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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Richland-based KLLM Transport Services for allegedly discriminating against female students at its driver training academy. The company is owned by Mississippi billionaire brothers Tommy and James Duff.

Tommy Duff has publicly said he is considering running for governor in 2027 but has not announced as a candidate.

The commission, which enforces federal worker discrimination laws, filed the lawsuit against the company Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. KLLM runs training programs in Mississippi and Texas. 

Duff Capital, which is at least a part owner of KLLM, is owned by the Duff brothers. According to Forbes, Duff Capital Investors purchased KLLM for $12 million in 2008 and in 2018 the trucking company brought in $600 million in revenue.

Duff Capital is the largest privately held business in Mississippi with ownership in over 20 companies, making the Duff brothers the wealthiest people in the state. They are estimated to be worth a combined $7 billion.

Court filings said that as early as 2021, students who received a conditional offer of employment from KLLM were required to complete on-the-road training with an experienced driver before they could work independently. Before the approximately six-week training, students were given a form where they could mark whether they preferred a male or female trainer or opt for the earliest available trainer. Trainers were also allowed to indicate the same preferences for their student driver.

KLLM did not assign female students to male trainers who said they preferred to only train male students. Because there were fewer female trainers, female students often had to wait longer to start their training. 

In addition, female student drivers who stated a preference for a female trainer for on-the-road training were not paid while they waited to be paired with a trainer, but male students who indicated a preference for a male trainer were paid, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also said the company had a policy that required female students to inform their spouse that they had requested for the first available trainer or a male trainer, and that they had to certify that the information was shared. There was no similar requirement for male students. The company also required trainers and students to sleep in the truck’s bunk bed, even when the trainer and driver were the opposite sex. 

“Rather than provide the female student driver’s single-sex sleeping quarters that protected their privacy and ensured equal employment opportunity, the employer here instead decided to adopt a series of sex-based discriminatory policies that treated women trainees worse than male trainees and disadvantaged them in their employment opportunities, which is unlawful disparate treatment,” said acting Employment Commission General Counsel Catherine Eschbach in a statement. 

KLLM and a representative for Tommy Duff did not respond to a request for comment by publication time Thursday.

The Hinds County coroner has identified Tasia Fortune as the woman found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home in Jackson earlier this week.

Jackson police declined to release details that might explain how Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman, ended up in the manner she was discovered Monday that evoked memories of the South’s history of lynching.

The coroner’s office said her family has been notified. Her body was sent to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

LaToni Fortune told Mississippi Today on Wednesday she last saw her sister last month when she returned to Kentucky to visit family.

“She just comes back to Kentucky and visit us or we’ll go to Jackson and visit her,” she said.

It’s unclear how long Tasia Fortune was behind the vacant house before neighbors spotted her and summoned police to the 500 block of Road of Remembrance, a mostly Black neighborhood in west Jackson.

Tommie Brown, public information officer for the Jackson Police Department, declined to release an incident report, saying in an email, “This is an active investigation. We are not able to release any information regarding this case at this time.”

In a similar case, Trey Reed, a Black student at Delta State University, was found hanging on campus last September. 

The results of an independent autopsy on Reed have yet to be released. His family recently revealed to the Mississippi Free Press that his ex-girlfriend shared his suicidal texts with the police, and they haven’t heard from their attorney, Ben Crump, in months.

Crump, a nationally known civil rights attorney, represents the family of Nolan Xavier Wells. Wells died after traveling to Horn Island by boat on July 4 with a group of mostly white friends. His body was found two days later off the island, located about 10 miles off the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

An independent autopsy was unable to determine Wells’ cause of death, while the state autopsy has yet to be released.

A north Mississippi man acquitted in 2023 for stabbing a restaurant customer in New Albany will be tried again for attempted murder next year. 

The first-degree attempted murder trial for Lane Mitchell is scheduled for March 22 in Union County. 

Circuit Court Judge Kent Smith acquitted Mitchell before the first trial ended because the victim, Russell Rogers of Tennessee, did not come to court to testify, which the judge found violated Mitchell’s right to confront and cross-examine witnesses. 

After Smith dismissed Mitchell’s charge, prosecutors appealed. The prosecutors from the attorney general’s office were appointed after the district attorney recused himself from the case. They argued that the acquittal would set a precedent of dismissing “every criminal cause when a recalcitrant victim refuses to appear at trial.”

In a 5-4 decision in July 2025, the Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed Mitchell’s acquittal and returned the case to Union County for a new trial. The court said the state had the right to appeal and Smith was incorrect for dismissing Mitchell’s charge. 

Mitchell appealed to the state Supreme Court, arguing that the state couldn’t appeal and that he couldn’t be retried without facing double jeopardy, which protects defendants from being tried twice for the same crime. 

The high court initially agreed to review the appeal, but this year all justices agreed to dismiss the petition for review. 

The case dates to a Feb. 9, 2019, stabbing at the Tallahatchie Gourmet restaurant in New Albany.  

Rogers, a regular at the restaurant, had been there for several hours when Mitchell arrived to join his parents and their friends in the bar area. Staff members testified about interactions with Rogers that day, including how he seemed to make a waitress feel uncomfortable. 

An hour after Mitchell’s arrival, video presented in court and included in court records shows him taking a knife from the bar and holding it behind his back while Rogers talked with a waitress. Mitchell’s father, who was the bartender, talked with Rogers and then Rogers moved toward him. Mitchell approached Rogers from behind and stabbed him in the neck three times, video shows.

Mitchell testified that he was trying to defend his father and the waitress, according to court records. He also said he believed Rogers had a weapon, but none was found.  

Rogers nearly bled out and suffered a stroke. Following the attack, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and mental issues, which later led to him being placed under a conservatorship, according to court records. 

A civil lawsuit was filed while the criminal case was active, leading to years-long litigation revolving around access to Rogers’ medical records related to the stabbing. 

A week before the May 2023 criminal trial, attorneys from the prosecution and defense sent subpoenas to Rogers to appear in court and testify. The Tennessee probate court overseeing his conservatorship quashed the defense’s subpoena, stating Rogers’ mental health issues from the attack made him incapable of testifying.

Appeal records show a number of accusations made against Rogers and his father, the conservator, including that they refused to talk to police investigators after the incident; that Rogers “appear(ed) to be intentionally unavailable” to testify at trial; and that the conservator inserted himself into the case. The state denied the claims.

The unprecedented wave of AI investment rippling across America has come to Mississippi, with at least seven data centers currently in the works. Companies and government officials have promised high-tech jobs, new tax revenue and economic growth for the whole state. 

The data center boom has also crept into politics and education.

Andy Gipson, state agriculture commissioner and Republican candidate for governor in 2027,  has been one of the few statewide officials to express skepticism about data centers. On a recent episode of Mississippi Today’s political podcast, Gipson said that it’s one of the top concerns that he hears from voters and called for more transparency from data centers.

As the companies behind the data centers face a labor shortage nationwide, they’ve looked for answers in state education systems. A new training program at Meridian Community College aims to  address the gap. The college, in partnership with Compass Datacenters, announced a new 15-week program that will prepare students for careers in the industry. 

“Partnering with Compass allows us to meet a national industry need with local talent while giving east Mississippians a direct path to career-building jobs,” said Dr. Tom Huebner, president of Meridian Community College.

On the local governance front, a report from the accounting firm PwC, commissioned by industry group the Data Center Coalition, estimated that existing data centers in Mississippi directly contributed $141 million in state and local taxes in 2024, a 29% increase year over year. This was before any of the large-scale data centers in Mississippi were operational.

An important point of clarification: the 2024 legislation passed for Amazon Web Services’ data centers does not apply to all data centers in the state. So far, all of the other companies have taken the standard data center tax exemption that has been in place since before 2019. 

Other news:

• Hood Industries will close its Wiggins Mill in a few weeks after over 50 years of operations. Local organizations are working to help the around 250 employees find new work.  
• A new report argues that paid parental leave, childcare assistance, health benefits and other family-forward policies offered by employers could bolster the state’s workforce. A March report from the Mississippi Business Alliance Foundation found that employers across the state see affordability and childcare as workforce participation issues, and the current childcare tax credit for employers is being underutilized.
• A German cookie company plans to invest in a $70 million manufacturing operation and create 30 jobs in Madison County.
• There’s a persistent wage gap between women and men, but the inequality is especially acute for Black women. Some estimate that a Black woman must work 19 months to make what a white man earns in a year. To mark Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, experts in Mississippi called for equal pay, more parental leave and pay transparency to close the gap. 

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.   

Every day across Mississippi, mothers wake up early, get their children ready for school, go to work and do everything they can to provide for their families. Yet despite their hard work, far too many still face impossible choices: paying the rent or keeping the lights on, covering childcare or buying groceries, replacing a child’s school uniform or filling a prescription. No parent should have to make those decisions simply because her work is undervalued.

At Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, we see these realities every day. The stories we hear from mothers across our state remind us that the wage gap isn’t an abstract policy debate. It’s a daily struggle that affects whether families can remain stable and whether children have the opportunity to thrive.

That is why Moms’ Equal Pay Day, which is recognized today, is more than a date on the calendar. It marks how far into the following year mothers must work – added with their pay from the previous year – to earn what fathers earned the previous year.

According to the National Women’s Law Center’s most recent Mothers’ Wage Gap report, last updated in May 2025, mothers working full-time, year-round earn approximately 74 cents for every dollar earned by fathers. In Mississippi, that figure drops to approximately 67 cents on the dollar, and the gap widens even further for mothers working part-time or part-year.

For many mothers – especially single mothers who are often their family’s sole provider – that gap translates into fewer opportunities to build savings, absorb unexpected expenses and create long-term financial stability.

Our mission at Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable is to build the political, economic and social power of Black women and girls throughout Mississippi. While we advocate for long-term policy solutions, we also recognize that families facing emergencies cannot wait for legislation to catch up. They need support today.

That understanding gave rise to our Community Outreach and Relief Resources Initiative, CORRI, which helps families weather unexpected hardship with dignity while we continue advocating for lasting economic opportunity.

One of CORRI’s signature efforts, Quarters Because We Care, began as a practical response to families facing extraordinary circumstances during the Jackson water crisis and has grown into a lifeline for parents struggling to keep their households together. Through CORRI, Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable provides emergency support – from laundry services to rent, utility and childcare assistance – that often determines whether a working parent can remain employed.

Clean clothes may seem like a small thing until you’re the parent trying to report to work or send your child to school with dignity. Economic justice is often built on meeting these everyday needs.

The impact of Quarters Because We Care is reflected in what participants tell us. One of the most common responses we hear is: “Thank you. I only came in to wash a couple of loads of laundry – whether it was my children’s school uniforms or my work clothes. Because your organization provided this service, I can now use those resources for other things my family needs.”

Many participants return later the same day or the following day to finish the rest of their laundry because they know they have a safe, welcoming place where they can meet an essential need without added financial stress.

The families we serve come from every corner of Mississippi. They are teachers, restaurant workers, social workers, government employees and, at times, people experiencing homelessness. Their circumstances differ, but they all share the same determination: to provide for themselves and their families with dignity.

Programs like Quarters Because We Care give families room to breathe – allowing them to redirect scarce dollars toward groceries, gas, school supplies, utilities or rent while preserving dignity, restoring hope and reminding them they are not facing these challenges alone.

That program is just one example of how CORRI responds when families face immediate hardship. Our Emergency Assistance Program provides another critical safety net, helping parents bridge temporary financial crises before they become long-term setbacks.

We regularly hear from mothers whose financial stability has been disrupted almost overnight. One mother lost her childcare voucher, threatening her ability to continue working. Another welcomed a new baby while unpaid maternity leave reduced her household to a single income. In both cases, emergency assistance helped prevent temporary setbacks from becoming lasting financial crises by easing concerns about utility shutoffs, eviction and other immediate hardships, allowing parents to focus on caring for their families while regaining stability.

These stories remind us that the wage gap is not simply about unequal paychecks. It is about unequal opportunity. It is about whether families can build savings, purchase homes, afford healthcare, invest in education or recover when life inevitably brings unexpected challenges.

While Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable will continue meeting immediate needs through programs like CORRI, we know firsthand that emergency assistance alone cannot solve the structural inequities that leave too many working mothers one unexpected expense away from financial crisis.

When mothers are paid less than they have earned, the impact extends far beyond individual families. Employers lose valuable talent, local economies lose spending power and communities lose the stability that comes when working families have the opportunity to thrive.

That is why we continue advocating for policies that strengthen economic security for Mississippi’s families, including raising the state’s minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 per hour for 17 years; strengthening equal pay protections by prohibiting employers from relying on salary history; expanding pay transparency and protecting workers who discuss wages from retaliation; strengthening protections against pay discrimination; and expanding access to affordable healthcare so mothers can remain healthy, employed and able to care for their families.

These are not partisan ideas. They are practical investments in Mississippi’s workforce, businesses, children and future.

Moms’ Equal Pay Day should challenge all of us – not simply to acknowledge the wage gap, but to ask what we are willing to do about it.

Every mother deserves the opportunity to provide for her family without having to work harder simply to earn less. Every child deserves the stability that comes when the youngster’s parent is paid fairly.

When we invest in mothers, we invest in stronger children, stronger communities and a stronger Mississippi. Closing the wage gap is about more than equal pay. It’s about ensuring every family has the opportunity not simply to survive, but to build a secure future for generations to come.

Cassandra Welchlin is executive director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable. A licensed social worker, advocate and mother, she has spent more than 20 years advancing policies that strengthen economic security and health for Mississippi women and families. 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said Thursday it plans to overhaul Head Start, tossing out many of the regulations that are the hallmark of the early education program for the nation’s poorest children.

Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federally funded preschool program, said the proposed changes would encourage more local decision-making. Early childhood policy experts argue the deregulation could undermine Head Start’s position as the gold standard in early education.

The Associated Press previously reported on the overhaul proposal, which became public Thursday when it was posted online. The public will have 60 days to weigh in on it before it goes into effect.

Head Start centers serve around 700,000 of the nation’s most vulnerable children, including those who are homeless, in foster care or disabled. That wouldn’t change under the overhaul.

But Alex J. Adams, an assistant secretary at Health and Human Services, said the department is hoping to give Head Start centers the flexibility to change the way they operate. That means eliminating most of Head Start’s regulations, such as standards for low staff-to-student ratios or requirements to provide services to preschoolers’ families.

“Federal mandates can certainly hinder local decision-making, drive up costs and limit the program’s reach,” Adams said on a call with reporters. He highlighted a decade-long decline in Head Start enrollment. “If we get this proposed rule right, we will grow the number of Head Start slots.”

On a call previewing the proposed changes, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy spoke reverently about Head Start, which was started by his uncle Sargent Shriver during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.

“It’s a program that works for the most vulnerable of the poorest kids in our society, and it’s really important we protect it,” Kennedy said.

But the changes would undermine many of the things that make Head Start distinct from other early education programs, policy experts say.

“The model was created with intentionality,” said Khari Garvin, who oversaw Head Start under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. It was designed, he said, “as part of a strategy to move families out of poverty.”

What makes Head Start different

Head Start, which began in the 1960s as part of Johnson’s War on Poverty, is currently governed by more than 100 pages of regulations. Those regulations require centers to have low staff-to-student ratios and a research-backed curriculum, among other things, and they ensure centers are providing wraparound services that are critical to children in poverty, including medical and dental screenings and parent coaching.

The proposal would toss out nearly all of that rule book. Instead, Head Start’s 1,600 operators — which include nonprofits and school districts — would look to state and local childcare licensing requirements for guidance on many aspects of the program.

Once the proposed regulations are published online, the public will have 60 days to weigh in. The final rules could face legal scrutiny, further delaying their implementation.

While the proposed rules largely loosen requirements, Adams emphasized that centers have the option to continue to operate as they had in the past. He estimated the new rules could generate more than $2 billion in savings and potentially allow Head Start to serve more children.

The proposal adds in at least two new requirements, officials said. It includes a 5% cap on administrative expenses, down from 15% under current rules, and new nutrition provisions championed by Kennedy.

State rules are more lenient

Overall, experts emphasize, state childcare licensing requirements are far more lax than Head Start’s current regulations. State rules are largely focused on ensuring children are healthy and safe. Generally speaking, they do not require centers to provide things like medical or dental screenings, they don’t specify ways to engage with parents, and they don’t speak to what — if anything — should be taught in childcare settings.

Shantel Meek, who heads the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, co-authored an analysis that compared state licensing requirements with Head Start standards and found massive gaps.

“Whereas licensing is, like, the bare minimum to keep kids safe, Head Start includes keeping kids safe but also ensuring that kids are developing, growing, learning well,” Meek said. “It’s a totally different purpose.”

Critically, states allow adults to care for far more children than is allowed under Head Start standards. In Mississippi, for example, one Head Start teacher is only allowed to teach up to four 2-year-olds. State childcare regulations would permit up to a dozen 2-year-olds to be supervised by one adult.

Head Start, which operates in all 50 states, has long had support from both Democrats and Republicans. But it has faced repeated threats under the Trump administration, whose budget chief, Russell Vought, had previously called for it to be eliminated. Not long after Trump, a Republican, took office again in early 2025, some Head Start programs had to briefly shutter because they had problems accessing their federal money. Later, a budget draft eliminated Head Start’s funding, but it was restored after widespread backlash.

In a call with reporters, Kennedy said he believes Head Start is effective. He cited research showing its graduates have fewer law enforcement encounters, do better in school and have better jobs than their peers. He added that he tried to shield Head Start from many of the cuts that hit the rest of his agency.

Still, the Trump administration succeeded last year in laying off much of Head Start’s support staff and closing half of its regional offices.

The Woodward Hines Education Foundation will provide $800,000 for FAITH scholarships, which the state awards to former foster youths who are attending colleges in Mississippi, officials announced Wednesday. The announcement comes a week after the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid notified applicants that the scholarships were not being funded for 2026-27. 

The foundation stepped up to cover the awards in response to news about the lack of funding, President and CEO Jim McHale said Wednesday during a news conference. The scholarships will go to about 170 students.

“We are going to make sure that every one of these students has the opportunity to take advantage of the scholarship,” said Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford who is chair of the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee. “That is the thing about Mississippi. In a time like this, everybody is going to work together to make sure that we get things covered.”

READ MORE: Mississippi financial aid programs face a $7.3 million shortfall, putting college grants at risk for more than 27K students

The office had requested $6.5 million — enough to cover the FAITH scholarships and Winter-Reed Teacher Loan Repayment Program — but the Legislature approved appropriations for less than half that amount. Officials at the financial aid office applied the money they received to the scholarships, but that was not enough to cover awards for all of the eligible students. 

The loan repayment program will not award money this year for the first time since it was created in 2021.

The FAITH scholarships and the funding loss for the loan repayment program are part of a broader funding crisis for the state financial aid office. Mississippi financial aid officials have said almost 27,000 college students could receive less state financial aid because of a $7.3 million budget shortfall, a gap between the funding request and legislators’ appropriation. 

The funding gap could force the financial aid office to cut programs that help low-income students, as well as hundreds of foster youths and future teachers, pay for college.

The Woodward Hines foundation’s gift is a one-time boost for the FAITH scholarships. Future funding for the awards is uncertain.

On Friday, the foundation will publish information on its website for anyone who wants to donate to the FAITH scholarships. 

Bill Kinkade, a Republican from Byhalia and the FAITH scholarship’s namesake, vowed to work with other legislators before January to address any anticipated funding shortfalls for the financial aid office. In 2022, the Legislature created the State Representative Bill Kinkade Fostering Access & Inspiring True Hope Scholarship, which covers expenses such as  tuition, housing, books and living costs that remain after other financial aid is applied.

“This program has such a broad impact for our most needed youth because I’ve received so much input,” Kinkade said. “We need to continue funding it because it is vital.”

The increasingly insane world of college sports has come to this: A month before the 2026 football season will begin, Ole Miss has sued two of its former football players – Princewill Umanmielen and Devin Harper – for breach of contract.

Last season, Umanmielen and Harper helped Ole Miss to the most victories in school history. This season, they will play for the Rebels’ hated rival, LSU.

Umanmielen, a prized edge rusher, and Harper, a reserve offensive lineman, transferred to LSU in January after signing revenue sharing agreements with Ole Miss only a few days earlier. 

Umanmielen reportedly signed his contract with Ole Miss on Jan. 3, Harper on Jan. 6. Keep in mind, Ole Miss had defeated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 and would lose to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl and national semifinals on Jan. 8.

Despite signing the legal contracts, Harper entered the transfer portal on Jan. 14, followed by Umanmielen on Jan. 20. Harper signed with LSU on Jan. 16, Umanmielen on Jan. 21.

At LSU, Unmanielen and Harper will be joining former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who also tried to lure several other players, including superstars Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy, to LSU. LSU also successfully lured prized linebacker TJ Dottery away from Ole Miss, but Dottery had not signed a new contract with Ole Miss and thus owes Ole Miss no compensation.

The Ole Miss contracts of Umanmielen and Harper included buyout clauses if the players did not fulfill the terms. The buyouts total approximately $1 million, with Umanmielen’s by far the larger of the two. And that’s what Ole Miss is suing for. 

LSU will play at Ole Miss on the night of Sept. 19, roughly six weeks away. As if this fierce, storied rivalry needed any further fanning of the flames, there you have it, a wildfire.

Harper, a 19-year-old sophomore from Shreveport, Louisiana, played sparingly as a freshman, last season but is considered a promising offensive lineman. Umanmielen, a 21-year-old senior from Austin, Texas, who began his career at Nebraska, led Ole Miss in quarterback sacks last season with nine. He is, as coaches say, a stud. Neither has commented publicly.

Indeed, the only comment thus far has come in a statement from Ole Miss last week.

“The University of Mississippi values its student-athletes and is committed to honoring all obligations made to them. In return, the university expects that same commitment from its student-athletes and their representatives in upholding their contracts,” the university said. “Before transferring to another institution, student-athletes Devin Harper and Princewill Umanmielen signed revenue sharing agreements that included a provision requiring them to compensate the university with a predetermined amount if they departed before fulfilling their commitment. The University of Mississippi has a responsibility to enforce its contractual terms, and this position is consistent with the actions of other institutions in the current landscape of college athletics.”

The statement goes on to say Ole Miss attempted to amicably resolve the matter before filing suit.

Seems to this writer Ole Miss holds all the legal cards. Umanmielen and Harper signed legally binding contracts. They failed to meet their obligations. Should the case go to court, that would be the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Mississippi. Talk about home field advantage. That’s a much bigger advantage than Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Sept. 19.

Keep in mind, Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding still face possible sanctions because of the successful recruitment of linebacker Luke Ferrell, who had already begun attending classes at Clemson after transferring from California. After LSU signed Dottery, Ole Miss needed a linebacker. Ferrell fit the bill. In just three weeks’ time, Ferrell was part of three different football teams: Cal, Clemson and then Ole Miss. This kind of stuff is going on all over the country.

So, welcome to collegiate athletics, 2026-style, replete with multimillion dollar salaries, lawsuits, agents and much, much more. You may wonder what all this has to do with higher education, and I will tell you: nothing. Nothing at all. 

Question: When is the last time you heard or read about a player being deemed academically ineligible? And you won’t. Good luck to the professor who flunks a so-called student-athlete the university is paying $5 million a year to play football. 

This is professional sports without collective bargaining and without an effective commissioner. It really is insane. Teams no longer give it the old college try. No, they write checks and hire lawyers. It is sordid. It can’t continue.

Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday new pilot programs aimed to combat obesity, eliminate obstetric care deserts and expand mental health services in rural Mississippi. 

The programs will be funded with federal Rural Health Transformation Program dollars. The Mississippi State Department of Health will oversee the projects designed to reduce obesity through Make America Healthy Again movement principles, track chronic conditions through remote patient-care monitoring and deploy mobile clinics to areas lacking access to prenatal or obstetric care. 

The Department of Mental Health will launch a new telehealth program for veterans and first responders, expand crisis diversion centers to provide an alternative to emergency departments and jails for people experiencing mental health crises and expand access to evidence-based training programs for behavioral healthcare staff. 

“This is not a collection of individual or separate projects,” said Reeves, who spearheaded the state’s application for the federal dollars last fall and is overseeing their distribution. “It’s one, coordinated project.”

In December, Mississippi was awarded nearly $206 million as a part of the Rural Health Transformation Program. States will receive payments over five years as a part of the national $50 billion program, which was designed to support rural health care and offset the disproportionate impact rural hospitals are expected to face as a result of federal spending cuts Congress passed into law last summer. 

Mississippi’s plan included a statewide rural health assessment and other initiatives focused on coordinating care, strengthening the workforce, creating a statewide health information exchange, expanding telehealth opportunities and improving infrastructure. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved Mississippi’s program budget in April. Mississippi must obligate the funds by October and spend them by Sept. 30, 2027. 

Reeves said the state received 726 applications from 236 organizations for the initial three grant opportunities offered as a part of the program. Applications for the initiatives, which focus on facility improvements, upgrading technology systems and increasing telehealth capacity, were due by July 15. Reeves said applicants requested more than $676 million in funding for $81.7 million in available funds.

“The need is greater than the funding available in the first round,” Reeves said during a Wednesday press conference that was broadcast on social media.

Richard Grimes, program director for Mississippi’s Rural Health Transformation Program Office, said state agencies will be responsible for the scoring and evaluation of the grant applications, keeping a firewall between program administration and scorekeeping. 

Decisions about funding will be made using a scoring rubric designed to identify the projects that will make the greatest difference for rural Mississippians. The first three grant programs’ applications have begun being evaluated by independent reviewers, whose recommendations will be vetted by the Mississippi State Department of Health.

The program’s office currently seeks applications for workforce development and psychiatric emergency services grant opportunities. Applications are due by Aug.17 and will be reviewed by the state Department of Mental Health and Accelerate Mississippi, the state’s workforce development agency.

The state has also released requests for proposals for an assessment of the emergency medical system’s capacity and expertise to begin designing a health information exchange, Reeves said. 

Grant recipients will be required to pay for most projects upfront and then be reimbursed, though there may be some exceptions. Reeves said his office will work with awardees to ensure the process is not burdensome.

“The reimbursement’s going to happen as soon as humanly possible,” he said.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch kicked off her statewide tour promoting her 2027 campaign for governor by promising to speed up the income tax elimination, improve the state’s healthcare outcomes and work to make Mississippi more affordable.

Speaking at the Mississippi Republican Party headquarters in downtown Jackson on Wednesday, Fitch described herself as aligned with President Donald Trump and said she wants to make Mississippi the “leader in conservative governance.”

“Together, we will make a bold and sustaining change for Mississippi,” Fitch said. “That is how we make the most of this moment in time. That is how we make Mississippi the nation’s leader. That is how we give you and your family the best future.” 

In 2025, the Legislature passed a bill to phase out Mississippi’s income tax, which Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law. 

Mississippi is currently reducing its income tax rate to 4% from a previously passed tax cut being phased in. Beginning next year, the new law will reduce that rate by .25% over four years until it reaches 3%. In 2031, the tax will be reduced incrementally each year as certain revenue “growth triggers” are met. 

Lawmakers have predicted that the income tax could be eliminated in roughly 13 years if the revenue growth triggers are met.

As state lawmakers cut taxes, they are facing tough funding choices. During the 2026 session, the Legislature adopted a $7.4 billion state budget in which the Division of Medicaid was funded through excess cash reserves. Legislative leaders said they did not give public teachers a large pay raise because of the Division of Medicaid’s funding needs. 

Fitch told reporters that she would be “very diligent” and look for the “correct revenue stream” to responsibly speed up the elimination of the income tax. 

“If you’re not paying your personal income tax, that is a huge benefit for you,” Fitch said. “That’s a huge benefit for the workforce as we attract businesses.” 

Fitch is the first woman to serve as attorney general in Mississippi. If elected, she would be the first female governor in the state’s history. 

With Fitch as the state’s top legal officer, attorneys from her office argued the landmark  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned national abortion rights, and now abortion is almost entirely banned in Mississippi and in multiple other states. 

Fitch’s role in that case has made her a lightning rod for supporters of abortion rights, as well as a champion of the anti-abortion movement. Mississippi has some of the worst maternal health and infant mortality outcomes in the nation. 

She told supporters at the Jackson event that she wants to promote policies that improve Mississippi’s health outcomes. When asked how she would do that, she pointed to her record on suing pharmacy benefit managers on behalf of the state. PBMs oversee prescription drug plans for employer and have been accused of driving up drug prices.

“I don’t mind going after these big companies like the pharmacy benefit managers who are not doing the right thing,” Fitch said. 

Wednesday’s event in Jackson was the first of a multiple appearances across the state over three days where Fitch will tout her plans and qualifications to succeed Reeves, who is constitutionally prohibited from seeking a third term in 2027.

Fitch, a Holly Springs native, was elected to two terms as state treasurer before being elected attorney general in 2019. She began her legal career in the attorney general’s office as a special assistant attorney general. 

She has also served as executive director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board, worked in private practice and was deputy executive director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Fitch joins what’s expected to be a crowded Republican primary for governor. So far, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson and former House Speaker Philip Gunn have announced they’re running for governor. 

Other possible contenders for governor are state Auditor Shad White, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, former U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, businessman and radio talk show host Gerard Gibert and billionaire businessman Tommy Duff. 

Here is a list of candidates who have announced they are running for statewide office in 2027: 

Governor: 

Lynn Fitch (R)

Andy Gipson (R)

Philip Gunn (R)

Lieutenant Governor: 

Michael Watson (R)

Secretary of State: 

Shuwaski Young (R)

State Auditor: 

Nick Bain (R)

Daniel Sparks (R)