WCBI News at Ten 05/20/2020

WCBI News at Ten 05/20/2020

Thanks for staying up with us tonight.

Two state agencies have new leaders.éé governor tate reeves announcing the appointments to the departments of corrections and public safety today.éé courtney ann jackson has more from the capitol.éé the newly appointed department of corrections commissioner burl cain previously served as warden of the louisiana state penitentiary at angola.

"went from beatings to bible study...model of success for the nation."

Questions were raised about cain's past.

Louisiana reports indicate he was the subject of multiple state investigations and later a legislative audit that said he had prison employees work on his personal home and used public funds for personal use.

"it was unfounded as far as any wrongdoing, ethics violations and what have you."

"once the politics were removed, the accusations were basically dropped and i have absolute full confidence in burl cain's ability to change the culture at the mdoc.

I have absolute full confidence he will do so in a way that will make all mississippians proud."

Cain's says his priorities right now would be... "we want to really work on less victims of violent crime, safety in the prisons, safety for the staff.

We want to have more rehabilitation."

Sean tindell is being named the new leader of the department of public safety---a heavy lift with several divisions including the crime lab, bureaus of investigations and narcotics, highway patrol and driver services---a hot topic as locations are closed due to covid-19.

"try to find ways to improve and make it better so that when we do open, obviously there's going to be a flood of people showing up to get drivers licenses.

It comes down to customer service somewhere like that.

Nothing makes people madder than having to get somewhere and wait for three or four hours to get something they need."

Caj wcbi news tindell's background is as an assistant district attorney, state senator and most recently as a judge on the state court of appeals.éé wipe to vo governor tate reeves says he will sign a 300 million dollar piece of legislation to help mississippi small business owners.éé lawmakers passed the bill last week.

éé qualifying small businesses that were forced to close by the order are eligible for a 2-thousand dollar direct payment.éé 240 million of the plan will be used to create the back to business mississippi grant fund.éé each business could qualify for up to 25-thousand dollars in grant money.éé the money is only about 25 percent of the state's allocated one point 25 billon dollars in cares act money.

éé a noxubee county supervisor has passed away after being diagnosed with covid-19.

éé sherman patterson died this morning at north mississippi medical center in tupelo.

éé the supervisor was in his third term and was vice president of the board.

éé patterson was known for his steady leadership and willingness to help.

éé funeral arrangements are incomplete.

éé the mississippi state department of health is reporting at least 145 confirmed cases of covid-19 in noxubee county.éé some churches across the state are ready to welcome members back this sunday.éé governor tate reeves yesterday released recommended safety guidelines for worship.éé bobby martinez got reactions from a number of area pastors.éé "it's really been hard on a lot of churches."

The impact of covid-19 has placed churches in unfamiliar territory.

In an attempt to help prevent the spread of the corona virus..

Many churches placed their services on hold and have resorted to social media to spread the good word.

Pastor randy randle of community wide outreach ministry in columbus..

Hopes to reopen soon..

"i believe that we are going to be able to reopen pretty soon and i feel like our churches to come together and develop a strategy to open.

And he has plans to keep worshipers safe.

"the first step is to make sure that the church is sanitized before service and after service.

The second thing we want to do as a church is, we ordered a temperature checker that is no contact so that we can check peoples temps before they come in the church and if it exceeds 99.5 we would just tell them to omit until they go and seek a physician or the temperature comes back down."

Pastor sammy white of oakland missionary baptist church in crawford..

Feels the state is relaxing the restrictions too soon, but is happy there are guidelines to help pastors with ways to reopen safely.

"shortened soundbiteái'm looking at possibly having two services and also do you know, the sanitizing all the door knobs and things of that nature."

In the meantime... pastor white says he will continue to stick to the current plan when preaching to his people.

"we are able to do parking lot service, drive-in service.

So we are able to do and it is working out well for us.

Also facebook time, we are doing facebook service, so that's working out good.

So those are the mechanisms that is being put in place and our members of the church seem to adapt to it well."

If you would like to know how your church is planning to reopen... it is advised you contact them by phone or social media.éé a church in holly springs is destroyed in an early morning fire..éénow, investigators are looking at arson as the cause.

éé melissa moon with cbs affiliate w-r-e- g in memphis has more.éé firefighters got here at the church on highway 178 around 2:30 this morning but believe the fire started much earlier than that ..because this church building was fully engulfed when the got here hours after holly springs fire fighters put out the fire it was still smoldering.

The church on the hill nearly leveled by the blaze.

Criminal investigators with the marshall county sheriff's department believe it was intentionally set.

Maj.

Kelly mcmillen ÷ marshall county sheriff's department base on the evidence and what we have seen at the scene on the top of the hill that this was arson.

Because of the coronavirus members of first pentecostal have not been meeting here.

The sheriff's department says the pastor is out of town but has been notified about the fire.

Investigators won't say what they found inside..

But say and several agencies including the state fire marshals and the feds are investigating.

We've collected evidence and stuff we are trying to get identified through several different companies and stuff to perhaps give us some leads and lead us in a direction we can find the person or persons responsible for this fire .

Investigators are asking anyone who might know anything about who started this fire to contact them marshall county sheriff's department.

A serious car crash sends one person to the hospital.

éé it happened around 5-15 on hwy 12.éé the driver of a ford pick-up was heading east when he ran off the road, rolling the truck down an embankment.

éé the driver was taken to baptist golden triangle with unknown injuries.éé mississippi highway patrol is investigating the crash.éé first look stinger first look summary: heat and humidity will return as we head into the long memorial day weekend.

Rain & storm chances will be with us just about every day going forward.

No big weather maker is expected in our area any time soon.

Wednesday night: partly cloudy and still quite comfortable.

Lows in the mid to upper 50s with light wind.

Thursday: partly cloudy.

Warmer highs in the low 80s.

Southerly winds 3-7 mph.

There is a slight chance of a shower but odds are 10% or less.

An organization at northeast mississippi community college is making sure students have enough food or supplies during the covid 19 pandemic.éé a group known as tiger den, which stands for delivering every need, is providing food boxes for students in need.éé students apply for assistance online, and pick up their packages using their school id.

éé the assistance is even available to students not receiving financial aid.éé "we decided we would open the tiger den to all students, because covid 19 has changed everything we will change with it, we have had great donations from community sponsors, still accepting donations, right now we have packed over 45 boxes for students and will continue to do that throughout the rest of the semester, northeast at its core is a community and we want to make sure people in our community are taken care of."

Tiger den is a free resource to students enrolled in at least three hours .éé a partnership between the family resource center and molina healthcare is getting free meat to hundreds of people impacted by the covid 19 pandemoic.

éé allie martin has more from tupelo.éé response to the free meat giveaway was so great, the family resource center had to set up two locations.

Vehicles lined up to fill out paperwork at frc's offices on church street.

Nats the drive through giveaway was a couple of blocks away at the organization's offices on magazine street.

"they're getting ten pounds of chicken, bologna, hot dogs, hand sanitizer, the first 200 got a mask donated to us, by blythe cox drugstore in booneville" the meat giveaway was made possible through a partnership between the frc and molina healthcare.

The company paid for the meat and helped with the distribution.

"there's increase need across the board, whether it's household supplies, food, people are hoarding things in the stores, so when you have a chance to give back, and we get our hands on some of the commodities and give back, it's very helpful."

Gregory payne senior was one of hundreds who came through the line for free meat.

He was laid off because of the covid 19 related shutdowns and is grateful for help he's received from many sources.

"president trump and tate reeves have done everything they can, i'm appreciative, and god bless all mississippians, if you need food, please come down and get it, do not let your pride get in the way."

Standup close molina healthcare is planning more partnerships like this throughout the state, the family resource center says they look forward to partnering with molina and others who want to lend a helping hand.

In tupelo, allie martin, wcbi news.

Last year the family resource center served 72 thousand people in 42 counties across mississippi.éé wipe to vo wipe to vo as for vegetables, the pickin's are pretty good locally.éé the tupelo farmers depot opens saturday.éé downtown tupelo main street association says there will be some changes to the layout of the market, to encourage social distancing.éé only cash transactions will be accepted.

éé and, the use of masks and gloves will be enforced for staff, volunteers, vendors and customers.éé vendors are encouraged to bag produce before arriving at the market.éé samples will not be available.éé the market will open saturday from 6 until wx open summary: heat and humidity will return as we head into the long memorial day weekend.

Rain & storm chances will be with us just about every day going forward.

No big weather maker is expected in our area any time soon.

Wednesday night: partly cloudy and still quite comfortable.

Lows in the mid to upper 50s with light wind.

Thursday: partly cloudy.

Warmer highs in the low 80s.

Southerly winds 3-7 mph.

There is a slight chance of a shower but odds are 10% or less.

Thursday night: variably cloudy with a chance of a shower or storm.

Milder lows in the mid 60s.

Friday: variably cloudy, warm, and humid.

Highs in the mid to upper 80s.

A 30% chance of pop- up showers and storms saturday-monday: our memorial day weekend is going to feature plenty of heat and humidity.

Daytime highs will be in the upper 80s to around 90 with overnight lows in the mid to upper 60s.

Expect a 30- 40% chance of pop- up showers and storms each and every day.

Some of you may get a good soaking at times while other spots remain dry.

No widespread severe weather is expected but any storm this time of year may produce gusty breezes, frequent lightning, small summary: heat and humidity will return as we head into the long memorial day weekend.

Rain & storm chances will be with us just about every day going forward.

No big weather maker is expected in our area any time soon.

Wednesday night: partly cloudy and still quite comfortable.

Lows in the mid to upper 50s with light wind.

Thursday: partly cloudy.

Warmer highs in the low 80s.

Southerly winds 3-7 mph.

There is a slight chance of a shower but odds are 10% or less.

Thursday night: variably cloudy with a chance of a shower or storm.

Milder lows in the mid 60s.

Friday: variably cloudy, warm, and humid.

Highs in the mid to upper 80s.

A 30% chance of pop- up showers and storms saturday-monday: our memorial day weekend is going to feature plenty of heat and humidity.

Daytime highs will be in the upper 80s to around 90 with overnight lows in the mid to upper 60s.

Expect a 30- 40% chance of pop- up showers and storms each and every day.

Some of you may get a good soaking at times while other spots remain dry.

No widespread severe weather is expected but any storm this time of year may produce gusty breezes, frequent lightning, small hail, and heavy downpours.

Follow @wcbiweather on facebook, twitter, instagram, and the wcbi news app stinger are missing the thrill of the s-e-c baseball tournament this year?

Tom has the remedy for that a little later in sports..

More than 25 million americans are living with asthma, and those numbers are growing.

In tonight's health talk with baptist we look at some of the symptoms and triggers of asthma attacks.

No script available stinger college athletes could be returning to a practice field in as soon as two weeks... more on which sports got the go ahead...next in sports... sports full good news.....news that gives some hope of sports returning this summer the ncaa divison one council votes to approve voluntary athletic activites for football, and men's and women's basketball, to start june first through the 30th... yahoo sports' pete thamel first reported while the decision to return to campus are to be made along with state, local, and unversity rules....voluntary work has been approved a ncaa decision on other sports within the next week a fifth mississippi state bulldog likely won't be returning to campus when things open up... rising sophomore defensive back jarrian jones has entered the transfer portal jones saw playing time as a true freshman in 2019, recording 12 tackles and a fumble recovery...and was expected to see significant time this year jones was a 4-star prospect and under armour all american coming out of northwest rankin high school... houston high school has hired itawamba ahs offensive coordinator baylor dampeer as it's next head football coach dampeer led the indians offense for three seasons, averaging more than 30 points per game each year dampeer replaces ty hardin, who was hired on may fifth to be the head coach of tupelo football the daily journal's brad locke was the first to report one year ago today....mississippi state and lsu battled in the longest sec baseball tournament game in history 17 innings, 6 hours and 43 minutes, ending around 3 am....lsu tying it up in the 8th.....gunner halter winning it in the 17th with an rbi base hit... bulldogs would lose to lsu in the quarterfinals two days later on the same day...the 2nd seeded arkansas razorbacks took down ole miss 5- 3..... the two would meet again 48 hours later.....ole miss winning the one that counts, 3- 2 in the quarterfinals...bef ore falling to vanderbilt in the sec tournament championship last look stinger last look last look last look last look last look last look last look last look