- Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.
In Mississippi
1. Hurricane Beryl still worth watching
Hurricane Beryl continues to maintain Category 4 strength winds as it approaches Jamaica. It is currently projected to cross the Yucatan Peninsula heading into Friday and reemerge in the Gulf of Mexico towards northern Mexico and Southern Texas by early next week.
Beryl is the first hurricane to reach a Category 5 strength this early in hurricane season.
2. Lt. Gov. Hosemann wants to tackle chronic absenteeism in Mississippi schools
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann is proposing several policy measures in the 2025 Legislative Session to tackle Mississippi’s high chronic absenteeism rate in public schools across the state.
According to a release from Hosemann’s office on Tuesday, some of the solutions he is interested in exploring include:
- Restricting the use of cellphones in public schools, which Hosemann’s office says has been shown in recent years to severely impact student mental health, particularly during classroom instruction.
- Moving school attendance officers from the Mississippi Department of Education to district-level supervision.
- Increasing school attendance officer salaries.
- Encouraging low-performing schools, which often have high chronic absenteeism rates, to consider moving to a modified calendar, something Hosemann has sought to encourage in recent years.
Hosemann plans to visit schools in different regions of the state which have lower and higher chronic absenteeism rates to hear about on-the-ground challenges and other possible solutions to the problem during the fall.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Democratic donors turning on Biden
Wealthy Democratic donors who believe a different nominee would be the party’s best chance to hold the White House are increasingly gritting their teeth in silence about President Biden, the New York Times reports.
“As of late Tuesday, the party’s moneyed class was carefully monitoring post-debate poll results and the positioning of elected Democrats for signs that support for Mr. Biden was cracking,” NYT reported. “Earlier moves by donors to mount their own campaigns to pressure Mr. Biden to step down as the party’s presidential candidate have either fizzled out or prompted pushback from fellow contributors and operatives.”
NYT also noted that, “A small private online poll distributed after the debate to liberal donors and their advisers found that of dozens of respondents, more than 70 percent indicated that they were ‘ready to explore Plan B.'”
2. Political shakeup in the U.K.
The Wall Street Journal reports that by Friday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “will almost certainly be drummed out of Downing Street, with his ruling Conservative Party facing its deepest hole in more than a century.”
“Polls ahead of Thursday’s U.K. election show the opposition Labour Party and its leader Keir Starmer on course to win by a margin of about 20 percentage points, ending 14 years of government by the ruling Tories,” WSJ reported, adding, “If polls are right, the Conservatives are on course to get only about 20% of the popular vote—their lowest share in modern British history and less than half the 43.5% of the vote they racked up in the last general election, in 2019, when the party won a huge parliamentary majority with 365 seats compared with just 203 for Labour.”
Sports & Entertainment
1. Ole Miss basketball season tickets now available
Ole Miss basketball fans can now secure their tickets for the 2024-25 season now.
Season tickets are available for purchase and renewal for both the men’s and women’s teams through the Ole Miss ticket office.
The university’s Athletic Department encourages fans to renew or purchase their basketball tickets to be entered for a chance to win prizes.
2. Miss. State baseball to play in Astros College Classic in 2025
One of the top annual regular season tournaments in college baseball will include Mississippi State in 2025, the university’s Athletic Department announced on Monday.
The Bulldogs will travel to Houston, Texas to play in the Astros Foundation College Classic, held at Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros.
The tournament, set to begin on February 28, 2025, will include fellow Southeastern Conference Teams Tennessee and Texas A&M, as well as Arizona, Oklahoma State and Rice.
Markets & Business
1. Barnes & Noble to open in Flowood
Barnes & Noble is opening a new location in Flowood on Wednesday, July 10.
The new Barnes & Noble is located at Market Street Flowood (760 Mackenzie Lane, Flowood, MS 39232) in the space formerly occupied by Bed Bath & Beyond, next to DSW and near Ulta Beauty.
The bookstore will host author Angie Thomas at a ribbon cutting next week. She will be signing copies of her books as well.
The company says the Flowood location is one of six new Barnes & Noble bookstores set to open in July, alongside new locations TX, LA, MI and IL.
2. Twenty MS restaurants honored by Wine Spectator
Twenty Mississippi restaurants have been honored in Wine Spectator’s 2024 Restaurant Awards in their list of the best establishments for wine.
In total, the awards program recognized 3,777 dining destinations from all 50 states in the U.S. and more than 75 countries internationally.
The Mississippi restaurants being recognized by Wine Spectator are:
- Caet, Ridgeland
- Koestler Prime, Ridgeland
- Phillip M’s, Philadelphia
- The Manship, Jackson
- Thirty-Two, Biloxi
- Walker’s Drive-in, Jackson
- BR Prime Steakhouse, Biloxi
- Bravo, Jackson
- Char, Jackson
- Estelle Wine Bar & Bistro, Jackson
- Harveys, Starkville
- Harveys, Columbus
- Jia, Biloxi
- Local 463, Ridgeland
- Morton’s, Biloxi
- Shapley’s, Ridgeland
- Stalla Italian Kitchen, Biloxi
- The Sipp, Oxford
- Weidmann’s, Meridian
- White Pillars, Biloxi
