Mississippi state government

Mike Espy readies to speak with reporters in Jackson, Miss., after winning the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. After his victory Tuesday, he will face Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Libertarian candidate Jimmy Edwards in November. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Biden endorses Democrat Espy in Mississippi US Senate race

Sep. 30, 2020 1:59 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss (AP) — Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is endorsing Mike Espy in Mississippi's U.S. Senate race as the former agriculture secretary again tries to unseat Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican loyal to President Donald Trump. Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate in the spring of 2018...

Mississippi: 'Fake' letter claims mask mandate abolished

Sep. 28, 2020 3:22 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A letter circulating on social media claiming to be from the office of Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and abolishing the statewide mask mandate is fake, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials said Sunday. “The letter is a FAKE,” the agency wrote on its Facebook...

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, speaks to members of the Senate and House Elections Committees during a joint hearing at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, June 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Mississippi justices: No broad absentee voting amid COVID-19

Sep. 18, 2020 6:27 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi law does not allow absentee voting by all people who have health conditions that might make them vulnerable to COVID-19, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday. A majority of justices reversed a Sept. 2 decision by Hinds County Chancery Judge Denise Owens, saying she too...

A barge runs aground along downtown Pensacola, Fla., on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020, as Hurricane Sally moves inland. Hurricane Sally lumbered ashore near the Florida-Alabama line Wednesday with 105 mph (165 kph) winds and rain measured in feet, swamping homes and trapping people in high water as it pushed inland for what could be a slow and disastrous drenching across the Deep South. (Tony Giberson//Pensacola News Journal via AP)

The Latest: Sally weakens to depression; still dumping rain

Sep. 16, 2020 10:48 PM EDT

Here are the latest developments on tropical weather: MIAMI — Sally has weakened to a depression but is still dumping torrential rains over eastern Alabama and western Georgia. The National Hurricane Center said winds of the once-powerful hurricane have decreased to about 35 mph, with some higher gusts....

FILE - In this July 19, 2020, file photo, Kanye West makes his first presidential campaign appearance, in North Charleston, S.C. West has sued the West Virginia Secretary of State's Office after being told his bid to get on the ballot for president came up short on qualified signatures. (Lauren Petracca Ipetracca/The Post And Courier via AP, File)

Kanye West makes presidential ballot in Mississippi

Sep. 8, 2020 2:30 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Kanye West will appear as a presidential candidate on Mississippi's ballot in November, after being approved as a qualified candidate by the State Board of Election Commissioners on Tuesday. The rapper has already qualified to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate in...

FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 16, 2019 file photo, Curtis Flowers speaks with reporters as he exits the Winston-Choctaw Regional Correctional Facility in Louisville, Miss. Mississippi's new attorney general must decide whether to take a quadruple murder case to a seventh trial. Curtis Flowers has had two mistrials and four reversed convictions in connection with the 1996 slayings of four people at a furniture store. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

No 7th trial for Mississippi man freed from prison in 2019

Sep. 4, 2020 7:23 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man freed last year after 22 years in prison will not be tried a seventh time in a quadruple murder case, a judge ruled Friday after prosecutors told him they no longer had any credible witnesses. Curtis Flowers was convicted multiple times in a bloody slaying and...

The magnolia centered banner chosen Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020 by the Mississippi State Flag Commission flies outside the Old State Capitol Museum in downtown Jackson, Miss. The nine member committee voted to recommend a design with the state flower. That design will go on the November ballot for voters consideration and if approved, it will become the new state flag. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Mississippi flag: Magnolia could replace old rebel symbol

Sep. 2, 2020 5:36 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi voters will decide whether to accept a new state flag with a magnolia to replace an old one legislators retired under pressure because it included the Confederate battle emblem that’s widely seen as racist. A commission voted 8-1 Wednesday to recommend the magnolia...

One of five final designs for the new Mississippi state flag flutters in the breeze, outside the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Miss., Aug. 25, 2020, in Jackson, Miss. In late June, Mississippi legislators voted to retire the last state flag to include the Confederate battle emblem, which is broadly condemned as racist. All five were flown outside the museum for viewing. The Mississippi State Flag Commission narrowed their choices to two flags, of which this is one. They will reconvene in September to make their final choice. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Artists want Mississippi flag with wide appeal, not division

Sep. 1, 2020 8:16 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — It’s been two months since Mississippi legislators acted under pressure to retire the last state flag that included the Confederate battle emblem that's widely seen as racist. On Wednesday, a commission is expected to recommend a new state flag design — one that will be...

File - In this Jan. 23, 2019 file photo, Roy Mitchell, executive director with the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, comments on a Medicaid update presentation before the House Medicaid Committee at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss. During a zoom call Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, Mitchell said hospitals in the state are in desperate need of the dollars that Medicaid expansion could provide as the state is among the highest in the country in medical debt. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

After victories, Medicaid expansion revisited in Mississippi

Aug. 30, 2020 8:24 AM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After voters expanded Medicaid in conservative states like Missouri and Oklahoma, health care advocates are renewing a push for expansion in Mississippi and other Southern states where Republican leaders have long been opposed. They say the changing tide has followed rising income...

Man gets new trial after discredited bite-mark testimony

Aug. 27, 2020 6:56 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a man on death row deserves a new trial in a 1992 killing because his conviction was based partially on a dentist's bite-mark testimony that has been discredited. Eddie Lee Howard Jr., 67, is in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at...

Latest Mississippi state government News