by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
June 20, 2025

Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday signed the vast majority of the state’s budget bills into law but vetoed a handful of the measures, which finalizes the state’s $7.1 billion budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. 

The governor wrote on social media that the budget is fiscally conservative and “essentially halts the growth of government.”

“In short, the $7.135 billion budget will help us get the job done on your behalf, and it will help us break new ground all across our state,” Reeves said. 

The budget for the next fiscal year is typically completed in the spring, but the Legislature adjourned its 2025 session earlier this year without agreeing on a budget due to Republican political infighting. The governor called lawmakers into a special session in May to pass a budget. 

The measures the governor vetoed were portions of the Department of Finance and Administration’s budget, parts of the Mississippi Development Authority’s budget, a portion of the State Health Department’s budget and a bill that attempted to give the Attorney General’s Office $2.5 million to combat human trafficking. 

The only bill the governor completely vetoed was a House bill that sought to allocate $2.5 million in excess revenues for the Attorney General’s Office to help victims of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation  

The state constitution gives the governor the power to set the parameters for what legislators can consider during a special session, not legislators. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and several senators argued that the legislation was outside of the governor’s special session parameters, but they passed it anyway. 

“All state action, including legislative power, must be exercised within the strict boundaries established by the Constitution,” Reeves wrote in his veto message. “Failure to recognize such limitations on power threatened to undermine the legitimacy of the rule of law — the very foundation of our Constitutional Republic.” 

The Mississippi Constitution also gives the governor the power to issue partial vetoes, or line-item vetoes, of appropriation bills, which the governor did for three other measures. 

One of those measures was a provision in the Mississippi State Department of Health’s budget that directed the state agency to send around $1.9 million to the Methodist Rehabilitation Center. 

After House members passed the bill, legislative staffers realized that the money could be a violation of federal law and regulations, placing Mississippi’s multi-billion-dollar Medicaid funding at risk. 

When the bill arrived in the Senate for consideration, senators were faced with the option of forcing the House back to the Capitol or sending a flawed bill to the governor for him to veto. They chose the latter. 

In the Department of Finance and Administration’s budget, the governor vetoed money for a project at the Mississippi Children’s Museum and LeFleur’s Bluff State Park. In the Mississippi Development Authority’s budget, Reeves vetoed $6.9 million for the Mississippi Main Street Revitalization Grant Program.

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

The post Belated budget: Gov. Reeves signs most spending bills into law 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: Center-Right

This article reports on Gov. Tate Reeves’ signing of most state budget bills and his vetoes, presenting his fiscal conservatism and constitutional arguments largely through his own statements and official actions. The tone is factual but highlights the governor’s emphasis on limited government growth and constitutional authority, reflecting a conservative viewpoint aligned with Reeves’ position. The coverage remains primarily descriptive without overt editorializing, but the framing of the vetoes—especially around fiscal conservatism and constitutional limits—leans subtly toward a center-right perspective by emphasizing government restraint and legal boundaries consistent with conservative principles.

by Maya Miller, Mississippi Today
June 19, 2025

Laughter erupts from the kitchen of Stewpot’s Teen Center as rising sixth grader Jamila Jeffries cuts a raw potato into thin slices. It’s lunch time, and she’s surrounded by other campers who are busy digging into french fries and stuffed-crust pizza. 

Jeffries is taking part in the recreational summer camp, and though it’s her first day, she said she’s already making friends.

“ I like how we get to cook and stuff. We get to learn about each other. We get to do new things every day,” Jeffries said. 

Stewpot Community Services is one of Jackson’s main meal kitchens and provider of shelters for people experiencing homelessness. Jeffries is one of about 150 children who are here for the summer camp, and she said spending time at Stewpot allows her the chance to do something other than being at home. 

“ It gives me time to breathe,” she said. “I get to relax and I don’t have to worry about anything happening here. I get to cook stuff. I get to enjoy myself.”

Yolanda Kirkland, Stewpot’s director of teen services, said that’s the point. She hopes to cultivate a welcoming environment where her campers can be comfortable.

“ It’s very important that people have places of rest,” Kirkland said. “I think when they’re in a place where they are loved, they can rest.”

Stewpot has held summer camps for children in west Jackson for more than 30 years. The seven week program is designed for students who are in kindergarten through 10th grade. Here, children from underprivileged communities can go on excursions with peers and take part in educational opportunities, such as weeklong camps at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and biology lessons in the garden behind the Teen Center. 

On this day, volunteers from Brilla Soccer Ministry are teaching a group of middle schoolers the basics of soccer, while others are headed to the Two Mississippi Museums. The next day, the teenagers will be headed to Spinners roller rink in nearby Florence for skating or the Margaret Walker Alexander Library. There’s a well-rounded calendar of activities which keeps them social while also opening their worldview.

“ I want the kids to know they do have a rich community in Mississippi,” Kirkland said. “Some of our students stay in one location. They stay around their neighborhoods. I try to expose them to what’s in Mississippi. I want them to know what they have in their state that’s unique.”

That includes trips all across the state, such as the Grammy Museum in Cleveland or the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum in Vicksburg. 

“We go everywhere if I can get there in our little mini-bus,” Kirkland said. “If I can get there and get back for 3:00, we’re gone.”

Verse Norris, a rising eighth grader, said he finds the summer camp fun because she’s introduced to something new every day.

“It is adventurous. You never know what could happen,” Norris said. “They take you somewhere fun and there’s a lot of other things to do, like cooking and gardening. You just do more stuff than you can at your normal summer camp.”

But Stewpot’s summer camp isn’t just about having fun. Nearby, in a building adjacent to the Teen Center, LaQuita White helps a young camper attach yarn to a craft project. Today, they’re learning about summer fruits. 

“Some of our kids don’t usually have things to do in the summer, and our camp keeps them engaged and thriving because we also do learning,” said White, director of children’s services at Stewpot.  “We do summer reading. We do STEM activities. We do a little math because we have JPS tutors who come weekly and do different educational activities with them.”

Studies have shown that children are at risk of losing vital reading and math skills during the summer months when they aren’t in school. Children who come from lower-income households, like many of the children that Stewpot serves, may find themselves at a greater disadvantage. 

“We are here for them, because some of our parents can’t afford to send them to a seven week summer camp, and so if we were not here, they’d probably more than likely just be sitting at home or at grandma’s house with nothing to do. No learning going on, no reading,” White said. 

White said that she wants her campers to thrive and grow, even as they age out of her program and into the teen group and beyond.

“Our big thing here is graduation. That’s the name of the game,” White said. “Educate, motivate, graduate. That’s our motto.”

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

The post West Jackson youth find respite and gain skills at Stewpot summer camp 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 and positive report on the Stewpot summer camp in West Jackson, focusing on community support and educational enrichment for underprivileged youth. The tone is neutral and descriptive, highlighting the benefits of the program without inserting ideological perspectives or partisan framing. It emphasizes social welfare and education in a straightforward manner without endorsing a political viewpoint. Overall, the piece serves as a community interest story and does not exhibit political bias, adhering to balanced, human-centered reporting that focuses on local impact rather than political ideology.

by Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
June 19, 2025

The Rev. Jeff Hood is “determined to let people know you’re killing my friend.”

Those are the people he’s grown close to before witnessing their executions — a dozen so far and a number that continues to grow as Mississippi prepares to put 79-year-old Richard Jordan to death and the death penalty continues being handed down in over half of all states, particularly the South.

Hood is a spiritual adviser who accompanies death row inmates to their executions, praying for them and sharing last words with them as a culmination of a months-, sometimes years-long relationship. 

By doing that, Hood said he can bring members of the public as close to the execution chamber as they can get and see the impact of the death penalty.  

To date, he has witnessed 11 executions: four in Oklahoma, three in Alabama, two in Texas,  one in Missouri and one in Florida. 

It’s something he may be called to do one day in Mississippi. Hood is not Jordan’s spiritual adviser, but he has communicated with a member of Jordan’s family and he plans to travel to Parchman to pray outside on June 25 if Jordan’s scheduled execution goes through, just as he did in 2022 for the execution of Thomas Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed a 16-year-old waitress. 

He and advocates have spoken out against Jordan’s scheduled execution, questioning whether it makes sense to see someone who is almost 80 as a safety risk and the fact it’s been 48 years since he was first convicted of capital murder in the kidnapping and death of Edwina Marter in Harrison County. 

He participated in a video released by the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Council in which Jordan shares his story and asks the state to commute his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. In the video, Jordan says he was a model citizen until he returned after three tours in the Vietnam War. His defense has argued that he suffered post-traumati striss disorder from the war, a view bolstered on the video by Jordan’s younger siblings — brother Houston Jordan and sister Nordeen Jones — who said he was kind and a role model to them. Former schoolmates, ministers and a retired corrections officer also appear on the video, talking about Jordan’s willingness to help others.

‘Whatever you did to the least of these’

Hood grew up in Georgia in a Southern Baptist family and studied theology. As he studied in Atlanta, he was part of organizing against the 2011 execution of Troy Davis, who maintained his innocence to the end in the murder of a Savannah police officer. 

Connecting with death row inmates and being present at their deaths is something he said he was called by God to do, saying the work aligns with Matthew 25:40: “(W)hatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” 

Hood can’t think of a group that embodies “the least of these” more than those sentenced to death. He said he shows them the love of God and encourages them to have the courage to live, even if they have weeks or months left and people want them to be executed. 

“It’s my job to make them hungry to live,” Hood said. “I think that is the greatest resistance possible.”

Innocence isn’t a requirement to work with someone, and he said he will love someone “irrespective of what they’ve done.” But Hood said that doesn’t mean there haven’t been difficult interactions or that he doesn’t think about victims’ families and the severity of death row inmates’ crimes. 

Hood sees how nearly 50 years of waiting for an execution has been torture for any victim’s family, especially the Marters. 

Eric Marter, the elder son of Edwina and Charles Marter, was 11 years old and his younger brother was 4 when their mother died. 

He said it’s been so long and he would have preferred Jordan to have been executed years ago. Over the years of his appeals, Marter said he hasn’t made his ongoing legal case and whether an execution happens a priority. 

“At this point in my life, maybe 30 years ago I may have had more interest in wanting him to be executed,”said Marter, who is 59 and lives in Louisiana. 

“But at this particular point, I don’t really want to waste my time thinking about him.” 

A ‘moral sacrifice’ to be in that chamber’

Spiritual advisers like Hood have been allowed to be in the room and stand alongside the condemned since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with a Texas death row inmate who sued for the right to have his pastor beside him.  

June 10 was the executions of Anthony Wainwright in Florida and Gregory Hunt in Alabama. As both of their spiritual advisors, Hood said the states put him in a position to have to choose whose to attend and break a promise. He was with Wainwright at his execution. 

The week before that, he was on the road and traveled from his home in Arkansas to Alabama and Florida to be with the men and organize against the death penalty with local advocates. From a virtual event streamed from his car June 6, Hood raised issues about violations of Hunt’s and Wainwright’s spiritual liberty and constitutional rights. 

Like Mississippi, most death penalty states use lethal injection, but others are starting to use lethal gas and firing range. Since 2022, Mississippi allows those methods along with the electric chair, but lethal injection is the state’s preference.

Jordan continues to challenge the constitutionality of the drugs Mississippi uses for lethal injection through a federal lawsuit. 

Last year, Hood witnessed the “horror show” execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama by nitrogen gas. The pastor remembers seeing Smith start to heave back and forth violently as soon as the gas hit his face, his veins looking like ants under his skin. Smith thrashed against the restraints, and Hood remembers crying – something not typical for him. 

Even if an execution has not been scheduled, Hood stays in contact with two dozen people on death rows around the country. Some call him several times a week and on specific days. 

His contact includes seven in Mississippi, including Willie Manning – for whom the state is seeking an execution date – and others who are still pursuing legal challenges such as Willie Godbolt and Lisa Jo Chamberlin. 

Chamberlin, convicted of two counts of capital murder in 2006, is the only woman on death row in the state, and Hood said he reached out to her knowing a bit about her story and that she needed help. What he found was someone who “desperately needed a friend” and whose mental health suffers because she is isolated. 

Unlike death row in Parchman where most of the men are together, Chamberlin is kept on her own in a maximum security unit in the women’s prison at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Hood said that often means Chamberlin spends hours in her cell or time in the dayroom on her own. 

Ahead of Jordan’s execution, Hood has called out elected officials like Gov. Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court for allowing executions to happen but not having to attend or witness them. 

“There’s a moral sacrifice it takes to be in that chamber,” Hood said. 

When he stands beside the condemned, Hood prays and tells them how sorry he is that he wasn’t able to stop the execution. And each time he leaves, he said it’s as if he leaves a piece of his soul behind. 

The next execution might be scheduled in a matter of days, weeks or months, so he doesn’t have much time to recover. Continuing to intervene in executions and speak out against the death penalty also makes him the target of threats and potentially puts his family at risk. Hood is married and the father of five children.

But Hood takes on the risks to his wellbeing and health and sees it as a privilege to work with people on death row and do something he cares about. 

“The spiritual adviser can either be silent about what is happening,” he said. “… (Or) they can speak up and resist the evil that is happening.”

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

The post Death row spiritual adviser bears witness in execution chamber 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: Center-Left

This article offers a detailed and emotionally resonant portrait of Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser to death row inmates, and his opposition to the death penalty. While it provides factual reporting and includes perspectives from victims’ families, the framing strongly emphasizes themes of compassion, redemption, and the moral toll of executions—viewpoints commonly aligned with progressive or abolitionist stances. The piece highlights systemic critiques, personal transformation, and religious motivations for opposing capital punishment. Although it avoids overt editorializing, the narrative tone and focus lean sympathetic to anti-death penalty advocacy, giving the overall report a center-left orientation.