Latest news with #Gulfport
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Democratic leaders visit MS Coast to rally vote in high-stakes Gulfport election
Suddenly, after months of relentless campaigns, the national political leaders who arrived this week in Gulfport are trying to force new urgency into the last days of the mayor's race. 'We don't quit,' Democratic politician and activist Stacey Abrams said at a Sunday campaign stop in Gulfport several miles from where she grew up. 'They've been trying to stop us for 200 years. And what we are going to do instead is show up.' Abrams appeared with U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson to campaign for mayoral candidate Sonya Williams Barnes at an event advertised as a kick-off to the election on Tuesday. In impassioned speeches, the Democratic leaders called the race a 'bellwether election' that could signal broader change across Mississippi and even the country. But the appearance of two prominent Democrats was also a sign of how tense the race has become. Abrams spoke four days after Mississippi's Republican Attorney General said she was investigating Barnes following Republican complaints that some locals gave restaurant vouchers to voters in what the party calls a violation of state law. Barnes and other Democrats have dismissed the accusations as a false and politically-motivated distraction. And conservatives are energized too. At a Friday rally for Republican candidate Hugh Keating, top leaders warned their party that the race was close and pleaded that they vote. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina spoke alongside U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell and outgoing Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes. 'Call your friends. Call your neighbors,' Scott told the crowd on Friday. 'This is a race that will require you to go the extra mile.' About 200 people gathered on a usually-quiet stretch of 31st Avenue to hear Abrams, Barnes and Thompson, who also pleaded that residents urge everyone they know to vote. The leaders said federal cuts by the Trump administration were worrisome for Gulfport and told supporters Barnes would be an ally they could turn to in local government for help. 'All you have to do is go out and vote,' Thompson said. The crowd, sweating in the heat, clapped and cheered approval. Turnout, often low in local elections, has already been notable: City officials said last week they had received over 1,000 absentee ballots compared to just 177 during the last mayoral election. Barnes won the April Democratic primary with 3,316 votes — over 600 more than outgoing Republican Mayor Billy Hewes won in the 2021 general election. Keating had no opponent in the 2025 Republican primary. Abrams said she came to Gulfport after she heard some Republicans had called her an outsider part of a national Democratic effort to turn Gulfport blue. 'With President Trump's success, the Democrats are pretty angry right now,' Hyde-Smith told the Republican rally on Friday. 'This is called revenge, getting back and gaining ground,' she added. 'We can't seem to get the national Democrats out of this race.' Barnes has said she alone is responsible for running her campaign and called similar statements divisive. Abrams spent much of her childhood in the city, and she and Barnes are the children of United Methodist ministers who were friends. Still, Keating said last week that the Attorney General's investigation is concerning to Republicans. How fast it will proceed is unclear because the Attorney General's office does not comment on open inquiries. Barnes did not address the investigation on Sunday but said last week she had met with two of the Attorney General's investigators. Both campaigns have been calling residents and knocking on doors in a last-ditch effort to encourage turnout and lure undecided voters before polls close on Tuesday. 'We can't quit,' Keating said Friday. 'We're noticing some very positive results.' 'We need to win,' Barnes told voters on Sunday. 'But we can win only with you.' Anita Lee contributed reporting.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sound Off: June 1, 2025
Sun Herald readers weigh in on local and national topics. Perhaps someone could develop a device that when a traffic light changed from red to green a signal was sent to the cars in front of the light. That signal would cause a loud ding to sound on the car's speakers alerting those looking at their phones that it was time to move. I'm not sure I've ever laughed harder than I did when I read about how people are making money on Wall Street basing their buys on the idea that Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO). With the Chrisley pardons, President Trump proved that he has zero integrity. The people who were defrauded of millions will never get their money back. If it's possible to have negative integrity, Trump is the charter member of the group. If there's one thing we should have learned by now, it's that Democrats will do anything to win an election. Considering the person in charge of the scheme admitted to it in print and on camera, I'm having trouble figuring out how anyone could say there isn't election fraud in Gulfport. Candidates have always held events where their 'patrons' donate and pledge their support. Is that voter fraud? The GOP in Gulfport is making accusations of voter fraud already. President Trump used that to push the lie that he won the 2020 election. Now he is in office selling everything that is not nailed down. Republicans must be really scared of the Black woman winning the mayors race in Gulfport. Wasn't Elon Musk trying to buy votes in Wisconsin? When Democrats use the Republican play book, they really get upset.. I'm old enough to remember when Elon Musk traveled the country handing out checks to people. I'm trying to figure out why that would be OK, but free meals aren't. I trust that the good people of Gulfport are smart enough to not vote for Hugh Keating, who, obviously, doesn't have enough merits to run on his own. Stephen A Smith said it best: 'How can anyone trust the lying media, Trump was right, they can't be trusted about anything!'Our country was manipulated by them. Why can't Canal Road in Gulfport be paved to 28th Street? Send your Sound Offs to soundoff@
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sound Off: May 31, 2025
Sun Herald readers weigh in on local and national topics. It costs 3.69 cents to make a penny. So it seems to be a no-brainer to stop making them, which the U.S. Mint will do next year. I figure that at some point, stores will rounding prices off to 5 cents. When that happens, more nickels dimes and quarters will likely be needed. I will let those versed in probability to calculate how many of each will be needed. If too many nickels are needed it may not be worth getting rid of the penny unless we get rid of the nickel, as well. Why do I say that? Because it costs 13.78 cents to mint a nickel. That makes a penny to look like a bargain. there no problem with the dimes and quarters because they cost 5.76 cents and 14.68 cents respectively to mint. What happened to the Gulfport Connect app where requests for city services are done? My app disappeared and attempts to Download have been unsuccessful. The liberal judicial branch of the U.S. government is setting policy for the executive branch of government. We the people voted for change in foreign trade. Same with immigration. The USPS is not funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Only Congress could change/do away with the post office. It is a 'stand alone' quasi-government entity. It is provided for in the Constitution. Read Article Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7: 'the US Constitution ... grants Congress the power to 'establish Post Offices and Post Roads.' As far as your 'so-called' junk mail complaint: Business pay for the post offices to deliver their 'advertisements,' the same as the spurious ads you see while doing a 'google search.' You can go to the post office and fill out a form to stop the delivery of Bulk Business Mail if you desire to do so. Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned that President Trump's 'deal' Iran might cause a nuclear war. We already had a treaty with Iran, but Trump ended it. Now he's making his own deal. It probably involves a golf course. After reading about TACO trades, all of President Trump's flip-flopping on tariffs is making me hungry. And making the folks on Wall Street rich, apparently. The people have spoken. Elon Musk and his DOGE team have done their work. And now Congress is sitting on its hands. How many more folks to we need to vote out to get something done? Send your Sound Offs to soundoff@
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
‘Pretty traumatized by it': Gulfport residents urged to learn from past storms, prepare
GULFPORT, Fla. (WFLA) — There are just a few days away from the start of hurricane season. The City of Gulfport is encouraging residents to prepare for it now. Officials held their annual Hurricane Preparedness Seminar Thursday night. For some, it was their first time attending. Others have been there before, but said this year feels different. Saharan dust plume heading for Florida: Here's what to know 'I think the fact that it really happened this year and people lived through it, and they've been pretty traumatized by it. So I think for folks to be here, and more importantly not to just learn the information but to go home and immediately make their check list tomorrow,' said Mayor Karen Love. Gulfport resident Lisa Onessimo said she wants a new approach to hurricane season after what she experienced during Hurricanes Milton and Helene. 'I want to know where we're going, how we're getting there, what to do,' Onessimo said. 'Ever since we had the hurricane from the last year, I lived in Gulfport and I'm here today to get a good grip because it was tough for us.' A few dozen people attended and some asked questions about shelters, flood dam doors, communication, sandbags, and more. 'What's the city going to do for sewer or to take care of the water?' one man asked. 'Could we get some safety tips about how to deal with the risk of electrical fires?' a woman asked after saying the house across the street from her was on fire following one of the storms. The fire department told residents to make sure to turn off electrical breakers. The city said it is working on a watershed master plan to explore options on how to improve drainage and should have answers by the end of the year. Post-storm preparations is one thing, and 8 On Your Side asked the mayor specifically about plans to improve the rebuilding process for residents. 'Well, I don't think I can answer that question right now. We're working on things; we're presenting two different options. Everything takes a little bit of time, we are looking at changing our model or potentially farming it out to the county,' Love said. The mayor said they are working on permits every day and have dedicated meetings toward the matter specifically. Those at the meeting emphasized getting away from the water, evacuating when told to, and the risk it puts first responders in when people don't evacuate. 'I need to be safer. I should've left and I didn't and that was my fault,' Onessimo said. 'It's heartbreaking. It makes you go back and cry because you want to pull everybody you can, it's just thank God everybody survived,' said Gulfport Fire Rescue Deputy Fire Chief James Lundh. For more information on Gulfport's preparedness plan, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
As MS execution closes in, Richard Jordan trying new ways to fight death
In the remaining weeks before his scheduled execution, Richard Jordan, Mississippi's oldest and longest serving death row inmate, is looking for ways to fight his death sentence. Jordan was sentenced to death for the kidnap and murder of Gulfport resident Edwina Marter in January 1976. Marter's sons, who were 3 and 9 at the time of her death, and her husband are still alive, according to public records. About a decade ago, her family told The Advocate they were hoping to receive closure from the execution after years of its delay. The decision to let the execution proceed rests in the hands of the Mississippi Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal district court judge – two courts that have rejected his previous requests and a judge who has allowed another execution to be carried out while a challenge to the state's execution protocol continues. Attorneys filed two motions asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to rehear its denial of the 78-year-old's petition for post conviction relief and to rehear its order setting his execution. They wrote that when the court denied his post-conviction relief petition, it 'misapprehended the facts and the law.' To fix it, Jordan asked the court to vacate his death sentence or at a minimum return it to the trial court for another look. His attorneys argue Jordan's death sentence is not valid because in 1976, when the murder was committed and Jordan was sentenced, Mississippi and all other states had ceased executions based on a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia that capital punishment was unconstitutional. On July 2, 1976, four months after Jordan was sentenced, the Supreme Court overturned this ruling in Gregg v. Georgia. Mississippi passed a statute allowing discretionary death penalty sentences in 1977. 'Here, because there was no constitutional provision for the death penalty at the time of Jordan's offense, his death sentence is unconstitutional,' the May 15 filing states. Jordan went to trial multiple times and his sentences were overturned. His death sentence did not stick until decades later in 1998. Since his first trial, Jordan has been incarcerated for nearly 50 years. In another recent court filing, Jordan's attorneys argue the state's motion to set Jordan's execution didn't follow state law because he has not exhausted all state and federal remedies. Jordan asked the U.S. Supreme Court in March to hear his case. As of May, that petition for writ of certiorari is awaiting a decision. The state opposes and has asked the high court not to take up Jordan's petition, saying the Mississippi Supreme Court was correct in its ruling. That petition centers around his access to a mental health expert separate from the prosecution to develop and present sentencing mitigation as an indigent defendant, which was established as a constitutional right through the U.S. Supreme Court's Ake v. Oklahoma decision. The other issue is how the Mississippi Supreme Court handled Jordan's Ake claims in his appeal and post-conviction. At trial, Jordan was evaluated by a state psychiatrist whose report was also given to the prosecution, which his attorneys argue undermined his mitigation case since the Ake decision specified the evaluation was to be used on the indigent defendant's behalf. The petition states he was not diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his combat service in Vietnam, but instead incorrectly as having antisocial personality disorder. 'Review of that decision is manifestly warranted to ensure appropriate respect for this Court's decisions, vindicate the supremacy of federal law, and ensure that those defendants in Mississippi whose mental health will be an issue at trial receive the right to the expert assistance to which the Due Process Clause entitles them,' the March court filing states. Additionally, Jordan and fellow death row inmate Ricky Chase are lead plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the drugs used for lethal injection. Since 2022, the state has since added alternative execution methods if lethal injection drugs aren't available: execution by gas chamber, electrocution or firing squad. To date, a handful of states have used these other methods, including the use of nitrogen gas in Alabama and firing squad in South Carolina. The Mississippi lawsuit did not stop the December 2022 execution of Thomas Loden, another inmate who was part of the legal challenge. The same day Jordan's attorneys filed motions with the Mississippi Supreme Court, Jordan and Chase filed a motion with U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, asking for him to order the state to provide essential documents to the plaintiffs about the state's possession and planned use of execution drugs as well as documents related to the most recent executions of David Cox in 2021 and Loden. Plaintiffs wrote that access to this information would help them seek an injunction to stay Jordan's execution and help with discovery, which is the process of obtaining evidence from other parties before trial. Trial for the lawsuit has been scheduled for Dec. 1, 2025. 'It is unconscionable for Defendants to seek the execution of Richard Jordan while continuing to stonewall Plaintiffs' repeated demands for supplementation of discovery in this case,' a May 14 court filing states.
