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Northern District Transportation Commissioner John Caldwell postponed the disbursement of $100 million to cities and counties for emergency road and bridge needs Tuesday saying he wanted more details on how the funds were being divvied.

Caldwell said he had told Mississippi Department of Transportation staff he wanted data on how the projects were selected before voting on them. Because he said he did not have that information, he voted against approving the list of projects Tuesday at the monthly Transportation Commission meeting.

The other two commissioners – Tom King of the Southern District and Willie Simmons of the Central District – voted to approve the funds, but the law creating the Emergency Road and Bridge Fund in a 2018 special session mandated a unanimous vote of the commission to spend the money.

“We will get it worked out,” Caldwell said after the meeting. “I asked them (staff members) not to put it on the agenda if they did not have the data. I did not think they were.”

The Legislature appropriated $100 million for the fund during the 2022 session. The commission was voting Tuesday in an attempt to disburse the funds before the new fiscal year begins July 1.

“We told them in April not to put this out at the last minute,” Caldwell said. He said the hoped to have the list of projects finalized by early June so that it could presented to the Mississippi Municipal League and the Supervisors Association during their annual conferences and then the commission could vote on it at the Tuesday meeting.

The Legislature created the Emergency Road and Bridge Fund in a 2018 special session focused on fixing the state’s crumbling infrastructure, and helping local governments that were facing widespread emergency bridge closures because of disrepair.

In earlier rounds of funding for the program, MDOT was able to use some of the money — about a third — on state projects. But in this year’s session the Legislature, flush with money, provided more direct funds to MDOT and decreed that the entire $100 million it allocated to the emergency fund go only to county and city projects.

The Emergency Road and Bridge Fund has an advisory board, but the three-member elected state Transportation Commission must officially – and unanimously – sign off on projects. MDOT staff vets and analyzes the projects and makes efforts to spread them evenly through the three state transportation districts.

White said the plan initially was to use an existing list of approved city and county projects, but that because of inflation and other issues, the advisory council and MDOT staff decided to reopen the application process for the $100 million.

“The law (providing $100 million) was passed in April, and we opened the applications in mid-April to May for locals to apply,” White said. “… In keeping with what we’ve done since 2018, we used computer data analytics, had staff manually go through each application, and also followed the legislative intent that we have equity in projects across the state.”

White said the vetting took some time, and the recommended list was presented to the advisory council a little over a week ago. The council approved the list, White said, then it was provided to the Transportation Commission a week ago.

White said he intends to present the list again for ratification at the commission’s next meeting on July 12, and hopes that Caldwell will have had enough time to review it and the panel will vote unanimously. But under the law, White said, the money sits in limbo until the commission unanimously approves projects.

White said counties and cities presented more than $700 million worth of projects for the $100 million available. He said there were 378 applications, including 297 from counties and 81 from cities or towns. Of those, he said, 54 county projects and seven city or town projects were chosen to present to the commission for the $100 million.

The post Caldwell holds up $100M emergency road, bridge money for cities and counties appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We value the thoughts and opinions Mississippi Today readers have on news and other current events, which is why we’ve committed to listening and responding to topics that matter to readers. We want to know what you are curious about so we can get you the answers you need! We’ll prompt readers for questions each month. For June, we ask you:

Text your question to +1 (844) 626-5588 or write it below, and we’ll work to get you answers!

The post What questions do you have about LGBTQ+ rights in Mississippi? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Twenty-two years ago, The Tomato Place was nothing more than one of four fruit and veggie stands run by Luke Hughes.

“I was here sorting tomatoes, when this guy comes up, takes a look at my tomatoes and asks if we could make him a sandwich. I made him a sandwich. Guess he must’ve really liked it,” Hughes says with a chuckle. “Because the very next day, he came back for another one. The rest, as they say, is history.”

And, so began The Tomato Place, located just south of a wicked curve on the blues highway — U.S. 61 South — in Vicksburg.

A sign in the business brings a smile to the faces of all who come: “Welcome Home! We are a slow food, smell the roses, hear the music, feel the atmosphere kind of place.”

So, there was never a need for a Robert Johnson-esque deal with the Devil for success. The great food, friendly atmosphere, Americana art and souvenirs have made the little roadside business a worldwide attraction.

The post The Tomato Place, a Mississippi treasure appeared first on Mississippi Today.

From Omaha, the Clevelands recount the Rebels’ amazing run to the national baseball championship. As Mississippi State did in maroon last year, Ole Miss fans painted Omaha red and blue as the Rebels finished an amazing run to the national championship. Tyler watched from the stands. Rick was in the press box working. They recount the scene and the Ole Miss heroics.

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The post Podcast: The Ole Miss Rebels did it! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Monday announced he was creating a nine-member “Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families” after the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion decision last week.

In a press release, Hosemann said the committee would be tasked with making recommendations to the Legislature on policies pertaining to families and children from birth to 3 years old. These, he said, may include making adoption easier and improving foster care, helping children in state custody, and improving child support and child care.

On Friday, House Speaker Philip Gunn announced he would create the “Speaker’s Commission on the Sanctity of Life,” to examine issues and policies affecting mothers and children.

Republicans Hosemann, Gunn and Gov. Tate Reeves have praised the high court’s decision on a Mississippi case last week that overturns the decades-old Roe v. Wade decision providing women abortion rights. But the three said the decision also requires Mississippi leaders to provide more resources to help mothers, children and families.

Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, suffers from lack of prenatal, postnatal and all other forms of health care. It also has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation and one of the highest maternal death rates. It has for years faced federal court decrees to address its substandard foster care and children’s services system.

On Monday Hosemann said: “From increasing opportunities for early education to addressing health care availability, the Senate has approved common sense legislation which supports our mothers and babies. I look forward to reviewing the recommendations from this diverse group of lawmakers on these critical issues.”

Gunn has steadfastly opposed Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor and earlier this year torpedoed a Senate proposal backed by Hosemann to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for Mississippi mothers.

Hosemann is the only one of the state’s top three leaders who’s said he’s open to discussion about expanding Medicaid, which would provide the state about $1 billion a year in federal funds to provide health coverage for the working poor.

Hosemann said his new study committee will be chaired by Sen. Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford and will include Sens. Kevin Blackwell, Hob Bryan, Dean Kirby, Rod Hickman, Angela Hill, Chad McManan, Angela Turner-Ford and Brice Wiggins. Hosemann said the committee will hold public hearings in the late summer or early fall and hear testimony from state agencies, experts and others.

Gunn indicated his commission would have lawmakers and advocates making recommendations to the House for policies to help women’s and children’s wellbeing.

The post Mississippi legislative committees created after abortion decision appeared first on Mississippi Today.

An all but forgotten 1998 ruling by the state Supreme Court declaring a right to an abortion is granted in the state Constitution could prolong the fight over abortion in Mississippi despite last week’s landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The Mississippi Supreme Court in the 1998 decision, Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Kirk Fordice, said that the state Constitution — not just the U.S. Constitution — also granted abortion rights.

The Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Fordice decision would supersede Mississippi’s trigger law, passed in 2007 by the Legislature, that stated that abortion would be illegal in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 

Jackson Women’s Health Organization has filed a lawsuit in Hinds County Chancery Court arguing the trigger law is invalid because of the constitutional right to an abortion spelled out by the state Supreme Court in the 1998 decision. The lawsuit also will contend a separate state law that bans abortions after six weeks also should be invalid because of the same ruling. A federal court injunction blocking the six-week law from taking effect will be lifted based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last Friday overturning Roe v. Wade.

“The Mississippi Supreme Court’s 1998 decision interpreting the Mississippi Constitution exists completely independent of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions about the federal Constitution. It is binding precedent.” said Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice and who was an attorney on the 1998 lawsuit. “As confirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court in that case, the decision about whether and when to have children belongs to individuals and families, not to the state’s politicians.” 

Under the trigger law, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch is charged with certifying that Roe v. Wade had been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fitch, whose office filed the lawsuit in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leading to the reversal of Roe, filed the certification Monday morning, meaning abortions in the state will be illegal within 10 days except in the cases of the mother’s life being in danger and of a law enforcement-reported rape. It is not clear how the lawsuit will impact the certification and how abortion will be handled in the state while the lawsuit is adjudicated.

The 1998 decision was written by then-Justice Michael Sullivan of Hattiesburg. He was joined by four other members of the nine-person court.

Sullivan wrote, “The right to privacy in article III, § 32, of the Mississippi Constitution encompasses the right to autonomous bodily integrity. The right to choose to have an abortion, like many other medical procedures, is included in the right to autonomous bodily integrity. While we do not find the Mississippi Constitution to provide an explicit right to an abortion, abortion is protected within the penumbras of the right to privacy.”

The 1998 case was filed by Pro-Choice Mississippi challenging restrictions placed on abortion by the state, such as requiring a 24-hour waiting period after receiving counseling at the abortion clinic, requiring licensing of the abortion clinics and requiring consent of both parents for minors to receive an abortion. The court ruled that those restrictions were allowable and not an undue burden on women, but still recognized a right to an abortion under the Mississippi Constitution.

The groups involved in filing the lawsuit for Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the last abortion clinic in the state, are the Mississippi Center for Justice, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison,

“Abortion remains legal in Mississippi,” said Hillary Schneller, senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights. “We will continue to work to ensure that every Mississippian can make their own decisions about their body, their lives, their relationships and their families.”

Mississippi is one of 13 states with a trigger law. But as Mississippi’s trigger law has been discussed in the state and nationwide, no one has taken into account the fact that the state Supreme Court has said the Mississippi Constitution protects the right to an abortion.

Apparently, Mississippi legislators also had forgotten about the 1998 state Supreme Court decision when they passed the trigger law in 2007.

“The government should not be deciding matters of childbirth for the women and families of Mississippi,” said Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of Mississippi Center for Justice. 

Editor’s note: Vangela M. Wade is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.

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Mississippi Today on Saturday won awards for its investigative reporting, COVID-19 coverage and general excellence at the Mississippi Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

This is the first year the Ridgeland-based online news publication competed in the contest.

Forty-four MPA member newsrooms submitted a total of 1,981 entries in the 2021 editorial division contest. Judging was conducted in the spring by volunteers from the South Carolina Press Association.

Mississippi Today staff members Adam Ganucheau, Geoff Pender, Will Stribling, Kate Royals, Vickie King, Bobby Harrison, Sara DiNatale, Molly Minta and Nigel Dent won the Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Journalism for their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Reporters and photographers covered various facets of the pandemic as Delta ripped through Mississippi. Through wide-ranging, compelling reports on low vaccination rates, strains on hospitals, masking in schools and the governor’s response to the pandemic, Mississippi Today served as a go-to source for coronavirus news,” the announcement said.

The news publication also won 3rd place for General Excellence.

Other award winners include:

Geoff Pender, 1st place Bill Minor Prize for General News Reporting, Sexual misconduct allegations led to MDA director John Rounsaville’s resignation

Adam Ganucheau, 1st place, Planned Series, How Philip Gunn Changed the Flag

Kate Royals, 2nd place, Planned Series, Underreported and Underpunished

Sara DiNatale, 2nd place Business News Story, A new hospital crisis: Mississippi will soon lose hundreds of state-funded nurses

Rick Cleveland, 2nd place, Sports News Story, The Greenville Christian Dilemma: A terrific team nobody wants to play

Adam Ganucheau, 2nd place, Commentary Column

Geoff Pender, 3rd place, Commentary Column

The complete list of awards can be found here.

The post Mississippi Today wins awards for general excellence, COVID-19 coverage appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Ole Miss Rebels had just won the Super Regional at Hattiesburg and were on the bus back to Oxford when Mike Bianco received text messages of congratulations from both Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis and hitting coach Jake Gautreau.

The texts, Bianco said, also wished him good luck in Omaha.

Said Bianco, “And my response to both of them was: ‘Thanks so much, I really appreciate it, and we’ll try to keep the trophy in Mississippi.’”

Mission accomplished. The Rebels defeated Oklahoma in two straight games to clinch Mississippi’s second straight college baseball national championship. Mississippi State won it in 2021. What’s more, the fan bases of State and Ole Miss essentially took over Omaha both years.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey talked about it on the field during the Ole Miss celebration Sunday. “It’s amazing,” Sankey said while surveying the postgame scene of thousands of Ole Miss fans still standing and cheering. “This was the same scene as last year. Only the colors have changed.”

Mississippians, by the thousands, have contributed much to the Omaha economy these past few years.

Bianco continued, in his postgame press conference about the texts from State coaches, “That was as we were leaving Hattiesburg and Southern Miss, a team that was a national seed and hosted a Super Regional. The rivalry is great, but it is a rivalry of all three of us because all three of us have great baseball programs.”

READ MORE: NATIONAL CHAMPS: Ole Miss completes rags to riches story

That Mississippi State and Ole Miss have won national championships in back-to-back seasons should be a source of great pride for Mississippi college baseball fans, who are the most loyal of any in the nation. 

The texts exchange with Bianco and the Mississippi State coaches came after Scott Berry, the Southern Miss head coach, congratulated Bianco and his Rebels in in post-Super Regional press conference and said, “I hope they go to Omaha and win the whole thing.”

The coaches get it. Mississippi’s college sports rivalries are intense and often bitter, but seems to me sometimes fans should step back and take a look at the big picture. Mississippi ranks at the bottom of so much: education, health care, household income, and so much more. In college baseball the state ranks at the top, period. We play baseball well. We support it well. We win big.

Pearl River, in Poplarville, won the national junior college championship recently. Delta State has been a national Division II power going back to the Boo Ferriss days. William Carey, in NAIA, is another national power. Mississippi junior college baseball is the strongest in the country. The jucos feed talent to the college programs. High school baseball in Mississippi has improved exponentially over the last half century, feeding all the above.

Last year, Hunter Elliott was pitching for Tupelo High. This year, he was the starting pitcher in the deciding game of the College World Series. Last year, Mason Nichols was pitching for Jackson Prep. This season, he played a vital role out of the bullpen for the National Champion Rebels.

Berry watched Ole Miss win the natty at home in south Mississippi Sunday night. He was genuinely happy for Bianco and his team.

“If you are a baseball fan, you have to be proud of Mississippi,” Berry said. “It’s not just the back-to-back national championships but it’s the consistency of Mississippi’s college baseball teams at every level. We feed off each other. The competition makes us all better.

“I couldn’t be happier for Mike and his staff. I’m so happy for Mike because I know how tough a year it was for him. Man, they showed some unbelievable resiliency and that’s a credit to all of them – Mike, his assistants and the players. They are a credit to Mississippi baseball. They made us all proud.”

They did. No matter your allegiances.

Chris Lemonis was watching a summer league baseball game when reached Monday afternoon. “Our rivalry with Ole Miss is about as intense as you’ll find,” Lemonis said. “But we understand what each program goes through. Baseball is different. There’s so many ups and downs and we all understand that. I have a lot of respect for Mike, his staff and how they do it. They deserve this. What they did this year was truly amazing. It was all earned.”

The post Ole Miss’ natty is just more proof: Mississippi is No. 1 in baseball appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi voters return to the polls on Tuesday to decide three Republican primaries in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th congressional districts.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Any voter who voted in the June 7 Republican primary or who was registered but did not vote can cast a ballot on Tuesday. Only those who voted in a Democratic primary on June 7, or were not registered to vote before the deadline for the primary, are prohibited from voting.

In the 3rd and 4th districts, incumbent Republican congressmen face challengers who forced them into runoffs, and the races are hotly contested for seats expected to remain in GOP control. In the 2nd District, a crowded field of Republican primary candidates brought a runoff, although the seat is not expected to flip from Democratic in November.

In the 3rd central Mississippi district, Rep. Michael Guest faces challenger Navy veteran Michael Cassidy. Any voter registered before the June 7 primary deadline can vote in this runoff Tuesday, since there was no Democratic primary then.

READ MORE: Guest, Cassidy sharpen attacks ahead of 3rd District GOP runoff

In the 4th southern Mississippi district, 12-year incumbent Rep. Steven Palazzo faces challenger Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell.

READ MORE: Videos: Where do Ezell, Palazzo stand on the issues?

In the 2nd District, Republicans Ronald Eller and Brian Flowers face off, with the winner challenging longtime incumbent Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson in November.

The general election for Mississippi’s midterm congressional races will be Nov. 8.

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