U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate said he will decide Monday whether to delay Richard Jordan’s execution. The 79- year-old death row inmate’s defense argues that the set method of execution might constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.” buff.ly/fRvkRr9

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The Mississippi Department of Education disbanded the Mississippi Achievement School District, which consolidated the struggling school districts in 2019 into a single one under direct state supervision. mississippitoday.org/2025/07/03/two…

Read my latest for Mississippi Today

Rankin County residents packed Brandon City Hall to discuss whether a Confederate statue belongs in the town center where a bulk of local traffic flows. But most took stances on whether it represents heritage or hate. buff.ly/k1otULY

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Since its founding by Black businessmen and farmers, Delta Burial Corp. has aimed to provide dignified funerals for residents of the Mississippi Delta and beyond, regardless of status and income. mississippitoday.org/2025/07/16/del…

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Nearly 2,000 families may be without child care at the start of this school year after dozens of child care centers run by Mississippi Action for Progress in northern Mississippi have not reopened after losing their federal funding. buff.ly/60lvKPY

Miskia Davis arrived in 2014 to an F-rated school district that had lost hope — one that she didn’t recognize. After a decade of work bringing the district up to a B, she’s leaving Sunflower County, certain that SCCSD’s best days are ahead. mississippitoday.org/2025/08/20/mis…

Excited to be covering a region that desperately needs high impact, accountability journalism. I feel humbled to be reporting on a region where I began my professional career as a teacher.

The Mississippi Legislature increased the minimum assistant teacher salary from $15,000 a year to $17,000 in 2022, but Auditor Shad White is calling on lawmakers to raise the floor again. buff.ly/j3CDciM

After reports of cell keys being shared and the lights turned off, Denorris Howell was killed in his dark Parchman prison cell in 2020. No one was charged with his killing. Five years later, his mother still has no answers. buff.ly/n2whXyF

Mississippi’s medical examiner has ruled that the hanging death of a Black student at Delta State University was a suicide. buff.ly/SSGToAk

For the first time in years, the performance of Mississippi schools and districts fell from the previous academic year. The new rankings interrupt the steady progress of the state's education system, nationally referred to as the "Mississippi Miracle." mississippitoday.org/2025/09/25/mis…

Mississippi Today, the state’s flagship nonprofit newsroom, has named veteran journalist Emily Wagster Pettus as its next editor-in-chief. mississippitoday.org/2025/09/29/emi…

Archway Charter School has struggled to raise start-up funds and failed to demonstrate it has attracted faculty or students since its approval in 2024. buff.ly/4Ig1R0m

Mississippi communities from Leland to Lorman are reeling from the chaos of gun violence that killed nine people and wounded more than a dozen during or after high school and college homecoming celebrations Friday and Saturday. mississippitoday.org/2025/10/13/mis…

My colleague Leonardo Bevilacqua was in Leland to talk with community members, including those who attended a vigil this evening. Here's the story with that dispatch along with reporting from me, candice wilder and Jerry Mitchell: