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The Current, a nonprofit news organization serving Lafayette and South Louisiana, is joining Deep South Today, a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that serves communities in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“We are tremendously excited to bring The Current into the Deep South Today network of newsrooms,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “The Current is already doing an outstanding job of providing Lafayette with essential local journalism, and they have a lot of room to grow. We intend to use the resources and infrastructure at Deep South Today to support that growth and meet the need for critical news and information in Louisiana.”

“We launched The Current to serve Lafayette with vigorous, in-depth journalism,” said Christiaan Mader, The Current’s co-founder and executive editor. “Joining Deep South Today will amplify what we do with more reporting, more programming and more innovation.”

The Current will become the third newsroom in the Deep South Today network, alongside Mississippi Today and Verite News in New Orleans. Along with its staff, The Current will retain its mission, identity, community focus and editorial independence. Mader will serve as The Current’s executive director and editor-in-chief, remaining the local executive in charge of the newsroom.

Deep South Today will make investments in the coming year to expand editorial capacity at The Current through additional reporting staff, new topical coverage, and other support. The Current will leverage the centralized infrastructure at Deep South Today to enhance its technology, improve its audience engagement, add multimedia content, and achieve greater operational sustainability.

Deep South Today also looks forward to enhancing The Current’s suite of events and accelerating the growth of Big Towns, a summit created by The Current that brings leaders from around the country to Lafayette over two days for focused discussions about ideas that can advance mid-sized cities.

The Current is joining the Deep South Today network as it continues to develop extensive national and regional collaborations with partners that include the New York Times, ProPublica, Associated Press, Grist, The Trace, Open Campus, The Marshall Project, The Hechinger Report, KFF Health News, AJI/NOTUS, CatchLight, Gulf States Newsroom, and others.

“This merger helps Deep South Today as much as it helps The Current, because increased scale will bring more impact, more audience, and more efficiencies in our operations,” Sabin said. “Deep South Today is determined to meet the need for local news wherever it exists in our region, and the addition of The Current is an important step toward that goal.”

ABOUT DEEP SOUTH TODAY

Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today, Verite News, and The Current.

Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now one of the largest newsrooms in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. The Current is a nonprofit news organization founded in 2018 serving Lafayette and southern Louisiana.

With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.

ABOUT THE CURRENT

The Current is a nonprofit news organization serving Lafayette and South Louisiana.

Founded in 2018 by local journalists, The Current’s in-depth reporting connects Lafayette to stories that matter and helps readers understand how our community works — and how we can make it better.

CORNERSVILLE — It was impossible not to wonder what William Faulkner might think of what was happening on his land on a drizzly, humid Sunday last fall.

Several of Mississippi’s up-and-coming artists drew, painted and photographed the depths of the landscape around us. A saxophonist and accordionist played some folk melodies, their riffs echoing off a rotting wooden house and a scattering of oak trees. Joe Stinchcomb, one of the South’s best bartenders, slung gin cocktails from a folding table for more than 100 people who’d trekked out in their mud boots and rain jackets.

We were deep in the woods for the Plein Air Invitational, an artist showcase hosted by the University of Mississippi at Greenfield, Faulkner’s old mule farm 17 miles east of Oxford toward his hometown New Albany. This ground, though much less visited than the literary icon’s home Rowan Oak in Oxford, is sacred to those who know it.

After he sold the movie rights for his novel “The Unvanquished” in 1938, Faulkner bought 362 acres here, where generations of Faulkners and tenant families such as the McJunkinses grew cotton and corn over the years. The fields, trees and trails tucked away in these hills served as literary inspiration for many stories people now obsess over. From 1938 to 1945, when Faulkner spent much of his time at Greenfield, he worked on “The Hamlet,” “Go Down, Moses,” and “A Fable.” In “Absalom, Absalom!”, Faulkner’s map of Yoknapatawpha County placed the fictional McCallum farm on the very site of Greenfield Farm. Puskus Creek, which flows east to west through the property, became the setting for the quicksand scene in the film adaptation of “Intruder in the Dust.”

After his passing in 1962 and the changing of owners over the years, the property fell into neglect. The farm failed and went into foreclosure around 1990, when a local bank sold 20 acres of the land to the University of Mississippi. For nearly three decades in the university’s possession, the property was largely unused, save for a few field trips of the annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. During this time, much of the history of the place was lost.

Sometime in 1992, Faulkner’s hunting cabin on the property burned. What remains of the farm’s structures are badly decomposing in the elements. There are no signs or markers signifying the place’s import, and there has been little reason to visit the land or even know it existed unless you knew someone who knew.

That’s all changing now. The 100 or so people who visited last fall had gathered for an art exhibition, yes. But their primary reason for coming out was not just to pay respect to the land’s importance and history, but to celebrate its future.

Attendees stood that day on the very site of what will become the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, a retreat-style home for 40-50 writers per year. There will be a gathering lodge with offices, a library and a kitchen. Writers will have their own cabins to rest, write and focus. Overnight residents will receive a $1,000-per-week stipend.

So what would Faulkner, whose words have been parsed by generations of scholars and readers, think of all this?

“Later in his life, Faulkner advocated for solitary time and dwelled on the importance of writers having isolation and time to do their work,” said John T. Edge, the visionary and director of the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency. “We’re working intentionally to honor and build just that. A whole lot of people had planned for many years to responsibly leverage the Faulkner profile on this land to build something just like this.

“Mississippi is a state that depends on its writers, I would argue, more than any other to tell its story,” Edge continued. “So we’re going to offer Mississippians and anyone who feels some connection to Mississippi the place, the stipend, the time they need to plan, start, or finish their work.”

This project, for years just a vision and appealing concept drawn up on some fundraising material, just cleared its biggest benchmark yet.

In late August, the Institutions for Higher Learning board voted to approve the exterior design of the buildings on the property, a major step toward full approval of the construction process. Project leaders have raised $4.6 million for Greenfield Farm thus far, including a $750,000 legislative appropriation. Fundraising for additional capital costs and a separate $3 million endowment continues.

Multimillion dollar developments take time and plans often shift, but Edge said last week that project leaders hope to open the construction bid process this fall, they hope building will begin in the spring of 2026, and they hope to host a first cohort of residents in early 2027.

Several people have lent their expertise and perspectives to the project, but Edge is the leader of the endeavor. An accomplished author himself who is touring his new book ‘House of Smoke,’ Edge leads an initiative called The Mississippi Lab, a University of Mississippi-sponsored humanities laboratory for the state of Mississippi.

The idea for Greenfield Farm Writers Residency developed out of this initiative.

“I talk to a lot of writers. I claim a community of writers,” Edge said when asked about his drive for the development of Greenfield Farm. “We all ask each other, ‘Where’d you go to finish that book?’ or ‘How did you find time to write that draft?’ So many of them talk about the writers residences, trips to places like MacDowell in New Hampshire or Hedgebrook in Washington state. Beth Ann Fennelly just finished her new book ‘The Irish Goodbye’ at Loghaven just outside Knoxville. I finished my last book ‘The Potlikker Papers,’ the majority of it, at Rivendell near Sewanee. Writers of all sorts use these residencies.”

Edge is not doing this work alone. He’s leaned on a star-studded committee of advisors including Fennelly, Ralph Eubanks, Kiese Laymon, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ebony Lumumba, and Natasha Trethewey — renowned Mississippi writers who know exactly how residencies can bolster the creative process.

“A residency gives you time away from the day-to-day,” said Eubanks, a faculty fellow and writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture, who finished his upcoming book “When It’s Darkness on the Delta” at a residency in Cambridge. “I didn’t have to think about meals, my job, anything other than my writing. Most of us who are doing this type of work, we take slices out of our day to keep routine going. What a residency does is pulls you out of that routine and gives you a period of intense focus. We are in a culture where time and attention are very valuable things. To have a place where you can have the time and you can devote the attention to the work is invaluable.”

The Greenfield planning group is thinking deliberately about details large and small. How should the kitchen be designed, and what types of food will be served? How much sunlight will enter the writer’s cabins during the summer, and how much shade will the property offer during the winter after the oaks have shed their leaves? What type of bed is most comfortable for rest, and where in the cabins should the reading chairs go?

The logo design for the residency features a turkey buzzard, an ode to Faulkner’s 1958 quote: “… if I were reincarnated, I’d want to come back a buzzard. Nothing hates him or envies him or wants him or needs him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything.”

One thing that will set Greenfield apart from other writers’ residencies is the stipend for overnight residents who are selected. Edge and the advisers focused considerable attention — and are still working hard to fundraise — to this idea.

“Traditionally, residencies have been the province of the upper and upper-middle class,” Edge said. “But writers of all economic strata need access to this kind of asset. How can we make it possible for people who may not earn a lot per year but they want to take a month off to start or finish a book? To do that, they’d be giving up a huge chunk of their income and their family could suffer. So we plan to level the playing field and put a stipend in their pockets. We want anyone, regardless of their economic status, to be able to take advantage of this asset.”

And, of course, a primary focus of the project planners is Mississippi. Edge, who says University of Mississippi leaders and particularly Provost Noel Wilkin have been immensely supportive of the project, said the university will have no say in the application process.

Evidence of this full-state focus is clear even before construction begins. The Plein Air Invitational last fall was cohosted with Jackson State University, and this fall’s artist invitational on October 19 will be cohosted with Mississippi State University. Donations for the project have come from the Julia Reed Charitable Trust in Greenville, the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation in Jackson, the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation in Jackson and numerous donors across Mississippi.

“This will be a UM asset, but it is being built to serve the entire state,” Edge said. “This will be a place of production and a place to make new content for all of Mississippi. And we’re thinking about Mississippi in the broadest kind of way. If you were born here, you’re certainly welcome. But what about someone from, say, Chicago, whose Mississippi roots go back four or five generations? Absolutely. We will open our doors to anyone who feels some connection to the state.”

One doesn’t have to be a literary buff to know that Mississippi produces more than its fair share of impactful writers. But the writers we already know aren’t the full story here, Greenfield planners say.

“We are the seat of storytellers,” Eubanks said. “But my excitement about this is it will help us really enhance the work of the next generation of our state’s storytellers. There are so many stories across this state that are buried or truly hiding in plain sight. People who want to tell those stories might not yet have found the right path to tell them. This residency could be life-changing for them and for us all.”

Editor’s note: This Mississippi Today Ideas essay is published as part of our Brain Drain project, which seeks answers to why Mississippians move out of state. To read more about the project, click here.

Growing up in Jackson, I had it good. My walk to school, Jackson Academy, was less than half a mile and if I wasn’t asleep or out with my friends, I was at school. I did show choir, sports broadcasting, tutored kids and spent a great deal of time studying.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but what made my formative years so great was my autonomy. I could stay at the school working a broadcast or rehearsal until 10 p.m., walk home and go to bed without a second thought.

Moving away to study civil engineering, I realized that most of my peers didn’t grow up with the level of autonomy that I enjoyed, and that played a big role in the passion I have for civil engineering. So far, I’ve learned a lot more than I bargained for, but it opened the door to understanding the broader complex system of infrastructure that connects and builds our communities.

After the elections this year, it was clear to me that Jackson is ready to do whatever it takes, and doing infrastructure right is crucial to setting the city up for success.

I believe downtown Jackson is key to creating that success.

Downtown Jackson is the most financially successful region of the city. That’s not a joke. As a civil engineering student well into my degree at Mississippi State, I have seen the latest developments in urban design.

In the context of Jackson, one company, North Carolina-based Urban 3, has stood out. Urban 3 helps cities by creating a comprehensive analysis of a city’s expenses and revenues.

Lafayette, Louisiana, is my favorite city to compare to Jackson. It’s a Southern city with rich history and culture. It has a population, suburban makeup and types of developments similar to Jackson’s.

Urban 3’s study of Lafayette found that the urban core generated the most in property taxes, enough to effectively subsidize properties and projects outside of the urban core. The rest of the city brought in roughly net zero or lost the city money. 

While Jackson has not been evaluated by Urban 3, every other city and town that has been evaluated has seen the same outcome. The densest urban parts of a community routinely bring in far more in tax revenue than they cost in infrastructure maintenance, policing, libraries, etc.

Jackson already has the buildings in place, but many of these buildings have no tenants or only partial occupancy. That is unacceptable. Downtown is the economic engine behind every community, and Jackson needs to repopulate its downtown to stand a chance at helping the rest of the city flourish.

Fortunately, the tools already exist to accomplish that goal. They just have to be used.

The first step is the most cost effective. I suggest updating downtown’s zoning codes to form-based codes (FBCs). FBCs do away with deciding which lot will be residential, commercial, etc.

Instead, FBCs establish a uniform look for a specified area. For example, an FBC may require building setbacks, height maximums and 50% of the first floor be commercial, hence FBCs are often more forgiving than traditional zoning codes.

Additionally, FBCs give property owners the power of the free market to decide how to best use their property; whether it be a grocery store, a law office or a furniture shop. This does not mean that all regulations should be abandoned, but you shouldn’t have to go through the lengthy process of rezoning the whole property for every new use.

The second step is the toughest to implement. I suggest that the city take a hard look at which properties still warrant new infrastructure spending.The city has lost thousands of residents since its peak population, and some neighborhoods simply do not have the number of residents to justify new roads or utilities.

Jackson is currently overbuilt, and the city needs to put what money it does have into investments that have the best odds of stabilizing the city.

If Jackson does not take care of the areas that can and currently do bring in net positive tax revenue for the city, then there is no chance for the rest of the city. Only by obsessively maintaining the infrastructure, utilities and public services for downtown will the city set up its golden goose with the best odds for success.

The third step is the most costly, but proven. Downtown should be designed at a human scale. To do that, streets must be built around people and their safety first. In the context of civil engineering, many experts put our roadways into one of two buckets.

The first bucket is labeled “roads.” Roads should be used to get you from point A to point B as fast as possible. Therefore, it would be absurd to build a Walmart with direct access to I-55 because of the danger of entering and exiting, not to mention the slow down of traffic along the interstate.

In the other bucket there are “streets.” Streets should be used to connect a storefront to its customers, building community wealth. Like the Walmart on I-55, it would be an equally bad idea to let drivers fly down the street with no way to slow them down.

Unfortunately, many of our roadways look like something in between the street and the road I just described, neither moving people efficiently nor building community wealth.

If you sit down for just a few minutes along West, State or Pascagoula streets, you will see cars flying down the road in what is supposed to be a downtown. Downtown can not be a safe and comfortable space for people of all ages when cars essentially have a drag strip to go as fast as they please.

Fortunately, the city has shown that it knows how to reorient these overgrown streets as proven on East Capitol Street. One lane was removed, roundabouts were built and sidewalks given more separation from traffic.

To prove my point, walk down Capitol Street and then walk down any of the three aforementioned streets. The difference is night and day.

Regardless of everything that can and will be done, some businesses and residents will still choose to leave. That is OK, because others will see the success of downtown and choose to move in, not because it will happen, but because it is already happening. Remo’s, Aladdin and Mayflower are all great new additions.

If this city values long term fiscal stability and strong community, it will capitalize on the wealth it has today instead of squandering what is left. 

Walker Patton Lake, born and raised in Jackson, is a junior enrolled at Mississippi State University studying civil & environmental engineering. He has had two internships  with the Mississippi Department of Transportation and has a keen interest in downtown Jackson.

Mississippi Today is excited to announce Bashirah Mack as its first full-time Video Producer.

Bashirah, from Atlanta, is a filmmaker, video producer, and video editor who has contributed to reporting for The Washington Post, City Bureau, and Chicago Public Media. In 2023, she participated in Netflix’s Documentary Archival Researcher Training program.

Bashirah earned a master’s degree in 2022 from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Marlon T. Riggs Fellow for Documentary Filmmaking.

In 2022, Bashirah completed her first short documentary about one woman’s legal fight against pregnancy discrimination.

“Bashirah’s skill set instantly elevates Mississippi Today’s video presence,” said Richard Lake, Mississippi Today’s Video Editor. “Bashirah’s experience covering marginalized communities across the country while blending in her creativity and artistry results in truly compelling work. I’m so excited for Mississippi to see her work.”

Eager to elevate human-centered stories, she has already started making connections.

“I’ve been meeting people where they are—on the bus, at the library, on the street, in the coffee shops—and I’m excited to explore more, to learn from the people who know Jackson deeply—the locals.”

Bashirah will serve on Mississippi Today’s newly formed Video Team, which is tasked with translating Mississippi Today reporting into compelling video for audiences across the state.

“Producing is my strength,” Mack said, “I look forward to using my production, editing, research, and aerial photography skills to do what I’m trained to do – for documentary, for video news, for Mississippi Today, and most of all for the people.”

The newest Hinds County circuit court judge is working in a courthouse where years earlier one of his family members was sentenced. 

Judge Damon Stevenson became the fifth circuit judge of one of the largest and busiest circuit courts in the state, bringing Hinds County up to the most number of circuit judges in Mississippi. 

At a Friday investiture ceremony, he said he wants his courtroom to be a place of redemption, justice and mercy, especially for troubled young people to help them become productive members of society. Sharing those goals urged him to talk about his late father, who had been sentenced in the Hinds courthouse, as an example of how people can change regardless of where they started in life.  

Stevenson also wants to play a role in making Hinds County a safe place, which is where he considers home and is raising a family. 

“I just want to do right by people. I just want to be fair. I just want a court that moves cases, that is responsible to the community,” the Clinton resident said. 

Gov. Tate Reeves appointed Stevenson, who began work Sept. 1. Stevenson’s term runs through Jan. 4, 2027, and elections will be held starting in November 2026. 

Lawmakers created the judgeship during the recent legislative session under House Bill 1544. It was part of state-mandated judicial and legislative redistricting based on the most recent U.S. Census. Population can determine whether a district gains, loses or maintains judges or chancellors. 

At the ceremony, Senior Circuit Judge Winston Kidd, who taught Stevenson at Mississippi College School of Law, said his former student has developed into a capable courtroom attorney who has the temperament to be a trial judge. 

Kidd also said that a fifth judge will help the Seventh Circuit Court District handle more cases and improve case flow – a need he and other Hinds County judges have raised. 

On Friday, city and county government leaders, former colleagues and classmates said they look forward to working with Stevenson and said they believe he would do a good job. 

U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves administered the oath of office while Stevenson stood by his wife and two daughters. Other family members also attended the ceremony. 

Prior to the appointment, Stevenson served as a judge for the Byram Municipal Court since 2018. 

Stevenson was admitted to practice law in 2008 and worked in private practice taking criminal defense, personal and family law cases. He has litigated criminal and civil cases in state and federal court. 

His work includes serving as a special master for mental health commitments in Hinds County Chancery Court and as a federal probation officer who conducted pre-sentence investigations in U.S. District Court. He also worked for the Mississippi Youth Justice Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center.  

He is a Brandon native and graduated from Tougaloo College where he studied economics. He also studied at the University of Mississippi and universities out of the state. 

CLINTON — There’s still so much James Robinson doesn’t know about the woman in the photograph.

It was always on the wall in his aunt’s house, but he never knew who she was until he found a news article about her. Now, he gets to share her story.

The woman’s name is Sally Lee, a witness and survivor of the 1875 Clinton Massacre. Robinson, a 76-year-old retiree and Clinton native, is her great-great-great grandson.

On Sept. 4, 1875, a Republican political rally in Clinton turned into a tragedy when white disruptors fired into the crowd, killing multiple people. What followed was several days of racist violence that helped bring Reconstruction in Mississippi to a bloody, tragic end.

Last week scholars, political figures and descendants of victims and survivors came together to commemorate the massacre’s 150th anniversary.

DeeDee Baldwin, an engagement librarian and associate professor at Mississippi State University, organized the commemoration events. She learned about the Clinton Massacre while researching Black state legislators during the Reconstruction era. 

“It’s a pivotal event, not just in Mississippi history but in national history, and hardly anybody knows about it,” Baldwin said.

Commemorations took place last week. On Wednesday, Baldwin joined a panel of historians to discuss the massacre during a “History is Lunch” event at the Two Mississippi Museums. On Thursday morning, there was a brief reflection at the historical markers for the massacre, followed that evening by another panel at Mississippi College. Descendents of the massacre’s victims and survivors spoke at a memorial service at Mount Hood Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday.

The events were sponsored by Mount Hood Missionary Baptist Church, Mississippi College, Mississippi State University’s Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and Together for Hope.

Sen. Hillman Frazier, a Democrat from Jackson, authored a Senate resolution to recognize the massacre’s anniversary. He spoke at the commemoration event on Thursday morning, emphasizing the importance of political participation. 

“They didn’t have more bullets than the opposition, but they had the vote,” Frazier said. “Make your vote count.”

At the markers on Thursday, Robinson carried around a copy of Lee’s picture in a clear sheet protector. On the back of the page was a copy of an article from 1961 that The Clarion Ledger published about her life. This article, which inspired him to start learning more about her and his family’s history, retells notable stories in Lee’s life, including how she and her son survived during the Clinton Massacre.

The bloodshed occurred during the Reconstruction era. Before the partisan political makeup of today, the Republican Party was majority-Black and controlled much of state politics. Black men in Mississippi, granted voting rights and the ability to hold office by the federal government post-Civil War, had been voting for years and many held elected offices.

These post-war realities did not sit well with white Southern Democrats, who sought to restore white supremacy by any means necessary. In 1875, they devised the Mississippi Plan, a strategy to use fraud and brutal violence to suppress the Black vote and reestablish Democratic control of Southern state governments.

The fateful day in Clinton began as a political rally and picnic held by Mississippi’s Republican Party ahead of the 1875 statewide elections. 

About 1,500 to 2,500 people were in attendance, most of them Black families. Eighteen of the approximately 75 white attendees were Democrats. They were part of the White Liners, what was essentially a paramilitary unit for the state Democratic Party.

In an effort to preserve peace, the Republicans allowed Democratic Senate candidate Amos R. Johnston to speak at the event. However, when Republican newspaper owner and Union veteran Captain H.T. Fisher spoke, according to news accounts of the day, he was heckled and tensions quickly turned into bloodshed.

Gunshots rang out in the crowd. Many white Democrats fell into formation and fired into the crowd. At the rally, three white people and four Black people were dead, and six white people and 20 Black people were wounded. Black women and children frantically ran for safety. 

One of them was Lee, who ran with her son in her arms. Spotting a hollow in a sycamore tree, she placed the baby there and hid until it was safe.

Clinton’s white mayor at the time had called for assistance from towns nearby based on a rumor that armed Black people would storm the town. By nightfall, several hundred White Liners entered the town. They spent the next day hunting, beating and killing Black residents. During this time, an estimated 50 Black people had been killed.

In 1876, a congressional report debunked the Democrats’ narrative that the massacre was an attack on white citizens by armed Black Mississippians. They found instead that white Mississippi Democrats plotted to disrupt Republican political activities and “to inaugurate an era of terror.”

By 1877, Reconstruction was over and the last federal troops left the South, allowing white Democrats to regain political power and establish the most stringent of laws to suppress and endanger Black Mississippians during the Jim Crow era.

Today, 150 years later, Baldwin hopes people who learn about the story realize “the importance of participating in democracy and protecting it.”

Frazier emphasized this point when speaking at the historical marker on Sept. 4. He also spoke out against anti-DEI legislation, saying it held up progress for women and Black people. This sentiment has become particularly pronounced in recent weeks. Last month a federal judge struck down an anti-DEI guidance from the U.S. Department of Education. Another federal judge blocked Mississippi’s anti-DEI law for the foreseeable future, concerned it would violate Mississippians’ constitutional rights.

Three years prior, the state enacted a ban on teaching critical race theory in schools and universities. Mississippi Today reported last week that the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University halted funding for student organizations amid uncertainty over the law.

“They want to sanitize history,” Frazier said at the Clinton Massacre markers. “But we have to make sure we tell history the way it was.”

Robinson, still holding on to that photo of Lee, expressed hope that people attending the commemorations learned that “there’s a good side and a bad side to human beings, and you have to choose which side that you’re going to be on.”

TYLERTOWN — As an ominous storm approached Buddy Anthony’s one-story brick home, he took shelter in his new Ford F-250 pickup parked under a nearby carport.

Seconds later, a tornado tore apart Anthony’s home and damaged the truck while lifting it partly in the air. Anthony emerged unhurt. But he had to replace his vehicle with a used truck that became his home while waiting for President Donald Trump to issue a major disaster declaration so that federal money would be freed for individuals reeling from loss. That took weeks. 

“You wake up in the truck and look out the windshield and see nothing. That’s hard. That’s hard to swallow,” Anthony said.

Disaster survivors are having to wait longer to get aid from the federal government, according to a new Associated Press analysis of decades of data. On average, it took less than two weeks for a governor’s request for a presidential disaster declaration to be granted in the 1990s and early 2000s. That rose to about three weeks during the past decade under presidents from both major parties. It’s taking more than a month, on average, during Trump’s current term, the AP found.

The delays mean individuals must wait to receive federal aid for daily living expenses, temporary lodging and home repairs. Delays in disaster declarations also can hamper recovery efforts by local officials uncertain whether they will receive federal reimbursement for cleaning up debris and rebuilding infrastructure. The AP collaborated with Mississippi Today and Mississippi Free Press on the effects of these delays for this report.

“The message that I get in the delay, particularly for the individual assistance, is that the federal government has turned its back on its own people,” said Bob Griffin, dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany in New York. “It’s a fundamental shift in the position of this country.”

The wait for disaster aid has grown as Trump remakes government

The Federal Emergency Management Agency often consults immediately with communities to coordinate their initial disaster response. But direct payments to individuals, nonprofits and local governments must wait for a major disaster declaration from the president, who first must receive a request from a state, territory or tribe. Major disaster declarations are intended only for the most damaging events that are beyond the resources of states and local governments.

Trump has approved more than two dozen major disaster declarations since taking office in January, with an average wait of almost 34 days after a request. That ranged from a one-day turnaround after July’s deadly flash flooding in Texas to a 67-day wait after a request for aid because of a Michigan ice storm. The average wait is up from a 24-day delay during his first term and is nearly four times as long as the average for former Republican President George H.W. Bush, whose term from 1989-1993 coincided with the implementation of a new federal law setting parameters for disaster determinations. 

The delays have grown over time, regardless of the party in power. Former Democratic President Joe Biden, in his last year in office, averaged 26 days to declare major disasters — longer than any year under former Democratic President Barack Obama.

FEMA did not respond to the AP’s questions about what factors are contributing to the trend.

Others familiar with FEMA noted that its process for assessing and documenting natural disasters has become more complex over time. Disasters have also become more frequent and intense because of climate change, which is mostly caused by the burning of fuels such as gas, coal and oil.

The wait for disaster declarations has spiked as Trump’s administration undertakes an ambitious makeover of the federal government that has shed thousands of workers and reexamined the role of FEMA. A recently published letter from current and former FEMA employees warned the cuts could become debilitating if faced with a large-enough disaster. The letter also lamented that the Trump administration has stopped maintaining or removed long-term planning tools focused on extreme weather and disasters.

Shortly after taking office, Trump floated the idea of “getting rid” of FEMA, asserting: “It’s very bureaucratic, and it’s very slow.”

FEMA’s acting chief suggested more recently that states should shoulder more responsibility for disaster recovery, though FEMA thus far has continued to cover three-fourths of the costs of public assistance to local governments, as required under federal law. FEMA pays the full cost of its individual assistance.

Former FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, who served during Trump’s first term, said the delay in issuing major disaster declarations likely is related to a renewed focus on making sure the federal government isn’t paying for things state and local governments could handle.

“I think they’re probably giving those requests more scrutiny,” Gaynor said. “And I think it’s probably the right thing to do, because I think the (disaster) declaration process has become the ‘easy button’ for states.”

The Associated Press on Monday received a statement from White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in response to a question about why it is taking longer to issue major natural disaster declarations:

“President Trump provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him. Gone are the days of rubber stamping FEMA recommendations – that’s not a bug, that’s a feature. Under prior Administrations, FEMA’s outsized role created a bloated bureaucracy that disincentivized state investment in their own resilience. President Trump is committed to right-sizing the Federal government while empowering state and local governments by enabling them to better understand, plan for, and ultimately address the needs of their citizens. The Trump Administration has expeditiously provided assistance to disasters while ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely to supplement state actions, not replace them.”

In Mississippi, frustration festered during wait for aid

The tornado that struck Anthony’s home in rural Tylertown on March 15 packed winds up to 140 mph. It was part of a powerful system that wrecked homes, businesses and lives across multiple states.

Mississippi’s governor requested a federal disaster declaration on April 1. Trump granted that request 50 days later, on May 21, while approving aid for both individuals and public entities.

On that same day, Trump also approved eight other major disaster declarations for storms, floods or fires in seven other states. In most cases, more than a month had passed since the request and about two months since the date of those disasters.

If a presidential declaration and federal money had come sooner, Anthony said he wouldn’t have needed to spend weeks sleeping in a truck before he could afford to rent the trailer where he is now living. His house was uninsured, Anthony said, and FEMA eventually gave him $30,000. 

In nearby Jayess in Lawrence County, Dana Grimes had insurance but not enough to cover the full value of her damaged home. After the eventual federal declaration, Grimes said FEMA provided about $750 for emergency expenses, but she is now waiting for the agency to determine whether she can receive more.

“We couldn’t figure out why the president took so long to help people in this country,” Grimes said. “I just want to tie up strings and move on. But FEMA — I’m still fooling with FEMA.”

Jonathan Young said he gave up on applying for FEMA aid after the Tylertown tornado killed his 7-year-old son and destroyed their home. The process seemed too difficult, and federal officials wanted paperwork he didn’t have, Young said. He made ends meet by working for those cleaning up from the storm.

“It’s a therapy for me,” Young said, “to pick up the debris that took my son away from me.”

Historically, presidential disaster declarations containing individual assistance have been approved more quickly than those providing assistance only to public entities, according to the AP’s analysis. That remains the case under Trump, though declarations for both types are taking longer.

About half the major disaster declarations approved by Trump this year have included individual assistance.

Some people whose homes are damaged turn to shelters hosted by churches or local nonprofit organizations in the initial chaotic days after a disaster. Others stay with friends or family or go to a hotel, if they can afford it.

But some insist on staying in damaged homes, even if they are unsafe, said Chris Smith, who administered FEMA’s individual assistance division under three presidents from 2015-2022. If homes aren’t repaired properly, mold can grow, compounding the recovery challenges.

That’s why it’s critical for FEMA’s individual assistance to get approved quickly — ideally, within two weeks of a disaster, said Smith, who’s now a disaster consultant for governments and companies.

“You want to keep the people where they are living. You want to ensure those communities are going to continue to be viable and recover,” Smith said. “And the earlier that individual assistance can be delivered … the earlier recovery can start.”

In the periods waiting for declarations, the pressure falls on local officials and volunteers to care for victims and distribute supplies. 

In Walthall County, where Tylertown is, insurance agent Les Lampton remembered watching the weather news as the first tornado missed his house by just an eighth of a mile. Lampton, who moonlights as a volunteer firefighter, navigated the collapsed trees in his yard and jumped into action. About 45 minutes later, the second tornado hit just a mile away.

“It was just chaos from there on out,” Lampton said. 

Walthall County, with a population of about 14,000, hasn’t had a working tornado siren in about 30 years, Lampton said. He added there isn’t a public safe room in the area, although a lot of residents have ones in their home. 

Rural areas with limited resources are hit hard by delays in receiving funds through FEMA’s public assistance program, which, unlike individual assistance, only reimburses local entities after their bills are paid. Long waits can stoke uncertainty and lead cost-conscious local officials to pause or scale-back their recovery efforts.

In Walthall County, officials initially spent about $700,000 cleaning up debris, then suspended the cleanup for more than a month because they couldn’t afford to spend more without assurance they would receive federal reimbursement, said county emergency manager Royce McKee. Meanwhile, rubble from splintered trees and shattered homes remained piled along the roadside, creating unsafe obstacles for motorists and habitat for snakes and rodents.

When it received the federal declaration, Walthall County took out a multimillion-dollar loan to pay contractors to resume the cleanup.

“We’re going to pay interest and pay that money back until FEMA pays us,” said Byran Martin, an elected county supervisor. “We’re hopeful that we’ll get some money by the first of the year, but people are telling us that it could be [longer].”

Lampton, who took after his father when he joined the volunteer firefighters 40 years ago, lauded the support of outside groups such as Cajun Navy, Eight Days of Hope, Samaritan’s Purse and others. That’s not to mention the neighbors who brought their own skid steers and power saws to help clear trees and other debris, he added. 

“That’s the only thing that got us through this storm, neighbors helping neighbors,” Lampton said. “If we waited on the government, we were going to be in bad shape.”

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri, and Wildeman from Hartford, Connecticut.

Update 98/25: This story has been updated to include a White House statement released after publication.

Abysmally low pay is driving Mississippi’s assistant teacher shortage, State Auditor Shad White said in a report. 

His office criticizes administrative costs and “outside-of-classroom” spending in the report, and recommends diverting that money to boost assistant teacher pay, which averages $22,840 a year in Mississippi. 

While it’s the first time he’s focused on assistant teachers, White, who is weighing a run for governor, has consistently drawn attention to education spending since he took office in 2018.

White first drew attention to outside-of-classroom spending in a 2019 report that includes examples such as district office salaries, campus and building maintenance and the production of school informational material. Previous reports from the auditor’s office have similarly encouraged districts to cut spending that doesn’t directly go to the classroom, on duplicative or unused equipment and administrative salaries. His predecessor had also criticized Mississippi’s spending on education administration.

Though he has no power over policy or appropriations, White proposed a bill last year that would mandate at least half of the state’s education dollars go toward teacher salaries. White has recently received criticism that some of his reports — including one for which he paid millions to a consultant — are aimed at his gubernatorial aspirations, rather than his job as auditor.

The new report is largely aimed at the Legislature and local school districts, a spokesperson for the auditor said. That’s because state law establishes the minimum salary for assistant teachers, not the Mississippi Department of Education. Districts can add to this base amount.

Advocates and some lawmakers have said for years that teacher assistants often get short shrift even when the Legislature raises pay for teachers.

The Legislature increased the minimum assistant teacher salary from $15,000 a year to $17,000 in 2022, but White is calling on lawmakers to raise the floor again. Raising the state’s average assistant teacher salary to the regional average would mean a $6,000 pay raise — a $67.3 million cost, the report says. 

“Assistant teachers are a vital part of Mississippi classrooms … many Mississippi students will suffer without classroom support from an assistant teacher,” the report reads. “Policymakers can build on Mississippi’s educational momentum by cutting runaway outside-the-classroom spending and reinvesting those dollars directly into classrooms—where they make the biggest difference.”

Assistant teachers in Mississippi are some of the lowest paid professionals in the state, according to data tracked by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, and their salaries lag behind assistant teachers in almost every other state. Ample research shows that low pay discourages people from becoming teachers and drives them out of the profession. 

Mississippi requires that an assistant teacher be present in every kindergarten, first grade, second grade and third grade classroom. Though their specific duties vary by grade and classroom, they generally help manage students and assist with instruction.

Mississippi Department of Education data shows that there have been at least 500 vacant assistant teacher positions in the state annually since the 2021-2022 school year. 

The report notes a discrepancy of about $62,000 between average entry-level pay for assistant teachers and entry-level school administrators. 

“I don’t make enough to cover most of my expenses,” said a Cleveland School District assistant teacher, who spoke to Mississippi Today on the condition of anonymity out of fear of losing her job. “I live from check to check.”

She supports three kids on an annual salary of $21,000. Cleveland School District does not offer biweekly pay, so her paychecks have to stretch further. The longtime assistant teacher has left other school districts in the Mississippi Delta because they offered annual salaries of less than $20,000.

Now, she’s working on a master’s degree and studying for the Praxis exam, a test that teachers must pass in order to be certified, hoping to make a livable wage.

These weary eyes watched football — all or parts of four games — morning, noon and night Saturday. I have some thoughts.

First, this: What does it say about college football when you watch game after game for nearly 12 hours, finally sleep, and your dreams are punctuated by TV timeouts?

It says, I believe, there are too dang many.

Other thoughts:

First up was San Jose State-Texas, one of any number of early season games when the visiting team, playing for a huge paycheck, is overmatched. San Jose State surely was. The attraction, of course, was Arch Manning, the young Texas quarterback with so many Mississippi connections. 

Young Manning was coming off his first meaningful college start — at defending national champion Ohio State, no less. That’s an incredibly daunting assignment for anyone, no matter pedigree and ability. Manning’s performance against the Buckeyes was uneven, as his stats showed: 17 of 30 passing for 170 yards, a touchdown and an interception, plus 38 yards rushing on 10 keeps. He showed both promise and at times uncertainty.

Fast forward to Saturday: After a slow start, Manning completed 19 of 30 for 295 yards and four touchdowns with one interception. At one point in the first half, he threw four touchdowns in slightly over five minutes of playing time. He ran for another touchdown, looking forever like his grandfather when he tucked the ball and took off. He missed some throws but hit far more than he missed.

Bottom line: He will only get better and better, as any young quarterback does with experience.

I didn’t even have to switch channels for the next leg of my football marathon: Ole Miss-Kentucky, a hard-fought 30-23 Ole Miss road victory.

Several takeaways:

• Similarly to Manning, Rebels quarterback Austin Simmons showed both promise and plenty room for improvement. Two interceptions helped dig the Rebels into a 10-0 hole on the road. But Simmons, displaying much poise for a 19-year-old, then helped them dig out of it, finishing 13 for 24 with the two interceptions and no touchdowns. Expect him to steadily improve.

• Meanwhile, running back Kewan Lacy, a sophomore transfer from Missouri, looks like the real deal. The Dallas native showed vision, speed and power in running for 138 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries.

• My biggest concern for Ole Miss was who was going to replace defensive tackle Walter Nolan, the NFL first rounder who was such a disruptive presence last season. Zxavian Harris, the Canton native and former Germantown standout, appears to be that dude. He was everywhere for the Rebels Saturday, a 6-foot-8, 330-pound force. His fourth quarter sack was one of the game’s biggest plays.

• Kudos also to backup quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a transfer from Division II Ferris State, who filled in admirably and then some after Simmons suffered a fourth quarter injury. Playing before more partisans than he probably ever did in a full season at Ferris State, Chambliss led the Rebs to a game-clinching field goal on fourth quarter drive. His performance in the clutch was huge.

Don’t know what it is about Kentucky, but the Wildcats seem to play their best against Ole Miss. Bottom line: The 2025 Rebels did what the ’24 Rebels couldn’t, which is survive Kentucky.

Two TVs were necessitated to watch the second half of Ole Miss-Kentucky and the first half of Jackson State-Southern Miss, just the fourth time in history the two Mississippi schools have played one another. The Golden Eagles’ final winning margin, 38-20, is no indication whatsoever of how competitive this game was. Jackson State competed on even terms for most of the contest. T.C. Taylor’s Tigers appear a team that will once again dominate the SWAC and would be competitive in the Sun Belt. 

And Southern Miss, for the second straight week, appeared much improved in its first season under Charles Huff. Transfers from Huff’s Sun Belt champion Marshall team of a year ago were largely responsible for USM’s hard-won victory. Most notably, quarterback Braylon Braxton gives the Eagles a winner at the most important position on the field. Braxton threw for 214 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and he ran for 20 more yards. He will give the Eagles a fighting chance to win every remaining game on the schedule. On the flip side, USM could lose to any team left on its schedule. 

Jackson State battled the Eagles evenly on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Southern Miss was plus-two in turnovers — and blocked a kick for a touchdown — and that was the difference.

A crowd of more than 32,000, fairly evenly divided, attended a well-played game that, clearly, should happen more often.

We save the best for last: Mississippi State’s scintillating 24-20 victory over No. 12 Arizona State. We must wait until later in the season to know whether Arizona State, a playoff team a year ago, is as good as projected. This we do know: Jeff Lebby’s Bulldogs are a whole lot better than almost everyone thought they would be. State, winner of just two games in 2024, will be favored to be 4-0 headed into a Sept. 27 home game with Tennessee.

The Bulldogs had looked much improved a week earlier in a 34-17 road victory over Southern Miss. They proved it a week later, taking a 17-0 lead against the Sun Devils and then fighting off a furious second half rally.

Lebby dipped heavily into the transfer portal and spent millions of NIL dollars to fix what was clearly broken. All indications are that he spent wisely. It helps immensely that Blake Shapen, a terrific, resourceful player, is back and healthy at quarterback. State would not have been 2-10 last year if Shapen had remained fit throughout.

The Bulldogs benefitted immensely from a raucous, cowbell-clanging crowd that had Arizona State unnerved from the get-go.

“Awesome environment,” ASU coach Kenny Dillingham said afterward. “They were loud, really loud, but that’s what college football is supposed to be.”

Dillingham’s team had dominated the second half, taking its first and only lead, 20-17, on a chip shot field goal with 98 seconds remaining.

State needed only 68 of those ticks to respond on Shapen’s 58-yard touchdown strike to Brenen Thompson. Given the situation, it seemed hard to comprehend the Devils did not have a safety playing deep in the middle of the field on the third and nine play. But they didn’t, and they paid dearly.

Thus, it seemed the Bulldogs and their 50,000-plus fans experienced an emotional release of the frustrations of the death of a coaching legend and two long seasons of subsequent futility in a goalpost-dismantling postgame celebration. 

Yes, and a long, but eventful day in Mississippi football was done.

It wasn’t on TV, but Delta State’s 41-9 victory over North Greenville (S.C.) University deserves mention. That’s because, with the victory, Delta State coach Todd Cooley becomes the winningest coach in DSU’s 95 years of football. Cooley, the 19th coach in DSU history, has won 77 games and lost 46 as coach of the Statesmen. He passes the late Horace McCool, for whom the DSU football stadium is named, who was 76-58 over 13 seasons.

Tommy Duff, a billionaire likely candidate for Mississippi governor, again stopped short of offering many specifics on his platform at a recent speech in Rankin County.

READ MORE: Tommy Duff tries to stake out ‘outsider’ identity in first political speech