mississippi in hattiesburg, mississippi. this is a tornado that has cut out power as we understand it to the western side of town, has done some damage. we just heard from a witness there on the ground that a hair salon at least has suffered some major damage. we are not sure right now what the totality of that damage is, what injuries may be at this point, but these are obviously very dramatic pictures of a powerful tornado cutting through what appears to be a populated part of this city. we are following this here at cnn. we have our folks in the cnn weather center taking a look at this. our meteorologist tom seder is the here with details. this isn't the only place of concern, right, tom? there are some other areas to be concerned about. >> the entire region, it will continue to move eastward. we're learning now that we do have a few more counties added to, of course, our warning concern and that is wilcox and monroe in areas of southwest alabama. there was a possible tornado, about 14 miles northwest of monroeville. this

southern mississippi. we have some new youtube video that has just come in. these are extraordinary pictures showing this tornado tracking along the ground as we understand that it did for several miles in this area. let's listen to that. >> that is a tornado. holy -- holy -- yeah! oh, my god! i've never seen a tornado before in my life. >> let's go now to a professor at university of southern mississippi. i understand your home was hit. is that right? what kind of damage have you suffered, and were you away from your house at the time? >> no, i was home. we took refuge, me and the dogs, in a safe place. the house got hit pretty good. the porches are peeled off. all the trees are gone. just kind of uprooted. they're kind of laying on the house and the cars and that kind of stuff. >> the trees are laying on the house? is that right? >> yeah, yeah. some of the house is -- i'm in a neighborhood just east of the university of southern mississippi. we got hit pretty good. i haven't seen anything beyond the bloc

we've been watching that situation at hatiesburg, mississippi.ed significant damage. the forest county fire coordinator is saying that there is major damage now at hattisburg, including on the campus of southern mississippi and cannot confirm, and the damage is evaluated and passed along a thoroughfare. the national weather service is saying there have been reports of injuries in marion county. severe weather settling in on much of louisiana, and mississippi, including tornado or flash flood watches, still in effect right now. all of this is likely to stretch into fat tuesday and southeast louisiana and jefferson parish has now just canceled a monday night parade having to do with those festivities. the headline in all of this what we hope to learn more about, we're trying to effort anybody in official capacity in that area who can talk with us on the air. hatiesburg, possibly the university of southern mississippi sustaining severe damage, major damage from this tornado that's confirmed to have touched down in that area. we'll continue to stay o

mississippi is one of them.ns there say they want to put that one remaining clinic out of business using regulations that are targeted to do just that. as they are getting closer and closer to maybe achieving that goal, that beleaguered last mississippi clinic in recent days, look what they have done. they have painted themselves bright pink. fluorescent pink. pepto pink. the clinic's owner telling a local newspaper "it's a woman's color. it says we're right here and we're not going anywhere." they are clearly not going without a fight. but the clinic did get their notice today that the state health department intends to revoke their license. meanwhile, outside of mississippi, in another of the states that is down to just one clinic, republicans in north dakota are now deciding to pursue the same mississippi strategy. they are trying to end access to abortion in their state altogether. by issuing new regulations that specifically target their one last clinic. they're doing it exactly the same way as mississippi.

i originally picked up the tornado as it met out of marion county, mississippi. there was an initial report that came out of their emergency management that the tornado had struck several homes and people. from there i was able to pick it up about ten miles to the west of hattiesburg and tracked it into town. the tornado itself on the west side of the interstate was indeed larger than the eastern side of the interstate. we've been able to go back and look at our video in the last couple of hours since the tornado moved through at about 5:10 p.m. central time. i didn't hear sirens over there but as we moved into the downtown area towards the college campus, those sirens were loud and proud. i also want to give a shout out to the local fire department. as the tornado was paralleling highway 98 and moving into the city, they were out there blocking traffic to keep folks from driving into the tornado as well as there was police on the interstate. they had the interstate blocked at the time. >> chad myers, john. amazing video we're watching here. clearly from what i'm

it was recorded by a storm chaser in hattiesburg, mississippi, late this afternoon. when an enormous tornado touched the ground and started tearing up the town. we have extensive damage to show you tonight. there are some people hurt and i will talk with the man who shot this amazing video footage in just a few minutes. >>> but first this breaking news to tell you about. thousands of people are stranded after a cruise ship lost power in the gulf of mexico. an engine fire left the carnival triumph ship without electricity but we hear that it is now operating on emergency generator power. more than 4,000 people are on board the ship. the fire has reportedly been put out and the ship is to be towed to the closest port which in mexico. carnival says another of its vessels is on the scene bringing food and drinks to the stranded ship. >>> and in southern california -- >> collectively, this group that by my office is posting a reward of $1 million for information that will lead to mr. dorner's capture. >> the city of los angeles offering a hefty reward after days of fruitl

a person in mississippi went to see the movie, and wondered about mississippi's role in ratifying theo discover they had not officially ratified the amendment abolishing slavery. the two men who got mississippi to move to the right, joining me. dr. buttra, you went to the movie, as i understand it. you came out wondering what was mississippi's role in ratifying the 13th amendment. and what did you discover? >> i discovered much to my surprise that -- well, the first surprise was that mississippi had not actually ratified it. the legislature had not ratified it until 1995. which was you know a century and a quarter after the bill became law. but i was glad they ratified it. but then, much to my surprise i found out that even then it was not official, because that information had not been transmitted to the national archives. so in point of fact, we still were not on the books as having ratified the 13th amendment in abolishing slavery. >> and ken sullivan, how did you get involved? >> did batra approached me in the hallway and had a question one morning and asked me about this amendmen

hattiesburg, mississippi was one of the hardest hit areas.wister traveled down one of the town's main streets and caused what officials describe as major damage. at the the university of mississippi, windows were busted out and litter is strewn across the campus. campus police have declared a state of emergency. a new weather situation is causing some concern. >> aside from tornadoes, damaging wind gusts or even large hail from the thunderstorms, we also do have the concern of flash flooding and flash flood warnings have also been issued across many of the same counties that were hit by tornadoes or possible tornadoes. flooding has occurred already and has been reported. >> reporter: although it isn't typical to see such wild weather at this time of year, the tornado season is well under way. >> it is pretty unusual to be seeing severe weather during the month of february. we had another outbreak of tornadoes during the month of january. so we are starting a little bit early. >> reporter: the mississippi governor is expected to survey the sto

our goal needs to be to end all abortions in mississippi.elieve the admitting privileges bill gives us the best chance to do that. >> my goal enforces to shut it down. >> we have literally stopped abortion in the state of mississippi. the only -- [ applause ] three blocks from the capitol sits the only abortion clinic the state of mississippi. a bill was drafted that said if you would perform an abortion in the state of mississippi, you must be a certified ob/gyn and must have admitting privileges to a hospital. you know how hard it is to get admitting privileges to a hospital? >> they do know how hard it is to get admitting privileges to a hospital, especially if you're an abortion provider. a few hospitals in mississippi would not even allow the doctors from the state's only clinic to apply for admitting privileges. hospitals that did agree to accept the applications cited their policies in denying application to those doctors. the one that is fighting this track law in court, but so far it has not gotten the kind of ruling it will need if

he went driving to the hattiesburg campus of the university of southern mississippi.able to see some of these stricken areas. i'm going to let this breathe for about 20, 30 seconds. as we take a look at this, i want to remind everyone, what we've been telling you. the campus was largely empty. we do have information from the university there were four buildings damaged. take a look at that. can you see the power of the tornado there. since i have this going, i want to show you something here. this is an important building on the campus. it's very well known. it's historic. put up in 1912. now, look at that building today. this is one of the ones that was complete loy wrecked. we have ireporters throughout the region, and safely they've been able to take some videos. let's listen to this one for a moment. >> oh, my god. >> you're watching it travel not far away. let's go on to this next one. we have a video from eddie. i spoke with his earlier. he looked out from where he lives. he felt safe taking this because it was not coming toward him. it was moving away from him.

you're looking at the real deal b as real as it gets on the mississippi.at is part institution and part museum. when considering the engine is 88 years old, a transplant. >> steam enjinz air dying breed. >> scotty does not appreciate star trek jokes but loves thispx boat. who would want to? he says it's a tourist attraction, sure. a get away from crowds during super bowl week. >> this is pretty nice. >> nice as in live music with a river view. it goes over some of the deepest water in the mississippi, 200 feet in a place called big ben. the paddle wheel turns 16 times per minute. it's mesmerizing. just look. >> dinner on board this ship we've got a buffet going and creamed spinach, anything you can want to eat. we're going to spend more time here and meantime, we might eat. there is no might about it. we will. wayne freedman abc 7 pus. >> that is fun, wayne, we're jealous. >> more pictures from 49ers faithful. take a look at this family. who is that? quarterback alex smith. this little fan with a scarf that is bigger than he is. >> and you can see our phot

makes you feel bad for some place like mississippi. every time it opens its mouth because of its reputation you are like please don't say the n word, please don't say the n word. why have they had such a bad remember. we'll look back at a classic episode of "the daily show" with tonight's segment 19th century news. ♪ hello. greetings and salutations. my name is jon stewart and given the times i'm obviously neither jewish nor on television. [laughter] our top story this day in the 1865 is that the state of georgia has voted to ratified -- we had over the shoulders in 1965 in? the -- 1865? the state of georgia has voted to ratify the 13th amendment. delightful. being the 27th state to so vote the amendment is national adopted and slavery is abolished in these united states. oh, bully. of course, there still remain a few stragglers who have yet to rat fight the amendment, -- ratify the amendment i'm looking at magnolia state. how much longer will you wait? 148 years would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? >> after 148 years the state of mississ

let's stay with mississippi. this may be hard to believe, just this month officially ratified the 13th amendment. for those who don't know what that is, that's the amendment that abolished slavery. 148 years after it was adopted they did this. although they voted to ratify it in '95. >> they they were the last state to ratify it. you know, i think kentucky did in '75. anyway it's unfortunate. in the paperwork something happened. no one seems to know what happened but basically so finally the office of federal register said they never got the paperwork. finally they got the paperwork the other day and now it's official. >> michael: for people who don't listen in mississippi--live in mississippi it's an unbelievable thing. >> everyone had a lot of good laughs over that. >> michael: thank you for all the work that you do. >> thank you for having me. >> michael: we're delighted to have a real warrior in the civil rights struggle. i invite to you stay here in "the war room." i'm going to take my tie off and i want to

more than 35 academies survive in mississippi alone n.f the population is african-american, each of the academies have a student body where african-americans are fewer than 2% of the students. it is a reminder that school choice was initially an engine of racial segregation as the white families were willing to pay extra to keep their kids separate, and the investment in public school would dwindle as the region's black children was left behind. one of my next guests is working to address the needs of the children in the deep south. the freedom project takes its name from the freedom schools in the 1964 voter registration campaign. it is a project devoted to aftercool programs for academic enrichment for the stints of the mississippi delta. chris ashe joins me, and at the table is jalani cobb, and one of the top political strategists, john riley, and jackie mater as well. i want to start with you on the question of what sun flower is, and what it does and how it is responding to the problems of a continued segregation, and resegregation o

this is in southern mississippi.the emergency management district said there is damage. cnn weather team is working on the story. we will be bringing you more information as soon as we have it. of course we've been following other weather news. tomorrow's commute is going to be quite frankly a nightmare in the new england blizzard zone. but who can think about that when there's so much shredding to do, right? this is the important thing to do today. airborne right there. good job. every county in the state got a record amount of snowfall this weekend. cleanup crews in providence, hartford, boston, all working nonstop to get the roads ready for the commute tomorrow. >>> $1 million reward for chris dorner. days of grouped and air searches in the san bernardino mountains have failed to pick up his trail. this is after his burning truck was found in the area on thursday. police are actually scaling back the search there. dorner is described by the police chief as a, "trained assassin." he is accused of killing three peop

all four states eventually ratified, but mississippi was the last to do so in 1995, however, mississippiatified the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. their former secretary of state, dick molpus, failed to send a copy of the resolution to the federal registrar. why the copy was never sent was simply never known. after figuring this out, dr. patra teamed up with his colleague kevin sullivan. they brought the error to the attention of the current mississippi secretary of state, delbert hosemann. hosemann agreed to send the resolution to the federal registrar, and finally, on february 7th of this year, not long ago, mississippi became the last state in the union to ratify the 13th amendment. they were only about 150 years late. it's amazing when you think about it. a century and a half after his death, president abraham lincoln is still fighting slavery. if it wasn't for the film "lincoln," the 13th amendment may have never been ratified in the state of mississippi. >>> tonight in our survey, i asked you will republicans hurt average americans just to spite the president? 99% of you say ye

ait damaged parts of the campus of university of southern mississippi. the governor plans to check out the damage later today. >> people still digging out in the northeast from all the record snowfall. things are slowly getting back to normal. >> amtrak service especially. brianne carter is live at union station with a look at how things are moving. >> between here and new york things should be fine for travelers. between new york and boston, a service will still be limited to day as crews continue cleaning up from the blizzard. picking it is a day of digging out and cleaning up for hundreds of thousands across the northeast. >> its 40. the initial hogan drive way, the snowplows put the snow back on your yard. >> in the hardest-hit massachusetts, schools are closed today. utility crews are working around the clock to get power back on to 200,000 still left in the dark. >> no heat, no electricity. >> considering the severity of the storm, the amount of snow, and the wind, we have come through this pretty well. >> travel is starting to pick up through new

here's my impression of him mailing mississippi's 13th amendment ratification to the federal registrar. "so glad we did this. that's really nice. let me just put this in the mailbox." oh, what fun! let me explain what we did just there. we used the gentleman by the name of dick molfuss largely because his name was dick molfuss as an avitar for casual bigotry forgetting that perhaps dick molfuss is a real person with a real record on civil rights. you may be thinking to yourself, couldn't you just look that up? yeah, we could have. or, or we could have remained smugly satisfied with the funny name. we went with b mainly because i am a made 12-year-old boy trapped in a 75-year-old man's body. so as it turns out dick molfuss -- don't get tickled by the name, johnny boy -- it turns out dick molfuss has a long and distinguished record of speaking out for civil rights in mississippi. he's an honorable and good man. who in the '90s led the charge on big voting rights reforms there. in 1989 he spoke at a 25th anniversary memorial for the three civil rights activists murdered outside philadelph

within the bit we had very witty fun concerning mississippi's just recently ratifying the 13th amendment. agreeing to end slavery, a mere 148 years after. after the rest of us. as many of you know, if i am bringing up something that we did on the show last week, i'm probably about to apologize for it. maybe i'm apologizing to mississippi as painting it to some kind of reluctant entrant to modern morality. yes, no. it concerns a former mississippi secretary of state who presided over a 1995 attempt to ratify the 13th amendment. it failed due to a bureaucratic snafu >> their former secretary of state failed to send a copy of the resolution to the federal registrar. >> jon: classic. here's my impression of him mailing mississippi's 13th amendment ratification to the federal registrar. "so glad we did this. that's really nice. let me just put this in the mailbox." oh, what fun! let me explain what we did just there. we used the gentleman by the name of dick molfuss largely because his name was dick molfuss as an avitar for casual bigotry forgetting that perhaps dick molfuss is a real person

it looks like mississippi's getting better. still very heavy rainfall going north of monroeville, thomasville, toward montgomery shortly. northeast, winter weather advisories up in new england, freezing rain right now across pennsylvania. and that's going to head up all into the areas that don't have power. we've got this winter weather -- not a big storm, but the timing for the morning commute not good. you see the pink shading, now showing the freezing rain beginning in northern jersey outside of new york city. that's heading up into new england today. everyone in new england, be careful on the roads. a coating of ice before turning to rain later today. also, oh, yeah, the blizzard's ending in the northern plains. an amazing monday. amazing week of weather. that's a look at your national forecast. here a look at the weather out your window. today in boston, at least temperatures will get warmer so a lot of the sidewalks and roads will begin to improve. the issue is that we're probably going to have up to a half an inch of rai

. >> a massive swirling tornado struck the town here university of southern mississippi. the campus is virtually deserted this weekend. it's a long school holiday weekend. still at least three people were injured. the people who rode out the storm said it was full of debris. debris was everywhere. there's what storm chasing john sibley has seen. he's joining us now on the telephone. i'm here as well as our meteorologist chad meyers. tell me us what you saw. >> i origin ally picked up the tornado as it moved out of marion county, mississippi. the tornado struck down hitting several homes and injuring several people. i tracked it into down. the tornado itself on the west side was larger than the eastern side. we've been able to go back and look at our video in the last couple of hours as the tornado moved through about 5, 10:00 p.m. central time. i didn't hear any sirens in west hattiesburg, they were loud and proud. also want to give a shout out to the local fire department. as the tornado was paralleling highway 98 and moving into the city, they were out there watching tr

mississippi. now, i'm not here to disparage mississippi.e many intelligent people from mississippi. they all share one thing in common, they no longer live in mississippi. members of the mississippi legislature still live there. let's look at some of the current bills in the mississippi legislature waiting vote. house bill 1128 has wtf mississippi written all over it. it prohibits counties and cities from food regulations such as nutritional labeling in restaurant and keeping toys out of meals. we know that the state's latest ad slogan, mississippi come for the cuisine and stay for open heart surgery. they seem to forget that they lost the war and they were technically and morally the bad guys. how to explain they still have the confederate flag on their state flag and flew that flag over the state capital. instead of saying the south will rise again how about saying the state i.q. levels will rise again. not all the laws are bad. they want to raise the speed limit from 70 to 75. this is very humane, any law that allows people to get out of

started on the border of mississippi, louisiana, trickled all across southern mississippi and alabama. on top of that, now we've had more thunderstorms over that region. we've had flash flooding problems throughout the area. we continue into montgomery with those storms. not so concerned about the tornadoes anymore, but flash flooding will be an issue. new england, we have a little storm system heading our way today. it's already beginning to be freezing rain and snow in areas of new jersey, hudson valley and spreading into connecticut. we have freezing rain and winter weather advisories. there will only be a little bit of ice and snow but we're very cold from boston, man chester, glens falls, portland. you'll have a lot of problems from sleet, freezing rain. you can see that moving onto the map. that white shows you where the snow and sleet is located. veronica, it's a very active weather week. a little later on the show i'll give you details about a possible new storm going across the country and a blast of cold air. >> bill, do us a favor and take a break. >> march, april. >> a cho

148 years after the civil war, mississippi finally ratified the 13th amendment.hat's abolishing slavery. and it's all thanks to steven spielberg's film "lincoln." after watching the movie, dr. ranjan batra over the university of mississippi got inspired to go do some research. he wanted to know more. he found out after the civil war, four states actually rejected the 13th amendment. all four states eventually ratified, but mississippi was the last to do so in 1995. however, mississippi never officially ratified the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. their former secretary of state dick molpus failed to send a copy to the registrar. why it was never sent was simply unknown. after figuring this out, dr. patra teamed up with his colleague kevin sullivan. they brought the error to the attention of the current mississippi secretary of state, delbert hosemann. hosemann agreed to send the resolution to the federal registrar, and finally, on february 7th of this year, not long ago, mississippi became the last state in the union to ratify the 13th amendment. they were onl

one of the hardest hit cities was hattiesburg, mississippi. good morning patti ann. the pictures and video are insane. watch the massive tornado hit through the heart of hattiesburg, mississippi. >> check this out. it is happening right outside my hotel. look at that. >> the devastating twister injuring dozens and injuring 4200 people without power. >> as the tornado traveled down the city's main street it mangled homes and businesses across the campus of university of southern mississippi. >> i saw it as it was crossing interstate 59. it was coming pretty fast. my heart was racing. i have lived here my whole life. this is surreal. hard to take it in right now. >> the powerful winds flipped cars and tossed a trampoline on top of a damaged red cross relief truck. the red cross center was complete dlis troyed. phil bryant plans to check out all of the damage. >>> thank you so much. i was watching last night. >> all clear now? >> we are still looking at more isolated severe weather across places of alabama and also expecting to see isolated severe weather possible throu