Category Archives: Mississippi

Gillibrand calls abortion rights ‘fight of generation’ after ‘bone-chilling’ court draft opinion

Posted on by

New York Democrat urges her party to stand up to concerted efforts from Republicans seeking to abolish constitutional right

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Sunday called the battle over abortion rights in the US the “biggest fight of a generation”.

The New York Democrat urged her party to stand up to Republicans seeking to abolish the constitutional right, and called the draft US supreme court opinion leaked last week, revealing a conservative-leaning super-majority supports overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision, “bone-chilling”.

Continue reading...

Loud boom and streaking fireball stirs panic in three US states

Posted on by

The bolide, which disintegrated in Louisiana, was also reportedly spotted in Arkansas and Mississippi

A loud boom prefaced a streaking fireball spotted in three Southern states, scientists confirmed Thursday.

More than 30 people in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi reported seeing the exceptionally bright meteor in the sky around 8am Wednesday after hearing loud booms in Claiborne county, Mississippi, and surrounding areas, Nasa reported. It was first spotted 54 miles (87 km) above the Mississippi River, near Alcorn, Mississippi, officials said.

Continue reading...

Tornado hits New Orleans causing damage, power outages and reports of one death

Posted on by

Tornado occurred as major storm system tore through parts of the US south, killing another person in Texas and injuring more than two dozen

A large tornado touched down in New Orleans on Tuesday evening, causing damage and destruction to the city’s lower ninth ward, before traveling east into the neighboring parish of St Bernard, where officials reported multiple injuries and one death.

The tornado occurred as a major storm system continued to tear through parts of the US south, killing another person in Texas and injuring more than two dozen.

Continue reading...

Uproar as Mississippi signs bill to limit discussions of race in school lessons

Posted on by

Bill signed by Republican governor sparks opposition from Black lawmakers who say it will quash debate on racism’s harmful effects

Mississippi’s governor signed a bill on Monday to limit how race can be discussed in classrooms, marking the latest move in a Republican-driven battle over “critical race theory”, an academic framework that examines how racism has shaped US public policy and institutions.

The Mississippi bill has sparked opposition from Black lawmakers, who have said its passage could squelch honest discussion about the harmful effects of racism.

Continue reading...

Mississippi teacher fired for reading I Need a New Butt! to children

Posted on by

Toby Price’s termination for sharing the humorous children’s book has sparked criticism and a wave of support

An elementary school administrator in Mississippi has said he was fired for reading I Need a New Butt!, a humorous children’s book about bottoms, to a class of second-graders.

The incident has spurred criticism from free speech advocates, who claim the termination could have a chilling effect at a time of conservative-fueled pushes for book bans in schools across the US.

Continue reading...

‘Bomb cyclone’ storm dumps snow across eastern US

Posted on by

Powerful late-winter storm comes with predicted snowfall up to about 13in and potential to cause travel issues and outages

A powerful late-winter storm combining rivers of moisture and frigid temperatures – a phenomenon known to some as a “bomb cyclone” – was expected to dump snow from the US deep south all the way to the Canadian border over the weekend, forecasters said.

With forecast snowfall ranging from about 4in in northern Alabama and Mississippi to about 13in in northern Maine, forecasters expected travel problems and power outages across much of the eastern US.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Continue reading...

Conservative US supreme court justices signal support for restricting abortion in pivotal case

Posted on by

Case poses a direct threat to the legal underpinnings of the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion

Conservative justices in the US supreme court have signaled their support for curbing abortion access during oral arguments in the most important reproductive rights case in decades, threatening the future of abortion access across the country.

Campaigners have warned the case poses a direct threat to the legal underpinnings of Roe v Wade, a landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion. In their lines of questioning on Wednesday, liberal justices warned against abandoning important legal precedent, while conservatives argued for reviewing it.

Continue reading...

Tate Reeves: Biden vaccine mandate an ‘attack on hardworking Americans’

Posted on by
  • Mississippi has second-worst death rate in world, after Peru
  • Governor insists requiring shots for workers is tyranny

Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccination mandate for federal workers is a tyrannical “attack on hardworking Americans”, Tate Reeves insisted on Sunday, even as the state he governs reeled under a death rate that if Mississippi were a country would make it the second worst-hit in the world, after Peru.

Related: Covid vaccinations among US Latinos are rising thanks to community outreach

Continue reading...

Republicans in six states rush to mimic Texas anti-abortion law

Posted on by

North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas and Florida eye similar measures to new Texas ban after six weeks

Republican leaders in as many as six US states are rushing to follow the lead of Texas in adopting an extreme abortion ban that critics, including Joe Biden, have slammed as unconstitutional and built to encourage vigilantism among the public.

Abortion rights advocates are bracing to resist a flurry of initiatives from Florida to North Dakota in the wake of the new Texas law, the most extreme in the US, which the conservative majority on the supreme court refused to block.

Continue reading...

New Orleans battered by Hurricane Ida as storm claims first victim in Louisiana

Posted on by

A million households without power as governor says system of levees overhauled after Hurricane Katrina will face ‘most severe test’

One person has died as Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US, knocked out power to all of New Orleans, reversed the flow of the Mississippi River and blew roofs off buildings across Louisiana.

Related: Hurricane Ida live updates: first death in Louisiana as New Orleans loses power

Continue reading...

Hurricane Ida: New Orleans hunkers down beneath category 4 storm

Posted on by
  • Storm hits land on 16th anniversary of Katrina
  • Louisiana governor confident levees will hold

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday as a brutal category 4 storm, slamming the coast with 150mph sustained winds as it trudged towards New Orleans and Baton Rouge, threatening devastation.

Related: The Katrina survivors who fled devastation only to freeze in Texas

Continue reading...

Hurricane Ida barrels down on Louisiana amid warnings of ‘life-altering storm’

Posted on by

Tens of thousands in US face evacuation orders as storm makes first landfall in Cuba, sparking fears of floods and mudslides

Hurricane Ida rapidly gained strength on Friday evening as communities in southern Louisiana braced for a major category 4 storm with sustained winds of about 140mph and tens of thousands of residents were placed under mandatory evacuation orders.

The hurricane is due to make landfall in the US on Sunday, with officials warning of a “life-altering storm”. The cities of New Orleans and Lafayette, as well as the state capital, Baton Rouge, are under threat from Ida, which is forecast to reach the US somewhere between the parishes of Terrebone and St Mary, slightly west of New Orleans.

Continue reading...

‘We’re going to see a lot of deaths’: Covid leaves Mississippi hospitals at brink of failure

Posted on by

Only 35.6% of residents are fully vaccinated in the state, which is opening a field hospital as officials brace for climbing death toll

Health officials in Mississippi have warned the state’s hospital system is on the brink of failure due to a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations in the US south as the Delta variant rips through the country.

The deep south state, where only 35.6% of residents are fully vaccinated, is opening a 50-bed field hospital at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) car park with the assistance of the federal government as officials brace for a climbing death toll and ICU units reach capacity.

Continue reading...

Covid hospitalizations surge in US south as unvaccinated urged to get shots

Posted on by
  • Louisiana now leads the nation in new Covid cases
  • Intensive care units near capacity in multiple locations

Covid-19 hospitalizations continued to surge among America’s deep south states on Monday as health officials urge unvaccinated residents to receive the shot and intensive care units near capacity in multiple locations, prompting fears of a surge close to the numbers of last winter.

The state of Louisiana now leads the nation in new Covid cases as the Delta variant rips through a region with some of the lowest vaccination rates in the US. Last Friday, the Louisiana department of health announced a daily increase of 6,116 positive Covid cases, with 2,421 people now hospitalized with the virus including 277 on ventilators. With just 37% of residents fully vaccinated, state data indicated that unvaccinated people accounted for 90% of hospitalizations in the state. 181 people died from the virus in Louisiana last week.

Continue reading...

Alarm as US Covid cases above 100,000 a day for first time since February

Posted on by
  • Seven-day hospital admissions average up 40% from last week
  • Mississippi health official says Delta surging ‘like a tsunami’

Daily Covid-19 cases in the US moved above 100,000 a day for the first time since February, higher than the levels of last summer when vaccines were not available, and came as health officials sounded alarm over lagging rates of vaccination driving the surge of the infectious Delta variant.

The seven-day average of hospital admissions has also increased more than 40% from the week before, with health workers describing frustration and exhaustion as hospitals in Covid hotspots were again overwhelmed with patients, almost 20 months into the pandemic in the US.

Continue reading...

Tornado spurred by storm Claudette damages 50 homes in Alabama

Posted on by

No deaths or serious injuries reported as tropical storm disrupts plans for Juneteenth and Father’s Day weekend

Authorities in Alabama say a suspected tornado spurred by Tropical Storm Claudette demolished or badly damaged at least 50 homes in a small town just north of the Florida border.

Sheriff Heath Jackson in Escambia County said a suspected tornado “pretty much leveled” a mobile home park, toppled trees on to houses and ripped the roof off of a high school gym.

Continue reading...

Covid cases fall across US but experts warn of dangers of vaccine hesitancy

Posted on by

Health experts emphasize need for even those who have had disease to get inoculated

New cases of Covid-19 are declining across most of the US, even in some states with vaccine-hesitant populations.

But almost all states where cases are rising have lower-than-average vaccination rates and experts warned on Sunday that relief from the coronavirus pandemic could be fleeting in regions where few people get inoculated.

Continue reading...

Children are ‘vulnerable host’ for Covid as cases recede, US expert warns

Posted on by
  • Cases plummet but children under 12 not yet eligible for shots
  • Mississippi governor defends low state vaccination rate

A US public health expert has warned that though cases of Covid-19 are at their lowest rates for months and much of the country is returning to normal life, young Americans are still “a vulnerable host” for the coronavirus.

Related: Post-lockdown summer: Americans out for fun and with money to spend

Continue reading...

Anti-abortion movement bullish as legal campaign reaches US supreme court

Posted on by

A case that could undermine the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and a punitive Texas law are the culmination of a decades-long push

The anti-abortion movement in the US is emboldened and optimistic after the supreme court announced it would hear a direct challenge to laws underpinning the right to abortion in the US, and Texas enacted a law intended to ban abortion after six weeks.

The high court decision to take up the case and the Texas move come during the most hostile year for reproductive rights in the nearly half-century since pregnant people won the constitutional right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy in the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade.

Continue reading...

US supreme court agrees to consider major rollback of abortion rights

Posted on by

Court will take up Mississippi’s bid to enforce a 15-week ban on abortion, setting up a showdown

The US supreme court agreed on Monday to consider a major challenge to reproductive rights, saying it will take up Mississippi’s bid to enforce a ban on almost all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.

Related: ‘It would be glorious’: hopes high for Biden to nominate first Black woman to supreme court

Continue reading...