Mississippi

Cindy Hyde-Smith

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi apologized to people who were offended when she complimented a supporter by saying she would attend a "public hanging" if the supporter invited her.
"For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize. There was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statement," she said.
Hyde-Smith's comment, which was caught on video, brought widespread criticism both inside and outside Mississippi, a state with a history of racially motivated lynchings.
President Donald Trump downplayed Hyde-Smith's remark: "It was just sort of said in jest," Trump said. "She's a tremendous woman and it's a shame that she has to go through this."

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A white Republican US senator from Mississippi said during a debate with her African-American Democratic opponent Tuesday night that she apologizes to people who were offended when she complimented a supporter by saying she would attend a "public hanging" if the supporter invited her.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's remark was caught on video that was released last week. It has brought widespread criticism both inside and outside Mississippi, a state with a history of racially motivated lynchings.

"For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize. There was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statement," Hyde-Smith said Tuesday during a televised debate with Democrat Mike Espy.

The apology was a new approach for Hyde-Smith, who repeatedly refused to answer questions about the hanging comment at a news conference Nov. 12, the day after the publisher of a liberal-leaning news site posted the video on Facebook and Twitter.

The clip shows Hyde-Smith praising a cattle rancher at a Nov. 2 campaign event in Tupelo by saying: "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." Shortly after the video's release, she said in a statement that the expression was an "exaggerated expression of regard" and said it is "ridiculous" to read any negative connotation into it.

Cindy Hyde-Smith

"There has never been anything, not one thing, in my background to ever indicate I had ill will toward anyone," Hyde-Smith, a former state agriculture commissioner, said Tuesday night. "I've never been hurtful to anyone. I've always tried to help everyone. I also recognize that this comment was twisted and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me, a political weapon used for nothing but personal and political gain by my opponent. That's the type of politics Mississippians are sick and tired of."

Espy responded during the debate: "No one's twisted your comments because your comments were live, you know, it came out of your mouth. I don't know what's in your heart but we all know what's in our mouths. It went viral in the first three minutes around the world. And so it's caused our state harm. It's given our state another black eye that we don't need. It's just rejuvenated those stereotypes that we don't need anymore."

Hyde-Smith is the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress. Espy is a former congressman and US agriculture secretary, is seeking to become the state's first African-American senator since Reconstruction.

During the debate, Hyde-Smith questioned a $750,000 lobbying contract Espy had in 2011 with the Cocoa and Coffee Board of the Ivory Coast. She noted that the country's ex-president, Laurent Gbagbo, is being tried in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, including, Hyde-Smith said, "murder, rape and unspeakable things against young girls."

"I don't know how many Mississippians can really relate to an income that can command a $750,000 check from one person for a lobbying job," said Hyde-Smith, who is a cattle rancher.

Espy, who is an attorney, said: "I found out later that this guy, the president, was a really bad guy. I resigned the contract."

Federal registration papers show Espy terminated the contract two weeks before its scheduled end.

Hours before Tuesday's debate, President Donald Trump defended Hyde-Smith's "public hanging" remark, saying at the White House that she loves the people of Mississippi and the US.

"It was just sort of said in jest," Trump said. "She's a tremendous woman and it's a shame that she has to go through this."

Walmart asked Hyde-Smith to return a $2,000 campaign contribution because of the hanging remark. Walmart spokeswoman LeMia Jenkins said Tuesday that the company donated to Hyde-Smith Nov. 8, three days before the release of the video with the "public hanging" remark.

"Sen. Hyde-Smith's recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates," Jenkins said in a statement. "As a result, we are withdrawing our support and requesting a refund of all campaign donations."

Hyde-Smith's campaign did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about whether it would refund Walmart's contribution.

Senate races rarely gain national attention in Mississippi, a deeply conservative state. But this matchup — the last major race of the 2018 midterms — has drawn scrutiny after Hyde-Smith's remarks.

Trump is traveling to Mississippi for two Hyde-Smith rallies Monday on the eve of the election. Former Vice President Joe Biden has endorsed Espy.

Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate to temporarily succeed longtime Sen. Thad Cochran, who retired in April amid health concerns. She is the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress.

Hyde-Smith and Espy each received about 41 percent of the vote when four candidates were on the ballot Nov. 6. If she wins the Nov. 27 runoff, Hyde-Smith would give Republicans a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

___

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed from Washington.

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Mississippi Senate candidates Mike Espy and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith debate on Tuesday.

Divisive, racialized comments have tightened the US Senate race in Mississippi, a state with a long and dark history of racial violence and oppression.
The remarks, made by Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, became a flashpoint in a contentious debate on Tuesday night in the last major race of the midterms.
The Nov. 27 runoff election is a long shot for the Democrat, who would be the first member of his party elected to the US Senate since 1982 — and Mississippi's first black senator since Reconstruction.

Divisive, racialized comments have tightened the US Senate race in Mississippi, a state with a long and dark history of racial violence and oppression.

The remarks, made by Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, became a flashpoint in a contentious debate on Tuesday night in the last major race of the midterms, which — like many others in the Senate — favors a Trump-endorsed candidate in a deep red state.

But Democrat Mike Espy, who would be the first Mississippi Democrat elected to the US Senate since 1982 and the state's first black senator since Reconstruction, is hoping to energize the state's significant black vote and turn out disillusioned white voters in the Nov. 27 runoff.

'If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row'

Hyde-Smith has recently come under fire for remarks she's made that many have interpreted as racially insensitive.

Earlier this month, a liberal blogger released a video showing Hyde-Smith emb racing a supporter and saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."

Hyde-Smith refused to apologize in her response to the widespread criticism, saying "any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous."

More black people were lynched in Mississippi than in any other state in the nation between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

Hyde-Smith also sparked controversy this month when another video emerged in which she told supporters that GOP efforts to "make it just a little more difficult" for liberal college students to vote are "a great idea."

"There's a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who that maybe we don't want to vote. Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult," Hyde-Smith says in a video reportedly taken on Nov. 3. Her campaign later said the footage was "selectively edited" and the comment was a "joke."

Mississippi is home to several historically black colleges and universities — and Republicans across the country have pushed measures that make it more difficult for college students to vote. The NAACP filed a lawsuit last month charging that a majority white county in Texas intentionally limited early voting on campus at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college, to disenfranchise young black voters, who overwhelmingly support Democrats.

"If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row"- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith says in Tupelo, MS after Colin Hutchinson, cattle rancher, praises her.

Hyde-Smith is in a runoff on Nov 27th against Mike Espy. pic.twitter.com/0a9jOEjokr
— Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) November 11, 2018

The voter suppression "joke" struck a particular nerve during midterm elections in which, on the one hand, there have been accusations of systematic disenfranchisement, and on the other, unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. Both have played a central role in escalating partisan divisions undermining public trust in the country's electoral process.

And on Tuesday, a 2014 Facebook post surfaced showing Hyde-Smith posing in a Confederate hat at the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library. She commented on the post: "Mississippi history at its best!"

Espy has condemned Hyde-Smith's comments and called her "a walking stereotype who embarrasses our state" and during Tuesday's debate said she had "given our state another black eye."

While Hyde-Smith expressed regret for her comments during the debate, apologizing to "anyone that was offended" by them, she also went on the attack, arguing that her comment was "twisted" and "turned into a weapon to be used against me."

Espy jumped on Hyde-Smith's defense, arguing that the remarks spoke for themselves.

"No one twisted your comments," he said. "It came out of your mouth. I don't know what’s in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth."

On Tuesday, Walmart, AT&T, and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer asked Hyde-Smith to return their campaign donations because of her "public hanging" comments.

President Donald Trump with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Harnessing national politics

Espy and his allies are hoping that the anger and embarrassment many Mississippians feel about Hyde-Smith's comments will energize the state's black voters and some white voters into Espy's camp.

Espy has received backup from national politicians, including two African-American Democratic senators, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, who traveled to the state in recent days to campaign for him. But he's also been dogged by his own issues, defending his work as a lobbyist for an African dictator and corruption charges he was acquitted of in the early 1990s.

Meanwhile, Hyde-Smith has done her best to make the race a choice between a liberal Democrat who she says is out of step with Mississippi's conservative electorate and Trump's agenda. The former state agriculture commissioner opened and closed the debate by encouraging viewers to attend two rallies the president will hold for her on the eve of the runoff.

Both Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to replace retiring Sen. Thad Cochran last April, and Espy, who served as agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration, received just over 40 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 race, while a third candidate, far-right Republican Chris McDaniel received 16 percent of the vote in a deep red state that Trump won by nearly 18 points.

While most observers believe Hyde-Smith will pull out ahead next Tuesday, some private polling has shown the race narrow to single digits, with the Republican ahead by just five points.

Perhaps in a sign of Republicans' concern about Hyde-Smith's ability to defend herself, Republican Roger Wicker — Mississippi's senior senator — was sent out to answer reporters' questions after the debate, even though Espy answered his own post-debate questions.

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Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic

A US federal judge struck down a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, ruling that it "unequivocally" violates women's constitutional rights.
The law, considered one of the most restrictive in the country, was passed in March.
The judge acknowledged feeling "frustration" that Mississippi lawmakers passed the statute even though similar bans in other states have also been thrown out by federal courts.

(Reuters) — A US federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, ruling that it "unequivocally" violates women's constitutional rights.

The law, considered one of the most restrictive in the country, was passed in March. It had already been put on hold by US District Judge Carlton Reeves after the state's lone abortion clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, immediately sued.

Under US Supreme Court precedent, states may not ban abortions before a fetus is viable, and the medical consensus is that viability typically begins between 23 and 24 weeks, Reeves wrote on Tuesday.

The judge acknowledged feeling "frustration" that Mississippi lawmakers passed the statute even though similar bans in other states have also been thrown out by federal courts.

"The real reason we are here is simple. The state chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decades-long campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade," Reeves wrote, referring to the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court case that established a legal framework for abortion.

"This court follows the commands of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the United States Constitution, rather than the disingenuous calculations of the Mississippi Legislature," he added.

A spokesman for Governor Phil Bryant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The state attorney general's office, which defended the law in court, also did not immediately comment on the ruling.

The decision effectively invalidates a similar 15-week ban in Louisiana, which was set to take effect only if the Mississippi law survived a court challenge.

"Today's decision should be a wake-up call for state lawmakers who are continuously trying to chip away at abortion access," Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the abortion clinic, said in a statement.

Abortion rights advocates have warned that the Roe precedent could be vulnerable following the October confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who is widely seen as an abortion foe.

Other states have recently passed severe abortion restrictions with an eye toward forcing an eventual showdown at the country's highest court.

Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; editing by Frank McGurty and G Crosse

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Donald Trump midterm rally Florida

President Donald Trump will hold a rally in Mississippi on Monday as he throws his full support behind the embattled Republican Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Hyde-Smith is deep into a runoff race for the state's Senate seat with her Democratic opponent, Mike Espy.
Hyde-Smith has been under heavy scrutiny for saying she would be in the “front row” if invited to a "public hanging."
The Mississippi Rising Coalition is organizing a protest on the beach opposite a venue where Trump is speaking, local media reports said.
The nonprofit urged activists in a Facebook event to bring their “banners, signs and voices” to the non-violent gathering.

President Donald Trump will be in Mississippi on Monday as he throws his full support behind the Republican Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith.

The Mississippi Senate race went to a runoff after neither major candidate secured the requisite 50% of votes to become the junior senator back on November 6.

The race has descended into an unexpectedly close stand-up fight, after video emerged of Hyde-Smith saying she supporting talk of a "public hanging," in racially divided Mississippi where such language carries painful connotations.

Photos of Hyde-Smith on Facebook posing at a museum in confederate clothing have also recently courted controversy.

Trump last went on the stump for Hyde-Smith in August.

Trump has taken just a short break from his long-winding campaign trail after the end of this month’s midterm elections. The duo will hold rallies in two locations in the state on Monday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Mississippians are planning to hold their own protest event to counter the president's visit to the state on Monday ahead of the November 27 runoff election between Hyde-Smith and her Democratic opponent Mike Espy.

According to the Biloxi Sun Herald, the Mississippi Rising Coalition (MRC) is organizing The Battle of Biloxi, a protest to take place on a beach opposite the venue where Trump is planning to speak.

A nonprofit civil-rights group, the MRC, urged people in a Facebook post for the protest to bring “banners, signs and voices” to the non-violent event.

“We can not and will not let Hyde-Smith and Trump's racist rhetoric go unanswered directly by the people, and we must not allow Hyde-Smith to represent our state any longer,” the group posted on Facebook.

The two sides are squaring off after Hyde-Smith, a former Mississippi agriculture secretary, declared at an event in Tupelo earlier this month that she would be in "the front row" at a "public hanging."

The comments have provoked fury and condemnation as well as raising the stakes for a Senate seat in a state, which has a grim history of racism.

More lynchings — public hangings of African-Americans — took place in Mississippi than in any other state in the US from the late 1880s until the 1960s.

Hyde-Smith subsequently apologized but quickly went on the attack, accusing the Democrat, former US Congressman Mike Espy, of making political hay out of her remarks.

“My comments were taken and twisted and used as a political weapon against me by my opponent,” she said.

Espy comes with his own portmanteau of problems, as agriculture secretary in the administration of Former president Bill Clinton, Espy was made to step down following an investigation into his inappropriate acceptance of gifts.

If elected, Espy would become the first black senator from Mississippi since the reconstruction era that followed the American Civil War.

Around 37% of Mississippi’s population is African-American.

Tweeting from his Mar-a-lago estate in Florida on Sunday where he spent Thanksgiving, Trump announced his intention to travel to the state for Tuesday's "very important election."

"She is an outstanding person who is strong on the Border, Crime, Military, our great Vets, Healthcare & the 2nd A(mendment).” He concluded: “Needed in D.C.”

Democrats have their sails up in the south following Doug Jones’s special election victory in neighbouring Alabama in 2017, but the state largely remains a red one and despite the furore Hyde-Smith is thought to hold the advantage.

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rob manfred

The MLB made the maximum contribution allowed under law to a Mississippi Republican candidate for U.S. Senate after she made a series of racially insensitive comments, including joking about attending a public hanging.
According to ESPN, the organization asked for the return of its $5,000 donation in light of public outcry over the move.
An MLB spokesperson told ESPN's Buster Olney that MLB lobbyists donated the money, but the explanation has left much to be desired for fans and critics alike.

Baseball is in the middle of its offseason, but that hasn't stopped the MLB from making headlines and becoming the center of a controversy.

As first reported by Judd Legum of Popular Information, the MLB made a $5,000 donation— the maximum contribution allowed under law — to Mississippi Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Cindy Hyde-Smith after she made a series of racially insensitive comments that prompted a public outcry.

Hyde-Smith came under fire after a video of her joking about attending a public hanging while surrounded by supporters on November 2 went viral.

"If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row"- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith says in Tupelo, MS after Colin Hutchinson, cattle rancher, praises her.

Hyde-Smith is in a runoff on Nov 27th against Mike Espy. pic.twitter.com/0a9jOEjokr
— Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) November 11, 2018

According to an FEC report from November 24, the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball PAC made the hefty donation to Hyde-Smith's campaign on November 23, three weeks after her public hanging remarks.

The backlash from Hyde-Smith's comments prompted companies like Walmart, Pfizer, and AT&T to withdraw their support for her campaign and request the return of their donations. The MLB announced that it would follow suit Monday morning, but the organization's explanation for the initial contribution has raised even more questions.

"The contribution was made in connection with an event that MLB lobbyists were asked to attend," an MLB spokesperson told ESPN's Buster Olney Sunday. "MLB has requested that the contribution be returned."

It wasn't enough to convince many, and they took to Twitter to express their disapproval:

In MLB’s defense, if your lobbyists get the chance to pay $5K to stand around and eat mini crab cakes in the general vicinity of a junior senator from a state without a franchise who’s most prominently known for doing and saying a bunch of racist stuff, you gotta take that chance
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) November 25, 2018

Important to note: MLB made that donation three weeks AFTER she made that “public hanging” comment and they still didn’t care. https://t.co/Cka0ZazoLz
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) November 26, 2018

MLB got caught. They knew the situation, but were called out.
— Richard Kallenbach (@RichardKbach) November 25, 2018

Did MLB think that Cindy Hyde-Smith, a replacement-level reactionary ghoul with the brain of a sparrow, would somehow vote against the interests of its rich and powerful owners if they didn't give her $5000?
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) November 25, 2018

Cancelled because of MLB contributing to Hyde-Smith, a racist candidate for Senate in Mississippi. Their asking for their money back is a lame and disingenuous attempt to avoid bad PR. pic.twitter.com/2IY3lmiTRr
— Mitchel Lichtman (@mitchellichtman) November 26, 2018

Hyde-Smith faces former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy in a close runoff election November 27. With a win, Espy — who has continually condemned his opponent's racist comments and actions — would become Mississippi's first African-American senator since the Reconstruction Era.

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Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Mississippi Republican up for reelection in a Tuesday runoff, is under renewed fire for race-related issues.
Hyde-Smith, who has been widely criticized for racially insensitive comments on the campaign trail, attended an all-white "segregation academy" for high school, sent her daughter to another such academy, and has repeatedly allied herself with Confederate causes.
If elected, Hyde-Smith's opponent, Democrat Mike Espy, would become the state's first black US senator since Reconstruction.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Mississippi Republican up for reelection in a Tuesday runoff, is under renewed fire after a news outlets reported that Hyde-Smith attended an all-white "segregation academy" for high school, sent her daughter to another such academy, and has repeatedly allied herself with Confederate causes.

This comes amid a race that has for weeks grown increasingly racially-charged following remarks Hyde-Smith made about attending a public hanging and making it harder for liberal college students to vote, which many interpreted as racially insensitive.

Mississippi's segregationist governor John Bell Williams reluctantly ordered his state's schools to integrate in 1969, 14 years after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which made desegregation the law of the land. Lawrence County Academy — which Hyde-Smith attended — opened in the immediate aftermath of the Brown decision. It was one of many "segration academies" that opened throughout the state to provide white families with an alternative to sending their children to school with black children, the Jackson Free Press reported Friday.

"Lawrence County Academy started because people didn't want their kids going to school with minorities," Lawrence County NAACP President Wesley Bridges told the Free Press. "Cindy Hyde-Smith was a product of that school."

A Lawrence Academy yearbook obtained by the Free Press includes a photo of Hyde-Smith and her cheerleading squad posing with the school's mascot – a student dressed as a Confederate general holding a Confederate battle flag.

The academy shut down in the late 1980s due to low attendance, but Hyde-Smith sent her her daughter, Anna-Michael — who graduated from high school last year — to Brookhaven Academy, a similarly established private school opened in 1970 as a segregation academy. The Free Press reported that in the 2015-2016 year, the school enrolled 386 white students, five Asian students, and just one black student, despite the fact that the city of Brookhaven is 55% black and 43% white.

A history of embracing the Confederacy

Hyde-Smith, who served as a state senator from 2000-2012, also has a history of exhibiting pride in the Confederacy and an apparent willingness to ignore her state's history of slavery and racial violence and oppression.

In her second year as a state senator in 1999, Hyde-Smith sponsored a bill to rename part of a highway after Confederate President Jefferson Davis (the proposal ultimately failed). In 2007, Hyde-Smith authored a resolution praising a Confederate soldier for fighting to "defend his homeland," CNN reported Saturday. She worked on the resolution with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that promotes the revisionist historical position that "preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor" in the South's fight in the Civil War.

In 2014, Hyde-Smith posed in a Confederate hat at the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library in a photo she posted on Facebook, commenting, "Mississippi history at its best!"

There’s a Facebook photo of Cindy Hyde-Smith posing in a Confederate hat at the home of Jefferson Davis. Her post reads: “Mississippi history at its best!” https://t.co/aMFqjVpZgs pic.twitter.com/YFBl5zmNKW
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) November 20, 2018

President Donald Trump, whom Hyde-Smith has fully embraced, is scheduled to hold two rallies for the senator on Monday, the eve of the runoff.

After facing widespread condemnation for remarking that she would attend a "public hanging" if a supporter asked her to (despite the state's dark history of lynching), and for suggesting that making it harder for liberal college students to vote is "a great idea," Hyde-Smith has defended herself and attempted to stay away from the media.

Hyde-Smith's opponent, Democrat Mike Espy, condemned her comments and called her "a walking stereotype who embarrasses our state," and during Tuesday's debate added she had "given our state another black eye." If elected, Espy would become the state's first black US senator since Reconstruction — and the first Democrat elected to the chamber from Mississippi since 1982.

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Cindy Hyde-Smith

Over the past week, high-profile contributors to the campaign of Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith including Walmart, AT&T, Pfizer, and Major League Baseball have requested a refund after the Mississippi politician's "public hanging" remark sparked outrage.
A video surfaced of Hyde-Smith saying at a small rally in Tupelo, Mississippi: "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."
Google, which distanced itself from the candidate following her remarks, has not requested that its $5,000 donation to the senator be returned, according to Popular Information reporter Judd Legum.
"This contribution was made on November 2nd before Senator Hyde-Smith's remarks became public on November 11th," Google said in a statement. "While we support candidates who promote pro-growth policies for business and technology, we do not condone these remarks and would not have made such a contribution had we known about them."

Google has not joined other high-profile companies in requesting its campaign contributions to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith be returned after the Mississippi politician's "public hanging" remark drew widespread criticism, according to Popular Information reporter Judd Legum.

The California-based search giant donated $5,000 to the Hyde-Smith campaign on November 2, before the controversial remarks were made. Google's donation to Hyde-Smith was first reported by Popular Information — an email newsletter publication — two weeks ago. In a statement to Popular Information at the time, Google distanced itself from the candidate but made no indication that it would request the funds be returned.

"This contribution was made on November 2nd before Senator Hyde-Smith's remarks became public on November 11th. While we support candidates who promote pro-growth policies for business and technology, we do not condone these remarks and would not have made such a contribution had we known about them," Google said in the statement.

Over the past week, other high-profile contributors, like Walmart, AT&T, Pfizer, and Major League Baseball, have requested a refund for donations made to the Hyde-Smith campaign.

These requests came after a video surfaced of Hyde-Smith saying at a small rally in Tupelo, Mississippi: "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."

Google did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on whether the company was planning to request its donation be returned.

Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith will face off against Democratic challenger Mike Espy on Tuesday in a special election for one of Mississippi's Senate seats. Hyde-Smith was appointed to the position earlier this year after Senator Thad Cochran stepped down due to health issues.

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Mississippi noose

State and federal investigators are trying to find out who hung seven nooses in trees outside the Mississippi Capitol.
The nooses were accompanied by handwritten signs referring to the state's special election, as well as to lynchings.
One sign referred the election between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is white, and Democrat Mike Espy, who is black.
Another sign read: "We're hanging nooses to remind people that times haven't changed."
Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — State and federal investigators are trying to find out who hung seven nooses in trees outside the Mississippi Capitol early Monday, a day before a U.S. Senate runoff that has focused attention on the state's history of racist violence.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety says the nooses were accompanied by handwritten signs referring to Tuesday's election as well as to lynchings — most of them in the state's turbulent past, but also one recent case that remains under investigation, of a black man whose body was found hanging in central Mississippi. The department posted photos of the signs on social media and sought information about them from the public.

Image of Cindy Hyde-Smith on INSIDER

One sign referred to the Tuesday runoff between appointed Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is white, and Democrat Mike Espy, who is black. The sign also read: "We need someone who respects the lives of lynch victims."

Another sign read: "We're hanging nooses to remind people that times haven't changed."

Hyde-Smith has drawn fire for a photo showing her wearing a replica hat of a Confederate soldier, and a video showing her praising a supporter by saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." She said the hanging remark was an "exaggerated expression of regard" for the supporter, but the remarks drew sharp criticism in a state with a 38 percent black population. She apologized "to anyone that was offended."

Espy is trying to become the first African-American U.S. senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction.

Neither Espy nor a Hyde-Smith campaign spokeswoman would comment on the nooses.

Mike Espy

Chuck McIntosh, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees the Capitol, said the nooses and signs were found starting shortly before 8 a.m. Monday outside the Capitol in downtown Jackson.

The matter is under investigation by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Mississippi Capitol Police and the U.S. attorney's office.

"With our law enforcement partners, we are actively looking into these acts of hate and intimidation," U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst said in a statement. "Let me be perfectly clear — there is absolutely no place in our state for these unacceptable symbols or tactics to intimidate others. If we find evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that a federal crime has occurred, these criminals will be swiftly prosecuted."

Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has an office in the Capitol, called the nooses and signs "reprehensible."

Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings. The NAACP website says that between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States, and that nearly 73 percent of the victims were black. It says Mississippi had 581 lynching during that time, the highest number of any state.

Civil rights activists were also beaten and killed in Mississippi as they pushed for African-Americans' voting rights, particularly from the end of World War II until the 1960s.

____

Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report.

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Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy

Mississippi voters elected Cindy Hyde-Smith to a full Senate term on Tuesday, ending a closely watched runoff election again her Democratic challenger Mike Espy.
Hyde-Smith had a lead of more than 68,000 votes over Espy as of 10:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday night. It is the last Senate election of the 2018 season.
She has held the office since March when she was appointed after Sen. Thad Cochran resigned.
Espy, a former congressman and Clinton administration alum, had sought to capitalize on Hyde-Smith’s missteps on the campaign trail, but ultimately fell short in the deep-red state.

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won a Senate runoff election in Mississippi on Tuesday night, beating her Democratic challenger Mike Espy in what had become a tumultuous contest in the state.

Hyde-Smith and Espy were vying for the seat in a deep-red state where President Donald Trump took nearly 58% of the vote in 2016.

Hyde-Smith, the state's former agriculture and commerce commissioner who was appointed to the Senate seat in March after Sen. Thad Cochran resigned, was favored to win, despite recent criticism she received after telling a supporter she would attend a "public hanging," if invited.

That remark conjured Mississippi's history of racism, lynchings, and Jim Crow laws — and caused a handful of companies to withdraw their support for Hyde-Smith's campaign. She has apologized for the comment.

Espy had sought to capitalize on the fallout from Hyde-Smith's missteps, as well as subsequent revelations that his Republican opponent attended a "segregation academy" and celebrated the Confederacy.

But he, too, faced significant headwinds on the road to Washington.

An assessment from FiveThirtyEight indicated that Espy would need an "unprecedented" swing in order to win Tuesday night.

Some Democrats held out hope for Espy citing a resemblance between the Mississippi runoff and the December 2017 special election in neighboring Alabama, where voters chose Democrat Doug Jones over the embattled Republican Roy Moore, whose campaign was crushed under the weight of a sexual-misconduct scandal.

The Alabama election gave the state its first Democratic senator in more than two decades, but that energy did not transfer to Mississippi, which has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1972.

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President Donald Trump with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy on Tuesday in a Mississippi Senate race defined by the Republican's racially-charged comments.
Hyde-Smith's runoff victory in the last race of the midterm elections was far from resounding in a deep red state, and may indicate increasing support for Democrats in the South.
Espy, who was vying to become Mississippi's first black senator since the end of the Civil War, was buoyed by strong turnout among the state's large black electorate.

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy in Mississippi's Senate runoff on Tuesday by an unusually small margin in the deep red state after transforming the contest into something of a referendum on Mississippi's racist past with jokes about public hangings and voter suppression.

Hyde-Smith's runoff victory in the last race of the midterm elections was far from resounding — she took 54% of the vote to Espy's 46% — in a state that President Donald Trump won by nearly 18 points two years ago. The result came as a relief to Republicans, who will have 53 senators to Democrats' 47 in the new Congress — a two seat gain.

In the three weeks since Election Day, the Mississippi race became defined by comments Hyde-Smith made on the campaign trail, including her statement that if a supporter asked her to attend "a public hanging, I'd be on the front row," that dredged up the state's dark history of racial violence and oppression.

Espy, who would have become the state's first black senator since the end of the Civil War, gained seven points over the Nov. 6 vote, in which 58% of the electorate supported Hyde-Smith and another GOP candidate, while 42% voted for Espy. (The runoff was triggered because no candidate received 50% of the vote).

Part of Espy's boost can be attributed to energized black voters, who showed up in greater numbers in many parts of the state than they did three weeks ago, according to exit polling. And while 60% of Mississippi's voting-age population is white, the state has the largest share of black voters in the country.

Espy framed Hyde-Smith's missteps, and subsequent revelations that she attended a "segregation academy" and celebrated the Confederacy, as an embarrassment to the state.

"It's given our state another black eye that we don’t need. It's just rejuvenated old stereotypes that we don't need anymore," Espy said of Hyde-Smith's remarks in a debate last week.

The former Clinton administration agriculture secretary also did better in suburban areas (full of college-educated white voters), including outside of Memphis and Jackson, than Barack Obama did in 2008.

Democrat Mike Espy shakes hands with a supporter at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson after losing the runoff election on Tuesday.

Overall, Hyde-Smith, the state's first female senator, received 87% of the GOP voters who turned out for the election three weeks ago, while Espy received an impressive 101% of Democratic votes compared to those who voted earlier this month. And this came after Republicans directed significant resources to boost Hyde-Smith, including several presidential rallies, tweets, and an injection of GOP election staffers.

The unusually competitive Mississippi race could indicate a favorable trend for Democrats in the South. Espy is the third black Democrat to come close to winning a big ticket contest in the South this year, after Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum came up short in Georgia and Florida's gubernatorial races.

And it comes a year after neighboring Alabama elected its first Democratic senator in a quarter-century. Notably, Alabama Democrat Doug Jones' stunning victory in last year's special election was facilitated in part by a significant surge in black voter turnout. Black Alabamians made up a larger percentage of the electorate in that contest than they did in both 2008 and 2012 when Barack Obama was on the ballot. (96% of black voters cast their ballots for Jones).

But Jones' opponent, right-wing Republican Roy Moore, was a particularly weak candidate and was partially crushed under the weight of a sexual-assault scandal and a long record of racial animosity.

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lil bill

Moo-ve over, Knickers, the giant cow— or was it a steer?
Meet Lil' Bill, a premature calf who weighed just 7.9 pounds when he was born.
Bill was brought to the college for advanced medical care because of his small size.
He has not been officially confirmed to be the world's smallest cow, but researchers at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine suspect that he is.

Moo-ve over, Knickers, the giant cow. There's a new viral bovine in town.

Meet Lil' Bill, a tiny calf who is roughly the size of a cat, per the Epoch Times.

The tiny bull was lives at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, where he's cared for by doctors, researchers, and students.

"Occasionally, we get a case that has us scratching our heads a bit. Lil' Bill is one of those cases!" the college wrote on Facebook. "He was born weighing a little over one-tenth of what newborn calves typically weigh."

Online, people love this bull!

"Is he a mini-cow? Or just unusually small? Super cute," one person commented on the Facebook post. "Precious little thing!" someone else wrote. "Awww, he is pretty darn cute!" a third wrote.

In a blog post, researchers at the university elaborated that Bill was born prematurely.

Per the post, depending on their breed, calves usually weight between 50 and 80 pounds when they are born. Clocking in at just 7.9 pounds at birth, Lil' Bill "defied the odds by staying alive," per the school's blog.

"A cattle producer from outside of the Jackson, Mississippi, area raised Lil' Bill until he was four days old. They contacted the CVM for assistance when Lil' Bill began having some health issues," said Gretchen Grissett, an Assistant Clinical of Professor Food Animal Medicine and Surgery at the University, told INSIDER.

Since then, he's been under the care of Grissett and her team.

After arriving at the university, the bull's condition improved, Grissett told INSIDER. He no longer needs a feeding tube or therapeutic oxygen, Grissett explained in the university blog post. He does have splints on his legs, as his bones aren't fully developed yet, the blog noted.

Grissett told INSIDER that cows typically live in captivity into their teens — and she expects that Lil' Bill could live that long.

"I don't see any reason why Lil' Bill can't have a normal life expectancy as long as he can overcome all of his setbacks with prematurity," Grissett said. "He certainly still has many hurdles to overcome before we will know for sure."

Grissett said she and her team are waiting on test results to confirm their suspicion that he could also have a form of dwarfism. While they suspect that he is the world's smallest cow, nothing has been officially confirmed.

But all things considered? Lil' Bill is doing well!

"He spends most of his time being cared for by our outstanding staff, faculty, and students," Grissett said. "He has a really sweet disposition. He enjoys walking around and begging for more milk."

If that's not a moo-d.

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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Lanekia Michelle Brown

Lanekia Michelle Brown was about three or four weeks pregnant when she died in jail after complaining of stomach pains, her family says.
The 37-year-old Mississippi woman was reportedly found unresponsive when medical help arrived, her family said.
A nurse attempted to perform CPR, but it did not help, according to Brown's mother.
Brown's family thinks the circumstances around her death are "suspicious."
Brown was awaiting trial for a drug trafficking charge.

A pregnant woman who complained of stomach pains died in jail, according to her family.

Lanekia Michelle Brown, 37, was about three or four weeks pregnant when she died, her family told CBS-affiliated WJTV.

Margaret Johnson, Brown's mom, told the outlet that a Mississippi Highway Patrol Officer notified her of her daughter's death on Sunday. It's not immediately clear when she died.

Johnson said the officer told her that Brown complained of stomach pains. But by the time a nurse arrived to provide medical help, she was found unresponsive, according to WJTV.

"They did CPR on her over and over... still didn't get no response... So he just said she was gone," Johnson said.

One family member, identified by WJTV as Lavell, said the circumstances surrounding Brown's death seemed "suspicious."

"It's very suspicious because like I said we talked to her and she was okay. If she had any kind of problems, she would have let us know," Lavell said.

A representative for the Madison County Sheriff's Department didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment. Heath Hall, a spokesperson for the department, did confirm Brown's death to WJTV. Hall said that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations has taken over the case and the Madison County coroner will conduct an autopsy.

At the time of her death, Brown was awaiting a trial after being charged with trafficking of a controlled substance. In November, Brown and Marcus Anthony Redrick had been arrested after they were found with 103 pounds of marijuana at a traffic stop in Madison, Mississippi, according to authorities.

Brown is survived by her two children, according to WJTV.

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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Brittany Noble-Jones

Brittany Noble-Jones is a former co-anchor for WJTV This Morning in Mississippi.
She says she was wrongfully terminated in 2018 after after filing an EEOC complaint against her allegedly abusive bosses.
Noble-Jones detailed her complaints about the news station in a Medium post explaining why she hadn't been on air recently.
She claimed her bosses called her natural hair "unprofessional" and pushed her out of the company promos when she became pregnant.

A black news anchor in Mississippi alleges that she was told her natural hair was "unprofessional" and banned from TV by bosses she claims were "still stuck in 1953."

Brittany Noble-Jones, a former co-anchor for WJTV "This Morning" in Mississippi, detailed her complaints about the news station in a Medium post explaining why she hadn’t been on air recently.

She claimed she was wrongfully terminated from the station after filing complaints against her allegedly abusive bosses with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2018.

Noble-Jones told Yahoo Lifestyle that initially it was a "normal work environment," but said a number of stories she pitched were passed over, and when she became pregnant with her son in 2016, she felt as though she was being pushed out of the company brand.

"After announcing that I was pregnant, I was no longer included in commercials," she wrote on Medium. "I felt the need to starve myself to fit in. I now weigh only 108 pounds. I did eat while I was pregnant and while carrying my son and postpartum, I wasn't allowed to represent the station and my events were given away to another white reporter."

Upon returning to work after giving birth to her son, Noble-Jones said she was told her natural hair was not appropriate for the work environment.

"Women in this industry, particularly black women, feel forced to look a certain way by straightening their hair or wearing extensions," Noble-Jones told Yahoo Lifestyle.

She said she usually wore a wig to save her hair from damage, but decided to go natural to inspire children to embrace their own hair.

Noble-Jones said she was initially given the green light to wear her hair naturally, but a month later was pulled into her boss's office.

She wrote on Medium: "I was told 'My natural hair is unprofessional and the equivalent to him throwing on a baseball cap to go to the grocery store.' He said 'Mississippi viewers needed to see a beauty queen.' He even asked, 'why my hair doesn't lay flat.'"

Noble-Jones also claimed in the Medium post that WJTV "does not allow two black reporters to anchor the news together," saying the station was "still stuck in 1953."

"At the time of my first complaint, 7 of the 12 on-air staff members were black," she wrote on Medium. "That means station management goes out of their way when scheduling holiday and vacation requests to keep up us from sitting next to each other on the desk."

In June 2017, Noble-Jones filed a complaint with WJTV’s parent company against two of her supervisors, and claims the atmosphere grew more hostile following her filings.

And in April 2018, Noble-Jones took her complaint to the EEOC.

The next month, when she was using sick days to take care of her dying grandfather, she claims she was terminated from her job at WJTV.

INSIDER has contacted WJTV to confirm her termination. Noble-Jones' bio is still available on WJTV’s website.

Her EEOC claim is still being investigated.

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wjtv news 12 hostage

Four people died during a 12-hour hostage standoff in Clinton, Mississippi, on Saturday.
Cops were initially called to the scene at 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning following reports of a domestic disturbance at a residence on Foxhill Drive.
Two young children were released from the home at 11 a.m.
The suspect was apprehended at 2 p.m.

Law enforcement officials confirmed four people died after a domestic dispute led to a hostage standoff in Clinton, Mississippi, on Saturday.

According to WJTV News 12, police were called to Foxhill Drive around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning following reports of a domestic disturbance at the residence. The situation soon escalated as officers received fire from the suspect when they arrived.

"At about 2:30 am our officers responded to a scene over here behind us to a disturbance in progress," Clinton Police Chief Ford Hayman told WJTV News 12. "When our officers arrived they received fire from the suspect. The suspect then retreated into his home."

Over 50 police cars and a swat team surrounded the home by sunrise, and two small children were eventually released from the home around 11 a.m.

The situation escalated again at 12:30 p.m. when gunshots were heard from inside the home.

The suspect was then apprehended by 2 p.m., when officers discovered that four people had died.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has taken over the investigation, and has confirmed that the suspect has been taken into custody. No law enforcement officers were injured during the standoff.

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West Virginia

The South is one of the most beautiful parts of the United States.
The region, which comprises 16 states and Washington, DC, is home to sweet tea, sweeping landscapes, and unique architecture.
From Texas' Mexican-inspired cuisine to the stunning beaches of Florida and the lush forests of West Virginia, the region has something to offer everyone.

Between its beautiful beaches, charming cities, and its renowned hospitality, there are many reasons to visit the South.

The South, according to the US Census Bureau, is made up of 16 states — Alabama; Arkansas; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maryland; Mississippi; North Carolina; Oklahoma; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Virginia; and West Virginia — as well as Washington, DC.

These photos of the region will make you wish you lived in the South, or, if you already live there, make you feel grateful that you do.

Alabama's capital of Montgomery is a beautiful city with much to see and do.

With a walkable downtown area, beautiful parks, and plenty of museums — a number of which are dedicated to the city's history as the birthplace of the civil-rights movement— Montgomery has a ton to offer visitors and locals alike. Alabama's capital also boasts a great food scene, known for its barbecue and seafood.

Alabama is also home to scenic hiking trails. Little River Canyon is one of the most photogenic trails in Alabama.

According to the National Park Service, Little River Canyon "offers a place of solitude, beauty, and awe."

Nature enthusiasts will enjoy the challenge of hiking to this northeastern Alabama gem, while those with young children or limited walking abilities may prefer to take the scenic driving route to the site.

Speaking of beautiful natural scenery, look no further than the beaches of southern Alabama.

Beach lovers have good reason to flock to Alabama, too. The state's southern coast has some of the most stunning ocean landscapes in the country. Places like Gulf Shores (pictured above) and Orange Beach are hotspots for fishing and water sports.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

apple earth 2x1

To understand Apple's global retail footprint, it helps to see it for yourself.
We've compiled a list of every Apple store in the world.
Jump to your favorite country or state via the table of contents, or scroll down to see every store alphabetically.

It's hard to believe Apple was started out of a garage in California just over 40 years ago. Today, Apple is worth hundreds of billions of dollars and has over 500 stores in 24 countries around the world.

Apple stores weren't even a "thing" until 2001. That year, late cofounder Steve Jobs hired Ron Johnson, the former CEO of JCPenney, to help Apple open its first two physical stores in Glendale, California, and Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Apple stores were a massive hit. Apple became the fastest retailer in history to reach $1 billion in annual sales, making all of that money in its first three years of operation. Eighteen years later, Apple's retail presence is a global powerhouse.

To understand Apple's global footprint, it really helps to see it for yourself.

Below, we've collected the photos and locations of every single Apple store on the planet. Apple currently has 504 stores in operation. We'll be updating this list over time, as new stores open and old stores close down. We've also taken care to mention if a store is temporarily closed for renovations.

Check out the table of contents below to jump to any particular country or US state, or simply scroll down to see every single Apple store on the planet.

Every Apple Store on Earth: TABLE OF CONTENTS

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil

Canada, China, France, Germany

Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Macao

Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea

Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan

Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

United States

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware

District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii

Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa

Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine

Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota

Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada

New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York

North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee

Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin

Apple Canberra

Apple Bondi (temporarily closed for renovation)

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Apple stanford

We've compiled a list of every Apple store in the United States.
Jump to your favorite state via the table of contents, or scroll down to see every state in alphabetical order.

To understand Apple's retail footprint, it really helps to see it for yourself.

Below, we've collected the photos and locations of every single Apple store in the United States. Apple currently has 271 US stores in operation: Notably, nine states (and Washington D.C.) only have one Apple store, and six states have no Apple stores at all (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.) California, on the other hand, has 53 Apple stores in its state alone.

We'll be updating this list over time, as new stores open and old stores close down. We've also taken care to mention if a store is temporarily closed for renovations.

Check out the table of contents below to jump to any particular US state, or simply scroll down to see every single Apple store in the US. (You can also check out our list of every Apple store in the world.)