Category Archives: Mississippi

Tropical Storm Rafael gains intensity in Caribbean as it nears Cuba

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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.

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Some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, report says

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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.

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Three people killed in Mississippi in shooting after high school football game

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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.

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EPA will withdraw approval of Chevron plastic-based fuels likely to cause cancer

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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.

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US opens civil rights investigation into Mississippi sheriff’s office after torture of Black men

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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.

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Hurricane Francine makes landfall in Louisiana as category 2 storm

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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.

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Seven people killed and dozens injured in Mississippi bus crash

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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.

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US pays $2bn to Black and minority farmers after years of discrimination

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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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Brett Favre pushes to revive lawsuit against fellow Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe

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  • Case takes places amid backdrop of welfare scandal
  • Sharpe made comments during Fox Sports show

Lawyers for Brett Favre have asked a federal appeals court to revive a defamation lawsuit the former NFL quarterback filed against a fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame member, Shannon Sharpe, amid the backdrop of a Mississippi welfare scandal.

A federal judge in Mississippi threw out the lawsuit in October, saying Sharpe used constitutionally protected speech on a sports broadcast when he criticized Favre’s connection to the welfare misspending case.

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Alabama poultry plant could be closed for 30 days for allegedly hiring minors

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At least two children have already been killed while working in Mar-Jac Poultry plants in the US south over the last year

A poultry plant in Jasper, Alabama, has been accused of hiring minors and could be shut down for 30 days, according to a newly released US Department of Labor lawsuit.

Mar-Jac Poultry, the largest employer in Walker county, is accused of violating federal labor laws when it hired four minors as young as 16 who were allegedly discovered working overnight at the company’s slaughterhouse.

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University of Mississippi: ‘abhorrent’ counter-protesters condemned

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Largely white, male group taunts pro-Palestinian protesters on campus and one man makes racist gesture towards Black woman

Dozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza and to call for the state’s flagship university to be transparent in its potential dealings with Israel.

There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. The scene evoked memories of the resistance to the civil rights struggle in the US south six decades earlier.

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Six ex-Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ officers get 15 to 45 years for torture of Black men

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The men pleaded guilty to state charges in brutal racist attack of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January 2023

Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers – prosecutors said the group called themselves the “Goon Squad” – who tortured and abused two Black men in a racist attack were sentenced to between 15 and 45 years in prison on Wednesday.

Brett Morris McAlpin, formerly the fourth highest ranking deputy in the Rankin county sheriff’s department, was sentenced to 20 years. Christian Dedmon was sentenced to 25 years. Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke were both sentenced to 20 years, while Hunter Elward was sentenced to 45 years and Joshua Hartfield was sentenced to 15 years.

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Bus driver in Mississippi hailed as ‘hero’ in crash that ejected her and injured 10

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Tina Wilson, 55, and a student were airlifted in critical condition after bus carrying fraternity members hit concrete barrier

A charter bus taking university students to a fraternity event crashed in southern Mississippi on Friday afternoon, injuring 11 people, including 10 students and the driver.

Mississippi highway patrol said 56 college students were on board when the bus crashed into a concrete barrier on Interstate 10 in Hancock county. Nine students were taken to local hospitals by ambulance, while the driver and another student were airlifted from the scene in critical condition.

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Full live results of the 2024 presidential primaries, state by state

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Full state-by-state results as well as votes of Democrats abroad and in the Northern Mariana territory

Georgia, Mississippi and Washington chose their presidential candidates on Tuesday in contests that come as both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are already their parties’ presumptive nominees.

Hawaii also held its Republican caucuses on Tuesday and Democrats abroad and in the Northern Mariana territory voted as well.

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Judge sentences Black child, 10, to three months of probation for peeing in public

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Mississippi judge also orders child to write a book report on Kobe Bryant after officers arrested him for urinating in a parking lot

A 10-year-old Black child who urinated in a parking lot must serve three months’ probation and write a two-page book report on the late NBA star Kobe Bryant, a Mississippi judge has ordered.

Tate county youth court judge Rusty Harlow handed down the sentence Tuesday after the child’s lawyer reached an agreement with a special prosecutor. The prosecution threatened to upgrade the charge of “child in need of supervision” to a more serious charge of disorderly conduct if the boy’s family took the case to trial, said Carlos Moore, the child’s attorney.

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Weather tracker: Low Mississippi River levels take toll on farmers

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Economic loss from disruption on important travel route for grain exports estimated to be $20bn

Extreme drought and a warm autumn have left water levels on the Mississippi exceptionally low for the time of year. This is causing problems for farmers who rely on the river as a travel route for the crops: 60% of US grain exports use the waterway to reach the Gulf coasts.

The total economic loss is estimated to be about $20bn and, despite attempts to dredge the river, it remains worryingly low as the country enters an important month for grain transport.

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White House decries ‘nasty personal smears’ after House Republicans subpoena Biden family – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can follow the action of the third GOP debate here:

Philadephia has elected Cherelle Parker, the first female mayor to lead the city.

Following her victory, Parker, who served 10 years as a state representative for northwest Philadelphia, said:

“Thank you Philly. We did it. We made history, or “her” story. As a little girl, I never dreamed that this moment would arrive but it’s here now… From the bottom of my heart, thank you for believing in me and in my vision for a safer, cleaner greener city with economic oppurtunity for all.”

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Family demand Mississippi cops fired for arresting Black boy, 10, who peed in car park

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Lawyer for family threaten federal civil rights lawsuit against Senatobia if demand not met after boy detained and placed in cell

The family of a 10-year-old Black boy who was arrested and placed in a cell for relieving himself in a parking lot say they will file a federal civil rights lawsuit against a Mississippi city unless police officers involved in the detention are fired.

Quantavious Eason was detained and taken to a police station in Senatobia after an officer spotted him urinating behind a car outside a law office last month while his mother was inside getting advice on a housing issue.

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‘Astonishingly cruel’: Alabama seeks to test execution method on death row ‘guinea pig’

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Nine months after Kenneth Smith’s botched lethal injection, state attorney general has asked for approval to kill him with nitrogen

Kenneth Smith is one of two living Americans who can describe what it is like to survive an execution, having endured an aborted lethal injection last November during which he was subjected to excruciating pain tantamount, his lawyers claim, to torture.

Nine months later Smith has been singled out for another undesirable distinction. If the state of Alabama has its way, he will become the test dummy for an execution method that has never before been used in judicial killings and which veterinarians consider unacceptable as a form of euthanasia for animals – death by nitrogen gas.

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Girl, 13, gives birth after she was raped and denied abortion in Mississippi

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The nearest abortion clinic – in Chicago – was too far away and too expensive for her mother to provide her with the procedure

A 13-year-old girl in Mississippi gave birth to a boy after she was raped as well as impregnated by a stranger – and then was unable to get an abortion, according to a Time magazine report published on Monday.

The mother of the girl, who uses the pseudonym Ashley in the report, was looking to get an abortion for her daughter but was told the closest abortion provider was in Chicago – a drive of more than nine hours from their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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