Heather Harrison

People often ask me if I drew the “short end of the stick” since I cover the Legislature. HELL. NO. This is my dream job, even if some of the rhetoric in this building causes me to lose my sanity. I wouldn’t have left the best small town in the South (Starkville) if I didn’t love my job.

Y'all I'm laughing so hard. Mississippi Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, rose for an announcement on the Mississippi Senate floor and said, "I'd like to announce my disappointment." Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann replied, "It's shared by all." 👀

Legislators ask me where I’m from and my default response is “Mississippi Free Press” as if I was born in our office on South Congress Street 😂
And then I’m like “Oh, you wanna know where I’m FROM from. I was raised in Hazlehurst and now live in Brandon.”

It Only Tuesday

It Only Tuesday https://theonion.com/it-only-tuesday-1819569397/

Classroom Cellphone Ban, Other Mississippi Senate Education Bills Dead in House Hopes for legislative action on banning cellphones in classrooms and increasing funding for gifted students appear dead in the Mississippi House.

Hopes for legislative action on banning cellphones in classrooms, providing health insurance for school board members and increasing funding for gifted students appear dead in the Miss. House. House Education Committee Chair Rob Roberson says the committee has had its last meeting of this year.

Mississippi may soon criminalize illegal immigration under State law, with felony prison sentences for undocumented immigrants entering the state.

www.mississippifreepress.org/undocumented...

Mississippi won’t expand Medicaid this year because of federal Medicaid funding cuts under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.

www.mississippifreepress.org/medicaid-exp...

Mississippi public schools may soon have to set aside time for students to pray and read the Bible and other religious texts under the Mississippi Open to Religion Act, which the Mississippi House passed on Feb. 11.

buff.ly/n6z7CxW

A mail-order abortion pill ban passed the Mississippi House, defining it as felony drug trafficking that would carry one to 10 year prison sentences for providers.

buff.ly/I52iD4M

Hopes for legislative action on banning cellphones in classrooms, providing health insurance for school board members and increasing funding for gifted students appear dead in the Miss. House. House Education Committee Chair Rob Roberson says the committee has had its last meeting of this year.

Pro tip: Read this fantastic explainer by @heatherharrison.bsky.social and @ashtonpittman.bsky.social to get up to speed on Phil Bryant’s attempt to keep his defamation lawsuit against Mississippi Today alive. It’s not easily understood via one-liners on social media.

One major national org said they weren't aware of the bill, others didn't respond or had no comment.

And she was asking as recently as today, 6 days later.

5 years ago, all of them would've had statements out within an hour of passage.

One concern with this bill: It bans the mailing of "abortion-inducing drugs."

But it doesn't specify which drugs that includes (typically mifepristone and misoprostol).

One Democrat suggested it could ban Plan B. The bill's author, Celeste Hurst, said it won't ban Plan B, but the wording is fuzzy.

Here's what's surprising: This bill passed last Wednesday.

We are only the second news organization to report on it other than Magnolia Tribune.

No abortion rights organization has commented on it.

And @heatherharrison.bsky.social couldn't get any major pro-abortion rights groups to comment.

Mail-Order Abortion Pill Ban Passes Mississippi House A mail-order abortion pill ban passed the Mississippi House, defining it as felony drug trafficking that would carry one to 10 year prison sentences for providers.

NEW: Providers who mail abortion pills to Mississippi could soon be prosecuted as felony drug traffickers under an amendment Mississippi House Republicans added to a drug trafficking bill at the last minute.

The amended bill passed amid loud dissent from outraged Democrats.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s is Medal of Freedom Now Displayed at Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Fannie Lou Hamer’s posthumously-awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom is now on display at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

Just before Biden left office in January 2025, he honored Fannie Lou Hamer, who died in 1977, with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. That medal now sits in a glass display case at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Hamer’s family donated the medal to the museum last October.

I don't think I understand your question. From my story, "Then-President Joe Biden announced on June 26, 2023, that the state would receive $1.2 billion for high-speed internet infrastructure across the state through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program."

Broadband Access Could Expand to ‘Every Area’ of Mississippi After Federal BEAD Approval Mississippi is one step closer to having internet access in every area of the state after the federal government approved a broadband expansion plan.

Mississippi is one step closer to having internet access in “every area of the state that still lacks access to high-speed internet” after the federal government approved the state’s broadband expansion plan, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Tuesday.

Undocumented Immigrants Entering Mississippi Could Face Imprisonment Under Bill Passed in State Senate Mississippi may soon criminalize illegal immigration under State law, with felony prison sentences for undocumented immigrants entering the state.

Mississippi Sen. Angela Hill admitted that it is “rare” for a person to illegally come into the state by boat or plane but said that “we know that it does happen.”

Undocumented Immigrants Entering Mississippi Could Face Imprisonment Under Bill Passed in State Senate Mississippi may soon criminalize illegal immigration under State law, with felony prison sentences for undocumented immigrants entering the state.

“We’re making it a crime for a person to come into MS, not through a proper port of entry, but to come into MS directly from another country,” MS Sen. Angela Hill, said. “If someone comes into MS through the Gulf of America and not through a port of entry, this would create a state crime, a felony.”

Undocumented Immigrants Entering Mississippi Could Face Imprisonment Under Bill Passed in State Senate Mississippi may soon criminalize illegal immigration under State law, with felony prison sentences for undocumented immigrants entering the state.

Mississippi may soon criminalize illegal immigration under State law and allow the Mississippi Department of Public Service to collect identifying information about any undocumented immigrants in the state.

Medicaid Expansion Dead in Mississippi Due to Trump Cuts, Top Republican Says Mississippi won’t expand Medicaid this year because of federal Medicaid funding cuts under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.

“… There is a reason why—it’s funding, it’s the money aspect of it. The Big Beautiful Bill changed funding. I don’t see it happening, and those states that have expanded will probably be going back to their regular programs before expansion,” Mississippi Sen. Kevin Blackwell told me.

Medicaid Expansion Dead in Mississippi Due to Trump Cuts, Top Republican Says Mississippi won’t expand Medicaid this year because of federal Medicaid funding cuts under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.

Medicaid expansion isn't going to happen in Mississippi this year because of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican, told me last week.

Well, my Starkville Public Library card expired. We had a good five year run, even after I stopped living there 😅 I guess it’s time to finally get a Brandon Public Library card!

Thanks for the blue check, @bsky.app!

Please verify my Mississippi Free Press colleagues too: @donnerkay.bsky.social
@trjackson.bsky.social
@kimberlygriffin.bsky.social
@heatherharrison.bsky.social
@nickjudin.bsky.social
@illanireland11.bsky.social

Private-School Voucher Bill Dies in Mississippi Senate; House Passes $5,000 Teacher Pay Raise Mississippi won’t expand its school voucher program after the Mississippi Senate Education Committee voted to kill the House’s bill.

The governor’s office says that the sudden postponement came as he sought to focus on recovery efforts in the aftermath of Winter Storm Fern.

The postponement comes on the same day Reeves publicly blasted GOP Senate leaders for killing a "school choice" bill.

Gov. Reeves Abruptly Postpones State of the State Address ‘Indefinitely’ Gov. Tate Reeves has postponed his annual State of the State speech “indefinitely.”

Minutes before Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves was set to give his annual State of the State speech in the House chamber this evening, Rep. Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, announced that the governor had abruptly decided to postpone the speech "indefinitely."

The chamber broke out into whoops and cheers.

Private Schools in Mississippi Will Get Federal Funding Under Trump Voucher Plan Mississippi parents could soon use federal tax credits to send children to private and homeschool programs through federal vouchers.

Mississippi families will soon be able to enroll their children in private schools or homeschool programs, including those with religious curricula, using federal tax dollars after Gov. Tate Reeves opted Mississippi into the Federal Tax Credit Scholarship Program.

‘America’s History Was Made in Jackson’: Kamala Harris Visits Mississippi Capital Former Vice President Kamala Harris came to Jackson as the second stop on her second leg of her book tour for her autobiography, “107 Days.”

“If one considers themselves to be an American leader and does not spend time in the South, one cannot be an American leader,” Kamala Harris said. “… If you want to understand the ambitions, the dreams, the hopes and the fears of the American people, you’ve got to spend time in the South.”

‘America’s History Was Made in Jackson’: Kamala Harris Visits Mississippi Capital Former Vice President Kamala Harris came to Jackson as the second stop on her second leg of her book tour for her autobiography, “107 Days.”

Kamala Harris rode a bus from New Orleans to Jackson for the second stop on her second leg of her book tour for her autobiography, “107 Days,” which details her 107-day 2024 presidential campaign.