by Rick Cleveland and Tyler Cleveland, Mississippi Today
July 30, 2025

Rusty Hampton was the sports editor at the Clarion Ledger for 11 years and worked there for 25 years in two different stints. He talks about some of the highlights, including Mississippi State’s amazing run to the 1996 Final Four.

Also discussed: a salute to Ryne Sandberg, the SEC preseason football poll, and Konnor Griffin, the newly elevated top prospect in professional baseball.

Stream all episodes here.

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

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by Devna Bose, Mississippi Today
July 28, 2025

As teenagers flooded into Callaway High School on Monday morning, one shirt that read “last first day” drew the attention of Jackson Public Schools administrators greeting students at the door.

“Last first day!” cheered Superintendent Errick L. Greene, prompting a smile from the senior striding past.

Across the city, students went back to school Monday for the start of the new year. For some, it was their first day in a classroom. For others, like Rakeem Burney, it would be the last time they celebrated the first day of grade school. 

“It’s my senior year, but it hasn’t really hit me yet,” he said, dressed sharply in sparkling white sneakers. “I’m just excited to meet all my teachers and embark on this journey and everything this year will bring. The fact that the superintendent came, too, means a lot to me.”

That was the goal, Greene said. By showing up on the first day, he wanted to show students his support and commitment to them.

“This is where the magic happens,” he said. “For all of the back of the office things I have to do, the most important thing is to be here, to observe what’s going on but also to be visible with scholars and team members. They need to know I’m part of this work on the ground.

“This fills my cup.”

The energy was high at Callaway — volunteers and cheerleaders shook pompoms as students meandered through hallways, greeting one another and checking out their schedule for the year — but district changes were also apparent.

As some students entered the high school with cell phone imprints clearly visible in their jean pockets, administrators warned them to put their devices in their backpacks, out of reach. 

Phones were already banned at JPS schools, but the board approved a stricter policy over the summer in an effort to curb bullying, violence and miscommunication with parents. 

It’s part of Greene’s vision for the school year — a safer, more scholastically successful and well-staffed district. He said academic excellence remains a top focus for JPS, but there’s also work to be done around district culture. That includes supporting teachers and strengthening communication with families.

And the work starts from day one, he said.

Just down the block at North Jackson Elementary School, preschoolers were learning for the first time how to behave in a classroom. Greene joined them later that morning, stacking rainbow blocks on a brightly colored rug, while principal Jocelyn Smith circled the classroom, troubleshooting and smiling at the young students.

Despite her cheeriness, by 9 a.m. on Monday, Smith had been awake for hours. 

“The first day for me is just like for the children,” said Smith, who’s been working in education for three decades. “I couldn’t sleep last night. I was too excited to see the children.”

For the elementary students, the first day is essential to the rest of the year, she said.

“They get an introduction to the curriculum … they learn our procedures and how to be safe,” she said. “But most of all, they start learning our expectations for them, and they start to build a relationship with their teachers.”

In a different classroom up the hall, Rakesia Gray was figuring out what her third graders would be interested in reading this year. She passed out a worksheet, and asked her students to circle the topics they liked best. 

“On the first row, tell me which one you’d rather read out,” she said. “Polar bears or penguins?”

The room was silent. Students shyly glanced at each other.

“Come on now,” Gray said, laughing. “Y’all have gotta talk to me!”

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

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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 straightforward, fact-based reporting on the first day of school in Jackson Public Schools, highlighting the superintendent’s involvement and district policies without promoting a particular political viewpoint. The tone is neutral and focused on community and educational themes, with no ideological framing favoring left or right perspectives. It covers administrative actions and student experiences in an objective manner, providing balanced context on policy changes like the cellphone ban and emphasizing educational goals. The coverage reflects standard local news reporting rather than advancing any ideological stance.

by Taylor Vance and Devna Bose, Mississippi Today
July 28, 2025

A ruling from a federal judge in Mississippi contained factual errors — listing plaintiffs who weren’t parties to the suit, including incorrect quotes from a state law and referring to cases that don’t appear to exist — raising questions about whether artificial intelligence was involved in drafting the order.

U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate issued an error-laden temporary restraining order on July 20, pausing the enforcement of a state law that prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools and universities. 

Lawyers from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office asked him to clarify the order on Tuesday, and attorneys for the plaintiffs did not oppose the state’s request. On Wednesday, Wingate replaced the order with a corrected version.

His original order no longer appears on the court docket, so the public no longer has access to it. The corrected order is backdated to July 20, even though it was filed three days later.

“Our attorneys have never seen anything like this,” a Mississippi Attorney General’s Office official told Mississippi Today, speaking only on background because the litigation is pending.

Some attorneys who have reviewed the ruling questioned whether artificial intelligence was used to craft the order. Wingate did not respond to repeated questions about the order or whether he or his staff used AI to prepare it.

The original order lists plaintiffs such as the Mississippi Library Association and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., who have never been involved in the pending litigation and who do not even have cases pending before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. 

Wingate’s original order also appears to quote portions of the initial lawsuit and the legislation that established Mississippi’s DEI prohibition, making it seem as though the phrases were taken verbatim from the texts. But the quoted phrases don’t appear in either the complaint or the legislation. 

Wingate’s corrected order still cites a 1974 case from the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Cousins v. School Board of City of Norfolk. However, when Mississippi Today attempted to search for that case, it appears that either it does not exist or the citation is incorrect. 

Christina Frohock, a University of Miami law school professor who studies the dangers artificial intelligence poses to the integrity of the legal system, said a common way attorneys are getting caught using AI is due to “hallucinations,” or instances where AI programs cite cases that don’t exist or use fabricated quotes. 

Frohock was hesitant to draw conclusions about the errors in the Mississippi ruling and attribute them to AI, but she was similarly perplexed by how basic facts from the case record were incorrect. 

“I actually don’t know how to explain the backstory here,” she said. “I feel like I’m Alice in Wonderland.”

Attorneys have an ethical obligation to make truthful representations in court, so when they are caught using artificial intelligence, judges have applied sanctions and demanded explanations. Just this month, a federal judge in Colorado ordered two attorneys to pay thousands in fines after they used AI to write a mistake-riddled court filing.

But there’s little recourse when the tables are turned. 

“If an attorney does this, a judge can demand explanations, but it’s not true in the other direction,” Frohock said. “We will probably never know what happened, unless an appellate court demands it.”

Parties in the case will meet again Aug. 5 to argue about a preliminary injunction in the case. 

Wingate, 78, was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate that same year. He served as chief judge of the Southern District from 2003 to 2010. 

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

The post Attorneys baffled by federal court order with factual errors 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

The article reports on factual errors in a federal judge’s court order, raising questions about the possible use of artificial intelligence in drafting the document. It presents information from multiple perspectives, including legal experts and involved parties, without endorsing any ideological position. The tone remains neutral and focuses on the procedural and ethical implications of the errors, avoiding partisan framing. The coverage neither supports nor criticizes specific political views but rather highlights concerns about legal integrity and technology’s role in the judiciary, maintaining an objective stance overall.