Some of the top local stories we covered on "Gulf Coast Mornings" this March 20th:
A burglary suspect on the Mississippi coast who led officers on a chase in a stolen motorhome is facing a long list of charges now. Andrew Law of Vancleave was arrested yesterday in Long Beach after a manhunt. He's accused of crashing the RV into a police car during the chase. That earned him a charge of aggravated assault on a police officer. Law is also charged with felony fleeing, burglary and grand larceny. He's accused of stealing the motorhome from an RV dealership after wrecking another vehicle while trying to outrun police.
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D’Iberville city leaders are considering a second casino. A group headed by former Tourism Director Steve Richer wants to open a resort east of Scarlet Pearl. The Council is providing a letter of intent to allow the companies to lease Fountain Pier within the next 6 months, one component of the overall planned project.
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No injuries are reported, but smoke and flames from a controlled burn in Harrison County yesterday did prompt the evacuation of some students from Little People's Christian Academy. WLOX-TV reports that some students were transported to Saucier Elementary's gymnasium when smoke, blown by the wind, wafted onto the playground of the childcare center. The county's fire chief says the landowner where the controlled burn was taking place had the proper permits, although nearby businesses were not advised in advance that the burn was to take place.
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While the Mississippi Legislature toys with the idea of giving teachers a pay hike of one-thousand to four-thousand-dollars, officials in Holmes County say that's not enough. And so, they are planning to put a bond referendum on the August ballot that would provide local teachers a five-thousand-dollar across-the-board salary increase. If that happens, Superintendent James Henderson says starting teacher pay could potentially climb to 46-thousand-dollars a year.
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Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant says he will sign legislation headed to his desk that will ban abortions in that state upon detection of a fetal heartbeat. That's about six weeks into a pregnancy. The bill cleared the General Assembly yesterday. The only exception to the nation's most restrictive ban on abortions is for medical emergencies.
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The names of 37 priests or other clergy, none of them still active in the ministry and some of them deceased, are on a list from the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi as having been credibly accused of sexually abusing children. Officials note that not everyone on the list released Tuesday was charged or convicted of a crime. Files dating back to 1924 were investigated and involved the records of close to one-thousand priests. The victims were said to be both boys and girls ranging from five to 17-years-old.
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American parents are getting better at keeping medicines away from their kids, but they still have a long way to go. Morag MacKay [[ MORE-ag mc KYE ], Safe Kids Worldwide's Director of Research, says a recent survey found many parents unwittingly keep medicines, including over-the-counter items like vitamins, in purses and briefcases where kids can get to them. MacKay adds that everyone should know the national poison help number, 1-800-222-1222. This, by the way, is National Poison Prevention Week.
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Older Americans are taking too many antibiotics. A new study by the CDC shows that doctors write enough antibiotic prescriptions each year for every older American to get at least one. Health experts say that antibiotic overuse can create drug resistance. In fact, the CDC reports two million Americans get antibiotic resistant infections each year with 23-thousand dying from them. Additionally, antibiotics interact badly with a lot of the drugs senior citizens take, like statins and blood thinners as well as kidney and heart medications.
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Colorado's Democratic governor has signed a controversial bill that would give the state's nine Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote in presidential elections. Governor Jared Polis quietly signed the measure into law Friday. It is seen as a way for states that traditionally vote Democratic to get their candidate elected president. George W. Bush and Donald Trump both lost the popular vote but won the electoral college. The law will only take effect if enough states sign the agreement, since it takes 270 Electoral College votes to decide who wins the presidency. Currently, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact has secured 11 states and 181 Electoral College votes. Other states that have enacted the same legislation include Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, California and the District of Columbia.
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About eight-and-a-half billion dollars will be wagered on this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament. The American Gaming Association expects 47 million American adults to lay down bets during the tournament. Forty million Americans are expected to fill out a bracket. The AGA says the bettors are favoring Duke to win it all. It also says two-point-four million people will bet illegally with a bookie.
Mississippi State is in the tournament for the first time in ten years and will play Friday in San Jose, California against Liberty. State is a five-seed in the East Regional. Ole Miss is seeded eighth in the South Regional and the Rebels will play Oklahoma Friday in Columbia, South Carolina. Ole Miss is playing in the tournament for the first time since 2015.
And the basketball season is not over for Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles will travel to Virginia this week to play Longwood University in the College Basketball Invitational. That game Wednesday night will be the Eagles' first in the postseason since 2014.
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African refugee women tend to have healthier pregnancies than American women. A new study says female African refugees had fewer preterm births and pregnancy health risks, despite being more likely to delay prenatal care until their second trimester. They are also less likely to be medically induced into labor or have a C-section. Researchers believed African refugee women would have poorer reproductive health outcomes that U.S. women because they are susceptible to many health disparities. The study was published in the Journal of Women's Health.
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With so many important topics to discuss, why do we end up discussing Sesame Street? Details on that story in the video at 30:02