Less than three months into the current budget year, Mississippi legislators are starting to plan for the next one. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee holds a public hearing Friday as part of the long process of deciding how the state will spend billions of dollars during the year that begins July 1. Legislators face three … Read more
Mississippi House and Senate negotiators said Thursday that they have agreed on a proposed medical marijuana program. Leaders are expected to ask Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to call the Legislature into session to put the plan into law. The step comes months after the Mississippi Supreme Court tossed out a medical marijuana initiative that voters … Read more
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed papers Wednesday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit in a family feud over the care and finances of her 88-year-old father because he has died. “William O. Fitch departed this life on September 22, 2021,” the attorney general wrote in the court papers filed that day in Marshall County Chancery … Read more
A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn Mississippi’s ban on voting rights for people convicted of some felonies — a case that could affect thousands of people. The original list of disenfranchising crimes was put into the Mississippi Constitution in 1890 because people writing the … Read more
A top Southern Baptist Convention committee agreed Tuesday to fund a third-party investigation into its handling of sexual abuse allegations. But the Executive Committee held off on waiving its attorney-client privilege for the probe. The Executive Committee allocated $1.6 million for Guidepost Solutions. It is the firm selected by a Southern Baptist task force to … Read more
School officials in Memphis say a student died earlier this month after contracting COVID-19 as Tennessee continues to rank among the highest case rates in the nation. A spokesperson for Frayser Community Schools charter network tells The Commercial Appeal that the student died Sept. 11. The school is declining to provide any additional details other … Read more
Tennessee officials say donors have added 144 acres to a state park in Memphis known for being the first one east of the Mississippi River to be open to African Americans. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation says the expansion of T.O. Fuller State Park is the result of a donation by philanthropists Hugh … Read more
A new Southern Baptist Convention task force is overseeing a third-party investigation into how the denomination handled allegations of sexual abuse. The task force chair says the probe aims to uncover the truth so it can be dealt with. An investigative firm will look into accusations that the SBC’s Executive Committee mishandled abuse cases, resisted … Read more
An interactive exhibit in Mississippi prompts visitors to speak aloud the names of people who were killed in acts of racist violence in the United States during the civil rights era — incantations in a darkened room to honor some 150 men, women and children whose lives were cut short. The names appear on lighted … Read more
The state of Mississippi has developed a website for people to report suspected cases of human trafficking and find help for victims. There were 214 reports of suspected human trafficking in Mississippi from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020, according to the Department of Public Safety. Out of those reports, 210 were sex trafficking reports … Read more