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BILOXI – Mississippi Today journalists received some of the top awards in the Mississippi Press Association’s 2025 Better News Media Contest, with winners announced Saturday during the association’s annual meeting.

Michael Goldberg and Gwen Dilworth received the Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Journalism (all multi-day publications) for “Behind Bars, Beyond Care,” a series about problems with the health care system in Mississippi prisons. 

Dilworth received the Bill Minor Prize for General News Reporting (all multi-day publications) for  “Quick surgeries, scars and facelifts that fade: Complaints pile up about Jackson plastic surgeon.” 

Allen Siegler received the Daniel M. Phillips Freedom of Information Award (all publications) for his series, “The Black Box: Inside Mississippi’s opioid settlement spending.” Judge’s comment: “A powerful indictment of Mississippi’s handling of millions of dollars in opioid settlement at the state and local levels. Well written and deeply sourced.”

Mississippi Today competed in Class A, the largest division, for newspapers and news sites that publish multiple days each week. Mississippi Today journalists received these first place awards:

– General News Story: Dilworth for “Quick surgeries, scars and facelifts that fade: Complaints pile up about Jackson plastic surgeon.” Judge’s comment: “A well written, well reported and comprehensive report.” 

– In-Depth Investigative Coverage: Goldberg and Dilworth for “Behind Bars, Beyond Care.” Judge’s comment: “Well, this is outstanding journalism. The treatment of people under care of state government is reprehensible. These stories do an excellent job of exposing state-sponsored health care corruption. It’s about politics, accountability and human suffering. There are precise and horrifying examples. … This is terrific reporting.”

– Business News Story: Molly Minta for “‘We shall see’: Plasma donation center hailed as sign of ‘revitalization’ remains but a lifeline for residents with few job prospects.” Judge’s comment: “An off beat, well told business story. Lots of detail, beautifully written, multiple sources and voices.”

– Sports Column: Rick Cleveland for “Egg Bowl week begins as Kiffin’s run at Ole Miss appears to be at end.” Judge’s comment: “Your analogy is good, and the way you set out your points is smooth and effective. Your knowledge is consistently displayed.”

– Best News Package: Alex Rozier for “Coast moved toward resilience since Katrina, but insurance is a lingering ‘disaster.” Judge’s comment: “A well-written and reported story brought to life with strong photos and robust graphics.” Photos were by Vickie King.

– Editorials: Bobby Harrison for three pieces: “Remember what we are celebrating on the Fourth of July,” “Shocker! All six lawmakers appointed to finalize the bill banning Mississippi DEI are white,” and “Vouchers to Mississippi schools teaching Christian values are OK, but what if other values are taught?” Judge’s comment: “These are comprehensive editorials on important topics – the shame of thin-skinned public officials, bizarre and unfair conference committee appointments by the majority party and private schools want public funding but not public accountability. … The editorials clearly outline problems and offer solutions.”

– Best Use of Social Media (all multiday publications): ”In a brutal Mississippi jail, inmates say they were enlisted as enforcers” with work by Richard Lake, Mukta Joshi, Nate Rosenfield, Brian Howey and Jerry Mitchell. Judge’s comment: “Exceptional use of social media to push an important story. Incredible engagement numbers.”

Mississippi Today journalists also received other recognition:

– Siegler received second place for the A-Mark Prize for Freedom of Information Reporting for “The Black Box.”

– In-Depth Investigative Coverage: Goldberg and Taylor Vance, second place for “House Speaker Jason White, staff treated to Super Bowl by gambling giant pushing for legalized betting.” Siegler, honorable mention for “The Black Box.”

– Business News Story: Rozier for “’A real twisted animal’ in Holly Springs: What’s next for the spiraling power provider”; Molly Minta, honorable mention for “Setting the runway or flying the plane in Jackson’s economic development department.”

– Commentary Column: Geoff Pender, second place for “‘That’s not governing’: Most lawmakers don’t know what they passed in secret, $7 billion budget.”

– Feature Story: Leonardo Bevilacqua, honorable mention for “Running the ball with the winningest Delta football team.”

– General News Photograph: King, third place for “102-year-old Goodman man says key to life ‘is love one another.’”

– Spot News Photograph: Eric Shelton, third place for “The 82nd National Folk Festival.”

– Pictorial Series: Shelton, honorable mention for “THEE homecoming parade brings music and joy for Jackson State fans.” 

– Best News Package: Minta, second place for “Regulators say Jackson’s Rebelwood is habitable despite mold, leaks faulty electricity – and lots of bullet holes.”

– Lede: Bevilacqua and Mina Corpuz, second place for “‘I could see the bodies dropping’: Mississippi communities are shaken by shootings at homecoming events.”

– Use of Online Video (all multiday publications): Mississippi Today, third place for “In a brutal Mississippi jail, inmates say they were listed as enforcers,” with work by Lake, Joshi, Rosenfield, Howey and Mitchell.

– Best Use of Social Media (all multiday publications): Mississippi Today, second place for “Opioid Settlement Spending,” with work by Lake and Siegler.

– Community Service Award (all multiday publications): Mississippi Today, third place for “Mississippi Today Health Resource Guide,” a project led by Kate Royals.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Mississippi law in a ruling that will allow more than a dozen states to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. This deals a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to federalize state elections and limit mail-in ballot counting. 

The nation’s highest court ruled 5-4 in favor of Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, who was forced to defend the lawsuit as the administrator of the state’s elections. The state Legislature enacted a law in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to give voters a grace period for mailing their ballots. 

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, said federal law only requires voters to cast their ballots by Election Day, but it does not require election officials to receive the ballots by that date.

“In sum, the election-day statutes require the electorate’s choice to be made on election day,” Barrett wrote. “That occurs so long as election day is the deadline for individuals to vote — as it is in Mississippi.”

READ MORE: U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Mississippi mail-in ballots case

In 2024, the Mississippi Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, a Mississippi voter and a county election official filed the federal lawsuit challenging the five-day window. The state Libertarian Party filed a similar lawsuit a few weeks later, which was combined with the first. 

The parties argued that the state law conflicted with the federal law setting the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the “election day.”

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 and federal laws. But a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed him, and the full court declined to rehear the case.

Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office defended the state in court and told Mississippi Today in a statement that, since the Supreme Court affirmed the principle of federalism, she is hopeful that the Mississippi Legislature will now amend the state law that prompted the litigation and “require absentee ballots be received on the same day ballots are cast at the polling place.”

“President Trump is right to prioritize improving public trust in our elections,” Fitch said.

Fitch was defending the position of Republican Watson against the national Republican Party. In a statement, Watson said the ruling confirms that laws regulating voting are to be made by Congress or, in its absence, state legislatures.

“While I oppose the practice of counting ballots received after Election Day, the principle of federalism is a core tenet of my conservatism,” Watson said. “I deeply value the rights of states to govern themselves, including the administration of elections, so long as they do not conflict with federal law.”

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves also called on the Legislature to change the law during the next legislative session and said he disagrees with the court’s decision.

“But just because the Court ruled the practice constitutional, doesn’t mean we should allow it in our state,” Reeves said.

Jade Craig, an assistant professor of law at the University of Mississippi, called the court’s decision “a win for states’ rights and democracy in terms of states having the authority to set their own voting parameters.”

“It is a real relief and a great achievement for Mississippi and all the states that have similar laws that provide for mail-in voting,” Craig said.

Craig said it was a surprise that a Mississippi voting law was challenged, seemingly setting up an intraparty conflict between Republican state officials and the national party. But the decision establishes that both red and blue states have “a shared set of problems that the Court is responsible for addressing in ways that are equitable across the country,” Craig said.

Bradley Heard, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said “common sense prevailed today.”

“When a voter mails a ballot postmarked by Election Day and it arrives within the allotted window of time, they have done what the law requires — laws which have been on the books since as early as the Civil War. Votes cast by mail are valid votes, and all valid votes should be counted,” Heard said.

In an emailed statement, Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters accused Democrats of “inviting chaos at the ballot box” and urged Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, a Trump-backed proposal that Republicans say will improve election integrity.

“Republicans are not going to be deterred by this decision, and the RNC will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day as Americans want,” Gruters said.

Jackson is Mississippi’s largest city but aside from a few clubs and bars, it has relatively few places for LGBTQ+ people to gather.

However, Michael Montgomery said he thinks a new group that he joined, the Jackson Gay Men’s Chorus, is helping create a new safe space. 

“Its nice to find a place to be around queer people and gay people that doesn’t involve just clubbing and drinking,” said Montgomery, one of the bass singers. “It’s just a general creative space to be with people, which is nice.” 

The choir, which formed in October, aims to unite LGBTQ+ people and allies over their love of music. 

“This is something really exciting to be public with,” the group’s artistic director and conductor Henry Waters said.

Members of the choir voiced their appreciation for the organization. Jay Barnhart, a member of the choir’s advisory council, said the group provides an outlet to those seeking it. Karen Grave — whose son Timothy sings in the choir — said the two drive from Hattiesburg to participate, calling it an awesome experience. 

The organization was founded by a few members who would eventually evolve into the advisory council. The group continued to convene over the next few months as they searched for a pianist and conductor. 

In their search, the choir would land on Broadmeadow United Methodist Church as their place of practice. The congregation is known in the local community as LGBTQ+ affirming, and Waters told Mississippi Today it is thrilling to work with a church that was at the forefront of inclusivity.

“They’re one of the first reconciling ministries in the state of Mississippi,” Waters said. “And really, one in the South.”

According to a 2023 study by the Williams Institute, 4.1% of Mississippi adults identify as LGBTQ+. While an estimated 93,000 residents identify as LGBTQ+, Mississippi only has two fully reconciling United Methodist churches: Broadmeadow and Hattiesburg’s Court Street in The Grove.

A reconciling United Methodist church is a congregation that has voted to openly welcome LGBTQ+ people. Broadmeadow reconciled in March 2020, becoming the first church in the state to do so. 

The Rev. Sue Hyland previously served at Court Street and now preaches part time at Broadmeadow. Hyland told Mississippi Today that when the chorus approached the United Methodist Board about using the church for practices, it was a unanimous yes.

“People were excited, like, we can’t wait to get them in here,” Hyland said. “So it was a very easy yes for our whole board that kind of runs everything.”

The choir held its first practice in January with 10 members. Since then, the group has more than doubled to 24 active members. 

The chorus currently schedules two concerts a year, one in the spring and fall. The group held its debut concert “Home is Where the Song Begins” on June 14 at Broadmeadow, singing a traditional choral literature with a mixture of other arrangements such as “Home” by Alan Billingsley. The show sold 230 tickets. Advisory council member and initial founder Glenn Gregory said the experience was full of emotion and love.

“The response after the concert when we walked out into the crowd was just amazing. So many people just were so moved by the voices, the harmony, the songs that Henry put together, just the way the whole concert was tied together,” Gregory said. “We’ve had so many people reach out to us in the two days after the concert just thanking us.”

One of those 230 attendees was Rob Hill, who said he was proud of the group and impressed by their voices.

“It was definitely inspirational,” Hill said. “I honestly got goosebumps and might have even shed a tear.”

Hill served as Broadmeadow’s first gay pastor from 2004 to 2014. Despite not being out at the time, Hill told Mississippi Today that his sexuality was an open secret and the congregation never voiced issues with it. 

In his time at Broadmeadow, Hill helped to diversify the church’s congregation, inviting new LGBTQ+ couples who had moved to the area to join the church. In his later years, talks of reconciliation stalled as members didn’t want to draw attention to the church or Hill himself, out of fear of backlash. 

“I think I was probably on some level concerned myself, but I knew it was the right thing to do at the end of the day,” Hill said. “I wanted the church to really, honestly be boldly affirming and to say that, and I think at that point we were really ready to go there.”

Plans are underway for the group’s fall concert. In the offseason between concerts, the choir plans to continue to do smaller performances, such as their appearance during Jackson’s Trans Day of Visibility event in April. 

Advisory council member Rick Gregory told Mississippi Today that the chorus has been receiving inquiries since auditions opened for their fall concert on June 15.

“We’ve already had two people upload their audition videos,” Gregory said. “But we just got it on our website, so it’s still pretty early, but to have two within that short period of time is a good sign.” 

Waters urged those who want to audition for the chorus to reach out via social media or visit the group’s website.

Fourth grade literacy gains earned Mississippi national acclaim. But that achievement tapers off as students advance to higher grades. 

Lawmakers are putting millions toward changing that. 

Mississippi has seen the least progress across subject areas in eighth grade reading scores, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and performs near the bottom compared to the rest of the country. 

This gap has long concerned lawmakers, who in large part chalk those fourth-grade gains up to the 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, a state law that raised literacy standards and established a reading “gate,” a test that third graders have to pass to advance to fourth grade. 

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 2294 this past session in an attempt to extend the state’s reading gains. The legislation established several classroom initiatives in Mississippi, including expanding initiatives in the state’s existing literacy act into higher grades.

Senate Bill 2294 directs $9 million toward the Adolescent Literacy Initiative, which will fund literacy coaches in districts across the state starting this school year. The initiative ramps up literacy education for fourth through eighth grade students, including introducing assessments throughout the year to gauge how well students are keeping up with reading benchmarks and requiring schools use high-quality curriculum pre-selected by the agency. Early pilots have been lauded among educators, but it’s too early to see results yet. 

House Education Committee Vice Chairman Kent McCarty, a Republican from Hattiesburg, said for a long time, lawmakers were waiting for those third graders to matriculate into the eighth grade, expecting to see reading progress then. But those students have come and gone, and eighth grade reading has remained stagnant. It’s a worrisome sign, he said, given the correlation between reading and life outcomes. 

“We need our students to be performing better because every child deserves to know how to read,” McCarty said. “If we’re not meeting that very basic need, we have failed them terribly.”

‘That’s not the ballgame’

The 2013 literacy law overhauled how the state taught and measured reading in kindergarten through third grade. 

Students took screeners, which are assessments intended to gauge proficiency, throughout the year and were held back in the third grade if they didn’t pass a reading assessment, one of the most controversial pieces of the law. Students who were retained received intensive remediation.

Teachers underwent extensive training in the science of reading and received ongoing professional development from coaches. The state Education Department deployed coaches to the neediest schools, so teachers could receive live help, and approved a handful of curriculum that schools were required to use. 

And slowly, reading proficiency among the state’s youngest readers began to climb.

That progress is no mystery, said Rachel Canter, director of education policy for Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. 

“It’s a big picture, and people have zoomed in on one piece, depending on who it is,” said Canter, the former leader of Mississippi First, an education policy advocacy group. “You’re not going to get anything out of coaching teachers in the absence of accountability or standards or measurement or transparency.”

Pilot program in Wayne County

Mississippi Department of Education officials selected Wayne County, along with Kosciusko and Moss Point, to pilot the adolescent literacy initiative last year. 

Mildred Gandy was a little suspicious when the reading coaches arrived. But Gandy, a longtime seventh- and eighth-grade English/Language Arts teacher at Buckatunna Elementary School in Wayne County, learned that she and her colleagues could slowly roll out the literacy strategies in her classes and use them in every subject area, allowing students to engage more deeply with their work. Then she was fully on board.

“Teachers will always buy in when they see students becoming engaged,” she said. “You’ve got to reach them before you can teach them.”

Over the course of the year, coaches from the Florida Center for Reading Research showed teachers new strategies on how to teach older students how to read. These included giving students a framework for how to take notes during class and teaching them how to mark a text as they read in order to more easily find answers to questions later. Coaches told teachers to find an engaging question to get students to read the text more than once.

Gandy often worked with another history teacher, aligning their classes so students were hearing about similar topics and being taught similar strategies throughout the day. 

Crystal Bates, curriculum director at Wayne County School District, said teachers were impressed with the training and were able to deploy the literacy strategies in the classrooms.

“Usually English II is one of the hardest state tests for students to pass to graduate, so anything helps,” she said. “It’s not just about getting them through a gate. We’ve got to get them a diploma.”

No reading ‘gate’

Soon, middle school classrooms across the state will be using the same reading strategies. 

As part of the literacy initiative, the state education agency will deploy coaches to schools across the state, provide training for teachers, require screeners throughout the year to assess students’ proficiency and mandate that schools use agency-approved curriculum. 

But the new legislation is not a replica of the 2013 bill, said Michelle Nowell, associate superintendent in the state Department of Education’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction.

Teachers across subject areas will receive training, with the goal of providing middle-schoolers with literacy training in multiple classes. And students will primarily be taught reading strategies instead of phonics.

Another component that’s missing: The reading gate that drew so much ire in 2013. 

McCarty said lawmakers omitted a retention component from the adolescent bill because research shows that holding older students back negatively impacts their chances of graduating. 

But the adolescent initiative does require remediation. Throughout the school year, McCarty said, students who aren’t meeting academic benchmarks will receive help. The agency is working on an intensive remediation course for students who pass the eighth grade but aren’t reading on grade level, Nowell said.

Gandy was apprehensive about the effectiveness of the literacy initiative without holding students accountable with the possibility of retention.

“I don’t know if (the remediation) is enough,” she said. “But it’s definitely a start.”

“If” has often been the refrain for many Mississippi Democrats after losing statewide elections, as they have done with regularity since 2003.

“If we only had a candidate who could energize true Democrats to the polls, we could win those statewide elections,” is a paraphrase of the full refrain.

That “if” has to be in the back of Lowndes County District Attorney Scott Colom’s mind as the Democrat campaigns to upend incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the November midterm election. 

In short, what Colom has to ponder is some people’s belief that a lot of Mississippians support many of the principles of national Democrats but are not voting because Mississippi candidates generally avoid those issues or campaign with a more conservative bent.

Colom’s already herculean task is made even more difficult by the fact that independent Ty Pinkins, a former Democrat, is also in the race and could possibly siphon votes from him.

Colom, obviously, needs every Democratic vote in his bid to upset Hyde-Smith and become the first Democratic senator from Mississippi since the 1980s and the first Black Mississippi senator since the 1800s.

Recent Democratic campaigns

Former Attorney General Jim Hood, the last Mississippi Democrat to win a statewide election, was accused of not embracing his party as he campaigned with his hunting dog, rifle and pickup truck in his 2019 loss to Republican Tate Reeves in the governor’s race.

After the 2023 election, former Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley faced much of the same criticism after his unsuccessful attempt to defeat Reeves. Most would concede that Presley ran closer to the national Democratic Party than did Hood.

The results, though, were close to the same.

In his 2020 campaign against Hyde-Smith, former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy came closer to running as a national Democrat than both Presley and Hood. For that effort, Espy garnered more votes than any Democrat in a statewide campaign since Bill Waller in his victorious 1971 gubernatorial race.

But Espy garnered a lower percentage of votes in a higher-turnout election than did Hood or Moore.

In 2019, Reeves defeated Hood 52% to 47%, or by a little more than 45,000 votes. In a lower-turnout election four years later, Reeves beat Presley 51% to 48%, or by fewer than 27,000 votes.

In the 2020 Senate election, Hyde-Smith won 54% to 44%, or by fewer than 131,000 votes in the highest turnout election in the state’s history. Remember, Espy garnered more votes than any Democrat since Waller in the 1971 gubernatorial election.

What the numbers mean for midterm election

Based on the numbers, can the argument be confirmed that some Mississippians are sitting at home on election day who could sway the election to a Democrat if they could be inspired to go to the polls?

In considering that question, it is important to keep in mind that Mississippi is generally near the bottom each election cycle in terms of voter participation.

According to the University of Florida Election Lab, nationally 66.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot in 2020. That year 60.6% of eligible Mississippians did so.

If Mississippians had equaled that national participation in 2020, an additional 126,500 people would have voted.

If that had occurred and all the additional voters had cast Espy ballots, which of course would not have happened, he still would have lost to Hyde-Smith by about 5,000 votes.

But that was a presidential election, and by happenstance an election that set both a national and Mississippi record for the number of voters. A midterm election, such as the upcoming Colom vs. Hyde-Smith contest, is a different story. The turnout will be much lower – perhaps closer to a Mississippi gubernatorial turnout.

In that instance, new voters perhaps could make a difference for Colom if – there is that word again –  he could equal Presley’s or even Hood’s performance.

Colom, though, must walk that fine line of attracting those mysterious hard-to-find Mississippi progressives while not scaring away moderate voters who might be considering him in the current political environment where Trump and the Republicans have lost some of their luster nationally and perhaps even in true-red Mississippi.

If – if – Colom could accomplish those goals, perhaps he could give Mississippi Democrats something to cheer about for the first time in a long time.

OCEAN SPRINGS — Mississippi researchers will help lead a new $13.5 million national effort to expand U.S. seafood production, positioning the Gulf Coast at the center of aquaculture research and development. 

The University of Southern Mississippi and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium were selected to participate in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s Cooperative Institute Fostering Aquaculture Research and Markets, or CIFARM.  

The five-year initiative, led by the University of New Hampshire, aims to improve aquaculture technology and strengthen domestic seafood production.  

“The U.S. still doesn’t do very much aquaculture, particularly marine aquaculture,” said Reginald Blaylock, director of USM’s Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center. “We eat a lot of seafood — and we import it.”

According to NOAA, Americans consume about $24.2 billion in imported seafood each year, much of it farmed in other countries. 

“For years, we’ve been interested in trying to change that so that we actually produce the food that we eat here and get the economic benefits of the jobs that the industry creates and the food security,” Blaylock said. 

Mississippi leads Gulf Coast role 

USM and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium will serve as the lead representatives for the Gulf of Mexico region within the national cooperative. 

“(The institute) will be centered at the University of New Hampshire, but we have regional centers around the country,” Blaylock said. “This will be a large, coordinated effort among the groups.” 

Steve Sempier, director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, said the organization will work with Sea Grant programs in Texas, Louisiana and Florida to identify regional aquaculture needs and opportunities. 

“Sea Grant and USM are the leads for the Gulf region right now,” Sempier said.  

Researchers will use input from industry, coastal communities and other stakeholders to identify knowledge gaps and guide future research priorities. 

What researchers will study 

At its most basic level, aquaculture is farming plants or animals in water, according to Blaylock. 

“It can be aquatic plants, plant-like organisms. It can be animals, fish, shrimp, whatever — anything that you’re growing, cultivating in the water,” he said. 

NOAA said CIFARM projects will focus on demonstration farms, engineering, artificial intelligence, environmental forecasting, risk management and seafood markets. 

At USM, researchers will contribute expertise developed through years of studying marine species and production methods to help farmers use the best methods and species for aquaculture. 

“We’ve worked with a lot of different species here to try to alleviate the bottlenecks in (aquaculture),” Blaylock said. 

Sempier said the institute represents NOAA’s largest coordinated investment in aquaculture research. 

“This is the first large-scale cooperative institute that’s focused specifically on aquaculture,” Sempier said. “It’s very exciting to see that NOAA is interested in investing in the future of aquaculture throughout the country.” 

Why it matters on the Gulf Coast

Sempier said aquaculture in the Gulf has grown over the last decade, particularly in oyster production, but the project will examine a much broader range of opportunities. 

Researchers will study both offshore and coastal aquaculture systems and explore the potential for species ranging from shellfish to finfish. 

“This is a much broader look at the potential for aquaculture growth throughout the country,” Sempier said. 

He said expanding aquaculture could create new opportunities for people who make their living on the water while supporting local economies. 

Sempier said aquaculture in the Gulf has grown over the last decade, particularly in oyster production, but the project will examine a much broader range of opportunities. 

Researchers will study both offshore and coastal aquaculture systems and explore the potential for species ranging from shellfish to finfish. 

“This is a much broader look at the potential for aquaculture growth throughout the country,” Sempier said. 

He said expanding aquaculture could create new opportunities for people who make their living on the water while supporting local economies. 

Public input sought 

Both Blaylock and Sempier said community input will play an important role as the project develops. 

“It doesn’t matter if you can grow a particular product if people are not interested in that product,” Blaylock said. 

Sempier said Sea Grant plans to hold workshops and listening sessions beginning next year to gather questions, concerns and ideas from Gulf Coast residents. 

“We would love to get input from anybody who’s willing to share their thoughts and opinions as this project ramps up,” he said. 

For Mississippi, the next five years could help determine how much of America’s seafood future is shaped from the Gulf Coast. 

“The U.S. imports almost 90% of the seafood it eats,” Blaylock said. “What we want to see come out of this is American products on American plates.” 

SENATOBIA – Demonstrators marched through the north Mississippi town of Senatobia on Friday in support of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley’s family and calling for accountability from law enforcement involved in his death. Despite temperatures reaching a heat index of 95 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, demonstrators walked through the town with fists raised, chanting calls for justice and accountability. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety says a police officer responding to a shoplifting call on June 14 shot at a car that drove in the officer’s direction, killing Kohen. 

READ MORE: Marchers in Senatobia demand justice in wake of officer-involved killing of 1-year-old

SENATOBIA – Justice. Accountability. Transparency. 

The family of Kohen Wiley and supporters are calling for answers nearly two weeks after the 1-year-old was fatally wounded when police fired into a car in a Walmart parking lot here. 

Nearly 100 people gathered Friday morning at the store on U.S. 51 and marched about three miles through the city, passing by municipal offices before returning to the Walmart. They had planned to go to the Senatobia Police Department, but a closed road that was under construction prevented that. 

The family shared renewed demands: Total and full transparency, which includes the release of law enforcement body and dashboard video and footage from inside and outside the Walmart. They also called for the release of communication between police and the store leading up to and after the June 14 shooting. The incident that resulted in the killing of Wiley was sparked by a report of shoplifting for which no one has been charged. That information should be released to the family and its legal team, supporters said. 

“If I commit a crime and it’s on video, (I am) arrested and charged the same day,” said Marquell Bridges, an activist who is serving as the Wiley family’s spokesperson.

“Nothing takes six to nine months when you have all these cameras, all these angles,” he said in reference to how long state investigators said it will take to complete their investigation. 

READ MORE: Photos: March for Kohen Wiley in Senatobia

Kohen’s father, Davion Williams, stood at the front of the march, and he and others carried a banner with the child’s picture under the words “Rest in Heaven.”

In the afternoon, marchers returned to the Walmart and added the new banner to Kohen’s memorial, which is decorated with stuffed animals, toys, signs, flowers and a wooden cross bearing the child’s name. 

Kohen’s family attended his viewing Friday afternoon after the march. At a town hall meeting Friday evening  at Fairway Christian Church in Senatobia, many of the marchers, Kohen’s parents, Wiley family members and other community members attended a town hall where organizers and attorneys talked about sustained organizing and advocacy.

Four mothers who lost siblings and children in deadly law enforcement encounters offered advice to Kohen’s parents and extended their support.

“This is a club nobody wants to be a part of,” said Tracey Williams, whose son Breonte Johnson-Davis was tased to death by Florida police officers in 2023.

Among the mothers were those of children killed by Mississippi law enforcement officers: Bettersten Wade, whose son Dexter Wade was hit by an off-duty Jackson police officer on I-55 in Jackson and was buried unidentified in the Hinds County pauper grave, and Arkela Lewis, whose son Jaylen Lewis was shot and killed by Capitol Police in Jackson during a vehicle stop in 2022. 

The keynote speaker was political organizer Fred Hampton Jr., whose father was a Black Panther Party leader and was killed in his bed in an FBI raid in Chicago. Hampton Jr., chairman of the Black Panther Party Cubs, shared tips for organizing, including telling the crowd to pay attention to terms used to describe a situation and control the narrative. 

On June 14, Senatobia police officers and Tate County sheriff’s deputies responded to the store for a reported shoplifting and saw two women and a juvenile get into a car in the Walmart parking lot and start to drive away, state officials said. When the car allegedly drove toward law enforcement, an officer shot into the vehicle. 

“When in any state is petty larceny a death sentence?” asked march attendee Jacob Blake Sr., whose son Jacob was shot multiple times by a Wisconsin officer in 2020 and left paralyzed. In that case, state and federal investigations did not result in criminal charges for the officer. 

Neither Kohen’s mother nor the family friend who was driving and was critically wounded have been charged with the reported shoplifting of diapers and a bottle of water, according to the family’s attorneys.

Vellesiya Wiley, Kohen’s mother, has said she had the 1-year-old in her arms and was trying to tell officers that a child was present. Then Wiley said she heard three to four shots, one of which hit her son and others that hit the driver.

As of Friday, Bridges said the woman driver is recovering from the shooting and is moving again with a walker. 

Bridges, who organized the demonstrations, said the previous three protests over the shooting were peaceful, respectful and did not lead to arrests or violence, except for the first protest when law enforcement outside the store doors deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd.

He is among those who have called for a boycott of the store, which Bridges said is a way to apply pressure on law enforcement agencies in Senatobia and Walmart to release surveillance video leading up to and of the shooting, including footage from the store showing the alleged theft.

The Walmart closed Friday and its store entrances were blocked off by barricades. Walmart spokesperson Kelly Hellbusch said the company was aware of the planned demonstrations, which is why the decision was made to close the store. 

“We remain heartbroken by what happened at our store last Sunday,” she said in a Friday statement. “The safety of our associates and customers is our top priority. We continue to work closely with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and are deferring to them on additional questions.” 

It is not clear who called for law enforcement the day of the shooting, including whether the caller was a store employee. Hellbusch did not answer questions about the relationship between the store and Senatobia police and Tate County Sheriff’s Department. 

She also did not say whether there is policy or guidance for store employees to determine whether to call law enforcement, including if someone is suspected of shoplifting.

Demonstrators included community members who brought their own homemade signs, and some residents from other parts of the state and Memphis. Some also traveled from the Midwest and California, including those from national and international organizations such as Black Lives Matter Grassroots and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Legal observers and an individual who could render medical aid followed. 

At the beginning of the march, no law enforcement cruisers were seen outside the Walmart, where they had been stationed throughout the week. Later on, a Tate County sheriff’s deputy exited a cruiser and talked briefly with legal observers before following the march from the rear. In the afternoon, a few Senatobia police cruisers were parked along the march route. 

Interactions between demonstrators and the people they passed included some honking their horns, raising a fist or taking out their phones to record. 

About an hour into the march along East Main Street, a white man smoking a cigarette watched people pass by for about a minute until a demonstrator addressed him, saying she was marching because an officer shot a child. The man asked whether she was from town, and the Black woman said that didn’t matter. Then, a Black man who was also a demonstrator and the same man yelled at each other, before the white man extended his hand in a Nazi salute. 

Bridges said a Walmart boycott is part of an ongoing national effort. Nationally, boycotts and economic blackouts have been used in recent years against corporations including Walmart to drive economic and political change, according to the People’s Union USA. 

Walmart is the nation’s largest retailer with $713 billion in global sales revenue. Corporate tax filings show a $6.99 billion annual revenue across 86 Walmart stores in Mississippi, according to a research report by Capital One Shopping. 

Attorneys for the Wiley family previously said they were expecting to receive a preliminary autopsy report by Wednesday. But as of Friday, neither the legal team nor family spokesperson said whether Kohen’s family had received and reviewed a report yet. 

Earlier this week, the attorneys, Ben Crump and Van Turner, called for an independent autopsy separate from the one completed by the state to provide the family with clearer answers. 

If the completed autopsy by the state medical examiner determines the cause of death was homicide, it doesn’t mean anyone will be charged. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which examines all officer shootings, will report its findings to the attorney general’s office. From there, the attorney general’s office will review the officer’s use of force and present the case to a Tate County grand jury. There, jurors will determine whether to indict the officer on any criminal charges. 

Since 2022, few Mississippi law enforcement officers have been criminally charged in police shootings. The attorney general’s office has also cleared a majority of officers for their use of force. 

Other events scheduled for the weekend include a Saturday vigil at a park in Sardis at 6 p.m. and a Sunday afternoon community engagement event and neighborhood cookout in Senatobia. 

Update 6/26/26: This story has been updated to include comments at a Friday town hall meeting.

BILOXI — As a young teen in 1960s Saigon, Vietnam, Coi Nguyen learned English by listening to tape recorders and comparing her speech to the cassette’s. When her friends teased that there was no one to practice with, she responded, “I talk to the machine.”

Now, Nguyen lives on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, where she volunteers for the local Vietnamese community as a translator and interpreter at doctor’s appointments and legal hearings. Sometimes, Nguyen said, people will give her a tip or take her out to a meal. But for her, the work is not for the money. It’s because of her connection with a community she’s lived in for the past two decades. 

“Everybody knows me as a friend, a family,” she said. 

The Coast is home to half the state’s 9,000 Vietnamese individuals, who represent one of the largest Asian diasporas in Mississippi. Despite the size of the community, local healthcare workers say there are only a handful of Vietnamese-speaking medical providers in the area, creating challenges for those with limited English proficiency. The persistent language barrier has pushed a network of Vietnamese speakers and volunteers to take matters into their own hands, carving out time to help neighbors navigate the healthcare system. 

Nguyen, who is semi-retired, describes herself as an easy-going person with the time to help anyone, especially if they’re a good cook. Working in her apartment kitchen under the guiding eye of a lucky cat figurine, she makes calls and scans documents for her neighbors. She records every appointment in her handmade “little book,” which is filled with names, times and addresses scrawled in both English and Vietnamese. 

Her roster includes those who would otherwise have put off care and some who most potential volunteers didn’t have the patience for. She remembers one woman in particular whose personality neighbors found hard to handle, and who later needed psychiatric care. 

“I feel like, if I don’t drive her, who will? And if I don’t help her, who help?” she said. “It takes me a little more time, but that’s okay.” 

A need for better language access

In the 1970s, large numbers of Vietnamese refugees started arriving in New Orleans, fleeing the fall of Saigon and the conclusion of the Vietnam War. They then gravitated toward Biloxi for work in the seafood industry. 

By the 2000s, roughly 5,000 Vietnamese people lived in Mississippi, one of the largest such communities in the Deep South, according to data from the U.S. Census. 

To’s family lived in public housing surrounded by Vietnamese neighbors. Like many Vietnamese children in the area, she was the bridge between her family and their English-speaking surroundings. 

“When I was growing up, I was the interpreter,” she said. “I interpreted for my parents. If they had surgery or whatever, I skipped school and went to surgery with them.”

It was never a comfortable experience, she said, because relaying medical jargon was difficult as a child. Neither To nor her parents knew specialized medical terms in Vietnamese. 

The barriers in language access to healthcare that To experienced growing up remain present on the Coast today.

The Singing River Health System, a major regional provider, saw over 700 Vietnamese patients in the past year, of whom over 60% likely needed interpretation or translation services, a hospital spokesperson said.

Hospitals that receive federal funding are required by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to offer “meaningful access” to language assistance, although there is no government enforcement of the policy. Many have third-party services, such as LanguageLine Solutions, to connect healthcare providers with virtual interpreters. 

However, many Vietnamese-speaking patients prefer to have an in-person interpreter, according to Cynthia Le, a bilingual nurse practitioner at the Singing River Health Medical Clinic in downtown Biloxi. She said she is one of the handful of Vietnamese-speaking healthcare professionals who grew up on the Coast and stayed to serve her community. She uses her Vietnamese daily, and patients are often referred to her because she is fluent in their native tongue. 

“I still have a good bit of Vietnamese patients that don’t have the family support or can’t speak the English language at all,” she said. “It’s just easier for them to speak directly (to me) than go through another person to translate.” 

In her two decades of practice, Le found that speaking to patients in Vietnamese allows them to have more agency in their own care because they understand why their medications are important and are more likely to accept preventive care, such as cancer screenings.

“I have a lot of patients that don’t want to go do their colonoscopy because they don’t have anybody (who speaks Vietnamese) to take them,” she said.  

A network of volunteers and grassroots organizations step up to fill gaps

Many children, young and adult, accompany their parents to medical appointments as interpreters, multiple healthcare providers said. But as younger generations start their careers and have their own families, some, including Le, have seen the number of family interpreters on the Coast drop.

To meet the need for in-person interpretation, volunteers and community health workers step in.

Dat Thanh Phung, Nguyen’s grand-nephew, immigrated to Mississippi from Vietnam seven years ago and followed her into the insurance broker business. In between studying for his accounting degree and taking care of his young family, he volunteers to help his insurance clients with their doctor’s visits. 

“They let me know before, one week, and I will fit my schedule to them,” Phung said.

Phung is still practicing English himself, so he’ll often call clients to go over their symptoms in advance, making sure he knows how to say those symptoms in English.

“I just want to make sure that I understand 100% about the sickness and what medication they need,” he said. 

For Phung, the motivation to help others stems from his own experiences stumbling through language barriers, like when he took 14 visits to the DMV to fill out permit paperwork.

He’s heard his clients talk about not wanting to go to the emergency room because they wouldn’t be able to speak to the workers. Instead, he said, they “absorb the pain.” When he helps interpret, Phung said that he can assuage some of that worry and that clients often invite him to a meal as thanks. 

Nguyen spends much of her free time helping people who can’t go to the doctor on their own. She said one woman only trusts her to accompany her to physical therapy appointments, and another always asks if she can sleep over at “Ms. Coi’s house.” 

Over the years, she’s gotten to know the personalities of her repeat clients, whom she also sees at church, in the restaurants and local supermarkets.  

“I get to the point that I know people inside out,” she said. 

Organizations seek to broaden access

Outside of volunteer efforts, one of the only organizations supporting Vietnamese language access to healthcare in the Gulf Coast area is Boat People SOS. The nonprofit helps community members set up appointments, sends interpreters to doctor’s appointments and connects people with Medicare-covered transportation. 

Nguyen worked part-time at Boat People SOS shortly after she moved to Mississippi from Canada, and got connected to other local efforts to improve healthcare access. One instance is when she was tapped by the Mississippi Department of Health in 2021 for their COVID-19 Vietnamese Task Force to lead vaccination outreach for the community. 

Like many of the people she helps, Nguyen lives alone in Biloxi. Her daughter, Annie, is in nursing school and works in a hospital 90 minutes away. 

Three years ago, Nguyen lost her son Peter, who was living in Canada at the time. His passing is another reason she finds fulfillment in her volunteer work. 

“If I am alone and then have nothing to do, I will miss him and I cry all day, you know? But talking to people and helping them fills up my time,” she said.

There are limits to Nguyen’s efforts. While she has heard of others in the community who will offer rides or help with interpretation, most don’t have the dedicated time that she does or the longstanding knowledge of each person’s history. She said she worries about the people she will one day leave behind, especially those that she drives to appointments because they physically cannot drive or don’t own a vehicle. 

Nguyen added that the number of Vietnamese-speaking providers and volunteers remains limited. She said she wishes for more organized financial support from the city or state to help patients access healthcare through organizations such as Boat People SOS. The low-income Vietnamese community and those who don’t speak English at all are most vulnerable, she said. 

“I’m 65 years old, I cannot stay here forever,” she said. “But if I’m gone, who help them, you know?”

This story was produced as part of the AAJA VOICES fellowship program, a student journalism project of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).  

This story was produced with support from the Sarah Yelena Haselhorst Fund for Health Journalism.