by Candice Wilder, Mississippi Today
June 24, 2025

Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning and Jackson State University have reached a tentative agreement to settle the months-long federal lawsuit filed by a former faculty senate president who was placed on leave pending termination last fall. The settlement would give Dawn Bishop McLin her job back as a tenured professor. 

McLin’s case is the latest in a series of lawsuits against the state’s college governing board and the historically Black university. Two others have cited gender discrimination when it comes to the board’s presidential search and its selection process. 

The proposed agreement, which is still being hammered out by attorneys, would return McLin to her position as psychology professor. It would also restore the roughly $38,000 in research grants she lost after her termination, as well as $10,000 in pay for summer school courses she would have taught this semester, all totaling $48,000. 

IHL attorney Pope Mallette also requested a motion for the settlement agreement to be closed to the public, which prompted U.S. District Judge  Henry Wingate to question the move by the taxpayer-funded governing board. 

“The court does not seal public money,” Wingate said in response to Mallette’s request. 

The parties spent much of the morning in separate rooms discussing the settlement and hashing out attorney fees. 

Last year a faculty panel reviewed the university’s basis for McLin’s termination and recommended she be reinstated to her job “as a tenured faculty member fully restored,” the original court filing states. 

The exact circumstances of her termination weren’t released, but members of the faculty senate executive committee have said McLin was apparently placed on leave without any written warning and accused of harassment, malfeasance and “contumacious conduct,” a term stemming from IHL policies that means insubordination. 

Marcus Thompson, who has since resigned as Jackson State University president, did not respond to the panel’s recommendation, putting McLin in a state of limbo, ultimately forcing her to resign. 

McLin, who was elected as JSU’s faculty senate president in 2020, received support from the American Association of University Professors, a national organization that backs academic freedom, and fellow colleagues following her termination. Thompson ignored multiple letters from the professional organization. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post JSU and IHL tentatively settle professor's lawsuit appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article reports on the tentative settlement of a lawsuit involving Jackson State University and the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning without expressing a clear ideological stance. The language is factual and neutral, focusing on the legal and procedural aspects of the case, the parties involved, and the financial terms of the settlement. While it touches on sensitive topics such as wrongful termination and academic freedom, it maintains a balanced tone by presenting statements from both sides, including the judge’s concerns and the university president’s lack of response. The article adheres to objective reporting without promoting a specific political viewpoint.

by Simeon Gates and Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
June 24, 2025

Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon to reflect Gov. Tate Reeves’ statement.

Gov. Tate Reeves says will not block the execution of Mississippi’s oldest and longest-serving inmate, which is set for Wednesday evening.

Reeves said in a statement Tuesday that he rejected a clemency petition for Richard Jordan. The Republican governor said Jordan admitted being guilty of kidnapping Edwina Marter, at gunpoint, from her family’s home in coastal Harrison County in 1976 while her 3-year-old son was sleeping, and of forcing Marter to drive into a forest and killing her by shooting her in the back of the head.

“Following this premeditated and heinous act, Mr. Jordan demanded and was paid a $25,000 ransom prior to being apprehended by law enforcement,” Reeves said.

Jordan, 79, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Reeves said considering clemency requests in death penalty cases is “a somber responsibility” that he takes seriously.

“Justice must be done,” he said.

The governor issued his statement hours after a prison reform advocate publicly implored him to spare Jordan’s life.

“I’m here today to ask our Christian governor to do the Christian thing and show mercy – mercy on a man that has spent 49 years in prison and has done everything he could do to atone for his crime,” Mitzi Magleby said outside the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Reeves declined to block the only two executions Mississippi has carried out since he became governor – one in 2021 and one in 2022.

Jordan was first convicted in 1976 for kidnapping and killing Marter, and it took four trials until a death sentence stuck in 1998.

One of Marter’s sons said Jordan should have been executed long ago.

“I don’t want him to get what he wants,” Eric Marter, who is 59 and lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, told Mississippi Today. “If you want to spend the rest of your life in jail, then I would rather you not get that, and if that means you get executed, you get executed.” 

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied Jordan’s request for a stay of execution. Jordan had a separate request for a stay awaiting consideration at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The appeals court wrote that Jordan has received repeated review of his claims in state and federal courts for nearly 50 years.

At this point, “finality acquires an added moral dimension,” the appeals court wrote. “Only with an assurance of real finality can the State execute its moral judgment in a case. Only with real finality can the victims of crime move forward knowing the moral judgment will be carried out.”

Magleby, who has met Jordan, said he has been a model prisoner and is extremely remorseful. She said she believes life without parole would be a sufficient and humane punishment. 

“I believe that it is more of a penalty to do life without parole,” she said. “The death penalty gives you an out-date. Life without parole does not.”

She also delivered a petition asking Reeves to prevent Jordan’s execution. That petition had more than 3,000 signatures.

The news conference was put on by Magleby and Death Penalty Action, who are supporters of Jordan’s cause.

If Jordan’s execution goes forward as scheduled, supporters plan to hold protest vigils Wednesday outside Parchman and the Governor’s Mansion and online.

Human rights group Amnesty International released a statement Tuesday opposing the execution.

 “Governor Tate Reeves is the only person with the power to spare Jordan’s life,” the group said. “He must use this power to halt this execution, commute Richard Jordan’s sentence and work towards ending the death penalty in Mississippi more broadly.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Death penalty foes ask governor to stop execution appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article presents a factual report on the decision by Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves not to block the execution of Richard Jordan, the state’s longest-serving death row inmate. The language remains neutral, providing statements from the governor, victim’s family members, prison reform advocates, and human rights groups without editorializing. It highlights perspectives both supporting and opposing the execution, focusing on legal proceedings, moral considerations, and public reactions. The piece reports on the ideological positions of involved parties (such as advocates for clemency and victims’ relatives) but itself does not promote a specific political viewpoint, maintaining balanced and objective coverage.

by Nancy Loome, Mississippi Today
June 24, 2025

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Mississippi’s public school teachers and students keep racking up wins for our state.

A few months ago, we received terrific news regarding the latest national test scores. Our fourth-graders earned a ninth-in-the-nation overall ranking in reading and 16^th place in math. Mississippi students did similarly well on state tests, achieving the highest proficiency rates ever logged on those assessments.

The recently released Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT 2025 Data Book now ranks Mississippi 16th in the nation for education — an incredible leap from 30th in 2024 and 32nd in 2023.

National media outlets have proclaimed our students’ remarkable rise in academic proficiency to be the “Mississippi Miracle,” inspiring other states’ education leaders to ask how they can be more like us.

Without a doubt, the progress made in Mississippi’s public schools is a direct result of the tireless efforts of our public school teachers and students. Their impressive work has been bolstered by tens of thousands of parents and community leaders who have been standing in the gap for decades, fighting for better school resources and, importantly, against the billionaire-backed campaign to undermine public education through private school voucher programs.

Other states have fallen victim to the voucher lobby, swayed by the millions of dollars spent pressuring them to adopt so-called “school choice” policies. Mississippi’s legislators, however, have resisted school choice, standing with their constituents and refusing to gamble with our children’s futures, thereby avoiding the financial and academic pitfalls suffered in states that embraced voucher schemes. 

But a piece of legislation moving through Congress poses a significant threat to our state’s education progress.

The sweeping federal budget bill, HR 1 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), includes a dangerous provision that would impose a nationwide tax-credit voucher program, overriding the will of states like Mississippi and threatening our historic progress. 

These few paragraphs tucked into a massive federal budget bill would jeopardize the gains our students have worked so hard to achieve while adding $5 billion a year to the federal deficit.

Mississippi isn’t alone in opposing school choice schemes. Voters across the country have rejected voucher proposals every single time they’ve appeared on statewide ballots. Unfortunately, some state legislatures have ignored their constituents in favor of voucher lobbyists and donors, legislating voucher programs with devastating consequences: severe state budget shortfalls and flagging student achievement. In fact, every state named by EdChoice as a “Top 10 School Choice State” has seen academic performance decline precipitously while Mississippi’s results keep rising.

If HR 1 were to become law with the voucher provision intact, it would set Mississippi back decades and establish a dangerous precedent: allowing private interests to decide which of the country’s children will be educated with federal dollars.

The bill already has passed the House and now awaits action in the Senate where Mississippi’s own senators —  Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith — could play a critical role in removing the tax-credit voucher language from the legislation. Both senators enjoy significant influence in the U.S. Senate, influence that is heightened in this case by what is expected to be a very close vote. 

We urge them to consider these key points:

1. Mississippians have rejected vouchers time and again and do not want them forced on us by the federal government.
2. The tax-credit voucher plan in HR 1 would reverse years of progress in our public schools.
3. The proposed tax-credit voucher program would add $5 billion to the federal deficit annually — for a program Mississippians don’t want.

Nancy Loome is executive director of The Parents’ Campaign (msparentscampaign.org) and president of The Parents’ Campaign Research & Education Fund (tpcref.org). She and her husband Jim have three grown children, all of whom graduated from Clinton Public Schools.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Advocate: Big federal bill's voucher provision is not beautiful for Mississippi education appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Left-Leaning

This article expresses a clear ideological stance opposing federal school voucher programs, portraying them as harmful to Mississippi’s public education progress. The language praises public schools, teachers, and community efforts while criticizing the influence of “billionaire-backed” voucher campaigns and framing the federal bill’s voucher provision as a threat. It emphasizes voters’ rejection of vouchers and highlights negative consequences in states that adopted such policies, suggesting a preference for public education funding and skepticism of privatization efforts. The tone and framing indicate a left-leaning perspective supportive of public schools and critical of school choice initiatives promoted by conservative interests.