During the 2020 Legislative Session, legislation was passed that authorizes the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce to provide technical guidance and outreach to landowners, farmers, and producers for the management of nuisance wildlife on private agricultural and forestry lands, and to partner with state and federal agencies regarding nuisance wildlife management and to promote awareness across the state. This week, Ag Commissioner Andy Gipson signed a Memorandum of Understanding with USDA APHIS Wildlife Services (WS) to enhance the ability for MDAC and WS to work together to monitor and ..read more

Miriam Berry is thrilled to play a small role in a Lifetime movie to be filmed at Mississippi College and downtown Clinton. The Lifetime production is titled “Teacher’s Watching,” and it is among four film projects across the Magnolia State this winter. A Brookhaven High grad and Copiah Lincoln Community College alumna, Berry signed up as an extra and plays a waitress. “I’m very excited for the opportunity as well as the skills I will learn from this experience.’’ Berry brings real-life experience to her movie role. She works part-time as a server at the 303 Jefferson restaurant in downtown Cl ..read more

Story written and submitted by UMMC  Diabetes is rampant in Mississippi, and right now, so is the COVID-19 infection. But when those two collide, a study authored by a University of Mississippi Medical Center faculty member warns, Black patients coping with both Type 1 diabetes and the virus are about four times as likely to be hospitalized for life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis as someone who’s white. “It gets worse if you are a Black man or woman with diabetes, in terms of COVID,” said Dr. Osagie Ebekozien, assistant professor of population health in the John D. Bower Sc ..read more

Photo courtesy of CDC.gov A large chunk of federal funding will aid Mississippi’s vaccination distribution efforts.  $32 million in grant funding has been awarded to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to support the rollout of the vaccine at public facilities across the state. The funding, awarded by FEMA, was applauded by U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and U.S. Representatives Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), and Michael Guest (R-Miss.).  “This additional funding for vaccine distribution is great news for the state of Mississippi,” Wicker said ..read more

The Mississippi Supreme Court has set a date for oral arguments to be heard in the city of Madison’s lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of Initiative 65—the medical marijuana program approved by an overwhelming majority of Mississippi voters. Arguments in the case, labeled Mary Hawkins Butler v. Michael Watson, will begin on April 14th. Hawkins-Butler, the Mayor of Madison, asserts that the organizers behind the initiative, Medical Marijuana 2020, didn’t obtain the necessary number of signatures from each of the state’s five former congressional districts as required by state law despite the e ..read more

A local businessman has admitted to dumping over three million gallons of waste into the City of Jackson’s sewer system. Andrew Walker, owner of Rebel High Velocity Sewer Services, pled guilty in Federal District Court before Judge Kristi Haskins Johnson to having illegally discharged industrial waste into the capital city’s sewer system from November 2016 to October 2017. Through his violation of the Clean Water Act, Walker, 70, and his coconspirators were able to evade sewer usage fees, plus the cost of disposing waste at legal off-site facilities. “The Clean Water Act is in place to not onl ..read more

After 25,000 National Guardsmen were deployed to D.C. for the inauguration of President Biden, several thousand soldiers were later forced to relocate from the Capitol complex to a nearby parking garage.  While the 100 members of Task Force Mississippi were not among those in the parking garage, the Republican members of Mississippi’s delegation in the House of Representatives have penned a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding an investigation into what led to the soldier’s removal from the complex.  “We ask that an investigation be conducted to determine how and why the decision ..read more

The acting Capitol Police Chief wants to make the razor-wire lined fencing around the US Capitol permanent, an idea MS Senator Roger Wicker opposes. Wicker issued this statement in response to a proposal that would not only make the fencing permanent, but also keep backup forces for Capitol police in close proximity to the White House: “I am strongly opposed to the installation of permanent fencing around the U.S. Capitol complex as some have proposed,” Wicker said. “The storming of the U.S. Capitol laid bare the need for increased vigilance and greater coordination between the Capitol Police ..read more

The Mississippi State Department of Health is reporting 2,186 new cases of COVID-19. The latest report brings the state’s total up to 272,662. With the confirmation of 38 additional deaths, 5,983 Mississippians have now passed away from the virus. *MSDH Note: 23 COVID-19 related deaths occurred between December 5, 2020 and January 22, 2021, identified from death certificate reports. Overall hospitalizations remain below 1,000 in the latest data from MSDH. To date, over 216,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered in Mississippi. Thursday, Governor Tate Reeves stated that Mississippi’s ..read more

Photo courtesy of MEMA/Twitter During today’s press briefing, it was announced that, after serving since June 2018, Colonel Greg Michel will retire from his role as the Executive Director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. “After 30 years in the military and time in the private sector, this job has been the most challenging. I’ve learned a lot about myself and I’ve certainly learned a lot about this state. The biggest thing that rings true is that this state comes together in bad times,” Michel said. He should know after leading the state’s response to 21 federally declared disast ..read more