OurTupelo

The trial over whether the district map drawn to elect multiple DeSoto County officials violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black voting strength is over and now rests on the judge’s ruling.

A federal lawsuit filed in September 2024 says the 2022 DeSoto County electoral map dilutes Black voting power in county office elections. The offices in question are positions on the boards of supervisors, education and election commission, plus the offices of constable and justice court judge.

The two-week trial ended Wednesday in the federal courthouse in Oxford. It is not yet clear when Senior U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson will issue a ruling.

The ACLU of Mississippi, along with the Legal Defense Fund and Harvard Election Law Clinic, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., the DeSoto County NAACP and two voters from the county. The plaintiffs are seeking special elections under a new redistricting plan.

“All voters in Mississippi should have a fair shot at being able to elect who they want to represent them in the state Legislature, in the Mississippi Supreme Court and in DeSoto County,” said Joshua Tom, legal director of ACLU of Mississippi.

The lawsuit was filed against DeSoto County Circuit Clerk Dale Thompson and the DeSoto County Election Commission. The DeSoto County Board of Supervisors, which ultimately adopted the district map, declined to comment.

Mike Hurst, state Republican Party chairman, is representing DeSoto County in the case. Hurst told MPB the case is nothing more than, “Democrats are mad they can’t win an election in DeSoto County because it’s a Republican county.” 

DeSoto County, located just south of Memphis in northwest Mississippi, has been one of the state’s fastest growing counties for years. The Black population of DeSoto also has been growing and now represents more than 30% of the total population of 190,000.

None of the 25 county offices determined by the map is held by a Black person. However, DeSoto County does have a Black sheriff elected countywide, Democratic Black state legislators elected from majority-Black districts and a Black Republican House member elected from a majority-white district. The lawsuit does not impact legislative districts.

This is not the first federal lawsuit in recent years over whether Mississippi’s electoral maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

In 2025, a federal three-judge panel ruled that the map for state legislative elections violated the Voting Rights Act. The panel ordered the state to create three new majority-Black legislative districts and hold special elections.

As a result of the lawsuit, special elections were held in November. One winner of those special elections was Democrat Theresa Gillespie, who became the first Black woman to represent DeSoto County in the state Senate.

Before the special elections, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch appealed the judges’ ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking them to limit who can sue to enforce the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court did not stop the elections from being held under the new legislative maps.

Last year, a federal judge ruled that the current map for electing Mississippi Supreme Court justices dilutes the power of Black voters. The case was appealed to the U.S. 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 5th Circuit has delayed its ruling pending a ruling in a Louisiana case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule later this year on Louisiana v Callais – a case that could weaken or repeal Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which has been federal law since 1965 and has played a key role in the election of minority candidates throughout much of the South.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling could impact the final outcome of the DeSoto County case and the case involving the Mississippi Supreme Court districts.

People who worked closely with Elayne Hayes-Anthony remember her as a devoted educator and pioneering broadcast television journalist who taught and mentored a generation of Mississippi communications professionals. She died Thursday morning.

Hayes-Anthony also achieved numerous firsts during her career. She was the first educator and Black person to serve on the state’s association’s broadcasters board of directors. She was also the first Black woman news anchor on WJTV Channel 12.

For Sen. Hillman Fraizer, a Democrat from Jackson and a classmate of Hayes-Anthony, witnessing her history-making journey spurred immense pride to be from Jackson. 

“She inspired so many young girls and boys who saw that they could go on and do the same thing she did for journalism and communications,” Frazier said. “She is a role model, and folks appreciate her service and dedication to the university.”

Hayes-Anthony was “known for her unwavering commitment to student success and academic excellence,” the university stated in a news release. “She mentored countless aspiring journalists and communications professionals while helping strengthen JSU’s legacy as a leading historically Black university.”

Hayes-Anthony was also “deeply committed” to students’ success and “to the advancement of journalism and media education at Jackson State,” Interim President Denise Jones-Gregory said in a statement. “Her leadership in the classroom, within her department and across the institution helped shape generations of communicators and storytellers.”

Hayes-Anthony grew up in Jackson and graduated from Jim Hill High School. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Jackson State University. She was a television news anchor for four years before earning a doctorate in organizational communication and broadcast law from Southern Illinois University. 

Hayes-Anthony’s roles at Jackson State included serving as head of the Department of Mass Communications.

Her career included teaching at Belhaven University as a tenured professor and serving as the chair of the university’s communications department. She was a member of an education task force appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican who served from 2004 to 2012. Barbour also appointed Hayes-Anthony to the State Board of Health in 2007. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who served from 2012 to 2020, reappointed her to a six-year term in 2013.

Hayes-Anthony “led always with intellect, creativity and integrity,” Dr. Lucius M. Lampton, chairman of the Mississippi Board of Health, said in a statement. “The Board of Health and our agency will miss her gracious presence. I also will miss her dear friendship.”

Longtime journalist Jimmie Gates’, who wrote for the Clarion Ledger for 40 years,  said his memories of Hayes-Anthony began in the classroom. He recalled how, as a communications student at Jackson State University in the late 1970s, he found her passion for journalism and storytelling inspiring. It left an impression on him as he entered the professional world. . 

Almost 40 years after he graduated from the historically Black university, Gates said, Hayes-Anthony remember him from her classroom and praised his work at the Clarion Ledger in front of colleagues and journalists at a regional National Association of Black Journalism conference in 2023. 

Over about 50 years, Hayes-Anthony “has been instrumental at preparing Jackson State students for the professional journalism world,” said Gates, president of the Jackson Association of Black Journalists. “We students, those who have graduated and work locally or in the state, owe her a debt of gratitude. I would not be the professional I am today and I owe that to her. I am truly saddened by her loss.” 

Jackson Mayor John Horhn said in a statement that the city lost a trailblazer who “returned home to pour her knowledge back into this community.” 

“Her leadership at Jackson State, from the classroom to the president’s office, reflected her commitment to excellence,” Horhn said. “Jackson is better because she chose to live, work, and lead here.” 

Attorney Lisa Ross first met Hayes-Anthony as a communications student at Jackson State in the 1980s. As a professor, Hayes-Anthony had high expectations and wouldn’t hesitate to let students know when they didn’t meet them, Ross said. 

Ross started her career as a print journalist in Mississippi, California and Tennessee. She said she often called Hayes-Anthony for job advice. Even after leaving journalism to pursue a career in law, Ross said, she still called Hayes-Anthony for mentorship and motivation. 

“She would work past 5 p.m. to find her students a job or internship. I couldn’t ask for a better friend and constant confidant than Dr. Anthony,” Ross said. “Her former students will work to ensure her contributions are remembered and celebrated.” 

Hayes-Anthony didn’t achieve “her dream” of becoming president of Jackson State, but Ross said she was grateful to witness her serve as the university’s temporary acting president in 2023.

Ronnie Agnew, general manager of New Jersey Advance Media, said his heart dropped when he first heard the news about Hayes-Anthony’s passing. He recalled when Hayes-Anthony first called him asking if her journalism students could tour the Clarion Ledger newsroom when he was the publication’s first Black executive editor.

“That call started a relationship I never knew would go any further beyond that moment,” Agnew said. “From then on, we worked so closely together all the way up until her death.” 

When Agnew left the Clarion Ledger to join Mississippi Public Broadcasting in 2011, Hayes-Anthony, then at Belhaven University, asked him to teach a journalism class as an adjunct professor at the private college in 2014.  That next year, she moved on to Jackson State University, where she asked Agnew to serve as the board chair to the journalism advisory board for eight years. 

“She didn’t settle for anything other than her best,” Agnew said. “That was Elayne. She built the journalism department at Belhaven from scratch. Her legacy and commitment to the craft of journalism, service to her community and students will live on.” 

After months of calls from advocates to reform Mississippi’s opioid settlement distribution process, the state Legislature has proposed changes to better ensure more than $400 million of lawsuit money will be used to prevent overdose deaths. 

The Senate and the House offered bill amendments Tuesday that would change how the state and its local governments can spend about $421 million from lawsuits against some of the country’s largest corporations. The Legislature, with the help of a state advisory council, is distributing most of those funds, but about $63 million of that is going directly to 147 local governments. 

Mississippi joined all other states and the District of Columbia to accuse the drug companies of dangerous business practices that led to unprecedented rates of drug overdose deaths. The state started receiving money in 2022 but spent less of it to address addiction than anywhere else in the U.S.

That spending delay has been caused by multiple issues Mississippi Today investigated over the last year. The newsroom found that Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch allowed for as much money as possible to be spent on issues other than addiction, and local governments were using millions of it on general expenses. Mississippi Today also found that some state advisory council members could benefit from grants they helped assess. 

Mississippians who’ve struggled with addiction, family members of those who died of overdoses and public health experts have decried the way state and local officials managed money paid out for the harm done to those who suffered. 

The amendments in both chambers addressed these issues before an important legislative deadline. In the House Public Health and Human Services Committee meeting, Republican Chairman Sam Creekmore passed an amendment that would shift how local governments could spend the portion they control.

The New Albany lawmaker proposed changing Fitch’s arrangement so that the local governments couldn’t deposit settlement payments into a general expense account and prevent them from using the money on anything other than additional overdose prevention efforts. Creekmore’s amendment prioritizes addiction treatment, harm reduction and recovery efforts for these local dollars.

Additionally, that bill now requires using money Fitch designated for the Legislature’s general fund to contract with a third-party group that can help the state government better distribute hundreds of millions of state dollars. It’s a reform members of the opioid settlement advisory council have called for and Fitch has indicated she’s open to.

The bill still does not require local governments to report their spending. Creekmore told Mississippi Today Wednesday morning should it pass, the third party would ensure they comply with the new rules. 

“We’re honoring people’s lives to save other lives,” Creekmore said. “It’s blood money.” 

On the Senate side Tuesday, Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, also amended a bill addressing Mississippi’s opioid settlement laws. She proposed strengthening the advisory council’s ethics and conflict of interest prevention rules at the Senate Judiciary A Committee meeting, reviving language from a bill that died earlier in the legislative session.

Boyd’s reforms also include giving the Legislature more authority to override recommendations from the advisory council, a power Tricia Christensen, an opioid settlement expert, cautioned lawmakers against using. Boyd did not respond to calls and voicemail asking about her amendment. 

Fitch’s office has not responded to multiple emails asking for her thoughts about possible opioid settlement legislative reforms since the session began in January. 

Creekmore said he expects himself, Boyd and four other state lawmakers to iron out the details of House and Senate proposals during a conference committee meeting later this month. He said he hasn’t had much communication with senators about this bill, but he thinks they’ll be amenable to his proposals. 

Creekmore said he may also suggest more changes before trying to send the legislation to the Governor’s desk.

“The bill’s got a lot of work still to be done.”

A federal appeals court has declined to reverse the bribery conviction of former Hinds County interim sheriff Marshand Crisler. 

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court affirmed his conviction. A U.S. District Court jury convicted Crisler of accepting bribes and providing ammunition to a convicted felon. The court sentenced him to 2 ½ years, which Crisler is serving at FCI Beckley in West Virginia. 

He is expected to be released next year. 

The charges stem from his 2021 campaign for Hinds County sheriff. Crisler had been serving as the interim leader and was up against a dozen candidates who vied to fill the position after the death of Lee Vance. 

Federal prosecutors said Crisler accepted $9,500 worth of bribes in exchange for favors for a former campaign supporter. That man, Tonarri Moore, testified at Crisler’s trial where it was revealed that he had been working with the FBI as an informant. Moore recorded conversations from in-person meetings and phone calls that were used as evidence against Crisler. 

In his appeal, Crisler argued the federal government played on his relationship with Moore to entrap him and alleged the FBI directed Moore to get Crisler to accept bribes using money that agents provided. The 5th Circuit panel rejected the entrapment argument. 

“By instructing Moore to approach Crisler, the government did no more than provide him with an opportunity to commit the crimes at issue here,” the court wrote. 

The appeals court said trial evidence demonstrated he was “ready and willing” to participate when he asked Moore for campaign money during their first meeting, continued to meet with Moore and told the man multiple times how much money he wanted. 

Federal agents began investigating Crisler in September 2021 when Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided Moore’s home and found drugs and firearms. An FBI agent called to the home went through Moore’s phone and saw Crisler had called a day earlier. 

That was when the agent asked if Moore was bribing Crisler. Moore said no, so the agent asked  if he would do it. Moore agreed and wore a wire to meetings with Crisler in Jackson and around Hinds County. 

Between September and November 2021, Moore made several requests of Crisler and money was exchanged. He asked Crisler to move a cousin to a different part of the Hinds County Detention Center, to get Moore a job with the sheriff’s office and to let Moore know if law enforcement was looking into him, according to trial testimony and court records. 

“There was ample evidence supporting the jury’s conclusion that these were promises to be influenced or rewarded in connection with Crisler’s official business,” the court wrote. 

Moore was sentenced by the same district court to four years in prison for being a felon in possession of ammunition. He also appealed his conviction, which was denied by the same appeals court last year. Moore is also expected to be released next year. 

A south Mississippi lawmaker who proposed legislation aimed at getting firearms out of the hands of domestic violence abusers chose not to bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate in the face of opposition from the National Rifle Association.

The bill is dead this session, but Sen. Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, has vowed to try again next year.

On the Senate floor, he moved on Feb. 12 without a single senator asking why to have his bill recommitted to the Judiciary B Committee, noting he was aware members of the chamber had received an alert from the NRA about the legislation. The NRA-ILA, the organization’s lobbying arm, also posted about his bill earlier that week, encouraging people to contact their Mississippi senator to oppose it. 

Wiggins said he has been an NRA member and that he votes for every Second Amendment bill that comes through the state Legislature. But he said the gun lobby’s action and opposition of the legislation shows how there’s been a loss of common sense.

Senate Bill 2339 would have criminalized firearm and ammunition possession for people who are the subject of a domestic violence protection order, bringing state law in line with federal law. The bill also would have removed guns and ammunition from people convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors. 

“This bill is for and supported by domestic violence survivors, advocates and people who understand that domestic violence is an epidemic in the state of Mississippi,” Wiggins said on the Senate floor in February.  

To punctuate that point, he said the state has the highest overall gun death in the country. 

The same morning the bill died, Pearl police responded to a call at a home where a man assaulted a woman, leading to an hours-long standoff. After using a breaching tool to get inside and arrest the man, SWAT team members found 10 firearms. 

Wiggins also cited statistics gathered by Mississippi Today showing that at least 300 Mississippians, including victims, abusers, law enforcement and children – died from domestic violence incidents between 2020 and 2024. Most of them involved firearms. 

He said the bill was based on a 2024 decision in USA v. Rahimi. In an 8-to-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found there is a longstanding tradition of temporarily disarming those who pose a credible threat to others, as long as there is due process. The high court also ruled doing so did not violate the Second Amendment. 

The court includes three justices appointed by President Donald Trump, Wiggins noted, and the court reversed a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is known as one of the most conservative in the nation. 

Over 30 states have laws prohibiting gun possession for those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors, according to the Giffords Law Center, an organization led by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who survived a shooting assassination attempt. 

State lawmakers failed to take action on most domestic violence legislation this session, including several that sought to establish a public online system displaying information about people convicted of two or more domestic violence offenses. Meanwhile, Mississippi residents continue to die or be injured in domestic violence incidents, especially those involving firearms. 

Since the beginning of the year, nearly a dozen people have died in domestic violence incidents, which includes violence between people in relationships with each other and family members, according to records tracked by Mississippi Today. 

People also continue to file domestic abuse protection orders. In the first two months of the year, at least eight people have asked for protection from domestic abuse in Hinds County, according to a count of petitions and orders from justice court reviewed by Mississippi Today. 

A Hinds County Justice Court judge granted an emergency, 10-day protective order for a woman who sought protection from her husband’s grandson. The young man said he had a gun and threatened to shoot her in the head, according to the petition. 

“We need to have this discussion in Mississippi,” Wiggins said. “We’re going to work — at least I am – to get us something that could actually be good for the citizens of Mississippi and not violate (the Second Amendment).” 

A new data center is being proposed for Clinton. 

The mayor and Board of Aldermen approved a tax incentive agreement with an undisclosed company during a special meeting in January. Residents have only recently become aware of the proposal, prompting them to voice questions and concerns on social media.

Data center proposals are popping up across Mississippi and the Southeast. Residents across the state are expressing concern about the secrecy that often surrounds these projects, and whether the massive consumers of electricity and water would increase costs to consumers or increase air and water pollution. 

There are at least six Mississippi data center projects in the works, including the Clinton site, which would be located on Industrial Park Road. City leaders said it is expected to bring a minimum investment of $750 million and create at least 50 jobs, but they said the investment could end up being much higher. 

In a statement, the city said it would be the “largest economic development in the history of the city and Hinds County.” But the Continental Tire plant that opened in Clinton in 2019 was expected to eventually bring a $1.4-billion investment and create 2,500 jobs.

The city said the data center company is not being named at this time because of ongoing negotiations. While this is common in economic development to protect trade secrets, business strategy or sensitive financials, there has been growing concern across the country about the use of non-disclosure agreements between local governments and data centers.

Entergy would be providing power to the Clinton data center, according to the city, unlike an xAI data center being built in Southaven. Elon Musk’s xAI has faced considerable community pushback over its plans to build a data center and a power plant to generate its own electricity. xAI is currently operating turbines temporarily in Southaven, which plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit say are illegally emitting pollutants. 

The proposed Clinton site in the 1970s was used as a wiring plant but closed in 2009, resulting in 280 workers being laid off. It then became home to a Milwaukee Tool plant from 2021 to 2023. The property is currently owned by CHC Investments LLC of Pearl, according to records from the Mississippi secretary of state.

Clinton Mayor Will Purdie told Mississippi Today that while data centers have been implemented poorly in other places, he believes this project will be different. 

Like many data centers in Mississippi, the Clinton project would receive a break on its local property taxes as part of a fee-in-lieu of taxes agreement. Even with the reduction, Purdie said that the new project would generate millions of tax dollars for the city and county and millions more that would go directly to the Clinton Public School District.

During a regular Board of Aldermen meeting on Tuesday night, Purdie acknowledged that the project had “generated considerable public interest” and read a statement on behalf of the city addressing concerns over electricity, pollution or lack of economic benefit.  

“While many of the concerns raised are certainly understandable, particularly in light of situations in other places, please rest assured that the top priority of everyone in city government is, and always will be, our citizens,” the statement said.

While the data center was not on the agenda, nor was time allotted for public comment, Purdie encouraged residents to attend an upcoming work session. The next one planned by the mayor and board is scheduled for March 16. 

The Senate Energy Committee has advanced a bill that would place Jackson’s water and sewer systems under a separate utility authority. The Senate’s version of the bill passed Tuesday, though, removes the city’s majority control of the authority’s board.

Last month, the House passed a bill to create a “Metro Jackson Water Authority” to run the city’s water and sewer systems through a nine-member board. The board makeup in that version was:

• Jackson’s mayor.
• Two at-large appointees, who live or work in the service area, selected by Jackson’s mayor and subject to Jackson City Council confirmation.
• One recommended member each from the mayors of Ridgeland and Byram. Jackson’s mayor would appoint those two subject to Jackson City Council confirmation.
• Two at-large appointees from the governor who live or work in the service area.
• One at-large appointee, who lives or works in the service area, from the lieutenant governor.
• The president, or a designee, of the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce.

But in the Senate committee’s version, the mayors of Ridgeland and Byram would make direct appointees to the board, rather than have them screened by Jackson’s mayor and City Council. The new version also replaces the Chamber of Commerce appointee with another named by the governor with advice from the Jackson mayor. That appointee would also need approval from the state Senate.

Sen. Joel Carter, a Republican from Gulfport and chair of the Energy Committee, said Ridgeland and Byram —which receive sewer and water service from Jackson, respectively — deserve better representation than they had in the House bill.

“If they appoint someone but it’s at the (Jackson) mayor’s discretion, that’s not a true representation of that area,” Carter said, adding he also wasn’t comfortable with the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce having a seat.

During the House vote, Rep. Fabian Nelson, a Democrat from Byram, asked for an amendment to give Byram and Ridgeland direct appointments, but his colleagues on the floor voted against the change.

The new version of the bill, however, includes a “reverse repealer.” In other words, even if both chambers approve the proposal, select House and Senate leaders would have to revisit the bill later in the legislative session, which is set to end in early April.

Notably, the Senate version gives Jackson city officials direct power over only three board seats, down from five in the House version. After Tuesday’s committee meeting, Jackson Mayor John Horhn said the bill was still a work in progress and continued to push for the city having a majority of appointees.

“We own the asset,” Horhn said, adding the city would be responsible for any debt should the authority face funding shortfalls.

Despite his committee’s changes, Carter suggested during Tuesday’s meeting that such a bill was the only path forward for Jackson’s water and sewer systems.

“We’re at a position now where the (Jackson) City Council has two options, as I see it: one is bankruptcy, and one is they can work with us and we can pass this bill,” he said, explaining that if the city isn’t able to maintain payments for its roughly $200 million in water and sewer debt, it could see lenders seize Jackson’s assets.

After the meeting, the senator emphasized that the bill is still a “work in progress,” and that lawmakers will have to “work through” disagreements with the city over the board makeup.

The changes to the bill Tuesday also included the number of board votes required to increase rates or approve spending over $5 million. The authority would now just need a two-thirds board approval, rather than three-quarters as written in the House version.

JXN Water’s Ted Henifin, the interim manager of the city’s water and sewer systems, criticized the House version of the bill in a Mississippi Free Press story last week. Among other comments, Henifin pointed to the city’s ability to vote down a rate increase through their board appointees, delaying necessary water and sewer investments.

In response to the article, the city of Jackson called out the manager for “placing his thumb on the scale to kill” the proposed legislation.

“Jackson families are being asked to pay higher bills into a system that JXN Water itself describes as insolvent, with little say and limited transparency about where their money goes,” the city’s statement said. “It should surprise no one that a man who is currently cutting and managing the contracts under this fragile setup is uncomfortable with legislation that would force accountability and public oversight.”

Defense attorneys for Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. asked a federal judge to let the jury hear a radio spot the former pro wrestler recorded with another celebrity enmeshed in Mississippi’s sprawling welfare scandal – Brett Favre. 

“One thing I’m excited about is now meeting all these Mississippians who have had success and now are using their platforms to help,” DiBiase said in the undated clip after introducing the NFL legend and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback. “It’s being responsible and a good steward of what we’ve been given.” 

Around the time of the recording, DiBiase was receiving millions of Mississippi welfare dollars meant to alleviate or prevent poverty in the poorest state in the nation. The defense argued Tuesday that the spot is one piece of evidence of the work DiBiase conducted in a good-faith effort to fulfill his role as an independent contractor for nonprofit organizations working with the dysfunctional welfare agency. 

The prosecution, meanwhile, has described such efforts as falling outside the scope of services for “sham” contracts the wrestler received to provide temporary food assistance in north Mississippi and leadership training services. 

DiBiase is the only defendant to face a criminal trial in Mississippi’s welfare scandal, though seven people have pleaded guilty. He is being tried on federal charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, theft and money laundering.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves asked attorneys questions about how the recording could be authenticated. He ultimately ruled that the jury would not hear it, and DiBiase’s mother responded by thwacking a notebook on the courtroom bench where she was sitting. The defense continued to reference the recording as it completed its cross-examination of Nancy New. 

New was the founder of Mississippi Community Education Center, which was one of two nonprofits deputized by the head of MDHS from 2016 to 2019, John Davis, to take over some of the agency’s functions. They called their partnership Families First for Mississippi.

Davis and New both pleaded guilty to their roles in the welfare fraud scheme in 2022. Prosecutors alleged that Davis contracted with New’s organization with the understanding she would fund his desires.

One such wish, New testified, was the contracts with DiBiase. She also described various examples of work she saw DiBiase complete: A SuperTalk radio spot, a commercial filmed at Nissan and trucking company KLLM, an hour-long talk at a Families First conference in northeast Mississippi on “significance versus success.” 

New said she reviewed DiBiase’s unfinished Law of 16 curriculum, a self-help program he was designing with Davis. She talked about a teen rally in the Mississippi Delta where DiBiase spoke. 

“He always showed up and did all of that work for me,” she said. 

But when the prosecution asked New if that work fell within the “scope of services” of the contract DiBiase signed, she paused before finally concluding it did not.  

The defense repeatedly asked New to talk about how DiBiase contributed to the “sustainability” of New’s nonprofit by connecting her with donors and attending meetings across the country. This was part of DiBiase’s nebulous role as “director of sustainable change.” 

The organization New rapidly built at Davis’s direction was anything but sustainable, she testified. New, a former teacher, said Davis picked her nonprofit without a competitive application process and directed her to “immediately” begin expanding services into dozens of counties in the southern half of Mississippi. 

In a matter of years, the nonprofit’s revenue grew from about a couple million dollars to over $20 million due to its welfare agreements.

Despite Davis’s pushing, New said she received no template or plan from MDHS. As she tried to scale, she said she lost sight of her nonprofit’s original goal – to provide educational services. 

“If we could’ve slowed down, it could’ve been a better foundation,” New said. “It was a great program. It would’ve changed Mississippi in a positive way.” 

Davis – whom the prosecution and defense both asserted was the true “villain” of the DiBiase case – always wanted to get his way, New said. Early on in the formation of Families First, New said she dared to disagree with him, though she did not say about what. 

“I was labeled as a troublemaker and I was kind of alienated from the group of leaders at the time,” she said. 

Davis told her to leave meetings, New said. He would threaten to cut their funding. 

“One time he gave us money and then he took it back, but then he gave it back,” she said. 

New’s testimony was more succinct than that of her counterpart, Christi Webb, the former director of the now-defunct Family Resource Center of North Mississippi who described Davis as a bully who would cry or yell at people until they did what he wanted. 

“I would say he’s truly an enigma,” New said of Davis. “I don’t want to be wishy-washy. He came across as very demanding and as a tyrant. It was going to be his way or no way. There were good sides of him, as well.” 

The defense asked New if she trusted Davis’ leadership. 

“He had great, he had grandiose ideas,” she answered. “Trust? I don’t know if I’d use the word trust.” 

One of those ideas, New said, included directing Mississippi Community Education Center, or MCEC, to provide $10,000 to a movie theater to premier a film about DiBiase’s father, Ted DiBiase, the famed retired heel of the WWE known as the “Million Dollar Man.”

U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Adrienne Rosen asked if there was anything about the movie that “meets MCEC’s goals”

“I think – I’m trying to be very honest and clear here,” New said. “I think for people who saw the movie who may have thought they could not accomplish certain things in life, it was an encouragement there. As far as our day-to-day goals, I don’t recall those, no.” 

But would she have funded the movie without Davis’ orders? 

“We would not have known to do that,” New said.

The trial is set to restart March 16. 

A team from Mississippi Today and The New York Times is a finalist for the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism for reporting about brutality in a Mississippi jail where guards used some inmates to carry out attacks on others.

The Ethics and Journalism Initiative at New York University announced nine finalists Wednesday for work published from 2024 to 2025. Three finalists were named in each of three reporting categories – student, local and national/international.

The work of Mississippi Today and The Times is a finalist in the local category.

The Collier Awards “honor journalism that meets the highest ethical standards in the face of pressure or incentives to do otherwise,” the initiative said in its announcement.

“Why practice ethical journalism when we are vilified for even our best work and when political leaders pressure news owners and their reporters to self-censor?” Stephen J. Adler, founder and director of the Ethics and Journalism Initiative, said in the announcement. “Simply because ethical journalism is stronger, more reliable journalism, reflecting our aspirations to provide the public with fair and accurate information and to hold our leaders to account.”

First, second and third prizes will be announced April 15 at the Paley Center for Media in New York. The finalists, in alphabetical order by category, are: 

Student Category: 

• New York University students Krish Dev and Dharma Niles for their breaking news and data reporting for the Washington Square News on a March 2025 cyberattack that revealed the private information of more than 3 million NYU applicants, students and alumni.
• University of Texas Dallas students Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez, Sherlyn Dominguez, and Tyler Crivella for their data-driven investigation for the independent student publication The Retrograde into UTD’s low rates of action on Title IX cases, amid restrictive gag order policies. 
• Stanford University student Anna Yang for her searing account of a Stanford assault survivor’s journey through a protracted two-year Title IX process while their perpetrator faced criminal charges, for The Stanford Daily.

Local Category: 

• The Miami Herald/The Tampa Bay Times for their reporting on the detention and harsh treatment of immigrants at the South Florida facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
• Mississippi Today/The New York Times for their investigation of the Rankin County jail in which guards enlist prisoners to carry out violent attacks on other inmates in the guise of “enforcement.”
• The Record (New Jersey) for its reporting on widespread abuse and neglect in New Jersey’s $1.5 billion group home system for adults with developmental disabilities.  

National/International Category: 

• NBC News and Telemundo for their year-long investigation of the secretive and unregulated trade in body parts, in which a Texas academic health center provided researchers and medical technology companies with the corpses of poor, unhoused, mentally ill, and other vulnerable people without the knowledge or consent of their families.
• The Associated Press for its unyielding defense of ethical standards and principles after AP journalists were blocked from the Oval Office, Air Force One and certain news events because the news organization would not change its style on the Gulf of Mexico.  
• The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg for his intrepid reporting on national security officials, including U.S. Defense Department Secretary Pete Hegseth, using the Signal app to discuss highly sensitive details of an impending strike on Houthi militants in Yemen. 

The Mississippi Today/Times reporting is also the recipient of the First Amendment Coalition’s 2025 Free Speech and Open Government Award, which recognizes journalism that advances free expression or the public’s right to know about its government.

HATTIESBURG — National recognition has come ever so slowly for Southern Miss baseball. Year after year, season after season, the Golden Eagles win 40 games and make an NCAA Regional, often hosting. 

Season after season, they play an arduous non-conference schedule, packed with SEC rivals, and more than hold their own. They dominated Conference USA. They are pretty much dominating the Sun Belt, by far the best so-called mid-major league in the land. 

The Golden Eagles have won 40 or more games nine consecutive seasons. Nobody else in the nation has done that. Nobody. Only the Arkansas Razorbacks have done it eight times. For the last nine full seasons, Southern Miss has averaged 44 games per. That’s remarkable. That’s consistency, too. That is, as the big sign behind the left field fence at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field tells visitors, “A Tradition of Excellence.”

And yet, every season, until this one, they have begun outside of the national college baseball polls looking in. Every season, until this one, they have had to win their way into the polls, which they have done consistently. This year, finally, USM began the season ranked – and has steadily climbed into the Top 10 of several of the most recognized polls.

Here Tuesday night, before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 5,700, the Golden Eagles sent another message to the rest of the college world, knocking off No. 4 Mississippi State, an exceptionally talented team, 7-6, in an exceptionally entertaining game. 

It was the Eagles’ 11th straight victory after losing their opener to perhaps the best pitcher in college baseball. They have achieved that record against the most difficult schedule any team in the nation has played. 

Finally, the national college baseball pundits are taking notice, perhaps grudgingly. I say that because if the Eagles were wearing an SEC patch on their jerseys, they’d surely be rated even higher than they are now. Put it this way: Mississippi State, 11-2 vs. the nation’s 108th most difficult schedule, came into Tuesday night’s game ranked No. 4. Southern Miss, 11-1 against the No. 1 most difficult schedule, ranked as high as No. 8 and as low as No. 12 in the most recognized national polls.

It’s not just State. Auburn, 10-2 vs. the 109th most difficult schedule, is ranked No. 7. Arkansas, 10-3 against the 110th most difficult schedule, also ranks ahead of USM in the polls.

What can Southern Miss do to change that? Only one thing: keep winning. Win all the way to Omaha and the College World Series. And then win there.

Back in February, Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco was asked by The Athletic, what team might surprise everyone in 2025. This is what he said: “They certainly have gotten a lot more publicity in the last maybe five years, but people probably nationally don’t talk enough about Southern Miss — just how consistently good they are. And it’s almost a backhanded compliment to say for a mid-major, but they don’t play like that. They host (Regionals and Super Regionals), they do everything that everybody else does from a Power 4 standpoint. But they are probably the best team over maybe the last four or five years that hasn’t been in Omaha.”

Interestingly, Ole Miss and Bianco kept USM from going to Omaha in 2022 when the Rebels swept a Super Regional at Hattiesburg en route to the national championship. Just as interestingly, the Rebels surely would have not gotten into the NCAA Tournament that season if not for a late-season victory in Hattiesburg, which boosted the Rebs’ RPI.

Other SEC coaches have experienced USM’s baseball excellence first-hand. Auburn’s Butch Thompson, saw it in 2023 when the Golden Eagles went to The Plains and won the Auburn Regional. LSU’s Jay Johnson saw it in 2022 when his first Tiger team played in an NCAA Regional in Hattiesburg. USM won three straight games over 27 hours, beating LSU twice, to win the title. Alabama’s Rob Vaughn saw it just last week when the Crimson Tide came to Hattiesburg and was run-ruled, 14-4, by the Eagles. State’s Brian O’Connor saw it Tuesday night, calling Southern Miss “a really great ball club” with “an excellent pitching staff.”

As any seasoned college baseball observer will tell you, it’s all about getting hot at the right time and that right time is late May and June. Being hot in February and March – as the Eagles surely are – will get you pats on the back but no trophies, no tickets to Omaha. 

That said, these Eagles surely have the potential to reach Omaha and win a championship. They have the pitching arms. They have a veteran lineup. They are deep, with several excellent players watching from the dugout most nights. Against State, Christian Ostrander kept trotting out true freshman pitchers, throwing mid-90’s fast balls with excellent breaking stuff. He used nine pitchers in all, five – count ‘em, five, freshmen. There are 26 pitchers on the USM roster. Few teams in college baseball have such pitching depth, which is what the post-season demands. 

Slick-fielding third baseman Drey Barrett, just a sophomore, struck the game’s biggest blow, a mammoth, 450-foot, three-run home run over the center field wall. There are no easy outs in this USM lineup. Thus far, they counter-punch every time they get punched in the mouth. After losing a 5-0 lead and falling behind, they responded once again against State.

Again, it’s a long road to Omaha and there will be sharp curves and potholes along the way. It’s baseball. That’s the nature of the game. The Eagles could lose to Nicholls on Wednesday night (as they did last season) and to North Alabama this weekend. But the guess here is that Ostrander’s third Southern Miss team is in the national picture for the long haul. The Eagles surely have that look about them.