Latest Mississippi news, sports, business and entertainment

CHARTER SCHOOLS FUNDING

RePublic Schools charter network gets $9.6M for expansion

downloadJACKSON, Miss. (AP) – An operator of charter schools in Tennessee and Mississippi is in line to get $9.6 million in federal funding, with plans to spend the money on expansion.

RePublic Schools, based in Nashville, Tennessee, was one of 12 charter school networks awarded funding Monday by the U.S. Department of Education.

The federal government will give RePublic $3.8 million this year, and recommends the operator get $5.8 million more in future years, if Congress appropriates money.

Ravi Gupta, RePublic’s cofounder and CEO, says his network plans to grow from 1,335 students this year to 7,215 students by 2022. RePublic also plans to help other schools teach computer programming, in addition running its own schools.

Earlier this month, Mississippi authorities approved RePublic’s plan to open and second and third school in Jackson.

AUDITOR REPORT-SCHOOLS

Study: Schools could save $200M with shared services

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Mississippi state auditor’s office says school districts in the state could save more than $200 million a year by eliminating inefficient contracts and sharing services such as facilities maintenance, textbooks and transportation with other school districts.

The Clarion-Ledger reports that the auditor’s office released the report last week. Researchers looked at expenditures by school districts that share services with one or more other school district versus those that don’t. They also examined districts that contracted out services as opposed to using in-house employees.

Researchers found school districts that use contracting spend more money than if the same services had been provided through shared services. Districts that used shared services saved $116 million.

The study recommends districts competitively bid contracts and use stricter requirements for vendors.

TEACHER FIRED

Police ID teacher accused of placing camera in restroom

PRENTISS, Miss. (AP) – Authorities have identified the teacher who was recently accused of putting cameras in an elementary school restroom.

Multiple news outlets report that Arthur Martin, a fifth grade teacher at J.E. Johnson Elementary School in Prentiss, admitted to putting a camera in one of the school’s restrooms on Wednesday morning. The camera was found at 1 p.m. the same day.

A statement from Jefferson Davis County Schools Superintendent Will L. Russell says no children were injured or harmed in the incident. He says Martin has been fired.

Police have charged Martin with photographing and filming a subject without consent under the age of 16. Mississippi Bureau of Investigation authorities say they have seized a computer and other items from Martin’s home.

It is unclear if Martin has an attorney.

DEER COLLISIONS-MISSISSIPPI

State urge caution as deer season heats up

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi has the eighth highest rate of collisions with deer.

Mississippi Highway Patrol Sgt. Criss Turnipseed tells The Commercial Dispatch there were 3,438 vehicle collisions with deer in the state.

According to State Farm Insurance Company, which looked at data from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015, one out of 88 Mississippi drivers is likely to collide with a deer. That’s an improvement from the year before, when the odds were estimated at one in 84 and the state ranked sixth in the nation.

Mississippi State University professor Bronson Strickland says accidents with deer are particularly common during mating season, which varies throughout the state.

Strickland says drivers can avoid collisions by paying closer attention to the road.

NATCHEZ-SALES TAX

Natchez sales tax collections increase

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) – Natchez sales tax collections increased by approximately $148,000 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, following a six-year, upward trend.

Sales tax collections from October 2014 through September 2015 totaled $5.7 million.

The Natchez Democrat reports collections from 2013-2014 were $5.5 million.

Collections for September 2015, which represent sales tax from July because collections are reported two months after the fact, show a 3.3-percent increase from the same month last year.

Collections got off to a strong start for the fiscal year, which began in Oct. 2014, with a 12.4-percent increase compared to the 2013-2014 collections for the same month.

MCCOMB-BROWNFIELDS PROJECT

McComb looks at rehab work on old commercial property

MCCOMB, Miss. (AP) – Architects, engineers and city officials are creating a vision to revive parts of McComb, some of which have been out of commercial use for decades.

Officials held a meeting last week on brownfields project. Brownfields are properties that have fallen out of use, and in some cases, contain environmental hazards that must be resolved, such as asbestos, old chemicals and other contamination.

The Enterprise-Journal reports officials have put together a vision that includes a possible craft brewery, a grocery, a farmer’s market and other small retail and mixed-use spaces near the railroad pavilion.

Jay C. Estes with Allen Engineering and Science says city officials will have to immediately work with property owners, noting available incentives for property owners to rehab abandoned buildings and brownfields.

DRUG RACKETEERING

Man arrested in Gulfport gets prison for drug racketeering

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) – A federal judge has fined a California man $10,000 and ordered prison for his efforts to finance the delivery of multiple kilos of cocaine and heroin from South Mississippi to Detroit.

The Sun Herald reports 56-year-old Clifford Barnette Jones Sr., of Pasadena, received a five-year prison term at his sentencing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, Mississippi. Judge Sul Ozerden ordered the prison term followed by three years of post-release supervision.

Federal court records show Jones had been given a bank account number on April 16, 2013, to make deposits to pay for the delivery of drugs. He received the number in a meeting in Waveland, Mississippi, with a person identified in court papers as a confidential source. A total of $65,000 was deposited in the account.

CLIMATE CHANGE

2 mayors to attend Paris conference on climate

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) – The mayors of Natchez and Vidalia, Louisiana, will travel to France in December for a global climate change conference.

Natchez Mayor Butch Brown and Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland were selected by the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative to attend COP21 in Paris. COP21 is the United Nation climate change initiative aimed at achieving a new international agreement on the climate, applicable to all countries, with the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

The Natchez Democrat reports Copeland will lead the delegation of seven mayors to Paris along with fellow MRCTI cochair Chris Coleman, mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Climate change is believed to be responsible for increased natural disasters, including droughts and floods.

Copeland says those types of events have a significant effect on the world’s rivers.

WEST NILE VIRUS-MISSISSIPPI

1 new case of West Nile virus confirmed in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – One new case of West Nile virus has been confirmed in Mississippi, bringing the state total to 28 cases so far this year.

The Mississippi State Department of Health said Monday that the new case of the mosquito-borne illness is in Hinds County.

One death was previously reported in Attala County.

So far this year, seven cases have been confirmed in Hinds County, five in Rankin County, four in Madison County, two each in Forrest and Simpson counties and one each in Adams, Attala, Covington, Lauderdale, Marion, Montgomery, Washington and Yazoo counties.

The Health Department only releases statistics about laboratory-confirmed cases.

In 2014, Mississippi had 43 cases of West Nile virus, with seven deaths.