Mississippi

Nov. 2 (UPI) — A rhesus monkey missing in rural Mississippi was found Sunday, according to authorities searching for the last few primates that escaped from a crashed truck hauling nearly two dozen of them nearly a week ago.

The monkey was found by a homeowner on their property in Heidelberg, located about 87 miles southeast of Jackson, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said in a brief statement posted to its Facebook account.

The animal is now in the possession of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, according to the sheriff’s department, which added that it had no further details about the monkey at this time.

The search continues for two additional monkeys that escaped Tuesday, when a truck transporting 21 rhesus monkeys crashed along a rural stretch of Mississippi highway. Following the crash, the sheriff’s department said three monkeys were still missing.

Authorities initially stated the animals weighed 40 pounds and posed “potential health threats,” as they allegedly carried hepatitis C, herpes and COVID-19.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department later recanted this statement, saying that the truck’s driver had stated the animals were infected with diseases, but the Tulane National Primate Research Center, which supplies monkeys to other research organizations, said the primates in question “are not infectious.”

Oct. 13 (UPI) — Four people were arrested Monday in connection to a mass shooting over the weekend in Mississippi that killed six people and left 10 others wounded.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests following Friday night’s deadly gunfire at a football homecoming celebration in the downtown area of Leland, a small town about 200 miles from the Arkansas-Mississippi border.

According to the FBI, Morgan Lattimore, 25, Teviyon Powell, 29, and William Bryant, 29, were charged with capital murder. A fourth suspect, Latoya Powell, 44, has been charged with attempted murder.

The FBI in Jackson said the investigation will continue with other arrests pending. A motive was not revealed.

“The FBI currently has brought agents in to assist in the canvassing, the interviewing, the evidence review, both video and physical evidence review,” Special Agent in Charge Robert Eikhoff told reporters over the weekend. “We’ve had resources available, so as we identify video evidence that we will bring to bear the resources to evaluate that video evidence.”

On Sunday, the FBI established a digital media tips website to gather information, cellphone video or photos from the public to help them investigate Friday’s shooting. That website will remain active, despite the arrests, as agents continue to request more tips.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is using DNA analysis to run shell casings through national databases. FBI Jackson is also requesting witnesses submit tips at tips.fbi.gov.

The Washington County Coroner’s Office has identified the victims as Kaslyn Johnson, 18, Calvin Plant, 19, Oreshama Johnson, 41, Shelbyona Powell, 25, Amos Brantley Jr, 18, and JaMichael Jones, 34.

“We also have victim specialists that are available and they’re working with those from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to ensure that the victims and their families are cared for and understand what resources are available to them,” Eikhoff added, “and help them in their pursuit and their journey as they try to recover from this horrific incident.”

Oct. 11 (UPI) — Twenty people were shot, four of whom died, in a shooting in the western Mississippi city of Leland during a celebration for a homecoming football game, in one of three shootings in small towns in the state late Friday.

The shooting in Leland happened late Friday night around midnight on the city’s main street after Leland High School played Charleston High School, sending at least 12 wounded people to local hospitals while four were airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in critical condition, according to media reports.

“I just want to send our condolences to the families of the deceased and to all those that are being treated,” Leland Mayor John Lee told The Guardian. “We need to be in prayer for our city.”

State Sen. Derrick Simmons told WAPT the shooting had not happened at the game itself, but at a gathering on the city’s Main Street afterward.

According to WLBT, the identities of people who were shot have not been released, and no suspects or arrests have been announced as the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation assists local police on the investigation.

Leland is a town of roughly 4,000 people in Washington County, MS, about 200 miles from the Arkansas-Mississippi border.

Forty miles south of Leland, two people were arrested and charged after a shooting during a football game at South Delta High School in Rolling Fork, MS, although WLBT reported that it was unclear if anybody was injured.

In another shooting, In Heidelberg two people were shot and killed, and another wounded, at Heidelberg High School, roughly 200 miles away from Leland, according to WDAM.

One person was killed on the school’s baseball field, and another shot in a tailgating area near the school’s bleachers, according to Heidelberg Police Chief Cornell White, who said the shooter or shooters remained at large.

The motives and causes of all three shootings have not been announced or are not known, according to the reports.

Sept. 18 (UPI) — A federal jury in Gulfport, Miss., has convicted a man charged with six counts of federal arson and civil rights offenses for vandalizing and setting fire to a house of worship, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Stefan Day Rowold set fire to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Wiggins, Miss., on July 7, 2024.

Evidence presented at the trial suggested that Rowold targeted the church because he disagreed with its fundamental religious beliefs and principles, the Justice Department said in a release.

Rowold confessed to breaking into the building, vandalizing the interior walls and setting a fire in the middle of the church’s multi-purpose room so leaders could not hold services.

Rowold used the church’s hymnals for kindling for the fire, court records showed. He also admitted to breaking into the church two days later with the intention of creating more damage.

“The second time he broke in, Rowold set another fire using cardboard and a piece of firewood,” the Justice Department statement continued.

Rowold is scheduled to be sentenced in January. He faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison on each of the arson charges, a maximum sentence of 20 years on each of the civil rights charges and a minimum of 10 years for using fire to commit a federal felony offense.

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The U.S. gymnastics world was only just recovering from a devastating sexual abuse scandal when a promising young coach moved from Mississippi to Iowa to take a job in 2018 at an elite academy known for training Olympic champions.

Liang “Chow” Qiao, the owner of Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, thought highly enough of his new hire, Sean Gardner, to put him in charge of the club’s premier junior event and to coach some of its most promising girls.

But four years later, Gardner was gone from Chow’s with little notice.

USA Gymnastics, the organization rocked by the Larry Nassar sex-abuse crisis that led to the creation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, had been informed by the watchdog group that Gardner was suspended from all contact with gymnasts.

The reason for Gardner’s removal wasn’t disclosed. But court records obtained exclusively by the Associated Press show the coach was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chow’s and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his prior job in Mississippi.

Last week, more than three years after being suspended from coaching, the FBI arrested Gardner, 38, on a federal child pornography charge. But his disciplinary case has still not been resolved by SafeSport, which handles sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports.

In cases such as Gardner’s, the public can be in the dark for years while SafeSport investigates and sanctions coaches. SafeSport requires that allegations be reported to police to ensure abusers don’t run unchecked outside of sports, but critics say the system is a slow, murky process.

“From an outward operational view, it seems that if SafeSport is involved in any way, the situation turns glow-in-the-dark toxic,” said attorney Steve Silvey, a longtime SafeSport critic who has represented people in cases involving the center.

While acknowledging there can be delays as its investigations unfold, SafeSport defended its temporary suspensions in a statement as “a unique and valuable intervention” when there are concerns of a risk to others.

Nevertheless, in 2024, Gardner was able to land a job helping care for surgical patients at an Iowa hospital — two years after the abuse allegations against him were reported to SafeSport and the police.

And it was not until late May that West Des Moines police executed a search warrant at his home, eventually leading to the recovery of a trove of photos and videos on his computer and cellphone of nude young girls, court records show.

Authorities in Iowa sealed the court documents after the AP asked about the investigation earlier this month, before details of the federal charge were made public Friday. Gardner, Qiao and Gardner’s former employer in Mississippi did not respond to AP requests for comment.

‘The job that I’ve always wanted’

Chow’s Gymnastics is best known as the academy where U.S. gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Qiao opened the gym in 1998 after starring on the Chinese national team and moving to the United States to coach at the University of Iowa. The gym became a draw for top youth gymnasts, with some families moving to Iowa to train there.

Gardner moved to Iowa in September 2018, jumping at the opportunity to coach under Qiao.

“This is the job that I’ve always wanted. Chow is really someone I have looked up to since I’ve been coaching,” Gardner told the ABC affiliate WOI-TV in 2019. “And you can tell when you step foot in the gym, just even from coaching the girls, the culture that he’s built. It’s amazing. It’s beautiful.”

A year later, Gardner was promoted to director of Chow’s Winter Classic, an annual meet that draws more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympics team during his four-year tenure at Chow’s.

Several of his students earned college gymnastics scholarships, but Gardner said he had bigger goals.

“You want to leave a thumbprint on their life, so when they go off hopefully to school, to bigger and better things, that they remember Chow’s as family,” he said in a 2020 interview with WOI-TV.

Coach accused of sexual misconduct in Iowa and Mississippi

Gardner is accused of abusing his position at Chow’s and his former job at Jump’In Gymnastics in Mississippi to prey on girls under his tutelage, according to a nine-page FBI affidavit released Friday that summarizes the allegations against him.

A girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner used “inappropriate spotting techniques” in which he would put his hands between her legs and touch her vagina, the affidavit said.

It said she alleged Gardner would ask girls if they were sexually active and call them “idiots, sluts, and whores.” She said this behavior began after his hiring in 2018 and continued until she left the gym in 2020 and provided the names of six other potential victims.

SafeSport suspended Gardner in July 2022 — four months after the girl’s report — a provisional step it can take in severe cases with “sufficient evidentiary support” as investigations proceed.

A month after that, the center received a report from another girl alleging additional “sexual contact and physical abuse,” including that Gardner similarly fondled her during workouts, the FBI affidavit said. The girl said that he once dragged her across the carpet so hard that it burned her buttocks, the affidavit said.

SafeSport shared the reports with West Des Moines police, in line with its policy requiring adults who interact with youth athletes to disclose potential criminal cases to law enforcement.

While SafeSport’s suspension took Gardner out of gymnastics, the criminal investigation quickly hit a roadblock.

Police records show a detective told SafeSport to urge the alleged victims to file criminal complaints, but only one of their mothers contacted police in 2022. That woman said her daughter did not want to pursue criminal charges, and police suspended the investigation.

Victims of abuse are often reluctant to cooperate with police, said Ken Lang, a retired detective and associate professor of criminal justice at Milligan University.

“In this case you have the prestige of this facility,” he said. “Do they want to associate their name with that, in that way, when their aspirations were to succeed in gymnastics?”

Police suspended the investigation, even as Gardner was on probation for his second offense of driving while intoxicated.

A dormant case reopened, and a year later, an arrest

The case stayed dormant until April 2024 when another former Chow’s student came forward to the West Des Moines Police Department to report abuse allegations, according to a now-sealed affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon. The AP is not identifying the student in line with its policy of not naming victims of alleged sexual abuse.

The now 18-year-old told police she began taking lessons from Gardner when she was 11 or 12 in 2019, initially seeing him as a “father figure” who tried to help her get through her parents’ divorce. He told her she could tell him “anything,” the affidavit said.

When she moved in 2021, she told police, he gave her a hug and said she could text and follow him on Instagram and other social media sites, where he went by the nickname “Coach Seanie,” because gym policy barring such contact no longer applied.

According to a summary of her statement provided in Lyon’s affidavit, she said Gardner fondled her during exercises, repeatedly touching her vagina; rubbed her back and butt and discussed his sex life; and made her do inappropriate stretches that exposed her privates.

She told police she suspected he used his cellphone to film her in that position.

Reached by the AP, the teen’s mother declined comment. The mother told police she was interested in a monetary settlement with Chow’s because the gym “had been made aware of the complaints and they did nothing to stop them,” according to Lyon’s affidavit. The gym didn’t return AP messages seeking comment.

It took 16 months after the teen’s 2024 report for the FBI to arrest Gardner, who made an initial court appearance in Des Moines on Friday on a charge of producing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which can carry up to 30 years in prison. A public defender assigned to represent him didn’t return AP messages seeking comment.

It’s unclear why the case took so long to investigate and also when the FBI, which had to pay $138 million to Nassar’s victims for botching that investigation, got involved in the case.

Among evidence seized by investigators in late May were a cellphone, laptop and a desktop computer along with handwritten notes between Gardner and his former pupils, according to the sealed court documents.

They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years in age, who were nude, using the toilet or changing into leotards, those documents show. Those images appear to have come from a hidden camera in a restroom.

They also uncovered 50 video files and 400 photos, including some that appeared to be child pornography, according to the FBI affidavit. One video allegedly shows Gardner entering the bathroom and turning off the camera.

Investigators also found images of an adult woman secretly filmed entering and exiting a bathtub, and identified her as Gardner’s ex-girlfriend. That woman as well as the gym’s owner, Candi Workman, told investigators the images appeared to come from Jump’In Gymnastics’ facility in Purvis, Miss., which has since been closed.

SafeSport’s power has limits

SafeSport has long touted that it can deliver sanctions in cases where criminal charges are not pursued as key to its mission. However, Gardner’s ability to land a job in healthcare illustrates the limits of that power: It can ban people from sports but that sanction is not guaranteed to reach the general public.

While not commenting about Gardner’s case directly, it said in a statement provided to AP that a number of issues factor into why cases can take so long to close, including the 8,000 reports it receives a year with only around 30 full-time investigators. It has revamped some procedures, it said, in an attempt to become more efficient.

“While the Center is able and often does cooperate in law enforcement investigations,” it said, “law enforcement is not required to share information, updates, or even confirm an investigation is ongoing.”

USA Gymnastics president Li Li Leung called the center’s task “really tough, difficult to navigate.”

“I would like to see more consistency with their outcomes and sanctions,” Leung said. “I would like to see more standardization on things. I would like to see more communication, more transparency from their side.”

A case that lingers, even after the SafeSport ban

As the investigation proceeded, Gardner said on his Facebook page he had landed a new job in May 2024 as a surgical technologist at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center. It’s a role that calls for positioning patients on the operating room table, and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care.

Asked about Gardner’s employment, hospital spokesman Todd Mizener told the AP: “The only information I can provide is that he is no longer” at the hospital.

Meanwhile, the case lingers, leaving lives in limbo more than three years after the SafeSport Center and police first learned of it.

“SafeSport is now part of a larger problem rather than a solution, if it was ever a solution,” said attorney Silvey. “The most fundamental professional task such as coordination with local or federal law enforcement gets botched on a daily basis, hundreds of times a year now.”

Foley and Pells write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Will Graves contributed.

WASHINGTON — Joining forces from three other Republican-led states, the Mississippi National Guard will deploy 200 troops to Washington as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing federal policing and immigration overhaul in the nation’s capital.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a statement Monday that he has approved the deployment of approximately 200 Mississippi National Guard Soldiers to Washington, D.C.

“Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it,” Reeves said.

Mississippi joins three other states that have pledged to deploy hundreds of National Guard members to the nation’s capital to bolster the Republican administration’s operation to overhaul policing in the Democratic-led city through a federal crackdown on crime and homelessness.

West Virginia said it was deploying 300 to 400 troops, South Carolina pledged 200 and Ohio said it will send 150 in the coming days, deployments that built on top of President Trump’s initial order that 800 National Guard troops deploy as part of the federal intervention.

Trump’s executive order that launched the federal operation declared a “crime emergency” in the District of Columbia and initiated a takeover Washington’s police department. The administration has ordered local police to cooperate with federal agents on immigration enforcement, orders that would contradict local laws prohibiting such collaboration.

“D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs,” Trump wrote on his social media website a day after issuing his order. “The White House is in charge. The Military and our Great Police will liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!”

National Guard members in the District of Columbia have been assisting law enforcement with tasks including crowd control and patrolling landmarks such as the National Mall and Union Station. Their role has been limited thus far, and it remains unclear why additional troops would be needed.

Over the weekend in Washington, protesters pushed back on federal law enforcement and National Guard troops fanning out in the city. Scores of protesters gathered in the city’s Dupont Circle on Saturday and marched to the White House.

Brown and Pesoli write for the Associated Press.

High school football began on Friday night in California, and no one was having more fun than the tourists/players from Sparks, Nev., the Spanish Springs High Cougars.

They flew in Friday morning on Southwest Airlines, with plans to visit the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday and Six Flags Magic Mountain on Sunday. First up was a game against Simi Valley, and it went better than expected.

Brady Hummel, a senior receiver and the son of coach Robert Hummel, caught 14 passes for 121 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-21 victory. There were 11 turnovers, with Simi Valley losing four fumbles and getting intercepted twice.

Hummel was so wide open on one touchdown because of a Simi Valley secondary communication error that he could have been counting one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi and still would have been wide open. Quarterback Tyson McNeil passed for 211 yards.

From the opening kickoff, when Jackson Sundeen returned it for a 96-yard touchdown, the Pioneers were trying to come from behind.

The two teams combined for seven turnovers in the first half. Spanish Springs held a 20-14 halftime lead. Micah Hannah and James Scida each had interceptions for Simi Valley. The Pioneers lost three fumbles. Quarterback Connor Petrov had touchdown passes of 29 yards on fourth down to Quentin McGahan and 50 yards to Cole Alejo.

In the second half, Petrov was intercepted twice and also lost a fumble that turned into a touchdown. Zane Tryon had a 73-yard touchdown run.

Simi Valley was 12-2 last season and defeated the Cougars in Nevada, but two new quarterbacks and a rebuilt offensive line has the Pioneers working to improve.

“We’ll bounce back,” Hannah said.

As for playing against Hummel, Hannah gave up a touchdown against him, but also picked off one of his passes.

“He’s smooth,” Hannah said.

Los Alamitos came away with a 20-12 win over Inglewood. A two-yard touchdown run Lenny Ibarra put Los Alamitos ahead for good. Los Alamitos is headed to Hawaii next week.

In Henderson, Nev., Long Beach Millikan defeated Foothill 27-14. Tight end/defensive end Jude Nelson had two sacks and made nine catches. Quarterback Ashton Pannell threw two touchdown passes.

The challenge brought on by the trade group alleges that the age verification law is a violation of free speech

The United States Supreme Court has declined to put on hold a Mississippi law requiring that users of social media platforms verify their age and that minors have parental consent.

The high court made the decision on Thursday not to accept the challenge by NetChoice, a trade group that included tech giants such as Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Alphabet which owns YouTube, and Snapchat.

The justices denied a request to block the law while the Washington-based tech industry trade association’s legal challenge to the law, which, it argues, violates the US Constitution’s protections against government abridgement of free speech, plays out in lower courts.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a statement about the court’s order said the Mississippi law was likely unconstitutional, but that NetChoice had not met the high bar to block the measure at this early stage of the case.

In a statement, Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said Kavanaugh’s view “makes clear that NetChoice will ultimately succeed” in its challenge. Taske called the Supreme Court’s order “an unfortunate procedural delay.”

NetChoice had turned to the Supreme Court after the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals let the law take effect even though a judge found it likely runs afoul of the First Amendment.

NetChoice sued in federal court in 2024 in a bid to invalidate the law, which was passed unanimously in the state legislature amid concern by lawmakers about the potential negative effects of social media use on the mental health of children.

Its emergency request to the justices marked the first time the Supreme Court was asked to consider a social media age-verification law.

The law requires that a social media platform obtain “express consent” from a parent or guardian of a minor before a child can open an account. It also states that regulated social media platforms must make “commercially reasonable” efforts to verify the age of users.

Under the law, the state can pursue civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation as well as criminal penalties under Mississippi’s deceptive trade practices law.

Multiple lawsuits

US District Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden in Gulfport, Mississippi, last year blocked Mississippi from enforcing the restrictions on some NetChoice members.

Ozerden issued a second order in June pausing the rules against those members, including Meta and its Instagram and Facebook platforms, Snapchat and YouTube.

The 5th Circuit on July 17 issued a one-sentence ruling that paused the judge’s order, without explaining its reasoning.

Courts in seven states have preliminarily or permanently blocked similar measures, according to NetChoice.

Some technology companies are separately battling lawsuits brought by US states, school districts and individual users alleging that social platforms have exacerbated mental health problems. The companies have denied wrongdoing.

NetChoice said the social media platforms of its members already have adopted extensive policies to moderate content for minors and provide parental controls.

In its request to the Supreme Court, the state told the justices that age-verification and parental consent requirements “are common ways for states to protect minors”.

In May, Texas passed a law requiring Apple and Alphabet’s Google to verify the age of users of their app stores.

In 2020, inside the clang-and-clatter of Neshoba Central High’s powerlifting gym, Jarquez Hunter’s coach laid down a dare: squat 645 pounds on three counts.

With a nod and quick coat of chalk, Hunter went to work. Challenges don’t faze him.

At a Mississippi water company three years prior, Hunter’s co-workers coaxed him into a pickup basketball game. Still in his button-down shirt and cowboy boots, the 5-foot-9 Hunter went airborne. And dunked.

In those same boots, the Rams’ rookie running back completed more delicate tests: He patiently broke and nurtured a horse that he eventually rode across Auburn’s campus.

“Stay true to the thing you’re doing,” Hunter said.

On Saturday at SoFi Stadium, Hunter made his NFL debut in a preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, Lining up behind quarterback Stetson Bennett, he took a handoff on a third-and-six play and mimicked a sprinter stealing a head start — his shoulders low and knees churning. Hunter knifed through the defense and broke for an 11-yard gain.

“That was a great run,” said Rams coach Sean McVay. “He’s knocking guys back and finishing forward where what might be a four-yard run ends up being an eight-yard or seven-yard run.”

That bruising style helped Hunter rush for 3,371 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns in four seasons at Auburn. The Rams selected Hunter in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL draft, adding him to a running back corps that features starter Kyren Williams and second-year pro Blake Corum.

“He’s definitely laser-focused on what you’re saying,” Rams running backs coach Ron Gould said during training camp.

Or, as McVay illustrated it: “He can stare a hole through you.”

Gould dubbed Hunter’s speed as his “super power,” a gift confirmed by a 4.44-second 40-yard dash. But Hunter’s ability to twist defenders out of position mid-chase is his calling card. Proof? He amassed 278 yards in 23 carries last October against Kentucky.

“Since I was in middle school growing up, I did a lot of squatting,” Hunter said. “I do a lot of leg workouts. I run hills and pull sleds. That’s really how I get the power in my legs.”

Rams linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr., a fellow rookie, played against Hunter three times at Arkansas before Paul transferred to Mississippi. Every matchup against Hunter’s Tigers, Paul said, was the same headache.

Rams running back Jarquez Hunter is tackled by the Dallas Cowboys defense during a preseason game Saturday at SoFi Stadium.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“We knew he ran hard,” the Rams linebacker said. “We knew he was hard to bring down. We knew he had speed. Very good in pass [protection]. … Man, he’s very dangerous.”

But that danger vanishes once the pads come off. They’re replaced by the patience of a country boy.

Hunter, who also stashes party tricks like leaping out of a swimming pool, grew up in the rolling greens of central Mississippi. And back home, Hunter’s most loyal running mate doesn’t wear pads. Danger, a chestnut quarter horse with a white blaze down his face and a deep copper coat, was born the same summer Hunter first wore an Auburn jersey.

The colt was born while Hunter was driving home for a short break before fall camp, its spindly legs still wobbly in the pasture.

The patience to break a horse, the stubbornness to work one until it trusts you, the dawn-to-dusk commitment of tending to something that can’t speak back — Hunter said he swears it all bleeds into his game.

“When you’re out there working with animals, you gotta stay true,” Hunter said, “you gotta go with the training. You still gotta work with them.”

That same discipline shows when Hunter rides his ATV up a steep hill, hauls in catfish by hand, or waits patiently for a buck in the woods — and it’s the same grit he’ll lean on as he pushes for a place in the Rams’ running back rotation.

For now, Hunter will line up again Saturday against the Chargers, with a chance to outpace the 41 yards he logged in 11 carries in his debut.

“Pretty decent,” Hunter said, “but it’s things I got to fix.”

Because for Hunter, the fixes are the fun part of challenges — whether it’s mending a missed block, pumping out another squat or winning the trust of a restless colt.

Staff writer Gary Klein contributed to this report.

Mississippi freshman defensive lineman Corey Adams was shot and killed Saturday night near Memphis, Tenn. He was 18.

Adams was a three-star recruit out of Edna Karr High School in New Orleans. His alma mater posted a tribute Sunday morning on Facebook.

“This is a post we never want to have to make and words can’t describe this type of pain. We are heartbroken and tormented to pieces,” the Karr Cougar Football account posted.

“Corey Adams was more than a football player! He was a friend, brother, son, student, and all around great young man. We never question God but this is one we just don’t understand. This wasn’t supposed to be the end of his story but we will #DoIt4Co.”

The Shelby County (Tenn.) Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it is investigating a shooting that took place at around 10:14 p.m. Saturday night outside a residence in Cordova.

“When deputies arrived at the intersection of Forest Hill-Irene and Walnut Grove, they stopped a vehicle, finding an adult male gunshot victim,” the sheriff’s office stated. “They provided life-saving measures until Shelby County Fire arrived. Shelby County Fire personnel later pronounced the victim deceased on the scene.”

A second statement, issued hours later early Sunday morning, identified the victim as Adams.

The sheriff’s department also noted that “four adult males arrived by personal vehicles to area hospitals with gunshot wounds. All four victims are listed in non-critical condition.”

The shooting is an active homicide investigation, the department stated.

According to his Mississippi bio, Adams was a two-time all-state selection who had 19 sacks, 62 tackles (21 for loss), one fumble recovery and four batted passes his senior year. 247 Sports reports that he received offers from 17 schools — including USC, LSU, Oregon, Texas A&M and Mississippi State — before signing with the Rebels.

He enrolled at Mississippi in January. Months later, Adams posted pictures on Instagram of himself taking part in spring practice.

Mississippi football said in an X (formerly Twitter) post that it was “devastated” to learn of Adams’ passing.

“While our program is trying to cope with this tragic loss, our thoughts are with his loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” the Rebels wrote. “Out of respect for his family, we will not be commenting further at this time. We ask the Ole Miss community to keep Corey in their thoughts and respect the privacy of everyone involved.”

May 29 (UPI) — A Baylor defensive lineman for Baylor University died Wednesday following a shooting in Mississippi, according to his football team and reports.

“We are heartbroken by the unexpected passing of Alex Foster, a beloved teammate, friend and a cherished part of the Baylor family,” Mack Rhoades IV, vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics at Baylor, and Dave Aranda, the school’s football coach, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Alex’s family and all those who loved him.”

Foster, 18, died early Wednesday at the Delta Health Center in Greenville, Miss., the Clarion Ledger reported.

The Greenville Police Department told the local newspaper that officers had responded to reports of shots fired at around 12:11 a.m. local time at 1800 East Alexander St., where they found a male in a car suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Circumstances surrounding the shooting and information about a potential suspect were not mentioned.

Foster was a native of Greenville and was listed as 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing 292 pounds. He attended St. Joseph High School, located in Greenville.

“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of a young life in our community,” St. Joseph said in a statement on Facebook.

“We extend our prayers and deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Alex Foster, a graduate of our school.”

Libraries across the United States are cutting back on ebooks, audiobooks and loan programs after the Trump administration suspended millions of dollars in federal grants as it tries to dissolve the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Federal judges have issued temporary orders to block the Trump administration from taking any further steps toward gutting the agency. But the unexpected slashing of grants has delivered a significant blow to many libraries, which are reshuffling budgets and looking at different ways to raise money.

Maine has laid off a fifth of its staff and temporarily closed its state library after not receiving the remainder of its annual funding. Libraries in Mississippi have indefinitely stopped offering a popular ebook service, and the South Dakota state library has suspended its interlibrary loan program.

Ebook and audiobook programs are especially vulnerable to budget cuts, even though those offerings have exploded in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think everyone should know the cost of providing digital sources is too expensive for most libraries,” said Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Assn. “It’s a continuous and growing need.”

Library officials caught off guard by Trump’s cuts

President Trump issued an executive order March 14 to dismantle the IMLS before firing nearly all of its employees.

One month later, the Maine State Library announced it was issuing layoff notices for workers funded through an IMLS grant program.

“It came as quite a surprise to all of us,” said Spencer Davis, a library generalist at the Maine State Library who is one of eight employees who were laid off May 8 because of the suspended funding.

In April, California, Washington and Connecticut were the only three states to receive letters stating the remainder of their funding for the year was canceled, Hohl said. For others, the money hasn’t been distributed yet. The three states all filed formal objections with the IMLS.

Rebecca Wendt, California state library director, said she was never told why California’s funding was terminated while the other remaining states did not receive the same notice.

“We are mystified,” Wendt said.

The agency did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Popular digital offerings on the chopping block

Most libraries are funded by city and county governments, but receive a smaller portion of their budget from their state libraries, which receive federal dollars every year to help pay for summer reading programs, interlibrary loan services and digital books. Libraries in rural areas rely on federal grants more than those in cities.

Many states use the funding to pay for ebooks and audiobooks, which are increasingly popular, and costly, offerings. In 2023, more than 660 million people globally borrowed ebooks, audiobooks and digital magazines, up from 19% in 2022, according to OverDrive, the main distributor of digital content for libraries and schools.

In Mississippi, the state library helped fund its statewide ebook program.

For a few days, Erin Busbea was the bearer of bad news for readers at her Mississippi library: Hoopla, a popular app to check out ebooks and audiobooks, had been suspended indefinitely in Lowndes and DeSoto counties due to the funding freeze.

“People have been calling and asking, ‘Why can’t I access my books on Hoopla?’” said Busbea, library director of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System in Columbus, a majority-Black city northeast of Jackson.

The library system also had to pause parts of its interlibrary loan system allowing readers to borrow books from other states when they aren’t available locally.

“For most libraries that were using federal dollars, they had to curtail those activities,” said Hulen Bivins, the Mississippi Library Commission executive director.

States are fighting the funding freeze

The funding freeze came after the agency’s roughly 70 staff members were placed on administrative leave in March.

Attorneys general in 21 states and the American Library Assn. have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration for seeking to dismantle the agency.

The institute’s annual budget is below $300 million and distributes less than half of that to state libraries across the country. In California, the state library was notified that about 20%, or $3 million, of its $15-million grant had been terminated.

“The small library systems are not able to pay for the ebooks themselves,” said Wendt, the California state librarian.

In South Dakota, the state’s interlibrary loan program is on hold, according to Nancy Van Der Weide, a spokesperson for the South Dakota Department of Education.

The institute, founded in 1996 by a Republican-controlled Congress, also supports a national library training program named after former first lady Laura Bush that seeks to recruit and train librarians from diverse or underrepresented backgrounds. A spokesperson for Bush did not return a request seeking comment.

“Library funding is never robust. It’s always a point of discussion. It’s always something you need to advocate for,” said Liz Doucett, library director at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine. “It’s adding to just general anxiety.”

Lathan writes for the Associated Press.

Mark Twain was America’s first celebrity, a multiplatform entertainer loved and recognized all over the world. Fans from America to Europe to Australia bought his books and flocked to his one-man shows, and his potent doses of humor and hard truth enthralled both the highborn and the humble. After he died, his work lived on through his novels, and his influence has endured — this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “James” by Percival Everett, reverses the roles of the main characters in Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” replacing the narration of the teenaged Huck with that of the slave Jim.

Ron Chernow writes books about men of great ambition ranging from President Ulysses S. Grant to financier J.P. Morgan — his biography of Alexander Hamilton inspired the long-running Broadway musical — and is an expert chronicler of fame’s highs and lows. But in taking on Twain’s story, he signed on for a wild ride. Twain was both a brilliant writer who exposed America’s hypocrisies with humor and wit, and an angry man who savored revenge, nursed grudges and blamed God for the blows fate rained down on his head. “What a bottom of fury there is to your fun,” said Twain’s friend, the novelist William Dean Howells.

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, Twain grew up in the slaveholding community of Hannibal, Mo., a town he would immortalize in “Huckleberry Finn” and its prequel, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” The restless young man drifted from one job to another, then found his first calling as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, an experience that would inform Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” and other books. The river gave him his pen name (the phrase “mark twain” indicated a safe water depth) and inflicted an early blow in the loss of his younger brother: encouraged by Twain, Henry Clemens signed on to a riverboat crew, then died when the boat exploded. Twain blamed himself.

Twain’s river idyll ended with the Civil War. Traffic dried up, and to escape conscription into the Confederate Army, Twain headed west with his brother Orion to the Nevada territory. He reveled in the rambunctious disorder of its mining towns, and as a young reporter there he uncorked his ebullient sense of humor. His literary career began in earnest when he moved to San Francisco, and helped by California writers such as Bret Harte, he went national when in 1865 a New York newspaper picked up his story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Twain moved east, and his career took off like a rocket.

On a travel junket that inspired his first book, “Innocents Abroad,” Twain saw a portrait of his future wife, Olivia “Livy” Langdon. He fell for her image and contrived to meet her, and despite Twain’s many eccentricities, her distinguished family accepted him. They married, and their life in Hartford, Conn., padded by Livy’s family wealth, was a gracious dream, as the greatest of Twain’s age — Grant, Robert Louis Stevenson, Helen Keller — sought his company. But tragedy struck again: their first child, a son, died at 18 months.

The couple had three more children — daughters — and Livy’s seemingly bottomless wealth supported him. She edited his manuscripts, ran his household and smoothed his rough edges. But the couple’s Achilles’ heel was their shared taste for luxury. They routinely lived beyond their means, running up bills even as Twain, a reckless investor with terrible business sense, gambled with both his publishing earnings and her inheritance.

Throughout it all, he kept writing. The most enduring of Twain’s books is “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” published Stateside in 1885 when Twain was 49, the story of a runaway boy and an escaped slave who flee down the Mississippi River. A sequel to Twain’s comic novel “Tom Sawyer,” it penetrated the dark heart of Hannibal’s savage treatment of Black people. Chernow writes that “if Tom Sawyer offered a sunlit view of antebellum Hannibal, in ‘Huck Finn’ Twain delved into the shadows. As he dredged up memories anew, he now perceived a town embroiled in slavery.”

Ron Chernow has previously authored biographies on historical figures including Ulysses S. Grant and Alexander Hamilton.

(Beowulf Sheehan)

“Huck Finn” was the apotheosis of Twain’s gift for truth-telling, as he exposed the sadistic oppression of Black people and made the slave Jim the hero. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the book has been banned for its use of a racial slur, but Chernow makes a strong case for the book’s significance, buttressed by “James” author Everett’s summation: “Anyone who wants to ban Huck Finn hasn’t read it.”

Twain’s book sales failed to balance the household budget, and the family had to move to Europe to curtail expenses, the beginning of years of exile. Their departure from America was the end of a dream and the beginning of a nightmare. Twain’s daughter Susy, who had remained in America, died of bacterial meningitis at age 24. Then Livy died. Her loss unleashed Twain’s anger at pitiless fate, and his relationships with his two surviving daughters became increasingly estranged. “Ah, this odious swindle, human life,” he swore, after his daughter Jean endured a major epileptic seizure.

“In most lives there arrives a mellowing, a lovely autumnal calm that overtakes even the stormiest personalities,” Chernow writes. “In Twain’s case, it was exactly the reverse: his emotions intensified, his indignation at injustice flared ever more hotly, his rage became almost rabid.” He continued to write and make appearances, drawing huge crowds, honing his image as a white-suited, cigar-chomping seer. But he also became self-indulgent and self-isolating, assisted by a poorly paid helper, Isabel Lyon, who took over most aspects of his life, an arrangement that was a prescription for disaster. His main companions were his “angelfish,” prepubescent girls he arranged to keep company with (Chernow makes a strong case that there was no sexual abuse in this arrangement), but his retreat into a second childhood couldn’t shield him from the final, catastrophic family loss that came shortly before his own death.

The downward trajectory of Twain’s life shadows his story in elements of Greek tragedy. Twain was a cauldron of creativity and often courage, speaking for Black equality and the suffrage movement, and against anti-Chinese harassment, colonialism and kings. But in his final years, he allowed grief and bitterness to swamp his life, and one wonders at how such a brilliant man could have such little understanding of himself. At 1,200 pages, this is not a book for the casual reader, and Chernow never quite gets to the core of the contradictions in Twain’s conflicted soul. But he tells the whole story, in all its glory and sorrow.

“Mark Twain” is a masterful exploration of the magnificent highs and unutterable lows of an American literary genius. Twain himself once said that “Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man — the biography of the man himself cannot be written.” But this one feels like the truth of one man’s star-crossed life.

Gwinn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who lives in Seattle, writes about books and authors.