Hood And Reeves At Neshoba County Fair

Two likely candidates to be Mississippi's next governor are using the Neshoba County Fair to test the waters and trade barbs. The next gubernatorial election isn't for three years. But you would never know it listening to Attorney General Jim Hood and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. It's been heavily speculated over the past several months that both are eyeing a run for the state's top office in 2019. Hood -- the only Democrat elected to statewide office -- tells MPB's Paul Boger the state's economy is suffering due to a budget drafted by Republicans.

Democratic National Convention Audio Postcard

Mississippi's delegates to the Democratic National Convention are in Philadelphia for different reasons. Correspondent Matt Laslo is there and sent us this audio postcard of the Mississippi delegation. 

Sales Tax Holiday

Mississippi’s sales tax holiday begins tonight at midnight and continues for the next 48 hours -- all day Friday and all day Saturday. The break from state sales tax is designed to help families stock up on needed items as the new school year approaches. Department of Revenue spokesperson Kathy Waterbury tells MPB's Evelina Burnett what items are sales-tax free this time of year.

Book Club

Robert Francis Kennedy had many identities during his short life -- Aid to Sen. Joe McCarthy; Attorney General to his brother the president; United States senator; presidential candidate; assassinated public figure. He also was a stalwart of the political left who championed the poor in Mississippi, in Appalachia and across America. In his new book -- Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon -- Larry Tye takes the reader on a journey from Kennedy's childhood to his death in the Ambassador Hotel in June of 1968. Tye tells us Kennedy's large public life had a small private beginning.