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Category: Mississippi News Feed

  • The US infant mortality rate fell to an all-time low, though it still trails other similar nations


    NEW YORK (AP) — Infant mortality in the U.S. dropped to a new all-time low in 2025, according to preliminary government data.

    There were slightly fewer than 5.4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    While that appears to be a small decline from about 5.5 in 2024 and 5.6 in the two years preceding, researchers say it is statistically meaningful and translates to hundreds of fewer infant deaths per year.

    It’s difficult to pinpoint what’s driving the recent developments, but “this is an encouraging data point, and we hope that this trend will continue,” said Dr. Michael Warren, chief medical and health officer for the March of Dimes.

    Infant mortality is the measure of how many babies die before reaching their first birthday. Because the number of babies born in the U.S. varies year to year, researchers calculate rates to compare infant mortality over time.

    The overall numbers, too, have been going down. U.S. infant deaths fell to about 19,350 last year, according to provisional CDC data that may rise a little as additional analysis is completed. The final tally is still expected to be down from about 20,050 in 2024 and about 20,160 in 2023, according to the agency.

    The U.S. rate has inched down over the decades — it was at 7.5 per 1,000 three decades ago — thanks to medical advances and public health efforts.

    But it has remained worse than other high-income countries, which experts have attributed to poverty, inadequate prenatal care and other problems. A study published last year found the U.S. infant mortality rate in 2022 — when the rate rose — was nearly twice as high as what was seen in several other high-income democratic nations, including Italy, Japan, Spain and Sweden.

    That was the year of the first statistically significant jump in the U.S. rate in about two decades. Experts attributed that rise to a rebound in RSV and flu infections.

    In 2023, U.S. health officials began recommending two new measures to prevent the toll on infants: one was a lab-made antibody shot for infants that helps the immune system fight off the virus, and the other was giving an RSV vaccine to women between 32 weeks and 36 weeks of pregnancy. A March of Dimes expert last year said the effort likely contributed to the improvement in 2024.

    Meanwhile, a decline in sudden infant death syndrome could be connected to an increase in education around safe sleeping for infants, Warren said in a statement.

    The CDC posted the 2025 provisional data in late May. On Tuesday, the agency released a more in-depth analysis of 2024 infant mortality data, offering details not yet available for 2025. Among that report’s highlights:

    — Death rates declined both for the youngest infants, less than 28 days old, and for older infants. Those declines continued last year, the 2025 provisional data indicate.

    — In 2024, infant mortality continued to differ by race, sometimes dramatically. Death rates for infants born to Black women were more than twice as high as those for the infants of Hispanic, white and Asian American women.

    — Researchers noted a decline in the mortality rate for infants born at full term, at 39 to 40 weeks. But rates did not change significantly for other gestational age groups.

    — Mississippi had the highest infant mortality rate, at 9.65 deaths per 1,000 births, and New Hampshire had the lowest, at just under 3 per 1,000.

    “These differences are reflective of a variety of reasons related to access to care, community factors, and policies that improve health and outcomes,” Warren said.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


  • With jumpsuits, wigs and dance moves, these young boys and teens keep Elvis’ legacy alive


    TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Nearly 50 years after Elvis Presley ‘s death, a gaggle of exuberant young boys and teens shook up his hometown, intent on keeping the king’s legacy alive for a new generation.

    Ranging in age from seven to 17, some in jeweled jumpsuits, they took the stage at the Tupelo Elvis Festival’s youth tribute artist competition last week.

    In contrast to their peers, who may never have heard of Elvis, the competitors have dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy to embodying the king’s singing voice, mannerisms and style.

    They are careful to specify they are Elvis tribute artists. Unlike impersonators, who pretend to be Elvis and sometimes present a characterized version of the king, tribute artists strive for authenticity. Some wore costumes created by B&K Enterprises Costume Co., a company licensed to recreate Elvis’ outfits and provide costumes for Elvis movies, musicals and TV shows.

    “We’re not trying to be him,” said Tucker Gladden, 17, from Madison, Mississippi. “We want to recreate the experience as much as we can for people that maybe didn’t get to see Elvis in their lifetime.”

    As for their fascination with a long-dead musician, several of the tribute artists credited the 2022 “Elvis” movie with sparking their interest. A couple said their admiration began after discovering they were distantly related to Elvis. Others said it was Elvis’ faith and charity that inspired them. Some said they had been performing Elvis songs since they were 3 years old.

    For 16-year-old Ayden Maloy from Logansport, Indiana, it was the way Elvis’ music helped him during a difficult time in his life and motivated him to begin performing as an Elvis tribute artist three years ago.

    “I just broke down in tears because it healed me,” Maloy said. “I think Elvis is the healer.”

    In an afternoon of dazzling outfits and daring dance moves, the performers got the audience clapping, singing and swaying along to their Elvis covers. Ultimately, RJ Hursey, a 14-year-old from Bloomington, Illinois, won the competition.

    Hursey, who inherited his love of Elvis from his grandfather, said he practices his tributes every day, and when he’s too sick to sing, he researches. He performs at nursing homes and assisted living facilities and hopes to someday star in a remake of an Elvis movie.

    “It’s humbling,” Hursey said. “It makes you feel good because we know that he died thinking he’d be forgotten, and we’re just so glad he’s still around.”

    While in Tupelo, the tribute artists also toured the Elvis Presley Birthplace, a sprawling complex that includes the home where Elvis was born and the church where he was first exposed to Southern gospel music.

    “It feels so surreal to pay tribute to Elvis in his hometown,” said 15-year-old Charles Session from Morrilton, Arkansas. “I hope that he’s looking down and smiling at all these young performers.”


  • First came Congress. Now a national redistricting battle may turn to statehouses and city councils

    After a blitz of congressional redistricting ahead of the midterm elections, a national battle for partisan control is about to enter a new phase that could affect representation on everything from tax rates to social safety net programs, teacher salaries, housing regulations and local road repairs.

    Georgia’s Republican-led Legislature will convene June 17 for a special session focused on redistricting for the 2028 elections. The agenda includes new voting districts not only for Congress, but also for the state House and Senate — and potentially even the state’s utility regulatory commission.

    It will mark the first time since a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened minority voting protections that a state legislature will attempt to redraw its own districts. Mississippi Republicans and New York Democrats also could undertake legislative redistricting before their 2027 and 2028 elections, respectively.

    Ir remains to be seen, though, how many legislatures will follow, and whether the outburst of mid-decade redistricting will extend down to county commissions, city councils and school boards that make myriad decisions affecting people’s lives. The impact could be widespread.

    “The stakes here are not political, they are deeply human,” said Joe Kennedy III, founder of Groundwork Project, a nonprofit that supports local civil rights and democracy organizations.

    What’s fueling the redistricting movement?

    Voting district boundaries typically are redrawn once a decade after each U.S. census to account for population changes. But last summer, President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw congressional districts to try to win additional seats in the midterm elections. Other states followed with their own partisan gerrymandering.

    Then a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in late April jumpstarted even more redistricting. The court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana as an illegal racial gerrymander, providing grounds for Republicans in other states to reshape districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

    Why is Georgia redrawing its districts?

    A federal judge ruled in 2023 that some of Georgia’s congressional, state Senate and state House districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory manner. The Legislature quickly approved revised maps with new majority-Black districts, though they resulted in little change to Republican majorities in the 2024 elections.

    Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has called lawmakers into special session to again redraw districts in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Louisiana case. That could allow Republicans to undo the court-ordered changes they made in 2023 and potentially redraw other Democratic-held minority districts to the GOP’s advantage.

    Republicans have yet to unveil details of their plans. But Democratic state Rep. Tanya Miller, who is running for attorney general, denounced the upcoming redistricting as a means of “rigging maps to maintain power.”

    How many seats are at stake?

    Several months before the Supreme Court ruling, a report by Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter forecast that Republicans in 10 Southern states could eliminate 191 Democratic-held legislative seats — including 140 districts with Black or Hispanic majorities — if the Supreme Court gutted federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities.

    “If anything, our report was an understatement,” Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter, recently told The Associated Press. “What’s at stake is the future of this democracy.”

    Other analysts don’t expect that many seats to be redistricted. But they do expect the Supreme Court’s decision to ripple through states.

    “We’re going to potentially see a lot of frenzied efforts at every level, including at the local level, to try out undoing district maps and configurations that have performed quite well in providing improved representation for communities of color,” said Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Washington office of the Brennan Center for Justice.

    What states have pending court cases?

    The precedent from the recent Supreme Court decision already is being applied in several states. In light of the ruling, a federal appeals court is allowing Alabama to use a state Senate map approved by Republican lawmakers in this year’s election instead of one imposed by a federal judge who found the state had diluted the voting power of Black residents. The change affects two state Senate districts in the Montgomery area.

    The Supreme Court has sent legislative redistricting cases filed on behalf of Black voters in Mississippi and Native Americans in North Dakota back to lower courts for further consideration in light of its Louisiana decision. The Washington attorney general has asked the Supreme Court to do the same for legislative redistricting cases involving Hispanic voters in that state.

    What’s stopping states from redistricting?

    About half the states have provisions in their constitutions prohibiting mid-decade redistricting of state legislative seats, said Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who runs the “All About Redistricting” website.

    But even in states where it’s allowed, lawmakers may have fewer reasons to redraw their own districts than those for Congress, Levitt said. Politicians who promoted congressional redistricting for the 2026 midterms often justified it as a way to counter gerrymandering in other states and win as many seats as possible for their party. They had extra motivation because a swing of only a few seats nationally in the November elections could affect control of the closely divided U.S. House.

    By contrast, most state legislative chambers already are dominated by one party.

    ”There’s a lot less incentive, if you already control the state legislature by 10 or 12 seats, to eke out an incremental one or two at the expense of really ticking off your own party membership, or at the expense of maybe risking losing seats in a broader way,” Levitt said.

    Could local governments also redraw districts?

    The Supreme Court decision making it more difficult to prove Voting Rights Act violations already has affected some local governments.

    Plaintiffs have voluntarily dismissed a challenge to commission districts in Meriwether County, Georgia. A federal court has accepted new legal briefs in a challenge to Board of Supervisors districts in DeSoto County, Mississippi. And Indiana’s attorney general has asked a federal appeals court to take note of the Louisiana case when deciding a challenge to how judges are selected in Lake County.

    Over roughly the past four decades, data from the University of Michigan shows that cities, counties and school boards have been involved in more than three-fifths of the 466 lawsuits alleging violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which forbids providing minorities less opportunity than other voters to elect the representatives of their choice.

    But that doesn’t necessarily mean local governments will rush to redistrict as a result of a weakened Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court decision cleared the way for officials to justify redistricting based on partisan ambitions. But many local offices are officially nonpartisan.

  • AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Mississippi’s state primaries

     

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Mississippi voters will choose nominees for Congress in a state primary Tuesday. The state’s junior Republican U.S. senator and the entire U.S. House delegation are up for reelection, and all but one have drawn multiple challengers from one or both major political parties hoping to replace them.

    Republicans hold slim majorities on Capitol Hill, but control of either chamber in November likely won’t come down to Mississippi, where no federal office has changed party hands since 2010.

    At the top of the ballot, Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith faces a primary challenge in her bid for a second full term from physician and novelist Sarah Adlakha. The Democratic primary field includes Scott Colom, a state district attorney covering Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties. President Joe Biden nominated Colom to the federal bench in 2023, but Hyde-Smith blocked his confirmation.

    Hyde-Smith received about 54% of the vote in her two previous Senate general elections, both against former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. She did not face a primary challenge in 2020. Mississippi has had relatively little turnover in its two U.S. Senate seats. Since 1989, the state has had only four U.S. senators, all of them Republicans.

    In the 2nd Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s longest-serving current member of Congress and the delegation’s lone Democrat, faces two primary challengers in his bid for an 18th term. Among them is attorney Evan Turnage, one of the latest young Democratic hopefuls looking to unseat a longtime incumbent from their own party. Turnage is a former adviser to Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

    Thompson’s most competitive primary as an incumbent was in 2006, when he received about 64% of the vote against then-state Rep. Chuck Espy, nephew of Mike Espy, whom Thompson succeeded in Congress in 1993.

    Republicans Ron Eller and Kevin Wilson compete for the GOP nomination. Eller is a physician assistant who lost the 2024 general election to Thompson. Wilson is an Adams County supervisor.

    The massive district stretches along the Mississippi River, bordering Arkansas and Louisiana, and comprises about 40% of the state’s geography. It includes most of the state capital of Jackson. About 64% of the district population is Black, the highest in the state. The current boundaries were adopted in 2022. Voters in the district supported Democrat Kamala Harris over Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, 60% to 39%.

    The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

    Mississippi does not have automatic recounts or permit candidates to request a recount. Recounts in the state are held only in the event of a court order. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

    Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Desk will monitor as the votes are tallied:

    When do polls close?

    Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. ET.

    What’s on the ballot?

    The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in the Democratic and Republican primaries for U.S. Senate and contested U.S. House primaries in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Congressional Districts.

    Who gets to vote?

    Mississippi does not register voters by party, so any eligible voter may participate in any party’s primary. Voters may not participate in more than one party’s primary. Voters who participated in one party’s primary may not vote in the April 7 runoff of a different party.

    What do turnout and advance vote look like?

    As of Feb. 2, there were nearly 1.9 million active registered voters in Mississippi.

    The 2024 Republican presidential and U.S. Senate primaries each had about 248,000 votes cast, about 13% of registered voters. There were about 91,000 votes cast in the Democratic presidential primary and about 82,000 in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, which was about 5% and 4% of registered voters, respectively. About 6% of the total votes cast in both the Republican and Democratic primaries that year were cast by absentee ballot.

    As of Friday, a total of 13,473 ballots had already been cast in the 2026 primaries

    How long does vote-counting usually take?

    In the 2024 primaries, the AP first reported results at 8:07 p.m. ET, or seven minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 12:35 a.m. ET, with about 95% of total votes counted.

    When are early and absentee votes released?

    There is not a standard, uniform practice across counties when it comes to releasing results of absentee voting. Some counties may provide a subtotal of absentee voting at the end of the tabulation process, while others might merge them with other results in their respective precincts and release them throughout the night.

    Mississippi does not have in-person early voting.

    Are we there yet?

    As of Tuesday, there will be 238 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

    ___

    Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

     

  • FBI: Suspect in Mississippi synagogue fire targeted house of worship because of its ‘Jewish ties’

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A suspect in an arson fire at a historic Mississippi synagogue admitted to targeting the house of worship because of its “Jewish ties” and was turned in to authorities by his father who had observed burn marks on his son’s ankles, hands and face, the FBI said Monday.

    Stephen Pittman was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive. The suspect confessed to lighting a fire inside the building, which he referred to as “the synagogue of Satan,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Monday.

    There was no attorney listed for Pittman in the court docket Monday.

    The fire ripped through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday. No congregants or firefighters were injured. Security camera footage released Monday by the synagogue showed a masked and hooded man using a gas can to pour a liquid on the floor and a couch in the building’s lobby. More than five decades earlier, the synagogue was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan because of its rabbi’s outspoken support for civil rights.

    The weekend fire badly damaged the 165-year-old synagogue’s library and administrative offices. Five Torahs — the sacred scrolls with the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — located inside the sanctuary were being assessed for smoke damage. Two Torahs inside the library, where the most severe damage was done, were destroyed. One Torah that survived the Holocaust was behind glass and was not damaged in the fire, according to the congregation.

    The suspect’s father contacted the FBI and said that his son had confessed to setting the building on fire. Pittman had texted his father a photo of the rear of the synagogue before the fire, with the message, “There’s a furnace in the back.” His father had pleaded with his son to return home, but “Pittman replied back by saying he was due for a homerun and ‘I did my research,’” the affidavit said.

    During an interview with investigators, Pittman said he stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to purchase the gas used in the fire. He also took the license plate off of his vehicle at the gas station. He used an ax to break out a window of the synagogue, poured gas inside and used a torch lighter to start the fire, the FBI affidavit said.

    The FBI later recovered a burned cell phone believed to be Pittman’s and took possession of a hand torch that a congregant had found.

    Yellow police tape on Monday blocked off the entrances to the synagogue building, which was surrounded by broken glass and soot. Bouquets of flowers were laid on the ground at the building’s entrance — including one with a note that said, “I’m so very sorry.”

    The congregation’s president, Zach Shemper, has vowed to rebuild the synagogue and said several churches had offered their spaces for worship during the rebuilding process.

    With just several hundred people in the community, it was never particularly easy being Jewish in Mississippi’s capital city, but members of Beth Israel took a special pride in keeping their traditions alive in the heart of the Deep South.

    With the exception of the cemetery, every aspect of Jewish life in Jackson was under Beth Israel’s roof. The midcentury modern building not only housed the congregation but also the Jewish Federation, a nonprofit provider of social services and philanthropy that is the hub of Jewish institutional life in most U.S. cities. The building also was home to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which provides resources to Jewish communities in 13 southern states. A Holocaust memorial was outdoors behind the synagogue building.

    Because Jewish children throughout the South have attended summer camp for decades in Utica, Mississippi, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Jackson, many retain a fond connection to the state and its Jewish community.

    “Jackson is the capital city, and that synagogue is the capital synagogue in Mississippi,” said Rabbi Gary Zola, a historian of American Jewry who taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. “I would call it the flagship, though when we talk about places like New York and Los Angeles, it probably seems like Hicksville.”

    Beth Israel as a congregation was founded in 1860 and acquired its first property where it built Mississippi’s first synagogue after the Civil War. In 1967, the synagogue moved to its current location where it was bombed by local Ku Klux Klan members not long after relocating. Two months after that, the home of the synagogue’s leader, Rabbi Perry Nussbaum, was bombed because of his outspoken opposition to segregation and racism.

    At a time when opposition to racial segregation could be dangerous in the Deep South, many Beth Israel congregants hoped the rabbi would just stay quiet, but Nussbaum was unshakable in believing he was doing the right thing by supporting civil rights, Zola said.

    “He had this strong, strong sense of justice,” Zola said.

    ___

    Martin contributed to this report from Atlanta. Schneider reported from Orlando, Fla. Follow him on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social

  • Ole Miss and Miami to play for a spot in the FBS national championship game at Fiesta Bowl

    GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Mississippi has kept winning despite its coach bolting for another program.

    Miami has rekindled the glory days of its 2001 national championship with a ferocious defense and steady quarterback.

    One will play for a national championship after Thursday night’s Fiesta Bowl.

    Ole Miss (13-1) spent the last half of the regular season wondering if coach Lane Kiffin would stick around or leave for LSU. Once the coach did head out, the sixth-seeded Rebels kept winning to reach the College Football Playoff semifinals.

    Defensive coordinator Pete Golding took over as coach and many of the assistants expected to join Kiffin in Baton Rouge stuck around to see the Rebels through the rest of the playoffs. Ole Miss and its high-scoring offense blew out Tulane in its opening CFP game and outlasted mighty Georgia 39-34 in the semifinals.

    Miami (12-2) is in the midst of its best run since winning the 2001 national title.

    The 10th-seeded Hurricanes have done it with a defense that went from mediocrity to one of the stingiest in the FBS under first-year coordinator Corey Hetherman. Miami gave up its fewest points since the 2001 national championship team — fourth nationally at 13.07 per game. The Hurricanes have been even stingier in the CFP, holding Texas A&M and Ohio State to a combined 17 points.

    Like most big games, the Fiesta Bowl will likely come down to which quarterback plays best.

    Miami’s Carson Beck is a proven winner, earning a national championship as a backup at Georgia before two stellar seasons as the starter. He’s been a perfect fit since transferring to Miami, throwing for for 3,313 yards and 27 touchdowns on 74% passing with 10 interceptions.

    Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss took a circuitous route to the playoffs.

    With limited options out of high school, the dual-threat quarterback opted to play at Ferris State, leading the Bulldogs to a Division II championship last season. Chambliss has been superb since taking over as starter three games into this season, racking up 4,180 total yards and 29 touchdowns.

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    Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

  • Young Democrat launches primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson in Mississippi

     

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A 33-year-old antitrust lawyer with ties to major Democratic politicians is challenging U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson to represent Mississippi’s 2nd congressional district.

    Evan Turnage is the latest in a trend of young Democrats looking to oust the party’s old guard and rebrand the party after the 2024 election.

    “The same old playbook from the ’90s isn’t going to work anymore,” Turnage said. “We are dealing with Big Tech firms and social media and AI, and we need members of Congress who know how to navigate that terrain.”

    The Yale-educated attorney has served as chief counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and senior counsel to Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

    If elected, Turnage said he would focus on creating economic opportunity and political reform.

    Thompson, a civil-rights leader, has represented the district for more than 30 years. He formerly chaired the House Jan. 6 committee and is a ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

    The last time Thompson faced a meaningful primary challenge was in 2012 against former Greenville Mayor Heather McTeer Toney.

    In a statement, Thompson said he is confident his record will speak for itself.

    “Elections were created to give people the ability to make a choice,” Thompson said. “I trust the voters of the district.”

    The district is a Democratic stronghold in a state led mainly by Republicans. It stretches along the Mississippi River, covering the western side of the state and the capital of Jackson.

    Thompson is facing several other challengers, including Republican Ron Eller, who lost to Thompson in 2024.

    Voters will choose the party’s Democratic nominee in a primary on March 10, 2026.

     

  • Texas woman arrested for hiding razor blades in loaves of bread at Mississippi Walmart stores

    A woman who allegedly pushed razor blades into loaves of bread at two Biloxi, Mississippi, Walmart stores was arrested on Tuesday.

    Camille Benson, 33, of Texas, has been charged with attempted mayhem. Her bond is set at $100,000.

    Customers reported finding the razor blades at a Walmart Supercenter and a Walmart Neighborhood Market, said Lt. Candace Young, a public information officer for the Biloxi Police Department.

    Walmart employees told police a customer first reported finding a razor blade in a loaf purchased from the Walmart Supercenter on Dec. 5. On Dec. 8, a customer who bought a loaf at the Walmart Neighborhood Market also reported finding a razor blade.

    After another customer complained to the Walmart Supercenter on Sunday, employees inspected the merchandise and found several more loaves had been tampered with, law enforcement officials said.

    The police department was notified on Monday.

    In a press release, the department asked all citizens who bought bread from those Walmart locations to inspect the loaves and report any findings.

    “The health and safety of our customers is always a top priority,” Walmart said in a statement. “We have removed and thoroughly inspected all potentially affected products at impacted stores in Biloxi. We appreciate law enforcement for their swift action and will continue cooperating with them as they investigate.”

    The Biloxi Police Department said it does not believe any other stores have been targeted.

    If customers purchase a product that has been tampered with, they should immediately throw it out and visit their local Walmart for a full refund, the company said.

  • New owner to open Mississippi barn where Emmett Till was killed as a memorial site


    The barn in Mississippi where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed will open to the public as a “sacred” memorial site by 2030, the new owner announced.

    The Emmett Till Interpretive Center disclosed late Sunday that it had purchased the barn located in a rural area outside the city of Drew, aided by a $1.5 million donation from television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes.

    “We think that where the worst harms have happened, the most healing is possible,” ETIC Executive Director Patrick Weems said.

    The center plans to open the barn as a memorial ahead of the 75th anniversary of Till’s lynching in 1955.

    Two white men publicly confessed to the killing after being acquitted by an all-white jury in Mississippi later that year, but a Justice Department report released in 2021 said at least one more, unnamed person was involved in Till’s abduction. Experts who’ve studied the case believe others participated, from a half-dozen to more than 14.

    Till was abducted from his great-uncle’s home on Aug. 28, 1955, after the Chicago teenager was accused of whistling at a white woman in a rural Mississippi grocery store. According to accounts, the men took Till to the barn, where they tortured and killed him. His body was later found in the Tallahatchie River.

    At Till’s funeral, his mother insisted on an open casket so the public could see the state of her son’s battered body. It was a pivotal moment in the emerging Civil Rights movement.

    Weems said he hopes opening the barn to the public will encourage people to ask questions about a dark chapter in American history.

    “Have we done enough? Is there justice yet? Has our society moved in the direction of human rights so that this sort of thing never happens?” Weems said.

    The center will have the barn under 24-hour surveillance, and the property will be equipped with floodlights and security cameras, Weems said, calling those measures precautionary.

    A historical marker, erected where Till’s body was discovered, has been replaced three times after being vandalized. The first marker was stolen and thrown into the river in 2008. The second was shot more than 100 times by 2014. It was replaced in 2018, and shot another 35 times. Now the marker is the only bulletproof historical marker in the country, according to Weems.

    The barn was purchased Nov. 18. Weems noted that Nov. 23, the day the purchase was announced, was the birthday of Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Till’s mother was a civil rights activist in the aftermath of her son’s death and died in 2003.

    ___

    This story was first published Nov. 24, 2025. It was updated Nov. 25, 2025, to correct the day the barn was purchased. It was purchased Nov. 18, not Nov. 23.


  • Explosion at Mississippi chemical plant causes ammonia leak, evacuations

    YAZOO CITY, Miss. (AP) — An explosion at a hydrogen and nitrogen product manufacturer in Mississippi on Wednesday caused an ammonia leak and forced nearby residents to evacuate, officials said.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a post on the social platform X that emergency officials from across the state were responding to the anhydrous ammonia leak at CF Industries’ plant north of Yazoo City.

    No deaths or injuries have been reported, he said.

    “Thank you to all of Mississippi’s first responders and emergency managers for quickly responding to the leak,” he said.

    Photos and video posted online show a large plume of yellowish smoke rising above the facility, which includes an ammonia plant and four nitric acid plants, among other things.

    The facility is able to store about 48,000 tons of ammonia, although the exact amount there when the explosion took place was not immediately clear.

    CF Industries said in a statement that there are no injuries, and “all employees and contractors on site at the time of the incident have been safely accounted for.”

    Andre Robinson, who lives about a half-mile (800 meters) from the facility, said he and his son were getting ready to make gumbo when he heard what sounded like a sonic boom or a tree crashing on his house.

    “There was a boom and then the house shook,” he said.

    When he looked outside, Robinson said he saw smoke rising from the facility and started to smell a strong scent of ammonia.

    “We’re used to the ammonia smell, but not that bad,” he said, adding that his family has since evacuated to Jackson.

    Part of U.S. Route 49E was temporarily closed, according to the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

    The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said in a post on X that “air monitoring operations are underway and will continue as long as necessary to ensure public safety.”

    Anhydrous ammonia is used as a fertilizer to help provide nitrogen for corn and wheat plants, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. If a person touches it when it is in gas or liquid form, they could be burned.

    Yazoo City is a small community about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Jackson.