Top Stories – Page 94 – The Mississippi Link

Harrison grand jury to consider fatal beating case

A south Mississippi judge has declined to reduce the $1 million bond for each of the three people charged in the fatal assault of a Harrison County man.

A grand jury will consider the cases against Stevie Creon Ambrose, 27; his brother Abdur “Rahim” Ambrose, 28; and Orlander P. Dedeaux II, 19.

The three are charged with murder. But, Harrison County prosecutor Herman Cox said grand jurors might upgrade that to capital murder with an underlying charge of kidnapping.

Authorities said Robert Norbert Trosclair, 31, died April 10, several days after being kicked, punched, hog-tied, stabbed, strangled and hit on the head with a garden-hose reel and a tire and rim. The attack occurred in Pass Christian. […]

Miss Alcorn awarded scholarship from the Mississippi Professional Educators

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Airnecia Mills, a graduating senior who majored in elementary education, and Miss Alcorn 2012-13, was recently selected to receive a $500 scholarship from the Mississippi Professional Educators (MPE). Upon graduation from Alcorn, she said she is planning to teach first grade students at Weddington Elementary School, Greenville Public School District, and pursue her master’s degree in elementary education.

“I was honored to receive the scholarship, especially because I was the only undergraduate African-American student awarded this year,” Mills said. “I am planning to use the scholarship towards graduate school.” […]

Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation to get new site

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A cancer center named for noted civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, has secured a site for its new headquarters and they have launched a campaign to raise the $5.5 million needed for the new state-of-the-art facility.

“We’re looking at about $3.5 million to actually build the building, and the other money would be used to equip and furnish the building,” said Freddie White-Johnson, founder and president of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation.
She hopes to raise quite a bit of money in 2013.

“It’s a national fundraising campaign,” said White-Johnson. “We’re trying to reach out to anybody and everybody across the country and outside the country for support.” […]

Myrlie Evers-Williams encourages UM Graduates to ‘Soar and Be Free’

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Evers-Williams, who worked for more than 30 years to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her well-known civil rights activist husband, Medgar Evers, is a former chairwoman of the NAACP and is widely credited with restoring the organization’s reputation and saving it from bankruptcy. Most recently, she delivered the invocation at the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, becoming the first woman to deliver a prayer at a presidential inauguration.

“The lifelong work of Dr. Evers-Williams to keep her husband’s memory alive and to progress his dream has been pivotal in the pathway from adoption of laws calling for fairness to the adoption of fairness into our societal expectations and interpersonal relationships,” said Chancellor Dan Jones, who presented the third University of Mississippi Humanitarian Award to the speaker, honoring her and her slain husband’s memory. […]

Alyne Payton, Walter Payton’s mom, dies after long illness

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Alyne S. Payton, the mother of the late NFL Hall of Fame running back and Chicago Bears star Walter Payton, died Monday at Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. She was 87.

Family members say she died after a long illness.

Officials with Westhaven Memorial Funeral Home said services were scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, May 10 at Black’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson. Burial was Saturday in Resthaven Cemetery in Columbia. […]

Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest this weekend

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Following the Blues Music Awards, the 7th annual Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest will be held on Saturday, May 11 and Sunday May 12 in downtown Clarksdale.

Musicians will be performing in front of Cathead, 252 Delta Ave., from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and outside the Rock & Blues Museum, 113 E. 2nd Street, from 1 to 6 p.m.

Blues fans and tourists venture down the legendary “Blues Highway 61” to Clarksdale, the site of the historic “Blues Crossroads”, to experience the individual signature blues style of the participating musicians and bands. […]

Estimated $25M in damage to buildings, vehicles

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The Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers Training Academy in Pearl isn’t the most aesthetically appealing place to train officers these days, its director, Pat Cronin, concedes.

The March 18 hailstorms that struck metro Jackson destroyed 87 law enforcement and civilian vehicles parked at the academy when the storms hit, punched holes in roofing membrane above the gymnasium and smashed through more than 100 windows and skylights throughout the complex.

“We look bad,” Cronin muses. “We’ve got plastic holding tires down (on some roofing). We’ve been compromised in some areas, but we’re operational.” […]

Liddell makes no apologies for time away

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If you have tried to reach Columbus Schools Superintendent Martha Liddell at her office this school year, there’s a one-in-three chance you were told she was not in the office. In fact, there’s a one-in-three chance that Liddell wasn’t even in town.

So far during the 2012-13 school year Liddell has taken 21 trips that kept her out of the district for at least 60 of the 180 school days this year. Her contemporaries in Starkville, Lewis Holloway, and Lowndes County, Lynn Wright, have made 17 trips between them and have been away from their districts a combined 23 days.

And in a school year in which the superintendent put all “non-essential spending” on hold in January, Liddell’s extensive travels have cost the district $8,058, twice as much as Holloway has spent ($4,037 on 11 trips) and roughly four times as much as Wright has spent ($2,177 on six trips). […]

Youth baseball facility seen as boost for economy

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Brandon Mayor Butch Lee is proposing a 2 percent additional tax on food and beverage sales at local restaurants to pay for a multi-field complex focused on baseball.

He says the goals are to allow the city’s Shiloh Park to convert more to soccer and girls fast-pitch softball.

He tells The Clarion-Ledger that a sportsplex would put his city in a position to host major regional youth sports tournaments.

Town Hall meetings are scheduled for June 4 and 6. […]

Miss. mayoral primaries narrow candidate fields

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Most Mississippi cities elect mayors this year, and party primaries Tuesday narrowed the fields of candidates.

Primary runoffs are May 21. The general election is June 4, with mayoral terms beginning July 1. A candidate must win 50 percent plus one to avoid a runoff, and otherwise the top two vote-getters advance.

In Vicksburg, The Vicksburg Post was reporting late Tuesday that Rep. George Flaggs, Jr., was easily leading five other Democratic candidates with all 11 precincts reporting. Unofficial results showed Flaggs had 2,590 votes, Linda Fondren had 1,515 and first-term Mayor Paul Winfield had 402. […]