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Where is LeeBeth, the massive great white shark that swam off Mississippi Coast?

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Where is LeeBeth, the massive great white shark that swam off Mississippi Coast?



‘I feel like if we have a dead whale this spring she might be on it. That shark is so large, there’s only a few things she’s interested in (eating) and it has to be large.’

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A 14-foot, 2,600-pound great white shark that was caught and released off the coast of South Carolina was tracked for months with a GPS tag that was placed on her. She made an incredible journey to Mexico and then turned back, passed by the Mississippi Coast and swam to Nova Scotia where her GPS unit stopped transmitting.

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It was a journey that was never before documented and she made headlines everywhere she went.

Will we ever hear from her again?

“The last time we heard from her was in October,” said Megan Winton, research scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. “She was still in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

“She spent months in that area, and October is when sharks that are in Canada begin to move. That’s the last time we heard from her.”

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How great white shark LeeBeth is tracked

LeeBeth was caught in December 2023 by Ed Young, pastor of the Dallas-Fort Worth mega-church Fellowship Church. Young was fishing with Chip Michalove of Outcast Sport Fishing based in South Carolina. Young named the shark after his daughter who died in 2021.

LeeBeth was outfitted with data collection devices including a GPS tag that transmitted her location whenever she breached the surface. There’s also a device that collects data such as depths that will at some point release, float to the surface and transmit the recorded data.

The final device is an acoustic transmitter. It will communicate whenever it nears acoustic receivers that are placed in the water by various research groups. Its life expectancy is 10 years.

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The battery life in the GPS tag is generally about a year, but LeeBeth breached the surface so often that she transmitted her locations far more than other tagged great white sharks. That probably reduced the life-span of the battery.

“It’s likely the battery has died at this point,” Winton said. “She was pinging like crazy.”

Big sharks need big meals

LeeBeth’s travels could be followed through the AWSC Sharktivity app. Michalove, who has helped AWSC tag many great white sharks including LeeBeth, followed her closely.

“When she stopped pinging, I felt like I was gut-punched,” Michalove said. “She was like a kid to me.”

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Even though LeeBeth’s GPS transmitter hasn’t sent a signal in months, Michalove said there’s a chance he’ll see her again. He said she likely has a set pattern of migration and will be off the coast of South Carolina this spring.

“I’ve studied her track over and over just trying to figure her path,” Michalove said. “I’m pretty confident I’ve got her down.

“I feel like if we have a dead whale this spring, she might be on it. That shark is so large, there’s only a few things she’s interested in (eating) and it has to be large. Fingers crossed I see her again and sooner than later. And, hopefully, not while I’m swimming.”

Why is LeeBeth being tracked?

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy studies the protected sharks. Winton said decades ago, the great white population was down about 80% from historic levels. Through protections, the population appears to be rebounding.

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Winton said the group mainly focuses on the Cape Cod area. She said that’s because rebounding seal populations in that area are attracting the sharks in summer to feed on them and place the sharks near people.

With Cape Cod becoming a hotspot for white shark activity, Winton said the data collected from tagged sharks helps the group with outreach and education on managing interactions between humans and sharks.

As far as education and outreach go, LeeBeth has been instrumental due to her record-breaking travel from Mexico to Canada and the attention she has drawn.

“She’s quite the ambassador,” Winton said. “She has been such an interesting shark to follow.”

Have we heard the last from LeeBeth?

Maybe. Maybe not.

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LeeBeth was tracked for thousands of miles as she traveled to the Gulf of Mexico where she appears to spend winters feeding on giant squid and then to the Gulf of St. Lawrence north of Nova Scotia where she spends summers feeding on seals. Last winter’s trek took her 20 miles south of Biloxi.

Both Winton and Michalove said they think she’s back in the Gulf of Mexico right now. While that is most likely true, knowing she’s in the Gulf isn’t quite as exciting as seeing her exact locations on a map in real time.

Although not the same, the acoustic transmitter may provide insight into her whereabouts. When she swims near an acoustic receiver, the units communicate. Some automatically transmit the detection, but most store the information and need to be pulled up periodically to download it.

“Hopefully we’ll be hearing from LeeBeth for the next nine years,” Winton said.

And there’s also the remote possibility that Michalove could catch her again and outfit her with a new GPS unit.

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“The ocean is enormous and the odds are against us, but I’ve had recaptures before,” Michalove said.

Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.



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Mississippi

Ever wonder what the most popular bourbon is in Mississippi? We have the Top 10 list

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Ever wonder what the most popular bourbon is in Mississippi? We have the Top 10 list


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  • Despite a surge in local distilleries, the top-selling bourbons in Mississippi are produced out of state.
  • Jack Daniels Black Label leads the pack as the most popular bourbon in Mississippi, according to state revenue data.
  • Familiar names like Jim Beam, Evan Williams, and Maker’s Mark round out the top five best-selling bourbons.
  • While not all listed may be considered true bourbons by connoisseurs, they are categorized as such by Mississippi for sales purposes.

Mississippi continues to get into the bourbon business with places such as Rich Grain in Canton and Old Soul, a member of the Cathead family, in Jackson jumping into the business.

There are even plans for a new distillery in Rosedale in the Mississippi Delta as Jack White and his wife Elizabeth are pouring $17 million to redevelop historic buildings to create Rosedale Distilling Company.

A small distillery on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Crittenden Distillery, has become known as the only Mississippi bourbon that is 100% Mississippi made and it is the top seller if Mississippi as a Mississippi bourbon.

But these are not the top sellers of bourbon overall in the state.

The best selling bourbons aren’t necessarily the most sought after like a Pappy Van Winkle or EH Taylor which can be hard to find and in many cases very expensive.

According to the Mississippi Department of Revenue, here are the top 10 bourbons sold in Mississippi in January 2025. All of these brands have multiple versions of their products. These are the best-selling in Mississippi.

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Note that some on the list might not be considered bourbons by some purists, but the state of Mississippi classifies these together as bourbons.

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1. Jack Daniels Black Label

This is made at the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. It is considered a sipping whiskey at 80 proof and sells for around $25.

2. Jim Beam

This is made at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. It is an 80-proof whiskey and can be bought for around $20. It is usually a 4-year-old whiskey.

3. Evan Williams Black Label

This is made at Heaven Hill distillery in Louisville. It is a non-age stated whiskey and bottled at 86 proof. It can be purchased for around $20.

4. Maker’s Mark

Maker’s Mark is made at the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. It’s bottled at 90 proof and can be purchased for around $25.

5. Woodford Reserve

Woodford Reserve is made at the Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles, Kentucky. It is bottled at 90 proof and can be purchased for $25-$30.

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6. Four Roses

This is made at the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Four Roses is bottle at 80 proof and can be purchased for around $20.

7. Gentleman Jack

Gentleman Jack is made at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. It is 80 proof and can be purchased for around $20.

8. Kentucky Tavern

Kentucky Tavern bourbon is made at the Barton Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. The Sazerac Company, which also owns Buffalo Trace, owns the brand. It is 80 proof and can be purchased for around $20.

9. George Dickel

George Dickel is made at the Cascade Hollow Distillery in Tullahoma, Tennessee. It is bottled at 80 proof and can be bought for around $20.

10. Wild Turkey 101

Wild Turkey is made at the Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. It is bottled at 80 proof and can be bought for around $20.

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Ross Reily is a writer for the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.



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ICE arrests 16 illegal migrants caught fleeing out back of Mississippi business during raid

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ICE arrests 16 illegal migrants caught fleeing out back of Mississippi business during raid


Federal immigration agents arrested 16 illegal immigrants caught trying to flee a Mississippi business during a workplace raid, authorities said. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies were at Gulf Coast Prestress Partners, in Pass Christian on the Gulf Coast to conduct a worksite raid, ICE said. 

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MAYOR OF AMERICA’S BIGGEST CITY THANKS TRUMP FOR CRACKDOWN ON CRIMINAL IMMIGRANTS

Federal immigration authorities arrested 16 illegal immigrants at a Mississippi business during a raid. (ICE)

“While serving the paperwork and interviewing employees, agents observed a large group of individuals running from the back of the business property,” an ICE news release states. 

Agents caught 18 people from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Two of those caught had immigration court dates and work authorization and were released.

TOM HOMAN TELLS MIGRANT TERROR GROUPS TRUMP WILL ‘WIPE YOU OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH’

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ICE agents with illegal immigrants outside

Immigration agents after a worksite raid in Mississippi where 16 illegal immigrants were arrested as they were trying to flee the business, authorities said.  (ICE)

One of the 18 was a 16-year-old Mexican citizen who was taken into custody by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Under federal law, employers are required to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all their workers, ICE said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The worksite raids were nonexistent during the Biden administration. Under President Donald Trump, border and immigration authorities have tamped up operations targeting illegal immigrants, particularly those with criminal records. 



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Senate Plan Reduces Income and Grocery Taxes, Raises Gas Tax

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Senate Plan Reduces Income and Grocery Taxes, Raises Gas Tax


Mississippians may soon have lower grocery and income tax rates while paying more for gas under a bill the Mississippi Senate passed on Monday.

In total, the tax reductions would add up to a net income and grocery tax cut of $538 million over five years while bringing in about $212 million yearly in revenue from the additional gas tax if Senate Bill 3095 becomes law.

“I think we’re lowering the burden on Mississippi families. We’re creating a scenario where they’re going to be able to keep more of their hard-earned money, and they’ll be able to choose how they spend it,” the bill’s author, Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, told reporters on Monday after senators passed S.B. 3095. 

Mississippians who make more than $10,000 a year could see their income tax rate go from 4.7% in 2024 to 2.99% in 2030, declining by 0.25% each year until 2030 under the legislation. The Senate’s tax-reform plan says the Legislature would have to review the income tax plan before 2030 to decide whether to adjust the tax rate further.

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Mississippi has the highest grocery tax in the nation among the 12 states that place a sales tax on groceries; the state’s grocery tax rate would go from 7% to 5% starting July 1, 2025, if the legislation becomes law. 

The state’s grocery tax revenue goes to municipalities, education, infrastructure and the State’s general fund. The Legislature would increase diversions from the grocery tax to these areas, so agencies’ budgets would not decrease if the bill becomes law, Harkins said. Municipalities currently get 18.5% of the general sales tax revenue and would also get 25.9% of the grocery tax revenue under Section 11 of S.B. 3095.

“No budget takes a cut from the reduction of grocery tax,” Harkins said on the Senate floor on Monday.

Any municipality that has more than 150,000 residents can impose a “special sales tax” of no more than 1% of the “gross proceeds of sales or gross income of the business” for any activities that have a tax rate of 7% or more under the Mississippi sales tax law, Section 3 of S.B. 3095 says. The capital city, Jackson, is the only Mississippi municipality with more than 150,000 residents.

But before Jackson could implement the special tax, the legislation says the mayor and City Council would have to adopt a resolution stating the City’s intent to enact a special tax, set the amount of the tax imposed, explain how the City would use the tax revenue, set the start and repeal dates for the tax, and host an election for voters to affirm or deny the new local sales tax.

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Adding To The Gas Tax

The gas tax would increase under S.B. 3095 from the current 18 cents per gallon to 21 cents per gallon on July 1, 2025, and would go up by three cents per gallon yearly until reaching 27 cents per gallon in 2027. Under the legislation, Mississippi would adjust its gas tax every other year to reflect the percentage change in the yearly average of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s National Highway Construction Cost Index starting on July 1, 2029, and the tax increase would not be above one cent per gallon of gas every other year. The same taxes would apply for dyed and undyed diesel fuel, the bill says.

“People that use (the roads) pay for it,” Sen. Josh Harkins said on the Senate floor on Monday. “If you live in a community where you ride your bike or you walk to work, you walk to church, you walk to the grocery store and you live within that area, why should you pay for the roads? You’re not using them. But if you’re driving your car everywhere, shouldn’t those be the people who pay for the roads?”

The Office of State Aid Road Construction and the State Highway Fund would continue to split revenue from the first 18 cents of the gas tax, with 16 cents per gallon going to the Office of State Aid Road Construction and two cents per gallon of the gas tax going to the State Highway Fund “to be used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance” of Mississippi highways,” S.B. 3095 says.

Revenue garnered from the gas tax over 18 cents per gallon would go to the Office of State Aid Road Construction, the Strategic Multi-Modal Investments Fund and the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the legislation says. MDOT would get 74% of the amount for improving highways and bridges; the investments fund would get 2.75% and the road construction office would get 23.25% of the proceeds under S.B. 3095.

Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, said that totally eliminating the grocery tax would benefit the most Mississippians, noting that 33 states and Washington, D.C., already do not tax groceries. Photo courtesy Mississippi Legislature

Harkins told reporters that the constituents he had spoken to were supportive of raising the gas tax if the Legislature cut taxes in other places.

“I think the price of gas has been all over the board. I know when President Trump left office (in 2020), it was around $1.85 (in Mississippi). It has crept up over the last four years. Hopefully, (because of) the president’s position on drilling and opening up drilling across the country and energy independence, I hope the gas will get back down to where it was in his first term,” Harkins told reporters on Monday.

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In separate speeches on the Senate floor, Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, and Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, criticized the additional gas tax in S.B. 3095 and said the Legislature should have a funding plan for roads and bridges that is not reliant on taking more tax dollars from Mississippians.

“I just think that what we are doing in this proposal, though, will be a tax increase to everyday working Mississippians at the pump, and philosophically, I believe that government, we should actually have a comprehensive plan to repair our roads and bridges and fund roads and bridges like other vital functions of government,” Simmons said on the Senate floor on Monday.

The Senate passed S.B. 3095 on Monday by a 34-15 vote.

Simmons, Bryan: Let’s Fully Eliminate Grocery Tax

Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, noted that Mississippi has already cut $1.3 billion from the State’s general fund between the Legislature’s 2016 and 2022 tax cuts. He said completely eliminating the grocery tax would benefit the most Mississippians, noting that 33 states and Washington, D.C., already do not tax groceries. He proposed a strike-all amendment to S.B. 3095 that would eliminate the grocery tax while increasing general sales tax diversions to municipalities “to avoid any loss to our cities.”

“As opposed to eliminating the income tax or reducing the personal income tax, there are a number of senators in this body who believe a fair and equitable way will be to have more of a reduction on the actual sales tax on groceries,” Simmons said on the Senate floor on Monday.

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Harkins told Simmons he would support Simmons’ move to eliminate the grocery tax. But Harkins voted against the amendment, and it ultimately failed.

“I’m for lowering the grocery tax, but if you take away consumption as a basis of how we’re going to raise revenue, I think you’d agree with me that not everybody files taxes—not everybody pays taxes—but generally, it’s harder to get out of paying sales tax when you go to the store or buy gas,” Harkins told Simmons “… It catches everybody in the system whenever you’re paying sales tax, so it’s a fair way of collecting. But the level at which you tax, I’d like for all of it to be low—as low as possible.”

An older man seated at a table with others, holding papers in his hand
Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said he strongly opposes abolishing the income tax because there is “zero evidence to support” the idea that cutting the income tax would benefit the state. He proposed an amendment that would have cut the grocery tax in half and doubled the diversions to municipalities. His amendment failed. Photo by Imani Khayyam

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said he strongly opposes abolishing the income tax because there is “zero evidence to support” the idea that cutting the income tax is beneficial. He proposed an amendment that would have cut the grocery tax in half and doubled the diversions to municipalities.

“I am perplexed that those who are so obsessed with cutting income taxes that they can’t figure out a way to do it without raising taxes elsewhere,” the senator said on the Senate floor on Monday. “The bill that’s before you has a completely unnecessary increase in the gasoline tax, and the House bill has so many tax increases in it I wouldn’t even know where to stop counting.” He was referring to a competing tax cut plan the Mississippi House passed in January.

Bryan said he does not want to raise the cents-per-gallon gas tax because inflation has “eaten up” the tax revenue and that the cost of constructing roads has “gone through the roof” since Mississippi did not invest money in its road infrastructure years ago. His amendment would have sent $100 million extra annually to the highway departments and municipalities.

Harkins said he and the bill’s cosponsors had “looked at various options” on how to lower grocery costs, “provide an incentive” to “reward work” and dedicate funding for maintaining the state’s infrastructure system—which he called “the lifeblood of our state.” He did not support Bryan’s amendment, and the amendment failed.

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Blount: Focus On Funding PERS

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, proposed an amendment that would have allowed the tax reform plan to go into effect only after an independent actuary ensured that the Public Employees’ Retirement System’s unfunded liability was less than 20%. PERS’s unfunded liability is currently at 44%.

Mississippi Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, proposed an amendment to Senate Bill 3095 that would have said the tax reform plan would only go into effect after an independent actuary ensured that the Public Employees’ Retirement System’s unfunded liability was less than 20%. Photo by Imani Khayyam

One of the bill’s cosponsors, Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, said the Senate has already filed four bills that would give about $200 million to PERS. He noted that the House’s tax-reform plan, House Bill 1, has “wiggle room in enough areas to get attention” but did not dedicate enough funding to fix PERS’s issues. 

“What’s a good deal for PERS is listening to the PERS board (members) who asked us to create a Tier 5, which we have passed, which will be beneficial in the future,” Sparks said on the Senate floor on Monday.

Blount’s amendment failed.

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