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Iraq Begins Operation to Oust Islamic State Group from Anbar
The Iraqi government began a long-awaited, large-scale military operation Monday to dislodge Islamic State militants from the country's western Anbar province, a military spokesman announced.
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Appeals Court OKs Tossing Strict North Dakota Abortion Law
A federal appeals court affirmed a ruling Wednesday that struck down one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country: a North Dakota law that bans abortions when a …
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Pentagon Funding New High-Tech Venture
Defense Secretary Ash Carter will announce Friday that the Pentagon is funding a new venture to develop cutting-edge electronics and sensors that can flex and stretch and could be built …
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Politics
Miss. Governor Up with TV Ads, but No Air Time Yet for Dem
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant's campaign is running its first TV commercials this election season, but a new analysis shows his Democratic challenger, truck driver Robert Gray, hasn't bought any air …
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Art
Richard Grant
In his latest work, "Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta", Richard Grant delves into a region that's foreign but not at all far away.
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Person of the Day
Bill Wilson
Bill Wilson was studying to go into ministry at Belhaven College, now Belhaven University, when he realized that art was his life's calling.
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Girl About Town
The Art of Play
As an avid consumer of pop, fashion, and celebrity culture, I know full well about the cult of youth and the pursuit of it.
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Cover
Pro-Cochran PAC Sheds Light on GOP Primary
Recent federal-campaign finance reports shed new light into spending that took place in the final days of the grueling Republican primary in June.
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Liberia Opens 1 of Largest Ebola Treatment Centers
Liberia's president opened one of the country's largest Ebola treatment centers in Monrovia on Friday, remembering the days when "the dying, the sick, the dead who could not picked up …
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Politics
Hinds Election Snafu Could Bring Sanctions Against Commissioners
The Hinds County supervisors are calling on the local district attorney and the state attorney general to sanction the county election commission for failure to order the number of ballots …
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City & County
The Fire Next Time
City Council President De’Keither Stamps said last week’s fire at the state-owned Ag Museum, which Jackson fire crews extinguished, is a prime example of why the state should be kicking …
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Fires Burn in Ferguson After Mike Brown's Killer Escapes Indictment
Flames engulfed at least a dozen businesses in Ferguson early Tuesday and gunfire kept firefighters at bay after protests over the decision not to indict a police officer in Michael …
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Couples Challenging Alaska Gay-Marriage Ban
Five gay couples filed a lawsuit Monday challenging Alaska's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional.
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Insurers Propose Changes to Obama Health Law
Insurers want to change President Barack Obama's health care law to provide financial assistance for people buying bare-bones coverage. That would entice the healthy and the young, the industry says, …
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Art
Women: A Catalyst for Change
In an exhibit titled "Women: Agents of Change in the American Civil Rights Movement," Jackson State University offers a glimpse into the documentary photography of Dr. Doris A. Derby.
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Person of the Day
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is puppeteer and native Mississippian Jim Henson's most famous creation. Henson made the original Kermit out of one of his mother's old coats and gave him two …
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Education
JSU Minority Fellowship Program, MC Dyslexia Center Expansion and UM Veteran Recognition
Jackson State University's Council on Social Work Education recently named Carla Baskin as the 2018 fellow for its Minority Fellowship Program.
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Business
Mississippi Agencies: Shutdown Could Spark Worker Furloughs
Mississippi's welfare and child protection agencies could have to begin furloughing state employees without pay because federal welfare money has been interrupted by the federal government shutdown.
Entry
Death Row Prisoner Manning Gets a Stay
By R.L. NaveThe Mississippi State Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning. Manning was scheduled to be put to death this evening at 6 p.m. at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Manning, accused of killing two people in Oktibbeha County in 1992, has maintained he is innocent and has been fighting to clear his name. Since last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has twice admitted to errors in Manning's original trial, stating that investigators overstated the evidence against Manning.
Prosecutors said Manning had been in possession of items that belonged to the victims and that bullets from Manning's gun matched bullets recovered from the victims' bodies. On May 6, the FBI said in a letter: “The science regarding firearms examinations does not permit examiner testimony that a specific gun fired a specific bullet to the exclusion of all other guns in the world.”
In a letter to Oktibbeha County District Attorney Forrest Allgood, who prosecuted Manning, U.S. Justice Department officials stated last week "that testimony containing erroneous statements regarding microscopic hair comparison analysis was used" in Manning's case.
The letter, which went to Manning's lawyer and the Mississippi Innocence Project, which is monitoring the case, goes on to say that information the FBI presented in its testimony "exceeded the limits of science, and was, therefore, invalid." The FBI offered to perform the mitochondrial DNA testing.
Manning has always said he did not commit the crime; in fact, he says he was at a club on the night of the murders. For years, he's been trying to convince the state to test DNA from the crime scene. As gruesome as the murders were, there should be lots of biological material to test. One of the victims, Tiffany Miller, was shot twice in the face at close range. One leg was out of her pants and underwear, and her shirt was pulled up. Her boyfriend John Steckler's body had abrasions that occurred before he died, and he was shot once in the back of the head. A set of car tracks had gone through the puddles of blood and over Steckler's body.
One of the issues Manning raised in his appeal is that Allgood illegally kept African Americans off Manning's jury by dismissing potential jurors who said they read African American magazines. David Voisin, Manning's attorney, said if approved, the testing could take several weeks, depending on which lab is used.
On May 3, at the Mississippi Capitol, death-penalty opponents and Manning supporters called on Gov. Phil Bryant to stop the execution. The Mississippi Innocence Project filed a brief in support of Manning this week. Kennedy Brewer, who was exonerated in 2008 with DNA tests after being convicted and sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend's young daughter, also wrote Bryant asking to give Manning the same opportunity to clear his name that Kennedy received.
Update: Statment from Attorney General Jim Hood
I am sorry that the victims’ families will have to continue to …
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Election 2007 - Major Races
<b><em>Governor</em>
This year, conservative voters in the state have two clear choices—Haley Barbour, the corporate conservative who helped perfect the national GOP's "southern strategy," or John Arthur Eaves Jr., a Democratic …
