OurTupelo

The committee tasked with overseeing most of Mississippi’s opioid settlement dollars may struggle to keep up with the tight timeline the Legislature prescribed last spring, a plan that lawmakers finalized years after most states enacted their settlement spending plans.

In Jackson on Wednesday, the Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council met for the first time to discuss how Mississippi should go about distributing hundreds of millions of settlement dollars, money paid out by pharmaceutical companies for their roles in catalyzing hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths. 

Before the meeting started, council chair and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch provided the 15 voting members and 22 nonvoting participants draft documents of how the committee could operate. The proposals included rules the advisory committee should follow, information to provide groups looking to apply for settlement dollars the state is dedicating to address addiction and an application for making that request. 

Council members raised concerns about Fitch’s documents. Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph, one of the voting council members, said he worried the materials were missing important information and could lead to the state not addressing the public health catastrophe at hand. 

Randolph joined over a video call, and he told Mississippi Today after the meeting that severe technical difficulties made it hard for him to hear what was happening in Jackson. 

But he affirmed that his biggest priorities for the council are helping Mississippi families who’ve suffered most from the addiction crisis and ensuring this public money isn’t spent on expenses unrelated to the public health crisis at hand, as Mississippi had done with its tobacco settlement funds and federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Family dollars.

 He said he didn’t think the documents as proposed would address the opioid crisis.

“We have to make sure we do not make the mistakes of the past,” Randolph told the other council members. “We have to make sure we don’t end up with no accountability.”

While some local governments have started spending their settlement dollars, the state government, which is  responsible for a share of Mississippi opioid settlements that could total around $360 million, has yet to start using its dollars to address and prevent addiction. Every state that borders Mississippi has started distributing the largest portion of their opioid dollars, some over a year ago. 

In 2021, Fitch’s office developed a plan to send 70% of Mississippi’s total opioid settlement dollars – which could now be around $300 million – to the University of Mississippi Medical Center for a proposed addiction treatment center. But the plan was never realized, and the Legislature passed its bill this year to create an advisory council tasked with making recommendations on how lawmakers should spend the funds. 

The law mandates the council solicits, reviews and makes recommendations on applications for opioid abatement projects by Dec. 1 of each year.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Jason White did not respond to emailed questions asking why the lawmakers waited years to initiate their plan for distributing the state’s opioid settlements and why they created a rapid timeline for the attorney general’s office to develop a grant application, publish the form and review grants. 

At the advisory meeting, one of Fitch’s special assistants, Caleb Pracht, told the council members that they are overseeing $73.3 million of the state’s approximately $85 million of opioid settlement funds received so far. Fitch and state lawmakers have allowed for the remaining millions of dollars to be spent on non-addiction purposes. 

The original goal, according to Pracht, was to launch the application in mid-July and have interested groups apply for the grant by Aug. 29. 

But that timeline was pushed back shortly after Randolph and other members pointed out missing information in the attorney general’s material. Joseph Sclafani, a voting adviser and Gov. Tate Reeves’ attorney, expressed concern that while the proposed rules said all qualified applications must be reviewed, the document never defined who meets the qualification.

From the draft material, it was unclear whether individuals, nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies or local government agencies could apply for these funds. 

“I don’t think we should be determining on the fly what is qualified and what isn’t,” Sclafani told Pracht. “I think we should have a standard for what is a qualified applicant before we start looking.” 

The information for grant applicants defined eligible projects but only said they were those that address substance use disorder or other harmful effects of the opioid epidemic. Later in the meeting, Scalfani told the other advisers there should be a system to evaluate applications, and it should be made available to applicants. 

“I’ve never seen a grant you apply for that you don’t know the scoring rubric at the time you apply,” he said. 

By the end of the meeting, Pracht said both the launch of the settlement grant application and the deadline for applying would have to be delayed a few weeks. The council members agreed to meet again before publishing the application, this time entirely over video conference.

Michelle Williams, Fitch’s chief of staff, told the committee that it’s important for the council to evaluate all the applications by the end of November to meet the Legislature’s December deadline. 

After the meeting, Williams told Mississippi Today that while the council’s suggestions added more tasks for Fitch on a tight timeline, Fitch’s office would work to make sure the application publication and deadline wouldn’t be delayed more than a couple weeks. 

“We’re going to turn around as much as we can right now,” she said. “… Get them to do another meeting where they can discuss it, agree to something, and then we’ll push that out right away.”

Randolph told Mississippi Today that he thinks the council, the Legislature and Fitch want these dollars to be spent appropriately. If he and the other members need additional time with the application, he said, they’ll ask the Legislature for it. 

But he said as one member of the council, he will continue to vote against any part of the process that doesn’t ensure Mississippians who’ve suffered the most from the overdose epidemic benefit from the settlement dollars. To do that, the application process needs to be clear.

“I didn’t see that,” he said. “And I’m sure they’re working on that, but I don’t got that all. I’m not ready to sign off on anything until I’m satisfied.” 

Cindy Hyde-Smith did not appear to enjoy being approached in late April by voters who were concerned about reports that President Donald Trump’s administration was pushing to slash federal Medicaid spending.

“Medicaid is not going anywhere,” the U.S. senator assured a group of three constituents at a Ridgeland Chamber of Commerce event in April before being ushered away by a staffer, according to people who witnessed the exchange. “Nothing is going to happen to Medicaid. Why is everyone’s head exploding? I can’t understand why everyone’s head is exploding.”

Fast-forward two months, and Hyde-Smith gleefully voted to do exactly what she had so quickly dismissed that day: cut Medicaid funding.

In Washington, shielded by the Beltway and a perceived security blanket of Trump’s MAGA acolytes, Hyde-Smith and the other four Mississippi congressional Republicans in Congress gloated about their votes.

Back home in Mississippi, however, many heads did indeed explode — and with good reason.

Because of Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” that every state delegate except Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson voted to pass, an estimated tens of thousands of Mississippians will lose Medicaid coverage and rural hospitals will lose millions annually in federal funding. While wealthy individuals and corporations will see sizable tax cuts under the legislation, most Mississippians will barely benefit. The bill strips away much of the nation’s safety net for our poorest residents — of which there are obviously many in our poorest state in the nation — and it will add an estimated $3 trillion to our national debt.

For the thousands of Mississippians who had spent weeks trying to relay the long list of negative consequences of the bill to their Washington delegation, final passage felt like a punch to the gut.

It’s a tale as old as time in Mississippi: voters of any and all political persuasions were ignored by their Washington representatives. Mississippi’s congressional representatives have long been out of touch with their constituents once we send them to the halls of the U.S. Capitol, but their avoidance this time felt especially pronounced as valid concern after valid concern was raised about the bill. Their sustained promises to not cut Medicaid, to not significantly raise the national debt and to take good care of people in their home state were not remotely kept here.

If you’re an everyday Mississippi citizen and you want to lodge concerns to your congressional delegation, good luck. Unless you’re deemed important enough to land on their Washington office schedule, you’ll need to get creative. You can call their D.C. or district offices, but you’ll either be directed to a voicemail box or talk briefly with an intern or other low-level staffer whose mandate is to take some notes and move on.

Over the past few months, there has been a loosely coordinated statewide effort to get the attention of those leaders. Thousands of Mississippians took part.

They called. They emailed. They protested outside district offices. They rallied in front of the state Capitol and courthouses. They sent letters, knocked on doors and jammed phone lines. They followed our senators and representatives to luncheons and business forums. They told them — over and over — that they were afraid about the real harm the “Big Beautiful Bill” would do to health care access in one of the sickest, poorest states in America.

In many cases, though, their cries were likely never heard at all by the elected officials.

On June 30, the day before the Senate passed the bill, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker’s Washington office was not accepting calls or even messages from constituents because “the voicemail inbox was full.” Five days earlier on June 25, an automated phone message at Wicker’s D.C. office said, “Calls to this number have been suspended.”

On July 3, the day of the final House vote to pass the bill, Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest’s D.C. office phone line had a busy signal most of the day. When a group of about a dozen people showed up to Guest’s district office in Brandon on July 3, the doors were locked and a sign was taped to the door with a number to call. An organizer of the protest called the number and spoke for a few minutes by phone with a Guest staffer, who some attendees believed to be inside the Brandon office all along.

Since February, groups of Mississippi constituents made three trips to Wicker’s Jackson office and three trips to Hyde-Smith’s Jackson office. Each time, they were either locked out of the offices or granted just a few minutes with staffers inside who worked to downplay their concerns.

So why, exactly, do our elected officials feel so confident ignoring the will of so many constituents or transparently voting against our state’s interests?

There’s certainly a long conversation to have about how special interest groups, led by the uber-wealthy who have never stepped foot in Mississippi, have commandeered our representative democracy. There’s even more to say about how our nation’s shadowy campaign finance regulations, successful efforts to gerrymander congressional districts and a slew of shady election laws allow D.C. incumbents to cling to power.

But in this instance, the answer could be a lot less about our government systems and a lot more about what’s right in front of us.

“They’re more afraid of Trump than they are of their own constituents,” surmised Kathleen O’Beirne, one of the people who confronted Hyde-Smith about the Medicaid cuts back in April. “Looking specifically at their votes on Medicaid, it sure seems like their disdain and hatred for poor people and people of color is stronger than their love for Mississippi. There’s no other explanation, especially if you understand how health insurance works. And I’d assume and hope they all do.”

O’Beirne, a retired attorney and mother of two in Ridgeland, has helped organize nine Mississippi rallies since February. She’s emerged as a leader for thousands of Mississippians who are feeling more than overlooked or slighted right now by our elected officials.

“It’s definitely frustrating at times,” she acknowledged of not being able to get through to congressional leaders. “But we aren’t going to stop. We’re not easily deterred. We’re seeing what’s happening, and we’re adding more Mississippians who are tired of this. If they (members of the congressional delegation) aren’t going to listen, we’re making it our job to be a thorn in their sides.”

As the negative effects of the legislation will become clearer in Mississippi over the next few months and years, it’s worth closely observing whether our state’s congressional delegation starts feeling a prick from that thorn. For now, they don’t seem to notice it.

Mississippi hospitals could lose up to $1 billion over the next decade under the sweeping, multitrillion-dollar tax and policy bill President Donald Trump signed into law last week, according to leaders at the Mississippi Hospital Association.

The leaders say the cuts could force some already-struggling rural hospitals to reduce services or close their doors.

The law includes the largest reduction in federal health and social safety net programs in history. It passed 218-214, with all Democrats voting against the measure and all but five Republicans voting for it. 

In the short term, these cuts will make health care less accessible to poor Mississippians by making the eligibility requirements for Medicaid insurance stiffer, likely increasing people’s medical debt. 

In the long run, the cuts could lead to worsening chronic health conditions such as diabetes and obesity for which Mississippi already leads the nation, and making private insurance more expensive for many people, experts say. 

“We’ve got about a billion dollars that are potentially hanging in the balance over the next 10 years,” Mississippi Hospital Association President Richard Roberson said Wednesday during a panel discussion at his organization’s headquarters. 

“If folks were being honest, the entire system depends on those rural hospitals,” he said.

Mississippi’s uninsured population could increase by 160,000 people as a combined result of the new law and the expiration of Biden-era enhanced subsidies that made marketplace insurance affordable – and which Trump is not expected to renew – according to KFF, a health policy research group. 

That could make things even worse for those who are left on the marketplace plans. 

“Younger, healthier people are going to leave the risk pool, and that’s going to mean it’s more expensive to insure the patients that remain,” said Lucy Dagneau, senior director of state and local campaigns at the American Cancer Society. 

Among the biggest changes facing Medicaid-eligible patients are stiffer eligibility requirements, including proof of work. The new law requires able-bodied adults ages 19 to 64 to work, do community service or attend an educational program at least 80 hours a month to qualify for, or keep, Medicaid coverage and federal food aid. 

Opponents say qualified recipients could be stripped of benefits if they lose a job or fail to complete paperwork attesting to their time commitment.

Georgia became the case study for work requirements with a program called Pathways to Coverage, which was touted as a conservative alternative to Medicaid expansion. 

Ironically, the 54-year-old mechanic chosen by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to be the face of the program got so fed up with the work requirements he went from praising the program on television to saying “I’m done with it” after his benefits were allegedly cancelled twice due to red tape. 

Roberson sent several letters to Mississippi’s congressional members in weeks leading up to the final vote on the sweeping federal legislation, sounding the alarm on what it would mean for hospitals and patients.

Among Roberson’s chief concerns is a change in the mechanism called state directed payments, which allows states to beef up Medicaid reimbursement rates – typically the lowest among insurance payors. The new law will reduce those enhanced rates to nearly as low as the Medicare rate, costing the state at least $500 million and putting rural hospitals in a bind, Roberson told Mississippi Today. 

That change will happen over 10 years starting in 2028. That, in conjunction with the new law’s  one-time payment program called the Rural Health Care Fund, means if the next few years look normal, it doesn’t mean Mississippi is safe, stakeholders warn. 

“We’re going to have a sort of deceiving situation in Mississippi where we look a little flush with cash with the rural fund and the state directed payments in 2027 and 2028, and then all of a sudden our state directed payments start going down and that fund ends and then we’re going to start dipping,” said Leah Rupp Smith, vice president for policy and advocacy at the Mississippi Hospital Association. 

Even with that buffer time, immediate changes are on the horizon for health care in Mississippi because of fear and uncertainty around ever-changing rules. 

“Hospitals can’t budget when we have these one-off programs that start and stop and the rules change – and there’s a cost to administering a program like this,” Smith said.

Since hospitals are major employers – and they also provide a sense of safety for incoming businesses –  their closure, especially in rural areas, affects not just patients but local economies and communities. 

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is the only Democrat in Mississippi’s congressional delegation. He voted against the bill, while the state’s two Republican senators and three Republican House members voted for it. Thompson said in a statement that the new law does not bode well for the Delta, one of the poorest regions in the U.S. 

“For my district, this means closed hospitals, nursing homes, families struggling to afford groceries, and educational opportunities deferred,” Thompson said. “Republicans’ priorities are very simple: tax cuts for (the) wealthy and nothing for the people who make this country work.”

While still colloquially referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the name was changed by Democrats invoking a maneuver that has been used by lawmakers in both chambers to oppose a bill on principle. 

“Democrats are forcing Republicans to delete their farcical bill name,” Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer of New York said in a statement. “Nothing about this bill is beautiful — it’s a betrayal to American families and it’s undeserving of such a stupid name.”

The law is expected to add at least $3.3 trillion to the nation’s debt over the next 10 years, according to the most recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

For only the sixth time since 1970, Mississippi collected less in tax revenue than it did the previous fiscal year, according to the latest report from the state’s Legislative Budget Office. 

The report says Mississippi collected around $64.3 million, or .83%, less than it did the last fiscal year. In Fiscal Year 2024, the state collected around $7.7 billion, while it collected $7.64 billion for Fiscal Year 2025. The budget cycle runs from July 1 to June 30.

The main reason the state is taking in less money than it did last fiscal year is that it collected $232.5 million, or 24%, less from corporate income taxes than it did last year. The state collected more sales taxes, individual income taxes and use taxes than last year. 

Despite the slump in revenue, state government is still living within its means and is collecting more than lawmakers who set the state budget had estimated. 

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee, a group of 14 lawmakers, had estimated that Mississippi would collect $7.6 billion in taxes. Since the state had a lower estimate, it collected $41 million more than it projected. 

Even with the low $7.6 billion estimate, the Legislature during a May special session voted to adopt an even lower $7.1 billion state budget, meaning it left around half a billion dollars unencumbered. 

Still, the fact that the state is receiving less money could be an early sign of recession, or that massive tax cuts passed in recent years and still being phased in are not stimulating economic growth like proponents of the cuts hoped.

Mississippi is continuing a years-long phase out of its franchise tax, which is part of the corporate income tax, and has been cutting its individual income tax. The franchise tax will be eliminated in the next few years, and the already low individual income tax will be phased out over more than a decade. 

Over the last few years, the state has seen increased revenue and lawmakers have increased spending, largely due to unprecedented federal spending and handouts to states for economic stimulus and recovery from the global pandemic. The new Trump administration in Washington is working to cut federal spending and in some cases rescind money already allocated to states.

Members of the state’s joint budget committee will meet in the fall to hear from some agency leaders about their budget needs and begin crafting a state budget for the next fiscal year. 

Some residents of a small community in the Mississippi Delta say they fear their health might be at risk after a train derailed and spilled a hazardous chemical compound that burned for hours.

Part of a Canadian National Railway train went off the tracks Saturday in Glendora, about halfway between Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi. The derailment prompted a temporary evacuation of the village after a tank car containing benzene caught on fire.

Desiree Simmons and Diamond Hoskins said they were leaving work at an Emmett Till museum when they realized they had to take their families to safety. The derailment occurred nearby.

“We came out of the building, and all we heard was a ‘boom,’ and the ‘boom’ was a couple feet down from where we was, and all we saw was black smoke,” Simmons told Mississippi Today.

Benzene is used in several products, including detergents and plastics. Symptoms of benzene poisoning include drowsiness, fast or irregular heartbeat, tremors and headaches.

Local fire departments worked several hours to extinguish the flames, according to the Tallahatchie County newspaper, The Sun-Sentinel. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality built a berm around the tank car to contain the spillage and firefighting liquids.

Employees of the Department of Environmental Quality, the state Health Department, Canadian National Railway and the National Transportation Safety Board have been on-site in Glendora, a rural community of about 140 residents. 

No buildings or homes were damaged, but the derailment damaged the main water line, which has since been repaired. Glendora was put under a boil water notice – a common practice after water lines break and temporarily lose pressure.

Simmons and Hoskins picked up their children and quickly left after the derailment. They and some other Glendora residents went to hotels in Cleveland, about 30 miles away, but the women said several people lacked transportation and could not evacuate.

Hoskins said people from CN gathered residents in Glendora on Monday and gave each family a $100 Walmart gift card. 

Since returning home Tuesday, both Simmons and Hoskins say that they and their children experienced headaches, fatigue and other symptoms. Both said they plan to visit a doctor soon, and both are worried about their families’ health.

“We’re not using our water. Scared to use it,” Simmons said. “We’ll probably take a shower or something, but I haven’t even cooked because I’m scared of the water.”

Hoskins said there was too little communication from those responding to the derailment.

“How do we know that we haven’t been exposed?” Hoskins said. “How do we know? You’re not reassuring us, you’re not saying nothing to no one.”

Mayor Johnny B. Thomas said he believes the evacuation began too late and ended too soon, and the Glendora community isn’t involved enough in the response.

“They did not evacuate us in a timely manner and in an urgent manner as it should have been with this type of chemical exposure,” Thomas said. 

In a statement to Mississippi Today, the Department of Environmental Quality said air monitoring began promptly after the incident.

“There have been no detectable levels of benzene found and air quality in the community remains at safe levels,” the department said. “Therefore, initial evacuation orders have been lifted.”

The department said air monitoring continues as a precaution.

“We will release any information where there is a threat to public health or the environment,” the department said.

The railroad company directed Mississippi Today to the National Transportation Safety Board for comment, and the board said it will release a preliminary report within 30 days.

The Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council held its first meeting Wednesday at the Walter Sillers building in Jackson.

State law requires the members to meet by the end of the day Wednesday. A virtual meeting link also was available for anyone who could not attend in person.

The group is responsible for advising the state Legislature on how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars Mississippi is receiving from pharmaceutical companies accused of catalyzing thousands of overdose deaths throughout the state.

It’s unclear how the Legislature will go about distributing these funds, but the agenda for the meeting said the members would propose rules, priorities and a grant application process.

The MSHOF will induct eight new members on Aug 2. Rick Cleveland has covered them all and he and son Tyler talk about what makes them all special.

Stream all episodes here.

BRANDON — Rankin County residents packed Brandon City Hall to discuss whether a Confederate statue belongs in the town center where a bulk of local traffic flows. But most took stances on whether it represents heritage or hate.

“It’s hatred,” Janie Mclaurin-Wheaton said at the meeting Monday. “You want to leave ‘that’ history, but you want to take mine out of the school? What about my history? I was born here, too.”

Mclaurin-Wheaton, who is Black, was a member of the first graduating class to integrate Brandon High School and was referring to a new law that seeks to restrict teachers from discussing “divisive”concepts like slavery and the causes of the Civil War. Her grandfather was the first Black man in Rankin County to own land and a car. She was one of the first Black women hired in the Rankin County Tax Assessor’s office, where she worked for 27 years.

She joined some 80 neighbors — Black and white– with deep roots in the city and county to speak before the Brandon Board of Aldermen. Dozens crowded into chairs before the first speaker approached the podium at 6 p.m. City hall employees were forced to unfold extra chairs in the hallway when space ran out.

This discussion follows a June 16 meeting, during which Brandon city leaders approved a first step to assess the cost and logistics of relocating the 37-foot-tall statue of an unknown soldier built in 1907. Mayor Butch Lee cast the tie-breaking vote.

In an interview with WAPT, Lee said the statue is “in harm’s way.” He cited three cars that have recently struck it as well as a recent incident in which it was shot at.

Few locals cited the traffic concern as a top priority. Lee and the board drew condemnation from audience members who questioned why the decision wasn’t left to the voters. 

A favored candidate for the relocation is the Confederate part of the Brandon cemetery – a location some feel could hold and preserve the historical monument without glorifying a difficult part of American history.

“There could not be a more serene, more dignified place to address this history than Brandon’s cemetery,” said Lance Stevens, an attorney and 30-year Brandon resident.

Bettye Ward Fletcher, a Black Rankin County native, called for the city to move the statue she sees as a harmful symbol.

“It continues to be painful,” she said. “Your hometown continues to honor the men that fought to maintain you and your people in slavery.”

“I want something different for my grandkids,” said Will Sims, a Black U.S. Air Force veteran who expressed disappointment with seeing the monument still standing when he returned from years in the service.

However, for some residents, the monument and its history are nothing to be ashamed of.

Former longtime Rankin County Assistant District Attorney Dan Duggan pulled out a portrait of his great-great grandfather, a Confederate soldier, for the board to see. The fifth-generation Southerner said removing the monument would be a betrayal to the memory of his ancestors and other soldiers.

“This is a memorial to soldiers who left their homes to defend their country, the Confederate States of America, against an invading force,” said Mark Allen, a longtime resident of Rankin County and descendant of a Confederate soldier.

Brandon’s Confederate monument was erected across from the courthouse where Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman ordered his Union troops to stack their arms as a sign of military occupation of the town, according to the National Register of Historic Places.

In February 1864, Sherman largely burned Brandon as part of what modern historians call a practice run for his famous March to the Sea, in which he employed “total war” that burned and pillaged everything in his army’s path. 

“It’s a place that people could go to that’s maybe the only representation that they had of their relative who had never come home,” said Allen. 

However, some argued that the statue is a symbol of white power rather than a memorial to fallen ancestors. It was erected 42 years after the end of the Civil War, at a time when white Mississippians worked to ensure the marginalization of Black residents. In 1890, the Mississippi constitution enshrined the disenfranchisement of Black residents into law. By 1900, virtually no Black residents could vote despite constituting 59% of the population. 

John Toney, a local attorney, brought up that Brandon spent $3,000 – what would amount to $105,000 today – on the statue.

“They used these monuments to start a political and cultural dialogue,” Toney said. “On the north side of the statue is carved into the marble: state’s rights and home rule will rise again. That’s not a dog whistle, that’s a training whistle.”

“I doubt any Blacks voted in 1907 to spend taxpayer money on the statue,” said Toney.

Despite its complicated past, some claimed the historical monument should be preserved.

“It’s our history. Whether it’s bad or good, let’s not try to second guess it,” said Sharon Neely Egan, a white resident who opposes the removal of the statue. “I don’t think we need to erase Brandon’s history.”

Still, many feel that leaving a monument built as a homage to the Confederacy in one of Brandon’s busiest streets is siding with a skewed version of history, and disregarding the pain it evokes to Black residents.

“Our past is important, but there’s a difference between remembering and honoring,” said Brandon Middle School principal Trey Rein. “We have an opportunity here to make a statement that we are focused on our town’s future more than its past.”

The rain let up just after 7 p.m. as speakers and spectators exited city hall for their cars and homes. Mclaurin-Wheaton departed with some of her classmates from Brandon High School. They are still good friends today.

“I just see some people stuck in the past and don’t know how to move forward,” Mclaurin-Wheaton said. “That’s because mama told you, daddy told you, sister told you, but when you become of age, you got to learn to do the right thing for yourself.”

The next public discussion over this topic will be July 21 at Brandon City Hall. 

Heading into the Fourth of July weekend last Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a revised study on potential flood controls for the part of the Pearl River that runs along Jackson. The Corps has narrowed its focus to two proposals, and only one of them would resemble the long-debated “One Lake” plan.

The latest step in an effort decades in the making, the 243-page document highlights an array of flood control measures such as building levees, lowering the river’s banks, and elevating and floodproofing vulnerable structures.

The public can view the study, submit comments and find information on upcoming public meetings through the Corps’ website. The public comment period lasts until Aug. 18.

In last week’s study, which is a revision of a draft the Corps released last year, the agency wrote that “Alternative E1” could be the “National Economic Development plan,” or the option that most aligns with the Corps’ cost-benefit criteria. Alternative E1 includes all the above mentioned measures, but notably omits building a dam that would essentially create a lake on the Pearl River.

The idea to pool a section of the river into a lake has been a key component of proposals local officials have favored for years. From 2011 until last year, the Rankin-Hinds Flood Control District, the project’s local government sponsor, pushed an idea coined as “One Lake,” which would have widened the river f0r recreational use. While the Corps last year determined One Lake’s cost wasn’t justifiable, the agency instead pitched a dialed back version of the idea as the potential National Economic Development plan.

The Corps in its new study said that plan, “Alternative D1,” may have more potential for recreation than E1, but added that the two options have equal flood control benefit. The agency’s final selection, it wrote, will likely come down to those two proposals.

The costs of either would be considerably more than what the Corps considered last year: E1, the agency estimates, could cost between $708 million and $753 million, while D1 could cost between $873 million and $918 million. While the Corps pledged $221 million toward the project in 2022, the federal government is only responsible for 65% of costs, meaning the local flood control district, also called the levee board, would have to raise between $248 million and $321 million for the remaining balance through a combination of local taxes and state appropriations.

Levee board attorney Keith Turner told Mississippi Today that either proposal would expand the district to include more homes. Turner said that for many homes, tax payments needed to fund either project would still be lower than what they pay for flood insurance now.

Part of the higher costs comes from four levees, totaling about 6 miles, that the Corps includes in both D1 and E1: a levee that would protect 250 homes in the Canton Club neighborhood; a levee in northeast Jackson that would protect 415 homes, but would require the acquisition of two other homes; a levee that would protect 40 homes in south Jackson; and one that would protect 40, mostly industrial, structures in Richland.

Both projects would also “adversely affect” endangered or threatened species within the Pearl River’s natural habitats, the study says, including three different types of turtles. D1, the Corps wrote, would impact a wider range of species, including the Gulf sturgeon, than E1.

In a presentation to board members at a Monday meeting, Turner said he disagreed with “a lot” of what’s in the new study and that the board will submit a long list of comments to the Corps. For instance, he said the Corps’ greatly inflated its cost estimates with overly safe projections. Turner added the Corps didn’t consider additional maintenance costs from maintaining the shortened river banks under E1, which would just be underwater under D1.

The board last year gave its support to Alternative D (the same as D1 without the levees, which weren’t included in last year’s study), although Turner said their support doesn’t necessarily impact what the Corps chooses.

Turner said the current timeline would allow the Corps’ final study to come out in November, and then a final decision to be made in December. That call would fall to the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, a currently vacant role. President Donald Trump earlier this year nominated Adam Telle for the position, leaving it up to the Senate to confirm the choice. Telle, Magnolia Tribune reported in May, has ties to the state, including having worked for former Sen. Thad Cochran, who once advocated for the project in his role in the Appropriations Committee.

The Corps is preparing to hold a series of public meetings, including a virtual meeting on July 14, in-person meetings in Monticello on July 29; Slidell, Louisiana, on July 30; and in Jackson on July 31. Information on those meetings is also available on the agency’s website.

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book “The Dean: Memoirs & Missives” by Sparky Reardon, the longtime dean of students at the University of Mississippi. This excerpt, which Reardon wrote in 2023 on the anniversary of the 2008 presidential debate hosted at Ole Miss, recalls a rare moment of relative political harmony.

Fifteen years ago yesterday, I was thinking, “What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

It had started months earlier when Chancellor (Robert) Khayat, Vice Chancellor Gloria Kellum and Provost Carolyn Staton assigned me to work with student leaders to plan student activities to go along with the 2008 presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. My friend, Dr. Andy Mullins, had worked arduously to make sure that Ole Miss would put on a first-class affair. I recruited Jennifer Taylor, director of student programming, and her assistant, Bradley Baker, to assist with the students. We were lucky to have Dave Brooks, a production consultant from Cleveland, Ohio, advise and assist us. We couldn’t have done it without him.

I remember distinctly our first meeting with the students when all kinds of ideas were being tossed around. Our student group represented a cross section of the Ole Miss campus, and they were lively and creative. Eventually, they decided to host a week-long series of events and cap it off with a “festival” in The Grove on the day of the debate. 

I also remember sitting in a meeting in the Lyceum boardroom around what has to be the longest table in north Mississippi with administrators, PR folks, maintenance and landscape crews, communication and tech folks, law enforcement leaders and others responsible for assuring that Ole Miss put on a first-class event. When it came my time to give a report on the student events, I said, “Well, the students are planning a festival in The Grove with music and food and speakers.” After Dr. Kellum and Provost Staton looked at me with a “Have you lost your mind?” gaze, I went on to report what the students were planning. I’m sure that most around the table were envisioning a football Saturday with copious amounts of alcohol, blue blazers, chandeliers, fried chicken and fisticuffs. I wish that I could remember all the outstanding students who worked so hard to make the festival happen. Students like Caleb Herod, Anna Rogers, Sarah Rogers, Jake McGraw, Tyler Craft, Tyler Rose Clemons, Kent Ford and others put together a great plan. The event would be an effort to draw attention to the importance of voting and the importance of having free and open dialogue about the election. The students planned for music, food, high-tech displays, voter registration, and providing a forum for dialogue. And, having fun on a day without classes.

We ended up with a strong line-up of music with the North Mississippi All Stars, Josh Kelley, Paul Thorn, Saving Abel, the Mayhem String Band, the Kudzu Kings and the Ole Miss Gospel Choir. I recruited my former student Ben Campbell, award-winning radio disc jockey from KNIX in Phoenix, to emcee. He was funny as always and even revived his imitation of me doing Tone Loc. We started at noon with an amazing acapella solo rendition of the national anthem by a member of the Ole Miss Gospel Choir, and when they finished their set with “O, Happy Day,” I was feeling pretty good about things and thinking, “Wow. This is gonna be good.”

My friend and food expert extraordinaire John T Edge helped us bring to The Grove some of the South’s all-star foodies. We had Newk’s with pimento cheese and caramel cake and sweet tea, Taylor Grocery with fried catfish plates, Jim and Nick’s of Birmingham with barbecue, Taqueria del Sol of Atlanta with tacos and Chef John Folse and Company out of New Orleans with a variety of Cajun dishes. The food was outstanding, but we ran into one little problem. The state of Mississippi Tax Commission showed up about 20 minutes before serving was to begin and demanded that all these businesses provide tax IDs or they wouldn’t be able to serve. Evidently, some uninvited entity had their feelings hurt and reported us to the tax commission. I was riding around in a golf cart with Mississippi’s treasured cartoonist Marshall Ramsey when I got a call about the situation. John T and I tried everything we could think of to get the tax deputies to allow us to go on with the event. I ended up reaching out to Gloria Kellum, asking for her help in getting in touch with “someone in charge.” As it turned out, she was right beside Gov. Haley Barbour at the time. After a quick chat with him, she told me to hold on — help was on the way.

About 10 minutes later the governor’s chief of staff showed up, and I watched from a distance as he had a quick conversation with the tax deputies. Only he spoke as they listened and soon walked away. He looked at us, gave us a thumbs up and lunch was served. We had permission to proceed. It helps to know someone who knows someone. Catfish, tacos, pimento cheese, sweet tea, caramel cake, barbecue, gumbo and jambalaya for all!

I was unsure how the tech displays would be received. Boy, was I surprised when there were long lines all day for the mobile buses and booths from Dell, FedEx, Apple, Cellular South (C Spire) and Microsoft. There were virtual reality displays, new technology, video games and lots of other neat stuff that was well beyond this digital immigrant’s understanding.

The Rock the Vote tent for voter registration was busy all day. They had become a great, valued partner in sponsoring the festival and were excited about the number of students who registered to vote that day.

There were also speakers, most who were stumping for a candidate or for themselves. There were personalities everywhere. Harry Smith did CBS’s The Early Show from the union early that morning. Chris Matthews set up Hardball on the Union Plaza. Katie Couric was everywhere and dropped by the Tri Delt house to visit her sorority. Sean Hannity set up in the union. It was a big day for Ole Miss to be seen by the nation and the world.

What gave the whole affair legitimacy was a concept that the students came up with called “Issue Alley.” Along the sidewalk that leads into The Grove from Farley Hall were designated spaces where groups with agendas could set up. This turned out to be a huge success. The lion lay down with the lamb. The NRA set up next to pro-choice groups. We had the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians setting up next to Rednecks for Obama. We had windmills promoting clean energy. All in all, we had about 30 organizations and associations represented. No one hit anyone or called each other names.

Around 5:30, I got a call to let me know that there was a ticket to the debate available for me if I wanted it. I chose to pass. I was where I wanted to be.

As The Grove darkened and the North Mississippi All Stars rocked their last song, two large screens on either side of The Grove came to life with the logo of the presidential debate. I’m no Sean Spicer, but I’m estimating that there were approximately eight to ten thousand in The Grove that night watching the debate. I pulled my golf cart well behind the crowd and watched from afar. There was a diverse crowd mixed with town folks, families, students and visitors. I don’t remember any booing or arguing or demonstrating. 

That day in The Grove there were no fights; there was no shouting. No one called anyone names. There were those on the Left and those on the Right, but they were sitting next to and across from one another eating fried catfish or gumbo and drinking sweet tea. We provided news outlets a beautiful, positive Ole Miss backdrop for their reporting. There were White folks and Black folks and folks from far away. There were young folks and old folks. There were no arrests. And, as the debate wound down and as PBS NewsHour host and debate moderator Jim Lehrer said, “And good night from Ole Miss,” I thought to myself that this is the way it is supposed to be.

It’s hard to believe that just 10 years ago might be considered “the good old days,” but they were. 

And that was the best day that I ever had at Ole Miss.

Sparky Reardon was dean of students at Ole Miss from 2000-2014. During Reardon’s 36-year tenure at the University of Mississippi, he handled everything from organizing student events to enforcing discipline and managing campus crises. Reardon’s love for writing and reminiscing (along with encouragement from friends) led to The Dean: Memoirs & Missives. He lives in Taylor, where he cherishes his solitude, his porch and the occasional poker game.

“The Dean: Memoirs and Missives” by Sparky Reardon is out Aug. 10, 2025. Preorder at Lemuria Books or at Square Books.