OurTupelo

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Growing up in a grocery store in the Arkansas Delta resulted in a part of my DNA being formed with the smell of freshly sliced bologna and the clinking of ice in the ice box that kept drinks cold. One of my favorite memories was standing on a Coke case selling the drinks and baked goods to customers of all ages.

Country stores are mostly memories of bygone days, but in my case, I learned many life lessons spending my preschool years there. My daddy was owner and proprietor of the store that served mostly farm workers, community residents and individuals who used the store as a bus stop for trips to bigger cities like Memphis. In his 50 years running the store, he was familiar with multigenerational families, and many of them considered him family.

Early on, I saw hardworking people going to the fields every day —  rain or shine — with a cotton sack or hoe. Not to be overly dramatic but I knew even then, if you did not eat, you could not be healthy enough to work. I got into the food business before food stamps were a staple.

In the 1950s at our store, the real currency was credit, trust and the monthly payments made by patrons when they were paid. Daddy kept a ticket on each credit customer, and with nothing more than a cigar box and his own accounting system, he maintained meticulous records. I never saw a dispute with a customer.

Life changed over time. The ice box was replaced with a refrigerated cooler, and the Coke box was put away. I was trusted to make change, and my payment for helping out was the chance to play the pinball machine.

By the time I left the community, food stamps and cash were prominent means of payment, even though the monthly credit was still an option to regular customers. The type of food changed as new products were promoted on television and added to the basics.

As I became an adolescent, my days of working at the store were replaced by involvement in school activities. But as I became a young adult schoolteacher, I found myself back there holding a makeshift summer kindergarten on the front porch. With more mature eyes, I saw the place and the people differently.

I knew the popsicle from Mr. Raymond’s store was my drawing card for attendance, and it worked. Children walked to the store accompanied by an older child or adult, while the local elementary school principal and a parent with a car transported those who lived too far away to walk. We learned basic skills to be better prepared for first grade.

As a first-grade teacher, I saw starving children eating as much as they could hold in the school cafeteria. With stomachs bulging, we would return to the classroom to digest and hopefully keep it down. I also saw their parents working for a very low wage and trying to navigate the life they had.

Today, many people assume that children no longer live in food-scarce homes. However, according to Feeding America, for the last 19 years at the county level Mississippi has the highest rate of food insecurity in the country. We deserve the rating.

The minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour. The most recent report disseminated by the United Ways in Mississippi underscores the depth of the problem. In 2023, based on the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), 19% of Mississippi households were defined as being in poverty.

Yet this measure failed to account for an additional 30% of the state’s households that were also experiencing financial hardship. These households fall into the ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — earning above the FPL, but not enough to afford basic expenses in the county where they live.

Combined, ALICE households and households living in poverty make up an estimated 49% of Mississippi homes below the ALICE Threshold in 2023. This rate placed Mississippi 50th among all states and the District of Columbia with first representing the lowest rate of hardship. Families below this threshold are forced to make impossible choices — like deciding whether to pay for utilities or a car repair, whether to buy food or fill a prescription.

The history of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP helps explain the hardship many Mississippians face today. It began when unemployment was widespread and there was an agricultural surplus.

From the beginning, its purpose was and still is to supplement the income of working-class families and individuals on fixed incomes due to low wages and high costs of living.

Some of today’s most successful men and women participated in the SNAP or the federal supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, also known as WIC.

During my son’s pursuit of a master’s degree in theology, he applied for WIC, which is a cousin to SNAP. With a new baby and only one very fixed-income, WIC was a critical supplement to their budget.

Research clearly demonstrates access to healthful, nutritious food during pregnancy and early childhood is essential for a strong start in life. For babies, good prenatal nutrition helps lay the foundation for healthy brain development supporting learning, behavior and mental health well into adulthood.

A balanced diet also builds stronger immune systems, leading to fewer infections and doctor visits. It is important to Mississippians to lower the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, which all carry high lifetime medical costs and result in missing work. When adults are frequently sick, the workforce becomes less productive, affecting not only families but the state’s overall economic health.

Mississippi consistently has some of the highest food costs in the nation. It can be difficult for Mississippians to afford healthy foods that help their babies grow up healthy. As of July 1, Mississippi has a grocery tax of 5% while 33 states do not have any.

Mississippi continues to struggle with food deserts, where access to full-service grocery stores is limited and reliable transportation is often unavailable. For many families, the only nearby options are gas stations and dollar stores – places where fresh, nutritious food is scarce.

I have no fight with the state auditor or governor if they want to campaign for cutting food stamps to purchase sugary foods. But I do take issue with the growing atmosphere of disrespect toward the working people who rely on these benefits. These families deserve dignity, not judgment.

When the nation was facing a government shutdown earlier this year, Gov. Tate Reeves talked about requesting a waiver to limit the use of food stamps on sugary products such as drinks and candy even though there were questions of whether there would be any SNAP payments at all. He commented that “welfare benefits are a hand-up for those in desperate temporary need.”

The truth is, there was and still is a desperate need across the state for the full SNAP payments disseminated to participants. Yet during the shutdown, Gov. Reeves was not interested in following the strategy Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry implemented. He used Louisiana state emergency funds to allocate $150 million to supplement SNAP during the shutdown.

This contrast reveals a fatal flaw in Mississippi’s leadership. When the weakest link in the chain of productivity breaks or is damaged, the entire system suffers.

Without healthy workers who keep our streets clean, prepare hotel rooms and staff our restaurants, we will have no tourism, no community growth, no strong tax base and no one to train in the highly publicized high-paying jobs coming into our state.

It seems to be a no-brainer.

Bio: Cathy Grace is the early childhood specialist at the North Mississippi Education Consortium. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 50 years as a first -grade teacher, consultant to state and nonprofit agencies and child care programs. Grace taught early childhood education at four state universities and retired from Mississippi State University as professor emerita. She also directed the planning and implementation of public kindergarten while employed at the Mississippi Department of Education. She has worked in Washington as an early childhood advocate and presented research numerous times at state, regional and national conferences. 

As health insurance premiums for next year rise and threaten to push hundreds of thousands of Mississippians off plans, a “perfect storm” is brewing that could steer people towards riskier coverage options, experts warn. 

About 200,000 Mississippians are expected to drop their Affordable Care Act Marketplace coverage if Congress does not vote to extend the enhanced premium tax credits that make coverage more affordable for over 22 million Americans. Mississippi is expected to see one of the steepest dropoffs in health coverage among all states.

People who are seeking affordable coverage options may be drawn to plans that “walk and talk” like traditional health insurance, but don’t have to follow ACA rules, local and national experts told Mississippi Today. These alternatives — including short-term limited duration, fixed indemnity, Farm Bureau and health care sharing ministries — are not required to cover people with preexisting conditions and may not provide maternity, prescription or mental health services. 

These alternatives may seem like good options for lowering health costs, but could instead expose consumers to financial risks, leaving them vulnerable to losing coverage or not being able to afford care when they need it, said JoAnn Volk, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. 

“They may seem more affordable in terms of the premium, but that’s because you’re going to pay more out of pocket or not have coverage at all,” Volk said.  

And they are often deceptively marketed to look like comprehensive health insurance, she noted, so that consumers don’t understand exactly what type of plan they are purchasing or the risks they are assuming. 

Because the plans are exempt from ACA regulations, they can choose to deny coverage, exclude certain services, retroactively cancel coverage after you submit a claim, set a dollar limit on your health benefits and don’t have to meet requirements for the portion of a customer’s premiums that they spend on medical services. 

Khaylah Scott, a program manager for Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, said the organization’s consumer assistance program has seen this scenario play out many times. 

“Consumers would purchase an ‘affordable’ plan, but later discover it’s of no-good use, either because a provider doesn’t accept it, or the services they seek aren’t covered,” she said in an email.

If enhanced premium tax credits are not extended by Congress, consumers who are insured through the Marketplace will pay more than double on average, according to KFF, though the rate changes will vary based on age, income and location. 

Republicans and Democrats have both proposed competing health care bills aimed at addressing the subsidies’ pending expiration. Democrats have proposed extending the subsidies for three years, while the Republican plan would replace the enhanced tax credits with new health savings accounts. The Republican-controlled Senate voted Thursday to reject both health care bills, reported the Associated Press. 

“It’s never too late to extend these subsidies,” said Volk. “But every day that goes by, there’s more damage done, people who went and looked at the price and walked away for good or took the bait and went to a substandard plan.” 

And as people leave the Marketplace in pursuit of lower-cost plans, costs may rise for those that remain. 

“Mississippians remaining in the ACA Marketplace can experience higher premiums because the insurers expect healthy people to leave for the cheaper, inadequate, short-term plans,” Scott said. 

One such plan — short-term limited duration health insurance — could gain traction as Marketplace plans become less affordable, especially after the Trump administration indicated earlier this year it is loosening restrictions.

Short-term limited duration health plans were designed to insure people with a short-term gap in coverage, like those who are between jobs. The plans are limited in length — up to three months plus renewals, according to current federal rules — and are often also limited in the types of services they cover. 

“Mississippians that buy these short-term policies risk being left with significant medical bills,” Scott said.

The Trump administration announced in August it will not prioritize enforcement of Biden-era consumer protections for short-term plans and will consider rule changes that could roll back those regulations. The strictness of regulations for the plans have seesawed back and forth between different administrations. 

“Until future rulemaking is issued and applicable, the Departments (of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury) do not intend to prioritize enforcement actions for violations related to failing to meet the definition of ‘short-term, limited-duration insurance,’” read the announcement. 

Farm Bureau plans are similar in that they are less expensive than traditional health plans but often have restrictions on coverage. They usually cover primary care visits and most medical procedures, but aren’t required to cover people with pre-existing conditions or maintain coverage when people become ill. 

Fixed indemnity plans pay a predetermined amount for covered services and act as a supplement to health insurance. The plans give patients the option of going to the provider of their choice, but don’t always cover the full costs of care, saddling patients with high out-of-pocket costs.

The Obama administration issued a rule that fixed indemnity plans could only be sold to people with existing health insurance coverage in 2014, but two years later, the courts struck the rule down, arguing that the federal government could not restrict the sale of the plans.

The plans can be a helpful supplement used to pay for out-of-pocket health insurance costs, but they aren’t a substitute for a traditional plan, Volk said. 

“It’s when they’re sold instead of a comprehensive plan as if they provide good enough protection against unintended or unforeseen costs, that it’s problematic,” said Volk. 

Health care sharing ministries are a type of plan in which members, who often share a common religious belief, make monthly payments to cover the health expenses of other people enrolled in the ministry. But like the aforementioned alternatives to health insurance, plans offered within these ministries don’t have to follow the same rules as those that follow ACA standards. 

The ministries have come under increased scrutiny in recent years. 

One such organization, Sharity Ministries, filed for bankruptcy and dissolved in 2021, leaving about 10,000 families with $50 million in unpaid medical bills when it shut down. Former members were projected to receive only a small fraction of what they were owed after a liquidation plan was approved. 

The state of California sued the organization’s parent company in 2022, alleging it spent only 16 cents on the dollar of members’ monthly payments on health care. The case was settled in October 2025, barring the company from doing business in California and imposing a fine of $34 million. 

Marketing of these plans flourishes when health insurance coverage becomes less affordable for people, just like they will if the enhanced Marketplace subsidies expire at the end of this year, said Volk. 

During sales, brokers may withhold important information — like the subsidies people are eligible for through the ACA Marketplace, which prevent people from making apples-to-apples comparisons based on their premiums, she said. 

Secret shopper studies performed by researchers have shown that sales representatives sometimes use misleading tactics to pitch alternatives to comprehensive insurance. 

In about one out of four tests in a 2020 Government Accountability Office study, health insurance sales representatives engaged in potentially deceptive practices, such as claiming that a pre-existing condition was covered even when plan documents said otherwise. 

To protect yourself from deceptive marketing practices, Volk recommends working with a reputable health insurance broker in your community, ideally with a brick-and-mortar location, and asking for a summary of benefits or coverage, a document that is required for all insurance plans to help consumers compare their options. 

“If they’re holding back on information and especially if they can’t provide a summary of benefits and coverage, that is a sign,” she said.

As federal agents move through Mississippi, a handful of local law enforcement agencies and jails are offering assistance through agreements to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

“We’re assuming, until we find out differently, that our local sheriffs and police are, at a minimum, communicating and perhaps sharing information with ICE,” said Lea Campbell, a member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mutual Aid Collective, a community advocacy group. 

The agency has several types of agreements and contracts with local, county and state law enforcement, including identifying those in violation of immigration laws in jails and assisting in arrests. Another agreement, in place for several years in Madison and Hancock counties,  enables local jurisdictions to serve as holding facilities for detainees,

Four sheriff’s departments and two state offices already have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, giving them some immigration enforcement abilities through collaboration with ICE. 

The Department of Public Safety has a pending agreement in Hinds County. 

Bailey Holloway, spokesperson for the department, said officers from the Mississippi Highway Patrol,  Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division will partner with ICE to identify people suspected to be in the country without legal authorization who are not charged with crimes. She also said the DPS officers will exercise limited immigration authority on ICE-led task forces. 

“The Mississippi Department of Public Safety will work in full cooperation with our federal partners to assist in enforcing immigration laws and removing individuals who are in the country unlawfully, ensuring the safety of our communities,” she wrote in a Thursday email. 

Under the 287(g) program, there are three models: jail enforcement, warrant service officer and task force. The first two allow people to identify suspected immigrants ina jail and to make civil administrative arrests on behalf of ICE in the jail. 

Agencies can have more than one model. Those who have a 287(g) agreement are:

• Jail enforcement model: the sheriff’s departments in Harrison, Monroe and Stone counties
• Warrant service officer model: the sheriff’s departments in Harrison, Lauderdale and Stone counties
• Task force model: attorney general’s office, state auditor’s office, Stone County Sheriff’s Department

Lauderdale County Sheriff Ward Calhoun said he saw the agreement as an opportunity to help federal partners including ICE and help process immigration cases. 

With the jail warrant service program, Calhoun said up to five deputies who work in the detention center will be trained to serve administrative warrants. He called this department’s role in immigration enforcement minor and clerical. 

When asked if the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department would be interested in expanding to the different 287(g) models, Calhoun said that is not likely. 

“We just don’t think there’s that many individuals in the community that we’re aware of who are here illegally, so I don’t see a need for us to do anything any differently,” he said. 

Calhoun estimated that within the past three years, the sheriff’s office has been asked a dozen times a year to hold someone in its jail until ICE can pick them up.  

The task force model allows officers to enforce civil immigration law on the street when working with the agency. 

State Auditor Shad White said two agents from his office volunteered to be trained in immigration law enforcement and assist ICE in whatever way they can. 

“ICE agents and the Trump administration are working hard to stop illegal immigration, and they need every law enforcement officer willing to assist in their corner,” White said in a September statement. 

The first Mississippi agency to sign a 287(g) agreement was the attorney general’s office earlier this year. 

These agreements aren’t new but have exploded under President Donald Trump from 80 in 2010 to hundreds this year, Austin Kocher, an associate professor at Syracuse University who researches the immigration enforcement system, wrote in a Journalist’s Resource post. 

As of Dec. 9, over 1,200 active 287(g) memorandums are in force in 39 states and one U.S. territory, with another eight pending agreements, according to ICE. 

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement signed the first 287(g) agreement in 2002 under President George W. Bush, Kocher writes. President Barack Obama ended the task force model, partly due to lawsuits and Justice Department investigations that showed problems with its implementation. 

During his first administration, Trump expanded the 287(g) program and saw a large increase in participation, according to Kocher. President Joe Biden’s administration preserved some existing agreements but decided to halt new ones.  

Kocher wrote that this year during Trump’s second administration, the president issued an executive order to “aggressively – yet quietly – (expand)” 287(g) agreements. The administration is also reimbursing participating law enforcement agencies through the “Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

Kocher wrote that part of the explosion of new 287(g) agreements is driven by the revival of the task force model. He also noted more types of agencies are signing the agreements, such as the Mississippi attorney general’s office, financial service departments and fish and wildlife agencies. 

Existing holding agreements with Madison and Hancock counties reflect the recent surge in ICE activities.

As of Tuesday, online booking records for the jail list four people charged with violation of federal immigration law being held for ICE in Madison. Dozens were held there days after the inauguration of Trump and announcement of mass deportations. 

Through intergovernmental service agreements, ICE pays jails and prisons to hold the agency’s detainees in their facilities. Sometimes the jails hold them temporarily until they are sent to more permanent ICE detention facilities. In Mississippi, these detainees typically go to the Adams County Detention Center in Natchez or facilities in Louisiana. 

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department has had its agreement with ICE since at least 2020, and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department has had an agreement with ICE since 2018 and one with the U.S. Marshal’s Service since at least 2016. 

The jails hold ICE’s administrative detainees, which are people not charged with criminal violations,  according to language from Hancock County’s agreement. These are those in custody to ensure their presence through the immigration hearing process and until an immigration court or other judicial body decides whether they can stay in the country or be removed,

Last week, federal immigration agents arrived in New Orleans for “Operation Catahoula Crunch.” They arrested 38 people within the first two days of the crackdown, the Associated Press reported, noting how less than a third had criminal histories. The Department of Homeland Security announced several arrests of those with violent criminal charges. 

Nola.com reported that people arrested in the New Orleans area through the operation have been taken to the Hancock County jail. 

As of November, data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University showed that over 70% of ICE detainees don’t have criminal records. For those who do have criminal charges, many committed minor offenses such as traffic violations.

During previous legislative sessions, Mississippi lawmakers have introduced immigration bills to give local and state agencies enforcement powers and to financially support those efforts. 

A pair of bills from the recent session proposed creating a fund to support immigration efforts of law enforcement agencies that enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE and to create an immigration enforcement unit under the Department of Public Safety. They did not make it out of committee.

Others have proposed making immigration a state crime so local law enforcement would have the authority to enforce immigration and help federal agents. White, the state auditor, is supporting a bill to do this in the upcoming session, and he said Sen. Angela Burks Hill, a Republican from Picayune, has taken the lead on immigration bills. 

The Constitution grants the sole authority to enforce immigration to the federal government, not states. Some who have wanted to crackdown on immigration at the state level have made the opposite argument against local and state sanctuary laws aimed to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. 

“The staggering expansion of 287(g), and specifically the revival of the aggressive task force model, means that the Trump administration is building an army of deportation officers out of state and local law enforcement agencies at a scale that we have never seen before,” Kocher wrote. “Full stop.”

If you have a news tip about the immigration enforcement presence in the state, please contact us on Signal at +1-601-281-8952. You can also email us at info@mississippitoday.org or tips@mississippitoday.org.

Deep South Today convened reporters from its three newsrooms — Mississippi Today, Verite News and The Current — for an online town hall meeting Dec. 4 to examine how hundreds of millions of opioid settlement dollars are being spent across the region.

The hour-long conversation, attended virtually by dozens of Deep South Today members, offered a behind-the-scenes look at how investigative journalists are tracking the opioid settlement spending and uncovering whether communities are benefiting from this once-in-a-generation influx of money.

The panel featured Katie Jane Fernelius of Verite News, Alena Maschke of The Current and Allen Siegler of Mississippi Today — all of whom have closely covered the settlement spending in their communities. The three journalists have shared notes and are planning collaborations, highlighting the benefit of Deep South Today’s multi-newsroom model.

The panel was moderated by Adam Ganucheau, executive editor at Deep South Today. Deep South Today CEO Warwick Sabin and Deep South Today Development Manager Elizabeth Hambuchen also gave remarks.

Here are some key takeaways from the conversation.

1. The opioid settlement money arrived with few rules.

Siegler opened by explaining how national opioid settlements left broad spending discretion to states and local governments — and very little oversight. That lack of structure is shaping everything that follows, underscoring the importance of investigative journalism.

2. Spending can look dramatically different depending on where you live.

Maschke and Fernelius described a patchwork of approaches across Louisiana, while Siegler outlined Mississippi’s early uneven rollout. Some communities are prioritizing treatment while others are diverting funds to needs unrelated to the opioid crisis.

3. Fault lines are emerging.

The journalists pointed to various officials’ deliberations about whether funds should support treatment, law enforcement, prevention programs or budget backfilling. Some uses — including a few “scandalous” examples in Louisiana and Mississippi — are raising accountability questions.

4. Lack of transparency is a major challenge.

All three journalists shared how difficult it’s been to follow the money. Siegler had to file 147 records requests across Mississippi for basic spending information, often facing long delays or incomplete data. Similar barriers exist in Louisiana, where public reporting remains inconsistent.

5. 2026 will be a decisive year.

All three reporters said the next year will determine whether settlement dollars meaningfully expand recovery services or quietly disappear into government budgets. The journalists said they expect more scrutiny and additional reporting, and they highlighted ways in which the public can get involved in the debate.

Michael Cormack, deputy superintendent of Jackson Public Schools, is leaving the district to lead a network of charter schools in Atlanta. 

Cormack was Superintendent Errick Greene’s first hire in 2019, according to an announcement the district released Monday. He led academics at JPS, brainstorming initiatives like Project 75, which focuses on reading, and working with school leaders to improve student achievement. 

Project 75 aims to boost the percentage of third graders in JPS who pass the state assessment on the first attempt from 55% to 75%. Cormack presented his plan for the initiative to the school board in August, but it kicked off in earnest in mid-November. Cormack told Mississippi Today he will continue working on Project 75 until his exit in March, and he’s confident the district will continue the initiative in his absence.

Under Cormack’s leadership, the district’s state accountability rating improved from an F to a C and graduation rates increased. The district’s announcement called the time of Cormack’s tenure one of the “most significant periods of sustained academic and organization improvement in its history.”

“Dr. Cormack’s impact on Jackson Public Schools has been profound,” Greene said in the announcement. “His relentless focus on instructional excellence, organizational effectiveness, and leadership development has strengthened our schools and improved outcomes for our scholars. We are grateful for his service to JPS, and proud to see him elevate and expand his impact even farther.” 

Cormack drew from his experience as a classroom teacher in the Delta for his work at JPS and his former position as CEO of the Barksdale Reading Institute, which closed in 2023. 

“I fundamentally believe that reading is freedom,” Cormack told Mississippi Today in a previous interview. “Part of my job is to make sure our scholars have the ability to be and do whatever their potential takes them.” 

He will assume his new position as CEO of KIPP Atlanta Schools on March 16. KIPP is a national charter school network with hubs across the country, including schools in Memphis, New Orleans and Houston. 

“Thank you, Jackson Public Schools, for the privilege of serving our scholars and community,” Cormack said in a statement on LinkedIn. “I carry that work and those lessons with me as I step into this new role.”

Mississippi Auditor Shad White is going on offense in 2026. 

That’s what he said when he unveiled his agenda for the upcoming legislative session. The aggressive posture is necessary because he said state senators tried last session to limit his ability to audit nonprofits and attempted to cut his budget, with the latter proposal spilling into public view in a tense standoff at a committee hearing.

The senators responsible for those proposals, both fellow Republicans, retired this year. But the chamber is still led by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is seen by many as a chief rival for the Republican nomination for governor in 2027. 

In addition to fending off potential efforts to limit his powers, White has called for lawmakers to adopt proposals from a legislative agenda built around three planks: immigration enforcement, government waste and ethics reform.

White spoke to Mississippi Today about how his proposals would work, his feuds with state senators, his potential run for governor (he’s still considering it) and whether he’d like to see lawmakers punish Lane Kiffin.   

This interview, conducted in early December, has been edited for clarity and length. 

Mississippi Today: As far as the bill that you mentioned last year that would have restricted some of your powers, Sen. David Parker obviously will not be back this session. Have you heard any rumblings about whether there’s still an appetite for that among others?

Shad White: I have not, but you know, I didn’t really hear any rumblings that that was going to happen last year, right up until the moment the bill dropped. We discovered that bill on a Friday night. So I would say that the politicians who don’t like me in the auditor’s office don’t make it a habit of warning me beforehand they’re going to do something like that

MT: Moving on to your legislative agenda, you propose making illegal immigration a state crime. Are there any specific gaps in federal enforcement that you’re trying to fill? Are there certain enforcement mechanisms that Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn’t using where you think the state could do better?

White: No, I think ICE is doing a great job, and I think you can see it in Operation Swamp Sweep, which is happening in New Orleans, Louisiana and parts of Mississippi. I think it’s very clear also that ICE is in need of manpower. So, if you just look on social media or see job postings, you see that ICE is actively trying to recruit law enforcement officers.

So, one thing that I think state and local authorities can do to help with ICE’s mission is to sign up to become a task force partner with ICE, which is what my office has done, and I believe several others around the state have done. But two, I think the other thing that state and local authorities can do is assist ICE in enforcing illegal immigration laws if it were illegal under state law. 

And so that’s really the point of that plank of the legislative agenda – to make this a violation of state law and therefore give all state and local law enforcement the chance to add to the manpower that ICE already has to make our country safer and to make sure that folks who are here illegally are held accountable.

MT: And do you know if this is being done in any other states right now?

White: I don’t know if it’s being done this session. Most of these ideas that we’ve gotten, we’ve taken from either other states or the federal government. So I believe that illegal immigration is a state crime in other states. 

(Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa have passed laws to create state-level crimes related to immigration or transporting undocumented immigrants.)

MT: As far as the fee on money sent abroad, you describe the fee that Mississippi should impose as a heavy one. Do you have a specific rate that you’re wanting to propose? And do you have a revenue estimate?

White:  I think that’s the sort of detail that you would hope would get worked out in the legislative process. I think the federal fee that was imposed in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill is a 1% fee. And then the Oklahoma fee changes based on the size of the remittance.

What I would do if I were a legislator, or as this bill gets down to a final negotiation, if it gets that far, I’d look and see what the federal government’s doing, what Oklahoma is doing, and then impose something based on those remittances.

I do think that the primary purpose of placing a fee on those remittances is actually deterrence rather than generating revenue, though generating revenue is a nice secondary benefit. So, whatever the fee is, it needs to be big enough to provide a deterrent against illegal immigration.

Folks need to know if they’re coming here to Mississippi illegally, and they’re going to send money back home, that money is going to be heavily, heavily taxed.

MT: Does the policy proposal have a way to ensure that legal immigrants are not bearing the brunt of those fees?

White: Yeah, I think that Florida had a proposal this past year that would have required some sort of immigration or legal status check when somebody goes there to submit the remittances.

In fact, I’d go maybe even a step further than Florida and say that if you’re a Western Union and someone comes in and they cannot provide documentation that they are here legally, you probably just shouldn’t serve them at all, period.

MT: On the government waste front, I think you say Mississippi spends more than Louisiana, Arkansas, and Iowa on vehicles and travel. What inefficiencies have those states solved that Mississippi hasn’t?

White: What we find in procurement is that states that are doing better than Mississippi have more centralized procurement and they’re benefiting from an economy of scale. So, for example, you’ll see some states that have consolidated lots of back-office functions and lots of back-office procurement processes under a single agency. That’s something that’s been debated here in Mississippi and I think that’s a good idea.

The way you might approach it here in Mississippi as it relates to vehicles is rather than having each individual agency go out and purchase vehicles, you could have agencies coordinate that through DFA (Department of Finance and Administration) and there might be a larger Enterprise solution for the entire state. So maybe it is DFA carrying into a large contract with a rental car company to save money on the maintenance of those vehicles.

Those are the kinds of things that I think are happening in other states and the kinds of things that we should be debating here in Mississippi. The bottom line really for me is that we know we’re inefficient relative to those other states and so we need to do something to make sure that we’re not spending this much.

MT: Not to goad you into picking on any particular agency, although I’ll certainly give you the opportunity if you want to, did your office identify any particular agencies that have the worst inefficiencies with this?

White: Well, what we did when we came up with those estimates is that we looked at the agencies that were highlighted in Project Momentum. And so those were the agencies that are listed there. Most of them are executive agencies with appointed heads, and then in addition to that, there’s the Mississippi Department of Education and DFA.

The reason we looked at those specifically is we wanted to look at agencies with a singular head who could make a decision quickly about whether or not they wanted to change a policy internally as opposed to agencies that were run by a board, where action is sometimes slower. 

Now, the one exception is the Department of Education and we threw them in simply because they spent so much money. It’s such a huge part of the state budget that we felt we couldn’t leave them out of Project Momentum. So, I won’t call out any individual agency, but I will say that the numbers we got show that we’re spending more than other similar states.

MT: Speaking of state revenues, now that some time has passed since Gov. Reeves signed into law a bill setting Mississippi on path to becoming the first state to eliminate an existing income tax, what do you think of the policy?

White: I think it’s going to make Mississippi more competitive.

I was on the phone this morning with a friend who owns a business up in North Mississippi near Corinth in Alcorn County, and they live with the tax disadvantage every single day because they’re losing workers to Tennessee. 

I think that we have to also simultaneously cut fat from government, as this income tax elimination is being phased in, because you don’t want to wake up and have to cut emergency management to the bone. We don’t want to have to wake up and cut law enforcement and get state troopers off the streets. What you want to do is you want to cut unnecessary spending.

And so that’s one of the reasons why we focused on necessary and wasteful spending in the auditor’s office over the last two years – to provide a road map for the Legislature if they want to act on our recommendations. 

MT: You’ve mentioned that you’ve received push back over the years from state agencies in Jackson. As you outline your legislative agenda, are you gearing up for a big fight with state agencies? 

White: I don’t think so, to be honest with you. I think often the conflict is actually with the Legislature and some of the politicians in the Legislature. You know, some of these ideas that we got for cost savings actually came from interviews with people who work at those agencies.

For whatever reason, sometimes when we translate audits into policies and legislative ideas, for some reason, there’s a group of legislators who don’t want to do anything to make Mississippi government more efficient and would rather spend their time fighting the auditor’s office. So I hope that doesn’t happen again this year.

MT: As far as conflicts with individual lawmakers, you said that a similar version of your Ethics and Whistleblower Reward Act bill was killed by lawmakers previously. Which lawmakers were you talking about?

White:  I don’t know which lawmakers killed it because most of the time these bills just die on the calendar. They die due to a deadline. So you have no idea who behind closed doors is opposing it. But I can tell you, I believe that starting two years ago, we proposed this whistleblower reward bill and I was told by Senate leadership that they supported it and, of course, it never passed.

MT: Is this proposal a direct offshoot of the Mississippi welfare/TANF scandal?

White: I would not say that the whistleblower reward statute is a direct offshoot of that. I think it’s an offshoot of all the cases that we’ve had over the course of the last few years, where we would have loved for more people to come forward.

So to give you an example, I had people asking me for years, why don’t you investigate and indict this or that mayor? Well, we don’t take information to a prosecutor unless we have something that is criminal. 

Usually, the thing that stands in the way of us building a good investigation is that we look at documents and documents tell apart the story, but we really need somebody to come forward and testify about what they saw. Whether it’s a kickback or an improper relationship or a bribe or something like that.

That is usually the hold-up that prevents us from taking a set of facts and turning it into a slam-dunk investigation.

MT: Maybe this will get worked out later, but how large would the prize be? 

White: The federal statute says it could be up to 15% of the amount that the government recovers. So if I were in the negotiating room and talking about what number needs to go in the bill, that’s probably where I would start.

MT: You recently said that you will always fight to make the state stronger and safer, whether serving as the auditor or in some other role. Is there any update on your potential run for governor in 2027? 

White: I’ve made no secret that I’m seriously considering running for governor and part of the reason is that I see common-sense ideas like this that need to get done in Mississippi. I can do a few things as auditor to help usher those ideas in, so we can do spending analyses and audits on how taxpayer money is wasted and better uses of those dollars. But ultimately, that’s all you can do as auditor.

You can audit, and you can try to persuade people to adopt your policy recommendations based on the strength of your ideas. We know that other positions, such as the governor’s office, have much greater control. roll over some of these state agencies, and you can make some of these changes directly. You also get a much bigger bully pulpit to argue for the policy solutions that you think are best for the state. And so that’s one of the reasons why I’m considering that.

But I think at this point, more than a year-and-a-half out from an election, my focus is going to be to continue doing my job as an auditor and highlighting these ideas all about how to make the state better, and telling people about them and seeing who is interested in getting on board.

MT: Will you be introducing a legislative proposal to penalize Lane Kiffin? 

White: It’s not off the table. You can quote me on that.

DEER ISLAND—Federal lawmakers are considering a bill that could reshape how seafood is farmed in the United States,and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, oyster growers are already showing what that future could look like.

The Marine Aquaculture Research for America Act would strengthen U.S. aquaculture by funding a large-scale demonstration fish farm and streamlining the federal permitting process. In a Dec. 2 letter, more than 150 seafood businesses, researchers and nonprofit leaders urged Congress to pass the bill, saying it is needed to help the industry grow and compete globally. 

“We must grow more of our own seafood here at home, using modern tools and technologies that protect ocean health and support coastal economies,” the letter said. “The United States imports the majority of our seafood, half of which is farmed overseas.”

Off the coast of Deer Island, Mark Havard is already part of that growing industry. Each week, he tends thousands of oysters growing in floating cages in the Mississippi Sound through his business, Two Crackers Oyster Co.  

Havard’s operation is part of Mississippi’s expanding marine aquaculture sector, which has grown in recent years as the state works to rebuild and protect its iconic oyster industry. 

Mississippi’s shift to oyster farming 

Mississippi oyster harvests once relied almost entirely on wild reefs. After decades of natural and manmade disasters, state officials turned to aquaculture as a way to ensure oysters remain available even after future setbacks. 

That shift led the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to begin training coastal residents to farm oysters. 

“We’ve been training residents of the three coastal counties since 2018,” said Jason Rider, the department’s Shellfish Bureau director. “The goal of the program is to take individuals that are interested in oyster farming or permaculture and teaching them the basics.” 

The program includes classroom instruction and a year of hands-on field training. 

“The first phase is classroom (based), so we have five classroom meetings. We give individuals information on how to start a farm, the basics of oyster biology, the gear that’s needed, real world requirements of what’s involved with it,” Rider said. “After that first phase, the DMR has an area behind Deer Island that we provide growers or individuals the opportunity to borrow gear and space and then train and raise some oysters for about a year through that program. And we give them again the education that they need, and we help them throughout that process.” 

After completing the program, participants decide whether to continue into business. Of the roughly 100 students who have gone through the program, Rider said about 30 chose to move forward. 

Havard was one of those students in 2019. His company has since grown from 225,000 seed oysters to more than 400,000. 

“I grew up on a cattle farm,” he said. “I enjoy the husbandry side of things, and oysters are just a different animal compared to a cow.” 

For Havard, the work is demanding but rewarding. 

“It’s a dirty, nasty job. There are easier and cleaner ways to make money,” he said. “But I’m on a boat twice a week, and I absolutely love it.”  

A global industry with local impact

Researchers like Kelly Lucas, who is the vice president of research at The University of Southern Mississippi, said Mississippi’s shift toward aquaculture reflects a broader global shift in seafood production.  

“The growth in seafood is all coming from aquaculture. And everywhere else in the world does it better than we do,” Lucas said. “We can’t take any more out of the wild … we’re at maximum capacity — so, any gain in producing food right is going to come from aquaculture.” 

Lucas has worked on aquaculture research, policy and regulations for more than 17 years — and signed the December letter to Congress. She said the United States has the technology to expand aquaculture but lacks a clear federal path to do so. 

“There’s absolutely no reason that the United States should be 16th in production of aquaculture products, or that we should be exporting our technology to other places, so they can grow aquaculture products and so that we can import it,” Lucas said.  

According to Lucas, one of the biggest barriers is the slow and complex federal permitting process. 

“There’s a lot of different agencies involved, and every agency kind of points out the other agency as to who’s really the responsible party,” Lucas explained.  “There’s no specific thing saying (which agency is) responsible for aquaculture.” 

Lucas said some companies wait up to a decade for permits. 

“You can bankrupt a whole company; they get tired. And you know what they do? If they’re an American company, they go south. They go right across the border into Mexico or into Honduras or into Panama and they put their farms there, and then they ship their product back to the United States,” Lucas said. 

Lucas said the solution is creating a clear, accountable federal process so companies are not stalled for years before they can operate. 

“Having a path, having an entity that’s responsible for making sure that occurs in a timely, timely manner, so that these things aren’t just lingering out there for forever,” Lucas said.

The MARA Act remains in committee, but researchers and growers said it’s outcome could shape the future of aquaculture in Mississippi and across the country. 

It is only appropriate that in this – surely the strangest college football season ever – Indiana, the team that entered the 2025 season with the most defeats of any team in college history, finishes the season with a perfect 12-0 record and the No. 1 seeding in the college football playoffs. This is like the Washington Generals beating the Harlem Globetrotters, the Jamaicans winning the Olympic bobsled gold medal or Luxembourg winning World War III.

How crazy was this season? Let us count the ways:

• Notre Dame wins 10 straight games after losing its first two (to ranked teams by a total of four points). Yet, the Irish are snubbed and don’t make the playoffs. But that’s not all. Notre Dame, the school of Touchdown Jesus, Knute Rockne and George Gipp, takes its ball and goes home, refusing to play in a bowl game. As Tyler Cleveland said on our Crooked Letter podcast:  It’s almost as if the ghosts of Gipp and Rockne told the non-fighting Irish, “One day when the going gets tough, tell the boys to skip one for the Gipper.”
• Ole Miss wins 11 games for the first time in a regular season, makes the playoffs, but will play  in the post-season without the head coach who led them there. I mean, how crazy is that? To which Lane Kiffin, the Snidely Whiplash of college football, adjusts his visor, gazes off into the distance, and smirks.
• After losing seven of their final eight games Mississippi State’s Bulldogs will play in the Dukes Mayo Bowl against Wake Forest Jan. 2. What’s more, included in the State entourage to Charlotte will be newly hired defensive coordinator Zach Arnett, the former Bulldog head coach, whom State was still paying (for one more year) his nearly $5 million buyout from when he was fired as State’s head coach. I mean, how does that even work?
• Amory native Will Hall, fired at Southern Miss in October 2024, is named the new head coach at Tulane 14 months later. Ironically, Hall’s biggest win during his 14-30 tenure at USM, was over Cotton Bowl-bound Tulane, at Tulane, on Sept. 24, 2022. Amazingly, USM won that game with a true freshman quarterback Zach Wilcke, who has since played at Northwest Community College and at Charlotte and is back in the transfer portal with one year of eligibility remaining. In retrospect, should Tulane beat Ole Miss on Dec. 20 it would be no bigger upset than Southern Miss beating Tulane back in 2022.
• Leave it to Ed Orgeron to tell us the main way in which college football has changed in recent years. Speaking on the popular “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast, Orgeron said this: ”Back then, we used to walk through the back door with the cash. Now we just gotta walk through the front door with the cash!” In this case, Coach O speaks the truth. Money rules the sport.
• Here’s another way college football has changed: It used to be that playing in a bowl game was the pot at the end of the rainbow, a cherished reward for all the hard work. That’s not always the case these days. Notre Dame turning down a bowl game is one thing, but Kansas State and Iowa State of the Big 12 Conference are also skipping the post-season. Too good for a bowl? Iowa State? Kansas State? Come on…
• Two of the top candidates for the Heisman Trophy, which goes to the most outstanding player in college football, are Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, two practically un-recruited quarterbacks. Pavia is a sixth-year player who was un-rated as a junior college recruit. Mendoza is a former walk-on. Oh, yes, and one player who should be in New York for the Heisman presentation but won’t be is Ole Miss Rebel Trinidad Chambliss, who did not receive a Division I scholarship offer out of high school. So much for recruiting stars. You could put all three of those guys’ recruiting stars together and still not have more than you and me.
• You may remember that much ado was made when analyst and former coach Lee Corso was a perfect 6-0 in his final picks on “College Game Day.” Almost forgotten is the fact that Corso picked LSU and Penn State to play for the national championship. Both fired their coaches in October. Oops!
• Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry throws a hissy fit about LSU, the state’s flagship university, having to pay football coach Brian Kelly a $54 million buyout after firing him. Landry says such long-term, high dollar contracts are idiotic, something a lot of us would not argue. But then, Landry actively recruits Kiffin, whom LSU will pay $91 million over the next seven years if he stays that long. Kiffin’s buyout is substantially higher than Kelly’s.
• And you couldn’t make this up. Part of Kiffin’s new deal is that LSU would have to pay him $1 million if Ole Miss goes on to win the national championship. And so it goes. As they say, you could not make this stuff up…

No state has cut funding to its environmental regulatory body more over the last 15 years than Mississippi, a report released Wednesday said.

The new study, done by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, found the state slashed funding for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality by 71% from 2010 to 2024. Mississippi also had the largest decrease in total dollars from that time, with MDEQ’s inflation-adjusted budget dropping from $373 million t0 $107 million, the report said.

The EIP report also looked at staffing reductions over that timeframe. Mississippi ranked 10th in staffing cuts, going from 523 employees in 2010 to 433 in 2024, or a 17% decrease.

In total, 27 states cut funding to their environmental agencies over that period, including Mississippi’s neighbors Alabama (a 49% decrease) and Louisiana (26%). But its other neighbors, Arkansas and Tennessee, both saw opposite trends, with increases of 31% and 30%, respectively. South Dakota saw the second highest budget decrease with 61%.

In an interview earlier this year, MDEQ Executive Director Chris Wells described the agency as being understaffed.

“(MDEQ employees) in certain areas of the agency are stretched pretty thin,” Wells told Mississippi Today in April. “They’re working more than 40 hours a week, barely keeping their head above water, and in a lot of cases not necessarily meeting expectations from the outside in terms of how fast we get permits turned around.”

He estimated MDEQ had lost around 50 employees since he took over the agency in 2020.

MDEQ’s role is to conserve the state’s public, natural resources and to regulate pollution into the air, water and soil. Any business in the state that has such releases must first obtain a permit from the agency. MDEQ’s other roles include overseeing the state’s sewer systems, monitoring aquifers and managing dozens of projects funded from the BP oil spill settlement.

The EIP argued recent cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency at the federal level will put more pressure on state agencies. The White House is looking to cut EPA’s budget by 55% next year, which would bring its funding to the lowest amount since the 1980s, Politico reported in May.

“The Trump Administration is attempting to dismantle EPA and roll back commonsense federal pollution rules, claiming that the states can pick up the slack and protect our communities – but that’s not the case,” Jen Duggan, EIP’s executive director, said. “The implementation of our environmental laws depend on both a strong EPA and state agencies that have the resources they need to do their jobs. But our research found that many states have already cut their pollution control agencies and so more cuts at the federal level will only put more Americans at risk.”

Legislative budget records show about a third of MDEQ’s funding comes from the federal government.

In response to Wednesday’s report, the agency said it couldn’t comment on the study, but added that funding from the state Legislature for MDEQ’s operational costs had increased nearly 14% since 2010.

Records available online show a slight uptick in funding from the Legislature since fiscal year 2011 when adjusted for inflation. But they also show a large drop-off during much of that period, as seen in the chart below.

Moreover, those funds, about $16 million a year, only make up a small portion of MDEQ’s total appropriations. Most of MDEQ’s funding comes from other sources, such as fees it collects and federal support. Overall, funding for the agency decreased by over a quarter between fiscal year 2011 and fiscal year 2025, the chart below shows.

The social media app Bluesky restored access to its platform this week to Mississippians over the age of 18, partially reversing an August decision to block access for all users in the state in response to a state age-verification law.

Applying a new policy update Bluesky also implemented in Australia, the decentralized social media platform said it would allow legal adults in Mississippi to access its app, while keeping the service unavailable for minors. Bluesky made the change after altering its “Age Assurance system,” despite its ongoing concerns over a 2024 Mississippi state law that requires users of websites and other digital services to verify their age.

“We continue to believe that Mississippi law limits free speech and disproportionately harms smaller platforms,” the company said in a statement. “As a result, we will not follow the law’s requirements to track children’s online conduct in detail, and we will not devote our limited resources to build the verification systems, parental consent workflows, and compliance infrastructure the law requires. However, because we have the technical means to offer a choice for older users, we want to let them decide for themselves if they are comfortable confirming that they are at least 18 years old.”

In August, Bluesky announced that it would go dark in Mississippi after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a Mississippi age-verification law, which the company said limits free expression, invades people’s privacy and unfairly targets smaller social media companies.

Bluesky grew after the 2024 presidential election. Many users of X, which is owned by Elon Musk, retreated from the platform in response to the billionaire’s strong support of President Donald Trump.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican whose office defended the law, told the justices that age verification could help protect young people from “sexual abuse, trafficking, physical violence, sextortion and more,” activities that the First Amendment does not protect.

The age verification law added Mississippi to a list of Republican-led states where similar legal challenges are playing out.

NetChoice is challenging laws passed in Mississippi and other states that require social media users to verify their ages, and asked the Supreme Court to keep the measure on hold while a lawsuit plays out.

That came after a federal judge prevented the 2024 law from taking effect. But a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in July that the law could be enforced while the lawsuit proceeds.

On Aug. 14, the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from a tech industry group representing major platforms such as Facebook, X and YouTube.

Bluesky made the policy update in Mississippi this week in conjunction with a similar change in Australia, where a new online age assurance law takes effect on Dec. 10.