Gulfport, Miss. (WXXV) –

Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann met with community leaders and government officials today in Gulfport to discuss the 2023 legislation session.

Hosemann said the legislature had more than $200 million allocated across the Mississippi Gulf Coast and will be available to spend July 1st.

Money will be used to fix harbors, create new roadways, and parking garages, and for education, and to overall regrow the Coast.

Lt. Gov. Hosemann says he’s excited for the economic growth and development that is happening on the Gulf Coast. “For example, in Gulfport, we’re building the ring-road just north of I-10 when you get on Highway 49 under I-10. Everybody knows that you go to Walmart, now we’ll have a road that goes all the way west to the next exit. That’s gonna open tens and dozens of acres for development.”

During the debriefing, Hosemann also shared that he’s ready for Mississippi to become the next leader in cybersecurity training.

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Pontotoc County, Miss. (Pontotoc Progress) – Mississippi Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (above, sixth from left) visited South Pontotoc Elementary School Monday afternoon (April 24) and announced the $100-million in additional funding for Mississippi schools, which was signed into law last Friday.

Hosemann also led a panel discussion about education with 11 South Pontotoc teachers and principals.

“All of our school districts have needs and I’m here today to ask you what the priorities are that you need, looking to the future,” Hosemann said. “I want to hear about the needs and problems you face every day and what we need to do to make it better.”

Topics and needs discussed included more resources for digital and print learning materials, input options to better motivate students to learn and pursue real life careers, and hiring more teachers assistants and class room counselors to help teachers and students deal with increasing emotional and mental behavioral problems that hinder classroom learning.

The $100-million in increased general funding will be distributed based on average daily enrollment.

Pontotoc County Superintendent of Education Dr. Brock Puckett said the county school system will receive approximately $800,000 from the education funding increase.

Other new legislation that was passed increases funding for the early learning collaboratives to $2,500 per full day student (increased from $1,250) and to $1,250 per half-day students (from $1,075); $9-million provided to community colleges and institutions of higher learning tot pay for dual enrollment and dual credit courses for 11th and 12th graders; and another bill formalizes the career coaching program through Accelerate Mississippi which helps steer high school students to high-demand, high-wage jobs.

The $12-million appropriation (up $8-million from last year) will add another 50 career coaches, which means the program will be in about 90 districts.

South Pontotoc educators who visited with Lt. Governor Hosemann included Dr. Brock Puckett, Laura Howard, Heather Corder, Randy Tutor, school board member Danny Robbins, Cassandra Brentner, Martin Rodgers, Dr. Brant Puckett, Autumn Ritchie, Emily Speck, Mark Vandiver, Jimmy Flake, and Mason Luther.

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Tupelo, Miss. (WTVA) – Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann stopped by the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo Monday morning to talk to many city leaders about what was passed in the past legislative session.

Hosemann also talked to them about what they want done.

The Lieutenant Governor commended the economic successes like cutting the state budget, eliminating debt and stockpiling funds for the future during his meeting with local leaders.

“We paid off 500 and 50 million dollars worth of debt . So, Mississippi is reducing its debt and building up its savings account and has a large rainy day fund with 700 million dollars in it,” Hosemann said.

Other successes Hosemann touted from his time as lieutenant governor include a historic teacher pay raise, the largest tax cut in state history and the largest infrastructure bill.

Your drive through the state could include passing more MDOT construction.

Road projects and site development for the next industry that chooses Mississippi to call home are on Lieutenant Governor Hosemann’s wish list.

The Lieutenant Governor believes that the bills Governor Tate Reeves signed into law, investing more than $2 billion towards transportation and infrastructure, will help residents of Northeast Mississippi.

” I want people to realize that we have programmed out for the next 3 years on infrastructure. We’re going to be building for at least the next 5 years,” Hosemann said. “Highway 15 will finally get 4 laned after all these years. So, we’re spending a lot of money on infrastructure particularly.”

Hoseman believes the future is bright for Mississippi.

“Mississippi has a really great future. Everything is positive for our state and it ought to be. We can compete with anybody, not just Alabama, we can compete with China!” Hosmann exclaimed.

During the 2023 legislative session, Hosemann is proposing a $270 million tax rebate for Mississippians, subsidizing school districts that want to adopt a modified calendar, expanding postpartum care for women in the state and supporting struggling local hospitals.

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Black Hawk, Miss. (Greenwood Commonwealth) – Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann visited Black Hawk and Summerfield Thursday afternoon to discuss next steps as the communities recover from an EF3 tornado that tore through on March 24.

About 20 community members and various city, county, state and federal officials met with Hosemann at the former site of the Black Hawk School and Black Hawk Independent Church.

Bobby Joe Alford, whose mother attended Black Hawk School and whose wife currently is in Black Hawk’s Homemaker’s Club, said he came by just to see the devastation.

He said he was one of the community members who helped make the school into a gathering place for the community later on and played music there for around a decade.

“They act like they want to rebuild it, but I don’t know,” Alford said.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency personnel listened as Alford and others discussed the damage done to the school.

Meanwhile, Hosemann assessed the situation.

“So, how are y’all doing?” he asked residents, offering his hand and introducing himself simply as “Delbert” before pointing out some rubble, noting that “somebody’ll get a nail in the foot” if the county isn’t able to get help to clear the rubble from roads and property.

He listened as homeowners explained their efforts to document their losses and advised them on the process.

The most important factor at this point in the disaster recovery process is for “people to come back,” Hosemann said.

“Now, when people are slightly relocated, they go through a natural phase of really being challenged, and it’s important to come back next week and the next week and the next week. It’s a hard process, and that doesn’t go away when we remove all of this,” he explained, motioning to the excavators that were clearing debris from County Road 235 as he spoke.

“There’s a grieving going on,” he added.

The state Legislature, at the end of its most recent session, appropriated $17 million, Hosemann said, to kickstart relief efforts in the areas affected by the tornadoes, included Rolling Fork and Amory in addition to Carroll County.

Currently, the state has allotted roughly $12 million to help schools affected by the tornadoes as well as funds for local hospitals and other institutions, including housing for displaced people. Hosemann said the first home, built under contract with the American Red Cross, went up in Rolling Fork last week.

Hosemann said the business of the next session of the Mississippi Legislature in January will be to appropriate more funds as needed, after the affected areas have been able to gather a correct estimate of what is available and what is still needed.

“We’re here, we’re staying and we’re coming back,” he assured those listening.

“Mississippi is one big neighborhood,” he said.

Hosemann explained that damages are first billed to FEMA and MEMA is expected to produce only 25% of the cost of damages. “The process right now is just to make sure MEMA is here,” he said.

David Shaw, an area coordinator for MEMA who was in Black Hawk on Thursday, said he has met with FEMA officials to discuss recovery efforts. Carlos Martinez, who works in disaster assistance with MEMA, has been coordinating shipments to recovery centers, which offer supplies to those affected by the disaster, volunteer efforts and any other issues homeowners or residents may encounter.

Ken Strachan, the mayor of North Carrollton and Carroll County’s emergency management director, said the focus now is ensuring that people register for disaster relief with FEMA. The deadline is May 25, and recovery centers in-clude J.Z. George High School.

So far, according to Strachan, 465 residents have filed applications. Emergency officials have also been traveling door to door to help those who are unable to travel. “Even if the application gets turned down,” Strachan said, “we can go back over the application, check it and maybe reapply.”

The community remains resilient, in part because of the faith-based volunteers helping to rebuild, he said.

“People are coming together,” he said. “We even had a fire department from Magee — and I thought, ‘Oh, you’re from Magee, Mississippi,’ but they were from McGehee, Arkansas. We’ve had people supplying generators, the Red Cross helping out with hotels and motels to house people, and we have had so many faith-based organizations.

“Last Saturday, we had a church out of Calhoun County, and the lady who was cooking just asked if everyone could pray while we were all gathered eating, and that’s what we’ll do.

“When we’re all gathered around in groups, like we are now,” he said, motioning to the groups of residents, personnel, and media gathered to speak with each other and Hosemann, “we’ll pray.”

Hosemann praised the strength of the community as well, noting efforts such as those of Becky Mitchell, who has been helping run a relief center at K&M Grocery at the corner of Mississippi 430 and Mississippi 17.

“I appreciate people like you around the state,” he said.

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McComb, Miss. (Enterprise Journal) – Six years ago, when President Donald Trump’s administration started asking state election officials to provide detailed information about registered voters, such as birth dates and Social Security numbers, Delbert Hosemann delivered a memorable response.

At the time Hosemann spoke, he was Mississippi’s secretary of state, whose office makes sure that elections are conducted properly.

Hosemann said he had not received such a letter from the Trump administration. But if he got one, he added, “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from.” Under his watch, he said, Mississippi was going to protect the privacy of its voters and run its own elections.

Two years later, voters promoted Hosemann to lieutenant governor, and he is running now for a second term in that job. Hosemann did not endorse Trump in 2017, which makes it all the more interesting to see who has recently jumped into the Gulf of Mexico.

It was Hosemann, and he swam all the way around Florida to Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, where the lieutenant governor hosted a fundraiser two weeks ago.

Jackson, Miss. (WDAM) – Nearly 650 of the more than 700 students eligible to graduate are participating in the 95th annual Commencement Ceremony at Jones College.

This year, graduates and guests will hear from Miss. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann as the keynote speaker.

The graduation ceremony will be held on Friday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m., on the North Lawn of Jones Hall with plans to move the event to the A.B. Howard/Bobcat Gymnasium if there is inclement weather.

This ceremony will also mark the first class of the new Middle College Program at Laurel High School with Laurel High School students earning both their high school diploma and an associate degree from Jones College. These students include:

• Micah Evyn Johnson Hill
• Zipporah Kenzie Husband
• Gabrielle E. Peters
• Leslie Santiago
• Milan Shanks
• Alayna Kathleen Smith
• Aubreney Alexis Stenson
• Amiah White

These students finished their high school requirements simultaneously while attending college courses to complete a two-year degree.

Seating will be first come first serve with a large crowd expected to support graduates participating in the ceremony. Graduates will receive either an associate in arts degree, an associate in applied science degree, a technical certificate or a career certificate.

To watch the ceremony live, check the website HERE.

For questions specifically regarding the 2023 graduation ceremony, please contact Kacie Birdsong at 601-477-4137.

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Jackson, Miss. (WJTV) – Lieutenant governor candidate Chris McDaniel has reported returning legally questionable large donations from a Virginia dark-money nonprofit, and shutting down his PAC through which the donations flowed to his campaign.

McDaniel’s Hold the Line PAC has reported it returned $460,000 to the American Exceptionalism Institute nonprofit corporation and closed out the PAC. This came days after McDaniel’s campaign account returned $465,000 to Hold the Line.

McDaniel’s Hold the Line PAC campaign finance public filings and subsequent explanations and amended reports have been confounding. Hold the Line initially failed to list the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars and its reports have had amounts and dates that don’t add up. For instance, Hold the Line reported having raised hundreds of thousands of dollars the year before McDaniel legally registered it with the secretary of state’s office, and failed to list the source of that money as required by law.

McDaniel’s PAC was the largest contributor to his lieutenant governor campaign, donating $465,000 of the $710,000 his campaign reported raising last year.

Oddly, in some of its latest filings, Hold the Line reported it returned $460,000 to American Exceptionalism Institute on the same day it received the second of two donations of $237,500 from AEI, in February. But McDaniel’s campaign had reported it received a total of $465,000 from Hold the Line in January, before the PAC would have had that much money — primarily coming from AEI — per its own reports.

When questioned about this, McDaniel’s camp declined comment, but filed an amended report changing the date of the second donation to mid-January. Even with multiple amended reports, it appears McDaniel’s PAC received $475,000 from AEI but returned only $460,000 to the nonprofit corporation.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s campaign has a complaint pending with the attorney general’s office that includes claims that McDaniel’s PAC and campaign violated Mississippi law, which prohibits a corporation from donating more than $1,000 in a single year to a candidate or PAC and requires listing of sources of donations.

Hosemann campaign adviser Casey Phillips in a statement said: “Chris McDaniel’s campaign is based on a lie, staffed with Democrat operatives, and funded with illegal money. Election integrity includes campaign finance transparency. McDaniel would know that if he bothered to show up to vote when the Senate passed the election security package. Instead, he is blatantly disregarding Mississippi’s election laws.”

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office, asked for comment on Hosemann’s campaign finance complaint, said only, “We are reviewing it.”

A Mississippi Today article in February pointed out McDaniel’s financial reports for his campaign and PAC left voters in the dark about the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars and raised questions about whether donations violated state law.

McDaniel, a four-term state senator, has vocally called for stricter campaign finance laws and more transparency in the sources of campaign money. But when questioned about his campaign and PAC finances, he said he knows scant details about them, has deferred questions to staffers and chalked up any discrepancies to “clerical errors.”

McDaniel initially deferred questions to the Rev. Dan Carr, a pastor and political consultant from Gulfport listed as treasurer of the Hold the Line PAC. Carr, mostly by text messages, gave a series of confusing and conflicting statements that never explained what the clerical errors were, or the source of the large amount of unaccounted for donations to Hold the Line.

McDaniel’s campaign last month said that U.S. Supreme Court rulings on federal campaign finance issues nullify Mississippi’s law banning corporate contributions over $1,000. But a spokeswoman said McDaniel’s campaign and PAC would be returning American Exceptionalism Institute donations “to avoid a protracted legal fight with the establishment.”

Hosemann filed his campaign finance complaint against McDaniel last month with the secretary of state’s office. Records show the secretary of state’s office, citing its lack of investigative and prosecutorial authority, forwarded the complaint to the criminal investigations division of the attorney general’s office.

An intentional violation of the campaign finance disclosure law is a misdemeanor with a
maximum penalty of $3,000, six months imprisonment, or both. But in Mississippi, campaign finance laws are seldom enforced, and alleged violations seldom investigated or prosecuted.

Hosemann, former secretary of state, is seeking a second and final term as lieutenant governor overseeing the state Senate. McDaniel is a four-term state senator who has run twice unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate.

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Magee, Miss. (Magee News) – Almost every Tuesday at noon during the 2023 Legislative Session, a Mississippi student choir gathered in the Capitol Rotunda to perform a selection of acapella music. Lawmakers, staff, visitors, and others gathered at the rails at all levels of the building to listen to the music echoing throughout the building.

The invitation to sing came from Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, who plans to make the performances an annual occurrence.

“Hearing the voices of the future of Mississippi in our Capitol is a good reminder of why we are all here during Session—to make the State a better place for our young people. These visits also provided a good opportunity for students to learn about the Capitol and lawmaking process,” said Hosemann, who plans to invite student choirs again next Session.

Choirs performing during the 2023 Legislative Session represented Jim Hill High School (Jackson Public Schools), the Mississippi School for the Arts, Brandon High School, Newton County High School, Madison Central High School, Northwest Rankin High School, Mississippi Valley State University, Vicksburg Warren School District, Jackson State University, Clinton High School, and Pearl High School.

Choir directors who may be interested in scheduling a performance at the Capitol during Session may e-mail ltgov@senate.ms.gov for more details in the fall.

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Vicksburg, Miss. (Vicksburg Post) – Visitors to the Vicksburg National Military Park will soon have a better understanding of the park and the area’s Civil War history under a plan to build an interpretive center on the Siege of Vicksburg and the park.

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann at a Wednesday press conference in Vicksburg announced the Legislature approved $10 million for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to build the center.

“We’ll be acquiring the land with the first $10 million and doing all the planning that goes for it, and we’ll have to raise — by my estimates  — about $80 million by the time we get through building it,” Hosemann said after the press conference. “I want it to be the premier place in the country for people to look back on what went on in the Civil War.”

Bess Averett, executive director of Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign, said the proposed center will be an asset for Vicksburg.

“What we have seen in other communities that have a national park is when the private sector and the state and the local government get together and invest in that asset we see tremendous returns and the tourism experience and the visitor experience is enhanced,” she said. “So we’re really duplicating a method that’s been successful in other places and trying to learn how can we take better advantage of it.”

Averette echoed Hosemann’s statements, calling the proposed interpretive center an amazing asset in the city. She said the state of Mississippi and private foundations have gotten behind the project.

Averett said the Friends group has been working on the project for about 10 years and officially began some of the formal feasibility and concept studies about four years ago.

She said more work is ahead.

“There are some agreements that need to be in place; the idea is this facility would be constructed and operated and owned by the state of Mississippi, but there would be a co-management with the park service, the Friends group and the state,” she said. “All of that takes a little bit of time to work out. We’re in that process now, but it’s all very exciting for Vicksburg.”

“We’re very eager to see this through to enhance the visitor experience.”

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Mar-a-Lago, Fla. (NTD News) – As reactions are still pouring in on the unprecedented case against former President Donald Trump, Mississippi Lieutenant Gov. Delbert Hosemann shares with NTD his perspective on Trump’s indictment. But first, let’s hear about how his state is coping following deadly tornadoes over the past week.

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