March 2013 – The Mississippi Link

Murder-suicide confirmed in deaths of couple and child in Lee County

March 29, 2013 Kermit 0

A coroner has confirmed that two adults and a 13-year-old girl found shot to death in a home in Lee County Tuesday were the victims of a murder-suicide. The bodies of 55-year-old Wiley Young, 46-year-old Danica McCord and her daughter, Destiny McCord were discovered around 8:30 a.m. March 26.

Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson said an officer with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks arrived at the residence on County Road 49 and found the victims after efforts to contact them had failed.

Unconfirmed reports said the officer was Young’s adult son. […]

Escaped inmate found dead in jail cell

March 29, 2013 Kermit 1

An escaped Rankin County inmate was discovered dead in his jail cell one day after being found in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Officials with the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) said 27-year-old Bryan Owens was found hanging from his cell late Tuesday afternoon.

MDOC Spokesperson Tara Booth said officers were serving dinner when they found Owens hanging from a sheet in his cell.

Owens was housed alone, Booth said, and he was pronounced dead at 5:09 p.m.

Owens escaped on Sunday, March 24. […]

Mississippi jobless rate jumps sharply in January

March 29, 2013 Kermit 0

Mississippi’s unemployment jumped to 9.3 percent in January, wiping out almost a year’s worth of job gains.

The state’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in December and 10 percent rate in January 2012.

The number of people who reported having a job fell even as the state’s labor force shrank. Mississippi reported 141,000 unemployed people in December, up from 123,000 in December and 135,000 in January 2012. […]

Condoleezza Rice: Democracy requires responsibility

March 28, 2013 Kermit 0

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a Mississippi State University audience that a mature democracy requires individual citizens understand not only their rights, but also their responsibilities.

Rice spoke about current world events, saying the United States and the world are facing some very difficult times, yet with great opportunities that suggest optimism.

“Whenever I visit a place like this, a great university where our best and brightest are studying, I am indeed optimistic,” she said. […]

Medgar Evers’ exhibit coming to Dept. of Archives and History

March 28, 2013 Kermit 0

In observance of the 50th anniversary of his death, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) will commemorate the life of civil rights leader Medgar Evers with exhibits and programs.

Evers was the Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP from 1954 until his assassination in the driveway of his family’s home in Jackson on June 11, 1963.

On May 1, a History Is Lunch lecture by Myrlie Evers-Williams, former director of the NAACP and Medgar Evers’s widow, will open the exhibit “This is Home”: Medgar Evers, Mississippi, and the Movement.

Evers-Williams is now a distinguished scholar-in-residence at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Miss. […]

Lillie Ayers, key figure in historic lawsuit, dies at 85

March 28, 2013 Kermit 1

Lillie B. Ayers, who became the lead plaintiff in Mississippi’s college desegregation lawsuit after the death of her husband, Jake Ayers, died Sunday at her home in Glen Allan in Washington County. She was 85.

Henry Ayers, Lillie Ayers’ son, said his mother died of complications from bone cancer.

Funeral services are pending. […]

Escaped inmate caught in Wal-Mart parking lot in Ark.

March 27, 2013 Kermit 0

A state inmate who escaped from a community work center in Yazoo City was arrested Monday in Pine Bluff, Ark.

Tara Booth, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said in a news release that authorities had been looking for the 27-year-old Bryan Owens since he went missing from the Yazoo County Community Work Center on Sunday.

Owens was serving a 12-year sentence for burglary, vehicle theft and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon from Harrison County. […]

Feds, Miss. school reach deal over punishment

March 27, 2013 Kermit 0

) The U.S. Justice Department said Friday that it has reached a deal with a Mississippi school district to end discriminatory disciplinary practices in which black students face harsher punishment than whites for similar misbehavior.

The agreement comes after a lengthy federal investigation that found that black public school students in Meridian are five times more likely than whites to be suspended from classes and often got longer suspensions for comparable misbehavior. […]

Jackson-based company sold to Texas equipment firm

March 27, 2013 Kermit 0

Daily Equipment Company (DEC) in Jackson has been sold to Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. in Houston, Texas, officials said.

The announcement came in a joint news release from the companies. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

DEC is headquartered in Jackson, and has other full-service branches throughout in Biloxi and in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport and Lake Charles in Louisiana. […]

State Rep. Jessica Upshaw dead of apparent suicide

March 26, 2013 Kermit 0

Simpson County Coroner Terry Tutor said state Rep. Jessica Upshaw has died.

Tutor said the Diamondhead Republican died Sunday.

Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain says the crime scene unit is at a home in Mendenhall, investigating her death.

Simpson County Sheriff Kenneth Lewis told WLOX that Upshaw appeared to have shot herself in the head in an apparent suicide.

“It appeared she had a gunshot wound to her head; it appeared to be self-inflicted,” he said. […]