OurTupelo

As it would for the typical U.S. Census taker, the work of counting bears in the woods starts with a clipboard and a blank piece of paper.

Armed with this equipment — along with bear spray and, perhaps more importantly, tick repellent — a team of researchers has been fanning out to hundreds of survey stations set up across western Connecticut this summer to collect data on the area’s resident population of black bears. Their goal is to conduct the first scientific survey of the state’s bear population in over a decade.

The project is a collaboration between the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Carnivore and Population Ecology Lab at Mississippi State University, which has conducted similar population surveys of black bears for several other state wildlife agencies.

Instead of trying to locate bears in the wild, the survey relies on hair samples collected in barbed wire traps, which can be used to identify individual bears based on their DNA. Researchers will later come up with a population estimate based on how many different bears they identified and how often those bears showed up in the samples across different geographic areas.

“It’s basically forensics, right,” said Dana Morin, the principal investigator at the Mississippi State lab, who holds a Ph.D. in wildlife conservation. “It’s the same idea as identifying somebody from saliva or something like that.”

The work begins each weekday morning, when members of the 10-person research team head out to collect samples from their daily list of traps. The traps consist of two strands of barbed wire wrapped around multiple trees with a scented lure in the center.

How to lure a bear: doughnuts and raspberries?

What scents are best for attracting bears? The standard setup, honed through similar projects in other states, uses a small pile of sticks sprayed with used doughnut grease along with a tampon soaked in raspberry extract, which is suspended from a line running through the center of the corral. Both lures are intended to attract bears while not providing them with actual food that can habituate them to humans.

“If a bear is in the area, it might sniff it due to their curiosity, but they’re not going to be coming back because there’s no calories to be gained from it,” said Connor Kurz, the project manager and a research associate at Morin’s lab.

In order to spot hair among the dark hues of the forest floor, researchers use a sheet of white paper pegged to a clipboard to provide a bright background, which they pass slowly underneath the strands of wire. Even to their discerning eyes, it’s not always clear whether the hair is that of a bear or some other furry mammal.

“Bears can come in all different colors,” Kurz says. “Typically, here in the Northeast, they’re going to be black with a brown muzzle, and sometimes they’ll have a white chest blaze. But in other states, they can be brown, cinnamon, red, even white.”

For that reason, any hair collected from the traps is bagged and documented to be sent back to Morin’s lab in Mississippi for genetic testing. The researchers also note any other signs of bear activity in the area, such as footprints, scat or a sighting of a live bear. The population estimate, however, will be based solely on the DNA collected from the hair samples and what that indicates about the number of individual bears living in the area.

The researchers have set up 340 collection sites from the New York border to the Connecticut River. While black bears are known to inhabit nearly every town in Connecticut, they are concentrated more heavily in the western half of the state, and both DEEP and the research team have focused their efforts on studying that population of bears.

The group’s survey efforts are mostly organized into 17 clusters, each containing 12 to 16 individual collection sites spread out in a grid of roughly 14 square miles. (There are also several smaller satellite clusters, with between three and five collection sites, included in the project area).

Kurz said that the field team put careful consideration into selecting each site. They’re looking for a small stand of evenly-spaced mature trees with little brush in the center. Because the sites are generally located at least 100 feet away from any trails, visiting them can require bushwhacking through swampy terrain or dense undergrowth, dodging branches and the occasional cobweb.

Each site is checked weekly for hair samples, starting in early June. As of the first week of August, the team had collected about 850 hair samples from all of its sites. The field work is scheduled to conclude later this month.

Mississippi know-how

In order to get an accurate population estimate back at the lab, Morin uses a technique known as “ spatial capture-recapture, ” which builds upon earlier research methods used to determine the likelihood that any individual bear in an area will show up in one of the samples. By factoring in the size of the survey area along with the distribution of bears within that area into their calculations, Morin said, the team can more accurately determine the density of the bear population.

“That’s accounting for both the individuals we detected but also the individuals we didn’t, and it’s estimating how many individuals are there but we just didn’t happen to detect them,” Morin said. “With the spatial capture-recapture, we’re now also incorporating an estimate of what the area is. We’re getting a more accurate estimate of the abundance by using that.”

Morin said it will take several months to prepare and conduct genetic testing on all of the samples before running the results through her estimation models. A final population estimate based on the samples should be available by next spring, she said.

“The longest part of the process is extracting all the DNA from the hair because it’s pretty tedious, and you have to be really careful with it to make sure nothing gets contaminated and all the samples are straight,” Morin said.

The last scientific study of state’s bear population was conducted by researchers from the University of Connecticut between 2013 and 2014, using similar methods. The results of that study, published in 2016, identified 235 distinct bears using genetic testing and estimated the total bear population in western Connecticut was around 400 to 450 individuals.

Since then, DEEP estimates the total population of bears living in Connecticut has grown to around 1,000 to 1,200 individuals.

Bear encounters grow more common

As bears have become increasingly common in Connecticut, so have their encounters with humans. Thousands of human-bear confrontations are reported to DEEP each year, with most involving bears eating from trash cans or bird feeders. The agency has also recorded more than 250 instances of bears breaking into homes over the last six years, as well as several reported attacks on humans. Just this week, the agency published an advisory warning that over 50 home entries have already been reported in 2026, more than in all of last year.

In response to those run-ins, some lawmakers have proposed establishing a regulated bear hunting season in parts of Connecticut, particularly the northwest corner. So far, none of those efforts has been successful, and opponents say hunting would do little to address the most problematic bears that tend to live closer to residential neighborhoods.

DEEP has issued some permits allowing farmers to kill bears that damage crops. Experts encourage people living in bear-prone areas to lock doors, keep trash and other food sources stored in bear-proof containers and avoid putting out bird feeders.

Bill Flood, a spokesman for DEEP, said the agency decided to commission a new population survey to help inform its ongoing conservation efforts and its work to mitigate conflicts between people and bears.

“Our previous estimates were completed more than a decade ago, and we know Connecticut’s bear population has changed significantly over that time,” Flood said. “Density and abundance estimates are important metrics for developing effective bear management and conservation strategies. These estimates can be compared to habitat types to help explain variation in density and abundance, population-level behavior, carrying capacity, human-bear conflicts, geographic range expansion and population health.”

Flood said the agency selected Morin’s lab due to its “renowned” work studying bear populations in other states, which include Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. The cost of the survey, which is between $400,000 and $500,000, is being funded through Connecticut’s share of federal wildlife management grants delivered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Flood said.

While Morin’s lab is based at Mississippi State, the team working on the ground in Connecticut this summer includes researchers and undergraduate students hired from around the county.

For the purposes of developing a population estimate, the team doesn’t closely track how many bears they’ve spotted incidentally while crisscrossing the state. However, they do keep a competitive tally on a white board at one of the houses they rented for the summer.

Ben Woxman, a field technician from Ohio, is currently leading the team with 30 sightings as of early August. He’s also seen a wide sampling of other New England wildlife, including bobcats, grey foxes, porcupine, mink and even a nest of barred owls that is active around one of the survey sites he visits each week.

“I’ve really gotten to see them go from fresh fledglings to now, they’re actually starting to look like adult owls,” Woxman said.

How do you shoo a bear away?

When the researchers encounter a bear in the woods, Kurz said, they generally try to shoo the animal away using loud sounds or, if the bear is being stubborn, they’ll leave and come back at a later time.

So far this summer, he said, no one on the team has had to use their bear spray.

For many of those involved in the project, bears aren’t the only focus of their research interests.

Woxman, for example, is starting a graduate program on waterfowl management in the fall. And Kurz has previously worked on projects studying pythons, crocodiles, frogs, coyotes and river otters, among other species. He said he got involved studying bears after taking a class focused on their mating habits.

Morin said she began her career studying coyote populations in the mountains of Virginia and later transitioned to bears. Her interest in large carnivores, she said, was driven by a seemingly simple question that kept popping up in her conversations with local officials: How many are there?

She compared the work of developing population models to filing out a crossword puzzle.

“We could put collars on animals, we could talk about what habitats they use, and we could talk about survival rates,” she said. But people and state agencies really just need good information about the size of animal populations in order to make the right wildlife management decisions, she said.

“I think the draw for me was that was the question people wanted answered,” Morin said. “And I just I enjoy it.”

This story was originally published by The Connecticut Mirror and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Journee Herrington circled outside the arena at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds with her horse, Turbo, waiting for her turn to weave through the barrels and race against the clock. 

“I love barrel racing, and I love coming to Jackson,” said Journee, a 10-year-old from Natchez. “We’ve been doing barrel racing for a long time now.”

For Journee, the competition is about more than racing around barrels. 

“My brother died a couple of years ago, and that’s what makes me want to work harder,” she said. “I do this for him and God.”

She is one of many competitors who traveled to Jackson for the Ultimate Bayou Gold Barrel Race, a three-day competition running Thursday through Saturday at the Kirk Fordice Equine Center, a facility named for a former Mississippi governor who, himself, loved riding horses.

Riders from Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and other states brought their horses to compete in an event that tests speed, timing and control as they race around a three-barrel pattern. 

The event, put on by Bayou Productions, is part of the larger competitive barrel-racing circuit and draws riders and horses from well beyond Mississippi. 

Journee’s father, Jeremis Herrington, has also connected her competition to her brother’s memory. After one of her runs, he wrote on social media that he saw “her big brother’s smile shining through her.”

Near the horse stalls, Dan Cattani and his 8-year-old daughter Leah Cattani, of Franklinton, Louisiana, gave their horse, Thunder, a wash before entering the arena to compete. Cattani watched and smiled as Leah moved around the stalls, tending to the horse with the familiarity of someone who has done it many times before. 

“I am so proud of her,” Cattani said. “She hasn’t gotten off the horse since I first put her on a pony with her riding instructor.”

Leah has been riding horses since she was 3 and competing in barrel racing since she was 5. Traveling to competitions has become part of the father and daughter’s life together. 

“We’ve been to more competitions than we can count,” Cattani said.

When Leah entered the arena, Cattani watched from behind the fencing, calling out as she and Thunder took off around the barrels. 

“It was awesome to see,” Cattani said after her run. “There is always something to learn from every run.”

Her first round took nearly 18 seconds. The time was less important to Cattani than what Leah could take away from the run. He told her she needed to pull Thunder’s head around the barrel faster to cut time. 

“It’s a learning experience for her, but we learn from every run,” he said. 

Leah offered a short assessment of her own. 

“This is so much fun,” she said. 

Dawn Hawkins traveled from Walker, Louisiana, to Jackson with her new horse, Baby, looking to see how they would measure up against some of the best barrel racers in the region. 

“The best of the best usually come here to Jackson,” Hawkins said. 

Baby had fewer than 10 runs under her belt when Hawkins brought her to the competition. The pair had a few mistakes during their first run, but Hawkins was already looking ahead to another chance.

“We had a few bobbles, but we will try again tomorrow,” she said. 

Asked what it feels like to compete, Hawkins described the connection between herself and her horse.

“It’s magic,” she said. “Taking a horse that didn’t know anything before and teaching it to run barrels. You’re asking a 1,200-pound animal underneath you to give everything it has to turn a barrel as fast as it can.”

That connection between riders and their horses was on display throughout the competition as they raced around the three-barrel pattern, chasing fractions of a second. 

Dust flew behind the horses as riders leaned into the turns, and an occasional cowboy hat flew off in the wind. Some riders celebrated their runs while others walked away disappointed. 

The announcers introduced each rider as live play-by-play echoed through the arena. After their runs, riders climbed off their horses, some wiping sweat from their brows before walking or trotting back toward the stalls to wait for another chance to beat their previous times. 

Before leaving the competition, Journee stood next to Turbo, gently petting her horse as riders continued to prepare for their runs. 

Mississippi faith leaders on Friday denounced recent comments about Muslims made by state Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, a gubernatorial candidate in next year’s elections.

“This reckless and dangerous rhetoric by an elected official and a candidate for governor has no place in our public discourse,” said Rhoda Yoder of Open Door Mennonite Church, on behalf of Working Together Jackson and Working Together Mississippi, two groups that organized the news conference.

The groups invited Gipson to meet with them for “an open and honest dialogue.”

The recent appointment of attorney Assma Ali as municipal judge by the small Mississippi Delta town of Benoit drew social media backlash from internet trolls and a few Mississippi politicians, and even reportedly some threats, because she is Muslim.

Her appointment prompted Republican Gipson, a former longtime state lawmaker, to renew his vows to ban “Sharia law and the influence of Islam” if he’s elected governor, even though use of Sharia law in Mississippi courts was already banned by the Legislature in 2015 when Gipson was a member of the state House. He voted in favor of the law that outlaws enforcement of any “foreign law” in Mississippi, which at the time was billed as being an anti-Sharia law measure.

Leaders from several faith communities gathered at the International Museum of Muslim Culture in downtown Jackson on Friday in response to a social media post Gipson made about the museum and invited Gipson to meet with them.

Gipson has made several social media posts about Islam and Sharia law in recent days, including: “If you are among those who think Sharia law is ‘not an issue in Mississippi,’ you’d better think again. You see what’s happening in Dearborn, Michigan. But did you know that in our own capital city, in Mississippi, there is a center for Muslim Culture at the Planetarium in Jackson?”

The organizations said that one commenter on Gipson’s post called for the museum to be burned down. They said they have historically felt safe in Mississippi but that this has prompted them to take extra security precautions.

Many people and groups have criticized comments by Gipson and others and have come out in support of Ali, saying the U.S. native is a qualified and upstanding member of Mississippi’s legal community. Ali has vowed to uphold the U.S. Constitution and Mississippi law in her role as a city judge, mainly handling traffic violations, misdemeanors and other minor legal issues.

This week, Benoit officials defended Ali and their decision to appoint her as city judge.

“Religion is not listed as a qualification for service as a Municipal Court Judge in the State of Mississippi. Being Muslim is not a lawful basis for denying or terminating the appointment,” the mayor and board wrote, “We are pleased to have her.”

The groups that held the Friday event are nonpartisan civic engagement organizations made of nonprofits, churches and other religious institutions from across Jackson and the state. 

“Sharia law, it’s like the law of Moses. Like the Ten Commandments. It’s just about the laws that govern a just, upright community of people,” said Okolo Rashid, one of the museum’s founders.

In a post, Gipson also included a photo of the museum, which says that it is America’s first Muslim museum, that featured Rashid at an exhibit on the shared heritage of Muslims, Christians and Jews. The museum opened in 2001 and is dedicated to educating the American public on Islamic history, art, and culture.

“I want to invite Commissioner Gipson to come sit down with us so we can share with him what the museum has to offer,” Rashid said.

By her family’s account, Tasia Fortune was a loving, caring woman who led a troubled life. She ran away from foster care when she was 16, leaving western Kentucky and finding her way to Jackson, Mississippi. There were homelessness and addiction. Relationships that didn’t last produced four children.

Then on an August day, the body of the 29-year-old was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home in a mostly Black neighborhood in west Jackson strewn with pockets of tall grass, vacant lots and older homes.

“She had a good heart. She just had a hard life,” her mother, Christy Spivey, told Mississippi Today.

Spivey doesn’t know much about Fortune’s life in Jackson. She felt numb when she learned of her daughter’s fate.

National interest grew in the days following the discovery, primarily because of the manner in which Fortune, a Black woman, was found. Results of an autopsy have not been released. Authorities say they have identified a person of interest, who is being held on an unrelated charge, but have yet to release an explanation of how Fortune died and why.

Spivey said she is not ruling anything out, but insists her daughter would never take her own life nor does she think race was a factor.

“I really don’t feel like it was a racial crime. … I think that this was more of a personal crime, but I definitely understand the fears,” she said.

Like many others, Robert Luckett, a professor of history at Jackson State University, has been watching the case unfold. He understands the national attention.

The public’s perception of Mississippi as a dangerous place, particularly for people of color, taps into the state’s history of violence, he said earlier this week.

“It’s a reputation that we’ve earned in the state due to the very real nature of racialized violence whether or not we attribute it to this case or not,” Luckett said.

“It’s an image of this state that lingers and that people from the outside look at Mississippi and say ‘Oh, an incident like this one is obviously a continuation of the history of really intense hate crimes that we witnessed in this nation,’” he said.  

The circumstances surrounding Fortune’s death have evoked the recent case of Trey Reed, a Black student who was found hanging at Delta State University last September. Mississippi authorities concluded he died by suicide amid initial speculation by his family that foul play was involved. 

LaToni Fortune said she last saw her older sister last month when Tasia returned to Kentucky for a family reunion.

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

She said her sister had no car and had trouble finding work.

Her mother acknowledged the family’s troubles, describing battles over keeping her family together. 

Fortune and her other two siblings were put into foster care, Spivey said. Fortune grew into a talented student and a cross-country track athlete. Despite being separated from family, she found ways to stay in touch with loved ones.

“They couldn’t keep us apart, one way or another,” Spivey said.

Fortune was just 16 when she ran away to Mississippi with someone she met in foster care, her family said. She eventually made her way to Jackson, where she lived for most of the last 13 years of her life. 

She fell on hard times, her family said, spending a lot of her time homeless and wandering the streets.

Spivey was heartbroken to learn her daughter had fallen into addiction. The family tried to help her return to Kentucky and get sober multiple times. She always returned to Jackson to be close to her children. 

The recent reunion in Kentucky is a happy memory for Spivey. It was the last time she would see her daughter. They all went swimming and went out to eat together.

A makeshift memorial has risen at the house on the 500 block of Road of Remembrance where Fortune was found  – a small mound of flowers, balloons, teddy bears and pinwheels surrounding a framed picture of her.

“We’re going to fight until the end to get justice for her,” Spivey said.

A GoFundMe account has been established to cover burial costs and care for Fortune’s children. 

Candice Wilder and Molly Minta contributed to this reporting.

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

Imagine falling into the hardest of times – caring for a disabled spouse in old age or struggling with a sudden mental health crisis – all while facing something you never expected: a criminal case. For many people, this is a matter of circumstance, of poverty and of a system that shows little mercy to those navigating it alone.

If you were in Hinds County, you might get a lucky break. We, the former client advocates of the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office, could step up to support you.

Client advocates are trained professionals embedded in the defender’s office who, among other things, connect clients with the social services, housing, healthcare and mental health support they need to stabilize their lives – and their cases. Your local defender’s office was using our help to break new ground, implementing cutting-edge methods to increase the wellbeing of our most vulnerable neighbors, while lowering the likelihood of future crime.

We came to Jackson from LSU and Pomona College – drawn by the belief that this work matters and that Mississippi is a place where change is possible. Over two years, we saw this belief proven right. We also saw what happens when public defenders aren’t supported.

Over our two-year fellowship here, we connected 274 clients with 366 services, like local food banks, and leveraged our relationships with community-based providers to help clients find refuge in transitional housing. Our impact meant that residents reclaimed meaningful time in their communities rather than behind bars.

What does this look like in practice? An elderly veteran, devoted to his wife, was on the verge of eviction. They had been through months of unanswered phone calls, endless redirections, and confusing, unsuccessful applications. But with our help, they secured income-adjusted housing that included meals, as well as much-needed dental and medical care that opened the door to a more stable life. This transition marked a stark contrast to the client’s last involvement with the criminal legal system decades earlier.

Now, our client is making it to his court hearings and has paid off his court fines. He is one step closer to reestablishing stability and working toward independence for his family.

When properly resourced and given the support to innovate, this is the true power of public defense. We were proud to bring our work to Hinds County and for what we accomplished. We have now concluded our fellowship with the public defender, but our work lives on through the efforts of the talented and tireless attorneys, social workers, investigators and office staff at the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office.

That effort, however, needs more support.

Unless the Hinds County Board of Supervisors acts to provide additional funding for fiscal year 2027, the public defender’s office will remain severely under-resourced. Earlier this year, the board of supervisors voted to award $261,000 in surplus funds toward salary increases for the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office.

This is a meaningful start, but it is a far cry from the approximately $1 million needed to fully stabilize the office, achieve more sustained pay parity and let the office keep doing forward-thinking work that lowers future crime, increases community stability and fosters opportunity for low-income families.

The right to effective legal counsel is not a courtesy. It is a constitutional guarantee. But in Hinds County, that guarantee is under serious strain. Caseloads are crushing, and they grew worse in 2025 when a fifth circuit courtroom was added to the county with no corresponding increase in public defenders.

Meanwhile, assistant public defenders earn an average of more than $50,000 less than their prosecutor counterparts, a disparity that makes recruiting qualified attorneys nearly impossible and retaining experienced ones even harder.

When defenders aren’t supported, cycles of harm are perpetuated: defenders burn out and resign, cases linger even longer, courtrooms and jails become even more overburdened and the Raymond Detention Center, already strained beyond humane capacity, grows more crowded.

Consequences spiral: families are separated and both local economies and public health suffer as jails send people home sicker, poorer and less able to thrive. When you consider the research showing that prolonged pretrial detention actually increases future crime, the harm of this backlog is even more evident.

It doesn’t have to be this way. An up-front investment from our lawmakers can not only move our system faster and reduce harm but turn defense into the incredible service access point we’ve helped create here in Hinds County. 

Instead of derailing lives, we can redirect them. Instead of sapping community health, we can improve it. Instead of leeching dollars out of our neighborhoods, we can restore opportunities and prosperity.

The fix is not complicated. Providing the funding that the defenders need to equalize salaries and stabilize the office, as well as additional positions for attorneys, investigators and legal secretaries to address case backlogs, means that clients will get the care and legal support they need. It is also a sign from supervisors that they are serious about the promise of equal justice and opportunity for all citizens.

By funding public defense, we can address the underlying needs that land people in the legal system in the first place, saving money in the long run.

Over the next month, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors will decide on the public defender’s budget. We encourage the board to approve Chief Defender Gail Wright Lowery’s full budget request.

We came to Jackson believing in public service. We leave having witnessed, firsthand, what it looks like when a community’s most vulnerable people are met with both legal skills and human care. The attorneys, investigators, social workers and staff at the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office give everything they have. They deserve a level of funding that recognizes that dedication.  

Shanai Watson joined the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office in 2024. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology (concentration in criminology, minor in political science) and from Northeastern University with a master’s in public policy. At the conclusion of her fellowship, she will attend Harvard Law School, starting in the fall, where she plans to continue exploring the intersections of public interest law, policy and government.

Hannah Williams joined the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office after graduating from Pomona College with a bachelor’s degree in public policy analysis and sociology. At the conclusion of her fellowship, she will pursue her master’s in public administration at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service as a Georgina and Charlotte Bloomberg Public Service fellow, starting in the fall.

The Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council approved monthly reimbursement for all 13 of the attorney general’s office-funded grantees that requested the change during its August meeting. 

Under the original model, organizations reported costs and expected to be reimbursed every three months. However, some awardees worried that schedule could negatively impact their finances or require them to take out loans. Their concerns delayed the disbursement of roughly $50 million in settlement funds, awarded earlier this year by the Mississippi Legislature following lawsuit payments from companies that contributed to the opioid crisis.

The Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts and the state Department of Mental Health also requested the shorter repayment timeframe for a portion of their grant-awarded projects.

At a July meeting, the council voted to allow applicants the option to be reimbursed monthly, and asked them to submit an explanation of the proposed change’s benefits.

Out of 28 awardees, the 13 that submitted requests said holding onto costs for three months of staff pay and vendor expenses would create significant cash flow burdens. Some organizations, including the north central Mississippi community mental health center Communicare and the Pontotoc County-based Chase House of Restoration, plan to use their funds to purchase and renovate buildings for substance use recovery programs.

“Advancing three months of contractor payments, construction costs, building materials, inspections, and other capital expenses before reimbursement is simply beyond our financial capacity,” wrote Mason Hester, founder of Chase House, in his request. He added that quarterly reporting would delay access for the individuals and families awaiting treatment. 

Before passing the motion to approve the model change, Joseph Sclafani, a council member and policy adviser to Gov. Tate Reeves, raised concerns about potential fraud from nonprofit organizations without existing track records. 

“It’s harder to fraud on a quarterly basis than it is on a monthly basis,” he said. 

Wendy Bailey, executive director of the Department of Mental Health and co-chair of the advisory council, said her department’s monthly reimbursement process allows them to keep a close eye on how grant funds are being spent. She emphasized the importance of having an option for quicker repayments.

“The majority of our grants go to the community mental health centers, and they all serve individuals regardless of an ability to pay,” she told Mississippi Today. “So it is very important for them to be reimbursed on a monthly basis.”

Plans for the next round

Applications for the 2026 fiscal year will be available to view on Aug. 24 and go live starting Aug. 31, said Deputy Attorney General Doug Miracle, who chaired the meeting. The application will include language stating that awardees can submit financial reports on either a monthly or quarterly basis. 

Applicants will have until Oct. 5 to submit their applications, after which the third-party health consultant Steadman Group will do an initial grading of applications. The consulting group was contracted earlier this year to support the council’s grant approval process.

The advisory council will next meet on Nov. 23 and Nov. 30 to review the applications and Steadman Group’s recommendations. They will recommend applicants to the Legislature in early December, with Mississippi lawmakers making final decisions during the 2027 legislative session. 

Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney told Mississippi Today having outside help will make the council’s workflow smoother. He said 2025 was an intense year for the council that ran on a tight timeline to create an application process and recommend applicants for Mississippi legislators to fund. Mississippi used the opioid settlement funds specifically earmarked to combat future overdoses. 

“Last year was the best we’ve ever had to push that amount of money out that quickly,” Edney said. “And, as of today, it’s out serving the people of Mississippi and saving lives.” 

Michelle Williams, chief of staff for Attorney General Lynn Fitch, was positive about the next cycle of applications. 

“We had some great projects funded last year, and we are looking forward to seeing what kind of applications we get this year,” she told Mississippi Today. “There are a lot of really good people out there doing great and innovative things, and we are excited by how it’s going to impact our state.”

The email this summer came as a shock to Alanna Lawrence. 

For the past two years, Lawrence and her husband, Jeremy, had received $9,000 each toward their student loans, thanks to a state-funded program that helps teachers pay off their debt. They teach in the Vicksburg-Warren School District, which the State Board of Education has designated an area critically short of teachers. 

They were expecting $6,000 more each this year. But, they learned from the email, for the first time since the state Legislature created the Winter-Reed Teacher Loan Repayment Program in 2021, educators such as Lawrence will receive no assistance — even as Mississippi continues to grapple with a teacher shortage. 

Lawrence said defunding the program sends a confusing message to the state’s educators. 

“They say how much they appreciate us,” she said. “But the actions aren’t matching up.”

The Winter-Reed program provides up to three annual loan payments toward participating teachers’ student debt. Teachers who work in critical geographic shortage areas can receive $6,000 in the third year. Teachers who work in noncritical shortage areas can receive a third-year award of $3,500.

Earlier this year, the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid requested $6.5 million from the Legislature for Fostering Access and Inspiring Hope, or FAITH, scholarships and the Winter-Reed Teacher Loan Repayment Program. Lawmakers appropriated $3 million for both. 

The state’s Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Board voted in May to award all $3 million to FAITH applicants, leaving no money for Winter-Reed. 

The state financial aid office notified roughly 236 Winter-Reed applicants in June that it could not provide awards this year because of the funding shortage.

The shortfall comes as thousands of teaching jobs across the state are unfilled. According to a report released by the Mississippi Department of Education in December, the vacancies are up hundreds from previous years. 

Teachers say their low pay is driving the staffing shortages. This past session, lawmakers gave teachers a raise, but it was far smaller than they originally promised, leaving many educators disappointed. 

Sen. David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson who was instrumental in creating the program, said he was disappointed the Legislature underfunded the request this year, blaming it on state leaders’ decision last year to phase out the income tax.

Blount said he proposed the “inexpensive and targeted” program in 2021 with the teacher shortage in mind.

“It’s an extra incentive that makes the difference in someone choosing the profession,” said Blount, who is also vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee. “We shouldn’t put programs on the books if we’re not serious about meeting that commitment.”

While he plans to advocate for the program’s funding next session, Blount said the decision to eliminate the income tax will continue to impact what the state can pay for.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Winter-Reed isn’t the only state financial aid program facing a funding shortfall. The state’s financial aid office still faces a $7.3 million funding gap that could reduce aid for nearly 27,000 students such as those receiving the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant (MTAG), Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant (MESG) and the Higher Education Legislative Plan (HELP). 

Last week, the Woodward Hines Education Foundation pledged $800,000 toward FAITH scholarships for the year, and college and university foundations also pledged support. 

Chatham Hodges, a teacher in Lowndes County schools, relied on the Winter-Reed program to pay off her student loan debt. The loans, on top of a low salary, can make it hard for teachers to make ends meet or work toward other financial goals, she said. 

“Without programs like this, I don’t think I would have had the same opportunity to move forward financially as a young teacher,” said Hodges, who has taught kindergarten for five years. “It made a huge difference in my life.”

Hodges said she was frustrated when she learned the program wasn’t being funded this year. 

“Teachers are already being asked to do so much, and programs that help recruit and retain teachers are incredibly important, especially when Mississippi is facing a teacher shortage,” she said. “When programs like this disappear, I worry that it makes it harder to recruit new teachers and retain the teachers who are already here.”

Darein Spann, president of Mississippi Association of Educators, said he hopes legislators can find funding to restore the Winter-Reed program. 

“Everybody should have the opportunities to obtain the necessary credentials that they need to remain teachers in the state,” Spann said.

Lawrence and her husband follow education policy, so they knew lawmakers were making cuts this year. But because the program is billed as a three-year commitment, she didn’t expect they would receive rejection emails after receiving the money for two years. 

The money is applied directly to the loans, which makes a huge impact and cuts straight into the debt, Lawrence said. Now, her family is figuring out how to deal with larger-than-expected monthly student loan payments. 

“We’re going to have to be really tight on our budget,” she said. “My husband coaches and we have a daughter, so second jobs aren’t an option for us.”

A federal judge, at least for now, has denied a request to prevent a majority-Black section of voters from electing new county judges months before the election begins.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by Robert Foster, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate and current DeSoto County Supervisor, and others who claim the Legislature’s creation of majority-Black subdistricts for the state judiciary violates the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit came after the U.S. Supreme Court’s May Louisiana v. Callais decision rolled back protections for minority voters during redistricting.

U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock ruled on Thursday that a court order changing the district lines for an upcoming state judicial race would fall too close to the November election date, something the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled lower courts should not do.

“The Plaintiffs have not provided sufficient evidence to justify this Court’s involvement,” Aycock wrote. 

Foster and other DeSoto County residents filed a lawsuit last month, arguing that when the Legislature redrew the state’s court districts, it gave DeSoto County an additional circuit judge and an additional chancery judge. But those judges had to be elected from a majority-Black subdistrict. 

A subdistrict is used to elect a judge from a smaller area within the main district, but the judge can still hear cases from anywhere in the district. 

The lawsuit was filed against the three-member State Board of Election Commissioners, which is composed of Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson and Attorney General Lynn Fitch, all Republican statewide officials.

Attorneys for the DeSoto County residents did not respond to a request for comment. MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office, declined to comment.

Even though Aycock denied the plaintiff’s request to prevent the subdistricts from going into effect, the litigation can still proceed. Aycock can order the parties to submit new briefs and evidence, after which she can issue a ruling on the full case. 

A Lexington alderman allegedly bullied and harassed Deputy Clerk Brenda Powell to the point that she required anti-anxiety medication. She also accused him of recording video of her and stalking. She said tint was applied to a teller window near her desk at City Hall to deter future video recording.

Another city employee also accused Charles Earl Simmons, who was reelected last year, of simple assault. Yet another accused accused him of stalking. The incidents occurred earlier this year, court records show.

On Aug. 5, Justice Court Judge Abraham Gates found Simmons, who did not appear for the hearing, guilty in absentia of harassing, stalking and assaulting city employees. Court records indicate Simmons had proper notice of the hearing.

Gates ordered Simmons to pay $2,675 in fines and assessments. Gates also ordered Simmons to stay at least 100 feet away from Powell and to stop calling her unless for official city business.

Simmons’ alleged abusive behavior in the small community just outside the Mississippi Delta stretches back years, coinciding with several lawsuits and a Department of Justice probe into unfair policing practices and harassment by police officers. 

Simmons’ harassment and stalking were “constant,” according to court records and testimony from Powell.

Simmons did not respond to a request for comment. Lexington Mayor Percy Washington declined to comment.

Lexington public officials’ abuse, particularly of Black residents, has been well documented in court records and a 2024 federal probe. The Justice Department investigated the Lexington Police Department and city government for subjecting Black residents to excessive force, unlawful searches, retaliatory arrests and detention without due process. 

In 2022, the Lexington Board of Alderman voted to fire Police Chief Sam Dobbins, who is white and was at the center of the DOJ investigation, after an audio recording leaked of him using multiple racist and homophobic epithets and bragging about shooting a Black man 119 times.

Simmons, who is Black, voted to keep Dobbins as police chief. They were friends, according to a 2022 civil rights lawsuit filed by Lexington locals against police leadership and the city. The same lawsuit alleges Simmons requested that Lexington police officers harass his neighbors.

Simmons abused his position as an alderman to “retaliate against organizers who worked to correct LPD’s constitutional violations,” the lawsuit read.

Powell, the deputy clerk who filed a criminal charging affidavit against Simmons, said the harassment started in 2019. She accuses Simmons of making inappropriate sexual advances and vulgar comments about her appearance.

As a deputy clerk, Powell was in close proximity to Simmons, who was elected city alderman in 2021, and reelected last year. At city hall, she works from the front desk behind a teller window. The board room for aldermen meetings is adjacent to the clerk’s office in the same building.

Powell said the city eventually installed tint on the teller window because Simmons would linger in the foyer of the city clerk’s office with glasses that recorded video of her. Simmons would also make disparaging remarks toward other city employees until residents stopped by the clerk’s office to pay bills and fill out paperwork. Then he would leave.

Simmons would also yell for work orders and other documentation for city hall meetings at the teller window, and demand them “because I’m an alderman,” Powell recalled. He would sometimes call the office between three and five times per day, she said.

When she reported his actions to city officials in 2024, the mayor and Board of Aldermen restricted Simmon’s access to City Hall, Powell said. Simmons continued to stalk and bully her at work, Powell detailed in written testimony shared with Mississippi Today.

“I think the board has tried to do everything they could to keep him away, but he does what he wants to do,” Powell said.

Powell eventually filed an affidavit against Simmons because, she said, her other formal complaints were unsuccessful despite multiple witnesses including city officials.

On Dec. 2, 2022, Gates found Simmons guilty of stalking. Gates also dismissed two charges of aggravated assault and a charge of simple assault against Simmons that day.

Jill Collen Jefferson, an activist and attorney, remembers hiring a security team after Simmons continued to harass an organizer she worked with. Simmons took photographs of cars outside the organizer’s home and stalked and harassed her, according to a 2022 civil rights lawsuit Lexington locals filed against police leadership and the city. Simmons also called the organizer’s employer to get her fired, the lawsuit alleged.

Bonita Streeter, who also organized on behalf of city police reforms, said Simmons tried to run her off the road with his pickup truck in 2022. She said she believes it was retaliation for advocating on behalf of victims of police harassment. She said she still tries to avoid him for her safety, but that’s difficult in a community of fewer than 1,500 people.

Removing from office a local elected official found guilty of a serious crime requires state involvement. The attorney general’s office must submit a motion for removal to the local circuit court. The circuit court judge then orders them removed. 

Simmons could have been punished for up to one year in the county jail for guilty verdicts on both stalking charges. Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office did not immediately respond to a question about whether her office is filing a motion to remove Simmons.

It was difficult for Powell to tell her husband about the harassment she endured at work.

“I had to go to him,” Powell said, “and I had to literally break down and cry and tell him some of the things I had been going through and some of the nasty things that were being said to me.”

Powell said she’s worried of retaliation or more aggressive harassment or bullying. She has asked colleagues to sit with her at the city clerk’s office for protection. Judge Gates mentioned that Simmons could appeal the verdict, Powell said.

“I have been flipping myself on the inside, too, worried about the next step that he’s going to take,” Powell said of Simmons. “No matter what they tell him to do or what restrictions he has, he doesn’t obey them.”

Requests by the family of Nolan Xavier Wells to preserve evidence are being mischaracterized, their attorney Ben Crump said Thursday. 

Crump, a national civil rights attorney, said preservation letters were sent out to various people involved in Wells’ death investigation. He clarified that the Wells family hasn’t filed a lawsuit and said “click bait” has presented that action as more of a legal threat. 

“We are on record that we want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” Crump said during a news conference held at the National Association for Black Journalists annual convention in Atlanta. “That is going to lead us. It is about the truth.”

Crump called on Black journalists and independent media to keep the focus on Wells and continue asking questions about his case and that of other Black men who have died under suspicious circumstances. 

More than a month after Wells traveled by boat with friends to Horn Island on the Fourth of July, his parents Christine and Elmore Wonsley do not have a clear picture of why the 18-year-old did not return with them, why he stayed behind or how he died. His death remains under investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and a cause of death hasn’t been released. 

The Congressional Black Caucus has expressed similar frustration and highlighted a lack of transparency. On Monday, its members wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel to ask for a federal review of Wells’ death. 

“The lack of answers thus far continues to fuel speculation and grief,” the letter states. “Neither the Wells family nor the public should be left to fill an information vacuum with speculation.”

Blanche and Patel were asked to respond within a week, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia said at the Thursday news conference. 

Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, who has met with the family, has said results of the investigation and the state’s autopsy results wouldn’t be released until after Wells’ case is presented to a grand jury. 

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who also spoke at Thursday’s news conference, said Wells’ family continues to be attacked and threatened for asking questions about what happened to their son. 

Among those threats was an anonymous report made to the Mississippi Board of Nursing alleging professional misconduct by Christine Wonsley. In a previous statement, Crump said the timing of the complaint coincided with her speaking up about her son. The complaint was dismissed shortly after.

Arrests have been made against at least three out-of-state people who threatened to bomb or kill witnesses, Jackson County investigators and county court employees. 

In the meantime, several connected to Wells’ case have hired attorneys to defend against defamatory claims that they had something to do with his death. 

Over $170,000 had been solicited to hire attorneys to represent Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour, who are the friends who took the boat to Horn Island with Wells and returned to Ocean Springs without him. 

They and others have faced death threats and defamation from their names, pictures and personal information being shared online, according to the fundraiser started by Hudson’s father, Benjamin.

The fundraiser has two goals: defend the young men against potential wrongful death action filed by Crump and sue those responsible for libel and slander, specified as Crump, social media influencers, local provocateurs and national news outlets who continue to “invent and spread false narratives and lies with no accountability.”