Port Bienville in Hancock County has been awarded $6 million to construct an intermodal facility that will include a 50,000-square-foot, weather-protected transit warehouse between the barge slip and the Port Bienville Railroad, Magnolia Tribune reported Oct. 28, 2026.
The funding comes through the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) and will allow the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission to proceed with its Site 4 Intermodal Facility Project, the Magnolia Tribune article said. U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith called the investment “a game-changing investment to improve the efficiency and capacity of Port Bienville by creating a secure intermodal buffer facility to eliminate a longstanding storage bottleneck.”
Hyde-Smith’s office told the Magnolia Tribune the grant is being funded in part through a $103.3 million appropriation for discretionary PIDP grants in the FY2026 T-HUD Appropriations Bill, which Hyde-Smith helped shape as chair of the Senate T-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee.
Also in Mississippi news, Magnolia Tribune reported Oct. 28, 2026, that U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has appointed Ocean Springs High School Principal Jacob Dykes to the National Assessment Governing Board, the 26-member body that sets policy for the Nation’s Report Card (the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP).
The Magnolia Tribune item said Dykes has served on the Mississippi Department of Education Accountability Task Force and previously worked as an elementary school principal and science teacher. The Governing Board determines which grades and subjects NAEP assesses, what content to include, how achievement levels are set, and how results are communicated to the public, the report said.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
