Mississippi

JACKSON, Feb 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mississippi urged thousands of people in the Pearl River flood plain to evacuate as the river reached its highest level in 37 years near the state capital and was not expected to recede for days.

Governor Tate Reeves had declared a state of emergency on Saturday as managers of the Ross Barnett Reservoir just upstream from the state capital of Jackson warned they had to start releasing more water into the Pearl River because it had reached capacity.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — With the waters in the Pearl River continuing to rise in and around Mississippi’s capital city and more rain on the way this week, the governor warned residents that it would be days before flood waters start to recede.

Gov. Tate Reeves said Sunday morning that the Pearl would continue to rise throughout the day, and he warned that the state faces a “precarious situation that can turn at any moment.”

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday amid predictions that a river running in the area around the state capital of Jackson could burst its banks and spark widespread flooding.

Forecasters believe the Pearl River will crest at 38 feet (11.6 meters) Sunday evening to levels not seen in decades, following days of torrential rains across the Southeast. Reeves said the state should prepare for “the third worst flood” in its history.

“This is a historic, unprecedented flood,” Reeves said via Twitter.

MISSISSIPPI, USA (AP) --- Mississippi authorities were searching for two prisoners believed to have escaped Saturday from one of several prisons rocked by violence that has left at least five inmates dead in the past week.

Gov. Phil Bryant on Saturday said via Twitter that he has directed “the use of all necessary assets and personnel” to find the two inmates who escaped from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

LOUISVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man whose murder conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court for racial bias was released from custody Monday for the first time in 22 years.

Curtis Flowers walked out of the regional jail in the central town of Louisville hours after a judge set his bond at $250,000. A person who wanted to remain anonymous posted $25,000, the 10% needed to secure Flowers’ release, said his attorney Rob McDuff.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A judge is being asked Monday to set bond for a Mississippi man who has been tried six times in the same quadruple murder case.

Curtis Flowers, 49, is scheduled to appear in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Winona. That is the town where four employees of the Tardy Furniture store were shot to death in 1996.

Four of Flowers’ convictions in the case have been overturned, and two ended in mistrials.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Jackson State University’s campus was placed on lockdown Wednesday after someone was shot and wounded there, prompting an active shooter alert.

A non-student was shot in the leg across the street from the student center, university spokesman L.A. Warren said. A university police officer at the scene confirmed to the Clarion Ledger that there was a single shooter, who also was not a student. The officer said one person was injured and brought to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out Friday at Democrats for a vote this week formalizing the House impeachment inquiry as he urged rallygoers in Mississippi to send a message to Washington by voting Republican in the state’s upcoming gubernatorial race.

Democrats are “disgracing themselves and bringing shame upon the House of Representatives,” Trump charged. “They’ve been plotting to overthrow the election since the moment I won.”

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi second-term Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves won the Republican nomination for governor Tuesday, setting up a November general election showdown with Democrat Jim Hood, the state’s four-term attorney general.

Reeves defeated retired Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. in a Republican primary runoff.

CANTON, Miss. (AP) — The children of Sacred Heart Catholic Church streamed out into Mississippi’s heat on a blistering Sunday afternoon, carrying what they said was a message of opposition against immigration raids their parents could not.

“I will not sit in silence while my parents are taken away,” read a sign carried by two Hispanic boys. They were among a group of several dozen marchers who set out on foot from the church to the town square in Canton to protest the 680 migrant arrests at seven poultry plants in Mississippi last Wednesday.