OurTupelo

Two-thirds of Canton public school students had their school day disrupted Monday due to an electrical issue at the city’s water treatment plant.

Canton Municipal Utilities announced Monday on social media that an electrical issue at a water treatment plant resulted in a loss of water services and reduced water pressure in some parts of Canton. The issue was resolved, according to the statement, and water service and pressure should return to normal.

The water issue affected four school buildings — Huey Porter Middle, Canton High, Goodloe Elementary and Canton Elementary — comprising more than 2,000 students of the district’s 3,137 total enrollment.

Students and teachers at the affected schools were transported to other district schools with functioning water, Superintendent Bonita Coleman said in an announcement on Facebook.

Students at Huey Porter Middle and Canton High were dismissed early at 11 a.m. Parents could also pick up their students.

In its Facebook post, the school district mischaracterized the cause of the water loss. Howard Young, general manager of CMU, said the district was inaccurate in describing the issues as a “water main break.”

“It was an electrical issue,” he said. “It’s resolved, and students should definitely be able to return to their [regular] schools tomorrow.”

Correction 10/12/26: This story has been updated to reflect the correct cause of temporary water loss to several Canton schools.

President Donald Trump has pushed Congress to pass a proof-of-citizenship law, signed an executive order seeking a national voter ID requirement and tried to limit mail voting through U.S. Postal Service changes.

None of those moves succeeded in time to affect this year’s midterm elections. It’s a different matter in the states.

More than three dozen voting laws passed in Republican-controlled states are taking effect for the first time this year, many of them containing elements of Trump’s stalled proposals. They include changes to what IDs are acceptable to register for the first time and requirements to show proof of citizenship, an issue the Republican president has tried but failed to get through Congress.

“Trump’s attacks on our elections are deeply damaging, but they are not happening in isolation,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project. ”Across the country, states are also advancing restrictions that make it harder for eligible voters to cast a ballot.”

READ MORE: Legislators send bill to governor to require voter citizenship checks and audits of voter rolls

Some new laws seek to make voting easier. Others continue a trend in Republican-controlled states of imposing restrictive rules that began in 2021 after Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s continued false claims have resonated with Republican voters, a majority of whom believe Biden was not legitimately elected despite all evidence to the contrary. Trump lost dozens of court challenges, his own attorney general found no evidence of widespread fraud, and reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states where he contested his loss all affirmed Biden’s victory.

Among the changes confronting voters as early voting gets underway: Students in New Hampshire can no longer use student IDs. Utah voters returning mail ballots must include more information on the envelope and some voters in Mississippi might need birth certificates or passports to verify their identity.

Under a new Mississippi law signed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, if someone tries to register and can’t produce a driver’s license number or if the number doesn’t appear in the Statewide Elections Management System, a county registrar would have to verify whether the person appears in a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services database called SAVE.

Government agencies use the federal database to verify an applicant’s immigration status or citizenship. If a person is flagged in the SAVE database, the registrar would notify them and offer a chance to provide documents showing U.S. citizenship before their registration application is denied or canceled.

Changes to voter ID requirements are challenged

Republican lawmakers who support the tighter voting laws, especially around voter ID, describe them as common sense changes.

New Hampshire state Rep. Donald McFarlane said he sponsored the bill to eliminate student IDs as acceptable for voting because colleges don’t have the same controls when issuing those cards as government agencies.

“The change removes a special exception and applies the same government-issued ID standard to all voters,” he said, adding that his bill had bipartisan support.

Students, he said, can still get state IDs free of charge.

The new requirements have not gone unchallenged.

In South Dakota, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt a new law that includes requiring voters registering for the first time to present the most common forms of ID — driver’s licenses, Tribal IDs and non-driver state IDs. They must be presented in person at places that accept registration.

“Proof of citizenship in itself is not terrible,” said Kathryn Johnson, president of the League of Women Voters of South Dakota.

Her concern is the requirement to present the IDs in person.

“We’re kind of a remote state, so sometimes it takes a drive, and you have to coordinate, you have to take off work, and all of these kinds of things,” she said.

Ohio seeks to scrub voter rolls

Ohio has a proof of citizenship requirement in effect for the first time this year for those registering to vote or updating their voter registration information at a Bureau of Motor Vehicles location. The state also eliminated its four-day grace period for mail ballots, which now must be received at local election offices by Election Day.

Yet the biggest concern for voting rights groups is an ongoing purge of the state’s voter rolls. The databases used to check citizenship against voter registration lists can be outdated, said Freda Levenson, legal director of the ACLU of Ohio, which has sued to overturn the law.

“Vast numbers of perfectly eligible voters are vulnerable to being disenfranchised,” she said.

Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, one of the primary sponsors of the bill, challenged the ACLU’s legal action and said the problem it addresses is a real one.

“In the past two years, hundreds of noncitizens have been removed from Ohio’s voter rolls,” she said in an email. “Every single vote cast by a noncitizen disenfranchises a lawful Ohio voter.”

Voters have mixed views on the changes

Outside an early voting center in Wayne County, Ohio, retired steel worker Dan Walter, an independent voter, said he opposes requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote.

“It’s to keep people from voting, it sounds to me like,” he said.

His wife, Jody, a retired aerospace executive and a Democrat, said she felt the same way about Ohio’s new requirement for registering to vote.

“A driver’s license doesn’t prove citizenship, and that’s all they ask for now,” she said. “It’s going to be an obstacle for so many people.”

Genia Fortune had a different view. A nurse, the Millersburg resident described herself as an independent and said she voted for President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and later for Trump. She believes Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and sees requiring documentary proof of citizenship as a necessary precaution.

“I just feel like you need to be a citizen and show proof of ID,” she said.

Voting and election laws have become a regular target for legislatures

The Trump administration has pushed multiple strategies to influence this year’s midterm elections, most of them stymied by Congress or the courts.

Chris Diaz, the director of legislative tracking at the Voting Rights Lab, which tracks state legislation, said the group has seen several versions of the Republican president’s proposals passed by his allies in the states.

A recently released report by the group highlighted some of the key areas drawing Republican lawmakers’ attention, including mail balloting, voter ID and the hunt for noncitizens on voter rolls.

Noncitizen voting has been a focus of the Trump administration despite it being a rare problem. The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced it had brought charges in roughly 90 cases for various types of election misconduct, including 50 against people who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens. The U.S. had 227 million registered voters for the 2024 presidential election.

The Brennan Center for Justice has identified nearly 40 laws in 21 states taking effect this election season that will make it harder for eligible voters to register, stay on the rolls or cast ballots.

The report from the center, part of the New York University School of Law, found that many of the new laws target subsets of voters.

“What I want voters to take away from this is that elections are still run by the states and there are still people in many states who are trying to make it harder for you to vote,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, senior director of the center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program. “But that’s all the more reason to go make a plan to vote and participate.”

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Mississippi Today reporter Michael Goldberg contributed to this report. AP’s Gary Fields reported from Washington, and Julie Carr Smyth reported from Wooster and Millersburg, Ohio.

A federal judge has rejected a request from the operator of Mississippi’s Alcoholic Beverage Control warehouse to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it on behalf of Mississippi businesses.

Uno Mas, an Oxford restaurant, filed a class action lawsuit against Iowa-based Ruan Transport Corporation over the debacle at the ABC warehouse earlier this year when a software change led to long delivery delays and liquor shortages at Mississippi restaurants, casinos, bars and stores. The restaurant said the delays resulted in lost revenue and harmed businesses, and that Ruan kept fees for deliveries it failed to make.

The ABC warehouse is the single wholesale distributor of almost all alcoholic beverages in the state. With the exception of beer and light beverages, all alcohol in Mississippi package stores and restaurants goes through the warehouse in Gluckstadt. While ABC is run by the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the state contracts operation of the warehouse with Ruan, which has been operating it since 2023. 

When Ruan asked the judge to dismiss the case it argued that its contract was with the Department of Revenue, not Uno Mas and other businesses that receive products from the warehouse. 

However, Ruan’s contract with DOR requires the company to “guarantee next workday delivery” to businesses buying alcohol. The judge found that even though Uno Mas did not sign the contract, it was intended to benefit from the contract and can sue Ruan over a potential breach. 

The outsourcing of ABC operations resulted from 2022 legislation to address longstanding problems with the state running the warehouse.  The “alcohol crisis” early in 2026 renewed calls by some lawmakers to privatize the operations.

In court documents, the judge noted that “interestingly, it appears the Legislature did anticipate an inefficient company might poorly operate ABC’s warehouse, resulting in a lawsuit.” The state specified in the law that any lawsuits brought over warehouse operations would be brought against the operator, not the state.

The ABC warehouse operations not only impact Mississippi businesses, but also state revenue. The ABC division collected $108 million last year, about 1.5% of the state’s total annual tax revenue. 

Based on state Auditor Shad White’s logic, it is time to clean house of all Republican and Democratic Mississippi politicians on both the state and federal level.

At a recent public hearing about legislative redistricting, the Republican White argued that Mississippi’s congressional map should be redrawn with the intention of removing U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson from office. White said Thompson has done a poor job representing the 2nd District, which stretches through the Delta, along the Mississippi River and into Jackson.

Since the April U.S. Supreme Court decision that erased protections for Black voting strength, many in Mississippi’s Republican leadership have called for redrawing the state’s four congressional districts to ensure the defeat of Thompson, the state’s only Black member of Congress.

White, who is expected to run for governor in 2027, has been particularly vocal in the call to unseat Thompson, also the state’s only Democratic congressional member. It has appeared Republican leaders wanted Thompson removed for solely partisan reasons.

But at the redistricting hearing, White said Thompson should be removed because he is not adequately representing his district, which includes the poverty-stricken Delta.

Placing blame for Delta on Bennie Thompson

“I travel all over this state, but I travel a ton in the Delta, too…,” White said at the redistricting hearing recently at the Mississippi Capitol. “The Delta has been at the bottom of far too many rankings for far too long, and the Delta deserves better leadership than Bennie Thompson. It just does. The Delta deserves a congressman who’s going to deliver.”

It should be pointed out that the Delta can vote for someone other than Thompson. Delta voters will have that opportunity in November when Republican Ron Eller challenges him. What White is most likely proposing is to split up the Delta’s Black population through redistricting.

Granted, Thompson, has been representing most of the Mississippi Delta for a long time – first elected in 1993. And, yes, the Mississippi Delta has more than its share of problems and has had those problems for generations.

But blaming all of the Delta’s problems on one U.S. House member – one of 435 – seems disingenuous.

Thompson’s 2nd District, which covers western Mississippi, is one of the nation’s poorest districts. It is ranked as having the sixth highest poverty rate at 25%, the website Overflow Data reported in July 2025, based on U.S. Census information.

Using Shad White’s logic, what about other politicians?

But all four Mississippi congressional districts have poverty rates significantly higher than the national average of 12.5%, according to the Coalition on Human Needs.

Are the state’s three Republican congressmen – Trent Kelly, Michael Guest and Mike Ezell – falling down on their jobs and also needing to be replaced, using White’s logic?

And what about the state’s two U.S. senators – Republicans Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith – who are two of 100, giving them the opportunity to have much more influence than Thompson?

Why hasn’t Wicker, who has been in the Senate since 2007, and Hyde-Smith who has been in the Senate since 2018, had more of an impact on the 2nd District?

And don’t forget before Wicker and Hyde-Smith, Mississippi’s senators were Republicans Trent Lott, who was elected in 1988, and Thad Cochran, elected in 1978.

Cochran was chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and Lott was a former Senate majority leader.  With all that power, why couldn’t they fix the 2nd District?

And of course on the state level, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has had two terms as governor and two as lieutenant governor – two of the most impactful policymaking posts in state government. And White’s old boss – Phil Bryant – served two terms as governor and one as lieutenant governor.

Couldn’t they fix the 2nd District – or for that matter the state?

Remember, Mississippi routinely has the first or second highest poverty rate.

The problems facing Mississippi, including the 2nd District, are complex. To think one politician can fix them all is fanciful, especially when the politician is one U.S. House member whose proposed fixes are consistently stymied by Mississippi’s Republican majority. 

Criticism of Trump makes Bennie Thompson a target

Perhaps the real reason Thompson is in the crosshairs of Mississippi’s  Republican leadership is that he is the state’s highest-profile critic of their party leader and often-times political benefactor – Republican President Donald Trump.

Thompson led the House committee that assigned a large part of the blame for the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol on Trump and cited him for being the first presidential candidate in U.S. history to attempt to overturn the results of a national election.

But perhaps it sounds a lot better for White to say Bennie Thompson is responsible for the poverty in the 2nd District than to say he should be replaced because he has been critical of President Trump.

GULF BREEZE, Fla. (AP) — Isaias left behind a trail of damaged rooftops, downed power lines and flooded roadways Saturday as it weakened and was no longer a hurricane. It was blamed on at least one death in Florida after a tree fell on a home.

The storm made landfall Friday near Destin, Florida, a Gulf Coast area known for powdery white-sand beaches and dotted with vacation homes, waterfront bars, and seafood shacks. After it weakened overnight to a post-tropical cyclone, forecasters warned of potential flash flooding and tornadoes as the storm moved inland across Alabama. Hundreds of thousands of customers were without power.

The possibility of life-threatening storm surges still loomed for parts of the Florida Panhandle, along with a potential for 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend over the weekend.

Early Saturday, Isaias was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south-southwest of Montgomery, Alabama and nearly 105 miles (170 kilometers) south of Birmingham, Alabama, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph), the National Hurricane Center said. It was expected to move into the Tennessee Valley later Saturday and Sunday.

“All tropical storm surge warnings have been discontinued as of this morning, but there are still high wind warnings for portions of the Southeast,” Robbie Berg, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “So even though it has become post-tropical, it still does remain a wind threat, as well as a heavy rainfall threat. We could see some areas of significant flash flooding over the next couple of days.”

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said state roads were open and officials had not received any search and rescue requests while warning about the possibility for flooding in the day sahead. “Sometimes these things happen a day or two days after the storm goes through,” he said.

In Escambia County, Sheriff Chip Simmons said in a video posted on his Facebook page that one woman died after a tree fell on her home. He did not provide additional details.

Isaias, which was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, caused some damage when it came ashore.

Roads in Destin were flooded, while in nearby Pensacola, police warned people to stay off the streets because of debris. Many area residents posted pictures online of downed trees and power lines, and one social media video showed a roof being ripped off an inn in Pensacola.

Strong hurricane winds blew the roof off a hotel in Pensacola and the city’s mayor, D.C. Reeves, said on his Facebook page that the airport “took some damage.” Some power was out downtown, he said, and there were trees and power lines down in some areas.

Gas stations in the Florida towns of East Milton and Destin suffered significant damage. A condominium also was damaged in Panama City, insulation from the building was spread across a parking lot.

Parts of southern Alabama also were flooded, with officials in Mobile reporting downed trees and power lines. Roads in Houston County, which is in the southeastern corner of the state, were closed because of similar conditions.

Less than 900,00 customers in Florida, Alabama and Georgia were without power early Saturday, according to poweroutage.com.

Tim Mowry, who rode out the storm from his home in Pensacola, said the wind was so intense it sounded like a train whistle as it whipped through a crack in his patio door. He lost power around 4:30 p.m. but was able to rely on a generator. Standing water also covered his backyard, and parts of his fence were ripped down, but overall he said the storm wasn’t as bad as he expected.

“As far as Pensacola-wise, we really got fortunate,” Mowry said.

Isaias was the first hurricane to hit the eastern U.S. since Milton tore up the Gulf Coast of Florida in 2024.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Simon strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane as it approached Mexico’s coast.

Tropical Storm Rachel was also expected to bring heavy winds and rain to northern Mexico and Southern California over the weekend.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats hope to bring a new agenda to the House next year if they take the majority, but they will most likely do so with many of the same faces that have steered their party’s legislative work for a decade or more.

Potential committee chairs in the next Congress include Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who has served as top Democrat on the House Homeland Security panel since 2005. Then, there’s Adam Smith of Washington, who began serving as top Democrat on Armed Services in 2011, and Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who became the lead Democrat on Financial Services in 2013.

Other longtime committee leaders include Reps. Frank Pallone at Energy and Commerce and Bobby Scott at Education and Workforce, who assumed their leadership posts in 2015. Rep. Richie Neal became the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee in 2017.

None would be able to continue in that position under the rules used by House Republicans, which generally limit lawmakers to three terms as chairman or ranking member.

For Democrats, the question is whether to stick with their current system, which emphasizes seniority, or move closer to the one that Republicans have established. It’s a discussion that some Democrats say they are having behind the scenes.

“I think that the idea of term limits could be appealing to the American people, to the Democratic base. It sounds Democratic,” said Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va. “I’m open to the idea. I’ve spoken to a number of folks who are open to the idea.”

“I personally think it makes for a more vibrant Congress, but I know I’m in the minority in the minority,” said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.

Party leaders are playing down the issue for now. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said seniority has always been a factor when it comes to committee leadership, but not the only one.

“The caucus is going to work its will as we move forward,” Jeffries told reporters. “At the end of the day, we can’t put the cart before the horse. We’ve got to still go out and win this thing in November.”

Democrats have been here before

Term limits are not a new discussion for Democrats. When they were weighing whether to return Nancy Pelosi as speaker in 2018, those opposing her bid wanted her to commit to limiting how long lawmakers could serve as House party leaders or committee chairs. She eventually agreed to serve in the post for no more than four more years.

No such restrictions were added for committee chairs. In 2022, Democrats voted overwhelmingly against a six-year term limit for committee leaders.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who has served as top Democrat on the House Rules Committee since 2018, called term limits an “artificial, random mechanism that doesn’t always serve the best interest of the institution.”

“I want people in chairs who are going to fight to get things over the finish line and make a real difference,” McGovern said. “Some of those people may have been around for a long time and some of them may be relatively new.”

Pallone said he intends to be the next Energy and Commerce chairman or ranking member. He called term limits for chairs “very undemocratic.”

“If people want to vote for somebody they should be allowed to,” Pallone said.

He also said that term limits can lead to short-term thinking from chairs looking at their next opportunity in the private sector.

“People serve for a couple years, then they go work for some lobbying firm,” he said. “What they do when they’re here is very much influenced by what lobbying firm they’re going to work for.”

Thompson also said he would like to serve again as top Democrat on Homeland Security if he wins reelection. He dismissed the way Republicans limit committee leaders to three terms.

“I don’t want to be like Republicans. I’m a Democrat,” Thompson said.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., says term limits have served Republicans well.

“It’s been really good to show younger members that you’re always going to have a path to leadership if you keep working hard, if you do your job really well,” Scalise said. “We definitely lose some good chairmen along the way, but we also get new leaders who otherwise would not have been able to rise up.”

Democrats have broken with seniority on occasion

Democrats don’t always stick with seniority. One recent exception is Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. He challenged Rep. Jerry Nadler for the job in late 2024, prompting Nadler, then 77, to step aside.

Similarly, Democrats selected Rep. Angie Craig to become the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee after she challenged the late Rep. David Scott for the post. Scott had been the panel’s top Democrat for the previous two sessions, but was in poor health.

Democrats also elected Rep. Robert Garcia last year to succeed Rep. Gerry Connolly on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Connolly died after a battle with esophageal cancer. Garcia defeated veteran Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts for the job.

“He has done, by everybody’s measure here, an incredible job,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas. “We would not have all of the Epstein files that we’ve gotten so far without his leadership on that committee.”

Casar called next steps for Democrats on committee chairs an “internal conversation.”

“I think at a minimum we should go to a system where it’s about who the right person is, and then have discussions about how we make sure that new blood comes in,” Casar said.

Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said he hears less talk about term limits than past years, and he credits some of the changes Democrats already made.

“Last cycle, there was a lot of clamor, and you saw some changes,” Schneider said. “I’m not hearing similar angst this time.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington said she favors term limits, but emphasized that her view is no reflection of the current leaders. It’s more about helping Democrats develop a deeper bench.

“I just think it’s really smart policy and it’s really smart strategy to make sure that we keep building people skills, opportunities and leadership,” Jayapal said.

She said she understood when she first served in Congress a decade ago the longstanding concerns voiced by the Congressional Black Caucus about term limits hurting members who had just earned chairmanships, but believes Democrats have done a better job of diversifying the caucus.

“And we need to do more, but we are taking away opportunities from a lot of those newer members,” Jayapal said.

Some Democrats have talked about a hybrid approach that sets some limits, but not at the three-term threshold set by House Republicans.

“I don’t know what the magic number is, but endless is not the magic number,” Houlahan said.

GULF BREEZE, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Isaias crashed into the U.S. Gulf Coast as a dangerous Category 2 storm on Friday, lashing communities with wind and rain and threatening to flood low-lying areas where residents were advised to evacuate ahead of its arrival.

The first hurricane of the Atlantic season made landfall near Destin, Florida, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. It had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (169 kph). The storm weakened to just below major hurricane status before it came ashore.

High winds whipped palm trees and thundering waves crashed along the beaches of the Florida Panhandle and Alabama on Friday as Isaias approached.

“The storm is here. Buckle down at this point. Don’t be getting out on the roads,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference, adding that flash flooding would be a hazard “throughout the region.”

Forecasters warned of a significant storm surge, damaging winds, flooding and possibly even tornadoes before the storm loses steam as it moves inland and delivers strong winds and rain well north into Atlanta.

Hurricane-force winds lashed the Gulf shoreline in the low-lying coastal area known for powdery white sand beaches that are dotted with vacation homes, waterfront bars and seafood shacks.

In Mobile, Alabama, officials reported downed trees and power lines, while Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, which serves parts of Florida, issued a boil-water notice for its customers.

More than 400,000 customers in Florida and Alabama were without power Friday evening, according to poweroutage.com.

Residents in Panama City, Florida, braved the rain while filling sandbags Friday to protect their houses.

“I mean, it’s just the nature of the beast. It’s Florida,” said Corliss Stone, who works for the fire department.

Many will brave Isaias at home

One of the biggest concerns is a storm surge that could be as high as 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 meters), according to the hurricane center. Places most at risk include Florida’s Pensacola Beach and the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Anne Petzold, who lives with her husband in the Florida beach community of Gulf Breeze, said everyone in their neighborhood planned to ride out the storm. The couple installed hurricane shutters and picked up anything in their yard that could turn into a projectile.

“Everybody does what they can do, everybody asks if they need help — they ask for help, they offer help. All good,” she said. “It’s just another adventure.”

Several counties announced mandatory evacuations while Mobile, Alabama, imposed a curfew beginning Friday evening until morning.

In a sign of how serious the warnings are, dozens of Waffle Houses in the Florida Panhandle were closed, according to the company’s website. The beloved Southern breakfast chain is known for staying open through severe weather and often is a measuring stick of a storm’s severity.

Kelsei Frazier, a Florida-native living in Pace who is no stranger to hurricanes, knows all about the Waffle House Index.

“We joke because if Waffle House is still open, then you know it’s not a bad hurricane, but all the Waffle Houses that I know of within at least a normal range from us are closed,” said Frazier. “Which is a pretty big deal.”

DeSantis warned residents to expect power outages, gasoline shortages and closures of bridges and highways.

The state’s National Guard deployed about 5,000 soldiers and airmen to help with the response, and search and rescue teams were ready to respond, while some prisons evacuated inmates.

The whole region could get soaked

Isaias is expected to weaken and be downgraded to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon, the center said.

Still, heavy rain is forecast as it moves inland, with 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) or even more expected through the weekend from southern Alabama to southwestern Georgia.

Isaias, which is the first hurricane to hit the eastern U.S. since Milton tore up the Gulf Coast of Florida in 2024, also is expected to bring heavy rain and potential flooding to much of the Southeast over the weekend, and then to parts of the Midwest and Northeast into Monday.

Isaias grounds flights but likely to miss oil hubs

The storm grounded most Friday flights at several Panhandle airports, including all flights into and out of Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, scrapped his plans to attend Saturday’s football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He said he didn’t want to disrupt the emergency response.

Isaias was expected to miss the oil industry’s biggest hubs along the Gulf Coast, but fuel prices could rise if power outages shut down refineries for processing crude, industry experts said.

On Dauphin Island, a barrier island off the Alabama coast, Mayor Jeff Collier said he didn’t expect major damage, “but at the same time, these things are very fickle and a little jog here or there, or some last-minute increase in strength — we just have to be prepared for the worst.”

Meanwhile in the Pacific, Hurricane Simon became a Category 2 storm on Friday and was expected to strengthen further before making landfall in Mexico this weekend.

Tropical Storm Rachel was also expected to bring heavy winds and rain to northern Mexico and Southern California over the weekend.

Years before immigration officers arrested a Mississippi Valley State University basketball player last week, the school he previously played for said it warned him to correct his immigration status — contradicting his attorney’s earlier claim that the student athlete didn’t know his visa had expired.

But Qingfang Pang, the 6-foot-9-inch player born in China, received warnings as early as two years ago — when his previous college, Monroe University in New York, advised him to restore his status after learning it had lapsed in September 2024, spokesperson Jacqueline Ruegger told Mississippi Today.

His attorney, former professional basketball player Marcus Session, said Friday the information was news to him. 

“It doesn’t seem like they’re forthcoming with the right information because they continue to allow a student who’s on an expired visa to attend for two years after they supposedly warned him,” Session told Mississippi Today. “This doesn’t make sense.”

Pang previously met with another attorney at Monroe’s recommendation to discuss his expired status, Ruegger said. But Session said Pang told him that he didn’t know his visa had expired until MVSU recently alerted him of the issue.

In the years since Monroe reportedly warned Pang to correct his immigration status, he continued to play basketball for the Monroe University Mustangs, before joining the Delta Devils this academic year.  Under federal immigration law, if Pang were on the main international F-1 student visa, his records should have listed that he had officially transferred to MVSU before classes started.

Although MVSU’s semester kicked off in August, Ruegger and Session said the university didn’t contact Monroe for Pang’s international-student records until this week — after immigration authorities had already arrested him. MVSU did not communicate a reason for the potential delay in its request, according to Ruegger. Mississippi Valley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before Mississippi Today learned of the potential delay, MVSU spokesperson Donnell Maxie said the school’s international student office “wouldn’t delay” on paperwork.

“We’re not going to play with that,” Maxie said. “I mean, we’re not a big university with a lot of resources, so we’re just getting by as it is.”

Ruegger said Monroe had been waiting to transfer Pang’s international-student records ever since the basketball player graduated with his associate’s in sports management in the spring, when he informed the school that he planned to continue his studies elsewhere. But for months, she said, Monroe never received word that he had enrolled at another university.

After MVSU requested his records this week, Monroe transferred them, according to Ruegger.

“The responsibility for being in status rests 100% with the international student, not with the institution,” she said. “We were ready to transfer the record, as soon as we were informed that it had some place to go.”

Pang is now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, according to the agency’s website. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that ICE arrested Pang on Sept. 29.

The student athlete was detained when he tried to fly to New York to meet with his sponsor, a family friend, to correct his status, Session previously told WJTV. DHS wrote in an email Friday that Pang’s immigration status expired two years before, in September 2024 — a day after he started his first year playing basketball at Monroe.

“He legally entered the U.S. on November 17, 2023 on a temporary basis not to exceed September 5, 2024, but illegally overstayed,” DHS wrote. “This administration will not ignore the rule of law.”