The Pearl River crested at 36.7 feet in Jackson, Miss. — lower than feared. Flooding also hit parts of Tennessee, where one official said, "It is a chess match we're playing with Mother Nature."
Authorities say a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme funneled money from a fund for needy families into personal expenses, including a stay at a luxury rehab center in California.
The Justice Department's civil rights division will examine conditions at four state prisons, including the oldest, Parchman, where a prison riot broke out on Dec. 29.
For the first time in 22 years, Mississippi man Curtis Flowers will be allowed to leave state custody. His case was the subject of the second season of the podcast In The Dark.
Four African Americans are suing over a Jim Crow-era election rule that requires statewide officeholders to win a majority of the popular vote and at least 62 of 122 Mississippi state house districts.
"I did not want there to be a perception that I was riding with another female and that something promiscuous was going on or anything like that," Robert Foster told NPR.
Curtis Flowers was tried six times for the same crime, and the court said it made its decision because of bias in jury selection. Now it's up to Mississippi whether to try him again.
Cochran used his considerable influence, including serving as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to direct billions of dollars to Mississippi.