Meridian library wants food for fines to help homeless

News Briefs From Across The State

By Monica Land

Program will benefit homeless shelters

The Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library has ramped up its Food for Fines program.

Library di

rector Steve McCartney tells The Meridian Star that each canned good or nonperishable item such as rice or pasta brought in will count as $1 off a library fine for the donor.

He says the program will continue through Dec. 21.

McCartney says the food will be donated to South Harbor Shelter for the homeless and families.

Woman injured in mobile home fire

The Simpson Volunteer Fire Department is investigating a mobile home fire. The fire occurred around 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

Fire Chief Smith Rabun says a bed-ridden elderly woman and her son were inside the residence when the fire started.

The son was able to carry his mother out of the home and she was being treated at a local hospital.

Rabun said the home is a total loss and the cause of the blaze likely started in an electrical box.

Dolphin head on island, dead dolphin at Gulfport

A dolphin’s head washed up on Horn Island along with a whole dead dolphin at Gulfport, officials said. Experts were scheduled to examine the remains, Moby Solangi, director of the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, told The Sun Herald

He said both animals were adults, and had been dead a few days. Bird surveyors found the head on Horn Island. The body was found on the beach.

Solangi could not say whether the deaths are related to those of dolphins found shot, stabbed and mutilated last month in Jackson and Harrison Counties.

“It’s a possibility that it could be a connection,” he said. “It’s very rare that you see just the head of a dolphin.”

The institute and Animal Legal Defense Fund are offering $5,000 rewards for information about anyone involved in those incidents.

Tips can be made anonymously by calling DMR’s Marine Patrol dispatch at 523-4134 day or night, the IMMS dolphin line at 1-888-767-3657 or NOAA at 1-800-853-1964.

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