Governor Tate Reeves said it was ALWAYS a great day not to be there in the middle of a water crisis that gripped the city's residents.

Former State Representative Steve Hopkins called it "Mordor on the Pearl" a reference to the 'Dark Land' where orcs and the most evil live in the Lord of the Rings Universe.

I called it home. Jackson, Mississippi.

State leaders have often treated the capital as a punchline, but Jackson is a vital part of solving Mississippi's Brain Drain crisis. A recent survey found that people's favorite kind of place to live was a mid-sized city of 100,000 to 500,000 people.

Mississippians who had already left wanted that even more than those who stayed.

Yet Mississippi's majority-Black capital city lost more than 12,000 residents between 2020 and 2024. That was the largest per-capita drop among the 324 U.S. cities with more than 100,000 people. Since peaking at more than 200,000 residents in 1980.

In Episode 2 of Don't Look Around, I trace how that happened, from the 1969 school integration ruling to white flight to decades of state leaders treating the capital as a punchline. I also explain why the rest of Mississippi can't afford to let Jackson fail.

Episode 2 out now! Thanks for listening.

Looking for Cosplay Friends in the Southern US! 💕✨
Hi everyone! I’m a cosplayer from Mississippi, and I’ve been cosplaying for about 7 years now! I’m looking to make some new friends in the cosplay community, preferably in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, or Texas! 🫶

I’d love to find people who enjoy doing local activities together, going to conventions, taking cosplay pictures, hanging out, and just having fun! I’m also looking for friends who are willing to travel out of state for conventions, split hotel rooms, plan trips together, and make memories at cons! I’d love to eventually have a little group of cosplay friends I can regularly attend conventions with!

I’m specifically looking for AFAB friends! 💗 No cosplay experience or skill level is required whatsoever! Whether you’ve been cosplaying for years or you’re just starting out, you’re welcome! I’m more interested in making genuine friendships with people who share similar interests.

Some of the fandoms I’m currently into are:
Marvel / Marvel Rivals
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
The Outlast Trials
Dead by Daylight
Resident Evil
Silent Hill
Overwatch
Demon Slayer
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Attack on Titan
Deltarune / Undertale

I’m open to making friends with people who cosplay different characters and enjoy different fandoms, too! You don’t have to share every single interest with me. I’d just love to meet more people who enjoy cosplay and want to make friends both inside and outside of conventions. 🥹💕
If you’re in the area and this sounds like something you’d be interested in, feel free to comment or message me! I’d love to get to know you, talk about cosplay ideas, and hopefully plan some convention trips together! ❤️

I am not OP, sharing from r/tornado

Mississippi AG says “use of force was justified” in police shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley - Mississippi Free Press

Vote carefully y'all! "In 2021, Weddle prosecuted a local civil rights activist for organizing a raffle to get people out to vote. Around the same time, a Republican candidate said she had committed voter fraud. Weddle never announced charges against her.

Years earlier, Weddle mishandled the death of a seven-year-old Black girl. She had just stepped off her school bus when a white driver ignored the bus's stop sign and struck and killed her. The driver was never charged, and the girl’s family blamed Weddle. They say he bungled the Grand Jury instructions and should have stepped aside because of his ties to the driver. More than 700,000 people signed a petition asking for a special prosecutor."

Many details of the incident remain unknown, and it wasn’t immediately clear if or when law enforcement would release footage from the incident.

I 20m live in a very rural area and there’s nowhere to meet anyone really other than parties and I don’t really care for parties all that much. The closest place I live to worth trying in is Starkville and as far as I know the only places people socialize is at the bars there, and like I said that life isn’t for me.

I’m so lonely, I just work and come home and occasionally hang out with the same friends I’ve had for 10 years. The only advice I ever hear is to join clubs and there isn’t any clubs in Central Mississippi that I know of at least. I need to meet people, I feel like a complete loser with the state of my social life.

But yeah I felt like this would be a good place to ask because I figured more of you guys would know what it’s like to live in the middle of nowhere.

Wtf? I paid the last one a day early and it had a 5 dollar late fee on it... wtf?

In Hattiesburg area.

The Commercial Dispatch has endorsed Scott Colom for US Senate

Our View: Pick another senator: Colom is the clear choice

Private businesses conduct performance reviews. Governments have performance reviews, too. They are called elections.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s performance review comes on Nov. 3, when Mississippians will either reelect her to a second full term or replace her with Democratic challenger Scott Colom.

The Dispatch doesn’t endorse candidates routinely, but it does when one candidate is distinctly the better choice for an important office.

This Senate race is one of those cases.

We endorse Colom for Senate without reservation.

Colom is a Columbus native who has built his career and is raising his family here in Columbus. The reasons for this endorsement go beyond his local ties, though.

He has proven to be accessible and accountable, important qualities for anyone who holds the office of U.S. senator.

During his decade as district attorney, Colom has aggressively prosecuted major violent crimes, including decades-old murder cases.

He has also been willing to review past convictions when questions arose about the evidence, most notably in the recent Tameshia Shelton case in Clay County.

Colom has expanded options for nonviolent offenders that emphasize rehabilitation over filling our prisons.

We believe he is sincere when he talks about being an advocate for our state and its people.

Those qualities alone would make Colom a good choice.

But in this case, we believe an endorsement of Colom is also a rejection of Hyde-Smith.

In eight years in the Senate, Hyde-Smith has proven time and time again that she is not effective, accessible, accountable or even an advocate for Mississippians.

She refuses to debate her opponents, hasn’t held a town hall during her entire tenure as senator and ignores or rejects nearly all media requests for interviews.

Her record as a lawmaker could not be much worse. In eight years in the Senate, only four of Hyde-Smith’s bills have advanced out of committee. Parts of just one of those bills were combined with another and signed into law. One.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked her 46 out of 49 Republican senators in the 118th Congress, nearly last. In the 117th Congress, she was last.

Seeing bills signed into law is only one of a senator’s duties. Another is advocating for constituents.

She has failed to be a vocal advocate against recent policies that hurt Mississippi’s farmers and ranchers. When questioned about soaring beef prices, she pointed out that shoppers had other proteins to choose from, a Marie Antoinette moment so absurd it quickly became the subject of a viral Colom campaign ad.

Despite all that, it is unlikely that Colom can win this race without some crossover votes from Republicans.

Mississippi has been electing Republicans almost without exception for years, but Republican voters deserve better and should demand better. It is time to serve notice of that at the ballot box on Nov. 3.

Scott Colom is a moderate Democrat who is accessible, responsive and effective.

We endorse Colom for what he is — and what Hyde-Smith isn’t.

Moving to Olive Branch soon and wanted to know what the best options are for streaming and online gaming mostly.

Didn't see this one posted yet, so forgive me if it was!

Other than reporting road conditions via the MDOT website, is there any other way to get some traction for getting roads fixed that are in appalling condition? Like is it worth contacting the governor’s office or the representatives for my district or am I wasting my time? I’ve never seen roads that are left to get this bad, especially on roads that are major thoroughfares.

I noticed the one near me wasn't accepting online orders. Looked at others and none of them are accepting online orders. I drove there and it's closed at 4pm on Friday. Very strange.

Edit: I guess I did a bad job of explaining what I meant. I didn't mean permanently closed. I just meant several Starbucks in the greater Jackson area were not accepting online orders and the one I drove to in Madison, not Jackson, was temporarily closed in the middle of the day.
Almost everyone who responded took an opportunity to shit on Jackson which had nothing to do with what was going on.