OXFORD — Police disbanded a pro-Palestinian student protest at the University of Mississippi less than an hour after it officially started when counter-protesters threw a water bottle and other items at the protest, prompting the protesters to respond in kind with water. When police removed the pro-Palestinian students from the Quad, a grassy area behind the library, the largely white male students roared. “Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, hey, good bye,” the counter-protesters chanted.  The confrontation was in reaction to a largely peaceful protest held by a group called UMiss for Palesti ..read more

The Mississippi Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling found that Parents for Public Schools does not have legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the state Legislature sending public money to private schools. The opinion, released Thursday, did not address the issue of whether the $10 million appropriation made in 2022 by the Legislature to private schools was constitutional. Justice Robert Chamberlin of Southaven, writing for the majority, concluded Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, in part, because harm to the public schools could not be proven. Cha ..read more

A bill to correct an outdated law barring in vitro fertilization children from next of kin inheritance passed both chambers Wednesday afternoon and now heads to the governor to be signed into law.  This is the fifth year Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, filed the measure to give inheritance rights to children conceived via IVF after the death of one parent, as 27 other states have done. These bills died in the legislative process the last four years. “What a relief … I am just so thrilled that after all this time we came to an agreement that will soon be law,” McLean said. “This will help c ..read more

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A Hinds County chancery judge has removed the brother of Dau Mabil from a lawsuit filed against the man’s widow that would have allowed him to gain access to his brother’s body for an independent autopsy.  Judge Dewayne Thomas issued two orders Thursday morning several days after a hearing in a lawsuit between Bul Mabil and Karissa Bowley, along with state investigators, about what will happen to Dau Mabil’s remains.  In the hearing and court filings, Bowley said she will allow an independent autopsy to be conducted.  “I do feel relief that this part of things is over and we ca ..read more

Following an apparent Republican breakdown of Medicaid expansion negotiations late Wednesday night, the House Democratic leader walked onto the Senate floor Thursday to deliver a new proposal to Senate Republican leaders. Rep. Robert Johnson III, the House Democratic leader whose caucus stalled a vote on an earlier Republican plan to expand Medicaid, offered an idea to Republican Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell Thursday morning — just hours before a final deadline that would end expansion negotiations altogether. Johnson told Blackwell that he could promise more than 30 Democratic Ho ..read more

May 2, 1964 Thomas Moore is holding a 1964 photograph of him and his younger brother, Charles, shortly before his brother was kidnapped and killed by Klansmen, along with Henry Hezekiah Dee. Credit: David Ridgen. Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, two 19-year-old Black Americans, were simply trying to get a ride back home. Instead, Klansmen abducted them, took them to the Homochitto National Forest, where they beat the pair and then drowned them in the Mississippi River.  When their bodies were found in an old part of the river, FBI agents initially thought they had found the bod ..read more

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House Republicans on Wednesday night announced they will ask the Senate to agree to a proposal that would place Medicaid expansion on November’s statewide ballot and let voters decide if hundreds of thousands of working Mississippians should have access to health insurance. Should Senate leaders agree to the House proposal, this issue would likely become the months-long focus of Mississippi politics and bring national attention to the Magnolia State during a contentious presidential election year. House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, said in a statement that it became clear over ..read more