Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ deputies get yearslong sentences for racist torture of 2 Black men
Two former Mississippi sheriff’s deputies were sentenced to years behind bars Tuesday for torturing two Black men after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a white woman.
Mississippi ballot initiative process faces narrowing path to being restored
A push to revive Mississippi’s ballot initiative process is in peril as proposals are receiving weak support from Senate Republicans, and the House and Senate are pushing significantly different plans.
Mississippi ex-police officer pleads guilty after making man lick urine off jail floor
A former Mississippi police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal misdemeanor charge after authorities said he forced a man he had arrested to lick urine off the floor of a jail cell.
Mississippi has the nation’s worst infant mortality. It will allow earlier Medicaid to help babies
A new Mississippi law will allow earlier Medicaid coverage for pregnant women in an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a poor state with the worst rate of infant mortality in the U.S.
Transgender recognition would be blocked under Mississippi bill defining sex as ‘man’ or ‘woman’
Sex would be defined as binary under a bill passed Wednesday by Mississippi House lawmakers following the lead of Republican-controlled legislatures around the country that are aiming to restrict the legal recognition of transgender identities.
Mississippi Senate votes to change control of Jackson’s troubled water system
For the second year in a row, the Mississippi Senate has passed a bill that would transfer control of the state capital city’s troubled water system to a regional board.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Mississippi’s presidential and state primaries
Former President Donald Trump has his hopes set that Republican voters in Mississippi and three other states will push him over the top Tuesday night in his quest to clinch his party’s presidential nomination for the third election in a row.
Mississippi House votes to change school funding formula, but plan faces hurdles in the Senate
The Mississippi House voted Wednesday to set a new formula to calculate how much money the state will spend on public schools — a step toward abandoning a formula that has put generations of legislators under political pressure because they have fully funded it only two years since it was put into law in 1997.
Mississippi Supreme Court affirms a death row inmate’s convictions in the killings of 8 people
The Mississippi Supreme Court has affirmed the convictions and death sentences of a man in the killings of eight people, including his mother-in-law and a deputy sheriff, at three different crime scenes one long night in 2017.
Mississippi lawmakers moving to crack down on machine gun conversion devices
Legislation advancing in Mississippi — where lawmakers are typically loathe to introduce new gun restrictions — would ban most devices used to convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic ones.
School funding and ballot initiatives are among issues surviving in Mississippi Legislature
Mississippi legislators are considering proposals to rewrite the funding formula for public schools.
Mississippi police unconstitutionally jailed people for unpaid fines, Justice Department says
A Mississippi police department in one of the nation’s poorest counties unconstitutionally jailed people for unpaid fines without first assessing whether they could afford to pay them, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.
Black soldiers are honored, name by name, at a Civil War battlefield
Thelma Sims Dukes grew up during the 1940s and ‘50s in a segregated Mississippi town steeped in Civil War history.
Mississippi ex-governor expected stake in firm that got welfare money, says woman convicted in fraud
Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said at a party weeks before leaving office that he had been offered a financial stake in a company that received welfare money to try to develop a concussion drug and was connected to retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, according to a new court filing by a person convicted in a welfare misspending case.
Mississippi passes quicker pregnancy Medicaid coverage to try to reduce deaths of moms and babies
The Mississippi Legislature is sending a bill to the governor that will allow women with low incomes to get Medicaid coverage earlier in pregnancy, in an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a state with abysmal rates of maternal and infant mortality.
Justice Department finds problems with violence, gangs and poor conditions in 3 Mississippi prisons
Gangs, violence and sexual assaults are a problem in three Mississippi prisons because the facilities are short-staffed and inmates are sometimes left unsupervised, the Department of Justice said in a report Wednesday.
A bill would close 3 of Mississippi’s 8 universities, but lawmakers say it’s likely to die
A bill proposed in Mississippi would close three of the state’s eight public universities, but lawmakers in the House and Senate said Wednesday that it is unlikely to pass.
Medicaid expansion proposal advances through GOP-led Mississippi House, will go to Senate
Mississippi’s Republican-led House passed a bill Wednesday that would expand Medicaid benefits to hundreds of thousands more residents in one of the poorest states in the U.S. — a landmark shift after state leaders refused to consider the policy for years.
Attorneys argue over whether Mississippi legislative maps dilute Black voting power
Mississippi legislators diluted the power of Black voters by drawing too few majority-Black state House and Senate districts after the most recent Census, an attorney representing the NAACP and several residents told three federal judges Monday.
Republican Mississippi governor ignores Medicaid expansion and focuses on jobs in State of the State
Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he intentionally avoided hot-button issues and political conflict in his State of the State speech Monday, instead calling for legislators to support economic development by funding roads, ports and bridges.