url
stringlengths 79
209
| text
stringlengths 605
28.5k
| in_y0
bool 1
class | in_y1
bool 2
classes | category
stringclasses 2
values | publisher
stringclasses 1
value | crawl_date
stringclasses 171
values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/biden-oil-move-aims-to-cut-gas-prices-fairly-significantly/article_e55629d1-a9db-564c-b4bb-a9b8935f88a0.html
|
WASHINGTON • President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The president said it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be "anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon." Gas is averaging about $4.23 a gallon, compared with $2.87 a year ago, according to AAA.
"The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now," Biden said. "This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families."
The president also wants Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but are not producing. He said he will invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The actions show that oil remains a vulnerability for the U.S. Higher prices have hurt Biden's approval domestically and added billions of oil-export dollars to the Russian government as it wages war on Ukraine.
Tapping the stockpile would create pressures that could reduce oil prices, though Biden has twice ordered releases from the reserves without causing a meaningful shift in oil markets. Biden said Thursday he expects gasoline prices could drop "fairly significantly."
Part of Biden's concern is that high prices have not so far coaxed a meaningful jump in oil production. The planned release is a way to increase supplies as a bridge until oil companies ramp up their own production, with administration officials estimating that domestic production will grow by 1 million barrels daily this year and an additional 700,000 barrels daily in 2023.
The markets reacted quickly with crude oil prices dropping about 6% in Thursday trading to roughly $101 a barrel. Still, oil is up from roughly $60 a year ago, with supplies failing to keep up with demand as the world economy has begun to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. That inflationary problem was compounded by Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which created new uncertainties about oil and natural gas supplies and led to retaliatory sanctions from the U.S. and its allies.
Stewart Glickman, an oil analyst for CFRA Research, said the release would bring short-term relief on prices and would be akin to "taking some Advil for a headache." But markets would ultimately look to see whether, after the releases stop, the underlying problems that led to Biden's decisions remain.
"The root cause of the headache is probably still going to be there after the medicine wears off," Glickman said.
Biden has been in talks with allies and partners to join in additional releases of oil, such that the world market will get more than the 180 million barrels total being pledged by the U.S.
Americans on average use about 21 million barrels of oil daily, with about 40% of that devoted to gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That total accounts for about one-fifth of total global consumption of oil.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/mississippi-man-gets-124-years-for-selling-deadly-drug/article_ca0ca9fe-a7e4-5778-af20-ced5e1fde2d8.html
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/police-runaway-alabama-girl-located-in-mississippi-has-died/article_59a284f7-d1d8-52ea-a52b-8dda239b9379.html
|
MOBILE, Ala. • A 13-year-old girl who reportedly ran away from her home in Alabama before being found in a nearby Mississippi city has died, Mobile Police said.
The circumstances around the death of Keyanna Sylvester remain unclear, police said.
D'Iberville Police Capt. Jason King said the girl was at a motel in the city and at some point went to an area hospital, although he added that it is uncertain how she died. He told WALA-TV that investigators are waiting for a report by the medical examiner to confirm a cause of death.
"We're saddened by the events that occurred in our city," he said.
The girl reportedly ran away March 21 and was believed to have spent some time in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and was seen two days later in Moss Point before being found in D'Iberville and taken to a hospital, the station reported.
King said it was too early in the investigation to say whether Sylvester's death was the result of foul play.
"We're making sure we're careful about not saying whether it's criminal or not criminal at this time," he said.
The girl's death took neighbor Alexie Thames by surprise. She described Sylvester as a sweet girl who was almost like her own daughter. She said the girl attended the school where she works.
"It hurts me real bad because Keyanna was my baby," she said, fighting through tears. "It's sad. Whoever did this to my favorite baby, I hope, I hope – Lord. Please, God. Oh my God."
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/taste-of-tupelo/article_267bb2ef-32fc-5d4c-9db4-5bb8127b2213.html
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/mississippi-state/mississippi-state-football-mourns-loss-of-dave-nichol/article_8f11a660-7b7b-51ac-a155-d4e49f122eee.html
|
STARKVILLE, MS - August 06, 2021 - Mississippi State Inside Receivers Coach Dave Nichol during training camp practice at the Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex at Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS. Photo By Chamberlain Smith
STARKVILLE • As Mississippi State’s spring season continues, the memory of former wide receivers coach Dave Nichol lives on.
Nichol died March 25 after health issues suddenly got worse. His death came just days after it was reported he was stepping away from his new role as an assistant on Lincoln Riley’s staff at Southern California.
Join the conversation in our exclusive Facebook group for Bulldog fans
Mississippi State’s outside receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. met with reporters Thursday following the team’s fourth spring practice. Before fielding questions regarding play on the field, he opened by discussing the loss of a close friend and longtime colleague.
“Thoughts to Coach Nichol and his family,” he said. “What a sad event. Thoughts and prayers with him. Obviously for a guy that was very healthy, that kinda snuck up and got him fast. That impacted a lot of people.”
Spurrier worked alongside Nichol throughout the first two seasons of Mike Leach’s tenure at Mississippi State, but their relationship stems outside Starkville. They spent a couple seasons working together under Leach at Washington State.
MSU’s staff has been vocal about Nichol’s loss and how others can help his legacy live on. Leach shared details Thursday regarding a service which will be held for Nichol on Monday in Plano, Texas.
Mississippi State’s staff will be in attendance, a team spokesperson said.
Along with staff members, Mississippi State has a veteran roster losing a mentor and friend.
Players such as quarterback Will Rogers took to social media to post their well wishes for Nichol while expressing their gratitude for getting to play for him.
Spurrier says the news was difficult to process for his players and likely for many who have played for or coached with Nichol in the past outside of MSU. In the loss, Spurrier hopes his team can find the silver lining in gratitude for what they have.
“It was shocking. I mean, he’s gone,” Spurrier said. “We knew about a month before he was taken from us that he’s sick. It’s heartbreakingly sad. (The) message to everyone too is to count your blessings and make sure you realize how fortunate you are in what we have. Make sure you enjoy every day. Just be appreciative and thankful for what you have.”
STEFAN KRAJISNIK is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at stefan.krajisnik@djournal.com.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/news/nettleton-school-district-dismissing-early-wednesday-due-to-weather-threat/article_d14796f7-6e0f-53d5-89a3-4578ea5b24bc.html
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/high-school/division-1-6a-baseball-up-for-grabs/article_2554cbc7-cb64-599f-bf7d-3722cd7e167e.html
|
Who is the favorite to win the Division 1-6A baseball title? The answer is even murkier than I once thought.
Entering tonight’s games, Grenada, Oxford, Starkville and Tupelo are all 2-2. Grenada took two of three from Oxford last week, then lost its series opener against Tupelo on Tuesday. Starkville took two of three from Tupelo, then lost to Oxford on Tuesday.
Before the season began, I’d have said that Oxford and Tupelo would be battling for the No. 1 playoff berth. I have either overestimated those teams or underestimated the other two.
Of course, when the season began, Tupelo still had Mason Morris, the pitcher and shortstop who is committed to Ole Miss. He’s been out for over two weeks with an undisclosed injury, and it’s unclear when or if he will return to the Golden Wave.
That means McClain Ray has to be sharp every time he takes the mound, and that’s been the case thus far. He allowed just one run against Starkville last week in a 7-6 win, and he tossed four shutout innings against Grenada.
The issue is the rest of the pitching staff, which has a collective 4.81 ERA. The bullpen nearly blew that game against Starkville, and the rotation behind Ray is all hands on deck. There’s plenty of talent on the staff, but it’s largely unproven.
Grenada, on the other hand, has gotten some solid pitching and enough offense to back it up. Jude Westmoreland allowed just one earned run in the Chargers’ series-clinching 8-4 win over Oxford on Saturday. For the season, he’s 3-0 with a 0.57 ERA.
If Grenada has a weakness, it’s in the field. It survived making five errors in that Saturday win, but six errors proved costly against Tupelo on Tuesday. The Chargers have an .845 fielding percentage on the season.
Starkville’s pitching has been all over the map. Ethan Pulliam allowed three hits in five innings in Starkville’s 16-1 win over Tupelo last Friday, but Cole Kendrick was chased after just one inning against Oxford on Tuesday.
The Yellowjackets have also been inconsistent on offense.
Gun to my head, I’d have to say Oxford is the favorite to win this division. The pitching has been strong on the whole, led by Dixon Webb, who’s 6-1 with a 1.60 ERA.
The Chargers are hitting .325 as a team. Catcher Campbell Smithwick, a transfer from South Carolina, is hitting .438 with 14 RBIs. Ty Wicker checks in at .404 and 13 RBIs. Oxford has a .927 fielding percentage.
The top three teams will make the playoffs. Damned if I know which one will be left at home.
Brad Locke is senior sports writer for the Daily Journal. Contact him on Twitter @bradlocke or via email at brad.locke@journalinc.com.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/meditation-ready-to-hear/article_c9b6be11-c20e-5433-a0b8-823ad3270bbf.html
|
Lots of biblical ideas make the belief-reluctant smile or chuckle, if not laugh out loud. Most such ideas fit under the following heading: Supernatural. Contrary to popular notion, supernatural does not mean in opposition to or in conflict with the natural but, rather, an order beyond common comprehension. If you’d like an analogy, spend some quality time with a child as she wakes to butterflies, buttercups, buttered toast and the countless wonders all around her. Something like this is what the theologians mean by supernatural.
Consider, for example, this odd phrase: Hearing the voice of God.
Our pastoral studies professor at Memphis Theological Seminary, quite a comical fellow, told us of his call to ministry at a Billy Graham rally, when he heard an audible voice. “I was tickled,” he said, “that God speaks English!” At least two others I know have had similar experiences. But most believing souls sojourning through the planet cannot lay claim to such a boon. So where does that leave us?
It leaves us just where we need to be, thank you very much. A mother hears the cries of a child from miles and miles away and calls long-distance. “What’s wrong?” A dog howls at pitches that escape us. “I hear what you’re saying,” one friend says to another. Well, so can everyone else around them, of course, yet not everyone comprehends everything being communicated at that precise moment. At the risk of sounding far too religious, there is hearing, and then there is hearing.
Two women stood one morning at the front doors of a church, Q-tips and rubbing alcohol in hand, so that they could clean out the ears of everyone in advance. You never know what you might hear when you get ready to hear. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15).
The Rev. Eugene Stockstill is pastor of Ebenezer United Methodist Church and Myrtle United Methodist Church in Union County.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/religion/lynn-jones-patience-for-the-changing-seasons/article_a7107351-99f4-5a0a-b2b5-7b1805b8c8d9.html
|
A few years ago, I made several long trips across this country with Edwin Way Teale. I didn’t do it in person, but I did it with him in four books that he wrote. Teale was a naturalist, who along with his wife, Nellie, made four journeys across the country in the 1950s and 1960s. Each trip coincided with a season of the year, and he wrote accounts of these trips in his four books.
Traveling alongside Edwin Teale was an exciting journey. Not only was Teale a vast repository of information about the land, plants, and animals of this country, but along the way he would pick up and pass on bits of folk wisdom. One year as he and his wife made their way through Montana, he picked up a saying he heard. In the range country of Montana, there sometimes comes a time in spring when the winter hay is gone, and the new grass has not arrived. In this period between hay and grass, the cattle are hard-pressed for food. “Similarly,” he wrote, “a man in difficulties is described as being ‘between hay and grass.’”
I can remember such days on the farm. The hay had about run out, and the grass was not quite big enough to provide much food for the cows. You’re caught between hay and grass.
Such moments come in life when one door closes, and another door has not yet opened. It happened to Paul and his companions on the second missionary journey when they arrived in Troas. God had closed the doors into Asia and into Bithynia, but He had not yet opened the door into Macedonia. Paul and his fellow travelers had to settle down in Troas and wait until another door opened.
Waiting is hard on us. I heard about a man who went to his first play. He watched the first act and then got up and left. A friend saw him leave, and the next day when the friend saw him, he asked, “Why did you leave the play after the first act?” The man replied, “Well, on the program, it said that the second act takes place three days later.”
Patience has never been our strong suit, but when you’re caught between hay and grass, patience and faith are necessary. We’re about two weeks away from the average date of our last frost. It won’t be long before the grass that is brown and dormant will be turning green and growing.
If you’re caught between hay and grass in your life, don’t give up. After the stillness of that evening in Troas, there came the excitement of the Macedonian vision and planting the gospel for the first time on the continent of Europe. You never can tell when God is going to open an exciting new door for you!
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/crime-law-enforcement/crime-reports-friday-april-1-2022/article_6de89b77-6fc8-5dcd-8352-a5ec4509d08e.html
|
The following people were booked into the Lee County-Tupelo Adult Jail in connection with felony charges ending Thursday at 11 a.m.
Charles Bishop, 39, of Blue Springs, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff's Office, child abuse, sexual battery, aggravated domestic violence, touching a child for lustful purposes.
Stacey Lynn Mills, 50, of Mooreville, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff's Office, exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
Rodricus Riley, 37, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff's Office, arson.
Lee County Sheriff's Office
The following reports were filed Thursday by the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
A County Road 931 Tupelo man said someone entered a fenced area at Twin Creek Rentals and stole his EZ Go golf cart over the weekend. He had just installed new batteries, and the thief took the charger as well.
Newsletters
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
A woman said while she was in the shower at a male acquaintance's County Road 1147 Auburn house, a female suspect entered the house and took nude pictures of her. After the suspect left, the woman realized her iPhone was missing as well. The man said he did not know how the suspect got into the house.
A Drive 288 Shannon woman was doing yard work in front of her house and pushed her lawnmower to the edge of the ditch. When she got ready to mow the ditch, she discovered her push mower was gone.
A Mitchell Road woman was looking out the window, watching for bad weather, when she saw her daughter’s ex-boyfriend/baby daddy walk past. She thought it was suspicious for him to be at the apartment complex.
A Stratton Drive Tupelo man said someone rang his doorbell numerous times between 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Each time he checked, the unknown person ran away. Between doorbell rings, he could hear someone in the backyard, but no one was there when he would check.
Tupelo Police Department
No reports filed since March 25.
Anyone with information on any of these crimes is urged to call the Lee County Sheriff's Office at 841-9041, the Tupelo Police Department at 841-6491 or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at (800) 773-TIPS or download the P3 Tip App and leave an anonymous tip that way.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/state-news/legislature-passes-bill-to-create-more-freestanding-ers-in-rural-counties/article_c728b6e8-8718-5a29-b105-1b834a6ecdc5.html
|
JACKSON • A bill that could fill a crucial health care need in rural Northeast Mississippi is headed to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk for review.
Both chambers of the state Legislature have approved a final version of a bill that would permit the construction of “freestanding” emergency rooms — ERs unattached to hospitals — in rural counties without one.
The bill passed the House 117-4. Rep. Chris Brown, R-Nettleton, was the only Northeast Mississippi lawmaker to vote against it. The legislation unanimously passed the Senate.
If Reeves signs the bill into law, it could lead to more emergency health care access for rural counties in Northeast Mississippi – particularly Chickasaw County, which has long fought to get an emergency room.
“I’ve gotten numerous calls, texts and emails from folks in Chickasaw County, and they’re excited about it,” said Republican Sen. Ben Suber of Bruce, the author of the bill. “It’s a huge need in our area.”
Houston, one of the county seats in Chickasaw County, could be considered to be in the middle of an emergency room desert. The town has just one medical facility, Trace Medical, which offers only limited hours and care.
The nearest emergency room is located in Calhoun City — 25 minutes away. Emergency rooms in West Point and Tupelo are each roughly 45 minutes away.
Trace Medical shut down its emergency room in 2014, citing low profits.
Traditional emergency rooms in Mississippi often struggle financially because of a variety of factors, including tight restrictions from private insurance companies and lawmakers' refusal to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor.
However, a provision in state Medicaid laws allows emergency facilities without inpatient beds to receive a higher Medicaid reimbursement rate, elevating the chance that a freestanding ER could be financially feasible.
The general idea behind a freestanding facility would be for patients to seek enough emergency care from a licensed physician to be stabilized and then moved to another facility for long-term treatment.
If signed into law, the bill would create a pilot program that allows a freestanding facility in counties where none exists, even if there is a hospital. The legislation limits the number of these facilities to five statewide so lawmakers can see if the program works.
If the governor signs the legislation, the Mississippi State Department of Health will create regulations to govern the facilities, and they’ll be responsible for choosing which five counties can have freestanding emergency rooms.
Since Houston has been without an emergency room for eight years, both Suber and Rep. Jon Lancaster, R-Houston, made access to rural health care a critical part of their campaign in 2019.
"I'm excited about this," Suber said. "It means a lot to our area."
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/historical-research-requires-maps/article_330d0c25-0d3c-5d29-a5e0-ae1089e5a8f3.html
|
Maps provide an essential key to understanding our stories as individuals and as an All-America City. Here at the Oren Dunn City Museum, we use a series of maps to tell the Tupelo Story. But you can access some maps on your own and discover more about Tupelo and Northeast Mississippi.
First, you have to thank the Phoenix Assurance Co. Ltd. for initiating fire insurance maps in the late 18th century. In 1790, surveyors for Phoenix assembled information about every structure in the city of London, England, to create a map that would assist fire insurance agents to determine the degree of hazard associated with a particular property.
By 1790, Phoenix had surveyors in Charleston, S.C., making the publication of a fire insurance maps of that city the first of its kind in 1790. Edmund Petrie conducted the survey. Petrie would go on to survey other larger cities in the United States as she grew.
And then came Daniel Alfred Sanborn.
Petrie and other surveyors created various iterations of fire insurance maps, but it wasn’t until Aetna Insurance Co. hired Sanborn to make maps for some Tennessee-based cities after the Civil War. Officials at Aetna had noticed the surveyor from his work in 1867 because he created a “city atlas” for Boston. The publication, “Insurance Map of Boston,” became a sort of standard for the maps.
You could say it put Sanborn on the map.
Most people do not realize these maps exist. For Tupelo, the Library of Congress has Sanborn Map Co. maps for 1889, 1894, 1899, 1903, 1909, 1914, 1919, 1924, and 1929. You can access them at loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps. The museum has a set from 1924 you may spread on a table and peruse. Just give us a call, so we can bring them up for you.
The maps come as a series of pages with a title page at the beginning. A smaller, title page kind of map gives you an overview of the city. The page also lists an index of streets and special buildings. On that index you’ll find the page, or what the mapmakers call “sheet” to search. For example, on Tupelo’s 1924 Sanborn Map, All Saints Episcopal Church is on sheet 10.
The title page also gives an overview of the water and its sources available and the fire department. Again, in Tupelo in 1924, mapmakers noted the city owned the water works — a gravity and direct pressure system installed in 1905. Among other bits of technical information, the map also reveals the average daily consumption was 1 million gallons. Oh, and Tupelo had a population of 6,100 people at the time of the map.
In addition, the Tupelo Fire Department consisted of four paid firefighters, an assistant chief and a chief. The department had a combination truck with a 1000-foot hose, 2.5 inches in diameter and a 40-gallon chemical tank with a 190-foot chemical hose and 40 feet of ladders.
The map also noted that by Jan. 1, 1925, the fire department would have an American La France truck with a pumping capacity of 750 gallons per minute and 1500 feet of hose, 2.5 inches in diameter. The department also had an electric siren on the roof of the headquarters building at the Tupelo Municipal Plant.
The Library of Congress provides a key to reading the map. For instance, a reddish color means the building was built of brick or tile; yellow means a frame or wooden structure; green denotes fire-resistant construction and gray represents adobe buildings.
We know from looking at these maps that Tupelo once had a First Street and a Second Street. We’ve seen where the Catholic church moved from a wooden structure on South Green to its present location on North Gloster.
Maps are fun. If you’re interested in your roots, in where you live and in seeing changes, play with the Sanborn maps.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/speaking-strength-tupelo-child-shares-unspoken-wisdom-with-all-who-will-listen/article_fe812568-92f0-5e95-86b1-155d600b3276.html
|
TUPELO • “Suffering is our teacher; suffer here with joy.”
Those profound words didn’t come from the pen of an ancient Desert Father or an early Christian martyr. They came from ten-year-old Caleb Rodgers of Tupelo.
“Pastor Caleb,” as he is known by many, has cerebral palsy. He communicates by pointing to letters on a card while his mother writes out the messages. Those messages, both on social media and in his many live engagements, bring hope and strength to everyone who hears them.
A recent post from his Facebook page, Caleb Rodgers Updates, exemplifies his work: “Some individuals out there think they have never had someone to love them! You must let me tell you about my God if you want to know unconditional love!”
Caleb’s father, Rodney Rodgers, is a nurse practitioner who owns East Main Family Medical Clinic in Tupelo. He said Caleb’s condition is both physically painful and emotionally frustrating.
“Cerebral palsy is a brain injury that affects the connection between the muscles and the brain,” he said. “It’s like being trapped in your own body.”
Rodney said despite it all, Caleb faces even the worst days with joy and courage.
“He went through a long period where he was having ice pick headaches,” he said. “He’d scream in pain all day, and then at the end of the day, he’d spell out ‘great day.’”
Though Caleb is nonverbal, Rodney said everywhere he goes, people sit up and listen. “Pastor Caleb” dictates his messages to his mother, who reads them aloud.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I can stand up and speak and people will nod off. But when Caleb speaks, there won’t be a dry eye in the room. Even kids get quiet. They’re just drawn to him. It’s amazing.”
Caleb’s mother, Jennie, said Caleb has always had a sense of what could only be called his “divine calling.”
“He’s not of this world,” she said. “For years, he’s been saying, ‘Only eternal things are important. This is not our home. I’m here for a purpose.’”
Caleb has crystal-clarity about what that purpose is, Jennie said.
“He always says, ‘I was put here for two reasons: to make you (his parents) good soldiers, and to encourage others,’” she said. “He has no agenda; he just loves people and wants them to know about Jesus.”
Even when he isn’t speaking publicly or posting on social media about his faith, it is never far from his consciousness, Jennie said.
“He has to have his uninterrupted ‘Jesus time’ every day,” she said. “When he’s chilling, he watches Adrian Rogers. He’s had two backyard revivals for his birthday, and he has published two devotionals. He’s been saving his allowance for years to buy plane tickets so he can go to Africa to tell people about Jesus.”
Not content just to speak about his faith, Caleb wants others to read about it for themselves. What began with Caleb saving his allowance to buy giveaway Bibles has turned into a ministry of its own, Jennie said.
“In March of 2020, we started a nonprofit called Just Jesus Inc.,” she said. “We’ve given away about 2,500 Bibles so far. We give Bibles away to all kinds of places–jails, rehab facilities, beach condos, you name it. We just did Hotel Tupelo.”
Whatever he’s doing, “Pastor Caleb” is living out his mission of encouraging others. And he’s making good soldiers of his parents, too.
“Caleb is a gift,” Rodney said. “He’s on a different level. He has drawn us closer to God through his walk.”
On days when Jennie feels overwhelmed or discouraged, Caleb is there to speak words of encouragement to her, she said.
“He refers to me as ‘strong mother,’” she said. “He’ll say, ‘Faint not, strong mother.’ He speaks strength into my life.”
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/outdoors/collection-of-stories-covers-natural-cornucopia/article_2d8dc38f-f6cb-5e83-9645-b9b3f583d1e7.html
|
Variety in game, seasons and experience is one of the most attractive elements of a life outdoors. Sharing that joy drives storytellers like Jim Spencer and Larry Dablemont in the craft that’s defined their lives. Their latest book captures the woods’ wondrous array in a rare and satisfying read.
Few hunters or fishermen set out from childhood to be single-species specialists, but the practicalities of full-time freelance outdoor writing tend to steer those chasing such dreams into defined lanes. The wit and ability to write any story for any buyer is valuable, but becoming an established authority in a particular niche allows a writer to build name recognition with editors and readers alike. That’s how Spencer and Dablemont, both residents of the Ozarks, came to write primarily about turkeys and smallmouth bass respectively. Nonetheless, the two have been at work in their chosen field for decades, and each has written about every outdoor activity under the sun along the way.
Because of the value of subject matter expertise, their previous collections in book form have focused mainly on the topics for which they’re best known. That restriction has kept many gems buried in the files. A squirrel hunting story is out of place in a turkey hunting collection, no matter how well-turned its phrases may be.
The notion of far too many bright lines fading and forgotten, and the opportunity to build a collection together, led them to act.
“Larry and I have been friends, adversaries and competitors for at least 40 years,” Spencer said. “We’ve been brothers in arms in this industry since we were both young, which was never yesterday.”
Their friendly rivalry and an opportunity to work together, not to mention an avalanche of once-published stories waiting to be re-told, brought to life their new book, “The Way I Remember It.” Through 60 stories and filling a shade more than 300 pages, “The Way I Remember It” gathers what each writer considers the very best examples from his own body of work.
“The value of the book is its wide scope,” Spencer said. “Each of us went through our stuff and selected 40 pieces. Then we swapped, read through each other’s choices and said which 10 we’d recommend be cut, so the final would have 30 stories from each of us.
Sweeping scope
“We wanted it to be a substantial book, but not monstrous. We wanted to keep the final product to just a little more than 300 pages, and we did that.”
Spencer and Dablemont have plied their trades primarily in the Midwest. They share the common ground of hidden lakes and steep hillsides, of appreciation for the quiet places and lives lived close to the land, but their styles of describing what they see and do there are quite different.
Both approach the task with a confidence that comes from hundreds of miles of typewritten lines whacked letter by letter onto pages beyond counting. Spencer’s copy is descriptive and direct. His cleanly-constructed sentences deliver facts or narrate action with a practiced ease. Dablemont’s writing flows at a conversational pace. It recalls an era of less hectic times and small, closely-knit communities. Each style is an excellent platform from which outdoor yarns may be told. Together, the styles and the stories they share form a warm, wonderful blend. The varied subject matter supports that well.
“There’s more than one facet of the outdoors, no matter what your favorite thing to do may be,” Spencer said. “We wanted the book to reflect that.
“I went through and picked out 50 or 60 fo what I consider my best stuff from my full body of work. Then I started looking to divvy it up between ducks and squirrels and fishing and everything else. Larry did the same, and we each picked stories that meant something to us.”
The result is a book that will mean something to any outdoors enthusiast who picks it up.
The book is available by mail order for $27, a total that includes shipping. Send checks to Treble Hook Unlimited, P.O. Box 758, Calico Rock, AR 72519.
An outdoor life
“I could read when I was about 3 years old because my grandmother taught me, reading comic books and running her finger along the words printed in the bubbles above the character’s heads,” Spencer said. “From the time I was about 6 years old and on, her Christmas present to me every year was a subscription to Outdoor Life. I’d read the stories by Jack O’Connor, Elmer Keith and all those guys and think, ‘I could do that.’”
Eventually, Spencer decided to give freelance writing a serious try.
“I wrote a newspaper column for a few years, then I made a point to focus on selling specifically to magazines,” he said. “I checked a book out of the library titled, ‘Writing to Sell,’ by Scott Meredith. He was a literary agent from New York. In the book he said to put out of your mind stories you’ve already written and sent and move on to the next one. I took that to heart. I wrote a deer hunting story and sent it to Argosy Magazine. When their editor called and said he wanted to buy it, he had to jog my memory, I’d forgotten it so completely.”
This would have been in the 1970s, when outdoor magazines were in their full stride.
“The deer hunting story sold for $150 and, man, I thought I was on top of the world,” Spencer said. “I sold them a story on squirrel hunting right after that. Then it was 97 rejections after that before I sold another story. I might have given up but, since I had sold those two hunting stories, I knew I could sell hunting stories, so I kept going.”
Decades on, the outdoor reading public is much richer for his efforts.
For more information on Spencer’s other books, email him at modernmountainman@gmail.com.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/religion/tupelo-child-shares-unspoken-wisdom-with-all-who-will-listen/article_fe812568-92f0-5e95-86b1-155d600b3276.html
|
TUPELO • “Suffering is our teacher; suffer here with joy.”
Those profound words didn’t come from the pen of an ancient Desert Father or an early Christian martyr. They came from ten-year-old Caleb Rodgers of Tupelo.
“Pastor Caleb,” as he is known by many, has cerebral palsy. He communicates by pointing to letters on a card while his mother writes out the messages. Those messages, both on social media and in his many live engagements, bring hope and strength to everyone who hears them.
A recent post from his Facebook page, Caleb Rodgers Updates, exemplifies his work: “Some individuals out there think they have never had someone to love them! You must let me tell you about my God if you want to know unconditional love!”
Caleb’s father, Rodney Rodgers, is a nurse practitioner who owns East Main Family Medical Clinic in Tupelo. He said Caleb’s condition is both physically painful and emotionally frustrating.
“Cerebral palsy is a brain injury that affects the connection between the muscles and the brain,” he said. “It’s like being trapped in your own body.”
Rodney said despite it all, Caleb faces even the worst days with joy and courage.
“He went through a long period where he was having ice pick headaches,” he said. “He’d scream in pain all day, and then at the end of the day, he’d spell out ‘great day.’”
Though Caleb is nonverbal, Rodney said everywhere he goes, people sit up and listen. “Pastor Caleb” dictates his messages to his mother, who reads them aloud.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I can stand up and speak and people will nod off. But when Caleb speaks, there won’t be a dry eye in the room. Even kids get quiet. They’re just drawn to him. It’s amazing.”
Caleb’s mother, Jennie, said Caleb has always had a sense of what could only be called his “divine calling.”
“He’s not of this world,” she said. “For years, he’s been saying, ‘Only eternal things are important. This is not our home. I’m here for a purpose.’”
Caleb has crystal-clarity about what that purpose is, Jennie said.
“He always says, ‘I was put here for two reasons: to make you (his parents) good soldiers, and to encourage others,’” she said. “He has no agenda; he just loves people and wants them to know about Jesus.”
Even when he isn’t speaking publicly or posting on social media about his faith, it is never far from his consciousness, Jennie said.
“He has to have his uninterrupted ‘Jesus time’ every day,” she said. “When he’s chilling, he watches Adrian Rogers. He’s had two backyard revivals for his birthday, and he has published two devotionals. He’s been saving his allowance for years to buy plane tickets so he can go to Africa to tell people about Jesus.”
Not content just to speak about his faith, Caleb wants others to read about it for themselves. What began with Caleb saving his allowance to buy giveaway Bibles has turned into a ministry of its own, Jennie said.
“In March of 2020, we started a nonprofit called Just Jesus Inc.,” she said. “We’ve given away about 2,500 Bibles so far. We give Bibles away to all kinds of places–jails, rehab facilities, beach condos, you name it. We just did Hotel Tupelo.”
Whatever he’s doing, “Pastor Caleb” is living out his mission of encouraging others. And he’s making good soldiers of his parents, too.
“Caleb is a gift,” Rodney said. “He’s on a different level. He has drawn us closer to God through his walk.”
On days when Jennie feels overwhelmed or discouraged, Caleb is there to speak words of encouragement to her, she said.
“He refers to me as ‘strong mother,’” she said. “He’ll say, ‘Faint not, strong mother.’ He speaks strength into my life.”
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/living/smithville-events-committee-hosting-easter-egg-hunt/article_88eb97ab-8276-58dd-891b-8addd31901aa.html
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/living/transplanted-volunteer-remembered-for-monroe-county-contributions/article_5fe09579-c49a-5d3a-87ea-c8a36bfeea96.html
|
AMORY – A unique character came to Monroe County in 2011, responding to his inner call to help in recovery efforts after the Smithville tornado. Vere Craig Gardner, whose volunteer spirit possessed him to remain in the county, died March 19 in a little cabin south of Becker after battling cancer for a couple of years.
In the years since the recovery effort in Smithville, Gardner worked as a groundskeeper for Larry and Gayle George in Amory. He previously worked as a landscaper in Marion, Indiana before migrating south.
“Some of you may have known him from giving his time to loading, picking up stock and overseeing the blessing box here in Amory from the start of it over six years ago,” Gayle said in a tribute to him. “I am proud to say Vere gave his soul to Christ when he was in the hospital as he began his fight with cancer over two years ago.”
Gayle said he once told her that she softened him up, which she took as a compliment.
He was also involved at First Friends Respite Center.
“He often looked a vagrant but as soon as he opened his mouth, you knew he was a person of wisdom. I had to take him on his terms, however, because if I expected him on a certain day and he didn’t show up, I just needed to relax with it because he had found something in his world that was more important to him than my job. He would return when he wanted to,” said former First Friends director Mary Nell Dorris.
Among the tributes that poured in upon news of Gardner’s passing came from Ed Wheatley, a friend from Marion, Indiana.
“He was always a friend no matter the distance or faults,” he said.
Gayle said Gardner moved south because he was attracted by his love of southern hospitality and the warmer climate.
After falling upon bad luck, he paddled south from Indiana in a kayak with a backpack on various rivers to Memphis rather than following highways. He wound up living in a tent community with fellow homeless adventurers on Mud Island in downtown Memphis for eight years.
Gardner was a canoeing enthusiast with the nickname River Rat tattooed on his arm who was planning to eventually travel to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast until an event happened that changed his course.
“I was a drunk living on a creek bank in Olive Branch contemplating suicide after a string of shattering reversals in my life. I saw news coverage on television at a bar about the tornado that hit Smithville. My arm raised up and pointed to the screen. I told myself that I was going there and I didn’t even know where it was,” he said in an April 2021 interview with the Monroe Journal.
He asked the way to Smithville, loaded up his belongings on his back and set out. He walked the entire distance from Southaven to Smithville.
Gardner’s cremains were scattered into the waters of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway at his request on March 25 following a committal service along the riverbank behind the Georges’ residence.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/living/vfw-post-4490-hosting-easter-egg-hunt/article_e4428e92-6695-58c2-8712-13db534c7ef3.html
|
WREN – VFW Post #4494 is getting into the Easter spirit April 2 with an event for children and adults alike. The free Easter event will be from 1 until 3 p.m., and the VFW is located at 20028 VFW Post Dr., outside of Aberdeen.
“It’s open to the public and it’s a community event. If you’ve got kids or if you just want to come down and fellowship, we’ll do that,” said Chris Roberson, quartermaster of the post. “We have to get back in touch with the community. That’s a big milestone for me.”
He lost his son to a car accident last year, and Easter was a fond time for them to spend with each other, and he wants to spread the same joy of the season to other families.
Roberson said Ricky Polk of Corinth is helping fill 100 Easter baskets with items such as coloring books, candy and stuffed animals.
There will be more than 500 Easter eggs for the hunt, and the Easter bunny will also be there. People are encouraged to bring their own phones and cameras for photos.
Additionally, there will be barbecue chicken plates with potato salad and baked beans available at no cost. However, donations are being accepted.
“If the Lord puts it on your heart to do a love offering, by all means, please do but don’t feel obligated. We’re going to cook until we’re out of food and when we’re out, we’ll go get more if we have to,” Roberson said.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/news/iccs-baggett-evans-selected-as-finalists-for-prestigious-transfer-scholarship/article_859334cc-dbe6-5e78-a74d-ea12df70fd75.html
|
Itawamba Community College sophomores TayaRenea Leigh Baggett of Hamilton and Chloe Evans of Plantersville have been selected as semifinalists for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.
Baggett is majoring in music education with emphasis on trumpet. Her activities and honors include Phi Theta Kappa, choir, chamber choir, brass ensemble, band, Honors College, President’s List, recipient of the Dean’s and Linda Kay Gilreath Endowed Scholarships and former member of CenterStage. She is a member of St. James Catholic Church, where she is in the choir. Baggett’s parents are Christie and Joseph Hesse.
Evans’ activities and honors at ICC include band/Indianette, Indian Delegation president, lead orientation leader, Student Government Association at-large representative, Phi Theta Kappa vice president of leadership, Sigma Kappa Delta president, Honors College, Chieftain staff writer, Fashion Tribe graphic designer, Baptist Student Union and Wesley Foundation. She is also the recipient of the Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholarship. Her parents are Brad and Melissa Evans.
The Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship is a highly-selective scholarship for the nation’s top community college students seeking to complete their bachelor’s degrees at for-year colleges or universities. Each Cooke Scholar has access to generous financial support for two to three years, college planning support, ongoing advising and the opportunity to connect with the thriving community of fellow Scholars.
This year’s 440 semifinalists were selected from a pool of more than 1,200 applicants attending 180 community colleges in 35 states.
“This past year has been particularly difficult as students continue to navigate the complexities of hybrid learning, the demands of family care and disrupted work schedules,” said Seppy Basili, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. “We are so proud of these semifinalists for their perseverance and achievements at their community colleges.”
Since its inception, the Cooke Foundation has selected transfer students from more than 337 community colleges and has awarded more than $54 million in transfer scholarships.
The Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship recipients will be announced in early May. Cooke Transfer Scholars are selected based on their exceptional academic ability and achievement, financial need, persistence, service and leadership. Students must be currently enrolled in community college or recent alumni.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/sports/noles-rebound-from-division-losses-with-sweep-of-falkner/article_fbb86a0f-5ed6-55f5-9bf8-78d351178f6c.html
|
SMITHVILLE – The Smithville Seminoles had a hard week of division play, dropping a pair of games to Ingomar, but bounced back on Saturday with a sweep of Falkner.
The Noles finished off the run-rule win in six innings, 12-1, in the first game, before winning 8-7 in five innings in the second game.
“We came in today, and I thought we would be a little flat after scoring 15 runs and getting beat 16-15 last night,” Smithville coach Ben Spann said. “We were a little bit to begin with, but our defense was pretty solid today and Clay Tacker pitched one heck of a game. That’s probably the best game of his life. He kept them off balance, and they didn’t have very many hits. We made the plays behind him.”
The two teams stayed locked in a 1-1 tie for the first four innings.
Smithville scored its first run in the third after Pearson Duke walked and scored on a Peyton Nanney RBI single.
Tacker allowed an unearned run in the top of the third after a double and a passed ball, but the Noles turned two key double plays in the second and third fourth innings.
“We turned those two double plays today, which was huge,” Spann said “Those are a pitcher’s best friend. Clay kept his pitch count down.”
The Noles found their groove offensively in the final two innings, scoring six in the fifth and five in the sixth.
Carson Spann singled to jump start the fifth, and Duke drove him in with an RBI single to right center. Nanney reached on an error at first to send another run home, and Brayden Rowland, Cayden Fellows and Lane O’Brian had three straight hits to drive in four more runs.
Smithville finished off the win in the sixth with a run-scoring base hit from Dayton Hipps to right, a two-RBI single to left from Nanney and Tacker’s RBI single to center.
“Everybody was hitting at the end, and it’s contagious,” Spann said. “I tell the leadoff batter every inning to get us started, and everybody else will follow and that’s kind of how it happened today.”
In Game 2 against Falkner, Duke and Tacker had a pair of hits each, while Spann had three-plus scoreless innings in relief and struck out four.
Tacker drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to score Brunetti.
Tuesday: Ingomar 7, Smithville 3
The Seminoles led 3-1 going into the fifth, but Ingomar scored five in that inning which included three Smithville errors.
Smithville scored their runs in the first, third and fourth innings. In the first and third, Dayton Hipps drove in the first two runs with an RBI single in each.
In the fourth, Lane O’Brian singled to center with one out, and Clay Tacker drilled a two-out RBI single to left.
The Noles were held to just four hits from there, two from Chandler Brunetti and one each from Carson Spann and Drew Gideon.
Peyton Nanney went five-plus innings in the start, allowing one earned run on five hits, striking out seven and walking two.
“(Peyton) Nanney pitched a heck of a game, one of the better games I’ve seen him pitch. We just had one bad inning, and if you take that one away, we won the ballgame,” Spann said. “Their pitcher did a good job keeping us off balance, and their coach does a good job with their team hitting. They are going to put the ball in play. We had too many strikeouts and too many errors at the wrong time, same story, different game. Hopefully we can get it fixed and get it right. The season is still young, and we are a talented team and it just hasn’t come together yet.”
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/sports/panthers-split-big-tests-against-east-union-new-hope/article_71ed4861-52f7-51ef-bc81-baa606e06ad4.html
|
AMORY – The Amory Panthers were tested with two other quality teams on Saturday afternoon, splitting a pair of games against East Union and New Hope.
All three teams had one loss coming into Saturday with Amory falling in the first game 5-2 to New Hope before limiting East Union to just three hits in an 8-1 victory in the second game.
“Overall it wasn’t a bad day. Those are both very good teams with long futures ahead of them,” Amory coach Chris Pace said. “I think we got in that mentality after running some wins off and going up 1-0 on New Hope that we were going to score some more runs, and we hit cruise control. We needed to be tested, no doubt.”
The Panthers put up a pair of runs with two outs in the first inning against East Union. Ethan Kimbrough and Bo Rock each drew walks, moved up on a passed ball and a steal from Kimbrough and scored on Corbin Gillentine’s two-run single to left center.
East Union cut it to a one-run game in the third after an infield single and three walks, but Jack Howell sat the Urchins down in the next two innings and the Panthers were able to add to their lead.
They utilized some small ball in the fourth to score a pair of runs. Jack Clayton reached on an error, and Clayton Reese followed him up with a bunt single. Will McComb sacrificed them both over with a bunt, and Reed Stanford reached on an infield single to score both runs.
Rock smashed his second home run of the day in the bottom of the fifth, a solo shot to right, to make it 5-1, and Amory tacked on three more runs in the sixth.
McComb was hit by a pitch, and Stanford and Walker Maranto loaded the bases on walks. Pinch hitter Tyler Sledge drew the fourth free pass of the inning to send home another run, and Stanford came home on an error on a pickoff attempt.
Gillentine reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Maranto to finish off the Panthers’ scoring.
Howell went five-plus innings in the start and allowed just one hit and one run while striking out five. Rock came on in relief for an inning and two-thirds and struck out the first two batters he faced.
“We had some guys come through with hits in that one and some better approaches,” Pace said. “Jack (Howell) was coming off that great outing against Starkville, and he threw more pitches today and was effectively wild. He kept them off balance, and coming behind him with (Bo) Rock was pretty good.”
In the first game against New Hope, Amory took a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on Rock’s solo shot but were held to just two hits from there, including Stanford’s RBI double in the bottom of the seventh.
Sledge struck out four in the start, while Cayden Smith threw a scoreless inning of relief with a pair of strikeouts.
“We fought back in the end and have to work on some approaches at the plate,” Pace said. “We got some different guys in the lineup and still have the pressure thing going if you’re not hitting, someone’s coming for you. Our mentality has to change a little bit because it’s going to be good baseball from here on.”
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/outdoors/april-fools-and-the-curious-spirit-of-mean-spirited-jokes/article_a83a2cc7-2025-5b93-9708-e18b8916da28.html
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/new-albany/sports/new-albany-sports/bulldog-tennis-defeats-pontotoc-and-tupelo-on-road/article_c71db73e-da6c-5777-8b32-51c7ab57dc55.html
|
New Albany went on the road to win two key matches as the Bulldogs defeated Pontotoc in division play and later in the week avenged a loss to 6A Tupelo.
New Albany 6, Pontotoc 1
New Albany kept their slate perfect with the 6-1 win over Pontotoc in Division 2-4A on March 25.
Seniors John David Nelson and Joseph Durrett led the Bulldogs as they won in Boys 1 doubles 6-0, 6-0 over Lorenzo Ramos and Chambers Lane.
Will Boyington and Gregory Nelson won in three by scores of 7-6, 4-6, 11-9 over Joseph Henry and David Metcalf in Boys 2 doubles.
Sarah Robbins and Gracie Mason won the Girls 1 doubles court by scores of 6-1, 6-0 over Samantha McGregor and Heather Tedford.
Girls 2 doubles court saw Eva Aldridge and Caurie Clayton defeat Mollie Rackley and Caroline Howard by 6-4, 6-4 scores.
Everett Garrett moved over to the mixed doubles court and paired with Natalie Creekmore to post a 6-0, 6-1 win over Tay Thornton and Holly Stewart.
Heidi Clayton won the girls singles match over Izzy Park with scores of 6-0, 6-0.
Bradyn Bowman returned to the courts after being sidelined by an injury and lost a close one to Sawyer Richie with the court going to Pontotoc on 6-4, 6-7, 10-8 scores.
New Albany 4, Tupelo 3
The Bulldogs traveled to Tupelo on March 26 to face the Golden Wave of Class 6A and New Albany came home with a 4-3 decision in their favor.
"Our kids are looking sharp going into the final weeks of regular season," New Albany coach Suzy Bowman said. "Now we just have to finish strong."
John David Nelson and Joseph Durrett again led the Tennis Dogs to the win as they overcame an early loss to take a 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 win over Knox Watener and Wes Henson in Boys 2 doubles.
Everett Garrett and Natalie Creekmore paired up for the second consecutive day on mixed doubles and won 6-4, 6-2 over Ashton Posey and Morrison Sliman.
Heidi Clayton was the winner in girls singles by 6-3, 6-2 scores over Isabelle Elmer.
Bradyn Bowman won a hard-fought decision over Luke Williamson by scores of 6-3, 4-6, 15-13 in boys singles.
"I was proud of Bradyn Bowman, coming back just 3.5 weeks after surgery on his hand and playing a strong singles match for us," Suzy said. "It was nice to have him back in the lineup this close to the playoffs."
Girls 1 doubles partners Sarah Robbins and Gracie Mason lost a tight match with Isabella Posey and Laurie Watener by 3-6, 6-1, 11-13 scores.
Tupelo's Beyla Waldrop and Taylor O'Rear won the Girls 2 doubles court by 6-0, 6-2 scores over New Albany's Eva Aldridge and Caurie Clayton.
The Golden Wave duo of Mont Watener and William Henson won over on the Boys 1 doubles court by 6-4, 6-1 scores over Will Boyington and Gregory Nelson of New Albany.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/baldwyn-police-looking-for-runaway/article_7300420c-64eb-52ad-a98e-e402539c0334.html
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/calhoun-county-takes-brunt-of-storm-damage-in-northeast-mississippi/article_14be88d1-57c7-55c5-9ac3-e60568c25918.html
|
This photograph, captured by a drone and provided by the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office, shows the remains of three outbuildings destroyed during a series of storms that swept across the Deep South, Wednesday. Calhoun received the brunt of the damage in Northeast Mississippi.
TUPELO • A line of thunderstorms and straight line winds that moved through the region on Wednesday evening wreaked havoc on a portion of Calhoun County, but spared most of Northeast Mississippi.
The preliminary damage report from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Thursday morning, showed only three counties in the Daily Journal coverage area – Calhoun, Lafayette and Oktibbeha – reported some type of damage to homes, ranging from affected to destroyed.
Of the three, Calhoun County was the only one to show significant damage. And the bulk of that was in the northeast corner of the county, said Sheriff Greg Pollan.
“Highway 9 from County Road 267 to the Pontotoc County line had extensive damage,” Pollan said. “I estimate there were 100 trees down. And when they went down, they took out the power lines. In just that stretch, there were at least a dozen homes damaged.”
By lunchtime on Thursday, the number of homes damaged across the county had grown to around two dozen. And officials had not even started counting the number of shops, barns and outbuildings damaged.
Newsletters
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office used their drone to help assess damages. In one case, three outbuildings within a couple hundred feet of a house were destroyed, but the residence only lost one piece of tin.
“We were very fortunate that there has not been one report of someone being injured,” Pollan said.
Just to the north of Calhoun County, there were only a couple a houses damaged. Lafayette County Emergency Management Agency director Steven Quarles said a tree limb went through the roof of an house in Oxford, and a tree fell across a prefabricated structure in the county, cutting it in half.
“There was a lady in it at the time. She was carried to the hospital, but only had minor injuries,” Quarles said. “We came out of this lucky. Panola County was hit worse than us and it looks like Tallahatchie County got the brunt of it as far as damage in north Mississippi.”
Weather officials are still trying to determine if the damage was caused by tornadoes or just straight line winds. According to National Weather Service in Memphis, Tupelo saw a wind gust of 53 mph at 1:49 p.m. on March 30. Iuka and Corinth saw gusts in the upper 40s and Aberdeen, Amory and Oxford topped out around 45 mph.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/pontotoc/supervisors-vote-to-opt-out-of-marijuana-program/article_816e3f2e-b9ad-5696-b6b7-b85e3322f73a.html
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/pontotoc/ask-the-master-gardener/article_dac28fc3-4962-5be7-8e3d-47a82f70afb0.html
|
Question: What are some tips shared by Dr. Jeff Wilson at last week’s Pontotoc Master Gardener grafting workshop?
Answer: First, publication #P3402 defines grafting. “Grafting is a method of asexual plant propagation that joins parts from different plants so that they will heal and grow as one plant.” The scion (the stem from the desired variety) is a shoot with several dormant buds to produce the new branches. The rootstock becomes the root system of a grafted or budded tree.
If wondering--why aren’t more gardeners outside grafting trees? For a successful graft, the cambium layer on both tree parts must align and grow together. This may mean acquiring some skill through practicing this growing process.
Grafting techniques are a section of our Master Gardener manual and learning sessions. Gardeners here agreed that with Dr. Wilson’s expertise, we might share the efforts to succeed in this age-old strategy. Already we knew that there had to be compatible stock and scion, cambium layers must meet properly, scions must be healthy, turned correctly, uninjured or displaced, and dormant with a graft properly secured with grafting tape. So many variables to conflict!
And, so many chances to redirect growth.
So, while it is mandatory that nursery workers and fruit tree producers know how to graft, the rest of us may be “hobbyists” who just hope to learn a useful technique. Here, gardeners from different areas of North Mississippi learned how to propagate for the better use of superior root systems or to maintain clonal reproduction, important even to home orchard growers.
Many months of gathering scions and acquiring rootstock (by president Julia and Dr. Jeff Wilson) preceded this session. Garden enthusiasts from outlying areas came to learn—and left with grafted fruit trees for their home orchards.
We heard that thriving orchard owners could create newer, better-yielding varieties of fruit trees more resistant to insects and disease. Dr. Wilson said that many plants do not reproduce true from seeds nor are they economically reproduced from cuttings. Some fruit trees require cross-pollination by a second—often different—variety, often unavailable; by grafting a scion from a male tree onto the female one, a grower may have that needed pollinizer. This (seemingly practice-oriented) work can change the root system by using rootstocks with best growth habits and better anchorage. Rootstocks for apple varieties, for instance, have increased resistance to crown gall and root aphids, along with providing often desirable dwarfing potential (MSU Extension).
We learned how important grafting tools are (and have been through the ages). Some now available are box cutters or grafting and budding knives, preferably flat on one side of the blade. Why? One of the more critical steps to successful grafting is to prevent air from getting into the graft site and drying it out. No longer needing to coat with wax, Dr. Wilson used a stretchable plastic parafilm that held scion and rootstock together with an airtight seal. Since this tape breaks down, removing it later is unnecessary (P#3402).
Visiting gardeners could choose from several kinds of grafts. Two of these were the whip and tongue and the cleft. I noticed that one gardener had cut a wedge-shaped cut narrower on the opposite side and inserted the scion into the limb stock using the cleft graft. Another asked about having a pecan-grafting workshop (with the four-flap graft working best for pecans and recommended in April by Publication #IS1296). Additionally, a bark graft for scions larger than a two-inch diameter might be worth trying during the active growing season (June through September) to attempt budding, maybe with grape vines.
Who wouldn’t want—on one’s own land—a fruit orchard or an arbor, cluster-laden? Aunt Bea's sturdy grape arbor—passed just before entering her garden gate, welcomed. Later there for us, in Willa Cather’s My Antonia, her family's apple orchard, each tree planted and cared for by hand, showed rare, unthinkable fruit growing from the Nebraska plains. I imagine, from—not just hard work.
Betty Crane, Ph.D., is a trained volunteer with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Have a question for the Pontotoc Master Gardeners? Visit the Pontotoc Extension office or call 662-489-3911.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/pontotoc/pontotoc-supervisors-vote-to-opt-out-of-marijuana-program/article_816e3f2e-b9ad-5696-b6b7-b85e3322f73a.html
|
A senator holds a bag of hemp product, used by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, lead negotiator, to illustrate to lawmakers what specific portions of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Equivalency Units would look like, during his presentation of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act in the Senate Chamber at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.
PONTOTOC • Pontotoc County Supervisors won't allow businesses to cultivate or sell legalized medical marijuana within the county.
In two separate votes during their regular meeting on March 31, Pontotoc supervisors voted against allowing medical marijuana to be grown, cultivated or distributed within Pontotoc County.
The vote against the sale of medical marijuana was unanimous. Supervisors were divided, however, of whether to permit the growing of medical marijuana. Dan McKnight and Ernie Wright voted to allow growers to cultivate medicinal pot; Brad Ward, Mike McGregor and Wayne Stokes voted against.
State law requires municipalities to decide whether they will opt out of permitting the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana within their borders by May 3. The residents of any municipality that does so could, via petition, force a special election to allow the citizenry to determine whether the growth and sale of medical cannabis is allowed.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/amazon-workers-in-nyc-vote-to-unionize-a-first-for-company/article_71af2463-511e-58e9-9945-be41774074f5.html
|
NEW YORK • Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to unionize on Friday, marking the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant's history and handing an unexpected win to a nascent group that fueled the union drive.
Warehouse workers cast 2,654 votes in favor of a union, giving the fledgling Amazon Labor Union enough support to pull off a victory. According to the National Labor Relations Board, which is overseeing the process, 2,131 workers rejected the union bid.
The 67 ballots that were challenged by either Amazon or the ALU were not enough to sway the outcome. About 57% of the more than 8,300 workers on the voter list cast their ballots.
Federal labor officials said the results of the count won't be verified until they process any objections that both parties may file. Any objections are due by April 8.
The victory was an uphill battle for the independent group, made up of former and current workers who lacked official backing from an established union and were out-gunned by the deep-pocketed retail giant. Despite obstacles, organizers believed their grassroots approach was more relatable to workers and could help them overcome where established unions have failed in the past.
Tristan Dutchin, who began working for the online retailer about a year ago, is hopeful that the new union will improve working conditions at his workplace.
"I'm excited that we're making history," Dutchin said. "We're about to unionize a multibillion, trillion-dollar company. This will be a fantastic time for workers to be surrounded in a better, safer working environment."
Chris Smalls, a fired Amazon employee who has been leading the ALU in its fight on Staten Island, bounded out the NLRB building in Brooklyn on Friday with other union organizers, pumping their fists and jumping, chanting "ALU." They uncorked a bottle if Champagne.
Meanwhile, Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, appear to have rejected a union bid but outstanding challenged ballots could change the outcome. The votes were 993-to-875 against the union. A hearing to review 416 challenged ballots is expected to begin in the next few days.
The union campaigns come at a time of widespread labor unrest at many corporations. Workers at more than 140 Starbucks locations around the country, for instance, have requested union elections and several of them have already been successful.
John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, said the early vote counts in New York have been "shocking." The nascent Amazon Labor Union, which is leading the charge on Staten Island, has no backing from an established union and is powered by former and current warehouse workers.
"I don't think that many people thought that the Amazon Labor Union had much of a chance of winning at all," Logan said. "And I think we're likely to see more of those (approaches) going forward."
After a crushing defeat last year in Bessemer, when a majority of workers voted against forming a union, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union got a second chance to organize another campaign when the NLRB ordered a do-over after determining that Amazon tainted the first election.
Though RWDSU is currently lagging in the latest election, Logan said the early results were still remarkable because the union has made a good effort narrowing its margin from last year.
Amazon has pushed back hard in the lead-up to both elections. The retail giant held mandatory meetings, where workers were told unions are a bad idea. The company also launched an anti-union website targeting workers and placed English and Spanish posters across the Staten Island facility urging them to reject the union. In Bessemer, Amazon has made some changes to but still kept a controversial U.S. Postal Service mailbox that was key in the NLRB's decision to invalidate last year's vote.
In a filing released on Thursday, Amazon disclosed it spent about $4.2 million last year on labor consultants, which organizers say the retailer routinely solicits to persuade workers not to unionize. It's unclear how much it spent on such services in 2022.
Both labor fights faced unique challenges. Alabama, for instance, is a right-to-work state that prohibits a company and a union from signing a contract that requires workers to pay dues to the union that represents them.
The union landscape in Alabama is also starkly different from New York. Last year, union members accounted for 22.2% of wage and salary workers in New York, ranked only behind Hawaii, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's more than double the national average of 10.3%. In Alabama, it's 5.9%.
The mostly Black workforce at the Amazon facility, which opened in 2020, mirrors the Bessemer population of more than 70% Black residents, according to the latest U.S. Census data.
Pro-union workers say they want better working conditions, longer breaks and higher wages. Regular full-time employees at the Bessemer facility earn at least $15.80 an hour, higher than the estimated $14.55 per hour on average in the city. That figure is based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's annual median household income for Bessemer of $30,284, which could include more than one worker.
The ALU said they don't have a demographic breakdown of the warehouse workers on Staten Island and Amazon declined to provide the information to The Associated Press, citing the union vote. Internal records leaked to The New York Times from 2019 showed more than 60% of the hourly associates at the facility were Black or Latino, while most of managers were white or Asian.
Amazon workers there are seeking longer breaks, paid time off for injured employees and an hourly wage of $30, up from a minimum of just over $18 per hour offered by the company. The estimated average wage for the borough is $41 per hour, according to a similar U.S. Census Bureau analysis of Staten Island's $85,381 median household income.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the company invests in wages and benefits, such as health care, 401(k) plans and a prepaid college tuition program to help grow workers' careers.
"As a company, we don't think unions are the best answer for our employees," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work."
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/covid-pandemics-end-may-bring-turbulence-for-us-health-care/article_4ee8ffc7-40e2-5fad-bfcb-e56ba282cc31.html
|
WASHINGTON • When the end of the COVID-19 pandemic comes, it could create major disruptions for a cumbersome U.S. health care system made more generous, flexible and up-to-date technologically through a raft of temporary emergency measures.
Winding down those policies could begin as early as the summer. That could force an estimated 15 million Medicaid recipients to find new sources of coverage, require congressional action to preserve broad telehealth access for Medicare enrollees, and scramble special COVID-19 rules and payment policies for hospitals, doctors and insurers. There are also questions about how emergency use approvals for COVID-19 treatments will be handled.
The array of issues is tied to the coronavirus public health emergency first declared more than two years ago and periodically renewed since then. It's set to end April 16 and the expectation is that the Biden administration will extend it through mid-July. Some would like a longer off-ramp.
Transitions don't bode well for the complex U.S. health care system, with its mix of private and government insurance and its labyrinth of policies and procedures. Health care chaos, if it breaks out, could create midterm election headaches for Democrats and Republicans alike.
"The flexibilities granted through the public health emergency have helped people stay covered and get access to care, so moving forward the key question is how to build on what has been a success and not lose ground," said Juliette Cubanski, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, who has been researching potential consequences of winding down the pandemic emergency.
MEDICAID CHURN
Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people, is covering about 79 million people, a record partly due to the pandemic.
But the nonpartisan Urban Institute think tank estimates that about 15 million people could lose Medicaid when the public health emergency ends, at a rate of at least 1 million per month.
Congress increased federal Medicaid payments to states because of COVID-19, but it also required states to keep people on the rolls during the health emergency. In normal times states routinely disenroll Medicaid recipients whose incomes rise beyond certain levels, or for other life changes affecting eligibility. That process will switch on again when the emergency ends, and some states are eager to move forward.
Virtually all of those losing Medicaid are expected to be eligible for some other source of coverage, either through employers, the Affordable Care Act or — for kids — the Children's Health Insurance Program.
But that's not going to happen automatically, said Matthew Buettgens, lead researcher on the Urban Institute study. Cost and lack of awareness about options could get in the way.
People dropped from Medicaid may not realize they can pick up taxpayer-subsidized ACA coverage. Medicaid is usually free, so people offered workplace insurance could find the premiums too high.
"This is an unprecedented situation," said Buettgens. "The uncertainty is real."
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, is advising states to take it slow and connect Medicaid recipients who are disenrolled with other potential coverage. The agency will keep an eye on states' accuracy in making eligibility decisions. Biden officials want coverage shifts, not losses.
"We are focused on making sure we hold on to the gains in coverage we have made under the Biden-Harris administration," said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. "We are at the strongest point in our history and we are going make sure that we hold on to the coverage gains."
ACA coverage — or "Obamacare" — is an option for many who would lose Medicaid. But it will be less affordable if congressional Democrats fail to extend generous financial assistance called for in President Joe Biden's social legislation. Democrats stalling the bill would face blame.
Republicans in mostly Southern states that have refused to expand Medicaid are also vulnerable. In those states, it can be very difficult for low-income adults to get coverage and more people could wind up uninsured.
State Medicaid officials don't want to be the scapegoats. "Medicaid has done its job," said Matt Salo, head of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. "We have looked out for physical, mental and behavioral health needs. As we come out of this emergency, we are supposed to right-size the program."
TELEHEALTH STATIC
Millions of Americans discovered telehealth in 2020 when coronavirus shutdowns led to the suspension of routine medical consultations. In-person visits are again the norm, but telehealth has shown its usefulness and gained broader acceptance.
The end of the public health emergency would jeopardize telehealth access for millions enrolled in traditional Medicare. Restrictions predating COVID-19 limit telehealth mainly to rural residents, in part to mitigate against health care fraud. Congress has given itself 151 days after the end of the public health emergency to come up with new rules.
"If there are no changes to the law after that, most Medicare beneficiaries will lose access to coverage for telehealth," the Kaiser Foundation's Cubanski said.
A major exception applies to enrollees in private Medicare Advantage plans, which generally do cover telehealth. However, nearly 6 in 10 Medicare enrollees are in the traditional fee-for-service program.
TESTS, VACCINES, TREATMENTS, PAYMENTS & PROCEDURES
Widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments rests on legal authority connected to the public health emergency.
One example is the Biden administration's requirement for insurers to cover up to eight free at-home COVID-19 tests per month.
An area that's particularly murky is what happens to tests, treatments and vaccines covered under emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
Some experts say emergency use approvals last only through the duration of the public health emergency. Others say it's not as simple as that, because a different federal emergency statute also applies to vaccines, tests and treatments. There's no clear direction yet from health officials.
The FDA has granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for those 16 and older and Moderna's for those 18 and older, so their continued use would not be affected.
But hospitals could take a financial hit. Currently Medicare pays them 20% more for the care of COVID-19 patients. That's only for the duration of the emergency.
And Medicare enrollees would have more hoops to jump through to be approved for rehab in a nursing home. A suspended Medicare rule requiring a prior three-day hospital stay would come back into effect.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra recently told The Associated Press that his department is committed to giving "ample notice" when it ends the public health emergency.
"We want to make sure we're not putting in a detrimental position Americans who still need our help," Becerra said. "The one that people are really worried about is Medicaid."
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/house-passes-35-a-month-insulin-cap-as-dems-seek-wider-bill/article_41aff084-d9b0-592e-8261-22c419bfd338.html
|
WASHINGTON • The House has passed a bill capping the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for insured patients, part of an election-year push by Democrats for price curbs on prescription drugs at a time of rising inflation.
Experts say the legislation, which passed 232-193 Thursday, would provide significant relief for privately insured patients with skimpier plans and for Medicare enrollees facing rising out-of-pocket costs for their insulin. Some could save hundreds of dollars annually, and all insured patients would get the benefit of predictable monthly costs for insulin. The bill would not help the uninsured.
But the Affordable Insulin Now Act will serve as a political vehicle to rally Democrats and force Republicans who oppose it into uncomfortable votes ahead of the midterms. For the legislation to pass Congress, 10 Republican senators would have to vote in favor. Democrats acknowledge they don't have an answer for how that's going to happen.
"If 10 Republicans stand between the American people being able to get access to affordable insulin, that's a good question for 10 Republicans to answer," said Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., a cosponsor of the House bill. "Republicans get diabetes, too. Republicans die from diabetes."
Public opinion polls have consistently shown support across party lines for congressional action to limit drug costs.
But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., complained the legislation is only "a small piece of a larger package around government price controls for prescription drugs." Critics say the bill would raise premiums and fails to target pharmaceutical middlemen seen as contributing to high list prices for insulin.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Democrats could have a deal on prescription drugs if they drop their bid to authorize Medicare to negotiate prices. "Do Democrats really want to help seniors, or would they rather have the campaign issue?" Grassley said.
The insulin bill, which would take effect in 2023, represents just one provision of a much broader prescription drug package in President Joe Biden's social and climate legislation.
In addition to a similar $35 cap on insulin, the Biden bill would authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for a range of drugs, including insulin. It would penalize drugmakers who raise prices faster than inflation and overhaul the Medicare prescription drug benefit to limit out-of-pocket costs for enrollees.
Biden's agenda passed the House only to stall in the Senate because Democrats could not reach consensus. Party leaders haven't abandoned hope of getting the legislation moving again, and preserving its drug pricing curbs largely intact.
The idea of a $35 monthly cost cap for insulin actually has a bipartisan pedigree. The Trump administration had created a voluntary option for Medicare enrollees to get insulin for $35, and the Biden administration continued it.
In the Senate, Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire are working on a bipartisan insulin bill. Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has introduced legislation similar to the House bill, with the support of Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Stung by criticism that Biden's economic policies spur inflation, Democrats are redoubling efforts to show how they'd help people cope with costs. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported a key inflation gauge jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982.
But experts say the House bill would not help uninsured people, who face the highest out-of-pocket costs for insulin. Also, people with diabetes often take other medications as well as insulin. That's done to treat the diabetes itself, along with other serious health conditions often associated with the disease. The House legislation would not help with those costs, either. Collins says she's looking for a way to help uninsured people through her bill.
About 37 million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated 6 million to 7 million use insulin to keep their blood sugars under control. It's an old drug, refined and improved over the years, that has seen relentless price increases.
Steep list prices don't reflect the rates insurance plans negotiate with manufacturers. But those list prices are used to calculate cost-sharing amounts that patients owe. Patients who can't afford their insulin reduce or skip doses, a strategy born of desperation, which can lead to serious complications and even death.
Economist Sherry Glied of New York University said the market for insulin is a "total disaster" for many patients, particularly those with skimpy insurance plans or no insurance.
"This will make private insurance for people with diabetes a much more attractive proposition," said Glied.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/jan-6-panel-pressures-garland-to-charge-higher-ups/article_359d1dda-24c0-5b1c-ae97-e9ecb1326301.html
|
WASHINGTON • Lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are increasingly going public with critical statements, court filings and more to deliver a blunt message to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice.
President Donald Trump and his allies likely committed crimes, they say. And it's up to you to do something about it.
"Attorney General Garland, do your job so we can do ours," prodded Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia.
"We are upholding our responsibility. The Department of Justice must do the same," echoed Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Their rhetoric, focused this week on two contempt of Congress referrals approved by the committee, is just the latest example of the pressure campaign the lawmakers are waging. It reflects a stark reality: While they can investigate Jan. 6 and issue subpoenas to gather information, only the Justice Department can bring criminal charges.
Committee members see the case they are building against Trump and his allies as a once-in-a-generation circumstance. If it's not fully prosecuted, they say, it could set a dangerous precedent that threatens the foundations of American democracy.
The lawmakers seem nearly certain to send a criminal referral to the Justice Department once their work is through.
It all puts Garland, who has spent his tenure trying to shield the Justice Department from political pressure, in a precarious spot. Any criminal charges related to Jan. 6 would trigger a firestorm, thrusting prosecutors back into the partisan crossfire that proved so damaging during the Trump-Russia influence investigation and an email probe of Hillary Clinton.
Garland has given no public indication about whether prosecutors might be considering a case against the former president. He has, though, vowed to hold accountable "all January 6th perpetrators, at any level" and has said that would include those who were "present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy."
It's already the largest criminal prosecution in the department's history — for rioters who entered the Capitol building on Jan. 6 as well as members of extremist groups who are accused of planning the attack. More than 750 people have been charged with federal crimes. Over 220 riot defendants have pleaded guilty, more than 100 have been sentenced and at least 90 others have trial dates.
Parts of the department's investigation have overlapped with the committee's. One example is in late January when Justice announced it had opened a probe into a fake slate of electors who falsely tried to declare Trump the winner of the 2020 election in seven swing states that Joe Biden won. Three days later, lawmakers subpoenaed more than a dozen people involved in the effort.
But the Jan. 6 committee wants more. Their message was amplified this week when a federal judge in California — District Judge David Carter, a Bill Clinton appointee — wrote that it is "more likely than not" that Trump himself committed crimes in his attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
The practical effect of that ruling was to order the release of more than 100 emails from Trump adviser John Eastman to the Jan. 6 Committee. But lawmakers zeroed in on a particular passage in the judge's opinion that characterized Jan. 6 as a "coup."
"Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower—it was a coup in search of a legal theory," Carter wrote.
But experts caution that Carter's opinion was only in a civil case and does not meet the longstanding charging policy the Justice Department is required to meet. Justin Danilewitz, a Philadelphia-based attorney and former federal prosecutor, noted the department faces a higher burden of proof in court to show that presidential immunity should not apply. And he said the legal advice Trump received from Eastman "undermines an inference of corrupt or deceitful intent."
The department will be guided by the evidence and law, he said, "but the social and political ramifications of a decision of this kind will not be far from the minds of Attorney General Garland and his staff."
"A decision to bring or not bring criminal charges will have significant ripple effects," he added.
Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesperson, called the judge's ruling an "absurd and baseless ruling by a Clinton-appointed Judge in California." He called the House committee's investigation a "circus of partisanship."
Another point of friction with the Justice Department is the effort to enforce subpoenas through contempt of Congress charges.
The House approved a contempt referral against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in December after he ceased cooperating with the Jan. 6 panel. While an earlier contempt referral against former Trump adviser Steve Bannon resulted in an indictment, the Department of Justice has been slower to decide whether to prosecute Meadows.
"The Department of Justice is entrusted with defending our Constitution," Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican committee chair, said at a hearing this week. "Department leadership should not apply any doctrine of immunity that might block Congress from fully uncovering and addressing the causes of the January 6 attack."
A decision to pursue the contempt charges against Meadows would have to come from career prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington before senior Justice Department officials would weigh in and decide how to proceed.
Bringing a case against Meadows would be more challenging for prosecutors than the case against Bannon, in large part because Bannon wasn't a White House official during the insurrection.
The Justice Department has long maintained that senior aides generally cannot be forced to testify if a president invokes executive privilege, as Trump has done. And bringing charges could risk undermining the longstanding principle that lets the executive branch of the government keep most discussions private.
While the majority of committee members have turned up the pressure on Garland, one member, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, has not gone as far.
"I feel strongly that we restore the tradition of respect for the independence of the law enforcement function," Raskin told reporters this week. "That was one of the things that got trashed during the Trump period. And so I think that Congress and the president should let the Department of Justice and attorney general do their job."
"Attorney General Garland is my constituent," Raskin added, "and I don't beat up on my constituents."
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/three-um-students-named-goldwater-scholars/article_58fbdfc4-d1c9-5ca9-b46f-1abece546d39.html
|
OXFORD • For the first time at the University of Mississippi, three students have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships in a single year.
Ethan Lambert, of Corinth; Reinhard "Matt" Knerr, of Paducah, Kentucky; and Alexandria "Ally" Watrous, of Lexington, Kentucky, all members of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, have become the university's 19th, 20th and 21st winners.
The Goldwater is one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. It supports exceptional sophomores and juniors who show promise in becoming the next generation of research leaders in these fields.
This year, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awarded 417 scholarships from a pool of 1,242 outstanding undergraduates nominated by 433 institutions.
"Ethan, Matt and Ally have all presented an incredible commitment to a career in research, and a genuine display of intellectual curiosity," said Vivian Ibrahim, director of the UM Office of National Scholarship Advisement. "This is the first time UM has had three Goldwater scholars. We couldn't be more excited for them."
In recent years, the office has had steady success in recruiting competitive students for the Goldwater, Ibrahim said.
Knerr, Lambert and Watrous follow in the footsteps of Ole Miss Goldwater scholars Ivy Li and Austin Wallace in 2021, William Meador and Jax Dallas in 2020, and Addison Roush in 2019.
An Annexstad scholar[11] , Lambert is set to graduate in 2023 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry with an emphasis in chemical physics and a minor in mathematics.
"I am thrilled to be named a Goldwater Scholar but this accomplishment would not have been possible without the incredible people around me in the lab," he said. "They taught me new techniques, proofread and answered my questions at 2 a.m. when I couldn't sleep.
"I would be a fraction of the person I am without them around me."
Lambert hopes to apply for a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation next year to fund a doctorate in chemistry with a focus on studying how to use light to induce electron transfers between small molecules. This work has potential real-world applications in solar energy conversion.
Already first author on three published research papers and co-author of a book, Lambert has been working with Nathan Hammer, UM professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
"It has been a joy mentoring Ethan in the lab," Hammer said. "He truly has the love for science and the aptitude for research. I expect great things from him for the remainder of his time with us at UM and beyond."
Knerr is a Stamps scholar who is pursuing a degree in biochemistry, with minors in neuroscience, biological sciences, environmental studies and psychology.
"I am fascinated by aging," he said. "My time abroad – in Spain, Costa Rica and the Netherlands – has really shed light on different ways to approach how we age.
"In the future, I want to be able to look at aging from a scientific angle as well as a moral and humanistic one."
Knerr has four published articles and has worked Joshua Bloomekatz, an assistant professor of biology.
"Matt is a dynamic student with a passion for research, who shows great promise as a physician scientist," Bloomekatz said.
Watrous is the only Ole Miss sophomore to be awarded a Goldwater, which will provide funding for her junior and senior years at the university. She is pursuing bachelor's degrees in chemistry with a chemical physics emphasis, in physics and in German with minors in French and mathematics.
In the long term, Watrous is interested in collaborating internationally while conducting research in computational chemistry.
"The whole national scholarship and Goldwater process reaffirmed that grad school is something I want to do and can achieve," she said.
Watrous has three peer-reviewed papers and one cover article to date as part of the UM Computational Astrochemistry Group, headed by Ryan Fortenberry, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
"Ally is an absolute joy to have in our group, and I count myself lucky to be on her team through her education," Fortenberry said. "Most often, about the time that students get trained, they leave. However, she'll be around for a few more years, and I look forward to continuing my collaboration with her."
For more information on the Goldwater Scholarships and how to apply for them, contact the Office of National Scholarship Advisement at onsa@olemiss.edu.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/ummc-goes-out-of-network-with-blue-cross-blue-shield/article_1f456502-5d2b-5e44-a0bd-fcb5606a17e3.html
|
Mississippi’s largest hospital went out of network with the state’s largest insurer on Friday, meaning thousands of Mississippians will now face higher out-of-pocket costs for their health care or be forced to leave the state for certain specialty care.
This is the first time the state’s only academic medical center has officially gone out of network and not had an active contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, according to UMMC officials’ knowledge.
Even though representatives for both sides have been meeting in person each week since January, the two entities were not able to agree to a new contract before the March 31 deadline.
UMMC is asking Blue Cross for substantial increases to inpatient, outpatient and professional reimbursement rates, some as large as 50%. UMMC maintains it’s asking for below market rates for academic medical centers, while Blue Cross officials say that steep rate hikes would necessitate a substantial increase in customer premiums.
“We are disappointed that Blue Cross doesn’t value the Medical Center enough to agree to a fair contract and keep us in its network,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the UMMC School of Medicine, said in a press release. “We know that patients are disheartened and frustrated. We must – for the health and wellness of all Mississippians – stand firm in our resolve that Blue Cross should agree to pay us at fair market rates.”
The two sides have also sparred over Blue Cross’ quality care plan, which measures hospital performance and whether services provided to patients are adequate across 15 different categories. UMMC leadership has said that the complexity involved in the care the hospital provides means it should have an individualized quality care program, while Blue Cross maintains that UMMC should be held to the same standards as its other network providers.
“It is unfortunate we have not been able to reach an agreement,” said Cayla Mangrum, corporate communications manager at BCBSMS, in a statement. “Unreasonable demands by UMMC for increased payments, along with their unwillingness to agree to Network Hospital quality requirements, are not in the best interest of our Members and Groups as we seek to provide access to quality, cost-effective health care. We will continue to work to reach an agreement with UMMC, but until then, our primary goal remains our Members’ health.”
There are certain services and facilities UMMC has that cannot be found anywhere else in the state. These include Mississippi’s only Level 1 trauma center, Level IV neonatal intensive care unit and children’s hospital, among other critical care services.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney told Mississippi Today this week that he questions whether BCBS could meet the state’s Managed Care Plan Network Adequacy Regulation without UMMC in its network. The regulation requires health insurance providers to “maintain a network that is sufficient in numbers and types of participating providers to assure that all devices to covered persons will be accessible without reasonable delay.”
Cheney also said his office would get involved if the two parties didn’t strike a deal by Friday.
This week, Mississippi Today spoke to parents whose children have been receiving specialty care at Children’s of Mississippi. Few have received answers about what the future holds and some are scrambling to find an alternative provider for their children.
“The truth is we can’t go anywhere else,” said Lanier Craft, whose son has Pompe disease, a rare genetic condition that affects the muscles. “This is all there is for us. Batson has been there since I walked in the door in February eight years ago with my child. They have done everything for us, and to just completely lose that within a day because of an agreement over money is unimaginable.”
There are three groups of Blue Cross Blue Shield customers that UMMC’s out-of-network status won’t apply to:
Those enrolled in the Mississippi State and School Employees’ Health Insurance Plan. Though that plan is administered through BCBS, only commercial insurance plans are affected.
Patients who come into UMMC’s emergency room or are transferred from another hospital.
Patients for which UMMC has a continuity of care obligation. UMMC can’t stop caring for, say, a pregnant woman in her last trimester of pregnancy or a cancer patient who is in round two of 12 rounds of chemotherapy. For these patients, this period of coverage will expire 90 days from April 1.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/us-added-431-000-jobs-in-march-in-sign-of-economic-health/article_6ba31fc1-5a07-54db-ad0f-3e432059d1c4.html
|
America's employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy's resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic, Russia's war against Ukraine and the highest inflation in 40 years.
The government's report Friday showed that last month's job growth helped shrink the unemployment rate to 3.6%. That's the lowest rate since the pandemic erupted two years ago and just above the half-century low of 3.5% that was reached two years ago.
Despite the inflation surge, persistent supply bottlenecks, damage from COVID-19 and now a war in Europe, employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 11 straight months. In its report, the government also sharply revised up its estimate of hiring in January and February by a combined 95,000 jobs.
The March report sketched a bright picture of the job market, with steady hiring and rising wages in many industries. Average hourly pay has risen a strong 5.6% over the past 12 months, welcome news for employees across the economy.
Still, those pay raises aren't keeping up with the spike in inflation that has put the Federal Reserve on track to raise rates multiple times, perhaps aggressively, in the coming months. Those rate hikes will result in costlier loans for many consumers and businesses. In the meantime, worker pay raises, a response in many cases to labor shortages, are themselves feeding the economy's inflation pressures.
Since the pandemic struck in 2020, many people have remained on the sidelines of the job market, a trend that has contributed to the worker shortage in many industries. But in an encouraging sign for the economy, 418,000 people began looking for a job in March, and many found one.
Over the past year, 3.8 million people have rejoined the labor force, meaning they now either have a job or are looking for one.
The job growth in March, though solid, was the lowest since September and slightly below what economists had expected. Still, Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Dreyfus and Mellon, said the numbers show that "the U.S. economy continues to have underlying momentum and that firms are taking workers when they can.''
Across the economy, hiring gains were widespread last month. Restaurants and bars added 61,000 jobs, retailers 49,000, manufacturers 38,000 and hotels 25,000. Construction jobs rose by 19,000 and have now returned to their pre-pandemic level.
Some economists sounded a note of caution, though, suggesting that the prospect of much higher borrowing rates engineered by the Fed will inevitably slow the job market and the overall economy.
"We continue to expect that the Federal Reserve will move rates up expeditiously to counter surging inflation, and that this report only adds more urgency to their plans to do so,'' said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.
For now, the job market continues to rebound with unexpected speed from the coronavirus recession. Job openings are at a near-record level, and applications for unemployment benefits have dropped to near their lowest point since 1969.
Fueled by generous federal aid, savings amassed during the pandemic and ultra-low borrowing rates orchestrated by the Fed, U.S. consumers have spent so fast that many factories, warehouses, shipping companies and ports have failed to keep pace with their customer demand. Supply chains have snarled, forcing up prices.
As the pandemic has eased, consumers have been broadening their spending beyond goods to services, such as health care, travel and entertainment, which they had long avoided during the worst of the pandemic. The resulting high inflation is causing hardships for many lower-income households that face sharp price increases for such necessities as food, gasoline and rent.
The proportion of Americans who are either working or looking for work — the so-called labor force participation rate — ticked up to 62.4% last month, the highest since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020. Even so, the participation rate remains a full percentage point below its pre-pandemic level, limiting the pool of potential job applicants employers can choose from. Many Americans remain on the sidelines because of lingering health concerns and trouble finding childcare.
"You can't keep adding 400,000 workers a month without running out of workers,'' said Reinhart, a former high-ranking Fed economist.
Reinhart said he expects higher interest rates, on top of the expiration of government aid, to eventually slow hiring to "a more sustainable" pace.
"The bad news," he said, "is we haven't yet recovered the pre-pandemic level of employment, and it will take longer" to get there.
Karen Fichuk, CEO of the staffing company Randstad North America, noted that the economy now has a record 1.7 job openings for every unemployed person.
"Even if you get all the unemployed workers back, it still leaves a gap,'' she said. "We need to attract people back into the workforce.''
In particular, Fichuk said, businesses need to draw more women back by, for example, offering flexible hours and childcare centers or stipends for childcare expenses.
It's unclear how long the economy can maintain its momentum of the past year, especially as high inflation and the Fed's rate hikes slow economic activity. Hourly pay, adjusted for higher consumer prices, fell 2.6% in February from a year earlier — the 11th straight month in which inflation has outpaced year-over-year wage growth. According to AAA, average gasoline prices, at $4.23 a gallon, are up a dizzying 47% from a year ago.
Squeezed by inflation, some consumers are paring their spending. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumer spending rose just 0.2%% in February — and fell 0.4% when adjusted for inflation — down from a 2.7% increase in January.
At the same time, the job market has kept hurtling ahead. Employers posted a near-record 11.3 million positions in February. Nearly 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs, a sign of confidence that they could find something better.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/hints-from-heloise/article_53ea262a-0610-5502-931e-6e9bdbe1c573.html
|
FROM KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, 300 W. 57TH STREET, 41ST FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019
FOR RELEASE saturday, april 2, 2022
CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 708-7311 EXT. 236
HINTS FROM HELOISE #12345_20220402
BYLINE: By Heloise
TITLE: Digging, chewing toys
---
Dear Heloise: From time to time, there are hints in your column about how to stop dogs from digging holes in the yard or chewing on things inside. We had a dog that dug many holes in our yard, so we asked our veterinarian how to discourage that behavior. He said to buy a large bone to encourage the dog to chew on it when he was bored, and discourage him from digging holes. We did exactly that, and he dug a large hole to bury his large bone. Well, it was worth a try. -- Shirley Hendricks, Maumelle, Arkansas
PHOTO STUCK TO THE GLASS IN A FRAME?
Dear Readers: If you have a treasured photo in this awful situation, you can try to save and remove it. Follow these steps carefully. First, scan the pic or take a photo of it through the glass. You will have a copy, just in case. Second, put the frame and photo or just glass and photo into a plastic freezer bag, but don't close it completely shut so moisture can evaporate. Then place it in the freezer for a day or two. You should be able to slowly lift the photo from the glass. But do not try this with antique, valuable or one-of-a kind pictures. Instead, call a professional photo restorer. -- Heloise
CLOTHESPIN USES
Dear Heloise: In addition to the woman's suggestion to use a clothespin to attach a shopping list to her shopping cart, there is a more expansive use for clothespins for grocery items. I became sick and tired of undoing the many twist ties and plastic clips to open loaves of bread, fruits and vegetables, etc. It's a major effort to open the packages and a lot of work spinning the plastic bags and then reattaching the clip or twist ties to re-close them.
So to make it simple, I simply use a clothespin to close the package. It works like a charm. You unpin to open and pin back to close the plastic. It saves a major amount of time and cuts down on frustration. -- Steve P., via email
DOUBLE BAGGED BREAD
Dear Heloise: I tend to buy bread when it's on sale. I double bag the bread and freeze it You never know if the bread bag has tears or holes. Also, I reuse the newspaper plastic bags for scraps, which I put in my freezer, since I only put out my trash every other week. I read your column in the Omaha World-Herald every day. I have many articles that I and my late mother have saved. -- Diane Holmes, Omaha, Nebraska
Diane, reusing plastic helps to save our planet, so good for you! -- Heloise
GIFTS FOR SENIORS
Dear Heloise: We always struggled with what to get my mother-in-law for birthdays or holidays. My sister-in-law gave her gift cards for groceries, personal items, etc. We decided to pay for 100 gallons of fuel oil for her, and I made a gift certificate to put in her card. It was really appreciated and a big help. -- Mary T. in Vermont
PET PAL
Dear Heloise: Our 3-year-old black and tan German shepherd is named Hilton. We were vacationing on Hilton Island, South Carolina, and found a family with a litter of pups for sale. What else could we have named her but Hilton? -- Cheryl D. Coffman
Readers, to see Hilton and our other Pet Pals, go to www.Heloise.com and click on "Pet of the Week."
Do you have a furry family member to share with our readers? Send a pic and description to Heloise@Heloise.com. -- Heloise
(c)2022 by King Features Syndicate Inc.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/monroe/news/mcso-makes-possession-of-a-controlled-substance-arrests/article_6027d3df-63b2-5845-a756-9883558423b0.html
|
MCSO makes possession of a controlled substance arrests Ray Van Dusen Ray Van Dusen Managing Editor Author email Apr 1, 2022 54 min ago Comments Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Marie Unice Jernighan, 37, of Amory was charged with possession of a controlled substance.Michael Scott Daniels, 47, of Aberdeen was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Ray Van Dusen Managing Editor Ray is the managing editor of the Monroe Journal. Author email Follow Ray Van Dusen Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Recommended for you Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus 63° Sunny Amory, MS (38821) Today Clear to partly cloudy. Low 41F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 41F. Winds light and variable. Updated: April 1, 2022 @ 3:39 pm Full Forecast Latest Posts News MCSO makes possession of a controlled substance arrests 54 min ago Sports Noles rebound from division losses with sweep of Falkner 7 hrs ago Sports Panthers split big tests against East Union, New Hope 8 hrs ago News ICC's Baggett, Evans selected as finalists for prestigious transfer scholarship 8 hrs ago Living Smithville Events Committee hosting Easter egg hunt 8 hrs ago Living VFW Post #4490 hosting Easter egg hunt 8 hrs ago Latest News Louisiana man convicted of crossing state lines for sex with minor Consequences of the count: Smithville census shows significant decrease. Officials disagree Judge orders new mayoral election in Nettleton between Mem Riley, Phillip Baulch Two dead following Friday morning Nettleton shootout Lady Panthers turn back New Albany in shutout Monroe County Schools to require face masks beginning Thursday Pedestrian killed in Amory Authorities searching for missing Monroe County teen
Ray Van Dusen Managing Editor Ray is the managing editor of the Monroe Journal. Author email Follow Ray Van Dusen Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/theres-plenty-to-chew-on-after-dinner-with-in-laws/article_bd52209e-359a-52db-b8c2-692c0ea70ef8.html
|
FROM ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
FOR RELEASE: SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2022
DEAR ABBY by Abigail Van Buren
THERE'S PLENTY TO CHEW ON AFTER DINNER WITH IN-LAWS
DEAR ABBY: I once hosted a holiday dinner for which I had made a ham and a turkey with all the sides and three different pies. I even made a special mince pie for one of the guests. The guests -- my brothers-in-law, my brother and his family of four and his mother-in-law -- all showed up carrying empty Tupperware. At the end of the day, all I had left was dirty dishes.
The same family then invited me and my husband for a holiday dinner. My husband wasn't feeling well and couldn't go. When I asked my sister-in-law if I could take a plate home for him, she said, "Nope! If he doesn't want to come to the house, he can't have any of the food." Yes, Abby, she was serious.
My sister-in-law cooks the meat she received as a gift from her employer, and the rest of the guests prepare the sides and desserts. I NEVER go empty-handed. At the end of the meal, she transfers any leftovers to their own Tupperware and gives us back the cleaned bowls. If I ask for a little of something to take home, she protects her leftovers like they were her children.
What's your take on leftovers? Is asking for a little fruit salad off limits? Is relieving your host of the burden of storing all of their leftovers out of line? Are there rules of etiquette here? -- HOPING FOR A SANDWICH LATER
DEAR HOPING: If you would like the living, breathing definition of presumptuous guests and ungracious hosts, look no further than your in-laws' contact file. The fault, however, may not lie solely with them. If this has happened more than once and you cannot summon the courage to tell these greedy folks to put away their Tupperware and help with the dishes, you can't blame them for assuming you don't mind being imposed upon in this way.
As to the sister-in-law who refused to allow you to bring any of her food to your sick husband, I wouldn't blame you if you chose not to grace her table again after telling her the reason why.
** ** **
DEAR ABBY: I am an adopted 17-year-old high school senior, and I live with four people who all have a disability. I want to move out when I'm 18 if I am able to. I have several older brothers and sisters, but they each have a family to take care of. My oldest brother is in his 60s, and my youngest in his 40s.
I don't want to seem selfish for wanting to live independently, but I don't know how to tell them. I don't know how to tell them anything because, in the past, they haven't listened to me. If you have any advice on how to tell them, I would be very grateful. -- NERVOUS GIRL IN NEW YORK
DEAR NERVOUS GIRL: I wish you had mentioned when you will be turning 18, because at that point you will be legally entitled to live wherever you wish, and your parents and siblings will HAVE to "listen to you."
Because you are determined to move, it is crucial that you start preparing now. You will need to find a job so you can afford a security deposit and pay for rent, food, etc. You may also have to find roommates until you can afford a place that is all your own. A counselor at school may be able to guide you, particularly if you plan to continue your education.
** ** **
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
** ** **
What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in "What Every Teen Should Know." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)
(EDITORS: If you have editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker, chooker@amuniversal.com.)
COPYRIGHT 2022 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
1130 Walnut, Kansas City, MO 64106; 816-581-7500
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/itawamba/mantachie-baseball-misses-opportunities-in-loss-to-kossuth/article_f91c11d9-a801-5fec-8dec-9b7978b14cdf.html
|
Mantachie baseball played a tight ballgame against Kossuth through four innings Tuesday. Had a handful more pitches hit their spots, or a couple hard-hit balls landed, the homestanding Mustangs might have come out of the game with a W.
But things didn't go that way for Mantachie (5-8, 1-1 in Region 1-3A) as the Mustangs fell to the Aggies 7-2.
"We were about three little things away from that being a different ballgame," head coach B.J. Cox said. "And that's kind of where we are. When we get the small stuff figured out, we'll hopefully be clicking a little better."
Mustangs starting pitcher Luke Ellis got into trouble early as he walked the first two Aggies batters he faced and gave up a single to the third. Ellis balked during the next at-bat, giving Kossuth a free run. But he managed to escape the inning without further damage.
Mantachie answered in the bottom half when Cooper Guin dropped a single in right-centerfield, scoring Hunter West from second to tie the game at 1.
Ellis shut the Aggies down in the second, notching two strikeouts. The Mustangs went to work with a pair of singles in the bottom half but left the runners stranded.
Kossuth opened the third with a rocket of a homerun to left-center from pitcher Jack Johnson.
The Aggies followed up the dinger with a walk and a double, but a heads up play from Ellis helped limit the damage. On a groundball back to the mound, Ellis managed to freeze an Aggie runner between home and third. In the confusion that followed, the Mustangs managed to tag out both that runner and the Aggie advancing from second. Ellis put the inning away with a strikeout.
Getting out of the inning gave the Mustangs a spark at the plate in the third. Hunter West led off with a single up the middle and stole second on a pass ball. Greg Raper's dink grounder to third looked like an easy out, but Mantachie caught a break when the ball fell from the Aggie first baseman's glove when he tried to tag Raper, advancing Raper to second and allowing West to score.
With the score tied 2-2 through four, Kossuth finally pulled ahead for good. Ellis walked three of the four batters he faced in the inning, one of whom scored on an errant throw to third. Raper came in to relieve Ellis with one out, allowing another run on a sac fly before escaping the inning with the Aggies holding a 4-2 lead.
Kossuth padded its lead with another run in the sixth and two in the seventh while holding the Mustangs to one hit the rest of the way. Mantachie loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh on a Raper single and a pair of walks, but they left the runners stranded.
Missed opportunities abounded for the Mustangs as they left 10 runners stranded in the contest.
West led the way at the plate for the Mustangs, batting 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and a walk. Raper and Cory Mills added two singles apiece as well, while Guin notched the team's lone RBI.
Ellis took the loss on the mound. Kossuth scored three runs on his watch as he struck out four but gave up three hits and walked eight in 4-1/3 innings of work. Raper pitched 2-2/3 innings of relief, allowing four runs on two hits with two walks and three batters hit by a pitch. Raper struck out three.
"We're streaky right now," Cox said. "We're not where we need to be. We've got a lot of the youth on the field. The younger guys are just learning from these moments."
The Mustangs get a shot at revenge when they visit the Aggies at 7 p.m. Friday.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/state-news/gov-tate-reeves-indicates-he-will-sign-sweeping-tax-cut-legislation-into-law/article_ba729ed6-7a4d-5ec2-bb7d-76d9a5c50ce3.html
|
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves speaks about the importance of his signing a teacher pay raise bill, Thursday, March 31, 2022, at Madison Central High School in Madison.
JACKSON • Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the nation, will likely have the largest tax cut plan in the state’s history codified into state law, based on comments from Gov. Tate Reeves.
Reeves, a Republican, told reporters Friday that he intends to sign House Bill 531 into law, which will slash state revenue collections by around $525 million over a four-year period.
“It’s a major tax cut that heads us in the direction of eliminating the income tax,” Reeves said. “And literally every Mississippian who pays income taxes in our state will have the opportunity to send less of their money to the government and the ability to keep more of their money.”
The bill would do away with the state's 4% income tax bracket within the first year of the plan’s implementation, which would cost the state around $185 million.
During the second year, the 5% tax rate would be reduced to 4.7%. In the third year, it would drop to 4.4%, and after the fourth year, it would go to 4%.
Mississippi currently has a gradual income tax system. If the new plan were to become law, it would eventually leave a flat 4% rate for all earned income over $10,000.
Newsletter
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
For the past two years, Reeves has advocated for the Legislature to eliminate the income tax. The bill he intends to sign into law would not outright abolish the tax, but it would significantly reduce it.
But the bill does contain a clause that makes it clear the intent of the Legislature to revisit the issue in 2026 and completely abolish the income tax.
Mississippi has a lengthy list of well-documented problems, including two lengthy lawsuits against state agencies and crumbling infrastructure.
Republican leaders have said cutting the income tax is needed to attract new businesses to the state, and they intended to use federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to improve state agencies and other issues.
The governor has until April 5 to either sign the bill into law or veto it.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/obituaries/djournal/coleman-polly/article_6981b962-9dd7-5f4b-add0-b53704f68867.html
|
Polly Ann Haynes Coleman, 81, passed away Friday, April 1, 2022, at The Meadows in Fulton. She was born September 3, 1940 to the late Otis Lee Haynes and the late Eva Nell Gilbert Haynes. Polly moved to Fulton in 1977 with her husband, James, and opened up the first Sonic in downtown Fulton. She moved back to Arkansas 17 years ago to help take care of her mother. She loved to crochet and make prayer shawls and baby hats to donate to Children's Hospital in Little Rock, AR. She enjoyed riding the back roads and watching for deer. She loved going to Granny's Restaurant in Arkansas and talking to everyone. She enjoyed cooking and especially being with her family. She was a blessing to many and she blessed many as well. A visitation only will be 2:00-4:00 pm Sunday, April 3, 2022, at Senter Funeral Home. Funeral service will be held at a later date with Benton Funeral Home in Fordyce, AR. Burial will be at Moses Cemetery in Hampton, AR. Survivors include sons: Gary (Deborah) Coleman of Fulton, Keith (Bertie) Coleman of Hampton, AR, Scotty Coleman of Fulton, Tommy (Angie) Coleman of Fulton; many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, 1 great, great-grandchild. Preceded in death by her parents; husband, James Coleman; brothers: Troy Haynes and Rod Haynes. In lieu of flowers donations are encouraged to be made to Arkansas Children's Hospital at www.archildrens.org Online condolences can be expressed at www.senterfuneraldirectors.com
Thank you for helping us ensure the comments are appropriate and
encouraging. If you feel that this comment is not helpful, please
report it by clicking the link in the comment.
Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death.
Sign A Guestbook
Offer a personal message of sympathy...
You'll find individual Guest Books on the page with each obituary notice. By sharing a fond memory or writing a kind tribute, you will be providing a comforting keepsake to those in mourning. .
From a Guest Book, you may log in with your user account to leave a message. If you have an existing account with this site, you may log in with that. Otherwise, it's simple to create a new one by clicking on the Create "Sign up" button and following the simple steps on the Sign Up page.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/obituaries/djournal/house-lena-belle-wimbs/article_2e8ae5d7-7200-55a4-b95d-bdaa5031e59d.html
|
Lena House, 103, left this world to be with the Lord at the Green Houses on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. She will always be remembered for her love of cooking for her family, sewing and caring for her house plants. She was employed by Joyner Fields for a number of years before returning home to be a housewife. She was a member of Beech Springs Baptist Church. Funeral services will be at the chapel of Waters Funeral Home, Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 3 p.m. visitation will be 1p.m. until service time with Bro. Bobby Holland officiating. Burial will be in Jones Cemetery in the Jug Fork community. Lena is survived by her daughter, Mary Lynn Carter of Birmingham Ridge; granddaughter, Teresa Wilson and grandson, Tony Allen Carter (Pam) of Birmingham Ridge; three great grandchildren, Ashley Thomas (Gary Lee) of Saltillo, Bryan Carter of Dumas and Nikki Minor (Cody) of Birmingham Ridge; great-great-grandchildren, Dalton Burgett and D.C. Thomas of Saltillo; one sister, Molene Buskirk of Saltillo; special friend, Stacy Laster (James) and son JR of Saltillo; and a host of nieces, nephews and other family members. Lena was preceded in death by her husband, Willard C. House; parents, Perry and Mary Wimbs; brothers, R.C. Wimbs, Howard (Buck) Wimbs and James Archie (Dutch) Wimbs; sister Lorene Finney; son-in-law, Ray Dean Carter. Pallbearers will be Gary Lee Thomas, Dalton Burgett, James Laster, Nickey Carter, Brad Carter and Larry Campbell. Honorary pallbearers will be D.C. Thomas, Bryan Carter and Mike McBrayer. The family would like to thank the staff of the Martin House at Traceway Retirement in Tupelo for the exceptional care during her years of residency there. Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family @www.watersfuneralservice.com
Recommended for you
Add an entry as Guest
Report
Watch the guestbook. Stop watching this guestbook.
(0) entries
Sign the guestbook.
Thank you for helping us ensure the comments are appropriate and encouraging. If you feel that this comment is not helpful, please report it by clicking the link in the comment.
Sign A Guestbook
Offer a personal message of sympathy...
You'll find individual Guest Books on the page with each obituary notice. By sharing a fond memory or writing a kind tribute, you will be providing a comforting keepsake to those in mourning. . From a Guest Book, you may log in with your user account to leave a message. If you have an existing account with this site, you may log in with that. Otherwise, it's simple to create a new one by clicking on the Create "Sign up" button and following the simple steps on the Sign Up page.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/obituaries/djournal/jackson-carolyn/article_35a9cab4-44f7-5104-9dd8-9187433df137.html
|
Carolyn Jackson, 76, passed away on Thursday, March 31, 2022 surrounded by her loving family. A service honoring the life of Mrs. Jackson will be on Monday, April 4, 2022 at 2:00pm at Harmony Baptist Church with a visitation from 11:00am till the start of the service at 2:00pm. Mrs. Jackson was born May 26, 1945 in New Albany, MS to the late Pete and Earline Seger. She was a retired sewer in the furniture factory. A devoted member of Harmony Baptist Church. She was blessed with a loving family whom she adored, grandchildren, who were her pride and joy and friends who were many. She enjoyed gospel music, working outside, game shows, coloring, and most importantly Jesus Christ. Memories will continue to be shared with two daughters, Elizabeth Jackson and Torrie Willard (Caleb), two sons, Teddy Jackson (Tina) and Blake Lee (Kala), three grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren, and one sister, Pat Wildman.She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Eason Jackson, two daughters, one daughter-in-law, and a host of brothers and sisters. In lieu of flower donations can be made to Sanctuary Hospice House in Tupelo, MS. Please visit www.unitedfuneralservice.com
Thank you for helping us ensure the comments are appropriate and
encouraging. If you feel that this comment is not helpful, please
report it by clicking the link in the comment.
Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death.
Sign A Guestbook
Offer a personal message of sympathy...
You'll find individual Guest Books on the page with each obituary notice. By sharing a fond memory or writing a kind tribute, you will be providing a comforting keepsake to those in mourning. .
From a Guest Book, you may log in with your user account to leave a message. If you have an existing account with this site, you may log in with that. Otherwise, it's simple to create a new one by clicking on the Create "Sign up" button and following the simple steps on the Sign Up page.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/obituaries/djournal/pietruszkiewicz-walter-pete/article_44347824-38f0-5eb5-8aff-c2938906dc80.html
|
Master Sergeant Walter J Pietruszkiewicz, USMC, Retired passed away peacefully after a brief illness on Thursday, March 31, 2022 while at his daughter, Terry's home. He was 94 years old. He was born on July 9,1927 to Peter and Catherine Pietruszkiewicz, Polish immigrants that came to America and settled in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1920s. "Pete" proudly served in the Marine Corps for 28 years. He fought in the Korean conflict. He served his country with pride and honor. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fi! He faithfully attended Mass at St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Booneville until his health declined. His retirement years were spent catching fish in his backyard pond when he lived out east of Booneville. He enjoyed mowing the church yard and his own yard. He mowed his own lawn up until the age of 93. He refused to use a riding lawn mower. In his later years he would go to the local gym and work out. He looked forward to the monthly Bingo games at the community center. He enjoyed the NFL. He was a die hard New England Patriots fan. He loved watching Tom Brady play, even when he moved to Tampa Bay. He loved listening to music, especially the big bands and the American tenor, Mario Lanza. Until his eyesight failed, he either had a book in his hand or a word puzzle. Survivors include his daughters, Vickie (John) Walendzik of Booneville and Terry Sanders of Saltillo. His son in law, Roger Sanders of Saltillo. His grandchildren, John (Tamra) Walendzik Jr, Noah (Bailie) Sanders and Sarah Sanders. His great grandchildren, Anna and Grant Walendzik and Kannon Sanders. His special nephew and niece, Alex Getek and Mary Grogan. His 15 year old dog, Diamond. He was preceded in death by his parents, his loving wife of 64 years, Ludie Whitlow Pietruszkiewicz, his sister, Helen Getek, his sweet niece, Joanne Getek. The pallbearers will be John Walendzik, Grant Walendzik, Noah Sanders, Kenny Floyd, Toy Pharr and Karl Courtney. Visitation will be Monday, April 4 from 5-7pm at St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Booneville. A Mass of Christian Burial will be Tuesday, April 5 at 11am. Burial will follow at Candlers Chapel. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to St. Francis of Assisi Church. Condolences may be left at www.mcmillanfuneralhome.com.
Recommended for you
Add an entry as Guest
Report
Watch the guestbook. Stop watching this guestbook.
(0) entries
Sign the guestbook.
Thank you for helping us ensure the comments are appropriate and encouraging. If you feel that this comment is not helpful, please report it by clicking the link in the comment.
Sign A Guestbook
Offer a personal message of sympathy...
You'll find individual Guest Books on the page with each obituary notice. By sharing a fond memory or writing a kind tribute, you will be providing a comforting keepsake to those in mourning. . From a Guest Book, you may log in with your user account to leave a message. If you have an existing account with this site, you may log in with that. Otherwise, it's simple to create a new one by clicking on the Create "Sign up" button and following the simple steps on the Sign Up page.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/obituaries/djournal/poole-jackie-wayne/article_8691c0f3-91e7-5cde-a413-664b70e36c26.html
|
Jackie Wayne Poole, 77, passed away Thursday, March 31, 2022, at Magnolia Regional Health Center in Corinth, MS. Services will be on Sunday, April 3, 2 p.m. at Forest Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Tishomingo, MS. Visitation will be on Saturday, April 2, beginning at 5 p.m. and continuing until service time on Sunday at Forest Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Burial will follow at Forest Grove Cemetery, Tishomingo, MS.
Thank you for helping us ensure the comments are appropriate and
encouraging. If you feel that this comment is not helpful, please
report it by clicking the link in the comment.
Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death.
Sign A Guestbook
Offer a personal message of sympathy...
You'll find individual Guest Books on the page with each obituary notice. By sharing a fond memory or writing a kind tribute, you will be providing a comforting keepsake to those in mourning. .
From a Guest Book, you may log in with your user account to leave a message. If you have an existing account with this site, you may log in with that. Otherwise, it's simple to create a new one by clicking on the Create "Sign up" button and following the simple steps on the Sign Up page.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/paris-attacks-trial-key-suspect-speaks-shocking-images/article_200f4326-81e3-5b9c-a8c0-0db34f6cb8f4.html
|
PARIS • Shouts of fear and panic. The thunder of gunfire. Dozens of corpses in pools of blood on the floor of the Bataclan concert hall. A Paris court on Friday released audio recordings and photos of the 2015 Paris terror attacks that had never been made public before, to expose the horrors of that night.
Some survivors of the attacks cried while others left the courtroom in shock.
It was a jarring end to the most crucial week in the months-long trial over the Islamic State attacks on the Bataclan, cafes in Paris and France's national stadium on Nov. 13, 2015, which killed 130 people. With thousands of plaintiffs, this trial is among the the biggest in modern French history.
Lawyers and victims' families saw this week as crucial for shedding light on what happened, but it left many of them frustrated.
The last surviving member of the attack team, Salah Abdeslam, and suspected accomplices were questioned at last about the day of the attacks itself. They stayed largely silent, refusing to answer most questions, while the courtroom waited in breathless silence.
And when Abdeslam finally chose to speak briefly, instead of expressing remorse for his role in the attacks, he expressed regret that he didn't detonate his suicide belt that bloody night.
"I didn't go all the way," Salah Abdelslam told the court Wednesday. "I gave up trying to put on the (suicide) belt, not out of cowardice or fear. I didn't want to, that's all."
Abdelslam dropped off three attackers in a car, who then blew themselves up on the forecourt of France's national soccer stadium moments after a France-Germany match kicked off. Abdelslam said he subsequently drove to the north of Paris, and took the metro to the southern suburb of Montrouge, where he hid his explosives belt after he claimed didn't have the nerve to detonate it.
Abdelslam said he lied to his co-attackers that the belt had not worked "because I was ashamed of not having gone all the way. I was afraid of the eyes of others." Abdelslam's testimony contradicted that of a police explosives expert who has told the court that the suicide belt was faulty.
Then on Friday, the court heard audio recordings and was shown photos from inside the Bataclan concert hall that have never been made public before.
The first recording marked the moment the attackers entered the theater. Music from the performers on stage — American band Eagles of Death Metal — can still be heard as the assailants unleashed a solid minute of constant gunfire from their automatic weapons. The crowd shouted and cried, and the music stops. And then the shooting starts again.
The second recording involved the subsequent hostage-taking, including the voice of one victim who said "they're going to blow up everything — they have explosives."
Then came the final assault: A volley of gunfire from police, followed by blasts from the attackers' suicide belts. Then the evacuation, as police commanded: "Go! Go! We're getting out, hands up and run!"
The 20 photos included images from around the Bataclan hall — the entry, the balcony, the stairwell. Blood is everywhere. One shows about 30 corpses in the dance pit below the stage.
Some survivors cried while watching the images. About 20 other people left the courtroom, visibly upset, as the audio played.
All the attackers were killed that night, but Abdeslam fled France and traveled to the Molenbeek district of Brussels where he grew up. He was arrested in March 2016. For years, he refused to speak to investigators, and he has stayed largely silent through the trial.
During Wednesday's key session, chief judge Jean-Louis Peries spent an hour asking Abdeslam questions. No answer, again and again.
Finally Abdeslam agreed to answer the questions of just one of the plaintiffs' many lawyers. He said three days before the attacks, he was planning to travel to Syria and was unaware of the attack plot until his brother Brahim filled him in. Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up on Nov. 13, 2015, after attacking a Paris cafe.
Abdelslam's lawyers Olivia Ronen and Martin Vettes defended his reluctance to speak. In a statement to The Associated Press, they said Abdeslam "made use of his right to silence" but then decided to answer the questions of one lawyer for the civil parties who "sought to understand what he had to say."
A total of 20 people are on trial on charges including attack planning, the supply of weapons and giving logistical support. Several are presumed to have been killed while fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. The end of the trial is scheduled for June.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/talks-resume-as-ukraine-denies-hitting-depot-on-russian-soil/article_c472d818-fd18-5536-bcca-b0ad0adb4381.html
|
KYIV, Ukraine • Talks to stop the fighting in Ukraine resumed Friday, as another desperate attempt to rescue civilians from the encircled city of Mariupol failed and the Kremlin accused the Ukrainians of launching a helicopter attack on a fuel depot on Russian soil.
Ukraine denied responsibility for the fiery blast, but if Moscow's claim is confirmed, it would be the war's first known attack in which Ukrainian aircraft penetrated Russian airspace.
"Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, five weeks after Moscow began sending upwards of 150,000 of its own troops across Ukraine's border.
Meanwhile, Russia continued withdrawing some of its ground forces from areas around Kyiv after saying earlier this week it would reduce military activity near the Ukrainian capital and the northern city of Chernihiv to promote trust at the bargaining table.
While the Russians kept up their bombardment of those two zones, Ukrainian troops exploited the pullback on the ground by mounting counterattacks and retaking a number of towns and villages.
Still, Ukraine and its allies warned that the Kremlin is not de-escalating but resupplying and shifting its troops to the country's east for an intensified assault on the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region in the country's east, which includes Mariupol.
The latest negotiations took place by video. At a round of talks earlier in the week, Ukraine said it would be willing to abandon a bid to join NATO and declare itself neutral — Moscow's chief demand — in return for security guarantees from several other countries.
The invasion has left thousands dead and driven more than 4 million refugees from Ukraine.
Mariupol, the shattered and besieged southern port city, has seen some of the worst suffering of the war. Its capture would be a major prize for Russian President Vladimir Putin, giving his country an unbroken land bridge to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Mariupol's fate could determine the course of the negotiations to end the war, said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Ukrainian think tank Penta.
"Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance," Fesenko said, "and without its conquest, Putin cannot sit down at the negotiating table." The fall of Mariupol, he said, "will open the way to a peace agreement."
On Friday, the International Committee for the Red Cross said it was unable to carry out an operation to bring civilians out of Mariupol by bus. It said a team had been on its way but had to turn back.
City authorities said the Russians were blocking access to Mariupol.
"We do not see a real desire on the part of the Russians and their satellites to provide an opportunity for Mariupol residents to evacuate to territory controlled by Ukraine," Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said Russian forces "are categorically not allowing any humanitarian cargo, even in small amounts, into the city."
Around 100,000 people are believed left in the city, down from a prewar 430,000, and weeks of Russian bombardment and street fighting have caused severe shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine.
"We are running out of adjectives to describe the horrors that residents in Mariupol have suffered," Red Cross spokesperson Ewan Watson said.
On Thursday, Russian forces blocked a 45-bus convoy attempting to evacuate people from Mariupol and seized 14 tons of food and medical supplies bound for the city, Ukrainian authorities said.
As for the fuel depot explosion, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said two Ukrainian helicopter gunships flew in extremely low and attacked the civilian oil storage facility on the outskirts of the city of Belgorod, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the Ukraine border.
The regional governor said two workers at the depot were wounded, but the Rosneft state oil company denied anyone was hurt.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's national security council, said on Ukrainian television: "For some reason they say that we did it, but in fact this does not correspond with reality."
Russia has reported cross-border shelling from Ukraine before, including an incident last week that killed a military chaplain, but not an incursion of its airspace.
Amid the Russian pullback on the ground and its continued bombardment, Ukraine's military said it had retaken 29 settlements in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.
Russian forces in the northeast also continued to shell Kharkiv, and in the southeast sought to seize the cities of Popasna and Rubizhne as well as Mariupol, the Ukrainian military said.
On on the outskirts of Kyiv, where Russian troops have withdrawn, damaged cars lined the streets of Irpin, a suburban area popular with young families, now in ruins. Emergency workers carried elderly people on stretchers over a wrecked bridge to safety.
Three wooden crosses next to a residential building that was damaged in a shelling marked the graves of a mother and son and an unknown man. A resident who gave her name only as Lila said she helped hurriedly bury them on March 5, just before Russian troops moved in.
"They were hit with artillery and they were burned alive," she said.
An Irpin resident who gave his name only as Andriy said the Russians packed up their equipment and left on Tuesday. The next day, they shelled the town for close to an hour before Ukrainian soldiers retook it.
"I don't think this is over," Andriy said. "They will be back."
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220401
|
https://www.djournal.com/pontotoc/pontotoc-police-report-purse-stolen-from-car/article_ae0aaa2a-4794-5dc3-af5a-efa4a8f5230e.html
|
Pontotoc Police Chief Randy Tutor said one black female suspect and two black male suspects, dressed as women, are being sought in connection with a car burglary which occurred around 8:30 p.m. on Monday night, March 28.
Chief Tutor said the vehicle burglarized was parked along the court square on Marion Street in downtown Pontotoc.
"They broke out the car window and stole a purse, which contained credit and debit cards, and some air-pods," Tutor said.
Tutor said the suspects were driving a black Ford Expedition.
"We have seen video of the vehicle driving around, obviously they were looking for a vehicle to burglarize," Tutor said. "We were able to track where they went to a couple of businesses."
"One suspect was female and the other two appeared to be males dressed in women's clothing, wearing wigs and covid masks. They tried unsuccessfully to use the stolen cards."
"This car burglary is not connected to the car burglaries which occurred on March 17 in the Ridgewood Drive area where subsequently a vehicle was stolen. It's definitely not the same suspects."
Tutor again cautioned residents not to leave valuables in vehicles, locked or unlocked.
"Always lock your vehicle, even at home and don't keep anything valuable inside the vehicle," Tutor said. "Thieves are looking for something visible inside to steal."
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220402
|
https://www.djournal.com/print-features/new-vehicles-must-average-40-mpg-by-2026-up-from-28-mpg/article_758031d2-a8e1-5113-8490-bff222cf35cd.html
|
DETROIT • New vehicles sold in the U.S. will have to average at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026, up from about 28 mpg, under new federal rules unveiled Friday that undo a rollback of standards enacted under President Donald Trump.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its new fuel economy requirements are the strongest to date and the maximum the industry can achieve over the time period. They will reduce gasoline consumption by more than 220 billion gallons over the life of vehicles, compared with the Trump standards.
They're expected to decrease carbon dioxide emissions — but not as much as some environmentalists want — and raise new vehicle prices in an industry already pressed by inflation and supply chain issues.
For the current model year, standards enacted under Trump require the fleet of new vehicles to get just under 28 miles per gallon in real-world driving. The new requirements increase gas mileage by 8% per year for model years 2024 and 2025 and 10% in the 2026 model year.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose department includes NHTSA, said the rules also will help strengthen national security by making the country less dependent on foreign oil and less vulnerable to volatile gasoline prices. Gasoline nationwide has spiked to an average of more than $4.22 per gallon, with much of the increase coming since Russia, a major oil producer, invaded Ukraine in late February. It cost $2.88 per gallon just a year ago, according to AAA.
Gas prices also have helped to fuel inflation to a 40-year high, eating up household budgets and hitting President Joe Biden's approval ratings.
"Transportation is the second-largest cost for American families, only behind housing," Buttigieg said. The new standards, he said, will help keep the U.S. more secure and preserve "the freedom of our country to chart its future without being subject to other countries and to the decisions that are being made in the boardrooms of energy companies."
But auto dealers say more stringent requirements drive up prices and push people out of an already expensive new-car market. NHTSA projects that the new rules will raise the price of a new vehicle in the 2029 model year by $1,087.
Trump's administration rolled back fuel economy standards, allowing them to rise 1.5% per year, which environmental groups said was inadequate to limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. The standards had been rising about 5% per year previously.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220402
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/ole-miss/dylan-delucia-delivers-clutch-pitching-performance-as-ole-miss-wins-opener-at-kentucky/article_152a0f13-b9e5-58d2-ae3b-6ee702b81b28.html
|
Ole Miss junior Dylan DeLucia pitched a brilliant 6 1/3 innings for the No. 10 Rebels Friday night at Kentucky, and senior Hayden Leatherwood drove in the go-ahead run with two outs in the ninth to lead the Rebels past the Wildcats 2-1.
DeLucia — making his first start of the season — surrendered just three hits and no earned runs to go with five strikeouts. The Rebel bullpen did not surrender a hit in 2 2/3 innings of work.
DeLucia said he didn't find out he would start Friday until the flight to Lexington, Kentucky on Thursday.
Join the conversation in our exclusive Facebook group for Rebel fans
"I'll tell you what, we needed it," senior pitcher Brandon Johnson said. "For (DeLucia) to go out there and give us that kind of start, it's big time. Wouldn't expect it from anybody else, either.
Redshirt sophomore T.J. McCants led off the ninth inning with a triple, setting the stage for Leatherwood’s heroics.
Ole Miss (18-7, 3-4 SEC) struck first on a single Friday night from senior first baseman Tim Elko that drove in sophomore shortstop Jacob Gonzalez.
Kentucky (17-10, 2-5) tied the game in the sixth when leadoff batter Ryan Ritter got on base via error, got to second on a passed ball, stole third and came home on a fielder’s choice.
With a pair of runners on and one out in the seventh, senior John Gaddis entered the game in relief of DeLucia. Gaddis — who started in five of his prior six appearances with the Rebels — retired the final two patters of the inning on a strikeout and fly out.
"Yes (it's toughing having the game out of your hands), but I also had huge confidence in Gaddis. He comes in and shuts the door all the time. He's a good pitcher," DeLucia said. "And he just showed it tonight, that he could come in and do that job."
Ole Miss starters hadn't gotten through five full innings since sophomore Jack Dougherty did so on March 19 in the finale at Auburn. DeLucia's start was a much-needed boost.
"I mean, it's not pressure. It's just playing the game, at the end of the day," DeLucia said. "We want to win, and that's what we're here to do. ... Today was just an all-team effort."
Johnson pitched final two innings of the game, striking out five of the six batters he faced.
Shortly following the end of the game, Ole Miss announced that Hunter Elliott will start Saturday's game against the Wildcats. First pitch is 1 p.m.
MICHAEL KATZ is the Ole Miss athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at michael.katz@djournal.com.
| true
| true
|
both
|
www.djournal
|
20220402
|
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
README.md exists but content is empty.
- Downloads last month
- 3