A man who beat his cellmate to death at the Hinds County Detention Center in 2023 will serve a life sentence without parole.
On Wednesday, a jury found Avery Bankston, 38, guilty of first-degree murder for the death of Tyrone Wilson.
The night of Feb. 23, 2023, the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation found 50-year-old Wilson dead and lying on his back in the cell he shared with Bankston.
Video camera footage showed both men enter and exit the cell and visible movement from under the cell door: a struggle and a red-sleeved arm reach from under the cell, according to the Hinds County District Attorney’s office. Later, video captured Bankston using a white cloth to clean the inside cell window and door.
“For our system of law to work, prisons have to be safe. We will not tolerate our detention centers to become battlegrounds,” Hinds District Attorney Jody Owens said in a statement. “Every act of violence behind bars will be prosecuted as aggressively as one on the street.”
Owens said he hopes the verdict will bring closure to Wilson’s family who lives in Illinois and didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to him.
At the time of the killing, Bankston was being held at the Raymond facility awaiting trial for burglary charges. Charge information for Wilson was not immediately available.
Bankston’s attorney asked the court to suppress or limit testimony about any alleged previous altercation between Bankston and Wilson as hearsay because no one personally witnessed an altercation, and to limit allegations of Bankston’s prior arrests.
At least six people have died at the Hinds County Detention Center this year, including the homicide of a man whose body was found in his cell after an apparent assault.
In the state prison system, a team of Mississippi reporters found that at least 43 people have died by homicide inside Mississippi prisons since 2015. The corrections commissioner has vowed to revisit investigations of the unprosecuted homicides and undetermined deaths.
Nobody knows more about today’s college football landscape than Ross Dellenger and he has plenty to talk about these days, including the stunning in-season coaching changes happening all over the country.
Thabi Moyo broke into a grin, recalling dynamic blues music that coursed through the crowd as Diunna Greenleaf played at the recent Richmond Folk Festival in Virginia, and the way that one kid on the front row for the infectious Cuban rhythms of Son QBA got so blissfully lost in the music that Moyo was transported right along with him.
“I didn’t know these people,” she said of festival performers that also included a klezmer band and Hawaiian falsetto singers, “but I’ll never forget them.”
Moyo, local manager for the 82nd National Folk Festival, wants fellow Jacksonians and capital city tourists to grab and take away the same thrill, surprise and bliss when the free, three-day festival takes over downtown Jackson Friday through Sunday.
The National Council for the Traditional Arts partners with host communities, in this case the city of Jackson, to produce the National Folk Festival around the country, and this is the first one in the Deep South.
“It’s like the festival is coming home,” council Executive Director Blaine Waide said, noting Mississippi artists’ frequent presence at different festivals it produces, and the state’s impact on American music and musical history. “It’s a really appropriate place to have the festival.”
Jackson remains the host city for the 83rd and 84th National Folk Festivals in 2026 and 2027, laying the groundwork for a locally produced festival after the three-year National Council for the Traditional Arts residency ends. Ergon/Alliant is the presenting sponsor of the 82nd National Folk Festival.
Popular Jackson blues entertainer Bobby Rush will perform at the National Folk Festival in Jackson Friday night on the Ergon/Alliant Stage and take part in Sunday’s “Deep South Get Down: Blues, Soul and Zydeco” demonstration session on the Visit Mississippi Stage Sunday afternoon. Credit: David McClister
“At our event, we’ll have, obviously, what’s near and dear to us, which is the blues and gospel,” Moyo said, “and you’ll hear some new things like go-go music out of D.C., you’ll hear Irish fiddling, you’ll hear so many different types of music presented from world-class musicians.”
The National Folk Festival celebrates traditional arts — the music, dance and crafts of many different communities and cultures that may have roots in farflung places, but call America home. The knowledge, skill and artistic expression are passed down informally, through families and in community.
“They’re key to identity,” Waide said. “When people think about, ‘Who am I? What defines me?’ it’s often those traditional expressions that have been passed down across generations.
“Folk and traditional arts isn’t just banjo and fiddle music,” he said. It is that, but it encompasses much more. The tremendous sweep of cultural expression enlivening the festival in Jackson also includes zydeco, salsa dura, South Asian qawwali (sung poetry, a meditative form of Islam), cowboy and western, trío romántico, Korean pungmul, flamenco, Cabo Verdean (blend of African and Portuguese influences, familiar in New England), sacred steel gospel, klezmer, West African balafon and more.
“Absolutely amazing performers,” Waide pegged them. “People are going to come to this festival because they want to see Bobby Rush, or they’re going to come to see Ms. Jody or E.U., and they’re going to walk away, going, like, ‘Holy crap, I didn’t know Korean percussion and dance was so cool.’” Many of the artists perform multiple times over the three days.
The closest equivalent to the National Folk Festival is probably Jubilee! JAM, the large-scale, ticketed music festival with a family-friendly, all-ages appeal in downtown Jackson that took place from the late 1980s through early 2000s. Notable differences: the National Folk Festival is free, and it has no “headliners,” or at least performers touted as such.
“The festival is the star,” Waide said, emphasizing that the event’s rich and varied cultures and sheer range of artistic expression constitute its primary draw. “It’s not about elevating any one artist over other artists. There are no headliners, there’s no main stage. It’s about experiencing the whole thing.
“The message is that these folks are all around us, that this level of artistry and creativity across different cultural communities is there in America and it’s a chance to celebrate and honor that.”
The festival presents a chance to riff on that, too, as artists come together and creative sparks fly. Moyo recalled the magical synergy that bubbled up among a zydeco singer, blues band and Beat Ya Feet dancers at one festival, “And, it was one of the wildest things that I’ve ever experienced!” she said with a happy laugh. “You’ll never see that again.”
The National Folk Festival is free to make it accessible and set in downtown Jackson to make it centrally located.
“There’s the symbolic idea of the public square, and welcoming everybody in that space and offering a program that is as representative as possible so that everybody there feels that it belongs to them,” Waide said.
The pedestrian-only festival site stretches from State Street to Farish Street, and Pascagoula Street to Yazoo Street, with six outdoor stages and a dance pavilion. Concrete barriers will prevent vehicular traffic on the site. Performers take to the streets, too, with Capitol at Congress a prime spot to catch them offstage, including krump dancing from Leaving Legacies in Jackson or New Orleans Black masking craftsman and stilt dancer Chief Shaka Zulu.
New Orleans Black masking craftsman and stilt dancer Chief Shaka Zulu brings eye-catching color and movement to the street and stage at the National Folk Festival in Jackson. Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Parking options, free and paid, are available at downtown public parking decks and garages outside the festival site. Free festival parking is available at the southwest corner of the State Fairgrounds with a shuttle or walk to the festival site, as well as a free park-and-ride shuttle service from Smith-Wills Stadium.
Food and drink (soft drinks, lemonade, water, beer, seltzers, canned wine) will be for sale at the festival. Food selections, too, reflect a range of cultures, including Jamaican, Southern, barbecue, Mediterranean, Mexican, Colombian, fair food and more, with strong representation from local eateries (including Hen and Egg, Campbell’s Bakery, Hal & Mal’s, Green Ghost Tacos and Lee’s Heavenly BBQ & Soul Food).
A Festival Marketplace highlights traditional and contemporary handmade creations from state and regional artists and craftspeople, including quilts, pottery, jewelry, woodwork and more.
“One of the best parts about the festival is that it’s going to bring everyone together around the arts,” Mississippi Arts Commission Executive Director David Lewis said.
The festival welcomes cultural communities from across the nation to Jackson, plus showcases many right here in Mississippi, particularly in the City with Soul Mississippi Folklife Area and stage on the Old Capitol Green. This year’s “Legacies of Empowerment” theme ties into the centennial of the births of blues legend B.B. King and civil rights champion Medgar Evers. In addition to blues and gospel, hear hip hop, punk and Mexican huapango music, enjoy Choctaw social dancing and see demonstrations of pine needle and Choctaw basketry, and Super Chikan’s guitar-making skills.
Hear Bronx, N.Y., Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers Friday and Saturday at the National Folk Festival in Jackson. Credit: Joseph Killeen
“Visitors have an opportunity not only to learn from the artists, but also participate actively in creating something communally as part of the festival,” Kristen Brandt, the folk and traditional arts director at the Mississippi Arts Commission, said. Zinesters lead visitors in creating their own mini-magazines, for example.
The folklife focus also wraps in groups bound by community and culture that may surprise some to find at the arts-heavy festival, such as skateboarders with Skate Jackson, the Motor Mouse Motorcycle Club from Indianola and a fourth generation farming family from Sledge.
The “Legacies of Empowerment” theme echoes, too, in the Family Area in Smith Park, where children can make their own personalized little Lucilles in a nod to King’s famous guitar, and make-and-take buttons reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement. Traditional Choctaw games and crafts, animal ambassadors from the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, family crest or flag making and storytelling, and Mississippi State University’s cyber-education team’s STEM trailer all entice engagement from the younger set. Performers such as the Acme Miniature Flea Circus, Leaving Legacies krump dancers and Vasti Jackson with his Soul of Jimmie Rodgers program keep steady entertainment on the park’s stage.
The National Folk Festival’s join-in fun hits its peak at the Welcome to Jackson Dance Pavilion where Pearl and State streets meet, music rules and feet move to klezmer and country western, go-go and zydeco and plenty more.
“That’s going to be the hot spot, the entire weekend,” Moyo said of the pavilion. “You can dance anywhere, but that’s where you learn and that’s where you can participate. There will always be some sort of music that will make you move your body at the dance tent.”
The event, built on partnerships, requires 800 to 1,000 volunteers for efficient operation in backstage support, beverage sales and transportation, and as artist ambassadors, members of the Bucket Brigade collecting donations to help keep the festival free, and more.
“Really, the festival is about community engagement, civic participation and public service,” Waide said. “It takes the whole community to get behind it.”
Moyo witnessed the strong, years-long family engagement at other festivals.
“I talked to one daughter who started volunteering with her mom when she was 6. She’s 22 now, and that story’s not rare in the folk festival world. This is an opportunity for our families here … to build new traditions,” Moyo said.
Stakeholders see potential benefits stretching far beyond this weekend.
“We have an opportunity to demonstrate to people what a wonderful place Jackson is. It’s not hard to find a lot of negative narratives about the city, but what gets missed is all the wonderful things that are in Jackson,” Jackson Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Christopher Pike said.
“I think it’s going to be a catalyst. You’re going to get people to come to Jackson who’ve never been to Jackson before, and they’re going to fall in love with the things that we have, that we do well here, and you might see other investments to come out of that.”
A Mississippi sheriff arrested last week in a federal drug conspiracy sting has pleaded not guilty and vowed to mount a full defense, but has stepped down from his elected office to comply with his bond agreement.
Humphreys County Sheriff Bruce Williams pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit drug distribution, drug distribution and firearms conspiracy. After a years-long investigation, Williams was arrested last Thursday by FBI agents, who fanned across the Mississippi Delta in armored cars and conducted a series of predawn arrests.
By sunrise, 20 people, including 14 law enforcement officers, across the Delta and Tennessee had been arrested.
Williams allegedly received multiple bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as Mexican cartel members “for his blessing for the cartel to operate in his county” and for the cartel to use his deputies for protection. Multiple bribes totaling $18,000 were paid to the sheriff during the conspiracy, the indictment said.
In a statement to Mississippi Today on Wednesday, Mike Carr, Williams’s attorney, said the sheriff had pleaded not guilty to all counts in the indictment in which he is named.
“We look forward to receiving and reviewing the Government’s alleged evidence in this case,” Carr said. “We anticipate a full and complete defense to all of the allegations — every accused person in this country stands not guilty until proven beyond a reasonable doubt otherwise. We are looking forward to our day in court.”
The investigation and alleged law enforcement corruption spanned counties across the Delta and stretched into Memphis, where some of the officers are alleged to have accepted bribes in exchange for providing protection to undercover FBI agents posing as members of a Mexican drug cartel.
The federal probe began years ago when the FBI Jackson field office connected with a known local drug dealer who investigators code-named “Green.” The drug dealer became a confidential informant for the FBI. Between 2023 and 2024, the officers escorted the undercover agents transporting cocaine through the rural Delta along U.S. Highway 61 and into Memphis, court records allege.
Of the 20 individuals charged, 19 are accused of illegally carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime. The charges, which are outlined across multiple indictments, portray an operation that extended from rank-and-file patrol officers up through police chiefs and sheriffs.
In Humphreys County, Williams ran unopposed for sheriff in 2023 and had been serving a four-year term set to expire in 2027.
Williams took a leave of absence following his arrest, and the Humphreys County Board of Supervisors appointed former Belzoni police Chief Mickey Foxworth as interim sheriff. That is because federal authorities offered Williams a bond agreement that prohibits him from staying employed as a law enforcement officer. The agreement demands that he seek another form of employment, the bond agreement shows.
The other elected sheriff arrested in the federal takedown, Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston, is also accused of attempting to disguise bribes in the form of “campaign contributions.” Court records did not show an attorney listed for Gatson, and it was not clear on Wednesday if he had entered a plea yet.
The arrests stunned residents of the Delta, one of the poorest regions of the country. Residents were still reeling from a mass shooting in October that killed nine people and wounded a dozen more during or after high school and college homecoming celebrations.
House Speaker Jason White continues to champion school choice at the state Capitol, but some of his constituents aren’t so sure about the policies.
The Kosciusko Board of Aldermen adopted an anti-school choice resolution on Tuesday night, breaking from their representative and the set of proposals that White, a Republican, is aggressively pushing. Kosciusko, 70 miles north of Jackson, is the largest city in White’s district, which encompasses parts of Attala, Carroll, Holmes and Leake counties, and it’s where his law office is located.
Kosciusko joins a handful of cities that have publicly denounced school choice policies, which fund educational opportunities outside of traditional public schools, often with state money. The boards’ actions could signal a lack of support among everyday Mississippians, while powerful state lawmakers like White continue their years-long, full-court press for school choice, backed by billionaire-funded national conservative organizations and the Trump administration. Proponents of school choice say there is also a grassroots movement driven by parents that have buoyed their cause.
Taylor Spillman, a spokesperson for White, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the resolution.
The resolution calls the local public school system — graded an “A” for three years straight by the Mississippi Department of Education — the “lifeblood” of the community and urges the Kosciusko legislative delegation to oppose school choice policies. The statement defines education savings accounts, vouchers and tax-credit programs — which all direct taxpayer money to private or homeschool education — as school choice policies.
When reached by Mississippi Today, Kosciusko Mayor Tim Kyle noted that open enrollment policies that loosen regulations around public school transfers would also divert funds from the local school district.
Henry Daniel, a Democrat who represents Ward 2 on the Kosciusko board, said he voted for the local resolution because he doesn’t think private schools should receive taxpayer funds if they don’t adhere to the same admission and testing standards as public schools, which have to admit and serve all students regardless of background or ability.
Last month, Barrett Donahoe, executive director of the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools, told lawmakers that private schools his organization represents were not willing to support school choice unless the dollars came with no strings attached.
“We’ve got a good school system here,” Daniel said. “Even though Jason is our representative … you have to put that to the side and see what’s best for the kids and the community.”
Dr. Tim Alford co-authored the resolution, which he modeled after one passed by the Clinton Board of Aldermen, and brought it before the Kosciusko board on Tuesday. All three of his children were educated in the public school district. The experience taught them how to get along with people of all backgrounds, Alford said.
“My thought is that a lot of these folks, they feel like some of the public school communities are beyond saving, and the alternative is just to retreat into the private world, which is in large part segregated,” he said. “The public school world … has some good things going on. To me, that’s where we ought to be concentrating our efforts and energies.”
When white Mississippians left the Delta amid school desegregation, Alford witnessed the devastation that flight wrought on his hometown of Greenwood. He said he’s afraid school choice policies will spur similar results in Kosciusko — and he said he’s already seeing seeds of that outcome.
“To be honest, I think the white flight tendency is happening in Kosciusko now,” he said. “There are private school options that are available immediately in the community and some several miles down the road that parents are choosing. We don’t have the balance of race that we used to have. I’m afraid to say that I think that is part of what is driving this.”
White, who lives in West, sent his children to private schools in Winona and Madison. His public school district, Holmes County Consolidated School District, has historically struggled academically and is currently under state control.
Alford acknowledged that White has been “very helpful” to Kosciusko and said they both want to improve educational opportunities for all Mississippians.
“I hate to run up against Rep. White because I think he has the best intentions,” Alford said. “But he and I disagree on how to get there.”
Kyle, the mayor, said while he understands and supports parents’ desires to have more choices regarding their child’s education, he doesn’t think that should come at the expense of the public school district. He believes the board’s vote represents the majority of Kosciuskians.
Kyle said Kosciuskians’ opposition is at least partially driven by a fear of the unknown — legislators are drafting an omnibus education bill that would expand school choice in Mississippi, though it’s unclear what specific policies will make it into the legislation.
Some House Republicans support sending money to private schools through vouchers, while others want to keep school choice reforms limited to making it easier for students to transfer between public schools.
Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Hayes Carll is currently touring promoting his new album – the critically acclaimed, “We’re only human.”
He will perform Saturday night in Philadelphia at the Ellis Theater, which is part of the Congress of Country Music, a museum and music venue started by music icon and Neshoba County native Marty Stuart.
Mississippi Today Ideas Editor Bobby Harrison recently interviewed Carll online about his scheduled performance in Mississippi, his songwriting and the current political climate.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Mississippi Today Ideas– How did this Nov. 8 concert at the Ellis Center come about?
Hayes Carll– We’re just on tour promoting the new record, and we’re covering a lot of grounds. I heard about this, I think, new venue. The association with Marty and the town, just made it a good stop.
MT Ideas – What can we expect from that concert?
Carll – I’m going to have my band out with me. I’ve got a six-piece band. I call them the Gulf Coast Orchestra. I started out on the Gulf Coast of Texas playing music. So that’s been what I called my bands ever since.
It’s a pretty eclectic show. We kind of run the range between singer-songwriter and storytelling stuff. But then we can crank it up. We’ve got some brilliant musicians and we’ll get loud and honky tonk it and rock out.
I like all kinds of music and have been influenced by a lot of different styles. So for me, a fun show is one where I can incorporate all that stuff together.
MT Ideas– I’m assuming you will be playing a lot of stuff from your new album, “We’re Only Human.” It is getting great reviews. You talk about your music and everything, and all that’s true. But I think you’re known for your songwriting ability and this album doesn’t let people down on that front.
I view the album as kind of about the human condition, about redemption, about struggling and learning to live and thrive.
Carll– Thank you. That’s a really good recap actually. Yeah, I think the human experience can be challenging and I’ve had my struggles over time, and I got tired of having the same conversations with myself year after year. I’m just trying probably like most people to find a way to live with a little more peace and little more joy and to not struggle as much. So I reached a point in life where we really leaned into doing some personal work to try and sort out how I can live better. And so this record stemmed from that. A lot of it’s just things I discovered for myself about how to stay sane and joyful and grateful.
Hayes Carll Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins
I wrote it in large part for myself. It was, you know, one big therapy session. I feel like as I’ve gone out and played it for people and shared it with the world I get a lot of feedback that it seems to connect. You know, we’re not that different no matter what our circumstances are.
We all want to feel safe and appreciated and not overwhelmed and able to navigate life with some grace and love. It started off about me, but I think it’s turned into something that hopefully people, regardless of their situation, can relate to and connect with.
MT Ideas– Would you consider this album sort of a departure from your past work?
Carll– I do in a couple ways. This is my 10th record, and I got into songwriting just because I loved it so much – the storytelling, the ability of songwriters that I looked up to, to articulate my experience or put words to my feelings that I didn’t know how to do to put me in a certain kind of mood to help me find my identity. And there’s so much about it that I just was really excited by.
So when I started writing, I was like most artists, you start off kind of copying your heroes and you slowly start to find your own style and I found I had a lot of different styles and things that I liked to touch on. I would write a song and do it the best I could and then write another song and it came time to make a record.
I would just kind of collect all the songs I had finished and find the best ones or the ones that fit together the best.
This was the first time in my life, in my career, that I had set out with an intention and a theme about what I wanted to write. It was a very different process for me because of that.
I had some parameters where if it’s not honest, if it’s not helping me sort something out or express something that I felt like I needed to express, then it just wasn’t part of this record. I’ve got a lot in the past of storytelling songs or rock and roll songs, or honky tonk songs or funny songs or things that are touching on specific things, but usually looking from somebody else’s point of view. In this record, I just tried to keep it in a space where I was working toward a goal. And so that was kind of liberating to be able to know that everything I was doing creatively was in this area.
MT Ideas– Well, if you listen to the words closely though, I still think, you don’t lose your sense of humor, which I think has been an important part of your work for a long time.
Carll– Yeah, thank you. It’s always been important to me. Humor. You know John Prine is a hero of mine. And there’s so many songwriters who can use humor to just be funny or as a contrast to the serious and the heavy. I love the idea of showing the whole human experience and humor and levity and ability to laugh at oneself or at the surroundings.
That’s how I keep my sanity a lot of times. And so even when I’m trying to work through some heavier stuff for me, humor’s always gonna be a part of it.
MT Ideas– Full disclosure. I first learned about you back when my brother-in-law gave me an album – it was actually a CD – called “Trouble in Mind” for Christmas in 2008, 2009.
Carll – Yeah. that’s about right.
MT Ideas– To this day it remains one of my favorite albums. That album I think, it really captured you as a songwriter. I think you have a unique ability to be funny, but also poignant and write tear jerkers at the same time. “Nice things” is not on that album, but it is one of my favorite songs.
Carll– It’s one I wrote with Brothers Osborne, one of my favorite country bands here in Nashville. Yeah, that originally started out as I had this idea of a wife saying to her husband why we can’t have nice things. And at first we were thinking about writing from that point of view. Then we sort of zoomed out and made it more global, universal.
MT Ideas – You made God a woman, and she came back down and just said, whoa, this is why we don’t have nice things.
Carll – Exactly. She was not thrilled with some of what she saw going on.
MT Ideas – OK. You mentioned John Prine. You’re from Texas. I know Texas is a big state with lots of people, but still it seems like Texas has more than its share of great songwriters going back to Townes Van Zandt, one of my favorites, Guy, Clark, and on and on. You’ve been placed in those categories of songwriters. Are some of those folks your heroes?
Carll – Absolutely. Texas has a really rich songwriting tradition, musical tradition, just sort of in the air there, I mean, the first memories I have are listening to Willie Nelson.
Kenny Rogers was one of my first. That’s not the same kind of thing as a songwriter, but he was one of my first musical influences. I had an uncle who played in a garage band with Kenny in Houston. It is just kind of everywhere.
Yeah, I, really got heavily into Townes and Guy. Lyle Lovett was maybe the first one for me – his ability to have this unique perspective and this sense of humor and weirdness and elegance and combine all these things that I just didn’t hear on the radio a lot. And, so I really did a deep dive pretty early on into finding all these, to me at the time, obscure singer-songwriters.
They became heroes and now they’re, I think, seen as legends. It’s been really cool for me to come out as those people were my heroes. One of the first co-writes I ever did was with Guy Clark. I got my start in a bar called “The Old Quarter” that Townes had recorded a live record in. I get to tour with Lyle and he’s become a friend, and I’ve toured with Robert Earl Keen. And so for me, as a kid who just looked up to all these guys and viewed them as titans and geniuses and just really brilliant artists, it’s been really gratifying to through the course of years, get to befriend them, work with them. It’s really special. I have to pinch myself sometimes.
MT Ideas – What, what was your thought process writing, ”She left me for Jesus?”
Carll – I have a friend named Brian Keane, who’s a great singer songwriter. And he came over to my apartment. I was living in Austin at the time, and he was kind of going through a situation where his relationship was maybe not going to work out because he was not religious enough.
He brought that idea to me. At first I wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t sure what to do with that. Sometimes you start a song, and it could take years and you just labor away and sometimes it just happens like that. We got the concept that there was this mistaken identity and that the guy thought his girl was cheating on him with some guy named Jesus and didn’t put it together.
And then we kind of made him a certain type of character and started bringing satire and irony into it. We wrote it in probably an hour, and then we had three or four extra verses as well. It just became one of those things where the ideas were flowing and we’re just poking a little fun at folks who maybe call themselves Christian, but don’t behave in Christian ways or maybe would pick a fight with Jesus if he walked into a bar today.
MT Ideas – There is some controversy going on today with songwriters involved in politics? You have not taken political stances, but sometimes I think your songs do. Can you just talk a little bit about that?
Carll – First of all, I think on the whole our job is to be artists. I don’t think anybody should be told as an artist what they should or shouldn’t write about. It’s always sort of strange to me when people say people should stick to their lanes.
We’re all people here and I don’t think you have to be an elected official or a talking head on TV to have an opinion and be able to share it. We all have that right. And particularly as an artist, I feel like our job is to look at the world in a certain way and share that point of view.
You don’t have to agree with it, don’t have to like it. But our job certainly is not to get small and, and not examine what we see.
A lot of my heroes early on were really politically active – Bob Dylan or Prine in some ways. And so I always admired that, but I never felt quite comfortable finding my voice to express it – on stage or off.
I definitely have some songs where I think I let it be known where I’m coming from or try to challenge certain ideas. Off-stage, it’s a bit more challenging.
I feel like these days, whatever your opinion is or however justified or based in decency or respect you try to make it, there’s a section of the populist, no matter what side you’re on, that’s gonna come back at you in a pretty unpleasant way. And it’s not that I’m afraid of that blowback, although I don’t enjoy it. But I sometimes feel like I’m just adding to the noise because we seem to have lost the ability to just have a nuanced and respectful conversation.
And so if all I’m doing is throwing fuel out there for people to get upset about, I’m not sure I’m actually accomplishing what I want to accomplish by sharing my opinion. So I just kind of take it as it comes and try to take care of myself and my family and my friends and neighbors.
And I certainly have my opinions and if I feel I need to express them I will and do, but I try not to lead with that. Part of what this record is about is some of that. I like to define people not by their differences or disagreements, but try and find the commonality ’cause I have a lot of people, friends that I disagree with strongly about certain political issues, but I know they’re really good people and so I like to start there and build some commonality and respect there. And then we can argue once we’ve established a baseline of decency.
MT Ideas – Yeah. You have a song on the new record that talks about that, where the couple meets at a rally and yells at each other and then feels bad and goes out to eat together. You have written several songs I think that talk about the ability of people who get along despite their differences.
Carll – Yeah, I feel like we get divided and there’s people who profit off of division and animosity, and I don’t think it’s the regular people who are benefiting from it. And so again I believe everybody should have their belief systems and fight for what they think is important. But sometimes I think with social media and the news 24-7 and all the opinions and all the politics, it can make people think that’s all that we are. And we’re so much more than that.
MT Ideas – Well, look I appreciate your time. I know you’re busy with your new record and getting ready for your tour, so I thank you for taking some time to be with us.
Carll – I appreciate you having me, and I’m really looking forward to playing.
This was Britney Reese en route to Olympic Gold in London in 2012. Credit: Ole Miss sports
Brittney Reese, a seven-time world champion and Olympic golf medalist long jumper, headlines the 2026 Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame induction class announced at the MSHOF museum Wednesday.
Reese is joined by a talented and diverse group that includes three former football stars, the winningest college baseball coach in Mississippi history, a championship swimming and diving coach, and perhaps the most successful strength and conditioning coach in football history.
In alphabetical order, the MSHOF Class of 2026:
Glen Collins, a Jackson native and Mississippi State first team All American football star. One of the most decorated defensive linemen in Mississippi football history, Collins was a first round draft choice of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1982 and played seven years in the NFL. Collins played high school football at Jim Hill. At State, he was so dominant that opposing teams nearly always double-teamed him. He was one of the heroes of State’s memorable 6-3 victory over Alabama in 1980, which remains perhaps the most treasured victory in MSU football history.
Louis Guy, a two-way player, who was one of the heroes of the undefeated 1960 Ole Miss football team that was awarded the Football Writers of America national championship. Guy played wingback and defensive back and was a threat to score on either side of the football. He caught three touchdown passes in a game against Houston and returned a pass interception 100 yards for a touchdown in a victory over Tennessee. Guy was drafted in the third round of the NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles and later played for both the Philadelphia Eagles and Oakland Raiders. Following his playing days, he built a successful career as an orthodontist and Jackson community leader.
Michael Haddix, a two-time Mississippi State All-SEC running back from Walnut who was the eighth overall pick of the 1983 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. Haddix was one of those running backs with a rare blend of both speed and power, which he employed to gain six yards per carry for his entire State career, still a school record. “Just an unbelievably great back,” Collins said. “I know because I had to tackle him in practice. Michael was a great teammate and a great guy.. All us guys from that era of State football remain close.”
Bobby Halford, a Meridian native who was a terrific baseball player before becoming the head baseball coach at William Carey University where he has amassed more than 1,300 victories, surpassing Hall of Famer Ron Polk as the winningest college baseball coach in Mississippi history. He has led the Crusaders to 19 conference championships and 26 national tournament appearances. He was the NAIA National Coach of the Year in 2017.
Ronnie Mayers, former Delta State athletic director and before that the championship swimming and diving coach for the Cleveland school. Mayers’ teams won 11 Gulf South Conference titles and made 15 NCAA Championship appearances. Mayers recruited and coached 56 All Americans during his career – little wonder the Delta State aquatics center bears his name.
Johnny Parker, considered a pioneer in strength and conditioning, particularly in football. Parker coached for 35 years at the college and professional levels after beginning his career at Indianola Academy. His innovative training methods have influenced generations of coaches and athletes. He earned three Super Bowl rings as an NFL strength coach with the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Bucs.
Brittney Reese, a Gulfport native who has become one of the most decorated athletes in Mississippi history, male or female, in any sport. She starred in track and field and basketball at Gulfport High and Gulf Coast Community College before concentrating in track and field under Hall of Fame coach Joe Walker at Ole Miss where she was a two-time NCAA champion for the Rebels. She is a seven-time world champion who won the Olympic gold medal in 2012 and silver medals in 2016 and 2021. She is the latest in an amazing pantheon of Mississippi long jumping greats, including Hall of Famers Ralph Boston, Willye B. White, Larry Myricks and Savanté Stringfellow.
The Class of 2026 will be inducted in ceremonies during MSHOF Hall of Fame Weekend July 31-Aug. 1.
The city of Ocean Springs plans to place $468,681 into an account linked to a federal lawsuit filed by motorists until a judge decides whether they were improperly ticketed for driving without insurance after traffic cameras captured photos of their license-plates.
The Ocean Springs Board of Aldermen decided Tuesday night to turn the money over to the court, indicating the city is relinquishing any claim to the funds it collected from uninsured motorists.
Three motorists ticketed in Ocean Springs filed the lawsuit in August 2023 against the Georgia-based company that ran the program, Securix LLC. The city is not a party to the lawsuit, but split revenue 50-50 from the uninsured motorist program with the company.
The three motorists are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, filed by Chhabra Gibbs & Herrington of Jackson, so others ticketed in the city also would be represented in the case.
The lawsuit accuses Securix of deceiving vehicle owners by essentially posing as a law enforcement agency through its mailed traffic citations in Ocean Springs.
The city issued a news release after the board voted to relinquish the uninsured motorist fines and fees collected. It said, in part:
“The Southern Poverty Law Center, the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, Public Justice, and the law firm of Chhabra, Gibbs & Herrington PLLC raised concerns that Securix violated state and federal law and exposed the city to potential financial liability. “Although Ocean Springs contracted with Securix in 2021 with the intent of encouraging uninsured drivers to obtain car insurance, the city later determined that the program did not function as intended and terminated the contract in May 2023.”
How uninsured motorist program worked
The program used automated license plate readers and artificial intelligence to extract license plates that were then run through a database to determine whether the vehicle owner had insurance.
The police department was supposed to review the information and issue the tickets that Securix mailed out. If a vehicle was not listed as being insured, a ticket went to the owner. The system did not identify the person driving the vehicle. On their face, the citations claimed to be uniform traffic tickets that appeared to be from the police department.
The Ocean Springs citation offered three options: Call a toll-free number and provide proof of insurance, enter a diversion program that charges a $300 fee and includes a short online course and requires agreement that the vehicle will not be driven uninsured on public roadways, or contest the ticket in court and risk $510 in fines and fees, plus the potential of a one-year driver’s license suspension.
The funds Ocean Springs is turning over to the court represent the city’s share of proceeds collected from motorists.
Securix is in a separate state court battle with three politically connected Mississippians who formed a company called QJR LLC to join the ticketing business.
Jackson area businessmen Josh Gregory and Quinton Dickerson and Pascagoula attorney Robert Wilkinson formed QJR LLC to partner with Securix. They helped spread the program to numerous other Mississippi cities. Gregory and Dickerson own Frontier Strategies, an advertising company that has run campaigns for state and local politicians.
Wilkinson was the city attorney for Ocean Springs when its Securix contract was signed. Wilkinson resigned from the position in June, after the website GCWire.com, published numerous pieces about the ticketing program and his involvement.
QJR is in a bitter legal dispute with Securix and its chairman, Jonathan Miller, in Chancery Court. QJR wants its partnership with Securix dissolved. The partners lost access to the insured motorist database after Miller accused the Mississippians of wrongdoing. The ticketing program no longer operates in Mississippi.
A trial date in the state case is set for January 12 before Judge Neil Harris, whose son, David Harris, is now the city attorney for Ocean Springs.
This article was produced in partnership between the Sun Herald and Mississippi Today.
Democrats broke the Republican Party’s two-thirds majority in the Mississippi Senate on Tuesday by gaining two new seats, eroding the GOP’s grip on the 52-member chamber for the first time in over a decade.
But the GOP still has a strong hold on the Mississippi Legislature and can override Democrats on all but a few types of votes if they caucus, in both the House and Senate.
In a reconfigured Senate district in northwestern Mississippi, voters elected Democrat Theresa Gillespie Isom over Republican Charlie Hoots. In another redrawn district in the Pine Belt region around Hattiesburg, Democrat Johnny DuPree defeated Republican Anna Rush.
Republicans previously represented these two areas, but a federal court earlier this year determined the state violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered the state to redraw them into majority-Black districts.
Two Senate races, one in the Jackson area and one in the Delta, are still undecided because a Dec. 2 runoff will decide the winners, but they are not expected to further tilt partisan power.
In both of these races, the elections are nonpartisan, though the winner will likely declare a partisan affiliation after taking office. In both elections, the candidates are seeking to replace longtime Democratic senators.
Mississippi had a mix of partisan and nonpartisan special elections Tuesday. Special elections are nonpartisan when an office holder leaves during a term. But in the elections for the redrawn districts, candidates ran with party labels.
State Rep. Cheikh Taylor of Starkville, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, said Tuesday’s results show Mississippi can be a battleground state that is no longer “a foregone conclusion.”
However, Taylor noted that the Democratic victories were only possible because federal judges found that Mississippi had violated the federal Voting Rights Act – something the U.S. Supreme Court may limit in the future.
“If the Supreme Court dismantles these protections, we risk silencing the very voices that made last night’s historic outcome possible,” Taylor said. “As voters continue to reject Trump’s agenda in 2026 and 2027, we must protect the fundamental right that makes change possible: the right to vote.”
Republicans will have 34 senators, and Democrats will likely have 18 when the Mississippi Legislature convenes in January for its 2026 session. If the Senate strictly votes along party lines on an issue, Democrats could prevent Republicans from accomplishing a small number of things.
In Mississippi, it takes a two-thirds vote of both legislative chambers to suspend parliamentary rules and deadlines, amend the Mississippi Constitution and override a governor’s veto.
Republicans still hold a three-fifths supermajority, which means they can make decisions about taxes without having any support from Democrats.
A voter marks his ballot at Fondren Presbyterian Church, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Jackson, Miss. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
While Republicans will still control a significant portion of the legislative agenda over the next two years, Democrats could utilize these gains to prevent Republican leadership from reviving legislation that had died on key deadlines or block Republicans from amending parts of the state constitution.
Heather Williams is president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, an organization that invested heavily in Mississippi’s elections. She celebrated the Tuesday victories and welcomed more Democrats to the Legislature.
“Mississippians are sending a clear message that, from blue states to red states, voters are ready to stand up against Republicans’ extreme agenda and hold them accountable,” Williams said.
Democrats also flipped a Republican seat in the House when Democrat Justin Crosby defeated Republican state Rep. Jon Lancaster in the Chickasaw County area of northeastern Mississippi.
Tuesday’s elections mean that two more women will join the Senate in January.
Isom, elected from DeSoto County, won her election outright. In a special election to fill the seat vacated by Jackson Mayor John Horhn, two women, Letita Johnson and Kamesha Mumford, are advancing to the runoff.
One of the women in the Senate, Republican Robin Robinson of Jones County, lost a party primary for this round of special elections.
Mississippians struggling with addiction have one less option for treatment after Congress cut funding for a University of Mississippi Medical Center project, according to a spokesperson for the medical center.
The Mississippi Horizons Project used telehealth to treat patients with gold-standard medicine for opioid addiction like buprenorphine, according to a website that UMMC has since taken down. Started in 2022 when Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith sent $6 million of congressionally directed spending to the medical center, the program focused on connecting uninsured Mississippians to the medications.
The program also offered addiction psychotherapy, financial assistance for prescriptions and in-patient treatment, medical transportation and peer support services, according to an appointment request form linked to the project website.
“That’s where we should be headed,” said Greg Spore, a member of the Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council and a lawyer with the Office of State Public Defender. “That’s our aim. Those are interventions that are working and will continue to work.”
Spore struggled with addiction for years before entering long-term recovery. He credits medication assisted treatment as an important reason he’s stayed sober. But for many Mississippians, treatments like buprenorphine are out of reach.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be flushed with such treatment across the state,” he said.
The Horizons program ended quietly in July, with no known public announcement from the medical center. After researchers with Mississippi Horizons published a study in September about their work, Mississippi Today reached out to UMMC to speak with someone from the program about their approach to ending an overdose crisis that has killed over 10,000 Mississippians since 2000.
Each year since 2022, Mississippi has been paid tens of millions of opioid settlement dollars, money that is supposed to help respond to the overdose public health crisis. But 15% of those dollars — the money controlled by the state’s towns, cities and counties — is unrestricted and being spent with almost no public knowledge. Mississippi Today spent the summer finding out how almost every local government receiving money has been managing the money over the past three years. Read The Series
Only then did a spokesperson with the medical center say in an email that the program had shut down after losing federal funding. She did not answer whether the cuts were a result of the July congressional spending bill, how much longer the grant was expected to provide funds, what role Mississippi Horizons played in addressing the crisis or whether other UMMC substance use disorder efforts were impacted by the cuts.
A federal government website that monitors how its grants are spent indicates that UMMC did not spend roughly $2.3 million of the $6 million Congress initially awarded the medical center.
Mississippi Today emailed officials with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the federal agency managing the Mississippi Horizons grant, to ask why the funding was canceled and what other strategies the agency would use to address the addiction crisis after this cut. The newsroom received an automatic email response that said some operations were paused because of the government shutdown.
Top officials with the Trump administration and the Department of Health and Human Services spoke of the importance of financially empowering states to prevent more deadly overdoses in a September press release announcing continued funding for state addiction efforts. SAMHSA spokespeople did not respond to an emailed question about whether this grant aligned with this stated mission.
A spokesperson for Hyde-Smith did not respond to an email asking for the senator from Brookhaven’s thoughts on the cut. A federal appropriations website shows she requested over $4.5 million for UMMC for substance use disorder prevention work for fiscal year 2026, but neither body of Congress has passed that funding bill yet.
Tricia Christensen, an independent overdose prevention and drug policy consultant, said telehealth services that pair people to medicine effective at treating opioid addiction are essential, especially in rural areas. In these regions, she said many drug deaths can be prevented with better access to resources that make up for limited transportation options.
“From a bird’s eye view, it sounds like a huge loss,” she said.
Mississippi Horizons’ September research paper highlights that in addition to its clinical work, the project also identified challenges that prevented Mississippians from being treated for addiction. The researchers found that because of misinterpretations of state and federal laws, biases against new patients and credit card payment problems, many Mississippi pharmacies were reluctant to work with UMMC to prescribe medications.
Christensen said by identifying these particular problems, researchers and advocates can develop plans to overcome them.
“Is it just an education issue that they don’t understand the law? In which case, we can maybe do some education with them,” she said. “Or is it more of a stigma-related issue, where more work needs to be done to change that narrative?”
The Horizons shutdown is another instance of money intended to prevent Mississippi overdoses not being spent for that purpose. In September, a Mississippi Today investigation found that of the over $124 million the state had received in lawsuit settlement money from companies that contributed to a decades-long addiction crisis, less than $1 million had been used on strategies to address the epidemic.
Some local officials have since directed opioid settlement money to prevent more drug deaths, and the Legislature is expected to start spending tens of millions of settlement dollars on new strategies this summer. The council Spore serves on advises state lawmakers on how they should spend those funds, and it recently released preliminary assessments of which projects the Legislature should invest in.
UMMC applied for $10 million of state opioid settlement money to continue opioid addiction prevention, treatment and recovery work. The council ranked the project in the top tier of applications, although the subcommittee grading it recommended an award less than the medical center’s ask.
After spending months examining how Mississippi could improve its response to the opioid public health catastrophe, Spore said he hoped the Legislature would use settlement dollars in part to create more programs like Horizons. Now, instead of expanding and supporting programs like it, he said he and others responsible for addressing the state’s overdose crisis will have to find ways to make up for its elimination.
“Losing that is terrible. It’s a blow to the state.”
