OurTupelo

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.

The post In Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game, a kicker provided the lasting memories appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Much has happened since the last Data Dive, so in this COVID-19 ‘super-update,’ let’s do a progress check on some of the most recent and important developments in the world of variants, vaccines and boosters.

Earlier this week, healthcare reporter Will Stribling reported that the Mississippi Department of Health reported the state’s first case of the omicron variant on Monday, Dec. 6. Omicron is the second most notable variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 after delta, though much still remains to be known about it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC also confirmed omicron likely spreads more easily than the original strain of the virus and continues to urge the tried and true practices against transmission – vaccinations, social distancing, and mask-wearing.

To date, 23 states have one or more cases of omicron, including Mississippi. The other states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

View the downloadable and sharable map below:

As the virus continues to spread, more children ages five to 11 are getting vaccinated against the virus, with more than 15,000 having at least one dose so far and almost 6,000 being fully vaccinated.

View the data:

Finally, after boosters being restricted to only certain at-risk groups, the CDC now says anyone 16 or older is eligible for a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, note that only Pfizer's booster is currently approved for 16 and 17-year-olds. Adults may choose whichever booster is available regardless of their original vaccine.

View the most recent progress on booster administration by age group:

READ MORE:

• First case of COVID-19 omicron variant identified in Mississippi

• How to get a COVID-19 booster shot

The post Data Dive: States with omicron variant, vaccines among children, booster shot progress appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The financial impact of Jackson State University’s hiring of football coach Deion Sanders — and his team’s success — keeps rising.

Visit Jackson, the city’s official marketing organization, calculated an economic impact of over $30 million dollars for the Tigers’ 2021 fall football season. This is nearly double the sixteen million dollar impact of the 2019 season. 

The number is attributed to a record-breaking Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team average of 42,293 fans in attendance for the team’s home games. More than 50,000 fans packed the stadium during last week’s SWAC Championship game. Two weeks earlier, Jackson State’s matchup with in-state rival Alcorn State drew more than 60,000 fans.

The clout brought in by Sanders’ hiring and the team’s successful season has provided a boon to the city and local businesses.

“I’ve had some good days and I’ve had some bad days but right now, we cannot keep enough of JSU apparel in supply,” Richard Shaw, a 1977 graduate of JSU and owner of Dynastics Screen Printing, told Sports Illustrated. “With Deion [Sanders] coming here, I wish I could keep up with everything. But, my business has doubled and I thank God for it.”

The Jackson State football team’s fiscal impact on the city has been noted nationally.

“This program has to be, and is historically connected to the city,” C. Daryl Neely, a Jackson State graduate and donor, told the New York Times. “And when you get 60,000 people in the stands, that’s when you know you’re back to it being the program of the city.”

Over the nine days following the announcement of Sanders’ hiring, the Tigers’ athletic department’s marketing and promotional value increased by an estimated $19 million, JSU communications and marketing representatives told the Clarion Ledger. That value has certainly gone up over JSU’s successful season, where they won 11 games and their first SWAC championship since 2007.

Earlier this year, Sanders said that he hopes to expand the Tigers’ success and leverage it to help the city.

“I wish we could get to the point where 53,000 (fans in attendance) is the expectation week in and week out, ” Sanders said. “That affects the economy, that affects so much. Hotels are all packed, restaurants all packed, the shopping plaza all packed. For the state and city makes so much more revenue. Now we can have a ‘say so’ in where that’s distributed. Now, our roads are paved much better. The inner-city is looking much better because of what we’re bringing to the table… I just wish we can have consistency in these types of numbers, not just for Homecoming.”

The post Jackson State football generates estimated $30 million impact for capital city appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today is pleased to announce that Bethany Atkinson has joined the Mississippi Today Audience Team.

Atkinson, a native of Madison, will serve as Mississippi Today’s community manager. She will work to help build and cultivate a diverse community of Mississippi Today readers by designing community-driven content and products across all Mississippi Today platforms with an emphasis on membership, community engagement and branding.

Atkinson served as an engagement intern at Mississippi Today in 2019 and has since worked on contract providing design through resources, such as reader guides, marketing materials, infographics and merchandise to help strengthen our brand and reach.

In her new role, Atkinson will also manage and grow our membership program.

“Bethany brings a unique perspective and dynamic set of skills that will allow us to further our mission of reaching and engaging with more Mississippians,” said Mississippi Today Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields. “She will work closely with everyone in our organization as we work collaboratively to grow our community of readers and strengthen our reader revenue program.”

Atkinson is a 2019 graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media, where she graduated with a degree in integrated marketing communications. She has worked as a communications intern for the Mississippi Arts Commission and most recently was the administrative coordinator for Hospice Ministries.

As community manager, she will use her designs to bring new readers to our journalism, build a community of loyal readers and enhance our member community.

“Reaching and engaging with the diverse audience of Mississippi Today ensures that all Mississippians will receive free, accurate and nonpartisan news,” Atkinson said. “The Audience Team is vital in connecting our reporting to the people of the state and helping their voices be heard.”

The post Bethany Atkinson joins Mississippi Today staff as community manager appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today is pleased to be awarded with a $25,000 matching challenge grant from the Maddox Foundation for donations made during NewsMatch 2021. The Maddox Foundation announced this week that they will match all donations dollar-for-dollar made to Mississippi Today during its year-end NewsMatch campaign, up to $25,000.

“A nonpartisan news source is absolutely vital in today’s world,” said Maddox Foundation CEO Robin Hurdle.  “It encourages public dialog leading to true civic engagement which is the backbone of healthy communities. We are pleased to continue to support Mississippi Today as they provide this powerful resource for free to the public.”

Maddox Foundation was founded by Dan Maddox in 1968. He and his wife, Margaret Maddox, had a commitment to young people, a love of nature and a vision for making their corner of the world a better place. They chose Robin Hurdle to continue their legacy, which lives on through the current work of the foundation. 

Maddox Foundation, located in Hernando, has made many signature investment grants into youth development. These investments include renovating and supporting the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA; putting an internet-connected computer in every public classroom in Mississippi; creating innovative places for children to learn and play; establishing the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi; and funding the Education Director position and the MTV exhibit at the Grammy Museum Mississippi.

“We are grateful to the Maddox Foundation for this generous challenge grant that doubles the impact of donations made by our reader members,” said Mary Margaret White, Mississippi Today CEO. “Nonprofit news puts the power where it belongs, with the people, and this matching grant from the Maddox Foundation catalyzes donations of all sizes that are made to Mississippi Today, the state’s flagship nonprofit newsroom.”

Mississippi Today was founded in 2016 to keep close tabs on the state legislature and regulatory agencies where decisions are being made that affect many aspects of daily life for Mississippians: health care policy, school funding, economic development and social justice.

The post Mississippi Today announces $25,000 matching grant from the Maddox Foundation appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Toxic Relationship appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley has renewed the call for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether AT&T really provided broadband service to over 133,000 locations in Mississippi with federal money it received.

Presley has written new Biden administration FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, asking the FCC for a “complete compliance audit of AT&T Mississippi” on whether it met its obligations for more than $280 million in federal Connect America funds for broadband expansion.

Last year, all three elected state PSC commissioners wrote a similar letter to the FCC asking for an audit and claiming a PSC investigation “found concrete, specific examples that show AT&T Mississippi has reported location addresses … as being served when, in fact, the addresses are without service.”

Presley in his latest letter said, “They have submitted false data for years, and I am convinced that you will act appropriately to send a message that there is ‘a new sheriff in town.’” He also told Rosenworcel, who served on the FCC during the Obama administration, “on a personal note, I am thankful for your friendship.”

FOLLOW THE MONEY: How is Mississippi spending billions in federal funds flowing through the state?

An AT&T corporate spokesperson in a written statement denied the claims.

“We have invested billions of dollars, building out our wired and wireless networks across Mississippi, and we are proud of the work we have done as a company to keep communities connected and help fuel Mississippi’s economy,” the statement said. “We are also proud of the work we have done through federal and state programs that help expand critical connectivity in underserved and unserved areas, including the FCC’s Connect America Fund Phase II program. We have worked closely with the FCC and USAC on this program and any suggestion that we filed false data is patently incorrect.”

The issue comes as Mississippi has received hundreds of millions of federal dollars in recent years to expand broadband internet access and federal funds continue to flow. Large cable and telecom companies such as AT&T are sparring with rural electric cooperatives for the funding, particularly $162 million the state is expected to receive for broadband as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

READ MORE: Cable giants, Mississippi electric cooperatives battle over federal broadband dollars

With Presley leading the movement, the state Legislature in 2019 passed a law allowing electric cooperatives to provide internet service — an effort to expand broadband access in a poor, rural state where an estimated 40% of the state lacked access. The effort has been likened to providing electricity to rural Mississippi in the 1930s. Proponents said large cable and telecom companies were failing to expand service into rural areas because it wasn’t profitable enough.

Presley recently said: “If there is any idea circulating that somehow companies like AT&T can gobble up this $162 million intended for cooperatives and non-profits, I think that idea will be dead on arrival at Treasury based on their own guidance. Cooperatives and nonprofits who put people above profits are who these funds are designated for and that’s who should get them under any plan sent in by the governor. To try and please the AT&Ts of the world with these funds will only delay broadband expansion. I would fight that tooth, nail and claw.”

But cable and telecom providers say they have spent millions in private funds expanding internet service in Mississippi, and that they shouldn’t be cut out of government funding for expansion.

The post State official says AT&T is cooking the books on broadband expansion, wants feds to investigate appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Superintendents, the chief administrative leaders of Mississippi’s 138 traditional public school districts, have in recent months been left to drive bus routes, serve food in school cafeterias, teach classes in place of teachers and substitutes, and conduct contact tracing missions to identify children who’ve been exposed to COVID-19.

And in what have undoubtedly been their worst moments, they’ve lost school staff and students to the virus.

Those in the education business say more superintendents are leaving before their contracts are up or are retiring early.  

“More superintendents are saying this has become so difficult and overwhelming that now they’ve reached retirement, they’re probably going to speed up the process and get out now rather than later,” said Jim Keith, a school board attorney for more than 20 Mississippi school districts. “It’s impossible to deal with all the issues — COVID, the accountability model, parents, student behavior. And it’s not just limited to the superintendents.”

While some have personal reasons or had already planned to retire, others say it all became too much – even to the point of causing health problems.   

“It’s been a heck of two school years for everybody in the school business,” said Philip Burchfield, executive director of the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents (MASS). “Currently it seems that more superintendents are choosing to leave or retire during the school year than in years past.”    

Just this week, the South Pike School District Superintendent Donna Scott announced she will resign at the end of the school year. And in September, Ken Byars of Amory School District abruptly left his post. He told the Enterprise Journal he was taking a job in consulting. Sue Townsend of Rankin County School District is retiring at the end of December, though she told Mississippi Today she is leaving because of a family member’s health issues.

In the 2021-22 school year, 17 superintendents retired, according to Burchfield. Burchfield said thus far, he is aware of another eight who plan to retire this school year. 

These numbers do not include superintendents who resigned, which MASS does not track. The Mississippi Department of Education tracks turnover from year to year, but that data also includes superintendents who move from one district to another. 

Twenty-seven superintendents left their positions from last school year and this school year, and 31 left between the 2019-20 — when COVID-19 arrived — and 2020-21 school years. The numbers for the two transition years before that were 21 and 25, respectively.

Officials at the Department of Education declined to comment on this story. 

For Adam Pugh, the former superintendent of Lafayette County School District, the stress at work led to health problems. And the death of teacher and coach Nacoma James, who passed away from COVID-19 in September of 2020, was a particularly personal tragedy.

Whenever Pugh looked at James, he still saw the boy he coached and taught in 1990. 

“He was a kid when I coached him in 7th grade, and the kid that I coached died,” he said of James. “I couldn’t protect” him. 

Pugh, who originally planned to retire after his 10th grade daughter graduated high school, said that feeling haunted him — the weight of not being able to keep his people safe.

And as a longtime educator of 31 years — 10 years as superintendent in Lafayette County — he remembered how discouraging it was when new superintendents would call to ask him for advice on how to handle issues. 

“There were new guys calling some of us veterans (superintendents) saying, ‘What do we do here?’ and I would have to tell them, ‘I don’t know,’” he said of the questions that arose during the pandemic. 

Warren Woodrow, who retired as superintendent of West Jasper School District at the end of last year, echoed Pugh. The district lost an employee who was both a bus driver and custodian, and there were the constant peripheral losses of students’ parents and grandparents. 

“It hit everybody from so many different ways that we just weren’t prepared for,” Woodrow said.

Woodrow said he primarily left for his current job heading up an organization in Hattiesburg that provides continuing education opportunities for educators in about 30 school districts. 

But he doesn’t mince words about how the pandemic and its accompanying challenges made a new job more appealing. 

“I’m going to put this plainly. I got in this business to be an educator, and walking around classrooms with a tape measure trying to decide who was six feet away from who” is a far cry from that, he said.

On top of the addition of public health overseer and contact tracer to his job description, there was a lot of work that went into planning for the federal funding school districts have received over the past almost two years.

“While they were extremely helpful and appreciated, they added a tremendous amount of work which was extremely stressful and time consuming for both me and my staff,” said Woodrow, who has been working in schools for 36 years.

Similar to many other superintendents and school board members across the state and country, Woodrow also became the target of parents’ frustrations and, occasionally, their ire. He recalled incidents of parents being angry that their children had to quarantine, or weren’t able to participate in extracurricular activities because they were learning virtually. 

Cory Uselton, the current superintendent of DeSoto County School District, the state’s largest school district, told Mississippi Today there are certainly more challenges this school year than before, including finding bus drivers, custodians and substitute teachers.

When he spoke to Mississippi Today in September, he had recently spent half a day substitute teaching. A few days before he spent several hours serving food in the cafeteria. Principals are now taking on cleaning responsibilities, he said.

He and the school board, along with other school officials around the state, are doing what they can to offset worker shortages. The school board recently raised pay for substitute teachers. 

“Here’s what I see as the biggest problem. You’ve got a restaurant out there that was paying $9 an hour and is now paying $13 an hour. They can raise the price of their menu items to make up that difference. We can’t do that,” said Uselton. “That’s going to be a challenge we’re going to face.”

And as schools round out the fall semester, school officials are also facing another massive challenge: addressing the learning loss many students experienced due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19. 

Woodrow admits he saw that looming challenge, and he wasn’t sure he was up to the task.

“It’s going to be a long-term issue,” Woodrow said. “… We have kids who started school (before COVID-19) a grade level or two behind, and who got even further behind. It would be very difficult to bridge that learning gap from all the time they missed.”

The post There’s an exodus of Mississippi school leaders. Is the pandemic to blame? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Good as Gold appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State revenue collections, apparently fueled by consumer spending, continue to grow at a historic or near historic pace.

State tax collections for the first five months of the current fiscal year are $215.1 million or 8.5% above the amount collected during the same period last year, according to the November revenue report recently released by the staff of the Legislative Budget Committee.

Revenue growth this year has been fueled primarily by the sales tax, which is a 7% levy on most retail purchases. The sales tax revenue for the year is up $195 million or 23.7%. The sales tax levied on internet purchases or other out-of-state purchases, known as the use tax, is up $11.6 million or 6.9%.

The sales tax collections indicate strong consumer spending. Also factored into the increase in the sales tax is the fact that inflation has risen, meaning people are paying more for retail items, resulting in an increase in the sales tax paid on the purchases.

READ MORE: Lawmakers have unprecedented $4.2 billion in extra funds as they craft new budget

Revenue from the sales tax and use tax account for about 45% of total state revenue.

Personal income tax collections (the state’s second largest source of revenue accounting for about one-third of total collections) is up a more modest 1.2% or $11 million.

Total tax collections through November are $2.76 billion.

The strong collections for the current fiscal year come on the heels of growth of 15.9% or $934.5 million for the previous fiscal year, which ended on June 30.

Not only are collections strong for the year but also for the month of November. The state collected $531.9 million in November 2021 compared to $477 million in November 2020.

While collections are strong overall, there are a few categories of revenue that are down year over year:

• The corporate income tax — down 9.9% or $19.8 million.
• The tax on insurance premiums — down less than $1 million or .77%.
• The tax on tobacco, alcohol and beer — down 4.4% or $5.3 million after a surge in alcohol purchases last year early in the pandemic.

On the other hand, casino tax collections are up $15 million or 28%.

The strong tax collections have resulted in a state surplus that is likely close to be $2 billion as the Legislature meets in January to consider such items as a significant teacher pay raise and the possible elimination of the income tax.

The post Mississippi tax collections, fueled by consumers, continue to soar appeared first on Mississippi Today.