Mississippi Today investigative reporter Anna Wolfe won the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, one of the nation’s most prestigious journalism honors, for her explosive series “The Backchannel.”
Anna Wolfe
Wolfe’s series unearthed new evidence about former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the state’s massive welfare scandal, inspiring multiple court defendants to come forward with allegations against Bryant or publicly insist Bryant be held accountable. The series also exposed key new players in the scandal like former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, patterns of political nepotism and coercion, and damning proof that powerful figures kept millions from people who needed it most.
“In Mississippi, we’ve all been fortunate to witness Anna Wolfe’s impact and importance to the state for many years,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today’s editor-in-chief and lead editor of “The Backchannel” investigation. “It’s incredibly fitting and deserving that now the nation gets to see and recognize her work through one of the country’s most impactful and shocking journalistic investigations in recent memory.”
Mississippi Today was among five other finalists for the 2023 award: The New York Times, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, Reuters, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. The prize, first awarded in 1993, is given annually by the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School.
This is the second time Wolfe has won the award. She and former Mississippi Today reporter Michelle Liu won the 2021 Goldsmith Prize for their investigation, in conjunction with The Marshall Project, of the state’s restitution centers.
The official announcement Tuesday of Thomas Hudson’s resignation as Jackson State University president drew mixed reaction from students, faculty and alumni.
The 7 p.m. press release from the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees came on the second day of JSU’s spring break. Many people were confused, but not surprised, by the news, and felt it was the writing on the wall after Hudson was placed on administrative leave earlier this month.
“When I was told about it last night, I was like, wait, we already knew about that,” said Thomas Kersen, a sociology professor. “But when I stepped back, I was like, yeah that’s a little bit different than him being put on leave.”
So far, a spokesperson for the board had declined to answer questions about the circumstances that led to Hudson being placed on leave, saying only that it was a “personnel matter.” It is unclear if the board will provide more information now that Hudson has resigned, though trustees will discuss “the future leadership of Jackson State” at their regularly scheduled board meeting next week.
Kathy Sykes, a JSU alumnus and former state representative, said the board should tell the community why Hudson resigned as a matter of accountability. Hudson is JSU’s second president in three years; when the board selects his replacement, Sykes said she doesn’t want trustees to make “the same mistake” again.
“There’s a lot of speculation,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to go on speculation. We need the facts … so we can steer away from whatever it is that led to his ouster.”
Elijah Karriem, a senior and the secretary of JSU’s NAACP chapter, said students were shocked to hear that Hudson was the third president in a row to resign.
“We are all anxiously waiting for the facts as to why our president resigned,” Karriem said. “As students, we hear the chatter about why we think he left, but everything right now is hearsay and not factual.”
Other community members are hoping to put this episode in the university’s history behind them.
“That chapter is now closed,” said Don Spann, a visiting assistant professor in the journalism department. “Whatever is this personnel matter, at some point in time maybe it’ll be revealed, but it’s not like I really need to know.”
Spann, a member of the Faculty Senate executive leadership, said he is looking forward to working with Elayne Hayes-Anthony, the former chair of the journalism department who IHL appointed temporary acting president.
“My concern now is how to continue to move Jackson State forward, that’s the most important thing,” he said.
Earlier this year, Spann and other faculty senators voted “no confidence” in Hudson and four members of his administration, citing a “continuous pattern of failing to respect” shared governance and other professional norms of higher education. While Hudson is gone, the four administrators named in the resolution are still at JSU.
It’s unclear if or how Hayes-Anthony will address the faculty senate’s resolution. And it remains to be seen how long she will be in the role. She told students, faculty and members of the media last week that IHL had given her no timetable. Another open question is whether the board will conduct a national search for JSU’s next president or appoint Hayes-Anthony to a more permanent role like it did with Hudson.
Hudson was named acting president in early 2020, then elevated to a more permanent role at the end of that year following an expedited search. A search committee of community members was not appointed for Hudson.
Still, many community members were excited about Hudson at the time. Because he was a JSU alumnus, many felt that his appointment was more appropriate than his predecessor’s (William Bynum). Now some of those same people are unhappy about the abrupt end to Hudson’s tenure.
“I don’t know the details of why he resigned but I’m saddened by it,” said George Flaggs, the mayor of Vicksburg and a prominent alumnus. “I thought he was leading the university in the most progressive way one could.”
A member of the 2017 presidential search committee that protested William Bynum Jr.’s appointment, Flaggs is no stranger to disagreeing with IHL’s decisions.
But in Hudson’s case, Flaggs said he understood the board could not say more about a personnel matter even though he generally believes government bodies in Mississippi should be transparent.
“I trust that those people that are on the College Board are intellectual enough to make a good, common judgment about what’s good for these universities that will continue to allow us to move forward,” Flaggs said. “Now having said that, we cannot and they cannot pick perfect people.”
Kersen said it doesn’t help that the IHL board is secretive about the process it uses to select the presidents. He had opposed Hudson’s appointment because he wanted the board to conduct afull-fledged national search.
“We seem to be in a constant state of confusion about things,” Kersen said. “I just hope one day that we can have more determination in our own fate.”
Though he is frustrated, Kersen said the turnover in leadership has had little effect on his day-to-day work.
“We just make the whole thing work in spite of whatever they (trustees) do,” he said. “Somehow the big machine that is the university just makes do. People do their jobs, more or less. But it has a downturn on morale when you’re not appreciated and when your voice is not heard.”
Sykes said the turnover in leadership hurts JSU’s big-picture goals, like building new dormitories on campus, upgrading its football stadium or becoming the first HBCU to attain top-tier research status.
“I hope that IHL has learned from their past decisions and that they will this time take into strong consideration (what) the other stakeholders, such as the community and alumni, have to say about who’s gonna lead our great institution,” she said.
Open Campus HBCU Student Journalism Network Fellow Alivia Welch contributed to this story.
Efforts to provide state funding to reestablish a burn center in the state are not dead this legislative session even though the bills filed specifically to accomplish that goal have died.
A bill that would have provided funds for a burn center at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson recently died in the Senate when it was not passed by a key deadline day.
But Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said the issue is not dead. Money can be awarded to a burn center in an appropriations bill.
“All of that will come up in the next 24 to 48 hours,” said Hosemann referencing the work currently ongoing behind closed doors by legislative leaders to hammer out a final budget proposal for the full Legislature to vote on.
The budget will be passed during the final days in more than 100 appropriations bills that will fund the various state agencies and provide funds for specific projects throughout the state. The funds for a burn center, for instance, could be included in the budget for the Department of Health, which under state law has the responsibility to designate a burn center.
The issue has been a highlight of the 2023 legislative session after the state’s only burn center, located at Merit Health Central in south Jackson, closed last year. Merit officials said it was closing because of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and because of recruitment issues.
In the final days of the session, Hosemann said decisions will have to be made on where and if a new burn center will be designated.
Two separate bills have been debated this session about whether a new burn center should be located at Baptist Medical Center in Jackson or at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, also located in Jackson.
The legislation that passed the House in February designated Baptist as the burn center. At the time, some legislators questioned why the burn center was not being moved to UMMC. UMMC has been treating burn patients, they argued. Others pointed out the director of the burn center, when it was located at Merit, had moved to Baptist.
Going into the final days of the session, which is slated to end by April 2, if not earlier, that debate still has not been settled.
Correction 3/15/23: A previous version of this story that a bill passed by the House in February awarded $4 million to Baptist for a burn center. The bill had no funding attached to it.
If ever one basketball game encapsulated an entire season, it was Mississippi State’s excruciatingly painful 60-59 defeat to Pittsburgh at Dayton in Tuesday’s First Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Here’s what I mean:
State fought doggedly throughout, especially on defense and on the boards. The Bulldogs held Pitt nearly 16 points under its scoring average. They out-muscled and out-rebounded the Panthers 49-28 on the boards. But they lost because they could not make a shot when it mattered most.
Rick Cleveland
With just over a second to play, lefty Shakeel Moore launched a wide-open 3-point shot from just beyond the arc. No Panther was in the same zip code. Moore’s shot bounded off the rim. State’s D.J. Jeffries rose high above the goal and still had a chance for the tip-in before the buzzer. His his slap missed its mark, too.
“There was no doubt in our minds we’d fight and claw and we did,” MSU coach Chris Jans said. “We had a couple chances there at the end to win the game, but it didn’t happen.”
Of State’s final possession, Jans said, “It was a heck of a look … It’s all you can ask for, a chance — the ball is in the air, to win an NCAA Tournament game and still have enough time to get a put-back.”
The Bulldogs did everything you are supposed to do except make the shot. Or the put-back.
And that will be the way Jans’ first Bulldogs team is remembered. They were a team that performed so many facets of the game just the way you draw it up. They played hard and with passion. They defended doggedly. Indeed, they finished 10th in all the NCAA in scoring defense, second in the SEC. They rebounded well, finishing 16th in the land in offensive rebounds, third in the SEC.
They shared the basketball, worked for good shots. They just did not make enough of those, especially from the perimeter. Against Pitt, State took 23 three-point shots and made only six. Pitt made nine of 19. There’s your difference and then some. State, despite taking four more treys, scored nine fewer points from beyond the arc.
And this was nothing new. There are 363 Division I-playing basketball teams in the NCAA. The Bulldogs finished 363rd in three-point shooting percentage at 26.6 percent. And yet, they won 23 games and made the NCAA Tournament. They played the team tied with the second best record in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference to the wire.
“I’ll always remember this group for their belief, for their buy-in and for their coachability,” Jans said afterward. “I’ve told them that many times throughout the year. I reiterated it in the locker room just now because it’ll be my first group at Mississippi State. We’re proud of our accomplishments this year. Certainly, we want more. We want to be playing on Friday, but it’s not meant to be.”
Pitt, like State, an 11-seed, goes on to face 6-seed Iowa State Friday afternoon at Greensboro, N.C. State returns to Starkville, where Jans must revamp his roster and get ready for the 2023-24 season. The Bulldogs lose three of their top four scorers and two of their top three rebounders. The biggest loss is obvious: Tolu Smith, deservedly the Bailey Howell Trophy winner, led the Bulldogs in scoring, rebounding, field goal shooting and blocked shots. He will be extremely difficult to replace.
The good news for State – and for Jans – is that in college basketball today you can change a roster extremely fast. Expect the Bulldogs to be active in the portal. “That’s already begun,” Jans said. “That never ends. Recruiting never ends whether you are playing or not.”
It will be difficult, indeed, for State to find another force in the paint like Tolu Smith. But you can bet your cowbell on this: Jans also will be looking for some shooters, guys who can put the ball in the basket – especially from the perimeter.
A wide majority of Mississippians across partisan and demographic lines supports expanding Medicaid to provide health coverage for the working poor, according to a newly released Mississippi Today/Siena College poll.
The poll, conducted on March 6-8, showed 75% of respondents — including 59% of Republicans — said that lawmakers should “accept federal funds to expand Medicaid.” Additionally, 71% of Mississippians said they believe lawmakers should address the state ?s hospital crisis by passing an unspecified long-term funding solution.
Editor’s note: Poll methodology and crosstabs can be found at the bottom of this story. Click here to read more about our partnership with Siena College Research Institute.
The numbers show a continued shift of voter sentiment in what has long been a partisan battle. But there continues to be virtually no movement on the issue by Republican leaders at the state level. In total, 15 bills filed this session to expand Medicaid — all of them authored by Democrats — were killed without debate by Republicans legislative leaders.
Mississippi is one of just 10 states to refuse expansion — and that number is getting smaller by the month, with North Carolina’s legislature deciding in February to expand. Mississippi, in turn, is refusing about $1 billion a year in federal funding meant to help poor states provide healthcare, and leaving up to 300,000 Mississippians without coverage.
Meanwhile, health officials say dozens of rural hospitals are in danger of closure, in large part due to eating the cost of providing care to indigent patients. Some of those hospitals are larger regional care centers, such as Greenwood Leflore Hospital, and even larger metro area hospitals are struggling financially because of uncompensated care costs.
A Siena College/Mississippi Today poll conducted in January indicated slightly higher support for Medicaid expansion. The January survey found that 80% of Mississippians — just outside the March poll’s 4.6% margin of error — supported expansion.
Since January, as various health care and economic groups continue to apply pressure for expansion, several Republican leaders have stepped up their talking points in resistance to expansion.
“Don’t simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare, and socialized medicine,” Gov. Tate Reeves said during his annual State of the State address on Jan. 30. “You have my word that if you stand up to the left’s push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”
Lawmakers are scheduled to remain in Jackson and stay in session until April 2. There has been no serious talk among Republican leaders about Medicaid expansion.
The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department violated the Mississippi Public Records Act for refusing to give incident reports about the deaths of three men killed by sheriff’s deputies or while in their custody, a Rankin County court ruled last week.
On March 10, the Rankin County Chancery Judge Troy Farrell Odom ruled the sheriff’s office wrongly withheld requested incident reports by incorrectly claiming they were investigatory reports, which are exempt under the public records law.
“The public has an absolute right to know the who, what, when, and where,” Odom said during the Feb. 16 bench trial. “ … But the day that our law enforcement officers start shielding this information from the public, all the while repeating, ‘Trust us. We’re from the government,’ is the day that should startle all Americans.”
New York-based media company Insider, Inc., represented by the Mississippi Center for Justice, brought a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office in 2022 for refusing to turn over all records even after a reporter paid a fee invoice. Research editor Hannah Beckler asked the records officer to reconsider its denial, but that was denied.
Insider requested records were for the following deaths:
Cory Jackson, died in the sheriff’s office custody on May 15, 2021.
Damien Montrell Cameron, died in the sheriff’s office custody on July 26, 2021.
Shannon Trevor McKinley, shot Aug. 21, 2021.
Robert Rushton, shot Dec. 21, 2021.
“As the Court recognized in this case, public access to public records — particularly law enforcement incident reports — is the law of the land,” Mississippi Center for Justice President and CEO Vangela M. Wade said in a statement. “In Mississippi, we value a functioning democracy above any tradeoffs of obfuscation.”
In its 2022 complaint, Insider asked the court to order the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department to produce the public records and award Insider all costs and expenses, including attorney’s fees.
Odom said in his Feb. 16 bench ruling that the requested documents were later provided to Insider once the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation completed its investigation. As a result, the court denied Insider’s request for expenses, costs and attorney’s fees.
Records are also being sought in another incident involving Rankin County deputies.
In January, Rankin County deputies allegedly raided a Braxton home where they beat and threatened two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and shot Jenkins in the mouth, according to Malik Shabazz, the men’s attorneys. Federal authorities have opened a civil rights investigation into the deputies’ actions.
The USGA and the Royal and Ancient, the two governing bodies of golf, want to change the golf ball and thus the game of golf. The modern ball goes too far – at least it does for elite golfers and the powers that be want to scale that back. If that happens, it will reduce the distance that pros and top amateurs can hit the ball. Randy Watkins, a former touring pro and a golf course owner, joins us to talk about what the changes might mean.
The Mississippi State University basketball team slipped out of town to play in the NCAA tournament against Loyola University. Mississippi officials had refused to allow the team to play in any tournament that included integrated teams. This time, the State team took matters into its own hands, defying a state injunction. Dubbed “The Game of Change,” it played a key role in the crumbling of segregation in Mississippi and the South. The Loyola team that defeated Mississippi State went on to win the national championship.
Nearly two weeks after being put on administrative leave, Thomas Hudson has resigned as president of Jackson State University.
According to a Tuesday news release from the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, Commissioner Alfred Rankins has accepted Hudson’s resignation. It will be effective March 31. Hudson will remain on administrative leave, with pay, until then.
A call and text to Hudson’s cell phone was not returned. A JSU spokesperson told Mississippi Today that the university would not be releasing its own statement.
Elayne Hayes-Anthony will continue serving as temporary acting president, according to the release. At a press conference last week, Hayes-Anthony told students, faculty and members of the media that IHL gave her no timetable for the appointment.
“I’m going to be here as long as I’m needed,” she said.
Hayes-Anthony has been over JSU’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies. She told Mississippi Today she would receive the same salary and bonus that Hudson did: A $300,000 annual salary from IHL plus a $5,000 annual bonus from the university foundation.
Hudson is a JSU alum and Jackson resident who was appointed president by the IHL board in November 2020 in the wake of a scandal. Earlier that year, his predecessor, William Bynum Jr., had resigned after he was arrested in a prostitution sting at a Clinton hotel. Bynum had been an unpopular pick for president, and under his tenure, JSU’s enrollment fell faster than any other public university in Mississippi.
Hudson was tasked with stabilizing the university. He had worked at JSU since 2012 in various roles, including Title IX coordinator and chief diversity officer. Under his leadership, the university’s finances appeared to blossom. JSU’s days cash on hand grew from 39 to 115, and annual alumni giving tripled.
“We have saved approximately $5,000,000 by restructuring our debt, cleared all audit findings, and have been removed from (accreditation) financial monitoring,” he wrote in a campus-wide letter on Feb. 10 to celebrate his third year as president.
At the time, Hudson said in a statement he was proud of the work his administration had accomplished and that he was “committed to continuing the work to collaboratively execute the strategic plan to make Jackson State the best institution it can be.”
A group organized by Black Voters Matter on Tuesday called on Mississippi lawmakers to kill House Bill 1020 and other measures they see as a “hostile takeover” of Jackson by state leaders.
“This is ruthlessly racist … a land and power grab by a majority-white Legislature,” said Carol Blackmon, state manager of Black Voters Matter Fund, at a press conference at the state Capitol.
HB 1020, as originally drafted, would create a special judicial district within the city of Jackson with judges appointed instead of elected as they are everywhere else in the state. The original measure, billed as a way to fight crime in Jackson, would create permanent judicial posts appointed by the white chief justice of the state Supreme Court instead of elected by the Black majority population of Jackson.
The original measure would also expand an existing Capital Complex Improvement District patrolled by Capitol Police to cover an area of north Jackson that contains most of the city’s white population.
The Senate recently made major changes to the bill, including making chief justice-appointed judges temporary, through 2026, then adding another permanent elected judge for the Hinds County district that covers Jackson. The Senate also changed it to give Capitol Police jurisdiction throughout the city of Jackson, not just in the CCID.
But those protesting the measure on Tuesday — and most of the city’s legislative delegation — still oppose the Senate amended version. The House has also overhauled a separate Senate bill to include its original CCID Capitol Police expansion.
“Our position is if you have real interest in eliminating crime, then why not provide resources to the city’s official police force, instead of creating an alternate one,” Blackmon said.
Unless the House concurs with Senate changes, a panel of House and Senate negotiators will likely try to hammer out a final version of the bills in the final days of the legislative session.
Wendell Paris, of the Minority People’s Council, likened the legislation to the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court Dred Scott decision, which held the Constitution did not extend citizenship or rights to Americans of African descent. He also said it would “violate the spirit and the letter of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.”
“This would create a superstructure that takes away the power of the vote of duly qualified electors,” Paris said. “… Mississippi is one place where we cannot tolerate going back to pre-the Civil War era and violating federal law … It will not stand.”
Wendell and others noted the national attention Mississippi is garnering from the fight over the legislation and warned it could hurt the state economically and “you might not be able to play football in the SEC here.”
Former state Rep. Kathy Sykes of Jackson urged Jacksonians who are not to register to vote or, “this is the kind of thing we get.”
“This (legislation) would have you believe that Black folk cannot govern, and we can,” Sykes said. “… We are asking for help. We are not asking for a takeover … or Jim Crow 2.0.”
Rukia Lumumba, director of the People’s Advocacy Institute and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s sister, told people and media gathered on the Capitol steps Tuesday a story about a youth she once counseled at summer camp, who later started getting into trouble. A Jackson city police officer was often called about problems with the youth. He knew the girl, knew her family and knew the community well enough to find resources to help her get back on the right path instead of locking her up, Lumumba said. She said an occupying state police force cordoning off parts of the city will not provide such community policing.
“Kill these bills,” she said. “The consequences are not minor.”
