OurTupelo

Mike Graves deferred payments to John Deere for the first time in a half century of farming in 2024.

A million dollars for a cotton picker, $800,000 for a combine and $400,000 for a tractor in recent years drove Graves, who grows cotton, soybeans and corn in Tippah County, to borrow money from Mississippi Land Bank, part of the nationwide Farm Credit System, a co-op that provides financial support for farmers.

But this year, as dim predictions for 2025 have farmers questioning whether a few bad years could tip into a crisis, borrowing money isn’t enough.

Graves said he doesn’t like to rely on federal subsidies, but without the $31 billion in emergency payments Congress approved to aid farmers in December, “wouldn’t any of us survive.”

“I hate that the government has to get in it, but I’m not going to turn down anything they offer, either,” Graves said.

Congress in December approved $31 billion in direct payments to help farmers nationwide cope with lackluster crop prices, high input costs and extreme weather. But some Mississippi farmers said the payments they received through the $10 billion Emergency Commodity Assistance Program were smaller and later than they expected. And it’s unclear when and how the remaining $21 billion in disaster assistance will be disbursed.

Rates the USDA announced in March were much less than initial estimates floated for the per-acre commodity payments – $200 for cotton, $100 for corn, $81 for rice and $50 for soybeans – all linked to an unsuccessful bill introduced by Mississippi Republican U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly in October. Instead, farmers are receiving $85 per acre for cotton, $43 for corn, $77 for rice and $30 for soybeans.

While Kelly’s initial bill calculated payments at 60% of farmers’ losses, the version included in the budget bill lawmakers passed on Dec. 21 – the day a government shutdown would have begun had Congress not acted – figured those payments at 26% of those amounts.

Though the law directed the USDA to make the payments within 90 days of its enactment – by March 21 – some Mississippi farmers said they didn’t receive their money until late April. And unlike the commodity payments, the $21 billion for natural disasters has no deadline for the USDA to disburse it. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website, Mississippi has disbursed $118 million through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program. The USDA has not announced when or how the $21 billion will be distributed.

Will Maples, an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University Extension Service, said that while the state is “nowhere near” the conditions that led to the notorious farm failures of the 1980s, “the concern is, can we get there?”

“If we stay in this environment,” Maples said, “2025 is looking tough, and 2026 is another tough year. That’s when talk about ‘Can it get as bad as the 80s?’ will really pick up.” 

Maples encouraged farmers to look out for “price rallies” as the growing season progresses, and not to be afraid to sell early.

Still, some farmers say conditions are worse than they’ve seen in years, and that the timing of federal commodity payments – well into planting season – hasn’t helped.

Brian Camp, a Union County soybean farmer, said farmers had hoped to use that money to pay outstanding debts in time to purchase inputs like seed for this year’s planting season.

“What they sent us now, it won’t even pay our fuel,” Camp said.

Lauren Swann, who grows cotton and watermelons in Union County, said drought last summer in northeastern Mississippi made margins even tighter.

“The math just ain’t mathin’,” Swann said.

As farmers face uncertainty about potential impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs this growing season, some continue to grapple with the consequences of his first trade war, experts said.

On a podcast with Mississippi Today last week, State Economist Corey Miller said that Trump’s 2018 tariffs eroded markets for U.S. agricultural exports and could do so again. The U.S. lost some $20 billion in agricultural exports in Trump’s first term, Miller told WJTV earlier this year.

Maples said that while Brazil first surpassed the U.S. in 2013 to become the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, Trump’s 2018 tariffs – and China’s retaliation in kind – cemented the South American country’s dominance in the international soybean market. China, the world’s top importer of soybeans, which is Mississippi’s biggest crop by acreage, sources some 70% of its supply from Brazil.

For soybean growers, “a lot of what we’re dealing with now is kind of a holdover from the last 2018 trade war we had with China,” Maples said. 

The U.S. and China announced a tariff truce Monday, with both countries slashing tariffs for the next 90 days as they continue to negotiate.

Farmers described struggling to square Trump’s claims to be on farmers’ side with uncertainty about the potential for tariffs to further cut prices. In a March Truth Social Post, Trump urged farmers to “get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product” for domestic sale and “have fun!”

“We’re being told to go out there and have fun, and be patient,” Swann said. “But planting season doesn’t wait, so we can’t wait on help.”

Graves said he hopes Trump’s tariffs will ultimately lead to higher prices, as long as the measures “get everything straight before everybody goes broke on the farm.” 

“He said he’s going to take care of us,” Graves said. “But we’ll see, I guess.”

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

Several years ago, I confronted the possibility that I, like many Mississippians, had been blindsided by cancer.

A routine blood test detected alarmingly high PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels, and after informing me that the odds were about 25% for a positive cancer diagnosis and 60% of that for an intermediate to severe form of the disease, my urologist recommended a biopsy. Those odds represented a 15% probability of a metastatic crisis, and given the low risks associated with prostate biopsies, I opted for the procedure.

After an anxious week of waiting, the pathologist’s report indicated that I had dodged the terrifying reality of cancer—unlike for the roughly 16,000 Mississippians who are diagnosed with cancer each year, with an associated annual death toll of about 6,500. 

I am a retired scientist and although my area of expertise involves field biology, my research background helped me evaluate the medical options and procedures related to prostate cancer. I could understand the relevant scientific papers and search for qualities that define good medical research: testable hypotheses, large sample sizes, replicate studies, appropriate statistical analyses and peer-reviewed papers published in reputable journals. When evaluating my options I could avoid ideologically-based claims like those promising that cod liver oil and  other vitamin A supplements are effective for preventing and treating measles.

I also understood that although the initial blood test for PSA antigens, preliminary MRI and biopsy were technological procedures, those procedures were developed through painstaking scientific research—the kinds of research carried out by institutions like the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s (UMMC) Cancer Institute, but now threatened by cuts to federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute and National Science Foundation (NSF).

In other words, the Trump administration is directly harming the kinds of scientific research that could improve the lives of those 16,000 Mississippians who are diagnosed with cancer each year.

In 2023, the UMMC received almost $97 million in research grants, awards and contracts, much of which came from federal funding sources. Cutting NIH funding to the UMMC and other American research institutions threatens the well-being of all Mississippians, regardless of their political affiliation, age, sex, gender, race or ethnicity—or whether their health is threatened by cancer, sickle-cell anemia, heart disease, diabetes, traumatic injury or poor delivery of medical services to underserved populations. Who among us doesn’t know multiple people whose lives have been affected by those diseases or problems? Ironically, it seems that cuts to NIH funding  likely will hit “red states” like Mississippi the hardest. 

Scientific research is a human endeavor, conducted by fallible human beings, as we all are. And yet the core scientific process, which relies on experimental and observational studies, verifiable data and hypotheses that can be tested by multiple independent observers, is the only truly self-correcting discipline—one that rises above the (occasional) false leads, mistakes and pettiness of its individual practitioners to improve the quality of life for everyone.

The scientific process is why we no longer believe that cancer is caused by an excess of black bile, as did physicians in the Middle Ages. We now have targeted gene therapies that dramatically increase survival rates for many types of cancers. It is why we no longer believe that malaria is transmitted by humid and stale air.

And it is why we embrace the germ theory of disease; use antibiotics to treat a variety of diseases, from syphilis to tuberculosis; and employ vaccines to prevent or diminish the damage caused by polio, measles, rubella, whooping cough: on and on and on. The medical benefits derived from high-quality scientific research is one critical reason that average life expectancy in the United States rose from roughly 40 years in 1860 to almost 79 years in 2020. 

Of course, federal researchers and research dollars benefit many other aspects of life in Mississippi besides those related to health care. Proposed cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, which could affect as much as 50% of the workforce at some stations (there are four such stations in Mississippi, supporting research projects on everything from cotton ginning to poultry and insect pest management), would harm the productivity and competitiveness of Mississippi farmers.

Proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—54% in the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 funding bill—will hamper the ability of the EPA to clean up Mississippi’s nine active Superfund sites, which contain toxic chemicals like PCBs and dioxins.

Or take the impacts of proposed cuts to scientific research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Mississippi Gulf Coast is imperiled by rising sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico (almost 2°F between 1970 to 2020), driving increasingly powerful hurricanes, and a sea level rise of up to 10 millimeters/per year, which translates into almost 4 inches of sea level rise per decade, which in turn increases storm-driven flooding. Consequently, along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast homeowner’s insurance is becoming more and more expensive, while the nonrenewal rate by insurance companies is increasing.

Even if one does not “believe” in human-driven climate change, it remains imperative to study sea levels and sea surface temperatures to help protect against the harmful effects of increasingly powerful tropical storms—and the equally damaging effects on homeowner’s insurance rates and availability for Gulf Coast Mississippians.

It also is crucial that we understand the costs of extreme weather events, those causing at least $1 billion dollars, to help insurance companies, policymakers and scientists understand major disasters like the hurricanes that batter the Guld Coast of Mississippi—and yet NOAA will no longer collect these data.

Although scientific research is not primarily a jobs or economic stimulus program, federal research and development funding also contributes in vital ways to overall economic growth, maintaining America’s competitiveness on the world stage and our country’s high standard of living.

Recent analyses suggest that net economic returns for federal research and development dollars are much higher than for other forms of investment such as for physical infrastructure, and may be responsible for as much as 25% of post-World War II productivity and growth—and that contrary to claims by the current administration, public research investments are not less productive than private investments. 

I could describe many more examples of benefits provided by federal science funding, but I will end with one perplexing but illustrative story. Last February, President Trump ordered the release of billions of gallons of water from California reservoirs operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ostensibly to benefit Central Valley farmers and help Los Angeles fight wildfires like those that devastated the area in January. However, there were no scientific justifications for President Trump’s order, as related to hydrology, irrigation or wildfire suppression

 Still, one Central Valley farmer stated that although the water release was counterproductive, “I have a conservative mindset. I encourage the trigger-pulling attitude, like: ‘Hey, let’s just get stuff done.”

Maybe there are occasions when a “trigger-pulling attitude” is appropriate. But when the gun is aimed at your own head, the results will be predictable and catastrophic—whether we’re talking ill-considered water releases from California dams or indiscriminate and draconian cuts to federal scientific agencies and research funding, which will harm the citizens of Mississippi in so many ways.

Bio: Christopher Norment holds a PhD in Systematics and Ecology from the University of Kansas and is an emeritus professor of environmental science and ecology at the State University of New York – Brockport. During his career he published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and three science-related books of creative nonfiction, and received awards from the State University of New York for teaching and scholarship. He now lives in Jackson.

As an Ole Miss Rebel, he was the MVP of both the Gator and Sugar Bowls. As an NFL rookie, he intercepted eight passes and returned two for touchdowns. As a coach, he won two national championships and two Super Bowl rings. He played for coaching legends John Vaught and Paul Brown, coached with the legendary Tom Landry. He is a member of seven different halls of fame.

And all that doesn’t even begin to tell the story of Clarksdale native and Ole Miss great Bobby Ray Franklin, a gentleman and a winner, who died Wednesday in his adopted hometown of Senatobia. He was 88.

When writing the life story of Franklin, there’s just so much to cover. Where to begin? Let’s start with this: He was the son of a barber and was given the nickname “Waxie” because of all the butch wax he wore in his crew cut hair as a young man.

Says former Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat, an Ole Miss teammate of Franklin’s and a friend for more than six decades, “From the time we stepped onto the campus in August of 1956, Waxie was the best athlete on our football team. He was a terrific quarterback and defensive back, but he was so much more than that. He was fast, he was smart, he was funny. He could run it, pass it, kick it, punt it, catch it and tackle whoever had the ball. He was a leader. There was nothing Bobby Ray Franklin couldn’t do. And everything he did, he did first class.”

Franklin was funny, indeed. One example: The 1959 Ole Miss team was one of the greatest in college football history, out-scoring opponents 349-21 in 11 games. In a September game at Kentucky, Franklin, the Rebels quarterback, was running with the football toward the Rebels’ bench, when three Kentucky players slammed him at the sideline, across the bench and into a brick wall. Franklin went down hard and stayed down. “Frightening,” Khayat called it. Doc Knight, the Ole Miss trainer, raced toward Franklin, yelling “Waxie! Waxie! Are you OK, Waxie?” Finally, Franklin looked up, grinned and said, ”I’m fine, Doc, but how are my fans taking it?”

Knight doubled as the Ole Miss track and field coach, and Franklin was one of his sprinters. Once , at practice, Knight was at the finish line timing Franklin in the 100-yard dash. Franklin finished and Knight started yelling. “He just ran a 9.6 100-yard dash!” There was plenty reason for his excitement, because the world record at the time, held by a German, was 9.76 seconds. Turns out, unbeknownst to Knight, Waxie had moved up five yards from the starting line. He may still hold the world record in the 95-yard dash.

Back to that Kentucky game in 1959 and the injury: Franklin’s head was OK, but his left leg was not. He was stepped on with cleat marks on his left calf, resulting in a blood clot. Hospitalized for three weeks, he lost his starting quarterback job to the great Jake Gibbs, who was backed by Doug Elmore. Franklin played only sparingly for the remainder of the regular season, including the 7-3 defeat to LSU that ruined an otherwise perfect season. Healthy for the first time since September, Franklin came back for the Sugar Bowl rematch with LSU to complete 10 of 15 passes, two for touchdowns, in the 21-0 Ole Miss victory. Franklin was voted the game’s MVP, just as he had been in the 1958 Gator Bowl victory over Florida.

At 5 feet, 11 inches, Franklin was not a prime NFL prospect. The Cleveland Browns got him in the 11th round, and, boy, did they get a bargain. Franklin became an instant starter as a ball-hawking safety and kick returner. He also was the team’s backup punter and placekicker and held for the extra points and field goals of Browns kicking star Lou “The Toe” Groza, a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Franklin once told this sports writer, laughing: “I always told Lou he wouldn’t have been worth a damn without me as his holder.”

Franklin also had been the holder for Khayat’s kicks at Ole Miss. Said Khayat, “The thing was, Waxie was as good a kicker as I was. Great punter, too.”

Franklin retired as a player after seven seasons with the Browns and immediately joined Bud Carson’s coaching staff at Georgia Tech. Among his first recruits to Tech was Meridian’s Smylie Gebhart, who became an All American. Landry, the Hall of Fame coach of the Dallas Cowboys, hired Franklin away from Tech for a five-year run that included two Super Bowl victories. Franklin left Dallas to join Howard Schnellenberger’s staff in Baltimore, but that staff was fired after one season.

His career at a crossroads, Franklin joined his older brother in a private business in Mississippi. That lasted five years before Franklin went back to coaching. Ray Poole, a long-time friend and former Ole Miss coach, had taken the job as head coach at Northwest Community College in Senatobia and offered Franklin a job as offensive coordinator. This was 1979. A guy who had won an NFL championship as a player and two Super Bowl rings as a coach, was asked to be a junior college assistant coach. Franklin once told a sports writer, “I knew what people were thinking. What a comedown: from Super Bowls to junior college. Why would he do that? I didn’t care what people thought. I loved football. I wanted back.”

Two years later, he became the Northwest head coach. Two years after that, Franklin’s Northwest Rangers won the national junior college championship. Ten years after that, they would duplicate the feat. In 2004, Franklin retired having won 201 games, while losing only 57. Thirty-five of his players went on to play professionally.

Speaking by phone Thursday morning of his nearly life-long friend, Khayat said, “One of the most endearing things about Waxie is how emotional, how quick to cry, he was. He would even cry about happy things. When he went into the Coaches Hall of Fame, he started talking about his former players and coaches and he started crying, I mean, really sobbing. I didn’t know if he would even finish, and then he slapped himself in the face. I mean, slapped himself hard, and he said, ‘Come on, Franklin, stop being a crying fool.’ And then he was fine after that. Gave a great speech.”

When you know that about Franklin, it makes what follows all the more impressive. This was Aug. 7, 2007, in Canton, Ohio. Gene Hickerson, the great Ole Miss and Cleveland Browns lineman, was being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Hickerson, stricken with Alzheimer’s, was in a wheelchair and seemingly oblivious to what was going on around him. Hickerson’s family had asked Franklin to be his presenter that night.

It remains one of the most poignant moments experienced in my nearly six decades of sports writing. Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly and Bobby Mitchell, the three Browns running backs Hickerson helped block into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, pushed Hickerson’s wheelchair onto the stage and Bobby Ray Franklin, at the podium, took a moment to gather himself. Then, he congratulated the other honorees, said what an honor it was to present his friend of 52 years, and continued: “Gene’s son, Bob Hickerson, called me and asked me if I would present Gene. The fact that Gene has been ill for the last several years, I was a little hesitant because being as close as we  were, it’s a tough thing for me to do, as you can see right here, today. I’ve got to make myself tough when I start talking about Gene…”

Franklin paused again, gathered himself again, and spoke thoughtfully and eloquently, saying what he imagined Hickerson would have said if he were capable of saying anything at all. And then he said this: “Gene finished his entire career as a member of the Cleveland Browns, a fact he was extremely proud of. He quietly did his job as well as anyone ever in NFL history. If not for the circumstances, I would be almost to the point of introducing my good friend to you. Gene would then step to the podium, tell you how thrilled he is to receive this honor today, and crack a joke or two.

“Unfortunately he won’t be doing that, as my friend will not be able to speak to you even though he is here, I love Gene Hickerson as if he were my brother. … Borrowing these words from another Hall of Famer, Gale Sayers, I would like to ask you all to love Gene Hickerson, too.”

Bobby Ray Franklin might have been the only person among thousands there that evening who did not cry. His speech was on-point, splendid even – as was his life.

Gov. Tate Reeves last week attended and spoke at a fundraiser for State Auditor Shad White, whose 2027 gubernatorial aspirations at this point are well known.

Reeves’ office in a statement said he’s not endorsing anyone yet to replace him after his final term in office, but his appearance at the White fundraiser at a wealthy patron’s home in Northeast Jackson spurred speculation among politicos that Reeves is aligning early with White.

Over his many years in statewide office, including two terms as lieutenant governor, Reeves has most often kept his powder dry on endorsing or openly helping other statewide candidates in Republican primaries. But his criticism of another fellow Republican who has made his 2027 gubernatorial aspirations known, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, has some folks suspecting Reeves is getting out front early supporting White to thwart Hosemann’s aspirations.

“The governor often supports — financially and otherwise — elected officials throughout the state with whom he regularly works with to improve the state he loves,” Reeves’ Deputy Chief of Staff Cory Custer said in a statement. “Auditor White certainly meets that criteria.

“But, no, the governor has not made any endorsements for any office in the 2027 Mississippi elections,” Custer said.

White was ebullient over the governor’s assist at the fundraiser.

“I was honored to have Gov. Reeves attend the fundraiser,” White said in a statement. “We have tons of momentum as a state but big new challenges on the horizon that will require energy and grit from our next crop of elected officials, something he and I have discussed at length, so I was proud he chose to come to the event. It was the most successful fundraiser I’ve had in my time as state auditor.”

Jockeying and fundraising for Mississippi’s 2027 statewide elections is entering full swing, with politicians eyeing open seats for governor, lieutenant governor and potentially others through a domino effect.

Besides White and Hosemann, other Republicans considering a run for governor in bright-red Mississippi include Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, former U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, former House Speaker Philip Gunn and billionaire businessman Tommy Duff.

The potential entre into the race of Duff, the state’s co-wealthiest person along with his brother, will be a linchpin for the 2027 governor’s race. The prospect of running against someone who could easily write his own campaign an eight-figure check would likely cause all but the most confident, foolhardy or well-funded candidates to waive off a run and pick another office.

The political chatter of late has been that Duff, who has toyed with a gubernatorial run in past cycles, will not run in 2027. But Duff’s recent actions would appear to belie this. He has been traveling across the state and attending events in a very campaign-like manner for months. Duff also formed a PAC late last year that is already helping GOP candidates in local elections across the state in 2025, including running an ad in the heated Gulfport mayoral race between Republican Hugh Keating and Democrat Sonya Williams Barnes and donating $25,000 to the House Leadership Fund.

With some gubernatorial hopefuls considering a plan B, and an also open lieutenant governor seat, the field for the No. 2 spot in state government could become very crowded. Besides aforementioned potential gubernatorial candidates, numerous others, including Secretary of State Michael Watson, Treasurer David McRae, state Sen. Briggs Hopson III and others are considered potential lieutenant governor candidates.

One name often mentioned lately for a potential run for lieutenant governor, attorney general — you name it — is Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb. Lipscomb, who was previously deputy chief of staff and legal counsel for former Gov. Phil Bryant, has also been widely rumored as a likely pick by President Donald Trump for one of Mississippi’s two U.S. Attorney spots.

Democrats, who do not currently hold a statewide elected office in Mississippi, have at times struggled to field competitive candidates. But many suspect former Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who ran against Reeves in the last gubernatorial race, might try again. State House Minority Leader Robert Johnson is often mentioned as a potential lieutenant governor candidate.

At Thursday’s standing-room-only Board of Supervisors’ meeting, several Rankin County citizens called for Supervisor Steve Gaines to resign because of remarks that some have called racist.

The Rev. Ava Harvey, pastor for the Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church in Brandon, called for “an honest apology and an honorable resignation” by Gaines, saying, “It is time for our county to heal.” 

In 2023, five of Sheriff Bryan Bailey’s deputies, some of whom called themselves the “Goon Squad,” beat, tased and sexually assaulted Eddie Parker and his friend, Michael Jenkins, before shooting Jenkins in the mouth during a mock execution. The deputies tried to plant a BB gun and drugs on the men to cover up their crimes, but they were ultimately convicted and sent to federal prison for decades.

On May 1, the sheriff’s department’s lawyer, Jason Dare, announced that Rankin County had negotiated a $2.5 million settlement with Parker and Jenkins. Two days later, Gaines praised the settlement and Dare.

“He beat the pants off of those guys—the dopers, the people that raped and doped your daughters,” Gaines told the nearly all-white crowd of 100 gathered at the sheriff’s breakfast. “He beat their pants off.”

Malik Shabazz, a lawyer for Parker and Jenkins, called Gaines’ remarks racist and said his clients are considering a defamation lawsuit.

On May 13, Gaines released a statement saying that his comments were “not aimed at anyone personally.”

At the Thursday meeting, Harvey said it’s obvious that Gaines was speaking of the two men. “If you were not referring to Mr. Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins, who were you referring to?” he asked Gaines. “If you’re not speaking specifically to the case that the lawyer was involved in, then exactly who is it? Is there another case out here that no one knows about?”

After Rankin County residents experienced the initial shock of what happened to Jenkins and Parker, there was “utter disgust, complete dismay” and “frayed trust” between the community and the sheriff, he said. “Goon Squad is now a household name.”

Some power brokers in Rankin County have urged Gaines to resign, but he gave no indication Thursday he would do so.

An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror that involved at least 20 Rankin County deputies, several of whom routinely tortured suspected drug users to elicit information and confessions.

Many people have filed lawsuits alleging abuses by deputies, or say they filed complaints with the department or reported these incidents directly to Bailey, but the sheriff has denied any knowledge of these alleged abuses.

Last September, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the sheriff’s department’s practices, but in January, the current administration’s department ordered the Civil Rights Division to halt any litigation or new cases. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jackson did not respond to requests for comment on whether the probe would continue.

The state auditor’s office launched an investigation after Mississippi Today reported on Bailey’s alleged misuse of taxpayer money equipment and supplies used at his mother’s commercial chicken farm.

Outside the meeting, one protester, John Osborne of Jackson, whose son frequents Rankin County, held a sign criticizing Gaines. “Steve Gaines claimed that Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker raped and doped your daughters,” the sign read. “Steve Gaines lied.”

“It isn’t just about the racist trope,” Osborne said. “Gaines’ comments were a celebration of what happened to those two men.”

He said when Gaines made those comments at the May 3 breakfast meeting, “Bryan Bailey did not stand up and say those comments were wrong.”

Addressing the supervisors, Fred Chambliss, a federal correctional officer who became a whistleblower, questioned why Gaines had bragged about a $2.5 million settlement of a case in which “somebody got shot in the mouth, sexually assaulted, basically raped, waterboarded.”

“If you are bold enough to say that in a meeting, what else are y’all talking about behind closed doors?” he asked. 

Leon Seals, who has complained about being tased by Pearl police and is now running for alderman, said if citizens are held accountable, “police officers should be held accountable, or the supervisor members should be held accountable.”

In 2023, Harvey ran against Gaines for supervisor for District Four, the largest district in the county, stretching from east of Brandon to the northeast corner. Gaines, a Republican, won three-fourths of the vote over Harvey, who ran as an independent.

Harvey called the supervisor’s remarks disheartening. “I just do not believe the majority of people in District Four agree with his statement,” he said. “Mr. Gaines has now again brought national attention to our county unnecessarily.”

In an interview with Mississippi Today, Harvey said Gaines’ remarks still make it more difficult for Black Mississippians to navigate life in Rankin County. 

“How am I being viewed by my neighbors?” he asked. “Am I being viewed as a rapist? Am I being viewed as a doper? Is this the type of behavior that my neighbor now endorses, and people that I go to church with?”

Over the past several years, Rankin County has been “trying to go through this healing process” after all of the abuses by the Goon Squad, only for Gaines to “pull the scab right back off,” he said. “We just can’t seem to get past this dark cloud that’s just hanging over our county.”

He said both Gaines and Bailey should step down. Harvey said he may run against Gaines in 2027, saying the county needs better representation and new leadership to restore trust and improve the county’s reputation. 

“This is beyond bad judgment. This is beyond incompetence,” he said. “This is just reprehensible.”

A new pharmacy in Jackson will distribute medication to patients free of charge.

The St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy – a “pharmacy of last resort” – provides free prescription services and wellness education to Mississippians who can not afford their medications.

“We are here for individuals that have exhausted all available means to get their prescription medicine on their own,” said executive director Samuel Burke at the pharmacy’s dedication Wednesday. 

The pharmacy will operate as a partnership between St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy, St. Dominic Health and Stewpot Community Services, a homeless shelter and social service organization in downtown Jackson. 

It is the pharmacy’s third site in the state, joining locations in Hattiesburg and Biloxi. The organization chose to open the Jackson location due to the capital city’s high poverty rates, Burke said. 

The pharmacy, which is licensed by the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy and operates like any other retail pharmacy, distributes generic medications included on its formulary free of charge to patients. All staff members, including the pharmacist, are volunteers. 

Most medications are purchased wholesale with the support of donations.

“I tell folks all the time I have a terrible business model,” said Burke. “I raise money, I buy medicines, I give it away and then I do it all over again. But that’s what we’re here (for) and we’re called to do.”

The pharmacy also distributes unused prescriptions from nursing homes that would otherwise be destroyed, which is allowed by state law. The pharmacy currently has partnerships with four nursing facilities and expects this number to grow.

Individuals can be referred by clinics, the emergency room or their doctor or can ask for their prescription to be sent directly to the pharmacy without a referral. To receive continued assistance, clients must undergo an eligibility screening process. 

A free shuttle runs to the pharmacy Thursdays from Sister Trinita Community Clinic in downtown Jackson, which provides primary care health services to low-income families and homeless individuals. 

Burke said St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy is the only multi-facility storefront charity pharmacy that allows patients to receive recurring services in the state. 

The need for such services is great, he said, because many Mississippians struggle to afford their prescriptions or choose between paying for their prescriptions and other important expenses. 

“We all know that we could open five, 10, 16, however many more, and there would still be a need,” Burke said. 

A state organization tasked with advocating for and providing legal services to Mississippians with disabilities received its delayed federal funding Wednesday – two weeks after it was forced to stop taking new cases for the first time in its history. 

The federally mandated nonprofit, known as a protection and advocacy organization, was awaiting $700,000 of its federal funding for the current fiscal year. On May 1, it announced it would stop taking new cases as a result of the delay. 

The organization’s leaders said they can see the available funds in the online portal and are resuming all the services that were placed on pause. 

“I was very much elated to see the money had come in this morning,” said Polly Tribble, executive director at Disability Rights Mississippi. “It has allowed us to take a breather, so we aren’t looking at immediate layoffs.”

The organization received no explanation for the delay, DRMS Communications Director Jane Carroll told Mississippi Today. 

The delays affected five of the organization’s larger programs, funded through the Department of Health and Human Services. The programs allowed DRMS to investigate reports of neglect and abuse and to advocate for voter accessibility for those with disabilities – among other services.

However, there are a couple of other top-down changes already implemented or on the horizon, Tribble said.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) launched a “defend the spend” initiative which mandates organizations like DRMS provide line-by-line justification of spending. So far, Tribble says her organization hasn’t received any pushback about its expenditures. 

Tribble and similar organizations in other states still have concerns about future funding, however.  A draft of President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget shows eliminations or significant funding reductions of many of DRMS’ programs. 

“Our concern for FY ‘26 still remains … But for now, we’re celebrating this, and we will keep fighting for our clients this month ahead as they firm up a budget.”

Griffin talks about his Blazers team, which enters the NCAA softball championship tournament this week, and about his famous son who is killing it in his first season of professional baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization. The Clevelands also size up Mississippi teams entering the final week of college baseball season and also discuss next Monday’s Ferriss Trophy presentation.

Stream all episodes here.

Mississippi’s kindergarten vaccination rates, once the highest in the nation, dipped last year as the number of approved religious vaccine exemptions rose. 

The state’s childhood vaccination rates remain high, but public health officials are bracing themselves for possible outbreaks of measles and pertussis among young children as cases of vaccine-preventable diseases have risen across the nation. 

There have been over 1,000 measles cases reported in the U.S. this year alone, compared to 285 cases last year. Three people have died from the virus, once deemed eradicated in the country, including two unvaccinated children in Texas. 

“Our first line of defense is our immunization rates,” said State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney at the State Board of Health Meeting April 10.

Kindergarten vaccination rates have fallen to fourth in the nation. Last school year, the state had 97.5% coverage for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, compared to 99.1% for the 2019-2020 school year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. A vaccine coverage rate of 95% or higher is needed to prevent measles outbreaks.

There have not yet been any reported measles cases in Mississippi, though cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, have accelerated this year. State public health officials say the risk of widespread outbreaks among young children, who are most susceptible to both diseases and severe complications that can lead to death, is low due to high vaccination rates. 

But relying solely on statewide vaccination rates can be deceiving, because it can camouflage clusters of unvaccinated people, said Jana Shaw, a professor of pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University who studies childhood vaccinations and vaccine hesitancy. 

“Transmission of (measles) happens at the community level,” she said. “So if you’re looking at a state level, you may be falsely reassured that the situation is better than what you expect.” 

And vaccine exemptions are the single most important driver of disease outbreaks, said Shaw. 

Parents have requested 5,845 religious vaccine exemptions since they became available in Mississippi two years ago. Over 800 were requested this year. 

Mississippi long permitted only medical vaccine exemptions authorized by a doctor for school entry. That changed in 2023 when a federal judge ruled that parents can opt out of vaccinating their children due to religious beliefs.

The number of exemptions ranges by county, with the highest rates of vaccine exemptions among children in Lincoln, George and Stone counties, using 2023 Census data to calculate child population. 

The lowest rates of religious vaccine exemptions are in Scott, Washington and Leflore counties. 

A fourth of religious vaccine exemptions approved by the state did not list a county. This is because parents are sometimes unsure in which county a child will attend school or day care when they complete the form, said a spokesperson for the Mississippi State Department of Health. 

Only 30% of the state’s approved religious exemptions are for children enrolled in a kindergarten through 12th grade public, private or church school when the exemption was approved. The remaining 70% are for children who were homeschooled, enrolled in day care or not yet enrolled in school.

To request a religious vaccine exemption in Mississippi, a parent or guardian must submit a form and make an appointment at their local county health department to watch a vaccine education video and discuss the benefits and risks of immunization with a nurse. Parents are also informed that if any vaccine-preventable disease occurs or threatens to occur in the community, the child will not be allowed to attend school or day care. 

Religious vaccine exemptions are important because they protect parental autonomy, said Shaw. But they can become a problem when the laws are misused – for convenience or due to misinformation or disinformation. 

Mississippi’s law, which requires parents to go to the county health department and talk to a nurse, helps create safeguards against this, said Shaw, whose research has shown that the easier it is for parents to get a child exempted for non-medical reasons, the higher a state’s exemption rate. 

The health department has made changes to the process, including informing parents with approved religious exemptions that they can choose to vaccinate their children at any time. The agency has also advised providers to continue having conversations about vaccinations with parents who have religious exemptions on file.