Mississippi

Mississippi’s Gaining a Competitive Edge, While Others Falter

Published

2 years ago

January 10, 2024

Mississippi Energy Institute’s Patrick Sullivan says the future looks bright for recruiting energy intensive business to the Magnolia State.

In 2008, then-Governor Haley Barbour in speaking on his ‘More Energy’ policy, said, “ten or fifteen years from now, companies looking to site facilities will not only ask about energy ‘What does it cost?’ but ‘Can we get it?’.” No one knew then how right he would be.

Ill-advised politicians in Washington D.C., Germany, England, California, New York, and elsewhere have taken one action after another to prevent development or cut back on large-scale, reliable energy sources, like natural gas, coal and nuclear. The result?

Electricity becomes too scarce and too expensive to support manufacturing and industrial growth. Energy costs get so high industrial output and the economy decline. And households and small businesses end up using an outsized share of their income to pay electricity and winter heating bills.

At a high level, it’s not complicated. When government policies effectively cut energy supplies without adequate replacements, trouble eventually follows.

Apparently, politicians in these places missed the first day of economics class – when the supply of something goes down, price goes up, and when demand exceeds supply on a critical good like energy, then chaos. There was no lesson on governments cleaning up the economic mess they cause.

Meanwhile, Mississippi and other like-minded states have stayed constant favoring policies that encourage development and investment in any and all energy sources to work together in a balanced system, including the infrastructure to support the vast delivery systems that gets it to where we need it. Good energy policies support greater supply with the primary goals of lower cost and greater reliability.

When Mississippians recharge our devices tonight, we’ll pay a lower rate than citizens in 39 other states, half what Californians will pay, and a third what Germans will pay. Why does this matter?

Mississippi stands to increase its presence in an ever-changing, technology-driven, energy-consuming global marketplace. Our state is on a constant quest to recruit private capital investment and, importantly, high-quality employers to offer more Mississippians the chance at a high-paying job.

Like you and me, companies despise paying unnecessarily high energy bills, so those companies requiring lots of energy naturally seek places where they can operate more profitably and minimize the risk of outages and shut downs. Mississippi’s excess supply and comparative low rates to the rest of the U.S. and the world give the state a competitive advantage as large energy-consuming industries, like metals, automotive, defense technology, and data storage consider new operations.

Now more than ever, whether they recognize it or not, other countries and states are steadily removing themselves from the competition due to overpriced energy and the heightened threat of supply shortages caused by their own policies.

Time will tell, but the future looks bright for recruiting energy intensive business to Mississippi. Of course, one reason could be we’ll have less of a struggle keeping the lights on.

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Mississippi

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

Published

3 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

15 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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