by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
July 21, 2025

U.S. Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi is campaigning to lead the House Homeland Security Committee, according to the congressional news website Punchbowl News. 

Guest, a Republican who has represented the state’s 3rd Congressional District since 2019, is one of four GOP members competing to lead the influential committee, according to the news outlet. 

The House Republican Steering Committee will meet on Monday night to pick the next Homeland Security Committee. 

The committee chairmanship opened up because the committee’s previous chairman, U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, announced he would resign from Congress as soon as the House passed President Donald Trump’s latest spending bill, which he signed into law on July 4. 

“I look forward to the possible opportunity to work alongside President Trump as Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security,” Guest told Mississippi Today in a statement. “As the former Vice Chairman of the Committee and the current Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, I have unique leadership experience to bring to this role.”

The Mississippi Republican currently leads the House Ethics Committee. During his time chairing the bipartisan committee, he has successfully authored and pushed for a resolution to expel former New York Congressman George Santos from the House chamber. 

He also led the Ethics Committee during its investigation and subsequent report into the alleged misconduct of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. Gaetz resigned from Congress before the committee’s work concluded on Gaetz, which meant the committee no longer had jurisdiction to investigate the Florida Republican.  

President Donald Trump in 2024 nominated Gaetz to become attorney general, which prompted bipartisan pressure for the committee to release its report on the Florida congressman, even though Gaetz was no longer a member of Congress. Trump eventually withdrew Gaetz’s nomination. 

The committee eventually voted to release the report, but Guest objected to the decision and wrote that it deviated from the committee’s longstanding traditions.  

Should Guest become the new House Homeland Security Chairman, it would mean two Mississippians would become the top party leaders on the committee. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is currently the top Democrat on the committee. 

Thompson served as chairman of the committee from 2007 to 2011, and from 2019 to 2023.

Before Guest became a member of Congress, he was a district attorney in Madison and Rankin counties.

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

The post Mississippi's U.S. Rep. Michael Guest in running for Homeland Security chair  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 provides a straightforward report on Rep. Michael Guest’s bid to chair the House Homeland Security Committee. It includes factual information about his past roles, accomplishments, and connections to former President Trump without using charged or emotionally suggestive language. The piece also notes bipartisan aspects of Guest’s record, such as his leadership on the Ethics Committee and his role in high-profile investigations. It mentions both Republican and Democratic figures without portraying either side in a particularly positive or negative light, maintaining a neutral tone throughout.

by Devna Bose and Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
July 21, 2025

A federal judge has temporarily paused enforcement of the state law that prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion programs from Mississippi public schools and universities.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate on Sunday approved the request for a temporary restraining order sought by a coalition of civil rights and legal organizations on behalf of students, parents and educators.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mississippi Center for Justice are representing the plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit alongside other groups on June 9 against the state’s education boards. Wingate heard arguments on June 24 from top lawyers from both organizations, as well as Special Assistant Attorney General Rex Shannon, who represented the state-agency defendants. 

Shannon objected to the temporary restraining order in court and argued the plaintiffs didn’t have legal standing to file the lawsuit. He also admitted his office was limited in the arguments it could make because of the litigation’s compressed schedule.

The order is in effect for 14 days, and allows Wingate to extend it for an additional 14 days. Next, the plaintiffs plan to seek a preliminary injunction — a longer-lasting court order that would continue to freeze the state law. 

The state could appeal Wingate’s decision to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, though it’s unclear if they will do so.

“In this Court’s eye, these accounts appear to reflect a broad, chilling effect across public institutions and community organizations,” Wingate wrote in his order, of individual reports about the impact of the bill. “The evidence, at this stage, demonstrates a clear and ongoing deprivation of constitutional rights in a manner not compensable by money damages — thus warranting injunctive relief.”

In April, legislators passed House Bill 1193, which prevents public schools from creating diversity, equity and inclusion offices, engaging in “divisive” concepts and hiring people based on their race, sex, color or national origin. The State Board of Education and the Institutions of Higher Learning recently approved policies that create a complaint and investigation process for violations to the law. 

Local school boards have to create their own policies, too, which MCJ attorney Rob McDuff argued in court would be a lengthy and arduous process. 

“This statute would throw our schools into chaos if it’s allowed to go forward,” he said. “As we approach the fall semester, teachers are preparing their lesson plans … people need to know that at least for the moment, enforcement of this law is going to stop while the court further considers the issues.”

Joshua Tom, ACLU of Mississippi’s legal director, said the law’s vagueness was unconstitutional. 

“‘Engage’ is not defined,” he said. “How does a teacher or student ‘engage’? Do a mandatory reading? Talk about it in class? What if they go on a field trip and one of the concepts is introduced. Is that engaging? It’s not clear.”

He also noted that the statute was already making an impact — in an effort to comply with the law, the University of Mississippi withdrew its funding from Oxford’s annual Pride Parade a few weeks ago and prohibited university departments from marching in their capacity as professors, he said. 

Professors and school officials have publicly criticized the bill and asked for clarification about its enforcement. One top Jackson Public Schools official submitted questions asking if celebrating Black History Month or if one of the district’s core values, “equity,” would lead to compliance violations.

Both parties will be back in federal court on August 5 to make their cases about a preliminary injunction.

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

The post Federal judge temporarily blocks Mississippi's new DEI ban 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 from *Mississippi Today* maintains a factual tone but gives notable space and emphasis to the perspectives and arguments of civil rights groups and legal organizations opposing the DEI ban. It quotes extensively from ACLU and Mississippi Center for Justice representatives while offering less detail from the state’s defense. The framing highlights concerns about constitutional rights and the chilling effect of the law, signaling sympathy with the plaintiffs’ viewpoint. While it does report the state’s legal position, the focus and tone suggest a modest Center-Left bias in presentation.

by Devna Bose, Mississippi Today
July 18, 2025

Shelves half-filled with books lined the walls of the muggy Bailey APAC Middle School library, where a handful of volunteers assembled equipment, painted ceilings and sorted through boxes.

One volunteer, wiping sweat from his brow, was Errick L. Greene, superintendent of Jackson Public Schools.

Jackson Public Schools held its annual Beautification Day on Friday. The event brings community members into schools to help prepare them for the first day, just days away. Greene joined hundreds of volunteers across the city.

After all, he was the one who established the event when he arrived at the district in 2018 — a district that was facing a potential state takeover and had lost some trust from its community.

“There’s no way to revitalize a district and do the heavy lifting that we needed to do without some kind of spark,” he said. “We were looking for those sparks — painting a mural or planting some flowers or helping a teacher to set up a classroom. This was an effort to create some shared ownership in our schools.

“You want families to feel like this is their school, because it is.”

That shared responsibility is essential, especially as federal education funding wavers, Greene said. 

Voters had just approved a $65 million bond issue to pay for repairs and new classrooms in the district when Greene arrived in 2018. But he quickly realized Jackson Public Schools, which has many decades-old buildings, needed “two, three, maybe even four times more than that.”

“While I’m thankful, we’ve seen over time, the needs were just much, much, much greater,” he said. 

As the district focuses on taking its schools to the next level, Greene said, the state needs to continue consistently and fully funding education, and the community needs to keep supporting its schools at events like Beautification Day. 

Bailey in particular was humming with excitement on Friday morning. This year, students will be returning to the school’s original location where it was built in 1938. The school was closed for a few years while undergoing renovations, but in a few days, it will reopen as a 4th to 8th grade school after absorbing Wells APAC Elementary School.

For Rose Wright, a longtime history teacher at Bailey, it’s a homecoming.

“What I love about Beautification Day is that these are their children, and these parents are coming to help us help them,” she said, cutting decorations for her classroom. “I am just really excited to be at home.”

Outside in the sultry July heat, a group of dads dug up dead vines. Though it’s not his first time helping out during Beautification Day, Justin Cook, an attorney at the Mississippi Office of the State Public Defender, took off work this year to help prepare the school. He’s got two kids, a 5th grader and an 8th grader, who will learn in the new building.

“I thought it was important to do everything I could to make the transition easier,” he said. “Obviously, there’s going to be hiccups, and whatever we can do as parents and stakeholders to have that growing pains be as minimal as possible is essential.”

Events like Beautification Day, Greene said, don’t just deepen the relationship between the community and the district. They also show students that the community is invested in them, which is integral to their success. 

“I grew up in Flint, Michigan, and so I know what it means to be in a community that is kind of dismissed,” he said. “I’ve found that here, there’s a great deal of pride — even where we as a school district had not delivered. The fact that we even have this kind of activity absolutely signals to young people that people care about you.”

Students roamed the school grounds and hallways, stepping around wood planks and cardboard boxes, peering into their new classrooms.

Kayley Willis, who will be in the 5th grade at Bailey this year, saw her school for the first time on Friday morning and explored the building with friends Anasia Hunter and Farah Malembeka, both rising 6th graders. 

“It makes us feel proud that we actually have people who care about the school enough to come down here and help out,” Hunter said. “It really feels like they care.”

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

The post ‘This is their school.’ Hundreds of volunteers prepare JPS schools for first day 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 from *Mississippi Today* emphasizes themes of community involvement, local investment in public education, and the value of public schools, which are typically associated with center-left priorities. It portrays Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Errick L. Greene positively, highlighting grassroots efforts like Beautification Day without criticism or opposing viewpoints. While the tone is optimistic and focused on civic pride, it also subtly underscores the need for increased public funding and support from the state, reinforcing progressive concerns about underfunded schools. The reporting is factual but framed with a community-oriented, pro-public education perspective.