Three monkeys remain at large and are being searched for, officials said after initially reporting they were infectious
A group of monkeys being transported on a Mississippi highway that escaped captivity on Tuesday after the truck carrying them overturned did not carry a dangerous infectious disease, a university has said.
The truck was carrying rhesus monkeys, which typically weigh around 16lb (7.7kg) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet.
Continue reading...Several rhesus monkeys escaped after the interstate crash, but all but one were reportedly ‘destroyed’ by late Tuesday
A group of potentially diseased lab monkeys escaped after a vehicle crash on a main interstate highway in Mississippi.
A truck carrying rhesus monkeys was involved in a wreck on Interstate 59 on Tuesday afternoon, according to a Facebook post from the Jasper county sheriff’s department.
Continue reading...Three charged with murder and one with attempted murder following shooting in Leland after school football game
Three people have been arrested on murder charges – and a fourth person on an attempted murder charge – in a weekend shooting that left six dead and more than a dozen injured in a small Mississippi town, the FBI announced on Monday.
Teviyon L Powell, 29, William Bryant, 29, and Morgan Lattimore, 25, have been charged with capital murder, while Latoya A Powell, 44, has been charged with attempted murder in the mass shooting, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Jackson field office said.
Guardian staff contributed reporting
Continue reading...Mississippi museum announces display on anniversary of boy’s murder, a pivotal moment in civil rights movement
The gun used in the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till is now on display for the public to see, 70 years after the killing.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History unveiled the .45-caliber pistol and its holster during a news conference on Thursday, which is the 70th anniversary of Till’s murder.
Continue reading...Author of Natchez Burning trilogy had battled blood cancer for decades, according to his literary agent
Greg Iles, the Mississippi author of the Natchez Burning trilogy and other works, has died. He was 65.
Iles died on Friday after a decades-long battle with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, his literary agent, Dan Conaway, posted on Saturday on Facebook.
Continue reading...Heat and humidity are stretching east from the Mississippi River valley, and some areas could see heat indices of 120F
The eastern half of the US is facing a significant heatwave, with more than 185 million people under warnings due to intense and widespread heat conditions on Monday.
The south-east is likely to endure the most dangerous temperatures as the extreme heat spread across the region on Monday, spanning from the Carolinas through Florida. In these areas, heat index values (how hot it feels once humidity is accounted for) are forecast to range between 105 and 113F (40.5 to 45C).
Continue reading...Director, composer and actor appeared at event in Clarksdale attended by hundreds after community petition
Hundreds of people packed inside a local auditorium on Thursday to see the hit film Sinners, set in their community and steeped in Mississippi Delta culture.
The special screening of the blockbuster horror film included an appearance by director Ryan Coogler and was made possible by a community petition.
Continue reading...Family incarceration has been revived after Biden – and Jade, Jason and Gabriela are speaking out about their distressing treatment in Texas
When Jade and her family first arrived at the detention facility in Karnes county, Texas, she wasn’t really sure what to think.
“I guess I was confused and scared,” said the 13-year-old. Her parents were doing their best to reassure her that everything would be OK, but she knew they were in danger of being deported.
Continue reading...Library commission says state ‘in dire shape’ and has ‘had a reconsideration of everything with regard to’ Doge
The Mississippi library commission, which offers services such as specialized research assistance to libraries in the state, has ordered the deletion of two research collections: the race relations database and the gender studies database. The collections were stored in what’s called the Magnolia database, which is used by publicly funded schools, libraries, universities and state agencies in Mississippi.
The commission’s executive director, Hulen Bivins, confirmed the deletion to the Guardian, and said: “We may lose a lot of materials.”
Continue reading...White House approves Tennessee’s state of emergency request as further fatalities expected to be confirmed
Violent storms and tornadoes have torn across the US south and midwest, killing at least seven people and downing power lines and trees, smashing homes and upturning cars across multiple states.
The outbreak of storms and tornadoes has resulted in at least seven deaths in Tennessee and Missouri, with further fatalities expected to be confirmed. One of the victims has been named: a 68-year-old man named Garry Moore who was a fire chief in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri. At least a dozen injuries have also been reported from the storms.
Continue reading...Several people killed in Kansas dust storm while scattered tornadoes cause fatalities in Missouri
Violent tornadoes ripped through parts of the US, wiping out schools and toppling semitractor-trailers in several states, part of a monster storm that killed at least 35 people as more severe weather was expected.
In western Kansas, a dust storm was reported to have killed eight people as high winds produced blowing dust over the interstate, causing collisions of more than 71 vehicles on the I-70.
Continue reading...State senate passes bill as its sponsor suggests shooting someone is more effective and humane than other methods
Firing squads could become Idaho’s primary execution method under a bill headed to the governor’s desk this week.
The Idaho senate passed the bill on Wednesday, and if signed by governor Brad Little, it will take effect next year.
Continue reading...Storm expected to reach hurricane status but should weaken before it hits the US Gulf coast
Tropical Storm Rafael has grown more powerful in the Caribbean Sea and is poised to reach hurricane strength on Wednesday, carrying the risk of damaging wind and rainfall. But it should weaken as it approaches the US Gulf coast, where several states have not been hit by a hurricane in November, according to records maintained since the early months of the US civil war.
Portions of the Florida Keys could see tropical storm conditions starting on Wednesday night, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Continue reading...Mississippi’s firearm-related violence rate nearly double that of Haiti, which is plagued by political and gang strife
A new report by the Commonwealth Fund finds some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, and even states with the fewest firearms deaths are far higher than peer developed democracies.
For instance, Mississippi’s rate of firearm-related violence (28.5 per 100,000 people) was nearly double that of Haiti (15.1 per 100,000) in 2021, when mercenaries assassinated the country’s president, unleashing a fresh round of gang warfare which pushed the country into a state of civil war.
Continue reading...Shooting, preceded by a fight among some of the men, near Lexington early Saturday also left eight people wounded
Three people were killed and eight others were wounded in central Mississippi early Saturday when at least two people fired guns at a group of several hundred people who were celebrating a high school football team’s homecoming win at an outdoor trail several hours after the game had ended, authorities said.
The mass shooting near the community of Lexington was preceded by a fight among some of the men at the celebration, but deputies had not yet learned what sparked the fight, said Holmes county sheriff Willie March.
Continue reading...The decision comes after a ProPublica and Guardian investigation revealed that the EPA had found that one of the fuels had a huge cancer risk
The US Environmental Protection Agency is planning to withdraw and reconsider its approval for Chevron to produce 18 plastic-based fuels, including some that an internal agency assessment found are highly likely to cause cancer.
In a recent court filing, the federal agency said it “has substantial concerns” that the approval order “may have been made in error”. The EPA gave a Chevron refinery in Mississippi the green light to make the chemicals in 2022 under a “climate-friendly” initiative intended to boost alternatives to petroleum, as ProPublica and the Guardian reported last year.
Continue reading...Six Rankin county officers known as ‘Goon Squad’ were convicted for hours-long attack involving racial slurs
The US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into a Mississippi sheriff’s department whose officers tortured two Black men in a racist attack that included beatings, repeated use of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth, officials said Thursday.
The justice department will investigate whether the Rankin county sheriff’s department has engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force and unlawful stops, searches and arrests, and whether it has used racially discriminatory policing practices, according to assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke.
Continue reading...Officials warn of life-threatening storm surge and flooding as evacuation orders in place in some parishes
Francine made landfall in south Louisiana on Wednesday as a category 2 hurricane as officials warned of life-threatening storm surge, flooding and 100mph winds.
There were evacuation orders in some parishes, as communities braced.
Continue reading...Siblings among those killed as police say bus left Interstate 20 near Bovina in western Mississippi and flipped over
Seven people have been killed and dozens more injured in western Mississippi after a commercial bus overturned on Interstate 20, according to the state’s highway patrol.
Six passengers were pronounced dead at the scene and another died at a hospital, according to a news release. The bus was traveling west on Saturday morning when it left the highway near Bovina in Warren county and flipped over, police said. No other vehicle was involved.
Continue reading...Payouts are ‘an acknowledgement’ of US’s long history of refusing to process loans from Black farmers, USDA says
The Biden administration has doled out more than $2bn in direct payments for Black and other minority farmers discriminated against by the US Department of Agriculture, the president announced Wednesday.
More than 23,000 farmers were approved for payments ranging from $10,000 to $500,000, according to the USDA. Another 20,000 who planned to start a farm but did not receive a USDA loan received between $3,500 and $6,000.
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