WCBI News at Six

WCBI News at Six

Good evening..

Lt.

Governor delbert hosemann says bouncing back from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic will be a long process.

He says state lawmakers are already discussing ways to handle a state budget that has taken a big hit over the past several weeks.

We're facing the same things small businesses, restaurants and everything else - except just multiply it times thousands of percent.

We're not gonna have the money we thought we were gonna have.

We were actually a 165- million dollars ahead thru february of budget.

Well that's long gone..and worse it's taken a good bit of more money with it.

We will struggle to make good financial decisions and you'll see us planning those.

We gotta set our priorities.

Mine are education, health, and safety.

And once you set those priorities, we need to fund those and then we need to fund other things that we would like but may not have the money we thought we were gonna have quite frankly.

So, we'll be challenged there.

Hosemann says he does not expect lawmakers to return to the capitol until may at the earliest.

A clay county resident died today from the coronavirus... ema director torrey williams says the deceased was an african american man in his 60s with underlying health issues.

Williams is urging residents to take the disease seriously.

Our quentin smith was at the briefing and he joins us live from west point..

Quentin, williams says people are taking the coronavirus lightly??

Yea aundrea to give you an idea of what williams says they're dealing with.

I'm at the basketball court here at zuber park and as you can see, they've taken the rims off the goals, that's because people have been out here trying to play basketball...despit e the shelter in place order that's in effect.

When it comes to the coronavirus, the ema director says people in clay county just don't get it.

" they think that this is a small town and nothing happens here, it won't come here, nothing is going to happen, i'm immune to it, i'm young, i'm there, or i'm bad, but this is a very serious thing."

So far 21 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in clay county.

But williams says people don't seemed to be phased by that alarming number.

In fact, a group of people were recently playing basketball at a local park.

Now the city has removed the rims. " we've had this 21 for a day now, but i expect that number to arrive because people are not taking this thing seriously.

One local death is too many.

But williams is hoping it'll bring more attention to the severity of the disease.

People need to be aware of the things that are going on.

You may not think that it can happen to you, but this debt is in our community.

It's easily spread, and although you think you may be ok and your immune system may be ok, but the next person may not be."

For weeks city and county leaders have been urging residents to take extra precautions and follow guidelines given by the cdc.

Now he's pleading for residents to be more vigilant, if not williams says there will be legal consequences.

" on the law- enforcement side, the sheriffs department and the police department will be giving out summons and taking people to jail if they have to."

Williams says people old and young have tested positive for the coronavirus here in clay county.

For more information on the guidelines that are in place just visit the ema's and police department's facebook pages.

Reporting live in west point.

Quentin smith.

Wcbi news.

Many churches are wrestling with the social distancing guidelines.

While many are holding online only services, some haven't shut their doors.new bethel missionary baptist church pastor jack shelton has opted to keep the doors opened at the plantersville church.

Pastor shelton says he is not disrespecting authority, or discounting the effects of the coronavirus.

He says he is exercising his first amendment rights to worship and assemble, and exercising his faith.

"your faith has to be established, if religion and serving god is what you do, then that's a consistent growth that you experience as a believer, even in times like these we will experience a learning curve as it relates to our faith, how much are you willing to commit to to what you believe in."

Shelton says no one in his congregation has contracted the coronavirus.

He believes there will be many legal challenges to executive orders that have closed churches nationwide.

The starkville police department is making a few changes to adjust to covid-19 guidelines..

Wcbi's bobby martinez visited the department today and has more on this new service.

Filing a police report just got a little bit easier in starkville.

The starkville police department is now providing an online service that lets you report incidents such as stalking, identity theft and more.

All from the palm of your hand.

"some people are scared and just don't want to come out."

And for those people... this new online service is a way to report incidents from the safety of their home.

Sergeant brandon lovelady of starkville police department.

Says this service ensures covid 19 safety not only for the department.

But also for the public.

Sot - brandon lovelady - pio - starkville police dept.

"there's a lot of emotions going on right now and that's just one of the ways you know if you do need to talk to us our phones will always be on and we will always send an officer there but if you're trying to do your best to limit contact this just gives you another option and that's what we want to."

Lovelady says this new service is a faster way to report certain incidents.

"it's convenient for an individual say if you notice your car was dented or something like that or somebody was using your credit card online or something like that when you notice that sit on your work computer sit on your cell phone and do that from your house instead of having the inconvenience sometimes it is to come up here or get an officer to come to your residence or that location."

And while we hope the covid guidelines are temporary, the new procedures are here to stay.

"this is future, not just covid-19..

Is to keep more officers on the street."

On cam tag and if you would like to know where you can find that link where you can report an incident..

I'll have that for you on our website at wcbi dot com.

Reporting in starkville.

Bobby martinez wcbi news..

Take vo off top a new telephone service in starkville is connecting those who need a helping hand during the covid-19 crisis.

Mayor lynn spruill says the helpline is available monday through friday from nine to four p.m.

Spruill says she is thankful for several non profits and church groups who are dedicating their time to fulfill some of these requests..

"the kind of calls we're getting are for help for things that they can't really do very well on their own we have had a couple calls for yardwork for example we've had some people asking for some resources for where they might get food so those kind of requests it's people who are shut in and can't get out."

We will also have the phone number posted on our website at wcbi dot com.

Take developing story stinger the death toll from an easter sunday tornado outbreak continues to climb.

Two more people have died as a result of the huge twisters.

The mississippi emergency management agency reports 14 people have now died as a result of the storms. mema officials say the latest fatalities were from walthall and jones counties.

Statewide, more than 12 hundred storms were damaged.

Than 12 hundred storms were damaged.

33 counties have reported some type of damage to mema.

Theres are initial reports and the numbers are expected to increase.

It's all hands on deck in noxubee county after a powerful ef-2 tornado swept over the area on easter sunday.

Our stephanie poole has been following the recovery process and has more on the story.

Donut- sunday's twister left families devastated and many people without work.

Noxubee county ema director corey brown says those damage assessments are still ongoing.

" we get additional reports from the initial findings that we had on the first day.

So now, it's up to 8 or 9 homes either affected or have minor or major damage."

Brown says disaster recovery groups and the red cross has stepped in to help.

" they're assisting homeowners who lost everything and some who suffered pretty substantial damage to their home or are displaced at the moment.

They've been helping us get the debris and trash up within a couple of days and they've been awesome."

Brown the recovery effort is going well for residents.

However, two businesses took a big hit and left dozens of people without a job.

"they came up with very creative and safe ways to mitigate against the covid-19 to keep those employees operational, the business operational to keep those people employed.

Looks like they were going to dodge that bullet but sunday's storm comes through puts about 90 people out of work."

Donut close- if you have any damage or assistance please contact noxubee county's ema director.

Reporting in noxubee county, stephanie poole, wcbi news.

County leaders are still making assessments for the county's damage report.

We'll continue to follow these developments.

First look stinger summary: mainly clear and cool conditions will continue tonight but there won't be a frost or freeze threat.

Some showers are possible late friday evening into saturday morning.

Another round of rain and storms is on tap for sunday.

Some look to be strong/severe but it's still uncertain how far north the prime zone of activity can get.

Stay tuned& thursday night: mainly clear.

Lows in the mid 40s.

Light se winds.

Friday: sun & clouds.

Warmer.

Highs in the mid 70s.

Winds ssw 10-20 mph.

Friday night: mostly cloudy with areas of showers possible.

Lows in the low 50s.

Lee county deputies accuse a man of destroying several electronics in the sheriff's office lobby.

Now, he's facing felony charges.

Joshua lazore is charged with felony destruction of public property.

Deputies say lazore entered the lobby of lee county sheriff's office wanting to turn himself in.

There were no active warrants for him.

Lazore returned a second time with the same request.

Deputies asked lazore to leave because the lobby was closed.

When lazore walked in a third time he allegedly threw a computer on the floor.

He also is accused of destroying two flat screen tvs and a kiosk for inmate commissary.

Investigators say lazore told them he considered assaulting deputies.

Wipe to gfx starkville police officers charge an 18-year-old with a sex crime.

Dontavious lucious is charged with sexual battery.

Starkville officers say the alleged incident happened around 6pm tuesday..

Officers also ask anyone who has information on the incident to call s- p-d or golden triangle crime stoppers.

Tips can also be reported anonymously on the department's website.

Firefighters spend hours battling a house fire in artesia today.

The blaze happened on obama lane, just off front street.

Lowndes county fire coordinator neil austin says the fire started with a stove and then went into the attic.

It took several hours to bring it under control.

One of the firefighters did have heat exhaustion, but no one inside the house was injured.

District 2, 4, and 5 firefighters responded to the call.

Stinger some area police officers are being recognized for their quick action..

We take a look when we come back..

Tupelo police are being credited with rescuing the driver of a burning car.

This photo shows the scene last week in the parking lot of the belfry condo and office building in tupelo.

A car crashed through the gate, hit a transformer and burst into flames.

The driver apparently suffered a medical emergency and was unconscious.

Four tupelo police officers rushed to the scene, and were able to pull the man to safety so paramedics could take him to the hospital.

Chief bart aguirre says officers have a lot of training and reacted quickly.

"you never know what situation may arise so you have to take some of life's lessons and put it to good use and that's what these officers did."

Chief aguirre says the driver is expected to make a full recovery.

The officers will be recognized at a future city council meeting.

Stinger wx open summary: mainly clear and cool conditions will continue tonight but there won't be a frost or freeze threat.

Some showers are possible late friday evening into saturday morning.

Another round of rain and storms is on tap for sunday.

Some look to be strong/severe but it's still uncertain how far north the prime zone of activity can get.

Stay tuned& thursday night: mainly clear.

Lows in the mid 40s.

Light se winds.

Friday: sun & clouds.

Warmer.

Highs in the mid 70s.

Winds ssw 10-20 mph.

Friday night: mostly cloudy with areas of showers possible.

Lows in the low 50s.

Saturday: mostly cloudy with some showers in the morning.

Sunshine develops during the day.

Highs should top out in the upper 60s to around 70.

Saturday night: areas of rain and thunder.

Lows in the low 50s.

Sunday: a 90% chance of rain and storms. highs in the low 70s.

Severe weather is possible in the region, especially along and south of the i-20 corridor.

Locations as far north as us 82 may be affected if the system trends northward so be sure to stay tuned for additional updates over the next 2 days.

Early next week: mostly sunny to partly cloudy weather builds back in for monday and tuesday.

Additional storms are may return by wednesday or thursday.

Follow @wcbiweather on facebook, twitter, instagram, and on the wcbi news app stinger to return or not to return....one coach shares his thoughts on what we can expect for college football in the fall, next in sports spx college football is at the forefront of all speculation pertaining to when sports will start up again and there's a lot of difference in opinion on what we might expect for the 2020 season some say no fans in attendance, some say maybe teams will play in the spring ole miss head coach kermit davis says not only are we unsure what's going to happen with football, but any sporting event "i can't see them bringing college football and college basketball back unless the whole campus comes back because we are student-athletes.

That may be something they do, that's just my opinion.

We're all hoping for the fall.

I can tell you this, talking to the people i've talked to--they're going to play college football.

I really believe that.

When it starts i don't know and how that affects basketball that hasn't come up yet.

I know one thing, if that happened college basketball could definitely exist when college football does because it does for about a month anyway now.

If that had to happen i'm sure everyone could figure out scheduling aspects for college basketball and could play right with college football."

Starting monday april 20th division i programs will be able to have a little bit more normalcy the ncaa announced that all dvision i coaches will be allowed to hold team meetings for up to eight hours per week these meetings will be virtual, and can include nonphysical countable activities such as film review and chalk talks the southeastern conference implemented virtual coaching on march 30th originally for only up to two hours for ole miss men's basketball head coach kermit davis, no travel, no problem davis has stayed hot on the virtual recruiting trail for the spring signing period // picking up some of the nation's hottest talent the rebels welcomed top-five grad transfer dimencio vaughn and 6-8 forward robert allen this week davis says he's been looking for the right players to better round out his current squad..and both vaughn and allen fit that mold "we needed toughness.

We needed rim protection.

We needed another really really good shooter.

Breein tyree was such a good talent but did we rely too much on breein?

We sure did.

Our team needs to get more balanced.

Those are the things we looked for.

We really thought we got toughness and rim protection around the goal with robert.

Dimencio is a guy who can play multiple positions but he almost shot 40 percent from three.

To add a shooter like that was good value to us."

Ole miss women's basketball also adding an official transfer former maryland forward shakira austin joins coach yolett mcphee- mccuins squad austin competed on two big ten championship teams and leaves the terps averaging 10 pts, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks per game the 6-5 forward is the second addition ole miss adds during the spring signing period the rebels added juco shooting guard tiya douglas on wednesday the college basketball moves continue...includin g this one emcc guard donte powers signs to continue his career with sam houston state the starkville native averaged 9 pts and 2 rebounds per game during his two seasons with the lions this past season alone, powers was e-m-c-c's second leading scorer he averaged 13 pts per game amd shooting 86- percent at the line