- 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. Special election set for Court of Appeals Judge, District 1, Position 1
Governor Tate Reeves announced Tuesday that he has set a special election for the Office of Court of Appeals Judge, District 1, Position 1.
John Weddle, former District Attorney for the First Circuit Court District, has served in this position since his appointment by the Governor on October 14, 2024.
The District includes Alcorn, Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Choctaw, DeSoto, Grenada, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Panola, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Union, Webster and Yalobusha counties.
The special election will be held on November 3, 2026. The qualifying deadline is February 2, 2026.
2. Ole Miss student awards Marshall Scholarship
Ole Miss announced Tuesday that the British government has awarded university senior Sophia Toner a prestigious Marshall Scholarship.
Established in 1953 to show appreciation for the United States’ assistance following World War II, the Marshall Scholarship funds two years of graduate study at a British university of the scholar’s choosing.
Toner becomes the fifth Ole Miss student to receive the distinguished scholarship. She is an international studies major from Pass Christian. The opportunity allows her to foster her interests in boats, sailing, pirates and everything in between.
“I will pursue a master’s in maritime policy and shipping management at Cardiff University, followed by a master’s in international security at Bristol University,” Toner said. “I hope to first understand the fundamentals of the global maritime shipping system, then apply that understanding to security analysis.”
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Senate to vote on GOP-crafted healthcare proposal
As The Hill reports, “Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says Senate Republicans will vote Thursday on a GOP-crafted proposal to address rising health insurance premiums, despite deep divisions within his conference over whether the plan drafted by two powerful Republican committee chairs is the best way forward.”
“Faced with disagreements within his own conference, Thune had considered not putting any Republican health care reform plan on the floor for a vote,” The Hill reported. “But the GOP leader came under heavy pressure from vulnerable and swing-state colleagues to let them vote on a GOP alternative to a Democratic-drafted bill to extend enhanced health insurance subsidies for three years.”
The Hill continued, “Thune announced after a Senate GOP lunch meeting Tuesday that he would set up a vote Thursday on a proposal to convert enhanced health insurance premium subsidies enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic into contributions to health savings accounts (HSA).”
2. Miami elects Democrat-backed mayor for first time in nearly 30 years
Miami voters elected Eileen Higgins as mayor in a rout on Tuesday, the New York Times reported, “choosing a Democrat to lead the city for the first time in almost 30 years in a race that Democrats hope sets a precedent for the 2026 midterms.”
“Ms. Higgins, 61, will become Miami’s first female mayor and its first non-Hispanic mayor since the 1990s. Cuban American Republicans have dominated city politics over the past three decades,” NYT reported. “Voters signaled a desire for change in the first round of the election in November, sending Ms. Higgins, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner, and Emilio T. González, a former Miami city manager, to Tuesday’s runoff.”
NYT noted, “Though Miami elections are technically nonpartisan, both major political parties were involved in the campaign. President Trump endorsed Mr. González, and the Democratic National Committee helped Ms. Higgins. National Democrats flew in to campaign with her over the past few days, a striking development for a low-turnout, off-year local election. Fewer than 37,000 votes were cast in the runoff. Miami, a city of about half a million people, is Florida’s second largest by population, after Jacksonville.”
Sports
1. Seven Rebels receive All-SEC honors
Ole Miss football received seven All-Southeastern Conference honors from the league’s 16 head coaches for the 2025 season, the SEC office announced on Tuesday afternoon.
Running back Kewan Lacy (first team), kickoff specialist Lucas Carneiro (first team), quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (second team), tight end Dae’Quan Wright (second team), offensive lineman Diego Pounds (third team), defensive lineman Will Echoles (third team), and linebacker Princewill Umanmielen (third team) each earned a spot on the All-SEC team.
2. MSU’s Thompson, Jones earn 3rd Team All-SEC honors
On Tuesday, the Southeastern Conference announced its 2025 Coaches’ All-SEC Teams, with both wide receiver Brenen Thompson and defensive back Kelley Jones representing Mississippi State on the third team.
This is the second straight season that State has had an All-SEC receiver after not having one since 2016. It’s also the second consecutive season with an All-SEC defensive back/corner.
Markets & Business
1. Is China on pace for agreed soybean purchase?
CNBC reports that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday “that the deadline for China to buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans from American farmers was not the end of December as the White House has said, but the end of the ‘growing season.'”
“Greer’s comment at the hearing came on the heels of a report by NBC News showing that the pace of China’s purchase of soybeans in recent weeks was well short of reaching the agreed amount by the end of the calendar year,” CNBC reported. “China, which in October agreed to end its monthslong boycott of American soybeans amid a trade war, to date has bought only about 3 million metric tons, the trade representative told members of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies subcommittee.”
“We’ve heard from a couple farmers, they wanted to know about that discrepancy, and it is a discrepancy, it’s through the growing season,” he said, as reported by CNBC.
2. Manufacturers await SCOTUS tariff ruling
According to the Wall Street Journal, “U.S. manufacturers are pulling back harder on orders of parts and raw materials because of rising uncertainty around the future of the Trump administration’s signature tariffs, a new survey shows.”
“Buying activity among North American manufacturers, measured in a global poll of 27,000 businesses by GEP and S&P Market Intelligence, in November hit its lowest level since May,” WSJ reported. “U.S. retailers and manufacturers are waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the administration’s so-called reciprocal tariffs.”
WSJ went on to report, “The North American findings from the survey are in contrast to companies in the rest of the world where supply-chain activity is weak, but holding up better than in the U.S. GEP says manufacturing demand in Europe is slack and activity in Asia is slowing on loosening demand from China.”
