By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is the latest Republican-led state to ban election offices from accepting donations from private groups for voting operations — a movement fueled by conservatives’ suspicion of donations by Facebook founder Mark…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators are returning to the Capitol on Monday with hopes of finishing their 2022 session. They still need to finish passing a state budget for the year that begins July 1.…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill Wednesday authorizing the largest pay raise in a generation for the state’s public school teachers, long among the lowest-paid in the nation. House Bill 530 becomes…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House and Senate voted by wide margins Tuesday to approve plans to redraw legislative districts to account for population changes revealed by the 2020 Census. The House has 122 districts, and the Senate has…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators on Sunday unveiled plans to redraw the state House and Senate districts to account for population changes revealed by the 2020 Census. The House has 122 districts, and the Senate has 52. Republicans hold…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the nation with perpetually underfunded schools and struggling rural hospitals, had its largest-ever tax cut passed by lawmakers Sunday. The Republican-controlled state House and Senate…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Top Mississippi lawmakers on Friday increased estimates of how much tax money the state will collect this budget year and next. The current year’s general fund estimate climbed from $5.8 billion to…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi House leaders offered a revised proposal Wednesday to phase out the state income tax, sending it to Senate leaders as legislators approach big deadlines to set taxes and spending. The new…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A bill headed to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves would give the state’s public school teachers their largest pay raise in years. The House voted 118-4 Tuesday to pass the final version of House…
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi teachers would receive their largest pay raise in years, under a bill that the state Senate passed Thursday. The House…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn says he opposes efforts to revive a proposal that would let mothers keep Medicaid coverage for a year after giving birth. “My position on the postpartum thing…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House and Senate are pushing forward with separate tax cut proposals, and leaders will hold final negotiations later…
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two people were killed after gunshots were fired into a vehicle in Mississippi’s capital city on Monday, police said. The two victims were found dead near a Jackson intersection on Monday, Jackson Police Chief James Davis…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s Republican-led Senate will try to revive a proposal to let mothers keep Medicaid coverage for a year after giving birth, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Monday. The state allows two months…
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann is calling for a six-month suspension of the state’s 18.4-cent gas tax to combat record-level inflation. Hosemann made the announcement Monday. “The No. 1 concern citizens are discussing around their kitchen tables is the increased cost…
SENATOBIA, Miss. (AP) — A couple in Mississippi’s Tate County is charged with felony child abuse after being accused of locking their grandchildren in a dog cage. The Tate County Sheriff’s Office said it received a report from East Tate…
State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs will step down from his position the end of July, the State Department of Health said in a press release today. Dobbs began his career at MSDH in 2008, and has held numerous roles including…
COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi woman will serve 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for an October 2018 shooting death. Victoria Slayton, 27, of Caledonia entered the plea Thursday before Lowndes County Circuit Judge Lee…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators are supposed to make big decisions about the state’s pocketbook in the next few weeks, setting a budget that exceeds $6 billion and deciding whether to approve tax cuts. House…
The Mississippi Senate unanimously advanced a $230 million teacher pay raise plan today, according to a press release from Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. This is the third time senators have sent legislation proposing a significant raise for teachers to the…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Proposals to increase some of the lowest teacher salaries in the U.S. were in danger Tuesday as Mississippi legislators engaged in a political showdown. Hours before a big deadline, Senate committees voted…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi House committee divided along lines of race and party Monday in advancing a bill that would limit how race can be discussed in classrooms. The short title of Senate Bill 2113 says…
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 23-year-old Mississippi woman has died after crashing into a sheriff’s office SUV that was stopped with its emergency lights flashing on an elevated interstate west of New Orleans, Louisiana State Police said Monday. Alexis Jones…
MCCOMB, Miss. (AP) — Two more people have been charged in a drive-by shooting that killed a 6-year-old boy while he was playing with friends at a city park in McComb. Eric Spurlock, 20, and a 17-year-old were arrested last…