Category Archives: Mississippi

Former Mississippi officers plead guilty to state charges for torturing Black men

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Group of six white Mississippi police officers had tortured two Black men for an hour and a half during a house raid

In late January, a group of six white Mississippi police officers raided a house in Rankin county, a suburb outside of Jackson, and tortured two Black men for an hour and a half. The following month, the justice department opened a civil rights investigation into the Rankin county sheriff’s department, and since then, the officers have either resigned or been fired. Activists have also called for the resignation of Rankin county sheriff Bryan Bailey.

On Monday, the former officers pleaded guilty to state charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy from the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. The former sheriff’s deputies Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, along with Joshua Hartfield, a former police officer in nearby Richland, had already pleaded guilty to federal charges on 3 August.

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Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era voting law struck down by federal appeals court

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2-1 ruling on policy that revoked voting rights for certain people with felony convictions is surprise victory from conservative court

A federal appeals court on Friday struck down Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era policy of permanently revoking voting rights from certain people with felony convictions, ruling that it is unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

The 2-1 panel ruling is a surprise victory from the conservative fifth circuit court of appeals just over a month after the US supreme court refused to hear a challenge to the discriminatory law.

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US labor department condemns surge in child labor after teen dies on the job

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Duvan Tomas Perez killed at slaughterhouse while department found 4,474 children working illegally since start of fiscal year

The US Department of Labor has decried a national surge in child labor as the agency has found thousands of violations and is currently investigating the death of a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala, Duvan Tomas Perez, who was killed on the job at a slaughterhouse this month in Mississippi, reported the New York Times.

Two other 16-year-olds have died on the job in the US this year. Michael Schuls was killed on 29 June while working for a sawmill in Wisconsin. He was attempting to unjam a wood stacking machine when he was caught and pinned by the conveyor belt. Will Hampton was died in Missouri on 8 June while working at a landfill when he was pinned between a tractor trailer rig and its trailer.

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Guatemalan boy dies in Mississippi poultry plant accident

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Duvan Perez, 16, dies at Mar-Jac factory in Hattiesburg amid rollback of child labor laws across several US states

A 16-year-old from Guatemala died on Friday after sustaining a workplace injury at a poultry plant in Mississippi, authorities confirm.

The child, identified as Duvan Tomas Perez, died at Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about two hours outside of Jackson, NBC News reported. He migrated to the US six years ago from the town of Huispache and was a middle school student.

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Supreme court leaves intact Mississippi law disenfranchising Black voters

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Court turns away case on law implemented over a century ago with explicit goal of preventing Black people from voting

The US supreme court turned away a case on Friday challenging Mississippi’s rules around voting rights for people with felony convictions, leaving intact a policy implemented more than a century ago with the explicit goal of preventing Black people from voting.

Those convicted of any one of 23 specific felonies in Mississippi permanently lose the right to vote. The list is rooted in the state’s 1890 constitutional convention, where delegates chose disenfranchising crimes that they believed Black people were more likely to commit. “We came here to exclude the negro. Nothing short of this will answer,” the president of the convention said at the time. The crimes, which include bribery, theft, carjacking, bigamy and timber larceny, have remained largely the same since then; Mississippi voters amended it remove burglary in 1950 and added murder and rape in 1968.

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Drax-owned wood pellet plant in US broke air pollution rules again

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Amite BioEnergy, which was fined $2.5m in 2021, notified Mississippi facility had breached emission limits

A US plant that supplies wood pellets to the UK power generator Drax has violated air pollution limits in Mississippi, it has emerged.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has written to Amite BioEnergy notifying the Drax-owned company that it had violated emissions rules.

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Trans girl denied graduation ceremony after US school’s dress-code ruling

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ACLU says verdict of federal judge not to reverse decision in Gulfport, Mississippi is ‘as disappointing as it is absurd’

A transgender girl in Mississippi did not participate in her high school graduation ceremony Saturday because school officials told her to dress like a boy and a federal judge did not block the officials’ decision, an attorney for the girl’s family said.

Linda Morris, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, said the ruling handed down late Friday by federal judge Taylor McNeel in the Mississippi city of Gulfport “is as disappointing as it is absurd”.

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Deadly storms and tornadoes kill at least 29 people in several US states

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Monster storm system struck at least eight states over the weekend, prompting at least 50 preliminary reports of tornadoes

As many as 29 people have been killed after a slew of tornadoes tore through parts of the southern and midwestern US in recent days, leaving immense destruction and debris in its path, according to officials.

A monster storm system struck at least eight states over the weekend, prompting at least 50 preliminary reports of tornadoes. The states affected include Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Delaware and Alabama.

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‘It’s going to be a long road’: Mississippi sifts through tornado debris

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Low-income residents face rough recovery after tornado walloped two counties with poverty rates of 35% and 33%

A giant tornado obliterated the modest one-story home that Kimberly Berry shared with her two daughters in the Mississippi Delta flatlands, leaving only a foundation and some random belongings: a toppled refrigerator, a dresser and matching nightstand, a bag of Christmas decorations, some clothing.

During the storm Friday, Berry and her 12-year-old daughter huddled and prayed at a nearby church that was barely damaged, while her 25-year-old daughter survived in the hard-hit town of Rolling Fork, about 15 miles (24km) away.

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Mississippi tornado: Biden declares emergency after storm kills 26 in region

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Search and recovery efforts continue after twister hit hardest in some of the most economically deprived areas of US’s poorest state

Joe Biden declared a federal emergency for swathes of Mississippi hit by a devastating tornado, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors on Sunday morning with a death toll of at least 26 people caused by catastrophic storms in parts of the US’s deep south.

Twenty-five people were killed and dozens injured in Mississippi, throughout the state’s low-lying Delta region and around its north-east portion, with another man dying in the neighboring state of Alabama.

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Mississippi tornado: death toll of 25 highest in the state in 21st century

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Fatalities from tornado the worst in 50 years, with more severe storms expected in the region on Sunday

Devastating storms and at least one large tornado which ripped through rural Mississippi on Friday night left 25 people dead in the state, dozens injured and rescue workers hauling people from rubble throughout Saturday, as the state reeled from its highest tornado-related death toll in decades.

Severe weather pounded several southern states overnight as the centers of destruction emerged on Saturday morning as the small, majority Black towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City in the Mississippi delta.

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This ‘climate-friendly’ fuel comes with an astronomical cancer risk

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Almost half of products cleared so far under a new US federal ‘biofuels’ program are not, in fact, biofuels

The Environmental Protection Agency recently gave a Chevron refinery the green light to create fuel from discarded plastics as part of a climate-friendly initiative to boost alternatives to petroleum. But, according to agency records obtained by ProPublica and the Guardian, the production of one of the fuels could emit air pollution that is so toxic, one out of four people exposed to it over a lifetime could get cancer.

“That kind of risk is obscene,” said Linda Birnbaum, former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “You can’t let that get out.”

This story was updated on 23 February 2023 to correct how much plastic ends up in the oceans each year. It is millions of tons, not hundreds of millions of tons.

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Gunman kills six, including ex-wife and stepfather, in rural Mississippi

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Suspect charged with murder after shootings around Arkabutla, in state’s north

A lone gunman killed six people, including his ex-wife and stepfather, on Friday at multiple locations in a tiny rural community in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues to what motivated the rampage.

The shootings all happened within the community of Arkabutla, the local television station NBC5 reported, citing the Tate county sheriff, Brad Lance. Lance identified the suspect in custody as Richard Dale Crum, according to the Associated Press.

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Mississippi sees 900% rise in number of infants born with congenital syphilis

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Medical professionals attribute the increasing cases of disease to inadequate prenatal healthcare and understaffed workforce

Mississippi has registered an alarming rise in the number of infants being treated for congenital syphilis.

According to hospital billing data shared with NBC, the amount of babies who have been treated for the sexually transmitted disease has increased by more than 900% over five years.

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Southern US battles winter freeze as thousands suffer power outage in Texas

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Slick roads have caused at least 10 deaths with thousands of flights canceled since frigid weather set in on Monday

A mess of ice, sleet and snow lingered across much of the southern US on Thursday, as thousands in Texas endured freezing temperatures with no power, including many in the state capital, Austin.

Treacherous driving conditions had resulted in at least 10 deaths on slick roads since Monday, including seven in Texas, two in Oklahoma, and one in Arkansas. The Republican Texas governor, Greg Abbott, urged people not to drive.

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Mike Leach, pioneering Mississippi State coach, dies at age of 61

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  • Leach was taken to hospital with health issue on Sunday
  • Coach helped popularize the Air Raid offense in football
  • Was also known for his wide-ranging interests

Mike Leach, the gruff, pioneering and unfiltered college football coach who helped revolutionize the passing game with the Air Raid offense, has died following complications from a heart condition, Mississippi State said on Tuesday. He was 61.

Leach, who was in his third season as head coach at Mississippi State, fell ill on Sunday at his home in Starkville, Mississippi. He was treated at a local hospital before being airlifted to University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, about 120 miles away.

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Mississippi man pleads guilty to burning cross in yard to intimidate Black family

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DoJ says Axel Cox ‘admitted he burned cross because of the victims’ race and because they were occupying a home next to his’

A Mississippi man pleaded guilty in federal court to burning a cross in his front yard with the intent to intimidate a Black family, the US justice department said.

Axel Cox, 24, of Gulfport in south Mississippi, mounted a wooden cross in his front yard on 2 December 2020, officials said. He then doused it with motor oil and lit it within view of his neighbors, who are Black.

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US justice department sues city of Jackson over water crisis

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City and Mississippi health department sign order agreeing to federal oversight of the failing water system

The US justice department has taken drastic action regarding the crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, that has affected drinking water for its 150,000 residents for several months.

On Tuesday, the city of Jackson and the Mississippi health department signed an order agreeing to federal oversight of the failing water system, in an attempt to restore clean and safe drinking water.

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Company fires 2,700 workers while they were sleeping days before Thanksgiving

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Workers at Mississippi-based furniture company received text saying they were terminated right before midnight on 21 November

A Mississippi-based furniture company abruptly fired nearly 2,700 workers in the US just days before Thanksgiving, according to multiple reports.

Right before midnight on 21 November, thousands of workers – many of whom were asleep – received a text message from United Furniture Industries (UFI) saying that they were terminated effectively and were no longer allowed to return to work.

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Barges stranded as Mississippi River water levels reach critical low

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Major shipping delays and backlog of vessels after region experiences lack of rainfall in recent weeks

The water in the Mississippi River has dropped so low that barges are getting stuck, leading to expensive dredging and at least one recent traffic jam of more than 2,000 vessels backed up.

The Mississippi River Basin produces nearly all – 92% – of US agricultural exports, and 78% of the global exports of feed grains and soybeans. The recent drought has dropped water levels to alarmingly low levels that are causing shipping delays, and seeing the costs of alternative transport, such as rail, rise.

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