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AP announces 3 new content collaborations with nonprofit newsrooms

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mississippitoday.org – Mississippi Today – 2024-08-23 07:00:00

The Associated Press today announced three new content sharing agreements with U.S. nonprofit news newsrooms: Deep South Today, The Maine Monitor and The Nevada Independent.

The new content collaborations follow arrangements AP announced in May with CalMatters, Honolulu Civil Beat, Montana Free Press, Nebraska Journalism Trust and South Dakota News Watch, along with a content sharing arrangement between AP and The Texas Tribune announced in March.

Each nonprofit news outlet will share AP content with its audience. AP will offer stories from the nonprofit newsrooms with its members and customers, supplementing the news agency’s own coverage of Mississippi, Louisiana, Maine and Nevada.

“As we gear up for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, AP’s efforts to expand access to factual, nonpartisan journalism are more critical than ever,” said AP U.S. News Director Josh Hoffner. “By working with nonprofit news outlets in Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi and Nevada we are able to reach local audiences and deliver the facts and information they need about issues that matter.”

“Deep South Today is pleased to begin this content sharing agreement with The Associated Press through our newsrooms in Louisiana and Mississippi,” said Warwick Sabin, president and CEO of Deep South Today. “As we meet the need for local news in the communities we serve across two states, this collaboration with AP will make the most of our collective strengths and assets to maximize our impact.”

“We are excited to work with the AP and expand the reach of The Maine Monitor’s nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative reporting on issues impacting people in Maine, many of which, rural health care, impacts of climate change, opioid recovery, judicial accountability, care for aging citizens, are national, and solutions being tried in Maine can inform discussions elsewhere,”  said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, executive director of The Maine Monitor.  

“We at The Indy are thrilled to collaborate with the respected Associated Press to share content,” said Jon Ralston, CEO and editor of The Nevada Independent. “We have the same mission as the venerable AP: To provide readers with breaking, reliable and in-depth news in a world awash in misinformation and disinformation. Never has this been more critical.”

About AP

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day. Online: www.ap.org

About Deep South Today

Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today and Verite News. Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now one of the largest newsrooms in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color.

About The Maine Monitor

The Maine Monitor is the nonpartisan, independent publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, dedicated to delivering high-quality, nonpartisan investigative and explanatory journalism to inform Mainers about issues impacting our state and empower them to be engaged citizens. 

About The Nevada Independent

The Nevada Independent is a statewide, reader-supported, digital-only nonprofit newsroom committed to illuminating the state’s most pressing issues, fostering insightful conversations and holding those in power to account. They tell the story of the Silver State and its people in a timely and nuanced way that promotes civic engagement and empowers Nevadans to improve their communities and quality of life.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1968

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-09 07:00:00

Nov. 9, 1968

This statue of James Brown can be found in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia. Credit: Georgia Tourism and Travel

Singer James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” gave movement to the civil rights movement with his song, “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud (Part 1),” which hit number one on this day on the R&B charts for a record sixth straight week. 

“Various musicians in the 1960s tapped into yearnings for black assertiveness, autonomy and solidarity,” Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy wrote. “Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions sang ‘We’re a Winner.’ Sly and the Family Stone offered ‘Stand.’ Sam Cooke (and Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding) performed ‘A Change is Gonna Come.’ But no entertainer equaled Brown’s vocalization of Black Americans’ newly triumphal sense of self-acceptance.” 

Brown saw 17 singles go to number one. Rolling Stone ranked him as one of the greatest music artists of all time, and he became an inaugural member of the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame. The movie, “Get On Up,” tells his story, and a statue was built in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, to honor Brown, who died in 2006.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Former interim Hinds County sheriff guilty in federal bribery case

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-08 17:26:00

Marshand Crisler, the former Hinds County interim sheriff and candidate, faces up to 10 years in prison after a federal jury in Jackson found him guilty Friday of soliciting and accepting bribes from a man with previous felony convictions and a pending violent charge.

Crisler was charged with soliciting and accepting $9,500 worth of bribes during his unsuccessful 2021 campaign for Hinds County sheriff in exchange for favors and giving the man ammunition he can’t possess as a felon. 

The jury took about two hours to reach a unanimous verdict on both charges. 

He will remain out on bond until a sentencing hearing scheduled for Feb. 6, 2025.  

When the verdict was read Friday afternoon, Crisler and family members seated behind him remained silent. On the way out of the courthouse, he referred comments to his attorney John Colette. 

Colette told reporters outside the courthouse that they are disappointed in the jury’s decision and have plans to appeal. He added that Crisler maintains his innocence, and that he and his family are upset about the jury’s decision. 

Over three days, the jury heard testimony from six witnesses and reviewed evidence including recordings of conversations between Crisler and Tonarri Moore, the man with past felony convictions and pending state and federal charges who the FBI recruited as an informant. 

Moore made the recordings for investigators. During several meetings in Jackson and around Hinds County in 2021, Crisler said he would tell More about investigations involving him, move Moore’s cousin to a safer part of the Hinds County jail, give him a job with the sheriff’s office and give him freedom to have a gun despite prohibitions on Moore having one. 

After the government finished calling its witnesses, Colette, made a motion for judgment of acquittal based on a lack of evidence to support charges, which Senior Judge Tom Lee dismissed. 

Friday morning, the jury heard from Crisler himself as the defense’s only witness. 

In closing arguments, the government reminded the jury that Crisler accepted money from Moore and agreed, as a public official, to act on a number of favors. 

Crisler didn’t report any money as a campaign contribution, the government argued, because Crisler didn’t want it to become public that he was taking bribes from a felon. 

“How he did it shows why he did it,” said Charles Kirkham of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

Defense attorney Colette told the jury that the evidence doesn’t prove bribery. Crisler was trying to secure campaign funds from Moore, which is not illegal. 

Colette asked and jury instructions allowed the jury to consider whether there was entrapment of Crisler, who he said was not a corrupt law enforcement officer

“This entire case,” Colette said. “This corruption was all set up by the FBI so they could knock it down.” 

The government got the last word and emphasized that the bribery doesn’t require the agreed acts to be completed. 

In response to accusations of entrapment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bert Carraway said Crisler wasn’t reluctant to take the money, agreed to perform favors or break the law, making the analogy that Crisler never took his foot off the gas and kept accelerating.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Amy St. Pé, Jennifer Schloegel advance to runoff for Court of Appeals race

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mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2024-11-08 14:44:00

Amy St. Pé and Jennifer Schloegel will compete in a runoff election on Nov. 26 for an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals after no candidate in the three–person race won a majority of the vote’s cast in Tuesday’s election. 

After the Associated Press reported 99% of the vote, St. Pé received the largest share at 35.5%, with Schloegel second at 32.9%. Ian Baker, the third candidate in the race, received 31.6%. 

The AP on Friday had not yet declared Schloegel to be the second person advancing to the runoff race, but Schloegel told Mississippi Today that Baker on Friday afternoon called her to concede the race. Schloegel is a Chancery Court judge in Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties. St. Pé  is an attorney in private practice, a municipal court judge in Gautier, and a city attorney for Moss Point. 

The District 5 seat, which is made up of the counties along the Gulf Coast, became open when Judge Joel Smith decided not to run for reelection.

Now that Schloegel and St. Pé are advancing to a runoff election, it ensures that a woman will fill the open seat. After the election, half of the judges on the 10-member appellate court will be women. 

The Court of Appeals race is now the second major runoff election that will take place just two days before Thanksgiving. A runoff election for the Central District seat on the state Supreme Court will also take place between incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens and Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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