What Trump’s Plan to Abolish the Department of Education Would Mean for Mississippi

What Trump’s Plan to Abolish the Department of Education Would Mean for Mississippi

President Donald Trump has vowed to close the U.S. Department of Education without clear guidelines for what will happen next. Policy experts say that it could create chaos for state education agencies, including in Mississippi, which relies more heavily on federal education dollars than most.

The post What Trump’s Plan to Abolish the Department of Education Would Mean for Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.

Under California Law, Shasta County Law Enforcement’s Ability to Collaborate with ICE is Limited 

Under California Law, Shasta County Law Enforcement’s Ability to Collaborate with ICE is Limited 

Three days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the federal organization known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began uploading “single day statistics” to the organization’s official social media accounts as a means of documenting numbers of arrests. On January 23, those stats included 538 arrests. By January 27, the number had more than doubled to 1,179As recently as this week, some arrested immigrants have reportedly been sent to Guantanamo Bay ahead of their deportations.

To deliver on Trump’s promise of deporting all of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living on American soil, ICE has assembled an outfit of collaborating federal agencies that includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), US Marshals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

While immigration enforcement is currently conducting larger sweeps than were ever undertaken during Trump’s first term, it will still take approximately 30 years to arrest (let alone deport) the 11 million people Trump promises to expel from the Unites States, at current rates. Trump’s rate of immigration-related arrests so far broadly matches the daily deportations numbers produced by the Obama administration, from 2009–2015.  

Regardless of the feasibility of the White House’s stated goal, ICE’s recent actions have left many communities of undocumented immigrants paralyzed with fear. In California, which has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” ICE successfully conducted a raid in Kern County recently, and false reports of ICE presence in San Francisco and Southern California have spread like wildfire.

To add fuel to the flames of a national panic, there is some indication that federal immigration agents are willing to disregard legal procedures to meet their goals. Ras Baraka, the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, accused federal agents of unlawfully conducting a raid at a seafood depot without a warrant. The manager of the raided facility said that he never asked agents to present a valid court order before allowing them entry. 

Like any form of arrest and prosecution, the deportation process must meet certain legal requirements. To the frustration of President Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, ICE operations – which often rely on a lack of understanding of what immigration enforcement can and cannot legally do – are sometimes thwarted by community members with a strong knowledge of their own rights.

“They’ve very educated,” Homan told a CNN reporter in reference to those who exercise their rights to remain silent and refuse access to law enforcement that show up to raids without proper warrants. 

“They call it ‘know your rights,’” Homan continued. “I call it ‘how to escape arrest.’”

Here in Shasta County, and across California, there are several legal mechanisms in place that may complicate ICE’s process of locating, arresting, and deporting undocumented people. Here’s what you need to know.

California’s Legal Obligation to Protect Undocumented Residents 

As demonstrated by Trump’s first two weeks in office, the legal framework that underlies immigration enforcement is immensely complicated, especially in places like California where state law was enacted to defend undocumented residents against the authority of federal agencies. Within California’s 58 counties, debates on whether to cooperate with ICE have divided state from federal jurisdictions, and local politicians from each other even within the same counties.    

The California Values Act (SB 54), which was passed in 2017, prohibits local law enforcement–and other state entities such as schools, courts, hospitals–from sharing information with ICE that could lead to the arrest and deportation of an individual or family. 

Furthermore, California police officers are not allowed to inquire about immigration status, make an arrest on the basis of a deportation order, or extend an undocumented person’s time in jail for immigration agents to apprehend them, unless they’ve committed a crime that meets a certain threshold. 

That threshold includes those who have been convicted of a “serious or violent” crime such as assault, rape, felony drunk driving, or certain kinds of theft. Since Proposition 36 has recategorized some theft and drug possession charges as “aggravated felonies” under the State’s legal system, immigration attorneys believe there could be an increased correlation in deportations.   

In Shasta County, representatives of Anderson Police Department (APD) and Redding Police Department (RPD) have both told Shasta Scout they intend to comply with state law by only coordinating with ICE or other federal immigration agents when permitted to do so under the parameters of the California Values Act. The written policies at both RPD and APD are also consistent with the demands of SB 54. 

According to Redding Police Chief Brian Barner, the extent of the department’s coordination with ICE during raids in past years has been the receipt of email notifications from the federal law enforcement agency informing local police that an ICE operation was planned in the Redding area. 

A Public Information Officer with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, Timothy Mapes, did not specifically confirm whether that department intends to comply with SB 54, but the department’s policy manual mirrors that of APD and RPD, and is also consistent with the California Values Act. 

Statewide reporting indicates that at least 28 of California’s 58 Sheriffs have said they plan to comply with State law. That number does not include Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson who did not respond to CalMatters request for comment.

In contrast, the Sheriff of Riverside County has indicated that he would like to circumvent SB 54, despite steps by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to advance certain protections for undocumented residents. 

Should local law enforcement choose to flout SB 54, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been unambiguous on California’s response, saying a plan is already in place to address such misconduct. 

“We’re prepared to take action against any law enforcement agency that doesn’t follow (the law),” Bonta told journalists at a University of California, Berkeley, seminar in early January. 

“There was a time and place to talk about SB 54 to make yourself heard, to seek amendments,” Bonta said. “That was years ago… So now’s the time to follow it.” 

What Rights are You Entitled to? 

Citizens and noncitizens alike are guaranteed certain rights when interfacing with law enforcement, including federal immigration agents. Whether you encounter law enforcement at work, on public transit, or on the steps of your front door, your rights in California include two primary considerations.

The first is that in most cases, law enforcement agents must have a warrant authorized by a judge in order to lawfully enter a space. The second is that you have the right to remain silent and request to speak with a lawyer, in order to avoid having your words used against you in a court of law later.


Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.

Goodyear to cut 850 jobs at Danville plant

Goodyear to cut 850 jobs at Danville plant

Update 1:30 p.m. Feb. 5: This story has been updated with comments from Goodyear.

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Goodyear plans 850 job cuts at its Danville plant, most which will take effect by the end of this year, the company said Tuesday.

The tire manufacturer said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it reached an agreement on Jan. 30 with the United Steelworkers union and approved a plan “to reduce the Company’s production capacity and production cost per tire in Americas.”

The 850 job reductions will include employees and contractors.

The steelworkers union represented about 1,800 Danville plant employees as of October, according to the Danville Register & Bee, which first reported the news of the job reductions.

The union’s local declined to comment on Wednesday. 

“Goodyear is committed to supporting those impacted associates through this transition,” the company said in a statement.

Goodyear declined to provide the total number of current employees at the facility.

The company said last month that it plans to “refocus” that plant toward producing aviation tires and conducting mixing operations, in which chemicals are combined to make rubber, and move the majority of its commercial tire production to other plants.

It said at the time that its goal was to “strengthen the Danville plant’s competitiveness and preserve as many jobs as possible.”

In the SEC filing, Goodyear said that it anticipates the reductions will cost it between $130 million and $140 million this year but will improve its operating income by $15 million this year and $65 million each year thereafter.

Danville City Manager Ken Larking said in a statement that the city will “work closely with state and regional partners to connect displaced employees with resources, including workforce training, job placement assistance, and support services.”

“Danville has proven time and again that we are a resilient community,” Larking said. “While this news is difficult, we remain committed to strengthening our local economy, attracting new investment, and creating opportunities for our workforce. We will continue working with Goodyear and our economic development partners to navigate this transition and support those impacted during this challenging time.”

Goodyear opened the Danville plant in 1966 and has been Danville’s largest private employer for years. During its first 50 years, the plant produced 100 million truck and aircraft tires, according to a city proclamation on its semicentennial anniversary.

Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear (NASDAQ:GT) is a multinational tire maker with 57 manufacturing facilities in 23 countries. It employs about 72,000 people worldwide.

The post Goodyear to cut 850 jobs at Danville plant appeared first on Cardinal News.

A case against drug distributors over the flood of pills that ravaged West Virginia is back in court. Here’s what to know.

A case against drug distributors over the flood of pills that ravaged West Virginia is back in court. Here’s what to know.

A case against major drug distributors over the flood of painkiller pills that devastated West Virginia is back in court. This time, the case is before the state Supreme Court, which is considering whether the overdose crisis qualifies under West Virginia law as a “public nuisance.” 

Public nuisance is a legal term for something that endangers public health and safety. A person or company responsible can be sued and forced to remedy a public nuisance.

Typically in West Virginia, courts have applied public nuisance law to cases putting citizens at risk of exposure to environmental pollution, such as coal truck ash and arsenic in a river

In drug distributors’ arguments, they say that it is not applicable to shipments of a lawful product.

How did we get here?

Counties and cities across West Virginia filed lawsuits against drug distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies, saying they fueled the opioid epidemic resulting in thousands of lost lives, grieving families and overwhelmed law enforcement and treatment providers.

But Cabell County and Huntington have been fighting one case on their own.

Opioid litigation cases across the county were consolidated in a court overseeing multi-district cases in the Northern District of Ohio.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster selected the lawsuit filed by Cabell County and Huntington to serve as a “bellwether” case, meaning it could indicate how similar cases might fare. He sent the case back to federal court in West Virginia. 

Those municipalities alleged drug distributors AmeriSource Bergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health, Inc. and McKesson Corp. caused a public nuisance by knowingly shipping an excessive amount of pills to the area, resulting in more than 700 deaths from opioid overdoses in Cabell County between 2015 and 2020.

They said to abate the crisis — abatement means remedying a public nuisance — companies should pay them $2.5 billion dollars, which a Johns Hopkins researcher estimated it would take to support their recovery. 

Cabell County and Huntington lost their case when in 2022, U.S. District Judge David Faber ruled in favor of the companies, agreeing with their argument that public nuisances don’t include lawful product distribution.

Soon after, more than 100 cities and counties settled with the same companies for $400 million, to be dispersed throughout the state.

This meant while they received money, companies didn’t have to admit liability.

Cabell County and Huntington appealed, and they presented their case to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., last year.

A three-judge panel there decided that the West Virginia Supreme Court should determine if state law considered drug distribution as something that would be found to be a public nuisance.

Why is the Supreme Court’s decision important?

Huntington and Cabell County say prescription drug distributions are different from other product distributions as federal law requires companies to monitor and report large prescription requests, because these drugs have potential for misuse.

Companies say applying the law would result in a flood of new nuisance cases. In oral arguments last week, an attorney for the companies, Steve Ruby, argued it could result in cases over everything from foods associated with obesity to gun deaths.

Ruby said companies and Faber agreed that distributors were only responding to prescription orders written by licensed doctors and sent to pharmacies. 

David Frederick, a lawyer for the communities, said Faber was “led into error by the distributors who wanted to shunt the blame to everybody else.”

If the city and county prevail, the case would be sent back to the 4th Circuit. A ruling there in favor of defendants would end the case. Judges there could also rule in favor of the communities, which could mean defendants could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or they could send the case back to Faber.

Even if Huntington and Cabell County lose, they would still be eligible for funds from the West Virginia First Foundation. That’s because that organization is distributing $1 billion from settlements with multiple entities, including pharmacies and manufacturers, and Cabell County and Huntington are only excluded from the $400 million other municipalities received in settlements with distributors.

Companies also say the communities can’t prove they caused the opioid crisis, so they shouldn’t have to pay to remedy its impacts.

A case against drug distributors over the flood of pills that ravaged West Virginia is back in court. Here’s what to know. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

Our digital guide to help you track the Montana Capitol is back

Our digital guide to help you track the Montana Capitol is back

By the time the 2025 session of the Montana Legislature concludes in late April or early May, the state’s 150 lawmakers will have cast thousands of votes on proposals affecting everything from property taxes to pet insurance to human health care, ultimately forwarding hundreds of bills to the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte.

The often-turbulent legislative firehose is a lot to keep track of even if you’re a seasoned journalist or lobbyist working in the Capitol — much less if you’re an everyday Montanan trying to follow what your representatives are doing from elsewhere in the state. The sheer volume of bills, votes and debate that flows through the Capitol halls can quite easily sweep a casual observer off their feet.

Launching for the 2025 session today, our digital Capitol Tracker guide is intended to offer a lifeline in that storm, helping Montanans ranging from Capitol insiders to bewildered citizens make sense of the quantifiable aspects of legislative proceedings. (For insight on the unquantifiable ones, subscribe to Tom Lutey’s Capitolized newsletter.)

The digital guide mirrors information presented on the Legislature’s newly revamped official website, but is intended to load faster and be easier to use, especially on mobile phones. We’re also able to supplement the sometimes-terse official data with additional information such as links to stories MTFP reporters have written about particular bills or analyses of specific lawmakers’ voting records.

You can find the guide here:

This year’s version of the tracker will be largely familiar to readers who used the 2023 edition. However, we’ve had to rework much of the logic that moves information around behind the scenes (sometimes repeatedly) to accommodate the new legislative website’s various birthing pains. As part of that work, we’ve also removed a few features we had on the prior edition while we think through how we can reconceptualize them.

As of today, the 2025 tracker includes the following functionality:

A page with information for each introduced bill (all 664 of them as of this writing), including the sponsor and the bill’s progression through the various legislative hurdles that stand between a bill and its enactment as law. Bill pages also include links to the full bill text and proposed amendments, as well as fiscal and legal notes for bills that have them.

A page for each of the Legislature’s 100 representatives and 50 senators, including their public contact information, their committee assignments, a list of bills they’ve sponsored and the results of their most recent election. Those pages also include an analysis of how often lawmakers are voting with their Republican and Democratic colleagues.

Lookup tools that let you search bills by title and number and lawmakers by name. You can also look up your district’s lawmakers by entering your address.

A couple of other notes: Due to the sheer volume of information included in the Capitol Tracker and our ongoing efforts to work with the new legislative website, we expect we’ll have a few bugs to sort out in the coming weeks. We’d greatly appreciate your help (and patience) on that front.

Additionally, while we already have some plans for features we’re hoping to add in the coming weeks, we’d love to hear suggestions about ways we could make this tool more useful to you.

You can reach our data team, Data Reporter Jacob Olness and Deputy Editor Eric Dietrich, at jolness@montanafreepress.org and edietrich@montanafreepress.org.

TAKE A LOOK: MTFP’s 2025 Capitol Tracker.

The post Our digital guide to help you track the Montana Capitol is back appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Coastal Georgia federal workers face uncertainty as buyout deadline looms

Coastal Georgia federal workers face uncertainty as buyout deadline looms

The Trump administration’s hiring freeze and buyout offer for federal workers in Coastal Georgia have left nearly 16,700 employees uncertain about their future, as they consider whether to resign or risk losing their job.

The Current is an inclusive nonprofit, non-partisan news organization providing in-depth watchdog journalism for Savannah and Coastal Georgia’s communities.

Vermont businesses and consumers face uncertainty over shifting tariff policy

Vermont businesses and consumers face uncertainty over shifting tariff policy
Carillon Hydro-electric Dam, Pointe Fortune, Quebec. Photo by Mac Armstrong.
Carillon Hydro-electric Dam, Pointe Fortune, Quebec. Photo by Mac Armstrong

Updated at 5:35 p.m.

President Donald Trump signed executive orders Saturday imposing steep tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, a move that state officials and business leaders said could disrupt supply chains and raise consumer prices in Vermont for some goods and energy products.

Citing national security concerns, Trump placed 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, and 10% tariffs on goods from China. He also declared a 10% tax on energy imports from Canada, including electricity and natural gas. 

The taxes levied against Canadian goods were expected to go into effect on Tuesday, but posts made by both Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on social media late Monday afternoon indicated that the policy would be postponed for at least 30 days. Mexican leaders had reached a similar agreement with the Trump administration earlier in the day.

As of Monday evening, the tariffs against Chinese goods were still expected to take effect Tuesday.

The tariffs, especially those levied on Canadian goods, could have far-reaching impacts on Vermont, a state whose economy relies heavily on its neighbor to the north. Canada is Vermont’s largest international trading partner, and the state imports about $2.6 billion in goods each year from Canada while exporting $680 million worth of goods in return, according to statistics from the Canadian consulate general.

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who hosted a roundtable with Vermont business leaders last week, said Monday morning that Trump was “creating enormous administrative havoc” and “great uncertainty” for Vermont companies.

“These tariffs are a really bad idea for our businesses and our economy and our consumers,” Welch said. 

Amy Spear, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, said that regardless of whether the policy was adopted, the confusion clouding the decision-making process was in itself a stumbling block for the state’s economy.

“Policy predictability matters,” Spear said. “Businesses thrive on stability, and volatile trade policy creates uncertainty, making it difficult for businesses to plan for the future.”

For years, Burlington-based ski brand J Skis has produced its skis at Utopie MFG, a manufacturer based in Quebec. But with the potential of a steep price hike on the imported product, Jason Levinthal, the founder of the company, said he’s concerned about how to plan for the new trade policy. 

“Going to another factory — that couldn’t happen for another two years,” Levinthal said. “And by then, I have no guarantee that these tariffs are still going to exist. I don’t even know if these tariffs are really going to exist now.” 

But whether or not the tariffs go into effect, Levinthal said, he still has to worry about navigating a new regulatory environment. 

“I need to make real time real life business decisions based on what I know now,” he said. “If I don’t, I’m going to be screwed later.”

Should it be enacted, the tax on Canadian energy also threatens to escalate costs in a state that depends on fuel and electricity from there, importing about $775 million of electricity and $420 million of fossil fuels from Canada per year, according to stats from the Canadian consulate general. 

“We’re very concerned,” said Rebecca Towne, CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative. 

According to Towne, the VEC gets over 40% of its electricity from Hydro-Québec, a Canadian supplier of hydroelectric power. Towne said it was still unclear how exactly the tariffs would apply to imported electricity but a preliminary estimate indicated the cooperative could face up to $2 million in extra costs for 2025 — a cost that would likely get passed down to consumers.

“Our power supply costs are ultimately paid for by our consumers,” Towne said. “We’re a non-profit. That’s how it trickles down.” 

Meanwhile, Vermont Gas Systems, the state’s sole natural gas distribution company, gets almost 100% of its natural gas supply from Canada, according to director of public affairs Dylan Giambatista. 

Giambatista said there’s still “a ton of variability” and uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the tariffs, but Vermont Gas, a subsidiary of Canadian energy giant Energir, is expecting to see dramatic cost increases.

“That 10% tariff on Canadian energy is certainly going to have a direct rate impact on our customers,” he said, noting that any rate increases would likely not take effect until this spring. 

Imports from Canada and China also play a large role in the Vermont construction industry, which depends in part on imported timber, steel, aluminum and other commodities.

Sarah Mearhoff, communications director for the trade association representing Vermont’s construction industry, said tariffs on these items could threaten to increase homebuilding costs at a time when Vermont is already seeing sky-high housing prices.

“You can imagine that a lot of framing for homebuilding is done with timber, and a lot of that in Vermont’s industry specifically comes from Canada,” Mearhoff said.

“Because housing prices are already so inflated, because the cost of constructing a single unit of housing is already at a record high…our members can’t just eat a 25% tariff,” she said. “They are not making the profit margins necessary in order to just absorb that cost. That cost is going to be passed on” 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. said in a statement that the tariffs were “most likely illegal and definitely harmful.” 

“Given Vermont’s long-established economic ties with our Canadian neighbor, the impact on our state will be even greater,” Sanders said. “We need a rational and well-thought-out trade policy, not arbitrary actions from the White House.”

Carly Berlin contributed reporting for this story.

Disclosure: Sarah Mearhoff reported for VTDigger from October 2021 until December 2024.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont businesses and consumers face uncertainty over shifting tariff policy.

Mississippi again turns down millions of dollars to feed low-income kids during summer months

Mississippi again turns down millions of dollars to feed low-income kids during summer months

Hundreds of thousands of eligible poor Mississippi children will miss out on grocery assistance this summer after the state missed the deadline to apply for the federal program for the second year in a row.

Families who rely on free breakfasts and lunches during the school year often have trouble making ends meet while paying for additional child care and meals during months when school is not in session. 

The program provides each eligible child $40 a month in grocery assistance. It was estimated the program would have brought in $38 million to the state last year. 

The nation’s poorest state is also the hungriest state – with nearly one in four children not having reliable access to food in Mississippi. 

Gov. Tate Reeves delivers his State of the State Address from the south steps of the State Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

The Mississippi Department of Human Services, the agency responsible for administering the program, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Mississippi Today about its decision to opt out. Gov. Tate Reeves, who oversees DHS, also did not respond to questions about the decision, though he told news outlets last year he made the decision based on his desire to reject “attempts to expand the welfare state.” 

Springboard to Opportunities will offer cash assistance to needy families in Jackson for another summer after it launched its own program last year in response to the governor’s decision not to participate in the Summer EBT program

“Summer is the hungriest time of the year for millions of families across our country … This initiative was launched in direct response to Mississippi’s decision to opt out of the federal SUN Bucks program, which could have filled this hunger gap for low-income families across the state,” Sarah Stripp, the nonprofit’s director of socioeconomic wellbeing, said at a press conference at the Capitol last week. 

Springboard to Opportunities served 672 children in the summer of 2024, but there are about 324,000 children across the state who would qualify for food under SUN Bucks, according to the Food Resource and Action Center, a national nonprofit organization working to end hunger in the U.S.

Stripp urged state leaders to reconsider their decision for 2026. 

Summer cash assistance from Springboard to Opportunities is only available for Jackson families living in federally-subsidized housing. But the success of the program – boasting a drastic reduction in hunger, according to a survey – shows what kind of difference a small amount of cash can make in the hands of eligible families. 

Michelle Howard, a mother of two, shares her experience and explains how Springboard to Opportunities’ Summer Cash Initiative benefited her family during a press conference at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Jan. 23, 2025. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Michelle Howard, a Jackson mother of two young boys, applied for assistance from the nonprofit last summer after seeing a flyer on her door. Before she started receiving benefits, Howard said summer wasn’t enjoyable – it was filled with stress and anxiety trying to find the extra money to cover meals and child care. 

“We already have a set amount that we’re working with throughout the year. Once the summer comes, we’re still working on that same little bit of money,” Howard, who runs a cleaning business, told Mississippi Today at the Capitol. “… Right now, when my children are in school, I maybe spend $500 a month on groceries. But when the summer comes, I might need an additional $200 or $300 a month.” 

SUN Bucks was created based on the success of earlier versions of summer food assistance programs and supported by a bipartisan group in Congress. The Biden Administration created the program to help families deal with higher food costs when children are out of school and not receiving free and reduced-price meals.

While the Mississippi Department of Education participates in other federal food programs during the summer, children – especially in rural areas – often don’t have transportation to get to the sites that serve the meals.

Sade McGee, director of food services in Yazoo County School District, said programs that require students to have transportation to get meals during summer months have low participation in her district. 

Thirty-eight states – including Mississippi’s neighboring states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama – have enrolled in the program.  

The implementation of the program in Louisiana required pressure and funding from state legislators last year. Gov. Jeff Landry originally said in early 2024 that the state would not participate, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers saw differently and put up the money needed to implement the program.  

The program cost $7 million to run – half of which was paid by the federal government, the Illuminator reported at the time.  

The state got an extension and implemented the program in a short amount of time, according to David Matlock, the secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services. 

Matlock told Mississippi Today the rollout of the program was hard work and took a lot of coordination among state agencies, including the education department. 

He said the state plans to continue its participation. 

“Our retailers were interested in continuing this program, our families are interested in continuing this program,” he said.

The post Mississippi again turns down millions of dollars to feed low-income kids during summer months appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Egg prices continue to swing drastically, cracking already strained grocery budgets

Egg prices continue to swing drastically, cracking already strained grocery budgets

Egg prices remain volatile in the wake of the ongoing bird flu outbreaks, which have decimated commercial poultry and egg production across the U.S.

At the end of 2024, the epidemic pushed egg prices to the second-highest level – $4.15 per dozen – in the past decade, according to the Consumer Price Index. That’s second only to the first onset of the recent bird flu outbreaks.



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Retail grocery stores were still dealing with inflationary pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic when initial bird flu outbreaks began across the country in early 2022.

By the end of that year, egg prices had doubled from the year before, from less than $2 a dozen to more than $4 a dozen, according to the Consumer Price Index.

Egg prices began to stabilize throughout 2023, but as new waves of bird flu hit, the price of eggs shot back up. 

Bird flu has ravaged commercial poultry and egg production, with more than 134 million birds killed since early 2022.

The recent rise in grocery staples can also be attributed to post-COVID-19 pandemic inflationary pressures, a shortage of beef cattle caused by droughts, and bird flu outbreaks. 

Beef prices climbed 22% from early 2022 to the end of last year, a reflection of the long-term ripple effects of declining herd sizes in the face of feed and water shortages

Grocery prices have taken center stage as activists, politicians and government agencies have denounced meat and food industry consolidation alongside alleged price gouging.

The post Egg prices continue to swing drastically, cracking already strained grocery budgets appeared first on Investigate Midwest.