- 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. Biloxi city council approves first tax increase in 25 years
WLOX reports that “a property tax increase is official in Biloxi after council members approved a one-mill increase.”
“In mid-August, Biloxi Mayor Andrew ‘FoFo’ Gilich proposed a property tax increase to cover the rising costs of running the city. In the initial proposal, Mayor Gilich wanted to increase the millage rate from 30.10 to 33.10. Still, some council members pushed back to amend the resolution, eventually settling on a one-mill increase,” WLOX reported. “The measure passed Tuesday night, 4-2, with councilmen Wayne Gray (Ward 1), Mike Nail (Ward 3), Paul Tisdale (Ward 5) and Jamie Creel (Ward 4) voting in favor. Councilmen Kenny Glavan (Ward 6) and David Shoemaker (Ward 7) voted against it, while Anthony Marshall (Ward 2) abstained.”
WLOX went on to report, “The resolution was amended to direct the additional revenue toward public safety… Under the reduced one-mill increase, a $200,000 home would see an annual increase of roughly $20. This is the first increase in the city’s tax rate in 25 years.”
2. Sparklight expanding multi-gig service in Southwest Mississippi
Sparklight is expanding Multi-Gig internet service across McComb, Brookhaven, Bogue Chitto, Fernwood, Magnolia, Summit and Wesson, Mississippi, the company announced Tuesday. The new service will provide residential customers with internet speeds up to 2 Gig and increased network capacity.
Charlie Oakes, Sparklight Senior Regional Director, Gulf Coast, said the network expansion is designed to address both current and future connectivity requirements.
“Bandwidth needs continue to grow as technology becomes an even bigger part of everyday life,” Oakes said. “We’re strengthening our network to meet those needs today while ensuring it has the capacity to support what comes next.”
Sparklight has invested nearly $1 billion in network upgrades across the communities it serves over the past three years. The company said more than $10 million of that investment has been made in McComb and surrounding areas.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Third impeachment of Trump inevitable?
Chris Stirewalt writing for The Hill says a third impeachment of President Donald Trump looks inevitable if Democrats win back the U.S. House in November.
“The closed-door meeting between Jared Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and ambassador without portfolio — and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) certainly suggests an air of Democratic inevitability. So does the capitulation from House Republicans on punting the rest of their legislative agenda until after the election,” Stirewalt wrote. “How big a prospective Democratic House majority may be certainly matters, most of all to Jeffries. He’s going to be getting at least a half dozen more members of the “squad” or the Justice Democrats, or whatever you like to call the blue version of the Tea Party. They will be intent on making it as hard as possible for the would-be Speaker to get anything done. But if Democrats have a great year instead of just a good one, the extra seats will come from Republican-leaning swing districts likely to produce pragmatic new representatives.”
Stirewalt added, “But whether Jeffries is under siege from the start or has a 12-seat cushion to protect him from extortionate demands, there’s one thing that won’t be avoided: a third impeachment of Donald Trump.”
2. Trump nominating Cao as Navy Secretary
The Washington Post reports that “President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would nominate acting Navy secretary Hung Cao to the permanent position.”
“The Senate needs to confirm this Warfighter, ASAP, so he can continue the fantastic work he has been doing over the past 4 months,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
WP reported that “Cao, a Vietnamese refugee and former commissioned Navy officer, was confirmed by the Senate as the Navy’s undersecretary last October. He became acting secretary in April after then-secretary John Phelan was ousted after clashing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
“Trump administration officials also grew frustrated with Phelan, a billionaire art collector and fundraiser for Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign, for not making more progress on turning around the U.S. shipbuilding industry and other administration priorities,” the Washington Post previously reported.
Sports
1. Week 2 for Mississippi JUCOs set for Thursday
If Week 1 in Mississippi JUCO play was any indication, Week 2 could be equally as intriguing with the matchups set for Thursday’s football games across the state.
Leading the night’s games is a Top 5 NJCAA pairing featuring MGCCC visiting Northwest.
Here’s a rundown of the contests:
- Jones at Coahoma
- Co-Lin at Holmes
- Southwest at Northeast
- Pearl River at MS Delta
- East Central at No. 13 Itawamba
- Hinds at No. 9 East Mississippi
- No. 5 MGCCC at No. 3 Northwest
2. Ole Miss baseball transfer calls ranked No. 11
Ole Miss Baseball has once again reloaded through the transfer portal, putting together a class that is ranked No. 11 in the country according to D1Baseball.
The newest group of Rebels include Sean Carey from Sacramento State, Brady Dallimore from TCU, Blake Fields from Houston, Charlie Foster from Mississippi State, Jason Fultz Jr. from Clemson, Trey Hawsey from Louisiana Tech, Kendall Hoffman from Houston, Caleb Koskie from Indiana, Eli Pillsbury from Jacksonville State, Mavrick Rizy from LSU, Andrew Rogovic from Northeastern, Brent Stukes from USC Upstate, and Charlie Willcox from Georgia Tech.
Markets & Business
1. DOJ investigating grocery retailers over beef prices
FoxBusiness reports that “the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division on Tuesday said it had expanded its investigation into beef affordability to include eight of the largest grocery retailers in the United States.”
“The expansion comes after the DOJ launched an antitrust probe in May into the ‘Big Four’ meatpackers — JBS, Cargill, Tyson Foods and National Beef — which the department said control more than 85% of the U.S. beef processing market,” FoxBusiness reported. “Tuesday’s announcement expands the federal government’s scrutiny to the retail level of the food supply chain.”
As noted by FoxBusiness, “The DOJ said the retailers under investigation are Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Albertsons, Aldi, Ahold Delhaize, Costco and Amazon. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. sent letters to the eight companies regarding ‘recent increases in the retail price for beef,’ according to the Justice Department.”
2. Oil prices push bond market to edge
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has a lot of plates spinning at the moment, reports the Wall Street Journal.
“Even as he hosts the G-20, he is busy defending his attempts to manage the yen-dollar exchange rate, long-term Treasury yields and a renewed trade war with Canada. Crucially though, it is the jump in oil prices that is suddenly making that juggling act harder,” WSJ reported. “Long-term bonds issued by the world’s major industrialized nations are slumping. On Tuesday, yields on German, U.K. and Japanese 10-year government bonds hit their highest levels since 2011, 2008 and 1996 respectively. In U.S. trading, the 10-year Treasury yield was up around 0.04 percentage point, hovering at levels rarely seen since the financial crisis.”
WSJ continued, “It is tempting to blame it all on fiscal irresponsibility—and some related trigger like Tokyo’s latest budget plan. But the worldwide nature of the selloff points to a global factor like oil prices, not something country-specific.”
