WILL A JURY CONVICT HER AGAIN…?
A Hattiesburg native will be tried for murder a 2nd time in the death of her stepdaughter.
T'kia Smith Bevily is...
T’kia and Morris Bevily Full Interrogation Videos
Below is T'kia Bevily's first interview with detectives
Below is T'Kia Bevily's Full 2nd Interrogation Video
Below is Morris Bevily's 1st and...
Prosecutors Ask to Sequester Jury Due to Defense Counsel’s ‘SweetNLow’ Efforts to Influence Jurors
Claiborne County prosecutors have asked Circuit Judge Tomika Irving to sequester the jury in the May 2 capital murder retrial...
Legislature ends session without reviving ballot initiative
The Mississippi Legislature ended the 2022 session not restoring the initiative process that allowed citizens to place issues on the...
Spending billions, cutting taxes, fear and loathing: The 2022 legislative session wasn’t pretty, but it was historic
During the three-month 2022 legislative session, House Speaker Philip Gunn kept a copy of a January Mississippi Today article that...
After lawmakers go home without extending postpartum Medicaid, six moms speak out.
Thousands of Mississippians stand to lose health insurance later this year because of Speaker of the House Philip Gunn’s refusal...
‘You stuck your neck out for me’: Brett Favre used fame and favors to pull welfare dollars
Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre had a way with Mississippi government officials.
Whether the football star was looking for funds to...
Lawmakers end 2022 session with historic spending spree
Mississippi legislators ended the 2022 session on a two-day spending spree where they spent funds at a pace never before...
‘My Governor is counting on me’: Disgraced welfare director bowed to Phil Bryant’s wishes
Phil Bryant had found his yes man.
Whether the governor wanted grant funds directed to his favored vendors, a partner to...
Governing by text: Phil Bryant’s hidden hand picked welfare winners
The tidal wave of alleged misspending identified by auditors at the Mississippi Department of Human Services was not confined to...
State Auditor Shad White discusses welfare investigation, former Gov. Phil Bryant
Since Auditor Shad White arrested Gov. Phil Bryant’s appointed welfare director in 2020 within a sprawling fraud scheme, state and...
New welfare scandal revelations evoke stories of past misspending
Editor’s note: This story was first published by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting as a follow-up to Mississippi Today’s “The Backchannel” investigation, which examined former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the running of...
Former Town Clerk for Hickory Flat Arrested for Embezzlement
Today State Auditor Shad White announced Special Agents from his office have arrested Stephanie Churchill of Benton County. Churchill, a former Town Clerk of Hickory Flat, was indicted for embezzlement by a local grand...
Phil Bryant discusses his nephew, favored welfare vendors, failures and successes
Before publishing its investigative series “The Backchannel,” which reveals Phil Bryant’s entanglement with Mississippi’s welfare scandal, Mississippi Today sat down with the former governor to discuss his leadership in the state’s safety net programs.
We...
Mississippi to award loan programs for health-related degrees for first time since 2015
After years of budget woes, members of the Post-Secondary Board expressed surprise at a meeting Monday that the Legislature had fully funded Mississippi’s college financial aid programs this session.
This means that for the...
Disgraced welfare director faces new bribery charges
John Davis, former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, is facing new bribery charges for his alleged role in the state’s sprawling welfare embezzlement scandal.
In the indictment unsealed Monday, prosecutors allege Davis...
NAACP asks U.S. Attorney General to investigate former Gov. Phil Bryant after Mississippi Today series
Mississippi Today’s “The Backchannel” series, which examines former Gov. Phil Bryant’s involvement in what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history, is renewing calls for a federal investigation.
NAACP President and...
‘We’re teachers too’: Community college faculty feel shortchanged by legislative raises
The Legislature appropriated $11 million dollars for faculty pay raises at Mississippi’s community college system but some say it is not enough to ensure their salaries stay competitive with K-12 after the historic...
Mississippi legislative budget process: There’s got to be a better way
Many people who experience “conference weekend” at the Mississippi Legislature have the same takeaway: There’s got to be a better way to set a state budget. Some phrase it in more colorful or profane...
Reeves signs bill creating Mississippi broadband office, appoints Sally Doty to run it
Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday signed into law the “Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi Act” and appointed former state senator and current Public Utilities Staff Director Sally Doty to run the new BEAM...
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