Mississippi

Biomass Company Request to Scale Up in Gloster Denied

Published

11 months ago

April 15, 2025

Biomass Company Request to Scale Up in Gloster Denied

JACKSON, Miss.—A Mississippi permit board rejected global biomass manufacturer Drax’s bid to scale up production in a southwest Mississippi town, delivering a victory to residents who blame the company for worsening air quality in the area.

After nearly four hours of deliberations, Mississippi’s Environmental Quality Permit Board in Jackson denied Drax’s request to reclassify its Gloster, Miss., plant as a “major” source of hazardous air pollutants, or HAPs. The change would have raised the threshold for harmful emissions authorized at the facility, which has previously been cited for multiple air pollution violations.

Five board members voted against the new permit and one member abstained.

“Today, we’re denying these requests,” Permit Board Chairman Doug Mann said at the April 8 hearing. “We encourage (Drax) to continue to work with (Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality) staff to monitor those chemicals … and keep them out of the environment.”

Boasting a formidable presence in the southeastern United States, United Kingdom-based Drax produces wood pellets from local forests used to generate electricity—a process that releases dust particles and various hazardous substances like acrolein and methanol. The company has touted its product as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, though growing evidence suggests the production and burning of wood pellets yields more climate-warming emissions on a cumulative basis.

Since 2016, when Drax opened its facility on the fringes of downtown Gloster, residents have reported a range of respiratory illnesses and other health problems that they insist stem from the plant’s operations. Local organizers and advocates have held numerous events over the years to highlight conditions in the town, with some even traveling to the UK to meet with top Drax executives and demand reforms to their overseas business practices.

Residents used last week’s permit board meeting as another opportunity to underscore their predicament, claiming emissions from the Drax facility have made their town unsafe.

“I can’t walk from my bathroom to my bedroom because I can’t breathe,” Carmella Causey, a Gloster resident with a portable oxygen concentrator, said in a statement to the permit board. “It does not make sense that we are being killed in our community in broad daylight by an object that we can’t see.”

Local advocates, meanwhile, accused Drax of flouting environmental standards and exposing vulnerable Mississippians to dangerous pollutants for the sake of its bottom line.

“This industry has shown … that they don’t care about the law,” Katherine Egland, co-founder of the local environmental justice group EEECHO, said during the meeting. “They’re nothing but a bunch of well-subsidized corporate assassins who readily put profit over people.”

Drax representatives at the meeting said they simply want to bring production in line with what their current operating permit allows. This would require being reclassified as a major HAP source in Mississippi, one executive explained.

“With the increased (emissions) limits, we could increase production, but not above whatever the permit limits,” Brad Mayhew, vice president of Drax’s southern operations, told the permit board on April 8.

The Mississippi Free Press reached out to Drax for comment after the meeting, but did not hear back by press time.

Since 2016, Mississippi regulatory agencies have fined Drax three times for emissions-related violations, including a $2.5 million fine in 2020 that represents one of the largest Clean Air Act penalties in state history. A 2024 investigation from the Land and Climate Review also found that its U.S. facilities have broken environmental regulations more than 11,000 times since 2014.

Despite this track record and the outcome of last week’s hearing, the permit board indicated that it might revisit Drax’s request down the road if the plant can keep emissions in check.

“This is a rapidly developing industry,” Mann said following the vote. “Hopefully, in the near future, there will be ways to mitigate all of these HAPs and other bad things that the process generates.”

Speaking with the Mississippi Free Press on April 10, Egland said advocates will use the board’s decision to continue raising awareness about Drax and pressure lawmakers to take a stand against the company. She bristled at the idea that Drax should be granted more leeway with emissions just because it belongs to an “emerging industry.”

“We don’t think that our Mississippi residents should be pawns in an experimental (process),” Egland concluded. “We should not be suffering because they are on a learning curve.”

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Mississippi

Couple sentenced for selling faulty fire extinguishers to Mississippi daycares, businesses – SuperTalk Mississippi

Published

8 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Couple sentenced for selling faulty fire extinguishers to Mississippi daycares, businesses – SuperTalk Mississippi

The Smith County couple who knowingly sold faulty fire alarms to daycares and other commercial businesses across the state will spend time behind bars.

Daniel and Sherri Finnegan, the owners of Finnegan Fire Safety Equipment, entered guilty pleas on Tuesday in connection with the fraud scheme. Daniel Finnegan will spend seven years in prison, while his spouse will be locked up for one year. Officials report that the plea agreements encompass charges filed in both Rankin and Madison counties, where 12 charges have been filed against each defendant stemming from six different cases.

The Finnegans were arrested in Aug. 2024 for selling and installing used fire suppression systems that did not work and were not tested before being placed into service, putting people at risk in the event of fire. The Mississippi Insurance Department reported that the couple targeted minority-owned businesses and owners who had a language barrier.

Originally, the duo was charged with 41 counts each of false pretense, along with 37 counts each of violations of the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code. Despite the pleas entered in Rankin and Madison Counties, the defendants still face an additional 31 fire prevention code violations and 37 false pretense charges that remain pending in 11 other counties.

“The investigation showed that more than $343,000 was paid directly to the couple by confirmed victims. It is important to note that this figure does not represent the full financial impact, as some financial documentation could not be obtained,” a statement from the Mississippi Insurance Department reads. “Furthermore, many victims incurred substantial additional costs to correct and remediate deficient installations and to bring fire protection systems into compliance.”

Restitution ordered for Daniel Finnegan totals $67,853.95, while Sherri Finnegan has to pay out $20,000.

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Mississippi

Former federal attorney faces arson charge after two fires in Fondren

Published

20 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Former federal attorney faces arson charge after two fires in Fondren

A former federal attorney was arrested and charged with arson for two fires in Jackson, Mississippi.
The fires damaged a building and a dumpster at the Yana Club of Mississippi, a recovery community nonprofit.
The suspect, George McDowell Yoder III, has a history of previous arrests and was suspended from practicing law in 2022.

A former federal attorney was arrested and charged with arson after a building and dumpster were set on fire Friday, Feb. 27, in the Fondren area of Jackson, authorities said.

Jackson Fire Department Chief of Investigations Charles Felton said firefighters responded around 12 a.m. Friday in reference to a reported building fire and dumpster fire at Yana Club of Mississippi located at 555 Hartsfield Street.

Felton said fire crews arrived and found two separate fires in the Fondren neighborhood that caused damage to the Yana Club and the dumpster.

No injuries were reported.

After the fires were extinguished, a fire investigator was called to the scene. Investigators spoke with Capitol Police, who had a suspect detained.

Felton said the Jackson Fire Department Arson Division arrested George McDowell Yoder III, a former federal attorney, and charged him with first-degree arson of Yana Club and third-degree arson of the dumpster.

In 2021, WDAM TV reported Yoder had been a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 2009 to 2011. Yoder also ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2016.

According to a 2023 article by the Laurel Leader Call, Yoder was arrested in 2021 for residential burglary and faced multiple charges from 2021 to 2023. Yoder was also arrested in 2023 for arson charges, the outlet reported.

Documents from the Supreme Court of Mississippi also indicate that Yoder was admitted to the practice of law in the state in 1999 but later suspended in 2022 from practicing law for three years.

Court records show Yoder was found to be accepting fees from clients, abandoning them and then failing to deposit their retainers into a trust account. Yoder “commingled” his personal money with those of his clients and performed little to no work on a Madison County criminal case he was hired to resolve.

Jackson fire officials also said that a fire did not occur Friday morning at The Pig & Pint, a barbecue business located next to Yana Club.

Yana Club of Mississippi, a nonprofit organization, is described via their Facebook page as a “recovery community” that serves individuals seeking help with addictions.

The organization confirmed at 10:23 a.m. Friday via a social media post that the Yana Club building will be closed due to damages sustained from the fire.

“Due to the safety of our members, we will be closed through the weekend,” the organization stated. “We are working with [the] fire department and insurance to determine the best course of action. The building is currently deemed unsafe for meetings to be held. We will be in touch with updates when we have them.”

Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Have a tip? Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.

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Mississippi

Renowned New York dance instructor visits Mississippi to recruit for summer program

Published

1 day ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Renowned New York dance instructor visits Mississippi to recruit for summer program

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) – A world-renowned dance instructor from New York visited Laurel Thursday to conduct a special class and do some recruiting for a prestigious summer dance program in the Big Apple.

Melanie Person, who is co-director of the Ailey School in New York, taught a master ballet class Thursday morning at Laurel Middle School.

It’s part of a three-day residency in the Magnolia State, organized by the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience in Meridian.

She’ll teach two other classes Friday in Meridian before hosting an audition Saturday for a prestigious summer dance program at the Ailey School.

“I typically tour in about six to eight cities in the U.S., and I recruit dancers to come to our summer intensive, so part of this weekend, in one of the classes, I will be accepting students to come to New York for our five-week summer intensive,” Person said.

“We accept the dancers we like, and we see if they are able to come. The decision to come to New York for the summer is a big undertaking for families, so we just hope that they can do it.”

Registration is required for that audition, which will be held at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience.

To do that, click HERE.

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