- Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.
In Mississippi
Shooting leaves Claiborne County Sheriff Deputy dead
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) is investigating an officer-involved shooting involving the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Office near Hermanville.
According to MBI, deputies were attempting to disperse a crowd in the parking lot of Michael Dean’s Convenience Store around midnight when gunshots were directed toward the crowd. A female bystander was shot and transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A deputy was shot and transported to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The FBI is offering up to a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible. Anyone with any information is encouraged to reach out to the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Office, the MBI tip line at MBITips@dps.ms.gov, or the Mississippi Department of Homeland Security at 1-888-472-3367.
Upon completing the investigation, MBI will share their findings with the local District Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. GOP midterm convention in Dallas this week
The Hill reports that “the political world’s eyes are focused this week on Dallas, where Republicans are turning up the volume at a two-day convention meant to bolster the GOP’s chances in this year’s midterms.”
“The event is being billed as a unifying and electrifying celebration of President Trump’s second term in office that is being put on by the Republican National Committee. The GOP hopes it will raise money for candidates and help the party turn out voters in the fall,” The Hill reported. “But plenty of Republican lawmakers, particularly those in battleground districts — and even some Texas incumbents — appear to be worried about the focus on Trump, whose approval ratings are low. A number say they will not be able to make it or were noncommittal about their attendance. Republicans also will be fighting for public attention with the opening games of the NFL regular season.”
The Hill noted, “Some Democrats will stage specific counterprogramming in Dallas. Others will conduct business as usual on the campaign trail around the country.”
2. U.S. reading scores plummet
As reported by the New York Times, “The reading scores of American 15-year-olds have fallen sharply since 2022 and are near their lowest point in 25 years, according to the results of a key global exam released on Tuesday.”
“U.S. math scores are also among the lowest since the test began in 2000, even as students have held their ground in science,” NYT reported. “By every measure, American students are being outperformed by students in Singapore and parts of China who had top scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, taken by 15-year-olds around the world.”
NYT continued, “It is the latest warning sign for an American education system that has seen test scores fall over the last decade, starting before the pandemic... Reading scores are falling in many industrialized countries, down from their peak in 2012. Math scores are down globally since 2018. Overall, the United States ranked above average in reading and science, and about middle of the pack for math, compared with 37 other countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a coalition of mostly free-market democracies that account for a majority of world trade.”
Sports
1. Ole Miss WR, K earn SEC weekly awards
Ole Miss wide receiver Deuce Alexander (co-winner Offensive Player of the Week) and kicker Lucas Carneiro (co-winner Special Teams Player of the Week) both earned Southeastern Conference weekly awards for their performances against No. 24 Louisville, the SEC announced on Monday.
Alexander finished with a career-best 159 yards on five catches with two touchdowns.
Picking up right where he left off a season ago, kicker Lucas Carneiro drilled a 48-yard game-winning field goal as time expired to help Ole Miss defeat the Cardinals 41-38. Carneiro has now hit three career game-winning field goals of 45 yards or more within the final 15 seconds of regulation, the most by any FBS kicker in the last 30 years.
2. USM’s Albert named Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week
Southern Miss redshirt junior Kobi Albert earned the Sun Belt Conference’s initial Defensive Player of the Week award for the 2026 season Monday for his play in the Golden Eagles 49-3 win over Alcorn State last Saturday.
While only recording one tackle on the day, Albert collected three interceptions for the Golden Eagles in his program debut.
The interception total ties for the second-most in school history with five others in the 110-year history of the program
Markets & Business
1. Workers staying put
The Wall Street Journal says American workers are staying put.
“Workers across all sectors are switching jobs about as infrequently as they were in the years when the job market was still clawing its way back from the 2008-09 financial crisis,” WSJ reported. “The ‘separation’ rate, which includes both people who are laid off and those who leave their jobs voluntarily, has been stuck around its lowest levels since the years after the financial crisis. The flip side of that, the hiring rate, is similarly low.”
WSJ further reported, “The market has settled into a ‘low hire, low fire’ atmosphere. Workers who have managed to secure jobs are hanging onto them, especially in white-collar industries where the market isn’t nearly as dynamic as it is in blue-collar sectors. When so few people leave, few new roles open up for anyone else.”
2. Future rise as oil hits six-week highs
CNBC reports that “stock futures moved lower as oil prices rose to six-week highs, rising for a third straight day, with Iran and the U.S. exchanging strikes over the weekend.”
“Brent crude oil futures rose 2.3% to $99.22 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 3.3% to $94.54,” CNBC reported. “Crude prices have surged in the past month as the U.S.-Iran war continues, putting upward pressure on Treasury yields as traders grow worried that elevated energy prices will drive inflation higher.”
“Brent crude is at a six-week high, with apparent moves toward a deal between Iran and Oman to manage the flow of some shipping through the Strait of Hormuz merely underlining Tehran’s control of the waterway,” Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said in a note on Tuesday morning, reported by CNBC. “Investors will have a laser focus on US inflation data out later this week to see if the impact of rising energy prices is starting to feed into broader inflationary pressures.”
