Latest Mississippi news, sports, business and entertainment

HINDS COUNTY SHERIFF

Hinds County sheriff denied re-election bid

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis was defeated in his re-election bid Tuesday in the Democratic Party primary.

Local media outlets are reporting that complete, but unofficial, returns show challenger Victor Mason received 53 percent vote to defeat Lewis and another candidate.

Lewis was elected sheriff in 2011 defeating longtime Sheriff Malcom McMillin, who endorsed Mason’s candidacy.

Lewis had come under criticism as flaws in the detention center design and staffing came to light.

Mason will face Republican Charlette Oswalt and independent candidates Les Tannehill and Reginald Thompson in the Nov. 3 general election.

Mason has 32 years of law enforcement experience, including with the Jackson Police Department, the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI, and as an investigator with the state attorney general’s office.

CARROLL COUNTY SHERIFF

Incumbent Carroll sheriff defeated in primary

 

CARROLLTON, Miss. (AP) – Carroll County Sheriff Jerry Carver has lost a campaign for election to a third term.

The Greenwood Commonwealth reports Carver was defeated in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary by Clint Walker. The 41-year-old Walker was making his first run for public office.

Complete, but unofficial, returns show Walker received 53 percentage of the vote in the five-candidate field. Carver received 39 percent.

The 68-year-old Carver has been sheriff since 2008.

Walker has worked as an agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics since 2001. He took a leave of absence to run for sheriff.

ENTERGY RATES

Entergy Mississippi users to get bill credits for 6 months

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Entergy Mississippi customers will get a refund over the next six months thanks to lower natural gas prices.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission Thursday approved a plan for Entergy to issue $46 million in bill credits to customers beginning in September and ending in February.

Last year, when the unit of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. filed its plan to buy natural gas, it predicted higher prices. Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly says the company is passing savings back to customers.

A residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month will get a credit of $6.44 per month, dropping monthly bills by 6 percent from $108.25 to $101.81.

Entergy spokesman Joey Lee says the company can’t predict whether the decrease will continue in its next fuel purchase plan.

HOSPITAL WARS-APPEAL

Mississippi Supreme Court lets stand CON for hospital

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Mississippi Supreme Court has let stand the state’s approval of a plan by Harrison HMA, owners of Gulf Coast Medical Center, to build a hospital in Biloxi.

The Mississippi Department of Health issued a certificate of need for the project in 2012. Mississippi requires a CON in a process designed to avoid duplication of health care services and control costs.

The CON was challenged by Singing River Health System, Memorial Hospital at Gulfport and Garden Park Medical Center. A Hinds County judge upheld the CON in 2013.

The three hospitals argued Harrison HMA was building a new hospital not replacing or relocating an existing hospital.

The state Court of Appeals upheld the CON last year.

The Supreme Court upheld the Appeals Court decision without comment Thursday.

SHERIFF KILLED-APPEAL

Mississippi man loses appeals conviction in sheriff’s death

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a Lucedale man in the death of the sheriff of George County.

Christopher Lee Baxter was seeking a new trial in the death of Sheriff Garry Welford. Welford was struck by a pickup truck in which Baxter and his girlfriend, Brandy Nicole Williams, were fleeing from authorities on July 21, 2010.

Welford was putting spikes at an intersection near the Alabama line to stop the truck and end a high-speed chase when he was struck.

The Supreme Court, in its 6-2 ruling Thursday, denied Baxter’s challenges to instructions given the jury and to the evidence in the case.

Williams won a new trial from the state Court of Appeals Court last December.

The Appeals Court upheld Baxter’s conviction last year.

CHILE-AUTO-MOTOR-SHOWCOOPER TIRE EXPANSION

Cooper Tire expanding Tupelo plant

 

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) – Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. will spend about $2 million to expand its plant in Tupelo.

The project will add 14,000 square feet to the southeast side of the manufacturing facility.

Company spokeswoman Anne Roman tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that the company has been reconfiguring its manufacturing plants to help meet evolving consumer needs, such as more premium tires for every day drivers

Cooper employs some 1,600 workers in Tupelo.

Roman says the company is installing an auto-compounder, which automates the rubber-mixing process. The addition at the plant will make room for the new equipment.

Roman says no additional jobs are tied with to the expansion.

CHILD’S DEATH

Boy dies of gunshot wound in McComb

MCCOMB, Miss. (AP) – Police in McComb are investigating the shooting death of a 9-year-old boy.

Coroner Percy Pittman tells media outlets that Jadurius Wilkerson was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to the head just after midnight Thursday.

Detective Sid Boyte says in a news release that police received the call at 10:44 p.m. Wednesday that there was a shooting. Boyte says the boy was unresponsive at that point and rescue workers were unable to resuscitate him.

Boyte says a man was arrested at the scene and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The man is also being held on a warrant for probation violation through the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Boyte says the shooting investigation is continuing.

SAINTS-MOVES

Saints waive Foster, sign Manning

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) – The New Orleans Saints have released injured defensive lineman Glenn Foster and signed rookie defensive back Travis Manning.

The 6-foot-4, 285-pound Foster was waived with a “failed physical” designation. He joined the Saints as an undrafted rookie out of Illinois in 2013 and had three sacks in 12 games that season. Last season, he did not have a sack in five games and finished the season on injured reserve with a knee injury.

He had not practice at all this offseason and began training camp on the physically unable to perform list.

Manning is an undrafted free agent out of Northwest Missouri State who had tryouts in rookie camps with the Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs and was later signed by the Green Bay Packers, but released shortly afterward.