News Briefs From Across The State
By Monica Land
Baggy shorts may have caused him to get stuck
Authorities say a 15-year-old boy was killed after getting stuck in a winch on a shrimping vessel off the Mississippi coast.
Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Brenda Doris tells WLOX-TV that it happened Saturday about 9 p.m., just south of Horn Island.
She says the victim sustained a severe head injury.
A deck hand on the Nettie Q said the scene was horrific.
Sam Loftus says he and the crew were checking their nets and the teen was working on the winch. He says he threw a hook to catch the net when he heard the winch's cable going out. He says the teen was already caught and that maybe his baggy shorts caused him to get stuck.
A winch is a device used to pull in or let out cables on a boat.
Teacher killed in I-55 wreck going to school
State police say a teacher on her way to the first day of school in Tangipahoa Parish was killed in a car accident on Interstate 55 in Kentwood, La.
Troopers say 43-year-old Rhonda Davis-Strickland, of Osyka, Miss., and a teacher at Kentwood's O.W. Dillon Elementary, was about three miles north of the Kentwood exit headed south Thursday when her car ran off the road and struck a bridge rail on a small interstate overpass.
Trooper Nick Manale says Strickland's car then spun across the southbound lanes to the median, overturned several times and came to rest in the right northbound lane of the interstate.
Manale says Strickland was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, and the Tangipahoa Parish Coroner's Office pronounced her dead at the scene.
Hundreds audition for film based on Faulkner novel
Hollywood returns to Mississippi to bring a William Faulkner novel to life on the big screen.
WLBT-TV reports auditions were held Wednesday at Jackson's New Stage Theatre for James Franco's version of “As I Lay Dying.'' Other open casting calls will be held in Canton at the Corner House on Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On Wednesday, New Stage Theatre was packed as hundreds braved the heat for a chance to appear in the film based on Faulkner's story about a Mississippi family.
Casting director Matthew Morgan, a Canton native, says he's thrilled to be choosing talent in his home state and hometown.
The movie, based on Faulkner's 1930 work, is to be filmed in Canton.
Ole Miss starting DB Sawyer (quad) out 4-6 weeks
Mississippi defensive back Charles Sawyer has a torn quadriceps muscle and will likely miss at least a month before returning.
The 5-foot-11, 175-pound junior was one of the best players on last year's team, leading the Rebels with four interceptions and also making 70 tackles. Coach Hugh Freeze said Sawyer was injured during Sunday's practice and is likely out four to six weeks. He didn't specify which leg Sawyer injured.
The Rebels also lost sophomore receiver Collins Moore to a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Freeze said Moore's injury will need surgery eventually, but that he would first try to rehabilitate the shoulder and play through the pain instead of opting for season-ending surgery.
