The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic

Jennifer Trafton

A tornado touched down in Jefferson City, Mo., Wednesday night, causing heavy damage, while severe weather and tornadoes across the state overnight caused at least three deaths and left many trapped in their homes. The National Weather Service reported a “confirmed large and destructive tornado” over the capital city just before midnight Wednesday. Missouri Public Safety confirmed in a tweet that three people were killed in the Golden City area of Barton County and several were injured in the Carl Junction area of Jasper County.

Eastern Virginia Medical School said Wednesday that the investigation into whether Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, appears in a 1984 yearbook photo of a man in blackface was inconclusive. The law firm hired by the school said it could not “conclusively determine” the identities of the man wearing blackface or the man next to him in a Ku Klux Klan hood. Investigators also could not determine how the photo was placed in the yearbook but found no evidence it was a mistake or prank.

A severe weather system unleashed more than 30 tornadoes in the southern Great Plains on its way to the Great Lakes region over the past two days. Missouri and parts of Illinois and Arkansas bore the brunt of the severe weather on Tuesday. Brandon Beasley, 23, and his wife, Christin, 24, of Missouri died on Tuesday when their SUV skidded across a highway into a tractor trailer in heavy rain. Storms on Monday flipped campers at Lucas Oil Speedway in Hickory, Mo., injuring seven people. Four were taken to the hospital.

The White House has launched an online form soliciting stories from people who believe social media platforms have censored them for political reasons. The questionnaire, which asks for each responder’s name, contact information, citizenship status, and information about the alleged censorship, does not specify what the administration plans to do with the information but signals the government’s increasing interest in social media moderation practices.

An intense storm system spawned numerous tornadoes and brought a deluge of rain to the southern Plains on Monday, with more confirmed twisters on Tuesday. More than a dozen tornado sightings were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Missouri early Monday evening, causing scattered damage but no reported injuries. A tornado hit Tuesday morning near Tulsa International Airport, damaging at least one nearby home. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation shut down Interstate 40 in El Reno, west of Oklahoma City, due to high water Tuesday.

A spate of tornadoes hit the southern Plains over the weekend, with more severe weather possible in the coming days. An EF2 tornado destroyed two homes and injured one person in Geronimo, Okla., on Saturday morning, the National Weather Service confirmed, with another suspected tornado damaging numerous homes in northwestern Arkansas. Kansas and Nebraska also saw several twisters on Friday.