By BARRY WILNER Scott Hamilton is back in action. No, the figure skating icon won’t be lacing up. He’ll be sitting atop a bike and cycling 444 miles Erase the Trace, a five-day ride along the Natchez Trace Parkway. The…
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MARK SHERMAN WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate has confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first Black female justice and giving President Joe Biden…
DOBSON, N.C. (AP) — A Mississippi man arrested for the murder of a woman whose body was found on an interstate 30 years ago has been extradited to North Carolina, authorities said Wednesday. The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation said…
By JAY REEVES A federal board began hearing testimony Monday on whether to let Amtrak resume passenger train service linking New Orleans and Alabama’s main port city over the objections of freight companies. The hearing, conducted virtually by the Surface…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is the latest Republican-led state to ban election offices from accepting donations from private groups for voting operations — a movement fueled by conservatives’ suspicion of donations by Facebook founder Mark…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators are returning to the Capitol on Monday with hopes of finishing their 2022 session. They still need to finish passing a state budget for the year that begins July 1.…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill Wednesday authorizing the largest pay raise in a generation for the state’s public school teachers, long among the lowest-paid in the nation. House Bill 530 becomes…
POPLARVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi couple is now facing capital murder charges in the death last year of their five-month-old daughter. Kendra Beck, 20, and Takoda Miller, 23, were arrested last week after being indicted for the child’s October…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House and Senate voted by wide margins Tuesday to approve plans to redraw legislative districts to account for population changes revealed by the 2020 Census. The House has 122 districts, and the Senate has…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators worked on budget proposals Monday after missing deadlines because of a long dispute over a tax cut plan. They were also negotiating final versions of several bills, including one to…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators on Sunday unveiled plans to redraw the state House and Senate districts to account for population changes revealed by the 2020 Census. The House has 122 districts, and the Senate has 52. Republicans hold…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the nation with perpetually underfunded schools and struggling rural hospitals, had its largest-ever tax cut passed by lawmakers Sunday. The Republican-controlled state House and Senate…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Top Mississippi lawmakers on Friday increased estimates of how much tax money the state will collect this budget year and next. The current year’s general fund estimate climbed from $5.8 billion to…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi House leaders offered a revised proposal Wednesday to phase out the state income tax, sending it to Senate leaders as legislators approach big deadlines to set taxes and spending. The new…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A bill headed to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves would give the state’s public school teachers their largest pay raise in years. The House voted 118-4 Tuesday to pass the final version of House…
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi teachers would receive their largest pay raise in years, under a bill that the state Senate passed Thursday. The House…
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Mississippi man has been arrested for a 1992 murder of a North Carolina woman after an investigation by state and local law enforcement agencies, officials said. The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation said in a…
By LISA MASCARO WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cited Pearl Harbor and the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 on Wednesday as he appealed to the U.S. Congress to do more to help Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Livestreamed…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn says he opposes efforts to revive a proposal that would let mothers keep Medicaid coverage for a year after giving birth. “My position on the postpartum thing…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House and Senate are pushing forward with separate tax cut proposals, and leaders will hold final negotiations later…
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two people were killed after gunshots were fired into a vehicle in Mississippi’s capital city on Monday, police said. The two victims were found dead near a Jackson intersection on Monday, Jackson Police Chief James Davis…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s Republican-led Senate will try to revive a proposal to let mothers keep Medicaid coverage for a year after giving birth, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Monday. The state allows two months…
SENATOBIA, Miss. (AP) — A couple in Mississippi’s Tate County is charged with felony child abuse after being accused of locking their grandchildren in a dog cage. The Tate County Sheriff’s Office said it received a report from East Tate…
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators are working to revive a way for people to petition to put issues on the statewide ballot. This is happening months after the state Supreme Court found the state’s old initiative process was invalid.…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge will hold a hearing next month to determine if a death row inmate truly wants to request an execution date and if the inmate is mentally competent to waive…
COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi woman will serve 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for an October 2018 shooting death. Victoria Slayton, 27, of Caledonia entered the plea Thursday before Lowndes County Circuit Judge Lee…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators are supposed to make big decisions about the state’s pocketbook in the next few weeks, setting a budget that exceeds $6 billion and deciding whether to approve tax cuts. House…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Proposals to increase some of the lowest teacher salaries in the U.S. were in danger Tuesday as Mississippi legislators engaged in a political showdown. Hours before a big deadline, Senate committees voted…
By KEVIN McGILL NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit filed by Gulf of Mexico charter fishing boat operators opposed to federal regulations that include a requirement that they affix tracking equipment to their vessels.…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi House committee divided along lines of race and party Monday in advancing a bill that would limit how race can be discussed in classrooms. The short title of Senate Bill 2113 says…
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 23-year-old Mississippi woman has died after crashing into a sheriff’s office SUV that was stopped with its emergency lights flashing on an elevated interstate west of New Orleans, Louisiana State Police said Monday. Alexis Jones…
MCCOMB, Miss. (AP) — Two more people have been charged in a drive-by shooting that killed a 6-year-old boy while he was playing with friends at a city park in McComb. Eric Spurlock, 20, and a 17-year-old were arrested last…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators completed two big items several weeks ago when they adopted a congressional redistricting plan and enacted a medical marijuana law. They are about to further trim the list of issues…
By COLLEEN LONG, MICHAEL BALSAMO and ZEKE MILLER WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday will nominate federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, according to a person familiar with the matter, making her the first Black…
By KEVIN McGILL NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Mardi Gras revelers, accustomed to catching beads, small toys or other trinkets tossed by parade float riders during Carnival season, were able to snag a new parade favor Thursday: rapid COVID-19 tests. As…
ACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s health department has reported this flu season’s second flu death of a child or teenager. The first was reported in December. Pediatric flu deaths have been steady, with a total of 24 reported over 14 seasons…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Mississippi Senate voted 40-11 Wednesday to pass a bill that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars in state revenue by phasing out part of the income tax and reducing…
GARYVILLE, La. (AP) — A huge Louisiana refinery was rocked by an explosion and fire Monday. Marathon Petroleum Corp. said six workers suffered minor injuries. Officials later gave the all-clear sign, but…
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It’s been two years since the largest free festival and showcase of Louisiana music, food and culture has taken place in New Orleans’ French Quarter. But that changes in April, when the 2022 French Quarter Festival returns. The coronavirus…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators are working on proposals to fund state government for the year that begins July 1. The Republican-controlled House and Senate on Thursday passed the first draft of budget bills for…
PEARL, Miss. (AP) — An inmate who escaped from a Mississippi prison received an ambulance ride to a hospital after telling someone he was bleeding because he had been in a motorcycle accident, a state Department of Corrections spokesman said…
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — The University of Southern Mississippi is opening a new building with the aim of supporting military veterans. The new facility is about supporting those who served the nation, said Jeff Hammond, the director of the university’s…
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House has voted to make the state’s Medicaid program end a contract with health care giant Centene, although that plan could change later as lawmakers continue to debate issues. Centene settled a lawsuit last year that…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mystery solved: The top administrator in the Mississippi House says he unilaterally made the decision to take a statue of a racist former Gov. Theodore Bilbo off public display and put it…
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Biloxi man has been arrested and is accused of carrying a gun on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus and attacking an officer. The 49-year-old suspect, identified as Richard Neil. was taken into custody…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators are working to set a new way for people to petition to put issues on statewide ballots, months after the state Supreme Court tossed out the state’s old initiative process.…
CANTON, Miss. (AP) — Morgan Freeman stars as a small-town sheriff in a movie that began filming Tuesday in Mississippi. Cole Hauser and Jaimie Alexander also are stars in the comedic noir thriller “The Minute You Wake Up Dead.” It’s among four…
LAS VEGAS (AP) — After playing in the Pro Bowl on Sunday, Saints running back Alvin Kamara was arrested and accused of beating someone the night before in a Las Vegas nightclub. Kamara had four catches for 23 yards for…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Most states already offer scholarships or tuition waivers for young people who have spent time in the foster care system. Mississippi could join that list this year. The state House last week…
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A statue of white supremacist former Mississippi Gov. Theodore Bilbo has quietly been moved out of sight in the state Capitol — a move praised by Black lawmakers who say he never…
