WCBI NEWS AT SIX - 07/02/2020

WCBI NEWS AT SIX - 07/02/2020

Thank you for joining us..

The man found dead on the side of a lowndes county road this morning is identified.

28-year-old lorenzo halthon jr. was found about this morning on burns road.

Coroner greg merchant says an autopsy will be performed.

Lowndes county detectives are not releasing much information, like how the victim died or what may have led up to his death, but they are treating it as a homicide.

A little after 7:30 this morning a motorist traveling on burns road saw what appeared to be an african american male laying in the ditch and called 911.

At the time deputies responding to the scene discovered a deceased male and foul play is suspected.

We are treating this as a criminal matter.

We are asking for the public's help.

Anyone with knowledge of this case is asked to call the lowndes county sheriff's department or golden triangle crimestoppers.

This is a developing case and we will bring you more information when it is released.

A starkville man is accused of threatening to shoot a police officer.

Jermane mckinney is charged with three counts of threatening to harm a sworn peace officer.

Court documents show mckinney was arrested on east garrard road after starkville police reportedly found crack cocaine in his pocket.

In the affidavit, officers allege mckinney threatened to shoot the officer at a location on dl conner drive.

The oktibbeha county jail is on dl conner drive but the court docucuments do not say if that's where the alleged incident happened.

Wipe to gfx a man accused of stabbing his ex- girlfriend is formally charged in tishomingo county.

Felix perez- carrillo is charged with burglary of a dwelling and aggravated assault.

The incident happened this past sunday on county road 246.

The victim had cuts to the torso and head.

She was later treated and released from a local hospital.

The suspect was later arrested in west memphis, arkansas.

His bond in tishomingo county is set at 250 thousand dollars.

More charges are possible.

In the past month alone..

Juveniles have been behind dozens of crimes in starkville according to police.

Crimes ranging from vehicle burglaries, pursuits, aggravated assaults and even most recently..

Shootings..

Bobby martinez talks with starkville's police chief and a youth court judge about what needs to be done to keep kids out of trouble.

It has been a repeated cycle here at starkville police department this year alone... juveniles arrested and facing severe charges... and in result..

Putting their future in jeopardy... starkille police chief mark ballard is pushing for a change to help these juveniles stay out of trouble... "too often when the individual turns 18..

They are lost in the criminal justice system.."

In just a blink of an eye..

One bad decision can change one's life forever... and in starkville... juveniles and bad decisions have gone hand-in-hand says chief mark ballard.

"over the past month we've had since our last report we had 11 stolen weapons that are related to auto burglary.

Most of our auto burglaries were driven by juveniles we've had vehicle pursuits and we've had aggravated assaults."

Bridge stand up at scene of last weeks shooting..

"and it was just last week when starkville police department responded to a shooting here on everglade avenue... where two teens were charged with attempted murder... and the mother of one of those suspects was also charged with aggravated assault..."

And to ballard..

Enough is enough..

Change needs to happen now... "we're continuing keeping focus on the juveniles and trying to bring the system up to 21st century.

Make sure its got the proper mentorship, the proper funding everything that this community needs to have at this stage of the game."

Oktibbeha county youth court judge lydia quarles... says a majority of juvenile arrests are men.

Some who may lack a father figure in their life... "i can only tell you what the literature says the literature says that it is a tremendous impact that boys love their mamas but they pay attention to their dads."

Quarles says a positive role models is one way to help juveniles head in the right direction..

"one of the things that chief ballard and i have talked about is a possibility of having some kind of intramural sports.

So that these kids could be placed with law enforcement officers and they will see them as a friend as opposed to an enemy.

And i think actually law enforcement could make great headway in being a role model for some of these children."

Ballard is hoping whatever solution is put in place to help these juveniles stay out of prison..

Will help break the trend of seeing this repeated cycle..

Reporting in starkville..

Bobby martinez wcbi news a scary crash in monroe county this afternoon.

It appears the maroon dodge neon left highway 45 and flipped, near lackey road.

State troopers say christopher butter of minneapolis, minnesota was driving the car and had minor injuries.

No other vehicles appeared to be involved in the accident.

Monroe county deputies are investigating the crash.

First look stinger first look summary: warm and steamy weather is here to stay for the holiday weekend and beyond.

We're going to keep the chance of showers and storms going each and every day for at least the next week.

Don't cancel any holiday plans just yet but have a backup plan if a storm finds your location.

Thursday night: variably cloudy with the chance of a few showers and storms. lows in the low 70s with calm wind.

Friday-sunday: the long 4th of july weekend will be warm and very humid.

Highs will top out in the low 90s with heat indices surpassing 100 at times.

Lows stay in the 70s.

Each day will feature a 40% chance of pop-up showers and storms. the lack of broadband internet service is an issue that's been plaguing the state for years... now..

Help is on the way... that help comes from the mississippi electric co-operative broadband covid-19 act... which lawmakers passed this week..

Our quentin smith joins us live in the studio to explain the details... joey....of the more than one billion dollars the state received in coronavirus relief funds... 75 million dollars is going towards broadband expansion... in particular, it's going towards those in rural areas... state leaders say the pandemic is exposing the lack of broadband services in certain parts of the state.... now they're hoping these funds will help solve that issue... many school classes are now being taught online... and more people working from home... this new normal during the covid-19 pandemic and it's creating difficulties for rural mississippians.

That's why state lawmakers came up with the mississippi electric co- operative broadband covid-19 act..

A bill northern public service commissioner brandon presley says he's in favor of.... "this is the largest allocation of funds both on the state level and private dollars for broadband expansion in the history of the state."

75 million dollars will go towards this grant program... but here's the catch... each co-operative that participates has to match each dollar the state spends... so in all, 150 million dollars is being used to help improve internet service in these areas all throughout the state..

"this will be a grant for construction and connection.

These grants will go out not only to build the back bone, the fiber back bone to get to these areas that last service, but also everything from taking that individual service to drop into the home of each customer, so it is a full package of broadband connectivity."

Each electric-co- operative has the option to be a part of the program..

If they chose, they must act fast... the deadline to apply is july 17th and the money will be sent out at the end of the month.

"you've got folks that totally rely on satellite for internet service which is very costly, and the speeds are not all that great.

This grant program requires a minimum speed of 100 mb upload and 100 mb download which is very fast internet speed, it's above the average in mississippi."

Presley says how fast each home and area receives internet service is all based upon how fast their service provider can begin work.

" almost all of the area that will be applied for in this grant program, under the normal course of broadband expansion would be the last people that would be hooked up simply because they are in the most rule area.

We are reversing that in this grant program and actually going to the people who in a normal course of business may have been the last house hooked up, they will actually be where we start."

At this time governor tate reeves has not signed the bill, but presley says he expects him to do so in the coming days... take vo off top the golden triangle regional airport is getting more grant money from the faa// senators roger wicker and cindy hyde-smith announce today over 15-million dollars for improvements at 22 mississippi airports// gtr's share is nearly 4 million.

That's on top of just over 650- thousand from the cares act that was enacted after the coronavirus pandemic// the funds will go partly to making repairs to the runway// "overall the project will last about six weeks, the actual paving of the runway usually takes about 21 days and then they'll have to do some of the taxiway work too."

Hainsey says overall, this year alone, they'll do over 5-million dollars in work to make the runway safer including adding led lights.

Wipe to vo the mississippi department of transportation reopens a busy choctaw county roadway.

Highway 9 has been shutdown since february.

More than one million dollars in repairs were needed after heavy rainfall caused the road to crack.

New drainage structures and steel pilings were added, in addition to the 565 feet of improvements to the roadway.

Transportation officials estimate 18 hundred drivers use that highway every day.

Wipe to vo if your 4th of july plans include a road trip, expect to see the mississippi highway patrol out in full force.

Beginning at midnight, all available troopers will be conducting patrols and checkpoints.

The holiday travel period also kicks off mhp's "drive right mississippi" campaign.

It focuses on enforcing the left hand lane law and watching for distracted and impaired driving, speeding, and seatbelt usage.

The fourth of july holiday period runs from midnight tonight thru sunday.

The "drive right" campaign runs thru the entire month.

Stinger some m-s-u students are getting a different kind of financial aid..

We take a look at how covid - 19 costs are being covered..

Mississippi state university distributes nearly 9 million dollars in cares act funding to students affected by the covid-19 pandemic.éé the funds were given to students that had expenses related to the disruption of campus operations.éé over 11-thousand students received the money.éé award amounts, ranging from 6- hundred to 8- hundred dollars, were based on the students application and fafsa.

éé " anything ranging helping reimburse new technology for laptops or computers home internet books or anytning like that they needed as well to help get them through the spring semester.

" all eligible students have now received funding.

Wipe to vo open summary: warm and steamy weather is here to stay for the holiday weekend and beyond.

We're going to keep the chance of showers and storms going each and every day for at least the next week.

Don't cancel any holiday plans just yet but have a backup plan if a storm finds your location.

Thursday night: variably cloudy with the chance of a few showers and storms. lows in the low 70s with calm wind.

Friday-sunday: the long 4th of july weekend will be warm and very humid.

Highs will top out in the low 90s with heat indices surpassing 100 at times.

Lows stay in the 70s.

Each day will feature a 40% chance of pop-up showers and storms. next week: no major changes are foreseen.

Expect highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s and lows in the 70s.

Rain and storms will be possible each and every day.

We're going to keep odds about 50% but that may go up and down depending on how things shake out each day.

Follow @wcbiweather on facebook, twitter, instagram, and the wcbi news app summary: warm and steamy weather is here to stay for the holiday weekend and beyond.

We're going to keep the chance of showers and storms going each and every day for at least the next week.

Don't cancel any holiday plans just yet but have a backup plan if a storm finds your location.

Thursday night: variably cloudy with the chance of a few showers and storms. lows in the low 70s with calm wind.

Friday-sunday: the long 4th of july weekend will be warm and very humid.

Highs will top out in the low 90s with heat indices surpassing 100 at times.

Lows stinger wcbi sports' high school football previews continue...the baldwyn bearcats are next...catch the story we finish our stops in division 1a on the high school football tour with baldwyn the bearcats return senior quarterback maddux richey from a successful 2019 season and hope to build on their previous success the baldwyn bearcats are stop number eleven on the high school football tour áááintro bbááá reloading and rebounding is nothing new for baldwyn football.

The 2019 season showed proof of that.

After reclassifying to 1a last season, the bearcats doubled the number of wins from the year before, finishing 8- 4.

"we were kind of low in numbers the last couple of years," gray said.

"those are kind of back.

We have a big sophomore and freshman bunch.

We're excited about those guys.

There's a lot of good players in those groups to go along with the players we already have."

Luckily for baldwyn, a crucial playmaker returns, baldwyn's starting quarterback maddux richey.

In 2019, richey threw for over 2600 yards, 30 touchdowns, and eight picks.

Baldwyn looks for that same impact from him this season.

"i just try to win games," richey said.

"that's it.

The stats come but i'm just worried about trying to get a win for my team."

"the chemistry with him and everyone on the team," is what senior middle linebacker joseph harper says works well.

"him with these new wide receivers that are coming and that's coming up.

He's just going to be pretty good."

"he had a really good year last year and we're hoping to build on that.

You know like i said with the whole offensive line coming back there will be some new guys at skill position that played a lot of football last year but they we're young.

So now it will be their time to step up and help us move forward," gray said.

Making the playoffs has become the norm for baldwyn, making an appearance in the last 19 seasons.

However, the bearcats now look to push even further and make a division championship for the first time since 2017.

"it's stamina and who you get matched up with.

That's the biggest thing and hopefully as the year builds our skill guys that are a little young and inexperienced gain experience through the year and our guys that have experience on the offensive and defensive line and our quaterback, you know, can carry us until those guys get their feet wet and are ready to perform," gray said.

"our toughest part of our schedule is always at the start.

I think if you can get over that hump early winning down the stretch and winning division and get better playoff games," richey said.

Baldwyn looks to make an impact in its season opener against kossuth on august 21st.

"a killer mentality.

We're coming to smack anyone who comes in front of us," harper said.

Reporting in baldwyn on the high school football tour, courtney robb wcbi sports.

áááend bbááá for any stops that you may have missed along the way you can always check out our website, wcbi.com