Articles written by Emily Wagster Pettus
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Republican lawsuits challenge mail ballot deadlines. Could they upend voting across the country?
Republicans are challenging extended mail ballot deadlines in at least two states in a legal maneuver that could have widespread implications for mail voting before the presidential election in November. A lawsuit filed last week in Mississippi follo...
Mississippi grand jury cites shoddy investigations by police department at center of mistrial
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi grand jury issued a report last month sharply criticizing a police department whose errors prompted a mistrial this week in the case of two white men charged in an attack on a Black FedEx driver. Officers in t...
Trial begins for 2 white Mississippi men charged with shooting at Black FedEx driver
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — Attorneys made brief opening arguments Tuesday in the trial of two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home. Brandon Case and his f...
NAACP sues Mississippi over 'separate and unequal policing'
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The NAACP warns that "separate and unequal policing" will return to Mississippi's majority-Black capital under a state-run police department, and the civil rights organization is suing the governor and other officials over it. R...
'There's nothing left': Deep South tornadoes kill 26
ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Rescuers raced Saturday to search for survivors and help hundreds of people left homeless after a powerful tornado cut a devastating path through Mississippi, killing at least 25 people, injuring dozens, and flattening e...
Sheriff: Gunman kills 6, including ex-wife, in Mississippi
ARKABUTLA, Miss. (AP) — A lone gunman killed six people including his ex-wife and stepfather Friday at multiple locations in a tiny rural community in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues to what motivated...
Sheriff: Gunman kills 6, including ex-wife, in Mississippi
ARKABUTLA, Miss. (AP) — A lone gunman killed six people including his ex-wife and stepfather Friday at multiple locations in a tiny rural community in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues to what m...
US vote counting unaffected by cyberattacks, officials say
WASHINGTON (AP) — No instances of digital interference are known to have affected the counting of the midterm vote after a tense Election Day in which officials were closely monitoring domestic and foreign threats. A few state and local g...
EPA civil rights case targets Mississippi over Jackson water
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The federal government is investigating whether Mississippi state agencies discriminated against the state's majority-Black capital city by refusing to fund improvements for its failing water system, the U.S. Environmental P...
Mississippi capital's water disaster developed over decades
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — For at least the third time in a dozen years, portable toilets are parked outside the ornate Mississippi Capitol because Jackson's water system is in crisis. The big "Gotta Go" trailer is just one example of the city's d...
Public ideas for Mississippi flag: Magnolias, stars, beer
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Magnolias and stars. Crosses and guitars. Beer cans and crawfish. A Gulf Coast lighthouse. Elvis Presley and Kermit the Frog. All appear on proposals the general public submitted for a new Mississippi flag. Mississippi r...
Group seeks ideas for Mississippi flag without rebel emblem
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A state agency said Monday that the public can submit proposals for a new Mississippi flag, using two requirements in state law: The designs cannot include the Confederate battle emblem, and they must have the phrase, "In God W...
Mississippi takes step toward dropping rebel image from flag
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Spectators at the Mississippi Capitol broke into applause Saturday as lawmakers took a big step toward erasing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, a symbol that has come under intensifying criticism in recent w...
Mississippi gov is pranked in shout-out to high school grads
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — This one slipped through the cracks. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves asked people to submit names of high school seniors so he could read them aloud on a webcast — a recognition for teenagers who are missing traditional gra...
Court fight over lost dog survives after dog's owner dies
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that a legal fight over a lost dog could continue in Mississippi, even after the dog's owner has died. The dispute is over a German shepherd named Max who jumped out a window and escaped from h...
1 of B.B. King's 'Lucille' guitars sold for $280K at auction
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A guitar given to B.B. King for his 80th birthday has sold for $280,000 at an auction of items from the blues legend's estate. Julien's Auctions says King often used the black Gibson ES-345 prototype that was one of several g...
Mississippi governor signs 'heartbeat' abortion law
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday signed one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation — a measure that bans most abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy. Bryant's action cam...
Mississippi politicos feud over civil rights monument status
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's white Republican governor and the state's only black Democratic congressman are feuding over who should get credit for the home of a slain civil rights leader becoming a national monument. President Donald Trump s...
Mississippi will seek to revive law on 15-week abortion ban
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's attorney general said Friday that he will appeal a federal judge's ruling that struck down one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled Tuesday that a M...
US judge: Mississippi 15-week abortion ban unconstitutional
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, one of the most restrictive in the United States. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled that the law "unequivocally" v...
Mississippi could re-examine 1959 racial killing of teenager
CORINTH, Miss. (AP) — Eberlene King remembers her 15-year-old brother as he lay dying, after white teenagers cruised through their black neighborhood in a pickup on Halloween night 1959 and shot him in the face. "His eyes ... were hanging out," K...
Surgeon general: Most in US think opioid abuse is not local
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said Thursday that opioid abuse occurs nationwide, but only a small percentage of Americans think it's an emergency in their own communities. "Most of us feel that the opioid e...
US surgeon general recounts providing aid on Delta flight
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams says he and two nurses worked as a team to give medical aid to someone aboard a Delta Air Lines jet. At a Thursday public discussion at a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, Adams shared s...
Ag official who backed Trump expected to get US Senate nod
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is preparing to fill an upcoming vacancy in the U.S. Senate, and three state Republican sources told The Associated Press that he will choose the state agriculture commissioner who helped advise D...
Judge temporarily blocks most restrictive abortion law in US
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The most restrictive abortion law in the United States was in effect less than 24 hours before a federal judge temporarily blocked it Tuesday during what could become a long legal fight between Mississippi's Republican g...
