Adams County officials continue working to recover from a cyber attack that crashed the county’s IT system last month, leaving car owners unable to obtain renewed car tags or register newly purchased vehicles. According to the Adams County Tax Collector, the attack resulted in the office being locked out of the Mississippi Department of Revenue’s technology network, which is required to process automobile registrations and collect car taxes. Work is underway to restore access. A similar issue in Hinds County previously took about three months to resolve.
A new report published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows the national smoking rate has fallen below 10 percent for the first time. Tobacco‑free living advocates in Louisiana say the state’s rate remains significantly higher. Louisiana’s smoking rate is around 14 percent for cigarettes, and the percentage increases when all tobacco products are included. Advocates report that vape use among young people is rising sharply, and education and prevention efforts are being directed toward addressing that trend.
NASA is providing funding for two new space research projects at the University of Mississippi. Both studies will be led by an associate professor of chemistry and will explore how planets form and what materials exist throughout the universe. One project will investigate how tiny clusters of space dust may develop into the earliest building blocks of rocks, moons, and planets. The second project will analyze carbon‑based molecules found across the universe using data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Public discussion on Louisiana’s congressional redistricting efforts is scheduled for Friday at the State Capitol. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will review a new congressional district map proposal. The committee chairman says his proposal uses the same 5‑1 map implemented during the 2022 federal elections, in which five districts typically favor Republican candidates and one district typically favors a Democratic candidate. Further discussions may be needed depending on the level of agreement among lawmakers.
The Mississippi River at Natchez is recorded at 35.39 feet.
