- 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. Mississippi Business Alliance expected to be up and running in January
The Mississippi Economic Council (MEC), the Mississippi Manufacturers Association (MMA), and the Business and Industry Political Education Committee (BIPEC) are joining together as a single entity to represent all sectors of Mississippi’s economy and will be known as the Mississippi Business Alliance.
The executive committees of each organization unanimously voted last month to sign a Letter of Intent to merge the organizations.
“This is an important step in the process, as it gives each of our organizations the ability to share confidential financial information, staffing details, and other necessary items in the process,” Scott Waller, President & CEO of the Mississippi Economic Council said. “If everything continues to progress under the timeline we’ve established – and I am confident it will – a definitive agreement will be presented to each of the three boards this fall for final approval of creating a new, combined entity.”
Under the timeline, the Mississippi Business Alliance (MSBA) is expected to be operational by January 2026, providing a stronger, more unified voice for business and industry throughout the state. MSBA will serve as the State Chamber of Commerce in Mississippi and the state’s affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
2. Ware named DPS Director of Internal Affairs
On Tuesday, Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell announced Larry Ware as the new Director of Internal Affairs to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
Ware is a graduate of Mississippi State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. He began his law enforcement career in 2009 with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, serving as an investigator in the Public Integrity Division. Throughout his tenure there, he went on to serve as Unit Supervisor of the Vulnerable Persons Unit and later as Chief Investigator of the Public Integrity Division.
In 2021, Ware joined the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor as a Special Agent and was soon appointed Director of Investigations by State Auditor Shad White. Under his leadership, his team’s investigations helped recover over $6 million in misappropriated public funds over four years.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Leaked report claims Iran’s nuclear capabilities only stalled by a few months
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, “The Trump administration pushed back on a leaked intelligence report that said the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities only set back Tehran’s nuclear ambitions by a few months, while the cease-fire brokered by President Trump appeared to hold for another day.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at the NATO summit Wednesday, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation has started a probe into how the preliminary assessment became public. President Trump, also at the summit in The Hague, said reports minimizing the impact of the operation were disrespectful. ‘This was an unbelievable success,’ Trump said,” WSJ reported.
WSJ added, “Meanwhile, Israel said its military and intelligence services are still investigating the extent of the damage. Trump, also speaking at the summit, said Iran shouldn’t try to rebuild its nuclear program, suggesting the U.S. would strike Iran again it did.”
2. New York Democrats nominate democratic socialist as NYC mayor nominee
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani topped former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City on Tuesday night, reports the New York Times.
“Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist from Queens, tapped into a current of anxiety around New York City’s growing affordability crisis. His joyful campaign brought new voters into the fold who rejected the scandal-scarred Mr. Cuomo’s ominous characterizations of the city and embraced an economic platform that included everything from free bus service and child care to publicly owned grocery stores,” NYT reported. “The outcome was not official, and even assuming Mr. Mamdani gains the nomination, he faces an unusually competitive general election in November.”
NYT went on to report that “Mr. Mamdani said he would use his ‘power to reject Donald Trump’s fascism’ and struck a note of unity after a contentious primary,” adding that Mamdani will face General Election candidates incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, an independent, as well as Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, and Jim Walden, an independent, in November. Cuomo could also file to run as an Independent.
Sports
1. Longtime Southern Miss women’s basketball coach dies
Joye Lee-McNelis, the longtime women’s basketball coach at Southern Miss, has passed away at 63.
McNelis had been battling lung cancer for the last two seasons. She retired at the end of the 2024-2025 season after 11 seasons with USM.
McNelis played for Southern Miss in the early 1980s out of Hancock North Central High School. She went on to be a head coach for 34 years, the longest stint at Memphis from 1991 to 2004. She finished with an overall career coaching record of 568-464, and was a two-time Conference USA Coach of the Year, a National Coach of the Year Finalist, earned four NCAA Tournament appearances, eight WNIT appearances, and a WNIT Final Four appearance.
2. MSU’s Shapen earns Philanthropic Spirit Award
Mississippi State quarterback Blake Shapen was announced this week as earning the Philanthropic Spirit Award from the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) Store.
The award recognizes the athlete who supported the greatest philanthropic endeavor through their apparel sales.
According to MSU Athletics, in April, as part of the Bulldogs’ annual spring football game, Shapen welcomed around a couple of hundred kids to Davis Wade Stadium as his personal guests, presenting each of them with food vouchers and a postgame autograph meet-and-greet, as well as a special maroon and white, ‘Blake’s Bulldogs’ T-Shirt.
Markets & Business
1. S&P nears all-time high
CNBC reports that S&P 500 futures were near flat Wednesday “as investors watched to see if the benchmark index could return to its all-time high.”
“Futures tied to the broad index traded marginally higher, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 12 points. Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.1%,” CNBC reported. “The S&P 500 jumped more than 1% in Tuesday’s session as oil prices fell on bets that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel could last. With that gain, the index now sits less than 1% off its record high.”
CNBC noted, “Investors will watch Wednesday for data on new home sales due in the morning.”
2. More income needed to finance a mortgage today
FoxBusiness reports that according to a new report from Realtor.com, mortgage borrowers nationwide would need roughly 44.6% of their income for a household to be capable of financially handling a “median-priced” home.
“Some metro areas saw much higher percentages of the median income necessary to pay for a median home, such as Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, where it was 104%, and New York-Newark-Jersey City, where it came in at 66.9%, according to the report. In the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area, it was 64.3% of a household’s median income,” FoxBusiness reported.
“Many U.S. adults — 75% — still consider homeownership to be a component of the American dream, per a January Realtor.com survey,” FoxBusiness added. “The U.S. homeownership rate hovered at 65.1% in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.”
Magnolia Tribune
