The American Road & Transportation Builders Association released their 2017 Bridge Report which outline the 55,710 bridges in the US classified as "structurally deficient." The bridges are not all considered unsafe, but in need of attention.
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BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — Officials have confirmed at least three fatalities and several injuries after a train collided with a charter bus in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Biloxi city spokesman Vincent Creel says emergency responders were still removing injured people from the bus more than 30 minutes after the crash Tuesday.
Creel says a CSX train headed eastbound hit the bus at a crossing in downtown Biloxi just before 2:15 p.m., pushing the bus about 300 feet down the tracks.
He says a nearby hospital is setting up a triage unit at the site to treat the injured.
ON THE SCENE: Live updates from site of bus, train collision in Biloxi https://t.co/n0EA21vuFlpic.twitter.com/wGhZXBt3ag
— Patrick Magee (@CoastCoverage) March 7, 2017Creel says as many as 50 people were on the bus. He said there are deaths and injuries, but he could not immediately quantify them.
Charter buses often carry patrons to casinos in Biloxi, but Creel says he doesn't know where this bus was headed.
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(Mic) — Being the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, Jackson Women's Health Organization is already in a pretty precarious position. And now, there's a new bully on the block — literally.
According to Pregnancy Help News, an anti-abortion rights outlet, a pregnancy crisis center called "Center for Pregnancy Choices" has opened just 100 yards away from its abortion-providing neighbor.
Apparently, the center's grand opening represents the "intervention piece" of founding board member Barbara Beavers' master plan to help deter women from terminating their pregnancies. Beavers and her team began scouting potential spaces for the new center — one of three in the state — in 2014, settling on the location just spitting distance from Jackson Women's Health Organization. At the time the space was out of their price range, but with a little fundraising and some help from Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, they were finally able to afford it.
Being the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, Jackson Women's Health Organization is already in a pretty precarious position. And now, there's a new bully on the block — literally.
According to Pregnancy Help News, an anti-abortion rights outlet, a pregnancy crisis center called "Center for Pregnancy Choices" has opened just 100 yards away from its abortion-providing neighbor.
Apparently, the center's grand opening represents the "intervention piece" of founding board member Barbara Beavers' master plan to help deter women from terminating their pregnancies. Beavers and her team began scouting potential spaces for the new center — one of three in the state — in 2014, settling on the location just spitting distance from Jackson Women's Health Organization. At the time the space was out of their price range, but with a little fundraising and some help from Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, they were finally able to afford it.
SEE ALSO: This Texas abortion doctor suffers daily threats and protests — here's why he says he'll never leave
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BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — Authorities in Mississippi said Sunday that a suspect is in custody after eight people were killed in a shooting, including a sheriff's deputy.
Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said the shootings occurred at three separate homes Saturday night in rural Lincoln County. Two of the homes are in Brookhaven and one is in Bogue Chitto. The area is about 68 miles (109 kilometers) south of Jackson, the capital.
Strain said investigators were gathering evidence at all three locations.
Strain said charges have not yet been filed against the suspect and that it would be "premature" to discuss a motive.
It was not clear whether the suspect knew his victims before allegedly killing them.
Gov. Phil Bryant issued a statement asking state residents to pray for the victims. He also noted the "sacrifice" made by law enforcement officers to protect and serve their communities.
"Every day, the men and women who wear the badge make some measure of sacrifice to protect and serve their communities. Too often, we lose one of our finest. I thank the law enforcement agencies involved for their hard work," Bryant said in a statement.
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — It was after midnight when a gunman burst into the living room of a southern Mississippi home where young people were playing video games.
Caleb Edwards, 15, said the man — whom he knows as Corey Godbolt — demanded to know where his cousin's parents were. Jordan Blackwell, 18, said they were gone to another town.
At that, Godbolt "just started shooting," Caleb said.
As people scrambled to hide inside the Brookhaven home, Blackwell used his own body to shield his cousin Caleb from the gunfire.
With his mother standing by his side Monday, Caleb spoke calmly as he recounted to The Associated Press how he felt the force of the impact as Blackwell was shot Sunday.
"He loved me enough to take some bullets for me," Caleb said.
Caleb's 11-year-old brother, Austin Edwards, was also shot to death in that living room early Sunday. They were among the eight people killed in three houses in a rampage that started late Saturday after law enforcement officers were called about a domestic dispute. A deputy sheriff was among those killed. The other seven were all relatives or acquaintances of the accused shooter.
Investigators said Willie Corey Godbolt, 35, will be charged with one count of capital murder and seven counts of first degree murder. Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said the charges could change as the investigation continues.
Godbolt was hospitalized for a gunshot wound and was in good condition Monday; it wasn't clear who shot him. He could make an initial court appearance Tuesday.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation identified some of those killed as: Barbara Mitchell, 55; Brenda May, 53; Tocarra May, 35; Ferral Burage, 45; and Shelia Burage, 46; and deputy William Durr, 36. The parents of Austin Edwards and Jordan Blackwell identified their sons as the other victims.
Brookhaven is a south Mississippi city surrounded by pine trees and rolling green pastures. The outbreak of violence has shaken the county of 34,500 residents.
More than a dozen people stood in the driveway of Edwards' and Blackwell's grandparents Monday afternoon and joined hands for prayer.
"We need you, oh God, to be with this family in their grief," said Richard Thomas, pastor of New Home Church of Christ Holiness.
Jordan Blackwell played linebacker for the Brookhaven High football team. As he prepared for his senior year, two universities and a nearby community college had already expressed interest in him, said his mother, Tiffany Blackwell. She and her husband, Shon, described their son as cheerful and unselfish. She said Jordan dreamed of getting a Camaro for high school graduation.
Tears rolled down one cheek Monday as Tiffany Blackwell described coming home and finding her slain son.
"When I walked in the house and saw my child lying there, I just thought he was sleeping," she said. "I told him to wake up. I told him to get up, but he wouldn't move."
Caleb described his younger brother, Austin, as "a happy kid" who liked to play and cook.
Caleb said after his brother was shot, "I thought I was going to die."
Godbolt showed up at Vincent Mitchell's Bogue Chitto home before midnight Saturday to demand that his estranged wife give up their two children. She and the children had been staying with them for about three weeks, Mitchell told AP.
"He'd come to get his kids. The deputy was called," and asked him to leave, and it seemed like Godbolt would comply at first, Mitchell said.
"He acted like, motioned like, he was fixing to go. Then he reached in his back pocket and grabbed a gun," Mitchell said. "He just started shooting everything."
Mitchell said he escaped along with Godbolt's wife, but Mitchell's wife, her sister and one of the wife's daughters were killed. Authorities said Godbolt fled and killed four more people at two other homes.
At least seven hours elapsed between the first shootings and Godbolt's arrest near the final crime scene, in a subdivision of ranch houses.
The deputy, William Durr, had worked in Christian ministry before going into law enforcement, and liked doing puppet shows to deliver uplifting messages to children. Durr was married and had an 11-year-old son. His mother spoke briefly with the AP on Monday, saying that the family is still in distress.
"He was a good Christian man," Debbie Durr said at her rural home near Brookhaven. "He was a youth minister and a pastor before going into law enforcement."
Godbolt told The Clarion-Ledger that he hadn't planned to be captured alive.
"My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran out of bullets," he said. "Suicide by cop was my intention."
___
Associated Press writers Kathleen Foody in Atlanta and Kevin McGill in Brookhaven contributed to this report.
SEE ALSO: Police say 8 people were killed in a Mississippi shooting
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Nate came ashore at the mouth of the Mississippi River on Saturday and pelted the central Gulf Coast with wind and rain as the fast-moving storm steamed toward the Mississippi coast, where it was expected to make another landfall and threatened to inundate homes and businesses in vulnerable low-lying areas.
Nate was expected to pass to the east of New Orleans, sparing the city its most ferocious winds and storm surge. And its quick speed decreased the likelihood of prolonged rain that would tax the city's weakened drainage pump system. Still, the city famous for all-night partying was placed under a curfew, effective at 7 p.m., and the streets were not nearly as crowded as they would be on a typical Saturday night.
Cities along the Mississippi coast such as Gulfport and Biloxi were on high alert. Some beachfront hotels and casinos were evacuated. Rain began falling on the region Saturday and forecasters called for 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimeters) with as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) in some isolated places.
Nate weakened slightly and was a Category 1 storm with maximum winds of 85 mph (137 kph) when it made landfall. Forecasters had said it was possible that it could strengthen to a Category 2, but that seemed less likely as the night wore on.
Storm surge threatened low-lying communities in southeast Louisiana, eastward to the Alabama fishing village of Bayou la Batre.
"If it floods again, this will be it. I can't live on promises," said Larry Bertron as said as he and his wife prepared to leave their home in the Braithwaite community of vulnerable Plaquemines Parish. The hurricane veterans lost one home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and were leaving the home they rebuilt after Hurricane Isaac in 2012.
Governors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama declared states of emergency. The three states have been mostly spared during this hectic hurricane season.
"This is the worst hurricane that has impacted Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina," Mississippi Emergency Management Director Lee Smithson said Saturday. "Everyone needs to understand that, that this is a significantly dangerous situation."
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards urged residents to make final preparations quickly and stressed that Nate will bring the possibility of storm surge reaching up to 11 feet in some coastal areas.
"It's going to hit and move through our area at a relatively fast rate, limiting the amount of time it's going to drop rain," Edwards said. "But this is a very dangerous storm nonetheless."
Streets in low-lying areas of Louisiana were already flooded. Places outside of levee protections were under mandatory evacuation orders and shelters opened there.
Some people worried about New Orleans' pumping system, which had problems during a heavy thunderstorm on Aug. 5. The deluge exposed system weaknesses - including the failure of some pumps and power-generating turbines - and caused homes and businesses to flood. Repairs have been made but the system remained below maximum pumping capacity.
On Alabama's Dauphin Island, water washed over the road Saturday on the island's low-lying west end, said Mayor Jeff Collier. The storm was projected to bring storm surges from seven to 11 feet near the Alabama-Mississippi state line. Some of the biggest impacts could be at the top of funnel-shaped Mobile Bay.
The window for preparing "is quickly closing," Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Hastings said.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned residents of the Panhandle to prepare for Nate's impact.
"Hurricane Nate is expected to bring life-threatening storm surges, strong winds and tornados that could reach across the Panhandle," Scott said. The evacuations affect roughly 100,000 residents in the western Panhandle.
The Pensacola International Airport announced it will close at 6 p.m. Saturday and remain closed on Sunday. However, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was open Saturday.
"We are urging customers to check with their specific airlines to see whether their flights have been canceled because there have been some of those," spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut said.
At 8 p.m. EDT Saturday, Nate was about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm is expected to quickly weaken as it cuts a path through the Southeast on its way to the Northeast, which could see impacts from Nate early next week.
Nate killed at least 21 people after strafing Central America.
Waterside sections of New Orleans, outside the city's levee system, were under an evacuation order. About 2,000 people were affected. But not everyone was complying.
Gabriel Black stayed behind because an 81-year-old neighbor refused to leave.
"I know it sounds insane, but he has bad legs and he doesn't have anybody who can get to him," Black said.
Ahead of Saturday night's curfew, some bars were closed in the French Quarter but music blasted from others.
___
Associated Press writer Kim Chandler in Alabama and Kevin McGill in New Orleans, and AP photographer Gerald Herbert in Plaquemines Parish, contributed to this report.
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NOW WATCH: Most hurricanes that hit the US come from the same exact spot in the world
Hurricane Nate flooded the Gulf Coast as it made landfall in the US over the weekend.
The center of the storm first hit land at the mouth of the Mississippi River, then again near Biloxi, Mississippi.
Before that, the storm killed at least 22 and caused heavy flooding in Central America.
Nate was the ninth hurricane of what has already been an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season. There have been 15 named storms in the Atlantic this season, counting the newly formed storm Ophelia, which is likely to become the tenth hurricane — though that one is no threat to land.
Even though Nate didn't hit with the destructive force of storms like Harvey, Irma, and Maria — all of which made landfall as major hurricanes — it still caused heavy devastation, showing just how destructive the forces of nature can be.
Here are a few images that show Hurricane Nate's impact.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran is continuing to grapple with a urinary tract infection that has delayed a planned return to Washington.
The GOP veteran, 79, has been absent from Washington for a month.
Cochran's chief of staff Brad White came as Republicans controlling the Senate had hoped to pass a budget measure that's a key step toward the party's goal of rewriting the tax code.
It's unclear whether Cochran's absence will delay the budget debate. Republicans control the Senate with a narrow 52-48 margin.
White said Cochran's wife told him late Saturday that the infection had returned. His office had said last week that Cochran would return to work on Monday.
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — President Donald Trump paid tribute Saturday to the leaders and foot soldiers of the civil rights movement whose sacrifices help make the United States a fairer and more just country, though protests surrounding his visit to Mississippi laid bare the stark divisions among Americans about his commitment to that legacy.
As Trump gazed at an exhibit on Freedom Riders at the new Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, demonstrators near the site held up signs that said "Make America Civil Again" and "Lock Him Up." Some shouted "No Trump, no hate, no KKK in the USA."
Trump spent about 30 minutes at the museums, gave a 10-minute speech to select guests inside and then flew back to his Florida estate, skipping the public schedule of the dedication ceremony held outside on a chilly day. He spent more time getting to Jackson than he did on the ground.
Trump's remarks steered clear of addressing the anger that his participation had sparked leading up to the dedication. In a deliberate voice and rarely diverting from his prepared words, the president sought to honor the famous and the anonymous for their efforts on behalf of freedom for all.
"The civil rights museum records the oppression, cruelty and injustice inflicted on the African-American community, the fight to bring down Jim Crow and end segregation, to gain the right to vote and to achieve the sacred birthright of equality. And it's big stuff. That's big stuff," he said.
"Those are very big phrases, very big words. Here we memorialize the brave men and women who struggled to sacrifice and sacrifice so much so that others might live in freedom," he said.
The national president of the NAACP and the mayor of Mississippi's capital city said they kept their distance from Trump because of his "pompous disregard" for the values embodied by the civil rights movement.
Derrick Johnson, head of the nation's oldest civil rights organization, and Mayor Chokwe Lumumba said at a news conference that they looked forward to a "grander opening" of the museum that they can attend.
Johnson, a Mississippian, charged that Trump opposes labor rights, education, health care and voting rights for all Americans.
"We will never cede the stage to an individual who will fight against us," Johnson said. "We will not allow the history of those who sacrificed to be tarnished for political expediency."
Johnson and Lumumba spoke to about 100 supporters, including some who participated in the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s, at Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, which was once the first public school built for African-Americans in Jackson. Now it's a museum to black history and culture.
Lumumba called Trump to task for "his pompous disregard for all of those factors that will not enable us to stand with him today."
The state's attorney general, Jim Hood, criticized Republican Gov. Phil Bryant for inviting Trump. "It threw cold water in the face of people who fought the battles for civil rights," Hood said.
Trump, in his speech, reflected on the past and hoped for a bright future, drawing on the achievements of civil rights veterans:
"Today we strive to be worthy of their sacrifice. We pray for inspiration from their example. We want our country to be a place where every child from every background can grow up free from fear, innocent of hatred and surrounded by love, opportunity and hope. Today we pay solemn tribute to our heroes of the past and dedicate ourselves to building a future of freedom, equality, justice and peace. "
Among the high-profile figures to stay away was US Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a leader of the civil rights movement. Lewis, who was among scores of Democratic lawmakers who skipped Trump's inauguration in January to protest his record on race, said Trump's presence at the museum opening was an insult.
The White House accused Lewis and others of injecting politics into a moment it said could be used to bring people together.
Trump has been accused of harboring racial animosity, and critics cite his blaming of "both sides" for deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the summer. Trump has also relentlessly criticized NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality largely directed at African-American males.
During the presidential campaign, Trump called for a "complete and total shutdown" of Muslims entering the US
___
Associated Press writers Jeff Amy and Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report.
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NOW WATCH: A Georgetown professor explains how Martin Luther King Jr. 'has been severely whitewashed'
A Mississippi lawmaker is proposing a solution that he hopes will finally bring an end to one of the state's most divisive issues, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Earlier this month, Republican Rep. Greg Snowden filed a bill that would allow two flag designs to officially represent the state. If the measure passes, Mississippi would be the only US state with two flags.
Mississippi's current flag, which features the symbol for the Confederacy, would be left untouched. A proposed second flag would bring back an old design used on the state's official flag from 1861 until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
That design features a magnolia tree in the center of the flag and a white star against a blue background in the top-left corner, replacing the controversial Confederate emblem currently in its place.
"We feel that it is most appropriate to adopt the historical Magnolia Flag as an additional design of the official state flag that may be flown with equal status and dignity to represent our state as we are beginning our third century as a member of the United States," the bill says.
Snowden argued that his solution will appease both sides of the flag debate. While some Mississippians consider the current flag to be a historical tribute to their ancestors who fought and died in the Civil War, others believe it glorifies slavery and the systematic oppression of black people.
The two-flag proposal would allow people to choose which flag they want to represent them. Snowden's bill says that both flags could be flown together or individually.
Snowden also suggested his bill would be more than just "a step toward at least some transition,” The Journal reported. He said the confederate symbol on the current flag makes businesses hesitant to relocate to Mississippi for fear of alienating clients.
More than 150 years since the end of the Civil War, the Confederacy's legacy remains controversial. Last year, President Donald Trump renewed the debate, blaming "both sides" for violence that broke out during white-nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Confederate statues and monuments were subsequently removed and targeted by protesters across the country.
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NOW WATCH: A Georgetown professor explains how Martin Luther King Jr. 'has been severely whitewashed'
Republican Sen. Thad Cochran will resign next month, his office said in a statement on Monday.
Cochran, an 80-year-old from Mississippi, cited health concerns in his resignation that will take effect April 1.
"I regret my health has become an ongoing challenge," Cochran said. "I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the U.S. Senate."
"It has been a great honor to serve the people of Mississippi and our country," he added. "I've done my best to make decisions in the best interests of our nation, and my beloved state. My top concern has always been my constituents in Mississippi."
Cochran's health issues have been prevalent for some time. Last year, there were concerns he would not be present to vote for the Republican tax overhaul in December. Months prior, Cochran told CNN "it's up for the people to decide" if he is mentally and physically capable of carrying out his Senate duties. "I think I am," he added.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell thanked Cochran for his service in a statement on Monday.
"Senator Cochran departs with our congratulations and gratitude for so many years of honorable and distinguished service, from his time as a Navy officer to nearly four decades in the Senate, and our warmest wishes for his retirement," McConnell said.
The vacated seat will create another Mississippi Senate race to follow in 2018, in addition to Roger Wicker, who is attempting to hold on to his office in the wake of a primary challenge from far-right state Sen. Chris McDaniel.
"My hope is by making this announcement now, a smooth transition can be ensured so their voice will continue to be heard in Washington, D.C. My efforts, and those of my staff, to assist them will continue and transfer to my successor," Cochran said in the statement.
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President Donald Trump gave his endorsement in a hotly contested Nevada primary on Friday, marking the third time he has waded into a contentious Republican primary since late last year.
Each time, Trump has voiced support for the establishment incumbent over the challenger running on an outsider, Trumpian platform. It's not typical for a sitting president to endorse candidates in primary contests.
His endorsement had immediate results on Friday. After he tweeted, "It would be great for the Republican Party of Nevada, and it’s unity if good guy Danny Tarkanian would run for Congress and Dean Heller, who is doing a really good job, could run for Senate unopposed!," Tarkanian, who some polls showed was locked in a close race with Heller, dropped out, opting to take Trump's advice and instead seek a House seat.
A Trump endorsement in a Mississippi race late last month was followed with a similar result. After Trump announced his support for Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, his primary challenger, Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel, opted to end his challenge and instead enter the race for the state's other Senate seat, which will be vacated after Republican Sen. Thad Cochran steps down next month.
".@SenatorWicker of Mississippi has been a great supporter and incredible help in getting our massive Tax Cut Bill done and approved,"Trump wrote. "Also big help on cutting regs. I am with him in his re-election all the way!"
Late last year, Trump jumped into the Alabama Senate race to endorse then-GOP Sen. Luther Strange. Republican leadership had urged Trump to get involved to help prop up their guy, who was locked in a tough battle with both Republican Rep. Mo Brooks and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.
Trump's endorsement and support for Strange did not help push the candidate over the top, as Moore ended up winning the primary by a significant margin. Following allegations of sexual misconduct with teenagers when he was in his 30s, Moore lost the special election race to Democrat Doug Jones in December.
SEE ALSO: Mueller just subpoenaed the Trump Organization — this is what he's looking at
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NOW WATCH: The racist origins of marijuana prohibition
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The governor of Mississippi is appointing state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to succeed fellow Republican Thad Cochran in the U.S. Senate.
Hyde-Smith will be the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress once Cochran resigns April 1. She will immediately begin campaigning for a Nov. 6 special election to fill the rest of Cochran’s term, which expires in January 2020.
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and Hyde-Smith appeared together Wednesday in her hometown of Brookhaven, where he announced her appointment.
The 80-year-old Cochran announced March 5 that he will step down because of health problems. He was elected to the Senate in 1978 after six years in the House.
His decision creates two Senate races in deeply conservative Mississippi as Republicans are trying to maintain their slim Senate majority.
Hyde-Smith won a state Senate seat in 1999 as a Democrat. She switched to the GOP in late 2010 and was elected agriculture commissioner in 2011, holding the job since then. In 2016, she was one of many agriculture advisers to Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Bryant is a Trump supporter and has said he believes the president will campaign for his Senate appointee in the special election, which could attract several candidates.
Chris McDaniel, a tea party-backed state senator who nearly unseated Cochran in a bruising 2014 Republican primary, said last week that he is running in the special election. Democrat Mike Espy, who was President Bill Clinton's first agriculture secretary, also intends to run. Espy in 1986 became the first African-American in modern times to win a congressional seat in Mississippi, and he has publicly supported both Democrats and Republicans in various races.
Cochran's resignation creates two Senate races this year in Mississippi as Republicans are trying to maintain their slim Senate majority. Although it is a deeply conservative state, Democrats are hoping to capitalize on divisions among Republicans in hopes of winning a Nov. 27 runoff, if there is one.
Hyde-Smith served 12 years as a Democrat in the state Senate from a rural southwest Mississippi district, switching to the Republican Party in late 2010.
In 2011, she won a three-way GOP primary for agriculture commissioner without a runoff. She beat Democratic opponents even more easily in the 2011 and 2015 general elections.
Hyde-Smith is one of only four women ever elected to statewide office in Mississippi. It and Vermont are the only two U.S. states that never have elected a woman to Congress.
Bryant has said he was focused on naming a senator who could serve at least 20 years. Mississippi has a tradition of sending the same people to Washington for decades to build seniority and influence. Cochran is in his second stint as chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee.
SEE ALSO: Another top Republican has announced he will resign from Congress
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A black church in Mississippi was burned and spray-painted with "Vote Trump" and authorities said on Wednesday they were probing the incident as a hate crime committed one week before the U.S. presidential election.
“We’re investigating this as a hate crime," Greenville Police Chief Delando Wilson told a news conference. "We feel that the quote on the church is intimidating.
"It tries to push your beliefs on someone else, and this is a predominantly black church and no one has a right to try to influence the way someone votes in this election.”
Black churches in the U.S. South have long been a base of support for the Democratic Party.
During the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, southern black churches were often targets for arson and bombings by white supremacists.
"The FBI Jackson Division is aware of the situation in Greenville, and we are working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to determine if any civil rights crimes were committed," the agency said in a statement.
No one was injured in the Tuesday evening blaze at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, and the cause of the fire has not been determined, Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown Sr. said in a telephone interview. He said the church had been heavily damaged by the fire.
The town of some 33,000 people is about 100 miles (160 kms) northwest of Jackson.
"The act that happened left our hearts broken," Pastor Carolyn Hudson told the news conference, noting that the church has a 111-year history.
Bobby Moak, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, said it was "reprehensible to see this sort of thing."
"Hopefully the true cause of the fire will be discovered but nothing in politics is coincidental," Moak said in a telephone interview.
The Mississippi Republican Party declined to comment.
In October, the Orange County Republican Party's office in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was set on fire and a graffiti message left nearby said "leave town or else."
No arrests have been made in that incident, which Indiana Governor Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential candidate, called "political terrorism."
Greenville Church Goes up in Flames, then Signed "Vote For Trump"https://t.co/2LkgHdYZN0
— Angie Quezada (@DeltaDailyNews) November 2, 2016
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A historically black church in Greenville, Mississippi, was burned and spray-painted with the words “Vote Trump” late Tuesday evening.
Firefighters and police officers responded to an emergency call at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Tuesday night around 9 p.m. to find the century-old church “heavily engulfed” in flames, Greenville Mayor Errick D. Simmons said at a press conference Wednesday. There were no reported injuries and no one was inside the church when the incident occurred.
There was no surveillance video and police have not named any suspects yet, but local authorities said they are investigating whether it was a hate crime.
The fire was a “direct assault on people’s right to freely worship,” Mayor Simmons said.
“We’re in 2016; that should not happen,” Simmons said later. “I see it as an attack… I see it as intimidation, on people’s civil liberties.”
The FBI told the Clarion-Ledger that the agency is aware of the incident and working with local law enforcement to “determine if any civil rights crimes were committed.”
This isn’t the first time Greenville has experienced a racially charged incident of violence. Simmons noted that the burning of the Hopewell church comes after the N-word was found spray-painted on a boat along the Greenville shore of the Mississippi River in September.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment from VICE News.
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The push to confer full “personhood” status on every fertilized human egg has been rejected by voters and lawmakers in state after state, including deep-red Mississippi.
But activists are cautiously hopeful that their cause could get a boost from Republicans who are about to assume leadership in Washington.
Georgia Representative Tom Price, who has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has twice co-sponsored federal legislation that would define fertilized human eggs as legal persons — a move that would outlaw not just abortion, but also potentially birth control pills and other common methods of contraception.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence, then a congressman from Indiana, also co-sponsored that bill, which was introduced in 2005 and 2007, as well as similar legislation in 2011. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who will see his power expand under the Trump administration, co-sponsored the same bill both years too, as well as similar legislation in 2009, 2011, and 2013.
Personhood activists, who generally oppose abortion even in the case of rape and incest, have several policy changes in mind as the new administration takes office.
As health secretary, for instance, Price could make it easier for employers or insurance plans to stop covering abortion and birth control. He could curtail federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells and contraception. And he, Pence, and Ryan could use their high-profile positions to raise awareness of the personhood movement.
In the meantime, personhood activists are pushing ahead with aggressive moves in a number of states. One novel tactic: introducing bills to give “fetal tax credits” — similar to the child tax credit — to pregnant women.
“There are just so many ways that personhood principles can be brought to bear on public policy,” said Dr. Patrick Johnston, a family doctor and pediatrician who’s also director of Personhood Ohio, an affiliate of the national advocacy group Personhood Alliance.
Johnston is leading a signature drive to get a constitutional amendment to assign personhood status to fertilized eggs on the 2018 ballot in Ohio. A similar effort is in motion in Florida, and is expected to start soon in Mississippi. And lawmakers plan to soon introduce personhood bills in Wisconsin, Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi.
They’re facing an uphill battle: Voters have rejected similar ballot measures everywhere they’ve been tried. Statehouses, too, have been roadblocks: Fetal personhood legislation introduced in at least nine states this year failed to advance, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research group.
A Gallup poll earlier this year found that 4 out of 5 Americans don’t want to see abortion banned in all circumstances.
Even some abortion opponents hesitate to endorse personhood measures because they have such broad implications. They would effectively outlaw any form of contraception other than barrier methods — including the pill, the hormonal patch, and IUDs. Such birth control methods, which have been proven to be the most effective ways of preventing unplanned pregnancies, may sometimes work by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. (Most medical doctors consider pregnancy to begin at implantation, not fertilization.)
Personhood measures could also hamper in vitro fertility treatments, by disrupting the common practice of creating multiple embryos and implanting only the one or two most likely to be viable. The embryos that aren’t used are sometimes destroyed.
Yet another implication of personhood laws was on display this week in Louisiana, which has a unique law giving fertilized eggs some legal rights.
Two attorneys filed a headline-grabbing lawsuit in the state on behalf of two fertilized eggs created years ago by the actress Sofia Vergara and her former fiance, Nick Loeb. The suit accuses Vergara of denying the frozen embryos a chance to mature (and eventually be born) and demands that Loeb get custody of them.
One of the attorneys who filed the suit, Catherine Glenn Foster, has a record of legal advocacy for the anti-abortion cause. Personhood advocates told STAT they were not aware of any formal involvement by Foster in their movement, but one activist noted that Foster attended a conference earlier this year sponsored by a Cleveland anti-abortion group that works closely with the Personhood Alliance. (Foster didn’t return requests for comment.)
While they’ve failed to get full personhood bills passed, activists have made some progress pushing in that direction. At least 38 states have passed fetal homicide laws, which make punishments more severe for perpetrators who kill a pregnant woman, according to a count last year from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Activists see such bills as an important step in laying out a legal framework that could help them pave the way for fetal personhood in the future.
Fetal tax credits would be another such step: They would allow pregnant women to claim tax write-offs for their unborn babies. Activists are working with legislators to craft such a bill in Mississippi, and have a goal of introducing it by mid-February, according to Les Riley, a personhood activist in Mississippi. Activists have also presented the idea to anti-abortion advocates in Iowa.
“It seems to us that that would be a personhood-affirming way to support women and to support families to keep their children, and at the same time to recognize the personhood of the child before birth,” said Gualberto Garcia Jones, national policy director of the Personhood Alliance. “It seems like such a commonsense thing that might even get bipartisan support.”
As health secretary, Price would not be able to unilaterally outlaw abortion or assign personhood to a fetus. But there are plenty of ways he could indirectly advance some of the policies that naturally flow from the personhood movement.
Price is expected to play a key role in executing Trump’s plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which mandates that health plans cover approved forms of birth control with no copay for most insured women. And Obamacare wouldn’t even need to be repealed for that perk to go away; Price could eliminate it with a regulatory maneuver.
Such a change would be “a personhood victory,” said Rebecca Kiessling, a Michigan attorney and president of Save the 1, an affiliate of the Personhood Alliance.
Kiessling also wants to see Price change the interpretation of a federal amendment so that state Medicaid programs would not be mandated to cover abortions in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. That would reverse a rule change made under former President Bill Clinton’s administration.
Jones, of the Personhood Alliance, wants to see Price take a broader view of a different federal amendment that protects health insurance plans that object to covering abortion. Essentially, Jones wants to see Price give religious employers, as well as insurers, the right to eliminate abortion coverage from the health plans they offer their workers.
Price’s congressional office and Trump’s transition team did not respond to requests for comment.
The personhood movement hasn’t been embraced by the biggest anti-abortion groups, which worry its unpopularity could jeopardize their movement as a whole. (Asked about personhood this week, for instance, Americans United for Life told STAT it doesn’t focus on that topic.)
Giving legal status to a fertilized egg or a fetus is “seen as extreme even within the anti-abortion community,” said Dr. Diane Horvath-Cosper, an OB-GYN and an advocacy fellow for Physicians for Reproductive Health.
Instead, the mainstream anti-abortion movement has scored victories in recent years with state laws that limit access by shutting down clinics or imposing waiting periods before women can terminate a pregnancy. “What they’ve done successfully is fight where they can win,” said Michele Goodwin, a reproductive health law scholar at the University of California, Irvine.
Such approaches are often denounced by personhood activists as insufficient. They even disdain bills as hardline as the legislation passed this week by lawmakers in Ohio; it would prohibit abortion if a physician detects a heartbeat, which is usually possible about six weeks after conception — before many women even know they are pregnant.
“Those are what we call incremental legislation, and I would consider them to be morally compromised,” Jones said.
Jones said he fears Price — despite his past advocacy for personhood — will adopt this incremental approach and seek to chip away at abortion rather than shoot for sweeping bans. He pointed to the fact that the personhood bills co-sponsored by Republican leaders didn’t get hearings despite being introduced year after year.
“I think [Price is] a pragmatic pro-lifer,” he said. “I think he’s willing to bend and so I don’t expect him to push forcefully the personhood agenda.”
But even that prospect scares some reproductive rights activists, who say incremental steps may be more palatable to voters and lawmakers — but still impose real harm on women.
“When we see people support personhood or abortion bans, it makes all of the other restrictions look so much more moderate,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, “when in fact they are real threats to humanity and dignity, too.”
Mississippi authorities arrested a man Wednesday in the burning of an African-American church that was also spray-painted with the words, "Vote Trump."
Andrew McClinton of Leland, Mississippi, was charged with first degree arson of a place of worship, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. McClinton is African-American.
McClinton was arrested in Greenville, where Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church was burned and vandalized Nov. 1, a week before the presidential election.
A Bishop at the church says man charged with burning black Mississippi church is a member of the church.
It was not immediately clear whether McClinton is represented by an attorney.
An investigation continues, but a state official said authorities don't believe politics was the reason for the fire.
"We do not believe it was politically motivated. There may have been some efforts to make it appear politically motivated," Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who is also the state fire marshal, told The Associated Press.
Greenville is a Mississippi River port city of about 32,100 people, and about 78 percent of its residents are African-American. While it's not unusual for people of different racial backgrounds to work and eat lunch together, local residents say the congregations at most churches remain clearly identifiable by race.
Hopewell was founded in 1905 in the heart of an African-American neighborhood, and the congregation now has about 200 members. While some walls of the beige brick church survived the fire, the empty windows are boarded up and church leaders have said the structure will likely be razed. Rebuilding could take months.
After the fire, Hopewell congregants began worshipping in a chapel at predominantly white First Baptist Church of Greenville. The Hopewell bishop, Clarence Green, said last month the generosity of First Baptist demonstrates that "unlimited love" transcends social barriers. James Nichols, senior pastor at First Baptist, said the Hopewell members are welcome to stay as long as they need a home.
Greenville is in Washington County, a traditional Democratic stronghold in a solidly Republican state. In the Nov. 8 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump easily carried Mississippi, but Democrat Hillary Clinton received more than twice the vote of Trump in Washington County — 11,380 for Clinton to 5,244 for Trump.
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(Reuters) - A strong tornado killed at least four people in southern Mississippi and left many others trapped in their homes after touching down in the hours before sunrise on Saturday, state officials said.
The tornado, which touched down at about 3:45 a.m. Central time, reduced some buildings to splinters, downed power lines and was strong enough to flip over cars, according to photographs shared by the City of Hattiesburg on its social media accounts.
At least four people were confirmed dead, according to the city, and many people were trapped in their houses, Glen Moore, the director of Forrest County Emergency Management, told a local ABC news affiliate.
About 45,000 people live in Hattiesburg, a city about 100 miles (160 km) north of New Orleans. Mayor Johnny DuPree declared a state of emergency, and residents were warned to stay off roads. Police and firefighters were going to door to door to rescue people, the city said.
Officials closed Interstate 59 north of Hattiesburg, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said.
Forecasters are predicting thunderstorms for the Hattiesburg area through Sunday morning, according to Accuweather.
Tornados were also spotted in Pike, Lee and Chambers counties in neighboring Alabama but there were no initial reports of damage. A tornado watch was in effect through east central and southeastern parts of the states.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen and Frank McGurty; Editing by Andrew Bolton and Franklin Paul)
The Mississippi River is a giant river that provides abundant resources. But, how big is it, exactly? This animated map shows the scale of the Mississippi River and its drainage system in perspective.
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Concerned by recent court challenges and practical constraints that make execution by lethal injection increasingly precarious, Mississippi is taking preemptive action.
The state legislature introduced House Bill 638, which proposes adding firing squad, electrocution, and gas chamber to the list of approved execution methods in Mississippi.
Lethal injection is currently the state’s only execution method. Despite opposition, the bill passed the House on Wednesday and will be assigned to a Senate committee for further deliberation.
What appears to concern Mississippi legislators, above all, is the possibility that the judicial process could be slowed – or even halted – by several recently filed lawsuits. These lawsuits contend that use of the state’s current lethal injection cocktail would violate the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Having alternative execution methods on the books might safeguard Mississippi’s ability to carry out the death penalty – though some caution that these methods come with their own complications.
“Every single one, in essence, just injects a whole new series of issues in the existing case," Jim Craig, an attorney with the New Orleans-based Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center who is suing Mississippi over lethal injection drugs, told the Associated Press.
Lethal injection has long been considered the most humane way to end a life – former President Ronald Reagan famously compared it to putting a horse to sleep. In recent years, however, that picture has begun to shift, as a string of botched executions have called into question the humanity, and even the constitutionality, of the method.
In 2011, the European Union banned drugmakers from selling drugs to US states for use in lethal injections, and US-based companies like Pfizer have adopted a similar approach. Substitute drugs, most notably midazolam, have been less effective, sometimes causing death row inmates minutes of agony when they should have been sedated.
In response to US Supreme Court cases where some justices have described states’ existing lethal injection protocols as cruel and unusual, certain states – including Georgia and Ohio – have declared temporary moratoriums on the death penalty. In Washington state, a bipartisan group of lawmakers moved to repeal the death penalty entirely, citing pragmatic and ethical concerns.
But that approach has left lawmakers in Mississippi concerned that justice will not be carried out.
"I have a constituent whose daughter was raped and killed by a serial killer over 25 years ago and that person's still waiting for the death penalty. The family is still waiting for justice," said state Rep. Andy Gipson, a Republican who chairs the House Judiciary B Committee, AP reported.
With its new bill, Mississippi instead looks set to follow in the footsteps of Utah, which brought back the firing squad in 2015. That return to traditional methods is likely to become more common, Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno previously suggested to The Christian Science Monitor.
“There’s a concession that there’s a problem with lethal injection so states are going back to methods that seemed barbaric at one point but, relative to lethal injection, maybe don’t look as bad anymore,” Professor Denno, whose work on the constitutionality of execution methods has been cited numerous times by Supreme Court justices, told the Monitor’s Patrik Jonsson.
But these alternative methods may bring complications of their own, observers warn. Mr. Craig of the MacArthur Justice Center notes that the state would have to implement procedures to reduce the risk of torture, which he doubts the Department of Corrections has prepared to do. Representative Gipson was unable to answer several questions about "the time of suffering" an inmate would experience if executed under one of these methods when questioned by fellow state Rep. Willie Perkins, a Democrat, AP reported.
On balance, however, studies suggest that execution by firing squad, at least, is probably better than lethal injection, Denno indicated.
"People say firing squad is so brutal, but, at least as far as we know, it’s probably the most humane, it kills people the quickest, and it’s one we have expertise for,” she told the Monitor in 2015.
If the bill makes it through the Senate, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant would review it before deciding whether to sign it, spokesman Clay Chandler said, according to AP. The governor "generally favors the efficient administration of the death penalty in Mississippi,” he noted.
SEE ALSO: Florida is stockpiling an untested lethal-injection drug
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