OurTupelo

Some voters in the Jackson Metro area and in the Delta can participate in special runoff elections on Tuesday to decide who will represent them in the state Legislature.  

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Anyone in line to vote by 7 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.

In north Jackson and rural areas of Hinds and Madison Counties, residents can vote in a runoff for the Senate District 26 seat, vacated by former state Sen. John Horhn when he became mayor of Jackson in July. 

The candidates in that runoff election are Canton municipal judge Kamesha Mumford and attorney Letitia Johnson, who received 39% and 28%, respectively, in a special election last month. 

In portions of Leflore, Panola and Tallahatchie counties, voters can participate in the runoff for the Senate District 24 seat, vacated by former state Sen. David Jordan when he retired from the Legislature in July. 

The candidates are Curressia Brown, a retired college educator and administrator, and Justin Pope, a corporate deputy with Progressive Health Group. 

The special elections to fill unexpired terms are nonpartisan, but both are to replace Democratic lawmakers in longtime staunchly blue districts.

Voters in Hinds County can also participate in the special runoff election for county coroner between Jeramiah Howard and Stephanie Meachum. Howard is the county’s current interim coroner. Meachum is the office’s former manager and currently runs the death division of the state Department of Health’s Vital Records Office.

Use this tool from the Secretary of State’s office to determine whether your district has an election and to find your polling place.

Homecoming remains an important enough tradition in the Delta that the violence that happened in Leland and Rolling Fork in October didn’t diminish the crowds. Relatives still traveled home. Dozens still set up grills and canopies at games. Mississippi Today produced a collection of stories of homecoming events in the Delta, where traditions have evolved over time.

RULEVILLE — Trumpets blared through the hallways of Thomas E. Edwards Sr. High School. Three administrators, including one who was pregnant, dashed down the green-and-white tiled hallway toward the auditorium.

“What happened to the grannies with the sewing kits in their bags?” one asked, out of breath.

Homecoming Queen Jaiilah Holmes would need to make her entrance soon, but her dress was coming apart at the shoulders. The rest of the homecoming court was already announced and seated. The emcee was stalling.

Down the hall from the gym, in a classroom with algebraic equations scrawled on the white board, an administrator and a teacher were helping repair the queen’s regalia.

Jazlyn Hopkins, Jaiilah’s mother, bent in black gladiator sandals to adjust her daughter’s tiara. The teen blushed, projecting a wide smile. She shimmered in a white dress with a silver floral pattern down both sides and a bodice encrusted with imitation pearls.

Trumpeting resumed as Hopkins and a teacher trailed the queen, carrying her six-inch train. 

The gym lights flicked off. The crowd cheered.

Jaiilah emerged from behind thick curtains in a glimmering gown wired with a green light.

The house lights revealed what a party supply company billed as a Venetian masquerade scene. White construction paper covered the floor, and black palm trees framed the space. Two black thrones perched atop a raised platform where the teen royals took their seats before dozens of clear banquet chairs. Girls in black gowns wore sashes that read Miss Psychology, Miss Drug Education and Miss Algebra I.

An incentive to achieve

In the last decade, the school started celebrating academic achievement as well as congeniality for homecoming-specific titles to motivate students to excel in their academic coursework as well as extracurriculars. Now, most of the 40 categories for the homecoming court recognize excellence in an academic course, giving many students a chance to wear a sash or crown.

“It starts something big,” school resource officer Lafagus Carpenter said about how the titles motivate students. “They start feeling like they got some work to them. They start seeing what they can be.”

Nikita Foster was most proud that her son Thomas won homecoming king because of his academic performance and involvement in athletics and other activities. She adjusted the crown atop his head as he powered on his phone outside the gym. He had thick dreadlocks that wouldn’t accommodate the sparkling headwear. 

Through dual enrollment, Thomas is a high school senior and a sophomore at Mississippi Delta Community College. He hopes to enter the University of Southern Mississippi as a junior kinesiology major and, after graduating, work as an exercise scientist.

“It’s just like a sense of peace and happiness to see them grow up,” Foster said. “I’m so proud.”

Monthslong planning for a royal touch

Many homecoming attendees and title holders prepare their outfits and campaigns months in advance. Edwards High previously boasted pyrotechnics as part of the homecoming display in the gym, contracting with a local decorator who made use of her contacts.

Jazlyn Hopkins had a designer in nearby Indianola make a custom dress for her daughter. She wanted her daughter to feel “glamorous.”

By the time the designer, Chezzrae Fowler Parker, began working on Jaiilah’ dress in September, other parents started calling about her custom gowns. A photograph of a lapis dress she made for a Gentry High School senior last spring lingered in some of their minds, and on their social media timelines.

The night of homecoming, administrators connected the clasps on the flowing gold and emerald robes worn by the king, Antwan Brinkley, and Jaiilah, the queen. They initiated a dance to the R & B record, “Hey Girl.” The attendants followed the steps of a choreographed waltz.

The evening ended with speeches from the king and queen, and announcements from principal Errick Lakes.

Elementary and middle school boys in black-and-grey patterned tuxedo jackets and Venetian masks met their families outside. Blown-up photos of King Thomas and Queen Jaiilah were unfurled at the back auditorium entrance.

Parents and neighbors captured the queen’s prance down the black carpet. Their focus was kept until the last beat. When the pageant came to a close, spectators fumbled through their purses and pockets for their car keys and made the rounds of relatives and former classmates.

The Edwards High parking lot was full by the court’s last dance. Cars were parked wherever people could find a spot, sometimes diagonally in front of double parked vehicles. Some slipped out of the gym early to avoid the rush of sedans and trucks — and the possibility of a fender-bender.

One mother gave directions to a cousin unaccustomed to squeezing out of a tight parking spot. 

“It’s a town of 2,000. It never gets this packed,” she said.

The car eased out, nearly nicking a Pontiac sedan and illuminated parents and attendants with its crimson taillights. Engines roared, and teen queens in floor-length gowns lifted their hoop skirts off the dirt road home.

Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., the University of Mississippi graduate accused of killing a fellow student and well-known member of Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and tampering with evidence. 

The son of a prominent family in Grenada, Herrington was facing capital murder – and a potential sentence of life in prison – for killing Jimmie “Jay” Lee in the summer of 2022 and hiding his body. During a previous trial that ended in a hung jury, prosecutors alleged Herrington’s motive was to preserve the secret of his sexual relationship with Lee. 

The prosecution said it will now recommend a 40-year sentence with 10 years suspended. 

“He has accepted responsibility on his own instead of a jury placing responsibility on him,” said Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore. 

The plea deal came two and a half hours into jury selection in Madison County for the second trial. A judge ordered jury selection to take place outside Lafayette County, where trial was to be held, due to media coverage there.

It would have been the second time Herrington faced a jury. At the time of the first trial in December of 2024, law enforcement had not yet located Lee’s remains – a reason one juror reportedly refused to convict, causing a hung jury, according to Action News 5. This time, though, the state had Lee’s remains, which were found earlier this year in a wooded gully in Carroll County close to Herrington’s parents’ home. 

Herrington had been in jail since he was indicted for a second time earlier this year. 

Lee’s older sister, Tayla Carey, said she was “overfilled with happiness” at the plea, adding, “it’s well overdue.” 

Shortly after Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther began winnowing the jury pool, a clerk approached the bench with papers. This prompted Luther to pause the selection and issue a warning to the nearly 150 potential jurors not to speculate or discuss the subject of the case before releasing them into the hallway.

An hour later, the prosecution and Herrington’s defense, Jackson-area attorney Aafram Sellers, reached a deal. Herrington’s mother tearfully met with the defense lawyers before she left the courthouse. 

Sellers did not want to comment on the plea until after sentencing, scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Oxford. But he said the deal was possible once both sides “got to the courthouse steps.” 

Creekmore said the deal was unexpected. Though the defense had initiated some negotiations, he said they were “not robust.” Hotel rooms in Oxford had been booked for the jury; lunches and dinners ordered.

Though Lee’s family was already in Oxford, Creekmore said that Herrington was present for the deliberations in Madison. 

This resolution saves Lee’s family the agony of another trial and potential appeals, Creekmore said. It also adds back the charge of tampering with evidence, which Sellers had been successful in removing due to the statute of limitations. 

“It’s a terrible, sad, tragic story, and I’m relieved that the family does not have to relive the trauma of what happened to Jay Lee again,” Creekmore said. 

In Madison, some of the potential jurors said they knew what the case was about. One woman said it had been on the news this morning. But others were unaware, even after learning they had been called for a case from Lafayette County. 

Last night, some of Lee’s friends gathered outside the Lafayette County Courthouse with members of the local LGBTQ+ community. 

On the courthouse’s white exterior, they projected a graduation picture of Lee surrounded by azalea flowers as well as the name of their movement, “Justice for Jay Lee.” 

Mississippi Today CEO and Executive Director Mary Margaret White, Jackson Editor Anna Wolfe and Editor-in-Chief Emily Wagster Pettus discuss Mississippi Today’s mission as a nonprofit newsroom and how donors’ support helps pay for expenses such as public records that journalists use in their work.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from both parties say they support congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a Sept. 2 attack.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week’s Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical, but they said attacking survivors of an initial missile strike poses serious legal concerns.

“This rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Sunday.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, when asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no longer able to fight, said Congress does not have information that happened. He noted that leaders of the Armed Services Committee in both the House and Senate have opened investigations.

“Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Turner said Sunday.

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late Friday that the committee “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Sunday evening while flying back to Washington from Florida, where he celebrated Thanksgiving, confirmed that he had recently spoken with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The U.S. administration says the strikes in the Caribbean are aimed at cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump declined to comment on details of the call, which was first reported by The New York Times.

“I wouldn’t say it went well or badly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, when asked about the call.

The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the call with Trump.

Turner said there are concerns in Congress about the attacks on vessels that the Trump administration says are transporting drugs, but the allegation regarding the Sept. 2 attack “is completely outside anything that has been discussed with Congress and there is an ongoing investigation.”

The comments from lawmakers come as the administration escalates a campaign to combat drug trafficking into the U.S.

On Saturday, Trump said the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should be considered as “closed in its entirety,” an assertion that raised more questions about the U.S. pressure on Maduro. Maduro’s government accused Trump of making a ”colonial threat” and seeking to undermine the South American country’s sovereignty.

After the Post’s report, Hegseth said Friday on X that “fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”

“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict—and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” Hegseth wrote.

Trump said on Sunday the administration “will look into” the matter but added, “I wouldn’t have wanted that — not a second strike.” The president also defended Hegseth.

“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said. He added, “And I believe him.”

On Saturday, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, and the ranking Democratic member, Washington Rep. Adam Smith, issued a joint statement saying the panel was committed to “providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense’s military operations in the Caribbean.”

“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,” Rogers and Smith said, referring to U.S. Southern Command.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., asked about the Sept. 2 attack, said Hegseth deserves a chance to present his side.

“We should get to the truth. I don’t think he would be foolish enough to make this decision to say, kill everybody, kill the survivors because that’s a clear violation of the law of war,” Bacon said. “So, I’m very suspicious that he would’ve done something like that because it would go against common sense.”

Kaine and Turner appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” and Bacon was on ABC’s “This Week.”

Nearly every area of our lives has been transformed by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. For small business owners, AI is no longer a buzzword — it’s becoming a cornerstone of business strategy.

AI tools drive innovation, efficiency and growth, making them essential for staying competitive in an increasingly digital and data-driven world. According to JPMorgan Chase’s 2025 Business Leaders Outlook Survey, a strong majority (80%) of small business leaders are already using or are planning to implement AI. However, almost half (46%) are cautiously optimistic about its impact on their business. This year, 48% of small business owners plan to integrate AI tools, focusing on customer-facing applications like chatbots and customer service automation. Continued investment in AI and technology to enhance efficiency and competitiveness is a priority for this year and beyond.

Emerging technologies are among key considerations for small business owners planning for the future, ensuring business continuity, fostering growth and planning for successful transitions.

The Potential of AI

AI offers capabilities in learning, reasoning and problem-solving. In the Survey, small business owners identified several key applications for AI, including marketing and content creation, customer service automation and data analysis. AI can also benefit payment processes and other operational automation.

Large Language Models, a subset of AI, excel in processing and generating human-like text, making them invaluable for content creation and customer interaction. Integrating these technologies can streamline processes and boost productivity.

Why Emerging Technologies Could Benefit Small Businesses

With limited resources, small business can automate routine tasks with AI, allowing employees to focus on higher-value activities. AI-driven chatbots can manage initial customer requests, reducing the workload on customer service teams and improving response times, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction.

Additionally, AI can empower startups to expand operations by complementing their existing workforce. For instance, an e-commerce startup can use AI to efficiently manage inventory, process orders and assist with customer inquiries, allowing the team to focus on strategic growth and customer engagement.

Small businesses can also develop tools tailored to their needs, rather than relying on broad third-party solutions. This approach offers greater flexibility, easier integration and tighter control over data.

Automation tools enhance efficiency, while data-driven solutions like Chase for Business’s Customer Insights – a business intelligence tool that generates actionable insights from anonymized, aggregated data – help streamline operations and enhance the bottom line.

The Path Forward As innovations continue to emerge rapidly, consider developing a blueprint to identify where AI adds value, creating a roadmap for implementation and investing in the necessary infrastructure and talent. As you plan for growth and scaling, understand transition options to ensure a successful small business future.

First things first: Pete Golding, the new head football coach at Ole Miss, could not be more different from his predecessor, Lane Kiffin. Put it this way: You will not likely find Golding spending his Oxford mornings in a hot yoga class.

You are more likely to find 41-year-old Golding on the phone with recruits, watching tape, doodling football plays or spending what spare time he has with wife, Carolyn, who has three degrees from Ole Miss, and their three children. Golding, the Rebels’ defensive coordinator, was promoted to head coach Sunday after Kiffin announced his own departure for LSU.

Said Scott Eyster, Golding’s childhood pal and football teammate at both Hammond High School in Louisiana and from 2002 to 2005 at Delta State University: “Pete told me a long, long time ago, when he first got into coaching, he was someday gonna be the head football coach at Ole Miss. I texted him congratulations today, that dreams really do come true. I am so happy for him. He had earned this. He has worked so hard for this. Ole Miss football is in good hands.”

Eyster, a four-time Conerly Trophy finalist, and Golding have been friends since they were in diapers. Their fathers coached football together at Hammond High. They took a recruiting visit together to Delta State, along with another Hammond teammate, Ryan Barker.

Rick Rhoades, the Delta State head coach at the time, remembers that visit vividly. 

“Ryan Barker, the center, was the player we really wanted,” Rhoades said. “He asked if he could bring two of his Hammond teammates along. One was Eyster, who turned into a great college quarterback, and the other was this little bitty fellow named Pete Golding.

“Back then, you could work players out on a recruiting visit and I put Pete through some drills,” Rhoades continued. “Once I saw him run, I told him, ‘Son, I don’t know how much scholarship money we have left, but whatever we have left is yours.’ He turned into a great player for us.”

Golding was a four-year starter at safety for really good Delta State teams. He remains third on the DSU career tackles list and fourth in career pass interceptions.

“Pete was just a little ball of energy,” Rhoades said. “And he had great football instincts. He always seemed to know where the ball was going. He was always a step ahead. When you recruit, you start with finding guys who really love football – not just the Saturday part, but the practice and the preparation and all that comes with it. That was Pete. He made an impact the first day and when he ran out of eligibility we corralled him and made a graduate assistant coach out of him. He’s smart as a whip. I knew he would make a great coach, and he has.”

Golding has earned the reputation of being a accomplished recruiter, no matter where he has coached, from Delta State, to Southeastern Louisiana, to Southern Miss, to Texas-San Antonio, to Alabama and now Ole Miss.

Said Eyster, “Recruiting comes naturally to Pete. He’s a people person. People gravitate towards him. He doesn’t meet a stranger”

Eyster’s words reminded this writer of a day three years ago at the state high school championships played that year in Hattiesburg at USM’s Roberts Stadium. Both Kiffin and Golding were there that day to recruit Suntarine Perkins, the best player in the state, from Raleigh. Dozens of coaches – Mississippi high school coaches and college football recruiters – were standing beyond the north end zone watching the game. At one end of the end zone was Kiffin, all alone, talking on his cellphone nearly the entire game. At the other end was Golding, who was constantly being greeted by Mississippi high school coaches. They all knew him and he them. I never saw Kiffin talk to anyone.

I told Eyster that story, and he laughed. “That’s Pete right there,” he said. “That’s why he recruits so well.”

Now then, all this doesn’t necessarily mean that Golding will become a successful big-time college football head coach. If I’ve learned anything in more than a half century of doing this, it’s that the biggest transition in coaching is from being a coordinator to becoming a head coach. Being the CEO – with all the management and distractions that come with it – isn’t for everyone. Time will tell with Golding.

This much does seem certain: Given the situation in which Ole Miss finds itself, Golding would appear by far the best choice to lead 11-1, sixth-ranked Rebels into the playoffs and beyond. His players appear to both love and respect him. The announcement of Golding’s promotion at a team meeting Sunday reportedly was greeted with loud, prolonged cheering from the players.

Said Keith Carter, the athletic director, “Today’s meeting was a clear indicator of Pete’s ability to galvanize our squad. All of our players and coaches are ecstatic and ready to lock arms for a playoff run.”

Carter also said that Golding “has demonstrated an exceptional football mind, but more than that has shown a deep understanding of our culture, values and what it means to be part of the Ole Miss family. Simply put, Pete is one of us.”

What Carter left unsaid is clear: Kiffin, for all his success, never felt like family at Ole Miss. His messy departure potentially could have torpedoed the program. 

For all Kiffin’s success – and his posturing – he should have known there was no way Ole Miss would let LSU’s football coach lead Ole Miss into the playoffs. That was pure heresy, despite what all the ESPN talking heads would tell you. Far, far better to give the reins to a guy, Pete Golding, who has always wanted the job he now has.

OXFORD — Ole Miss promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding to head coach on Sunday, announcing the move shortly after Lane Kiffin’s departure for the top job at LSU when Kiffin’s wish to coach the Rebels in the postseason was denied.

Athletic director Keith Carter said Golding would guide the sixth-ranked Rebels (11-1) “into the College Football Playoff,” which will release its 12-team bracket on Dec. 7. The announcement followed days of negotiations with Kiffin, who chose LSU over staying in Oxford.

“Coach Kiffin and I met yesterday, and he informed us that he is accepting the head coaching position at another school,” Carter said. “For our program to begin preparing for its future – both the short and long term, he will be stepping away from the team immediately.”

Golding, a former Delta State player and longtime defensive specialist, acknowledged the challenge.

“Oxford is home, and it’s an incredible honor to lead one of the nation’s premier programs, and I can’t wait to get to work immediately and prepare this team to win a national championship,” Golding said. “Our mission moving forward is clear: we will play with toughness, discipline and relentless effort in everything we do. We will recruit at the highest level, develop our players on and off the field, and compete every single day to bring championships to Oxford. Most importantly, we will represent this university with class and integrity.”

Correction 11/30/2025: This story has been corrected to show that Golding played football at Delta State.

At some point during the quickly approaching 2026 session of the Mississippi Legislature, House Speaker Jason White will meet behind closed doors with his two-thirds Republican supermajority and ask those members to vote for some form of school choice legislation to provide public funds to private schools while requiring little to no accountability and oversight.

It is the modus operandi of White to meet on the public’s business, including expending public funds, behind closed doors before taking pivotal issues to the full House for debate and a final public vote.

But in the 2026 legislative session, which begins in early January, White could be meeting behind closed doors without the hammer he has previously possessed.

The leadership of the Legislature has long held the hammer over members’ political heads of the so-called special projects bill that is routinely one of the last items passed at the end of each session. The bill provides funds – often totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars – to pay for projects back home. 

Members who buck the leadership on key votes run the risk of not having their town’s main street repaved or lights placed on their local baseball field. Such projects are routinely funded via a single line tucked in a bill totaling hundreds of pages where scores of other similar local projects are included. The projects bill is normally closely overseen by House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, who is one of White’s closest allies.

It is normal to see members, with eyes squinting, perusing the massive bill, looking for their project as the legislation is unveiled during the final hours of the session. 

It is important to understand that for many legislators – especially House members – that special project is more important than phasing out one-third of the state revenue stream as they did with a big tax cut in the 2025 session or sending public funds to private schools with no accountability mechanism as is being proposed in 2026.

But the process of passing the tax cut last year might have changed the dynamic. The fight over reducing the revenue stream over time by one-third was so contentious between the House and Senate that the special projects bill did not pass. It got caught up in the battle.

After arguing all session about the tax cut, which eventually passed in a flawed form, the Senate refused to take up a special projects bill. After such a large cut, Senate leaders said the state could not afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on special projects.

So, it is possible, maybe likely, that some House members who opposed the landmark tax cut legislation voted for it, anyway, with the understanding they would get a special project.

They didn’t, though.

Could that occur again in the 2026 session as a result of a heated debate over whether to spend public funds on private schools?

Would the Senate leadership have the gumption to eschew a special projects bill again? After all, senators like special projects, too.

And would rural House members in areas of the state where there are no private schools of any note vote to take public funds that could be going to their local district and send their taxpayers’ money to a private school in some metropolitan area that their students have no way of attending?

This session, those issues might be debated. The initial discussion, though, will be in a closed-door meeting of the two-thirds Republican supermajority of the Mississippi House.