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Betting-wise, the Ole Miss baseball Rebels are underdogs in their opening College World Series game Friday night against North Carolina. That means nothing. Zero. Zilch.

There really is no such thing as an underdog in baseball. There are no upsets, either. Baseball is different that way. Anybody can beat anybody. There are so many variables.

But for entertainment purposes only, here’s the way the oddsmakers rank the eight CWS teams: 1) a tie, Georgia and North Carolina, 3) Texas, 4) West Virginia, 5) Ole Miss, 6) Alabama, 7) Oklahoma, and 8) Troy.

Now then, for entertainment purposes again, here’s the way I would rank them: 1) a tie, Georgia and Texas, 3) North Carolina, 4) Ole Miss, 5) Alabama, 6) West Virginia, 7) Oklahoma, and 8) Troy.

That written, don’t count Troy out. Oddsmakers didn’t give Troy much chance in the Gainesville Regional, especially after the Trojans lost their first game to Miami. But then the Trojans reeled off four straight victories, including sweeping No. 8 national seed Florida in the final two games 16-11 and 10-2. You score 26 runs in two games against Florida, you can beat anybody. Troy can. One through nine in the batting order, Troy hitters are a line drive waiting to happen.

Ole Miss fans should know better than most how much betting odds mean in baseball. Ole Miss was the fifth betting choice entering the 2022 College World Series, just as the Rebels are now. And you know what happened: Ole Miss, the last team to get in the 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament, won the championship. Texas, which was the betting favorite, lost its first two games. Stanford, the second betting favorite, also went two and out. Ole Miss defeated Oklahoma, the seventh betting favorite, in the championship series.

State fans know, too. Texas and Vanderbilt were the co-favorites to win the 2021 College World Series, but Mississippi State, the No. 7 betting favorite, won it all.

In college baseball, it’s about playing your best when it matters most. It’s also about the matchups you face along the way. The best Ole Miss baseball team I ever covered – better than the national championship team – was the 2005 edition that featured Stephen Head, Brian Pettway, Chris Coghlan, Zach Cozart, and I could go on and on. That team had six MLB first day draftees, won 48 games and a Regional – and then got matched with Texas in a Super Regional. It was crazy: The best two teams in the country that season had to play one another in a Super Regional at Oxford. In a three-day display of terrific college baseball, the Rebels played error-less, inspired baseball. Texas just played better. And then Texas waltzed through the College World Series to win the championship.

Head, a pitching and hitting standout for those Rebels and now a Los Angeles Dodgers talent scout, remembers it all too well.

“We knew how good we were,” Head now says. “Texas was really good, but so were we. It was kind of sickening to watch that World Series on TV, knowing we were good enough to win it all and didn’t even get there.”

Mississippi State players surely will feel the same way watching this World Series. The Bulldogs, who lost two close games in the Super Regional at Georgia, surely had the talent, hitting, pitching and depth to win it all. They just ran into a Georgia buzzsaw. It happens.

Southern Miss, the No. 9 national seed and winner of 44 games this season, won’t have any fun watching Troy in the CWS, having beaten the Trojans in four of six meetings this season. The Eagles also own victories over CWS participants Alabama and Ole Miss, but they couldn’t get it done when it mattered most.

Ole Miss did. So what are the Rebels’ realistic chances at Omaha? They could win it all. They also could go two and out. It’s baseball, you know.

So much depends on the game against North Carolina. Only three teams this century have lost their first CWS game and then gone on to win it all. It can be done, as three teams have shown, but it is exceedingly difficult. Few teams possess the pitching depth to lose the opener and then navigate the losers’ bracket.

And that means so much depends on the strong right arm of lanky Taylor Rabe, the announced Rebel starter for Friday night’s game. Rabe, a draft-eligible sophomore, has emerged as the Rebels’ most dependable starting pitcher late in the season with six consecutive quality starts in his last six outings.

Most onlookers probably expected Mike Bianco to to go with 23-year-old left-hander Hunter Elliott, who has been there and done this before. He was the pitching hero of the 2022 national championship run. But North Carolina handles left-handed pitching well and Rabe has been absolutely terrific down the stretch. The Rebels badly need for him to continue that excellence Friday night.

A federal judge in Mississippi dismissed attorneys from a case this week after discovering they irresponsibly used generative artificial intelligence to research and write legal documents.

As first reported by Mississippi Free Press, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi Sharion Aycock said in a ruling Monday that counsel from both sides “blindly” used AI in their legal filings, resulting in hallucinations, or fabricated quotes or sources, which is a hallmark of AI usage.

The four attorneys are involved in a lawsuit stemming from a contractual pay dispute between Tom Withers III and the city of Aberdeen. Withers was represented by Kathleen Wilson and Shauncey Hunter Ridgeway. Mark McClinton and Kathryn Young Williams represented the city. 

Aycock informed the parties about her concerns in December. She ordered the attorneys to defend their AI usage at a January hearing, and both legal teams filed documents correcting the hallucinated sources. 

Though the attorneys “expressed embarrassment and apologized” for their actions at the hearing, according to Aycock’s ruling, she announced Monday that she was removing the four attorneys from the case and barring two of them from appearing before Northern District of Mississippi courts for two years.

According to the June 8 ruling, Williams admitted to using an AI tool to conduct research, and Wilson admitted to using an AI tool to draft her legal filing. Neither verified the AI work before filing their briefs. McClinton and Ridgeway, based in Mississippi, admitted to failing to review the error-laden legal filings before submitting them, despite signing their names to the documents.

Wilson, who is based in Baton Rouge, testified in January that she didn’t know AI could hallucinate sources. But Aycock called that explanation “insufficient and incredulous” in her ruling, given increasing legal AI usage incidents throughout the country.

Judges in other states have applied sanctions and fines or disqualified lawyers caught negligently using artificial intelligence. Last year, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi Henry T. Wingate admitted that his staff used AI to draft a flawed court order.

“I’m trying to shake back from all of this and regroup,” Wilson said Thursday, when reached by Mississippi Today. 

She declined to comment on case specifics, but said the sanctions were fair.

“Unfortunately for the attorneys, I think the judge gets it exactly right,” said Ben Cooper, a professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law who studies AI and is a member of the Mississippi Bar Association’s Ethics Committee. 

“You’d have to have your head in the sand to not know what’s going on in terms of AI hallucinating and lawyers getting in trouble for submitting briefs that contain hallucinated citations,” he added. “At this point, no lawyer can credibly say they aren’t aware of the risks, and it’s kind of hard to believe that this keeps happening.”

Williams, who is based in Houston, Texas, testified her firm started using an in-house AI legal research software a few months prior to the court’s December order. She first told the court that the software was designed for Texas law, but later backtracked and said Mississippi was within the software’s scope.

Additionally, Aycock wrote that Williams disregarded her firm’s AI policy, which requires attorneys verify AI work. 

“The Court finds that she was aware that the software was not designed to produce Mississippi case law and that she acted in bad faith in using it anyway,” Aycock wrote.

Aycock also noted both Wilson and Williams are based in other states and practicing in Mississippi as pro hac vice attorneys, which means they’re out-of-state attorneys who have been given temporary permission to practice in Mississippi.

The temporary permission is a “privilege, not a right,” Aycock wrote. She revoked their admission in this case. She also barred them from appearing in any case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi for two years and ordered them to pay fines. 

Additionally, Aycock ordered Wilson to attend a legal education course on artificial intelligence and submit proof of attendance.

“The problem isn’t that they used AI,” Cooper said. “It’s that they used AI irresponsibly. No matter what AI they use, they have to be checking what it’s giving them. It’s not hard, and it doesn’t take a lot of time for a lawyer to check the citations and make sure they exist.”

Aycock disqualified Ridgeway and McClinton from the case and ordered them to pay fines. Aycock noted that while they both “acted negligently and carelessly,” they did not act in bad faith. 

“In an era of rampant unverified AI usage within the legal field, this case presents a prime example of the risk associated with serving as a rubberstamp when acting as local counsel,” Aycock wrote.

Cooper said the determination was “tough, but fair.” While the judge recognized the Mississippi-based lawyers had less culpability, they were still responsible, he said. 

“It’s a wake-up call for lawyers when they act as local counsel that they are also going to have to do a final check themselves,” he said.

RIdgeway, Williams and McClinton could not be reached for comment.

Copies of Aycock’s order are also being sent to the Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas bar associations. Cooper said those bar associations will have to decide if they want to prosecute the case, and the attorneys will have an opportunity to defend themselves. 

“It’s surprising and disappointing that this keeps happening, and unfortunately, it seems to be happening more and more,” he said. 

Mississippi’s chamber of commerce is partnering with the state’s workforce development office to strengthen the state’s talent pool.

The Mississippi Business Alliance Foundation’s partnership with Accelerate Mississippi will support a new council that establishes state higher education goals and strategies. There will be a focus on certification and credentialing programs in addition to more traditional degrees.

“By leveraging data, employer input, and strategic partnerships, we can strengthen pathways that help more Mississippians develop the skills and competencies employers need,” Courtney Taylor, executive director of Accelerate Mississippi, said in a statement. 

The Mississippi Postsecondary Attainment Council replaces the Education Achievement Council, a move that Scott Waller, president of the foundation, says will help the state better meet its workforce needs.

“It creates a different approach in creating the strategy of how attainment aligns with our job needs in Mississippi.” Waller said. 

Key questions are whether the state is focusing on training and certifications that meet the needs of businesses and how to help students identify pathways that they want to pursue and are motivated to be successful in. 

“When we do this properly, it will make a difference. It will help us get to a point that we can start to see us have real outcomes. That means opportunities for Mississippians and every population across the state to be successful,” Waller said.

Amazon in Mississippi: growth at what cost?

In 2024, the state Legislature limited oversight of utility spending to support Amazon’s data centers. Entergy Mississippi, which supplies power to Amazon and is the state’s largest provider of electricity, has maintained that its agreements with Amazon will lead to long-term savings for ratepayers. 

New reporting from Mississippi Today’s environmental reporter, Alex Rozier, breaks down concerns from outside experts over the legislation and how it is almost impossible to independently verify the company’s claims.

Entergy has said that rates were expected to increase anyway but the data center investment will keep the hikes lower than previously forecasted. However, a recent report, commissioned by environmental groups, claims that residential rates have already increased by $10.60 a month because of data centers.

Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, recently wrote that the company’s customers will see $2 billion worth of savings over the next 20 years. 

Last year, Fisackerly told Mississippi Today that before the Amazon deal, Entergy Mississippi wasn’t growing, costs were increasing and infrastructure needed to be replaced. He said that the revenue from data centers will enable the company to build new, more efficient power plants and make other improvements to the grid that will benefit all rate payers.

Also, on the Mississippi Amazon data center front:

• Amazon and the city of Clinton celebrated the start of construction of one of the company’s newest data centers.
• More details and a status update for all of the company’s projects in the state.

In other news: 

• In Lowndes County, a construction summer camp is giving girls an opportunity to gain new skills and explore different careers through hands-on learning.
• Residents of DeSoto County are suing Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company over the “persistent and disturbing noise” coming from its power plant. This comes just days before its parent company is expected to go public with a target valuation of $1.7 trillion.
• According to reporting from the Mississippi Business Journal, five projects have recently finished filming in the state. And a Mississippi-based film maker has ideas on opportunities for the state to grow the industry.
• Nissan is exploring partnerships with other automotive companies to build their vehicles in its Canton plant. Last year, the company delayed plans to construct electric vehicles at the site, citing slowing demand in the U.S.
• NPL Construction is investing $1.9 million to build a new fabrication plant in Greenwood. The Arizona-based energy infrastructure construction company said the 70,000 square foot facility will create 40 jobs.

The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled in favor of Attorney General Lynn Fitch in a dispute she had with State Auditor Shad White over which of them has the legal right to try to claw back state welfare money they believe was misspent.

Justice Jenifer Branning wrote that Mississippi law tasks the attorney general with being the “chief legal officer” of the state, while the state auditor’s duties include accounting, auditing and investigation.

“The attorney general must be an attorney, and the auditor has no such requirement,” Branning wrote. 

All six of the other current justices agreed with Branning’s opinion. There are currently two vacancies on the nine-member court. 

White, in a statement, said now that the Supreme Court has ruled Fitch has the sole authority to file lawsuits to recover misspent taxpayer money, he can only assume she will “now change course and begin to aggressively fight in court for the recovery of all the welfare money.” 

“Maybe she will fight as hard to do that as she fought to stop me from recovering the money,” White said. “Mississippi taxpayers deserve nothing less.”

Fitch’s office declined to comment, other than pointing to a passage in the ruling that stated state law.

The issue at the center of the legal fight between the two statewide officials is about $730,000 that White claims Pro Football Hall of Fame athlete Brett Favre owes the state because of unpaid interest. 

Fitch’s office, on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, sued dozens of defendants, including Favre, to try to recoup allegedly misspent welfare money. But it did not include funds that White’s office is pursuing.

White, then, attempted to sue Favre to recoup a portion of allegedly misspent welfare money, which prompted Fitch to sue White to block the suit from going forward.

The legal disagreement between the two offices stems from a section of Mississippi law stating that the auditor is “to institute suit, and the attorney general shall prosecute the same in any court of the state,” when recovering misspent money.

Fitch, as the state’s top legal officer, wrote in court papers that she had the exclusive right to file a civil lawsuit on behalf of the state, and it would be unrealistic to compel the attorney general to file litigation she doesn’t believe is legitimate. 

READ MORE: AG Lynn Fitch and Auditor Shad White argue who can sue over welfare scandal money

White’s attorneys said in court earlier this year that the plain reading of the state law clearly gives him the authority to initiate lawsuits and requires the attorney general to follow through and prosecute on his behalf. 

A Hinds County chancery judge initially sided with White, so the attorney general appealed to the state’s high court.

The two officials have said they’re considering running for governor and have clashed in recent years over the handling of Mississippi’s massive welfare scandal, which has seen multiple people plead guilty to state and federal crimes.

Alabama’s plans to execute a death row inmate using nitrogen gas appeared to be thwarted by a federal judge permanently blocking the state from using that method, declaring it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks issued the decision Tuesday, permanently enjoining the state from executing Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas. Lee was scheduled to be executed Thursday at an Alabama prison.

A spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state is appealing the decision. The case will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has previously let nitrogen executions proceed.

The appeals court ruling marks the latest potential shift in the United States’ ever-evolving use of capital punishment. States with the death penalty have a variety of execution methods on the books, including lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas and firing squad.

Here’s a look at the execution methods currently in use and the ones that have fallen out of favor:

Lethal injection is most states’ primary method

Twenty-eight states and the federal government authorize the use of lethal injection, in which an inmate has one or more deadly drugs injected into their bodies as they are strapped to a gurney, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit center.

But lethal injection has been plagued by problems. States often struggle to obtain the necessary drugs, in part because pharmaceutical manufacturers have banned the use of the lethal injection components for executions.

Some execution teams have struggled or failed to find suitable veins, needles have become clogged or disengaged and in some cases multiple doses of the drugs have been needed to kill the condemned person.

Those problems have prompted some states to experiment with different execution methods. After a botched execution attempt in 2024, Idaho lawmakers made death by firing squad the state’s primary execution method.

Lethal injection was first proposed in New York in the late 1800s, though that state eventually opted to go with electrocution, said Fordham Law School Professor Deborah Denno. The very thing that made lethal injection appealing to death penalty proponents — its relatively sanitized appearance — appalled medical societies around the country, Denno said.

“It’s what people would expect when they walk into a hospital, what you would expect doctors to do who are really concerned that you don’t suffer,” Denno said. “So, you transplant that idea onto a method that’s designed to kill somebody, and that’s a really good marketing tool for the public.”

Firing squads rarely used, but that may be changing

Six people have been executed by firing squad since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The use of firing squads is rare, but support for the approach appears to be growing in some regions.

Five states — Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina — have authorized the use of firing squads, and Florida and North Carolina both have laws allowing any constitutional method of execution to be used if necessary. Tennessee authorizes the use of methods like firing squads if its primary methods are found unconstitutional.

READ MORE: New law gives MDOC commissioner choice in how people are executed

The U.S. Justice Department announced in April that it is adopting firing squads as a permitted method of execution as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to expedite capital punishment cases.

“Not to get political, but there is a strand in our culture that is showing a greater acceptance of the use of violence in this particular context,” said Denno. “In this country’s history, we’ve never had that many states adopt firing squads ever.”

In firing squad executions, a condemned person is usually bound to a chair and is shot through the heart by execution staffers standing up to 25 feet away. The method is meant to quickly stop a person’s heart, but it can be botched.

Attorneys for death row inmates in South Carolina say a man put to death by firing squad last year was conscious and likely suffered in extreme pain for as long as a minute because the bullets struck Mikal Mahdi lower than expected.

Electrocution executions are declining

Nine states authorize the use of electrocution, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee. Since 1976, 163 electrocutions have been carried out. But only 19 have been done since 2000.

In this method, a person is strapped to a chair and has electrodes placed on their head and leg before between 500 and 2,000 volts run through their body. The last electrocution took place in 2020 in Tennessee.

Texas killed 361 inmates by electrocution from 1924 to 1964, according to the state’s Department of Criminal Justice.

Since 1976, 163 people have been executed by electrocution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Electrocution executions have been rife with problems, particularly in Florida, where in some executions the condemned person actually caught on fire or was left with deep burns, Denno said. Two states, Georgia and Nebraska, have rendered electrocution unconstitutional.

Still, at least some death row inmates have chosen electrocution or firing squad when offered the choice between those methods and lethal injection. Those choices likely reflect more about the number of botched lethal injection executions in the U.S. than any endorsement of the other methods, said Denno.

US appeals court questions lethal gas executions

Nitrogen gas has been used in eight executions nationally. Seven of those were in Alabama and one in Louisiana.

Other states that include lethal gas as an authorized method are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming. In lethal gas executions, a condemned person is typically strapped to a chair or gurney in an airtight chamber before it is filled with a lethal gas. A mask is placed over the prisoner’s face and nitrogen gas is pumped in, depriving the person of oxygen and resulting in death. From 1979 to 1999, 11 inmates were executed using cyanide gas.

In 2024, Alabama revived the method, becoming the first state to use nitrogen gas to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith.

Smith shook violently for several minutes during the execution, and a lawsuit filed by another death row inmate contends the process was tortuous and “a human experiment that officials botched miserably.”

The federal judge’s ruling in Lee’s case means nitrogen gas is no longer an option for executions in Alabama, but that could change if the state moves forward with its promised appeal, and if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to consider the matter.

Lawsuits lead states to switch execution methods

Hanging was the primary method of execution around the world for centuries, said Denno, and that didn’t change in the U.S. until lawmakers became concerned that it might be struck down in the courts.

Data collected by researchers of U.S. executions from 1608 to 2002 found 9,322 people were put to death by hanging. But in capital punishment’s modern era, only three people in the U.S. have been executed that way, one each in the years 1993, 1994 and 1996.

“Hangings are really gruesome, and they were also getting increasingly out of control with huge crowds,” said Denno. “That raised a lot of public concern over what this was doing societally, and there was pressure to come up with something more humane. Parallel to all of that, there was concern among some politicians that this could lead to getting rid of the death penalty entirely, so we better come up with something else.”

That same pattern continues today, said Denno.

“States typically change for one of two reasons: One, there’s a series of botches in their particular state and they think the method is going to be constitutionally challenged or it is being constitutionally challenged,” said Denno. “The other reason is that they look at what other states are doing. If you have a bunch of states adopting a new method, and one particular state fears their method may come under challenge, then they’ll switch for that reason.”

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Former Associated Press reporter Juan A. Lozano contributed to this article.

Hinds County’s underpaid public defenders will temporarily earn more through the end of the year after the Board of Supervisors scrounged up money left over from construction on the new jail.

The roughly $261,000 boost to the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office will narrow the pay gap between the county’s prosecutors and public defenders for the next six months, but it’s far from the $1 million that advocates say is needed to achieve equity between the offices. 

The Hinds County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the stopgap last week following years of denied requests for additional funding and a monthslong campaign by the advocacy group Defend Mississippi. The coalition brought attorneys, legislators and advocates together to argue that better compensation for public defenders would help the cash-strapped county save money elsewhere by reducing case backlogs and, therefore, the number of defendants sitting in jail at the county’s expense.

Salaries for the county’s public defenders come in at virtually half of what their state-funded counterparts in the district attorney’s office make, even though they handle similar caseloads. Advocates have long argued the lower pay drives public defenders out of the job, weakening a critical part of the justice system in a county where most defendants can’t afford a private attorney.

“This funding is essential for our office to carry out our constitutional mandate,” Gail Wright Lowery, the county’s head public defender, told the board during the coalition’s initial push in March. “Poor people are entitled to a speedy trial, they’re entitled to an attorney and they’re entitled to a system that is fair.”

Supervisors responded that the county didn’t have the money within its existing budget, but planned to look for ways to boost the office’s funding.

“We’ve heard the pleas from everyone,” Supervisor Robert Graham, the board president who represents northeast Jackson and the town of Pocahontas, told Lowery at the meeting. “We want to assist, but we have to be good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars and money.”

The public defender’s office overwhelmingly relies on county funding while the DA is mostly backed by the state. 

Lynn Seals, who was appointed county administrator earlier this year, said she found a way to lift public defenders’ salaries from her previous experience managing the county’s $45 million in federal pandemic relief. On her first day in office, Seals presented the board with a short-term solution: money leftover from a multimillion-dollar water tower project at the new Hinds County jail, funded through the American Rescue Plan Act.

She said the money was recently freed up after the county finished paying off contractor invoices for the water tower, which were less than expected. The structure will also supply water to south Jackson neighborhoods surrounding the new detention center on McDowell Road, according to WLBT. 

“Obviously, the public defender’s office needed additional funding to put them close to where the DA’s office is, so this is a temporary fix,” Seals told Mississippi Today. “It was pretty much a no-brainer.”

‘Temporary fix’ passes, but fate of long-term funding remains unclear

Now, money leftover from the project will be used to provide temporary pay raises for the 23 employees at the public defender’s office, including attorneys, investigators and office staff. The team handles one of Mississippi’s busiest criminal dockets within the state’s patchwork public defense system, with attorneys juggling hundreds of cases at a time.

But the new money falls short of the $350,000 in “emergency equity” funding that Lowery requested from the board earlier this year to bring her attorneys’ starting salaries from $65,000 to $80,000. That would bring pay for public defenders in line with the only assistant district attorney position also funded by the county.

Starting pay for the rest of the county’s assistant district attorneys, who are funded by the state, is even higher than that benchmark at $120,000, according to State Public Defender André de Gruy. But the money that the board approved won’t be enough to reach that goal, according to Lowery. 

She said she is calculating how much more each of her employees will earn with the temporary increase.

The temporary boost is even farther from Defend Mississippi’s funding goal of $1 million, which the coalition says is necessary for the public defender’s office to achieve equity with the district attorney’s office and hire “adequate” staff. 

CJ Lawrence, an attorney with the coalition, called the temporary boost a “meaningful first step.” But advocates are still seeking a long-term solution. 

Lowery plans to ask for money to “stabilize” the public defender’s office from next fiscal year’s county budget, according to Defend Mississippi. The board will start hearing funding requests later this summer for the new budget year that begins Oct. 1.

Pay increases for the county’s public defenders have historically been short-lived, as cost concerns have pushed the board to balk on committing long-term funding. 

While this isn’t the first time the board has turned to federal pandemic-relief aid to temporarily raise pay for public defenders, the county won’t be able to lean on this windfall once the aid expires at the end of the year.

In a column published in Mississippi Today, Lowery wrote that after the board used $250,000 in pandemic-relief aid to boost her office in 2022, it became the only year she didn’t lose an attorney over low pay. During her six years leading the public defender’s office, she said she’s seen staffing shortages persist and nearly 20 attorneys resign.

After that boost expired in 2023, supervisors narrowly voted down Lowery’s proposal for a longer term solution: five new staff members and an annual $20,000 per-attorney pay raise for her office. Again, supervisors said the county didn’t have the money in its budget.

Even after the request was scaled back to just a $10,000 pay raise for the office’s attorneys, the board rejected it again.

Cost concerns

Public defenders’ pleas for more money have often clashed with supervisors’ concerns over mounting costs within the detention system — even as advocates contend that increased investment could help curb those expenses.

When Lowery came before the board in March to request additional funding for the public defender’s office, some supervisors pointed to the cost of housing inmates at the crowded Raymond jail and a Delta prison as reasons the county couldn’t afford it.

Hinds County is estimated to have spent at least $15 million since September 2023 on keeping inmates in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, which the county turned to after closing a unit in the Raymond jail where federal court monitors found dangerous and poor living conditions. At the Raymond jail, crowding has become so severe that the board declared a state of emergency there in October.

“If we can get these people out, then we can have extra money to give you guys a raise,” Supervisor Tony Smith, who represents western rural Hinds County, told Lowery. “So the problem is, I understand you need more money. I wish we had (it) to give it.”

Defend Mississippi argues additional money would better equip public defenders to ease crowding by fighting for defendants to remain out of jail while their cases proceed through the courts.

“That’s what we do, and that’s what we advocate for in the public defender’s office because they are innocent until proven guilty,” Lowery told the board. 

All five of the county’s circuit court judges wrote the board letters in support of her call for additional money.

As advocates hope to carve out more long-term funding from the upcoming county budget for the public defender’s office, Defend Mississippi is now organizing a campaign to collect signatures for a “thank you” letter to the supervisors. 

“We are so grateful to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors for hearing the community’s call and taking this step,” Lawrence said. “This vote reflects real leadership that we don’t take for granted.”

Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power.

Data released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said. Coal supplied 12.2%, its fourth-lowest monthly share ever.

“For years solar power has risen in the U.S. electricity mix,” said Nicolas Fulghum, senior energy and data analyst at Ember. “At the same time, coal power has lost its status, first as the largest source in the U.S. mix, and then gradually over the years has fallen even further.”

Solar also became the third-largest source of electricity in the U.S. in May, behind natural gas and nuclear, Fulghum said. Coal generation hit an all-time monthly low in April and rebounded only modestly in May, allowing increasing solar generation to overtake coal, he added.

Electricity is produced by converting sources of energy — fossil fuels, renewable resources and nuclear — into electrical power. Burning coal, oil and natural gas for electricity emits carbon dioxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere and warming the planet. By contrast, solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and nuclear are carbon-free.

After about two decades of essentially flat electricity consumption in the U.S., electricity demand is increasing to power artificial intelligence, grow domestic manufacturing and electrify transportation and heating. Fulghum said he expects to see more months when solar exceeds coal generation, before overtaking it on an annual basis in a few years.

These milestones signify that solar “has staying power” at a time when there’s less support for renewable energy at the federal level, he added.

Wind and solar combined have overtaken coal in the past, and wind power alone has outpaced coal during spring months when wind speeds pick up. Ember gets its hourly and monthly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Globally, electricity generation from renewables is growing rapidly. Renewables will become the largest global energy source, used for almost 45% of electricity generation by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

Trump helps the struggling US coal industry while curtailing solar and wind

Last week, Trump, a Republican, announced a plan to boost the struggling U.S. coal industry by spending nearly $700 million to support coal-fired power plants and coal exports. Trump said at a White House event that “coal’s a great business” and that “in terms of power, there’s really nothing like it.”

Martin Pochtaruk, CEO and founder of Canadian-based solar panel manufacturer Heliene, said Trump can say that coal is coming back but investors will invest their money in whatever brings the best return. And for power generation that is solar, making it the fastest-growing fuel, he added.

A White House spokeswoman defended the Trump administration’s overall energy policies, saying they were geared toward strengthening the country’s security.

“The President has reversed the Left’s devastating policies, saved the American coal industry, prevented the retirement of more than 17 gigawatts of power, and saved lives during heightened demand periods,” Taylor Rogers said in a statement.

While Trump is trying to reverse the coal industry’s decline, solar has been the top source for new power for five years, SEIA said. SEIA and Wood Mackenzie said solar and battery storage were practically the only energy resources being built in the first quarter, making up 91% of all new generating capacity.

The Trump administration has canceled solar and wind projects, implemented policies that slowed clean energy permitting and development and terminated $7 billion in funding intended for affordable solar energy projects across the U.S.

As power demand skyrockets, political and regulatory attacks are slowing down the exact resources we rely on,” Darren Van’t Hof, interim president and CEO of SEIA, said in a statement. “Impeding the only sector that is actively building new power is a reckless gamble that will only drive electricity bills higher.”

Several groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency over canceling the Solar for All program. A district court dismissed the case last week citing lack of jurisdiction. The plaintiffs have another filing pending in the Court of Federal Claims.

In a ruling Saturday, a federal judge struck down guidance from the Internal Revenue Service restricting tax credits for wind and solar projects.

Trump has blamed renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power for skyrocketing energy costs. But energy analysts say recent price hikes are based on growing demand, aging infrastructure and increasingly extreme weather events that are exacerbated by climate change. Most recently, the war in Iran that Trump launched has also led to a spike in energy costs.

Blaming clean energy is “nonsensical,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman. The California Democrat said that “not even lighting $700 million of taxpayer money on fire” can save the dying coal industry.

“The rest of the world will move ahead toward a clean energy future with countries other than the United States leading the charge, unfortunately,” he said Wednesday. “Trump will fail in this agenda. But, he will do enormous damage to our global leadership on clean energy and to the cost of living for struggling Americans.”

Top states for solar voted for Trump

States won by Trump in the 2024 election accounted for 74% of all solar capacity installed in the first quarter of 2026, with Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Arizona ranking among the top 10 states for new solar additions, SEIA said. The U.S. now exceeds a total of 6 million installations nationwide across all solar sectors, which includes large-scale solar arrays, commercial, community solar and residential or rooftop solar.

Johanna Neumann, at the Environment America Research and Policy Center, said it’s “good news for our health and our planet that solar continues to grow,” and also, not surprising.

“Today we can harness solar more affordably than any other energy source. It’s scalable. And it’s also our most abundant renewable energy source,” said Neumann, senior director of the center’s campaign for 100% renewable energy. “So I think it’s hard to keep the lid on a good idea, especially if the economics are tilting in your favor as well, which they are in the case of solar.”

Environment America’s renewable energy dashboard shows that 32 U.S. states generated at least 10% of their retail electricity sales from solar, wind and geothermal energy last year, compared to 18 states in 2016. Clean energy in the South is booming, particularly in Florida, Arkansas and Mississippi, Neumann said.

“I think there is a misconception in the United States that clean energy is something for the coasts and liberal cities,” she said. “The true story of renewable energy is a 50-state story.”

Mississippi Today is challenging a judge’s sealing of court filings in a case in which over 100 pieces of DNA evidence have gone missing. 

On Monday, Andrew Coffman, an attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, made a motion to Circuit Judge Richard A. Smith to unseal the records and restore public access to information on whether Washington County Circuit Clerk deputies or employees of the district attorney’s office in Greenville bear blame for the evidence’s disappearance.

Coffman argues on behalf of Mississippi Today that the move also violates the right to review court records, which are generally public record.  

“It’s important that Mississippians be able to see exactly how courts exercise the enormous powers granted to them by the state’s constitution,” Coffman said. “Judicial transparency is essential to promoting trust and confidence in the justice system.

“Without access to the record of the underlying arguments in this case, the public simply will not be able to understand the basis of the court’s ultimate decision to determine if justice has been done.”

The missing evidence is tied to a rape and manslaughter appeal in Washington County. Attorneys for King Young Brown Jr., are appealing his 2005 conviction for the rape and killing of Robernisha Webster, who was 6 years old. (Editor’s note: Mississippi Today does not usually identify victims of sexual assault. However, Robernisha’s family previously agreed to the use of her name.) 

Brown is serving two consecutive sentences — 30 years for rape and 20 for manslaughter — at the Marshall County Correctional Facility. He was 15 years old when he was first arrested and charged and has maintained his innocence. His attorneys are appealing his convictions and hope a new analysis of the evidence will help to clear their client’s name. Brown was tried three times for the crimes. The first two trials resulted in hung juries. At the third trial, after over 13 hours of deliberation, a jury found Brown guilty of rape and manslaughter.

Last year, Smith ordered Washington County Circuit Clerk Barbara Esters-Parker to ship the biological evidence, ranging from a sexual assault kit to fingernail scrapings and strips of masking tape, to a Virginia lab for testing. But officials including Esters-Parker, her deputies and district attorney’s office employees have been unable to account for the materials. Instead, they have shifted blame, or in some cases blamed each other, for the missing evidence.  

On April 9, Smith canceled a hearing that had been scheduled in part for the following day to determine the chain of custody of the missing evidence and sealed all evidence in the case. 

Documents and other filings have already been removed from the public court docket since April. Deputy Clerk Cynthia Lakes told Mississippi Today that she was instructed by the court to remove further filings by the two main parties per the judge’s order. 

A document filed on April 30 by prosecutor Austin Frye was removed from public view the next day. Additional sworn testimonies in May from Washington County Circuit Clerk deputies were filed directly with the judge. A notice of filing by one of Brown’s defense attorneys was scrubbed.

READ MORE: DNA evidence tied to rape, killing of 6-year-old Greenville girl is missing, attorneys allege in court filing

Public officials responsible for storing evidence were expected to testify at the April 9 hearing. Smith said he canceled the hearing in part to save the witnesses from “undue embarrassment” and harassment. 

With the case sealed, the public may never know what became of the evidence and whether public officials had a hand in its dissapearance. That’s also true for the family of Robernisha, whose killing and rape is at the center of the case.

“Mississippi Today is seeking to intervene to open this case because the public deserves to know how courts are operating,” Editor-in-Chief Emily Wagster Pettus said. “Transparency in government is important.”

Missing evidence, sealed records, fuzzier timeline

Incomplete court filings have further complicated the timeline of events that led to the evidence going missing from a Greenville courthouse.

Deputies in the Washington County Circuit Clerk’s Office were first unable to find the box of DNA specimens in September. 

The recollections of circuit clerk deputies and district attorney’s office employees diverge after this point.

Deputies implied, in a series of affidavits, that Frye and District Attorney Dewayne Richardson visited the evidence room before the materials disappeared.

The district attorney’s office officials refuted that claim.

Frye questioned how Lakes, the deputy circuit clerk, was able to confirm that Richardson and he visited the evidence room based on a colleague’s description of them. He said her and her colleagues’ testimony included “hearsay” and “speculation.” 

As Frye indicated in a since sealed document, testimony differed among circuit clerk deputies that observed similar events.

Frye’s analysis is no longer accessible to the public because it is under seal. Attorneys for Brown filed additional deputy circuit clerk testimonies, which are also expected to remain hidden from public view unless the seal is lifted.

Their responses to Frye’s comment may never be known.

“The public simply cannot understand the basis of any argument or decision without access to the underlying facts,” Coffman wrote. “Secrecy promotes distrust.”

‘A right to know’

Coffman also argued that sealing records prevents news outlets from reporting accurately on a case of great public interest. For many Greenville locals, Brown’s case dominated headlines and shocked a generation of parents and children.

“The public has a right to know how its elected officials and government employees maintain public safety and how its courts administer justice,” the motion reads.

Coffman said that sealing court records shuts the victim’s family out of the conversation, too. Robernisha’s family told Mississippi Today that recent developments in the case have brought up painful memories and put off closure.

READ MORE: Judge shuts public out of probe into missing evidence tied to the killing of a Greenville girl

“We shouldn’t be in the dark about this,” Addie Cannon, Robernisha’s aunt, said of the judge sealing the filings. “I’m still so upset about it, and I don’t think it’ll go away until we get some kind of justice and are able to read what’s going on.”

“We need to know what they’re saying because this is very important to my family, and we don’t have anything to go by.”

OMAHA, Neb. – A look at the eight teams competing in the College World Series, which starts Friday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. (Capsules in order of CWS opening games. Coaches’ records through super regionals):

Troy (38-30)

Coach: Skylar Meade (186-119 in 5 years at Troy and overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Gainesville regional: lost to Miami 10-5, beat Rider 15-7, beat Miami 9-6, beat Florida 16-11, beat Florida 10-2. Won Troy super regional: beat Little Rock 12-2, beat Little Rock 7-2.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 2-2 (1-1 vs. Georgia, 1-1 vs. Alabama).

Last CWS appearance: First.

All-time record in CWS: 0-0.

Meet the Trojans: C Jimmy Janicki (.341, 19 HRs, 85 RBIs), 1B Blake Cavill (.279, 13, 50), 2B Sean Darnell (.249, 4, 45), SS Aaron Piasecki (.346, 10, 48), 3B Josh Pyne (.291, 10, 37), LF Drew Nelson (.307, 6, 49), CF Steve Meier (.321, 9, 44), RF Houston Markham (.324, 3, 12), DH Jabe Boroff (.264, 11, 32). Starting pitchers: LHP Benjamin Stubbs (6-3, 4.93 ERA), RHP Tommy Egan (6-5, 5.38), LHP Hayden Smith (4-0, 2.94). Relievers: RHP Noah Thigpen (0-5, 6.29), LHP Zach Crotchfelt (7-2, 3.50), RHP Matt Dill (4-2, 5.50), RHP Dylan Alonso (4-3, 4.63), RHP Cooper Ellingworth (2-4, 6.15)

MLB alumni: Danny Cox, Clint Robinson, Mike Rivera, Brandon Lockridge, Chase Whitley, Mike Perez.

Short hops: Troy is the third Sun Belt Conference team to reach the CWS, joining 2000 Louisiana and 2025 Coastal Carolina. … First 30-loss team to reach the CWS. One of last four at-large teams selected for NCAA Tournament. … Pyne’s 81 career doubles are among in Division I among active players. … Boroff, who entered the tournament batting .185, is batting a team-best .462 and has hit six of his 11 homers in the postseason. … Six-game win streak is Trojans’ longest of the season.

Quotable: “It’s what you put everything into, everything you do you do for this. You don’t sleep, you don’t stop thinking about it. We have a lot of work to do and we will get to it, but I think that last out (in super regionals) was the first time my mind has taken a breath in years.” – Meade.

West Virginia (45-15)

Coach: Steve Sabins (89-31 in 2 years at West Virginia and overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Morgantown regional: beat Binghamton 10-1, lost to Kentucky 11-9, beat Wake Forest 10-5, beat Kentucky 11-9, beat Kentucky 6-5. Won Morgantown super regional: beat Cal Poly 12-2, beat Cal Poly 17-1.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 0-0.

Last CWS appearance: First.

All-time record in CWS: 0-0.

Meet the Mountaineers: C Gavin Kelly (.384, 17 HRs, 57 RBIs) or Matthew Graveline (.293, 6, 36), 1B Armani Guzman (.312, 1, 41), 2B Brodie Kresser (.298, 2, 33), SS Matt Ineich (.296, 4, 35), 3B Tyrus Hall (.278, 7, 34), LF Matthew Graveline or Brock Wills (.280, 2, 23), CF Paul Schoenfeld (.342, 4, 50), RF Wills or Guzman, DH Sean Smith (.320, 9, 53). Starting pitchers: LHP Maxx Yehl (9-2, 2.10 ERA), RHP Chansen Cole (10-1, 2.85), RHP Dawson Montesa (5-5, 5.78). Relievers: RHP Ian Korn (5-1, 3.07), RHP Reese Bassinger (4-3, 3.23), RHP Carson Estridge (4-0, 3.27), RHP David Hagen (4-1, 3.48), LHP Joshua Surigao (0-0, 3.60), LHP Ben McDougal (1-0, 3.65).

MLB alumni: JJ Wetherholt, Victor Scott, Michael Grove, Alek Manoah, Ryan McBroom, John Means, David Carpenter, Joe Hudson.

Short hops: Mountaineers’ 45 wins are a program record. … Outscored Cal Poly 29-3 in two super regional games and averaging 10.7 runs per game in NCAA Tournament. … Staff ERA of 3.79 is best among CWS teams. … They’ve drawn 47 walks over seven regional and super regional games, most in the tournament. … Guzman, who was batting .290 entering the tournament, is batting a team-best .438 through regionals and super regionals. … Kelly is team’s season leader in batting average (.384) and home runs (17). … Cole (106) and Yehl (105) have combined for 211 strikeouts.

Quotable: “Mountaineers are going to Omaha. Hundred and thirty-five years in the making, so pretty special to be part of something that’s never been done in history before.” – Sabins.

Mississippi (41-21)

Coach: Mike Bianco (990-585-1 in 26 years at Mississippi, 1,090-656-1 in 29 seasons overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Lincoln regional: beat Arizona State 7-6, 14 innings, beat Nebraska 6-3, beat Arizona State 5-4, 10 innings. Won Auburn super regional: beat Auburn 6-4, beat Auburn 5-3.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 3-6 (1-2 vs. Texas, 1-2 vs. Georgia, 1-2 vs. Alabama).

Last CWS appearance: 2022 (won national title in 2022).

All-time record in CWS: 10-11 in 6 appearances.

Meet the Rebels: C Austin Fawley (.233, 13 HRs, 39 RBIs), 1B Will Furniss (.311, 8, 56), 2B Dom Decker (.272, 10, 33), SS Owen Paino (.246, 5, 24), 3B Judd Utermark (.312, 22, 53), LF Brayden Randle (.253, 3, 21), CF Hayden Federico (.294, 4, 28), RF Tristan Bissetta (.277, 23, 61), DH Collin Reuter (.259, 7, 38). Starting pitchers: LHP Hunter Elliott (5-3, 5.15 ERA), RHP Taylor Rabe (5-3, 3.71), RHP Cade Townsend (5-3, 3.94). Relievers: RHP Hudson Calhoun (5-3, 3.69), RHP JP Robertson (5-1, 4.04), RHP Landon Waters (0-1, 3.13), LHP Wil Libbert (2-2, 6.32), RHP Owen Kelly (3-2, 4.25), LHP Walker Hooks (3-1, 2.43, 9 saves).

MLB alumni: Don Kessinger, Jeff Fassero, Lance Lynn, Mike Mayers, Drew Pomeranz, David Dellucci, Bobby Kielty, Matt Tolbert, Chris Coghlan, Jeff Calhoun, Ryan Rolison, James McArthur, Tim Elko.

Short hops: First CWS appearance since 2022 team won national championship. … Bianco’s third CWS appearance with Rebels, tying Tom Swayze for school record. … Randle, batting .225 entering regionals, is 8 of 16 with five RBIs in five tournament games. … Bissetta’s 23 homers are third in SEC. … Rabe is third nationally with an 8.91-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and he has struck out 17 over his last 13 innings. … Rebels finished ninth in the SEC standings at 15-15.

Quotable: “Their road to this point hasn’t always been easy. But man, the way they’ve hung in there, stuck by one another early on. Just great teammates, then developed into great leaders and the faces of the program.” — Bianco.

North Carolina (50-12-1)

Coach: Scott Forbes (250-116-1 in 6 years at North Carolina and overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Chapel Hill regional: beat VCU 8-0, beat East Carolina 7-5, beat East Carolina 9-3. Won Chapel Hill super regional: lost to USC 9-5, beat USC 4-0, beat USC 4-3.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 0-0.

Last CWS appearance: 2024.

All-time record in CWS: 19-25 in 12 appearances.

Meet the Tar Heels: C Colin Hynek (.271, 9 HRs, 55 RBIs), 1B Erik Paulsen (.296, 11, 54), 2B Gavin Gallaher (.285, 12,54), SS Jake Schaffner (.358, 6, 46), 3B Cooper Nicholson (.262, 16, 48), LF Rom Kellis V (.306, 4, 19), CF Owen Hull (.390, 7, 81), RF Carter French (.232, 0, 13), DH Macon Winslow (.293, 10, 57). Starting pitchers: RHP Ryan Lynch (5-4, 4.22 ERA), RHP Jason DeCaro (11-2, 2.28), RHP Caden Glauber (10-0, 2.20), LHP Folger Boaz (3-3, 7.03). Relievers: LHP Jackson Rose (4-0, 2.35), RHP Walker McDuffie (8-3, 3.44, 6 saves), RHP Matthew Matthijs (3-0, 5.34), RHP Cameron Padgett (0-0, 6.56).

MLB alumni: Michael Busch, Cooper Criswell, Tim Federowicz, Zac Gallen, Matt Harvey, Chris Iannetta, Andrew Miller, Colin Moran, Mike Morin, Ryder Ryan, Kyle Seager, Jacob Stallings, Trent Thornton, Adam Warren.

Short hops: Hull matched the national season high for doubles in a game with his fourth against USC, giving the Tar Heels a 4-3 walk-off win to wrap up the super regional. Hull has 24 doubles for the season. … Super regional-clinching win over USC was Forbes’ 250th victory at North Carolina. … Ninth CWS appearance since 2006, tied for most. … .982 team fielding percentage is best in the CWS field and 56 double plays are most.

Quotable: “We’re not done yet. We got a lot more baseball left to play.” – French.

Oklahoma (38-22)

Coach: Skip Johnson (305-197 in 9 years at Oklahoma and overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Atlanta regional: beat The Citadel 8-3, lost to Georgia Tech 9-3, beat The Citadel 15-5, beat Georgia Tech 15-8, beat Georgia Tech 8-7, 10 innings. Won Lawrence super regional: beat Kansas 8-1, beat Kansas 13-2.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 1-5 (0-3 vs. Texas, 1-2 vs. Alabama).

Last CWS appearance: 2022.

All-time record in CWS: 18-18 in 11 appearances (won national titles in 1951, 1994).

Meet the Sooners: C Deiten Lachance (.332, 15 HRs, 62 RBIs), 1B Dayton Tockey (.259, 8, 22), 2B Kyle Branch (.225, 3, 21), SS Jaxon Willits (.290, 6, 48), 3B Camden Johnson (.309, 9, 47), LF Brendan Brock (.293, 12, 52), CF Jason Walk (.269, 4, 22), RF Dasan Harris (.362, 4, 23), DH Trey Gambill (.293, 10, 35). Starting pitchers: LHP Cord Rager (5-3, 5.20 ERA), RHP Xander Mercurius (0-2, 5.82), LHP Cameron Johnson (6-1, 4.36). Relievers: RHP Nick Wesloski (1-1, 4.03), LHP Nate Smithburg (2-0, 3.06), RHP Jason Bodin (5-1, 5.45), RHP Jackson Cleveland (3-2, 5.68), RHP Reid Hensley (1-0, 5.20), RHP Michael Catalano (3-4, 7.02), RHP Mason Bixby (2-0, 6.75), LHP Gavyn Jones (1-0, 5.18).

MLB alumni: Mickey Hatcher, Greg Norton, Greg Dobbs, Jason Bartlett, Joe Simpson, Bobby Witt, Danny Jackson, Mark Redman, Bob Shirley, Sheldon Neuse, Jack Mayfield, Steve Okert, Jon Gray, Chase Anderson, Burch Smith.

Short hops: Sooners have hit 18 homers and scored 70 runs over seven NCAA Tournament games. … Tockey has homered six times in nine games since May 16, including five in the tournament. He has driven in 11 runs over the last nine games after not recording an RBI over his previous 19 games. … All 15 of Lachance’s homers have come in the last 28 games. … OU is 17-0 when scoring at least 10 runs. … .350 team batting average in NCAA Tournament is best in CWS field.

Quotable: “Where does it go from here? I don’t know. But I can tell you this: We’ll go up there and fight and claw. We went through a lot of adversity all year long, and (our players) fought through it and never wavered, and kept battling and kept battling and kept battling.” – Johnson.

Alabama (42-19)

Coach: Rob Vaughn (116-61 in 3 years at Alabama, 299-178 in 9 seasons overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Tuscaloosa regional: beat Alabama State 21-3, beat South Carolina Upstate 7-5, beat Oklahoma State 9-7, 11 innings. Won Tuscaloosa super regional: beat St. John’s 8-0, beat St. John’s 7-2.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 6-5 (1-1 vs. Troy, 2-1 vs. Oklahoma, 1-2 vs. Texas, 2-1 vs. Mississippi).

Last CWS appearance: 1999.

All-time record in CWS: 11-10 in 5 appearances.

Meet the Crimson Tide: C Brady Neal (.330, 10 HRs, 50 RBIs), 1B Luke Vaughn (.217, 9, 30), 2B Brennan Holt (.240, 2, 23), SS Justin Lebron (.282, 16, 48), 3B Jason Torres (.236, 8, 47), LF Eric Hines (.296, 9, 24), CF Bryce Fowler (.320, 6, 40), RF Peyton Steele (.221, 2, 24), DH John Lemm (.253, 9, 33). Starting pitchers: RHP Tyler Fay (11-4, 4.37 ERA), LHP Zane Adams (7-4, 4.04), RHP Myles Upchurch (8-3, 3.57). Relievers: LHP Ashton Crowther (2-2, 3.12), LHP Matthew Heiberger (3-2, 3.05), LHP Evan Steckmesser (1-0, 5.40), RHP Hagan Banks (2-0, 2.82, 6 saves), RHP JT Blackwood (1-1, 3.86), RHP Sam Mitchell (1-1, 6.21).

MLB alumni: Joe Sewell, Dave Magadan, Alex Avila, Butch Hobson, Dustan Mohr, Dave Robertson, Al Worthington, Tommy Hunter, Frank Lary, Greg Hibbard, Wade LeBlanc, Lance Cormier.

Short hops: Lebron has 41 steals in 42 attempts and is one behind school record holder G.W. Keller, who had 42 steals in 1999. … The Tide swept four SEC regular-season series, most since 2002. … Fay pitched Tide’s first individual no-hitter since 1942 on March 20 against Florida. Fay’s hometown is Doniphan, Nebraska, 150 miles from Charles Schwab Field. … Team’s 2.30 ERA in NCAA Tournament is best in CWS field. … Tide averaged 10.4 runs per game in regionals and super regionals after averaging 6.43 up to that point.

Quotable: “What a day, what a year, what a season, man. Twenty-seven years in the making, I couldn’t think of a better group to be able to kick that door down.” – Vaughn.

Texas (45-13)

Coach: Jim Schlossnagle (89-27 in 2 years at Texas, 1,035-482 in 25 seasons overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Austin regional: beat Holy Cross 19-1, beat Tarleton State 16-2, beat UC Santa Barbara 6-4. Won Austin super regional: beat Oregon 11-3, beat Oregon 6-5.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 7-2 (2-1 vs. Mississippi, 3-0 vs. Oklahoma, 2-1 vs. Alabama).

Last CWS appearance: 2022.

All-time record in CWS: 88-65 in 38 appearances (won national titles in 1949, 1950, 1975, 1983, 2002, 2005).

Meet the Longhorns: C Carson Tinney (.333, 22 HRs, 58 RBIs), 1B Ashton Larson (.280, 1, 16), 2B Temo Becerra (.318, 6, 42), SS Adrian Rodriguez (.306, 4, 40), 3B Casey Borba (.269, 18, 57), LF Anthony Pack Jr. (.359, 11, 52), CF Dariyan Pendergrass (.222, 0, 6), RF Aiden Robbins (.342, 24, 64), DH Ethan Mendoza (.269, 10, 47). Starting pitchers: LHP Dylan Volantis (10-1, 2.03 ERA), RHP Ruger Riojas (5-2, 4.04), LHP Luke Harrison (6-3, 4.29). Relievers: LHP Ethan Walker (1-1, 2.65), RHP Brody Walls (2-0, 5.76), RHP Thomas Burns (2-0, 5.64), RHP Sam Cozart (6-0, 1.65, 9 saves), RHP Brett Crossland (1-2, 3.57), RHP Max Grubbs (2-0, 5.52), RHP Cody Howard (1-1, 9.22).

MLB alumni: Burt Hooton, Keith Moreland, Ron Gardenhire, Spike Owen, Roger Clemens, Calvin Schiraldi, Greg Swindell, Shane Reynolds, Brooks Kieschnick, Huston Street, J.P. Howell, Brandon Belt, Corey Knebel, David Hamilton, Kody Clemens, Bryce Elder.

Short hops: Schlossnagle is one of only four coaches to guide three different schools – TCU, Texas A&M and Texas – to CWS. His clubs have played in Omaha eight times in the last 16 years, including a nation’s best seven trips since 2014. … This is Texas’ 39th CWS appearance, most of any team. … Volantis is the D1 active career leader with a 2.00 ERA. … Texas’ 658 strikeouts are its most in a season. Riojas (113) and Volantis (126) are the first Texas duo with 100 strikeouts in a season since 2011.

Quotable: “The standard is the national title, and we’ll do our best to win that. I have to walk by that sign that says ‘38 trips to Omaha’ and 38 has been sitting there for a while. So I’m glad we’ll be able to change it to to 39.” – Schlossnagle.

Georgia (51-12)

Coach: Wes Johnson (137-46 in 3 years at Georgia and overall).

Road to Omaha: Won Athens regional: beat LIU 18-2, beat Liberty 6-2, beat Liberty 6-1. Won Athens super regional: beat Mississippi State 13-12, beat Mississippi State 11-9, 10 innings.

2026 record vs. CWS teams: 3-2 (1-1 vs. Troy, 2-1 vs. Mississippi).

Last CWS appearance: 2008.

All-time record in CWS: 10-11 in 6 appearances (won national title in 1990).

Meet the Bulldogs: C Daniel Jackson (.396, 31 HRs, 86 RBIs), 1B Brennan Hudson (.296, 21, 50), 2B Ryan Wynn (.342, 9, 37), SS Kolby Branch (.297, 19, 58), 3B Tre Phelps (.364, 19, 58), LF Kenny Ishikawa (.333, 2, 18), CF Rylan Lujo (.374, 13, 45), RF Ryan Black (.298, 9, 32), DH Michael O’Shaughnessy (.294, 20, 55). Starting pitchers: Joey Volchko (10-2, 4.07 ERA), RHP Dylan Vigue (4-1, 4.73), RHP Caden Aoki (9-1, 4.04). Relievers: RHP Zach Brown (2-0, 3.53), RHP Matt Scott (7-0, 3.88), RHP Justin Byrd (5-2, 3.95), RHP Paul Farley (8-1, 4.53), LHP Caleb Jameson (2-0, 6.11), RHP Grant Edwards (1-1, 5.79).

MLB alumni: Gordon Beckham, Glenn Davis, Jeff Keppinger, Jeff Treadway, Cris Carpenter, Jim Nash, Derek Lilliquist, Mitchell Boggs, Spud Chandler, Jonathan Cannon, Kyle Farmer, Emerson Hancock, Cole Wilcox.

Short hops: Bulldogs have won 19 of their last 20. … Hit 25 homers over five NCAA Tournament games and season total of 174 leads nation. … Jackson, the SEC player of the year, has the most home runs among CWS players (31) and ranks third nationally. He is first SEC player to hit at least 25 homers and steal at least 25 bases in a season. … Team’s season .324 batting average and 9.4 runs per game are highest among CWS teams.

Quotable: “The chemistry on our team, it’s hard to talk about. It’s just incredible. I think a big factor of that is, as silly as it sounds to say, winning. When you’re winning together, it’s fun and it’s true. The locker room is a much happier place after a win.” – Jackson.

“Voter Voices” is a series of Mississippians sharing their thoughts on voting rights, the state’s history of voter suppression and the new gerrymandering push embroiling Mississippi, the South and the nation.

It was as if they killed Deborah Griffin’s grandfather again. 

That’s how Griffin said she felt when she heard that the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down part of the Voting Rights Act and cleared the way for the widespread elimination of majority Black electoral districts. 

Her grandfather, Lamar “Ditney” Smith, a World War I veteran who organized Black Americans to vote, was shot dead in broad daylight on the courthouse lawn in Brookhaven, Mississippi. He had been helping other Black voters get to the polls to vote absentee, so they could vote without becoming victims of violence.

Instead, he became the victim. 

So when Griffin, 69, learned about the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, she called her sister. 

“I said they killed Ditney again. The Supreme Court killed Ditney again,” Griffin told her sister. “I said, ‘Call everybody, because we’ve got to have another funeral for him.’ Those are the words I told her. I couldn’t believe it.” 

Griffin never had a chance to meet her grandfather. He was murdered on Aug. 13, 1955, and she was born in 1956. But the mission to which he dedicated his life, and the way his life was cut short, have loomed large in her mind. 

Growing up near Petal, she remembers standing up to store clerks who refused to cash her mother’s checks. Civil rights icons such as Vernon Dahmer, whose daughter Bettie was friends with her sister, feature prominently in her childhood memories. Griffin would go on to earn her doctorate and two master’s degrees, which led to a long career at Jackson State University.

Dozens of people saw the shooting but denied being able to identify Smith’s killer. Two weeks after his killing, a 14-year-old named Emmett Till would be abducted and lynched about 170 miles north of where Smith perished, a case that would go on to epitomize the brutality of Jim Crow-era Mississippi.   

NAACP leader Medgar Evers investigated Smith’s assassination, and authorities arrested three white men in connection with Smith’s killing. But an all-white grand jury refused to indict, despite the fact the sheriff saw one of the men covered in blood at the scene. Those men arrested have since died.

The 63-year-old Smith was a member of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a civil rights organization that pledged an “all-out fight for unrestricted voting rights.”

Griffin plans to continue that fight, regardless of whether the state Legislature ends up redrawing Mississippi’s electoral maps. 

“If they want to draw a map and it’s not equal, it’s just not right,” Griffin said. “But as long as I have breath in my body, I’m going to be at these high schools, and when they turn 18, I’m going to get people to register to vote.”