WCBI NEWS AT TEN - 11/24/2020

WCBI NEWS AT TEN - 11/24/2020

Show open show open show open show open covid-19 continues to have a big impact on hospitals across mississippi.

The state department of health is reporting 665 new cases today, along with 53 deaths.

11 of those fatal cases were in the wcbi viewing area.

One thousand 14 people are hospitalized across the state with confirmed or suspected coronavirus symptoms. 213 of those patients are in i.c.u.

Those are the most recent numbers from the health department, which were accurate as of sunday.

In our viewing area, lee county has the most new cases with 40.

Itawamba has 21.

Oktibbeha, pontotoc, and yalobusha counties are all reporting 15 new cases.

Across the state line in alabama, pickens county has 23 new cases.

Lamar has seven.

With the thanksgiving holidays almost here, governor tate reeves takes additional steps today to stop the spread of covid-19.

It's causing major problems for the state's hospitals as they try to take care of all their patients.

As far as the state's current spike in cases---he says the state is not in as bad a position as many other states.

Courtney ann jackson has the latest from today's briefing.

Some mississippians tell us they worry the state isn't doing enough to slow the spread of covid-19.

"people definitely need to take responsibility for themselves but it doesn't seem that they're going to, so it may be necessary for the state to step up and make some changes."

"people still don't take it seriously."

This letter was sent by four leading doctors in the state today- telling the governor that a mask mandate is vital to maintain the integrity of our healthcare system and asking that he issue one that would last through the end of the year.

Governor reeves calls the words statewide mask mandate the latest buzz words.

"i get frustrated when so-called experts decide that if we just did one more thing, then we could change this.

There is no one silver bullet.

There is no one thing that we can do as a state.

There is no one thing that i as a leader or that we as mississippians can do to make this go away."

He instead continued with the county-by-county approach& adding 19 counties to the list with added restrictions- making it a total of 41 of the 82 counties now under such orders.

"i would like for everybody to make sure that we understand that along with that order or restrictions on the number of people who can get together indoors.

And if we look what's driving transmission right now, it's groups of people indoors."

Another ask from the governor and state health officer is ensuring that those who've had close contact with a positive case-are quarantining.

"if you live in the household with someone else, your odds of getting coronavirus are extremely high.

Maybe around 40%.

So, that's super high.

We know you're a high risk target for infecting other people when you don't realize it."

The governor does point out that while hospitalizations are increasing---he expects those numbers to keep rising based on the high case counts in the last 10 days or so.

New at 10 stinger goes here a man is dead after a shooting in winston county monday.

Winston county sheriff jason pugh says steve watkins was the victim in moday's shooting.

The incident took place just before sundown at a house on tuck wilks road just outside of noxapater.

Multiple gun shot wounds were reported.

Pugh said the suspect in the case lived inside the home with watkins.

No arrest has been made at this time.

The body has been sent for an autopsy.

The winston county sheriff's department is leading the investigation.

A longtime lee county justice court judge has died.

Sadie holland was the first and only female mayor of nettleton and the mother of former state representative steve holland.

Holland died at 6 p.m.

Today.

Her son, steve holland announced his mother's passing over social media.

Sadie holland was 88-years-old.

Sources close to wcbi say she was undergoing heart surgery monday when she had a heart attack.

Doctors stabilized her and finished the surgery.

Holland had another heart attack and a stroke later that same day.

Holland served the public for more than 50 years, ending when she retired as lee county justice court judge in november 2019.

First look stinger first look tuesday night: variably cloudy during the evening with skies becoming mostly cloudy during the night.

A few showers are possible by sunrise.

Breezy sse winds increase to 10-20 mph.

Evening temperatures will briefly fall into the low 50s before rising to around 60 by sunrise.

Wednesday: areas of rain and storms are possible during the daylight hours.

The window of any strong to severe activity looks to be from about mid morning through the afternoon.

Isolated damaging wind gusts are the main concern but we can't totally rule out an isolated tornado.

The overall setup doesn't look like it will produce a lot of severe weather here but we'll be watching it all a model, aspiring student, and a loving mother to two children.

This is how brittany phillips' mother describes her daughter.

Phillips died after being hit by a vehicle... the man she has a child with is behind bars... today, wcbi's bobby martinez talks with some of phillips' close friends... who are still shocked their friend is gone.

Take a look.

Natvo "justice for brittany..

Justice for brittany" she touched a lot of lives..

Sot - angel boatright - friend "brittany was the kind of person that once you had just one conversation with her..

You realized she just wasn't all looks...and superficial..

She had so many of her own opinions.... she would do anything to improve anybody's situation or anything they were going through.."

But in the midst of helping others..

Close friend rachel phelps says she was in a rocky relationship with james heath kitchens... phillips shared some of her recorded messages and the conversations she had with kitchens with a friend.

Nat snd brittany audio : i just wanted you to be the one... in the some of the audio obtained by wcbi, phillips and kitchens are heard arguing.

In other sound, she is asking him to be part of her life.

Sot - rachel phelps - friend "that was the mother of his child....that he ran over... he'd been abusive..

There are so many people that know what she's been going through for a long time... and we just want justice for her and her babies..

Because he took their mother from them.."

Screen shots between the two on social media seem to reinforce the emotional conflict.

Kitchens was arrested after allegedly striking phillips with a car on riviera road saturday night..

Sot - rachel phelps - friend "hopefully we can all come together as a community and get justice for her.."

Sot - angel boatright - friend "and raise awareness for domestic violence because this is just textbook.."

Kitchens has been charged with manslaughter and is currently out of jail on a twenty-five thousand dollar bond.

Oktibbeha county justice court does not have an attorney of record at this time for kitchens.

In a year quite like no other.

Many factors have played into domestic violence calls here in the state.

Especially during the holidays... oktibbeha county sheriff steve gladney and clay county sheriff eddie scott..

Say the holiday season comes with many stress factors..

It's something they see all the time... even arguments between adults can impact kids.

Sot sot - eddie scott - clay county sheriff "it's been a very unusual year you have kids out of school, you have people laid off work, so they've been home together so a lot of it is just like family disturbances when they get to arguing and not necessarily fighting all the time but we've had had a few cases of domestic violence."

Sot - steve gladney - oktibbeha county sheriff the kids are normally going to be the losers in this you know, they sit there, they listen to mom and dad fuss and fight, then the police get called in and try to separate them.

We will have more information about domestic violence awareness on our website... wcbi dot com.

Gfx vo off top two men are charged in connection with a lowndes county shooting.

37-year-old kevin parker and 34-year- old steven carley are both charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a felony crime, and felon in possession of a weapon.

Both men remain in jail.

Investigators did not say if bond had been set in today's press release.

A 26-year-old man was shot at a home on old west point road last week.

He was airlifted from the scene.

Witnesses told investigators there was an argument inside the house before the gunfire.

Deputies have not said what may have led up to that feud.

Sheriff eddie hawkins says more charges are possible, as the investigation unfolds.

An area food drive will take place earlier than previously scheduled.

Representatives with the family resource center in tupelo say the tupelo furniture market food drive will begin at 3 pm.

Folks are encouraged to get there even earlier.

The previous time was set at 4pm but organizers say they moved it up incase there's bad weather and so there will be some more sunlight.

For more information of the tupelo furniture market food drive, visit wcbi dot com.

Stinger wx open summary: a cold front will spark some gusty showers and storms around the region wednesday.

The main threat will be isolated damaging gusts but we can't totally rule out an isolated tornado.

Pleasant weather builds in briefly for thanksgiving day but more rain is possible again friday.

Additional rain and even some storms could return on sunday.

Tuesday night: variably cloudy during the evening with skies becoming mostly cloudy during the night.

A few showers are possible by sunrise.

Breezy sse winds increase to 10-20 mph.

Evening temperatures will briefly fall into the low 50s before rising to around 60 by sunrise.

Wednesday: areas of rain and storms are possible during the daylight hours.

The window of any strong to severe activity looks to be from about mid morning through the afternoon.

Isolated damaging wind gusts are the main concern but we can't totally rule out an isolated tornado.

The overall setup doesn't look like it will produce a lot of severe weather here but we'll be watching it all day.

Look for milder highs in the 70s with breezy ssw winds 10-25 mph with gusts around 30 mph.

Wednesday night: turning partly cloudy.

Lows in the mid 40s.

Thanksgiving day: mostly sunny.

Highs in the mid to upper 60s.

Thursday night: partly cloudy.

Lows in the mid 40s.

Friday: turning mostly cloudy with afternoon and evening rain developing.

Highs in the upper 60s.

Saturday: mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of a shower or two higher odds of rain farther to our south.

Highs in the low 60s.

Weather looks fair for the egg bowl in oxford.

Sunday: additional rain and storms develop.

There could be some stinger after the break, we discuss the holiday blues and what you can do to get through this time of the year.

Don't go anywhere.

Cash 3 lottery gfx goes here tonight on health talk with baptist... chaplain jonathan blackburn joins us for a conversation on holiday blues.

Take a look.

No script billboard attached stinger it's egg bowl week... next in sports mike leach and lane kiffin preview this weekend's matchup spx open ááátake mon gfxááá we're four days away from this year's egg bowl... head coaches mike leach and lane kiffin's first years are wrapping up... never easy to establish a good culture at a new program in year one... it doesn't help when there's a global pandemic that wiped out spring practices... the 3-4 and 2-5 seasons for ole miss and state have finally led to this... egg bowl week... the bulldogs have won the last two contests against the rebels... when it comes to this season though.... state's two wins came against lsu week one and a 24-17 victory over vanderbilt a few weeks ago... ole miss has won back-to-back games agaist vanderbilt and south carolina... you can easily make the argument that they could have defeated alabama...auburn and arkansas as well... all of those matchups came down to the wire... despite the adversity this year.... both head coaches believe their teams have made progress... 00-05 :35-:40 leach says: i don't think we've reached our potential yet.

I think we're young enough where we are gonn a change to the popsitive and that?s where the biggest strides come when young players develop.

They're collectively explosive on offense that jumps out the most.

Kiffin says: these guys have played really well on defense for most of the season.

Give you a lot of problems, play hard and have really good players.

We have our hands full and they hadn't played well on offense but turned it around and started to beat drop 8 which was their issue lately.

Mississippi state women's basketball head coach nikki mccray penson confirmed that the bulldogs will not be competing in the 2020 baskwetball hall of fame women's challenge this weekend due to covid related circumstances.

They were slated to play maine on saturday and then either quinnipiac or uconn on sunday... they will host new orleans next wednesday... december 2nd at 7 o'clock... you can watch it on sec network plus... mississippi state hoops opens up it's season wednesday night at 7 when the bulldogs battle clemson in their first game of the space coast challenge... ben howland's crew has it's own challenges this season after losing four seniors along with robert woodard and reggie perry who heard their names called last week in the 2020 nba draft... howland says they're working through it..

Howland says: we're ina rebuilding mode we lost our four leading scorers from last year.

We're young and inexperienced it's everything for us, not just one thing.

We're trying the very basics starting with the defense end of the floor so we don't get killed there and trying to eliminate our opponent to only one shot by blocking out.

The stage has officially been set for north half finals across missisippi this is what the match-ups will look like for next week in 6a after oxford took down hernando...the chargers will officially head to clinton next week for the 6a north half final in 5a...west point survives to advance and will take on third seeded ridgeland on the road next week in 4a...we get a match-up of two wcbi viewing area teams as itawamba ahs will hit the road and take on the louisville wildcats...louisvill e taking down pontotoc on friday night in 3a...winona and noxubee county will face off for a fierce battle...winona coming off the huge win against amory and noxubee taking down north panola in 2a...the north half will feature another two of our area teams...calhoun city and east union...this one..definitely a potential game of the week contender 1a...nanih waiya will host biggersville...the two best teams in 1a all season facing off...the first meeting for these two teams all season highlights and scores next week on the endzone ááátake gfxááá this week's lineman of the week goes to the okolona cheiftans... they defeated west lowndes this season in a defensive battle 2- 0 and also took down thrasher 34-6 in week one of the season... okolona's season ended with a loss to nanih waiya... they're your lineman of the week..

Still to come..

Chief meteorologist keith gibson returns with tonights last look.

You are watching wcbi news at ten.

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