Two bills that would have allowed lawmakers to make Mississippi’s state Supreme Court districts fairer for Black voters died with a Monday night deadline, likely guaranteeing a federal judge will redraw the maps. 

While the House and Senate could not reach agreement on redrawing the three court districts, lawmakers on Tuesday debated and passed numerous other bills, hoping to end their 2026 regular session by Thursday. On Monday night, legislators had finished crafting a nearly $7.4-billion state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

READ MORE: Ed spending, special projects, PBMs and PERS: Lawmakers trying to wrap up 2026 session

The legislative wrangling over the state’s high court districts stems from U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock’s ruling last year that the districts in the northern, central and southern parts of the state violate the federal Voting Rights Act because they do not allow Black voters in one area a fair chance to elect a candidate of their choice. 

Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, said he believes that pending appeals related to the litigation and other court decisions involving redistricting played a role in the Legislature not redrawing the districts. 

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Mississippi, the Southern Poverty Law Center and private law firms on behalf of a group of Black Mississippians filed a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act against the state over the Supreme Court districts. 

Judge Aycock in Mississippi ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the state defendants asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn her decision. The state did not ask Aycock to pause lower-court proceedings while the appeal played out. 

The 5th Circuit, however, did pause its appellate proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in a Louisiana case that many expect will gut much of the federal Voting Rights Act, and allow states more free rein in redistricting. 

If Mississippi lawmakers redraw the Mississippi Supreme Court districts, it would be the first time lawmakers have redrawn them since 1987. 

Current state law establishes three distinct Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the Northern, Central and Southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each of these districts to make up the nine-member court. 

The main district at issue in the case is the Central District, which comprises many parts of the majority-Black Delta and the majority-Black Jackson Metro area. Currently, two white justices, Kenny Griffis and Jenifer Branning, and one Black justice, Leslie King, represent the district. 

No Black person has ever been elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court, in the state with the highest percentage of Black residents, without first obtaining an interim appointment from the governor, and no Black person from either of the two other districts has ever served on the state’s high court. 

Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, told Mississippi Today in a statement that since a federal judge concluded that Supreme Court districts are shaped in a way that prevents Black voters from having a chance to elect a candidate of their choice, he is disappointed lawmakers chose not to remedy the map. 

“The federal court gave the Mississippi Legislature an opportunity to correct those discriminatory districts,” Dortch said. “Lawmakers chose not to. Their inaction is further evidence that this country still needs the protections of the Voting Rights Act.”

Aycock, in a December order, wrote that if the Legislature ends its session without adopting a new map, attorneys are required to provide a formal notice to her within seven days after the end of the session. After receiving notice, she will meet with attorneys to discuss the next steps in the litigation.

The 2026 legislative session, now set to draw to a close, has seen much infighting between Republican House and Senate leaders, and each chamber has killed many of the other’s major proposals. Some highlights from Tuesday’s deliberations:

Bills increasing state role in immigration sent to governor

Both chambers approved the negotiated version of bills on Tuesday that would increase Mississippi’s role in enforcing federal immigration law and force local law enforcement agencies to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  

Republican lawmakers voted in near party-line votes to send SB 2114 and HB 538 to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves for his consideration. Republicans said the bills would enhance public safety and hold people accountable for violating immigration laws, while Democrats raised concerns that the federal government is responsible for enforcement and that the proposals would leave counties on the hook for paying to incarcerate undocumented immigrants. 

“We didn’t have enough money for infrastructure, we didn’t have enough money for childcare, but clearly we have enough money to hold people in jail or in prison because we are so concerned about so-called illegal aliens committing crimes in the state of Mississippi,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat from Jackson.

SB 2114 makes it a state misdemeanor to enter Mississippi from another country outside a legal port of entry, creating a minimum penalty of six months in prison. Illegal immigration is already a federal crime, but this measure also would make it a state-level crime in Mississippi. 

Under the measure, if undocumented people are also convicted of other crimes, they would have a minimum of two additional years added to their sentence. Rep. Joey Hood, a Republican from Ackerman, said the provision is necessary to deter undocumented people from committing crimes against Mississippians. 

Other provisions in the legislation include letting the Department of Public Safety collect data on undocumented immigrants living in Mississippi and directing state and local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out immigration raids. The state attorney general’s office could investigate agencies accused of failing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 

HB 538 would ban “sanctuary” policies across Mississippi by preventing any state entities from adopting policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It would also require these entities to share information about individuals’ immigration status and to honor ICE detainer requests. It gives the state attorney general’s office the authority to investigate and sue agencies or officials who don’t comply with the measure. 

Last-minute negotiations on education policies

Though lawmakers appeared to reach an agreement on a teacher pay raise earlier this week, the legislation was sent for further negotiation Tuesday and changed to include a provision similar to the bill’s original language about school counselors. 

Amid the teacher pay raise debate, the original language in SB 2103 was stripped. The bill, authored by Republican Sen. Angela Burks Hill of Picayune, would have removed the requirement that Mississippi school counselors follow the American School Counselor Association’s code of ethics. 

The amendment added Tuesday would allow the Mississippi Department of Education to come up with an ethics policy for Mississippi school counselors to follow, according to Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, a Republican from Leakesville.

“We trust the department to make good, sound judgment when they do so,” he said. 

Hill said there’s “no reason” that the state’s counselors should be required to commit to a national code of ethics from what she described as a “social justice activist organization.” The group represents about 43,000 school counselors, and focuses on providing professional development and supporting counselors, according to the organization’s website. 

Hill said her concerns are rooted in keeping parents in-the-know about their children. 

“Some of the platforms that the ASCA has are basically affirmation of gender confusion and fluidity, and they have a balance between students’ rights and parental rights,” she said. “So that’s a concern because if that’s going on, a parent needs to know it.”

While the latest version of the bill does not appear to require counselors to tell parents about changes with their students, policies in other states that require schools to notify parents if their children change their gender identification or pronouns have come under fire and brought litigation.

Both chambers filed the new version of the bill on Tuesday and a full vote is pending. 

Winter Storm Fern bills passed

The Legislature has passed two bills on to the governor that would help fund recovery from Winter Storm Fern.

Both chambers adopted SB 3104, which would give various agencies over $122 million from the state’s Capital Expense Fund. The largest appropriation provides $20 million for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency for disaster recovery, including Winter Storm Fern. 

On Sunday, lawmakers passed SB 3229 to allow the state to borrow money to help Entergy defray the cost of repairs to its power system from the storm. The storm is estimated to have caused over $200 million in damages to Mississippi’s largest energy provider. 

Legislators have said that the state is able to borrow money at a lower rate than Entergy would, and that by loaning the money to Entergy they can help prevent large rate hikes for customers to repair damages. The bill is similar to one that was passed for Mississippi Power Company after Hurricane Katrina caused widespread damage to its system in 2005.

More than a dozen school districts have to address problems ranging from poor recordkeeping and significant debt to dysfunctional leadership — issues that might otherwise fly under the radar of local communities until they become too severe to ignore. 

The districts each have a downgraded accreditation status, and they must act on plans to resolve the violations state education officials cited. The state Board of Education approved those corrective action plans earlier this month.

Most of the district’s violations stem from late financial audits, poor recordkeeping and fiscal mismanagement. Some districts, including Hazlehurst, North Bolivar and Jackson Public Schools, have been on probation for nearly a decade for failing to clear accreditation violations.

Two of the districts, North Bolivar and Hazlehurst, face a possible state takeover or an unannounced investigative audit of all district records if they can’t clear accreditation violations by the end of the year. State department officials found that the districts didn’t make meaningful progress toward clearing outstanding violations. 

The Mississippi Department of Education will monitor the other 12 districts on probation for compliance with agency policies as well as state and federal law. 

Education Department officials have been dissatisfied with the districts’ progress toward ensuring student safety, complying with federal civil rights law, complying with graduation requirements outlined in state law and record management, among other findings.

Regulators also took issue with past dysfunctional leadership in Hazlehurst, North Bolivar and Jackson Public Schools. In 2025, the agency took issue with governance violations by Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District, where board members hired a superintendent without properly advertising the position. Agency inspectors also noted testing irregularities at Moorhead Central School and A.W. James Elementary, two schools in the Sunflower County Consolidated School District based out of Indianola.

The agency has also received confidential complaints from JPS teachers and administrators accusing school board members of getting involved in the district’s day-to-day operations, including student discipline. An inspection of Hazlehurst’s board found that board policies weren’t regularly reviewed, with inconsistencies in student handbooks regarding promotion and retention of students.

Other findings can sometimes be bellwethers for future state takeovers.

The accreditation status for Okolona Separate School District, which the state took over in November, has been probation for two years over the past decade because of poorly run special education and gifted programs. Officials cited Wilkinson County School District, which the state took over in January, for violations stemming from unlicensed teachers and poor school board governance in six years over the past 10 prior to its 2025 takeover because of students’ persistent low performance on state tests.

North Bolivar alternative school students get shorted on instructional time

Besides citations for poor recordkeeping, not tracking staffs’ work hours and fiscal management, the Education Department also cited North Bolivar schools over the quality of its alternative school. 

An inspector from the Education Department noted that a paraprofessional, and not a licensed teacher, was supervising an alternative school class in 2024. The class met in a room of Northside High that includes a kitchen, which district officials implied was not conducive to learning. State department officials found that no instruction had transpired during one visit and during another, students received 10 minutes or less of instruction.

State department inspectors couldn’t find progress reports for some alternative school students. Disciplinary histories and other documents that track student behavior were missing from files, too. Inspectors also could not locate documentation that outlined due process hearings for students.

North Bolivar Consolidated School District enrolls students from Mound Bayou, Shelby, Duncan and surrounding communities. None of those communities have more than 2,000 residents. They all lost at least a tenth of their population in the last decade. It’s hard to recruit enough teachers to fully staff every department, Superintendent Jeremiah Burks said. It’s particularly difficult to recruit teachers for the alternative school, he said.

Burks is pushing for a contract with Grade Results, a company that sells online courses.

Burks said he plans to move the alternative school to a better location in the district, one that complies with agency standards and provides adequate separation from general education students. He said he has assembled record review teams tasked with checking student records for missing reports or other documentation. 

With future inspections, state officials will observe a more organized school district with significant progress made to reform its alternative school, Burks said.

“We took to heart (MDE’s) suggestions, and we have been implementing new plans,” Burks said. “I feel good about where we are with addressing the standards. It’s just a matter of putting everything together and formalizing it, so that we can review where we are.”

Greenville and Natchez-Adams school districts struggle to budget

Education Department regulators found bad budgeting in Greenville and Natchez-Adams school districts Millions of dollars were unaccounted for in district ledgers maintained by the two school districts.

With Greenville, district ledgers left out more obscure funds like the Quality School Construction Bond sinking fund, which is devoted to construction projects and requires regular payments by school districts. 

Greenville owed vendors $79,737 and declared it had $869,692 more in their account than it did. 

The Greenville school board hired Ilean Richards as superintendent in January 2025. Local leaders say they are optimistic about better fiscal management in subsequent years. 

“The district is committed to and currently working to ensure that these deficiencies are corrected from previous years of past administrations,” district spokesperson Everett Chinn said in a statement.

Chinn did not respond to additional questions about what specific steps district leaders have taken to improve accounting practices. He also did not answer whether the district has mandated supplementary or requested technical assistance from the Education Department or another agency.

Natchez-Adams School District’s main operating fund reached an over $1.3 million deficit, according to its fiscal year 2022 audit. State law forbids school district officials from spending more resources than are available. Natchez-Adams also failed to submit its fiscal year 2024 audit within nine months of the end of the fiscal year.

In the Carroll County School District and in Natchez-Adams, a fund that set money aside for special education services had a negative balance. From fiscal year 2018-22, Carroll County struggled to balance its budget, pay down loans and correctly account for each fund’s balance. Its accounting paperwork was also missing the correct amounts for money owed.

Other districts, including North Bolivar, struggled to reconcile spending with purchasing and account for fixed assets like copiers, printers and other on-site technology in reports. Vicksburg-Warren School District, Greenwood-Leflore and East Tallahatchie had balance funds that were improperly stated.

In January, the state Department of Education’s Office of School Financial Services agreed to increase its availability to school districts that need technical assistance.

“There is such a profound lack of skilled persons to do that work,” Kym Wiggins, chief operating officer at the state Department of Education, said at a January state Board of Education meeting. “There’s a tremendous need for capable assistance, and so we’re trying to figure out here in office how we can build the infrastructure here to provide the support at the district level.”

More districts have already reached out for assistance, Wiggins said at the March board meeting.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed likely to rule for a Black death row inmate from Mississippi who claims there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him.

The justices took up an appeal from Terry Pitchford in a case with similarities to that of another Black man on Mississippi’s death row, whose conviction the high court overturned seven years ago.

The jury that sentenced Pitchford to death for his role in the killing of a grocery store owner in northern Mississippi had one Black juror. Doug Evans, a now-retired prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons, had excused four other Black people.

The Supreme Court ruled 40 years ago in Batson v. Kentucky that jurors could not be excused from service because of their race and set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the race-neutral explanations by prosecutors.

Pitchford’s case focuses on whether his lawyers did enough to object to Judge Joseph Loper’s rulings and whether the state Supreme Court acted reasonably in ruling they had not.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he thought one of Pitchford’s lawyers had spoken up. Reading from the trial transcript, Kavanaugh said, “She’s trying to make the objections right there.”

There was broad agreement that neither the judge nor the lawyers performed especially well when the jury was chosen.

“This is the most timid and reticent defense counsel that I have ever encountered,” Justice Samuel Alito said.

But Alito also faulted Loper, who accepted Evans’ explanations and moved on without analyzing whether race was the reason.

“The judge didn’t handle this the way it should have been handled,” Alito said.

In 2019 in another Misissippi case, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and conviction of Curtis Flowers, because of what Kavanaugh described as a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.”

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart sought to distinguish Pitchford’s case from Flowers’.

“In Flowers versus Mississippi, this Court faced an extraordinary case and ruled against the state,” Stewart said. “This case is also extraordinary but in a very different way that requires a very different result.”

The Supreme Court could rule for Pitchford but still leave it to lower courts to sort out whether his conviction should be overturned.

Pitchford, now 40, was 18 when he and a friend decided to rob the Crossroads Grocery, just outside Grenada in northern Mississippi. The friend shot store owner Reuben Britt three times, fatally wounding him, but was ineligible for the death penalty because he was younger than 18. Pitchford was tried for capital murder and sentenced to death.

The case has been making its way through the court system for 20 years. In 2023, U.S District Judge Michael P. Mills overturned Pitchford’s conviction, holding that the trial judge did not give Pitchford’s lawyers enough of a chance to argue that the prosecution was improperly dismissing Black jurors.

Mills wrote that his ruling was partially motivated by Evans’ actions in prior cases. A unanimous panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling.

Kavanaugh, in an exchange with Stewart, praised Mills’ handling of the case.

“Mills is a very experienced district judge. He had been a former Mississippi Supreme Court justice. He knows what he’s doing,” Kavanaugh said. “He read the record entirely differently than you did.”

J. Janice Coleman is an English professor at Alcorn State University and is known as a seamstress who often incorporates history and colorful designs into her quilts, tote bags and other works.

Her textile art has been featured at multiple locations, including the Mississippi Museum of Art and at the National Folk Life Festival, both in Jackson. She has been honored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and was commissioned to create a work honoring Mississippi Civil Rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer by the Mississippi Arts Commission.

Mississippi Today Ideas thought it was appropriate to highlight Coleman and Hamer during March – Women’s History Month.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today Ideas – I appreciate you being here. Talk about your, I wanna call it art. I think it is art. Give us the background of how all this, your work, came about? How did you learn to quilt? And talk about what you do now.

J. Janice Coleman – OK. I learned to sew when I was very young. Of course, I don’t have an exact day and time, but I can date it from the time that we were in the house that we were living in before we built a new house. So that was about, I guess I might have been 6 or 7 years old then.

MT Ideas – And, where was that?

Coleman – In Mound Bayou. And  I remember sewing then. Now, I wasn’t making quilts, I wasn’t making dresses. As a matter of fact, I was making purses or pocketbooks.

I would take a piece of fabric and fold in half on the wrong side. One of the major rules of quilting is that you keep the right sides together. OK, see, I’m almost through with this thing. This is going to be a pocketbook in a few seconds. 

So as a child, I would  get old sheets or old items, old items of clothing and just cut some pieces, blocks or whatever.

Mt Ideas – And, y’all were a farm family? 

Coleman – We were a farm family, yes. 

MT Ideas – So your mother was the person who taught you?

Coleman – I would say yes. She was a seamstress. 

If you look at the works in my exhibit, you will see I still sew according to the same pattern. The first exhibit I had was entitled “Quilts and Other Quadrilaterals.” Everything here is a quadrilateral, whether it’s a quilt or a cotton sack, or a tote bag or whatever. So I never strayed from my basic pattern, but within this basic pattern I can put triangles, circles, oblongs, whatever, but I stick with the basic pattern, the square or the rectangle. A quadrilateral. That’s my pattern. 

MT Ideas – So many of your projects have a historical perspective. How did you come up with wanting to be historical in your work and your art? 

Coleman – Well, it developed over time, and I think it developed before I even had an awareness of it. Because even the sacks are based on family history. I grew up in a farm family. We lived on the farm.

I’ve picked cotton, chopped cotton, picked cucumbers, purple hull peas. I’ve done all of that stuff. May I show my cotton sack? 

MT Ideas – Yes, ma’am. 

Coleman – On the farm, the cotton sack was the only textile that I could recreate. I could not recreate a tractor. I could not recreate a cucumber basket. I could not recreate a plow or any of those things, but I could recreate this cotton sack because it’s fabric. And so when I was at Mississippi State last year, I took my exhibit titled “The Cotton Sack Reimagined, Repurposed, Revolutionized,” and any cotton sack that’s got quilt panels all over it is revolutionized, is repurposed, is reimagined. I was trying to redo this, you know, this drab cotton sack.

This is a very functional thing, but my cotton sacks are not, well, they might be functional. They might be. We might say they are. They represent decor. They do not go to the cotton fields. They go to conferences. They go to colleges. They go to exhibits. They go to museums. That’s where my cotton sacks go.

MT Ideas – When I was a small boy growing up in rural Jones County, my mother and her sisters would get together on our porch and quilt. But there would be several of them doing it. But you do your sewing by yourself, right?

Coleman –  I do. So you all had the quilting bee. That’s what they were called, the quilting bee. When the women would get together and sew. Right? But  I’ve never sewed with anyone. Not that I would be opposed to it. I just haven’t.

MT Ideas – You kind of combine your English professor background into your work, into your art, which I think is unique and is fascinating. How did that come about? Did you just have an epiphany one day?

Coleman – Well, if you’ve spent as much time sewing as I have, then you may as well share it with the students and it needs to become a part of your academic life. 

MT Ideas – Have any of your students been inspired by your work?

Colman – They have seen the sack here many times. I have required them at times to make poster board quilts, and they can do some artistic things. I asked them to make poster board quilts as a way of learning more about authors, particularly African American authors.

So I would tell them to study 20 Black authors and put those authors on a poster board quilt. Some of them have done some amazing work, and I am just pleased that some of them allow me to keep their work.

MT Ideas – Now one of your pieces, one of your works that is just so incredible is your Fannie Lou Hamer quilt. I thought it’d be appropriate to talk about that during March, which is Women’s History Month.

Coleman – The quilt is 6 feet wide and 8 feet long. 

MT Ideas –  it is very inspiring, and I think she must have inspired you. 

Coleman – Yes, she did. But the quilt, I didn’t intend for it to be that long. I think Fannie Lou Hamer was 5 feet, 4 inches tall. And on the quilt I wanted her to be 5 feet, 4 inches tall. Life size. Right? But the the quilt got longer when I had to put the writing on the quilt, what she’s saying at the top of the quilt.

And then I had to have a border, so it just got longer than I intended for it to be, but Mrs. Hamer just had a way of doing that.

MT Ideas – Now she was a Civil Rights icon and did so much in terms of helping to enfranchise people to vote in Mississippi and throughout the South. Did you depict all that in your quilt?                                                                                                                                                    

Coleman – Yes, I had gotten a grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission to make that quilt. I got the grant in, maybe it was July or August of 2023.

But I already knew that I was going to dress her in red, white and blue, in flag print, because she really was a patriotic American. But she said, you know, you have to make the work. You have to work to make the dream come true.

And she worked. She gave it all that she had and then some, so I knew that I wanted to show her in red, white and blue. And if you get very close to the quilt and you look at the body part anyway, and some other parts of it, you will see in that fabric the words to “America, the Beautiful.”

MT Ideas – What was  the famous quote she had at the 1964 Democratic Convention, the “I’m sick and tired” quote?” 

Coleman – I think she said that before 1964. The one on the quilt is from 1964 where she says, “I question America. Is this America?” And a woman who saw that at the fall Folk Festival in Jackson said, I think we are still questioning America.

MT Ideas — And so what else is on the quilt?

Coleman – She suffered so much physical abuse. So I was thinking, I was wondering if I were going to try to show some of that abuse. Like I had this thought for a moment of showing one leg longer than the other, but then I decided I don’t want her all broken up like this on this quilt. Right? And so if you look over her left eye, you would see just a little red under the lid.

There’s nothing on the other eye, just the left eye. And I just let that stand for all the abuse that her body has suffered.

MT Ideas – Well, it’s breathtaking, and you should be proud of it.

Coleman – But no woman wants to be shown all beaten and battered, though. Right? 

As you engage with the art, the art engages with you. When it’s talking to you, you have to listen or you’ll never be able to finish anything. I’m serious about that.

MT Ideas – So what are you working on now?

Coleman – I’m not sewing now. I’m in the middle of the school year. I don’t sew much during the school year because it’s too distracting. I usually sew when school is out.

I was on the Fannie Lou Hamer project for a year, but it was slow going until school was out. And I got behind on the project because of the Mississippi Arts Commission that wanted it completed about May 15th. So the time that I had to work on the quilt ran along the months of the school year.

So after May 15th or when school was out, I was working on that quilt about, I would say sometimes about 16 hours a day.

MT Ideas – So, do you work in your home? Is there a room, a special room that you work in? 

Coleman – I work at my dining room table. But I think if you were to walk in my house, you would know that a person who sews lives there. 

And you would know that a person who reads a lot of books lives there.

MT Ideas – Well, you say you’re not working on anything right now. Do you have a vision for what you’re going work on next?

Coleman – I really want to put Myrlie Evers on a quilt. And not so much as a Civil Rights worker, but as a singer at Carnegie Hall. I interviewed her a few years ago when she was about to turn 80, you know, she’s 90, 93 now, I believe. And she was talking about how pleased she was that she finally got to sing at Carnegie Hall. 

MT Ideas – Uh, real quick, the Fannie Lou Hamer quilt, has any of her family seen it?

Coleman –  No, and, believe it or not, she hasn’t even been to the Delta. 

MT Ideas – She, the quilt? 

Coleman – Yeah. She hasn’t been to the Delta yet. She needs to get up there. She’s been getting around. But we do need to go to the Delta sometime soon.

MT Ideas – I appreciate your time. I’ve learned a lot more today about sewing. It’s good to know about it, but I never could do it myself. 

Coleman – Have you tried?

MT Ideas – No, ma’am. So some things I just know it’s better not to try. 

Coleman – OK. I know that too.

Lawmakers approved a roughly $200 million increase in Medicaid’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, delivering about half of what the agency requested. 

State legislators have also advanced a measure to give the agency a $35 million deficit appropriation to cover a shortfall for the current fiscal year. Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, warned Sunday of a “very real possibility” there could be a deficit appropriation next year, too. 

The steep increase in state spending for Medicaid has squeezed other parts of the state’s $7.36 billion total budget, including an overdue teacher pay raise and spending for child care, lawmakers said. 

“We’ve got a massive Medicaid issue that we’re addressing, and the funds are not there,” said House Appropriations C Committee Chairman Clay Deweese, a Republican from Oxford, on the House floor Sunday in a response to a question about why $15 million for desperately needed child care vouchers was removed from an appropriations bill.  

Lawmakers proposed $1.17 billion in state spending on Medicaid, but that amount is roughly $190 million less than the agency’s January budget request. It also falls about $29 million short of Gov. Tate Reeves’ recommendation for the agency. The appropriation bill will next go to Reeves’ desk for consideration. 

Lawmakers this session were stunned by the agency’s request for a nearly $390-million increase in state funding over the current year, even as the program’s enrollment dropped to the lowest level in over a decade. They were also baffled by a roughly $160-million discrepancy between the agency’s request and a November budget proposal from Reeves, whose office oversees tMedicaid.

The sharp increase in the budget request for Medicaid, which accounts for roughly a tenth of the state’s spending and administers health coverage to nearly 700,000 children and low-income pregnant, disabled and elderly Mississippians, was the result of a reserve of federal pandemic relief dollars running out, according to agency leaders. 

During the pandemic, the federal government provided an enhanced match for state Medicaid funding in exchange for states keeping individuals enrolled during the emergency. As a result, Medicaid’s cash reserve soared to $682 million in 2023, according to agency budget documents. 

In recent years, state lawmakers granted Medicaid small funding increases as the agency relied on the leftover COVID-19 pandemic funds to balance its growing budget. But with the surplus exhausted during this fiscal year, agency officials say a significant boost in state appropriations is necessary to maintain services. 

To allow the agency to continue providing the same services, lawmakers recommended an additional $120 million from the state’s general fund compared to last year. Of that amount, lawmakers said $20 million is meant to offset reduced funding from the Health Care Expendable Fund. This money was taken from tobacco settlement funds and is now dwindling, according to lawmakers. 

Lawmakers also opted to set aside $100 million for Medicaid from the state’s capital expense fund, a reserve intended for funding one-time expenses such as repairs and renovations of state-owned properties. 

Hopson said he hopes the state will only need to use capital expense dollars to fund the agency this year, but Medicaid’s budget is difficult to predict. 

“I’ve been doing this long enough where I wait every year to see how things look, and while I try to predict based on market trends, based on things that are going on in our state, I never know exactly,” Hopson said. 

The proposed funding reaches the level agreed upon by the Division of Medicaid and the governor to allow the agency to continue operating at its current level, but that could require the agency to freeze some reimbursement rates, Hopson told lawmakers Sunday. 

Responding to Mississippi Today, Hopson said he did not know whether or not the agency would be forced to freeze or cut provider rates due to the amount at the current budget rate. 

“That’s not clear yet. That’s going to be for the Division of Medicaid to handle,” said Hopson, who added that he trusts Medicaid and Reeves’ office to look into it and make a decision carefully. 

Mississippi Medicaid Director Cindy Bradshaw warned some stakeholders during an earlier stage in the budget process that the agency could lower its provider payments by as much as 11% without an increase in the agency’s budget.

Matt Westerfield, a spokesperson for the Division of Medicaid, did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about whether the agency is considering freezing or cutting provider rates at proposed budget level. 

Hopson told fellow senators an expected increase in the proportion of Medicaid funded by the federal government could improve the agency’s budget outlook for the coming year. 

Mississippi’s federal match rate, which is the highest in the country, will rise by less than half of a percentage point to 77.32% for the coming fiscal year. The federal match rate is calculated using a formula that accounts for the average per-capita income for each state relative to the national average. 

As the House and Senate worked their way through appropriations bills Sunday, legislators warned the same challenges could resurface next year if efforts are not made to reduce Medicaid spending. 

“I’m going to come back up here and tell you, if the good Lord gives me the strength,” Rep. Omeria Scott, a Democrat from Laurel, said Sunday. “Next year, you’re going to be in the same boat.”

Deweese said the Legislature will call a study committee on Medicaid’s budget this summer to continue to further examine the agency’s rising costs. 

Correction, 3/31/2026: This article has been updated to reflect that Rep. Clay Deweese is the chairman of the House Appropriations C Committee.

The Trump administration on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said environmentalists’ lawsuits against the industry threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies as the U.S. wages war against Iran.

Critics said the move by the government’s Endangered Species Committee could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life. The committee is nicknamed the “God Squad” by groups who say it can decide a species’ fate. It includes several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

It met Tuesday for the first time in more than three decades amid global oil shocks and soaring energy prices brought on by the Iran war. The U.S. pumps more oil than any other nation, but that hasn’t insulated it from spiking prices: The national average for a gallon of gasoline topped $4 Tuesday for the first time since 2022.

“Disruptions to Gulf oil production doesn’t hurt just us, it benefits our adversaries,” Hegseth told the committee. “We cannot allow our own rules to weaken our standing and strengthen those who wish to harm us. When development in the Gulf is chilled, we are prevented from producing the energy we need as a country and as a department.”

Environmental groups sought unsuccessfully to block Tuesday’s meeting and pledged to challenge the exemption. They say the exemption would speed the extinction of the rare Rice’s whale, which is found exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico. Government biologists say only about 50 of the animals remain.

“If Trump is successful here, he could be the first person in history to knowingly extirpate a species from the face of the earth. That’s how precarious the condition of the Rice’s whale is,” said Patrick Parenteau, emeritus professor of law at Vermont Law School.

Streamlined approvals for drilling

Republican President Donald Trump has made increased fossil fuel production a central focus of his second term. He wants to open new areas of the Gulf off the Florida coast to drilling, and has proposed sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations disliked by industry.

Hegseth had notified Burgum on March 13 that an Endangered Species Act exemption for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf was “necessary for reasons of national security.”

Hegseth told committee members Tuesday that Iran’s efforts to block shipping through the world’s busiest oil route, the Strait of Hormuz, underscored the national security imperative of a robust domestic oil production. He said the energy industry is under threat from pending litigation from environmental groups challenging government approvals for drilling.

Industry observers said the exemption could have significant implications for energy companies by streamlining approvals of new projects and impeding opponents’ ability to derail drilling plans.

“Serial litigation from activist groups targeting a lawful, well-regulated industry should not be allowed to indefinitely obstruct projects of clear national importance,” said Erik Milito with the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore developers.

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the nation’s top oil regions, producing 2 million barrels a day. It accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S., plus a small share of domestic natural gas production.

The Gulf also has been the scene of environmental disasters such as BP’s Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010 that killed 11 workers and spilled 134 million gallons (500 million liters) of oil. A spill in the Gulf earlier this month spread 373 miles (600 kilometers), contaminating at least six species and polluting seven protected natural reserves.

The Trump administration in mid-March approved BP’s new $5 billion ultra-deepwater drilling project in the Gulf.

Whales, turtles and sturgeon at risk

A 2025 National Marine Fisheries Service analysis determined the Gulf oil and gas program was likely to harm several species of whales, sea turtles and Gulf sturgeon that face potential harm from ship strikes, oil spills and other impacts.

The Gulf exemption is the first time national security has been cited to justify action by the Endangered Species Committee. Conservation groups immediately condemned the action and asserted it was done illegally.

“The Endangered Species Act has not slowed an iota of oil from being extracted from the Gulf,” said Defenders of Wildlife President Andrew Bowman. “I cannot stress enough how unprecedented and unlawful this action is.”

Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has made it illegal to harm or kill species on a protected list. The committee was formed in 1978 as a way to exempt projects if no alternative would provide the same economic benefits in a region or if it was in the nation’s best interest.

Before this week, the panel had convened just three times and issued only two exemptions. The first was in 1979 to allow construction on a dam on the Platte River in Wyoming, home to the whooping crane. It last met in 1992, allowing logging in northern spotted owl habitats in Oregon. That exemption request was later withdrawn.

Its latest meeting follows a federal judge’s ruling on Monday that struck down attempts during Trump’s first term to weaken rules for endangered species.

The panel’s members include the secretaries of agriculture, interior and the Army, the chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the administrators of both the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They all voted in favor of Hegseth’s request for an exemption.

Days before the start of a trial that could send a Jackson woman to prison for decades, Hinds County prosecutors discovered a sheriff’s deputy had body camera footage they didn’t know existed and wasn’t turned over to the defense. 

The footage showed a Hinds County Sheriff’s Department deputy administering a Breathalyzer test to Jada Kelly, then 22, who was accused of killing two people and disfiguring a third after allegedly driving under the influence in the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2023. 

How did this 3-year-old footage go unearthed for so long? The Jackson Police Department neglected to include the body cam in the case it turned over to the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office — a recurring problem that attorneys in Jackson have identified with the understaffed agency. 

Instead, prosecutors repeatedly told the circuit court judge in recent weeks that they learned the footage existed after they interviewed Kenny Bryant, the deputy who conducted the Breathalyzer test, and he told them he was recording that night. 

“Because multiple agencies were involved in the response and investigation, materials are sometimes maintained by different entities and are not always consolidated into a single submission at the outset,” Kayli Hankins, the communications director for the district attorney’s office, wrote in an email to Mississippi Today. 

JPD did not respond to a request for comment by press time. 

The video’s sudden discovery is one of several issues that Kelly’s attorney, Dennis Sweet III, raised at a hearing before Judge Debra Gibbs on Jan. 26. 

Sweet is now seeking to suppress parts of the video, claiming it shows officers failing to properly inform Kelly of her rights before conducting the Breathalyzer. Gibbs did not rule on this motion, and the trial is underway.

If convicted, Kelly faces up to 75 years in prison. She was indicted in 2023 for three counts of aggravated DUI about four months after she was arrested for driving a Toyota Camry through a red light and colliding with Toney Payne’s Nissan Altima, killing sisters Azure Higgins, 45, and Valerie Lynch, 43, and leaving Payne permanently disfigured, according to investigators.  

JPD responded to the scene at the intersection of Canton Mart Road and I-55 Frontage Road but called Bryant, a sheriff’s deputy who has done hundreds of sobriety tests since joining the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department in 2020, to determine if Kelly was under the influence. 

Bryant found Kelly’s blood alcohol content was 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. He did not test Payne, whom officers took to the hospital. There, his blood alcohol content registered at .10. 

Soon after the indictment, Sweet filed a motion for discovery – a routine filing to ensure the defense has access to all available evidence – in June 2023. But it wasn’t until last week, six days before Kelly’s trial was set to begin, that prosecutors turned Bryant’s footage over to Sweet. 

“Why am I just getting it now?” Sweet asked a prosecutor, Carrie Jourdan, before the hearing last week. 

“Because I just found it,” Jourdan responded in frustration. 

Hankins wrote that the district attorney’s office “promptly” turned the footage over once it was discovered. On Monday, Sheriff Tyree Jones said he was familiar with Kelly’s case but had to attend to another matter involving two homicides in rural Hinds County. 

Matt Steffey, a professor at the Mississippi College School of Law, said he thought prosecutors should’ve known the footage existed much earlier, given the likelihood that Bryant’s name appears in JPD’s case file. While Mississippi Today has not reviewed the case file or the body cam footage, prosecutors included Bryant’s name on a witness list filed with the court earlier this month. 

The late disclosure can lead to what is known as a Brady violation, the legal term for when the prosecution withholds evidence that can help the defense make its case. Brady violations result in cases being dismissed — another motion Sweet entered after learning the footage existed. 

But Steffey said Sweet is unlikely to win that argument, since the evidence was also effectively withheld from the prosecution. 

“It does show the chaos around the Hinds County law enforcement,” he said. “That they didn’t know about it is just as relevant as why are we talking about this 3-year-old case now.” 

Allen Siegler, mental health reporter at Mississippi Today, has been named a finalist for the 2025 National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Awards for his investigation into how Mississippi officials spent the state’s opioid settlement funds.

In September, Siegler’s Black Box series investigation found that Mississippi spent less than 1% of over $124 million the state had received so far on measures that would prevent more overdose deaths. Since 2000, more than 10,000 Mississippians have died as a result of opioid use. 

Siegler earned a spot among 42 finalists from local, state and national news outlets from across the country through the competition judged by independent panels and hosted by the NIHCM Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that relies on evidence and collaboration to explore issues in health care and policy research. 

“These stories and studies represent the best of health care journalism and policy research – work that brings to light important stories and strengthens the evidence base on the nation’s most pressing health care challenges,” said Andrew Dreyfus, CEO and President of the NIHCM Foundation, in a released statement.  

It is an honor for his newsroom’s work to be recognized in this way, Siegler said, but he finds the moment bittersweet. 

“At the same time, it’s devastating to find that financial resources intended to be life saving for Mississippians struggling with addiction, like Chelsea Aultman Sadler, went unspent or for other purposes when they were needed most,” Siegler said. 

After his investigation’s initial launch, Siegler has continued to cover how Mississippi lawmakers and officials award contracts and respond to the overdose crisis.

“As recent events at the Legislature show, the Black Box reporting by itself is not enough to guarantee all funds will be spent for their intended purpose — to end one of the worst public health crises in modern history,” Siegler said. “But we will continue to advocate for truth and transparency around the settlements, while documenting how the most powerful Mississippians manage them.”

Winners will be announced in late April in Washington, D.C.

Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi and a former state lawmaker, warns of a pending Supreme Court decision from a Louisiana case and efforts in Congress that would undermine the Voting Rights Act and potentially turn back the clock on voting rights and redistricting in Mississippi and elsewhere.