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A North Carolina senator is holding up Mississippi’s nominations for federal judgeships and U.S. attorneys because he wants Sen. Roger Wicker to help an indigenous group in his state gain federal recognition as a tribe.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told a reporter from NOTUS that his block on four Mississippi nominees is due to negotiations with Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator, over federal recognition of the Lumbee and other issues unrelated to the nominees themselves. Wicker serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has enormous sway over the legislation in which the Lumbee tribe would be recognized.

“Roger’s one of my favorite people here, and, you know, it’s just a matter of using the leverage people use every day here,” Tillis said. 

Wicker’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

The Lumbee is a group of indigenous people in North Carolina that has been seeking federal recognition as a tribe for over a century. But other federally recognized tribes have opposed the effort. 

Tillis has been a vocal supporter of federal recognition for the Lumbee. He is not running for reelection in 2026, so next year will be his final opportunity to secure a bipartisan bill for the indigenous people. 

President Donald Trump has also supported federal recognition for the Lumbee. 

Most of North Carolina’s congressional delegation supports federal recognition of the Lumbee. Language granting them federal recognition was added to the House version of the Pentagon’s annual spending blueprint. 

But language about the Lumbee was not included in the Senate’s version of the blueprint. 

Tillis also said he is negotiating with Wicker over other issues, but he declined to say what the issues were.  

In August, Trump nominated Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell, both justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court, to vacant federal judgeships in northern Mississippi. Trump in July nominated Scott Leary and Baxter Kruger, his choices for U.S. attorney for the Northern and Southern districts of Mississippi, respectively.

None of the four nominees responded to requests for comment. Both Wicker and Mississippi’s other U.S. senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, support the nominees, though neither is a member of the Judiciary Committee. 

This story is provided by a partnership between Mississippi Today and the NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative, which seeks to help readers in local communities understand what their elected representatives are doing in Congress.

Monday’s Supreme Court decision to deny a request to overturn its ruling that legalized same-sex marriage drew sighs of relief from same-sex couples in Mississippi.

“I’m relieved the Supreme Court let this one go,” said Kyle Harshey, who is married to the Rev. Christopher McAbee, associate rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Jackson. “I don’t believe the person you love is up for debate.”

More than two-thirds of Americans say that same-sex couples deserve the same rights and protections as people in traditional marriages, according to Gallup polling. Among Democrats, that support has risen this year to its highest level, 88%, while the support among Republicans has fallen from 55% in 2021 to 41% this year.

In Mississippi, support for same-sex marriage is 54%, according to a 2024 report by the Public Religion Research Institute, but the state is also home to nearly 6,000 same-sex marriages, according to 2020 U.S. Census data. 

In June, the Mississippi Baptist Convention passed a resolution calling for the Supreme Court to reverse its decision on same-sex marriage, just as justices did in reversing its historic ruling on abortion.

The Rev. Shawn Parker, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, said they are disappointed the Supreme Court didn’t take up the issue.

“Our convictions are that everybody should be treated with kindness, but we believe that God designed marriage for a man and a woman for life,” he said. “That serves as the context for raising children. That serves as the fabric of society.”

While there is a legal aspect to marriage, the convention’s concerns center on the sanctity of marriage, he said. “It was ordained by God in the beginning.”

These days, society disregards “God, the creator, more and more,” he said. “We’re becoming more self-focused, which is detrimental to society and ultimately detrimental to each of us. We should be God-focused and other-focused.”

Everyone looks to an authority, he said. “That authority might be my own opinions, popular culture or science or some other source, but we choose to start with the authority of God as the creator and his word and his revelation.”

The Catholic Church remains opposed to same-sex marriage, but the late Pope Francis in 2023 allowed priests to bless same-sex couples in a pastoral capacity for individuals who love one another.

The United Methodist Church in 2024 repealed its prohibitions on its ministers officiating at same-sex weddings, a factor that has led to more than 6,000 congregations leaving the denomination.

The Episcopal Church has been performing same-sex marriages since 2015. Harshey and McAbee married three years later.

McAbee said he and many others are elated over the Supreme Court decision. “I’m also feeling that it’s very important for us in the LGBTQ community to not gloat in our victory, but to remember there are so many other Americans facing injustices,” he said.

Many are being hurt by health care cuts, and “undocumented people are being terrorized by ICE,” he said.

It is a time to pause for thanksgiving, “but also a moment to remind myself that this is part of an effort to create justice for all people,” he said.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the petition filed by Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who drew national attention for refusing to issue same-sex licenses because of her religious beliefs. She defied court orders to issue these licenses until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court. In 2018, she lost a reelection bid.

She wanted justices to overturn an order that has required her to pay more than $300,000 in damages to the couple denied the marriage license. She also wanted the Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 same-sex marriage ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Justice Clarence Thomas was among the four justices who dissented in that opinion. He has called for reversing that decision.

Harshey said he believes Davis’ religious beliefs present “a distorted view of Christianity,” which in reality are a “shield for discrimination,” he said.

While he is “personally thankful” for the outcome, he said Monday’s action is far from the end because some justices still want to reverse the 2015 decision.

“I think we’re in a long-term fight over this.”

GOODMAN —   At 102 years old, James Anderson has one piece of advice.

“All I know is love one another and be good to each other,” he said.

The centenarian was born in rural Sallis, in central Mississippi’s Attala County, on Sept. 18, 1923, the seventh of eight children. His father was a sharecropper, and he spent his childhood farming with his family and went to school part-time.

Anderson now lives in Goodman in Holmes County. One of his daughters, Dorothy Falls, is retired and takes care of him. His home is right next to his two-acre garden and a restaurant owned by his son Ricky, called Rick’s Drive Inn. Anderson still spends time in his garden.

In 1943, Anderson was sent to Fort Eustis in Virginia for training after being drafted to the Army during World War II.

He said he spent six months in basic training and combat training. However, he was discharged after training and never saw combat. To this day, he doesn’t know why.

“They shipped everybody out but me,” he said. “I never did understand it. They didn’t tell me nothing. They just gave me a discharge.”

Anderson’s experience in training does provide him with a respect of the military. He said he wanted to express his appreciation to all veterans as they are honored on the national holiday.

After training, Anderson returned to being a farmer while also taking on various jobs across the country to support his wife, Annie Lou, and their eight children. He and Annie Lou married the same year he went to training.

Anderson’s jobs spanned from Memphis to Chicago and more. But he has always come back to his home state.

“I guess I like Mississippi better than I did anywhere else,” he said.

Anderson became a custodian and later bus driver at Goodman-Pickens Elementary School, retiring in 2005. He was ordained as a deacon in 1947. Annie Lou passed away in 1993, after 73 years of marriage.

In 2023, the year Anderson turned 100 years old, the Mississippi House of Representatives adopted a resolution to honor him for his service.

The resolution says Anderson “shot the (large) 40MM guns and remained a steadfast and brave soldier for the United States of America.”

Federal cuts to Medicaid and policy changes to Medicare signed into law by President Donald Trump in July could force Mississippi nursing homes into dire straits and leave vulnerable adults on the streets, experts say. 

Costs previously covered by the federal government will shift to states and poor families under the law, and some nursing homes will be forced to close while residents are rendered unhoused, industry leaders said. The law also rolls back a Biden-era rule calling for increased staffing in nursing facilities. In conjunction with the staffing cuts most nursing homes anticipate having to implement under the new budget constraints, industry leaders expect drastic repercussions for those served by and employed in nursing homes. 

“This law is really going to reshape the face of health care across the United States, including long-term care,” said Sam Brooks, director of public policy at Consumer Voice, a national nonpartisan advocacy group for long-term care. “We fought this bill tooth and nail and just really see this as an existential crisis for disabled and older folks.”

Lawmakers in favor of the law argue it doesn’t make cuts to Medicare – the federal insurance program primarily for elderly adults – but long-term care advocates argue nursing homes and residents will be harmed by these changes. Nationwide, the majority of nursing home residents use Medicaid – a fact that becomes more pronounced in Mississippi, the poorest state.

“Nursing homes rely heavily on Medicaid,” Brooks said. “You can’t cut a trillion dollars in Medicaid and not affect all Medicaid budgets … Nursing homes are not going to be over here siloed.”

Vulnerable adults in Mississippi stand to lose more, with 74% of the state’s nursing home residents on Medicaid, significantly higher than the national average, said Sylvia-Nicole Cecchi, project coordinator with the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program.

“Ultimately, these cuts could disrupt care for roughly 69,000 seniors and people with disabilities in Mississippi who rely on Medicaid,” Cecchi said. “When states are forced to cut nursing home reimbursement rates, studies show that the quality of care declines — residents face fewer staff, less attention, and poorer health outcomes.”

Home- and community-based care is also likely to be affected, though the bill doesn’t make direct cuts to the service, explained Priya Chidambaram, a senior policy manager who focuses on long-term care at KFF, a health care research nonprofit. 

“It’s a significant source of Medicaid spending,” Chidambaram said. “It’s also optional, so that’s a place states kind of have to look at first when federal spending is cut.”

The majority of long-term care Medicaid users receive care at home in the U.S. In Mississippi, roughly 3 in 5 Medicaid recipients access care this way, according to a KFF analysis.

Elderly adults will also be subject to subtle but significant enrollment changes to Medicaid and Medicare programs, such as an increase in paperwork. 

One such example is the reversal of a Biden-era policy that made it easier for people to enroll in and remain on what’s called the Medicare Savings Program. That program allows low-income Medicare beneficiaries to supplement their plan with Medicaid to bring down out-of-pocket costs for premiums, deductibles and copayments. 

As a result of increased red tape, eligible beneficiaries are expected to get kicked off, denied or scared away from the savings program. Costs will increase for 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries who are not able to take advantage of the supplemental Medicaid coverage, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. 

“A lot of what this law does is just adds paperwork for people,” said Toby Edelman, a senior policy attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “There’s no reason to have an eligibility determination every six months for people that have no change in anything. These elderly residents are not getting new income.”

The law also changes Medicaid’s policy around retroactive coverage for nursing home residents from three months to two months. 

Retroactive Medicaid coverage for nursing home residents exists because going to a nursing home is not always planned. Sometimes an older adult will be discharged from a hospital to a nursing home after suffering a disabling condition, and oftentimes that person isn’t already on Medicaid. 

It might not seem like much, but paying out of pocket for one month in a nursing home can wipe out a person’s savings, Edelman explained. 

“The out of pocket costs for nursing homes these days are very, very high – $5,000 or $6,000 a month,” she said. “People just don’t have that kind of money – especially people who are eligible for Medicaid.”

Nursing homes are allowed to evict residents for unpaid bills, though it’s not clear how many evictions are wrongful – or how often unpaid bills are a result of a Medicaid enrollment error. The most frequent complaint against nursing homes is consistently related to evictions and transfers, according to the National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center. 

An increase in enrollment errors, at a time when facilities are facing tighter budgets, could lead nursing homes to evict Medicaid-eligible seniors with unpaid bills. 

“One of the biggest drivers of involuntary discharge in nursing homes is unpaid bills,” Brooks said. “And oftentimes those bills are unpaid because of some Medicaid snafu – not getting the documents in, not applying on time.”

Nursing home facilities will suffer, too. Keeping residents housed while not getting reimbursed by Medicaid could force already-struggling homes to shutter. In Mississippi, there are 11 nursing homes at risk of closure, according to the United States Senate Committee on Finance in June. 

Leadership at the 11 nursing homes could not be reached by the time of publication.

The Mississippi Health Care Association, the state’s largest association of nursing homes, did not respond to a request for comment. 

“The destabilizing effect (the law) will have on nursing homes and their residents will leave these seniors in peril,” said Cecchi, of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program. 

Mississippi nursing homes at risk of closure: 

• Glenburney Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Adams County
• West Point Community Living Center in Clay County
• Leakesville Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Inc. in Greene County
• Pleasant Hills Community Living Center in Hinds County
• Columbia Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Marion County
• Diversicare in Batesville in Panola County
• Pearl River County Nursing Home in Pearl River County
• Longwood Community Living Center in Prentiss County
• Azalea Gardens Nursing Center in Stone County
• River Heights Healthcare Center in Washington County
• Mississippi Care Center of Greenville in Washington County

On a Sunday afternoon in 2017, a masked assailant came from around a building, shooting and killing Teresa Hughes’ son, Kendrick, as he stood talking to two friends at Pine Ridge Gardens Apartments in southeast Jackson.  

A few months later, four John Does riding through the parking lot shot at Christine Christon, almost striking her minor son who was sitting in a car seat. 

Christon dove from the spray of bullets, but the shooters hit Arsentell Burton 13 times, permanently incapacitating him. Burton’s pastor had dropped him off at the complex so he could help his uncle move. 

After the shootings, Hughes, Christon and Burton did as dozens of Jacksonians before them: They hired a lawyer and filed suit, alleging out-of-state landlords failed to provide adequate security, fostering an “atmosphere of violence” at the federally funded complex commonly known as Rebelwood.

For years, these legal battles routinely led to monetary settlements, providing a modicum of justice for some of Rebelwood’s more than 400 tenants living in deadly and dire conditions, according to 15 lawsuits filed since 2010 that Mississippi Today reviewed. 

But in 2019, lawmakers passed a bill known as the Mississippi Landowners Protection Act that has all but shielded landlords from liability for violent crimes committed on their properties. It has done so by limiting what constitutes an “atmosphere of violence” – a legal term describing conditions in which the property owner should have known injuries were likely and taken steps to prevent them.

Since then, local attorneys say liability has been harder to prove — and accountability less achievable — even if the landlord has neglected to take reasonable steps to secure the complex, such as hiring security, fixing broken lights, maintaining cameras or removing trespassers from the property. 

Nicole Gibson launched such a battle. The Jackson native filed her lawsuit in 2022 after her son, Quindarius, was killed in the Rebelwood parking lot while the two were running an errand for family staying there. The incident occurred just one year after the Landowners Protection Act passed.

She went up against the companies responsible for the property at the time of her son’s death: The Texas-based owner, Rebelwood Apartments, and a New Jersey-based behemoth management company, Michaels Management Affordable. Last month, a Hinds County Circuit Court judge granted a motion to dismiss the case from a lawyer representing the companies – a hurdle Gibson’s attorney, Phillip Hearn, fears they won’t overcome if he appeals.

In an email, an attorney for Michaels Management Affordable said the company’s policy is not to comment on pending litigation. The Texas company that previously owned Rebelwood has shuttered. 

Gibson, 43, struggles with the notion of attaining justice for her son, nicknamed “Bubba,” whom she said had never been in trouble with the law – but for one time she took him to the county youth detention center for disrespecting her. He had graduated high school, worked at McDonald’s for years and played football for a local amateur team called the Magnolia State Knights.

“They just knew from the life that he lived that he was not supposed to die,” she said. “I tell everybody, ‘It’s a hard pill to swallow.’” 

This is not to say plaintiffs lawsuits have done much to address the chronically poor conditions facing tenants who live in areas of Jackson with higher crime rates. Rebelwood remains one of the most notorious places to live in the city. Residents there continue to experience problems on a daily basis, from criminal incidents to grim living conditions of the kind that led Mayor John Horhn to convene a housing task force earlier this year. 

In a recent meeting, task force members lauded the Landowners Protection Act for helping landlords weather the fallout of the decision by insurance companies, which were losing money to settlements, to discontinue coverage of claims stemming from violent crimes at complexes in Jackson.

“Every claim I’ve ever had on my properties is cumulative, it’s passed on. It’s like a credit check or a credit report,” said Jennifer Welch, a Jackson-based property manager and vice chair of the city’s housing task force. “It’s very unfortunate.” 

Meanwhile, Jacksonians who’ve been harmed at Rebelwood or lost their loved ones have little recourse but to file these lawsuits, known in the legal world as “premises liability” cases. Earlier this year, a woman filed suit after she was struck by a bullet that entered through her living room window, according to her complaint. Her case is pending.

“You can’t have all the laws be for the consumer, because then people can’t make money. I get it,” said Catouche Body, an attorney who represented Christon. “I just think the Landowners Protection Act goes a step too far.” 

Former state Rep. Mark Baker, a Republican from Brandon who championed the bill, said he did not recall the Landowners Protection Act well enough to comment on its impact.

Before the 2019 act, lawyers frequently secured settlements in these cases. Hearn has several under his belt. When the parties couldn’t agree, the cases went to juries who were sympathetic to victims. In 2009, a jury awarded a $3 million judgment to the family of a woman whose body was found at Rebelwood (though the Mississippi Supreme Court later reversed that decision, ruling evidence she’d been killed elsewhere was withheld from trial). 

But under the new law, Hearn and other attorneys must prove a landlord “impelled” the criminal conduct of the man who shot Gibson – a term plaintiffs lawyers told Mississippi Today they’re not sure how to interpret.

“What the hell does that mean?” Hearn said. 

Attorneys must also show that violent conduct at the property in the three years leading up to an incident has resulted in three or more felony arraignments.

This might seem like an easy standard to meet at Rebelwood, where police have received calls of more than 100 shootings since the beginning of 2024, according to dispatch records obtained by Mississippi Today. 

But when Hearn tried to gather the data, he said he hit a wall. Even though Rebelwood has been the site of numerous arrests for violent crimes in the three years leading up to Quindarius’s death, Hearn said he could not identify three felony indictments, the legal step proceeding an arraignment.

“I’ve subpoenaed the Hinds County District Attorney, the Hinds County attorney, the Jackson city attorney, the sheriff’s department, the Jackson Police Department, and every one of them says, ‘We do not maintain this information,’” Hearn said. 

Where he might have once convinced a jury of pervasive violence using a 911 log – which shows roughly two calls a day from Rebelwood in recent years – or social media videos of fights at the complex that routinely go viral, Hearn said this kind of proof does not meet the redefined legal standard. 

Hearn has already lost one case against the complex on behalf of another mother whose son was shot at Rebelwood while visiting his girlfriend. He can add Gibson’s case to the list. Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Eleanor Faye Peterson dismissed the case last month after Hearn could not find three arraignments.

“It’s a different age,” Hearn said. “And guess what, Rebelwood is more dangerous than ever.” 

Government officials have taken far-reaching action in the past against Rebelwood, which opened in 1980. History lingers in the Civil War-themed street names still surrounding the troubled complex — Rebel Wood, Shiloh, Gray, Champion Hill. 

In 1996, Brad Pigott, then the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, filed for forfeiture against the owners of the complex, alleging the number of drug complaints at Rebelwood showed they were not complying with federal standards. 

Faced with the threat of losing the property, the owners pledged to install fences and screen applicants, resulting in what Pigott at the time called a “remarkable” turnaround.

Desiree Hensley, the director of the University of Mississippi School of Law’s Low-Income Housing Clinic, said city leaders could take similar action today. The council could seek to condemn Rebelwood for violating nuisance ordinances and force the complex to close until the landlord has improved the property. 

“The local government’s hands are definitely not tied,” she said. 

Kevin Parkinson, the Ward 7 Jackson city council member who represents Rebelwood, said shutting down the complex could send vulnerable people into the street, even as the city needs to do more in addressing its “unacceptable” conditions.

“Do we have solutions for 450 people to go elsewhere in the city?” Parkinson said. “I’m not sure that we do.” 

Gibson was familiar with Rebelwood long before Quindarius was killed that day in 2020. Her sister had moved there in the late 1990s, around the time Quindarius was born. Her mother moved there a few years later. Gibson remembers kids playing water balloons and basketball and the security guard, Mr. Jimmy, who she said kept the complex in order.

“Mr. Jimmy had developed a relationship with the community out there,” she said. “He did not play.” 

Hiawatha Northington II, a local attorney for Michaels Management Affordable who worked on Gibson’s case, remembers Rebelwood, too, as a place he used to visit friends during undergrad at Jackson State University in the 1990s.

Amenities like the Kroger on Terry Road – now an empty storefront – were close by. 

“Whether you represent plaintiffs, defendants or neither, there are facts about the city of Jackson that are not in dispute and one of them is that areas like Terry Road have been systemically disinvested in for whatever reasons you want to attribute it to,” Northington said. 

Improving conditions at Rebelwood would require a systemic solution, Northington said, which he feels individual lawsuits cannot achieve. 

“Interpersonal conflicts can happen at the Country Club of Jackson just like they can happen at North Hills Apartments,” he said. “Some of those things are beyond what the civil justice system can address.” 

Gibson was heading to Rebelwood on the afternoon of Saturday, April 25, 2020 to drop off some clothes to her brother, who was staying there, when Quindarius asked if he could ride with.

She didn’t think it was a good idea. Gibson knew Quindarius was at odds with a group of men at Rebelwood over the outcome of a dice game earlier that week. Quindarius had won $5, but when he tried to collect, the player threatened him. Gibson said she wanted to talk to that player’s parents, but Quindarius begged her not to, claiming the situation had been resolved.

“Me personally, I’m going to diffuse the situation,” she said. “I will never indulge in a kid’s beef.” 

But when they arrived at Rebelwood, the 21-year-old son spotted a friend and told Gibson he was going to stay at the complex.

The mother recounted what happened next – a chaotic series of events that culminated in Quindarius’s killing – in a court filing in her lawsuit against Rebelwood. As she was speaking to her brother’s friend, she said she saw a group heading in Quindarius’s direction. Suddenly, he came storming toward her car, asking if he could borrow his uncle’s gun, telling Gibson he was “tired of them threatening him.” 

She said no. Then she called the police. But instead of aiding Quindarius, Gibson said the officers escorted her off the property. Driving down the highway, she was on the phone with her twin sister, who was at the complex when gunshots rang out.

Gibson said she “snapped.” She characterizes the perpetrators as a “family which plotted his death” and ruminates on how things could have gone differently.

“I could’ve put a gun in my baby’s hand and let him do whatever he wanted to do, and I guarantee he would be home with me today,” she told Mississippi Today.

Without a weapon of his own, Gibson argues no one was there to protect him.

“You’ve got management just sitting out there,” she said. “They’ve got protection for them, but when it comes to the kids and the people living there, a lot of time they get in their car and leave the property because they be scared for themselves.” 

Quindarius’ alleged shooter, 38-year-old Joe Willis, is out on bond, and Gibson is not optimistic that he will be convicted. She said it took years to forgive herself for bringing Quindarius with her to Rebelwood, only doing so after taking a job that sent her across the country, giving her space and time to think. 

She concluded that she was not the only one responsible for her son’s safety that day. But now she feels alone in her pursuit of accountability.

“It’s just me and my attorney,” Gibson said before receiving notification the case had been dismissed.

Among the Mississippians honored on Veterans Day are 28 Medal of Honor recipients. Among those is Van T. Barfoot.

After a day dodging land mines, facing tanks and taking prisoners, U.S. Army Col. Barfoot led his squad to victory against German forces in Italy in 1944. His actions that day earned him a Medal of Honor as told in the graphic novel from the Association of the United States Army.

The book is part of a series called Medal of Honor, which tells the stories of Army veterans who’ve received the highest honor in the U.S. Armed Forces for valor from the Civil War to the present.

According to Joseph Craig, director of AUSA’s book program, over half a million people read the first six volumes.

Craig wrote that Bartfoot’s life was “exciting and inspiring — a classic WWII hero’s tale full of action.”

Barfoot’s story began in Edinburg, an unincorporated community in Leake County in east central Mississippi, where he was one of eight siblings. He enlisted in the Army in 1940. In 1943, he began fighting in Europe as part of the 3rd Platoon, Company L, 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division.

On May 23, 1944, Barfoot’s unit was facing off against German forces near Carano, Italy. Alone, Barfoot navigated across a minefield to the enemy’s left flank. He took out a machine gun nest with a hand grenade, killing two Germans and wounding three. He then entered a German trench, where he killed two more soldiers and took the remaining ones as prisoners.

Barfoot and his men then took control of more German positions. He reorganized his men and consolidated their new ground.

Later that day, three German tanks launched a counterattack. Barfoot single-handedly disabled the first tank with a bazooka, then killed three of the tank’s crew. The other two tanks fled. Barfoot’s group advanced and destroyed an abandoned German artillery piece. Later, he helped two wounded men cross 1,700 yards of enemy territory to reach safety. 

In total, he killed seven Germans and captured 17 that day.

Barfoot received a Medal of Honor on Sept. 28, 1944, in Épinal, France. He continued serving in the Army, fighting in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Later in his career, he worked as a senior national adviser to the Army National Guard. He retired from the Army in 1974 as a colonel.

He received national attention in 2009 when his homeowners association in Virginia tried to force him to take down the flagpole in his yard. The association backed down after the dispute reached national headlines, with public opinion mostly on Barfoot’s side.

Barfoot was 92 when he died in 2012.

Each book in the Medal of Honor series is made by professional comic book writers and artists, with vetting by historians. They’re part of AUSA’s educational mission.

People can read them online for free, and AUSA premium members can order paperback collections at the end of every year.

A basic membership is free, and paid memberships contribute to AUSA’s mission of supporting the U.S. Army.

“We get a great response from the public, including many suggestions for people to feature in new issues,” Craig said. “I have also heard from a few relatives, which is particularly rewarding.”

Mississippi will begin distributing up to 65% of food assistance benefits for the month of November to recipients, the Mississippi Department of Human Services announced Monday. 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are distributed on a rolling basis between the 4th and 21st of each month. Recipients who were scheduled to receive SNAP benefits earlier this month but have not yet due to the federal government shutdown will begin receiving partial assistance as early as today, the agency said in a press release. Others will receive their benefits on their regularly scheduled date.

Mississippi is distributing up to 65% of SNAP benefits to recipients in accordance with guidance from the United States Department of Agriculture, the federal agency that administers the program, said the state Department of Human Services in a statement. Full benefits will be distributed once the federal government approves their release. 

“Benefit amounts have been set by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, not MDHS,” the statement said.

Beneficiaries in Mississippi receive $183 on average in food assistance per month, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Partial benefits for the average beneficiary would amount to a loss of about $65 in aid in November. 

“The hardworking families in Mississippi who already struggle to make ends meet and have tight budgets that include SNAP help are relying on them to ensure wellness in their homes,” Dr. Patricia Tibbs, the president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, previously told Mississippi Today.

Confusion over how states should distribute the benefits has mounted in the past week after the Trump administration contested a court order directing the federal government to issue full benefits. 

New food assistance benefits have not been issued to Mississippians since Nov. 1. Food assistance has continued to flow in past shutdowns, but the federal government said Oct. 24 that it could not use emergency funds to pay for the program, spurring a legal battle over the paused benefits.

Federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ordered the federal government on Oct. 31 to use emergency funds to continue funding the program after more than two dozen states sued the Trump administration over its refusal to issue the benefits. 

The federal Department of Agriculture initially told states to distribute no more than half of November’s SNAP benefits, before later revising that guidance to instruct states to issue up to 65 percent of benefits. A federal judge in Rhode Island then ordered the agency to fund the program in full. 

The Trump administration released guidance Nov. 7 indicating it was “working towards implementing” full benefits, even as it appealed a court ruling. Twenty states, including New York, California and North Carolina, began to issue full benefits, but after a stay of the order, the administration ordered states to “undo” the issuance of full benefits and warned it would penalize states that proceeded. 

A federal judge then temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering states to roll back full SNAP payments. On Monday, the administration returned to the Supreme Court in another attempt to halt full funding for food assistance. 

The federal government shutdown, now reaching 41 days, is the longest in U.S. history, but Congress appeared closer than ever to reaching a resolution on Monday. That latest development came after eight senators broke ranks with Democrats and joined Republicans in a vote to fund the government through Jan. 30 Sunday night. The legislation still needs to pass the House in order for the shutdown to end.

About 1 in 8 Mississippians — over 350,000 people — receive food assistance through SNAP. More than 67% of participants are in households with children, and about 41% are in households with older adults or adults with a disability. In four Mississippi counties, over a third of residents rely on the program to purchase food, according to a report from WLBT. 

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has previously said he will not move for Mississippi to bridge the gap in the food assistance program until the federal shutdown ends, even though pediatricians and some state legislators urged the governor to do so. 

“There is sadly no simple way for state government to just step in and pay the hundreds of millions of dollars in harm that this shutdown by the Washington Democrats is causing,” he wrote in a social media post Oct. 27. 

The day before benefits were paused, Reeves requested a waiver from the federal government to restrict the use of food assistance benefits to purchase sugary food and drinks. If approved, the changes would take effect in 2027. 

Other changes to SNAP benefits are set to take effect this month as a result of federal budget legislation President Donald Trump signed into law in July. The law increases the existing work requirement’s upper age limit from 54 to 65 and extends the requirement to people who were previously exempt: veterans, those facing homelessness and young people aging out of foster care. There is still a caregiver exemption, but to qualify, parents must have children younger than 14 — down from age 18.

Recipients do not have to do anything to receive their benefits, according to the press release from the state Department of Human Services. They should ensure all household and requested information is up-to-date, complete and scheduled interviews and register for a ConnectEBT account. 

Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Jackson to take in the sights, sounds and tastes of the 82nd National Folk Festival. The event took place Friday through Sunday, featuring performers in a wide range of musical genres, plus visual arts and food. The National Council for the Traditional Arts works with host communities to produce the festival around the country, and this was the first one in the Deep South. Jackson will host the 83rd and 84th National Folk Festivals in 2026 and 2027. Organizers intend for this to lead to a locally produced festival after the three-year run of the national event.

The U.S Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a Mississippi case involving the counting of mail-in ballots received after Election Day, a case that could have a ripple effect nationwide. 

The justices agreed to take up an appeal from Mississippi after a panel of three judges appointed by President Donald Trump on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the state law allowing ballots that arrive shortly after Election Day to be counted violated federal law.

Mississippi is among 18 states and the District of Columbia that accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long as the ballots are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In this case, the Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi sued Secretary of State Michael Watson, the official who administers elections. They argued that Congress alone can set a date by which voters must make their choice, not individual states.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office is defending Watson in court, arguing that the five-day window after Election Day does not provide additional days for voters to cast a ballot. Rather, it’s simply an extra cushion for election workers to count the ballots. 

“Under federal law, election day is the day for voters to conclusively choose federal officers. Voters make that conclusive choice by casting — marking and submitting — their ballots by election day,” Fitch’s office wrote in court papers. 

The litigation created an unusual scenario where Fitch and Watson, both Republicans, had to fight their own political party in court to defend Mississippi’s law. 

U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., a George W. Bush-appointed judge, initially ruled last year in Gulfport that there was no conflict between the state law and federal laws. But the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit later reversed him. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has not set a date for oral arguments, but it would likely be argued during the spring. The Court would then likely issue a ruling in the summer of 2026.