News

Saucier teen killed in Gulfport boating accident

Funeral services were held Sunday for a 15-year-old Saucier teen killed in a boating accident last week that also injured another person.

Harrison County authorities said Mason Turner was killed Tuesday, July 23 while riding in an inner tube being pulled by a 21-foot boat at the Industrial Canal at Gulfport Lake. Coroner Gary Hargrove said when the boat went around a curve, the tube slid out toward the embankment and hit a tree.

Turner died at the scene.

The driver and three other people were on the boat. […]

News

Vicksburg woman sentenced in Girl Scout cookie caper

A woman charged with going door-to-door selling Girl Scout cookies with a fake order form has been ordered to live at a restitution center and complete a drug and alcohol counseling program.

Warren County authorities said 37-year-old Paula Kelly kept about $1,000 after taking fake orders from unsuspecting customers in February and March who thought they were buying cookies.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said Kelly has no affiliation whatsoever with the Girl Scouts of America. […]

Education

Aug. 30 deadline set for parents to scan fingers

Parents have until Aug. 30 to register for a finger-scanning system to sign children in and out of federally subsidized child care.

Jill Dent, director of the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development at the state Department of Human Services, announced the deadline last Wednesday.

By then, parents and other caregivers will have to visit county DHS offices to scan their fingers into the system, or lose their subsidy. […]

News

Lawyer wants delay in ex-Vicksburg mayor’s trial

A lawyer for former Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield has asked a federal judge to postpone his trial because negotiations are ongoing with prosecutors to resolve the case.

Winfield is charged in U.S. District Court in Jackson with seeking $10,000 in cash in exchange for a city contract. He has pleaded not guilty.

Attorney Terris Harris mentioned the negotiations in a motion to continue the Aug. 5 trial. […]

Education

Hattiesburg Zoo gets grant for discovery center

The Ashbury Foundation has given $277,000 to the Hattiesburg Zoo to help complete work on the zoo’s highly anticipated education building.

The money will be used primarily to finish the interior of the 2,200 square-foot facility. It will open in April of 2014 as part of the zoo’s annual Birthday Bash celebrations and will be known as the Asbury Discovery Center.

The new state-of-the-art facility will feature viewable housing for the zoo’s education animals, as well as viewable offices and labs. It will also serve as the new home and play yard for the Zoo’s Galapagos Tortoises, and a venue for zoo classes, camps, special events and corporate meetings. […]

Entertainment

NAACP names Opera Singer Jessye Norman as 98th Spingarn Medalist

The NAACP Board of Directors awarded opera singer and honorary UN Ambassador Jessye Norman the 98th Spingarn Medal, the Association’s highest honor. Norman became the 98th recipient of the award, and she was honored during the NAACP National Convention in Orlando July 17 at the annual Spingarn Dinner.

“Jessye Norman is a true inspiration,” stated Chairman Roslyn M. Brock. “Her work embodies the power of music and its ability to serve as the soundtrack to our movement for social justice.”

The Spingarn Medal, first instituted in 1914 by then NAACP Chairman Joel E. Spingarn, is awarded to an American of African descent who has demonstrated outstanding and noble achievement during the preceding years. […]

Education

New certificate in Veteran service available at MSU

Consistently ranked as a top U.S. military-friendly university, Mississippi State continues its longstanding tradition of serving members of the armed forces by offering a new certificate program.

The university recently developed the Veterans’ Certificate Program to train individuals to help former military service members successfully transition to civilian life. The program establishes an opportunity for professionals, graduates and undergraduates to improve their knowledge of veterans’ benefits while honing their leadership skills.

A recent grant from the Walmart Foundation for $80,000 funded the new program, which is the only one of its kind in the nation. Courses to earn the Veterans’ Certificate may be applied as a concentration for the Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary studies, or as electives in a graduate-level program, said Kenneth D. “Ken” McRae, director of MSU’s Center for America’s Veterans. […]

Entertainment

Jazz legend Jones to be honored with concert

One of Vicksburg’s music legends will be honored Aug. 4 with a concert, discussion panel and art exhibit.

The Vicksburg Blues Society and Vicksburg Heritage League are hosting the Fourth Annual Hank Jones Memorial Concert and Festival from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 4 at Vicksburg City Auditorium, said event organizer Shirley Waring.

Jones was a jazz pianist and composer whose 70-year career included a stint as Ella Fitzgerald’s pianist and Marilyn Monroe’s accompanist when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy. […]

National Sports

Emile Griffith, elegant boxing champ, dies at 75

Inside the smaller theater at Madison Square Garden about five years ago, shortly before a world title fight, Emile Griffith was introduced one more time to the crowd. He rose shakily from his seat, waved ever so briefly and then sat down.

The applause kept going.

Revered in retirement perhaps more than during his fighting days, Griffith died Tuesday, July 23, at 75 after a long battle with pugilistic dementia. The first fighter to be crowned world champion from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Griffith required full-time care late in life and died at an extended care facility in Hempstead, N.Y. […]

News

10 indicted in deadly prison riot

Ten additional individuals have been indicted in connection with the riot that occurred at the Adams County Correctional Center (ACCC) in Natchez, Mississippi on May 20, 2012, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney announced this week.

The ACCC houses approximately 2,500 non-resident aliens who have been convicted of federal charges in the United States. During the riot, several correctional officers were assaulted.

Correctional Officer (CO) Catlin Carithers died as a result of injuries he received during these assaults. […]