Visitation will be held on Monday, June 17, 2024 from 1:00 P.M. until 3:00 P.M. at Colonial Chapel Funeral Home in Magee. Funeral services will be held on Monday, June 17, 2024 at 3:00 P.M. at Colonial Chapel Funeral Home in Magee. Burial will follow in Magee City Cemetery in Magee, Mississippi.  Bro. Joe Metts will officiate. Colonial Chapel Funeral Home of Magee is in charge of arrangements. 601-849-5031

 Jerry worked at Cumberland’s Body Shop most of his adult life. He loved hunting, fishing, dirt track racing, camping, and being outdoors. Jerry loved his family and the love of his life, his wife, Carol Gray.

 He was preceded in death by his parents, Velton and Lillie Mae Gray; brother, Danny Gray;  sister, Sheila Gray Henry; brother-in-law, Steve  Bridges; paternal grandparents, Odell Gray and Winnie Cook; maternal grandparents, Earl and Cammie  Byrd.

 Survivors include his wife, Carol Jones Gray; son, Michael  Dickey (Deidra);  daughters, Dawn  Gray, Cherie Overby (Jeffrey) and Brittany Miller  (Rob Elmore);  grandchildren, Hunter  Pope, Kory  Gray, Kannon Magee, Abbigail  Pope, Mayleigh  Pope, Sawyer  Overby, Waylon Overby, Chloe  Miller, Layla Miller, Scarlet  Miller and Hunter  Dickey;  brother, Odell Gray (Kim);  sister, Lynn Bridges; aunts, Brenda Brandon (Jerry)and Betty Carolyn Bland; a host of nieces, nephews, and friends.

 Pallbearers will be Levi Gray, Hunter Pope, P`nut Kennedy, Kevin Kennedy, Joe Boyle, and Joseph Boyle.

 An online guestbook may be signed at www.colonialchapelmageemendenhall.com

Actions by the US Department of Justice will delay or potentially eliminate the ability to provide water rate relief to the estimated 15,000 households served by JXN Water which currently receive SNAP benefits.

JACKSON, Miss., June 15, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The US Department of Justice (US DOJ) and the Mississippi Attorney General filed notices of appeal from the order issued by US Federal District Judge Henry T. Wingate’s on April 16, 2024, directing the United States and the State of Mississippi to confidentially disclose Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) information to the Interim Third-Party Manager (ITPM).

The SNAP data is needed by the ITPM to identify customers that are eligible to be included in the new SNAP Customer Classification implemented with the new rate structure effective on February 1, 2024. The rate for customers in the SNAP Customer Classification includes a reduced availability fee, ensuring water and sewer bills can be paid by all. It will also allow the ITPM to avoid spending significant amounts of ratepayer money seeking to collect bills which these customers are simply unable to pay.

Judge Wingate’s order found the rate structure associated with the ITPM’s SNAP Customer Classification satisfied the criteria under federal statute for the confidential release of the SNAP recipients’ names and addresses so that they could be categorically placed in the SNAP Customer Classification without the need for extensive administrative efforts on the part of the ITPM and without requiring customers endure an additional burdensome application process to be appropriately included in the SNAP Customer Classification.

For reasons we simply don’t understand, the US Department of Justice disagrees that the ITPM’s rate schedule constitutes a federal assistance program under the SNAP statute and, accordingly, object to the State of Mississippi giving the ITPM the list (to be used in strict confidence).

The US Department of Justice has doubled down by threatening to withdraw SNAP benefits for the entire state if the State complies with Judge Wingate’s order. That threat has forced the Mississippi Attorney General to also appeal Judge Wingate’s order. The ITPM is an officer of Judge Wingate’s court, and his January 2024 rate schedule (including the SNAP Customer Classification rate schedule) easily qualifies as a federal assistance program. There is no good reason that DOJ can’t acquiesce and allow the State to share the list with the ITPM.

“While we would have preferred that Mississippi’s Attorney General not appeal Judge Wingate’s order, we recognize that the US DOJ has put them between a rock and a hard place given their threat to punish all SNAP recipients in Mississippi if the State gives the ITPM the Jackson area SNAP list,” said ITPM Ted Henifin.

These actions by the US Department of Justice will delay or potentially eliminate the ability to provide water rate relief to the estimated 15,000 households served by JXN Water which currently receive SNAP benefits. Under the ITPM’s rate structure, SNAP recipients would save $30 per month and save the ITPM untold collection costs.

The DOJ’s misguided opposition to the confidential use of SNAP recipient’s names and addresses to provide significant water rate assistance is inexplicable and disheartening given the economic challenges the beneficiaries face (Mississippi has the lowest per capita income in the nation and this rate relief is for residents of the City of Jackson, a community with a minority population of over 80 percent).

DOJ’s ill-advised and unnecessary opposition is particularly troubling given the water-related suffering these residents have endured for years.

ABOUT JXN WATER

Committed to providing safe, reliable drinking water and collecting and cleaning wastewater before it returns to our local waterways, JXN Water is the Mississippi corporation led by an Interim Third-Party Manager to achieve the objectives of the federal stipulated orders that re-establish the entire water system.

Media Contact

Ameerah Palacios, JXN Water, 1 5022435803, [email protected], www.JXNwater.com

SOURCE JXN Water

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said a second suspect has been arrested in connection to the abduction and death of a four-year-old girl in Mississippi.

Wade told WJTV 12 News that the female suspect, 32-year-old Victoria Cox, is an acquaintance of 36-year-old Daniel Callihan, who was captured on Thursday, June 13 in Jackson.

“She was arrested at 3880 I-55 South, the OYO hotel, here in South Jackson. Of course, it was a collaborative effort, again, between the FBI Task Force, Jackson PD, U.S. Marshal’s and Rankin County Sheriff’s Department,” the police chief said.

Jackson police said Cox was charged with capital murder and sexual assault. She was transferred to the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said his investigators plan to question Cox.

Callihan was the suspect at the center of an Amber Alert in Louisiana before he was arrested on Boozier Drive.

According to Wade, 4-year-old Erin Brunett was found deceased in a wooded area. Her sister, 6-year-old Jalie Brunett, was taken to a Jackson hospital for treatment.

The Jackson police chief said there was evidence of possible human trafficking at the location on Boozier Drive, including small animal cages. Wade said Jackson police have contacted the Human Trafficking Divisions of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) and Hinds County to assess the scene.

Authorities said the Amber Alert was issued for the two girls, who were abducted after their mother was killed in Loranger, Louisiana, on Thursday.

Edwards said 35-year-old Callie Brunett was found dead by her father on the floor of her bedroom inside her locked mobile home on North Cooper Road after having been reported missing by her parents 24 hours earlier. They had last spoken to her Tuesday morning.

Callihan is suspected of killing Callie Brunett. Investigators told the Associated Press the two had dated.

Wade said he did not believe Callihan was the father of the two children. Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said Callihan is being held in the Rankin County Jail on a courtesy hold.

WJTV 12 News reached out to the FBI in Jackson about the case. They said, “The FBI is dedicating all available resources and tools at its disposal to this investigation, including Victim Services personnel, who are working closely with the survivors of this unspeakable tragedy.”

Anyone with additional information about the incident can contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.