News – Page 469 – The Mississippi Link

Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary attends rural job event

In late March, Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Doug O’Brien met with local and regional officials to discuss ways USDA can help businesses create jobs and stimulate local economies.

The United States Department of Agriculture remains focused on carrying out its mission, despite a time of significant budget uncertainty.

“I am proud to support and highlight the great work under way here to bring economic opportunity to Mississippi’s rural communities,” O’Brien said during a Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator event at Mississippi State University. “Public-private partnerships are some of the best ways to leverage resources for job creation and business development.” […]

SMCC seeks edge to lure honor students

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Southwest Mississippi Community College will offer students scoring 27 or 28 on the ACT full tuition and a $500 bookstore voucher beginning this fall.

The students must maintain a 3.0 grade point average to continue to receive free tuition.

SMCC President Steve Bishop told the Enterprise-Journal that the change was recently approved by the school’s board of trustees as a means of attracting honor students to the two-year school in Summit.

Bishop says students who score 29 and above will receive full tuition, room, meals and a $500 bookstore voucher, provided they maintain a 3.0 GPA. […]

Death row inmate opposes setting execution date

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Death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning has told the Mississippi Supreme Court that he has more arguments to make, meaning now is not the time to be setting an execution date sought by the attorney general’s office.

Manning was recently denied an appeal by the U.S. Supreme Court in the deaths of two college students. The attorney general’s office asked the Mississippi court to schedule the execution for April 24.

In a brief filed on April 1, Manning’s attorney said there are issues pending before the state high court. Manning is seeking a new trial, arguing that a jailhouse informant had recanted his testimony; that Manning’s trial attorney was ineffective; and that blacks were improperly kept off his trial jury. […]

New 'personhood' initiative proposed in Miss.

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Abortion opponents are pushing for another Mississippi ballot initiative that would define life as beginning at conception, coming less than two years after 58 percent of voters in the conservative state rejected a nearly identical proposal.

Sponsors who filed paperwork for a new initiative said they believe people were misled about the measure that was defeated in November 2011.

Opponents call the move a waste of time.
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Saturday mail cutback still being debated

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The new spending bill passed by Congress in March appears to continue the requirement for six-day mail delivery, but some lawmakers and postal officials say plans to cut Saturday service should proceed.

The financially troubled Postal Service announced that it would switch in August to five-day service for first-class mail and continue six-day package delivery. The government at the time was running on a temporary spending measure and postal officials invited lawmakers to spell out the way ahead in the 2013 spending bill. That sweeping funding bill was approved Thursday without new language.

Some lawmakers say a long-standing provision in the bill mandates six-day delivery. Postal authorities argue they still will have delivery over six days, just that not all mail will be delivered all six days. […]

George Co. site for new wood pellet plant

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Gulf Coast Renewable Energy will locate a $25 million wood pellet plant in the industrial park in George County.

Company officials met with the board of supervisors to request help with construction of an access road to the site on 40 acres just outside the Lucedale city limits.

The project will create about 30 new jobs, said company vice president for engineering Gary Ogle.

It will produce about 160,000 metric tons of pellets per year, Ogle said, and the company also plans to double production within the next 3 years. […]

Former police officer gets 5 years for sex with 15-year-old

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A former Rolling Fork police officer who confessed to having sex with a 15-year-old South Delta High School student in 2011 will spend five years in prison.

Brian Richards of Anguilla was sentenced by Circuit Judge M. James Chaney to five years in prison followed by five years’ probation after pleading guilty to statutory rape.

Richards, 30, must register as a sex offender upon release.

Richards was assigned to provide security each morning at South Delta High School, where he met the girl, according to court records. […]

Governor withdraws Board of Health nomination

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Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said he’s withdrawing his nomination of anti-abortion activist Terri Herring to the state Board of Health.

Bryant’s decision came Monday after The Associated Press questioned whether Bryant was fulfilling requirements of a state law that specifies the board’s 11 members must come from certain parts of the state.

Bryant spokesman Mick Bullock says the law is unclear, but the governor is withdrawing Herring’s nomination to “avoid any legal uncertainty.”
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AstraZeneca to cut 2,300 jobs in business overhaul

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Struggling drug company AstraZeneca has outlined a major restructuring of its business, including some 2,300 job cuts worldwide as it overhauls its research operations.

The cuts came only three days after the company axed 1,600 research positions, bringing the total number of cuts to more than 11,000 in the past 13 months. The new chief executive, Pascal Soriot, described the cuts as part of the company’s “unambiguous commitment” to concentrate on priority projects in the pipeline.

“As we focus, accelerate and transform our business we know that our success will ultimately be measured by the quality of execution,” he said in a statement. […]

Attala schools getting added security measures

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The Attala County School will install video intercom systems and card reader access for teachers at Ethel High School and the Kosciusko-Attala Career Technical Center.

Schools Superintendent Bryan Weaver told the Star Herald that the security systems will cost $6,634.

At Ethel, Weaver said each staff member would have a card that they could open the front door on their own. He said the back entrance between the office and the library would be staff entrance and in cases of rainy weather, the student entrance. […]