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Public Meetings This Week

Monday, August 17

4 p.m., Jackson City Council, Council Chambers, City Hall, 219 South President St.

Reeves Gives Up Fight and Goes Home

The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that John Reeves, the Republican legislator from South Jackson, said today that he is no longer planning to challenge Adrienne Wooten, a Democrat who defeated him in November, in the Legislature.

Campaign Parties Around Town

If you want to go out and watch the campaign staffs get drunk, the winners gloat, the losers try to take the high road (or not), or to congratulate or yell at one of the candidates for ugly campaigning, here's where they'll be:

Youth Baseball Program Comes to Town

The Mississippi Department of Human Services is teaming with the Cal Ripkin, Sr. Foundation to offer the Badges for Baseball program to at-risk youth in 10 Mississippi communities. The program will kick off May 28 at Trustmark Park in Pearl.

FEMA Wants Immunity for Poison Trailers

The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt for immunity from lawsuits over what plaintiffs' lawyers and the Sierra Club called "hazardous levels" of formaldehyde in government-issued trailers. Engelhardt is presiding over a lawsuit against FEMA. Plaintiffs claim the government knew about the dangerous toxicity of plywood used in trailer construction but continued to allow hurricane victims to inhabit the structures, despite independent toxicology tests revealing five times the tolerable amount of formaldehyde in the structures.

Gustav Hits Houma; Levees Holding; Tornado Watches Multiply

The Associated Press is reporting:

Memorial Service for Latasha Norman

Norman's memorial service will be at the Rose Embly McCoy Auditorium on the main JSU campus.

Jackson State University is hosting a memorial service at noon today (Monday, Dec. 3) for murdered student Latasha Norman. Police found Norman, a 20-year-old accounting major from Greenville, dead Thursday. She had been missing for more than two weeks. Her ex-boyfriend, Stanley Cole, is in jail without bond. Norman reported on Oct. 9 that he had punched her in a parking lot in Pearl, but he was not arrested for that incident until Nov. 15, two days after Norman was reported missing. When he showed up for his hearing on Nov. 29 for that incident, police took him in for questioning. He reportedly led them to her body.

Southern Miss Players Arrested

Police arrested two University of Southern Mississippi football players Sunday night in Hattiesburg, according to an AP report appearing on the Sports Illustrated Web site.

Barbour Calls May 21 Special Session for Medicaid and MDES

Read background on ad oversight controversy here.

[McCoy] The Clock Is Ticking

The House of Representatives remains very disappointed that there has been no compromise on the budget for the fiscal year 2006. We pledge to remain here as long as there is hope to reach such a compromise, but obviously time is running out. Here at this late hour, Gov. Barbour and the State Senate have proposed that his economic development package be revived. However, there are time limitations facing us taht in the opinion of the House of Representatives do not allow serious consideration of such a massive, wide-ranging proposal.

Barbour Takes Top RGA Spot

In the wake of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's untimely departure from the Republican Governors Association, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is taking over the organization's leadership. Barbour had already accepted the organization's chairmanship for next year, but when Sanford admitted his infidelity with his Argentine mistress, Maria, on national news, it wasn't long before he also resigned from the RGA.

Anna Tadlock

On Saturday, Anna Tadlock of Brandon, 23, was crowned Miss Mississippi at the culmination of three days of pageant events in Vicksburg. According to her profile, the Mississippi State University graduate says her future plans include receiving her master's degree in education and teaching English at the high school or college level. She also sees herself getting married and starting a family within the next 10 years.

Nicole's Been Sprung

Dancer Nicole Marquez left the hospitalhopefully for goodon Thursday. Jacksonian Marquez, who was featured in a JFP cover story in November, moved to New York City about a year ago to pursue her career as a dancer and actress. Last Aug. 30, her building super found Nicole in an airshaft after she fell six stories from the building's roof, breaking her neck, back, pelvis and half her ribs. She has been in the hospital since then, with a few brief furloughs in the past couple of months.

Barbour Issues State of Emergency for Hurricane Ike

[Verbatim from the Governor's office] (JACKSON, Mississippi)Today Governor Haley Barbour issued a State of Emergency for the entire State of Mississippi due to the potential threat posed by Hurricane Ike, which has demonstrated capability to impact parts of the state according to current predictions by the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center.

DNA Preservation Bill Passed

The Mississippi Legislature passed a bill mandating that the state better preserve crime scene DNA evidence and conduct DNA testing on biological evidence.

2009 Legislature Convenes in Old Capitol

Perhaps as an omen to the contentiousness ahead, the Mississippi Legislature convened the new session Tuesday in the restored Old Capitolthe building where Mississippi once voted to secede from the union. Gov. Haley Barbour and former Gov. William Winter, governors from different sides of the political aisle, attended the opening ceremony, followed by guests such as noted columnist Bill Minor.

JPS Board Seeks Budget Audits

The Jackson Public School Board chose not to approve some aspects of the school budget last night, including money for some new buses, textbooks and school nurses, citing the need for more information from the superintendent's staff. Board member Jonathan Larkin said the board did basically approve the district budget, however, amounting to more than $230 million.

Jackson Roll-Off Dumpster Day Saturday, Jan. 10

The City of Jackson Solid Waste Divisions will hold its next Roll-off Dumpster Day - Saturday, January 10, 2009. Residents can take yard debris and other household items to one of the below locations:

Melton and Recio to be Tried Together

A federal judge has denied the latest attempt to separate the civil rights trial of Mayor Frank Melton and his former bodyguard Michael Recio. In an order (PDF) filed today, Judge Dan Jordan ruled that Recio's attorney Cynthia Stewart has not presented a compelling case for severance.

Zapping the Coverage Gap

The Mississippi Public Service Commission is pushing a program to help phone companies focus on areas with intolerably limited cell-phone coverage. Commissioner Brandon Presley adopted the multi-state "Zap the Gap" effort in hopes of filling the coverage gaps in areas of North Mississippi still needing service or more improved coverage.

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