OurTupelo

For years, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has portrayed the state as a trailblazer in using the courts to address the opioid epidemic. But her claim — that the attorney general’s office was the first in the country to file a state lawsuit against opioid manufacturers for the crisis — isn’t true. 

A June 2001 West Virginia case filed against Purdue Pharma and Abbott Laboratories predated the lawsuit she’s been referring to — a December 2015 suit filed by the office of Fitch’s Democratic predecessor, Jim Hood, against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other companies that made opioid pills. 

Fitch has been making the claim about her office since at least 2021, touting the agency’s role in addressing overdose deaths that followed drug companies misrepresenting the danger and addictiveness of opioid painkillers. 

Fitch, a Republican, has used the claim to ask local governments to join the lawsuits as plaintiffs and to advertise her work to secure more dollars for the state. 

The West Virginia case, which ended in 2004 with a $10 million settlement, is cited by archivists as the first lawsuit against opioid manufacturers for their roles in the 21st century addiction epidemic. 

Kate Tasker, director of the University of California San Francisco library maintaining lawsuit records related to the crisis, said the West Virginia case is the first one her library knows about. 

When Mississippi Today reached out to Fitch’s office about the miscategorization, spokesperson MaryAsa Lee said it was the case’s unique approach that set it apart from previous lawsuits.

“Mississippi’s lawsuit – the first to sue 16 opioid manufacturers – was the first of its kind, and within 3 years, 32 other states followed our model, which ultimately brought the injunctive and monetary relief that is helping us recover from the opioid epidemic,” Lee wrote in an email. 

She did not respond to a follow up question asking how this lawsuit was the first of its kind. California filed one against nine opioid manufacturers for their roles in the overdose crisis a year earlier than Mississippi’s lawsuit.

Tasker said she was not aware of the 2015 Mississippi case. It does not appear in scholarly articles that trace timelines of prescription opioid-related litigation.

John Davidson, a Ridgeland lawyer who worked on the 2015 Mississippi case and has continued to assist Fitch’s office on opioid cases, did not respond to phone and email inquiries about that lawsuit. The website of his law firm, Davidson PLLC, says it filed “the FIRST opioid case in the country on behalf of a state government.”

William Thompson, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, was raised in that state’s southern coalfields — a region of Appalachia that, by many metrics, suffered more harm from the overdose crisis than anywhere in the country. He remembers people he grew up with who had the potential to become doctors, lawyers, engineers or teachers, but were never able to escape addiction.

Thompson said West Virginia’s 2001 lawsuit and a series of cases against opioid distributing companies were filed out of necessity, as the public health crisis was taking over the state. He said some of the settlement dollars from the first case were used to help start a southern West Virginia court that connects people struggling with addiction to treatment, a program he oversaw as a circuit court judge. 

“It’s sad when you see your home community devastated by opioids, and that it has to be the laboratory for some type of solution to the problem,” Thompson said. 

He said he welcomes any elected officials, in Mississippi or elsewhere, using their positions to combat the calamity that has claimed more than a million lives. From new drugs of concern to diminishing federal mental health investments, the crisis is changing in ways that require states to think of innovative solutions. 

“But this has been a problem,” Thompson said. “And this is something that the courts have tried to fix since at least 2001.”

Just four doors down from the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in west Jackson, a tangled mass of bushes, trees and vines obscure a house with a caved-in roof at 2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive. 

Inside the only room left standing, pieces of plaster and foam insulation cover the sunken floor. A radio, an ornate console table and floor-length drapes, still hanging behind steel-frame windows, are the sole indications that someone once cared for this place. 

In August, the storied home will go up for auction for the 7th year in a row because of unpaid taxes – joining thousands of properties across Jackson stuck in a complicated loop and for which no one claims responsibility.

Nearly 30 years ago, the home’s original owner, a fashionable woman named Arthurine Wansley, impressed her neighbors with the upgrades she’d made to the ranch-style home, recalled Lee Davis, a retired hospital environmental service technician who lives next door. Ceiling fans, wood-paneled walls and a cheerful lime green facade. 

“Anybody would want to have a house like that,” Davis, 69, said.

But ever since Wansley developed dementia and her relatives moved her to California in the early 2000s, Davis bore witness as the home fell into dereliction. Wansley, who is still listed as the property’s owner in county records, died nearly 20 years ago. When the waist-high grass started to encroach on his lawn, Davis called the city of Jackson for help. 

Then one day a few months ago, Davis noticed a for-sale sign outside the house. It was red, white and blue and said “Best Properties.” So Davis dialed the number on the sign to ask if they were going to cut the grass.

No, the woman who answered said – though the investment company she represented, also known as Viking Investments, is indeed selling the property for $2,500.

“They said they don’t do that, it’s the city’s responsibility,” Davis said. 

2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive had been sold for unpaid taxes. But that doesn’t mean the government can force the investor to clean it up.

When a property owner doesn’t pay taxes, Mississippi counties hold an auction called a tax sale. The goal is to collect much-needed local revenue. 

But in Jackson, where thousands of parcels go to auction each year, properties stuck in a tax sale loop year after year perpetuate blight. The bidders are often not prospective homeowners but investors who seek to profit from collecting interest on the unpaid taxes. 

The scope of the problem is hard to quantify. To complicate matters, when investors come to own the properties they’ve bid on, there is no legal obligation for them to secure the property in their name. The outdated recordkeeping keeps the city of Jackson from knowing who owns these properties, impeding code enforcement efforts. 

Investors also don’t have to pay the taxes, punting the property back to a tax sale.

“We’re a lien investment company. We’re not really wanting to acquire property,” said Nick Miller, the owner of Viking, which is based in downtown Jackson. “That’s a byproduct of investing in the tax liens.” 

Viking has not paid taxes on 2300 since it acquired the property. So unless someone bids on it during this year’s tax sale in August, it will fall to the state.

The government, then, will be responsible for cleaning it up. To work on a property, the city must send notices to whoever is listed as the owner on the Hinds County landroll. 

For two years after Jackson opened a code enforcement case on 2300, Jackson sent repeated notices to Wansley’s last known address in California — even though she was not living and lost the home at the 2021 tax sale. 

“You just found the perfect storm,” said Bill Chaney, an assistant secretary of state who oversees tax-forfeited properties that do not sell at auction. “This is an indication of all the cracks in the system.”

Outdated records leave properties dangling

2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive went up for auction in the fall of 2019 after someone in Wansley’s family failed to pay the initial $1,764 tax bill, according to Hinds County records. Despite repeated attempts, Mississippi Today could not reach any of Wansley’s relatives in California. 

Over the next several years, a series of investment companies – some local, some not – bid on the unpaid taxes: GSRAN-Z LLC, Quicksilver Tax Funding LLC, College Investment Co., and FIG 20 LLC. None of these companies responded to Mississippi Today’s inquiries. 

In what’s called the “redemption period,” Wansley’s family had two years to pay the overdue taxes. When that didn’t happen, her property became leverage. The winning bidders gained an opportunity to take her home through a document called a tax deed, which according to state law is “a perfect title with the immediate right of possession to the land sold for taxes.” 

But none of the companies filed the tax deed with the Hinds County Chancery Clerk, likely because they could not find anyone to buy it and they did not want to become responsible for the condition of Wansley’s home. 

The practice is common. There is no legal requirement to file the tax deed, nor is there a financial incentive. These companies often operate on slim margins, and the tax deed costs money. Plus, they may not want to end up like Wansley – listed as the owner of properties they aren’t responsible for.

“Are we going to be on that landroll record for the next 15 years until they update the record?” Miller said. 

Chancery clerks need a deed to update a county’s landrolls, according to Lakeysia Liddell, the manager of Hinds County land division. So when companies don’t file a tax deed, the number of blighted properties in Jackson owned by tax investors remains unknown. People who lost their homes because of unpaid taxes continue to receive notices.

“They come in trying to pay those taxes thinking they can keep their property even though the redemption period has expired,” Liddell said.  

Jackson’s code enforcement officers also rely on the landroll to send notices to property owners in violation. Robert Brunson, Jackson’s code enforcement manager, said that ideally, the city would take these companies to environmental court, where a judge can levy fines and even criminal penalties for dilapidated properties like 2300. 

That accountability can’t happen if the city doesn’t know who the owner is. Brunson said Viking will come to environmental court if they have an interest in the property, because the city can use county records to find out if that is the case. But that doesn’t always happen: Viking is not listed as an one of the “interested parties” on the code violation notice for 2300.

“This is a business deal to them, to make money off the city of Jackson, off of Hinds County, really,” Brunson said. “We need more teeth, to be honest with you.” 

To keep the chain of title clear, the companies will file the tax deed if they find a buyer for the property. But they may just let the property fall back to the tax sale to be dealt with by someone else. 

Viking, which also hasn’t filed a tax deed for 2300, acquired the home in 2024 after the last bidder – the Jacksonville, Florida-based FIG 20 LLC – transferred its interest in the property to a Viking affiliate called SDG 20, according to a quitclaim deed filed in Hinds County. 

Miller declined to say how much SDG paid FIG for the properties, but all told, he estimates he has sunk about $2,000 into the property on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive. If he sells it, he will make a couple hundred dollars. 

The tax sale gamble

Miller, a Jackson resident, views his job as something of a public service, because his bids on Mississippians’ unpaid taxes help fund county services like libraries or police. 

Spread across hundreds of parcels a year in Hinds County – thousands across the state – Miller can make a profit. His goal is not to get property, but to make money off the financial penalties owed by the original owner, including 1.5% monthly interest on the unpaid taxes. 

When that doesn’t happen, and Miller becomes the owner, it’s as if he lost the bet. Acquiring blighted property is just a risk of the game; the gamble then becomes whether Viking can sell it. 

“You’re looking at just returning your investment with interest,” said Andy Hammond, a Young, Wells, Williams attorney who Miller occasionally consults. “You can’t expect to actually get property. That just ends up happening.” 

The seemingly accidental way Miller comes to own property in Jackson is why he’s frustrated when Viking is blamed for the city’s blight, which existed before he bid on unpaid taxes. 

“How are we the problem if we’re willing to take a risk and invest $2 million in Hinds County a year?” Miller said. 

Of course, when Miller acquires a property, he does not usually pay the next year’s taxes, so any property purchase from Viking would also likely come with a hefty tax bill.

If the city wants to hold tax sale investors more accountable for the condition of the properties they own, Mississippi’s tax sale laws need to be changed, according to Miller, Hammond and Sam Martin, a lobbyist who is helping them form a tax lien investor association. 

“That gets you to the pickle that all of this has created,” Hammond said. “You have a city that wants certain things done but a law that disincentivizes the tax sale purchaser from doing anything.” 

Hammond and his associates said they don’t know yet what the solution is, but one possible idea is to make it easier for the investor to clear title to his or her tax-forfeited properties. 

Original owners who’ve lost their homes through tax sales can often get their property back if they can hire an attorney and go to court, especially if they didn’t receive a warning they could lose their property. 

The tax sale buyer will lose the money they’ve put into improving the property, Hammond said. That risk means Viking will not work on its properties without going through a court process called a title confirmation suit.

“Let’s say we go in there without confirming the title first and we fix it up and we clean it up,” Miller said. “What do you think is going to happen? That homeowner is going to have a renewed interest in that property.” 

But some in government say these investors should be made to take more responsibility for their properties. Last year, the Legislature considered but did not pass a bill that would have required people who gain properties through the tax sale to file the tax deed within 90 days or else cede their interest to the state.

Chaney, from the Secretary of State’s office, said Viking’s defense that it hasn’t confirmed the titles to its properties is tantamount to “legalese for ‘I don’t want to clean it up.’ ‘We own it, but we don’t really own it.’ Well, trust me, they’ll sell it in a heartbeat.” 

That’s if they can find a buyer. Most of the time, the properties that Miller’s companies come to own are as blighted as 2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive. 

“This property right here is a prime example of what mostly matures to us,” Miller said. “People walk away from it because they don’t want to deal with it.”  

Neither does Miller. But he said cleaning it up could be worth it to someone, if they can afford it.

“The neighbor could buy it for $2,500 if he wanted to tear it down and clean it up,” Miller said. 

Blight on historic block

If someone wanted to buy 2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive, they might look through public records to determine who owns the home – a common process for people who dabble in tax-forfeited parcels called a “title search.” 

That search would end at a piece of paper 435 pages into a thick, leather-bound book on the second floor of the Hinds County Chancery Clerk’s Office. This is the proof of ownership that Arthurine Wansley and her husband, Louis Wade Wansley, received when they bought the home in 1956, on a block known back then as Guynes Street. 

With three bedrooms, a carport, and central air and heat, it’s likely the house was built just for them. The Lanier High School graduates had joined a special community, the first-of-its-kind in Mississippi: A subdivision built by Black entrepreneurs for Black middle class families. 

At that time, the housing options for Black Jacksonians were subpar and relegated to undesirable parts of the city. 

“That community, that stability, that landownership, that power would have been really important,” said Robby Luckett, director of Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center. 

A teacher in Jackson Public Schools, Arthurine Wansley played bridge with Margaret Walker Alexander, the acclaimed writer after whom the street is now named. She helped run neighborhood Spade and Fork Garden club with Myrlie Evers, the wife of civil rights icon Medgar Evers. 

The families on the block were known for looking after each other’s kids and trading cucumbers and tomatoes they’d grown in their backyards. Wansley’s grandnephew, Michael Wade Wansley, grew up visiting 2300 for parties or holiday celebrations, when residents competed for the best Christmas decorations. 

“We didn’t even think about it being a historic block when I was growing up,” he said. “We just knew that Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander lived on that block. George Harmon lived on that block. He owned Harmon’s Drug Store on Farish Street. So it was, I mean, everybody over there was either involved in politics or educated.” 

But the tight-knit community ended on the corner of Ridgeway Street, where a working-class white neighborhood began, said Keena Graham, the superintendent of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. 

“You’re having a great time on this street, but you don’t go over too much, too far afield,” Graham said. “Two streets over, that’s dangerous.” 

Much of that history is recounted in a 2013 application to include the Medgar Evers Historic District — which encompasses Margaret Walker Alexander Drive — on the National Register of Historic Places. 

As an original home to the block, 2300 is covered by that designation. But that didn’t stop the home from falling into the tax sale loop.

“I knew it all of my life as a middle-class-type neighborhood,” said Frank Figgers, a member of Shady Grove M.B. Church just around the corner from 2300. “When that’s where your teachers lived, where your pharmacist lived, I just don’t think I’ll ever see it as blight.” 

In search of a responsible party 

Some family members of the original residents of Margaret Walker Alexander Drive still live in their homes. But the block today is mostly retirees like Davis, renter, and empty houses, surrounded by overgrown land, that are falling apart. 

In neighborhoods like this, nonprofits, such one run by Jackson-area state Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr, have used the tax sale to buy homes and rehabilitate them. 

“I always tell people it’s good to have a good attorney on hand to do those title searches for you,” Crudup said. 

More often, though, the tax sale loop creates a cycle of frustration. 

When private individuals can’t or won’t fix up a property, the government must step in. The state owns more than 1,800 tax-forfeited properties in Jackson, according to data from the secretary of state — plots that no one wanted to buy at the tax sale auction. 

“We got it in even worse condition than it was when it was in a bad condition,” Chaney said. 

Brunson feels similarly. He has a handful of code enforcement officers for the entire city, but some Jacksonians complain his team is nowhere to be found. 

“They won’t cut the grass, but they’ll sell it,” Brunson said of tax sale investors. “There should be a law against that, taking these people’s money, saying, ‘Oh well, you didn’t do your title search, thank you for $3,000 down.’”

But if the city started fining tax sale investors for the blight, Miller said some of them may stop bidding. 

“People are going to drop out of the system,” Miller said. “If nobody is there to bid on these liens, what’s going to happen to the $19 million deficiency every year – struck to the state?” 

It doesn’t seem likely anyone from Wansley’s family will save the property. Michael Wade Wansley, the grandnephew, is retired and lives in Pennsylvania. He said he doesn’t think he has any relatives left in Jackson. He wondered why Davis and his neighbors let the home deteriorate.

“I would think if people were still living over there they wouldn’t have let it go down to that level of poverty,” he said. 

Barbara Walker, a retired teacher who lives directly across from 2300, used to go half and half with another neighbor to pay someone to cut the grass. 

“To me, it was worth the investment,” she said. “I didn’t want the place looking as bad as it’s looking.” 

When her neighbor moved away, Walker couldn’t afford the landscaping on her own. That’s when Davis started calling the city, hoping they’d cut the grass. 

Informed that Miller said he could buy the property, Davis seemed puzzled. 

“Who, me?” he said. 

Every now and then, Davis will ask his lawn guy to mow a patch of grass by Viking’s for-sale sign. But until the overgrowth is addressed, Davis won’t let his 6-year-old granddaughter play outside when she comes to visit. He’s killed too many snakes in his yard. 

In November, the city council declared the home a public nuisance, the first step to tear it down. Jackson will have to hire a company to do the demolition, which requires attaching a lien, or a debt that must be repaid, on the property. Whoever buys it next will have to repay that lien.

On a recent Tuesday, Davis looked at the pink and yellow notices – orders condemning the home – that Brunson pinned inside the decaying carport. When he opened the carport closet, he realized the water heater had been stolen. The only items left were glass Coca-Cola bottles, silver tinsel and a Santa Hat. 

Walker said she hopes 2300 can become a park once the house is demolished: “It’s already tearing itself down.” 

The Vernon Dahmer family is one of the most patriotic families in America.

Six of his seven sons served a total of 78 years in the armed forces, and on Wednesday we said goodbye to Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Vernon Dahmer Jr., one of the finest men I’ve ever known.

The first time I met him in 1994, I thought I was gazing at a ghost. He had his father’s distinctive features — a barrel-chested frame, closely cropped hair and a narrowly trimmed mustache across his upper lip.

The more we talked, the more I marveled at the similarities we shared. We had both been named after fathers we admired, and we both had family nicknames. His was “Bo,” and mine was “Boo.”

He led me to a table where he showed me a photograph taken by Chris McNair, whose daughter and three other girls had been killed in 1963 when the Ku Klux Klan bombed a Birmingham church.

The picture showed Vernon Jr., and three brothers, George, Martinez and Alvin. They were dressed in their uniforms, staring at the ashes of what had been their family home.

On Jan. 10, 1966, two carloads of Klansmen launched firebombs into the Forrest County home and the family’s grocery store, where Vernon Sr. had volunteered to let Black Mississippians pay their poll taxes so they could vote. (The state had adopted these taxes in its 1890 Constitution in hopes of barring Black Mississippians from voting.)

Another firebomb hit the family’s 1964 Ford Fairlane, setting it ablaze and causing the horn to stick. Dahmer’s wife, Ellie, stirred to the blare of the car horn, smelling smoke. She yelled out, “Vernon, I believe they got us this time.”

He jumped out of bed and grabbed a shotgun, loaded with double-aught buckshot. He fired back at Klansmen so that his family could escape safely out a back window. Unfortunately, the flames of the fire seared his lungs, and he died later that day.

Vernon Jr. was in the Air Force at the time, defending his country. He flew back home to find his father dead and his family home burned to the ground. “To come home and see what happened was totally devastating,” he said.

He had to handle the horrible details, such as the funeral and finding a new place for the family to live while the curious press swarmed around the cinders. “I didn’t have time to cry,” he told me.

He drove me to the Shady Grove Baptist Church, which his ancestors had started before slavery ended, and led me to a rose-tinted headstone that read, “Vernon Dahmer Sr., March 10, 1908—January 10, 1966.”

“If my dad hadn’t been killed by the Klan, he would have had an opportunity to see his grandkids grow up and enjoy the life that those who killed him are still enjoying,” he said. “He was killed for no reason, no valid reason other than hate.”

Despite that hate, the family had endured. Ellie Dahmer served for a dozen years as election commissioner in a mostly white county, and Vernon Jr. helped found the African American Military History Museum.

Not long after our meeting, he began to get calls from a mystery man who wouldn’t identify himself but said he had information on his father’s case. In 1997, we met that man, Bob Stringer, in a motel room on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. 

Vernon Jr. asked what prompted him to come forward, and Stringer replied, “I saw you and your family on TV. You were saying how that you were sure there were some people out there who knew something vital that could help get the case reopened.”

Those words resonated with Stringer, who shared how he had overheard Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers give the order to kill Vernon Dahmer Sr. “It’s been a deep, dark secret for 30 years,” he said. “It took me so long to handle it.”

Stringer began cooperating with the Forrest County District Attorney’s office and the Mississippi attorney general’s office, which managed to get a copy of the unredacted FBI file on the case. The more than 40,000 pages enabled authorities to piece the case back together.

They met with the Dahmer family, whose quiet courage inspired them to work even harder. After then-Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore spent the day with the Dahmer family, he tucked a photograph of the family in his car visor, a reminder that justice had yet to be done.

In spring 1998, authorities arrested Bowers, who went on trial before summer ended. In previous trials, all-white juries refused to convict, but this time would be different. Vernon Jr. was sitting in the balcony, watching the trial unfold when he finally heard the words he longed to hear: “Guilty.”

He covered his face with his fingers, tears streaming behind his calloused hands. He finally had time to cry.

Back at their home, the family gathered on the front lawn beneath the shade of the towering oaks. Friends drove by. They honked their horns and yelled out in victory.

Before darkness fell, he drove to a quiet cemetery and stared at a familiar rose-tinted headstone that read, “Vernon Dahmer Sr. Husband, Father, Community Leader, Voting Rights Activist.” He fell to his knees, telling his daddy that he could rest in peace now because justice had finally come.

On Wednesday, the man I admired and loved so much was buried in the same cemetery with his father.

NESHOBA COUNTY — Two of the state’s political leaders said at the Neshoba County Fair on Thursday that they’re pushing lawmakers to adopt school choice legislation next year, indicating the issue may be one of the most fiercely debated policies during the next legislative session. 

House Speaker Jason White, one of the most vocal school choice advocates in the state, said under the pavilion at Founder’s Square that his caucus plans to craft legislation in response to the Republican-controlled federal government’s efforts to incentivize “school choice” or “education freedom” – policies that proponents say empower parents to have more control over their children’s education. Opponents say such policies undermine public schools and exacerbate inequality. 

White has said that he favors “universal school choice”, which often refers to policies that allow all households — regardless of income level — to use public education dollars to send their children to private schools or other institutions of their choice, rather than being assigned to public schools based on where they live. 

But his own Republican caucus likely doesn’t support some of those efforts. Instead, legislative efforts to expand school choice will likely center on making it easier for students to transfer between public schools, opting into newly created federal tax credits awarding scholarships to private school students and potentially closing some underperforming schools. 

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves also told reporters at the fair that he agrees “wholeheartedly” with White’s school choice push and is generally supportive of any policy that allows parents to become more involved with their children’s education.  

“He’s on the right track in trying to get more opportunities and more options for students,” said Reeves of White’s plans.

The speeches from the two state leaders set the stage for school choice to be a central priority in the 2026 legislative session. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and other leaders of the 52-member Senate have expressed support for some school choice policies, but the upper chamber has been reluctant to agree to more sweeping proposals. 

Hosemann said at the fair on Wednesday that he personally is in favor of allowing public school students to transfer to other public school districts, a policy commonly called portability. He said he also believes students in F-rated school districts should have the option to transfer to any other district. 

But it’s unclear if the Republican-majority Senate would support the measure. Earlier this year, during the legislative session, the Senate Education Committee killed those two measures. 

Before the next session, White plans to use a select committee on “education freedom” to build consensus for a “big, beautiful bill” that will include the House’s education priorities. 

Last month, White announced that his caucus will propose one sprawling education reform package containing many of the school choice provisions that died last session. 

This is a departure from the piecemeal strategy House Republicans undertook last session, where the chamber passed a series of standalone education bills. Many of the House’s bills either died in the Senate or, in the case of a proposal that would have allowed some Mississippi parents to use taxpayer money to pay for private schools, didn’t come up for a vote on the House floor.

In his Thursday speech, White called for Hosemann to adopt his “education freedom” agenda, which he said aligns with President Donald Trump’s agenda just as much as the lieutenant governor’s newly proposed tax rebate plan. 

“Yesterday, I heard the lieutenant governor and some of our folks on the other end of the building wanting to maybe copy President Trump with this idea of tax rebates with some of our surplus,” White said. “Maybe we’re all for that in the House. But I certainly hope we find that same copycat agenda when it comes to what President Trump wants to do on education freedom as well.”

Reeves, when asked by reporters whether he supported Hosemann’s tax rebate, said the lieutenant governor spoke to him about the idea before unveiling it publicly and that it highlights Mississippi’s budget surplus. 

Aside from education and tax policy, Secretary of State Michael Watson said his office next April will roll out a new website where the public can search campaign finance reports and individual donors online, similar to info available to the public in most other states and how the Federal Election Commission’s website operates. 

State law currently allows candidates for state office to file PDFs, or pictures of reports, and handwritten reports on the website. The files are not searchable, and sometimes are illegible, making it difficult for the public to examine who is funding their campaigns. County and municipal candidates are not required to file reports online. 

Watson, the chief administrator of state elections, is pushing for the Legislature to adopt a law that requires all candidates running for office, “from dog catcher to governor,” to file reports online. 

State Treasurer David McRae said that the treasury will begin accepting cryptocurrency in September. McRae told reporters that the state will only be accepting bitcoin for now. 

“This is going to be a great investment opportunity for us,” McRae said to reporters. He’s recently indicated that he’s become more open to crypto due to its decentralized structure.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced that recent efforts from her office led to 72 arrests in connection with human trafficking, fentanyl and sex offender crimes.

Several justices on the state Supreme Court in fair speeches called on the Legislature to improve youth courts across the state. 

When asked about a recent Mississippi Today investigation unveiling allegations from an ex-state corrections department official alleging widespread medical neglect and mismanagement in Mississippi’s prison system, Reeves said he was “comfortable” with the leadership of Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain, but would hold VitalCore, the system’s private medical contractor, accountable if the company fails to meet the terms of its contract. 

Robert Major Walker made history in 1988 when he was elected as the first Black mayor of Vicksburg, a Mississippi River town largely known for Civil War tourism.

Walker died Tuesday at age 81, his family said.

During a long career that included public service and scholarly research, Walker helped shape how visitors to Vicksburg National Military Park learn about Black soldiers who fought for the Union in and around Vicksburg in 1863.

In 2004, the park dedicated a monument honoring the Black troops who played a key role in a Union victory at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana – an area along the Mississippi River, north of Vicksburg. The U.S. Army secured control of the river by defeating Confederate forces in the Vicksburg Campaign, ultimately helping keep the nation together.

Walker proposed the monument in 1999 after he spent years doing research and securing money for it.

“Something had to be done to show the involvement of Black folk in the Civil War,” Walker told The Associated Press in 2024. “So much positive had been left out of the books of history. Everybody needed to know the truth.”

Before winning elected office, Walker was a civil rights leader who started a Head Start program to help children from low-income families in Vicksburg. He served as field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP in the early 1980s – a role that Medgar Evers had held from 1954 until he was assassinated in 1963.

Walker was elected as a Warren County supervisor in 1983 and was serving a second term when he won a 1988 special election to become Vicksburg mayor. He won a full term as mayor in 1989, was defeated in 1993 and then reelected in 1997.

George Flaggs, who served three consecutive terms as Vicksburg mayor from 2013 until the middle of this year, said Wednesday that Walker was a longtime friend and “a man of distinction.”

“He was a guy that never met a stranger. He was the most professional, honorable person I’ve known,” said Flaggs, who worked for each of Walker’s political campaigns.

Pointing to the work on the Black soldiers’ monument, Flaggs said Walker “was one of the most progressive mayors of the city of Vicksburg.”

“He was a joy to know,” Flaggs said. “He was a pragmatic person. He was a man before his time.”

Charlie Mitchell, a former editor of The Vicksburg Evening Post, described Walker as an honest, intelligent man.

“He didn’t speak without knowing what he was talking about,” Mitchell said. 

The flip side was that Walker sometimes “was painstakingly slow to make decisions,” Mitchell said. “He believed in consensus, and he believed patience would lead to consensus.”

Mitchell also said that Walker “got mad at me a lot.” 

Once, for example, the newspaper ran a front-page photo of Walker holding a glass of champagne at a local celebration, Mitchell said. Walker did not drink alcohol, including that champagne, and was holding the glass simply because someone had handed it to him.

“I didn’t take the picture,” Mitchell said. “I had no idea he didn’t drink.”

He said Walker called him and was upset because he was convinced the newspaper was trying to show him in an unflattering light. Mitchell tried to reassure him that wasn’t the case.

Mitchell said he respected Walker, and he and others tried to persuade Walker to run for a U.S. House seat in 1993, when Democratic Rep. Mike Espy, Mississippi’s first Black congressman since Reconstruction, became U.S. agriculture secretary. Walker declined.

A former TV executive, Frank Melton, was elected mayor of Jackson in 2005, and he chose Walker to serve as the capital city’s chief administrative officer. The two men’s personalities could hardly have been more different, Mitchell said Wednesday: Melton, who died in 2009, was a brash, consequences-be-damned cowboy, while Walker was even-tempered and methodical.

Walker also served as interim athletic director at Jackson State University and taught at the University of Mississippi, Tougaloo College and Rust College.

The city of Vicksburg named a building for Walker in 2019. Funeral arrangements were incomplete as of Wednesday.

Rusty Hampton was the sports editor at the Clarion Ledger for 11 years and worked there for 25 years in two different stints. He talks about some of the highlights, including Mississippi State’s amazing run to the 1996 Final Four.

Also discussed: a salute to Ryne Sandberg, the SEC preseason football poll, and Konnor Griffin, the newly elevated top prospect in professional baseball.

Stream all episodes here.

Third-party water and sewer utility JXN Water clarified on Wednesday that its manager Ted Henifin isn’t considering a resignation following a dispute with the federal judge who appointed him to the role in 2022.

During a status conference Tuesday, Henifin told U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate he would weigh whether to step down after the judge pushed back on the manager over two issues, including a rate increase JXN Water first proposed five months ago to keep its daily operations funded.

“I think it has been a difficult week for JXN Water, specifically the leadership,” Aisha Carson, the utility’s communications officer, told Mississippi Today. “But I think (Henifin) is very much committed to the work we’re doing in Jackson. I just think he’s also very protective and can sometimes get frustrated by the process that decisions have to go through.”

Carson said Henifin cleared up any confusion to JXN Water staff after the status conference, adding it’s “safe to say” the manager isn’t considering resigning at this time.  

“We know (the rate decision) will continue to move through the legal process, and there’s really nothing we can do about it per se,” she said. “We trust the legal process no matter how frustrating it can be. We don’t want to regress on progress. (Henifin) is still acting as the interim third-party manager, and will be for the foreseeable future unless he states otherwise.”

Wingate said at another hearing earlier this month, and reiterated Tuesday, that he wouldn’t consider the rate hike before locating every dollar from a $90 million settlement the city of Jackson executed with Siemens in 2020. The judge argued it’s unfair to ask for more from Jacksonians when there may be more money that could help JXN Water. 

“Constantly I ask the question: Where is that money? Where has it been deposited?” Wingate said. “I’ve been disturbed about this matter, highly disturbed.”

Henifin, though, has repeatedly pointed out to Wingate that even if he had every cent from the settlement – which was $60 million after the city paid its lawyer fees – the utility would still need to raise rates. Jackson City Attorney Drew Martin also suggested at the last hearing that the city has already spent almost all of the remaining settlement money. 

The third-party manager is proposing a 12% rate increase, or about $9 per month on average, it says, in addition to 4% increases from 2027 to 2029 to cover costs of inflation. It would be the second time in as many years JXN Water has raised its rates.

The utility says it needs $148 million a year in revenue, which includes $115 million for operating expenses, about $24 million for debt payments, and $9 million to build reserves. Henifin has said the utility initially underestimated how much revenue it needed due to the poor accounting it received from Jackson officials when it took over after the 2022 water crisis. 

Henifin and Wingate also butted heads after the manager sent the judge a list of names for a potential voluntary board that would be needed if JXN Water were to borrow money through bonds. While Carson, JXN Water’s spokesperson, said Henifin did so merely to show the judge what the governance structure would look like, Wingate told the manager the board selection process should be independent of Henifin. JXN Water declined to share the list of names Henifin submitted. 

It’s unclear still when Wingate will rule on Henifin’s proposal for a rate increase. During Tuesday’s status conference, Jackson’s Deputy City Attorney Terry Williamson said he’s still reviewing documents from the Siemens settlement. Wingate issued subpoenas to several parties to track the funds down, most recently on July 22. Several of those subpoenas have yet to be returned, court filings show. 

Jackson’s City Council voted in April against the water rake hike, saying the utility first needs to improve its bill collection rate of 71%. Henifin, though, maintains that even with 100% collections JXN Water would be short of its revenue needs by at least $33 million this year. He said Tuesday that it would take three years to bring it up to 95%. 

Henifin also said Tuesday that the city itself owes about $4.6 million in water bills, and Wingate said the Jackson Zoo owes $2 million. 

Reporter Maya Miller contributed to this story.

NESHOBA COUNTY — Two contenders for Mississippi governor in 2027 unveiled a raft of proposals at the Neshoba County Fair on Wednesday, vowing to spend significant amounts of money on new initiatives while keeping taxes low and government lean. 

The lofty proposals are a preview of issues that could shape what could be a crowded Republican primary with Gov. Tate Reeves being term limited.

Under the tin-roofed pavilion at Founder’s Square, Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson literally threw his cowboy hat from the stage into the ring for the governor’s race, after having made a previous announcement via social media that he would seek the office. 

The second-term commissioner declared that, if elected governor, he would be an ally to Republican President Donald Trump.  

“America is back on track,” Gipson said. “America is first again, for a change. Conservative policies are on the agenda again.” 

As a response to ongoing challenges in the agriculture industry, Gipson announced a new strategic plan that he called “probably the most significant announcement that I’ve ever made since I became commissioner.”

The plan will involve Gipson partnering with industry leaders to look at issues such as crop diversification and international trade, drafting a long-term state agriculture plan. He also called for a major investment in transportation and an overhaul of the state’s road infrastructure. 

“What we have to do is make our transportation infrastructure the priority,” Gipson said. “The money is up there, available to use, we just have to redirect those funds to make sure that they’re being spent consistently on projects that are actually getting done to benefit our transportation and commerce across the state.”

Asked by reporters about the potential legalization of mobile sports betting, one of the hotly contested issues under the Capitol dome over the past few sessions, Gipson said he opposes the policy: “I think we’ve got a lot of betting that’s already happening right now across the state, so I don’t know that it’s necessary.”

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told reporters he’s considering running for governor in 2027, but stopped short of declaring his candidacy on Wednesday. For now, the two-term lieutenant governor remains committed to advancing his priorities through the state Senate, he said.  

And he wants to send taxpayers a rebate check next year.

“Absolutely, we’re considering a run for governor. But I think the most important thing is to do your job, and I’ve got a pretty aggressive agenda that I’m working on,” Hosemann said. “After that, when things settle down a year out or whatever, that’s the time to be doing this. I’m not quitting the thing that people hired me to do.” 

Among the policies Hosemann hopes to marshal through the Legislature next session is a $316 million tax rebate program. Mississippi has surplus funds that should be returned to taxpayers, Hosemann said.   

“We will issue a $316 million tax rebate. That is 15% of every dollar that everybody paid last April. It will be across the board, so if you paid $1,000 in state taxes, we’ll send you back a $150 check, and that will go all the way through,” Hosemann said. “That will help our economy, and it shows Mississippians that we’re running the government well. We’re running a state government just like we should be – we’re shrinking the size of government and we’re returning taxpayer funds.”

Hosemann said the proposal would not impact the tax overhaul law passed by the Legislature last session and that it may not be a recurring rebate since the income tax is being phased out. He also advocated a “significant restructuring of government to cut fat and red tape, and said he wants to raise K-12 teacher salaries and ban cellphone use in classrooms. 

Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney continued to advocate for the Legislature to change his office from an elected position to an appointed one, an effort that failed to gain any major traction at the Capitol during the 2025 session earlier this year. 

Chaney, who has been the commissioner since 2007, believes it’s not sound policy for a candidate running for the office to accept money from insurance companies because the commissioner is responsible for regulating those same businesses once elected.  

“You would take politics out of the elected position, and you don’t have companies contributing to you trying to run the office,” Chaney told reporters. 

U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican who represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District, presented a message from President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump that called the attendees of the fair “the heart and soul of America.” 

Guest also said the Department of Justice should release all of the files with information on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with federal sex trafficking trafficking crimes before dying in prison. Many of the Republican president’s supporters want the government to release the Epstein files, but to their chagrin, administration officials insist there’s nothing more to disclose. 

“I think it would be best to go ahead and release the files as much as possible in its entirety,” Guest said. “I know there will probably need to be a redaction of certain things, the names of potential victims and things of that nature, but I think the quicker that we can get that information to the general public and not (allow) a distraction that we’ve seen in Washington, D.C., will allow us to get back to doing the business of people.”

Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Jason White, Secretary of State Michael Watson, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, State Treasurer David McRae, Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons, Public Service Commissioner DeKeither Stamps and Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Randolph will speak at the fair on Thursday. 

Mississippi Today, in partnership with Rethink Mississippi (an initiative sponsored by the nonprofit Working Together Mississippi) and the University of Mississippi Center for Population Studies, launched the state’s first-ever scientific study dedicated to understanding Mississippi’s brain drain crisis — and what ideas could help reverse it.

Our survey, which we debuted on July 15, has been taken by more than 4,700 people so far. This far exceeds our expectations in such a short period, but the response is proving incredibly helpful to our journalists and research partners as we work to find solutions to the state’s brain drain problem.

Whether you’ve stayed in Mississippi, you’ve left, or you’ve considered leaving the state, we want to hear from you. If you’ve moved to Mississippi from elsewhere, or even if you’ve never lived here at all, your input is valuable. Brain drain in Mississippi affects all of us, and we believe hearing from people of any and all backgrounds and perspectives can only help us better grapple with the problems and develop some solutions.

The short survey asks everyone about the factors that influenced their decision of where to live, whether that’s in Mississippi or not. It follows with tailored discussion questions based on where you’re from and where you live now. We ask you to reflect on what has pulled you away or what has kept you rooted here, as well as the potential changes that could improve the chances that you live in the state in the future. We purposefully left plenty of room for you to share your own thoughts with us.

So how can you help? First, take the survey! If you’ve already done it, you can help even more by sharing it with as many people as you can. As laid out above, we need responses from anyone and everyone.

Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll spend dedicated time and energy with the results of the survey. We’ll dispatch journalists at Mississippi Today to dive deeply into issues that matter most to you, and we’ll work closely with our expert partners to dissect and share findings — all with potential solutions to the crisis at top of mind.

All of the stories, analyses and essays related to this work will be published on our new page at Mississippi Today called Brain Drain. Click here to access and bookmark the page.

We’ve also published a comprehensive list of answers to frequently asked questions about the problem, the data and potential solutions.

READ MORE: FAQ: The ‘Brain Drain’ crisis in Mississippi

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. I can be reached at  adam@mississippitoday.org.

MORE: Click here to take the Brain Drain survey

Despite twists and turns, Mississippi took a step forward this week in expanding broadband access in the state.

There have been concerns that the Trump administration would make cuts to the Biden era program.

While there have not been cuts to the bulk of the money, the changes to the federal program have caused concern for advocates about the program’s affordability, technology/stability and community engagement. 

Internet service providers submitted over 300 applications for grant funding to provide internet to underserved areas according to Sally Doty, the director of the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi. BEAM is responsible for managing the $1.2 billion the state plans to receive from the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.

BEAD is a $42-billion program passed by Congress in 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. But on June 6, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration altered the criteria to select providers. The notice eliminated the preference for fiber broadband and requirements for labor, community engagement, climate resilience and low cost/affordable plans. It did not change the amount earmarked for each state.

“Shelving the previous Administration’s unnecessary burdens, and opening access to all technology types, connects more Americans to broadband more quickly, and at a lower cost to the American taxpayer,” Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in the June notice about the changes. 

Areas in need of coverage were identified by asking providers to report what areas and technical capabilities they provided.  Mississippi received $1.2 billion to map underserved and unserved areas and to provide grants for providers to extend coverage to these areas. At the time of the June announcement, BEAM had not awarded any contracts.

In 2022, 80% of Mississippians had broadband service. At the time it was the lowest percentage in the nation. Broadband can open up business opportunities, provide access to telehealth care and more jobs, especially in rural areas that often have the lowest rates of high speed internet availability.

“The most marginalized, rural communities would benefit from this large infrastructure investment in the state,” said Harya Tarekegn, director of advocacy and policy at Mississippi Center for Justice. 

Grants will be given out based on who can build the infrastructure the cheapest, how fast they can set it up and if they’re able to meet the technical requirements, such as upload and download speeds. The new technology neutral plan may mean that more satellite contracts will be awarded to satellite companies, such as SpaceX and Amazon’s Kuiper. 

Advocates are concerned that the elimination of the preference for fiber and the ability for states to consider affordability will result in worse technology at a higher price for individuals. 

“We feel strongly that fiber is the best way to build out connectivity, especially in rural communities,” said Kyra Roby, a consultant with Children’s Defense Fund. 

To install fiber broadband, cables are run along utility poles or underground up to or close to a house. The upfront cost of fiber is higher and more time consuming than other technologies, such as satellite and fixed wireless. However, fiber is generally considered the fastest and most reliable broadband technology with lower long term costs for maintenance and to consumers. 

Under the previous policy, states could use the end cost to consumers and providers’ low-cost programs as part of their decision making process. Now they cannot. 

“The affordability issue is a major issue. Internet service costs are ridiculous and a lot of people are not going to be able to afford market rates,” said Oleta Fitzgerald, Southern Regional Office director of Children’s Defense Fund. 

There are no cuts to BEAD, but in May of this year, the federal government ended the Digital Equity Program. This included $10 million for Mississippi’s Digital Skills & Accessibility Capacity Grant Program to provide digital skills training and education. However, there is more concern about the future of the BEAD program and its ability to reshape internet access. 

Over the next few weeks, BEAM will review applications and make the final proposal available for public comment before submitting it to the Commerce Department. 

“Communities still have a vital role to play in ensuring reliable, affordable access. There has already been significant community engagement around these issues to help get us to where we are now, and we expect even more in the months ahead,” Roby said.