—From Vicksburg, Miss.

Nation: The judge in the Etan Patz kidnapping and murder trial declared a mistrial yesterday after the jury was unable to come to a verdict following three weeks of deliberations. Jurors told reporters that just one member of their panel refused to vote for conviction.

The defendant, 54-year-old Pedro Hernandez from New Jersey, had confessed to police but argued in his trial that his statement was a fiction produced under police pressure.

Six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared in 1979 walking alone to the bus stop in New York’s SoHo for the first time. His case resulted in the country waking up to a national problem with abducted children.

World: After winning a majority in the British Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron is teeing up for a 2017 national referendum on withdrawing from the European Union. He doesn’t like the EU’s rules allowing the free movement of people and labor within the member countries.

Cameron also faces a stronger Scottish National Party, which made great gains in the election. The Scots could hold a second vote on withdrawing from the British Union, with a better chance of succeeding.

>North Korea announced today that it had successfully launched a ballistic missile from a submarine. If it’s true, it poses a whole new threat to South Korea, Japan, and the US.

Soft Balls: The NY Daily News reports that New England quarterback Tom Brady will be suspended for his part in the deflated football scandal … it’s only a question of for how long.

The Bounce: ESPN’s influential anchor and commentator Bill Simmons got the bounce from the network yesterday after he and his bosses were unable to reach a contract agreement. ESPN President John Skipper said in a somewhat cutting statement, “We have been in negotiations and it was clear it was time to move on.”

It is four months before Simmons’ contract was to expire, but everyone knew he was in a testy relationship with ESPN. Last year he was suspended for calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “a liar” for what he admitted he knew about the Ray Rice domestic violence incident.

Deefense: Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, the #1 pick in last week’s NFL draft, has filed a $75,000 counterclaim against the former student who claims he raped her. Erica Kinsman filed a damage suit against Winston last month. Winston’s countersuit says, “Ms. Kinsman’s false statements have irreparably harmed his professional and personal life.”

Panhandling: Drive across the Texas panhandle and all the problems, richness, passions, conflicts, crusades, and problems of American life are there to see as you pass.

Roadside signs call upon you to deliver yourself to Jesus and save the unborn. The appeals to religion are salted between giant gun and pornography stores, revealing the open secret of Bible belt residents … they are pious, ready to shoot, and addicted to video sex.

A stunning number of closed businesses and abandoned prairie farmhouses sit crumbling by the roadside, interspersed with thriving peach and pecan orchards.

Punctuating it all are the fireworks stands in a state that refuses to be a nanny and whose people can still suck on a longneck beer and have a blast.

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