Statewide News – Page 35 – The Mississippi Link

Saturday mail cutback still being debated

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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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. […]

Teen arrested in shooting of Lowndes County mail carrier

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A 17-year-old Columbus teen is being held on a $500,000 bond after he allegedly shot a mail carrier in the course of a robbery.

Arthur Lee “Slim” Whitfield appeared in court and was charged with aggravated assault and armed robbery for an alleged attack on Doug Aldridge

Aldridge was delivering mail at an apartment complex outside Columbus Thursday, March 21, when he was shot under the left armpit.

Whitfield was arrested at the same complex on March 22 and the weapon reportedly used in the shooting was also recovered at that location. […]

Man charged with shooting girlfriend in the face after breakup

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A 25-year-old Corinth man is being held on a $350,000 bond after authorities said he allegedly shot his girlfriend in the face after they broke up. Demarlen O’Bryan Davis is being charged with possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and homicide in the death of 22-year-old Karson Stewart.

Captain Ralph Dance, an investigator with the Corinth Police Department, said Davis was taken into custody shortly after the incident on March 26.

Dance said several 911 calls brought police to an unoccupied residence in the 600 block of Martin Luther King Drive. […]

Mississippi jobless rate jumps sharply in January

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Mississippi’s unemployment jumped to 9.3 percent in January, wiping out almost a year’s worth of job gains.

The state’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in December and 10 percent rate in January 2012.

The number of people who reported having a job fell even as the state’s labor force shrank. Mississippi reported 141,000 unemployed people in December, up from 123,000 in December and 135,000 in January 2012. […]

Medgar Evers’ exhibit coming to Dept. of Archives and History

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In observance of the 50th anniversary of his death, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) will commemorate the life of civil rights leader Medgar Evers with exhibits and programs.

Evers was the Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP from 1954 until his assassination in the driveway of his family’s home in Jackson on June 11, 1963.

On May 1, a History Is Lunch lecture by Myrlie Evers-Williams, former director of the NAACP and Medgar Evers’s widow, will open the exhibit “This is Home”: Medgar Evers, Mississippi, and the Movement.

Evers-Williams is now a distinguished scholar-in-residence at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Miss. […]

Jackson-based company sold to Texas equipment firm

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Daily Equipment Company (DEC) in Jackson has been sold to Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. in Houston, Texas, officials said.

The announcement came in a joint news release from the companies. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

DEC is headquartered in Jackson, and has other full-service branches throughout in Biloxi and in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport and Lake Charles in Louisiana. […]