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  • Mississippi Absentee Voting Continues To Increase

    Mississippi Absentee Voting Continues To Increase

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Absentee voting in Mississippi is continuing at a brisk pace, the state’s top elections official said Monday.

    Secretary of State Michael Watson said nearly 170,000 absentee ballots had been requested and about 142,600 of those had been completed and returned by Sunday. That compares to 103,000 total absentee ballots that were cast in the state during the 2016 election, the last time a presidential race was on the ballot. This year’s absentee numbers surpassed the 2016 numbers a week ago.

    Mississippi is one of five states without no-excuses early voting. Absentee voting in Mississippi is available to anyone who is 65 or older or who has a temporary or permanent disability. It is also available to people who have to work on Election Day when polls are open or to people who will be out of town on Election Day, including college students.

    People may cast and absentee ballot by mail or at a circuit clerk’s office. The state’s deadline for in-person absentee voting is Oct. 31. Mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, which is Nov. 3, and must be received within five business days.

    Mississippi is expanding access to curbside voting for people with symptoms of COVID-19 and setting a new process to let voters correct minor discrepancies with signatures on absentee ballots. The changes are being made after voting-rights groups sued the state in federal court.

  • Hall Of Fame Jackson State Coach W.C. Gorden, 90, Dies

    Hall Of Fame Jackson State Coach W.C. Gorden, 90, Dies

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — W.C. Gorden, a Hall of Fame coach who led Jackson State to a 28-game Southwestern Athletic Conference winning streak while building a league power in the late 1980s, has died. He was 90.

    The school announced on its athletics website that Gorden died Friday night after being informed by his family. Considered JSU’s winningest coach, Gorden went 119-47-5 from 1976-91 after serving as defensive coordinator and head baseball coach. The Tigers won eight SWAC titles and reached the NCAA playoffs nine times under Gorden, who worked two years as athletic director at the historically Black college after retiring as coach.

    Gorden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008. The Mississippi legislature in 1997 honored the Nashville, Tennessee, native with a proclamation as JSU’s winningest coach and credited his academic oversight for JSU having the highest graduation rate in the SWAC and higher than the student body.

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    More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

  • Mississippi Governor’s Mask Mandate Expands To 16 Counties

    Mississippi Governor’s Mask Mandate Expands To 16 Counties

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday that he is extending a mask mandate to seven additional counties to try to control the spread of the coronavirus as cases increase rapidly in some areas.

    His new order takes effect Wednesday and lasts until at least Nov. 11. When it is in place, 16 of Mississippi’s 82 counties will have a requirement for people to wear face coverings when they are indoors away from their homes. Social gatherings in those 16 counties also will be limited to 10 people indoors or 50 people outdoors.

    The counties Reeves is adding are two of the larger ones in the state, Harrison and Madison, along with the less-populated Benton, Carroll, Jones, Leake and Marshall counties. Those with restrictions he set last week are DeSoto, Jackson, Lee, Forrest, Lamar, Itawamba, Neshoba, Claiborne and Chickasaw counties.

    Reeves said the restrictions are in counties that have had at least 200 confirmed virus cases or at least 500 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents during a recent two-week period.

    “If you live anywhere in Mississippi and you want to be in the game and help us reduce the risk of spread and overwhelming the health care system — you go out in public, wear a mask,” Reeves said during a news conference. “Stay socially distanced. Don’t get close to one another. Don’t have big events … for social purposes.”

    The Republican governor said he does not anticipate that he will set a statewide mandate for people to wear masks to polling places on or before the Nov. 3 election.

    “I do anticipate that the vast majority of Mississippians, when they go vote, are going to wear a mask,” Reeves said.

    Mississippi confirmed its first cases of COVID-19 in March. For the first few months, Reeves set county-by-county mask mandates only in places with rapidly increasing case numbers. His only statewide mask mandate was in place from Aug. 4 to Sept. 30.

    The state health department said Monday that Mississippi, with a population of about 3 million, has reported more than 115,000 confirmed cases and at least 3,263 deaths from COVID-19 as of Sunday evening.

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    Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

  • Chloe Mcglothin

    [vc_single_image image=”1514″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”1515″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][headerText widget_name=”Birthday and Anniversary Cakes Provided By The Markets” level=”h3″ url=”” el_class=””]

    Happy Birthday to Chloe Mcglothin!

    Birthday Cake winner 10/27/20

  • Hurricane Zeta is ashore in resort zone of Mexico’s Yucatan

    Hurricane Zeta is ashore in resort zone of Mexico’s Yucatan

    CANCUN, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Zeta, the 27th named storm in a very busy Atlantic season, made landfall on the Caribbean coast of the eastern Yucatan Peninsula late Monday while whipping the resorts around Tulum with rain and wind.

    The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Zeta came ashore just north of Tulum with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

    Quintana Roo state Gov. Carlos Joaquín had warned that “nobody should be on the streets … you shouldn’t go out anymore” until the hurricane passed.

    Zeta was predicted to lose some power while crossing the peninsula, before regaining hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday while heading for the central U.S. Gulf Coast and a likely landfall Wednesday night. A hurricane watch was posted from Morgan City, La., to the Mississippi-Alabama state line.

    In Playa del Carmen, between Tulum and Cancun, Mexican tourist Elsa Márquez held up her beach towel Monday so it flapped in the wind, rattling with the strong gusts Monday a few hours before Zeta’s arrival.

    “This is our first experience (in a hurricane) and the truth is we are a little afraid because we don’t know what will happen, but here we are,” said Márquez, who was visiting the resort from the north-central state of Queretaro.

    Another tourist, Mario Ortiz Rosas from the western state of Michoacan, looked at the rising waves, noting: “I didn’t plan for this, but it looks like it is going to get complicated.”

    Some boats that normally carry tourists in Cancun took refuge in a nearby lagoon channel, anchored among the mangroves to avoid the battering wind, waves and storm surge. Boat captain Francisco Sosa Rosado noted they had to perform the same maneuver barely three week ago, when the area was hit by a stronger Hurricane Delta, which made landfall with top winds of 110 mph (175 kph).

    “With Delta, the gusts of wind were very strong … the anchor lines were at risk of breaking,” Sosa Rosado said. “I hope it won’t be as bad with this hurricane.”

    Trees felled by Delta littered parts of Cancun, stacked along roadsides and in parks and there was concern they could become projectiles when Zeta blew through. A number of stoplights around the vacation destination remained unrepaired since Delta.

    Quintana Roo state officials reported nearly 60,000 tourists in the state as of midweek. They said 71 shelters were readied for tourists or residents who might need them, though the governor said he hoped it would not be necessary to move guests out of their hotels.

    Zeta broke the record for the previous earliest 27th Atlantic named storm that formed Nov. 29, 2005. It’s also the 11th hurricane of the season. An average season sees six hurricanes and 12 named storms.

    There have been so many storms this season that the hurricane center had to turn to the Greek alphabet after running out of assigned names.

    Zeta is the furthest into the Greek alphabet the Atlantic season has gone. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became an “unnamed named storm.”

     

  • Edwards sues House GOP for trying to lift coronavirus rules

    Edwards sues House GOP for trying to lift coronavirus rules

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards filed a lawsuit Monday challenging House Republicans’ efforts to rescind Louisiana’s statewide mask mandate, business restrictions and other limits the Democratic governor enacted to combat the coronavirus, keeping the rules in a sort of legal limbo.

    House Republicans, backed by Attorney General Jeff Landry, say they have nullified the entire public health emergency and the restrictions Edwards enacted through that emergency proclamation. But the Edwards administration continues to enforce the rules, arguing the law used by GOP lawmakers to revoke his emergency orders is unconstitutional.

    Amid the widespread uncertainty about what guidelines businesses, churches, schools and residents should follow, Edwards asked a court to declare that his emergency rules remain intact and enforceable.

    “As soon as you start having success because of the way you are managing the emergency, that is not the right time to discard the tools that allow you to have that success,” the governor said. “It’s misguided thinking by some members of the House.”

    A never-before-used process in Louisiana law allows a majority of legislators in either the House or Senate to sign a petition to revoke a governor’s emergency declaration — and all the restrictions and rules tied to it. GOP House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and 64 other Republican lawmakers in the 105-member House signed such a petition on Friday and turned it over to Edwards, prohibiting the governor from enacting another coronavirus emergency proclamation for seven days.

    The law calls for the governor receiving such a petition to end the emergency. But Edwards hasn’t terminated his emergency order, arguing he doesn’t believe the law allowing legislators in only one chamber to overturn a governor’s emergency declaration is constitutional.

    In his lawsuit, Edwards argues the petition law violates a governor’s constitutional and statutory powers to respond to emergencies. He also says GOP lawmakers didn’t follow the law’s requirement that they consult with the state’s “public health authority” before issuing the petition.

    He filed the lawsuit against the full Legislature, the House and Schexnayder.

    And he told residents and businesses on social media and in his afternoon press briefing that his Phase 3 restrictions remain “in full force and effect.”

    The state fire marshal’s office, which has been charged with enforcing the governor’s rules on businesses, said it continues its work. It can fine businesses and recommend them for permit revocations for not following the coronavirus rules.

    “We have received no different directive from the governor’s office, so our operations remain the same,” said agency spokeswoman Ashley Rodrigue.

    Still, Landry — in a statement released over the weekend and again on conservative talk radio Monday — insisted the coronavirus restrictions no longer exist, whether Edwards follows the law’s provisions to terminate his emergency order or not.

    “The termination process is effective immediately, unless provided otherwise in the petition … The termination of emergency powers does not require any additional action other than the signed petition,” Landry said in his statement.

    Edwards lambasted the House Republicans who signed the petition, saying they put at risk Louisiana’s gains in combating two separate virus case spikes.

    But legislators who backed the petition effort said the governor has repeatedly ignored their requests for more information and their concerns about certain restrictions. They say his rules are too harsh seven months after the virus outbreak began in Louisiana.

    Edwards has loosened his restrictions several times, noting his rules are in line with guidance from the White House’s coronavirus task force and are less strict than what exists in many other states.

    Under Edwards’ restrictions, restaurants, churches, gyms and most other businesses can operate at 75% of their capacity. Sports events such as high school and college football games have crowd limits of 25%. But high school football stadiums can have their crowds boosted to 50% capacity in parishes where 5% or fewer of their coronavirus tests have come back positive in the last two weeks.

    Tight limits remain on bars, keeping them to takeout and delivery sales only, unless they operate in a parish that has recently seen low test positivity rates — and only if local officials agree. When they are allowed to open for in-person, onsite drinking, bars are restricted to 25% of their occupancy limits and tableside service.

    At least 5,648 Louisianans have died of the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the state health department.

  • 10 Shot, 2 Fatally, At Post-Funeral Gathering In Mississippi

    10 Shot, 2 Fatally, At Post-Funeral Gathering In Mississippi

    GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — Ten people were shot, two fatally, during a post-funeral gathering in Mississippi over the weekend, police said.

    Jonathan Pitts, 42, and his sister Katrina Pitts, 41, died at the scene of the shooting late Saturday in Greenwood, the Greenwood Commonwealth reported.

    The siblings and other relatives from Chicago were in Greenwood to attend their grandmother’s funeral, investigators said. A gathering with family from both cities was held after the services.

    Greenwood Deputy Police Chief Marvin Hammond said he could not immediately provide an age range of the other shooting victims or their conditions.

    Eyewitnesses told police a semiautomatic rifle was used, and officers picked up shell casings from an AR-15. Hammond said the assailant was gone by the time officers arrived. No arrests had been made as of Sunday.

    Hammond did not immediately respond to a telephone message Monday from The Associated Press seeking additional information.

  • Churches Raise Enough To Erase About $26M In Medical Debt

    Churches Raise Enough To Erase About $26M In Medical Debt

    BOSTON (AP) — More than 100 United Church of Christ congregations across southern New England have helped raise enough money to erase a total of $26.2 million in medical debt for thousands of families across the Northeast and more than 12,000 first responders and medical workers nationwide.

    The churches in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, along with four church associations, and more than 100 households raised more than $200,000, the denomination announced Sunday.

    That money went to the New-York based nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, which bought debt in August from collection agencies for pennies on the dollar. That debt will now be forgiven.

    About $8.4 million in medical debt for 7,175 households in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont will be wiped out.

    In addition, another $17.8 million in debt for 12,144 health care workers and first responders across the U.S. will be erased.

    All will receive letters telling them that their medical debt has been forgiven.

    “In the midst of a pandemic that is disproportionately impacting communities of color and with widespread unemployment causing people to lose their insurance just when they may need it most, eliminating medical debt for vulnerable individuals and families is a tangible way in which we are responding to our call to make God’s love and justice real,” the Rev. Jocelyn Gardner Spencer, senior pastor of the United Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut, said in a statement.

    The families that had their debt forgiven make less than two times the federal poverty level, are financially burdened, and have out-of-pocket expenses that are 5% or more of their annual income or have debts worth more than their assets, according to the church.

    The United Church of Christ has held similar debt-forgiveness efforts across the nation.

  • US To Get 9th Justice With Dems Powerless To Block Barrett

    US To Get 9th Justice With Dems Powerless To Block Barrett

    WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Senate is set to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, giving the country a ninth justice Monday as Republicans overpower Democratic opposition to secure President Donald Trump’s nominee the week before Election Day.

    Democratic leaders asked Vice President Mike Pence to stay away from presiding over her Senate confirmation due to potential health risks after his aides tested positive for COVID-19. But although Pence isn’t needed to break a tie, the vote would present a dramatic opportunity for him to preside over confirmation of Trump’s third Supreme Court justice.

    Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his leadership team wrote that not only would Pence’s presence violate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, “it would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy.”

    But Senate Republicans control the chamber and Barrett’s confirmation isn’t in doubt.

    The 48-year-old Barrett would secure a conservative court majority for the foreseeable future, potentially opening a new era of rulings on abortion, gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act. A case against the Obama-era health law is scheduled to be heard Nov. 10.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scoffed at the “apocalyptic” warnings from critics that the judicial branch was becoming mired in partisan politics as he defended its transformation under his watch.

    “This is something to be really proud of and feel good about,” the Republican leader said Sunday during a rare weekend session.

    McConnell said that unlike legislative actions that can be undone by new presidents or lawmakers, “they won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”

    Schumer, of New York, said the Trump administration’s drive to install Barrett during the coronavirus crisis shows “the Republican Party is willing to ignore the pandemic in order to rush this nominee forward.”

    To underscore the potential health risks, Schumer urged his colleagues Sunday not to linger in the chamber but “cast your votes quickly and from a safe distance.” Some GOP senators tested positive for the coronavirus following a Rose Garden event with Trump to announce Barrett’s nomination, but they have since said they have been cleared by their doctors from quarantine. Pence’s office said the vice president tested negative for the virus on Monday.

    The confirmation was expected to be the first of a Supreme Court nominee so close to a presidential election. It’s also one of the first high court nominees in recent memory receiving no support from the minority party, a pivot from not long ago when a president’s picks often won wide support.

    Barrett presented herself in public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a neutral arbiter and suggested, “It’s not the law of Amy.” But her writings against abortion and a ruling on “Obamacare” show a deeply conservative thinker. She was expected to be seated quickly on the high court.

    “She’s a conservative woman who embraces her faith. She’s unabashedly pro-life, but she’s not going to apply ‘the law of Amy’ to all of us,” the Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Fox News Channel.

    At the start of Trump’s presidency, McConnell engineered a Senate rules change to allow confirmation by a majority of the 100 senators, rather than the 60-vote threshold traditionally needed to advance high court nominees over objections. It was escalation of a rules change Democrats put in place to advance other court and administrative nominees under President Barack Obama.

    On Sunday, the Senate voted 51-48 to begin to bring the process to a vote as senators, mostly Democrats, pulled an all-night session for the final 30 hours of often heated debate. Two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted against advancing the nominee, and all Democrats who voted were opposed. California Sen. Kamala Harris, the vice presidential nominee, missed the vote while campaigning in Michigan.

    Monday’s final tally was expected to grow by one after Murkowski announced her support for the nominee, even as she decried filling the seat in the midst of a heated race for the White House. Murkowski said Saturday she would vote against the procedural steps but ultimately join GOP colleagues in confirming Barrett.

    “While I oppose the process that has led us to this point, I do not hold it against her,” Murkowski said.

    Collins, who faces a tight reelection fight in Maine, remains the only Republican expected to vote against Trump’s nominee. “My vote does not reflect any conclusion that I have reached about Judge Barrett’s qualifications to serve,” Collins said. “I do not think it is fair nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote prior to the election.”

    By pushing for Barrett’s ascension so close to the Nov. 3 election, Trump and his Republican allies are counting on a campaign boost, in much the way they believe McConnell’s refusal to allow the Senate to consider Obama’s nominee in February 2016 created excitement for Trump among conservatives and evangelical Christians eager for a Republican president to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

    Barrett was a professor at Notre Dame Law School when she was tapped by Trump in 2017 for an appeals court opening. Two Democrats joined at that time to confirm her, but none is expected to vote for her now.

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    Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.

  • Storms Extend Louisiana Fisheries COVID-19 Aid Deadline

    Storms Extend Louisiana Fisheries COVID-19 Aid Deadline

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Damage from Hurricanes Laura and Delta has prompted Louisiana to extend the deadline for fisheries’ workers and businesses to apply for help under a coronavirus pandemic program.

    Instead of ending Monday, the application period will now last through Nov. 23, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in a news release.

    “After a closer look at the damage left by hurricanes Laura and Delta to the fishing community, the department wants to ensure that everyone impacted by those hurricanes has ample opportunity to apply,” Secretary Jack Montoucet said.

    He said the extension will give those people more time to repair and get services to their homes and to take care of their families’ immediate needs.

    The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission has $14.6 million in federal coronavirus relief money for Louisiana’s fishing industry.

    Applications must be submitted online at www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/cares-act-assistance. The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission will send payments to applicants who qualify.

    Applications for the program must have “Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries” at the top, the news release said. It said applicants getting businesses to help with their application should have them verify that they are applying for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act program managed by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

    The department said some people have applied to other programs thinking they were applying to the one it manages.

    “If you need language assistance or assistance submitting an application, contact the South Central Planning and Development Commission” at 800-630-3791, the statement said.

    The department can provide more information at 225-765-3980 or 855-262-1764.