SCHOOL FUNDING AMENDMENT
Judge’s rewrite of ballot title is final, attorneys argue
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Mississippi attorney general’s office and attorneys for an Oxford parent say there’s no legal right for anyone to appeal a circuit judge’s rewriting of a short description for one of the school funding proposals on the November ballot.
Both groups of attorneys filed arguments Monday with the Mississippi Supreme Court. They say state law specifies if a circuit judge rewrites a ballot title for a proposed constitutional amendment, that decision is final.
Their arguments are in response to papers filed May 22 by attorneys representing Republican legislative leaders. Justices hear oral arguments June 9.
The debate is over ballot titles that voters will see for two proposed constitutional amendments dealing with school funding.
Initiative 42 got on the ballot through citizens’ petitions. Initiative 42-A was put there by legislators.
LOWNDES SCHOOLS
Lowndes school board weighs options on issuing bonds
COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) – The Lowndes County school board is getting a review of its credit rating before deciding how quickly to spend $44 million approved by voters in May.
The Commercial Dispatch reports the board was told this past week that it currently has AA-rating. The maximum rating is AAA. The board is asking Standard and Poor’s for an update.
The rating could impact how much interest the school board pays on the bond issue.
The money will provide the school district with $11 million for a centralized career-technical center; $26 million for a new high school on the New Hope campus; $3 million for upgrades and additions at the Caledonia campus; $1.9 million for a new field house at Caledonia; and $2.1 million for renovations on the West Lowndes campus.
ASSAULT DEATH
Victim in Jackson restaurant robbery dies
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A man beaten and robbed at a Jackson restaurant has died of his injuries.
Jackson Police Department spokeswoman Colendula Green says Eric Hambrick had been assaulted Thursday night at a Waffle House. He was found in the parking lot the restaurant about 9:30 p.m.
Hambrick died Saturday at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Green says police are piecing the case together. She says police are going over video surveillance footage and hopefully officials will release suspect descriptions in coming days.
Hambrick worked with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency for about three years and was a 20-year employee of the state.
Hambrick also sang at area churches, in local theater productions and with the Mississippi Opera.
GULFPORT BAR-DRUGS
Trial rescheduled for 2 in Gulfport drug case
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) – The trial of two people accused of conspiring to sell cocaine and heroin out of the East Pass Road bar has been rescheduled for Aug. 3.
The trial for Carlos Miller and Randall Sheffield had been scheduled Wednesday in federal court in Gulfport.
The Sun Herald reports U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. agreed to reschedule the trial.
A third suspect, Julie Michelle Glass, pleaded guilty in April to attempted possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. She’s facing a maximum sentence of 40 years and a fine of up to $5 million at her sentencing, tentatively set for June 23.
The three were arrested in January on a federal criminal complaint of conspiring to sell drugs out of the Ice Daiquiri Lounge in Gulfport. Glass and Miller own the bar.
NINE ARRESTED
Raymond dairy workers charged with immigration violations
RAYMOND, Miss. (AP) – Nine people identified by the Mississippi attorney general’s office as living in the U.S. illegally have been arrested at a dairy in Raymond.
Attorney General Jim Hood says in a news release that the workers were arrested this past week at American DairyCo. Hood says each worker has been with purchasing fraudulent Social Security cards.
The defendants are being held on $250,000 bonds each.
Hood says once the state charges are resolved, the defendants will be released to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Hood says American DairyCo officials cooperated with the investigation.
DELTA COUNCIL PRESIDENT
Rankins at helm of Delta Council
CLEVELAND, Miss. (AP) – Former Washington County Supervisor Alfred Rankins Sr. is the new president of the Delta Council.
He was installed Friday at the Stoneville-based organization’s 80th annual meeting on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland.
Rankins was a member of the Greenville Police Department for 21 years. He retired as assistant chief of police in 1990. He was elected to the board of supervisors, a post he held until 2011.
The Delta Democrat Times reports Rankins has served as chairman of the Delta Council’s flood control committee and chairman of the development department’s board for the organization, which lobbies on myriad issued in behalf of the Mississippi Delta’s 18 counties.
