| Friday, July 24, 2015 |
| Engineer: Developers eyeing new student housing project in east Oktibbeha | |
 | County Engineer Clyde Pritchard told supervisors Tuesday he is in communication with a developer looking to build a new student housing project near Mississippi State University in the eastern portion of the county. Little information was released about the project, but Pritchard said the development could land in the Bardwell-Old Mayhew roads area. The area surrounding MSU is seen by developers as prime locations for large apartment complexes due to their proximity to campus. Such developments have been constructed in the past years, and more are being built. |
| Local unemployment stats hold steady over last month | |
| While the unemployment rate in the Golden Triangle remained relatively unchanged over the past month, a look at the jobless picture a year ago shows reason for optimism. The Mississippi Department of Employment Security released its monthly labor market information report Wednesday, showing little change in the jobless rate in June when compared to May. June unemployment ranged from a low of 6.6 in Oktibbeha County to a high of 11.5 percent in Noxubee in the four Golden Triangle-area counties. In Oktibbeha County, the unemployment rate moved up 1 percent. State officials attribute that to a large student population out of school for the summer. A comparison of June unemployment rates to those of June 2014, show a substantial drop in Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties, however. |
| Neel-Schaffer named Cornerstone improvements engineer | |
| Engineering and planning firm Neel-Schaffer Inc. will handle an upcoming public infrastructure improvement project associated with DPM Fragrance's $5 million expansion project at Cornerstone Park, supervisors announced Tuesday. Neel-Schaffer emerged as the highest-rated firm out of three other applicants -- including Calvert-Spradling Engineers, JBHM and Pritchard Engineering -- after a review committee scored each group on qualifications, experience and capacity. A motion to approve Neel-Schaffer's services first failed after supervisors said they'd prefer to work with Pritchard Engineering, whose namesake, Clyde Pritchard, serves as the board-appointed county engineer. The board reversed its decision and appointed Neel-Schaffer after a Golden Triangle Planning and Development District official informed supervisors of the need to appoint an engineer soon because of the timeframe associated with a pending Community Development Block Grant. |
| Mueller Industries to modernize Fulton plant, retain jobs | |
 | Mueller Industries, which has been a staple in the business community in Itawamba County for 43 years, is in the midst of a nearly $60 million renovation of its Fulton facility. "We're proud that we're in the middle of a $50 million to $60 million investment in our facility in Fulton, and we have a couple more years of investment in that facility to modernize it," said Gregory Christopher, the president and CEO of the company. Attending a ceremony in Fulton were the state's three top executives and lawmakers: Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the Mississippi House Philip Gunn. "The government's job isn't to create jobs, it's to create an environment where private enterprise can be successful and create those jobs," Reeves said. |
| Strides, criticisms mark Port of Gulfport chief's tenure | |
 | Jonathan Daniels has checked off a few tasks on his to-do list since taking over as head of the Mississippi State Ports Authority in 2012. The tricky part has been getting the to-do-list done while shifting tenants around to accommodate approximately $600 million in rebuilding of the port Katrina destroyed in late August 2005. But Daniels does not have to venture far to encounter critics. They question why so few vessels call on the port, why Daniels and other state officials chased fool's gold in trying to get the port's 20-mile channel deepened to handle the mega-freighters that would traverse an expanded Panama Canal, why they let port mainstay Chiquita slip away to New Orleans. |
| Others sought in crash that killed rebel flag supporter | |
 | Mississippi investigators said Thursday that they are trying to find people who might have been involved in a road dispute just before a crash that killed a black man wearing a Confederate military hat. Anthony Hervey, 49, of Oxford, died Sunday when the Ford Explorer he was driving left a Mississippi highway and landed upside down. Investigators issued a statement asking for the public's help in locating the occupants of a silver car who might have been involved in a dispute with Hervey just before the crash. They said no marks from a silver vehicle were found on the black SUV. Hervey was well known in north Mississippi for his support of the Confederate battle flag and for the state flag that includes the emblem. For years, he has carried the rebel flag on the courthouse square in Oxford and on the University of Mississippi campus. |
| Sources: FBI probing Pickering campaign funds | |
 | The FBI has been investigating State Auditor Stacey Pickering's campaign finance records since at least March, multiple sources, including one of his former campaign staffers, confirmed. It appears investigators are looking into his campaign's purchase of a car, a recreational vehicle and a garage door and into reimbursements for thousands of dollars in non-itemized travel to himself and others during off campaign years and whether he reported or paid taxes on personal spending from campaign funds. Pickering says he has "had no conversation with the FBI on this matter" and his office continues to work joint investigations with the federal agency. He accuses his primary opponent, Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler, of spreading "nasty innuendo and insinuation" and called his former staffer "disgruntled" and said she's working for Butler. |
| Term limit backers propose initiative | |
| Term limit supporters kicked off their effort Thursday during a news conference at the Mississippi Capitol to place on the election ballot for the third time a citizen-sponsored term limits initiative. Keith Plunkett of Flora, the sponsor of the initiative, said Thursday marked the beginning of the effort to garner the 107,216 signatures of registered voters needed to place the issue on the election ballot. He will have until late May to garner the signatures. State law allows a year from the time the Secretary of State's office completes the process of certifying a proposed initiative. Plunkett is not clear how the proposal would impact the office of governor since it already is limited to two terms with no option to run again after sitting out a term. The office of lieutenant governor already is term limited just as Plunkett proposes for other offices in his initiative. |
| Agreement could lead to separate child welfare agency | |
| Mississippi may consider making its child welfare unit a separate agency, in the latest effort to resolve a longstanding lawsuit over conditions in the state's foster care system. In an order signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee, the state agreed to hire consultants who will recommend changes to the system, including whether the child welfare unit should become a separate agency from the state Department of Human Services. The order says a special legislative session might be needed to create a new agency. Gov. Phil Bryant's spokeswoman, Nicole Webb, said Bryant will call a special session if children's welfare is in imminent danger. Bryant said in a news release Thursday that he intends to improve foster care conditions. |
| No drug, no death: State's lethal injection protocol stalls execution of South Mississippi murderer | |
 | The execution of Richard Gerald Jordan, Mississippi's longest-serving death row inmate, is being held up over a lawsuit. Jordan filed suit to stop the state from using a lethal cocktail he says is experimental and could cause him great pain before he dies. Jordan exhausted all of his appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of June, paving the way for Attorney General Jim Hood to request an execution date. Attorney General Jim Hood's office said Jordan's litigation has held up the request to set an execution date because the Mississippi Department of Corrections "can no longer obtain (the anesthetic) pentobarbital and thus will have to obtain another drug in (its) place." Jordan is suing based on his right to not suffer cruel and unusual punishment. That means little to the family members of Jordan's victim, Edwina Marter, who have waited more than 38 years for closure. |
| Mississippi congressman joining Obama on trip to Africa | |
| A Mississippi Democrat is among the members of Congress traveling to Africa with President Barack Obama. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. Thompson says in a news release Thursday that he's looking forward to seeing what leaders in Kenya and Ethiopia are doing "to secure the region and stem the tide of the terrorist activity." |
| Criminal Investigation Sought Into Hillary Clinton's Emails | |
 | An internal government review of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email archive has revealed that hundreds of those messages contain potentially classified information. Due to concerns about the potential mishandling of classified information on Mrs. Clinton's personal email server, the inspectors general for the Department of State and intelligence community have asked the Justice Department to consider a criminal investigation, a Justice Department official said. A memorandum from both inspectors general viewed by The Wall Street Journal found that an investigation discovered "hundreds of potentially classified emails within the collection" of Mrs. Clinton's emails. |
| More migrants will avoid deportation under Obama's new policy, report says | |
 | Twenty-five thousand more people will avoid deportation each year under a new federal information-sharing agreement with local jails, but more immigrants convicted of serious crimes will be deported, according to an analysis of deportation numbers by a nonpartisan think tank. Using Census Bureau and Homeland Security Department data, the Migration Policy Institute issued a report Thursday that asserts the so-called Priority Enforcement Program would target about 13% of immigrants in the U.S. without authorization, or about 1.4 million of the estimated 11 million people. The new program has the "potential to substantially reshape" enforcement practices by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, report author Marc Rosenblum wrote. |
| Army Warns Of 'Armed Citizens' Trying To Protect Recruiting Stations | |
 | The Army is not happy about armed civilians who have been appearing at recruiting stations in several states in the wake of the Chattanooga shootings, ostensibly to help guard against such attacks. According to Stars and Stripes, a U.S. Army Recruiting Command policy letter issued on Monday warns soldiers to "avoid anyone standing outside the recruiting centers attempting to offer protection and report them to local law enforcement and the command, if they feel threatened." The directive follows last week's attack by lone gunman Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez on a recruiting station and another military facility in Chattanooga that resulted in the deaths of five service members. "I'm sure the citizens mean well, but we cannot assume this in every case and we do not want to advocate this behavior," according to the Army Command Operations Center-Security Division letter. |
| Tennessee Is the Capital of American Jihad | |
 | Tennessee seems an unlikely birthplace for American jihad. Yet long before the five U.S. service members were murdered this past week in Chattanooga, before the Boston Marathon bombers, the Fort Hood shooting or the rise of the Islamic State, it was another troubled teenager from the same state who embarked on a journey of jihad and ended in the first deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil after 9/11. A few years back, Melvin Bledsoe was living a black middle-class, Southern Baptist version of the American dream. And then a personal crisis opened the door to an utterly unfamiliar intruder, and an idea was planted in a wounded psyche that improbably blossomed into a dark and noxious ideology. Somehow, in ways that a heartbroken Melvin Bledsoe even now doesn't fully comprehend, his beloved son Carlos was transformed into a murderous jihadist, a hate-filled man who called himself Abulhakim Mujahid Mohammed. |
| Aspiring USMC Chief: Russia Threat On Par With Radical Extremism | |
 | Lt. Gen. Robert Neller, the administration's nominee to lead the US Marine Corps, said Thursday that Russia is the "greatest potential threat" to the US, but to the American people, he said the top threat is "radical extremism." Neller, who appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee at a July 23 hearing to consider his nomination as commandant, said he believed that Russia is nation-state threat, but the threat of violent extremists is of equal concern. Neller did not mention the Islamic State by name. "I don't think they want to fight us, I don't think they want to kill Americans," Neller said of Russia. "I think violent extremists want to kill us, and their capability is not that great, but their intent is high. The fact that they have a message that seems to resonate around the world, not just in this country, but in other countries in the Western world, they concern me equally." |
| Update: Shooter, deceased victims identified in Louisiana theater shooting | |
| Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel said this morning that this community, recently identified as "the happiest" in the country, will pull together and recover from Thursday night's shooting at the Lafayette Grand theater on Johnson Street. Three died in the incident, including shooter John Russel Houser, 59, described as a drifter from Alabama who was staying at a hotel on University Boulevard. Durel returned to Lafayette this morning from out of state. Police met him at the airport and drove him to the Lafayette Grand, where he joined Gov. Bobby Jindal, Col. Mike Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police and Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft at a news conference. |
| At 78, Scientist Is Starting a Hedge Fund | |
| George Zweig discovered the quark at age 26, assisted with a covert military operation during the Vietnam War and helped design one of the first cochlear hearing implants. Now, at 78, he is starting a hedge fund. Mr. Zweig said he accepted this new challenge as he nears his ninth decade because "life can be very boring" without work. While many people his age already have retired, Mr. Zweig is hunting for office space in Manhattan and asking for investor commitments to Signition LP, the quantitative hedge fund he and two younger partners plan to launch late this year. "Quants" use mathematical analysis to find patterns in market data over a period of years, and Signition intends to raise hundreds of millions of dollars and trade thousands of stocks simultaneously in markets around the world using software that turns vast amounts of data into visual form. The aim is to find hidden patterns that can predict stock movements. |
| Enrollment is up at MUW | |
 | Mississippi University for Women enrollment is on an upswing and has been for several years. That's the word from MUW President Dr. Jim Borsig. He spoke to members of the alumni association about a number of good things happening at the Columbus-based university. Borsig says enrollment is back to the health levels they experienced back in 1977. A number of projects are underway on the campus including the expansion of the library and overall improvements to facilities including dorms. |
| Army contract gives USM one of world's most advanced helmet-liner facilities | |
| A unique, multi-disciplinary approach to research combining the skills of The University of Southern Mississippi School of Kinesiology and the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials is credited with the decision of the U.S. Army to award USM a $4.9 million contract for development and evaluation of a helmet liner designed to provide enhanced head protection for the military. "This multidisciplinary approach to research truly sets USM apart from others," said Dr. Scott Piland, assistant director and associate professor in the School of Kinesiology. The work builds on the success of the team that developed the Southern Miss Pneumatic Cushioning helmet liner. |
| U. of Alabama parking permit rates to increase this fall | |
 | Parking permit rates for students, staff and faculty at the University of Alabama will increase for the upcoming academic year. The rates, which increase between $10 to $30 based on the permit, saw similar hikes last fall. Chris D'Esposito, director of parking services, said UA will open the Magnolia Parking Deck, located in the 800 block of Paul W. Bryant Drive, on Monday. The deck will provide 890 additional parking spaces for residential student and faculty/staff permit holders. "With the addition of the Magnolia Parking Deck, we now have eight parking structures in operation," D'Esposito said. "We budget more than $1.5 million a year so that current parking structures will be in operation for decades to come and so that paving, striping and other operational services are met." |
| U. of Florida-led team says 30 years of sea level rise creates bleak forecast | |
 | The globe is rapidly approaching conditions that could cause a 20-foot or higher rise in sea levels that would wipe out much of coastal South Florida, a recently published scientific study reported. The study, with its lead writer University of Florida geology professor Andrea Dutton, was posted online in Science last week. It examined 30 years of climate change field research and archives to improve understanding of how fast sea levels could rise in the future. "This is still the most societally relevant question: How can we predict when the sea levels will rise?" Dutton said. Current models are not good enough to project that time, she said. |
SPORTS
| 2015 Auburn Opponent Preview: Mississippi State replaces plenty after historic season | |
 | Auburn plays host to Mississippi State in Week 4 in the latest installment of a series that has had its share of excitement in recent years. Two years ago it was Auburn narrowly escaping with a 24-20 win in Jordan-Hare Stadium when C.J. Uzomah caught the go-ahead touchdown with 10 seconds to play, while last season the Bulldogs knocked off the second-ranked Tigers in Starkville, Miss to vault to No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches polls for the first time in school history. This season's matchup should offer more excitement with a couple of high-powered offenses helmed by -- according to the preseason All-SEC team -- the top two quarterbacks in the conference. |
| Mississippi State's Sword should have more help this season | |
| Scoring never has been an issue for Craig Sword. Sword has scored in double figures in each of the past three seasons to lead the Mississippi State men's basketball team. This season, with the addition of a talented recruiting class of Malik Newman, Aric Holman, Quinndary Weatherspoon, and Joseph Strugg, some of the pressure to lead the Bulldogs on offense will be off Sword. MSU also figures to have more scoring options if it can stay healthy in new head coach Ben Howland's first year in Starkville. Sword has had a chance to play basketball with Newman, Weatherspoon, and Holman and feels how the program has been energized. He believes the expectations for the 2015-16 season are as high as they've been for any Bulldog team. |
| Deets making strides at Mississippi State | |
| Mississippi State hired David Deets as its new basketball strength and conditioning coach last month to replace Richard Akins, who retired after 33 years with the Bulldogs. Deets is already making an impact, especially with MSU's big men. "Fallou (Ndoye) has put on 20 pounds in a month," Deets said. "A freshman, Aric Holman, has put on 13 pounds since he's been here and you can go on down the list. Everybody's probably put on over 10-pounds apiece but have still had their verticals go up and that's a great sign." One player that the coaching staff did not want to see adding weight is rising senior forward Gavin Ware. Instead, the 6-foot-9 Starkville native has gone in the opposite direction by shedding down to 258, the smallest he has been since arriving at State. |
| McFatrich has plan to revitalize Mississippi State volleyball | |
| David McFatrich knew what he was getting into when he became Mississippi State's new volleyball coach. McFatrich realized MSU never has qualified for the NCAA tournament and has won only 86 Southeastern Conference matches in its 40-year history. But McFatrich helped build a winning attitude at Central Arkansas, a Division I school in Conway, Arkansas. McFatrich's success at Central Arkansas gives him confidence MSU can reach similar heights. That's why he expects big things in his first season in Starkville. "Our goal is to make history. Our goal is to go to the NCAA tournament," said McFatrich, whose team will play host to Arkansas-Pine Bluff at noon Aug. 28 in the Bulldog Invitational at the Newell-Grissom Building. |
| Bulldogs help raise money for Humane Society | |
| Five Mississippi State Bulldogs volunteered their time as celebrity waiters Tuesday at Harveys in Starkville with proceeds benefitting the Oktibbeha County Humane Society. The group of Bulldogs included two former football players now in the NFL, cornerback Johnthan Banks of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and offensive lineman Gabe Jackson of the Oakland Raiders. Former MSU quarterback and Director of Player Personnel Rockey Felker also served at the event. MSU head coaches Vann Stuedeman and Vic Schaefer also served as celebrity waiters, along with Megan Mullen and Nelle Cohen, the wives of MSU head coaches Dan Mullen and John Cohen. |
| Report: NCAA to charge Donnie Tyndall with multiple violations | |
 | Former Southern Miss men's basketball coach Donnie Tyndall is set to be formally charged by the NCAA for multiple infractions, according to a report by ESPN's Andy Katz. Katz, citing an anonymous source, reports academic misconduct and improper benefits will be among the charges levied against Tyndall, who was fired at Tennessee in March after one season. The ESPN report also states Southern Miss is expected to release the notice of allegations sometime today. Katz reports penalties like these typically result in some sort of show cause penalty for the coach. The delivery of a notice of allegations is simply the next step in a process that's been ongoing since October 2014. And it doesn't mean the end is near. |
| U. of South Carolina's Williams-Brice stadium is going green | |
 | It was a yearly dilemma. South Carolina fans loved their football stadium and loved their campus, but they couldn't love it together in one spot. "I felt like it just needed a lot of work, and there's still a lot of work to be done," longtime USC Board of Trustees member William Hubbard said. "It was always in the back of our minds that if we could ever just get that final piece of the puzzle done, it would be transformative." The completion of Springs-Brooks Plaza around Williams-Brice Stadium will change what was a concrete and asphalt jungle into a pleasant, green walking tour. It's been a passion of Hubbard's, to make USC as bedecked with lawns and stands of trees as most other college campuses. The Plaza project, on schedule to be completed by the first home game on Sept. 12, will surround the stadium with brick and concrete, trees (scarlet oaks will bud a garnet canopy during the fall), grass quadrangles, items unique to USC. |
| Arrest report details U. of Tennessee lineman Charles Mosley's DUI stop | |
 | Tennessee football player Charles Mosley was quiet and cooperative during a Wednesday morning traffic stop that ended with the redshirt freshman lineman being handcuffed and charged with first-offense DUI and speeding, according to a Tennessee Highway Patrol arrest report. Mosley, 18, was driving a 2003 Nissan Maxima on Interstate 40 when trooper William Satterfield pulled him over at 1:51 a.m. for driving 79 mph in a 55 mph zone. The trooper noticed a marijuana odor as he approached the car, and the smell intensified when the window lowered, according to the report. When asked about Mosley's arrest on Wednesday, UT spokesman Jason Yellin said UT is "aware of the situation" and is "gathering all of the facts and information." |
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