This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

• After nearly two decades as a performing arts and conference center, the catalyst for Meridian’s downtown renaissance is the crown jewel of the Queen City.

Morgan Dudley has seen her share of stunners perform on the Grand Opera House stage during her five years at Meridian’s MSU Riley Center, but one 2022 show in particular rises above them all.

Bob Dylan, touring in support of his Rough and Rowdy Ways album, named after a song by Meridian’s native son and “father of country music” Jimmie Rodgers, earned the distinction of having the fastest-selling show in the theater’s history to date.

But that wasn’t the most remarkable memory for Dudley. Instead, it was how Dylan intentionally sought to perform here — at 950 seats, it was easily the smallest venue of the tour — in tribute to Rodgers and the region that influenced his famous sound. He even broke his own long-standing custom of not addressing the audience, instead preferring to let the music speak for him, to pay his respects.

“He walked out to the middle of the stage and said, ‘It’s great to be in Mississippi, home of Jimmie Rodgers’ — and the people who followed him all the across country were like, ‘Oh my gosh, he just spoke,’” recalls Dudley, who is now the center’s director of conferences, events and operations.

During the same season, singer-songwriter and guitarist Boz Scaggs capped his set with a total of five encores, returning to the stage over and over to continue playing. While his production manager was shocked at this unorthodox sight, Dudley wasn’t too surprised. Artists typically have an awed reaction to the intimate 1890s theater and the welcoming local audiences.

“Our favorite moments are when they get to the venue and walk on stage, and they just stop and stand there for a second and take it in,” she says. “It’s really cool to see artists that are multi-Grammy Award winners and have been doing it for decades, and it’s almost like their first time seeing a venue.”

Originally built as part of the five-story Marks-Rothenberg department store in downtown Meridian, the theater hosted vaudeville and minstrel shows, operas and stage plays in its early years. Troupes traveling from New York by rail found Meridian a suitable stopping point and performed for Grand Opera House audiences.

In time, motion pictures began to replace the traveling shows, so owners added a movie screen. The advent of specialized movie palaces, though, left the venue without an audience. The Grand Opera House closed its doors in 1927, while the department store thrived for several more decades before shuttering in 1990.

An effort to restore and repurpose the entire Marks-Rothenberg building found success in 2006, when Mississippi State University completed a $25 million renovation project and reopened the space as a conference center and performing arts venue.

In the nearly two decades since, an array of artists have performed on the Grand Opera House stage. The theater has built a reputation for producing concerts featuring all-time greats and contemporary music stars, such as blues legends B.B. King, Bo Diddley and Buddy Guy, and country stars Tanya Tucker, Clint Black and Martina McBride. The staff also curates events from other performing-arts disciplines, as well, such as comedy shows featuring Jay Leno and Tig Notaro and touring dramatic productions.

The MSU Riley Center recently announced its 2024-2025 season, which kicks off August 22 and runs through May 2025, with performances by country star Billy Ray Cyrus, soul singers The War and Treaty, and Mac McAnally, a Tremont native and Jimmy Buffett’s musical director for several years. Additionally, off-season performances include Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton on July 20 and Americana singer-songwriter Nikki Lane on August 8.

“This season, we have everything from country to rock to Americana, singer-songwriter, soul, a little R&B,” she says. “We’ve got Postmodern Jukebox, who is kind of their own genre, because they take modern songs and put a vintage vibe to it. We look for artists that are going to please a variety of different people.”

Meanwhile, Mississippi State University also transformed the adjacent Deen building into classroom space for its Meridian campus, and the conference center hosts meetings and multi-day events in spaces that can accommodate up to 600 people for receptions and seats more than 500 for dinners, in addition to another 10 meeting rooms.

Another key ingredient in the MSU Riley Center’s success is the revitalization of downtown Meridian. With its own project leading the charge, new restaurants and a brewery have opened, as well as the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, an interactive museum that tells the story of the state’s creative legacy with programs to aid students and young artists.

But when the 16-floor, art deco Threefoot Building, once Mississippi’s tallest structure, reopened as a hotel operated by Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio in 2021, the downtown trifecta of entertainment, dining and lodging was finally complete.

“Having the involvement of downtown and having lodging, especially at our back door, and the multiple restaurants that have popped up, have all made an impact on our business and the flow of events,” she says. “People can literally park their car one time and eat and stay and be entertained. It’s not only impacted our conference business, but it’s really helped on the performing arts side and patronage there, too.”

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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• To us, O Lord, belongs open shame … Because we have sinned against you. – Daniel 9:8

A deep sense and clear view of sin, its dreadfulness, and the punishment that it deserves should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as Christians. It is sad that it should be so. We have been favored, and yet we have been ungrateful; privileged beyond most, but we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who is there, although he may have been engaged in the Christian warfare for years, who will not blush when he looks back upon the past? As for our days before we were born again, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love—light that has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have rejoiced.

The sin of a pardoned soul is an atrocity! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God’s elect, who has had communion with Christ and leaned upon Him for his comfort. Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I ask you to look at his repentance and hear his broken bones as each one of them moans out its mournful confession! Consider his tears as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp!

We have strayed: Let us, therefore, seek the spirit of penitence. Look again at Peter! We often speak of how he denied Christ. Remember, it is written, “He wept bitterly.” Do we have no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? These sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for God’s sovereign mercy, which snatched us like sticks from the fire.

My soul, bow down under a sense of your natural sinfulness, and worship your God. Admire the grace that saves you—the mercy that spares you—the love that pardons you!

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Read original article by clicking here.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

• To us, O Lord, belongs open shame … Because we have sinned against you. – Daniel 9:8

A deep sense and clear view of sin, its dreadfulness, and the punishment that it deserves should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as Christians. It is sad that it should be so. We have been favored, and yet we have been ungrateful; privileged beyond most, but we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who is there, although he may have been engaged in the Christian warfare for years, who will not blush when he looks back upon the past? As for our days before we were born again, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love—light that has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have rejoiced.

The sin of a pardoned soul is an atrocity! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God’s elect, who has had communion with Christ and leaned upon Him for his comfort. Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I ask you to look at his repentance and hear his broken bones as each one of them moans out its mournful confession! Consider his tears as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp!

We have strayed: Let us, therefore, seek the spirit of penitence. Look again at Peter! We often speak of how he denied Christ. Remember, it is written, “He wept bitterly.” Do we have no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? These sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for God’s sovereign mercy, which snatched us like sticks from the fire.

My soul, bow down under a sense of your natural sinfulness, and worship your God. Admire the grace that saves you—the mercy that spares you—the love that pardons you!

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Read original article by clicking here.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

In 2023, Mississippi Main Street communities opened 372 businesses, expanded 71 businesses, created 868 new jobs, and completed 170 façade renovations. Seventy new construction projects and 139 public improvement projects were completed, and 704 downtown living spaces were created. Investments: $249 million in private dollars, $77 million in public funds. 

I chatted with Jim Miller, executive director of the Mississippi Main Street Association (MMSA), who is earning his doctoral degree in higher education administration this summer from the University of Southern Mississippi, about misperceptions that hinder Main Street growth, how it works to get a downtown roadmap and improvement grants, and his dream number of Main Street communities in the Magnolia State. 

When you look at the economic impact numbers, our program is working well. I’d like the business community to know the MMSA is worth investing in, that we’ve seen growth in these towns. (The Main Street Approach model focuses on four facets: organization, promotion, design, and economic vitality.) 

Another element that seems maybe a little bit underknown, or maybe people are a little bit intimidated by, is understanding the three different levels of membership with the MMSA.

All municipalities start at the Associate level. From there, they can go to the Network level. And the big jump is to the designated level. We have 48 designated communities across the state. To make the jump to the designated level, we develop a downtown roadmap, a very comprehensive plan specifically tailored for that downtown.

Here’s how it works: The MMSA absorbs the cost on the front end of approximately $27,000 to bring in a team of experts after a period of community feedback. The team typically consists of about four to five people, which might include an architect, engineer, urban planner, tourism expert, economist, et cetera. The exact make-up of this team is specific to the community and its needs. We do market analysis to determine the direction of economic revitalization for the community, based on unique assets, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Then we put together a detailed, step-by-step, understandable guide to follow. The guide has been an immensely helpful document for these communities. And it helps create synergies between various players at the table while also engaging the community. 

These communities repay $27,000 on the back end. For example, $10,000 the first year, $9,000 the second year, $8,000 the third year, and then $2,650 each year thereafter. 

The ROI on communities that engage in the downtown roadmap is far beyond their investment.

I would encourage business leaders interested in seeing their downtowns revitalized to speak with us. Let us explain how the process works. Let us come and present our program to demystify some of the details that maybe on the front end are a little hard to understand. Our MMSA communities across the state would provide testimony to the power of the Main Street model. 

Could a small place like my hometown, Seminary (population: 308), afford to join the lowest membership level? 

All communities begin at the associate level, which is $500 a year. Most communities can swing that. It opens the door to the resources of Main Street, including technical assistance. (The network level is $1,500 annually; designated level is $2,650 annually.) 

Are facade improvement grants available?

We do involve designated communities in various grant opportunities, which might include opportunities for façade improvements. MMSA communities are also benefiting from an annual grant program that began this year through the legislature, the Mississippi Main Street Revitalization Grant Program, or MMSRG. Façade improvements are eligible through that program. 

What’s the greatest challenge you face?

Awareness. We want people to know that downtown revitalization work is a tremendously important and effective economic driver. We work in concert with other forms of economic development. There’s so much research that shows the quality of place is such a strong driver of economic development.

What’s your dream number of Main Street communities?

We have 300 municipalities in Mississippi, give or take. We have 48 designated, two network, and approximately 30 associate communities. I would love to see every single municipality as a Main Street community. I know that’s probably not feasible, and we don’t have the capacity to manage that many, but I would love to see at least 150 Main Street communities. 

It’s a matter of momentum. Once these communities begin looking around and seeing how their neighboring community, an MMSA member, is turning things around, they’re going to want to know the secret. That’s why we do what we do. 

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Read original article by clicking here.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Read original article by clicking here.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

In 2023, Mississippi Main Street communities opened 372 businesses, expanded 71 businesses, created 868 new jobs, and completed 170 façade renovations. Seventy new construction projects and 139 public improvement projects were completed, and 704 downtown living spaces were created. Investments: $249 million in private dollars, $77 million in public funds. 

I chatted with Jim Miller, executive director of the Mississippi Main Street Association (MMSA), who is earning his doctoral degree in higher education administration this summer from the University of Southern Mississippi, about misperceptions that hinder Main Street growth, how it works to get a downtown roadmap and improvement grants, and his dream number of Main Street communities in the Magnolia State. 

When you look at the economic impact numbers, our program is working well. I’d like the business community to know the MMSA is worth investing in, that we’ve seen growth in these towns. (The Main Street Approach model focuses on four facets: organization, promotion, design, and economic vitality.) 

Another element that seems maybe a little bit underknown, or maybe people are a little bit intimidated by, is understanding the three different levels of membership with the MMSA.

All municipalities start at the Associate level. From there, they can go to the Network level. And the big jump is to the designated level. We have 48 designated communities across the state. To make the jump to the designated level, we develop a downtown roadmap, a very comprehensive plan specifically tailored for that downtown.

Here’s how it works: The MMSA absorbs the cost on the front end of approximately $27,000 to bring in a team of experts after a period of community feedback. The team typically consists of about four to five people, which might include an architect, engineer, urban planner, tourism expert, economist, et cetera. The exact make-up of this team is specific to the community and its needs. We do market analysis to determine the direction of economic revitalization for the community, based on unique assets, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Then we put together a detailed, step-by-step, understandable guide to follow. The guide has been an immensely helpful document for these communities. And it helps create synergies between various players at the table while also engaging the community. 

These communities repay $27,000 on the back end. For example, $10,000 the first year, $9,000 the second year, $8,000 the third year, and then $2,650 each year thereafter. 

The ROI on communities that engage in the downtown roadmap is far beyond their investment.

I would encourage business leaders interested in seeing their downtowns revitalized to speak with us. Let us explain how the process works. Let us come and present our program to demystify some of the details that maybe on the front end are a little hard to understand. Our MMSA communities across the state would provide testimony to the power of the Main Street model. 

Could a small place like my hometown, Seminary (population: 308), afford to join the lowest membership level? 

All communities begin at the associate level, which is $500 a year. Most communities can swing that. It opens the door to the resources of Main Street, including technical assistance. (The network level is $1,500 annually; designated level is $2,650 annually.) 

Are facade improvement grants available?

We do involve designated communities in various grant opportunities, which might include opportunities for façade improvements. MMSA communities are also benefiting from an annual grant program that began this year through the legislature, the Mississippi Main Street Revitalization Grant Program, or MMSRG. Façade improvements are eligible through that program. 

What’s the greatest challenge you face?

Awareness. We want people to know that downtown revitalization work is a tremendously important and effective economic driver. We work in concert with other forms of economic development. There’s so much research that shows the quality of place is such a strong driver of economic development.

What’s your dream number of Main Street communities?

We have 300 municipalities in Mississippi, give or take. We have 48 designated, two network, and approximately 30 associate communities. I would love to see every single municipality as a Main Street community. I know that’s probably not feasible, and we don’t have the capacity to manage that many, but I would love to see at least 150 Main Street communities. 

It’s a matter of momentum. Once these communities begin looking around and seeing how their neighboring community, an MMSA member, is turning things around, they’re going to want to know the secret. That’s why we do what we do. 

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Read original article by clicking here.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Read original article by clicking here.

Mississippi would receive an additional $2.04 billion the first year Medicaid was expanded to provide health care coverage for the working poor, according to projections compiled in June by the state’s University Research Center.

Based on that projection, Mississippi Today is unveiling a digital tracker that will run continuously displaying how much money the state is losing in federal funds by not expanding Medicaid. The tracker reflects the amount of money loss per millisecond for the year based on Medicaid expansion beginning on the start of the fiscal year, July 1st.

The tracker is not exact: The amount of Medicaid money the state receives is based on a number of factors, primarily the health care needs of those covered by Medicaid. Medicaid provides funds to health care providers for rendering medical services to those who qualify for Medicaid.

The state might receive more federal Medicaid funds, for example, during a flu or COVID-19 outbreak because Medicaid recipients would be receiving more health care.

But for the sake of the tracker, it will be assumed the money received over a year – a projected $2.04 billion – would be distributed evenly.

The tracker presumes that Medicaid expansion would begin in Mississippi on July 1 – the first day of a new fiscal year.

It’s also helpful to explain how the University Research Center derived the projection the state would receive $2.04 billion the first year in federal funds for expanding Medicaid.

The bulk of the federal funds would come from taking the projected number of enrollees – nearly 250,000 — and multiplying that number by the estimated $6,139 expenditure per enrollee. The federal government pays 90% of that cost.

Included in that is money the state would receive by moving certain groups of people currently enrolled in Medicaid where the federal government pays 77.3% of the costs to the new expansion population where the federal government pays 90% of the costs.

In addition, the state would receive funds from the federal government paying a tax to the state – a 3% insurance tax on each new expansion enrollee.

And during the first two years of expansion, the state would receive an estimated $335.4 million in new funds the first year of expansion and an estimated $345.5 million in new funds the second year. The funds would be provided to the state as an incentive to expand Medicaid as 40 other states have done.

The amount of the incentive funds to expand Medicaid is derived by adding 5% to the federal match the state receives from the federal government for the traditional Medicaid program. The federal match Mississippi receives for the traditional Medicaid program is 77.3%. In other words, for every dollar spent on Medicaid, the federal government pays 77.3 cents. Mississippi receives the highest federal match for the traditional Medicaid program of any state in the nation because of multiple reasons, such as the state’s high poverty rate. If Mississippi expanded Medicaid, the federal match non-expansion enrollees would go to 82.3% for two years, resulting in $680 million to the state over two years.

After two years, the 5% increase in the federal match for the traditional Medicaid program would go away. With the removal of the 5% enhanced match, the University Research Center projects the total federal expenditure on Medicaid expansion would drop to $1.78 billion in year three.

At that point, if Medicaid is not expanded, Mississippi Today will have to recalculate its tracker.

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Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor has made it clear that he supports President Joe Biden’s reelection efforts amid recent talks of replacing the commander-in-chief following a shaky debate performance.

At times during the late June debate between Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, the president appeared to be hazy and struggled to finish his thoughts. Reports then immediately began to surface that registered Democratic voters, and even party leaders, became concerned about Biden’s ability to oust Trump in this November’s election.

Names of potential replacement nominees including Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and even former First Lady Michelle Obama were floated and juxtaposed against Trump for polling purposes as calls for Biden to step down from his post grew louder. Nonetheless, the president insisted that he will remain in the race and that he is confident in his ability to defeat Trump just like he did in 2020, debunking rumors of any last-ditch efforts to remove him from the ballot.

Though some on the Democratic side of the aisle are not quite convinced of Biden’s electability versus the former president and once again candidate Trump, Taylor stood firm in his support for Biden and said that he and Mississippi Democrats alike are excited to cast a ballot for the Biden-Harris ticket on election day.

“Every delegate from the state of Mississippi will be traveling to Chicago for the [Democratic National Convention] emboldened by the last four years of this presidency and are very excited about voting for him again,” Taylor said on MidDays with Gerard Gibert.

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor is fully behind President Joe Biden in his reelection efforts. (Photo courtesy of Cheikh Taylor)

Looking back at the debate between the two top polling candidates seeking the Oval Office, Taylor acknowledged that Biden had a few moments that may not have reflected well on camera but pointed to Biden’s performance in the White House as the ultimate selling point for voters.

Taylor appealed to voters on the fence about the president’s fitness for the job to reflect on what he believes to be

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lawyers for retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to revive a defamation lawsuit Favre filed against a fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame member, former tight end Shannon Sharpe, amid the backdrop of a Mississippi welfare scandal that is one of the state’s largest public corruption cases.

A federal judge in Mississippi threw out the lawsuit in October, saying Sharpe used constitutionally protected speech on a sports broadcast when he criticized Favre’s connection to the welfare misspending case.

Favre’s lawyer, Amit Vora, told three 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges in New Orleans that the lawsuit should be revived, arguing that Sharpe accused Favre, who has not been charged with a crime, of theft.

Sharpe said during a September 2022 broadcast of the Fox Sports show “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed” that Favre was “taking from the underserved,” that he “stole money from people that really needed that money” and that someone would have to be a sorry person “to steal from the lowest of the low.”

“That’s actionable defamation, because that reasonable listener is taking the word steal literally and not figuratively,” Vora said.

Sharpe’s attorney, Joseph Terry, told the judges that Sharpe’s remarks were clearly an opinion offered when he was asked about a news report on the Mississippi welfare scandal and how the reports will affect Favre’s legacy.

“If you read his comments in context, it’s quite clear that he was expressing his opinions rhetorically,” Terry said.

The panel gave no indication when it would rule.

Mississippi State Auditor Shad White has said that from 2016 to 2019, the Mississippi Department of Human Services misspent more than $77 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program—funds intended to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.

Among White’s findings was that Favre improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees from a nonprofit organization that spent TANF money with approval from the Department of Human Services. The money was to go toward a $5 million volleyball arena at The University of

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