that he “wasn’t aware” of any Division employees in attendance.

Shelby Wilcher, the governor’s spokesperson, did not respond to multiple emails. 

Reeves has consistently reiterated his opposition to expanding Medicaid to the working poor on the campaign trail. Conversely, his opponent Presley has repeatedly vowed to expand Medicaid if elected. 

Polls show that the majority of Mississippians support the policy change. A Mississippi Today survey of lawmakers during the 2023 legislative session showed that a majority either supported expansion or said they remained undecided, while just a handful said they outright opposed it. And as the health care crisis continues, health care leaders and experts, too, say that while expansion wouldn’t be a “silver bullet,” it would help staunch the financial bleed of the state’s struggling hospitals. 

Iris Stacker, the CEO of Delta Health Systems in Greenville, questioned at a July campaign event for Presley “why Tate Reeves doesn’t understand why he needs a healthy workforce.”

As unwinding continues, it’s unclear what was discussed or how the meeting might have impacted the process. 

In July, the Division announced its first disenrollments — about 29,000 people were dropped during the first wave. Another 22,000 followed in August, many of them children.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves apparently met about Medicaid. No one will say what was discussed. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eighteen years ago, Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It seems like yesterday I heard someone yelling across the Clarion Ledger’s newsroom, “There’s water on the second floor of the Beau Rivage!” That was at 10:30 a.m. And that was the moment I knew the Coast would be changed forever. Even then, I could not have imagined the damage that the storm surge would cause. I also could not have predicted the incredible recovery the Coast would make. I’ve drawn a lot of live oak pictures over the years. The iconic coastal trees have survived so many storms over the years, including Katrina. Like the Coast, it must because of their deep roots.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Deep Roots appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Acclaimed author Walter Isaacson and distinguished historian Dr. Eddie Glaude joined Deep South Today supporters in June to share their thoughts on the dangerous divisions in our country, and the crucial role of local news in journalism and democracy.

The post Walter Isaacson and Dr. Eddie Glaude on the value of local news appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Six Mississippi House seats feature runoff elections today after no candidate in the Aug. 8 primaries earned 50% of the vote.

Two House incumbents — Republican Rep. Nick Bain of Corinth and Republican Rep. Dale Goodin of Richton — face runoff races on Tuesday, and four other House seats across the state will select party nominees.

PREVIEW: Six House runoff elections slated for Tuesday, including for two incumbents

No runoffs were needed for state Senate seats or for statewide posts, though there will be additional runoff elections throughout the state for multiple county posts.

Polls close Aug. 29 at 7 p.m., when results of the races will begin trickling in.

Republican primary runoff results

Democratic primary runoffs

The post Live results: Mississippi primary runoff election 2023 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Democrat Shuwaski Young’s abrupt Sunday announcement that he plans to drop out of the race for secretary of state for health reasons coincided with the Mississippi Elections Commission planning to meet in coming days to consider whether he was eligible to seek the office in the first place.

Young received a letter dated Aug. 15 from Logan Witcher, elections compliance officer in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, informing Young that the state Elections Commission would soon review whether he was eligible to seek the statewide post because of residency issues. The letter, obtained by Mississippi Today on Monday through a public records request, claimed Young was voting in California as recently as 2020.

The letter to Young, along with his announcement that he is dropping out for health reasons, raises numerous questions.

Under Mississippi law, the state Democratic Party could name a replacement for Young if he is dropping out for health reasons. But if he was ruled ineligible to seek the post because of residency issues, the party likely could not replace him. If he is dropping out for health reasons before being ruled ineligible for the ballot, it is not clear whether he can still be replaced by the state party.

In an interview on Monday afternoon, Young said he withdrew solely because of his health, and questions about his residency “100% absolutely did not” play a role in that decision. He declined further comments on residency questions.

“What basically happened is there was an incident where my blood pressure was really out of whack, sky high, but I was on top of it, saw doctors, had medication,” Young told Mississippi Today. But one recent day, he said, while out at lunch, he had an “incident.”

“That particular day, I was in a full suit, it was sunny, about 12 or 1 p.m. It was just too much,” he said. “… That’s when it hit me. I am just thankful to the emergency first responders, and folks at Golden Triangle Baptist Hospital where I had an overnight stay. It’s just been an up-and-down medical situation for me … I’m going to focus on my family and my health, and when the time is right I’ll make another run to serve the people of Mississippi.”

Young said he has talked with state Democratic Party leaders and would support anyone the party replaces him with in the race.

But the ultimate decision on whether the Democrat can exit the race lies with the three-member state commission, which is made up of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Young’s opponent Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson. State law requires Young to submit an affidavit to the commission specifying his reason for withdrawing his name from the ballot.

If a majority of the commission determines Young’s health concerns are legitimate, they can vote to accept the affidavit. But they could also vote to reject the affidavit.

The state Elections Commission was scheduled to meet on Monday, Aug. 21, to take up questions concerning Young’s eligibility, according to the letter. That meeting was postponed and its rescheduling has not been publicly announced.

The Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office is tasked with checking the eligibility of statewide and legislative candidates and presenting those finding to the entire Elections Commission. Then the three members vote on candidates’ eligibility before approving the statewide ballot for November.

The fact that Young was challenging incumbent Watson, who is on the commission, adds another dimension to the unique situation.

Cheikh Taylor, chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party, told the Daily Journal on Monday that the party planned to name a replacement for Young to run against Watson sometime this week, though he did not name a specific person. Taylor did not address the issue of whether Young can still be replaced if he is not eligible to run.

In the letter to Young, the Secretary of State’s office said its research indicated that he was placed on the inactive rolls in his home county of Neshoba in early 2017.

Voter records indicated that Young cast ballots in California in 2018 and 2020, the letter said. The letter asks Young to provide documentation proving his citizenship.

READ MORE: Shuwaski Young faces residency questions in secretary of state run

The Mississippi Constitution requires a candidate for secretary of state to be “a citizen of the state” for five years “preceding the day of the election.”

Mississippi courts have historically looked at voting records as a factor to determine citizenship. According to the California Secretary of State’s office, to vote in California someone must be “a United States citizen and a resident of California.”

If Young actually voted in California as recently as 2020, it’s possible he does not meet the residency requirement. But earlier this year, Young told the Daily Journal he had maintained “joint residency” in Neshoba County while working in California.

Under state law, a candidate can drop out and be replaced because of health reasons or job-related conflicts. A candidate who dies before an election also can be replaced by the party.

In 2022, the issue of Young’s residency came up in his 3rd District congressional campaign against incumbent Republican Michael Guest. But a candidate for the U.S. House in Mississippi is not required to live in the state, so at that time the issue was not fully vetted.

The post Democrat who announced exit from Secretary of State race for health reasons was also under state scrutiny over residency appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for governor, alleged that when his political opponent Gov. Tate Reeves fired the attorney working to recoup misspent welfare dollars, it led to a spike in fundraising donations for the Republican official. 

Speaking in front of the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Jackson on Monday, Presley said that when state officials decided not to renew attorney Brad Pigott’s contract to claw back the misspent money, people affiliated with the University of Southern Mississippi began donating to the first-term governor’s reelection campaign.

“When he ran for lieutenant governor, he said a watchdog is exactly what I’ll be,” Presley said of Reeves. “And we know he’s never been a watchdog. He’s been a lapdog. A lapdog for lobbyists, a lapdog for special interests, a lapdog for the monied interests in Mississippi.”

Clifton Carroll, a spokesman for the Reeves campaign, called Presley’s Monday press conference an act of “mental gymnastics” because, in essence, he is “trying to say any supporter of Southern Miss must be disavowed.” 

“The bad actors in this case have been sued by the Reeves administration, and calling all Southern Miss supporters corrupt is offensive and, frankly, exactly what you’d expect from a campaign run by the DNC — not Mississippians,” Carroll said. 

READ MORE: What exactly is Gov. Tate Reeves’ involvement in the welfare scandal?

A former federal prosecutor, Pigott filed a July 11 subpoena on the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation about the $5 million it received in federal welfare dollars it received to build a volleyball stadium on its campus. 

Roughly a week after Pigott filed the subpoena, leadership with the Mississippi Department of Human Services, an agency directly overseen by Reeves, decided not to renew the attorney’s contract.

Pigott believed his sudden termination was politically motivated because Reeves’ office wanted him to block the USM Athletic Foundation from scrutiny. But MDHS leaders and Reeves said the contract was terminated, in part, because a larger law firm was needed to ramp up the evidence collection process with the civil lawsuit. 

READ MORE: Welfare head says surprise subpoena led to attorney’s firing. Emails show it wasn’t a surprise.

MDHS leadership later contracted with the Jackson-based branch of Jones Walker, a New Orleans-based law firm, to take over the civil litigation to recoup the misspent money. The law firm has since added the USM Athletic Foundation to its lengthy list of defendants in the civil suit. 

The post Brandon Presley alleges Tate Reeves’ firing of welfare scandal lawyer was motivated by campaign donations appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Smiling Tiger appeared first on Mississippi Today.