Author: Lawrence Alvarado

HOUSTON — A federal judge on Wednesday declared illegal a revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen agreed with Texas and eight other states suing to stop the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The judge’s ruling was ultimately expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, sending the program’s fate before the high court for a third time. Hanen barred the government from approving any new applications but left the program intact for existing recipients during the expected…

ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY — Commercial casinos in the U.S. had their best July ever this year, winning nearly $5.4 billion from gamblers, according to figures released Thursday by a national gambling industry group. The American Gaming Association said the casinos’ winnings were up nearly 6% from July 2022. The association also said the casinos remain on pace to have their best year ever in 2023, with winnings from in-person casino games, sports betting and internet gambling at nearly $38 billion over the first seven months of this year, 11% ahead of what they won during the same period in…

Children take their places at folding tables on a church patio several miles from where their school burned down. Plastic tubs hold brand new textbooks quickly shipped from a publisher. Recess is on the resort golf course across the street. The wind-driven wildfire that leveled the historic Maui town of Lahaina this summer displaced many pupils not just from their homes, but from their schools, forcing their families and education officials to scramble to find other ways to teach them. Now, more than two months after the Aug. 8 wildfire killed at least 98 people, the three public schools that…

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves won a second term Tuesday in the conservative state where his party dominates. Reeves defeated challenger Brandon Presley, who raised more money and made an aggressive push to give Democrats a rare statewide victory in the Deep South. “Mississippi has momentum, and this is Mississippi’s time,” Reeves told cheering supporters at a party in the Jackson suburb of Flowood, reflecting the main theme of his campaign. The mood at Presley’s party in Jackson, the capital city, was somber as he said hours after the polls closed: “Tonight’s a setback, but we’re not going to lose hope. … This…

A charter school will open for Mississippi high school students for the first time after the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board approved Clarksdale Collegiate Prep’s application to begin serving 9-12 students in fall 2025. Clarksdale Collegiate already serves students in grades kindergarten through seventh. “We’re here in order to make sure that we are fulfilling the promise that we made to scholars back in 2017 and ‘18 when we were signing some of these scholars up for our school,” Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School Executive Director Amanda Johnson told the board at its meeting on Sept. 25 in a room filled with students and…

Mississippi Sen. Joey Fillingane, the Republican who authored Mississippi’s trigger law that banned nearly all abortions in the state, is falsely claiming that a new effort to enshrine a right to birth control in state law will legalize “morning-after abortions.” But morning-after abortions do not exist. On Friday, Oct. 13, members of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus announced plans to file a bill in next year’s legislative session called the Mississippi Right to Protection Act. In a press release, the bill’s backers said it “will protect and preserve Mississippians’ right to contraception, including condoms, the pill and IUDs.” But in an interview…

The Ridgeland High Volleyball team’s five starters crossed near the bottom of the court and circled back to the net for the pregame handshake on Oct. 3. The girls, dressed in hot pink jerseys in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, then headed to the sideline and one by one high-fived each of their other teammates. Allyson Brooks stood at the end of that line radiating nervous energy. As each girl reached her, she slapped both their palms in a low five. The team retreated to the center of the court to finish their pregame ritual and she turned, her…

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is violating its own constitution with a new law that requires some judges to be appointed rather than elected in the state’s capital city and its surrounding county, civil rights groups said in a lawsuit filed Monday. It is the second lawsuit since Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed bills Friday to expand state policing in Jackson, to establish a lower court with an appointed judge and to authorize four appointed judges to work alongside the four elected circuit court judges in Hinds County, which is home to Jackson. About 83% of residents in Jackson and 74% in Hinds County…

Bettersten Wade’s search for her adult son ended when she discovered that an officer had run him over — and without telling her, authorities buried him in a pauper’s field. Seven months of searching for her lost son brought Bettersten Wade to a dirt road leading into the woods, past an empty horse stable and a scrapyard. The last time she’d seen her middle child, Dexter Wade, 37, was on the night of March 5, as he left home with a friend. She reported him missing, and Jackson police told her they’d been unable to find him, she said. It…

A man who escaped from a Mississippi jail and is believed to have murdered a pastor while on the run has been killed in a police shootout. Dylan Arrington, 22, and three other inmates broke out of the Raymond Detention Center near Jackson on Saturday night, police say. One of the escapees, Jerry Raynes, has since been arrested in Texas. The suspects reportedly fled via two breaches in the building, including one on the jail’s roof. People in the area have been asked to remain vigilant. The four prisoners were reported missing during a routine headcount at the medium security…