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WEBB — Marquitrice Mangham didn’t just want to create the grocery store her hometown desperately needed. She wanted to bolster the Delta’s long-struggling food system. 

Enter Farmacy Marketplace: A neighborhood grocer that isn’t just the first store in decades to offer Webb shoppers fresh meat and produce, but also a steady marketplace for small-scale farmers to sell their crops. 

“A huge amount of food waste goes on in the Delta because everything is so sparsely populated,” said Mangham, who heads the nonprofit that runs the new Tallahatchie County grocery store. “No supermarket business is going to contract you to buy 20 pounds of tomatoes every couple weeks.” 

But the Farmacy Marketplace can, giving the region’s struggling small-scale farmers a more reliable income and the people of Webb access to produce without driving a half-hour to the nearest grocery store. 

The Mississippi Delta may be known for its fertile soil, but its major farm operations largely grow soy and corn for animal feed rather than produce the food the region’s population actually eats. There are few industries and jobs outside of agriculture. In most Delta counties, the poverty rate is between 30%-40%. 

The Delta is also covered with what the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls rural food deserts: low-income tracts where a third of the population lives more than 20 miles from the nearest large grocer. Mangham hopes what she’s creating at Farmacy Marketplace will become a model for other communities. 

Webb is home to just under 400 people and is 97% Black, according to the latest Census data. Before Farmacy, shoppers seeking poultry, steak, fresh fruit and veggies needed to drive 25 miles to Walmart in Clarksdale or 18 miles to SuperValu in Charleston.

“It saves people money and instead of investing in gas, they are able to purchase more groceries,” said Webb Mayor Michael Plez. 

The new store is in the heart of the town’s Main Street, meaning many citizens can walk to go shopping. 

Clad in a green apron and wide smile, Mangham’s mother is one of the store’s workers. The community has rallied around the store, desperate for it to be successful and volunteering their time so their neighbors have a reliable place to purchase healthy food. 

Mangham lives in Atlanta part-time and is regularly in Webb to manage the shop and run a 150-acre family farm. Her nonprofit, In Her Shoes, aids women experiencing homelessness in Georgia and offers farm training in Mississippi. The shop is operated under the nonprofit using USDA grant funds. 

Farmacy Marketplace had its soft opening on Oct. 7 — timing that couldn’t have been better. The local Dollar General, which may not have had fresh food but plenty of essentials, burned down the week before.

Dollar General said in a statement it was still assessing the store’s future. Mangham has added more household essentials to the store’s inventory to help make up for the loss of the community’s only major retailer.

Feeding America, a national food bank organization, reported that 31% of Tallahatchie County’s Black community was food insecure in 2020, the latest data available. That rate measures access to food between finances, transportation and physical grocery stores. 

The easiest food to get in Webb — before Farmacy opened — was frozen dinners or pizzas, chips and candy. 

Mangham’s vision isn’t only about giving Delta communities a more reliable food system and economy, but also making them healthier with access to unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods.

On a recent Friday afternoon, Demetrice Starks, 54, was browsing the new grocery store with her 86-year-old mother. Starks grew up in the area and now lives in Memphis. She hadn’t been to a neighborhood grocery like Farmacy in the area since she was a child. They had all closed up as people moved out. 

Much of Webb’s population is aging, and it gives Starks peace of mind that her mother no longer has to drive so far to get items for supper. 

“It’s a symbolism of growth and rebuilding the community,” Starks said. “It’s helping bring some type of stability.” 

Lonzell Wright is in and out of the shop regularly, able to easily get supplies for his burger-and-fries restaurant called Zell’s that’s down the street. When Plez, the mayor, has a taste for steak, he can just walk a few minutes to the store and buy what needs that night for dinner. 

“Since the day it opened it has been a blessing to the community,” said Plez. 

Mangham has other goals in mind: a local poultry processing facility Delta farmers can use so the store’s poultry is coming from the community and further creating jobs. She’s busy writing proposals for more grants. 

She is partnering with a nearby community college’s workforce training program so students can get retail job experience at the store, earning $10 an hour. There are three participants so far.

The store is open seven days a week. On Nov. 1, it began accepting Electronic Benefit Transfers, or EBT payments, for those on food benefits. It’s another big step that will help the community, Mangham said.

People want to shop and work where they live. It’s simple, yet not the norm across the Delta’s rural towns. People want to see the program succeed, she said.

It’s not just a grocery store; it’s the town’s quality of life. 

The post ‘A blessing to the community’: New Black-owned grocery opens to serve small Delta town appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Four congressional races and a bevy of local judicial elections throughout the state will be on the ballot Tuesday for Mississippi voters. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

The 2022 mid-term elections have been closely watched nationally as Republicans try to wrestle control of the U.S. House and Senate from Democrats. In many states, early voting turnout has been high.

But that is not the case in Mississippi, where no U.S. Senate race will occur and where all four U.S. House races are expected to be won by incumbents or major party favorites. According to data from Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office, the number of absentee ballots requested and returned in Mississippi has been low compared to past elections.

As of Monday morning, according to Watson’s office, 51,849 absentee ballots had been requested and 46,120 had been completed and returned. During the same period in 2020, 248,335 absentee ballots had been requested and 231,031 had been returned to local election officials.

Unlike a vast majority of states, Mississippi does not allow no-excuse early voting. In Mississippi, those over the age of 65, people who are disabled and those who will be traveling on Election Day can vote early in their local circuit clerk’s office or by mail. But those voting by mail must, in many cases, obtain two notary public signatures to complete the process.

Mail ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and returned to the local circuit clerk’s office within five days of the election.

The incumbents in the four congressional races are all heavy favorites to win re-election.

Mississippi congressional races

• 1st District incumbent Republican Trent Kelly faces Democrat Dianne Dodson Black, an Olive Branch small business owner. She is the first African American woman to serve as a major party nominee in the district in the modern era. Kelly, a former district attorney in northeast Mississippi, was first elected in a 2015 special election.

• 2nd District incumbent Democrat Bennie Thompson faces Republican Brian Flowers of Clinton. Flowers, a Navy veteran, works in mechanical planning at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant near Port Gibson. Thompson is Mississippi’s longest serving U.S. House member and chairs the Homeland Security Committee and the special committee that is looking at efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

• 3rd District incumbent Republican Michael Guest, a former district attorney in Madison and Rankin counties, is being challenged by Democrat Shuwaski Young of Neshoba County. Young is running for office for the first time, but has experience working in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office and in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Guest was first elected in 2018.

• Republican Mike Ezell faces off against Democrat Johnny DuPree in the 4th District. Libertarian Alden Patrick Johnson also is on the ballot. Ezell, the sheriff of Jackson County, defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo earlier this year in the GOP primary. DuPree, former mayor of Hattiesburg, has also run unsuccessfully for governor and secretary of state. In 2011, DuPree became the first African American major party nominee for governor.

The ballot also will include judicial races. Four Mississippi Court of Appeals races are on the ballot. In the only contested Court of Appeals race, incumbent 4th District Judge Virginia Carlton is being challenged by Bruce Burton.

READ MORE: Young confident in 3rd District U.S House seat despite incumbent Guest being heavy favorite

The post Election Day: Mississippi votes Tuesday on U.S. House, judicial posts appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, talks with Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender about the positive impact on the Golden Triangle and the state of the new Steel Dynamics aluminum mill coming to Lowndes County after a special session where legislators approved $246 million in incentives for the project. But Karriem added the Legislature needs to address other issues now, such as fixing Jackson water woes, improving health care in the state and restoring voting rights to people convicted of felonies.

The post Lawmaker: Aluminum mill project is great, but other issues must be addressed appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Austin Golding, President & CEO of Golding Barge Line which is based in Vicksburg. Golding Barge Line specializes in movement of refined petroleum products, petrochemical-chemicals, and chemical products throughout the entries US inland waterway systems.

As Mississippi River levels drop to record low levels, Austin talks about the challenges faced by river barges and their crews and how that effects the US Economy. He also shares the history of his company and what life is like on the currently not-so Mighty Mississippi.

The post Mississippi Stories: Austin Golding appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves stood proudly at a podium in the ornate Mississippi Capitol on Wednesday and boasted “it is a great day to be a Mississippian” after lawmakers approved his proposal to provide $246 million in incentives to lure a $2.5 billion aluminum mill creating 1,000 jobs to Lowndes County.

It was also a great day to be Tate Reeves.

It is reasonable to assume that Reeves’ 2023 reelection campaign will cut political ads referencing his first major economic development project and even video of that Capitol news conference.

Reeves will be a favorite to win in 2023 and the aluminum mill built by Fortune 500 company Steel Dynamics will be a feather in his political cap. But history tells us that the enticement of a major economic development project does not always help a candidate win.

READ MORE: Lawmakers pass $247M in incentives for aluminum mill

In the summer of 2003, a proud Gov. Ronnie Musgrove was on hand as Nissan opened the state’s first and still largest auto manufacturing plant near Canton. Of course, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour defeated Musgrove a few months later in November 2003.

Musgrove had headwinds, such as a growing Republican voting trend in the state and other issues, that Reeves will not face. But the 2003 story is an illustration that economic development does not always equate to electoral victories.

“We did not set the timetable for when the plant would open,” said Musgrove, now an Oxford resident, when asked if he believed at the time the plant would be a boost for his campaign.

Musgrove demurred on responding to questions about whether he should have gotten more credit for the plant.

But he was more than willing to talk about the circumstances that led to the state landing its first automotive manufacturing plant — viewed as a watershed event that arguably has withstood the scrutiny of time.

In 2000, his first year in office, Musgrove was heavily criticized for calling an August special session to revamp the state jobs incentives laws and to create the Mississippi Development Authority.

“We did not have the incentives to attract a major auto manufacturing plant. Despite some work by past governors and legislators, our incentives were designed for 1950s-era manufacturing,” he said.

But within a month of that new incentive package being approved by the Legislature, the state received a phone call from Nissan. The state was asked to put together a proposal.

Musgrove asked if he could hand deliver the proposal to then Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn.

“They asked why I would want to go to that trouble. I told them I wanted to convey how serious the state of Mississippi was,” Musgrove recalled. He was willing to fly to Japan to deliver the proposal.

But the flight to Japan was not necessary. Ghosn was going to be at the company’s North American headquarters in Los Angeles and had 30 minutes free to meet with Musgrove.

The governor then called a political rival in terms of party politics — Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican who was the majority leader of the U.S. Senate. He asked Lott if he wanted to be a part of the meeting.

As the meeting was breaking up, Musgrove pulled a small Japanese cell phone from his coat pocket, handed it to Ghosn and told him when he called to tell him Mississippi’s proposal had been accepted, he could press one on the cell phone and reach him at the Governor’s Mansion.

Ghosn was impressed.

“He looked at the phone and said, ‘That is pretty good, governor,’” Musgrove recalled.

Sure enough, a few weeks later Musgrove received the phone call from Ghosn informing him Nissan was accepting Mississippi’s bid.

Ghosn then called Lott.

When he and Lott talked later, “The first thing Trent said was, ‘Did he call you on that phone?’” Musgrove said. “I told him I didn’t know.”

But days later, the Legislature passed a $295 million package to lure Nissan to build a $1.2-billion plant employing 4,000 people.

The Steel Dynamics project is supposed to employ 1,000 with a capital investment of $2.5 billion. Reeves calls the project the largest single capital investment in state history.

No doubt, the investment is significant. But it stands to reason that the cost to build plants and to equip plants would increase over time due to inflation.

According to the Nissan web page, Nissan has now invested $4 billion in the state and employs 5,000 with an additional 25,000 spinoff jobs from suppliers and other companies impacted by the massive plant.

Reeves has said he believes over time Steel Dynamics will have a similar impact.

He hopes, unlike Ronnie Musgrove, he can see the impact of the plant during his second term as governor.

The post Big economic development projects don’t always guarantee election wins appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Who hasn’t been in the kitchen, sitting at the counter perched on a stool, watching as grandma got busy?

You don’t say much, if anything at all. You simply watch as your grandmother creates magic. Perhaps she hums a little tune, flashes you an occasional smile, and hands you a big spoon or mixer beater dripping with goodness to sample. It’s your reward for being patient, and for not being underfoot.

All the while you’re a sponge, soaking up the pinches here and dashes there. Maybe there’s a recipe to follow, but more than likely, there isn’t one. Because grandma cooks from memory. Her knowledge has been handed down to her from her mother, her mother’s mother, and so on down the line.

And so, it was for De’Jonae “Dee” Curtis. The now 12-year-old was inspired by her grandmother, and filled with a dream. She first began her cooking business at home at the age of 8, then expanded to the mall before opening, Dee’s Babycakes, LLC on the main drag in the heart of Vicksburg. 

“My parents surprised me on my 10^th birthday with my first store in the Vicksburg Mall,” said Curtis, her eyes shining with the memory. “That was back in June of 2021. Now I’m here in this location and it’s been really good,” she said of her bakery located at 2600 Clay Street.

“I’m homeschooled, and I not only watched and learned while my grandma cooked, we also watched a lot of cooking shows together,” said Curtis. “It inspired me, and motivated me because I knew, I could do that too. It was a really good way for me to learn math too, you know, a half a cup of this or a fourth of a teaspoon of that. I realized I really liked doing it, the cooking, of course, but it made math fun.”

“I’ve interviewed with several baking shows and I’m just waiting for word if I made it or not. It’s very exciting,” added Curtis.

Curtis also shared that her business is dedicated for her aunt, nicknamed “Babycakes,” who the family lost to breast cancer. It’s the reason, she said, the name of her business will never change. Her aunt’s image also graces the bakery’s advertisements. 

A portion of Dee’s Babycakes proceeds are donated to various cancer charities, the Humane Society, and animal shelters. Her long-term goal is to one day help other kids open their own businesses through a non-profit she’s started. She also dreams of national expansion as a brand.

Dee’s Babycakes offers a variety of delectable delights, and all the goodies are solely Dee’s recipes — from the cupcakes and cookies, cakes and chocolate covered grapes to breakfast and lunch specials. There are free samples too, a little taste of the flavors she started out with — strawberry shortcake, lemon and vanilla, and buttercream.

 “My ‘OG’ flavors,” Dee says, a giggle escaping her as she dashes off to the kitchen in a flour covered apron. 

The post Dee’s Babycakes – sweet treats and good eats in the heart of Vicksburg appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Fetch appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The University of Southern Mississippi broke its silence on its role in the unfolding welfare scandal on Thursday after members of the faculty senate executive committee presented a draft of a blistering letter last week to the new president, Joe Paul, and the interim provost. 

At a meeting Friday, when the senate had been planning to adopt the draft letter, many faculty grumbled about the university’s preemptive statement, calling it a confusing attempt to shift blame in the welfare scandal. Some faculty said they were just as bewildered by the reply from the Mississippi Department of Human Services to that statement. 

“It’s sort of like seeing through the fog, and you can kind of make out some shape but you can’t see all the details,” Max Grivno, a history professor who represents the School of the Humanities on the senate, told Mississippi Today.

As former NFL quarterback Brett Favre and the volleyball stadium continue to make national news, officials at USM have refused requests for comment on the scandal from Mississippi Today and other media outlets like CNN and SM2, the student newspaper. 

USM’s statement Thursday said that the university had “engaged in this agreement in good faith, following thorough due diligence by outside legal counsel, and after multiple assurances from officials at the highest levels of MDHS.” The statement did not say if USM intends to repay the welfare funds, but said it is working on a proposal to allow MDHS to use space on campus to provide programming for the underserved community.

MDHS responded it could not enter an agreement with USM to use the property in lieu of repayment of the funds “because we believe it to be a continued violation of the law and the purpose of the TANF program to help lift needy families out of poverty.”

In response, the faculty senate on Friday decided to hold its statement and amend it at a soon, but yet to be scheduled, emergency meeting. 

At the same time, IHL Board President and billionaire USM alum Tommy Duff is also speaking up, saying USM should pay the money back and that the deal was “stupid,” even if legal, Mississippi Today reported Thursday.

His comments followed an editorial published last month in SM2 that also called on USM to return the misspent welfare dollars. 

“The scandal is killing Favre’s reputation and it’s taking USM down with it,” the editorial states. “It’s hard to understand why Favre completed these actions, however the solution seems simple enough: Someone needs to give back the money.” 

In 2017, Favre and USM officials crafted a deal with the Mississippi Department of Human Services and a welfare-funded nonprofit to use $5 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to build a volleyball facility on campus – a violation of federal law, according to State Auditor Shad White and state prosecutors. 

White officially questioned the purchase in May of 2020, and while it has resulted in a criminal fraud charge against one defendant in the welfare scandal, neither the state nor federal government has taken further action to claw back the money or hold others accountable.

Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit founded by Nancy New, a key figure in the welfare scandal, paid the athletic foundation to build the volleyball stadium under the guise that the nonprofit would lease university property to provide anti-poverty programming to the area’s underserved community.

USM told Mississippi Today in February of 2020 that the athletic foundation was looking forward to beginning conversations about how to use university property to serve the needy, but nearly three years later, the university says it is only now working on a proposed partnership with MDHS to fulfill this mission, which now appears unlikely given the welfare agency’s recent statement.

The SM2 editorial questioned if the volleyball project, first uncovered by Mississippi Today in February 2020, is an isolated event.

“What other corruption has been swept under the rug by those who are supposed to have good intentions for the university,” the editorial reads. “What other secrets lie below the surface?”

While the volleyball stadium has dominated headlines, it wasn’t the university’s only project supported by welfare dollars. 

By the time USM officials began talking with New about funding the volleyball building in July of 2017, they had already entered a similarly structured lease agreement that funneled $200,000 in federal MDHS grant funds to renovate a space inside the Jim and Thomas Duff Athletic Center called the M-Club Room, an area for student athletes.

In the days after Favre and the welfare officials initially met at USM to discuss funding for the volleyball stadium, USM officials expressed apprehension about taking $4 million in grant funds for the project, according to texts Favre sent Nancy New. But somewhere within the negotiations, texts show, the deal rose to $5 million, including an additional $1 million for improvements to the basketball stadium and facility maintenance costs.

In the aftermath of the scandal, the university has not acknowledged these additional benefits it received from the welfare program or responded to several inquiries about these arrangements.

The forensic audit found that the welfare department also paid USM nearly $840,000 in welfare funds for a “Healthy Choices Program” that violated TANF regulations. Mississippi Today retrieved documents through a public records request that show USM entered TANF grant agreements with both MDHS and Nancy New’s nonprofit from 2016-2019 for this program, called a “Student Development Program.” 

The grant specifically targeted student athletes and beyond funding salaries, scholarships and departmental expenses, the university used the money for things like specialty performance drinks, popsockets and massages, according to Mississippi Today’s review of receipts.

The forensic audit also questioned nearly $1.2 million in welfare funds that New’s nonprofit paid the university to fund “externships” for students in the School of Psychology through a program that provided USM student workers to New’s for-profit school.

USM also received $231,986 through Families First for Mississippi – the name of the nonprofit-operated welfare program during the scandal – with the goal of helping fifth-graders develop healthy eating habits. Auditors did not question this program, called the “RISE program” and funded by nonprofit Family Resource Center of North Mississippi.

The nutrition program shared a name with another program funded by the same nonprofit, former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase’s RISE Program, which led to federal charges against former MDHS Director John Davis.

At last month’s faculty senate meeting, Wiesenburg, the president, suggested they should write a letter to USM’s administration. At most universities, faculty senators are representative bodies made up of faculty elected by each department. The administration is supposed to seek the faculty senate’s feedback on a range of policies that affect the university from teaching and learning to the search for a new president. This is called shared governance.

Wiesenburg’s suggestion prompted an impassioned speech from Grivno who said he thought the statement should point out that the misspending was “a symptom of a deeper rot” – that the athletic foundation and the administration operate with little faculty oversight. 

Grivno wouldn’t advocate for USM returning the funds to the state, he said, “because they will just give it to another one of their cronies.” 

“We should call attention to the fact that this happened because we had a breakdown of shared governance,” he added. 

Grivno also noted the faculty senate’s exclusion from the presidential search process that led to Paul’s appointment. He noted that IHL’s search advisory group, which was stacked with administrators and high-level donors, did not include a single faculty senator. 

“People scratch their heads and go, ‘how did this happen?’” Grivno continued. “It’s not an accident, it’s not an oversight. It was intentional. It’s offensive because it was meant to give offense. We can at least squeal like a stuck pig and say, ‘this wasn’t right.”

For nearly three years, university and IHL officials have been virtually mum about the volleyball controversy – a primary reason for the faculty letter. USM has not responded to several emailed requests for an interview or for comment on its welfare-funded projects since Mississippi Today first reported on the project in February of 2020.

The new, state-of-the-art volleyball stadium was the brainchild of Favre, whose daughter played the sport at USM. He began discussing the project with USM officials as early as 2016. During the years Favre was working to get the volleyball facility built, The Athletic reported that the athletic foundation took $130,000 in donations from Favre’s charity, Favre4Hope, which says its mission is to serve needy or disabled children and breast cancer patients.

By mid-2017, Favre was in touch with Gov. Phil Bryant, Bryant’s appointed welfare director John Davis and New, who was given authority to spend millions of federal welfare funds, about funding the volleyball stadium.

USM’s legal counsel and the welfare department decided that despite the federal prohibition on using welfare funds for brick and mortar construction, they could structure the payment as a lease between the athletic foundation and New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center.

USM, owner of university property, would lease its athletic facilities for a five-year period to the athletic foundation for $1, and the athletic foundation would turn around and lease the property to the nonprofit for $5 million. The leased property included the to-be-built volleyball facility, where the nonprofit said it would staff resource offices.

“It’s very difficult to make that argument in hindsight because the volleyball court had not yet been built,” White said in a September interview with ESPN. “So they were leasing a volleyball court at a very, very high rental rate before the volleyball court was built. That is not a lease. That is building something with welfare money, which you cannot do.”

USM sent the lease between USM and the athletic foundation, with the attached sublease between the athletic foundation and Mississippi Community Education Center, to Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, which has the final say over university contracts of $250,000 or more. IHL legal counsel from the Attorney General’s Office and IHL’s Board of Trustees then approved the lease.

In May of 2020, Mississippi Today retrieved meeting minutes showing that the IHL Board of Trustees approved a lease for the purpose of building the volleyball stadium – what officials called a “Wellness Center” – knowing, according to meeting minutes, that “MCEC’s funding for this project is via a Block Grant from the Mississippi Department of Human Services.” 

Tom Duff, who sat on IHL’s board and now serves as its president, told Mississippi Today Thursday that he did not know about the volleyball project even though he voted on it, because it had been placed on the consent agenda – a block of agenda items that the trustees vote on all at once and often don’t read. 

“The funding from MCEC shall be prepaid rent to the Foundation in the amount of Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000) for the leasing of certain USM athletic facilities including but not limited to the to be constructed Wellness Center, Reed Green Coliseum and additional athletic space as agreed upon by USM and the Foundation,” the minutes state.

Mississippi Today attempted to get IHL to respond to the revelation in 2020, but officials insisted that IHL only approved the $1 lease between the university and the athletic foundation, not the $5 million sublease between the athletic foundation and the nonprofit that was attached to it.

The implication was that IHL was not involved in the transfer of welfare funds between the nonprofit and the athletic foundation, even though the plan to use MDHS money to build the volleyball stadium was outlined in the minutes IHL approved.

After attempts from IHL and the university to obscure that fact, Mississippi Today sent an email to both entities stating, “Southern Miss knew and allowed Human Services funds to be used to construct its volleyball center. It did this by letting the foundation rent University property for $5 million. It’s in the October 2017 IHL meeting minutes and neither of you have disputed this.”

IHL Communications Director Caron Blanton doubled down.

“Given that you are determined to print inaccurate information, we are prepared to respond appropriately,” Blanton wrote. “The IHL Board gave USM the authority to lease land to the USM Athletic Foundation, a separate entity with its own board, for $1, period. If you are ‘comfortable’ reporting inaccurate and verifiably false facts, that is certainly your journalistic prerogative.”

“You have not disputed anything I am preparing to write,” Mississippi Today responded. “The IHL board gave USM the authority to lease land to the USM athletic foundation with the understanding that the foundation would then lease it to MCEC for $5 million in MDHS block grant funds to build a volleyball stadium. Therefore, the University and IHL knew that block grant funds would be used to pay for the facility.”

Blanton forwarded Mississippi Today’s email to IHL Commissioner Alfred Rankins, who replied, “There is no need to respond to (Mississippi Today) again regarding this issue,” according to an email the news organization obtained.

IHL never explained what was inaccurate about Mississippi Today’s interpretation of the meeting minutes, nor did it respond to the published story as warned. IHL did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The volleyball stadium is the single largest known welfare expenditure within the scandal. Nancy New’s son Zach New pleaded guilty in April to defrauding the government for funneling welfare money to the project and disguising it as a lease. But the state chose not to include the volleyball stadium in its civil lawsuit filed in May that attempts to clawback the money.

After the scandal broke and the auditor officially questioned the volleyball stadium purchase in May of 2020, Duff, then an IHL board member, asked a lawyer friend, Joel Johnson, a member of the athletic foundation, to research events surrounding the project’s approval. 

“Joel is very upset about the situation with the Mississippi Community Education Center and the lack of transparency with the USM Athletic Foundation and its members,” Duff wrote in an email to Commissioner Rankins. “What these minutes indicate to me is that there was no details of the transaction nor a vote on same. There is zero reference to a lease in this agreement.”

Duff and Favre are listed on the university’s website as honorary members of the athletic foundation’s board of directors, along with Hattiesburg lawyer Bud Holmes, who was representing Favre in the state’s civil case until Favre hired former Donald Trump attorney Eric Herschmann. The most recently available public IRS tax forms for the foundation, which are from 2020, also list Zach New as a member of the athletic foundation board.

Johnson declined to discuss the project with Mississippi Today, citing ongoing litigation.

In his email to Duff, Johnson said the only person to mention Nancy New’s nonprofit to the foundation was USM Athletic Director Jon Gilbert, who attended the July 2017 meeting about the project with Favre and Davis. Gilbert has declined interview requests from Mississippi Today since 2020.

“Shad White and I are having a conversation,” Duff wrote to Rankins in the same email more than two years ago, “and then I am visiting with US Attorney Mike Hurst to learn, if possible the state and federal response.”

“Thanks for sharing,” Rankins responded.

In an interview with Mississippi Today, Duff said he could not recall the specifics of his conversation with Hurst who left the Department of Justice in early 2021. Duff said he thinks he contacted Hurst before the scandal was public. 

“If I remember the conversation, I think I just said, ‘Mike, I don’t know what is going on about this, but the athletic foundation was not aware of it, the IHL was not aware of it, and perhaps somebody needs to check into it,’” Duff said. 

Duff said he is still trying to understand how the misspending happened but that the “key statement” is he thinks the athletic foundation was not aware of the sublease with Nancy New’s Mississippi Community Education Center.

The sublease with MCEC was signed by Athletic Foundation President Leigh Breal.

“You’re dealing with the foundation, you’re dealing with USM, you’re dealing with IHL, you’re dealing with the state,” Duff said. “I can be wrong in some of my specifics, that’s why I’m trying to couch myself. Something that I think is a fact might not be a fact. Basically me saying USM should pay back something – probably the foundation is the one that got the money, it’s just USM ended up with the building.” 

Editor’s note: Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau’s mother signed off on the language of a lease agreement to construct a University of Southern Mississippi volleyball stadium. Read more about that here.

The post As USM speaks on welfare scandal, students and faculty ask ‘what other secrets lie below the surface?’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

University of Mississippi Medical Center officials on Friday said negotiations to take over the struggling Greenwood Leflore Hospital have ended, and an agreement is not possible. 

Without an agreement with UMMC, the hospital could close before the end of the year. 

“Despite the best efforts of all parties involved, it has become clear to us that an agreement between the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Greenwood Leflore Hospital will not be possible,” said Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at UMMC. 

He said an agreement is not possible due to several factors, the primary one being “the current realities of health care economics that all health systems are facing in this challenging environment.” 

Greenwood City Council President Ronnie Stevenson told Mississippi Today that UMMC’s decision came as a shock when he learned about it around lunch time on Friday. 

UMMC and Greenwood Leflore had been in talks over a potential partnership agreement since the summer. Greenwood Leflore’s interim CEO Gary Marchand told staff last week that any agreement would not be ready before early 2023, despite earlier hopes of completing the process by the end of the year. 

The Greenwood City Council and Leflore County Board of Supervisors, the joint owners of the hospital, voted last week to put up nearly $10 million to cover outstanding Medicare debts and deferred maintenance costs that UMMC said it did not want to shoulder if it took over operations. 

“I am very disappointed in their decision,” Stevenson said. “They have held us up for months, thinking this was going to go through, and we as a city and a county met all their demands or agreed to meet all their demands, and for them to pull out at the last minute, leaving us dry like this — it’s just difficult to digest right now.”

Stevenson said local leaders are not aware of another potential partner to operate the hospital. 

“We did not have a Plan B,” he said. “But we’ve got to go find one.”

In the meantime, the hospital will likely have to keep cutting jobs and services in an effort to keep the doors open as long as possible, he said. 

Leflore County Board of Supervisors President Robert Collins said in a statement that the supervisors had “always been concerned” that a deal between UMMC and the Greenwood Leflore Hospital would not go through. 

“Understanding that we are not healthcare experts we have retained the consulting services of Samuel Odle and (sic) experienced healthcare executive,” the statement said. “Mr. Odle’s role is to view the situation and advise the Supervisors and Community on feasible options for maintain (sic) healthcare in our community.”

Odle, a senior policy advisor at Bose Public Affairs Group previously led hospitals in Indiana, where he is based.

Marchand told employees on Friday morning that the hospital would lay off up to 80 employees to reduce costs as negotiations with UMMC continued. The memo contained no indication that the partnership agreement had been taken off the table. 

A press release from Greenwood Leflore Hospital suggests the decision came as a surprise to hospital officials. 

“Although we certainly can understand and appreciate the challenge of providing healthcare services in the post-pandemic era, this decision was not expected based on the progress that had been made regarding a lease transaction,” the statement said. “The financial realities of providing healthcare services are impacting both organizations.” 

When asked whether the state would step in to help the hospital, Lt. Gov. Hosemann said he is disappointed the parties couldn’t reach an agreement.

“The financial issues facing healthcare are becoming universal in our state. We need a universal plan to address them,” he said in a statement to Mississippi Today. 

Speaker of the House Philip Gunn did not immediately respond Friday afternoon. State lawmakers traveled to Jackson this week for a special session to pass a $246 million tax incentive deal to help an out-of-state corporation expand operations in the state. Gov. Tate Reeves, who focused his public comments this week on the project’s job creation, did not include policies for rural hospital closures or any other pressing needs the state faces in his special session call.

Officials from both hospitals said they will continue discussing physician services in Greenwood and Leflore County, including UMMC’s operation of a general pediatrics clinic and an OB-GYN clinic. UMMC will soon also run an internal medicine and primary care clinic in the area. 

“We will continue to evaluate other opportunities as they arise in order to maintain some health care services in the community,” said Jones. 

Stevenson said the hospital is critical to Greenwood and Leflore County. 

“This community needs a hospital,” he said. “We don’t want to have to rush to Jackson … We want to save lives here, and having a community hospital will save lives.”

More than half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, new data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform shows. The state has the largest number of rural hospitals at immediate risk of closure in the nation at 24. 

Since 2005, five rural hospitals in Mississippi have closed.

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney alluded to the ongoing threat to Greenwood Leflore Hospital during the state board of health meeting last month, when he described health care infrastructure in the Delta as “very fragile” and said at least six hospitals in the region are facing dire financial challenges. At the time, negotiations between UMMC and Greenwood Leflore appeared to be on track. 

“Despite what’s been reported in the media, currently there are no solutions for those hospitals,” he said. “No one’s coming to the rescue.”

Editor’s note: Kate Royals, Mississippi Today’s community health editor since January 2022, worked as a writer/editor for UMMC’s Office of Communications from November 2018 through August 2020, writing press releases and features about the medical center’s schools of dentistry and nursing. 

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