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WEST POINT – For her birthday Monday, Tameshia Shelton got the present she’s been wishing for every day for the last 11 years: freedom from prison.

Her four children, mother and other family members blew party blowers, handed her a teddy bear and hugged her as she emerged from the Clay County Detention Center Monday afternoon. “I felt numb before,” she said, “but now it feels real.”

On Monday, she was freed on a $50,000 bond with the help of the Mississippi Fund Collective. The moment marks her first freedom since a jury convicted her of murder in the 2009 shooting death of her sister’s 21-year-old boyfriend, Danelle Young.

Shelton’s lawyers are asking Circuit Judge James T. Kitchens to dismiss the indictment. If he grants the request, her case would mark the seventh exoneration in the same judicial district — a state record.

After her release Monday, she celebrated her freedom and her 48th birthday with Popeye’s chicken, hot sauce and white bread.

“Eleven years too late, Ms. Shelton is coming home,” said one of her current lawyers, Sandra Levick of the Mississippi Innocence Project. “We appreciate everyone who made this day possible, but we will not truly celebrate until the case is finally over. That day should come soon.”

Earlier in June, the Mississippi Supreme Court refused to interfere with the December decision by the state Court of Appeals ordering a new trial for Shelton. The appeals court held that prosecutors failed to prove Shelton was guilty of murder “beyond a reasonable doubt” when she stood trial in 2015 for Young’s death.

The justices’ decision came days after Mississippi Today published its four-year investigation that found that Shelton has remained behind bars, even though much of the evidence in Young’s 2009 death suggested he killed himself — including an apparent suicide note never presented to the jury.

Shelton’s trial lawyer, Rod Ray, failed to introduce Young’s apparent suicide note as evidence — a key reason why the appeals court ordered a new trial for her. The appeals court found Ray was so “ineffective” as Shelton’s defense attorney that he violated her constitutional right to a fair trial.

Other gaps have emerged in Shelton’s case in the years since her murder trial. The prosecution’s case against her relied upon a deputy state medical examiner’s official ruling that Young’s death was a homicide. The pathologist later called the conclusion an “error” due to lack of experience. Prosecutors also used testimony from Clay County sheriff’s deputies that conflicted with actual records. 

In the years following Shelton’s conviction, her family reached out to everyone they could, including District Attorney Scott Colom in 2018. They told Colom that Young’s death was a suicide, not a homicide.

After studying her case, Colom began to have questions. “The evidence sounded thin,” he said. “There was not much motive.”

On top of that, he said, if Shelton were truly guilty of murder, “Why would she call 911?”

He reached out to the Mississippi Innocence Project to look into the case. And he later wrote a sworn statement in support of a hearing to determine if Shelton deserved a new trial.

The wall of Colom’s office has a reminder to him about not rushing to judgment: a photo of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks, two exonerated men who together spent a total of 30 years behind bars, including time on death row, for murders they didn’t commit. 

Colom’s predecessor, Forrest Allgood, prosecuted the men and his office has now seen seven people have their convictions thrown out — the record for any district attorney in the state, according to a Mississippi Today analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations. 

Asked before about Shelton’s case, Allgood said he didn’t recall it, but he added that just because an appeals court dismisses a case doesn’t mean it’s right. “Appeals courts are made up of fallible human beings,” he said.

He disagreed with the term exoneration when a case is reversed because “there’s a bias toward the accused being innocent, even after a jury says otherwise,” he said.

Colom couldn’t be reached Monday for comment, but he previously said he would “look at what the facts show and do justice” in Shelton’s case.

Not long after arriving at Young’s fatal shooting on Oct. 16, 2009, Clay County sheriff’s deputies concluded his death was a homicide. Shelton, who has maintained her innocence, became the prime suspect because she was the last known person to see Young alive. 

Current Sheriff Eddie Scott, then the chief deputy, told a local reporter he’d ruled out the possibility that Young died from suicide or an accident because he had been shot in the chest from 30 feet away.

Only the gun was actually fired from less than an inch away. That’s what a State Crime Lab expert concluded after finding gunfire burns in Young’s jacket.

A jury convicted Shelton of murder in 2015, and she has suffered strokes and other health setbacks in prison. Her family has started a GoFundMe page for her.

“How do you begin to rebuild a life when everything has been stripped away from you? For 11 agonizing years, our family has lived a nightmare,” her daughter, Trinity, wrote. “Her faith and her desire to hold her kids again are the only things that kept her alive.”

She wrote that in prison, “my mom’s health deteriorated drastically. Today, she lives with a severe disability and suffers from constant, violent seizures. Watching her fight for her life behind a prison cell — without the correct medical care — is a pain we wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

Shelton said Monday that before she left prison, other women serving life sentences told her that she inspires them.

She knows there are innocent people in prison, she said, perhaps because of a misunderstanding or a mistake, but “now you are silent and everybody looks at you like you’re some kind of criminal.”

She recalled that when Clay County deputies arrested her in 2011, she asked for an attorney and a phone call but didn’t get them right away. She quoted the officers as saying, “You said you’re innocent, right? So what do you need an attorney for?”

Now that she is free, she wants to help others in their battles for justice, because she realizes now that a wrongful conviction can happen to anyone, she said. “It could be you. It could be your child. It could be your mom. It could be your brother.”

A Hinds County Chancery judge on Monday ordered the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to make a scheduled payment of roughly $2.4 million to Greenwood Leflore Hospital after the agency said it planned to withhold the funds. The Delta hospital had argued that missing a payment would force it to close this week and jeopardize a proposed agreement for the University of Mississippi Medical Center to take over its operations.

Judge Dewayne Thomas ordered the Division of Medicaid to make the June payment by Tuesday. This is the second time he has intervened in the dispute over debts Greenwood Leflore Hospital owes to the agency. In March, Thomas ordered Medicaid to temporarily stop recouping overpayments made through the Mississippi Hospital Access Program, which supplements low Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals.

Thomas wrote in Monday’s order that withholding the June payment would violate his earlier ruling.

In a written statement to Mississippi Today, Gary Marchand, a consultant advising the hospital’s board and former interim CEO, said the Division of Medicaid plans to make the payment by Tuesday.

“This payment will enable the hospital to remain open until July 31,” he said. 

The Division of Medicaid did not respond to a request for comment from Mississippi Today. 

Hospital officials have said keeping Greenwood Leflore open until the end of July is critical for allowing enough time to finish transferring its operations to UMMC, the state’s only academic medical center. Officials have argued the transfer is the only viable option to continue providing quality healthcare to Leflore County and surrounding Delta communities.

The 25-bed hospital, which is owned by the city of Greenwood and Leflore County, has struggled financially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospital officials have repeatedly warned that repaying the debts owed to Medicaid could force it to close. 

The hospital’s financial challenges intensified this year. In April, the hospital laid off 86 staff members, closed clinics and filed for bankruptcy.

On June 7, Greenwood Leflore Hospital filed a bankruptcy court document outlining a plan to donate its operations and facilities to UMMC. UMMC would not be considered a successor to the Greenwood hospital and cannot be held liable for debts not covered by the agreement. 

The hospital expects to finalize the agreement by Aug. 1, according to a June 17 court filing. 

The board for the Institutions of Higher Learning, which governs Mississippi’s public universities, approved the proposed transfer of Greenwood Leflore Hospital to UMMC on June 18. The bankruptcy judge would have to confirm the plan before it could take effect. 

UMMC did not respond to a request for comment from Mississippi Today.

Monday’s ruling is the latest development in a yearlong dispute over Medicaid’s effort to recover millions of dollars in supplemental hospital payments.

The payments, which began in 2024, initially provided a financial boost to the hospital. But they were later recalculated using updated patient volume data as part of a routine process that found the initial amount of funding was too high. That discrepancy occurred because state officials did not account for declining patient volumes after the hospital closed its labor and delivery and intensive care units in 2022.

In June 2025, Medicaid notified the hospital it would recoup $5.5 million from those 2024 payments. 

On June 17, the agency asked a bankruptcy court for permission to withhold the scheduled June payment to Greenwood Leflore Hospital, writing that the hospital owes “somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million.” Medicaid contended that it has the right to withhold the money because the chancery court’s order applied only to 2024 supplemental payments and does not prevent the agency from withholding this year’s scheduled payments. 

The same day, Greenwood Leflore Hospital asked a federal district judge to order the Division of Medicaid to make the June payment or send the case back to chancery court, arguing the agency sought to bypass the March order. The judge sent the case back to chancery court on June 23. 

In its June 17 filing in bankruptcy court, Medicaid said if the court orders payments to continue, strict safeguards should be put in place to govern how the funds are spent. Attorneys said the hospital should only be allowed to use the money for expenses necessary to “literally ‘keep the doors open.’” 

In his Monday ruling, Thomas did not address how Greenwood Leflore Hospital could use the funds. He denied the hospital’s request for attorney fees and expenses related to the motion.

Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens pleaded guilty Monday to a federal conspiracy charge, two weeks before he was set to go on trial in a case stemming from an FBI operation aimed at exposing public corruption in Mississippi’s capital city.

Owens will resign as the top prosecutor for Mississippi’s largest county, effective Wednesday. 

“While it hurts beyond measure to step away from a position I love, I believe this decision is what is best for me, my family, and the District Attorney’s Office,” Owens wrote on social media. “I leave knowing the office is filled with talented, dedicated public servants who will continue the important work of protecting our community.” 

Owens faces up to five years in prison. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III set sentencing for Oct. 15. 

Former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and former Jackson City Council Member Aaron Banks are still facing charges in the case. A federal grand jury indicted the three men in 2024, and their trial was set to begin July 13.

Outside the federal courthouse after he pleaded guilty, Owens thanked “the citizens of Hinds County” for their prayers. He also thanked his staff at the district attorney’s office and his family.

“Prayer changes things and regardless of the outcome in any of these things, we need to make sure that we’re loving one another and praying for a positive outcome for this city, because we will rise together, we will fall together,” he said before getting into a car.  

Beginning as early as 2023, two undercover FBI agents posed as real estate developers seeking to build a convention center hotel in downtown Jackson on a plot of land the city had previously obtained a federal loan to develop.

The agents enlisted an unsuspecting Owens to connect them to powerful Jacksonians, including Banks and Lumumba. The indictment alleges Owens made payments on behalf of the developers to the politicians in exchange for their help advancing the proposal.

The lengthy charging document heavily quoted secretly-recorded statements from Owens, in which the district attorney bantered about using his private businesses to “clean the money.” Owens had argued that the government was overemphasizing “drunken, locker room banter” and maintained his innocence for over a year. The indictment contained few statements from Lumumba, who is still set to face trial next month.

State law says the governor will call an election to fill the office of a district attorney who has resigned. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves will make an emergency appointment to fill the vacancy until an election is held. Owens, a Democrat, was first elected district attorney in 2019, and his current four-year term expires in January 2028.

Reeves will need to make the appointment somewhat quickly for practical reasons, as the district attorney signs off on crucial documents for the office, such as approving payroll. 

As Owens left the federal courthouse Monday, he told reporters that Brad McCullouch, the first assistant district attorney, will be interim leader of the office. 

The only bribes that the indictment charges Lumumba with taking are campaign contributions. While on a yacht off the coast of Florida, Lumumba allegedly discussed the payment from the developers, facilitated through Owens, and then placed a call asking a city employee to shorten a bid window for the hotel development, the indictment alleges. 

Prosecutors allege Banks took cash bribes in exchange for a future vote on the development, but the city never selected a winning bid and the vote did not come to fruition. 

Two people have already pleaded guilty in the scheme: Another former City Council member, Angelique Lee, and Owens’ cousin and associate, Sherik “Marve” Smith. 

Inside the federal courthouse Monday, Jordan had just wrapped up sentencing an unrelated defendant when Dave Fulcher, the federal prosecutor leading the case, walked into the courtroom. 

“Mr. Fulcher, are we ready to roll?” Jordan asked. 

Owens, 44, followed a few minutes later, dressed in a navy blue suit like most of the other prosecutors in the room. He left a convicted felon, with Jordan telling Owens to remove firearms and ammunition from his possession. 

The judge asked Owens a series of questions, including if he’d been treated for mental illness. After a long pause, Owens responded that he had sought treatment for depression and anxiety within the last year. 

But when Jordan asked Owens if he had sought treatment for addiction, Owens said no. Owens had recently tried to introduce an expert witness who would testify at trial that he is a diagnosed alcoholic.

As part of the plea agreement, Owens had to agree that the government’s prosecution of him was not frivolous or in bad faith – an argument he had made earlier this year in a fiery motion to dismiss the case. He also had to agree not to seek any further information concerning the government’s investigation of the case. 

The proceedings were also attended by Lumumba’s lead attorney Thomas Bellinder, who said he didn’t have a comment. 

After the proceedings ended, Owens sat and whispered with his attorney, Gary Bufkin, for several minutes. Asked if he would address reporters downstairs, Owens said he would do “what’s in my heart when I go outside.” 

Mississippi Today reporters Anna Wolfe and Katherine Lin contributed to this report.

Update, 6/29/2026: This article has been updated with additional details from Monday’s court hearing and with Owens’ comments outside the courthouse.

Mississippi financial aid officials say almost 27,000 college students could receive less state financial aid for the spring semester in 2027, and a student loan repayment program for teachers will not make awards this fiscal year, because of a budget shortfall. 

The Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid needs $7.3 million more to account for growing demand for its college aid programs. The funding gap could force the financial aid office to cut programs that help low-income students, as well as hundreds of foster youths and future teachers pay, for college. 

In 2025, Mississippi financial aid officials expanded eligibility for state aid programs, reducing the number of credit hours required for students to be considered full time from 15 to 12. As a result, 4,520 more students qualified for state-funded grants. State lawmakers also raised the income eligibility for the Higher Education Legislative Plan, or HELP, the state’s only need-based grant that covers up to four years of college, from $39,500 to $42,500.

Demand for state aid has risen faster than anticipated, said Jennifer Rogers, executive director of the state aid office.

In 2025, the state aid office doled out awards totaling more than $51 million to 22,377 students. More students are also applying for financial aid because of the federal government’s simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, Rogers said.

In the 2025-26 school year, 3,620 more students received the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant and 900 more students received the HELP grant than received through previous aid programs the prior year.

Without additional funding, the state’s Fostering Access & Inspiring True Hope (FAITH) scholarship, which helps current and former foster youths pay for college, may have to move to a first-come, first-serve system, she said. The 224 current recipients would receive priority, but nearly 100 more eligible students could lose out on the scholarship, Rogers said. 

Some of the most vulnerable students may not receive funding, Rogers said.

Rogers said recipients of Mississippi’s largest undergraduate programs — HELP, MTAG and the Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant — could see award amounts reduced during the spring 2027 semester.

The Winter-Reed Teacher Loan Repayment Program will not offer money to teachers this year for the first time since it was created in 2021. The program awards up to $6,000 to licensed teachers contracted in critical shortage areas, and up to $3,500 for those outside those areas, to repay student loans. The number of teachers receiving the awards fell from 361 in 2024-25 to 197 in 2025-26 because of insufficient funding. 

Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, said he expects lawmakers will ultimately meet the state’s financial aid obligations during the 2027 session. Earlier this year, lawmakers voted during the session to allocate $5.1 million to cover the financial aid office’s budget deficit for the 2026 fiscal year. 

Sen. David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson and vice chairman of the Education Committee, said the shortfall may reveal broader issues with how Mississippi structures financial aid. The HELP grant, for example, could use a sliding scale income model that provides partial assistance to more students rather than relying on strict income eligibility cutoffs. 

The federal Pell Grant program, which helps low-income college students, is also facing a funding shortfall. That, combined with the shortfall for Mississippi’s student aid programs, is a “double whammy” for some students, said Sandy Baum, who researches state financial aid programs for the Urban Institute. Students could be at greater risk of dropping out of college if they can’t afford the costs.

“Being short thousands of dollars makes a huge difference,” Baum said. And helping people afford college, she said, has broader economic benefits.

“If people go to college, get a degree or graduate, get a job and pay taxes, they will be more productive for the state’s economy,” Baum said. “The stronger the state’s economy, the more efficient and healthy its society will be.”

BILOXI – Mississippi Today journalists received some of the top awards in the Mississippi Press Association’s 2025 Better News Media Contest, with winners announced Saturday during the association’s annual meeting.

Michael Goldberg and Gwen Dilworth received the Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Journalism (all multi-day publications) for “Behind Bars, Beyond Care,” a series about problems with the health care system in Mississippi prisons. 

Dilworth received the Bill Minor Prize for General News Reporting (all multi-day publications) for  “Quick surgeries, scars and facelifts that fade: Complaints pile up about Jackson plastic surgeon.” 

Allen Siegler received the Daniel M. Phillips Freedom of Information Award (all publications) for his series, “The Black Box: Inside Mississippi’s opioid settlement spending.” Judge’s comment: “A powerful indictment of Mississippi’s handling of millions of dollars in opioid settlement at the state and local levels. Well written and deeply sourced.”

Mississippi Today competed in Class A, the largest division, for newspapers and news sites that publish multiple days each week. Mississippi Today journalists received these first place awards:

– General News Story: Dilworth for “Quick surgeries, scars and facelifts that fade: Complaints pile up about Jackson plastic surgeon.” Judge’s comment: “A well written, well reported and comprehensive report.” 

– In-Depth Investigative Coverage: Goldberg and Dilworth for “Behind Bars, Beyond Care.” Judge’s comment: “Well, this is outstanding journalism. The treatment of people under care of state government is reprehensible. These stories do an excellent job of exposing state-sponsored health care corruption. It’s about politics, accountability and human suffering. There are precise and horrifying examples. … This is terrific reporting.”

– Business News Story: Molly Minta for “‘We shall see’: Plasma donation center hailed as sign of ‘revitalization’ remains but a lifeline for residents with few job prospects.” Judge’s comment: “An off beat, well told business story. Lots of detail, beautifully written, multiple sources and voices.”

– Sports Column: Rick Cleveland for “Egg Bowl week begins as Kiffin’s run at Ole Miss appears to be at end.” Judge’s comment: “Your analogy is good, and the way you set out your points is smooth and effective. Your knowledge is consistently displayed.”

– Best News Package: Alex Rozier for “Coast moved toward resilience since Katrina, but insurance is a lingering ‘disaster.” Judge’s comment: “A well-written and reported story brought to life with strong photos and robust graphics.” Photos were by Vickie King.

– Editorials: Bobby Harrison for three pieces: “Remember what we are celebrating on the Fourth of July,” “Shocker! All six lawmakers appointed to finalize the bill banning Mississippi DEI are white,” and “Vouchers to Mississippi schools teaching Christian values are OK, but what if other values are taught?” Judge’s comment: “These are comprehensive editorials on important topics – the shame of thin-skinned public officials, bizarre and unfair conference committee appointments by the majority party and private schools want public funding but not public accountability. … The editorials clearly outline problems and offer solutions.”

– Best Use of Social Media (all multiday publications): ”In a brutal Mississippi jail, inmates say they were enlisted as enforcers” with work by Richard Lake, Mukta Joshi, Nate Rosenfield, Brian Howey and Jerry Mitchell. Judge’s comment: “Exceptional use of social media to push an important story. Incredible engagement numbers.”

Mississippi Today journalists also received other recognition:

– Siegler received second place for the A-Mark Prize for Freedom of Information Reporting for “The Black Box.”

– In-Depth Investigative Coverage: Goldberg and Taylor Vance, second place for “House Speaker Jason White, staff treated to Super Bowl by gambling giant pushing for legalized betting.” Siegler, honorable mention for “The Black Box.”

– Business News Story: Rozier for “’A real twisted animal’ in Holly Springs: What’s next for the spiraling power provider”; Molly Minta, honorable mention for “Setting the runway or flying the plane in Jackson’s economic development department.”

– Commentary Column: Geoff Pender, second place for “‘That’s not governing’: Most lawmakers don’t know what they passed in secret, $7 billion budget.”

– Feature Story: Leonardo Bevilacqua, honorable mention for “Running the ball with the winningest Delta football team.”

– General News Photograph: King, third place for “102-year-old Goodman man says key to life ‘is love one another.’”

– Spot News Photograph: Eric Shelton, third place for “The 82nd National Folk Festival.”

– Pictorial Series: Shelton, honorable mention for “THEE homecoming parade brings music and joy for Jackson State fans.” 

– Best News Package: Minta, second place for “Regulators say Jackson’s Rebelwood is habitable despite mold, leaks faulty electricity – and lots of bullet holes.”

– Lede: Bevilacqua and Mina Corpuz, second place for “‘I could see the bodies dropping’: Mississippi communities are shaken by shootings at homecoming events.”

– Use of Online Video (all multiday publications): Mississippi Today, third place for “In a brutal Mississippi jail, inmates say they were listed as enforcers,” with work by Lake, Joshi, Rosenfield, Howey and Mitchell.

– Best Use of Social Media (all multiday publications): Mississippi Today, second place for “Opioid Settlement Spending,” with work by Lake and Siegler.

– Community Service Award (all multiday publications): Mississippi Today, third place for “Mississippi Today Health Resource Guide,” a project led by Kate Royals.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Mississippi law in a ruling that will allow more than a dozen states to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. This deals a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to federalize state elections and limit mail-in ballot counting. 

The nation’s highest court ruled 5-4 in favor of Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, who was forced to defend the lawsuit as the administrator of the state’s elections. The state Legislature enacted a law in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to give voters a grace period for mailing their ballots. 

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, said federal law only requires voters to cast their ballots by Election Day, but it does not require election officials to receive the ballots by that date.

“In sum, the election-day statutes require the electorate’s choice to be made on election day,” Barrett wrote. “That occurs so long as election day is the deadline for individuals to vote — as it is in Mississippi.”

READ MORE: U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Mississippi mail-in ballots case

In 2024, the Mississippi Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, a Mississippi voter and a county election official filed the federal lawsuit challenging the five-day window. The state Libertarian Party filed a similar lawsuit a few weeks later, which was combined with the first. 

The parties argued that the state law conflicted with the federal law setting the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the “election day.”

U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., a George W. Bush-appointed judge, initially ruled last year in Gulfport that there was no conflict between the state and federal laws. But a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed him, and the full court declined to rehear the case.

Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office defended the state in court and told Mississippi Today in a statement that, since the Supreme Court affirmed the principle of federalism, she is hopeful that the Mississippi Legislature will now amend the state law that prompted the litigation and “require absentee ballots be received on the same day ballots are cast at the polling place.”

“President Trump is right to prioritize improving public trust in our elections,” Fitch said.

Fitch was defending the position of Republican Watson against the national Republican Party. In a statement, Watson said the ruling confirms that laws regulating voting are to be made by Congress or, in its absence, state legislatures.

“While I oppose the practice of counting ballots received after Election Day, the principle of federalism is a core tenet of my conservatism,” Watson said. “I deeply value the rights of states to govern themselves, including the administration of elections, so long as they do not conflict with federal law.”

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves also called on the Legislature to change the law during the next legislative session and said he disagrees with the court’s decision.

“But just because the Court ruled the practice constitutional, doesn’t mean we should allow it in our state,” Reeves said.

Jade Craig, an assistant professor of law at the University of Mississippi, called the court’s decision “a win for states’ rights and democracy in terms of states having the authority to set their own voting parameters.”

“It is a real relief and a great achievement for Mississippi and all the states that have similar laws that provide for mail-in voting,” Craig said.

Craig said it was a surprise that a Mississippi voting law was challenged, seemingly setting up an intraparty conflict between Republican state officials and the national party. But the decision establishes that both red and blue states have “a shared set of problems that the Court is responsible for addressing in ways that are equitable across the country,” Craig said.

Bradley Heard, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said “common sense prevailed today.”

“When a voter mails a ballot postmarked by Election Day and it arrives within the allotted window of time, they have done what the law requires — laws which have been on the books since as early as the Civil War. Votes cast by mail are valid votes, and all valid votes should be counted,” Heard said.

In an emailed statement, Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters accused Democrats of “inviting chaos at the ballot box” and urged Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, a Trump-backed proposal that Republicans say will improve election integrity.

“Republicans are not going to be deterred by this decision, and the RNC will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day as Americans want,” Gruters said.

Jackson is Mississippi’s largest city but aside from a few clubs and bars, it has relatively few places for LGBTQ+ people to gather.

However, Michael Montgomery said he thinks a new group that he joined, the Jackson Gay Men’s Chorus, is helping create a new safe space. 

“Its nice to find a place to be around queer people and gay people that doesn’t involve just clubbing and drinking,” said Montgomery, one of the bass singers. “It’s just a general creative space to be with people, which is nice.” 

The choir, which formed in October, aims to unite LGBTQ+ people and allies over their love of music. 

“This is something really exciting to be public with,” the group’s artistic director and conductor Henry Waters said.

Members of the choir voiced their appreciation for the organization. Jay Barnhart, a member of the choir’s advisory council, said the group provides an outlet to those seeking it. Karen Grave — whose son Timothy sings in the choir — said the two drive from Hattiesburg to participate, calling it an awesome experience. 

The organization was founded by a few members who would eventually evolve into the advisory council. The group continued to convene over the next few months as they searched for a pianist and conductor. 

In their search, the choir would land on Broadmeadow United Methodist Church as their place of practice. The congregation is known in the local community as LGBTQ+ affirming, and Waters told Mississippi Today it is thrilling to work with a church that was at the forefront of inclusivity.

“They’re one of the first reconciling ministries in the state of Mississippi,” Waters said. “And really, one in the South.”

According to a 2023 study by the Williams Institute, 4.1% of Mississippi adults identify as LGBTQ+. While an estimated 93,000 residents identify as LGBTQ+, Mississippi only has two fully reconciling United Methodist churches: Broadmeadow and Hattiesburg’s Court Street in The Grove.

A reconciling United Methodist church is a congregation that has voted to openly welcome LGBTQ+ people. Broadmeadow reconciled in March 2020, becoming the first church in the state to do so. 

The Rev. Sue Hyland previously served at Court Street and now preaches part time at Broadmeadow. Hyland told Mississippi Today that when the chorus approached the United Methodist Board about using the church for practices, it was a unanimous yes.

“People were excited, like, we can’t wait to get them in here,” Hyland said. “So it was a very easy yes for our whole board that kind of runs everything.”

The choir held its first practice in January with 10 members. Since then, the group has more than doubled to 24 active members. 

The chorus currently schedules two concerts a year, one in the spring and fall. The group held its debut concert “Home is Where the Song Begins” on June 14 at Broadmeadow, singing a traditional choral literature with a mixture of other arrangements such as “Home” by Alan Billingsley. The show sold 230 tickets. Advisory council member and initial founder Glenn Gregory said the experience was full of emotion and love.

“The response after the concert when we walked out into the crowd was just amazing. So many people just were so moved by the voices, the harmony, the songs that Henry put together, just the way the whole concert was tied together,” Gregory said. “We’ve had so many people reach out to us in the two days after the concert just thanking us.”

One of those 230 attendees was Rob Hill, who said he was proud of the group and impressed by their voices.

“It was definitely inspirational,” Hill said. “I honestly got goosebumps and might have even shed a tear.”

Hill served as Broadmeadow’s first gay pastor from 2004 to 2014. Despite not being out at the time, Hill told Mississippi Today that his sexuality was an open secret and the congregation never voiced issues with it. 

In his time at Broadmeadow, Hill helped to diversify the church’s congregation, inviting new LGBTQ+ couples who had moved to the area to join the church. In his later years, talks of reconciliation stalled as members didn’t want to draw attention to the church or Hill himself, out of fear of backlash. 

“I think I was probably on some level concerned myself, but I knew it was the right thing to do at the end of the day,” Hill said. “I wanted the church to really, honestly be boldly affirming and to say that, and I think at that point we were really ready to go there.”

Plans are underway for the group’s fall concert. In the offseason between concerts, the choir plans to continue to do smaller performances, such as their appearance during Jackson’s Trans Day of Visibility event in April. 

Advisory council member Rick Gregory told Mississippi Today that the chorus has been receiving inquiries since auditions opened for their fall concert on June 15.

“We’ve already had two people upload their audition videos,” Gregory said. “But we just got it on our website, so it’s still pretty early, but to have two within that short period of time is a good sign.” 

Waters urged those who want to audition for the chorus to reach out via social media or visit the group’s website.

Fourth grade literacy gains earned Mississippi national acclaim. But that achievement tapers off as students advance to higher grades. 

Lawmakers are putting millions toward changing that. 

Mississippi has seen the least progress across subject areas in eighth grade reading scores, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and performs near the bottom compared to the rest of the country. 

This gap has long concerned lawmakers, who in large part chalk those fourth-grade gains up to the 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, a state law that raised literacy standards and established a reading “gate,” a test that third graders have to pass to advance to fourth grade. 

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 2294 this past session in an attempt to extend the state’s reading gains. The legislation established several classroom initiatives in Mississippi, including expanding initiatives in the state’s existing literacy act into higher grades.

Senate Bill 2294 directs $9 million toward the Adolescent Literacy Initiative, which will fund literacy coaches in districts across the state starting this school year. The initiative ramps up literacy education for fourth through eighth grade students, including introducing assessments throughout the year to gauge how well students are keeping up with reading benchmarks and requiring schools use high-quality curriculum pre-selected by the agency. Early pilots have been lauded among educators, but it’s too early to see results yet. 

House Education Committee Vice Chairman Kent McCarty, a Republican from Hattiesburg, said for a long time, lawmakers were waiting for those third graders to matriculate into the eighth grade, expecting to see reading progress then. But those students have come and gone, and eighth grade reading has remained stagnant. It’s a worrisome sign, he said, given the correlation between reading and life outcomes. 

“We need our students to be performing better because every child deserves to know how to read,” McCarty said. “If we’re not meeting that very basic need, we have failed them terribly.”

‘That’s not the ballgame’

The 2013 literacy law overhauled how the state taught and measured reading in kindergarten through third grade. 

Students took screeners, which are assessments intended to gauge proficiency, throughout the year and were held back in the third grade if they didn’t pass a reading assessment, one of the most controversial pieces of the law. Students who were retained received intensive remediation.

Teachers underwent extensive training in the science of reading and received ongoing professional development from coaches. The state Education Department deployed coaches to the neediest schools, so teachers could receive live help, and approved a handful of curriculum that schools were required to use. 

And slowly, reading proficiency among the state’s youngest readers began to climb.

That progress is no mystery, said Rachel Canter, director of education policy for Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. 

“It’s a big picture, and people have zoomed in on one piece, depending on who it is,” said Canter, the former leader of Mississippi First, an education policy advocacy group. “You’re not going to get anything out of coaching teachers in the absence of accountability or standards or measurement or transparency.”

Pilot program in Wayne County

Mississippi Department of Education officials selected Wayne County, along with Kosciusko and Moss Point, to pilot the adolescent literacy initiative last year. 

Mildred Gandy was a little suspicious when the reading coaches arrived. But Gandy, a longtime seventh- and eighth-grade English/Language Arts teacher at Buckatunna Elementary School in Wayne County, learned that she and her colleagues could slowly roll out the literacy strategies in her classes and use them in every subject area, allowing students to engage more deeply with their work. Then she was fully on board.

“Teachers will always buy in when they see students becoming engaged,” she said. “You’ve got to reach them before you can teach them.”

Over the course of the year, coaches from the Florida Center for Reading Research showed teachers new strategies on how to teach older students how to read. These included giving students a framework for how to take notes during class and teaching them how to mark a text as they read in order to more easily find answers to questions later. Coaches told teachers to find an engaging question to get students to read the text more than once.

Gandy often worked with another history teacher, aligning their classes so students were hearing about similar topics and being taught similar strategies throughout the day. 

Crystal Bates, curriculum director at Wayne County School District, said teachers were impressed with the training and were able to deploy the literacy strategies in the classrooms.

“Usually English II is one of the hardest state tests for students to pass to graduate, so anything helps,” she said. “It’s not just about getting them through a gate. We’ve got to get them a diploma.”

No reading ‘gate’

Soon, middle school classrooms across the state will be using the same reading strategies. 

As part of the literacy initiative, the state education agency will deploy coaches to schools across the state, provide training for teachers, require screeners throughout the year to assess students’ proficiency and mandate that schools use agency-approved curriculum. 

But the new legislation is not a replica of the 2013 bill, said Michelle Nowell, associate superintendent in the state Department of Education’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction.

Teachers across subject areas will receive training, with the goal of providing middle-schoolers with literacy training in multiple classes. And students will primarily be taught reading strategies instead of phonics.

Another component that’s missing: The reading gate that drew so much ire in 2013. 

McCarty said lawmakers omitted a retention component from the adolescent bill because research shows that holding older students back negatively impacts their chances of graduating. 

But the adolescent initiative does require remediation. Throughout the school year, McCarty said, students who aren’t meeting academic benchmarks will receive help. The agency is working on an intensive remediation course for students who pass the eighth grade but aren’t reading on grade level, Nowell said.

Gandy was apprehensive about the effectiveness of the literacy initiative without holding students accountable with the possibility of retention.

“I don’t know if (the remediation) is enough,” she said. “But it’s definitely a start.”

“If” has often been the refrain for many Mississippi Democrats after losing statewide elections, as they have done with regularity since 2003.

“If we only had a candidate who could energize true Democrats to the polls, we could win those statewide elections,” is a paraphrase of the full refrain.

That “if” has to be in the back of Lowndes County District Attorney Scott Colom’s mind as the Democrat campaigns to upend incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the November midterm election. 

In short, what Colom has to ponder is some people’s belief that a lot of Mississippians support many of the principles of national Democrats but are not voting because Mississippi candidates generally avoid those issues or campaign with a more conservative bent.

Colom’s already herculean task is made even more difficult by the fact that independent Ty Pinkins, a former Democrat, is also in the race and could possibly siphon votes from him.

Colom, obviously, needs every Democratic vote in his bid to upset Hyde-Smith and become the first Democratic senator from Mississippi since the 1980s and the first Black Mississippi senator since the 1800s.

Recent Democratic campaigns

Former Attorney General Jim Hood, the last Mississippi Democrat to win a statewide election, was accused of not embracing his party as he campaigned with his hunting dog, rifle and pickup truck in his 2019 loss to Republican Tate Reeves in the governor’s race.

After the 2023 election, former Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley faced much of the same criticism after his unsuccessful attempt to defeat Reeves. Most would concede that Presley ran closer to the national Democratic Party than did Hood.

The results, though, were close to the same.

In his 2020 campaign against Hyde-Smith, former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy came closer to running as a national Democrat than both Presley and Hood. For that effort, Espy garnered more votes than any Democrat in a statewide campaign since Bill Waller in his victorious 1971 gubernatorial race.

But Espy garnered a lower percentage of votes in a higher-turnout election than did Hood or Moore.

In 2019, Reeves defeated Hood 52% to 47%, or by a little more than 45,000 votes. In a lower-turnout election four years later, Reeves beat Presley 51% to 48%, or by fewer than 27,000 votes.

In the 2020 Senate election, Hyde-Smith won 54% to 44%, or by fewer than 131,000 votes in the highest turnout election in the state’s history. Remember, Espy garnered more votes than any Democrat since Waller in the 1971 gubernatorial election.

What the numbers mean for midterm election

Based on the numbers, can the argument be confirmed that some Mississippians are sitting at home on election day who could sway the election to a Democrat if they could be inspired to go to the polls?

In considering that question, it is important to keep in mind that Mississippi is generally near the bottom each election cycle in terms of voter participation.

According to the University of Florida Election Lab, nationally 66.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot in 2020. That year 60.6% of eligible Mississippians did so.

If Mississippians had equaled that national participation in 2020, an additional 126,500 people would have voted.

If that had occurred and all the additional voters had cast Espy ballots, which of course would not have happened, he still would have lost to Hyde-Smith by about 5,000 votes.

But that was a presidential election, and by happenstance an election that set both a national and Mississippi record for the number of voters. A midterm election, such as the upcoming Colom vs. Hyde-Smith contest, is a different story. The turnout will be much lower – perhaps closer to a Mississippi gubernatorial turnout.

In that instance, new voters perhaps could make a difference for Colom if – there is that word again –  he could equal Presley’s or even Hood’s performance.

Colom, though, must walk that fine line of attracting those mysterious hard-to-find Mississippi progressives while not scaring away moderate voters who might be considering him in the current political environment where Trump and the Republicans have lost some of their luster nationally and perhaps even in true-red Mississippi.

If – if – Colom could accomplish those goals, perhaps he could give Mississippi Democrats something to cheer about for the first time in a long time.