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Brett Favre Casts Shadow Over Mississippi Gubernatorial Race

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Brett Favre Casts Shadow Over Mississippi Gubernatorial Race


VICKSBURG, Miss. — Brandon Presley mentioned Brett Favre’s name. An overwhelmingly Black group of voters gathered inside Medgar, and Angela Scott Foundation’s headquarters on Thursday and responded with near-universal nods and one “that’s right.”

This was the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s first campaign stop after Wednesday night’s debate with Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who finds himself in an unusually close race in the deep red state that hasn’t had a Democratic hold the state’s highest office in two decades. 

“One of the things that got me into this race was that I had been working on getting running water for a family in Leflore County,” Presley told Front Office Sports. “They were catching rainwater in a boat so they could flush their toilets. It took us over a year to get that money so they could get some basic water service, but these jokers like Brett Favre can snap their fingers and get $5 million for a volleyball court. It just made me sick to my stomach. I hate the good ol’ boy network.”

Favre is still a somewhat beloved figure in his home state, where he was a prep football standout at Kiln before his legend grew at the University of Southern Mississippi en route to a Hall of Fame NFL career. Earlier in the campaign, Presley referred to Favre more as an “NFL star” or “celebrity athlete.” But Presley mentioned Favre three times during the only debate Reeves agreed to on Wednesday. 

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Presley has made the largest public corruption scandal in Mississippi history — and Favre’s alleged involvement — one of his top talking points along with Medicaid expansion. 

”I think those are the two issues that voters are going to have on their minds on election day,” said Presley, a cousin of Elvis Presley, who is in his fourth term as a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission. “Medicaid expansion is a proactive step to get healthcare to 230,000 working people, but corruption also has people here mad as hell.”

Favre is one of 47 defendants in the lawsuit filed by the Mississippi Department of Human Services as it seeks to recoup at least $77 million of misappropriated federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, money that is supposed to aid the poorest people inside the poorest state in the country. 

About $8 million of those TANF funds were directed to Favre and his pet projects, including about $5 million for a volleyball center at his alma mater and where his daughter played the sport at the time. The TANF funds for the volleyball center the Favre lobbied then-Gov. Phil Bryant and others were funneled to the Southern Miss Athletic Foundation, which is also a defendant in the MDHS civil case. 

Favre has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged criminally. 

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Dale, who declined to reveal his last name, told FOS that the public corruption scandal is the “major” reason Black voters like himself are voting for Presley — even if Reeves wasn’t directly involved in it as governor. 

“They knew what they were doing from the start,” Dale said after Presley’s stump speech. “Even though at the time that Tate was the lieutenant governor and Phil Bryant was the governor, they should have stood up for what was right for Mississippi, what was right by the law, and not look toward helping their rich friends and their rich buddies.”

Reeves served as Mississippi’s treasurer and then lieutenant governor, a stint that occurred as the TANF scandal played out. It wasn’t until after Mississippi State Auditor Shad White initiated an investigation in 2019 — after then-Gov. Bryant alerted White’s office of the possibility of the TANF funds being misspent — which led to a series of criminal indictments for those involved in the scheme, including John Davis, who led MDHS at the time. 

“You would have to believe in time travel to believe that I was involved in the TANF scandal,” Reeves said during the debate. “The fact of the matter is, it all happened before I was governor, between 2015 and 2019. Brandon Presley knows that, but just like he’ll lie about my family, he’ll lie about me; he’ll lie about everything.”

Presley countered with the firing last year of Brad Pigott, the former U.S. Attorney who oversaw the lawsuit originally.

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“You fired him when he got a little too close to your buddies, … a little too close to those people in your inner circle,” Presley said. 

Presley also took a prop out of his jacket pocket during the debate, a printout of text messages that Reeves’ campaign released weeks ago. Reeves’ brother, Todd, messaged White, “Brett has done nothing wrong,” and he was repaying the $1.1 million of TANF funds Favre received for appearances he didn’t do “from his own good will.”

FOS left messages with Reeve’s campaign and the governor’s office spokespeople seeking comment for this story, but they did not return the messages.

There hasn’t been a full reckoning regarding the TANF scandal. Davis is one of just two state officials charged by authorities. The lawsuit has progressed slowly, and they will not depose Favre until next month. So far, only a fraction of the TANF funds have been recovered. The GOP-led state legislature hasn’t called a single hearing on the matter. 

“Whether you believe Reeves is involved or not, his name has been thrown into this,” said Greta Kemp Martin, the Democratic candidate running for Mississippi attorney general. ”His brother’s name has been thrown in. Why is Reeves calling the shots on who is running the investigation? Why is he the one that hired [the outside law firm] Jones Walker? Why is he the one that fired Brad Pigott? Why is the AG’s office not handling the hiring and firing of outside counsel?”

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Kemp Martin, whose incumbent opponent Lynn Fitch refused to debate her, told FOS that the welfare scandal has been a significant driver for those seeking statewide office this election cycle. Like others in Mississippi politics, Kemp Martin said Presley’s outreach to Black voters — 70% of who didn’t vote in 2019  — could prove to be the difference come Tuesday. 

This is the first statewide election since the state legislature finally eliminated the Jim Crow-era statute that mandated that a candidate not only win the popular vote but also the majority of Mississippi’s 122 House districts. But another law put on the books back in 1890 — which permanently bans many convicted felons from voting — is still in place, something that impacts about 16% of Mississippi’s Black population. 

“Absolutely voter manipulation and voter suppression still exists,” Shawn Jackson, a member of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, told FOS. “We are factoring it in. We got to turn out Tuesday. We have to keep turning out. 

“I think timing is the biggest force [for Presley]. The wind is at his back. When you elect the wrong people, corruption can keep going. I believe incompetence has a short runway, and I think that runway is at its end.”



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Mississippi asks for execution date of man convicted in 1993 killing, lawyers plan to appeal case to SCOTUS

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Mississippi asks for execution date of man convicted in 1993 killing, lawyers plan to appeal case to SCOTUS


Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, is seeking an execution date for a convicted killer who has been on death row for 30 years, but his lawyer argues that the request is premature since the man plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Charles Ray Crawford, 58, was sentenced to death in connection with the 1993 kidnapping and killing of 20-year-old community college student Kristy Ray, according to The Associated Press.

During his 1994 trial, jurors pointed to a past rape conviction as an aggravating circumstance when they issued Crawford’s sentence, but his attorneys said Monday that they are appealing that conviction to the Supreme Court after a lower court ruled against them last week.

Crawford was arrested the day after Ray was kidnapped from her parents’ home and stabbed to death in Tippah County. Crawford told officers he had blacked out and did not remember killing her.

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Mississippi death row inmate Charles Ray Crawford, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994 in the 1993 kidnapping and killing of a community college student, 20-year-old Kristy Ray. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP)

He was arrested just days before his scheduled trial on a charge of assaulting another woman by hitting her over the head with a hammer.

The trial for the assault charge was delayed several months before he was convicted. In a separate trial, Crawford was found guilty in the rape of a 17-year-old girl who was friends with the victim of the hammer attack. The victims were at the same place during the attacks.

Crawford said he also blacked out during those incidents and did not remember committing the hammer assault or the rape.

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During the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital murder trial in Ray’s death, jurors found the rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the death sentence, according to court records.

PRO-TRUMP PRISON WARDEN ASKS BIDEN TO COMMUTE ALL DEATH SENTENCES BEFORE LEAVING

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During the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital murder trial, jurors found his prior rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the death sentence. (iStock)

In his latest federal appeal of the rape case, Crawford claimed his previous lawyers provided unconstitutionally ineffective assistance for an insanity defense. He received a mental evaluation at the state hospital, but the trial judge repeatedly refused to allow a psychiatrist or other mental health professional outside the state’s expert to help in Crawford’s defense, court records show.

On Friday, a majority of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Crawford’s appeal.

But the dissenting judges wrote that he received an “inadequately prepared and presented insanity defense” and that “it took years for a qualified physician to conduct a full evaluation of Crawford.” The dissenting judges quoted Dr. Siddhartha Nadkarni, a neurologist who examined Crawford.

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“Charles was laboring under such a defect of reason from his seizure disorder that he did not understand the nature and quality of his acts at the time of the crime,” Nadkarni wrote. “He is a severely brain-injured man (corroborated both by history and his neurological examination) who was essentially not present in any useful sense due to epileptic fits at the time of the crime.”

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Photo shows the gurney of an execution chamber. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

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Crawford’s case has already been appealed multiple times using various arguments, which is common in death penalty cases.

Hours after the federal appeals court denied Crawford’s latest appeal, Fitch filed documents urging the state Supreme Court to set a date for Crawford’s execution by lethal injection, claiming that “he has exhausted all state and federal remedies.”

However, the attorneys representing Crawford in the Mississippi Office of Post-Conviction Counsel filed documents on Monday stating that they plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s ruling.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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Mississippi Highway Patrol urging travel safety ahead of Thanksgiving

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Mississippi Highway Patrol urging travel safety ahead of Thanksgiving


The rest of the night will be calm. We’ll cool down into the mid to upper 50s overnight tonight. A big cold front will arrive on Thanksgiving, bringing a few showers. Temperatures will drop dramatically after the front passes. It will be much cooler by Friday! Frost will be possible this weekend. Here’s the latest forecast.



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Ole Miss football vs Mississippi State score prediction, scouting report in 2024 Egg Bowl

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Ole Miss football vs Mississippi State score prediction, scouting report in 2024 Egg Bowl


OXFORD — There’s always an added element of intensity in the Egg Bowl.

It will be important for Ole Miss football (8-3, 4-3) to find an extra gear against Mississippi State (2-9, 0-7 SEC) in Friday’s rivalry matchup (2:30 p.m., ABC). The Rebels are coming off a deflating loss at Florida that left Ole Miss’ College Football Playoff hopes hanging by a thread.

Mississippi State is slogging through a difficult year under first-year head coach Jeff Lebby. While first-year head coaches have fared surprisingly well in Egg Bowl games over the years, the Rebels will be heavy favorites at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Black Friday. The game is just the second Egg Bowl in eight years not to be played on Thanksgiving.

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Let’s dive into the matchup:

Why Jaxson Dart, Rebels’ offense should be able to extend drives

Usually defenses that force opposing into offenses into third-down situations fare well. For Mississippi State, completing the job on third down has been difficult.

The Bulldogs have allowed SEC opponents to convert on 70 of 147 third downs. That is 47.6%, and the worst mark in the SEC. Ole Miss’ defense, by comparison, is No. 5 in the SEC at 32%.

More broadly, the Bulldogs’ defense has been getting gashed in SEC play. Mississippi State has allowed 40.7 points per SEC game. Even if star Ole Miss receiver Tre Harris is out because of an injury, the Rebels have a good opportunity to light up the scoreboard like they did in a 63-31 win at Arkansas.

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Can Ole Miss rack up the sacks, keep Dart upright?

Stats indicate Friday’s game will be easier for Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart than Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr.

Mississippi State has allowed 35 sacks against SEC opponents. The inverse also bodes poorly for the Bulldogs. Mississippi State is last in the SEC in sacks. In 11 SEC games, the Bulldogs have just eight.

To make it harder on Van Buren Jr., Ole Miss’ defense leads the SEC in sacks. Look for him to get pressured early and often by a ferocious defensive line. There could − and maybe should − be two or three Rebels with multiple sacks in the Egg Bowl.

Rebels rushers Princely Umanmielen and Suntarine Perkins are prime candidates to feast. They each have 10.5 sacks, which ties them for No. 6 in the nation.

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Will Ole Miss try to run up the score on the Bulldogs?

Aside from satisfying its fan base in a heated rivalry, Ole Miss has another reason to try to win big against Mississippi State. It’s the Rebels’ last chance to impress the College Football Playoff Committee.

Because of chaos in Week 13, the Rebels can still cling to an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff. While the Rebels will need other teams to lose Saturday, a dominating win Friday will only help their case.

On the flip side, even a narrow win against a Mississippi State team that hasn’t won a Power Four game this season would make it easier for the committee to exclude the Rebels.

Ole Miss football vs Mississippi State Egg Bowl score prediction

Ole Miss 42, Mississippi State 9: Each of the Rebels’ SEC games has resulted in one of two things: a close loss or blowout win. Expect the latter in the final regular season game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Ole Miss has the pass rush to create turnovers that will overwhelm an outmatched Bulldogs team.

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_

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