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EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

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A portion of the gangway which collapsed Saturday afternoon remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh county, Ga., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine)
Eyewitness video captures frantic efforts to save lives after deadly collapse of dock walkway
Eyewitness video from the scene of a deadly gangway collapse at a dock in Georgia shows bystanders jumping into action after 20 people plunged into the water off Sapelo Island.
FILE - Thelma Mothershed Wair, right, speaks at a news conference in Little Rock, Ark., Sept. 23, 2007, as Carlotta Walls LaNier, from left, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Minnijean Brown Trickey, members of the Little Rock Nine who in 1957 integrated Little Rock Central High School, look on. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File)
Thelma Mothershed Wair, a member of the Little Rock Nine who integrated an Arkansas school, has died
One of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas’ capital city in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults at them has died at age 83.
A portion of the gangway which collapsed Saturday afternoon remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh county, Ga., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine)
Georgia authorities investigating a dock gangway collapse that killed 7 on a historic island
Georgia authorities say they are investigating the catastrophic failure of a dock gangway that collapsed, killing seven on Sapelo Island off the state’s Atlantic seacoast.
FILE - Hinds County Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin listens to arguments during a hearing in Jackson, Miss., Aug. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Judge dismisses lawsuit over old abortion rights ruling in Mississippi
A Mississippi judge has dismissed a lawsuit that challenged a potential conflict between a 2022 state law that bans most abortions and a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that said abortion is guaranteed in the Mississippi Constitution.
This undated booking photo provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows Leslie "Bo" Galloway III. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP)
Supreme Court declines to hear appeal from Mississippi death row inmate
The U.S. Supreme Court says it will not consider an appeal from a Mississippi death row inmate who was convicted of killing a high school student. But 41-year-old Bo Galloway still has a separate appeal underway in a federal district court.
This undated photo provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Richard Gerald Jordan. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP)
Mississippi asks court to set execution for man on death row since 1976
The Mississippi attorney general requesting an execution date for the state’s longest-serving death row inmate. Richard Gerald Jordan is 78.
Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre appears before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Favre tries to expand his defamation lawsuit against Mississippi auditor over welfare spending
Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre is trying to expand his defamation lawsuit against Mississippi Auditor Shad White.
FILE - A Lexington, Miss., police cruiser is parked outside their facility near the town square, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Residents of a small Mississippi town respond to a scathing Justice Department report on policing
A Justice Department report on the police department in Lexington, Mississippi, has found a stunning pattern of racially disparate policing and harassment. Some residents say they were unaware of the ongoing issues.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, center, meets with U.S Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Todd Gee, second from right, and local law enforcement representatives, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. (Jerry Mitchell/Mississippi Today via AP)
Garland says officers’ torture of 2 Black men was betrayal of community they swore to protect
Attorney General Merrick Garland says the prosecution of six former law enforcement officers who tortured two Black men in Mississippi is an example of the Justice Department’s action to build public trust after it is violated.
FILE - Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is at the unveiling of a Mississippi Freedom Trail marker on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Tuesday, August 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Mississippi’s Republican governor pushes income-tax cut, says critics rely on ‘myths’
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves says legislators should ignore “myths” from opponents who want to block efforts by him and some other Republicans to phase out the state’s income tax.
FILE - Lead civil attorney Malik Shabazz, second from right, speaks to reporters while his clients, Michael Corey Jenkins, right, and Eddie Terrell Parker, second from left, stand with their local attorney Trent Walker, outside the federal courthouse in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, March 19, 2024, following the sentencing of the second of six former Mississippi Rankin County law enforcement officers who committed numerous acts of racially motivated, violent torture on Parker and Jenkins in 2023. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Attorneys say other victims could sue a Mississippi sheriff’s department over brutality
Attorneys for two Black men who were tortured by Mississippi law enforcement officers say they expect to file more lawsuits on behalf of others who say they were brutalized by officers from the same sheriff’s department.
FILE - Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre participates in a question and answer session at a fundraiser for Willowood Developmental Center, a facility that provides training and assistance for special needs students, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Brett Favre to appear before US House panel looking at welfare misspending
Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre is scheduled to appear before a congressional committee examining how states are falling short on using welfare to help families in need.
A weather-worn tarp covers the century-old Confederate monument in Grenada, Miss., April 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Mississippi mayor says a Confederate monument is staying in storage during a lawsuit
A Confederate monument that was removed from a courthouse square in Mississippi will stay in storage while a lawsuit over its future is considered. Grenada Mayor Charles Latham told The Associated Press on Friday that it is in a safe location.
FILE - This combination of photos shows former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to state and federal charges for torturing two Black men, from top left, former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, during court appearances Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Brandon, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Justice Department opens civil rights probe of sheriff’s office after torture of 2 Black men
The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into a Mississippi sheriff’s department whose officers tortured two Black men.
Pieces of a Confederate monument are secured onto a flatbed truck Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, after a crew removed them from the spot where the monument had stood since 1910, in downtown Grenada, Miss. (AP Photo/Emily Wagster Pettus)
A Mississippi town moves a Confederate monument that became a shrouded eyesore
A Mississippi town has taken down a Confederate monument that stood since 1910. The figure was wrapped in tarps the past four years, a symbol of enduring differences over how to commemorate the past.
FILE - This April 2, 2019, booking photo provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP, File)
Mississippi high court rejects the latest appeal by a man on death row since 1994
The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied the latest appeal by a man who has been on death row for 30 years. The court ruled 5-4 Monday that Willie Jerome Manning “has had his days in court.” He was convicted of killing two college students in 1992.
FILE - Mississippi House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, addresses committee members as they review bills at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Mississippi House panel starts study that could lead to tax cuts
A Mississippi House leader says lawmakers could consider a proposal next year to make the state’s tax system fairer and more efficient.
Ex-official in Mississippi is treated for gambling addiction amid embezzlement charge, lawyer says
A former tax assessor and collector in Mississippi has checked into a residential treatment center for a gambling addiction after he called the state auditor’s office and confessed to misusing more than $300,000 in public money.
FILE - Brett McAlpin, one of six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to a long list of state and federal charges enters the Rankin County Circuit Court for the state sentencing for his involvement in the 2023 racially motivated torture of two Black men, April 10, 2024, in Brandon, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, file)
Mississippi ex-deputy seeks shorter sentence in racist torture of 2 Black men
A former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy is seeking a shorter federal prison sentence for his part in the torture of two Black men.
FILE - Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, testifies before the credentials committee of the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J., on Aug. 22, 1964, as her racially integrated group challenged the seating of the all-white Mississippi delegation. (AP Photo, File)
Fannie Lou Hamer rattled the Democratic convention with her ‘Is this America?’ speech 60 years ago
Vice President Kamala Harris is accepting the Democrats’ presidential nomination Thursday exactly 60 years after another Black woman mesmerized the nation with a speech that still resonates in American politics.
FILE - A recruit for the Jackson Fire Department carries a case of bottled water to a resident's car, Aug. 18, 2022, as part of the city's response to longstanding water system problems in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Water crisis in Mississippi capital developed during failures in oversight, watchdog says
A watchdog group says “layers of inadequate oversight and enforcement” by state and federal agencies contributed to a water crisis in Mississippi’s capital city.
FILE - Dyamone White of Edwards, Miss., speaks April 25, 2022, in Jackson, Miss., about being a plaintiff in a lawsuit that says Mississippi's three Supreme Court districts diminish Black voters' ability to elect candidates of their choice. A federal judge in Oxford, Miss., started hearing arguments Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in the suit, which seeks to compel Mississippi to update its Supreme Court districts for the first time since 1987. (AP Photo/Emily Wagster Pettus, File)
Trial starts in case that seeks more Black justices on Mississippi’s highest court
Mississippi has only one Black justice serving on its highest court despite having the largest percentage of Black residents in the U.S.
FILE - Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre speaks to the media in Jackson, Miss., Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Favre challenges a judge’s order that blocked his lead attorney in Mississippi welfare lawsuit
Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre says a Mississippi judge improperly blocked his lead attorney from representing him in a state civil lawsuit that seeks to recover misspent welfare money.
FILE-Jeff Sharp tosses flood-damaged flooring into a pile Feb. 19, 2020, as he helps his brother clean up after the Pearl River sent water into homes in Jackson, Miss. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in August 2024 is wrapping up a public comment period on its proposals for flood control measures in the Jackson area, and the agency could make final recommendations by the end of the year. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Periodic flooding hurts Mississippi. But could mitigation there hurt downstream in Louisiana?
Hundreds of homes flooded in Mississippi’s capital city in 2020. It is a periodic problem when heavy rains push the Pearl River over its banks. The U.S.
FILE - Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch speaks at the Mississippi Fallen Officers Candlelight Vigil at the Capitol Complex in Jackson, Miss., on May 14, 2024. Fitch announced Monday, July 29, that a grand jury in Hancock County, Miss., did not to bring charges against a deputy who shot and killed a man in 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Mississippi won’t prosecute a deputy who killed a man yelling ‘shoot me’
Mississippi will not bring criminal charges against a sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a man yelling “shoot me.”
FILE - An election resolution board counts absentee ballots Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, at the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Miss. A federal judge on Sunday, July 28, 2024, dismissed a lawsuit that sought to block Mississippi from counting absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days after after it, writing in his dismissal order that Mississippi's law does not conflict with federal election laws. (AP Photo/Michael Goldberg, File)
Judge rejects GOP challenge of Mississippi timeline for counting absentee ballots
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee that sought to block Mississippi from counting absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days after after it. U.S.
FILE - Mississippi state Sens. Rod Hickman, D-Macon, left, Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, second from left, Albert Butler, D-Port Gibson, and David Jordan, D-Greenwood, review an alternate Senate redistricting map at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., March 29, 2022. Three federal judges ruled Tuesday, July 2, 2024, that Mississippi legislators must redraw some state House and Senate districts because the districts adopted in 2022 dilute Black voting power. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Mississippi can wait to reset legislative districts that dilute Black voting strength, judges say
Federal judges say Mississippi can wait until next year to redraw some of its legislative districts to replace ones where Black voting power is diluted. Thursday’s decision updates a timeline from the three judges.
FILE - Pens are encircled by "I Voted" stickers at an election precinct in Jackson, Miss., March 12, 2024. A federal appeals court ruled Thursday, July 18, that Mississippi legislators, not the courts, must decide whether to change the state's practice of stripping voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Court says Jim Crow-era felony voting ban in Mississippi can be altered by lawmakers, not judges
A federal appeals court has ruled that Mississippi legislators, not the courts, must decide whether to change the state’s practice of stripping voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies.
FILE - Former NFL football quarterback Brett Favre speaks with reporters prior to his induction to the Mississippi Hall of Fame, Aug. 1, 2015, in Jackson, Miss. A Mississippi judge on Thursday, July 11, 2024, removed one of the attorneys representing Favre in a civil lawsuit filed in 2022 by the Mississippi Department of Human Services, which seeks to recover welfare money that the state auditor says was misspent on projects including a university volleyball arena backed by Favre. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
A Mississippi judge removes 1 of Brett Favre’s lawyers in a civil case over misspent welfare money
A Mississippi judge has removed one of the attorneys representing retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre in a state civil lawsuit that seeks to recover misspent welfare money.
FILE - A version of a proposed Mississippi Senate redistricting map is displayed on a computer monitor at the state Capitol in Jackson, March 29, 2022. Three federal judges Tuesday, July 2, 2024, ordered Mississippi legislators to redraw some state House and Senate districts, finding that the districts adopted in 2022 diminished Black voting strength in parts of the state. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Mississippi must move quickly on a court-ordered redistricting, say voting rights attorneys
Voting rights attorneys say Mississippi should work quickly to redraw some legislative districts to ensure more equitable representation for Black residents.
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