The head of the Ole Miss-affiliated NIL collective says the organization has topped the $10 million mark — among the highest reported levels of “name, image and likeness” funding in the nation.
The update from the Grove Collective, the organization collecting funds to distribute to Ole Miss athletes, comes as Rebels head football coach Lane Kiffin decides whether he’ll stay at Ole Miss or leave for SEC divisional rival Auburn, as has been reported in recent days.
Availability of NIL funds has emerged as perhaps the most important factor to college athletes and coaches since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that players could be compensated for their likenesses. These funds are raised by collectives and used to pay college athletes for corporate sponsorships.
“We set a goal to reach the $10 million mark by the end of 2023. We reached it this week,” Grove Collective executive director Walker Jones told Mississippi Today on Wednesday. “I think that stacks up head-to-head with most of the other schools in our conference and most in the nation.”
The NIL news could become a major factor in the days ahead in Oxford, where major donors are preparing for a potential national coaching search.
Supertalk’s Richard Cross reported last week that Ole Miss had offered Kiffin an extension to stay in Oxford to the tune of $9 million per year — a figure that would make Ole Miss’ third-year head coach one of the nation’s 10 highest-paid.
But a Monday report indicated Kiffin will soon leave Ole Miss to become the next head football coach at SEC divisional rival Auburn. Kiffin has denied that report, but other reports reveal that Kiffin is Auburn’s top target and will be offered a large contract imminently — even higher than the Ole Miss extension offer.
A higher annual salary would, of course, be a draw to any college coach. But according to Kiffin himself, available NIL funds have become the top consideration for coaches when deciding where to land or build a program.
“It used to be the stadium, conference, assistant pool, your salary … nope. First question should be, ‘What is your NIL structure?’” Kiffin told Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated in October.
Dellenger reported on Oct. 31 that Auburn announced more than $12 million in NIL pledges — still more than the $10 million Jones and the Grove Collective have recently reached. Other reports have suggested Auburn’s NIL figure is closer to $13 million.
But leaders at most NIL organizations have been purposefully vague about how much cash they’ve raised, couching publicly cited figures with vague language and accounting for long-term commitments in their totals.
“Some are putting out numbers, and it’s hard to know if those are projections or what,” Jones told Mississippi Today. “To be clear, this $10 million is all either current cash on hand, annual and monthly membership cash flow, and major gift pledges we’ll collect between now and Dec. 31. It’s what we can show for right now.”
Jones said the Grove Collective has partnered with more than 35 corporations at the national, regional and local levels. Those include companies like Realtree, Dunkin Donuts, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Wheels Up, and Blue Delta Jeans.
Meanwhile, football fans in Oxford will be closely watching what moves Kiffin makes in the coming hours.
“Regardless of what happens in the next few days, Ole Miss fans should take comfort knowing they have an extremely competitive, well-funded and organized collective platform that will compete with anyone in the SEC and around the country,” Jones said. “Our loyal fanbase has stepped up and answered the call, and we’re still working hard to raise even more.”
Blake Pennock was the offensive coordinator at Clinton when Cam Akers played there. He is now the head coach at Ocean Springs with Bray Hubbard as his quarterback. This Friday, Pennock, Hubbard and the Greyhounds take on Brandon for the South State 6A championship. Pennock discusses Akers, Hubbard and the task at hand. The Clevelands also talk Egg Bowl, Lane Kiffin’s future, Southern Miss bowl chances and much, much more.
Gov. Tate Reeves has officially ended the Aug. 30 state of emergency surrounding a water crisis that left Jackson and surrounding areas of Hinds County under a weeks-long boil water notice and poor to no water pressure.
He issued the executive order ending the emergency order on Tuesday.
Reeves had issued the emergency after the two primary raw water pumps at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant in Ridgeland had been removed for repairs and the collapse of Jackson’s water system was imminent.
The Environmental Protection Agency determined on Oct. 31 that the water from both the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant and the J.H. Fewell Water Treatment Plant was safe to drink.
On Nov. 17, the Jackson City Council voted to enter into a year-long federal “interim stipulated order” through the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the city’s drinking water violations that involves having.a third-party administrator to oversee the system.
The interim order heads to a federal judge to officially take effect.
In addition, the city council on Nov. 10 voted to approve an emergency agreement with WaterTalent LLC to provide temporary water operators for both water treatment plants. The contract is not to exceed $720,000 and will run through Feb. 28, 2023.
In his news release announcing the end of the state of emergency, Reeves continued his attack on the city’s administration for the system’s problems.
“The only remaining imminent challenge is the city’s refusal to hire routine maintenance staff, and that cannot constitute a state emergency. We need new leadership at the helm so that this crisis of incompetence cannot continue,” he said.
“It is also clear that the federal government is working to ensure that Jackson political leadership does not have the authority to mismanage the water system any further. That process needs to be completed, and it needs to be completed quickly. … I am hopeful that the federal government’s efforts to take control away from incompetent hands will wrap up swiftly.”
Meanwhile, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General is continuing its investigation that began in September. It is evaluating the EPA’s response to Jackson’s drinking water violations, as well as conducting an audit to see how spending decisions at the state and local levels impacted the recent water crisis.
Imagine the proverbial 90-pound weakling whipping up on Mike Tyson. Imagine a Chihuahua making short work of a German shepherd. Imagine a rabbit chasing a lion instead of vice versa.
What? You just can’t imagine all that? Ok then, take a not-so-deep dive into college basketball this young season, the SWAC and the Pac-12 leagues in particular. SWAC schools, which long have served themselves up as early season cannon fodder for Power Five schools, have turned the tables. Check out these three scores in particular:
Rick Cleveland
Grambling 83, Colorado 74.
Texas Southern 67, Arizona State 66.
Prairie View 70, Washington State 59.
If you follow college basketball any at all, you know how strange those scores look. After all, this is November when the SWAC basketball teams annually take one (or several) for the team, traveling sometimes great distances to collect a big check and a lopsided loss. Some coaches call them “buy” games. Some others call them “prostitution” games. Historically, the SWAC rarely wins one.
Not this year.
Why the sudden change? Number one, the SWAC teams are playing some of these games at home for a change. All three of the above scores were in games played at SWAC sites. The Pac 12 agreed to a four-year deal to play a SWAC-Pac 12 Legacy Series. Over the first two seasons, this season and next, six teams from the SWAC will play six teams from the Pac-12 on a home and home basis. This year, they play at SWAC sites, next year at Pac-12 sites. In 2024-25, the other six SWAC schools, including Jackson State, Alcorn and Mississippi Valley State, will play the six other Pac-12 schools on a home and home basis.
“We don’t know who we’ll be matched up against,” Jackson State Coach Mo Williams, the former NBA star said. “But we can’t wait to be a part of it.”
Obviously, the SWAC teams love it. You can rest assured Pac-12 coaches hate it. Pac-12 power ratings have dipped like the stock market during a depression. A loss in this series easily could cost a Pac-12 school an NCAA bid at season’s end, which in turn could cost a coach his job.
Still, from this viewpoint, it’s nice to see the tables turned for once. Here’s hoping the tradition-rich UCLA will come to one of the three Mississippi SWAC schools in 2024.
“We don’t get the respect we deserve,” Williams said. “Through the years, SWAC teams have always played these type games on the road. That’s tough.”
And those days aren’t over. SWAC schools still need the big pay days. This week, Jackson State will play Big 10 blueblood Michigan at Michigan on Wednesday night and then the nationally ranked Indiana Hoosiers at Indiana on Friday. The results are predictable. Still, says Williams, “I want to see how we respond on the road against these teams. Hopefully, we’ll be better for it.”
They will be a good bit richer.
There are signs all around that SWAC basketball is taking a step forward – and I am not just referring to the games against Pac-12 teams. Already this season, Alcorn has gone on the road for nine-point victories over traditionally strong Wichita State and Stephen F. Austin. On Nov. 7, the Braves played Ole Miss tough at Oxford before succumbing down the stretch.
If you’re wondering why SWAC teams have suddenly become more competitive, look no further than the NCAA portal. Much like Deion Sanders has done in football, SWAC basketball teams have bolstered their rosters with transfers, often from larger schools.
“You can turn you roster over in a year,” Williams said. “Lots of teams are taking transfers and getting better. It may be hard to keep them, but it’s easier to replace them.”
Prevailing wisdom had it that the transfer portal would only help the rich get richer. Now it seems maybe that’s not always the case. The proof in this case is not in the pudding. It is on the scoreboard.
Amtrak, freight rail companies and the Port of Mobile have struck a deal that will bring back passenger trains to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, connecting Mobile to New Orleans.
A joint statement from all parties – Amtrak, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway Company and the Port of Mobile – says they “collectively reached an agreement” that supports both freight trains and passenger trains running in the Gulf Coast Corridor.
“This is going to happen,” said Southern Rail Commissioner Knox Ross. “Everybody has to do what they said they’d do, but this will be a tremendous boost for the Gulf Coast.”
The settlement agreement was filed Monday. The federal board tasked with deciding the route’s future was scheduled to vote on the years-long dispute in December. The board had asked the parties to first attempt mediation.
The proposed route would run two trains daily with stops in Bay St. Louis, Pascagoula, Gulfport and Biloxi. Amtrak hasn’t run a Gulf Coast route since Hurricane Katrina.
Ross said the details of the agreement are confidential and he doesn’t have a timeline of what to expect. A copy of the settlement agreement filed with the Surface Transportation Board had specifics redacted but stated the settlement terms will “completely resolve the dispute” after “several conditions are met in the coming weeks and months.”
Amtrak first filed its complaint with the Surface Transportation Board over a year ago, asking the body to step in to settle the dispute over access to the freight-owned tracks.
In the joint statement, the parties ask the board to pause the case as they work through the agreement.
Board members have sat through days worth of testimonies about the track’s ability to support both passengers and freight trains over the last several months. Had the parties not settled, the board’s Dec. 7 vote would have determined the route’s future.
Amtrak had always maintained the route could handle the added passenger train traffic, freight companies and the Port of Mobile worried it could negatively affect business.
The debate largely pitted Alabama officials against Mississippi leaders who have long championed the return of a passenger route to the Gulf Coast as an economic boon.
“Since Katrina, these downtowns have been rebuilt and become very attractive,” Ross said, referring to the Mississippi cities on the proposed route. “And this will bring people right to their front door.”
The State Board of Education has named a North Carolina educator and Mississippi native as the next state superintendent.
Robert Taylor, a native of Laurel, will serve as the next state superintendent of education. Credit: Mississippi Department of Education
In a press release, the department announced Robert Taylor as the new leader of Mississippi’s 140 public school districts. His appointment ends a monthslong search after former State Superintendent Carey Wright stepped down from the position in June.
Taylor was most recently a deputy state superintendent for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Originally a native of Laurel, he earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and has worked in North Carolina schools since 1992. He has served as a teacher’s assistant, classroom teacher, school administrator, and in various district leadership positions before becoming the superintendent of Bladen County Schools in 2011. He served in this role until 2021 when he became a deputy state superintendent.
During his time in North Carolina, Taylor also helped to draft legislation restructuring state testing in public schools and served on multiple public education advisory boards, according to the release.
“The opportunity to return home to Mississippi and work hand in hand with all stakeholders to improve education is perhaps the pinnacle of one’s career,” Taylor said in the MDE statement. “This opportunity has been afforded to my family and I and we look forward to our homecoming.”
He will start the position in late January 2023, according to the Department of Education release. Until then, Interim State Superintendent Kim Benton will continue to serve.
Taylor is the state’s second Black superintendent; the first was Henry L. Johnson, who also came to Mississippi from North Carolina in 2002.
The Mississippi Department of Education told Mississippi Today Taylor will be paid $300,000 annually, the same amount his predecessor, Wright, was paid.
The state board selected McPherson and Jacobson, a national superintendent search firm based in Nebraska, to conduct the search. The firm received $51,200 for its services.
“Dr. Taylor possesses all the qualities the Board sought for the next state superintendent of education,” Rosemary Aultman, chair of the State Board of Education, said in a statement. “Mississippi has become a national leader for improving student outcomes. The Board is confident we selected the right person to lead our state to achieve at even higher levels.”
The bleak outlook for hospitals across the state, especially those in rural areas, was highlighted Monday during a hearing of the Senate Public Health Committee.
While possible solutions were discussed, senators indicated that long-term fixes might not be coming during the upcoming 2023 session.
State Health Officer Daniel Edney told committee members that 38 rural hospitals across the state “are in danger of immediate closure or closure in the near term.” Some of those hospitals are larger regional care centers, such as Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
Edney said nearly all of 111 hospitals across the state are facing financial difficulties with many areas – particularly in the Delta and some parts of southwest Mississippi – becoming “health care deserts.” Edney, representatives with the Mississippi Hospital Association and others have been warning of the crisis facing health care in Mississippi for some time caused in part by rising costs and changes in the structure of health care in the nation – all of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Public Health Committee met Monday to be updated on the crisis and to hear possible solutions.
The Hospital Association offered six possible steps that could be taken to help the hospitals survive – ranging from increasing the state-federal Medicaid supplemental payments to hospitals, to eliminating the taxes hospitals pay to expanding Medicaid. Of those steps, the one that would not require legislative action and is most likely to occur would be the state Division of Medicaid seeking federal approval to increase payments to hospitals.
Tim Moore, chief executive officer of the Hospital Association, said all of those steps are needed to increase the financial viability of the state’s hospitals. But according to a Hospital Association chart handed out to senators, expanding Medicaid is the options that would provide the most benefit. Medicaid expansion would provide a financial boost to the hospitals, while improving the state economy, based on multiple studies. It also would benefit Mississippi citizens by providing health care to primarily the working poor.
During the committee hearing, Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, said Medicaid expansion would not solely fix the problem facing the hospitals. Richard Roberson, vice president for policy with the Mississippi Hospital Association said, “it might not solely fix it, but I would argue it would go a long way.”
Wiggins replied, “It would go a long way because it would provide a revenue stream for hospitals, but 10 years down the road could be another situation.”
But Roberson said in the meantime, people, primarily the working poor, would have access to health care other than a hospital emergency room. Under current law, hospitals are mandated to provide emergency services regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.
Medicaid expansion would cut down on more expensive emergency room care while providing Medicaid expansion beneficiaries the opportunity for preventive care from primary care physicians, Roberson said. In addition, Medicaid expansion would substantially cut down on the amount of uncompensated care – about $600 million a year and increasing – that hospitals currently incur because there would be fewer uninsured patients being treated.
After the meeting, Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, when asked about the possibility of expanding Medicaid in the upcoming 2023 session, responded, “Why are you asking me about that?” DeBar then added it might be pointless for the Senate to try to take up the issue while the House leadership and Gov. Tate Reeves are entrenched in their opposition to Medicaid expansion.
Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, who chairs the Senate Medicaid Committee, said after Monday’s Public Health Committee hearing that he remains opposed to Medicaid expansion. He said Medicaid provides less money to medical providers for the services rendered than private insurance. He said he would prefer other options, such as helping poor people purchase private insurance.
The federal government pays 90% of the health care costs for those covered by Medicaid expansion – those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level or about $19,000 annually for an individual. Whether the state could develop a Medicaid expansion substitute where the federal government pays the bulk of the cost for private insurance is not known.
At any rate, Blackwell said it probably would be the 2024 session – after 2023 statewide elections – before such options are considered.
In the meantime, Edney pointed out there is a growing area in the state where there is no hospital to deliver babies. He said that only worsens Mississippi’s position as the state with the nation’s highest infant mortality rate.
Edney said the state Department of Health would try to step in as a last resort “safety net” in those areas lacking adequate health care.
Mississippi’s growing health crisis threatens to close at least a dozen hospitals across the state and puts Mississippi in the lead nationally for rates of uninsured people.
Mississippi Today launched an ongoing series looking at the impact of the health care crisis on the people and institutions of the state.
As part of that project, Senior Political Reporter Geoff Pender answered readers’ questions on Reddit about Medicaid expansion (or the lack thereof) in the state. Here’s a recap:
Q: Thank you for doing this and continuing to push on this topic.
As I sit here seeing the Greenwood hospital closing while the governor touts tax breaks for companies and the state government refuses this aid… I just do not get it.
Unless I think of all of the non-rational reasons for it.
A: Unfortunately, we are hearing from many corners that Greenwood may be the canary in the coal mine right now. We have heard some dire predictions of late from state hospital and other officials. State Health Officer Dr. Edney recently warned that we’re looking at at least half a dozen hospitals on the brink, and others are saying our entire system is troubled. I don’t know that Medicaid expansion would be the panacea for all that, but most experts are saying the influx of billions of federal dollars for health care would stave off many of these problems.
Q: As the Q&A article describes, there are political and economic arguments against expansion, but what in your opinion are the underlying motives for the stance? Are the politicians perhaps more driven by financial incentive from opposition groups in addition to maintaining their political platforms for the sake of the party? And as for general people, do you think it’s related to a mentality of being against handouts and of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? What do you think are the underlying feelings and motivations to these stances?
And lastly, how do you think these underlying reasons can be negotiated with to make progress towards achieving expansion?
A: As far as the current drivers of opposition to expansion, I would say they are now more political than economic, and have been so for quite a while. For one thing, we have empirical evidence from other states, including now Louisiana and Arkansas, that show expansion isn’t the budget-buster our leaders once feared.
We also have reams of studies and evidence from other states showing we would see net positive benefits – thousands of jobs created, savings of double-digit percentages in uncompensated care for hospitals, more workforce participation (ours is typically lowest in the country), net GDP growth and even projected growth in population. Also, we’ve seen firsthand over the last two years that Mississippi, with our economy so heavily dependent on federal spending, sees booming state budget growth when there is an influx of billions of federal dollars. We’re sitting on more than $2 billion in basically surplus state money right now, largely the result of the influx of federal pandemic spending.
And again, this expansion is aimed primarily at the “working poor,” people in the gap between being poor enough for other help or being able to afford private insurance or pay medical bills out of pocket. As many have pointed out, a lot of the folks we’re talking about with this are working more than one job. As for pulling one’s self up by bootstraps, too many folks are one ER visit away from not having any bootstraps, and once someone gets a chronic illness because of lack of preventive care, it costs taxpayers anyway (and more).
No, the opposition now would appear to be more purely political (partisan) and philosophical – not wanting expansion of “Obamacare,” and opposition to expansion of a government program, even if in the long run it’s projected to benefit the workforce and private sector.
That opposition to government programs, however, appears to be selective among state leaders. One recent anecdote struck me in particular. Gov. Reeves recently held a press conference to trumpet the state’s work on expanding broadband internet across rural Mississippi. This is being funded with federal tax dollars. Instead of lamenting such government largesse, Reeves vowed to see that “we not only get our fare share, but that we get more than our fair share.” It would appear it’s OK to take hundreds of millions of federal dollars for internet service to areas where the private sector won’t do it, but not OK to take federal money to help keep people alive and well and working.
As for how this opposition might be overcome – I don’t know that anyone has a simple answer to that. One thing I hear all the time, though, even from some who have opposed expansion, is time. I have heard over and again in recent years that it’s probably just a matter of time before Mississippi expands Medicaid. Polling in recent years would indicate the populace may already be a bit ahead of our politicians on this policy … and, of course, look at other states relenting, such as Arkansas, Louisiana.
We attempted to delve into some of this opposition, past and present, here.
Q: Can Medicaid expansion prevent local hospitals from closing?
A: It’s unclear if it definitely would — rural hospitals in particular are facing major headwinds with personnel shortages and costs, supplies, inflation, uncompensated care. But most projections by experts have shown net benefits, and we’ve seen in other states that expansion helped. Particularly, in Louisiana, rural hospitals saw reductions in uncompensated care costs in the 55% range. This alone could give struggling rural hospitals some breathing room.
This study indicates hospitals in expansion states are less likely to close.
Q: With Medicaid expansion costing far more than initially predicted in other states, it delivering consistently poor health outcomes for those on the program, and it failing to ultimately help save rural providers as seen in Colorado and Indiana…why advocate so intensely for expanding a program that’s heading toward insolvency besides the fact that it will pad the pockets of and expand profits for big hospitals?
A: As for costing more than predicted, as I understand, this has not truly been the case at least on the state level. Some states have seen more people than initially predicted, but that has also been offset by people shifting from their traditional Medicaid to that with the higher match rate from the feds, and other non-direct economic benefits.
As for Colorado, I just recently read a report that rural hospitals there are “about 6 times less likely to close than hospitals in non-expansion states, according to a study by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.” I’m not sure what you are looking at, but would like to see it if you can forward a link.
As for poor health outcomes, I’m not sure Mississippi would have anywhere to go but up. Mississippi Medicaid has had poor health outcomes, but that has been primarily because only the sickest of the sick, so to speak, are on its adult population. Proponents say that the working-poor expansion population would receive more preventive care and improve outcomes — but you are right, that has been one major argument against expansion in Mississippi.
I don’t know that expansion would pad the pockets and profits of big hospitals. It would help ameliorate the $600 million or so in uncompensated care that is hammering, in particular, smaller rural hospitals.
In Belhaven on Sunday night, members of Mississippi’s LGBTQ community solemnly placed roses on a blue, pink and white flag as they read aloud the names of 70 trans people killed in the last year in the U.S. – a figure that’s almost certainly an undercount.
Gatherers flipped through a booklet with pictures of those who had been killed, including including four Black trans and gender non-conforming people in Mississippi: Mel Robert Groves, 25, from Jackson; Kesha Webster, 24, from Jackson; Shawmaynè Giselle Marie McClam, 27, from Gulfport; and Jimmie “Jay” Lee, 22, from Oxford.
“That weighed heavy on me,” Jensen Luke Matar, a trans community organizer, said after the final name was read aloud. “You look at those names, you look at those ages, you catch those cities – the ones you have connection to, the ones you were born in. Some right here in Jackson, in our backyard.”
“This is real y’all, this is real lives,” he continued. “You recognize how many trans and non-binary people are in this space right now? That could’ve been any of us.”
The emotional ceremony was organized by several Mississippi-based LGBTQ organizations and nonprofits as part of Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual, international vigil to highlight violence experienced by the community. For more than two hours, gatherers laughed, cried, shared resources and sought not just to mourn but to celebrate their trans community members who are still living.
Across the country and in Mississippi, trans people face an epidemic of violence, the brunt of which is borne by Black trans women. This violence is rooted in a web of anti-trans forces, experts say, including an increasingly hostile political environment, widespread misconceptions about trans people and prescriptive cultural and religious beliefs – all of which are present in Mississippi.
At the vigil, four faith leaders spoke, including Reverend Lance Presley from Broadmeadow United Methodist Church.
“I want you to understand this: If there’s no way to understand scripture or tradition or anything else as affirming and celebratory of trans identity, of trans lives, of trans people, then the scripture is wrong, then the tradition is wrong,” he said.
Last week, Tate Reeves’ unveiled priorities for next year’s legislative session include a “Parental Bill of Rights,” which he described enabling parents to determine what pronouns their children should be called in public school.
A report by the National Center for Transgender Equality notes that just over 25% of trans people killed this year lived in Texas and Florida, two states that have passed prominent anti-trans legislation.
Following the service, there was a reception with cupcakes made by Tayla Carey, a trans woman whose brother, a well-known Black, LGBTQ student at Ole Miss named Jay Lee, was murdered earlier this year. Several of Lee’s friends drove down from Oxford for the vigil.
Carey shared a poem she had written for Lee, tearing up because it was the first time she’d read it aloud.
“Your spirit will be with me always,” she said. “When I see a bird chirping on a nearby branch … I will know it’s you singing to me. When a butterfly brushes so gently by me and so carefreely, I will know that it is you assuring me that you are free from pain. When a gentle fragrance of a flower catches my attention, I will know that it is you reminding me to appreciate the simple things in life.”
Some of the resources that were shared at the memorial included: Sarah Schnaithman, a trans lawyer in Amory, Miss.; the TRANS Program, which advocates against anti-trans legislation, assists with gender marker change applications and provides peer support; Grace House Services, a transitional home for individuals with HIV/AIDS; the ACLU of Mississippi; Capital City Pride; and Awakening Love, a trans-led nonprofit that provides short-term financial assistance.
Transgender Day of Remembrance was started in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a Black trans woman whose murder still has not been solved. In a 2020 article about Hester’s life, NBC News noted that “for many in the trans community, the day is the only annual gathering they have.”
On Friday, Sept. 9 – the 11th day of the water crisis in Jackson, Miss., and weeks into a citywide boil water notice – I went to brush my teeth.
I was at my apartment in Belhaven, one of the oldest and wealthiest neighborhoods in the majority-Black capital city. With the day off work, I had planned to drive to a suburb of Jackson to wash my clothes, thinking the laundromats in town were still affected by the crisis. Getting ready to leave, I turned on my bathroom sink faucet; for a second, the stream of water ran normally before it sputtered, lost pressure and turned a shockingly dark, coffee-colored brown.
My reaction was to turn off the faucet.
Earlier that week, I had seen a picture on Twitter of a bathtub, supposedly in Jackson, that was full of opaque, black water. Without more context, I had dismissed it as fake, but I wasn’t doubting anymore. I turned on my shower – it also sputtered before the water turned the same dark brown. I tried my sink again. Still brown. Then I flushed my toilet; it lurched away from the wall. I opened the lid to see chocolate-colored water slowly filling the bowl.
I took a video and posted it on Twitter with the caption, “My water just now in Jackson, MS.”
Within minutes, I was getting hundreds of retweets. That turned into dozens of direct messages, emails and phone calls from reporters around the world requesting to play the video on TV that night, and literally thousands of replies all asking the same question: What was in my water, and why was it that brown?
I had the same questions. Like all of my coworkers at Mississippi Today, I had been covering the crisis since it began on Aug. 29, but I wasn’t reporting on the condition of the water system or treatment plants.
Still, I thought I’d be well-suited to get the answers as a journalist. But more than two months later, I still don’t know what, exactly, was in my water, or why it turned brown. I’ve talked with experts in water quality and city officials – they gave different answers. The experts say that discolored water is a natural phenomenon in aging water systems, though the pipes in my building could’ve contributed. City officials are adamant my brown water was “an isolated incident,” but we obtained records showing people across the city had experienced similar brown water during the height of the crisis.
The city also said they were going to test my water, but after weeks of back and forth with me, they admitted they never did.
But the first call I made that day was to my landlord’s front office. I wanted to know if other properties in Belhaven were affected or if my unit, a 1940s quadruplex, was the only one.Though the pipes in Belhaven are decades old, much of the neighborhood is downhill and nearby J.H. Fewell, the city’s secondary water plant – as a result, the homes here are often better able to weather water-related crises than those in other parts of the city.
The office manager answered the phone. Multiple properties were affected, she said. The water in Nejam Properties’ office in Belhaven Heights, a sister neighborhood on the hill across Fortification Street, was the color of “weak coffee.”
“That’s all to do with the city of Jackson and the boil water notice and stuff like that,” she said in a way that seemed intended to be reassuring.
Even before Gov. Tate Reeves declared the water emergency in a late-night press conference on Aug. 29, there was widespread confusion in Jackson about whether the water was safe to drink. Despite months of on-again, off-again boil water notices, many people, including myself, had been using the water normally. The mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, had repeatedly questioned if the most recent boil water notice, which had been imposed by the state in July, was necessary.
This lack of clarity from both the city and the state continued throughout the crisis, making it hard for many Jacksonians to know what to trust. Reeves’ initialpress conference did not include Lumumba or anyone from the city – and the very next day, Lumumba disputed several of Reeves’ comments, including an alarming statement that raw flood water had entered the O.B. Curtis treatment plant and was flowing into people’s homes.
In my apartment, the first clue as to what happened came a few hours after I posted the video. That afternoon, I learned my neighbor directly beneath me on the north side of the buildinghad been getting brown water in his kitchen sink for a week if he used hot water. But on the south side, my neighbors still had clear water, albeit with low-pressure. An expert later told me this could indicate an issue with the pipes inside my section of the building – something my landlord, not the city, would be responsible for.
My water cleared up the day after I posted the video on Twitter, but it continued to gain views. By Monday, it had been watched more than 10 million times. That afternoon, I looked through my Twitter DMs.
One message stood out. It was a request from the City of Jackson’s account. They asked for my address so they could come test the water.
I could send it, I replied, but I wanted to know why they were asking.
“… If the water is that brown… we want to get the address to Public works and the health department to find the reason why,” they responded.
“Gotcha!” I wrote back before sending my address. Since I work from home, I said the city could come by any time.
“Ok…,” they wrote. “I’m going to give that address to our public works person… and hopefully they’ll be able to determine what the heck is going on.”
After some back and forth, the city’s Twitter account asked if my water was still brown.
“Can we get a sample of it? (I’m asking per our public works director)”
The next morning, I ran into three city contractors on the sidewalk outside my apartment. They weren’t there to test my water but to install new meters.
I showed them the video. Gesturing down at the water meter, one of the contractors remarked that their work wouldn’t prevent the discolored water from happening again.
Jackson, he said, needs to re-pipe the whole city.
The exchange prompted me to check in with the city’s Twitter account.
“When do you think y’all will send someone over?” I asked at 9:42 a.m.
Six hours later, the city replied, “Hey Hey!!!! I think they went out there this morning…”
That was my last exchange with the city’s Twitter account, but I would learn – when I reached out to the city a month later – that Public Works never tested my water.
Meanwhile, at Mississippi Today, we were trying to do our own test of my water – an effort that proved fruitless.
Our health editor, Kate Royals, had been researching how to test water and found a private lab in Ridgeland, a suburb of Jackson, called Waypoint Analytical. We ultimately submitted three tests to Waypoint over the course of a month, for a total of $137.
The first sample, which I took the same day I posted the video, had puzzling results. That Friday afternoon, I talked to the lab manager who told me I needed to collect 100 milliliters of water and could put it in Tupperware, the only clean container I had at home. We had decided to test my water for E. coli and “total coliform,” a type of bacteria used to indicate the presence of pathogens.
The water was still dark and turbid when I turned it into the lab, but the results they sent us a few days later showed the water was too dark to test.
“The sample could not be read for Total Coliform due to the dark coloration of the sample interfering with the Reading,” the results said.
So six days later, the day the boil water notice was lifted, we tried again.
The second test came back with high levels of total coliform but no E. coli. But I had committed two possible user errors. One, my Tupperware container might’ve introduced bacteria into the sample. Two, I didn’t flush out the line by running the bathroom sink faucet before taking the sample, the water-testing protocol generally recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Nearly another month passed before we could get a third and final test. This time, I got more guidelines from the lab and followed them to a tee, cleaning my faucet with bleach (which yielded more brown sediment) and running the water for one minute before collecting it in a sterile container and placing it in a bag of ice.
It came back with no bacteria detected. But that’s not the full story.
One expert I later consulted, Francis de los Reyes – a professor of environmental engineering and microbiology at North Carolina State University – suggested that because the lab’s test required re-growing bacteria, the bleach I had used on the faucet could’ve lingered in the water, killing any organisms that might’ve been present. He said I should’ve run the tap for longer than one minute to clear the bleach.
So what was in my brown water, and why did it happen? Other experts I talked to could only speculate. De los Reyes’colleague, Detlef Knappe, who specializes in water quality and treatment, told me that because there was likely no E. coli in my water, the brown color was probably the “natural” result of a drop in pressure in the old pipes.
In a functioning water system, Knappe explained, generators push water from the plant to homes, where it stays suspended in the pipes until a faucet is turned on. But in old water systems like Jackson’s, lined with cast iron pipes, a drop in pressure can cause accumulated sediment to collapse into the disrupted water stream and turn it brown. The water isn’t leaving the plant a dark brown color, Knappe said, but becomes discolored somewhere along its journey to the faucet.
Christine Kirschoff, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State University, had another perspective. Though she agreed that the brown water was likely caused by a drop of pressure in the pipes, she said it could’ve been exacerbated by the routing of the pipes in my building. That scenario would explain why my downstairs neighbor also had discolored water but my neighbors to the south never did.
The last week of September, I went on vacation and promptly got food poisoning. I would later learn that as I was laid up on my couch – subsisting on chicken nuggets and Uncrustables and using up the last of the bottled water I’d bought the first week of the crisis – the mayor had commented on my water at a town hall the same week.
A recording of the town hall at the New Jerusalem South Church on Sept. 27 shows Lumumba, microphone in hand, standing in front of poster boards of graphs, pictures of O.B. Curtis and a spreadsheet labeled “IMMEDIATE NEEDS.” He starts talking about my water around the 12-minute mark in a tangent about re-watching an interview he gave on national TV.
By now, my tweet had helped shape the national perception of Jackson’s water crisis.
“I was upset, because I did an interview,” Lumumba said. “And y’all know when I do these interviews, I can’t see the packages they’re running, I can’t see the images that they’re running in the background – all I see is a blank screen. And they keep showing this black water coming out of a faucet, right?”
My water, Lumumba went on to say, represented an “extremely rare situation” issue at “one isolated building.”
“That is not what is coming out of your water treatment facility, right?” he said. “You’re not having black water going to every resident. Y’all – y’all live in Jackson. Y’all – how many times have you seen a black water come out of your faucet? Right? I have residents tell me time and time again that they don’t know where that was, right?”
For me, this raised several new questions. Did the city actually send anyone to test my water? How were they able to determine the brown water was isolated to my building? What other discussions did they have about my water? Why didn’t the city reach out to me with their conclusion?
On Oct. 13, I sent an email asking if the city had tested my water to Melissa Faith Payne, the city’s public information officer.
“I believe the discolored water at your building was an isolated incident … and not indicative of the water that actually comes from the plant,” she responded the next day. “I think it had more to do with the lines/pipes at your building. I’ll Loop our public works team in to get more information for you.”
I followed up. What was the mayor’s basis for his comments at the town hall? If it was easier, I suggested, I would be happy to talk with the Public Works employee that tested my water.
“I briefed the Mayor just before the town hall,” Payne replied, adding that she was still waiting on an answer from Public Works.
About a week later, I got a statement from Jordan Hillman, the interim director of Public Works. The department could not make any employees available for an interview, she said, due to the workload of maintaining the water system, but Hillman did explain why the city thought my water was an isolated incident.
“This incident was indicative of a local pipe issue for a variety of reasons including knowledge of water condition leaving plants, water color at nearby fire hydrants, and experience with similar issues,” Hillman said. “There were extremely limited reports of similar water discoloration through our report tool.”
The tool that Hillman is referring to is an online survey the city created for residents to report the color of their water. My coworker Alex Rozier, who has been covering the crisis closely, recommended I fill it out the same day I posted the video.
I asked the experts what they thought of Hillman’s reply.
Knappe, the NC State professor, told me that the water from a fire hydrant isn’t necessarily representative of the color of water inside a home, because the pressure and speed at which water comes out of a hydrant is much greater than a faucet. Kirschoff said that it depends on where the fire hydrant that the city examined was located relative to my apartment.
Unsatisfied, I put in several public records requests. I asked for copies of any communications about my water, which the city has only partially fulfilled.
After a few more days of inquiries, Hillman finally told me that “no samples were taken from your specific home or area at that time.”
I also asked for responses to the report tool. Despite the fact that the mayor said my experience was an “extremely rare situation,” the submissions from other Jacksonian detailing discolored water seem to say otherwise. Out of 565 responses, including mine, to the form since Aug. 29, 423 – or 74% – reported discolored water. The submissions came from across the city but about a third were concentrated in northeast Jackson. (We did not filter duplicates from this count.)
Responses from more than 20 people, a little more than 4%, contained descriptions of brown, gritty water that matched what I had seen in my home. Though far more people used the word “brown” to describe their water, I couldn’t tell if their report matched my experience because the city was supposed to send me pictures that had been uploaded in response to the form but hasn’t.
“Reddish brown water in both toilets strong enough to leave a brown ring,” one person wrote.
“When I boil my water it turn my pot brown inside my bath water have dirt in it,” another person said.
“My water is brown and leaves deposits of dirt..” a third submitted.
I asked Hillman and Payne why the city thought these responses were “extremely limited” on Nov. 4 but I haven’t heard back.
More than two months after my water turned brown, I haven’t had an issue. I’ve gone back to using my water to cook, wash my dishes, and brush my teeth, but every morning, I see reminders and warnings – representations of what could happen again. The grainy water left permanent, hair dye-like splotches on my toilet bowl, bathtub, and sink basin. Now, I always run my water for one minute before I use it.
The city and state seem to have returned to the contentious relationship that preceded the crisis, with both sides accusing the other of providing incorrect information, which only further weakens public confidence in the system.
There’s no sign this will change. As winter sets in, raising the possibility that another freeze could shut down the system, the state is considering if it will lift the emergency declaration. Multiple lawsuits have been filed. And though it’ll become public soon, just last week, the city inked an agreement with the federal government to fix the water system – in secret.
