Environment

BPF promotes environmental regulatory reform and actively engages the bureaucracy regulating flooding on the Mississippi River. BPF believes mitigating the flooding by using Old River Control Complex would give Mississippians back their privately owned land.

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Black Swans and Mudberg

by Kelley Williams Published June 30, 2026 The 1927 Mississippi River Flood was what probability expert Nassim Taleb calls a Black Swan event. Europeans once thought all swans were white.  Then black swans were discovered in Australia. The Black Swan metaphor describes rare, unforeseeable, high-impact events — that seem foreseeable after they happen.

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Whistling Past Mudberg

Whistling Past Mudberg

In 1950, the Corps of Engineers told Congress that when the Mississippi River is high, part of it flows down the Atchafalaya River at the juncture of an old river bed — and that it would all flow that way by 1975.  That would be a catastrophe for people, cities, and plants at and below Baton Rouge on the Mississippi and in the Atchafalaya basin and for the nation’s river commerce and national security.

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A Jackson AI Data Center – Threat or Opportunity?

A Jackson AI Data Center – Threat or Opportunity?

Ranting about Data Centers is all the rage these days. Word got out recently of a developer exploring Jackson in hopes of building a new AI (artificial intelligence) data center. Who knew it would unleash a hornet’s nest of protests and gnashing of teeth? Opponents drove from 3 hours away to a City Council meeting just to share for 3 minutes their dire warnings of great troubles with data centers.  That proves it is an important topic worthy of calm and rational discussion.

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What the Corps Understands but You Don’t

What the Corps Understands but You Don’t

Upton Sinclair was writing about California politics in the 1930s. He could have been writing about Mississippi River Commission (MRC) politics today. Its Commanding General’s next star (salary) may depend on your not understanding Mudberg.

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Blissful Ignorance vs Mistakes of Omission

Blissful Ignorance vs Mistakes of Omission

“The biggest mistakes are mistakes of omission, not commission. It’s the things you knew enough to do — they were within your circle of competence — and you were sucking your thumb. Those are the ones that hurt.” — Warren Buffett, University of Georgia, 2001

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Clogged Arteries and Clogged Rivers

Clogged Arteries and Rivers

Clogged arteries cause heart attacks.  Clogged rivers cause floods. If plaque clogs your widowmaker artery and you don’t get a stent, you may have a serious heart attack.  The Mississippi River is the country’s main transportation artery.  It’s vital to our economy and national security.  It is clogged with plaque.  It needs a stent.

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Who You Gonna' Believe?

Who You Gonna’ Believe?

“Who you gonna’ believe? Me or your lying eyes.” Substitute Entergy’s spokesperson for Chico Marx, and you have the current gaslighting telling you don’t believe what you see happening in other states and what common sense tells you will happen here. Just trust Entergy not to raise electric rates for small customers to benefit Amazon’s data centers.

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