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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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Gov. Haley Barbour will give his annual State of the State address tonight. File Photo

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour will give an overview of his legislative priorities and accomplishments during his State of the State address tonight.

The speech is at 6 p.m. in the House chamber of the Capitol, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting will air the speech on television and radio.

Tonight marks the final address for the two-term governor who politicos say may run for president in 2012.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.