TV News LIES

The water in the Mississippi River has dropped so low that barges are getting stuck, leading to expensive dredging and at least one recent traffic jam of more than 2,000 vessels backed up.

The Mississippi River Basin produces nearly all – 92% – of US agricultural exports, and 78% of the global exports of feed grains and soybeans. The recent drought has dropped water levels to alarmingly low levels that are causing shipping delays, and seeing the costs of alternative transport, such as rail, rise.

In Vicksburg, western Mississippi, residents have seen less than an inch of rain since the start of September.

The mayor, George Flaggs, told WAPT-TV that the river was lower than he had seen it in nearly 70 years.

“It’s definitely having an impact on the local economy because the commercial use of this river has almost stopped,” Flaggs said.

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When Bruce Sutter began experimenting with the split-fingered fastball, he wasn't looking for a path to Cooperstown. He was just hoping to save his career.

"I wouldn't be here without that pitch," Sutter said shortly before his Hall of Fame induction in 2006. "My other stuff was A-ball, Double-A at best. The split-finger made it equal."

Sutter, the full-bearded closer who paid for his own elbow surgery as a low minor leaguer and later pioneered the sharp-dropping pitch that came to dominate big league hitters for decades, died Thursday. He was 69.

Sutter was recently diagnosed with cancer and in hospice surrounded by his family, one of Sutter's three sons, Chad, told The Associated Press. The Baseball Hall of Fame said Bruce Sutter died in Cartersville, Georgia.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker met Friday for their first and only debate in a brutally competitive Georgia Senate race, clashing over abortion and inflation, but agreeing that the 2020 election was legitimately won by President Joe Biden.

The debate was marked by frequent interruptions by Walker, a first-time political candidate, who sought to portray the Democratic incumbent as a creature of Washington who votes with Biden too often. Warnock defended his votes on a sweeping climate and health care bill and gun violence prevention legislation during his two years in the Senate.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol voted unanimously Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump.

Members of the panel, which held what was expected to be its final hearing before the midterm elections Thursday, had previously said that they were still considering seeking an interview with Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence. Sources familiar with the committee's plans told NBC News of the subpoena earlier Thursday.

The panel's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the panel had an "obligation" to hear from Trump.

"This is a question about accountability to the American people. He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions," Thompson said, acknowledging the move as a "serious and extraordinary action."

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Access to maternity care is decreasing in the parts of the U.S. that need it the most, affecting nearly 7 million women of childbearing age and some 500,000 babies.

That's according to a report released Tuesday by March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on maternal and infant health. It finds that 36% of counties nationwide — largely in the Midwest and South — constitute "maternity care deserts," meaning they have no obstetric hospitals or birth centers and no obstetric providers.

It paints a slightly grimmer picture than the organization's last such report, which was released in 2020. Five percent of counties have a worse designation this time around, and there's been a 2% increase in counties classified as maternity care deserts — accounting for some 15,933 women living in more than 1,000 counties.

March of Dimes says these changes are driven primarily by the loss of obstetric providers and hospital services within counties, as a result of financial and logistical challenges including the COVID pandemic.

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Angela Lansbury, star of stage and screen best known to television audiences as mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote and who gave voice to the title tune in Beauty and the Beast, died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 96.

"The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday," her family said in a statement.

Lansbury was a highly decorated actress. She was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2014 to celebrate her seven-decade film career, and she won six Tony awards, including this year's Lifetime Achievement Awards for her work on the stage. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her work on the 1993 soundtrack for Beauty and the Beast, in which she voiced Mrs. Potts.

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The death toll from a boat accident in Nigeria’s south-eastern state of Anambra has risen to 76, the president has said.

The vessel capsized on Friday amid heavy flooding in the Ogbaru area of Anambra, according to officials on Saturday, when they said at least 10 people had died and 60 were missing.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday, Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, said that emergency authorities had confirmed the higher death toll.

Authorities are working to rescue or recover any missing passengers, said Buhari, adding that he had directed relevant agencies to check safety protocols to prevent future accidents.

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The Uvalde school police department has been suspended, and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers will instead provide coverage to the school district, district officials announced Friday.

"As a result of recent developments, Lt. Miguel Hernandez and Ken Mueller have been place on administrative leave, and the District has made the decision to suspend all activities of the Uvalde CISD Police Department for a period of time," a statement from the district said.

Hernandez was acting district police chief. Mueller was director of student services and plans to retire. Officers still employed will fill other roles in the district, officials said.