Mississippi | featured news

A dust mask and other items linked to a Mississippi martial arts instructor contained ricin, a deadly poison found in letters sent to President Obama, a U.S. senator and a state judge, according to an FBI document released Tuesday.

Of three ricin-laced letters mailed this month to public officials, only one made it into the hands of an intended target, 80-year-old Mississippi judge Sadie Holland. Investigators are working to piece together what motivated someone to send the letters to her, President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker. Holland is a common link between two men who have been investigated in the case. Holland presided over a 2004 assault case against Paul Kevin Curtis, an entertainer who had been the top suspect in the case until prosecutors dropped charges against him Tuesday.

A court filing says charges have been dropped against a Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others.

Federal agents arrested a Mississippi man suspected of sending letters that showed evidence of ricin in initial testing to President Obama and a Republican senator, according to two officials.

Powder on a letter for Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi at a mail center in Washington tested positive, but was undergoing further F.B.I. analysis.

A destructive storm system draped itself across half the country Thursday, from the Gulf Coast to Canada and with a wingspan from Maine to the Dakotas.

Mississippi has officially joined the rest of the nation in ratifying the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, officials say.

Emergency officials in Mississippi are assessing damage after a tornado ripped through a populated area near the University of Southern Mississippi.

Five young siblings and one adult died early Saturday when a sport utility vehicle went off an eastern Mississippi road and plunged into a rain-swollen creek, authorities said.

The only reason 73-year-old Elvy Musikka still has her sight, she says, is she's been smoking pot for the last 30 years. "In 1975, my doctor told me if I didn't start using marijuana, I'd go blind," said Musikka. "Shortly thereafter I found out that, indeed, it was the only thing that would help me with my glaucoma."