Mississippi Roundup

WP: At Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr. bets on big-time football, with a disgraced coach

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As head coach at Ole Miss, Hugh Freeze defeated giants – knocking off Alabama twice – and led the football team to its first Sugar Bowl in 46 years. Then, in the midst of an NCAA investigation in 2017 Freeze resigned, but as sports columnist Rick Cleveland reported, the offensive minded coach made it clear that he wanted to coach college football again. Now that he’s getting that opportunity at Liberty University, Kent Babb of the Washington Post offers a look at the university’s bet on Freeze and football:
LYNCHBURG, Va. — On occasion Liberty University will invite members of out-of-state churches to speak at its convocation, and in January 2018, a man from Mississippi stood and stepped forward. “I’m humbled,” he said early in remarks to a packed arena that held more than 8,000 students, staffers and administrators, “and certainly unworthy.”
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Mississippi Roundup

Clarion Ledger: Mississippi prof, who went to school with Brett Kavanaugh, sues HuffPost

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A Mississippi man has filed a lawsuit against HuffPost alleging defamation.  CLARION LEDGER: A Gulfport professor and advocate is suing the national news website HuffPost alleging defamation involving a September 2018 story on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s days at Georgetown Prep school. Derrick Evans’ lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Gulfport against  HuffPost and its former journalist, Ashley Feinberg. The lawsuit said HuffPost and Feinberg repeatedly defamed Evans and friend Douglas Kennedy to a nationwide audience on multiple occasions in September 2018 by falsely asserting that they helped arrange the purchase and delivery of cocaine at Georgetown Prep that resulted in the April 1984 death of David Kennedy, Douglas’ brother and the son of the late U.S. attorney general and senator, Robert F. Kennedy. “These statements were not only false and defamatory, but outrageously so, and were published by defendants with knowledge of their actual falsity or in reckless disregard of the truth for the apparent purpose of creating a salacious story designed to drive internet traffic to HuffPost’s website,” the lawsuit said.

Primary Election Live Stream

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Mississippi Today has partnered with WJTV to provide primary election results. Watch live for results and commentary from Mississippi Today’s political reporters.

Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize winning author, dead at 88

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Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature, died late Monday. She was 88. As news of her death was announced Tuesday, tributes began to flood social media:
Stacey Abrams, former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate:
Toni Morrison was a towering intellect, a brilliant scribe of our nation’s complex stories, a heartbreaking journalist of our deepest desires, and a groundbreaking author who destroyed precepts, walls and those who dared underestimate her capacity. Rest well and in peace. Angie Thomas, bestselling author:
I’m writing in her honor today.

Clarion Ledger: 2 dead, suspect, officer injured in Walmart shooting

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Clarion Ledger: Two people were killed and two people were injured in a shooting at the Walmart in Southaven, Mississippi, Tuesday morning, according to authorities:
The suspect was confronted by two officers. One officer was shot but was saved by his bulletproof vest. The other officer shot the suspect twice and the suspect was taken into custody. The suspect was taken to Regional One Medical Center. The wounded Southaven officer was taken to DeSoto Baptist Hospital where he is recovering, The Commercial Appeal reported. The suspected shooter was also an employee at the Walmart until Monday, The Commercial Appeal reported. Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite described the suspect as a disgruntled worker
Read Mississippi Clarion Ledger’s Harold Gater’s complete article here.