Mississippi liquor stores run dry amid state distribution delays
(NYT) — If you live in Mississippi and want a bottle of your favorite whiskey, vodka or wine, it could be hard to find.
Since January, when the state liquor agency got rid of outdated conveyor belts at its warehouse north of Jackson, it has been struggling to make timely deliveries to restaurants, bars and liquor stores across Mississippi.
Orders have been taking up to three weeks to arrive, and many business owners have complained of frustrating shortages and bare shelves.
“I don’t think people realize how much of a statewide issue this is,” said Anne Marie Smith, the operations manager at Raines Cellars, a wine and spirits store in Flora, Mississippi. “It’s a disaster.”
Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control, which runs the state’s liquor distribution warehouse in Gluckstadt, said the problems began in early January when it paused shipping for several days to conduct a scheduled count of its inventory.
During that time, the agency said, it replaced the warehouse’s aging conveyor belt system with a new system that packed orders directly onto pallets and required new warehouse management software.
“When shipping resumed, several technical issues were encountered even though the system had been tested,” the agency said in a statement. “This resulted in delivery delays of approximately three weeks.”
An ice storm in late January closed roads in northern Mississippi, which added to shipping delays in that region, the agency said.
The technical issues have been fixed, and the warehouse is operating at full capacity, shipping seven days a week with additional staff members working extended hours, the agency said.
President Trump says UFO review uncovered ‘interesting’ documents
PHOENIX (Reuters) — President Donald Trump said on Friday that his administration’s review of UFO-related material uncovered a number of “interesting” documents, adding that an initial tranche of records is expected to be released soon.
“We found many very interesting documents, I must say, and the first releases will begin very, very soon so you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct,” Trump told a group of supporters at an event hosted by conservative group Turning Point USA.
Trump in February directed U.S. agencies to start releasing government files on UFOs, unidentified aerial phenomena, and possible extraterrestrial life, citing strong public interest in the issue.
Trump ordered the review after accusing former President Barack Obama of improperly sharing classified information when Obama said aliens were “real” in a podcast interview.
Obama later clarified he had seen no evidence of extraterrestrial contact during his presidency, though he said the statistical likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe is high.
Trump, for his part, has said he also has not seen evidence of aliens and remains uncertain about their existence.
In recent years, the Pentagon has investigated reports of UFOs, and senior military leaders said in 2022 they found no evidence to suggest that aliens had visited Earth or crash-landed here.
A 2024 Pentagon report said U.S. government investigations since the end of World War Two had found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and most sightings were misidentified ordinary objects and phenomena.