Free Republic

This was already a difficult shot for Vince Whaley at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi. But notice DIRECTLY BEHIND HIM in the water, taking a front-row seat, sits an alligator. VIDEO: https://x.com/i/status/1974937259829797184

This is why “the Mississippi Miracle,” the sobriquet for the extraordinary gains that students in the Magnolia State have made in reading in recent years, is a misnomer. There’s nothing miraculous about a state that adopts phonics and that sets high standards for its kids getting better results in reading instruction. This, to the contrary, is a predictable outcome, and a replicable one, as other Southern states that have taken up similar polices have shown. Mississippi went from 49th in fourth-grade reading results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress about a decade ago to ninth in 2024. Its low-income...

It was midnight. I think it was in June - perhaps July - maybe August- perhaps later. I'm not really sure since it was maybe almost 10 years ago. I was sitting outside on the fenced-in porch of our apartment in Meridian, MS. We were lucky that our apartment faced a woodsy area, so I had an ample amount of privacy as I sat. The temperatures were very nice and comfortable - perhaps a little warmer than it would normally be. I wasn't from around there so I didn't know what was normal and what was not. I was here...

A Mississippi man who was arrested twice in the span of a month — once for allegedly arriving drunk to bail out a friend charged with driving under the influence, and again for an alleged DUI of his own — has died in custody, according to authorities. Felix Marquez Bartolo was discovered dead in his jail cell on Saturday at 5:30 p.m., according to a statement from Magee Police Chief Denis Borges. Bartolo was jailed alone at the time, and emergency protocols were “immediately followed,” police said. No foul play has been suspected, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has...

I saw this a couple of days ago, and it was so intriguing, I had to hang on to it, figuring there would be a time it would come in handy.Little did I know our president would go into the United Nations General Assembly today with a flamethrower and give me the perfect opportunity to illustrate one of the scorched remnants of European superiority he left smoking on the expensive carpet in that room.When the man told them that their countries were going to fail.IF YOU DON'T GET AWAY FROM THE GREEN ENERGY SCAM, YOUR COUNTRY IS GOING TO FAILIF...

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick showed his true character this week with his response to the death of Delta State University student Demartravion “Trey” Reed. On Monday morning, Delta State University Police found Reed’s body hanging from a tree near pickleball courts. The Bolivar County Deputy Coroner’s Office ruled out foul play after their initial examination. “Based on the preliminary examination, we can confirm that the deceased did not suffer any lacerations, contusions, compound fractures, broken bones, or injuries consistent with an assault,” the Bolivar County Coroner’s Office said. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest the individual...

The death of a 21-year-old Black student discovered hanging from a tree at Delta State University in Mississippi has been ruled a suicide, police said Thursday. The body of the student, identified as Demartravion "Trey" Reed, was discovered by a faculty member around 7 a.m. on Monday hanging from a tree near the pickleball courts on the Cleveland, Mississippi, campus, according to the campus police department. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner's autopsy findings are "consistent with the initial investigation, determining the cause of death to be hanging and the manner of death as suicide," the Cleveland Police Department said in...

CLEVELAND, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi police on Wednesday awaited autopsy results for a Black student found hanging from a tree at Delta State University, in a case that has ignited strong emotions in a state with a history of racist violence. The 21-year-old student was found near the campus pickleball courts early Monday. While police have said they saw no evidence of foul play, his family is demanding answers and has hired prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Campus police Chief Michael Peeler released little new information about the investigation at a news conference, calling the death an “isolated incident”...

Old America knew instinctively what our founders had declared: liberty is precious, but it cannot endure untethered. Freedom must be fastened to virtue, or else it curdles into license. John Adams once warned that the Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, and that it was wholly inadequate for any other. He knew what we seem to have forgotten. --- snip This fracture is not merely political. It is spiritual. And at the heart of it, I suspect, lies our rejection of the faith that once anchored us. Christianity, whatever one thinks of its theology, gave this...

The body of 21-year-old student Demartravion “Trey” Reed was found hanging in a tree on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi on Monday. Campus police chief Michale J. Peeler told reporters no foul play is suspected and the death is considered a suicide, despite no official cause of death yet being released by the county coroner’s office. Members of Reed’s family have stated both his arms and one of his legs were also broken, however police have disputed this. "At this time, there is no evidence of foul play," Peeler said. "But while there is no evidence...

A beloved Mississippi news anchor — who had only recently joined her television station — died suddenly at age 42, her devastated colleagues announced. Celeste Wilson, a weekend anchor for WAPT 16 in Jackson, tragically died of a heart attack. “Though Celeste had only been with us a short time, we were already touched by her professionalism, warmth, and dedication to the work of journalism,” her network, which also shared the tragic news on air, penned in its announcement Wednesday. “All of us here at 16 WAPT are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and our thoughts are with Celeste’s family...

Authorities in Tennessee announced Friday that they believe a sheriff who inspired the movie "Walking Tall" is responsible for his wife's death in 1967. During a news conference Friday, officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said there were "inconsistencies" in statements from Sheriff Buford Pusser following the 1967 murder of his wife, Pauline. “It’s been said that the dead can’t cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so. In this case, that duty has been carried out 58 years later,” said District Attorney General Mark Davidson for the 25th Judicial District. Blood splatter...

Mississippi has declared a public health emergency after infant deaths in the state surged to their highest level in 15 years. Latest data showed 323 babies died in the state before their first birthday in 2024, or a death rate of 9.7 fatalities per 1,000 births. That is up from 8.9 per 1,000 the prior year, and the highest rate since 2009 when the rate was 10.1 per 1,000. Mississippi has had the worst infant mortality rate in the nation for seven years, and was well above the national average of 5.6 deaths per 1,000 in 2023, the latest national...

Comedian Reggie Carroll — A Baltimore native known for touring his stand-up routines across the country — was shot and killed in Mississippi last week, according to authorities. Carroll, 52, was gunned down in Southhaven on Wednesday, the Southhaven Police Department said in an update Saturday. Officers responded to Burton Lane after reports of an isolated shooting and located “one male victim suffering from gunshot wounds,” cops said. Despite providing “life-saving” measures, the victim, later identified as Carroll, died from his injuries, authorities confirmed. “One male is in custody and has been charged with the murder of Reginald Carroll. Our...

Summary Tech industry trade group sued to block Mississippi law NetChoice claims the law violates free speech protections WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Thursday to put on hold a Mississippi law requiring that users of social media platforms verify their age and that minors have parental consent in a challenge by a trade group whose members include Meta's (META.O), Facebook, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), YouTube and Snapchat (SNAP.N). The justices denied a request by NetChoice to block the law while the Washington-based tech industry trade association's legal challenge to the law, which it argues violates the...

A Kansas grandpa is desperately searching for his four grandkids after their mom was brutally murdered and dumped in a shallow grave — allegedly by her husband, a self-proclaimed Mississippi cult leader called the “Silver Creek Messiah.” One of the last things La’Datra Williams, 26, told her grief-stricken dad, U.S. veteran Eddie Williams, on May 20 was she was “determined” to leave Charles Sims and his polygamous cult, which believes he’s a true vessel for the Holy Spirit and ordained by God almighty to fix the world’s problems. Sims is charged with first-degree murder for La’Datra’s killing. “I don’t know...

Eleven Iranian nationals have been arrested in the last 48 hours by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents across eight different states and nine cities, according to CBS News. This development comes in the wake of a nationwide security alert issued after the U.S. carried out a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities this past weekend. ... One of the individuals arrested is Mehran Makari Saheli, who is a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). ICE arrested Saheli at his home in Minnesota where he "admitted connections to Hezbollah," an Iranian-funded terrorist organization. ... On Sunday, authorities also...

Immigration agents collared 11 Iranian illegal migrants — including suspected terrorists — over the weekend in eight states as the Border Patrol warned of “possible sleeper” cells in the US.Immigration and Customs Enforcement nabbed former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member Mehran Makari Sahel, who has “admitted connections” to the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, according to CBS News. He was busted near St. Paul, Minnesota. Yousef Mehridehno, whose name appears on the terrorist watchlist, was arrested by ICE outside Jackson, Mississippi, according to the outlet. Feds discovered that Mehridehno lied on a visa application after he had already been living in...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a suspected MS-13 gang member whose deportation case has made him a hero for the Democratic Party, was previously stopped by a highway patrol officer while driving a car belonging to a confessed human trafficker, multiple Department of Homeland Security sources revealed in a bombshell report from Just The News. Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran illegal alien who has been falsely referred to as a “Maryland man” by Democrat politicians and mainstream media outlets — was pulled over driving an SUV belonging to Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes in Tennessee. Reyes, another illegal alien, confessed to participating in...

Painting the Deep South as an embarrassing cultural backwater is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice among elites. It’s not just tolerated—it’s venerated. Mississippi is probably the top target. I don’t have to tell you why. You know about the poor health outcomes. The poverty. The corruption. The obesity. The Confederacy stuff. Wikipedia has an entry dedicated to the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi,” because its horrible performance on so many metrics saves other states the embarrassment of finishing last. The term has been used since at least 1945. This has made it awkward in recent years,...