2 months ago
Sarah Adlakha, a Chicago native, is running against incumbent U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in the March 10 Republican Primary Election.
With less than six weeks before the party primary election, political newcomer Sarah Adlakha is attempting to draw distinctions between herself and her opponent in the Republican Primary, incumbent U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Adlakha is selling herself as the outsider fighting against “entrenched political interests.” On Thursday, Adlakha said if elected, she would not accept money “from Washington lobbyists.”
By Frank Corder - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
One state funded scholarship program focuses on traditional students, while the second is geared toward older, returning students.
Bills passed out of the Mississippi Senate Universities and Colleges Committee this week that seek to ensure the financial literacy of students, amend a current state funded financial aid assistance program, and address workforce shortages across the state by offering aid to non-traditional students.
By Jeremy Pittari - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
In finding portions of Mississippi’s home health agency “Certificate of Need” laws unconstitutional, U.S. District Court judge Carlton Reeves said, “the Court cannot escape the absurdity in maintaining an out-right moratorium for over forty years.”
A federal judge on Wednesday struck down Mississippi’s decades-old moratorium on new home health agencies, ruling the state’s blanket ban on new licenses violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
By Russ Latino - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly speaks with The Grenada Star's Publisher Adam Prestridge during his visit to view storm damage in Grenada Thursday afternoon.
Winter Storm Fern coated Grenada County and much of north Mississippi in a thick layer of ice last weekend, uprooting trees, snapping limbs and loading down power lines and poles, leaving thousands of Entergy Mississippi customers in the dark for days.
By Adam Prestridge on
2 months ago
Hospitals and health facilities in Mississippi are continuing to provide critical care to patients in the wake of a treacherous winter storm, even as they endure power outages, impassable roads and no running water.
Scott Simmons, Mississippi Emergency Management Authority’s external affairs director, said his agency is working to bring 30 generators to North Mississippi hospitals, long-term care facilities, nursing homes and warming centers. He said multiple locations had generators that failed over the weekend, and only some had come back online by Monday morning.
By Gwen Dilworth, Sophia Paffenroth and Allen Siegler - Mississippi Today on
2 months ago
Delta State’s nationally renowned NCAA Division II baseball team was supposed to open the 2026 season Friday against Harding (Arkansas) University in Cleveland.
That won’t happen. Boo Ferriss Field at Harvey Stadium on the DSU campus in Cleveland is covered in ice and snow. At noon Monday, the temperature was 21 degrees. The wind chill was 7. The weekend forecast is for more freezing temperatures. The DSU Statesmen are sometimes called the Fighting Okra, but they would be more like Eskimos if they played this weekend.
By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today on
2 months ago
As with tens of thousands of fellow Mississippians since a winter storm struck during the weekend, the Hood family of Oxford was coping with the loss of electricity as best they could early Monday in their Northpointe neighborhood home about 2 miles north of Square.
By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today on
2 months ago
Robert St. John says some drinks come and go. Trends pass through fast and leave just as quickly. Iced tea never left.
Iced tea has been called the house wine of the South. Rick Bragg once wrote that a glass of iced tea can tell you just about everything you need to know about where you are and who you’re with, and he wasn’t wrong. Around here, iced tea is just part of how things are done. It shows up early and sticks around.
By Robert St. John on
2 months ago
Below is a religion column by Matt Friedeman:
May we follow Paul’s example, cherishing and celebrating older men or women who have spent their lives in faithful service to God and others.
In a recent discipleship group meeting, as we were reading in 1 Timothy, one of the guys pointed out a verse on “widows” and commented, “Man, that is a perfect picture of the abundant life…a life well-lived.” It was. It is!
By Matt Friedeman - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
Below is a political opinion column by Russ Latino:
It is rooted in a very old conservative belief that parents, not the government, are responsible for raising and educating their children. They do not belong to the state.
Social media in Mississippi is abuzz with misinformation and scare tactics over school choice after the Mississippi House of Representatives passed a Trump-backed plan to deliver meaningful options to families in the Magnolia State.
By Russ Latino - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
Wilkinson County School District has a history of persistently poor academic performance and has not completed an annual financial audit since June 2022.
The Mississippi State Board of Education (MDE) recently announced that they had placed the Wilkinson County School District into a District of Transformation due to serious academic deficiencies. MDE said the deficiencies demonstrate the district’s inability to provide students with an adequate and stable education.
By Frank Corder - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
Stewpot Community Services Director of Shelter Services Javonda Stanton, left, checks in people seeking shelter at the Opportunity Center as a winter storm heads to the area, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026 in Jackson, Miss. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Jackson’s homeless shelters opened additional beds ahead of a potentially devastating ice storm to protect vulnerable residents from the freeze.
But advocates say it would not be enough to serve the city’s entire unhoused population – some of whom will weather the storm outside in tents, tarps and sleeping bags.
By Molly Minta - Mississippi Today on
2 months ago
A powerful winter storm that’s sweeping across a broad swath of the U.S. blew into Mississippi on Saturday, leaving much of the northern part of the state coated in ice and creating dangerous travel conditions.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation said ice had been reported on roads and bridges in at least 26 of the state’s 82 counties, primarily in northern Mississippi. In a social media post, the agency urged residents in heavily impacted areas to use roadways only for emergencies as crews monitored conditions and treated major routes.
By Taylor Vance and Leonardo Bevilacqua - Mississippi Today on
2 months ago
With the penny no longer in production, State Senator Johnny DuPree has filed a bill to outline how cash transactions should be handled.
The U.S. Mint ceased production of pennies in November 2025 after an order from President Donald Trump (R) to do so. Trump said the 1-cent coin was “wasteful” as it costs more than double its value to produce.
Since then, signs across Mississippi have popped up in retail stores notifying cash customers that they will be rounding to the nearest increment of five cents.
By Frank Corder - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
See what legislation made it out of the Mississippi House Education Committee this week.
The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a number of education-related bills out of committee this week, ranging from requiring schools to have automatic defibrillators on hand during sporting events and practices to requiring parents to use vehicle registration as proof of residency during school registration.
Here is a look at what will be considered by the full House in the days ahead.
By Jeremy Pittari - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
“This pilot is working the way we were hoping,” said Senate Judiciary Committee A chairman, State Senator Brice Wiggins (R).
Three months into the Mississippi Office of State Public Defender’s pilot program to place public defenders in the state’s underserved areas, the initiative is receiving praise from legislators. OSPD State Defender Andre de Gruy told lawmakers that the program “hit the ground running.”
By Daniel Tyson - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
Below is an opinion column by Patricia Levesque:
Mississippi is at a unique crossroads: celebrating what’s already been accomplished and tackling what still needs to be done.
By Patricia Levesque - on
2 months ago
Lawmakers in both chambers continue to hold budget hearings with state agencies as they work to compile appropriations bills and set a Fiscal Year 2027 state budget.
The Mississippi Department of Employment Security, AccelerateMS and the Community College Board presented their budget proposals to the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this week.
MDES kicked off the meeting by asking for level spending as well as the ability to keep 22 positions.
By Jeremy Pittari - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
Below is a religion column by Matt Friedeman:
The more you mature in your relationship with the Lord, the more you will repent and change.
I just got out of a pastor’s discipleship group where we were discussing Matthew 4 and Jesus’ call to repent.
“Repent” is central to the understanding of the gospel. It means “change” – and change is all fun and games when it feels good. But when it challenges our ingrained sensibilities, we need a good measure of grace to receive the capacity to…change.
By Matt Friedeman - Magnolia Tribune on
2 months ago
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reminded Mississippi this week that it could face significant penalties over the misspent TANF funds uncovered in 2019.
Mississippi could still face significant penalties from the federal government related to the misspending of upwards of $90 million in welfare funds, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conveyed to Department of Human Services executive director Bob Anderson in a letter this week.
By Frank Corder - Magnolia Tribune on
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