Grand jury declines to indict woman in Emmett Till killing
Emmitt Till FILE- In this 1955 file photo, Carolyn Bryant poses for a photo. A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the white woman, Carolyn Donham, known as Carolyn Bryant, whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, despite revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and a newly revealed memoir by the woman, a prosecutor said Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Gene Herrick, File) (Gene Herrick)A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, despite revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and an unpublished memoir by the woman, a prosecutor said Tuesday. She accused him of making lewd comments and grabbing her while she worked alone at a family store in Money, Mississippi. In February 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict anyone, and the Justice Department announced it was closing the case.
wftv.comGrand jury declines to indict woman in Emmett Till killing
A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, despite revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and an unpublished memoir by the woman, a prosecutor said Tuesday. After hearing more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses, a Leflore County grand jury last week determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter, Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson said in a news release.
news.yahoo.com1st sea turtle nest found on Mississippi beach since 2018
— (AP) — Beach crews have found the first sea turtle nest on the Mississippi mainland in four years. A Harrison County Sand Beach crew that was cleaning up found what appeared to be turtle tracks just east of the Pass Christian Harbor, officials said. The eggs likely belong to a protected loggerhead sea turtle or an even rarer Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, which is the most critically endangered species of sea turtle, said Moby Solangi, president of the marine studies group. Only about 1 in 10,000 sea turtle eggs reach adulthood. This is the first sea turtle nest on mainland Mississippi since 2018, although there have been unofficial reports of nests on uninhabited barrier islands, officials said.
wftv.com'Guard cat' credited with preventing would-be robbery
(Thomas Wells/Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP) (Thomas Wells)BELDEN, Miss — (AP) — A Mississippi man said his pet cat helped prevent a robbery at his home, and he credits the calico with possibly saving his life. Bandit, a 20-pound (9.1-kilogram) cat, lives with her retired owner Fred Everitt in the Tupelo suburb of Belden. “This is a guard cat.”The attempted robbery occurred sometime between 2:30 and 3 a.m. on July 25, Everitt said. Everitt told the newspaper that he did not call the police. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
wftv.com'Guard cat' credited with preventing would-be robbery
A Mississippi man said his pet cat helped prevent a robbery at his home, and he credits the calico with possibly saving his life. When at least two people tried to break into their shared home last week, the cat did everything she could to alert Everitt of the danger, he told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. “You hear of guard dogs,” said Everitt, 68.
news.yahoo.comAirbnb removes former ‘slave cabin’ listing, apologizes after TikTok backlash
Airbnb A viral TikTok video slamming a Mississippi property described as a former “slave cabin” in its Airbnb descriptions prompted the property-rental giant to apologize and remove all listings where enslaved people in the U.S. once lived. >> Read more trending news“Properties that formerly housed the enslaved have no place on Airbnb,” Airbnb said in a prepared statement provided to NBC News. A place where human beings were kept as slaves, rent this out as a bed and breakfast?”Not @airbnb with a whole slave cabin available for rent. He also shared screenshots of the listing that referred to the Panther Burn Cabin as “an 1830s slave cabin from the extant Panther Burn Plantation to the south of Belmont. A listing on Airbnb just got pulled down because it’s description said that it was an 1830s slave cabin.
wftv.comA potentially deadly bacteria has been found in US soil and water for the first time. These are the symptoms of an infection the CDC has said to look out for.
Melioidosis — a rare, serious disease caused by burkholderia pseudomallei bacteria — is now considered endemic in some Gulf Coast regions of Mississippi.
news.yahoo.comMississippi's ex-Gov Phil Bryant subpoenaed in welfare scandal involving Brett Favre
(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM )A defendant in the sprawling Mississippi welfare fund scandal involving ex-NFL quarterback Brett Favre has subpoenaed former Governor Phil Bryant to produce documents related to the $5 million in financing of a University of Southern Mississippi volleyball facility. The suit accuses Favre of accepting $1.1 million in welfare funds for no-show speaking engagements. New accused Bryant in a July court filing of directing her to pay the $1.1 million to Favre. Not included in the lawsuit is $5 million spent to build a volleyball facility at Southern Miss, Favre and Bryant's alma mater. Mississippi Today reported on July 13 that Pigott filed a subpoena seeking communications from the former governor and first lady and the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation.
wftv.comBacteria that causes rare tropical disease found in US soil
A germ that causes a rare and sometimes deadly disease — long thought to be confined to tropical climates — has been found in soil and water in the continental United States, U.S. health officials said Wednesday. The bacteria was found on the property of a Mississippi man who had come down with the disease, melioidosis. U.S. physicians should consider melioidosis even in patients who haven't traveled to other countries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a health alert.
news.yahoo.comMississippi mother ran over her 6-year-old child with car, police say
Mississippi mother ran over her 6-year-old child with car, police say Keanaw Bradley is facing multiple charges, including felony child abuse. — A woman is facing charges after police said she ran over her own child and injured another person during a domestic incident. >> Read more trending newsHattiesburg police said in a news release that a 6-year-old child was brought to a hospital after being hit by a car. Officers said the driver was identified as Keanaw Bradley, the child’s mother, who fled the scene. Police filed multiple charges against Bradley, including domestic violence - aggravated assault and felony child abuse.
wftv.comMonkeypox: Mississippi confirms 1st case of virus; US total nears 3,500 cases
Monkeypox: What you need to know Monkeypox: What you need to know (NCD)JACKSON, Miss. Health officials have not said where in Mississippi the patient resides or if out-of-state travel was a factor, the TV station reported. By Monday evening, nearly 17,000 monkeypox infections had been confirmed across 74 countries, 68 of which have not historically reported the virus, according to the CDC. Monkeypox typically begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes before progressing to a rash on the face and body. Per the CDC, “early data suggest that gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men make up a high number of cases.
wftv.comMan charged with murdering missing Ole Miss student Jimmie ‘Jay’ Lee, police say
Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. Police in Oxford, Mississippi, announced the arrest of Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., 22, on Friday, July 22, 2022. — Police on Friday announced an arrest in the investigation into the disappearance of University of Mississippi student Jimmie “Jay” Lee. >> Read more trending newsAuthorities charged 22-year-old Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., of Grenada, with murder, police said. Lee vanished on the morning of July 8 after he was seen leaving Campus Walk Apartments, WHBQ-TV reported. TONIGHT AT 9: The Black Ford Fusion that belongs to missing Ole Miss student Jimmie ‘Jay’ Lee was found today at an Oxford towing company.
wftv.comMistrust lingers in Black communities amid 988 launch
Stories like these reverberate through generations, stoking mistrust of the mental health system, especially within Black communities. “This is a critical question,” said John Palmieri, a senior medical advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration official. Improper detentions and other issues contribute to what some experts say is an underutilization of mental health services within communities of color. “It’s not because people don’t want to use mental health services,” said Sirry Alang, a professor of sociology and health at Lehigh University. As with Wimbley, mental health was also a touchy subject for Joyce Coleman and her mother.
wftv.comMistrust lingers in Black communities amid 988 launch
Stories like these reverberate through generations, stoking mistrust of the mental health system, especially within Black communities. “This is a critical question,” said John Palmieri, a senior medical advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration official. Improper detentions and other issues contribute to what some experts say is an underutilization of mental health services within communities of color. “It’s not because people don’t want to use mental health services,” said Sirry Alang, a professor of sociology and health at Lehigh University. As with Wimbley, mental health was also a touchy subject for Joyce Coleman and her mother.
wftv.comCrowd protests relocation of abortion clinic to New Mexico
Abortion Protest-New Mexico Anti-abortion advocates listen to various speakers during the Emergency Pro-Life Rally for New Mexico in Las Cruces, N.M., on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. The crowd gathered in triple-digit temperatures in the southern city of Las Cruces, near the location where Jackson Women's Health Organization plans to open its new clinic next week. The facility will provide fertility care, pregnancy and childbirth support services as alternatives to the abortions planned for the former Mississippi clinic next door. “We’re just trying to tie up loose ends,” Diane Derzis, owner of Las Cruces Women’s Health Organization, told The Associated Press on Monday. Derzis said Tuesday's demonstration against the abortion clinic didn't bother her since protests have gone for years at other clinics she has owned in Mississippi and elsewhere.
wftv.comMississippi clinic drops challenge of near-ban on abortion
— (AP) — Mississippi's last abortion clinic on Tuesday dropped its lawsuit that sought to block the state from enforcing a law that bans most abortions. Derzis also said she had no intention to reopen the clinic, even if a state court allowed her to do so. The Jackson clinic is best known as the Pink House because of its bright paint job. The decision was in a case that challenged a Mississippi law to ban abortions after 15 weeks. Because the clinic is dropping its lawsuit, the Mississippi Supreme Court will not issue a new ruling that might contradict its own 1998 decision.
wftv.comEmmett Till's house, Black sites to get preservation funds
Heritage Site Grants Emmett Till FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2020 file photo, the former home of Emmett and Mamie Till at 6427 S St. Lawrence Avenue is pictured in the West Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. Emmett Till's Chicago home is one of more than two dozen historically significant sites that will share in $3 million grant money from a preservation organization. Brent Leggs, executive director of the organization that is in its fifth year of awarding the grants, said the effort is intended to fill “some gaps in the nation’s understanding of the civil rights movement." Till's brutal slaying helped galvanize the civil rights movement. “It was a catalytic moment in the civil rights movement and through this we lift and honor Black women in civil rights,” Leggs said.
wftv.comEmmett Till's house, Black sites to get preservation funds
Heritage Site Grants Emmett Till FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2020 file photo, the former home of Emmett and Mamie Till at 6427 S St. Lawrence Avenue is pictured in the West Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. Emmett Till's Chicago home is one of more than two dozen historically significant sites that will share in $3 million grant money from a preservation organization. Brent Leggs, executive director of the organization that is in its fifth year of awarding the grants, said the effort is intended to fill “some gaps in the nation’s understanding of the civil rights movement." Till's brutal slaying helped galvanize the civil rights movement. “It was a catalytic moment in the civil rights movement and through this we lift and honor Black women in civil rights,” Leggs said.
wftv.comOwner: Mississippi abortion clinic is sold, won't reopen
Abortion Mississippi A security officer walks past the front of the Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic in Jackson, Miss., Sunday, July 3, 2022. On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protections for abortion. Diane Derzis said the furniture and equipment from Jackson Women's Health Organization have been moved to a new abortion clinic she will open soon in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Jackson clinic is best known as the Pink House because of its bright paint job, and it was Mississippi's last abortion clinic. The state Supreme Court has set a July 25 deadline for state attorneys to respond to the clinic's appeal.
wftv.comMississippi's attorney general has no plan to prosecute Carolyn Bryant Donham over role in Emmett Till lynching, aide says
Mississippi's top legal official has no plan to prosecute Carolyn Bryant Donham, whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, an aide said Friday.
cbsnews.comMississippi AG: No prosecution plan in Emmett Till lynching
Emmett Till FILE - An undated portrait of Emmett Louis Till, a black 14 year old Chicago boy, whose weighted down body was found in the Tallahatchie River near the Delta community of Money, Mississippi, August 31, 1955. — (AP) — Mississippi's top legal official has no plan to prosecute the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, an aide said Friday following revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and a newly revealed memoir by the woman. Williams also said Fitch's office has not been in contact with Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson, the local prosecutor who would be responsible for pursuing any case against Carolyn Bryant Donham. A group searching the basement of the Leflore County Courthouse in June discovered the unserved arrest warrant charging Donham, then-husband Roy Bryant and brother-in-law J.W. Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till who leads the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, said the unserved arrest warrant and memoir are new evidence that show Donham’s involvement in the case.
wftv.comEmmett Till accuser, in memoir, denies wanting teen killed
Emmett Till FILE - In this Sept. 23, 1955, file photo, J.W. Bryant and his half-brother Milam were charged with murder but acquitted in the kidnapping and torture slaying of 14-year-old black teen Emmett Till in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited)DURHAM, N.C. — (AP) — The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 says she neither identified him to the killers nor wanted him murdered. But the Till family is pushing authorities to act. In the memoir, however, she claims Till did do those things.
wftv.comEmmett Till accuser, in memoir, denies wanting teen killed
The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 says she neither identified him to the killers nor wanted him murdered. In an unpublished memoir obtained by The Associated Press, Carolyn Bryant Donham says she was unaware of what would happen to the 14-year-old Till, who lived in Chicago and was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted, killed and tossed in a river. Now 87, Donham was only 21 at the time.
news.yahoo.comDefendant: Ex-governor ordered payments to NFL's Brett Favre
A defendant in a Mississippi welfare fraud case said in a court document she directed $1.1 million in welfare money to former NFL star Brett Favre at the direction of former Gov. Phil Bryant. Mississippi news outlets report that the accusation, which Bryant denies, is in a filing on behalf of defendant Nancy New, who, with her son, once ran a nonprofit group and an education company in Mississippi.
news.yahoo.comMississippi teen recounts rescuing 4 people from drowning
But that's what happened in the early hours of Sunday when a car drove off a boat launch into a south Mississippi river. Three young women he had seen at a nearby party on Saturday had been in the car. Undeterred by the dark water, Evans headed straight into the river. The three young women climbed out of the passenger window, WLOX-TV reported. "He was trying to come back up but kept swallowing water," Evans said.
wftv.comLone Mississippi abortion clinic seeks legal path to reopen
Abortion Mississippi Abortion rights advocates stand outside the Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic in Jackson, Miss., and attempt to shout down a group of abortion opponents, Thursday, July 7, 2022. — (AP) — Attorneys for Mississippi's only abortion clinic filed papers Thursday asking the state Supreme Court to block a law that bans most abortions and to let the clinic reopen next week. They said that in 1998, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution has a right to privacy that includes abortion. It was not immediately clear when the conservative state Supreme Court would consider the appeal. The Mississippi clinic is best known as the Pink House because of its bright paint job.
wftv.comVirgin Galactic taps Boeing subsidiary to build motherships
Virgin Galactic officials said that outsourcing the work will provide access to labor, minimize supply chain disruptions and lead to faster production times. Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said the next-generation motherships will be integral to scaling up the company's operations. Virgin Galactic officials also noted Aurora's direct access to Boeing's expertise and other resources. Aurora and Virgin Galactic have been working for the last several months to develop design specifications as well as workforce and manufacturing requirements. Just weeks after the flight, Virgin Galactic reopened the ticket window, with prices starting at $450,000 a seat.
wftv.comScramble as last Mississippi abortion clinic shuts its doors
APTOPIX Abortion Mississippi An anti-abortion supporter sits behind a sign that advises the Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic is still open in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, July 6, 2022. Amid intense summer heat and humidity, clashes intensified Wednesday between anti-abortion protesters and volunteers escorting patients into the clinic, best known as the Pink House. But the Mississippi clinic has been inundated with patients since September, when Texas enacted a ban on abortion early in pregnancy. The Mississippi clinic uses out-of-state physicians like Hamlin because no in-state doctors will work there. With the Mississippi clinic closing, Derzis and Brewer will soon open an abortion clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, about an hour’s drive from El Paso, Texas — and they will call it Pink House West.
wftv.comMississippi teen dives into river to save 3 girls, officer after car plunges off boat launch
Pascagoula River File photo of the Pascagoula River after Tropical Storm Cindy dropped heavy rain in the area, Saturday, June 24, 2017, in Merrill, Missippi. — A Mississippi teenager is being heralded a hero after springing into action when a vehicle plunged off a boat ramp and into the Pascagoula River during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Evans told WLOX-TV that he was hanging out with friends near the Interstate 10 overpass over the Pascagoula River when he saw the girls drive straight down the boat ramp and into the river. “Like, only a little bit of the car was still above the water,” Evans told the TV station. He’s drowning,” Evans told the TV station.
wftv.comAbortion foes, supporters map next moves after Roe reversal
A day after the Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling overturning Roe v. Wade ended the constitutional right to abortion, emotional protests and prayer vigils are turning to resolve as several states enact bans and both supporters and foes of abortion rights map out their next moves.
No. 6 Baylor tops No. 8 Ole Miss in Sugar Bowl; Corral hurt
Al Walcott set a Sugar Bowl record with a 96-yard interception return, Monaray Baldwin raced 48 yards for the go-ahead score on an end around, and sixth-ranked Baylor beat No. 8 Mississippi 21-7 as injured Rebels quarterback Matt Corral looked on from the sideline.