- Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.
In Mississippi
“Pascagoula 73” to air on Amazon
The tale of the alien abduction that made headlines out of Pascagoula in 1973 now has its own Amazon Prime special.
“Explore the shocking 1973 Pascagoula UFO abduction of Charles Hickson, Calvin Parker and Maria Blair. A gripping tale of extraterrestrial encounters, fear, and resilience that changed their lives forever,” the 4-part series show is billed by Amazon.
The two men – Hickson and Parker – have both now passed away, but their story and the circumstances surrounding it live on.
“Pascagoula 73” is set to be released on February 20.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Trump-Vance election certification set for today
A joint session of Congress will meet today to certify the Presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris (D) will oversee the process, an election she lost.
According to The Hill, “there is not expected to be much pushback against certifying” the victory of Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.
“House Democrats have indicated they will not challenge the results, with some wary of protests undercutting their warnings about threats to democracy,” The Hill reported, a change from four years ago when Trump’s supporters challenged President Joe Biden’s win.
Given the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as The Hill notes, “Monday has been designated as a national security special event, marking the first time that label has been applied to an election certification, law enforcement officials said at a public safety briefing on Friday.”
2. Canada’s Trudeau could step down
The BBC reports that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could announce his resignation within days.
“He is considering stepping down as leader of the governing Liberal Party, which would also bring to an end his nine years as prime minister,” the BBC reported. “It follows months of pressure from his own MPs. Last month, his finance minister quit, citing disagreements on how to deal with Donald Trump’s threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.”
The BBC went on to note, “Opinion polls suggest Trudeau’s Liberal Party trails well behind the Conservatives with a general election looming some time this year.”
Sports & Entertainment
1. Ole Miss tops Georgia to open SEC play
Ole Miss Athletics is celebrating as the No. 23 Ole Miss men’s basketball team (12-2, 1-0 SEC) won their first conference victory of the season, a 63-51 win over the Georgia Bulldogs (12-2, 0-1 SEC) on Saturday in Oxford.
Ole Miss hits the road for their first SEC road game of the season on Wednesday, January 8, against Arkansas.
2. Miss. State dominates South Carolina to open SEC play
MSU Athletics notes that the No. 17 Mississippi State Bulldogs welcomed South Carolina to Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday and wasted no time in asserting dominance on the way to a comfortable 85-50 victory over the Gamecocks to get their first SEC win of the season.
The Bulldogs (13-1, 1-0 SEC) now hit the road for a matchup with Vanderbilt on Tuesday, January 7.
Markets & Business
1. Futures up to start shortened week
CNBC reports that stock futures rose Monday as investors looked ahead to jobs data in another shortened trading week.
“Futures tied to the S&P 500 were up about 0.7%. Nasdaq-100 futures advanced 0.9%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 125 points, or 0.3%,” CNBC reported. “Investors are entering another shortened trading week – which will wrap the next of the first five January trading days – on a wobbly note and with lingering concerns about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate projections.”
Wall Street will be closed Thursday to mourn the death of former President Jimmy Carter.
2. More people having a harder time finding a job
The Wall Street Journal reports that while the U.S. economy has added more than two million jobs over the past year, “more people who are out of work are having a hard time getting back in.”
“As of November, more than seven million Americans were unemployed, meaning they didn’t have work and were trying to find it. More than 1.6 million of those jobless workers had been job hunting for at least six months, according to the Labor Department. The number of people searching for that long is up more than 50% since the end of 2022,” WSJ reported. “On average, it now takes people about six months to find a job, roughly a month longer than it did during the postpandemic hiring boom in early 2023, according to the Labor Department.”
WSJ added, “A labor market that looks healthy in the headlines is, under the surface, weaker than it seems. The unemployment rate, at 4.2%, remains well below the average during the decade before the pandemic. But there is now just about one job posting per unemployed worker, down from two in early 2022.”
