- 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. Illegal immigrant sentenced in Mississippi for card skimming
Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced Wednesday that Romanian national Giovanni Iortoman, 21, had been sentenced in federal court of on one count of Illegal Possession, Production, or Trafficking in Device-Making Equipment for placement of skimmer devices on credit card readers in stores in Jones, Madison, and Laurel Counties.
The case was investigated by the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office with assistance from the Madison Police Department, the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (TX FCIC), and the U.S. Secret Service. It was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.
On December 8, 2025, Judge Kristi Johnson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi sentenced Iortoman to 12 months in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and ordered him to pay a total of $1,911 in restitution to the retailers that were affected. Iortoman entered the country illegally and will be subject to deportation upon release from prison.
2. DeSoto County DA seeks to deter would be criminals from Memphis
DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton has launched an anti-crime campaign aimed at deterring people from committing crime in the north Mississippi area, specifically targeting would be criminals from Memphis, who he says contribute to more than 30 percent of felonies in DeSoto County.
“Over the last several years, DeSoto County has experienced a significant number of criminals coming from Memphis with the sole purpose of committing residential and commercial crime,” the district attorney’s office stated. “They are accustomed to the soft-on-crime policies in our neighboring county, but that is not the case here.”
The DA said the message is simple: If you cross into Mississippi and break our laws, you will be caught, prosecuted, and sent to prison.
Billboards along I-55 and soon to be near popular shopping areas feature the message “TURN BACK NOW” in large capital letters. Above that it says Memphis Criminals and underneath, saying, “Prison Awaits You in DeSoto County.”
3. Former Pine Belt DA gifts $2 million to USM for criminal justice building
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) announced Wednesday a $2 million gift through the USM Foundation from alumnus Paul H. “Bud” Holmes, whose generosity will name the newly renovated Criminal Justice Building.
The new home of the School of Criminal Justice, Forensic Science and Security is undergoing a $16.6 million renovation.
USM said Pine Belt-native Holmes began his journey at Southern Miss with a position at the campus bookstore. He earned a Bachelor of Science in History and an ROTC commission in 1954 before completing his law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1958.
Influenced by his father, D.W. Holmes, a former prosecutor, municipal Judge and mayor of Hattiesburg, Holmes carried forward his family’s dedication to justice and public service. He became a well-known Hattiesburg-area prosecutor and attorney throughout the 1970s and 1980s, also serving as the District Attorney for the 12th District (Forrest-Perry Counties).
National News & Foreign Policy
1. House passes $900 billion NDAA
As The Hill reports, “The House on Wednesday easily passed the annual defense policy bill, sending the mammoth, $900 billion measure to the Senate ahead of the year-end deadline.”
“The measure, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed the lower chamber by a vote of 312-112. Ninety-four Democrats and 18 Republicans opposed the bill,” The Hill reported. “The NDAA, a traditionally bipartisan bill that lays out defense priorities for the next year, would increase pay for service members, provide some military aid to Ukraine, restrict U.S. investment in China and fully repeal sanctions on Syria, among other things.”
The Hill went on to report, “It also contained a provision to withhold a portion of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until he turns over unedited footage of U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and copies of the orders behind the operations.”
2. 13 House Republicans join Democrats in effort to reverse Trump’s order on federal worker unions
According to FoxNews, “Thirteen House Republicans joined Democrats in advancing a bill to reverse President Donald Trump’s executive order cracking down on federal worker unions on Wednesday evening.”
“The bill was led by Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, who forced a vote on the measure via a mechanism called a discharge petition. It’s designed to force a vote on legislation over the wishes of leadership provided it gets support from a majority of House lawmakers,” FoxNews reported. “A motion to proceed with debate and a vote on the final bill passed the House in a 222-200 vote. All 209 voting Democrats voted with 13 Republicans to advance the bill, which is now headed for another House-wide procedural hurdle Thursday. If it survives a House ‘rule vote,’ the final vote to pass the repeal will also take place Thursday.
FoxNews continued, “The Republicans who voted to advance the legislation were Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Tom Kean, R-N.J., Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, Chris Smith, R-N.J., Pete Stauber, R-Minn., and Mike Turner, R-Ohio.”
Sports
1. Mississippi-Alabama All-Star game set for Saturday in Hattiesburg
The 2025 Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Football Game will be played at 12 Noon on Saturday, December 13 at M.M. Roberts Stadium – “The Rock” – on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
Mississippi’s team features standout MHSAA players from the Coast to Corinth. See the roster above for the All-Stars playing in the annual matchup.
The game will be livestreamed through FNUTL.com. It will also be available through the MAC Network, Roku, AppleTV, YouTube, & Firestick.
2. Ole Miss to kick off 2026 football season in Nashville
Ole Miss Athletics announced Wednesday that their kick off for the 2026 football season will send the Rebels to play Louisville in a neutral-site game in Nashville.
The game is set for Labor Day weekend (Sept. 5 or 6) at Nissan Stadium, and exact date, kick time and television network will be finalized at a later date.
It will mark the second meeting between the Rebels and Cardinals with the other also being a season-opening, neutral-site game. Ole Miss defeated Louisville 43-24 in the 2021 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.
Ole Miss’ complete 2026 schedule will be announced Thursday at 7 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
Markets & Business
1. Fed rate cut drives stocks up but Thursday’s futures fall
CNBC reports that S&P 500 futures fell on Thursday “as Oracle’s results reignited fears about high-flying tech stocks even after the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate cut gave a boost to U.S. equity markets in the prior session.”
“Stocks received a boost on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 just inches away from a new closing record, after a divided Fed announced an interest rate cut for the third time this year and ruled out a rate hike,” CNBC reported. “The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee cut its key overnight borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point to a 3.5%-3.75% range and signaled a slower pace of rate cuts ahead.”
CNBC added, “Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is ’well positioned to wait and see how the economy evolves’ and noted President Donald Trump’s tariffs have been a driver of inflation.”
2. Critical mineral trove found in Utah
The Wall Street Journal reports that “Ionic Mineral Technologies was mining the clay in Utah when it chanced upon what could be the critical mineral equivalent of a gold mine.”
“Ionic MT had leased the land as part of its business producing nanosilicon for lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric vehicles. But the company told WSJ Pro Sustainable Business that what it found was a host of other minerals, in what it says may be the most significant critical mineral reserve in the U.S,” WSJ reported. “Ionic MT said it discovered high grades of 16 different types of minerals, everything from lithium to alumina, germanium, rubidium, cesium, vanadium and niobium at the site in Utah’s Silicon Ridge.”
WSJ noted, “The Trump administration sees critical mineral mining in the U.S. as a national security priority: The minerals are used in everything from semiconductors for electronics to defense. The administration recently struck a deal with Australia to invest more than $3 billion combined in such projects.”
