Twister: At least 23 people are dead this morning and dozens more injured after a  tornado ripped through rural Mississippi last night, leveling homes, smashing cars, and leaving some people trapped in the wreckage.

  The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said that at least four people are missing and dozens of people are injured. “We have numerous local and state search and rescue teams that continue to work this morning,” the agency said in a Twitter post. “Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to change,” the agency added.

  Power was knocked out for more than 100,000 electricity customers in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

  Worst hit appears to be the town of Rolling Fork in Sharkey County, Miss. “My city is gone,” Mayor Eldridge Walker told CNN.  Fred Miller, a former mayor of the town, told Fox Weather that, “A great deal of the town has been destroyed,” including all the businesses on a commercial and retail strip. Miller said yesterday, “People are trapped in a couple of the eateries, and people are trying to get them out now.”

Flash War:  Forces backed by Iran have carried out three additional strikes against US installations in northeastern Syria that have been bases for fighting the ISIS terrorist network. The US military is careful to say the attacks have been carried out not by Iran, but “Iranian proxies.”

  The US hit back with air strikes Thursday night.

  The Pentagon says the air defenses of the base attacked Thursday were not working when an American contractor was killed and six others wounded.    Speaking at a press conference in Canada, President Biden tried to dampen concern that this could spin out of control.  “Make no mistake, the United States does not, does not, I emphasize, seek conflict with Iran,” Biden said in Ottawa, “but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people. That’s exactly what happened last night.”

Death and Destruction: Donald Trump is expected to hold a rally today in Waco, Texas, the site of the Branch Davidian standoff 30 years ago that resulted in the deaths of 82 cult members and four FBI agents dead at the group’s Mount Carmel compound east of the city.

  The name Waco has since been a rallying cry in the movement against big government. Trump’s representatives say it’s just a convenient place to hold a rally.

  But the current pastor at Mt. Carmel, Charles Pace, told the NY Times, “Donald Trump is the anointed of God, he is the battering ram that God is using to bring down the Deep State of Babylon.”

  Trump also is claiming to be the victim of government overreach in the Manhattan investigation into the Stormy Daniels hush money payoff. Trump posted a social media warning of violence if he is indicted, saying “What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?”

  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “It’s dangerous and if he keeps it up, he’s going to get someone killed.”

Legal Filings: A federal judge has ordered Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other former top officials to testify before a grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6^th insurrection. The order includes former Stephen Miller and Dan Scavino.

  A spokesman for Trump claimed that, “The deranged Democrats and their comrades in the mainstream media are corrupting the legal process and weaponizing the justice system in order to manipulate public opinion, because they are clearly losing the political battle.”

  Trump is likely to appeal, claiming the former aides are shielded by executive privilege, but that’s already been pierced. His lawyer, Evan Corcoran, spent hours yesterday testifying about Trump’s personal handling and possession of classified documents after he left the White House. 

The Spin Rack: Two people were killed and nine others were missing after an explosion ripped through the R.M. Palmer Company chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania yesterday, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. — Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear yesterday vetoed a Republican bill that would prohibit transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care. —Actress Gwyneth Paltrow took the stand in the civil lawsuit brought by a retired optometrist who claims she crashed into him on a Utah ski slope. She said it was Terry Sanderson, now 76, who ran into her from behind. “He struck me in the back, yes, that’s exactly what happened,” she said. Sanderson filed the lawsuit in 2019, nearly three years after the incident took place in Park City. — Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  that “He’s tough, unadorned, and carries a vibe, as I’ve said, that he might unplug your life support to re-charge his cellphone.”

March Madness: The last of the #1 seeds in the NCAA basketball tournament have been eliminated. Alabama beat San Diego state, 71-64 and Houston lost to Miami, 89-75.

Below the Fold: Florida’s culture war is sometimes a war on culture itself. The principal of a charter school is out of a job after 6^th graders were shown a picture of Michelangelo’s 16^th Century masterpiece sculpture “David,” which as we all know shows the subject in full anatomical detail.

   Some parents complained,  with one even calling the work “pornographic.” Evidently they have never been to the beach in Florida. The principal was given the choice to resign or be fired after less than a year in the job, and chose to resign. She was the school’s third principal since it opened in the fall of 2020.