EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS | The Greenwood Commonwealth

Mississippi state Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, left, speaks at a news conference Wednesday, March 29, 2023, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., while surrounded by other members of the Legislative Black Caucus. Several caucus members denounced a vote by the Republican-led Senate to reject the nomination of Robert P. Taylor as Mississippi superintendent of education. Taylor would have been the second Black person to hold the job. (AP Photo/Emily Wagster Pettus)

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Rejection of Black educator angers some Mississippi senators
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS - Associated Press
Wed,03/29/23-8:03PM , 351 Reads
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's Republican-led Senate voted Wednesday against confirming veteran educator Robert P.
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Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, left, acknowledges the efforts of Senate Education Committee Vice Chairman David Blount, D-Jackson, center, and House Education Committee Vice Chairman Kent McCarty, R-Hattiesburg, to support public school education, but called for the continued efforts of educators, parents and business leaders to encourage lawmakers to secure yearly full funding for the public schools, Thursday, March 23, 2023, at a Mississippi Association of Educators news conference at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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Education advocates seek more money from Mississippi budget
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS - Associated Press
Fri,03/24/23-4:45PM , 498 Reads
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Top Mississippi lawmakers on Friday were still trying to decide how much money the state will spend on public schools during this election year, even as education advocates continued to push for a substantial increase.
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Mississippi state Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, asks a question during floor debate in the Senate Chamber at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., June 12, 2020. On Thursday, March 23, 2023, Polk killed a proposal to create a new ballot initiative process for the state. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

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Mississippi senator kills initiative plan, minus abortion
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS - Associated Press
Thu,03/23/23-1:20PM , 304 Reads
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi residents will continue being unable to bypass lawmakers and put policy proposals on statewide ballots because a key senator killed a plan Thursday to create a new initiative process.

The proposal would have let people petition on a wide range of issues, but not on abortion.
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A stack of absentee ballots wait to be processed by the Lee County Resolution Board at the Circuit Clerks Office in the Lee County Justice Center in Tupelo, Miss., on Nov. 3, 2020. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill Wednesday, March 22, 2023, that will set new restrictions on who can gather other people's absentee ballots. The bill will become law on July 1. (Thomas Wells/Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP, File)

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Mississippi sets tighter restrictions on absentee ballots
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS - Associated Press
Wed,03/22/23-5:52PM , 479 Reads
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi will set tighter restrictions on who can gather other people's absentee ballots, under a bill that Gov. Tate Reeves signed Wednesday.
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