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The Mississippi Division of Medicaid asked lawmakers for a roughly $179 million increase in state spending for the coming fiscal year after receiving a steep increase last year that squeezed other parts of the state’s budget. 

The proposed increase for the fiscal year beginning in July 2027 represents a 15% increase over last year. The agency is also anticipating a $34 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.

But Mississippi Medicaid’s $1.3 billion state funding request is expected to change again, Cindy Bradshaw, the state’s executive director for Medicaid, told the Joint Legislative Budget Committee at a Friday hearing.

“The one thing I can guarantee you is that will not be the amount that we need,” she said. “This is a fluid process, and it changes quickly.” 

For example, officials learned Thursday the federal government will increase the share of money it pays toward the state Medicaid program in 2027. Mississippi’s federal matching rate will increase slightly — by .0024% — for the upcoming fiscal year, said Bradshaw. This is expected to reduce the agency’s request by roughly $25 million.

Medicaid is one of the state’s largest budget items, accounting for roughly a 10th of the state’s spending. The agency’s total projected budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $9.4 billion, including federal funds. 

The agency administers health coverage to nearly 700,000 children and low-income pregnant, disabled and elderly Mississippians. The program’s enrollment is at its lowest level in over a decade and decreased by about 7,500 people in the past year. 

Mississippi Medicaid has launched initiatives to lower costs, Bradshaw said. Efforts include audits of contractors and long-term care facilities, reviewing prior authorizations and reducing managed care companies’ profit margins. Managed care companies receive per-member payments to maintain a provider network and implement programs intended to improve health outcomes for enrollees.

The agency’s requested increase is smaller than its ask last year early in the budgeting process of nearly $390 million. Lawmakers were stunned by the request and baffled by Gov. Tate Reeves’ roughly $160-million-lower proposal. Reeves’ office oversees Medicaid. 

Lawmakers ultimately approved a roughly $200 million increase in Medicaid’s budget for the current fiscal year, setting aside $100 million from the state’s capital expense fund. The fund is a reserve intended for one-time expenses, such as repairs and renovations of state-owned properties. State legislators also approved a $35 million deficit appropriation to cover a shortfall for the prior fiscal year.

Medicaid officials said last year’s large funding increase was the result of a a reserve of funds leftover from the COVID-19 pandemic running out, which necessitated a significant boost in state appropriations to maintain services at the same level.

After lawmakers balked at the agency’s budget request for the current fiscal year, Bradshaw warned in January that underfunding the agency could force it to cut payments to providers. 

State agencies present budget requests to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in the fall. The committee makes recommendations in December, and most appropriations bills are passed by lawmakers in the latter months of the legislative session, which ends in April.

Christa Pike was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious in a hospital in the hours after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.

Hospital staff, her lawyers said, were working to save Pike’s life and as of late Thursday were trying to clear the two doses of the drug that the state uses to execute prisoners.

The stunning failure in Tennessee’s execution chamber on Wednesday has left both sides of the death penalty debate demanding answers. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an independent review.

The court filing offered the first detailed account of Pike’s condition after an ambulance carried her away from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday night. Her attorneys said a day earlier that she was in critical condition.

Christa Pike’s attorneys point to problems with the IV

Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body,” they wrote in the court filing.

Instead of “remedying this failure,” they prepared and administered a second dose of pentobarbital, her lawyers said.

State officials have not offered any explanations about what went wrong.

Tennessee leaders want a review of execution methods

Lee demanded a review of the execution procedures and indefinitely postponed Pike’s execution and another that had been scheduled for this year. Republican Tennessee lawmakers said the state should review whether to stop single-drug lethal injections and consider other options to carry out death sentences.

The execution team worked for an hour to administer the lethal drugs, said Pike’s defense lawyer Randy Spivey, who counted at least seven needles in her left arm.

Neither the initial nor the backup dose of pentobarbital worked. Pike was still snoring when the execution chamber’s microphone was cut off more than an hour into the attempt.

Pike’s attorneys asked a state court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence from the failed execution.

“Preserving this evidence is essential to understanding what happened, ensuring accountability and protecting Christa’s legal rights,” two of her attorneys said in a statement.

She was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate in a jealous rage. She later became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row.

Following the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, her attorneys said.

“It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in an earlier clemency petition.

The mother of the 19-year-old woman Pike killed expressed frustration over the failed execution. “I didn’t get justice for my daughter,” Maya Martinez said Thursday.

Problems found with executions four years ago

Four years ago, Tennessee’s governor ordered another independent review into capital punishment after abruptly stopping the April 2022 execution of Oscar Smith. Lee then paused all executions after acknowledging the state had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested.

Months later, a report found the state hadn’t complied with its own lethal injection process since its revision in 2018, resulting in executions being conducted without proper testing of the drugs.

At the time, the state used a three-drug execution protocol of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The state later switched to using just pentobarbital.

Pentobarbital has been used to carry out death sentences in multiple states and by the federal government.

The review, led by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, also found that the state’s unidentified executioner had no formal healthcare training and learned the role mainly through on-the-job experience.

After the release of the report, the Tennessee Department of Correction fired its longtime top attorney and another employee.

___

Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

A father and son have been arrested for selling packages of kratom tied to the overdose deaths of two University of Mississippi students, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District announced Friday. 

Store clerk Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Yahya Mosleh, 18, each face federal charges of possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute. 

On Sept. 21, an Ole Miss student was found dead in his dorm room. An hour later in a separate location, another student was found dead. At both scenes, law enforcement found packages of suspected kratom derivatives, and some tablets were missing. 

Investigators used bank records to trace purchase of some of the kratom derivatives to an Oxford vape, tobacco and beer store, according to court records. An informant spoke to the elder Mosleh, the store clerk, who sold them kratom pills and warned them to be careful with them, according to the criminal complaint. 

Law enforcement executed several search warrants, resulting in the seizure of kratom substances from the store and the arrest of Mosleh and his son, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office. 

The victims were identified in court records as Aidan Hamilton, 18, a freshman from Englewood, Colorado, and Robert Strang, 20, a junior from Atlanta. 

Hamilton enjoyed the outdoors, hiking and climbing and skiing and will be remembered as someone who was caring, loving and upbeat, according to his obituary. Hamilton is survived by his parents, a brother and a sister. 

Strang was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Ole Miss who will be remembered for the joy he brought others and a strong sense of fairness, according to his obituary. He is survived by parents, a twin sister, a younger brother, other family members and his two dogs. 

A day after the students’ deaths, local law enforcement confirmed it was investigating their deaths and advised people to avoid kratom. 

Kratom is plant-based and, in its natural form, is considered a stimulant in low doses and an opiate-like sedative in higher doses, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Derivatives of kratom are Schedule I controlled substances because they are more potent and associated with a high risk of addiction, overdose and even death. 

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the extract. 

However, kratom is sold in many gas stations across the country, including Mississippi, to those over the age of 21. Lafayette County is one of 30 counties and cities in the state that have restricted or banned the sale of kratom. It can also be purchased over the internet. 

The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department and the Oxford and University of Mississippi police departments are investigating the case with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. 

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

Mississippi has spent years debating how to keep talented young people from leaving or to stop the brain drain.

Artificial intelligence adds a new dimension to that challenge. The risk is not simply that technology changes jobs. It is that employers use AI to remove the beginner work that once gave young people a reason to stay, learn and build a career.

A revised Stanford Digital Economy Lab analysis released this month found that employment among workers ages 22–25 in highly AI-exposed occupations was about 19% below where it would have been if it had kept pace with similarly aged workers in less-exposed occupations. The comparable gap in the July 2025 data vintage was 15%, and reduced hiring of young workers appears to be a major channel of adjustment.

That finding gives Mississippi employers a practical warning. If AI drafts the first memo, summarizes the first spreadsheet, prepares the first customer response and researches the first market question, the organization may gain efficiency while quietly deleting the experiences that teach a beginner how the business actually works.

Mississippi Today Ideas was launched in part to surface constructive solutions to the state’s long-running brain-drain challenge. One solution belongs inside the workplace: make the first job more developmental, not less.

Employers should create a first-project guarantee for entry-level knowledge workers. Every new hire in an AI-exposed role should own at least one meaningful project within the first 90 days, with AI handling some routine preparation while an experienced employee coaches the judgment around it.

The project does not need to be glamorous.

A new employee at a bank might use AI to organize customer information, then be responsible for identifying inconsistencies, documenting what requires human review and explaining a recommendation. A healthcare administrator might use AI to summarize scheduling or billing patterns, then investigate exceptions and speak with the people affected. A junior marketer might receive an AI-generated first draft, then test claims, interview a customer and defend the final message to a manager.

The common element is ownership. Beginners learn when they are responsible for getting from an imperfect starting point to a defensible result.

That requires managers to resist an understandable temptation. When AI saves five hours, the easiest move is to fill those five hours with more output.

The smarter move is to invest some of that time in supervised judgment. Pair newer employees with experienced reviewers. Give them difficult exceptions. Ask them to explain why an AI output is wrong, incomplete or inappropriate. Make them communicate the final answer to a real colleague or customer.

Then measure the outcome that matters: time to independent competence. How long does it take a new employee to handle a recurring decision without close supervision? How many coached reviews were required? Which exceptions still trip people up? Which AI-assisted tasks actually accelerate learning?

These questions turn workforce development from a training-calendar exercise into a management system.

They also fit Mississippi’s economic needs. A state worried about losing young talent cannot afford to offer graduates only two choices: leave for experience elsewhere or stay home for a job stripped of the experiences that build a career. Employers need to create roles in which young people can see a path from beginner to trusted professional.

AI can help. It can remove tedious preparation, surface examples quickly and give employees more chances to practice. But that benefit appears only when leaders deliberately preserve the human learning loop around the technology.

Mississippi does not need to protect every old task. It needs to protect the pathway from novice to capable worker. The employers that do that will not merely keep pace with AI. They will give more young Mississippians a reason to build their future at home.

Named the “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times, Gleb Tsipursky helps tech-forward leaders stop overpaying for AI while boosting engagement and innovation as the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts. His eighth book, due out with Georgetown University Press this fall, is “The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results.” Tsipursky earned his doctorate in the history of behavioral science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011, his master’s at Harvard University and his undergraduate degree at New York University. A proud Ukrainian American, he lives in Columbus, Ohio. In his free time, he said he spends abundant quality time with his wife to avoid his personal life turning into a disaster. See his full bio.

Hinds County may soon end its six-year arrangement providing a temporary morgue space to handle a backlog of unclaimed bodies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in homicides. 

Robert Graham, president of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, said the coroner is working toward getting unclaimed bodies out of the space the office has used since 2020. The county entered an agreement with Hinds County Community College, which owns the building on Highway 18 about a mile from its Raymond campus. 

The need to make the move gained urgency last month. A power outage at the temporary morgue shut down the coolers where the bodies were being held, WLBT reported. 

Graham referred questions about what would need to be done to clear the space and how it would be accomplished to Coroner Jermiah Howard, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Last week in a statement, the college said it entered an equipment use agreement with the board of supervisors to use the space for cold storage. The college has “neither controlled nor been responsible for the use or maintenance of the facility.” 

College spokesperson Karin Meadows declined to respond to Graham’s comment that the coroner’s office has been asked to wind down use of the facility. 

During the height of the pandemic, the coroner’s office struggled to keep up with recording deaths in the county and transporting the bodies, Howard previously told Missisisppi Today. The need for space also came from a record high 155 homicides in Jackson in 2021, his predecessor, Sharon Grisham-Stewart said in 2022. 

The coroner’s office processes more unclaimed bodies than it has in the past decade, according to Howard. 

Hinds County had at least 24 unclaimed bodies in 2019, 17 in 2024 and 20 through August 2025. Records show identification was listed for unclaimed bodies for those years. 

One way to process unclaimed bodies is through pauper burials in a cemetery behind the Hinds County Penal Farm in Jackson. These burials are meant for families who cannot afford a burial and those whose bodies are unclaimed. 

Unclaimed bodies have been an ongoing issue for the board of supervisors for at least the past year, according to meeting agendas and minutes. Hinds County records show the number of pauper burials surpassed 20 last year. 

Graham said the process for the county to approve a pauper burial starts with the coroner’s office. 

State law directs counties to make reasonable efforts to notify a person’s family members about a body. If the body is not claimed for burial or cremation within five days, the board of supervisors or coroner can approve burial.

After exhausting family contact and checks with law enforcement agencies to determine if a person is missing, Graham said the coroner can recommend a pauper burial. 

A need for a procedure and checks for unclaimed bodies became clear in 2023, when the county buried three men in the Hinds paupers’ cemetery without officials telling their families they died. Bettersten Wade had been looking for her son Dexter unaware his body had been labeled unclaimed and buried in the paupers’ cemetery. 

Last year, county officials made further investments to help process unclaimed bodies. The board voted to install plaques beside plots in the paupers’ field, which Graham has told Mississippi Today would provide more dignity to their burial.

The temporary morgue also stores bodies as families make burial arrangements. At least 33 were stored there, according to most recent county records available through August 2025. The year earlier, at least 55 bodies were sent to storage.

Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since President Donald Trump returned to office such as canceling new clean energy projects, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think tank.

The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy, cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more: Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming.

The California-based think tank said there will be more demand for natural gas for electricity because the administration is canceling new wind, solar and hydrogen projects and there will be more gasoline demand for transportation because Trump and Congress are revoking policies that incentivized efficient and lower-emissions vehicles. Higher demand increases prices.

Energy prices are elevated in many countries. The International Energy Agency said after Russia invaded Ukraine, record prices were observed between 2022 and 2024 in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. In many countries, the rise has outpaced income growth and inflation since 2019, including the European Union and the United States.

In some areas of the U.S., demand from data centers is being blamed. The Iran war has sent oil and gasoline prices sharply higher, too. The Energy Information Administration expects residential U.S. customers to pay about 18.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2027, compared to 17.3 cents in 2025 and 18.2 cents in 2026.

The independent research firm Rhodium Group has also examined the issue, saying in April the U.S. has entered a new period of rising electricity prices. It cited increasing price volatility in natural gas, which is increasingly used to generate power; needed grid improvements; inflation; storm recovery and wildfire mitigation; and shifting policies.

Absent significant policy action, electricity prices likely will continue their significant rise over the next five years, the firm said.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Wednesday that lowering electricity prices remains a top priority and Trump is unleashing reliable energy like coal and natural gas to reverse the damage Democrats did to the grid by increasing clean energy. A 2025 Department of Energy report, mandated by Trump, warned of increasing blackouts if the U.S. continued closing coal and natural gas plants.

“Joe Biden created a grid crisis; President Trump is fixing it,” Rogers wrote in an email. “If the Democrats had their way, these costly and unreliable renewable energy projects would still be failing our grid and our communities.”

The Republican president prioritizes fossil fuels to produce electricity, unlike Biden, who saw clean energy as a climate solution. The conservative Institute for Energy Research said in December that blue states have high rates because they have embraced aggressive renewable mandates, 100% carbon-free targets, premature coal and nuclear retirements and restrictions on natural gas infrastructure. It said high electricity prices are not an inevitability; they are a choice.

Analysis examined impact on states solely from federal policy changes

It focused on the sweeping package of tax breaks that slashed funding for clean energy tax credits, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump signed; environmental rollbacks, including clean air and power plant rules and the revocation of a scientific finding that underpinned the U.S. fight against climate change; the loosening of fuel economy standards and blocking of California’s novel rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035; and federal actions to stop wind, solar and hydrogen projects.

These changes will result in annual household energy costs rising in every state in the contiguous U.S., plus job losses in 47 of 48 states and losses to the gross domestic product in 46 states, Energy Innovation said. It’s projecting 37,000 additional premature deaths from air pollution, $72 billion in additional healthcare costs and more than 9 billion tons of additional carbon pollution because of the environmental rollbacks. The analysis did not include Alaska or Hawaii because key federal data is not available for those two states, said Robbie Orvis, senior director for modeling and analysis.

“Across pretty much every state, things are worse. The outlook now is worse for states and the affordability crisis will be worse because of the combined set of policies,” Orvis said.

Climate Justice Alliance legislative director Mar Zepeda said her Washington, D.C., electric bill increased $200 in the past month. Zepeda blames electricity demands from data centers, and said federal “affordability” policies only exacerbate this.

“They may call it affordability, but affordable for whom and at what cost? Not for regular people,” Zepeda said in an email.

White House says the think tank is partisan

Rogers said it is “irresponsible” to classify Energy Innovation as nonpartisan because its employees have donated to Democrats and worked with Democrats on climate policy.

Spokesman Silvio Marcacci said Energy Innovation works with policymakers who want to cut emissions and lower bills, regardless of party. He said multiple Republican-led states have used their tool designed to model policies affecting energy use and emissions. Much of their data comes from government sources, including the EIA.

Rogers also said states led by Democrats that have embraced aggressive renewable mandates see higher energy costs, notably California and New York. She said this proves Republican policies are working.

However, in the Energy Innovation analysis, three of the five states facing the highest costs have Republican governors. Its research has found that states with high levels of wind and solar generation, including Republican-led Iowa and Oklahoma, have experienced the lowest rate increases.

The average price residential customers pay for electricity increased during Biden’s term and has continued to rise under Trump, according to EIA data.

Oregon households’ annual energy spending slated to increase the most

The modeling projects federal policy changes will increase annual energy spending in Oregon by $840 per household in 2035 and $1,200 per household in 2040, with a cumulative $9,300 increase from 2026 to 2040 — the highest of any state.

The Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board advocates for residential utility customers. Executive Director Bob Jenks called those numbers “frightening” because Oregon already has an energy affordability problem. He cited steep rate increases as utilities make upgrades and data centers use more power.

As costs rise, Jenks expects utilities to disconnect more customers who can’t afford their bills.

Jenks said wind and solar are essential for affordable electricity, and he wants the federal government to partner with states to develop the energy they need.

“We’re trying to optimize among the resource options we have, and they’re trying to take things away and raise the costs,” he said.

RULEVILLE – A nonprofit that supports organizations that advance social justice is enabling the expansion of the Fannie Lou Hamer Digital Driving Tour as the country commemorates the 109th anniversary of the civil rights icon’s birth.

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation awarded $25,000 to the “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America” project to support research and the production of 12 new tour stops and multimedia resources, highlighting historic locations connected to Hamer’s grassroots organizing, voting rights work, civic participation, food justice and community empowerment.

Each location will include short documentary-style videos, archival audio, historical photographs, news articles and immersive digital resources that make Hamer’s story more accessible.

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation earlier invested in the award-winning documentary film “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America” that aired on PBS and WORLD Channel in 2022 and supported community engagement.

“Monica Land’s acclaimed documentary film ‘Fannie Lou Hamer’s America’ helped bring her aunt Fannie Lou’s story to national audiences through rare archival footage and speeches,” Foundation President and CEO Jonathan Logan said in a news release. “The driving tour is the perfect complement to the film, allowing even more people to learn about the people and places that shaped Hamer’s life and work.”

The original 10-location driving tour was part of the film’s “Find Your Voice” K-12 curriculum. Land and videographer and editor Tommy Kirkpatrick of CommonHouse Productions produced a relaunched tour in August with 12 short videos featuring archival footage, photographs and historical materials with sites in Mississippi and Atlantic City. 

The driving tour is available on the film’s website and features additional resources, and their YouTube Channel. 

Born on a plantation in rural Mississippi on Oct. 6, 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer was a voting rights advocate, humanitarian and community organizer who became one of the most powerful voices of the Civil Rights Movement. 

The Logan Foundation supports organizations that advance social justice through investigative journalism, documentary film and arts and culture. 

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation is a Mississippi Today donor.

As autumn begins to take hold in north Mississippi, leaves are falling onto roads still littered with tree limbs and other debris from last winter’s torment, state officials said. 

Over eight months since Winter Storm Fern, the Mississippi Department of Transportation said its “massive” debris cleanup effort will likely last until Halloween. Officials in three counties – Lafayette, Union and Tishomingo – estimated they amassed roughly 2.5 million cubic yards – one cubic yard is about the size of a dishwasher – of debris in those places alone. 

CLICK HERE: Mississippi Today’s disaster guide

Federal dollars are slowly arriving to assist Mississippi’s local and state recovery efforts. As of late September, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded nearly $200 million in public assistance grants to Mississippi, roughly half of the $416 million the state reported in damages, data from the agency shows. 

In a state much more accustomed to flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes, the January storm was one of Mississippi’s deadliest natural disasters of the 21st century. The last comparable event, most in the state say, was the Great Ice Storm of 1994. Thirty people died, largely from a mix of house fires and hypothermia. Many more suffered with limited access to food and water, stranded in dark homes along roads too dangerous to drive on. 

In the following months, residents and public officials underscored the state’s lack of preparedness for winter disasters, Mississippi Today reported. They pointed to days-long waits for water, food and generators, as well as the many critical facilities – such as hospitals, drinking water systems and prisons – that lacked sufficient back-up power.

State officials have since pointed to tangible solutions, such as storing resources in north Mississippi, improving disaster aid and maintaining trees near power lines. But they also argued there isn’t much more Mississippi can do to mitigate a once-every-30-year event. 

Now in October, discussion of Fern has largely melted away. 

In June, the Mississippi Public Service Commission held a two-day summit in Tupelo focused on lessons learned from the storm. The idea, Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown said, was to leave better prepared for the next bout of brutal cold weather. 

“Preparation is wisdom, we owe that to the people we serve,” Brown said after quoting Proverbs 27:12: “ A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple passeth on and are punished.” 

While the summit elicited some specific suggestions – largely calls for more generators – it was unclear how those ideas would be executed. Brown’s office did not respond to multiple calls about possible next steps. 

At the event, held in a Tupelo High School auditorium, meteorologist Matt Laubhan underscored that the next large winter storm could hit any year. 

“There’s no guarantee it’s 30 years from now when we have the next one of these,” Laubhan told the couple dozen people in attendance. “It easily could be this next year.  There’s no magic thing that keeps it being that spread out.

“Knowing your weaknesses today, it’s necessary to fixing tomorrow.”

‘You can’t prevent the weather’

Overall, interviews with north Mississippi lawmakers revealed a sense that little could be, or even needed to be, changed to better handle future winter storms.

“As far as legislation, I mean, you can’t prevent the weather,” Rep. Clay Deweese, a Republican from Oxford, said. “An ice storm, the event we had up north is just… Do you need to be prepared? Sure, you do. But that’s just not really very predictable.”

Rep. Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, echoed the sentiment. 

“I’m not sure legislatively what we need to do to help better prepare Mississippi than what we’ve already done,” he said. “I mean, it’s not going to prevent the storm.”

Lawmakers reiterated the infrequency of such an event, arguing it’s hard to fund mitigation against a once-every-30-year event.

“ I think there’ll be lessons learned, and there will be takeaways, and there’ll be improvements,” said Sen. Daniel Sparks, a Republican from Belmont. “But it’s hard to turn around then and legislate based on the outlier.”

‘You can’t do nothing’

While Mississippi officials underlined the infrequency of winter storms of Fern’s magnitude, climate experts agreed there’s no telling when another event will hit the state.

“I wouldn’t say put your money on that you’re going to see more of these events next year or the year after, but you will eventually,” said B.J. Baule, a climatologist at the Southern Regional Climate Center at Texas A&M University. “So being prepared, having that capacity, knowing where the vulnerabilities are is important.”

David Holt, a geography professor at the University of Southern Mississippi who specializes in climate and resilience, called it “foolish” to rely on the once-every-30-year frequency in predicting future winter storms. 

“To fall back on saying we’ve got another 30 years before we have another Fern come along, it’s naive at best,” Holt said. 

Scientists are still studying whether any link between climate change and winter storm intensity or frequency exists, such as with flooding or extreme heat. But climate variability, researchers say, has increased. There’s less certainty today over how often an event like Fern might occur than there was in 1994, Holt and Baule agreed. 

“ The reality is we can’t predict if we’re going to have a colder winter or a hotter winter,” Holt said. “We can estimate or give you statistical probabilities, but we can’t guarantee it. But what we can guarantee is that we expect there to be greater variability.”

It’s more likely a similar event happens sooner than 30 years from now because of increasing temperatures that lead to more moisture and more precipitation, including ice, Holt said.

“My professional gut opinion is that it feels like it’s more likely to happen again sooner than later because we just see this variability,” he said. 

While temperatures have risen in Mississippi over the last century – although not as much as in other parts of the country – residents and officials have noticed a string of harsh winter events in recent years, such as in 2021 and in 2023. 

 ”North Mississippi has been impacted by a winter weather event consistently  over the last five years,” said Beau Moore, a public information officer for Lafayette County. “ As our weather patterns are changing, we need to also have (more) resources available in north Mississippi.” 

Baule explained that, more recently, the Arctic is warming faster than the equator, leading to more north-to-south jet streams. That phenomenon brings cold fronts farther south, such as what Mississippi saw with Fern. Baule said data is insufficient to make a definite connection, but the trend “could be attributable to climate change.”

New warehouse in north Mississippi?

One potential fix officials are discussing, aimed at reducing delivery times for resource requests, is to build a new warehouse in north Mississippi to store items like food, water, tarps and cots. 

“I would like to have MEMA have a warehouse in north Mississippi with some materials on hand for a rapid response,” Sen. Chad McMahan, a Republican from Guntown, said.

Moore told Mississippi Today that Lafayette County officials are looking to do just that. He said the county is talking with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency about securing funds for the project – estimated to cost around $2 million. 

“They’ve been good talks, good conversations, it’s just sometimes these items take time to get done,” he said.

MEMA confirmed it was in discussions with Lafayette County.

“We prepositioned personnel and supplies before Winter Storm Fern and would certainly not hesitate to move materials to the Lafayette County location if it is deemed necessary for a particular event,” Scott Simmons, the agency’s director of external affairs, told Mississippi Today.

A permanent disaster loan program?

Another solution to improve preparedness is to make a recently created emergency loan program permanent, some lawmakers said. 

In April, the Legislature created a temporary revolving loan program to help cities and counties hurt by Winter Storm Fern while they awaited federal assistance funding. While technically a loan, the 3% interest rate only kicks in if an applicant doesn’t receive the same amount through FEMA’s Public Assistance grants. 

As of Oct. 1, the state had awarded $79 million in loans to over 20 cities and counties.

Creekmore said he would support a permanent version of the program that can quickly kick in once a disaster strikes. The temporary program is set to expire in July 2027. 

“It’d be nice to have that kick in and give these people peace of mind,” Creekmore said, calling the program a “saving grace” for areas hit by the winter storm. “We’re fortunate we were in session to do that (right after Fern).” 

Deweese, who introduced the House’s version of the program, said a permanent loan program is “something we may need to look at.”

Fortifying the electric grid

Winter Storm Fern took out power for roughly 300,000 residents, or more than one in 10 Mississippians, state officials estimated in the disaster’s aftermath. 

Keith Hayward, the general manager of the Northeast Mississippi Electric Power Association, said the utility’s biggest obstacle to restoring power was the amount of fallen trees and limbs that stood in the way. 

“I equate it to a F2 or F3 tornado that basically went across our whole system,” Hayward said, adding it took three weeks before every customer’s lights were back on.

After the last comparable winter storm in 1994, the utility more aggressively trimmed the hanging limbs and vegetation in its rights-of-way, or the areas around power lines and poles. Legally, the utility can tackle vegetation up to 30 feet away from power lines, Hayward said. 

Another utility manager, Sean McGrath of the Alcorn County Electric Power Association, said increasing power companies’ easements would help prevent outages. Most power outages are caused by fallen trees or vegetation originating on private property, McGrath said.

“ I think we need to look at possibly changing easement law and giving us the opportunity to cut a hazardous tree when the homeowner doesn’t necessarily want that tree cut,” he said. “ If you really want to look at hardening your infrastructure, it starts with your easement laws.”

Hayward agreed some private property owners are making outages worse.

“ When you have a community that loves their trees and has a tree board and their tree that they’ve been trimming on for 30 years, is four foot thick and falls across a three-phase line and breaks 10 poles, what are you going to do?” he asked.  

Sparks, the senator from Belmont, said while he would entertain the idea it would be hard to pass legislation limiting private property owners’ rights. 

“That’s going to be super tough,” Sparks said. 

Another question officials raised after Fern is whether it makes sense to put power lines underground so they’re not susceptible to disasters like winter storms or tornadoes. While underground lines are more resilient to storms, they’re also significantly more costly to build. 

In his area, Hayward said subdivisions built since the 1990s are required to build their lines underground. But in rural areas, where one line may stretch over 20 miles to reach just a few homes, the price tag usually isn’t worth it, he added, especially because the utility has to pass those costs on to its ratepayers. 

In Oxford, Mayor Robyn Tannehill said new lines there have been built underground for the last 20 years. Tannehill said the city’s goal is to bury other, older lines, but after Fern she isn’t sure how soon Oxford can afford to do so.

Shifting responsibility to locals

During the last legislative session, north Mississippi lawmakers criticized state agencies for not doing enough to prepare for Winter Storm Fern. But one Coast senator argued that it’s local officials who need to be ready to take on more responsibilities, especially as the federal government tries to overhaul FEMA. 

Earlier in the year, a council appointed by President Donald Trump – including former Gov. Phil Bryant – released a list of recommended changes to FEMA, which followed Trump’s statements that he wished to get rid of the agency altogether. While the recommendations didn’t go that far, they did call for shifting responsibilities away from FEMA to state and local governments. 

Sen. Scott DeLano, a Republican from Biloxi involved in much of the state’s disaster legislation, said he expects the new version of FEMA to send grants to counties so local officials can handle more storm responses without outside assistance. When that transition happens is just a matter of time, the senator said. 

“ What we do know is they’re going to push more responsibilities down to the locals,” DeLano told Mississippi Today. “ The time of the mayors calling MEMA and saying, ’Where’s my water truck, where are my generators, where are my tarps?’ That’s gone.”

But that process will require more resources and training at the local level, he added. Winter Storm Fern was a perfect example. 

“ When you look at what happened in the winter storm event, the reality is there were a lot of communities that had not faced that type of widespread disruption, and a widespread demand for response in many, many, many years,” DeLano said.

He said there should be better protocols to ensure critical facilities like water systems, hospitals and prisons have backup power, calling that the “lowest hanging fruit.” 

“There were things that may have fallen through the cracks over the years that we should certainly use as lessons learned,” DeLano said.

Sitting in a corner of a parking garage underneath the Hinds County Courthouse is an electric golf cart with chrome wheels, white stitching on black seats, and a gray seal on four sides bearing the name of the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office and its former leader, Jody Owens. 

The vehicle turned up next to a back door to the courthouse sometime after June 29, when Owens pleaded guilty to a federal corruption charge and resigned.

In the three months since, Owens’ appointed successor, Brad McCullouch, said his staff can’t find records showing when the lithium-battery-powered cart was purchased, how much it cost or where it came from. The golf cart could now play a role in a state audit looking into the finances of the district attorney’s office. 

State funds were not used to purchase the golf cart, said Marcy Scoggins, spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration. And the vehicle also does not appear on Hinds County’s inventory. 

Owens told Mississippi Today in August that he bought the golf cart for community engagement purposes, including parades and tailgating with staff at Jackson State University football games. 

“On the record, just to be clear, the golf cart has never been on a golf course,” Owens said. He couldn’t remember when, which funds he used or how much he paid. 

Dirt in the tread of the tires suggests the golf cart was used. But Mississippi Today could not find any pictures on the office’s social media accounts of the vehicle. 

If the golf cart was purchased for more than $5,000, it would have been subject to procurement laws in Mississippi, said Billy Morehead, a Mississippi Christian University accounting professor and past member of the Mississippi Public Procurement Review Board. 

Without knowing where the money came from, Morehead said, it is difficult to determine which government entity — the state, Hinds County or the DA’s office — would have been responsible for following those requirements. 

In Mississippi, DA’s offices are funded through a combination of state, county and self-generated revenue, subjecting their spending to a patchwork of accountability. 

The golf cart is made by a manufacturer called Vivid EV, according to a label on the dashboard. The company’s website appears to be defunct. 

Mississippi Today hasn’t been able to independently determine what the DA’s office paid for the cart and whether it exceeded the threshold for county bid requirements. Online golf cart reselling sites list various models made by Vivid EV starting at a little over $8,000. 

Soon after being appointed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, McCullouch said he was alarmed by the lack of financial documentation in the DA’s office. In a written response in September to a public records request from Mississippi Today, McCullouch said his office did not find any bids, invoices, requisitions or receipts documenting the golf cart’s purchase. 

McCullouch said he would not release any records, if any exist, about the golf cart, citing a state attorney general’s opinion that allows DAs to withhold records that are part of active criminal investigations. McCullouch declined to elaborate.

Regardless of how the golf cart came to be in the DA’s possession, Morehead said a record of it should exist in an inventory log. 

Neither the state auditor’s office nor the Department of Finance and Administration has such a log for the Hinds DA’s office. Mississippi Today obtained Hinds County’s asset inventory through a public records request, but it did not include a listing for the golf cart. 

“I’m not sure exactly the source of funds, but it didn’t come through our purchasing,” said Hinds County Administrator Lynn Seals, who added that golf carts do not have to be registered in Hinds County. 

If Owens used self-generated funds to buy the golf cart, state or county officials would not have had oversight. DAs can use self-generated funds for a range of law enforcement activities.

It’s common for law enforcement agencies in Mississippi to have golf carts. The Hinds County Sheriff’s Office, for example, uses golf carts to patrol the state fair. 

Nevertheless, Morehead questioned why a DA would need a golf cart. In Hinds County, prosecutors work on the fifth floor of the courthouse, taking an elevator to attend trials happening in courtrooms below. 

“Where is the DA trying to go?” he asked. 

Owens, a Democrat, was elected Hinds DA in late 2019. He frequently pushed for more funding for the office, including state appropriations to purchase electronic case management software and hire additional prosecutors. 

In 2023, Owens was among several Jackson officials who were ensnared in a wide-ranging FBI probe into corruption in Mississippi’s capital city. He is set to be sentenced in November. 

Tempers flared Thursday at a packed redistricting hearing at the Mississippi Capitol, where a large majority of speakers criticized what they said was a power grab aimed at diminishing Black political power and further entrenching Republican dominance over state politics. 

The hearing in Jackson capped off a slate of often fiery public hearings that began in August, and included stops in north Mississippi, the Delta, east Mississippi and the Gulf Coast. A Republican-dominated committee listened to speakers who shared their views on whether Mississippi should redraw its electoral maps, a move that could reshape the state’s political representation for years to come. 

Republicans control the state Legislature and currently hold three out of the state’s four seats in the U.S. House, but they could potentially redraw maps to further strengthen their grip on Mississippi’s political offices.  

Mississippians arrived at the Capitol Thursday wielding placards, megaphones and shirts emblazoned with the phrase “I FIGHT FOR VOTING RIGHTS.” A smattering of pro-redistricting attendees wearing signature red blazers of the Mississippi Federation of Republican Women were sitting in the front row, but opponents of redistricting dominated the crowd. 

Many speakers pointed out the state’s sordid history of racial discrimination, and the committee’s composition reflected the intertwined nature of racial and political polarization in Mississippi. The committee, handpicked by legislative leaders, consists of 16 Republicans, all but one of whom are white, and four Democrats, all of whom are Black. 

Walter Boone, a Jackson resident, urged lawmakers not to further continue a historical pattern of policymaking that harms Black residents, and sign their names to what he called “the Mississippi Plan 2.0.”

“The proponents of redistricting talk and stand on a supposed high ground of race neutrality,” Boone said. “But we already know that in Mississippi the most perfectly race neutral laws were used intentionally to disastrous racial effect. Race neutrality in language does not matter if the end result is that Black Mississippians are not fairly represented. And this is where we’re headed.”

A large contingent of Democratic lawmakers sat in the audience, including House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson of Natchez. In an episode that reflects the division sparked by the redistricting push, Johnson sparred with the very first speaker of the evening: Republican State Auditor Shad White. 

White said he had heard lawmakers might not redraw Mississippi’s congressional maps in a special session expected this fall. But he urged the Legislature to do so in the future, specifically to target Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s only Black member of Congress and only Democrat.

“The Delta has been at the bottom of far too many rankings for far too long, and the Delta deserves better leadership than Bennie Thompson,” White said. “I’m telling you there’s a silent majority of people who want better representation for the Mississippi Delta.” 

The crowd booed, and Republican Sen. Dean Kirby, the committee chairman, threatened to adjourn the hearing.

As White began walking toward the exit, Johnson stood up and asked whether it was against the committee’s rules for a speaker to make comments that disparaged another person. Johnson said White told him the Delta needed better leadership. Johnson said he then told White he had “failed us as state auditor” and White responded that he was the “best auditor Mississippi has ever had.”  

The pair wagged their fingers at each other, and Johnson said he criticized White for prosecuting “poor city clerks” instead of recovering money misspent by state officials. White then “clipclopped away,” Johnson said. 

White, a likely Republican candidate for governor, later said he came to voice an opinion that none of his potential rivals were there to offer. 

“No Republicans thinking of running for governor showed up except me, and I thought it was important for the committee to know that room of activists did not speak for all the people of this state,” White said. “They hurled insults and maybe a couple of four-letter words, but I’m not backing down from standing up for Mississippi, even when it’s a fight.”

The Republican-led effort to redistrict also reignited concerns from opponents that hard-won progress to increase Black representation in Mississippi since the Jim Crow era would be eradicated.

Brooke Floyd, a Jackson resident, said her grandfather was a prominent Black educator and school administrator during the Jim Crow era, and later became a doorman for the state House after integration. She said there was a direct connection between the eradication of Black political power and many of the state’s problems.

“It looks like being one of the poorest states in the union while refusing to raise the minimum wage,” Floyd said. “A state with one of the highest Black maternal and infant mortality rates.” 

Those who spoke in favor of redistricting at the hearing said the consideration of race in drawing electoral maps was no longer justified given Mississippi’s efforts to overcome its past, and that the state should instead move toward a “color blind” approach.   

Connie Davis, a resident of Rankin County, said she supported efforts to redraw maps drawn in an effort to meet “racial targets.”

“The government must treat people as individuals and not racial categories,” Davis said. “The scales of justice should not favor anyone unjustly. The laws are applicable to everyone, regardless of their race. All of us here today should want fair representation under the law. That is in our beautifully written, colorblind constitution.”

Down the street from Capitol earlier on Thursday, opponents of the mid-decade redistricting push gathered on the lawn in front of the Mississippi Supreme Court Building for a rally organized by the ACLU. 

Attendees held signs that said “NO JIM CROW MAPS.” 

Amir Badat, the Southern states director for the voting rights organization Fair Fight, said Mississippians across the state showed up at the hearings to voice their opposition, and that lawmakers should act accordingly. 

“This is where all of our voices come together, and we are not going to let any of them be ignored,” Badat said.

Attendees later streamed into the Capitol, chanting  “Leave our maps alone.” Seconds before a large group filed into the lobby, megaphones in hand, Sen. Kirby, the committee chairman, slipped into a nearby elevator and disappeared until the hearing started. 

The hearing was held in a room at the Capitol that quickly filled, and some attendees were forced to sit in an overflow area outside. Shortly before the hearing got underway, Johnson, the House minority leader, hinted at future litigation.

“This is testimony,” Johnson said. “And at some point it may be evidence. So let’s make sure we’re heard.”

The redistricting push in Mississippi and elsewhere was set in motion by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Callais decision, which removed protection for majority-minority districts and cleared the way for state legislatures to redraw political lines for partisan advantage. Republican leaders believe the court’s decision ended the practice of allowing race to be considered when drawing political maps.   

Now that the legislative joint committee has finished holding public hearings, the full Legislature is expected to convene in a special session this fall to redraw at least state legislative maps. 

That wouldn’t impact this November’s federal election, but Mississippi lawmakers are likely to target Thompson’s seat with redistricting before he’s up for reelection again in 2028.

In a statement, Nancy Loome, president of the public education advocacy group The Parents’ Campaign, said redrawn maps would elevate the importance of party primaries as general election campaigns become less competitive.   

“In the past, this type of redistricting has yielded gerrymandered districts that heavily favor one party or the other, which tends to make Mississippi’s general elections less meaningful and participation in the primary election of paramount importance,” Loome said in a statement. 

After the nearly three-hour hearing concluded Thursday night, Mississippi Today asked Kirby how the public feedback might influence the imminent redistricting process. 

“I appreciate everyone expressing their opinion. We came to listen, and we did,” Kirby said. “This committee is going to do what the courts tell us to do.”