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JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) - A JPD officer is almost recovered, and could be released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon after his patrol car was hit Monday.

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet" And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" "Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" 'n' Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas "Well Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please" "There's five more...

District Attorney Trent Kelly, a Republican, will win a special-election runoff in Mississippi’s 1st District by a nearly 2-1 margin Tuesday night, succeeding the late Rep. Alan Nunnelee, The Associated Press projects. With just over half of the vote in, Kelly was leading Democrat Walter Zinn, 69 percent to 31 percent, the AP reported.

On Wednesday, Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher approved immediate suspension without pay of a correctional officer charged in a kidnapping, armed robbery and homicide that occurred in Jackson on Saturday morning. Fisher learned after Andre Kennedy's arrest that Kennedy is one of 520 officers working at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. Kennedy, 22, was hired in January 2014. He is charged with capital murder, robbery and kidnapping in a case involving an Eastover homeowner. His partner in crime was shot and killed in what police are calling justifiable homicide. Hinds County Coroner identified the deceased suspect as 23-year-old Edwin...

Thad Cochran's camp batted down rumors last year of a romance between the senator and longtime aide Kay Webber, the New York Times reports, amid criticism that Webber had joined Cochran on 28 taxpayer-funded trips to 45 countries costing more than $150,000. Now, in a one-sentence statement, his office confirms that Cochran, 77, put a ring on it on Saturday during a private family ceremony in Gulfport, Miss., the Clarion-Ledger reports. Cochran's wife of 50 years—photographed by an anti-Cochran blogger in a nursing home last year—died in December at 73 after suffering from dementia, the Washington Post reports. A Cochran...

1 Rand Paul defeated the Washington machine by comparing opponents of amnesty to Nazis… (SNIP) 2 Then he defeated the Washington machine by sucking up to psychotic liberal Kirsten Gillibrand… (SNIP) 5 Then he defeated the Washington machine by endorsing Mitch McConnell even after McConnell pledged to “crush” conservatives… (SNIP) 6 Then he defeated the Washington machine by ditching Steve King… (SNIP) 8 Then he defeated the Washington Machine by telling conservatives to “get over” Thad Cochran election fraud… (SNIP) 12 Then he defeated the Washington machine by sucking up to black supremacist Al Sharpton…

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a potential 2016 presidential contender, declined to support tea party critics of Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran's efforts to mobilize non-GOP voters to win the Republican nomination."I'm for more people voting, not less people voting," Paul told reporters Wednesday.Paul, an original tea party icon for his 2010 GOP primary win over the establishment, has worked assiduously the past year on broadening his party's appeal to minority voters, including negotiating with Democrats on efforts to rewrite the Voting Rights Act.Cochran's vote total grew by almost 40,000 votes from the initial June 3 primary to Tuesday's runoff against state...

The U.S. Senate voted 58-41 Tuesday to confirm former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel as America’s new defense secretary, but not without a little controversy. Four Republican senators backed Hagels’ confirmation: Sens. Thad Cochran (Miss.), Mike Johanns (Neb.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), and Rand Paul (Ky.), as noted yesterday on TheBlaze. Understandably, Sen. Paul’s vote took some by surprise. After all, didn’t the Kentucky senator vote against cloture before voting for Hagel’s confirmation (answer: Yes). In an attempt to figure out this apparent contradiction, Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer on Wednesday asked the senator about his “aye” vote. “You helped lead the...

The precinct level returns in Hinds County bolster the theory that a surge in black, Democratic turnout allowed Senator Thad Cochran to defeat Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party-backed state senator, in last month’s Republican primary runoff in Mississippi. Mr. Cochran won by 7,667 votes. Nearly half — a net 3,532 votes — came from the most Democratic precincts in Jackson’s Hinds County, where President Obama won a combined 97.8 percent of the vote in 2012, according to figures released Tuesday night by the Mississippi secretary of state. The surge in turnout was clearest in overwhelmingly black precincts; turnout sometimes increased...

Democratic-leaning black voters in Mississippi are being asked to rescue the Republican establishment from another defeat by the Tea Party on Tuesday, in the final chapter of one of the most bizarre races of the Senate primary season. The Mississippi Republican primary was forced into a run-off earlier this month after Chris McDaniel, a former talk radio host and Tea Party conservative, narrowly triumphed over , the incumbent senator who has occupied the same seat for four decades. In the closing stages of the Mississippi race, 76-year-old Cochran, the epitome of a southern, Republican appropriator, has taken the unusual step...

Thad Cochran won a primary runoff by turning out the black vote. Now they are asking — what are you going to do for us? Already the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are talking about what they want Cochran to do. The wish list is filling up with ideas like maintaining funding for food stamps, beefing up programs that help poor blacks in Mississippi and even supporting the Voting Rights Act. Continue Reading Text Size -+reset Latest on POLITICO Big cyber hack of health records is "only a matter of time" Clark Hill adds 2 in public affairs Hobby...

Thad Cochran won a primary runoff by turning out the black vote. Now they are asking — what are you going to do for us? Already the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are talking about what they want Cochran to do. The wish list is filling up with ideas like maintaining funding for food stamps, beefing up programs that help poor blacks in Mississippi and even supporting the Voting Rights Act. “Absolutely we have expectations,’’ Rep Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), said in an interview. And while Cochran beat back a tea party challenger by reminding voters, particularly black voters, that...

They told him they were going to slit his throat, and they were dragging him toward the woods,' Chief Deputy Don Bass said according to The Clarion-Ledger. He said the men then planned on dumping the body after killing him. When asked if the incident might have something to do with recent gangs stating they would attack any police officers they encountered on sight, Bass said: 'At this point in time I don't care.' Regardless of their motivation, the men were quickly foiled when Frazier managed to unlock the back doors of his squad car using a pop mechanism that...

The Mississippi senator’s previous wife died in December.Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran married his longtime executive assistant, Kay Webber, over the holiday weekend, according to a report from the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. The 77-year-old Republican wed Webber, who has worked for him since 1981, in a private ceremony in Gulfport, Mississippi, on Saturday. Cochran’s staff, which had denied any knowledge of an impending wedding as recently as last week, released the news in a one-sentence statement. Webber is also 77. Story Continued Below Cochran’s previous wife of 50 years, Rose Cochran, died last December. She spent the final 13 years...

U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., has married longtime aide Kay Webber. In a statement released Monday, Cochran's office said the marriage took place privately Saturday in Gulfport. Spokesman Chris Gallegos says Webber, Cochran's executive assistant, has worked for him since 1981. The 77-year-old senator's former wife, Rose Cochran, died in December at age 73 from dementia after living in a nursing home for 13 years.

...The deputy suffered a two-and-a-half-inch cut to his forehead and multiple bodily injuries. The doctor told the deputy it looked like the cut was made by a box cutter. "They roughed him up, but the officer was able to press a button and release his K-9 from the backseat," Adam said. The dog bit at least one of the suspects, potentially saving the officer's life, Adam said. That was more than good equipment and a good dog, Adam said. "We have four K-9 units here, but only two of our vehicles are equipped with the pop mechanism," he said. But...

PEARLINGTON -- A Hancock County lawman narrowly escaped an attempt on his life during a roadside stop Monday night on U.S. 90/Chef Menteur Highway, when three men attacked him from behind and tried to carry him off into a wooded area. Sheriff's Chief Investigator Glenn Grannan said it appears the attackers intended to kill the deputy as they fought for his sidearm and tried to carry him off the roadway. "It seems like they were trying to take him back to the woods," Grannan said while on the scene early Tuesday. "They were going to dispose of him. They were...

A Mississippi manhunt is underway in Hancock County. It kicked into action Monday evening after a sheriff's deputy was beaten in a traffic stop, according to an account in The Sun Herald. The stop happened in Pearlington. An unidentified officer pulled over a blue Lincoln Towncar with a black top and a lone driver around 10 p.m. on Old Highway 90, police said. The deputy reportedly smelled marijuana as he approached, and then was startled by two men who burst out of the nearby woods and attacked him, Hancock County Sheriff Ricky Adam said. "They roughed him up, but the...

America has lost a national treasure: B. B. King, whose world-weary voice and wailing guitar lifted him from the cotton fields of Mississippi to a global stage and the apex of American blues, died Thursday in Las Vegas. He was 89. Mr. King married country blues to big-city rhythms and created a sound instantly recognizable to millions: a stinging guitar with a shimmering vibrato, notes that coiled and leapt like an animal, and a voice that groaned and bent with the weight of lust, longing and lost love. “I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions,” Mr. King said...

Mississippi Subway 'sandwich artist' has been fired after she created a social media firestorm Sunday by posting messages applauding the deaths of two police officers killed in the line of duty. After Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate, 25, were killed on Saturday night about 30 miles away in Hattiesburg, Laurel woman Sierra 'C-Babi' Mccurdy posted a message while wearing her uniform. She wrote: 'Two police officers shot tonight in Hattiesburg,' followed by 'GOT EM' and a gun pointed at the words as well as a laughing emoji.