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The Mississippi Legislature’s Joint Redistricting Committee is expected to approve a congressional redistricting plan Wednesday that will soon be presented to the full Legislature.

It is likely that the full Legislature will take up the committee’s proposal in the first week of the 2022 session. The map that will be unveiled Wednesday was drawn behind closed doors, but lawmakers on the committee and later in the full chambers of the Legislature can vote to change it or vote against it.

The leaders of the Redistricting Committee, Rep. Jim Beckett, R-Bruce, and Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, have said they intend to take up the issue of congressional redistricting early in the 2022 session, which convenes Jan. 4. Beckett told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal this week the goal is to take up the plan during the session’s first week.

“My hope is we take up congressional redistricting, medical marijuana and the re-enactment of the initiative process in the first week of the session,” said Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, who is a member of the redistricting committee.

A medical marijuana initiative approved by voters in 2020 and the entire initiative process allowing citizens to bypass the Legislature and place issues on the ballot were struck down by the Mississippi Supreme Court in May due to a technicality in the language enacting the initiative process. Legislative leaders have said they want to reinstate both in the 2022 session.

The state’s four congressional districts must be redrawn to match population shifts found by the 2020 U.S. Census. After both the 2000 and 2010 censuses, state legislators could not agree on a plan to redraw the congressional districts, leaving it to the federal courts to establish the districts in response to litigation.

READ MORE: Lawmakers face redistricting reality: Mississippi’s non-white population is growing

Both federal and state law require near equal representation for congressional and state legislative districts.

The reason for the need for swift action on congressional redistricting is because the deadline for candidates to qualify to run for the congressional seats is March 1. The primary election will be held June 7 and the general election will be in November.

Based on Census data, the 2nd District — the state’s lone Black majority district — saw a population loss during the past 10 years and is 65,829 people short of the ideal district size. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents the 2nd District, has advocated including the portion of Hinds County not currently in his district to partially offset the population loss.

READ MORE: Rep. Bennie Thompson wants all of Hinds Co. placed in his 2nd District

Federal law would require that the district be maintained as a Black majority district.

Based on Census numbers:

• The 1st District, which includes much of north Mississippi, including the Memphis suburb of DeSoto County in northwest Mississippi, and the Tupelo area in northeast Mississippi, is 17,913 people more than the ideal size.
• The 3rd District, which stretches from east Mississippi to southwest Mississippi and includes much of the Jackson metro area, is 10,719 more than the ideal size.
• The Gulf Coast-based 4th District has been the fastest growing district, 37,196 more than the ideal size.

Legislators are expected to take up the issue of redrawing the 52 state Senate and 122 state House districts later in the session since those seats will not be up for election until 2023.

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At a status conference Friday morning, attorneys for former Mississippi Department of Human Services Director John Davis asked the judge to reinforce an existing gag order in his case.

Hinds County prosecutors have accused Davis of fraud and conspiring with nonprofit founder Nancy New and her son Zach New to embezzle from a federal public assistance program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, commonly referred to as “welfare.”

Davis has pleaded not guilty, but nearly two years after his initial arrest, his trial date remains elusive. The FBI has also been investigating the welfare scandal in the meantime and has yet to make public charges.

Chuck Mullins of Jackson law firm Coxwell & Associates told Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Adrienne Wooten Friday that current welfare agency director Bob Anderson and State Auditor Shad White have been making statements to the media that threaten his client’s ability to have a fair trial. During the hearing, Wooten was receptive to expanding the suppression order to expressly include the two officials. The order prohibits the parties from discussing the case with the media.

According to Mississippi Today’s past interviews with State Auditor Shad White and office spokesperson Logan Reeves, the auditor’s office has already been operating under the assumption it is included in the original Feb. 4 gag order. White has attempted to follow the order by refraining from discussing specific criminal charges, including with Mississippi Today, but he continues to discuss the audit findings that are separate from the criminal case, such as the welfare money he says was improperly paid to retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre. Favre has not faced criminal or civil charges, though the welfare agency has contracted with former U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott to file civil litigation against many of the improper welfare recipients. He has not filed the case yet.

Mississippi Department of Human Services spokesperson Mark Jones said Anderson was aware of the recent motion.

Wooten filed the original suppression order in Davis’ case because of a Feb. 3 Mississippi Today article that described how she rejected a plea deal — a rare occurrence — in the related case of nonprofit accountant Ann McGrew.

With the gag order in place, the public is less likely to learn more about how officials frittered away tens of millions of welfare dollars, and who else might be responsible for the scheme, until trial.

Both prosecuting and defense attorneys keep requesting the trial be pushed back because the discovery — documents investigators have compiled to make their case — is so massive. The district attorney’s office is still turning over new records to the defense counsel, as recently as early December.

While officials have accused Davis of conspiring with New to steal over $4 million in federal welfare dollars, the charges in his indictment are more narrowly focused on how his agency paid Brett DiBiase, an ex-wrestler who has battled drug addiction, $48,000 under a contract for opioid addiction education he did not fulfill. The indictment also alleges Davis conspired with New to use taxpayer dollars to pay for DiBiase’s four-month long stay in a luxury Malibu rehab facility. DiBiase pleaded guilty in December of 2020 and has agreed to be a state’s witness.

Based on its recent motion to extend the court’s gag order, Davis’ counsel appears poised to defend against his charges by showing how agency policy sanctioned many of his actions and how he received approval by other employees, including legal staff, in his office.

“Both Mr. Anderson and Mr. White have repeatedly made comments about Mr. Davis, inferring matters about his guilt, but failing to report instances when the actions taken by Mr. Davis were approved by MDHS policies,” reads the motion filed Dec. 13. “In some instances, Mr. White and Mr. Davis have made comments about Mr. Davis’s actions when those actions were approved by other people at MDHS.”

As Mississippi Today first reported in May, 14 different agency employees signed off on the “grant closeout” documents that New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center submitted to the welfare agency to describe what it did with its millions of grant funding each year.

In reality, auditors have been unable to parse out what happened to $40 million her nonprofit spent.

On Dec. 7, two days before the latest status hearing, Mississippi Today published a story prompted by an Oct. 8 statement from Anderson. In a Facebook interview, Anderson explained the agency’s primary process for holding accountable the private organizations who receive subgrants from the state — where most of the alleged misspending in the welfare scandal occurred.

The department conducts routine audits and if it finds any subgrantee purchases were improper, it sends a letter, asking the nonprofits to justify the spending or return the funds. Anderson said that under the Davis administration, the agency simply failed to send these letters out.

Mississippi Today requested all the findings letters Anderson’s department has issued in the most recent year and found that it demanded subgrantees return $1 million. The agency attempted to charge Mississippi Today nearly $400 for the letters sent under the previous four years, under Davis. The news organization agreed to pay for one year’s worth of letters and is waiting for the request to be filled.

The post Ex-welfare chief asks judge to muzzle new director and state auditor appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The House select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob is poised to vote to hold Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, in criminal contempt for defying a subpoena.

The committee, led by Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, has released damning information about Meadows’ role in the attack — when hundreds of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol and interrupted Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

READ MORE: Will Rep. Bennie Thompson’s Jan. 6 committee subpoena Trump? “Nobody’s off limits.”

Thompson and his committee believe Meadows’ testimony could be key to information gathering about the deadly riot, as he was Trump’s top aide at the time and was with him in the White House as the rioters breached the building. But after submitting thousands of documents to the committee in recent days, Meadows has stopped cooperating with the committee, which is scheduled to vote Monday night on holding Meadows in contempt.

The entire House is likely to vote later this week to approve the resolution, meaning Meadows would face criminal prosecution under the U.S. Department of Justice. Others, including Trump strategist Steve Bannon, have been indicted by the DOJ for not cooperating with the House investigation.

An attorney for Meadows said the former chief of staff stopped cooperating with the panel because it was asking for information protected under executive privilege.

The bipartisan Jan. 6 committee, in a report released by Thompson on Sunday night, revealed it has documents showing that Meadows said the National Guard “would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’” on Jan. 6.

The report also highlights details from documents that Meadows turned over to the committee before Meadows decided to stop cooperating. Among them is the email in which Meadows made the comments about the National Guard, adding that “many more would be available on standby” to protect pro-Trump demonstrators, according to the Washington Post.

More from the Post:

In its report, the committee said it seeks more information from Meadows on text messages he exchanged with the organizer of the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse that preceded the attack on the Capitol. The organizer texted Meadows that things “have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction. Please.” The committee also wants to know more about messages Meadows received regarding “apparent efforts” to encourage Republican lawmakers in certain states to send alternate slates of electors to Congress in an attempt to undo Biden’s win. In texts, a member of Congress told Meadows that the plan was “highly controversial,” and Meadows texted back, “I love it.”

The documents also show that Meadows forwarded claims of election fraud to Department of Justice leaders for further investigation — “some of which he may have received using a private email account.”

Meadows, the committee’s report claims, also reportedly introduced Trump to then-DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, who recommended to Trump that he be installed as acting attorney general and that state officials be told to appoint alternate slates of electors.

The then-chief of staff also reportedly “participated in meetings and calls during which the participants reportedly discussed the need to ‘‘fight’ back against ‘mounting evidence’ of purported voter fraud,” according to the panel’s report.

Washington Post on Dec. 13, 2021

READ MORE: Rep. Bennie Thompson tapped to lead committee investigating Jan. 6 riot

The post Rep. Thompson’s Jan. 6 committee to vote on contempt charges for Trump chief of staff appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State Sen. John Polk of Hattiesburg is chairman of a special committee studying how the state can best spend $1.8 billion in American Rescue Plan Act federal COVID-19 stimulus money. Polk provides an update on the committee’s work over the last several weeks and the challenges of coming up with a plan to create “transformational” change in Mississippi with the unprecedented federal windfall of tax dollars.

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

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In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with filmmaker Anthony Thaxton. Thaxton and restauranteur Robert St. John have produced the wonderful documentary and accompanying book, Walter Anderson: The Extraordinary Life and Art of the Islander.

Thaxton discusses the making of the film, Anderson’s legacy and the joy of getting to work with Walter Anderson’s children and his own (his daughter helped him film some of the artwork and his son wrote the film’s score). It’s a wonderful hour talking about Anderson and his art — and how the Mississippi Gulf Coast shaped it and him.

The post Mississippi Stories: Anthony Thaxton appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley cited the red letters in the Bible (those of Jesus) as he spoke of the need to use some of the billions in Mississippi’s federal funds to ensure all Mississippians have access to high speed internet and safe public water systems.

Presley, speaking this week in Jackson, cited studies indicating people suffering from addictions during the COVID-19 pandemic had a much better chance to succeed if they could access online counseling.

Presley said he is not saying a good internet connection will end the problem of addiction, “but I am saying if we believe the red letters in the good book, there ought to be enough of us to say we care about putting those tools in our people’s hands…

“We have to make sure as Mississippians we continue to love and care for the unborn, but care also for the born and those who are struggling in life.”

Presley can relate to the average Mississippian, especially rural residents, like few modern politicians. His father was murdered when he was young, and he’s spoken of periods when his family didn’t have water or electricity because his mother couldn’t afford to pay the bills.

He can speak in everyday terms about complicated public utility regulatory issues he deals with as a Public Service commissioner and how those issues impact people.

Because of those communication skills and his ability to easily win what is likely the most Republican of the three Public Service Commission districts, Presley is often touted as something the Mississippi Democratic Party is short of: an attractive statewide candidate.

In 2019, four-term Attorney General Jim Hood was believed to be that person. Yet he could garner only 47% of the vote in losing to Republican Tate Reeves.

“I think Brandon could be a good candidate,” said former state House Democratic leader David Baria, who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2018. “But I thought Jim Hood was a good candidate. I’ve been chasing for some time what Democrat could win statewide.”

Presley has toyed with running for a statewide post in the past, but has ultimately returned to the safety of re-election to the Public Service Commission. There will be pressure in 2023 for him to be the Democrat to step forward to challenge the Republican nominee for governor — whether it be Reeves or someone else.

In recent years, some white statewide candidates have struggled to earn the trust and support of Black Mississippians, who make up more than two-thirds of the Democratic Party’s voter base. Presley, however, has worked intentionally for years to build relationships among Black leaders from the local to federal levels.

State Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said he believes Presley would have strong support from members of the Legislative Black Caucus if he ran for statewide office.

“If Brandon does run for governor, he would be good. He has the heart, the concerns and compassion for the people of Mississippi. He wants people to have access to opportunities,” Hines said.

In the fall of 2003, Presley, then a 25-year-old mayor, met at the Tupelo airport with Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, his campaign staffers and the small group of reporters covering Musgrove’s ultimately unsuccessful re-election bid.

Presley served as one of the hosts as Musgrove campaigned in various locations in northeast Mississippi.

The political novice, in his second year as mayor of Nettleton, which straddles the Lee and Monroe counties border, regaled Musgrove’s staffers and reporters as he would mimic Musgrove’s high-pitched voice and then the deep, slow southern drawl of Musgrove’s Republican opponent Haley Barbour.

But Presley also would provide political insight saying the election was pivotal as it would determine political control of the state for years to come. He said a Musgrove defeat would spell the end of the line for a long time for Democrats as a ruling party in Mississippi.

The 25-year-old was prophetic. Republicans now control all aspects of state government, holding all eight statewide elected posts and maintaining supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature. On the state level, there is nothing that Republicans do not control.

Presley, now 233 pounds lighter, no longer does impersonations, at least not in public. On occasion he has displayed a respectable singing voice. After all, he is related to another northeast Mississippi native, Elvis Presley.

“I’m a Merle Haggard Democrat,” Presley has joked.

He also is non-committal when asked about his political future.

“That log will shake itself out between now and election year,” Presley said recently on Mississippi Today’s The Other side podcast.

In the coming months, perhaps when annual campaign finance reports are filed in January, Presley’s political future could become clearer — as well as whether he might be aiming to reverse that political trend he predicted would happen way back in 2003.

The post Can Brandon Presley be the statewide winner Democrats can’t seem to find? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

HATTIESBURG — If we are lucky, every game produces at least one memory that will last for years.

Here, on a dreary, damp and gray Saturday at the Mississippi-Alabama High School All-Star Game, Alabama punter/placekicker Alex McPherson produced several. Remember that name — Alex McPherson — because if you are a football fan, you will be hearing it for years and years.

McPherson easily could have been selected the MVP of Alabama’s dominant 20-0 victory. His statistics — impressive as they are — do not tell the story. He punted four times for a 50-yard average. With one minute, 17 seconds remaining to play, Alabama lined up for a 58-yard field goal. McPherson’s kick split the uprights and hit high in the netting behind the goal posts. The kick might have been good from 70. It definitely would have been good from 65. There was little, if any, wind at the time, and, again, the air was damp.

“I didn’t hit it as well as I can, but I got enough of it,” McPherson would later say.

You should know this writer has been coming to this Southern Miss stadium — known as The Rock — for nearly a lifetime. I have seen one other kicker do the kind of things McPherson did Saturday. The other guy’s name is on the stadium: Ray Guy, the only punter ever elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Most amazing about McPherson is that he generates so much power — or leg whip — with his 5-foot, 10-inch, 155-pound frame. By contrast, Guy was a strong, limber, long-limbed 6-3, 195-pounder.

“Yes sir, I know who Ray Guy was, and I saw his name up there,” McPherson said afterward, pointing to Guy’s name of the east side of the stadium. “It’s nice to be compared to him.”

McPherson, who hails from Fort Payne and says he will sign an Auburn scholarship, kicked off five times, all touchbacks, including one that went through the uprights and into the netting. Three of his four punts were downed inside the 20-yard line. One of the punts — a 57-yarder that seemingly went into the clouds — was downed at the Mississippi one-yard line.

In pregame warm-ups, McPherson put two field goals through from 65 yards. He made one 61-yarder in a game this past season and says his longest in practice was a 73-yarder.

Oxford coach Chris Cutcliffe was the Mississippi team’s scout coach this past week, meaning he attended every Alabama practice and reported back to the Mississippi staff.

“He kicked like that every day,” Cutcliffe said. “We’ll be watching him on Sundays one day.”

Asked about McPherson’s kicking after the game, Mississippi head coach Todd Breland shook his head and said, “Man, isn’t he something?”

Breland paused before continuing, “I don’t know if I should say this but I was pulling for him to make that 58-yarder. I mean, the game was over. I wanted him to make it. That’s how much I thought of him.”

Indeed, the game had long been decided when McPherson powered the 58-yarder through. What’s the difference in 17-0 and 20-0?  Nothing really, except one more memory.

Other observations:

• In a game with few Mississippi highlights, little Malcolm Hartzog of Bassfield and Jefferson Davis County High School was named MVP for the home team. A two-way star for JDC and the Class 3A Mr. Football, Hartzog played only on defense Saturday. He led Mississippi with nine tackles total, including eight solos, and also made a touchdown-saving interception in the end zone. Afterward, Hartzog confirmed that he will be signing with Nebraska on national signing day on Wednesday. It was his only FBS offer, his coach Lance Mancuso said.
• There were extremely large teenagers on display. Columbia’s Jeheim Oatis, a four-star recruit committed to Alabama, was the largest of all. He was listed at 6-5 and 320, but my guess is Oatis last tipped the scales at 320 about 60 pounds ago. He was credited with three tackles and one quarterback hurry Saturday. My take: Oatis plays hard only on occasion. He never sprints when he can jog and he never jogs when he can walk. But when he does decide to play hard, he’s a force. It will be intriguing to see if — and how much — that changes when Nick Saban and his staff get hold of him. 
• Alabama won the game at the line of scrimmage, controlling on both sides of the ball. The Alabamans blocked better on offense and got off blocks better on defense. Braylon McReynolds, a little scatback from McGill-Toolen High in Mobile, was the game’s best offensive player, running for 98 yards on 13 carries and making a lot of people miss along the way. This won’t be his last time to play at The Rock. He is committed to South Alabama — and the Jaguars got a good one.

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