- Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.
In Mississippi
1. The cicadas are coming
As WJTV reports, trillions of cicadas underground are on track to crawl out in a double dose of weirdness.
“First, around mid-May, we’ll see Brood XIX emerge. Considered the largest periodical cicada group, they emerge every 13 years. As that group disappears, another group, Brood XIII, will emerge. This group resurfaces every 17 years,” WJTV reported.
WJTV also notes that “outside of hurting your ears with their singing or spattering you with their urine, cicadas are harmless to humans and pets.”
2. DPS announces Director of new Internal Affairs Department
On Friday, Commissioner of Public Safety Sean Tindell announced the appointment of Patrick Beasley as the Director of the newly created MSDPS Internal Affairs, Standards, and Professionalism.
This division will consist of representatives from each sworn division that is a part of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
Prior to joining MSDPS, Beasley served as an Assistant District Attorney in multiple districts throughout the state, Director of the Consumer Protection Division within the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, a narcotics officer for the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and a Military Police officer for the United States Army, serving as both a commissioned and non-commissioned officer.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Jury selection in Trump hush money case starts today
Jury selection in the first criminal trial of a former President – Donald Trump – is set to get underway in New York today.
“The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, has charged Mr. Trump with 34 felonies, accusing him of falsifying documents to conceal a sex scandal involving a porn star,” reports the New York Times. “The case, one of four indictments facing the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, could reshape the political landscape ahead of Election Day.”
As NYT reports, jury selection could last two weeks or more and the trial may spill into June.
2. Israel repels Iranian attack with U.S., Arab partners’ help
Wall Street Journal‘s Yaroslav Trofimov says Iran’s attack on Israel on Saturday that saw more than 170 explosive-laden drones, around 120 ballistic missiles and about 30 cruise missiles could have been catastrophic if all were not intercepted as they were.
“That success was due to a combination of Israel’s sophisticated air-defense system and critical assistance provided by the U.S. and other Western and Arab partners. American, British and Jordanian warplanes played an especially important role in downing drones. Most of the Iranian drones and missiles were destroyed before they even reached Israeli airspace,” Trofimov writes. “Whether Israel and its supporters can replicate that performance under the conditions of an all-out war—this weekend’s salvo from Iran, clearly telegraphed in advance, was the opposite of a surprise attack—is an open question, as is Israel’s ability to defend itself without outside help.”
3. House passes FISA reauthorization
On Friday, the New York Times reported that the U.S. House passed a two-year reauthorization of an expiring warrantless surveillance law that had stalled earlier this week amid G.O.P. resistance — but only after narrowly rejecting a bipartisan effort to restrict searches of Americans’ messages swept up by the program.
“The bill now heads to the Senate ahead of the scheduled April 19 expiration of the law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA,” NYT reported. “Its passage was a remarkable resuscitation from a collapse just days ago on the House floor after former President Donald J. Trump had urged Republicans to ‘kill’ the law.”
The final vote was 273 to 147, with Republicans split 126-88 while Democrats were split 147-59, per NYT.
Sports & Entertainment
1. Ole Miss wins first series over Miss. State since 2015
For the first time since 2015, the Ole Miss Rebels won a series over the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs took the opening game in Oxford 8-0 on Friday, before losing two straight to the Rebels.
Ole Miss walked it off Saturday in 12 innings and Sunday in 7 innings via the run rule, beating Mississippi State 10-9 and 14-2, respectively. The Sunday 14-2 win was the Rebels’ largest margin of victory over the Bulldogs since 1960.
Ole Miss is now 20-16 on the season and 5-10 in SEC play while State falls to 22-14 overall and 7-8 in the SEC. Both teams are back in action on Tuesday with Ole Miss at Arkansas State and Alcorn State visiting Mississippi State.
2. Southern Miss
Southern Miss traveled to Georgia State for a three-game weekend Sun Belt series, avoiding being swept by winning on Sunday.
It was not the Golden Eagles weekend, losing Friday 18-8 and Saturday 19-8 before winning Sunday’s game 14-9.
Southern Miss is now 22-14 on the season and 9-6 in SunBelt play. They host Nicholls on Tuesday in Hattiesburg.
Markets & Business
Stock futures tick higher ahead of the week’s opening bell
CNBC reports that U.S. stock futures ticked higher Monday even as Iran’s missile and drone strike on Israel and a spike in equity market volatility that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst week of the year last week remain concerns.
“Monday’s premarket action also follows a tough week on Wall Street, as lingering inflation concerns and a poor start to the new corporate earnings season weighed on investors,” CNBC notes. “The Dow fell more than 2%, marking its second down week in a row and biggest lost since March 2023. After posting its worst day since January on Friday, the S&P 500 ended the week lower by about 1.5% — its worst performance since October 2023.”
Magnolia Tribune
